Kardex Holding AG (KARN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Kardex Half Year Results 2026 Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Shari, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] and the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Alexandre Muller, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. So good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and I welcome you to our presentation of Kardex half year results 2026. My name is Alex Muller, I'm responsible for Investor Relations. And I'm joined by Jens Hardenacke, our Group CEO; and Thomas Reist, our Group CFO, who will present the half year figures. After the presentation, we will have the Q&A session. And I would also like to remind you that the slides from today's presentation as well as our press release and the half year reports are all available on our website. And with that, I would like to hand over to Jens, please.

Thanks a lot, Alex. Yes. Dear ladies and gentlemen, also from my side, a warm welcome to the Kardex Media and Analyst Conference for the first half of the year 2026. Let me start with our key message. The first 6 months of 2026 were mixed. On the one hand, we are clearly not satisfied with our profitability in the first half of the year. On the other hand, the demand for Kardex intralogistics solutions remains very strong, and our booking development was significantly better than we had expected only a few months ago. As we communicated 7.5 weeks ago, we had to adjust our expectations for the full year 2026. At that point of time, it had become clear that we would not achieve the communicated full year EBIT margin range. The reasons for these developments are visible in the numbers we published this morning. While especially bookings, but also net revenues developed positively, EBIT declined sharply compared to the prior year, mainly driven by the temporary underperformance of automated products, a changed sales mix on Kardex Group level with a higher share of Standardized Systems and continued significant growth investment in sales and marketing, research and development and IT. It is important for me to say this very clearly, we are not satisfied with the EBIT development in the first half of the year. Kardex has delivered excellent results in the past year and especially last year, we were able to present very strong half year numbers. Against this high benchmark, the profitability development in the first half of 2026 is disappointing. At the same time, we should not overlook the many positive signals in our business. Bookings increased by 20.8% (sic) [ 25.8% ] to EUR 571.5 million and reached a new record level for our first half year period. This growth was driven primarily by Standardized Systems and shows that our strategic direction is right. Customers continue to invest in warehouse automation and Kardex continues to win attractive projects across the business units and across regions. Net revenues increased by 6% to EUR 440.5 million. This growth was again supported by the increasing contribution of Standardized Systems, especially Kardex AS Solution. The higher share of Standardized Systems is in line with our strategic ambition to grow our solution portfolio and to accompany customers from the first steps of automation to more advanced integrated warehouse solutions. However, this mix shift also had a negative impact on the gross profit margin at group level in the first half of the year as especially Kardex AS Solution is still in the ramp-up and investment mode. Automated Products had a weak start into the year. The comparatively lower order backlog at the beginning of 2026, longer lead times for increasingly complex projects and customer-driven delays resulted in a lower net revenues and underutilization of production capacity. These 2 effects had a direct negative impact on profitability. In addition, we continue to invest in our ERP landscape and in targeted marketing activities to strengthen future growth. Despite disciplined cost management, the EBIT margin of Automated Products, therefore, fell to an unusually low level in the first half of the year. Standardized Systems developed very positively in terms of bookings and net revenues. Demand was particularly strong for Kardex AS Solutions and the integration of Rocket Solution further broadens our portfolio. Kardex Mlog was impacted by a very strong comparison base from the previous year, but the overall momentum in Standardized System remains encouraging. We also see that the order sizes in this segments are increasing with particularly strong momentum in the U.S. The opening of a new sales office in Korea is another example of how we are expanding our international reach. So all-in-all, the first half year was clearly not as strong as we had originally planned, and we were transparent about this when we published our profit warning. But the fundamental demand for Kardex solutions is intact. Our bookings are much stronger than expected. Our backlog is at a record high level, and our strategic investments continue to support our long-term growth path. With this, I would like to hand over to my colleague, Thomas, for more details on our financial results.

