Gurit Holding AG (GURN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Gurit H1 2025 Results Media and Analyst Conference. As said, my name is Tobias Lührig, and I'm the new CEO of Gurit, and I'm pleased to be here with you today. I will focus over the next few minutes on what happened during the first half of the year 2025, providing you with some context and background. After that, we will take a deeper dive into the financial sections. Before we move then in the Q&A session, as noted, I will return to present the outlook for Gurit for the full year of 2025. We completed the restructuring of the company. We booked restructuring expenses of CHF 40 million, of which CHF 80 million were impairments. Due to the planned exit from the carbon fiber pultrusion business, our revenue declined by 20.1% to CHF 164.7 million. In addition to these portfolio changes, we also experienced delayed order intakes, partly driven by the uncertainty around the ongoing U.S. tariff discussion. Javier will provide more background on this later in the presentation. Despite these headwinds, we achieved an operating profit of CHF 9.3 million, translating into a 5.7% margin, slightly above last year's margin of 5.4%. Naturally, total profit was higher last year, mainly due to the stronger revenue base. Main business remains the Wind Materials segment, which generated CHF 105 million in revenue during the first half of 2025. That translates to a decline of 22.9%. The drop primarily reflects the previous mentioned exits from the pultrusion business. We continue to focus on strengthening relationships with our Western Wind customers by securing long-term agreements. As highlighted in previous calls, our strategy is to concentrate on strategically important markets and key customers. Manufacturing Solutions generated -- sorry, CHF 15.2 million, a decrease of 24.5%, mainly due to delayed order intakes. However, we're seeing strong growth in the Indian market, and we expect a stronger performance in the second half of this year. Marine and Industrial sector, we recorded CHF 45.6 million in sales, representing a decline of 10.5%. Despite this negative growth, we are pleased to report steady progress in capturing opportunities in the lightweight and marine vessel application sector, particularly with our flagship product, Corecell S-Foam. Looking ahead, we are excited to begin deliveries of fee-based solution to new industrial market segments, including home and workspace application as well as the transportation sector starting in Q4. Supply chain pressure has eased during the first six months of 2025, leading to lower material costs. However, we experienced higher logistic costs, largely due to the ongoing situation in the Red Sea. U.S. tariffs had only a minor direct impact on our sales and profits, while we are able to offset those effects with a set of countermeasures. Nevertheless, we see more indirect effects for our customers and end users in specific markets, as I mentioned on previous slides. Javier will provide more insight into this in just a moment. Speaking of Javier, as previously announced, he will be leaving Gurit at the end of November. The search for a new CFO is nearing completion, and we will share an official announcement as soon the ink is dry. Looking ahead, we remain confident to our multi-market strategy and will continue to strengthen our global position as a leader in lightweight performance materials.

