FACC AG

FACC AG

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30.86P/E
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Nov 11Next Earn

Q1 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptMay 6, 2026

Operator

A warm welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the earnings call of FACC AG following the publication of the Q1 figures for 2026. I would like to welcome the company's CEO, Robert Machtlinger, the CFO, Florian Heindl, and Michael Steirer from Investor Relations, who will guide you through the figures in a moment, followed by a Q&A session via audio line and chat.

With that, I hand over to you, Mr. Steirer.

Michael Steirer

Thanks a lot for the introduction, Mara. Good morning again to everyone, and thank you for joining us.

Welcome to the FACC earnings call. As already mentioned, my name is Michael Steirer, and I'm joined today by our CEO, Robert Machtlinger, and our CFO, Florian Heindl.

As always, detailed financial information have been made available in the press release published earlier today at 7:15 a.m. If we are unable to address all questions during the call, please let us let us know, and we will arrange follow-up one-on-one discussions case by case.

Saying that, I would like to hand over to Robert Machtlinger, our CEO. Thank you.

Robert Machtlinger

Michael, good morning. Thank you for the introduction.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's earnings call for FACC for the first quarter of 2026. Before we go into the slides, maybe a few remarks concerning the overall development of the industry.

We are all well aware about the dynamics globally, with the one or the other surprises that hit us again and the industry had to react to it, namely the Middle East crisis. Nevertheless, I would say, and this is not new, I would say the operating environment still remains dynamic.

It's not only supply chains that are causing issues since not a month, but more than two years right now. I think our end customers, our OEMs, are very transparent in communicating.

Nevertheless, I think the industry is able to still navigate and manage the dynamics as best as we can. A few words on the geopolitical situation.

This, of course, is keeping us very focused on the monitoring of the development. We are in very close contact with all of our customers, but also our suppliers to make the right decisions.

Far, it's well under control. In terms of impact to the industry, in the meantime, I think there have been some impacts.

Also, FACC have seen a couple of order adjustments in the first couple of weeks of the year 2026. All the order adjustments we have received from our customers are worked into our business planning for the year 2026 and beyond.

Nevertheless, and Florian will talk about it, and we will be more specific at the end of the presentation, the adjustments we have seen are not unexpected, I would say. We're working in scenarios since a couple of quarters, and everything we see right now is not having an impact on the FACC guidance.

In saying that, I would like to go into the details, a few snapshots and highlights on the first quarter. FACC was able to announce a new contract we have signed up with Embraer.

It's basically a complete new cabin for the Embraer Praetor 600E and 500E business jets. We have developed this state-of-the-art, I would say, it's a new standard, I think, in business aviation we have worked out together with Embraer.

It's a long-lasting contract, again showing evidence that FACC is a strong partner to the industry. Secondly, we in the Management Board, after a one-year review and detailed analysis, have made significant decisions in terms of capacity adjustments we need to manage the market growth.

As you have likely seen in the public press announcements, we are setting up capacity for the Aerostructures division, which will be a fully digitized, robotic-assisted, automated manufacturing site close to our current plant number 3 in Upper Austria. This is certainly an important step dealing with the market development for the next couple of years.

Finally, I think, and we will talk, that's the main reason of our call, the results of our fiscal year, it's pretty much, and all in line with our expectations, I would say. There is revenue growth compared to last year, and even more important, the profitability has further increased.

Florian will talk more about all things. Quick insight on the market outlook: we tried to be a little bit more focused on the demand versus supply.

We would not repeat the long-term forecast, which is unchanged, showing the resilience of the industry, and you know all of those status. Basically, and I think this is very key at the time being in the middle of a significant dynamic in the Middle East, what is the market requirement?

Where are we, and what is the risk of a further reduction or adjustment of the build rates? I want to keep it, I think, very high-level.

I think, at the time being, there might be the one or the other small adjustment for 2026, depending on the development of the Middle East. All of our customers are confirming high demand of fuel-efficient new airplanes.

Even if the one or the other airline wants to postpone a delivery, there is enough demand that would compensate here and there. Overall, if you look into the dynamics in terms of traveling, between the year 2000 and 2025, the revenue passenger kilometers tripled over the last 25 years.

The fleet has doubled. This is giving us some indications that small and midsize airplanes are growing.

