Techtronic Indus Ltd Adr

For the six-month period ended June 30th, 2026. After the presentation, there will be question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. Please be advised that this conference is being recorded today. Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to our four looking statements on our presentation slide. Now let me introduce to you the key management of TTI with us today. They are Mr. Horst Pudwill, Executive Chairman, Mr. Frank Chen, our CFO, Mr. Steve Richman, our CEO, and Mr. Ty Savitsky, Group Deputy CFO. Without further ado, let me pass our time to our Executive Chairman for the opening remark. Mr. Pudwill, please.

Thank you for attending TTI's first half 2026 results announcement. We delivered an outstanding first half with record revenue, gross profit, EBIT and net profit. I am also proud to say we had a strong free cash flow, further strengthening our balance sheet and our net cash position. All of our core businesses delivered solid results with our flagship Milwaukee and RYOBI businesses yielding underlying growth of 8.2% in local currency. With our global businesses diversified operation on supply chain and the best team in the industry, we are well positioned to continue outperforming the market. We continue investing in areas that matter, such as product development and R&D, allowing us to confidently maintain our leadership position. The strong first half we delivered is the result of our strength and dedication of our outstanding team. It is a strategic focus and operational excellence that allows us to continue delivering value to our customers and shareholders. I will now hand over the presentation to our Group CFO, Frank Chan. who will talk you through the financials, followed by our Group CEO Steve Richman and Deputy CFO Ty Savitsky who will walk you through our operation.

Thank you Mr Chairman. We are pleased to report both record sales and profits for the first half of 2026. Our reported sales was at USD 8.3 billion, an increase of 5.9% or 4% in local currencies. Milwaukee and Ryobi combined delivered an underlying growth of 8.2% in local currencies, only being offset by the exit of HUD and the rationalisation of our non-core business. Milwaukee grew 10.5% on an underlying basis in local currencies after adjusting the planned timing impact of our ERP conversion. Weobie grew 1.7% in local currencies. Weobie Power Tools delivered strong results with sales up mid-single digit, only partially offset by a softer outdoor season. Our other 6.6% non-core business declined by 19.4% in local currencies due to the hard exit and continued streamlining of floor care and other consumer brands. We will have a more detailed sales growth by brand breakdown later. Ross profits increased by 12.6% to $3.6 billion, with margins improved by 258 basis points to 42.9%. If we normalise the 2025 first half gross margin, adjusting the excess tariffs incurred during the peak level and the dilution effect by heart, our 2026 gross margins effectively increased by 163 basis points as compared to the 41.2% normalised margin in the first half of 2025. These exceptional 163 basis points improvements mainly attributed to the annualisation of tariff mitigation effects, additional margin accretion across EMEA and Australia regions, favourable mix, strong Milwaukee performance, surfacing the high growth end markets and continued improvements in our non-core business. Our EBIT increased by 15.9% to $822 million with margin improved by 86 basis points to 9.9%. We believe we are very well positioned to meet or exceed our internal target of 10% EBIT margin by 2027. We will also have a gross margin and EBIT margin walk later in the presentation by Tai. Net profits increased by 17.5% to $738 million. Net profit margin increased by 88 basis points due to the lower net finance costs and with effective tax rates remain comparable to that of last year. Earnings per share increased by 17.8% to US$0.405 per share. The Board of Directors declared an interim dividend of HK$150 per share, an increase of 20% over last year with a payout ratio of 47.8% as compared to 46.9% first half 2025. During the period, we have changed our segment reporting from the business segment of power equipment and floor care cleaning to professional and consumer as this reflects how management refilled the structure and operations from end users and blend platform perspective. Professional segment mainly through Milwaukee Brand delivered a sales of $5.9 billion in the first half of 2026, an increase of 9.7% in reported currencies. EBIT increased by 16% with margin improved 57 basis points to 10.5%. Sales of consumer segments through Ryobi, AEG, WAX, Hoover and other brands servicing the consumer channel decreased by 2.5% to $2.4 billion. The decline mainly due to the continued sales personalisation of 4K and other consumer brands and hard exit, while Ryobi delivered a 1.7% growth in local currencies. EBIT, however, delivered a 15.8% increase with margins improved by 133 basis points to 8.5%. The improvement reflects the benefits of the hard exit and our focus on profitability across all consumer brands. SG&A increased it by 170 basis points to 33% of sales, closely in line with the second half of 2025. This increase reflects our continued investments in new products, technology, service levels, and write-off of intangibles related to the rationalisation of underperforming categories. Strategic selling expenses represent 19.1% of sales, while R&D spend remained comparable to first half last year at 4.6%. We have, however, continued to leverage our sales growth and managed to reduce our non-strategic administrative expenses from 9.5% of sales last year to 9.3%. With the strong and healthy balance sheet and the over $1 billion operating free cash flows generated past three consecutive years, we have been able to continue to reduce our net finance costs. Our net finance causes for the first half was $19.6 million, representing 0.23% of sales, a reduction of $8.2 million or 29.4%. Effective tax rates remain the same as full year 2025 at 8%. We have continued to maintain that with our proactive and yet prudent tax strategy and plan, the current level of effective tax rates is very sustainable. Our balance sheet remained very healthy and strong with shareholders' equity at $7.4 billion, an increase of $791 million or 11.9% over that of the same period last year. Net current assets increased by 25.8% to $3.87 billion. In this very dynamic and challenging macroeconomic environment, we will continue to prudently manage our balance sheet to invest and grow our business. Working capital as a percentage of sales was at 16.6%. 20 basis points improved when compared to same period last year. Total inventory days decreased by 3 days to 100 days. Finished goods inventory reduced by 6 days while raw materials increased by 4 days and work in progress decreased by 1 day. Receivable days reduced by 5 days to 55 days and payable days also reduced to 94 days. Improving working capital efficiencies has always been our primary focus, and we believe we can further improve it going forward. CapEx spend was at $92 million, comparable to that of last year. With capacity expansions planned in Vietnam and Mexico for the next 12 to 18 months' time, we continue to project that our CapEx spend will be broadly stable as a percentage of sales in the coming years. In this current business environment, we focus very much in free cash flow generation. In the first half of 2026, we have delivered an operating free cash flow of $753 million, an increase of $285 million compared to the same period last year. For the full year, our internal target is to deliver approximately $1.3 billion operating free cash flows, and we are very confident in achieving this target. When compared to first half 2025, our net cash position increased from $126 million to close to $1.1 billion in 2026, demonstrating our cash flow generating capabilities, prudent working capital and balance sheet management. We are confident that we will continue to be in a net cash position by end of 2026. In the first half of 2026, we've increased our cash balance by $281 million or 17.5% to close to $1.9 billion, while reduced our total borrowings by $659 million or 44.5%. The reduction in borrowings were mainly by paying down $418 million, the more expensive floating rate working capital borrowings, and $241 million longer-term fixed rate debts matured during the period. Lower-cost fixed-rate debts now account for 80% of our total debt portfolio. We will continue to leverage our strong balance sheet for opportunities to increase our long-term fixed-rate borrowings with the most cost-effective courses to support our long-term growth strategy going forward. With that, I would like to pass the presentation to our CEO, Mr. Steve Richman.

