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David Boshoff: Good morning, everyone, and welcome. I'm David Boshoff, and with me is our CFO, Steve Fewster. We're pleased to be joining you today for the September quarterly update. Before we get underway, I'd like to highlight that today's presentation should be read in conjunction with our September quarterly report. This is now available on our website. As we move through today's session, if you have any questions, please feel free to add it to our live Q&A tab. And then that's on the right-hand side of your screen, and we'll address those questions at the end of the session. It's been another strong quarter for BCI, marking 1 year of operations. Switching on the pumps last year, since then, we have moved more than 185 gigaliters of seawater into our ponds, with continued progress on inundation of ponds 1 to 9, ahead of the 2025-2026 summer season. Our focus remains clear, ensuring a safe and sustainable operational ramp-up as we bring more assets online and close out the final construction packages. What really stands out this quarter is how strongly our people and our partners have lived our values. A great example was our goal to achieve 90% pond inundation by the 1st of August. I was actually on the site of the day that, that happened, and the team achieved it 2 days ahead of target. They really smashed that goal. That's our we do what we say value in action, showing commitment, teamwork and pride as we are producing together. Now I'd like to take you through the highlights for the quarter. In safety, we continue to strengthen key fatality prevention controls by completing 301 critical control verifications. We also performed 640 field leadership interactions and our total recordable frequency -- injury frequency rate reflects an ongoing focus on safe operations with a 12-month rolling average at 3.1. By the end of September, the pond service inundation has reached 93%. We also introduced new technology that's giving us real-time insights into how our operations are performing. This data is helping us to make smarter and faster decisions and plan more effectively for the future. I'll share a little bit more about that later. Construction also continues to progress well. We are both on schedule and within budget, with the overall completion of the construction packages now sitting at 74%. Finally, the commissioning of the pre-KTMS pilot crystallizers, which is an important step of our sulfate of potash progress has also progressed well. We are now in commissioning. I'll now hand over to Steve to walk us through the financial highlights. Thank you, Steve. Steve Fewster: Yes. Thanks, David. With construction on budget, BCI remains in a strong financial position. During the quarter, we drew $110.9 million for our syndicated debt facility, and that brings total cash drawn to date to $347 million. In July, we also received a deferred payment of $34.1 million from the sale of Iron Valley. I'll share more on the cash flow shortly. But first, David will provide a more detailed update on our operations. David Boshoff: Thank you, Steve. I'd like now to start with a quick overview of the salt making process and how it's unfolding at Mardie. Salt production starts with the intake of seawater from the Indian Ocean, which is then transferred through 9 evaporation ponds. Our operations team then carefully monitors the density in each of these ponds to ensure the brine is moved at just the right time. This project is very important because it ensures that the impurities in seawater is precipitated ahead of the crystallizers. This enables the production of salt to our customers' specifications. As the water temperatures rise, the natural evaporation process increases salinity of the seawater and gradually transforming that seawater into brine. Once the brine reaches the target density, which is typically between 1.21 and 1.22 kilograms per liter, it's pumped into the crystallizers where industrial grade salt begins to crystallize. Once enough salt is crystallized, it's harvested. The harvested salt is then processed through our wash plant to remove the layers of impurities before it's being shipped to our customers via our Cape Preston West Port. As you can see on the map, on the left of your screen, the ponds vary in size, all the way from pond 1 to 9. As I mentioned earlier, we've achieved 93% pond surface inundation with most of our ponds at or near capacity. Our focus is now on reaching the target brine density. In particular, we're looking at pond 9 and to make sure that reaches the right density of brine before it's transferred to the crystallizers at the perfect time. To support this process, we have developed a digital twin, which is a digital model, specifically designed for operations, and this allows us to monitor in real time and make data-driven decisions. The digital twin is now fully integrated into BCI's production planning process, combining real-time operational data from the primary seawater intake all the way through to ship loading while incorporating historical weather information. The chart you can see there on the left of your screen has been created utilizing various weather scenarios from the digital twin and it illustrates the range of time of when the brine in pond 9 is forecasted to achieve the density. You can also see on the graph where the actual density of pond 9 is sitting at the end of September. The chart here, you can see, illustrates that range. And then this analysis also shows that target density is likely to be achieved during the period between January and March, and this obviously will depend on the actual weather conditions we experienced in this upcoming summer. Importantly, we continue to work towards our target of having our first production salt on ship in the December 2026 quarter. Other operational activities during the quarter included the commissioning of the Transfer Station at 6/7, also the ongoing fabrication of our salt harvester herein Perth, and the development of the Mardie salt operating system. We continue to make good progress towards our construction milestones, specifically engineering and design of the salt wash plant has reached 60% completion. Earthworks have also commenced along with other orders placed for major long-lead items. These long-lead items include centrifuge, elutriator, dewatering screen, also the screw classifier. The committed cost for the salt wash plant now stands at 30% with the remaining costs to be committed over the coming two quarters. The primary and secondary salt crystallizer were also completed, marking the conclusion of the majority of the bulk earthworks, as well as pond and crystallizing infrastructure required to support full-scale production. In April '25, we commenced commissioning the first crystallizers with seawater to test their permeability and help inform the optimal sealing solution. Sealing the crystallizers is a critical step prior to transferring valuable high-density brine from pond 9, as I described earlier. The results from these trials, the seawater trials confirmed that the use of liners as a superior solution to sealing crystallizers because firstly, it creates a more predictable harvesting environment; and secondly, it eliminates seepage, thereby creating additional ramp-up tonnes in the early years of production. Consequently, BCI is implementing a program, sealing the crystallizers where this cost expected to be fully funded within the $1.443 billion salt-first budget. Sealing of the crystallizer trials will commence in the current quarter with the first crystallizer scheduled to be ready to receive brine from February 2026 onwards. The sealing of the remaining trains is planned to occur as required to meet our production ramp-up schedule. Also now the marine package of the Cape Preston West Port has reached 93% completion, and the environmental approval for the offshore placement of dredge spoil has transitioned into the next phase with both the state -- with the state and the Commonwealth regulators. Steve will take us now through the financial highlights. Steve? Steve Fewster: Thanks, David. Total construction now sits at just over $1 billion, having spent $67 million this quarter. The largest packages of work remaining include the dredging, the crystallizer sealing and the salt wash plant. Other than the long-lead items that have been ordered for the salt wash plant, these packages will be funded from the $386 million we had in uncommitted funds. From the engineering design work on the salt wash plant, and the procurement of materials to date, we are confident the salt wash plant will come in on target and to schedule. With dredging, the tenders closed last week and based on our early analysis of this package, the costs look to be aligned with our budget. And lastly, this will be placed in order for the first package of the crystallized aligners, with the cost of this order being in line with our forecast. The progress being made on these three major construction areas supports our confidence of remaining on budget. Looking forward to the next quarter, as we prepare the site for the arrival of the materials for the salt wash plant and the crystallized aligning, construction activity at Mardie will be lower than recent quarters. Both of these work fronts will be in full swing during the March 2026 quarter, and dredging will follow in April 2026. These activities align with our construction schedule and remain on track to support our FSOS target. As mentioned earlier, we drew $110.9 million from our syndicated debt facility during the quarter. At the end of the quarter, BCI had available liquidity totaling $676 million, with approximately $441 million required to complete construction, we remain fully funded to complete the construction work as well as having sufficient working capital to be able to operate through the ramp-up. As we previously shared, our drawdown process runs on a 45-day cycle. Prior to each drawdown, we are required to undertake a project cost reconciliation and provide this in conjunction with an opinion from the lender's independent technical expert or ITE. The ITE's opinion confirms to lenders that BCI remains fully funded to complete construction, as well as having sufficient working capital. To date, we have successfully completed 6 drawdowns totaling $347 million. I will now provide an overview of what we're seeing in the salt market. You'll see the CFR prices that we quote in the quarter release are based on the price of salt as well as the weighted average cost of freight to get that salt to the customers' ports in Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines. As such, freight is a key component of the CFR price. The factors affecting the cost of freight include the size of the ship and the distance from the supplier to the customer's port. During the June '25 quarter, Indonesia imported proportionately more volume than other buying countries when compared to the March 2025 quarter. With the lower shipping distance from Australia to Indonesia, this reduced the weighted average freight cost and hence the CFR cost in the June quarter was $5 lower. On an FOB basis or the price that the supplier receives for their salt, the Asian market remains relatively stable. As we've previously shared, the Cape Preston West Port is a strategically valuable asset for BCI and the region. This is a multi-user port that is being designed to export approximately 20 million tonnes per annum of bulk commodities such as salt, SOP and iron ore. At nameplate capacity, Mardie's SOP and salt operational needs are around 5.5 million tonnes per annum. This gives us surplus capacity of around 14.5 million tonnes per annum. So this infrastructure could be part of the solution for some of the components in the West Pilbara region who don't have access to a port. By the end of September, construction reached key milestones marked by the completion of all the heavy lifts. This included putting the ship loading tower in place, installing a small boat landing, as well as subsequent demobilization of the jack-up barge. Works on the electrical and mechanical installation are now well advanced. Pleasingly, BCI continues to receive inquiries from potential third-party users of this facility in the region. David Boshoff: Thanks, Steve. The SOP part of our production stream is a key byproduct of our salt production, and it's a really important revenue stream for BCI in the future. This quarter we visited several potash producers in China and India to gather insights and benchmark their operating practices. The learnings from these visits are now being incorporated into our pilot plant design. We successfully commissioned the Pre-KTMS trial crystallizers as you can see on the screen on the left. And we are now operating these in line with expectations. Operations for the pilot plant construction are also progressing well, and we will commence that work early next quarter. While our focus remains on safety and ramping up our operations safely and completing construction, we continue to prioritize environmental stewardship. During the quarter, we delivered a wide range of environmental monitoring activities in collaboration with specialist consultants and our traditional owners. We also hosted our second implementation committee meeting with the Wirrawandi Aboriginal Corporation and commenced work on an updated Indigenous engagement strategy. On the community front, BCI visited Karratha Senior High School to support the positive behavior support program and the student achievement through the BCI High Value Rewards initiative. We also marked our first presence at the Resources Technology Showcase, and this showcase is Western Australia's premier mining innovation event. As we close this quarter, we do so by consistently applying our values in doing what we said we will do. We are well positioned to respond to forecast salt supply shortfalls in face of rising global demand while creating sustainable multigenerational benefits for our shareholders, local community and also for the broader Australian economy. This brings us to the end of the presentation. If you've got any questions, please add them to the Q&A tab on the left of your screen -- I'm sorry, on the right side of your screen, and we'll go to questions now. Thank you. Tammie Miller: David, can you talk to the remaining packages of construction yet to be committed? Given the salt wash plant design is still not complete, when will you be in a position to award that work and cost to complete known? David Boshoff: Thank you. So yes, the salt wash plant, as I mentioned, is 60% through design. The natural process of design would start with the earthworks design, the footings, the structure itself. And then as you move through the components that you add to that wash plant, and then eventually the electrical and engineering -- sorry, electrical and instrumentation. So the work that's complete is all our structural design, all the design for the selection of our components, as I mentioned earlier, the long-lead items. What is currently underway is piping, electrical and instrumentation, which is naturally to the back end of your process. We have already locked in and ordered a long-lead items, which means that cost is in actual cost. We've also commenced our earthworks and we are about to award the concrete and footing packages at the end of this month, so in November. The next packages will be electrical and instrumentation. And I'm expecting that will still be early in the next year. So probably around February with us then commissioning in salt wash plant in September of next year. Tammie Miller: Thank you. Steve, you mentioned in the quarterly report that the upcoming quarter will be slower in terms of construction progress on site. Does this put FSOS timing at risk? Steve Fewster: Yes. We were actually going to have a slow quarter this quarter. We're coming off the back of almost completing the jetties, the jetties at 93%. The ponds are now constructed, watering the plants, all the bulk earthworks, the crystallizers are complete, this pump stage -- stations that are closing in on completion for the crystallizers. So everything has -- is tracking to schedule. And we were always going to have this natural -- naturally -- natural quieter quarter this quarter. So for many of the reasons that David just spoke about, the schedule is always aligned to have the design work for the salt wash plant now. Dredging was always going to commence in April next year because of the dredge we know in the region. So at this stage there's nothing we see on the construction front. That puts it on a critical path for FSOS, which we're targeting at the back end of next year. Tammie Miller: Thank you. David, your decision to align the crystallizers, can you outline the cost of procuring and installing the liners, what the timing is and what the catalyst was for that decision? David Boshoff: Yes. I think this is important for me to highlight a couple of things. So when I started with BCI, we operate with a -- what I would call a static model. So basically a model that requires manual inputs to be changed. And it took us about a week to 1.5 weeks to run different scenarios. Since then, I mentioned, we've done the digital twin. So the digital twin is a fully modeled replica of our operations, it includes our size of our ponds, the amount of water we can intake, our actual weather data. What that enabled us to do is do one scenario in a couple of hours. So if I went to Steve and I ask him, what if we do this? What's the impact to NPV? What if we change that? How does it impact our cash flow in the future? It was quite hard and arduous process to determine that with a digital twin that happens in a couple of hours. So one of the things that we've looked at very carefully is what is the impact of the planned and forecasted seepage for the crystallizers on our revenue in the future. And is there a better way to do it. And so the digital twin then enabled us to run the scenario with ceiling and without ceiling. And then, of course, we included our forecast cost for the sealing in that model. And the NPV for sealing those crystallizers vastly superior than not doing that. So that then allowed us to say, well, we have to -- that's a better solution for shareholders. And we commenced with exploring exactly how we'll do it from a cost perspective and from a timing perspective. This then led us to the decision to take to the Board and that might then -- I guess, enabled us then to commence that process. So we expect the sealing prices to happen procurement has commenced. So sealing of the first train will happen between now and February. And then February is going to expect, again, the digital twin giving us this clarity. February, we expect the water in pond 9 to be ready to be transferred into the first crystallizer. So we're back -- we've worked back from that date to ensure the first train is ready to receive brine. And then the subsequent trains are then scheduled in line with when that brine volume will come from pond 9. So I see this as a great opportunity. I think the digital twin has improved our insights in how to maximize productivity and that then leads to smarter decisions for the future. I would just probably just add 1 thing -- thanks, Steve. Just 1 quick, I guess, in closure before I hand over to Steve, is the good work the team has done so far has enabled us to have headroom. And Steve will be able to share a little bit more detail on that. Steve Fewster: Yes. Obviously, I was going to emphasize that point. We've got an outstanding projects team and through getting the project to 74%, they're discipline around cost management, cost control, thinking -- digging through really effective solutions has been we've been able to build a buffer in our budget. And so when things -- when we look at opportunities to maximize the return to shareholders, as we have done with aligning of the crystallizers, we've been able to do that within that funding envelope, within that capital budget of $1.443 billion. So I think full credit goes to that project team and that discipline and managing that budget tightly. Tammie Miller: David, can you say a little bit more -- explain a bit more about the water flow from pond 1 to pond 9 is a question around, does the pond get empty 10% and then replenish? David Boshoff: Yes. So the -- I think it's important for me to just step through that. The densities between ponds are managed based on a very specific market density at its transition between ponds. So the ponds are maintained at the exact same level throughout its production cycle. What happens is you continue to transfer, call it fresher water or more -- less saline water from the salt into the pond and monitor the density. And when it gets to the required operating density, some of that water is then transferred into the next pond. At the same time, that water has been transferred is replenished from the pond just before. So imagine a total system where all the ponds are staying roughly at the same height through average operating period, but the density is fluctuating a little bit up, a little bit down based on that transition -- continuous transition over time. What that allows us then is to have a continuous stream of highly saturated brine in pond 9, that then feeds the crystallizers. Where the process is more stage -- where process where they empty and fill is in the crystallizers, so the crystallizers continuously filled until we have enough harvestable product. And then that crystallizer will be drained to make it ready so you can harvest that product, while the other crystallizers are then crystallized, and that goes into a cycle when you rotate that through your different crystallizers in the production process. Tammie Miller: Thank you. Steve, can you comment on what the possible revenue is per year for the port for non-salt products? Steve Fewster: Look, we haven't set a unit price at this stage. We have looked at other ports in the region. So bulk ports do publish their rates. And I think we can look to those rates and probably to the south of us at Ashburton Port is probably best -- is the best comparison to what Cape Preston West Port is as compared to, say, Port Hedland. And what you'll see in the published rates that it's about $9.10 per tonne that Ashburton Port is charging. Now part of the cost of -- or part of how your price will be built up will be based on what's the capital expenditure and what's an appropriate return. That is guided if you want to go and look at the Ashburton Port is, that's probably as good an indication at this stage as anything else. Tammie Miller: Excellent. David, given the seepage in the crystallizers that you've talked about, will you need to live pond 9? Is this why it isn't full? David Boshoff: No. So that -- yes, I'll clarify that. I think important point. So pond 9 is the last one that was finished. You might recall from the previous quarter. We've only just finished the -- we call it the port road or the PPA road, which is the northern boundary of pond 9. And that part is only -- the crystallizer only -- sorry, that pond is, I mean, just being commenced, filled in the last couple of months, and is steadily rising. And you also noticed in the picture that I shared earlier, pond 9 is tiny compared to some of the other ponds. So that pond, I'm expecting in the next 3 months will continue to fill. Obviously, to the seepage question, we've been monitoring the seepage in the ponds. And I'm happy to share with you that the -- any seepage in those ponds, particularly in the ones we filled at the beginning of -- or about 12 months ago, the seepage has completely stabilized in those ponds. So the natural prices of where I mentioned the impurity is dropping out, my expectation is when pond 9 gets to its required density and those natural impurities drop out, then that will continue to, I guess, get that pond into the right production capacity and allow it to operate as it should. And my final point on that would be is that these ponds are based in mudflats. So mudflats, of course, creates a natural boundary to the seepage of those ponds. Tammie Miller: Thank you. Steve, assuming you go ahead with producing SOP, will this be funded by debt or equity? And what would the timing and magnitude of the capital be that's required? Steve Fewster: Yes. So we frequently say the CapEx is probably somewhere between $150 million and $200 million, and the work that the SOP team will help inform the ultimate value of that construction. In terms of the funding, by the time we complete the pilot trials, select a design and they need to fund that construction, we would fully expect that the salt business would be generating free cash flow. Our business that generates free cash flow has a wide range of options to be able to fund that. So I think we'll be -- we'll have very, very flexible options at the time when we need that funding. Tammie Miller: Great. Thank you. David, can you comment on the status of the dredging sea dumping approvals and how they are tracking? David Boshoff: Yes, absolutely. So the -- I mentioned in my -- one of my remarks that we've progressed to the next stage. So last week, we had the EPA Board meeting for the state approval. We're currently in the consultation phase. So we received our draft conditions that included sea dumping among other tweaks in our conditions. The team is expected to respond to that today. Then that is still on track to receive our approval from the state for those conditions well ahead of our April commencement date for dredging that we spoke about earlier. On the federal side, we're also in the conditions consult period. That condition has currently been drafted, and we expect those provisions to be with us somewhere next month. And again, that team is tracking on time ahead of that April due date. So I'm pleased to say that those things are progressing, and we will have to continue to work hard that we deliver on those approvals as we did for the groundwater management plan and the other approvals in the past. Tammie Miller: Thank you, David. So at what level of strength has the pier jetty being constructed to withstand what level of a cyclone? David Boshoff: Yes. Our design specifications for the port has been a one in 500-year rain event. That, of course, is quite superior to many other ports, but is the design requirements that we've set for the construction contractor. So one in 500-year will certainly stand, I guess, the test of time. Also, it can also do a category 5 cyclone. So there are some tie down procedures for the conveyor belt itself, but the structure is designed for voluntarily above that. Tammie Miller: Thank you. That concludes our questions. David Boshoff: Thank you, everyone, and we'll see you next quarter. Steve Fewster: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Regis Resources quarterly briefing. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Jim Beyer, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead. Jim Beyer: Thanks, Darcy. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us this morning for the Regis Resources September quarter results. Joining me today is our Chief Financial Officer, Anthony Rechichi, and our Chief Operating Officer, Michael Holmes; and our Head of Investor Relations, Jeff Sansom. As usual, we will refer to some figures in the quarterly report released earlier this morning. So please, it might be helpful just to keep it handy as we step through the results. So firstly, starting with safety, as we always do. Through the quarter on a 12-month moving average basis, our lost time injury frequency rate actually got down to 0. However, unfortunately, towards the end of the quarter, we saw a single LTI occur, which pushed out LTIFR, lost time injury frequency rate, to 0.36, which was in line basically with our performance last quarter. Now while still below the industry average, as always, we should never be satisfied with any injury. And the team, I know, is driving hard as we are diligent and continue to build a strong disciplined safety culture for our teams across all our operations. Now on to production performance. The September quarter marked another period of consistent operational delivery and a resultant strong cash generation. Group production totaled 90,400 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of AUD 2,861 an ounce. And I note that this also includes a noncash charge of just under $200 an ounce, and that relates to drawdown on historic stockpile inventories. Now we are comfortable with the performance in our first quarter, and we're well positioned to deliver within our FY '26 guidance ranges. From a financial perspective, this quarter has seen another period of unprecedented gold price movements. Spot gold during the quarter increased over 15% from just over $5,000 an ounce to just under $5,800 an ounce during the quarter. And during that time, we sold at an average price of $5,405 an ounce. Of course, since the end of the quarter, gold has risen another $500 an ounce, will actually rose more than that, and we have seen this slight correction in the last couple of days, but the fundamentals are still there, and it is a great time to be producing gold. This meant that we grew our cash and bullion position by $158 million for a balance at the end of the quarter of $675 million. That's another record for Regis and highlights the ongoing strength of the business and really continues to demonstrate the significant cash-generating capacity. We remain debt-free with significant balance sheet flexibility. From a growth perspective, we saw first ore from our underground development projects at Duketon, and these both remain on target. Now with that, I'll hand over to Michael for more detail on the operational rundown, followed by Anthony, who will cover more on the financials. Over to you, Michael. Michael Harvy Holmes: Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. As Jim mentioned, it was disappointing that we had 1 lost time injury in the quarter, which continued our 12-month moving average frequency rate of 0.36. We are working on numerous initiatives within our operations to reduce the occurrences of safety incidents and injuries. Operationally, the quarter was steady across both sites with results consistent and in line with plan. At Duketon, we produced 58,400 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $2,832 per ounce, which includes a noncash charge of $238 per ounce. This is a few hundred dollars lower than the previous quarter on stronger production and reduced total material movement with lower open pit waste movement. During the quarter, open pit mining commenced at King of Creation, recommenced at Gloster and continued at Ben Hur open pits. Our open pits contributed 14,400 ounces at a grade of 0.92 grams per tonne. Underground mining at Garden Well and Rosemont delivered 31,800 ounces at 1.9 grams per tonne with development totaling 3,990 meters for the quarter. Milling throughput was 2.08 million tonnes at 0.99 grams per tonne with an 88.3% recovery. Importantly, as Jim mentioned, during the quarter, first ore was mined from stopes at both the Garden Well Main and the Rosemont Stage 3. The first ore contributed to the increased underground ore tonnages compared to the previous quarter. These 2 underground developments are key contributors to our long-term growth strategy, and Garden Well Main is progressing well towards commercial production in H2 of this financial year, so we should see growth capital from the development roll off towards the end of the year. In light of the ongoing strong gold price environment, the team continues to identify and evaluate options for organic growth across Duketon. At Tropicana, production was 31,900 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $2,821 per ounce, which includes a noncash charge of $198 per ounce, reflecting solid delivery and grade improvement. Open pit mining delivered 16,100 ounces at 1.6 grams per tonne, with material movement and grade in line with expectations. Total material movement was elevated related to the previous quarter related to the planned waste mining in the Havana open pit. Over the coming quarters, waste stripping in the Havana pit will ease, and we expect the strip ratio will moderate, and this will be particularly apparent in the second half of FY '26. Our share of what Tropicana underground delivered was 15,200 ounces at 3.12 grams per tonne and 983 meters of development with a recovery steady at 89.7%. Growth capital was moderate at $3 million with development of Havana underground progressing to plan. With that, I'll now pass to Anthony for the financials Thanks, Michael. Anthony Rechichi: We're continuing on from a really impressive financial performance that we reported for the full year ended 30 June 2025, with a great start in the first quarter of FY '26. We sold just under 83,000 ounces in the quarter at an average realized gold price of $5,405 an ounce, generating $447 million in revenue. Operating cash flow was $290 million, including $186 million from Duketon and $104 million from Tropicana. As an aside, when we were selling the gold in and around that $5,500 an ounce mark, the team was ecstatic. But as Jim mentioned, what a difference of a few weeks makes, noting that while those gold prices were impressive, the recent few weeks of gold sales have been in the $6,000, which is just incredible. It's an amazing time to be in gold really. Moving on to capital expenditure. We spent $114 million, including $70 million at Duketon, $19 million at Tropicana, and we spent $20 million on exploration. Within the capital spend amount, $66 million of that was growth capital, with $63 million at Duketon and $3 million at Tropicana. The majority of this spend was related to the underground growth projects. At Duketon, Garden Well Main is expected to commence commercial production later in the financial year. And therefore, the capital spend in that area from then on will report to sustaining capital, not growth capital anymore. With this in mind, in the absence of any new organic growth we create along the way, we expect to see the growth capital spend rate reduce as the year goes on. But again, that's on the basis that we don't find anything extra across Duketon that's worth pursuing. So for cash and bullion, in the end, we closed the quarter with $675 million, which is another record for Regis and the $300 million revolving credit facility remains undrawn. I'll just circle back now to all-in sustaining costs, and Michael mentioned the noncash charges across Duketon and Tropicana, and I want to talk some more about that. At Duketon, there was a noncash charge of $238 an ounce related to stockpile inventory movements. And at Tropicana, we had a charge of $125 an ounce for the same reasons. At a group level, that's a charge of $198 an ounce for the quarter. Focusing in on Tropicana, this quarter's all-in sustaining cost per ounce was higher than last quarter. If you cast your mind back, in the June quarter, Tropicana reported a significant noncash credit related to stockpile survey adjustments. If we net off the noncash stockpile movement impacts for Tropicana, then the all-in sustaining cost per ounce becomes similar across the 2 periods. On another topic, and as you now know, with the business high profitability and impressive cash generation, the directors declared a final fully franked dividend of $0.05 per share, totaling $38 million off the back of the FY '25 results, and we paid that earlier in this month of October. And as I've mentioned before, due to that strong profitability, Regis will return to a cash tax payment position and is expected to pay approximately $100 million in the third quarter of this FY '26. So that's all for me. Thank you all, and back to you, Jim. Jim Beyer: Thanks, Anthony, and thanks, Michael. At McPhillamys, we're progressing the dual-track strategy to return the project to an approvable status. And I want to very quickly go over some of the details of the project and remind or highlight why we continue to pursue this line. Look, we released the DFS at McPhillamys back in the middle of last year, and that highlighted a resource of 2.7 million and reserves of 1.9 million At the time we released the DFS, as I said, the reserves were about 1.9 million, which, of course, isn't a reserve anymore, thanks to the Section 10, but the key fact is it's still in the ground and quite valuable at the moment. As expected, it was to have a mine life of around 10 years, so an average production of 185,000 ounces per annum, at a capital cost of $1 billion and a life of mine average all-in sustaining of something like $1,600 an ounce. Now I do have to say that as a result of the Section 10 declaration, of course, the project is no longer viable in its current form, and we were through the DFS. However, if you benchmark the project on those metrics I just mentioned and look at the spot gold price today where it's sitting around $6,300, that gives nearly 3/4 or gives well over $2 million a day, $3.5 billion in pretax cash flow each year on average. Now that's the value to our shareholders. But there is also other stakeholder value in addition to this such as the value that it represents in New South Wales. And this would be significant. It takes the form of 300 steady-state jobs over -- well over now with this price $366 million in royalties along with millions in local rates and taxes. The list of benefits goes on as it always does when we have a grown-up conversation about the real contribution mine makes to our Australian economy and the quality of life, but that's a topic for another time. So with these multiple value benefits for many stakeholders, we are committed in our drive towards a positive outcome for the McPhillamys Gold project. And to that end, we continue to prepare the legal challenge of the Section 10 declaration, and we expect that to be in mid-December. And in parallel, we're also investigating alternative waste disposal options and concepts. This dual-track approach aims to put Regis in a position where we could conceivably return the project to an approvable status and positioned to proceed under either outcome, albeit with probably different time lines. Now back to our current operations. As Michael and Anthony have discussed, the quarter was in line with expectations. And as we sit here today, we are very comfortable with our FY '26 guidance range and see no changes required there. We'll maintain capital discipline focused on generating strong margins for our core assets while positioning the business for future growth. As also noted by Michael and Anthony, we continue to seek out organic opportunities that make good economic sense in this new gold price environment. Our exploration team continues with their focus on conversion and extensional drilling to build long-term optionality. And I haven't said anything -- I won't say anything more on that, but I do note that we will be providing a midyear exploration update later on this quarter. So to summarize, our team has delivered another quarter of consistent performance that has enabled us to capitalize on the exceptional gold price. Cash and bullion is up $158 million to a record $675 million. First ore mine from Garden Well Main and also Rosemont Stage 3, and we continue to ramp up both of these underground projects. Ongoing development at Havana Underground. We continue to seek out and evaluate organic growth opportunities within Duketon. McPhillamys is progressing through both legal and technical pathways. And finally, but very importantly, our FY '26 guidance is reaffirmed. So thanks for this morning. I'll now open the floor up to questions and back to you, Darcy. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Hugo Nicolaci from Goldman Sachs. Hugo Nicolaci: Obviously, as you said, a great time to be in gold. Just first one for me, just a clarification on the McPhillamys project. Just with the hearing in mid-December, do you have a rough time line for when you'd expect an outcome after that hearing? Jim Beyer: Yes, sometime after that hearing. I mean, unfortunately, these -- as we know, the courts run to their own beat. We would like to think that we would get a result back sometime in the first quarter of next year, but that's not certain. Remembering and understanding the legal process here, it's not actually an overturning of the decision. It's a process of going through and convincing the judge that there were elements of the process that we felt we were significantly disadvantaged over. And as a result, of that, the judge sort of says, well, the decision is set aside. The minister, who is a new minister now, of course, presumably asked the department to correct the injustices, for want of a better description, or the correct the flaws in the process. And then the minister will make a new determination. How long that takes, there is no time line to that? It could easily be out to the end of next year. Hugo Nicolaci: Got it. That's helpful color. And then just the second one for me just at Tropicana, just observing that your partner there had put in and then recently got an environmental approvals for a power plant expansion and a new pace plant there to support the Boston Shaker. Could you just provide a little bit of color around the need for the paste plant? Has there been a change in geological conditions what you expected? Or was it more around cost and greater ore recovery that you're putting that in? And then just any comments around sort of timing and cost benefits there? Jim Beyer: No. I mean the power thing is pretty obvious. We'll need more power. And the paste fill is really, it's a trial at the moment, and it's driven by the potential to improve overall economics by increasing ore extraction ratios. Hugo Nicolaci: And in terms of timing of having that trial up and running? Jim Beyer: I mean there's a trial in the first instance and then there will be -- have to be a decision, and that's on the -- on when it would -- a full approach will be implemented, and there's no timing on that, but I would consider that to be a least a year. Operator: Your next question comes from Levi Spry from UBS. Levi Spry: Just exploring a little bit more of the returns piece of the big cash pile you built and building in the context of these growth options. So how are you thinking about it? Is there a scope to formalize some sort of returns policy? Or do we really need to wait for McPhillamys or potentially something from inorganic [indiscernible]? Jim Beyer: Yes. Look, I mean, it's -- you're the first person who asked that question lately. Look, the first thing -- and I guess, historically, what we've done is we've pointed to the fact that the company and the Board has always had a strong view on returning returns to shareholders via dividends. And it's great and very pleasing to see that as we've moved our way through all the recapitalization and the hedge books over the years that we've been able to return and the debt, of course, for Tropicana, we've been able to return to a position to be able to pay dividends. And our view has always been where we've got the capacity to do it and it makes sense, we will look at that ongoing process very favorably. But as you pointed out, we don't have a policy. That is something that we are under consideration at the moment. And I would imagine as we work our way through that, we'll make some decision on that over the coming months. The next key time for us to make any another decision on whether a dividend is payable or not. And obviously, it's a pretty favorable environment at the moment, but I wouldn't want to preempt anything, but the next time to be making any decision would be the half year results because we look at it on a half year and full year basis. So yes, no, we don't have a policy. We've always said that where we've got the money and the -- it's an important part of our reason for being is to return -- make a return to our investors via dividends as well as regular growth. So -- and that's what we plan to continue to do. We just don't have a locked-in policy at this stage. Operator: Your next question comes from Andrew Bowler from Macquarie. Andrew Bowler: Just a question on the McPhillamys study just looking at the dry stack tailing options. Just wondering on the timing of those studies? And will that be affected by the judicial review? So for example, if it falls in your favor, are we likely to see that study a bit sooner maybe as you sort of -- or should I say, if it falls in your favor, we likely never to see that study? Or if it falls against you, are you like to see it a little bit sooner as you try and get it out to market as quickly as possible? Jim Beyer: Look, our intention is, as I said, we're running a dual track. I think our preferred scenario because it's probably a little bit more timely and requires less additional approvals is -- and test work is to return to the original DFS concept, i.e., what I'm saying there is we much prefer to win the -- we much prefer to be successful in the challenge of the Section 10 and then follow that through with an appropriate decision by the minister after his review. That's the way we prefer it to go. But we don't want to sit around in hope, so we've also planned to find and prove up this alternative method. Probably the reality of that is that it's going to take, at this stage, it could take considerably longer for us to work that through. But the initial test work that we've done is encouraging. It's really a timing issue and making sure that we understand all the risks that this now introduces that we didn't have before and have we got everything in place. So the short answer to your question is we prefer the Section 10 to be successful, but we'll continue to pursue the other one. And if the Section 10 is successful and that's great because it means we've probably got a better time line as well. Andrew Bowler: Yes. Sorry I was on mute. Yes. No, sorry, I was on mute. And just a follow-up. I mean I know you're working through the study, and it's very early stage, but is it the intention for these dry stack tailings studies to retain the relative scope and scale of the old plan at McPhillamys? Or are you -- or is there some tinkering to be done with the dry stack tailings studies that might see a [ biggering ] of the project or a bit of a trimming as well? Or is it roughly the same with the dry stack scenario [ bolted ] on the back end? Jim Beyer: In terms of footprint, it's probably a little smaller. So it's not actually -- the concept that we're working on is not so much a dry stack. It's an integrated waste landform. So we -- there's -- obviously, in terms of what can move as much as I'd like to, we can't move the ore body. The process plant probably stay roughly where it is. There's a big waste rock dump that's already there. It's already part of the approval. But obviously, if we co-mingle the tails in that, then whatever we don't put in the tailings because we won't be able to which has to go under the waste rock dump. And that's why it's sort of, that's why it's called an integrated waste landform. And that would need to be bigger. And so there's a few things that we have to go through and get, work on to see whether that requires extensive changes or reasonably modest modifications. And so that's all part of the work that's kicking off at the moment. Andrew Bowler: Apologies. I wasn't very clear. I mean as in sort of, I guess, the processing capacity scale. So the project itself would be on a similar scale. Jim Beyer: Yes. No, it'd be a similar scale. I mean basically, the concept is you put -- it's not unusual. It's reasonably common certainly in South America, where water is exceptionally at altitude where it's scarce. And there's a couple of operations here in Australia, one over here in WA that uses a form of it. So it's not uncommon, but it is something that involves more equipment. But our plan would be to maintain the scale of the operation as it currently isn't just changed the back end of it. Andrew Bowler: No worries. That's very clear. Operator: Your next question comes from David Coates from Bell Potter Securities. David Coates: Just more on observation. I suppose it sounds like McPhillamys, understandably, is getting quite a bit of attention from you guys. Is that because sort of [indiscernible] the inorganic opportunities that are a bit sort of thinner on the ground and I guess, sort of harder to find value in the current market and McPhillamys obviously has those really compelling metrics that you mentioned -- referenced before? Jim Beyer: Yes. Good question, David. Look, I don't think what -- I guess the question don't misinterpret the fact that we only talk about McPhillamys as we're only inwardly focused. We do talk about it because I do genuinely think that the market doesn't recognize the value that's there. I mean, basically, what we're saying is one way or another, this thing is going to be developed. It's really just a question of when. And if you're sitting down and trying to work out what the value is -- in this new price environment that we see gold in, and frankly, this is not a flash in the pan. This is, you can see that there are global fundamentals that have driven us to this new level from where we were 18 months or 2 years ago. So it reminds us that we need to -- our team needs to keep pushing on and make sure that, that becomes approved in one form or another, and then we can develop it. The thing is the time line. So that could be a couple of years out. And so that we put our effort into it and you can see we're spending not an insignificant amount at the moment on an annual basis on that works under the McPhillamys guidance that we've given, but that doesn't mean that we're not looking for near-term opportunities to sit between now and then either, which is definitely on our agenda and probably everybody's at the moment, but then we're no different. David Coates: Cool. And then just sort of sticking with the organic opportunities. You mentioned with this price that everyone's out sort of looking hard and reviewing the at Duketon in particular. Can you give us a bit more detail on some of the opportunities that might be emerging up there? Jim Beyer: Look, we've -- at the moment, the exploration side of things is pretty interesting and getting exciting again for us, but we haven't really got anything material to sort of hang our head on there yet, although, I guess, we'll keep an eye for whatever it is those time. And -- but if you look at what else and what Michael and Anthony were talking about is where there's no doubt about it that this at this new price environment, we can go back to some of our old pits, be they big or small. And sometimes it's a small ones that are actually the opportunity or back to -- even back to some of our old oxide stomping grounds. We look and go, well, hang on at $5,000 or $6,000 an ounce. This stuff is actually quite viable. And so they are the things that we're looking at. I don't really not in a position, really, I don't really want to go through the nuts and bolts of the individual items. But when we get something that is material, we will certainly update the market on that so that what you can add to our model and add to your valuation work. So we are doing plenty of it at the moment. We're just not in a position yet to strike it into a gold bar. Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Beyer for any closing remarks. Jim Beyer: Thanks, Darcy. And thanks, everyone. Thanks, especially for the folks that asked questions. Thanks for joining us and enjoy the rest of your day. Take care. Operator: Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
Danny Younis: Good afternoon, and welcome to the Weebit First Quarter 2026 Investor Update. My name is Danny Younis, and I handle Investor Relations for Weebit. With me today, we have the CEO of Weebit, Coby Hanoch; and for the first time, the VP of Marketing and Business Development, Eran Briman. Before I hand over to Coby, just a reminder, we will be having a Q&A session today. If you have any questions, if you're in the room, just put your hand up or if you're online, just type them into the Q&A box that you see at the bottom of your screen. We're expecting a lot of questions, but we've provided enough time, I think, to go through most of those questions. We've got roughly an hour, but we can run a little bit over if we need to. I would now like to hand the webinar over to Coby. Jacob Hanoch: Hi, everyone. To me, so good to be here, as always. I guess we came here because of the Semiconductor Australia conference that was yesterday. I think it was a very good conference. It was well attended. I don't know if anyone here -- was anyone at the conference? It was really -- I think there were like roughly 300 people or so. This time, we had a booth there. So you see the sign from Semiconductor Australia up here where we're using it kind of and show the demo. I guess we'll be bringing the demo to the AGM, and we'll be showing it there as well. So we'll be back -- I'll be back in a month. And yes, I guess, let me share the screen again with this. So just a few slides, not really much. I think everyone knows, knows Weebit and knows what's going on. So, okay. So we'll just go through the slides like this. So I just thought I'd show you an update. I found this very interesting how just a year ago, the prediction of the size of the semiconductor market was the blue line here and people were saying, yes, it's going to hit USD 1 trillion by 2030 or a little bit later and stuff. And now with AI just going wild in just one year, we see analysts already updating their predictions and the size of semiconductor crossing the $1 trillion mark already in 2028 and so on. So it's -- again, every time I come to Australia, I have this challenge of trying to explain to people how big this market is, how important it is. You guys know, but like yesterday at the conference, even though a lot of people knew what semiconductors are, we still had to emphasize it and of course, with other institutions and other people that we meet here. So I think this really shows you what's going on. It's crazy, the level of investments in this market, I always repeat it because the numbers are just mind-boggling. Every time you see it more investments and more strategic deals, Intel now -- on the one hand, Intel is struggling. On the other hand, they have a new CEO who's really a magician. He's amazing. I know the guy, and he's just capable of doing amazing things. And now he's managing to get investments from the U.S. government, from NVIDIA stuff. India now is starting to invest a lot. They're setting up foundries in India. In terms -- I'm sorry. I need to do this. In terms of the ReRAM market itself, that every once in a while, I refer to the old slides, and it's interesting to see how year after year, the numbers evolve. I think the interesting thing here is to see they are talking about ReRAM being today about 27% of the market. And I think this is already what we've been talking about for a long time. ReRAM is being accepted now as the new standard. And you can see how the ReRAM market share is growing quite a bit, actually more than doubling or just about doubling in just a few years. But also look at the size of the market, it's like 20x. So not only is the market share growing double, but it's 20x the market. So it's actually ReRAM section is 40x in just four years. And that's a huge growth. That's a huge growth. Right now, the companies who are addressing this are basically TSMC and Weebit. The companies that are commercializing the ReRAM that actually have customers that people are buying it, it's TSMC and Weebit. UMC has a ReRAM that's been qualified, but it's been qualified for years, and it's only at 105 degrees, which is really not accepted in the industry as high enough. And to the best of our knowledge, they don't have any customers. Even the owner of the ReRAM actually, Nuvoton is using TSMC. And there's a new entrant. We all knew that GF is looking for ReRAM. We were trying to be the ones who get in there. Their internal R&D has been pushing strongly that they make it happen and the management gave them a chance. So they announced that they have a ReRAM. I think the good news is you can see that people see ReRAM is really needed. They haven't qualified it yet in their announcement, mentioned automotive. I think they still have some way to go. I personally think they made a big mistake because they just don't have the resources to maintain this. At a certain point, it will have to collapse. That's my personal belief. And so I think both UMC and GlobalFoundries are definitely high on my potential customer list still. I still believe TSMC is going to be a challenge even though they are on my customer list, and I believe eventually we can get there. But this is kind of showing you the market. Notice. You can see, by the way, the split between different markets, analog, MCU and ASIC. And you can see that the initial users are the analog guys. I think you guys already know, we started talking more and more about analog. onsemi is basically an analog company. Even with DB HiTek, it's a BCD process, which is mostly for analog companies. And you can see the adoption. It's no surprise that Weebit's first fab customers are analog. But then after that, the MCU market starts going up. And then after that, you have the ASIC and SoC margins going up. So this really shows you, by the way, that it's reflecting also what Weebit is doing. The fact that we signed up with analog companies. I think that's part of the thing that Yole has been looking at and saying, okay, we can see the money coming in. I mean, you already saw the revenue number for the fiscal year, the $4.4 million. And I guess now we're very happy with the recent announcement of the quarterly that -- this quarter, we got $7.3 million from customers. Now I think it's important for me because I know some people were really getting excited and oh my God, it's already cash positive and look at these numbers and everything. It's important for me, and I like to be honest with things. We're getting paid based on achieving milestones. And sometimes some quarters have more milestones, some quarters have less or whatever. And some of the milestones are bigger and bigger payments and some milestones are smaller. So I want people to understand it's great, and we're obviously very proud and very happy of the money that came in. I just don't want people to think, okay, now that's how it's going to keep growing, and we're going to see record quarters every quarter and whatever and extrapolate stuff. So we need to keep it in proportion. It's good. I mean you can obviously see from these numbers that the revenue numbers, I guess, for this year are going to also grow somewhat. And we're not giving any guidance, of course. But that's -- I think this is a good map of what is happening, and you can see how the Yole numbers are changing and growing. And Yole is finally accepting. Yole is close to STMicro, which is which is the only PCM provider actually. And they always -- at least in our mind, they kind of tend to grow the PCM market just because of that influence from STMicro. It's the only supplier of PCM. But anyway, that's kind of -- again, I need to click on this thing. So, recent highlights. You guys know everything here, the AEC-Q100, that's already old news for you guys. Record revenue for the fiscal year, then taped out at onsemi. That was a -- you can see onsemi has a team of I estimate at least 30 people, almost full time working with us. It's a big team. It's a big effort. They are really focused on pushing this forward as fast as possible. It is strategic for them, and it's great -- it's just a great cooperation. It's -- you can see with IDMs, it's really great because they really want to get this out and they want to get their products already moving and they want to. So it's really been a great partnership and this tape-out, and we now have to sit and wait for the wafers, and we'll see how long that goes. We, obviously, we just talked about the record quarterly customer payments. And obviously, that's nice to see there. And by the way, I want to point out, I mean, people are looking also at, oh, this was a positive quarter and stuff. You need to note that there was also the yearly refund payment from the French government that they gave us. So I'd just like to be as transparent and as clear as possible on things. And then you know that we have a target of three fabs and three product companies to sign up this year. I'm very glad that we actually achieved the three product companies already, and that was really nice. We started announcing the first one, and then we have two more now that are -- so there are three products that are already being designed with our ReRAM in them, embedded in them. Obviously, again, the design takes time and they need to manufacture the prototype wafers and test and see and qualify their products. But the clock starts ticking towards revenues eventually. So that's kind of the update. I always like to point to why Weebit is actually managing to make this progress. What is the difference between Weebit and all these other companies that are trying to build ReRAM or work in this nonvolatile domain. And I really think it's this combination of we have the company that is -- I think we're strong. By the way, the cash position is obviously something that is very important. We have $91 million in the bank, and that really enables totally focused on let's improve the technology, let's get the business, let's close these deals. I'm not worrying or spending time on how am I going to raise money now, and that's very important for us. We have money. Again, you start doing extrapolation in fiscal year '25, the spend was about $25 million roughly. So you can see we're feeling good about it for several years now and that we can totally be focused on getting the business, closing deals and in parallel, growing -- improving the technology. The people, you guys know our Board, which I'm extremely proud of each and every one of them. But beyond that, the company now is about 50 people already. We've grown. Obviously, we need to start supporting more projects and these things. We do have roughly 1/3 of the R&D is PhDs in physics and chemistry. I mean we really have a very strong team. You look at the VPs, I think the average experience is over 30 years in this industry, very experienced, very well-known people in the industry worldwide. I'm not talking about just in Israel and even the levels below, I mean, the average age in Weebit is much higher than you see in normal high-tech companies. And it reflects that you need that level of experience. You need that level of know-how of these things. So, really, that's very important. And Leti, of course, is supporting us. So I think it's great to have that. Obviously, we have a very good technology. It's part of it is all of this R&D that is going in with very smart people. We managed to make the technology work and I can tell you, we've hit endless obstacles along the way, but what's important is that you have the team that knows how to overcome them and move forward and fix things. And so really amazing technology, AEC-Q100 and all and so on. And we're providing the solutions now for the customers. And there's actually -- you have onsemi and the analog guys, and we're working a lot with analog guys. There's quite a bit of activity going on now with companies that want edge AI and want to see how we bring in ReRAM there, and there's activity around there and all these other things. And then it's really the customers. We have a very good relationship with the customers. Yes, some of them are just still hesitant. There still is that perceived risk. They still haven't seen this in mass production and so on. So each one at their own pace, but we are pushing forward. We are -- we still have to sign two more agreements. We're working hard on this, trying to get them in this year, and we don't have a lot of time. I remember last year, at this time, I was sitting and people were saying, you don't have time left. You said you're going to have a deal, you don't have time left, and we got it done at the last minute. We're pushing as hard as we can to get this done this year. We are engaged with a lot of companies with a lot of fabs, okay? I mean it's just fabs. I think it's definitely more than 10 that we're engaged right now in discussions, in evaluations in all of this stuff and each one of them with their own story, why and whatever. And -- but there is a very good -- we're in a good place there. And onsemi definitely helped having that deal. And I believe that when we sign another one or two, it's really going to start -- I don't want to say, opening the floodgates, but it's going to get us moving forward. So, and the customers, by the way, the product companies, they -- we have a huge advantage. We have a huge advantage in the design side. People don't realize. We talk about the PhDs and physics and chemistry and stuff. But we have an amazing design team, which is recognized in the industry to the point where sometimes people who try to develop ReRAM ask us, can you guys take our ReRAM bit and do the design around it because we don't know how to do that. And so we have an amazing design team. Customers realize and these product companies, obviously, our goal is to eventually have enough standard modules that people will just come and use them, and we won't need to do manual work there. I mean the goal is to have high margins and then not be doing services. But it's -- the customers know that if they need that support, if they need that design service, we can give it to them. And that's a critical thing. And especially the first customers, they always need some more handholding and stuff. So we have that team. I strongly believe that when you build the brand name that with Weebit, you're going to be successful. That's what really gets the market going. If you look -- if anyone checks my history and the different companies that I was in, almost all my life, I've been competing with companies that gave competing technology for free, literally for free. They were big players. The customers would buy these huge packages from them and then they would tag on, on top of that for free, the competing product. And I had to go and compete with that. And the only way I could do it was just give good service. The customers knew. And I would meet the CEO and I would look him in the eye and I would say with the companies that I was at Verisity or whatever, we're going to -- I'm telling you, no matter what happens, you have a problem, you call me up, I'm bringing in the cavalry. We're coming in, you will be successful with our product. And I was -- we were selling Verisity was selling more than $100 million per year when Synopsys gave its competing technology, which was good for free. And we got more than $100 million a year because people value good service. And that's really what we're doing here. I go and I look at the CEOs in the eye and I tell them, with Weebit, our team will make you successful. We are there. We have a very experienced team, and they are there for you, and we will make sure that your product won't fail because of us. It might fail because of you, but it's not going to fail because of us. And that's a key thing. So that's really just to give you guys where we are, what the status is, if I'll stop sharing, and we can probably go to Q&A side. Danny Younis: Yes. Thank you, Coby. So we will now move to the Q&A part of the session. Once again, for all those online, and there's quite a few of you, if you have any questions, please type it into the Q&A box at the bottom of your screen. I can see they're starting to come through. But I think just to start off with, we might start in the room. Are there any questions from any of the attendees in the room. Unknown Analyst: Question on next year. We obviously -- I mean, you're too early into the commercialization journey to be giving earnings guidance, as you said. This year, I think it was really helpful for the investor community when you issued those targets around the product customers and the fabs. Is it relevant to have a similar target or goal that the investor community can look at and measure against next year, given we don't have that earnings guidance status, if you like, yet? Is that something you've considered? Jacob Hanoch: This guy is on my case saying, what are you going to announce on the AGM? I mean during this trip, how many times have you asked me that question, we're thinking about what we can do. It's very difficult to actually -- I mean, the targets that we set for this year were, a, very aggressive; and b, I mean there's a big risk on achieving these kinds of targets. And it's very hard, especially when you start growing to keep saying how many customers do you expect to have. And I think it's going to be hard for us to talk about number of customers, but we know you guys need some sort of targets or guideline or whatever, and we trying to figure out what would be the most meaningful goal for you and to keep going. So we're discussing this, and I guess we have a month until the AGM, and we'll figure out what we want to present there. By the way, can you mention the names? I'd like to get to -- David, I know. Unknown Analyst: Just regarding these -- the deals that you've made with the product companies, can you give me an indication of the scope what one may entail? Is it just particularly one particular model of chip that they're looking at? And if it is one, how much extra negotiation or whatever that has to go on if they decide to do another one or expand what's existing? Jacob Hanoch: I think we have you here. Eran Briman: Well, I think in the quarterly activity report, we mentioned also the specific markets that these guys are targeting. Battery management was one of those and then some security-related applications and products. These deals, they differ from one another. It's not one deal that fits all of them. In most cases, they get a license to use the technology in a specific product, while others would like to have this in a complete product line. So, entire products. But I think at this stage, we won't be able to give any specific details about these. Jacob Hanoch: I guess what I can say is right now, they're mostly coming with one product. They want to test the waters, right? I mean nobody jumps head first to the deep end without knowing enough. So the deals that we have now, I guess, basically are, again, I can't talk about all of them. But in general, let me talk generality a bit. Most of the companies that we talked to and we're already engaged, obviously, with more product companies. Most of them are basically thinking of one first product. And we have that negotiation. Some of them want some NRE work and stuff, others are actually willing to use the more standard module. Now obviously, once they do one product and they feel comfortable, they'll want to do more. So it's -- we look at it as we're opening the door to that customer, and now we want to go and expand. So now once you sign the first license agreement, normally, you can just add addendums and it becomes much easier. And that's -- again, that as you grow, the overheads start shrinking because a lot of things you did already and now you can. So the customers you already have agreements with, you normally just add an addendum and you specify the new product. And I mean, if it's a different manufacturing node, there are a lot of parameters, by the way, in these license agreements that you define. And the license fee to give everyone a feel for this thing, the license fee varies by 1 million different parameters, by the size of the memory, by the node that they're using, if it's 130 or 65 or if in the future, it will be smaller nodes, it kind of changes. So there are a lot of parameters. It's hard to give a guidance on, okay, this is what it's going to look like. But the key thing is once the company starts working with normally, they will -- they get to know your technology, their designers get to know it. And then they can just start using it more and more and more products in parallel and you start having a lot of addendums to that license. Unknown Analyst: In November last year, you indicated that once you felt once you had two or three customers that FOMO would sit in. And you've also talked about in the past, crossing the chaser. So, on those metrics, where do you consider you are now? Jacob Hanoch: So we were just talking about it this morning. We're right now in that crossing the chasm bowling. We're at the point where DB HiTek helped us drop the pin of onsemi, onsemi definitely now got others moving. I think we're getting closer to that tornado. I think that, I don't know, one, two more agreements, we'll see it going. So it's -- we're sensing it. We're sensing the fact that, I mean, we're talking to all of these foundries, IDMs, et cetera, and people know they need ReRAM. I mean, by now, TSMC has it in mass production. They need to compete. Now that GlobalFoundries announced it, it got more attention. The market is moving. It's moving at semiconductor pace, but it's definitely moving. Unknown Analyst: Yes. Last one for me. I was just interested in understanding the difference between the fab and the IDM. Obviously, with DB HiTek, we know you've got to go through the tape-out, the wafer production, qualification, et cetera, and then start talking maybe some in parallel, but then start talking to customers about their design and then going through that process to get to a customer chip. With the IDM because they are their own customer, is it safe for us to assume that, therefore, the time to a product and market is shorter with the IDM because you don't have that secondary design, test, qualify process? Jacob Hanoch: The answer is yes. The answer is yes because the thing is when you're working with two independent companies, there's that trust level that I mean the product company, the issue is how much they trust the fab or the foundry in this case, that everything will go well and it will be ready and whatever. So they tend to want to wait until qualification. Now sometimes, and you can obviously see companies actually end up signing up before qualification because they can already see the qualification happening and stuff. But it still takes time. I mean there is still -- it's two different companies, and they need that trust level. The thing in an IDM is it's one company. When it decides to sign up to manufacture, it's because it knows that it wants it for its own products, okay? So there's -- you kind of skip that phase of convincing because the only reason why they sign a manufacturing license is because they know they want it for their end products. I mean, otherwise, why would they sign up with you. So, in that sense, that doesn't exist and you can parallelize more. Now where and how and what's happening onsemi has been very strict with us on don't talk about anything. So we can't go into specific what's happening with onsemi. But in general, you're absolutely right. Unknown Analyst: What's your confidence? I'm sorry, my name is [indiscernible] Jacob Hanoch: Okay. I just -- normally I meet you every time, so I need to know. Unknown Analyst: What's your confidence level in achieving or in signing the two remaining IDM fabs and the qualification of the South Korean company, DB HiTek? Jacob Hanoch: So, qualification is actually moving. We had some.... Unknown Analyst: Sorry, if I may just add by 31st December. Jacob Hanoch: 31st of December, yes, of course. That I understood very well. So, with DB HiTek, we had some hiccups on the way. I mean, always expected that you have some issues, but we are continuing. We believe that the qualification will be done by December 31. Right now, whatever big surprise happens. But in general, we're on that path. With the fabs, we are in advanced stages with one, with others. We're also moving forward. We're really trying to get more done by the end of the year. I guess I can say some might slip into 2026. I can't -- the 31st -- the problem is it takes two to tango, right? And these guys sometimes drag things. So we believe we can definitely close -- one of them we can definitely close. The second one, we are really pushing hard. And actually, there's, again, we're engaged with a lot of them. I don't even know who -- sometimes who it will be because we're talking to several. But the goal is really to push as much as we can to have these things done by the end of the year, and we'll see. It's work in progress. Unknown Analyst: The equity incentives of the other directors are hang on. Jacob Hanoch: Well, my equity incentive, believe me, I'm thinking about that a lot. Believe me, I'm thinking about that a lot, mine and his. We all -- our equity is tied to this, and we're really pushing as hard as we can to get it done. You can imagine. Unknown Analyst: Wishing you the best. Danny Younis: Are there any questions still inside the room? We can revert back to you at the end, okay? So if you think of any more. We've got quite a few online questions. I'll also try and pull them where possible, Coby. The first one is actually from an e-mail from Stuart that we got. It's in regard to the pipeline. Would you mind talking a bit more about the pipeline as part of your presentation? Specifically, you have mentioned previously potential signings are being held as no one wants to go first. Is that a comment in relation to fabs, IDMs or product companies? And now that customers are signing, is that helping discussions with others? Jacob Hanoch: So, first of all, human nature is such that we don't like change. And people like to -- what they're comfortable in to stay in their home, in their environment. So whenever change come, people resist it. And that's true for everyone, right, and in any domain. Specifically in this domain, it's true for the fabs, for the product companies. We had a situation where I can tell you with one of the fabs, I thought we were going to sign a long time ago. And then they were already convinced and wanted to go forward and then their product customer told them, hey, we're still not comfortable with this new stuff and whatever, and we want to do flash for another project and stuff. And suddenly, the whole thing comes to us screeching halt and they focus on flash and they come back to us almost a year later. So that's part of the challenge that we have in giving these guidelines and things. You never know how it will work even when the fab is already telling you, we're totally convinced we want to run with ReRAM. Suddenly, their product company tells them, "no, no, no, no. We really prefer flash first. Let's let someone else do that product. We'll do ReRAM the next one, right? So it happens. And -- but I think, again, and this is also true. The more people you see around you starting to use something, the more at ease you are with using it. And that's what's happening. onsemi really helped us. I mean it's -- there's before onsemi and after onsemi. And after onsemi, when people see such an important player in the market, that's signing up with this technology, they say, okay, they're talking. They're talking. Now again, some of them are dragging their feet and saying, oh, until we don't see DB HiTek with a product in mass production, we're just not going to move forward. We want to see it in mass production. And there are several like that. Others are saying, okay, we understand that if onsemi analyzed it and took that risk, we can feel more at ease and they still do evaluations and they still go through all of this