Good afternoon to everyone and thank you for joining us today for Borouge's second quarter and first half 2025 results call. My name is Samar Khan, Vice President of Investor Relations at Borouge. I'm pleased to be joined today by our senior management team, Chief Executive Officer Hazeem Sultan Al Suwaidi, Chief Marketing Officer Roland Janssen, Chief Operating Officer Dr. Hasan Karam and Chief Financial Officer Jan-Martin Nufer. We'll begin today's session with a presentation by the management team in respect to performance for the first quarter and as well as our outlook for the year. We'll then open the call to your questions. As a reminder, today's presentation is available on our investor relations website. With that I'd like to hand over to our CEO to present the highlights. Over to you Hazeem.
Thank you Samar and thank you all for joining us today. I'm pleased to share that Borouge has delivered yet another strong set of results in the second quarter of 2025. Borouge 3 turnaround, our largest and most complex turnaround to date, was successfully executed during the quarter, well within our budget and ahead of schedule. Borouge delivered a net profit of $193 million in Q2, above market expectations. Strong bottom line performance was driven by improved price premium and strict cost discipline. During the quarter we recorded a healthy sales volume of over 1.1 million tonnes. Despite a sizeable turnaround related activity, we recorded an adjusted EBITDA of $440 million. On a half year basis, we delivered a net profit of $474 million supported by robust sales volumes and stable pricing.
Borouge achieved an adjusted EBITDA of $1 billion during the first six months of the year, representing an excellent EBITDA margin of 37%. In line with our revised and increased dividend commitment for full year 2025 of AED 0.162 per share, we will pay an interim dividend of AED 0.081 per share in September. Now I will hand over to Roland Janssen, our Chief Marketing Officer, to provide an overview of commercial performance.
Thank you Hazeem and good afternoon everyone. From a pricing perspective, the second quarter saw some encouraging developments. Average selling prices remained almost flat quarter on quarter despite underlying benchmark weakness. We saw consistent strong performance in premia with polyethylene premia increasing to $249 per tonne and polypropylene premia maintained at above historical average level in the second quarter, both above our true cycle guidance. During the quarter, Borouge continued to focus on high value add segments like infrastructure solutions which contributed 41% to the overall sales volumes. Borouge's commercial excellence has been instrumental in navigating market challenges and delivering excellent financial results for its shareholders.
On a half yearly basis, blended average selling price recorded a moderate decline of 3% versus the previous year, whereas premium for polyethylene improved 12% to reach $235 per tonne and premium for polypropylene slightly declined by 1% to $148 per tonne, mitigating benchmark price decline during the same period. In terms of sales volumes, we delivered a healthy 1.137 million tonnes in the second quarter, representing a 9% decrease quarter on quarter. Despite a sizable turnaround during the quarter, our ability to tactically allocate volumes to the most attractive markets remain key. 57% of our sales volumes were directed to Asia Pacific where infrastructure demand remained resilient and 34% to the Middle East which continues to offer strong logistics and pricing advantages.
We also continue to maintain strategic focus on high value applications with over 41% of our volumes in the second quarter coming from value- added energy and infrastructure. Overall, we are seeing strong customer retention and continued preference for Borouge's differentiated solutions. Let me now turn to updates on our innovation efforts which serve as the backbone of our commercial strategy. Borouge continues to grow its differentiated product portfolio to advance local manufacturing, enable circularity and support high impact sectors in infrastructure. We advanced our product portfolio which now features a fully certified polyethylene which is resistant to crack. The product is especially engineered for superior durability in pressure pipe applications delivering greater reliability and reduced total cost of ownership for customers across the water, g as and industrial pipe sectors.
Over to our consumer solution business, we're developing polyolefin-based motor material solutions that allow for complete recyclability as a primary objective. Our unique polymers are enabling these packaging designs and ensuring our customers and brand owners achieve their circularity goals. To give you a flavor on what we have in our innovation pipeline, the upcoming launch of a new polypropylene product will stretch the capability limits through our advanced Borstar PP technology. This new grade enables customers and brand owners to produce lightweight packaging solutions that increase productivity while enabling higher incorporation of recycled polyolefin into final packaging designs. This is a step change for boosting circularity and sustainability for the customer packaging value chain in healthcare. We are on track to produce the first low-density polyethylene polymer solution for pharmaceutical packaging produced in the Middle East.
