Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome. I'm Holger Nass and I'm very excited to have you join the R.

STAHL earnings call for the second quarter of the fiscal year 2026. The results will be presented by Tobias Popp, who's the sole member of the Management Board.

There will be a Q&A session following the presentation. In case you want to ask questions, like always in our format, feel free to post them in our chat box on the lower right-hand corner, and we will address them during the Q&A.

We will record this earnings call and you will find it later today on the R. STAHL Investor Relations page as well as on ResearchHub.

We're also covering the company and I will supply you with a link to our research shortly also in the chat box. All this in mind, I wish us interesting insights and now hand it over to Mr.

Popp. It's all yours.

Thank you, Mr. Nass.

A very warm welcome as well from our side to our earnings call. I would like to kick off it immediately.

We start with the summary for the quarter. The summary by order intake improved at a low level to €68.6 million.

All regions except Americas recorded growth. The sales decreased slightly to €72.2 million compared to the quarter last year.

Asia Pacific regions is still strong, but America and Central remains a bit weak. EBITDA pre increased from 5.3 to 6 million due to cost optimization measures.

EBITDA pre margin is now by 8.3%. Net profit is still negative, but stable at -€2.5 million.

The earnings per share at the same level as previous year, by -38 cents. The free cash flow improved significantly by 6.1 million to -€3 million.

In a nutshell, the business has stabilized, but the market remains challenging. Let's go a bit deeper into those numbers in the financials.

First, the regional split: as told before, while Germany is more or less stabilized, this is mainly driven by a major chunk of day-to-day business, not that heavily project impacts. As I told you over the last quarters, and that remains valid, the investment side of the business is still weak.

That means especially the greenfield investments and stuff like that are behind the expectations. That you see then more in detail when you go to Central region, especially here the western part of it is far behind expectations.

Americas, which is mainly due to missing oil and gas investments. Political uncertainty and things like that are of course paying into that scenario.

While on the other hand side Asia still remains very strong. You remember, this is our last or late deliveries out of the earlier booked big project orders in 2025.

In total, we are getting to 72.2% sales-wise, which is compared to the quarter in 2025, to the second quarter in 2025, a -7.3%. As I told before, these the second the first second quarters of 2025 was more or less normal operation, while then the third and the fourth was dropping down due to this, let's say, low level of global investment behavior, which is still part of the game.

Going a bit more in the P&L, the cost of material ratio fell sharply to 90 to 29.8%, which is despite the lower total operating performance a very good level of operations. Here you feel definitely that our business is mainly driven by day-to-day business, which of course generates much better margins than the project-driven ones where you are in tough global competition.

The personnel costs decreased by 8.1% to €33.1 million. This is primarily driven by our workforce reductions, what I was announcing the last two quarters.

This is now paying off with the effects out of it. The EBITDA pre increased despite lower sales because of cost reductions to €6 million.

The EBITDA pre margin is now by 8.3%. The net profit remains still negative, but stable at -2.5, and the earnings per share I was mentioning before at -38 cents.

All in all, the profitability increased despite lower sales due to significant cost reductions and of course discipline, especially when it goes to the net working capital. That is the trigger for the next slide.

When we look at the net profit, the cash flow is nearly stable at €2 million. The cash flow from operation activities increased by €4.4 million, and the free cash flow is developing in the right direction.

There you see effects especially out of the changes in working capital, as you see here now, what is driven by earlier major investments like the plant building in Weimar what we had in 2025 here under those numbers. The net debt increased compared to year-to-year to 35.9% because we are still negative with the free cash flow.

Coming to the outlook for '26, we stick on our promises. The guidance I can confirm at this point, which is sales-wise in between 285 to €300 million.

EBITDA pre, we expect something in between 22 to €27 million. The free cash flow will be balanced, and the equity ratio will be slightly decreased, but remain on a good healthy level.

On the other hand side, we still have the risks that those one we as well carry on over the next couple of quarters, the geopolitical conflicts everybody is aware of, and then we have this general economic development which affects the one or the other industry, for instance the chemical industry in our world and which is heavily heavily affected by those megatrends of transforming those industries to other countries, for instance. I don't want to do too deep dive in the strategy, but I brought the slide with me what I already shared at annual shareholder meeting in June, and this gives a kind of overview about our strategy journey with let's say building the foundation first which is behind us with things like global SAP implementation and stuff like that.

Then we addressed the first initial priorities and now we are converting that in a way forward that we support our growth by strategy. Within that what we called Nexus last time, we have the first building block right now which is the finance stabilization and all the numbers you've seen is about that.

