Chemours Co (CC) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

My name is Terese, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to the Comorys Company second quarter 2026 results conference call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the conclusion of the prepared remarks. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference call over to Brandon Anchez, Vice President and Head of Strategy and Investor Relations for Comores. You may begin.

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Comores Company's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. I'm joined today by Denise Tignam, Comores' President and Chief Executive Officer, and our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Shane Hostetter. Before we start, I would like to remind you that comments made on this call, as well as in the supplemental information provided on our website, contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties as described in Comorz's SEC filings. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are based on certain assumptions and expectations of future events that may not be realized. Actual results may differ, and Comorz undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements as a result of future developments or new information. During this call, we refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are useful to investors evaluating the company's performance. Our reconciliation of non-GAAP terms and adjustments is included in our press release issued yesterday evening. Additionally, we posted our earnings presentation on our website yesterday evening as well. With that, I will turn the call over to Denise Signum.

Thank you, Brandon, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. On today's call, I'll start with highlights from our recent performance, then turn it over to Shane to walk through our outlook for the third quarter and the balance of 2026. After that, I'd like to share my reflections as we've reached our halfway point under Pathway to Thrive and discuss the opportunities ahead before we open the line for your questions. For the second quarter, our results reflect disciplined commercial execution, continued pricing actions, and progress against our priorities across all three businesses. Net sales were slightly below expectations, primarily due to softer residential stationary AC demand in thermal and specialized solutions. However, pricing improved across all our businesses, including continued execution in titanium technologies. Adjusted EBITDA exceeded expectations supported by stronger operational performance and an improved product mix in advanced performance materials, lower corporate costs, and the reference pricing strength in TT. Importantly, we continue to see tangible evidence that the actions we are taking under Pathway to Thrive are strengthening the business. In TT, we announced an additional global TIO2 price increase effective June 1, building on prior pricing actions and supporting local price increases of approximately 5% year-to-date. Separately, in APM's Performance Solutions portfolio, net sales grew 8% year-over-year, underscoring the momentum we are building in the high-value specialty applications for data center and semiconductor end markets as we fulfill a backlog of existing orders. more recently we also recorded nominal sales of two-phase liquid cooling products for sampling across two-phase applications with several customers these early sales support continued progress through product trials which have increased 70 percent year-over-year while reinforcing the relevance of our innovation pipeline in attractive growth markets as an indication of the momentum in this space recent research from the uptime institute and industry leading authority on data center infrastructure and operations identified a growing share of operators evaluating two-phase systems for future deployments as AI-driven compute demands accelerate the shift towards liquid cooling. Additionally, we continue to strengthen Comor's financial position through strong cash generation and disciplined capital allocation, enabling further debt reduction and enhancing our financial flexibility. We also made notable progress resolving legacy litigation, as demonstrated by our recent settlements with the U.S. EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. Collectively, these actions represent important steps to de-risk the balance sheet, improve leverage and cash positioning, while enabling commores to invest with discipline in opportunities that support long-term value creation. Now let me expand on the quarter's business activities. Our TFS business delivered solid second quarter results. Net sales were slightly down versus the prior year quarter, driven by lower volumes from reduced aftermarket sales of Option blend in North America, while Option OEM volume saw growth year over year in addition to continued growth into data center and markets. In the second quarter, that volume pressure was partially offset by higher pricing supported by strength in Freon refrigerants, primarily in automotive applications. It's important to note that the prior year quarter benefited from advanced demand tied to the initial aftermarket channel fill associated with the stationary AC transition under the U.S. AMAC. Given our advantage position in the market, Comores moved quickly to help ensure distributors and technicians were well supplied to support the new equipment installations. As a result of the initial channel bill, aftermarket customers built additional inventory, creating an oversupply channel heading into 2026. Today, while we continue to see strength in the OEM market, the aftermarket is working through elevated inventory levels. At the same time, residential demand is being pressured by higher interest rates, affordability challenges, and the slower housing market. Together, these factors weighed on second quarter order activity and may continue to drive restocking as we move through the year. Looking ahead, we would expect the aftermarket to begin normalizing as inventory levels are reduced and seasonal restocking begins ahead of next year's cooling season. Adjusted EBITDA for TFS increased year over year with margins also expanding. This improvement was driven by higher pricing and benefited from the timing of certain costs in the quarter. Overall, TSS continues to demonstrate the value of disciplined commercial execution and strong margin performance, even while facing some near-term weakness in the stationary aftermarket. In titanium technology, the team continues to execute well in a challenging and inflationary market environment. Second quarter net sales increased slightly versus the prior year quarter, driven primarily by global pricing strength. Pricing increased across all regions, reflecting the discipline and consistency of our commercial pricing approach in light of a dynamic demand environment. Vines were lower across key markets with the exception of Asian markets, excluding China and Latin America, where demand remained more resilient in connecting with recent anti-dumping duties in Brazil. Adjusted EBITDA for TT also improved year over year, while adjusted EBITDA margin was flat. The increase was primarily driven by the global pricing strength noted earlier, partially offset by higher cost from inflation. Importantly, our performance shows that even as inflation continues to pressure the cost structure, the business is responding with strong commercial execution and disciplined cost management, outpacing any inflationary headwinds. We have now announced three TI2 price increases since December 2025, including our most recent global increase effective June 1. Together, these actions have contributed to an approximately 5% year-to-date price increase relative to where we started the year. As we look ahead, our team remains agile and responsive with an optimized manufacturing circuit that enhances efficiency and flexibility, enabling us to adjust production levels to meet demand while continuing to deliver outstanding service and quality for our customers. This combination of discipline pricing, operational flexibility, and customer-focused positions and CT to manage through a dynamic environment and capture value as opportunities emerge. In APM, second quarter net sales were down versus the prior year quarter, primarily driven by lower volumes associated with the STS capstone line closure completed in the third quarter of 2025. This is partially offset by higher pricing in the business. Adjusted even a decline year-over-year reflecting the lower sales volumes from the line closure as well as higher costs tied to the now-resolved Washington Works outage. Notably, we continue to see strong momentum in the Performance Solutions portfolio where net sales increase 8% year-over-year. Order book strength is driven by long-term sustainable demand tailwinds in data center and semiconductor end markets where our specialty products play an important role in supporting complex and high-performance applications. Performance Solutions is becoming a larger part of APM's portfolio, reinforcing our focus on higher-value markets with stronger growth and margin potential. As a point of emphasis, our exposure to high-growth markets is expanding across commerce. Sales into data center, semiconductor, AI, and advanced electronics and markets now represent a high single-digit percentage of total sales across APM and TSS, supported by strong demand for differentiated solutions in both businesses. Within performance solutions, more than 40% of sales are focused on these targeted markets, where we see durable demand trends and robust growth potential in the years ahead. Importantly, this does not include the investments we are making in liquid cooling and next-generation refrigerants, which we believe will further expand our participation in these attractive growth platforms. Collectively, these dynamics position Chemours to participate more meaningfully in high-value applications that we believe can become a meaningful driver of overall earnings over time. With that, I'll turn it over to Shane to walk through our third quarter guide and our updated outlook for the full year of 2026. Shane?