The seat capacity of the main market, 80% of the aerospace market is small to midsize airplanes. This midsize airplanes are growing in seat capacity.

That's one element. That's on the very right side of the chart, there is more demand than supply.

This is also not new. We know that there have been a couple of hiccups, especially with the supply of Boeing airplanes over the last couple of years.

I think they're doing exceptionally well right now in reramping up from where they're coming from. We also know that Airbus has the one or the other issues, and the Airbus management is very transparent with their engine supply issues.

Overall, and this is the IATA analysis, there is a shortfall of round about 5,200 airplanes, new modern airplanes that are not yet on the market. I have to say, the Boeing analysis is a little bit more pessimistic.

They talk about 1,800 airplanes that are currently missing immediately. We can navigate between the two numbers.

This is already a clear indication that the market demand and the requirement is there, and the supply of new airplanes is not, at the time being, holding up with the demand of the airplanes. Two numbers: last year, Airbus and Boeing delivered round about 1,400 airplanes.

Before the crisis in 2020, the total combined delivery rate was slightly above 1,600 airplanes. There is still a gap of more than 200 airplanes that are not yet produced, but airlines have a need for.

Just taking this 500, sorry, 200 airplanes from last year, the number was bigger the years before, mathematically is giving us the gap that is basically currently in the market. Overall, I think that gives us a certain optimistic view that the demand and the requirement for producing airplanes and delivering them is still very much a key objective for the industry.

Looking into the output of Airbus and Boeing in the first quarter, nothing new, you probably have seen it. Airbus had a difficult start in the first two months of the year, picking up slightly in February.

Just looking into the April numbers, not yet confirmed, they've delivered round about 60 airplanes, they will announce shortly. A trend going in the right direction.

I think some of the deliveries in April have been hold-ups in the first quarter because of administrative issues between China and Airbus on taking airplanes, paperwork, and regulatory stuff. Overall, engine is the bottleneck, but the order backlog at Airbus again increased to slightly above 9,000.

Boeing, as said before, they are very focused on the reramp-up. Output in the first quarter was higher compared to Airbus, higher since many years.

This is giving indication that they're on the right track. The 737 currently runs at a rate of 42, and Boeing prepares for further rate increases in line with the authorities.

Also here, the order book significantly increased to 6,100 aircraft. Overall, trend is going in the right direction, with the one or the other challenge we all have to deal with.

In terms of the longer market-term forecast, this is a refresh of what we shared with you. Especially in times with some uncertainty, we thought it's maybe helpful for you to see what we are expecting.

Looking into the first quarter 2026, a baseline in terms of rates we are producing for our customers and what we are seeing as a rate within the decade, that means ramp-up between today and the end of the decade, we see quite sizeable increases in terms of demand. Just jumping into the A320, you know that 37% of our business is related to the Airbus A320 family.

Also here, we see a 32% organic increase in requirement, which of course is good for FACC. Same is true for the A350 family, very well stabilized.

Ramp-up is ongoing. We are currently producing a rate of seven airplanes a month with a solid forecast and actions in place to ramp up to 12 within the next couple of periods, which is a 71% increase and which is above the rate we have produced for Airbus before the COVID crisis.

Same is true for the 787, from five a month to 12 a month. We are currently actually approaching rate eight and 10 with Boeing 787 before the end of the third quarter.

Then we are seeing a further ramp-up to a requirement of eight. Also quite important for FACC, the COMAC C919 airplane, where we have a quite significant share of value, is growing from currently three airplanes per month to above eight before the end of the decade.

Overall, I think the forecasts we are getting are in line with our expectations, reconfirmed, and is showing the organic growth we have in front of us. In saying that, I would like to hand over to our CFO for the financial details.

Please, Florian.

Florian Heindl

Thanks, Robert, for the introduction. Hello everyone, also from my side.

Jumping into the first slide, you know very well, I think it summarizes perfectly what we have seen also in the last quarters, a constant improvement of our—

Operator

Ihr seid leider eingefroren. Und wir können euch gerade nicht mehr hören.

Ich weiß nicht, ob ihr mich versteht, aber vielleicht ist es einmal gut, wenn ihr eure Kamera einmal ausmacht oder noch einmal aus dem Call rausgeht und wieder reinkommt. Euer Mikrofon ist an.

