Schneider Electric Sa

Welcome to the Schneider Electric's 2025 half-year results presentation with Olivier Blum, Chief Executive Officer, Hilary Maxson, Chief Financial Officer, and Ahmed Bala, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you for standing by. At this time, participants are in a listen-only mode until the dedicated question and answer session of today's conference. At any time, you may press star, then the number one on your phone to poll for a question. To withdraw your question, please press star and two. I would like to inform all parties that today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I will now hand you over to Amit Bala.

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to our half-year 2025 results presentation and webcast, joined by Olivier and Hilary from Paris. You have already the slides, and we'll go through it, and we'll make sure we have enough time for Q&A. So without further ado, I'll pass it over to Olivier.

Thank you, Amit, and good morning to all of you. Always excited to be with you to share our AFIA results for Schneider Electric. Look, before I start to talk about financial, I'd like to share, and I'm sure you are already aware, that Schneider Electric has been ranked for the second time in a row the most sustainable company in Europe. in 2025 by time. It's a great achievement for us. And beyond for me, you know, those kind of awards that we get from outside, it concerns really the credibility that Schneider Electric has. When we say we want to be a partner to deliver efficiency and sustainability for our customers, I can tell you it's really, really a strong marker of Schneider Electric. Always well-appreciated, recognized by all our partners and our customers everywhere in the world, but also a good and strong recognition for our own employees and a good attractive point when new people want to join Schneider Electric. So, again, very pleased with this recognition. It confirms our commitment and it helps really to enforce the credibility of the mission of Schneider Electric. Now, turning to the most important topic of the day, which are really our financial results, I'm pleased to report a very strong growth revenue in Q2. After 7.4 in Q1, we have delivered 8.3 in organic growth in Q2, which continues to show with the momentum from a growth standpoint and as you can see we continue to deliver a very very strong performance on energy management with double digit 10.5 and of course negative still negative on the industrial automation side but the good news and we said that in our yearly results and it was confirmed at the end of q1 by hillary We continue to see step-by-step improvements in industrial automation, in particular in discrete. And in different parts of the world, we see that it's picking up, and we believe that we will continue to face a good acceleration in the rest of the year. Now, if I turn to the full H1 results, it gives a plus 8%, which is a very good performance from a growth standpoint at 19.3%. We are very, very pleased with this strong growth performance for H1. And with 7% organic growth on adjusted EBITDA. And of course, Hilary will get back more in the details on how all of that moved from the top line to the bottom line. We'll comment in particular. what we see on the gross margin and what we plan to do in H2. And maybe a short comment at this stage on my side regarding the free cash flow. We are still very confident that we can deliver a full year free cash flow objective. H1 is always a little bit lower. At Schneider Electric, as you know, we have a couple of exceptional one-offs also in H1, but still confident that we can deliver a robust performance in terms of cash flow for the full year. Now, as usual, we show you these slides, and that's not the first time you see it. You see it on my side for the Investor Day in India, and we try to give you an update on how we see our end market, which reflects really the positioning of Schneider Electric for the mid- and long-term. So I'll start with data center, where we had a lot of questions. since the beginning of the year on how do you see the dynamic of this market. Look, we have been very consistent. We see a double digit growth opportunity for Schneider Electric. We don't see any major change versus last time when we communicated with you. Of course, the market is always changing because there is a change of mix between the different geographies. And of course, between the hyperscaler and the colo and so on and so forth. But overall, when we look, number one, at the backlog that we have, it's still a very robust backlog to deliver this year and next year. But also, when we look at our pipeline, it confirms really this double-digit growth opportunity in data center. And of course, Schneider Electric is ideally positioned. We are a market leader, and I'll come back on that later. later to capture that opportunity. When it comes to building, it has been always a bit lower, definitely, especially in residential where we have a low exposure at Shutter Electric. But we continue to focus on buildings because we have assembled all the technology to make buildings more efficient. And that's a place where we continue to see good growth opportunity. But definitely, we would hope that there will be some acceleration within the future, in particular on the residential. When it comes to industry, I said it already, we have started to see a good recovery. We said that probably we reached the bottom of the cycle in Q4 last year. And step by step, even if it's a slow recovery, we see more and more opportunity to grow faster in industry. And as I said, we already see that happening. in our discrete business. But again, here we are talking more about the mid-term. We see really, really a positive trend in the mid-term from a market standpoint. And last, when it comes to infrastructure, and it has been a consistent message we've given, robust growth opportunity. And in particular, everything which is really around digital grid, power infrastructure, business we are doing, with utility, always a little bit slower in decision making, but we see definitely an appetite for stronger digital solution to electrify also the grid, so which is overall a good news. So end in end, that confirmed really a pretty strong positioning for Schneider Electric and a good confidence to deliver really a good medium and long term growth as a company. So if I go, what is our focus and where we are working with the management team right now? Priority one, of course, is to deliver very strong performance in H2, but how we are doing that? In H2 and beyond. Number one, extremely strong focus on energy management, on innovation and technology. I've shared already with you in different events I've participated, all the investments we have made in R&D, how we are positioning Schneider Electric to be the best company to make the most of the energy landscape. You know, it's very, very important. We want to be the global energy tech partner of our customers. We believe we have a unique portfolio, unique technology to help our customer to electrify, automate and digitalize home, industries and buildings. And it's super important because the positioning that we have created help us to deliver strong growth today. But even more important, we want to get ready for the next phase and continue to invest in R&D. So, the next point, which is very, very important for us, is to leverage all the investments we have made. And definitely, we have invested in R&D, SF63, and all the R-set range we have launched in the market in medium voltage is helping us to capture really good growth opportunity to make our customer more efficient and more sustainable. And we are very pleased with the launching in the past two years. We've mentioned really a strong position in Data Center. As you know, it has been reinforced by the acquisition of Motiver that we have closed in the first part of the year. And I'm very, very pleased with the start of Motiver. We are above our business plan so far, and we are leveraging all the technology of Motiver to reinforce our long-term partnership with our customer. And that's a unique positioning that we have. Of course, mainly in the U.S. at that stage, but we are getting prepared for the next phase outside of the U.S. And of course, I was talking about the focus on performance in H1, extremely focused really to deliver a strong backlog. When it comes to industrial automation, which has been a bit more of a challenge because of the market slowdown and also a certain number of things we have been doing on our side on repositioning in R&D. We are very, very confident that we can capture most of the growth support in discrete in H2. We are confident with the transition that we have launched in subscription with Aveva. You know, we always said that we plan to be in line with our objective we fixed for Aveva transition to subscription by 27. And we see really a good acceleration on that side. What is super important is also to make sure that we create strong synergies between the two businesses of Schneider Electric, and we see that moving really in the right direction. And we've communicated a lot in Hanover this year about EcoStruxure Automation Experts, which is really our software-defined solution we are launching in automation, and I'm very, very pleased to see really the pickup in different parts of the world and the strong positive feedback from our customers. Last but not the least, we have a very strong plan to focus on the recovery of our margin in industrial automation. So when you combine all of that, this portfolio we have created, the acceleration we have R&D, we accelerate everything we can do at the digital level. We have a very strong position, as you know, in hardware, in equipment. Historically, we are the number one worldwide in electrical distribution. We have added secure power, which is very important. For us, what is now the next phase is how we can leverage this huge positioning to bring more digital solutions to our customers. We've communicated a lot about what we do with EcoCare, which is our franchise in digital services, and I'm very pleased to see the report. What are the other focuses for us as a team? Pricing, productivity, to deliver a strong H2, but also to get prepared for the future. And in a world which is very fragmented, and I'm sure there will be a lot of questions of the volatility of the market, the tariff, it's super important that we take our multi-up model to the next level. And of course, I'll come back in a minute on our India acquisition, which reinforced this strong position. So, pretty good and dense agenda for the management team to deliver a strong H2, but also to get prepared for the future. I mentioned a lot about what we are doing on top of hardware