Thank you, Denise, and good morning, everyone. As shared in the earnings materials available on our investor website, I would now like to discuss our expectations for the third quarter and the remainder of the year as we look ahead. Beginning with TSS, For the third quarter, we expect TSS's net sales to decline sequentially from the mid-teens to 20%. While we continue to see stability in overall OEM sales, we anticipate softer residential and light commercial aftermarket demand for our Opion blends during the third quarter in connection with de-stocking trends in the aftermarket and broader macroeconomic uncertainty. Also, consistent with our end market concentration, we expect seasonality as we progress through the northern hemisphere's cooling season. For the third quarter, we expect TSS's adjusted EBITDA to be between $125 million and $140 million, which considers seasonality as well as a less favorable mix from lower ASEAN aftermarket sales. Longer term, as seasonal restocking occurred in the aftermarket and the installed OEM base in residential and light commercial systems continue to expand in North America, we expect the business to return to GDP plus growth. That growth should also be supported by continued heat pump adoption in Europe, as well as rising global demand for data center chiller applications. Overall, despite the softer near-term demand backdrop, we remain confident in the long-term fundamentals of this business, supported by our advantaged market position with OEMs and aftermarket distributors, regulatory tailings, and disciplined commercial execution. Going forward, we anticipate the stationary aftermarket to grow annually in the mid- to high single-digit percentage range. This, combined with continued advancements in liquid cooling and our next-generation refrigerants, will act as growth catalysts for the future in TSS. For our TT business, in the third quarter, we expect TT's net sales to increase sequentially in the low- to mid-single-digit percentage range, driven by continued execution of recent pricing announcements on modest year-over-year volume increases. Also, we expect TT's adjusted EBITDA to range between $70 million and $80 million. The expected improvement reflects the momentum we are seeing from our commercial excellence efforts, which have led to realized pricing gains across the business. Importantly, this pricing momentum is more than offsetting the cost and inflationary headwinds the business continues to face. It also demonstrates the value of our commercial discipline, customer focus, and ability to move quickly as market conditions change. While we anticipate some volume-driven seasonality at the end of the year, additionally, we anticipate volumes to be up year-over-year in the second half across all land markets outside of China. Also, we expect continued cost productivity from operational improvements and broader cost reduction efforts to help keep earnings safe. Longer term, we remain focused on controlling what we can control. We continue to operate with commercial and operational agility, managing production to demand, optimizing the use of higher-cost inventory on hand, which will drive notable earnings and cash flow productivity, and staying disciplined on price to protect value in a dynamic global TIO2 environment. Turning now to our APM business. For the third quarter, we expect APM's net sales to increase sequentially in the mid-to-high single-digit percentage range. This top-line improvement is expected to be driven by a return to normal operating levels at Washington Works, along with continued strength in the Performance Solutions order book. We expect APM's adjusted EBITDA to be between $20 million and $30 million for the third quarter, which reflects approximately $5 million in performance that was pulled forward into the second quarter given sales timing. Within Performance Solutions, as Denise highlighted, we continue to see strong order book momentum for specialty products that address critical needs across the AI infrastructure ecosystem, including data center and semiconductor applications, which we anticipate will exceed 40% of these sales. These end markets are supported by durable demand trends and remain areas where Comores is well-positioned to deliver differentiated material solutions. While broader industrial demand remains mixed, the strength of performance solutions reinforces our confidence in APM's path toward higher value growth. As we move through the balance of the year, we expect operational improvements and continued order book fulfillment in performance solutions, which will support anticipated earnings growth beyond the third quarter. Longer term, we remain focused on shifting our portfolio mix to performance solutions where we see continued order book strength in high-value data center and semiconductor end markets. Our ability to continue to drive operational improvements and sharpen our portfolio will increase our earnings opportunities and drive us past our expected $30 to $40 million adjusted EBITDA rate. Looking for our consolidated out, we expect third quarter net sales to range from a decrease of 5% to flat sequentially. This reflects the referenced weaker demand in TSS's stationary aftermarket for opt-in blends, partially offset by continued pricing momentum in TT and sequential sales and cost improvements in APM. Our consolidated adjusted EBITDA is expected to range between $175 million and $205 million for the third quarter. Corporate expenses are expected to be approximately $40 million to $45 million. We also anticipate capital expenditures to be in the range of $65 million with free cash flow of at least $50 million, reflecting the timing of payments for plant turnaround activities commencing later in the third quarter. Turning to the full year, we expect 2026 net sales to grow between 1% and 5% over 2025, with adjusted EBITDA growing to be between $775 million and $825 million. This outlook is supported by pricing momentum and ongoing cost improvements across each of our businesses. As time-rated for the third quarter, continued de-stocking over Optium blends in the aftermarket will impact TSS, but this headwind is expected to be partially offset by Strength and TT from pricing and cost improvements, as well as APM's operational resilience and demand strength in higher value end markets as the year progresses. Capital expenditures are expected to be between $250 million and $280 million for the full year, with free cash flow conversion above 25%, providing higher earnings and improvements in working capital throughout the year. We also continue to anticipate achieving a net leverage ratio around 3.8 times adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2026, further positioning us towards our longer-term goal of being sustainably below 3 times net leverage. As Denise mentions, we have continued to prioritize debt repayment using both organic cash flow as well as the proceeds received at date from the Kuan Yin land sale. In the second quarter, we repaid close to $270 million of our 2028 Bureau of Term Limits, which represents an additional $103 million beyond what was communicated on our first quarter call. We intend to continue to prioritize debt reduction as a key element of our capital allocation strategy in order to enhance the overall strength of Comores' balance sheet. This work is fundamental to executing against the four pillars of our Pathway to Thrive strategy and allows us flexibility for the longer term. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Denise for her closing remarks.

