L'Air Liquide Ord

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Air Liquide first half 2026 results conference call. All participants are currently in listen mode only until we conduct a question and answer session and instructions will be given at that time. I will now hand over to the Air Liquide team. Please begin your meeting and I will be standing by.

Good morning everyone, this is Aude Rodriguez, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you very much for attending the call today. Francois Jackow and Jérôme Pelletan will present the first half 2026 performance. For the Q&A session, we will be joined by Emilie Moren-Venoir and Adam Peters, both VP overseeing respectively ENEA and North America. Adam is on the phone with us from the U.S. For our next event, We look forward to welcoming you to our Digital Capital Markets Day on October 6th. Let me now hand you over to Francois.

Thank you, Aude, and good morning, everyone. It is my pleasure to share Air Liquide's operational highlights for the first half of 2026. Again, it demonstrates its resilience. delivering sustained growth and strong financial performance. Crucially, while driving robust execution today, we continue to secure our long-term growth trajectory through a record volume of new project signings. Let's start with slide three. Our first half results clearly reaffirm the structural strengths of our business model. Comparable sales growth increased to 3.5% in the second quarter, landing above expectations and representing a pickup compared to the 1.9% in the first quarter. This positive momentum was primarily driven by strong underlying performance across both booming electronics and improving industrial merchants. Overall, sales growth in the second quarter reached 5.2%, excluding effects and energy, bolstered by the successful and speedy integration of DIG Airgas in January. This strong top-line performance validates our proven ability to drive growth both organically and through highly disciplined acquisitions in core geographies. At plus 110 basis points, margin progression is well on track, with all levers of our transformation program contributing. Recurring net profit reached double-digit growth of 10%. Cash flow remains strong, up plus 8%, both excluding currency impact. Our recurring ROCE stands at plus 11% in spite of increased investments, which demonstrates our disciplined capital allocation and improved performance. Our strong cash flow and balance sheet give us the firepower to continue to invest in the long term. Indeed, the first half of 2026 is marked by record high signings, driven by an exceptional momentum in electronics and several major projects in large industries. This drives our backlog of signed projects under execution to another record of €6 billion up versus €5.5 billion in Q1 26. Combined with our active M&A strategy, this directly secures our future growth. Our ESG KPIs remain firmly on track with a few noticeable progresses this semester. One is a startup of two renewable electricity sourcing contracts in Segunda in South Africa. As of now, close to 50% of these contracted sourcing has already started up, aligned with the objective to reduce the group CO2 emissions by more than 30% in one of the largest industrial gases production sites in the world by 2031. So, in summary, In the first half of 2026, despite the macroeconomic conditions, we have not only successfully delivered simultaneously on growth and profitability, but also prepared the next phase of growth. This is truly the inherent strength of Air Liquide.

Now, on slide four.