Nevertheless, there will be a time after that when we look forward, when we have some backwind to get there, and therefore I brought an example out of our success stories from the last quarter with me, and this is about hydrogen. I was presenting that hydrogen value stream at shareholder meeting in 2025 and was telling then to the audience that we shape the value stream in three sections which is at the left-hand side the production, then the transport, and finally the demand.

I was presenting at the same time a first success in the production side, which was then that electrolyzing plant in Rotterdam. This time I brought something in the storage side, on the transport side with me, which is the first cavern storage in Germany, this is close to the Netherlands borders, and there we could bring our products in and make that plant a bit more safer than before.

You see at the right-hand side, and this is not a Stahl picture, the same philosophy is there with the production, with the storage, and with the demand at the end of a day. It's really good to see that those things are picking up and we are part of it.

That's to say, on a quick note, I know we are close to vacation period and therefore I keep it lean, but nevertheless I'm completely open for all your questions and looking forward to those. Thank you.

Thank you so much for the insights shared. We do have quite a few questions, and I'm just looking at the last one to include this in the catalog.

The first round of questions that we received are related to Asia. Can you give us a little bit more insight as to how the Asian business is development by region, and if you can give us a little bit more background on the projects in Asia as well?

Of course. Asia, I was presenting our first successes in a new application field, which is called UPS, uninterruptible power supplies.

Those one we had a big booking beginning of 2025, but that has of course not stopped. It was not that big numbers, but it was a lot of, let's say, good jobs in that manner, and they are all paying off by sales now.

On the other hand side, even order intake-wise, that story continues. We are really happy to see that this new application field is picking up.

The region where this is mainly generated is offshore, and all big offshore plants belong to the Asian-Pacific region, including the Near East and the Far East.

Thank you. One question was regarding your new construction in India.

What's going to happen to that and why investments in the first half '26 were rather on the low end?

Thanks for that question. The new plant in India you will mainly see by numbers in 2027.

We are now in a way to kick it off, means the project, and then the investments will flow in. We spent the last couple of weeks and months in order to get the project clear, means that to know what to build there.

The rest we already told about, this is up and running. We are still foreseen to get it open by end of next year.

Great. Thank you.

Continuing with the Asia Pacific region, what are specific projects, incoming orders for projects that led to the good results for Asia Pacific?

I mentioned that before, this is mainly project-driven. This is of course not all about UPS, this is as well other jobs.

At the annual shareholder meeting this year I was presenting another job in the Near East which was about distribution with a lot of panels and stuff like that. This pays all in the good numbers there.

Great. We talked about Asia Pacific.

Let's go to the European region. Question is regarding which countries or subregions were the main contributors to the roughly 15% sales decline in Europe, excluding Germany and Africa, and whether you're seeing meaningful differences across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in terms of demand, project activity, or pricing.

Maybe let's start with the first part, if you've seen any countries or subregions which were the main contributors to the sales decline of around 15%.

I was scratching at that surface and I don't want to go too deep into it, but it's basically the western side of Europe. That means in the western side you have then UK, of course, you have France, of course, and countries that are a bit more behind than the southern part, I would say, and the northern part on the other hand side.

Long story short, it's a heterogeneous scenario over Europe, that was the core of my saying here. Overall, they do quite good, or let's say okay, except the investment side, what I was referring to, this is missing here as well.

That means plant extensions, greenfield investments, and stuff like that you don't see here as well there. The small things and even the innovative things where we can pay in with our nice products portfolio, that is still up and running.

Great. This is more of a general question.

Is R. STAHL doing any businesses in China, and if so, what sort of business?

R. STAHL is doing business in China.

We have a subsidiary there, mainly sales-driven in Shanghai, and we are approaching the market with the differentiative things. That means mainly for export business out of China, but as well for things which is crossing China.

China plays a major role in the global, let's say, yard portfolio. That means you have a lot of OEMs being there at the yards and finishing their process modules, and we are really happy to be part of that with our deliveries there.

Great. We've talked a lot about regions.

Let's now maybe talk about industries. In which end markets are currently the greatest delays in customer investment decisions, and has the pipeline for larger projects improved or weakened since the end of Q1 '26?

Basically we are talking about two major industries. First is oil and gas.

This has a lot to do because the global price is not regulated these days. It's not about the missing money from my point of view, it's more about the will to do so and the wait to look what's coming next.

Things what we are all faced with in the daily news, like the Iran war and stuff like that, don't help to get there a clearer picture. The second industry is of course the chemical industry, which is in a I would say a huge transformation from Europe towards Asia, and that creates as well some uncertainty.

Other industries, like the pharma industry, is picking up quite nice as well in Europe as in Asia. Of course even the new things what we are approaching by strategy, like harsh environment and so on, are good to see.

Great. You've basically already answered most of this question, but just to be complete, I'm going to quickly run through it.

