Safran SA (SAF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the Safran First Quarter 2025 Revenue. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to your host, Olivier Andries, Safran's CEO; and Pascal Bantegnie, Group CFO. Mr. Andries, please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Safran's First Quarter 2025 Call. I'm here with Pascal and let us go straight to the key highlights. We had a strong start to the year with a very solid momentum across both civil, aerospace and defense. Revenue was up 17% year-on-year, nearly 14% organically, reaching EUR 7.3 billion. Growth was once again driven by a robust demand for aftermarket across the board. In particular, on civil engines, sales of spare parts were up by 25%, exceeding our expectation and sales of services increased by close to 18%. On the strategic front, we have made good progress towards the acquisition of Collins actuation and flight control activities with the attention of the European Commission approval, subject to ongoing analysis on the divestment of North American electromechanical actuation business and Woodward suitability as a purchaser and the close of the consultation period by the CMA in the U.K. on this divestment. Decisions are still pending. Our current performance and the strong momentum we are seeing in our markets give us high confidence in meeting our full year targets, while keeping potential tariff impact out of the equation. Let us turn to Slide 4, highlighting strong momentum across our Civil and Defense and Space activities. CFM got additional orders from Mavi Gök Airlines as well as All Nippon Airways. We are pleased to welcome MTU Dallas as our sixth LEAP Premier MRO partner, further expanding the LEAP open MRO market, a key point of our strategy that we presented during our last Capital Market Day. Our helicopter engines offering is meeting success with the selection of our Arrius 2E engine on the Airbus H140 and our Arriel 2W engine on the new Robinson R88 helicopter. In Defense and Space, we achieved a significant milestone with the successful first commercial flight of Ariane 6. The Finnish Defense Forces selected our Geonyx advanced inertial navigation system, and we secured a contract with Bell Textron to support the U.S. future long-range assault aircraft with testing solutions and antennas. On new mobility, the ENGINeUS has been selected by Ascendance in France for ATEA VTOL aircraft. This illustrates the strong dynamism of our global activities. On Slide 5, let me now say a word on tariff. It reflects the latest known situation, which remains very fluid. As you know, the global aviation sector has long operated in a tariff-free regime for the benefit of all parties on both sides of the Atlantic. Implementation of tariff will result in additional cost for the industry and for the final customers. To mitigate any economic impact, we are leveraging available regulatory mechanism such as duty drawback, USMCA exemption, use of free trade zones of bonded warehouses, along with other strategies such as modifying logistical flows. With all those actions, which are already largely underway, we expect to reduce significantly our gross exposure. We are now engaging into commercial discussions with our customers, OEM and airlines. And from there, we expect to reduce further the impact. Our teams are fully dedicated to executing these operational actions, although some actions will take time to materialize. At this stage, given the level of uncertainty, it is too early to quantify the impact. As a result, our 2025 outlook excludes any potential impact from tariffs. In addition, while the broader environment is uncertain, we are closely monitoring secondary effects on consumer confidence and air traffic data. Today's demand remains strong, and we are operating from a position of strength given the robust backlog. I will now let Pascal provide further comments on our Q1 figures.

