Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Maria, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Titan Group conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the Q1 2026 results. Please note, this call and presentation is intended for analysts and investors only. All participants will be in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Marcel Cobuz, Chair of the Group Executive Committee, and Mr. John Ioannou, Group CFO. Mr. Cobuz, you may now proceed.
Thank you. Hello, everyone. Good morning. Good afternoon. Very happy to be here with John Ioannou, our Group CFO, and Spyros Kamizoulis, our Head of Investor Relations, and happy to share with you record results for a good quarter. Although this is a small quarter, marked by weather impact, has shown solid volumes and improved pricing, which led to organic sales growth. At the same time, the positive price over cost has allowed a bigger margin expansion by 250 basis points. I would like to thank all our teams and partners for delivering another record quarter for Titan.
At the same time, this quarter and, you know, couple of days ago marked the completion of three transactions we have announced since our Investors Day in France, in Turkey, in Greater Istanbul markets and in U.S. Eastern Coast. A big welcome to our 450 new employees and their families, to the big family of Titan. I think that illustrates our capacity to identify, deliver, and execute in a very disciplined way, cement acquisitions. This record performance has been also possible thanks to the cost optimization initiatives and cash initiatives, which are already delivering tangible financial benefits that John will walk us through later in the presentation.
We have announced at the time of the Investor Day that we are saving on EUR 100 million slash from the cost base over a period of three years. We are announcing today that this target is anticipated, and we are already realizing it in a large proportion this year. We will also share with you the outlook for 2026, where we remain cautiously optimistic given the energy crisis triggered by the Middle East war, Middle East conflict.
We'll go a little bit more in details on what we expect on sales from EBITDA progression, as well as the capital expenditure, both in like-for-like for our organic growth, but also given the impact of the new acquisitions, which are now being consolidated as of Q1 , two of them, and as of Q2 , the third one. Maybe before we go into the details, the financials of the quarter, let me walk you through these three significant acquisitions, which are frontloading our capital to be spent by EUR 700 million plus, which have been finalized in the first months of 2026.
We start with [inaudible] closing, Q1 and already consolidated for 10 months of the year. It's a grinding plant, a grinding cement plant in the Port of Le Havre in Northwestern France, with a clinker capacity of 600,000 tons per year, serving an addressable market of more than 7 million tons. One of the largest and thriving markets in France, providing direct access to the Paris Metropolitan Market. Integration is going as planned, and we are already creating synergies in terms of direct sales channels with our clinker supply from manufacturing units elsewhere in Europe.
We are internalizing the flows and at the same time we are implementing digitalized tools which are further improving the reliability of the assets. The second acquisition, which has been completed in this Q1 , we already have the integration teams in on site. We have launched the new visual identity of Titan Traçim, a very well known brand in Istanbul market as Titan has preserved its grinding capacity in the same market.
Now we have one of the most modern and largest plants in Marmara Region with a capacity of 2.5 million tons, serving a very vibrant market of more than 15 million people, with multiple projects, both in terms of residential, but also in terms of power, renewables, infrastructure, and more projects to come on the next five years economic planning of the country. This plant has also a permit for another 2.5 million tons production line, which as we previously announced, would serve our export needs towards U.S. We have started investment there in a 100 MW solar plant in a partnership which will further decrease the cost and improve the margin.
Significant synergies are there at stake, first in terms of network optimization between the cement plant and our existing grinding plant, as well as utilization of cementitious, as we aim at having more greener, high premium, high margin blended cements in Istanbul market. Same thing like for the grinding station in France. We are deploying the excellence models in terms of industrial, commercial, as well as logistics of Titan, but also the digitalization tools which would bring upwards the reliability as well as lower the consumptions and improve the overall margins. Finally, we have announced couple of days ago the completion of the acquisition of Keystone in Pennsylvania. That adds a greener production capacity of 1 million short tons per year.
Again, in an excellent addressable market of 6 million tons in the mega regions of East Coast, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, and Maryland. As we have announced two days ago in Titan America analyst call, there are game changing synergies for these assets given the expectation of improved operating margins, reliability improvements, again, thanks to digitalization tools, real-time optimizers, as well as immediate sustaining investments, the network optimization, the raw material cost optimization, but also commercial and energy efficiency plans.
