Earnings call transcript: Heidelberg Materials Q4 2024 sees record RCO

Heidelberg (ETR:HDDG) Materials reported a record high return on capital employed (RCO) of €3.2 billion for the fourth quarter of 2024, reflecting a robust financial performance. The company’s EBITDA margin improved to 21.3%, up from 17.7% in the previous year. Despite global challenges, the company maintained stable free cash flow at €2.2 billion and reduced its leverage to 1.2x. The stock of Heico Corporation, trading under the symbol HEI, saw a 1.75% increase in the latest session, closing at $229.57, though it experienced a slight dip in premarket trading. According to InvestingPro data, the stock appears overvalued at current levels, with a market capitalization of $31.9 billion and trading at an EBITDA multiple of 30.9x.

Key Takeaways

• Record high RCO of €3.2 billion achieved.
• EBITDA margin increased to 21.3% from 17.7% in 2022.
• Free cash flow remained stable at €2.2 billion.
• Sustainable revenues rose to 43.3%.
• Stock price increased by 1.75% in the latest session.

Company Performance

Heidelberg Materials demonstrated strong financial performance in Q4 2024, with significant improvements in key metrics such as RCO and EBITDA margin. The company has successfully navigated market challenges, including a global decline in cement volumes. Heidelberg’s strategic focus on sustainability and innovation, including the launch of net-zero carbon products, positions it favorably against competitors.

Financial Highlights

• RCO: €3.2 billion, a record high.
• EBITDA margin: 21.3%, up from 17.7% in 2022.
• Free cash flow: €2.2 billion, stable year-over-year.
• Adjusted earnings per share: Increased by 11% to nearly €12.

Outlook & Guidance

Heidelberg Materials is optimistic about its future prospects, projecting an RCO growth corridor of €3.25-3.55 billion. The company anticipates a slight further reduction in CO2 emissions and a modest increase in capital expenditures by €100 million. It remains positive about volume recovery in 2025, driven by potential infrastructure investments in North America.

Executive Commentary

CEO Dominik emphasized the importance of combining decarbonization with a convincing business case, stating, "Decarbonization only makes sense if you combine it with a convincing business case." CFO Rene highlighted the potential benefits of volume recovery, noting, "If volumes come back, the leverage is big."

Risks and Challenges

• Decline in global cement volumes may continue to pressure margins.
• Plant closures in Europe could indicate regional operational challenges.
• Potential supply chain disruptions and macroeconomic pressures could impact future performance.
• Market saturation in certain regions may limit growth opportunities.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the impact of the EvoZero cement sales and potential price increases due to global market dynamics. The company expressed caution regarding the immediate impact of new product sales but remains optimistic about long-term benefits. Additionally, questions were raised about the company’s US operations and strategies for enhancing investor transparency.

Full transcript - Heico Corp (NYSE:HEI) Q4 2024:

Maurits, Chorus Call Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Heidelberg Materials Full Year Results twenty twenty four Conference Call. I’m Maurits, the Chorus Call operator. I would like to remind you that 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, it’s my pleasure to hand over to Christoph Boimebuhr.

Please go ahead, sir.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Thank you, operator. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone that dialed in. Great that you’re all here. We are in the room as always with Dominik and Rene and the IR team and look forward to your questions later, but for now, I hand over to Dominik for our prepared remarks. Dominik?

Thanks, Chris. Thanks, everybody, and thanks for joining our Annual Results twenty twenty four call. We open up with another year of success and progress. You’ve seen the presentation, I’m looking at the executive summary, basically sharing with you that the RCO a record high of EUR 3,200,000,000.0. The EBITDA margin jumps up to 21.3% and is absolutely in the corridor of 20% to 22% that we took as a target in our twenty twenty one Capital Markets Day.

Transformation Accelerator, initially, we shared with you last time, target 500,000,000. We are well on our way. I’m sure we’ll get into some more details down the road. Free cash flow sits at a very healthy €2,200,000,000 which drives the leverage down to 1.2 times. Shareholder return, first time above €1,000,000,000 in one year in a combination of progressive dividend and share buyback.

We have canceled the shares of the first wave of the second share buyback and we will start the second wave in Q2 right after the general assembly. Exciting times then for us this year was a revolution around the product offering for carbon capture net zero product in the industry worldwide will come to the market in H1 twenty twenty five. And then our outlook, NRCO growth to a corridor of 3.25 to 3.55, auroic around 10% and the CO2 emission with a further slight reduction. If you go to the next page, you see the summary, I’ll jump over that right next to the next slide, where we see the EBITDA margin improvement by area, and you see that most areas are contributing to a significant improvement, mainly, obviously, North America. I’m sure we’ll get into some of the details in your questions, all areas on a progressing level or stabilizing on a high amount.

Cement improving significantly, but also aggregates slightly up, so total margin for the group jumps up to 21.3 from 17.7 in 22, so overall a significant improvement in structural profitability. We want to keep it that way, that’s why we announced the transformation accelerator program that should contribute by the end of twenty twenty six, an additional amount of 500,000,000 on the results. And we are well on our way with the program. We have broken it down to specific plans and countries, and we will obviously track the targets now quarter over quarter, and we’ll also make them available to you. On the portfolio optimization, I think we’ve made nice progress, we’ve made a significant divestment with our setup in Congo, Democratic Republic Of Congo, which from our perspective is not our sweet spot for the future development of the group.