The main reasons behind the continued weakness in chemical and the auto industry and in machinery and plant engineering, are customers just postponing projects presently or do you see more of a structural reduction in spending coming from those industries?

We believe that we see a kind of release in the second half of the year demand-wise, because this is not all about the new things, this is as well about investments which are mandatory to keep the operation running. That means postpone things, and those one at minimum we expect in the second half here in order to see them on that project side besides the base load business.

We are optimistic that there will be the one or the other relief which will help us at the order intake side in the second half.

Which also answers part of the next question that I was going to ask you, which is, on the one hand, which particular leading indicators you're monitoring to see a potential recovery in the chemical industry, and would you expect a stabilization already in the second half of this year or more pronounced during the fiscal year 2027?

More pronounced in 2027 of course, especially sales-wise, but as said, order intake-wise we expect the one or the other thing in the third and fourth quarter this year as well. The first indication internally is of course our opportunity pipeline, what we create by ourselves, there you see if this goes a bit more active or if, let's say, the opportunities are just postponed months by months, those ones what we are talking about, the investment ones.

This is the first internal indication. Of course there's a lot of external indications everybody can read on the news about the global behavior of those industries.

Again, we think there will be the one or the other relief of invest in the second half of this year, and then we will have that payout in the next year's top line, sales-wise. The next couple of weeks will tell us the final truth on that.

There's as well external influencers which are not to predict, especially in these days where it gets partly a bit chaotic around the world.

I hear you. Any specific indicator that you're watching to see the development in the chemical industry?

You see, they have special products there they normally demand from guys like us. If you see those products are ramping up, you get then an early warning that there's more activity behind.

This is the one hand side. The other hand side is of course when we are frequently asked over our channels in that manner, mainly the OEM channels who are building special machineries like mixers and apparatures for those industries, and so you get a lot of indicators which gives you a kind of guidance what's coming next, no?

This is still at the moment, as I was telling, this is still on a very low level of activities, it's more these replacement things, if anything is broken we are asked to support with products to get it replaced. Those indicators are already installed, we will monitor them closely.

Of course, we will have a push effect as well in those things in order to introduce these guys out of the different industries our innovative side of the business, no? That means if we have some good new ideas when it goes, for instance, to automation products or stuff like that, we will of course not wait until they have demand, we will be there and introduce those things in order to provide an additional value for those customers and to make them think twice if the demand is then there.

Great. We've talked a lot about the revenue side, about regions, about customers and the like.

Let's dive into the financials a little bit more. First question is regarding the tax amount.

You've had a negative EBT in the second quarter. A tax expense still amounted to around €1 million in the second quarter.

How should we model cash tax payments going forward and the tax line for the second half of 2026, and do you expect a normalization compared with the first half of this year? [unclear] So

the make-or-break will definitely be the earning side of the second half of the year in order how this develops. We stick on our guidance, as I was saying, and therefore we see that positively, that development, and that will make the one or the other thing obsolete.

Cash tax payments should normalize in the second half.

Right.

Great. Another question also regarding financials is: do you have any extraordinaries, Sondereinflüsse, that you are considering to occur in the upcoming quarters?

No, nothing special in that quarter. There was nothing special.

Going forward in the second half of 2026?

I was referring to the investment side where we had that delta. That was mainly in 2025 due to the investments we did in Weimar with the extension of our plant, and as said before, the next is expected in '27 when we then invest into India, which will have then a dip, but for the rest of the year there's nothing like that.

Great. Can you, and we're leaving the financials now more or less, one last question partially touching that is: can you give us an idea of how big the credit lines that you're having, the unused credit lines are?

[unclear] So

I was checking the number in the back, and please forgive me if I don't share those, but I can say there's enough headroom left.

Great. Thank you.

One more thing about end customers and geographical diversification: if chemicals are moving to Asia, how are you benefiting from that trend as R. STAHL?

There's different, let's say, building blocks how we can benefit. I was mentioning the OEMs, for instance, machine builders and so on, who deliver their process-related apparatures to those industries.

Those one will follow of course these trends or the customers, and we will follow them, that means we are on that stake a part of it. The second one is that we are at site.

We talked about China, we are there, we are visiting those plants there, and we are serving those plants with material of course. The same copy-and-paste we do in Americas.

We're not afraid of this transformation. This is more the internal affairs of the industries in order to position them quite good and open us the door a bit wider in order to step in,

no? Yep.

One more question on the financials before we leave this part: in light of the recent figures of the first half, we did see a positive incremental step in your EBITDA margin development, but order intake being down roughly €20 million year-over-year, where's the light at the end of the tunnel there? More specifically, do you have a concrete internal roadmap targeting significantly higher profitability or will this continue to operate as a lifestyle business that struggles to generate adequate shareholder returns?

