Ülker Bisküvi Sanayi A.S.

Beste, please go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you, Michael. Hello, everybody. My name is Beste. I am leading the Investor Relations Department of Ülker Biskri. Welcome to Ülker Biskri's full year 2025 results webcast. Here with me in the room, our CEO Özgür Körükböke and our CFO Fulya Banu Sürücü is here. Now I'll leave the ground to our CEO, Özgür Bey. Please.

Thank you, Mr. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone, wherever you are. And thank you for joining UKB's fourth quarter and cool year 2025 earnings goal. I walk you through our results, strategic progress, and also 2026 roadmap. I'll start with key highlights, then review operation and financial performance, and close with our outlook and 2026 growth plan. And then, as usual, we will take a few questions at the end. Looking at the key highlights, 2025 was a resilient year despite of softer demand and regional challenges. We maintained our leadership in Turkey and sanctioned regional competitiveness. Innovation scaled strongly, contributing meaningfully to the growth. Balance sheet discipline remains as a core strength of ours, and ECG progress continues to differentiate Ülker in our sector as a pioneering company. Looking at the macroeconomic highlights, Turkey operated in a high inflation environment with low confidence consumer environment. Looking at the inflation, the inflation is around, we finished the year with 30.9% consumer inflation, where the PPI was slightly lower than that, with 27.7%. Looking at the breakdown of the inflation, the highest inflation we see in the education, with 66%, and rent following is 49.5%. and then after versus food with more than 28%. GDP expectations remain in slow single digits, reflecting a cautious backdrop compared to previous years. Consumer confidence stayed around mid-80 levels throughout the year. Despite of this challenging environment, we navigated these conditions with disciplined executions, and pricing discipline and cost control. Now let's look at the key messages that we would like to highlight today. We preserved our leadership position in Turkey and the borders MENA region. Top line, we close the year with a top line growth of around 2% in a global commodity volatility. and inflationary environment. The new product launch contributed 12% of our net sales, reaffirming Ülker's ability to capture shifting consumer trends. With our successful refinancing operations, we strengthened our liquidity visibility by extending our maturities to 2030 and 2031 overall. With one net debt to EBITDA ratio, Ülker continues to maintain its healthy balance sheet structure. By increasing our ESG score by eight points, we become the highest scoring food company in Turkey, which is a really strong strength of Ülker differentiating in the market. Looking at the new product launches, in Q4 alone, new product launches delivered 9% of the snaking revenue, demonstrating the strength of our innovation funnel and the speed of consumer adoption. Ucash's brands carry tremendous trust, which allows new launches to gain instant shaft visibility, strong support from retail partners, and rapid consumer trial. Our Q4 pipeline targeted the right consumer needs, taste-driven indulgence, portion control, gifting formats, and family-friendly concepts, all supported by strong in-store activation. The velocity of our launches was significantly above category norms, reinforcing that UCAR's innovation resonates quickly and deeply with consumers' needs. And looking at the full year 2025 revenue contribution of the new product launches, in domestic, Turkey, it contributes 14%. Here on the screen, you see the three-year contribution of the innovations. As usual, we share the three-year contributions. Domestically, it has a 14% contribution. Internationally, it is 6%, and in average, it boils down to 12% contribution. This sustained contribution confirms that innovation at Ülker is systematic, predictable, and repeatable, supported by strong R&D, agile manufacturing, and best-in-class distribution. Looking ahead, strengthening repeat purchase, premiumization, and export-ready concepts will help us unlock even more value from innovation across 2026. Now let's look at the sustainability. As highlighted, this year we strengthened our leadership in sustainability with measurable and globally recognized achievements. We maintained our number one position in the London Stock Exchange Group ranking and placed among the world's top 10 in chocolate sustainability. Our strong climate and supply chain strategy was reaffirmed with an A rating from CDP Supplier Engagement Assessment. We completed our transition to 100% recycled ready packaging. We launched the Structically Biofortified Limited Edition, which was developed with Sabancı University. and continue to advance our Beyond Cocoa and Beyond Hazelnut programs, deepening our partnerships with cooperatives in Ivory Coast and supporting local communities in the Black Sea region. In Gerson, in Black Sea region, we expanded good agricultural practices, gave training to our farmers, half of whom are women. Our regenerative agricultural pilots delivered promising outcomes, guiding our plan to scale to at least 10,000 DECAs. With these steps, our EHG performance rose to the top 3% of companies globally, reflecting our long-term commitment to responsible growth and resilient value chains. And looking at the corporate communication highlights, in 2025, our communications and brand initiatives significant increase in touch visibility and audience engagement. One of our strong friends is Cheesy Man, and the Cheesy Man, Aussie Man campaign, you know Aussie Man is one of the world-known football stars playing at Galatasaray. By the way, for the Galatasaray fans, congratulations for the last night's match. As you know, Galatasaray scored once a year against Liverpool in the Champions League. So with this Çizim and Oğuzhan campaign, this achieved remarkable impact, delivering 9 million reach and 29.1 million impressions. The İlker Chocolate Istanbul launch reached 4.3 million people. and generated five million social impressions, while the competing with their heart series highlighted the inspiring stories of five Paralympic athletes. I would like to just give a highlight on Ülker Istanbul Chakra, which was the social first innovation done first in our history. Taking Dubai as a kind of benchmark, which was a big success last year, which turned up as a kind of global trend, we as Ülker created Istanbul as a global trend in the chocolate industry, and which was a really big hit in the market. The Sustainability Press Conference further inspired these efforts, our efforts in the sustainability platform. Our Ülker My First Match project connected Ghibli with football communities through simultaneous films for the four major football clubs in Turkey. And Ülker being one of the biggest supporters of sports, it was a big highlight for our 2025 plans. Through our TMPK partnership, We strengthened our sponsorship presence and shared our long-term sustainability progress, including our net zero 2050 commitment and roadmap. Additionally, our leaders represented the company at 10 major industry events as keynote speakers, reinforcing our position and ensuring that we are more visible than