Lenzing Aktiengesellschaft ($LNZ)

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Lenzing AG Financial Results 2025 Conference Call and Live Webcast. I'm Mara the Chorus call operator.[Operator Instructions] And the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Mathias Breuer, CFO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Mara, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. For those of you I have not yet met this is my first results call as Lenzing's CFO, and I'm happy to guide you through our results for 2025. As you might know, I have joined Lenzing in 2023 to develop and implement the more than EUR 200 million performance program. My focus as CFO will stay on disciplined financial management, operational performance improvements, supporting profitable growth and further strengthening the cash generation and the balance sheet of our group. With that, let me walk you through the agenda for today. I will start with a summary of the key developments followed by the market updates as well as our refined strategy. I will then guide you through the financials, and I will talk about the outlook as well as our investment highlights. We will then end the call with the Q&A session, as always. You might have seen that we have put some emphasizes on further transparency and further data in order to give you a better understanding on our business. And yes, I hope that you appreciate that in the presentation going forward, and I'm happy to discuss on that. Stepping to the key highlights. Let me focus on the first slide. Despite continued challenging market conditions, our performance reflects disciplined execution and the impact of our performance initiatives. We saw a modest revenue decline driven by volume adjustments during the year, while our EBITDA margin benefited from our ongoing performance program, supported by the extraordinary one-off sale of CO2 certificates. Looking ahead, our ambitions go well beyond current levels. We have updated our strategy last September with a clear focus on value generating growth by continuing to reduce overhead costs. And importantly, our stronger focus on cash flow generation is clearly paying off with an unlevered free cash flow improving to almost EUR 280 million, driven by disciplined CapEx control and rigorous working capital management. Liquidity is clearly one of our key priorities, and we made great progress here as well. After last year's refinancing, our liquidity cushion reached a very solid level of over EUR 900 million by year-end. What remains unchanged are our core strength, innovation and sustainability, where we just recently confirmed our worldwide leadership. Looking ahead, our priorities remain clear. Profitability, strict cost discipline and continuous focus on cash generation. Before we move into the details of 2025, let me briefly touch on our leadership team, which brings deep industry expertise and full focus on operational excellence. As you know, I recently joined as CFO and I'm very pleased to be part of this team. Together with Georg and Christian, we act as a team, the CEO tasks have been assigned to us. We fully remain aligned behind our strategy and focused on disciplined execution, maximization of profitability and strong cash generation. Before moving into the details of our performance, let me briefly comment on the market environment. Overall, markets have not been providing any meaningful tailwinds in 2025. Especially, conditions in the textile fiber markets remain challenging, particularly in the last 3 quarters of 2025 after the announcement of the tariffs by U.S. President Trump. Consumer sentiment remained low, driven by those tariff uncertainties, which led to a shift in less advanced fiber applications and the less willingness to pay for sustainability in the textile sector. At the same time, nonwoven markets continued to develop much more stable, particularly in Europe and North America. This stability is largely driven by the ongoing conversion towards more eco-friendly fibers, which continues to support the demand. The demand for dissolving wood pulp remains solid, supported by higher downstream operating rates for generic fibers. Looking at the market prices for both fiber and dissolving wood pulp, they were down compared to 2024, generic viscose and lyocell prices by approximately 2% and dissolving wood pulp prices by around 10%, both in U.S. dollars. Alongside continued weak consumer sentiment in textile markets pricing pressure for fibers was further driven by increasing supply in the market. In response, we continued to actively manage our product mix. We reduced the production in defined lower-margin products and market segments, which led to a reduction of total fiber sales volumes by 6% compared to 2024. At the same time, we further increased our focus on premium products with higher margins which led to higher average selling prices in U.S. dollars. This clearly reflects and confirms the direction we have set with our new strategy, despite the trend of declining generic fiber prices by approximately 2% we were able to increase our average selling price in our Fiber division in U.S. dollar by 2.8%. In euro terms, however, our selling prices were slightly lower, reflecting foreign exchange movements. Let me now turn into our Pulp division. The production increased by 4% in 2025, especially driven by an outstanding performance of our dissolving wood pulp plant in Brazil. We produce approximately 20% above nameplate capacity in this asset, which is a very -- which is very satisfying to us. At the same time, lower internal demand for our own fiber production allowed us to sell a larger share externally, resulting in a 27% increase in dissolving wood pulp sales volumes. Average dissolving wood pulp prices declined in 2025 reflecting lower market prices and negative foreign exchange movements, with a decline of 7.2% in U.S. dollar compared to 11.6% decline in euro. Let me now turn to the development of key costs in our cost structure. Energy and chemical costs remained significantly above historical levels, particularly energy prices in Europe, although we