Good morning, and welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today for the first half-year results.

The quarter two, what we just have closed, was a continuation of quarter one in terms of challenges in the market, again with low activities, investments, decisions and processes partly paused and caused, and therefore a lot of project postponement. Before I go into the numbers and then, in details, my colleague Thomas, I would like to, as usual, share with you a couple of highlights illustrating the bandwidth what we do and the activities what we have in the different fields.

On the upper left, you see the House of Falcon train station, which was designed by the star architect Santiago Calatrava. Here, we have illuminated the entrance with the seamless CI-LUMA [light ceiling?]

product, what basically showcase this entrance. The second one, the AWBANK, is a very typical example of refurbishment.

This we have done in the past with our conventional technology. Now it's a turnkey where we have used our refurbishment packages, including the whole controls, as well as the service, typical example what we are running across Europe in many, many cases.

The next one is one of the key highlights. Obviously, you know that in 2026, now in a couple of weeks, we will have the Winter Olympic Games in Italy.

Here, this is an example of the stadium of biathlon in South Tyrol in Antholz. Here, to meet the Olympic requirements, the entire complex has been upgraded.

A key innovation is our Thorn Altis Generation 5 floodlight, and it enhances really in every detail the competition and elevates the experience for spectators on-site and worldwide. This project is just one of what we have been contributing in 2026 Olympic Games.

After the competitions, we look forward to sharing more and additional updates and actions on the photos of the different stadiums. An example of our strategy in terms of sustainability, circular lighting was a PENNY shop in Austria.

What is here so special about this project, it's the combination of a high system efficiency, the controls, and the what in significantly improved the energy efficiency. The products what we have installed here is our high-running product TECTON II, the continuous-row lighting system, what we just launched in May this year, and fitted with the VIVO spotlights.

You see, for the ancillary areas and the external lighting, the solutions for Thorn were installed, so that includes the complete indoor and outdoor illumination what we have done here. Another key highlight where we are very proud is the fish market in Sydney, Australia, one of the iconic buildings where we did the whole roof architectural illumination.

It's really a unique masterpiece done here. The new world-class Sydney Fish Market creates a vibrant hub into the city, and with the commitment to sustainability, the project here minimizes the environmental impact to the responsible construction practices and innovative energy solutions.

With that, I would like to give you the overview on slide number four on our financial performance for the first half for the fiscal year 2025/2026. Obviously, as I said at the beginning, again, a period characterized by economic uncertainty, a very weak market environment with a lot of postponements and cancellations of certain projects.

These conditions are reflected here in our performance. You see the revenue declined from €577 million to €537 million, a minus of 6.9%.

At the segment level, the picture looks as follows. The first half, lighting segment generated almost €429 million, while the revenue of component segment around €138 million.

The group EBIT stood at €31.6 million, which corresponds an adjusted EBIT margin of 5.9%. The figures clearly show that our company is still confronted with a variety of challenges, which made it particularly important to focus on resilience and sustainability within the group.

This also includes, of course, the ongoing review of the cost structures. In page five, you see again the slide what were presented last time, where we need to take the action in basically accelerate this efficiency program what we have started in quarter one, focusing on SG&A footprint.

You see here, it's the slide what we showed also last time, with a saving of €30 to €40 million by the 2028/2029 financial year. And 80% of those savings we plan to achieve already by 2027/2028.

The main levers here, as you see, are the leaner organization, the expansion of our shared service centers, both in Serbia—in Serbia we have two locations, one is Niš and one is Belgrade—and also in Porto in Portugal, followed by further automation. As indicated in the last call, we have also, in a couple of months and weeks, reviewed our operations, the R&D, and the procurement divisions.

This comprehensive analysis helped us to identify additional opportunities, and we have prepared actions for this. These measures are projected to deliver cost savings year-by-year with a total impact of approximately €10 million in the 2028/2029 financial year.

You see it here on top of the bars with the blue bar here. Our objective is here not to simply achieve short-term cost reductions, but to deliver a structural improvement to our margins and sustainably strengthen the competitive position.