really to deliver the more digital solution to our customer. As you know, the digital flywheel is for us a way to measure the progress. That's something that you have seen and we have been very consistent over time. I'm very pleased to report that it represents now 60% of our revenue. in H1 2005, and a strong acceleration compared to last year. We look at all elements of the flywheel, as usual, making sure all our products are connectable by design. We can leverage this native connectivity to give more services, more software-defined applications to our customers. So all the four elements of the flywheel are very important, and I remind you that this is what makes Relish Analytics unique. the combination of the portfolio in automation and energy management, but being able to support our customer all along their life cycle. So this is a really strong feedback, a strong feedback, I would say a strong performance in H1 that demonstrate our commitment to this strategy. And of course, when we speak about AI, all our digital solution can be accelerated with AI technology. So very pleased with the report on that. Of course, you've seen the news already yesterday. We are very pleased with Hillary and the team to announce really the 100% ownership of our India joint venture. You know, I had the privilege myself to spend five years of my life in India, and I remember being sent in India in 2008. It was a bit less than 100 million business for Schneider Electric. Last year, it's a 2.5 billion euro business for Schneider Electric in a market where we have seen and we continue to see a double digit growth opportunity. So it confirmed really that we have a unique platform now in India, not only to grow in the Indian market and to benefit from this important growth opportunity, but also to leverage India as our fourth largest hub in the world. to deliver more supply chain, more technology for India and the rest of the world. So, very strong positioning and we'll continue to operate with our two-brand strategy in India. So, very pleased with this acquisition that reinforced again our position in India and very excited by the opportunity for the future. I've mentioned that Schneider Electric has a leading position in data center. We are very pleased with Motiver to be able to provide a full solution from grid to chip and chip to chiller. I said it already, very pleased with the start. Let's keep working, not only on the massive opportunity we have in the US, but also preparing really by investing in capacity outside. So really, that was for me a very important one. The first acquisition actually under my mandate, but very pleased with the start and the strong results and synergies we are delivering in H1 2005 with the rest of the company. Now, talking a bit more about a few other partnerships, customer success that we have, we continue to have a very strong partnership with NVIDIA. It's very, very important. We don't want to be just a solution provider. We want to work on the architecture of the future that will make data centers more efficient with the latest AI technology. And you know, it keeps changing by the day. So for us, this partnership with NVIDIA is extremely important because it helps us to be upstream in the value chain to work with NVIDIA on what will be their next chips, what are the design we need to provide in terms of data center to make sure data center are more efficient. And how to make a data center more efficient? It's a combination of power, building management, cooling, and of course Schneider Electric has all the technology to make it happen. We have been working also on a very interesting innovation with ETAP. recently and we will get back to you with more demo by the end of the year on how we are helping to create a digital twin of the future data center which will make them even more efficient. So great partnership that we continue to deploy with NVIDIA. I mentioned building markets when I was talking about the exposure of Schneider Electric. Just to reinforce that, even if it's a market which is a bit less attractive, I would say, from a growth standpoint compared to the others, we continue to see robust growth, but we see opportunity for energy efficiency. And that has been really a strong positioning of Schneider Electric. Thanks to all the portfolio that we have, all the technology we are bringing to our customer. And now with the combination of all our building management system, the acquisition of Planon last year, that gives us a full portfolio to make building even more efficient. We are testing that in our own building. We have just opened recently. Our new office in Dubai, we have done it in France, in Grenoble. But, of course, with many customers around the world, we continue to work hand-in-hand with them to make sure we can deliver more efficiency. Of course, we do it also for new buildings by designing, helping design, optimize the design for buildings, both with ETAP on the electrical side and with RIB on the construction side. We have, as I mentioned, invested a lot in services in the past 10 years, but more than services itself, what we have done, and it's part of our flywheel, we have made all our products, all our equipment connectable. It took time, really, to transform all this portfolio. I mentioned what we've done with air set in medium voltage, but we've done that with all the portfolio of shared electrics. So now we have all those hardware equipment which are connectable. We have created common gateway to make sure we can leverage data and amplify now those data with AI to deliver more services, more digital services to customer. And that's what we call EcoCare. And you start to pay and we see a very strong appetite. From our customer, we have two business model, one which is really scalable and repetitive and one which is more customized. For instance, when we have a large contract with Compass in data center, it's associated with a customized contract in digital services that generate also recurring revenues for Schneider Electric. So a very strong part of our strategy, very unique, very differentiated when you look at the entire portfolio and we continue to see a good momentum and a good feedback from our customers and we continue to represent a double digit growth opportunity for Schneider Electric. You have here as usual a couple of customer stories that we like to share. going through what we do in digital grid optimization, for instance, with Tata Power in India, to Data Center in Saudi, but a few other good examples in other parts of the world. What is really, really, really important, we are positioned in Schneider Electric as a solution provider. We go in front of our customer, we understand their standpoint, And we combine all the solutions. It can be in one geography. It can be in multiple geographies. It can be in one part of our portfolio, several parts of our portfolio. But we solve their problems to deliver more efficiency and sustainability. And we see more and more really appetite for those full solutions. And, of course, we're quite excited to continue the journey with all our customers and partners everywhere in the world. When it comes to investment, we continue to make responsible investments. We mentioned last year that we were ramping up our investments definitely to increase our capacity. We are always adjusting, depending of course on the mid-term demand. But we continue to be very, very responsible. There are a couple of examples of announcements we've made for H1 2025 to reinforce our capacity going from the US to Europe to, of course, India, which is very, very important for us. I said it, we continue to have a robust investment in R&D. It's very, very important for me. We have been living in an industry, you know, which has been stable for a long time. But the energy industry, the electrical industry is transforming by the day. And it's super important for us that we are always prepared for the next cycle. And we bring to our customers solutions which are differentiated. that create unique value proposition. But it's not only at the product level. This is a full application to our customer, amplified by digital. And you have a couple of examples of what we call the hero offer, which are the new products we are launching to the market that contribute really to the strong growth we have in H1. And I said it, very important. Since we are moving more and more with digital solutions, we amplify those solutions with AI in all parts of our portfolio, from the digital services to our software business with ETAP, RIB or AVEVA. That's a unique opportunity to make our customers more efficient at the end of the day. Moving to the last part of my presentation, we continue to be very focused. I started the meeting by saying that we have been awarded most sustainability, most sustainable company in the world. It's the past. We focus always on the future. Priority one, deliver a strong performance for 2025. And as we said last time, preparing the next cycle of commitment since 2025 is the last year of the previous program. We continue to be focused. recognized in different parts of the world, not only in sustainability, in diversity and inclusion, in technology, in innovation. And, of course, all those external awards are a good recognition that Schneider Electric continues to be an impact company, a company that delivers strong results in the short term, but which has also a strong commitment from the midterm. So if I wrap up on H1, robust performance, good growth, What we continue to do as a management team is preparing the future of Schneider Electric, creating this unique value proposition between the combination of energy management and industrial automation, providing solutions to all the four markets that I've described, which are all very promising in front of us. And of course, with a big strategic intention to continue to deliver more digital solutions to our customers in services, in software. I want to mention, and I said it last time, that we are preparing the next company story of Schneider Electric. So there are a lot of things we are implementing already to continue to reinforce our leadership in technology, to continue to build a unique model supported by multi-up model to deliver unique solution in all the geographies with our customer. Multi-up model is a differentiating factor of Schneider Electric. And last but not the least, a very, very strong focus on competitiveness. from the design of our product to industrial productivity that should deliver results in H2, but also very important that we continue to prepare the future, but we'll get back to you with the management team to disclose the full plan in the coming months. So on that, I'd like to hand over to Hilary, who will give you much more details on the financial results for H1.

