Fresenius Se & Co

Good afternoon and welcome to the conference call of Fresenius Investor Relations which is now starting. May I hand you over to Nick Stone, Head of Investor Relations.

Thank you Valentina. Hello everyone. Welcome to our half year in Q2 26 earnings call and webcast. The presentation was emailed to our distribution last night following the ad hoc announcement and is available on Fresenius.com. On slide 2 of the presentation you will find the usual safe harbour statements and less stated otherwise will comment on our performance using constant exchange rates or CER. Today's results show Fresenius is delivering from a position of operational strength with another excellent quarter or grade of full year guidance and clear evidence of the structural step up in earnings quality that we've been building towards. I'm very pleased to be joined by Michael and Sara who will take you through the results and what they mean for the continued delivery of future Fresenius. As usual, the call will last approximately one hour with the presentation taking around 30 minutes with remaining time for your questions. To give everyone a chance to participate, please limit your questions to one to two. We can always come back for a second round if needed. And with that, I'll hand over to Michael to explain how today's results reflect a stronger, higher quality presented with greater strategic flexibility.

Well, you said it all. Thank you, Nick, and welcome to everyone joining us today. I'm very pleased to report another excellent quarter from Fresenius. We delivered strong operating performance, high quality growth, continued earnings progression, improved margin expansion, and higher returns. From this position of operational strength, we are raising our full year core EPS growth guidance to between 10 and 15% at constant currency. Sara and I will take you through the key operational and financial highlights in a moment, but let me start with the main message from the quarter. Q2 is another clear proof point that future Fresenius is delivering. We are converting operational momentum into earnings growth, higher return, and stronger financial and strategic flexibility. Importantly, this is not simply about one strong quarter. It reflects the consistency of execution we've built across the group. And this is important, the structurally higher quality profile of Fresenius today. Compared with 2022, Fresenius now has a stronger earning space and more resilient cash generation profile. CABI's growth vectors are scaling and contributing more visibly to earnings while Helios continues to demonstrate resilience in a changing regulatory environment. Together, this is improving the quality and durability of our performance. This is exactly what our rejuvenated agenda was designed to achieve, a more focused Fresenius with a higher quality business mix, disciplined capital allocation, and increasing exposure to innovation-led growth. When we talk about a structural step up, this is visible in measurable outcomes, double digit EBIT and core EPS growth, improving margins, rising returns and leverage at the lower end of our target corridor. So the message today is clear. Fresenius is stronger, more focused and better position than it was at the start of our transformation. We are delivering better outcomes for patients, creating long-term value for shareholders and gaining greater strategic flexibility for the future. Our second quarter performance shows how operational momentum is translating into financial results. Core EPS increased by 14% at constant currency significantly ahead of top line growth and reflecting continued earnings strength across both CABI and Helios. EBIT increased 10% at constant currency while group EBIT margin improved by 60 base points to 12.3%. Our return profile continued to strengthen with ROIC reaching approximately 7% around 200 base points above the reset level in 2022 when we started the transformation journey. At CABI, our growth vector delivered 12% organic growth and reached a margin of nearly 18%, demonstrating that scale is increasingly translating into profitability. What we started in 2021 with Vision 2026 is turning CABI into a higher quality healthcare business with more visible innovation led and stronger future earnings contribution. Importantly, Fresenius now has multiple platforms delivering biopharma, nutrition and medicine, contributing growth, scale and margin improvement simultaneously. Together, these platforms now represent a meaningful and increasingly important contributor to earnings growth and future value creation. At Helios, margin remained firmly within the structural target range at 10.6%, demonstrating the resilience of our care provision platform despite continued external uncertainty beyond healthcare regulations. This is also a function of our systems being the market leader. Against this broad-based performance, we decided to raise our full-year core EPS This upgrade reflects the breadth of the performance and the improved earnings profile of Fresenius today with a future Fresenius at work. The quarter shows clear operating leverage across the group and strengthens our confidence in the full year outlook. Across Fresenius, we are turning disciplined execution into sustainable value creation. Now let's move to our businesses. Let's start with Fresenius Cottonwood. We continue to strengthen our position as an increasingly innovation-driven healthcare company moving into higher margin growth areas while expanding our pipeline, capabilities, and future growth opportunities. A key enabler of our progress is the increasing strength and deep domain expertise of our business leaders, a core pillar of Rejuvenate. In pharma, we further strengthened our pipeline through seven new in-licensing agreements signed during the first half of this year, enhancing our future product portfolio. Let me briefly address the recent routine FDA inspection at our US manufacturing sites. While our Grand Island and Wilson plans received voluntary action indicated VAI status, our Melrose Park site