Marco R. Fuchs
Good morning to OHB's Q2 results. I hope you have been able to dial in and download the documents.
We're welcoming you here on behalf of the Management Board. Tim and I are traveling today, and you have Markus and the team in Bremen.
I quickly walk you through the slides and then Markus will briefly take over for the market, and Tim will go through the numbers. Obviously European champion in the growing space economy is still the program that we are following.
I think we have shown in the last weeks quite some good progress in our what we call right to win. We have been able to move quite significantly ahead on a number of important programs.
We'll talk about that. Also the scaling of the operations is doing well.
Tim will walk you through, I think, a very strong Q2. From that perspective, I think we're in a very good way.
Our business model obviously very well known, scaling the company in our three divisions, and nothing has changed in that one, other that we have quite some significant progress here. Slide quickly runs through the most important things on this slide basically.
Quick summary: we had double-digit growth in our total operating performance, a strong, improved adjusted EBITDA. We are confirming, of course, our guidance for this year.
Order intake is strong, but also I think a few sentence have to be explained what we expect for the second half to happen because that's going to be a strong period, and Markus will help us to understand that. We're moving along with scaling, hiring people.
Our partnerships are growing and developing the business. I'll walk you through this a little bit.
Internationalization moves along in a number of countries: the UK, Czech Republic, for example. RFA is moving along, but I will come to that one with a specific slide.
On our growth and operational milestones, we're going along very well. Of course we had in late June our capital increase that is, I think, well understood.
We're expecting to be included in the TecDAX and the SDAX later this year, and so it has been a marvelous ride in Q2. On a political level, I think the big picture for the space segment in Europe, in military is unchanged very positively.
We had Minister Boris Pistorius at OHB a couple of weeks ago. Was a very, very good moment for us to directly talk to him, to show him progress on programs that we are working on for him in Spaceloft, for example.
He looked at the satellite. It was, I think, also strong to touch base with the other people from the political environment that were there at this visit, I was very happy to basically hear from the decision makers that space is very high on the agenda in the next years to come for implementing this strengthened German security.
Same was basically with ILA. In June there was the big trade show.
We had a strong representation there. We met many, many, many people there, the Chancellor and everybody else.
I think it's a very strong sign from Germany that Germany is serious about investing in space. Germany is serious obviously investing in defense in a broader range, but especially space, combining the boom from the military side, but also with the civilian space of European Union and also ESA.
That has been a very good showcase moment for us. Our Rheinmetall, OHB-Rheinmetall SpaceTechworks joint venture moves along.
We are in a phase of negotiations, of improvements. It's difficult negotiations at times because it's a very ambitious program.
The teaming is growing, but it's on its way, and some of the people in this call are quite busy around this project. It's not easy, but it's obviously also a massive, massive endeavor that we're all undertaking here.
With our third joint venture with Helsing has been established. The creation is moving along.
Together with Hensoldt and Kongsberg, we have started our consortium, we are preparing there for our joint topics. Obviously it's a presentation that we feel should end up in a strong bid for the SPOCK 2 project, and I guess there will be many things to hear from this teaming with Helsing.
VORTEX, yeah, I'm quite interested about the VORTEX thing, we are waiting for the results of our proposal from the European Space Agency, ESA. This is about to be published soon, and then we have to see how it moves on.
I think this is going to be on the agenda for the Space Summit that we will see or that will take place in Paris on September 9th and 10th. We'll see, hopefully there will be good scoring.
Hopefully there's also a political willingness on both sides in France and in Germany to continue implementation of this program. I will have meetings also with Dassault.
I will meet Éric Trappier, and we'll see how we can push this program to the next level, but I'm still excited about it. Other than that in Europe, I think the big event moving along and the visible stuff is our new facility in Bristol.
You can see the building here. It's being implemented into the biggest space clean room in England.
First significant contract with EnVision has been signed recently, we're happy to move along on that one. Also in Brno in Czech Republic, OHB Czechspace has made a big step forward with being selected for the SOVA-S mission.