ever. Our people and employer brand highlights, looking at these highlights, in 2025, we strengthen our people first culture and employer brand with major achievements. We are recognized as one of the world's best employers for the fifth consecutive year in the top employer certification. We are also recognized as Turkey's happiest workplace in the snacking category for the fourth time consecutively. Within our commercial talent program, which is designed to develop future leaders for our commercial functions, we welcomed six new talents to our organization. In 2025, as ambassadors of our Goya culture, we traveled a total of 20,000 kilometers across the country and captured the pulse of the field through 465 one-on-one meetings. We received equal salary certification, a world-known certification important for diversity, which confirms that at an international level that we ensure equal pay for equal work. Covering more than 5,000 employees, we achieved a 93.2% success rate in the statistical phase, which confirms that women earn an average of 1.2% more than men. Rüker became the first company in Turkey with over 5,000 employees to receive this certification, and also the first company worldwide in the snacking industry with more than 5,000 employees to be certified, which we are really proud of. In 2025, the Employee Engagement Survey included blue-collar employees and the Godaiba team for the first time. Our engagement score reached 89%, which is the highest level in the five years. We redesigned our diverse agenda in line with our IDE values. Our mentoring programs have brought 1,015 employees into our mentoring network since 2021, reflecting our learning organization culture. We launched in Turkish program. It will be good for you program for our blue-collar employees, reaching 750 employees. So after these highlights, let's look at our operational performance, which I'm sure you are all curious for. Looking at full year, in Turkey, we delivered 2.1% net sales growth. A resilient outcome given the sharp deceleration in consumer demand in the second half of the year, especially the unusually big December period, where purchasing power fell faster than anticipated. Ebitda erosion driven primarily by gross margin pressure. The category mix was also unfavorable. Chocolate is one of our highest margin segments and nearly half of our portfolio. And the chocolate market contracted by 7.5% in volume in the market in the last quarter. And our own sales followed that trend in line with the market, creating a margin dilution despite of our strong market share leadership. Despite these pressures, Our underlying strength remains powerful, and we expect demand to normalize gradually throughout 2026. Exports grew by 8.3% for the year, with some EBITDA erosion, mostly due to the spillover from the Middle East market weakness. The Middle East was the most challenging region in 2025. Full year net sales declined by 1.4%, while EBITDA drove by 25%. The major driver was the severe FMCG market contraction in Saudi Arabia, where Q4 was the weakest quarter in the last two years, with the market down by 4.6% in value and 4.7% in volume. Low consumer confidence, intense promotional pressure across modern and traditional trade, and a rapid shift towards value-seeking behaviors all led to weaker volumes. In Q4 specifically, our EBITDA margin fell to 10.3%, the lowest of the year. This was not a structural issue with our brands. It was an external market shock compounded by a strong prior year base. North Africa remained a major bright spot for the company, for our company. Net sales grew by almost 29% for the year, supported by effective pricing, mix management, and solid commercial execution. In Q4, volumes accelerated with 14.1% growth, benefiting from a more stable inflationary environment. EBITDA margin improved by 233 bps, thanks to tight overhead control. This region continues to demonstrate strong consumer momentum and strategic importance for Ülker. Looking at Central Asia, Central Asia delivered 20.3% net sales growth for the year. EBITDA declined 11.8%, but this was fully planned. We intentionally reinvested our growth profit gains into marketing, distribution, and brand building to secure long-term share and visibility. Q4 was the strongest quarter of the year, showing clear momentum heading into 2026. This region remains highly strategic and our investments are already translating into improved consumer demand. In summary, despite of extremely challenging market environment, Full year 2025 was the year of diverging regional dynamics, strong growth in North Africa and Central Asia, resilience in Turkey despite of a sharp market slowdown, and clear external headwinds in the Middle East. Across the board, grand strength, our pricing discipline, execution power, and long-term investments allowed us to protect the business in 2025 and position UKR for healthier, more balanced growth in 2026. In Central Asia, Uzbekistan is an important opportunity for us, which we see as one of the most strategically important growth engines in our international portfolio. Uzbekistan represents a unique combination of scale, demographic strength, and category under penetration. With a population of more than 37 million people, which is the largest consumer market in Central Asia, and more importantly, it's a market where modern trade continues to develop and where snacking categories are still structurally young. This gives Ülker a long-run way for sustainable and profitable growth. First of all, Uzbekistan has strong market fundamentals. The total snacking market in Uzbekistan is estimated at around 1.27 billion US dollars for 2025, and it is forecasted to grow at approximately 7% cover through 2013. This is one of the highest growth rates across all the markets where we operate. The core drivers are clear, a young and growing population, rising disposable income, and the steady expansion of organized retail currently at only about 18%, which shows how early we are in the development curve. In short, Uzbekistan offers the kind of long-term demographic and economic fundamentals that support compounding growth for the next decade. Second of all, Uzbekistan has a strategic role in UK's Central Asia growth strategy. It's not only a commercial opportunity by itself, it's a strategic anchor market alongside Kazakhstan. These two markets together give us a strong hub in Central Asia, both in terms of manufacturing logistics and consumer reach. Positioning UKR as the long-term partner of choice in Uzbekistan trade is thanking our presence across the entire region, enabling us to scale innovation, optimize logistics, and run coordinated commercial programs that enhance efficiency. Thirdly, we have a strong focus on marketing, brand building, and consumer recruitment in Uzbekistan. Marketing investment in Uzbekistan is another core pillar for our efforts. We are building brand equity with localized communication, culturally stated creative content, and strong visibility programs for our core brands. We are expanding our footprint and route to market strength. We already had a meaningful presence in Uzbekistan, And our ambition is to build a fully nationwide footprint through direct distribution motor trade and focus distributors dedicated exclusively to Uyghur in traditional trade.