Thanks, Olivier, and good morning, everyone. Happy to be here with you all today. I'll start with our key financial highlights for the first half, some of which Olivier has already mentioned. First, our H1 revenues are at 19.3 billion euros, a record for a first half. In gross margin, we see the impacts of timing and pricing versus inflation, plus we have negative mix, driving down our gross margin for the half by 90 basis points organic. Despite this, our adjusted EBITDA is close to flat, as expected, at minus 10 basis points, supported by good control of costs while still ensuring appropriate investments for the future. Our net income was impacted by a non-cash impairment with adjusted net income up plus 6% organic. And our free cash flow is impacted by timing and a fine paid in France. And I'll speak more about our expectations for gross margin and free cash flow for the full year in a few minutes. Moving to H1 revenues, in energy management, we continue to see strong demand and strong growth across our end markets, including data center, and with a step-up in demand in Q2 across our other end markets of building, particularly non-residential, industry, and infrastructure. In industrial automation, we continued to see minus 1% in organic sales growth. However, as expected, we turned to positive demand in terms of orders in both discrete and process and hybrid in Q2 and for the H1 overall. In total, we were up 8% organic in sales with good momentum going into the H2. Positive scope impacts are driven by our acquisitions of Motiver and Planon. FX translation adversely impacted our revenues by around 400 million euros, mainly due to the weakening of the U.S. dollar, Indian rupee, and a number of more volatile currencies against the euro. And you can see in the footnotes to this slide, if current rates remained where they are now, we would expect FX impacts of minus 1.25 to minus 1.35 billion euros in revenues and minus 40 basis points in adjusted EBITDA margin for the year. Moving to Q2 revenues, we were up 8% organic to 10 billion euros with a return to positive contribution from all geographies. FX impacts were more negative in the Q2 due to the weakening of the U.S. dollar and the Indian rupee. to our mix of business models for Q2, products improved to plus 2% growth with low single-digit growth in energy management, driven by good demand in most of our end markets, partially offset by residential building offers in North America and some parts of Western Europe. And products continues to be adversely impacted by negative contribution from industrial automation products down low single-digit. Our systems business, where we sell directly to the end user, continued with particularly high demand and strong execution, translating into sales of plus 17%, driven by data center and infrastructure, partially offset by some delayed projects in process and hybrid. Software and services were back to double-digit growth at plus 11%, supported by good growth in revenues at Aviva, double-digit growth in energy management software, and double-digit growth in digital and field services. The ARR at Aviva was plus 12%, impacted by timing of a few deals. On this slide, we show the results of energy management by geography. In Q2, energy management was up 10% driven by growth across geographies. North America was up 15% driven by our systems business with continued strong growth in data centers, further augmented by a large stadium project and growth in infrastructure. We also saw good growth in products across end markets offset by weakness in residential. U.S. and Canada both saw strong growth partially offset by weakness in Mexico with markets there impacted by tariff uncertainty. Western Europe was back to growth at plus 3% organic, with good growth in systems driven by execution of data center projects in Spain, Italy, and France, partly offset by continued weakness in residential. In terms of data center demands in Europe, we do continue to see a strong pipeline, and we start to see some small signs of better momentum towards execution in a few countries as governments look for accelerated routes to grant access to land and grid connections. Asia Pacific was up 11%, with China up mid-single-digit, with growth there led by demand in data center. The rest of Asia Pacific was up double-digit, with particularly strong growth in India, where we see strong growth across end markets, as well as double-digit growth in Australia, driven by data centers. Outside of China, Asia-Pacific starts to see a solid return to growth in residential, including in Australia. And rest of world was up 11%, primarily driven by project execution in Middle East and Africa. Turning to industrial automation, sales remained at minus 1% in Q2, although we saw a definitive shift to positive demand in the form of orders across discrete and process and hybrid. North America was minus 3% with continued weakness in discrete and delays in projects in Mexico, offsetting strong growth in Aviva software. Western Europe was flat for the quarter with double-digit growth in software, offset by continued weakness in discrete, as well as some weakness in process and hybrid, both particularly weak in Germany, whereas Italy returned to growth in both discrete and process. Asia Pacific was down 5% for the quarter, with weakness across discrete process automation and software. China was down mid-single digit, where a slight growth in sales to OEMs was more than offset by negative impacts in process and hybrid. And I will note that our OEM business in China is quite a bit larger than process and hybrid, with a good dynamic in OEM demand in Q2 and in H1. The rest of Asia-Pacific was down mid-single-digit. The rest of the world was up 8%, with double-digit contributions from software and process in hybrid and mid-single-digit sales in discrete. Middle East and Africa and Central Europe led the growth there. Turning now to our half-year P&L, we finished the half with adjusted EBITDA of $3.5 billion, a record for NH1, with organic growth of 7%. This was driven by our strong top-line growth, partially offset by a decline in our EBITDA margin of 10 basis points organic, due to a decline in our gross margin, primarily offset by good control over our operating costs. And as Olivier mentioned, despite that focus on prudently managing our costs, we do still continue to invest for our future, with R&D stepping up to 6.1% of sales, including capitalized costs. Our adjusted EBITDA in energy management was down 50 basis points, reflecting the same dynamics as the group in gross margin, partly offset by positive leverage in operating costs. Adjusted EBITDA margin in industrial automation was down 120 basis points, reflecting strong industrial productivity, offset by negative net pricing and mix, with negative operating cost leverage due to lower sales. Getting into a bit more detail on our gross margin progression, we finished the half with gross margin of 42.4%, or minus 90 basis points organic. This was driven primarily by negative net price on products due to timing of a ramp up in prices to offset effects of raw material inflation and tariffs, and due to negative mix. Outside of China, where we do see deflation and where we manage with productivity as normal, we've already increased list prices in our major jurisdictions, including the U.S., and we would expect to see a step up in pricing on products in H2. In NYX, we're back to more normalized price increases in our systems business, as anticipated, so the negative you see there is simply due to the faster growth in systems versus products. We did see positive contribution from productivity in H1, and we'd expect this to continue to step up in H2. Net-net and depending on timing of various tariff actions in the U.S., we'd now expect our gross margin progression for the full year could be somewhat negative due to the timing of price impacts flowing into the P&L to offset raw material, inflation, and tariffs. And as you know, we're a company with demonstrated pricing power, so we do expect to fully offset the impacts of tariffs and of inflation over the next quarters. In terms of our OPEX, or what we call support function costs, we continue to make investments to support our strategic priorities with a strict process of cost controls, and we continue to drive structural saving initiatives, all resulting in a good cost leverage in H-1. We would expect some additional focus and step-up in structural savings over our next quarters, so our restructuring costs for full year 2025 will be above $150 million. Turning now to net income, including scope and FX, our adjusted EBITDA is up 4%. Below the line, some items I'll note are an uptick in our net financial costs due to last year's bond refinancings and also some FX impacts. And we'd expect full-year net financial costs to be around $500 million. We also see an uptick in amortization of PPAs due to our recently closed acquisitions. These both impact our adjusted net income, which finished at minus 1% recorded or plus 6% organic. In net income, up plus 2% recorded, we have the benefit of lower other operating income and expense, partly offset by another impairment in an equity method investment focused on our software for utilities in the U.S., where we don't see the pickup in growth for the business in the next few years and where we now have very little book value remaining. Our operating cash flow for the H-1 was down 5% year over year, primarily due to the timing of the payment of cash taxes. In our free cash flow, we paid an around 200 million euro fine related to a legal case in France. We previously disclosed that, and a case that were appealing. And we continue to have some buildup in working capital, inventory in particular, in North America, supporting our business there. We do expect some unwind of that inventory buildup over the next quarters. In terms of total free cash flow for the H-1, aside from the one-time fine and the timing of cash tax payments, we have a similar seasonality in free cash flow this year as we saw in 2024. And just like last year, we expect a strong acceleration in free cash flow in H-2 to finish the year at a cash conversion ratio approaching 100%. Our debt ratios remain strong, supported by our continued strong results. And you'll see in this slide, we did receive a credit ratings upgrade to A2 by Moody's in the second quarter, with both Moody's and S&P reconfirming their ratings yesterday after the India transaction announcement. And we've put into this slide a pro forma indication of where we'd be in terms of net debt to adjusted EBITDA had we closed the India transaction at the end of June. Similar to when we acquired the minority stake in Aviva, we expect our debt ratios to go back to normal over the next few quarters. And to give a bit more financial detail on the transaction, the deal is roughly neutral to EPS, and as we consolidate this JV already, as you know we know this business very well, there's no impact to our ROCE. With that, let me pass the call back to Olivier to further discuss our expectations for the full year.