Thank you, Olivier. Good morning, everyone. Let's start with an update on FX on Slide 7. The macro uncertainty mentioned by Olivier has resulted in the depreciation of the dollar against the euro since early April. The euro-dollar is now trading around 1.13, 1.14, which compares to an average of 1.05 in Q1 '25. Our hedge portfolio is composed of options, some of which may be deactivated if KO barrier is reached. Our trading floor is working to reduce any immediate risk of deactivation. By the way, the latest fluctuation did not lead to any deactivation. In any case, we have secured a hedge rate of $1.12 this year. Notwithstanding any risk of deactivation as of March 2025, our hedge book stands at EUR 54.1 billion (sic) [ $54.1 billion ] mostly unchanged from the end of December. Turning to Page 8. Q1 2025 revenue reached EUR 7.26 billion, up 16.7% year-over-year. We delivered EUR 1 billion of additional revenues compared to Q1 last year with strong organic growth of nearly 14%. Services led the way with nearly 20% organic growth, more than twice the OE rate. Currency had a supportive impact of 2.3%, reflecting a more favorable euro-dollar spot rate of 1.05 compared to 1.09 a year ago. This translates into a positive impact on sales of nearly EUR 140 million. And scope contributed a modest 0.5%, notably from the acquisition of Preligens and Air Liquide oxygen system in 2024. Let me now provide a few details per activity. Propulsion revenue reached EUR 3.7 billion, up 16.4% organically year-over-year. LEAP OE deliveries were down 13% year-over-year with 319 engines delivered. However, the favorable customer mix did more than offset the volume impact. Civil aircraft engines aftermarket continued to benefit from a high level of demand with spare parts up 25.1%, boosted by demand for both CFM56 and high-thrust engines, which is a combination of price and volume and specifically on high-thrust engines, heavier work scope. Services were up 17.6%, mainly driven by the LEAP contracts. Strong demand in spare parts is reflected in the revised assumption of our full year guidance. Military aftermarket activity has been robust with strong growth on spares and services, notably on the M88 engine. Helicopter turbine services increased as well, supported by both volume and pricing. Equipment & Defense, its revenue grew by -- to EUR 2.8 billion, up 11% year-over-year. We saw strong growth in OE deliveries, especially for nacelles and continued strength in avionics and FADEC and actuators. On Defense and Space, we had good momentum with robust growth in satellite communication systems, land systems like optronics, missile propulsion and guidance systems, and aerospace inertial navigation. Services activity was up, supported by spares and landing gear, wheels and brakes and nacelles. Aircraft Interiors performed well as well with revenue reaching close to EUR 800 million, up 14% and now and for the first time, exceeding its Q1 2019 level of sales by 8%. This was driven by nearly tripling business class seat deliveries, highlighting improved industrial performance and continued momentum in the business class seats market. Services also grew mainly on cabin spares with strong demand, especially from airlines in Middle East and Asia. Let me now walk you through our latest actions regarding debt management and share repurchase. First, on the OCEANEs 2028 early redemption. We executed a soft call on April 1 on the EUR 730 million worth of 2028 OCEANEs. More than 93% of these convertible bonds were converted into existing shares that had been previously repurchased. The remaining bonds were reimbursed at par for a total cash out of EUR 49 million. The early redemption improved our net cash position by EUR 673 million. Moving to the share repurchase program for cancellation. Between Jan and April, 1.5 million shares were repurchased for cancellation purpose under our EUR 350 million first tranche program. In addition, 0.2 million shares originally acquired to meet conversion needs on Safran convertible bonds were reallocated for cancellation. This amounts for a total of 1.7 million shares for cancellation to date. And as a reminder, Safran will propose to its shareholder vote a dividend per share of EUR 2.9 for fiscal year 2024 to be paid early June. Olivier, back to you.

Thank you, Pascal. As already mentioned earlier in the call, our current performance and the strong momentum we are seeing in both civil, aerospace and defense sectors give us high confidence in meeting our full year targets, excluding any potential tariff impact. The only adjustment refers to spare part revenue growth now expected in the low teens compared to our previous high single-digit plus forecast. Thank you. We will now answer your question.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take our first question, this is from the line of Ben Heelan from Bank of America.

First question for me is on tariffs. So we've seen estimates from a number of the global peers now. Can you talk a little bit about what your exposure is and where the exposure is divisionally?

Hello, Ben. As you know, the situation is very unsettled, and the tariff situation can change and evolve very quickly. As an evidence of it, yesterday night, China has decided to exempt from tax any deliveries of engines, nacelles, landing gears or parts to China. So you see the assumptions are changing every week, sometimes every day. This is why we are reluctant to communicate on the quantification of the impact because this is totally relying on changing assumptions. There is a 90-day pause as you know. We don't know yet what's going to be the outcome of the negotiation between the EU and the U.S. administration. So we know that it's not going to stay like it is today. And we could expect and we should expect a retaliation from Europe. So this is why basically, we are cautious and don't want to communicate on the quantification, because that would be like chasing a moving ball, and we don't want to enter into that game. So what we are focusing on are the real mitigation actions. And our teams are focused on mitigating basically our exposure. As we said, we are optimizing logistical flows. So any time we have a flow of parts or whatever that are going to step by the U.S. without any modification or with a very slight modification, transformation typically, we can change the flow and go directly from country A to country B without stepping by the U.S., if it is not necessary. Why should we do that? So optimizing the logistical flows, relying on USMCA anytime it is applicable. And we basically -- our team have worked a lot to maximize the coverage of our parts in Mexico, which are covered by USMCA. So we've been working hard on certificate of origins and so on, and we have optimized and maximized the coverage of our parts manufactured in Mexico. We are going to leverage also on duty drawbacks anytime it is applicable. We are implementing free trade zones and bonded warehouse, anytime it is practicable. And of course, we are going to activate any favorable clause in our contracts that we can activate with our customers. So we are very confident that through all those physical actions, if you wish, we can, let's say, significantly reduce our gross exposure. There will remain a net exposure. And this net exposure is very simple. We are going to -- we are engaged with customers, OEM and airlines, and we won't be shy. We will apply a tariff surcharge to the airlines and to our customers. There is no mystery. At the end of the day, this tariff situation is creating inflation, so be it. So we are going to imposed tariff surcharge to our customers, and we won't be shy.

