Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us for today's investor and analyst conference call on POLYTEC's half-year results 2020 26.

Let me start with a quick overview of the first half-year. POLYTEC Group is on the right track.

We continue to move forward with a clear focus on productivity and profitability. Although group sales are temporarily lower, this is no cause for concern.

Quite the opposite. We have significantly optimized our product and production portfolio, resulting in an improved profitability in the first half of the year.

We also made further progress in strengthening our balance sheet with a higher equity ratio and significantly lower net debt. At the same time, we have intensified our efforts to expand and diversify our non-automotive business.

We are making very good progress in this area and see promising opportunities ahead. Against this backdrop, we confirm our outlook for the current fiscal year.

Before I take you through the key figures of the first half-year, I would like to briefly outline the strategic positioning of the POLYTEC Group, as this provides important context for understanding our financial performance. Our guiding principle is to apply the right strategic approach to each product area.

In automotive, we remain an established Tier 1 development and production partner with a clear focus on electromobility, disciplined investment, and capital preservation. In a largely flat market, we see M&A as our primary option for future growth.

In parallel, POLYTEC is developing smart plastics application as an attractive second growth pillar by leveraging our automotive expertise and transferring it to new markets. A diversified market approach increases our opportunities for success.

We enter new markets together with our customers and develop innovative plastic solutions for industrial applications. At the same time, we can act as an industrialization and scaling partner for innovative startups, bringing their ideas from concept to industrial-scale production.

Naturally, one of the questions we frequently receive from our shareholders is, where do we currently stand with the expansion of our non-automotive business and when can we expect this to translate into higher sales? Let me therefore give you an update on where we stand today.

The path to market in the non-automotive sector differs from what we are used to in the automotive industry. Market testing, for example, plays a particularly important role before a product can move towards full commercialization.

Our smart plastics applications pipeline includes a number of promising projects at different stages of maturity, progressing from initial concept through to a market launch. With projects ranging from load carriers to applications in construction, we are pursuing a diversified and capital-efficient approach.

This includes our own product ideas, co-development projects with customers, as well as partnerships. In this way, POLYTEC can efficiently leverage its existing expertise in materials, product development, and industrialization across new markets and applications.

We first presented this slide at our annual general meeting at the beginning of June. Since then, several of the projects shown here have moved to the right, meaning they have successfully progressed to the next stage of maturity.

This demonstrates that our pipeline is moving forward and that we are making tangible progress in building our non-automotive business. As mentioned, our non-automotive business is becoming increasingly important to POLYTEC's overall value profile.

Our goal is to achieve a group revenue share of around 30% in the non-automotive sector in the midterm. For us, midterm means the period of two to three years.

In principle, this is no longer than in the automotive projects, where the industrialization phase from winning to the order to start of production takes a comparatively time. We are focusing on reusable and industrial returnable containers.

These products support efficiency, sustainability, and the circular economy, ensuring stable demand and helping our customers to fulfill the European Union regulations. A strong example is BOXIT, an intelligent, connected logistics solutions that combines physical robustness with digital intelligence.

POLYTEC acts as the industrialization partner and exclusive supplier. This project is a good example of how we leverage our core competencies to develop profitable new applications together with innovative partners, always with a clear focus on industrial scalability and serial production.

The first products for market testing will be presented to policymakers, military representatives, and other potential customers at our plant in Ebensee this September. Before we look ahead to September, let me take you back to the first half of the year and our financial performance.

Let me start with a positive look at the year-to-date performance of the POLYTEC share. Based on yesterday's closing price, August 12th, our share price has increased by 44.5% since the beginning of the year.

In contrast, the STOXX Europe 600 Automobiles & Parts index declined by 14.9%, while the ATX Total Return index gained 29.8%. Among the 38 prime market stocks on the Vienna Stock Exchange, POLYTEC ranked fifth in year-to-date performance.

On a personal note, my fellow Management Board member, Martin Resch, and I each purchased around 43,000 POLYTEC shares at an average price of €4.58 at the end of June and beginning of July. This clearly reflects our confidence in POLYTEC's future development.

POLYTEC is currently covered by three research houses with an average price target of €6.73. Most recently, Montega initiated coverage with a buy recommendation and a price target of €10.

Our current market capitalization is around €107 million, approximately half of our equity. Over the coming months, we will further intensify our investor relations activities through conferences and roadshows.

We look forward to meeting many of you in person and presenting POLYTEC's refined equity story to a broader investor audience. To remind you briefly, in fiscal year 2025, POLYTEC Group clearly achieved its operational turnaround, improving almost every financial KPI.

We met and even exceeded our outlook and returned to positive earnings after tax. Based on this strong performance, the Management Board proposed a dividend of 20 cents per share, which was unanimously approved by the Annual General Meeting.

