Thank you very much, Viara. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to SCHOTT Pharma's earnings call for the first half of financial year 2026.

My name is Tobias Erfurth, Head of Investor Relations, and I will guide you through today's session. With me on the call are our CEO, Christian Mias, and our CFO, Reinhard Mayer.

As a reminder, and as announced in November 2025, Christian joined SCHOTT Pharma as new CEO on May 1st. Christian, welcome once again.

We are very happy to have you with us, and together with Reinhard, you bring extensive experience and fresh perspectives to SCHOTT Pharma. Christian will begin with a brief introduction and a business update, followed by Reinhard, who will walk you through our financial performance in more detail.

After that, we will open the call for your questions. Before we begin, please take a moment to review our disclaimer.

As a quick note, our financial year 2026 runs from October 1st, 2025, to September 30th, 2026. The H1 results we are presenting today cover the period from October 1st last year to March 31st this year.

With this, I would now like to hand over to Christian. Christian, the floor is yours.

Thank you for the introduction, Tobias. Good morning, everyone.

It's a pleasure to join you today for the first time as CEO of SCHOTT Pharma. I'd like to take the opportunity to briefly introduce myself before we turn to the business update.

I studied in Berlin and Tokyo and received a PhD in industrial engineering. My professional career then started at Siemens, where I worked in M&A and project management, an experience that has shaped how I think about strategy and operational performance to this day.

From there, I joined SCHOTT, where I have spent more than 18 years in leadership roles across Brazil, the United States, and Germany. I led the tubing plant in Rio de Janeiro, restructured the American plants of Flat Glass, and headed the lighting and imaging division.

Most recently, I was responsible for electronic packaging, driving global performance, strategic development, and cultural change. While SCHOTT Pharma is a new chapter for me, SCHOTT itself is not.

I know the culture, I know the people, and I have a deep appreciation for what this organization is capable of. I'm very much looking forward to what lies ahead and to getting to know many of you better over the coming months.

Now, let us directly jump into the business update on slide five. SCHOTT Pharma delivered a resilient performance in the first half of the financial year 2026.

Overall, both quarters developed in line with our expectations. Revenues for the first half reached €488 million, representing a growth of 2.3% at constant currencies.

Growth was mainly driven by our Drug Containment Solutions segment, while Drug Delivery Systems faced temporary headwinds. Coming in at €130 million, our EBITDA remained at a high level, corresponding to a margin of 26.6%.

The strong contribution from DCS largely offset the temporary pressure in DDS. Demand for high-value solutions remained robust throughout the period, with HVS increasing year-over-year by 1 percentage point to a revenue share of 56%, in line with our plan.

Let's now take a closer look at that. The continued growth of our high-value solutions reflects the strength of our strategy built on three pillars: innovation, capacity expansion, and long-term partnerships with the world's leading pharmaceutical companies as well as industry peers for product development.

As just mentioned, HVS account for 56% of our revenues, impacted by a temporary decline in DDS. The commercial logic is straightforward: high-value solutions address specific and evolving customer needs, growing regulatory requirements, complex biologics, the trend towards home care settings, and the industry-wide shift toward ready-to-use formats for leaner and more efficient fill-and-finish processes.

That translates into stronger pricing, better margins, and more resilient customer relationships. Shown on slide seven is the most recent example of innovations we are bringing to market.

At the end of April, we announced the upcoming launch of cartriQ® bioPURE, which is a new sterile glass cartridge based on the new FIOLAX® Pro glass for the safe storage and delivery of complex biologics, also for self-injection systems. It directly addresses two of the most important trends in our industry: the ongoing growth of complex and highly sensitive biologic therapies, and a shift toward subcutaneous self-administration at home.

Detail about the product's features, however, the slide demonstrates that what looks like a simple glass container comprises a great deal of know-how and engineering that is not visible to the naked eye. These features make a big difference to customers as they solve urgent pain points such as long-term drug stability, accurate dosing, reliable integration into various self-administration devices, and plungers that provide a good balance between integrity and smooth injectability.

We are planning to bring cartriQ® bioPURE to market by the end of 2026. Just as we do in research and development, we also focus on high-value solutions in the expansion of our manufacturing capacities.

