Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to our call for the presentation of the first half 2026 results.

Thank you for attending, and I go directly to page 3 for the main highlights of the period. On page 3, we're very pleased to report that Q2 has been another very good quarter, with revenues approaching 200 million.

Once again, I really want to underline that the quality and mix of the growth has been outstanding, with both HVAC and refrigeration growing in excess of 20% in the first half, and likewise, all geographies growing double digits. In this first half, reported revenues reached 370.1 million, up 20.9% on the first half 2025, or up 23% at constant exchange rates.

We saw a further acceleration in the second quarter, and what really makes us very happy is the balance of the performance, which is completely broad-based in terms of markets and geographies, thus highlighting the resiliency and balance of our portfolio. In fact, HVAC grew by approximately 24% organically, supported by data centers, residential, and a very good improvement in industrial, but also refrigeration grew by approximately 21% organic, with a strong acceleration driven by the expected recovery of some projects that were temporarily delayed in EMEA, and by strong market share gains in North America.

EBITDA margin in the 6 months was 22.5% of sales, with an expansion of 350 basis points on the same period last year, improving over an already very good Q1. This was mainly driven by operating leverage, more than offsetting some inflationary headwinds.

Also, digital services continue to provide expansionary support, with Kiona profitability close to 30%. In spite of the fast top-line growth, R&D investments remain at approximately 5%, at our target level, and finally, we closed the period with a positive net cash position of 7.1 million euros after CapEx, dividends for more than 21 million, the SENVA earn-out payment for 17.4 million, and seasonal and tactical working capital absorption.

Now to page 4 with some additional figures. Top line in the first half was 370.1 million, up 20.9% from the 306.2 million of the same period last year.

We lost approximately 7 million here due to the exchange rate, organic growth was 23%, marking a significant acceleration and in spite of a sequentially more challenging comparison base. As in the previous quarters, this growth is predominantly volume-based, with price changes representing a very minor effect.

EBITDA at 83.1 million grew by 42.7% over the 58.2 million of last year, and represented 22.5% of sales, up 350 basis points over the 19% of the first half 2025. In the second quarter in particular, profitability was in excess of 23%, this acceleration being mainly driven by operating leverage and by the expansionary effect of digital services, with again Kiona having an EBITDA close to 30% of sales.

We do have some inflationary headwinds, but the gross profit remains pretty stable thanks to purchasing and pricing discipline, and again thanks to digital services. Net profit at 45.7 million was up 72.5% from the 26.5 million of the first half 2025, basically thanks to the operating performance, with a stable tax rate at 23.1%.

Finally, CapEx in the period were 9.5 million, with a slight 7.1% increase over last year, and they also involve investments in production capacity in Europe and North America, not yet the new facility that we will start building very, very soon in the US, where the CapEx will be seen mainly in the second half of the year. I now move to page 5 to describe some additional market elements.

The key message here, which again in my opinion is very important, is that our growth is very well balanced in terms of geographies and in terms of markets. On the left, we see that all regions grew double digits.

EMEA accelerated to an 11.8% organic growth thanks to the expected acceleration in the data center market, as well as in refrigeration. Here, as anticipated during the Q1 presentation, a number of customer projects had experienced timing delays, and most of this were effectively recovered in Q2.

More broadly, the European refrigeration market continues to benefit from the transition towards natural refrigerants, supported by the F-gas regulation and by the group's strong technological positioning. Asia-Pacific continues with an excellent performance and an organic growth of 31.6%, with a very broad-based and distributed results across the different verticals.

North America saw a sequential acceleration both in HVAC and in refrigeration to a growth at constant foreign exchange of 55.7%. HVAC was mainly driven by data centers, but also commercial and industrial grew double digits, and we're very excited about the results we're having in refrigeration, that in the first half was essentially doubling the result of the same period 2025, thanks to the technological transition taking place in the market that sees the group leveraging its technological leadership and fast gaining market share.

Finally, also South America improved in spite of the economic uncertainty in Brazil, with an organic growth in excess of 20% in the 6 months. All of this is reflected in the performance by market, as we can see on the right.