stuff, but we're progressing. These negotiations, by the way, are just -- they take so long and their lawyers. I can tell you, let me go back to onsemi. If we go back more than a year ago, I was sure onsemi was going to close before September. It was literally ready for closure. And then suddenly, they tell me, oh, the lawyer is busy now. We're doing an M&A. I think they announced some acquisition in November or something like that. The lawyer just disappeared, and we were so close and the lawyer disappeared. And that's why it ended up closing in December. Now you asked me December 31, it could have been that the lawyer would have been busy two more weeks, and we couldn't have closed onsemi on time. So it's that kind of thing. It's -- we're doing our best on these things to push these forward. Danny Younis: Okay. There's a few questions on DB Hi-Tek. Two or three investors online have asked about an update on the quarter. You've already answered that, so we don't need to answer that again. But Stuart's got another question in terms of DB Hi-Tek. Are there still a lot of fabs, IDMs and/or product companies waiting for DB qualification? That is. Will that be the dam wall bursting when that's completed? Jacob Hanoch: It's going to be definitely an important milestone. There are some companies that are telling us, we just want to see that happen. We just want to see that you actually close that qual. So I don't want to say it will open the wall, but it's going to be another crack in the wall. I think that the big thing will be some more major players signing up and we're pushing on that. I mean that's the big push, but it's definitely going to help us push forward. Danny Younis: All right. There's a few questions onsemi. Can you provide a little bit more detail on the final qualification with onsemi? Jacob Hanoch: I guess onsemi, we can't really talk -- what we can say is we taped out, okay? Now this is now being manufactured, guess where, in onsemi, okay? And you can understand that they consider it a high priority. So now I don't control their priorities in the fab. I mean it takes many months to manufacture. They can give it higher priority. I don't know what other stuff is running through their fab line right now and where they're putting these wafers relative to products that they manufacture for their customers to actually get revenue. So, but they're manufacturing them, and we'll get them back. Once we get them back, as you know, we start doing all the testing and verifying and then seeing that everything is in a good shape. And hopefully, at that point, we can start qualification. The good news is because it's, again, it's the fab that is also the customer and so on, when we want to run more lots, if you remember, we need to do qualification on 3 separate lots that run independently. So, I mean, those kind of things, I imagine. Again, I'm not committing to anything, but I imagine they will probably give priority to get these lots through so that we can do the qualification and they can get their products out. Danny Younis: Some of the investors are pushing a little hard at it, Coby. I know you probably can't answer this, but given onsemi was talked out in early October, is there a chance you could be receiving royalties from onsemi in full year 2026 fiscal year? Jacob Hanoch: I guess Unfortunately, again, they will -- you can assume that they'll want to have this in their products and they'll want to push this forward. But their schedules, we know some of them. By the way, we don't know a lot. They keep it secret from us as well. And even what we do know, they made it very clear that it's under NDA, and we shouldn't be talking to anyone about it. Danny Younis: Maybe to rephrase it as Warren does here, once qualification is finalized, how soon will you have products ready-for-sale potentially? Jacob Hanoch: I really try -- I try to be as transparent as I can with you guys, but onsemi was very clear, don't talk about these things. Eran Briman: Maybe we can just say in general, it takes between 18 months to 24 months for. Jacob Hanoch: Yes. From the day they start doing a design of a product, it's -- the rough schedule in general, again, talking generalities, it's I would say, between 18 and 24 or 30 months. It depends on the product and the complexity and whatever. But that's kind of the time scale to get product out to mass production. Danny Younis: Okay. Maybe a final one on onsemi before we go into other matters. The current tape-out with onsemi, is that the end design final product that's taped out in order to reduce the time? Jacob Hanoch: No, no. No, it's the test chip. You need to remember, this is the first ever tape-out of ReRAM. So it's a test chip that we designed. I think I presented it a while back. It's a complete test chip. It has a processor. It has SRAM on it. It has a bus and everything. I mean it's a complete basically, it's a complete SoC, okay? We did a complete system on a chip, which has our ReRAM in it where you can really load programs in and run them. And so it's a real system that is going out, but it is our design for test purposes at this point. Danny Younis: Okay. We'll move on to other topics. So, from Chris, Coby, firstly, congratulations on a great quarter. How are things progressing with automotive companies? Will this be a slow burn in terms of them putting pen to paper? Jacob Hanoch: You can answer that one also, right? Eran Briman: Well, I want to say automotive is definitely one of the key markets and a lot of interest in that domain. We get -- in modern vehicles today, you get thousands of chips in there and they are more advanced than what you might find in other IoT devices. There's the push over there, we feel it very clearly. I think onsemi is a very good application. onsemi is all about automotive applications. So I feel very confident with these prospects over there. Jacob Hanoch: I would add just the thing about automotive is human lives depend on. And that's something you need to remember, the regulation that you have in different countries related to it, the standards that you need to meet. It's not just AEC-Q100 that you need to meet. There's ASIL and there's ISO 26262, and there's 1 million different qualifications, if you want to call it, that they need to pass and they need to show that people won't die because, right? So it's very, very critical automotive projects normally take much longer than an average SoC. And that's something that people need to understand. They will engage with us now, and they see the potential. And I mean, a lot of these automotives are actually analog. Remember that graph there, a lot like onsemi. So a lot of these automotive guys are analog and they will engage with us now. They can already see the AEC-Q100, they can already see the potential. But how long will it take until it's actually in mass production, automotive projects take longer. Eran Briman: Maybe just to add on that, it's also stickier. Jacob Hanoch: Yes. I mean once they work with you, the cars -- the same model of car, and it's not just the same model of car. The subsystem is used in many future generations of that car. So once you're in, you're in for decades. I mean those are the type of projects that you sign up and you know royalty is now going to come in for a long time, you're going to have that royalty stream. Danny Younis: Okay. The next question from Jason is around the security product. Can we get a sense of what a security product means in terms of the use of a Weebit chip? Eran Briman: Well, secured products mean one of the advantages that ReRAM has is the security. The fact that the NVM is integrated with the main SoC means it's much more difficult to hack the products. You get secured products in payments, secure payment. You get this in your NFC products in your smartphone. Also secured products in automotive, right? It's extremely important to make sure that there's no way to hack into your autonomous vehicle or whatever it is. So these are the types of products that we're seeing over there. And the NVM is a critical part there, right? It's one of those. Jacob Hanoch: The NVM also -- I mean, ReRAM has some unique characteristics about no two ReRAMs are identical. And so people use that, for example, for security keys or things like that. So it's used in many different security applications. But that variability that you have between ReRAMs and the fact that no two ReRAMs are the same is something that a lot of people like and use that in the security. Danny Younis: Okay. The next question is around the architectural agreement. So is the architectural agreement still alive? And if yes, can you comment on what nodes would be part of the architectural agreement? Jacob Hanoch: So is it alive? Yes. One of those fabs that we were talking to is, again, an architectural agreement is also much more complex than a regular agreement, and that's one of the things that's causing it to drag forever. But yes, I never -- if you would have asked me in 2023, do I think I'll be sitting here at the end of '25 and still saying, yes, it's alive, and we haven't signed it yet. I would have said you're crazy. How long will it take? But unfortunately, it's definitely alive. It's definitely alive, and we are working with those guys. But once we announce it -- yes, I mean, once it's done, we'll announce it. I can't talk about it before that. Danny Younis: Maybe on GlobalFoundries, there' a question here. Maybe can you provide an update on if the GF chips were qualified? Jacob Hanoch: The best of our knowledge. I mean, in their announcement, they didn't mention qualification. If it were qualified, I imagine they would want to say that. So they didn't mention it. They also didn't mention the word automotive anywhere in that announcement. So, two things that we didn't see in their announcement. Now they started much later. They are putting a lot of emphasis. I know that they are putting a lot of emphasis to push this fast through. But still, it's a lot of work, and we don't really know beyond that where they stand. But we're relying on their announcement. If I were them and it were qualified, I would say it's qualified. I want the customers. Danny Younis: Christian is pretty keen to know, are you working with any mobile phone product companies? Jacob Hanoch: Also, our... Eran Briman: Among enough. Jacob Hanoch: Among, among, yes, we're talking to so many different product companies, and there's also those. Eran Briman: Yes, smartphones, they have tens of different chips inside from the big SoC that runs the application processor that's usually much more advanced in terms of process node to a lot of power management devices that you have there and smart payments and all these things. So, I'm sure eventually, we'll find ourselves in one of those smartphones, yes. Danny Younis: Okay. Turning to SkyWater. Maybe just an update there on the current relationship status. Jacob Hanoch: I think right now, it's pretty obvious they are totally focused on their R&D services, and we're a customer there. So, I mean, we definitely -- we're a customer right now of SkyWater. The fact that we're qualified there is great because now R&D can actually do a lot of testing there, and they are faster and cheaper than Leti. So a lot of things we're actually running through them to save money and to do things faster. In terms of working with them, to be honest, right now, they've disappointed me so much that even they acquired a new big fab in... Eran Briman: In Texas. Jacob Hanoch: In Texas. I don't know what they're doing there. I don't see I don't want to bash whatever. But right now, there's no real discussion about that. And by the way, we're talking to such bigger fabs right now. To me, they are lower priority. I mean I'd rather close agreements with some of the big guys than with SkyWater anyway, so. Danny Younis: There's a couple of questions around discrete. So the first one is, do we risk our competition beating us to discrete ReRAM while we focus wholly on embedded? Jacob Hanoch: So, first of all, we're not focused wholly on embedded. There is work in the background. It is low priority, admittedly, but there is work going on all the time. I mean just in September, I was at Leti with the R&D team, and we were talking about discrete and how we push this forward and looking at the different options and so on. So it's definitely not dead. It's definitely something that we know is important and we want to push forward. I personally believe we -- I am not aware of any other company that is working on discrete ReRAM right now. So I don't think we're risking someone beating us to it. I haven't seen anything anywhere about a company that's trying to do discrete ReRAM right now. So it's something that people would love to have, but it's a big challenge. I think that's -- again, going back to Weebit's differentiation, it I'm hesitating to say this, but I really can't think of another company in the world right now that has the combination of team, technology, resources, management focus that can actually do discrete ReRAM. I really can't think of that. Eran Briman: We had the Fujitsu that was doing some ReRAM for some time. Jacob Hanoch: Yes, they were trying to do, but that was it. Yes. So there's -- I think we're definitely -- I don't think anyone is going to bypass us. It's true. It's not a high priority right now, but it's still working all the time in the background. Danny Younis: And given it's not high priority, the next question sort of alludes to this. So can you give an indication of the time line to discrete? And have you yet identified a preferred selector architecture? Jacob Hanoch: I can't give any time line. It's still a lot of work. It's really a lot of work to do, and it's going to require R&D and we are exploring all kinds of talking about architectures. We're still at the phase of -- we're trying one and then we're thinking maybe there's another potential. And so there's different options that we're looking at. And yes, so it's still work in progress, and it will take time. Danny Younis: Stephen's got an interesting question here. So are there any restrictions on Chinese companies obtaining or manufacturing ReRAM? Jacob Hanoch: The U.S. has a black list of companies that you can talk to. So those are definitely off of our target list. But beyond that, we don't have a real restriction. I can tell you that I'm just giving preference to anyone who's not Chinese right now because of the risk. I mean you don't know if a company that you're working with might end up on the black list later on or things like that. We've already seen situations where companies that we were considering working with that actually kind of ended up in the black list. So I'm very cautious. We have so much potential right now in the rest of the world. And China is a huge market, and you can't really ignore it. But at the same time, Weebit is just entering this huge vacuum. There's an unbelievable vacuum out there that we can fill. And there's no -- I mean, why take the risk of trying to work with a company where there might be an issue when you have so many others. Danny Younis: There's a couple of questions from Jason and Serena on EMASS. So maybe just to make the generic. Has the EMASS collab progressed? And can you maybe just talk to the talk that they're progressing towards a 16-nanometer form factor, which seems to be beyond Weebit's announced capabilities. Maybe just comment on that. Eran Briman: Yes. Well, we worked with EMASS, it was earlier in the year towards this demonstration that we have. It's a beautiful demonstration. I think recently, we also uploaded a video that shows this demo. I think it's very nice. It has great potential. They were using a 22-nanometer process node, and they have the option to continue and work with us. We're in discussions, but there's nothing much to actually report at this stage. So, let's see how this progresses. Danny Younis: Okay. We'll go to more market general questions. So anything happening on the AI front? Eran Briman: A lot. Jacob Hanoch: This guy and his team are -- I think that's the biggest activity. Eran Briman: There's a lot going on, on AI. AI is divided into multiple steps. We're seeing a lot of interest in integrating our ReRAM into an AI SoC, just to get the memory closer to the processing elements and reduce the amount of data movements. And at the same time, we're seeing increased interest also in what's called in-memory compute -- this is where the computation is done within the memory element themselves. We're seeing a lot of interest from research institutes. I would say that for the past five, six years, maybe five years ago, this in-memory compute was just a concept that people were talking about. Nowadays, this is in real research, but not just within universities and research centers, but also large corporations and companies are investing heavily in this domain. I think it's still not ready for production, but we're getting there. We're getting there every year. It's getting closer and closer. I wouldn't put any time line on this, but it's there and the interest that we get from customers and from such partners is very high. Jacob Hanoch: And I guess I would just add, Edge AI, I talked about it, I think, in the previous period time that I was here in Australia. ReRAM is really a natural fit for Edge AI, and that's a domain that's really growing rapidly and the demand there is growing. The challenge is a lot of these guys want to work at 22 and below. And right now, we actually don't have that to offer them. But some of them are working in larger geometries, and we are relevant. So, but in general, there are a lot of calls even from big name companies who say, hey, we saw you were working with ReRAM. You have ReRAM. We're looking at it for Edge AI and what do you think? So I mean, it's definitely something that a lot of people are looking at ReRAM for Edge AI. Danny Younis: Speaking of Edge AI, I've got a question here from Jason on Edge AI. So can you maybe just clarify, has this been signed as a product company or in negotiations? Jacob Hanoch: So, unfortunately, we gave all the information we could on the product companies in the quarterly. Companies are still trying to be more -- I mean, eventually, they will be announcing their products. And I think these things will become public. Hopefully, they'll let us start talking about it more. I guess, beyond the fact that right now, the three product companies, what we mentioned are U.S.-based, I can't really talk about which application -- I think we -- for the first one, we mentioned they were a security company. The others right now we need to be really careful with them. So that's what we can say. Danny Younis: Maybe touching on Samsung. So what's Samsung's focus these days with regarding NVM? Are they MRAM focused? Jacob Hanoch: So, Samsung, I mean, what they have in mass production right now is MRAM. And what they're offering their customers is MRAM, I guess. Eran Briman: I think it was public that they had some ReRAM. Jacob Hanoch: They had a big ReRAM project, which they ended up shutting down because it just -- they couldn't get it off the -- working. Beyond that, I don't think we can comment. Danny Younis: Michael's got a technical question here. How are you going in terms of reducing the process node to 10 nanometers? Jacob Hanoch: Well, I said we're talking to a lot of fabs. And obviously, that's the direction we want to go, and we want to get fabs that work in the smaller nodes. So, eventually, we'll be there, right? It's a matter of pushing. And you can see -- again, that's part of that "perceived risk thing that in the beginning for the companies, the smaller the geometry, the higher the perceived risk. And so that's why you've seen that we started with 130. Now we're at 65 and then we're trying to push down, and we'll be getting there. Danny Younis: Okay. The next question is around your technology. So once it's in a customer product, will the performance results help sell that Weebit technology to other possible customers? Eran Briman: Definitely. Jacob Hanoch: I mean the ReRAM has big advantages over flash and people will see it and people will see the competitive advantage of the products that have ReRAM in them. I'm sure that, that will help us. Danny Younis: Yes. And when are you looking at reducing the smaller nodes? Jacob Hanoch: Well, as soon as these guys will sign that damn paper. Eran Briman: But we're confident there's no technical barrier to a 1x geometry, knock-knock. Jacob Hanoch: At the 1x, definitely not. Below that, there's more work to be done. But at the 1x, we've already done quite a few -- yes, I mean, I'll even say we have PDKs. We did simulations. We've seen that there's no issue. Danny Younis: Is ReRAM a good fit with the new generations of humanoid robots under development? Jacob Hanoch: Definitely. Definitely. Eran Briman: Definitely. For multiple functions. Jacob Hanoch: Yes, for exactly. I'm thinking for a lot of different functions there. We talked about AI, which is part of it. It's really for many different functions. Eran Briman: AI, it's the motor control that you need to run, which is it's a power management. There's many different functions within this. Danny Younis: Maybe a question on one of your competitors. What are the key differentiators between Weebit's ReRAM and TSMCs? Jacob Hanoch: From what we know, and again, we don't know enough about TSMC from what we know. I would say, first of all, it's the company focus. It's not the actual technology. We -- I don't think we can really comment on speed or performance or power or whatever. We don't know enough, and I don't want to go into that. But I think the real difference is the company focus. Weebit has the design team that is there to help -- and we know because we had customers who actually called us up and said, we talked to TSMC, we wanted to use their ReRAM, but we wanted them to do some modifications for us, and they wouldn't do it. They said, God help, basically. TSMC is a fab. They want to manufacture. They don't want to start dealing with modifying. I mean this whole ReRAM is just an enabler for them to sell wafers. So they have several versions. It's a good ReRAM. First of all, let's make it clear. TSMC is TSMC, and they have a good ReRAM and people are using it. And I'm not going to say it's anything bad about the ReRAM. But Weebit, the advantage is that we have everything around, and we will work with the customers to give them what they need to tailor it to give them a better solution. I believe that the investment that we're making in R&D, and we are working on new concepts in manufacturing ReRAM and on improving the whole manufacturing process. I don't know how much TSMC is continually investing in it. Again, it's not their core competence. It's not something that they plan to make a lot of money off of. I mean it's -- right now, they are making a lot of money off of it because they're the only ones who have ReRAM. So they put this big margin on there. We tell people ReRAM doesn't add more than whatever, 7%, 8% to the cost of a silicon wafer, they say, but TSMC is asking for 40% like, well, because they can, right? So, but in reality, they're not -- this isn't what they're going to make money off of. And at a certain point, there's a limit to how much they'll invest in this R&D. So I believe that over the years, we will continually improve the technology. And at a certain point, and it's not going to be immediate, but at a certain point, I believe we have a good chance of having a better ReRAM that some customers will want and will push TSMC to license the ReRAM from us. Danny Younis: We're on the last four questions online, and then I'll throw back to the room for any final questions. Very general questions. So are we going to see any takeover offers in the near future? Jacob Hanoch: I guess everyone knows what my answer to that. Danny Younis: And on the topic of cap raises, any cap raises in the future? Jacob Hanoch: With $91 million in the bank, I'm focused on getting the deals done. I really don't think I need to think of cap raises. Danny Younis: There's maybe more of a comment here rather than a question in terms of maybe getting other directors like Atiq to join these webinars maybe once a year. It's good having Eran on, maybe introducing other directors as well maybe. Jacob Hanoch: Honestly, I never thought -- I mean, we have Dadi coming every year to the AGM, and he's there. The others are nonexecutives, so I normally don't think about getting them involved, but that's -- let me think about. Danny Younis: A couple of more have come in at the last minute. Outside of the foundry deals and partnerships you've already talked about, is there any other area, potentially a new market or application that you think could quietly become a big growth driver for Weebit over the next few years, something that's not really on the radar at the moment? Jacob Hanoch: We look around. I mean that's this guy's job, right? Business development is his title, right? And we're always looking around at how -- first of all, how ReRAM can be used in different places. And then every once in a while, there are ideas of complementary things. I mean this is the type of thing that I think any company is always looking at, at what's happening in the market happening around. And I mean, when things happen, they happen, right? Eran Briman: I think one interesting market that we're seeing that we get a lot of questions about data centers, AI, but data center side, right? So very focused on Edge AI, and we're doing a lot of stuff there, and I hope soon we'll be able to talk more. But on the data center front, what we're seeing is not necessarily the NVIDIA chips, which run at a much more advanced process node, but the power management, which is a critical issue when it comes to data centers, right? The amount of power and the air conditioning that runs in there and all that. So power management is critical. And one of the markets, for example, for semi is data centers, power management for data centers. So this is definitely an interesting way into those data centers for resistance. Danny Younis: Okay. We've probably only got time for two more questions, maybe one from the room. Eran Briman: All right. Danny Younis: Okay. So the third last question. From your perspective, how should shareholders best interpret the information that you shared? And what are some of those indicators that you can suggest that investors should focus on to understand your future momentum? Jacob Hanoch: I think Yes. I -- honestly, it's hard to talk about yourself and whatever. But I think Weebit is a very conservative company, which is just focused on doing the job. We basically try -- I think you can see -- first of all, I try to be as transparent as I can. Second, you can see the targets and how we progress from year-to-year and slowly. It's -- actually, in semiconductor terms, we're really moving fast. So I know it looks like forever and -- but we are moving, and it's really steady as she goes, right? So I think that more than anything, I hope that shareholders are looking at how things evolved and are seeing that we went -- I remember when I joined the company, we had just the first bit cell and then the array and then we got to the full chip and we qualified and we went to SkyWater and we went to DBH and we got to onsemi. And so I hope you can see that trajectory. Now you can also see the cash. I mean, fiscal year '24 was $1 million revenue, fiscal '25 was $4.4 million. Now just this quarter, you can see already how much cash is coming in. So you can start understanding where it's heading. I really just hope that people see that we're serious. We're doing the work. I don't like to blow things out of proportion. I don't like to go -- when things don't work well, we don't go into, oh my God, everything is falling apart. We're -- it's a very experienced team. We've been through endless hurdles in our lives. And at Weebit, believe me, we've gone through quite a few. And we just -- we hit the hurdle, okay, what do we need to do? We fix it, we move on, and we continue to progress. So I just think people need to look at that and see how every quarter things advance. Danny Younis: And this is a good one to finish off from the online questions at least, 10 years, with your crystal ball, where do you see the company in terms of scale or size versus your peers? Eran Briman: Or the market. Jacob Hanoch: Yes, I'm not giving any guidance because this -- in Hebrew, we say prophecy was given to the falls. I mean that's what's written in the Bible, prophecy was given to the falls. So -- and I don't consider myself such of it. So -- but I mean, obviously, I believe Weebit will be growing. My goal. I can say what my goal is. My goal is to be the leader, the #1 ReRAM company. And I think in 10 years, it's going to be not just ReRAM. We will expand beyond ReRAM. There is a lot more out there. I mean, who knows -- again, people asked about M&A. Things happen when they happen and when you have opportunities. But over 10 years, who knows, you can assume that there might be some opportunities. the whole market, AI, we don't have a clue where it's going to head. ReRAM is a natural solution for AI. So I believe you're going to see a big AI market and you're going to see Weebit as a big player there. That's, again, my belief and my goal, what I would like to do, no guidance or any commitments or whatever. Danny Younis: Do we have a final question in the room? Unknown Analyst: Just regarding the test chip that's been manufactured and in some cases, qualified. Is there any commercial viability to sell that as it is since it's already gone through the full process? Jacob Hanoch: It's a very simple system on a chip. I mean some people might want to actually use it. I don't know. Eran Briman: There is a possibility, I think. For certain applications, some IoT applications, it could be a good fit. But I definitely believe that for a true product, you would need at least to add some kind of interfaces and real-world interfaces into the chip or... Unknown Analyst: I thought that actually was the idea that was made quite generic and versatile for people to test out. Eran Briman: Yes. It's very generic and versatile. I agree. Jacob Hanoch: But for commercial purposes, they'll probably want to tag on some more. And to be honest, I haven't really thought much about it. But if a customer comes and say, "Hey, your test chip is really interesting. I just want to tag on some things. We have no problem to license the full test chip. Unknown Analyst: A quick question about patents. Could you tell me or tell us roughly how many patents you would have covering ReRAM compared to your main competitors like TSMC? Eran Briman: So we're not following up on specific patents from competitors. I think... Unknown Analyst: Just numbers. Eran Briman: Yes. So I think in the last quarter, we announced six new patent applications were made and we were at more than 90 patents for us. With regards to competition, I don't have the answer. Jacob Hanoch: Yes, we actually -- it's -- in the industry, people try to avoid researching the patents of others because you can only get into trouble. So... Unknown Analyst: We took get someone else to do it for you. Jacob Hanoch: I guess it was less interesting for us. As long as we know that to the best of our knowledge, we're not infringing on anything, and that's what we care about. That's what's important. Danny Younis: Unfortunately, we've run out of time. So that concludes the Q&A session. I'll now hand back to Coby for any closing remarks. Jacob Hanoch: Well, I guess, first of all, I'm always glad to meet you guys and the people that are out there. as I said before, Weebit is moving forward, progressing, making good progress. You can see it. We definitely plan to close more deals this year. We -- that's the big focus right now next year to already get into that tornado and really get this thing moving. We have an amazing team, and we have amazing shareholders that stick with us in the ups and downs and all. And yes, I mean, the numbers, again, what happened this quarter, I'm repeating, don't expect every quarter to be like this and going up, but it's good, and we are going to continue to get money from customers and the numbers will grow over time. So, it's good, and we're moving forward. Danny Younis: Okay. Thank you, Coby. Thank you, Eran. Thank you to all the people who attended in person, and thank you to all those online who can now disconnect. Thank you. Eran Briman: Thank you everyone. Jacob Hanoch: Thank you.
Operator: Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the third quarter 2025 IMAX Corporation earnings call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one-one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one-one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Jennifer Horsley, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Jennifer Horsley: Good morning and thank you for joining us for IMAX Corporation's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. On the call today to review the financial results are Richard L. Gelfond, Chief Executive Officer, and Natasha Fernandes, our Chief Financial Officer. Rob Lister, Chief Legal Officer, is also joining us today. Today's conference call is being webcast in its entirety on our website. A replay of the webcast will be made available shortly after the call. In addition, the full text of our earnings press release and the slide presentation have been posted on the Investor Relations section of our site. Our historical Excel model is posted to the website as well. I would like to remind you of the following information regarding forward-looking statements. Today's call, as well as the accompanying slide deck, may include statements that are forward-looking and that pertain to future results or outcomes. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause your actual future results to not occur or occurrences to differ. Please refer to our SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of some of the factors that could affect our future results and outcomes. Any forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on assumptions as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. During today's call, references may be made to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Discussion of management's use of these measures and the definition of these measures, as well as the reconciliation to non-GAAP financial measures, are contained in this morning's press release and our earnings materials, which are available on the Investor Relations page of our website at imax.com. With that, let me turn the call over to Mr. Richard L. Gelfond. Rich? Richard L. Gelfond: Thanks, Jennifer, and thanks, everyone, for joining us as we review an exceptional quarter for IMAX. We delivered our highest third-quarter revenue ever with $106.7 million and our best-ever quarterly cash flow with $67.5 million. We drove growth of more than 30% across gross margin, net income, adjusted EBITDA, and earnings per share. Our third-quarter earnings exceeded those of our first and second quarters combined. The third quarter of 2025 was our highest grossing Q3 ever at the global box office with $368 million, up 50% year over year. Signings of new and upgraded IMAX systems surged past our full-year total for 2024 with 142 through September, and we are approaching 100 installations year to date. We now expect to hit the high end of our guidance of between 150 and 160 installations for the full year. You've heard me say that IMAX has been moving into a new position, that we've been steadily building something bigger. Throughout the year, we've delivered operating results that exceed expectations and transcend the broader marketplace. Early on, many thought our full-year guidance of $1.2 billion in global box office would be difficult to achieve. We're now very well positioned to deliver on that guidance. Following our Q2 earnings call, our stock dipped, with many noting that the Q3 Hollywood slate looked soft on paper, and we proceeded to deliver a record quarter. IMAX is, quite simply, a different company than it was just a few years ago. This quarter is the latest and maybe the clearest example yet on how far we've come. We're consistently delivering a diversified, dynamic portfolio across Hollywood blockbusters, local language titles, and alternative content, and we further separated ourselves from exhibition as a result. In Q3, the Mexican box office declined 11% year over year. IMAX was up 29% in North America, and globally, IMAX was up 50%. In prior years, when IMAX posted big results, you could usually point to a single defining title: Avatar, Top Gun, Oppenheimer. Now, our performance is increasingly driven by the full breadth of our content strategy. In the third quarter, we had a big film for IMAX Hollywood hit in F1, for which we dramatically over-indexed. We also had a powerhouse Japanese light language release in Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle. We hosted successful music events from Prince and The Grateful Dead. We flexed our muscles in horror, not historically a genre associated with IMAX, with strong openings for The Conjuring and Weapons. We even leveraged The IMAX Experience to breathe new life into legacy titles, most notably with our successful re-release of Jaws. IMAX is not just a premium format. We're a platform for event content that spans genres and the globe. That diversified portfolio and the marketing prowess of the IMAX brand as a beacon of must-see theatricality make us much more valuable to our studio and exhibition partners than ever, which continues to drive strong installation and sales activity. Audiences in 89 countries and territories around the world know that for awe-inspiring experiences, you must see it in IMAX. The third quarter saw the conclusion of our record run of consecutive Filmed For IMAX blockbusters through the summer, but it also demonstrated our ability to drive success beyond releases shot with our cameras. The halo effect of IMAX extends across a wider collection of films, events, and experiences than ever. F1: The Movie was our highest-grossing Hollywood release of the year, with $97 million worldwide to date, more than 15% of the film's total box office on less than 1% of the screens. Our success with F1 was powered by our deep collaboration with Apple on the film, the latest example of how IMAX has emerged as a premier partner for streaming platforms. We now have four blockbuster openings on the year: Sinners, Mission Impossible, F1, and Tron Aries, for which we've generated at least 20% of the domestic opening on just over 400 North American screens. That's a feat we've achieved less than a dozen times in our entire history, and four of those came in the last six months. It's also been a watershed year for our local language strategy, as evidenced most recently by Demon Slayer. The global anime phenomenon has earned more than $73 million to date in IMAX. It's our biggest Japanese film of all time. It delivered our biggest September opening ever in North America, an astounding feat for a foreign film, and we indexed 19% of its domestic debut. We're optimistic the film will secure a release in China too, where recent Japanese anime titles, including First Slam Dunk and Suzume, have played very well for us. We've now generated more than $356 million in local language box office year to date, shattering our previous record of $243 million set for the full year 2023. International films account for 36% of our global box office year to date, up from less than 20% last year. As we look ahead to the stretch run of the year, the slate is significantly stronger than last year's stripped, depleted offering. November includes two IMAX-friendly releases in Predator: Badlands and The Running Man. We have used our leverage to program another strong Thanksgiving slate, locking in Zootopia 2 and Wicked for Good early. This put us in a position to get tickets on sale before most of the market, with both titles looking strong and tracking. We continue to round out our slate across music, sports, gaming, and exclusive experiences. Building on our success with The Grateful Dead and Prince in August, we have a concert event with Depeche Mode next week. In December, we will host the long-awaited re-release of our seminal Stones at the Max, the beloved 1991 concert film which IMAX made with The Rolling Stones, and the only concert film shot entirely with IMAX Films cameras. In our second year, we will expand our offering of the League of Legends gaming tournament next weekend in China, with up to 219 locations. We partnered with Netflix on a buyout promotional event in support of Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. Of course, the year concludes with Avatar: Fire and Ash. Our teams have been working with Disney on the launch for a year to ensure that the brand association between IMAX and Avatar, that has yielded record-breaking success for our companies, continues. With our network continuing to grow and our market shares surging worldwide, we expect to deliver another strong performance with the franchise. With the carryover of Avatar, 2026 looks strong right out of the gate, highlighted by Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, Greta Gerwig's IMAX exclusive Narnia, and Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Toy Story 5, and Dune: Part Three, which will have an IMAX 70-millimeter run in select locations. Additionally, a very compelling 2027 slate continues to take shape, including Joe Kaczynski's Miami Vice, which will be Filmed For IMAX, Star Wars: Starfighter, directed by Shawn Levy from Deadpool and Wolverine, Michael B. Jordan's The Thomas Crown Affair, Avengers: Secret Wars, and The Batman 2. Our team was in London last month visiting the filmmakers and sets of many of these upcoming releases, including Narnia and Star Wars, and it's clear these are IMAX-sized productions leaning heavily into our technology and format. Our visibility into our Hollywood slate continues to grow, even as we opportunistically program local language blockbusters and alternative content events and experiences throughout the year. Turning to our networks business, signings to date have already surpassed the number of signings we had for the full year 2024. We're having a lot of success in international markets we prioritize for growth. In Japan, we're pacing towards our single best year for network growth ever, as we expect to end the year with 10 installations, representing a nearly 20% expansion of our footprint. In Australia, we expect to install six new systems for the full year, more than doubling our footprint to 10 locations nationwide. Year to date, we completed 60% of the installations we've targeted for the full year 2025. The level of activity in the sales pipeline is also strong. We just completed an agreement for two new locations in Singapore. We signed multiple agreements this year across two priority markets, France and Germany, and are in conversations for new locations in Italy and Spain. We're in discussions regarding new locations in the Middle East, and we continue to drive opportunity with new and existing partners alike across North America, including our recent agreement with Apple Cinemas and several potential new locations across the underpenetrated Southwest region. Given our continued sales momentum and our backlog of 470 systems worldwide, we have clear runway for strong network growth for years to come. In sum, we delivered excellent financial results in the third quarter. As the year draws to a close, we look forward to hosting an Investor Day in December and sharing our strategy for how we grow our performance over the next several years. We continue to believe the best is yet to come. As we look ahead to a year with no less than four massive tentpoles: The Odyssey, Narnia, Dune: Part Three, and The Mandalorian and Grogu, for which IMAX is at the center of the filmmaking, marketing, and distribution. IMAX has never been better positioned creatively, commercially, or strategically, and we're focused on strengthening our position, executing with financial discipline, continuing to provide the most immersive entertainment experience on the planet, and delivering for our shareholders. Thanks, and now I'll turn it over to Natasha to walk through the financials. Natasha Fernandes: Thanks, Rich, and good morning, everyone. IMAX's third quarter was one of the best in our history, showcasing our global scale, our agility in programming a diverse content portfolio, and in turn, the profit and cash incrementality in our business. Third-quarter IMAX box office of $368 million was 50% higher year over year and exceeded StreetX's estimates by more than 25%. Signing for IMAX systems at the end of September was 142, already eclipsing full year 2024, and system installations are now tracking to the high end of our guidance range of 150 to 160 systems. From a profitability perspective, our operating leverage shined through in Q3 with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 48.6%, up a substantial 630 basis points year over year, and adjusted EPS of $0.47, up $0.12 year over year. Our profit incrementality flowed through, contributing to cash from operations of $67.5 million, which set a new quarterly record and was up more than 90% year over year. As I said on last quarter's call, these are not just numbers; they are a direct result of growing demand by filmmakers, studios, exhibitors, and consumers for the IMAX experience. Our Q3 global market share reflected that, increasing 49% year over year to 4.2%, marking a new IMAX high. Our goal, though, is not to just outperform the market but to expand it, drawing more consumers to theatrical, eventizing content while opening the aperture to bring audiences more of the entertainment they seek, whether Hollywood, local language, or alternative content. This works for us, but it helps our studio partners, it supports our theater customers, and it is responsive to consumer demand for the best possible experience. All of this has resulted in year-to-date performance that positions us to meet or beat every one of our full-year guidance measures. Taking a closer look at our Q3 results, overall, we delivered revenues of $107 million, 17% growth over the prior year third quarter of $91.5 million, and achieved gross margin in Q3 of $67 million, which grew 32% year over year. This resulted in a 63% margin, which is a 740 basis point improvement over the prior year period, reflecting high incremental profit flow-through from the stronger box office performance. Looking at our results at the segment level, content solutions revenues of $45 million increased 49% year over year, driven by the significant growth in IMAX box office, which, as Rich described, was propelled by a diverse mix of content globally. I am especially pleased with the programming agility we demonstrated. We released four fewer Hollywood titles in the quarter than the prior year, yet we were able to grow box office 50% by consistently capturing higher opening weekend market share and leaning more into local language while adeptly filling in with alternative content. Overall, this led to the third quarter global market share of 4.2% on less than 1% of screens, driven by a remarkable 6.1% share of domestic box office. The setup for Q4 looks very positive, with major titles in front of us, including Avatar anchoring the year. Content solutions gross profit of $32 million showed tremendous growth, up 94% or $15.5 million year over year, while gross margin reached a record 71%, up a substantial 1,600 basis points from the 55% gross margin in the prior year, spotlighting the significant incrementality that results from higher levels of box office. Technology products and services revenues of $60 million is up $2.4 million year over year, with gross profit of $35 million, resulting in a 58% margin, up approximately 250 basis points year over year, driven by both growth in our global box office and maintenance revenues that more than offset a lower level of systems installed under sales arrangements. System installations in the quarter of 38 systems compared to 49 in the prior year reflected in part the more balanced timing we're seeing this year with a higher level of first-half installations. As of today, we are at approximately 100 system installations, and as highlighted earlier, we now expect to be at the high end of our system installation guidance for this year. The momentum for signings continues with 19 signings in Q3 and 142 September year to date, already exceeding the 130 for full year 2024. The diversity of signings is especially encouraging. We have achieved near-record signings in Japan of 11 systems. Many of them are in new and exciting locations in underpenetrated areas in the country, and they're performing exceptionally well since opening. We've built momentum in Germany with the successful release of our first-ever German language film in Q3 that resulted in a very strong opening weekend, and we expect we'll have four new German locations open by the end of the year. We are very excited about the growth in Australia as well, where we have had signings with multiple customers and expect to exit the year with 10 open locations compared to two locations a year ago. In the U.S., we expect to expand with new regional partners, including five signings with Apple Cinemas in the quarter, with one in a highly desirable central area of Philadelphia. Operating expenditures defined as research and development and selling, general, and administrative expenses, excluding stock-based compensation, was $30 million in the third quarter, which was consistent with the second quarter. However, it increased year over year as the third quarter of 2024 benefited from adjustments to performance payouts related to our STT business and from the timing of capitalization of film camera costs. We continue to focus on looking for ways to better use technology and scrutinizing work processes to find productivity opportunities across our business. Overall, our strong operational performance led to a third-quarter total consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $52 million, which increased $13 million or 34% year over year, driven by higher revenues, which mostly flowed through to gross margins. This resulted in an impressive adjusted EBITDA margin of 48.6%, up approximately 630 basis points year over year, and giving us a year-to-date adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 45% relative to our full-year guidance of low 40%. Third-quarter adjusted EPS was $0.47, up $0.12 year over year, driven fully by strong profit growth as our Q3 tax rate of 19% was a headwind of $0.03 year over year. Our September year-to-date tax rate is 24%, which is consistent with a normalized effective tax rate and what we would expect for the full year. Turning to cash flow and the balance sheet, cash flow from operations of $67.5 million set a new quarterly record. This excellent result reflects the very positive incrementality in our model, as well as the timing of collections of the larger first-half box office titles. September year-to-date cash flow from operations was $98 million and has already exceeded by 40% 2024's full-year operating cash flows of $71 million. Year-to-date free cash flow before gross CAPEX is $87 million and equates to an adjusted EBITDA conversion of 68%, a very strong result through nine months. As previously communicated, we expected operating cash flows to show strength and growth this year. Similar to total adjusted EBITDA, the dynamics of cash flows are quite positive as box office expands, leading to incrementality, particularly considering the cash flow characteristics of our joint revenue-sharing contracts, where the capital expenditure is at the beginning of an average 10-year contract term. Turning to investing cash flows, we continue to prioritize the use of our available capital to invest in the business, including $24 million spent on gross CapEx year to date related to partnering with exhibitor customers to grow and upgrade the IMAX network through joint revenue-sharing arrangements. This represents an attractive return on investment opportunity as numerous large partners, including AMC, Wanda, and Regal, are ramping up investment in IMAX as they upgrade their complexes, including bringing IMAX in to replace other premium formats as they look to capture more of the market share gains IMAX is delivering through our Filmed For IMAX program and the exceptional slate ahead of us in 2026, 2027, and beyond. Our capital position remains very strong, with a Q3 ending cash balance of $143 million, an increase of $34 million from the second quarter. In our capital structure is $230 million of debt from our convertible senior notes due in April 2026 that bear an interest rate of 0.5% per annum, with a capped call leading to a $37 per share conversion price. With our strong liquidity position and available facilities, we have the ability to be opportunistic as we assess the timing of when to address these notes and the nature of the instrument, whether that be with our revolving credit facility or through new notes. Debt, excluding deferred financing costs, was $261 million, and our current available liquidity is approximately $544 million. In conclusion, the team continues to execute well. We are successfully capitalizing on our strengthening position in the theatrical ecosystem and the growing contribution we can make to the industry. We are deepening partnerships with studios and filmmakers, programming with agility our global commercial network of over 1,750 locations, connecting with our fan base to bring more of the Hollywood local language and alternative content they're seeking out, and partnering with existing and new exhibitors to bring The IMAX Experience to more moviegoers. The model is working. The operating leverage we have discussed is coming to fruition. We are gaining market share and meeting or exceeding expectations across our guidance measures of IMAX box office, installations, and adjusted EBITDA margin. To be clear, we are not resting on our laurels, and we are focused on delivering results through the end of the year and beyond. As we look past 2025 into 2026, there is good visibility into IMAX's future system installations as well as the film slate. We have a backlog of nearly 500 systems and an addressable market less than 50% penetrated with potential for additional zones. We also have an increasingly clear view into the film lineup for 2026 and beyond, including significant mega-title catalysts on the horizon. We believe IMAX has never been in as strong a position, and we have scheduled on December 4 our first Investor Day since 2017 to share the compelling opportunity we see in front of us, how we will execute to capture it, and in turn deliver strong shareholder returns. We'll dive deeper into what we see as the next era of IMAX, expanding our global content pipeline, accelerating network growth, and advancing the IMAX technology that continues to redefine the cinematic experience. With that, I will turn the call over to the operator for Q&A. Operator: Thank you. At this time, we'll conduct the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you'll need to press star one-one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one-one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Eric Handler of Roth Capital. Your line is now open. Eric Handler: Good morning. Thanks for the questions. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about your margin potential. I mean, 71% for content solutions off of a record box office. I'm curious, and you had 100% incremental margin off of that. At what point does your box office, you know, where does the box office get to where all of a sudden you see just margins start spiking? As far as the costs are concerned, you know, how stable are the costs in the content solutions business, and is that number going to have to grow as you continue expanding, or is that something maybe with AI you can keep flat or maybe even down? Natasha Fernandes: Morning, Eric. Thanks for the question. We're so pleased with the operating margin in the quarter. The 71% is a high for us, and we've talked about this many times about the incrementality in our model. I think Q3 was the perfect opportunity to display exactly what we reference when we talk about over-levels of $250 million in a quarter of box office and how the incrementality flows through at essentially an 85% rate. It could be higher. It just depends on what our, you know, our costs are for that we choose to do for marketing and some of the discretionary costs that we have. There is a lot of opportunity to continue to grow our margins, especially as you hit the even higher levels of box office, which is obviously a record year that we're trending to this year with the $1.2 billion. From a cost basis, when you look at it, we actually don't have a significant increase in costs expected just because the basis of our costs are pretty stable. We remaster and we find efficiencies and leverage operating leverage in that because as you distribute to more countries, it doesn't cost us any more money. We're already doing versioning and marketing in all of those countries. On the SG&A side, we've been able to keep everything relatively flat with small amounts for inflation each year, and I think we've done a really good job on that front as well. Overall, our goal is to continue to show increases in our margins and allow the flow-through to happen all the way down to cash. Eric Handler: Great. Rich has a quick follow-up. Exhibitors can see that your market share is growing quite nicely. I'm just curious, as theaters see more Filmed For IMAX movies coming, you have the halo effect raising the market share for non-FFI movies. How is the volume of requests for proposals just skyrocketing at this point? Maybe you could talk about that dynamic a little bit. Richard L. Gelfond: Yeah. I mean, as you know, we already beat last year in system signings with a quarter to go. We've actually delivered more signings. Yes, there is a lot of activity going on around the world. I think it's not just, you know, looking backwards, Eric, at what FFI was, but it's looking forward to 2026 and also 2027 and 2028. We've never really had a backlog of films going that far forward. I think if you're an exhibitor and you're looking at your return on investment and you look at the number of films that IMAX has coming out in the next few years, I would even add to that, even FFI films, I don't remember the exact number, but I think for 2026, we have double digits of FFI films already ready to come out, and we're doing FFI films in 2027 and 2028. I think, you know, the way you asked the question kind of answers itself. The fact we've done so well at 2026, 2027, and 2028 for filling in in advance have driven a lot of activity in the market. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Eric Wold of Texas Capital Securities. Your line is now open. Eric Wold: Thanks. Good morning, Rich and Natasha. I guess, kind of following up a little bit on the last question on kind of on the exhibitor kind of demand side, thinking about from the other way, I guess, as you think about the limited amount of real estate for content that you have each year and understanding that, you know, for example, 2026 is mostly spoken for with content, you know, already under contract, I guess, what is the best opportunity to really drive, you know, from your end or work with the exhibitors to drive greater box office revenues on that content? For example, you know, where can you further leverage marketing to drive attendance and drive people into the theaters on that content? I know you can't necessarily push price from your end, but why aren't we seeing more ticket price leverage, you know, for IMAX films from the exhibitors given, you know, the clear demand from moviegoers, especially given, you know, the limited runs that most of your films have, in their theaters? Why aren't they taking price even more so on IMAX films? Richard L. Gelfond: Eric, first of all, just to put it in context, when you said there are a limited number of slots, I just want to remind you that this year we'll have 140 pieces of content. It's not like we can't program more things or multiple things at the same time. In slower times of the year, we could have two or three films sharing screen time, and we've been doing that. There is room to fit more content. In terms of price, as you saw with The Odyssey, we put some film tickets on sale a year in advance, and the ones we put on sale sold out. That's usually a sign that under price elasticity, you can raise the prices. You correctly said that's a decision the exhibitors have to make, but not us. Particularly, in a year that's heavy in film, like 2026 with The Odyssey and Dune and some other things that will be coming out, I wouldn't be surprised to see exhibitors press it a little bit, particularly in the film area. Finally, obviously, the name of the game is capacity utilization, which is related to market share. This year, as our market share has grown so nicely, capacity utilization has gone up. Still, capacity utilization is relatively low as it is in a lot of entertainment businesses. I think there's an opportunity in that area as well. Thanks, Rich. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Drew Crum of Vivai Securities. Your line is now open. Drew Crum: Okay. Thanks. Hey, guys. Good morning. I had a couple of questions on 2026. I guess you're likely to address this at your Investor Day, but any preliminary thoughts on 1Q and your ability to grow box office as you lap a tough comp from NAJA too? Separately, I noticed in your press release and your prepared comments, you highlighted four massive tentpoles. Absent from that was The Avengers, which I think historically has enjoyed success on IMAX screens. Just curious if there's anything to read into that omission. Thanks. Richard L. Gelfond: No. Dating though, typically, a year in advance moves around. It's very hard to pinpoint exactly what the movies are going to be and what dates they are. I think we're just trying to be conservative in what the slate is looking like. I think the point we made was that we have four or five movies next year, which include in the first quarter the carryover of Avatar: Fire and Ash. It includes The Mandalorian and Grogu. It includes The Odyssey. It includes Narnia. It includes Dune: Part Three. Actually, the question you asked, we had a board meeting yesterday about the comp of North America next year. I just named you five movies that I think will exceed whatever their comp was this year. As you know, we're a diversified portfolio. You can always, in any year, say, "You had this really good film. How are you going to replace it?" The answer is you look at the whole slate, and you look at how it, how it's going to come together. At our Investor Day, we'll talk about guidance for 2026. Suffice it to say that looking at it very early, we think it'll be stronger than 2025. Got it. Thanks, Rich. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Omar Mejias of Wells Fargo. Your line is now open. Omar Mejias: Good morning, and thanks for the question. Maybe just more broadly, you recently announced the first IMAX Investor Day since 2017. I'm just curious, why is now a good time to get together and share what's ahead for IMAX? If you could share what you're most excited about for IMAX in the years to come, that'd be great. Richard L. Gelfond: I mean, Omar, not to be kind of an a-hole about it, but you know, I think we have a lot to talk about in terms of how 2025 performed and how 2026 will perform. It kind of flows off my answer to Eric Handler's question. There's never been a film backlog the way there is now. Like I said to the last question, I think we'll provide a lot of context around some of those movies, of which we've seen a lot of them, and we know a lot about them. I think just putting titles on a slide is different than giving a context. IMAX isn't a one-year or a one-trick pony. We think we have sustained growth going for years ahead. We thought it was really important. We believe we have a new level set for IMAX. As you probably know, films that we used to do 10% of the box office, blockbusters, we're now doing 15% of the box office. A question that was just asked about the activity on the theater side and signings, what's going on. We just think it's the right time to put the story together and put numbers to it. Obviously, our stock has had a nice little run, but from our point of view, we think it's the beginning of the run. We have a lot of data to support that. I'd say one other thing would be since 2017, we have a lot of new talent in management that a lot of investors have never met. I think it's just a good idea. I know Natasha and Jen and I have met a lot of investors, but we have a pretty deep bench, and we think it's a good time to let the investors talk to that bench and get their color on things. Great. Maybe just a quick follow-up on the global opportunity set. You obviously have momentum in the business and a great 4Q slate ahead that ends with Avatar: Fire and Ash. What countries or regions do you think IMAX has the biggest opportunity to drive incremental installations and grow the network? Any color on that would be helpful. Thanks. Richard L. Gelfond: The reason that's a hard one to answer is because of my last answer, which is that there's been kind of this reset in what the box office could look like. When you start to put in numbers in that reset, the ROIs look differently and our ability to invest in JVs and make a better return look differently. I think we're really, you know, assessing how to generate more growth around the world. If you look historically this year, Japan has been very strong. Western Europe has been very strong. Even North America has been very strong. We announced a couple of deals there. I think there's more to come in North America. I don't want to be constrained so much by the past. That's the kind of thing we'll go into more detail on Investor Day because I think the performance and the numbers open up different opportunities. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Due to the time, please limit yourself to one question. Our next question comes from the line of David Joyce of Seaport Research Partners. Your line is now open. David Joyce: Thank you. In thinking about your programming strategy, how do you weigh the pros and cons along with the various economic impacts of running concert films or rerunning a recent release like Formula One or an old one like Jaws, Grands of 50th anniversary, versus showing a new theatrical release like Jurassic World that you were not able to show earlier in the summer? Richard L. Gelfond: Yeah. Just, you know, to get the facts straight, Jurassic World came out the same week as F1 did, and we had committed to F1 already. That's the first rule: when we commit to something, we sign a legal contract, and we can't, you know, change that, although we could try and fill it in from show to show. To the core part of your question, not every week has films that are going to break out. We try and use alternative content or local language films more in the slower periods or bring back, as you asked about. We look at our calendar for this year and next year. For example, we know that on July 17, The Odyssey is coming out. Obviously, we're not going to bring back a film or show a concert film that weekend. At other weekends, there's just no big releases coming. We know that way in advance, and we'll make plans for how to fill in the schedule. One thing, another context to put it in, is we recently hired someone who has experience doing programming on the exhibitor side. They're working with our distribution team to try and maximize the box-by-box programming, with our Chief Content Officer, Jonathan Fischer. If you look at the third quarter, that's a perfect example where we plugged in a lot of things, and we mix and match. Just one example because it comes to my mind is the weekend with Weapons Open. We played Weapons a lot, but not everywhere. It did really well. Formula One still had a lot of gas in the tank, and tea is a bad analogy. That is now close to $100 million. We're able to mix and match a little bit more, particularly in the periods where there's no obvious winner. Q3 was the perfect example of that. That's what really drove the outstanding box office. Is there a margin differential? Is there marketing on some sorts of content that tilts the scale for you one way or the other? Richard L. Gelfond: You know, not really, because, you know, for example, we brought back Jaws, but we timed it for the 50th anniversary of Jaws. We didn't have to put up a lot of the marketing. The studio put it up in connection with the 50th anniversary. This weekend, we're playing on the Springsteen concert, and what we did was, you know, that was timed to the theatrical release of the Springsteen movie. It comes with a lot of marketing. As we try and figure out what slots to put them in, one of our considerations is not having to put up significant incremental costs. Great. Thank you very much. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of David Karnofsky of JP Morgan. Your line is now open. David Karnofsky: Hey, thank you. Maybe just two quick ones for Natasha. The full-year guidance implies a little bit lighter of margin in Q4. Just wanted to understand the puts and takes there in terms of install mix, box office, or whether there's any kind of marketing consideration for Avatar. Then just similarly for working capital, how should we think about the balance of the year, given those big titles sitting in the final weeks? Thanks. Natasha Fernandes: Sure. David, I'm not sure I heard the first part of your question, but I think the second part was about SG&A and then box office, correct? David Karnofsky: No. The question was basically about margin in Q4, the guide implying that being down a little bit from what you've done year to date. Just wanted to understand puts and takes there, and then the outlook for working capital, given Avatar: Fire and Ash sitting, late in the year. Natasha Fernandes: Yeah. Our guidance for EBITDA margin was updated to low 40% in last quarter. Year to date, we're at just under 45% at 44.9%. The first half was at about 43%. The individual quarters, obviously, we see they drive different margins. We have said this before that Q4's margin, we expect that we'll have incremental dollars for Avatar marketing, which we'll spend in Q4, but the Avatar box office will come in not only in Q4, but then we'll get it in Q1 as well. You'll have lower costs in Q1 with respect to marketing on Avatar. Q4, from a cost perspective, will hold a few more events versus Q3, for instance. We obviously attend several conferences along with our Investor Day that we're planning in Q4. Other than that, there would be nothing that significantly hinders the margin from continuing along its pace towards our guidance of low 40%. Working capital? Natasha Fernandes: On working capital, I mean, from a cash flow perspective, this was a record quarter for us. As I look at cash flow, and we've talked about this before, when you look at cash flow on an annual basis, that's essentially what we're aiming towards, continuing to grow that conversion rate. Hitting at above 50% and continuing to grow that on an annual basis is essentially where we keep moving. I'm sure we will work towards updating and providing more insights and guidance into our cash flows in the future as well at Investor Day. Thanks. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. As a reminder, please limit yourself to one question. Our next question comes from the line of Mike Hickey of The Benchmark Company. Your line is now open. Mike Hickey: Yeah. Hey, Rich, Natasha, Jennifer, congratulations, guys, on a great Q3. First question from us, just looking at your market share here, year to date, slide 11 in your deck, 3.8%, definitely setting a record. Looks like domestic 5.2%, China 5.3%, and the rest of the world 2.4%. I guess the question, Rich, is how you're thinking about rest of the world market share gains relative to your forward growth targets. It seems like rest of the world could be a great unlock opportunity for you, or is there something structural holding you back from achieving sort of the market share that you're seeing in the U.S. and China? I have a follow-up. Richard L. Gelfond: Yeah. The only thing holding us back, Mike, is more theaters. Obviously, in growth markets like Vietnam and Indonesia and places like that, we have much less penetration in India. You have lots of screens, big populations, and not as high a % of IMAX theaters. Obviously, we'll target those, which ties to an earlier question, and try and build up the theaters. There's nothing endemic about those markets, just there's not as many IMAX theaters. By the way, it a little bit goes the other way because as we double down on local language films, like we've had local language in Malaysia, in Indonesia, in Saudi Arabia, as we step up our local language, that will obviously increase our market share in those territories. There's nothing broken. It's just an opportunity that we need to fill in more. Thanks, Rich. Last question. Promise I'm not being a wise guy here, Rich. Just on your installation growth potential for 2026, curious your thoughts there, just given the extreme success you guys have had in 2025, which might be slightly a pull forward or not. Just curious your confidence here on 2026. I know signings have been very strong. Richard L. Gelfond: Let me be clear. There's no pull forward there. It's a result of the reason with the high end is we had a really good signings year, and we have such a good slate and a good slate ahead of us in 2026 that I feel, you know, I'm very good about where we are this year. Obviously, we raised the range of our guidance. For next year, Mike, you know, if you look at the correlation between film slate, Filmed For IMAX, you know, large movies, it should be a positive year. Again, however, we're in the middle of our budgeting process, and I'm hopefully by Investor Day, we'll be able to give you more concrete guidance. Thanks. Thank you, guys. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Patrick Sholl of Barrington Research. Your line is now open. Patrick Sholl: Thank you. I just have a question on alternative content. I mean, you laid out your visibility for the broader Hollywood slate. Could you maybe just talk about the visibility that you have into the alternative content to sort of even out those box office periods? Richard L. Gelfond: We have some visibility, but a lot of it arises in the couple of months before it comes out. We're doing, I think it was in my script, I don't recall, but we're doing The League of Legends in China, which came about. It got finalized, I don't know, two weeks ago. We're doing over 220 theaters for the finals, and then we're doing the semis and the quarters. It's both. Some things will be like we have two music projects, one in February and one in May, which we're in the middle of documenting right now. On the other hand, there will be other projects that will come up, more or less minute. Some of the live events where directors speak around their movies tend to come together a little bit later. The sporting things, I think, come a little bit later. The music, especially the music docs, come more in advance because the studios know when they're being released. It's a combination of the type of content. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. We have time for one last question. Our last question comes from the line of Stephen Frankel of Rosenblatt. Your line is now open. Stephen Frankel: Thank you. Rich, you guys have pointed out that local language is consistently been over 50% of the box office mix in China over the last couple of years. Do you think that's a permanent change that your penetration into tier three and tier two markets means more local language? Can you do things to kind of accelerate that local language growth in China going forward if you think maybe Hollywood has peaked as part of the mix there? Richard L. Gelfond: Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't get pinned down to an exact %, Steven, but I do think that local language is, you know, permanently going to be a bigger part of the box office than it was before. I think you put your finger on one of the answers, which is, you know, because of tier three and four markets and our increased penetration there. I also think, and this is important, that we've done a better job of penetrating the local markets there. Our CEO there, Daniel Manwaring, is extremely connected in the film industry there. Our team has done a very good job, and the results speak for themselves. With that said, I wouldn't give up on Hollywood box office. For example, Avatar traditionally does very well in China. It's getting in the same day as it got in in the U.S., so I would expect to see strong results there. Zootopia, at Disneyland in Shanghai, there's a separate part of it called Zootopia Land. It's a very big franchise over there. Looking into 2026, the Nolan movies do very well. Obviously, The Odyssey is a very high-profile one. Dune has done well there in the past. Again, that's why I'm not sure about particular numbers and percentages. I do feel like local language will continue to be strong, but don't give up on Hollywood quite yet. You should just be reminded, in that context, that our take rate on local language is higher than our take rate on Hollywood films in China. That's because of the theatrical splits. It's not an IMAX anomaly. It's just Hollywood films get a lower split than local language. Financially, that's a pretty good thing for us to keep in mind. Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you, Rich. Operator: Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I'd now like to turn it back to Richard L. Gelfond for closing remarks. Richard L. Gelfond: Thank you very much, operator, and thank you all for joining us today. IMAX pre-pandemic was on a tremendous growth curve. As you know, 2019 was our best year ever at that point. Unfortunately, not just for IMAX, but a lot of the world, the pandemic slowed it down. We have been using the time since the pandemic to build up a lot of different pillars for future growth. They include things like local language content, different ways of looking at marketing, alternative content, not just local language in one country, but across many countries, rationalizing our cost structure. I think in 2025, we saw good years in 2023 and 2024, but all that really came together, and we kind of broke out. If you want to find a quarter that epitomizes that more than anything else, it's the third quarter we just finished. I said this during my remarks, but you can't summarize it any better than to say the North American box office was down 11% in the third quarter, and the IMAX box office globally was up 50% in the third quarter. If that doesn't show how we've separated ourselves from people in different businesses that some people confuse, I think this quarter painted a very clear picture. As you could tell from Natasha and my tone on the call, when you look at the slate and you look at a number of other factors, I think we're very optimistic that we can maintain that momentum going forward. Thank you all very much, and we'll talk to you, hopefully see many of you at Investor Day. Operator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.