We have shifted our focus, as you well know, to significant transactions in The U. S. You see them all on the left side of the chart with five significant acquisitions in North America during 2024. On the operational side, I think it’s interesting and important to note that we are coming out of a fairly healthy, if not strong Q4 twenty twenty four. The revenue jumped up for the first time for a long time, 2% like for like improvement, operating EBITDA almost 10% up, margin up and the EBIT 15% up.

If you compare that to the 6% for the full year, you see that the trajectory is going in the right direction at the end of twenty twenty four. It then also becomes clear when you turn to the next page, where you see the revenue being slightly down, operating EBITDA being up 4% like for like, the margin is up and then what I said, the RCO, you see a like for like improvement 6% while the quarter four was 15%, so you see the trend line showing the right picture, which also is happening on the next page when you go to the operating bridge, where you see for a first time for a long time now that the volume impact is basically flat. I’ll come to the next page in a minute, but if you stay on this page, you’ll see that despite the fact that the volume is basically flat, the price over cost is still significantly positive, which then obviously turns into a very strong quarter with a profit uplift of 15% or more than 100,000,000 in just one quarter. If you keep this in mind and then go to the next page, you see the big difference.

Now you see for the full year, we still have a negative volume impact of $360,000,000 and basically being flat in Q4. You can see what that does then also to the result. That’s what we call the leverage effect. So if the volume is you don’t even have to come back big time. If it’s slowing down in terms of decline, you see the impact on the results, so I think in that respect that it’s quite positive from our perspective.

If you go down into the regions, you see that Europe is stabilizing on a high level, so revenue is just under €10,000,000,000 The margin moves up to almost 20% RCO stabilizes well above €1,300,000,000 Cement margin well improved Aggregates margin slightly down Overall, I think a good picture out of Europe on a fairly high level. North America, strong run, not so much on the revenue side. I think that’s interesting to note, but clearly on the profit side and also on the margin side. Method jump of almost 400 basis points on the EBITDA margin. RCO jumps first time ever above 1,000,000,000, so I think that’s a really nice contribution, like for like 21%, while the group is like for like six percent shows you also in which area is pulling the train right now, or used to pull it in 2024.

EBITDA margin in cement up healthy and also in additive look, almost 400 basis points margin increase in EBITDA. I think that is a la bonneur, well done to our team in North America. Asia Pacific, still from our perspective, not great level, but stabilizing now on the many dimensions. EBITDA margin slightly improved even, RCO slightly improved, EBITDA margin on cement slightly improved. Aggregate is a comparatively small business, very much focused on Australia here.

So I think in that respect, this is reflecting the weakness of the Australian market when it comes to volumes, but not so much the rest of Asia when it comes to the aggregates. Africa, you see on a very high level, further progressing revenue up 5%, so I think that’s moving in the right direction. EBITDA margin stabilizing on a very high level. RCO only slightly down, sorry, yes, slightly down, but like for like reported down, like for like slightly up, and stable at around 20%. So overall, I think from my perspective, from the market perspective, convincing picture for 2024 and Rene, why don’t you take the financial side?

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks, Dominic. Hello, everyone. As well from my side, here are the big bullet points from the finance section. You see all metrics trending in the right direction. Adjusted earnings per share up double digit, 11% to close to EUR 12 EUR12 per share, free cash flow stable at EUR2.2 billion, what we said before, we want to hit above EUR2 billion, which we have now again delivered, leverage is further reduced to EUR1.18 and then the ROIC is 9.9.

Now you can ask, okay, why is it not 10? You said around 10, I think that’s number I’ve hit. But technicalities, you know, the balance sheet is valued with the currency on the last day of the year and the U. S. Dollar was super strong and we got currency hits on our balance sheet of 700,000,000 versus prior year, which obviously then corresponding RCO is missing because RCO currency is with average.

So that tells you a little bit that without this currency effect, the ROIC would be well, well above 10. So we are happy with that. That’s a good still a good number. From a financing point of view, we issued two green bonds. You’ve seen that, that will contribute to our sustainable financing target and then share the return, I think it was EUR 1,000,000,000 and EUR 10,000,000, which we have given back to the shareholders, I think a good number.

Let’s go to the P and L. Dominik explained until RCO. Now we go down and you see the additional ordinary results. That’s the biggest movement here is minus SEK437 million. The big part of this you see it is SEK $324,000,000 is due to impairments.

Yeah, we said we closed two plants in France, One in Spain, so Klinka, Kins, one in Spain, One in Germany. We have done goodwill impairment of our Nordic precast business in Northern Europe. We’ve done some other impairments. So that’s mainly impairments and that’s what I said before as well for the transformation accelerator, the big numbers will be impairments, which tells you that we are making meaning the serious adjusting our asset footprint. I think that’s a non cash item.

So that’s a big number here, the swing there and to 4.25% if we do not close further plants, I do not expect big numbers here also. Financial result, I think it’s nearly flat even within an environment where increased we see increased interest rates for financing. The number is pretty good, SEK 180,000,000 for the size of the company is pretty low number. Income taxes are slightly going up, SEK46 million attributable to higher profits, so that’s okay. Net result from discontinued operations, there you see a big swing SEK140 million.