Thank you, Jens. Hello, everyone, to this conference call. I have the pleasure to guide you through the financial situation of Kardex for the first half year 2026. So as always, starting with the overview of the key figures. Key figures development of the last 5 years, years 2022 to 2026, starting with the bookings. As mentioned by Jens, the bookings increased very sharply by plus 26% compared to the first half 2025. This is supported by both reporting segments. So our Automated Products increased 7% versus H1 '25 and Standardized Systems even 61%. Very substantial increase also if we compare the increase with the previous years and also with the CAGR over the period shown here on the slide. What I also want to mention is that when we compare first half 2026 with second half 2025, even there, we see an increase of 8.4%. Looking at the net revenues, here, the increase is not so sharply, so plus 6% compared to the previous year. This is rather a weak increase, also very substantially below the CAGR. But if you look -- have a side look to the GDP growth rate of 3% worldwide, 6% is not too bad. So 6% is quite a substantial increase to the -- in relation to the GDP growth rate. But what we also have to mention is that the mix has changed. Jens mentioned it before, while Standardized Systems increased substantially by 43% compared to last year, Automated Products decreased by 11%. And this also leads me to the EBIT and EBIT margin comparison of first half '26 versus the first half of the other years. There, we see quite a substantial decline of the EBIT down to EUR 30.1 million, a decrease of almost 40% compared to the previous period of the last year '25. And also the EBIT margin went substantially down to 6.8%. This is not satisfactory. Jens mentioned it that we are not satisfied with these figures. Nevertheless, one has to mention that this is the fourth-best result Kardex has established in history. But we all know Kardex now is playing in another league. Looking at free cash flow. Here, we have a slightly positive free cash flow of EUR 1.9 million in the first half 2026. Further details will follow on one of the next slides. So now I would like to guide you through the income statement of the year compared with first half 2025. As mentioned before, bookings went up sharply, plus 26%, reaching EUR 571.5 million. This is mainly due to Standardized Systems I mentioned before, they increased the volume by more than EUR 100 million, and this has also an effect on the mix, respectively, the share. The share of Standardized Systems increased by 10 percent points. So last year, they represented 35% of total bookings volume, whereas this year, Standardized System represents 45%. Looking at the order backlog, here, a sharp increase as well, 42% more than previous year, reaching an order backlog of EUR 727.2 million, a substantial increase, increasing our visibility of the backlog, which went up from last year of around 6 months to now roughly 9 months. Net revenues increased by 6% to EUR 440.5 million. The difference between bookings and net revenues very obviously leads to a very strong book-to-bill ratio of 1.3. So I mentioned it before. Also here, the mix changed on net revenues side. Also here a shift of 10 percent points. Last year, Standardized Systems represented 32% of net revenues, now increased to 43%. This has also an impact on the gross profit margin. Here, we see a slight decline of 34.1% to close to 30% gross profit margin. This is clearly based on the net revenues mix mentioned before and also because of the underutilized factories in the Automated Products segment, so namely Kardex Remstar. OpEx increased by 9%. Here, we continue our investments in IT, so our ERP landscape. We invest in digitalization. We also invested innovation, namely R&D and also in our growth initiatives, namely Sales & Marketing. EBIT, as guided, went down by 40% compared to last year, reaching EUR 30.1 million and also reached an EBIT margin of 6.8%. So this is a decline of EUR 19 million in absolute figures compared to last year and very clearly and substantially below our financial guidance for the full year, which is on a group level, 10% to 14% EBIT margin range. Now looking at further details in the income statement. Here, I can report a turnaround in financial results, so to say. So we have established a positive financial result in the first half year 2026. This is based on the positive contribution of the asset management, but also from the interest gains. What is to be mentioned here on that slide is the tax rate, which went up quite substantially from 25.6% to 29%. This is mainly due to Rocket Solution. You all know Rocket has not yet reached the breakeven point, so contributed negatively to the result for the period, and this leads to an unfavorable tax mix. The guidance on the tax rate, therefore, slightly increases. So we expect the tax rate for the coming periods of between 24% to 28%. Now have a look at the balance sheet and the developments here. Here, we compare the situation by the end of June '26 versus the beginning of the year. And very obviously, cash and cash equivalents went down by 22%, quite substantially, but this is normal after the AGM. We distribute our dividends. This year, this was EUR 50.3 million we distributed to our shareholders, having an impact on the cash and cash equivalents as well as on the equity and equity ratio. Equity ratio went down from 53.6% to 47.6%. Also to be mentioned here is our investments. This is visible in the noncurrent assets. So the property, plant and equipment went up by EUR 6.3 million compared to last year. Not here on the slide, but also to be mentioned is the increase intangible assets. Here, the investments in our software, so digitalization landscape contributed EUR 5 million on the balance sheet. Again, I mentioned that every year, but it is worthwhile to be mentioned on our balance sheet, we have no interest-bearing debt. So we are purely equity-financed. This is to be mentioned. And also to be mentioned is our strong return on invested capital, which is 31%, slightly down compared to the first half '25, where we reported 37.6%. Cash flow statement. Here, I mentioned it before, free cash flow amounted to EUR 1.9 million for the first half year '26 compared to the first half '25, a decrease of EUR 6.5 million. This is mainly coming from the lower result for the period. I mentioned this before on the income statement and also slightly negatively impacted by net working capital. Here, we invested net working capital. This is because we had a positive bookings momentum in the second quarter of the year, leading to higher accounts receivable because we raised invoices for the prepayments and also the accounts