Good afternoon, everyone, and a warm welcome to the Verbio Earnings Call for the First Quarter of the Fiscal Year 2025-2026. Today's speakers are Olaf Tröber, CFO of Verbio, and Alina Köhler, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy. They will walk us through the company's performance, touching on key milestones and current market trends. Before we dive in, a quick housekeeping note: the conference is being recorded, and all participants are in a listen-only mode. If you have questions, please submit them using the chat box. We will address all the questions in the Q&A session after the presentation. Please make sure to preface each question with your name and the name of your company in order to be considered. Equity analysts can also ask questions directly via the microphone. Please type the word "question" into the chat box to be considered, and we will open your line at the beginning of this session. Let me pass the word to Ms. Köhler and Mr. Tröber. The floor is yours. Thank you, Harald, and good day, everyone. Welcome to Verbio's earnings conference call. We will be discussing our first quarter 2025-2026 financial and operating results. I'm also delighted to welcome Alina Köhler, Head of Investor Relations, who is joining me today. Slide, please. We've got a bit of a problem with the slide. Give me a second. We are there. Okay. For that one, we achieved a record biodiesel production in our first quarter. Biodiesel production reached close to 167,000 tons, and the capacity utilization rate was close to 94%. Meanwhile, ethanol production grew by 10% year-on-year to 154,000 tons. This was purely driven by the ramp-up in Nevada and efficiency gains at our ethanol plant in South Bend, Indiana. Biomethane production grew by 24% year-on-year, also thanks to Nevada. Our EPDA increased strongly to EUR 15.4 million from EUR 6.6 million. The year-on-year increase was driven by the main segments. Higher co-product revenues and favorable developments in commodity forwards and forex valuations supported our results. The North American business also contributed positively to these developments, as outlined before. The increase in net debt primarily reflects negative free cash flow, stemming from reduced operating cash driven by working capital and investments in our strategic projects. The working capital effects mainly reflect a lower reduction in receivables and a decrease in payables, both related to cut-off date effects. The strategic investments in the amount of EUR 20 million include investments into the specialty chemicals unit here in Bitterfeld, as well as into the production plant in South Bend, Indiana. Overall, the development of net financial debt is in line with the planned temporary cash outflows related to inventory changes and the investment program. The equity ratio remained at 58%, and it is at a comfortable level. Overall, these results are reassuring. We haven't fully reached our goals yet, but the progress towards Q2 strengthens our confidence in the path ahead. Next slide. Here you can see our gross margin per ton of liquid fuels versus the sales volume-weighted reference spread. Yeah, the spread is basically the difference between the biofuel price and the feedstock cost per ton of biofuel. Overall, and it shows the capabilities of Verbio, we achieved a greater premium versus the market in Q1 2025-2026 compared to Q4 the previous year, 2024-2025, and Q1 last year. This was supported by co-products revenues and the non-recurrence of inventory write-downs and lower costs and net realizable value impacts. Our co-products generate additional value and reduce the effective cost base compared to producers of the main product alone. Yeah, quarter on quarter, Verbio also benefited from positive market momentum. That gives you a sense of our position in the market. Let's now move on and see how the segments performed. I will begin with a quick overview of EPDA development across the quarters. What stands out again is that the biodiesel segment, shown as the dark green bar, continues to deliver strong earnings support. This increase in EPDA to EUR 22.6 million in the biodiesel segment was primarily due to an improved gross margin. Also, we managed to cut our losses by more than half in the bioethanol and biomethane segment to minus EUR 9.5 million, which is represented by the light green bar. Year-on-year, this has been driven by the positive development in North America. Earnings below the gross margin improved mainly because of last year's negative effects from the weak US dollar. Open commodity positions did not reoccur. Quarter on quarter, one-offs including write-downs on inventory, which had been discussed during our earnings call in September, did not repeat. The other segment shown in the green, which harbors our logistics and trading activities, reported an EPDA of. Oh, sorry. I will repeat it. The other segments shown in the green, which comprise our logistic and trading