First time that OHB Czechspace has a prime contractorship of that size and that complexity. Other missions going well is PLATO.
You see the photo here. We concluded the environmental test campaign on PLATO, successful thermal vacuum test, and it's still the launch is scheduled for January 2027, within a year from now, less than half a year, less than half a year from now, we will have the launch, PLATO, which obviously will be a very exciting moment.
Also good progress on the Ramses mission, which is a, as planetary defense mission succeeding or a little bit different, but succeeding the program line of our successful Hera mission that has been built in the last couple of years, we are quite happy with OHB Italy leading Ramses. Another OHB Italy mission that has been successfully signed just recently, just a week ago, is the selection and the contract signature of the PRISMA-2, the second PRISMA mission.
We have built first PRISMA hyperspectral satellite in a couple of years ago. It was launched or is operating since 2019, creating very high, valuable hyperspectral images.
Now the follow-up mission will be implemented under OHB Italy's leadership together with partners for the Italian Space Agency, ASI. There's also plus Italy involved and Telespazio involved, we have a strong industrial team, and it shows that Italy trusts OHB Italy as a prime contractor for complex missions of that size.
Rocket Factory Augsburg, it's a nice photo, the rocket on the pad. This is a sunny day in SaxaVord, I think just a few weeks ago.
We are moving along. The first test flight is still planned for later this year.
It has been shifted a little bit because we had to put the rocket down into the integration hall and examine the tanks again and working on that, it will be re-erected soon. As launching rockets sometimes takes a few detours, the team is working very hard.
As you can see here, it's a sizable rocket, spaceport operation is doing well, and we're hopeful that these last remaining challenges will be fulfilled in the next foreseeable days and weeks. Another important thing that has been reached is that the European Launcher Challenge contract was completed, and it's now moving along.
Together with three other companies, Rocket Factory Augsburg is one of the four European companies that has been selected for European Launcher Challenge agreements. Our MT Aerospace business in supplying into other rockets, into big rockets, showed a few launches again, the SLS, where since 2013, MT is a qualified supplier for Boeing, has launched in the Artemis II mission.
Of course, also Ariane 6, which is very important for MT Aerospace, had two successful flights in April and June in the big configuration, the Ariane 64 configuration, for the Amazon Leo constellation. We're expecting a strong flight manifest of Ariane, and obviously this is also very good for the ongoing ramp-up in the whole Ariane community, and of course from our perspective for MT Aerospace also having a full load in the factory.
Then, yes, of course, very important, our capital increase was successfully completed. We had in late June our about 1.6 million new shares listed.
I think it's well known how this transaction worked. The Fuchs family did not participate in the selling.
We remained the majority shareholder with 60+% and the KKR share is around 20% and the free float as well. We're expecting inclusion in the SDAX and TecDAX later this year.
The gross proceeds of about €480 million will help us to fund the growth that you can see here. There will be significant investments in production facilities around our footprint in Europe.
We will invest in a number of programs including lunar activities, exploration, other frontier applications. M&A is something that is currently looked at, and of course, RFA is on its way as I just explained a few moments ago.
Thank you. I think this leads now to Markus, who will give us a quick overview of his judgment of the market developments and what he expects in the remaining 5 months of this year in terms of order intake.
Thanks from my side, and talk later in the Q&A session.
Markus Moeller
Thank you very much, Marco. A brief overview on the market dynamics that we see.
Key message here is that the market dynamics from our perspective are intact. To recall what are the main markets that we're operating in the immediate future on is the ESA with the €20-€22 billion budget that was voted last year in the 30% over 30% increase in projects that ESA will put on the market between '26 and '28.
We'll see the European Union with the Multiannual Financial Framework that is currently being discussed with the member states for the upcoming period in 2028 to '34. We're still talking about the envelope of 131 with an important increase in the space budget that is part of this envelope given the focus also of the European Union to continue to invest into their space assets.