Air Liquide remains intensely focused driving strong margin expansion across our three main levels. We reached accelerated industrial merchant pricing of plus 5.2% in Q2, successfully addressing inflation through smart pricing management. We deliver also almost 300 million euro of operational efficiencies in H1 through continuous improvement and executing and that's very important, our structural transformation program. We pursued active, accretive portfolio management to optimize our footprint and increase our local density. We are successfully executing our rigorous margin expansion plan, delivering, as you see, clear and measurable results. Moving now to slide five. We are driving an exceptional momentum in electronics, signing new projects and strengthening our number one leadership position. In fact, in just the first six months of 2026, our electronics project decisions reached over 1 billion euros. If you think about it, that's one and a half times of our total for all 2025. The momentum is supported by a diverse mix of projects and geographies, almost all driven by artificial intelligence needs. Looking at the various projects on the slide, following our acquisition of DIG, Airgas in Korea, we further leverage our global relationship with key players like SK INIX, with project wins both in the US and in South Korea. In the US, we secured three large-scale projects during the first half, representing a total investment of over $480 million, all dedicated to advanced chips with leading semiconductor manufacturers. Meanwhile, in Asia, our project signings achieved outstanding momentum, totaling more than 550 million euros. These wins reinforce our global market leadership and give us strong visibility on long-term profitable growth. On slide six, we're catching the growth in large industries with the signing of three major projects in the first half. They expand our presence in the U.S. and directly support U.S. industrial reshoring. In large industries in the U.S., we are investing $350 million under a new long-term agreement to supply air gases to Hyundai-Posco in Louisiana for their landmark low-carbon steel plants. This new infrastructure directly supports the development of critical domestic and low-carbon materials. It also enables our customer international expansion while actively contributing to the reshoring of American industry. In Texas also, we strengthen our long-term partnership with OXEA Chemicals by expanding our production capabilities at their Bay City site. This strategic $200 million investment involves the construction of a new, highly efficient plant to produce This project will reduce the group's CO2 emissions by 64,000 tons while providing also additional capacity. This project, and that's important, underscores our technological leadership to capture profitable growth in a key U.S. industrial basin while supporting climate objectives. In Kazakhstan, we have entered into a new long-term agreement with Sileno to supply nitrogen to their upcoming polyethylene facility. Through this 70 million euro investment, we will own and operate two state-of-the-art energy-efficient nitrogen production units. This project consolidates our presence in this strategic industrial basin, allowing us to capture strong operational synergies and also support a key regional petrochemical hub. We have to keep in mind that these major large industries' wins demonstrate our relevance and differentiation across a broad number of strategic and structural growth areas. To conclude, on slide 7, Air Liquide's performance in H1 demonstrates operational and strategic execution on all counts First, our results show strong growth despite the challenging context, along with great progress on our margin expansion roadmap. Also, our active M&S strategy continues. We were able to close our landmark GIG air gas transaction ahead of schedule. We look forward now to the growth this will continue to provide to the group. Backed by a record level of project signings securing future growth, we are very well positioned to sustain our long-term growth profile. In a nutshell, I'd like to say that we are executing today and preparing for tomorrow. I thank you for your attention. I will now turn over to Jérôme to detail the financials. Jérôme, please.