In the reporting period, we continued to invest particularly at our sites in Switzerland and Hungary for glass syringes and RTU cartridges to ensure we can serve the growing demand for sophisticated primary packaging also going forward. With that, I hand over to Reinhard, starting on slide nine for our financial update.

Thank you, Christian, and a good day to everyone. I'm pleased to walk you through our financials for the first half of 2026 in more detail.

A brief note on the chart structure in advance: the grey bar represents our Drug Containment Solutions segment, which we refer to as DCS; the blue bar represents the Drug Delivery Systems segment, or DDS. As Christian outlined, the first half of 2026 was resilient and developed alongside our plans.

Let me start with the second quarter before turning to the half-year picture. In Q2 2026, group revenues amounted to €247.9 million, which represents a flat development at constant currencies and a decline of 1.5% on a reported basis.

Keep in mind that Q2 was the strongest quarter in the financial year 2025. The actual quarter was shaped by two opposing dynamics: continued strong momentum in the DCS segment on the one hand, and temporary unfavorable effects in DDS on the other.

In DCS, revenues grew to €149.2 million in Q2, an increase of 7.3% at constant currencies and 4.5% reported. Growth was again boosted by sterile solutions and specialty vials, consistent with the trend we saw in Q1.

In DDS, revenues were at €98.8 million in Q2, down 9.8% in constant currencies and 9.5% on a reported basis. This reflects two factors: continued weakness in polymer syringes and a lower glass syringe volume, as anticipated.

Coming to the first half-year period: H1 group revenues amounted to €488.1 million, representing an increase of 2.3% at constant currencies and 1.0% as reported. DCS was the driver of our revenue development.

Revenues increased to €286.4 million, representing an 8.3% growth at constant currencies or 5.7% on a reported basis. As described before, this dynamic increase was mainly due to strong demand for our high-value solutions.

The DDS segment recorded revenues of €201.8 million, down 5.4% at constant currencies or 4.9% as reported. As outlined, the decline mainly occurred in Q2.

We expect DDS momentum to improve in the second half for both glass and polymer syringes. Let's take a closer look at our profitability, again starting with Q2 before turning to the half year.

In Q2 2026, group EBITDA amounted to €64.6 million, a decline of around €7 million year-over-year. This resulted in an EBITDA margin of 26.0% compared to 28.5% in Q2 2025.

Just like in revenues, we have opposing dynamics in the segments. DCS EBITDA increased to €38.4 million in Q2, up 15.7% year-over-year, with the margin improving more than 2 percentage points to 25.7%.

This strong growth was driven by volume and a favorable product mix towards high-value solutions. In DDS, EBITDA was at €26.9 million in Q2, down 28.0% year-over-year, with the margin decreasing to 27.2%.

The reasons for this development were a one-off inventory impairment on a customer-specific glass syringe, which was in the high single-digit million-euro range. In addition, we had lower utilization in polymer syringes.

Adjusted for the one-off effect, the DDS margin would have been on par with prior year. Turning to the first half year: group EBITDA amounted to €129.8 million, broadly on last year's level, resulting in an EBITDA margin of 26.6%.

In DCS, EBITDA increased 17.2% year-over-year to €71.8 million, with the margin improving significantly to 25.1%. Growth was driven by volume improvements and favorable product mix effects.

Particularly, high-value solutions were again the main driver of margin expansion. In DDS, EBITDA came in at €59.5 million, resulting in a margin of 29.5%.

As outlined, this decline mainly occurred in the second quarter, resulting from a one-off effect. There are no structural changes in DDS profitability, and we expect the margin profile to improve in the second half year.

Turning to the rest of the P&L: EBIT amounted to €86.5 million, 6.9% below the prior year, mainly due to the one-off inventory impairment, as well as higher depreciation following our growth investments. The depreciation and amortization increased by 15.0% to €43.0 million.

The financial result improved by €2.4 million to -€4.1 million, mainly due to lower interest expenses resulting from the optimization of our financing structure. Income taxes amounted to €17.9 million compared to €18.3 million in the prior-year period.

