Half Year 2022 Arkema SA Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Emmanuel Matot - ODDO BHF Corporate & Markets, Research Division - Analyst : And first, congrats for your impressive first half. Now if I'm looking at your guidance for 2022, your EBITDA guidance, it implies a decline in H2, meaning a disruption compared to H1, which was fast growing. I know you used to be cautious, but have you seen the situation deteriorate significantly over the last few weeks? Could you notably give us an idea about how was the month of July? Second, could you remind us to what level Arkema is exposed to energy and what will happen to the company in case of significant discontinuities related to the supply of natural gas in Europe, are you working on a plan to reduce your exposure to natural gas? And third, what was your pricing power? Do you feel comfortable to further pass on inflation to your customers after several significant price increases and at the time, demand may slow down?

Question: Jaideep Mukesh Pandya - On Field Investment Research LLP - Analyst : A few questions. Firstly, if I -- Thierry, if you talk about PVDF, and I don't want to talk about pricing, but technology, there is a theory in China that companies are working on reducing PVDF intensity in the battery in the outer years with blending it with other materials like polyacrylic acid, for instance, are you guys working on similar solutions for the next-generation PVDF binders for the cathode binders? That's my first question. The second question is really, sorry to focus on Q2 now, but if you look at the HPP sales, sequentially, they are relatively stable. So -- and I'm assuming now that additives must have had a good result given the ethylene oxide chain is doing very well. So was there anything holding you back? Or are you just sold out and therefore, it's difficult to grow until your sort of next capacities come in? That's my second question. And then the third question really is around Ashland. Could you just remind us, has Ashland suffered big from margins because of very strong acrylic acid price increases? And therefore, there's a huge opportunity for Arkema to see margin improvement in Ashland: a, because you're backward integrated; and b, because acrylic acid prices are normalizing now.

Question: Jaideep Mukesh Pandya - On Field Investment Research LLP - Analyst : And well done to Marie-JosT on great free cash flow as well.

Question: Adrien Tamagno - Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, Research Division - Analyst : I have two questions. On the EUR 400 million CapEx for the climate plan, is it fair to consider the majority of that deficiency improvement and no capacity addition? And the second one is, what is your appetite for share buybacks now considering the leverage of the company as of Q2 and with the likelihood of an improved cash flow conversion going forward?