Very happy to report this excellent start of the year in terms of our non-organic growth, in line with what we have announced at the time of the investor days, where we have announced to the community that about EUR 3 billion- EUR 4 billion capital will be deployed over the next four years between 2025 and 2029. Which will be entitled to a new level of a EUR 4 billion company with a EUR 1 billion EBITDA profile. With top of the class return on capital employed, we have announced at the time 15%-17%. As you know, we have delivered consistently above the target both in 2024 and 2025.
With this, John, could you walk us through the results, the financial results of the quarter, please?
Sure. Thank you, Marcel, and good morning, good afternoon, everybody. This was indeed a very interesting quarter in the sense that the quarter started soft, mainly due to adverse weather conditions across key territories. By the end of February, the war broke in the Middle East. We had the strongest March we had in the history of Titan, and that led us to a record performance as Marcel indicated, for Q1. This performance was highlighted by a good volume performance, very strong pricing execution with positive price over cost. It was also characterized by the launch of our self-help cost initiative program called PRIME at the group level, delivering already 10% of our annual targeted savings.
On the treasury front, this quarter we had a very successful bond issuance, raising EUR 350 million to support our M&A activities. As Marcel explained, just now, we completed three major acquisitions, two in Q1 and one just six days ago, which put us well on our way to deliver our Titan Forward 2029 strategic objectives. The only data point I would probably add here is that all three acquisitions from the moment we announced them until the moment we signed, took about three months, just shows the strong execution of the team here and the ability to execute in three very diverse geographies, you know, U.S., Turkey and Western Europe. We're very happy with that. Our key financial metrics, sales, EUR 636 million, up 4.7%.
Our EBITDA, EUR 138 million, up 16%, both like for like. Our earnings per share, EUR 0.86, which is 29%. Our capital investment in the Q1 was EUR 70 million behind maintenance and growth investments. We talked about the acquisitions. Our leverage ratio stands at 1.1 up from 0.4 times at the end of the year due to our bond issuance and our investments. Dividends per share, EUR 1.1, 10% up versus 2024. This will be payable on the seventh of July. We launched our new share buyback of EUR 10 million on April 1st, 2026. The 2026 outlook, we're cautiously optimistic for the balance of the year, despite the uncertainty due to the crisis, the Middle East crisis.
Our acquisitions are expected to provide additional growth in line with our strategic objectives. We expect stable volumes, improved price over cost positions, and margin expansions, and our CapEx investments estimated around EUR 300 million-EUR 350 million supporting our growth projects. If w e move to sales, we had a robust top-line growth. Adjusting 2025, which is our base year for scope, which is Adocim and translation for it's mainly the U.S. We grew our sales by 4.7% on a like-for-like basis, driven by strong pricing and healthy volumes. On the right-hand side, we can see already in the light blue color the impact of our two acquisitions in Turkey and France. Moving to the next slide, our EBITDA performance.
Very strong performance, marking a +16% growth on a like for like basis, driven by our top line gains, as explained just now. Positive price over cost management, which led to our margin expansion by 250 basis points from 19.2% - 21.7%. On the volume front, we had a sustained performance in Q1 despite adverse weather conditions in the beginning of the year. Cement grew by 1% with solid performance in Greece and Egypt, and for the most part in Southeast Europe as well, while U.S. stayed at prior year levels due to subdued residential demand and persistent economic uncertainty. Aggregates grew by 5% with continued growth in Greece and in U.S., fueled by investments in Florida business unit.
Our ready-mix on a like for like basis, removing the Adocim impact from 2025, was -1%, driven primarily by the weaker residential demand in the U.S. Blocks grew by 10% in Q1, lapping a low comparative in Q1 of last year, but this is following a +10% in Q4 of 2025. We noted that the trend is improving and is driven by the retail channels and sales to contractors in the U.S. Moving on to our cash flows. Our operating free cash flow improved. We delivered EUR 53 million in Q1 versus EUR 49 million last year. Our net debt increased by EUR 462 million, reflecting our investments in CapEx and the two M&As in Turkey and France that were completed in Q1. Despite the increase in net debt, our leverage ratio remains at low levels.