saw some easing in prices during the fourth quarter. On the other hand, coal prices in Indonesia increased by 8% in the fourth quarter. Prices for caustic soda, our main chemical also remained elevated across regions and were broadly stable in the fourth quarter. Despite this partially slight improvements towards the end of the year, both energy and chemical prices remain a challenging cost factor to us. Looking ahead, ongoing geopolitical developments particularly the war in Iran are likely to increase volatility in energy markets with regards to prices and potentially even supply. Let me now briefly reflect and recap on the strategy that we announced -- our revised strategy that we announced last year in September. It is built around 4 strategic priorities that together unlock value and prepare Lenzing for the future. This means when looking at the first 2 pillars, we focus on premiumization and excellence. Premiumization means that we will concentrate more strongly on our branded and innovative fibers like TENCEL, VEOCEL and ECOVERO and gradually step back from less profitable commodity segments. By doing so, we improved margins and position Lenzing in areas where we can truly differentiate. Looking back into 2025, this is also an impact that we have seen in terms of increasing the margin to the generic fiber segments in terms of prices, as we have seen on the last page. The second pillar is excellence. We, as a board and as a company are embedding a culture of efficiency and discipline across the group, not just through one-off savings, but by institutionalizing cost control, we're optimizing our footprint and the streamlining structure. This makes us leaner, more agile and more resilient. On top of our performance program that started in 2023, we are implementing a comprehensive cost optimization program which includes a reduction of around 600 positions in Austria. Annual savings of approximately EUR 45 million are expected to take full effect by the end of 2027. The third pillar is innovation. Here we will focus resources on fewer but higher impact projects, accelerating time to market and ensuring that our pipeline continues to provide the next generation of premium fibers whether in textiles or nonwovens. And finally, sustainability. This always has been part of Lenzing's DNA, but going forward, it will be leveraged even more as a value driver. With growing regulation and customer demand for sustainable products, our leadership in this area shall become a true competitive advantage. Overall, our strategy is designed to deliver profitable growth, improve margins further and strengthen our cash flow generation over the coming years. Premiumization is at the core of our refined strategy. Today, around 1/4 of our volumes are still in generic commodity fibers, about 60% are in our branded classic products and 15% are in innovative premium fibers. Our goal is clear. Over time, we will exit the generic segments and shift resources into branded and premium products. This means that competitors can continue to play in commoditized viscose but Lenzing focuses on areas with higher margins and stronger differentiation. In that sense, we also have taken the decision to assess options for our plant in Indonesia, as you know, last September, I will later on elaborate on that. Premiumization for us is more than just a portfolio shift. It makes the business structurally more resilient, less exposed to cyclic swings and better positioned for sustainable growth. We illustrate how we are implementing our refined strategy, let me highlight 3 concrete examples. First, we are further improving our profitability and resilience. As part of this, we are evaluating the potential sale of our viscose production site in Indonesia. The site did not develop as planned and has been clearly margin dilutive in recent years. The M&A process has been initiated and is ongoing according to plan. Second, we further drive the improvement of our margins. A good example is the expansion of the premium nonwoven capacity in Lenzing. An investment of EUR 15 million will increase the focus on sustainable and high-quality non-woven solutions. Third, we increased differentiation with new fiber technologies. A major step in this direction is the acquisition of the controlling majority in TreeToTextile. TreeToTextile represents the next technological leap in cellulosic fiber. H&M, IKEA and Stora Enso will continue to support our joint scale-up, commercialization as minority shareholders. Together, these 3 initiatives demonstrate how we are already implementing our strategy towards value growth. The second pillar of our refined strategy is excellence. In line with this, we have implemented our comprehensive performance program. The focus was and continues to be on improving efficiency across all our production sites, optimizing procurement processes and costs and reducing personnel costs. The program has now been successfully completed and delivered full recurring savings of more than EUR 200 million, which is EUR 100 million above the original target, which was set in 2023. Building on this success, we have defined additional measures to further improve operational efficiencies. These measures should be leading to additional annual savings of EUR 45 million latest by 2027. They will continue to support our strategic focus on operational efficiency and cash flow generation. So a clear commitment of Lenzing to deliver. Let me briefly highlight where some of the savings are seen in our P&L. A significant part can be seen in SG&A costs, which reduced EUR 40 million, EUR 20 million each in selling and administrative costs, and we were able to reduce personnel costs by EUR 55 million compared to 2024 or 10% of our total personnel costs. Some of these cost savings are already reflected in the SG&A savings on the left chart. So the right chart also includes savings in the production area. Innovation and sustainability remain the foundation of Lenzing's long-term strategy. They are what sets us apart from the competition. Even as we streamline, we will not compromise in these areas. On the innovation side, our