The first quarter marked the strongest Q1 in Hensoldt's history, and that strength is consistently reflected across all our key KPIs. Let me begin with order intake, which was exceptionally strong.

Orders more than doubled year-on-year, reaching nearly €1.5 billion. This clearly shows that defense procurement dynamics are further translating into tangible and long-term contracts.

Key drivers behind this performance were orders for the armored vehicle programs Schakal and Puma, as well as the Eurofighter in the air domain. With 25% growth, revenue performance was well on track in the first quarter, building strong momentum for the full year 2026.

The increase to nearly €500 million was driven by the accelerations of our Optronics business, as well as continued progress in key programs such as Eurofighter MK1 and PEGASUS. As expected, successful milestone achievements resulted in higher pass-through revenue.

This temporary effect will gradually phase out over the course of the year. Revenue excluding pass-through revenue increased by 15%, underlying the momentum of our core business.

Our strong order book increased by 41%, driving order backlog to a new record level of approximately €10 billion. This further enhances our high revenue visibility, as substantial part for the orders currently booked extend well into the 2030s, underpinning our long-term growth trajectory and strong positioning in key European defense programs.

To sum it up, the increasing investment in defense by our German and international customers continue to translate into record order intake and dynamically growing revenues. Our strong top line is also reflected in our bottom-line performance.

Adjusted EBITDA increased by 47% to €44 million, corresponding to a margin of 8.9%. This excellent performance was driven by higher volumes, particularly in the Optronics segment.

In Sensors, the adjusted EBITDA increase benefited from volumes, temporarily diluted by higher pass-through volumes as well as planned R&D investments. Adjusted EBIT rose to €12 million, benefiting from volume effects as well.

As a result, the adjusted EBIT margin improved to 2.3%. Adjusted free cash flow developed in line with a typical seasonal profile.

Investments in working capital for the growth ahead were partly mitigated by a higher level of customer advance payments. As a result, adjusted free cash flow improved by 11% year-on-year to -€95 million.

In summary, bottom-line performance is well on track and set to gain further momentum as the year progresses. Let me now turn to our segment performance, starting with Sensors.

The Sensors segment delivered a sustained high level of order intake of €725 million, corresponding to a book-to-bill ratio of 1.8 times. Order intake was primarily driven by contracts for the Eurofighter, including the Halcon program, as well as orders from Turkey.

This demonstrates the recurring demand for electronics upgrades from our international customer base. Revenue in Sensors increased by 18% year-on-year to €402 million.

The development was supported by successful milestone achievements, particularly in the Eurofighter MK1 program, including planned pass-through elements. For the full year, we continue to expect a total pass-through revenue at a level of around €150 million.

Core revenue in the Sensors segment increased by 6% to €348 million, reflecting solid underlying momentum. Overall, Sensors continues to deliver sustained profitable growth with a double-digit increase.

Adjusted EBITDA amounted to €32 million, corresponding to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 8.1%. As expected, the margin was temporarily diluted by higher pass-through revenue and continued R&D investments, which support our technology roadmap.

Let me now turn to Optronics, which delivered an exceptionally strong start into the year. We achieved a new record first-quarter order intake of €759 million, boosting the Optronics order backlog to over €3 billion.

Key drivers were orders for major armored vehicle programs, including Schakal and Puma second batch, underpinning our positioning in core land platforms and supporting long-term revenue visibility. Revenue momentum accelerates further with a 64% increase compared to the prior-year period.

This excellent top-line development reflects our anticipated ramp-up of production capacities. In addition, our investments in software-defined defense capabilities for the Luchs 2 program started to contribute to revenue.

In terms of profitability, Optronics delivered a very strong performance as well, with adjusted EBITDA reaching €12 million. The significant improvement reflects the strong volume growth, including economies of scale.

In summary, our 3M performance demonstrates a strong start into the year, creating momentum for the full year. Let us now take a closer look at the key orders we continue to expect this year.

Let me start with an update on the Sensors segment. We have presented these programs during our last analyst call in February.

Since then, several expected Eurofighter orders have materialized, including orders for the Spanish Halcon as well as for the Turkey, highlighted in green. Beyond Eurofighter, visibility for the remaining key expected orders on this slide has further improved.

We continue to anticipate significant order intake from core programs such as TRML-4D air defense radars and PEGASUS, further strengthening our position in airborne ISR and signal intelligence. In addition, programs such as MAWS highlight the increasing prioritization of electronic magnetic spectrum capabilities across European armed forces.

