Earnings call transcript: De Nora Q1 2025 sees revenue growth, stock rises

Industrie De Nora SpA reported a strong start to 2025 with a 6% year-over-year increase in revenue for the first quarter, amounting to approximately €200 million. The company’s earnings call highlighted significant operational improvements and strategic advancements in its electrochemical technologies. Following the earnings announcement, De Nora’s stock price increased by 3.56%, reflecting positive investor sentiment. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company maintains a strong financial health score of GOOD, supported by solid cash flow coverage and moderate debt levels.

Key Takeaways

• Revenue for Q1 2025 reached approximately €200 million, up 6% year-over-year.
• Adjusted EBITDA improved to 19.7% of revenue, a 400 basis points increase from Q1 2024.
• Stock price rose by 3.56% post-earnings announcement.
• New innovation center inaugurated in Ohio, focusing on electrochemical advancements.
• 2025 guidance confirmed with expectations of sequential revenue growth.

Company Performance

Industrie De Nora’s performance in Q1 2025 showcased a robust growth trajectory, driven by increased revenue and improved operational efficiencies. The company addressed previous production scale-up inefficiencies from 2024, leading to a more streamlined operation. De Nora’s diversified business model and strategic focus on electrochemical technologies have positioned it well against industry competitors.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: Approximately €200 million, up 6% year-over-year.
• Adjusted EBITDA: 19.7% of revenue, a 400 basis point increase from the previous year.
• Geographic revenue distribution: APAC 36%, Americas 33%, EMEA 30%.

Earnings vs. Forecast

The earnings per share (EPS) forecast was set at 0.0901, with one upward revision in the past 90 days. The actual results exceeded expectations, contributing to the positive market reaction and stock price increase.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings call, De Nora’s stock price rose by 3.56%, closing at €6.89. Based on InvestingPro’s Fair Value analysis, the stock currently appears undervalued. With a beta of 0.6, the stock has shown lower volatility compared to the market, while maintaining an Altman Z-Score of 9.01, indicating strong financial stability. This movement reflects investor confidence in the company’s strategic direction and financial health.

Outlook & Guidance

De Nora confirmed its guidance for 2025, anticipating sequential revenue growth with a stronger revenue concentration in the latter half of the year. The company is targeting positive EBITDA in its Energy Transition segment, supported by upcoming global auctions in the green hydrogen market. InvestingPro analysts forecast EPS of $0.48 for FY2025, suggesting continued profitability improvement. The company’s return on invested capital stands at 8%, demonstrating efficient capital allocation.

Executive Commentary

CEO Paolo de la Cain remarked, "We have started strong and guidance are confirmed," emphasizing the company’s solid performance and strategic focus. He added, "Electrochemistry has a very high versatility," highlighting the potential of their technological advancements.

Risks and Challenges

• Supply chain disruptions could impact production timelines and costs.
• Market saturation in traditional sectors may limit growth opportunities.
• Macroeconomic pressures, such as inflation, could affect operational costs.
• Regulatory changes in environmental policies might require strategic adjustments.
• Competition in the green hydrogen market could intensify, affecting market share.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about margin expectations and the potential of De Nora’s new lithium recovery business. The company also discussed growth opportunities in the aftermarket water technologies sector, indicating a focus on expanding its service offerings.

Full transcript - Industrie De Nora SpA (DNR) Q1 2025:

Chiara Locati, Head of Investor Relations and ESG, De Nora: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our Q1 twenty twenty five financial results presentation. My name is Chiara Locati, Head of Investor Relations and ESG at De Nora. With me on the call today there are Paolo de la Cain, CEO of the Group and Luca Ollaloro, our CFO. They will give you what they will guide you through the financial and business performance for the first three months of the year. After the presentation, we will open up a Q and A session.

Finally, please note that the slides for this presentation are available in the Investor Relations section of our website. With that, I would like to hand it over to Paolo. Paolo, the floor is yours.

Paolo de la Cain, CEO, De Nora: Thank you, Chiara. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining today’s conference call and for your interest in Denora. I’m excited to share that 2025 has started off strong for us. We delivered a solid quarter of results fueled by continued execution and agility from all our businesses across our balanced segments and final market portfolio.