The reason is we have environmental case build up a provision in NOK23 million of NOK62 million. This we released in NOK24, so the swing is NOK120 million and the rest of NOK20 million is normal course of business. So you see that’s a big shift there and non controlling interest is nearly flat. So our group share of profit reported is down SEK 150,000,000, but this is due to the AOR of minus SEK $437,000,000. But if you take out the SEK $437,000,000 and the $140,000,000 net result from discontinued operations to eliminate all these big non cash one off items, our group share profit adjusted is $166,000,000 up, which is per share €1.2 per share, which is a very good result.

The long term trend, let’s say five year trend about earnings per share adjusted result is major one offs mainly AOR. You see CAGR of 15%, I think nothing more to say than that’s a really good performance five years in a row. And then let’s turn to the cash flow. The cash was nearly flat on prior year’s level. You see the change in working capital has improved from minus NOK 200,000,000 to minus NOK 110,000,000 and then net interest nearly flat, taxes paid, we had a big one off in 2023 in North America and the rest is then coming from higher profits and then non cash items and other, this is bits and pieces, yes, result of the disposals are in there, some spare parts impairments and other impairments are in there which are non cash items on the bucket other.

So that looks okay for me. And then the CapEx net, you see, we stick to what we always said. We guided SEK1.1 billion, we are even SEK40 million below that number. Here you see we are very disciplined in our CapEx process and you see it’s working and then that leads to a free cash flow of close to SEK 2,200,000,000.0, which is again a good number. Here on net debt development, the net debt is rather flat.

Yeah, that’s coincidence, it’s nearly the same number for both years SEK 5,290,000,000.00. And how did we use the free cash flow? We invested SEK $780,000,000 cash in M and A. We returned SEK1.01 billion to the shareholders and in currency other, the SEK375 million, you see there’s roughly SEK200 million debt we have taken over with M and A with the acquisitions and if you add that up to say SEK800 million, we are close to SEK1 billion outflow or let’s say net debt impact in 2024. Dominik, let’s hand over to you for sustainability.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks, Kannik. So I’ll close-up with sustainability and outlook. So overall, great progress also on sustainability. The reduction, the further reduction of seven kilos on the CO2 footprint is okay, but not stellar. We are very transparent about this.

There are a couple of portfolio shifts that have contributed to a little bit of a one off slowdown, but for me, that’s not at all concerning the overall underlying trend is okay, but I think it’s fair to say that the full year result for 2024 is a little bit below our expectation on this one. We are increasing our share of a percent of revenue above expectations, so now to 43.3%, that’s really good. As I said, we are going to pioneer for the industry the transformation to net zero with real products coming to the market within H1 twenty twenty five. I think we’ve got nice recognition with the target validated by SPTI on 02/1950, but more importantly also the inclusion of Dow Jones Sustainability Index for Europe. So overall, I think that also moves in the right direction and obviously, we are driving our not only decarbonization but also circularity and recycling agenda when it comes to low carbon products, I’ll come back to that in a second.

Capital Market Day will take place May. We also shared that with you earlier and we will invite you to Bredeck to join us for, I think, two exciting days at the May, close to midsummer night in Norway. Those of you who have not been in Norway, that’s outside of this exciting topic on carbon capture and the revolution by Heidelberg, I think this is, in any case, a nice location to visit, so we hope that we see many of you at the Capital Market Day end of May. We’ve made significant progress and most of you who are a little bit more in the details on the key drivers of decarbonization of our industry will wonder why we owe these seven kilos. Well, that’s a little bit technicality, but, you know, you see we made very good progress on cleaner incorporation sector, leading the industry with now 69.2%, so first time below 70%.

That’s, I think, very good. Alternative fluids, we made good progress, yet we’ve still got to get to close until 02/1930. We have a very ambitious target, but we’ve made good progress in 2024. Also, sustainable revenues have moved nicely up with almost 400 basis points. So So if you take those three indicators, you wonder why is it only seven kilos?

Well, there are two effects in there that I think we need to keep in mind. First, the supply of secondary cementitious materials in The UK has declined short term because of the closure of some of the steel plants in The UK and then also the portfolio shift in terms of volume developments, you know, Europe being down and other markets being up, that has contributed to a technical calculation that the CO2 footprint obviously is shifting a little bit, but that’s a one off portfolio exercise that may go in the other way around next time. What’s exciting is that there is life before CCUS, long before CCUS. As you heard me say before, CCUS is the tools that the product can be fully decarbonized, but there is a lot of wiggle room in between, and we’ve now started an initiative to not only work on clinker factor, but also on alternative fuels and push the limits to what we call ultra low carbon plants, so we are turning some of our older plant, CLIGA installations to ultra low carbon installations. We do this for the first time in our plant in Paderborn, and we’ll do this in one or two other plants across Europe down the road, and the impact will be a significantly lower carbon footprint for the new products that is working with a new mixture of certain binders, and in that respect, we get a significant contribution not only from CO2 reduction but also from the circular side of things.

And then if I finally close before we come to your questions with our outlook, we are positive for 2025, you see here on slide 26. North America was not great in volumes last year, but we assume that with all the change in politics, there will be significant investments coming to The U. S. You probably heard the announcement Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) overnight, 500,000,000,000. Well, you know, this will not be hot air.

