ARKAF - Arkema S.A. (ARKAF) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-05-12 00:39:10 ET
Arkema S.A. (ARKAF)
Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call
May 07, 2024 05:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Thierry Le Hénaff - Chief Executive Officer
Marie-José Donsion - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Matthew Yates - Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Martin Roediger - Kepler Cheuvreux
Aron Ceccarelli - Berenberg
Emmanuel Matot - ODDO BHF
Jean-Luc Romain - CIC Market Solutions
Chetan Udeshi - JPMorgan
Jaideep Pandya - On Field Investment Research
Georgina Fraser - Goldman Sachs
Alex Stewart - Barclays
Presentation
Thierry Le Hénaff
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Arkema's Q1 2024 Results Conference Call. Joining me today, as usual, are Marie-José Donsion, our CFO, and the Investor Relations team with Beatrice and Peter. As always, to support this conference call, we have posted a set of slides which are available also on our website. I will comment on the highlights of the quarter before letting Marie-José go through the financials. And at the end of the presentation, we'll be available to answer your questions.
After a challenging macro in 2023, as you know, during which we performed well. The demand environment in Q1 2024 remained globally unchanged in the continuity of Q4 2023 with relatively weak volumes in Europe and the U.S. and some slight improvements in Asia.
This materialized in a volume growth of 3% in Specialty Materials, with growth across all three platforms, the intermediate decreasing mechanically with the quota set in fluorogases. In this context, Arkema continued to deliver a robust set of results slightly lower relative to last year, which was still sustained by the high comparison in the pricing of acrylics and of PVDF. At the start of the year, is in line with what we expected and consistent with our full-year guidance. Here are some key points I'd like to highlight to you.
We delivered an EBITDA of €350 million close to last year's level despite the negative impact of around €30 million from less favorable market conditions in PVDF and upstream acrylics specific and expected gap of Q1. Our performance was, in particular, driven by double-digit EBITDA growth in adhesives that I am pleased to underline. This follows on from the positive momentum of last year for adhesives. The group's results also reflect – we've seen good growth in high-performance polymers and downstream coatings where our positioning in high-value applications is paying off. Note that our EBITDA margin increased versus last year at a good level of 15%....
Arkema S.A. (ARKAF) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript