Thank you, Maha. Good afternoon, everyone.

Thanks for joining our 9-month and third-quarter 25/26 earnings call. We had a very strong third quarter, supported by improving market conditions.

Our teams executed well in a fast-moving environment, and the strength of our diversified portfolio did the rest. We also saw an important positive industry development year-to-date with the final implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive III in Germany and the finalization of the largest renewable volume obligations in the US ever for '26 and '27.

Now giving the ongoing strength in market, supported by the favorable regulatory environment and geopolitical factors, we are now expecting our full-year EBITDA to come in at the upper end of our prior guidance range, which we had lifted to €100 to €140 million in our ad hoc release in March. Let me now walk you through the key metrics of the first 9 months of 25/26, which showed a strong performance across the entire board.

Starting off with production volumes. As you can see from the chart on the left, our biodiesel output was at the same level as the same period last year with 458,000 tonnes in the first half of 25/26.

Our ethanol and biomethane production increased year on year to 431,000 tonnes and more than 1 TWh for the first time after 9 months respectively. The increase in production came from the ramp-up of our bioethanol-biomethane plant in Nevada and better uptime at the ethanol plant in South Bend.

That more than made up for the lower volumes in Europe due to maintenance and an infection in the fermentation process, which temporarily affected production in Q3. With overall higher production and sales volumes, VERBIO was also able to increase its revenue.

Another key factor was the rising demand for greenhouse gas quotas in an increasingly stabilized market environment, which was reflected in both rising trading volumes and higher selling prices. Although material costs were also above the level of the same period last year, their increase was disproportionately lower compared to revenue growth.

Hence, our EBITDA increased mostly thanks to a higher gross margin. Lower operating costs, higher operating income, and gains from commodity forward transactions also contributed to the increase in EBITDA.

Also, thanks to the improved operating dynamics supported by more attractive market conditions, we saw a year-to-date operating cash swing of more than €100 million, bringing operating cash flow to €96.4 million. Meanwhile, investments in PPE amounted to €63.4 million, resulting in a positive free cash flow of €33 million after 9 months.

This led to a decrease in net debt to €126.8 million. Our investments are directed towards the bio-based specialty chemical unit in Bitterfeld, as well as into the production plant in South Bend, Indiana.

The equity ratio improved slightly to 59.3% following debt repayment, despite quasi-equity investment grants being recognized as liabilities. Now turning to our quarterly performance, I will start with EBITDA as our key measure.

Our group EBITDA increased both year over year and quarter over quarter to €60.2 million from €8.2 million in Q3 last year and €30.1 million in the previous quarter. As depicted on the slide, the bioethanol-biomethane segment was the main driver behind this development.

Thanks to the ongoing greenhouse gas quota market recovery combined with seasonally high demand for greenhouse gas quotas as well as increased biomethane sales volumes, VERBIO was able to report a strong EBITDA in the third quarter of 25/26. With that overview, I will turn the call over to Alina to discuss our segments in detail.

Alina, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Olaf, and good afternoon from my side as well. As always, we focus on the sequential performance and discuss quarter-over-quarter figures.

Let's kick it off with the biodiesel segment. In the third quarter, again, we achieved a record production volume in Europe.

Meanwhile, in Canada, we kept our production volumes at a low level, similar level to the Q2 of 25/26, and actually stopped producing during the winter months of November through February. This was due to commercial reasons, and while we had discussed this in the previous earnings call, let me quickly reiterate here.

In the past, we have actually used our product from Canada and sold it in the US market, but with fundamental changes in the regulation as well as now protective measures in Canada, the Canadian market is now much more attractive for us. With that comes the seasonal cash flow profile of the plant that's now changing, because in Canada, there's no demand for biodiesel in the winter months.

However, with the renewable volume obligations that have been just recently announced and that Olaf will discuss in a minute, we actually also see upside to that, that we actually can produce during our winter months. Overall, with the new change in the cash flow profile, the annual earnings remain unchanged, and we actually expect similar earnings profile than previously.