A total dividend of €4.4 million was paid on 11th June 2026. Following the positive earnings development reported for the first quarter, our H1 results confirm that we remain on the right track.

Let's take a closer look at the financial figures. Again, we improved all relevant earning KPIs compared with the first six months of the previous year.

Consolidated sales in H1 amounted to €287.4 million, down 19.6% or around €70 million year on year. However, this decline was not unexpected.

It mainly reflects the planned optimization of our product and production portfolio over the past few quarters. As already explained in our annual and Q1 reports, sales in 2026 are lower due to the divestment of our UK operations at the end of 2025 and the closure of our Weierbach plant in Germany at the end of April 2026.

As a CFO, I can accept lower sales if those sales are more profitable, particularly when the decline is temporarily. Our focus is clearly on profitable growth and better margin quality.

In the medium term, we expect new projects, particularly in the non-automotive business, to increasingly contribute to sales and support renewed growth at improved profitability. Our earnings figures already demonstrate that we are moving in the right direction.

EBITDA increased by 7% to €22.6 million, while the EBITDA margin improved significantly from 5.99% to 7.9%. EBIT increased by 47% to €8.3 million, with the EBIT margin rising from 1.6 to 2.9%.

At the end of June, POLYTEC Group employed 2,804 FTEs, a reduction of 802 employees or 22%. This mainly reflects the divestment of our UK operations, including 348 employees, as well as the closure of the Weierbach plant and related workforce reduction in Germany.

The improvement is even more visible at the bottom of the P&L. Earnings before tax more than tripled from €1.5 million to €5.6 million.

Earnings after tax increased from €1.4 million to €4.7 million. This resulted in earnings per share of 21 cents compared to 6 cents in the first half-year of the previous year.

The key message is clear: we are operating on a leaner sales base, but with significantly improved profitability. Our balance sheet remains strong, with the equity ratio now above the 50% mark.

As of 30th June 2026, total assets decreased by €33.8 million to €442.2 million compared with year-end 2025. Despite the dividend payment of around €4.4 million, the equity ratio increased by 3.9 percentage points to 50.1%.

Over the past two years, one of our key priorities has been to reduce net debt and strengthen the balance sheet. As of June 2026, net debt stood at €29.6 million, down 43% or €22.5 million compared with June 2025.

[Debt?] increased moderately because of the higher working capital.

The notional debt repayment period stood at 0.56 years, while the gearing ratio was 0.13. Both indicators remain at a very comfortable level and provide us with financial flexibility for future investments.

Average capital employed decreased by almost 7% to €249 million. Combined with the higher EBIT, this resulted in a significant improved ROCE from 2.2% to 9%.

Finally, as of end of June 2026, POLYTEC Group had more than €34 million in cash and cash equivalents. The key message here is: a stronger balance sheet, significantly lower net debt year on year, and substantially improved capital efficiency.

Let's have a quick look on the turnover split. Sales in the commercial vehicle market area, accounting for right 18% of the group sales, were slightly above the previous year's level at €51.4 million.

Sales in smart plastics application amounted to €20.7 million in the first half-year 2026. This market area is subject to fluctuating call-offs from a major customer.

However, this volatility is part of the nature of the business and does not change our positive view of the customer relationship. We have been reliable partner for many years and look forward to continuing this cooperation on new projects.

Having reviewed the first half of 2020 26, let's now turn our attention to the future. The outlook for 2026 remains unchanged, and we can summarize in the following sentence: stable earnings situation despite lower sales revenues.

From today's perspective, the management of POLYTEC Holding AG expects planned consolidated sales revenues in the range of €560 to €590 million for the 2026 financial year. The POLYTEC Group's lower total sales compared to the previous year are due to the divestment of the operational business in the UK as of December 2025 and the closure of the Weierbach plant as of end of April 2026.

With regard to the margin development, the company expects a stable or slightly improved earnings situation despite the lower sales and is aiming for an EBIT margin of around 3% for the 2026 financial year. The company intends to pay an annual dividend again in the future.

POLYTEC stands for a solid balance sheet, strong cash generation, and a reliable dividend policy. Our strong market position, broad technology portfolio, and clear strategic direction support our financial performance even in challenging market conditions.

Demand for high-quality plastic solutions remains strong across industries. We are an established Tier 1 partner to leading European OEMs, while smart plastics application is development into an attractive second pillar below the automotive business — beyond the automotive business.

In short, POLYTEC combines strategic focus, operational excellence, and sustainable value creation, providing a strong foundation for long-term growth. Finally, we would like to thank our shareholders for their continued trust and confidence in POLYTEC Holding AG.

This concludes our presentation of the results for the first half-year 2026. Thank you very much for your attention.

Now it's time to hand back to the operator to kick off the Q&A session.

It just takes a couple of seconds to for the signal to reach and to unmute. Thanks for the presentation.

