Lanxess Ag Ord (LNXSF) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Thank you for joining our LENX's Q1 results 2026 conference call. If you would like to ask a question, you will need to press star nine and the pound key on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced later. First, we will hand over to Ifa Hussmann, Head of Investor Relations for opening remarks. Yeah, thank you and welcome to our Q1 call. Before we start, please take note of our safe harbour statements. And as always, we have our CEO, Matthias Sachardt here, as well as Oliver Stratmann, our CFO. Matthias, we'll start with a quick presentation before we answer your questions. Matthias, go ahead. Thank you, Eva, and welcome all of you to our conference call on first quarter 26. I start the presentation straight on page four, where we comment on the key financial indicators. So as far as Q1 is concerned, we guided in March already that it will be a soft start to the year. We've seen lower volumes, especially in January, February, a positive tone on March where business started to improve from the volume side and was clearly a difference compared to the previous months and also towards the fourth quarter. Please take note of the fact that In the comparison base last year, we have a relatively strong dollar and still the contribution from our urethane business units both has changed. In first quarter this year, urethane is no longer consolidated and the dollar has visibly weakened. We put a lot of attention on cash flow and financial balance sheet strength is something reinforced over the last few quarters, and you can clearly see that also in Q1. Cash flows still negative, but that's the normal seasonality. We start off with negative cash normally in first and second quarter and then improve afterwards. And as far as net working capital is concerned, we clearl...