HVAC grew by 23.7% net of the foreign exchange, with very strong growth in data centers, but actually with all the verticals reporting double-digit growth in the 6 months. At the same time, refrigeration grew in excess of 20%.

As I said, we had in EMEA the expected deployment of some projects that were delayed in Q1, and also a consistent acceleration in North America as we gain market share by rolling out our most advanced solutions in a context of technological transition that we expect to be structural and long-lasting. Let me now, please, briefly present the KOTES acquisition on page 6.

This transaction follows our direction of growth through bolt-on M&A and complementary technologies. In fact, we have been looking to add this specific technology to our portfolio for some time, and we're very happy to have found an agreement with an outstanding company like KOTES.

As you know very well, we provide a number of solutions for increasing humidity in industrial, as well as in indoor air quality applications, and we were basically missing the reverse to complete our humidity control offering, that is dehumidification. The technology of KOTES, adsorption dehumidification, uses a specific material to absorb moisture from the air, and compared to alternative solutions like using a refrigeration circuit, is much more precise and can work also with very low temperatures.

It's therefore particularly suitable for many industrial processes, which is where we'll have very strong cross-selling synergies to begin with, having had for a long time customers asking for a complete solution and not just humidification. Many industrial processes require not only precise temperature control, but also strict humidity management to ensure product quality, process reliability, energy efficiency, and regulatory compliance.

Examples include pharmaceutical, food processing, cold storage facilities, battery manufacturing, and other critical industrial environments requiring very low dew point conditions, and these are all areas where KOTES has already developed proven expertise. KOTES is also the European leader in dehumidification for offshore wind turbines thanks to proprietary technology that can remove salt in addition to water.

We have therefore now access to the offshore wind sector, a market where CAREL had very limited exposure before the transaction and where we see attractive long-term fundamentals driven by the global energy transition and the necessity for Europe to develop strategic energy independence. We believe this specific proprietary technology from KOTES is also very interesting in order to explore a number of other applications like marine and defense.

The company itself was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Denmark, with a manufacturing facility in Poland. The expected revenues for 2026 are approximately 31.5 million euros, with approximately 6.5 million EBITDA and 120 employees.

The enterprise value for the transaction is 56 million euros, corresponding to approximately 9x 2026 EBITDA. The closing is expected during Q3, after the clearance of some customary regulatory approvals.

I now move to page 7 and leave the stage to Nicola for the items below EBITDA.

Thank you, Francesco. Slide 7 provides a bridge from the group's EBITDA to net profit.

D&A was broadly in line with previous year. The amount includes 5.6 million of depreciation amortization arising from purchase price allocations.

Net financial charges decreased compared with the last year, mainly thanks to the improvement in the average net financial position over the period. The year-on-year change in foreign exchange result was mainly driven by the movement of the Norwegian krone against the euro, and its impact on the valuation of the put and call option relating to Kiona.

The line "Companies consolidated under the equity method" mainly reflects the group's shares of the result of TRIPORSCHE [ph?] .

The effective tax rate of the period was 23.1%, broadly in line with last year. Overall, the group reported a net profit of 45.7 million for the first half of 2026, a significant increase compared with 25.5 million in the same period of 2025.

Moving to slide 8, this shows the evolution of the group net financial position during the first half of 2026. Funds from operation was strong, amounting to 67.4 million, compared with 48 million in the same period of last year.

Net working capital absorbed 32.2 million of cash. This was due to a combination of seasonal trends, strong business growth, and a temporary increase in safety stock of certain components in response to market supply tensions.

During the second quarter, the group paid dividend of approximately 21 million, and 17.4 million earn-out relating to SENVA. Despite this cash outflow, the group closed the first half of 2026 with a net cash position of 7.1 million.

I will now hand back to Francesco to continue with the presentation.

Thank you, Nicola. Here on page 9 for the closing remarks.

With almost 200 million revenues, this has been a record quarter after an already very strong Q1. In the first half, we grew organically by 23% with a great balance in the portfolio, since all business verticals and all regions grew double digits.

In particular, in the second quarter, we had an expected acceleration in refrigeration, driven also by our capability to ride the structural technological transition taking place in the US. This led to strong operating leverage, with an EBITDA margin in the 6 months of 22.5%, up 350 basis points over the first half of 2025.