They need to build infrastructure and buildings and plants and whatever, and that will consume a lot of our materials, so in that respect, that’s great to hear. So for North America, we are clearly optimistic. We are more and more becoming optimistic for Europe. Q4, we saw bottoming out volumes in also our critical markets, Northern Europe, Western Europe, so in that respect, I think there is hope in light at the end of the tunnel for some of the critical markets of the past in Europe. Same is true for Asia Pacific and the emerging markets in general with the new U.

S. Administration trying to weaken the U. S. Dollar that clearly gives some tailwind for the emerging market. As you know that many of the goods there are imported, nominated in U.

S. Dollars, so we already see early signs in Africa and also partially in Asia that the economies are coming back. They have been in diasporades for quite a while and if that would happen, that obviously would give us some significant tailwind for our volume and obviously also our growth and profit potential. That there are geopolitical risks, I don’t have to tell you, you just open up the newspaper or look at the news every day in and out, but we navigate through that the best things we can. That then brings us to our formal guidance.

We are planning an RCO increase and gave you a corridor just like last year, early days of NOK300 million, NOK3.25 billion to NOK3.55 billion RCO, Roig on a very good level of around 10%, CO2 with a further slight reduction, CapEx slightly going up with additional DKK100 million, that’s absolutely in line with what we told you before. That’s basically about £100,000,000 for all the carbon capture exercises around the world and that’s absolutely in line with what we indicated. The PPE capital will remain at around £1,100,000,000 and that turns into a leverage target that is, fair enough, fairly comfortable, 1.5 to two, assuming that we are currently at 1.2, but that leaves both wiggle room for acquired growth, but also shareholder return. So in that respect, I don’t think I don’t need to repeat the summary. We are very much looking forward to your questions.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Thank you, Dominik. Operator, you want to start the Q and A process?

Maurits, Chorus Call Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Yes, I see a long list of people in the Q

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: and A section. So please respect as always your questions to two at a time. And we start with Elodie Rolfe from JPMorgan.

Elodie Rolfe, Analyst, JPMorgan: Hi, thanks for hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. I really, really have one, but it’s a big one. It’s on guidance. I think everyone is trying to reconcile this guidance of SEK 3,250,000,000.00 to SEK 3,550,000,000.00.

So how do you get there? Because if I’m not mistaken, you already have SEK 150,000,000 of cost savings for 2025. Maybe you can confirm that. That brings you to SEK 3.35. Then we would like to understand what you have in terms of FX and scope from what you’ve already closed and upcoming in 2025.

So we have bolt ons, Giants and Morocco really. And lastly, what you have for organic growth left because you’re talking positively on volumes. So pricecost would need to be very negative to be even at the midpoint of the guidance. So if you could help us reconcile that. I know it’s a big question, but it’s only one.

Thank you.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Elodie, thanks a lot. I’m not surprised by your question. I think that’s fair enough. Thanks. And let me give you just the over just one sentence and then I’ll turn to Vinny also to make some additional color.

You know, first of all, early days, Elumia. I think we have twelve months to go or eleven months to go, so we decided to stay a little bit, you know, humble around the guidance at this point. Your points are right. They are obviously cost savings coming from the transformation accelerator on the scope. Just a general remark, yes, those two acquisitions, but they are signed not closed yet, and that’s not always in our hands.

So talking about being a bit cautious, you know, both Aspen and Giant are not closed. We need to get the antitrust approval and whether if you know exactly when this is going to happen, tell us, but we don’t. So in that respect, we are a little bit cautious. And then on the organic growth, it’s clear that we want to build organic growth, but again, early days. But again, maybe you would something else.

Let’s go

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: through the different pockets, which Dominik partly alluded to. The price of our cost, I can assure you our budget is not negative, yes, that’s number one. Number two, as Dominic said regarding scope, yes, we have the closed deals, you know, which we have done in The U. S, Malaysia and as he said, Giant Enhancement is not yet closed. You can imagine there’s a little bit what we have included in our budget for this and the scope impact is what we foresee is in that number is below three digit million number on our CO level, so that you have that covered.

Then I hear there’s lingering over the fixed assumptions have you taken. You know, our guidance is based on proper budget we have run for the company and you can imagine the budget was not done in February with current currency rates. It was probably done in November, where the currency rates looked a little bit different. So probably there’s something there’s some upside here, because it’s just timing. And I think from a cost savings perspective, we always said you cannot count one on one the savings into our results translation, let’s say, because of inflation we want to offset.

And in our budget, the transformation accelerator is clearly visible because our fixed cost and variable cost increase in these targeted accounts is clearly below inflation. So that tells you that we factored that in and it’s not the SEK 150,000,000, because that would assume what you say is zero inflation, but the result contribution that is inflation, so it’s below SEK 150,000,000, but this is what we always said. Thanks, Elodie.

Elodie Rolfe, Analyst, JPMorgan: Thank you.

Paul Roger, Analyst, BNP Paribas (OTC:BNPQY): Thank

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: you, Elodie. Next (LON:NXT) question comes from Luis Prieto from Kepler Cheuvreux. Hi, Luis.