payables went up because the projects started. Now I would like to guide you through the segment reporting, starting with the biggest segment, Automated Products, which is consisting purely of the business units, Kardex Remstar. Here, bookings increased by 7% on the geographical mix, mainly APAC contributed to this positive momentum. So APAC net bookings increased by 40% compared to last year. So a very strong comeback of the APAC region. U.S. contributed 8% growth on the bookings level. Also here, positive momentum. Jens mentioned it before, and we mentioned also in the last call that namely U.S. government's contract went down, but also other positive contracts we could book. The EU region also positively contributed this by roughly 2.5%. Order backlog went up by close to 12%, reaching EUR 314.7 million and the visibility also went up by now close to 6.5 months compared to close to 6 months in the previous period. As the net revenues went down by roughly 11%, here, almost all regions contributed to this negative development, except of APAC. APAC was the only region contributed positively to the net revenues growth. Here, a plus of 4% can be reported. But due to the lower net revenues, the book-to-bill ratio increased quite substantially, reaching 1.25, which then gives us a very positive momentum for the second half of this year. Gross profit went down by 14%. Also gross profit margin went slightly down from 39.5% to 38.2%. Here, we mentioned it several times, this is the underutilized factories contributing negative to the profitability, partially compensated by a higher share of the LCS business. This we will see on the next slide. OpEx increased by 5% here, same as on group level, IT, R&D and Sales & Marketing. So growth initiatives contributed most. Also, EBIT went down by 42%, reaching EUR 26.4 million, 2 main reasons, as mentioned before, lower volume and underutilized factories, leading to the EBIT margin of 2.5%, which very obviously is below the target range of 14% to 17% on a yearly basis. That we are cost conscious is very visible when we look at the employees development. So here, we increased by 16 FTEs compared to the first half '25, so an increase of 0.7%, despite the fact that the bookings went up by 7%, we are very cautious by increasing our sales force. Now having a look at KPIs, KPI development, net revenues and EBITDA margin, I mentioned already. I will not go into further details, but to be mentioned is the development of the functional share, what I mentioned before, because of the lower performance of the new business area when it comes to net revenues, the share of LCS business increased from 31% to 36%. The geographical mix, I mentioned before. Also here, we see a change. So the EMEA regions picked up from 65% to 68%. APAC region picked up from 8% to 9% increased the share, and by the lower share of the Americas region from 27% to 23%. Here, it gets very obvious that the volume went down. The bookings were not as good as we expected in last year. So the U.S. government's contracts were missing. They now are missing in the net revenues also in the first half year. And we also see here an FX effect from the U.S. dollar to the euro. Now shifting to reporting segments, going to the Standardized Systems reporting segment. This consists of 3 business units. This is Kardex Mlog, AS Solutions and Rocket Solutions. Going into the details, success story continues, one can say in the Standardized Systems reporting segment, bookings went up very substantially, 61% more than previous year. So this means EUR 100 million more volume when it comes to bookings and main contributor is the sales engine AS Solutions being close to 120% above previous year. Order backlog, plus 80% here both business unit group, so Mlog plus Rocket as well as AS Solutions contributed positively. They have increased their order backlog compared to last year and also net revenues here both areas, so Mlog, Rocket and AS Solutions contribute positively, plus 42.6%. The book-to-bill ratio in this reporting segment is very substantial, 1.36. So a very good situation for the order backlog and for the period to come. OpEx increased quite substantially, 22.2%. And here, we have to invest, especially in the AS Solutions organizational setup. So with this high growth volume, we also have to invest in people, our organization and structures. The 22.2% is a substantial increase, but very substantially below the volume increase. Here, main areas we invest is the sales and marketing organization and innovation, namely R&D. Gross profit margin went slightly down from 22.7% to 18.7%. This is due to some larger orders we had, but it is also a timing effect. Here, we are in the project business. So it really depends what kind of projects we can close. And in the H1 2026, the mix was not so favorable. This is the reason why the gross profit margin went slightly down. This is also the reason why the EBIT is slightly below previous year's EBIT of EUR 5.4 million, so it went down to EUR 5.2 million, reaching an EBIT margin of 2.7%. Now what I would like to share with you is another success story. We sold in June, the biggest AutoStore project in France for all the AutoStore integrators. Our new customer Madrigall located in Paris is a leading French publishing group. So they distribute books and all different -- all the kinds of literature. They consolidate their 2 logistics centers into one highly automated distribution center with the core element of one AutoStore installation. This is representing 300,000 storage bins, to give you a picture what does that mean? This represents an area of 72,000 square meters if we place every bin aside of each other. And this, again, is an area of 10 soccer fields. So a huge installation we are going to establish for our customer, Madrigall. The volume of the contract is between EUR 25 million to EUR 30 million, very successful story we can share. Now looking at the key figures also for that reporting segment. The net revenues increase is substantial, 43% up. We could not beat the increase from the year 2023, but there, we were at another level. EBIT and EBIT margin with EUR 5.2 million, quite a solid result, not the best we ever had, but nevertheless, a very solid result, EBIT margin of 2.7%. The functional mix also shift to new business. This is very clear because AS Solutions business is contributing most for regarding net revenues growth, so 84% increase to 87%. Also on the regional mix, we see the impact of AS Solutions business. So we doubled the Americas business from a share of 11% to 22%. This is an overview of the financial situation. Thank you very much for the interest. And with that, I would like to hand back to you, Jens, for the outlook.