Our journey at TTI has always been built on our two bookends of success, our people and our culture. We recruit, retain, and invest in the best people around the world. And that is core to who we are every single day. Our users, our distribution partners, and our shareholders have all seen firsthand the passion these people bring. How they drive solutions every single day. How they drive both the top line and the bottom line. That passion is exactly what delivered another record first half in 2026. Now what sets TTI apart is that we perform as one global team. Our operations, our new product development, our commercialization teams challenge each other constantly to define what great looks like and how we improve, how we get better every single day. And that one team philosophy is anchored by a senior leadership group that has been together for nearly two decades, as well as the next generation of leaders that are coming up that have been together for over a decade. All of them together understand that they have to have candid dialogue and trust that come from those relationships that they have built And this is a genuine competitive advantage and a core part of our culture. As we look at the first half of 2026 and beyond, there are three areas I want to focus on. Growth, profitability, and execution. Let's start with growth. In EMEA, our teams dominate specific markets on both the consumer and the professional business. And the opportunity ahead is to extend that same domination into new markets with RYOBI on the consumer front and Milwaukee on the professional front. In the first half, EMEA delivered outstanding double digit growth in Milwaukee. In Asia and Latin America, we are still at the beginning of our journey. On the Milwaukee side, we have moved from test and learn to an invest and grow approach. And for the first time, we now have that same runway opportunity for Ryobi, the number one consumer brand in the world. And even in our most established markets, North America and Australia, We believe we are still in the early innings because our relentless focus is on expanding the market, launching new businesses, and earning the right every day with our consumer and pro to grow. Now the second is profitability. I have never seen us more aligned as one team than we are right now. In the first half, we expanded gross margin to a record 42.9% and grew EBIT margin to a record 9.9%. All of this comes from disciplined portfolio choices. The mixed benefit of our two dominant higher margin brands and the annualization of our tariff mitigation work But what excites me most is underneath those numbers, we are unlocking leverage and global alignment at a scale, coordinating across brands and regions and functions in a way that lets us drive down costs to reinvest in the business. We are also deliberate about where that margin comes from in our consumer businesses. We are at the beginning of a journey on a radical approach to cost. Re-engineering our products so they are designed around what the end user, what that consumer actually needs. Delivering the features that matter while taking cost out of everything that does not. And in Milwaukee, we still have significant room to capture value. because of the productivity and safety our solutions bring to our end users every single day on the job. We put that together, and this is why our confidence in reaching our 10% EBIT margin target by 27 has only grown. Third is execution, and this is clearly the hard part. Execution takes leadership and grit. It is where companies separate themselves. The first half of 2026 tested exactly that. Commodity pressures ramped up meaningfully. Oil and metals and the cost of freight all moved against us. And managing that was generally a complex job for our operations team. They delivered. Thank you so much for joining us. and we have to execute on expanding the highest growth professional end markets like the vertical supporting data centers, energy, utilities and critical infrastructure where demand for productivity and our safety solutions delivering is only accelerating. Doing both of these at once under real cost pressure is a hard and it is exactly what our teams delivered in the first half. Our financial focus areas remain clear at TTI and are shared by every leader in the company. First of all, sales growth is a non-negotiable. We are a growth company and a technology company that must grow. Our internal cadence is mid to high single digit growth for TTI overall. Double digit for Milwaukee and single digit for RYOBI. On profitability, our internal plan is to reach a 10% EBIT margin in 2027. And after delivering 9.9% in the first half of 2026, our confidence in meeting or exceeding that target has only increased. And on cash, We are raising our internal free cash flow target for 2026 from over US $1 billion to over US $1.3 billion. And we're comfortable with sustaining similar levels of cash flow on a medium term basis. Beginning this period, we have realigned our reporting into two segments, professional and consumer, which better reflects how we run the business every single day. Professional is led by Milwaukee. Consumer is led by Ryobi. Together, these core brands now represent 93% of our sales, and both delivered exactly what we expect of them in the first half of 2026. Let's start with Milwaukee. On an underlying basis, Milwaukee grew 10.5% in local currency. With double digit growth in every region throughout the world. The Americas up 10.5% on an adjusted local currency basis. EMEA up 10.5% and the rest of the world up 9.9%. Now, Milwaukee, as you know, is not a product company. It is a solution company addressing roughly U.S. $160 billion market and delivering productivity and safety on the job every single day. Structural labor shortages across the trades we serve from mechanical and electrical and plumbing and transportation maintenance and utility keep increasing demand for exactly the solutions we build every single day. In the first half, we brought breakthrough innovation to those trays. A few of them, the M18 Fuel Striker, the world's first cordless hammer chisel, and the MX Fuel Electrofusion Processor for gas utility work. all connected through OneKey, the industry's largest IoT platform. Milwaukee is also dedicated to creating innovative solutions that help our users stay safe. Our new dipped gloves with wear defense protection expands our robust glove product offering, delivering the longest glove life while providing high dexterity for demanding applications. We are a solution company, driving solutions and productivity on the job every single day. On the consumer side, Ryobi, the number one consumer brand in the world, addressing roughly a US $80 billion market, grew 1.7% of local currency to $1.9 billion. Our power tool business grew mid-single digits while outdoor was roughly flat against a softer, weather-affected season across EMEA and parts of the United States and the timing of seasonal load-ins. Our platform has never been stronger. We hold the largest installed base of users in the world across USB Lithium, 18V 1 Plus, and our 40V platform. And in the first half, we extended that lead with new technology. 18V 1 Plus Edge, Taplas batteries, an all new line of the highest performing 40V mowers and outdoor products. and further expansion into cleaning and lifestyle and recreation with great examples of innovation such as our pool vacuum and our outstanding fan portfolio. With the best distribution partners anywhere, the Home Depot in North America, Bunnings in Australia and New Zealand and our early expansion into Latin America, Asia, Ryobi keeps on growing even against modest housing turnover. The other half of the portfolio is discipline. Our non-core businesses now represent just 6.6% of global revenue. And we deliberately brought them down 19.4% in local currency versus last year. The largest piece is the planned exit of heart. About 156 million US dollars of our 2025 sales that will not repeat. And the balance is the continued revitalization of our floor care and our other consumer brands. While we are walking away from unprofitable revenue and rebuilding floor care the right way, Applying what Ryobi and Milwaukee have taught the teams about us earning the right with the consumer, driving disruptive innovation, technology, and best cost. These are hard decisions, but they are the right ones. Shrinking the non-core is precisely what lifted our consumer segment's EBIT margin 133 basis points to 8.5%. and Freitas to invest more into the Milwaukee and Ryobi brands. Let me spend a couple of minutes on Milwaukee and the size of the opportunity in front of us. What you see on this slide is 160 billion plus global opportunity. And I want to make clear about what that number is and what it is not. It is based on the trade verticals we serve today. The market segments those trades work in today and the regions we operate in today. It is not based on the future and the future is bright because we are going into markets more and more and more regions of the world, adding more businesses and even more verticals every single year. That opportunity is anchored in our core trades. Today, Milwaukee is building deep relationships across 10 key trade verticals. Mechanical and electrical and plumbing and remodeling and utility and transportation, maintenance and general contracting, landscaping and tree care, energy and mining, A level of scale and focus that is simply unmatched by any other company in the industry. And this is not marketing. It starts with more than 1,600 highly skilled jobsite solutions team members