Luis Prieto, Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux: Thank you. Good afternoon. A couple of questions from me, so very quickly. The first one is coming back to what you commented on Elodie’s question. We have seen the net volume impact in the RCO bridge practically flat in Q4 versus quite negative numbers in previous quarters.

Do you think we could see a positive net volume impact in the first half of the year 2025 in the bridge? And the second question is, if you feel that the current geopolitical changes could have an impact on the decarbonization pace of European businesses, Do we run the risk of European authorities saying we’re going to delay things and therefore, the whole decarbonization equity story becomes a bit softer? Thank you.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks, Ruiz. Net volume effect, yes. Fiddle answer, we assume that we could see some, finally, some positive volume development. That’s clearly our current thinking. On the political side of things, important to note, for us, decarbonization only makes sense if you combine it with a convincing business case.

Only then we embark on decarbonization efforts. I’m absolutely convinced that with that combination, whether it’s Europe, U. S. Or somewhere else in the world, you can make a case for decarbonization and they will hold the line on that, and then, yes, maybe there’s not the priority setting of the government, the whole decarbonization topic may shift a little bit, but for us as a company, while we combine it with financial success, we absolutely hold that line.

Luis Prieto, Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux: Excellent. Thank you.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks. Thanks, Luis. Next one comes from Paul Roger from BNP Paribas. Hi, Paul.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Hi, Paul. Hi,

Paul Roger, Analyst, BNP Paribas: Tim. Congratulations on the results. Good set of numbers. So just two for me then. So firstly, can you comment a bit on your price and cost expectations for Europe this year?

That’s the first one. And then secondly, I think it was this time last year, we talked about potential strategies to unlock U. S. Value. I think at that stage, you’re looking at something like seven initiatives.

Any update on your thinking with regard to that at the moment?

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Yes. Paul, thanks a lot. Price over cost, let me just do one and then Reni may jump in. Overall, we are quite positive for price over cost in Europe. I think, you know, you may see the volume side coming back a little bit, that’s one driver, where we are trying to cover inflation at least with the pricing.

And then on the cost side, difficult to predict, you saw our transformation accelerator program, so we are driving, trying to drive down our fixed cost. On the variable cost, it’s a little bit black box, you know, that is very much driven by energy cost, Difficult to say, we are hedged, we need to share a little bit more, but overall, I think that we are positive on price of our cost for you.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Yes. So, Paul, price of our cost, as Dominic said, energy cost we assume roughly flat, don’t expect 10% decrease or something. You see the energy cost, we assume flattish, then pricing as Dominic said, we want to try to cover inflation. So they have positive fixed cost, we have the transformation accelerator. So overall, Europe, the clear target is to be price over cost positive.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: And then second question on the undocking of the value of The U. S. Piece, we continue to watch the situation for, you know that one data point has now been released with the sub listing of one of our competitors, there will be more data points coming throughout the year, for us nothing major has changed, We are in a very comfortable position. We perform on a very high level in terms of our financial performance, in terms of our decarbonization agenda. We absolutely take most of the boxes we have all of the boxes we have comment, so no haste on it, but obviously, we stay on our toes, look at the different sets of data points as they come in during the year, and then we take our shot at it once we have analyzed the impact.

Paul Roger, Analyst, BNP Paribas: That’s great. Thank you.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Paul.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Next in line is Arnaud Pilantel from Anfield.

Arnaud Pilantel, Analyst, Anfield: Yes. Good afternoon, gentlemen, and thank you very much for taking my question. I will have two, please. Coming back to the guidance again, sorry. You must have visibility on the order book of your EVO zero net green cement in Brevik.

And I just wanted to understand if this guidance is integrating a significant impact of the first sales of the EvoZero cement in 2025. That would be my first question. My second question is Okay.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: What about

Arnaud Pilantel, Analyst, Anfield: Yes. I go for the No.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Go ahead.

Arnaud Pilantel, Analyst, Anfield: Okay. My second question will be on The U. S. Cement prices. We know that Mr.

Trump is currently thinking about implementing tariff, which should have, obviously, an impact on domestic cement prices in The US. But let’s put that on the side because nobody knows what will be really the situation at the end of the day until he is clearer on his intentions. But just looking at Turkey. Turkey is a main supplier of cement, imported cement in The US. And Turkey is going to face probably a massive demand of cement coming from Gaza, Syria and tomorrow Ukraine if the piece is signed.

So if you are a Turkish exporter, you should normally start to think to increase your FOB prices. And if FOB prices are increasing in Turkey, mechanically, the CIF prices should increase on The U. S. Cost. So I just wanted to understand if in your budget and the way you look at U.

S. For 2025, you are or are you going to handle the pricing traction on your U. S. Domestic market, taking into account that Turkey is probably going to increase the FOB prices?

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Anno, it’s always a pleasure to listen to you. You have you know the industry for decades, so a very good question. Let me be very simple. Order book of Evo Zero is very well filled. No, nothing is baked into the guidance at this point.

We want to be cautious on this and the third point or the second point on the cement price is spot on. We already see increase of FOB prices around the world. Whether it’s just the effect that you described, I don’t know, but it’s certainly also something which then also will help clearly the domestic pricing not only in The U. S, by the way, but also in other parts of the world, obviously Europe. So in that respect, Spohlan, a very important question, Anurag.

Thanks a lot.

