Nabaltec AG ($NTG)

Good morning, and welcome to today's Q1 earnings call of Nabaltec. Today's presentation will be held by Management Board members, Johannes Heckmann, he's the CEO of the company; and Gunther Spitzer, he is the CFO of the company. The presentation will, as always, be followed by a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] But with this, I will hand over the word to you, Johannes. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Philipp, for the introductory. I also want to welcome my colleague, Gunther Spitzer. Yes, welcome, everybody, who is attending today's Q1 earnings call meeting, and I'm pleased to show you the actual financial figures of Nabaltec. For those who have not much to do with Nabaltec, the first listeners, a short overview...

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We had an interruption, my microphone and my headset didn't work anymore. Okay. Sorry about that. I think we will continue with the brief. As I said, we are a specialty alumina and hydroxide manufacturer for flame retardants materials. We are headquartered in Schwandorf, Bavaria. And in addition to our main production site in Schwandorf, we also have 2 operational sites in the U.S. In the 2025 financial year, the group, as you can see, generated revenues of EUR 197 million and an operating result of EUR 15.2 million with an EBIT margin of 7.7%. With around 500 employees who are active worldwide and have an export ratio, a strong export ratio of 76.7%. Our sales department is supported by a lot of distribution partners we work with to supply around the globe. We have been operating, as you can see, in a long time since 1937. Now coming to the 2 product segments. As we report also, here, you can see an overview of the 2 segments, the Functional Fillers and the Specialty Aluminas with the corresponding revenue and EBIT margin for last year. Of course, as of the magnitude with EUR 144.1 million in revenue, the Functional Filler is definitely our key product segments and the aluminas are much minor. The growth driver is definitely the Functional Fillers with fine precipitated hydroxides for cable and wire industry as well as viscose-optimized hydroxides and boehmites for applications in the e-mobility and lithium-ion batteries. In the Specialty Alumina products segment, we have specialty oxides, reactive aluminas and ceramic bodies. Further development will initially be sideways was due to the weak demand from the refractory industry, as you also can see on the weaker EBIT margin. If you look now in detail to the market segment functional fillers, you can see that we have a broad bouquet of flowers for application fields. And there, the biggest market, as you can see, with 56% in 2025 was definitely the cable and wire market. Here, you -- what is named under the cable wire market, especially data cables, communication cables and energy cables, which are currently the most important and increasing development in the tough market. In the battery market segment, the yellow one with 12%. We can -- we summarize our viscose-optimized hydroxides and boehmites, which are used. We still see a differentiated picture in this application fields, where the demand for viscose-optimized hydroxides continue to rise, while the sales volumes for boehmite remain momentarily low. If we come to the specialty alumina market, of course, also a variety of applications, as you can see, the strongest are refractory and technical ceramics leaves as a main market segment. With a large number of applications for our products, we concentrate primarily on the European region. That's a differentiation to the fillers. In 2025, the refractory segment shared total revenue of 46% due to lower demand in the steel industry, but this has now been leveled off as of the becoming of this year and end of last year. So we see that we have reached the rock bottom. Now coming to the figures highlights. As you can see here, a summary of Q1 2026. Revenues in the first quarter amounted to EUR 53.2 million, a decline of 2.7% compared to the previous year's figures. The sales volumes decreased by 3.8% but the average sales price per tonne was slightly above the first quarter of the previous year. The operating result decreased by 33.8% to EUR 2.7 million. The EBIT margin was at 5.2% in the first quarter of '26 after 7.5% in the last year. The decline in revenues, combined with increased energy costs, particularly gas and higher depreciation and amortization costs were the main reasons for the drop in the EBIT margin in Q1 2026. The earnings per share amounted to EUR 0.2 compared to EUR 0.31 in the first quarter of 2025. If we look at the net debt as of March 31, '26, liabilities to banks were at EUR 91.3 million plus certain lease liabilities according to IFRS 16 of EUR 44.1 million, which were offset by cash and cash equivalents of EUR 92 million as of the reporting date of 31st of March '26. This brings the group's net debt to EUR 3.9 million, as you can see. Now coming to the details on the Functional Fillers segment. Revenues in the Functional Fillers products segment decreased in this quarter by 2.1% compared to the previous year's quarter. Sales volumes were 3.6% lower, while the average price rose slightly by 1.5% in comparison to last year. The start of '26, particularly in the month of January and February was not satisfactory and weak in this segment. In our main product area, fine hydroxides, revenues decreased by 8.4% in the first quarter compared to the last year's. Boehmite revenues were down at 8.5%. Only the products area of viscose-optimized hydroxides recorded here a dynamic growth of 28% increase in revenues in the first quarter, which proved and confirmed our expectations in this field. At EUR 3 million, the operating result in the Functional Filler products segment is with EUR 1.5 million below the level of last year. In addition to the decline in revenues, increased energy costs and depreciation and amortization are weighing on the EBIT in this product segment, particularly. Depreciation and amortization increased from EUR 2.1 million to EUR 2.7 million due to the capitalization of various projects, especially the boehmite project. The capital expenditures in this segment amounts to EUR 7.2 million in the first quarter. Investments in expanding capacities for the viscose-optimized hydroxides and gas-fired boiler for steam generation were the main CapEx. Steam boilers is already in operation where the viscose optimized hydroxide project is still ongoing and being erected. So this is not activated yet. Let's come to the specialty aluminas. Now my navigation, it takes a while. Sorry about that. It was just a delay here. I'm sorry. This is not working properly. Now it took a while, somehow there is a problem with the line. Coming to the specialty aluminas. If you look at the revenues in this product segment, the revenue was 4.6% below previous year's quarter. However, revenue is higher than in the previous 3 quarters. So this is optimistic. The sales volume decreased by 4.4% compared to the same quarter of previous year. The average price was nearly at the same level as last year, so we did not see a deterioration here. The ceramic bodies product area recorded a 7.6% increase in revenues compared to the previous year's due to higher sales in the field of catalysts for hydrogen applications. As in the previous year, EBIT for the first quarter was negative at EUR 0.3 million. It is largely in line with the prior year's figure of EUR 0.4 million. Rising gas price, in particular, weighed on the quarterly result. We assume that the bottom -- rock bottom has been reached now, as I already mentioned, in this segment and expect an improvement in the second quarter. If you look at the capital expenditures, these amounted to EUR 1.7 million in the first quarter of '26. Here, the last part of this amount dedicated to the expenditures of the general overhaul of the rotary kiln, which has been now finalized and commissioned. Now I want to hand over to Gunther Spitzer, my colleague, who will guide you through the profit and loss of Q1 '26. Please, Gunther, go ahead.

