Exosens (EXENS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to Exosens' 2026 Half Year Results Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to Laurent Sfaxi, Head of Investor Relations, to begin today's call.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Exosens' First Half 2026 Results Presentation. I'm Laurent Sfaxi, IR at Exosens. I'm joined today by Jerome Cerisier, our CEO; and Quynh-Boi Demey, our CFO. They will review our first half business performance and strong financial results and also present our outlook for the year. This presentation will be followed by a Q&A session, so you will be able to ask your questions. I will now hand over to Jerome.

Thank you, Laurent. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. So Exosens delivered another strong performance in the first half of 2026 as we combine sustained double-digit growth, further margin expansion, robust cash generation and a strong balance sheet. Let me start perhaps with 4 key messages. First, the revenues reached EUR 253.1 million, an increase of 15.3% year-on-year and 11.4% on a like-for-like basis. Growth was broad-based across both segments. Amplification revenue increased by 11.6%, including a 10% like-for-like growth, while Detection & Imaging grew 24.3% with a perfectly strong like-for-like growth of 14.6%. Second, profitability reached a new record level. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 18.3% to EUR 83.60 million, and the EBITDA margin expanded to 33%. This performance reflects the strength of our technology positions but also a favorable product mix, higher volumes and consistent operational execution across our industrial footprint. Third, we continue to invest for future growth while preserving a strong cash generation and some financial flexibility. So the free cash flow amounted to EUR 31.4 million despite a significant acceleration in our growth CapEx, and our leverage ratio is now 1.2x adjusted EBITDA to be compared with 1.3x at the end of 2025. Fourth and finally, based on the strong first half performance and our current visibility, we now expect the guidance to be towards the upper end of our 2026 revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance ranges. I will come back to that at the end of the presentation. So let's review the main developments across our businesses. On the amplification market, amplification continued to deliver a strong execution, supported by commercial momentum, technology leadership and continued expansion of our industrial platform. On the commercial side, a major milestone was actually achieved during this first half of the year with the award of contracting to the U.S. Army, the BiNOD program. This is a program of record and it's key to validate our in-country industrial strategy that will also strengthen our long-term position in the United States. And as you know, the U.S. market represents about 45% of the global night vision market. We also continue to win business across the broad range of European markets and NATO countries as the sole sizable ITAR-free supplier. On innovation, we are progressing with our augmented reality MicroDisplay, which brings digital information directly into the image intensifier tube. This technology is fully formed and fit, compatible with existing goals. So it allows real-time tactical information display while preserving the night performance, the core image quality, the identification performance that every single user continues to expect. In parallel, we completed the integration of NVLS. As you know, NVLS expands our addressable market in the high-end man-portable night vision through particularly its wide-field-of-view expertise. In the United States, we are preparing also the co-location of Photonis Defense headquarters in Sturbridge, Massachusetts alongside our already existing detection business and so alongside our image intensifier tube production facility being incepted. So this co-location, this U.S. hub creates a more integrated U.S. organization, enables a closer engagement with customers and generate efficiencies through shared services for support functions. We continue to invest into our production capacity as we continue to witness the strength of the customer demand. Since 2020, we have successively and progressively implemented successive investment stages. Back in 2025, we announced 2 capacity or 2 stages of expansion for a total of EUR 37 million investment. And this program is now ongoing, both for the Europe and the United States. I remind you, it's expected to increase image intensifier production capacity by about 40% by the end of 2027 if we compare it to 2024. The first benefits of the European investments are expected in the second half of 2026. while the first deliveries of the U.S. facility are expected in H1 2027. At the same time, given the acceleration in global demand and the market opportunities we see, we are actively evaluating further staggered capacity additions beyond the current program to respond to this increasing demand. So our approach in capacity increase remains disciplined. We invest in line with visibility on demand, while we -- it's important that we preserve our industrial mastership, our product quality, our efficiency and above all, our high yields as they command our ability to serve our customers and they command also our margins. More specifically on the U.S. facility, if I turn now to the rollout of our new Sturbridge production facility, it is progressing as planned. It's, as you can see, located to our existing U.S. Scientific and Photonis Defense operations. The key production equipments have been ordered. The project teams are on board. The first personnel have been trained or are being trained within our Europe facilities. I'll remind you that the initial facility is expected to represent 10% to 15% of the total image intensifier capacity by end 2027. This facility provides us with an ITAR-controlled production capability to serve the U.S. Department of Defense and law enforcement markets. It's a very important step. Actually, it's a strategic step in accessing the U.S. market as the U.S. market requires a local production for its forces. So we are committed to sell this market in the short, in the medium and the long term with this establishment. Concerning Detection & Imaging, we delivered a significant acceleration in growth during the first half, supported by the strong demands in defense and surveillance, continued commercial development in our other verticals and disciplined M&A execution. In defense and surveillance, we are expecting our customer base -- sorry, we are expanding our customer base among leading unmanned system OEMs, autonomous system developers, first tier OEMs in all types of applications, be it surface, be it ground, be it air. During this half, we secured our largest order to date from a major European developer of autonomous air defense systems, which confirms the increasing role of advanced imaging in drone and counter drone and autonomous defense applications. In our commercial markets, we achieved several new design-in wins in high-performance mass spectrometry, electron microscopy, semiconductor detector applications, which will, in turn, nurture