Wienerberger AG

My name is Judith and I'm your operator for today. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, you may click on the raise your hand button. If you're connected via phone, please press star key nine to enter the queue and star key six to unmute yourself afterwards. We are looking forward to the presentation and with this I hand over to the Senior Officer Investor Relations, Alfredo Sebelia.

Thank you Judith and good morning everyone. Welcome to the call. Just a couple of words from my side. I just recently joined the Investor Relations team. I've been with the company for a little over three and a half years and I look forward to working with my interview on the call. Before we get into the results, I hand it over to the chair of the supervisory board, Mr. Peter Steiner, for some opening remarks. Thank you.

Thank you, Alfredo. And hello, everyone. Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever you are joining us from. I know it is not the usual format. The chairman of the supervisory board does not typically open an analyst call. So let me explain why I'm here. Before Gerhard and Dagmar take you through the key developments and numbers, I want to address the announcement we've made the day before yesterday, and you deserve it to hear it from me personally. On Monday, we announced that our CEO Heimo Scheuch had asked the supervisory board to accept the early termination of his mandate to allow him to fully focus on his personal health. The supervisory board accepted his decision and we appointed Gerhard Hanke, who was deputy CEO of Wienerberger and will now act as interim CEO with immediate effect. Heimo Scheuch took the helm of Wienerberger in 2009. Think about what the company looked like then, a traditional brick manufacturer, solid but narrow scope. What is Wienerberger today? A leading international group, a business spanning the entire building envelope and infrastructure, a company with a clear and credible sustainability agenda, present across markets that matter. That transformation is his achievement. 17 years as CEO, 17 years of decisions, of resilience, of building something that lasts, and is well positioned to get to the next level. On behalf of the entire supervisory board, I want to express my profound gratitude for everything Heimo has built. We deeply respect his decision and sincerely hope that he can now dedicate all his energy to his health. So where does that leave us? As supervisory board, it is now our responsibility to ensure continuity and we are in a very solid position to do so. Let me tell you why. With Gerhard Hanke as interim CEO, we have exactly the right person to lead us through this transition until we have appointed a new permanent CEO. Gerhard has been with Wienerberger for over 25 years. He knows the company, he knows the business from every angle. Operationally, financially, strategically. As he served as CFO from 2021 to 2025, many of you know him well. In March 2025, Gerhard became COO Central and East, and in June 2026, he took on the role of Deputy Chairman of the Management Board. At the time, it reflected our commitment to strong operational leadership and the ongoing evolution of our management structure. As it turns out, that decision serves us very well today. The rest of the management board remains unchanged. Dagmar Steinert continues as CFO, Harald Schwarzmayr continues as COO West. The leadership team around Gerhard is experienced, stable and aligned. We are now conducting a structured search for permanent CEO successor and will communicate further and Jukos. So let me close with this. Today's call is about performance, about results, about what more than 20,000 people across more than 200 sites across the world have delivered in the second quarter of 2026. There is no doubt some markets are currently facing very challenging conditions. At the same time, I want to emphasize that Wienerberger is a company with a clear strategy and a strong team. A company that has pushed forward, evolved and reinvented itself again and again. That does not change today. Thank you very much for your attention and with that I will turn over to Gerhard and Dagmar. Thank you.