Arnaud Pilantel, Analyst, Anfield: Good. You are able to pass it. Let’s say Turkey is increasing for price in three months’ time. You will be able to announce further price increase in The U. S.

And react quickly or not? Or is

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Well, first of all, we are not negative. The impact is at all its upside for us. That is not currently baked into the budget. So whether we are able or not, it’s difficult for us to tell. Let’s see.

But it’s clearly not baked into our budget that effect would go on forward.

Arnaud Pilantel, Analyst, Anfield: Very clear. Thank you very much.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks, Alon. Thanks. Thank

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: you. Next one comes from Efrem Ravi from

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Citi. Hey, Efrem.

Efrem Ravi, Analyst, Citi: Hi, thank you. The first question is continuing on the EVO question. Can you give us some indication of the EVO build in terms of sales volume as a percentage of the cement sales? Also any indication of pricing premium you may be getting on average versus your standard cement products?

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: I think, you know, Evo build more or less. Just as an indication, it’s not 100% overlap, but you know, you saw the sustainable revenues on cement, so that’s basically 43% of the portfolio now. That’s also under or most of that is sold under the Immobil brand. I think you need to differentiate a little bit between pricing and margins. The clear target is to have higher margins with Evo BUILD than we have with the traditional products.

This works in the majority of the cases, maybe not in all, but overall, I think it’s the clear intention to make this a successful financial business case. That’s true for EvoBild and it’s also true for EvoZero.

Efrem Ravi, Analyst, Citi: Thank you. Second question on the transformation accelerator, the $150,000,000 thereabouts where you are expecting for full year. Now that we are in middle of Feb or end of Feb, can you give us a sense as to how much of that would be visible in the first half earnings when you’re reporting?

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: We have given the number for the full year and we will what we will promise you will be to give you quarterly updates where we are tracking with this. But to give you now a number of what we realized in the first six months, you know, that’s a little bit too much detail as we said. Quarterly information should be sufficient in the full year number you have.

Efrem Ravi, Analyst, Citi: Thank you.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks, Edward. Next question comes from Harry Gaut from Bannbach. Harry, you’re going to turn the call.

Harry Gaut, Analyst, Bannbach: Yes. Hi, good afternoon. I’ve got two questions, please. Firstly, just digging into Europe a little bit more detail. You sound a little bit more optimistic about trends at the start of the year.

If you dig into that on a country by country basis, is the comment you made consistent across all markets? Or are there any markets that are still contracting in the early months of 2025? And then the second one is U. S. Infrastructure spending.

Obviously, a lot of, I guess, commentary around President Trump and spending plans and what may be cut. How much visibility do you think there is on those funding programs? Are we talking very confident for two to three years? Or is it short of that? Thanks.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Yes, Harry, I think both questions are a little bit tricky because I think I can give you a current assumption, but it’s glass ball right now a little bit. On Europe, country by country in general, Eastern Europe going stronger than Northern And Continental Europe and The UK, but also the latter, so Northern Europe and Continental Europe are somewhat bottoming out, one country a little bit more than the others. As you know, we can’t go into country specific, but overall, I think most of those markets now at least bottoming out. On U. S.

Infrastructure, yes, there are a lot of announcements, you know that this doesn’t come in two minutes, so I don’t expect anything major happening in the first half of those new announcements, but I think The U. S. Is also quick on their feet quicker than other parts of the world, so I would envision that, you know, the tail end of 2025 or then going into 2026, we should see some real impact on infrastructure, both on plants, data centers, but also, you know, tunnels, bridges, roads.

Harry Gaut, Analyst, Bannbach: Okay. Thank you.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks, Harry. Next in line is Brijesh Schneer from HSBC.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Hi, Brijesh. Brijesh, hello.

Paul Roger, Analyst, BNP Paribas: Hi, good afternoon. I have two as well. The first one is on The U. S. So we have this potential tariffs coming in.

If that is to be the case, do you innovate envisage having new capacities built in The U. S? Is that a consideration? If so, any further color around it? And the second one is about the decarbonization.

As you kind of pointed out, cement or the carbon emission per tonne of cement has kind of only slightly reduced this year and you target with a slight reduction next year as well or in 2025. Given Brevik is also coming in the mid year. So what kind of thing which is kind of hampering the progress and anything you would like to add on to kind of accelerate that cement decarbonization?

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: I’m not sure I got your first question. There was something here. The connection was not great. Can you just repeat maybe your first question for us? I got the second one on decarbonization, but on the first one, can you just repeat your point?

It didn’t come up for me.

Paul Roger, Analyst, BNP Paribas: Sure. So in light of the potential tariffs, are you planning to build any new capacity in The U. S?

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Uh-huh, okay. Okay. So on The U. S, as you know, we’ve just increased our capacity with the setup initial, so I think that plan has just come on screen last year. And you know that we have made some significant acquisitions also on the cement side, so Giant is a key addition for us in terms of capacity, but instead of building a new one, we are rejuvenating an existing capacity, so for me, that is quicker and with our good knowledge on how to do this brownfields stuff, I think it’s the quicker way and the more profitable way to roam.