pipeline continues to create real opportunities. One example, our new TENCEL HV100 fibers, the fiber features variable cut length designed to mirror the irregularities of natural fibers and brings undefined rawness of nature into the TENCEL Lyocell portfolio for woven products such as denim, the clear commitment and clear milestone into our premiumization approach. On the sustainability side, our leadership is recognized worldwide. We have been rated AAA by CDP as one of only 23 companies worldwide with an A score for climate now 6 years in a row. With Ecovadis Platinum, Lenzing is in the top 1% of companies worldwide in sustainability performance. These achievements are not just certificates. They are an asset that strengthens our brand, enhances customer partnership and increasingly drives premium pricing, especially in the nonwoven segment. In summary, we continue to operate in a tough market environment, driven by weak customer sentiment in textiles and additional capacities in the Asian fiber market. We control the control level. We have successfully responded with our performance program, and we delivered tangible benefits in terms of improved margins and strong cash generation. At the same time, our revised strategy sets clear priorities, including the strong focus on value generating growth, the shift towards higher-margin products as well as the strategic review of some of our plants. This positions us well to further strengthen our financial performance and create sustainable value going forward. In short, we are managing the challenges of today while we build the foundation for stronger performance tomorrow with our revised strategy. With that, let me now turn to the financials. And let me start with a brief overview of the key financial indicators for 2025. Revenue was slightly down year-over-year, while adjusted EBITDA increased by 8%, reflecting the impact of our cost initiatives as well as positive one-off effects from the sale of surplus EU emission certificates. Cash flow also improved, supported by very disciplined CapEx control and rigorous working capital management. On the balance sheet, net financial debt and leverage significantly decreased, and we increased the liquidity cushion to EUR 910 million. Let me now take you through the developments in revenue and EBITDA in more detail. Both revenue and EBITDA were affected particularly in the second half of the year by external factors such as international tariff measures, subdued demand and declining market prices. Despite the tough market, revenues decreased by only 2% compared to 2024 with a clearly weaker second half of the year. Revenues, however, went down by 11% in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2024. Thanks to our comprehensive performance program, we were able to improve the operating performance, adjusted EBITDA increased by 8% to EUR 426 million. Here as well, we saw a much better first half of the year, and EBITDA in the fourth quarter decreased EUR 73 million. Let me now take you through the development of EBITDA in more detail. Looking at this EBITDA bridge and starting from last year's EBITDA of EUR 395 million, we see a positive impact from cost savings as well as the sale of CO2 certificates. So of topics that we internally can control, we contributed with EUR 130 million of recurring and one-off effects to the profitability of 2025 with another EUR 45 million with the surplus sale of CO2 certificates in total, EUR 175 million. Those were, however, we could not fully compensate market headwinds that we clearly had to face. Foreign exchange developments as well as inflation had a negative impact of combined around EUR 100 million. The impact of U.S. tariffs of EUR 10 million and the valuation of our biological assets in Brazil increased by EUR 8 million less than in 2024. If you look at our divisions, we can see a positive margin contribution through additional volume in our Pulp division of EUR 27 million. However, with negative price development accounting for EUR 43 million as dissolving wood pulp prices decreased during 2025. In the Fiber division, we see an adverse picture. While volume was short compared to 2024, with an impact of EUR 31 million, we were in a position to increase our prices in U.S. dollar with an impact of EUR 25 million in 2025. With all that, you can see we continue to control what we can control and to manage what can be managed internally. However, the market had some headwinds for us. Looking at the development. Since 2022, revenues have remained largely stable at EUR 2.6 billion due to the challenging market environment. At the same time, EBITDA increased by EUR 184 million to an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 226 million, driven primarily by our cost-saving initiatives and operational improvements. Our refined strategy also addresses reviewing selected sites, including the Indonesian plant where the M&A process where a potential sale is ongoing. In this context, noncash impairment losses on noncurrent assets, in particular, property, plant and equipment of EUR 82 million were carried out last year. The impairment losses have a negative impact on EBIT but no effect on EBITDA. EBIT, excluding the impact of the impairment, would have been at EUR 100 million approximately, which compares to EUR 18 million reported. Let me now turn to cash flow. Trade working capital decreased as a result of rigorous and actively managed working capital management of $125 million or 22% in 2025. At the same time, we maintained a very disciplined CapEx control with CapEx spend of EUR 141 million. This led to a significant increase in unlevered free cash flow and an improvement in the cash conversion to 66%. If you take a step closer to the development of net working capital, we can see that the optimization of inventory management and improved supply chain management in both fibers and pulp led to a decrease of inventories by EUR 115 million since the end of 2024. We also consistently reduced trade receivables. Trade receivables were down EUR 73 million compared to the end of 2024, reflecting disciplined receivables management. While