We'll see the €35 billion budget envelope in Germany, which also is intact with now requests for proposals coming in, as Markus Marco alluded to, to actually go from a plan into execution of programs. We'll see in all three categories active customer requests for the months to come.
It was always our plan. We'll see that we will sign a couple of key corner deals with ESA programs, specifically around the Sentinel, those are ongoing discussions.
We have a Space Situational Awareness and Operations mission, which is ClearSpace, and we also have an important contract on OPS-SAT that we expect to close for the ESA side this year. We're in active negotiations on IRIS², there've been multiple statements in the press and also from the EU on progress, very active negotiations.
I'm personally involved as now. As I said, on the German side, we're participating in the market-sighting requests and the proposal development.
This is at various stages, but in line with the time expectations that we had. With that, I hand over to Tim with the trading update for H1 2026.
Thank you.
Tim Tecklenburg
Yes, thank you. Go back to the other slide, please.
Thank you very much, Markus and Marco, for explaining where our business is. It's obviously showing that we are very busy, and also from market side that there are very strongly filled pipeline.
I will link our business opportunities with our financials as of first half year 2026, and I think what we really can say is that we have demonstrated profitable growth again and strengthened our financial position. Starting with the KPI overview, in first 6 months, we realized the double-digit growth of our total operating performance up to a level of €628 million.
We have the profitability outpacing strong top-line growth with a 30%+ increase of adjusted EBITDA. Our cash flow pre-trade working capital also grew even though we had here cash impacts from the transaction as well.
What is really important is that our net debt leverage has improved significantly following the capital increase, showing that our financial strength has improved significantly. Given the high backlog and the great outlook discussed by Markus, I think it's really important that we attract the right talents and experts to execute these businesses.
This is basically also shown by an 50% increase year-on-year on our employees. Please note that those increases are to the very large extent only in our operational functions, which are really kind of working on the product, on our great services that we render to our customers, so that is we are resulting in up to a level of almost 4,100 people and with support functions being flat.
If we continue with the backlog, we see that in comparison, the backlog continued to increase, still on a here record-high level. As Markus has shown, there are many, many opportunities at our doorsteps where we are working on very intensively, and please note that these are not reflected in this very high backlog and that is this is going to continue to grow.
What's also important is that, as shown by Markus, also that our three core markets, European Space Agency, defense services in Germany, but also other countries where we are present, and certainly also the European Union funds are at the inflection point, and this will also, as discussed previously, also brings our business to an inflection point, and so that is we expect that the backlog is going to continue to rise. If we now look at the total operating performance and profitability, we are growing company, and we grow profitable.
In our total operating performance, we achieved a level of €628 million, and in comparison to the €470 million, for instance, in first half year 2024, this shows that we are really kind of on a strong trajectory of growth. Also the same is the case for our earnings measured at adjusted EBITDA, as with the €60 million adjusted EBITDA, representing an increased margin of about 9.6%.
If to give you also kind of link to our guidance for 2026, in the last years, we had at this point of time, that is first half year of a year, we had in average 39% of our total operating performance delivered. In the first half year 2026, we are already at more than 44%, which shows that we have kind of been able to also accelerate our growth in first half year in comparison to future years where we always have also met our guidance.
In addition, then we go into more details on the total operating performance. We are European space company, as shown by Markus in the very beginning.
We are one of the European space champions with a very strong domestic footprint. As we are the only German-headquartered and also German-owned space company, our German-based top revenues are represented by 30% of our business.
In terms of total operating performance by segment, space segment remains the biggest segment representing a growth of total operating performance as of first half year of €472 million, but also the other two segments are really showing a strong momentum. I will talk later.
If we see ahead, we see right now still a pipeline of €20 billion of new projects, and some will get in our books already in this year as shown by Markus. What we basically also see is that we have kind of shift to a higher portion in an increased overall revenue stream of defense business, which will represent 40% approximately as of our pipeline.
