Dürr Aktiengesellschaft

Welcome to the dual conference call for the third quarter of 2025 followed by a Q&A session. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Matthias Christen.

Thank you very much and welcome to today's call, ladies and gentlemen. The corresponding presentation is available on our website and I assume you have it in front of you. Our CEO, Jochen Weihrauch, will start on page five before Dietmar Heinrich, as CFO, will take you through the financials. Jochen, please go ahead.

Thank you, Matthias, and good afternoon to all participants on the call. As our main focus is on profitability, I would like to start with pointing out the high earnings level in Q3. The EBIT margin before Extraordinaries increased to 6.6%, which is almost two percentage points more than last year, based on earnings growth in all of our three divisions. In the year to date, the margin amounted to 4.9%, which means that after three quarters, we're almost at the midpoint of the full year guidance. Order intake continued to be impacted by heightened macro uncertainty caused by geopolitical and trade conflicts. However, we expect Q4 to be much better. Sales accelerated in Q3 after the moderate first half and should gain more traction in Q4. Free cash flow continued to be strong in Q3 bringing the year-to-date figure to a high level of 85 million euros. The recent months were also marked by pushing ahead with our sustainable automation strategy. We successfully closed the sale of environmental technology and thus completed the process of turning Dürer into a lean company with only three instead of five divisions. At the same time, we began to streamline our administration aiming at cost savings of 50 million euros. The guidance given in March and partly revised in July is being conferred. Let's turn to page six. Regarding the 29% drop in order intake in the first nine months, please keep in mind that last year's figure was extremely high due to unique 500 million contract and further large orders. Sales were slightly lower than last year. We saw sequential improvements in industrial automation and woodworking in Q3. Automotive should benefit from an accelerated execution of large projects in Q4. Already touched the positive trend in operating EBIT. With regards to earnings after tax, please note that this position is burdened by the 120 million goodwill impairment in Q2, whereas last year's figure included a $19 million book gain from the sale of Agamco. Adjusted for both special effects, net income was up a good 50% this year. Slide 7 shows the same key figures for the group as a whole, still including the discontinued environmental technology business. Page 8 shows our quarterly order intake. After a decent start to the year, defects from the high level of investment uncertainty in Q2 and Q3 are plain to see. However, there were some positive aspects in Q3. Industrial automation recorded appreciably higher order intake than in Q2, and in general, I would like to emphasize that despite the macro turmoil, customers are not paralyzed. Many of them are pushing ahead with large investment projects, and the pipeline looks solid. This is true, for example, for strategic projects in the automotive industry, but also for HOMAG's timber house construction business. Q4 has the potential for several large orders if our customers stick to their time. Let's move to regional order intake on page nine. New orders in Germany dropped sharply as last year's figure was boosted by the huge 500 million euro contract. The increase in Asia without China was driven by India and Saudi Arabia, which has become a very attractive market for DUR. Next one is the automotive division on page 11. Two-three order intake was marked by the absence of large orders, but this does not mean that there are no such projects being planned. It's rather a characteristic timing issue of our plant engineering business. There are quarters with no large orders and there are quarters with several big ticket orders placed all at once. The EBIT margin before Extraordinaries exceeded last year's high levels in Q3 and in the year to date based on the good margin quality of the order backlog. Revenues were up sequentially in Q3 and should further accelerate in Q4 as the execution of large orders is speeding up after customer-induced delays in the first half. Page 12, please. Industrial automation saw a good Q3 with order intake and sales clearly exceeding low Q2 levels and returning to the encouraging Q1 level. BBS automation picked up with continued strong MedTech business and improvements in the auto business. The EBIT margin before Extraordinary almost doubled year over year and clearly exceeded the poor Q2 level, spurred by volume effects and the recovery in service business. Please note that for nine months figures, there is limited comparability as last year's figures still included the Agramco Group that was sold on July 1st, 2024. Reported EBIT was burdened by the 120 million euro impairment in Q2. As the battery business has been suffering from poor market conditions, we initiated restructuring Q3 to lower fixed costs. Slide 13 is on woodworking. The division has implemented a number of self-help measures and thus successfully strengthened earnings resilience. This is testified by the fact that the operating EBIT margin increased by almost two percentage points on slightly declining sales in the year to date. Water intake was impacted by the tariff uncertainties causing additional investment restraint in the furniture industry. As of now, the exact timing for market recovery is hard to predict. This is why WOMAC's improved earnings resilience is so important. Looking at the timber house construction business, the outlook is brighter, as we see an increase in demand and good opportunities for large orders, in part already in Q4. Slide 14 gives an overview on environmental technology. As this business was effectively sold two weeks ago, There's no need to comment on the figures. Next one is slide 15. Service sales recovered in Q3, beating the Q2 level by 14%. Under the impression of the tariff chaos, many customers immediately cut service spending in Q2. So it's good news that there was sort of normalization already in Q3. Now it's time to hand over to my colleague, Dietmar Heinrich, who will explain the financials.