Yes, thank you. Welcome, and welcome all and thank you for being here on this Thursday evening.

Before I go to the Q1 update and the outlook, of course, I would like to give some more context to the leadership changes that we have announced this morning. We welcome Lily Liu as our new CFO as of August 1st.

She has a strong record at public companies. She has worked in the chemical industry, manufacturing, engineering industry.

At this point, she's the CFO of Synthomer, before that at Essentra, Xaar, and Smiths Detection, but she's also a Non-Executive Director and member of the audit committee at DCC plc. I believe she's a strong asset for Umicore to also continue on the great path that I set forward together with Wannes on focus on operational excellence and capital discipline.

Now next to that, we're also establishing a role, which is this Chief Digital and Transformation Officer within the ELT. That we have started a transformation journey, that we will be more process-oriented, and that we also would like to establish a stronger performance culture, and now we want to drive that focus across the group even more.

We want more alignment throughout the group, and of course, next to that operational excellence for which Martin Zirbes, which we welcome, will be focusing on. He will also be focusing on the digitalization, information systems, and of course, also further working on the artificial and augmented intelligence throughout the group.

Martin Zirbes has a strong experience in transforming organizations. I've worked sometimes side by side by him.

I know he's driven for excellence. He's widely recognized in the industry for transformational projects, we are very happy and also looking forward to welcome Martin next to Lily.

It also means, of course, that if a CFO joins, that our current CFO, Wannes, he will be closing a chapter here at Umicore after more than 20 years. Wannes have been the CFO for the company for four years by now.

I really would like to thank him for his dedicated service, his strong leadership, especially in quite, let's say, particular times in the recent history for Umicore. His commitment to the core strategy, capital discipline, operational excellence, really has set the group now again on a strong footing, and I would say that he was definitely part of that success that we can share today.

Wannes will be handing over to Lily on August 1st, but he will stay on until February, end of February 2027, to do the further handover and continue to work on some projects that we have. Maybe, Wannes, you would also like to give some perspective.

Yes, thank you, Bart. As you rightfully say, after 20 years with Umicore, I will be closing an important chapter in my career.

I'm grateful for the great opportunities and the trust that has been put into me over the past two decades. In '22, I stepped into the role of CFO at a time when the company was entering probably one of its most demanding periods in its history.

Over the past years, we navigated through an extraordinary combination of challenges: initially, financing an ambitious growth agenda; then, quickly facing unprecedented inflation and market volatility; adapting to a sudden slowdown in electrification; leadership transitions, including yourself, Bart;

and

a strategic reset with our core strategy. Now, what I'm proud of is that with our focus on costs and capital, we have been able to rebuild the company's financial health and the credibility in the capital market.

I was also very pleased that throughout these challenges, the leadership acted as one team, with resilience, discipline, creativity, and a firm commitment to the long term. At this point in my career, I realize that I've built quite a bit of depth over the past 20 years within the same organization, and this is where I also realize I still have many years, but also curiosity ahead of me.

This feels like the right moment to pause, to reflect, and to explore new horizons. I also want to thank all of my teams for their unconditional support and commitment throughout these demanding and challenging times.

I'm proud of the progress that we achieved together in setting clear choices and directions and taking decisive actions in finding solutions for the future. Now, [in final months?]

, I remain fully committed to truly lead a smooth transition to my successor in August and this to ensure the continuity and value creation for our investors. Finally, I want to thank the investors for their trust in me.

Yeah. Thank you very much, Wannes, and of course, we have been working for a very long period together in different stages of our careers, I can say that you will be missed at the company.

We wish you a lot of success, but in the next four months, I plan still to work very closely with you, looking forward to that as well. This brings us actually to the Q1 update, and then later on, the outlook.

I think it's fair to say that we had a very strong start of the year. Our sustained commitment to operational efficiency, capital allocation, and that value orientation is definitely paying off while there's also a supportive metal price environment.

We are in a very good position to perform solidly or even strongly in 2026, and we're very happy with where we stand at this point in time. If I look at Catalysis, here also strong start of the year, outperformance of the light-duty vehicle market as we see it today.

We see also a strong demand in the EU, China, India, but also HDD in EU and China is also stronger than the year before. In fuel cells and stationary catalysts, it's actually a story of two tales.

