Tessenderlo Group Stock

Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our webinar for our half year results. We will start with a presentation from our CEO, Luc Tack; and our CFO, Miguel de Potter. After that, we will give some analysts the chance to ask a live question. [Operator Instructions]

So with that, I hand over to, Luc.

Good morning. Good afternoon. Welcome, and thank you all for joining us on the call on our H1 results. As you can imagine, it has been a busy first half year and also turbulent first half year with all things happening in the world in the respect of the Strait of Hormuz, et cetera. But I must say I'm extremely pleased with how the troops worked, how we, as a company, performed, managing the different hurdles that came on the path during the first 6 months.

So I will start by first giving you an overview of some of the key events of this morning. This will then be followed by Miguel, who will highlight you everything on the financials and the financial performance of the company. So first, let me start by repeating that the joint venture with the Tessenderlo Group and Darling Ingredients entered into a definitive agreement in December 2025. This partnership aims to create a top-tier collagen-based health, wellness and nutrition products company poised to capitalize on global collagen markets. And the JV, Tessenderlo will have 15% and Darling will have the majority of 85%. Of course, we, as Tessenderlo, will be present in the Board, and we will further contribute to the success of our Gelatin business.

So the JV will combined Darling Ingredients collagen and gelatin with our branded Rousselot with the branded Rousselot and our PB Leiner activities. We will also bring together our know-how, which will also help us to develop further new products going forward. The transaction is expected to close after having received the pending regulatory as you might not be surprised, some countries are quicker than others. And so we are still awaiting some approvals. We cannot tell you as of today when exactly we believe accept them because we will get them that is beyond our control, but we are making progress.

So then we had Akiolis, the biomass cogeneration facility to reduce our carbon footprint. So the integration was in April 2026. So this good generation plant will be powered by animal byproducts. This is truly an innovated installation and marks a major step in our decarbonization strategy. thus reducing fossil fuel energy consumption and producing renewable, call it, green energy. So we have started up the plant as always, there are some bucks to be worked out, but we are expecting to scale up further in the fourth quarter of the year as we go forward.

So then we had Mr. Karel Vinck, who resigned from the Board. Most of you probably know Mr. Karel Vinck. He has really served our Board so many years, and we have really a sincere gratitude for his dedication and service and value that he gave to the Board. So in the meantime, we have the pleasure of announcing or telling you that Ms. Beatrice Bruey has been quoted to Mr. Vinck's mandate. And we welcome her as a non Executive Director to our Board for the remainder of the mandate of Mr. Vinck's.

Then going forward, we have the acquisition of the Cinis Fertilizer plant in Sweden. The acquisition was done in May 2026. This is an SOP production plant. We bought it out of the bankruptcy of Cinis Fertilizers, which really was never able to produce on-spec product all the time. We are now working on the plant. We are making changes to it, and we expect to ramp up the plant in Q1 of 2027. This is really a very environmentally friendly way to make mineral fertilizers for sustainable agriculture. So this will be a sulphate of potassium that we will be producing, which is that we know since we also produced this in [indiscernible] Belgium. Then we were able to acquire PB Leiner, the 40% minority stake from our Brazilian joint venture partners. So this is -- following this acquisition, we now own 100% of this subsidiary. Of course, this subsidiary will then go into the contemplated JV with Darling Ingredients.

So then after the balance sheet, we were not sitting still there. We kept going. And so reached an agreement with the Board of FMC to do a capital increase of $400 million into FMC for provision. So FMC Corporation is a really innovator, a technology company. They are very strong in AI. And I'm sure you're mediating AI, you think about artificial intelligence. Well, I mean, AI, I mean active ingredients. And we are doing this investment because we believe that FMC has a lot of technology has a lot of molecules in development, but also moreover, has 4 molecules which will come to the market and -- which will come to the market in the coming years. I think it is important we understand that both crop protection and fertilizers.

The businesses that we are in contribute for 50% of all agriculture production worldwide. And therefore, it is important to further create new products FMC can do so. And that's why we are very glad that we can contribute a capital increase, which will further help the company to further develop new molecules. For our company, this is a long-term cornerstone investment. It's a part of our corporate strategy, and we see this as a generational investment for the long term. And I'll give you one more example why we think also FMC is a good investment. Within Europe, we have had over -- since 2019, we have lost 16 molecules. At the end of the day, the farmers need to farm. And at the end, they end up with an empty toolkit. They need tools too far. And for instance, FMC received approval for Isoflex and Isoflex is a new herbicide, which has been approved by Europe some months ago. And this herbicide is important.

And why do we like molecules like that and other ones which are in development, when you are having crops and you have herbicides. The herbicides compete for the nutrients in the ground against the crops. In the case of Isoflex. Isoflex is a herbicide which is really meant from a grass crops. I'll give you an example. Wheat, all grain and most grain crops are not most, but a lot of grain crops are grass crops, for instance, like wheat. But by applying in the late season after the season, Isoflex, you are really avoiding the growth of wheat, so that the grain crop capture all the nurture and that the yield of the grain crop is so much higher. And this is really what European farmers, big farmers in U.K. where the product has already been approved and which is where it is already put on the fields. But France, Germany, all these huge because Europe is a large producer in wheat will cause opportunity. I'm just giving this as one example. It's one of many where we believe that agriculture, the future of agriculture is technology, the future of agriculture also is like we do with our fertilizers to grow more with less.

Then we have the intention to close the Vilvoorde plant. So in July 26, we announced the intention to close the plant. That intention to close the plant came after anatement process where we tried to sell the plant because we wanted the people who have jobs for the future. And so that's why we tried very hard to print buyers for the plant. I must also say the people within the plant helped us very much to show the plant that are best for buyers. But at the end of the day, we did not find a buyer and nobody taught that plant had a viable future and could be viable going forward. So that's -- then we decided to -- we went to consultation. Then we have the LOE representatives, and then we reached the formal agreement to close the plant on August 21, 2026. So the execution of the restructuring process and now started and will be finalized by H1 2027, and we will have production running if I recall well till end of October.

So this restructuring impact is estimated at approximately EUR 31 million, which will be recognized in EBIT adjusted items in H2 2026. Furthermore, the group is now looking at the future and looking at how we can bring this 24-hectare real estate site logs to Brussels and Vilvoorde to the market. And now we are considering different options on how to come to market with this site going forward and hopefully be able to do a transaction next year. So then we have T-Power. T-Power entered into a 6-month tolling agreement -- for the 425-megawatt power plant. I must say you that T-Power has proven again to be a very important asset in the Belgium landscape, especially this summer, the plant has been running a lot to help provide power for the country to keep the air conditioning going to keep things going.

So again, we have proven that CGT plants, like T-Power have an important role to play in the future for energy security. Of course, with this transit that we call the transit coming agreement of 6 months. This is giving us more time to assess other various available options for the long-term utilization of the T-Power plant as a safe and reliable bond. So we are currently assessing that. And and developing and looking at different options going forward.