Thank you, Shane. As we close, it's worth taking a step back and recognizing where we are on our journey. We are now roughly halfway through our Pathway to Thrive strategy, which makes it a good moment to reflect on what we've accomplished and, just as importantly, where we're headed. Looking back, Pathway to Thrive was never simply a cost, productivity, or restructuring program. We undertook it to strengthen the foundation of Comores, improve the resilience of the company, and create strategic portfolio options that can maximize value for our shareholders. As evidenced by our results, we've made significant progress taking decisive actions to strengthen and de-risk our balance sheet while advancing our portfolio transformation. At the same time, we've continued to establish a stronger operating model through the application of lean principles driving the discipline, capabilities, and culture that will support long-term performance. The progress is real, and it's undeniable, but there is still work ahead. As we move past this halfway point, we will continue to execute with urgency and pursue opportunities that enhance our strategic and portfolio optionality, including transformational partnerships and actions to reshape our existing portfolio. The work we have done has created a stronger foundation and greater flexibility to act. We will build on that momentum by expanding our strategic choices, strengthening our portfolio, and positioning CMOERS to deliver greater long-term value for shareholders. I want to be clear. No portfolio action is off the table where we see an opportunity to unlock a step change in value creation for our shareholders. Moving forward, what gives me confidence is the trajectory we're creating for Comorce. We have three market-leading businesses, differentiated solutions, and solid positions in attractive end markets. Combined with the progress under Pathway to Thrive, these strengths are creating a stronger foundation and expanding the opportunities ahead of us. Across Comorce, our talented people are embracing new ways of working, building a culture of continuous improvement, and bringing a passion to win every day. Together, we are creating a company that is stronger, more resilient, and increasingly positioned to have greater strategic optionality. I'm excited about what the future holds. We have more to accomplish, more value to unlock, and more opportunities ahead of us than behind us. The choices available to Comores today are meaningfully different than they were when we launched Pathway to Thrive, and I believe the actions we take on our priorities can create substantial value for our shareholders. We look forward to sharing that progress with you as we continue to execute our strategy and realize the full potential of Comorce. In closing, from our core businesses, we are confident that steadfast execution of our strategy can deliver a business with at least $1 billion of annual adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow conversion, exceeding 40% while progressively de-risking the balance sheet. These efforts are already driving results today and will create greater financial and strategic flexibility. With that, I'd like to open the line for your questions.