embedded with the trades every single day. Understanding the rapidly changing needs and developing solutions with them. Solutions they not only trust, but specify and demand to drive productivity and safety in their work. This is what makes Milwaukee different. We are not a product company. We are a solution company delivering productivity and safety on the job every single day. And that is why the pros trust us everywhere in the world. Today, that pipeline shows up as more than 17 distinct global businesses, each built for a specific core trade and led by subject matter experts who understand the problems those trades face. And because we solve the problems of today while anticipating the problems of tomorrow, we do not just enter markets, we create entirely new ones, which is exactly how we keep expanding this 160 billion plus opportunity well into the future. You saw that again in the first half of 2026 with over 200 plus breakthrough new products aimed squarely at these high value trades. from our new dip gloves with wear defense protection to the M18 fuel striker, the world's first cordless hammer chisel for transportation maintenance, and the MX fuel electrofusion processor for the gas utilities, all connected through one key. This is the engine behind Milwaukee. A purposeful strategy, the deepest relationships with the trades in the industry and a runway to grow this opportunity for years to come. Shane shared this slide with you last time and we are showing it to you again this time because it is simply that important. The key takeaway is where Milwaukee's demand is anchored and even more importantly, where the growth is today and where is it going. Let's start with technology and energy and manufacturing, which is 32% of our demand. This end market is taking off. The sector is growing at a 20% rate. This is data centers, high-tech manufacturing, and power, water, gas, and telecom utilities. all supported by heavy investment in AI, reindustrialization, grid monetization, and electrification. And consider this, the work required by the mechanical and electrical and plumbing trades inside a single data center is roughly double the work of a traditional non-residential construction site. In a market where skilled labor has never been more constrained, which is exactly why their trades partner with us on safety and productivity. Next is service and maintenance, our largest and most durable end market at 47% of demand, which tends to grow at a 10% rate. This is work that has been done regardless of the economic environment. residential and commercial services, transportation, maintenance, and mining driven by aging homes, aging commercial buildings, aging industrial facilities, and an aging vehicle fleet, all creating steady surge of retrofit, repair, and upgrade work. The rest of our business, home remodeling, new home construction, and other non-residential, Sales into a space that is essentially flat. Put it together and our two anchor end markets are about 80% of demand worldwide, which greatly overweights our exposure to the traditional residential construction and remodeling markets. That is the whole point of this chart. We are purposely entrenched in the fastest, largest, and most resilient segments in the world. And it is why we remain so confident in Milwaukee's 10% plus growth well into the future. Here we are driving innovation specifically for the users that care about productivity and safety on the job every single day with 20% and 10% in markets. This is where we are focused on adding over 200 new products alone in the first half of 2026. Now I want to spend a moment on something that does not always get enough attention. are distribution partners. Because a great brand is only as strong as the partners who bring it to the world. What you see on this slide are the best distribution partners in the industry all around the globe. And the message is simple. Milwaukee is the brand that distribution counts on. We are intentionally selective about who sells Milwaukee and we partner with the very best in every single market throughout the globe. From the Home Depot in North America to the leading industrial and electrical and plumbing distribution partners across North America and Europe and Asia and Australia and Latin America. These are not vendor relationships. They are true partnerships built over many years where we grow together and win together. And the reason these partnerships endure is that we deliver for our partners, both sales and profitability. When Milwaukee is on the shelf, we bring demand with us. Our teams in the field create the pull through. and we back our partners with a service and support that protects their margin and their reputation. We add value to their business and they help us grow ours. This is what the best partnership in the industries looks like. That is the whole story of the slide. Strong support for our core trades delivered through the strongest distribution network in the world. It is a genuine competitive advantage. And it is one more reason we are so confident in where Milwaukee is headed in 26 and beyond. Now let me turn to RYOBI and the 80 billion plus global opportunity in front of the number one consumer brand in the world. What this slide lays out is our do it yourself user strategy. and the idea behind it is simple. We serve the DIY user across their entire life, not just one corner of it. From light do-it-yourselfers to heavy do-it-yourselfers, transportation, maintenance, lawn and garden, lifestyle and recreation and cleaning. Ryobi is the brand that consumer reaches for in their home, in their garage, in their yard, and everywhere in between. The power of this strategy is our platform. We hold the largest installed base of consumer users in the world across USB lithium, 18 volt one plus, and 40 volt. And for over 20 years, those platforms have been forward and backward compatible. So every tool user understands whatever product they have bought, it works with the batteries they already own. That confidence is what pulls a do-it-yourselfer Deeper into the Ryobi system, adding to their collection year after year. And it is what lets us keep expanding into entirely new categories, most recently cleaning and lifestyle and recreation, reaching consumers of every type throughout the world. We combine that with the best distribution partners in the world. The Home Depot in North America and Bunnings across Australia and New Zealand where our dominance is unmatched. Together with our top European retail partners and we are still in the early innings. We are just beginning to expand Ryobi into Latin America and Asia. Exactly the kind of runway that keeps this 80 billion plus opportunity growing well into the future. You saw the strategy at work in the first half of 2026. Ryobi grew 1.7% in local currency to a US $1.9 billion. led by mid single digit growth and power tools as we extended our lead with a new 18 volt one plus edge tabless batteries and an all new line of the highest performing 40 volt mowers and outdoor products and a growing lineup of cleaning, lifestyle and recreation products from the most powerful misting fan as part of our leading portfolio fans to our new pool vacuum. That is the RYOBI user strategy. Serve the DIY consumer across every part of their life. Keep them on our platform. Keep on giving them reasons to grow with us every day, everywhere in the world. RYOBI's growth strategy comes down to a single idea. It is owning the consumer. And we earn that position through three reinforcing engines. Number one, consumer innovation. Number two, enabling technology. And number three, demand generation. They all work together to turn a first-time buyer into a lifelong Ryobi loyalist. Let's start with consumer innovation. Bringing the products consumers actually want In the first half of 2026 alone, that meant the new 18-volt OnePlus Edge batteries. An all-new generation of the highest performing 40-volt mowers and outdoor products. And continued expansion into cleaning, lifestyle, and recreation. We are constantly giving the consumer a reason to reach for Ryobi first. Underneath those products is our enabling technology. The batteries, the motors, the electronics that most users never see. Our new 18-volt OnePlus Edge Tabless Battery is the perfect example. It gives every OnePlus user an instant upgrade. More power, more runtime, while running cooler, charging faster, and lasting longer. and it is fully compatible with a platform they already own. That technology developed and protected across USB lithium, 18 volt one plus and 40 volt is what makes owning the end user possible. The third engine is demand generation. Getting those solutions in front of our consumers and pulling them into the system. That is where our distribution advantage comes in. The best partners in the world, the Home Depot and Bunnings and our top European retailers and a growing digital and in-store presence that builds awareness and drives trial across every one of our categories. Put the three engines together and you get the outcome at the center of this slide. owning the consumer and creating a RYOBI loyalist. We already hold a large installed base of consumer users in the world and millions of new users join every single year, adding to their RYOBI collection over time. That is the flywheel. The more we innovate, the more users we win, The more of the platform they own, the more loyal they become and the more durable RYOBI's growth becomes for years to come. Now, let me turn it over to Ty, and he's going to take you through and give you some color on the financials.