Thanks a lot, Thomas. Now let us come to the outlook for the second half of the year 2026. As mentioned before, the first half year was not satisfactory from profitability perspective. The second half of the year is expected to be significantly stronger. The most important reason for this is the record high order backlog at the end of the reporting period. This backlog gives us a much better starting point for the second half of the year, especially for Automated Products, where the weak starting backlog was one of the main reasons for the temporary underutilization and the lower profitability in the first half year. Based on our current visibility, the Board of Directors and group management expect full year 2026 order and revenue growth in the range of 15% to 20% with an EBIT margin of 8% to 10%. This is below the original expectations and below our group target margin range for the full year, but it also means that we expect Kardex to return to the targeted EBIT margin range of 10% to 14% in and for the second half of the year. The profit warning was a necessary step because we saw that the original full year target could not longer be reached. But it does not change our confidence in the business model of Kardex, and it does not change our view on the attractive long-term growth opportunities in our markets. The structural growth drivers of our industry remain fully intact. Reshoring, labor shortages and automation continues to drive demand for intralogistics solution. Still today, a large majority of warehouses worldwide are operated manually. Companies are under increasing pressure to automate their warehouses to improve efficiency, to address the shortage of skilled labor and to make their supply chains more resilient. Kardex is very well-positioned to benefit from these trends. With Automated Products from Kardex Remstar, we offer the entry point into warehouse automation. With Standardized Systems from Kardex AS Solutions, Kardex Mlog and now also Rocket Solutions, we offer more advanced and integrated automation solutions. This portfolio enables us to support customers along their entire automation journey from the first automation step to complex integrated warehouse solutions. We also see increasing opportunities from acting more strongly as One Kardex. Customers increasingly value a partner who can offer different technologies, strong service capabilities and integrated solutions from one hand. We are, therefore, leveraging more sales synergies across our business units and expect this to create further profitable growth opportunities in the years to come. We will continue to invest in sales and marketing, research and development and IT. These investments temporarily impact profitability, especially in a year like 2026, where revenue conversions in the first half year was not as strong as expected, but they are necessary to further strengthen our market position, improve our operational scalability and create the basis for continuous profitable growth. To summarize, the first half of 2026 was clearly challenging from a profitability perspective, and we have taken the necessary step to adjust our full year expectations. At the same time, our bookings are at a record level. Our backlog is very strong, and the outlook for the second half of the year is positive. Kardex remains on its accelerated growth path, and we confirm our communicated mid-term financial targets for 2029 to 2031, including the group EBIT margin target range of 10% to 14%. With these comments, I would like to hand over to the operator to start the last part of the Kardex Media and Analyst Conference, the question and answers.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Vijayakumar Vitushan, Baader Europe.