Our revenues have grown by middle single digits, driven primarily by our core business. The performance of our electrodes segment has been particularly noteworthy supported mainly by the successful execution of projects in the chlor alkali sector and the initial signs of recovery in the electronics segment. Our Water business has also seen a significant increase led by a new surge in the Pool segment, which has experienced substantial volume growth this quarter, recording the highest revenue level of the past two years. The Energy Transition segment has recorded volumes in line with our internal project planning. Moreover, our EBITDA margin exceeding 19% has benefited from several factors such as the development of volumes, a favorable product mix and efficiencies in our production processes following the optimization of our facilities that took place throughout 2024.

Finally, the backlog at the end of the period remained substantially stable compared to December 2024, thanks to an evolution of order intake that was largely in line with revenues. I’d like to share the main takeaways from quarter. We are navigating a volatile and complex scenario with sound new results, leveraging all the strengths of our business model and market positioning. Our approach is characterized by versatility, market and geographical diversification, adaptability and technological leadership. This first quarter delivered growth in revenues and profitability, as you can see from the first lines of this slide.

This gives us confidence in reaffirming our guidance for 2025. However, we remain mindful of the challenging geopolitical and macroeconomic environment influenced by factors ranging from inflation and currency fluctuations to the potential impacts of U. Tariffs on global economic growth. As I mentioned earlier, the positive performance this quarter is attributable to our core business, which remains resilient and capable of creating value over time. The combined revenues of electrodes and water segments have recorded growth of over 12% this quarter, although it is worth mentioning that the first quarter of twenty twenty four was relatively weak.

The profitability of these two segments exceeded 22, which is particularly high for the Water segment. Luca will provide you with more details on this performance. The positive momentum of the Water business remains confirmed with a robust backlog and order intake growth, primarily driven by the Water Technology Systems line, while Pool’s performance boosted the revenues and profitability of the entire business unit. Regarding the Energy Transition business, in Q1 production volumes aligned with the project schedules agreed upon with our clients. Our business unit remains resilient and our targets for 2025 are confirmed.

However, the short term market outlook is mainly influenced by slow regulatory developments, infrastructure challenges and the evolving landscape of off takers. As market evolution timelines continue to extend, a natural selection process has begun for projects and companies unable to adapt to short term uncertainties. DENORA characterized by a solid economic and financial structure stays committed to developing strategic partnership and advanced technological solutions. These efforts are aimed not only at the green hydrogen sector, where we strive to maintain our leadership position, but also at other areas related to the energy transition leveraging our century long expertise in electrochemistry. We remain focused on planning capital allocation to accelerate the group’s development both organically and by evaluating also external growth opportunities.

From the perspective of our global footprint, in this quarter, we inaugurated our new innovation center in Ohio, United States, underscoring our leadership in research and development with six laboratories now established across the various regions where we operate. Meanwhile, the construction of our Gigafactory in Italy is progressing. It will gradually become operational starting in 2026 and will serve as the Italian hub for the integrated, optimized and sustainable management of all our business units across the country. Finally, in terms of sustainable management, our ESG journey continues with unwavering commitment. During the first quarter, we advanced our decarbonization efforts in line with our emission reduction targets by increasing the use of renewable energy.

We completed the installation of new photovoltaic plants at our facilities in Colmar, United States, Tamworth, U. K. Adding a total annual installed capacity of three eighty megawatt hour. This brings the group total installed capacity to approximately four gigawatt hour. Additionally, we are launching new initiatives focused on principles such as human rights, which Chiara will elaborate on later.

In this slide, you can review some of the main KPIs from our Q1 twenty twenty five financial performance, which Luca will comment on shortly. Reviewing our business units performance. Let’s begin with our Electro Technologies business, which has demonstrated a remarkable growth in the first quarter. Revenue has increased by over 15% year on year, driven by strong execution of portfolio orders excellence. Order intake has grown by approximately 8%, primarily due to the expansion of the electrowinning segment, which has been strengthened by a new aftermarket order in The U.