By strategically expanding our global business centers in Serbia and Portugal, the group reinforcing the commitment of combining innovation with efficiency, and therefore strengthen the key value drivers to underpin the sustainability, profitability, and long-term creation of shareholder value. Looking ahead, we will be better positioned to consolidate our core capabilities, streamline the process, and especially shorten the development cycles.

We'd expect to see the first quantifiable effects for the initiated measures by the end of this fiscal year, and over the next four years, the savings will be increased steadily to a total volume of approximately now €40 to €50 million in 2028/2029. Ladies and gentlemen, we are convinced that the measures we have introduced will strengthen the company for the future, and in this way, we are meeting the current challenges in the market, which is impacting the whole industry, and also prepared for the hopefully upside coming when the recession comes to an end.

With that, I would like to hand over to Thomas, who will explain now the Q2 and also the first-half results in detail.

Thank you, Alfred. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

A warm welcome from my side. Let me start with the lighting segment.

Q2 revenues in the lighting segment amounted to €218 million and were 5% below the previous year. Volume decreases were recorded in the UK, APAC, Germany, Nordic, and France, and were also coupled with price pressure.

However, positive volume contributions were recorded in the Southern and Eastern Europe regions, highlighted by Italy along with positive growth in Switzerland. Adjusted EBIT in the lighting segment increased from €17.8 million to €22.3 million.

Our adjusted EBIT margin increased to 10.2%. Lower material costs, a decline in personal expenses, mainly due to lower incentives, and the earlier payment of the research subsidy in the amount of €1.7 million, had a positive impact on our adjusted EBIT.

Let's move to the component segment. Revenue in the component segment declined by 12.8% to €67.2 million in the second quarter.

The difficult economic and geopolitical environment led to declining sales across all regions and also increased price pressure. Adjusted EBIT in the component segment totaled €5.6 million in the second quarter.

The adjusted EBIT margin stood at 8.4%. Lower material and transportation costs, as well as the early payment of the research incentive in the amount of €1.8 million, were unable to offset the decline in revenues.

Slide nine shows you the Q2 results for the group. Revenues in the second quarter declined by 6% to €271.2 million, mainly as a result of declining volumes and price pressure.

Adjusted EBIT increased to €25 million, and the adjusted EBIT margin rose to 9.2%. Overall, lower material costs, lower personal expenses, and the early payment of the research subsidy, in total €3.5 million, had a positive effect on our adjusted EBIT.

Slide 10, looking at the adjusted EBIT bridge, we start with the prior-year half-year result of €41.2 million. The negative revenue impact totaled €27.2 million, with the decline primarily driven by volume reductions and, to a lesser extent, price pressure.

Looking at our COGS, lower material costs and lower personal expenses had a positive impact of €9.8 million. SG&A and research costs made a positive contribution to the result, mainly due to lower personal expenses and the previously mentioned early payment of the research subsidy in the amount of €3.5 million.

Adjusted EBIT decreased to €31.6 million. Slide 11 provides you with information on our income statement.

As I mentioned, our adjusted EBIT stood at €31.6 million. Special effects were negative at €10.8 million.

They include restructuring costs in connection with the closure of the US production. In addition, the special effects recognized in the component segment in the second quarter include the impairment of goodwill that was €2 million, impairment losses of capitalized development costs, €2.7 million, and an investment incentive received from Portuguese government of €1.4 million.

After the deduction of these special effects, our EBIT totaled €20.7 million. Our financial result amounted to -€5.8 million, and net financing costs amounted to -€4.3 million.

Other financial income and expenses totaled -€1.5 million, and included interest expense for pension obligations, FX, and hedging valuation. After deduction of income taxes, our net profit for the first half-year amounted to €13.5 million.

As a consequence, earnings per share equaled 32 euro cents. Let's now move to the cash flow statement.

Cash flow from operating results fell year-on-year from €58.1 million to €52.7 million, mainly due to the decline in sales. The change in the operating items amounted to -€20.2 million and resulted mainly from the settlement of accruals for variable salary components.

Cash flow from operating activities stood at €35.5 million in the first half-year 2025/2026 versus €33.7 million in the previous half-year. Cash flow from investing activities amounted to -€21.7 million in the reporting period.

In addition to investments in property, plant, and equipment, this also included capitalized development costs of €8.8 million. As a result, free cash flow equaled €13.7 million versus €13 million last year.

