BillerudKorsnäs AB (publ)

good day and thank you for standing by welcome to the billerwood q1 report 2025 webcast and conference call at this time all participants are in the listen only mode after the speaker's presentation there'll be a question and answer session to ask a question during the session you will need to press star one and one on your telephone you will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised to withdraw your question please press star one and one again please be advised that today's conference is being recorded I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Lena Schattauer, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Hello and welcome to Billerud's Q1 2025 presentation. And thanks for joining us this morning. Billerud's President and CEO, Iva Vattne, and our CFO, André Kress, will hold the presentation. And after that, they will take questions from the conference call. So by that, I would like to hand over to you, Ivar. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Lena. And good morning, everyone. And thanks for listening in this Tuesday. I'm excited to present the Q1 results, which we think represent an encouraging start of 2025 for Billrude. And we certainly have plenty of results we feel good about. So let's get into it, please. And next slide. 2025 is the first year of our way forward strategy. Hence, I'm excited to see so many of our outspoken priorities already going into the right direction. Recorded net sales growth, 7% versus a year ago, with positive growth figures coming from both regions and almost all categories. We make a significant profitability improvement, EBITDA up 19%, and EBITDA up 42% versus a year ago with a margin uplift of two percentage points. Region North America continues to impress us and come in yet again with a very strong quarter. And 21% EBITDA, 15% sales growth, that is rock solid. But I also want to highlight region Europe. which also comes in with a clearly improved profitability with 15% EBITDA margin and that is 4 percentage points up versus a year ago. Our cash conversion and cash generation is greatly improved since comparable period last year and that is yet again what is highly important for us. We reached a milestone also in Q1 when we sold our first batch of locally produced container board in the US. And more on that later. Next slide, please. Now, to get a proper read of the market, and that can be a handful these days, but at least for Q1, the sentiment was pretty much what we had expected. with normal or normalized conditions for most categories and channels. So not strong, not weak, but somewhere right in the middle. Okay-ish demand and some upward pricing moves towards the end of the quarter. First and foremost in container board, sac, and graphic paper. The only exception to call out is carton board and the consumer luxury channel that is still performing weaker with slower demand and quite a lot of available capacity. Now, going into next quarter in Q2, we would expect more or less unchanged conditions from what we've seen so far in 2025. And we do have solid order books for most of our categories until the summer. Now, I want to highlight that this is short-term guidance for Q2 and not a reflection for the full 2025. Next slide, please. So, over to the topic that seems to be on everyone's lips these days, tariffs and implications. And I would start with probably the same narrative that most companies refer to, that if the situation is to stay long-term, Right now, it's too early to assess any financial impact with credibility. Now, having said that, Billruth is well-positioned and probably one of the better players within our industry. And looking at the direct impact, and starting with a region, North America, we have available production capacity at our US mills, ready to serve both current and new customers. We are placed in an attractive Midwest region with close proximity to a wide range of customers and can offer both high service levels and a reliable and predictable supply chain. And that is of key importance, not least since 25% of the category is imported in our competing paper crates. And for Europe, we only export around 2% of our total volume to North America, So our exposure is clearly limited. Now, the much more difficult question to answer is any potential indirect implications when you see changed trade flows for the full industry leading to a new competitive landscape. And it's too early to say anything, but there will quite likely be both opportunities and challenges coming to surface if the situation will prevail over a longer period of time. We will monitor the situation and adjust if needed and continue to focus on items we can control. So with that, I hand it over to André.