In this quarter, we signed the acquisition of KOTES, adding a very complementary missing technology to our value proposition, and we continue to look for additional value-creating opportunities. In terms of scenario, we continue to see on the market similar trends to those observed in the last few quarters, with a robust order intake, even if we must be mindful that, as the visibility in our business model is structurally very limited, also because the external environment remains challenging with geopolitical tensions and macro volatility.

To conclude, all things considered, we expect another very positive performance in Q3 2026, with consolidated revenues close to 190 million euros without including any possible contribution from KOTES, and corresponding to a growth of approximately 20% over Q3 2025. Thank you very much for your attention.

We are now at your disposal for any questions you might have.

Good afternoon, thanks for taking my question. Ciao Francesco, and congratulations on this very strong set of results.

I have three questions if I may. The first one is linked to refrigeration.

I was trying to quantify which was in Q2 the growth excluding the very strong performance of North America. I'm ending up in something in between 15% and 20%.

Could this be a correct number? Linked to this question on refrigeration, I was wondering if the strength that you have been showing in the US is linked to specific projects with just a few counterparties or if it is more, let's say, broad-based.

Second question is about your guidance in the press release. You talk about further strengthening of certain verticals, if you can elaborate on that.

My last question is about the commercial business. I'm kind of reading through the lines that this portion of the business could be somewhat softening.

Is this a right interpretation, in particular I'm thinking about the EMEA region, and if yes, why you think is so? Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Niccolò. Ciao.

Concerning refrigeration growth, if we exclude North America, growth in refrigeration would have been in the high teens, let's say. Then again if we look at North America, we are, let's say, we are having a very important success in the execution of our strategy for refrigeration, because in the last few years, we had been strengthening very much our organization for promotion and support of these technologies in the retail space in North America.

This is coupled with the fact that finally the market seems ready for a number of reasons to introduce our technologies. We are working with several supermarket chains.

Of course, some project waves are bigger than others, but we passed the, let's say, trial phase with some significant supermarket chains, and now we are starting the rollout, which is why we see the materialization of significant growth figures. We have several others in the pipeline, so, of course, it starts from a few, then we have others which are smaller, but we have a pipeline and we're very optimistic about this technology.

One thing which is very interesting in my opinion is that, for example, we're having a very good success with the introduction of variable speed compressors on board refrigerated cabinets, which is what we call the decentralized architecture. This technology in the rest of the world is typically confined to convenience stores, because typically, of course, by having a compressor on board each cabinet, it tends to be more expensive when the number of cabinets grows.

In America, this technology is extremely attractive, beyond many other technological benefits, also because it allows for redundancy and continuity of operations in the store, which is particularly important in that region, because, of course, with the decentralized architecture, it's possible to refurbish or move or operate on individual cabinets without shutting down the entire store. There is, of course, much higher redundancy in terms of installation.

This is very, very appreciated in the US, and this goes over the fact that this technology is more expensive as the number of cabinets grows. For us, of course, this is a very big opportunity because the value that we sell per store is much higher.

At the same time, this is also a very good opportunity to introduce the CO2 technology, because by having these modules using CO2 already installed, already, let's say, manufactured in the factory, they require less technological competence from the installers on the field, which is good in an area where the competence and the level of know-how on CO2 tends to be, let's say, less widespread than in Europe. Sorry, I took the opportunity to emphasize the benefits that we are providing with this technology and the reason why it's also providing a lot of value.

Of course, we have a number of projects and many projects in the pipeline, we believe this is a very good opportunity and could be pretty long-lasting. Concerning commercial, actually it's not slowing down.

It's slightly accelerating globally, and it's very strong, for example, in North America as well, and that's also related to the inverterization, to the introduction of the variable speed compressor technology in commercial. Commercial in the US is performing particularly well, but it's going very well also in Asia-Pacific.

In EMEA, it's softer. It's in the low-single-digit range, but it's not decelerating compared to Q1.

On the other hand, it's slightly accelerating, we don't see a softening of commercial.

Sorry, about the guidance and the vertical strengthening?

Sorry. Could you repeat the question, please, Niccolò?