Olivier, a quick follow-on from that. Is it fair then to say give the USMCA compliance that I think you have across equipment and interiors that most of the net impact that you mentioned there is going to live within proportion. Is that a fair comment?

Propulsion could be a meaningful part of our remaining exposure. And here, we are on the same boat as our partner, GE. We -- and so in our, let's say, partnership, we share the cost of transportation, including tariff of the modules that are delivered to the assembly lines, both sides of the Atlantic. And we are aligned on our strategy going forward and our engagement with our customers, OEM and airline customers. So yes, we are confident to be able to pass through most of our net exposure.

Okay. Very clear. Final quick one for me. Can you comment on the supply chain and how the supply chain has reacted to the tariffs? Obviously, we've seen the news around how and the potential planning of force majeure. What is the situation in the supply chain? Is stuff still moving generally in terms of supply chain? And what sort of support are you in that kind of offering to some of your suppliers?

Yes, Ben, thank you for that question. As you know, the supply chain has been heavily fragilized post-COVID and we -- basically, the supply chain has progressively recovered. So we were getting to a situation where we were close to normalization end of last year. So now what's happening is, you're right, we see some signals and ringing here and there from suppliers telling us that basically, they have inflationary cost because of the tariff. And therefore, basically, there are some of them telling us that basically, they would like us to absorb the extra cost and even some of them threatening to stop deliveries. So of course, we are monitoring this situation very carefully, containing the impact. But the fact is that the tariff situation creates a new element of potential disturbance in the supply chain. But we are going to remain focused on making sure we can deliver to our airframers and airline customers.

We'll now take our next question. This is from Christophe Menard from Deutsche Bank.

I had actually 2 questions. The first one on your guidance and excluding tariffs, quite obviously. Would you say that the better performance of Q1 puts you more at the high end of the guidance in terms of free cash flow and EBIT? The second question is more linked to the LEAP delivery performance. Can you comment a little bit more on the mix? What was the percentage of spare engine in Q1? And how confident are you in terms of, well, delivering that increase in the full year. Quite obviously, you confirmed the guidance, but what are the means? What are the -- what was in place to actually achieve that guidance?

Christophe, on the guidance, yes, indeed, we are confident to reach the high end of the guidance.

So it gives -- Christophe, it gives room for maneuver in case we have to experience any impact on tariffs because clearly, the Q1 quarter was really strong, so it helps.

On LEAP, yes, we had a slow start in Q1. We are confident we will be able to recover and -- recover in Q2 and Q3. And so we confirm our guidance to a plus 15% to 20% increase compared to 2024. Relating to the mix of spare engines, as you know, we have already communicated on that. We are in the low double-digit situation mix of spare engines compared to the overall, let's say, delivery of engines. By the way, I've looked at basically the numbers since the start of the LEAP program. And if I go back and see what happened since the start of the program, we are at low double digit, in fact, since 2016. So we are there. And -- but the mix in Q1 was even way above that average. This is just the reflection of, let's say, the fact that we have prioritized LEAP deliveries to Airbus at the end of last year. And so we had to reprioritize airlines at the beginning of this year. That was an impact. Now what the mix that we have seen in Q1 was extremely good of spare engine versus installed engines. But it's not a reflection of the full year. So the spare engine deliveries are going to be mainly front-loaded.

Okay. And is it a number above 20%, for instance, or...

It's up year-over-year and it's slightly down quarter-on-quarter. It was a good number, a good ratio in Q1, but we won't comment further.

We'll now take our next question. This is from Chloe Lemarie from Jefferies.

I'd limit myself to one today. So just one follow-up on tariffs. Could I maybe ask a bit more details on where you need to share those cuts at the CFM level versus what will be your own responsibility? And would it be fair to assume that the CFM level tariffs going to be a fraction of the $500 million impact disclosed by your partner this week?