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question today is from Pete Osterland with Truist Securities. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. So I just wanted to start with the margins implied in the third quarter TSS guide. So the midpoints imply a high 20s margin for third quarter below the 30 that you've talked about historically. I guess could you rank order what the drivers are here between mix and input costs, overall cost absorption, And I guess more broadly, do you expect this margin level to be a one-quarter occurrence with a snapback, or is it more likely resetting the baseline here with gradual improvement thereafter?

Hey, Peter, thank you. Yeah, so I appreciate the perspectives there. I don't look at, you know, margin sequentially from Q2 to Q3. I kind of look at it compared to prior year. Certainly we'd be guiding to lower margins. And really, this goes hand-in-hand with the discussions we had on the script, whereby we're seeing really slower business in the aftermarket, specifically in residential, like commercial and TSS. And that's really a mixed attribute. That's really the predominant driver, you know, there. As I look ahead, you know, going to your latter point in question of where this is going, seasonally, you know, Q4 margins tend to be a little bit, you know, kind of on the downside, just given the mix of seasonality of refrigerants versus FP&O. But we still stand behind that.

Very helpful. And I guess just a follow-up on that point on mix. Could you size what proportion of your Option sales are made up by the stationary aftermarket business? And how much are you assuming that business will be down year over year in your third quarter guidance?

