Aalberts Indus Nv Ord

Good morning everybody. Welcome at our first half 2026 results presentation. It's great to see so many of you joining today's webcast. I'm happy to introduce our CEO, Stephane Simonetta, and our CFO, Frans den Houter. Stephane will kick off the presentation with some business highlights. This will be followed by Frans, who will share an update on our financial development. Stephane will then share an update on our strategy in action and provide an outlook for the remaining of the year 2026. After the presentation, we will give you the opportunity to engage directly with us in a Q&A session. Please note that after the presentation, both the presentation and the recording of today's webcast will be made available on our website. Please welcome Stephane to begin our presentation.

Thank you, Rutger. Let me start with our key messages. In the first half of the year, we report positive organic revenue growth in our three segments, and particularly in Semicon. We also report an improved EBITDA margin in our three segments. and you can see the strong contribution of all the portfolio update that we have done last year with our acquisition and our divestment which are all contributing positively to both growth and margins. And we continue to see positive and market dynamics based on our good position at Alberts aligned with four compelling global tailwinds being urbanization, technology acceleration, reshoring and decarbonization. So in a nutshell, we improve our performance, we are rebalancing our portfolio and we continue to see positive market momentum. Going into the numbers, we are reporting €1.5 billion revenue with an organic revenue growth of 5%. Our EBITDA margin is €225 million, equivalent to 14.4% of revenue. and another solid free cash flow with 89 million euro with the earning per share improving to 1.47. So improving organic revenue growth, improving EBITDA margin align with our outlook. Now going to the operational development, as I mentioned, we continue to be well positioned with these four global tailwinds. Urbanization, where we still see more and more people in the future that will need to live in residential, in commercial building and it's all about comfort and energy efficiency and that's where our portfolio is so relevant. AI adoption being used in more and more applications is driving a very high growth in semiconductor equipment and we are also well positioned into that trend. The reshoring trend continues You produce in Europe for Europe customers, you produce in North America for North America customers, and you produce in Asia for Asian customers. That's also our strategy, and our footprint is well aligned to this trend. And at the end, we still believe in the long-term energy efficiency driver across all the end markets and across all geographies. So we are well positioned with this long-term growth driver. Looking at the first half of the year, you see the breakdown of our revenue by segment, by geography, and you see also that we continue to be well aligned with the sustainable development goals. The key change compared to last year is that now you can see the weight of Semicon is also increasing, representing now 21% of our revenue. And you can see on the geographical side that Southeast Asia is now a bit bigger, especially after our acquisition of GBT. And you can see also in North America, we continue to make further progress, aligned with our long-term ambition to double our revenue in this part of the world. So, attractive market and we have a good and strong ability to achieve leadership position. Now giving you an overview of our performance by segment. In building, 2.9% organic growth, 13.5% EBITDA margin improvement compared to last year. In industry, 6.4% organic growth, very strong quarter, where here we are actually doing a bit better than the market, with 18.6% EBITDA margin, which is basically the best proof about all the action we took last year, continuing to invest in organic growth initiative, in operational excellence initiative. And in Semicon, We are very pleased to see an accelerated growth. Our Q2 has been very strong and as a result we are pleased to report 9.2% organic growth equivalent to 14.2% and now we see the strong dynamic in both our front-end but also back-end. So as I mentioned, improving in our three segments. Let's go now one by one with a bit more details by geography, product line and end market. So building first. As you can see, Q2 was actually a bit better, with 4.4% organic growth, and it's a mixed picture in the geography. Strong in the US, mixed in Europe, as on one hand we continue to see positive momentum in Europe, in Benelux, in the Nordics, and early sign of recovery in Germany. But on the other hand, France, UK, East Europe remain challenging. And Middle East is still a big uncertainty. In the first half, we couldn't simply ship anything to our customers, and we are looking closely about the situation. By technology, very strong momentum on the valve, very high order book in all our boiler room technologies and a more stable activity in our connection system. Link to the residential building activity, which we also see stable. And on the other hand, we continue to see very high order book in data center and commercial building. And talking about data center, let me highlight one example of the many things we do. You can see here a picture of our stainless steel air separator that is used actually in data center cooling solution. And this is our own IP, our own design. And what makes us win is actually our speed to market. We have been very fast to go from prototype to mass production to support the increased need of our customers. Going into industry, Very pleased about the result. I think our team have been doing a fantastic job. And you see that our organic growth is much higher than most of the industrial index. More than 7% organic growth in the second quarter, after already a first quarter. And this is a result of all our organic growth initiative, our geographical expansion, our business development initiative. And we see also here strong dynamics, continued strong dynamics in aerospace, In power generation, in defense, and more stable activity in automotive and general industry. And an example I would like to highlight is that we continue to invest in technology. I think we are pleased to now have put our second HIP vessel in Eindhoven, where here it's all about removing the defect of all the parts, Improving the material characteristics and with a hip vessel we are putting some parts up to 2000 bar in order to improve the material characteristics and the strength of all the components we treat. And the good news is we see more and more demand from our customer about this type of services. In Semicon, Very strong dynamic, very healthy order book. And it's actually a bit better than what we expected because we already saw a huge organic growth with more than double digit, 16% organic growth in the second quarter. We were more expecting that in the second half and it came earlier. So our team are really doing a great job to manage the volatility and the different dynamic of the end market. So strong in front hand. Strong also in back-end, GVT is already contributing positively to both organic growth and margins, and we continue to invest capacity Our greenfield factory in Dronten is in the final step and we are ready for the huge ramp up coming in 27 and beyond. Also adding capacity in Southeast Asia as we see more and more demand and requests from our customers. So great dynamic overall all driven by AI adoption in more and more applications. But innovation is also key, and I would like to highlight just one example with a robotic system we are doing for the Somicon industry with our pre-aligner, with our own design, our own technology in order to move wafer in a very accurate way. So just to highlight that innovation remains at the core of what we do, especially in this segment. And as a last point regarding our operational development, I'm also pleased to report that we continue to make further progress with our sustainable commitments. More than 70% of our revenue linked to sustainable development goals and also now making an additional progress in our scope 1 and scope 2 reduction with more than 6.6% reduction compared to last year. So on track with our sustainable commitment. So that's what I wanted to say regarding our operational development. So let me now hand it over to Frans to give you an update on our financial development. Frans?