Ich kann euch aber leider nicht hören. Herr Machtlinger, sitzen Sie mit im Raum?

Ja, meine Damen und Herren, wir haben leider gerade ein paar technische Schwierigkeiten. Es tut mir sehr leid.

Herr Steirer, ich würde Sie bitten, einmal noch mal aus dem Call rauszugehen und noch mal einmal wieder reinzukommen, wenn das möglich ist. So.

Wir können Sie leider immer noch nicht hören. Ja, ich weiß, wir haben leider keinen Ton mehr.

Meine Damen und Herren, es tut mir sehr leid, dass wir gerade keinen Ton haben. Wir sind dran.

Herr Steirer, Sie können sich gerne noch mal über die Airtime-Plattform anmelden. Einmal hier aus dem Call noch mal rausgehen und dann über die Airtime-Plattform noch mal wieder einloggen.

Wir können Sie leider nicht hören. Herr Machtlinger, würden Sie sich einmal für uns unmuten?

Sitzen Sie mit im Raum und können da einmal vielleicht den Bildschirm rüberziehen oder weitermachen? Weil ich kann den Herrn Steirer gerade nicht erreichen.

Wir können Sie leider immer noch nicht hören. Meine Damen und Herren, es tut mir sehr leid für die Verzögerung.

Können Sie sich wieder einloggen, Herr Steirer? Sehr gut.

Ich sehe, der Herr Steirer ist gerade noch mal aus dem Call reingekommen und wird sich jetzt gleich wieder einloggen. Dann werden wir auch gleich weitermachen können.

Es kann noch einen kurzen Moment dauern, meine Damen und Herren. Und dann werden wir weitermachen in der Präsentation.

Einen kurzen Augenblick noch. Very good.

They are trying to reconnect, it's just going to be a short time until they're back. They're back in the call.

Herr Machtlinger, Ihr Mikrofon ist jetzt an. Man müsste Sie jetzt eigentlich auch hören.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, I'm very sorry again for the inconvenience. We're on it.

Florian Heindl

Can somebody hear us?

Operator

Yes, I can hear you perfectly. Hello.

Florian Heindl

Can you hear us?

Operator

We can hear you. [unclear] [unclear] Ladies and gentlemen, we're very sorry for the inconvenience.

We are on it, trying to—

Florian Heindl

Okay. We are trying to reconnect.

We have a technical issue on our end. We are just getting another speaker.

Give us a minute.

Operator

Thank you very much.

Florian Heindl

Can you hear us?

Operator

We can hear you. Thank you.

Can you hear me?

Florian Heindl

Okay. I will continue.

Operator

Perfect. Thank you.

Florian Heindl

Again, on the division results. In terms of revenue, we had a slight increase in Aerostructures and Engine & Nacelles, as I explained before.

We are expecting a pick-up of the revenue in those two divisions at the rest of the year. In Cabin Interiors, we have already seen a strong revenue growth in Q1 compared to last year with 26%.

In terms of the division results, we can see, and this is also of course a very good sign also for the Management Board, all three divisions again are in positive EBIT territory, starting with Aerostructures on the left side, €4.1 million of EBIT, transforming in an EBIT margin of 4.6%, massive improvement compared to Q1 2025 last year, which was a very weak quarter. Engine & Nacelles, I would say nothing surprising here, solid double-digit EBIT margin, round about 11% with €4.8 million of EBIT.

Cabin Interiors positive with roughly €0.8 million, giving us a margin of 0.6%. What you can see, and this is also, I would say, a consequence also of last year, Cabin Interiors still a challenging business for us, but we are on the right track as we have shown last year, and we expect the positive development of course in Cabin Interiors to continue.

Free cash flow, another slight improvement compared to last year's quarter one, €8.9 million of free cash flow in quarter one compared to the €3.5 million last year. I think this is also visible if you look at our net debt and leverage ratio.

We have seen that trend also in the last quarters, FACC is on a constant path of increasing the free cash flow, propping up free cash flow, working on our working capital, and reducing our net debt. Of course, this is very beneficial for the company, and we need it anyhow, as Robert just explained.

We have a massive investment program in front of us over the next couple of years. Of course, a solid balance sheet and a solid cash flow statement is the necessary foundation for that.