Cash flow from financing activities amounted to €8.6 million for the first half-year versus -€20.6 million last year. The change compared to the prior year is primarily related to two factors: the increased utilization of, first, the syndicated loan agreement; and second, the loan from the European Investment Bank.

A reduced dividend distribution also contributed to this effect. Let me finish with slide 13 and give you some comments on our balance sheet.

The balance sheet structure remains stable. The equity ratio is almost flat at 42.8%.

Net debt is also flat in comparison with the year-end close, standing at €120 million. Our debt coverage ratio is at 1.47.

With this, I hand back to Alfred.

Thank you, Thomas. Before now turning into our outlook, let me first share some key sector insights from the latest Euroconstruct release what we have received in November 2026, or just a few weeks ago.

After almost three very challenging years, we are now seeing the first signs of recoveries in Europe non-residential construction sector, especially in the new-build and also in the renovation. Looking ahead, construction activities is expected to pick up particularly in the education and healthcare sectors, where, fortunately, we are very well-positioned, while growth in storage facilities and office buildings is rather low.

The recovery is driven by a rebound of the new construction after several years of contraction, while renovation continues to be steady in an upward trend. In short, there are early signs of recovery in the construction markets, even if the base differs across the different countries and regions.

The renovation growth is supported by the energy efficiency upgrades, ESG requirements, and modernization needs. The overall outlook, therefore, is positive, but uneven, as you see from the chart here, across the different countries.

Our strategic focus will be on leveraging opportunities in renovation and positioning Zumtobel Group to benefit from the rebound in the non-residential construction. As the lighting industry typically comes later in the construction cycle, the positive momentum will reach us here with some delay.

This brings me to the outlook. The overall market environment remains challenging for the rest of our financial year and also into the calendar year 2026.

The geopolitical instability will continue to create uncertainty, and we are seeing that the customers are adopting more cautious approach with longer decision-making cycles, a lot of postponements of projects what we see in the market. This, of course, is impacting our business.

With the measure we have taken and the efficiency program what I shared with you now in place, we have set a clear course to position our company for sustainable growth and continued innovation. Through the focus strategy and decision execution, we are now responding to the ongoing shifts in our markets in the different countries and establishing the foundation for resilient performance for the years ahead.

Against this backdrop, we are confirming our guidance. We continue to expect a single-digit percentage decline of our revenues compared with the previous year, and therefore our guidance for the adjusted EBIT remains unchanged between 1% and 4%.

However, based on our current assessment, we anticipate finishing the year towards the upper end of the range rather than on the lower end. The planned CAPEX for the year stands at approximately €50 million, as you know.

We are just completing the investment now for our trunking system, the TECTON II, which consumes quite a large amount of this CAPEX. Before we conclude the presentations and open the Q&A session, I would like to extend an invitation to an investor event we will be hosting during the Light + Building fair on March 2026.

The biggest worldwide lighting fair where we are showcasing. We will provide you here with an update on the current market situation, outline how we are operating with this environment, and, of course, share an outlook how we move forward.

Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to visit all the three stands at the fair, where we will showcase the latest product innovations from Tridonic, from Thorn, and from Zumtobel. Afterwards, we will able to discuss key topics with Thomas and myself directly at our stands.

Please save the date, and we will share further details with you at the beginning of 2026. With this, I would like to thank you for your attention, and now Thomas and myself are happy to take your questions.

Thank you for listening.

Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats to the good results.

Firstly, on the guidance, the adjusted EBIT margin guidance, you already mentioned upper range is more likely. I'm just curious why you confirmed it.

1% and 2% seems implausible. This would mean negative H2.

3% would mean a flat H2. Why not just confirm this or increase it to 4% at the moment?

Do you maybe see also a possibility that we go above 4% even this year, given the cost savings in H2 that you mentioned?

Thank you, Michael. No, very good questions.

Obviously clear, we are currently above this guidance after the Q2, but I think what Thomas shared, we have in the Q2 results also this extraordinary topics with the R&D funding, and also some funding what we got in Portugal, what we had last year with the exception of Portugal in our Q3. Typically, our Q3 is a challenging one with the Christmas period, so that we are very careful with that one.