growth in the coming years. We are also seeing, by the way, in nuclear, a strong commercial momentum, especially in the U.S. concerning small modular reactors. Our innovation pipeline remains active. And on the M&A side, we completed the integration of Phasics, so a leader in wavefront sensing technology. And we completed the acquisition of Emberion, which adds a differentiated quantum dot SWIR capability to our portfolio. I think we will turn back to -- or come back to Emberion in our M&A section. Let me perhaps give a little bit more light on the defense and surveillance applications in detection imaging. This is definitely, for the time being, one of the most attractive areas of growth for Exosens. We cover the whole spectrum from ultraviolet to visible light to near, short, mid and long wave infrared, which enables us to address a wide range of mission-critical applications. We have identified 3 particularly attractive application areas: platforms, with an expected midterm growth of around 8%; surveillance, with an expected growth of around 10%, driven by counter-drone applications; and last but not least, the drone themselves, where drone imaging represents a midterm growth rate of about 17% [indiscernible]. So these markets, they require increasingly capable multispectral solutions for detection, identification, tracking, targeting and situational awareness. Exosens as a group is very well positioned because we combine a broad technology field-proven portfolio of technologies. We cover multiple usages with the ability to industrialize, to scale up to deliver in quality, in quantity, reliable and high-performance products. It's this combination that puts us in a good position on this market. We wanted to also illustrate better our position. Our position really in the value chain is at the core of it. We operate in the critical sensing and imaging layers. We create data. We create information. We supply sensors and detectors that convert light or radiation, photonic radiations into an electrical signal or into images. And so we provide mission-critical data that are needed by our OEMs to integrate to make decisions and to act at the system level. So our customers, they integrate these technologies into payloads, into gimbals, into turrets, into sights, into complete mission systems finally for the benefit of our end users. This is what allows us to partner with a broad range of OEMs with a common platform, common sensors, common devices, we can serve all OEMs in their different applications. And that allows, nevertheless, us to remain focused on the areas where our technology and industrial know-how create the greatest value and with the right to the effort needed to master these technologies. Defense and surveillance is the fastest-growing defense segment for the time being. We see strong momentum across platforms, across surveillance and drone-related applications. And if I want to dig a little bit more into the detail there, on platforms, the European defense modernization and the fab equipment bases are driving the procurement of advanced electro-optical or optronic systems in all types of mediums. We continue to strengthen our relationships with leading defense brands, with OEMs in absolutely all domains. Drones and counter drones applications remain the fastest-growing market. The demand for advanced imaging, combat-qualified and proven solutions continues to increase, and we are strengthening our position with leading OEMs, but also with autonomous system providers, which are part of the new defense ecosystem. In surveillance, investment is increasing in border protection, but more importantly, in critical infrastructure and counter-drone capabilities. So this segment or this market requires particularly cooled infrared solutions for long-range detection, tracking of drones, again, across all mediums whether that is air, land and sea. So we are seeing our technology being increasingly selected by OEMs for these demanding applications. That has resulted for Exosens the need to expand our capacity. So this accelerating demand actually requires larger volumes of production at shorter time frames. And so for compact thermal imaging solution used in drone payloads and air defense systems, we are tripling our capacity by the end of 2026. And for cooled infrared cameras, we are doubling this capacity over the same period. These investments have started, already underway. They are partially implemented. They will continue for the year, and they are designed to support the strong growth while maintaining the product performance and the industrial mastership of the quality and the delivery ability that is expected by all our customers. Here again, we will continue to expand as the market demands and as the market commands. We see capacity expansions as a way to follow the requirements of our customers, and we are doing so in a disciplined yet rigorous way. On commercial market, the picture remains differentiated by vertical, but the long-term structural drivers are intact. In life sciences, if I start with that one, the market conditions remain soft in the U.S. scientific research and the microscopy. However, the mass spectroscopy inventory correction has ended, which is allowing for a renewed increase in demand and a confirmed long trend towards higher performance and electrical systems, which is perfectly well supported by our technical leadership, especially in the time-of-flight programs. So that resulted in several design wins, not only in mass spectrometry, but also in electronic microscopy. And the key in these instruments -- the design for instruments will result in future growth when these instruments are launched, starting 2027 and more notably in 2028. In industrial control, the market conditions are gradually improving. The deployment of artificial intelligence infrastructure is supporting renewed investments in all areas, especially in semiconductors, in industrial automation or in advanced manufacturing. And that creates for us a structural demand, driving growth for machine vision applications and real-time process monitoring, which we are providing cameras to. Finally, in nuclear, we continue to see a strong momentum in the U.S. small modular reactors. The Department of Energy's Reactor Pilot Program that was launched last year is creating series and prototype demand, which is now starting to be followed by near-term pre-series orders, all of that resulting in a strong growth for our activities. So the commercial opportunities we see are increasing. Obviously, this is driven by the new, quick, close to usage points, alternative sources of electric power that are required or heat energy even. So over the long term, the growing electricity demand for AI centers, coupled with local production, gives -- seems to be a good outcome, let's say, for SMR market. And so as it face basically the grid connection costs and that seems to be fueling significantly the demand for SMR market. So we see this market as being growing at a fast pace for the coming years. So I will now hand over to Quynh-Boi and she can finish the overview of the market. And Quynh-Boi will take you through the M&A strategy and our financial performance.

