Hello everyone. This is Fabian Joseph from Investor Relations.

Also on behalf of my entire team, I wish you a very warm welcome to our Q1 '26 conference call. With me today are our CEO, Guido Kerkhoff, and our CEO Americas, John Ganem.

They will guide you through the presentation, and afterwards, we are happy to take your questions. In order to ask a question, you have to press the live Q&A button, and we will then open your line.

With that, I'd like to hand over to you, Guido.

Thank you, and welcome to our Q1 '26 conference call. I'll now begin with the financial highlights of the quarter, followed by an update on our strategic progress and the voluntary public takeover by Worthington Steel.

Before we look at our KPIs, I'd like to make a final remark. As we sold eight US distribution sites at the end of '25.

In order to enable a year-over-year comparison on a like-for-like basis, we've also included the deltas for a divestment-adjusted baseline. Shipments decreased considerably year-over-year, mainly due to the divestment of these eight US distribution sites.

Excluding the divestment of the eight distribution sites, shipments increased by 2.1% year-over-year, supported by a positive momentum in Europe. Sales came in considerably below the previous year's quarter as a result of the lower reported shipments.

However, on adjusted basis excluding the divestment, sales increased slightly, also by 2.1%. Gross profit decreased considerably year-over-year due to lower sales volumes.

However, gross profit margin remained constant compared to prior year's quarter. We achieved a considerable increase in EBITDA before material special effects, also driven by a positive contribution from our Klöckner Metals Europe segment.

We'll take a closer look at that on the next slide. Operating cash flow was at -€270 million, mainly due to seasonal net working capital build-up at the beginning of the year.

As a result, financial debt increased to €1.090 billion at the end of the first quarter of '26. Let's have a look at our performance in Q1 '26 by segment.

In our Klöckner Metals Americas segment, shipments decreased considerably year-over-year in Q1, but just due to the aforementioned divestment of the eight US distribution sites. Consequently, sales in Q1 came in considerably below previous year's quarter as well, due to the same reason.

Adjusted for the divestment of these eight sites, shipments in the segment were constant compared to prior year quarter, while sales decreased only slightly. To put the like-for-like comparison into perspective, I would like to highlight that March '25 was largely driven by restocking activity, providing a temporary uplift in volumes.

EBITDA before material special effects came in at €37 million in Q1 '26. In our segment Klöckner Metals Europe, shipments increased slightly, while sales increased considerably compared to previous year's quarter, due to higher average price levels.

This development was supported by the continued and effective implementation of our optimization measures. As a result, EBITDA before material special effects of the segment Klöckner Metals Europe increased considerably to €10 million, reaching its highest level since the first quarter of '23.

Now let's have a look at our strategic progress in the recent past. We continue to reduce underlying volatility by focusing on higher value-added products and services.

We further strengthened and sharpened our portfolio through targeted acquisitions and divestments, including Ambos, T&A, Haley, Tool & Stamping, Simflog, and Lochabervale. At the same time, we divested distribution business in the US and Brazil in order to enhance strategic focus.

We broke ground on a new aluminum flat-rolled processing facility in Columbus, Mississippi, and launched a new heavy fabrication operation at the former valve manufacturing site in Dayton, Ohio. Our strategic progress also includes targeted capacity and technology investments, such as increasing electrical steel capabilities and installing a new coil-fed Schuler laser blanking line in Querétaro, Mexico.

As you can see on this slide, our efforts are clearly visible. We grew our HVAP and service center sales split from 63% in full year '19 to 87% in Q1 '26, a strong development.

With higher sales exposure to HVAP and service center, our underlying volatility continues to decrease while we increase our profitability. Let me now give a brief and important update regarding the voluntary public takeover by Worthington Steel.

As Worthington Steel and Klöckner & Co signed a business combination agreement on January 15th, after which Worthington Steel submitted a voluntary public takeover offer for all outstanding shares of Klöckner & Co. After successfully reaching the minimum acceptance threshold, Worthington Steel was able to secure in total approximately 61.87% of Klöckner & Co's outstanding shares by the end of the additional acceptance period.

