Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Clariant First Quarter 2021 Reporting Conference Call. I am Paul, the conference call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for question at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Andreas Schwarzwälder, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir. Thanks, Paolo, and ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. My name is Andreas Schwarzwälder, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to Clariant's first quarter 2021 results conference call and live webcast. Joining me today are Conrad Keijzer, CEO, and Stephan Lynen, CFO of Clariant. Conrad will start a review, followed by Stephan, who will guide you through the detailed results and provide a short-term outlook for the Group. Conrad will then conclude with comments on Clariant's full year 2021 outlook. There will be a Q&A session following our presentation. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. The slides for today's presentation can be found on our website, along with the Q1 2021 media release. I would like to remind all participants that the presentation includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to risk and uncertainty. Listeners and readers are therefore encouraged to refer to the disclaimer on slide two of today's presentation. As a reminder, the conference call is being recorded, and the replay of the call will be made available on the Clariant website. As a final housekeeping comment, please note that all figures discussed refer to continuing operations unless specifically noted otherwise. Let me now hand over to Conrad to begin our presentation. Thank you, Andreas Schwarzwälder. Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to welcome you to our first quarter 2021 results conference call. In the first quarter of 2021, Clariant delivered a strong performance improvement and returned to growth in terms of both sales and profitability. Sales increased by 2% in local currency and by 9% excluding the continued weak oil and refinery business affecting our business area, Natural Resources. We saw a broad demand recovery across all other businesses, particularly in Europe and in China. China was helped by a favorable year-on-year comparison due to the negative COVID-19 impact in Q1 2020. Our first quarter 2021 results reflect the strengths of our core specialty chemicals portfolio, as well as the disciplined execution of our performance improvement programs. Catalysis sales rose by 10% in local currency, benefiting from strong refill activities in petrochemical and syngas. Care Chemicals expanded 7% in local currency. We saw a recovery in the industrial markets, as well as continued good demand for coatings, home care, and crop solutions. Functional Minerals and Additives delivered robust sales growth within Natural Resources, benefiting from a recovery in automotive production and continued strong demand in electrical and electronics markets. Clariant reported an improved first quarter 2021 EBITDA margin of 16.4% compared to 15.4% in 2020, driven by organic growth and the execution of performance programs, which generated a cost savings of CHF 6 million. Price increases were initiated in all of our business units and could partly offset higher raw material and logistics costs. Clariant continues to deliver on its strategic priorities. Key examples of our achievements include the joint venture with India Glycols to become a leading green ethylene oxide derivatives supplier, and the integration of our One Clariant Campus, which strengthens the group's innovation capabilities in China. Ladies and gentlemen, we assume our key end markets will continue to recover to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, and we will continue to execute our strategy. We expect to generate moderate local currency top line growth and an EBITDA margin slightly above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels in 2021. We remain committed to our midterm targets. With that, I would like to now hand over to our CFO, Stephan Lynen, who will provide further details on the quarterly results. Thank you, Conrad. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, welcome to today's call also from my side. Let me substantiate the strong quarterly results Conrad referred to with the financial performance details starting on slide four. In the first quarter of 2021, Clariant generated group sales of CHF 1 billion, an increase of 2% in local currency. This development was attributable to growth in Care Chemicals and Catalysis, as well as Functional Minerals and Additives within Natural Resources. Oil and Mining Services business was negatively impacted by oil and refinery production curtailments Excluding the OMS business, Clariant actually grew sales by 9% in local currency. The positive pricing impact at + 2% helped to propel growth, while in contrast, the currency depreciation against the strong Swiss franc impacted sales by a negative 4%. This was primarily attributable to the devaluation of Latin American currencies and the US dollar versus the Swiss francs, while the euro appreciated. In total, this resulted in a 2% sales decline in Swiss francs. On an absolute basis, the EBITDA reached CHF 164 million compared to CHF 157 million in the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 4% in CHF despite weaker currencies. Operating leverage from sales growth, continued cost discipline amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the successful execution of the efficiency programs were the main reasons for this improvement. In the first quarter of 2021, the Efficiency Program for Continuing Operations contributed CHF 6 million of its total scope of CHF 50 million. An increment of slightly above CHF 20 million are expected to be contributed in the full year 2021. All