trade payables have decreased in the first 3 quarters, they increased again in the fourth quarter, ending at EUR 324 million. Overall, this development reflects our disciplined approach to working capital management and our continued focus on cash generation. Turning to the balance sheet and to highlight the key developments in 2025, we do see that net financial debt decreased by 12%, mainly driven by strong free cash flow generation. This resulted in an improvement in our leverage ratio to 3.3x EBITDA. At the same time, we significantly increased our liquidity cushion. This is cash on hand, including not drawn financing lines to EUR 910 million. Let's have a short recap on the refinancing measures we have successfully taken in the last years. We started with the capital increase in 2023 to bolster our liquidity buffer, at the same time, we did a maturity extension of EUR 250 million. In October 2024, we have converted the project financing of our Brazilian joint venture of USD 1 billion into a stand-alone corporate finance structure with further shift of debt maturities. The successful placement of the new hybrid bond in the amount of EUR 500 million in July 2025, followed the EUR 545 million syndicated loan secured in May 2025. Those measures marked further milestones in the professional and forward-looking management of our capital structure and brings an adequate amortization profile to the company. With that, let me now turn to our outlook. Let me start with some of the key challenges that we currently see in the market environment. First, the political uncertainty remains elevated, particularly due to the escalation in Middle East. Even though we have no direct business in Iran, we expect indirect impact through continued volatility in energy markets, global supply chain disruptions as well as a negative impact on consumer confidence. Already after 2 to 3 years, at 3 weeks now since the Iran war started we have to experience a steep increase in domestic growth transportation in sea freight surcharges and first request for increased prices in terms of our key chemicals. If the situation continues as such, we expect potential supply shortages in specific markets, be it in Southeast Asia or in Europe. Second, what we see here on this slide, we continue to see a high degree of uncertainty around global trade policies and tariffs with limited tariff impact, but indirectly also affecting fiber demand and prices, particularly in the textile business. And finally, with new capacity coming on stream, particularly in generic lyocell and those are expected to continue to weigh on pricing and margins. Based on these assumptions, our outlook for the year reflects the following expectations. Looking back, 2025 was a solid year despite the continuously tough market environment. For the reasons just mentioned, we expect generic fiber market prices to remain under pressure in 2026. However, we have seen improved pricing developments in pipe and fiber in the first quarter compared to the weak end of 2025 with further positive indications for the remaining months of the first half year. Fiber demand is expected to continue to be impacted by subdued consumer sentiment However, also here, we expect some market improvements in half year 1 with a constructive start in Q1 2026 compared to the last month of 2025. At the same time, we expect demand in pulp to remain relatively stable. Energy and raw material costs are expected to remain volatile and on elevated levels impacted by the geopolitical developments. Despite these challenges, we remain focused on what we can control, particularly disciplined pricing, cost efficiency and strong cash generation, and we expect operational results to continue to be positively impacted by further cost reductions. The start into Q1 was above expectations and very constructive. However, going forward, visibility is very limited due to the ongoing high uncertainties in global tariffs and geopolitical developments. We therefore at the moment give no guidance for 2026. We will review the outlook in the next month and may provide guidance alongside the results of the first quarter. However, this is subject to improved market visibility. Before going into Q&A, let me summarize now why Lenzing represents a compelling investment case today. We control what we have under control and we deliver. First, we are recalibrating our asset base. That means moving away from a volume-driven model towards one that prioritizes economic value creation. We are reviewing underperforming assets, including the Indonesia site and focusing investment where returns are highest. Second, we are refocusing the organization with leaner structures, institutionalized cost discipline, we are aligning resources with future growth opportunities. Third, we are resharpening our market focus. We are withdrawing from commoditized fibers and concentrating on premium branded products and resilient nonwoven applications. This makes our business less cyclical and more predictable. Finally, we are positioned to regain valuation. We combine a proven ability to execute savings, refinancing, EBITDA growth with unique differentiation through innovation and sustainability. This is how we will restore confidence and create long-term value. With this, I will hand back over to the operator for the Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Christian Faitz from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Two questions, please. First of all, Mathias, you mentioned the sequential improvement in Q1 '26, at least in terms of demand trends. I'm fully aware that the already strange geopolitical situation can change from day-to-day at this point. Yet if one was to admittedly naively assume that all of the tensions were over by May or so, how would you see demand in textile and also for nonwovens, i.e., I guess you're talking about a pre-Iran scenario? And the second question is, having a sound production footprint in Europe, would you, at this point, see a relative "advantage" in terms of raw material sourcing versus your Asian peers, obviously, also including your own setup in Asia?

