Sonova Holding AG

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Sonoba AG full year results 2025-2026 conference call and live webcast. I am Valentina, the Chorus Call Operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in its own remote and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and 1 on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and 0. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Thomas Bernhardt-Kutter, Senior Director, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Valentina, and welcome everyone to the presentation of our full year results 2025-26. The slides of the call are available on our website. With me in the room are Eric Bernard, CEO, and Elodie Carr, CFO of Sonoma. During the call, Eric will provide you with a business update and taking you through the performance and highlights for the Sunova Group across our businesses. He will then hand over to Elodie, who will take you through the financials in more detail and present the outlook for the financial year 26-27. We will then move to Q&A, where those of you dialing in over the phone have the opportunity to ask questions. Now, before we begin, let me mention one very important thing. Growth rates cited in today's presentation refer to changes in local currencies, unless otherwise noted. Before we dive into the presentation, please take note of the disclaimer. In short, this presentation contains forward-looking statements and serves marketing purposes. It constitutes neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation to buy any securities. And one additional reminder, Following the announced intention to divest the consumer hearing business, the business is classified as discontinued operations and the relevant comparative figures for the 2024-25 financial year have been restated accordingly. Therefore, figures and growth rates in this presentation refer to continuing operations and exclude the consumer hearing business unless otherwise stated. In addition, The hearing instruments business will be referred to as the wholesale business, and the audiological care business as the retail business. And with this, I pass the word over to Eric.

Thank you, Thomas. A warm welcome also from my side, and let's start the VisNeps review with the key highlights for the year. So 2025-26 was a very successful year for Sonovar. We delivered strong results. outperformed the hearing care market and fully met our guidance. In our hearing instruments segments, growth accelerated in the second half, and this was driven by a very strong development in wholesale, translating into the highest year-on-year market share gain since the introduction of our Marvel platform six years ago. Having posted strong high single digit growth in the first half, we accelerated to double digits in the second half, driven by our successful product launches. We also delivered robust growth in our retail business, driven by consistent execution and successful growth initiatives. We ended the year on a high note, with fourth quarter momentum building sequentially, a strong signal for the start of the new financial year. The copier implant segment continues to face headwinds in the second half, driven by the introduction of VDP in China, software upgrade sales, and heightened competitive pressure following our largest competitor's product launch. Strong growth drove operating leverage and profitability. And so the normalized IPTA margin rose 240 base points, delivering a 17.3% year-on-year IPTA increase. And to sum it all up, we delivered strong results, and we are confident to deliver continued above-market sales growth and increased profitability in 26-27. Before I talk about our performance in more details, let me briefly recap our renewed strategy that we presented in March. At the center of this strategy is a simple, focused ambition to grow Sonova to 6 billion Swiss Francs in revenue by FY2031. And we are going to deliver this through three pillars. One, innovate for adoption. We will expand into new segments by launching more lifestyle-aligned designs, strengthening connected solutions, and further integrating AI and digital capabilities. Bringing together R&D for hearing aids and cochlear implants deepens synergies across the portfolio. we are developing solutions tailored to Asian market needs and growth potential. Two, succeed locally with multi-channel, multi-brand play. We will grow by winning country by country. The right brand in the right channel at the right price. And to achieve this, we are aligning wholesale and retail more closely using customer insights to guide R&D sharing marketing assets, and scaling our elite generation engine. And we will continue targeted retail expansion to reach an optimal scale in selected strategic markets. And finally, three, excel in operations for growth. By elevating service into a core competitive advantage, we will drive loyalty, deepen partnerships, and grow market share. In parallel, we will improve efficiency and generate meaningful savings through footprint optimization, greater automation, simplified processes and disciplined