S. For nickel refining. Additionally, a slight recovery of the electronics and continued stability in the chlor alkali segment have contributed to this positive result. Regarding the geographic distribution of orders, as shown in the slide, Asia remains the dominant market, accounting for 54% of new orders, strengthening its role in driving global demand. The EMEA region continues to show strong momentum, contributing to 24 of new orders and recording an impressive 20% growth compared to the first quarter of twenty twenty four.

These results reinforce the market’s trust in our technology and expertise. Looking ahead, we remain committed to expanding our global presence and delivering industry leading solutions that support long term sustainable growth. As far as the pipeline is concerned, chlor alkali and hydrochloric acid remain stable, while the Electronics segment outlook is showing signs of recovery alongside continued strong opportunities in the aftermarket activities across different segments. As previously mentioned in our conference calls, we expect a moderate expansion in chlor alkali production capacity over the next few years. This will unlock potential for new build projects and larger scale conversion initiatives.

Our joint venture Thyssenkruber Nusera is actively engaged in basic engineering and design packaging for multiple projects across The U. S, China, Central Europe and Middle East. As for the backlog, we would like to reiterate that end of period backlog does not necessarily reflect actual revenue growth prospects due to the faster paced nature of order intake and fulfillment, especially in the case of aftermarket contracts. Therefore, the evolution of the data as of March 2025 does not compromise the revenue expectations for 2025. To conclude, I’d like to point out that the operational inefficiency linked to the 2020 production facility scale up have been successfully addressed.

As a result, profitability in this quarter has benefited from an optimized production setup, ensuring greater efficiency and performance moving forward. We are now on Slide eight. The Water business continues to show strong momentum with particularly robust order growth in the first quarter across both the Water Technology Systems, what we call WTS, and Pulse segment. In Water Technology Systems, new orders expanded by 16%, reaching 1.7 times the revenues of the period. This growth was fueled by an increase in aftermarket contracts, which surged by 70% compared to Q1 twenty twenty four.

Geographically, the growth was primarily driven by strong demand in The Americas and in The Middle East. The Pools segment reported a 19% increase in new orders, mainly concentrated in The U. S. And Europe. Revenues jumped approximately 32% year over year in the first three months of twenty twenty five, reaching the highest level in the past two years.

The strong revenue performance driven by volume increase has meaningfully enhanced the profitability of the entire business unit. Finally, the overall backlog driven by strong new orders expanded by approximately 17% compared to the end of twenty twenty four, reaching its highest level in the past seven quarters. This evolution in our order portfolio offers strong visibility into revenue growth and aligns with our short and mid term guidance. Overall, the main market trends related to Water Technologies remain confirmed. And based on our market position and technological advantages, we can confirm our positive mid term growth expectation for the next years.

Let’s now take a look at some flagship contracts secured during Q1 in the Water Technology Systems. During the first quarter of twenty twenty five, we secured several significant contracts across both municipal and industrial sectors. Slide nine and ten explore some key projects achieved across diverse geographies China, The United States, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. Each project showcases the advanced water treatment technology provided by the NORA including tetra filtration technology, C Clor and capital control technology. Our first project involves the largest wastewater treatment plant in the Kunming Province and the third largest underground water purification facility in China.

Processing up to 400,000 cubic meters of wastewater daily, the plant plays a critical role in restoring the polluted Dian Chili acre, supporting ecological balance. Strategically positioned to address rising water output wastewater output from urban expansion, the project aligns with local environmental objectives. Moving to Slide 10. Another key in Nebraska U. S.

Is a technological upgrade involving the replacement of TETRA filters that have been in operation for twenty five years. The upgraded system we are providing can now efficiently treat and recycle 50,000 cubic meters per day of processed water from the steel mill. The project improves the water treatment quality, a critical factor in steel production. By optimizing water usage and contamination removal, the upgrade strengthens overall manufacturing efficiency. The third project is in Brazil.

Here, the integration of our C Clor technology in a new Petrobras project reinforces the Nora presence in the country’s oil and gas industry. Petrobras actively collaborates with local communities to maximize the benefits of its floating production storage and offloading projects, improving both environmental and social conditions while fostering strong community relations. The last project presented is in Saudi Arabia. The primary objective of our project is in Riyadh, is to enhance the city water transmission network, ensuring a reliable and efficient supply to meet growing demand. By modernizing infrastructure with our capital controls, the project supports Riyadh urban development strategy, while improving sustainability and overall quality of life.

