Good morning. We welcome you to the Altri Second Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be on a listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity to ask questions after the presentation. If you wish to ask a question during the Q&A session, you may do so by pressing the star key followed by five on your telephone keypad. If you are experiencing any difficulty in hearing the conference at any time, please make sure you have your headset fully plugged in, or alternatively, please try calling from a different device. We have with us Mr. José Soares de Pina, the CEO of Altri SGPS SA, and Mr. Miguel Silva, the group's CFO. Mr. José Soares de Pina and Mr. Miguel Silva will give a brief description of the second quarter 2025 results, and the floor will be open to Q&A.
I'll now hand the conference over to Mr. José Soares de Pina, the CEO of Altri SGPS SA. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending Altri's conference call. We're always pleased to host this call with investors and analysts to share Altri's results, news of the market environment, and challenges. If you turn to slide number two, we comment on some of the main highlights of the second quarter of 2025. We have seen some slowdown in pulp demand during the second quarter of 2025 after a positive start of the year. The announcement of U.S. tariffs for most geographies brought additional economic uncertainty, especially in Asia, affecting demand from April onwards. Demand for the dissolving pulp and the Asian textile chain has also been impacted since early 2025. Given the more challenging market environment, our focus continues to be on efficiency.
Altri's EBITDA reached EUR 28.2 million in the second quarter of 2025, a material decline versus last year's 2024, but in line with the first quarter of 2025, with an implied margin improvement of 2.2%. This was the result of an improvement in our cash cost despite the scheduled maintenance shutdowns at BioTech and Kymet during the quarter. Altri has diversified the applications of its cellulosic fibers with the acquisition of a 58.7% stake in Aonic, a Sweden-based company offering innovative solutions in the textile sector with technology for producing cellulosic-based fibers with properties of synthetic fibers with a high level of sustainability. Still on the M&A front, the acquisition of Greenalia Forest and Greenalia Logistics completed during the second quarter of 2025 allows the group to establish a forestry platform in northern Spain.
Moving to slide number three, after a year as 2024 with negative growth in pulp, global pulp demand increased by 3% in the first five months of the year, with hardwood pulp growing by 4.6%. After a stronger takeup in the first quarter of 2025, we saw several signs of slowdown during the quarter, which was also reflected in the evolution of prices. Europe and North America posted a negative growth from January to May after a double-digit growth year- on- year. In slide number four, global demand for dissolving pulp has decreased by 5.5% in the first five months of 2025, with a clear impact of the global trade war in the textile value chain after a positive growth of 6% in 2024.
In slide number five, inventories at European ports have been stable since the second half of 2024, in line with the historic average of EUR 1.4- EUR 1.5 million. Slide number six, the evolution of the USD versus the Euro is having also a material impact in 2025 for Altri. Average pulp prices in Europe in the second quarter of 2025 were -13% in USD, but 17% in Euros versus the second quarter of 2024. Looking on a quarterly basis, the increase of 10% in USD is translated in only 3% in Euro. The fixed price index ended June at $1,117.35. In slide number seven, we see dissolving pulp prices down by 10% in the second quarter of 2025 versus last year's first quarter and comparing to the first quarter of 2025.
Despite a historic stable and lower volatile trend versus BHKT, the dissolving pulp prices have been affected by the U.S. tariffs announcement with material consequences for the global textile value chain. At slide number eight, we show a slightly negative evolution of production and sales volumes in the first half of 2025, given a lower demand environment and the program maintenance stops for BioTech and Kymeta, which took place during the second quarter. Going to slide number nine, volume sold maintained a similar pattern when looking at sales per region, while the end-use is led by tissue with dissolving pulp increasing its weight. I now ask to call the Altri CFO, Miguel Silva, on the main financial highlights of the report.
Thank you, José. Good morning, all. In slide number 10, we can see that the lower pulp prices in 2025 and lighter volumes in the second quarter uplift revenues and the pressure versus last year's second quarter. When comparing to the first quarter, the decrease in revenues was mainly attributed to volume. Despite lower revenues in the second quarter of 2025 versus the first quarter, EBITDA was barely flat due to a better efficiency, having some of the issues commented in the first quarter already solved, such as the cogeneration turbine at Celbi working since late March. Going now to slide 11, on an accumulated basis, revenues and EBITDA have registered a decrease in the first half of 2025 as the full market environment was more favorable in the first half of 2024.