Yes. Thank you, Johannes. Let's continue with the profit and loss statement of the group for the first quarter of 2026. Our revenue in the first quarter of '26 decreased by 2.7% to EUR 53.2 million. Johannes has already explained the reasons for this. In relation to our sales forecast for the entire year '26, with growth in the range of 4% to 6%, we will have to catch up in the coming quarters. We currently expect a strong second quarter and continue to anticipate year-over-year revenue growth in the second half of the year. Total performance decreased by 5.5% to EUR 52.3 million, while finished goods inventories increased by EUR 0.2 million in the same period of the previous year, they decreased by EUR 1.1 million in the first quarter of '26. The decline in inventory is related to the overhaul of the rotary kiln. Gross profit amounted to EUR 26.4 million and was down EUR 1 million or 3.6% on the year before. In particular, unexpectedly high natural gas costs resulting from the Iran war are weighing on gross profit. EBITDA decreased by EUR 0.6 million year-on-year to EUR 6.4 million, which corresponds to an EBITDA margin of 12.2% after 12.6% in the first quarter of '25. The decline in EBITDA is attributable to a lower gross profit combined with a slight increase in personnel costs of EUR 0.2 million. Conversely, other operating expenses decreased by EUR 0.5 million to EUR 9.5 million, primarily due to lower exchange rate losses of EUR 0.4 million. Depreciation and amortization rose sharply by EUR 0.8 million to EUR 3.6 million in the first quarter of '26. The main reasons for this increase were the scheduled commissioning of various capital projects, including the capacity expansion at boehmite and the capitalization of a lease transaction in accordance with IFRS 16 for the logistics hub at Weserport. Accordingly, the EBIT margin amounted to 5.2% in the first quarter compared to 7.5% in the year before. Functional Fillers achieved an EBIT margin of 7.6%, while the Specialty Alumina segment was negative with an EBIT margin of minus 1.9%. Earnings per share amounted to EUR 0.20. Now I come to the balance sheet. Total assets increased by EUR 11 million to EUR 311.7 million compared to the end of 2025. This was primarily due to an increase in property, plant and equipment of EUR 10.7 million to EUR 161.1 million. This includes assets under construction amounting to EUR 32.3 million, reflecting our ongoing investment program in 2026 and new in the balance sheet, lease rights under IFRS 16 of EUR 4.6 million. The leasehold rights are related to the Weserport logistics hub. Inventories decreased by EUR 7.8 million to EUR 43.1 million. This is mainly due to a seasonal effect as raw materials are purchased only in limited quantities during the cold season. As a result, the value of raw material inventory at the end of March '26 was EUR 6.9 million lower than at the end of 2025. Receivable and other assets decreased by EUR 11.5 million, primarily due to the reclassification of EUR 15 million fixed term deposit maturing in April '26 to cash and cash equivalents. Accordingly, cash increased from EUR 72.3 million at the end of '25 to EUR 92 million at the end of the first quarter '26. On the liability side, equity amounted to EUR 160.8 million, an increase of EUR 2.5 million compared to the end of last year. The equity ratio is 51.6%. Noncurrent liabilities of EUR 128.2 million include provisions for pensions of EUR 30.4 million, bank liabilities of EUR 90 million and leasing liabilities of EUR 3.9 million. Current liabilities increased by EUR 3.9 million and include higher trade payables of EUR 1.3 million and higher accruals for personnel expenses of EUR 1.2 million compared to the end of '25. A brief look at the cash flow statement. Cash flow from operating activity of EUR 13.2 million was slightly higher compared to the previous year's figure of EUR 12.9 million. The cash flow from investments in the amount of EUR 8.9 million includes the expansion of production capacity for viscosity optimized hydroxides, the overhaul of a rotary kiln and measures to ensure a reliable steam supply. Cash flow from financing activities amounted to 0 in the first quarter. Cash totaled EUR 92 million as of the end of March '26. For the next slide, the outlook for 2026, I will give the word back to Johannes.