I guess this is a good point to maybe talk about Nexus a little more, but this is the question.

Got it. I'm smiling about the lifestyle comment.

Of course there is a roadmap, and I was mentioning that as a side note before, talking about the order intake first. We see a slight increase in quarter two compared to quarter one, but year-by-year, I was mentioning that before, especially the first two quarters in 2025 have been relatively really strong.

We had the best booking in Q1 we ever had, and then it dropped down, and finally in Q3, Q4 now we've been at that baseload level what I was referring to then. The rest, looking forward now, that faced us in the Q3, Q4, Q1, Q2, and will face us as well in Q3, and over Q3 we will see as well if we get some first lights at the horizon in matter of some investments.

The good thing, we are close to those, order intake-wise, I was referring to the pipeline, which is vital, which is of course on the radar every week. Secondly, we have a clear plan how we follow up these financial stabilization, what we explained several times, that we don't lose the discipline, no?

This is very important, especially when it goes to the net working capital and stuff like that, no? At the one hand you have the warehouse management, at the other hand you have the receivables managements, and this is typical things where you need to be close by not to allow them to slip in any direction, no?

This is more discipline instead of external influencers.

Got you. Let's leave the financial parts and maybe talk about the Management Board.

You're now the sole member of the Management Board, which means there is a lot of weight on your shoulders with Dr. Bischof having left the company.

Can you give us an update on how the search for the successor is going, and maybe provide us some insight on that?

Of course this is not my turf, this is to ask the Supervisory Board. We had that question as well at the annual shareholder meeting, and we will answer in the same manner.

This is not up to me. I can say from my point of view, I'm doing quite good in that role.

Why? Because I have a strong team behind me.

That means that all these business pressure is not only on my shoulders, this is a team effort. As we are showing here, we are developing quite good as a team.

Everybody has his clear roles and responsibilities, and all together we are working tough on the company, on our roadmap, on the way forward.

Thank you. You mentioned the AGM, which is great because this is basically leading me to the next and final question thus far that I have on my list.

At the AGM, the family shareholders lost the Supervisory Board election and were unable to secure a seat for their candidate. Instead, the independent shareholders successfully elected the opposing candidate.

Two questions regarding this: first of all, has the newly constituted Supervisory Board already started to commence its duties? Has the Management Board already petitioned a court to appoint a replacement for the former chairman of the Supervisory Board who resigned during the AGM?

The status remains the same as we discussed at the annual shareholder meeting, there's no further thing to comment here. I can from my side comment on the interface, that means that is my work together with the Supervisory Board, and that of course goes on.

We have our routines, we have our formats you are all aware of, and those one we do. There's no interrupt.

This is continuous work in a from my point of view, but this is to confirm by Professor Hofmann, trustful way.

Great. I do see that somebody is typing, there might be another question in the making, and I will give that person a chance to finish typing so that we can potentially address the question.

If you just want to bear with me for one more second and see what we will get in a minute. All right.

Peter Leischner has announced to resign, but has not resigned yet, is the correction. Great.

Anything else? I'm just looking at the participants who I can see, but who can't see me.

In case you do have another question, now is your chance to enter it into the chat box. Otherwise, we shall conclude the meeting in a few moments, and I don't see anybody typing, I would assume that there are no questions open.

Of course, should there be any questions, feel free to contact R. STAHL's Investor Relations department or you can also contact our analyst.

Once again, the final word is with you, Mr. Popp, and I will quickly go through a few more slides of the presentation after you hand it over to me.

Video. Yes, Thank you for the questions.

Good questions from my point of view. It's good that we talk the way forward, that we talk business, that we talk potentials, that we talk new markets, industry segments.

That all helps, and that's exactly our master plan, that we develop that company to the level where it should be. The next update where we are in our, let's say, maybe from your point of view, boring stabilization period of that will be the 10th of November with the quarterly statement Q3, and we will as well show up at a Munich Capital Market Conference at the 12th of November.

November will be busy with market communication. Of course, I need to refer to the disclaimer, and with that disclaimer, I would like to thank you very much for your audience, wish you a nice summer, and see you latest at the 10th of November.

Thank you.

Excellent. I can also just thank everybody, especially you of course, Mr.

Popp, for your time and the insights you provided, to the audience for a great round of questions. We have recorded this and you will be able to revisit this presentation on the R.

STAHL Investor Relations web page and on ResearchHub. We will also supply the actual presentation deck with that, more than enough to get deeper insight.

Last but not least, for those of you who are interested to also take a closer look at the numbers for the first six months, in the appendix we do have an overview of the first half 2026 with comparables. Please feel free to browse that at your convenience.

With this, we're done. Once again, thank you, everybody.

Have a great weekend and a great summer. See you later.

Bye.

Bye-bye. Thank you.