performance programs, also the Efficiency Programs in Discontinued Operations and the rightsizing programs, are very well on track. While we foresee a natural lagging effect in the second quarter, we are confident of the positive impact of our pricing actions, which will facilitate our ability to pass on raw material and logistic cost increases. The global production network and the execution of the business continuity program helped to mitigate the impact of disruptions in supply chains in these turbulent times. As a consequence, the EBITDA margin increased by a notable 100 basis points to 16.4% in the first quarter of 2021, versus 15.4% in the prior year. As anticipated, the profitability also improved over the fourth quarter 2020 with 15.6%. Let's move on to slide five, which depicts the regional sales development for the first quarter of 2021. Sales in Europe grew by 17%, with Germany keeping pace at 15%. This expansion was mainly due to the general economic recovery in Care Chemicals, Catalysis, and Additives, plus a weather-related improvement in the aviation business. Sales in Middle East and Africa declined due to the project mix. Sales developed in Asia Pacific with an expansion of 9% in local currency. China, our strategic focus area, grew by a lofty 44%, driven by the economic recovery across all business areas, versus a more COVID-19-affected first quarter of 2020. The 27% lower sales in North America are largely attributable to the challenging environment in oil services and the effect from business disruptions in Texas in the Care Chemicals business area due to the winter storms. The 4% sales expansion in Latin America results from an improvement in Care Chemicals, specifically Crop Solutions and in Additives, supported by strong development in Brazil. Let us review the business area figures in more detail, starting with Care Chemicals on slide six. In the first quarter of 2021, Care Chemicals sales increased by a resounding 7% in local currency and by 4% in CHF. The sales development in Consumer Care increased in a high single-digit range, underpinned by strong expansion in Crop Solutions and also compelling growth in Home Care. Paints and coatings again developed strongly, a trend which Clariant fostered throughout 2020. Industrial application sales recovered and developed favorably in the mid-single digit range, primarily due to the aforementioned continued strong performance in coatings. This trend was also supported by the recovery in industrial lubricants and the weather-related demand improvement in the aviation business, despite the unchanged restricted air traffic situation. Negative effects from the disruptions in Texas were overcompensated by the pre-buying in anticipation of further price increases. The Care Chemicals EBITDA increased by an overproportionate 16%, which resulted in a significantly improved margin development to 19.8% from 17.8%. The improvement was attributable to higher sales and the subsequent operating leverage improvement. It was also fueled by the realization of efficiency program-driven cost savings, while prices were adjusted to counteract increases in raw material and logistic costs. Let's move on to Catalysis on slide seven. In the first quarter of 2021, sales in business area Catalysis progressed by a notable 10% in local currency, versus a low comparison base in the previous year. Depreciating currency resulted in a 6% increase in Swiss franc. Petrochemicals exhibited double-digit growth, which was accelerated by demand for CATOFIN catalysts in China and Europe. Syngas delivered double-digit growth, driven by gas to liquid solutions. Demand for custom and refinery catalysts was lower, while the sales contribution from the opportunistic emission control catalyst business in India for use with motorized scooters continued to expand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first quarter 2021 EBITDA margin rose significantly to 19.7% from a low 13.2% in the previous year as a result of the favorable product and project mix, pricing, as well as cost savings. On slide eight, we see that the first quarter 2021 sales in Natural Resources declined by 8% in local currency and by 10% in Swiss franc against the tough comparable first quarter 2020. The sales erosion in local currency in this business area can be attributed to the soft economic environment in the oil and refinery industry. Oil and Mining Services sales declined due to the continued weakness in oil and refinery against a particularly tough comparable base, weaker in double digits versus the first quarter 2020, but stabilizing versus the fourth quarter of 2020. The higher mining services sales were unable to compensate for this negative development. Functional Minerals rose at a high single-digit rate in local currency due to a strong growth in foundry, which benefited from the automotive recovery in Europe and China. The economic recovery also supported cargo and device protection solutions. Most of these positive developments offset the state development and purification. Additives sales increased at a strong high teen range in local currency. The resounding expansion resulted from a notable recovery in the relevant end markets, such as the electrical and electronics markets, the automotive sector, and fiber applications. In the first quarter of 2021, the EBITDA margin decreased to 16.8% from a record high 19.1% in Q1 2020 as a result of lower volumes attributable to the weaker oil and refinery demand environment. The Natural Resources EBITDA margin improved versus the run rate of 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2020, which was at 15.4%. Functional Minerals almost reached last year's high margin levels, and Additives recorded an improvement. The previously announced efficiency programs generated the anticipated cost savings, and prices continued to be adjusted to counteract increases in raw material and logistics costs. Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude my review with the short-term outlook on slide 10. In the second quarter of 2021, for the continuing operations of Clariant, we expect to generate moderate local currency sales growth in a year-on-year comparison. We also aim to improve the EBITDA margin on a year-on-year basis, while defending the Q1 2021 margin levels with strong cost discipline and pricing measures despite the rising raw material and logistics costs. The underlying assumptions for the business areas in the second quarter of 2021 are as follows. In Care Chemicals, we anticipate a continued rebound in industrial applications, in particular, due to the more attractive comparison base, which we expect to result in moderately higher local currency sales in Q2 2021 versus Q2 2020. Mitigation measures are in place to improve the EBITDA margins level year-on-year and to sequentially defend the strong margin levels reached in Q1 2021 by offsetting the higher impact of rising raw material and logistic costs with further pricing actions. In Catalysis, we assume that we will see continued sales growth in local currencies, in particular in petrochemicals versus Q2 2020, albeit at a lower, more moderate pace than in Q1 2021. We expect this to translate into EBITDA margins somewhat below the previous year's second quarter and the first quarter of 2021 due to the anticipated product and project mix. Given the complexities of forecasting quarterly catalysis developments, especially in the current economic environment, it is important to note that the business fundamentals here remain positive based on the present order pipeline, our portfolio strength, and innovation capability. Finally, we anticipate that Natural Resources will return to year-on-year local currency sales growth based on our assumptions for further stabilizing oil business together with continued growth in Additives and Functional Minerals. The EBITDA margin should improve on a year-on-year basis as we aim to defend the current Q1 2021 profitability level despite rising feedstock costs. With this positive short-term outlook, I close my remarks and hand back to you, Conrad. Thank you, Stephan. I would like to conclude with our outlook for the year. In the full year 2021, Clariant's continuing operations are expected to generate moderate local currency sales growth with an EBITDA margin to be slightly above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. This outlook assumes a continued economic recovery while uncertainty remains high. It also takes into consideration both internal as well as external factors. We will continue to successfully execute our efficiency programs, whilst at the same time continuing with our effective margin management with pricing actions in all businesses. We will also continue to benefit from our innovation-driven specialty portfolio and growth investments. We assume a broad-based COVID-19 vaccination rollout, which will support economic recovery, and a continued improvement in consumer and industrial-facing applications. We further anticipate a stabilization of supply disruptions and the raw material and logistics cost easing in the second half. We see Clariant as being well-positioned to come out stronger of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are committed to take the next steps in improving our performance. The portfolio transformation is continuing with our planned Pigments business divestment, while the efficiency programs are being implemented as planned to deliver the targeted cost savings. We remain committed to our midterm targets, though the timing depends on the economic environment and the further developments of the COVID-19 pandemic. With that, I would like to turn the call back over to Andreas. Thank you, Conrad, and thank you, Stephan. Ladies and gentlemen, before we begin the Q&A session, we would like to ask you that you please limit the number of questions to two, thus providing more participants with the opportunity to ask questions. Thank you for your understanding in advance. We will now open the line for questions. Operator, please go ahead. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question or make a comment may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use only handset while asking a question. Anyone who wishes to ask a question or a comment may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from the line of Christian Faitz from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead. Yes, thank you. Christian Faitz here from Kepler Cheuvreux. Good afternoon, everybody. Two questions, please. Short ones. First of all, would you still see negative effects from the Texas freeze in Q2? If so, could you put a number on this? Then, Conrad, you just mentioned Pigments. Any news on the Pigment disposal in terms of timing? Thank you. Thank you, Christian. In terms of the Texas storm, and in terms of its negative effects, as you are probably aware, we have actually a plant in the Texas area for our Care Chemicals business, our ethoxylation facility. Indeed, in the first quarter, we, as most of the other plants in that area, have been affected by the freeze. There was actually a shutdown of two weeks for our facility. You do see some effect of that in our Q1 numbers for Care Chemicals, but we are up and running again and no further effects to be expected. In terms of the Pigments. Okay, good to know. Thank you. Thank you. In terms of the Pigments divestment, Stephan, perhaps you could talk a bit about timing and progress. Yeah, sure. Christian, as we have updated also with the full year report, we have guided that after we relaunched the divestment process for Pigments back in autumn last year, through the process, we are now exactly in the second quarter in the negotiation phase. We have funneled the interested parties to a very few. Those are now where we have the negotiations with its value over speed. We, of course, want to see the appreciation of the recovery as well as of the efficiency program, which is also taking place in Pigments in the value. I would say that latest with the Q2 results, we can give them a very precise update on the Pigment divestment process. Fully on time. Okay, great. Thank you, Stephan, and thank you, Conrad. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Andrew Stott from UBS. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, everybody. Just two questions. First of all, maybe I have a question to Conrad or Stephan, or maybe both of you on the margin comments you're making on Q2. By the way, thank you for the clarity on Q2 and 2021 guidance. Is the optimism on defending the margin about the price initiatives you've made, or is it about the fact that volumes in the industry are still so robust? Maybe just a bit of color around how you see that gross profit progression and why. Second question's on litigation. The news today that you've made with regards to PFAS. It's a simple question. When you sold your asset that's relevant to this situation in 2013, did you agree at that point, sorry, I realize neither of you were privy to those signatures, but nevertheless, did Clariant sign up to 100% liability for future litigation, or will there be a shared liability if indeed there are any financial implications? Thank you. Sure, Andrew. Thank you for the questions. The first question regarding Q2 and margin development and our statement on that, I'll pass on actually to you, Stephan. The second question on PFAS, I'll answer after that. Sure. Okay. Let me stick with the Q2 margin. We had already announced, we've seen dramatic price increases in the olefin arena, driven by the crude oil price increases. We've seen in the Eurozone, ethylene, propylene, up by 30%- 40% versus November. November was when it started to hike, and that was actually also when we started with our price mechanism, either contractually indexed or through our value-based pricing steering. You always have a certain lagging effect, and it depends really if you're also transiting to further regions or so you're talking about 0- 12 weeks. We are very confident that we can pass on the price increases through our two steering modes for price increases. We do see that in the second quarter, we do have certain lagging effects in the pricing. If you heard about our margin guidance for Q2, it was quite differentiated also by business area. Definitely we see here also further volume growth, particularly also in year-on-year comparison. Also the fact that we have a continuous buildup of the efficiency contribution and the cost takeout. This gives us, in totality, we have a very high specialty portfolio, which is able to pass it on. As you've seen, +2% price in the first quarter. We are running our transformation, which is independent of the market, including the cost takeout. That gives us the margin confidence in Q2, despite a very challenging environment post Q2. With that, maybe the second question back to you, Conrad. Thank you, Stephan. Andrew, as far as your question on PFAS and liability, it is very early days. It is actually, at this point in time, not even possible to say if there is any liability here. Just as a recap, Clariant is named as a defendant amongst roughly 100 other defendants. We actually have been a relatively small player in the past, and this dates back, this chemistry, the polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, dates back all the way to Hoechst. There are 100 other defendants, and actually, at the moment, we have roughly 1,000 lawsuits. I think what is important in terms of the divestment of this business is that indeed, we no longer are in this business. This is a legacy. Indeed, in 2013, this business has been divested to SK Capital. It's now called Archroma. Let me go back to the first point. At this point in time, it is not possible to actually say if there is any liability here or not. If I follow up, Conrad, is there any way you can confirm or not whose liability it might be if there were any? It's obviously partly yours, but is it partly or fully yours? That was really the question. I can understand that there's a lot of moving parts on the process, but ultimately, it's the separation agreement that I think the shareholders want to know about. Sure. Yeah. We have divested this business, but I'm not in a position to say right now if there are specific liabilities, as I already mentioned, and I'm certainly not in a position to comment on the details of the SPA that, at the time, was actually negotiated with SK Capital. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Mubasher Chaudhry from Citi. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. Just one on Catalysis. You talk about the fact that the project pipeline is a bit lumpy, therefore the second quarter is a little bit weaker. Could you just provide some comments around the full year? How do you see sales and EBITDA margin progressing in that division for the full year? Secondly, just to come back on the PFAS disclosure. My understanding is that the lawsuits have been around for a few quarters at least. I was just wondering if there's anything changed to cause you to disclose now as opposed to earlier. Just some comments around the timing of disclosure would be helpful. Thank you. Yeah. Maybe I'll pass the second question on first to Stephan regarding the timing of the disclosure on PFAS. Yeah, let me start with this part. Literally, we have now very recently, basically what has started is the so-called representative trial cases. That has started very recently, and we decided now to, at this stage, already