Thank you very much, Hilary. Look, to summarize and really to talk about the expected trends for 2025, of course, in an environment where there is still a lot of uncertainty everywhere, we continue definitely on our side to see a strong demand recovery in discrete automation and mention it. with really a step-by-step recovery in H2. All our end markets are growing, of course, with a different speed, but going from data centers and networks to buildings to industrial infrastructure, we are confident to continue to see a good momentum, despite some weakness, of course, still in the rest of 2025 in residential. As we said, we continue to see a strong demand in system. We have a strong backlog for this year. We are getting prepared for next year, both in data center but also in infrastructure. It's very, very important. Everything which is related to electrification creates a lot of opportunities for Schneider Electric. And as we said, we continue to see a lot of opportunities in all our digital portfolio. And in particular, we see good progress on subscription transition in software and also strong growth in services. So as Ilari said, and I mentioned it also, we are implementing a lot of actions to deliver a strong H2, a lot of focus on pricing, a lot of focus on productivity to compensate any kind of impact that we could have from the tariff. And of course, in that context, Our multi-hub model is a pretty good advantage to be much more agile and faster on how we could react in the rest of the year. All our four regions are contributing to growth, which is led, of course, you see, by U.S., by India, and the rest of Middle East and Africa, which gives us good confidence to deliver good performance in H2. When I combine all of that together, we reaffirm definitely our guidance for the rest of the year. We reaffirm our confidence to deliver an adjusted EBITDA growth between 10% and 15%, supported by a growth of 7% to 10% organic. and improvement of our adjusted EBITDA margin from 50 to 80 bps for the full year. Of course, all of that considering the uncertainty of the environment, the impact of tariff, and so on and so forth. But at the end of the day, as Hilary said, and we'll be happy to answer more questions, we have a very, very strong plan to deliver a strong H2 to deliver this end-of-year guidance. So that will close the end of the formal part of the presentation, and I'll meet and hand over back to you.