Thanks. Thanks. We haven't really talked a lot about the actual sizing of the aftermarket, you know, from this perspective. You know, as we think about quantifying how much it's down, you know, last year, you might recall, you know, we had a really sizable sales into the aftermarket given the transition under the AIM Act. We believe, you know, from a Q2 and Q3 perspective, there's probably about 65 million of aftermarket sales that realistically, you know, you think about like-for-like probably should have been allocated to more this year. It was just more pre-buy, given some of the overall inventory constraints in the market that we took advantage of in supply. So, like-for-like, I think if you look at Q2-Q3 comparatively year-over-year, there's probably about a $65 million balance.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Our next question is from Duffy Fisher with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Yeah, good morning. Another question on TSS. So with the, whatever you want to call it, the pre-sales from last year, does that mean that we need the anniversary falling sales from this aftermarket stationery business through the first quarter of next year? Or how long does it take for that to correct before you get back to kind of selling in what you're selling out?

Thanks for the question.

Yeah, I think that's a good way to look at it. think you should look at this transition really the transition of the technology over 25 and 26 and then really picking back up in next season in the end of uh the q1 of 2027. okay and then if we jump to tt um surprisingly that the chinese exports you know given their sulfur costs and stuff like that have remained quite high year to date um and when you look at collectively, you know, I think the numbers that you guys put up that, you know, Kronos and Tronos will put up plus the Chinese, year over year that supply to the world is running much faster than what the end markets, you know, paint and, you know, some other construction stuff seems to be growing. Where is that product going? Was there low inventory so people are rebuilding inventory? Or how is the production and sales volume of PIO2 kind of running ahead of and consumption, in your view?

Thanks for the question. I mean, as we talked about, you know, we'll focus on the fair trade markets where our customers value what we bring to the table. And, you know, we're not seeing, you know, obviously there were disruptions with the war, and our customers really count on the liability. And what we see is in those fair trade markets, we see a pretty balanced market and our ability to maintain our share. Great.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Our next question is from Drew Clotter with Mizuho Security. Your line is open.

Let me just check. This is John Roberts. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

I've got it. Okay, thank you. The refrigerants aftermarket is very fragmented, a lot of small service providers. How much visibility do you actually have into the inventory of those small customers?

Thanks for the question, John. I mean, I guess what I want to say is that we have, you know, we're market leaders here, right? We have the majority of the share. We feel like we have good visibility into this market. Clearly, as you think about last year, there was mixed signals on what, from the channel, on what the, you know, what the demand would be this year. I think there's a couple things that have happened. When we think about this year, Shane mentioned it earlier. As we've gotten into the year, we had a colder spring in the northeast, which definitely impacts demand. And then the macro environment with the war, really, you know, affordability concerns with consumers has distributors holding back really just high level. We think we have good visibility into the market with our leadership position.

And then what's causing the price strain in Freon? Is it something related to the emission allowances or something related to costs?

Hey, John. Yeah, you might remember in Q1 we talked a little bit about, you know, overall mix shift. This is really into more of the automotive aftermarket and strength there that we've been able to take. That continued into Q2 on that side. So just overall mix shift is where, you know, the pricing opportunity is called.

Okay, so it's mixed. It's not raising like-for-like prices.

So, like, it's a mix of two higher-priced products that we take an advantage to.

Okay.

The question is from Hassan Amit with Alembic Global Advisors. Your line is open.

Morning, Denise and Shane. You know, a question around your full-year guidance, Q3 guidance. It seems that you guys are sort of forecasting a hundred and – so midpoint, obviously, being $190 million for Q3. And it seems you guys are guiding to a range of, call it, $170 million to maybe $220 million for Q4. So just trying to understand in an otherwise seasonally weak quarter that is Q4, what gives you guys the confidence of that sequential step-up from Q3 to Q4 EBITDA?

Your observation is correct that we do anticipate a strong Q4 on the backs of really strengthened TT and APM comparatively to the prior quarters, with seasonality still in effect, given TSS obviously will have lower volumes in the quarter, as well as a slight lower volumes in TT. So the strength in TT really is on the backs of, you know, some pricing, you know, obviously tailwinds that we're seeing in the market. But also, we have line of sight into really good cost improvements within TT that we anticipate coming through in the fourth quarter, both on input costs as well as operational. On APM, right, so you've obviously seen, you know, we've had some lighter EBITDA in the first three quarters that we're anticipating compared to where we really would like the business to be. As we think about Q4, we've talked about how strong the order book is in APM on really great end markets with products mixed that is advantageous to us. So it's that, and then orders really were impacted by higher costs that we're sitting in inventory that were coming through given the absorption. We're not going to see that in the fourth quarter. So it's a mix of both portfolio and EPM as well as improved cost.

