Saf Holland Se

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our conference call on our Q1 2026 results. Turning to the financial highlights for the first quarter in this year on page three, please. Here you can see that group sales reached around 452 million euro, representing an organic growth of 5.6% year over year and benefited from the recovery trend in EMEA as well as in APEC. However, the Americas region continued its weak momentum in both truck and trailer segments. As a result, this caused a negative regional mix effect in the first quarter, and overall profitability was nearly on par with the previous year, and the quarter closed with a solid adjusted EBIT margin of 9.4%, and the adjusted EBITDA margin was 13%. The operating free cash flow came in strongly with around €45 million, reflecting strict working capital management and, as said before, a solid organic growth. Leverage further improved to 2.2 times, mainly due to the strong cash performance. And in a nutshell, Q126 represents a solid start to the year and gives us confidence for the months ahead. On page four, you can see the development of group sales and adjusted EBIT development. During the first quarter, SF Holland benefited from the ongoing recovery in the European OE market, while APEC markets also recorded a clear sequential improvement. Against this backdrop, the group delivered solid organic revenue growth of 5.6%, demonstrating the strength of its regional and business mix. The aftermarket business continued to perform at a high and resilient level, providing stable support to overall revenues. While the foreign exchange effects created a headwind of around 5%, group sales reached 451.7 million euros in the first three months of the year, slightly exceeding the prior year level. And now turning to profitability, as of Holland achieved a solid adjusted EBIT margin of 9.4%. And this performance reflects continued strict cost discipline, mainly within SG&A, as a result of the first positive contributions from the efficiency program in indirect functions. So overall, the group's resilient margin development once again highlights the robustness and scalability of SF Holland's operating model, even in a mixed market environment. Moving on to the sales split by region and customer category on the next page, please. Here you can see that in the first quarter of 26, EMEA further strengthened its position, with the region increasing to around 52% of group sales now. This development was driven by the ongoing recovery in European trailer and truck OE demand. In North America, commercial vehicle production levels remain subdued. However, the market is providing early signs of stabilization. By contrast, APEC delivered a strong performance, supported by solid demand growth in India and Australia, and as a result, revenues in the region grew by almost 9%. with APAC contributing 13% to group sales now. Looking at the performance by customer segment, the recovery momentum in Europe and APAC translated into meaningful increase in trailer OE sales, which grew by around 6% and accounted for now 52% of group sales. Truck OE sales now representing 11% of the group's top line, reflecting the still cautious market environment in North America and mainly in the U.S. And once again, the aftermarket business demonstrated its resilience and strategic importance, contributing a solid 37% of total group sales. Let's speak about EMEA on the next page, please. With OE demand improving across the trailer and truck segments, EMEA delivered strong organic sales growth of 8%, in the first quarter of 26. And this performance was further supported by a stable and resilient aftermarket business, providing an additional pillar of strength. Geopolitical developments, including the conflict in the Middle East, have so far not had any material impact on the group's order book, which gives us confidence for the upcoming month. And despite a slightly adverse mixed effect resulting from the higher share of the growing OE business, Adjusted EBIT increased by around 16% compared to the prior year. This improvement was primarily driven by the positive scale effects and continued strict cost management, reflecting the benefits of the efficiency program implemented in the indirect area, which we started already last year. So overall, EMEA delivered a solid performance in the first quarter of this year. Speaking of miracles of the next Next slide, please. Here you can see that in the first quarter of 26, demand in the OE business remained subdued across our truck and trailer segments, reflecting an ongoing uncertainty around the U.S. tariff policy, as well as the potential industry discussions related to EPA 27. At the same time, our aftermarket business once again demonstrated also its resilience and was able to partially offset the softer OE environment. supporting the overall sales development. Against a still comparatively strong prior year with still solid truck demand, organic sales were moderately lower by 2.5%. FX developments remained a headwind with a negative impact of 8.5% on reported sales. And following the successful implementation of retroactive price adjustments in the fourth quarter of 2025, To fully offset additional tariff-related costs, the first quarter of 26 showed a stable overall pricing and cost position. The year-over-year development in adjusted EBIT mainly reflects lower fixed cost absorption in a softer volume environment. This effect was substantially mitigated by continued strict cost discipline, mainly also here within SG&A. Overall, the America segment demonstrated its resilience, delivering a solid double-digit margin despite ongoing market weaknesses, mainly in the U.S. Last but not least, on the next slide, we speak about our APEC region. And here in APEC, the overall demand continued to improve during the first quarter, and the region benefited from the ongoing recovery in the Indian trailer market, as well as a solid demand in Australia and New Zealand. While exports from India to Asian markets remained subdued due to tariff frameworks, this had only a limited impact on the overall regional development. FX effects continued to represent a heavy headwind with a negative impact of 13.4% on reported sales. The adjusted EBIT increased by around 8% in line with sales growth, resulting in a stable profitability level year over year. And at the same time, The SF Hond operation in China showed a strong operational recovery driven by improved capacity utilization as well as a targeted efficiency program. Overall, APEC delivered a solid and increasingly balanced performance with improving end markets and continued progress on the operational side. And having said this, I hand over to Frank for the key financials for the first quarter.