Can I touch upon the growth opportunities in the non-auto business, and just to set the stage, the 30% revenue share in two to three years, what's kind of the base scenario for the non-auto, for the automotive business? Maybe we can talk about absolute numbers, what this 30% with absolute numbers kind of in on the back of it?

Would be same base as today. Let's say approximately that the 30% would make €200 million.

Okay. That's very clear.

That requires quite a steep adoption curve. Thank you for the very helpful chart where you show the kind of value chain from product to market launch.

What makes you so confident that the products that are currently in the product process design, if I look at the chart, it will take whatever, 12 months, 16 months, 18 months for those products to reach the market launch and then, as I said, to meet the adoption rate that is applied for the 200 million is extremely punchy?

That's a good question. Thanks for that one.

Actually, first answer is because I'm convinced and I have full trust in the products we develop together with our partners, yeah. These are great products and creating additional value to our customers.

I do always believe when a product creates a value for a customer and an advantage for a customer, then this will be successful. Look, that's number one.

Number two, we have the new regulations in the European Union taking place, I would say, 1st January 2030, therefore there must change something, yeah? Therefore, we are so confident that we can manage that and that we are able to increase our non-automotive business to 30%.

Okay. On the plant tray trajectory, can you help us with some revenue figures for '26 and kind of an indication of the growth for '27?

Yeah. I don't want to say let's say specific numbers for one specific product, but I can tell you it's a one-digit million amount.

This is I would call it an early adopter, because they here there is deadline as well end of 2029. They're starting to fill the market.

This year, it was let's say below our expectations. You see there are some let's say challenges, because let's say the retailer, they have to have some store, they need to implement the processes, etc.

It's not so super easygoing, but there is a deadline, end of 2029. I do expect for the next year, let's say double the revenue what we have 2026.

This is on a solid base, I would say.

Yes, thank you. Then turning to the automotive part, there's recently been another wave of profit warnings in the industry.

We had some by the OEMs, the Volkswagen news flow that was say at least controversial regarding closures of German plants. Can you give us an idea, given that Volkswagen is your most important customers, how much exposure you have to the German plants of Volkswagen and if there has been any talks with you on the matter of relocation of production, etc.?

The basis is there is overcapacity in the market, yeah. We as POLYTEC Group, we adjusted our capacities in the past couple of years.

That's very important. Volkswagen did not do that.

As I don't want to let's say comment on Volkswagen's strategy they did in the last couple of years, just let me say that very straight: the capacity is too high from the Volkswagen Group, what by the way CEO of Volkswagen Group as well found out and told, okay, now they want to build 1 million less cars. Has this a direct impact on us?

No, because it's the same situation as it was the year before, and same situation we see now. I do see some chances here, yeah.

For sure, they are asking all the time for price declines, etc., but if you have good products, if you have a good process, then you can convince them. That's what we did, by the way, and we got a couple of new projects from Volkswagen Group as well projects who prior were at some competitors from us, yeah.

Therefore, I see it as I said, I see it with chances. I see as well that Volkswagen needs to adjust its capacity.

Understood. Then a last question before I get back into the line would be on the organic sales development in the first half, stripping out the disposals and divestments, what would be the organic growth rate, please?

That's hard to say, and that's hard to see, let's say from our reports, I know, because of the divestment of the UK activities and the closure of the Weierbach plant. I would say there is a growth in the automotive sector if you exclude UK business, if you exclude Weierbach, and if you exclude the sale of our small plant in Belgium, yeah.

There is a small increase in automotive sales because of, let's say, new projects we've won in the past.

Thank you very much.

Me now?

Perfect. Thank you so much.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My first question first of all, congrats on the strong margin developments.

My first question is regarding the SPA business. As we have seen that Q2 sales in that business area were already back above Q1, is it fair to say that we have some kind of bottomed out in that area?

I think you can say that. I have to comment as well, in Q2 we did a lot of stock build-up for that customer, which you don't see in the turnover, but we will see in Q3 in the turnover.

I would say from a production point of view, it was not too bad, but from a turnover point of view, it was as you said, it's like the bottom, I would call it.

Perfect. With respect to your 30% target in that business area, I know that many questions regarding that topic has already been asked, but can you give us some flavor on the timeline when you expect the major, well major orders from several other customers above that key customer that you have at the moment?

I would say next year we do see some increase, yeah. That's our expectation.

Let's say the main topic will then be in 2028, 2029, yeah. 2029 for full extent, but significantly in 2028.

That's our expectation.

Okay. Thank you so much.

My last question would be regarding capital allocation. As you have dramatically optimized your balance sheet and do you see some market opportunities on the M&A side, both on the automotive and also on the non-automotive business?