This innovation will represent the latest addition to our healthcare product portfolio following the successful launch of our polypropylene healthcare product in 2024. In May this year, the company also signed a strategic agreement with Mubadala Bio to explore the supply of polyolefin materials for medical device pharmaceutical packaging, reinforcing the UAE 's life science sector and supporting the Make It in the Emirates initiative where the company was also awarded a prestigious Innovation Excellence award. This award underscores Borouge's unwavering commitment to delivering innovative and impactful solutions for our customers. I will now hand over to Dr. Hasan Karam for the operational update.
Good afternoon everyone. I am pleased to share some exciting updates regarding our recent operations and achievement. We successfully completed the Borouge 3 turnaround eight days ahead of schedule, optimizing downtime by 15%, significantly boosting our overall ethylene and polyolefins production in Q2 2025. During the turnaround, all major maintenance activities were completed, effectively enabling the high performance of Borouge 3 assets for the next six years. Additionally, we completed major tie-in activities for a key growth project including Borouge 4 and P4 and P5 revamps. 88 minor debottlenecking projects were executed which will further improve our asset performance. This marks our largest and fastest turnaround to date thanks to the dedication and commitment of our operations team to the highest safety and quality standards.
In Q2 we achieved robust utilization rates of 78% for PE and 74% for PP despite 57% of total polyolefins production capacity being unavailable during the Borouge 3 turnaround on the half-year basis. Borouge delivered high utilization rates of 90% for PE and 86% for PP. With the Borouge 3 plant now fully operational, we intend to resume our usual high utilization rates in H2 while maintaining the highest safety standards. We remain committed to Operational Excellence and safety performance. In 2025 we restructured our Operational Excellence program to accelerate the delivery of improvement initiatives. This strategic initiative aims to elevate asset performance, strengthen capabilities, and embed a culture of continuous improvement across Borouge operations. The excellent achievement in the Borouge 3 turnaround is a testament to the success of this program. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the entire operations team for their dedication and hard work.
We look forward to continuing our journey for Operational Excellence and delivering outstanding results. With that, I will now pass over to Jan-Martin to take you through the financial performance.
Thank you Hasan and good afternoon everyone.
Turning to the financials, the total revenue for Q2 came in at $1.31 billion reflecting a 13% year-on-year decrease. On a sequential basis, revenue declined by 8% due to turnaround related production impact we've discussed in the previous sections. This impact could be successfully reduced from the previous guidance with the shorter turnaround time we could achieve. Adjusted EBITDA was $440 million reflecting a 22% decline versus the previous quarter. Net income for the quarter came in at $193 million. On a half year basis, Borouge recorded a total revenue of $2.72 billion representing an only moderate decline of 3% versus the previous year. Stable top line performance was driven by healthy sales volumes and sustained pricing during the first half year. In the first half year, adjusted EBITDA was recorded at $1 billion representing a strong EBITDA margin of 37%.
Borouge delivered a net profit of $474 million, down 18% versus the same period last year. We were again able to demonstrate very resilient earnings and the business remains well positioned to maintain profitability across the cycles. On to the next slide.
Let me now turn to our cost performance.
The overall operating cost base was tightly managed during the quarter. Cost of sales excluding depreciation and amortization decreased by 2% year-on-year, reflecting lower production and sales volumes. Selling and distribution expenses were down 3% year-on-year, while on a quarter-on-quarter basis, sales and distribution was up 13% due to one-offs.
G&A expenses decreased by 25% year-on-year and 32% quarter on quarter largely due to certain reclassifications. That said, our structural cost base remains lean. Fixed costs are on a good trajectory and we continue to look for new avenues to drive efficiencies for the remaining year, successfully perpetuating the efforts and the positive effect from our value enhancement program onto CapEx and cash flow on capital expenditure. We spent $130 million in Q2 mainly due to the Borouge 3 turnaround related upgrades well within our budget. Our overall CapEx management is very efficient and we continue to maintain flexibility to deploy capital in a disciplined and return focused manner. Adjusted operating free cash flow was $312 million in Q2 translating to 71% cash conversion ratio on a half yearly basis. Adjusted operating free cash flows were down 26% on a year-on-year basis.
Borouge continues to successfully execute a share buyback approved at our AGM reflecting the company's strong confidence in its future prospects. We have purchased 125 million shares as of 30th June 2025. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $419 million at the end of the second quarter at the same level as year -end 2024. After the interim dividend payment, the $500 million revolving credit facility remains undrawn a t the end of the half year.