Just 2 or 3 on my side, please. So to start regarding the revenues and EBITDA. So compared to the estimate, it seems like obviously, you will need a better-than-expected performance during the second semester on these 2 figures. And obviously, it should be driven by the strong backlog. Do you have any visibility on the margins of those projects in the pipeline? And yes, if you can give us some flavor on that? And also if you can tell us in which regions you're expecting the best momentum for the second half? And I would like to take them one-by-one, if it's fine for you.

Okay. Yes, thanks for your questions. With regards to the margin, we think that they would be at the same level as they are for the time being. So there's no big changes. We saw that there was margin pressure in the -- so already starting second half of last year for all business units. And -- but it's -- we see currently that it remains stable. We see also, for example, for AS Solutions, we also have, as you have seen before, as Thomas presented this, also some bigger projects and these bigger projects normally comes along with a little bit lower margin. So therefore -- but there's no real changes compared to the first half of the year. If you ask for where does the momentum come from for the second half of the year, we basically believe that the trend that we currently see continues, a stronger push from the Americas and from APAC and a difficult -- still difficult market environment for Europe.

If I may add here one aspect, not to be confused. The EBITDA effect, so the lower profitability is not necessarily coming from lower margins in the projects. Yes, there is certain shift, there is competition in the market, but this is not the main contributor for the low profitability. It is lower volume, leading to an underutilized factory situation. And when the net revenues go up, then also the profitability will go up. Just to not confuse these 2 things.

Yes, sure. And then the last question, please. So like you highlighted continued geopolitical tensions and trade uncertainties. So while maintaining the new full year '26 guidance. So what impact from the Middle East conflict is currently embedded in your assumptions, so particularly regarding the freight costs, component availability and also customer investment decision and project execution, please?

Well, we are not so strong in the Middle East region. So therefore, if you -- we don't see any -- or we don't anticipate any negative consequences for us with regards to bookings and net revenues. It's generally what we see that there are price increases that there's some insecurity also with regards to supply chain, with regards to availability of containers. So this is why we mentioned this. But for the reason -- for the region itself, we don't anticipate big risks for Kardex.

The next question comes from Lasse Stueben, Berenberg.