Now with that information, let me return to the production volumes in the third quarter. Overall, this means that we could still increase our production quarter over quarter to 147,000 tonnes.

Despite this, our revenue decreased to €203 million. This was driven by lower sales volumes, and particularly because we reduced the use of third-party molecules.

This also shows in our earnings because we reduced our third-party molecules because of the market conditions. In fact, we achieved still a solid €18.5 million EBITDA in Q3 25/26, but the reduction versus the previous quarter comes from a change in market conditions, and it has been slightly less favorable than previously.

With that, let's have a look at the market context. As you can see, we have in the first quarter a decrease in biodiesel prices.

You can see that in the graph on the right side of the slide. We as always depict here the price development of biodiesel and rapeseed oil, and on the left side, you can see the spread.

The spread is essentially the difference between the biodiesel price and the rapeseed oil price. During our third quarter, you can see a pull-forward effect in demand into Q4, which is a calendar Q4, when market players still benefited from the old regulation when double counting was still in place.

With this, inventory levels were lifted, and this, coupled with a delay on mandate votes, weighed on demand early in our third quarter or in calendar Q1. This is also shown in the biodiesel price development: biodiesel prices have come down at the start of the quarter.

Later in the quarter, the Iran war disrupted the fossil fuel supply chains, and our biodiesel premiums could absorb a large share of the gas oil price movement. In fact, blending economics have been negative at times, which drives demand of biodiesel.

The full utilization of blend walls can still be expected, or exactly because of that can be expected, because if the blend economics are negative, you would want to increase your biodiesel in the mix. Let's move on to the bioethanol and biomethane segment.

Again, we achieved a record segment revenue. This was driven by the seasonal strength of the GHG quota market and explicitly because of the attractive market conditions, and I will discuss that in a minute.

In the revenues, this was partly offset by lower selling prices in the US and reduced sales volume in Europe. Our biomethane production reached new highs as well, and this was driven by the continued ramp-up in Nevada.

Meanwhile, as you can see on the slide, depicted by the dark green bar on the left graph, our bioethanol production decreased. There's two reasons: one being the disruptions in the biological processes that Olaf already had mentioned in Europe, and the second being that our production margins in the US, or in general production margins in the US, turned negative in early January.

This was actually due to higher natural gas prices, and this led us to scale back our ethanol volumes, but increase renewable natural gas volumes or biomethane volumes, as you can see and as we had already just discussed. Overall, this led us to show an EBITDA improvement to €34.2 million, which is largely driven by the structurally tighter GHG quota market and the seasonal demand.

Let's have a look at that. On the slide, you can see the GHG quota price development.

In December of last year, the cabinet approved the draft for the RED III implementation, and this already gave some more visibility and clarity in the market. In our third quarter, the calendar first quarter, we also got some more clarity when the first reading took place in the Bundestag.

As a result, the buying activity of 2025 quota picked up. This was then further supported by the approaching GHG quota compliance deadline.

What is this deadline? The oil companies, which are the obligated parties, have until June 2025 to close their GHG balances for the year 2025, for the quota year 2025.

Hence, this is typically when they increase their buying activity closer to the deadline. This is what we have seen specifically during our third quarter.

At the same time, the initial demand for 2026 quota picked up. Here on the chart, you can also see that 2026 GHG quota prices already reflect the removal of double counting, and prices even did that before the law was finally approved just this May.

As we had discussed during our last earnings call, this lifts the competitiveness of conventional biofuels. If you're interested to hear more about that, you're invited to hear into the last earnings call again because we did some explicit explanations on this topic.

Now let's have a look at the EU and US ethanol market. Overall, you can see that there was a steep ethanol price appreciation on the graph on the right side.

This was driven by a tightening supply due to limited imports and also supportive global blending policies as well as blending economics. Let's talk about the imports first.

They declined at the start of the year because in the past, Netherlands was an attractive entry point for bioethanol, but with changes in regulation there, the import tax advantage disappeared, and hence the arbitrage is closed. Lower imports met healthy demand, and this especially picked up with the geopolitical tensions.