And overall, to sum up, we see Uzbekistan as a high-potential, under-penetrated country.

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I think the line was broken in this slide. I'm rewinding from the slide. So looking at the full year 2025 revenue breakdown, for the full year, our IAS 29 adjusted revenues reached 112 billion Turkish Liras. with a breakdown of 70% domestic and 30% international. This mix has been one of our biggest strengths, allowing us to smooth out volatility and protect the P&L, even when certain regions face temporary pressure. Our domestic market, looking at this domestic market starting with Türkiye, generating nearly 70% total revenues. It continues to be the foundation of our business. Despite the softening in demand, we observed especially in the last quarter, the domestic market remains robust from a structural standpoint, supported by our powerful brands, unparalleled distribution network, and category ownership. And looking at international markets, which is a growing and for us, 30% of the revenues come from the international operations, which continue to grow ahead of domestic inflation, and represent a significant long-term opportunity for Ülker. Each of these regions plays a strategic role for us. Together, these markets create a diversified revenue pool that reduces concentration risk and positions us well against economic cycles. A key point here is that our geographical mix is not accidental. It is the result of a long-term portfolio strategy. It allows us to deploy capital more selectively, educate marketing where marginal returns are highest, and shift supply chain capacity towards markets that are scaling faster. Moreover, this mix ensures resilience. Then one region experiences demand softness, as we saw in the Middle East, for example, this year. Momentum in North Africa and Central Asia helps offset the impact. This is one of the reasons our overall full-year performance remains broadly stable, even under challenging Q4 conditions. Our strategic priority is to maintain this balanced revenue distribution while accelerating growth in high-potential regions. This mix allows RuCard to remain competitive, flexible, and highly resilient regardless of the macro cycle. In short, our geographic revenue mix is a strategic advantage not just a reporting line, it gives us scale where we are strongest, growth where the opportunity is rising, and resilience across the entire portfolio. This balanced structure positions Ülker exceptionally well for sustainable, profitable growth in 2036 and beyond. In 2025, in Türkiye, which is our Admiral-ship country, we have risen to leadership across all FMCG companies with 5.1% with the source of Nielsen. While our closest competitor remains at 4.2, as I said, it leads the market with 5.1 sales value share, looking at the entire FMCG market. This result clearly reflects our brand's strong consumer preference our excellence in category management, and the impact of the strategic actions we carry out throughout the year. In the highly competitive FMCG landscape, this leadership not only demonstrates our current success, but also strongly signals our future potential. Our position is a solid outcome of our sustainable growth strategies and the right moves we make based on peer insights and consumer understandings. Looking at the market share, geographically, our influence spans Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, where our brands continue to deliver strong performance and high consumer engagement. We hold a strong leadership with 34% share in Turkey in total biscuit, chocolate, and cake categories, a 27% share in Middle East biscuit market, a 14% share in North Africa in biscuit category, and a 14% share in Central Asia in chapter category. These numbers emphasize our ability to maintain momentum in both major and emerging markets. This regional presence positions us as a key player with sustainable long-term potential. So after this operational performance, let's look into our financial performance. I'm leaving it to our CFO, Fulya. Over to you.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everyone. Thanks for joining our Fulya results and Q4 results webcast. Özgür Bey, thank you for your comprehensive overview of our strategic direction and the marketplace. It's now my pleasure to go through the deep dive analysis into our financials. So before I go in detail for Q4, let me just summarize how I see 2025. As we close 2025, we remain committed to driving operational efficiency and strengthening our strategic market position. Fourth quarter presented a very challenging macro environment, but I believe that we navigated through these challenges with discipline and decisive actions. So when we go through more in detail in Q4, in two of our core regions, Turkey and Middle East, demand conditions softened, market especially in chocolate category declined more than projected and estimated in Q4, and highly in December 2025. Inflationary pressures continued to put pressure on consumer purchasing power, especially in Turkey, and several Middle East markets experienced macro-advances. Month of December, which historically showed a seasonal uplift, came in below historical trends. Despite all these conditions, consolidated volume declined only by 0.7% in Q4. Turning to revenue, we see a 6.6% decline versus prior Q4 2024. Reasons being, software demand, as I have shared, overall market contraction, chocolate market contraction especially, and with that, product mix normalization and shift following this high base effect created by last year's Strong Dubai Chocolate performance. All these factors coupled with lower than expected sales volume, limiting our ability to fully observe cost pressures derived a margin dilution, and we landed at a margin of 24.9%. Having said that, I'd like to add that we have continued to implement pricing discipline, cost optimization measures, and procurement efficiencies to protect our margins as we did in prior years. If it's a margin dilution, came in at 12.4%, a higher decrease than the gross profit decrease in absolute value terms, mainly driven by high marketing expenditure, which is also investing in our brand equity and investment in our future for short-term, mid-term, and long-term. Net income came up at higher than zero, so it landed at 81 million Turkish lira. Net income was driven by four main factors. FX losses, interest gains and losses, deferred tax and monetary gain and loss. So let me explain you one by one very briefly what happened and what drove our net income decrease. So I'll start with monetary gain and loss, which is basically an accounting entry driven by the inflation impact. In 2024, total inflation was around 44, 45%, whereas this year's inflation landed at around 30, 31%. So this decrease impacts our monetary gain, which reflects the decrease on our monetary gain. So that's number one. Number two is FX losses. You know, we have a hedge policy that dictates us a 65% close position on the open position of balance sheet. We applied this policy, and we are definitely committed to apply it in the future as well. However, our FX open position, which comprises of euro and USD chunks, changes. So while euro increased by 36%, 37%, whereas US dollar increased by 23%, And with euro open position being higher than the USD, we were hit by that in terms of FX losses. The other one, number three, interest