Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I'm Matilda, the Chorus Call Operator. [Operator Instructions]. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast.

At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Christian Kullmann, CEO. Please go ahead.

Christian Kullmann
CEO, CFO & Chairman of the Executive Board

Thanks a lot. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Thanks, everybody, for joining our first quarter earnings call. Today, marks another special call for Evonik Industries. I have not only 1 but 2 CFOs sitting next to me. First of all, thanks a lot. Thanks a lot to you, Claus.

Over the last 7 months, we have navigated our finance organization confidentially through rough waters, especially in crisis times like these. Your decade-long Evonik experience has proven, proven once and once again to be incredibly valuable. This experience was also appreciated by capital markets.

As we had 2 good earnings calls with you so far, and I'm confident we'll have another one here today. Luckily, you're not gone but we will return to Singapore and continue to help our Asian operations.

Second, Welcome, Michael, I'm looking forward to at least the next 4 years together. We have a lot of challenges ahead of us for sure. But with your vast experience across industries, companies and roles, you will for sure make a difference for us.