I had a question on the margin trajectory you're seeing in Automated Products. You obviously had the weaker start to the year. But looking into H2, you should obviously have a material step-up in revenue. So I'm just wondering sort of you mentioned you'd be kind of within the target range, I think, for the group for H2. But just wondering kind of what kind of step-up we should be expecting in the Automated Products margin? Any color you can give there? And if there's actually any limit to what you can deliver in terms of revenue because you clearly have a very big backlog. So I'm just wondering if you have any capacity issues? And then the second question would be just on the EBIT margin in Standardized Systems at 2.7% in H1. Are you still happy with the kind of 5% to 8% range for the full year? Because that does mean you need a bit of a step-up in the second half. So just wondering if you have visibility on that already.

Yes. Thank you, Lasse, for the question. Yes, very well summarized. So the margin situation at Automated Products, this is coming from the revenue. So a very weak start. We mentioned it as well. So low backlog, longer execution time for the projects. This led to the situation that we have a very weak start also from -- which then also affected the profitability. So the outlook for the second half of the year is quite positive. I mentioned it before. So the backlog increased by 12%. We have higher visibility, and we know exactly which orders will be executed in the second half of the year. We have certain constraints when it comes to factory utilization, but we are not there. So what we predict is that we come back to the financial guidance also for Remstar into -- during the second half of the year. This means that the net revenues volume will increase quite substantially compared to the first half of the year, and this leads then to higher profitability. So this is a very clear view we have on the second half of the year.

And perhaps to add to this, Lasse, we -- if you see the last couple of years, we always for Remstar, so for Automated Products, we had for the last 4 years, a book-to-bill ratio below 1. So therefore, we really struggled at the beginning of the year with our backlog. So now if you compare the backlog for new business for Automated Products from now to beginning of the year, we increased the backlog by almost 25%. So therefore, we now see that the factories are full, especially the Bellheim factory. So therefore, this is now an automatic. So now we basically broke this circle of book-to-bill ratios below 1. So now we are with Thomas mentioned, is 1.25 of book-to-bill ratio. So now we are confident just to realize the backlog that we will get back to the target range.

And to your second question, Lasse, you raised the question, are we happy with the margin of Standardized Systems? No, we are not. So the 2.7% EBIT margin is not within the target range, but we are not worried. So what do we mean with that? We are very confident that we get to the target range from 5% to 8% for Standardized Systems. We also see the ups and downs in the project business, not that we lose money, but it's depending on the project execution time. So at which stage a project stands, we have our projects under control, very much under control also to be said. So we are not worried about this 2.7% EBIT margin we are currently representing. We're also looking forward a bit a couple of years into the future. We are very confident. We said that several times and we stick to that, that we see a very positive momentum and also potential that the target range can be increased in a couple of years from now. Hope that gives the answer to your question, Lasse.

Perfect. Maybe I can ask just one follow-up just on Standardized Systems. You mentioned it in the presentation, you had a very strong development in the U.S. I'm just wondering sort of what is driving that specifically for you? I mean, AutoStore generally has had a bit of a harder time recently, obviously. So just wondering kind of what's driving your -- the strength of your business in the U.S.?

And this is not only valid for the U.S., but what we are looking for, so if you also ask, are there any industries for AS Solutions who are particularly strong, not really. What we are focusing on is the customers that have the potential for multiple sites. And here, especially in the U.S., we are successful to have identified a couple of customers with whom we could do contracts not only for one project, but then for 3 or 4 or 5 projects. So that is one of the reasons this targeted approach in the U.S. to go for customers where we see the potential for multiple sites.

The next question comes from the line of Sebastian Vogel, UBS.

I have two questions. I would ask them one by one. And the first one is regarding also the guidance for the full year and for the second half. So to better understand it there, what would be the scenarios to bring you to the upper end of the guidance? And what would be the scenarios that would bring you to the lower end of the guidance?