value engineering. With the strategy and leadership in place, we are now focused on execution. Moving on to the performance in more detail. Let's take a closer look at the hearing instruments segment. Total segment sales rose 7.5% to 3.4 billion with growth accelerating to 7.9% in the second half against a strong comparison base. Normalized EBITDA rose 17.3% to 794 million delivering a 23.7% margin, up 280 basis points in local currencies. And Elodie, our CFO, will share more on the margin drivers later. Let's move now on to the individual businesses and starting with wholesale. The business delivered a substantial sales increase of 9.5% with positive contributions from both higher volumes and improved ASP, resulting in revenues of 1.9 billion for the year. In the second half, we delivered double-digit growth of 10.9%, accelerating against a very strong comparison base of 10% growth in the same period of 24-25. And this underscores the successful Infineo Ultra launch and a very positive market reception to Viado R. And we have a strong product pipeline, short, mid, and long term, which I will come to on the next slide. Sonovar is the innovation and technology leader in this industry, and over the past two years, we have delivered strong solutions with clear consumer benefits. We launched here in 2024 the world's first hearing aid powered by a purpose-built AI chip for speech separation from noise that allows the hearing aid to instantly detect, extract, and enhance speech from any direction. And with the launch of Ultra in October 2025, this feature can now be used all day. With Yetto R, Phonak introduced its first rechargeable in-the-ear device, combining Infineon's speech performance with a compact, custom-made design and universal connectivity. It no longer requires trade-offs from consumers in terms of performance, size, or connectivity. And we innovated beyond selling heads with the EasyGuard wax management system that protects the receiver with an acoustically transparent membrane, simplifying cleaning and reducing service visits. Our innovation engine isn't standing still with the next wave of breakthroughs already underway. Bringing real-time AI into smaller form factors, expanding beyond risk to provide more aesthetically appealing lifestyle-aligned solutions, and broadening AI functionality beyond speech in noise. During the financial year 26-27, we plan to introduce a new hearing aid platform that builds on and expands our AI leadership while adding new connectivity solutions. This next step in innovation will further enhance the user experience and reinforce the strength of our portfolio. And I'm very excited about the opportunities these launches present and confident it will further strengthen our innovation leadership and support our long-term growth ambitions. Now, moving on to our retail, revenues for the business reached $1.5 billion, representing a growth of 5.1%. Bolton acquisitions contributed 1.3 percentage points. We further expanded our sole network mainly in Germany, Austria, and Canada. Growth in the second half was 4.4% against 8.1% in the prior year periods with sequential acceleration in Q4, a positive indicator for the start of the new fiscal year. Structural cost initiatives started in 24-25, continued to deliver meaningful operating leverage, contributing to some of our selling growth. As a next step, we are deploying AI tools across our stores as a powerful enabler of productivity and to elevate the consumer journey, driving stronger consumer engagement. And now, switching to the cochlear implant segments. Sales reached 252 million, down 11%, or 3.8% lower if we exclude China. System sales were affected by the introduction of VVP in China and a major competitor's product launch in the second half. Consequently, system sales declined by 10%, with performance actually flat outside of China. Bad grape sales declined 13%. This development was expected and reflects the product cycle, as many recipients have already adopted the current processor technology. And so normalized EBITDA amounted to 17.2 million with a margin of 6.8%, impacted by the lower sales and only partly upset by strict cost controls, and by the benefits of the weaker US dollar. But we expect performance to improve in the second half of 26-27, following the planned launch of a new sound processor. It will further leverage FONAC's technology to elevate hearing performance, which is particularly relevant for cochlear implant recipients. I conclude with some highlights from our sustainability activities where Sonova has continued to make significant strides. And what you can see on this slide is that our efforts in sustainability don't go unnoticed. Sonova continues to be recognized by leading ESG rating agencies and included in important sustainability indices during 25-26. You can see a selection on the slide, and I would encourage you to have a look at our full sustainability report, which was published alongside the annual reports. And with that, let me hand over to our CFO, Elodie Carr, who will provide more details on the financials and the outlook.