All right. Thank you, Olivia. We'll move to Q&A. I'll try to make sure that we get everyone's question in. So please keep it to one question so that we can try to make sure that we capture all the questions. Operator, let's go to the first question.

Thank you, sir. The first question is from Martin Wilkie of Citi.

Thank you. Good morning. It's Martin at Citi. The question I think was just on gross margins. You've outlined, obviously, that lower in the half, but there is obviously pricing actually expected in the second half. Could you just clarify how much of that is already... pricing that's been announced and therefore sort of automatically comes through into the second half and how much is still some uncertainty about the final tariff levels and so forth and therefore we still need to see the pricing action and announcements to happen in the half year to see that pick up in gross margins in the second half. Thank you.

Yes, sure. Thank you for the question. Look, I can start, and of course, as usual, Ilari, feel free to complete. Look, most of the action has been launched. As Ilari said, we have reacted quite fast to all the tariffs that have been announced in H1, so we have implemented some action. Of course, it takes time. There is a bit of delay. That's why we are confident we'll see a pickup in H2. Now, of course, we are watching, like anybody else, the news, what's happened, and if there are further actions to be implemented, depending on the latest news, of course, we will continue to do more. But to answer your question, most of the action and the price increase have been put in place. Now we expect a strong translation into a margin in H2. But anything else you would like to add, Hilary?

No, indeed. Like I said, we've done the list price actions in general. So now it's about executing those and the flow through into the P&L.

And stay agile depending on what else could happen in the market.

Thank you, Martin. Next question.

The next question is from William Mackey of Kepler Schiffler.

A very good morning. Thank you for giving me the mic here to you both. I wanted to ask a question about the system's growth and just on a couple of dimensions. First of all, perhaps to discuss how the backlog has been building across data centers and infrastructure quarter on quarter, and then perhaps more specifically, could you frame how you see the data center related growth developing in 2025 based on backlog execution pricing and project development. Thank you.