has received official action indicated status. We are working closely and constructively with the FDA to address the observations and implement the necessary corrective actions. The facility remains fully operational and based on our current assessment, We do not currently expect any material impact on production, supply or our full year financial performance. In BioPharma, we are increasingly demonstrating what investors have been looking for from Fresenius. A repeatable, scalable growth platform with strong commercial performance, successful launches, expanding market shares and rising profitability across multiple molecules and geographies. And this quarter, we achieved another important milestone with the US and EU regulatory submission acceptance of verulizumab, a biosimilar candidate for the treatment of moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. We now expect a regulatory decision next year. In addition, this week's FDA approval of our Rituximab biosimilars further expands our U.S. biopharma portfolio. These developments support our long-term growth ambitions. Commercially, performance in Q2 was driven by continued momentum from our in-market molecules, particularly Italian, and the strong pickup of our Denosumata is similar following the launches last year. This reflects the intense effort of Sanjin and his leadership team around the world, particularly in the US. In nutrition, we're accelerating our focus on innovation and evolving our portfolio toward higher value solutions. We launched the Petit Smough range in Europe, a new ready-to-use We also opened our new nutrition innovation center at our headquarters, strengthening our capabilities and supporting the development of next generation therapies. Congratulations to Mark, Sebastian, and the team on their important steps for this nutrition business. In Medtech, we accelerated the commercial rollout of our IVANIC smart pump in the U.S., delivering strong execution with installation at leading healthcare providers, including Mayo Clinic and SSM Health. At the same time, we enhanced the capabilities of our Conox, an aesthetic depth monitor, a non-invasive brain activity monitoring solution with improved Wi-Fi connectivity and the system integration capabilities further expanding its value proposition and commercial potential. Thanks to Matis who hit the ground running and the MedTech team for building a more differentiated platform for growth. So you see strong team, great outcome. Now let's turn to our biopharma business. As our fastest growing platform, BioPharma is playing an increasingly important strategic role within CABI and Fresenius. The strong momentum we continue to see across all major regions further validates our investments and reinforces our confidence in the significant long-term growth opportunity ahead. This progress is clearly reflected across our in-market portfolio. Tayen, our Totsilizumo biosimilar, continues to gain market share, sequentially reaching 44% in the top five EU countries and 30% in the US, highlighting clearly our commercial strength and capabilities. Otulfi, our Ustekinoa biosimilar, has now launched in 18 markets worldwide, further expanding our global footprint. With Vomintra, we have established a leadership position and several key European markets and reached a market share of 11% across the EU5. We have also seen encouraging early uptake in the US despite a competitive market environment. This represents another successful launch and demonstrates that our biopharma platform is gaining scale and delivering repeatable launch success across multiple molecules. Turning to our care provision platform Helios. In Germany, the approval of the GKV Stabilization Act provides a constructive framework now for continued reimbursement growth. I will share our perspective on this one in a moment. Across Helios, we continue to invest in innovation to improve patient outcomes and to strengthen our clinical leadership. At our Leipzig Heart Center, a 15-year research program has demonstrated how enhanced recovery protocols and innovation can meaningfully improve patient outcomes after cardiac surgery. In Spain, Cure & Salute continues to strengthen its position as a leading research platform with almost 1,500 active clinical trials and more than 400 new studies initiated in 2025. We also established a new chair for robotic surgery together with Universidade de Rei Juan Carlos, reinforcing our commitment to research and education in advanced surgical technologies and helping generate evidence on improved outcomes, patient experience and healthcare efficiency, all embedded with artificial intelligence. Chiron Salud continues to invest in innovative technology that delivers measurable value for patients. Under now Christian Pawlu's leadership, Helios will continue to advance our clinical leadership and innovation agenda. Now let's stay with Helios for a moment and provide our perspective on the GECA FAO Stabilization Act and its implications for our German hospital business in 2027. We know that investors continue to focus on the future of reimbursement of the reimbursement environment in Germany. The key message today is straightforward. Our outlook for our hospital business remains unchanged. The approved act provides a constructive framework for continued reimbursement growth and is more favorable than the earlier draft proposals. While the temporary surcharge Thank you very much. in 2027. Through Christian's leadership, we will continue to improve the operational performance of our care provision platform. He and his team are fully committed. The first half of the year confirms that Fresenius is executing consistently across the group. Our growth vectors are scaling profitably. BioPharma is becoming a more significant earnings contributor and Helios continues to demonstrate resilience and operating leverage. These developments give us confidence to raise our full-year core EPS growth guidance and reinforce our conviction in the medium-term trajectory of the businesses. And with that, I'm happy to turn it over to Sara.