Thanks, Steve. I have the pleasure to be here today to provide more detail and clarity into the financials of the business. Let's start with sales growth by brand. And the main point on this slide is our two core brands. The combination of Milwaukee and RYOBI delivered underlying local currency growth of 8.2% in the first half. Milwaukee grew 10.5% on an underlying basis in local currency after adjusting for the 2025 timing impact of the Milwaukee Americas ERP system conversion. and Ryobi grew 1.7% in local currency to 1.9 billion U.S. dollars led by mid-single-digit growth in power tools with a softer weather-affected outdoor season across the globe. That 8.2% of core brand growth was then offset by the deliberate exit of the heart business and the continued rationalization and the other consumer brands, which together brought our non-core business, now just 6.6% of global revenue, down 19.4% in local currency. Net of all of that, TTI delivered record first half revenue of $8.3 billion, up 5.9% in a reported basis, and up 5.9% on an underlying basis in local currency. Now let me spend a moment on Milwaukee's sales momentum because I want everyone to understand the magnitude of what we are working towards. Our 10.5% underlying growth And the first half is right in line with our internal goal of low double-digit sales growth for Milwaukee. And that is a goal that we have been telling you about and delivering against for a number of years. But here is the point I want to really land. Growing Milwaukee at low double digits now represents more than $1 billion of sales growth every single year based on our scale. And all of it is organic. None of it comes from acquisitions. This is no easy feat and our team has done a phenomenal job delivering to these high expectations and making Milwaukee the number one professional productivity solution provider in the industry. Now let's walk the gross margin for the first half. And I want to do this in two steps. Start with the first half of 2025. On a reported basis, gross margin was 40.3%. But that was a number that was held down by two things worth normalizing out. One, the drag on gross margin from the heart business. And two, the excess tariffs we were absorbing at the time when we saw global tariffs peak at their highest in Q2 of 2025. Normalizing the first half of 2025 for both of these brings our comparable base to roughly 41.2%. From that normalized base of roughly 41.2%, the walk to our record 42.9% begins with one headwind in the period. Higher commodity prices as oil, metals, and freight all moved against us. We more than offset that through our 2026 activities, annualizing our tariff mitigation actions, which include optimizing production, productivity gains, and a strong supplier partnerships, margin accretion across EMEA and Australia, favorable mix towards our higher profitability core businesses, the strength of Milwaukee and the high growth technology, energy, and manufacturing and markets, that Steve mentioned in his section and continued improvement in our non-core business. Net of the commodity headwind, those activities delivered 163 basis points of expansion to a record 42.9% gross margin or 258 basis points on a reported basis versus the first half of last year. Let me be clear. Our first half gross margin had no favorability for IEPA tariff refunds as we did not receive any meaningful refunds and do not have any clarity on how much we will be receiving in the future. Let's now turn to the EBIT margin walk for the first half, and it follows the same logic. We started the first half of 2025 at 9.1% EBIT margin. From there, the 258 basis points of gross margin expansion I just walked you through was by far the biggest driver. Partially offset by 173 basis points of higher SG&A as we deliberately invested in our new product development, field resources, and commercialization activities, along with some write-offs of intangibles tied to product categories we were rationalizing. netted out and we finished at a record 9.9% EBIT margin up 86 basis points. And with 9.9% already in hand at the half, we're firmly on track towards our internal target of 10% EBIT margin in 2027 with further upside beyond. Let me close with cash because this is what ties it all together. We generated $753 million of free cash flow in the first half. Up $285 million year on year and ended the period in a net cash position of $1.066 billion. That balance sheet strength gives us the confidence to raise our internal free cash flow target for 2026 from over $1 billion to over $1.3 billion U.S. dollars. and we're putting that strength to work for shareholders. In June, we commenced our $500 million share buyback plan and through the end of July, we've already repurchased 41.5 million US dollars of stock. Record first half sales, record gross and EBIT margins, and record profit together with $753 million of free cash flow and the healthiest balance sheet in our history is exactly the combination that lets us keep investing in the business while increasing returns to our shareholders for years to come. With that, I'd like to hand back to the chairman to close and look forward to your questions. Thank you.