Sure. I can start maybe on the second part and you can go more on the detail quarter on quarter. Look, we had a lot of questions from all of you since you've been here on data center because a lot of things have happened in the market. Now, if you try to summarize everything we've heard. in the market H1. As I said in my introduction, we continue to see a very robust pipeline, first of all. Now, there is always, year on year, a different mix by region. Sometimes, people will go more through Colos. Sometimes, there will be more direct investment from hyperscalers. You see a lot of news, by the way, in the market. And you can observe they have all very, very different strategies. What is very, very important for us is we see all regions contributing to the data center. We speak a lot about North America. But we see a robust pipeline in India, in Middle East, in China. We see it also more recently this year in France. So we are confident with the pipeline. We have a solid backlog to deliver H2. So at the end of the day, it continues to be a robust pipeline and delivering definitely a very strong opportunity for China Electric. Now, maybe you want to give a bit more details on how the backlog is evolving quarter on quarter and how we are preparing also next year.

Sure. I think we've mentioned in the press release that we continue to see underlying strong double digit demand and strong double digit growth in sales. The only thing that we'd called out was we had a reface. It's not new news. We had a refacing of business. backlog and orders of one of our largest customers doesn't really impact 2025, just timing and already as anticipated. So that strong double digit growth in backlog obviously implies, of course, that we continue to have a book to build decently above one. And we expect that to flow into sales in the second half of 2025. Nothing really to call out in terms of any change in terms of pace and into 2026.

Thank you, Will. Next question, please.

The next question is from Alastair Leslie of Bernstein.

Thank you. Maybe, and good morning, maybe just following up on data centers there in Europe. I mean, I was just wondering whether you could update us on that region. It does look like, based on the commentary, perhaps there's a bit of a pickup this quarter versus the last. I mean, you're still flagging an overall environment of project delays, I think. those starting to ease at all and maybe what's your prognosis for kind of a re-acceleration already in in the second half and there may be linked to that on a broader level your usp yesterday they said that they kind of felt that the regulatory environment in europe was becoming more conducive to ai infrastructure investment it sounds like from the comments hillary made earlier that you're you're perhaps seeing the same thing but perhaps you could just expand on that thank you yes sure look uh

I would say, first of all, definitely we've started some pickup in Q2 with Hillary, but too early from speaking to confirm the massive acceleration of growth in Europe in particular. But there is some early signal. Second point I mentioned briefly, we see definitely a growing pipeline in data center in Europe. I just mentioned France before. But I would say relatively cautious because there are a lot of those new investments that we see that are probably good news for the mid-term. But Europe will continue to be a very challenging environment in H2. Now we have a good confidence to keep accelerating because we have differentiated offer. Of course, part of our portfolio is related to the market. But we are also launching a new offer in the market, new initiative. We announced, for instance, the joint venture with Star Charge, which is a new business. So we try to accelerate our performance through a lot of new growth initiatives. But I would say we are cautiously positive on what's happening in Europe, I would say.

All right. Thank you, Alistair. Next question.

The next question is from Jonathan Mouncey of BNP Party by Exane.

Hi, good morning, everyone. Thanks for letting me ask the question. Maybe I'll ask one on capital allocation, given yesterday's news. So, obviously, very helpful of you to give the pro forma net debt to EBITDA post that deal completing, I think 2.13. I suppose it sort of begs the question, what does this mean in terms of at least the next one to two years in terms of your future M&A ambitions, certainly at least for the next 12 months or so? I mean, would you potentially resort to equity for the right deal? How much financial leverage could you go to? Is this really kind of the top end of the range and we'll have to wait to de-lever before we start thinking about further deals? Yeah, really just some cover on capital allocation and how far you're willing to take the balance sheet.

Thank you for the question. I'll take the first part probably more on the strategic part and hand over to Hilary for the financial part. You know, Schneider, we have been very consistent from an M&A standpoint. We always do M&A when it helps us to accelerate our strategy. We are extremely selective. We are looking at those deals that accelerate the transformation of the portfolio of Schneider Electric, but also our positioning in geography. That's why we are very excited with one Motiver liquid cooling for the US, for the rest of the world, accelerating the position of Schneider Electric in data center. Very excited again with what we have announced yesterday in India, because that confirmed really the strong position we have in India as a force hub of Schneider Electric. Double digit growth opportunity. And we'll continue definitely to be active in the next 12, 24 months, but we'll be always selective. For me, what is super important is a strategic fit, how we tell Schneider Electric to be stronger, to accelerate our strategy, and of course, making sure we do it at the right price. But I hand over to you, Hilary, probably for the second part of the question, which is more on the financial part.

Sure. I think capital allocation, like Olivia said, doesn't change. Our first priority being maintaining our strong investment-grade credit ratings. You can see, actually, both ratings agencies, like I said, confirmed the ratings target that they have today in light of the India transaction. And actually, within those ratings, we remain with a decent level of liquidity. We're a strong liquidity company. So we would expect to remain agile and opportunistic in terms of M&A, like we've always said. So effectively, from my perspective, no real change from a capital allocation standpoint.

Thank you, John. Next question.

The next question is from Daniela Costa of Goldman Sachs.

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to ask to dive a little bit deeper into Western Europe on the energy management side where you have a turn back to growth this quarter. Was that just the data center part turning given you didn't have the same maybe comparables as last quarter? Or do you see like any other green light signs across other areas in Europe? Thank you.

Thank you for the question. Look, it's fairly consistent with what I said in my presentation. It's definitely a data center is contributing, but also we see good opportunity in infrastructure and everything which is related to the digitalization of the grid. So everything which is related to power grid continue to be positive. Building, we are a little bit more cautious. Of course, extremely cautious on residential at that stage. We don't see any turnaround at that point of time. But I would say on the building side, through energy efficiency, we continue to see a positive trend. So you could say that what we see in Europe is fairly consistent with what I presented when I was talking about the mid-term trend. Now, on the other side, as I said, we are bringing new offer to the market. which is definitely very good because it helps us to accelerate a little bit the growth in the market, which is still, I would say, relatively low compared to the rest of the world.

All right. Thanks, Daniela. Next question.