Thank you, Alex. And hello to everybody on the line. Let me start with a short overview on the EBIT to adjusted EBIT reconciliation for the group on page 10. During the first three months of 2026, reported EBIT increased slightly by 2.8% year-over-year to 36.9 million euro reported by our overall strict cost management. Moreover, depreciation and amortization from purchase price allocations were adjusted as usual and declined by 1.2 million Euro compared to the prior year, mainly due to expiring amortization related to the IMS acquisition. Our adjustments remained at low level of only 0.9 million Euro and were largely coming from legal and transaction-related expenses. As a result, Saar-Vorland achieved an almost stable adjusted EBIT and a solid adjusted EBIT margin of 9.4 percent in the first quarter, 2026. The adjusted EBITDA margin remained broadly stable at robust 13%, underlining the continued resilience of the group's earnings profile. Moving on to page 11, where you see the bridge from EBIT to basic earnings per share. As mentioned earlier, reported EBIT for the first quarter amounted to €36.9 million. At the same time, we made further progress in actively managing below-the-line items. The financial result improved by €10.1 million to a level of minus €5.2 million. This improvement was mainly driven by lower unrealized FX effects. Following the adjustments to our intercompany financing structure, we were able to further reduce our overall FX exposure. The remaining exposure was positively influenced by favorable currency movements, particularly to the US dollar. As a result, while the prior year period was still burdened by negative FX effects of 5.8 million Euro, the first quarter of this year benefited from a positive FX contribution. In addition, and even more important, we further optimized our external financing structure and interest expenses, declined by 1.1 million Euro, or almost 9% year over year. Income taxes remained broadly stable compared to the previous year, with an effective tax rate of 35.3%. Tax rate continues to be mainly influenced by non-capitalized deferred assets related to interest and loss carry forwards. For the full year 26, we continue to expect a tax rate of around 35%. Overall, the improved finance results, together with an improved EBIT, translated into a strong earnings performance. Reported EPS increased by 57% year-over-year to €0.45. Hence, also the adjusted EPS increased by almost 38% to €0.61. Adjusting all the unrealized FX effects according to our dividend definition, the EPS improved by 4.2% versus previous year, what is highlighting the resilience and profitability of the group despite the still challenging market environment. Moving to page 12, where you see the development of the equity ratio. Compared with the year-end 2025, equity rose by 4.9% or €24.2 million to €516.2 million, mainly driven by the positive result for the period. At the same time, the balance sheet total grew by 5.8%, compared to year-end 2025, primarily reflecting the seasonal buildup of working capital in the first quarter. As a result, the equity ratio stood at a solid 29.3% at the end of March 26, and therefore almost reached the year-end 2025 level. Turning to page 13, I would like to speak about net working capital development. Networking capital at March 2026 was influenced by several factors. First, it reflects the usual seasonal build-up at the beginning of the year, which was further supported by continued top-line growth. At the same time, trade payables developed very favorably, benefiting from extended payment terms versus our suppliers and providing significant positive contribution to working capital. In addition, development was further supported by strict inventory management, which remains a key focus area for the remainder of the year. In contrast, trade receivables increased mainly due to a structurally different customer mix that was partly compensated by higher factoring volumes of plus 8 million euro. Overall, these developments resulted in an improvement in networking capital of 4.2% to 17.1% of sales and therefore comfortably in our target corridor of 16% to 18%. And now let me address the cash flow development on page 14. Net cash flow from operating activities developed very strongly in the first quarter, reaching €44.8 million. This performance reflects not only the solid operating result, but also a favorable development in working capital. As mentioned earlier, networking capital benefited from targeted measures, including improved payment terms and a general strict inventory management. In addition, tax payments decreased slightly in line with the underlying business development of previous years. The upper line amounting to 5 million euro primarily relates to changes in deferred tax assets. Investments in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets totaled €5.1 