As you can see from our presentation of our results, I am extremely excited and confident about the remainder of the year and the future of our company. We thank you for your attendance today and we express our deep appreciation for your continuous support of the group.

Thank you, Mr. Pudwill. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question now, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 11 again. One moment for first question. And your first question comes from the line of Team Voice from Baird. Please go ahead, Team, your line is open.

Hi, good morning, everybody. Nice job, and thanks for the time. Maybe just the first question, and I'm not sure who wants to take it, but with you guys doing 9.9% EBIT margins in the first half, What are the puts and takes to getting to that 10% EBIT margin in 2026 or a year earlier?

Yeah, Tim, this is Ty. I think we're constantly looking at what the back half and modeling out what that looks like. As we spoke in the EBIT margin walk, we do have some commodity pressures that we're working to offset in the back half of the year as we look forward to that and trying to balance that out with the continuation of delivering the results. But we have... We're working towards delivering that and taking a look at what that means and just note that any forecast that we do have and any projection that we're looking at right now And then just kind of stepping back on kind of the high tech and data center and kind of large job site business. Could you just

Give us a little bit of an overview of how embedded you guys are on these job sites. Because it's my understanding that you guys have a lot of people in the field that's hard to replicate. And you've obviously been investing in that market for a very long period of time. So if you could just kind of give us a little bit of a flavor in terms of people out in the field, relationships, and then how those