Elodie Carr Thank you, Eric, and a warm welcome also from my side to everyone on the call. So, let us take a closer look at the financials. and we start with sales development. So, as mentioned, normalized operating expenses rose modestly by 1.1%, despite strong sales growth, and that resulted in substantial operating leverage. R&D expenses rose 3.8%, as we continue to invest in advancing our product portfolio. The success of our recent product launches clearly demonstrates that we are delivering meaningful and impactful innovation. Sales and marketing expenses were up 1.5% and include continued investments in lead generation in retail, driving robust organic growth for the business. Lastly, general and administrative expenses were essentially flat through strict cost management and reflecting the benefits from last year's structural cost initiatives. To sum it all up on slide 16, let's look at EPITAR component from left to right. Normalized EPITAR rose by 17.3%, almost three times faster than top line, resulting in a margin improvement of 240 basis points in local currencies. This highlights the strong operating leverage that was driven by disciplined cost management. Normalizations totaled around 90 million Swiss francs, driven by non-recurring items related to legal matters, legacy products, and software assets. Specifically, 28 million Swiss franc legal costs were related to a passive settlement, resolving pending litigation in all jurisdictions, as was communicated in the first half. Reassessment of product liability provisions for legacy products in the core clearance plan segment amounted to about 24 million Swiss francs. Finally, as part of the strategic review we recently undertook, certain software assets were identified as unlikely to deliver the anticipated benefits, and this led to an impairment charge of around 35 million francs. Important to note, is that these items are non-operational, largely non-cash, and do not represent core operating performance. The headwinds from exchange rates developments reduced normalized EBITDA by 140 million Swiss coins, and the margin in Swiss coins by 1.5 percentage points. Let me now quickly summarize the key P&L figures. Sonora delivered above-market sales growth across all regions, with profitability rising in local currencies across every metric, signaling growth-based momentum and disciplined execution. This resulted in a healthy EPS growth of 16%. In line with our total shareholder return framework, the board proposed a 7% dividend increase to 4.70 francs per share, implying a payout ratio of about 45%. Moving on to CHP. As you know, on March 23rd, Sunova announced a plan to divest its consumer hearing business. Consumer hearing is now classified as discontinued operations and the figures discussed today refer to continuing operations unless otherwise stated. But I would like to highlight our financial results, including consumer hearing, on a pro forma basis, as this is the basis on which we provided our guidance. Including consumer hearing, sales grew 5.5% and normalized EBITDA rose 14.5%, well within the guidance we provided and that we reconfirmed at the end of March. The divestment adds about 230 basis points to the normalized EBITDA margin when compared to the pro forma margin including consumer hearing. Please note that the pro forma EBITDA loss for the consumer hearing in 2025-2026 includes one-time items related to inventory reassessments and tariffs and is not fully reflective of the operational performance. Moving on to cash flow. Operating free cash flow was solid, with development driven largely by effects translation and the phasing of tax payments. We continue to deliver strong cash conversions, consistently above 90%, supported by stable working capital management. Cash spent on acquisitions was $46 million, related to retail bolt-ons in a number of key markets. Cap expense increased was lower than previous year and continues to be disciplined. Cash outflow from financing activities includes a dividend payment, stable repayment of lease liabilities, and a new financing arrangement. Now, let's look at our balance sheet, which remains very disciplined. BSO was stable while inventory days improved versus last year. EPO was steady versus September, but lower year-over-year, reflecting timing of payments to suppliers. Return on capital employed remained strong at 19%, and highlights our excellent operational performance and disciplined capital allocation. The change versus prior year is driven by the one-time normalization and the impact of effects on our reported EBITD response. Leverage as measured by net debt to EBITDA reached 1.1 times down from 1.2 at the end of 24-25 financial year. And with this, let me move on to the outlook. Let's look at our outlook for 26-27, starting with our assumptions for the year. We are entering the year from a position of strength, building on a strong momentum in sales and earnings. We anticipate slightly higher market growth of 2% to 4% for this year, gradually moving towards mid-term assumptions of 35%. In wholesale, we expect to continue outpacing the market, supported by a strong product pipeline and a new platform that reinforces Sonoma's leadership in AI-enabled sharing performance. Retail is set for robust organic growth, bolstered by a strong M&A pipeline and accelerated pace of new store openings to lift momentum. Coffee and plants are expected to face headwinds in the first half, with a meaningful pick-up in the second half following the planned launch of the new sound processor. In summary, we expect consolidated sales to rise 5-8% and core EBIT to grow 7-10% at constant exchange rates. We also included some additional information for modeling purposes. Based on effects as of early May 26, we expect Swiss franc state growth to be reduced by 1 to 2 percentage points and core EBIT growth in Swiss francs to be reduced by 2 to 3 percentage points. Non-core items are expected to total around 35 to 40 million Swiss francs. I'd like to point you to the appendix where you will find further details as well as historical figures related to our move to core EBIT as the new guidance metric. You will also find a link to our website where you can find even more historical figures for the past two years. With this, I pass the word to the operator to start the question and answer session.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press STA and 1 on the telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press STA and 2. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode and eventually turn off the volume from the webcast while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press STA and 1 at this time. The first question comes from Antela Botinovich from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Hi, good afternoon.