Thank you very much, Tobias. So let me show you some key information on the financials of the interims report 2025. So if we take a look on the net sales, as already mentioned, we reported CHF 164.7 million in the first half year, which represents a decline of 20.1% at constant rates versus last year. We did stop the carbon fiber pultrusion business in Denmark and India in the second quarter of 2025, leading to the significant drops in sales, especially in the Wind Systems segment. To give you an overview, the total annual sales of this discontinued business was CHF 101 million in 2024 and was CHF 25.8 million in the first half of 2025. Additionally, we did focus our wind business on profitable customers, supporting our overall profitability. Together with the restructuring savings, we did realize better results in the segment of Wind Systems compared to last year. The restructuring, which we initiated at the end of 2024 has been mostly completed. And as communicated, this was linked with only minor relocation of the production and related customer qualifications so that we were able to complete this successfully and obviously also fast. Again, I'm very happy to report that we were able to improve the operating profit before one-offs to 5.7% of net sales. The free cash flow for the first half of 2025 amounted to negative CHF 13.2 million. We expect that in half year 2, we will have less cash out, coming from the restructuring. And at the same time, we are working on optimizing our net working capital. Overall, the net debt resulted in CHF 79.3 million at the end of June 2025. Going into a further split of the different segments, we have reported CHF 105 million in sales in Wind Systems, again, linked to the stock of the carbon fiber pultrusion. With the evolution in the segment Marine and Industrial, where we saw a reduction of CHF 10.5 million year-over-year to CHF 44.6 million, we were not happy, but this was linked to project delays, tariffs and somewhat weak marine market in the first half. We know that the strategy refocus does not happen within six months. And at the same time, we did record contracts with high potential, and we are confident that this will have a significant impact in the coming years. The segment Manufacturing Solutions recorded net sales of CHF 15.2 million. We believe that the second half year will be stronger, so it will be a back-end loaded 2025. The gross margin -- the gross profit margin improved to 18.3% in the first half of 2025, reflecting also the efficiency improvements in the production. Last year, the margin was 17.8%. In absolute terms, the gross margin reduced to CHF 13.1 million, all of this related to the reduction of the sales level. As part of the restructuring, we did also reduce the overhead cost proportionally to the decline of the net sales. At the end, the profit margin improved to 5.7%. We are expecting a better profitability in the second half year. Consequently, we maintain the full year guidance, leading to a full year profitability of around 7%, equal to 2024. I need to mention that we did have an impact from the recycling of the goodwill on the former Fiberline business. Closing down this carbon fiber pultrusion business caused a onetime other operating expenses of CHF 64.2 million. This goodwill recycling had no cash, no equity impact, but obviously was recycled to the profit and loss statement. As a last portion of the overall restructuring package at a cost of CHF 40 million, we did book CHF 2.9 million in April 2025, and this was mainly related to the closure of our Italian PET production in Volpiano. Let me show you now a comparison of the 2025 half year results versus last year. Starting with CHF 11.6 million as per half year 2024, we did see a volume and mix impact of a negative CHF 11.7 million. Customer price evolutions were successfully controlled and combined with the material purchases had a negative impact of CHF 2.7 million only. The positive impact from efficiency measures in the production of CHF 12.5 million includes a reduction of group overhead costs in it as well. The direct impact, as we heard of the tariffs discussion was minor in the first six months. And overall, finally have reached CHF 9.3 million in operating profit, translating to 5.7% profitability in the first half of 2025. Let me show you a couple of other important KPIs beyond the profit and loss statement. As mentioned, we are working on optimizing our working capital. It stood at CHF 73.8 million at the end of half year 1. This is reflecting the trade net working capital, including inventories, receivables and also payables. A further reduction in the second half will help to optimize our free cash flow accordingly. The investments in the first half have been at CHF 3.8 million. We are focusing on projects with a faster payback period and replacement CapEx leading to this result. As said, overall, the free cash flow is in line with our expectations at minus CHF 13.2 million. Let me give you an overview about our financing situation. Our net debt increased by CHF 16.6 million to CHF 79.3 million. This includes apart from the free cash flow impact also earn-out payments and also the last payment related to the acquisition of our Dallas site in 2024. Our financing, as mentioned, is secured until 2028. On the equity side, we saw a significant negative impact coming from the exchange rates, resulting in a negative CTI effect of CHF 11.9 million. Our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio remains solid at 1.9x. Let me elaborate on the U.S. tariff situation. As we heard, the direct impact on the discussion has been very minor in the first half year of 2025. Based on the current status, we are exempted from any tariffs for imports from our Mexico facility and our Canadian facility based on the materials we supply to the U.S. For imports from the European Union and U.K., tariffs now amount to 15% or 10%, respectively. Indirectly, the market uncertainty was leading to postponed customer orders for investment decision. In the segment of Marine and Industrials, we saw a drop in sales accordingly. For the remainder of the year, we see no change in the very limited direct impact on our financials. And we hope that the clarity on tariffs will reduce the indirect impact on customer orders and investment decisions. Now let me take a look on the markets we are serving, starting with the wind market. A growth in the onshore market in all regions outside of China is expected until 2028. Onshore growth in the U.S. is supported by incentives in spite of most likely raising costs. At the same time, with the market growth, our addressable markets will grow as well. When watching at the offshore market, we do see -- we do not see any progress in the U.S. market. This is kept stable over the next four years. In Europe, though, the potential is significant, and the market is more than doubling over the next four years. Still, we feel quite some uncertainty about the anticipated evolution, and we remain cautious. In China, where Gurit has very limited exposure, the onshore market will stay the stable over the next years, while the offshore market will grow as well in China. As a result, we expect that Chinese competitors may expand internationally. Our assumption currently is that they may gather around 20% of the Western market. With our efficient footprint, we will be well prepared to serve the market and also the growth. If we take a look on the important market around marine and industrial, let me give you here some insights as well. Overall, the marine and industrial markets have very good growth potential being an important pillar for Gurit's future growth. We are concluding on important contracts with a significant potential in the coming years. At the same time, our new focus on the markets require some patience to develop. We are very confident that we are on the right path. Especially within the marine markets, we go beyond the luxury boats and see growth potential across multiple -- different marine applications like commercial work boats. New markets are being developed, replacing incumbent material like wood by PET applications. At the same time, we are keeping our focus with an enforced sales team on our strength. Overall, we are expecting a high single-digit growth of the segment, Marine and Industrial over the next years, beating the market. The short-term uncertainty will reduce, as mentioned, and strong opportunities will support this growth. Thank you very much for listening to the financials and the markets. And with this, I give over to Tobias, who will elaborate on the outlook.