Finally, regarding PFAS, I’m thrilled to announce that we signed our first contract during quarter one, our client in the city of Percays, Pennsylvania located near our Colmar facility. The contract aims to remove PFAS, the so called forever chemicals from municipal water. This win is a significant milestone that shows how far we can come in building the the technical credibility, the supply chain, think capability and customer confidence needed to secure and execute these kind of projects. In addition, the location provides us with a strong foothold in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Northeastern USA, a region where regulatory activity around PFAS is increasing and neighboring municipalities are closely monitoring the project outcomes. It’s a great opportunity to build local references.

This project allows us to demonstrate our product performance in the field, supporting future bids and reinforcing our position as a serious player in PFAS treatment. Our equipment is scheduled to be delivered by the third quarter of twenty twenty five. Meanwhile, we continue to advance 13 pilot and research and development initiatives across The U. S, Italy and The Middle East as outlined in our previous calls. The orders acquired reflect the strength of our business model, which is built on a strategic presence in key geographies critical to water treatment.

By offering a comprehensive portfolio of advanced, reliable and efficient solutions combined with outstanding project execution capabilities, we continue to drive sustainable growth and reinforce our leadership in the industry. Let’s now move on to the Energy Transition segment. During the first quarter, we continued executing the projects in our backlog, particularly focusing on NEOM contract. We successfully delivered approximately 200 megawatts of green hydrogen technologies. The production volumes were kept in line with our plans and agreements with our clients.

There have been no delays or slowdowns in the execution planned activities. Coming back to our backlog, the Neon project concerning the NOR activity is expected to conclude in the first half of twenty twenty five. Another significant contract in our portfolio is more than 700 megawatt Stegera project in Sweden, which is dedicated to sustainable steel production. Additionally, as already explained in our previous call, we have an important energy transition project in our portfolio signed in December by our subsidiary in Japan dedicated to developing electrochemical technology for recovering and refining lithium from spent batteries. This new contract marks a significant milestone for Denora, which aims to expand its scope of action in the energy transition, developing innovative solutions to meet the dynamic needs of the market and leveraging its unique technological and research and development positioning with a special focus on electrochemistry, which can be exploited in different fields of the energy transition space.

We are now at Slide 12 for a quick update on the green market. The clean hydrogen market is consolidating on its fundamentals, supported by different regional strategies and reaching full validation on most promising use cases and final applications. To navigate this moment, it is crucial to own a solid financial capacity to cope with short term uncertainties, cutting edge technology and proven operational know how. Heading toward 02/1930, hydrogen remains a critical element of the global low carbon energy system. Yet its growth will likely follow an incremental and more sustainable trajectory.

Despite some headwinds and regulation uncertainties such as in North America, for example, other regions such as Europe, Middle East and Asia keep supporting with incentives towards the reliable and sustainable clean hydrogen economy. In 2025, auctions and economic support will fund the most economical H2 project hydrogen projects. At least 12 auctions will take place worldwide distributing as much as $28,000,000,000 to clean hydrogen producers. We believe that through slower and steadier growth, the market could even benefit from supplier consolidations, stronger partnerships and further technological improvements. Considering that also base case scenarios are projecting a growth trajectory for green hydrogen, we are expecting mid term outlook with favorable framework conditions throughout a more balanced and organic growth between electrolyzer manufacturers capacity, new project advancements, infrastructure development, off take agreements and overall implementation of global and local regulations and incentive schemes.

In terms of 2025, ’2 thousand and ’30 hydrogen demand, traditional uses of hydrogen such as refineries, chemicals, fertilizers will still be prevalent, requiring proper decarbonization planning and adaptation to carbon pricing and emissions trading systems, the so called ATS regulations. Hard to abate sectors of steel, cement, glass maintain a solid perspective as hydrogen is unavoidable towards sustainable decarbonization of these industries. In parallel, the maritime and aviation industries offer the most robust and widespread new use cases for clean hydrogen derivatives in mobility. Shipping and aviation companies have started signing binding offtake deals to secure clean fuels following decarbonization policies as the Marine Clean Fuel Standard just released from the IMO, the International Maritime Organization, and the ESAF, the Sustainable Aviation Fuels Adoption Scheme under the Refuel Positive signals are recorded also on hydrogen midstream infrastructure, crucial to support clean hydrogen offtake and market consolidation. At the European level, some relevant activities are already ongoing.

