Wacker Chemie Ag Ord

conference is now being recorded. Welcome to the Wacker Chemie AG conference call Q1 2024. 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 Jörg Hoffmann, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Welcome to the Wacker Chemie AG conference call on the first quarter of 2024 results. Dr. Christian Hartel, our CEO, and Dr. Tobias Ohler, our CFO, will take you through our prepared statements momentarily. The press release, the IAR presentation, and detailed financial tables are available on our web page 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 dollar 23 annual report regarding risk factors. All documents mentioned are available on our website. Chris?

Welcome, everyone. As you saw in 2023, economic headwinds and lower prices over last year defined our quarterly results. In 2024, we started with the low exit rates of the previous year, 2023, and as a result, sales in EBITDA for the first quarter are markedly lower year over year. On the other hand, sequential developments are more promising. When we published our full year results in March, we provided a trading update on the first quarter of 2024. In line with our expectations, sales came in at 1.5 billion euros. Group EBITDA, on the other hand, came in at the upper end of our expectations. This was primarily good business development on the one hand and some positive effects in the other segment. Group EVDA increased by 27% quarter over quarter to 172 million euros. This is up from 135 million euros in the fourth quarter of last year. The higher earnings were driven by strong growth in the operating segments. Chemicals EBDA came in at 137 million euros, which is up approximately two times from the 69 million euros in the preceding quarter. Chemicals demand was clearly higher quarter on quarter. This is in part seasonality, but also due to customer restocking from very low levels of inventory. Demand, especially for specialty silicones, developed positively in the first quarter. In polymers, we see typical quarter-on-quarter improvements from seasonality. As we discussed on previous calls, BioSolutions is focused on starting up our new mRNA facility in Halle. While the segment continues to see upfront costs weighing on its results, the first quarter EBDA of €5 million was supported by a better product and contract mix. Polysilicon also showed a strong sequential improvement. EBDA came in at 43 million euros, up from 21 million euros in the previous quarter. The results continue to be defined by low prices for solar-grade polysilicon. While we see some positive effects from lower energy costs, the underlying performance of polysilicon has been constant over the past two quarters. Actually, year-end effects held back the previous quarter, and Tobias will give you some more flavor shortly. So all told, our business came in at the upper end of our expectations, and some tentative economic indicators show business conditions are improving. Now, looking at our businesses, demand was markedly stronger quarter over quarter. However, this trajectory has not continued in April. We continue to see overall weak markets, uneven order patterns, and low prices defining our results. As you saw in this morning's press release, we confirmed our full year guidance. While the first quarter results may point to the top end of the EBITDA range of 600 to 800 million euros, we remain cautious. We respond to the weak market environment and low prices with consistent cost discipline to continue to pursue a restrictive hiring policy and are focused on streamlining processes to make them more efficient in cutting our material costs. Before highlighting some of our accomplishments on the next page, I would like to congratulate the Silicon's team on receiving the Fountain Award at one of China's largest trade fairs for personnel and home care ingredients. Our team has developed a new silicone elastomer gel that contains more than 80% renewable raw materials. And that, of course, is a great opportunity of our specialty silicone business. The product gives you a silky feel on your skin and also on hair care. and is a further proof of our strategy. While I've spoken a lot about lowering our CO2 footprint at WACKER in the past, developing sustainable products is also a core part of our strategy. By 2030, 100% of our products will meet defined sustainability criteria. That's the target. 94% of our products fulfilled already these criteria, up from 83% in 2020. We will actively improve our product portfolio and will continue to lower our carbon footprint, provide our customers with innovative, sustainable solutions. Now, looking at our cost-saving and efficiency measures on the next page. A clear focus on cost and efficiency is essential for WACKER to stay competitive in global markets. Our efforts are concentrated under our WACKER operating system, WOS, where we focus on reducing our specific operating costs. We awarded several teams at our annual WACKER operating system conference earlier this year for their remarkable achievements. and give you some examples on that. In silicones, the team was able to sustainably cut the amount of steam required in the desolation process. This one project alone saved 83,000 tons of steam last year and reduced our CO2 emissions by 26,000 tons. In polymers, our colleagues in Nanjing optimized steam production by leveraging waste guard incineration. this project also reduced CO2 emissions substantially. In biosolutions, our colleagues in Amsterdam increased utilization rates and improved maintenance at the biopharma site. And lastly, in polysilicon, the team in Burghausen was able to drive process improvements, significantly increasing the output in semi-cleaning. Now, these projects are just a few examples of the hundreds implemented last year. So continuous cost reduction is not about big wins, but about addressing every opportunity to become more efficient day by day. Since the inception of our WOS program over 20 years ago, we have addressed thousands of individual projects. These have resulted in over 800 million euros in savings. And we also have set ourselves ambitious targets for 2024. If our targets are successfully achieved, we should see further improvements in the cost base. Before I hand over to Tobias, let me sum up quickly. We saw a good operating performance in Q1 based on higher volumes and customer restocking. Difficult conditions, however, persist. Order intake continues to be uneven and does not provide a stable foundation for an improved outlook. But despite the uncertainties we are currently facing, I'm convinced about the success of our setup and strategies. We are confident about our future performance to continue to make strategic investments for future growth. We do this because we have confidence in our products, in our markets, and of course, in our people. Global megatrends, such as renewable energies, electromobility, digitalization, and biopharmaceuticals will drive demand for our products and solutions. We remain committed to our growth targets up to 2030. Now to Tobias for further details on our results.