SAF-Holland SE (SFQ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

And welcome to our conference call on our Q2 2026 results. Let me start with a brief overview of our second quarter performance on Page 3. Overall, we delivered another solid quarter, which supports the confirmation of our outlook for fiscal year 2026. Sales increased to EUR 454 million, supported by an organic growth of 3.8% and the continued recovery and stabilization across our key OE markets. This positive top line development was also reflected in our profitability. Adjusted EBIT margin increased to 9.6% from 9.1% a year ago, while adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 13.2%. At the same time, we continue to generate a strong cash flow. Operating free cash flow increased to EUR 21 million, driven by further improvements in net working capital management. This strong cash generation also supported a solid balance sheet with an unchanged leverage at 2.3x despite the dividend payment and the ongoing execution of our share buyback program. Altogether, our second quarter performance once again demonstrates the strength of SAF-Holland's business model, combining organic growth, improving profitability and a strong cash generation. On Page 4, you can see the development of group sales and the adjusted EBIT development. We delivered a solid second quarter with group sales increasing by 2.6% year-over-year to now EUR 454 million. Organic growth reached 3.8%, supported by continued strength in the EMEA trailer OE business and strong momentum in APAC. At the same time, our aftermarket business remained resilient and continued to provide a robust contribution to the overall top line. Looking at the first half of 2026, sales increased by 1.6% year-over-year to EUR 905.7 million and organic growth was even stronger at 4.7%, although a large portion of this was offset by adverse currency effects. Turning to profitability. Adjusted EBIT increased by around 8% to EUR 43.4 million in the second quarter, resulting in a margin improvement from 9.1% to now 9.6%. The performance was driven by higher volumes and benefited from our ongoing focus on operational excellence, productivity improvements and cost discipline. Despite an unfavorable regional mix effect in the first half of the year, profitability remains resilient. Adjusted EBIT for H1 increased to EUR 85.9 million, while the adjusted EBIT margin improved to 9.5% from 9.3% a year ago. So overall, these results once again demonstrate the resilience of our business model. Moving on to the sales split by region and customer category on Page 5, please. Starting with EMEA, we continue to benefit from a solid trailer demand and a robust aftermarket business. As a result, the region slightly increased its contribution to group sales to around 51%. In North America, market conditions remained mixed. A positive organic growth in the Truck segment, supported by initial prebuy effects ahead of the EPA 27 legislation helped balance a more moderate trailer market environment. Moreover, APAC delivered again the strongest growth among all regions, supported by solid demand, especially in India and Australia. Despite unfavorable currency effects, the region increased its share of group sales to more than 12%. Looking at the performance by customer segment, trailer OE sales remained the largest category, accounting for around 49% of group sales and growth was mainly driven by continued strong demand in EMEA and APAC. Truck OE sales represented approx 12% of group sales and benefited from the first recovery effects in the North American truck market. Consequently, OE sales increased by around 6% year-over-year and amounted to EUR 276 million in the second quarter. Once again, the aftermarket business demonstrated its resilience and strategic importance, contributing a solid 39% of group sales despite adverse FX effects. Now let's turn to the development of the EMEA region on Page 6. EMEA continued to perform well in the second quarter, benefiting from solid momentum in the European trailer market and a resilient aftermarket business. As a result, sales in the region increased by 3.6% year-over-year. Looking at the first half, organic growth reached 5.8%, broadly in line with the market development and underlining our strong market position in the region. On the profitability side, earnings benefited from the higher business volume as well as the first contributions from our efficiency initiatives in indirect area. As a result, the adjusted EBIT margin improved to 8.0% for the first 6 months of '26, adjusted EBIT increased to EUR 37.6 million with the adjusted EBIT margin also reaching 8%. Overall, EMEA maintained its positive momentum in the second quarter, combining solid growth with a further improvement in earnings quality. Turning to the Americas region on Page 7, please. In North America, market conditions remained challenging overall. Although we start to see more encouraging signs of improvement during the second quarter. This was visible in the truck market, where demand benefited from initial prebuy activity ahead of the upcoming EPA 27 legislation. At the same time, our aftermarket business demonstrated its resilience and continued to provide a stable contribution to the region's performance. Against this, sales in the Americas remained only slightly below the prior year level. On an organic basis, Q2 sales were broadly stable, while currency effects reduced top line by 1.4% year-over-year. And for the first 6 months, sales were organically 1.3% below the previous year. On the profitability side, our ongoing focus on efficiency and cost discipline continue to pay off and measures implemented across the organization helped offset the impact of lower volumes. As a result, adjusted EBIT increased to EUR 18.6 million in the second quarter. The adjusted EBIT margin improved to 11.1% compared to 10.2% in the prior year quarter, which had also been impacted by temporary tariff-related costs. Looking at the first half of the year, profitability remained resilient with the adjusted EBIT margin improving slightly to 10.9%. Overall, the Americas region once again demonstrated its resilience, maintaining a solid double-digit margin despite still challenging market environment. Let's turn to the APAC region on Page 8. Our APAC region continued to be a strong growth driver in the second quarter. We saw solid demand across the region, especially in India and Australia, which resulted in an organic growth of more than 18%. However, unfavorable FX effects remained a headwind and negatively impacted reported sales by 5.8%. Compared to the strong first quarter, sales were slightly lower due to usual seasonality and a somewhat more cautious investment behavior among certain fleet operators. Profitability also developed positively. Higher sales volumes, improved operating leverage and a stronger contribution from China supported earnings growth. At the same time, our continued focus on cost discipline and further improved earnings quality across the region. So overall, APAC delivered another strong performance, combining double-digit organic growth with improved profitability and continued operational momentum. Having said this, I hand over to Frank, who will take you through the key financials for the second quarter and the first half of 2026.