Germany to complete within 2025 the first five hundred kilometers of construction of its planned 9,000 kilometer hydrogen core network. Belgium started the first forty kilometers construction of its 600 kilometer plan in their hydrogen pipeline network. France just released 500 kilometers of hydrogen pipelines to be operative by 02/1930. Denmark and The Netherlands are joining agreements to expand Central Europe hydrogen network. While key projects at South H2 Corridor and H2 Med remains among the strategic infrastructures in the EU clean energy plants.

To conclude our review of the Energy Transition segment, our pipeline is stable with a different geographical mix, with more dynamism in Europe and Middle East from which we expect concrete commercial opportunities in the coming months. Now let me give you some updates on our global production footprint. I’m proud to share that in April, we inaugurated our new innovation center in Mentor, Ohio, United States, home to one of our most advanced electrode manufacturing. This innovation center joins our existing five research and development laboratories across The U. S, Italy and Japan.

The new facility marks another significant investment in the country and confirms Americas’ strategic relevance in the group international expansion plan. This initiative further enhances the Danora innovation activities, which have always been at the forefront and a driver for its growth. Spanning over 1,000 square feet, the center is directly connected to our production plant in Mentor. The innovation center will focus on advancing product development and manufacturing capabilities, particularly for DSA electrodes in the chlor alkali industry and the GDEs, gas diffusion electrodes, meaning for energy transition for pioneering applications. It will support the development of core technology for fuel cells, water electrolysis, CO2 conversion, specialty chemical production and other emerging solutions.

The establishment of this facility in North America reflects our broader vision of leading electrochemical innovation and enhancing technological solutions for the industries we serve, including energy transition. To conclude and looking ahead, 2025 has started positively, allowing us to reaffirm evolution of our business. However, the macroeconomic and geopolitical environment remains highly volatile. Despite this, we remain focused on advancing our technologies, optimizing the efficiency of our factories and strengthening strategic partnership across various business lines. With that, I’ll now hand it over to Luca for the financial review.

Luca Ollaloro, CFO, De Nora: Thank you, Paolo. The year 2025 began on a positive note with revenue growing by approximately 6% and total revenue reaching around €200,000,000 The result was supported by slight positive impact of approximately €2,000,000 mainly in the water business due to the favorable evolution of the U. S. Dollar in the early months of the year. From a geographical perspective, the APAC region showed significant growth contributing around 36% to consolidated revenue, up from 33% in Q1 twenty twenty four, primarily driven by the Electrotechnologies segment.

The Americas region also increased its share contributing 33% compared to 30% in Q1 twenty twenty four, thanks to both the electrode and water segments. As a result, the EMEA region contributed 30% of total revenue, down from approximately 37% in Q1 twenty twenty four, reflecting the ongoing evolution of the Energy Transition segment. The core business has driven consolidated revenue growth. Electrotechnology business grew by around 15%, thanks also to the favorable comparison with a soft Q1 twenty twenty four. Volumes from the new installation grew by 32% year on year.

As a consequence, the aftermarket revenue incidence was 42, down from approximately 50% in Q1 twenty twenty four. Growth in the Electrotechnology business was mainly driven by strong execution of contracts in the Chlorarchal segment, which increased by 16% year over year, contributing to about 72% of the business unit’s total revenue. The Electronics segment also had a positive impact, showing first recovery signals with a 21% growth compared to Q1 twenty twenty four. Meanwhile, the Electroheating Specialty segment remained stable. The Water Technologies business recorded positive performance, growing nearly 9% year on year, largely due to the 32% increase in the pool segment which reached €33,000,000 in revenue and recorded the best quarter of the last two years.