Currently stands at 1.1 times to EBITDA. Our debt maturity profile is healthy, as you can see on the right-hand side. At the end of Q1, more than 90% of our debt is long term. We're actively working, though, with our relationship banks to renew most of our loans maturing in 2026 and 2027 and push them to 2031. This picture by next quarter will improve even further. Moving now to market overview. Solid performance in the U.S. despite the increased macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty and the subdued residential demand, along with adverse weather conditions in the Mid-Atlantic region. This performance is attributed to the strength of our vertical integrated operations, our targeted cost initiatives and welfare program, and our ongoing strategic investments.
Sales in the U.S. grew by 2%, and EBITDA grew by 2% as well, both in US dollar terms. In Greece and Western Europe, we continue our robust performance with healthy price increases across products early in the year that led to double-digit growth rates and to robust margin expansion. We also note the contribution of our newly acquired grinding plant in France, but on a like-for-like basis, sales grew 7% and EBITDA by 22%. In Southeast Europe, we had improved revenues and profitability despite headwinds from imports. The market there remained overall flat, but resilient pricing across most of the region led to an EBITDA growth of 6% on a like-for-like basis and expanded margins by 130 basis points.
A very strong growth in East Med region, driven primarily by Egypt, where domestic demand momentum continued, supported by large-scale projects and residential construction activity. The country remains a leading export supplier, albeit in March, export momentum eased due to the Middle East crisis. In Turkey, Traçim acquisition was completed in Q1, and we already see the results in our figures. Sales on a like-for-like basis grew by 29% in this region, and EBITDA tripled, leading to a very strong margin expansion. In Brazil, the market grew by 1.8%, but in the Northeast region where we operate, consumption grew by 10%, driven by housing and infrastructure projects. Sales grew by 16% and EBITDA doubled, leading to, again, strong EBITDA margin expansion. Moving on to the outlook.
As we look into the 2026 outlook and given that energy is the biggest victim of the Middle East crisis, we wanted to share some data points regarding our energy cost profile with you. Energy is one of the five key cost elements, along with raw materials, labor, logistics, and third party, and represents approximately 20% of our cost structure. The key question is how exposed are we here? On the left graph, on the left, the left graph, one can see that energy costs in absolute terms, despite volume growth, has been declining, mainly due to increase of alternative fuel usage, our hedging activities and surcharges programs that we have in place. As such, energy as a % of sales, the blue line, is reducing year on year. While alternative fuel usage, the orange line, is growing.
On the right graph, one can see that we're gradually improving the profile of our energy cost exposure. Fuel and oil represents 11% of our cost structure, out of which 70% is in the U.S. where surcharges are in place. Electricity represents 45%, out of which 45% of that is in Greece, where 50%-60% is hedged and 15% is in the U.S. where electricity is cheaper than the rest of the world. In Southeast Europe, we are also investing in PPAs with solar plants to mitigate our exposure there. We don't see a huge impact of that yet, but it's coming. On thermal fuels, which represent 44%, where in Greece, East Med and Bulgaria, we are increasing our alternative fuel usage. While in the U.S., we use natural gas, not exposed to that.
With that, we move to the last slide of the presentation, where the geopolitical uncertainty and its impact on macros, it is a concern of course to us. We're vigilant, and we continue to monitor the developments closely, and we're working on cost and self-help measures to mitigate the impact. As I've mentioned earlier, we launched Prime, our cost optimization initiative that is targeting EUR 40 million-EUR 50 million of cost savings and self-help measures this year, out of which 10% have already been realized in Q 1. Following a strong Q 1 with cautious optimistic for the balance of the year, but we see stable volume growth, improved pricing over cost performance and margin expansions. We estimate our CapEx to reach EUR 300 million-EUR 350 million with a higher share allocated towards growth projects.
At this point, we complete our presentation, and we are happy to receive any questions you may have.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. Please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from the line of Stathis Kaparis with AXIA Ventures Group. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Hi, everyone. Congrats on a good set of results. I've got three questions which are actually interlinked. The number one is, what do you see on the ground? Heidelberg yesterday indicated some positive inflection point on especially in April. I was wondering if you see something similar on the ground. Regarding the different wording in guidance versus last quarter, can you give us a bit more color? I mean, what does it mean changing from low single digit top line and mid-single digit EBITDA growth to the new guidance in Q1? Finally, on CapEx, this EUR 50 million reduction, does it indicate lower CapEx needs for the acquisitions?