Cash flow, I just touched investments a little bit, what you can expect going forward for this year is a slight pick-up for the rest of the year in our capex investments. You will see the major impacts of capex investments in our new plant in the years to come, not so much in 2026 as we start this project in the second half of the year with ground-breaking and preparing the battlefield for the building, basically.

The big cash-outs will be in 2027 and 2028, but nevertheless, you will see an impact also in the third and fourth quarter of 2026. The inventory I also touched a little bit in the beginning already.

What we have seen in Q1 2026 is a pick-up in inventory to €194 million. I put in comparison again the total assets as a percentage.

We are at round about 28.5% of our total assets. What this number is telling us, and I said that in the beginning, that we still have problems in the supply chain with certain suppliers.

In general, the supply chain is improving over the last couple of years, but we still have hiccups, and this forces us to have buffer stock. We are again back on a territory of roughly €190 million.

Same is true as last year. We will work on that, we will keep it under control, we will work to bring it down.

For the time being, we need to keep a buffer stock to secure the supply to our OEMs. In saying that, I want to hand back to Robert for the outlook.

Robert Machtlinger

Thank you, Florian. I hope you captured everything.

Sorry for the technical hiccup we had in between. For the outlook, I think we can reconfirm what we have published at the end of last year.

We see a continuation of our growth. Still, the spread is a little bit wide, between 5% to 15% in top-line growth.

We will be in a position to narrow the guidance down with the end of Q2, where we normally have good and aligned data with our customers. Overall, I think we are managing the volatility quite well.

The EBIT will further increase as a result from scaling effects, growth, but maturity is driven by our core projects, which is, of course, taking further momentums. Where are we focused on?

Also not unchanged, strong focus on the increase and rate demands from all of our customers. Again, repeating statement, this is unique for the time being right now, all of our customers, all platforms, widebodies and narrowbodies, are ramping up at the same time.

This is not normal. Normally is one commodity is ramping up, the other one is stable.

Right now, we have ramp-ups everywhere, and we also have market dynamics and further growth potential in the urban air mobility environment. As Florian mentioned, stabilizing our supply chain is key.

We're working on that, are making good headway, also with certain transfer of works, double-sourcing, and other mitigation issues, which will secure our position in terms of highest quality and reliability in terms of supply. We're actively managing the energy cost volatility.

As we do US dollar hedging, we also do hedging for energy cost. We have been active, and I'm happy to say that we have secured our energy cost for the full year of 2026.

Round about 30% to 40% of the energy cost is hedged for 2027. We have hedged the energy consumption before the energy cost made a turnaround with quite some increases on the market.

Here also our hedging policy worked fine, giving us a stable cost basis for energy. Start of plant expansion, as Florian mentioned, will start in the Q4 of 2026, and directly related to that new facility, we have a significant high focus on digitalization and automization by bringing people on board from external partners.

We are significantly increasing our knowledge base in these two areas, giving a little bit of a KPI: a facility we're putting in place in today's environment would have a requirement for round about 500 to 550 people. With the new setup we are planning, the people we need to operate the volume in that facility with the new robotics and the operating model we have rolled out, we talk about round about 300 people.

This is the efficiency we want to bring into play with this new state-of-the-art facility. In saying that, I want to reconfirm for the company our guidance for 2026 and would like to open the floor for your questions.

Operator

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we're opening the Q&A session.

If you would like to ask your questions via the audio line, please click the raise hand button. If you're dialing in by phone, please press *9 to raise

Robert Machtlinger

your hand. Sorry, we can't hear anything.

Operator

Oh.

Robert Machtlinger

Mara, I think you're on mute.

Operator

No, I'm not. Is it better now?

Can you hear me now? Hello?

I'm sorry.

Robert Machtlinger

Mara, can you say something, please?

Operator

Yes, I can. I'm here.

Hello.

Robert Machtlinger

Sorry, we can't hear you.

Operator

I'm so sorry. I'm not so sure what's happening.

I'm not sure. Oh, apparently, they can hear us, but we cannot hear each other.

Okay. If you're dialed in by phone, please press *9 to raise your hand and *6 to unmute yourself.

Additionally, you are also welcome to post your questions in our chat, and we will read them out loud for you. Yes, thank you for your feedback in the Q&A that you can hear both of us.

That's very helpful. Thank you.

I have no clue what it is because I can hear everybody very well. I think it's your output that might not be on.