Thanks, Gunther, for analyzing and presenting the financials in detail here. I just want to give you now a short outlook as we see the oncoming quarter and in 2026. As you know, the order situation in '26, we will see continue to be strongly influenced by short-term factors and high volatility. The visibility, which is reflected by our customers is still mixed. Also, despite the situation, we expect a revenue growth in the range of 4% to 6% for this year compared to the previous year. We can see that now the situation despite this volatility has improved compared to the first quarter, so we can confirm the revenue growth as is. On the earnings side, we expect an EBIT margin in the range of 5% to 7%. The lower EBIT margin compared to last year, where we had come out with 7.7% is primarily due, as you can read already due to the higher cost of material, especially for raw materials and energy. And in addition, due to the significant increase, as I mentioned and Gunther before, in depreciation and amortization due to the capitalization of the various projects, which were shortly mentioned during the presentation. Yes. Then I think we are done with the presentation. You can see the financials where we present ourselves, the financial calendar year. We will be attending various investment conferences still. I would then hand over to Philipp again to moderate the Q&A session, and I'm very happy to answer your questions, Gunther and myself, of course.

Yes. Thank you very much, Johannes. So as said, we will now head into the Q&A. As I said in the beginning, questions will only be taken by our audio line. In order to do so, I would ask you to click the raise hand button which you see on the bottom of your screen. One additional information, those who ask question in written form before the call, we will ask you to also raise your hand again and ask the question verbally in order to the question being answered. And with that, we see the first raised hand by Christian Sandherr. Christian, you can unmute yourself now.

First question would be on the development of the fine hydroxide, so down roughly 8%. Can you elaborate a little bit on the drivers behind it? Because historically, this one has always been quite stable. Was it volumes? Was it prices? And if it was volumes, could you share some insight on what industry or end markets were particularly weak.