Finally, a brief update on LuWES, the airborne electronic magnetic stand-off capability. As outlined in February analyst call, LuWES represents a significant strategic opportunity for Hensoldt, with potential order volumes ranging from several hundred million euros up to billion-euro levels.

Our positioning is strong, supported by proven technological capabilities and our solution expertise from PEGASUS. We therefore see good prospects to take a leading role in this program, which could meaningfully drive our order intake.

Overall, these technology-rich, high-volume programs are expected to materialize over the course of the year and will support our order intake towards the full-year target. In Optronics, order intake was frontloaded as expected.

This reflects the ability to leverage existing framework contracts, allowing our customers to procure more of the same quickly and efficiently. As a result, 2026 has started with an excellent momentum.

Of a planned total order volume of around €450 million for the Schakal platform, €350 million have already been booked in the first quarter, covering commander and gunner sights. For the Puma platform, all planned orders have been booked in Q1 as well, including commander and gunner sights as well as self-protection systems.

Leopard 2 represents a further driver for the year. Thermal imagers for gunner sights as well as for the commander and driver sights are expected to contribute to total order volume of around €180 million in 2026, of which €20 million were already booked in the first quarter.

These major orders are further boosting the Optronics order backlog and provide exceptional visibility well into the 2030s. At the same time, the expanding installed base and the increased focus on equipment availability in the armed forces will support the growth of our service business over the mid to long term.

Let me now turn to our 2026 guidance. Building on a very strong first quarter, we are well positioned to deliver on our full-year guidance.

Starting with order intake, driven with the sustained high demand and order momentum, we expect a book-to-bill ratio between 1.5 and 2 times in 2026. Revenue is expected to increase to approximately €2.75 billion.

We forecast an adjusted EBITDA margin in a range between 18.5% and 19%, reflecting our focus on sustained, strong profitability. For adjusted free cash flow, we continue to expect cash conversion of around 40%, reflecting our planned capex for infrastructure expansion, particularly the new radar production site.

Net leverage is expected to remain at around 1.5 times, and our dividend payout ratio will continue to be in the range of 30% to 40% of adjusted net income. To summarize today's 3M 2026 presentation, here are my key takeaways.

Zeitenwende 2.0 is further picking up speed, translating into substantial order intake and driving our order book to a record high of nearly €10 billion. This provides excellent visibility well into the next decade.

Our strong revenue performance provides tailwind as we move through 2026, while profitability is significantly increased, driven by higher volumes, particularly in Optronics. We have taken key strategic decisions to expand our industrial footprint, preparing our organization for sustained scaling and further growth.

Looking ahead, our outlook remains strong. A pipeline of major contracts expected in 2026 and beyond underlines the sustainability of our growth, supported by funded procurement decisions, multi-year force planning, and a lasting shift in European defense policy.

We continue to prepare for the closing of the Nedinsco acquisition by mid-year, while the signed partnerships with Amovio and Voith further strengthen our access to industrial capabilities and talent. With that, thank you very much for your attention, and I'm now happy to take your questions.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for taking my question. A couple of questions from my side.

The first one is one on the, I'd say, generic question on the growth pace that you expect for the full year. Q1 was, I'd say, marked by an acceleration to 25%.

I understand that you expect some phasing of, I'd say, pass-through revenues throughout the next quarter, but if we just focus on core revenues, the top-line increase was 15% for Q1. The question is how this compare with your 2026 guidance of around 10% growth?

Is this just including some degree of cautiousness or something else in terms of phasing of other key contracts that we should be aware of? The second question is about the large contracts that you have booked for the Optronics.

I'm referring to the, I'd say, Luchs 2 that you already announced, but also Puma and Schakal. If you could provide us with some, I'd say, additional details on the timing that you expect these orders are likely to contribute to P&L.

Thank you.

Hi Marco, thanks for your question. Here are my answers.

We should really focus on core revenues. It's 15% in Q1.

We have guided for 12% increase when I compare the results full year 2025 with full year 2026. I would say a very good tailwind, very good indications.

Also, the last years have shown that even if it's only the first quarter, it gives us a good indication for the full year. Here, I'm fully convinced that we deliver on the guidance.

Secondly, the pass-through, we expect approximately €150 million. I expect a more linear growth of the pass-through revenues in the next quarter, but there should be not more than 150, which is, yeah, slightly more than last year, but not driving our revenues.