Sorry, I missed that.

In the press release, you're writing that you see signals of further strengthening in certain verticals, if you can elaborate that, refer to Q3 guidance.

We see, let's say, a strengthening, a continuous strengthening in refrigeration in the US, and which is the structural trend I mentioned. We also see in the US in particular the introduction of the variable speed compressor, and then these are more structural trends rather than short-term trends.

Then in Europe, we are seeing the strengthening of data centers, the level of investment in data centers in Europe is picking up, and also of industrial. Also the industrial application is strengthening in Europe, in EMEA.

Perfect. Thank you, Francesco.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for the time. I want to start on supply chain dynamics, if I may.

Vertiv and some others have flagged some issues in revenue phasing related to congestion in the supply chain, and particularly in the data center vertical. I guess curious to hear what you're seeing in terms of the supply-side dynamics.

I recall maybe last half that you were stocking up on some products ahead of a growth spurt, so, yeah, interested in the latest there.

Sure. Hi, Christian.

Definitely there are some tensions on some categories of raw materials, like memories in particular and relays, and that is related, of course, to the data center supply chain. Because we use memories of industrial category, but, of course, the capacity of the manufacturer is moving towards the more sophisticated memories used for data centers.

We had been seeing coming this risk for several quarters now, and we have been stocking up and increasing our safety stock so in particular memories, but also relays, for several quarters now. You can see that also reflected in the working capital, which is going up, and that's specifically because we are increasing the strategic stock levels of some components, in particular memories.

For this reason, considering that we have been stocking up and placing long-term orders now for almost 1 year, we do not face any significant bottlenecks or constraints in terms of production capability. We do see cost increases, we have some headwinds in terms of the costs that we are, of course, managing through cost discipline and through selective price adjustments where the costs increase the most.

We do not face any bottlenecks in terms of production, and one of the reasons again is that we have been preparing for this for almost 1 year by stocking up, and that is basically the reason why working capital has been increasing in the last few quarters.

Thank you, Francesco. Maybe sticking with the stocking theme, I guess curious in terms of the residential HVAC market where you're supplying components into OEMs, whether you think demand there is reflecting a sort of end-demand profile, i.e., one-for-one, or whether the OEMs themselves are looking to stock up on components that they receive from you?

No, we believe that there has been some stocking effect because the OEMs had to recreate the stock that was basically pretty much reduced during 2024. Since two, three quarters, in my opinion, now we are very closely trailing end demand.

The stock levels are pretty normalized now, and I don't see in this moment they are significantly, significantly stocking up. They have been stocking up, I would say, last year to some extent, but now we're following the end demand.

Thank you. Then third and finally, obviously had a very strong operating leverage in the quarter with the 23.2% margin on a very strong growth rate.

You're applying a slightly slower growth rate in the guidance for Q3, but still 20%. I guess we should take from that that it should be another quarter for strong margins.

Is that fair?

Okay. The guidance for Q3 is still pretty strong.

It's 20%, which is slightly less than Q2, but please consider that we have a seasonal effect because we have August, where many, many customers close in Europe, so that's the reason why in absolute terms, let's say, the turnover for Q3 is expected to be slightly lower than Q2. That's a seasonal effect.

In terms of profitability, profitability always depends on the real level of growth that we achieve. Of course, with a 20% growth, we are above our mid-cycle guidance, so that is definitely supportive for a good level of profitability.

At the same time, we do have some headwinds on the raw materials, the materials of our products, we're going to manage those. In general, yes, there is reason to be optimistic about a good profitability level also for the next quarter, I would say.

Thanks very much.

Yes, hi. Good afternoon.

Ciao, Francesco. I have, let's say, three questions.

The first one is you mentioned or you briefly described the acquisition of KOTES. Considering that KOTES is a kind of market leader into the wind offshore business and probably the bulk of their sales they make are related to this vertical, can you share with us, let's say, your expectation, you mentioned this strong potential in terms of commercial synergies now that you have also this technology, the dehumidification.

Can you give us a sense of which kind of reasonable target you see in 5 to 10 years for this company, because in my understanding, this is a company that has underexploited the industrial application for them. This is the first question.

Thanks.