Thanks, Francois, and good morning, everyone. Page 9, I will now go through our financial performance in more detail. So for the second quarter of 2026, group sales deliver strong comparable growth at plus 5.2%, excluding energy pass-through and currency effect, and including the scope effect from the DIG air gas acquisition net of the biogas divestiture. On the comparable basis, growth stood at plus 3.5%, landing above expectations and representing a strong pickup over our first quarter performance at plus 1.9%. I will briefly call out engineering and technologies, reaching 420 million in H1, up plus 4.6% on the cone basis and plus 8.8% in Q2. This increase is explained by the finalization of several unit construction for third-party customers in engineering and construction. So looking at the first half overall, group established sales increased by plus 0.8%, Our reported top line was impacted by currency headwinds at minus 3.6%, which were only partially offset by the plus 0.1% positive energy impact. Additionally, the strategic acquisition of the AGR gas net of our biogas divestiture contributed a positive scope effect at plus 1.7% during this period. Consequently, total comparable growth for the first half of the year landed at a solid plus 2.6%. So now moving to page 10, showing all our regions are growing. In America, growth remained the same high level seen in Q1, and in Asia, we delivered sequential growth led by material pickup inactivity. EMEA has also seen a modest increase in growth versus last quarter. From a business line standpoint, the growth increase in Q2 was driven by strong electronic sales and an improved industrial merchant performance. Healthcare continued steady contribution, and airline remained mixed. We have created, as you see, a balanced portfolio across business lines and geographies that provide inherent operational resilience, proving again its value throughout every stage of market cycles. Let us now provide you with more granularity on the activity in our main geographies in Q2 2026. I am on page 11. Indeed, we sustained high growth in the Americas at plus 5% on a com basis, Large industry sales in the Americas were again led by strong activity in the US. This increase was driven by contribution from new project start-ups and ramp-ups alongside high demand across our Gulf Coast pipeline network, especially from both chemical and refining customers in reaction to the development in the Middle East. In merchants, sales were driven by an increased pricing effect at 6.7%, volumes were slightly were up slightly, excluding impacts of the global helium shortage. Solid bulkhead gas activity was supported by a pick-up in liquid argon, notable for the space industry, while construction benefited from ongoing momentum in data center build-outs. Healthcare growth in the Americas continued at a high level, and finally electronics saw strong progression of advanced materials and specialty materials, offset by lower equipment and installation sales. Cells in EMEA are grown, supported by continued positive healthcare activity and an improved IM. In large industries, customer demand remains low, driven by weak cogent cells and low activity in the Middle East, partially offset by growing hydrogen cells to support robust activity in refining. Within merchants, our pricing action increased to plus 3.1%, demonstrating our ability to proactively counter growing inflationary pressures. Volumes were slightly up, excluding the impact of the global helium shortage. Finally, L-scale delivered sustained growth at plus 4%, supported by solid medical gases pricing and home L-scale activities. Activity in Asia now was boosted by a surge in electronics, further amplified by our DIGR gas acquisition. In large industry, the activity remained mixed, with hydrogen sales growth in Korea not fully offsetting low activity in the regions. Q2 merchants sales grew at plus 2.1% or plus 3.4% when you exclude the helium and fluids. Pricing demonstrated a positive sequential trend, improving from negative 0.4% in the first quarter to positive plus 1.4% in Q2. Notably, sales growth in China increased, and in Q2, propelled by strong demand across on-site packaged gas and bulk gases, while performance across the rest of Asia remained more mixed. In electronics, we deliver strong momentum and this performance was driven by a very strong demand for carrier gases and advanced materials alongside the roll-off of prior year equipment and installations compilers. Turning now to page 12, I would like to give a quick update on our Air Liquides operation in the Middle East. As you know, the region, of course, remains volatile. However, our local team is safe and doing an outstanding job to supply our customers and our assets remain fully intact and operational. The global helium supply chain remains a point of attention. Production on Qatar has restarted at a limited capacity and we are utilizing road transport for our helium iso container, which helps ease global supply pressure. Of course, we are continuing to keep and adapting to a fast-changing environment. Q2 results have demonstrated again the resilience of the supply chain while effectively managing the situation to minimize the impact on both our customers and our financials. As for the potential outcomes, the last few months have proven us right and we expect the coming months to confirm this trend even more strongly. I will now comment on our Q2 activity by business line. I am on page 13. We are seeing an acceleration in merchant at plus 4%, with pricing strengthening to plus 5%. The negative data is volume, which were attributed to the helium shortage, excluding this impact, merchant volume increased, notably in construction and utility sector in the Americas, bolstered by digital infrastructure and data center development, technology in Asia, and pharmaceutical in Europe. In large industry, record high volume in the US are offsetting local jet in Europe and sub-demand in the Middle East, while activities in Asia remain mixed. Turning to page 14. Following the roll-off of challenging prior year equipment and installation comp year-over-year, growth in our electronic business has accelerated to plus 10% in Q2. The key drivers of this performance include, of course, carrier gas startups and drop-ups, mainly in China and Taiwan, alongside broad-based momentum in advanced materials. Top-line results were boosted by one of South Korean customers pulling Q3 order forward, following the successful legal and IT manager of the two companies, DIG Airgas and Air Liquide Korea. But even normalized for this, the underlying electronic cost is very robust, 8%, a truly excellent operational performance. Finally, SKR remained a consistent contributor to our growth this quarter. Performance in medical gases was anchored by our premium value-based commercial model, In Omel's care, sustained growth in our patient base successfully offset the impact of strategic divestiture completed in Europe impacting the period. Now moving on margin discussion, page 15. As Francois highlighted earlier, our transformation initiatives are yielding structural benefits on our margin improvement levels of delivery. In the first half of the year, at the group level, We deliver a plus 110 basis point expansion, excluding energy pass-through, as well as the PPI impact of the EIGR gas acquisition. Keeping the PPI impact, the improvements remain very strong at plus 100 bits. Adherence by our results will remain intensely focused on cost-discipline, with personal costs down minus 1.6%, purchase minus 1.5%, and other expenses plus 3% on a published basis, The precision was up plus 3%, reflecting the startup of our new production unit. Let us now review our ongoing margin improvement plan execution in more detail. First, turning to pricing in merchant. Persistent inflationary pressure continues to drive our pricing action, with Q2 pricing reaching plus 5%. Our primary focus is on cost discipline and actively managing the price-to-cost spread to drive further margin expansion. Second. Efficiency reached a record high 299 million euros, representing a plus 4% increase over the elevated baseline of last year. Those substantial gains were driven by the seamless execution of group transformation initiatives globally. Third, we continue