So now I will pass it to Miguel, who will take us through the H -- to the financial numbers.

Thank you, Luc, and good morning, good afternoon, everyone, wherever you are located. We are here in Brussels in our office and I have the pleasure of guiding you through our first half figures. Our first half figures, as you might have read already in the press release this morning, we are revenues that are just short of EUR 1.5 billion and an adjusted EBITDA of just near EUR 177 million, that's an EBITDA margin of close to 12% for the first half of the year, which is higher than the first half we had last year. The profit for the period for the first 6 months is nearly EUR 66 million, which is much higher than the negative loss we had for the same period last year, but that negative loss was mainly impacted by noncash foreign exchange translation for intercompany loans that we had which was revised positively -- slightly positively this year.

Our CapEx for the first half of the year amounts to EUR 43.7 million that's lower than last year. It has also to do with some timing effects and postponements or permitting that we are still waiting receive from several projects that will be ongoing. And we expect that this CapEx will be higher in the second half of the year. The cash flow from operating activities is above EUR 103.8 million, and our net financial debt thanks to some acquisitions that Luc already mentioned and has increased in the first half of the year.

If we go to the revenues per segment, you will see that the balance of the revenues is still mainly very similar to what we had last year with Agro, the largest contributor for all segments, followed closely -- followed by Industrial Solutions and bio valorizations. Machines and Technologies has had a more difficult first half of the year, and I will come back to this and T-Power with its revenues guaranteed from the tolling agreement was very stable.

When you look at the adjusted EBITDA per segment, you will see that nearly every segment, apart from machines and technology, i.e., the Picanol Group has grown in terms of EBITDA and margins in the first half of the year; two, I already mentioned EUR 176.8 million. So if we go segment to segment, the first segment, the Agro segment, which has known force increase in EBITDA of 17.3% if you exclude foreign exchange effects. Obviously, we are selling a lot in U.S. dollars and also in other currencies, but that always has an impact in our results one way or the other. But we ended the year -- the first half of the year with an EBITDA of EUR 75 million. That's an EBITDA margin of 13%. We have seen in our Agro division. So we have the brand name, the Crop Nutrition, Tessenderlo Kerley International Crop Protection and Violleau.

We have seen higher sales volume across the board and also higher sales price, which are actually a result of higher raw material prices that we were lucky enough convincing to pass on through our customers. the market circumstances have been better for us. And you have to know and to understand that the Cinis plant that Luc was mentioned that we acquired in the first half of this year in Sweden to produce sulfate of potash has not been contributing to those results yet. And we expect this plan to ramp up in the first quarter of 2027 because when we acquired the plant, as Luc mentioned, the plant was not functional, and we are upgrading it to make it fully functional for the year 2027. So do not expect a big contribution from this plant in the second half of the year.

For the bioviralization segment, you see here an EBITDA margin that is higher than what we had last year. We were quite fully successful in restructuring some of the PB line or [indiscernible] remember that we closed our bond Gelatin activities in 2027. But we were also negatively impacted by some of the restructuring costs and by also an incident that we had at the end of last year in our plant in Argentina for PB Leiner. Otherwise, the result would have been better. The incident in Argentina is being solved as we speak, and we expect the plant to go back to full production next month. the Akiolis revenues were relatively stable. And we have not received the full insurance proceeds for the incident in Argentina. So these are not recognized in those figures for the first half. We expect those to be recognized in the second half.

Industrial Solutions segment, we have DYKA, Kuhlmann and Moleko, where you see revenues of just short of EUR 350 million and an EBITDA margin of 10.8%, which is definitely tough last year. First of all, where did it come from? DYKA mainly is the driver between the forward growth here in Industrial Solutions segment with higher sales price, higher sales price that are also results of higher raw material prices, but meaning that we were successful in passing on those additional prices to our customers. Obviously, as a worldwide group, we are confronted to geopolitical challenges and the price of sulfur or the price of ethylene, which are definitely big raw materials that we use are definitely affected by the conflict in the Middle East. For Kuhlmann and Moleko, the revenues remained stable in the first half of the year.

If I look at the machines and technologies, so the Picanol Group in general with Psicontrol, Proferro, but also now Melotte and Osterwalder. Osterwalder which is our Swiss press company that we acquired last year. We see that here, we have a decrease of the revenues and the margin as we had last year. It's mainly due to a slowdown in the activities for the weaving machines that are built out of Europe or by the weaving machines that are built outside of Europe have known growth path in the first half of the year and expect it to continue to grow in the second half of the year. These are less fancy machines. And so the margins are lower on those machines. Both Proferro and Psicontrol have grown in terms of revenue despite the lack of order from Picanol weaving machines, but they were not able to offset basically the order intake there was less than expected in the first half of the year for the weaving machines.

When we talk about Osterwalder and Melotte contribution were immaterial in the first half of the year or too small to mention. For last division, T-Power or Energy division, well, the revenues remained stable as we were continuing our tooling agreement with RWE that came to an end on the 30th of June 2026. As Luc already mentioned, we have decided to embark on the 1st of July on a short term tolling agreement in order to assess different options that we have for the future of T-Power one way or the other. When we do the EBIT and the EBIT adjusting items analyzes these are way less impressive than the same period last year, where we had big swings in foreign exchange results. Here, we have EUR 15.3 million of EBIT adjusting items that are relating to mainly 3 position. One is additional cost incurred for the formation of the joint venture between Darling Ingredients and Tessenderlo on the gelatin and the collagen.

We had also derecognized contingent consideration that we should have maybe obtained should we keep our Brazilian partner on board, but we decided to buy our Brazilian frames out of our plant in Acorizal. So this is a contingent consideration that we will not receive and that we have taken in EBIT adjusting items, and then we had some restructuring expenses additional restructuring expenses, mainly for PB Leiner and for Picanol in Ypres. Our net finance results is mainly marked by a net foreign exchange gain of close to EUR 9 million. And you will remember, we had a loss there at the same cost last year of more than EUR 50 million. And our net result, as I already mentioned, amounts to close to EUR 66 million. So what have we done with everything we have gained in the beginning of this year, the EUR 176.8 million EBITDA. We basically invested in several acquisitions we mentioned the SOP production plant in Sweden. We mentioned the acquisition of noncontrolling interest from the Brazilian partner in our plant in Acorizal in Matto Grosso in Brazil.

We also did acquisition of some shares of FMC, and we invested in some growth CapEx, all in total, these acquisitions and the growth CapEx that will bring additional revenues amount to EUR 72 million -- close to EUR 72 million. And on top of that, we have also paid a dividend this year in June for EUR 44 million. That brings me to our outlook. And as already mentioned, yes, the world is volatile. It's changing on a daily basis, especially when you work actively on the sulfur fertilizers actually in market for the PVC and the PVC market in general. Also for the textile industry and the weaving machines. But based on what we know so far, we are pleased to say that we want to upgrade a little bit our outlook going forward. where we expect to have an adjusted EBITDA higher between 5% to 15% than the 1 we had last year, which was for the full year, EUR 288 million, as you remember.