Sandra Åberg: Good morning. Welcome to Essity's presentation of the Q3 results. We will start with an overview of the financial highlights and the business highlights and Ulrika will present the business highlights. Following that, we will have a session with our CFO, who will take us through the financials. Ulrika will then present the initiatives that we announced this morning, initiatives launched to accelerate Essity's profitable growth. We will, as usual, end today with a Q&A session where you have the possibility to engage directly with us. [Operator Instructions] With that, let's dive into the quarterly performance. Ulrika, over to you. Ulrika Kolsrud: Thank you, Sandra, and welcome also from my side to this presentation of Essity's Q3 results. And to summarize the quarter, we continue to deliver positive organic sales growth. We also strengthened our profit margins. We delivered a strong cash flow and a result above SEK 5 billion. Price, volume and mix all contributed to the 0.9% organic sales growth, with price being the most significant contributor. And we had organic sales growth in all our 3 business areas. Once again, we delivered record high gross profit margins and this quarter, it flowed through down to the bottom line. So the call to action that we had in July to pull the brakes on our SG&A cost development really made a difference. And we ended up at a profit margin of 14.6%. Setting aside the quarterly results now for a moment. This quarter has also been about how to set ourselves up for future success. As I shared in the Q2 webcast in my -- during my first month in this new role, I have done an extensive review of the business. And then together with the leadership team worked on what to change, what to improve, what to prioritize in order to accelerate our progress towards our financial targets and towards our vision. As a result of that, I am today launching 2 initiatives, that will improve our performance. The first one is the reorganization designed to sharpen our focus to become more fast and also more agile. And related to that, the second one, a cost-saving program that will reduce our organizational costs. More about that later, but let's now dive into the Q3 results, and we start with Health and Medical. Q3 now, for '25, marks the 18th consecutive quarter of growth for our Medical Solutions business. We are growing across the 3 therapy areas; Wound Care, Compression Therapy and Orthopedics. And what is very important for future growth and profitable growth in the medical categories is innovation. That plays a key role. There are still so many unmet needs, both for healthcare as well as for patients and consumers to innovate on. One example is for people with wrist fractures. Today, it's difficult for them to keep up with hygiene and keep up with the daily activities of lives with wrist braces that exist commonly in the marketplace. And with the launch of Actimove Manus Air, we are solving that problem. This wrist brace that you see now on the page here has a lot of advantages. It's water resistant so that you can wash your hands. It's food-grade resistant so that you can cook and keep up hygiene. It doesn't restrain the movements of the fingers and the hands, so you can keep on working if you work by the computer. Also, it has an open design. So if you're a health care professional, you can inspect the wound and change wound dressings with the brace on -- and all of this, while providing that stabilization that is needed in order to heal in a fast way. So certainly, this innovation is a very good addition to our offer in Orthopedics. Then if we move to incontinence care in health care, also in Incontinence Care, we were growing sales and volumes in the quarter. You might remember last quarter, then I talked about the challenging market conditions that we had in some markets, and that is still the case. However, we have very strong underlying growth in many other markets that is compensating for this. And in times where health care funding is under pressure, it's even more relevant to have products and solutions that are saving time for caregivers. And with the launch that we had this quarter with TENA, a new product concept, we are addressing exactly that. The TENA Pro skin stretch day and night is a unique product concept that we have put to market now that makes it easier to put on and take off the product. When it's in a closed fashion, then it is just as a TENA pant, you can pull it up and down just like normal underwear, making it easy for the wearer to use the product. The challenge with the pant though is that it's not so easy for a caregiver to apply the product. And this one is reopenable. You can open and close it, and that means that the caregiver can also very easily apply the incontinence protection. And that saves time for the caregiver. Now this is not the only impactful innovation that we are launching in the quarter. We're also launching a new product in the lighter range of our assortment, and that is the TENA Discreet Ultra. It's a very discrete product, super discrete to wear, yet it does not compromise on the superior TENA protection. And why is it then important to have a superior product in this part of the assortment? Well, this is where we attract consumers where we bring consumers into the category. And we, of course, want the women to experience the first little leaks to choose purpose-made products and to choose TENA as their purpose-made products. And many consumers do that. They choose TENA. And we see that because our incontinence sales in retail is continuing to grow at a very good rate. This is especially true for the U.S. And if you might remember that in U.S., we are investing to grow, and those investments are paying off. So in the quarter, we could enjoy a 21% growth of incontinence in U.S. retail. In Feminine Care, we're also continuing to grow in a very good way with high growth rates. Here, Mexico is an important market for us. We are clear market leaders, and we will continue to strengthen our position in Mexico by launching a new night product, SABA Noches. And also here, it's a very important segment to be superior in because not only do we provide a good night sleep for the wearer, but also it's a quality stamp for the brand. So as you can hear, we are continuing to grow strongly in the 2 higher yielding categories in consumer goods. So Feminine Care and Incontinence Care. On the other hand, in Consumer Tissue and in baby, we are declining. In Consumer Tissue, we are suffering in the branded sales from the weaker consumer sentiment. And also, we see a price competitiveness increasing across the consumer tissue business. The good news is that if we look at Mexico, we are growing very well in our Regio brand during the quarter. And also now we are really gearing up for the sneezing season making sure that we have the right hankers in the shelf to be ready for the sales boost that will come during the next quarter. And also, we continue with our efforts to have a high promotional pressure and to focus a lot on the value segment so that we can fuel growth in Consumer Tissue. Then what about baby? Well, you all know that we have had a period where we have had declining volumes on the back of lower birth rates and also very intense competition. We're still declining in baby, but we have improved. In the quarter, we turned around Libero in the Nordics big time. We had the actions of higher frequency rate, of promotions, of a limited edition. I was going to say that is called Wildlife that you see on the picture here and also stronger marketing campaigns. And all of that paid off. So the Libero consumers have found their way back to their brand. Another category where we can report a big improvement is in Professional Hygiene. Also here, we continue to see a challenging market situation, of the least in the U.S. in the HoReCa channel. However, we are improving volume sequentially in Professional Hygiene. And that is thanks to the activities that we have done with selective price adjustments and also more focus on the value segment that we talked about last time. What's also very good to see is that we continue to grow our premium products, so our strategic segments as we did also previous quarter. This is, of course, very important for us short term, but it's also important to fuel future profitable growth. And speaking about that, what's super important to fuel future profitable growth is that we are -- really have strong relationships with our customers. What's happening right now in the customer landscape in Professional Hygiene is that a lot of our distributors are consolidating. And then it's even more important than ever to be the preferred supplier. And therefore, it's so nice to see that one of our customers, Impacts, have this quarter named as the best supplier. And with that positive news, I hand over to our CFO, Fredrik Rystedt. Fredrik Rystedt: Thank you so much, Ulrika, and I will give a little bit of numbers background to what Ulrika just mentioned here. So I'll start with our sales. And as you've already heard, we are continuing to grow organically with 0.9%, so just under 1%. Now if you look at the absolute sales number, it is down by 4.5%. But of course, this is just due to the fact that the Swedish kroner is strengthening. So if you actually look at our sales in constant currency, we actually grew with a bit over SEK 300 million. So it's basically currency impact. So turning a bit back to the organic sales growth of 1%. As you see, the volume growth was 0.2%. And this is exactly what it was also in Q2 and similar to what it was also in Q1. So we've had this volume growth level now for a few quarters. It is, however, a bit different. And so you remember perhaps that we have struggled a bit with professional hygiene with baby and degree also with Inco Health Care. And those have all 3 improved this quarter. But on the other hand, that improvement has been partly offset by lower volume development in consumer tissue. So it is a bit different. We are happy to see the improvement in those areas that I mentioned. So to give you a little bit more flavor, if we start with Health and Medical, generally speaking, volumes picked up actually. So it is still challenging when it comes to Inco Health Care markets in general. But despite that fact, a bit as we expected, we have picked up volumes and it looks clearly a bit better at this point of time. Medical continues to grow, especially in the wound care, and we've seen that growth for so many quarters now. So it's a very, very good and continuous development for medical in general. It's wound care as I said, but it's also this quarter, actually a lot in compression. So good development overall in the volume sense. Now if I go then to consumer goods, geographically, we are growing everywhere when it comes to incontinence and feminine. So it continues with strong growth in both of those areas. Ulrika mentioned earlier that baby is looking a bit better. And of course, this is due to a much better performance in our Nordic branded area with Libero. So we've taken market shares there. It's still challenging on the European market for the retail branded European market for baby and that will also remain for a few quarters to come, most likely, but it's looking a lot better. So you may remember that we had a volume decline of about 4.5% or in that vicinity, volume decline in baby in Q2 and a similar decline also in Q1. And this quarter, it's been about 1% decline. So it looks clearly better. On the other hand, as we have already talked about here, Consumer Tissue is a bit more down, negative growth, and this is because we have prioritized margin rather than growth in volume. And we do continue to see actually a down trading in that market. So volume is not so good in consumer tissue. Finally, Professional Hygiene, looking a lot better, and the volume decline is still there, it's minus 1% roughly. And of course, that's a lot better than what we saw in Q1 and Q2. So clearly, looking better. As before, it is a base assortment that is declining and the premium products or strategic products as we sometimes call them, dispensary base is continuing to do quite well in terms of growth. So overall, mix is actually continuing to behave very, very well in professional hygiene. So turning a bit to price and mix. As you see, 0.7%, this is basically most of it actually related to price. And you can see from the slide here that Consumer Goods and Professional Hygiene, both performing well in terms of price performance. And Health and Medical is slightly down. This is all actually Inco. So this is selective price declines that we have -- that we have done. We did talk and Ulrika mentioned it earlier that we also have sequentially a little bit lower prices in professional hygiene. This is deliberate. We wanted to -- on top of expanding our value offering in Professional Hygiene, we also wanted to grow more generally by selective price decreases. So if you look at just sequential price decreases, we also see a little bit of that in Professional Hygiene, deliberate. So that's pretty much it on the volume and an organic sales side. So turning to our margin, that is improving both sequentially and year-on-year. So if we look at -- decompose the year-on-year improvement, you can see that a lot of is coming, of course, from the gross profit margin. And most of it, as we've already talked about, relating to obviously price to a smaller degree on mix and volume, but it's -- a lot of it is price. We also actually have a positive development in our COGS. And this is no surprise. Raw material is performing better, and so is energy. And -- but we also have other cost items there. One thing that we have talked about a lot is, of course, the savings that we do. In this particular quarter, we had about [ 115 ] or so in savings, which we were happy about. Generally speaking, it has been a tough year when it comes to saving in COGS. And we still aspire to reach our annual target range of about EUR 50 million to EUR 100 million. We're not there. We aspire to get into that range for the full year, but it is challenging, and this is, of course, due to the relatively low volume development that we have in our production. So that makes it a bit more challenging to get to our target range. A&P, not surprising. We've increased the absolute spending level and also as a percentage of sales. And this is a profitable proposition. We know that the return of A&P spend is attractive. So this is why we do that. We talked a lot about SG&A previously, and we've also announced measures to actually -- to make the growth rate become much lower. And there has been a lot of success there. So clearly, when you look at our SG&A development, is much better now than we have seen in the previous quarters. The growth in particularly IT and personnel cost is lower now. Let me just point out, though, that there is a portion -- a smaller portion, I should say, of the improvement that relates to lower bonus provisions. So the improvement is not as strong as you see here, there is a smaller portion that is due to that. But I'll come back to the future in a second. But generally speaking, if you disregard that, underlying performance of SG&A is much lower than the inflation rate. So the measures we've taken have clearly paid off. Now finally, there's a bit of other here. This is just a one-off in last year actually. We had an insurance payments last year and we didn't have it this year. So that's the final part. So overall, a very, very good quarter, I should say for the group in terms of margin. And basically, you can see year-on-year, that health and medical and professional hygiene are still slightly down and consumer goods up. But if you look at it sequentially, which we're happy about, both Health and Medical and Professional Hygiene have turned a little bit and actually now improved. So all in all, a good margin development. Turning to cash flow, a bit -- just some short comments, generally speaking, quite a good quarter, both in terms of underlying cash generation, but also in terms of working capital. We were not so happy about working capital in the second quarter, much better looking this quarter. So when you look at accounts receivables or accounts payables in working capital, the days are roughly about the same. It's still a bit too high when it comes to inventory. We are working our way down to that. So hopefully, we'll see a good development in working capital also as we go forward. And finally, the balance sheet as a consequence of that strong cash flow generation. We have been able to, in comparison to the 6 months balance sheet, we have been able to reduce our net debt with about SEK 3 billion or so, and of course, our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio is now down to SEK 1.2 billion. I think this is a good -- perhaps opportunity to give you a little bit about the flavor for what we expect for Q4. I mean, again, we don't give that much of forecast, but let me just give you a little bit. Strating with COGS. Perhaps, we expect to -- that COGS will actually, from a year-on-year -- compared to Q4 of 2024, we expect COGS to be lower this quarter coming up in '25. And the reason is mainly driven by input cost or and particularly so [indiscernible] cost. So we expect COGS to be lower. When it comes to A&P, we also -- we expect it to be flat to higher compared to last year. So Q4 versus Q4, we expect to spend more in A&P. As I said, this is a good return on those investments. And finally, when it comes to SG&A, this is worth mentioning that we will have, also in comparison Q4-Q4, a fairly low growth rate. So clearly, we will retain that lower growth rate than we've had in the previous year. But just worth noting that from a sequential standpoint, Q4 SG&A, excluding A&P is always much higher. So sequentially, you should expect higher cost but year-on-year, a quite a low growth rate. So finally, I guess, just a reminder, perhaps, we have our financial targets. They remain intact. So more than 3% in organic sales growth and more than 15% in EBIT margin, excluding items affecting comparability. As you know, as you've seen here in Q3, we're close to our margin target. And of course, we got some work to do when it comes to our annual organic sales growth. And that, Ulrika, I guess, you will talk more about. Ulrika Kolsrud: Yes. Thank you, Fredrik. So question then, of course, is how to deliver on those financial targets. And you all know this, but I think it's worth repeating. We will deliver on our targets by prioritizing the categories segments, market and channel combinations that has the highest potential for profitable growth and where we have a clear right to win. We will deliver on our financial targets, not the least by delivering differentiated innovations that are driving market share development and pricing power. Also by having the most effective and efficient go-to-market. It should be easy to do business with Essity. Also to really find efficiency savings across our full value chain and not the least to continue to grow our people and to continue to build that winning culture that we have. Now I've said before that this strategy is highly relevant and is something that we continue to execute on. My focus has been how do we accelerate the execution on this strategy because I see significant potential for us to fuel growth and improve our performance. For example, we could unlock the full potential of our portfolio by sharpening our focus on the most attractive categories and segments. Also, I see opportunities for unleashing the full power of our organization by creating more end-to-end accountabilities, by decentralizing decision-making and reducing our operational complexity in the organization. And we could, by freeing up resources to reinvest in A&P and in our growth initiatives, we could become -- drive profitable growth more forcefully and also be more competitive. And those are the reasons why we are now then launching 2 initiatives. The first one is the reorganization to become faster, to become more agile and also to sharpen our focus. What we will do is that we will create 4 new business units that are global and based on our product categories. They will have the full P&L responsibility and also have the end-to-end accountability, and that is what is different from before. Those 4 business units will be Health and Medical, Personal Care, Consumer Tissue and Professional Hygiene. And consequently, we will start reporting financially in these segments as from 1st of January, 2026. Now the benefits with doing this is that we are decentralizing decision-making. We are cutting out duplication, and we are becoming more consumer and customer-centric. And by that, we will be faster in our decisions, we will be faster in our execution, and we will be faster in responding to evolving consumer and customer needs. We will furthermore sharpen our focus then on the most attractive categories and segments. Now what I've explained now is how this organization will become more effective, but it will also drive efficiencies since we are simplifying the structure. And those efficiency gains is the key component of the cost saving program that we're also launching. And this cost-saving program is expected to generate a saving of SEK 1 billion and had full effect in the run rate by end of 2026. It's primarily SG&A we're talking about, and that is on top of the COGS saving program that we have that Fredrik was alluding to before, and that is generating SEK 0.5 billion to SEK 1 billion annually. Market A&P, so market investments are excluded. In fact, it's important that we maintain -- at least maintain both A&P as well as R&D investments in order to fuel growth. And we want to reinvest the savings that we generate into our growth opportunities in higher-yielding areas where we also have a proven track record of high return on investments. So with these 2 measures, we will unleash the full power of the organization, we will free up resources that we can invest in profitable growth, and we will unlock the full potential of Essity's product portfolio. Now let's summarize the quarter before we move into Q&A. In the quarter, as you have heard, we delivered positive organic sales growth. We strengthened our profit margins, had a good cash flow and delivered a profit above SEK 5 billion. We also launched 2 measures to improve performance and fuel growth. And needless to say, looking forward now, 2 of our key priorities will be to implement this organizational change as well as to achieve the SG&A and COGS savings that we have been talking about. In parallel with that, of course, a priority is for us to continue with our efforts to drive volume growth and profitable volume growth in a challenging market environment with the ambition to perform while we transform. Thank you. Sandra Åberg: Thank you, Ulrika, and thank you, Fredrik. We will now move into questions. [Operator Instructions] And please try to limit your questions to one at a time because that will give Ulrika and Fredrik, the possibility to give you the best answers. Are you ready to start with the questions? Ulrika Kolsrud: Yes. Sandra Åberg: So let's move into questions. So we have a first question from Aron Adamski. Aron Adamski: Sandra, Ulrika, Fredrik. My first question is on the divergence between lower COGS picture and the prices which are higher. In that context, it would be great to hear why your expectations for pricing across your biggest categories over the next couple of quarters? And also, are you currently seeing any pressures from retailers to roll back prices or maybe the competitive pressures accelerating? Ulrika Kolsrud: If I start, I could say that, as I mentioned, when it comes to Consumer Tissue, there is a high price competition across that business. And of course, also in other parts of our business, it's a high price competition. And we always look at ways to balance, of course, volume growth with having a good pricing performance. We've talked before in Q2, but also this quarter about the selective price adjustments that we do in Professional Hygiene, which is to fuel growth and to adapt to the market situation that we have there. Anything you want to add, Fredrik? Fredrik Rystedt: No, not really. I mean we didn't specifically talk about sequential price movement now in our presentation here, but we've seen a bit of price decline sequentially in Inco Health Care and Professional Hygiene and baby as you alluded to, and these are deliberate basically. I think it's fair to say -- we also saw a very, very tiny price sequential decline in Consumer Tissue. And exactly as you say that, of course, there is more room for that potentially when [indiscernible] comes down even further. But again, it's very difficult to discount. We always try to maintain a very solid price management. So it's difficult to comment in advance. Ulrika Kolsrud: I hope that answered your question, Aron, did it? Aron Adamski: Yes. Sandra Åberg: Thank you, Aron. So now it's time for Oskar Lindstrom, Danske Bank. Oskar Lindström: Good morning. A couple of questions from me. First off, on the cost savings. Of the SEK 1 billion, how much should we expect to sort of drop down to the bottom line or to EBIT? And how much will be reinvested in increased A&P spending. That's my first question. Should I go on with the other? Ulrika Kolsrud: No. Let me answer that one first because as I said, primarily, we are going to reinvest that saving into profitable growth. And then you will see the effect on margin as we grow volumes and then we'll have the operating leverage of margin. Oskar Lindström: Right, and about the timing here, should we expect the sort of reinvestment into A&P then to sort of come at the same time as the cost savings are being implemented or before? Or what's the timing going to look like? Essentially, what I'm looking for is, is this going to have a positive and negative impact on EBIT margins during 2026. Ulrika Kolsrud: If I start with the way we will work with this is that as the savings materialize, we will then have freed up resources that we can reinvest. So it will coincide to a big extent. Fredrik, do you want to comment on margin development in light of that? Fredrik Rystedt: No. I think one thing, Oskar, maybe just to remind you, is that we've always said that what will bring our margins higher is basically operating leverage, so it's volume. So what we are now doing is using the freed up -- as Ulrika just said, we are using the funds that we free up to fuel volume growth, and that volume growth in its turn will enhance margin. That's the plan. So it's not our intention to boost, if you say, the margin with the cost saving program, but rather to reinvest it as the savings occur. Does that make sense? Oskar Lindström: Yes, thank you. And just a final question on the sort of balance between lower-end private label and your own branded or higher-end branded product. I mean a lot of other consumer segments have seen this deteriorating from the producer's perspective in that consumers are down traded and you've also mentioned this during the past -- how is that developing? Are you seeing any -- is it worsening the same signs of an improvement? Ulrika Kolsrud: It's -- I would say, if we talk -- I mean we're talking consumer tissue, it's pretty much the same. I mean we see that there is a down trading, and that is what we see in our branded business is declining and the private label market is increasing. And I don't see any major movements. It's quite similar to what it's been. Sandra Åberg: Thank you, Oskar, for your questions. [Operator Instructions] And as I can see, Patrick Folan from Barclays, you have a question. Patrick Folan: I just joined some -- sorry, from repeating question already asked, but 2 for me. On health and medical, can you maybe walk through any kind of contracts that were gained or lost during the period? And maybe how you see kind of the outlook for the segments you're considering your experience there? And maybe more specifically kind of looking at the reorganization and the change in structure, I mean what was behind the decision to strip out personal care and tissue from the Consumer Goods unit? Is there more focus trying to go into certain segments? Or is it just trying to have more disciplined cost strategy in terms of how you allocate resources? Ulrika Kolsrud: Thank you, Patrick, if I start with the first question, I think if you look at Health & Medical, it's a lot of contracts, especially on the medical side, but also on the Inco side, it's a lot of contracts. So we don't necessarily talk about all those individual contracts and what we have gained and lost and so on over time. I think in the Incontinence Care, health care arena, it's quite stable when it comes to our contract base. And in Health and Medical, as you can see, we are continuing to grow. So we are growing with new contracts and taking new business as well as with growth within those contracts that we have. Then if we move to the organization, there is the intention, as you heard me -- or maybe you didn't hear explain, you said you came on a bit late. But we want to create this end-to-end accountability. And to do so, we want to work then with the different product categories more separated because then that allows us to have that end-to-end accountability with the business unit and the one P&L responsible is responsible for innovation, marketing, supply chain and sales. So that is one reason. Another reason is that it allows us to focus on the most attractive categories and segments. Both that Personal Care comes more in the limelight, and that will drive performance and focus on Personal Care, but also in Consumer Tissue, it allows us to focus more on the most attractive segments within that category. And then I would say thirdly is that Personal Care and Consumer Tissue, our businesses that have quite different character. And by running them separately, we can optimize the way we work based on the specific business drivers in those 2 businesses. Patrick Folan: Okay. Clear. And just a follow-up on that. In terms of the benchmarking exercise, for the SG&A kind of cost program. How did you guys arrive at that kind of SEK 1 billion number, I suppose? Fredrik Rystedt: Maybe I can try and answer that, Patrick. So 2 things. We looked at the reorganization if we start in that end and we looked at what kind of savings potential, that organizational change actually brought with it. So that was a starting point. We also looked at our other buckets of SG&A, and we looked at where we could optimize that spend. So as an example, our IT spend as we go forward, you will perhaps remember that we've had a very, very significant increase of our IT spending for various reasons over the course of a couple of years. We now feel it's appropriate to actually reduce that as an example. So there are many different things that has gone into that analysis. But the main part is actually related to the reorganization that we have described here today. Sandra Åberg: Thank you, Patrick. I hope you have your answers to your questions now. Then we will move to Niklas Ekman, DNB Carnegie. Niklas Ekman: Can I ask you about use of funds because you are now generating cash flow in the range of SEK 12 million, maybe SEK 13 billion, you have dividends that are slightly below SEK 6 billion and buybacks of SEK 3 billion. So you're essentially now improving your balance sheet significantly. Can you elaborate a little bit about -- on your thoughts here on M&A potential? Are you saving for future M&A potential? Is there scope to increase either the dividends or buybacks? Or what's your thoughts here on the use of funds? Ulrika Kolsrud: Well, if we start with the dividends, we stay with our policy to increase our dividends over a year and stay true to that. Then we see buybacks as a recurring way to allocate capital so that we will continue with as well. Then the good thing is that we have, as you say, a strong balance sheet. So we can both invest in organic growth and deleverage, and we can have the funds to invest in an M&A, should we find something that is value creating. Niklas Ekman: And just how is that market now and the potential for you to do M&A and also considering the valuation of your own shares at the moment? Ulrika Kolsrud: Well, I think we talked about that last quarter as well, right, that, of course, we want to be careful in making sure that our M&As that we potentially do are value creating. And then there has to be the synergies to bridge that gap between the valuation of a potential acquisition and our own valuation. Niklas Ekman: Very clear. Can I also ask about U.S. tariffs? That was not a big, but still an issue in the Q2 results. What is it looking like now? How is it impacting you? Fredrik Rystedt: Maybe I can take that, Niklas. We've had this quarter, Q3, SEK 110 million roughly and we are looking at a lower number, about SEK 70 million in Q4. And the reason between -- the difference between these numbers is simply that the Canadian government has actually taken out the tariffs on our exports from the U.S. to Canada. So this is the difference. So as I said, Q3, SEK 110 million, roughly about SEK 70 million in Q4. Sandra Åberg: The next question comes from Antoine Prevot, Bank of America. Antoine Prevot: A question from me on Latin America, I mean, continue to be strong compared to, I mean, maybe some of the part of Staples, which have been a bit weaker there. Anything specific you want to flag? Is it you mainly continue to gain market share there? And do you expect that to continue in the coming quarters? Ulrika Kolsrud: I don't know want to necessarily comment on the coming quarters because we don't know how that will play out. But what we can say is that we are doing well in what is a quite challenging market now in Latin America, where the consumer sentiment is changing and so on, but we are growing very nicely. We talked earlier now this morning about the feminine brands, for example, that is doing very well. And also in our Consumer Tissue business, we are growing in, for example, Mexico. Also, our incontinence business is growing very well in Latin America. So overall, it's looking good for us in Latin America. Antoine Prevot: Perfect. Just to follow up. I mean, it's more like innovations led to that market share? Or is there something else there? Ulrika Kolsrud: Can you repeat, sorry? Antoine, can you repeat your question? Antoine Prevot: Yes, sorry. Is it just -- what's driving these different strong performance in North America in the different categories you defined? Have you launched new product there? Or what has been kind of like backing that? Ulrika Kolsrud: It's a combination as in many cases. If we look at Consumer Tissue, it's been -- we've had quite good promotional season that has helped to boost growth in that category specifically. In feminine, as I shared, we have a new launch, and we have a very strong offer that we continue to invest behind, and we get the payoff from those investments. So -- but in most cases, it's a combination of really marketing our attractive offer, adding on new innovations and upgrades to fuel growth and then also promotions. Sandra Åberg: Let's now move to Charles Eden, UBS. Charles Eden: Just wanted to clarify your comments because I think there is perhaps an incorrect interpretation this morning, looking at how the share price has developed during the call. You said the cost savings are not going to improve the margin of the group, which one could conclude means your cost of business is going up and that you need to spend more just to stand still. Am I correct? What you're trying to say is you will reinvest these SEK 1 billion cost savings into the business with the aim of driving superior volume growth and market share gains. And then these factors should contribute to stronger margins over time as opposed to just trying to cut cost to drive the margin improvement? Is that the right way to look at it? Maybe that's been misinterpreted. Ulrika Kolsrud: Exactly. Charles Eden: Because I think people have sort of interpreted you saying we need to spend more just to stay where we are on the margins and that's not what you're trying to say, right? You're trying to say, look, we want to drive it through market share gains to push the margin higher rather than we have to spend more to stand still. Ulrika Kolsrud: Exactly. Charles Eden: Thanks for the clarification. Ulrika Kolsrud: Thank you for clarifying for us. Very helpful. Sandra Åberg: Then I think that we have another question from Aron Adamski, Goldman Sachs. Is that right, Aron? Aron Adamski: I have 2 very quick follow-ups. Firstly, on Baby Care. I think clearly, the business performance improved sequentially, but it's still below the midterm outlook that I think you laid out at the CMD last year. I was just wondering, since your targets were formed initially, do you think there has been any fundamental shift in the category fundamentals, specifically in Europe that could perhaps make the initial goals more difficult to achieve in the longer term? And then the second follow-up is very quick, just on Consumer Tissue and sorry, if you mentioned this already. How is your private label business performing both on volume and pricing. Is that still a significantly accretive part to this category? Ulrika Kolsrud: If I start with the first one, I'm not so sure, but the time horizon here what we are referring to. But generally speaking, I could say that we do see the lower birth rates and that is something that continues to develop. That has an impact on the fundamentals of the category. When it comes to weaker climate that we see and that some consumers are more price sensitive, that is more of a temporary situation. So that we expect to change over time. Then with the private label division, I mean that is still a value-creating part of our business, even if we now have lower -- we have lower volumes in that business in the third quarter. As we said, it's a high price competition in this category. Fredrik Rystedt: And there, we mentioned it earlier, Antoine, that we have maintained a margin protective stance a bit. So we have been eager to do that. And of course, with high price competition, it is a bit challenging on the volume side. But once again, this is more, you can say, normal fluctuations in that business. So nothing dramatic. Sandra Åberg: So I think that we are out of questions. So do we have any more questions? [Operator Instructions] No, I think we're out of questions. That means that we can wrap up. Any closing remarks, Ulrika, before we end? Ulrika Kolsrud: Yes. I think we are leaving -- we are leaving a positive quarter behind us now. And we are launching initiatives that will fuel our profitable growth going forward. And just on the previous discussion that we had, I think it's important to point that out that we have a lot of belief in our growth platforms that we have. And looking forward to freeing up resources so that we can continue to accelerate growth in those areas. And that will drive also margin improvement by operating leverage and mix improvement. So that I want to leave you with. Thank you for listening. Sandra Åberg: Thank you, Ulrika, and thank you, Fredrik. And thanks to our audience for listening in. And if you have any further questions, you know where to find us. Have a good rest of the day. Bye.
Fredrik Ruben: Okay. Good morning, and welcome to this earnings call, where we will cover the third quarter, summarizing our business from July, August and September of this year. And I'm Fredrik Ruben, I am the CEO of Dynavox Group. Linda Tybring: Hello. I'm Linda Tybring. I'm the CFO of Dynavox, and I will cover the financials later on. Fredrik Ruben: Great. So for those of you who have been participating in these calls before, you will be familiar with that. We will start by a quick recap about what Dynavox Group is about. And then we will summarize the main takeaways from the quarter. We will then dive deeper into the financials, and thereafter, there will be a Q&A session. And you can submit your questions during this call in the function here, in Teams, in the chat function. Or you can ask them live if you have asked -- or if you've been given prior notice to our team. We, of course, always welcome offline questions sent over e-mail to the above e-mail address linda.tybring@dynavoxgroup.com. But a brief overview of Dynavox Group. First and foremost, it's important to reiterate our mission and our vision, which I know is very dear to not only our over 1,000 colleagues around the world, but also to our ecosystem of partners and investors. And our vision is a world where everyone can communicate, and we contribute to this via focusing on our mission, which reads: To empower people with disabilities to do what they once did or never thought possible. And this also summarizes 2 of our main user stories. The first one, the do what you once did, that may refer to a person who led a normal life until a diagnosis such as ALS, which rendered her then unable to control the body and communicate like before. And the other, the never thought possible can refer to the child diagnosed at an early age with a condition such as autism, cerebral palsy or so where thanks to our solutions, he can now do much more than the world around him ever thought possible. On the picture here to the right, we see [ Lyn ] from Lawrenceburg in Kentucky. She is one of our amazing users diagnosed with cerebral palsy and is a great example of this. The market that we serve is hugely underserved. Some 50 million people have a condition so grave that they simply cannot communicate unless they have a solution like ours. And every year, we estimate some 2 million people are being diagnosed and yet only some 2% of those are actually being helped and the rest remain silent. And the main reason for this spells lack of awareness and also among the professionals and the prescribers who are tasked to assist these users and a poor health care reimbursement system. We operate this with a global footprint. Today, some 3/4 of our business stems out of the U.S., and that's largely because of a reasonably well-functioning funding system established some 20, 30 years ago. But our products are sold in some 65 markets around the world, of which the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and France; most recently, Germany, are markets where we sell directly; while the others are served by a network of some 100-plus resellers. Our staff is distributed in a similar way as the revenue. That means some 60% of our staff are based in North America with our U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And our second largest office is here, our headquarters in Stockholm, but we have branch offices in several European countries as well as in Suzhou, China, Adelaide, Australia. As of today, we are about 1,000 employees in total. We provide a comprehensive portfolio of solutions that ranges from -- if you start from the left, the content and the language system, such as the world's leading library of communication symbols called PCS and the leading solutions of off-the-shelf or custom-made synthetic voices of the highest quality and with a large diversity in terms of languages, ages, ethnicities. We then offer highly sophisticated communication software, which is tailored to the type of user, which can vary greatly based on the needs. We then develop and design devices with cutting-edge technology and medically certified durability, and that includes communication aids controlled via eye tracking and accessories such as the Rehadapt mounts. We have a services portfolio to help our users through the complexity of obtaining and getting funding for the solutions. And last but not least, we're there to help our users, the therapists and the caregivers through our global teams and support resources. We operate this model globally, and it's important to note that each piece here is critically important and also a significant differentiator for us, making us absolutely unique. Our go-to-market model is predominantly as prescribed aids, and that means that some 90% of our revenue comes from public or private insurance providers. And this also means that we have solid paying customers and have always been resilient towards changes in the overall economic climate. But now I will go back at focusing on the main topic of today, namely the earnings report for the third quarter 2025. So, if I look at the highlights, we had another strong quarter when it comes to revenue growth. The growth compared to the same quarter previous year sums up to over 35% after adjusting for currency effects. And this marks a further acceleration of the already strong trajectory over the past 3 years. The demand for our solutions remains high, proving the solidity of our underlying business, and we see robust growth across all markets. In this quarter, a particular highlight is the outstanding performance in our direct presence markets outside of North America. We continue seeing increased growth in our touch control product portfolio, and they are typically serving younger users with autism. However, in this quarter, we also saw very good traction in the eye-gaze controlled solution area, serving users with more complex needs. Our investments in systems, infrastructure and organization to support our long-term ambitions continue according to plan, and I will come back to that shortly. EBIT came in at SEK 64 million in the quarter, but this includes nonrecurring costs of some SEK 26 million in this quarter and implying then a strong underlying profitability. And on September 1, we completed the previously announced acquisition of our long-standing German reselling partner, RehaMedia. Coming back to our investments. So strategic investments are an important part of our growth strategy and a way for us to scale and build an efficient and resilient company. So in 2025, we expect to invest some -- approximately SEK 100 million in total in of nonrecurring nature in 2 main projects that are progressing well and according to plan. The first one is the rollout of a new ERP system in North America and an establishment and a consolidated product and development hub here in Stockholm. The ERP successfully launched on July 1. And despite almost a week long freeze period, we have been able to keep up deliveries and even deliver more voices to our customers than in Q2. And during Q3, the nonrecurring spend totaled some SEK 9 million or SEK 40 million spent year-to-date on that. The second topic, the consolidation of our product and development organization into a central hub in Stockholm continues according to plan. All managers are in place since a while back and the majority of all functions have been recruited and have started. And since April of this year, all new product releases have been handled from the Stockholm hub. During Q3, the nonrecurring spend totaled SEK 14 million on this with a SEK 33 million spent year-to-date. But now I will hand it over to you, Linda, to take us deeper into the financials. Linda Tybring: Thank you, Fredrik. So let's talk Q3 financials. Revenue for the third quarter came in at SEK 606 million, a 35% year-on-year growth after adjusting for currency effects. Recent acquisition contributed with 3% and the organic growth was a solid 33%. This marks another chapter in our 3-year strike of robust growth and consistent execution. Currency fluctuations had 10% negative impact on our revenue. Sales continued to grow across all markets. However, this quarter, our direct market outside North America delivered outstanding performance, exceeding already high expectations. As we have talked about in prior quarters, we continue to see growth among younger users with autism. At the same time, there is a good traction in eye-gaze control solutions, serving users with more complex needs. The gross margin ended up at 70%, an increase of 0.8 percentage points. The margin was improved by increased sales, also by further strengths in addition to having more direct market contributed to an extra layer of gross margin. Gross margin also had slightly help from currency this quarter. We had some negative impact of increased cost of freight, and this is mainly related to using air freight, which has been driven by strong sales momentum, and we wanted to ensure that we are delivering on time. EBIT for the quarter was SEK 64 million, and the EBIT margin was 10.6%. It was negatively affected by nonrecurring costs totaling some SEK 26 million in the quarter, lowering the profit margin temporarily by 4.3 percentage points. Our OpEx increased by 30% organically. The OpEx increase was affected by factors such as continued investment in staff, increases in the sales and marketing. In total, we added more than 200 FTE, including M&A, of course, also adding normal salary adjustments. During the quarter, we continued to invest in new systems ands tools to strengthen scalability. The total nonrecurring spend related to this in the quarter was SEK 9 million. As of July 1, we are live with our new ERP in our largest market, North America. Operating expenses was also affected by nonrecurring costs related to our restructuring cost in the product and development organization. The total nonrecurring spend in the quarter was SEK 14 million. Both these 2 investments are according to our strategic plan. The recent strong development of the Dynavox Group share price has rendered an increased cost for employee long-term incentive program of SEK 3 million compared to the third quarter last year. All in all, nonrecurring costs in the quarter sums up to SEK 26 million. In addition, EBIT was negatively impacted by currency of SEK 6 million in the quarter. Net R&D costs increased by SEK 23 million, SEK 10 million of this relates to nonrecurring restructuring costs within the research and development organization. If we look at the basic earnings per share, it totaled to SEK 0.36 per share to compared with last year's SEK 0.43 per share. For the quarter, cash flow after continuous investment was positive with SEK 20 million. Cash at the end of the quarter was SEK 172 million and net debt was SEK 924 million. The total used credit facility and term loan at the end of the quarter was SEK 900 million. The net debt after last 12 months EBITDA was SEK 2.0x. And also note that during the quarter, Dynavox signed a new refinance agreement with Swedbank totaling to SEK 1.2 billion. And this is classified as a social loan as our prior agreement. And this agreement reflects our continued commitment to advancing sustainable social initiatives that a positive impact on society. The credit facility includes a SEK 900 million term loan and a SEK 300 million revolving credit facility, which means -- which can be used for both working capital and strategic acquisitions. The facility has a 3-year term with 2 optional 1-year extensions. For end of September, we have unused revolving credit facility of SEK 300 million. So back to you, Fredrik, to conclude the earnings call. Fredrik Ruben: Thank you, Linda. So before we open up for questions, I'd like to reiterate the main takeaways from the third quarter. So first of all, we continue our strong growth trajectory, a trend that started in the early spring of 2022 and just keeps accelerating. We grew revenue by 35% adjusted for currency. Sales continue to grow across all markets, but with direct presence markets outside of North America exceeding expectations in this quarter. We continue to see growing adoption among younger users with autism, but at the same time, we also see really good traction in the eye-gaze control solutions area that serves users with more complex needs. Our profitability was negatively affected by nonrecurring costs totaling some SEK 26 million or 4.3 percentage points related to these long-term investments focused on building a more robust company. The current uncertainties in the macroeconomic climate or policy changes has not had any direct effects on our business, but we experienced some indirect effects through elevated freight costs in the aftermath of various tariffs announcements. The currently ongoing U.S. government shutdown poses no immediate execution risk, but we are monitoring the development here closely. Given the continued and sustainable growth, we continue to grow in term -- the team, while investing in systems and tools to enable future business growth that is much bigger than today. Our financial targets are expressed where -- and they were communicated in February 2024 with a time horizon of 3 to 4 years. And the first target was to, on average, grow revenue by 20% per year adjusted for currency effects, and that includes contributions from acquisitions. And in local currencies, the third quarter growth was 35%, which means that we have found a revenue growth momentum to build on. The market we serve remains hugely underserved. And with the example of growth levers such as sales teams expansion, adding direct markets and operational excellence, we continue to build on our growth journey. The second target is to deliver an annual EBIT margin that reaches and exceeds 15%. We feel that we have proven to build a strong growth with incremental improvements in profitability. We need to continue to invest in future growth with improvements in scale, but the recipe is rather simple. We want to maintain continued revenue growth, high and stable gross margins and then total operating expenses that increase at a lower pace than our revenue growth. And as a consequence, we see good opportunity to further leverage how revenue growth translates to reaching and exceeding an EBIT margin of 15%. Lastly, we have a dividend policy. We feel that we have an attractive cash flow profile. And given the growth opportunities, we need to maintain a capital structure that enables strategic flexibility to pursue growth investments, including then acquisitions. But it's still expected to, over time, generate excess cash, and our policy is, therefore, to distribute at least 40% of the available net profits to shareholders via dividends, share repurchases or similar programs when time so allows and it's deemed the right prioritization for us. With that said, I am taking a step to the left, and I invite Elisabeth Manzi, our Corporate Communications Director, who will help to moderate and enable us to take questions from the audience. Elisabeth? Elisabeth Manzi: Yes. Well, thank you. We have a lot of questions here today. So I will start with a question from Daniel Djurberg, who is asking about the nonrecurring outlook for ERP and R&D for 2026. Linda Tybring: So I mean our goal, when it comes to our product and development organization is that it should be completed by the end of the year and that we are geared for starting to execute in 2026. When it comes to ERP, we are still in the transition of getting all our legal entity over into the new ERP. And our goal is that we will be completed somewhere during next year. Fredrik Ruben: Yes. But -- and to the last point, I mean, we, North America represents some 3/4 of our business, and that's what we started with. It's obviously the most complex area and also by far the most costly area. So, we definitely see that's going to… Linda Tybring: It will gradually, yes, decrease over the next year. Elisabeth Manzi: So, following up on the North America and the U.S. situation, Daniel is also asking if there are any hiccups to the funding systems or to Medicare organizations due to this shutdown? And also, is the Nairobi Protocol still valid? Fredrik Ruben: The short answer to your first question, Daniel, is no. We have no current impact on our ability to get paid basically in North America. That might change, and we don't know exactly what's going to happen in the future. But as of today, no. Our assessment on the Nairobi Protocol is that there are no suggestions or paths where the tariff-free import on our types of products will be changed just because of recent announcements. So, we -- the best guess right now is that it will remain in force. Elisabeth Manzi: Good. And then I do believe that we also have someone calling in. So, let's see if we have Ramil on the line. Ramil Koria: I have a bunch of questions actually. I'll try to contain myself. But maybe if we start on like the progression you've made throughout 2025 with younger users within autism. It sounds very much like a TD Navio type of sort of use case. So, do you think that the launch of TD Navio in mid/late 2024 was sort of the driving element behind sort of the organic growth acceleration in this year? Fredrik Ruben: It's a good question. And the answer is yes and no. What is actually the main product that is benefiting that customer group is a software called TD Snap, and that's a software we had in our portfolio for quite some year, but it's obviously been refined over time. That software is the software that you run on TD Navio. So, with the launch of the TD Navio, which is simply a better version of a very similar product that we had prior to that, that was what we can see that has sparked a really strong growth momentum. But as such, it's the software that actually makes the bigger difference. TD Navio is the can that holds a very good soup, if I would use that analogy. Ramil Koria: Yes. Makes sense, Fredrik. And then on the topic of direct sales outside of North America improving, could you -- because you've acquired several distributors in the last say, 2 years. Could you elaborate a little bit on what markets you are seeing the pick up in? And if that pertains to the new acquisitions, France, Germany or older ones? Fredrik Ruben: It's actually quite a strong growth across the board. So, there isn't one country that kind of stands for the majority of the growth. It's a very strong growth across many markets. But one clear trend that we see is the markets where we have no middle layer, no middleman, where we go directly. And those obviously includes the markets that we recently acquired. But we should also remember that we were already direct in a number of other markets prior to that. But those - if we see some sort of trend of the kind of across-the-board growth, it's definitely those markets that are in the lid. Ramil Koria: Okay. Makes sense. And then I mean, I can see the notion of like margin expansion being visible ahead as per your financial targets. But if you take Q3 isolated, organic growth in OpEx is 31%, so just 1 percentage point lower than organic growth on top line. The phasing of margin expansion, how should we think of that, say, for Q4 and into 2026, perhaps? Fredrik Ruben: Do you want to address that? Linda Tybring: Yes. First of all, you need to consider the significant investments that we are doing this year. Both the restructuring cost is impacting our organic OpEx increase and that we will not see next year. Over time, that means also our R&D spend will go down in relation to revenue over time. So, you will have that kind of improvement. We will also start to see gross margin. You will slightly see some improvement when we go direct in more markets. And then over time, the more efficient we will get with the systems that we are now implementing, we will not -- we don't need to invest as significant to actually continue our growth journey. So, you talk about the crocodile sometimes. So, we will gradually see an improvement of OpEx slowing down growth and revenue continue. Fredrik Ruben: We want to spend as much money as we see reasonable in sales and marketing because that really drives growth, whereas we want to see a very moderate increase in all other OpEx areas. Ramil Koria: And just one final one perhaps on like outlook as well. I mean, in connection with Q2, you said that the first and the last week of Q2 were really strong. Could you shed any light on how Q3 progressed throughout the quarter? Fredrik Ruben: Yes. I think you're absolutely right. So just to reiterate, we said both in Q1 and Q2 that the first week of Q1 or Q2 was as good as the last week of Q1 and Q2. That was actually not the case in this quarter because we had a planned -- how should I put it, standstill in the very first week or so in North America due to the ERP change. So, there was a little bit more of a catch-up effect, which could argue that we had an accelerating growth throughout this quarter. But on the other hand, that was a little bit kind of artificial because we kind of -- we created that problem, I should say, ourselves. So good momentum is probably the short answer. Elisabeth Manzi: And actually, both Jessica and Daniel also had questions relating to the Q4 and if we could see any seasonality outlook for Q4? Fredrik Ruben: Without being too detailed, we should just remember that we have a fairly consistent seasonality effect in our business, where Q1 is the weakest; Q2, a little bit better; Q3, a little bit better; and Q4 is our best quarter, both in terms of absolute top line revenue, but obviously, spreading out the larger top line over almost the same OpEx will hopefully have a bigger kind of drop-through. We see no difference here. The reason for this is that the -- a lot of our clients and customers have a big incentive to get their orders shipped and delivered before New Year's Eve before the so-called co-pays or deductibles in insurance systems resets on January 1. So, no change. Elisabeth Manzi: Good. So, let's continue with some questions -- more questions from Jessica Grunewald at Redeye. She's asking if we could walk us through the working capital buildup and how you see it developing going forward, particularly with the increased share of direct sales. Linda Tybring: Yes. So, what happened when we get more direct sales is, of course, then that we need to build up more inventory because we get an extra additional layer of inventory. So now we've seen in the last couple of quarters, one is related to Tobii that we have increased inventory, but also the second part is that we go direct in more markets, which means that we are building up more inventory. But over time, we will balance this and we'll be able to get more release also part of us that we have grown this year, we needed to adjust because making sure it's more important for us at the moment to make sure that we deliver on time than to build up slightly higher inventory. But over time, we will see the evidence of that. Also in this quarter, we should also know what Fredrik mentioned that we also saw some of the sales coming in, in the later part of the quarter, which means we build up some of the accounts receivable as well. Elisabeth Manzi: And a last question from Jessica here. She's asking, what are your expectations regarding the RehaMedia acquisition and the market dynamics in Germany? Fredrik Ruben: We should just remember that these acquisitions, when we acquire our research, they're quite small in the grand scheme of things. With that said, Germany is one of the most exciting and interesting markets, not just in terms of share size or funding system. It's also a market where we believe that there is a lot of growth potential. So having our own feet on the ground in Germany is going to be instrumental for the slightly longer run, and we feel it's off to a very good start. Linda Tybring: And Germany is actually very -- Germany funding is actually very similar to the U.S. Fredrik Ruben: Right. Elisabeth Manzi: Good. So Oscar from SEB is asking if you can elaborate on the increased freight cost and how many basis points that would be a pressure on the gross margin? Linda Tybring: It's very small effect on the gross margin, but that is, of course, related to that we needed to get inventory in the warehouse as soon as possible because we saw the need from a sales perspective. Over time, that will go down, and we will be able to ship much more with both because we are able to balance the sales momentum that we'll have. Fredrik Ruben: Yes. I would say it's more of an opportunity of actually improving it going forward when we are -- when we can plan a little bit more ahead. I think it's fair to say that this announcements of tariffs and the new policies that come out specifically from the U.S., have an actually profound effect on supply chains and freight chains across the world because it's quite bumpy. Elisabeth Manzi: Good. And a follow-up question on the performance and North America. We said that markets outside of North America was performing very well. So what about North America? Did they underperform the expectations in Q3? Any color would be helpful. Fredrik Ruben: Okay. I will provide color. North America did fantastic. And some of those markets outside of North America did amazing. That's the amount of color I can provide. It's hard when everybody is performing personal best to say that someone didn't perform. It was very strong across the board, but simply even better out in those direct markets outside of North America. Linda Tybring: But I think it's also a strength from us that it's not one country or one product. We are actually across the board growing our company. Elisabeth Manzi: And this was actually the same question as Mikael at DNB Carnegie had. So, we will move on to bringing in another voice. So, I'll ask [ Philip from SB ] to join. Unknown Analyst: So, you mentioned in the report that you witnessed good traction in touch control devices during the quarter. What is the sales split between touch control and eye-gaze devices? Fredrik Ruben: The split. Linda Tybring: It's around, I would say, touch is today probably slightly over 50 and eye tracking slightly below, but we should also remember the ASP. So, from a quantity perspective, touch is significantly higher than eye track. Fredrik Ruben: It's almost -- it's an ASP difference of 2. So, an eye tracking device costs twice as much as a touch device. Unknown Analyst: Yes. And do you anticipate it to be kind of the similar split going forward? Fredrik Ruben: I think past performance is a good predictor of future performance. That's how much we can say right now. Unknown Analyst: And I remember you mentioning -- I don't know if it was at the end of last year or beginning of this year that around 10,000 prescribers have ever prescribed a Dynavox device. Has that number increased during the year? Or how should we think about that? Fredrik Ruben: I don't have that number. It's my honest answer, but we can definitely look into it. My gut feeling says that it's increased slightly. But what I do believe is that the prescribers that prescribe 4 or more that has a little bit more traction, that group has grown -- yes, quite strong. Unknown Analyst: And what measures do you use to increase like the revenue per prescriber for those people. Fredrik Ruben: So, what kind of measures we take to increase that? Unknown Analyst: Yes. Why do you see that the people that prescribe several devices increase their prescribing rates? Fredrik Ruben: The simple answer is because it's one of our focus areas. We believe that it's better to spend our time on taking the ones who have done something and make them become more self-sufficient and better at the jobs rather than just trying to pull more new prescribers into the loop. But it's a balancing act. Elisabeth Manzi: And a follow-up on that last conversation here then on the eye-gaze controlled solutions. Could you describe what's driving that momentum? Fredrik Ruben: And I believe it's Daniel or was it Mikael Laseen. Elisabeth Manzi: Yes. Fredrik Ruben: It's a very good question, Mikael. I think that there is a combination of where the market had focused quite a lot on what was then a year ago a new device, the touch devices from the Navio device. That is -- that's now yesterday's news, and we could potentially see that it's normalizing a little bit. So, it might be almost like an internal effect, but it's hard to say. Elisabeth Manzi: Good. And then let's see if we have another one here from [ Matt ]. Does your strategic investment currently holding back reported margins then into 2026? The market seems to focus on the lower-than-expected U.S. sales. Any worries for 2026 U.S. organic development? Fredrik Ruben: No. Linda Tybring: No. Elisabeth Manzi: That was short. Good. So let me just double check here. There was a little bit of a follow-up from Daniel as well on the freight cost and the impact on gross margin in Q3 and if this will turn substantially tougher ahead? Fredrik Ruben: Quite the contrary. Linda Tybring: Yes. Fredrik Ruben: I think we are in a position now where there is less interruption, less uncertainty, and we obviously feel quite confident with the momentum, which will enable us to not necessarily get lower freight costs. We can choose freight by sea, for example, which is significantly cheaper. We have a better ability to plan right now. Elisabeth Manzi: Good. I believe that was everything. Fredrik Ruben: All right. Fantastic. I'm happy to see that the technology work with some of the call ins, that's great. But also thank you, everybody, who participated and submitted questions in the chat. We are looking forward to seeing you all back again on February 5. So next year, when we will summarize the business for the full year of 2025. Thank you very much. Linda Tybring: Thank you.