Chloe, as I said, on CFM, as part of the partnership, we share the burden of transportation and tariff costs on the final assembly model. So any module that we ship to the U.S. for assembly in the U.S. within the GE factory. Basically, those tariffs and those transportation costs are shared. And basically, it goes the same way on the reverse side. So any transportation costs, including potentially tariff sent by GE Aerospace to our final assembly line in France for deliveries to Airbus, those costs are shared, transportation cost and tariff cost. Now as you know, within the partnership, everyone is responsible for its own cost and its own supply chain cost. So the -- let's say, the potential supply chain inflationary cost, which are basically the result -- which could be the result of the tariff, will have to be managed by each of the partner separately. So this is the situation. Now it means that most of our exposure relating to the CFM56 and the LEAP engines are shared between GE Aerospace and us. And of course, this is a meaningful part of what our partner has communicated, I guess.

We'll now take our next question. This is from Ian Douglas-Pennant from UBS.

Thanks for all the helpful commentary on tariffs. Just to continue the conversation, pleased to hear you talking about a temporary surcharge to your customers to cover the cost of any tariffs. How should we think about the offset and the risk of an increase in engine retirements that results from that? And therefore, to what extent is this potential temporary surcharge dependent on a continued strong macroeconomic environment? And the second question I have is I just want to ask you directly, please, if you're willing to recognize the quantification that GE gave yesterday. Do you think that, that $500 million number that they communicated could be translated to your business?

Ian, on your question relating to offset and potential impact on engine retirements, we don't expect an impact on engine retirements today. We don't expect that. As you know, today, the situation is such that airlines are still starting from getting aircraft. And so this is a good situation for us because the demand for aircraft capacity is still higher than basically the supply and the ramp-up of new aircraft. So we don't see -- today, we don't expect, let's say, a sort of acceleration of aircraft or engine retirement, but we are monitoring the situation, of course. On your second question relating to the $500 million that has been communicated by GE, no comment, I would say.

Yes. What we can say, Ian, is that Safran has different business mix. We are not only in propulsion, but also in equipment, defense, interiors. We can have also different geographical flows with respect to supply chain or our own footprint. And when you look to what was communicated by GE and RTX, they're not comparable numbers because there are underlying assumptions about what tariffs apply to these scenarios was different to my understanding. So the $500 million mentioned by GE and $850 million mentioned by RTX, do not use assumption with respect to what could be the country-by-country rate starting early July. So you see putting out a number is quite dangerous because people think about the number, but what were the underlying assumptions...

Absolutely.

So that's why we believe it's pointless to develop scenarios and quantify today that will be disproven the next day.

So please don't look at numbers in isolation. You always need to link the numbers that have been communicated by our peers with the underlying assumptions. This is critical.

We'll now take our next question. This is from the line of Milene Kerner from Barclays.

Pascal, just coming back on your Slide 7, could you help us understand a little bit more the barrier option dynamic from your hedging strategy? And there is [indiscernible] to that question. Firstly, what happens to the size of your hedge book, if the dollar is above 1.15 for the rest of the year as you knockout starts at 1.15? And then secondly, what could be the targeted hedge rate for '25 in that scenario?

So I will answer a bit into technical details. We have indeed, in part of the options in our portfolio, what we call knockout barriers. But there are different kinds of KO barriers. Some are called American KO, meaning that for an option to be deactivated, it could happen at any time between now and the expiration of a given option. Then we have other options with European KO barriers, meaning that we will only look at the options the day it expires. So for example, if you have an option expiring, I don't know, in September, it's only in September that we will look if the same day the spot rate is above or not the KO barrier. And then we have some other options with window KO barriers, meaning that even if an option is expiring, let's say, in December, we will only look in a given period of time, let's say, September, October, if the spot rate is above the KO. So there are variety of options inside our book. So even if the spot rate goes beyond 1.15, 1.16 or 1.17, it's not a given that options will be deactivated. It depends on the mix of America KOs, European KOs or window KO barriers. So sorry to enter these details. So what the trading floor is doing now is to remove the American KOs option in our portfolio. So what we do is to extend the lifetime of these options in order to translate the American KO barrier into European or window barriers in order to avoid any deactivation. And as an evidence of that, last Monday, spot rates went above 1.15. It did reach 1.15, 1.18, and we have no option deactivated in our portfolio. So we try to manage our portfolio in a very proactive manner. Then regarding 2025, there is no risk at all to be away from the $1.12 per euro hedge rate, because this is already firm in our book. So the only risk we carry should spot goes to 1.20, 1.25 or 1.30, is to maybe change our long-term guidance for the hedge rate in 2028 or 2029. But we are far from that and we'll do anything we can to avoid that. And again, as an evidence as well back in 2018, 2019, we are part of our portfolio being deactivated at that time because there was a lot of fluctuation for hedge book. And we have maintained our guidance each and every year on the hedge rate. So there is no immediate threat. We are monitoring very closely and actively our portfolio.