It was definitely on volumes, as you could read that the prices were fairly not declining so much. It was -- it can be brought down to a few customers. I think it was -- there is no trend to be seen. Some customers have taken down their orders, but it was not -- it is a differentiated picture of the reasons. Was it a high inventory and they just lacked -- was it to some other reason. But that's not a clear picture. What I can say the good news is it changed now in the second quarter. It turned around. And so I would just read it as a short period of time. So there was not a critical structural decline to be seen. It was really just a few bigger customers who either were high in inventory. But as there is a turnaround now, I would just see it as a Q1 effect.

Okay. And then it's kind of a follow-up question on this. You already said that you see a pickup in Q2. What you're currently seeing in terms of demand, would that already be sufficient if it carries on throughout the year to meet the guidance? Or do you need additional demand pickups in the second half to get into that range?

Good. I mean we certainly need the whole year to fulfill the forecast as we -- or the outlook. I would not say we see a turnaround, but certainly, we need a consistency throughout the whole year.

Yes. But what you're currently seeing in the second quarter or especially right now, if this continues throughout the year, this would be sufficient.

Yes.

Okay. And could you quantify how big your exposure to data centers is within the Functional Filler segment or also within the fine hydroxide product group.

No, we cannot -- we have not this inside view because we are so diversified. And for those who are not targeting Nabaltec in specific so much, we have 2 client bases. We have compounders who are the supplier of the cable and wire manufacturers for the polymers and a bigger clientele are the compounders. And the compounders don't really disclose to us where the compounds go. Do they go into electrical cables for energy storage for energy supply or do they go in data cables. So this visibility or this in detailed visibility we do not have. It's hard to find out. You only can get a feeling if you ask the big players like Nexans and Prysmian where their direction goes.

Right. And one last question on boehmite. Has anything changed in terms of customer RFQs, anything like that? Or is it still really weak? Also maybe compared to last year, is it more inbound? Anything that could point towards the sentiment changing or at least stabilizing.

So I would say the last one, it's more stabilizing on a low level. But as I said, we get a lot of inquiries. We have a lot of products being approved. There is interest, but there is no substantial move in picking up more volume. As I said, the customer base we have who take constantly volumes are there. We see here and there an increase. It depends certainly if a customer gets a bigger project dedicated, then we will see that with our existing ones, but now an absolutely trend move, we cannot see momentarily. It's still lacking, especially in Europe. As I mentioned very often, there are enough sheet manufacturers of separator manufacturers in Europe existing. What they lack is really the pickup by cell manufacturing. And as most who are familiar with this e-mobility, there is a lack of cell manufacturing in Europe. Now there are rumors that the Chinese want to move into Europe. We will see what comes, but this is the main reason. Our Korean customers in Korea, our Japanese customers and even the Chinese customers are there, but there is such a big price war and over volume -- overcapacity in China itself that this gives a lot of headaches to the whole industry. I've just read that 91% of the cell manufacturing is meanwhile concentrated in China. And this is one reason why the separator markets outside is just struggling.

Yes. Thank you very much, Christian. And we already have the next questions coming from Volker Bosse, Volker, you can unmute yourself now.

Volker Bosse from Baader Bank. Yes, thanks also for the details on the current trading and good to hear that...

Volker, we are losing you. We can't hear you right now. We still can't hear you, Volker. Let's give them another moment. All right. Somehow, it seems that we lost the connection to Volker, unfortunately. We can give you another moment. There is another question coming from Harry Kilby from Edison. Harry, you can unmute yourself now.

Just 2 questions from me. When do you expect the capacity expansion in the viscose optimized to be complete? And how do you -- how does this then -- how do you expect this to affect your product mix? And could you possibly give us a little bit more detail on what the margins are like in this segment? Are they higher than the fine hydroxides, for example? And then just a sort of other follow-up. Could you possibly just remind me on your natural gas hedging strategy in the year? And if you expect if the prices will stay at the levels they're at, or are you sort of mitigated against some of that versus hedging?