Going to slide 12, EBITDA margin has been in the mid-teens during 2025, given a lower volume and the pricing environment. It is worth noting that due to efficiency improvements, we increased EBITDA margin by more than 2 percentage points from Q1 to Q2. In slide 13, EBIT and net profit in the second quarter of 2025 decreased when compared with the first quarter of 2025. For the previously mentioned reasons, there was a material decrease in EBIT and net profit of the QE when comparing with the second quarter of 2024. On slide 14, we can see the same trend on ESG data.
On slide 15, in spite of a challenging market environment and with two problem strategies at BioTech and K ymet, we have been able to reduce the cash flow in the quarter by 9% quarter on quarter and minus 5% year- on- year, pulling the first half of 2025 number flat when comparing with the first half of 2024. We will focus on our efforts in optimizing variable and fixed costs with the goal to achieve a slight reduction for the Q2 year of 2025. Under several items and starting by the energy front, the normalization of the cogeneration turbine at Celbi on late March likely to improve production level of electricity and higher efficiency at the Celbi plants. Overall, energy prices are good in line with historic averages, being at a slightly better level than 2024 in the first quarter of 2025.
Wood prices have been fairly stable during 2025, much in line with the situation in 2024. Chemical prices have been slowly trending downwards since the end of 2022, and during the second quarter of 2025, prices were slightly below the average reported in 2024. On slide 16, we see an increase in net debt during the quarter, mainly due to dividend distribution, income taxes, and to a lesser extent, working capital. Net debt to EBITDA over the last 12 months is now at 2.15. I will now pass the word back to José.
Thank you, Miguel. In slide number 17, mentions Altri's return on capital employed level in the first half of 2025, which will tend to be lower under the current challenging environment, still on a double-digit basis. In slide 18, we share an update on some sustainability developments and efforts of the group during the quarter. The group is recognized as the winner in the category Health and Wellbeing in organizations, large organizations, at the fifth edition of the Portuguese Sustainability Awards, promoted by Jornal de Negócios . This recognition reflects the organization's commitment to the safety, health, and well-being of its employees, promoting safe, conscious, and preventive behaviors. Altri has also announced its ninth biospot in the Algarve region, south of Portugal, reflecting the group's strategy for biodiversity conservation. This biospot is part of Altri's diversity program, aligned with the group's commitment to create 15 biodiversity stations by the end of 2023.
In slide number 19, Altri completed in the third quarter of 2025 the acquisition of a 58.7% stake in Aonic, marking a decisive step in the sustainable textile sector. Altri's investment, including a capital increase, will support the development of Aonic's commercial-scale production capacity, reinforcing its strategic vision of diversifying to high-value, low environmental impact cellulosic applications. Aonic is a Swedish-based company that developed the world's first biodegradable, climate-positive cellulosic filament designed to replace polyester and nylon. The Aonic platform is set to transform the global textile industry by offering a renewable, plastic-free alternative that replicates the performance of synthetic fibers without their environmental impact. From innovation to scale, as part of the agreement, the world's first Aonic industrial plant will be built at Altri's pilot facility in Kymet. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2026 with an initial capacity of 1,750 t per year.
In addition to the existing power plants in Austria, a pre-industrial unit will be launched in Portugal in early 2026 to accelerate the development of coat of tires, brand partnerships, and capsule collection. In slide 20, we put some numbers to the project. An expected 1,700,000 t per year would generate EUR 20- EUR 25 million annual revenue at a CapEx subsidy of approximately EUR 60 million. We expect to start operating in early 2028. Some of the photos show some of the products manufactured with Aonic filament, yarn, and a few collections that Hugo Boss, also a shareholder of Aonic. In slide 21, we share the main figures of the acetic acid and pulp production unit at Kymet that should start operation in the first quarter of 2026.