Furthermore, on March 27th, 2026, Worthington Steel informed the management board of Klöckner & Co that it intends to enter into a domination and profit and loss transfer agreement between Worthington Steel GmbH as the controlling company and Klöckner & Co SE as the controlled company. Strategically, this takeover marks a new chapter in Klöckner & Co's corporate history and fully aligns with our strategic focus on higher value-added products and services across North America and Europe.

Closing of the transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals and is currently expected to take place in the second half of 2026. With that, let's have a closer look at the financials.

Overall, we experienced a favorable pricing environment in the first quarter of '26 after the pronounced volatility of the previous year's quarter. Prices continue to rise in the first quarter of '26 in both the US and Europe, supporting our operating income.

In the US, unlike previous cycles, the increase has generally been slow but steady, which results in a rather limited positive windfall effects. We achieved an EBITDA before material special effects of €46 million in Q1, a considerable increase both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year.

Due to the seasonal net working capital build-up at the beginning of the year, operating cash flow came in negative at -€270 million. Looking ahead, we're confident that we will continue to convert the currently positive pricing momentum into strong operating results in the second quarter of '26 and beyond.

In addition, we continue to leverage our digitalization and automation initiatives. The number of digital quotes increased by around 7% year-over-year in the first quarter of '26.

With that, we continue to release sales people from manual work related to quotes. Let's take a look at the development of our shipments, sales, gross profit, and gross profit margin in the first quarter of '26.

We're also providing the figures for the group excluding the eight divested US distribution sites, enabling a like-for-like comparison. Shipments decreased considerably year-over-year, mainly due to the divestment of eight US distribution sites at the end of '25.

Sales decreased considerably year-over-year, mainly due to the lower shipments in the Klöckner Metals Americas segment. As already stated, on a like-for-like basis, both shipments and sales slightly increased by 2.1%.

This is proof that our growth strategy is intact and remains intact like last years. Gross profit came in at €298 million in Q1 after €370 million in Q1 '25, a considerable decrease year-over-year due to the negative development of sales.

Meanwhile, gross profit margin remained constant year-over-year at 19%. On a like-for-like basis, gross profit increased slightly, while the gross profit margin has also increased.

We will now focus on the EBITDA development in the first quarter of '26. We've adjusted the EBITDA for Q1 '25 for the divestment of the eight US distribution sites to enable a like-for-like comparison, therefore starting with the EBITDA before material special effects for Q1 '25 of €34 million.

All year-over-year effects visible here have also been adjusted to enable the like-for-like comparison. In Q1, EBITDA before material special effects came in at €46 million, a considerable increase year-over-year.

In the first quarter of '26, we had a positive volume effect of €6 million and positive price effect of €20 million, supporting our operating result. OPEX, however, was slightly higher at €9 million year-over-year, mainly due to higher personnel expenses and high expenses for shipments and operating supplies.

Further, we had negative forex effects of €4 million, mainly resulting from the US dollar. Lastly, we recorded negative material special effects totaling €6 million, mainly related to expenses resulting from share-based payments due to the gains in the share price since the beginning of the year.

We're now coming to the cash flow and net debt development. In the first quarter of '26, we had seasonal net working capital build-up of €279 million.

I would like to stress that this build-up is temporary and is expected to reverse over the course of the year, ultimately resulting in a positive operating cash flow. Taking into consideration interest, tax payments, and other items totaling €32 million, our cash flow from operating activities came in negative at -€270 million in Q1.

Including net CAPEX of €36 million, free cash flow was negative at -€306 million. Let's look at the net financial debt.

Additional negative effects were visible for forex, leasing, and other items totaling €77 million. Consequently, our net debt increased from €709 million to €1.092 billion in the first quarter of '26.

I'll now hand over to John to have a closer look at our end markets in North America.

Thank you, Guido. While some extremely challenging weather disruptions impacted our shipments early in 2026, we continue to expect a decent recovery in this year with North American real steel demand increasing between 1% and 2% compared to the prior year.