Then our financial calendar. It's before I open the floor to your questions. As we get back online for our webinar next year in March, on March 25. But before going to the Q&A, I will hand over the word to Luc.

So I would like to give as a final comment to the outstanding presentation from the analyst that we are a company with long-term relationships. Most of our biggest customers have been with us 10 years, 20 years. And then you have a difficult environment. And when some Germans are calling us back in March, April. What are you going to do Strait of Hormuz. There's no more [indiscernible], there's no more this, there's no more that. There's no more the other. I'm so pleased that we were able to work with our customers in a way that we did not take advantage from our customers that we were also able to keep them servicing and keeping them in business while us not lose a lot of money because that's always -- I must say, it's dancing on our own. It's a difficult situation.

The raw materials go up 10%, next day, 20%, 30%, et cetera, and you need to manage that. And that is something that I feel that I will always bear fruit in the future as well. We have long-term relationships with many of our customers. Quite a lot of them are family owned. I know the families very well. They know our families. We have these long-term relationships. And for us, it's always about customers, how can we delight the customer, how can we service the customer. And that's also how you must see this because I know that some of you are hoping for higher EBITDA for the first 6 months. Could you have achieved that? Maybe, but you destroy -- you would have destroyed many, many relationships. Then there is also a huge gratitude to everybody who works within the stand-alone group and all the different companies without the hard commitment, the hard work and driven our collaborators being driving working like a team, we were able to service the customers. And I'm also very thankful together with my whole ExCom team to everybody within our company that we were able to deliver these results.

I think with that, we can now open the floor for questions.

Yes. To start with, we will we hosted from [indiscernible]. We will take you on screen screen. Yes. Wim, if you can unmute yourself, you can ask your questions.

Thanks for allowing me to ask a few questions. I have 5 actually, if that's okay. The first one would be on the situation in the Agro business and specifically with regards to raw material sourcing, sulfur. Can you maybe discuss the overall availability for you and then specifically on MOP. Is there any chance that volumes from Russia, Belarus will become available? Any thoughts on that? So that's the first question I posed here.

Can you give you all your questions, and we will answer them all in one go.

Sure. That's fine also. Second one, would be on T-Power. Can you maybe elaborate on what kind of options you're looking at that also looking at longer-term tolling agreements again? And any thoughts on a second plant project? Is that still on the table or possible? And then the third question is on Picanol. Can you maybe elaborate a little bit more on the difficult market conditions? Is it due to competitive pressures from Japanese, which are made maybe enjoying the weekend to compete fiercely or are there other things high interest rates that -- or other elements that are playing a role?

Then the fourth question would be on capital allocation. You did a big move with FMC. Can you maybe help us understand how you're looking at capital allocation now share buybacks versus other opportunities? What are the kind of priorities or criteria for putting your money at work? And then fifth and last question would be on Lenova. Can you maybe elaborate on any exposure you might have to Lenova and the supply agreement, sourcing, whatever and tell us what is baked into your guidance with regards to Lenova scenario. Those are the questions.

All right. That's a tall order. So raw materials, indeed. So our supplies have been challenged. And of course, with the current situation with Russia and Bella Russia, we are not expecting any of these products to flow to Europe many times soon. Once that is peace, maybe then things can change around. And in the meantime, we will keep sourcing from further away. So indeed, this has caused pressures on pricing and it has also caused pressure on availability, especially and respect of the total.

I will, at the same time, take your last question, the Lenova because that is related to our SOP production. As you may know, some of our HCL, which is a byproduct has been used by Lenova to go into PVC. And so Nova has again asked for the extension because they believe they can still get higher. And so we will have to see how that process works out. But of course, this has been going on for 9 months. And if no buyer or investor would be found for Lenova, we have worked out different scenarios on how to manage that.

Then in respect of T-Power, I think that your question on the second plant. Well, indeed, we still have a permit to build a new gas power plant. And of course, such a large investment is only viable if there is a correct compensation capacity remuneration mechanism is that if there is a good compensation for that. This does not seem to be the case in the near future. So we do not expect anything there in the near future, but the option is still there. And if the government were to decide that more capacity is needed because this capacity has proven again the CCGT capacities are proven again to be very valuable especially and heat waves or no kind of cold situations. So we have that option. And so for T-Power, we have really different options that we are looking out and -- and we need to understand a little bit better. We need to do more homework on it. And of course, we will report to you as quick as we can when we know more.

Then in the respect of Picanol. Indeed the first 6 months were somewhat weaker. The Japanese yen at 185 is, of course, not helping us and the competition. But having said that, the outlook for the second quarter is better our order intake has improved for the second half of the year. But for most and more important, I follow very closely pipeline of product developments that we are developing. We're going to be launching new products early next year. And I'm confident that we will be able to create further value our so many valued customers worldwide. And then in respect of the capital allocation...

Yes. In respect of the capital allocation, we are aiming at creating value for obviously, all the shareholders. Currently, we have decided that it is better for us invest capital in minority stake, let's say, from a listed company. like FMC, we have not restarted our buyback program, but we might so in the coming months, depending on how we are evolving. But the group is currently evolving from a group of 100% controlled and owned company to a group where we're going to add, I would say, another investment arm, a long-term investment arm, where we will have minority stakes in companies like FMC or like the joint venture we are currently creating with Darling Ingredients. And this is definitely a goal of diversification of the group, creating value and unlocking value by having major stakes in listed entities worldwide is definitely something we like to do. The capital allocation will not go at the expense of our CapEx program be it maintenance CapEx program of growth CapEx program. Earlier this year, in the first half of this year, you have seen we have spent less CapEx than the previous years. But the previous years, we had also some huge plants that were in construction, like the one in Ohio, the one in Gilen, the Netherlands and other projects like that. This year, we don't have those very large projects, but restore, we're working on several other projects, but it's time consuming and awaiting permits and licenses to start construction.

I think Miguel is summarizing this very well. It's not one or the other. We do all, right? We do we buy companies. We do M&A transactions. We we acquired Tiger-Sul. We bought the Madame business from Eastman, and we bought the Cinis asset in Sweden. So when we can acquire stuff, which makes sense, we do so. Then, of course, organic growth wherever we can, we invest in our plants and see what we can do. And then thirdly, as we already highlighted last year, this cornerstone investment and businesses that we understand and that we believe can create value also capital allocation because that was your question on the capital allocation. Also keeping into mind that this cornerstone investments are listed investments and as such, are also creating financial flexibility if it were to be needed. Thank you.

So now we can go to the Q&A box. There's many questions. I will have a look and select some of them. Question from Christian Faitz. Can you please elucidate your strategy behind taking a 20% stake in FMC? And what is the time line in terms of approvals for this?