We have ample liquidity to support our dividends, the share buyback and future investment needs. We continue to deliver strong financial performance which enable exceptional shareholder value as demonstrated by a significant total dividend payout of $3.6 billion since the IPO and the successful execution of our share buyback. With that, I'll hand back to Hazeem to walk through our outlook and strategic direction.
Thank you, Jan-Martin. Looking ahead, while markets remain challenging, the fundamentals in our core markets are supportive, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. We expect continued resilience in infrastructure-led demand driven by global megatrend and we are actively managing our volume allocation in response to regional pricing signals and logistics costs. As per our increased full year 2025 dividend guidance of AED 0.162 per share, Borouge will pay an interim dividend of AED 0.081 per share in September 2025. Borouge 4 megaproject is progressing on schedule and within the CapEx budget. Borouge 4 will be transferred to Borouge Group International at cost, unlocking substantial value for shareholders. The Borouge Group International transaction is on track to close in Q1 2026, subject to regulatory and antitrust approvals and will be well positioned for global growth, innovation and long-term value creation. Thank you. We will come to your questions.
Thank you. That will start today's Q & A session. If you would like to register for a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, it's star followed by two. Our first question today comes from Jonathan Chung from Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open. Please go ahead with your question.
Hi, thank you for taking my questions. I've got two, please. First one is on your price premium. So on your polyethylene premium has been quite strong for the past few quarters. Can we expect or assume that is sustainable in the coming year? Where do you see price leverage coming at for third quarter? My second question is around your selling and distribution expenses. You mentioned one-off expense in the second quarter. Can you give us some color on what we should think about for the third quarter and for the rest of the year? Thank you.
Go ahead, Roland.
Yeah, so thanks Jonathan for the question. Let me try and answer the first question on the premia related to polyethylene. We have a very distinguished, let's say, strategy to focus on high value-added products and high value-added segmentations, and we will continue to drive that agenda. We're very pleased with the premia p erformance that we achieved and also the i mprovements that we made in the market. Our target is to aim and to continue to grow those premier as we move forward.
Maybe the second question for Jan-Martin.
Thank you. Question on the G&A. Thanks for pointing that out. What we have been seeing as we have been communicating that there was a reclassification which led to essentially here the delta that you have been seeing. The reclassification came mainly from the site supply chain costs which have been recorded under one category and have been moved to another category. That explains the largest portion of the delta and the G&A.
Okay, for third quarter we can assume that is not recurring for the rest of the year. Is that fair?
Yep.
Okay.
Yeah. We're going to reset the base now because the cost allocation of the site supply chain cost will be now residing in that category for the future.
Okay, understood. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad, and to withdraw your question, star followed by two. Our next question comes from the line of Alex Comer from JP Morgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead with your question.
Yes, thanks. Congratulations on the turnaround.
That was very well executed. I've got a few questions. Firstly, just on the premia, if I look at the geographical sales quarter on quarter and also versus last year, it seems to me that the biggest decline was in China by quite a lot. I'm assuming that was mainly your sales channel, mainly PE. And the premia has obviously gone up quite a lot. That's quite high. Am I right in thinking that you extract lower premiums in China than you do elsewhere and the fact that that's gone down has boosted the premium? Maybe you could talk a little bit about the premium you achieve in different markets. That's the first question. The second question, I was wondering if you could let us know what the EBITDA had been in the second quarter at NOVA.
Also, just with regard to the big deal, obviously the market's taking a bit of a downturn since it was announced. I just wondered if there are any break clauses or capacity to renegotiate the price that you're paying for NOVA and Borealis. Thank you.
Hi, this is Ronan and I will try to answer your first question related to the premium. I think it also relates back to the first question that we had. In general, very pleased with the premium that we achieved based on, let's say, the differentiation of our product portfolio. It allows us, in a market that was, let's say, rather difficult in the period to keep our prices fairly strong. If you look at the, let's say, the presentation that was provided, there is a difference between polyethylene and polypropylene. In polyethylene, we were definitely better in maintaining, actually improving that premium. Polypropylene, we saw a bit of a downside that was more related to the specific mix within the polypropylene that we had available and that was related to the turnaround. That was the impact on that.
Again, if you look forward, this, let's say, differentiated portfolio is really allowing us to maintain those premia in the market. We are confident that we will continue to keep those premia and that we are also working on improving those premia as we move forward.
Is that premia mathematically lifted because the fact you've sold less to China in this quarter?
There is definitely a regional element to it. Yes, if you look at the relative volume that we sold to China is lower. Yes, that will definitely have an impact to it. Again, that is also part of our initiatives to allocate our products to what we call higher value segments and higher value regions.