Ciao, Alessandro. Yes, absolutely.

The company has under-exploited the industrial vertical for a number of reasons, mainly because it was very much focused on the offshore wind sector. In the last few years, they went through a period when they were extremely strong in battery manufacturing, which is an industrial application.

Then there was a downturn, a strong downturn in that market specifically in Europe in 2024, and at the same time, they didn't create a proprietary sales network because they rely on partners for those applications. Definitely there is a huge potential there, because we can leverage our sales network, which is already in the very same niches where this product can go and selling very complementary products.

There is a very good potential for us to help KOTES in terms of exploration of new niches for the usage of this technology. In terms of the offshore wind sector, we believe that it's also been suffering in the last few years, but probably it has quite a good potential for the years to come, and here we're going to explore how we can on the other hand find technological synergies with the rest of the CAREL offering, because we believe that there is that potential.

The proprietary know-how they have on desalinization is extremely interesting for some applications in terms of coastal applications, marine, defense, and so on. There really, really a number of potential, very good opportunities that we look for with KOTES.

Thanks. Understood.

Then the second question is you mentioned several times the fact that you managed, let's say, to keep the gross margin stable despite the tension you mentioned on the cost inflation side, also thanks to this mix and the contribution of digital services. Now can you give us, let's say, a strategic update on Kiona, because I recall that in the past, you mentioned, yes, this 30% EBITDA margin, but also the company now going, let's say, outside Europe, probably also entering the US market, also linked to the refrigeration growth potential you mentioned before.

Just to have an update on this, because technically, Kiona has the potential probably not to grow much more than what we saw in the past. Thanks.

Definitely. Kiona is definitely having a very good performance because it's growing double digits with again 30% EBITDA margin, we're definitely happy about the results.

In terms of the strategy, as you correctly recall, we are finalizing the development of the specific solution for North America, which will be starting to be deployed towards the end of the year. It's still not visible in the revenues, but there is a very big potential because it's tightly linked to our hardware and, let's say, to the rest of the offering growth in the US.

In the US in particular, it's absolutely expected by the food retail chains to have also a digital services provision connected to the sale of the equipment. That's why having Kiona is a boon for us, because we can definitely adjust the offering, which is what we're doing now, and then start rolling out starting from the end of the year.

At the same time, from a commercial standpoint, we are in the process of staffing up some selected European subsidiaries with people dedicated to the sales and growth of Kiona services. This is, let's say, as far as the commercial strategy is concerned, but then there is a very key technological strategy, because Kiona is becoming a key part of our vision for software and algorithms looking forward.

If you recall, basically our vision is to have algorithms that run in different layers, from the cloud, at the plant level, and also on the edge inside the controllers within the pieces of equipment, with the different layers that learn and reinforce each other. Kiona is definitely a key part of this, of course, especially on the cloud side.

We're making very, very, very promising progresses on this front. We are discovering ways to extract a lot of value for our customers from this algorithms, and Kiona is definitely a key part of this.

Besides the commercial, let's say, deployment, which is, of course, very important, we are also integrating the Kiona platform inside our roadmap for developing the algorithms and the services. Kiona is definitely, from a technological standpoint, a key addition to our portfolio, both for the US, but also for our general vision for the technological roadmap.

Thanks. Let's say, the last question is for Nicola.

It's mainly related to the working capital comment and the strategic stock you made before. If we take, let's say, the first half absorption, do you see that basically this is enough in terms of working capital absorption, or considering, let's say, the sales performance of the group, we may see, let's say, this year working capital level, let's say, going a little bit higher also in the coming quarters?

Secondly, I recall it in the past that you were exporting many products, let's say, from Europe to the US, considering the huge demand. Did you apply for any reimbursement of tariff in the US?

Thanks.

Ciao, Alessandro. With the reference to the net working capital, in terms of trade working capital, we are targeting to have for this year something around 21% of sales, and so that is higher than last year level.

It is something that we see not permanent, but just for this period of tension. In this moment, we are something around 21%, and expect to have the similar ratio for the end of the year, with improvement again when the situation will be more stable in the future.

In terms of United States, we applied to have the reimbursement of part of the tariffs that were paid to the US administration. This amount was already collected by our subsidiary in the United States.