So let me for go to the easy part of the question, which is the time line for approvals. We expect that we will get all the regulatory approvals somewhere around the end of September or in October. Obviously, we know that we are not mastering the process in several jurisdictions, but we have already approval from some transactions. So that's positive. But the process is ongoing, and we don't expect it to go much longer than October. So it should be finished by then. What is the rationale for taking a 20% stake in FMC? Well, it's -- as Luc was saying, it's a business we understand. And it's a business of active ingredients that we believe we understand you have to know that today, our crop protection business is a relatively successful business of all molecules that are off patent.

With FMC, we are entering into the world of patented molecules. And we believe that in doing our work and contemplate FMC that FMC has a nice product portfolio going forward. It's not a secret because they are publicly listed and the report on this. But they will release 5 new molecules in the coming 5 years, which is a very good portfolio. We believe also that FMC was attractively priced recently because of more balance sheet issue and by contributing to a capital increase of EUR 400 million. FMC will be able to reduce its debt by its indebtedness by EUR 1 billion over the short term. So we believe that we will -- we entered the company at a turnaround that might take some time, and we are ready to be patient and to help the company through this turnaround to go back to more a creditworthiness company and create value there for us, but not only as a shareholder of FMC, but also to create value from things we can learn from them for our own Ag divisions.

So I think if I may finalize on that question is in the world, there are 5 leading technology companies and developing new active ingredients. They are called Corteva, Bayer or Bayer, BASF, Syngenta and FMC. They are really the leaders in the world and the creation of new molecules. We have 750 people and agronomist almost 1,000 people working on development of new products to create a good future is a long-term investment to develop a new molecule, it takes 10 or 15 years. And I think, therefore, it is good to have a cornerstone investor for the company so that the company has the time to develop them going forward. The other companies I talked to you about, no one has such a strong cornerstone invested with having 20%. They are all free flowed except for Syngenta, which is Chinese owned? So -- but this is really, we believe, a good step for our company. Otherwise, we would not have done it.

And to add on to FMC, we are long term investor in FMC because I see some questions about it in the chat box. And obviously, we've got a lot of investors professionals on the call that are following the stock we are not looking at FMC just based on stock price. We are there for a really long term with FMC. So if the stock price does not evolve in the direction we like in the coming years in the short term or medium term, even, we are not afraid of that. We there really for the long term, and we believe that in the long term, the results will be there and there will be cash generation.

Yes, correct.

Yes. Maybe a short follow-up question on that as well is how confident are you that their financial situation is stable now without requiring additional asset divestment or dilutive equity transactions given that roughly 22% of the float remains short and the stock rate is near $11.

Right. Well, I think we need to make a distinction between the stock price and the cash situation of the company. those who will read well into the company, you'll see that a lot of the debt, the bond financing has a maturity in 2049, 2052 and 2053, they are long-term bonds. So we are believe -- we believe that by then, the new molecules already have delivered results. and will be able then to service the debt when due. So for sure, and to manage the expectations with all of you on the call, we are not all of a sudden, expecting room next year on FMC and that all of a sudden things are going to explode there. This is going to take time. But like we said, that's why we will have the patience. But we believe that will deliver results over time.

Okay. Checking the questions. I see a lot of the questions we answered during the call already. So maybe one final question, for which segments do you expect recovery or the performance in H2 given that the T-Power segment, we announced that due to the tolling agreement we expect?

Yes, that's a good question, but it's a little bit in general, overall, we see that biorealization after the restructuring that we have implemented over the last years into biorealization should benefit for the entire division. The Agro division has been strong in the first half of the year, and we believe that the second half of the year might be also a reflection of that. Machines & Technologies, as Luc mentioned, the order intake for the second half of the year for Picanol is better than expected. So it's a little bit a mix, and we see that with DYKA and the PVC industrial submission side has done better in the first half of the year. We believe that it will continue in the second half of the year. So it's a little bit of a mix.

I think our guidance is clear between 5% and 15% where we are -- to and from where we are today towards the end of the year.

Okay. Thank you. I think we covered most of the questions that I see you want to have any closing words or...

No I really thank you for your interest in our company, and thank you for listening to our call. Be assured that all of us here at the company are motivated. We are supported by 7,000 colleagues who give the best of themselves every day. And we will try to keep doing that, keep servicing our customers, giving good service, making top quality products at a fair price. Thank you.

Thank you very much for listening.

Have a nice day.

Bye.

Hello, and welcome, everyone, to our 2025 annual results webinar. We will start today with a presentation from our CEO, Luc Tuck; and our CFO, Miguel de Potter. After that, we will give some opportunity to some of our analysts to ask live questions. [Operator Instructions]

Thank you. And with this, I hand over to Luc.

Good morning, good afternoon, and welcome, everybody, to our annual results reporting on the year 2025. Thank you for tuning in. Boy, I must say it's been a rocky ride lately. Sometimes I started working when I was 18, so that's a little while ago. And so the way we have today within Europe, sometimes I feel even that we are in South America, where I had the crisis in the '80s and the '90s one after the other. Now we are into our third crisis in Europe. We had -- in 2020, we had COVID, then we had 2022, Ukraine. And now we have Iran. Each time quite disruptive to businesses causing a lot of uncomfort.

Having said that, we are always with our feet on the ground. So we don't panic lightly. And in light of that, I feel that as a CEO of our company, that we will be able also to navigate this now Middle East storm. Of course, it is affecting us in our company on different fields in different ways. Sometimes it has a positive effect, sometimes it has a negative effect. Every effect that we have, we have no idea how long it will last and what it will be. And therefore, I'm sure some of you people ask questions, and we understand you ask questions but you will also understand that we don't have the crystal ball on how long the Suez Canal is going to be blocked, how long energies are going to be limited. All of that, we know as much as you know, which means nothing.

But having said that, as a company, what do we focus on? We focus on what we control. But no point in us focusing on stuff we do not control, we must focus on what we can control. Yesterday, we had a lengthy Board meeting, and we debated a lot of all of this. And at the end of the day, and that will also be the guidance that you will be getting from Miguel, et cetera. We find that last year, okay, we improved our EBITDA with EUR 22 million, which is nice. Would we like to do that again this year? Of course, -- but today, we cannot guide you towards that. We are guiding you more results for this year in line with last year. And then we will guide you further through the year as we see more clarity and as you will see more clarity and as everybody will see more clarity.

But again, in this turbulent world, our company is fit to sail these storms and to come out of it. Anyway, that's the feeling I have -- so let me kick off by telling you a little bit what we have been doing and which have been key events. So the Group is signing a JV to combine our collagen and gelatin business with Darling. The picture that you see here was the signature in Houston of the binding agreement. And so of course, now we are going through the regulatory stuff. And -- so we are working with authorities. We are answering questions. And we will -- we hope that the transaction will close in 2026. But again, that is not in our power. We need to satisfy every authority and give them the time to answer.

