Good morning to all. Thank you for standing by and welcome to Umicore's conference call. Please note that this conference is being recorded today. Your lines are automatically muted and we kindly request you to keep them muted during the Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question, please use the raise hand option as it continues. For those connecting via phone, please send an email with your questions to the investor relations inbox, ir@umicore.com. We will treat these questions during the live session. We will repeat these guidelines again at the start of the Q&A session. For now, I'll turn the conference over to Marc. Thank you, Valeria. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's presentation. I will first comment on our performance in 2020 and the outlook for 2021 before reviewing the major achievements in each business unit. I will then hand over to Filip, who will take you through the financials. Finally, I will wrap up before handing the call over to you for any questions. Before commenting on Umicore's performance, though, please allow me to say a few words about the process which we have just launched in order to prepare for my succession. In case you were concerned, I would like to reassure you that I'm physically fit and according to my entourage, at least, mentally as well. When I took over as CEO back in 2008, my mandate was to bring Umicore to the next stage of development. Over the past 12 years, we have streamlined the portfolio of activities to create more focus. We have amplified research programs, and we have accelerated growth investments. Together with my teams, we have transformed Umicore into a global leader in clean mobility materials and recycling, with a market cap which is 6 x-7x what it was back in 2008. We have now successfully completed the execution of our Horizon 2020 growth strategy, and everything is in place for Umicore to keep thriving. We have talented teams. We have a promising technology pipeline. We have strong market positions and highly supportive mega trends, as well as strong financials to support our growth ambitions. The board and I felt this would be an auspicious moment to prepare for my succession, and I will be pleased to ensure a smooth transition in due course. Enough said about me. Let's now review the highlights of 2020. The pandemic has dramatically redefined my agenda since the beginning of 2020 with a clear priority to protect, to the best possible extent, the health of all Umicore employees. The COVID outbreak has required the introduction of strict hygiene measures and medical protocols, and we have been quite successful in preventing the virus from spreading in our sites. We have also gone the extra mile to continue serving our customers globally, and I'm truly grateful to my 11,000 colleagues for their engagement during these challenging times. The pandemic and the resulting lockdown measures caused a huge downturn in the automotive industry, one of our main end markets. In Catalysis, we have seen extreme opposite movements during the year. In the spring, we were confronted with the closure by our customers of most car assembly lines and in turn had to temporarily shut down most of our catalyst plants. In contrast, we saw a sharp recovery in demand, which started in China in the second quarter, took shape in other regions over the summer months, and gathered pace through the fourth quarter. While the performance in Catalysis was impacted to a significant extent by the temporary shutdowns in the first half, we benefited in a disproportionate manner from the recovery in demand in the second half due to our leading positions in gasoline technologies, particularly in China and Europe. In Energy & Surface Technologies, market demand was also severely affected by the pandemic. In addition, market conditions in the EV battery supply chain remain depressed due to the overcapacity in China and the presence of excess inventories. Excluding inventory effects, Umicore sales volumes of cathode materials for EVs grew broadly in line with the EV battery demand. Which confirms Umicore's strong competitive position in the cathode materials space. In recycling, we achieved a record performance. We nearly doubled earnings compared to 2019 with high metal prices and strong trading conditions by far the largest contributors to the increase. Overall, Umicore achieved record earnings in 2020, and this goes to show the merits of our strategy, which builds on the complementarity of our activities. It also shows the resilience and agility of our teams in the face of unprecedented conditions. The good news really is that the patterns which we observed in the second half of last year continue to support our business today, and I can already say that we are off to a strong start in 2021. We should not get carried away, though, as the visibility on market demand remains extremely limited. The pandemic is not yet behind us. The experience of last year has shown that things can change very rapidly. If we assume for a moment that the pandemic gets gradually under control and will not cause more disruptions to the economy or to Umicore's operations in 2020, 2021, sorry, we should see again an acceleration in our growth trajectory with all business groups contributing to the growth. In Catalysis, we expect to keep benefiting from our leading position in gasoline technologies, particularly in Europe and China, in an automotive market which according to projections by industry experts, should keep recovering. In addition, we expect to benefit from the initial impact of the introduction of the China VI standards for heavy-duty diesel applications, as well as the full-year impact of cost improvements, which we carried out in 2020. In Energy & Surface Technologies, we see good market traction for cathode materials. We project substantial growth in our sales volumes for EVs. This volume growth should allow us to resume earnings growth in 2021 in line with the current market consensus. This despite some EUR 50 million of additional fixed costs linked to our growth investment and with margins continuing to reflect pricing pressure. In Recycling, we expect moderate volume growth and a continued very favorable supply mix. In addition, metal price could once again boost our performance. You will have seen that certain metal prices have continued to surge since the end of last year, and if metal prices were to stay overall at their current elevated