For the moment, it was not already reflected in the profit and loss. We decided to have just a prudent approach, keeping it in as a balance sheet amount in order to understand the approach to have with the customer and mainly with the customer and the accounting treatment related.

Thanks. Got it.

Good afternoon, and thank you very much for taking my questions. I have three as well.

My first question is when we think about refrigeration in the EU and thinking about the regulations that come in by 2030, as we sit today halfway through 2026, how far along do you think the industry is in meeting those regulations? In other words, do you think demand will remain at this sort of run rate in the coming years, or could it accelerate or even decelerate?

That's my first question. The second question is just around the new facility in the US.

I think you said you'll build that in the second half. Does that mean it comes online at the beginning of next year, and how much more capacity will that bring on board?

Then my last question is on M&A that you said is back on the agenda. Can you just give us a sense of the pipeline, are there lots of interesting assets, any particular areas of focus?

That would be very helpful. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Natasha. Thanks for the questions.

Refrigeration in Europe, currently the last figures report that the adoption or let's say, the deployment of natural refrigerants in the installed base is around 35%, there is still, let's say, 65% to go. In our opinion, what this regulation is bringing at this stage on the market is not necessarily an acceleration, but more a sustainment of the investment rate, a stabilization of the investment rate that we believe should continue for at least for a few years, because again we're just at 35% of the rollout.

At the same time, of course, refrigeration is very much driven by a number of technological improvements that we are continuously developing and bringing to the market. For example, the last one I just mentioned a few minutes ago concerning algorithms that we are developing that will be embedded in our newer generations of edge controllers, which will be extremely powerful and bring huge benefits to the market.

Let's say, there is for sure the momentum driven by the F-gas, but more in terms of stabilization rather than acceleration. It should continue for a few years because there's still the majority of the stores to go.

Then the refrigeration market is a market that is very much driven by performance improvements, because the energy cost for supermarket chains is very relevant, because also there's an issue of continuity of operations, of service, and there's the temperature going higher and higher, and there's also the fact that skilled technicians are harder and harder to come by. A number of technological innovations will sustain this market for many, many, many years to come around the world.

New facility in the US, so, yeah, we just finally decided the location, it will be in North Carolina. It will start to be operational at the beginning of 2027, and it will more or less, if we exclude the SENVA sensors, which are made in Portland, then it will roughly double the capacity basically that we have in our current plant in Pennsylvania.

CapEx in any case should remain within our usual level of around 5% of sales. It should not exceed this threshold.

In terms of M&A, we continue to look for, to scout for complementary technologies, first and foremost, like KOTES, around the world. It's now a research we're doing around the world because there are many developments around the world in technology.

Also to channel strengthening, because we have a deliberate strategy of diversifying our channels, developing channels, let's say, beyond the OEM channel. Also acquisitions related to channel development are something that is in our consideration.

As we're very selective with our acquisitions because we do them only when there is very strong strategic rationale, but we do have some very interesting directions of development.

Perfect. Thank you very much indeed.

Hello everybody, and thank you for taking my questions. The first one, it's on pricing.

Basically you said that in the second quarter, you didn't have so much pricing. Just wondering if you expect a much more important impact in the second half, given some price adjustments.

This is my first question. The second one, actually, it's about the refrigeration.

It seems to me that the underlying market in Europe or in the US, it's not growing like this, it's growing by at least low single digit, mid single digit at the best. Just wondering if this of course is driven by your solutions, but if you can elaborate a little bit more, maybe other your solutions that you see that they are gaining market share, because I don't think that it's only variable speed technology that is moving your performance from low, mid single digit to 30%.

Just if you can elaborate a little bit more on this. Finally, considering specific questions on data center, just asking about data center growth in the second quarter, and if you can elaborate a little bit more on the growth of the European perimeter that you state that it's improving.

Thank you.

Ciao, Alessandro. Thank you for the questions.

In terms of pricing, you know that our approach is always oriented towards partnership with our customers and long-term relations, which means that we, as much as possible, try to avoid speculative approaches on pricing. The cost headwinds that we have been facing, as I said, are relatively selected, and so we have been applying some price increases which are relatively selected to those products that are mainly affected by these categories, and also, basically, reflecting the actual cost increase, we do not want to be speculative on the price increases.