Thank you for taking my question. Maybe the first one is on the guidance. Can you give us more details on what is embedded, both top end and bottom end, for sales guidance in terms of competitor product launches, market share gains, and M&A contributions? And just any details that you can share on the basic of the growth, especially in the hearing instruments, given you're expected to launch a new product? And the second question is on vehicle R and the IT category in general. If you can give us more details on the product performance and contribution to group growth, and if you could share how has your market share game evolved since the demand introduction of what you can do. Thank you.

Thank you. So maybe I will start with the last question, Vietto R IT. So we were not playing in this category of rechargeable ITs. We came up with Vietto. It's an incredible success, and we have reached a cruising altitude of about 120 million Swiss francs per annum of revenue from zero, as we were not playing in that space. and you have seen the impact it had on the market during the year as a result, but it's been successful across the board. I could share that placing this product in the Japanese market, for instance, got us to grow at a very high double-digit rate in Japan. So far, we haven't seen much of an impact from Japan, new competitor's product against Virto. Of course, it's early, but so far, no impact. And I would say that, as you can see, the acceleration of growth in wholesale in particular in the second half is a very, very good velocity towards every market in particular. I'm sure that so far, we are not... impacted, and I could comment that the beginning of the year was very positive. I'm talking about the new year. Now, on your first question, is what's behind the gardens, what's driving the growth, etc., so I would let you comment on M&A, but if you look at the year we have entered, I would say that We benefit for the first part of the year of the effect of the success of Giotto, which we didn't have last year. We have seen our share in a very large key account in the U.S. growing throughout the year. During the first half, it was certainly not where we wanted to be after we reentered this large account. Towards the end of the year, it was clearly much better. So we came out of the past year with a very good velocity in this large account. So we benefit from that in the new year. We cannot ignore the fact that there are new entrants in the VA where we have reached an extremely high market share level, 54% or so. So we could expect somewhat this peak to decrease, but then in the second half of the year and on time for the November window, we will come up with the new platform in SI, which we expect to be a success, continuing on what we have achieved with SEER and SEER Ultra. So this is giving you, you know, a sense for why we are confident about the guidance that we have shared on the top line. And then, Elodie, if you could comment on M&A.

Yeah, absolutely. On the retail M&A, we are looking at a contribution of about 1% to 2%, obviously depending on the timing of some of these acquisitions. And that contribution is also expected to be well in line with the targets that we have discussed back in March.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next question comes from from CT. Please go ahead.

Hello, team. Good afternoon. Hope you can hear me okay. I have two questions please as well. The first one is sort of a bigger picture question on the market. Obviously, you continue to expect this return to the 3% to 5% that underpins your guidance as we move through this year and into next year. Just would love to get your thoughts exactly on what you've seen in the market. Are there any signs that you can discern of this modest continuous acceleration, or is that something that we haven't seen yet that you're expecting? And maybe if you can just comment in particular on momentum in New York and the U.S. looking at April and May and what you're seeing now that there's a bit more renewed concern around inflation, that would be very helpful. And then my second question is for Elodie. Just on the phasing of growth, I'm thinking especially on the EBIT fund in terms of H1 and H2, would you expect to be within the 7% to 10% range in both of the half-years? And if you can give us any qualitative guidance on that, that would be super helpful. Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you, Veronica. So market growth. Well, you have all seen a number of competitors sharing pretty good numbers for the last quarter, first quarter of Canada year 2026. And you've seen that we have outperformed these numbers in wholesale. What I would say is that what's encouraging is that the beginning of this calendar year, therefore the last quarter for us of the last fiscal year, the market, we believe, was trending towards 4%, in particular, you know, in the last couple of months. So, you know, that a few months ago, we're looking at two, two to three. It's looking better if I look at the last period. As I've mentioned it during the previous set of questions, April was very positive. And so, rather an improvement. And therefore, we... We know we shared that for this fiscal year, we think the market will be growing at 2 to 4%. We believe that over time it will normalize towards the 3 to 5%. If you look at the very recent months, we're getting closer to 4. About the U.S. market, what we see in our own numbers over the last 4 to 5 months was very positive. Of course, we have a bit of a bias view because we have very strong positions in the VA lifting our sales. But as I mentioned, we're also getting here in another very important account in the U.S., but we remain positive about the U.S. market.

So in terms of your questions for the phasing of growth in terms of the EBITDA, And I think your question was related to H1 versus H2. So we do expect in H1 to be within the 7% to 10% range in terms of core EBIT growth in the first half. So we don't expect to be outside of this range. We will be in the range in the first half.

Then, Elodie, would you expect the second half to be a bit stronger than the first half given the given the CI dynamics, or is that not the right way to think about it?

So we will have, as I mentioned, I mean, on the CI side, we do expect that H1 will continue phase headwinds on the top line for CI. And we expect to get a lift on the growth in the second half as we introduce the new processor. So obviously on the CI side, that will drive a bit of a stronger phasing on the second half. For the rest of the business, we do expect also a solid first half. And don't forget also that we just filled an extremely strong second half in the period we just finished. So the comp will be higher for the second half. So all in all, I would say it will be within the range for both halves.

Maybe just to respond to what Elodie said about the new processor, We are extremely excited about what's coming, but I need to mention that, you know, the timing of the launch is subject to regulatory approvals. We're not concerned, but we're subject to these approvals. Otherwise, very excited about it.

Got it. Thank you both very much.

The next question comes from from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Hi there. Morning, all. It's asking a question on behalf. I have two, if I may. So, first off, clearly some very strong market share gains. I was wondering if you could talk about the composition of these share gains, particularly between Ultra and Virto R. I guess I'm curious to understand whether there's a structural shift towards driving force here and whether you're seeing you know, customers who are switching from RICs to IT. And then, secondly, maybe a couple moving parts in the guidance range, particularly around the cost inflation side of things, and what are your assumptions around key cost buckets in the guide? Thank you.