levels throughout 2021, Recycling earnings would increase very significantly from the record levels of 2020. All in all, current trends certainly bode well. However, it is early in the year, and let's bear in mind that degree of uncertainty remains high. Despite the pandemic, or perhaps because of the pandemic, we have seen support for greener policies increasing, whether related to cleaner mobility or the need for a circular economy. This was evidenced, for instance, by the Green Recovery Plan in Europe or by the step-up of the NEV penetration targets in China. In other words, the regulatory drivers which underpin our growth strategy continue to get stronger. Against this backdrop, our motivation to maintain strategic course of action is very high. In particular, we have pursued the construction of our cathode materials plant in Poland, and it will start production towards the end of the year. This additional capacity will come in timely to serve the growing EV demand in Europe and the growing needs of our customers. We have also pursued the ramp-up of our fuel cell catalyst production in Korea and the expansion of catalyst production capacity in China for light and heavy-duty applications. In Recycling, the focus of our investments in the short and mid-term is to keep improving the environmental and safety performance of the Hoboken plants. Finally, we have continued to increase our research and development efforts in clean mobility materials and in recycling, both in terms of product and process technologies. At the same time, of course, I believe that we have responded most effectively to the challenges caused by the pandemic outbreak. As I mentioned in my introductory remarks, the priority is to keep everyone at Umicore healthy, and I would like once again to thank our medical staff for having ensured safe working conditions, and I would like to thank all colleagues for having swiftly adopted the required precautions. Filip will comment on that later. Finally, the pandemic has forced us to adjust to rapidly changing market dynamics, which resulted in a streamlining of certain operations and an impairment of certain assets. Let us now turn to the business review. This slide recaps the key figures for 2020, which are actually commented into detail in our press release, I therefore propose to turn immediately to Catalysis. The automotive market was severely hit by the COVID outbreak, global car production contracted by 18% in 2020. The graphs show the market development month by month against 2019, you can clearly see how deep the production cuts were in the first half across regions. The graphs also show that the recovery started earlier and was most pronounced in China. Against the backdrop of an 18% market contraction, our revenues in Catalysis decreased by only 7%, as our leading positions in gasoline technologies allowed us to benefit in a disproportionate manner from the market recovery in the second half in China and Europe in particular. You may recall that I mentioned a year ago that Umicore had become the leading supplier of light duty catalysts in China. The benefits thereof are increasingly visible. In Europe, we continue to benefit from the decline of diesel car sales in the mix. Our revenues were also supported by strong demand for China V heavy-duty catalysts and demand for our fuel cell catalysts. On the other hand, the stationary catalyst business, which is mainly a project-driven business, suffered from delays due to the pandemic. Within the Catalysis segment, I would like to underline that the business unit Automotive Catalysts showed tremendous resilience. Its revenues and adjusted EBIT for the whole year were only moderately below the levels of 2019. After a performance in the first half, which reflected the impact of the pandemic, the market recovery and our outperformance, combined with the effect of cost savings, allowed us to achieve record revenues and earnings in the second half of 2020. Turning now to EVs, we see that battery demand expressed in gigawatt hours, which by the way, is the relevant metric to look at for battery material suppliers, grew by 17% in 2020. This market growth was driven by increasing demand in Europe, where the new CO2 regulations are supporting a faster penetration of electrified vehicles. The number of EV models being launched in the region or in the pipeline is truly impressive. It is also worth noting that plug-in hybrids remain very popular in Europe, where they make up half of EV sales. In China, battery demand remained subdued during the better part of 2020, and saw an improvement at the end of the year only. After years of strong growth in China and a doubling of battery demand for EVs in 2018, the Chinese EV market has shown very limited growth in 2019 and 2020, unlike what was anticipated. The cathode materials industry grew somewhat less than the 17% increase in gigawatt hours for EVs, and this was due to the excess inventories in the value chain. We believe that these excess inventories have now been depleted. Taking into account the impact of inventory corrections, we estimate that Umicore sales volumes of cathode materials for EVs grew broadly in line with the market, despite a somewhat unfavorable platform mix. This performance was supported by strong demand in Europe, where we doubled our sales volume in 2020, albeit from a small base. In contrast with the growth in EV applications, cathode materials demand for energy storage systems and portable electronics was very low. We recorded lower revenues in the Cobalt & Specialty Materials activities due to the pandemic and in Electro-Optic Materials due to low demand for our products used in fiber optics or satellites. The Electroplating activity, now renamed Metal Deposition Solutions, benefited from good demand levels from the electronics industry. Margins in E&ST were affected by the underutilization of our cathode materials capacity in China and pricing pressure, as well as higher fixed costs following recent and ongoing expansion programs. Our Recycling activities did benefit in 2020 from an exceptionally supportive metal price environment, especially for PGMs. You can see on the graphs that rhodium and palladium prices had a great run in 2020, despite lower demand from the automotive industry in the first half of the year. New and more stringent emission norms do effectively require higher PGM loadings, and the shift from diesel to gasoline is exacerbating the tension