Okay. Thank you very much. Let's finish this presentation with the outlook for the remaining year 2025. Our year-end profit guidance remains unchanged. We expect the operating profit margin to stay at the 2024 level. We are providing a sales guidance of about CHF 300 million for this year. Our focus remains on the most valuable segments of the wind market while continuing to drive innovation and sustainable solutions for our customers. In the long term, we continue to expect mid-single-digit growth in the Wind business and high single-digit growth in our non-Wind segments. Thank you very much for your attention.

[Operator Instructions] We will start our Q&A session from our first question from Tobias Klöpper, ZKB.

My first question would be on the adjustments to the operating results and specifically on the loss on business divestments. What do you include there except for the goodwill recycling? Is that the full loss from the discontinued business?

Tobias, so you are referring to the CHF 64.2 million?

Yes.

Yes. So the CHF 64.2 million is really exclusively the goodwill recycling coming from the former acquisition of the Fiberline business and includes the carbon fiber portion only. You may remember that we still have the glass fiber pultrusion business in Tianjin being profitable, and we kept that portion of the goodwill on our books. And the discontinued business, so if you refer to the net sales amount, this includes, let's say, 98% is related to the carbon fiber pultrusion and the very, very small piece is related to the business that we sold in Camigliano, Italy, which was the PET recycling topic. You can adjust for the records also this is purely the carbon fiber pultrusion.

All right. Then my next question, we heard a lot from competitors about high volumes in China due to the ending of the subsidies beginning of next year. Did you also see an impact from that? And then do you see maybe a reversal next year?

So actually, yes, so this is very positive. So apart from the restructuring measures, we see a high load in China and a high load in China does not mean necessarily for the local business only, but also for the Western business. So we are experiencing the same. And for the remainder of this year, we see similar volumes. This was a little bit our fear. For the local Chinese, it may drop for next year for 2026. But as mentioned before, the local Chinese business, we have almost no exposure to this.

Next question comes from Laura Bucher, Octavian.

I am apologizing in advance if there will be a little bit harsh. First one, it seems to me that the old drivers of your business are not so valid anymore. I mean if we look at order intake and turbine deliveries at the OEMs, they have been record high since 2023. And yet your Wind Materials, even if we exclude Fiberline and the Tooling division, they keep reporting organic decline quarter-on-quarter again. My fear is that it has really become very commoditized. What will it take, honestly, to get this back? And then my second question, I mean, I appreciate that the underlying margins are improving, but I wonder how long can you keep restructuring your business to offset market challenges and support your underlying performance before you run out of a business and cash?

Let me take the first question, Laura, and thank you for those questions. In fact, it's not only that we reduced the wind sales based on our stop of the carbon fiber pultrusion. We did also have a decline in the sales for our core materials. And this was very actively done in order to really focus on profitable business. We are not showing the split of the profitability by segment. But I can assure you that we are very happy right now with the evolution of the profitability in Wind systems, where we are a little bit less happy is with the evolution of Marine and Industrial, which is also surprising based on the sales and also Manufacturing Solutions. So important for us is that the market, our core market, let's call it, addressable market where we are in, is growing over the next years. So if you want to see there is, let's call it, a new base, and we are ready to grow in the markets where we want to be. So this is probably regarding your question about commoditizing of the business and where is the market going. And potentially for your second question on the restructuring and running out of cash. So the restructuring was exclusively in the area of Wind Materials. And we have to say that the big portion of this was related to the closure of the carbon fiber pultrusion business. So this is gone. So we -- obviously, there will be no other impact for the future years on this side. And on the cash side, we did not see the full potential yet. So as mentioned, we are planning to improve our free cash flow for the second half. We have the financing until 2028, and I agree, it's obviously crucial to follow the path that we are outlining here in order to also keep the carbon system absolutely correct.

Javier, this is Philippe Royer, the Chairman. Can you hear me?

Yes.

