Elringklinger Ag

Welcome to the Erling Klinger Q2 2026 earnings call. I am Sandra, the course call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants have been dissonant in mode and the conference has been recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Thomas Jessulat, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to our earnings call on the second quarter of 2026. Today, our CFO, Isabelle Damen, and I will provide you with a detailed look into the results from the second quarter in the first half of 2026. With today's publication, we confirm the guidance for 2026 and the medium term, which we have published with the annual report end of March. At the end of the presentation, as usual, you will have the opportunity to ask questions and we are pleased to answer them. At the outset, I would like to present a brief overview of the key developments from the past six months. But first, I would like to take a moment to introduce the newest member of our executive management team, Ulrich Zimmer, who recently joined Ehrenklinger as chief operating officer. Ulrich brings more than two decades of leadership experience from some of the most respected companies in the commercial vehicle and mobility industry. And most recently, he served as senior vice president R&D at Trayton Group, where he played a key role in building and scaling a global e-mobility R&D organization. Prior to that, he held several senior leadership roles at AMN Truck and Bus as well as Daimler Truck. We're very pleased to have Ulrich on board. Yeah, you also have noticed some other news last week. Unfortunately, our CFO, Isabelle Damen, will be leaving us at the end of the year on personal grounds. She has successfully contributed to and continued the implementation of our transformation strategy from a financial standpoint, as you will see shortly in the group's continued performance in the second quarter. The automotive industry continues to operate in a highly challenging environment. Geopolitical tensions, trade conflicts and ongoing inflationary and interest rate pressures are creating uncertainty across global markets and supply chains. At the same time, the industry transformation is accelerating. Global light vehicle production is expected to decline in 2026, while electrification remains the dominant long-term trend. In addition, software, AI, and vehicle digitization are becoming increasingly important differentiators with China continuing to set the pace for innovation and market development. Despite these challenges, Erringklinger is well positioned thanks to our global footprint and close proximity to our customers. By leveraging our resilient supply chain network and consistently executing the shape 30 strategy, we remain focused on strengthening competitiveness, improving profitability and generating sustainable cash flow. As already outlined in previous quarters, Shape 30 remains the strategic foundation of our transformation, and we continue to make solid progress in its execution, starting with the growth dimension. Our e-mobility business continues to gain momentum. Say its increase from 40 million euro in Q2 2025 to 85 million euro in Q2 2026 representing more than a doubling of the number. It is even a higher increase if you consider the M&A effect and the prior year figure. This development underscores the strong market traction of our e-mobility activities and supports our ambition to double fiscal year 2025 sales by 2028. At the same time, our classical business remains the financial backbone of the transformation. In the EU segment, the adjusted EBIT margin excluding e-mobility improved from 4.5% to 4.8%, reflecting ongoing operational improvements and disciplined cost management. E-mobility remains in the ramp-up phase. Adjusted EBIT for the business unit was in Q2 2026 minus €8.1 million, an improvement of slightly more than 1 million Euro compared to prior year's figure when considering the divested subsidiary. Consequently, the adjusted EBIT margin including e-mobility improved from 1 to 1.2%. This development is in line with our roadmap as we continue to scale volumes and increase efficiency. On the efficiency side, our measures remain on track. We continue to target around 50 million Euro from cost savings and ramp-up contributions with full effect in 2027. And in line with that, we have improved the personnel cost ratio to support margin improvement on a sustainable basis. Together with a successful ramp-up of major customer programs, these initiatives are important levers for achieving all profitability targets. Overall, Shape 30 remains firmly on track to deliver our transformation objectives. Let me now provide a more detailed update on Shape to Empower, our program to reorganize the structure of the group and a key enabler of the Shape 30 strategy. The transformation program is further progressing. Workforce allocation has been aligned with the requirements of the new organization, ensuring that resources responsibilities and also capabilities are positioned where they create the greatest value. To date, more than half of the work streams have been successfully completed. For those areas, the target organization has been implemented and role profiles have been clearly defined, providing greater transparency, accountability and efficiency across the group. The remaining work streams will complete the rollout of Shape to Empower. Overall, implementation is advancing and reinforces our objective to become a faster, more customer-focused and more efficient organization. With having all said this, I now hand over to my financial colleague on the board, Isabelle.