We know that building new capacity in The U. S. Is also not an easy, it’s not an easy undertaking, so for now, we have no immediate plans to build a new plant, but we have got a couple of things in the pipeline that we could jumpstart if things go in the right direction. Decarbonization in Brinig, as I was explaining, for us, it’s not the majority of the market right now, right? And with the reprioritization of the decarbonization agenda around the world, you know, this will for a couple of years not be absolute mainstream, we know that and we have no problem with that, but is there a segment of the market that we can absolutely cater to that is aggressive on decarbonization because people understand that climate change is there to be tackled at some point?

We want to build out our leadership in this respect, but as I said earlier, Pilesh, we are doing this with a clear focus on financial returns and growth, So we don’t just do this for the sake of sustainability or decarbonization, it will only be done if it creates superior financial returns.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Thank you, Prutjesh. Next question comes from Gregor Kuglitsch from UBS. Hi Gregor. Hi.

Gregor Kuglitsch, Analyst, UBS: Good afternoon. So I’ve got two questions. The first one is on free cash flow. So last year you had another good year on free cash. I wanted to get your sense of what direction you think that may be heading.

Do you expect it to grow? Do you expect it to be stable? Or whatever else you can share on that, please? And then I noticed some sort of new maybe it’s not new, maybe it’s just new to me, but the your commentary around sort of reconfiguring some of your older plants into ultra low carbon setup, I think you were saying. Can you just sort of go into detail what are you actually doing?

Is this new? Is it material? Give us a little bit more, please. Thank you.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Rene will take the first, I’ll do the

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: second one. Okay, Rene. So regarding free cash flow, you know, now it’s 2.169 and the ambition for 2025 is obviously above that. So we are targeting to increase that number. It is let’s say even with the increased CapEx of SEK 100,000,000, what Dominik said in the guidance, we want to increase that number further.

Paul Roger, Analyst, BNP Paribas: Okay. Thank you.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Okay. And then on the ultra low carbon, you know, there are a couple of new players around globally that claim that they are eventing products with very low carbon footprint and celebrate this as breakthrough innovation. This can be homemade, the breakthrough innovation, and that’s exactly what we are doing with those ultra low carbon plants. These are new binders, new mixtures that carry a much lower carbon footprint. They are not necessarily applicable in the total market, but they are catering to very special, highly profitable segments of the market and those are the ones that we are targeting.

The asset setup is simple, you know, we have an old kiln that has been running for decades in one of our German plants and instead of closing it and writing it off, the team put their arms and hearts together and asked themselves what can we do in order to build an ultra low carbon setup, So they will use that kiln to produce binders with lower temperature inputs, so it’s rather 1,100 degrees Celsius than 1,400, so you save energy, you add less CO2 emissions, and then the mix of the product is also significantly different and that leads then to a significantly lower carbon footprint and obviously, instead of writing off the asset base, you get a chance to give it a second life that fits hand and gloves into the strategy. That’s the idea of Janosand being one example for this product.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials0: Thank you very much.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks, Georges. Next question comes from Ross Harvey from Davy. Hey, Ross.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials0: Hi, thanks guys. I’ve got two questions. Firstly, I don’t want to steal your thunder from the Capital Markets Day, but you might just address the EBITDA margin target to 20% to 22%. I’m particularly looking to figure out what the impact of Transformation Accelerator is on that. Is it additive to that target or how those two compare?

And secondly, I thought, Dominic, your comment about the flat volumes in Q4 is very interesting given that you combine that with another price over cost gain. Over the next two to three years compared to the last two or three years, we’re obviously hopeful for an increase in volumes. And I’m wondering, is there a set of circumstances where you could continue the same degree of price over cost gains? Should we expect those to be more moderate? And is there any chance, hopefully not, that those would reverse?

Just what impact would volumes increasing rather than decreasing mix?

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks, Ross, for your question. You are absolutely right. We would not love you to steal the thunder for the Capital Market Day. So we’ll stay fairly quiet on the EBITDA margin target. We don’t want to go backwards on this, just to be clear, but let’s wait and see what overall we can do.

On the flat volumes in Q4, absolutely, I think there is a higher chance of volume increases down the road than there is a chance of another decline. Let’s put it simple and that’s true globally. You know that we are market leader in Europe, you know that the decline from the peak was massive, probably one of the most pronounced one over the last century and with that, I think we have a significant upside potential. What that does to price of of course, Fene, do you have an idea or do you want to, but I think it’s, that is hard to predict.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Yes, but the transformation accelerator and especially the assets footprint rationalization in Europe, obviously, gives you cost benefits. Pricing with the CO2 decarbonization story with, let’s say, certificates taken away by the EU, there will be probably pricing upsides. And then you know, Europe has to be competitive on energy, yes, and that has to change in my view in the future, which would give you relief also on cost. Although I’m not so pessimistic about this, even if volumes come back, which we have shown in Q4, air flat volumes and SEK107 million or what price of cost positive. If volumes come back, I don’t would not I don’t see why horizontal cost should not be continue to be positive.

So then you have a double whammy, which we said if volumes come back, the leverage is big. So let’s wait and see. But to look into two, three years’ time, it’s not so easy. Thanks, Rod.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials0: Great. Looking forward

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: to the same day.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Next question is from, Ebrahim Omid from CIC. Hey, Ebrahim.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials1: Hi. Hello for taking my thank you for taking my question. I have two, if I may. The first one is about an overview on the on the German market. Is, do you think that the low point is is reached?