The tax rate of 21.8% is marginally higher than last year and in line with our expectations. Overall, net income amounted to €64.4 million compared to €68.1 million last year.

This corresponds to earnings per share of 43 euro cents. Now let's turn to our cash flow and investments.

In the first half of 2026, cash flow from operating activities amounted to €95.1 million compared with €72.6 million in the prior-year period. This development was primarily driven by working capital improvements, in particular a reduction in receivables.

This offsets higher inventories to support higher customer demand anticipated for the second half of 2026. Cash flow from ongoing investing activities was on last year's level at around €50 million.

This reflects our continued strategic investments in capacity expansion, especially for high-value solutions in Switzerland and Hungary. Free cash flow more than doubled year-over-year to €45.4 million.

Based on our first half-year performance and our current visibility from a strong order book, we confirm our guidance for the full financial year 2026. We continue to expect revenue growth of 2% to 5% at constant currencies and an EBITDA margin of around 27% for the full year.

In addition to our guidance, I would like to mention two further key metrics for the financial year 2026: expect our planned capital expenditure to range between €140 million and €160 million; we are confident in achieving an HVS revenue share at prior year's level, which was a robust 57%; and we assume a tax rate consistent with the previous year at around 22%. This concludes our financial update.

I will now hand it back to Tobias before we start with the Q&A session.

Thank you very much, Christian and Reinhard. We will now open the Q&A session.

Viara, our operator, will assist with registration.

The first question comes from Giang Nguyen at Citi. Giang, the floor is yours.

Thanks, Tobias. Christian, nice to virtually meet you.

I'm curious to see what are your impressions of the company since joining at the beginning of this month? What do you see as the key levers to value creation for the company?

More specifically, we have seen quite a fair bit of contractual changes in the last sort of one, two years as it relates to both polymer and more recently glass syringes. What's your initial view on the outlook for the business?

I have a second question for Reinhard, but I will ask after this one. Thanks.

Giang, thank you very much for your question, and yes, nice to meet you virtually as well. When it comes to my impression after the first, yeah, I have to say a couple of days, I would first of all say there is nothing too spectacular.

I feel that SCHOTT Pharma is a highly innovative company being well prepared to meet the demands of the pharma industry in the future. When it comes to the structural contractual changes that you have seen, at this point, I would say the changes you are referring to are specific for the one customer I think you have in mind there.

It's a situation where we are in a positive and cooperative discussion, and I'm fully believe that we will have this under control on short notice. The initial view on the business itself is that, as we have said earlier, I do confirm the guidance for the current fiscal year and what comes with that is the expectation of a stronger second half of the year.

Thank you. Second question for Reinhard: I think in DDS specifically, excluding the inventory impairment, profitability appeared quite solid despite the underutilization related to polymer syringes.

Could you talk to the driver of margins for DDS in the quarter and expectations for the remainder of the year? Follow-up is, can you confirm that the glass syringe impairment was truly a one-off topic and there's no risk in the coming quarters?

Thanks.

Thank you, Giang, for your questions. Maybe I start with the last part of your question first.

Yes, it is a contained impact in Q2 taking from impairments, as there's not yet, let's say, clarification with this one single customer. Other than that, we really have seen a good financial performance in DDS, which is, as I said, on prior year's level.

As said as well, we see gross momentum in both glass and polymer syringes for the second half of the year, which shall support, let's say, a strong operating profit in this segment.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question comes from Falko Friedrichs at Deutsche Bank.

Falko, please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning.

My first question is on the top-line phasing of growth between the third and the fourth quarter. How much of an acceleration could we already see in the third quarter, or is this really mostly expected to happen in the fourth quarter?

Then secondly, do you believe that the guidance range on sales growth is still in play, or should we rather look at the lower half of it considering where your first-half growth landed? Then lastly, could you give a little bit more color on where you stand with this one large syringe customer?

Is there potentially further downside risk in terms of how much that customer orders for you? Do you have any early indication how business from that customer might shape up into 2027?

That would be very helpful. Thank you.

Falko, thank you for your questions. I think I will take the first two parts, and then Christian will chip in on the customer perspective part again.