The next question is from Philippa Buller of J.P. Morgan.

Hi. Good morning. Thank you for the question. I was hoping to ask about IA, please. It's obviously nice to see the step-by-step improvements in demand. I was hoping you could help calibrate us on the margin side. I think for this year, consensus is expecting about 15% for the full year. That's obviously a big step up in the second half margin. I would assume that that's perhaps a little bit ambitious. And are there any perhaps ingredients you can share on the mechanical uplift from Aviva once we're through that SaaS transition phase? from today into 27. And also there's this slight increase in H2 restructuring costs at the group level should reassume that that's predominantly targeted to IA in the second half of the year. Basically, anything you can help share to help build confidence or build the bridge on the margin recovery in IA would be great. Thanks.

Thank you for the question and I let of course Hilarie go into detail. But for all I would say it's a very important focus for us. IA is absolutely essential to the delivery of our whole strategy. We have a very strong plan to come back to growth but also to higher profitability. Of course we have been impacted in the past by lower We are also doing a very strong plan on our SG&E on that part to be back to profitability. But I'll let you, Hilary, probably go a little bit more in detail. But it's a very strong area of focus for us in H2O.

Sure. So maybe I'll start with sort of the elements that have seen that step down in IA margin over the past couple of years. First, clearly mix. There's a market differential, not just for ourselves, but everybody, between discrete automation and process automation in terms of gross margin and margin. So as the discrete market fell away, naturally we had a big impact in terms of mix on Also, because of the transition at Aviva, I think if you look over the past few years, probably around a third of the decline in the industrial automation margin has been associated with that transition to subscription at Aviva. So that's another sort of mix issue, I suppose. And then similar to energy management, we have some slow translation of pricing. into the P&L in the H-1 of this year in particular. And then we've had some deleveraging costs. We've continued to invest for the future in IA. So what would you expect in the H-2? You know, as we expect it – And it's hard to call the exact timing. You can see we still have 7% to 10%, for example, in our guidance on sales for this full year. But as we have a return in discrete automation, this will obviously be an uplift in terms of margins for industrial automation. And as we come out of the transition with Aviva in 2027, this is another obvious and mathematical uplift as well. And if you recall, we said a number of times we would expect EVA after this transition to be back to a rule of 40 companies. So the sum of growth and adjusted EBITDA margin should be 40 or above in general for that business. So both of these are an automatic turn. Now, in terms of costs, certainly that's something that we're focused on. We're focused on as a company overall, and industrial automation will definitely be a part of that.

All right. Thank you, Phil. Next question.

The next question is from Gael Dubois of Deutsche Bank.

Well, thanks very much. Good morning, everybody. Can I ask again about the data center organic growth performance? I think this quarter we saw a very big acceleration. in data center organic roles at most of your peers, really. But that's a trend that I can't really see so much in your publication today. So I guess my question is whether you've been adding capacities quick enough. I mean, any update on the ramp-up process would be really useful, you know, maybe in terms of how quickly the process is going on and how dilutive it might have been again in the first half of this year to the margin.

So thank you for the question. Look, if you remember, first of all, what we said last year, we've been ramping up our capacity. It has not started this year, already last year, to make sure we can face really this very, very important growth opportunity that we have in data center. We've done it, if you remember, when we have announced all the investment we are doing in the US on the capacity side, in India as well. So on a capacity standpoint, we have taken a certain number of measures to make sure we are ready to face this important wave. The second point that we mentioned, which is very important when we speak about capacity, a large part of what we sell in data center is also for the other end market of Schneider. So we have this unique ability to leverage really the capacity. Whenever there is more data center we can support, if there is a bit of slowdown for one quarter and a higher demand on the rest of the market. So to answer your question in short, and Hilary, of course, I'll let you complete, we are fairly confident that with all the action that has been taken roughly 12, 18 months ago, that we are in a good position to capture the growth opportunity in the data center, short-term, mid-term, across all the parts of our portfolio. And then there is a specific case which is, of course, Motivair, which is a company which was mainly focused in the U.S., where we have ramped up already capacity for the U.S. market, but now we are getting ready for the international market.

Maybe just two points I would add. So in terms of market share, I think we feel very good about how we're performing in data center. Of course, we all have different baselines and this type of thing, and this is a projects business. The second point I would make, with the new capacity that we're adding, indeed, we have more – we're performing well in terms of productivity today. You can see the good contribution in the H1. but there's more potential for productivity in the future that we'll probably talk about in the next quarters.

All right. Thank you, Gail. Next question, please.

The next question is from Max Yates of Morgan Stanley.

Thank you. Good morning. Could I just ask on your gross pricing in products? I guess I understand why sort of the systems business may see some negative pricing and that normally goes into your mix line in your EBIT bridge. But most companies in industrials and electricals are seeing sort of 1% to 2% price rises. And I guess that would have been $180 million to $360 million in the bridge. It was slightly negative on gross pricing. So I guess my question is, Is it difficult to push prices up from current levels? Are there any kind of products or regions where pricing is negative? Yeah, just any detail around why gross pricing and products should be negative. Just ignoring net pricing, but the gross price. Thank you.

Yeah, sure, sure. Thank you for the question. Maybe I can start on the region and give you, Hilarie, the floor to give more perspective. Definitely, the situation region by region is very different. We start, for instance, we see China, which is still a kind of deflationary environment where it's difficult to price up. But I would say This is the exception. For the rest of the world, we are confident that we have good pricing capability. We have leadership position in most of our portfolio. So I would say definitely we see difference region by region, China being on the extreme side, but we see strong pricing power on the other part of the world.