Difficult to say. So we -- the guidance is now between 8% and 10%. So the range is not too big. So we know what we -- or we have a plan what we can realize from the projects that we have in our backlog. And so here, we have a clear view that with what we have in our backlog, we have very, very high possibilities to get within the range or we see it as almost certain. So it depends a little bit how strong then also the booking momentum in the beginning of the third quarter will be because whatever we book in the third quarter for Remstar and also for AS Solutions has high probability to also become net revenues in the second half -- in the full year. And this drives a little bit the question in where in this range we will end up. So basically, it depends on booking momentum in Q3. Normally, at the beginning of Q3, we have holiday season where it's not so strong. At the moment, we see very positive signals all over the world. So -- but this will basically drive where we end up.

Yes. And probably to add here also qualification, Sebastian, you're probably looking also for qualification of the range. I personally see it as very balanced. So 9% plus/minus 1%, this is quite a balanced view on the range -- target range we have given.

Got it. Second question is also on the margins, but this time, more specific on Standardized Systems. Just to have a little bit more granularity on the 2.7% of H1 in terms of the building blocks that gave you that brought you there. Was it pretty much only the projects? Or was it also a little bit of the consolidation of Rocket Solutions? Was it more of a competitive backdrop? Or is it really just only project size that were coming in? If you can add some, yes, some additional color there, that would be appreciated.

Yes, sure. Yes, the consolidation of Rocket for sure, plays a very important role. We don't want always to emphasize that because we decided to integrate Rocket and we stick to it. It is a good addition to our solution portfolio. But yes, it has put pressure on that reporting segment, even more than the project execution, to be honest. But nevertheless, in the end, it's a mix of both.

And that's a follow-up there. And that will continue, I assume, from Rocket angle also in the second half? Or do you expect some larger step-up into the direction of breakeven and beyond potentially for that business?

Well, the expectation in the second half of the year is that the negative contribution of Rocket is a bit slower. So it goes down with the increased volume we have in Rocket Solution, but it still contributed negatively in the second half of the year.

Got it. And if I may put in one small question regarding the CapEx side of things. I mean you initially guided for EUR 45 million, if I'm not mistaken. You had a bit of a slow start, so to say, into this number. Are you still fine with it? Or do you think that this year could be actually a bit lower than that?

It could be lower in our plan and the agenda and the road map, it's still the EUR 45 million, but it might be that certain delays leads to the situation that it slightly goes down.

The next question comes from the line of Walter Bamert at ZKB.

Perfect. So I come back to the Automated Products. I mean you have a backlog of EUR 314 million. You had an order intake of EUR 314 million. You talked about increasing order momentum. So that plays well for the orders in the second half. Is there any reason you can give me not to put at least EUR 314 million revenues into the second half?

It's a very specific question. And normally, we don't guide that specifically. As I said, I mean, in the end, it's the customers who accept the projects. Is it exactly EUR 200 million -- EUR 314 million? It's one of the scenarios for sure. I mean we cannot guide that specifically. But in the end, when you do the calculation, you probably end up very closely to that EUR 314 million, yes.

Okay. When we get very closely to that, we will all of a sudden have a very lot of gross profit contribution.

I didn't get the question, Walter.

When we have much more gross profit contribution from Automated Products.

Correct.

That's true. And therefore, we expect that we get back to the range.

Okay. And that leads to my -- so you said the booking momentum maintains very strong at Automated Products into the second half?

Yes, we are positive with this. We saw -- and you noticed also from the -- when we presented the numbers at the beginning of this year for the full year last year that we had a weaker second half of the year, and we also had a weaker January and February. But since March, we see a strong increase of what we have seen the 7 months before. So since March, we are very positive. This month also looks very positive. So we expect that this momentum that we have will also continue and carry us through the next couple of months.

Okay. Then you had OpEx of EUR 101 million in the first half. Is that basically stable at that level going forward? Will that increase further? Or are there one-off items in there, which will go away in the second half?

No, there are no one-off items. So we expect that we have a side effect. So no substantial ups and downs to be expected in the second half.