Robert Machtlinger

Sorry, Mara, can you please talk to us? We have no tone.

Still no tone.

Operator

I am. I will unmute Mr.

Bastian Brach now to ask your question. You can unmute yourself now.

Bastian Brach

Hi, can you hear me?

Operator

I can hear you, yes. I'm not sure if the others can.

Bastian Brach

Yeah. Don't seem like—

Operator

It doesn't seem like it. Mr.

Steirer is still there, and Mr. Machtlinger is coming back.

I'm not sure what it is because I can hear you perfectly. I can hear Mr.

Machtlinger perfectly as well. It seems like he cannot hear me.

Robert Machtlinger

Now I can hear right now. I can hear you.

Operator

Oh, perfect. That's amazing, because I could hear you perfectly all the time.

Oh,

Robert Machtlinger

I am sorry. I need to apologize for the technical issue we might have on our side.

Terribly sorry for that one. We can hear you well, and I hope you captured everything we presented.

Operator

Yes. We unmuted Mr.

Bastian Brach to ask his question. Please, Mr.

Brach, please go

Bastian Brach

on. Mr.

Machtlinger, we heard everything you said on the presentation, so that's good. I hope you can hear me now.

I have three questions. The first one, you mentioned the delivery adjustments from the OEMs.

Can you quantify the revenue impact of that in the next few quarters, and do you expect further increase in the still elevated inventory levels as a result of that? Do you maybe have an internal target for the inventory levels at year-end or for the next quarters?

Robert Machtlinger

Yes, basically, I need to explain a little bit, I think. When we do our forecasting for a year, we normally start in early fall of the previous year based on market, let's say, orders we get.

We got a little bit used to it that in the first couple of weeks of a fiscal year, our customers are down-adjusting, let's say, to a more realistic plan. The point is, we need to follow the order book or the order request of our customers at first.

We are ordering material, we are preparing for the ramp-up. If then, in the first couple of weeks of a year, the adjustments are done, we certainly have to deal with this circumstance.

We learned how to deal with it, I would say, in the last two to three years. This happened also this year that we got a order adjustment.

To be a little bit precise, not just talking things without meat on the bone, if we would look into the order book we had for 2026 at the end of December of last year, I think the growth would be more to the upper end of the FACC guidance. With the adjustments we have seen right now because of various issues, supply chain issues, engines, and recently the Middle East, there was a reduction in the range in the middle, or let's say in the lower end of a double-digit revenue number.

Something around $30 million to $40 million of an adjustment we have seen from the year-end 2025 to what we see today. Basically, by seeing this, we are very nicely inside the FACC guidance, still not on the lower end, more on the middle, I would say, a little bit above the middle.

What we also have seen from the past years, with the second quarter, the order signal is very stable without too many volatility, ups and downs, because then our customers have made their plan. Again, I think even Airbus last week in the call confirmed the guidance for 2026, all based on the engine availability they have aligned with the engine suppliers.

This gives us, I think, good visibility for the end of the year. Again, I think we want to specify our guidance at the end of Q2.

In terms of inventory, well, I think this was a hiccup, as said before. We had to prepare for the higher rates in certain areas.

We have to move the rate increase to quarter two or the second half of the year already having material on board. We are certain that the inventory will burn down at least in the second half of the year.

We also have to understand that there is some lead time involved with some materials. We currently see lead times that are between half a year and a year, we have to order in advance to have security.

There is material rolling in with the rate ramping up a little bit later. Overall, we have a target for inventory, and it will be significantly or let's say measurably below what you have seen in the end of Q1.

Bastian Brach

Okay. Thank you.

My next question would be on the Engine & Nacelle margin, which was quite a bit lower than the previous year. Was it due to lower development project revenues, or was there any other driver we need to be aware of?

Robert Machtlinger

Most significantly, yes. I think some milestones, and this is not unexpected, are coming over the year.

Also we have to say, and you've seen it, the Engine & Nacelle and Aerostructures revenue only has been growing by slightly above 1%. Why is this coming from?

The Engine & Nacelle and the Aerostructures has a bigger stack or work share on widebody airplanes. Also, the widebody airplanes are ramping up, but slightly slower than expected at the beginning of the year, which is a reason for a little bit of a lower growth in these two segments, but especially in Engine & Nacelle, also a slightly lower EBIT for the first quarter.