for rhodium and palladium. We also observed that new supply sources can hardly keep up with the higher market demand, and the recovery of automotive demand has pushed prices to new highs. For the same reasons, price volatility was extremely high in 2020, which has resulted in a remarkably high contribution from our trading activity. Finally, demand for gold and silver investment products has remained very high, probably due in part to the crisis context, as these metals continue to be seen by investors as a safe haven. I would also like to point out that metal prices are even higher today, and in certain cases, much higher than the average prices of 2020. In addition, certain hedges that were entered into before 2020 and which meant that we did not fully benefit from the price rally in 2020 have rolled off in the meanwhile. Metal prices constituted the largest factor behind the increase in revenues and earnings in Recycling in 2020. We also performed well volume-wise despite the operating constraints aimed at preventing the virus from entering or spreading in our sites. We had a higher availability of the Hoboken smelter, which underwent a regular maintenance shutdown in 2020 compared with an extended shutdown in 2019. The supply environment will also continue to be favorable, with ample input of recycling materials, in particular PGM-bearing spent catalysts. Finally, the Precious Metals Management business unit benefited from high price volatility and generated exceptionally high earnings. At this point, I would like to hand over to Filip, who will cover the financials. Yes. Thank you, Marc. Good morning to everyone. Marc has already provided you with the group's key financials. This slide puts the adjusted operating earnings in a historic perspective. Despite the challenging business context, and in particular, the downturn in the automotive sector in the first half of the year, managed to generate record adjusted earnings and margins due to its diversified and unique business portfolio. As has been the case in past economic crisis, the Recycling business group and its metal price sensitivity once again demonstrated its counter-cyclical characteristics with its stellar performance, more than offsetting lower earnings in Catalysis and Energy & Surface Technologies. The effect from higher metal and trading results in Recycling pushed group margins to a new record. When focusing on the second half performance, next to Recycling, also Catalysis contributed to year-on-year growth and even exceeded pre-COVID margins on the back of cost savings and a strong volume recovery. Operating cash flows, expressed here as adjusted EBITDA, reflect the same trends. When stripping out the EUR 24 million year-on-year increase in depreciation charges, adjusted EBITDA increased 7% to reach a new high. In our first half-year release, we referred to the particularly pronounced operating leverage effects at play. A negative factor in Catalysis and Energy & Surface Technologies, and a positive driver in Recycling. In the second half of the year, the leverage effect in Catalysis reversed and turned positive through a combination of business recovery and cost savings effects, including some initial benefits from the restructuring measures of the first half. As Marc mentioned, these underlying earnings drivers are expected to persist going into 2021. By contrast, in Energy & Surface Technologies, the negative lever effect accelerated in the second half. Finally, in Recycling, the margin tailwinds of the first half continued into the second half, increasing overall group margins. Reviewing Umicore's full P&L, the 5% higher adjusted operating result translated into a 3% higher adjusted net group result. Continuing the trend of the first half, finance costs increased on a full-year basis, mostly on the back of higher gross financial debt. For example, the interest due on the EUR 390 million U.S. private placement debt, payable as from September 2019, was now accounted for a full-year. Also, the financial charge related to the EUR 500 million convertible bond that we issued in June, and which consists of the discounted value of the implied conversion rights and the amortized transaction cost, was newly accounted for. The adjusted tax rate was stable at 24.2%, resulting in flat adjusted tax charges year-over-year, despite some substantial changes in the underlying regional result distribution. The most significant impact on the full P&L comes from the EUR 237 million adjustments to EBIT. This includes the EUR 72 million of charges already recognized in the first half, leaving EUR 165 million for the second half, which is somewhat higher than the previous guidance of some EUR 150 million. This next slide provides some detail on these adjustments. While in the first half of the year these charges were concentrated in Catalysis, the second half year items mostly relate to the Energy & Surface Technologies and Recycling segments. Most of these adjustments find their origin in Umicore's response to the COVID-19 crisis and the resulting changes in business context in some business units. Over half of the charges are restructuring related as we consolidate activities on fewer sites in the Automotive Catalysts and Cobalt & Specialty Materials business units. Close to the full charge in Recycling consists of a EUR 50 million provision to establish a green zone neighboring the Hoboken plant, as already explained by Marc. A consultation with the city and the residents continues. This best estimate may be updated going forward. In Energy & Surface Technologies, the bulk of the charges relate to the beforementioned restructuring in Cobalt & Specialty Materials, including a non-cash value impairment following the sale of part of the unit's right-sized permanent cobalt inventory. Of the total full-year EBIT adjustment of EUR 237 million, close to EUR 150 million has a non-cash nature, and most of the remaining EUR 90 million will be cashed out in future years. After accounting for tax effects, the impact of these adjustments on Umicore's net profit amounted to EUR 192 million. Despite the challenging business context in 2020, Umicore's operating cash flows were the highest in years. Cash flow from operations before changes in working capital were up 13% to EUR 707 million, as is plotted on the top line on this top graph. Cash working capital further increased in the second half, growing to EUR 104 million over the full-year, driven by