Tom Foss-Jacobsen
Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, and welcome to Borregaard's First Quarter 2026 Presentation. My name is Tom Foss-Jacobsen. I'm the CEO of the company, and I'll be joined today by our CFO, Per Bjarne Lyngstad. Together, we will take you through this agenda. I'll start with the key highlights for the quarter and then give an update on the market situation across our business segments. I'll then summarize the outlook before handing over to Per Bjarne, who will walk you through the financial performance in more detail.

Before we begin, just a quick reminder for those of you watching the webcast live that you're welcome to submit your questions at any time during the presentation, and we will address them at the end of the presentation.

Let's begin with the highlights for the first quarter. EBITDA came in at NOK 428 million compared with NOK 511 million in the same quarter last year. In BioSolutions, we saw lower sales volumes within Specialties compared with a very strong quarter last year. In BioMaterials, we delivered higher volumes, but this was offset by lower sales prices and a weaker product mix. Fine Chemicals delivered a strong result, supporting the overall performance in the quarter.

On the cost side, the higher energy costs and general cost inflation were partly offset by lower wood costs, and we had an insignificant net currency effect in the quarter.

Okay. Then let's turn to BioSolutions. Within Specialties, lower sales volume was partly compensated by higher sales prices. Deliveries to agriculture and batteries were lower compared again with a very strong Q1 last year. At this stage, we