Okay. First question, viscose optimized commissioning of the plant is now scheduled end of year first quarter '27. Of course, we will have there a transition time of about 3 to 4 months to get quality approval for all the major customers as we move in an e-mobility or in the car industry, they have the 4M change management. For the intermediate time, of course, we have an existing manufacturing site, which is highly staff intensive. And for the new plant, we will do a fully automized plant. How does it affect? Definitely, then it has a capacity of about -- for the viscose itself, 30,000 tonnes, and it can translate into a step-up of revenue of up to EUR 40-plus million as is of prices as of today. In terms of comparison of margin, EBIT margin, it's above the EBIT margin fine hydroxide. So it definitely is an important improvement in the mixture of results for Nabaltec. Coming to the gas philosophy or the gas strategy, yes, we are hedged until September this year for 50% of our volume. And for the rest, we float momentarily. We try to rehedge to continue that momentarily. The prices are not in favor, but we monitor this very strongly day by day and week by week. And if a point in time comes, we definitely will use that open window to hedge at least a certain quantity, though it's not our mentality to speculate.

All right, Harry. Thank you very much for your questions. We see another question coming up from Dominik Kiening. Dominik, you can unmute yourself now. Please go ahead.

Speaking from Baader Bank, I just used another mobile as my mobile did not work, obviously. Do you hear me now?

Yes.

Okay. Cool. Perfect. First one would be on -- coming back on current trading. It's good to hear that you said second quarter showed an improving trend here. Could you confirm that both segments returned to growth in the second quarter as of now? The first question. And second question is a bit of -- for curiosity. I mean In your press release, you gave encouraging remarks that you benefit from infrastructure data center projects, for example. In my view, these building activities are at full swing in the moment, and we see other companies like Hochtief, which are involved in these kind of building activities again tremendously benefiting here. So my question would be, why do you think Nabaltec is not able to ride the sentiment wave, so to say, why it is not seen as a crucial provider of products for these kind of data centers going forward.

The first question was regarding a pickup or an improvement in sales of both segments. I can answer that with a yes. Definitely, we see on both segments that there is a pickup, but still with the volatility and short visibility, but there is higher demand. Second, the impact on this construction, what you mentioned, we have to look at it in a very differentiated way. First of all, what drives our volumes, data centers. Data centers here, where I forgot to -- there was a question, I think Christian said this about the visibility of can you say what share of data centers. What we can -- what we were told by a customer, but this was United States related, that they are now starting to slowly install more capacity in anticipation of all these data center erections. I think it takes some time. I don't know now, Volker, what you relate to construction, yes. Construction is the one side until these data cables and the interiors are designed are equipped, this takes -- it's always a delay. But I'm not the expert here. You have to talk to the cable and wire manufacturers. I think we see a stronger demand. Is this affected to the existing data center buildup. I cannot tell. The big moves still are to come like Microsoft and there's no secret said they want to build up now in the Cologne area, this data center, it's still ahead of that. The impact probably on our business unit will be more seen in '27 or '28 ongoing. So this is not an intermediate one-to-one move. Where we see a translation in immediate volume ramp-up is with the viscose optimized in the car industry. Any car which is sold more electromobility is practically translated in more volume of our products. So there, we have a clear market-related visibility, whereas with the other products due to the fact that we are low in the supply chain in Tier 1 or 2, that makes it a little bit more difficult to see the immediate impact. That's all I can say momentarily. But I'm sure with an announcement of one of our most important customers, U.S. that they are now starting ramping up in anticipation, that's a good sign that they get themselves into a position to follow the market.

Thank you for sharing your view on that. I mean it seems that it's a bit of -- you are a bit of undiscovered potential profit here if then the building activities will really pick up and more demand of these cables are needed. I wouldn't think so.

Yes. Thank you, Volker, for your question. And for the moment, we do not see any further questioners lined up in the queue. So if there are any further questions, I would ask you to take the opportunity now and raise your virtual hands. Let's maybe give it another moment. But that does not seem to be the case. So with that, I will hand back the word to you, Johannes, to give some final remarks to the listeners. Thank you.

Yes. Thanks, everybody, for attending. Thanks, Philipp, for the moderation here on this Q1 earnings call. I just want to summarize, we see a move in the market still even if the market is a little bit shaken, but with the momentarily picture on our clients. I am optimistic that we can move forward as according to our forecast. So this is a good news. Even with the geopolitical situation in the moment, we have a quite good chance to participate in the growing market. Thank you very much for everybody, and hope to see you at some conferences or in the next earnings call. Thanks, everybody.