Once you got them on board, you realize you need less CapEx, or this is, this indicates some cautiousness for the year, hence, lower CapEx. Thank you.
Thank you. Stathis. Very good questions. We'll start on the first two and maybe John, you will give some examples of CapEx on the third one. What we see, Stathis, on the ground is positive. Very good order books, very good backlog. We are very happy with the way in Greece, both the price increase realization, but also the volumes with the four large contractors are coming on stream. We are very well exposed to very large projects, iconic projects, not only Ellinikon that we mentioned in the past and the Thessaloniki flyover, but also new projects again, in the ports, new projects in the airport in Athens.
Very happy with the way we see the year here in Greece and also in a couple markets in the Western Balkans. Very good growth also in Istanbul markets as well as in Egypt, where both the pricing environment and also the volumes are positive in April. Of course, we also see volume stability in the U.S. and sequential price increases compared to the last quarter in the U.S. We have given more color on this two days ago in Titan America.
A Titan America call. Positive inflation in April. What we have said is that particularly for the U.S. as the elevated mortgage rates are still weighing on the housing affordability and residential activity. Taking into account also the American Cement Association latest forecast, the recovery is still expected early 2027. However, currently we see good stable volume there. Guidance, we gave couple of elements of guidance a couple of weeks ago. In fact, when we published our full year results. We are based on what's happening around us and the energy crisis, I think we demonstrated our exposure, but also the good profile to mitigate those risks.
We remain optimistic for the year. In fact, sales, if we indicated a low single digits, we see middle single digits. EBITDA, we said that this will be margin expansion, if we indicated middle single digit growth, we expect a high single digit growth. That's from the organic activity of our business. The amount of synergies and the additional sales and EBITDA coming from Traçim, Titan Traçim from the French unit and from Keystone will come on top of this. CapEx, it's mainly deferrals, not that much cancellation of projects.
John will give couple of examples, but again, we commit to a higher CapEx than last year, and that goes hand in hand with the optimism we are showing for the year results. This does not include the CapEx which will be allocated for the synergies in that we mentioned for the newly acquired businesses.
That's correct. On the CapEx, Marcel, some of the projects do spill over into 2027, into next year, hence, the lowering of the CapEx this year. We are really focusing on M&A related CapEx. In other words, as we acquire the companies, I can give you some examples. In Turkey, for example, we are investing in a new solar plant, and some of the funds will go out this year. It's a two year project. As well as in new transformers at the substation to ensure the good safety and maintenance of operations there. The palletizer in Marmara that is, it's more of a logistics play for us there.
Also, a lot of savings and reducing costs and increased operational efficiencies. We continue our alternative fuels CapEx investments there across the board in Greece, Southeast Europe, Egypt, you know, and the U.S., with the key objective obviously to reduce exposure to energy price volatility and reliance on coal and petrol. Specifically, in the U.S., we have an investment in a new multi-fuel burner technology at Roanoke and a process engineered fuel capacity at Pennsuco. Here we aim to get fuel flexibility resulting in lower production costs and improves CO2 profile at the two main manufacturing plants. Last but not least, we continue our digital, you know, investments and deployment of our AI driven real-time, you know, optimizers.
We aim that by the end of the year, almost all of our plants will be, will have the RTO digital technology. The benefits are huge and we've been experiencing those. Lower energy consumption, you know, higher throughput, reduced downtime versus predictive and preventive maintenance, and so forth. We're very committed behind our capital investments. Yeah, there is an element of caution. We take obviously each quarter as it comes, but we feel pretty confident behind our investments.
You are right, John, to mention, this is a level of CapEx which is a record level for Titan. Definitely higher than the previous years. We are fast tracking here the energy related CapEx, alternative fuels, waste heat recovery. We continue allocating CapEx to our projects, lighthouse projects of carbon capture and storage, where we are progressing towards financial close next year. Then other growth projects related to capital to capacity expansion. That is we are firing from all the engines on this one.
Thank you guys.
