K+S Aktiengesellschaft (KPLUY) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Welcome to the KNS second quarter 2026 earnings call. I will now hand over to Julia from KNS for some technical notes. Ladies and gentlemen, also from my side, welcome to our call. We hope you've had a chance to review our posted slides as well as our H1 documents available on our website. After the opening remarks by Christian, we will jump directly into the Q&A session. Some technical notes. Please refer to our disclaimer on page 2 of the posted presentation. And a note on data privacy. Please be aware that the team session will be recorded, webcast, and available as an audio replay on our homepage afterwards. People who ask a question in the should be clear that by switching on their camera and microphone, they agree to recording and replay of video and audio sequences. Now I'd like to hand over to Christian, our CEO, for the opening remarks. Thank you, Julia. And welcome from my side as well. Let's start with the quarter. Q2 EBITDA was significantly above the last year's Q2 at about 176 million euros. This was mainly due to the higher ASP, Higher volumes and cost discipline offsetting the pressure from price-related cost increases resulting from the geopolitical environment. In addition, please remember that we had part of the regular Bethune maintenance break in Q2 last year and will have it fully in the third quarter this year. Therefore, this did not wait on the second quarter this year as it did in 2025. Furthermore, Q2 last year was burdened by negative non-cash valuation effects on receivables related to the US dollar. In the industry plus segment, following the strong start into the year, performance continued to exceed expectations in the second quarter, even if seasonally on a lower level. Free cash flow. Free cash flow reached 40 million euros. It impro...