If we continue now with adjusted EBITDA, just a quick review how do we kind of reconcile this from EBITDA reported to adjusted. In comparison to first half year 2025, we have grown here the adjusted EBITDA by almost €15 million, and in 20 first half year 2026, there were some here costs still in association with transformation projects, projects that we had run in the last years following the shareholding of KKR.
In course of 2026 second quarter, it was transaction-related costs which were also expected and also as such no surprise from our side. If we then continue with the segments, we see that all three segments contributed to the performance in the first half year.
This is for me, as CFO, really kind of important indication that our business is really based on strong three segments. The strongest is for sure our Space Systems with a double-digit margin as of half year one, but also the other two segments are really showing strong growth.
This growth is represented, for instance, in total operating performance growth year-on-year in Access to Space by more than 30% or, for instance, in Digital, 70% increase in the backlog, both showing that these segments are also showing strong momentum as well as the Space System. They also especially here the international companies in Italy and in Sweden, for instance, show really strong momentum.
This is kind of also for me a kind of signal that our international strategy is really kind of evolving as we expect and to really add value here. If we then look at the adjusted free cash flow, is for sure also an important KPI, positive pre-trade working capital cash flow with an improved cash conversion, even despite some cash effects of one-offs, the one-offs that I have depicted in the EBITDA reconciliation.
The trade working capital development represents the seasonality with a back-end loading of our business line and also the kind of evolution of our projects. For instance, in the first half year 2025, we had the MTG project, weather satellites, where one was launched in July 2025, were already finalized, and this is kind of representing our normal course of business.
For sure, we want to kind of continue to grow our company in order to make sure that we have the capacity to really deliver the backlog and the new growth opportunities in time and in the quality that our customers are used from us. If we then continue with the financial position, I really like to highlight that it has strongly increased.
We had here now a net leverage ratio of -1.1, showing that it is really kind of improved. From an equity ratio, we have now more than 40% equity, also showing robustness, which is allowing us to have the right kind of financial flexibility to execute our growth objectives, to deliver to our customers, industrialize our programs, and have the operational business requirements supported.
As such, we also like to confirm our guidance. We had a strong first half year 2026.
We expect a kind of continue and further accelerated growth, which is allowing us to confirm our guidance of about €1.4 billion of total operating performance and corresponding margin profile of 10.5% to 11%. With that, I like to thank you very much for here participating for the time being.
For sure, we as now we are kind of being after the so-called re-IPO and closer to the capital markets again, we will also be present there not only with calls like that, but we have also derived with our consulting banks this conclusive flow of conferences, participation, and we are really looking forward to meet you there and discuss our great opportunities in our great company with you. With that, I hand back to Marcel to open for Q&A.
Thank you very much.
Marcel Dietz
Yes, thanks to everyone. As usual, we would like to start our Q&A.
You can please raise your hand if you have any questions you would like to raise. I will then add you as a panelist so you can ask your questions directly to the team.
I see some raised hands already. First one is going to be Michael Filatov from Berenberg.
I will just add you as a panelist, Michael. Now you should be able to talk.
Michael Filatov
Hi, can you hear me?
Marcel Dietz
Yes. Hi, Michael.
Good morning.
Michael Filatov
Hi everyone. Thank you for taking my questions.
Just the first one on backlog. I know the orders will be lumpy, but I think backlog fell sequentially a little bit with Space Systems down a little over €100 million.
I believe the order intake was potentially the lowest since Q1 of last year. I guess I just wanted to get a sense of your expectations for order intake this year.
Does it assume any of those defense opportunities you've recently or previously been discussing? Then could you also touch on the order opportunity pipeline in terms of weighting between ESA work and defense work for the next 12 months?
Then I have one follow-up as well.
Markus Moeller
I'll take it. Thank you very much for the question.
As far as 2026 is concerned, the order intake is actually as usual a bit backloaded. We had an exception last year as LISA came in very early as negotiations slipped into 2025.
From an order intake profile run-up, we're basically business as usual in terms of the timing. What we're expecting this year is essentially business out of the ESA programs that we have.