announce it rather than later because we want to ensure full transparency to the case. That's the trigger, basically, what happened to report it now, is that the representation files are now just deemed to be started. It will be a long process, and as Conrad said, we have totally open about any potential impact or if any potential impact at this stage. We decided to just communicate it rather earlier than later because of the representative file case. In terms of the Catalysis business, we saw indeed a very strong first quarter. This was actually petrochemical syngas, but also a continuation of the strong business in India, as we discussed at our last call for the two-wheelers, for the scooter business, the new emission control standards in India, as well as the impacts, quite frankly, from the COVID situation right now and the limited public transportation that people use right now. As far as the outlook for the year for Catalysis, we actually have very good visibility in terms of the order pipeline, and we actually expect a continued good sales momentum in Catalysis also in the quarters ahead. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Nicola Tang from Exane BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Thanks very much. Hi, everyone. Could I ask a question on the discontinued items or the Pigments side? Would you say that the adjusted margin performance that you delivered in Q1, the 13%, is reflective of the longer-term sort of historic profitability of the Pigments business? Obviously, it's before the full effect of the cost initiatives that you're mentioning, but I just wanted to check on that. The second was a bit of a boring one. There weren't many sort of one-off this quarter, and I was wondering if that's the new norm going forward, or we should stick to your usual guidance of the 1% of sales on a full-year basis. Thanks. All right, Nicola, I really appreciate the question number two, I will answer both with full passion, of course. The 13% margin which we disclose at or 13.4% underlying margin in Q1 2021 for discontinued operation is not directly attributable to just Pigments because there's a lot of other movements in the discontinuation. There is still closing accounts from Masterbatches, TSAs, et cetera. You cannot conclude easily to a margin here, and unfortunately, even not to a standalone margin, which is then always the case for the valuation. Unfortunately, you cannot bridge that. However, as I said before, we do see a pickup. The growth figure here is relating to Pigments. 4% local currency growth is what we have seen in the first quarter. You can see that positive momentum from an economic standpoint. Yeah, we have a CHF 20 million+ efficiency program in the Pigments business, which has contributed CHF 8 million last year and will take a significant portion also in this year from the runway point of view. Unfortunately, not able to bridge to you, but yes, we see very positive momentum in the Pigments business. To your second question, absolutely, yes. The new normal for Clariant is, and I think you heard Conrad and me just speaking about reported EBITDA. Till now, till you asked for Pigments, I didn't use one time the EBITDA before exceptional items, and that should be the new normal because we want to close that chapter. All right. Just to clarify in terms of for the rest of the year, this kind of we should take what you did in Q1 for the exceptionals and drive that forward? From a guidance point of view, we said that on an underlying basis, between underlying and exceptionals, you're looking mid to long term at 50 basis points or 0.5 percentage points. Might still be a little bit higher this year as we concluding there might be adjustments to provisions, but nothing serious in that manner. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. The next question comes from the line of Alex Stewart from Barclays. Please go ahead. Hello. Good afternoon. Hopefully, two simple questions. Could you confirm whether the de-icing revenue in the first quarter was up year-on-year? The weather was supportive, I know, but obviously airline travel was well down. If you could just give us a firm guidance on that. I don't think it's in the release, but it's possible I've missed it. Secondly, on your efficiency program, I think I might have seen you did CHF 20 million last year, and it was CHF 30 million to come this year, and you've done CHF 6 million in the first quarter. Firstly, is that right? Secondly, could you give us any sense, even qualitatively, about which divisions are likely to benefit disproportionately from the CHF 30 million benefit this year would be very helpful. Thanks. Yeah, Alex, thanks for the two questions. I'll take the first one actually on the de-icing business, and Stephan can comment with more detail on the efficiency, your question around the efficiency programs. Yeah, the de-icing business was actually very strong this quarter. We saw, believe it or not, a double-digit increase from prior year, even though passenger traffic is obviously still down significantly. Perhaps a bit of explanation here. Our de-icing business is not just the de-icing chemicals that we put on the wings of airplanes, but it's also actually the de-icing chemicals that we put on runways at airports. The moment that actually an airport is open, and there's snow and ice, you actually do need our de-icing chemicals. Even though, again, passenger traffic down significantly due to the strong weather in Europe, snow, icy conditions, we in fact saw a double-digit increase in de-icing chemicals year-on-year in the first quarter. Stephan, perhaps you could comment on the efficiency program. Yeah. Sure, Alex. On the efficiency program, we're talking about the continuous or the effect of the efficiency program on the continuous or core business. That is exactly the CHF 50 