Of course, I'm sure you can appreciate that since this is a global business, there are many, many countries involved and some of them have different time horizon [indiscernible] opens a new plant in Ohio. I was in the U.S. up to 7 days ago. I have also been traveling. I was in Phoenix, I was in Houston, I was at different places. And I'm pleased to say that today, we get a market confirmation that the Defiance plant is a good investment customers are complementing us on making that investment and are also happy that the product is now locally available. I think you should never underestimate the logistics that come into our business. And by having a plant within the market where people can come and get a product is definitely further supporting our development.

Then this is a minor company, a smaller company that we acquired, which is Osterwalder AG. So what is Osterwalder doing? Osterwalder is making powder -- it's technology because in our company, Melotte, we do 3D printing. And there, you build up a piece layer by layer out of powder. Here, the process is completely the opposite. You take powder, I'm sorry, and you put a high press on it. And because of very complicated molds, you can get a gear out of it for a car or whatever.

It has been a company and difficulties. It has not been an easy journey so far. And again, I'm not going to bore you too much about it but we bought a Swiss company. And 6 weeks later, we were told that we had -- I forget now how much, 40% or 39% of duties shipping to the U.S., our biggest market. So this was again the perfect storm because of this -- like I said, sometimes this makes me feel like when I was in the '80s and the '90s when I was a lot younger and looking nicer than today but it still gives me the same sentiment. So -- but anyhow, that's behind us now. And so we are learning to know more about the company, where the strengths and the weaknesses are, and that will be a continuing story.

Then I'm very happy to announce you the acquisition of the Metam Labels in United States and Canada Eastman. I must tell you the Metam has been the origin of our Crop Protection business by first acquisition, which must be 20 years now. And so we are further strengthening our position there in the United States. And so we are very pleased that we were able to do this acquisition.

So indeed, we did a share repurchase program. Also a lot of you guys suggested us to do that. And we believe that this share repurchase program is contributing to the share price for our investors in the long term as if you buy shares, at the end of the day, future profits will be divided by less shares. So at the end, it should support earnings per share going forward.

So events after balance date. So indeed, here, we have the acquisition of the Cinis plant. So to give you a little bit background on Cinis. Cinis is a company that was launched on the stock exchange in Stockholm and that was planned to have a very bright future by taking off sodium sulfate from the multibillion dollar or euro investment of Northvolt in Sweden. Now some of you probably followed that event there, and you know how that company got into problems. And then consequently, also Cinis got into problems. So this is enhancing our potassium, which is a core business. I would like to remind everybody that potassium is the second nutrient. So the first nutrient is nitrogen. The second is potassium and the third one is phosphates.

So in potassium, we specialize ourselves. We do not play where the big docks play. We are more always in specialty. And so that is what we produce that is SOP. Most of the potassium in the world used is MOP. And MOP is put straight on the field. And then -- and that's mainly used in areas where there is a lot of rain. And as the rain drops out, the chlorides evaporate and then the potassium goes to the plant.

What is SOP? In SOP, we pull the chlorides out of the potassium and the SOP is meant for dry because in dry areas, people be using would be MOP. At the end of the day, the soil like concrete because of the chlorides that would remain on top of the soil. So our SOP is a perfect solution for areas for irrigations, et cetera. Having said that, of course, in the potassium world, SOP is probably maximum 10% of the volumes used worldwide where 90% of the application is MOP.

We have been producing SOP for a very long time, and we are producing SOP in HAM on our Mannheim furnaces. Our Mannheim furnaces are working on the basis of sulfur, high temperature. And then we get the chloride salt, which then further valorized partially in our group to produce frochloride partially shipping to our neighbor plant. So this is one way of doing it. is a different process is a process which is the glyide process, which is a minority technique in the SOP world but where we believe we can create opportunity in producing more green because the SOP from the Cinis project will be produced on lower temperature with green energy, which is available abundant in Sweden.

And as a byproduct, we will have then also salts available for the market for the mainly de-icing market, et cetera. This is a new venture for our company. We have been following for years. And we also had been looking -- we had been requested to participate in capital increases and what have you last year, et cetera. We thought that was not a good idea that we -- that it was better to wait because now we are a 100% owner of the plant at a good price and can now develop this company.

Then in strengthening our Board, as you know, there, we are also -- we have changed the course the last 2 years where we have decided that we must bring more industry knowledge to our Board. Before, of course, we have always had a very strong Board, very good strong Board members. But nowadays, we are choosing more with people with -- in our Board with in-depth industry knowledge. So the first gentleman that came to our Board was Sebastien Pon, who is a true agro specialist. So now we are bringing in Madam Beatrice Bruey, who has a very long career with GEA Group, a DAX 40 company in Germany. And so she is joining us as a Nonexecutive Director, and she's been coopted in the vacancy of decided to last year. So there also, we are further strengthening our Board and the respect of industry knowledge.

So this is then taking us to 2025, but I will hand it over to Miguel now to explain you the results of 2025.

Thank you very much, Luc, and good afternoon, good morning, everyone, on the call. Happy to be here and to present you our results for 2025. So let's go first to our key figures. Our revenues climbed by 4.4% to EUR 2.7 billion going forward in 2025. And our EBITDA grew as well by 8.5% to EUR 288 million compared to last year. You will see that we have a heavy loss for the period of EUR 80 million. Most of it is related to what we call non cash items and impairments that we have taken through the course of the year and especially in the second half of the year but I will come back to that in a moment.

CapEx amounted to EUR 135 million, about half of which was maintenance CapEx and half of which was growth CapEx. We are basically finishing a big wave of growth CapEx with new plants. You have heard Luc saying that [indiscernible] was fully operational since August, and we continue on that trend. The CapEx guidance for 2026 is in the same range as 2025, albeit it could be a little lower than 2025. The cash flows generating from operating activities was still strong at EUR 225 million for the year. So if we exclude FX differences, the growth in EBITDA, and this is for us the prime measurement of our financial strength is about 10%, 11% going forward.

The group revenue per segment in terms of the distribution is relatively stable when you compare 2025 to 2024. Our Agro division is definitely still the strongest division of the group and also the most profitable for 2025 all the other entities remain relatively similar. When we go into the group EBITDA per segment, we see that Agro has grown its EBITDA for the year to EUR 117 million, EUR 118 million that in bio-valorization, we had a growth as well, but it's maybe a tale of 2 stories between PB Leiner and Akioli's. I'll come back to that. Unfortunately, Industrial Solutions was not able to materialize any growth. We've had very challenging times in the construction market, especially in Europe and in France, in particular, which is definitely difficult for the growth. And Machine & Technologies in the first half of the year, you remember that Picanol has a very strong first half of the year that is completed into these figures.