Thank you, Jerome. As we said at the time of the IPO, our strategy combines strong organic growth with targeted bolt-on acquisitions. Our ambition is clear and it's to become the leading consolidation platform in electro-optics, while we remain highly disciplined in how we deploy capital. So first, we target companies with technology assets that complement our own portfolio. So when developing a technology internally will take too long or involve significant execution risk, acquisitions allow us to accelerate innovation while reducing time to market. Second, we focus on companies that operate within our 4 core end markets of defense and surveillance, life sciences, industrial control and nuclear that expand our addressable market and strengthen our competitive positioning. Third, we prioritize businesses that have already reached industrial scale with proven customer relationships and leadership positions in their respective niches. That said, we also remain open to early-stage companies when they offer strategically important technologies with strong long-term potential, which is typically the case of our latest acquisition Emberion that I will show you later. So what do we bring to these businesses? We provide global commercial platforms that accelerate market penetration; industrial excellence across manufacturing and supply chain; and a strong technology ecosystem supported by deep R&D capabilities and a robust IP portfolio. This creates value on multiple fronts: faster growth, broader market exposure and a more diversified and resilient business model. Importantly, our acquisitions are not only growth accretive; they also create value through operational synergies, margin expansion and stronger cash generation. Emberion is a good example of our [indiscernible] acquisition strategy. It is an innovative company specializing in short wave infrared imaging with operations in Finland and in the U.K. This acquisition strengthens our position in SWIR technologies, and it also open up new opportunities in defense applications, especially for drones and portable imaging systems, while it also allows us to broaden our offering in industrial control and semiconductor inspection. Most importantly, Emberion is exactly the type of company we are looking for. It offers differentiated technology that can grow faster by leveraging Exosens' global commercial platform, industrial capabilities and technology expertise. Now let's have a look on how -- what Jerome explained earlier on the market trends have translated into our financial performance for the first half of 2026. So we continue to deliver strong growth while also improving our margin. Revenue is up 15%, adding EUR 33 million overall. So EUR 18 million from Amplification, driven by solid defense investment, but also excellent execution with our factories that now run at full capacity. EUR 15 million of the growth is coming from Detection & Imaging. It's mainly driven by the drone and counter-drone markets and also the addition of the newly acquired companies, Noxant and Phasics. And our adjusted gross margin also grew by 17% to EUR 129.9 million. As a percentage of sales, adjusted gross margin improved from 50.8% to 51.3%, and that's up 0.5 point compared to last year. This adds about EUR 18 million in gross margin with EUR 11 million from Amplification and EUR 7 million from D&I. Now let's dive into the details on the next slide by segment. Let's start first with Amplification. Revenue grew by 11.6% or 10% on a like-for-like basis as NVL Spain had a limited contribution during the first half. This strong organic performance was driven by 3 factors: sustained market demand, good operational execution and a favorable product mix. On the demand side, growth continues to be fueled by increasing deliveries of night vision goggles for land forces, which rely on our image intensifier tubes. The changing nature of modern warfare and particularly in Ukraine continues to reinforce the importance of night vision capabilities and is driving sustained demand from armed forces and especially in Europe with the threat of Russia. Operationally, we are currently running our European production site at full capacity. Despite ongoing expansion works, we maintained very high production yields through continuous process improvements, optimized production scheduling and good manufacturing execution. That finally results in limited scrap and rework. And finally, we continue to benefit from a favorable product mix with growing demand for our highest performance image intensifier tubes. As a result, Amplification gross margin increased by 110 basis points year-on-year to 52.5%, which is a record level for the business. Turning now to Detection & Imaging. Revenue increased by 24.3%. That includes a 14.6% like-for-like growth that reflects both the contribution from the acquisitions that we completed in 2025 and the strong organic