Michael, thank you for the question. Market shares, I think what I will highlight is that we gained share in the U.S., in Germany, in France, in UK products, in Japan. So it's been a broad-based situation, for a better word. We grew certainly thanks to the success of Sphere. If you travel back in time, we were the first player to introduce a solution with a dedicated proprietary chip. When the product was launched back in 24, we faced some challenges in delivering the product. This is behind us, and so the combination of an improved service and a very well-performing solution as late as this year. We've seen how it's moved in the VA. The data is available to all of you. Was there cannibalization of more traditional designs? Not really, but great momentum. Products like brings a solution that offers a very exciting design. It looks cool. It's sexy. It's different. And since the sound quality is outstanding, all of these contributed to the success. We were also bridging a gap that we had because we had no rechargeable solution. And when we bridged that gap, we came up with the smallest, with the best sound quality, the best connectivity, all of these played for us. I cannot say that it cannibalized any more classic designs.

Yeah, I think the question was around the assumptions behind the guidance on the margin side and what are some of the cost assumptions. So we do expect to gain some operating leverage from the sales growth. And that drives, obviously, some of our assumptions on the guidance on the margin side. We do expect operating leverage both on the gross margin as well as the OPEC side. So those provide some benefits. It is fair to say that at this point, we have no operational disruptions on our supply chains. We've been able to mitigate this very strongly. We have obviously taken all this into consideration when we have formal guidance, but in so far it has no material impact to our EBIT guidance.

Okay, thank you.

The next question comes from Aisha Noor from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi, good afternoon, Eric and Elodie and Thomas. Thanks for taking my question. My question is regarding your APEC strategy to capture more market share in the Asia market. Since you announced this plan in March, are you able to share with us any KPIs that you've set or are currently monitoring to benchmark your progress and what measures you have put in place to ensure this is not dilutive to profitability? And then my second question is just a technical one on the non-core items, $40 million on the full year EBIT for the year. What costs do these relate to and how much of this is restructuring versus other items?

Thank you. I will take the first question. Thank you for asking me about APAC. It gives me a chance to explain and explain again and re-explain what's on our minds about Asia Pacific. What we do in Asia Pacific, is a two-step process. Step one is very basic, very simple, no rocket science. It's about giving this region the right attention that maybe was missing. Step two, and this will take more time, will be about bringing solutions Meeting the needs, the specific needs of the Asian markets, and talking about Asia in general doesn't mean much because you start in China, you go to Japan, you go to India, you go to Southeast Asia, and each of these markets has different needs. Step one, putting the right leadership on the ground, done. Reallocating resources directly there. on the way. You've seen that we are entering into an agreement with the Singapore government and so-called EDB. So it's being serious about Asia and thinking Asian for Asia. I won't share with you the details, but what I can tell you is, and that's real and concrete, is that in Japan, for the last five to six months. I will not be too specific. You are looking at the growth rate of 30 to 45% by just bringing the right product in the right channels with the right focus. And it is very profitable. Very profitable with absolutely no dilution. And this is related to step one. Step two is about bringing more simple solutions through potentially different channels so that access is improved, pricing is improved, without diluting our profitability. And this is where we're going to be inventive over the next 18 to 36 months. That's how I would describe what we do in Asia. But we see already in our numbers going back to your KPI question, very good growth in Japan, and very recently also, very good growth in India, where again, we are not, like in Japan, in terms of market share, where we typically are in any other market in the world. So let's keep this in mind to make it simple. Two-step process, reaching our quote-unquote natural market share, and then point to contributing to the expansion of the market and that will be a different story. We'll talk about that in the next six months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months.

On your second question related to non-core items and what the expectations are there for the fiscal year 26-27 and what is included. So as I mentioned, we expect non-core items to amount to around 35 to 40 million Swiss francs in the upcoming year. What is included is mainly two points. One is restructuring costs, and here it's mainly our investment program to drive operational efficiencies which is part of our new strategy that we communicated in March, you know, to excel in operations and driving 90 million of savings in the next four years. So that's a big part. And it also includes transaction and integration cost for acquisitions. So these are the two main buckets of what we expect in North Core items at this point in time.

Thank you so much.

Next question comes from Oliver Metzger from AutoDA Techs. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one is on your highlight M1A pipeline in retail. So regarding the external growth opportunities, we see at Amplifon some slow activity. One could also think that demand is doing a lot slower after the Kind deal. So do you see right now less competitive dynamics because two of the major players in that field are busy at the moment? The second one is about the ASP list and the ITE category. So virtual error was supported for your ASP development. So first, which level of rechargeable ITE would you regard as the new normal or as the aspiration? And so how long might it take to reach this level, which would also imply some midterm ASP support in the best case? Thank you.