activities, reported an EBITDA of EUR 2.3 million and reflects, in particular, the positive development of our commodity forward contracts. Now, let me hand over to Alina, and I will be back to give you the financial outlook later on. Thank you, Olaf, and apologies for the microphone again. Good afternoon to everyone else. Let me walk you through the segment performance, focusing on how things have developed quarter over quarter. In the biodiesel segment, which I want to start with, as you should see on the slide. Can we, please? Yeah, there we go. Thank you. In the biodiesel segment, we have generated revenues of EUR 244 million in the first quarter, which is in line with the previous quarter, or Q4, as you can see in the chart on the left side. Our production volumes increased slightly, while sales volumes, which are not depicted here in the chart, remained stable. This underpins the steady market demand that we're seeing for our product, as well as our consistent operational performance. Our EBITDA also grew quarter over quarter, thanks to a slight improvement in the gross margin. Now, let me give you some more market context, and we will have a look at the reference charts. Does that work? No? There we go. There we have it. On the left, you can—apologies for the technical issues we are having here. On the left, you can see the biodiesel spread chart, which shows the difference between biodiesel prices and rapeseed oil prices per ton of biodiesel. As you can see, the spread has widened during our first quarter. On the right side of the slide, we show how the biodiesel and rapeseed oil prices have driven this development specifically. As always, and we mentioned that during each conference call, we have these charts do not reflect our sourcing strategy, but rather give us a good indication of how the broader market has moved. We, on the other hand, we typically purchase our rapeseed oil two to three months in advance. That's just as a heads-up. With that, let's move to the bioethanol and the biomethane segment. We recorded an increase in revenues to EUR 191 million, which is a new quarterly record for us. This record has been driven by an increase in sales volumes, specifically for biomethane. On the slide, we usually say RNG, which is short for renewable natural gas, and the recovery in the markets. The biomethane production actually also reached a new record at 336 gigawatt-hours for the first three months, and this is a utilization rate of 68%, whereas the production volumes for bioethanol fell slightly in comparison with our last quarter, so Q4, due to maintenance work we had to do here in Europe. Overall, our bioethanol utilization stood at 77%. The significant increase in earnings that you can see in the chart on the right side is primarily driven by the positive development in North America and the non-recurrence of one of the items which Olaf had just discussed a minute ago. Let us now move to the reference graphs. Here, it is a bit more interesting than what we have seen with the biodiesel. Again, the reference graphs illustrate how ethanol market spreads have moved and what has been driven that price-wise. Like with biodiesel, they do not mirror our exact purchasing or our feedstock strategy. We show wheat on the slide, but mostly we can also use corn, for example, or triticale, anything that is available and that comes cheaper than wheat due to availability, for example. This is rather indicative for the market. Looking at the price chart on the right, you can see that ethanol prices actually jumped during our first quarter, while wheat prices fell slightly thanks to a strong harvest. This move in ethanol prices was likely due to short-term imbalances in the market. However, looking ahead into 2026, the fundamentals should also remain strong for ethanol. A key factor here that we're seeing is the transposition of RED III in the Netherlands, which restricts the use of denatured ethanol. What is denatured ethanol? Denatured ethanol is ethanol that is treated with additives to make it unfit for human consumption. Undenatured ethanol, on the other side, is pure ethanol, and that's what's typically produced here in Europe. That's also what we produce here in Europe. By restricting denatured ethanol, the regulation reduces the supply that's available mainly from North America, which then helps support the ethanol prices in Europe. European producers, like us, also benefit from higher import duties for undenatured ethanol, which then limits the competitiveness of ethanol imports and strengthens the domestic market prices. Overall, all of these factors should create a favorable market environment as we head into 2026. Coming now to the U.S. market, you will find some similar—sorry, there we go. Coming now to the U.S. market, you will find some similar charts as ethanol prices bounced back by about $0.30 per gallon, which is roughly EUR 80 per ton in August and September from the summer lows that we have been