Conversely, the water technology system performance was influenced by the scheduling of projects, which development with developments expected to materialize mainly in the second half of the year and by the divestments of the Marine business in 2024, which negatively impacted the annual comparison by €1,700,000 Aftermarket revenues contributed 47% in the EETS segment, marking a significant improvement from 37% in Q1 twenty twenty four and contributing positively twenty Finally, the Energy Transition business whose volumes for twenty twenty five are fully guaranteed by orders already in the backlog recorded approximately eighteen million euros in revenues, down compared to the same period of twenty twenty four. This evolution is in line with the planned schedule agreed with clients and therefore has no impact on the annual guidance, which remains unchanged. The positive revenue trend in Q1 fully confirms our guidance for 2025 across different business units despite continued volatility in the macroeconomic environment. Sequential revenue growth is expected in the coming quarters with a stronger concentration in the second half of the year.

On Page 17, you’ll find our backlog as of the March 2025, which Paolo has already discussed. We are now on Slide 18, which presents an overview of our operating cost structure. The cost of goods sold as a percentage of revenue remained consistent with the same period of 2024, despite provisions made for risks related to a European client in the energy transition business, which announced the discontinuation of its operations and initiated a settlement procedure. On the other hand, Q1 saw an improved operating profitability as factories regained a higher level of productivity, overcoming the inefficiency stage in 2024 due to the scale up of production capacity. The increase in G and A and corporate costs reflects inflationary dynamics and the carryover impact of corporate structure enhancements implemented in the second half of twenty twenty four.

Finally,

: R and

Luca Ollaloro, CFO, De Nora: D expenses remained broadly stable as a percentage of revenue compared to Q1 twenty twenty four, averaging around 2%. In absolute terms, they slightly decreased due to the optimization of certain fixed costs despite the increase in the number of researchers, which reached approximately 120 at the March 2025. Let’s move on Slide 19. The adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter increased by approximately 8% with an incidence of revenues of 19.7%, about 400 basis points higher than the first quarter of twenty twenty four. This positive performance mirrors the upward trend seen in revenues, underscoring the steady growth of the core business.

The Electrical Technologies division reported a healthy profitability of approximately 22.5%, primarily driven by increased volumes. This level of profitability exceeds the debt of the last three quarters of twenty twenty four, which featured a different mix of products, market and geographies compared to Q1 twenty twenty four. This explains the evolution of the Q1 twenty twenty five versus the same quarter in 2024. On the other hand, the improvement in profitability in the first quarter of twenty twenty five compared to the last quarters of twenty twenty four reflects the recovered excellence in operation following the inefficiencies faced in 2024 due to the production capacity scale as already explained in the previous slide. The Water Technologies business achieved a stronger 47% growth in adjusted EBITDA, with an incidence of revenues exceeding 22%, a record high in the past two years.

This performance reflects the positive contribution of both the WTS and Pooled segments. Regarding the Pooled segment, the increase in profitability was primarily driven by higher volumes reported during the quarter. The WTS segment also saw improved profitability supported by several key factors, including the expansion of revenue from aftermarket services and the optimization of operational structures, partly due to the divestments of the Marine business. Additionally, the segment benefited from a one off gain of just under €1,000,000 from the disposal of the fracking related business in The U. S.

In conclusion, the water business remains solid and resilient, demonstrating its ability to generate value for the group over time. However, the anticipated increase in the weight of WTS revenues within the total water business in the coming quarters, along with the usual progression of operating costs throughout the year, is expecting to align the business unit profitability more closely with the 2025 guidance. In the Energy Transition business, the trend of EBITDA was primarily driven by planned lower production volumes and the provision related to the European customer, as already described in the previous slide. Without these provisions, the adjusted EBITDA would have been at breakeven despite the soft volumes and the R and D expenses, which accounted for 12% of revenues. Notably, gross margin improved, reflecting the regained operational efficiency after the optimization of production processes completed in 2024.

This coupled with the planned progressive increase in volumes across the next quarter makes us confident that we will reach our EBITDA 2025 guidance for the business unit, which is expected to be positive and broadly in line with 2024. Finally, on Slide 20, let’s take a look at the evolution of our net financial position. Net operating cash flow typically mirrors the evolution of net working capital in the first quarter of the year. In particular, in Q1 twenty twenty five, the evolution was driven by trade payables related to the inventory buildup for project execution as well as VAT payments made according to the standard due date. CapEx was €13,200,000 following the schedule of the 2025 investment plan.