Of course, there remains significant uncertainty and some downside risk related to the current conflict in the Middle East and the continued unpredictable trade policy shifts that can negatively impact the outlook. Now turning to the expected development in specific market segments.

Looking first at construction activity, building starts for both residential and non-residential investments are expected to be generally flat to slightly higher versus prior year. While underlying long-term demand should remain strong, affordability remains a significant growth constraint.

Lower mortgage rates would certainly provide further upside potential to the outlook. Non-building and infrastructure investments should continue to grow in 2026, albeit more moderately than last year.

Data centers, as well as grid expansion and modernization, will continue to lead the way for the next several years. Turning to manufacturing, activity as indicated by the ISM Manufacturing Index has expanded during the first four months of 2026.

This is a very positive development, considering the index indicated contraction for almost all of 2025. In line with this indication, we expect overall new orders for industrial and off-highway equipment to increase modestly by between 2% and 3% in 2026, with some variation depending on the specific segment.

Some larger OEM customers' forecasts in these sectors continue to indicate even substantially stronger growth rates heading into the second quarter and second half of 2026. Trade policy clarity and lower interest rates could also help these key consuming segments regain even more positive momentum as the year develops.

Turning to transportation, the automotive segment has been the most impacted by changing trade policy, as well as the removal of the EV tax credits. For 2026, current forecasts indicate stable auto production in both the US and Mexico.

Subdued consumer confidence, higher-for-longer interest rates, and the recent spike in gas prices will likely limit growth prospects in the near term for auto. On a more positive note, and after a significant pull-back in 2025, we now expect a solid recovery of more than 5% in the heavy truck and trailer segment.

On the defense shipbuilding front, activity remains very robust. Klöckner has been recently awarded a number of large multi-year programs, and we remain extremely well-positioned to take advantage of what is expected to be a very significant increase in defense shipbuilding investments over the next decade.

Appliance, HVAC, and electrical, which are key segments for KMC Americas, are expected to remain challenging in 2026 as OEMs work to rebalance supply chains to be better aligned with forward demand. After a slow start in Q1, we do see signs of a modest recovery in the second quarter, but we don't expect these segments to deliver material growth in 2026.

Energy, on the other hand, will continue to be the strongest steel-consuming segment this year. Power transmission will remain extremely strong in 2026, generating growth of greater than 15% year-over-year after achieving a similar result last year.

Modernizing and expanding the North American transmission infrastructure is imperative in order to support the significant forecasted increase in demand for electricity across North America. This is especially critical for data center investments.

While renewable energy growth was expected to come under pressure after last year's changes in government policy, we are now expecting a strong growth of almost 10% in 2026 as both wind and solar continue to be the most immediate solution to help bridge the growing deficit between surging demand for electricity and constrained supply. With that, I will quickly summarize the North American outlook as follows.

While the current variance in growth expectations between industry segments is nothing short of unprecedented, and despite potential downside risks that still need to be navigated, we remain firmly optimistic when it comes to the overall North American outlook for 2026. Additionally, the significant reduction in imports resulting from the Section 232 tariffs has clearly created better balance between US supply and demand, which is likely to result in a higher-for-longer and potentially more stable pricing cycle.

With these positive market dynamics at our back, and with our continued focus on higher value-added products and services, we are very confident that Klöckner Americas' continuing operations will once again deliver strong year-over-year growth, record market share gains, and further improved financial results in 2026. With that, I will turn it back over to Guido to provide an update on Europe.

Thanks, John. In total, we continue to expect real steel demand in Europe to increase as well as in North America by 1% to 2% in '26, which is in this case unchanged compared to our last conference call in March.

However, it is important to acknowledge key geopolitical risks could weigh on our outlook, and escalating tensions in the Iran conflict could trigger sustained oil price spikes with negative implications for the macroeconomy, inflation, and ultimately adverse effects for our core customer industries. Coming now to our sectors, starting with the construction industry.

No major change compared to our previous conference call. We continue to expect the construction industry in '26 to grow slightly, with structural drivers intact and pent-up demand providing growth.