It's simply coming from the core. Large contracts, we have now booked Luchs 2 last year.

We have now a very strong Q1. When you look at the order backlog, €3 billion is referring to the Optronics.

It gives us a really long-term visibility for 7, 8 years plus. This is fine, and we will see some more land topics during the year for Leopard, which you have seen that not all are there.

I also expect some major programs in the submarine area. There is more to come, all currently in line with our expectations.

Very very solid, very confident.

Hi Christian. Hi Tim.

Can I check before if you can hear me well?

Perfect.

Perfect. Then I would like to start on the Optronics business.

Apparently, an exceptionally strong start to the year. I'd recall from the Q4 '25 call that you had indicated at least to see an improvement in the margin every year, 3 percentage points up.

Now we have seen this incredible improvement year-on-year. I was just trying to find out if you now see this upside to this 3 percentage points improvement or how should we think about the trajectory?

Maybe we can start there, and then I have two more.

Sure Sebastian. Yes, as said, approximately 3 percentage point is realistic.

For the moment, I would like to stay with that. On the one hand, it's really a very good Q1.

On the other hand, as we know in our defense business, the majority is in Q3 and Q4 of our business. There is where the truth lies in our performance to be honest, and this is why, as you say, that the start was tremendous, but let's now focus on the upcoming quarters.

Makes sense. I might get back to that question then on the next quarters.

Let's move on to the order pipeline then. Apparently, the German government has now been saying that they want to hike the budget by about a high single-digit billion euro amount in the year 2027.

I was just wondering to what extent you might benefit from that.

I think, Sebastian, the note is quite good. It's very solid.

It's too early at this stage to really give you some upside in the short and medium term. What we see, and I can only refer to that, when we look what happened in the last weeks in the Iran, we have seen many decision-makers in Germany again reflecting on our ability to be prepared in the regard for the air defense.

Maybe to remind you, Germany has ordered 6 TRML-4D. To have a really broad defense in air defense, we would require 10 times more.

This is, from my point of view, a topic which we could and will benefit, but this is more now coming from a different threat scenario rather than from this immediate increase. We will evaluate on that and see when we can give you some more news on that.

Okay. Sorry for just following up on the comment that you just made, but the 10 times more, that is sort of you could see a potential of up to 600 of those TRML-4D radars in Germany?

Sorry, 60, 6-0. So 6 is currently ordered, and 10 times, 60 systems would be needed to cover Germany, yeah.

I do not expect that they order 60 this year, but I think it shows that as we see in the Middle East or other areas that air defense is substantially underinvested still. There will be also more orders coming from Germany, and let's see what the upcoming quarter brings.

My comment was really referring on the ability to cover Germany from an air defense perspective.

Got it. Thank you for that.

Then the last one on Nedinsco. Can you provide us with some financials for the asset, like the orders, sales, adjusted EBITDA, and if you could also comment on expected sales or cost synergies, if that is of relevance really for the asset?

We are still in the finalization of the closing, I would ask for a little bit patience, but there are still some minor weeks. When we have the closing done, we will provide some slides on that where we can give you some insights on revenues, on business towards us, to business with others, in margins that you have a feeling for the modeling.

All right. Thank you.

Hop back into the queue.

Welcome.

Hi Christian, thank you for taking my questions. I've got two, please.

Could you give us an idea on what we should expect for the Sensors margin progression for the rest of the year? Forgive me if my maths is wrong, but I get, excluding pass-through, is around 40 basis points of expansion in Q1.

I'd be interested to see your thoughts on this as pass-throughs normalize. Then my second question would be do you see any impact on the business from rising energy costs or any other supply chain-related bottlenecks from the Middle East conflict?

Thanks very much.

Thanks for your questions. First answer: so we have done last year approximately 19% in the Sensors segment adjusted EBITDA.

I expect that we are in this region also for this year. The increased volumes will be more balanced by increasing investments we have to do on the one hand on R&D, but on the other hand on structural investments such as the second production line for TRML-4D and Spexer.

This is my estimation for Sensors segment. The second is we do not expect significant ones.

Energy costs are in our business below 5% of the P&L. Even if there is the one or the other increase, we will not see it in a material perspective.

Supply chain, I have to say, first and second tier is approximately 90% coming from Europe. Here we benefit, and on top of that, regards with costs, we have price escalation clauses in our contracts.

This protects us more or less from having impacts on our P&L. In this regard, I'm currently quite relaxed.