Yeah, I'm not sure I fully understood the second question, but I will answer the first one. M&A in retail, well, you say this. I would just say that the playing field in doing M&A retail is certainly more favorable with the latest developments from the two companies that you mentioned. So one has to be opportunistic when appropriate. Yes, we are extremely careful about the management of the ROC of the company. So don't expect to see us buying anything at any price. We're very, very cautious, but again, in a playing field that has become certainly more favorable for us at this point in time. Oliver, I have to say I'm not sure I fully understood your second question. If you don't mind elaborating a bit?

Sure, sure. But first, follow up on your answer. So when you say, okay, you're on one hand extremely helpful for management of ROSI, but on the other hand, do you see that acquisition multiples come down due to recent activities and regarding my second question is about you reported some positive price developments on ASP lists and you have R2R in the ITE category which comes at a higher price. So this is definitely one of the ASP drivers. So going forward, what do you see as the addressable market for the rechargeable ITEs and how long does it take to go there.

Okay. All right. So, yes. So, yes. I mean, generally speaking, there is less pressure on the multiples in retail than there were maybe a few years ago, to make a long story short. About what you see with VFOR is the following. When you bring an exciting solution to patients and professionals that meets, you know, fundamental needs about the quality of the cells, that on top of that looks cool, price is much less of an issue. I think that eventually this category will go naturally to rechargeable in general. How long would it take to get there? You know, I don't know. I don't have a crystal ball. Sorry, I can't give you a specific answer. But what we saw clearly with VSOR is that it comes at a very good price across the board.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Thank you, Oliver.

The next question comes from Susanna Luzig from WebSign. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and thanks for taking my questions. I have two, please. First, on EasyGuard, I was wondering if you can confirm if that has now entered both Costco and the VA and whether you think that there will be any difference in interest in these higher volume channels than, say, with independents. And then second, I had a follow-up on your return to Costco. Are you able to comment on how much of a contribution to growth that was in H2 and then whether you feel with recent momentum you now have a fair share in the channel or if there's further room to go?

Okay. So I will start with Costco. Obviously, I will not be completely explicit about the data points there. But let's say that you had three moments in time. Sonova was no longer in Costco. Sonova came back in Costco and then the share was stable at a level that was not what you would have expected. And the share was lifted in the second half and in particular the last quarter of this past fiscal year. And so we would benefit, assuming we maintain that share, we might increase it, we would benefit from these additional revenues from this very large account. So more for us in 26, 27 in Costco than they were in 25, 26. We were not at the right to the altitude we got at what I would call our fair share towards the end of the past fiscal year. I'm not completely sure about what's behind your question, but let's say that this solution is getting widely accepted and celebrated, and so it's a success. I have to say, I remember that when we spoke about that at UHeart back in November, as well as when we spoke about GFOR, we were faced with a bit of skepticism. for these two innovations, they have proven to be very, very successful. EasyGuard solves a basic, constant problem taking a lot of time in practices, right, works management. And what I would say is that the more intensity you have in the point of sales, think of the VA, think of Costco, think of very busy practices, the more this solution is relevant to the customer. Just to give you an idea, somebody's pushing a cheat sheet to me. I won't hide what I'm doing here. We now have estimated that this solution reduces service time by 38%, very significant.

Thanks.

That's helpful. I guess just I was wondering when that EasyGuard solution went into Costco and went into VA or just to confirm that it's in both of those sort of high-volume, high-service intensity channels.

Susan, I will not share the details here.

Okay. No worries. Thank you. Next question comes from Daniel Yelovkan from Turkey Cantonal Bank. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Also two from my side. The first, in the U.S., you had this impressive 9.1% local currency growth, and I guess you have a relatively limited M&A there. Is that a fair assumption because you pointed more towards Italy, France, Germany? And in the U.S., According to my educated guess, Costco must have contributed probably 200 pips in the U.S. Is that a fair assumption? That's the first question. And the second question is the new platform which you mentioned in March. You mentioned it will have, because of the AI learning, less power consumption. might be a stupid question, but I guess with that, the device doesn't get smaller because you cannot just put in a smaller chip in this timeframe. Is that a fair assumption that our two questions take?

Daniel, thank you for those questions. About the new platform, we will not disclose what it's all about for obvious reasons. But let's say that, you know, we keep training our AI, in particular in energy management. You saw that the year after launching Sphere, we launched Ultra, and you could get access to all the benefits of the AI optimized performance for a full day, not just for a few hours. And as we optimize energy management, You can compress the size of a number of components, and I will leave it at this. I would just say that the one downside that we heard about here was the size of the device, although the product had been very successful in front of this. Just imagine if part of the question was to make it smaller. That would be beautiful. About the U.S. gross drivers, yes, M&A was... extremely limited in terms of contribution. I think it's around 0.2%. So the very, very good numbers that you've seen in the U.S. are coming from VA share and price. So our share jumping from, I think, 47 to 64, in particular after the launch of the SOR. So one... These very large other accounts in the U.S., as I've mentioned this, we are not, we haven't seen in 25, 26, across the year, the type of share that we reach towards the end of the year, which means that it's a reserve for growth in 26, 27. And, you know, when I look at the U.S., I believe that we, Sonova, have more room to grow in the more traditional independent segment. And it's a point of attention for us. We have more room for growth in being more agile, more systematic in executing a multi-brand play. And finally, there's room for growth in retail in the US. in performing better in general with the assets that we have. And then, you know, M&A will come on top of that. So that's why, and I reconnect with one of the questions that was asked before, I remain, we remain very positive about the U.S. market in general.