We did some, in any case, price adjustments in the last few months, we believe that we will see a stronger price effect in the second half of the year, not huge, but let's say, for sure stronger than what we have seen in the first half. Then, as always, we will follow what happens on the raw material cost front, and we will be reactive and adjust the pricing accordingly also in the coming months.

What to expect for the second half, probably something in the low-single-digit range for pricing, it's just for the second half. Again, the approach we have is reactive and, basically, aimed at covering any extra costs, but again not speculative there.

In terms of refrigeration, the variable speed compressor technology is very attractive in the US for the reasons I mentioned. In general, you're right that we are gaining market share, for sure.

It's evident, especially in America, but also in Europe and also in other parts of the world. Absolutely, let's say that we have a very strong know-how in natural refrigerants, because this is one of the strengths that we have.

We have specific solutions for natural refrigerants and for transcritical CO2 in terms of complete systems that include, of course, the controls, include the software, and include also some mechanical components like some special kinds of valves that can be used for transcritical CO2. I was probably mentioning that also a few minutes ago that also the algorithm and software part for refrigeration is extremely important.

We have just deployed a few months ago, and it's having a huge success, our new generation of the local supervisory system for supermarkets, which is the Boss, and which has very strong and very powerful algorithms, and it's enabled also to use more and more AI. In general, I would summarize saying that the advantage of our technology for refrigeration is the complete system and complete know-how in terms of electronics, but also mechanics and software for natural refrigerants.

We have some solutions which are specific to us. Please consider that there are not many companies around the world capable of providing complete solutions for especially transcritical CO2.

We are one of them, and we believe you are the best, of course, but we have some unique solutions there, which, of course, are very appreciated by the market, especially as the transition towards natural refrigerants takes place, plus we have a very strong software content, plus I would not underestimate the fact that we are the only player that is strong on the refrigeration side, but also on the HVAC side. In several instances, we're capable of providing what we call the total store solution, basically combining the refrigeration control with the HVAC control in the same store, which is an advantage that we only are able to provide, because we are the only player that is strong both in refrigeration and in HVAC.

The variable speed compressor technology on board the cabinet, the so-called distributed technology, is, of course, a key technology that we have, which is not the main driver in Europe. It's one of the drivers in the US, not in Europe.

In Europe, it's the complete system and the know-how that we are continuously developing as the transition towards natural refrigerants takes place. By the way, we also have just very recently introduced not only the new Boss, but also a new core controller for supermarkets, for refrigerated cabinets.

It's called MPXPRO. We just introduced a new generation, which has several unique features in terms of preventive maintenance, for example, and sensing capabilities for the performance of the cabinet, just to mention another piece of technology unique to us.

Moving then to data centers in Europe, yeah, data centers overall, yeah, it's been growing pretty well. I underline that the absolute growth coming from data centers for the group, it's slightly more than 1/3, it's relevant, but it's just 1/3 of the growth, all in all.

As far as Europe is concerned, it's definitely accelerating. Let's say, it's above 20% in Europe in terms of growth.

For sure, part of it is going to the US, there are some of our customers which then export to the US, but at the same time, we do see a pickup in investment made in Europe, which is what we expect for the future.

Thanks. Back on your point on pricing, basically what you are saying that because in the second quarter we saw very light erosion in the gross margin, basically with this pricing probably, albeit limited, plus low single digits, you expect to maintain the second half the gross margin year

on year. Alessandro, that's our goal.

That there are some factors to consider. There is a lag, because when you apply pricing, it takes some time to be really visible, there is a lagging effect.

At the same time, we also have to see where, let's say, the trend of this raw material costs goes. Of course, our goal is to manage the gross margin and not to have any material penalization.

That's for sure. Of course, that depends also on the mix, on the specific product mix, there can be quarterly fluctuations.

Overall, we don't expect to have significant problems on the gross margin. That's the key message, for sure.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you all for your attention and for your questions.

Looking forward to speaking with you for the presentation of the 9-month results. Have a good summer, everybody.

Bye.