momentum. Organic growth was primarily driven by continued strength in defense and surveillance and particularly imaging solutions for drone, counter drone and long-range surveillance applications, together with the sustained momentum in nuclear instrumentation as commented earlier by Jerome. These positive trends were partly offset by the continued softness in U.S. scientific research and life sciences, where our customers remain cautious with their investment spending. On profitability, our gross margin reached 48.1%. They are broadly stable compared to the full year of 2025, but it's 60 basis points lower than in the first half of last year, and it's mainly the result of an unfavorable product mix due to the lower contribution from our higher-margin scientific research and life sciences activities. Moving to profitability. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 18% to EUR 83.6 million. The adjusted EBITDA margin reached 33%, an improvement of 84 basis points year-on-year, and it's a new record for the group. Adjusted EBIT increased by 19% to EUR 71.8 (sic) [ 71.7 ] million with the margin expanding by 93 basis points to 28.4%, which is also a new record for the group. The principal drivers of this performance were operational excellence, the favorable product mix in Amplification and the benefits of volume and scale. So we continue to grow faster than our fixed cost base while maintaining discipline across the organization and investing selectively in the capabilities required for future growth. This performance flows down to the net income. Excluding the noncash trademark impairment, net profit from continuing operations increased by 21% year-on-year to EUR 35.9 million. So there are 2 points I'd like to highlight here. The first, in our 2025 results, we still had EUR 1.7 million loss from the microwave amplifiers business, which we divested at the end of 2025. This business is therefore no longer part of our continuing operations. Second, during the first half of 2026, we completed the transition to a single Exosens brand across the group. As Exosens has become increasingly recognized since the IPO, moving to a single brand provides customers and partners with a clearer and more consistent identity. As part of this transition, we recognized a noncash trademark impairment of approximately EUR 21 million on a net basis, mainly related to the Photonis brand. This accounting adjustment has no impact on the group's cash flow or underlying operating performance. So I skip the slide on R&D and CapEx for the sake of time so that we have enough time for the Q&A. So let's move directly to the free cash generation, Slide 29. So cash flow generation, we delivered a very solid performance in the first half. Free cash flow amounted to EUR 31.4 million. This is broadly in line with the strong level that we achieved in 2025 despite a significant increase in growth investments. So higher EBITDA, as you see, was partly offset by increased working capital requirements, which is a natural consequence of delivering more than 15% revenue growth. That said, disciplined working capital management, especially on receivables helped contain the increase. At the same time, growth CapEx almost doubled as we continue to invest in expanding our production capacity. Our capacity expansion program is progressing on schedule. So construction is underway in France, the Netherlands and the U.S. to accommodate additional production equipment. In Europe, new machines have already been commissioned and qualified with the first additional capacity expected to come on stream in the second half of 2026. And in U.S., the new facilities remains on track to come on stream in mid-2027. Finally, our CapEx to sales -- well, at the same time, as we increase our CapEx for growth, our CapEx to sales ratio remained fully in line with our guidance of 9.2%. Let me conclude with our balance sheet. So at the time of the IPO, we significantly strengthened our financial profile with the refinancing of our debt as we secured a EUR 250 million term loan B and the EUR 100 million of revolving credit facility, both maturing in 2029. In June, we further enhanced our financial flexibility by doubling the size of our RCF to EUR 200 million. And we also secured a new facility with the European Investment Bank for a total amount of EUR 140 million. So both facilities remain fully undrawn today. Our balance sheet remains very strong. Leverage decreased from 1.3x at the end of 2025 to 1.2x at the end of June, where we maintained a solid cash position. With strong cash generation, a conservative leverage profile and more than EUR 340 million of undrawn committed financing, we are well positioned to fund both our organic growth ambitions and our bolt-on disciplined acquisition strategy. With that, I'll hand over to Jerome, who will conclude today's presentation with our outlook for 2026 and the midterm.