Thanks for the question, Tim. This is Steve. No question, this has been part of our long-term journey, as you're well aware, and many other people are. Let me just frame it this way. For 20 years plus, our strategy throughout the globe is to become those exclusive partners with the best mechanical and electrical contractors throughout the globe. As you're well aware and everybody is aware that that is the biggest piece of the data center builds and our relationships are from the top level of the owners of the companies and the trade associations all the way to the people in the field and the safety directors as well as how we approach the builders or the companies themselves that are driving that demand. The other piece that ties to that is how myself and Shane and the entire Milwaukee team globally, Alex in Europe, Mike Brendel in Australia, Craig Baxter in Canada, David Butts in Asia, every one of us is committed to be on those sites. So this is not about us showing up and visiting one site and one location and saying that we're trying to learn it. We have been in the sites from the conventional data centers to the AI data centers. We just finished trips in the past six months. We were in Milan. We were in Frankfurt. We've been in the Canadian market. I just finished Canada and All the way to the largest mechanical and electrical companies throughout the globe. And each and every one of our job site solution team that is responsible for those sites understands how to show productivity and safety on that job. So we have a deep relationship throughout that part of the business and it just didn't start yesterday as you're well aware.

Great. Thank you so much. Good luck guys. Hop back in queue.

Thanks Tim.

Thank you. We will now take our next question from Karen Lee from JP Morgan. Please ask your question.

Okay, congratulations on the fantastic set of results. I'm really glad to see that TTI is back on track for growth and beat. Steven, you mentioned the early presentation about the technology, energy, and manufacturing revenue growth right here, that currently is growing at over 20% rate. I believe this is mainly driven by AIDC-related revenue, Is it possible to share how much this revenue now is sitting within this segment? Just to confirm, I think previously we heard it's about half of this technology segment. And how is this going to accelerate in the second half this year? More importantly, going through the next few years? So the reason why I'm asking is because we know this Qantas services, which I believe is one of the key partners, for data center build out. They have just a few days ago upgrading their technology and low center revenue growth guidance to 220 to 240%. I believe this is for full year 2026. These have just been lifted from that 100 to 120% in first quarter. I believe there's a strong issue to TTI these part of revenue, but I definitely want to hear about these from you. Yeah, this is the first question.

Hi, this is Shane Moll. Thank you for the question. So we're excited about the growth that's happening in that Thanks so much, Shane. Is it

It's possible to probably just get some idea like you know what would be the related to the AIDC revenue like say like in 2030. We see quantum services for example is painting I think a big pie as big as I think 800 something billion US dollars for revenue 10 related to AIDC. How is it going to translate to TTI's revenue, particularly? I think Steve mentioned again, their work is 10, is looking at 160 billion US dollar plus.

Well, based on where we see that end market today, it's outpacing the growth of our All of our total business at the current rate, and we expect that to continue in the future based on what we have line of sight to today. So we remain deeply engaged with the contractors that perform the work, with the owners and the hyperscalers, and we're building partnerships, and those partnerships continue to strengthen every single day. So this is all business that we continue to earn, as Steve noted, for a very long time with our partners. That end market demand remains very strong, and we expect that to continue as we move forward.

Got it. So I don't know whether I can ask one quick question. Does it count the two that I just asked? Okay, if it's possible, can I probably just quickly chat with Ty? Ty, I think you highlight very well. We are really adding a strong free cash flow generating machine. The net cash balance at the end of last year, I believe, I think, is padding up to a historical, you know, from context, very high level. We are stepping up on buy-buy, and we are actually raising the payout. But I think with this phase of free cash generation, what we're going to do, I think, in the next few years,

I think the questions around the capital allocation strategy and what we're looking to do with the free cash flow. I think our policy is what we've laid out in our previous earnings where we continue to see a strong, healthy balance sheet. We see strong cash generation from operations. We've We're executing the buyback that we're doing. We continue to increase the dividend payout in accordance to that. And then we're also making sure that we've got enough cash on the balance sheet as we look for any potential maybe acquisitions that we see out there that may be small and in nature and fit within our businesses. And then we'll continue to keep looking as we are reevaluating. The board has agreed that we'll continue to assess the buyback on the future and take a look at how we continue to return the cash to our shareholders.

Got it. Thank you so much.

I'll be back to the queue. Thank you. Thank you. As a reminder, before we take our next question, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad if you wish to ask a question. We will now move to the next question. Your next question comes from Sky Hong from UBS. Please ask your question.

Thank you. First of all, congratulations. You guys never disappointed. Great job again. Can you hear me right?

We sure can. Thank you. Okay, okay.

I think, Steve, you mentioned it, right? Compared to traditional sort of non-infrastructure cost of spending, right? The AIVC, you know, two sort of density is two times, right? So, for example, like for one like AIVC investment, total investment, what percentage will go for two related, Milwaukee related two?

Skye, Skye, maybe could you repeat the question? Are you asking what percentage of like a typical project, a typical data center project might be allocated to tools?

Yeah, and correct me if I'm wrong, I think Steve mentioned, you know, AIDC to spending like two times of traditional, you know, non-infrastructure spending, right? I think Steve mentioned that number, right?

Yes, that's correct. I think you need to think about this a little bit differently. and that you can't look at the dollar spend of the billions to be able to put a data center up. What you can say is that the more complex from mega job sites and data center and infrastructure and utility, the more complex the build is, Thank you for watching. What the end user wants at that point in time are tools that will enable them to be able to complete that task faster. And that's where we fit in. So if you talk about a drill driver to impact, there's a lot of great products out there. Yes, we think we have the best product in the world. But if you talk about a roll groover, if you talk about a cutter and a crimper, if you talk about our bolt helmets, if you talk about our Made in America hand tools, if you go through the extensive array of products that we have that solve problems of those users, that is why we are the brand of choice on those difficult, challenging jobs where productivity and safety are very important.