I would like to add something to this interesting question. So the PET world is commoditizing, and we are focusing on customers where we have unique selling points, and I'm going to give you some examples. We have developed a unique software that allow customers to, let's say, reduce their cost in the blade, for example, reducing their resin consumption. This is leading us and has led us to sign long-term agreements with very large customers. And when I say long-term agreements, we are talking about agreements up to five years, where for the five years, we have secured, obviously, the market share at these OEMs. And we are doing that with different large Western OEMs, meaning our visibility in the wind market and the growth we are going to benefit from the wind market is going to be secured by these LTAs that again are possible because we are developing tools that allow us to avoid the usual commoditization trend that we see in this market. So that's really the main element that make us getting out of usual price decrease for commodities, allowing our customers to save costs while we offer new solutions. We do that with several large OEMs, and this is really the basis of our wind policy now working with strategic customers where we offer more than a typical PET foam producer can offer.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from [ Martí Queral ], UBS.

First one would be on Chinese competition. I mean, do you keep facing strong pricing competition from these Chinese players? And if so, do you see them entering the European wind in the coming years?

So on the price, there is, let's say, a controlled price pressure and obviously, as we are also supporting by LTAs with our main customers. So I guess we gave in 2024 a bit the impression that this was a huge impact, but this was also linked to our focus now on the customers where we have also good positioning. And right now, there is a very limited ambition of the Chinese to enter the Western market, but we see some plate manufacturers, for example, entering the North African market. So right now, we are far away from this 20%, which I mentioned before, but we believe that there may be some competitors entering for our products, the Western market. And this 20% is supported by, let's say, external experts of the wind market. It's not our guess. So this is what we assume also going forward. But right now, just for the records, we see a limited entering of the Chinese into the Western market.

For the record, we think that they are going to be able to enter North Africa, Middle East, some countries in Eastern Europe. And some countries in South America leading to a 17% to 20% market share by 2030, more or less.

Okay. And then I have kind of a follow-up on Western OEMs. What is your margin and pricing visibility with Western accounts? And how do you feel about it going forward?

The question was about the margin?

Well, this is probably also on the price, right? So what will be the price decreases or price expectation of the large Western OEMs, right?

Exactly.

Okay. Okay. I think, obviously, we don't communicate on margins, but quite clearly, there is a request for, let's say, what they call a productivity improvement every year, which would be a price decrease. This price decrease is mitigated because we are offering new solutions, as I mentioned, for example, option for them to reduce the weight of their blades and to reduce their cost in the blades. And so this price decrease is for us limited. There is a price decrease, but you may recall that we are around 1% or 1.5% and not 5% or whatever could be the request, thanks to innovation and improvement in our products.

Okay. And then the last question maybe would be on cash flows. I mean, you already said that you expect H2 to improve on cash flow. But then how should we think for 2025 in general? Do you expect to be already free cash flow positive? And also if you could give us some indications on 2026, that would be also appreciated.

We did not, let's say, to make comments on '26, did not -- do not give any guidance for '26 yet, but we will get to this later this year. If I say we will become better in half year 2, so obviously, our ambition is to get close to the 0 on the free cash flow. I mentioned this, I think, also when we published the 2024 results when we gave the guidance on '25. So we will be working hard to get as close as possible to the 0. Where we will end, it's obviously depending on many factors, but this is our ambition.

Next question is a follow-up question from Laura Bucher, Octavian.

It's not really a follow-up, but just wanted to get your view on the potential impact for Gurit of the TPI bankruptcy filing. And also LM continues struggling, maybe going out of the blade business at some point, who knows. So really just to get your view there. Do you expect this to impact supply chain availability of blades? Will someone else get those blade volumes? Yes. So if you can help me out there.

[Technical Difficulty] TPI filed for Chapter 11 with their U.S. entities earlier this month. Their entity in Turkey right now and India not being impacted by this Chapter 11. What we see right now is line also with what TPI communicated, the business is still running, and this is the ambition that this business will run. Main customers of TPIs, which are also our customers have the need that TPI continues production, especially in North America. And this is what is happening. Obviously did not come as a full surprise the evolution of TPI. They had recorded quite bad numbers also in the quarterly media release, especially the balance sheet was quite weak with a lot of loans. So we were partially prepared. And right now, it is important also for us that the business continues. We are in discussions with both TPI and also the end customer to reduce our exposure to a minimum, and this is what we are working on. So as a summary, we do not see a short-term impact on the business. It may be obviously that for the TPI locations, there might be different solutions. We don't know them yet. And also an exposure for us, we see it as limited right now.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Tobias Lührig for closing remarks.

Yes. Thank you very much, everybody. And the next date will be the 23rd of October 2025 with the Q3 results and net sales, and I'm happy to hear and see you there. Thank you very much.