Towards your question Q3 and Q4: obviously, we're not guiding by the quarter as such, though we have a second half which will be stronger. Then when you look to the comps last year, third quarter was certainly at a lower growth rate than the fourth quarter.

That means we will expect to see already growth showing up in the third quarter, but I'm not giving you a specific guidance. Both quarters will deliver growth to our expectation today.

To the second point, that goes right into the guidance: we have the full guidance range still there, hence we are not at a lower end. As we have seen the growth, especially in the first half, impacted by glass syringe business and planned on the polymer, but strong in the DCS, the momentum change we are seeing also through the order book towards the second half year is a good confidence base we have.

Then with the one-time impact, you can see that the underlying operating profit in the second quarter is also strong. That gives us confidence that the given guidance will hold and has, to say, the right range also for the profitability perspective.

Now maybe Christian.

Thank you, Reinhard. Regarding your third question with that specific glass syringe customer: as said before, we are in very constructive negotiations with that customer.

We, as a matter of fact, do not see a significant downside risk. On the contrary, I see more chances than risks in the future, especially when it comes to 2027.

Thank you.

Welcome. The next question comes from Olivier Calvet at UBS.

Olivier, over to you.

Yes, hi. Nice to hear you, Christian.

Hi, Reinhard. I just wanted to firstly put the sort of reiteration of the full-year guidance in perspective.

Is your expectation in DDS overall still that sort of both glass and polymer are flat on a full-year basis? I guess that's question one.

Can you talk a little bit about the development of the order book, or what gives you confidence that you're going to grow in the second half? Thirdly, if you could come back to this one-off inventory impairment, is this a specific type of syringe?

Any kind of color you could give us there, also in terms of when you decided that an impairment was needed, just would be helpful. Thank you.

Thank you, Olivier. As we have said, we expect the DDS segment to be flat over the full year, and obviously we have seen the downside and obviously we expect a upside in the second half.

Being flat means obviously flattish. It could be slightly negative, slightly positive, and that's, to say, obviously in still the making.

On the other side, the order book, and that's really the point, is a positive, let's say, driver. We have clearly better book-to-bill ratio this year.

Hence, the visibility in DCS as well as DDS gives us this confidence that the aforementioned growth aspiration for the second half is there, but also the growth to come in DDS in '27 is supported. The growth is expected to continue in glass syringe, but as well for polymer for the years '27, '28 onwards.

On the glass syringe impairment: yes, it was an impairment for customer-specific glass syringes which we took in Q2 for the aforementioned reasons. No specific further risk we assume at this moment in time for any other glass syringe or other product impairments.

This is a pure one-off, and I think Christian gave a little bit of a flavor that we have not yet a conclusion. Hence, this is the reason.

Thank you. Just maybe one follow-up on the order intake.

Essentially, the visibility you have, could you quantify it maybe in months or sort of until when you have a visibility?

We do not specifically give the order book value as such,

but

it's several months ahead and would even go into 2027. Book-to-bill ratio is improved.

Sorry, and that's the same across both segments, or?

That's across both segments.

Thank you.

Welcome. The next question comes from Charles Weston at RBC, Royal Bank of Canada.

Charles, please go ahead.

Hello, thanks for taking my questions. My first is on looking at the revenue growth from a different lens in terms of the regions.

EMEA grew 14%, but APAC and North America were both down mid-teens. I was just wondering if you could help us understand which of the drivers from a DCS/DDS perspective were the key drivers on a regional basis?

You also mentioned that one customer is now over 10% of revenue that wasn't at that level in the prior year. If you could perhaps give us any color around what that might be?

Is it GLP, for example? That would be helpful.

My second question, that was kind of two, maybe it's my first question, would be on polymer. I think I just wanted to clarify: you are expecting growth in the second half in polymer, and I think you just said, Reinhard, that you are expecting that to grow in 2027 and '28.

We should be thinking that we're at the bottom if I'm not mistaken. Just one last question on modeling, if I can, please.

Could you give us some guidance on the D&A charge for this year and perhaps next year, given the plant openings? Thank you.

Thank you, Charles. A lot of questions, but good questions.