The next question is from the line of Wim Hoste with KBC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you for taking my questions. I have three, please. The first one would be on the regulatory landscape. I'm referring to CBAM ETS. Is there any change in reading or discussions with the authorities or impacts you see from that on the ground? The second question is on the pipeline for further M&A. You were very active with M&A recently. Does that mean that you are now kind of going into a bit more pause to integrate first what you acquired or is there still possibility to see further sizable deals in the short term, the coming quarters? Third question would be on Egypt specifically, given its proximity to the access to the Middle East.
Is there any impact you see from the conflicts on the Egyptian business and maybe export plans or order books and in that respect, if you can also clarify that? Those are the questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Very good questions. I like your business lenses. On the regulatory landscape, look, I was together with our head of region Europe in Brussels at the beginning of the week, and we constantly spend time with the regulators as well as with Cembureau. As we prepare for the ETS revision, which most likely will be tabled to the European Parliament by European Commission sometime in July after the consultation period. We are actively involved. We do have our own advocacy for the way the phasing out of CO2 rights, the mechanics for carbon pricing, the export allowances are currently shaping up. We monitor it.
There are no new elements as all this is in discussion, but we remain positive that they will be largely in line with the current ETS, probably with some alterations towards the end of the interval. That means 2032, 2034 going forward. That doesn't change anything significantly for us. We have a limited number of assets and markets under ETS. It's practically only Greece and Bulgaria. As you probably remember, we do have a large portfolio of CO2 rights, which allows us to, at the same time, to engage into high decarbonization projects, including financing of our CCS project, but also to weather any negative impact if that goes that direction.
So far is rather positive. On the pipeline of M&A, you are right to point out that we have been very successful in timing transactions, identifying realizable transactions and also closing them in record time. These transactions are value accretive, and as we, you know, spend more time in these businesses, we will give you more color on the amount of synergies, but we remain highly optimistic. This is the result also of a very disciplined capital allocation.
You may remember at the time of the investor's day, we did not announce just the capital to be deployed, but also the targets and what is expected in terms of EBITDA growth over proportional, but also return on capital employed, which needs to stay between 15% and 17%. We remain high disciplined capital. There are smaller transactions which have been realized as well over the past few months. A joint venture in mortars in Greece. The acquisition of additional sources of cement tissues in Serbia. A joint venture in Precast with Cementos Molins and a local partner in Bosnia and parts of other markets.
We continue pursuing a number of transactions of a smaller size in line with our strategy. Discipline capital allocation, a pipeline which is active and, you know, Titan was absent from the market for almost a decade. You know, we have now a machine which is working nicely, both in terms of origination as well as in execution. You will see in the next quarters in terms of integration and delivering the synergies. We remain with our impact, firepower, given the strength of our balance sheet, and we pursue a number of transactions, and we will announce in due time.
Regarding Egypt, we have just completed an important project of building additional silos, which in our plant in Alexandria, which gives more ample opportunities for our export capabilities. We are practically sold out, and we also have Egypt for the first time supplying our part of our U.S. needs, which shows not only the strength of our delivery capability, but also the quality, the uniform quality of our products. Around Egypt, as you pointed out, there have been zones of conflict or areas under restructuring or reconstruction, whether it's Libya, Israel and Gaza and other and other markets. We are actively exporting in these markets.
Okay. Understood. Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Marios Bourazanis with Eurobank Equities. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation and for taking my questions. Just a couple questions from me. Most have been already answered. Just starting with the first one, you know, I understand that Q1 was largely unaffected by volatility in energy prices, if you could give us any early indications on how costs are evolving in Q2 and particularly in Greece, in the Balkans and in the East Med. That's my first question. My second one, if you could also comment on pricing trends in the U.S. so far this year, if you still see any room to push through price increases across the key product lines there. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. John has provided more information on our energy profile. I think again, we are much better off than in the past, we are advancing at very rapid pace in using more alternative fuels and waste, which is reducing our thermal fuel needs and therefore volatility. We are increasing also our electricity hedging both in Greece or through hedge contracts or long-term PPA hedge contracts or through our own captive solar power plant.
You heard that we are also investing now 100 MW, which will cover a large part of our needs and also make us a trader of electricity in Turkey. These are very positive trends weathering us from any large spike. As we look into Q2, I think, John, you made an estimate of what could be the impact and how we mitigate that. Can you give more color on this? On pricing, while John is preparing his answer on pricing in U.S., again, sequentially and what we have announced in Titan America call, sequentially we see price improvements between Q4 and Q1 of this year.