Here and there we do have discussions. We already had a closer look on some potential targets, but it never came to the point that we say, okay, this fits, this makes sense.

We do feel that there is, let's say, increasing activities. We are watching that very closely, but I can't say anything specific about that.

Okay. Thank you so much.

That's from my side.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you. I hope you can hear me well?

Yep, perfect. Hello together.

Many thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. My first question goes a bit deeper in your products business.

I'm wondering if you can share some insights about your breakdown of the materials you are using. We have learned from the chemicals industry that prices are going up.

I remember that you are using polypropylene and polyamide and glass fibers as let's say the top three materials. Which price indications do you have for us, and are you able to mitigate those price increases from the chemicals industries?

That would be my first question.

Thanks for the question. You're right, yeah.

That's definitely the major, let's say, base materials we use. Yes, there were some significant price increases, but let's say based on our contracts, based on negotiation power, yeah, okay, we felt that, but not in a super strong way as of now, yeah.

Prices went up, but prices went down again and now they went up again. At the end, we do have agreements with our customers that we can partially forward that prices to our customers.

You see in quarter two you see a small effect, yeah, from price increases. This is a timing topic, for example, when we then forward the prices to our customers in Q3, for example, because that takes some time till the prices are adjusted, etc.

The numbers are not too high what you see in our result.

Perfect.

By the way, there was never a shortage of materials, yeah. If you pay the price, there is never a shortage, yeah.

That's in the beginning, the prices went up dramatically. Every supplier said, "Oh, I don't get anything."

At the end, it was not so bad.

Understood that what I've heard also from the chemicals industry. My second question maybe needs a bit more explanation.

If you can go back to page 5 of your presentation, which was slide is very helpful to me. Can you walk us through the slide a bit with regard to profitability of those projects?

My understanding is if you're the let's say the owner of not the owner of the idea, but the owner of the production and all the engineering and tooling you're doing and later the production, you should be the project should be more profitable for you rather than when the person comes with a ready idea and you just have to make some kind of tooling and the production. Am I right?

You have used the three different colors: yellow, blue, and green. Would be helpful to understand where do you see the highest profitability in those three kind of projects?

Thank you.

Good question, yeah. I guess it's clear that if we do develop a product by our own, yeah, that at the end the margin should be higher than if we are, let's say, the industrialization partner and the scaling partner with somebody, yeah.

As these products are let's say at the current time not on the market, and therefore it's hard to judge. My expectation would be that if the products we develop by ourselves have the highest margin, yeah.

That's the expectation.

Okay. Thank you.

Looking at this looking again on this chart, we can found something which is yeah, I would say not that filigran when it comes to the usage, yeah. We have something in the construction area, we have load carriers and stuff like this.

Have you ever elaborated on moving into areas which need more filigran or less heavy stuff? For example, into the MedTech industry, for example?

In what kind of industry?

MedTech, medical MedTech, Medizintechnik. MedTech.

Okay. Got it.

Sorry, there was just audio stream.

No worries.

One of our products you see here on that slide, and this is the product I can talk about because it was already published, is BOXIT. BOXIT here we see a big potential in the MedTech medical industry.

This will definitely be used in that industry. We are trying a lot of things, and this is just an extract from what we are doing, what you can see on that page or on that slide.

There is more, but we do not develop products together, very small products. Our goal or our focus is more on bigger products.

BOXIT will be one example where we go in the MedTech industry, but all the other ones they are not super small products.

Okay. No, you're not looking as a single use product in in any kind of industry.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

I step back. Thank you.

Thank you.

Can you repeat the question, please?

Got it. It should be plastic products, right?

It should be, let's say, or it can be in the same size as we as a group are right now, we are not afraid about that. It must be a company, let's say, in critical financial situation, and then we would have a closer look, yeah.

There is not that much constraints about the size, definitely not, yeah. Because I would say we as POLYTEC, we have very different kind of products and therefore kind of complex portfolio.

Sometimes you see competitors, they make more turnover than we with just one or two products or the same product family.

I need to correct that, because in Q1 there was a special effect included, what we reported as well in Q1, so that was the sale of our Belgium business. I guess special effect in Q1 was €1.7, €1.8 million.

If you exclude that, the profitability in Q2 was higher. Second, what I already mentioned, there is a small price increase in the raw material side.

These are, let's say, two reasons to explain the question.

It's basically the same as the question we already took. The mineral prices, they go to our products as a base product, and therefore, yeah, there were some price increases.

We see increased material expenses, but on a let's say very small amounts in the Q3 Q2, yeah. It's not a material heavy effect in our balance sheet or in our P&L.

Thank you. Thanks to all of you on the call for taking the time, and I wish you all of you a nice day and look forward to welcoming you again on our next conference call to be held on 13th November when we will present the figures of Q3.

Until then, all the best, have a relaxing summer break, and goodbye.