Thanks, Christian, for the question and hello to you. So First, let me answer your first question. So if I briefly recap it, so you were asking regarding textile and nonwoven demand under normal pre-Iran circumstances. So what we have seen when we stepped into 2026 was that prior to the Iran conflict, demand both in nonwoven and textile was very good and very high and we could exceed our expectation in the first 2 months and now also in March with regard to demand. We have also seen a structural price increase pre-Iran both in fiber and in dissolving wood pulp that will certainly support our, let's say, our improved profitability going forward. So without the Iran scenario, I would have expected a clear trend reverse coming from quarter 3, quarter 4, what we've seen in 2025.

Okay. I guess, yes, I mean it's all speculated, but I just wanted to get a feel for the underlying ex-Iran demand.

Okay. And your second question was on the advantage of being based also in Europe versus Asia. So certainly...

In terms of raw material sourcing and given the Iranian and Strait of Hormuz situation, yes.

Certainly, a global footprint can help. What we currently see is that our Chinese competitors don't suffer from any supply constraints at the moment. So this is what we feel. And also our Chinese plant at the moment is securing the supply. We also have safe supply at the moment in Europe. So compared with the Chinese, I don't see too much disadvantage, but things can change pretty fast, I guess. With our other plants, especially in Southeast Asia, we see the one other potential supply constraint where we currently try to shift around. So here, I think it could be a faster supply constraint in those markets that we have to -- that needs to be seen, yes.