We'll now take our next question. This is from David Perry from JPMorgan.

So I'm just going to ask Milene's question again, to be a bit annoying. I don't understand derivatives, far too complicated for me. Are you essentially saying whatever the FX rate is, you are guaranteed to get the 1.12 for '25, '26, '27? Because that seems to be what you're saying, which to me means you may as well not tell us there's knockouts, just without the explanation.

The answer is yes, to make it simple.

Okay. And what -- I mean, let's -- okay. So what happens if we went to 1.30 or 1.35, for argument's sake, in the next month because something terrible happened? You're completely guaranteed '25, '26, '27. But what would happen '28, '29 onwards?

Yes, the average will go up for sure because all the new options that we will implement will take into account the new spot rates. Let's assume it's 1.30. So with time, we will move away from the 1.12 to a higher number. And you know that we have a hedge book of more than $50 billion, which more or less hedges our exposure for the next 3 to 4 years. So it's only in 2028 or 2029 that we will start to see a change in our 1.12 hedge rates that we currently have in our book. So it will be only with time that we will see a change. So no panic for the next 2, 3 years. It's already in the book.

One more from me on this. So let's imagine a scenario where you're locked into 1.12 for '25, '26, '27, but you faced a cliff edge of 1.30 '28, '29. When you try and smooth it, when you try and restructure the whole book, so it was a more phased impact rather than have a cliff edge?

No, it won't be a cliff edge. I mean it will be phased. So I have not simulated it, but I would assume it would move from 1.12 to 1.15 to -- there will be steps of a couple of cents before we go -- we convert to the spot rate. There is a lot of latency in our hedge book. So there can't be a cliff of $0.05, $0.10 from 1 year to the other. This is all about our strategy to hedge 3, 4 years in advance and with quite a complex strategy around options with barriers, KO but also knock-in barriers. And we are used, since 15 years now, to manage such kind of risk, which proves to be benefits when I compare to what our European peers do. I guess we can be proud of 1.12 hedge rates for the next 3, 4 years.

So last one on this, I promise. You're saying the worst-case scenario, even if spot was 1.30 in the next month, is you stay at 1.12 '25, '26, '27, but then you would progressively phase in whatever increments of $0.03, $0.04, $0.05 from '28, '29 onwards. Is that what you're saying in all scenarios?

Yes, correct. Yes, correct, David.

Okay. And one more, please, maybe for Olivier. Can you just give us a bit more color on the LEAP deliveries? Obviously, a very weak start to the year. It was somewhat expected. You need a big, big improvement to make the full year targets. Can you just give us an update on what's going on in the supply chain there? And how -- what the cadence will be and your confidence in hitting the target?

Yes, we've seen a strong improvement on the supply chain side, especially on those items that we're pacing our '24 deliveries. And so basically, I can say now that we are rightly fed in our assembly lines to recover the slow start of the year.

Any additional color apart just telling us it's okay? Because it's a massive issue, but...

I have to say that we also have basically seen a strike in our facility in France for a few weeks. This is behind us now, but has also slowed down a bit our deliveries in Q1. But this strike is now behind us. So that was an exceptional situation that occurred in March and basically, that has been part of the slow start.

And in terms of the supply chain, you're happy with all the performance there in the U.S. and Europe on LEAP?

Yes, we've seen, let's say, a recovery. And so again, it gives us confidence in our ability to meet our guidance for the deliveries this year, 15% to 20%.

We'll now take the next question. This is from Ken Herbert from RBC.

Olivier and Pascal, for the spare parts sales in the quarter, can you talk about the mix of price versus volume in terms of driving the 25% growth? And as we look at the guidance range for spare parts, how do we think about the main driver of the increase in the guidance, whether it be pricing or volume on spare parts?