gains and losses. So I'd like to highlight and underline here that interest expense and losses increase has nothing to do with our interest rates being higher. In fact, you know that we have completed a very successful syndication with much more favorable rates. The impact, the unfavorable impact comes here on this line is from the total interest income decrease versus prior year. An interest income decrease is related to that we have paid Eurobonds, of $250 million, which was our outstanding Eurobonds that was going to mature in October, 2025. And the good thing is we paid it off from our working capital generated cash, which also another item that strengthens our balance sheet. And deferred taxes also another accounting related item. Deferred tax expenses were higher in 2024 due to the reduction in deferred tax assets on tech process carried forward. And in fact, in 2025, we see a normalization, which gave us a favorable result. To sum up, net income decreased by these four factors, two accounting treatments, one interest gain being global because we paid dividends and we paid Eurobonds, and FX process being driven by the higher Euro FX rate increase versus US dollars. Continue with this next page. It's full year consolidated performance. Now, stepping back from the fourth quarter and looking at the full years, you see that total volume decreased by 1.3%. Total revenue increased by 1.7%. Gross profit declined from 29.8% to 28.9%. And EBITDA, as full year EBITDA, we landed at 16.5%. And net income, 4.4%. switching to 4.9 billion Turkish lira. Again, I'd like to highlight something. Okay, this is our profit and loss statement, but as you all know, and which I will be talking also shortly on the coming slides, that we strengthened our balance sheet significantly throughout the years with all the actions we have taken. When the challenges are tough in the market, our balance sheet remains solid and strong. We utilized our cash reserves. I mean, as I have shared, we paid our euro bond, and we also paid our dividend last year to reduce debt, and we strengthened our balance sheet, lowered future financial risk, and improved our long-term financial flexibility, which is a great asset for a company. So, why don't we go to the next page, which is the P&L breakdown by region. Let me start with our domestic performance in fourth quarter. Total revenue decreased by 6.1%, gross profit 24.1%, and EBITDA decreased by 35.7%, landing at 13.1%. These figures reflect challenging results, but it's important to understand the underlying drivers first. First, market dynamics, both early ARCO and I have also shared, were weaker than anticipated And Turkish snacking market was broadly flat and, I mean, slightly decreased. But, however, chocolate category decreased significantly, which is 7.5%, the highest we have seen in history, and which was much more than what we have projected and estimated. And, as you know, it has a very decent share in our portfolio in terms of revenue and profitability, which also impacted us. From a profitability perspective, the margin contraction driven by mainly three key factors. Input cost timing, which by that I mean mainly some long cycle raw materials that we are using that impacted us. Lower than expected demand. Sharper market slowdown and decline. And product mix impacts. market decreases, then there is a shift to other products, which impacts the revenue and also margin as well. So turning to our international operations, fourth quarter international revenue declined by 7.6%, gross profit declined by 10.6%, and EBITDA decreased by 35.3%, landing 11% EBITDA margin. Growth margin was relatively resilient at 26.5%, and EBITDA came in at 972 million Turkish Lira, corresponding to an 11% margin. Unlike Turkey, where the primary treasury was at the growth margin level, internationally, the impact was more below growth profits, Saudi business was the main driver behind the softer EBITDA margin. As we have shared and also Özgür, our CEO, has shared, we have seen a significant decline in Q4, historic decline, by 4.6% and by 4.7% market value and volume share declined in Saudi historically, which unfortunately impacted us significantly. Operating expenses remaining stable, lower sales volume being insufficient resulted in a temporary deleveraging effect, consequently, which resulted in an EBITDA of 11%. But looking ahead, we view Q4 as a more concentrated period of a cyclical softness rather than a structural shift in our international business, and we believe that the fundamentals in our key markets remain very, very strong. On the next page, I will talk about our consolidated volume and revenue contribution. As you can see, in terms of volume, there is Q4 2025 and Q4 2024 in terms of snacking, pretty much stayed stable. 58% of our volume is mainly biscuits, 33% is chocolate, 9% is cake. where we take a look at the split in sales value, we see that their share is 55% is chocolate, 38% is discreet, and 8% is cake. Comparing to Q4 2024, we see that chocolate shares in terms of revenue pretty much stayed the same, and so did the discreet. When we go to next page, I will talk about some key balance sheet highlights. So as of year end 2025, net debt to EBITDA ratio stood at 0.9%, which is one of the major indicators of a very strong and solid balance sheet. And we had a great KPI here in terms of net debt EBITDA number. I believe that this is just a reflection of our discipline, financial management, strong cash flow generation throughout the year and our continuous focus on working capital optimization. And this provides definitely a huge financial flexibility for the company. Speaking of working capital, I also wanted to share with you the working capital trend for versus prior year and this year on a quieter basis. You see that there is a 10 days improvement versus prior quarter in terms of our working capital numbers. And when you compare the beginning and ending numbers, working capital conversion cycles versus prior year, our ending numbers, the difference between those ending numbers is better than versus prior year. And as you know, we never announced a working capital target rather than when I receive questions from you, I keep saying that our objective here is optimization of working capital now, working capital rather than keeping an eye on the numbers. So in terms of maturities, all of our financing are long-term. As you know, we have completed a very successful financing five-year bullet in Q4 of 2025. which is the first time in Turkey in the last five years for a corporate. And also, I am pleased to announce today that today a very prestigious international recognition has been given to Ülker Pispüvi as the 30th CEO of the year, awarded by Global Capital. And for those, I'm sure you all know, Global Capital is established in 1987. It's a leading London-based publication, highly authoritative in global debt and equity and DCM markets. And if you take a look at the prior owners and winners of this award, you will see big, giant, very global, important companies. So we continue to execute and our very strong treasury policies. 65% of the net position was closed as of year end, and $749 million of open position was hedged. what we are saying is our policy of maintaining a prudent leverage will continue to preserve liquidity and sustain a strong balance sheet as a corner store of a long-term value creation. So back to our CEO.