Thank you, Quynh-Boi. So based on the strong first half performance and the continued momentum we are seeing across our businesses and our end markets, we are now expecting both revenue and adjusted EBITDA to be towards the upper end of our guidance ranges for 2026. As a reminder, they were given as for revenue between EUR 520 million and EUR 540 million and for adjusted EBITDA between EUR 168 million and EUR 178 million. As our capacity expansion programs continues to progress as planned in both Europe and the U.S., we also reaffirm our guidance for industrial CapEx of around 9% of sales and R&D capitalization of about 3% of sales. Beyond 2026, our investment case remains unchanged and strong. We continue to target an average annual organic revenue growth of up to the mid-teens, while growing the adjusted EBITDA at more than 15% per year on average, supported by further margin expansion. At the end of our current investment cycle, we expect industrial CapEx to normalize to around 5% of sales while maintaining R&D capitalization at about 3% of our sales. So as a conclusion, we are very pleased with the performance delivered in the first half. We achieved another period of double-digit growth, further margin expansion and a strong cash generation, while, of course, continuing to invest for the future. So we also see the structural drivers supporting our business, be it in defense and surveillance, in life sciences, in industrial control, in nuclear, remain firmly in place. And our balance sheet gives us the flexibility to continue investing in both organic growth in the form of hard CapEx, R&D and working capital and in targeted acquisitions. Overall, we remain very confident in our outlook for the second half of 2026 and in our further ability to continue to creating value over the coming years until the midterm. That concludes, I think, our presentation of the results. And with that, operator, I think we are ready to take any questions.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Aleksander Peterc from Bernstein.

