Umicore Posts Core Profit Beat Boosted by Gold, but Core Business Remains Soft

Umicore's Profit Surpasses Forecasts, Gold Prices Influence Results

(Corrects headline, paragraph 1 to clarify recycling business boosted by gold gains, not one-ff gold sale led to core profit beat)

By Dimitri Rhodes and Cian Muenster

Umicore's Financial Performance and Market Reaction

Feb 20 (Reuters) - Belgian metal recycling group Umicore beat 2025 profit expectations on Friday, but its shares fell 5% as gold prices buoyed results of its recycling activities while the underlying business remained muted.

Umicore's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, including contributions from associate companies where it holds minority stakes, rose 11% to 847 million euros ($996 million), beating analysts' forecast of 838 million euros in a Vara consensus poll.

The previously announced sale of gold inventories contributed 486 million euros to the group's non-adjusted EBITDA of 1.21 billion last year, as Umicore seeks to replace its permanently tied-up inventories with more profitable revolving metal leases.

Impact of Rising Gold Prices

Gold prices soared about 60% in 2025, driven by geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD OF SLOW EV ADOPTION

Umicore, which supplies battery materials such as nickel, manganese and cobalt to automakers and other companies that make batteries for electric vehicles, is bound to benefit from their rising adoption.

Challenges in the Electric Vehicle Market

However, weaker than expected EV demand is holding back this potential, and last year it led the company to slash its capital spending plans, including an 800 million euro reduction in the battery cathode materials unit.

"(This is) what we continue to see in 2026," CEO Bart Sap said in a call with analysts, highlighting the U.S. administration's much higher tolerance for polluting combustion engine cars that has led to policy pivoting away from EVs.

Meanwhile, the global EV shift is still translating to a less supportive environment for Umicore's business making catalytic converters for combustion engine vehicles, responsible for about half of the group's revenue, it said.

The European Union said in December it planned to drop a 2035 ban on new combustion engine cars, bowing to pressure from carmakers, even as sales of fully electric cars surpassed those of petrol-only vehicles in the bloc for the first time.

($1 = 0.8505 euros)

(Reporting by Dimitri Rhodes and Cian Muenster in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)