The Q4 needs to be a rebound in order to confirm. Currently, we are seeing some first sign of life, but it's very, very difficult to predict, as I said in a couple of statements during the presentation.

Customers are constantly postponing projects. Obviously, if they shift then into the next quarter, then we have a risk that the growth, or let me say the less decline, is not coming in quarter four, and it's helping us in Q1, but not in quarter four.

That's basically what we have. Obviously, if everything goes right, where we fight very hard, it could also be a possibility to go above the 4%.

Understood. Then you would, as you said, need volume growth already in the fourth quarter.

Exactly. Exactly.

That's the big challenge. Project pipeline is there, but just to give you a little bit of an indication, we are really having, yeah, a double-digit million project confirmed, partly shifted.

If the shift, especially in the quarter four, is two to three weeks, which is normal nowadays, then we are automatically ending to have this revenue in quarter one.

May I add, we have also special costs in the second half. There is the Light + Building, and these are tremendous tremendous tremendous costs in the region of €4 million and above if you include also traveling costs.

Understood. Then a second question, I think most was already answered with the top-line development.

Would you expect third quarter there was already a low base last year, €250 million. Also maybe some plus or in the top line or also a further decline?

What Thomas has presented, we have been able to improve a little bit on the lighting segment when it comes to, let me say, the negative growth. Quarter one was 7% minus, quarter two was 5% minus.

We see here a certain, let me say, stabilization. On the other hand, you see that the components business has had a quarter two below the €70 million, and we are not seeing currently, with the high volatility in the market, that this will change.

Obviously, depends heavily also on our revenues what are coming from the components business. In the lighting segment, we believe, and you're right, that we might have a chance to go slightly above the Q3, but currently the run rate is in a similar direction, like you see it on about page seven.

Very helpful. Thank you very much.

Yeah.

Thank you, Michael.

Good morning, Patrick Steiner speaking. Congrats on the good results.

I've three questions left from my side. Would take them one-by-one if that's okay for you.

Firstly, on the project postponements and cancellations which you've mentioned, could you give us a bit more information on which areas of the sector, which geographic regions we're talking here specifically?

It's typically across the board. As Patrick, we do have framework contracts with the bigger customers in the retail segment, in the automotive segment.

Here, it's more that this framework contracts are not honored by the corresponding projects. That's topic number one.

Topic number two, postponements are mainly coming in the industry segment. Automotive is one what is challenging right now, but also in some of our industrial customers.

Typically the postponement of this project, or let me say the reliability of the projects coming on time as planned, is higher in the DACH region, or Italy and Benelux. When it comes to Eastern Europe, UK, and France, that's a little bit more fluctuating.

Where we have stable project set up is everything in the new technology, like lights for data centers, that's very often even more challenging that we have to deliver earlier, also in the health and in the investments of education, what are partly done by national governments.

Right. Thank you very much.

That's really helpful. On the cost-saving effects for this year, you stated you see a quantifiable effect for this year.

Could you give us maybe a number or a run rate for this year?

For this year, we expect about €4 to €5 million net savings.

All right. That's not the run rate, basically.

That's the real effect on this year?

That's a real effect, yeah. Thomas was mentioning, we have also the restructuring, right?

It's really the net effect on top of this restructuring.

Okay. Great.

Last question, just for clarification if I understood that right: you said €3.5 million euros of research subsidy in total on group level in the second quarter, and this is including Portugal?

No, Portugal is extra. We showed the subsidy in Portugal under restructuring, because we handed in the request for the subsidy seven six or seven years ago, we said, this is not a recurring subsidy like in Austria you get it every year.

This is a one-timer, and that's why we disclosed it under exceptional items.

Yeah. Patrick, you have this on the page number 11, so that you have the details.

The subsidy of the 3.5 is both for components, Tridonic, and for lighting brands.

Oh yeah, perfect. Thank you very much.

I'll get back in line. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for listening. Thank you very much for your questions.

Again, I would like to repeat my invitation to Light + Building. It gives you the opportunity not only that we are able to share with you how we are moving into our quarter four, but also showcasing how we drive forward the innovations to conquer the market in the professional illumination.

Thank you very much for listening, and have a great day.