Operator: Good morning, and welcome to the investor and analyst call for LSEG's Third Quarter 2025 Trading Update. [Operator Instructions] I would like to remind all participants that this call is being recorded. I will now hand over to David Schwimmer, CEO of LSEG, to open the presentation. Please go ahead. David Schwimmer: Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining the call. I'm here with MAP and Peregrine as usual, and we are also joined by Daniel Maguire, our Head of Markets, to talk about the Post Trade transaction that we announced this morning. For this quarter, we're going to take a slightly different approach from a normal Q3 given the intense debate in recent months around our business and AI. I'll cover some key aspects of our AI strategy and the excitement we have about the current opportunities, before MAP goes through the Q3 numbers, and Dan covers the Post Trade transaction. Then, of course, we'll be happy to take your questions. It has been a really busy quarter with great progress on several fronts. Group organic growth continues to be very healthy at 6.4%, with D&A growing at 4.9%, similar to the first half. ASV growth came in at 5.6%, a little better than expected, and we anticipate it being better again in Q4. We're raising our margin guidance to the top of the original range at around 100 basis points of improvement, reflecting strong operating leverage and cost control. As you may have seen, we've launched a number of AI-related partnerships involving our data, which is valued and relied on by partners old and new as industry standard. We've announced an important transaction today that creates a strong partnership and aligned incentives for the adoption of Post Trade Solutions while also increasing our revenue share from SwapClear and extending the profit-sharing arrangement with our partner banks by 10 years. More on this in a few minutes. And on the share buyback that we announced at our half year results, the original intention was to complete that by mid-December, but we've taken advantage of a lower share price and accelerated the GBP 1 billion buyback to finish by the end of this month. And we're today announcing a further GBP 1 billion buyback to be completed by our full year results in February of next year. Our strong cash generation gives us the firepower and the flexibility to invest organically to make important strategic moves and to be active in returning cash to our shareholders. On the next slide, we have summarized our LSEG Everywhere AI strategy under 3 key pillars: trusted data, transformative products and intelligent enterprise. We'll talk more about those second 2 at the Innovation Forum in November. But let me take a minute or 2 to dive into our data and the critical and valuable role it plays now and will play in an AI-rich world. The easiest way to think about our data is that the content itself and access to it is effectively financial markets infrastructure, something we know a lot about. It is industry standard, deeply trusted, embedded in highly regulated customer workflows and supported by processes and infrastructure that are extremely hard to replicate. And we are and always have been open. We deliver data to wherever our customers want it, their screens, their servers, their cloud and, of course, through third-party providers. Let's unpack this over the next few slides. Data & Feeds accounts for a little over 1/5 of group revenues. On this slide, we've broken down these by data type. But before we get into that, I want to remind you of the scale of our data. It is the largest pool in the industry, both in terms of breadth and depth. We have over 33 petabytes of data. That is over 3x the so-called common crawl, the data set formed from the public Internet, which is used to train many LLMs. Let's begin with the 45% of our Data & Feeds revenue derived from real time. This is a business built on physics, not probability. We've built connections to 575 exchanges and execution venues globally with our own infrastructure. In the blink of an eye, we standardize and translate the exchange outputs into a single common language and deliver them directly into the world's financial institutions. Millions of hard facts per second, not probabilistic algorithms. In a nutshell, AI cannot replicate or replace our real-time data. Then we have 25% of our Data & Feeds revenue, which is specialized and enhanced by our own enrichment. By specialized, we mean proprietary. Think Tradeweb fixed income pricing or exclusive like the Reuters News agreement or contributed like our deals database. So an LLM could not access these data sets through public sources. And then on top of that, we are enriching this data with value-added enhancements and augmentation by our data experts. That is our additional value add. And then that all comes with the LSEG curation standards, accuracy, normalization and tagging. So think of this data as protected by 3 moats. It is either proprietary or exclusive. It is enriched by our own intellectual property, and it is curated, applying the LSEG standards, which have often become the industry standard. Let me give you an example to bring this to life. Our deals league tables are highly valuable to banks, advisers and law firms. These league tables are widely considered the industry standard with LSEG data obtained daily from thousands of sources co-mingled with data sourced from nearly 2,000 financial and legal advisers actively contributing their deal flow. We get up to 25,000 of these contributions per month. This input, which is from humans, is crucial to the quality, accuracy and completeness of this data. These contributions clarify and correct deal details that appear in the press. They also add additional information to public deals and supply information on other deals that are not reported anywhere. So a data set built solely on public disclosures would be both inaccurate and incomplete. We further enrich this data with our proprietary calculation of rank value, which sets the standard for deal comps, market share and pitchbooks around the world. We refine this methodology each year through roundtables with advisory firms. So in case anyone is missing the point, no LLM can gather this data from public sources, 3 moats, LSEG proprietary or exclusive data, enriched by LSEG IP and curated by LSEG, applying the LSEG standards. Let's move on to the next bucket, representing 10% of Data & Feeds revenues. It is almost exactly identical to the previous bucket. It is specialized data, proprietary, exclusive or contributed, with LSEG standards applied. So not accessible by an LLM through public sources, our aftermarket research, for example. And to carry on the analogy with the moats, this is data protected by 2 powerful moats. Next is another 10% of revenue from data that is indeed public, but to which we apply our enrichment and analysis, similar to what I was talking about with customer contributions on the league tables. And we also applied the LSEG curation standards. Examples here would be earnings estimates and sentiment analytics applied to earnings calls and other sources. So can an LLM access it? Yes, but the data will be incomplete. Here, it is 2 moats applied on public data. So 90% of our revenue is from data that is nonreplicable by an LLM. That leaves us with the last 10% of Data & Feeds revenue, which represents the data derived from public sources for which we apply LSEG curation standards, data like company filings or economic metrics. This data is rarely sold on a stand-alone basis. Here, there is still one moat, a powerful and important one, and that is our standards, which I will cover on the next slide. Now that we've established that 90% of Data & Feeds revenue is from data that is simply out of reach or inaccessible to an AI model trawling for public data. Let me take a minute to explain very concretely what I mean by that third moat, the LSEG data curation standards. There are 5 major processes in the curation of LSEG's high-quality trusted data, which are simply nonnegotiable for our customers in regulated activities. These 5 processes are the foundations of what we call the LSEG standards. Let's look at them in a little bit more detail. We do not build our data sets on probabilistic models. We have constructed them from decades of hard data, much of which is no longer retrievable. We source them from our customer community with over 40,000 customers contributing regularly. And in many cases, our own analysts and experts generate them internally. So that is sourcing. We then extensively cleanse and validate this data to ensure quality, for example, verifying its accuracy and completeness. Publicly sourced data is not reliable without this step. The third step, normalizing and mastering means creating a single source of the truth, consistent from year-to-year and from security to security, factoring in corporate actions, for example, or restatements or perimeter changes. And then concordance and tagging, which is a critical and differentiated step. This is where the universal symbology of the RIC or Reuters Instrument Codes and our use of perm IDs to tag each piece of data are so powerful. They allow full interoperability across the data estate and create logical semantic relationships between related data, for example, between a company and its directors or a bond it has issued. And the fifth step, distribution. Irrespective of technology platform, data format or channel, the data we distribute to customers is consistent and authoritative. I'll talk more about our distribution strategy in a couple of minutes. So to summarize, for those who think AI models can scoop up so-called public data from the Internet and displace us, that just does not reflect how this industry works and fundamentally ignores the nonreplicable nature of the vast majority of our data. There's also been a lot of focus on our Workflows business. We have driven a lot of change here over the last 4 years and now have our customers on a modern, modular, customizable platform where we enhance functionality week in and week out, and we're doing more and more. As we said at H1, it is not AI or a desktop. It is AI in the desktop, fully embedded in financial markets workflow. Workspace is now integrated with Microsoft Teams. We'll be launching Open Directory in the coming weeks and the full Workspace AI platform in the first half of '26, with Agentic tools coming as well. You'll see all of this at the Innovation Forum in a couple of weeks. So let's look at our Workflows revenue, the same way we did for Data & Feeds. 50% of workflows revenue comes from traders who are deeply engaged with the platform to execute their roles. They need real-time data, a network community and integration with a range of pre- and post-trade tools. Further 20% of Workflows revenue comes from ancillary trading services, such as trade routing and order execution and management. Another 15% comes from investment banking, where we have specialized content across deals, corporate actions and research, as well as integrated productivity tools. That leaves 5% of Workflows revenue from wealth and 10% from investment management. These customers benefit from our unrivaled data, exclusive Reuters News and portfolio analytics. But in these groups, there are lighter users who are mainly doing desktop research and basic charting, perhaps like many people on this call. Whether someone is a power user deep in trading workflow or a lighter user, all Workspace users will benefit from the significant AI and collaboration enhancements coming over the next few months. They will have the full functionality of some of the newer applications out there, but embedded in their existing workflow and based on data they can trust. Now over the last couple of months, you can see the pace of execution on LSEG Everywhere, delivering our data to where our customers are working as the partner of choice for financial markets data. This is no change in strategy. We have long provided data to and distributed data through our customers -- I'm sorry, our competitors and partners. For example, we are the #1 data provider to Aladdin. The industry now has new entrants, building new applications and functionality, which we believe can expand our reach and drive additional consumption of our trusted high-quality data. The economics of these deals support our growth aspirations through data licensing, new channels and the potential for usage-based revenue over time. Rogo is a specialist provider of applications to investment banking and private equity. Customers with Workspace licenses can access certain LSEG data sets through Rogo. The construct with Databricks is similar. These are attractive new distribution channels for our data. Just last week, we took a major step forward in our partnership with Microsoft, introducing certain data sets into Copilot for any Copilot subscriber, and more valuable data sets, both into Copilot and Copilot Studio for LSEG licensees. This will allow customers to build their own agents working with our data. You should expect the list of partners to continue to grow as we look to distribute our data through other major channels. That's the fundamental premise of LSEG Everywhere. A key part of many of these partnerships has been our ongoing build-out of MCP servers as we make more and more data sets available over time. Before I hand over to MAP, it has also been a very busy quarter in other parts of our business. Just to highlight a couple of significant developments. With Microsoft, we have fully replatformed our trade routing network, Autex, in Azure with Autex now connecting 1,600 brokers and asset managers via the cloud. As a result, it's faster, has much greater capacity and is even more resilient. And we have executed the first transaction on our Digital Markets Infrastructure, which is positioned to become an important new capability for trading and settlement. We're preparing to launch our Private Securities Market. More on that at the Innovation Forum. And in Risk Intelligence, we have launched World-Check On Demand with all our critical data and insight now updated in real time. That takes me appropriately to our innovation forum in a couple of weeks. In the first part of the event, MAP and I will cover our unique positioning, our end markets and execution to date. Irfan Hussain, our CIO; and Emily Prince, our Head of AI, will cover our AI strategy and engineering transformation. And then Ron Lefferts and Gianluca Biagini will talk about product strategy and monetization in DNA. We'll then have specific product walk-throughs and demos across the group. We're looking forward to showing you both the present and the future. And just to be clear, this is not a traditional Capital Markets Day. Don't expect any new guidance or anything along those lines. So with that, let me hand it over to MAP to talk about our Q3 performance in more detail. Michel-Alain Proch: Thanks, David. So just a few words on our financial performance. We have delivered another quarter of strong growth across the group. Organic growth for the quarter was 6.4% with all divisions contributing well. We had a benefit of 30 bps from the ICD acquisition of last year and a headwind of 190 bps from FX, which together translates into our reported growth of 4.8%. Within D&A growth of 4.9%, Workflows and Data & Feeds saw very similar growth to Q2 with only a slight impact from the new UBS contract that I mentioned at the H1 results. Analytics continued to grow strongly. The competitive environment is stable, and we are excited about the product pipeline. Our expectation for pricing into 2026 is for the yield to be similar to the last 3 years in the 3.5% range. FTSE Russell, as I indicated at H1, saw slightly slower growth in subscriptions with fewer account reviews in the period. But on the other hand, asset-based fee growth was strong as we lap the loss of a contract last year. Risk Intelligence had another strong quarter, driven by both World-Check and Digital Identity & Fraud. So overall, the subscription businesses delivered 6.5% growth in Q3, ahead of our expectation of 6% for the second half of the year. ASV growth came in at 5.6%, a bit ahead of the 5.4% we had anticipated. Good sales momentum partially offset the expected impact of the final Credit Suisse impact wrapped into the new long-term partnership with UBS. As I have said before, I expect this to pick up again to 5.8% as we exit the year. The Markets business continued to grow well, though at a slightly slower pace than H1 as volatility was lower and comps got tougher. Looking at the 2 main lines, OTC derivative was up 9.2%, driven by continued strength in client clearing volumes in SwapClear, and fixed income was up 9.9% as Tradeweb continued to drive growth through its innovative trading protocols and an uncertain macroeconomic outlook. Elsewhere, we have seen the IPO pipeline pick up in the Equities business with more to come heading into 2026. And we are seeing the final headwinds to growth in Securities & Reporting from the Euronext exit. Moving now to our delivery against guidance. We are absolutely on track and in some respects, ahead of our original plan. Year-to-date organic growth is 7.3%, comfortably within our guidance range, and this remains unchanged. On margin, the natural operating leverage in our business gives us confidence to raise our margin guidance to the top of the range at around 100 bps improvement year-on-year. This is a big step-up for a GBP 9 billion revenue business, and it factors significant ongoing investment in AI and new products. We are very confident of hitting our 2026 guidance of 250 bps over 3 years, taking us to 50% plus, obviously, before the impact of the Post Trade transaction, which I will cover in a moment. On CapEx, we will invest at a rate of 10% of revenue this year as planned and expect that intensity to come down in future years. One or 2 in the market have asked whether we will need to invest more in an AI future. The answer is clearly no. We have been investing at a double-digit CapEx intensity for several years, and we are now switching the mix over time from technology debt payback towards more investment for growth, obviously, including AI. And finally, we have good visibility of hitting our free cash flow guidance of at least GBP 2.4 billion. And finally, let's look at how we are allocating this cash flow. Overall, we are deploying more this year than what we are generating. That reflects the opportunities we see in front of us. So we expect to spend around GBP 3.5 billion versus free cash flow of GBP 2.4 billion. We are financing the difference with new borrowings of GBP 1.1 billion. Total dividends for the year are just over GBP 700 million, representing a 35% payout of adjusted earnings. In addition, we are deploying GBP 700 million net on the Post Trade transaction announced today, where we expect returns to be very attractive. And finally, as David mentioned, you may have noticed that over recent weeks, we significantly accelerated the GBP 1 billion buyback announced with the H1 results, and we have nearly completed it. Given our strong cash generation, low leverage and the enhanced returns we believe we will generate at this share price level, we are today committing to a further GBP 1 billion. This will start shortly and complete by the full year result in February 2026. We plan to execute GBP 500 million of this GBP 1 billion in year. This is a further demonstration of the flexibility and optionality our strong cash flow generation gives us and our very active capital allocation decision-making. Taking all this together, our leverage at the end of this year should be around 1.9x EBITDA, so in the middle of our 1.5x to 2.5x net debt-to-EBITDA range. Let's now look at the rationale of the transaction in our Post Trade business that we announced this morning. First, a group of 11 leading global banks is taking a 20% stake in our Post Trade Solutions business. The perimeter of PTS includes the recent acquisition, Quantile and Acadia, plus businesses we have grown organically, mainly SwapAgent. This transaction deepens our partnership with institutions that can benefit significantly from PTS services and allows them to help share its future and share in its growth. Second, we have agreed to alter the terms of the revenue share paid to the partner banks from SwapClear. Historically and up to 2024, this sat at 30%, reflected in our cost of sales. We are taking this down to 15% for 2025, applied across the whole year and 10% for 2026 and beyond. And finally, we are extending it from 2035 to 2045. Again, this is strategically important, and it improves our economics at a fair valuation and extends the deep relationship with our partner banks into the long term. Daniel will cover the strategic value in more detail in a moment. But the financial effects of this transaction are very positive. The impact of reducing the revenue share from 30% to 15%, which again is retroactive across the whole of 2025, will add around 250 bps to the Markets' divisional EBITDA margin and 100 bps to the group margin this year. While obviously, there are some financing costs, overall, this transaction is 2% to 3% accretive to EPS this year onwards. But beyond these financials and even more importantly, we expect this transaction to accelerate the long-term growth in PTS. Let me hand over to Daniel to recap on the playbook that has been so successful. Daniel Maguire: Thank you, MAP. So I just want to take a couple of minutes now to highlight how and why SwapClear has grown over the last 15 years, and touch on the opportunity we see forward in Post Trade Solutions. So through partnership, both through the shareholdings a number of our key members have held in LCH and the revenue share in SwapClear that continues, we have built a deep and wide global network that delivers significant value to all of its constituents. The scale shift in 15 years is extraordinary. The number of members, i.e., the banks has increased by 3.5x and the number of clients, i.e., the buy-side firms has increased by 200-fold, clearly demonstrating the network effect. Notional value registered per annum is up 10x at nearly GBP 2,000 trillion. And we have become the global destination of choice for interest rate swaps in all currencies for clearing. And this is why we are now inviting our partners into Post Trade Solutions, because we believe we can do the same again, but for the uncleared market. We built a near GBP 1 billion annual revenue business based on cleared OTC instruments across SwapClear, ForexClear and CDSClear, all of which are leaders in their markets and all of which are built on the strong foundations and the model of industry partnership. The uncleared opportunity is basically the same size as the cleared space. Our members and our clients want to manage the whole book in one place, bringing efficiency to their capital, the margin requirements and materially simplifying and standardizing processes. We are uniquely placed to do that given the assets that we've built and brought together under one roof and with our proven track record of delivering real value through long-term partnership. Acadia and Quantile give us collateral and margin workflow tools and compression tools, respectively. And SwapAgent and TradeAgent, both developed in-house, complete the current suite of services we call Post Trade Solutions. And we've got very good momentum to build on. Revenue in PTS is growing at double-digit pace. Volumes are up 70%, and the network is expanding at pace. So bringing these 11 major partners closer and giving them a role in shaping the business as well as a share in its growth sets us up for long-term success. I'll now hand back to David. David Schwimmer: Thanks, Dan. So just to recap, we have had another strong quarter of growth with year-to-date organic growth at 7.3% and all of our businesses performing well. We're executing at pace on our AI strategy of LSEG Everywhere as the AI partner of choice for financial markets data. And we are allocating capital effectively and proactively with an attractive strategic deal in Post Trade and a further big step-up in our buyback program. And now MAP, Dan, and I are happy to take your questions. Peregrine? Peregrine Riviere: Thanks, David. [Operator Instructions] And with that, I'll hand over to Pauly to manage the queue. Operator: Thank you, Peregrine. [Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from the line of Arnaud Giblat of BNP Paribas. Arnaud Giblat: Could I start with the Post Trade Solutions? So banks are paying over 50x EBITDA, 9x sales for their stake. Clearly, as you said, that comes with a significant commitment to put more business through that division. I'm just wondering, I mean, you gave a bit of detail, but if you could flesh out a bit more what sort of commitments, the time frames, what specific milestones we should be looking at for that business to grow, and what perhaps give us an indication of the potential size of that business in the medium term, from a revenue perspective? And my follow-up would be on the distribution agreements with third-party providers. Quite a lot going on there. I'm just wondering how we should think about this? Because clearly, there is a bit of a usage model you've talked about. So probably this increases significant usage and therefore, gives revenue upside. At the same time, if clients are accessing your data through a third-party vendor, then how does pricing in the long term look like if you're being -- I mean, if it interfaces somebody else? David Schwimmer: Thanks, Arnaud. Let me turn it over to Dan to answer the aspects of your first question. We're not going to get into a lot of detail on what the revenue looks like over the medium or longer term, but you can talk a little bit about how we're thinking about the construct. And then I'm happy to talk about the distribution agreements. Daniel Maguire: Okay. Yes. Thanks, Arnaud. Look, we're very strong believers in the industry partnership model, as you know. We've been using that, building that for a number of years on different services, and I think you can see the outcomes of that. Ultimately, we build core critical infrastructure for our major customers here over a long-term basis and around the basis of trust. So we're very, very pleased that we've got our major partners around the table with us and aligned not just on economics, but also on the product road map, the governance and the product adoption, of which we have a pretty high rate of adoption for all the products we build because of this model. I can't really be drawn on revenues. What I can point to is when you look at the -- which we shared in the slide that the gross market values, which essentially is a proxy for the scale of market risk and derivatives, if you look at the -- these numbers come from the BIS independent annual surveys, the gross market value is about [ USD 17.6 trillion ] and just over half of that is in the cleared space, but over half of that is in the uncleared space. So if you think about the level of risk of derivatives being transacted and risk transferred, they are very similar size. So we see the size of this opportunity very similarly as a result of that. And then in terms of milestones, we've got, as you can see from the press release, 11 major firms and important people at those firms making clear commitments to work with us to build out and deliver and adopt those services. So I can't be drawn on specific road maps and revenues today, but very confident that we've got the right support from the right firms and the right people. And the network is much bigger than those 11, and we've already got very good momentum in that. So pretty confident on that. David Schwimmer: And then your question around these partnerships or distribution arrangements. And the first point to make is that we've been doing this for years. And we have been providing our data through partners, and in some cases, as I mentioned, competitors for many, many years. And it's key when we do that, and this is a practice that we will, of course, maintain is that we protect our own relationships with our customers. And so in these kinds of partnerships, basically, the way they work is that although the initial origination of the relationship might come through one of the partners, the customer is then directed to us to establish the direct customer relationship with us. And we do that in a number of different situations and circumstances. So that protects us from being disintermediated through these kinds of arrangements. The other really important aspect that we're very focused on in these kinds of partnerships and distribution arrangements is protecting our data and making sure that our rights, our IP are protected even through any of these distribution channels. So obviously, the AI world is a little bit different, but we're still in a position to protect our data. And let me just give you one specific, I'll say, technical example. When we're distributing our data through an MCP server, because of that construct, we can control and monitor the access to our data. So in that construct, we're not at risk of a customer downloading all of our data, training their models on our data and then not needing us anymore. This MCP server construct allows us to control that in a very successful manner. So maintaining the relationship, protecting our data and data integrity, these are the kinds of relationships that we have managed very successfully for a long time, and it's great to see these new entrants and these new ecosystems, because we think it will actually expand the market and the customer base that we will be able to access our data. So we're really looking forward to this and excited about it. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Lowe at Citi. Andrew Lowe: Thanks very much for the color on the revenue split by product in Workflow and Feeds. My question is on the Data & Feeds business. Specifically, how much of the historical revenue growth has been driven by pricing versus volume? Could you please also comment on the historical pricing trends across these different groups? So for example, it would be great to know how pricing growth in real-time data compares to the other segments, including the 10% from public data sources. And it would be great if we could hear a bit more about how much visibility you have on future pricing? And I've got a follow-up, but I'll wait until you've answered. David Schwimmer: Yes. Thanks, Andrew. So I'm not going to break it down product by product. But as we've been pretty clear over the last few years, you've seen our pricing yield on an annual basis be in that sort of 3% to 3.5% zone. And then you've seen our Data & Feeds business grow usually more than twice that. So that gives you a sense of what's going on here in terms of pricing relative to just volume growth. And we've been doing a lot of innovation in this area as well in terms of new products, new distribution channels as well. But hopefully, that gives you a sense on that. Andrew Lowe: Great. Okay. And then as maybe a follow-up to that. So are you seeing a pickup in demand for your tick history now that you've got sort of LLMs which are cheaper and more widespread? And how important is that when you're sort of selling your forward-looking real-time pricing data? David Schwimmer: So interesting question. and tick history, for everyone's benefit, is a great data set that we have that goes back to the '90s and has tick-by-tick history for millions and millions of securities and no one else has it. It was all public data when it was released by the exchanges, but we are the only ones who have stored it, maintained it and made it easily consumable. I would say the technological changes make it easier to consume and access now than it has been over the last 20-plus years. And we certainly expect to continue to see it being a very valuable content set. Historically, it has been mostly used by quant shops back testing their algorithms. But your question is a good one in terms of recognizing that with these models, you could see a lot more potential users accessing this huge data set to look for historical correlations and help that inform their trading on a go-forward basis. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Russell Quelch of Rothschild. Russell Quelch: I'd also like to focus these questions on the Data & Feeds business. Thanks for the extra disclosure on the revenue breakdown. So you disclosed that 55% of the Data & Feeds revenues come from pricing and reference services. And I believe you've gone from #6 player there to #3 player in the last couple of years, just behind ICE and Bloomberg. So my questions are, firstly, number one, how have you done that? And what's your view on the main points of differentiation in your offering, which is helping you to take share? My second question is, do you believe you can be a #2 player here? And if so, how? And the third question is a bit of a follow-on from Arnaud's question, but asked in a bit more of a direct way. Can you talk to your expectations of the size and cadence of the growth uplift from the recent and future data distribution partnerships that you mentioned relating to LSEG Everywhere? David Schwimmer: Sorry, can you say the third part again? Russell Quelch: Yes. Sorry, a bit of a mouthful. So I was thinking about the data distribution partnerships relating to LSEG Everywhere, both the current ones you disclosed and then you said about future partnerships. So I was wondering how we should think about the size and the cadence of the growth uplift that comes from those partnerships, both the ones that have been announced and potential future ones. David Schwimmer: Got it. Okay. So your first question, how have we moved from #6 to #3. It is investing in our content and investing in our distribution. And you have seen us over the last few years do a number of, I would say, pretty significant steps in a number of different areas. So for example, when we took on the Refinitiv business several years ago, it was very clear to us that, for example, talking to customers, they made it clear, fixed income evaluated pricing was a weak area. Corporate actions was a weak area. We have invested meaningfully in both of those areas and addressed those gaps, and we're now highly competitive in those areas. And so that has helped us move up the ranks. We have added new content in terms of a number of different areas, ranging from -- I guess, a good example is our inclusion of Dow Jones content alongside our exclusive Reuters News alongside thousands of other news sources. So constantly investing in content in a number of different areas. And then on the distribution side, over the last few years, we have made our content available through a number of different distribution channels. And whether that's in different cloud providers, whether that is -- there are some of our data sets, for example, they were only available in the U.S. for technology reasons. And we have now made those available on a global basis. So it's a number of things like that. But really, if I boil it down, content and distribution. Could we be #2? Sure. And we aim not to stop there. We're continuing to invest in this business. We have great data, great content, adding to that content, expanding our distribution capabilities. And then in terms of -- I'm not in a position to give you any specific guidance on the growth uplift. What I can say is that we're not done yet in terms of the different partnership arrangements. We think this is a really exciting time in terms of new ecosystems, new AI functionality that will provide lots of distribution opportunities for us. And as I mentioned earlier, into customer segments that might not have otherwise accessed our data. And for those customers that have historically accessed our data, this AI functionality enables them to access it in a, I'll say, a much deeper way. I mentioned earlier the 33 petabytes of data that we have. Historically, our customers have really only scratched the surface of the data and the content that we have. And the AI functionality is much more powerful in really consuming substantial amounts of our data. And then as we shift further down this road, we've talked in the past about evolving our model more towards usage-based and consumption-based pricing. So you put all that together, we are excited about what this opportunity holds. Russell Quelch: Okay. And maybe just as a follow-up to that, you've just seen S&P buy With Intelligence. You've seen BlackRock buy Preqin. You've seen MSCI buy Burgiss. So just wondering how you're thinking about your competitive position in private markets data? And is this something you might look to add inorganically to the offering? David Schwimmer: Yes. So we already have a lot of private market data, and that includes what we have ingested organically. It includes what we provide from Dun & Bradstreet. The Dun & Bradstreet data, by the way, currently available on the Workspace platform, but soon will be available through a feed, which I think is unique in the industry. We have our partnership with StepStone, which is enabling us to create, again, unique private asset product in our index business. And maybe the last thing I would say is we are not done in this space, and there's more to come in terms of our ability to provide incremental value-add and, in some cases, unique private markets data. So I can comfortably say watch this space. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Ian White of Autonomous Research. Ian White: Well, there's been a lot of discussion around the accuracy of general intelligence LLMs in financial services applications. And I guess sort of what advantage can you derive here from your privileged access to your own data when it comes to the training and development of more accurate models? Or kind of put differently, is it realistic that general intelligence tool can match a model that has been trained on your specific data set when it comes to generating accurate results derived from your data? That's essentially my main question. And just as a follow-up, on the Workspace rollout, which is now complete, what's the latest evidence you have regarding levels of customer satisfaction with Workspace versus the legacy desktop products, please? David Schwimmer: Yes. Thanks, Ian. So on the accuracy question, there has been a lot of discussion in the industry about a bunch of the product that is out there really maybe having some nice user interface, but not being remotely close to what this industry demands in terms of accuracy. And so I think that's probably right at this point for a bunch of the products that are out there that we have seen. We expect them to get better over time. I think in terms of our own approach, the advantage that we have is that we have the data. We have the highest quality and broadest data set that allows us to do the necessary training. It is scrubbed data. We're not training our capabilities on the Internet. And so we avoid the garbage in, garbage out problem that you see with a lot of these other models. And this gets back to the point I was making earlier that through the MCP server construct, we are able to control the access to our data. So we sometimes get questions from people worried about the fact that our data will be made too available and others will be able to, without compensating us, train their models on our data. That's not the case in terms of the way that we make this data available for AI usage or AI consumption. In terms of the Workspace rollout, we are very pleased with the outcome there, and this was a big exercise over the past couple of years. So we are seeing really good views on the simplicity, on the kind of change in the user interface, on the speed. And there are some aspects in terms of making some of the charting even better. There are a few different things that we're continuing to work on, as I mentioned earlier, sort of week in, week out. And this is going to continue. And it's one of the advantages of this product and the technology stack that we have moved on to. We've talked about how we've implemented 500 or so changes in each of the last 2 years, and that pace is continuing. So even though we have basically completed the migration, we still have more releases coming. I think we have 2 more releases coming, big broad releases coming this year. Yes, more coming early next year. So it's a continuous improvement exercise, which I think is a great opportunity to continue serving our customers better and better and better. Ian White: Got it. If I could just sort of playback and make sure I understood the first point. If anybody wants to sort of train a model on your data, that's kind of a licensable activity that you can kind of control through MCP and a model that's not trained on your data specifically probably won't be very effective or will be less effective than something that's been specifically curated for that purpose. Is that a fair reflection? David Schwimmer: I think that's fair. I don't want to claim that we have exclusive financial sector -- in other words, I don't want to claim that in the financial markets, we're the only ones who have financial markets data. There is other data available out there. Ours is the broadest, the deepest, the highest quality. And so we are in an advantaged position. But you've seen companies train their models on public data coming off the Internet. That's on the other end of the spectrum in terms of quality and accuracy. And then there are other data sets out there that you can use. They're just not as extensive and high quality as ours. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Mike Werner of UBS. Michael Werner: And just 2 questions here, one main one and then one follow-up, please. I was just wondering, I mean, you talked a lot today and very helpfully about the new partnerships and LSEG Everywhere. Just stepping back and when we think about the partnership with Microsoft and OpenAI and what you guys are doing there, what's the level of that engagement today versus 12 months ago? I think you used to talk about the number of software engineers that were operating on site on LSEG's premises that came from Microsoft. I was just wondering if you can give us an update there. And then as a follow-on to a couple of my colleagues' questions. When we think about these partnerships, particularly with the new ones with the AI engines and AI partners, is there any delta or any difference in how you think about the pricing? I know you said you protect the IP, but when you're thinking about these new partnerships, is there any change in the way that users who want to consume that data, would they see any difference in pricing than your traditional customers? David Schwimmer: Yes. Got it. Thanks, Mike. So in terms of our partnership with Microsoft, if anything, the level of engagement is higher, and I would say meaningfully higher today relative to where we were a year ago. I know what you're referring to. We've talked in the past about having hundreds of our people embedded with their teams and vice versa. That continues and, if anything, higher level of engagement. And we talked today about a few other things that the market hasn't really focused on, but that we're building with Microsoft, our Autex Routing Network, our Digital Market Infrastructure. These are not the areas that the market has really focused on, but we are actively building them with Microsoft. And then, of course, our Data as a Service, our analytics, Workspace being embedded in Teams, all the interoperability with Excel and PowerPoint. We have lots of teams working across a lot of different areas with the Microsoft team. So couldn't be happier about the level of engagement there. And then just with respect to the pricing, in some cases, it's really simple. So for example, we talked about the partnership with Rogo. If you want to access our data in Rogo, you have a Workspace license. It's very straightforward. It can be a little less straightforward if we are providing our data sets, our Data & Feeds data sets through some of these channels, but we have standard pricing for a lot of these. There may always be some negotiations around particular data sets or things like that, but we have standard contractual arrangements for these and standardized pricing for these. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And your next question comes from the line of Hubert Lam from Bank of America. Hubert Lam: I've got a couple of questions. Firstly, on D&A, how should we think about revenue acceleration in the next year? So just given the upward momentum on ASV, should we think 6% or more could be achievable for revenue growth in D&A next year? Second question is, I guess, last results, there was concerns about intensifying pricing competition from a couple of your biggest competitors. Just wondering if you've seen any normalization in terms of pricing? Or was the competition we saw a few months ago a bit of a one-off? David Schwimmer: Sure. MAP, why don't you take the first question? I'm happy to take the second one. Michel-Alain Proch: Yes, sure. So on D&A, we indeed forecast a revenue acceleration next year. We haven't given precise numbers, but we have given one precise number, which is for our subscription business altogether, reaching 6.5% -- circa 6.5% next year. And obviously, D&A in this number is playing its part, and it will be accelerating '26 and '25. David Schwimmer: And then on your second question, Hubert, first, just to remind people, when we talked about some of the competition dynamics at the half year, that was a very small number of cases, a couple in each of the different business areas. And I would say where we are today, we're not seeing that kind of dynamic. It feels a very stable market environment at this point from a competition perspective. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Ben Bathurst of RBC Capital Markets. Benjamin Bathurst: My questions are on Post Trade. Firstly, could you help us better understand how interrelated the 2 transactions announced this morning are, if at all? For instance, how different is the list of the founding members of SwapClear from the investing banks in Post Trade Solutions? And then secondly, how significant is the decision to extend the revenue surplus share from 2035 to 2045? Was there always a presumption that, that would be extended? Or was that kind of an incremental sweetness in the deal? Daniel Maguire: Thank you. Yes. So in terms of the construct of the overall deal, there are 13 banks involved in the swap business today. And in the investment in PTS, there are 11 investing banks, just to be clear around that. Decisions to invest in the new business ventures very much down to sort of individual circumstances of each of the banks there. So not really appropriate to speak on behalf of those in the 13 that aren't in the 11. But what I'll say is super strong engagement across the industry, level of participation in this and interest is very material from all the material players there. So we're very, very happy with that. And in terms of the extension that you asked about, yes, I think may be different opinions on whether that would have been extended or not, but the fundamental point is this is something that's been in place since 2001. We're here in 2025. It was rolling to 2035. And as part of the overall structure, those 11 banks that are investing in PTS will be extended for a further 10 years to 2045. So a 44-year enduring partnership between the major players in the OTC derivatives space on the sell side with ourselves there. So I think it's part of the overall construct rather than breaking it down into the exact sort of elements of the negotiation. Benjamin Bathurst: Okay. Great. So if I understand it rightly, it's just those that are participating in Post Trade Solutions that will have the extension for 2035 to 2045? David Schwimmer: That's correct. Daniel Maguire: And just to be clear, '25 to '35 remains already existing 13. So existing 13 until the maturity of the existing arrangement and the extension of 10 years is to the 11 that are also investing in the Post Trade Solutions franchise business. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Julian Dobrovolschi of ABN AMRO. Julian Dobrovolschi: I have 2. Maybe the first one regarding the Microsoft product development such as Open Directory and Analytics API and some other things that you're trying to roll out together with Microsoft. Just wondering, are they offered broadly across all the tiers or restricted to premium users and as such as an upsell vector? And then the follow-up is on ASV growth. Just wondering how confident are you regarding the, let's say, reacceleration of this in the Q4? I think you've been hitting towards 5.8%. And can you please elaborate on the impact of the UBS multiyear contracts and the Credit Suisse revenue crystallization? And perhaps if you can see some leading indicators suggesting a bit of a rebound in ASV growth in the Q4. David Schwimmer: Thanks, Julian. So I'll take your first question, and MAP can touch on your question on ASV. So on each of these different products, some of them -- the different products that we have built in partnership with Microsoft, some of them are separate products that have separate pricing, separate licenses, separate arrangements. Some of them are embedded in existing products. And so if we talk about Open Directory and we talk about what's coming in Workspace, you'll see us charge for that over time really through price realization in the core product. I think then in some of the products that we have rolled out in analytics, the Analytics API, for example, that's a new product, and there's separate charging for that. And we've seen some of that in the uptick in the growth rates in analytics, for example. And let me just -- I'll mention one other example where you can see this very clearly. The arrangement that we announced with Microsoft 1.5 weeks, 2 weeks or so ago, where we are making our data -- we are making some of our data sets available to all users of Microsoft Copilot. So if you have a Copilot license, you can be outside the financial services sector, you have a Copilot license and you're doing something in Copilot, you will get access to certain of our data sets. And that's an arrangement that we have with Microsoft. And then we have other data sets that you can license directly with LSEG and then have access to them through Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio, if you are building, for example, agents using our data. So that gives you an example where some of them are embedded -- some of the pricing arrangements are embedded in existing products. Some of them are new, and we are charging incrementally for them. Let me turn it over to you, MAP. Michel-Alain Proch: Yes, sure. So first of all, before addressing your question, I'd like to point out that we have outperformed our previous guidance on ASV. And remember, in H1, we were expecting that the Q3 ASV would fall to 5.4% with 40 bps of impact of UBS. So excluding UBS 5.8%, so comparable to Q2, and we posted 5.8% in Q2, 5.4% was what we were expecting in Q3. We actually outperformed this to 5.6%. So ex UBS, 6%, an acceleration from the 5.8% we were at the end of Q2. And when I look forward for the end of this year, we're very confident into accelerating again to 5.8%. And here, it's the same thing. It's 5.8%, including of the 40 bps for UBS. So actually, excluding it, 6.2%. So 5.8%, 6%, 6.2%. That's basically the message today. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Enrico Bolzoni of JPMorgan. Enrico Bolzoni: I wanted to ask you, you now revised your EBITDA guidance a couple of times, even excluding the newly announced deal. So I just wanted to ask you, what are you doing particularly well or better than you expected that basically drove the consecutive revision in guidance? So that's my first question. And partially related to that, just some small clarification. So one, you are clearly now spending just over GBP 1 billion to in-source this additional revenue from SwapClear. Can you just clarify whether this will be capitalized and whether the amortization of that will be above or below the line? So that's one question. And another related question to numbers. You're clearly issuing some debt, you're guiding for EPS accretion in 2025. What about 2026? I know you talked about margin expansion for EBITDA in 2026. Can we say that we will also see a similar EPS uplift for next year? Michel-Alain Proch: All right. So I begin with EBITDA margin. So yes, just to remember for maybe those of you who didn't see it, we began with 50 to 100 bps of EBITDA margin guidance for this year, we then improved it to 75 to 100 bps. And finally, we are now confident to reach 100 bps. It's really an acceleration. So what we have implemented in the last 2 years at LSEG is a full cockpit of cost discipline, addressing all the different components of our cost base. So mostly people, we're talking a lot of people, obviously, but it's true for cloud costs, on-premise costs, travel expense and so forth and so on. And basically, this acceleration is coming from the fact that what we have put in place is more efficient and is producing more results and quicker, if you want, than what I expected at the beginning of the year. The second reason, which is maybe -- so that's an acceleration. Second reason which is more structural is -- and maybe you remember what I was telling you at the earnings of 2024, the different automation solution that we have put in place at different places in the company. So in QAS, meaning our customer service, in our content ingestion, we were putting it in place, and I was expecting to see the first materialization into savings next year. And actually, it's happening as early as this year. So that's the combination of the 2. Now to answer your second question about the GBP 1.15 billion, that represents the alteration of the SwapClear revenue share. So we're considering this as an acquisition. So we are creating an intangible asset exactly as we would do as a traditional acquisition. And we are going to amortize it over 10 years below the line as the rest of our acquisition. And then your final question, which is the accretion. So accretion of 2% to 3% in 2025, because I want to be clear on the fact -- I hope I was clear in my script that this revenue share alteration is retrospective to the 1st of January of '25, okay? So it means that we benefit from the full accretion in terms of EBITDA margin that I have mentioned of 100%. And in terms of EPS taking into account the financing cost. We said 2% to 3% in '25, and we'll have pretty much the same thing, 2% to 3% in '26. Operator: And your next question is from the line of Tom Mills of Jefferies. Thomas Mills: I think we've skirted around it a few times on the call. I just wanted to clarify that you are sort of reiterating you're expecting to deliver around 3.5% price increase on the 1st of January is kind of [indiscernible]. Michel-Alain Proch: Absolutely. Absolutely. We've just sent -- the price letter was sent in September. On the basis of the first reaction from this price letter and our experience, we are confident we will derive the same type of yield around 3.5% in '26 as the one we had this year in 2025. Operator: And your next question is from the line of Oliver Carruthers of Goldman Sachs. Oliver Carruthers: Oliver Carruthers from Goldman Sachs. Thanks for a lot of the incremental KPIs around D&A. I just have one quick modeling question on the FTSE Russell subscription revenues. I think you're calling out the more modest growth in subscription growth here in Q3 was to do with this mandate renewal cycle that you think is going to normalize next year. So just what's reasonable to assume in terms of the pickup in growth rate? I think you're running at around 5% on a constant currency basis year-over-year for Q3. And the reason I ask is if we go back to 2024 levels of around 10%, on my math, this adds something like 70 basis points to your ASV. So just any parameterizing of that would be very helpful. David Schwimmer: Yes. Thanks, Oliver. So you're right. This year, a much quieter period in terms of renewals during which we would typically see incremental revenue associated with either regular price rises or bigger, broader business relationships and broader engagement. I think hard to give you specific numbers as to what that's going to look like in '26 and beyond. You've seen how this business has performed in years past in that kind of higher than mid-single-digit zone. So I think I'm probably pretty comfortable, and MAP, feel free to weigh in here as well. I think we're pretty comfortable in that zone, but I don't want to be giving you any sort of specific guidance on what that looks like at this point. Operator: And there are no further questions on the conference line. I will now hand the presentation back to David Schwimmer, CEO of LSEG, for closing remarks. David Schwimmer: Great. Well, thank you all. Thanks for joining us today. As I said upfront, a little bit more substance in this one rather than a typical Q3 update. We hope you all have found it useful. And if you have any questions, you certainly know where we are. We'd be happy to take any further questions through Peregrine and the team. Thanks again.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the DSV A/S Q3 2025 Interim Financial Report Conference Call. I am Hillie, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Jens Lund, Group CEO. Please go ahead. Jens Lund: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our Q3 results call. We look forward to a good session where we go through the presentation. We will -- the format will be the same as usual. Michael and I will say something in the beginning, and then we will do the Q&A session. We will quickly go to the forward-looking statements. Please take your time to read it. It gets longer and longer. We will soon need 2 slides for that one we've been discussing. But I'll skip that one and move on to the agenda, which is the same agenda as we normally use. And also, therefore, I will quickly move on to the next slide and talk a little bit about the highlights of the quarter. So I think it's very clear that we are basically seeing good momentum on the Schenker integration. It's, of course, the most important topic that we have right now. It is to ensure that the integration continues to gain momentum. And I think that's also what we see. I'm particularly fond of the fact that we've sort of done really well in relation to the customers. So I think the feedback that we've received on the integration is very positive. And we've seen that there's been very little attrition. So that's definitely an outcome that we're very pleased with. On the financial performance, I think the numbers, they speak for themselves. Of course, it's now with a full quarter of Schenker numbers in there as well. There's still a lot of ground to cover, but I think we are off to a really good start when it comes to the combination of the company and the financial performance. On the deleveraging, yes, I think we've now started to reduce our debt and just shows that we generate cash flow, and that means that there's substance in what we are doing. And then, of course, our guidance, we now have narrowed our guidance. Michael will talk a little bit more about it. But I think it's basically good to see that we stay within the range that we guided at the beginning of the year. And then lastly, I would just say on the execution of the synergies. I'll come on to that on the next slide. But of course, at the end of Q1, we saw that we had a plan, and we presented also a time line we had a lot of uncertainties in this plan. We've managed to reduce the number of uncertainties and also basically then been able to update the plan so that you can see there are new time lines. And I think I would just like to mention that we said we would be done with 15% at the last call. Now we say we will have 30% done before the end of the year. And also the next column is increased from 50% to 70%. Not all plans are finalized yet. So as a consequence, we might -- this is what we know. This is what we have confidence in. We, of course, are working on doing it faster, and that might be the case. But this is what we know for now. So we're very comfortable showing you this as well. I think if we look at the integration itself, I talked about that we set the organization. It's very, very stable, the organization. We are pleased with that. I think, as I said, the customer dialogue, it's something that is really rewarding because it's something that we put extra effort into this integration. I think if we measure the previous integrations, we saw that we needed extra focus on this. And then I think the Country go-lives, they are progressing really well. We are live now in 13 countries. This is where we physically move the people in together that we -- both in the offices, but also in the operational side. So it's a lot of work that needs to get done. It's actually steered by Michael, who is doing a wonderful job on this together with the team. And then, of course, I think the back office functions, here, we also consolidate the functions. It's going really well. And then, of course, we can see that on the white collar side, we've reduced more than 3,000 headcounts as a result of the sort of the combination as well. I'd just also like to mention that we expect to go live in Germany on the 1st of January, as we stated also the last time. And I'm really proud about the work that is being done by the team there, both on the DSV side, but also the Schenker side and the constructive approach from the employee representatives, where we basically have an ongoing, of course, what can I say, open dialogue, but still in a constructive way so that we find results. Yes. I think the finance figures you could probably read yourself and the transaction costs and the expected synergies, they remain unchanged. I think if we look at the financial highlights here, we see the GP is up. I mean, at the end of the day, this is really what it's all about that we produce some more GP. We see that the EBITDA is down, and it is because the productivity, what can I say, needs to increase as well. There's one thing that I would like to say, and I'll also point that out when I come to some of the divisions. The transaction size that we are handling, it gets smaller when the economy has a difficult time. So the volumes sort of that are shrinking a little bit when we are down trading, it doesn't necessarily mean that there's fewer shipments. So we need more shipments to flow through the system, and we have a certain number of transactions per person per day. So on the productivity side, we're actually doing fairly okay, I would say. So it's just a little bit complex to see through some of those numbers here. But when we look at it on the management side, it's under control. We're doing a great job. And I'm very confident that we will see when the synergies start to kick in that we will also see progress on the EBIT side. If we move to the next slide, we come to the Air & Sea division. Here, I think we've always said it's GP that matters. we need to produce some gross profit here. And that's also what our focus has been in this quarter. If we look at it, we can see that the GP is up. The EBIT is down. And here, if I look at both air freight and ocean freight, we produce more shipments than we did last year even if the volumes have evolved as they have. And of course, it puts a little bit of pressure on the conversion ratio as well as the lower productivity we see out of the Schenker organization. Not that we're not going to get the Schenker productivity up, but it's just when you combine, it takes a little bit of time before we get there. And that, of course, has a consequence for the operating margin as well. But once then the conversion gets up, the productivity gets up, of course, the margin will adjust itself. If we look at the air freight, I think we are actually pretty pleased with the developments in the GP. It's really been solid for us. It's the last quarter where we can separate the DSV and the Schenker volumes because, as I said, we are now live in 13 countries, and it means that we cannot separate the hot and the cold water anymore when we do the reporting. So we give you these numbers, and you can see we've had the yield discussion many times, and it's actually holding up pretty well. One of the reasons why it's also holding up is, of course, as I mentioned, and say, you do more shipments in order to achieve, what can I say, the tonnage that we are talking about here. And we all have to remember that, let's say, you do an air freight shipment of 400 kilos or one of 800 kilos. It's the same work that the forwarder needs to do. So really on the productivity side, I think actually, if we measure on the KPIs internally, we can then have aspirations that we need to drive the productivity even higher, which we also have. But I'm very satisfied with the productivity measures that we have. And we're monitoring these all the time. If the market develops differently, of course, we will need to react on it. On the ocean freight, of course, that's the toughest market that we're in right now. It's crunch time. We see that basically GP is down. Of course, there's some FX impact in that as well, which goes for all our numbers. Michael will come back to that, but there's quite a bit of headwind on that. Also here, we've had the yield discussion many times. We've been discussing the value-added services that we produce on a shipment. And I think it speaks for itself that now we do more transactions per TEU. We've also had a lot of focus on the LCL market now for years as well in order to protect what can I say, our GP and have a value proposition where we are in control of the infrastructure. So I think this is very clear in the numbers as well. When you look at it, that this is now what is playing out as well. Then we come to Road. And of course, it's nice to see that in absolute figures, we are making progress. Schenker's road organization is a really good road organization, strong footprint in the Asia Pacific and also a solid footprint, a very strong footprint in Europe here, we are the market leader. So if we sit and look at this, then of course, there's a lot more to come, but we are on the right way. If you look at these numbers, they include both July and August, which if you have a large scoopage network means that you will have a lot of fixed cost and not as much income generated in each month. So delivering a result of there to round it up to DKK 800 million, it's actually quite an achievement from the road organization that I'm very happy about as well. On the shipment side, also here, we are flat. It's flat neutral, what we are seeing here as well. So it's really also well done, I would say. Then we come to CL. And here, we have produced almost DKK 1.1 billion. So definitely quite a bit up compared to what we've seen before. Here, we see that the Schenker contribution is impressive as well. Actually, we've been doing fairly well on the EBIT side on the DSV anyway previously, as you can also see from the comparable figure, which only includes DSV. But the Schenker is definitely also contributing with both footprint, with skills, with competence. And in combination, we have a really solid value proposition. And then we have the problem that which is something that we have a ton of focus on, we need to increase the return on the capital that we deploy because, of course, it benefits the other divisions that we hold cargo that is being moved in our air freight network, our ocean freight network or our road network. But we need to generate, what can I say, a higher return. We simply -- it's unacceptable where we are right now. But the division is really taking this into consideration when doing the integration, and I feel very confident that they are doing something about it that soon also will be visible in the numbers. So with that said, I would really like to hand over to you, Michael, so you can give a little bit of details to some of the numbers as well. Michael Ebbe: Thank you very much, Jens. And then if we look at the Page #12, which some highlights of our P&L. Like Jens mentioned, we have a stable performance in the quarter. And of course, Schenker contribution positively. It's also -- if you look at our -- the net result is, of course, impacted by our special items of DKK 1.1 billion. This is, as we've announced also related to the Schenker integration. Then I know that we have been talking with some of you guys at earlier occasions. We have, you can say, moved our Road activities, legacy Schenker that we have acquired that was moved to discontinued operations for the ones that are really into details in the spreadsheets. Another thing that Jens mentioned, and I will also touch upon that in the next couple of pages, maybe it's the FX headwind, which is, of course, impacting predominantly in our Air & Sea business. Next is also worth mentioning is that our tax rate is very high these days, which is due to the integration of Schenker. It's a little bit higher than what we have anticipated previously is because as we can see with the synergies and so forth, we move a little bit faster than what we did last time. So we are really picking up in pace, and that's reflected in the tax rate. Our diluted EPS is stable as compared to last year. But if you look at compared to last quarter, it's actually kind of picking up. And if you then even there to see if you can adjust for the tax rate, then we would actually already be in a positive mode on that one. It's clear that the ratios is, like Jens also mentioned, it's impacted by the dilution impact of the acquisition of Schenker, but we are working on getting that improved. Once again, on the next page, on the cash flow. Once again, we have actually a strong cash flow, more than DKK 4 billion, cash conversion ratio of 96%. We're very pleased to see that. Our net working capital has improved quite a bit as well. It's below 2%. I cannot promise you guys. Of course, I will do whatever I can to maintain that low level. But as we said earlier, it might be, you can say, to calculate around 2% in anything. We've also been able to reduce the debt by the strong cash flow that we have. So we have reduced our debt with DKK 4 billion. So that also seems to be nice. It is nice and that we are on the right track, as you can see. So that is great as well. Then the next page, 14, is on the guidance, we are very happy that we are able to keep guidance and, of course, lowering the upper range of our guidance. So now we will expect that we will land in DKK 19.5% to DKK 20.5% for the full year. Jens started out by saying that in this number, of course, we have to bear in mind that we have sale -- headwind, sorry, for the FX of around DKK 500 million as a headwind on that one. We also increased our expected synergies for the full year to around DKK 800 million from previous DKK 500 million to DKK 600 million. That's a change in there as well. And also given the pace that we have also means that we increase our expectations of special item costs in our P&L. And again, reflecting the pace on integration, the tax rate will be a little bit higher. It's because, yes, there are tax consequences when we do these kind of integrations. So long term, for the tax rate, we expect that we will be back in 24% area next year, hopefully. Then for the -- you can say the market outlook, it's still impacted by the macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape. So we still expect that uncertainty to persist for the next quarter. So we expect to see, you can say, growth below GDP for the next quarter. That's what we have embedded into this guidance that we have. But overall, again, we are very pleased that we are able to keep our guidance in the way that we have. And then, of course, on the Road and on the Contract Logistics, as Jens already said, it's a stable performance that we expect to continue for the remaining part of the year and hopefully also in the next couple of years, even better. And then back to you, Jens. Jens Lund: Yes. As Michael said, on the key takeaways, I think one of the things is when we take the Schenker integration, it's really all the experience that we have, all the support that we get from the various parts of the organization. They know what they need to do. It's really well done what is in there. But I think it's also a playbook that we've now done many times that everybody feels comfortable with and also to you, investors that have support us, thank you for that. That's really what comes out of it. At the end of the day, this momentum that we now see on the integration, it's really good to see. Then, of course, as an investor at the end of the day, what you get is earnings per share. That's our focus. Right now, of course, we are driving the earnings per share up. And of course, at a certain point in time, when we also delever the company, we'll probably also use the normal tools on the capital allocation to support that thing. This is our core focus that we drive the EPS up. And I think we are looking into a very interesting period when it comes to EPS development. Then, of course, the guidance, I think Michael talked enough about that, so we should quickly go to the Q&A session because I hope that you have many good questions for it. So please go ahead with that. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Dan Togo Jensen. Dan Jensen: Congrats with this report here. Maybe if you can elaborate a bit on your expectations here for Q4, especially the low end of the guidance range of DKK 19.5 billion I mean you need to make DKK 5.5 billion in the fourth quarter on my math, and you made DKK 3.9 billion last year. So that's a bridge of DKK 1.6 billion. Schenker contributed DKK 1.3 billion in Q3. Probably this will be more in Q4 and due to seasonality. And then you have synergies on top, which you have just lifted. So in my mind, this alludes to a somewhat negative contribution from the organic business in Q4 for DSV. And bearing that in mind, I seem to remember you have quite easy comps, at least in the Contract Logistics and in the Road business. So there must be something weighing significantly down in Q4 for you to maintain the DKK 19.5 billion. Just to understand your thinking of the low end. Jens Lund: Yes. It's basically volume, isn't it, on what can I say in particular within Air & Ocean that we are talking about. That is -- I think the yield will be okay. You've seen that we are a little bit down on volume, I don't see that trend really change. So compared to the original guidance, we probably had anticipated that we would have a growth in volume now we have a decline. I think that's the major contributor, I would say, Dan. The other things that you're talking about that we are doing well on -- yes, of course, the FX side is big as well. I think that's important to mention. But on the CL on Road, we're doing okay. And I think basically, if you say volume and FX, that's sort of the main explanation when we look at it. Yes. Michael Ebbe: And lastly, for -- sorry, then for the -- yes, I fully agree, of course. But last year also, we need to take the seasonality of the legacy Schenker into consideration. Dan Jensen: Yes. But shouldn't that pick up a bit in Q4 given the Road business, I mean, where Q3 usually is. Jens Lund: That's one thing you have to remember that they have big group network. So there are many days where there's no production in December. And that's -- I can tell you, we are also learning something new about fixed cost when it comes to that. So we're really trying to figure out how we can organize this in the best possible way in how many days we produce, et cetera, and what's the optimal outcome on that. We're putting significant effort into that. It's going to be less than what we've seen before, but it will probably take a couple of quarters before we really get that structured in the right way. So it is on the Road side, it's a hard one, I would say. It's going to be good in Road here in October and November, really good. And then we're going to get a tough December. But whether we -- the range is the range then. It's from DKK 19.5 billion to DKK 20.5 billion. So if you are a little bit more optimistic than the people that are -- there's a middle of the range as well, if you know what I mean. And I think I won't say more than that. Dan Jensen: Understood. And if I'm allowed, just maybe another question here, digging into the verticals. Could you maybe elaborate a bit which are the strong verticals for you here? Is it firm the growth you see, for instance, in technology, in pharma, maybe aerospace, defense and are yields holding up in these verticals? Jens Lund: I would say that yields are definitely holding up in the verticals you're talking about. It's probably also some of these verticals that do the best. You would perhaps have more, what can I say, we are a big player in Europe. So of course, automotive is a tough one for us also knowing that Schenker is a German company as well, very involved with those companies as well. That's, of course, something that is a little bit tough these days and also some of the industrial areas, the capital goods also a little bit under pressure. I would say. So -- but the verticals, of course, are tech vertical, very strong vertical out of Schenker. We had focused on it as well. But in combination, it's -- we have the broadest service offering of all the players in the market. So of course, we are making good progress there. And it's really good to see. It's helping us a lot when we then see troubles in other verticals. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Patrick Creuset from Goldman Sachs. Patrick Creuset: Congrats on the strong front also from me. Just a couple of questions. The first, just on synergies. I mean, it seems like you're harvesting the DKK 9 billion ahead of schedule. And perhaps can you talk a little bit about some other sources of opportunity, let's say, that you see within the DSV business? I mean, updated thoughts on procurement synergies, for example, and also the latest thinking on Star and Tango IT system rollouts. And then, Michael, you mentioned the strong cash flow leverage reducing. I think you previously talked about bringing the buyback back perhaps in H1 '27 and I appreciate it's early to talk about it, but any thoughts there, updated thoughts on time line on when you might be in a position to return capital again depending on how you continue to progress? Jens Lund: Good. I think I'll take the first couple of questions. Michael, he will talk a little bit about the buyback as well. So I think if we look at the synergies right now, I think what you are alluding to, Patrick, is basically when we do an integration, then we make an initial plan like we're doing now, then we combine the companies. Then once you have it combined, and I think this is what you're thinking about, then you're thinking there's actually a little bit of things we should adjust on top of that. These are not sort of in the plan, but they will come sort of once we've done the other work. I think it's a little bit too early days to say something about that. But let's say, 2 quarters down the road, we should have a much better view on how the combined DSV will look because then we will have done, as you can also see from the plan, quite a bit of the work combining the countries as well. So I think that's what we can say on that. But of course, we really working hard just to obtain the synergies we get right now, and then there's going to be a next step. If we take the Star or the Tango CargoWise One debate, I think the plan is that we now to harvest the synergies roll a lot of countries onto the CargoWise One, but also keep some volume on Tango. Basically, we can backfill both systems with data from each other. So we're not necessarily losing a lot of productivity on that. Then, of course, we have then to have a debate which direction are we going in. And I think we will have to come to a conclusion on that as we go along. So -- but so far, we're producing the volume and we are shifting. We have a data platform where we can exchange data between the platforms seamlessly. So it's not a lot of productivity that we are losing. It also helps us a lot on the customer integrations actually that we can do them, what can I say, in a more what kind of plannable way I would call it. Yes. Then Michael, short term. Michael Ebbe: Yes. Thank you, Jens. And Patrick, also thank you for the question from my side. Of course, the cash flow and how we can return into share buyback area is something that we follow up very, very closely. Believe me, I also want to go there as soon as I can. We have to look at the next couple of quarters. And of course, if we continue the strong cash flow as well, then we will, of course, like we always do, take a look at it quarter-on-quarter and then see how is our gearing ratio, how is the rating agencies consider it. And then we will have to take a relook hopefully, within a couple of quarters. Operator: We have now a question from the line of James Hollins from BNP Paribas. James Hollins: Michael, if I could start with you, if I could just get some, if possible, clarity on the synergies within 2026. I know a lot of investors are crying out for it. If we do some basic math on 30% integration end of this year, 70% end of next year. We took the midpoint, that will be something like DKK 4.5 billion of the DKK 9 billion. I was wondering if you could just give us your thoughts on synergies within 2026 that will impact full year '26 EBIT? And secondly, Jens, you talked about very little attrition in your customer or basically customer retention is strong. Is it sort of better than expected? Is it as thought? And I know you talked previously about you've done the top 275 customers. Maybe to run us through how that's going with the, I guess, smaller customers in terms of attrition? And if I may, are you planning at Capital Markets Day anytime soon? Michael Ebbe: Yes, I will take the first one, and then Jens will take the second one. In terms of the synergies, what I think that you can expect is that like we also have written for the phasing, if you do some math and try to predict it, you would see that 2026 should be around DKK 4 billion, you can say, in synergies that will have an impact on that one. Jens Lund: Yes. Then I can talk a little bit about what can I say, the customers. I would say that, yes, it's correct that, let's say, on the last call in -- after Q2, we sort of initially focused on the larger customers. Of course, that's cascaded down now into the organization so that there's basically a focus, what can I say on what we call A, B, C and D customers where we go and basically have a conversation with all those customers depending on their size and service requirements, et cetera, explain them what is -- the customers, they want to know what does this mean for us. Do we get new rates? Do we need a new contract? Do we need a new integration? Who's my new contract person? What does the team look like? Where is the office, all these questions we have to answer for the customer. If you are proactive and do this, then very soon, we can start to explain them what is it that the combined company can do for them. And this is, of course, where we are much stronger than we were before being now the global market leader. Of course, we have a strong offering to present to them. And actually, we've seen that they've responded very well on that, that we have a very structured approach on this. And I think it's also visible in our numbers that you see that in reality, we've managed to keep the customers, yes. We are down trading because the shipment size, what can I say, on volume in TEUs or tons because the shipment size has decreased. But apart from that, I think we've really stood our ground on this integration. And I think it's thanks to the efforts, what can I say, of the whole organization that wanted to prove to the market that we could up our game a little bit on this one. So I think that's all been very good. If we look at the Capital Markets Day, yes, there's going to be a Capital Markets Day. We need to come out and explain better what it is that we're doing, what's our strategy, what's our plan, what's our thinking, both on generative AI, for example, which is a big topic, what's our thinking on the integration and the strategies for the divisions. So we're really looking forward to that. And I know that our IR team, they are already working hard on planning it so that we will have a very good agenda for you. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Alex Irving from Bernstein. Alexander Irving: Two from me, please, both on Road. First of all, you pointed out the implementation of uniform digital platform. What is it specifically that Star can do for you that Roadway Forward could not? Second, you suggested at one point, it might have been last quarter that if you really excel in Road, a double-digit EBIT margin might be achievable. Is that still achievable? And if so, what would be the path to that? We're talking just structural cost reduction? Does it require a change in the business mix, say, more groupage? Jens Lund: If we take Road and Star, I think when you have to create a system like this, it's very much -- it's not a technical problem. It's a governance problem. How do you want to operate your business? I think Schenker has been on that journey on the groupage side and also managed to divide their business perhaps sooner than we did, whether it's a system freight, groupage, as we also call it in Europe. But let's say, shipments between 30 kilos and 2.5 ton or 2 tons or something like this, so larger than a parcel, but not, let's say, a real LTL shipment where you go direct to the customer. You will then also have the FTL business, which is like the full truckload. We call that direct. Schenker had separated that harder than we had in DSV. So we try to solve both products in the same structure, whereas Schenker really focused on the groupage. And that's really how Star came about. And then they have done a lot of change management in the countries where they're rolling it out because there's a lot of local habits that we have to weed out so that we basically work on one platform. Then you will have what we call, it's like for Air & Sea, you will have a single file system where you don't have, what can I say, different systems with different types of data. at both end different conventions for data and then you need human intervention. And then all of a sudden, what can I say you produce fewer shipments per person per day. It also gets harder to plan. And there are many things that are very difficult, the more complex system landscape you have. So this drives lower productivity. We replicate the same process over and over again. So we have also to say that Schenker, they have done better than separating these 2 things. Actually, we can also do the other stuff on the Star platform as well, the direct business, but it's perhaps supported a little bit less than on DSV, but it's still workable compared to what we have. And of course, if you have these things, then you can actually go to the next stage as well where you start to consolidate some of the efforts so that you go to a more domain-driven approach where you will say, listen, there's a quoting domain. There's a booking area where we handle this kind of could be called customer service. You could also then go to the Westmark cargo events, whatever you want to call it also customer service at the end of the day because now you'll have all this data in one system. And then, of course, on top of this, with a new technology, which was not what I was sort of factoring in at that stage. But of course, here, that will drive a ton of productivity to go into domains. But on top of that, you can probably put more agents in than we are using today. So that can drive the productivity even further. So it's really the technology is there. It's how much change can we impose on the company. This is the limitation. So it's a governance issue like it always is, there's nobody within our industry that has access basically to technology that the other people don't have. So it's how you run your company that decides what the financial outcome will be. Operator: We now have a question from the line of Alexia Dogani from JPMorgan. Alexia Dogani: If we start just on the synergies, you talked about DKK 300 million of impact in the third quarter. Can you just confirm it's all cost and there's no dis-synergies based on your customer attrition point? And then subsequent to that, at what point will you have more certainty that the dis-synergies that are within the DKK 9 billion are no longer valid, and we could be looking kind of at a better outcome? And then if Michael could just clarify, when you talk about -- you mentioned DKK 4 billion of synergies in 2026. Is that right? Because before we've talked about the midpoint of the exit rate, 30% in '25, 70% in '26, midpoint is 50% of 9% is 4.5%. So I don't know if you were thinking year-over-year or absolute. I think that's worth clarifying. And then my second question is on Road. Can you discuss a little bit more fundamentally the operating leverage in this business? Clearly, you're taking a lot of cost out at the moment as we have seen through the D&A reduction you've reported. And how will that kind of improve operating leverage when volumes start to recover and pricing starts to go through? And yes, giving us a little bit of color of the actions you've actually taken to really reshape the cost base of that business or I guess you're starting to make. That's it for me. Michael Ebbe: I can start with the synergies. Maybe just to be clear, you said, it's right that we say 30% for end of year. That means for the full year next year, we'll have DKK 3 billion. Then that's -- you can say that one. And then we have the synergies that we already have right now, which is DKK 800 million-ish. And that you can say, DKK 3.8 billion. And then you have -- you're right about the midrange. I though I would say that the synergies that we harvest the first might be the easiest. So I don't think necessarily you can take a linear approach on that one. But I can't promise you that we will deliver at least the DKK 4 billion, and we will work whatever we can to make that faster and higher, of course. Jens Lund: Yes. Then we talked about the dis-synergies. I think we will really know through the tender season, how that is all playing out. Normally, we've seen actually quite some attrition right now in a normal integration, which we are not seeing. And then, of course, it's the tender season. It's the second test, if we want to call it like that. So I think if we look at it right now, we are off to a good start, and I actually think we have to have the aspiration that we also make it through the tender season and then we can really start to focus on the growth. So of course, all the competition is focusing on us. Right now, we are the market leader. We also did that when we were chasing. So I think -- but I'm comfortable, as you can hear. Then I think the operating leverage on Road. if you look at, let's say, the road network, it's both a physical network, but also a back office thing that we're seeing. And as an example, Schenker, they can produce basically all DSV volume in most countries in their network. So of course, there was too much capacity available. There might even be areas where we still have too much capacity even if we've combined entities. So we are rightsizing that right now. Then, of course, we are looking at whether we need to produce all 100% of the volume in our own network or whether there might be some areas at very remote destinations where we could ask somebody else to do that. That would then limit the physical infrastructure quite a bit. In the offices, we also need to operate at plus index 90 on the capacity side, even if we are where we are right now. And then when we get price increases, I think there's only so much volume we will be able to produce. We might then need to might need to -- what can I say? We might need to say that we can grow a little bit less because we need to take some of those fluctuations out of it and then just increase the prices a bit more because today, we've actually had way too much capacity, so we could handle the peaks, but it's way too expensive in the troughs. So that's in reality what we are focusing on right now on the Road side. