European Building Materials "A heavy(side) day of construction meetings"

Research evidence excerpt

European Building Materials "A heavy(side) day of construction meetings"

Global Research

20 May 2026ab

European Building Materials Equities

Europe including UKA heavy(side) day of construction meetings

Building Materials

Julian Radlinger, CFA

Meeting feedback from the 'Investing in Europe Conference' 2026 in Frankfurt Analyst

We had the pleasure of hosting mgmt and IR teams from 5 listed heavyside companies at julian.radlinger@ubs.com

the inaugural UBS 'Investing in Europe (Industrials) Conference' yesterday, including +44-20-7901 6558

HOLN (Regional Head Latam and IR), HEI(Head IR), CEM (CEO and IR), TITC(CFO and IR) Ayo Olukotun

and VCT (Head IR). Together, these companies represent meaningful portions of many Associate Analyst

heavy materials markets and therefore provide great insight into current trends. We ayo.olukotun@ubs.com

thank all participating teams for their time with us and investors. +44-20-7567 0065

Big picture: heavyside mgmt teams are feeling positive

Overall, we left the meetings with a clear impression all 5 teams feel highly confident

about their financial outlooks, despite the disruptive events in the Middle East and

impacts on energy prices - whether Q1 was already off to a solid start (HOLN, TITC,

VCT) or more challenged (HEI, CEM). In most markets where Jan/Feb started with

negative volumes due to tough weather, March recovered strongly and that

strength has carried into April and even May, if it was mentioned. Europe, North

Africa and Latam were broadly off to a strong start to the year in terms of structural

price increases (trending towards MSD% by Q2 in Europe), and hedges together with

quick implementation of surcharges mean input cost inflation is well under control

and thus negative price vs cost should be avoidable.