I'll go with the ESA first. There's really one contract which is the Sentinel constellation, as the new generation where we are in final negotiations right now with the customer.
There's a bit of the summer period now kicking in at the institutions. Same thing is, we have a mission called ClearSpace-1 on which we're also in the final phase of negotiations.
We will see later in the year the mission OPS-SAT phase BCD, the first tranche of it, which is in the navigation for the new satellite laser-linked constellations that we have. We are in negotiation as we speak on a daily basis when it comes to the EU business, which is IRIS² on which there is a very clear ambition by the Commission to conclude over summer the negotiations for the entire constellation.
We're part of this with the MEO segment, as 18 satellites, and were really sitting with the customer finalizing that contract. Those are the big opportunities that we see now coming.
On the defense side, to your second question, this year is not yet the year where large defense opportunities are part of our planning, just simply as the procurement process with the Deutsche Bundeswehr will materialize starting '27, and then will be a series of procurements that will be '27, '28, and '29 depending on the program.
Marcel Dietz
Thanks a lot, Markus. I think there was a follow-up question, Michael, right?
Michael Filatov
Yeah. Just to dive in here because I know the SATCOMBw program is a big focus for everyone of your team and of course investors as well.
I just wanted to hear any of your latest thoughts on sort of that procurement process, any details on expectation of timing for the award, and I know there's been some sort of public rumors about Airbus potentially joining the bid. Any comments around sort of what the bid consortium looks like at this point?
Thank you.
Markus Moeller
The consortium and the industrial set up, I would say, is unchanged. The procurement process as published by the customer, which foresees a I would say summer conclusion next year.
Some of that is confidential, hence my cryptic answer here is proceeding as planned by the customer. As Marco said, these kind of programs are always hard negotiations, adjustment of needs, as you can say, but currently we're in the plan initially foreseen by the customer, and we are executing to that plan.
Michael Filatov
Understood. Thank you.
Marcel Dietz
Thanks, Michael. I can't see any further raised hands right now.
Michael's back, Michael Filatov (Berenberg):
Michael Filatov
Yeah. If I can, if nobody else has been in the queue.
On Access to Space margins, right? I saw that they maybe were a little bit softer than expected, or at least my expectations here for margin on total operating performance for Access to Space.
Is that simply a factor of launcher component mix or some ramp-up costs at MT Aerospace? Could you just maybe speak to the margin profile in that business?
At the same time, it seems like the backlog there grew quite nicely, any comments around the progress at Access to Space?
Tim Tecklenburg
No, happy to do so, Michael. That is you already touched the right point.
As also discussed before, here our Access to Space segment is really showing a strong growth in three pillars. The one is the Ariane business, which is ramping up.
Then in addition, we are kind of supplying US launch vehicle providers, and the market momentum from that customer segment is really very strong. Then thirdly, it is also that here defense-related business predominantly in Germany is also contributing to the backlog and the order intake momentum, which I showed also on the second slide.
This is then kind of connected with ramp-up activities. As also shown, we are kind of investing there and make sure that we have the capacity to really deliver, and we had also new hires.
That is there was a slight, but expected, we have budgeted it accordingly, a little bit softer margin profile, which we right now expect to kind of further increase and improve in the second half year.
Michael Filatov
Thank you. Just the last one for me, just on RFA.
We all know launch is extremely difficult, but my understanding is the vehicle was on the pad and testing was going well, but it had to be removed from the pad, as you've alluded to. Maybe any further details on sort of what exactly happened during the testing with RFA at SaxaVord?
Marco R. Fuchs
Maybe I take that one. There was a problem with the tank, and this was uncertain, team decided to take a look into this.
This is what's going on now. They took the rocket back into the hangar and open up the tank and actually currently are doing this and looking into it.
They wanted to make sure that they fully understand what the data showed, and so this lost some time. There's a big team up there trying to figure that one out and putting it together, and hopefully putting it back to the pad as quick as possible.