However, due to high freight rates, also linked to those geopolitical tensions, they discouraged the imports of spot volumes. Now, since our feedstocks do not pass through the Strait of Hormuz, they keep largely stable, and you can also see on this slide how wheat has remained stable throughout the period.

With this, the spread increased very strongly, as you can see on the left-hand side on the chart, and margins remain very attractive. This bullish sentiment goes into Q2, and unless the logistical conditions ease, we expect that the arbitrage remains closed.

Let's jump across the pond and have a look at the US ethanol market. In the US, you see that after the seasonal easing of spreads on the left-hand side, they have settled around a low level in January.

What you cannot see on this slide is the high natural gas prices that made production margins go negative during the month of January, or at least early on. As I had said before, due to those negative production margins, we scaled back ethanol, but at the same time increased our renewable natural gas production.

As we moved through February and March, demand conditions improved again, particularly on the export side. More countries increased their blending rates, and this trend gained momentum.

At the same time, oil prices remained elevated, especially in the regions that are dependent on the Middle East, which then further supported the ethanol's competitiveness versus gasoline. Olaf will touch on this topic later on as well, and with that, I will turn back to him so he can give you some comments about the outlook.

Thank you, Alina. Much appreciated.

We have communicated an upward adjustment of our EBITDA guidance in an ad hoc announcement on March 8th, March 25th. Based on the business performance to date, as well as the current sales and raw material price levels at the time, EBITDA was expected to be between €100 million and €140 million.

We had formulated a forecast with a wide range as the geopolitical environment remains dynamic. Given now the ongoing high selling prices supported by a favorably regulatory environment and geopolitical factors, we are rising our EBITDA forecast for the full financial year 25/26 to the upper end of the forecast range of €100 to €140 million, the upper end.

Meanwhile, we had revised our expectations for the net financial debt downwards in the ad hoc announcement, projecting it to be in the region of €140 million. Now, following the firming up of our EBITDA expectations, we now expect net financial debt to be less than €140 million at the end of the financial year.

Therefore, I'm glad to announce we are on track to bring down our net debt to EBITDA to below 1, which is, in our opinion, actually a great achievement too. Let me now turn to current developments, starting with the implementation of the RED III.

As a starting point, it is important to note that the regulatory framework is now formally concluded. The package was finally approved by the Bundesrat on May 8th.

The only remaining step is a publication in the Bundesanzeiger. Against this now fixed framework, it is worth looking at how the implementation changes the way the quota system translates into volume demand.

On the left-hand side, you see the regulatory-driven greenhouse gas quota path in Germany. In '24 and '25 combined, the system operated at roughly a 10% quota, which, on paper, translated into around 20 million tonnes per annum of required CO2 savings.

In reality, however, this headline figure overstated real demand. Compliance was supported by double counting for advanced fuels, which inflated reported volumes without requiring the same increase in physical supply.

In addition, the market was clearly oversupplied with excess volumes that are now broadly understood to be fraudulent rather than real CO2 savings. Effectively, a material part of the reported volume in '24 did not correspond to real climate impact.

Now looking ahead to '27 and '28, the picture change fundamentally. Quota levels rise materially to 20 now 17.5 and 19.5%, pushing required CO2 savings into a range of roughly 35 to 40 million tonnes.

At the same time, the mechanics of the system are corrected. These volumes have to be real now.

Double counting is abolished, non-compliant feedstocks are excluded, and stricter verification and on-site controls significantly reduce the availability of artificial supply. Now when you put the math together, the implication is clear: while the headline requirements rise from roughly 20 million tonnes per annum in 24/25 to now almost 40 million tonnes in a 3-years period, the demand for real physical CO2 savings more than doubles.

In addition, the gradual relaxation of the crop cap for established agriculture biofuels provides additional headroom for compliant proven pathways, assuming that blending constraints are lifted as planned. Now beyond the climate aspect, the quota framework is becoming increasingly relevant from a broader energy and security perspective.