Thank you, Fulya, for the detailed explanation. And now let's look at the 2025 results, which we shared last night. As we shared at the beginning of the year, our 2025 guidance targeted revenue growth of 2% to 4%, and an EBITDA margin in the range of 17% to 18%. These were our guidance to the market. For the first three quarters, we were progressing well and tracking with that framework. However, the fourth quarter brought a sharper than anticipated slowdown, as we explained, myself and Fulya. And as a result, we closed the year slightly below our initial targets. We take our guidance commitment seriously. The UTI has a strong track record of delivering on what we promised, which makes it especially important to explain clearly what changed. So that's why we try to explain the fourth quarter in more detail. The shortfall was not driven by execution issues. rather by an unexpected and simultaneous demand slowdown across two of our core regions in the final quarter of the year. In Turkey, inflationary pressures continue to weigh on consumer purchasing power, and we saw a visible shift towards more cautious spending behavior. December, typically one of the strongest ones of the year due to seasonal demand, was materially softer than expected. At the same time, our key international markets, particularly in the Middle East, face their own macroeconomic challenges. Consumer sentiment softens and order patterns slow. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the transition market recorded its weakest performance in the past two years, with volumes declining by 4.7% and value by 4.6%, as I also mentioned earlier. This broader market contraction naturally impacted our performance in the region. That said, we viewed the fourth quarter as a market-driven event rather than a reflection of any structural change in our competitive position. Our brands remain strong, our market presence is intact, and our operational capabilities remain strong, agile, and resilient. We are proactively adapting to the current environment, refining our product mix and portfolio, strengthening affordability propositions, and carefully aligning our cost structure with evolving demand trends. As we enter 2026, we do so with realism about the environment, but also with confidence. Confidence in our brands, confidence in our teams, and confidence in our ability to navigate volatility while continuing to create long-term value for our shareholders. And I would like to thank you for continued trust and support. So, now looking at the 2026 roadmap, our roadmap is guided by the 5-H Happiness Growth Model, which serves as our compass for building sustainable, people-powered growth. This model helps us create value and happiness for employees, consumers, and business partners, while strengthening our competitive position, addressing consistent, competitive, profitable, sustainable, and people-centric growth. And at the core is our purpose, which is, as we state in our latest platform, where there is research, there is happiness, which is the purpose of our company. Our strategic focus for 2026 centers on five growth action plan pillars. Firstly, master brand strength, elevating Ülker's where there is Ülker, there is happiness promise across all touch points. We will grow the core, deepening strength in core categories and brands through quality, accessibility, and consistent execution in all six P's. the product, pack, proposition, promotion, pricing, and place, leaving no stone unturned. This is strategically important as 10 brands in our portfolio is making 50% of our net sales. The third place, bigger, better, and fewer innovations. Prioritizing fewer but highly impacted innovations driven by consumer insights, leveraging macro and micro trends in the market, positioning consumers at the core of whatever we do. Fourthly, perfect field execution, which is our strong muscle, ensuring excellence in visibility, distribution, and commercial performance. And lastly, operational excellence, improving efficiency, flexibility, and technology adoption across the value chain from source to shop. Together, these priorities shape the growth plan rooted in people, performance, and long-term sustainability. And the biggest driving force will be our people, our talented people at the core of whatever we do. The year ahead represents a moment to build on our heritage while courageously shaping our future. Our performance in this challenging context reinforces that UKR is not only ready for this next chapter, but strongly positioned to lead it. In 2026, despite of the challenging context, we are determined to grow, powered by a strong growth action plan in the light of our 5-H Happiness Growth Compact. So that's it from us. Thank you for listening, and we will be welcoming any questions you might have.

Thank you very much for the presentation. We'll now begin the Q&A part of the call. In the meantime, we'll be opening a quick survey for our web participants. Your feedback is highly valued and greatly appreciated. The survey will remain open throughout the Q&A call. Regarding the Q&A session, if you are judged by the telephone, please press star two on your keypad. That's star two on your keypad to ask a voice question. If you are connected by the web, you may also ask a voice or a text question. We will now give a few moments for any questions to come through. Thank you very much. Our first question comes from Miss Evgenia Bistrova from Barclays. Please go ahead, ma'am. Your line is open.

Thank you very much. Hello and good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation and the detailed explanation of all the things that happened in Q4. I have three questions. So my first one is about the domestic market, so about Turkey. I was just wondering if you could provide color in terms of how the first two months of the year are going. Have you seen a recovery in demand and consumer demand or in your volumes in the first two months compared to Q4? My second question is about the Middle East. Given the current escalation in the region, have you already seen any disruptions in terms of procurement or logistics or on the demand side? And what are the tools available to you to potentially mitigate the impacts of the escalation? And my final question is about the Uzbekistan. Could you please provide maybe more color in terms of how we can quantify your plans in Uzbekistan? Should we expect higher CapEx this year or will you mostly spend like more on the OpEx side to expand your operations? Are you planning like production footprint increase? So any details would be very helpful.

Thank you. Again, thank you very much for the three valuable questions.

Let me start one by one. Firstly, you asked about the domestic market, how we start the year. So we have completed two months and 11 days of the third month as of today. Now it's almost finished officially the day. I can say we had a stronger start of the year compared to Q4, and it is definitely a good start to the year. And as you know, we will be sharing our performance of Q1 in May, as usual. But we are optimistic, and we feel confident that it will be a good quarter in Q1 2026. So this is the answer to the first question. In the second question, you asked about the Middle East. So in Middle East, it's definitely a strategic market for us where we have been operating for many years and where our brand holds a very strong and low position. It can be expected that ongoing tension in the region may have some fluctuations in consumer behavior in the short term. However, we consider our presence and the market potential in the region from a long-term perspective. We are closely monitoring the tension in the region, as all of us are doing these days. While we have not yet seen sufficient data flow that will require a revision of our targets, our action plans are ready for different scenarios. So, we continue to follow up the situation. but currently we don't see significant issues that will need to change our plans in the short term. We are cautiously optimistic about the Q1 performance overall, and we will continue to follow up the ongoing situation in the Middle East. Coming to a third question about Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan is obviously an important opportunity for us in Central Asia. As I explained, it is the biggest population market, which is the growing market opening up. So that's why we will really be focusing on Uzbekistan. We don't have any CapEx requirement. Because we have already strong presence in Kazakhstan. As you know, we have a factory in Almaty in Kazakhstan, which is also, there is no customs, you know, in the region, in Central Asia. So we can easily export our products from Kazakhstan and also across our other factories in the region. So from the production and logistics side, we don't have any issues. in our territory, we have access to goods and services from other factories and from logistics wise. Having said that, obviously we will be investing in our brand, investing in our people in the region to boost our business in the region in the upcoming months and quarters. That's the answer. I hope it explains your questions, Evgeny.

Yes, yes. Thank you very much.

Okay. Thank you very much. We'll be moving to the next question. The next question comes from Mr. Jamal Dimitris from . Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Thank you for the presentation. And first of all, I would like to say that we are very, very disappointed with the results. You gave some reasoning, but I want to further elaborate the reasons behind this 12% a big day margin. Could we assume it as a temporary thing or some other specific reasons that help us to clarify our expectation for the following year? Because with this picture, we have less visibility, at least in our side, and most of the investors are not only you know, like the unhappy with the missing, but also, you know, being more nervous about where the company is really heading to. That might be quarterly changes for sure. I can understand that. But, you know, what really happened in fourth quarter, I see some discounts in the fourth quarter, unlike the, you know, the last year over year. at least 50% increased year-on-year. What was the specific reason for that? Because the slowdown didn't come all of a sudden. You see the market conditions, and we don't see that much, you know, the crash. If it's not specific to confectionery, maybe you can just mention, because we are also following the FMCG market. So my basic question is really, you know, Is it a temporary thing? Are you as shocked as we are from the investors? Because 50% of the company is owned by the minority shareholders, like the investors. So it will be very helpful to give some relief about the following. I know that you don't give guidance for the next year at this moment, but at least should we assume that with the cost balances, are you going to be able to maintain 16, 65% levels? as last year, at least, or this 12% means anything else, anything that may, you know, sustain in the future. I'm just not voicing my opinion. Believe me, many investors are, you know, just following Ülker closely, and, you know, over the last several months, maybe the performance was weak, and now I understand the reason, at least the short term, because That must be because this company value shouldn't be at this level when we look at the fundamentals and the size. But I don't know if it's going to happen now or in the future. Some clarification or visibility is needed. And again, my question is, what was the effect of the, you know, the KakaoPrize or other cost sites? And what was the discount, big discount at this stage? year-end closing kind of things. And, of course, is it temporary or should we remain cautious? Because it will definitely have impact on the view of the investment community. Thank you very much for listening at least my criticisms and questions. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Cemal Bey, for sharing your thoughts and the questions. So the short answer to your question is indeed it is temporary. So looking ahead, while Q4 environment was challenging, we see it as a market-driven event rather than an erosion of our competitive position, for sure. We are adapting our commercial strategies to the current consumer reality, focusing on the product mix, and affordability, and we remain confident in the fundamental strength of our brands and our ability to navigate this environment effectively in Q1 and onwards in 2026. So as we have almost finished, we finished two months and we are now 11 days past in March. We are cautiously optimistic about Q1, and we can say that we made a good start, and we will be announcing our Q1 results in May, and which you will now then understand that this is a kind of temporary result, which you have seen in Q4.

And maybe as a follow-up related to the cost side, You know, last year, the cocoa prices, increasing cocoa prices was an issue being asked. I know the, you know, the company structure, but that was the reason. And now the cocoa prices are coming down. Did it have any impact on the, you know, the transition period on your cost? Because I'm trying to find some, you know, the reasoning about this temporary thing. Could you comment more on the cost side, production? and, you know, because you're selling to the other companies, the sales companies. So the cost side, could we assume that that side is stabilized, especially in the, you know, the cocoa side, or, you know, you're hedging possibly your positions? Any comment on that, too?