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Ulrik Bak from Danske Bank. Ulrik Bak: So in terms of the synergies and the integration process, what is it specifically that has progressed faster than planned? And have you identified other areas where we could potentially see a further acceleration of this synergy harvesting? And then also the DKK 300 million in synergies in Q3, DKK 800 million for the full year as well as '26. If you can provide some guidance on how this is split among divisions, that would be great. Michael Ebbe: Yes. I think if you look at the speed of the integrations, I think if you see what we have moved last time, we said 15% end of this year, and you can say 50% end of next year. Now we have increased to 30% this year and 70% next year. I think it's not that unusual. Remember the size of Schenker that we have acquired. I don't think it's that unusual that you need to kind of get a little bit of a grip on what it is that you have acquired and how you can plan for it. It's a complex thing to migrate 85,000 people in more than 80 countries into our infrastructure. legally as well as organizational and IT as well. So it takes a little bit of a time. That's also maybe why you said last time that it was progressing slower than at least for some of you guys have anticipated. I think what we have found out now, we know what we are dealing with. We have identified all the different scenarios from a system perspective, organizational perspective. So now we have put that into a plan that we are executing on, and this is where we are doing fairly well in execution in DSV. So that is why we are moving faster than what we initially thought through actually. And then in terms of finding, I think Jens already touched upon that in whether there are more synergies elsewhere to come. Right now, we stick to the plan that we have promised to deliver the DKK 9 billion in yearly savings, and we are very committed to deliver that. And of course, to be there as fast as we can. Operator: We now have a question from the line of Kristian Godiksen from SEB. Kristian Godiksen: A couple of questions from my side as well. So first of all, maybe could you comment on the stabilization you've seen in growth that you comment on in terms of what to expect going forward, both in terms of margin progression and maybe also in terms of which kind of price increases you expect to -- you in the market to implement in this quarter? And then secondly, just a household question. Wondering if you could comment a bit on why the legacy Schenker yields are down more, both in terms of sea and air freight than the legacy DSV yields? Jens Lund: If you take the yield question, I think Schenker had, what can I say, a tradition where they were a little bit longer on the procurement side. In certain markets, it had benefited them. And as you can remember, last year, perhaps that was a situation like this. Now if you are longer in this market, of course, then it's -- when the rates are going the other direction, then it's perhaps a different scenario. So I think that will be the explanation to that. I think on the operational side, it's fairly similar volume that we are producing. Then I think if we look at the road side, I think we need to think we don't want too much capacity. We want to have the capacity that is required in the market. This is a journey where you have a ton of infrastructure that you have to rightsize so that you get there. It's part of also certainly, it's also part of me having said that on group, we need to make much more money. Then I think the price increases that we go out with today, perhaps DSV stand-alone, Schenker stand-alone had an aspiration that we need more and more volume. Actually, we got sufficient volume now to have a European network. So we can sit and then look at what's the service, what's the quality of our product. And then, of course, we can then go out to the customers and say, listen, this is a quality product. And this is the SLA that we can deliver to you, and it comes at this price. So we've been out now to our customers basically because also there's pressure from the subcontractors, they want more money. So that with the service catalog, this is a service you get. This is what the price is. And it's, of course, always market driven by the subcontractors at the end of the day. But this in combination then is what we present to the customer. Then I think on the smaller account, if we sit and look at it, of course, we can present that because we don't necessarily have a long-term agreement. But on the customers that we have a longer-term agreement with, it's going to come when we have, what can I say, the freight negotiations basically for the renewal of the contracts. And that's typically happening into the new year. So there's still some bound to cover. But we are off to a good start, and I can see Michael has something he will add. Michael Ebbe: I think also one thing that I don't think that you should underestimate when we talk about stabilization. Remember that legacy Schenker has a huge road organization. And like we also touched upon last time, we have now set the management team, both globally, regionally clusters in the countries. And the team has also worked dedicated to find some of the recovery plans as we call them. So I think that's where we can see that now we are getting hold and grip of these kind of things that also pays into the frame of why we can say that it is stabilized. Kristian Godiksen: Okay. That makes good sense. And just a very quick follow-up on the impact from the longer procurement of volumes from the legacy Schenker. When will we see that impact fade away? Jens Lund: I don't know. It's hard to quantify. I think basically that it's an ongoing exercise that we're talking about. So I don't necessarily -- I don't think we're going to move backwards on the profitability on the road side. We're going to move -- make progress, consolidate and take idle capacity out that is not needed. I think that's -- on the procurement side, we're going to drive, of course, that very efficiently as we've always done and make sure what can I say, we have wholly procurement, let's say, the terminology that was used and think it was wholly management. I mean these 2 words, they are quite different, aren't they? Because it is a procurement exercise for us. We have to deliver the right cost to the customer as well. Michael Ebbe: And of course, it will follow the normal, you can say, renewal of the contracts. So... Operator: The next question comes from the line of Muneeba Kayani from Bank of America. Muneeba Kayani: Firstly, I just wanted to ask around yield mix at Schenker. So Jens, in the past, you've kind of given us a breakdown of the value-add mix for your -- for DSV stand-alone ocean and air yields. How does that look like in Schenker? And kind of along the lines of the previous question on Schenker yields, kind of how do we think about that mix and movements with freight rates going forward? So that's the first one on yield. Secondly, around cost cutting. So your competitor today announced a cost-cutting program. I think what you've said is you need to -- you're looking at it, but haven't really kind of pushed that kind of on top of what you're already doing with the Schenker integration. So what do you need to see to do more of that? And kind of how are you thinking about that? And just a quick one on real estate sales. You've talked about that in the past. Where are you in that process? Can you give us a sense of the time line and potential amount from Schenker real estate sales? Jens Lund: I think if we look at the Schenker yield, it was lower. I don't necessarily think that Schenker had the same focus on selling, what can I say, upselling the services than we had. They had perhaps more an approach where they were also a little bit long short in the market depending on their expectations. We have a clear way forward where we basically don't take positions as a company. And you've seen this play out in the industry as well. That also then leads to some companies then having, what can I say, to make certain decisions on capacity as well when you perhaps have some focus on the yield side that drives what can I say, financial outcomes that are not desired. If we look at our company, we rightsize the company all the time. There's natural attrition. And right now, we can stick to that. We have our performance KPIs, as I talked about when we run the company. So how many shipments, how many transactions per person per day. This is something that our organization, they look at all the time. And we can see what we do on the Schenker integration and with our expectations for the number of shipments we have to produce and the productivity expectations that we have that we don't need to do anything else on top of this right now, which is great. Our staff, they know exactly what we're doing. We're focusing on the Schenker integration and then the normal course of business. We then -- if there's an area here or there where we need more or less capacity, this is adjusted as a normal part of operation. And Michael will talk a little bit perhaps also about this, but also about the real estate as well. Michael Ebbe: I think just a last comment on the -- you say the cost cutting. Now you referred also to one of our competitors. I think you also maybe need to look at the starting point from a conversion ratio perspective and then see what that brings. And like you said, Jens, we are actually looking into, of course, the measures that we normally would take on that one. And for the Schenker real estate, it's correct that we -- that they have been a little bit more asset heavy than what we have. So we are, of course, looking into getting that to fit into our asset-light model and hence, there will be some divestment of real estate. Remember, this is not something that we have, you can say, taken into our business case. So we are looking into that. And, yes, I think we have also mentioned that in the earlier case, it could be around DKK 1.5 billion that we're looking into. And for timing and stuff like that, we need to go in and find a plan for that one before we can say more about it. Operator: We now have a question from the line of Lars Heindorff from Nordea. Lars Heindorff: The first one is on the logistics part of the business. Very strong revenue growth in the third quarter, apparently, a sale of a terminal property. I don't know exactly where and the timing of that. So maybe if you could just give a bit of detail how much impact that has on the top line and also on the gross profit in the organic business? That's the first one. And then secondly, I'm sorry, coming back on the yield questions here. I clearly understand your answer for some of the previous questions on the sequential decline in yields when rates go down in sea freight and how -- depending on how Schenker has been sourcing their capacity. However, in air freight, where we've seen a very, very significant decline in Sinker on a stand-alone basis, we haven't seen a similar decline in rates. So maybe just an explanation why we see that both in sea and in air. And also, I don't know if you can go that far and maybe give us an indication where you think that yields will continue to decline combined into the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter? And then the last one is just a housekeeping question on USA Trucking, the Q2 EBIT impact now that I'm looking for that, now that you've taken it out as a discontinued business. Jens Lund: Good. I think Michael will start, what can I say by answering some of the questions. Michael Ebbe: Yes. If we go to the Contract Logistics side, it is, as always, Lars, and you are aware that we have had some property projects, which we also have talked about in connection with our net working capital and so forth. And we have realized one here. And as always, it doesn't really have an impact on our EBIT and our GP, to be honest with you guys. So that's on that one. For the U.S.A. truck, it's also household, like I said, it's correct that we have now, you can say, classified it as divestment, noncontinued business. We said DKK 90 million on a quarterly. That's the net result, as you most likely know and can see. I think for EBIT impact, it was around DKK 60 million in the quarter. Jens Lund: And then you talked about the yields in ocean freight and air freight as well. I think if you look at the market, what can I say, rates, it's also very different for the 2 products, isn't it? Where it's been declining quite a bit on ocean freight and where it's quite stable, at least the way we see it on the air freight is, of course, declining, but not necessarily at the same pace. So I think this is what drives the difference in outcome, Lars. I think that was basically -- we are at the end of the session. So I would like to thank you all for your interest and look forward to have some conversations bilaterally after this call. But most of all, I would actually like to thank our employees that are listening in on the call for all their hard work, all their efforts and their dedication. We would never ever have been able to pull this off at this pace and with these results if it hadn't been for all your hard work and all your efforts you've overachieved and just continue that. It's really great fun to be at the company right now. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Operator: Hello, and welcome to Inchcape's 2025 Q3 Trading Update. We are now joined by -- today by Duncan Tait, Group Chief Executive; Adrian Lewis, Group Chief Financial Officer; and Rob Gurner, Head of Investor Relations. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the call over to Duncan. Please go ahead. Duncan Tait: Very good. Thank you, [ Sergey ], and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm here with our CFO, Adrian Lewis; and our Head of Investor Relations, Rob Gurner. I'll give an overview of trading and strategic execution during the quarter before handing over to Adrian for more detail on our regional performance and the outlook, which has remained unchanged since March. We'll then take your questions. Our performance in Q3 was supported by market growth, distribution contract wins and ongoing product launches. However, headwinds remain in Asia. We delivered strong organic revenue growth in the third quarter of 8% and reported growth of 7% against softer comparators and in the context of a market growth of 5%. This reflects the underlying strength and diversification of our business as well as consistent operational execution by our teams. We also continue to make progress against our Accelerate+ strategy. We further scaled the group through the acquisition of Askja in Iceland, an exciting new market for Inchcape, where we are now the market leader. This bolt-on acquisition also helps to further strengthen and diversify our global portfolio of OEMs. Our progress in optimizing our business is perhaps most evidenced with the disposal of a retail-only business in Australia, which generated annualized revenue of around GBP 100 million. As we have said before, optimizing our retail network is a core pillar of how we operate as a distributor in providing the most efficient route to market. Our execution against Accelerate+ is also highlighted by our successful track record in winning distribution contracts, including the recent addition of GAC AION in Greece. We're also continuing to optimize our distribution contract portfolio. And in this quarter, we have, in collaboration with our OEM partners, decided to exit 4 immaterial contracts in certain small Americas markets, which are unlikely to provide the opportunity for mutually viable commercial operation. So to sum up, Inchcape's performance during the third quarter was in line with our expectations and demonstrates our ability to execute against our Accelerate+ strategy. This supports our confidence for another year of growth in 2025, in line with our medium-term target to deliver EPS CAGR of more than 10%. And with that, I'll hand over to Adrian. Adrian Lewis: Thank you, Duncan, and good morning, everyone. During the period, the group generated revenue of GBP 2.3 billion, up in Q3, 7% in constant currency and on a reported basis. Reversing out the impact of disposed noncore retail assets and the impact of recently acquired businesses, organic revenue was up 8%, with distribution contract wins contributing around 1/3 of this organic revenue growth. Before looking at the regional detail, at a headline level, the market trends were as expected. Underlying Inchcape TIV was up 5% compared to the first half of the year where industry volumes in our markets were down 2%. This is in part due to softer comparators in Q3, but also a continuation of the improving trends we have seen in the Americas and a strengthening rate of growth in Europe. We outperformed the market with our volumes up 13% to around 91,000 cars in the quarter. And we spoke earlier in the year about the need to see a step-up in volumes in H2 versus H1 as well as improved growth rates. This is a good indicator of the step-up in absolute performance as we anticipated. Summarizing the regions, starting in the Americas, the market environment continues to improve with our performance ahead of the market. Colombia and Peru continue to see very strong growth and Chile, on an underlying basis, is showing positive trends. And it is worth noting that in Chile in September, we saw a very strong market due to regulatory changes, pulling demand forward. This will normalize in Q4. Some markets like Costa Rica remained weaker. We are seeing the usual seasonality in the region this year with our performance underpinned by new product launches and contract wins. Turning to APAC. The macro and competitive dynamics that proved to be a headwind for us in H1 continued with the premium segment remaining weak. The Singapore market continues along the certificate of entitlement up cycle, but remains a highly competitive market as does Hong Kong. Australia returned to growth in the quarter. Our performance in the region is supported by new product launches, such as the Subaru Forester in Australia and a number of Toyota products in key markets. Demand for these is on track, and we expect this to be supportive of an improving performance in comparison to H1. And finally, our business in Europe and Africa continues to show positive momentum and market outperformance, especially so in Romania and Bulgaria, where we have seen strong growth. Growth was enhanced by the contribution from the contracts announced in recent years across the region as well as a first contribution from our Icelandic operation. While only a revenue update, as expected, we have seen reducing inventory levels since the position at the end of June. And as Duncan mentioned, we have maintained our disciplined approach to capital allocation. And alongside the acquisition of Askja, we have now acquired approximately GBP 200 million of our own shares, equating to 8% of the shares in issue as part of our GBP 250 million share buyback program that will be supportive of EPS growth. In relation to acquisitions, we see these as a crucial part of our growth strategy, and we remain disciplined on valuation as we look across a healthy pipeline of bolt-on acquisitions. And finally, on to outlook. Reiterating our position through the year, we have -- we continue to expect another year of growth at prevailing currency rates, including the impact of tariffs. Our outlook for this year is based on our expectation for a stronger second half of the year compared to half 1, and our performance in Q3 is supportive of this. Our performance in the second half continues to be driven by product launches in a number of markets. And so far, these are progressing in line with our expectations. Additionally, we continue to manage costs, inventory and working capital, and you have seen us take further steps in the optimization of our retail network. We continue -- we expect to deliver a higher rate of EPS growth relative to profit growth this year, driven by our operating performance and capital allocation and in line with our medium-term target of greater than 10% compound annual growth rate. So now let's take your questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] First question is from Arthur Truslove from Citi. Arthur Truslove: First question just on capital allocation. Can you just remind us how you think about the scenario in which there would be another buyback at full year? And second question from me, obviously, your price mix element is slightly sort of negative 5% or thereabouts in the quarter. Are you able to just talk about how that likely impacts margin and things like -- how the price mix likely impacts margin, please? I know that's something that has been a concern to people in the run-up to this. Duncan Tait: Good morning, Arthur. Adrian, over to you both, please. Adrian Lewis: Thank you, Duncan. Thanks, Arthur, for the questions. So I'll start with capital allocation. And I think our policy, Arthur, is really clear. What we said in our medium-term guidance that was issued in March is that on the back of a very highly cash-generative business, turning profit after tax into cash at around 100%, we'll pay dividends with 40% of EPS, and then we will do share buybacks and M&A. And the balance between those 2 with the cash that we generate will be around -- will be decided based on a disciplined approach to valuation, and that's in the context of our own shares and a very healthy pipeline of bolt-on acquisitions. As I said in my words, we are super excited about expanding the scale of this group. We were very pleased to find value in the Askja deal and continue to look at a pipeline of bolt-ons that were very -- that I think can add scale to this group. But as we have done this year, you can expect us to be disciplined about how we do that in 2026. On price mix, what you've seen -- and absolutely, you've got it right. So look, 13% volume growth in the context of a market growth of 5% and an organic revenue growth of 8%. So what you're seeing there and that delta between the 13% and the 8%, is really about a faster-growing Americas region, a faster-growing Europe and Africa region, where we play in segments that have a lower average selling price in comparison to Asia, which in proportion to the rest of the group is smaller in proportion than it was in previous years. 1/3 of our Americas business is Chinese brands, and 1/3 of our growth rate this year has come from new contract wins, which, as you know, is skewed towards Chinese brands. What that's doing is bringing down the average selling price. We've been pretty consistent around our view on margin and how we think about margin as we look forward at around circa 6%. And I wouldn't -- and I don't think you should think about that price mix and changing mix within the business as a headwind to margin. We're about driving scale through this organization, leveraging our overhead, and that's what's going to underpin margins as we look into the medium term. Arthur Truslove: Just one follow-up. Obviously, about 18 months -- well, 12 to 18 months ago, you presented some data on the profit progression in new contracts. Is it reasonable to think that these contracts that are growing very nicely are progressing in line with what you presented that in the Driving Seat episode? I think it was in May 2024, if I remember correctly. Adrian Lewis: Yes. I think Arthur, great question. I'll take this one, Duncan, if I may. Yes, look, you started to see us disclose the contribution that they are making to our overall growth. It's around 1/3 of the 8% has come from contracts that have been signed over the recent few years. And I think net-net, we're at about 50 contracts in aggregate that we've signed over the last few years. And the vast majority of them are still in year 1 and year 2. And that 5-year time line that we presented back in that in the Driving Seat webinar, how the average contract evolves, I think we're still pretty consistent with, and we're seeing those 2022 and 2023 contracts starting to climb up that curve. I'd say one thing we have noticed it sometimes takes us a little to get from the moment of signing through to products in the market. Sometimes it's getting through homologation process, getting all the right vehicle specification documents into local governments where we're working with brands that aren't necessarily used to working in export markets and international markets. That's taking us a little bit longer to get out of the blocks perhaps, but the trajectory of maturity continues to be on that archetype as we presented in May last year. Operator: Our next question is from Abi Bell from UBS. Abi Bell: Just wanted to ask 2 questions about the growth building blocks. So firstly, your comment that 1/3 of the growth was from contract wins, so this is about 2.7% of organic revenue growth. Should we assume that is the rough contribution you'd expect in Q4 and at the start of next year? And you've won a lot [Technical Difficulty] you mentioned. So any help on timing of the ramp-up, that would be [Technical Difficulty]. And then secondly, your markets were clearly strong this quarter. I mentioned there were some markets like Chile, and it sounds like you expect Q4 to be slightly softer, but the contract wins and end markets, do you expect Q4 to see positive growth at this stage? Duncan Tait: Thank you so much, Abi. Adrian, you again. Adrian Lewis: Yes, so 1/3 of our growth absolute [Technical Difficulty] contracts, we're really pleased with that. Those contracts, which I referred to earlier as sort of 2022 and 2023 beginning to hit their straps as we expected to, as we -- when we look at the maturity curve that we expect to see. We expect them to provide a contribution into Q4. And I think I'd point you to our medium-term guidance framework, which talks about a market outperformance. Market is growing at around 1% to 2%, 2% to 3% outperformance to give a 3% to 5% volume growth. That's the sort of framework and how you should think about rolling forward, the contribution from these contracts that we've been running over recent years. As I said, a lot of them are still in the foothills of their growth maturity curve, and we've got work to do to make sure that they contribute as we expect them to over the '26, '27 and '28 time period. On growth rates, looking into Q4, as we've said in the statements and in our words, Q3 had some softer comps. So I would expect Q4 to be a growth quarter for us, but I wouldn't expect it necessarily to be as strong as we have seen in Q3, in part due to the comparators. Duncan Tait: Is that helpful, Abi? Abi Bell: Yes, that's great. Just a quick follow-up. Do you think you'll be disclosing the contract contributions going forward in your remarks or materials? Adrian Lewis: I think we've heard investors and our analyst community loud and clear that a greater level of disclosure in this regard is helpful. So you should expect to see us to start to talk about how it contributes to the group, both strategically and in the near-term results. Operator: We'll now take our next question from David Brockton from Deutsche Numis. David Brockton: I also have 2 questions as well. Firstly, could I just return to the price/mix headwind from the first question. I guess one element there that's been contributing has been a softer premium market, particularly in Asia. And as you look towards next year for the business, can you just comment on whether those pressures should ease as you lap this year? Or is that on a worsening trend in that segment, please? The second question relates to Australia. Just a clarification for me. Can you confirm you're now completely out of retail activity in Australia? And is the sort of strategy evolved there? Or am I missing something because I thought there was a benefit to the partially integrated model there? Duncan Tait: Very good. Thank you, David. Look, I'll take those. So specifically about Asia, look, we we've seen 2 dynamics in Asia this year. One is more pressure on the premium segment, and we've seen those declines, which we referred to at our interims of a 40% decline in the premium market in Indonesia as an example. And then generally across Asia, it's a really, really competitive environment. Do I expect 2026 to see a big step-up or an improvement in that environment in Asia? Look, I think our teams are executing pretty well. But we -- do I expect the premium segment to bounce upwards or for the competition and the competitive environment to reduce? No, I don't. So I think we will continue to execute well, but Asia is super competitive and the premium segment is still quiet. But what I would say going back to the way Adrian is encouraging us to think about 2026 is we should apply our medium-term growth framework to how we think about 2026. Then just in terms of Australia and retail, so let's be clear about what we're trying to do. We have had a program over the last half a decade or so of reducing our exposure to pure retail. So like the U.K. business where we don't have distribution contracts, but we had end retail, and in Australia, what you see us do is take those dealerships in Brisbane, which are supporting OEMs where we're not the distribution partner, that is the business we've sold. So it's exactly like you've seen us do in the U.K., the way you saw us exit Russia and other businesses in that regard. In terms of our distribution business, retail is super important. We don't need to own and control all of it. And in fact, in Australia, we own about 20% of the retail, physical retail that supports our distribution contracts in that country. And I would remind you, we've just launched Foton in Australia also. Operator: Our next question is from Akshat Kacker from JPMorgan. Akshat Kacker: A couple of questions, please. The first one is on the mutual exits from the small contracts in Americas that you've talked about. I see that 3 of them are with Geely. And obviously, this comes on the back of the exit from Chile at the end of last year as well. And I do remember that you have a global cooperation agreement with Chile -- with Geely, sorry. So just a question on Geely still is an important distribution partner and how are your discussions actually evolving with them? If you could just share some more details, that will be helpful. The second one is on Asia, and I appreciate it's a Q3 trading call. You've talked about a very competitive environment. There are continuous headwinds. Could you talk about the margin recovery potential for that region going into the second half, please? We've obviously come down from the 8% to 9% margins in the last few years to 6.5% in the first half, but now we have higher volume contribution and positive momentum from product launches. Could you just talk about Asia margins, please? Duncan Tait: Yes, sure. Akshat, let me clarify your second question. Are you talking about the Americas region? Akshat Kacker: Asia. Duncan Tait: It's Asia, okay. Very good. Thank you very much. I do want to clarify that. Look, I'll take the first question and Adrian on the second. So look, let's put this in context. We've won over 50 contracts over the last few years, many of them in our Americas business, with OEMs from Europe, from Japan and from China. And we did sign a global relationship with Geely just a few years ago. So if you look at the Geely brand itself, yes, we have now exited the contracts that we signed in the Americas. We have done so in a highly collaborative basis with our OEM partner. And we genuinely wish them all the very best as those contracts move to other third parties. But actually, let's not forget, we've also signed a whole bunch of contracts with smart, which is a Geely joint venture with Mercedes. We have our Volvo business also in the Americas, and I'd hope that we would have some more Volvo businesses over time. So in terms of our relationship with Geely group, I think that's in super shape. And those particular brands that we've exited, look, they're better off with other parties running those distribution contracts in those small markets in Central America. Adrian Lewis: And in respect of margins, Akshat, and you took the words right out of my mouth. This is a trading update, so I won't comment very specifically. Safe to say, you're absolutely right. This descaling effect we saw in the first half of the second half skew of volumes weighed on margins. We've seen that scale come back in the third quarter and expect to do so with product launches in the fourth quarter. We launched Subaru Forester into Australia. We've got some product going into Singapore and Hong Kong, EV going into Hong Kong with the bZ3X started this month. And we've got some -- the Noah product going into Singapore. They play in certain segments, which will be helpful to us, particularly in MPV, fleet and taxi. So we should see the -- we expect to see the rescaling effect in Asia. Save to say that, that premium segment continues to be weak. And referring to Duncan's comments around it being a very competitive environment. We've seen an improved performance in Q3 in the context of a market that is now flat and in the context of our half 1 performance. But I want you to sort of hear the words of caution of Asia being a difficult environment for us, but that rescaling effect will be supportive of a better margin profile in half 2. Operator: Our next question is from Andrew Nussey from Peel Hunt. Andrew Nussey: A couple of questions from me as well. First of all, given the significance of the new contracts in terms of the growth profile, can you just give some color around the pipeline in terms of signing up new contracts, whether that's sort of OEM or region? And secondly, we cast our minds back to the disposal of the U.K. retail operations. I think from recollection, you retained some of the liabilities from any potential misselling of consumer products and commissions and what have you. Given the recent FCA paper, do you see any exposure for the group there in terms of that historic disposal, please? Duncan Tait: Very good. Andrew, I'll take one. Adrian will follow up on number two. So in terms of contracts, so we've won a lot, as I keep on saying on this call and in our previous engagements, and they're starting to come through in our revenue growth in the second half, which I am pleased about. And generally, I've said this group will win somewhere around high single into double digits contracts annually. This year, so far, gross number is 9. Do I think we'll sign a few more contracts before the end of the year? Most likely. And then, look, are we going to hit 10-ish every year? This is a bit of a lumpy business in terms of contract wins. But the teams are doing well, and we're talking to key OEM partners across our 3 regions. So in summary, you should expect us to sign a few more before the end of the year. Adrian Lewis: And Andrew, in relation to the U.K. retail disposal, your recollection is absolutely correct. We did provide an indemnity in certain circumstances where that FCA investigation was going to come back to us as was appropriate at the time. Now the FCA is in their redress scheme, is in a consultation period. So it wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on how that would conclude before that does conclude. And I'd just point you back to what we said in our half year statements, we had an unquantified contingent liability set in our disclosure schedules, and we'll have to reconsider our position post the consultation period as that plays through for consumers through the third and fourth quarter, and you'll see more in our full year financial statements in the spring. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And we will now take our last question today from Sanjay Vidyarthi from Panmure Liberum. Sanjay Vidyarthi: Just one for me. I'm just looking at the TIV data that you provided. Just a couple of ones that I'd like to go on, Hong Kong. Is there anything in terms of phasing there in that being up 43% in Q3? And then just across Europe, there's been remarkable strength, double-digit growth across most of the markets. What's driving that? Duncan Tait: Good morning, Sanjay. Over to Adrian for both. Adrian Lewis: So Hong Kong data, yes, look, you remember last year, we talked about tough comps in the first half and weaker comps in the second half. And what you see in Hong Kong data was a little bit of that playing through. Hong Kong is 10,000 units, 10,000 to 11,000 units a quarter business. We're lapping an 8,000 unit quarter in Q3. And that's because there was a pull forward into Q1 last year -- sorry, Q2 last year with some regulatory changes where they changed the taxation rates applied to EVs on imports. That's what skewed the market. 12,000 cars in the quarter is a pretty decent quarter in what is a highly competitive market. There's nothing in this year's phasing that would indicate that's a pull forward, but we see that market as being a broadly 40,000 unit market and pretty stable at that level through the year. In relation to Europe, yes, look, absolutely, we've seen a very strong market performance. There are some nuances in there, both slightly weaker comp, and you can see that in the historics. Romania has a slight inflated number, I would say, because of some -- again, some regulatory changes there. We expect that to level out a bit into the fourth quarter, and you can see some fairly spiky quarterly data in Romania, big negative, big positive. I'd encourage you in the circumstance for Europe to look at a full year rate of growth for the market as a barometer for momentum in the region. David Brockton: Okay. Understood. Is there any kind of distortion there from EV sales? Or is there anything to think about on that not just Romania but across Europe? Duncan Tait: I would point to Bulgaria -- sorry, Belgium and Luxembourg as being a market that is shifting towards EV very quickly in relation to some taxation changes that came into effect at the start of this year, and that's a market that is shifting quite quickly to EV and BYD, where we're distributing for them has been -- we've been real winner in that space in that regard. And that's -- when we talk about some of the momentum we're seeing in those contracts, that BYD Belgium contract is one of those early ones that where we're seeing that business gather pace. That's the only EV point I would make. And obviously, you can see the market data there was fairly flat, but it is a market that's shifting to EV. I wouldn't read the other market growth rates as an indicator of an accelerated curve. Operator: It appears there are currently no further questions. With this, I'd like to hand over back over to Duncan for closing remarks. Over to you, sir. Duncan Tait: Thanks very much, [ Sergey ]. So thank you for joining us this morning, everyone. To summarize, our performance in Q3 was supported by market growth, distribution contract wins and ongoing product launches, while headwinds remain in Asia. We reiterate our outlook for 2025, and we remain well placed to deliver on our target of greater than 10% EPS growth over the medium term. That's it from us. Please get in touch as well if you'd like to follow-up on anything we discussed today. Bye.
Operator: Welcome to Dometic Q3 Report 2025. Today, I am pleased to present CEO, Juan Vargues; CFO, Stefan Fristedt; and Head of Investor Relations, Tobias Norrby. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers. Please go ahead. Juan Vargues: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the presentation of this third quarterly report. I would like to thank you all for participating today. We know that this is a very busy morning for many of you. And with that said, let's move rapidly to the highlights. Starting obviously with still tough market conditions where the most effect is really by consumer confidence still staying at pretty low levels all over the world. We see also retailers, dealers, OEMs being keeping to be still today being very, very careful in building up inventories. At the same time, we also see encouraging signs of stabilization in order intake, and we see few quarters. We see improvements already in Q2, clear improvements as well in Q3. Looking at performance, a decline of 6% organically with Service & Aftermarket showing an improvement in comparison to Q2, moving from minus 12% to minus 4%. Distribution declined by 6%, very much driven by Mobile Cooling Solutions, and we will get back to that. There are some aspects or some reasons for that negative decline. And then OEM also showing negative minus 8% organically, which is a good improvement versus first quarters. and where we see Land Vehicle Americas moving in a positive manner as well as Marine after many quarters being positive in the quarter. Strong EBITDA margins landing at 10.4% versus 8.6% for last year, a combination of one side of the margin improvements led by cost reductions. As you all know, we are running a restructuring program that has been kicking in since day 1, and we see very positive effects out of that at the same time as we are working in many different areas. And at the same time, we also see that all segments with exception of Mobile Cooling are improving our margins in comparison to the last quarters as well. And again, we will comment specifically on Mobile Cooling Solutions. And strong cash flow, free cash flow, EUR 527 million and a leverage landing on 3.2% (sic) [ 3.2x ] in comparison to 3% -- to 3x last year. Looking in more detail to the numbers, almost SEK 4.9 billion in revenues with 6% organic decline -- 6% decline driven by FX and then 1% decline led by the portfolio changes that we have been doing, leaving some of the businesses that we have been into before. EBITA, just a little bit over SEK 0.5 billion over an EBITA margin of 10.4%. Looking at adjusted EPS, we ended up at SEK 0.64 and again, a free cash flow of SEK 527 million. And leverage, I already commented, landed at 3.2. Looking at the year-to-date numbers, almost SEK 17 billion in revenues with a decline of 9% organically, 5% led by FX and the same 1% led by portfolio changes. And EBITA just below SEK 2 billion. And good to see, obviously, that we are getting closer as well on the EBITA margin where we landed exactly the same level as 1 year. So we have seen a recovery in recent months in comparison to the first half of the year. Adjusted EPS, SEK 2.90 and a strong free cash flow of SEK 1.4 billion. Looking a little bit deeper into the sales evolution over time, Land Vehicles ended up at minus 9%, which is a clear improvement versus Q2 with Americas showing 3% negative growth, which is a substantial improvement in comparison to the situation we saw in Q2. EMEA showing a degradation as well as APAC in comparison to last quarter, very much led still today by the OEM side. Marine positive, was great to see after many quarters and also showing a positive order intake, which is positive for us, obviously, Mobile Cooling, 8% and then Global Ventures, minus 6%. When looking at the different channels, no major changes in reality, perhaps to point out that the OEM side is for the first time in many, many, many years below 40%, while both Distribution and Service & Aftermarket are moving 100 basis points upwards. And just as a reminder, looking at the RV OEM situation, we are just now -- RV OEM stands for 18% of total business in comparison to the 49% in 2017. So obviously, we are a less sensitive company to the cyclicality that we have seen on the OEM side. Looking a little bit more in depth into the different channels. We see a clear improvement in Service & Aftermarket. Still, we see that -- we see volatility month-to-month, but again, moving in the right direction. Distribution, very much affected by Mobile Cooling Solutions. And the main reason for that is really inefficiency in Katy, Texas since we had to employ above 200 new employees and by that training, a lot of training cost us inefficiencies, we will see this negative effect in Q3. We will also see that in Q4 and then it's going to be gone. And then -- so we will come back to Mobile Cooling, but we have a double effect on one side that had a negative impact on the growth and that had also a negative impact on the margins. Looking at OEM, we see a clear path moving forward, different segments. So we see LVA turning positive in the quarter, and this is the second quarter in a row that OEM in LVA has been positive, and we also see Marine turning positive, while we see still -- LVE and LVC being negative. Positive to see, obviously, when looking at our results, strong margin recovery in comparison to last year. We see strong gross margins, almost 30% compared to 27.3% last year, very much driven by cost reductions. Again, on one side, we have restructuring program, but we also have contingencies driven in all segments simply because we still see negative growth coming in. And we also have a positive impact on the sales mix. When looking at operating expenses, another area where we are working very, very hard. We see a decline of 6% in constant currencies despite the fact that we continue to invest in a number of areas. We see product development, one of the areas where we are investing the most, but also building up our sales organizations in a number of segments where we see a stronger growth moving forward. We see, again, margin improvements in all the segments with the exception of Mobile Cooling in the quarter. When looking at tariffs, not much new here to comment in comparison to last quarter. As you know, we have good protection in the U.S., having 9 of 12 factories that we have in North America based in the U.S. In the short term, obviously, and this is still carrying a lot of uncertainties moving forward. We -- it's very much about passing prices to the market, something that we have done in a pretty good way, and we have compensated for everything, but for a few customers in the Mobile Cooling Solution area. And that's really the impact that we see negative in the quarter of SEK 35 million that will be compensated by the pricing. We implemented prices already twice in all of the areas, by the way. But in the specific case of Mobile Cooling, we had a couple of customers where we prolong the time for kicking in with the new prices. This is going to have also a negative effect in Q4. And from Q1, We will not see any more negative effects. Looking at the different segments, starting with Land Vehicles. Total organic growth, negative organic growth of 9% with soft distribution on sales and aftermarket, while we see as well a double-digit decline in OEM in both EMEA and APAC, but positive growth in Americas. We see also a pretty strong recovery of margins for the entire segment, 6.3% versus 3.7% with clear profitability improvements in EMEA, a decline -- a slight decline in APAC, but still showing very robust margins. And then we see as well reduced losses in Americas. And we will continue, as you know, to drive the recovery on the Americas situation. And as we informed a couple of times during the last quarters, the most of the restructuring program that we are driving, it will have an impact on LVA and LVE. Moving over to Marine. Positive Q3 quarter with organic growth of 1%. We see OEM coming back to growth. We still see a single-digit decline in Service & Aftermarket, but we also see a positive order intake that should help us as well in coming quarters. EBITA recovered as well. We are again over 20% in EBITA margin, 20.8%. And as a consequence of the mix and also the cost reductions that we are driving in the segments. Then Mobile Cooling Solutions, a double hit, I would say. On one side, we didn't manage to see growth due to the labor constraints that we had in the factory that are costing us in efficiency. At the same time, we also saw a negative effect on the margins coming from both the tariffs. Again, that will be gone in Q1 next year at the same time as we have the labor ineffeciencies. And we also have negative wage impact simply. The Mobile Cooling business is highly seasonal. Historically, we always had a couple of hundred of non-immigrant foreigners working on our factories to keep up with the capacity needs. And the U.S. administration did some changes on forcing us to increase the salaries. Again, we are compensating on prices, but we have a time lag. And those negative effects will be gone from Q1, as I commented before. Moving over to Global Ventures, where we see also a negative growth of 6%, with growth in Other Global Verticals, very positive in some of the areas and then still decline in Mobile Power Solutions driven by the soft RV industry. Good margin improvements, 11.5% versus 9.2%, very much driven by Other Global Verticals. Happy to see as well our progress in the sustainability area with injuries well below target, 1.5. We see as well that we are on target in regards to female managers, and we'll keep working hard in that area moving forward as well. We see renewable energy also quite a bit already now above the target for the year. We keep assessing our suppliers, our vendors, and we ended up at 60%, slightly below the target for the year. And of course, we will reach the target at the end of December. and we see also progress in innovation where we landed at 22%, a couple of percentage points above last year. We are talking a lot about sales decline. We are talking a lot about cost reductions, but we keep investing in the product area and product innovation. This is for the first time. It's the first time that as the Dometic brand, we have soft coolers. It's a totally new area for the Dometic brand. We have soft coolers under the Igloo brand, but we're also launching a new series of soft coolers under the Dometic brand for the first time and we have great expectations. Also from a branding perspective to help us to reinforce the Dometic brand among consumers. Then if we move over into the gyro. We have very, very positive reception by customers. We have been introducing the products in a number of different shows around the world. We see order intake kicking in, in many different areas. I'm happy with the results. And on top of that, we are getting a lot of awards, which is always helping us when visiting new customers offering a totally new product area for us as well. And again, we are getting awards, a lot of awards, not just for the gyro in the Marine industry, but also for many other products that we have been launching in the last 12 months. So positive to see that our investments are paying off both in terms of awards and order intake. And then on the restructuring program that we initiated 1 year ago, as you all know, will generate savings of SEK 750 million when it is completed at the end of 2026. We closed down so far 1 factory and 3 distribution centers affecting 250 people altogether. And we are running just now at annual savings of SEK 250 million as the running rates. We had a cash out in the quarter of SEK 35 million and year-to-date a little bit above SEK 100 million. We keep continuing on our portfolio, and we discontinue one of the product areas that we had before. This is leading to a negative organic growth of 1% and we keep investing on -- sorry, keep spending time on the divestments. Still, we have not seen the finalization of any of them, but we keep working and are convinced that we will see the results moving forward. And with that said, Stefan, let's go a little bit deeper into the results. Stefan Fristedt: Okay. Thank you, Juan. Starting off by summarizing the P&L for the third quarter. we are very satisfied how the gross profit margin continues to develop, 29.6% versus 27.3% (sic) [ 27.4% ] last year. And the increase is driven by sales mix. We also have the restructuring program and other efficiency measures that are taking effect. Then we also need to mention here that Juan has mentioned a couple of times of the effects, especially in Mobile Cooling, where we have a time lag between the tariff cost as well as labor cost increases versus the mitigating price increases, and that has had a negative effect in the quarter of approximately 0.7%. And we expect that to continue in Q4, as was mentioned before. But from Q1 next year, we expect that the price increases are done to fully mitigate this development. Moving over to operating expenses. We have reduced operating expenses in constant FX due to the decline in net sales, it has increased somewhat in percentage of net sales. We keep on investing in strategic growth areas, as we have mentioned, and you have seen some of the results of that in terms of product development, Mobile Cooling and Marine are definitely 2 areas where we keep on investing deliberately. Other operating income and expenses, SEK 18 million, a small number in the quarter, and it's mainly related to a part of the FX effect. Net financial expenses is up a little bit in the quarter. However, the net interest on bank loans and financial income is down SEK 197 million versus SEK 214 million, and then we have a negative FX revaluation effects and other items leading towards that. On tax, we have an effective tax rate of 32%, which is equivalent to SEK 54 million in tax in the quarter. Moving over to the summary of our cash flow. Operating cash flow-wise, we see that we are continuing to drive efficiencies in working capital, coming back to that in a second. Then we have cash out related to restructuring of SEK 35 million in the quarter. And then as you can see, we are carefully managing our capital expenditure and where we spend. Free cash flow before M&A, as we mentioned before, paid and received interest is spending down and then we have been paying lower tax. Then cash flow for the period has also been impacted by that we did a bond issue of EUR 300 million in Q3. Coming back to that. At the same time, we also did a tender offer of EUR 100 million, so -- which was then a partial repayment of the bond that is falling due in May 2026. And then I would also like to underline that we are going to see further debt repayments in Q4 and in 2026. Moving over to more of how has the free cash flow developed over time. And as you can see, I mean, SEK 527 million. It's not on the same level as last year, which I did not expect either, but still solid level, I must say. And then you can also compare it to the other periods before that. So satisfied with the level of free cash flow in the quarter. Moving over to the working capital components. You can see that working capital over the last 12 months is starting to come down 26% compared to 30% in relation to net sales. And if we look on the quarter stand-alone, it was down to 21%. So we are moving in the direction that we have been talking about, where the target is to reach around 20% of net sales. And you can see on the inventory balance, we are SEK 4.6 billion now compared to SEK 6.3 billion 1 year ago, and the number of days is down to 124 versus 139. So things are moving in the direction that we have been planning for and expecting. As you can see, accounts payable level is staying stable as well as accounts receivables. Then moving over to CapEx and research and development. We are prioritizing among our CapEx project, and we have been spending a little bit less than SEK 100 million in the quarter. It's 2% of net sales versus 1.7% in the last 12 months, that's equal to 1.3%. If we look on R&D, as I said, we continue to keep up that level very deliberately because we believe in that this is important for the future. And the R&D expense to net sales is now 3% compared to 2.7% 1 year ago and 2.8% last 12 months. And as I mentioned before, it's a strategic important growth areas for us, example being Mobile Cooling and Marine. Next is going to talk about the debt maturity. As I mentioned, we did a EUR 300 million bond on a 5-year maturity with a fixed rate of 5% in the quarter. And the proceeds are going to be used to refinance our debt portfolio. We already did EUR 100 million in connection with this transaction by doing a tender offer on the 2026 bond. So there is EUR 200 million left on that one. And then as I mentioned before, you will see further debt repayments here in Q4 as well as in 2026. We have a USD loan that matures in '28, but it can be prolonged 1 year to 2029. And the average maturity is 2.8 years, which is obviously a longer average maturity compared to last year. Average interest rate is 4.8%, and we still have an undrawn revolving credit facility of EUR 300 million maturing in 2028. So moving over to our leverage. Maybe we can -- I mean, leverage went down 0.1 versus Q2 and which is obviously positive. And you can see in the table down below that it is mainly our cash flow development that has contributed with that development. We are obviously having a high focus across the organization on protecting margin and reducing working capital, as you know. And we just keep on repeating that we are committed on achieving our leverage target of 2.5. That is important to us. and it's -- but it is difficult to give an exact timing of when we will achieve it. So with that one, I hand back to you to give a summary of the quarter. Juan Vargues: Thank you, Stefan. So I mean, in tough times like we are going through and we have been going through now for 4 years, we have to control what we can control. And from that perspective, I feel good that we are improving our margins. We had a tough first half. We saw improvements at the end of the quarter. We have seen more improvements in Q3. And our intention is obviously to keep showing improvements moving forward as well. We see -- even if it's still tough and difficult to predict, we see a market stabilization. I'm happy to see the order intake improving and happy to see the backlog becoming stronger for every month. I have been spending a lot of time on the marketplace. I have been visiting a lot of shows. I have been meeting a lot of customers. And again, it's still tough out there, but the sentiment in the value chain is slightly better than it was 3 months ago and much better than it was half a year ago. So that's kind of sending some positive signals and some faith that we are getting closer and closer to positive territory. I'm happy to see cash flow. We are working extremely hard on our working capital on driving down inventories, but not just on inventories. I think we do an excellent job on receivables and we do an excellent job in payables, trying obviously to improve as much as we can our capacity of releasing cash and improving our leverage. Tariffs situation, lots of uncertainties, of course, but we are dealing with that in a good way. We had a negative effect in the quarter. But again, in comparison to what we expected on the 4th of April, I believe that the organization has done a terrific job landing the situation with our customers and our customers are also keeping faith in what we are doing every single day. Moving forward, difficult to predict, as I said, but the starting point in Q4 from a top line perspective is a little bit better than we had 3 months ago. And hopefully, we will see that even in the future. And then from a strategic perspective, we keep investing despite all the cost reductions that we are doing in a number of areas. There are 2 areas that where we are not cutting. The other way around, we keep investing in product development, innovation, and we keep investing in building up our sales organizations. And of course, we need to finance that, and that's why we are driving a restructuring program, which is clearly paying off. And with that said, I would like to open for a Q&A session. Please. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Agnieszka Vilela from Nordea. Agnieszka Vilela: I will ask them one by one. So on growth, Juan, you sound cautiously optimistic about the OEM business now in Marine and in RV in the U.S. But when I look at some of the peers commenting on the market development such as Malibu Boats or Winnebago, they do point to still flat wholesale volumes in 2026 in RVs and even declining both retail and wholesale in Marine. So can you give us an explanation why you are relatively a bit more optimistic on that? Juan Vargues: I mean everything is relatively in line, right? I mean we are coming from a situation where we have been kind of shrinking 11%, 12% quarter after quarter after quarter. For the first time, we see order intake moving upwards. We see the fact that we delivered 1% organic growth, and we have a different backlog situation that we have seen. I fully agree with you that we are not going to fly. I don't see the market turning back anytime soon, but I see an improvement. I see obviously that we are launching new products. I see that we are taking orders. I still believe that we might be seeing as well what we saw on the American RV industry, growth for a number of quarters and then slowing down for a couple of quarters, stabilizing the market. So that's the expectation. I don't see that we are dropping 11%, 12% again from where we are. So that's on the Marine side, Agnieszka. On the other side, Americas, I think, it's pretty stable, just now. I think that, again, retail is still coming down slightly at the same time as manufacturing is adapting again, as you have seen in the last couple of months and expectation is that it will be balanced between retail and wholesale in Q -- sorry, in 2025 and expectation for 2026 is a growth of some 3% versus 2025. Agnieszka Vilela: Perfect. And then the second question is on EMEA and profitability in the business. When I look what we expected in Q2, you beat our expectations quite significantly. Now in Q3, you missed a bit. So just if you could give us some factors that are affecting profitability right now in EMEA. What are the tailwinds, maybe savings and less logistics costs? And what are the negative impacts in EMEA right now for you? Juan Vargues: So you have a couple of questions. I mean, first of all, we had a better mix in Q2 than we have in Q3. So after OEM, the balance of the aftermarket and OEM was different. Then we have a second issue. We -- as you know, in EMEA, we have also an important business for us, which is the CPV, the Commercial Passenger Vehicles. We have the situation of one of the main customers we have, JLR, did suffer a cyber attack. In that business, we have decent margins and that had a negative impact, both from a sales perspective, but also from a margin perspective. So those are the 2 main differences that we have in EMEA. Stefan Fristedt: So on JLR, I mean, their factories have been closed for a big part of the quarter. Agnieszka Vilela: Okay. Can you quantify the impact on your EBITA in the quarter? Juan Vargues: No, not on EBITA, but it had quite an impact on the EMEA numbers specifically. Stefan Fristedt: On sales. Juan Vargues: On the sales, absolutely. Stefan Fristedt: I mean, CPV is generally a more profitable -- or yes, it's an over-average profitable business. Operator: The next question comes from Daniel Schmidt from Danske. Daniel Schmidt: A couple of questions. And then maybe turning back to Marine. I appreciate that it's quite difficult to exactly know if this is a longer turnaround or not. But I think given that sort of retail is not super strong, but it's also a function of the fact, I guess, that it's been quite hefty underproduction in Marine over the past 4, 5 quarters. So I guess there's some catch-up to be done there. Is that your feeling as well? Juan Vargues: Yes, it is. But at the same time, I need to comment as well, Daniel, that we might be seeing what we saw on the RV side that we had a couple of positive quarters and then might slow down before getting stability. So again, I do believe that we need just now to be super agile, right, on the way up and the way down as we have been on the RV side. I mean, the good news, when I perceive still, Daniel, I mean, again, you can take it from a negative perspective or a positive perspective. The positive perspective is obviously that I don't see the market coming down 12% again, that even the decline in retail is becoming smaller than what we have seen. At the same time, as you are totally right, production has been very, very low in comparison to retail. So there is a catch-up. So my feeling is that some manufacturers, they have started to produce again. But then, of course, if retail doesn't come in Q2 when the high season starts in the U.S. specifically, then we might have a slowdown again. And then you have another factor, which I would like to comment because, obviously, a lot of the questions that we get are always about the U.S. market simply because it's 75% of the market, the world market. But we have positive growth in EMEA that was pretty nice in the quarter, and we had positive growth as well in APAC. So as a matter of fact, for us, the growth in Marine in the quarter was not negative, but we want to fly in Q1. And just again, 75% of the business is in the U.S. So I was telling you that the rest of the world, we performed better. Daniel Schmidt: Okay. And could you say something about the pace? This is very detailed and sorry for that. But given that you are shifting from decline to growth now in Marine after 8 quarters in a row of decline, could you say anything about the pace you saw from July until now basically when it comes to Marine on a year-over-year basis in order intake or in sales or anything? Juan Vargues: It has been pretty stable in sales. We have seen improvements on the order intake. So our intake was positive -- the order intake was more positive than sales in the quarter. Stefan Fristedt: But keep in mind, Dan, that the part of that order intake is obviously for delivery also next year. So not everything is going to be delivered now. Juan Vargues: In the coming weeks. Stefan Fristedt: In the coming weeks or in the coming quarter. Daniel Schmidt: Yes. But even though there's no sort of big meaningful improvement in top line in Q3, it is back to growth, but the margin is up quite a bit, and of course, it comes back to the savings. But is there anything -- has there any impact at all when it comes to the gyro that you've talked about? Is that selling. Has that been delivered in Q3? Is that having an impact? Is that going to have a bigger impact in the coming quarters? Juan Vargues: We are delivering the gyro. It doesn't have any substantial impact on the margins. On the contrary, you have, as I commented, the geographical mix, which is benefiting us just now. Daniel Schmidt: Okay. And then when we -- as you mentioned, if you look at OEM on Americas on the LVE side, it is the second quarter in a row that you are performing better than the market. Is that the function, you think, of the work that you did last year in trying to get back to on certain customers that have been maybe discarding you a little bit and you're back to the model year '25 and '26 now. Is that what we're seeing because the market was -- it looks to be a little bit down on shipments so far in Q3 and the same was -- I think it was flat in Q2, the market and you were up a couple of percent. Is that what we're seeing? Juan Vargues: We have a lot of activities ongoing. We have -- so that's what I can tell you is that we are working very, very close to our customers just now. We're spending a lot of time. I am visiting quite a few of the customers myself, getting the feeling. We see positive -- we get positive comments in the recent shows as well, both in the U.S. as in Europe. So I'm optimistic. I mean we are not there, obviously. As you know, we shrunk more than the market for a couple of years. And of course, our intention is to recover part of what we lost. Daniel Schmidt: Yes. And then on EMEA, if you look into the last quarter of this year, I think there was quite substantial production shutdowns, especially from one of the bigger players. Do you see the same development happening in this year? Or will there be less shutdowns, you think? Juan Vargues: I think that we will see improvements versus last year simply because last year was brutal, right? I mean Q4 last year was very, very, very healthy. So I don't expect -- I mean, as you know, this industry is always kind of correcting by running shortened weeks, still to be seen what's going to happen in connection to Christmas, but I'm not expecting the same negative effect that we saw in Q4 last year. You're reading and you are talking to more or less the same people as I'm talking. I mean the positive is more optimistic today than we had 1 year ago. I mean 1 year ago is really when all these massive shutdowns took place, right? Now we have seen very low production numbers for 9 months basically. Stefan Fristedt: And registrations are bit higher than production. Juan Vargues: Absolutely. I mean registrations, if you look at registrations, registrations after 9 months are down to minus 4% in Germany, minus 2% for Europe, right? So of course, that after 1 year, you will get more and more into balance. Daniel Schmidt: Yes. And then sorry for missing the very early part of this call, but you did refer to labor irregularities impacting Mobile Cooling in the quarter, and you said something about needing to hire 200 people. Is that coming back to immigration policy in the U.S.? Is that -- was that the reason? And what was the impact in terms of impact on profitability? And is that continuing into Q4? Is that ending now? Juan Vargues: It's Q3 and Q4 and then we are going to be done. Stefan Fristedt: Yes. So I mentioned that the impact for Q3 was approximately 0.7% on the profit margin as a whole. And then it will continue into Q4 somewhere 1% to 1.5% units on the margin. And then from Q1, we expect these effects to be fully compensated by price increases. So it's... Daniel Schmidt: And that impact, is that both the tariffs and the labor irregularities combined? Stefan Fristedt: Yes. It is mainly tariffs and the labor efficiency/labor cost. There is also some currency effects in there as well. But the majority is related to the 2 first ones. Daniel Schmidt: Okay. And also, sorry for dwelling here. But Juan, you mentioned at the end of your remarks, I think that the starting point on -- from a top line perspective is a little bit better. Was that referring to the start of Q4 compared to the start of Q3? Or what was that comment relating to? Juan Vargues: Yes. So we have seen order intake improving quarter-by-quarter, right, since Q4 last year. So we had a pretty low Q4. Backlog situation was pretty low at the end of Q4 last year. Then we saw a further deterioration in Q1. We saw a clear improvement in Q2, and we saw an additional improvement in Q3. So our backlog situation at the end of the quarter is much better on the backlog situation than we have had at the beginning of Q3, which is positive. Operator: The next question comes from Gustav Hageus from SEB. Gustav Sandström: If I can ask a question on the organic growth in the quarter down with 6%? You mentioned customers trading down in aftermarket. You mentioned some price increases, but more to come. So it would be very helpful if you could try to sort out the components in organic decline here in respect to price mix and volume and what you expect in terms of prices now, if you can quantify that a bit with your new price hikes going into 2026, that would be helpful. Juan Vargues: I mean the vast majority of the prices is going to take place from a Service & Aftermarket perspective. And then the other one is really on Mobile Cooling, what we have seen. We compensated for the tariffs in both Marine and LVA. We almost compensated for the tariffs in Mobile Cooling. But again, we had a price time lag for a couple of customers, and they are major customers for us. So that's where we have the difference. And then, of course, we are doing minor price adjustments depending on the market, depending on the product and depending obviously on the competitive situation. So I would not expect massive price increases moving forward as far as the market looks as it does. I think we need to be careful just now, and we also need to find the right balance, obviously, between keep improving our margins, but also starting to recover some volume now when the market seems to move into a little bit easier situation. Gustav Sandström: Sure. But the negative organic growth in the quarter, is it fair to assume that the volume growth was bigger than that number? So we had... Juan Vargues: No, but I wouldn't overestimate how much bigger. I think we are a little bit bigger, not much. Gustav Sandström: Do you think single-digit volume decline in the quarter. Is that a fair assumption? Juan Vargues: Yes, it is. Gustav Sandström: Okay. Okay. And you mentioned the order intake improving sequentially. Do you see any trends in terms of mix, what type of products that are sold. And in terms of price versus competitors, if you can have a comment on that given that you have quite a lot of exposure from internal production versus some peers? Juan Vargues: Yes. So we see -- let me say, there were 2 questions. The first 1 was -- the second one is competition. The first 1 was? Gustav Sandström: Sort of did you see any improving mix sequentially? Juan Vargues: Yes. So we have seen very clear improvements on the OEM side. We have seen very clear improvements on the distribution side. And then on the contrary, Service & Aftermarket has been a [ second ] month. Gustav Sandström: And that comment relates to mix, so gradually improving mix in those 2 first? What was that comment on? Juan Vargues: But again, if we think about the 3 channels, we have seen very clear improvements on the Marine side, right, is on the OEM altogether, but especially on the Marine side and LVE, we still see that LVE and LVC are tough still today from an OEM perspective. But again, altogether, the OEM channel is improving quite a bit. We see the distribution channel also improving. And there, we have, as you know, a number of businesses where the biggest one is Mobile Cooling. So as I said, Mobile Cooling order intake is improving quite a bit as well. and then Service & Aftermarket has been pretty flattish in comparison to where we are coming from. So still a negative order intake, less negative, but still negative. Gustav Sandström: Okay. And in terms of pricing in U.S. versus some competitors, I guess, in particular, in Mobile Cooling and so forth, are you following also nondomestic producers in terms of price? Or are you -- yes. Juan Vargues: No, I think the difference -- the main difference is that we were pretty early. I feel some of our competitors were pretty late, but we see that all of them are increasing prices step by step. So I feel the difference, obviously, that most probably they built up a lot of inventories just in case as soon as Mr. Trump was elected, while we implemented the prices in connection to the tariff implementation. Gustav Sandström: Okay. And then final one for me, I guess it's a bit speculative, but on the net debt-to-EBITDA gearing target, what you chances are that you'll come below 3 as we end the year? Stefan Fristedt: I think we are now moving into the part of the year where cash flow is a little bit less strong, right? Q2 and Q3 is the 2 strongest cash flow quarters that we have. So it's -- I would probably say that 3 years would be nice, but I would still feel that I think we are still going to end above. Operator: The next question comes from Fredrik Ivarsson from ABG. Fredrik Ivarsson: Sorry, I got in a bit late, so excuse me if you already discussed this, but I'll try. First one on Mobile Cooling. We've seen sales declining, I guess, for 3 years now, and we've been talking about inventory reductions among retailers for quite some time now. Do you guys have a view on the inventory levels at the moment where you're at, especially Igloo in the U.S.? Juan Vargues: Inventories are not bad on the channel, what we can see, right? I mean then, of course, you have -- we have seen 2 months pretty nice inventories coming down and then you get major orders and then all of a sudden, the sell-through is a little bit worse. So I mean, something that we didn't comment on the report is that the last month, meaning September was pretty rainy in the U.S. And for the Mobile Cooling business, that has a lot of impact. So we cannot say that we perceive inventory levels in the Mobile Cooling channel being high just now. They are gone. I think people on the contrary are very, very, very careful in not building unnecessary inventories. So everybody is placing the orders in the very last minute. And that's a change from where we are coming from pre-pandemic, where people were building up inventories in advance. Now people are -- I don't know if we can talk about Just In Time manufacturing, but retailers are as much Just In Time as they can and putting on us being ready. Fredrik Ivarsson: Very clear. And then staying on Mobile Cooling, it seems to me like the margin is almost set to expand in 2025 despite all the issues you mentioned and then obviously, sales being down 20% organic over the last 3 years. So my question is, where do you see the margin in this business under more, say, normal circumstances? Juan Vargues: I mean we commented from the beginning, right, that we expect Mobile Cooling to be 15-plus EBITA. That's where we -- and that's still below, so to say, what the Dometic brand is coming from, right? But we believe that lifting from where we acquired the company to 15% is a pretty nice achievement. If you look at what we have been delivering during the last year, we have seen an improvement year-by-year, and that's our expectation. Stefan Fristedt: And I mean if you look on the product launches that we have been showing here over the last couple of quarters in Mobile Cooling, I mean, that is products that is certainly going to contribute to that development. Juan Vargues: So I mean this is one of the areas, clearly, where we are investing a lot in product development. We are investing in building up our sales organizations. And despite all the investments that we have, still, we see margin improvements. Now we have a couple of one-offs this quarter, and then we had also the production issues in Q2, right? But apart from that, we see an underlying improvement year-by-year, a clear improvement year-year. Fredrik Ivarsson: Yes. Yes, I appreciate that. And a follow-up just on the one-off you mentioned just now. Juan, did I hear you right? Do you guide for 1% to 1.5% on the group margin impact in Q4? Juan Vargues: Yes, based on both the tariffs and the wages and the labor efficiencies. Fredrik Ivarsson: Okay. So like SEK 40 million to SEK 60 million. Juan Vargues: It will be gone again from Q1. Fredrik Ivarsson: Yes, absolutely. Good. And maybe last one from my side. I saw the Igloo lawsuit trial moved to March from September. Do you have anything to comment on that? Juan Vargues: No. I mean from our side, the sooner, the better since we feel very, very confident that we are going to win the case. So there is not -- we have not provoked that delay. It's not us trying to delay. It's the other way around. We would like to get it done. the discussion beyond us. Operator: The next question comes from Rizk Maidi from Jefferies. Rizk Maidi: Sorry if this has been tackled. So I'll start with tariffs and Section 232 extension in August. Just wondering if this drives you to -- if there's any impact direct or more importantly, indirectly on the business, and I'll start there. Stefan Fristedt: I think that we will have to see where this ends in the bidder end. But I mean, with the price increases and other measures we have taken, we believe that we have -- when the time lag has closed, we believe that we have taken the measures to compensate for the increased tariff cost. Rizk Maidi: Okay. And then secondly, on Service and Aftermarket, I mean, the decline now, as you said, Juan, was less than before. Historically, you talked about this bullwhip effect. Maybe if you could just talk about sort of sell-in versus sell-out here. This market has historically been quite resilient. This is exceptional. Do you actually expect to recoup those big, call it, destocking years sort of -- does that need to reverse at some point in your view? Or that's basically you see it as a post-COVID buildup in inventories that would never go back to? Juan Vargues: No, I think that we are human beings. I think that's going to come back. But in order to get into that point, we need to get consumer confidence. We need to see the traffic and the foot traffic into the stores, the foot traffic, both physically and digitally to increase for the dealers to there to build up more inventories that they are doing today. Just now it's in the very last minute. But again, I'm fully convinced. Remember, if you go back 5 years ago, we -- the flight industry would never come back, right? The carriers would never recover, and you know where they are today, right? I think it's time. Rizk Maidi: Understood. And then perhaps last one on my side, just perhaps an update on divestments of noncore assets. How much has been achieved? How much is left? I don't know if you can communicate on this? And how do you see the appetite from potential buyers at the moment and the valuations you're able to get? Juan Vargues: So you have 2 different areas. One is product areas that we are leaving that we are discontinuing, low margins, we don't see that we can get into a #1, #2 position globally, and then we don't want to be part of that. As you know, we have already left 1% and is more to come. We will see changes over time. And then we have the divestments where we are working extremely hard. We are in discussions with a number of partners. But obviously, we still have a gap between the sell side and the buy side. And as we said, I mean, we want to create value. We don't want to give things away. And if we need to wait until the market looks in a better way, then we will do it. But again, all those discussions keep on going. Operator: The next question comes from Johan Eliason from SB1 Markets. Johan Eliason: Juan and Stefan, just a few questions here at the end, maybe on the cash flow again, you already alluded to where you sort of think net debt will end up to. But are there any particular issues we need to bear in mind when modeling the final quarter cash flow? Or are there any sort of higher charges from the restructuring programs or tariffs being paid out, et cetera, that could potentially impact the fourth quarter cash flow? I guess, otherwise, the pattern this year has been a decent cash flow, but a bit weaker than last year. And I thought that would be the case for Q4, but I just wanted to see if there's anything to bear in mind there. Stefan Fristedt: I think that you should look on the seasonal pattern, right, of our cash flow. That's number one. Then we were talking about that we had SEK 35 million in payout in Q3. I think you should expect that to be a little bit higher in Q4. And that will then, of course, also give you an indication that the cash out has been a little bit lower for 2025 compared to what we did believe in the beginning. But that's more related to the timing of certain activities. So that will be a little bit more that is flowing over to 2026. So -- but I think you should expect the payouts of that to be a little bit higher. So I think that's what I should comment. I mean it's like I've said, I mean, '23 was the best year ever. '24 was the second best year. And then I think 2025 is coming thereafter. So it's probably a good way of thinking about it. Johan Eliason: Good. And then you are leaving some areas where you see are not competitive. You have seen some competitive pressure. I think you talked about the big fridges over in the U.S. previously. Are you seeing any changes in the competitive picture now after tariffs and all what you have out there? Juan Vargues: Not much that far. I mean what we have seen is that we were pretty early increasing prices on the tariffs. Most of our competitors in the U.S. were slower, I guess, that they built up inventories in connection with the election. And -- but we have seen that all of them are increasing prices step by step. So I do believe that we need to wait a little bit longer to see what happens. I think that a lot of people have been living on inventories. Unknown Executive: And we have one question from the webcast audience. Could you please give some color on the inventory situation in the different distribution channels? Juan Vargues: We commented before. We see inventories in both APAC and EMEA coming down stepwise simply because of the difference between retail and manufacturing in the last 12 months. We see the U.S. LVE side. So the RV side in the U.S. is in balance, total in balance. We see Marine still unbalanced. In the marine side, 70% of dealers, American dealers still feel that they are carrying too high inventories. We are talking about distribution, we don't see any inventory buildup. I think that what we see there is that dealers and retailers are carrying as little as they possibly can. They rather lose business than they carry inventories. So everything is in the last minutes. And then on the Service & Aftermarket, it's exactly the same. So wholesalers nowadays, bigger distributors are not carrying inventories. They want manufacturers like us to carry the inventories. And dealers and smaller dealers, they are gone. So I believe we got a question before. Do you think that this kind -- the typical inventory buildups are going to come back? I'm fully convinced that they will. But in order for that to happen, we also need to see consumers starting to spend more money. I think we have been suffering the entire industry or industries. It's not just this industry. I mean we see that everything having to do with consumers with the exception of food is behaving in a very similar way. Unknown Executive: And we have one question remaining in the queue, I believe. Operator: The next question comes from Daniel Schmidt from Danske. Daniel Schmidt: Yes. Just 2 short follow-ups. On the savings program, it sounds like you're quite happy with the progress so far and a run rate of SEK 250 million by the end of Q3. How should we view that going into '26? Because it's quite meaningful steps that are supposed to be taken in terms of savings in '26. I think you've said run rate SEK 750 million as we leave 2026. And of course, it comes back to the actions that you need to take, how are they sort of scheduled for '26? Or how should we view that? Is that back-end loaded or even through -- evenly distributed through the year or... Stefan Fristedt: I would probably say that it's a little bit more back-end loaded because you're obviously going to get the full effect is coming -- going to come gradually after the implementation. But we have some bigger projects, right, that is going to take until like mid next year before they get fully implemented. But on the other hand, we also have some other activities that is going to be completed now in Q4. So -- but I would probably say it a little bit twisted towards the second half. But I mean, we still confirm SEK 300 million run rate saving at the end of this year and SEK 750 million by the end of next year. Daniel Schmidt: Yes. Okay. And then just maybe coming back again to the CPV incident in EMEA, you got the question and you said that it had an impact on sales, sounded meaningful. Would you dare to estimate how much that was in top line impact for you guys? Juan Vargues: It was -- well, in terms of krona, we are doing about SEK 30 billion for EMEA. Operator: There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments. Juan Vargues: Thank you very much to all of you for your attention. As we commented at the beginning, we know that it's a very busy day for many of you. We will keep working hard to protect our margins, but also to keep investing in the areas where we see the growth moving forward. And we are fully convinced that we are going to get down our leverage to the target. We cannot say when, but that's our firm intention, and we will get there. So thank you very much for your attention, and have a great day, all of you. Thank you. Stefan Fristedt: Thank you.
