Verbio Se

This meeting is being recorded.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of Montega, welcome to the Verveo earnings call following the publication of the half-year figures 2022 and 2023, which will be presented by the CEO, Klaus Sauter, and Alina Köhler from Investor Relations. The floor will be open for upcoming questions following the presentation. Having said that, I hand over to you, Mr. Sauter.

Thank you very much. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. for our quarterly call. I'm sitting here in the United States, so good morning. And I would like to start with our presentation. So the agenda is that we want to show you the new segment reporting, which is going to start in the next business year. Then the key highlights in the first half and in Q2 2022, 2023, our financial results, segment results, and finally an update and an outlook for the rest of the year and the coming year. So, about the new reporting system in the next year we want to change our reporting regarding the the business drivers and this is first generation second generation and specialities so in the first generation biofuels and first generation biofuels are biofuels based on arable feedstocks like non-food grade grains and oil seeds like rapeseed oil and this is including rapeseed oil methyl ester and bio ethanol the second segment is advanced second generation biofuels and these are biofuels based on waste and residues For example, corn stover here in the United States, wheat straw, rice paddy in India. So these kind of agriculture residues. And the product is mainly RNG, so renewable natural gas. and a portion of about 10% of our biodiesel production, which is advanced biodiesel. For the differentiation between first and second generation biofuel, it is important to have a look on the feedstock. So it's not the product, it's the feedstock. And finally, the third segment is will be specialities, and specialities will include high-quality pharma glycerine, sterols, in the future, chemical feedstocks, and also proteins. So these are co-products from our existing production where we enhance the value chain and take out valuable components from our feedstock which is not needed for the definition of biofuel so and in this segment specialities we are supplying different markets like pharma like chemical applications So these specialities are mainly going not to biofuel applications. So after we have now a stable framework for second generation biofuel in Germany and in Europe, we increased the amount of biofuel Second generation biofuel, this is our clear focus. And approximately 40% of our CO2 savings stem from advanced second generation biofuels. So in the first half of the business year, we contributed about one and a half million tons of CO2 savings for the biofuel industry. We had a record RNG production in the first half of the business year, and especially in Q2 2022, 2023. So RNG production is increasing. And as I said already, Verveo generated one and a half million tons of CO2 savings in the first half. This compares to one and a half people giving up their round trips from Paris to New York. Approximately 40% of the CO2 savings stem from advanced second generation biofuels, and we confirm our outlook for the business here. Now about the RNG production. RNG increased by 22% in production year on year due to increase in capacity in Germany and the ramp up in the United States and in India. Biodiesel and ethanol production, the capacity was utilized at 96%. So in the chart, you can see the production of biodiesel, which was 158,000 tons, 71,000 tons of ethanol and 261 gigawatt hours of RNG. The EBITDA came down from 147 million euro to 48.9. And this decrease primarily due to falling sales prices, in particular for bioethanol. On the details, we come later when we show you the margin situation and higher raw material prices and the sharp increase in energy costs. especially energy costs, natural gas and electricity went up by 400% compared to Q2 of the last business year. And our net cash position during the last quarter came down by 32% to $177.5 million. So increase in RNG inventories and investments in PPE for future growth, as well as tax payments offset and cash inflow. So now for the details, I hand over to Alina, our head of IR. Okay, I forgot one slide, which is the equity ratio. So the equity ratio increased to 74%. And that shows that the financial stability remains high. But Alina, now this is your part.