EQS-News: Board member Walter Bickel will leave Lenzing at the end of March

• Walter Bickel will retire from operational activities at the end of March
• Performance program will continue unabated and make a sustained positive contribution

Lenzing – The Lenzing Group, a leading provider of regenerated cellulose fibers for the textile and nonwoven industries, announces personnel changes in the company’s Managing Board. The Supervisory Board of Lenzing AG and Dr. Walter Bickel, Chief Transformation Officer of Lenzing AG, have mutually agreed to end the temporary mandate of Mr. Bickel and that Mr. Bickel will step down from his operational activities at the end of March 2025.

Mr. Bickel was appointed to the Managing Board of Lenzing AG as of April 15, 2024 to strengthen the Lenzing Managing Board and to be responsible for the further development and implementation of the performance program. Under his leadership, a significant overachievement of the planned contributions from the performance program could be realized. The basis for future significant improvement steps is established, and the program has been structured in a way that it can now be continued by Lenzing AG seamlessly.

“Walter Bickel and his team took over the performance program a year ago and have since made a significant contribution to improving the results of the Lenzing Group. We would like to thank Walter Bickel for his dedicated cooperation and wish him all the best for the future”, says Cord Prinzhorn, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Lenzing AG.

“With the consistent implementation of our performance program, which is now well above plan, we have been able to significantly improve the company in many areas and increase its crisis resilience. We will now continue the program unabated and with the same discipline to ensure that Lenzing remains the leading integrated fiber group and thus the innovative force in the industry in the future”, says Rohit Aggarwal, Chief Executive Officer of the Lenzing Group.

“I can look back on a successful time at the Lenzing Group. Together we have made significant progress and established a sustainable performance program that will continue to benefit Lenzing in the future. I would like to thank the Managing Board and the entire Lenzing team for the successful cooperation”, says Walter Bickel.

The Lenzing Group’s holistic performance program pursues the overarching goal of significantly increasing long-term resilience to crises and greater agility in order to respond to market changes. The program initiatives are primarily aimed at improving EBITDA and generating free cash flow through increased profitability and sustainable cost excellence. Numerous activities are being undertaken to strengthen sales, such as acquiring new customers for the most important fiber types and expanding into new markets, which are already having a positive impact on sales. In addition, the Managing Board expects significant cost savings, of which more than EUR 130 m could already be realized in 2024.

In addition to the positive effects in the 2024 financial year on revenue development (+5.7 % increase in revenue compared to 2023) and earnings development (+30.4 % increase in EBITDA compared to 2023), the performance program also improved free cash flow to EUR 167.0 mn (compared to minus EUR 122.8 mn in 2023). Lenzing AG will continue to consistently implement the ongoing performance program with the aim of achieving annualized cost savings of over EUR 180 mn from the 2025 financial year onwards.

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Your contact for
Public Relations:

Dominic Köfner
Vice President Corporate Communications, Public Affairs,
Investor Relations & Sustainability Reporting
Lenzing Aktiengesellschaft
Werkstraße 2, 4860 Lenzing, Austria

Phone   +43 7672 701 2743
E-mail   media@lenzing.com
Web      www.lenzing.com