The next question comes from the line of Sebastian Bray from Berenberg.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

I have 3, please. The first is on if there is anything unique going on in Q4 that meant the EBITDA in this quarter was especially weak. My gut feeling is that the company may have wanted to clear out some inventory and underproduced even relative to Q3, but it does look like quite a big drop. Any color? Was the hedging becoming less favorable on the FX side? Was Heiligenhaus causing particular issues? That's my first question. My second question is on the debt structure and covenants. If I take EUR 75 million as a run rate, I appreciate it might not be the right one, but it's close to what the company reported for Q4 EBITDA including the hybrid, the net debt-to-EBITDA close to 6x of the company. Are there any explicit net debt-to-EBITDA covenants attached to any of the existing or more recently raised debt of the last 12 to 18 months. And finally, I appreciate the company doesn't provide guidance, and I'm not going to ask for an EBITDA figure for '26. But can you give an idea of the magnitude at current hedges of both the FX, the energy and the sulfur costs for '26.

Thank you, Sebastian, and hi to you. So let me answer and start with the first question. So you asked regarding Q4 performance as it was perceived as very weak and if there were any external impact. So first, we had explicitly low level of dissolving wood pulp prices, so the quarter 4 clearly marked the low with regards to our external pulp prices for 2025. Secondly, and you're right, we tried to clear out some of our inventories which also burdened our average sales price in quarter 4 compared to the prior year. I think that was the main issues that had to be seen in quarter 4 compared to the prior quarters. With regards to your second question, EUR 75 million run rate. I mean, I understand the logic and understand that the mathematics and 4x multiplier to this weak quarterly run rate would bring us to the leverage that you have just mentioned. I mean there is covenants that we're carrying in the syndicated loan. This is an EBITDA net debt inclusive financial leasing covenant where we're currently are working with a comfortable headroom still in quarter 1. And your third question was the current hedge impact of FX, energy and chemicals. So we have approximately 80% of net exposure in U.S. dollar hedged for 2026 already. We have approximately 60% of our energy hedged of our open position. However, keep in mind that especially in the pulp side, where we are nicely integrated. And this is mainly attributable for Heiligenhaus, Grimsby and our site in Mobile, while we don't perceive large energy fluctuations in all sites in Asia. On the chemical side, there is no hedging that we can apply. So here we are on the market rates.

That's helpful. Can you remind me what is the actual number covenant on the syndicated debt? Is that disclosed as a multiple of EBITDA?

We don't disclose them.

The next question comes from the line of Patrick Steiner from ODDO BHF.

Three remaining from my side. Firstly, could you give us please an indication of the CapEx levels for 2026? And also maybe some kind of indication what -- how this compares to like a normalized maintenance CapEx level? And secondly, the level of trade working capital, is this sustainable? Should we see an increase in 2026? And thirdly, you mentioned new generic lyocell capacities coming on stream, which are expected to burden margins and prices going forward. Can you give us more information on that?

So first indication on CapEx level 2026. So the CapEx level of EUR 140 million in 2025 was clearly a stretch to us. I mean this is only focused on maintenance CapEx and license to operate CapEx. This is a level that we in principle plan to maintain for the next years to come. However, we need to plan some additional CapEx on top with regard to enhancing our factories. We also announced a EUR 15 million announcement for the tampon business in Lenzing, we announced in total an investment package of EUR 100 million of strategic CapEx into the next year. So if you would add up, add certain surplus to the EUR 140 million base line, then I think you are pretty right. With regards to net working capital level and your question is this remains sustainable. We certainly made the big step in 2025. And there is still room for improvement. There's still areas that I would like to touch and take it with my operational colleagues. We plan to further decrease the DIO, DSO, DPO ratios by a few days within that year, but a large step is not to be expected. And when we look on your question with regards to new generic lyocell on stream, so especially the -- our largest competitor in China has recently brought on stream some additional generic lyocell capacity, and we expect another capacity coming into the market in 2026. This is potentially an approximately 100-kiloton plant that will hit the market in 2026. We see it mainly for the domestic Chinese textile market. But it clearly brings, let's say, additional capacity into that generic lyocell market, which could further dilute the margin.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mathias Breuer for any closing remarks.

Yes. Thanks, everyone, for joining in and listening to my first earnings release call, very much looking forward to close interaction in the weeks and months going forward. And let's meet one or other at conferences and Investor Relations roadshows. Other than that, we see us in our quarter 1 announcement May 7. Thank you, and goodbye.

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