Thank you, Stephane. And good morning, everybody. And happy to talk you through the first six months of this year and show you these four important KPIs. First of all, revenue. Our organic revenue growth improved with 5%. You see very clearly also in each segment we had nice step-ups. This all converted to an EBITDA margin of 14.4%, 225 million, which is 15 million up year on year. Also nice to see added value in a solid place, 65.5%. Net profit, 7 million up, bringing us 158 million in net results. Capital expenditure, you see a step down of more than 30 million. Basically, that's all phasing. We will see the reversal of this in the second half year as we have a bit of timing effects in our capital expenditure programs. So the full year guidance for CAPEX to be on around a level of last year, 190 million is still firmly in place. Free cash flow improved, nice to see, third year in a row, small step up in the mid-year free cash flow, bit more better balance in the year. Driven also, of course, supported by the lower CAPEX and predominantly the EBITDA, which is also supporting this number. Then the net working capital was a cash out. So all in all, solid performance in the first six months. If you go to revenue, we see nice contributions of our three acquisitions. We added Geoflow, Paolo and GVT to the portfolio and you see a 135 million step up in revenue. The divestments of Bruun and Maite Lee and the reduced shareholding in Cannes brought to the number 278 million negative correction for the divestments and also a negative impact from Forex, 21 million. Good to see the 5% organic revenue growth driving our absolute revenue with a plus of 68 million. So on the revenue side, a good set of numbers to go to the EBITDA. The acquisitions we just mentioned, 24.4 million. If you do the numbers, that's more than 18% EBITDA on the companies that we acquired in the past 12 months. On the divestments, a negative of more than 15 million. That is a little bit over 8%. So 18% on the acquisitions and 8% on the divested companies. Small forex, 2.8, a million effect. and then the organic EBITDA contribution was more than 9 million. So good to see there also being back to growth, but also a positive impact on the EBITDA from the hard work by our business teams on driving our improved revenue to a 9 million plus. 225 million, I repeat, 50 million up versus last year. On the free cash flow, of course, we see again the EBITDA and the CAPEX effects contributing positive. On the working capital, six months rolling, we lose 25 million year on year. Small plus in the other is mostly provisions and timings, almost 8 million. And then a nice 80.8 million, a step up of 30 million. The EPS, very important slide, $0.09 improvement in the first six months driven by the M&A portfolio. You see a plus 18 on the acquisitions and a minus $0.09 on the divestments. That comes, of course, with financing costs, a little bit of a tax impact, negative one-off element there from a divestment, a little bit of Forex impact, and then really nicely $0.05 improvements from our organic performance and $0.03 improvement for the share buyback program. and this year's share buyback program. We're halfway through the scheme, so still continuing that. And for now, we report a three cents improvement to 1.47 earnings per share. Then we go to the segment reporting. And Stephane already talked you through the revenue and the EBITDA effect. You see the CAPEX added here. Yeah, no surprise. The total CAPEX was down. You see that here as well in each segment. But that will reverse in the second half. Specifically in industry and Semicon, we will see a step up as we complete some of the divestment programs that we have ongoing. In the third column, we added holding eliminations last year. So you see also now again, 13.6 million reported, 3 million up versus last year. Some small effects in there. And I think all in all, growth and operational excellence driving improved profitability in the segments. Exceptional cost, yeah, we normally report this only at year end. We decided to also show this half year, improve transparency. A small number here for the first six months, three million, mainly related or fully related to our project to leave Russia. Some progress there in the first six months. We're still continuing in that. We hope to finalize it this year. and we already mentioned in the annual report that the total exceptional cost expected for this year will be around 25 million, mostly non-cash, and that guidance we still leave in place. So there's expected to be more to come in the second half. And then let's go to the balance sheet. A resilient company with, you see on the right top, equity and solvency in a good place. On the left top, the debt has gone up. Of course, we drive the M&A year on year. Our ratio is still 1.9, same as it was at year end. But yeah, versus 12 months ago, it went up because we increased debt to drive the M&A portfolio. at the left bottom you see our capital employed still same level as last year small step back on the road sheet but that's a 12 months rolling number so I think better to deep dive on that at full year again and yeah very nice to close off I think with the net working capital 62 million lower that's a two days reduction yeah it's inventories went down a little bit our receivables as well and we made a step up in in payables six days in total Also driving the growth of the company and that's really increased purchasing. So no payment stretch there. So strong balance sheet in supporting our strategy. And to give you a bit more insight how we are driving our strategy, I give back the floor back to Stephane to tell you all about strategy in action.