Michael Filatov
Okay. Thank you, everyone.
Marcel Dietz
Thanks everyone. Next up we have Simon Keller from NuWays.
Simon, you should also be able to raise your questions now.
Simon Keller
Hi everyone. Thanks for the presentation.
Now given that you have noticeably increased your firepower thanks to the capital increase, I was wondering how your M&A pipeline is developing, and also what the most promising targets do look like right now. Thank you.
Marco R. Fuchs
Obviously we are not going to go into much details on this. We have not really committed anything.
Teams are busy on this one. Obviously, our capital raise is well known out there.
The discussions we have with potential additions are going on. We're looking at European footprint issues.
Obviously we're also looking along the own value chain. There might be some smaller stuff coming, but significant acquisitions are not imminent at this moment in time.
Simon Keller
Maybe conceptually just as a quick follow-up, will it be rather technical expertise, will it be production capacity? Any comments here on what you're looking for?
Marco R. Fuchs
Production capacity will not be M&A, that's CapEx, that's investment. We are looking at investing and increasing as we currently do in Italy, in the UK, and other places, but that's not going to be M&A.
M&A for us would be additions that either add broadness to our current footprint, or they must be somehow technologies that are really unique. Again, we're not looking at M&A for production facilities.
Simon Keller
All right. Thanks a lot.
Marcel Dietz
Thank you. Next up we have Olivier Brochet from Rothschild.
Olivier? Yes,
Olivier Brochet
thank you very much and good morning all of you. I would have two two questions.
On the free cash flow, adjusted free cash flow and the change in net contract assets and liabilities, which is a very large outflow. Can you maybe help us frame how this is going to develop in H2?
Is it going to be reversed? I understand there is some seasonality in there.
The second question is on Ariane 6 and long-term plans and potential capacity increase in the launch rate, and trying to reconcile that with the work that is done in reusable launchers with Themis test that just concluded. Can you help us frame whether we are going to see an increase in the Ariane 6 rate or whether this is just going to remain as it is for the moment with potentially some changes in the generation of launchers in the long term?
Thank you.
Marco R. Fuchs
I can start with the launcher and then Tim can talk about the cash. Currently we have a situation where there is very high demand for launch services anticipated for the coming years.
Currently we do have a situation where the international supply is uncertain. There obviously had been the mishap in Blue Origin's New Glenn, which is about to recover.
New rockets coming on the market. There is some uncertainty about the long-term availability of Falcon 9 in the market, statements from SpaceX that this might shift or they might shift radically their resources to the Starship.
The market currently needs launch services, and whoever now looks at launching in a few years will find a difficult outlook. This all results in existing launchers, and Ariane 6 obviously has been very successful in the last years after market introduction to ramp up cadence.
Yes, the whole Ariane community is thinking about it, is looking at it. It has not been decided, up to my knowledge.
We as a supplier are involved in this, we are discussing with ArianeGroup about this, but decisions about how a significant ramp-up in cadence of Ariane 6 would be implemented have not been taken and are eminently obviously also in the Ariane system political. We might see in the second half of this year quite some discussions on this because looking at, for example, all the German space programs that are intended to be implemented, yes, of course Germany and Europe needs more space launch capabilities.
Yes, of course, Ariane is the number one to go to because we will not have micro launchers being in the market quick enough to take a significant share of this. You alluded to Themis and reusability in Europe.
Themis is a demonstrator for recovery of the first stage, it's pretty far away from market entry. Before we see a European reusable launcher really in operation, quite a number of years will pass before that is the case.
Yes, Ariane has to ramp up. I'm saying this not as a supplier in MT, but I'm saying this as a customer for satellites, we need more Ariane.
I hope the political system around Ariane, between the European Space Agency, but also the member states of ESA, will produce a way forward that the capacity will be increased and that the industry, ArianeGroup and all the supplier, will have an opportunity to ramp up significantly from the numbers where we are now. I guess this year we might see seven launches, but I think demand is much, much bigger than that.