And as a follow-up on TT, I mean, can you guys talk a bit about, you know, what you guys are seeing on the cost curves? Obviously, you know, we keep hearing about elevated sulfuric acid prices, you know, availability of sulfuric acid being obviously a concern as well. So what role is that playing in sort of, you know, facilitating some of the price sites that you guys are implementing, and part and parcel with that, are you guys seeing the potential rationalizations or accelerated rationalizations in China on the back of, you know, where the cost curves are?

Thanks for the question, Hassan. Yeah, I mean, relative to cost curves, there's no doubt with the input costs of sulfur increasing that that's causing an increase in cost for sulfate-produced TiO2. This trend was actually happening even before the war, so, you know, it's only been exacerbated. We see that continue. Is that fundamentally, do we see fundamental rationalization? Not per se, but certainly it's helpful from a pricing standpoint. As I mentioned before, our focus is on fair trade markets and, you know, where we know our customers value what we provide. And there's less of a, I'll say, competition from a Chinese perspective.

Very helpful. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next question is from Josh Spector with UDS. Your line is open.

I wanted to follow up on TSS again. Just, I mean, at a high level, I mean, it seems like, you know, initially you thought TSS would grow EBITDA by about $50 million. Now your guidance, I'm assuming for the year, has kind of flapped it down. So, you know, following up on some of the prior questions where you talk about aftermarket visibility and, like, your position, it just seems like expectations can't change quite materially over the last quarter. So, you know, what surprise to really drive that where, you know, we're talking about a year ago, we should have known this, but now we're baking that in. It just seems like something more changed under the hood than what your answers implied previously.

Hey, thanks for the question, Josh. So first of all, you know, there has been, I just want to be clear, there's been a significant change in the market size for this year, right? So when we think about what the volume in the aftermarket was last year versus this year, we see about a 25% drop. So, you know, why, you know, your question is, well, why, what's changed? As I said earlier, we were getting signals from the channel about demand this year. As we got into the year and we saw what was happening with the colder spring, we did signal that we were starting to see a slower start to the season, maybe the end of the first quarter. As we started to see that with the full weather as well as the war, it really, you know, just thinking about consumer discretion and being able to make choices of whether you put in a new system or you repair, and distributors really not taking a risk on premium product. So, it's really something that has evolved, I would say, over the second quarter, and, you know, we've adjusted our forecast.

Yeah, and I would just tackle on to that, Josh. You know, as I think about where we believed we were going into this year, you know, the TT business has really outperformed where we expected coming into the year, and we thought, you know, the balance of the portfolio would help itself, you know, seeing a little bit of a delay in that aftermarket start, but also seeing really price-strength in TT, maybe offsetting some of that delay, so.

Yeah, we – I mean, the fundamentals are there for this market. I mean, basically, you had a whole market turnover with a technology transition where you've gone from many suppliers to just two. I think you need to just look at it at 2025, 2026. That's really a transition. It's hard to read those TVs when a technology changes in that way. We feel about this business, CP Plus growth business. We look at the aftermarket. There's a huge growth platform with high single-digit growth in the coming years.

Yeah, I guess maybe if you could help a little bit. It's just the tone is different between you and your larger competitors that talked about, So, you know, gains in the aftermarket mix up in the second half. I mean, this seems more like share shift between one player versus another, maybe in addition to de-stocking. I mean, can you comment on that? Is there a view about why your mix would be pretty materially different here?

Yeah, I mean, as I said, first of all, I'm not going to talk about what competitors say and what they do. But all I know is that last year we had significant share, and we were able to supply a market when others were. There's a huge difference in comparatives. If you look at some of the comments that were made, the aftermarket for stationery is viewed as an upside in the second half. That's not something that has occurred to date. So I think there's a different comp between the two companies.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question is from Aaron. Brian Biswanathan from RBC Capital Market. Your line is open.

Thanks for taking my questions. If I could ask another question on TSS as well, and thanks for the slides on data center use cases. Very interesting stuff here. So if you kind of think about TSS when you step back, I think you mentioned a billion of EBITDA longer term. Could you provide us maybe some bridge items to get from, say, $826 to that billion-dollar level? Does that kind of include maybe a couple hundred million from data center by the end of the decade? Or what's kind of the longer-term opportunity as you see it, including, you know, the two-phase immersion cooling products that you're discussing on those slides as well?