seeing specifically in our Q4. The increase was supported by tighter supply, and you can see this increase in the chart on the right-hand side. Meanwhile, the corn prices stayed relatively low thanks to good weather also and larger yields. Hence, quarter on quarter, market spreads improved strongly, as you can see on the chart on the left-hand side again. Year on year, the market spreads were nevertheless slightly behind as the summer market remained below its usual seasonal pickup, which also carried into our first quarter, or calendar Q3, and that we had discussed in a bit more detail in our last earnings call. With the fall maintenance done now and peak summer driving also behind us, ethanol prices are now closer to historical levels again. Last but not least, let me now turn to the GHG quota price development. Here we go. Here you can see that prices have increased over time. Much of the movement that we have witnessed has been driven by news and discussions around the RED III transposition in Germany. Since the first draft was released at the end of June, we have seen increased market activity, and further policy clarifications have then strengthened the confidence in the sector, one of them being the ministerial agreement that has been reached, confirming that double counting will now be eliminated. This change is actually a really positive step for the market, especially combined with the restriction of the protection of trust, excuse me, which we call the Einschränkung of Vertrauensschutz here in Germany. Also, as some of you may have already seen in the news, the adoption of the new draft in the cabinet has been delayed multiple times now. Importantly, ministries still expect retroactive application. While these delays have temporarily slowed the activity in 2025, which we see here in the graph which is shown there, the 2026 demand has particularly remained very strong, and prices only know one way, and that is up. It is also encouraging that a new draft version has been leaked, which also some of you might have seen. I think it was covered in the press also on Monday, which we actually overall view very positively at this time. Now with that, I hand back to Olaf for the financial outlook. Thank you, Alina. Let's come to our guidance. It might disappoint some of you, but our guidance remains unchanged. We expect to achieve an EPDA in the high double-digit million range in the financial year 2025/2026. I'm not going to walk through the detailed assumptions, which we already discussed during our full-year earnings call six weeks ago. The strong bioethanol market works in favor, but we are still early in the year and eagerly awaiting the German decision regarding the RED III. While overall, the preliminary information looks promising, as discussed by Alina, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. I believe you got the message, and the message is clear. The next is the improved results and lower investments compared to the previous year are expected to lead to at least a balance-free cash flow and a moderate reduction in net financial debt year over year, as outlined in the September call. CapEx is under tight control, as we have demonstrated this quarter. Working capital will be optimized through the year. With this, we would like to open the line for the Q&A. Thank you. Thank you for these insights, and we will now move on with the Q&A session. As a brief reminder, we'll start with equity analysts who can ask questions directly via the microphone. Please type the word "question" into the chat box to be considered, and we'll open your line. To support the technical process, please follow the instructions on the slide that is now visible. While other participants, please submit your question via the chat function and make sure to state your name and the company name, and we'll consider as many questions as possible in the time we have. Let's dive in, and we go for the first question. Olaf, Alina, how are the new contract negotiations going? If we see the development of the GHG quotas, shall we expect that the EPDA will increase significantly in Q1, Q2 in 2026? We concluded a few contracts already at market prices, but the large chunk of agreements will be done beginning of December, rather mid-December, or concluded beginning December, mid-December. EPDA increase, I outlined it with my comments regarding the guidance. We are rather a little bit more on the cautious path. What I can say overall, the downside risk is reduced. The upside potential has been increased, but so far, we stick with our guidance. That said, I mean, the next question is going into the similar direction. The guidance is conservative. Are we expecting adjustments in the EPDA to the levels of EUR 120 million-EUR 160 million? No further comments. No further comments. For the time, there's no further question in the line, but I can see that somebody is typing, so let's wait a moment. Let's have a look on the U.S.A. and the