Olivier Brochet
Marco, can I ask a follow-up on that? What is the cap physically that can be implemented?
Where can it go from the 10-ish that it can do today?
Marco R. Fuchs
Of course there are different views on that. I think that from a supplier perspective, we can go wherever the system wants us to go.
I think there's a limitation in Kourou. We have one launch pad.
We have limitations in the processing facilities in Kourou. The so-called BIL and also the BAF, the facilities in Kourou to prepare satellites are under my understanding also target of potential increases.
Substantially increase, I think, at one point will need also a significant investment in Kourou, which I think is intended, is talked about. Obviously being an expendable launcher, we will not see numbers that we have seen with Falcon 9 in recent years, no, but I think that will be numbers like 12, 15, whatever in this range.
This is I'm sure something that the system could do gradually. Again, if we have on top of that also massive investment in Kourou.
By the way, another facility that is critical in Kourou is the solid propulsion factory or the solid propulsion facilities in French Guiana. If this increases, we might see higher numbers coming out.
Again, the demand is there, and the supply from international launch providers at least today, August 2026, looks uncertain. I think Europe has to invest.
Olivier Brochet
Very clear. Thank you.
Tim Tecklenburg
In terms of trade working capital, you depicted already the right kind of areas, Olivier. That is we have seasonality.
We usually see a strong second half year, especially very strong Q4, which we also expect for this year. This is basically a typical footprint for institutional business in defense and space.
That is at least in the companies I was with in the sector is very very typical. This is one aspect.
That is seasonality, which is then kind of expected to kind of improve in the second half year, especially Q4. Then there's also to some extent project portfolio or mix effect here.
We have, for instance, in the LISA project, this was a major project, almost a billion in size, which we are ramping up now, and this is then also reflected. That is second half year, we expect an improving trade working capital due to the seasonality which we typically see.
Olivier Brochet
Thank you very much, Tim. We will end up the year with a positive free cash flow after working capital?
Tim Tecklenburg
That's our target, but we will work on that, we don't project that.
Olivier Brochet
Okay. Thank you very much.
Tim Tecklenburg
You're welcome.
Marcel Dietz
Thanks, Olivier. We have one further raised hand from a call-in user, we kindly ask you to introduce yourself very quick.
You should be able to talk right now. Try to unmute.
Perhaps the call-in is not working right now. I can see that you raised your hand again, but unfortunately apparently you aren't able to unmute yourself.
Can't see any further raised hands, maybe we just give people another minute to raise any further questions while the person is trying to unmute. I can't see any more questions right now, maybe this brings us back
Sriram Krishnan
Can you hear me now?
Markus Moeller
Okay. Now we can hear you.
Hello, good morning.
Sriram Krishnan
Oh sorry, it clasped well. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
This is Sriram from Deutsche Bank, by the way. I have two, three clarificatory questions if I may, pretty simple ones.
The €21 million transaction cost which we reported in H1 2026, can you just confirm this is to do primarily with the re-IPO-related cost or is there any other cost which is included within this one? How should we think about this transformation cost which is being reported continuously?
When do we expect this to completely wind down, or should we expect this to continue for the foreseeable future? That's the first one.
Second one is with regards to the outlook which you have communicated, which sounds encouraging where you said that you could exceed some of the strategic mid-term targets. Just wondering what could be that driver?
Is it more from the top line or do you think there is an upside to the margin which could lead to the margin upside? A final question more from the operational point of view.
Just trying to understand among all the projects which you are currently undertaking or manufacturing the satellites, which of the satellites or programs would you think are the most challenging from an execution point of view? Thank you.
Tim Tecklenburg
Okay. I think I will start with the first one and two, and maybe on the projects Marco and Markus comment up on.
With regard to transaction cost, yes, confirmed this is for the capital increase. That is a one-off item, will not kind of continue in the next years or so.
This will be something for 2026, but this is then the classical one-off. With regard to transformation, you already see that this is a kind of reduced pace, and we expect that in the next year it will be kind of basically kind of coming to an end.