For T-Power, we have a full year of revenues of RWE under the tolling agreement. So when we go into our Agro segment more in detail, and I repeat our Agro segment, these are our Tessenderlo Kerley brands, so Tessenderlo Kerley for the international business and Inc. for the American business. And we have as well Viololo, which is our organic fertilizers. Agro segment has a very strong second half of the year, as you can see, even without -- if you take off the one-offs like the impact of , which has been contributing to the figures for the first time this year. Second half revenues growth of 13% or nearly 14% on the top line and the adjusted EBITDA, as I mentioned, of just short of EUR 118 million, which is a double-digit as we like to see in the Agro segment. We had to take also some impairments in the Agro segment. One impairment was related to some inventory of crop protection products that we have in the U.S.

Our second segment, Bio-Valorization segment is -- we have 2 companies there, PB Leiner, the gelatin and collagen business as well as Akiolis, which is more our rendering business in Europe. You see here actually a tale of 2 stories. First of all, the rendering has been more positive contributing to the Bio-valorization segment this year than the gelatin and collagen. The Gelatin and collagen within PB Leiner has gone through restructuring. We closed our plant in the U.K. earlier in the year, which was doing bone gelatin. So there, you see definitely a drop in revenues with less products being sold. We also had an incident in our plant in Argentina, our collagen plant in Argentina, whereby we had to stop production for quite some weeks and the plant is still not 100% operational, but only, I would say, 75% operational right now. So not fully contributing to the results as we would expect.

Just as a reminder, our PB Leiner business is definitely, as Luc mentioned, now up for the merger with the Rousselot business from Darling Ingredients. Industrial Solutions segment, we have 3 brands there, DYKA, Kuhlmann and moleko. DYKA is our pipes and fittings manufacturing. We had -- while you will remember, we had a very stable first half of the year, there has been a significant decrease in the second half of the year, especially on the EBITDA. You see the EBITDA overall is minus 50% compared to the year before. Several reasons for that. The slowdown in the construction sector, mainly in France but also in other parts of Europe have weighted negatively on the results.

Secondly, for Kuhlmann and moleko, the first half was not great, and it continues like that in the second half with even further deterioration of the volumes, mainly, but we were able to maintain our margin in both sectors. Machines & Technology segments, Picanol, Picanol, Proferro and Osterwalder as well as meloke are part of this segment. You will remember that we had a very strong first half of the year. The second half is in line with the previous year, so less strong, unfortunately. But it's also a tale of several stories here.

While the wheel machines are currently suffering from the geopolitical environment and the crisis in textile in general, Psicontrol and Proferro as well as have been able to grow outside of the Picanol Group, meaning that they are now having much more outside revenues than intercompany revenues, while they were just suppliers of the Picanol Group, which is not the case anymore.

Brings us to our last segment. T-Power. T-Power has done relatively well in 2025, relatively well because of much more start stocks and much more availability, which gets some bonus payments under the tolling contract with RWE. A lot of you will ask -- will have the question, what will happen with T-Power after RWE? Well, unfortunately, we cannot disclose anything so far. What we can disclose is that we have several options on the table. None of these options is a binding option so far. And in the current volatile environment, we will only communicate when a binding option has been done. or has been signed. But we do believe that -- and we do believe that on the 1st of July, there will be a new contract in place for the future of T-Power.

Let me walk you through the adjusted EBIT to profit details. As I already mentioned, we took some large impairments and noncash items in the second half of the year. First of all, our Tessenderlo Kerley International SOP plant in Ham, it's a very vintage plant, as we call it, with still a big legacy on the phosphate when the Tessenderlo Group was still doing phosphate fertilizers. This plant needs a lot of maintenance. And our maintenance and the CapEx has been building up in the book value of the plant, but doesn't really match the value in use of the plant. So we were forced to take a EUR 26 million impairment on that particular plant.

You will remember as well that when announcing the merger with PB Leiner and Rousselot, the plant of Vilvoorde was typically excluded from the perimeter of the transaction. We, therefore, have also impaired a big portion of the machinery and assets on the plant in Vilvoorde, which is -- which has been up for sale since the announcement of the transaction. And then we did some other adjustments in our environmental provisions and here and there, some smaller impairment losses. This amounts to EUR 78 million in total. EUR 59 million EUR 60 million are finance costs, finance costs that are related to mainly interco loans, intercompany loans between Europe and the U.S. that we have to take on a mark-to-market basis each time we publish our balance sheet.

We started with a euro-dollar rate of 1.03, and we ended up the year at EUR 1.175. So mainly the largest portion of this finance cost, EUR 54.4 million is related to that. And the rest are cash expenses. If we want to do the bridge of the net financial debt, EUR 288 million of EBITDA. What did we mainly do with that? Well, EUR 135 million of CapEx, half of which growth CapEx, half of which stay in business CapEx. So that's a big portion. We spent also EUR 21 million in 2 acquisitions, one [indiscernible] AG and the second one of the Metam Eastman contract. And we distributed about EUR 80 million in shareholders value through dividends or through share buyback.

Our outlook, and Luc already anticipated our outlook, it is in the current market environment for us very, very difficult to come with very precise outlook. Do we prefer to play it safe by saying we will be in line? Remember that as from the 1st of July, the very strong tolling agreement we have with RWE will not be in place anymore. So being in line with 6 months of itself. And we never know what will happen with the straight of all with the front in Ukraine. We believe that saying that full year [indiscernible] will be in line with the current figures is already good for us. PB Leiner is fully incorporated in the 2026 outlook, where we don't know when we're going to be able to close the transaction [indiscernible] exactly with Darling Ingredients. Please note that the transaction might also give a capital gain on the merger at some point with Darling on the basis of PB Leiner.

And then we would like to bring you to another topic. We have, and you have seen that we have EUR 158 million of cash on our balance sheet sitting as of the 31st of December. So it has been the intention of the group together with the Board to do and bring a new division or business units to life. The details are still being worked out as we speak, but more an investment vehicle, whereby instead of deping cash at the bank at a relatively stable rate, we believe it is better to utilize it to do some smaller investments, not only acquisitive M&As for 100%.

As you know, Tessenderlo but we would be inclined and open smaller tickets investments, maybe some in -- to the extent small that can be very liquid and others where we would take a minority position in some larger companies, whereby we would limit ourselves not to the full management of the company, but to board position maybe within those strategic companies. Then we have our financial calendar. The annual report is going to be published on April 1, that's next week. The Annual General Meeting of Shareholders is May 12, and our half year figures will be published at the end of August on the '26.

And I think, Bjorn, we're going to take some questions now from the audience.

That's correct. Let me quickly check. I will give analysts the possibility. I will put them live and then they can ask their questions. I will start with Christian Faitz the first one. I'll bring you on the screen.

Yes, all the best for these difficult times. I mean you guys need to manage businesses. We just look at your shares. So a couple of questions, please. First of all, how do you see the development and availability of sulfur impacting your SOP business? I believe something like 40% of sulfur -- global sulfur volumes are passing the straight. So how do you deal with that? And maybe in combination with that also higher energy costs for your Mannheim process? That would be my first question.