to pursue active portfolio management. As a reminder, closing the AIG Ergas early in Q1 gives us the full year of benefits. Integration is moving fast, creating even more value than we expected. Beyond this, we are pursuing disciplined Bolton acquisition to drive local density while actively pruning our portfolio to ensure capital goes where it heals the highest return. Moving on to review our P&L in more detail, I am on page 17. Non-recurring operating income and expense accounting for minus €123 million in the first half of 2026. Many due to costs related to the acquisition of DIGR GAF in South Korea and restructuring costs linked to our transformation plan. Net financial costs stood at 210 million euros for the first half of 2026. This includes a net debt cost of 149 million, up 27% compared to the first half of 2025. This increase is very much primarily driven by the financing structure put in place for DIGR acquisition in South Korea. This impact was partially offset by a reduction of the factoring cost with almost the end of factoring program in H1. Our effective tax rates stand at 26.4%, higher than the 25% in H1 2025 mainly because of non-deductible cost linked to the DIG acquisition. Net profit is up plus 1.2% as published and plus 6.5% when you exclude the currency impact The recurring net profit group share stood at €1.9 billion, up plus 4.4% as published, and a very strong plus 10% on a constant currency basis. On page 18 now, our robust cash flow generation and strong balance sheet allowed us to finance dividend capex and also the DIG acquisition. Our net debt is at €13.9 billion, end of June 2026, marking a plus €5.5 billion increase from December 2025. following the financing of the DIG acquisition, the payment of 2.2 billion in dividends in May, 1.8 billion of industrial investment, and the halting of the factoring programs are giving us this increase to 45% adjusted for the dividend payment seasonality effect. It is indeed worth mentioning that the working capital recommend increased by 1.4 billion in the first half of 2026 compared to year-end 2025, But it is key to note that excluding factoring, the underlying operational increase was held at just €0.4 billion. Indeed, our decision to halt factoring program in H1 for cost effectiveness, naturally added more than €1 billion to trade receivables. Next, let us now turn to page 19. Recurring capital encode stood at 11%, which is quite stable compared to the first half of 2025, despite the dilutive impact of the acceleration Investment. Moving to page 20, we will now review our main investment KPI. We're at an all-time high in industrial investment decision in H1 2026 at 2.9 billion euros, up plus 26% year-over-year. These decisions include above 1 billion euros of electronic carrier gases that Francois discussed earlier, as well as major large industry projects in US Steel and Chemicals. Our investment backlog reached an unprecedented 6 billion euros, an increase of plus 30% year over year, very much and well balanced across electronics and large industry with strong regional and project diversity. While upcoming Q4 startups will naturally draw down our backlog, a strong pipeline of new deals will help to replenish it. giving us a strong and high visibility in our mid-term works. Our 12-month portfolio investment opportunity reached 4.8 billion euros plus 17% higher year-over-year at the end of June 2026 despite a record 2.9 billion euros of investment decision during the first half that are of course moving into the backlog. That demonstrates the strong momentum we're seeing in new project development. The pipeline remains highly diversified, comprising nearly 80 distinct projects. Electronic has now emerged as the primary driver, accounting for approximately 50% of the portfolio. The total portfolio of opportunities, also including opportunities this time beyond 12 months, is stable and exceeds €10 billion. So on page 21, concluding the financial review, we confirm again our guidance for 2026 and 2027 cumulating as a plus 560 bps margin improvement over a six-year period. Thank you very much for your attention. And I guess we now begin the Q&A session.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. And to withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Thank you. We will now take our first question. And this is from Alex Sloan from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi, morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Two from me, please. Firstly, around helium, it's an industrial merchant delivered Improved Q2 growth really helped by pricing and China recovery you've called out. I mean, that looks like it's despite a kind of a low single digit helium related volume headwind in Europe and the Americas. In your expectation for the H2 group growth to be similar or slightly better than H1, are you assuming a similar drag from helium availability? And should we be concerned this becomes a limiting factor on electronics growth. Are we still some ways off that given storage? And I guess more broadly, just thinking about your similar or slightly better comment on that second half outlook, would Q2 delivery adjusted for the order phasing in electronics be a broadly sustainable run rate for H2 expectations? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Alex, and good morning. So the first question on helium, as you know very well, I mean, the Qatar source was quite a significant source of helium globally for all the industry. On top of that, what we have seen in Q2 is some restriction coming from Russia for, I mean, the products which was Going to China especially and some restrictions also coming out of China. So the market was getting more tense, I would say. The positive news is that the production from Qatar has restarted at a reduced rate, but we have been able to secure some volume from this source. So that's again very positive news. Our expectation is that this will continue and will limit basically the impact of helium on our cells for the second part of the year. We have, of course, to be extremely cautious about the outlook for this part, because we see that the situation is quite fluid, even if what we see and what we hear is quite positive as we speak. I mean, the helium production is still working and again should contribute. That's of course on top of our existing infrastructure with the cavern that we are using very successfully and also the multiple other sources that we have today and that we have activated again to limit overall the helium impact for the second part of the year. Speaking of the impact on electronics customer, I think that was part of your question. Overall, we manage the supply of our electronics customer for Helium. As you know, we have a long-term contract and we have the capabilities to supply their requirement. So we have committed and we have been able to deliver the volume. It's in no means a limitation to the business we are doing with the electronics for Helium but also for the rest of the portfolio. So again, strong resilience of the group in spite of the adverse condition that we do expect to improve. For the electronics itself, you have seen that clearly there was an acceleration in the second quarter This is a result of two things. The first one is we see less and less the impact of the very high ENI equipment and installation cells that we had in the previous quarters, which was to some extent masking the organic growth of electronics. That's one. The second part is the fact that electronics is picking up. And it's picking up because of the contribution of the investment that we have done previously for Carrier Gases. And it's clearly delivering. And also, and that's very positive news, the very strong sales that we have been and Joanne for the advanced material, you know, the proprietary molecules of Air Liquide, which is clearly picking up in the second quarter. So we see that some customers are catching up a little bit with advanced purchase. So there may be a little bit of this effect on the advanced material, but all in all, we do expect electronics to remain in the range of 8%, maybe 9% for the rest of the year. So again, very strong electronics. It's good news and I think it's a good sign also that the investment and the position of the group is delivering.