Recent geopolitical tensions have highlighted the vulnerability of global supply chains and reinforced the importance of locally available domestic biofuels, as illustrated in the chart on the left-hand side. The chart compares the price development of different commodities.

What here stands out is the high volatility of fossil energy prices, represented here by Brent crude, compared with the much more stable price development of agricultural feedstocks such as wheat and rapeseed oil. This reflects the fact that agricultural inputs are largely sourced regionally and from diversified supply chains.

Put it simply, our feedstock does not pass through the Strait of Hormuz. This combination of local supply, lower exposure to geopolitical risk, and predictable economics is one of the reasons why not only governments are promoting higher biofuel uptake, but fleet operators are increasingly turning to Bio-LNG.

Customers value competitive fuel costs and, in particular, improved cost predictability compared with conventional fossil fuels. This becomes clear in the chart on the right.

With relatively stable feedstock prices, Bio-LNG costs could be maintained well below €1 per kilogram, while diesel prices increased to above €2 per liter. On an energy-equivalent basis, this represents roughly one-third of the costs, which is a key consideration for customers with high fuel consumption.

For VERBIO, this supports a gradual expansion of the addressable market, the LNG market, the CNG market. As demand shifts towards fuels that can be supplied locally, reliable, and with predictable economics, renewable fuels gain relevance across a broader range of applications.

With our assets closely linked to regional agricultural supply chains and end markets, we are well positioned to participate in this structurally growing market. We continue to monitor potential risks, including the impact of higher fertilizer prices related to the Iran conflict.

At this stage, however, most crops for the current season are already covered, which limits any near-term effects. Let me briefly update you on a few further developments.

Following the renewable volume obligation decision in the US toward the end of the quarter, we see some additional upside for our Canadian operations. With strong demand coming from the US, our Canadian plant may continue running through the winter, which would be above normal seasonal levels and provide additional upside.

More broadly, the RVO decision and attractive blending economics are supporting higher effective blending rates. This keeps ethanol among the lowest-cost liquid transport fuel globally.

Export demand is also growing against this background. The ramp-up in Iowa continues.

Finally, ethenolysis plant is now in its final construction phase. We are preparing for commissioning and are targeting a start-up in October this year, while at the same time stepping up our commercial activities ahead of start-up.

We will now take your questions.

Thanks for the question. Supply will clearly be challenged, especially for compliant and sustainable pathways.

That's precisely why the quota increase is highly relevant. It creates long-term visibility, which is essential for investment decision in capacity expansion and optimization.

In the near term, tighter supply conditions support demand stability and, which is more important, pricing. Over time, the framework incentivizes additional investments into scalable solutions.

We had the one chart. When the war started, I think it was end of or mid of March, the prices for especially bioethanol picked up.

Chart? You can see it here.

With respect to biodiesel prices, we saw actually not bad margin, but more or less average margins. We had an additional cash influx from a higher bioethanol margin, but only for, I would say, 2 or 3 weeks.

With respect to biodiesel, it's a European margin; it's not a German margin. The prices are made in Rotterdam.

There is the demand for gasoline molecules are higher in Europe, and that's actually is driving the demand for the blending component, which is the bioethanol. Also what you also can see, the price spread here in Germany at a gas filling station between E5 and E10 is widening.

With higher prices, the price sensitivity actually increased, more bioethanol is actually in demand, and therefore the margin especially for bioethanol increased.

Hi, can you hear me?

Thank you. I have a couple of questions.

First, could you please elaborate on the sensitivity of your EBITDA guidance to changes in GHG quota prices? We've observed quota prices rising again recently, understanding their impact on future EBITDA would be very helpful.

Alina? Yeah.

Let me quickly answer that question. Thank you, Manuela.

Oh sorry. Can you try to mute yourself?

Thank you. If the GHG quota price increases by €100, this can have an effect on our EBITDA on an annual basis of €40 to €80 million.

The range is broad because it depends on the optimization in our plants, what type of feedstock we're using, and we also have some ability to increase our volumes by using third-party molecules as well.