I just have 2. The first one is on your potential further capacity increases. Could you help us understand if you see today that demand is very strong into the end of the decade, why wouldn't you decide on this further capacity increase today? Or do you have more time, you need to complete first the current cycle of this 40% increase and only then start putting in place the next stage? That will be my first question. And the second one is on M&A. Can you give us an idea of the pipeline of opportunities you have right now? How many companies you're looking at? And what kind of size of the targets? Are they effectively larger now that you have more firepower?

Okay. Thank you, Aleksander. So on further capacity increase, as we stated, we constantly reevaluate demand. We are in an active phase in really understanding what the demand is looking like and the demand remains -- continues to strengthen. So we will consider further capacity increase as soon as practically demand solidifies. And we don't necessarily need to wait until the current capacity increases are implemented before making this decision. We didn't do that, by the way, in the past. But as you know, capacity increase take 18 to 24 months to be implemented. So as a matter of fact, we are not going to wait the midterm before we decide to increase capacity further if the market and if the demand continues to strengthen earlier than that.

On the M&A, we don't change our strategy, which has always been to continuously screen the market and look for high-value technology assets. Most of the time, they are [ of GOUs ]. So we don't really mind whether it's for defense or nondefense. They have to be positioned into core verticals where we operate. So in terms of pipeline, we constantly have 7 to 8 companies that we screen, which is the case today. Our pipeline is quite rich. But as you know, with M&A, it always takes time. And in terms of the size of our acquisitions, so we don't -- so far, we've always looked for companies which typically have sales above EUR 10 million. But as you saw with Emberion, we also look for assets which have long-term potential growth and differentiated technology, which is typically the case of Emberion with the quantum dots that would strengthen our SWIR portfolio. And now what we can afford as well is to look for acquisitions which can be a little bit larger, so EUR 50 million to EUR 100 million of sales typically, and as you know, with M&A, it takes time. So let's see.

The next question comes from Aurelien Sivignon from ODDO BHF.

I have 3. The first one on D&I. Could you give us a bit more color on the defense and civil growth in H1 since I guess it's pretty much above the 15% like-for-like growth reported at division level? And was it mainly driven by existing program ramping up? Or are you already starting to see some contribution from new platform wins? Then a follow-up maybe on the previous question regarding capacity increase. Can you just be precise if you are looking at capacity additions in Europe, in the U.S. or in a new location? And the last one on NVLS. Can you provide an update on the integration? And since the contribution was, I think, rather small in H1, should we expect deliveries under the Spanish program to start contributing more meaningfully, let's say, to revenue from H1 onwards?

Okay. So concerning Detection & Imaging and the growth of the defense vertical in this market, the drones and counter-drone applications are definitely the fastest-growing applications in the defense and imaging segment so far. So yes, it's higher than the average growth for the segment as the demand is there. And the typology of our customers is actually already quite spread, quite large with both Tier 1s, but also newcomers, newcomers in the sense that there are recent companies that are participating to the drone and counter-drone rally and that are belonging and starting to form the new defense ecosystem. So we have both of that. And as a matter of fact, the largest orders we are seeing and the most promising, let's say, orders we are seeing are coming from new OEM platforms. As far as capacity increase is concerned concerning D&I, we are really focusing on strengthening our supply chain, reducing our delivery times, securing our supply chain. And the capacity increase that we have is in Europe as our production for Detection & Imaging is entirely in Europe. So this is -- and that didn't prevent us from being successful in exporting to other countries that are outside of the continent, including North America. However, today, it is in Europe. Should the market expand further and should the need arise, we could consider one day to produce in different continents. But as of today, we are talking and doing expansion in our current facilities in Europe.

With regards to your question on NVLS, indeed, the first half had a limited contribution of NVLS, which we expect much higher in the second half.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Marie-Thérèse Grübner from Cantor Fitzgerald, Europe.

I have 2, if I may. The first one pertains to assuming D&I is now growing faster, both organically and inorganically, considering the M&A pipeline and considering the strength of the defense and surveillance subsegment, in particular, I was wondering if you are considering moving to an adjusted EBITDA breakdown by divisions, not just the gross margin, but also the adjusted EBITDA sometime in the near future? That would be my first question.

And your second question, if we may take them both together?

Yes, of course. The second question, I mean, I noticed that there's one domain that is currently not addressed or seemingly not addressed by Exosens, which is the space domain. And I can imagine that there are various applications that are possible for your competencies in the space domain. And I was wondering if this is something that you are looking to address in the future as well.