We also have in the U.S. the energy surcharges which for our ready-mix business are automatically passed through. We will announce at the end of Q 2 more on the pricing realization in the quarter. Again, we have positive news on infrastructure spending and construction technology, which is driving the growth. As you know, we are well placed in Virginia, which is the capital of data centers. 40% of these data centers are using our Titan products. We have recently launched TriForce, which is a dedicated product for complex projects. We are aiming high on non-residential and commercial projects.
We are also optimistic about the re-conductings of the infrastructure funding overall in U.S. We have already announced that the recovery in the housing and residential activity, we expect it in early 2027.
Sure.
Yeah. On, as I've stated before, we are monitoring very closely the market, and we're focusing a lot on the cost impact as that relates to electricity across each region, solid fuels, diesel oils, ocean freight, and generally, you know, other costs. We are estimating for the Q2 , you know, the impact to be around on the cost inflation to be around, you know, EUR 10 million. We have identified initiatives already for this quarter, and some of them relates to pricing that will be, you know, obviously we take now will be rolled over to the other quarters as well.
Some, as I mentioned before, our program PRIME that goes in detail into cost initiatives and self-serve measures, to mitigate that impact. We feel confident that we will cover all of the inflation and our price over cost, will still be positive in Q 2 as well.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Auguste Deryckx with Kepler. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Good afternoon to all and congratulations for this good results. My question is on the U.S. You are forecasting stable volumes for 2026. Does this mean that the residential part should decline further given that infrastructure segment is performing well? Or is there a potential upside risk on the current forecast? Thanks.
Thank you. Thank you for your question. On the residential impact, we even see ZIP codes or micro markets where cement is going up. That has to do also with the resilience and durable building trends which is in U.S. given the fires, the replacement of woods by cement intensive products. I think John mentioned that, for instance, our block, which is the concrete blocks. The business line has recorded a very nice double-digit increase that has to do with residential, the walling, the facades in multi-family housing. There we see positive positive trends.
Residential is marked by the affordability and also by the mindsets linked to the high mortgage rates. More is expected in terms of how the Federal Reserve Bank will address the inflationary impact later in the year. Also how the housing bill will be shaped by the current administration. More on that we will see in the later quarters. For now, we expect a higher inflation point in 2027. In some of the markets we are with, residential at 45% of our sales.
In some other markets, we are at 30% or lower as infrastructure and commercial projects as we go into Virginia markets or New Jersey markets, they have a dominant position. From market to market, the impact of residential is also varying.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Nestoras Katsios with Optima Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes, hello again. On the outlook front, you're guiding for stable volumes this year. Is it like for like or including the recent acquisitions? Also a follow-up on the two acquisitions. I think you said in the previous conference call that you expect an additional EUR 40 million EBITDA from the Traçim, and also the acquisition in France. Do you where do you stand with this estimate? Also the third question regarding Keystone. Is there an estimate for the contribution from this year? Thank you.
Thank you. The guidance we mentioned is like for like, volume sales or EBITDA from the newly acquired businesses and consolidated, as we mentioned, 10 months for France and Turkey, I mean, seven months for Arabia will be on top of that. The figures you quoted for as an impact, a divided impact, full year impact for Traçim and France, we confirm, yes, they should be in that range. In fact, we are quite positive after the first few months of integration that this can be exceeded. I think Spyros Kamizoulis in a subsequent call can give you more details on that.
Keystone happened six days ago, you would appreciate that, you know, as we speak, we have teams there. We are very happy with the quality of people we have found in Keystone. We have already started discussing about the synergies, the reliability of the assets and marking a good start. More details on this at the end of Q2 .
Okay, thanks.
The next question is a follow-up question from Marios Bourazanis with Eurobank Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi again. Actually, my question was answered. Thank you.
Good to hear. Thank you.
Thank you, Marios.
There are no further audio questions. We will now accommodate any written questions from webcast participants. The first question is from Mike Betts with Data Based Analysis, and I quote, "Keystone's profit was low in 2025, and I think it has been weak for several years. I also hear that it's been for sale off and on for many years, but a buyer was not found until now. I am wondering what you see in Keystone that others missed, or was it a case of just waiting for the right purchase price? I can see the opportunity, but what are the greatest risks around the transaction?" End quote.