million, corresponding to 1.1% of group sales. As typical for the first quarter, investment activity remained at a comparatively moderate level, fully in line with our full-year guidance of up to 3% of sales. Overall, investments were focused on further automation and modernization of production processes alongside targeted equipment additions in line with our Drive 2030 ambition to grow our business to more than 3 billion until 2020-2030. Moving on to an overview of the leverage development on page 15. Net debt to EBITDA ratio stood at 2.2 times at the end of March 26, slightly below the level at year end 2025, and benefited in particular from an improved net debt. Cost debt increased moderately and was influenced by the issuance of a 100 million Euro promissory note loan. This transaction further strengthened the maturity profile and was mainly used to refinance around 93 million Euro of outstanding maturities, mainly due in March 2027. At the same time, our cash and cash equivalents increased by approximately €34 million. This improvement was achieved despite the ongoing share buyback program, under which €6.2 million were deployed during the quarter. In addition, we further strengthened our financing profile by extending our revolving credit facility by €75 million to €325 million, which was undrawn by the end of March 26. Altogether, we see solid headroom to target on mid-size M&A projects without additional financing. Excluding the IFRS 16 effect, our leverage would have amounted to a significantly lower level of 1.9 times at the end of March 26. And now I hand back to Alex.

Yeah, thank you, Frank. I'm on page 17 showing the 2026 forecast. for the trailer and truck markets. And as mentioned earlier, European and Asia-Pacific markets showed encouraging signs of recovery at the start of the year. And in contrast, North America continues to be shaped by a more cautious demand environment, primarily driven by ongoing uncertainty surrounding the upcoming EPA 27 regulations, but also due to the USMCA discussions going on. Looking ahead, we expect the trailer and truck markets in North America in 26 to benefit from improving freight rates and increasing regulatory clarity over the course of the year, supporting a gradual normalization of demand. Therefore, we continue to expect a largely stable development in North American trailer market, and at the same time, we have upgraded our outlook for the Class 8 truck market and now expect growth in range of 0 to 10% plus. In the Brazilian CV market, which remained below expectations and against the backdrop of a persistently high interest rate environment, we currently see a market decline in the range of 5 to 10% for 26. For EMEA, we continue to see a steady to moderately positive development in trailer markets, while the heavy drug market is expected to show a somewhat stronger growth profile with increases of up to 10%. Also, our market expectations for the APEC region were moderately updated post the strong development in Q1. Having said that, let me briefly come to our guidance for 26 on page 18. and here we confirm our guidance unchanged across all key performance indicators. At the same time, the current geopolitical environment, particularly developments related to the conflict in the Middle East and the potential implications for the broader economic situation of our end markets remain difficult to assess with a high degree of uncertainty. That said, based on what we see today, we feel confident in the resilience of our business model, which positions us well to respond flexibly to potential demand and cost dynamics. So from today's perspective, we do not see any material impact on SAF Holland and therefore remain comfortably with our current outlook. And last but not least, let me briefly summarize the key takeaways for the first quarter on the next slide. First of all, we have seen a solid start into the year with demand normalization in Europe and Asia Pacific clearly gaining traction and translating into an improved top-line performance. This underlines that our regional diversification is paying off. At the same time, we continue to demonstrate the resilience of our earnings profile With an adjusted EBIT margin of 9.4%, we are essentially on par with last year's level, supported by disciplined cost management and a solid contribution across our three regions. Cash generation was very strong in the first quarter, with an operating free cash flow of nearly 45 million euro, reflecting our continued focus on efficient working capital management across the organization. So overall, Q1 was an encouraging start into 26 and gives us confidence that we are well-positioned to navigate a volatile macro and geopolitical environment. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the presentation. Thank you for listening. And we now can start with our questions. Operator, the first question, please.