In slide number 22, we show some figures about the full migration of BioTech's BHKT production into full dissolving pulp that continues on schedule to happen by the end of 2026. In slide number 22, we retain some highlights on the Gemma project and the habit to discuss an update of the situation in the Q&A session. Finally, in slide 23, the forward-looking comment. The recovery in global pulp market demand seen in early 2025 was interrupted by the U.S. announcement starting in April to impose tariffs on a large share of imports, with a significant impact on the Asian region, particularly China. This has been a key factor for short-term economic uncertainty and the resulting slowdown in global pulp demand. We believe the measures and tariffs to be implemented by the U.S. should stabilize at this point.
Hardwood pulp prices in China and Europe increased at the start of 2025, followed by declines during the second quarter, ending the semester in Europe at a level of $1,120 per ton. We believe pulp prices in China are close to marginal costs, which could indicate a near-stabilization point as local integrated paper producers have an economic incentive to purchase pulp on the market. European prices should follow China often with a one to two months delay. The Altri Group should focus its efforts on optimizing variable costs, aiming for a slight reduction in cash flow year on year to mitigate the current economic environment. We have achieved a higher level of operational efficiency in second quarter 2025, improving production costs and ending the first half grossly in line with 2020.
On the growth and diversification front, the acquisition of 58.7% of Aonic reinforces Altri's group strategy of developing projects in the field of high-value and low environmental impact. The acquisition of Greenalia Forest, one of the leading companies in the Galician forest sector, and Greenalia Logistics during the second quarter of 2025, was an important strategic step to enable the group to establish a forestry platform in northern Spain. As a conclusion, 2025 is a challenging year given the economic doubts caused by tariff announcements and the evolution of the U.S. dollar. We expect to see a normalization of the situation into Q4 2025 with a peak in demand and progressively higher returns. We remain, as always, focused on optimizing our operational performance. Thank you for your attention. We look forward to your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session starts now. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by five on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from Bruno Bessa from CaixaBank BPI. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one will go for the net debt evolution, which saw an increase on a quarter-on-quarter basis. I understand that's also driven by the dividend. I believe that working capital has significantly deteriorated in the quarter, also due to the ongoing market conditions. On this front, just trying to understand if you could share with us some color and some expectations about this debt evolution until the end of the year, if we could get closer to the level seen at the end of 2024, or if this level of debt should be difficult to further materially reduce considering the ongoing industry backdrop. This will be the first question. The second question focused on the Aonic acquisition.
If you could provide a bit more color on this acquisition, namely in terms of invested capital, including the capital increase that you are undertaking in the company to expand capacity, the potential EBITDA uplift coming from this, and the potential to scale up the business in the future. The third question, a bit more focused on the P&L, if you could explain the movement in the net financial cost line in the first half and particularly in Q2, if this is a good reference to be extrapolated to the full year. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Bruno. Just a few comments regarding net debt evolution. Obviously, net debt involves a key factor where your EBITDA comes. With the reductions we've had so far this year, obviously, we will take a more prudent approach. The dividend was the largest part of that increase. We also have a meaningful increase in working capital, and that's primarily driven by seasonal wood stocking. Usually at the end of June, early July, that's to be when we have the highest wood inventories in our plants. That should, towards the end of the year, normalize to a more efficient level. On the side of the inventories regarding pulp, as we've said earlier, we've always tried to keep a fairly prudent approach on inventories. I would say at this stage where we see them, we see them in line or even below what has been our historic number.
Obviously, depending on how the market evolves in the next few months, that may or may not have a negative impact or eventually would be further reduced due to the positive impact on wood to castle. The biggest element there clearly has been the wood inventories. Regarding Aonic, in terms of plans for future scale-ups, when we look at a business like this, usually it's a very strong, high-value-added business. We estimate that EBITDA would be somewhere in the range of 30%- 40% low. It's a high-value business. This first plant is really to, this first industrial plant is really to start seeding the market, qualifying different brands. There is a pipeline of more than 16 projects ongoing with multiple brands which have not yet been disclosed, but there is a high level of activity of qualifying brands, including some very well-known global brands.