Okay, that's great. And the third small one, if I can sneak it in, can you disclose the APEC growth excluding the CEI? which you mentioned had a big impact on growth.

That would be nice. It was a high single-digit growth. And to give you a bit more color, as you've seen, if you include CI, the growth was around 1%. This is all coming from China CI. If you exclude this, very good performance in Australia. As I've mentioned it before, responding to other questions, very, very good growth in Japan, and now we start to see momentum picking up in India as well. Maybe Elodie, you want to complete this?

Yeah, Daniel, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, so if you exclude cochlear implants by an APAC and focus on our hearing instrument segment, our sales grew by more than 80%.

Okay, sorry, I didn't hear that.

Sorry. No worries, no worries, no worries.

Congrats, thanks.

Thank you.

In the beginning of the year, this year is very good in Asia.

Next question comes from David Ellington from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Hey guys, thanks for the questions. Maybe just on the top line of 5 to 8, maybe you could just flesh out to get towards the top end of that range. What needs to, what are the biggest drivers of that? Is that a better market? Is it better impact from new launches, or is it more M&A? And then secondly, whether you're anticipating any next tailwind or headwinds from the GN amplifier transaction when they're built in place.

All right. Okay. So how to get to, well, obviously, you know, if the market is accelerating, that could be a need for all of us, all the players, so that's one data point. And then, we've explained that we have still some support from what we achieved in this past fiscal year. I mentioned that, you know, it's towards the end of the year that we're, you know, accelerating in a number of key accounts or geographies, and we benefit from that. And obviously, you know, the second half of the year will be very rich in innovation, a new platform in HCI. There will be a little bit later exciting news about new designs. And then the new processor in CI, again, subject to regulatory approval, which should help us, you know, regain momentum in considering plants in the second half of the year. Any comments about the M&A, Elodie?

Well, as I said, I mean, we expect M&A to contribute between 1% to 2% in this picture, and so depending on timing and how quickly some of these acquisitions could close, obviously, that would have an impact as well.

Can I just follow up on that? Is that going to be points for retail of the group?

For the group.

For the group, okay.

Thank you. And your second question was about the announced acquisition of GM Hearing by Amplifon. It's a very early day. As we speak, it's business as usual. Our exposure to this channel is rather limited. It takes time. Assuming that the acquisition is completed, it will take some time to land an end-state position in terms of sourcing for the newly created group. So we don't expect a significant impact in the coming year. I would say also that this type of acquisition or merger creates opportunities and I will not elaborate on this one.

Thank you. The next question comes from from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon. My first question is on your retail business. Do you expect that organically speaking growth could be or should be above your targeted end market growth for this fiscal year? And then secondly on the cochlear implant business, and sorry if I missed it, but it is probably fair to assume growth for the business again this fiscal year, but is it fair to assume that this growth should still be below the full year guidance range? Thank you.

So, you know, we're not guiding specifically on the retail business, so I will not tell you exactly what the numbers will be. What I will say is that we have good momentum. The exit velocity from the past fiscal year was very good. We saw acceleration in the last quarter, so we are optimistic going forward. You've seen the numbers for these years. They were somewhat above the market growth. That's all I will say.

And the second question was related to cochlear implant growth.

Yes. So as we mentioned it before, first half, we expect the numbers not to look that great. But when the second half comes, again, subject to regulatory approval, we come up with a new processor. We believe that it's a very relevant innovation that we bring. And so that should lead to an exciting acceleration for our CI business once the processor is in the market.

Okay. Thank you. And without putting a specific number behind it, is it then fair to assume that the CI business can at least grow positively this fiscal year?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you.

Next question comes from from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hi, good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions, and congrats on the print, by the way. I would have two questions, please. So the first one is a more long-term question, and it refers to your reiterated ambition of being a 6 billion trust fund company by fiscal year 2031. which obviously implies a substantial contribution from larger deals. Any incremental comments you'd be keen on sharing on that when it comes to the timeline and type of deals you could think of? And the second question would be a question actually related to the retail business in China. I would appreciate if you could remind us how much does it contribute to the retail sales And I was quite impressed, by the way, by the double-digit retail growth you've posted there. Any indications on what have been the driving forces behind that?