Operator: Good morning. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Sodexo Fiscal Year 2025 Results Call. If you -- I advise you that this conference is being recorded today, Thursday, October 23, 2025. I would like to hand the conference over to the Sodexo team. Please go ahead. Juliette Klein: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fiscal 2025 results call. I'm here with Sophie Bellon and Sebastien De Tramasure. They'll go through the presentation and then take your questions. [Operator Instructions] The slides and the press release are available on sodexo.com, and you'll be able to access this webcast on our website for the next 12 months. Please get back to the IR team if you have any further questions after the call. I remind you that our Q1 fiscal 2026 revenues announcement will be on Thursday, January 8. With that, I now hand over to Sophie. Sophie Bellon: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We spoke to you a couple of weeks ago regarding our governance changes. And today, we are going to cover our fiscal year '25 results and our priorities and outlook for 2026. Just on the slide here, a brief summary of what we're going to cover today. When I became CEO in 2022, our priorities were clear: reposition Sodexo as a pure-play food and services company and simplify the organization. Over the past 3 years, we've made solid progress, streamlining the portfolio, refocusing on food, accelerating key investments and strengthening client relationships. These were essential steps to build a strong foundation for sustainable growth. In financial year '25, results came in line with revised guidance, reflecting both operational and commercial challenges. We are actively addressing these with targeted action plan in commercial and in U.S. universities. We're also continuing to strengthen our foundation. With this in mind, fiscal year '26 will be a year of transition and the start of a new phase for the group. Thierry Delaporte will soon take over as CEO, bringing the right experience and profile to drive operational execution, accelerate commercial momentum and lead the group forward. But let's now first take a backward perspective on our key achievements from the last 3 years and 2026 priorities before Sebastien walk you through the fiscal year '25 results and the resulting fiscal year '26 guidance. Turning to the next slide. While I won't go into every detail here, this timeline of recent years shows the major steps of our shift to a pure-play food and services company. We have simplified our structure through geography reorganization and the sale of Sofinsod. We have actively managed the portfolio by spinning off Pluxee and making other non-core disposals, while pursuing targeted acquisitions to accelerate in food. So if we look now at the impact of this refocus on core activities, you can see that there has been real progress in the numbers. Let me pick out some highlights. Food now covers more than 2/3 of our portfolio, up from 62% in fiscal year '22. We have modernized the offer based on data-driven insights across culinary, digital and sustainability. Digital engagement has surged almost 6 million active consumers, up from just over 1 million, showing how we're expanding our reach and creating new growth avenues. Our branded food offer now represents over 50% of revenues versus less than 20% 3 years ago, improving client experience, standardization and operational efficiency. Entegra has more than doubled in size, boosting procurement benefits, and we have also advanced catalog compliance, both strengthening our competitive edge. On sustainability, we are hitting the targets we set on workplace safety, carbon and food waste, thanks to close collaboration with our clients and partners, and we are leading by far the industry on those aspects. And all of this is creating tangible value. Our underlying earnings per share has grown at 14% compound annual growth rate, and we have seen a marked improvement in our return on capital employed. Moving on to commercial performance. We have made a solid improvement in retention and development compared to the pre-COVID period. Over the last 3 years, our average retention is 94.5% versus 93.5% between 2017 and 2019. Likewise, on development, we signed around EUR 1.7 billion of new contracts per year, including cross-selling compared with EUR 1.4 billion before the pandemic. This is a result of our ongoing focus on processes, team culture and competence, but also client relationship. However, this does not reflect our full potential with fiscal year '25 presenting some commercial challenges. In fiscal year '25, retention came in at 94% due to the negative impact from the loss of a global account and softer performance in North America, in particular, in Education. Performance is uneven across the business. For example, U.S. Healthcare. In U.S. Healthcare, we delivered retention above 97%. And in France and Australia, we were above 96%. On development, H1 was strong, especially in Europe and Rest of the World, but H2 softened and total new business landed at EUR 1.7 billion. North America, which remains our largest market, is where we need to improve. We have clear actions underway. We are addressing near-term priorities in U.S. Higher Education, and we are strengthening our U.S. sales team through expansion and training. We are also investing and reorganizing to make sure we capture the market's potential. I will now walk you through in more detail how we are addressing the challenges in U.S. Higher Education. We clearly had some performance gap over the past couple of years in this segment, and it's translated into market share losses. Since February, together with Michael Svagdis and his team, we have carried out a comprehensive diagnostic process to fully understand the root causes behind this lack. A few key issues stood out. First, our footprint is still too concentrated in small and midsized institutions. Second, we have not focused enough on mid-plan renegotiation. And third, we've had some resource misalignment. The remedial action plan is already well underway. Michael has put in place a new organization with culinary and digital now reporting directly to him, and he has reenergized the team to drive best practice and greater standardization. Our sales function was clearly subscale, so we have expanded the team by 50% with the newly hired sales executives already in place and operational. We are also targeting more large universities and athletics, working more closely with Sodexo Live!. To strengthen existing relationship, we are growing our account management team and refreshing our broader teams, bringing in new talent where needed to ensure the right capabilities are in place. Execution is a big focus. We are currently renegotiating 75 meal plans for implementation in fall 2026, and we have rebuilt the meal plan team, which had been disbanded during the COVID period. Now we are harnessing data and tech to methodically track what's selling, where and to whom. We are deploying digital platforms like Everyday and Grubhub, and strengthening our own retail brands to streamline the offer. This plan is clear, but it won't be executed overnight. Some levers will take time. And given the timing of the selling season, fiscal year '26 is largely set already. The goal is, therefore, to restore growth momentum and capture new market opportunities progressively from fiscal year '27 onward. Michael and his teams are laser-focused. Michael has visited more than 20 campuses in the last 3 weeks. The feedback is very consistent. Universities are under financial pressure. They are becoming more business-driven, and they are open to change. That creates challenges, but also a lot of opportunities, and we are now in a much better position to seize it. So as you can see, we have set focused priorities in the U.S. for this year, short term very execution-driven, to put us back on a stronger trajectory. With that in mind, fiscal year will very much mark itself as a year of transition. It will still reflect some of the commercial challenges we have just discussed, but also the investments we are making to strengthen our foundation to drive efficiency, accelerate digital and prepare for long-term growth. Sebastien will get back to that. We have a strong foundation to build on, with a solid balance sheet and the flexibility to invest where it matters most. We are the #2 player globally with a balanced portfolio across regions and segments. We have the scale to leverage procurement, technology and operational excellence across the group. Our culture remains a key driver of sustainable performance, purpose-driven, people-focused and deeply engaged with our clients. Retention in our industry drive resilience, and our teams are proud to deliver on our mission every day. And of course, we operate in a large and attractive market, still 50% in-sourced with significant outsourcing opportunities ahead of us. Looking ahead, I'm also very confident in the next phase for Sodexo. On November 10, Thierry Delaporte will join us as Group CEO. He brings over a decade of leadership experience in the U.S., strong digital and AI expertise and proven track record in leading large people-intensive organization. He's operational and execution focused and deeply aligned with our values. He is the right fit to take Sodexo into its next stage of development. And with that, I'll now hand over to Sebastien to take you through the fiscal year '25 financial and fiscal year '26 guidance in more detail. Sebastien De Tramasure: Thank you, Sophie. Turning now to our fiscal '25 performance. Overall, our performance was in line with our revised guidance. Organic growth came in at 3.3%, slightly higher at 3.7%, excluding the base effect from the major sports events and the leap year in fiscal 2024. Underlying operating margin was 4.7%, up 10 basis points at constant currencies, while on a reported basis, it was broadly flat due to the FX headwinds. Free cash flow was EUR 459 million, including the exceptional cash out of circa EUR 160 million related to the finalization of the tax reassessment in France. And excluding that, our cash generation remained robust with an underlying cash conversion of 91%. Underlying EPS reached EUR 5.37, representing a rise of plus 3.7% at constant currencies. And the Board will propose a dividend of EUR 2.7 per share, up 1.9% versus last year and in line with our 50% payout policy. So now let's have a look at our performance by geography. Breaking down our results further, all regions contributed positively to our performance. Our largest region, North America, delivered 2.8% organic growth, reflecting strong results in Sodexo Live! and Business & Administrations, along with solid underlying momentum in Healthcare despite timing impact and partly offset by contract losses in Education. In Europe, organic growth was plus 1.7%, or 2.7%, excluding the base effects from the Olympics and the Rugby World Cup with steady progress across segments, notably in Healthcare & Seniors and Sodexo Live!. Rest of the World delivered strong organic growth of 7.5%, which was mainly driven by strong performance in India, in Australia and Brazil, which remain key countries where we are strengthening our positioning and consolidating our market share. And overall, close to 86% of our revenue in this segment are generated by Business & Administrations services. On margins, North America was stable at constant currencies, while Europe and Rest of the World improved 20 basis points, lifting the overall margin for the group of 10 basis points, to 4.7%. And the margin also reflects procurement efficiencies and benefit from our Global Business Services Program. So now let me guide you through the full P&L picture. Fiscal '25 consolidated revenue reached EUR 24.1 billion, up 1.2% year-over-year. As already mentioned, we faced currency headwinds this year, mainly from the U.S. dollar and several Latin America currencies, which had a minus 1.8% negative impact on revenue. And we also saw a small net impact from acquisition and disposal of minus 0.3%. Underlying operating margin, as we discussed, was stable on the reported basis and improved 10 basis points at constant currencies. Other operating income and expenses reached minus EUR 154 million with minus EUR 97 million of this related to restructuring and efficiency initiatives covering our global business service program, ERP implementation and other organizational optimization. Operating profit came in at close to EUR 1 billion compared with EUR 1.1 billion last year. Net financial expenses were EUR 88 million, lower than expectation due to some one-off gains. The new USD bond issuance had little impact this year as higher coupons were largely offset by cash interest income and gains from tendering existing bonds. However, net financial expense will increase next year as a result. The tax charge was EUR 198 million with an effective rate of 22.2%, reflecting updates on the tax credit and use of previously unrecognized tax losses in France. And looking ahead, our normative tax rate is expected to be around 27%. As a result, group net profit reached EUR 695 million, translating into EUR 785 million of underlying net profit, which was up 3.7% at constant currencies. So let's now turn to cash generation, which remains a key strength for the group. Free cash flow in fiscal '25 was EUR 459 million, compared with EUR 661 million last year. The change in operating cash flow mainly reflects the exceptional tax outflow for around EUR 160 million related to the finalization of the tax audit in France. Working capital remained well contained and net capital expenditure increased by 3%, translating into a CapEx to sales ratio of 2%, broadly in line with last year. Acquisition net of disposal amount to an outflow of EUR 93 million following the acquisition of CRH Catering in the United States and Agap'pro, a GPO in France. Both acquisitions fully aligned with our strategy to strengthen our convenience business in the U.S. and our procurement capabilities. Overall, our free cash flow remains solid, supporting both reinvestment in the business and shareholder returns. Then at the end of the financial year, net debt stood at EUR 2.7 billion, which was slightly higher than last year, while EBITDA increased by 2% over the same period. So this translated into a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio at 1.8x, within our target range of 1 to 2x. During the year, we repaid the EUR 700 million bond maturing in April 2025 and successfully issued a USD 1.1 billion bond. And part of the proceeds was used to repurchase some of our 2026 bonds. Overall, the balance sheet remains solid and give us the flexibility to invest in growth. So now that we have looked at the performance and the financials for the year just ended, I'd like to take a step back and talk about how we are accelerating our investment in foundations that will drive our long-term efficiency and profitable growth. This is really a strategic phase for the group as we are making significant investment into our HR, finance and supply system and our food and FM platform. In short term, this will put some pressure on margin, but it is essential that we position ourselves for improved efficiency and stronger profitable organic growth. We will continue to invest in sales and marketing, especially in North America to ensure more consistent net new business, as Sophie stated earlier. An important part of our investment program is supply chain management with a strong focus on the U.S., where we are optimizing processes, systems and ways of working to improve both cost and agility. The idea is really to bring more sites into a single unified purchasing system, giving us much better visibility on spend and allowing us to track compliance in real time. We are also standardizing our menus and recipes, so that they automatically link to order guides and purchasing system. And that means simpler execution for our site manager, stronger compliance and more leverage from our volume, including greater pooling between our on-site operations and Entegra. All of this is about making compliance and efficiency happen at the site level, and we are now incentivizing our unit manager directly on compliance. Another key area is our digital and IT foundations. Our global ERP rollout is a perfect example. It allows us to standardize end-to-end processes, secure our infrastructure, which is instrumental in all aspects of our operation, obviously, for data and performance management, but also to strengthen client account management by giving teams better visibility and faster insights. We are also investing to enhance our analytics and AI capabilities to support better decision-making, sharper performance tracking and faster execution across the organization. Finally, Global Business Services is another major focus. We are transforming support function into a shared service model with center in Porto, Mumbai and Bogota, now employing over 900 people. And these teams are centralizing finance, HR, other functions like supply and legal. And by doing this, we are driving efficiency, standardization and innovation while also creating talent hubs for the future. And we are already seeing some early benefits. For example, in the U.S., more than 90 positions were moved over to the Bogota center during the summer, improving competitiveness, process harmonization and supporting employee administration, recruitment and tender preparation. So this is really the second leg of our near-term priorities. The first being the U.S. turnaround that Sophie discussed before. And this investment position us to capture growth more effectively in the future and over time, and the margin improvements will follow. It's also about building the right platform today to deliver stronger performance tomorrow. Now moving to the outlook for fiscal year 2026. As we mentioned previously, fiscal 2026 will mark a year of transition as we proactively address the commercial challenges faced in 2025, especially in North America. And at the same time, we are accelerating the investment in our foundation, as just mentioned, to build a stronger platform for future efficiency and profitable growth. With that in mind, our guidance for fiscal year '26 is as follows: We expect organic growth between 1.5% and 2.5%. This includes a minimum plus 2% contribution from pricing, neutral to moderate contribution from both like-for-like volume and net new business and a one-off reclassification triggered by the renewal of a large contract. And this last point relates to a large NorAm contract currently being renegotiated. And under the new terms, we will act as an agent rather than the principal, meaning that revenue will be recognized on a net basis. And this will mechanically reduce reported organic growth by around 70 basis in fiscal year '26 with the new terms of the contract taking effect during the second quarter of the year. And our underlying operating margin should be slightly lower than fiscal year 2025, reflecting mix and timing of growth driver and the targeted investments we are making. In terms of quarterly phasing, we expect a relatively soft start with growth gradually improving over the year. This will be mainly driven by North America, where the impact of last year's Education losses will be most visible early on. And in addition, several contracts existed last year will annualize in the second half. Now I would like to conclude with you on our capital allocation priorities. We remain focused on disciplined execution, and that also applies to how we allocate capital. On capital allocation, framework remains balanced and consistent, designed to support both near-term execution and long-term value creation. First, we continue to focus on organic growth, with acceleration of our investment and CapEx objectives remaining unchanged at 2.5% of revenue. We remain selective on M&A, targeting midsized bolt-on acquisitions that are accretive and aligned with our strategy. On average, we expect to allocate about EUR 300 million per year to M&A, mainly focused on convenience, GPO and food services in our key existing markets. And recent acquisitions fit perfectly within the framework and the closing of the acquisition of Grupo Mediterránea expected to happen by the end of the calendar year. It's also part of the objective to strengthen our food services position in our key markets. And this acquisition will allow us to double our footprint in Spain. Furthermore, we are committed to optimizing returns to shareholders. Our dividend payout ratio is unchanged at 50% of underlying net income, ensuring an attractive and balanced remuneration for shareholders. And finally, we keep a close eye on liquidity and balance sheet strength, with a leverage ratio maintained between 1x and 2x and a commitment to preserving our strong investment-grade ratings. Overall, this framework supports our near-term priorities while providing the flexibility to adapt. With that, we are very happy to take your questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] First question is from Jamie Rollo, Morgan Stanley. Jamie Rollo: Two questions then. First, could you please quantify the margin guidance? What is slightly lower, please? And also, is that pressure in all the regions? Or is that going to be concentrated in North America? And the second question is, you're describing '26 as a transition year, but you said the other day that the new CEO probably wouldn't announce their review until maybe early summer, which could that not mean that 2027 then is another transition year if there were further changes to be made? Or are you going to be doing all of the implementation in 2026? Sebastien De Tramasure: Thank you, Jamie. So I will take this first question about the guidance. So as I said, the objective is to have an operating margin to be slightly lower than fiscal year '25, reflecting really the mix phasing of our growth driver and also the phasing of the targeted investment we have to do. Then, the reason we did not give a range is that because there are a lot of moving parts. Again, at this stage, we do expect margin to be slightly below fiscal year '25. There are different drivers. Again, the low organic growth with small optimization in terms of volume increase. And then there is a timing of the investment. And also, we do expect also some headwinds from the -- from the exchange rate that will also impact our margin. So a lot of moving parts, the reason why we decided not to quantify this guidance. Sophie Bellon: So thank you, Jamie, for your question. I will take the second question on the transition. So 2026 will be a year of transition in several ways. First and foremost, it's a year marked by a change in leadership with the upcoming arrival of Thierry as the CEO next month, on November 10. It's also a year of investment to continue to lay the foundation for sustainable future growth. We are investing heavily in our HR, in our finance, in our procurement system, in tech and data as well as in our food and FM platform. And in the short term, this weigh on our margin, but I think it is essential to prepare for the future to be more efficient, more agile and to support sustainable growth. So for example, in the supply chain, particularly in the U.S., where we are improving our processes and system to better manage our expenses. And also, we want to increase our compliance in real time. We're also investing in data and analytics and artificial intelligence to better track the performance and execute faster. And -- does it mean another year of transition in '27? No, we are not standing still. We have our near-term priorities, U.S. Education, as an example, the investment in the commercial, and our underlying organic growth is between 2.2% and 3.2%. So we are moving forward, and we are in the actions. Jamie Rollo: If I can -- can I just come back on the margin answer? I appreciate you can't give guidance. There are lots of moving parts. But obviously, with a margin of under 5%, every 10 basis points is quite a big impact. I mean, is slightly lower nearer to 10 basis points or nearer to 30? Sebastien De Tramasure: Again, as I said, Jamie, we are not quantifying the guidance at this stage. We are talking about a slight decrease in terms of margin. And to also answer your question, the pressure on margin will be mostly in the U.S. because, again, as I said, our focus on accelerating investment in sales and marketing and all the supply initiatives will be also focused on strengthening our position in North America. Operator: Next question is from Estelle Weingrod, JPMorgan. Estelle Weingrod: I've got three, please. I mean the first one on U.S. Education and Higher Education more specifically. Could you give us some initial colors on the full-term enrollments? Then on North America, again, you elaborated on the action plan underway in the U.S. When you talked about targeted investment to enhance foundations for profitable growth, is it mostly investment in U.S. Higher Education? And within this, is it mostly about expanding sales higher? You mentioned 50% expansion of sales teams. And last question is just on your -- on modeling details. You've got that slide in the PowerPoint. On other income and expense, you guide for EUR 160 million, which is broadly flat year-on-year despite the step-up in investment this year, being an investment and transition year. So I was a bit surprised there's not more of an increase there. Sophie Bellon: So thank you, Estelle. I will take the first question on U.S. Education and Sebastien can answer on the other two questions. So first, you asked on the enrollment. The early indication from our boarding data show that we are about 0.7% below last year in our comparable base, and it really varies from countries to another. Some are growing, others are slightly down. Geographically, we're seeing softer trends in the Midwest and Northeast, while the Southwest and Southeast are showing increases. And these figures are still preliminary, and we'll have a more definitive year-on-year view once final enrollment numbers are confirmed over the next few weeks. But obviously, we are not standing still looking at that. Let me remind you the measures we are taking, and I told you, to boost volumes, retail and of course, to win new clients in the next selling season. And I explained that earlier in the presentation. Also, if we go specifically on international students, enrollment for the fall 2025 is expected to drop due to visa delay, denial, revocation, post-graduation restriction. So it will mostly be graduate program and will be most affected. We could reduce demand for housing, dining and other campus services. And undergrad services like mandatory meal plans are less affected. And also, what we see is that universities are adapting with, for example, mid-semester starts, which may mitigate some of that decline. And of course, we will monitor those trends closely and be ready to adjust our offering, our financial planning and the support to respond to the potential changes in the campus demand. And also, as I said on the slide, we are really investing in our sales force. We expanded our sales team by 50%. So I think it's -- and also investing in our account management team. So we are in the action. Sebastien De Tramasure: So on the second question regarding the investment and the acceleration of the investment in North America. So we have specific investment as described by Sophie for the Education segment. But we are really targeting investment across the organization. We want to strengthen the sales and marketing organization, not only for Education, but for all the segments. And all the investment regarding supply is not only for Education, it's, again, for all our businesses. And on your third question. So we are guiding other income and expenses at EUR 160 million, flat versus fiscal year '25. But the combination of the different restructuring program is slightly different. We had many regional restructuring program to optimize the structure at the regional level in fiscal year '25. We will have less than in fiscal year '26, and we will increase our investment again in our GBS program. The restructuring costs related to the GBS will increase in fiscal year '26. But if we combine both, yes, it's flat between fiscal year '25 and '26. Operator: Next question is from Jaafar Mestari, BNP Paribas. Jaafar Mestari: I have three questions, if that's okay. First one is in terms of your operating models and services. You mentioned some of the qualitative targets that you've achieved this year: branded offers, more than 50% of revenue; Entegra, more than doubled; carbon emissions, minus 34%; food waste, you didn't quite get to minus 50%, but not far. There was another one on digital and new services, 10% of revenue, you haven't said, but I assume you're not that far. My question is, you've achieved most of your soft qualitative targets and yet the overall financial performance was disappointing. What is your assessment here? Did you take targets that were not the right ones, and they need a complete rework under new management? Or was the delivery not deep enough? I guess you can get to 50% branded by changing a logo on the site. So have the teams delivered on these targets the right way, a way that benefits the business? Or have they delivered sometimes in a cosmetic way that has not really helped cross-sell or cross-fertilize the business? Second question, shorter, just on business development. You said yourself, your average signings pre-pandemic were EUR 1.4 billion each year. In H2 '25, this is where you are, EUR 700 million. What have you seen? Is it the industry? Is outsourcing less dynamic? Or would you say it's entirely market share issues on your side? And lastly, on full year '26, net new business, if I look at the forward-looking retention and signings, it looks like you could be a plus 1%, but you never quite get there. And I think that was one of the issues last year where you had 1.6% forward-looking, but you don't quite get there because you lose more staff, because the contracts take time to ramp up. So in terms of net new, could you help us a little bit more in terms of your assumptions in the guidance? Sophie Bellon: Okay. Thank you, Jaafar, for your question. So first -- on the first question, yes, we have delivered. I think when you talk about the offer and the branded offers and the fact that we have reached our target, I think it's a first step. No, it's not just a logo on -- it's not just a logo in a restaurant saying that we are implementing a new offer. It is much more than a logo. It's a menu. It's a number of SKUs that are linked to that menu, and it's more compliance. So I think it's a first phase. And I agree with you that it's not driving gross profit enough yet. And we are fully aware of that and especially in the U.S. where our compliance, at the site level, is not sufficient. And that's why starting in September, all our managers are incentives, from the site manager and upwards are incentives on the compliance. It's a new -- it is for every member in the organization. I think also when you have -- so it takes more time than just sending the offer. You need to also go -- we need to go deeper now. Second, when we talk about the, for example, the digitalization and the fact that now we have 6 million of people that can have access through -- digital access, it will also drive the revenue because we have seen that. And it will also drive the margin because we will be able to answer better what people want on a daily basis. So on your third question, I will let Sebastien answer, and then I will get back to you on the net development. Sebastien De Tramasure: Yes. So on the net new, you're right. I mean, the net impact, if we take the looking forward KPI, 1.4%, and then the in-year impact expected for '26 will depend obviously of the net new from '26 as well and the in-year impact. It depends on the phasing of the development, phasing of the retention. And it's the reason why we took this year a more cautious approach, I would say, baked into the guidance, as we said that the net new impact in-year expected for fiscal year '26 should be between neutral to moderate contribution. And again, the phasing development retention is explaining this cautious guidance in terms of net new impact for fiscal year '26. Sophie Bellon: And in terms of the -- the last question was about the development, right, and the EUR 1.7 billion. Clearly, this year, as I said it in my introduction, financial year '25 has been a challenging year and on new development, especially in the second half, we had a first -- a good start in H1. And what we see -- and the second half was very disappointed. What we see is that, for example, in the U.S. our hit rate with big contract is not sufficient. I think we are doing well in Healthcare, and we had a good net development. We had, as I said, a good retention in Healthcare in the U.S. this year, but we also had a good development. So a net development above 2% in Healthcare in the U.S. We have invested for a while in those teams. We have teams that are capable of addressing and winning a large contract. And we are in the process also of building and strengthening those teams in the U.S. in the other segment. But that being said, there are countries or geography where -- like France or like Australia, where we are winning market share and where we have a good net development rate. So we need to make it happen everywhere. Jaafar Mestari: And that last qualitative target that you didn't explicitly say, the 10% of revenue from digital and new services. Did you achieve that in '25? Sophie Bellon: I'm not sure I understand your question. Jaafar Mestari: I think in your qualitative target, you had doubling Entegra, and you had reaching 50% branded offers, but you also had a target to reach 10% of group revenue from vending and digital and new services. So I just wanted to check if that one was on track as well. Sebastien De Tramasure: On that one, we are slightly below this 10% objective we defined at the beginning of the... Sophie Bellon: 8%. Sebastien De Tramasure: Yes, we are around 8% in terms of covering of -- from advanced food model. Operator: Next question is from Simon LeChipre, Jefferies. Simon LeChipre: I've got three, please. First of all, on organic growth for next year. Could you clarify the timing of the demobilization of the global accounts and also the timing of the -- impact of the reclassification of the contract? I don't quite get why organic growth should drop from 4% underlying in Q4 to kind of 1.5% in Q1, and then how you would then accelerate in subsequent quarters. Secondly, on this contract reclassification, could you clarify if there is any impact on profit and on margin in percentage terms? And lastly, in terms of the organization, I mean, I noticed that Michael is managing Government Services on top of universities. What is the rationale for this? And does that mean you do not necessarily believe in a strategy focused on sectorization similar to what your closest competitor is doing? Sebastien De Tramasure: I will take the first one. So regarding the timing of demobilization of the global account, if you look at the one we lost in fiscal year '24 and the one we lost in fiscal year '25, basically, the overall impact for fiscal year '26 is minus 50 basis points. And it's -- combining both, it's similar impact between H1 and H2. Regarding the reclassification of a large contract in North America. So here, we are talking about a preemptive renegotiation and to extend, the duration of this contract. As I said, we -- given the new term of the contract, we moved from gross revenue to net revenue. And overall, we are renegotiating the economics of the contract, and we are not expecting any significant impact in terms of margin, in terms of [ UOP ] margin. Sophie Bellon: And on the third question on organization, it -- why is it together? Because it has been historical. The person that used to be in charge of Government then extended his role to University. Yes, of course, we are doing market sectorization. It's the only exception. I want to remind you that for us, Government is not a priority. It only represents 4% of our revenue and with a huge contract that you know, U.S. Marine Corps. And so it has been part of that portfolio. And I don't think it's -- it doesn't affect the bandwidth of -- that Michael has to put on universities. And just for the U.S. Marine Corps, because it's the biggest part of that Government business, it still runs for another 18 months. And we are working proactively to -- we expect the client to launch an RFP , but we are fully engaged in the process and also -- yes, fully engaged in the process. Sebastien De Tramasure: And I will go back to your question -- sorry, I'll go back to your question about Q4 underlying versus the guidance in terms of organic growth. We have to keep in mind that Q4, the mix and the weight of Education is lower. So it means that this had a positive impact in our Q4 organic growth. It will not be the same for the full year '26. And also, we had a very strong Q4 fiscal year '25 in Sodexo Live!, with a more than double-digit organic growth in the U.S. with some specific events. And this will not obviously reproduce the full year '26. We will not have 10%, double-digit organic growth in Sodexo Live! during the full year '26. Simon LeChipre: Okay. Just on this impact of contract reclassification, I mean, can you quantify it? And is it going to impact you as soon as Q1? Or does the impact start later on in the year? Sebastien De Tramasure: Okay. So we are currently, again, under renegotiation of this contract. Again, it's a preemptive extension of the contract. Today, we are expecting to sign the renewal of the contract in Q2. So the impact will start in Q2 fiscal year '26, and it will impact negatively the organic growth by 70 basis points for fiscal year '26. Simon LeChipre: So it means that you need to accelerate organic growth after Q1 to offset this impact on top of the rest, right? Sebastien De Tramasure: Yes. And that is the plan, again, with some ramp-up of development. And again, this phasing of Sodexo Live! will be quite different between fiscal year '25 and fiscal year '26. Operator: Next question is from Leo Carrington, Citi. Leo Carrington: If I could ask just two questions. Firstly, I appreciate he doesn't officially start for 3 weeks, but did Thierry Delaporte have any input into setting this guidance? And then secondly, just on the margin outlook again. In terms of the factors pushing margins down mix phasing investments, is it correct to say these are all headwinds? And in terms of the relative importance of all three of them, is one more important than the other? The investment sounded significant, but I wonder if you can quantify that. Sophie Bellon: So thank you, Leo, for your questions. I will take the first one. So regarding the involvement of Thierry, of course, we had a few preliminary discussions with him. But I remind you that he's only starting on November 10. And however, the financial year '26 guidance reflects the work of the current team. It's also the result of a bottom-up approach based on the visibility we have for the year. Sebastien De Tramasure: Okay. And on the investments, so we are not providing any specific quantification at this stage of each investment. We'll do it in another time, I would say. And again, there are moving parts on this timing of the investment. It's the reason why we said that, again, it will have [ this ] negative impact in terms of margin for next year. Operator: Next question is from Kate Xiao, Bank of America. Kate Xiao: I have a couple. The first one is a follow-up on the previous question on branded offer. You mentioned, Sophie, that now the first step is done, and you need to go deeper now. I wonder if you could elaborate what that means? Do you mean a further, I guess, change of the organization, change of the team so that it's more brand focused, more sectorized? And would this be a big task for the new CEO? That's my first question. And the second question also on just investment. I think, Sophie, you mentioned before for fiscal year 2024, you spent more than EUR 600 million on IT, data, digital. I wonder what that number is for '25? And do you see a step-up in '26? If you could just -- obviously, I appreciate you cannot give us exact numbers, but the level of step-up would be really helpful. And then just number three, specifically on retention. I think you mentioned that you're doing preemptive renegotiations with big contracts. I guess, any progress there? Are you doing more in terms of preemptive retention -- preemptive efforts to help really with retention? If you could elaborate on the efforts there? Sophie Bellon: Okay. So I will take the first question on the branded offers. I think it's a work, as I said, that started a couple of years ago. And when I mean go deeper, it's that -- for example, we are implementing in Education a brand that -- are -- one and all brand, it's close to EUR 1 billion of revenue, thanks to the active conversion of the sites during summer break. Now it's our largest brand globally and regionally. So it means that now the team have adopted the brand, but then we need to make sure that the implementation is happening right, that the right recipes are implemented, that the right menu, the right products. And it's by -- when I mean go deeper, it's making sure that operationally, it happened on each and every site the way it should happen. That's why I explained that, for example, in the U.S., where -- when you implement a brand, like I just said for University, it implies a lot of people. We have also added for every single manager the compliance because that's what will improve the margin and the profitability on those sites. And then about Thierry, of course, he will make his assessment of the situation. But definitely implementing the brands and not just putting names but an offer with -- that matches the client and also especially the consumer needs with price points, more standardization, less SKUs, better leverage on our purchasing powers simplifying the bid process. All that takes time, but it will definitely help us make progress. Maybe, Sebastien, you want to answer the second question? Sebastien De Tramasure: On the investment in IT and digital, based on all the ongoing program, we have been increasing our investment if you take OpEx and CapEx in fiscal year '25 compared to fiscal year '24. And again, with this acceleration of our transformation with the ERP, with the finance supply platform, the food platform as well, AI and data, again, this amount will continue to increase for fiscal year '26. Sophie Bellon: And in terms of retention, as we said, we have made progress, and there are areas or countries where we are fully aligned with our targets, to be above 95% and at some point, in midterm, at 96%. And on the preemptive bid, yes, we are pushing. I don't have the exact number with me today, but we can get back to you. And we are definitely pushing, and it's something that we want to make happen, as I said, not just in some geography, but all geography and all segments, especially in the U.S. Operator: Next question is from Sabrina Blanc, Bernstein. Sabrina Blanc: I have three questions from my part. The first one is regarding the branded offer. I would like to have more idea of how it has been organized. I mean, who has designed the brand, who is in charge of the leadership of the brand? My second question is regarding -- you have mentioned the hiring of commercials. I would like to understand in which areas specifically, if it's regarding the GPO for new commercial? Or is it commercial dedicated to the retention? And are they incentivized in these three key segments? And lastly is regarding the M&A. You have mentioned bolt-on acquisition, but we would like to understand in which areas you are focusing and what are your KPIs? Sophie Bellon: Okay. Thank you, Sabrina. So for the branded offers, for example, I just discussed, all in one, in the Education market in the U.S. This brand has been designed one and all -- sorry, in the U.S. in the University business. It has been designed by the team in Universities and getting some support from the North American marketing team. There are some brands like Modern Recipe where we have -- that we have implemented in different countries, in the U.S., but also in Europe. And there, we have a center of expertise at the group level, so we can accelerate the share of best practice between countries. And -- but it's the countries that are responsible for growing the brand at the local level by segment because, of course, those offers are different what we propose, an indication is different from what we propose with a Modern Recipe or Good Eating Company in corporate services, even though sometimes Good Eating Company, if there is a need, could also be proposed on a campus. But the brands belong where most of the revenue happen with that brand. On the second -- your second question about commercial: in which area specifically? Well, in all areas. Now we hired a number of salespeople with -- in the GPO and in our Entegra business and especially in the U.S. But we also hired -- as I said, we want to increase our sales team. And we have increased our sales team, I think, in the U.S. by 30% this year. And how are they incentivized? We have changed the incentive for our sales team. And we have revamped our sales incentive structure. Previously, it varied by region and wasn't always linked to the individual performance or profitability. Now we have a global commission that based system with a consistent rule across the region. It includes clear threshold and accelerators for over-performance and staggered payouts to ensure quality and overs. And we also -- we have also added specific incentives for renewals, cross-selling and strategic priorities. So in terms of sales incentive, we have worked a lot. And now it's really rolling out, and it's really implemented for fiscal year '26, but we have really worked a lot on making sure that we have the right incentive and also the right teams. We have changed a number of people in our sales team. Sebastien De Tramasure: And to the third question regarding M&A. So we have a very clear strategy regarding M&A. We want to invest in food. We want to invest in our existing markets. And then we have done investment in GPO, especially in Europe over the past year and especially in France in fiscal year '25. We are also investing, and we have been investing since 2022 in convenience in the U.S. So here again, we are talking about small, midsized bolt-on acquisition, very important to get the scale and the efficiency with the supply. And then we want to invest in also a key market on food, again, market share in the U.S., in Europe, also in the Rest of the World, but again, focusing on our key existing markets. A good example is the acquisition, the signing of Grupo Mediterránea in Spain. It will allow us to double our footprint in the Spanish market. And also, we can also do some small acquisitions to gain capabilities in advanced food models. It can be also linked to commissary and central kitchen capabilities. And in terms of indicators, [ LGO ] payback, we look at the [ LGO ] payback below 10 years. And we looked at the ROCE and the objective is to have a ROCE above 15%. Operator: Next question is from Andre Juillard, Deutsche Bank. Andre Juillard: Just a follow-up on investments in general. Could you give us some more color about what you plan to do in terms of IT and reporting software? Do you still have some significant investment to do on that side? And could you give us some quantification on that? And regarding CapEx, you remain relatively low with 2% compared to your main competitor. Do we need to anticipate a significant improvement on that side or not? Sebastien De Tramasure: So I will start with the CapEx. So you are right. Today, our CapEx level is around 2%, fiscal year '24 and fiscal year '25. The objective is really to reach 2.5% with, I would say, two main components. The first one is supporting retention and development. So we need CapEx to sign large deals. And as we said before, this is one of our priority. And then we need also CapEx for the -- our investment in IS&T and digital, especially for our ERP program. So this is really the reason for the targeted increase in terms of CapEx. Sophie Bellon: And just to add to what Sebastien just said, in terms of CapEx, as I said -- and as I said also earlier, we want to sign more large deals, and we want to improve our hit rates on large deals. So the way that happens, the large deals are the one where we spend more money. And the fact that our hit rate has not been as good as expected explain also the fact that our CapEx today is closer to 2% than 2.5%. So hopefully, when our hit rate with those big targets improve, it will have an impact also, and it will automatically increase the percentage of our CapEx, and we will get closer to 2.5%. Andre Juillard: But you still consider that 2.5% is the right number? Sophie Bellon: Yes. Well, we have been talking about 2.5% and still staying at -- so far now, we really want to reach 2.5%. And if you know, some specific deals that sometimes it happens in Sodexo Live! or in Universities in the U.S., if we need to go beyond, we will go beyond but not systematically. Operator: Next question is from Johanna Jourdain, ODDO BHF. Johanna Jourdain: Two questions from me. First one, could you please remind us the level of renewals in large contracts to come in '26? And can you update us on where you stand there on those renewals? And second question, can you update us on the ramp-up of the Healthcare contracts that were delayed in '25 or late to start and in particular, the captive contract in North America? Sophie Bellon: So thank you, Johanna, for your question. So the level of renewal for the large contract, I think you're talking about the GSA contract because last year, we had -- in fiscal year '24 and '25, we had a big number of those GSA contracts in renewal. And today, this fiscal year, we don't have any. So there will not be any renewal of those large contracts and a very small number also for fiscal year '27. The contract that we discussed earlier is not -- it's not a global account. And so that's for a clarification on those large contracts. And then for captive, first, last year, we talked about the ramping up of Healthcare and especially that contract. We have had two big contracts in Healthcare, ProMedica and University of Cincinnati that started in June and July. So there, we are on track. And as I said, we had a very good net development for Healthcare during the fiscal year '25. For captive, during the first year, as I remind you, it was a very innovative contract. And the first year, we spent more time and focus than anticipated in evaluating the existing client for the transition into the captive program. And this led, as you know, to a slower-than-anticipated ramp-up of new business. We signed the very first contract with captive members at the end of financial '25. Currently, we are negotiating with a significant number of clients. The pipeline is well advanced and robust. And our objective remains unchanged to sign over EUR 100 million in contracts within the first 2 years of the program. But since the launch was shifted to the end of fiscal year '25 instead of the beginning of '25, our target is now to reach EUR 100 million in signed contracts across '26 and '27. Operator: We have no further questions registered at this time. Back to Sodexo for any closing remarks. Sophie Bellon: Well, thank you very much for your question. And as this is my last call as CEO, I would like to sincerely thank you for all your -- for your engagement and your constructive dialogue over the years. I remain deeply confident in Sodexo's strength, and I look forward to continuing to support the company as Chairwoman. Thank you very much, and take care. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephones.