Thank you. We understand that there is significant geopolitical uncertainty.

However, with your 9-month EBITDA is already in your guidance range, and only an additional €34 million would be needed in Q4 to reach the upper end of your guidance. How realistic is it that you might raise the guidance, especially now with the ramp-up of Nevada?

The other question would be that so you mentioned benefiting from forwards in Q3. Could you provide us also an update on the current spread situation, especially concerning rising input prices in the last weeks such as rapeseed oil?

Thank you.

With respect to the guidance, there are still a few factors. We are here mid-May, we just trying to figure the figures for April together.

As soon as we are aware that we exceed the €140 million, we have to notify the market via an ad hoc, so that's not happening right now. As we outlined, of course the cushion is getting smaller, we are close to €140 million.

We communicated this one, so that's it. The second part was the margins?

We see healthy margins also for bioethanol in the US. They are actually above the 5-years average, which is quite promising.

We are not talking about making an extra few million bucks per month with our US operations, yeah, we are quite happy how the plant is running, or both plants are running right now. That's it.

Market margins are good.

Thank you.

Bioethanol is cheaper than gasoline, especially in the US, but also here in Europe. Therefore, bioethanol is competitive.

Of course, as soon as the price for the gasoline drops, the price for the bioethanol will also drop in some extent. We don't know, but it will come to let's say a lower level based on a 5-years average or whatever.

There is a risk that the price is going down, but it's not a risk, it's rather it's a windfall profit we are facing. The risk is actually that we are not facing a windfall profit anymore.

I think that was the whole question, isn't it? Yep.

Yeah. Okay.

The issues have been solved mid-April. Full capacity utilization here in Germany.

We are back on track.

Yeah. I think we just discussed that biodiesel margins are not very strong particularly, but rather bioethanol margins.

Nevertheless, if we compare Q4 and our expectations, which are clearly implied by our guidance, compared to Q3, you will see that we don't expect our EBITDA to be in the same range as in Q3. This is not because of the pricing effect in GHG quota, but rather the volume effect.

We benefited from the strong seasonal demand selling our 2025 quota, and for Q4, we don't expect that to be on the same volume. At the same time, we don't know for how long we will see bioethanol margins at this level, clearly there is some upside.

My answer won't change. Right now, it's a stretch.

Right now, it's a stretch. It's not realistic.

We will see.

I think Claus is next week in India again. The topic is still the same.

The market itself is really attractive. India is India, everything takes a little bit longer.

We have everything in mind of we would be open for joint venture, whatever, but we will provide you with more details in September with the publication of our year-end financials.

There's two things to it. We sell GHG quota along with our liquid fuels, as we have some contracts where we have fixed volumes, sometimes at fixed prices, sometimes at variable prices.

Then we have open GHG quota volumes, and these we sell typically in the high season of quota, which is when we approach the compliance deadline.

Right now, that would

Oh, yeah. Let me quickly answer that question.

There's no impact on our EBITDA in the short term. For us, this is very important from a strategic perspective, because it really underpins that biofuels are the new strategic pillar in the energy security by now adding in the biofuel staircase to the new heating regulation, which is not in place yet to be fair, but it's being discussed, and it will also give biomethane a bigger market than just in the transport market.

It's really interesting from a market perspective, but in the short term, we do not see an EBITDA effect.

Capacity utilization will be close to 100%.

As I said before, please be patient. We will give you an update in September at the latest.

There's a likelihood, especially for the current year, but yeah, let's see. Wait and see.

We are in the process of commissioning the ethenolysis plant in Bitterfeld, and start-up should be in October together with the Alina, Capital Markets Day, isn't it? Yeah.

Thank you. I think it's clear that we are going ahead with some tailwinds.

Let me close with three brief points. First, we continue to see further margin upside with growth not limited to additional molecule volumes, but also supported by optimization, product mix, and asset utilization.

Second, in our European core business, we see a clear improvement in market quality driven by the RED III. Last but not least, we are capitalizing on grow opportunities through international expansion.

Thank you very much. I would hand over to Maha.