Thank you.

Thank you. We'll now take the next question. This is from Alejandro Vigil from Santander. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one is about your OPEX plan, the efficiencies you have achieved, 300 million in the first half. You can elaborate about the outlook for the coming quarters, particularly in EMEA, probably the growth profile of these businesses, this division is lower than the other divisions. And the second question is about the net debt, and, you know, just playing this factor in, in the first half. Which are your expectations for the full year in terms of net debt and the evolution of net debt in the second half of the year, please? Thank you.

Alejandro, good morning and thank you very much for your two questions. Jérôme, please, can you answer the two, actually? Of course.

Thank you very much, Alejandro. So, we'll go through your two questions, of course. So, as related to the efficiency, you're right, the efficiency has been very strong in H1 to nearly 300 million. It's plus 4% versus last year. Basically, you know, this whole transformation is multiple. You know, we are continuing our transformation, you know, of the company as we have been doing in the last years. And when you look at The different buckets, you know, there is basically three different buckets that explain these acceleration of those efficiencies. First, there is an operational efficiency, you know, we are accelerating on the transformation of the industrial operation, the creation of the group, the industrial operation direction is helping accelerating into the process. and to the global utilization. We have multiple projects ongoing using more and more artificial intelligence to make our assets more effective. So we are doing that and we are entertaining a very good return as for now. And this of course we continue because we are very much at the right time doing and accelerating on that. The second bucket is of course procurement. Procurement is delivering. and it's continuing you know we have a global procurement organization which has totally shifted in terms of gear in terms of accelerating all those products with a strong acceleration in the in the deliveries and the last point is the cross-structuring impact and the PEX efficiencies that also part of this of this of these efficiencies and so this continue to we continue to precipitate in the second part of the year Now, to come back on the factoring, so you're right, there is a factoring in fact, which explains a little bit more than 1 billion, slightly less than 1.1 billion in the net debt, I would say, next evolution during the first half year. This factoring program comes from a long time at the period of the Arges Accretion nearly 10 years ago. It was an optimization program at that time, but it's not anymore. You know, when we saw the impact of the data cost that we pay for factoring the receivables compared to our net debt cost, which is today at close to 3%, clearly did not make sense to continue. It was a lack of optimization. And when you see already the impact during the first part of the year, you see that the cost of the debt has decreased by minus 7%. When you exclude, of course, the one-off impact of the ERGAS We have a minus 7% decrease in cost of financing, which is purely the impact of moving and to get out of this factoring program. So this is very good and a very strong optimization that our balance sheet can permit. So we have decided to do that. It was purely making sense on the cost effectiveness standpoint. The impact on H2 is quite easy. We have, in the first part of the year, I would say, stopped those programs. So you will have also the impact in the second part of the year. But the major part has been there. We're just finalizing, maybe a few hundreds of factoring remaining. But the biggest part has been already accounted for in the balance sheet in the first part of the year. That's it.