I see, but do we have any like rough percentage or like for that one AIDC total investment or percentage like are we talking about like what below 1%, 0.5, do we have any sense? Like do you guys have any like quantitative numbers?

No, we don't look at the percent of the cost of a data center build or a new fab build and look at the cost of tools, accessories, safety, hand tools, and all of the other businesses we're in today and the potential businesses we're in the future.

Okay, okay. Sky, I think the other thing you might just want to consider too is just the positive mix impact you get from the business that you're referring to. And certainly, if you look at the gross margin expansion that we had in the first half of the year, one of the very key drivers of that was the outgrowth that we saw in our high growth markets, which account for about a third of the global Milwaukee business.

I see. Got you. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now take our next question from the line of Eric Lau from Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Congratulations for the management for the excellent result. May I have just two questions regarding the margin and cost? We see the Thai have done a good job for the gross margin breakdown, actually by almost 250 basis points. However, we found out the distribution costs also increased significantly, around 190 basis points. and many more.

Eric, I guess the question is, is that the, you know, in our EBIT margin walk, we really pointed to the annualization of the tariff mitigation efforts. That's net, right, of what we're seeing. So it's not just the one side of it, but it's actually a net impact there from that.

No, I mean, why the distribution cost increased significantly by almost 190 basis points.

Yeah, the selling cost is in the distribution.

Right. But actually, distribution cost increased 17%, right? Versus the sales growth only, you know, mid-single digit. Why is that?

Yeah, I think from the standpoint, Eric, one of the things you need to think about is the Milwaukee business is mixing to a higher number from that aspect. So as we take a look, even though the selling distribution cost is up, it's all about the field resources that we're investing in, in that it's the... The product development, the NPD costs that we have, it's a significant amount of that. And as we mix more towards the Milwaukee business, which has higher SG&A costs, you see that from that perspective.

I see. I see. So will the company book the tariff refund into P&L during the second half, if any, or just the cash flow statement?

In the second half of the year, we will determine how we handle the tariff rebates, if and when we get any. But just to reiterate, the first half, these results did not include any tariff rebate pickup.

My last question is excluding the tariff refund in the second half. So under a normal circumstance, second half profit usually higher than the first half, right? So do you see no exception for 2026, right? No. Okay, got it. So, sorry, one more follow-up question. What do you think about the gross margin and EBIT margin You know, sequential improvement in the second half versus first half. You think, you know, how much they put?

Yeah, Eric, you know that we have a track record of looking at cost out and mitigating off our commodity increases. And that's kind of our mentality. And, you know, we hope to maintain, you know, a gross margin in the levels that we're currently seeing in the first half.

And as Ross reiterated, our mix of products are heavy and gross margin on the Milwaukee brand that are feeding mega job sites, data centers, and those types of end users throughout the globe, which will continue to mix in a positive way.

Right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, management.

Thank you. We will now take next question from John Choi from Daiwa. Please ask your question, John.

Thanks for taking my question and congratulations on strong results. Just a quick follow-up on, you know, I think Eric's question and I think Tai, you answered. So you mentioned that the tariff rebate or refunds were not included in the first half and you guys have not determined how to, you know, book it in the second half. So I'm just wondering if that's the case, you know, should we be expecting this, you know, if there's potential refunds could be viewed as incremental gross margin upset or it could be booked as a more of a one-off, you know, and apart from that, you know, GP margins, the trend should, this trend should be similar for that. And then I have another second question.

Yeah, I think what we were mentioning before in Eric's question, as we take a look at the business as usual, X the any tariff refunds, we are continuing to model our gross margins in line with what we're expecting to see in the front half. And the reason being of what Steve just said, too, with the mix towards the higher Milwaukee margin products as we see the growth in the back half. When it comes to the, you know, and I can also queue up to Frank here, but as we take a look at the second half and as we look at any potential refunds, rebate refunds, you know, we will have to determine how we're going to properly account for that in accordance with accounting standards and how we view it from that standpoint. So it could be treated either as a one-off or, you know, net of, you know,

The current direction is more to call it a one-off item. Otherwise, there will be another EBIT margin walk next year, taking out this tariff refund. Also, we need to agree with the auditors. The current thinking is that this is a one-off, non-recurring item.

And unlike other companies that are out there in the environment, we're clearly not showing EBIT, as we have said in the first half, from any tariff refunds that we haven't seen. And that clearly will not be our practice in the second half as well.

Great, that's very clear. Just quickly, shifting gears to RYOBI, I think in the first half you guys grew 1.7% in local currency, but you also mentioned mid-single-digit growth in power tools offset by software outdoor business. What gives you guys the confidence that RYOBI can come back to mid- to high-single growth? Is it the first half is obviously one off because of the weather and are you seeing a kind of a pickup on the consumer demand side? And any color on this will be very helpful. Thank you.

You know, I think the perspective The Pipeline of New Product Thanks for watching! everything inside the house and outside the house and the results in the first half we believe bode well for those same type of results with the best distribution partners throughout the globe with the RYOBI brand in the second half of the year.

Question, John?

No, that's good. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'll take a next question from the line of Terence Chang from Macquarie Capital Securities. Please go ahead, Terence.

Thank you. Hi. Good morning, management. Can you hear me okay? Yes.

Yes.