million or even in excess of CHF 50 million. We still expect a little bit more. We had a contribution in the last year of CHF 20 million. We had a contribution in the first quarter of CHF 6 million, and we assume for this year, in excess of CHF 20 million. That means the residual of CHF 20 million last and then maybe CHF 20 million+ this year, is going to be minor effect than in 2022. The run rate is building up very fastly because we have basically, most of the positions have already been reduced, right? It's just a question of the pro rata occurrence by quarter. Could you possibly give us some steer of which divisions are likely to benefit from that more and which will get disproportionately lower contributions in the efficiency program? It'd be really helpful just to be able to split that CHF 20 million or CHF 30 million out by the divisions. Well, absolutely. I mean, an indication you can see, because still in the backup, we have a split of the restructuring provision by business area. This gives you an indication. Let me answer it to you in a summarized way. The biggest impact is actually in Natural Resources, there, particularly in Oil and Mining. That is why, you remember, this was the only one in Q1 year-on-year, which went down in margin. We compare to a super high base, 90%, that is actually mid on target range in Q1 2020. The reason how we compensated that was because we have the positive impact here from the efficiency program being actually more pronounced in Oil and Mining particularly, but also in Additives and Functional Minerals. This business area is the one which is most pronounced, followed by Care and then, the last one being Catalysis. That's really helpful. Thanks. Thank you for the extra disclosure and discussion. It really makes a difference. Thank you. You are welcome. The next question comes from the line of Markus Mayer from Baader Helvea. Please go ahead. Good afternoon. I have two questions, one on the outlook and another one, again, on the raw materials environment. Firstly, on the outlook, I'm still struggling of this definition, moderate local currency growth. You had high growth rates in the first quarter, a guide for moderate growth rates in the second quarter, and have a very low base effect for the third quarter. Does this guidance imply a significant declining momentum for the fourth quarter? How can I understand this moderate growth assumption, and also what means moderate for you? That would be my first question. My second question would be on the raw material cost effect. Do you expect this to spoil then the second quarter margins, in particular in Care Chemicals and Oil and Mining Services, so the ethylene oxide value chain? Do you think they have the pricing power to pass on, in particular in Oil and Mining Services? Thank you. Yeah, thanks for the question. On guidance, as well as the Care Chemicals margins. Just a brief word on what does it mean, the moderate outlook. We're sort of pointing at mid-single digits range, up to mid-single digit range. Perhaps, Stephan, you could provide a bit more color here. Moderate will translate, as Conrad said, up to mid-single digit range. I would say, if you look at the growth rate, and I think the question was there before. We had in the first quarter 10% in Catalysis. I don't think that this is the underlying rate for the full year because we had a very low project base refill cycle. You remember I talked about this, even an order shift at time from Q1 2020 into Q4 2019. Therefore, you will see in that case, Catalysis, a little bit of a normalization, but still good growth rate. Principally also, we are a bit stronger in Q1, Q4 when you think about aviation or certain segments. That also needs to be considered when you just extrapolate based on Q1. That's why, we're guiding here, as Conrad said, for up to mid-single digits point. There was a question on margins. I think I can make a few comments about it, actually. On margins, what you see is, and particularly actually Care Chemicals has been affected by that. We see ethylene, propylene derivatives pricing up substantially, in the recent months. You're literally talking about sharp increases of roughly 40% compared to November. What is happening overall in terms of the raw material cost is that you see in Q1, low single digits increase, and we expect that in Q2 to go even to a mid-single digit increase. There are still some increases coming through. We actually do expect an easing in the second half of our raw material costs. All of our BUs are actually raising prices, Care Chemicals as well. At the moment, we've actually partly offset the raw material increases that we are facing right now in Q1. The price increases are still in the process of being implemented, and the expectation for the year is that we fully recover the raw material inflation also in the Care Chemicals business. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Jaideep Pandya. Please go ahead. Thank you. Firstly, apologies to come back to this really, it's a very simple question on the PFAS. Is this really related to paper chemicals? Can you give us some idea really of what has been flagged as the chemical mentioned for you in this regard? Just really on Pigments. There's a lot of press articles citing you're in discussions with SK Group, it's a bilateral discussion. Could you just remind us or refresh our memory in terms of how is the interest for this asset right now, when do you expect really the closing to happen? If you don't really get the right price for it, is there a plan B here to actually not divest Pigments and reintegrate it back into Clariant? Thank you so much. Sure. Jaideep, let me pass the last question on to Stephan on Pigments, and then after that, I'll answer your question on PFAS. Yeah, Jaideep. As I said, we had a normal process, which started in