Wacker Chemie Ag Ord

The conference is now recorded. Welcome to the WACA CHEME-AG conference call full year 2023 results. At the moment, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Now, I hand over to Joerg Hoffmann, Head of Investor Relations.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to the WACA CHEME-AG conference call on our full year 2023 results. Dr. Christian Hartl, our CEO, and Dr. Tobias Ohler, our CFO, will take you through our prepared slides momentarily. The press release, our IR presentation, the annual report for 2023, and detailed financial tables are available on our webpage under the caption Investor Relations. Please note that management comments during this call include forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties. We encourage you to review the Safe Harbor Statement in today's press release, presentation, and our recent annual report regarding risk factors. All documents mentioned are available on our website.

Chris? Thank you, Jörg. Welcome, everyone. 2023 was a challenging year. We saw weak demand for most durable goods and in construction amid a wave of prolonged destocking at most of our customers. Early last year, there were hopes for a recovery in customer demand across the chemical industry, especially for the second half of the year, but that did not materialize, as we all know. Weak demand for chemicals has led to price competition in most markets. High energy prices in Germany, still overall high raw material costs, and low asset utilization added burdens to our business. All of this meant that our 2023 results were far below the record figures from 2022. As we disclosed in our prelims at the end of January, full year 2023 sales fell by 22% to 6.4 billion euros due to weak market environment. EBDA amounted to 824 million euros, 60% less than the previous year. And net income came in at 327 million euros. Even with the nearly €600 million dividend payment and the €707 million cash outflow for investments and acquisitions last year to drive growth in specialties and biotechnologies, we ended 2023 with a pretty low net debt of €84 million. Strong cost discipline and our ongoing efficiency programs, as well as a release in working capital, supported the high gross cash flow of approximately 940 million euros. Our net income and strong financial position are the basis for our dividend. In line with our stated dividend policy of distributing approximately 50% of earnings, we will propose a 3 euro per share dividend at our upcoming AGM on May 8th. Looking at our sustainability initiatives, we have set ambitious targets and are making good progress towards achieving them. By 2030, we intend to cut our absolute CO2 emissions by half. And by 2045, we aim to achieve net zero emissions. I'm happy to report that our progress towards these targets is being recognized. SBDI validated our net zero target in early 2024 putting us among the first companies worldwide. Also, the CDP Carbon Disclosure Project recognized our efforts by awarding us top scores in the climate change category. WACKER's A rating confirms our leadership role in climate and environmental protection. The rating is the best performance in our corporate history so far. We are among only 346 out of 21,000 companies worldwide to have received this top score. Sustainability is a strong business case for us. We see it as a key factor for differentiation in a competitive market. Our customers seek ways to lower their footprints and seek long-term partners to provide sustainable solutions. Now moving on to our guidance for this year. It's quite a challenge to predict exactly how economic trends will develop in 2024. Our main assumption on the guidance is that market conditions remain challenging, which is exactly what we hear from our customers. Now let's have a look at our segments. Silicones sees an improved order intake and better asset utilization. However, at this point, it is difficult to determine whether this is a sustainable development or not. Polymers benefit from seasonal improvements in Q1, but still faces weak construction markets, especially in Europe. Consumer markets are better off allowing some growth in dispersions. BioSolutions focuses on integrating the ADL facilities in Spain and is preparing to ramp up the new mRNA plants in Halle. Polysilicon semi-business continues strong, but overcapacities in China are holding back solar pricing. Lower energy costs in polysilicon will benefit Q1 results. Now, considering these factors, we expect group sales between 6 and 6.5 billion euros, and EBITDA between 600 and 800 million euros. CapEx will be slightly below what we invested last year, That was 710 million euros. Although end markets are weak today, we continue investing to support future demand growth. We have confidence in our products and in our markets. The development work of customers continues at a strong pace. We need to invest today to support our customers' growth tomorrow. Our strategy is right. and we are firmly committed to our strategic 23 growth targets. Our sales should increase to over €10 billion with an EBITDA margin of over 20%. Grossi should be more than twice our cost of capital. Now, looking to the next page, we continue to make strategic investments for future growth despite the current weak markets. Why do we have the confidence to do this today? Well, without WACKER, there would be no energy transition. Our polysilicon provides the starting material for high-efficiency solar systems. WACKER polymers enable smart construction to make buildings more economical and sustainable. WACKER silicones are essential to e-mobility. They make electric vehicles more reliable, efficient, and safer. Together with automobile manufacturers and tier-one suppliers, we constantly develop electromobility solutions. And without WACKER polysilicon, there would be no artificial intelligence and no digitalization. Half of the world's computer chips contain our polysilicon. In biosolutions, we enable advanced medicines. Our product range extends from pharmaceutical proteins to plasma DNA and mRNA-based ingredients to vaccines. With the investments detailed on this slide in silicones, polymers, biosolutions and polysilicon, we are sending a clear message to our customers. We will be there to meet their future growth needs. People, markets and molecules are the basis of our success and foundation for future growth. We invest in people and continue to grow our global workforce. With our new colleagues in Spain and expanding our capacities worldwide, WACKER now has around 16,400 employees. Of these, 10,600 work in Germany and 5,800 at international locations. Last year was quite a challenge, but despite strong headwinds, the team cooperated to achieve good results in challenging markets. I want to thank the entire team from WACKER for their outstanding work in 2023 on behalf of the entire board. Great job. We invest in the regions for the regions. Our strategy is to stay close to our customers and capture growth opportunities worldwide. Our global production and technical centers setups are unique in the market. They allow us to interact daily with customers to develop solutions for individual market requirements and to drive our specialty business. We invest in molecules that enable sustainable solutions. We focus on specialties that enable resource-saving technologies. To further strengthen our market position, our investment focus is expanding capacities, developing new solutions for customers, and enhancing our processes and procedures. To this end, we cooperate closely with customers, scientific institutes, and in universities Our portfolio of patents contains about 3,300 active patents worldwide with 1,200 pending applications. Our investments in people, markets, and molecules paved the way for sustainable and profitable growth. We remain the architects of our success with passion, spirit, speed, and confidence. Now to Tobias for details of our results and additional segment guidance.