Yeah. So first of all, congratulations on the strong set of results. And thank you for taking my question. So my question is actually on the tariff rate That the company is seeing in the second half. I just want to kind of get a feel from the management on how are you guys going to mitigate the tariffs in second half and obviously I think in the announcement you guys also mentioned about setting up in further fine-tuning your manufacturing footprint in the Americas and also in Vietnam over the next 12 to 18 months so Can you guys just share with us in terms of CapEx spend on this and how it will benefit you on the tariff mitigation standpoint? Thank you.

Yeah, Terrence, thanks for your question. So I think as we take a look at, it's a continuation of the mitigation efforts that we've put in place. So I think when we take a look back 18 months and when this kind of all started, we did a lot of work to optimize our production and get it into what we believe would be the lowest tariff jurisdictions from a production standpoint from that. uh since then obviously we were running at the you know the the set tariff rates that we had in the first half uh and you know knowing that the tariff rates have you know increased a little bit in the back half you know some from the 10 to the 12 and a half percent you know we've now modeled that into our financials uh for the back half of the year uh as we're taking a look at it and and still considering that all of that we still believe you know We're capable of delivering what we believe is the gross margin that we talked about in the last couple of questions. From the capital spend that we're looking to do over the next couple of years that the team mentioned in the presentation, it's further not so much about readjusting the global footprint as it is for handling the growth that we're experiencing in the business. And I think the beauty that our operations team did when we built the factories that we have in both Vietnam and Mexico is we built them with the assumption that they would be able to be expanded at a lower cost, capital cost in the future because we had already built the infrastructure, whether it be the pad for the flooring for the building in the first phase or whether it was acquiring the land and building out So as we knew we needed to continue to expand, we knew that it was easy to do on the existing sites that we already had using some of the pre-work that we had already done in the prior years and the prior capital expenses that we had already spent. We anticipate that we're not going to see a big uptick in CapEx, not like we've seen in the past where we were going into Mexico or going into Vietnam. Initially, we're talking about expanding the facilities that we currently have at a much lower capital expense rate.

Thank you. And the second question is actually on the finance cost. So obviously, first half, you're already seeing kind of reduction in the financing costs. And with the strong free cash flow that you guys are generating and the net cash balance, should we expect you guys to further pay down debt, hence even lower Thank you.

And a final question, in terms of effective tax rate for

Any kind of changes or kind of things that we need to be aware of? We are basically still able to keep the relatively low tax rate. Thank you.

At the interim, our effective tax rate was at 8%. And as I mentioned, we are pretty comfortable with our current tax plans and structures that this high single digit type of effective tax rates is very sustainable.

Thank you, management. All the best.

Thank you. We will now take our next question from Helen Fong from HSBC. Please ask your question, Helen.

Sure. Thank you for taking my question and congratulations on the great results. Well, I have a more strategic question because I noticed that during this earnings, We have changed the reportable segments from power equipment and floor care and cleaning to professional and consumers. I was just wondering, is there any strategic underlying message to that change? For example, you're going to focus more on Milwaukee and Royalty and maybe less resources towards floor care, etc. Can you share some color? Much appreciated.

There's clearly no change to our strategic direction. And our strategic direction is, and we have been talking about it for some time now, that we have two extremely valuable brands. And those brands are Milwaukee, the number one professional brand throughout the globe, driving safety and productivity, and Ryobi, the brand of choice for consumers inside the home, in the garage, lifestyle, and inside the yard. And they are clearly a focus. At the same time, what we have said is that in the cleaning segment with our VAX and Hoover brands, It's a matter of us restructuring how we think about it, really revitalizing the brands from the product development areas and every single aspect. And as we do that, and you've seen the numbers go down, and the next phase of that will be how do we put more new product development in those products, do more demand creation, and figure out what the next step of that revitalization will be in 2027 and beyond.

Understood. Thank you. Well, I think AIDC, we've talked a lot about it. I think it's representing almost like 16% of the Milwaukee cells as of the reported quarter. I was just wondering, is it a cyclical or structural high-growth driver in your view? And if it is a structural one, what gives you the confidence in its durability beyond, say, 2026 or even 2027? Any color you can share with us here? Thank you.

I thank you for the question. We definitely view this as a structural growth driver behind our business. We're Very close to the trades that are performing the work and the owners that are investing in this work. So we're confident that this is a strong growth driver for the Milwaukee business into the foreseeable future.

Right. Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask your question, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad to ask a question. Our next question comes from the line of Frank Fan from Nomura. Please ask your question, Frank.

Thanks for taking my question and congratulations on the strong result. I would like to ask one question. At the level of the customers actually buying the products, not the end market demand. So the question is, when you look at the first half growth coming from the non-home people channel, are you seeing the same users buying more products and buying different products? Or are you seeing new users coming to the base? Thank you.

With Home Depot and our other distribution partners, we have a blend of Milwaukee enthusiasts and loyalists and Ryobi loyalists, and both of them continue to buy in our forward and backward compatible cordless systems and platforms. and our other systems and platforms such as Packout on storage on the Milwaukee side, Bold Helmets from the PPE side, as well as other product categories because of the loyalty to the brand and the fact that we deliver productivity and safety on Milwaukee and on Ryobi, we deliver what that consumer needs every single day. At the same time, We target new users and those are new consumer users who are first in the market for do it yourself or for landscaping or for leisure or for any single aspect of the business. And we do that from a digital first and many more. We do that through converting those new users on the job sites throughout the globe to our platforms where they want All aspects of our business do both.

That is the end of the question and answer session. Thank you for your participation. This concludes today's interim results announcement analysis and investor webcast. You may now disconnect.