Thank you, Alex, and hello to everybody on the line. Let me start with a short overview on the EBIT to adjusted EBIT reconciliation for the group on Page 10. In the second quarter of 2026, reported EBIT increased by 12.1% year-over-year to EUR 38.7 million, driven by higher sales and improved profitability. As usual, depreciation and amortization from purchase price allocations were adjusted and declined compared to the prior year due to expiring amortization from the IMS acquisition. Our adjustments remained very limited and included a positive onetime adjustment of provisions related to the efficiency program in the indirect area. As a result, adjusted EBIT increased to EUR 43.4 million, corresponding to an adjusted EBIT margin of 9.6%. As such, the adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 13.2% and reflects our continued cost discipline and operational efficiency. Looking at the first half of 2026, adjusted EBIT increased to EUR 85.9 million, while the adjusted EBIT margin improved to 9.5%. Moving on to Page 11, where you see the bridge from EBIT to basic earnings per share. As mentioned earlier, EBIT increased to EUR 38.7 million in the second quarter, driven by higher sales and improved profitability. At the same time, the finance result improved significantly to minus EUR 5.7 million, mainly reflecting lower unrealized FX effects as well as reduced interest expenses. The effective tax rate came in at 34.5%. While it is still affected by non-capitalized deferred tax assets relating to interest and loss carryforwards, we continue to expect a tax rate of around 35% for the full year. Overall, the combination of higher profitability and improved finance result led to a strong increase in earnings. Basic earnings per share doubled year-over-year to EUR 0.48, while adjusted EPS increased to EUR 0.63. For the first half as a whole, basic earnings per share amounted EUR 0.93 and adjusted earnings per share to EUR 1.24, clearly demonstrating the progress we have made in terms of profitability and earnings quality. Moving to Page 12, where you can see the development of the equity ratio. Equity increased by 3.1% to EUR 507 million compared to year-end, mainly supported by the positive net profit in the first half year. At the same time, total assets increased by 4.8%, primarily reflecting the seasonal buildup in working capital. In addition, equity was impacted by the dividend payment completed during the second quarter as well as our ongoing share buyback program. As a result, equity ratio stood at 29.1% at the end of June 2026, only slightly below the year-end 2025 level. Overall, our balance sheet remains very solid, underlining the continued strength of our financial position. Turning to Page 13. I would like to speak about net working capital development. Net working capital increased compared to year-end 2025, mainly reflecting the usual seasonal inventory buildup. In addition, we deliberately built inventory buffers ahead of the successful SAP S/4 HANA go-live at our Haldex facilities in the Americas in July. Trade receivables were somewhat higher due to a change in customer mix with longer payment terms, while trade payables developed favorably and offset a large part of this effect. As a result, net working capital ratio increased to 17.6% of sales from 16.8% at year-end. At the same time, we further improved the ratio compared to June last year, reducing it from 18.2% to 17.6%, mainly thanks to more efficient inventory management and improved payment terms. Overall, net working capital remained well within our target range. And now let me address the cash flow development on Page 14. We delivered a very strong performance in the first half of 2026 with operating cash flow increasing to EUR 86.6 million compared to EUR 30.5 million in the prior year period. The main driver was a significantly lower cash outflow from net working capital, reflecting the improvements and measures I discussed earlier. Tax payments remained broadly stable, while the other cash flow item benefited mainly from favorable valuation effects in other assets as well as from positive changes related to deferred tax assets. Investments in property, plant and equipment as well as intangible assets amounted to EUR 20.8 million or to 2.3% of group sales and were fully in line with our full year guidance. Our investments remain focused on automation and modernization projects, the ongoing SAP S/4 HANA implementation and selective production equipment investments supporting our drive2030 strategy. These investments also included the acquisition of real estate related to our former Italian acquisitions and the construction of our new facility in Nashik, which is scheduled to become operational next year. As a result, operating free cash flow increased significantly to EUR 65.8 million in the first half of 2026, demonstrating the group's strong cash generation capabilities. Moving on to an overview of the leverage development on Page 15. At the end of June 2026, the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio remained stable at 2.3x compared to year-end 2025 despite cash outflows of EUR 28.8 million for the dividend payment and EUR 13.3 million for our ongoing share buyback program. Excluding IFRS 16 lease liabilities, leverage would have stood at 2x. And now I hand back to Alex.