Thank you very much, Jérôme.

Thank you. We'll now take our next question. This is from John Campbell, Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi, good morning. Two quick questions if I can. So if I look at your first half margin improvements, you know, you've delivered definitely on your 100 basis point target. And this is perhaps with an unusually strong performance in the Americas. You've delivered over 200 basis points year on year. and I think you qualified that stating that it had some help from some sort of favourable exceptional item. It would be very helpful if you could elaborate on what exactly was that item and perhaps what was the quantum. Second quick question, you know, you've unveiled three major electronics projects basically in July alone. I guess the natural question is how do you feel about the pipeline of future opportunities? I guess the implication from your 12-month opportunity set is You actually see sort of a larger opportunity than you said in Q1. But perhaps maybe elaborate on the regions where you see these biggest opportunities. And then maybe a very quick one as well. Should we consider maybe that the gas intensity of these new semiconductors is structurally higher? Should that support electronics volumes? Thank you.

Thank you very much, John, for those very good questions. Martin, Jérôme, and then we'll talk about the electronics project.

Thank you very much, John, again, for your questions. So margin in America has increased significantly, you're right, plus 200 bps versus H125 excluding energy. So basically, we have two or three big items. First, merchant, large industry, and healthcare activity contributed to the margin improvement through efficiencies and price increase, particularly in IM. and also efficiency also generated in electronics and a large industry benefited also some specific items that helped. So that explains very much the bulk of these increases. As you said, it's very significant in the Americas.

Thank you very much. So, John, you're asking how do we feel about the electronics project? I would say very good. Very very good actually because we have a very strong position, a very strong footprint and an offer which is recognized, trusted by the leading customers. So we have in fact signed 1.5 times all what we signed in 2025 for electronics already in the first part of the year. So, very good momentum. You were asking region by region. Maybe we will start with the U.S. and I will ask Adam to say a few comments on what he sees in the U.S. on electronics project and I'll come back to the rest of the world. Adam.

Yes, thank you Francois. And John, thanks for the question. So, we've had a very productive quarter in the U.S. in terms of new project signings. Across the board, but particularly in electronics, as you've noted, we've signed three big new contracts for carrier gases, and we see that momentum continuing. So we have very active, ongoing discussions with all of the major players in terms of expansions or new projects going on in the U.S., and I feel like we're continuing to win our fair share of those projects and we see that continuing as the AI trends continue to go forward and expansions are continuing in the same way. The last point I would make is in terms of gas intensity. You're right, the gas intensity is higher when you look at these new fabs that are supporting advanced chips for high bandwidth memory or for the logic needed for AI. and this is just a benefit I would say from the technology portfolio that we have, the efficient nitrogen generators that we have and across the entire fleet of what we do for carrier gas supply.

Thank you very much Adam. For the rest of the world, it's mostly Asia where we are also very well positioned. So if we go through some of the key countries, we see again a very strong momentum. I would say Japan is waking up to some extent. We see that there is a very strong support from the government and the key players investment there. We are the only global international gas company to be there. We had some successful signing there and there may be more to come. Taiwan is of course extremely dynamic. Concentrating a lot of investment for the most advanced chips especially. And there again, we are well positioned. Korea, of course, thanks to the DIG acquisition, now we are well positioned to meet the needs of the leading memory players especially. You have seen tremendous, tremendous announcement by the key players with several new campuses, mega campuses being announced. You have seen that we have been successful in securing some of the existing business and there is an acceleration in the requirements, really a race for speed in this area. And finally, China, where we have a number one position also for the electronics. which is a very very dynamic in terms of needs for the the sumic industry with a good development. So when we combine all that we see that There's a lot of green lights in this. Thanks to our business model and what our customers are telling us, we are quite confident that this will continue for some time. Again, meeting the needs of the digital world in general and, more specifically, the needs of AI clearly. So good momentum and very good position of the group.