autumn with the relaunch in the market and then going through due diligence, management presentations, and so on and so forth, and now on the negotiation phase. It's a very selective few which we have that review of the final bids with, and I will make no comment whatsoever on who and at which value range, because we want to ensure that we get maximum value for us and our shareholders. That also will decide the timing. Whether we close on Monday or sign, sorry, sign on Monday or in weeks or months from now isn't decisive. That's why we'll take the time for that negotiation to assure that we get the best value as a return for the business, which is improving. This dictates the timing of signing and closing and nothing else. There is no interest from us to reintegrate the business. We are still fully bullish and interested to go forward with our portfolio transformation, but not at any given price, as simple as that. Therefore, the best I can say today is that we should actually conclude these negotiations in the second quarter, like I said before. Then we should come out, and if it's a positive value, then yes, signing is very quick. Closing is then depending on the regulatory processes as I've guided before. That takes maybe six to nine months, depending whatever the regulators require. Okay. As far as your question on PFAS and the chemicals and the products that are involved here. The chemical is actually per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, abbreviated as PFAS. The products here that these lawsuits are about is actually the foam that is being used in fire extinguishers. Once again, let me emphasize, this is a legacy from the past, and this business actually has been divested by Clariant in 2013. All right. If I can just ask you, Conrad, one follow-up. I know it's been early days for you, but when you look at Clariant's portfolio and compare it to your previous role in AkzoNobel and think about the specialty chemicals, are you currently satisfied with the margin level of whether it's 15%, whether it's 16%, whether it's 17%? At least in my humble opinion, this is not specialty chemicals margins. Do you think that, in the medium term or the long term, Clariant, if it wants to be called specialty chemicals, should have a margin of north of 20%? Or are we actually not looking at it in a right way from what you've seen so far? Thanks. Thanks for the question. I think it's a great question, and a very important question. First of all, on the portfolio, based also on my past experience in Akzo, I can confirm that the portfolio that Clariant right now has, the different positions in Care Chemicals, in Catalysis, but also in Natural Resources with the Functional Minerals and the Additives. These are truly specialty chemicals. Actually, they should indeed command the margins that are associated with specialty chemicals. A bit more specific, a bit more granular, if you look at our businesses, and where they currently are versus their potential. Care Chemicals, you saw the EBITDA margin in Q1, 19.8%. There is an upside here, and you see that also reflected in the midterm target, which is, I believe, a range of 19%-21%. That is a very realistic target setting as far as the midterm targets, and definitely, certainly the more consumer side of Care Chemicals, the consumer applications, crop chemicals, personal care, and cosmetics, they definitely are able, those businesses, to get the margins in the 20% EBITDA range. Catalysis today, also approaching 20% in EBITDA margin for the first quarter. Here, let's say, the midterm target ambition is more in the high 20%s. That is a combination of the Catalysis business, with very profitable and leading positions in petrochem, in syngas. Added to that needs to be the sunliquid business. This is definitely going to be accretive, and this is a big part, I think, of bridging towards these midterm targets. Finally, Natural Resources. If you look at our current performance there, Q1 16.8% EBITDA margin. Midterm target, let's say, towards 20%. Here, again, I think the company is on its way. It's a realistic target setting in terms of the midterm targets. Here the key thing is a recovery in the oil chemicals. When you see that recovery sort of kicking in, which we see later than the other businesses, indeed, but somewhere in the second half, when you actually see the oil chemicals recovering, we should actually see a pickup in the EBITDA margins there as well. Thanks a lot for the clarity. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Rob Hales from Morningstar. Please go ahead. Yeah, thanks. Good afternoon. I'm just wondering about the Indian scooter catalysts, and how sustainable is this business, and is there an opportunity to perhaps replicate this in another country? Rob, the Indian scooter business, first of all, what you see, which is very positive, that India has actually brought its emission standards to the European norms. What you see there is a significant pickup in demand for these catalysts that actually bring down the emissions. How sustainable, how long-term is it? I think, in all fairness, these are not electrical scooters. What you have seen in other markets, like for example, China, is a shift towards complete electrical two-wheelers. At some point in time, India is going to follow that. Fortunately for the environment, but not so good for this emission control business, where we see definitely right now a strong momentum. Longer term, this is not a sustainable sort of business. We take it opportunistically. We enjoy it as it comes. We've improved the margins on it. It's very accretive right now, but this is not a strategic area long-term for the company to invest in. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Chetan Udeshi from JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi. Thanks. A couple of questions from my side. The first question was, historically, we've always had Clariant, typically in a rising raw material environment in Care Chemicals, revaluation benefit of raw materials. Just wanted to confirm whether that was the case, in Q1 Care Chemicals margin, any sort of inventory valuation gain at all. Second question was, this Indian JV on bio ethylene oxide. Maybe can you throw some more light in terms of financials, what is the cost for Clariant? Also whether that's part of the guidance for second quarter or full year. Yeah. In terms of the rising raw materials, the inventory gains, I would appreciate if Stephan could comment on it, then I'll give some background on the Indian JV. Of course, when raw materials go up, you have some certain positive revaluation effects, but you also have to allocate them over the tons of the inventory, and therefore, the margins of Care Chemicals have not a significant impact from any such of an item, as you might have alluded to the past. Okay. In terms of the Indian JV, let me remind you that we still obviously need to close this transaction, which still actually takes a bit of time, and that is more towards the end of this year. You wouldn't see a significant impact in our results. In terms of the financials, this is actually going to be on a full-year run rate, let's say, close to CHF 100 million in terms of a revenue addition to our business. In terms of margins, yeah, initially not immediately accretive, but over time, definitely. This is actually a very attractive business. It's green ethoxylated products, surfactants, where clearly we can command a premium in the various applications. What is the purchase price? Is there a way to think about the purchase price for you guys? No. You have to see that this is a joint venture with giving us a majority position as well as certain options to increase our stake over the time. How it is set up is really, I think, the right and fantastic way because we contribute through that joint venture also with certain businesses, because we're a small player in India today, we take that business and contribute it, and then they contribute their leading position Indian business into the JV for the specialty part, which we can better commercialize. They contribute, of course, this Green-EO access, which gives us a global lead position. Therefore, you have basically contributions on both sides. There will be a net equalization payment on our side, but nothing to disclose today. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Matthew Yates from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Just sorry, I'd like to ask a couple of questions about the Q2 guidance to clarify in my own mind that I understand what you're saying. Firstly, on Care Chemicals, I think you said in your introductory remarks that you thought there was some pre-buying from customers in anticipation of the price increases. Are you able to elaborate a little bit more in whether you've seen any change in trend in April or the order book for May in terms of the volume growth versus, say, Q1? On the catalyst business, I'm struggling to understand a little bit why there would be less momentum in Q2, given there's no particular difference in the comp. Is that principally a comment about the Indian order perhaps ending rather than anything on the petrochemical side? Thank you. Happy, Matthew, to take both. I'll explain both, but they have absolutely no fundamental concern on growth, robust growth or moderate growth in the coming quarters. If we come to the Care Chemicals question of pre-buying, yes, there was a pre-buying effect, as Conrad explained in the first quarter. At the same time, we had kind of a negative impact from the shutdown, basically, of the Texas zone with the winter storms, and that overcompensated each other. We do not see that, therefore, as a continuation effect into the second or third quarter because we're running in Texas and the pre-buying has been done and the stocking has been done. We're seeing much more of a normalization than in growth. Both effects, as I said, netted each other out in the first quarter, more or less. When it comes to catalysts, first of all, I could give the general statement. You're looking at refill or first-fill cycles. In any given time, catalysts might look from one quarter to the other very different because that's the nature of a project business. Here in particularly, the 10% growth in the first quarter is against a very low base in 2020 Q1 because there were order shifts from Q1 2020 into Q4 2019. That's why the growth rate 10% in the first quarter was actually a little bit higher. When we look at Q2, we're comparing now against a bit more normalized Q2 in the prior year, which means that we would still see growth, but not at the same pace because of this year-on-year comparison changes. We would actually even see that we could be in the second quarter in Catalysis slightly higher than the first quarter. The margins, again, they're a little bit dependent on the mix. There we were saying, okay, that is going to be a little bit weaker, and that's just the nature of the business. Fundamentally, it's all set for growth for the full year 2021, and also for each step-up in margins. Thanks very much for clarifying. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We have answered all your questions, so therefore we conclude today's conference call. The investor relations team obviously remains available in case of any further questions. We look forward to continuing the dialogue with you guys in the coming conferences, and then later with the disclosure of our half year Q2 results on July 29th. Once again, thank you for participating, and have a good day. Bye-bye. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call. Thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.