Ken, on spare parts, as you remind, it's a combination of LEAP, CFM56 and high-thrust engines, typically the G90. So we've seen different growth rates in Q1 on these 3 categories of engine. The high performer was high-thrust engines, okay? And it was a combination of price, volume and heavier work scope. On CFM, it was slightly above what we expected, driven by price and volume, so typically volume because price was already as a consequence of what we did last August. So volume was slightly better than expected. And LEAP was performing, I would say, as expected. So going forward, it's more a question of volume for CFM56. Depending, obviously, on the indirect consequence we can have from tariffs, and we've already discussed that. But we are pretty confident that we will be now in the low teens. Remember that we have already upped our guidance back in February from what we've told you at the CMD. So we'll see going forward. And then next August, we will pass again mid- to high single-digit gross pricing to airlines. This is without the surcharge that may apply depending on the situation of tariffs, but the usual price escalation of the catalog this price should be in the mid- to high single digits.

Okay. Very helpful. And just with some of the incremental cautious commentary from some airlines on capacity growth in the second half of this year, in particular, have you seen any airlines look to defer shop visits on engines or push out or otherwise lower maintenance spending as a result of any of the potentially slower capacity growth?

Ken, we've not seen that yet. We've not seen that yet. And remember, there has been comments on the fact that our revenue growth on spare parts was more constrained by some supply chain issues or, let's say, MRO capacity issues. So we don't expect -- unless the context is changing radically, but we don't expect, let's say, a slowdown coming from lower demand for MRO coming from the airlines.

We'll now move to the next question. This is from Robert Stallard from Vertical Research.

Maybe just a follow-up on Ken's question. We have seen U.S. airlines, in particular, seeing a slowdown in their domestic market and a couple of them talking about retiring some older aircraft. Does that flow through in any way to the dollar value of shop visits they're planning for the second half or starting to destock spares in any form or another? And then secondly, on the Interiors business, you obviously saw a very big increase in business class seat revenues in Q1. How are you managing the demand that's coming from the OEMs versus the retrofit market?

Robert, on -- yes, we've seen the communication of some of the U.S. airlines. And once again, we are monitoring the situation. But as we speak today, we've not seen any signal of any decrease of the dollar value of future shop visits. We have a good visibility on what's going to come in Q2. And we don't see any impact there yet. On interiors, you're right, we -- basically, we have experienced a strong demand, both on line-fit aircraft and retrofit aircraft and for sure, we have to manage that very carefully. And this is why we are now cautious -- kind of cautious. We are taking into account our overall capacity, be it engineering capacity as well as manufacturing capacity for responding to any new request from airlines. So we have now a very, let's say, strict process to look whether we respond positively or negatively to any new demand for interiors, because we don't want to overcommit and under deliver.

[Operator Instructions] We'll now take our next question. This is from Olivier Brochet from Redburn Atlantic.

I would have like 3, if I may. The first one is on the HPT blade upgrade for the LEAP-1B. Has anything changed there? The first question. The second one is on SPS, any update on the situation on your side on that thing? And the third one is on the assembly of LEAP between the U.S. and France. Is there any specificities in terms of variant? Or are you able to just manage that with, well, indiscriminately?

Olivier, HPT blades upgrade for the 1B is expected this year. As already communicated, it is already implemented on the LEAP-1A. So any new LEAP-1A delivered to either the airlines or Airbus has the new HPT blade. For the LEAP-1B, we are expecting the certification by the end of this year. SPS, there is an impact for us, mainly on wheels and brakes. So we are basically managing this situation, working on alternatives for fasteners, nuts and bolts and so on. We -- of course, our priority is to protect the assembly line of our airframer customer. And we -- so we don't see an impact before, I would say, June or July, as we speak, and we are working hard to push out such an impact. But we are going to protect. This has been our -- this is our policy. We are going to protect the assembly line of our airframer customers to the -- I would say, to the expense of temporary, to the expense of MRO and aftermarket, temporarily. So prioritization to the assembly line to avoid any impact to our customers.

Okay. We'll take maybe a last...

Sorry, sorry. And your last question is on assembly. So basically, the scheme today is the LEAP-1A for Airbus and the LEAP-1C for COMAC are assembled in France, whilst the LEAP-1B is mainly assembled in the U.S. But we are also assembling some of them in France in order to have a global equilibrium between GE Aerospace and us. But we can have flexibility. I mean we are able in France to assemble 1A and 1B, and GE Aerospace could be easily also able to assemble both 1B and 1A. I hope it answers your question.

Thank you. We'll take last question, if any?

Thank you. In fact, there are no further questions at this time. So I would hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

Okay. Thank you. So looking forward to getting together end of July. As we said, we are highly confident in the strength of our underlying business and reaching our guidance, excluding tariff. And as we have discussed, we are monitoring very actively the situation on tariffs. And here as well, we are confident to manage adequately the situation. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.