Hello, good afternoon from me as well. Starting with sales and the organic change on slide number eight, In a challenging market environment, Elving Klinger generated revenue of €479 million in the second quarter of 2026, representing a year-on-year increase of 17% according to reported figures. Let me start with the sales development in the second quarter of the year. Revenue increased from €408 million in Q2 2025 to €479 million in Q2 2026. representing solid year-on-year growth. Foreign exchange effects contributed €2.1 million, while portfolio changes and M&A activities had a slightly negative impact of €6.4 million. The key driver was the ramp-up in the e-mobility business area, including a €28 million one-time effect. Organic growth contributed to €86.9 million. demonstrating strong demand across our market and successful execution of our commercial initiatives. Overall, this resulted in a sales increase of 17% year over year. This growth significantly outpaced the overall automotive market. Global automotive production edged down by 0.2% year on year in the second quarter, with Europe, Elbrinklinger's key market, declining by 2%, excluding Russia, and Germany contracting by 4.3%. Against this backdrop, Elinklinger achieves good organic growth, clearly demonstrating its resilient position in a contracting market environment. Further details on the sales mix can be found on slide nine. Within a segment breakdown, the original equipment segment remains the largest contributor, accounting for 71% of total group revenue. which corresponds to €340 million in sales. Compared to the same quarter last year, revenue in this segment increased significantly and exceeded the prior year level by the wide margin. Within the OE segment, e-mobility generated sales of €85 million in the second quarter of 2026. The ramp-up phase for major series production contracts in self-containing systems is further progressing. Compared to previous year's second quarter, revenues increased by more than 100%, highlighting the business area's strategic importance for the group's transformation. It now accounts for 18% of total group sales. The aftermarket segment continues its strong performance, increasing sales from €95 million in Q2 to €102 million in the second quarter of 2026. In addition, the engineered plastic business was able to slightly increase revenue in the second quarter of 2026, rising from 36 to 37 million euro, driving primarily by an improved product mix. Growth was achieved in the regions Europe as well as South America and rest of the world, while revenues in Asia Pacific and in North America declined year on year. Turning to profitability, our margin development remains on track. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 7% year-over-year from 50 to 54 million euro, supported by a higher sales and continued cost discipline. The adjusted EBITDA margin reached 11.2% in the second quarter. Adjusted EBIT showed an even stronger development, rising by 19% year-over-year to 29 million euro. The adjusted EBITDA margin slightly improved from 5.9% to 6%. despite the ongoing earnings impact from the ramp-up in A-mobility. As shown in the EBIT bridge, we increased adjusted EBIT by €4.7 million year-over-year to €28.9 million. The key driver was the successful execution of our operational improvement measures, contributing €12 million. Additional support came from higher volumes and tariff effects. These positives more than offset ramp-up costs as well as unfavorable product mix and other effects. Overall, the bridge demonstrates the continued effectiveness of our profitability initiatives and the resilience of our earnings performance. On the next slide, you see the positive effect of earnings figures quarter on quarter. Adjusted EBT increased by 63% to €19.5 million, compared to €12 million in the prior year quarter. adjusted net income at the total shareholder rose by 50% to 11.3 million euro, while adjusted earnings per share also increased by 50% to 18%. These improvements reflect the company's continuous focus on operational efficiency, cost discipline, and the resilient business performance. Compared with the exceptionally strong fourth quarter of 2025, profitability metrics moderated as expected. Nevertheless, adjusted EBT, adjusted net income, and adjusted earnings per share remain significantly above the prior year level, demonstrating the group's ability to generate solid earnings despite lower vehicle production volumes across key automotive markets. In the second quarter, the R&D ratio decreased to 4.2% since absolute R&D spending was down year on year from €22 million to around €20 million. At a ratio of 4.6% for the first half year, the figure is within the target range of around 4-6% for the entire year. Alinklinger's net working capital stood at €347 million in the second quarter of 2026. The ratio amounted to 20%. This improvement reflects the group's ongoing focus on enhancing capital efficiency and strengthening operational flexibility, while supporting ramp-up related sales growth. Capital expenditure amounted to 23.9 million in Q2, down 9% compared to previous year's quarter. At the same time, the capex ratio declined to 5% of sales, indicating a normalization of investment activity following the completion of major ramp-up projects and well within the targeted range for the full year of around 4-6% of group sales. Turning to operating free cash flow, we delivered a strong improvement in the second quarter. Operating free cash flow reached €52 million, compared to €24 million in Q2 of the previous year, representing an increase of 118%. As a result, the operating free cash flow ratio improved to 10.8%, underlying the strong cash flow inversion of the business in the quarter. This performance marked a significant recovery from the temporary outflow recorded in the first quarter and reflects the continued focus on working capital management and cash generation. Net financial debt stood at 374 million euro, corresponding to an adjusted net debt to EBITDA ratio 1.9, which is below prior year's quarter. And last but not least, group equity totaled 693 million euro by the end of the second quarter, which is above the 666 million euro recorded at the close of the fiscal year in 2025. Coming to segment performance on slide 14. In the second quarter of 2026, the OE segment generated sales of €340 million. The adjusted EBIT margin stood at 1.2%, a slight improvement to prior year's figure. Overall, the OE segment posted a positive earnings contribution with an adjusted EBIT of €1.5 million in the first half of this year. whereas EBIT adjusted stood at minus 5.9 million in the same period of the previous year. When comparing this to the prior year figure, we have to consider the sales contribution of 6.4 million euro from the divested entity in the UK. With regard to adjusted EBIT, the e-mobility business area excluding the divested subsidiary has improved from minus 9.3 million euro to minus 8.1 million euro. In line with the growth of €70 million, the OE segment, excluding immobility, has improved adjusted EBIT figures from €10.7 to €12.2 million. The aftermarket segment continues to successfully execute its growth strategy, once again posting a quarter-on-quarter increase in revenue. In the second quarter of 2026, sales reached €102 million, which implies a growth of roughly 7% Compare to previous year's quarter. With an adjusted EBIT margin of 19.8%, the segment once again delivered a strong level of profitability after an extraordinary first quarter. The engineered plastic segment demonstrated a robust performance in the second quarter of 2026, supported by a wide and diversified industry footprint. The segment recorded sales of 37 million euros compared to 36 million euros in its second quarter of 2025. With an adjusted EBIT margin of 11.4%, the segment demonstrates its resilience in a challenging market environment. With having said this, I will now turn the floor over to Thomas to provide concluding remarks on the market environment and the outlook.