business there. Can you provide more color on the outlook in the U.S. and what assumptions underline your current forecast for market pricing and earnings? Yeah, I think most important is the utilization at Nevada because that's, in the end, driving our increase in EBITDA year over year in North America. With that, we stick to what we have said just in our last earnings call that we still expect the full utilization in Q4, and we're on track to reach that. We have actually very good utilization at this point of time. In terms of market pricing, we have looked at historical data there and are pretty much on par with historical margins. Okay, thank you. Still waiting for the next questions. Here we go. Can we run through the potential impact on this year's guidance if bioethanol spreads stay at this level? I mean, that's a simple mathematic calculation. We provide the volumes we produce per quarter and per year, and then simply multiply it by the increase we have seen the last six weeks. The point is why I'm stressing this, that we are not going to adjust our guidance. The year has 52 weeks, and we are seeing just six weeks now elevated bioethanol prices. If this is going forward, we, of course, have to adjust our guidance. For the time being, we had six weeks of elevated bioethanol prices or bioethanol, rather bioethanol margins, but we also had two weeks of compressed or lower biodiesel margins. Right now, as I pointed out, the downside risk decreased and the potential upside potential increased, but that's all. Thank you for answering this question. Maybe let's have a look again to the Nevada plant. How is the ramping up going on, and is it almost to its peak levels of 90%? I had a call. First of all, Alina already provided some color on this one. I had a call yesterday with Dr. Lütke in Nevada. He is on the path. We are in the, yeah, as we planned, we reached the 80% already of capacity utilization, not on an hourly basis, rather on a daily, and now we are getting to a weekly basis. Peak capacity utilization was temporarily also exceeding the 80%, but not for a longer time. Nothing of concern right now, and I hope that we really achieve the 100% stable capacity utilization beginning of spring/summer next year. Thank you for answering this question. Moving on to the next one. In which area are you currently focusing your management capacities in particular? Which areas require your greatest attention, and where should we as investors focus our attention in particular? We clearly communicated our focus. Our focus is on the, yeah, more or less stable production with respect to the existing plants, also capacity increase in the capacity utilization of our German plants, getting more out of the raw materials. That is all what you can do on a common basis without facing larger investments. With respect to the U.S., we also clearly communicated that our focus is on making our investments profitable. The main focus is right now on Nevada, but not neglecting the South Bend ethanol plant. It is really focus on these ongoing projects. Oh, I forgot one. It is the ethanol uses plant in Bitterfeld. We are also making progress there. Yeah, as Alina outlined, we also had a larger chunk of investments there already. I'm quite confident that we complete the investment mid-end of next year and then starting with the ramp-up phase. What you should have in mind as an investor, it's always the RED III development quota prices. We are quite dependent. We had a cautious planning regarding the quota prices. If they might go up substantially, there is an upside potential. Also, what one of the investors mentioned before, the margins with respect to bioethanol remain that high. I don't expect it, but if they remain that high, that would also have a positive impact and with respect to the U.S. business. As long as we stay within our plan, then everything is fine. Let's have a closer look to the US activities. How smoothly are your U.S. operations running at the moment, and do you anticipate any technical challenges in the upcoming winter period? We managed last winter quite nicely. We had some minor technical issues, but the plant was running through the entire winter time, both South Bend and Nevada. With increased production, you produce more heat. The likelihood of facing any technical issues will decrease, but you never can be certain. I mean, there might be a meteor hitting one of our facilities or whatever, but really the likelihood is small that something might happen. Right now, we are making progress. We had a lot of people there taking care of all the insulation of all the external heatings. From a common perspective, the plant should be safe. That is U.S. Yeah. Speaking about the U.S., what are the current share? What's the current share in the European markets, speaking in%, of U.S. ethanol imports, which might be diminished next year? We have a second, Alina. I don't have it on top of my head, but the volumes that came