We confirm our solid financial structure, which puts us in the best position to seize international internal external growth opportunities. We are finally on Slide ’21. The robust results achieved in the first quarter of the year, both in revenue growth and profitability across various business units, combined with a stronger visibility provided by our backlog as of 03/31/2025, enable us to confidently reaffirm our guidance for 2025 despite ongoing volatility and uncertainty in the short term macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape. With that, I leave the floor to Chiara for the update on our ESG journey.

Chiara Locati, Head of Investor Relations and ESG, De Nora: Thank you, Luca. Let me give you a very quick update on our ESG and sustainability activities. During the first quarter, we continued with our decarbonization plan aimed at reducing our Scope one and Scope two emissions, also by increasing the use of renewable energy. Specifically, in the first ’3 months of the year, we completed the installation of two new photovoltaic plants at our facility in Colmar, Pennsylvania, U. S.

And Tamworth, U. K. Both newly installed facility have a total capacity of around three eighty megawatt hours annually. In particular, at our Korma facility, we have installed a plant of approximately three fifty megawatt hours, which has the potential to cover 100% Thanks to this new installation, the total capacity of the group photovoltaic plants at various facility in The U. S, Brazil, UK, Germany and Italy has now reached approximately four gigawatt hours.

We are pleased to continue our decarbonization journey with determination as outlined in our sustainability plan, which already yielded positive results in 2024. Commitment to creating sustainable value for all stakeholders remains strong and unchanged. To foster this objective, De Nora is taking part in the United Nations Global Compact Business and Human Rights Accelerator, a six month training program focused on human rights due diligence. 64 countries worldwide are participating in this program and it presents a unique opportunity for DeNora, which has been selected for the Italian track alongside other 39 Italian companies. The training is designed to strengthen our capabilities in identifying and assessing actual or potential adverse human rights impact across our activities and supply chain, developing a concrete and measurable action plan to implement due diligence processes in accordance with international standards.

This initiative aligns with our ongoing commitment for responsible business conduct, enhancing transparency and accountability towards our stakeholders. With that, I leave the floor to Paolo for the final summary.

Paolo de la Cain, CEO, De Nora: Yes. Thank you, Chiara. So final remarks on our Q1 twenty twenty five performance. We have started strong and guidance are confirmed. So strong start, plus 12% core business revenues driven by electrode technologies and pulls.

Healthy profitability supported by volumes and production efficiencies, our solid financial structure is confirmed. Positive water momentum continues with backlog growing on strong order intake revenues and profitability boosted the consolidated results. Well positioned in a volatile and complex macroeconomic scenario guidance 2025 confirmed. The core business outlook remains resilient while awaiting the recoveries of the new energy transition market. Keep pursuing our strategies to growth, which include strategic alliances, technological development and potential external growth will drive our performances.

Thank you very much. Now we are ready for Q and A.

Operator: This is the Chorus Call conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question comes from Matteo Bonizzoni of Kepler Cheuvreux.

Matteo Bonizzoni, Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux: Thank you very much. Good morning. Good start to the year. So my question is first question is on the margin. Clearly, the margin was a positive surprise, 19.7% versus 17% for the full year, which you have confirmed.

So my question is to try to understand expected evolution, let’s say, for the two legacy business, Electro and Water. In Water, in particular, the margin was extremely strong. I think 22.7% is probably the highest quarter since the IPO or something like that. So the consensus for a full year is, I was looking now on VisibleAlpha, is to have a margin in the range of 16%, seventeen %. So definitely below the first quarter, which you said was also impacted positively by Baypool and so on.

So can you provide a little bit more color on this bridge? So between 22.716.17%, do you think it’s a reasonable assumption by the consensus? For Electro Technologies, the gap is lower. Still, there is a positive gap, I think, in Q1, ’20 ’2 point ’5 percent. The consensus is in the range 21%, twenty two %.

Can you confirm that or elaborate a little bit the expected evolution for the next three quarters? Second question second last question is on the we are reading that in Energy Transition, you are starting the business in lithium recovery, now in circular lithium, which is pretty new, at least for me. Just to understand maybe can you elaborate the opportunity and also quantify this opportunity going forward? Thanks.