Yeah, so we're very excited to save, you know, that billion-dollar target with the 40% free cash flow. As I think about, you mentioned bridging items, you know, Denise talked about in her script, just excitements around different, you know, end markets, around just AI infrastructure, whether it be in data centers, semiconductors, advanced electronics. Right now, it's about 9% of our overall TSS and APM portfolio. We anticipate large growth in those markets ahead of us, and obviously those are advantage market positions, So that will be key contributors going forward. Other bridge items, you know, we'll continue to execute on pricing across each one of the businesses, and then also, obviously, we're in a little bit of a cyclical downside on certain businesses where it will bring reliability, and we believe there's a lot of efficient costs. I would say 40% from a free cash flow perspective, you know, we continue to think through, you know, opportunities to drive that ad produce. But we're excited also to work on the balance sheet and a lot further working capital opportunities, similar to, you know, what we've talked about before with some of the high-grade order contracts in TT.

I mean, to build on that, Arun, we talk about these high-growth areas in AI infrastructure, but we also have to talk about, you know, one of the elements is liquid cooling. We put, you know, some things in the script, it's a really good indication of the market traction that we're starting to see, and there are upsides to liquid cooling as well as our work in Next Generation Refrigerant, NGR, are upsides to that $1 billion case.

Okay, thanks for that. And just, again, just kind of from a composition standpoint, would that billion dollars kind of require, you know, maybe mid-cycle assumptions for TTs, say, in the annualized run rate of, say, $300 million to $400 million of EBITDA, and then, you know, you're thinking maybe 160 or so for APM and maybe 800 for PSS, offset by corporate, you know, or how are you thinking about that billion-dollar composition from a segment basis? And then also, you know, as I mentioned earlier, what's kind of the target for that? Is that, you know, from a time frame? Is that end of the decade, or is there a line of sight to when you've achieved that level?

Yeah, I really appreciate you kind of mapping that out. I'm not going to get into specifics as in regards to each number for the company, you know, but I just, I reflect and think through, yeah, I mean, I think there's a floor mid-cycle, you know, call it over 400 for TT, you know, that's going to help get there. I think there's attributes to really build upon APM, you know, as we've talked about exiting this year, really strengthen the order book and operational resilience, and TSS continues to be really a good, you know, growth momentum, you know, business off that side. You know, as it relates to timing, I can't get into that, but I do believe in the coming years, you'll see us hit these targets.

And just to build on that, you know, for TT, a thing to remember is that there are structural cost changes coming with ore and chlorine that are not yet visible in our earnings.

Thank you, Irving. Our next question is from John McNulty with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. This is Caleb on for John. So just to follow up on Josh's question about what's kind of changed since the start of the year, some of your H-Track OEM customers have raised their unit outlooks for the start of the year. So can you just kind of square how they're raising their outlook, but then you're talking about kind of like a slowdown happening that kind of intuitively isn't really making a lot of sense?

Yeah, thanks, Caleb. Yeah, what you have to remember is that our sales are into OEMs or the OEMs sales. Our aftermarket sales are actually once the distributors, you know, actually the unit is put in operation. So, yeah, I mean, could we see some upside in the fourth quarter? Potentially, but we think it's likely going to be more next year just because of the time difference.

And then maybe just on the data center opportunity, is there a way to frame your content in either, like, a dollar basis or a kilogram basis for the same data center that would be using single-phase directorship, two-phase directorship, and then two-phase immersion cooling?

Yeah, I mean, just to be clear, liquid cooling has taken off in data centers, right, but it's not two-phase. What you see today is the single phase, so there is not any, today, any share in the commercial market. So that's all upside. The other thing that we've talked about is that as we think about the AI infrastructure and the things that where we participate, today in APN, we have about 40% of our performance solutions portfolio is towards that end market. If you look at TSS and APN together, it's a high single digits of the total sales that are in that AI infrastructure space. Anything related to liquid cooling data centers will be on top of that, and it's part of the robust growth that we see.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Our next question is from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Thank you, and good morning. Sticking with the liquid cooling, Denise, could you just talk about what your route or routes to market might be in liquid cooling? I'm just looking sort of at the broader industry structure. There seems to be a lot of consolidation and vertical integration going on there. So would you be a supplier to one of the, you know, the big integrated folks, or would you be selling directly to the data center customer, or how would this work?

