Umicore announced it will invest about € 25m in the sampling facility of the Hoboken precious metals recycling plant. Umicore claims that the investment, which will be fully operational by mid 2013, will result in a more flexible sampling process with higher capacity and reduced throughput time. Engineering studies will be executed that may result in additional investments in the following years. Our View: Umicore commented at its Capital Market Days last year that customer satisfaction surveys showed that the company was praised for its reliable sampling capabilities in Recycling. Thisinvestment should in our opinion further strengthen Umicore’s reputation/capabilities in Recycling, which is a key earnings contributor for Umicore (representing 57% of last year’s group Recurring EBIT). We assume today’s announcement is included in our capex forecasts for the coming years (of between € 200-300m per annum). We stick to our BUY rating and € 43 target price.