from the US to the Netherlands were around 450,000, sorry, 450 million tons. Sorry, 1,000 tons, 450,000 tons. The Netherlands and the U.K. were the only markets that could receive denatured ethanol here in Europe. Okay, thank you. Moving on to India, could you say a few words about the market there, what is going on in India and your activities? Nothing changed substantially in India. We are collecting the straw, we are producing the biomethane. Capacity utilization has increased a bit. We are positive on EPDA, but still not there where we would like to be. No negative, I would say no negative news from India or with respect to India. Okay, thank you. It's a quite quick answer. Let's move on to the next question. Rapeseed oil prices have risen sharply since June 2025. Do you see any risk to EPDA for the biodiesel segment? I mean, if you would go back a little bit in the presentation, you can see that we are talking about spreads. It does not matter if the rapeseed oil price increases, doubles, whatever. We are always talking about a margin. And if I have the figures in mind correctly, then the rapeseed oil price right now is approximately EUR 1,080 or EUR 1,090 per ton. And the biodiesel IME price is EUR 1,240. It is a good margin. We are just talking about margins and not a price development of one leg of our spread. The margin is okay regardless where the raw material price is. Okay, thank you for this. The next question. Let's have a look. There we go. Within the next three years, does Verbio plan to invest in a new plant in other countries outside Europe? Yes, we would like to, but as outlined before, currently we focus on our current projects. It does not make sense to have so many projects not completed. We focus on Nevada, here the ethanol uses plant, and just keep in mind there is also a plant in South Bend where we face a larger investment with respect to the biomethane facility. The answer right now would be no. We are not going to purchase another plant somewhere else. Okay, thank you. Let me check the question. Still, it depends on the price. Of course. There we've got another question, but thank you for the information, Olaf and Alina. As far as I can see, this could maybe conclude our session for today if there are no further questions coming in. I can see again that somebody wants to type. There we go. Let's open the topic with the RED III. How important is RED III for Verbio's outlook, and which parts of the framework do you expect to benefit your business the most? Alina. Yeah, so most important is the fraud prevention. We have the inspection of plants also outside of Europe in the new draft, but also the old draft, which is very important. Then what we had highlighted in the call as well is the abolishment of the double counting, which has always been a good idea, like Klaus also mentioned during our last call, but unfortunately, the way that it was implemented has not been exactly going how it was planned. What is also important for us is the Vertrauensschutz, that that is going away, which is not part of the RED III, but it comes together as a package, basically. All of those things that really help the fraud to stay out of the biofuels market is what is important for us. Of course, the mandate itself is critical, but it is very ambitious anyways. In the new draft, they have even highered the mandate. That's why we are very optimistic going forward. Okay, thank you for these answers. As far as I can see, there's no further question. I guess this concludes our call today. Just waiting a brief moment. will trust as a side note, maybe one or other investor is still eager to type a question. What I would like to summarize is simply we had now many, many quarters of headwind. I am happy or a little bit relieved that we face now a decent tailwind for our business. Just wait a little bit, give us a chance to demonstrate what we are capable of. I think Q2 should be a good quarter. Look forward and see how it might affect our guidance later on, but not now. But. Any questions, Harald? No, no further questions, but I guess these were some good and final remarks, I would say. Thank you all for the insightful questions and a big thank you to Alina and you, Mr. Tröber. To all participants, we appreciate your time and the interest in Verbio, and we kindly ask you to share your feedback with the company. A short email has been sent to your inbox for this purpose, and we really would appreciate it if you give us feedback. With this, I want to say goodbye from my side, but I am now handing over back to you for some final statements. Alina, Mr. Tröber. I already made my final statement. I really appreciate you guys listening to our conference call. Also, thanks for the questions. And Harald, really thank you much, appreciate your support. You're welcome. Your dedicated work here, managing, moderating everything. I wish everyone a good day, hopefully a sunny day, and then move forward. Thank you. Thank you.