Manufacturing, machinery, and mechanical engineering, a sector in which we continue to expect a slight growth in Europe, driven by the emerging effects of past monetary policy loosening and rising defense spending, especially in Germany. However, uncertainties in trade policy and competition from Asia will damp the EU's domestic mechanical engineering sector.

Transportation, let's first focus on automotive. Also a sector where we see no major change compared to our last conference call.

The industry association still expects a slight increase of 2% in '26, though absolute volumes will remain far below 2019 record levels. Demand is expected to remain on rather low levels for as long as there is no significant improvement in the broader economic outlook, including global trade and consumer sentiment.

Now coming to shipbuilding, we continue to expect increased pressure from the commercial shipbuilding segment due to economic uncertainty, while remaining well-positioned in the grey ship sector to benefit from upcoming demand. Household and commercial appliances, a segment of marginal impact on our European business.

We still expect a constant development in '26, with increasing pressure from the US and China resulting in a negative impact on the competitiveness of the EU sector. Energy industry, no major change compared to our previous conference call.

Slight growth expected in the energy industry, driven by the continued electrification of transport and heating. Let's now come to the financial outlook for the second quarter of this year and the full year '26.

As John and I pointed out, we expect the macroeconomic environment to remain challenging, especially due to geopolitical uncertainties. For the current quarter, we expect a slight increase in shipments and a considerable increase in sales, each quarter-over-quarter.

EBITDA before material special effects in Q2 '26 is expected to come in between €40 million and €80 million. For the full year '26, we are now forecasting a slight decrease in shipments for the full year '26, mainly due to the before-mentioned divestment of eight US distribution sites.

Sales are now expected to increase slightly year-over-year. We still expect the EBITDA before material special effects in the full year '26 to considerably increase year-over-year.

Moreover, we also expect operating cash flow to come in positive, although below previous year's figures. We're now happy to take your questions.

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, you have to press the live Q&A button, and we will then open your line. Our first question comes from Boris Bourdet, Kepler Cheuvreux.

Boris, your line should be open now.

Thank you. Do you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Very good. Thank you for taking my questions.

I would be interested in getting your view on the potential change in customer behavior in Europe and that might be related to your inventory build-up. How much is linked to the price increase?

How much is linked to some pre-stocking ahead of the new TRQ in Europe that might require some volume availability? Maybe also connected to that, what are the reasons for the slight downgrade in your operating cash flow outlook?

Is that also related to this potential increase in demand? Maybe I would have a last one on Becker Group.

You point in the press release that you are in a due diligence phase with some non-binding offers. What kind of price are you looking for for this asset, and what would be the profile of those acquirers?

Thank you.

Thanks, Boris. The customer behavior that we expect is a bit more cautious going forward.

Customer sentiment has declined a bit here in Europe. We've seen some price and pre-stocking developments, but underlying, honestly, the year started more positive than we expected beforehand.

Although we see a slight decline from what we've seen in the beginning of the year, we remain positive that it's going to be an increase throughout the year. The price and pre-stocking behavior was there, but not that big and not that strong.

Now, the cash flow, yes, it's slightly reduced. You see higher price levels and a bit more increase in volumes and shipments that we expect for the year that will require a little bit more of working capital build-up.

That's mainly reflected in this cash flow going forward. On Becker, I can understand your question, but you will understand my answer as well.

We're in the due diligence phase and we have a couple of good offers that we continue to elaborate on, and then we'll see what will come out and how the pricing will look like. The process is running very well and there is more interest than we originally expected.

Okay. Maybe then related to that, we know that Thyssenkrupp is working on a potential IPO of its Materials Services business.

Would be interested in getting your thoughts on the potential for consolidation in that space in Europe.

Look, I can't take a look into and I don't know what they are doing. I think currently they're busy with preparing their kind of decoupling from the group, and we'll have to see how that works.

I think that won't have a big impact on us and what we're doing.

Thank you.

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, you have to press the live Q&A button, and we will then open your line. There seem to be no further question at this time, I would like to hand over to Guido for some final remarks.

Thank you all very much for joining the call, and if there are any outstanding questions you'd like to raise, you know that Fabian and his team are just waiting for it. Call us.

Thank you very much.