Yes. Thank you, Frank. I'm on Page 17, showing the fiscal year 2026 forecast for the trailer and truck markets. Overall, our market assumptions remain largely unchanged and the trends we have seen in the first half continue to support our outlook for 2026. In Europe, we have slightly upgraded our expectations for the trailer market and now expect growth of between plus 5% and plus 10%, reflecting the ongoing solid demand momentum. In North America, production levels remained relatively low during the second quarter. However, recent order activity, improving freight rates and greater regulatory clarity around EPA 27 reinforce our expectation for a stronger second half. Therefore, our outlook remains unchanged with Class 8 truck production expected to grow by 0% to 10% plus and trailer production expected to remain broadly stable. In APAC, our overall assumptions are also largely unchanged. Following the solid start to the year, we have become slightly more optimistic on the Chinese trailer market and now expect growth in the range of plus 5% to plus 10%. Overall, the expectations provide further confidence in our outlook for 2026. Having said that, let me briefly come to our guidance for fiscal year 2026 on Page 18. As discussed in the market outlook, we continue to expect solid demand in EMEA and APAC, while North America is expected to gain momentum as we move through the second half of the year. Building on this, profitability will continue to be influenced by the overall volume development as well as the business mix. At the same time, the resilience of our aftermarket business remains an important support for margins and earnings quality. In addition, the overall economic environment could continue to be shaped by geopolitical uncertainties and increased volatility in the energy and commodities market. This could result in pressures on the procurement side. However, we expect to be able to largely offset the resulting pressures through pricing measures and ongoing efficiency and productivity gains as we have done in the past. In addition, our efficiency initiatives continue to progress according to plan. The measures implemented across admin and sales functions are expected to generate increasing benefits over time and help offset general wage inflation. Overall, this gives us confidence in our current outlook for the year. So let me briefly summarize the key takeaways on Page 19. Looking back at the first half, we have continued to execute on the priorities we set at the beginning of the year, growing the business, improving profitability and generating strong cash flow. The progress we have made across all 3 regions reflects the resilience of our business model, the strength of our aftermarket activities and the commitment of our teams around the world. With positive momentum in our key markets and a solid financial foundation, we enter the second half of the year with confidence and remain firmly on track to deliver our objectives for 2026. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the presentation. We can now start with your questions. So operator, the first question, please.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Holger Schmidt, DZ Bank.

My first question is on the guidance. I mean you confirm the guidance for the current year, but you raised the market outlook for trailers in EMEA, which is one of the largest end markets. Is it fair to assume that you now consider the upper end of the guidance range to be more feasible than the midpoint?

I would take that, Mr. Schmidt. This is Alex Geis. Well, absolutely, we confirmed the guidance. You know that our guidance has a spread of some millions. At this point of time, we already incorporated at the beginning of our guidance, a better second half in the Americas, specifically in the truck market, which is also a key market for us. Now the European trailer market is getting a little bit better, not really hugely better, but a little bit better. So we continue to confirm our guidance. I would not say anything if it's the upper end of the guidance. But as you know us, we stay conservative. And at this point of time, we will not touch our guidance. So we confirm our guidance as you just have read it. And also, we have a little bit less working days in the second half of the year. Please don't forget that also.

Yes. Well, understood. My second question is with regard to the Americas region. You reported a 7% increase in the adjusted EBIT on more or less robust sales. Was it solely based on improved efficiency? Or was it also supported by any effects related to the U.S. tariff refunds?

But it was not only the increased productivity that was also a cornerstone of our increased profitability. We also have a very strong aftermarket business in the Americas, which with a higher share than we have an aftermarket in Europe. That was also strong. Our reman business also kicked in with a good profitability for us. It was a mix of everything. So basically, it's the volume mix, it's the productivity. It's also getting more volume in our newly opened facilities, for instance, for the truck fifth wheels in Piedras, which we opened 2 years ago or 1.5 years ago. So it's a mix of everything, I would say.

Okay. And then my last question is with regard to the U.S. trailer market. I mean we have seen substantial improvements in monthly order data recently. And the CEO of Wabash, one of the big trailer manufacturers noted that the current freight market recovery trends are driving trailer demand in a way that the company has not seen for 40 years. How do you think demand will develop in the future, not only in '26, but going forward? Is this the start of a new cycle in the U.S. trailer market?

Let's hope it will be. For 2026, I have to say again, it will be subdued. It's not increasing heavily. Of course, we also talk with the big trailer manufacturers, also Mr. Yeagy, the CEO of Wabash, of course. We hope that it will be increasing by the end of the year. And I'm pretty sure that it will be substantially be increasing in 2027. So the trailer market was really bad in the last 2 years already, so '25, '26 also look really good. So we see a, let's say, an increasing financial interest of the fleets to also now invest in trailer equipment again. And I really hope that it will be increasing substantially in 2027.

The next question comes from Yasmin Steilen, Berenberg.

I have 2, if I may. So the first one, I guess, more for you, Alexander, on the strategy. So we have heard other truck suppliers becoming more vocal about the structural change among the truck OEMs and the shift towards EV. So what's your assumption on the speed of the electrification and the increasing importance of the Asian truck OEMs? And how is SAF positioned in terms of customer inroads to the kind of new truck OEMs and in terms of the product portfolio, do you see any chances to increase your content per vehicle in the electrified world? That's my first question.