I think the fuel cell market is soft, also in China at this point in time, in Asia, while the stationary catalyst market with the strong data boom and need for data centers actually is gaining momentum and further growing and actually is contributing very substantially. Now also Precious Metals Chemistry had a strong start.

Of course, that's linked to the strong business in automotive catalyst, the good PGM environment, but also the overall business is performing stronger. If you go to Recycling, there I have to say a very strong performance.

The plant maintenance shutdown was successfully completed. Our JIM business units, Jewelry & Industrial Materials, really enjoyed from a strong recycling market for jewelry basically, we really enjoyed that market, but we also see across their portfolio strong end-market demand.

Precious Metals Management, we have seen significant volatility, of course, in PGM prices. That is a good environment also for Precious Metals Management to optimize and further leverage those market circumstances.

When I go to Specialty Materials, I there would say it's an outstanding performance for that business group. We have definitely a noteworthy profitability for cobalt and specialty materials.

There's a strong momentum in the cobalt market, especially running from '25 into 2026, and maybe we come back to that later during the Q&A. In Electro-Optic Materials and MDS, the growth track is also there, and also we continue to grow on the solid foundations of these businesses.

Battery Materials Solutions, our focus is still and will remain on value recovery. We have a slight improvement in CAM material sales volume, but as earlier indicated, the weight of the take-or-pay elements in the overall EBITDA contribution for 2026 is growing, probably at a higher level than we initially would have wanted for the year.

Anyway, we have these contracts exactly for these circumstances, they are also part of our EBITDA. BRS is moving according to plan, and as you have also noticed, our anode joint venture with Hyosung is also now completed.

Now if I now go to the outlook, I think with a strong start in 2026, we now expect a group EBITDA to approach $1 billion for the year. Of course, this assumes that the metal prices will stay around the levels of Q1 2026.

We know the world is volatile, needless to say, but right now, I think the things that move the world at this point in time, where our direct exposure is limited. We have a very limited exposure to the Middle East in terms of sales and purchases or supply of materials.

We're well-hedged on the energy side, yes, that gives us confidence looking forward. If I then go to the business groups, Catalysis anticipated to further benefit from the strong market position in light-duty gasoline.

We see a declining, of course, global internal combustion engine production, but still our volumes remain very solid. We continue to focus on quality and resilience of earnings as we have done over the past years.

Recycling, assuming, of course, that these continuous favorable metal price environment stays, and also the activity level, there we see a performance which will more than offset the setback that we were foreseeing in the lower average hedge trade from '25 into 2026 as well as the shutdown. There we now see further progression beyond those two negatives that we were foreseeing earlier.

Now so we are convinced that our performance will materially exceed current market forecasts. If we go to Specialty Materials, this business is projected to significantly exceed present market expectations.

I repeat, significantly. The positive momentum in cobalt market is anticipated mostly in H1.

H2, we will see a more normalized performance there, and the top-line growth, of course, is sustained with the strong demand for germanium and, of course, the other end markets. Battery Materials Solutions, for the year, volumes somewhat expected in line with previous years.

As earlier said, the anticipated ramp-up of certain customer platforms is not coming as we would have wanted it during our CMD update. Again, improved performance for the year is reflecting our take-or-pay commitments that we have.

We continue to execute our stand-alone mid-term plan, and we continue to reduce our cost base, and of course, we continuously closely manage our capital expenditure for this business. For CapEx, we see a slight increase versus 2025, mainly because of selective, high-quality growth investments that we starting in our foundation business.

We're also investing already in the engineering for the Orion flow sheet, basically the expansion of the flow sheet of our precious metals refinery in Hoboken, Belgium, in which we still think to take the decision, the final investment decision for the expansion in the later half of this year. Now on the leverage, there we can confirm that assuming current price environment, of course, stays, we would see leverage below 2 basically significantly below the initially anticipated of 2.5, as we communicated earlier.

In a summary, we had a strong start in 2026. We see a good momentum.

We see high activity levels in our business. We benefit from current supportive metal prices, linked to the geopolitical situation and new end applications which are emerging, of course.