Thank you, Mike, for the question. We think alike. We see the opportunity here. You're right to point out that the profit was low in 2025. This was an asset on sale for quite some time. Indeed exactly because the profit is low that has attracted our attention, and we see a lot of opportunity out there. Again, we remain very optimistic on the level of synergies. This asset will be part of a network. While in the past, this asset was pretty much of a singular asset. The synergies here, the network synergies, the synergies here are in transferring our model of excellence from our other plants, which, you know, are at reliability levels of 98%-99%.
Also access to a high-level technical expertise to realize the necessary CapEx and increase the reliability. It's raw materials, cost optimization, energy efficiency, but also there will be commercial optimization of commercial synergies with our other activities of sale in the region. Very optimistic about the level of synergies. We have always proven in the past our ability to make plans at levels par to our performance. Not far from this asset we have with a plant in Roanoke, where we have a good mastery of our core. More on this at the end of Q2 is in the making as we speak.
The next question is from Isaac Ocio with OnField Investment Research, and I quote, "Thank you, gentlemen, for taking my three questions. What has been the level of price realization from your April price increases? Could you provide a split between volumes and prices in the main parts of your European operations, Greece and Southeast Europe? What impact from higher freight costs do you expect on the group's trade flows in the U.S.?" End quote.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Isaac, for your questions. We have markets where we are already at the second price increase, and we will not spare any opportunity for our strategy of the year to have a positive price over-cost. As John mentioned, positive price over-cost, which has drove margin expansion. I think, John, you announced that it was EUR 20 million.
EUR 21 million.
Yeah, EUR 21 million in price increases and EUR 7 million from.
Volume.
From volume. That is already in, pocketed in, Q 1. As for April, I mentioned good backlog, good address book, and already price realization. We will comment more on this on the end of Q 2. I think the fleet's volumes and prices you gave already. The On the impact of freight costs, John, do you have the figure or Spyros will come back directly to you?
Freight cost.
I think, you know, Spyros will come specifically on the freight cost. However for now, I would say that we have already contracted prior to the crisis, a number of vessels. That's a hedge, a conservative hedge we have provided. We also have a number of flows which are inside the group with predetermined freight cost. We do not expect here a high impact.
For third party.
Yeah. Do you have the figures?
Yeah. The impact of the freight cost is around EUR 9 million. This is, we also have our own vessels and it's kind of a hedging exercise that we have now as well. That will reduce it by two and a half to EUR 3 million because of the increased rates we have there. On the pricing, I think you've indicated here the split between Greece was able to pass on early on healthy prices across all the categories. Some double digits, some high single digits.
In Southeast Europe, especially in Bulgaria, we had a double-digit price increase there as well. Where else in the rest, in North Macedonia, we also have a high single digit price increase. Where in the other countries, because they were impacted heavily by imports, they kept the prices at their prior year levels in Q1 .
Thank you, John. As you can see, Isaac, we are really acting simultaneously on all fronts, paying attention to the pricing realization, the cost savings. I think I would like to reiterate this, we have announced at the Investor Day EUR 100 million cost savings by end of 2029. We are bringing forward that objective with an objective of EUR 50 million for this year. We have already pocketed 10, a bit above 10% of that already in Q1. You would expect a better cost base, which at the same time is mitigating for any adverse impact from war and Middle East energy crisis. Good price over cost.
Expecting a margin expansion and at the same time, investments which will bring our energy costs further down, particularly in use of alternative fuels, waste heat recovery, and overall the energy consumption.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I'll now turn the conference over to Mr. Cobuz for any closing comments. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you for the very good questions. With a very strong business hat, you can be assured that we will continue feeding you with the latest information. Of course, Spyros Kamizoulis is at your disposal for any other questions you may have. Again, this has been a very good quarter, record quarter for the group, both in terms of sales and EBITDA, over proportional EBITDA growth, margin expansion. It's marked specifically by the completion of three transactions which are value accretive for the group and for two of them, we have provided already guidance for the year.
For the third one, at the end of Q 2, we'll give you more news. Thanks again. We'll see each other on the 30th July, 2026 for Q 2 results and more positive news on the pipeline. Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling and have a good afternoon.