Thank you. That's very helpful.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 and 1 on your keypad and wait for your name to be announced. The next question comes from Chetan Udeshi from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my questions. I had to, you know, Francois, you talked about electronic growth continuing at the rate of maybe 8%, 9% in H2O2. And I'm just curious because when I look at the semiconductor capex increase that we are seeing this year and forecasted for next year, it's something close to 25%. Like what limits Air Liquide from seeing that level of growth in your electronics business? Because I think Adam was referring to increasing content for gases in newer generation chips. I would have thought you should be growing at least in line with the capex growth, it's not even higher. So why are we not seeing Of course, 8-9% growth is not bad, but I'm just curious why can't we see something similar to 25% growth that we see in the capex spending on semis today and probably also most likely next year based on the forecast. The second question, I was just intrigued by the A very high difference between the pricing increase in Americas in Q1, which was almost 7%, so Q2 in Merchant, whereas Europe was just around 3%. It seems volume momentum is not necessarily much different between the two regions. Both are slightly excluding helium. So just curious what explains that big gap in terms of pricing in Americas versus Europe and how sustainable that is, you think, overall. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Chetan. So maybe we'll talk about the pricing first, and I will ask Adam to speak about what we see in the U.S. and, Emily, what we see in Europe in terms of pricing, and then I'll come back to your interesting question on electronics, for sure.

Adam. Yes, thank you, Francois, and thanks, Chetan. So when you look at pricing, and we've talked about this in other quarters previously, Really believe that what we have in Air Liquide is a very strong methodology, tools, systems, incentives in place to drive pricing in the right way. And what we want to do is take, obviously, into consideration the inflationary impacts that we see and make sure that what we are able to do is accretive to our margins. And I believe that this is across the board. This is not just a U.S. approach. It's really a group-wide approach that Air Liquide has systematically put in place. And so obviously the impacts of tariffs and the like, inflation can be somewhat regional in nature. And I think that also drives a difference in terms of the price impacts that exist from one region to the next. So definitely have a strong momentum in pricing in industrial merchants. and in healthcare as well in the U.S. And I think it really just speaks to those tools and processes in place to continue that going forward. And I would expect that to continue in the same way in the future.

Thank you, Adam. And of course, it relates also to the inflation level and the cost increase, which maybe is higher in the U.S. and in Europe. Emilie, what do you think?

Yes, absolutely. Good morning, everyone. Pricing in Europe, I would say in Merchant and Megaz, is strong and has stepped up sequentially. So we've been proactive in increasing prices in anticipation of any cost increase due to the Middle East crisis and due to inflation and inflationary pressure in general. And overall pricing was ahead of the cost curve, leading to a good pass-through, which is what we want. So we've accelerated in Q2 in pricing in Europe, You know, we have all the right formulas in bulk to reflect the energy piece. We know they are effective in PG. Also, we know the drill. We reacted fast, increasing the pricing to face the inflation, and it's different from one geography to the next. So overall, safe for Europe, we continue to have a very good dynamic in pricing management.

Thank you very much. So to come back to your question, Chetan, on why don't we see in the last quarter the growth of the electronics business similar to the growth of the CapEx in electronics being 25%? I think the main reason is we are not talking about the same thing at the same time, okay? So what is being captured with the capex of the electronics in the semiconductor industry is investment in new files. As a matter of fact, our growth in terms of investment for the new file is not 25%, is 146% for the first semester. Because that's really what we invest more for this business. So we are much ahead of the industry and That's also showing how successful we are in gaining market share and how well we are positioned. So that's what we see today. And what we need to look at is how much we invest. Today, 40% of our backlog is electronics. Almost 50% of our portfolio of projects in the next project that we can sign in the next 12 months is electronics. So that's really what we see. What we report in the quarter are the current sales, which reflect basically the production of the current fab. So it's normal, it's following the trend, it's growing, but at the pace of the new investment. So the new investment that we are doing here will contribute in two, three, four years, depending on the size. So be a little bit patient. You will see this, I mean, Thank you very much. Yeah, again, I maybe repeat what I say. Here you are talking about investment of the customer. Our investment is much higher. So, of course, you need to see the plant online to see the sales. You'll get more about this on the CMD, so maybe we'll do one more time over that.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Stéphane. Thanks a lot. Have a good day. Next, please. Thank you.

Next question is from Jean-Luc Fromin from CIC CIB. Please go ahead.