Yeah, and I think we talked about it quite a bit now. For us, it's more, in our mind, more of a timing issue flowing through into the P&L. So we've done those price list increases. What you do see, therefore, is that deflation in China without yet the uptick in pricing. We would expect to see that uptick in pricing in products in the second half. And maybe just to one other point you made on systems, we do continue to see some improvement in gross margin in systems, so positive price in systems. Actually, if you pull price out of that whole bridge, on a whole, we're positive in price. including both systems and products, just not at the same level that we've seen in prior years. And that was as anticipated. So I think it's more just a timing issue in terms of products that we'll expect to see a different dynamic in the H2. All right.

Thank you, Max. Next question, please.

The next question is from George Petherstone of Barclays.

Hi, morning everyone. Thanks for the question. Mostly hyperscale customers have been stating through the year that they're currently shifting their spend towards the server room. Have you noticed a difference at all in the demand for white space versus grey space products and systems?

So, indeed, I think this is something we've talked about a few times before, the gray versus white space, where actually we feel we're pretty well positioned in both. Areas that we would call out, for example, where I have trouble placing them would be things like liquid cooling, which I suppose is in the server room, but connected over. And we talked about the excitement we have with the Motivare acquisition. So I don't think our team has called out anything in particular about that different dynamics. Actually, with AI, I think we think what's most important is is that interconnection between the gray and white space as energy intensity starts to increase. And also with liquid cooling, there's a real connection between all that stuff now that you really need in order to deliver energy efficiency. And I think that energy efficiency is really the key to all that next upticks that the hyperscalers would need to see to build that data center infrastructure.

Thanks, George. Next question, please.

The next question is from Ben Uglow of Oxcap.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the question. I wanted to come back and thank you very much for all the color on the industrial automation margin. I think I sort of understand what's happened in the last sort of 12, 18 months or so. But I wanted to kind of look at it a little bit longer. If we look at the business, let's say, over the last five to ten years, you've averaged pretty consistently 17% margin, and you've achieved those types of level even in the down cycle. I think you got down to about 15% in the first half of 2020. My question, and maybe it's for Hilary, my question is, are you confident that the downturn that you're seeing in the margin at the moment and, you know, stripping out, let's say, Aviva at 50 bits, SAS transition or whatever it might be. Are you absolutely confident that that is purely cyclical? Or are there any other structural factors going on? So do we know for sure that there hasn't been a change in market share? that our customer base in Italy or machine builders or whomever it might be is absolutely the same as it was. This is very much a cyclical phenomenon and that we're going to go back to where we were, you know, the 17% plus range once these effects roll off. Is that the view?

Indeed, I think that is the view. A couple of points I would note there. As you saw, probably over the past few quarters, it's true that the downturn in discrete was probably a bit longer than we anticipated this time. So we did continue to invest for the future, for example. So we didn't... quite do the agility we might have done in prior years. Plus, we have Aviva. So we feel good that, in fact, we should go back to those same levels from just a mathematical and structural standpoint as we see the market come back. And it's hard to call the exact timing. But let's say as the market come back and we have Aviva coming out of the transition, one would presume at least by 2027.

All right. Thank you, Ben. I'm mindful we're at the hour, but maybe we'll have another couple of questions just to make sure everyone has the opportunity. So, operator, next question, please.

The next question is from Andre Cookman of UBS.

Yes. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I just have a brief kind of bigger picture margin question as well. When we think about your target of 20% and kind of how we're going to get there, Is this now purely reliant on industrial automation recovery held by the measures and the cycle and the DIVA or do you see scope for margin improvement in energy management as well if we look out a couple of years?

No, no, look, it's clearly both, and I think all the comments we've made together with Hillary, of course, there is one which is specific on IEA, but when it comes to a strong focus on pricing power plus productivity, it applies, of course, to energy management, and we have a robust plan not only to deliver our objective for H2, but I do see an opportunity to keep on accelerating beyond 2025. I was mentioning briefly to all of you that we are preparing the next company story, company program of Schneider. And there is a very, very strong focus on competitiveness, which starts from the design of the new offer, design to cost, to more productivity plus pricing. So I do believe the focus will pay in H2 and beyond, in IA, but of course in energy management, which is very, very important and the core of the company.

Right, very clear. Thank you for that question. And maybe we'll take one last one in case there is one.

Yes, sir. The next question is from James Moore of Redburn Atlantic.

Yes, good morning, everyone, and thank you. I wondered, Olivier, if I could ask you about portfolio. Your software business, Aviva, is more AC, more process construction, really, whereas your automation business is predominantly discrete. At least it's bigger than process. Do you see any room to shift into PLM and CAD over time? Would you be interested in such assets?

That's a very good question. Look, that's not the first strategic priority of the company. I would say that's not where Schneider wants to position. Now, if you step back and you look at the opportunity we have in front of us in all our end markets, you mentioned very clearly we have the franchise we have created with Zaveva in industrial software that creates a huge differentiation. By the way, We never speak a lot about it, but a lot of synergy generated by the rest of Schneider. What I do see as the next frontier for Schneider Electric is everything we do in software and in digital in energy. Again, if you step back, we want to be really the energy technology partner of our customer. We created a strong franchise in industry. We are creating the same on the energy side, which is here a mix of what we do with a non-agnostic part of our portfolio, going to digital services. We do sell already a lot of software in energy, but our objective is really to go to the next cycle and to reinforce our position on the energy side. PLM, I would say, is a bit beyond really the core strategy of Shell Electric and not the primary focus at that stage.

All right. Thank you, James. I think, you know, we'll probably stop the Q&A over here. And maybe in case there are some who we couldn't get through to, we'll engage with you separately. At the same time, in the coming weeks, we are going to be on the road and look forward to seeing most of you, if not all. So thank you very much for your time today, as well as your continued support of Schneider Electric. Have a good rest of the day.

Thank you very much.