Again, for the year-end, we are expecting numbers that are closer to what you have seen in the past.

Bastian Brach

Okay. Thank you.

My last question would be on COMAC and, yeah, in the market, there's some talks about production delays, only three deliveries in Q1. How do you see these issues and the further ramp-up in the next quarters and years, and maybe some comments on possible certifications of the 919 outside of the home market, China, and the Asian region?

Robert Machtlinger

What we see, and we are close to them with our FACC China operation and with everything we do with them, they are ramping up. COMAC is right now putting in place a second assembly line for the 919, which is advancing.

They are right now putting the equipment in. COMAC is very focused in terms of ramping up.

However, COMAC has similar issues than the other two in the market with the one or the other supply chain issue. Some of it is engines.

They're working on that one as the other ones do. I know that the production rate is increasing.

The handover to customers is sometimes pending on the one or the other issue that needs to be installed to the airplane. In terms of exporting the airplane, I think for the time being, there is a huge market in China with the big China carriers, which will be supported first.

There is some market out there in Indonesia and other countries where China is exporting, and COMAC is trying to get certification roadmaps released with the European authorities first, and then following by the American authorities, which might be a little bit more tricky, which I think also was the reason, I think, for a couple of Airbus non-deliveries, to say it diplomatically.

Bastian Brach

Okay. Thank you very much for that.

Robert Machtlinger

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Brach, for your questions.

We have Mr. Elias New in line to ask his question.

Please, Mr. Niew, you can unmute yourself now.

Mr. Niew, can you hear us?

I just sent you the request to unmute yourself, and I can see that you are unmuted.

Elias New

Yes. Good morning.

Can you hear me now?

Operator

Yes, we can hear you perfectly. Hello.

Yes.

Elias New

Yes. Sorry about that.

A few questions from my side. Firstly, just wondering if you could give us an update on the raw material front of your core savings program and whether you've seen any adverse impacts on your input costs following the current Middle East crisis.

Then also turning to fasteners, do you still expect the headwind to EBIT to be offset by the third quarter of this year?

Robert Machtlinger

Thank you for the questions. Good questions.

I want to start with the fastener question. Fasteners was a big impact and issue last year.

We have been able last year to manage, first of all, supply and pricing, and we also aligned with our end customers to have a joint, let's say, procurement strategy, where we're working together with all of our customers. Any fluctuation, not with all fasteners, but with a significant portion of the fastener cost is right now indexed based on current pricing.

Is the problem going fully away in 2026? The answer is no, because there is still some inventory coming in from the old orders.

The impact will be by far less than last year, and the situation will be fully mitigated during the fiscal year 2027. Nevertheless, in our assessments and guidance in terms of EBIT, the fastener impact was known and is part of our analysis.

No surprises to the management, because we already knew last year what will hit us in 2026. For the first question, I would ask Florian to answer.

Florian Heindl

Yeah. If I get it correctly, it was about input costs following the Middle East crisis.

What we have seen this time, or at least not yet, suppliers raising requests on our end. I also have to say, and we frequently talk in that direction, and also, Elias, we talked specifically the last time we met, also in terms of input costs and our contract structures that we changed a little bit after, or a little bit is maybe the wrong expression, we changed contracts after the last crisis, most notably Russia-Ukraine war, with the impacts on the supply chain.

We took that chance, rearranged some contracts, and of course, we are now better protected in terms of requests from the supply chain. I think it's a question how long this crisis is ongoing in the Middle East in the end.

The longer, of course, the oil price stays on an elevated level, and we are now in the second month of this war, basically, oil prices in the range of round about 100 US dollars. We also need to think of last years in that timeframe where the oil price was also in the range of $70 to $80.

Basically, right now, we are not expecting a major swing in the supply chain confronting us with price increases, but, and this is the message also here, we need to wait and see how this crisis works out. Of course, if the oil price is sticking to $100 or even higher for a couple of months, there will be requests out of the supply chain, but this time, at the moment, we don't see that.

Elias New

Great. Very helpful.

Then just more of a housekeeping question on the tax impact. In the first quarter, looks like you benefited from some tax loss carryforwards.

Just wondering if, given the positive tax impact you saw in Q1, what we should sort of assume for the remainder of the year in terms of the effective tax rate for you?