We do not see any big issues coming now out from this conflict hitting our supply chain.

Very clear. Thank you very much.

Hi Christian. Hi Tim.

Thanks so much for the questions. The first is just Middle East.

What's your revenue exposure today, and what do you think that could be medium term? Secondly, just going back on Nedinsco, can you maybe just give us an idea of the acquisition price that you have agreed?

Then lastly, just on medium-term guidance, I noticed that you didn't include the usual slide confirming your medium-term view. Just an update there would be great.

Thank you.

Thanks for that. Middle East is a minor single percentage.

There is, from my point of view, some upside, but because I think what will happen, today there are some news that there might be a kind of a peace or peace scenario, but I'm definitely sure that all these states who were now heavily affected with closed airspace and closed maritime space will heavily invest into air defense. This will last from classic TRML-4D to anti-drone, so that we will see some updates and see approximately 10% in the mid-term where the Middle East business would go.

This is quite in line with our 50-30-20 strategy in the mid to long term. On Nedinsco, the question was the equity value.

Here again, please have some patience, but as soon as we close, we can give you some details on that. Last but not least, medium-term guidance: we did not put it in because it's Q1, but we confirm all our midterm targets we have published.

This is very clear.

Thanks very much.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Christian.

I've just got a follow-up question on the Middle East. Several of your peers in Europe have said that they actually did some shipments of air defense systems to the Middle East in their first quarter.

Have you had any shipments yet, and have you received any orders in the first quarter as a direct result of the war?

Very clear answer: there were some shipments. There were some light howitzers from KNDS equipped with our optics to Qatar, and they were immediately used.

I can say a clear yes on that. In terms of orders, it's currently a little bit complex because our order books are more or less full.

You should understand that there are currently government-to-government talks, and maybe to prioritize one of these states out of the Middle East with air defense that maybe other nations wait for that. There could come something.

Too early now to be detailed on that, but there are talks on a government-to-government perspective.

Thank you very much.

Welcome.

[silence] David?

Sorry, Christian.

Can you hear me now?

Now it's perfect. Hi David.

Sorry about that. Listen.

As the presentation sort of suggests, you have a very good product portfolio. You're positioned to win a lot of business, potentially Middle East air defense.

Question I want to ask is how much of it could you accommodate? How much today is classic air defense systems in your business as a percent of sales, and how much could you ramp it up if the demand comes in?

How quickly and how much could you do? Thank you.

David, thanks for the question. Approximately, I would say, 10% of our business is towards air defense when it comes to drones and other areas.

Second question, very honest: so we are already ramping up like hell to really serving the demand which we have currently in our orders. I have to say, the next 2 years, I do not see that there could appear an further upside on the potential.

If there is some order from this region, there will be or there have to be agreements between governments, as I said before, that the one or the other nation who is not urgently needing it steps back, yeah, and that we then deliver in this region. This could happen.

This is why I see in the next 1 to 2 years not a significant upside for our business, but in the mid to long term, I see that this region will give us also more demand in terms of business potential.

Okay. Is there a scenario in your planning, and I know it's very fluid, but where air defense becomes 20% of sales?

Is air defense just TRML and Spexer, or is there anything else in that 10? What else do you include in that?

It's mainly from a volume base, it's, of course, TRML-4D and Spexer. Maybe when you have a look into our backup of the presentation where we including some counter-drone portfolio, yeah, where you see, for example, the Elysion system from ESG, then TaROS in the Optronics, which is mounted on some vehicles.

These are further topics. It's mainly Spexer, it's TRML-4D, it's Elysion, it's TaROS.

There is a product family around that. Yes, why not that air defense could come from 10 to 20%.

We want to grow every year 15% to 20% from 2027, and of course, air defense will contribute heavily to this growth.

Okay. All right.

Thank you very much. That was all I had.

Thanks.

Yes, thank you very much for taking my question. Two on my side.

You mentioned in Sensors the impact of pass-through and R&D product development. Could you remind us of the technology roadmap you have in Sensors?

Where is the money going at the moment, and what is the duration, to say, over the coming years? The second question was more on F126 and your exposure to that platform.

I think you're supplying the radar systems. Are you seeing any potential changes of allocation of those radars?

Is it fluid at the moment, or is it unknown? Thank you.

Thanks for a question. Maybe again to remind us, in Q1 margin is a little bit lower due to pass-through and R&D.