Our expertise, but also our value orientation and efficiency focus allows us to benefit to the best extent possible from these evolutions. I would say it's very energizing and good to see how the Umicore teams are taking the next step, courageously going forward.

They take their accountability, they collaborate, and this way, we make progress on our core 2028 strategy and are putting the foundation for good results going forward. With this, maybe I would like to suggest to open the Q&A.

Yes, hi. Good afternoon both and congrats on a great start to the year.

Two questions from me, please. On the recycling business more particularly, you mentioned strong industrial metal and jewelry businesses in Q1.

I was wondering if some of that might be linked to the situation in the Middle East? I.e., have you seen any pre-buying or inventory build that has helped the performance?

A quick follow-up on this, can you maybe elaborate on what makes you so confident in the division for the rest of the year?

Yes. Thank you, Thea.

On JIM, no, it's not actually a pre-buy. We had already strong momentum in 2025, and yet at the second half of the year, that really continues into the first quarter.

Of course, as it's over-the-counter business, you cannot just extrapolate that for the full year, we have to see, but the gold price remains supportive. We still see very good collection at this point in time, so far, good, I would say.

Indeed, that's one of the main drivers in the JIM. Now if you then step from that strong Q1 to the full year, we also see that in precious metals refining, actually, we see a very good performance going forward at current metal prices, throughout the full metal basket.

Remember that in, of course, the first quarter, we had our standstill, so that means in the other months, we are good to process volumes.

Great, thank you.

Thank you.

Hi. Thanks for taking my questions.

I have a few. First one was, I'm just curious, you have a note in your release at the very bottom on the take-or-pay accruals.

You are essentially saying the way it works is you're accruing these take-or-pay contribution to your EBITDA, and then at the end of the year, it will be basically the difference between the committed volumes and the shortfall will be invoiced? I'm just curious, because historically, and we've had this discussion in the past, we've struggled to see customers uphold the take-or-pay volumes and Umicore getting paid for it.

My I guess the risk is you are accruing this, and maybe the customer just doesn't pay. Have you seen that?

How do we get comfortable that that may not be the scenario that eventually plays out here? I know the numbers are small, but they are getting bigger as the volume shortfall perhaps is getting more substantial.

The second question was, within your Specialty Materials, and you alluded a little bit to this in terms of your germanium business, I'm just curious how much of the upside in germanium is driven by pricing versus product? What I'm trying to get to is how much of that upside is actually structural?

If you can talk about how you fit into the germanium value chain from a product perspective,

because

I saw in your media release recently, you talked about exposure to, of course, space satellites and stuff, but also silicon photonics and whatnot. I'm just curious how real these businesses are, or are they still, sort of pie in the sky in terms of jam tomorrow?

The last question, it's natural for people to think, okay, a billion of EBITDA for Umicore essentially that's as good as it gets. Why would that not be the case?

What we should be looking up to beyond a billion? Thank you.

I like your ambition, Chetan. I like your ambition.

Maybe, Wannes, you take the first one, and then I'll take the two second question.

Yes, sure. Chetan, looking at the take-or-pay, in past, we had different contracts in place.

Looking at this current contract, this is a particular contract where the contract is that the shortfall is being monitored throughout the year and accrue for the shortfall, and then at the very end of the year, once we have the full view on the effective volumes shipped versus contractually agreed, that's where we then issue the invoice for the shortfall. Again, here, what we want to do through that note is also bring in that transparency, that some of the fundamental support to this step-up in EBITDA is also coming from some of those take-or-pay accruals.

Exactly. On Specialty Materials and specifically more more specifically germanium, well, as you probably are all aware, today, there's not 1 kg of germanium leaving China for no matter what application, especially because, of course, germanium is critical for technology advancement, but of course, it's also a metal that is typically going into the defense sector.

What we have seen both in customers across Europe, both at the governmental, but also at the general customer level as well as in the US, we really see a heightened demand and a structural longer-term demand where customers are really also committing. Yes, there is of course a tailwind of the germanium price, because it's significantly higher, right?

At the same time, also on the product side and on the pricing side of the end products, we also see good progress. We also have some initiatives in the US to further expand our capacity as well as in Europe.

This is one of these selective, high-quality growth initiatives I typically refer to. We are excited that this business will continue to grow in in in the next years with what we see today.