higher metal prices and PGM prices in particular. Catalysis saw the highest increase in working capital, with an acceleration in the second half. Working capital and Recycling also grew, but to a much lesser extent than in Catalysis. While Energy & Surface Technologies reduced its working capital needs. The working capital trend for the current year will also depend to a large extent on the prevailing metal prices. Cash spent on CapEx and capitalized development costs amounted to EUR 435 million compared to EUR 588 million over the same period in 2019. This reduction reflects the decision following the COVID-19 outbreak to restrict spending on non-strategic projects. As in 2019, Energy & Surface Technologies accounted for approximately 2/3 of CapEx, with Rechargeable Battery Materials greenfield plant in Poland as a key project. For 2021, we would currently guide for an increase in group CapEx from the 2020 level. Finally, these combined flows resulted in a positive net free operating cash flow of EUR 168 million compared to a net cash out of EUR 39 million in 2019. As you can see from the chart on this next slide, this free operating cash flow was sufficient to fund the financial and tax cash outs, as well as the interim dividend payout, resulting in a roughly stable net financial debt compared to the end of 2019. This stable net financial debt corresponds to a solid leverage ratio of 1.8 x adjusted EBITDA for the full group. Next to stabilizing the absolute level of net indebtedness, we took the opportunity in 2020, as you know, to further strengthen and diversify our sources of funding, amongst others, by securing two important new long-term funding instruments, an eight-year loan with the European Investment Bank of EUR 125 million and a EUR 500 million five-year convertible bond. This concludes my section, and back over to you, Marc. Thank you, Filip. Before opening the line to your questions, I would like to reach out with two messages of this morning's presentation. I will not rehash how the COVID-19 outbreak has complicated our lives and affected the global economy. I'm simply happy that the precautionary measures which we have taken early enough have proven very effective at protecting the health of our colleagues at Umicore. I'm proud that we have equally well managed to keep serving our customers and generated our best ever financial performance. I expect an even better performance across businesses in 2021. Proud also to have maintained the strategic course of action and successfully demonstrated the merits of our Horizon 2020 strategy. Everything is in place for the company to keep thriving. The board and I felt this would be an auspicious moment to start preparing for my succession. With this, I would like to open the floor to your questions and hand over the call to our moderator, Valeria. Thank you. We will now start the Q&A session. Please note that we kindly request that you take the following guidelines into account. Please ask only one question per person to give everybody the opportunity to ask questions. To ask your question, please use the raise hand button at the top menu on the Teams window. Keep your microphone muted until I call your name. You will then be able to unmute your microphone and ask the question directly. After that, please lower your hand by clicking on the raise your hand button again. For those connected via phone or those that do not have the raise hand functionality in their settings, please send an email with your questions to the ir@umicore.com mailbox. We will treat the incoming questions during the live session. The first question comes from Sebastian Bray. Please unmute yourself and go ahead. Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. It's on the CapEx plan. If Umicore is moving back to a more volume-centric strategy in China, is the greenfield expansion that was stopped in 2020 back on the menu? Where are these incremental volumes primarily going to be coming from in the year 2021? Is there still spare capacity in Korea? Will it have to come from China? Thank you. Hello. Good morning. Can you hear me? Sorry, we have a technical problem. You have to bear with us for a second. Okay. Does it work now? Can you hear me well? Perfect, Marc. Okay, good. Thank you. Sorry for the technical hiccup. Let me then restart because I don't know exactly how much of my answer you have already heard. The strategy is not changing. The fact is that we expect much better volumes in 2021 because of the fact that the models that we serve are showing very good traction now. From a regional distribution point of view, the volume growth is going to be spread across Europe, China, and Korea. Korea to a more limited extent because there we have some, I would say, lower available capacity. We expect quite a bit of a recovery in China in terms of demand for our products and in terms of sales. Not to an extent where we will be able to utilize the full capacity in China. Finally, we see continued excellent traction in Europe, and towards the end of the year, our new plant in Europe will also come on stream and start producing for the European market. Thank you. Just to clarify, is the China greenfield now happening again, or is the expansion still stopped? One moment, please. We're having some technical difficulties. Bear with me. One second, please. We're having technical difficulties. One second. Okay. Should come back to you. Okay. Thank you. The next question comes from Adam Collins. Please ask your question. Yeah. Hello. Hello, everybody. First of all, can I congratulate Marc on 25 years of service to Umicore. The business has certainly been transformed during this period, so I'd like to offer you my thanks for some great service. I had one question in relation to the structural issues in the non-automotive area of cathode materials. This is sort of a quick two-parter. Firstly, on stationary applications, does NMC have a future in utility scale? On the portable electronic side, again, could you address whether LCO is a commoditized space now? Let me start with the first. Yes, as you have really Adam, can you hear me? I can hear you now. Have you heard Marc? No. Okay. We're still having technical problems. What I propose is that we take a break. We try to fix things here. We start the call up in five minutes. I think that's better than continuing to struggle. I think I- Our apologies for that. No, that's fine, Filip. No problem. I'm wondering whether maybe we