Thank you. So, obviously, CACO has been a roller coaster in the macro environment, which all the companies and all the relevant parties are following very closely. While we are pleased to see a correction in CACO prices, the P&L benefits are not immediate. Our response will be strategic and disciplined to that. which we have done in 2025 and we will continue to do in 2026. We will not chase sports prices down, but we instead focus on preserving our profitability through our established pricing strategy and discipline, and by effectively using our strong innovation capabilities to adapt to the new cost environment that we have. First, regarding the impact on our P&L, it is crucial to understand that there will be a significant leg-to-leg effect, as we all see in other competitors in the market, from their public statements as well, including the big players you follow. The benefit of today's lower spot prices, we believe, will not be immediate in the market. Our fundamental pricing strategy is built on a cost-plus basis. with the primary goal of preserving our profitability in all pricing actions, basically, and we will keep up this discipline. But from the portfolio perspective, we will continue to provide affordable options, relevant options, in line with the consumer trends, following the trends macro and micro in the market, So we feel confident that we have a strong, robust portfolio plan for 2026.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. We'll be moving to the next question. Next question is from Mr. Ivo Kovace from JL Hambro. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.

Yes, you hear me, right? You hear me? Yes, please go ahead. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you for the detailed presentation. Yes, we are a bit disappointed, as our colleague just shared with all of us. I think what we are missing here in this picture is both the cost side, which we just discussed, but also the reasons for the sales drop. To my mind, I immediately see two very simple, perhaps stupid reasons, but I want you to comment on that. One is clearly this move to these special drugs and injections, GLP-1, people try to target obesity problems. Do you think that has any effect on your cells? That's one thing. And the second thing is, Obviously, we went through a period of this Dubai chocolate, the green thing, right? And it was fashionable for a bit. It was crazy expensive, right? And maybe now it is not anymore. So does this have some effect? Why is this sales drop? That's what I'm trying to understand. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, Evo, thank you very much for your question. Let me answer the question. So the drop in the sales in the Q4, as we explained, is for mainly two reasons. The first one is the softening demand in Turkey. in the chocolate market, which is one of the biggest categories that we have in our portfolio, and from the mixed side, also the more profitable part of our portfolio. We have seen in the market a decline of 7.5% in volume, which we have seen the first time in many years in the chocolate market. based on the base impact of Q4 of 2024. As you rightly said, Dubai was a craze starting in October in 2024, which the wave of Dubai has slowed down. So that's why Q4 of 2025, competing with the Q4 of 2024, which we had a high Dubai base, This was one of the explanations why we had seen a drop in the chocolate market, which we see as a kind of normalization, basically. But since it was a huge increase in Q4 of 2024 as a base of Dubai, we have seen a shocking decline of chocolate in the Q4 of 2025, which we see as a kind of base for action. That's why, as I said earlier, we anticipate this as a kind of temporary change in the market. Now that the market is stabilized, we anticipate that this is temporary. The second reason, as we explained, is the Middle East, and especially coming from Saudi Arabia, with significant market contraction, almost 5% in volume and value, so which led this kind of contraction in the Q4. As I said, this we find as temporary. We don't see this impact of the other reasons you mentioned in the market, like GRP-1 and so forth. So as I said, we see those as kind of temporary. Now we believe that the markets are stabilizing and we are cautiously optimistic that Q1 onwards, it will get to the track, and we can say that we had a good start to the year. I hope it explains the answer to your question.

Yes, yes, I hear. Okay, thank you. Thank you. So even I, frankly, if I have to share that even I – buy less chocolate nowadays, or I try to buy less, okay? Which is not easy, man, but okay. Can you hear us? Yes, yes, I do, yes. I don't think they can hear us. Yes, okay.

Yes, we hear you. We hear you. Thank you. Thank you very much for the question. Our next question is from Mr. Ali Karim from Gidik Investment. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.

Yes, just a question on your... raw material inventory. When will the inventory that you bought in the first half of 2025 run out and you will be able to price in the new basically lot? That's the question that I have.

Please stand by. The team is reconnecting. Hello, Mr. Osgood, can you hear us?

Okay, please stand by, the team is reconnecting shortly.

Okay.

Can you hear us now?

Yes, we can hear you. Thank you for reconnecting. If you can please, Mr. Ali, please once again repeat the question about inventory from Gedic Investment.

Sorry, Michael, just one question. Did you hear my answer to Ivo?

No, to Ivo, yes, we heard Ivo's answer. Ivo confirmed that he's fine with the answer. And then we moved on to the next question from Mr. Ali Karim about inventory. I will let him maybe repeat the question once again.

Okay, thank you, Michael.

Yes, the question is when will the inventory that you bought during the first half of the year run out and you will be able to operate on new inventory in the next cycle? That's the question.

Hello? Yes, hi.

Sorry, can you hear us now?

We can hear you now, yes.

Now we can hear you. It was on mute, apparently. Sorry for that. So the significant inflation in the global cocoa prices, which increased the value of our own hand stock, is definitely a fact. And secondly, softer than expected sales in the fourth quarter also played a role in increasing inventory balance, basically. This is what I can say. Additionally, we started to – there is Ramadan impact as well. We started to produce and pile up inventories for Ramadan gifting sales earlier than previous year because, you know, every Ramadan, the Ramadan is coming 10 days for long impact. This had – This has another impact on high inventory balance in year-end. So all of these are in line with our plan. So we don't see any kind of surprises in that in terms of inventory buildup, Ali Karim. So I hope it answers your question.