And my second question is, also about the the European market and basically in the the Ukrainian market to be to be precise. Do you think that your position in in in Polsky and Turkey give you some advantage to maybe to benefit from higher volumes in Ukraine?

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Thank you, Marion, for your questions. German market, I think we’ve seen some slowdown in volume decline. So I think overall, same as Sohu (NASDAQ:SOHU), what I said earlier, we are getting much closer to the turning point. In some local, very local markets, we’ve seen some of the turning point already, so we are quite optimistic for the German market. For the European market, you know, first of all, as a citizen in Europe, I say that the human tragedy needs to come to an end before I think business, you know, three years of human disaster in The Ukraine and we at Huddershot Materials certainly, first of all, hope that the human tragedy comes to an end.

And then we need to start thinking about the business, and we are not going to try to now aggressively think on business before the war has not even settled down. So that’s just a set of priorities. You know that we’ve divested our direct Ukrainian business in 2019, so we are not currently working directly in the Ukrainian market. However, we are participating substantially in all of the surrounding markets, so Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, so we have very, Turkey, we have very strong footprints over there and if things settle down, if there is a a rebuild of the Ukraine coming, then certainly, we will have some, at least, secondary impact, positive impact from this, but as I said, early day classes is not our focus right now, to be very honest. I want to see the human strategy at the end first and then we’ll think about the business impact.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials1: Great. Thanks.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Okay. Last question comes from Tobias Viner from Stifel. Tobias, are you outside?

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials2: Yes. Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. Number one, just a fact finding question. You mentioned the massive drop from the peak.

Maybe give us a sense, I have my own estimations, but it would be good to hear what actually the total volume decline was from peak to trough from pre Ukraine to today. The second question, I’ve noted in a news release or press release in mid January that you launched a sponsored ADR. And was wondering what you see as the benefits of this? And is a dual listing something you would look at? And what do you make of a dual listing eventually?

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks, Tobias. On the volume drop, really, it’s lacking the figures. You know, I have my old figures, but really, we have an indication for Tobias on the volume drop, maybe, you know, from the global view, but then also, you know, I think you’re asking Europe also, yeah?

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Yeah, Ado Tobias, from a cement perspective, you can say we’ve probably lost,

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: I would

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: say, 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 tonnes. And if you put across the globe, it’s not only Europe and in aggregate as well, we are probably 30,000,000 tonnes below the peak. And if you put a certain margin on this, you come to very high three digit million number volume margin losses we have incurred the last few years, yes. So that’s probably what I would say, very high three digit million numbers. If you look only in ’twenty four, we said what is it €350,000,000 volume impact and that was not the worst year we had.

So it’s fully closed you come to close to €1,000,000,000

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials2: Yeah. No, I’ve got the numbers there on the RCO level. But what I was trying to get is just a percentage drop at the top line across all products from a volume perspective, if that was possible, please.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Yes, but that we don’t have it in my hand. Check with Uzan and then we will come back

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: to that. But as I indicated, I think in some markets, we are really significantly off the peak. But Uzan will come back with you on the details and maybe Robert, do you want to say something on the ADR program?

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials3: Yes, happy to. So first of all, we try to achieve a little bit better transparency in our U. S. Investor base on the ADR side, address some further buckets as we see as an important market and last not least, we already had a non sponsored program. So it’s just a follow-up program that allows us to have a little bit better insights into the ADR ownership, which is a rather small program today.

Paul Roger, Analyst, BNP Paribas: And

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Okay. On that

Arnaud Pilantel, Analyst, Anfield: note I

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials2: just wanted to understand what you think about the dual listing as well.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials3: I mean, for now, that’s not related to the listing. It is just to get better insight. It doesn’t come with additional transparency requirements. So, it is just a step to get a little bit better insight. So there is no requirement to do a further follow-up on that program.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Yes, and Tobias, I think in the end, we always said, we know that all of your eyes and our eyes are on the value crystallization around The U. S. We’ve given you some better transparency around margin development, around the aggregate performance. We now started the ADR program that also gives a little bit more accessibility to some of our US Investors. I think it’s, you know, one dot here, one dot there to be added in order to try to crystallize also value and offer increased transparency around what we are doing with our US and how we are continuously improving our US footprint and how attractive The US footprint is also versus the competition.

So I think in retrospect, that’s a little bit, that’s one data dot in that puzzle.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials2: Excellent. Thank you very much.

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: Okay. Thank you. I think that’s

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: it for now. We don’t have any more questions online. Just a reminder that we are on the road. Renier is in London. As of tomorrow, we will be traveling to The U.

S, both East Coast and West Coast. And to your last point, Tobias, we will also be seeing some new investors, maybe also triggered by the ADR program. And on March 18, Dominik will attend the BNP conference in London. So we’ll be quite intensively marketing in the next couple of weeks. And, we look forward to seeing you all in Braddock.

So the invitation should go out in

Rene, CFO, Heidelberg Materials: the next couple of days and we look forward to seeing you there. With that, thank you very much for dialing in.

Dominik, Executive/CEO, Heidelberg Materials: Thanks for your participation, guys. Bye bye. Thank you. Have a good day. Bye bye.

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