Jean-Luc Fromin Good morning. My question relates to hydrogen. My understanding is refiners in Europe would like to build more green hydrogen and you are building new capacity like Normandy. Can you update us on the regulations and the EU regulations and the translation in French laws? Are they fast enough to start rapidly these productions or are they still lagging behind the industrials?

Good morning, Jean-Luc. Thank you very much for your question. I think Émilie, who is a specialist, of the European regulation on hydrogen can probably give you some answer. Emilie, please.

Okay. Well, good morning, Jean-Luc. So in terms of the need for green hydrogen in Europe, we continue to see a good momentum. So you mentioned our electrolyzer in Normandy. So in terms of what is in the backlog in terms of electrolyzers, it's a project under execution and everything is going as per the plan. Remember, our electrolyzer in Normandy will start up this year and is fully loaded. So, in terms of regulation, things are moving. You know, Reg 3 regulation in Europe is being transposed step by step in all the different countries. Of course, this is key as the mandates defined by the regulation being transposed in the different countries is what triggers such an interest for green hydrogen from our refiners and our customers. And overall, I would say, again, going as per the plan, we have several in execution, and we are really clearly the number one player in green hydrogen in Europe, with also our strong technological partnership with Siemens Energy to manufacture those PEM electrolysers.

Thank you very much, Emily. And overall, we see that the regulation is going in the right direction. There are more, actually, refineries and sites being converted to low-carbon hydrogen. So again, I think the leadership position that we have taken in Europe is paying off. So thank you very much, Emily. Next question, please.

Thank you. And as a reminder, to ask a question, you can press star 1 and 1 on your keypad. We'll now take the next question. This is from James Hooper from Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning and thank you for taking my questions. First question is around the backlog. Are we approaching peak backlog at the moment? In the management report you called startups so far in 2026 relatively limited. So I guess from Q4 with Normandy and others that you'd expect some of these projects to start coming out. Are you expecting win rates, therefore, elsewhere in the business to cover for some of these outflows? And then secondly, also on projects, we've seen the press and others show some very, very large numbers about semiconductor investments that you've referenced, Francois, but the Air Liquide projects that you've signed have been kind of low hundred millions of capex. Do you think these size of projects is going to increase over time or is there anything strategically where you prefer executing on smaller projects? I think some of the press have linked your competitors to much larger electronics contracts, for example. Thank you.

James, good morning and thank you very much for your two good questions. Regarding the backlog, I think as you pointed out, I mean, projects come and go. So there are some significant projects that will come out in Q3 and Q4, so that will decrease the backlog. But all in all, given, I mean, the pace of the new project, we do expect this to remain more or less flat. We have to be careful with the backlog from one quarter to another one. What is very important is to look at the pipeline of the project. I think the key message is very, very strong today, probably the highest in the history of the group. So we are not worried about, I would say, quarter by quarter variation of the backlog. Again, very strong trend and good pipeline of projects to be signed soon. Beginning what you mentioned about the electronic, I think it's a very good point. You see that in what we showed, there are several projects which are what we would call today mid-size, large-size projects. It's not the extra large projects. First, we like it very much in terms of the diversification of the opportunities and the risk, the global footprint, the synergy we can find, the selectivity we can use on those different projects, and the fact that we can also support our customers wherever they are. So we like the portfolio of projects. Again, I think in the current environment, it's probably making a project more resilient and probably to some extent also more profitable. This being said, we see that there is an acceleration of the very, very large projects. So we may in the future position ourselves on some of those very large projects. Again, if they make sense, if they are strategic for us, if we can find the right profitability. One thing that I did not mention, of course, is that in this environment, this gives us the opportunity to pick what we consider the best project where we can create most of the value for the group and for Air Liquide. So we do expect some larger projects even to come online, and maybe we will pick up some of those. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you. We have no further questions at this time, so I will now hand back to the CEO for closing remarks. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. I think this concludes our session today. Thank you very much for all your questions. I would like maybe to wrap up with some words. We, I believe, clearly delivered another very strong performance in this first half, while, and I think it's very important, positioning ourselves for future growth through key project wins. In spite of the environment, we clearly stayed the course. Thank you again for your attention. I look forward to seeing all of you at our virtual Capital Markets Day on October 5th. In the meantime, I wish all of you an enjoyable summer break if you take one. Thank you very much. Please take care.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating and you may now disconnect. Speakers, please stand by.