Thank you, Isabelle. Let us now turn to the market environment and our outlook for the full fiscal year. Moving on to the market environment, current forecasts indicate a slowdown in global automotive production in 2026. This underscores the continued importance of operational excellence and strategic execution. Light vehicle production is expected to decrease across all major regions compared with the previous year, albeit varying interest rates. In North America, light vehicle production is projected to decline by 1.3%, reflecting a normalization of demand following the post-pandemic recovery. In Europe, production is also expected to decline by approximately 0.9% in 2026, driven by ongoing economic uncertainty and continued pressure on consumer sentiment. Expectations for Greater China have worsened over the past three months, The region is now forecast to see a 4.6% reduction in light vehicle production after minus 2.3% in April estimates. The competition across the industry intensifies. As a result, global light vehicle production is forecast to contract modestly by 2.1% in 2026. But nevertheless, the longer-term market outlook remains encouraging with industry volumes expected to return to a growth trajectory by 2030. This indicates that the current market weakness should be seen as a temporary cycle rather than a fundamental shift. Turning to our outlook, we continue to expect full year 2026 performance to develop in line with the guidance we issued in March. This outlook reflects both The challenge market conditions and our assessment of the group's operational performance throughout the year. Overall, our results confirm that we are making solid progress in executing our Shape 30 strategy. Supported by a strong financial position and a clear strategic direction, we remain well positioned to further enhance profitability, strengthen case generation, and create sustainable value over the long term. Thank you for your attention. We're now happy to take your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star 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 star and 2. Participants are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode while asking a question. Anyone with a question may press star and 1 at this time. Our first question comes from Michael Punzett from DZ Bank. Please go ahead.

Michael Punzett, good afternoon. I have two questions. The first one is on the mentioned one-time effect of 28.1 million. Maybe you can share some light on what is the reason for that. And also, I think it's included in the revenues line. Maybe you can also quantify the effect on the EBIT line. and the second one is yesterday or some days ago we saw the news that Zono Motors filed for insolvency and I would like to know will there be any effect on your figures as you had mentioned cooperation some years ago?

Thanks for your question Mr. Brunset. So I'll take the first question on the one-time effect. So the reason is it's related to tuning our equipment sales to one of our customers, and they typically have zero to low margin. So that's why you see the impact on our net revenue line, but not the impact or hardy impact on our EBIT.

And to your second question, we don't expect any further impact here from solar and solar

Okay, thank you. Maybe a follow-up on my first question. That means the 28.1 million is booked in the revenues line, but we have a similar amount of expenses, so there is no effect on the EBIT line. Is that right?

Yes, that's correct conclusion.

Okay, and maybe a follow-up on that. When I take the calculation on your OE business excluding e-mobility, then I saw that the margin declined quarter over quarter. I think when I make the calculation right, you have 5.2% in Q1, but now we have only 4.6, 4.8. So what is the reason? Because we saw a very strong business uptick also in Europe. So what is the reason that the ongoing operational margins for the EU e-business excluding e-mobility is going down quarter over quarter?

Yes, thank you for that question as well. So, as you are aware, we've got several product groups, and we have an unfavorable effect here, which drives this decrease in our margin.

Okay, so it's mixed related.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star followed by one. So far, no further questions. Back over to you, Mr. Jessulat, for any closing remarks.

Let me close by thanking you all for your interest in Erringklinger and for your participation in today's conference call. We'll record our next set of quarterly reports on November 5 and look forward to continuing the dialogue with you then. In the meantime, we remain available for any follow-up discussions and would be pleased to meet you also individually. Thank you for your time and attention. You all have a good rest of the week. Thank you very much.

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