should move on dialing. It has to help you. Yeah. I think it's for us to fix things on our end. If we could maybe reconvene in five minutes, if that's okay with you. Of course, yeah. No problem. Our apologies again. We'll try to fix things here. No problem, Filip. Okay. Goodbye. Make sure you don't announce this. Oh, have you had it? They're not hearing you. It still works. Yeah. Speakers. Oh, geez. Yeah. The headset, they were hearing what you were saying. The problem is I didn't have any. We all have a headset. Does it work if I? Hello? Yes, Marc, we heard you well. Okay. I think now you can hear us. We apologize for the inconvenience. We will restart the Q&A. I believe Adam Collins was asking a question. Please go ahead, and unmute yourself. Okay. Marc, I don't know. Did you hear the question originally? Would you like me to repeat it? I did hear the question, Adam. Just go ahead then, please. Yeah. First of all, I would like to thank you for your kind words, which preceded your questions. They went straight to my heart. Thank you. Right. Let me start with LCO, which indeed as you pointed out, is a commoditizing product, commoditizing market. We have clearly de-emphasized LCO in our development programs as well as in our capacity allocation plans as our focus clearly has moved to automotive applications where there is more room for differentiation than today in portable electronics. In terms of the stationary applications, for energy storage applications, the picture is somewhat different. NMC has a role to play there. It is one of the technologies which is being utilized, one of the mainstream technologies in ESS, and we expect that it will continue to be the case. However, it's a project-driven business where the patterns can be somewhat erratic indeed. I wouldn't extrapolate too much from the fact that it was very low in 2020 compared to prior years. I think it's a business that will continue to have ups and downs. It's, for us, a good business, a good application. Again, NMC has definitely a role to play there. Okay, thank you. May I just clarify the first point about the portable electronics? LCO is challenged. Do you have an NMC play into portable electronics? Is that also a market you're going to de-emphasize because that's challenged too? NMCs for portable electronics or portable applications, has, a long time ago, been one of the outlets for Umicore products. That's something that has been de-emphasized already a longer while ago, because of the focus clearly shifting to automotive applications. The developments in automotive require a lot of resources, and we want to be sure that we have the right critical mass and the right focus. Okay. Thank you, Marc. Thank you. Our next question is coming from the IR inbox from Charlie Webb from Morgan Stanley. Marc, the question is, how sustainable do you believe the H2 margins in Catalysis are? Would you expect some normalization from this very high level in 2021? Good morning, Charlie. It's a bit early in the year to talk about the margins in any business, because there is still quite the level of uncertainty regarding demand patterns. However, I would say that, again, with the caveat, if the pandemic does not cause new disruptions to the market, I would expect indeed, the higher levels of margins which we achieved in the second half of last year to be more or less sustainable. Why did we have such an improvement? First of all, because we have had successful operational excellence initiatives. You have cost improvements, which are definitely sustainable. Secondly, we have a very supportive mix effect, which indeed is today set to continue throughout 2021. I would say, again, with the caveat that I've mentioned about the uncertainty and the limited visibility that we have today, I would say that more or less, yes, these margins are sustainable. He also has a second question. In Energy & Surface Technologies, can you help us better understand what you're seeing in the underlying cathode and EV markets around pricing, technology, and the increased use of LFP, and demand, in particular, what you expect from Europe in 2021? That's a very comprehensive question, covering many bases and many important aspects of the market evolution in battery materials. First of all, I expect a continued strong traction in Europe. There is little doubt about that, given the amazing efforts that are being carried out by automotive makers to bring new electrified models to the market. The impact of the more stringent CO2 regulations, the change in consumer mindsets as well. I expect very strong traction in Europe and strong growth. That's why I mentioned in my remarks that our new capacity in Poland will actually come in timely to serve the growing needs of our customers in the region. You will also recall that we serve, to a certain extent, the European market through our facility in Korea, so that will have to continue for a while. In terms of other market dynamics, I would say that I expect no change in 2021 in terms of pricing environment. Pricing pressure continues to be very much present. Indeed, I expect no real change in terms of margin configuration. Give or take a few basis points, which are somewhat difficult to predict ahead of time. Other than that, I expect a certain continuation in terms of both pricing and margin context. The real difference for us will come from the additional volumes. In terms of margin, you have to bear in mind that we continue to add significant fixed cost to our cost base as we continue to expand. The construction of a new plant, the startup of a new plant imply additional D&A charges, imply significant startup and qualification costs. We thought it would be useful to quantify those, and that's why we have mentioned the some EUR 50 million of additional fixed costs to be taken into account. Let me say a few words about the technology development or the technology evolution. What we described a year or two years ago already is clearly materializing. There is a gradual trend to increase nickel content in the cathode chemistry. Today, the vast majority of the market is what we call a mid-nickel chemistry market, but higher nickel compositions are starting to take a greater proportion of the market. This gradual evolution continues along the lines that we had anticipated a year or two ago. LFP is gaining somewhat ground in China, clearly. You have seen that some of the best-selling models in China in the course of 2020 were low