Yeah, so I will start with the second question you asked, retail business in China. So you might remember that we acquired this asset a while back. It's never a walk in the park to do retail acquisitions in China, so it took some time to... I would say warm up what we see happening and indeed, you know, very good double digit growth in the second half of the past fiscal year. It's a lead generation engine that is becoming better and better. It's execution store by store. It's playing our brand. It's working on pricing. So I think it's just, I would say, operational excellence. in motion. It's a rather small contribution to the overall retail revenues for the group. We're talking about less than 2%, so it's not significant. About the ambition of 6 billion Swiss francs by 2031, you can translate that into 30 million lives that we would improve. Yes, It includes more acquisitions. The only comment I would make at this point is that we are looking at selected geographies, identified pipelines of retail acquisitions, and that's all I will say for now.

Okay. That's perfect. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Urs Kohns from Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Hello. Thanks. Just one question from my side. During the strategy update day, you kind of said elaborating on the sales costs mismatch of the Swiss franc. And then you also said that you want to bring down the cost of the Swiss franc from around 15% to 15%. below 10% mid-term. Is it correct mid-term means next five years? And are we seeing any positive impact already this year? Or is that all for next years to come?

Yeah, well, I'll be happy to take this one. So as you very rightly pointed out, we did discuss in March the fact that we have a structural imbalance in our spring position because We have about 1% of our revenues in Swiss francs, but about 15% of our costs in Swiss francs. And it is our mission to bring this to below 10% in the mid-term. And we're looking at doing that in two different paths. One is that we're looking at the procurement and the activities of what we purchase in Swiss francs. And I'm looking to obviously purchase this in the future in different currencies that are more adapted to where we have our revenues. And then on the other side, as we grow the company and we expand toward a regional setup, both in terms of the U.S. but also, as Eric talked about, in APAC, we also do expect to grow our activities further in those regions close to the customers and close to our activities and therefore as we will grow we will grow in these regions which will then lower the share in comparison of our Swiss francs activities. So we are basically working on both initiatives and making progress in both areas. as we also recently discussed our initiative in Singapore with the EEP.

That means, is there any progress this year already expected or towards this 10% goal?

We, as I said, this is a midterm objective, and we do expect some gradual progress over the midterm.

Okay, thanks.

Next question comes from from DMD Carnegie. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my questions. First question, I'm sure you have seen that Sands Club in the U.S. are looking to expand their retailing. Would you regard yourself as conflicted as to expanding into this channel given your engagement with Costco? And my second question would be just a household question as to your discontinued operations. So in the theoretical situation that you were to own your consumer business for the entire fiscal 27, what would be the ballpark of the negative contribution from discontinued operations? Thank you.

Shall we start with the second question?

CHB full year, what would be the impact?

So if I understood well, you're asking what would be the impact of CHB for the full year if it was in our financials for the full year, right? So we do not specifically disclose that information. This is a, you have the results that we have published for the for the prior year, but going forward we would make progress towards a break even, but not getting fully there yet in this current fiscal year.

Yeah. About this large retailer in the U.S., obviously I will not comment in details. On the 23rd of March, we explained that country by country, we want to deploy a multi-channel, multi-brand strategy. In other words, bringing the right product at the right price in the right channel. That's all I will say.

Could I just then follow up on that matter? When it comes to your... use of the Sennheiser brand. Are there any circumstances that would lead to the termination of your rights to use the Sennheiser brand?

No. So without going into too many details, the license agreement we have to be able to sell in this very large account in the U.S. under the Sennheiser brand, it's a separate licensing agreement. So it's disconnected from anything else. So we don't have any issue there.

Okay. Thank you.

And the last question for today comes from Richard Felton from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you very much for speaking to me. I'll just keep it to one question, please, and it's a follow-up on the discussion on the APAC opportunity. Could you just remind us where you currently see your market share in some of those key APAC markets and how that compares to your global average? Thank you.

Okay, all right, so let's say that if we are at, I'll just make it simple, if we are at 10 at an index market year in Europe or in the U.S., we are, with the exception of Australia and in Asia, around, depending on the market, three to six. If I go back to the step one about Asia Pacific, it tells you that we have a chance to potentially double at least the size of our business in Asia. It's not going to happen overnight, but again, I would highlight that by just bringing one product with the right energy, the right focus in the market like Japan, we have generated over the last few months a high double-digit growth.

Thank you, Eric. Very clear.

All right. So, thank you very much for everybody joining the call. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to me. I will be available for the rest of the day, and Thanks for joining, and I wish you a very good day. Thank you.

Thank you very much for all your questions. Have a great day.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Coruscant, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.