The structure of our business is very clear, that costs more or less run linearly, yeah, whilst our revenue is more in a curve that in Q4 we have 40, 50% of revenues, and this is why the impact from costs in the first quarter is always higher than it is in the other quarters. Currently, we invest, of course, in our R&D, yeah.

In total, we invest 5.5% to 6% this year in our R&D, whilst approximately 10, 11% go to Optronics, and the rest is in Sensors. Secondly, infrastructure: so we build the second production line now for TRML-4D and Spexer.

These are infrastructure investments, and the rest is pure opex costs for SG&A. This is the structure what we currently invest, and this is why I see that from next year on, when the investments pay off, that there is more to come in terms of margins also from the Sensors segment.

Your second question, F126: yes, you are right, we deploy the radar for the F126. We have a clear commitment from the customer that they want to have it.

They want to use it in a different scenario for surveillance, and this is why we are quite relaxed on that that we will not have a negative revenue impact from this program, it will be used for surveillance in another domain.

Thank you very much.

Yes, hi Christian. Thank you for the question.

I had two. I wanted to ask you on these automotive supplier agreements.

Can you go into that in a little bit more detail, what are you actually using them for? Are there any particular programs or products, and are there more to come, how should we think about that?

Then secondly, on this pardon my pronunciation, but LuWES contract, the €1 billion that you mentioned at the beginning, is that potentially all for Hensoldt? Could you just remind us what are you actually contributing into that program?

Thank you.

Thanks Ben for your question. What are these programs all about?

I think you're aware that in the automotive sector, the trend is going downwards, and that means that many resources and headcounts are released. What we try currently to build a kind of an ecosystem to go into agreements with Amovio and Voith, it means we have a kind of an open workplace where we partner with this companies so that people get a direct access to our hiring department, that we can say that we can do a matching between our capabilities we need and the capability the suppliers release.

This we have now good experience with them, and there is a clear yes. I think there will be two or three more.

Please understand that I cannot not talk about not yet to publish agreements because it's also there are also negotiations, of course, with works councils and so on ongoing. Before this is not done from the companies who have to release workforce, I cannot comment on that, but there is a clear yes.

We are working also with other companies on them so that we have a handful of this initiatives. LuWES, I have to say it's maturing, but we cannot now give you more details.

I think if this program comes, it is up to 12 aircrafts. We think that in total, it could be a single-digit billion amount, yeah.

You have to understand that it depends a little bit on the configuration that approximately 50% to 60% are payload, which is then, again, Hensoldt, yeah. The duration is until the mid of the 2030s.

This is currently the frame numbers we can talk about. The rest is too early because now we go into the request for proposal phase, then there will be some negotiations, then the industrial structure has to be shaped, and there are also other players in the market who are keen on that.

Then the customer will decide which setup, which industrial setup, and who is the preferred partner for that. I see also out of our PEGASUS program, where we are now in a final year before we deliver next year, we are in a very good position.

Okay. Very clear.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Hello, yes, thank you. I just have one, please, on the cash flow.

Christian, given the strong order intake in Q1, I would suspect that that would have come nicely through your cash flows this quarter. Can you explain a little bit on the prepayments rate in Q1 and how you expect that to evolve over the course of this year?

Then as a follow-up to that, and thank you for the explanation on LuWES, is that what's baked into your guidance for 2026 in terms of order intake from that contract? Because it's a massive range.

You can go to several hundred millions to a billion plus. Just wondering what's factored into the guidance.

Any of that's upside to that? Thank you.

Thanks for your question. First, we have gained approximately €170 million of advance payments, which is approximately 11% of order intake.

Last 12 months is approximately 15% of order intake, you see that Q1 was rather weak in a percentage comparison. This is due to the fact that you can build now into your models approximately 15% of the order intake is an advance payment, but it's not structural in each and every program, and it's not structurally in each and program the same amount, yeah.

We have programs where we reach up to 50%, 60%. We have others we do not get advance, but on a total full-year order intake figure, this 15% is a good figure to model with.

This is the first answer. The second, LuWES, we have only included a study which is minor, which is a small double-digit amount.

I have to say I do not think that the order will be done for this year. It will be early next year.

If it comes, and if we win, it will be significant. Then we will give also some update on how this impacts our guidance.

Clear. Thank you very much.

With that, thank you all for listening. As always, should you have any further questions, the IR team is around all day to follow up.

With that, have a great day. Thank you, and goodbye.