speed, low range, low cost cars, using LFP. I think that as I mentioned a year ago, or even more recently, that LFP will have a role to play. I see that as a niche chemistry in a way, because of the intrinsic limitation it has in terms of weight, in terms of range, in terms of overall performance. Clearly for lower cost cars with low range requirements, and low speed requirements, that's certainly a chemistry that can be considered. Now, this being said, and sorry to offer a long answer to your question. This being said, please bear in mind that today the LFP chemistry is mostly using idle capacity, spare capacity, which exists in China. That may also distort somewhat the cost or the price comparisons and if at certain point in time, new capacity would have to be built to produce LFP, this may have an impact on the price comparisons. We remain convinced, I remain convinced that NMCs and higher nickel NMCs will continue to be the mainstream, whether it's NMCs or NCAs or NCMAs. This family of technology will remain the mainstream, because it offers a unique trade-offs between cost, performance, range, safety and all the parameters which are important for the electric vehicles to be successful. Thank you. The next question comes from Wim Hoste. You can unmute yourself. Yes. Good morning. I would like to spend my question on rhodium, please. You appear to have made some hedges on rhodium, while in the past there has not been a paper market for that. Can you maybe elaborate on who's the counterparty? Was it just a financial party or someone who had some spare rhodium? Is there yet the establishment of a rhodium hedgeable market for you now going forward? Can you maybe elaborate on that? Thank you. Good morning. It's Filip. I'll take that question. Unfortunately, we cannot go into too much of details. I think the important thing is that we felt we should say that we have indeed hedged a minor part, I have to emphasize, a minor part of the rhodium exposure in 2022, 2023, through, I would say, forward contracts. This is with individual parties indeed. I think the importance in a way is that you have counterparties that at today's record rhodium prices are willing to step into forward contracts for 2022 and 2023. A minor part of that exposure is hedged. You're right. We typically in the past, we have not entered into hedges for rhodium, but obviously given the current pricing context, we felt that was appropriate. Again, emphasizing that it's only a minor part of our expected exposure. On the details, unfortunately, we cannot provide you with more information. Okay. Understand. Thank you. Yeah. This being said, I would like to add that we're talking about physical hedges, so it's not paper hedges. There is still no paper market for hedging. The counterpart is an industrial user of the metal. Okay, understand. Thank you and all the best. Thank you. The next question comes from Jean-Baptiste Rolland. You can unmute yourself. Morning, Marc, and good morning, Filip. I wanted to better understand in terms of the guidance that you're providing in Energy & Surface Technologies, and especially the fact that you're basically comfortable with consensus for next year. I'd like to understand what sort of assumptions around cobalt or nickel you have made around that guidance, as we have seen that it can be a pretty substantial part of, or bring at least some benefit. Given where the prices are today, that would be helpful if that's something that you could clarify. Thank you very much. Good morning, Jean-Baptiste. I would say the best assumption that we can use is the current pricing in a way, which should reflect everything that the market knows about possible developments on the supply and demand side. That's what we're using. It's based on what we currently see in the market. Okay. Thank you very much. Can I just follow up on? Yes just a quick one follow up on the Rechargeable Battery Materials in China, as you mentioned, continued pricing pressure. There are also a couple of data points that we're seeing pointing towards price increases. However, it's a little bit unclear whether that's completely related to increase in raw materials or whether there is also an improvement in the underlying dollar margin. I was just curious to see if this is something that your given development in volumes, et cetera, that you're benefiting from. That's a good observation, I can clarify that the price developments are related to the metal price content, and not the underlying, I would say, what we call technology premium, which remained pretty much unchanged compared to 2020. It's more, I would say, related to the cost of the raw materials. No benefit really for us or possibly for others because, typically we pass that through to our customers. Very clear. Thank you very much, Marc, and best wishes for the future. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. The next question comes from Mubasher Chaudhry. You can unmute yourself. Go ahead. Hi, Marc. Hi, Filip. Thank you for taking my questions. Just a quick one around the timeline for the succession plan. Just some comments around how long that's likely to take and whether you're looking for candidates internally or externally. Just some comments around that would be helpful. Just to follow up on one of the questions from earlier, how are you thinking about that greenfield capacity in China? Is that still planned, and when do you plan to get to the previously announced target of 100 GWh of capacity? Just some thoughts around that would be really helpful. Good morning, Mubasher. On the timing of the succession is not yet known, otherwise, we would have communicated about it. Today we have just started the process and the search for a successor. Difficult for me to estimate today how long it will take for the board to appoint a successor and for the successor to be in place. Really difficult to estimate, but we're not talking in days. I would think we're talking in months, but how many months is absolutely difficult to estimate today. Will internal candidates be considered? Yes. It is meant to be run as a dual track process. Yes, it will be open to internal candidates as well. In terms of capacity, I'm not sure I got the full extent of your question. In China, our greenfield in China is going to be better utilized in 2021 than it was in 2020, clearly so. However, it will not yet reach full capacity utilization. The market in China is only starting to recover. It's shown