And -- and if you could tell us a little bit if and potentially '27 [indiscernible]

Christian, thank you very much for your question. Yes, sulfur shortage has been around for quite a while, to be honest, especially the kind of sulfur we need. But luckily enough, we have some several types of contracts with various sulfur suppliers. Long term, we don't buy a lot of spot sulfur, and we get a guarantee of supply for our facilities around the world. There are some plants that we have in the U.S. that are directly connected to a refinery and they get sulfur actually piped through -- directly to the plant.

So it is an issue. The price is definitely an issue, but the availability for us for the moment is less an issue. Well, we don't know how long the crisis will last. I was reading this morning that some vessels were still sailing through [indiscernible] they will reopen it by next week, and that would be one crisis less. But indeed, we're monitoring the situation actively. The energy cost and the energy situation in general for the group, we have several hedges positions for the coming 3 years, be it on gas or be it on electricity. All hedges and all companies and all plants have different hedging mechanism because of the various geographies. We don't hedge the same way in the U.S. as we do in Europe. And we don't hedge the same way in France as we do in Germany or Belgium for that instance. But I would say that more than half of our portfolio today is currently hedged for 2026 and about 40% is hedged through 2027.

[indiscernible] To add some flavor to that to be sure, so determined by the index. We are a victim of the index increases or we benefit if indexes are going down. In respect of the energy costs, indeed, energy is an important factor in the chemical industry. And since you are a chemical industry expert, I think it is important to say that we, as chemical plant do not use gas as a raw material. As other fertilizer companies on the nitrogen. Gas is there raw material. They take the gas, they make the hydrogen from the hydrogen, they make the ammonia, from the ammonia, they go on to the UAN or to the urea, right? So that is for them a completely different picture than ours.

Having said, of course, your questions on visit when you came for our Capital Markets Day, we were grateful that you were there. It helps you always understand it better. It is a plant where we also have [indiscernible] processes, meaning when we make our sulfuric acid, we have steam that is coming available, which is producing electricity. So we also have some hedge there for the consumption on our side. What is though more concerning for our Ham plant is that we are connected through a pipe system to Violleau. And Violleau is taking HCL from our plants from our Mannheim, pipe it to Violleau. They then put it into VCM, which is then going into the plastics.

You may be aware or you may not be aware, but currently, Violleau is under a daughter company of ICG in Germany currently under court protection. And so that would influence our business in a way that if they cannot take our AGL that might have an impact on us.

We understand that the management is hard working at Violleau to find solutions. But still, we want to highlight a little bit that we -- not only to the Middle East difficulties, we are also having these difficulties of chemical companies which are interconnected with us sailing difficult times and making losses. I'm just sharing public information here, but the losses at Violleau since 2023 have been higher. And so that for sure has an impact.

So I think you will understand a little bit what has been happening to us. The impairment, why do we need to take an impairment? We need to take an impairment because earnings do not support our capital employed into the business. So we do have a problem there in respect of competitiveness of the business. Now our colleague in the Mickael Chicot, who is our Chief Transformation Officer, has also been there at the plant. We are engaging in constructive constructions also with the unions on what we need to do to increase the competitiveness of our plant in Ham. The plant can, for sure, have a good future, but having to take such an impairment is, in my mind, I see it as a kind of punishment because at the end of the day, your return is not high enough to support your capital employed.

And definitely, there is a high degree of urgency there to improve the situation going forward. And there, we definitely need to call on our unions to make sure that we, as a team work together and not against each other to achieve more productivity going forward. It is important to say that our Mannheim process is more labor-intensive than general chemical plants, which run on reactors and pumps like we do on our liquid fertilizers. Here, it's more builders, it's more movement, it's more people. And I have always been an investor in Belgium, me personally, and I have always been fighting for every job in Belgium. But of course, it always takes 2 to tango, and we need the support of everybody. I must say sometimes it has been difficult to bring across that sense of urgency. It looks like now we are in a better momentum.

And therefore, we hope that, that impairment will be a one-off and will not reoccur in the future because it has to be said the business still need a lot of investments, Miguel highlighted there that some of the buildings are old and antiquated, et cetera. So we will need to further invest there. And so these are tough times. Having said that, we make the best SOP in the world. I want to highlight that. We make the best, and we are also recognized as such in the market.

So -- but the turmoil that we went through, you should not forget that we were sourcing for 50 years, everything from Belarussia and Russia. Now we are getting it from much further away. We're getting it in Skatchewan, putting it on unit trains from Skatchewan to Vancouver and Vancouver in through the Panama Canal, it's coming to Antwerp. I do not need to tell you how much extra logistical cost that brings with it. So I'm just trying to inform the market and all of you and also why we are kind of and giving firmer outlooks with all what's going on.

Let me put the next one. So as the next one, I will -- Wim Hoste from KBC. Let me put you on the screen.

I have a couple of questions. I would like to ask them one by one. So continuing on Agro, how is your pricing power and volumes developing at the moment? We hear that, yes, there's quite some shortage. You mentioned that sulfur indexes go up. But how fast can you translate that into your own selling prices? And yes, how are volumes doing both for ATS and SOP. Can you comment on that, please?

Well what we are doing, of course, we are -- firstly following all our raw material costs, which are indeed going up, right? And we are passing on price increases accordingly. So in that respect, the margin is there, and we are working with customers. And I think that needs to be said that both on supplier side and on the customer side with the exception of our MOP sourcing from Russia and Belarus, which has changed. But for all our other suppliers that we have customers, we have very long relationships. And through these very long relationships, quite often 20 years and longer, we have been working with each other and everybody understands the indexes, everybody see what's happening and everybody understands we need to adapt accordingly. So on that front, we are okay.

We are also -- since we are in these long-term relationships, not there to take advantage and say play customer. That's not what we do either. So we value these long-term relationships, and we want to have these relationships in the good and in the bad times -- and so things are going as they should be going, we think.

Okay. Next question would be on the capital allocation. Your share buyback program has terminated end of December. You mentioned the vision that you will build regarding investments. So what are the priorities for capital allocation going into the future? Is it a possibility to restart buybacks? Or will you fully focus on building out that investment branch? Can you maybe comment a bit on that?

I'd be happy to comment on that. At the end of the day, it will depend on the opportunity and on the value creation. You as shareholders, you rightly expect us to maximize earnings per share to deliver that. And we will always react into a way that will help us to create that value. So going forward, we have decided to do this investor thing. I must say that is something that I was explained and told to me some 20 years ago. 20 years ago, I bought a company Atilab from [indiscernible] the CEO at the same at the time. And he explained to me at the time how he was using his shares that he was buying in big multinational companies, which were always liquid as a little bit as his bank account, where he said, if I see a big opportunity to invest into private equity, I sell shares and I invest in private equity. And then whether a private equity fund is coming to it, I have cash coming in and I buy again in shares.