Natalia Valtasaari: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to KONE's Third Quarter Results Webcast. My name is Natalia Valtasaari. I head up the IR function here at KONE, and I'm very pleased to be joined by our President and CEO, Philippe Delorme... Philippe Delorme: Good morning, everyone. Natalia Valtasaari: And our CFO, Ilkka Hara. As usual, we'll start by walking you through the financial highlights of the quarter, what we're seeing in the business and what we're seeing in the markets, then we'll move on to your questions. [Operator Instructions] but with that, over to you, Philippe. Philippe Delorme: Thank you. Thank you, Natalia, and good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to be presenting our third quarter results today. And let me start by saying that Q3 was, in many ways, a strong quarter. Order development was, of course, a key highlight. Nearly 8% growth is an excellent achievement, and I'm happy that growth was broad-based. We delivered again on our target to consistently improve profitability towards our midterm margin corridor. Not only did we grow earnings, but we also had healthy cash conversion in the quarter. For me, a key point worth emphasizing is that over 60% of our sales is today coming from service and modernization. This shows that our pivot towards a more resilient business model is proving successful. And last but not least, we continue to drive our strategy forward with precision and speed. I will share a few concrete examples of strategy progress, but let's first take a look at our financial performance in more detail. So as just mentioned, order growth was strong this quarter. We saw over 10% growth in all areas except China. The biggest driver was modernization, where orders were up double digits. And I'm also pleased that our efforts to strengthen competitiveness in the residential segment paid off. This supported good momentum in New Building Solutions, especially in Europe and in the Americas. Sales grew by 3.9% at comparable currencies. Modernization delivered another excellent quarter with sales up 15.5%. Our Service business also performed well outside China, while in China, development was more stable. Adjusted EBIT margin expanded by 75 basis points from a low base. And the main driver was the growth in our largest profit pools, service and modernization. And finally, cash generation was strong with operating cash flow increasing by roughly EUR 100 million year-over-year. Let me now share some highlights from the quarter. The first one, and you see the smile on my face, is a very exciting milestone where we secured the contract to equip the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, rising to over 1,000 meters. This will be the world's tallest building once completed. It will be equipped with solutions from KONE next-generation high-rise offering, including our superlight UltraRope hoisting technology. I'm very proud of this win. It showcases not only our unique innovations, but also our capacity to deliver highly complex projects in a reliable way. With this win, 5 of the world's 10 tallest building will feature KONE technology. I see this as an excellent recognition of the work we've done to reinforce our leadership in the high-rise segment. As you know, our strategy focuses on making KONE an even more resilient business with service and modernization as the key drivers of growth. And I'm pleased with the progress we've made in accelerating this shift during the year. Let's start with services. We began the year with roughly 35% of our maintenance base connected, and we are now approaching 40%. At the same time, our field service technicians are leveraging productivity tools in 41 countries, and we're enabling remote service in 35. These advancements are critical to deliver greater transparency, improved predictability and more efficient service for our customers. Let's now turn to modernization, where customer response to our partial modernization offering has been very positive. This is the fastest-growing segment within modernization and accounts for the largest share of modernized units. For KONE, partial modernization provides scalable growth and enable us to address market opportunities more broadly. For customers, it offers easier installation and improved energy efficiency at a more attractive cost. I see this as a true win-win. Let's now move on to sustainability, where we have lots of good news to share. Let me highlight a few components of our sustainability index, where we've made particularly strong progress. First, we have continued to scale our solution to drive energy efficiency. A good example is the growth of our partial modernization business and the fact that regenerative drives are now included in more than 60% of our deliveries. We have also improved our [indiscernible] rating, which is how we measure progress in cybersecurity, a key priority for us. We're actually now in the top 10 percentile of the engineering peer group. On the people side, I'm proud to share that KONE was recognized for the 6 years in a row on Forbes and Statista's list in the World's Best Employer. This is a fantastic acknowledgment of our commitment to being the #1 choice for employees, fully aligned with our strategic ambition. Finally, we announced a partnership with UNIDO. Together, we will conduct training programs for our suppliers to promote sustainable practices and human rights across the supply chain. Now let me hand over to Ilkka, who will go through the market development and financial in more details. The floor is yours. Ilkka Hara: Thank you, Philippe. And also a warm welcome on my behalf to this third quarter result webcast. As usual, let me start talking about how we are seeing the markets developing in the different regions over the past 3 months. Overall, the trends were broadly similar to what we've seen earlier this year. In terms of New Building Solutions, as I'm sure you are well aware, market conditions continue to be difficult in China. In all other areas, we actually saw increasing market activity. If we move East to West, demand continued to be strong in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. In Europe, activity picked up from Q2, growing slightly compared to last year, and we also saw some growth year-on-year in North America, despite trade policy-related uncertainty. Then looking at Service and Modernization, we continue to see healthy growth in all regions. Next, let's go through our financial development in the quarter in more detail. As usual, I'm starting with orders received, which, as Philippe mentioned, was a highlight of this quarter. 7.8% growth at the comparable currencies is a great achievement. Interestingly, China New Building Solutions was the only soft spot. Modernization continued to grow strongly in all areas, and we had a good quarter also in New Building Solutions outside of China, both in volume business as in the major projects as well. Order margins were stable overall with China still under pressure and more stable development in other areas. Turning into the sales, which grew 3.9% at the comparable currencies in the quarter. Looking at the development by business, it was great to once again see the strong order book rotation in modernization. Sales increased by 15.5% overall. And more importantly, all areas contributed with double-digit growth. In New Building Solutions, continued low delivery volumes in China was the main driver behind the 5% decline. In Service, we grew by 7.3%. Outside of China, growth was very much in line with our targets. In China, we have taken deliberate actions to prioritize margin and cash flow over volume in all of our businesses, including service. This means being selective and sometimes walking away from contracts that are not meeting our performance criteria. Pricing and revenue uplift from digital services solutions continued to contribute positively to service growth. The repair business also performed well in the quarter. This is actually a great example of the benefits of accelerating digital. As Philippe said, connectivity enables productivity. And when we perform service more efficiently, we release time that we can use, for instance, more proactively drive repair sales. Then moving to adjusted EBIT and profitability. Margin expansion in the quarter was 75 basis points year-on-year, which is a good outcome despite the lower -- low comparison point. This took adjusted EBIT to EUR 341 million. Looking into the details, we saw again some negative impact from higher investments into R&D and our strategic growth areas. That said, the main headwind continued to be the new equipment market in China, more than offsetting was the positive mix impact of services and modernization growth. So overall, good delivery of our 11th consecutive quarter of profitability improvement and especially good to see also sequential improvement, which is not always the case for Q3. Then turning to cash flow, one of my favorite metrics. Cash generation was strong in the quarter, supported by growth in operating income and by changes in working capital. Cash flow from operations increased to EUR 364 million, bringing year-to-date cash flow to EUR 1.3 billion. The contribution from working capital came mainly from advances received, which, of course, related to a strong growth in orders. And although not a big contributor this quarter, our focus on collections continues and it's progressing well. Then looking at the whole year '25. First, we have made a small update on our market outlook. We now expect the New Building Solutions market in North America to grow slightly, as activity continued to trend upward in Q3. Of course, the business environment in the U.S., in particular, remains fluid. Our view on other areas is unchanged. China continues to be the main challenge. In Europe, we expect some growth. And in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, we expect clear growth. For Services and Modernization, our outlook continues to be positive with growth opportunities in all areas. Then to our business outlook. With 3 months left in the year, we have specified our guidance slightly. We now expect sales to grow 3% to 5% at the comparable exchange rates and the adjusted EBIT margin to be in the range of 11.9% to 12.3% this year. FX is expected to be a headwind. If it remains at the October levels, we estimate a roughly EUR 30 million negative impact to EBIT. China continues to be burden to both volumes and margin. We also expect some small impact from tariffs. But as we discussed already previously, most of the impact is recoverable in our view. We have already made good progress in mitigation actions. In terms then on tailwinds, service and modernization growth is the main positive. We also expect some support from the ramp-up of performance initiatives. Then Finally, let's look at how we're currently thinking about year '26, starting with challenges. China construction market is not yet showing any signs of leveling out. So this will continue to be a burden, less than in '25 as our exposure continues to come down. We also expect similar inflationary pressure on wages, as we have seen this year. On the positive side, we continue to see opportunities to grow our service and modernization business, which will contribute positively to the earnings mix. We also expect meaningful contribution from our performance improvement measures. And we have made it very -- and we have made very good progress in our product cost reductions this year, which will also be supportive. So those are our initial thoughts. And of course, we will provide more color when we report the Q4. Let me now hand back to Philippe to close the presentation before going to the Q&A. Philippe Delorme: Thank you, Ilkka. So to wrap it up, let's make -- sorry, changing slides. So let me first take the opportunity to thank all the KONE teams for their great achievements and for delivering a strong Q3. We had yet another quarter of good momentum in service and modernization, which shows that the transformation we are driving is well underway. I'm also very happy with the progress we are making in executing our Rise strategy, and we continue to move full steam ahead. And finally, our performance this quarter shows that we are on track to delivering on expectations for 2025 and building solid momentum towards reaching our midterm financial targets. Thank you all for your attention, and I suggest now we move on to your questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Andre Kukhnin from UBS. Andre Kukhnin: Maybe actually, I'll start with a quick follow-up on what you mentioned on China exposure coming down during this year. Maybe could you help us to calibrate that a little bit? I think we talked about China New Equipment margin being clearly below group average in 2024. Is it fair to assume that it has come down substantially further in 2025 in sort of more mid- to low single-digit range? Ilkka Hara: It's always difficult with these objectives substantially, like you said, but what I would say that our margins in China in New Building Solutions have come down in '25 further. Andre Kukhnin: Got it. And the main question really for me is on the performance improvement initiatives that you talked about and we've been kind of tracking and talking about since the Capital Markets Day last year. Can you just walk us through what has been done during 2025 and what will be delivering those kind of meaningful contribution, as you mentioned, in 2026? And is there any way we can start sort of quantifying that already for 2026? Ilkka Hara: Well, if I start, I think you're quite passionate about this, Philippe, yourself. So what we outlined in Capital Markets Day is that we see an opportunity for us to improve our profitability by 150 basis points by year '27. And then, of course, we need to make a decision that we invest some of that back to growing the business further. In that progress, we have started to now execute those programs. The largest ones which are contributing to the profitability are focus on our procurement, how we source both at the factories as well as in the local operations and as well as how we perform at the regional level or the lowest level where the KONE teams come together, and we call it sales and operational excellence. On sourcing, I'm very happy how we've been able to drive our product cost down this year. We have yet another record in terms of product cost reductions as a result. We have more work to be done on the local sourcing part, and that's because it's touching more teams, and we need to then just lower to get that executed. So good progress in where it's more centralized, more work to be done and good opportunities in there. And then sales and operational excellence, we are seeing that the teams are really now able to drive better and better outcomes, and we have more and more consistent execution. But also there, we have plenty of work to be done on that one. Maybe you want to comment? Philippe Delorme: Yes. I mean those things take time. I'm rather impatient as a person, but you -- I mean, you don't -- the company is not a light switch. So when you drive things at a branch level with much stronger sense of execution, timely, weekly, tactical and things like this, it takes some time to spread within the company. I think we've said during the Capital Market Day that we would start to see the impact of most of these actions by the end of 2025. Nothing has changed on that front. The only thing I can say that we've been extremely diligent in '25 to ramp up our actions, be extremely systematic. And I feel much better about, let's say, the level of detail and scrutiny and capacity to execute we have on this work. And I would say on procurement, the arrival of Michelle Wen, who came with a very strong automotive background, and she just came in actually in August. So it's not yesterday, but it's a few weeks away, is giving me confidence that we can actually intensify the work we want to do on the procurement side. Operator: The next question comes from the line of James Moore calling from Rothschild. James Moore: I wondered if I could talk about your service growth. Would it be possible just to give us a flavor for the speed of the unit growth in maintenance base versus the price behind that and other topics is the first question. Just to understand whether the speed of maintenance base growth is broadly stable or accelerating or slowing for any reason and whether price is broadly the same behind that? Ilkka Hara: Yes. So overall, on the LIS growth, and I guess I commented that already during the presentation. So the LIS component of that is growing in Q3 a bit less than we've seen as a trend line. And the main reason for that is 2 things. One, which is that in China, we clearly focused more on lining up the business to focus on cash flow and profitability. And in some cases, also in the service business, we've actually decided to let go some of the customer contracts, as they're not meeting our performance criteria. And then it's more of a quarter-by-quarter, there's fluctuations. So it happened to be that in Q3, we had a bit less acquisitions than we've seen in the recent quarters as a result. The good thing is that both pricing including digital as well as repair sales are actually progressing quite well. So in that sense, we are making very good progress on that front. And then lastly, I think it's also that given what I said, so we had very close to the targeted level of 10% growth or close to 10% growth in services in 3 of the areas, whereas really the slowdown in sales was more related to China actions we've taken. Philippe Delorme: Which is a clear choice. And actually, I'm very happy to see the result, which is our cash generation in China and our profit improvement in China on that front is according to plan. So I would say we are executing what we want to execute. And it's a bit of 2 way of doing things, which is China on one side, where we've always said cash margin and moving to more service and modernization versus elsewhere where clearly our -- the way we are executing is different because the markets are different. James Moore: Could I just follow up on that? I mean, over time, I felt that the maintenance base grows with a lag after the first service period from the unit deliveries, but also your win-loss ratio and your conversion ratios. And you always had a very high U.S., European conversion ratio, 80%, 90% and a more muted 50%, 60% conversion ratio in China. I'm just trying to understand, is it that the conversion ratios are broadly staying the same across the 3 regions and that it's the active choice on the win-loss ratio to effectively proactively lose? And is the intensity of this change, which slows your maintenance base growth at the moment? Is that something that's going to intensify yet further going into '26, if you like, with more proactive contract management? Ilkka Hara: No, I don't think that's something which will continue going forward. It's been more of a targeted efforts right now. And it's good to note, so first, your comments on conversions as well as retention. So they are quite stable. And for example, in Europe, where the NBS market has been now for a few years, been down, we've been able to actually quite nicely grow the services business, as I've noted in previous quarters. So we've been able to mitigate with good retention, win-loss ratios improving and some acquisitions as well to drive growth in a market where there's less conversions. Philippe Delorme: And talking about our service business, we -- you've probably noticed that we talk quite a bit about our repair business. Actually, we've done quite some work to make sure that we would optimize that part of the business. It's actually significant in our service figures, both top line and profit. And when trying to understand how the service business work, I would encourage you to really look at, yes, the pricing and the service base but also the repair business, which for us, at least is very important. Ilkka Hara: And actually, the repair business grew really nicely, almost double the speed of our service business in the quarter. Philippe Delorme: Yes, absolutely. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Daniela Costa calling from Goldman Sachs. Daniela Costa: I'll ask just one and it's regarding modernization, obviously, very strong 10% organic order growth there. Can you give us some light on how sort of your installed base age has evolved? I know you talked about the mono elevators being very important for that modernization. So can we see this 10% plus as sustainable going forward when you look at sort of how the curve of age of installed base is? Any light there would be helpful. Ilkka Hara: Well, I guess, first, good to note that the modernization growth was actually on a quite close to the 15% target that we talked about in the quarter. So very good numbers. Then on this aging of the portfolio, so I think there's 2 topics I would highlight. So first, there are so many elevators in the world that need to be modernized that we're not yet making a dent onto the aging as a whole. And most of the elevators that are old are actually outside of our own LIS base. So for us, the growth opportunity, we've been working and targeting previously our own service base. But really, the big blue ocean is the elevators that are not in KONE maintenance. And there, I think we're increasingly making good progress in identifying those and having the right go-to-market to really get to those customers. So at this rate, we're still -- the elevator base is aging more than we're able to modernize as an industry and also, I guess, for KONE as well. Philippe Delorme: Maybe to illustrate a bit more, Daniela, the topic, and I'm going to quote some figures that I think I have listed in the Capital Market Day, but there is 25 million elevators in front of us, of which 10 million are more than 15-year-old total in the world. This 10 million will become 13 million by 2030. So whatever happens every year, whatever happens to real estate market in China, outside of China, there is growth because elevators are aging, whether our elevators or the elevators of competition. With that in mind, today, when I look at our figures -- and we are happy with our figures, and we'll try to do our best to sustain that growth. We are actually modernizing tens of thousands of units versus 10 million units in front of us. So we've said it many times, but we'll repeat and we'll repeat and will repeat, this market is growing structurally because elevators are aging. And today, we have good figures, but we are not -- I mean, there is still a lot more that could be done with innovation, with better execution and so on. So we are confident in our capacity to drive scalable growth in that field. Operator: The next question comes from the line of John Kim calling from Deutsche Bank. John-B Kim: Could we just go back to wage inflation for a second. Can you give us a sense of quantum of growth there as a growth rate and how that compares to what you maybe were seeing earlier in the year? And how should we think about the cadence of the price ups that are in the contracts versus this inflation? Ilkka Hara: So twofold. We are seeing -- I guess, I've said also earlier that our wage inflation this year is around about 5% on average for KONE as a whole. And yes, our escalation in contract prices for services have actually been quite close to the inflation level. So we've been able to continuously now drive not only the CPI level inflation, which is continuously coming down, but actually representing the inflation we are seeing and then we have the productivity as a separate item. So pricing, yes, we can escalate service contracts. But of course, then also we see broadly outside of the service operatives, also the wage inflation impacting our cost base as such. John-B Kim: Super helpful. One follow-on, if I may. Can you give us any color on how you're driving better penetration of connectivity? Ilkka Hara: I think that's for you. Philippe Delorme: Discipline. Discipline and it looks like -- it's not easy. I mean, in every, let's say, original industrial company, I think it takes some time to make sure that our people understand the value of connectivity. And on the few things that I'm really happy with, when I look at the step-up that has happened in the company for every one of us to understand, especially in our service business that service will have to be digital. I think we've been good at discipline. And we'll be even better at discipline. And we've been -- I've been very clear to the people in KONE. We want by 2030, 100% of our installed base to be connected. And we're going to be very disciplined and focused on driving that goal and it makes sense for customers. And actually, I've been on the road for 3 weeks in North America, meeting many, many customers. The great news is -- the feedback from our customers is we execute well. They see the value of our connectivity around transparency, around predictive capabilities, around from time to time remote services, and they really like it. And the feedback we get is we seem to be executing pretty well on that front. So we'll keep doing that. Operator: We are now going to take a question coming from Martin Flueckiger calling from Kepler Cheuvreux. Martin Flueckiger: Two questions. The first one is on China and particularly the property market there, where July, August data seemed to suggest that there was a steepening of the decline. And yet when I look at your data on the Chinese property market, it looks like NBS orders were relatively -- in real terms were relatively stable in terms of dynamics. So just wondering, is that because of rounding? Or -- what do you see on the ground in the field? Was there a worsening in the NBS market actually maybe towards the end of Q3? That would be my first question. The second question, if I just may add on, is on the financial income that you've reported for Q3. If I saw this correctly, you've posted a negative financial income for Q3. If you could just elaborate on the reasons for that, that would be helpful. Ilkka Hara: Okay. I'll take them in reverse order. So the financial income is related to hedging. And if you look at the 9 months year-to-date, that gives you a better picture. So Q2, Q3, you see the opposite direction there. So in 9 months, you see the real underlying performance there. Then on China, so I think as I've said during the last few years that a lot of the KPIs fluctuate somewhat. And whether it's better or worse around that volatility, our view of the market has not changed. So we are seeing the market to decline this year in units and value double digit and more in value than in units. And I would say that during Q2 Q1, Q2, there was a bit some signals that were better, but I would not say that the Q3 has been something where we've seen a big change overall. And it's important for us to also note that, yes, we want to be a meaningful player in China and want to go after the service and modernization opportunity. But as Philippe already said, and I said, I guess, as well that we are optimizing the business to cash flow, profitability and the pivot to services and modernization. So we'll take the business that we see supporting those priorities in NBS then in the market. But I don't see that the market has dramatically -- or there's been a bigger shift during the Q3. Philippe Delorme: And the repeat on the China market, maybe it's clear for everyone, but I will repeat. The market today is 50 NBS, 50 modernization and service. So if there is any change, that is that over multiple years, what was NBS-dominated market, now it's coming 50-50. I'm not having any crystal ball, but it's pretty obvious that, that trend will continue, meaning the share of modernization and service will likely keep increasing if we see what's happening because the country is aging. We see growth and actually pretty healthy growth in modernization. We are driving our service mix first with cash and margin, but there are still opportunity in service. And we are clearly adapting our forces in NBS to take into account that market reality. And I would say on that front, I want to compliment the team for reducing their cost very aggressively, both product cost and the fixed cost we have to adapt ourselves to a market reality, which indeed is going down, on NBS. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Vlad Sergievskii calling from Barclays. Vladimir Sergievskiy: Two questions from me. Can I please start with the follow-up on modernization growth opportunity ahead? To what extent it is driven by the market growing? Or it is actually KONE creating the market for itself by addressing installed base, perhaps in a more proactive way or opening new market niches for themselves? Because I hear your comment that fleet -- the installed base is aging, but it probably has been aging for forever. And KONE modernization growth was almost never as impressive as it is today. Philippe Delorme: I think it's a mix of both. The market is growing, and you have the data on our assumption of the market, but the market growth is good. And we believe that we are gaining market share in that space because we are focused and because we try to drive the right innovation and be customer-centric, which is when you have an elevator in your premise, the last thing you want is having any OEMs coming and say, okay, for months, your elevator is not going to work. So what we are doing is we are listening to our customers and say, you know what, we are going to make it shorter, simpler so that actually we do what's strictly necessary to start with, which very often is electrification upgrade. And then we'll go in a life cycle discussion with you to make that improvement over multiple years with smaller chunk that will be less risky. That's not -- I'm not reinventing the wheel here, but we are executing in a very focused manner, trying to have modular offers in front of this, and it's working very well. So we are gaining share in that regard, and we're really trying to push our team to be very customer-centric on a growing market. And the result is a double-digit growth, which is very consistent, which is driving value for the company, and we are very happy with that. Vladimir Sergievskiy: That's great. And a quick housekeeping question, if I may, to Ilkka. Interest income line was negative about EUR 15 million this quarter, which I think is almost the first time ever when this line was actually negative. Is there something to do with hedging practices? Has any hedging practices changed to drive this change? And where in the P&L, there could be an offset to this line if there is one? Ilkka Hara: So actually, the previous question was on the same one. I said, yes, it's on hedging. And the year-to-date picture gives a better picture of the real underlying income and expenses. So between Q2 and Q3, we had an opposite development on there. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Panu Laitinmäki calling from Danske Bank. Panu Laitinmaki: I have 2 questions. Firstly, on China NBS, just on the margin. So was it still positive in Q3? And going forward, do you expect to kind of protect the margin with the actions you mentioned reducing fixed costs and so on. So that is why you gave the comment that it's a smaller headwind going into '26. Ilkka Hara: Well, yes, on both of the questions. And I guess I was also in the smaller headwind, meaning that the size of the business relative to the size of the rest of the business is smaller. Panu Laitinmaki: Okay. That's clear. Then the second question is on modernization. So how much is parcel modernization out of orders and sales roughly? And then how has the margin of modernization developed? I mean, a year ago, you said at the CMD that it's close to the group average. So is it still there? Or has there been changed so far? Ilkka Hara: We see on the parcel modernization, it continues to be a bigger and bigger part of the modernization. I don't think we've been very clear on exactly how big part of that is. And on modernization, we continue to see, as it has been during the last years that the profitability continues to be improving as we are scaling up the business on modernization. Panu Laitinmaki: Okay. And is it fair to assume that the parcel modernization is more profitable for you than the kind of traditional modernization? Ilkka Hara: Yes, it is. It is focused on the most important components of the elevator and there's less construction work related to that as well. Philippe Delorme: That's what we call the benefit of being modular and standardizing work, which actually for the customer is better value for money. And for us, it's better execution, less time lost in the field. So it's a win-win for everybody. Operator: The next question is from Ben Heelan calling from Bank of America. Benjamin Heelan: I just had one, which was on M&A. Now you've obviously said in the past that you want to be a consolidator of the industry. I just wondered if you -- is that still where your minds in terms of the future of the business? You see consolidation as a focus? And when we think about leverage ratios, is there any sort of framework that you can give us in terms of the leverage that KONE would be willing to go up to? And any framework there? Is it based on credit rating, et cetera? Ilkka Hara: I don't think the comment on the consolidation making sense in the industry has changed. We've said it for a very, very long time. Lately, actually, we've been doing consolidation more on the smaller maintenance companies on an increasing speed. So that's also then that we want to be a driver of the consolidation. Then on leverage, so I guess we don't -- we're net debt negative right now. So it's not been an issue. But I've said previously that we want to continue to be an investment-grade -- strong investment-grade company going forward. Operator: The next question is from Rizk Maidi calling from Jefferies. Rizk Maidi: Just to follow up on M&A and more specifically transformational M&A. Can we maybe just chat around whether you would be considering issuing equity, if you were to pursue a larger acquisition? And then maybe geographically, what are the regions where you feel you have a little or perhaps where we would like to add sort of more exposure? I'll start there. Ilkka Hara: Well, I guess on the first one, so I wake up every morning, and I guess, Philippe as well as somebody who sees that there are bigger companies in the industry. So we're a challenger. We want to grow faster to be the leader in the industry. So that's clear. I don't think it's one geography per se. I think it's a general statement where we want to grow faster than our competitors to make that happen. And as such, then on other things on capital structure, capital raising, I don't think it makes much sense to speculate on that. Rizk Maidi: Okay. And then the second one that I had is just covering the industry for quite some time, and this question is specifically on China maintenance. I think we've seen historically that whenever new equipment business being weak for an extended period of time, we saw that basically spread to the maintenance side of things. I'm just wondering why this should not be applicable. I mean I remember this happening to Europe back in 2013, '14 after the European debt crisis. Just wondering why you think this should not happen in China, whether it's -- you compete with different players, structure of the market different and whether the slowdown in maintenance has anything to do with this? Ilkka Hara: Well, first on China maintenance, I don't think I've ever said it's easy or something where there's not a competition. It is like we see it it's -- half of the market is service and modernization. So of course, everybody knows the same thing. And among the world's fragmented, so i.e. most competitive market in service is China by far. So I think that's a starting point. And then when you have less new elevators enter into the market, then, of course, it makes it tougher. What I'm very happy about is that how our team has been able to address it. And now I call it out because we made conscious decisions now in Q3 that impact the outcomes. And it's not a market-wide comment. It's rather our focus on profitability and cash flow. Philippe Delorme: And maybe to build on your point on China market. When we benchmark across the world, clearly, the China market is more fragmented. And we see at the lower part of the market, companies that are doing the very minimum of what they should do in terms of safety. We see on the other side, the China government being conscious that safety standards should move up, also seeing an opportunity with digital. So my point is not about next quarter, but when I look at a longer time period, I would expect some further concentration because on one side, the lower part of the market would have a hard time to survive with a standard that I would expect would increase with more digital technology that would make it less accessible for, let's say, lower cost, low-value player to deliver a value, which is more and more essential in a country that's being more and more modern and more and more asking for top safety standards. And we have work to do as an industry to help the industry move to a higher level of digital safety and so on. So this is upside. How fast it will materialize, we'll see. We have our role to play here. We are very active on digital to be a digital driver in China. It's taking some time. Rizk Maidi: Perfect. And I promise the very last one, so apologies if this was tackled before because I joined late. Section 232 and its extension to more than 400 products in August, maybe how you're thinking about the direct, but also more importantly, the indirect impact on the business. Ilkka Hara: It is first question on tariffs, and I think there is a reason for it because we don't see that meaningfully impacting our results. We are, number one, of course, working with our own supply chain on what we produce in U.S. and what do we ship to U.S. And actually, the export -- sorry, import to U.S. is less -- about 10% of our business. So it's actually quite small. And then secondly, we're protected by our contracts. So we are actually moving the cost of tariffs largely to our customers. And then, of course, we need to continue to drive product cost actions and efficiency in our supply chain going forward. Operator: Moving on to our next question from John Kim calling from Deutsche Bank. John-B Kim: He just took my question. Someone was strong. Ilkka Hara: Okay. That's good efficiency in action. Operator: And the next question is from Vivek Midha calling from Citi. Vivek Midha: Hope you can hear me. I just have one follow-up really on the questions around service growth with one eye on the quite ambitious aims for midterm growth here and the building blocks there. Is there also any material contribution at all from the strong modernization growth that you've been seeing in adding to the service installed base? Is there expected to be some over the midterm, helping you achieve your targets there? Ilkka Hara: You're seeing me smiling because that's actually a really important topic. And I was talking about the modernization. So the focus and the volume of the opportunities outside of our own maintenance space. And indeed, once we partially modernize an elevator, it becomes a digital modern elevator for us to maintain. So increasingly, that will be a driver for unit growth. And of course, already now with this modernization growth, we're starting to see increasing impact coming from that. And the more mature the markets are the bigger driver for unit growth is modernization in the long run. Philippe Delorme: And those, as you call, modernized connected elevators, actually, we are more efficient in delivering the right output with our customers because we use all our capabilities. So it's playing very positively in the mix. But that's a great point. Vivek Midha: Understood. Just a quick follow-up -- as a quick follow-up on that -- I don't know if you have data, but in terms of the conversion rate of, say, one of these partial mods, for example, compared to NBS, I mean, how does it compare in terms of driving the service there? Ilkka Hara: Well, twofold. So the relative conversion rate is quite high. So it's a very good level. Then still on the absolute volumes, it's still a smaller contributor. So we need to scale up the business, but it's a very good way to increase our LIS base. Operator: There is a follow-up question from Andre Kukhnin from UBS. Andre Kukhnin: So firstly, on the service adjustment in China that where you decided to let go some customer contracts, can you just confirm that, that's a one-off? Or should we think about that for Q4 and then maybe into 2026 as well? Ilkka Hara: I guess I already said it's not a long-term action. But of course, we continue to monitor the business. So let's see now how Q4 develops, but it's not something we expect to continue for years. The priorities don't change, but I think it's more of a discrete focus on this. Andre Kukhnin: Got it. And if I were to think about it, I'd probably think about it being more margin focused than cash as such, as probably some of these units are in fairly sort of spot locations, not really helping density. Is that the right sort of avenue? Or is it cash driven as well? Philippe Delorme: I think it's both, but it's driven by margin, but we've been really very clear with our China team, cash, margin rebalance the business. And there -- I mean, China is seeing some cash tension across the board. So how much is margin and cash? Usually, the 2 are related actually, but it's a bit of both. Andre Kukhnin: And if I may, just one more on China... Ilkka Hara: A follow-up on follow-up. Andre Kukhnin: Yes. Triple follow-up. Is modernization still the highest margin business for you in China? And is there -- well, I think there is scope, but are you also implementing a kind of modular approach there given that you've got a substantial and sort of broader universal installed base there? Ilkka Hara: Yes. So we plan to drive this more modular approach in China as well. And if you think about the size of the buildings, the time to execute the modernization is even more critical for the customers. And we have actually progressed really well be, I guess, fastest in the world in China in terms of driving modernization, is a fair statement. So kudos to the team on that one. And yes, modernization continues to be a good margin business for us in China. Operator: There is another follow-up question coming from James Moore from Rothschild. James Moore: I just wanted to follow up on service and NBS margins at a global level. You mentioned that China's margin is now in a loss in NBS in new equipment. Is that such a loss that the whole global NBS profitability is now a negative one? And the second question is on service margins. Are we at an all-time high in terms of service profitability? And if not, could you say when that was and how many bps or percentage we are below the all-time high? Ilkka Hara: On the first comment, I absolutely did not say that we are making a loss in China in NBS, neither did I say that we're making a loss in NBS globally. So it is clearly a lower-margin business compared to the other 2, but I have not said that we're making a loss. Then second, on services, I'm sure that in the history of 115 years, we've had margins that are peaking due to many reasons in services as well. But I would say that directionally, we continue to see margins improving in services, as we're digitalizing the business and driving productivity and the actions we talked about in pricing and more repair work. So it's directionally continuing to develop quite positively. Operator: Well, ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions so I will hand you back to your host to conclude today's conference. Thank you. Natalia Valtasaari: Thank you, and thank you, Philippe and Ilkka, for the answers. Thanks, everyone, online for the plentiful questions, lots of varied ones. Really good to have active dialogue. Thanks for everyone who just listened in as well. I know it's a busy results today, so we appreciate the time. And as usual, if you do have any follow-ups, please reach out to me or the team. We're here for you. With that, have a great day. Philippe Delorme: Have a great day. Thank you so much. Ilkka Hara: Thank you.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the STMicroelectronics Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Release Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Myra, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Jerome Ramel, EVP, Corporate Development and Integrated External Communications. Please go ahead. Jerome Ramel: Thank you, Myra. Thank you, everyone, for joining our third quarter 2025 financial result call. Hosting the call today is Jean-Marc Chery, ST President and Chief Executive Officer. Joining Jean-Marc on the call today are Lorenzo Grandi, Creditor and CFO; and Marco Cassis, President, Analog, Power & Discrete, MEMS and Sensor Group and Head of ST Microelectronics Strategy, System Research and Application and Innovation Office. This live webcast and presentation materials can be accessed on ST Investor Relations website. A replay will be available shortly after the conclusion of this call. This call will include forward-looking statements that involve risk factors that could cause ST result to differ materially from management expectations and plans. We encourage you to review the safe harbor statement contained in the press release that was issued with the results this morning and also in ST's most recent regulatory filings for a full description of these risk factors. Also to ensure all participants have an opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A session, please limit yourself to 1 question and a brief follow-up. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Jean-Marc Chery, ST's President and CEO. Jean-Marc Chery: Thank you, Jerome. Good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining ST for our Q3 2025 earnings conference call. I will start with an overview of the third quarter including business dynamics. I will then hand over to Lorenzo for the detailed financial overview, and we'll then comment on the outlook and conclude before answering your questions. So starting with Q3. We delivered revenues at $3.19 billion $17 million above the midpoint of our business outlook range with higher revenues in Personal Electronics while Automotive and Industrial performed as anticipated, and CCP was broadly in line with expectations. All end markets, but Automotive are now back to year-on-year growth. Gross margin of 33.2% was slightly below the midpoint of our business outlook range, reflecting product mix within Automotive and within Industrial. Excluding impairments, gross recurring charges and other related phase on costs, diluted earnings per share was $0.29. During the quarter, we managed to work down inventories, both in our balance sheet and in distribution and we generated a positive $130 million free cash flow. Let's now discuss our business dynamics during Q3. In Automotive, during the quarter, we grew revenues about 10% sequentially, in line with expectations, driven by all regions, except Americas. Our book-to-bill came above 1. We expect to grow mid-single digits in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter, which would be the third consecutive quarter of second During the quarter, we continued to execute our strategy for car electrification. We had with both silicon and silicon carbide devices for electrical vehicle applications, such as traction inverter and onboard charger designs. On new application where we see silicon carbide being used is investors for full active suspension. Here, we have a design win with a module solution for our key Chinese electrical vehicle maker. Another key event is a switch to electronic fuses to support the land and domain architectures, both in 12 volts and 48 volts. Here, we added to our pipeline of designs for our IFUs controller with leading electrical vehicle makers and qualified our products for volume ramp up. Other wins in the quarter included microcontrollers for DC/DC management in electrical vehicle powertrain, body control modules and HVAC systems across multiple vehicle models. In car digitalization, we are executing our micro color product road map with a strong lineup of new solutions across both our Airbus Stellar and STM32 product families. Design-in activity continues globally with engagement from both large-scale automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. In legacy application, we have several significant wins based on our smart power technologies in application where we lead such as airbags, Steele and braking solutions. With our automotive brake sensors, we continue to see strong designing momentum and growing opportunities. Wins in the quarter included MEMS sensors for road noise constellation and door control and both MEMS and imaging sensors for in-cabin monitoring. Shortly after our results announcement in July, we announced that we entered in a definitive transaction agreement for the acquisition of NXP's MEMS sensor business, for a purchase price of up to $950 million in cash, complementing and expanding our current leading MEMS sensor technology and product portfolio. The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and is on track to close in H1 2026. In Industrial, revenues were in line with expectations, showing increase of 8% sequentially and 13% year-over-year, back to year-on-year growth for the first time since the third quarter of 2023. Importantly, inventories in distribution further decreased. In Q4, we expect to grow value low single digits sequentially, as we continue to decrease inventories in distribution. During the quarter, we saw strong designing activity for our Power and Analog portfolio across a range of applications. These included factory automation over system medical equipment, motor control, white goods, solar inverters and metering. We also continue to expand the use of our industrial sensors in robotics, including robots and cobots and robots, an area where we see demand for significant number of sensors. We also had wins in medical devices like insulin pumps and full detectors. In Embedded Processing, we continue to win designs with our STM32 microcontrollers for a wide range of industrial applications with products from all parts of the portfolio from high end to wireless to specialized functions. This included power supply and optical modules for AI servers, industry automation and robotics, energy storage, metering and goods. We have a full pipeline of new products and software coming to market in the next quarters, and you will hear more about this during our STM32 summit in November. For general purpose microcontroller, we grew revenues both sequentially and year-on-year and we are on the right trajectory to return to our historical market share of about 20% -- 23%, sorry. For Personal Electronics, third quarter revenues were above our expectations, up 40% sequentially, reflecting the seasonality of our engaged customer programs, but also increased silicon campaigns, which also translated into year-over-year growth. Further strengthening of our unique position as a sensor supplier with both MEMS and optical sensing solutions, we signed a new license agreement with This new agreement broadens our capability to produce advanced meter leveraging ST's 300-millimeter semiconductor and optics manufacturing capabilities. This opened up new opportunities from smartphone application like biometrics, LiDAR and camera acids, robotic, jester recognition and object detection. Revenues for communication equipment and computer peripherals were broadly in line with expectations and up 4% sequentially. For AI data centers, we had multiple wins with silicon and silicon carbide devices for high-power solution. Although last quarter, we announced that we are working closely with NVIDIA, a new architecture for 800-volt DC AI data center, leveraging our power By combining silicon care, guided nitride and silicon-based technologies with advanced custom design at both chip and package level. I am pleased to underline that we recently completed the full power testing on a prototype social successfully demonstrating over 98% efficiency. Silicon photonics is another key technology for future data center and AI factories. ST now has the collaborative R&D programs across the full value chain with key suppliers and customers to develop high-speed optical solutions for data center, AI, telecommunication and automotive, from the substrate to the final product. During Q3, we have seen an increased demand for photonics IC prototypes to be launched in the next quarter and beyond in our 300-millimeter wafer fab. This confirms that photonic ICs will be a revenue growth driver for ST in the detail. In low earth orbit satellites. We have further strengthened our leadership position in the rapidly growing low broadband market by beginning shipment to a second global customer, leveraging our combination of biosimilars technology for front-end modules and paddle level packaging for user terminals. Our business in this segment is well positioned for steady growth delivered by several satellite constellations. Now over to Lorenzo, who will present our key financial figures. Lorenzo Grandi: Thank you, Jean-Marc, and good morning, everyone. Let's start with a detailed review of the third quarter, starting with the revenues on a year-over-year basis. By reportable segment, Analog Products, MEMS and Sensors was up 7.0%, mainly due to imaging. Power & Discrete products decreased 34.3%. Embedded Processing revenues grew 8.7%, mainly due to general Marconi. RF and optical communication declined 3.4%. By end market, Industrial increased by about 13%; Personal Electronic by about 11%; Communication Equipment and Computer Peripheral by about 7%. Automotive was still decreasing by about 70% and by showing some improvement in respect to the 24% decline recorded in the second quarter. Year-over-year sales to OEMs decreased 5.1% while revenues from distribution increased 7.6% back to year-over-year growth for the first time since the third quarter 2023. On a sequential basis, Power & Discrete was the only segment to decrease by 4.3%. All the other segment grew led by analog products, MEMS and sensor up 26.6% with Embedded Processing up 15.3% and RF and Optical Communication, up 2.4%. All our end markets grew, led by Personal Electronics, up by about 40%, followed by Automotive, up by about 10%. With Industrial and Communication Equipment and Computer and Peripheral up, respectively, by about 8% and 4%. Turning now on profitability. Gross profit in the third quarter was $1.06 billion, decreasing 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. Gross margin was 33.2%, decreasing 460 basis points on a year-over-year, mainly due to lower manufacturing efficiencies, negative currency effect lower level of capacity reservation fees and to a lesser extent, the combination of sales price and product mix. Total net operating expenses excluding restructuring, amounted to $842 million in the third quarter, broadly stable on a year-over-year. They were better than expected. Preferably, notably our continued cost discipline with the first benefits of the resizing of our global cost base. For the fourth quarter of 2025, we expect to stand at about $950 million, increasing quarter-on-quarter due notably to calendar base effect. This will lead the net OpEx for the full year 2025 to decline by 2.5% compared to 2024 despite unfavorable currency effect. As a reminder, these amounts are net of other income and expenses and exclude restructuring. In the third quarter, we reported $180 million operating income, which included $37 million for impairment restructuring charges and other related phase-out costs. This reflects impairment of assets and the restructuring charges predominantly associated with the previously announced company-wide program to reshape our manufacturing footprint and resize our global cost base. Excluding this not recurring item, which is partially not cash, Q3, non-U.S. GAAP operating margin was 6.8%, with Analog Products, MEMS and Sensor at 15.4%. Power & Discrete at minus 15.6%. Embedded Processing at 16.5%, and the RF Optical Communication at 16.6%. This quarter, to 2025, the net income was $237 million compared to $351 million in the year ago quarter. Diluted earnings per share were $0.26 compared to $0.37. Excluding the previously mentioned nonrecurring items, non-U.S. GAAP net income and diluted earnings per share were respectively, $267 million and $0.29. Net cash from operating activity decreased 24.1% on a year-over-year basis in the third quarter to $549 million. Third quarter net CapEx was $401 million compared to the $565 million in Q3 2024. Free cash flow was a positive $130 million in the third quarter compared to the $136 million in the year ago quarter. Inventory, at the end of the third quarter, was $3.17 billion, a reduction of about $100 million compared to the end of the second quarter. These sales of inventory at the quarter end were 135 days, slightly better than our expectation and compared to 166 days for the previous quarter and 130 days in the year ago quarter. Cash dividends paid to stockholders in the third quarter totaled $81 million. In addition, ST executed share buybacks of $91 million. ST maintained its financial strength with a net financial position that remained solid at $2.61 billion as of the end of September 2025, reflecting total liquidity of $4.78 billion and total financial debt of $2.17 billion. It is worth to mention that in the course of the third quarter, we repaid fully in cash, $750 million for the first tranche of our 2020 convertible bond. Now back to Jean-Marc, who will comment on our outlook. Jean-Marc Chery: Thank you, Lorenzo. Let's move to our business outlook for Q4 2025. So we are expecting revenues at $3.28 billion, an increase of 2.9% sequentially, plus or minus 350 basis points. We expect our gross margin to be about 35%, plus or minus 200 basis points, including about 290 basis points of unused capacity charges. This business outlook does not include any impact for potential further changes to global trade tariffs compared to the current situation. The midpoint of this outlook translates in full year 2025 revenues of about $11.75 million. This represents a 22.4% growth in the second half compared to the first half, confirming signs of market recovery. Gross margin for the full year is expected to be about 33.8%. Finally, to optimize our investments in the current market conditions, we have reduced our net CapEx plan, now slightly below $2 billion for full year 2025 compared to a range of $2 billion to $2.3 billion previously. To conclude, in the fourth quarter, we expect to report further sequential revenue improvement. With revenues now broadly stabilized on a year-over-year basis as well as an increased gross margin while continuing to decrease inventories in distribution. We are on the right path to improve our gross margin in the medium term through the reduction of unused capacity charges, the reshaping of our manufacturing footprint and definitively our product mix improvement. In a context marked by signs of market recovery, our strategic priorities remain clear, accelerating innovation executing our copay program to reshape our manufacturing footprint and resize of our global cost base, which remain on schedule to deliver the targeted savings, and strengthening free cash flow generation. Thank you, and we are now ready to answer your questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Francois Bouvignies from UBS. Francois-Xavier Bouvignies: My first question is on the top line. I mean, you guided plus 3% quarter-on-quarter, 2.9% to be precise. It seems to be below your seasonal at plus 7% quarter-on-quarter, if I'm not wrong. I mean you can remind us maybe the seasonality. Can you explain us as to why you are a bit below seasonal in Q4 for the top line and the drivers? And then secondly, on the gross margin, I mean, it's nice to see this improvement of 180 basis points quarter-on-quarter, how sustainable it is this gross margin? I mean, if you have any seasonality, product mix, should we extrapolate this dynamic of 35% into the first half of '26? Just trying to understand the work you have done on gross margin, how sustainable it is at least in the first half of '26 would be great. Jean-Marc Chery: So we'll take the revenue seasonality and Lorenzo, the gross margin. No, on the revenue seasonality of Q4, basically, there is 2 effects. The first effect is on automotive. Because in automotive, even if we will grow on a quarter-over-quarter, but year-on-year, it is still minus 12%. And why? Because, okay, 80% of this performance gap is explained by 2 reasons. It is a decrease of our capacity reservation fees compared to last year. And you know it is overall volume of one important customer of ST in the field of electrical vehicle. So this is what is explaining why in Q4, we are below the seasonality. The second explanation to be below the seasonality in Q4 is because in Industrial, we continue to decrease inventory in distribution. So our POP revenue recognition is significantly below the POS. However, on the other, let's say, verticals like Personal Electronics, Communication Equipment, Computer Peripheral and other legacy on Automotive or Industrial in the field of power, energy; basically, okay, we are at the seasonality we expect. Lorenzo Grandi: About gross margin. In Q4, the gross margin, the main positive driver, let's say, when we look at the sequential increase of our gross margin moving from the result of Q3 and the expectation of Q4 is clearly improved manufacturing efficiency. That is -- if you remember, let's say, in the first half and also in Q3, we were impacted by a significant negative impact on the efficiency -- manufacturing efficiencies that was due to the very low level of production that we have, especially in the first half of the year. There is also some improvement in terms of new charges. When we look, let's say, to how we will move moving in the first half of next year, but we have to remind that clearly, there are negative effect that we will impact moving forward. One effect is related to the fact that there will be some reduction entering 2026 of capacity reservation fees. And definitely, you know that in the first half of the year, there is some seasonality in terms of our revenues, let's say, in respect to the second part of the year. And then don't forget that there is also the negotiation of the pricing that will impact even if we see to a significant drop. We think that it will be something in the range of low single digit, mid-single-digit decline. On the positive side, we will have, let's say, still continued positive impact on manufacturing and reduce -- continue to reduce level of saturation. At this stage, it's a little bit to difficult to size, let's say, the level of gross margin because it will depend also on the level of the revenues. But this is directionally the trend that we will have moving -- entering in the next year. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Joshua Buchalter from TD Cowen. Joshua Buchalter: Maybe to follow up on that last one. Could you maybe spend a couple of minutes talking about how you're thinking about managing utilization rates right now? It seems like you're taking things back up. Are you at the point where you feel comfortable building a little bit of inventory downstream and/or on your balance sheet given the comments. You mentioned you're going into some negative seasonality into 1Q, but it sounds like utilization rates are going to be up in the fourth quarter and the first quarter. Could you maybe just spend a couple of minutes talking about what you're seeing there? Lorenzo Grandi: Now for the inventory, clearly, let's say, as you have seen, we try to keep control on the level of inventory in the current quarter, we think to stay substantially stable in number of days. This is our expectation in respect to Q3. But the positive point is that entering in the next year, clearly, let's say, as I said, there is our seasonality, the normal seasonality that means that, in general, the inventory in the first half of the year is a little bit higher also in number of days in respect to the second part of the year. Then you have to consider that entering next year, let's say, we start to have some decrease in terms of overall capacity, linked to the fact that we started to have some benefit coming from our reshaping of the manufacturing infrastructure. This will somehow mitigate the level of unused moving in 2026. This is, let's say, one of the drivers that we see in terms of progressively improve in terms of the utilization rate, together, of course, with some growth in Joshua Buchalter: I was hoping to ask about the Industrial segment. So it looks like book-to-bill went back to parity. Anything major going on there? Any geographies that are better or worse? And maybe how would you categorize the health of the general purpose microcontroller business underneath there? Basically, should we assume sort of shipping back to normal now? Jean-Marc Chery: No. In industrial, we see a different dynamic when we grow on some segments. We see a growth and dynamic more pronounced for power energy, basically all subsegments, okay, of this one are growing. And it is growing more definitively than the smart industrial, it means the factory automation. We can say that robotics is so far good, but overall, the factory automation is really, really soft. More than all the industrial, which are volume-driven, means consumer-driven, the hub cycle is pretty soft. So the takeaway we can have on the Industrial is what is related power energy infrastructure and robotics is now upcycle pretty solid. What is related volume and consumer is a very soft upcycle. It looks like inventory are digested, but the visibility is pretty short, it's pretty low. So that's the reason why the customers are still putting order on short term. But here, our decision is to continue to manage the distribution very closely and continue to adjust our POP below their POS forecast to continue to decrease inventory. Inventory and general purpose microcontroller came back what we classified normal, means a level of months of inventory that enable short-term business. Well, we have still some pockets of other inventory on some specific products like Power & Discrete or sometimes general purpose microcontroller, but we are going in the right direction. So this is a dynamic, okay, we are seeing on the industrial market. Operator: The next question comes from Tristan Gerra from Baird.. Tristan Gerra: I wanted to see how linear is the reduction in capacity reservation fees that you expect in '26 from the $150 million, $200 million reduction that you're looking at for this year. Is there a big drop in Q1? Or is it going to be pretty linear throughout all of next year? Lorenzo Grandi: In terms of capacity reservation fees, it works in this way, let's say, substantially, the capacity reservation fees that are ruled by contract with the carmakers quite constant over year the in term of million dollars. But yes, you can have a little bit higher, a little bit lower during the various quarter of the year, but they are not linearly going down. Let's say, they are substantially quite flattish, I would say, quarter after quarter. Clearly, when the contract expires, that is, at the end, for instance, of 2025, many of these contracts are expiring. But then, yes, you have a decline. And then the decline remains the level that you get in the first quarter will remain substantially similar all over the other quarters. So this is the way that it works. So what we will see in Q1 will be this reduction? And then that after that, we will stay stable, more or less stable during the course of 2026 at the level of capacity reservation. Tristan Gerra: Just a quick follow-up. Of course, it's going to depend on end demand, but any sense of -- or when you think POP can get back in line with point of sales in Industrial next year? Jean-Marc Chery: Globally, POP will be aligned with the POS each time our product line reach the target of inventory, we didn't want to exceed. This is okay, a lesson we learned from the past. And now, we are really disciplined on this point. So you cannot see the POP overall. We have to look the POP in detail by product line. And I repeat our microcontroller is pretty well aligned. So our POP is really driven by the end demand POS and by region, I have to say. While China, APAC, America are pretty okay, but Europe is still soft. And for the other product line, okay, we are still in a mode where the POP is below the POS; however, we expect to go back normal in H1 2026, most likely Q2. Operator: Next question comes from Stephane Houri from ODDO BHF. Stephane Houri: Yes. I have a first question about the CapEx budget because you're adjusting downward the CapEx for the end of this year. I guess this is in the course of managing your capacity by the end of the year and so an expectation of 2026. But what are you reducing at the moment? And how do you look at 2026 in terms of CapEx at the moment where you're transforming your tool from 200-millimeter to 300-millimeter? Jean-Marc Chery: We reduced the CapEx. In fact, there is 2 dynamics. There is a dynamic driven by where you know we want to close the 200-millimeter, so And of course, okay, we need to put the CapEx to increase the capacity at the right level in 300 and in coal 200. But here, we have not especially limited the dynamic because the demand is pretty solid. But then the other main important action is the CapEx for 200-millimeter conversion on silicon carbide because we will close the 150-millimeter. But here, we have limited the CapEx delivered by the demand, which is below what was -- we expected 1 year ago. So the main impact of the capacity limitation is on, let's say, silicon carbide. But then after it's more spread across test assembly, where we clearly adjust the capacity of what we need and no more. And generally speaking, is more adaptation to mix rather than volume increase. Stephane Houri: Just to ask you, with the Nexperia situation, you do receive phone calls or kind of rush orders from your customer? Or you see nothing for the moment? Jean-Marc Chery: No, I mean, we are sure that the carmaker and the Tier 1 of the automotive industry have clearly taken the lesson of the previous shorter period, and they have enabled many source to prevent such issues. And of course, okay, as the other semiconductor player, STMicro is part of this process. More than that, I have no comment. Operator: Next question comes from Didier Scemama from Bank of America. Didier Scemama: I have first question maybe on your inventory and related to that. on what you're thinking about in terms of factory loadings for the first half, I think, one of your U.S. peer already announced last week or earlier this week that they would reduce factory loadings to reduce inventory, especially in the context of a shallow recovery? So I think it looks like your inventory are tracking about 30, 40, 50 days above where they used to be. So are you thinking about taking down further factory utilization in the first half, I guess. Lorenzo Grandi: In terms of inventory, I would say that, yes, you're right, it's a little bit higher in respect to what was our historical ending of the year, that is a little bit higher. But at the end, I think that when we look next year, I think the dynamic of our -- we will continue to keep under controlling that. The dynamic of the inventory will, let's say, be, as usual, a little bit increasing during the first half of the year to go back and to decrease in the second part of the year. In terms of that, let's say, unloading factory utilization I think that moving in 2026, there will be an improvement. Notwithstanding, we will continue to keep the control our inventory. This improvement that I was saying before is due to the fact that we do expect some, let's say, increase in terms of our revenues, so looking at the evolution of the market. And the other element is that we start to, let's say, reduce capacity in some of our fabs. The one that we aim, let's say, to progressively close in the course of the -- by the end of 2027. So we will start, of course, to move out some equipment, and this will reduce the capacity, and this will reduce the level of unused then. Didier Scemama: Got it. And then I think last quarter, you said that the gross margins were impacted by, if I remember correctly, roughly 70 basis points of the 140, at 70 basis points of FX headwinds on and 70 basis points of related basically the manufacturing transition from 6 to 8 and 8 to 12. Is there any of that in Q4? Lorenzo Grandi: No, no. Let's say, moving from Q2 to Q3, let's say, the FX was overall an impact of 140 basis points. Q2, Q3, let's say, related to the combination of these 2 effects, but very different. Let's say, something in the range of 120 basis points was the FX and around 20 basis points was the impact of these extra costs, let's say, related to our programs. Now, let's say, in this quarter, clearly, the FX is a minor impact. This is quite stable. It's a little bit negative because we moved from 114 to 115 is ranging in the range of 20 basis points negative impact. It's not so material, while these extra costs related to the activity to reduce the capacity and to start to move products from one side to the other is impacting our gross margin expected for Q4 between 30 to 40 basis points. This is -- so the turnkey impacted by something ranging between 30 to 40 basis points of extra cost. Didier Scemama: Understood. And just a clarification, because it wasn't clear, your OpEx guide for Q4 is 915, right? It's not 950? Lorenzo Grandi: No, no. It's 915. And this is driven by the fact that we have a negative calendar days impact for 2 reasons. The calendar is longer. And the vacation in Europe is, let's say, less than what we benefit in the course of the previous quarter. On the other side, we will continue with our, let's say program to reduce account in expenses, and this will bring us some benefit. Operator: The next question comes from Sandeep Deshpande from JPMorgan. Sandeep Deshpande: My question is regarding the trends into the first quarter. I mean, you normally have a weaker first quarter. And thus would you expect the utilization rate to go down? And given all the other factors you've talked about in the earlier factors, which are there, there is a downtick associated with the capacity reservation fees. Should we expect that your gross margin in the first half of the year to be weaker than where it is at the moment? And I have a quick follow-up after that. Lorenzo Grandi: Yes. In terms of gross margin, it's true that in the first half, the seasonality is not favorable. And yes, there are the lower capacity reservation fees. On the other side, in respect to where we stand today, our expectation is that the level of a new budget will decrease. The decrease is not due to the fact that we aim to increase our inventory. There is some seasonality in our inventory, but the decrease, as I was trying to explain before, it's mainly driven by the fact that we start to reduce the capacity. So it means that we will start to some transfer of equipment. And this or, let's say, not utilization of equipment due to the fact that we progressively in some fab, we started to reduce the capacity aimed, at the end, let's say, to move to close the spec. So we will start, and this will progressively impact our capacity and, for some extent, our unused capacity. Sandeep Deshpande: I mean, a follow-up to that essentially -- quickly on that would be, is the number of days in Q1 [Technical Difficulty] you have any new engaged programs with your customers, which will improve revenue significantly either in first half or into the second half, particularly? Lorenzo Grandi: No, I confirm, Sandeep, that in Q1, Q1 will be shorter in terms of number of days, than Q4, Q4 is longer in terms of days than normal 91. And the calendar next year, Q1 will be shorter than the normal 91. It's a little bit the same trend that we have seen this year, let's say, in terms of calendar. So yes, I confirm that there is a shorter calendar in Q1. Jean-Marc Chery: Well, first of all, okay, about next year 2026, Q1. With the current visibility, we have for the loading of the backlog we have seen in Q3 and we are seeing today. But we don't see a specific reason why we will not be at the usual seasonality of Q1 revenue versus Q4. This is generally speaking, really slightly above minus 10%. Well, then moving forward, of course, we will -- but it's depends on the market dynamic. But I would like to say that for 2026 Well, first of all, okay, in the second half, we will clearly see the normalization of inventory everywhere. We really expect that in H2 2026, we will have no other inventory, point number one. Point number two, next year compared to 2025, the silicon carbide will be a year of growth because 2025 is a year of transition where basically, okay, we have cumulative headwinds related to one specific customer, some program not going at the expected speed in Europe. And you know we are not specially still present in China. But next year will be a -- but then after we have our exposure to fast-growing segment. Clearly, that already give us a sign of growth like ADAS with our main customers that already provided some let's classify upside and MEMS as well. And definitively, one point is our increasing content in terms of value and silicon in our main customer. So all in all, we do believe that Q1, we have no sign that the seasonality will be impacted by other factors that we do not control. And in H2, we will be as well as the usual seasonality of growth H2 versus H1. Do we grow more like here because this year, we grow at 23% and the usual seasonality, 15% H2 versus H1. Well, here, we need to have a little bit more booking in Q1 and in Q2 to confirm. So my takeaway is, yes, we will have, let's say, idiosyncratic growth driver on top of the, let's say, up cycle of the market that we are seeing today even if this up-cycle market of automotive and industrial should be classified at this stage, soft, okay? And with subsegment pretty dynamic like the one related to infrastructure. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Janardan Menon from Jefferies. Janardan Menon: I just wanted to go back -- go to the Power & Discrete business where your margins are still very weak at minus 15% in the third quarter. So what can be the drivers to improve that? You talked about silicon carbide improving in Q3 -- I'm sorry, in 2026. But would that revenue come mainly from your Sanan JV to Chinese customers? And will that help your overall profitability given low utilizations in Europe? And do you need to take any further action to try and improve the profitability there Power & Discrete, given the kind of competitive environment in that industry? And then my follow-up is just a small clarification on a previous answer. Your 30 to 40 basis points of manufacturing inefficiency from the conversion and shutting down, et cetera, does that continue until you reach the end of that journey, which is when you fully close down your 200-millimeter transition to 300 millimeter? Or does that drop off before that? Jean-Marc Chery: So Lorenzo will comment about the improvement driver on Power & Discrete profitability. While Marco will comment on the dynamic of Power & Discrete revenue because as I have already anticipated, in my last answer, clearly, silicon carbide for us in '25 is a transition period. And Lorenzo, on Lorenzo Grandi: Yes, I can take it. Clearly, well, I will let Marco to explain what are the drivers. But at the end, let's say, clearly next year, we do expect a recovery in terms of the top line that is this year, we were impacted by a significant inefficiency in our manufacturing environment for the Power & Discrete in general and for the silicon carbide, in particular, due to the fact that we were working a very old level of saturation for these steps. Clearly, there are the following drivers that we expect to recover in term of profitability. Having a higher level of revenues clearly will help to better load our infrastructure. Then don't forget that silicon carbide, it will be the first to move, let's say, in the course of next year from the 6-inch to the 200-millimeter to the 8-inch, and this will bring clearly, let's say, some positive in the medium term in terms of profitability. Moving up in terms of revenues will improve significantly our expense to sales ratio that today clearly has been impacted by the fact that revenue are quite depressed. So at the end, these are the main drivers that we see together with the fact that we are improving, and we are moving to the next generation of silicon carbide that give also some benefit in terms of performance for what concerns, let's say, the profitability. Before to give the -- to pass to Marco, I just clarify the point of this extra 30 basis points on gross margin. Yes, this is mainly related to the duplication of mask related to the, let's say, qualification of processes. But this will continue, the amount will be more or less this range over, for sure, the next part of 2026 and probably also in the second part because we will continue with this program. This will be probably peaking in the first half 2026 then it will go down. But yes, this is something that we need to expect to have -- as we have this activity, let's say, to migrate our products from one fab that is going to be close to another fab. Marco Cassis: Okay. So we take on the dynamics. So we'll have basically 2 dynamics in 2026 that will help to start to grow. First of all, well, as Jean-Marc said, during the first half of 2026, we will keep reducing and will be clean in terms of inventory in Power & Discrete; here, speaking mainly about the noncedarbide portion. And this will allow the market dynamics next year to restart having year-over-year growth. Specifically, on season carbide as Jean-Marc has already anticipated, 2025 is a transition year, meaning is that we are experiencing lower volumes and inventory collection from our main customers. I would like to underline, this is happening while we still are maintaining stable our commercial contractual level of market share. This is happening since the beginning of 2025. And during 2025, we are -- this dynamic is not yet offset by Europe and China. So there is yet no strong contribution from the rectification programs in Europe and China. During the next year, we will start seeing growth in these 2 regions that will help the 2026 overall growth of the silicon carbide versus 2025. I hope that this answers your question. Jerome Ramel: Thank you, everyone. This is ending our call for this quarter. So thank you for being us today, and we remain here at your disposal should you need any follow-up questions. Sorry for the one that you don't have time to ask a question there. Thank you very much. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.