Florian Heindl

You were coming over a little bit broken, but I think the question is about tax loss carryforwards. Of course, we still enjoy some tax loss carryforwards out of the last couple of years with losses that we had, and we are consuming that concerning or related to the rules and regulation in terms of IFRS.

Nothing surprising on that end.

Elias New

Okay. Anything you can tell us in terms of effective tax rate that you expect for this year?

Florian Heindl

Effective tax rate will, of course, increase for this year. We have seen that also in last years.

It's going up a little bit as we are now at the end of consuming our tax loss carryforwards. Going forward in the next couple of years, we will come back to a more normal effective tax rate.

Elias New

Great. Thank you.

Then a final question for my side would be kind of coming back to the divisional margin development, and particularly also Engine & Nacelles. A colleague already mentioned that the margin was down year-on-year, but for the full year, would you expect the Engine & Nacelle margin to kind of return to or remain at the same level as we saw in 2025?

I guess also turning to the Cabin Interiors margin, I was wondering whether this quarter there were any one-offs and whether you were satisfied with the margin performance in that division?

Florian Heindl

Message is not changing. As we talked last time a couple of weeks ago, no different story here.

The big target is, and we put that out frequently, we want to be an 8% to 10% EBIT margin company in 2027. Yes, we will have two divisions with double-digit EBIT margins in that timeframe, which is Aerostructures, 10% plus, and Engine & Nacelles, 10% plus.

As Robert just explained before, of course, in Engine & Nacelles, we had a little bit of a swing if we compare it to one year ago. Basically, and we also said that last time, the big challenge of course is to keep the Engine & Nacelle margin, and we want to keep it where it is right now.

In the territory of round about 12%. The first quarter was a little bit lower than the 12%, but we want to get back to the 12% that we have seen last year.

No change in story line here.

Elias New

Okay. In terms of Q1 performance in Cabin Interiors, margin development, any one-offs to call out there?

Florian Heindl

No, also same story line here. We have seen the pick-up in Cabin Interiors development last year, especially in the last quarters.

The first quarter now was a little bit weaker, but you can expect, and overall, as we said, in terms of our guidance, you can expect an increasing improvement in terms of our operating EBIT margins, and this also includes of course Cabin Interiors. Q1 was a little bit weaker, yes, but you can expect a pick-up in margins in the quarters to come.

Elias New

Great. Very helpful.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much, Mr. Niew.

We have another risen hand by Mr. Aymeric Poulain.

You may unmute yourself now. Mr.

Poulain, can you hear us? You may unmute yourself now.

Aymeric Poulain

Yes, sorry. I hope you can hear me well now.

Thank you very much. Good morning, all.

I guess most of my questions have been answered, but I wanted to come back to the €120 million capex plan, and just checking what would be your full capacity utilization turnover on the current basis, and indeed in terms of the roll-up of this capex plan, what incremental capacity would you expect to achieve, either from new space, new machinery, or from the productivity and NC tools you're planning to add to the unit? Then as a derivative question from this, are there any specific risks on this capex plan from the interest rate environment?

Obviously, you are self-funding this capex plan, there must be some sensitivity around interest costs. What's your view on the situation here, and is there some sensitivity based on the leverage you could carry going forward?

Thank you very much.

Robert Machtlinger

Thank you for the question. The first part, I would like to answer, and the financing question will be taken by Florian.

The capex we're putting in place, there is two main reasons. The facility will be focused on aerostructures, basically large components like rudders, like elevators, like landing flaps, bigger movable components, where we are following a strategy, a portfolio strategy that FACC, as a next step in complexity, is offering the supply, the development and supply of an empennage to our customers.

We do most of the parts for different airplanes, we have the technology, we have the know-how. What we go next is a turnkey solution for a customer where we can do a tail of an airplane.

That's what we think is the way FACC should develop for sure for the next generation of airplanes that will be launched. The product family we are currently having and we are supplying, rudders, elevators, flaps to our customers, and with the rate ramp-ups I showed you before, this 30% to 140% increase on certain platforms needs capacity.

We have invested before 2020 to be a €1 billion company in terms of size. With the growth rates we are seeing, we grow in the next couple of years measurably beyond this €1 billion, of course, simply driven by the market requirement and rate increases and the platform strategy we have.