the first sign of recovering at the very end of 2020 and is still trailing a little bit compared to the levels of traction that we see in Europe, at least for the models that we do serve in that region. It will take a bit longer for us, and it will take just beyond 2021 to reach a much more optimal capacity utilization in that greenfield site. Now, on the overall gigawatt hours target, I would prefer to wait until we provide some more quantified guidance, typically at the end of April, to update the market on this specific aspect. Thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Thank you. The next question comes from Jaideep Pandya. Please unmute yourself and go ahead. Hi. Thanks, and best wishes to Marc. You did deliver better than what you said in 2015 for 2020, so well done. Just a very simple question, which is, what is Umicore's defense strategy? You've now announced that you want to step down. There is no beyond 2020 midterm target. If there is a takeover offer or there is, let's say, a hostile takeover offer, how do you defend yourself in an interim CEO situation and no midterm targets? Good morning, Jaideep, and thank you for the kind words. I would like to maybe clarify that I don't see myself as an interim CEO. It may be a little bit of a weird situation of announcing a succession process without the successor being announced. Actually, it's our duty to make this announcement so early in the process. It's, in my opinion, a legal obligation if a company launches such a process, actually, we have a duty of informing the market. It's a matter of sound governance. Plus, it is also the tradition of Umicore to communicate openly with its stakeholders on important decisions and important moments about the company. This being said, I don't see myself as an interim CEO. We have a growth plan that is still in place. We have enough on our agenda in terms of growth investments, research programs, qualification programs. Horizon 2020 has reached a milestone in terms of completion because 2020 is behind us by definition. However, the underlying content of Horizon 2020, which is the spectacular growth in clean mobility materials and in recycling, continues to be exactly what we're pursuing today. In a way, the best of that has yet to come. If you look at the electrification of the car industry, we're still at, let's say, 5%, 6%, 7%, 8% of penetration, which means that there is still more than 90% to go for the industry. We know exactly what we have to do in the coming weeks, in the coming month, in the coming years. Of course, it would be best if we could also spell out how this translates into financial targets for the midterm, and you will have to bear with us a little while, a little longer, in that respect. Just to follow up, there's been a lot of changes on your divisional level as well. Considering that, obviously what your announcement like, should we worry at all or? Obviously there's been changes on Recycling. You've shuffled your chairs around in terms of division heads as well. Your comment about internal and external search, how is that going to fit when a lot of the new leadership in divisions is also relatively new, basically? Yeah. I've just realized, Jaideep, before I go there, that I forgot to answer your question about defense. Yes. Our defense has always been at Umicore to make sure that we are properly valued and that our valuation reflects what we do, what our potential is of growth, of profitability. I think this is, in a way, the best defense that a company or the first line of defense that the company needs to have is to be properly valued. That implies for us having a compelling strategy, having a compelling execution of the strategy, and having a clear and open communication to the financial markets to support all of that. Is there more of a risk today for a hostile approach than in the past? Yeah. Difficult for me to gauge. In a way, we've had that question time and again, and we've had that question also at times when the share price was much lower than where it is today. Difficult for me to offer a different or a better answer than the answer we have always given, which is, we need to make sure we have the best strategy in place, that we thrive, we deliver, and that we are correctly valued. In terms of management changes, no, there is nothing to be worried about in a way, because the people around. First of all, reshuffling of responsibilities is something we do once in a while or at regular intervals, whatever you call that. If you look at the people around the table, the average tenure is pretty long. In Recycling and in Energy & Surface Technologies, we have Umicore executives now taking over with a very long and deep experience and knowledge of the business. There is absolutely nothing to be worried about. Bringing also some new talent and fresh talent to the management board, as we have also recently announced, is a good thing for the company. It's part of a constant rejuvenation process that a leadership team needs to go through. I have to say that at Umicore over the past 20 years, without willing to sound presumptuous, we have managed to combine, I would say, energy and rejuvenation with experience, by bringing people early in their career to high levels of responsibility. Which means that by the time they reach the age of 45 or 50, they have already accumulated a long leadership experience and a deep knowledge of our markets and our businesses. I'm not worried, and I'm actually quite proud about the manner in which I have shaped the management team, the leadership team at Umicore, and continue to do so. No worry, we're all in good shape. We know what we have to do. We're all extremely engaged and passionate about what we do at Umicore. Thanks a lot. Thank you. The next question comes from Chetan Udeshi. You may now unmute yourself. Please go ahead. Marc, can you give some color on what have you assumed, in terms of volume growth, in cathode business to offset some of the headwinds you mentioned? That would be the first question. Second question was, there is a lot of news or at least announcements from OEMs about cutting production in Q1 because of semiconductor shortages. Can you maybe comment on what you are seeing, or are you seeing any impact of that growth as of today? A more related question to that would be, based on what you have shipped in- I'm sorry, may I interupt you? I got the first question, but then you may have moved away from the