Yeah, I suppose. Do you expect that to continue? I mean, in other words, do you think that as you sell less product to China going forward, the premium will stay higher? Or do you think that as the volumes go back up, you'll just sell more to China and you'll sell a bit more, but the premium might come down a little bit?
Yeah, I think the latter is a fair statement. As we come out of the turnaround and our volumes increase, we will of course reallocate more volume to China. Let's say that volume, let's say decline, that you are referring to in China in the second quarter, that is a result of the turnaround.
Yeah, thank you.
Alex, Jan-Martin here, just also on your question for NOVA, you will understand that we will not be able to make any comments about the NOVA results.
Our next question comes from Nitin Kurmadasu from UBS. The first question is revenue from China in 1Q 2025 was 26.8%, down by 100 basis points. In 2Q 2025, it is 23.4% from 26.8%. In 2Q 2024, down by 300 basis points. Is this expected to continue given the higher levels of inventory and if so, how long do you expect it to continue?
Yes, it's basically repeating the question that we just had. Yes, let's say the drop in volume in China was related to the turnaround and we do expect that this to bounce back again as we move forward.
Thank you. And then the second question is Fujian Polyethylene JV with Wanhua Wanrong announced in 3Q 2024. Is there an update on the feasibility study and when can we expect the completion date?
Thanks for the question on the evaluation of the potential project with Wanhua in China. We're making good progress in respect to the feasibility study and we will come back in due course when we have completed the assessment in all aspects on the project.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Shahrukh Nawaz from FAB Research . Is there any planned turnaround which can lead to decline in sales volume, and will there be high utilization rates for both PP and PE? Any turnaround going ahead? How much contribution will be from PE and PP packaging solutions which was launched recently.
Could you repeat your question again please?
Of course. Is there any planned turnaround which can lead to decline in sales volume, and will there be high utilization rates for both PP and PE considering any turnaround going ahead?
Actually, as per our business plan for this year 2025, we had boost retail as we announced it. Having said that, in 2025 we don't have any major turnaround and based on that, because of the great activity that we did in Borouge 3 turnaround, we are assuring that to maximize the utilization and sweating assets in order to deliver the maximum PO production.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Dharmik Patel from Al Ramz . Where are we on PE and PP price cycle? Are they expected to improve or decline?
Excuse me.
Let me try and answer the question. The market has been relatively volatile in the first half of the year. We do and we are at the bottom of the cycle. That is our perspective. We do not expect, let's say, much of a change as we move forward into the second half of the year. There are still ongoing, let us say, discussions around tariffs which had an impact on the first half of the year. The outlook on some of the inflation rates is not, let's say, very clear and might have an impact on, let's say, the market volatility as well. We do believe that overall the second half of the year is still going to be similar to what we've seen in the first half. A pretty challenging environment.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Raoul from Kepler Chevreau. With the cost of sales, there was a big uptick in other variable and fixed product production costs plus 25% year-on-year to $499 million in Q2 as per MDA page 7. Can you give some color on that? Was any of that related to one off B3 turnaround, maintenance cost or inventory movement?
Thanks for that. On the cost side you can see essentially two items here. Mainly the first one, as you have already alluded to it, is around the inventory movement. We have been selling out of inventory which has an impact on the cost basis here. The second one was around the feed composition. The third element, when we are looking into the fixed cost, I think we're very pleased to make the statement also that we have been successfully continuing our efforts that we have been starting end of 2022 with the value enhancement program to keep the cost basis under strict control.
The fixed cost in itself for the first half year compared to the previous year where we had significant amendments and improvements done is pretty much flat, which will be one of the continuous targets also on the cost management going forward for the remainder of this year.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Yousef Hossini from EFG Hermes. Volumes in 2H 2024 increased by approximately 18% versus 1H 2024. Was wondering if you think you can match that very strong volume performance in the second half of this year.
Thank you for the question. Of course we will do our best to continue to improve ourselves and beat also last year's volume.
Thank you. With that we'll conclude today's Q& A session. I'll now hand back over to Hazeem for some closing comments.
Thank you for being with us and we're looking forward for another third quarter month. Our sponsor 2025 as we I think great questions from you and we appreciate your engagement. We have no further turnaround planned for 2025. We will. We're looking at the markets of course, taking full advantage of all the opportunities we have in the market. We're looking for a great second half of 2025. We'll have a big volume that we can push to the markets with our customers and we make sure we maximize our margin optimization and get the best out of everything we do.
Thank you.