Basically, a little bit more than half of the capacity this investment will bring is already occupied and used by the products we are producing under firm contract. It's simply ramp-ups, organic growth.

We would like to manage this organic growth with less amount of people. Also, these products will be digitized.

Manual work will be replaced with robotics. For example, at the end of the process, where people are today manually apply the painting, this will be done in an automatic system.

The one or the other semi-installation, preassembly, which is done by people today, will be replaced by robotics. Half of the investment is consumed with rate increases we see in front of us.

The other half is planned for new projects. On a few one, we are currently working on.

It's not yet implemented. We're just starting with our customers to work on the industrial plan.

Within the next two to three years, new products we are negotiating with our customers will be added to that facility. There will be an area in this facility which we call a preserial production facility, which is more an R&D environment.

In this environment, round about 3,000 to 4,000 square meters, we already are testing new technologies we want to offer to our customers at the next-generation airplanes. Why are we doing this?

If we cannot show certain maturity on new materials and processes and how we operate and produce those components, the customers likely will not, let's say, let this technology be part of the new airplane platform. We need to think in advance.

We are investing right now to have a solid technical foundation and a solid proposal in terms of safety and maturity for the next-generation airplanes. All in one, this facility will be predominantly run for rate increases.

It will be the house for new products we will implement in the next three years, and a small portion as a pre-manufacturing facility where we can do unique things that are not in the market today. In terms of financing, I would like to hand over to Florian.

Operator

Wir können dich leider nicht hören. Das tut mir sehr leid.

Florian Heindl

I will take Robert's mic. I hope you can hear me?

Operator

Yes. Thank you.

Florian Heindl

Sorry for that. Camera working on my end now, but not the mic.

Sorry. Aymeric, in terms of your question, in terms of interest rates and the inherent risk in terms of this capex investment, I think I will put it in a more broader statement.

Yes, we are financing it on our own terms, meaning no capital increase, as we said multiple times, we will do it out of our own power. With the existing means that we have at our hands, what is currently ongoing is a renegotiation of our syndicated loan, where we still have elevated interest rates back from the COVID period.

We are right now renegotiating it together with my team. It looks very promising, because also with the more beneficial financial profile, also our interest margins that we pay will come down.

Specifically with this plant investment and financing this plant, we will put together a subsidized loan component together with an Austrian bank and its related consortium behind it. The bank is the so-called Österreichische Kontrollbank.

This bank offers favorable interest rates to export-oriented companies like FACC. This is a perfect fit for FACC.

The interest rates is partly government-subsidized, it will come in lower than current expected market rates. For us, a perfect instrument at the perfect timing to finance this capex investment.

Aymeric Poulain

Understood. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you very much, Mr. Poulain, for your question.

We have one last question in our chat box by Mr. Michael Neuburger.

He's asking, "You didn't talk much about the advanced air mobility segment. What can we expect in terms of growth this year?"

Robert Machtlinger

Thank you. That's a very good question.

We are happy with what we have on the urban air mobility. We have entered serial production in various cases.

Still, on the passenger drones, it's on very low rate, because all of our customers are in the middle of running their certification programs. Output here starts to be a serial production output, but still on very low rate.

On non-passenger drones, meaning logistic drones, we are in a ramp-up where we are producing drones on a daily, weekly, monthly drumbeat with sizeable revenue streams in the meantime. We're not talking €1 million or €2 million in terms of production output.

It's double-digit million output already driven by this programs. We see in the drone business a revenue generation that is in the middle double-digit revenue area.

As said, on the passenger drones, we have forecasts following certification test completion. This must be finished at the first step before ramping up further.

Overall, in line with our expectations, and again repeating, with the non-passenger drones, the revenue stream starts to develop nicely.

Operator

Thank you very much, Mr. Neuburger, for your question.

With no further questions in our chat or risen hands, I would say we come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you very much for your interest in FACC AG.

A big thank you also to you, Mr. Machtlinger, Mr.

Heindl, and Mr. Steirer, for your presentation and your time.

Should any further questions appear at a later time, please feel free to contact Investor Relations. I wish you all a successful day.

With that, I say thank you, and bye-bye.

Florian Heindl

Thank you.

Robert Machtlinger

Thank you.

Michael Steirer

Thank you.

Robert Machtlinger

Bye.