This initially, so there's two steps. We had pilot plans. We had pilot plans in Austria, which primarily are focused on product and application development. They've seen some of the initial capsule launches that Hugo Boss did. Hugo Boss and a few other brands, including ALUMO Textile, Laminil, for example, in a Portuguese company. The second stage is to have a pre-industrial pilot line with larger quantities to start qualifying those brands. The third one, which is this first industrial-scale plant, is really the first step of a ramp-up. We have some ideas in terms of what follows, which will be a continuation of the scale-up into significantly larger quantities, but we will not disclose any further plans until we have a better understanding of how the market, the speed of market development. Yes, there are some developed scale-up plans that would follow this first industrial one.
Regarding our results cash flow and the financial results, I'll ask Miguel to comment specifically on this.
Yeah. Regarding financial results and answering directly to the question, I think those figures both in Q1 and Q2, I think they don't provide a good base for the next quarters, even if we don't know exactly what is going to happen with the exchange rate because it mainly has two components. The normal interest paid and received, which are absolutely in line, even better than expected because we're freezing interest rates have been more than we expected, but we have forecasted. Then the other, more or less the other half is the exchange rate losses. Knowing that most of those exchange rate losses are potential, they are not actual exchange losses. This is due to the re-annulation of the balance at the end of the quarter.
That means that we have both in the end of the first quarter and the end of the second quarter a strong depreciation of U.S. dollars, meaning that some of those losses have been reverted in the following weeks and months. Answering directly, I would say our base case for financial results will be lower than what we presented in the lower first quarter and the second quarter.
Thank you, Bruno.
Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, please be reminded that in order to be able to ask a question, you must press the star key followed by 5 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Antonio Celadas from AS Independent Research. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one is related with volumes. If you could provide some reference or some idea about the volumes to be sold in the rest of the year. The second question is related with capital spending. If you can provide an update taking into consideration the acquisition of Aonic and BioTech conversion. If you can provide an update on capital spending for the current year and for 2026. The last one is related with net debt. I understood from your prior answer that taking into consideration that working capital came down, net debt should come down until the rest of the year. Could you confirm it? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Antonio. Regarding your first question on volumes, my expectation is that volumes should be pretty much in line with the first half. We don't have any more scheduled maintenance shutdowns left until the end of the year. We've done all of the program, the planned shutdowns. That should provide us a good basis for us to target normalized volumes. I would say in terms of volume, we're looking at beyond 1.1 million tons on an annual basis. Regarding your second question on capital spending, this year, we have several projects underway. We have the Celbi capital that's fulfilled, which will be completed early 2026. This year is the main year of spend. We also have the conversion of BioTech, which involves the refurbishment and expansion of the minefield, also the evaporation. A number of those projects will extend through 2026.
Obviously, 2025 is still a higher capital expenditure year. Other projects in line with that, as far as it relates to Aonic, there's very little still this year, primarily focusing on the pilot line for industrial. Next year, we'll be focusing on the first industrial line, and that's when most of the investment will be made. I would say all in all, for this year, we're aiming to be around EUR 70 million in terms of capital spend, which is, I believe, pretty much in line with what we've stated in the past. Obviously, it depends on the execution of some of these projects, whether some will pass on to the next year or not. That's the level we're targeting. On the net debt, my comment was, depending on how the market evolves, there is an expectation that EBITDA is obviously a key element of our net debt.
Eventually, depending on how the rest of the year goes, we would expect, particularly on net debt, to be impacted in terms of our free cash flow by working capital. That's what I said about the wood inventories. That one specifically, the working capital, we would expect some reduction. I would say in terms of net debt level, we'll probably be at a higher level compared to the end of last year. Thank you, Antonio.
Just a follow-up question. Just a clarification, sorry. In terms of your EBITDA margin regarding your Aonic project, I understood that to be between 30% and 40%. Just to confirm it.
Yes. We're at the main in between 30% and 40% EBITDA margin.
Okay, thank you very much.
There are no further questions. I will hand over the session to Mr. José Soares de Pina, Altri's CEO.
Thank you all. Thank you for attending the call. As we stated before, we're very focused on continuing to remain, as always, very focused on operational performance, as we've stated. I think we've seen through the result of the second quarter, in particular on our cash flows, we'll be very much focused on managing that very actively through the remainder of the year. I think that was a key point that we made earlier. Despite that, we continue on the investment in terms of our growth projects, which we believe will be pretty significant in the next few quarters. Thank you so much. Have a good day.