Obviously, when we look at the growth in the regions, obviously it sticks out EMEA with 16.6% growth, and that is clearly driven by the strong momentum in DCS, especially on the high-value solutions offerings we have there, whilst obviously that the negative impact on North America has to do with the aforementioned glass syringe impact. The other regions are, in a way, following what I would call a regional, tender-driven business impact.

That is not to be seen as a critical point. The Americas is more towards the impact we have been talking now for two quarters about a specific glass syringe customer.

Then you had addressed what do we see as a 10% customer? Yes, there is now since first half year one client surpassing 10% of revenue shares, and this client is largely active in the GLP-1 sector.

Obviously, it's one of our growth drivers which we see in the glass syringe and in DDS to continue. Polymer, to your third question: yes, I think we have been talking about polymer development.

We see 2026 as the plateauing year, having, to say, eaten through the massive decline on mRNA, having other applications, five other application capturing that. That we foresee to be largely over in 2026, and then let's say the positive momentum in the other applications than mRNA taking over and bringing polymer back to a growth, not giving you a guidance for what growth, but obviously bringing back to growth at let's say a good level.

Our expectation is, yes, that we see polymer to develop well in '27, '28, '29 onwards. More to hear on this one towards Q4 reporting.

D&A charges: obviously, the D&A charge will let's say continue to increase given the additional amortizations or let's say depreciations for capacities we bring online, and that's following, to say, our increased CapEx levels in '25 and '26. That's a trend which will continue in a way, but obviously the point is there is a certain timeframe where we see a tapering off of investments to come.

That's more towards '28, '29, 2030.

Thank you. Just to clarify on D&A, is there any chance you could put a euro number on it or a percentage of sales or something like that for this and next year?

I will not put a euro number to it, but I think if you take the numbers we have seen now so far in Q1, Q2, and take, to say, a algorithm to it, you can see what will be the next half year. Then obviously we are not guiding beyond that.

Thanks very much.

Thank you, Charles. Next question comes from Christian Ehmann at Berenberg.

Christian, the floor is yours.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question.

A lot of has been answered so far. You singled out RTU vials.

Could you give us more color on the prospects you see over there and what kind of growth we could expect over the next years coming from that one? Thank you.

Christian, thank you for your question. When it comes to RTU vials, I think we do address several needs of the pharma industry, whether that is leaner processes and better solutions and more cost-effective solution for the fill-and-finish process.

The intention is to more and more convert our typical bulk products into RTU vials, and we see this over the upcoming years as a very significant growth driver overall.

Thank you.

Welcome. Next question comes from Sven Kürten at DZ Bank.

Please go ahead.

Yes, hi, and thanks for taking my questions. I have two.

First one is on GLP-1. Did you receive any feedback from your customers regarding the new oral weight-loss medications, specifically as on how they're already affecting sales injectible weight-loss medications?

The second one goes to Christian. Could you please outline the top three strategic priorities for SCHOTT Pharma, and are there any potential shifts of strategy we might anticipate under your leadership?

Thank you.

Sven, I will take your first question first. When it comes to feedback regarding how oral is affecting the injectible demand for GLP-1, when it comes to our conversations with customers and our view on that market, we do see those basically two applications to develop alongside, not having a significant impact.

The market growth is expected to be that strong that there are basically two separate segments developing very positively moving forward. We, of course, want to participate in the injectable development.

When it comes to the strategy of SCHOTT Pharma, I can share with you that through the last couple of weeks, I've had the opportunity to look into the strategy of the group already. Overall, I feel pretty comfortable with it.

I think especially the priorities of further growing by innovation will stay one of the top priorities for the upcoming years, as well as the look at cost efficiency and operational excellence. Those are two main pillars, and that will remain two main pillars for our strategy moving forward.

Whether, let me say, further adjustments or refining and improving will be necessary, from my perspective right now after two weeks with SCHOTT Pharma, a little early to say, but I will certainly look further into that and make adjustments along the way if needed.

Thank you.

Thanks. Next question comes from Ed Hall at Stifel.

Please go ahead.

Hi, guys. Thank you for taking my questions.

Just a couple. I think the majority have been asked.

