Wacker Chemie Ag Ord

Welcome to the WACKER full-year 2025 Results Conference Call. I'm Moritz, your call operator. 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. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and 1 on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and 0. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's our pleasure to hand over to Jörg Hoffmann, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to the Wacker Chem EHE Conference Hall on the full year 2025 results. Dr. Christian Hartl, our CEO, and Dr. Tobias Ohler, our CFO, will walk you through the presentation. The press release. Annual report, our IR presentation, and detailed financial tables are available on our webpage under the Investor Relations section. 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 presentation and our 2025 annual report with information on risk factors. All documents mentioned are available on our website.

Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us for our full year 2025 results call. In 2025, we reported sales of 5.5 billion euros and EBDA before special items of around 529 million euros. This result was in line with our guidance, which we revised in October. Although we ended up in line with our guidance and the market expectations, let me be clear, this is not where we want to be. This also clearly applies to our annual result at minus 805 million euros. The profit and loss was impacted by approximately 705 million euros of restructuring provisions and impairments. Owing to the negative results and in line with our dividend policy, we will propose to the AGM on May 6th that no dividend will be distributed. In this environment, We did not try to get back on course with incremental adjustments. We took bold steps to get WACKER firmly back on a path to success. Before I address our cost reduction efforts and guidance, let me quickly highlight our sustainability initiatives on the right side of the page. WACKER achieved top scores in the latest annual ESG assessments by achieving an A rating in the CDP climate assessment WACKER now has risen to the top of more than 21,000 companies worldwide. External ratings are important for us and our leading sustainability profile is a differentiating factor in the market. Now onto PACE on page 4. As you know, chemicals remain under pressure worldwide. This is especially true in Europe. Demand stayed weak across many industries. Uncertainty was particularly high. Trade and geopolitical tensions led many customers to delay orders and postpone investments. At the same time, we face structural challenges on top of the cyclical downturn. New competitors are entering the market. There is overcapacity in many standard chemical products. In Europe, we have extensive regulations and high energy prices that are not internationally competitive. both reduces Europe's competitiveness versus the U.S. and Asia. In this market environment, we must transform ourselves. We need to set Bakker firmly back on a path to success by significantly lowering our costs and strengthening our competitiveness for the long term. To strengthen Bakker's competitiveness, we launched the largest cost-cutting project in our history under the name PACE in October last year. The goal is to reduce production and administrative costs by more than 300 million euros annually with a focus on labor productivity, maintenance and engineering, production-related services and procurement. We are making good progress and already expect to achieve 200 million euros of savings already in 2026. By now, all measures are clearly defined and we have already begun with the implementation phase. By the end of 2027, all measures should be implemented. Headcount reductions are unavoidable. More than 1,500 positions will be reduced worldwide. Most of them are at our sites in Germany. The ambitious program will put us back on path and will secure WACKER's place among the world's leading specialty chemical companies. Now let's move on to the guidance on page five. For 2026, we forecast modest growth with group sales up by a low single digit percentage. EBDA is expected to be in the range of 550 to 700 million euros. Our forecast assumes that markets remain challenging while we deliver tangible savings from our PACE cost program. Please note that the outlook does not include potential impacts from the recent developments in the Middle East, which cannot be reliably determined today. CapEx is expected to be around 300 million euros and well below last year. Now that many of our larger investments are completed, we have shifted our focus to filling capacities. Net cash flow is expected to be positive and significantly higher than last year. This will lead to clearly lower net financial debt by year end. We are acting with discipline. We are tightening our cost base. We are improving our capital efficiency. And we are sharpening our focus on areas where we can win, especially in specialties and technology-led applications. Yet, cost-cutting alone cannot secure our future. We will continue to invest accelerate innovation, and build the foundation for sustained profitable growth. Looking to page 6, you can see that we have invested to expand our global leadership positions. We advanced our specialty strategy by bringing new silicon production facilities online across our global setup. In polymers, we invested in new VAE capacities in the US, and by solutions, We have sharpened our innovation edge with our new biotech center in Munich. In polysilicon, our new edging line strengthens our standing as the undisputed global market and quality leader for ultra-pure semi-grade polysilicon. We are particularly excited about this new facility. We are positioned very well here to support semiconductor growth driven by strong demand for high-performance chips used in AI applications and many others. Before I hand over to Tobias, let me highlight on page seven our focus areas going forward. In order to develop our potential even better, we formulated three overarching strategic priorities in spring 2025 that show us the way forward. These set our course and reinforce our ambition to lead, to innovate, and to grow in the years to come. First, we elevate our business model and value proposition. In chemicals, we are intensifying our focus on specialties. Here, we can clearly differentiate ourselves and create superior value for our customers. Polysilicon, our focus is firmly on the semiconductor market. In biosolutions, we are focused on advanced biotech solutions for health and nutrition applications. In all these areas, we can provide customers with high-performance solutions addressing the megatrends of today. Second, we unleash the potential of our structure and processes. We are committed to becoming faster, more efficient, and more agile. To achieve this, we are harnessing the full potential of digitalization automation and AI across our operations. These technologies are not optional. We see them as essential drivers of our future competitiveness. Third, we excel with our people and culture. We foster a performance mindset with active entrepreneurship and accountability. We build global player capabilities through energized and empowered teams. We will succeed as Von Wacker through strong collaboration across diverse teams. Our strategy is clear. The measures we are taking today will have a lasting impact. I have full confidence in our ability to shape the transformation ahead. We don't only have the right technologies and solutions, but above all, we have the right team. And now to our employees around the world, On behalf of the entire executive board, I would like to thank you sincerely for your commitment, your resilience, and professionalism making the difference. Looking ahead, 2026 will remain challenging. It is critical that we stay on course. Markets will not wait. Speed is essential. 2026 will be the year of execution, driven by spirit, speed, and confidence. Now let me hand over to Tobias.