With regard to transformation, here was our projects to improve efficiency in overhead functions and also in terms of cost ratios, and are now those kind of follow-up impacts that we see, but these will be wearing out. This is clearly expectations this is going to reduce significantly.
With regard to the outlook, on the one hand, a driver is the growth of the top line, but also the structural shift from the customer funds point of view. As mentioned in the pipeline discussion, we see that the proportion of the defense-based activities will basically double up to a level of 40%, and there we expect higher margin profiles.
Here maybe Markus and Marco, you can also comment on that and then talk about the most challenging projects that you see from an operational perspective.
Marco R. Fuchs
Yes, thank you very much. Obviously looking to your question what is the most challenging one, if you go to if you walk the aisles of OHB, you hear different projects being most challenging one, each team believes it's it's their project.
I think one to mention clearly is, for example, Ramses because that has a fixed date when it has to launch. The calendar of Ramses is fixed because the asteroid will come and will go and will have decades later, we have to really, really, really be on time as as we had the same challenge with the Hera sometime ago.
Completing the optical programs is a big challenge. We have optical measurements with very, very high criterias, and completing that in a in a fully performant way is very challenging.
On the science missions, it's challenging because we don't not necessarily fully understand the physics, programs like, for example, LISA. It's a broad range.
I I I would say, I mean this is sounds sounds simplistic, but programs get very, very difficult at the end when you really have to pass acceptance. The the first phases of programs, they tend to go along, so that the closer they come to launch, the more nervous teams are, the more, let's say, let's say under pressure the the the whole project comes.
I think it's a variety of of issues, I guess, that I don't know if Markus, you have to add something on that, but I would I would mention those couple as the most difficult ones that that are keeping us us busy. Maybe I forgot something, Markus, you have anything to add to that list?
Markus Moeller
I think I confirm what you said. There's not one typical challenge that we face given the nature of the business that we have.
As you say, we've got three large customer groups, the ESA, EU, and Bundeswehr or the militaries, they represent challenges by them all by themselves, and then on top you have the nature of projects that we're doing: Earth observation, exploration that we're in, we're in science, and we're in telecommunication. There's not one thing, but it comes back to what is the focus that we have that specifically we work hand-in-hand from a sales perspective with the operational teams to make sure that what we promise to the customer can be also delivered later on.
I think that's an important component that we're focusing on.
Marcel Dietz
Thanks a lot. I can't see any further questions.
Sriram, or does that answer everything from your side?
Sriram Krishnan
Thank you so much for the opportunity. Appreciate it.
Marcel Dietz
Tschüss. I can't see any further raised hands right now.
I think people had quite some time to do that, therefore also looking at the time, I think we are almost exactly where we want to be with this call, maybe I just hand over back to Marco for some closing remarks.
Marco R. Fuchs
Thanks, Marcel, and obviously thank you very much for all your interest and for your time. For us, it's a new period, it's a new chapter now starting with this quarterly call after our capital increase.
We are very excited about the opportunities that provided to us. We're working very, very hard, especially on new programs as Markus said, and we do expect, especially on IRIS², some significant good news and more than that, even confirmation and conclusion in the near future.
As always, we're not completely in control of calendar. From my side, I can only invite you to stay in touch, and as Tim said, we are very, very interested in direct exchange.
We have a heavy calendar of direct meetings. We do have a number of conferences coming up, and each and every was obviously always invited to visit us in Bremen or in Augsburg to see.
There's good news coming in the next weeks, and it's a hard-working summer for all of us. Thank you very much, and I wish you all hopefully relaxing weekend in the mid-August time frame.
Again, feel free to contact all of us directly, obviously Marcel will coordinate, but we're all available. From my side, big thank you and talk to you all soon again.
Thank you very much.
Markus Moeller
Thank you.
Marcel Dietz
Thanks.
Tim Tecklenburg
Thank you very much. Bye.
Marcel Dietz
Thank you. Bye.
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