I've heard some recent reports of destocking in glass syringes, at least maybe very near term, with excess inventory held by pharma. Could you confirm or deny this statement as my first question?

Ed, thanks for the question. We do not see a destocking effect on glass syringes, obviously.

This goes more to the broader base. We see a strong demand from first of all, the GLP-1 trends, but also the standard demand in vaccinations, apart from the one topic we discussed now many times on one specific account.

No destocking effect we see on our side.

Perfect. That's super clear.

Thank you. Then I think you touched on it recently just on the mRNA polymer growth, or I'm thinking to the other applications.

I was wondering if you could talk through the growth you've seen for the other applications, at least you've seen for this year initially, and then sort of an outlook, maybe a guidance range there if you could be more specific. That'd be really helpful.

Thanks.

Thank you for that question. Obviously, we are still in a downward trend on the mRNA side, but this one is slowing down.

We talked now in the last year that we were in the high single-digit percent to revenue for mRNA-based products. Today, we are at mid-single digit.

Obviously, this trend may further bring the value down, but has substantially slowed down. Then the other applications, and that's five major applications for us, amongst them aesthetics, animal health, long-acting injectables, IV, or mental health, those have high single-digit growth we have seen, and obviously is on a broader base than with the mRNA.

That gives us confidence that the plateauing effect in 2026 is, to say, a solid one, and then going forward, we will see growth in polymer again.

Perfect. That's great.

Then my final question is just on the GLP-1 growth you're seeing, and I'm thinking of it from a geographical perspective. Obviously, US is a strong market, but what we're seeing growth now in emerging markets in other regions.

I was curious if you could provide some insight into where you're seeing the growth from that particular indication. Thanks.

I think one area of growth obviously comes in the, let's say, the originator growth. This is where we see the strongest growth, obviously with some patent cliffs to come.

The growth will more to be towards 2030, 2031. Obviously, we have discussions there as well.

Our current focus is participate in the growth of the GLP-1 originators, strong. We have seen, let's say, a double-digit growth in our sector.

Last year, we were at let's say higher single-digit numbers. This year, first half, we are clearly at double-digit revenue number, and that shall show you that there's strong growth underneath in the GLP-1 application.

Perfect. Thanks very much, guys.

Thank you very much. The next question, or let's say this way, it's likely the final question, comes from Christopher Richardson at Jefferies.

Chris, thank you very much for your patience. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for taking my questions. In the annual report, you cite the IQVIA assessment that the primary packaging market grew 1% to 2% in 2025 and 3% is expected in 2026.

I was just wondering how this relates to your initial expectations prior to those figures for the respective years, and how do you expect to grow relative to this? Then just as a second one, on the operating cash improvement, receivables inflow improved.

I just wanted to confirm whether any factoring was involved in that, and on the liability side, there was an outflow of cash. Just wondering if there are any changes to payment term policies or anything we should be aware of on the liability side?

Thank you very much.

Christopher, thanks for your question. Obviously, we, as addressed in the annual report, see this, let's say, low single-digit growth in our business segment, and that's what we expect for mainly our bulk products, whether it's bulk vials or bulk cartridges or bulk ampoules.

Still, obviously, we have a very strong, market-leading position in these segments and obviously participate with this underlying growth. I hope this answered now, to say, your questions in a way.

We are not specifying now how much share of our growth in '27 to '29 stems from that because it's a composition. Obviously, we participate and expect growth as well in our bulk products, and we do see growth in the bulk products already today.

That's one part of DCS growth numbers for the first half year. The second point regarding your receivable question: we are not doing factoring, it's a true improvement versus prior-year ending level, as working capital is for me, let's say, a discipline within the finance area.

We need to, let's say, contribute with cash also from a working capital side. This is something we continue to work on.

Super. Thank you.

Thanks, Chris. It seems there are no additional questions, which brings us to the end of our today's conference call.

Thank you very much, Christian. Thank you very much, Reinhard.

Thanks to everybody, every participant in the call today. We look forward to seeing you at the upcoming conferences in New York, Frankfurt, and London, and our nine-months results will be published on August 12th.

That's it for today. Thank you very much.

Have a good day. Bye-bye.