So we have said we prudently use our balance sheet going forward, but always having in mind liquidity. And the difference is if you do an M&A transaction, you buy something and you have no liquidity anymore, you spend the money and you have to work within it. It can go wrong or you may need money for something else but the money is locked into it. Here, what we are trying to do is we're trying to build in more flexibility in our balance sheet where then through these positions that we take, we are able to increase or to lower according to opportunities that may arise in our core businesses that we can all of a sudden buy something, like we were buying this thing. This was not a strategy and look, we need to buy, we need to buy that. We said we like the technology, we follow it.

And then all of a sudden, if you need the cash, then you sell some shares, pay for it and move on. So it is creating more optionality for our company to create more income. I think that's how you should understand it.

Okay. Clear. And 2 more questions. The first one is on the outlook for Picanol given the fluctuations of the yen and rising interest rates, how are order books or what's the outlook for the Picanol business, the weaving machines business?

Well, I must tell you, I have also been traveling. I was in India. I was in different places. So of course, we do feel today uncertainty, which has arisen in the last 4 weeks. So I must say what is encouraging in the textile business is that the mill capacity is running quite well. So when you look with our customers, they are running quite well. What we are seeing is that machines are getting older. And I think there will also need to be replacement of machines going forward. CapEx require stability and financial stability. And of course, wars are not helping to that. I must say that I'm -- despite the short time work that we are experiencing in Heber, where we unfortunately had to lay off some colleagues last week to align the production capacity more with the demand. We still have -- how you call it, if I may say, the sample days, we still have days of...

Technical deployment. Yes.

So we are still doing that. I can tell you that technology-wise, our leadership is still there. And it is not just me saying it, it's even the Chinese saying it in the 5-year plan that our machines to chase the Picanol technology. So there, we are [indiscernible] technology-wise, we are good. And so then it is a purpose to go through these difficult storms that we are facing.

Okay. Understood. And then a final question for me would be on T-Power. I recall from the past that utilization was very low. So can you maybe -- without discussing really the options on the table or potentially on the table, can you comment on what the current utilization rate of the plant is in '25, for example?

Well, no, we cannot do that, but I can help you in another way, I believe. We believe that the future of gas power plants is not in the running hours. The future is in the flexibility. We are going through a change in climate and climate, I mean in power generation, which is I would like to remind everybody when the sun is shining, there is free of charge and nobody pays for the sun shining and nobody pays for the wind blowing. So when the wind mills are running, when the solar panels are producing a lot of power, then the power is not running. But what do you do if there is no wind and there is no sun? And this for a prolonged like they say in Germany, .

So what do you do that? But then you need the gas plants, right? And you may need them a few hours per day. You may need them at peaks and evening, et cetera. Our power plant is very flexible to be able to help in all these situations. So this is a little bit what we can tell you about T-Power.

I think we have 7 minutes left. So I will put on Frank Claassen. Just put you on screen.

I've got 2 questions left. First of all, on DYKA, the PVC prices have also risen because of the crisis recently. Could you elaborate how you're dealing with that? And what the impact could be on DYKA? That's first.

And then secondly, the CapEx, well, flat in '26, which means still half of that is growth CapEx. What are the main growth projects where you spent your growth CapEx on in '26?

All right. I'll take the first one. Miguel can take the second one. So on DYKA, indeed, so polymer prices are going up. We using PVC polypropylene and polyethylene. As such, we are also adapting our sales prices as we have to. But for me, the biggest problem that we have in Europe is that every politician also in Holland and everywhere is talking about the housing shortage and how we should address that. To me, that is a huge opportunity for our economies if we can unleash the construction market. And I think that's really what we need. There is a shortage of -- in every country of thousands of housing yet, the release of building permits is still coming down. Figure that one out, big shortage and building permits going down.

So there, of course, there is a big appeal towards governments. By the way, unleashing permits and unleashing grounds has no budgetary problems, right? It doesn't cost the government any money. just make a decision, let's free up space, let's free up permitting. Let's make sure that permitting do not take 6 or 8 years to be granted with endless appeal periods, et cetera, so that we can get the economy moving. And then to me, that is the most important that we need.

Yes. And the PVC price have been quite low for quite some years right now. And so seeing the PVC price increasing, it's not a shock. It is something that we had foreseen. There is an overcapacity of PVC in Europe in general. We talked about the situation with [indiscernible] earlier. And so yes, they gradually increase. But okay, we are also hedging our PVC supply for. So we don't need to pass on those higher prices to the customers yet. Of course, nobody knows how long the situation will last.

To come back to your CapEx question, Yes, the guidance is not lower in '26. The main growth project we still have ongoing is the expansion of our ferrochloride capacity in Kuhlmann with everything that entails higher voltage transmission lines, et cetera. And the second largest project we have is the gasification plant in S for Akiolis, where we convert biogas into electricity basically. These are the 2 main growth projects. And then we have got plenty of small debottlenecking projects around the world that will make most of the growth initiative for '26.

Okay. Thank you, Frank. If I look at the Q&A box, I think a lot of questions have been covered. In the meantime, maybe we take time for 1 or 2.

Go ahead.

The first one, does the dividend payment from the available share premium mean that there will be no dividends withholding tax clients?

Well, it's a very good question. And actually since the morning, I think a lot of persons have texted us to ask that question. The answer is not no. There will not be any dividend -- any withholding tax to be paid. It will depend at the exact date of the dividend payment. But for the portion that is coming out of the share premium, it is in Belgium indeed free of withholding tax. A portion will still come from the provisions for which a very smaller amount normally of withholding tax will be paid. What we can say already is that about 70% of the EUR 0.75 will be coming from share premiums and 30% from provisions. So withholding tax is expected on only 30% of the EUR 0.75.

I think good news for the private shareholder because the net dividend will be higher. And so that's, I think, good for people that bought shares in our company that the net dividend is higher.

And some people have asked me the question, what does it entail for foreign shareholders with double tax treaty, et cetera? I don't have the answer yet, but we will look to that.

All right. Then maybe one final question. If you're expanding the ferrochloride capacity in Kuhlmann Europe, why if volumes are lowering?

Well, volumes are lowering because we made a strategic choice to keep our margins at a certain level and not to go into a big fight with competition. The volumes are lowering mainly Germany and in Belgium only so far, which is good. And we kept our margin in the larger French market and the U.K. to some extent. This was a decision because we didn't know when the full expansion and debottlenecking of the plant will be 100% ready. A big portion of it will be ready in the coming months this year. So there, we will maybe adjust our pricing policy and our volume distribution policy going forward.

All right. Well, thank you all for dialing in today. Be assured, we will do our utmost best to run the company as good as we can. And this -- we have a long-term perspective so that we are doing a good job on the long term and not getting carried away with the of the craziness of the day. So thank you all for joining us.

Thank you.