microphone. If it not possible to understand your second question. Okay, can you hear me right now? Yes. A more related question to that would be, based on what you have shipped in Q4 in the Catalysis business, do you believe there was a bit of restocking by OEMs ahead of the actual production by them? Can you quantify that at all? Thank you. Chetan, on the volume assumptions in cathode materials, I don't want to be specific and offer a figure or a percentge at this point in time. I prefer just to stick to what we wrote, that it's going to be a substantial volume growth indeed. Basically, we are well-positioned. The market is showing good signs of traction, and so is other volumes for Umicore indeed. I prefer to not be more specific than that at this point in time. It's going to be substantial in a way to be able to offset some of the headwinds and additional costs that I've mentioned. That's another reason why we thought that it would be useful to quantify these additional costs so that you can also appreciate how much more volumes we need to sell and how much more revenues we need to generate to grow the earnings. In terms of the semiconductor issues or shortages which are affecting the car build rates. Yes, clearly this is a factor in this first part of the year. Can I please ask everybody to go on mute, because we have a lot of background noise. Thank you. There are some disruptions which are cutting some of the volumes, the car build rates of some of our customers. In a way, this is relatively marginal compared to the overall recovery which we see in the automotive industry and which took shape in the second part of last year, except in China, where it took shape in second quarter already of last year. Our volumes continue to be strong. We had very strong volumes in Q4. The two questions that you have raised about restocking and disruptions are a little bit related because, in a way, I don't think there has been a lot of restocking because the volumes continue to be strong for now. It doesn't look like the Q trend was, I would say an isolated event because of restocking. The semiconductor disruptions are not causing a major disruption to us. We continue to see a significant growth in 2021 in that business. Understood. Thanks. Thank you. The next question comes from Ranulf Orr. You may now unmute yourself. Please go ahead. Hi. Good morning, everyone. I just have one question on pricing in NMC. I'm just wondering if you could be a bit more specific as to how that effect is coming through. Are you seeing broadly average price declines across your entire book of business? Is it really explicitly related to some of your shorter-term contracts in China? Is it creeping into the long-term contracts, too? My second question, if I may, is just on the rest of E&ST, excluding RBM. If you were to lump CSM and the rest of it together, what kind of profit growth are you expecting for next year? Thank you. Good morning, Ranulf. First of all, on the pricing, clearly some of the shorter term exposure, in particular in China, is indeed pinching. I mean, continues to affect the overall mix of our margins. I don't see improvement in the short term in that respect because the overcapacity in China continues to be there and is probably likely to affect the market for another couple of years. I don't see imminent improvement in that respect. Next to that, clearly, the automotive industry is putting pressure on prices across the value chain as part of the drive to reduce the cost per kilowatt hour and make electrified vehicles more affordable. That's a long-term trend which doesn't come as a surprise, which was anticipated and is indeed materializing, I would say, in the mid and long-term contracts. Up to us, up to the industry, to figure out through technology improvements or process improvements, et cetera, how to mitigate those effects and make up for that margin-wise. These are two trends that indeed are playing out in the cathode material space, as in the rest of, I would say, the battery materials value chain. Sorry, you had a second question, but I'm The units. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Some of these units had a hard time in 2020. CSM, clearly, Electro-Optic Materials as well. These units are set to do better in 2021, in line, I would say, with the overall market recovery, the overall economy. Great. Thank you. Just one quick follow-up, if I may. Just going back to pricing. Do you see technological advancements and a move to higher grade nickel materials, and more sophisticated materials as a reasonable offset to price deflation over the medium term? Well, first of all, there is always a move to more sophisticated and higher grade materials, also in the mid-nickel chemistries. As I've explained in the past, it's not because you increase the nickel that you move to higher grade, you move to higher nickel. Within each type of chemistry, you have higher grade and lower grade materials with more sophistication, more properties, et cetera. There is a high degree of customization for each type of chemistry. Sorry, one moment. Can you repeat the question? Yeah. Sorry. I was just wondering whether the sort of advancements to more sophisticated cathode materials will provide an offset to underlying price inflation over the medium term. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, I had lost my train of thought. It may in some cases, but actually the path that we pursue, which is most important in terms of margin or pricing, margin improvement in a way, is continued process improvements on one side, and scale effects. Great. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to conclude the Q&A session. I hand over to Marc Grynberg for his final conclusions. Thank you, Valeria. I suppose that there are more questions and that there will be more questions in the following hours and days, and we'll be happy to follow up with you and to take your questions offline, or don't hesitate to reach out to our investor relations team as usual. I apologize again for the technical hiccups, which have probably prevented us from taking one or two more questions this morning. We'll have a chance to reconnect in the next few days and continue the dialogue. In the meantime, I would like to thank you for attending the call this morning. Wish you well for the rest of the day, the rest of the week, and talk to you soon. Thank you and bye-bye. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect now.