Clearly, the the the limitation of the export of China, of course, triggers through in the metal price and the availability. That's an important driver going forward, but the momentum is now, and we will definitely do everything to seize that momentum.

Beyond the $1 billion mark, I'm happy that you say that, of course, the 1 billion is well, in your terms, as good as it gets. Let's see what's what really is is good in the end.

Of course, it's not today a CMD that we're doing on the on the future for Umicore beyond what we have today, but as I said before, giving the geopolitical situation, the particularities around the ICE and the CO2 basically the CO2 tolerance in the US, the longer momentum for ICE in Europe, right, and also the way that China is is limiting today exports of key materials, I think these are all positive undercurrents for our business, and we will continue to explore options how we can further capitalize on that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chetan.

Hello, good afternoon, and thank you for taking the question. I'd have one just on the Ionway JV, which is not mentioned in the press release, but conceptually, the single largest use of capital at Umicore over the last two or three years has been the business which is performing the least well.

People don't seem to muster the same enthusiasm internally when talking about the battery opportunity as is the case for market share gains in Catalysis and Recycling. Is this JV really going ahead as conceived?

You have a new CFO who has spent a lot of time restructuring the two previous companies. Is this full JV likely to proceed as conceived?

My second one is a quick one, but the local press in Korea, I think, picked up that Umicore was going to receive 120 million for its silicon anode contribution JV, which Hyosung will have an 80% stake in. Does this mean at the H1 results there's an incremental €120 million inflow?

Thank you.

Maybe I take one and you take two, Wannes? No, I think, as we said before, we have the Ionway joint venture together with PowerCo, a daughter of Volkswagen.

Both parties continue to contribute capital, and we continue to finish off this site, there's no updates to be given there. It is true that, of course, Lily has been instrumental in some of the restructurings and, of course, putting the companies back on track at different companies right now.

It shows that she can focus really also on the finance, operational excellence, and capital allocation, but there's no read-across at all with the Ionway joint venture.

Yeah. Then looking at the joint venture that we concluded with Hyosung around the silicon anodes, this is where Umicore contributed the assets and the IP, and where Hyosung contributed capital in order to support further scaling.

Looking at the next phase in that scaling, being this industrialization, this is where Hyosung will contribute further capital to the joint venture, but where Umicore gets diluted through that capital contribution by Hyosung. It's not something you will necessarily see one-on-one in our balance sheet.

That's helpful, thank you.

Thank you, Sebastian.

Hi. Good evening.

Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to come back on the topic of your battery material business and maybe if you could reassure us related to the contracts you have that there's no risks that you see, for example, that anything could be renegotiated such as any of the ramp-up phasing, ramp-up scale, etc., just to kind of get comfort on the take-or-pay clauses that none of it could be kind of watered down even if they proceed and go ahead.

Thank you.

Yeah. No, and our stance haven't changed.

We have very strong contractual clauses. We will continue to enforce and leverage, basically, these contractual clauses.

Nothing has changed to our stance in this respect, and nothing to be mentioned at this point in time related to the question that you pose.

Perfect, thank you.

Sorry, one last follow-up. You are saying CapEx will be slightly above last year, are you able to quantify?

Maybe is what, 350, maybe less than 350? I'm asking this because you are taking this FID on your new brownfield expansion in Hoboken, and I'm just curious whether that will come on top of that number or is that CapEx mainly next year and the year after, won't impact the CapEx for this year?

Thank you.

Chetan, a very good guestimate, I would say. Indeed, we target of order of magnitude of €350 million, and this includes the engineering that is ongoing for the expansion in Recycling.

Yes, the majority of the CapEx will come in indeed '27, '28, '29 as we previously guided during the CMD, we're that perfectly according to plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

thank you, everyone, for attending the call. Once again, I think we're off to a great start for 2026.

We are set for a solid performance for the overall year. Once more, I would like to thank Wannes for all his contribution and resilience during these particularly interesting four years at Umicore with ups and significant downs.

I continue to look forward to work together with the teams, also the new team members joining, to further build on the foundations of the group and to continue to be ready then when opportunities come that we actually can strike those. I wish you all a wonderful evening.

Thank you for attending, and talk to you soon.