Thanks, Vincent. It's a good question, yeah. I mean, the way this works is, first of all, this is a, as you said, it's a complicated value chain, lots of different players. We really have to, I'll say, sell across the value chain. You saw our announcements around Samsung qualification, working with other hyperscalers. We have to first kind of get scoped in or specced into the architecture for the design of the data center. We also work with the OEMs that are putting in equipment, similar as we do currently in our refrigeration market. So where will the sales be made? Ultimately, it's going to be really the specific sale is going to be to the OEM, but it's going to be pulled through through specifications across the ecosystem.

Okay. And then as a follow-up for Shane, I guess kind of a two-part question on free cash flow. So, one, you were able to actually increase the free cash flow guidance for the year despite the reduction in EBITDA. Sounds like it's some working capital and some other timing issues. Are those going to reverse in 27 and make a harder comp on free cash flow? And then separately, what's the, you know, you talked about the long-term goal of 40%. Is there something that limits 40% as the free cash flow conversion level? Is it you're baking in some potential, you know, litigation payments over time or just other contingencies? But what is it that would make 40% the ceiling on free cash flow conversion?

Yeah, so very excited about free cash flow. We continue to really make sure we're prioritizing that cash inflow. Above 25% is the guy for this year. I think, as you were asking, is there anything that are one-time oriented in nature? You know, we do have some large cars this year on this side which will, you know, help, you know, with the overall free cash flow. But at the same point, I think we're very focused to take a sizable decline. We are focused really on improving the free cash flow characteristics of this business. As it relates to the 40% and, you know, areas around, you call it the ceiling, I said, you know, I would tell you we believe we can take this settlements that are paid over, you know, over multiple periods. For instance, New Jersey is over 25 years on that side. And then we also have, obviously, ongoing environmental and other legal costs that weigh that down. But also you have other areas that are, you know, right off the top as far as conversion, whether it be the interest costs that we're paying, taxes, or obviously CapEx. So we're mindful of all these areas that are weighing down the free cash flow conversion, and our job is to really focus and improve upon them.

Thank you for your question. And our next question comes from Aaron Rosenthal with JPM. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, and thanks for the time. Are you willing to elaborate at all on the strategic portfolio comments mentioned just at the end of the Q&A session? Just curious if there was any unsolicited inbound from third party or if there's some sort of momentum on efforts driven by commerce?

Hey, Aaron. Thanks for the question. I think, Perk, I want to take a step back and say, well, we're going to go ahead and why are we even talking about it um kind of reflective right we're halfway through pathway to thrive and i thought it was a great time to kind of step back and say and to to talk with our shareholders about why why did we develop this strategy you know the pathway to thrive pillars were designed to solidify the foundation of the company to create optionality for us so we've improved our balance sheet de-risking our liabilities improving our cash flow growing into high-value applications, improving our operational and commercial performance. So all of these things are what's helping us build to, you know, a stronger balance sheet that gives us that optionality. I'm not going to speculate on any specific actions that we're considering or that we would take, but it really is just to, you know, assure our shareholders that there's no portfolio action that's off the table that would create that change value for the company, and that really, you know, the Pathway to Thrive really gets us to the point to be able to do those kind of, make those kind of decisions. You can see it could be around product lines or assets. It could be strategic partnerships. We've already announced some of those, but it's really about taking a step back, really taking a high-level view of why are we doing Pathway to Thrive, and what is it going to accomplish for us?

Okay, totally fair. That was a worth question. And then maybe just one on APM, are there any updates on the permitting front tied to the Washington worksite? I'm just curious if there's any lingering uncertainty on that front, maybe how that is baked into guidance from a utilization assumption perspective?

Yeah, I mean, we don't have any uncertainty relative to that. I mean, I think it's telling that, you know, as we did the, you know, the EPA settlement, it was commented by many parties of the importance of that site just for many different applications, critical applications for fluoropolymers when it comes to national security and defense. So, we have strong support for operation of that site.

Just to verify, I think there was a permit expiry in July that was cited in the 10Q. Has that been resolved?

Yes, it has.

Okay, great.

Thank you for joining the Kimura Second Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. You may now disconnect.