Well, actually, what I'm trying to find out is where you will be able to operate on the lower cacao cost, which is down now from last year.

Thanks. So, as you know, us and all the major players in the market in such a kind of critical raw material, we obviously work with some cover. And based on the current strategy that we have, as per our budget and planning, we will have step by step move to the lower price capital prices in the upcoming period. So obviously we don't disclose the precise timing of that one, but in the upcoming months, step by step, it will be also reflected in our portfolio as to the inventory. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much. Our next question comes from Ms. Erica I from MetLife Investment. Please go ahead, ma'am, your line is open.

Good afternoon, thank you for taking my question. So I got two quick ones. One is, again, OncoCore inventory, sorry, purchasing. I know that you had in advance your purchases, so shall I expect a delayed benefit by six months at least i mean can you remind me how far in advance you purchase cocoa and the second one would be on middle east uh total uh revenue exposure um you have a direct exposure i think of 10 percent of total revenue but then you have also exports from turkey And I just am wondering whether this, within these exports, you have some exposure, you export basically to Middle East, the solar half.

Yes, Erika, thank you very much for your two questions. Let me start from the first one. As I said earlier, answer to Ali Karim, basically, So obviously, we work with some buying and hedging strategy in such a critical raw material as cacao. So step by step, we will see the new price impact in our portfolio. As you can naturally anticipate, we cannot disclose the precise timing of that. But by the time over the upcoming period, we will start, to start to use lower and lower prices throughout the time period on cocoa purchasing. In terms of the Middle East revenue exposure, so Middle East, as I explained earlier, makes 10% of our total revenue by region, looking at the breakdown of the revenues. And we have many countries in this region, and currently, we don't see a significant disruption in our business in those countries. So, and we currently have a decent level of stock in the market, in our distributors as finished goods. So currently in the consumer reach, we don't see an issue. We provide our products in those markets. Having said that, we closely followed up the situation, the conflict in the region. Depending on how long the issue prolongs, we are closely following that up. So currently, we did a risk assessment in all the countries, and as you know, we are supplying those regions through our factories in our region. We have 13 factories in the region, two factories in Saudi Arabia, one factory in Kazakhstan, one factory in Egypt, and nine factories in Turkey. Currently, in most of the countries, we don't have issues of logistics. There are only four countries that we see some short-term disruption in the sea logistics, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates. Having said that, even in these four countries, we have a decent level of stock in the market for the short term. And by the time, so as also we have been working logistics-wise, alternative solutions, which is as mitigation actions, we are following that up. So we are cautiously optimistic that this conflict do not prolong long time, and the situation goes back to normal. But for the worst case, we also have mitigations plans in place. Having said that, all in all, for the very worst, worst case, it won't have any very significant impact in our business. this portion of the business in our portfolio.

Thank you. And just to have a sense, how much of your total inventory passes through the Strait of Hormuz in general?

No inventory from these regions. So that's why I can confidently say that from the inventory side, We are not affected from the logistics challenge ongoing in this region. We have a local production in MENA region, as I said. In Saudi Arabia, we have two factories, one in Egypt also. So that's why from inventory perspective, from the procurement perspective, we don't have any issues.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'll be moving to a couple of text questions. The first one is from Joe Katar from Global Gate Capital. Can you please give us any insights on COCA hedging strategy?

So let me give it to Fuja to give an answer to that one.

Thank you for the question. As you can imagine, and as we have shared in previous webcasts, We do not rely on spot prices. There is, I mean, always hedges for kibble materials and like FX numbers as well. But as our CEO has shared, we do not disclose any numbers. We do not disclose because it changes, by the way. There is not a strict policy because it changes and depends on the conditions and situations. But I cannot disclose any number, any timing, and it can also change. But we can assure you that there is always, I mean, our primary objective is cost predictability and supply security, and we plan and make our plans according to that. So no surprises from that perspective. That's all I can share. Everything is going in line with plan.

Thank you very much. Next question has come from Mr. Antonio Chan Sokhmera from BCP Securities. Can you give us more color on EBITDA margins across your product lines and geographies, especially in Saudi Arabia? And can you comment on which raw materials have pressured margins, especially with broker prices being weaker versus 2024?

We do not, again, thank you for the question.

We do not disclose EBITDA by category, so that's why I cannot share it with you right now. Raw material pressures is the same as Turkey. There is no difference, but key raw materials procurements are, I mean, cocoa is from Ghana and Ivory Coast. Sugar and These are mainly procured locally and all we have also contracts with Betfair, which is another sister company under Yildiz Solvi. So from that procurement of key raw materials, which are very highly critical, we do not have any issue or any disruption, or we do not see any risk for both Turkey and MENA region.

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Mr. Pierre Lejeune from Allianz Global Investors. What are your expectations for the 2026 net leverage?

Thank you for the question. So, again, we do not, like working capital and like Netdesk, we do not have a target. But all I can share is we will continue to have a healthy balance sheet. And in order to have a healthy balance sheet, a key KPI, one of the key KPIs is connected to EDISTA. We'll continue to strengthen our balance sheet. And we do not disclose any targets, but you can feel very comfortable that we will continue to have a very strong balance sheet.

Thank you very much. It looks like we have no further questions at this point. I'll be passing the line back to the management team for the concluding remarks.

Thank you for joining our call. And if you have any follow-up questions, please reach out to me or to my team.

No, thank you very much for your participation. So as I said earlier, so despite all the challenging context, we are determined to grow, powered by this strong growth action plan that we have in 2026 in the light of our 5-H happiness growth compass. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. This concludes our conference call. We'll now be closing all the lines. Thank you and goodbye.