Luca Ollaloro, CFO, De Nora: Thank you. I’ll start with the margin one. Yes, it was a very good start of the year. 19.7% is satisfactory definitely EBITDA margin. We what we are seeing is the fact that, as you know, it’s typical of the business of the company to have more concentration of cost in the second part of the year.

The first part of the year is particularly light of cost, the structural cost. This is the reason why we maintain our guidance for 17%. The second reason is that water that was particularly high in the third quarter, as you said, we’ll have in the second part of the year a higher concentration of water, WTS, compared to pools. It will go around 10 percentage points higher. And you know that WTS has a lower profitability than pools.

Then Q1 was a very good start. We need to now wait what will be the trend in the second quarter of the year. And in case we will see a further improvement of the different sectors of business, we will then decide if to update or not the guidance in the second quarter of the year.

Paolo de la Cain, CEO, De Nora: Paolo, for the Okay. For the lithium, let’s say that we have been always saying that electrochemistry has a very, very high versatility. So we’ve been starting engaging ourselves in transforming lithium from either the original sources, meaning salt, so lithium chloride, or from also battery waste, which is becoming a very, very major business because the more we go on, the more will be waste batteries to be recovered, where we are talking also about lithium sulfate. So there are different forms of lithium molecules that, thanks to the electrochemistry, instead of using polluting chemicals and very, let me say, more traditional ways to recover or extract the lithium, we can apply our technology to make a lithium hydroxide, which is a very, very well known solution for us coming from our huge electrochemical experience, which is the form that allows the lithium to enter back into the production process. So we started that some time ago, but now we are observing a very, very large interest in this to the point that we made it a strategic initiative.

The company is focusing a lot on this, also expect over the next years with some also research and development effort to be able to provide complete solutions and electrolyzers serving this new market, which is very much also needed in the energy transition process.

Chiara Locati, Head of Investor Relations and ESG, De Nora: Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Izago Brambilla of Mediobanca.

: Hi, good morning and everybody. Thanks for taking my questions. I have three. The first one is on the aftermarket side of the business that grew substantially in the first part of twenty twenty five in Water Technologies. Is there any sort of target you may share for aftermarket instance on Water Technologies, say, to be reached by the end of twenty twenty five?

It was roughly 25% of sales, I guess, last year. Second question is again on Water Technologies. At the pools business, can you give us a sense of drivers of growth between new installation and replacement of your component of the base installed amid the COVID pent up demand? I know it’s difficult, but for sure you have a bit more visibility than us. Last question is on energy transition.

Making the math, it looks like you got €5,000,000 to €6,000,000 orders in the first quarter of 2,000 new orders in the first quarter of twenty twenty five. Can you just elaborate a bit more on that? Is this coming from the lithium battery order you were mentioning or small scale electrolyzers or what else?

Paolo de la Cain, CEO, De Nora: Okay. So I start answering the first two questions, which by the way are very similar, meaning that the more the installed base grows like in the case of WT water Systems, but also in the case of Pulse and partially, as you said, coming from the fantastic growth in volumes that we had in during the COVID period, of course, the more the aftermarket grows. Of course, to make it grow, the only variable cannot be just the installed base. You need to follow it up properly. You need to have the proper teams of people that are very close to our customers.

So as I always say, the proximity we have with customers with our global footprint allows together with the competence and the capacity of our people to be as close to the customers as possible and to aftermarket business growing consistently over the time. Difficult to give you numbers honestly because it depends on water systems. We are dealing with thousands of equipment spread all over the planet. And in pools, we are talking about millions of pools spread all over the planet. But in general, it’s a good trend that is not only driving growth in volumes for those in profitability.

On the last part Yes.

Luca Ollaloro, CFO, De Nora: On the last yes, on the energy transition, you’re right. There are several small projects that is I mean that are not material one by one, but altogether create, let’s say, an increase of the backlog by a few million, Rizako.

: Okay. Thanks, Marc.

Chiara Locati, Head of Investor Relations and ESG, De Nora: So thank you very much for participating in our conference call.

Paolo de la Cain, CEO, De Nora: Thank you everybody. Have a good day.

Chiara Locati, Head of Investor Relations and ESG, De Nora: Bye. Thank you. Ladies

Operator: and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over and you may disconnect your telephones.

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