Natalia Valtasaari: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to KONE's Third Quarter Results Webcast. My name is Natalia Valtasaari. I head up the IR function here at KONE, and I'm very pleased to be joined by our President and CEO, Philippe Delorme... Philippe Delorme: Good morning, everyone. Natalia Valtasaari: And our CFO, Ilkka Hara. As usual, we'll start by walking you through the financial highlights of the quarter, what we're seeing in the business and what we're seeing in the markets, then we'll move on to your questions. [Operator Instructions] but with that, over to you, Philippe. Philippe Delorme: Thank you. Thank you, Natalia, and good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to be presenting our third quarter results today. And let me start by saying that Q3 was, in many ways, a strong quarter. Order development was, of course, a key highlight. Nearly 8% growth is an excellent achievement, and I'm happy that growth was broad-based. We delivered again on our target to consistently improve profitability towards our midterm margin corridor. Not only did we grow earnings, but we also had healthy cash conversion in the quarter. For me, a key point worth emphasizing is that over 60% of our sales is today coming from service and modernization. This shows that our pivot towards a more resilient business model is proving successful. And last but not least, we continue to drive our strategy forward with precision and speed. I will share a few concrete examples of strategy progress, but let's first take a look at our financial performance in more detail. So as just mentioned, order growth was strong this quarter. We saw over 10% growth in all areas except China. The biggest driver was modernization, where orders were up double digits. And I'm also pleased that our efforts to strengthen competitiveness in the residential segment paid off. This supported good momentum in New Building Solutions, especially in Europe and in the Americas. Sales grew by 3.9% at comparable currencies. Modernization delivered another excellent quarter with sales up 15.5%. Our Service business also performed well outside China, while in China, development was more stable. Adjusted EBIT margin expanded by 75 basis points from a low base. And the main driver was the growth in our largest profit pools, service and modernization. And finally, cash generation was strong with operating cash flow increasing by roughly EUR 100 million year-over-year. Let me now share some highlights from the quarter. The first one, and you see the smile on my face, is a very exciting milestone where we secured the contract to equip the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, rising to over 1,000 meters. This will be the world's tallest building once completed. It will be equipped with solutions from KONE next-generation high-rise offering, including our superlight UltraRope hoisting technology. I'm very proud of this win. It showcases not only our unique innovations, but also our capacity to deliver highly complex projects in a reliable way. With this win, 5 of the world's 10 tallest building will feature KONE technology. I see this as an excellent recognition of the work we've done to reinforce our leadership in the high-rise segment. As you know, our strategy focuses on making KONE an even more resilient business with service and modernization as the key drivers of growth. And I'm pleased with the progress we've made in accelerating this shift during the year. Let's start with services. We began the year with roughly 35% of our maintenance base connected, and we are now approaching 40%. At the same time, our field service technicians are leveraging productivity tools in 41 countries, and we're enabling remote service in 35. These advancements are critical to deliver greater transparency, improved predictability and more efficient service for our customers. Let's now turn to modernization, where customer response to our partial modernization offering has been very positive. This is the fastest-growing segment within modernization and accounts for the largest share of modernized units. For KONE, partial modernization provides scalable growth and enable us to address market opportunities more broadly. For customers, it offers easier installation and improved energy efficiency at a more attractive cost. I see this as a true win-win. Let's now move on to sustainability, where we have lots of good news to share. Let me highlight a few components of our sustainability index, where we've made particularly strong progress. First, we have continued to scale our solution to drive energy efficiency. A good example is the growth of our partial modernization business and the fact that regenerative drives are now included in more than 60% of our deliveries. We have also improved our [indiscernible] rating, which is how we measure progress in cybersecurity, a key priority for us. We're actually now in the top 10 percentile of the engineering peer group. On the people side, I'm proud to share that KONE was recognized for the 6 years in a row on Forbes and Statista's list in the World's Best Employer. This is a fantastic acknowledgment of our commitment to being the #1 choice for employees, fully aligned with our strategic ambition. Finally, we announced a partnership with UNIDO. Together, we will conduct training programs for our suppliers to promote sustainable practices and human rights across the supply chain. Now let me hand over to Ilkka, who will go through the market development and financial in more details. The floor is yours. Ilkka Hara: Thank you, Philippe. And also a warm welcome on my behalf to this third quarter result webcast. As usual, let me start talking about how we are seeing the markets developing in the different regions over the past 3 months. Overall, the trends were broadly similar to what we've seen earlier this year. In terms of New Building Solutions, as I'm sure you are well aware, market conditions continue to be difficult in China. In all other areas, we actually saw increasing market activity. If we move East to West, demand continued to be strong in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. In Europe, activity picked up from Q2, growing slightly compared to last year, and we also saw some growth year-on-year in North America, despite trade policy-related uncertainty. Then looking at Service and Modernization, we continue to see healthy growth in all regions. Next, let's go through our financial development in the quarter in more detail. As usual, I'm starting with orders received, which, as Philippe mentioned, was a highlight of this quarter. 7.8% growth at the comparable currencies is a great achievement. Interestingly, China New Building Solutions was the only soft spot. Modernization continued to grow strongly in all areas, and we had a good quarter also in New Building Solutions outside of China, both in volume business as in the major projects as well. Order margins were stable overall with China still under pressure and more stable development in other areas. Turning into the sales, which grew 3.9% at the comparable currencies in the quarter. Looking at the development by business, it was great to once again see the strong order book rotation in modernization. Sales increased by 15.5% overall. And more importantly, all areas contributed with double-digit growth. In New Building Solutions, continued low delivery volumes in China was the main driver behind the 5% decline. In Service, we grew by 7.3%. Outside of China, growth was very much in line with our targets. In China, we have taken deliberate actions to prioritize margin and cash flow over volume in all of our businesses, including service. This means being selective and sometimes walking away from contracts that are not meeting our performance criteria. Pricing and revenue uplift from digital services solutions continued to contribute positively to service growth. The repair business also performed well in the quarter. This is actually a great example of the benefits of accelerating digital. As Philippe said, connectivity enables productivity. And when we perform service more efficiently, we release time that we can use, for instance, more proactively drive repair sales. Then moving to adjusted EBIT and profitability. Margin expansion in the quarter was 75 basis points year-on-year, which is a good outcome despite the lower -- low comparison point. This took adjusted EBIT to EUR 341 million. Looking into the details, we saw again some negative impact from higher investments into R&D and our strategic growth areas. That said, the main headwind continued to be the new equipment market in China, more than offsetting was the positive mix impact of services and modernization growth. So overall, good delivery of our 11th consecutive quarter of profitability improvement and especially good to see also sequential improvement, which is not always the case for Q3. Then turning to cash flow, one of my favorite metrics. Cash generation was strong in the quarter, supported by growth in operating income and by changes in working capital. Cash flow from operations increased to EUR 364 million, bringing year-to-date cash flow to EUR 1.3 billion. The contribution from working capital came mainly from advances received, which, of course, related to a strong growth in orders. And although not a big contributor this quarter, our focus on collections continues and it's progressing well. Then looking at the whole year '25. First, we have made a small update on our market outlook. We now expect the New Building Solutions market in North America to grow slightly, as activity continued to trend upward in Q3. Of course, the business environment in the U.S., in particular, remains fluid. Our view on other areas is unchanged. China continues to be the main challenge. In Europe, we expect some growth. And in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, we expect clear growth. For Services and Modernization, our outlook continues to be positive with growth opportunities in all areas. Then to our business outlook. With 3 months left in the year, we have specified our guidance slightly. We now expect sales to grow 3% to 5% at the comparable exchange rates and the adjusted EBIT margin to be in the range of 11.9% to 12.3% this year. FX is expected to be a headwind. If it remains at the October levels, we estimate a roughly EUR 30 million negative impact to EBIT. China continues to be burden to both volumes and margin. We also expect some small impact from tariffs. But as we discussed already previously, most of the impact is recoverable in our view. We have already made good progress in mitigation actions. In terms then on tailwinds, service and modernization growth is the main positive. We also expect some support from the ramp-up of performance initiatives. Then Finally, let's look at how we're currently thinking about year '26, starting with challenges. China construction market is not yet showing any signs of leveling out. So this will continue to be a burden, less than in '25 as our exposure continues to come down. We also expect similar inflationary pressure on wages, as we have seen this year. On the positive side, we continue to see opportunities to grow our service and modernization business, which will contribute positively to the earnings mix. We also expect meaningful contribution from our performance improvement measures. And we have made it very -- and we have made very good progress in our product cost reductions this year, which will also be supportive. So those are our initial thoughts. And of course, we will provide more color when we report the Q4. Let me now hand back to Philippe to close the presentation before going to the Q&A. Philippe Delorme: Thank you, Ilkka. So to wrap it up, let's make -- sorry, changing slides. So let me first take the opportunity to thank all the KONE teams for their great achievements and for delivering a strong Q3. We had yet another quarter of good momentum in service and modernization, which shows that the transformation we are driving is well underway. I'm also very happy with the progress we are making in executing our Rise strategy, and we continue to move full steam ahead. And finally, our performance this quarter shows that we are on track to delivering on expectations for 2025 and building solid momentum towards reaching our midterm financial targets. Thank you all for your attention, and I suggest now we move on to your questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Andre Kukhnin from UBS. Andre Kukhnin: Maybe actually, I'll start with a quick follow-up on what you mentioned on China exposure coming down during this year. Maybe could you help us to calibrate that a little bit? I think we talked about China New Equipment margin being clearly below group average in 2024. Is it fair to assume that it has come down substantially further in 2025 in sort of more mid- to low single-digit range? Ilkka Hara: It's always difficult with these objectives substantially, like you said, but what I would say that our margins in China in New Building Solutions have come down in '25 further. Andre Kukhnin: Got it. And the main question really for me is on the performance improvement initiatives that you talked about and we've been kind of tracking and talking about since the Capital Markets Day last year. Can you just walk us through what has been done during 2025 and what will be delivering those kind of meaningful contribution, as you mentioned, in 2026? And is there any way we can start sort of quantifying that already for 2026? Ilkka Hara: Well, if I start, I think you're quite passionate about this, Philippe, yourself. So what we outlined in Capital Markets Day is that we see an opportunity for us to improve our profitability by 150 basis points by year '27. And then, of course, we need to make a decision that we invest some of that back to growing the business further. In that progress, we have started to now execute those programs. The largest ones which are contributing to the profitability are focus on our procurement, how we source both at the factories as well as in the local operations and as well as how we perform at the regional level or the lowest level where the KONE teams come together, and we call it sales and operational excellence. On sourcing, I'm very happy how we've been able to drive our product cost down this year. We have yet another record in terms of product cost reductions as a result. We have more work to be done on the local sourcing part, and that's because it's touching more teams, and we need to then just lower to get that executed. So good progress in where it's more centralized, more work to be done and good opportunities in there. And then sales and operational excellence, we are seeing that the teams are really now able to drive better and better outcomes, and we have more and more consistent execution. But also there, we have plenty of work to be done on that one. Maybe you want to comment? Philippe Delorme: Yes. I mean those things take time. I'm rather impatient as a person, but you -- I mean, you don't -- the company is not a light switch. So when you drive things at a branch level with much stronger sense of execution, timely, weekly, tactical and things like this, it takes some time to spread within the company. I think we've said during the Capital Market Day that we would start to see the impact of most of these actions by the end of 2025. Nothing has changed on that front. The only thing I can say that we've been extremely diligent in '25 to ramp up our actions, be extremely systematic. And I feel much better about, let's say, the level of detail and scrutiny and capacity to execute we have on this work. And I would say on procurement, the arrival of Michelle Wen, who came with a very strong automotive background, and she just came in actually in August. So it's not yesterday, but it's a few weeks away, is giving me confidence that we can actually intensify the work we want to do on the procurement side. Operator: The next question comes from the line of James Moore calling from Rothschild. James Moore: I wondered if I could talk about your service growth. Would it be possible just to give us a flavor for the speed of the unit growth in maintenance base versus the price behind that and other topics is the first question. Just to understand whether the speed of maintenance base growth is broadly stable or accelerating or slowing for any reason and whether price is broadly the same behind that? Ilkka Hara: Yes. So overall, on the LIS growth, and I guess I commented that already during the presentation. So the LIS component of that is growing in Q3 a bit less than we've seen as a trend line. And the main reason for that is 2 things. One, which is that in China, we clearly focused more on lining up the business to focus on cash flow and profitability. And in some cases, also in the service business, we've actually decided to let go some of the customer contracts, as they're not meeting our performance criteria. And then it's more of a quarter-by-quarter, there's fluctuations. So it happened to be that in Q3, we had a bit less acquisitions than we've seen in the recent quarters as a result. The good thing is that both pricing including digital as well as repair sales are actually progressing quite well. So in that sense, we are making very good progress on that front. And then lastly, I think it's also that given what I said, so we had very close to the targeted level of 10% growth or close to 10% growth in services in 3 of the areas, whereas really the slowdown in sales was more related to China actions we've taken. Philippe Delorme: Which is a clear choice. And actually, I'm very happy to see the result, which is our cash generation in China and our profit improvement in China on that front is according to plan. So I would say we are executing what we want to execute. And it's a bit of 2 way of doing things, which is China on one side, where we've always said cash margin and moving to more service and modernization versus elsewhere where clearly our -- the way we are executing is different because the markets are different. James Moore: Could I just follow up on that? I mean, over time, I felt that the maintenance base grows with a lag after the first service period from the unit deliveries, but also your win-loss ratio and your conversion ratios. And you always had a very high U.S., European conversion ratio, 80%, 90% and a more muted 50%, 60% conversion ratio in China. I'm just trying to understand, is it that the conversion ratios are broadly staying the same across the 3 regions and that it's the active choice on the win-loss ratio to effectively proactively lose? And is the intensity of this change, which slows your maintenance base growth at the moment? Is that something that's going to intensify yet further going into '26, if you like, with more proactive contract management? Ilkka Hara: No, I don't think that's something which will continue going forward. It's been more of a targeted efforts right now. And it's good to note, so first, your comments on conversions as well as retention. So they are quite stable. And for example, in Europe, where the NBS market has been now for a few years, been down, we've been able to actually quite nicely grow the services business, as I've noted in previous quarters. So we've been able to mitigate with good retention, win-loss ratios improving and some acquisitions as well to drive growth in a market where there's less conversions. Philippe Delorme: And talking about our service business, we -- you've probably noticed that we talk quite a bit about our repair business. Actually, we've done quite some work to make sure that we would optimize that part of the business. It's actually significant in our service figures, both top line and profit. And when trying to understand how the service business work, I would encourage you to really look at, yes, the pricing and the service base but also the repair business, which for us, at least is very important. Ilkka Hara: And actually, the repair business grew really nicely, almost double the speed of our service business in the quarter. Philippe Delorme: Yes, absolutely. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Daniela Costa calling from Goldman Sachs. Daniela Costa: I'll ask just one and it's regarding modernization, obviously, very strong 10% organic order growth there. Can you give us some light on how sort of your installed base age has evolved? I know you talked about the mono elevators being very important for that modernization. So can we see this 10% plus as sustainable going forward when you look at sort of how the curve of age of installed base is? Any light there would be helpful. Ilkka Hara: Well, I guess, first, good to note that the modernization growth was actually on a quite close to the 15% target that we talked about in the quarter. So very good numbers. Then on this aging of the portfolio, so I think there's 2 topics I would highlight. So first, there are so many elevators in the world that need to be modernized that we're not yet making a dent onto the aging as a whole. And most of the elevators that are old are actually outside of our own LIS base. So for us, the growth opportunity, we've been working and targeting previously our own service base. But really, the big blue ocean is the elevators that are not in KONE maintenance. And there, I think we're increasingly making good progress in identifying those and having the right go-to-market to really get to those customers. So at this rate, we're still -- the elevator base is aging more than we're able to modernize as an industry and also, I guess, for KONE as well. Philippe Delorme: Maybe to illustrate a bit more, Daniela, the topic, and I'm going to quote some figures that I think I have listed in the Capital Market Day, but there is 25 million elevators in front of us, of which 10 million are more than 15-year-old total in the world. This 10 million will become 13 million by 2030. So whatever happens every year, whatever happens to real estate market in China, outside of China, there is growth because elevators are aging, whether our elevators or the elevators of competition. With that in mind, today, when I look at our figures -- and we are happy with our figures, and we'll try to do our best to sustain that growth. We are actually modernizing tens of thousands of units versus 10 million units in front of us. So we've said it many times, but we'll repeat and we'll repeat and will repeat, this market is growing structurally because elevators are aging. And today, we have good figures, but we are not -- I mean, there is still a lot more that could be done with innovation, with better execution and so on. So we are confident in our capacity to drive scalable growth in that field. Operator: The next question comes from the line of John Kim calling from Deutsche Bank. John-B Kim: Could we just go back to wage inflation for a second. Can you give us a sense of quantum of growth there as a growth rate and how that compares to what you maybe were seeing earlier in the year? And how should we think about the cadence of the price ups that are in the contracts versus this inflation? Ilkka Hara: So twofold. We are seeing -- I guess, I've said also earlier that our wage inflation this year is around about 5% on average for KONE as a whole. And yes, our escalation in contract prices for services have actually been quite close to the inflation level. So we've been able to continuously now drive not only the CPI level inflation, which is continuously coming down, but actually representing the inflation we are seeing and then we have the productivity as a separate item. So pricing, yes, we can escalate service contracts. But of course, then also we see broadly outside of the service operatives, also the wage inflation impacting our cost base as such. John-B Kim: Super helpful. One follow-on, if I may. Can you give us any color on how you're driving better penetration of connectivity? Ilkka Hara: I think that's for you. Philippe Delorme: Discipline. Discipline and it looks like -- it's not easy. I mean, in every, let's say, original industrial company, I think it takes some time to make sure that our people understand the value of connectivity. And on the few things that I'm really happy with, when I look at the step-up that has happened in the company for every one of us to understand, especially in our service business that service will have to be digital. I think we've been good at discipline. And we'll be even better at discipline. And we've been -- I've been very clear to the people in KONE. We want by 2030, 100% of our installed base to be connected. And we're going to be very disciplined and focused on driving that goal and it makes sense for customers. And actually, I've been on the road for 3 weeks in North America, meeting many, many customers. The great news is -- the feedback from our customers is we execute well. They see the value of our connectivity around transparency, around predictive capabilities, around from time to time remote services, and they really like it. And the feedback we get is we seem to be executing pretty well on that front. So we'll keep doing that. Operator: We are now going to take a question coming from Martin Flueckiger calling from Kepler Cheuvreux. Martin Flueckiger: Two questions. The first one is on China and particularly the property market there, where July, August data seemed to suggest that there was a steepening of the decline. And yet when I look at your data on the Chinese property market, it looks like NBS orders were relatively -- in real terms were relatively stable in terms of dynamics. So just wondering, is that because of rounding? Or -- what do you see on the ground in the field? Was there a worsening in the NBS market actually maybe towards the end of Q3? That would be my first question. The second question, if I just may add on, is on the financial income that you've reported for Q3. If I saw this correctly, you've posted a negative financial income for Q3. If you could just elaborate on the reasons for that, that would be helpful. Ilkka Hara: Okay. I'll take them in reverse order. So the financial income is related to hedging. And if you look at the 9 months year-to-date, that gives you a better picture. So Q2, Q3, you see the opposite direction there. So in 9 months, you see the real underlying performance there. Then on China, so I think as I've said during the last few years that a lot of the KPIs fluctuate somewhat. And whether it's better or worse around that volatility, our view of the market has not changed. So we are seeing the market to decline this year in units and value double digit and more in value than in units. And I would say that during Q2 Q1, Q2, there was a bit some signals that were better, but I would not say that the Q3 has been something where we've seen a big change overall. And it's important for us to also note that, yes, we want to be a meaningful player in China and want to go after the service and modernization opportunity. But as Philippe already said, and I said, I guess, as well that we are optimizing the business to cash flow, profitability and the pivot to services and modernization. So we'll take the business that we see supporting those priorities in NBS then in the market. But I don't see that the market has dramatically -- or there's been a bigger shift during the Q3. Philippe Delorme: And the repeat on the China market, maybe it's clear for everyone, but I will repeat. The market today is 50 NBS, 50 modernization and service. So if there is any change, that is that over multiple years, what was NBS-dominated market, now it's coming 50-50. I'm not having any crystal ball, but it's pretty obvious that, that trend will continue, meaning the share of modernization and service will likely keep increasing if we see what's happening because the country is aging. We see growth and actually pretty healthy growth in modernization. We are driving our service mix first with cash and margin, but there are still opportunity in service. And we are clearly adapting our forces in NBS to take into account that market reality. And I would say on that front, I want to compliment the team for reducing their cost very aggressively, both product cost and the fixed cost we have to adapt ourselves to a market reality, which indeed is going down, on NBS. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Vlad Sergievskii calling from Barclays. Vladimir Sergievskiy: Two questions from me. Can I please start with the follow-up on modernization growth opportunity ahead? To what extent it is driven by the market growing? Or it is actually KONE creating the market for itself by addressing installed base, perhaps in a more proactive way or opening new market niches for themselves? Because I hear your comment that fleet -- the installed base is aging, but it probably has been aging for forever. And KONE modernization growth was almost never as impressive as it is today. Philippe Delorme: I think it's a mix of both. The market is growing, and you have the data on our assumption of the market, but the market growth is good. And we believe that we are gaining market share in that space because we are focused and because we try to drive the right innovation and be customer-centric, which is when you have an elevator in your premise, the last thing you want is having any OEMs coming and say, okay, for months, your elevator is not going to work. So what we are doing is we are listening to our customers and say, you know what, we are going to make it shorter, simpler so that actually we do what's strictly necessary to start with, which very often is electrification upgrade. And then we'll go in a life cycle discussion with you to make that improvement over multiple years with smaller chunk that will be less risky. That's not -- I'm not reinventing the wheel here, but we are executing in a very focused manner, trying to have modular offers in front of this, and it's working very well. So we are gaining share in that regard, and we're really trying to push our team to be very customer-centric on a growing market. And the result is a double-digit growth, which is very consistent, which is driving value for the company, and we are very happy with that. Vladimir Sergievskiy: That's great. And a quick housekeeping question, if I may, to Ilkka. Interest income line was negative about EUR 15 million this quarter, which I think is almost the first time ever when this line was actually negative. Is there something to do with hedging practices? Has any hedging practices changed to drive this change? And where in the P&L, there could be an offset to this line if there is one? Ilkka Hara: So actually, the previous question was on the same one. I said, yes, it's on hedging. And the year-to-date picture gives a better picture of the real underlying income and expenses. So between Q2 and Q3, we had an opposite development on there. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Panu Laitinmäki calling from Danske Bank. Panu Laitinmaki: I have 2 questions. Firstly, on China NBS, just on the margin. So was it still positive in Q3? And going forward, do you expect to kind of protect the margin with the actions you mentioned reducing fixed costs and so on. So that is why you gave the comment that it's a smaller headwind going into '26. Ilkka Hara: Well, yes, on both of the questions. And I guess I was also in the smaller headwind, meaning that the size of the business relative to the size of the rest of the business is smaller. Panu Laitinmaki: Okay. That's clear. Then the second question is on modernization. So how much is parcel modernization out of orders and sales roughly? And then how has the margin of modernization developed? I mean, a year ago, you said at the CMD that it's close to the group average. So is it still there? Or has there been changed so far? Ilkka Hara: We see on the parcel modernization, it continues to be a bigger and bigger part of the modernization. I don't think we've been very clear on exactly how big part of that is. And on modernization, we continue to see, as it has been during the last years that the profitability continues to be improving as we are scaling up the business on modernization. Panu Laitinmaki: Okay. And is it fair to assume that the parcel modernization is more profitable for you than the kind of traditional modernization? Ilkka Hara: Yes, it is. It is focused on the most important components of the elevator and there's less construction work related to that as well. Philippe Delorme: That's what we call the benefit of being modular and standardizing work, which actually for the customer is better value for money. And for us, it's better execution, less time lost in the field. So it's a win-win for everybody. Operator: The next question is from Ben Heelan calling from Bank of America. Benjamin Heelan: I just had one, which was on M&A. Now you've obviously said in the past that you want to be a consolidator of the industry. I just wondered if you -- is that still where your minds in terms of the future of the business? You see consolidation as a focus? And when we think about leverage ratios, is there any sort of framework that you can give us in terms of the leverage that KONE would be willing to go up to? And any framework there? Is it based on credit rating, et cetera? Ilkka Hara: I don't think the comment on the consolidation making sense in the industry has changed. We've said it for a very, very long time. Lately, actually, we've been doing consolidation more on the smaller maintenance companies on an increasing speed. So that's also then that we want to be a driver of the consolidation. Then on leverage, so I guess we don't -- we're net debt negative right now. So it's not been an issue. But I've said previously that we want to continue to be an investment-grade -- strong investment-grade company going forward. Operator: The next question is from Rizk Maidi calling from Jefferies. Rizk Maidi: Just to follow up on M&A and more specifically transformational M&A. Can we maybe just chat around whether you would be considering issuing equity, if you were to pursue a larger acquisition? And then maybe geographically, what are the regions where you feel you have a little or perhaps where we would like to add sort of more exposure? I'll start there. Ilkka Hara: Well, I guess on the first one, so I wake up every morning, and I guess, Philippe as well as somebody who sees that there are bigger companies in the industry. So we're a challenger. We want to grow faster to be the leader in the industry. So that's clear. I don't think it's one geography per se. I think it's a general statement where we want to grow faster than our competitors to make that happen. And as such, then on other things on capital structure, capital raising, I don't think it makes much sense to speculate on that. Rizk Maidi: Okay. And then the second one that I had is just covering the industry for quite some time, and this question is specifically on China maintenance. I think we've seen historically that whenever new equipment business being weak for an extended period of time, we saw that basically spread to the maintenance side of things. I'm just wondering why this should not be applicable. I mean I remember this happening to Europe back in 2013, '14 after the European debt crisis. Just wondering why you think this should not happen in China, whether it's -- you compete with different players, structure of the market different and whether the slowdown in maintenance has anything to do with this? Ilkka Hara: Well, first on China maintenance, I don't think I've ever said it's easy or something where there's not a competition. It is like we see it it's -- half of the market is service and modernization. So of course, everybody knows the same thing. And among the world's fragmented, so i.e. most competitive market in service is China by far. So I think that's a starting point. And then when you have less new elevators enter into the market, then, of course, it makes it tougher. What I'm very happy about is that how our team has been able to address it. And now I call it out because we made conscious decisions now in Q3 that impact the outcomes. And it's not a market-wide comment. It's rather our focus on profitability and cash flow. Philippe Delorme: And maybe to build on your point on China market. When we benchmark across the world, clearly, the China market is more fragmented. And we see at the lower part of the market, companies that are doing the very minimum of what they should do in terms of safety. We see on the other side, the China government being conscious that safety standards should move up, also seeing an opportunity with digital. So my point is not about next quarter, but when I look at a longer time period, I would expect some further concentration because on one side, the lower part of the market would have a hard time to survive with a standard that I would expect would increase with more digital technology that would make it less accessible for, let's say, lower cost, low-value player to deliver a value, which is more and more essential in a country that's being more and more modern and more and more asking for top safety standards. And we have work to do as an industry to help the industry move to a higher level of digital safety and so on. So this is upside. How fast it will materialize, we'll see. We have our role to play here. We are very active on digital to be a digital driver in China. It's taking some time. Rizk Maidi: Perfect. And I promise the very last one, so apologies if this was tackled before because I joined late. Section 232 and its extension to more than 400 products in August, maybe how you're thinking about the direct, but also more importantly, the indirect impact on the business. Ilkka Hara: It is first question on tariffs, and I think there is a reason for it because we don't see that meaningfully impacting our results. We are, number one, of course, working with our own supply chain on what we produce in U.S. and what do we ship to U.S. And actually, the export -- sorry, import to U.S. is less -- about 10% of our business. So it's actually quite small. And then secondly, we're protected by our contracts. So we are actually moving the cost of tariffs largely to our customers. And then, of course, we need to continue to drive product cost actions and efficiency in our supply chain going forward. Operator: Moving on to our next question from John Kim calling from Deutsche Bank. John-B Kim: He just took my question. Someone was strong. Ilkka Hara: Okay. That's good efficiency in action. Operator: And the next question is from Vivek Midha calling from Citi. Vivek Midha: Hope you can hear me. I just have one follow-up really on the questions around service growth with one eye on the quite ambitious aims for midterm growth here and the building blocks there. Is there also any material contribution at all from the strong modernization growth that you've been seeing in adding to the service installed base? Is there expected to be some over the midterm, helping you achieve your targets there? Ilkka Hara: You're seeing me smiling because that's actually a really important topic. And I was talking about the modernization. So the focus and the volume of the opportunities outside of our own maintenance space. And indeed, once we partially modernize an elevator, it becomes a digital modern elevator for us to maintain. So increasingly, that will be a driver for unit growth. And of course, already now with this modernization growth, we're starting to see increasing impact coming from that. And the more mature the markets are the bigger driver for unit growth is modernization in the long run. Philippe Delorme: And those, as you call, modernized connected elevators, actually, we are more efficient in delivering the right output with our customers because we use all our capabilities. So it's playing very positively in the mix. But that's a great point. Vivek Midha: Understood. Just a quick follow-up -- as a quick follow-up on that -- I don't know if you have data, but in terms of the conversion rate of, say, one of these partial mods, for example, compared to NBS, I mean, how does it compare in terms of driving the service there? Ilkka Hara: Well, twofold. So the relative conversion rate is quite high. So it's a very good level. Then still on the absolute volumes, it's still a smaller contributor. So we need to scale up the business, but it's a very good way to increase our LIS base. Operator: There is a follow-up question from Andre Kukhnin from UBS. Andre Kukhnin: So firstly, on the service adjustment in China that where you decided to let go some customer contracts, can you just confirm that, that's a one-off? Or should we think about that for Q4 and then maybe into 2026 as well? Ilkka Hara: I guess I already said it's not a long-term action. But of course, we continue to monitor the business. So let's see now how Q4 develops, but it's not something we expect to continue for years. The priorities don't change, but I think it's more of a discrete focus on this. Andre Kukhnin: Got it. And if I were to think about it, I'd probably think about it being more margin focused than cash as such, as probably some of these units are in fairly sort of spot locations, not really helping density. Is that the right sort of avenue? Or is it cash driven as well? Philippe Delorme: I think it's both, but it's driven by margin, but we've been really very clear with our China team, cash, margin rebalance the business. And there -- I mean, China is seeing some cash tension across the board. So how much is margin and cash? Usually, the 2 are related actually, but it's a bit of both. Andre Kukhnin: And if I may, just one more on China... Ilkka Hara: A follow-up on follow-up. Andre Kukhnin: Yes. Triple follow-up. Is modernization still the highest margin business for you in China? And is there -- well, I think there is scope, but are you also implementing a kind of modular approach there given that you've got a substantial and sort of broader universal installed base there? Ilkka Hara: Yes. So we plan to drive this more modular approach in China as well. And if you think about the size of the buildings, the time to execute the modernization is even more critical for the customers. And we have actually progressed really well be, I guess, fastest in the world in China in terms of driving modernization, is a fair statement. So kudos to the team on that one. And yes, modernization continues to be a good margin business for us in China. Operator: There is another follow-up question coming from James Moore from Rothschild. James Moore: I just wanted to follow up on service and NBS margins at a global level. You mentioned that China's margin is now in a loss in NBS in new equipment. Is that such a loss that the whole global NBS profitability is now a negative one? And the second question is on service margins. Are we at an all-time high in terms of service profitability? And if not, could you say when that was and how many bps or percentage we are below the all-time high? Ilkka Hara: On the first comment, I absolutely did not say that we are making a loss in China in NBS, neither did I say that we're making a loss in NBS globally. So it is clearly a lower-margin business compared to the other 2, but I have not said that we're making a loss. Then second, on services, I'm sure that in the history of 115 years, we've had margins that are peaking due to many reasons in services as well. But I would say that directionally, we continue to see margins improving in services, as we're digitalizing the business and driving productivity and the actions we talked about in pricing and more repair work. So it's directionally continuing to develop quite positively. Operator: Well, ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions so I will hand you back to your host to conclude today's conference. Thank you. Natalia Valtasaari: Thank you, and thank you, Philippe and Ilkka, for the answers. Thanks, everyone, online for the plentiful questions, lots of varied ones. Really good to have active dialogue. Thanks for everyone who just listened in as well. I know it's a busy results today, so we appreciate the time. And as usual, if you do have any follow-ups, please reach out to me or the team. We're here for you. With that, have a great day. Philippe Delorme: Have a great day. Thank you so much. Ilkka Hara: Thank you.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the DSV A/S Q3 2025 Interim Financial Report Conference Call. I am Hillie, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Jens Lund, Group CEO. Please go ahead. Jens Lund: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our Q3 results call. We look forward to a good session where we go through the presentation. We will -- the format will be the same as usual. Michael and I will say something in the beginning, and then we will do the Q&A session. We will quickly go to the forward-looking statements. Please take your time to read it. It gets longer and longer. We will soon need 2 slides for that one we've been discussing. But I'll skip that one and move on to the agenda, which is the same agenda as we normally use. And also, therefore, I will quickly move on to the next slide and talk a little bit about the highlights of the quarter. So I think it's very clear that we are basically seeing good momentum on the Schenker integration. It's, of course, the most important topic that we have right now. It is to ensure that the integration continues to gain momentum. And I think that's also what we see. I'm particularly fond of the fact that we've sort of done really well in relation to the customers. So I think the feedback that we've received on the integration is very positive. And we've seen that there's been very little attrition. So that's definitely an outcome that we're very pleased with. On the financial performance, I think the numbers, they speak for themselves. Of course, it's now with a full quarter of Schenker numbers in there as well. There's still a lot of ground to cover, but I think we are off to a really good start when it comes to the combination of the company and the financial performance. On the deleveraging, yes, I think we've now started to reduce our debt and just shows that we generate cash flow, and that means that there's substance in what we are doing. And then, of course, our guidance, we now have narrowed our guidance. Michael will talk a little bit more about it. But I think it's basically good to see that we stay within the range that we guided at the beginning of the year. And then lastly, I would just say on the execution of the synergies. I'll come on to that on the next slide. But of course, at the end of Q1, we saw that we had a plan, and we presented also a time line we had a lot of uncertainties in this plan. We've managed to reduce the number of uncertainties and also basically then been able to update the plan so that you can see there are new time lines. And I think I would just like to mention that we said we would be done with 15% at the last call. Now we say we will have 30% done before the end of the year. And also the next column is increased from 50% to 70%. Not all plans are finalized yet. So as a consequence, we might -- this is what we know. This is what we have confidence in. We, of course, are working on doing it faster, and that might be the case. But this is what we know for now. So we're very comfortable showing you this as well. I think if we look at the integration itself, I talked about that we set the organization. It's very, very stable, the organization. We are pleased with that. I think, as I said, the customer dialogue, it's something that is really rewarding because it's something that we put extra effort into this integration. I think if we measure the previous integrations, we saw that we needed extra focus on this. And then I think the Country go-lives, they are progressing really well. We are live now in 13 countries. This is where we physically move the people in together that we -- both in the offices, but also in the operational side. So it's a lot of work that needs to get done. It's actually steered by Michael, who is doing a wonderful job on this together with the team. And then, of course, I think the back office functions, here, we also consolidate the functions. It's going really well. And then, of course, we can see that on the white collar side, we've reduced more than 3,000 headcounts as a result of the sort of the combination as well. I'd just also like to mention that we expect to go live in Germany on the 1st of January, as we stated also the last time. And I'm really proud about the work that is being done by the team there, both on the DSV side, but also the Schenker side and the constructive approach from the employee representatives, where we basically have an ongoing, of course, what can I say, open dialogue, but still in a constructive way so that we find results. Yes. I think the finance figures you could probably read yourself and the transaction costs and the expected synergies, they remain unchanged. I think if we look at the financial highlights here, we see the GP is up. I mean, at the end of the day, this is really what it's all about that we produce some more GP. We see that the EBITDA is down, and it is because the productivity, what can I say, needs to increase as well. There's one thing that I would like to say, and I'll also point that out when I come to some of the divisions. The transaction size that we are handling, it gets smaller when the economy has a difficult time. So the volumes sort of that are shrinking a little bit when we are down trading, it doesn't necessarily mean that there's fewer shipments. So we need more shipments to flow through the system, and we have a certain number of transactions per person per day. So on the productivity side, we're actually doing fairly okay, I would say. So it's just a little bit complex to see through some of those numbers here. But when we look at it on the management side, it's under control. We're doing a great job. And I'm very confident that we will see when the synergies start to kick in that we will also see progress on the EBIT side. If we move to the next slide, we come to the Air & Sea division. Here, I think we've always said it's GP that matters. we need to produce some gross profit here. And that's also what our focus has been in this quarter. If we look at it, we can see that the GP is up. The EBIT is down. And here, if I look at both air freight and ocean freight, we produce more shipments than we did last year even if the volumes have evolved as they have. And of course, it puts a little bit of pressure on the conversion ratio as well as the lower productivity we see out of the Schenker organization. Not that we're not going to get the Schenker productivity up, but it's just when you combine, it takes a little bit of time before we get there. And that, of course, has a consequence for the operating margin as well. But once then the conversion gets up, the productivity gets up, of course, the margin will adjust itself. If we look at the air freight, I think we are actually pretty pleased with the developments in the GP. It's really been solid for us. It's the last quarter where we can separate the DSV and the Schenker volumes because, as I said, we are now live in 13 countries, and it means that we cannot separate the hot and the cold water anymore when we do the reporting. So we give you these numbers, and you can see we've had the yield discussion many times, and it's actually holding up pretty well. One of the reasons why it's also holding up is, of course, as I mentioned, and say, you do more shipments in order to achieve, what can I say, the tonnage that we are talking about here. And we all have to remember that, let's say, you do an air freight shipment of 400 kilos or one of 800 kilos. It's the same work that the forwarder needs to do. So really on the productivity side, I think actually, if we measure on the KPIs internally, we can then have aspirations that we need to drive the productivity even higher, which we also have. But I'm very satisfied with the productivity measures that we have. And we're monitoring these all the time. If the market develops differently, of course, we will need to react on it. On the ocean freight, of course, that's the toughest market that we're in right now. It's crunch time. We see that basically GP is down. Of course, there's some FX impact in that as well, which goes for all our numbers. Michael will come back to that, but there's quite a bit of headwind on that. Also here, we've had the yield discussion many times. We've been discussing the value-added services that we produce on a shipment. And I think it speaks for itself that now we do more transactions per TEU. We've also had a lot of focus on the LCL market now for years as well in order to protect what can I say, our GP and have a value proposition where we are in control of the infrastructure. So I think this is very clear in the numbers as well. When you look at it, that this is now what is playing out as well. Then we come to Road. And of course, it's nice to see that in absolute figures, we are making progress. Schenker's road organization is a really good road organization, strong footprint in the Asia Pacific and also a solid footprint, a very strong footprint in Europe here, we are the market leader. So if we sit and look at this, then of course, there's a lot more to come, but we are on the right way. If you look at these numbers, they include both July and August, which if you have a large scoopage network means that you will have a lot of fixed cost and not as much income generated in each month. So delivering a result of there to round it up to DKK 800 million, it's actually quite an achievement from the road organization that I'm very happy about as well. On the shipment side, also here, we are flat. It's flat neutral, what we are seeing here as well. So it's really also well done, I would say. Then we come to CL. And here, we have produced almost DKK 1.1 billion. So definitely quite a bit up compared to what we've seen before. Here, we see that the Schenker contribution is impressive as well. Actually, we've been doing fairly well on the EBIT side on the DSV anyway previously, as you can also see from the comparable figure, which only includes DSV. But the Schenker is definitely also contributing with both footprint, with skills, with competence. And in combination, we have a really solid value proposition. And then we have the problem that which is something that we have a ton of focus on, we need to increase the return on the capital that we deploy because, of course, it benefits the other divisions that we hold cargo that is being moved in our air freight network, our ocean freight network or our road network. But we need to generate, what can I say, a higher return. We simply -- it's unacceptable where we are right now. But the division is really taking this into consideration when doing the integration, and I feel very confident that they are doing something about it that soon also will be visible in the numbers. So with that said, I would really like to hand over to you, Michael, so you can give a little bit of details to some of the numbers as well. Michael Ebbe: Thank you very much, Jens. And then if we look at the Page #12, which some highlights of our P&L. Like Jens mentioned, we have a stable performance in the quarter. And of course, Schenker contribution positively. It's also -- if you look at our -- the net result is, of course, impacted by our special items of DKK 1.1 billion. This is, as we've announced also related to the Schenker integration. Then I know that we have been talking with some of you guys at earlier occasions. We have, you can say, moved our Road activities, legacy Schenker that we have acquired that was moved to discontinued operations for the ones that are really into details in the spreadsheets. Another thing that Jens mentioned, and I will also touch upon that in the next couple of pages, maybe it's the FX headwind, which is, of course, impacting predominantly in our Air & Sea business. Next is also worth mentioning is that our tax rate is very high these days, which is due to the integration of Schenker. It's a little bit higher than what we have anticipated previously is because as we can see with the synergies and so forth, we move a little bit faster than what we did last time. So we are really picking up in pace, and that's reflected in the tax rate. Our diluted EPS is stable as compared to last year. But if you look at compared to last quarter, it's actually kind of picking up. And if you then even there to see if you can adjust for the tax rate, then we would actually already be in a positive mode on that one. It's clear that the ratios is, like Jens also mentioned, it's impacted by the dilution impact of the acquisition of Schenker, but we are working on getting that improved. Once again, on the next page, on the cash flow. Once again, we have actually a strong cash flow, more than DKK 4 billion, cash conversion ratio of 96%. We're very pleased to see that. Our net working capital has improved quite a bit as well. It's below 2%. I cannot promise you guys. Of course, I will do whatever I can to maintain that low level. But as we said earlier, it might be, you can say, to calculate around 2% in anything. We've also been able to reduce the debt by the strong cash flow that we have. So we have reduced our debt with DKK 4 billion. So that also seems to be nice. It is nice and that we are on the right track, as you can see. So that is great as well. Then the next page, 14, is on the guidance, we are very happy that we are able to keep guidance and, of course, lowering the upper range of our guidance. So now we will expect that we will land in DKK 19.5% to DKK 20.5% for the full year. Jens started out by saying that in this number, of course, we have to bear in mind that we have sale -- headwind, sorry, for the FX of around DKK 500 million as a headwind on that one. We also increased our expected synergies for the full year to around DKK 800 million from previous DKK 500 million to DKK 600 million. That's a change in there as well. And also given the pace that we have also means that we increase our expectations of special item costs in our P&L. And again, reflecting the pace on integration, the tax rate will be a little bit higher. It's because, yes, there are tax consequences when we do these kind of integrations. So long term, for the tax rate, we expect that we will be back in 24% area next year, hopefully. Then for the -- you can say the market outlook, it's still impacted by the macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape. So we still expect that uncertainty to persist for the next quarter. So we expect to see, you can say, growth below GDP for the next quarter. That's what we have embedded into this guidance that we have. But overall, again, we are very pleased that we are able to keep our guidance in the way that we have. And then, of course, on the Road and on the Contract Logistics, as Jens already said, it's a stable performance that we expect to continue for the remaining part of the year and hopefully also in the next couple of years, even better. And then back to you, Jens. Jens Lund: Yes. As Michael said, on the key takeaways, I think one of the things is when we take the Schenker integration, it's really all the experience that we have, all the support that we get from the various parts of the organization. They know what they need to do. It's really well done what is in there. But I think it's also a playbook that we've now done many times that everybody feels comfortable with and also to you, investors that have support us, thank you for that. That's really what comes out of it. At the end of the day, this momentum that we now see on the integration, it's really good to see. Then, of course, as an investor at the end of the day, what you get is earnings per share. That's our focus. Right now, of course, we are driving the earnings per share up. And of course, at a certain point in time, when we also delever the company, we'll probably also use the normal tools on the capital allocation to support that thing. This is our core focus that we drive the EPS up. And I think we are looking into a very interesting period when it comes to EPS development. Then, of course, the guidance, I think Michael talked enough about that, so we should quickly go to the Q&A session because I hope that you have many good questions for it. So please go ahead with that. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Dan Togo Jensen. Dan Jensen: Congrats with this report here. Maybe if you can elaborate a bit on your expectations here for Q4, especially the low end of the guidance range of DKK 19.5 billion I mean you need to make DKK 5.5 billion in the fourth quarter on my math, and you made DKK 3.9 billion last year. So that's a bridge of DKK 1.6 billion. Schenker contributed DKK 1.3 billion in Q3. Probably this will be more in Q4 and due to seasonality. And then you have synergies on top, which you have just lifted. So in my mind, this alludes to a somewhat negative contribution from the organic business in Q4 for DSV. And bearing that in mind, I seem to remember you have quite easy comps, at least in the Contract Logistics and in the Road business. So there must be something weighing significantly down in Q4 for you to maintain the DKK 19.5 billion. Just to understand your thinking of the low end. Jens Lund: Yes. It's basically volume, isn't it, on what can I say in particular within Air & Ocean that we are talking about. That is -- I think the yield will be okay. You've seen that we are a little bit down on volume, I don't see that trend really change. So compared to the original guidance, we probably had anticipated that we would have a growth in volume now we have a decline. I think that's the major contributor, I would say, Dan. The other things that you're talking about that we are doing well on -- yes, of course, the FX side is big as well. I think that's important to mention. But on the CL on Road, we're doing okay. And I think basically, if you say volume and FX, that's sort of the main explanation when we look at it. Yes. Michael Ebbe: And lastly, for -- sorry, then for the -- yes, I fully agree, of course. But last year also, we need to take the seasonality of the legacy Schenker into consideration. Dan Jensen: Yes. But shouldn't that pick up a bit in Q4 given the Road business, I mean, where Q3 usually is. Jens Lund: That's one thing you have to remember that they have big group network. So there are many days where there's no production in December. And that's -- I can tell you, we are also learning something new about fixed cost when it comes to that. So we're really trying to figure out how we can organize this in the best possible way in how many days we produce, et cetera, and what's the optimal outcome on that. We're putting significant effort into that. It's going to be less than what we've seen before, but it will probably take a couple of quarters before we really get that structured in the right way. So it is on the Road side, it's a hard one, I would say. It's going to be good in Road here in October and November, really good. And then we're going to get a tough December. But whether we -- the range is the range then. It's from DKK 19.5 billion to DKK 20.5 billion. So if you are a little bit more optimistic than the people that are -- there's a middle of the range as well, if you know what I mean. And I think I won't say more than that. Dan Jensen: Understood. And if I'm allowed, just maybe another question here, digging into the verticals. Could you maybe elaborate a bit which are the strong verticals for you here? Is it firm the growth you see, for instance, in technology, in pharma, maybe aerospace, defense and are yields holding up in these verticals? Jens Lund: I would say that yields are definitely holding up in the verticals you're talking about. It's probably also some of these verticals that do the best. You would perhaps have more, what can I say, we are a big player in Europe. So of course, automotive is a tough one for us also knowing that Schenker is a German company as well, very involved with those companies as well. That's, of course, something that is a little bit tough these days and also some of the industrial areas, the capital goods also a little bit under pressure. I would say. So -- but the verticals, of course, are tech vertical, very strong vertical out of Schenker. We had focused on it as well. But in combination, it's -- we have the broadest service offering of all the players in the market. So of course, we are making good progress there. And it's really good to see. It's helping us a lot when we then see troubles in other verticals. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Patrick Creuset from Goldman Sachs. Patrick Creuset: Congrats on the strong front also from me. Just a couple of questions. The first, just on synergies. I mean, it seems like you're harvesting the DKK 9 billion ahead of schedule. And perhaps can you talk a little bit about some other sources of opportunity, let's say, that you see within the DSV business? I mean, updated thoughts on procurement synergies, for example, and also the latest thinking on Star and Tango IT system rollouts. And then, Michael, you mentioned the strong cash flow leverage reducing. I think you previously talked about bringing the buyback back perhaps in H1 '27 and I appreciate it's early to talk about it, but any thoughts there, updated thoughts on time line on when you might be in a position to return capital again depending on how you continue to progress? Jens Lund: Good. I think I'll take the first couple of questions. Michael, he will talk a little bit about the buyback as well. So I think if we look at the synergies right now, I think what you are alluding to, Patrick, is basically when we do an integration, then we make an initial plan like we're doing now, then we combine the companies. Then once you have it combined, and I think this is what you're thinking about, then you're thinking there's actually a little bit of things we should adjust on top of that. These are not sort of in the plan, but they will come sort of once we've done the other work. I think it's a little bit too early days to say something about that. But let's say, 2 quarters down the road, we should have a much better view on how the combined DSV will look because then we will have done, as you can also see from the plan, quite a bit of the work combining the countries as well. So I think that's what we can say on that. But of course, we really working hard just to obtain the synergies we get right now, and then there's going to be a next step. If we take the Star or the Tango CargoWise One debate, I think the plan is that we now to harvest the synergies roll a lot of countries onto the CargoWise One, but also keep some volume on Tango. Basically, we can backfill both systems with data from each other. So we're not necessarily losing a lot of productivity on that. Then, of course, we have then to have a debate which direction are we going in. And I think we will have to come to a conclusion on that as we go along. So -- but so far, we're producing the volume and we are shifting. We have a data platform where we can exchange data between the platforms seamlessly. So it's not a lot of productivity that we are losing. It also helps us a lot on the customer integrations actually that we can do them, what can I say, in a more what kind of plannable way I would call it. Yes. Then Michael, short term. Michael Ebbe: Yes. Thank you, Jens. And Patrick, also thank you for the question from my side. Of course, the cash flow and how we can return into share buyback area is something that we follow up very, very closely. Believe me, I also want to go there as soon as I can. We have to look at the next couple of quarters. And of course, if we continue the strong cash flow as well, then we will, of course, like we always do, take a look at it quarter-on-quarter and then see how is our gearing ratio, how is the rating agencies consider it. And then we will have to take a relook hopefully, within a couple of quarters. Operator: We have now a question from the line of James Hollins from BNP Paribas. James Hollins: Michael, if I could start with you, if I could just get some, if possible, clarity on the synergies within 2026. I know a lot of investors are crying out for it. If we do some basic math on 30% integration end of this year, 70% end of next year. We took the midpoint, that will be something like DKK 4.5 billion of the DKK 9 billion. I was wondering if you could just give us your thoughts on synergies within 2026 that will impact full year '26 EBIT? And secondly, Jens, you talked about very little attrition in your customer or basically customer retention is strong. Is it sort of better than expected? Is it as thought? And I know you talked previously about you've done the top 275 customers. Maybe to run us through how that's going with the, I guess, smaller customers in terms of attrition? And if I may, are you planning at Capital Markets Day anytime soon? Michael Ebbe: Yes, I will take the first one, and then Jens will take the second one. In terms of the synergies, what I think that you can expect is that like we also have written for the phasing, if you do some math and try to predict it, you would see that 2026 should be around DKK 4 billion, you can say, in synergies that will have an impact on that one. Jens Lund: Yes. Then I can talk a little bit about what can I say, the customers. I would say that, yes, it's correct that, let's say, on the last call in -- after Q2, we sort of initially focused on the larger customers. Of course, that's cascaded down now into the organization so that there's basically a focus, what can I say on what we call A, B, C and D customers where we go and basically have a conversation with all those customers depending on their size and service requirements, et cetera, explain them what is -- the customers, they want to know what does this mean for us. Do we get new rates? Do we need a new contract? Do we need a new integration? Who's my new contract person? What does the team look like? Where is the office, all these questions we have to answer for the customer. If you are proactive and do this, then very soon, we can start to explain them what is it that the combined company can do for them. And this is, of course, where we are much stronger than we were before being now the global market leader. Of course, we have a strong offering to present to them. And actually, we've seen that they've responded very well on that, that we have a very structured approach on this. And I think it's also visible in our numbers that you see that in reality, we've managed to keep the customers, yes. We are down trading because the shipment size, what can I say, on volume in TEUs or tons because the shipment size has decreased. But apart from that, I think we've really stood our ground on this integration. And I think it's thanks to the efforts, what can I say, of the whole organization that wanted to prove to the market that we could up our game a little bit on this one. So I think that's all been very good. If we look at the Capital Markets Day, yes, there's going to be a Capital Markets Day. We need to come out and explain better what it is that we're doing, what's our strategy, what's our plan, what's our thinking, both on generative AI, for example, which is a big topic, what's our thinking on the integration and the strategies for the divisions. So we're really looking forward to that. And I know that our IR team, they are already working hard on planning it so that we will have a very good agenda for you. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Alex Irving from Bernstein. Alexander Irving: Two from me, please, both on Road. First of all, you pointed out the implementation of uniform digital platform. What is it specifically that Star can do for you that Roadway Forward could not? Second, you suggested at one point, it might have been last quarter that if you really excel in Road, a double-digit EBIT margin might be achievable. Is that still achievable? And if so, what would be the path to that? We're talking just structural cost reduction? Does it require a change in the business mix, say, more groupage? Jens Lund: If we take Road and Star, I think when you have to create a system like this, it's very much -- it's not a technical problem. It's a governance problem. How do you want to operate your business? I think Schenker has been on that journey on the groupage side and also managed to divide their business perhaps sooner than we did, whether it's a system freight, groupage, as we also call it in Europe. But let's say, shipments between 30 kilos and 2.5 ton or 2 tons or something like this, so larger than a parcel, but not, let's say, a real LTL shipment where you go direct to the customer. You will then also have the FTL business, which is like the full truckload. We call that direct. Schenker had separated that harder than we had in DSV. So we try to solve both products in the same structure, whereas Schenker really focused on the groupage. And that's really how Star came about. And then they have done a lot of change management in the countries where they're rolling it out because there's a lot of local habits that we have to weed out so that we basically work on one platform. Then you will have what we call, it's like for Air & Sea, you will have a single file system where you don't have, what can I say, different systems with different types of data. at both end different conventions for data and then you need human intervention. And then all of a sudden, what can I say you produce fewer shipments per person per day. It also gets harder to plan. And there are many things that are very difficult, the more complex system landscape you have. So this drives lower productivity. We replicate the same process over and over again. So we have also to say that Schenker, they have done better than separating these 2 things. Actually, we can also do the other stuff on the Star platform as well, the direct business, but it's perhaps supported a little bit less than on DSV, but it's still workable compared to what we have. And of course, if you have these things, then you can actually go to the next stage as well where you start to consolidate some of the efforts so that you go to a more domain-driven approach where you will say, listen, there's a quoting domain. There's a booking area where we handle this kind of could be called customer service. You could also then go to the Westmark cargo events, whatever you want to call it also customer service at the end of the day because now you'll have all this data in one system. And then, of course, on top of this, with a new technology, which was not what I was sort of factoring in at that stage. But of course, here, that will drive a ton of productivity to go into domains. But on top of that, you can probably put more agents in than we are using today. So that can drive the productivity even further. So it's really the technology is there. It's how much change can we impose on the company. This is the limitation. So it's a governance issue like it always is, there's nobody within our industry that has access basically to technology that the other people don't have. So it's how you run your company that decides what the financial outcome will be. Operator: We now have a question from the line of Alexia Dogani from JPMorgan. Alexia Dogani: If we start just on the synergies, you talked about DKK 300 million of impact in the third quarter. Can you just confirm it's all cost and there's no dis-synergies based on your customer attrition point? And then subsequent to that, at what point will you have more certainty that the dis-synergies that are within the DKK 9 billion are no longer valid, and we could be looking kind of at a better outcome? And then if Michael could just clarify, when you talk about -- you mentioned DKK 4 billion of synergies in 2026. Is that right? Because before we've talked about the midpoint of the exit rate, 30% in '25, 70% in '26, midpoint is 50% of 9% is 4.5%. So I don't know if you were thinking year-over-year or absolute. I think that's worth clarifying. And then my second question is on Road. Can you discuss a little bit more fundamentally the operating leverage in this business? Clearly, you're taking a lot of cost out at the moment as we have seen through the D&A reduction you've reported. And how will that kind of improve operating leverage when volumes start to recover and pricing starts to go through? And yes, giving us a little bit of color of the actions you've actually taken to really reshape the cost base of that business or I guess you're starting to make. That's it for me. Michael Ebbe: I can start with the synergies. Maybe just to be clear, you said, it's right that we say 30% for end of year. That means for the full year next year, we'll have DKK 3 billion. Then that's -- you can say that one. And then we have the synergies that we already have right now, which is DKK 800 million-ish. And that you can say, DKK 3.8 billion. And then you have -- you're right about the midrange. I though I would say that the synergies that we harvest the first might be the easiest. So I don't think necessarily you can take a linear approach on that one. But I can't promise you that we will deliver at least the DKK 4 billion, and we will work whatever we can to make that faster and higher, of course. Jens Lund: Yes. Then we talked about the dis-synergies. I think we will really know through the tender season, how that is all playing out. Normally, we've seen actually quite some attrition right now in a normal integration, which we are not seeing. And then, of course, it's the tender season. It's the second test, if we want to call it like that. So I think if we look at it right now, we are off to a good start, and I actually think we have to have the aspiration that we also make it through the tender season and then we can really start to focus on the growth. So of course, all the competition is focusing on us. Right now, we are the market leader. We also did that when we were chasing. So I think -- but I'm comfortable, as you can hear. Then I think the operating leverage on Road. if you look at, let's say, the road network, it's both a physical network, but also a back office thing that we're seeing. And as an example, Schenker, they can produce basically all DSV volume in most countries in their network. So of course, there was too much capacity available. There might even be areas where we still have too much capacity even if we've combined entities. So we are rightsizing that right now. Then, of course, we are looking at whether we need to produce all 100% of the volume in our own network or whether there might be some areas at very remote destinations where we could ask somebody else to do that. That would then limit the physical infrastructure quite a bit. In the offices, we also need to operate at plus index 90 on the capacity side, even if we are where we are right now. And then when we get price increases, I think there's only so much volume we will be able to produce. We might then need to might need to -- what can I say? We might need to say that we can grow a little bit less because we need to take some of those fluctuations out of it and then just increase the prices a bit more because today, we've actually had way too much capacity, so we could handle the peaks, but it's way too expensive in the troughs. So that's in reality what we are focusing on right now on the Road side. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Ulrik Bak from Danske Bank. Ulrik Bak: So in terms of the synergies and the integration process, what is it specifically that has progressed faster than planned? And have you identified other areas where we could potentially see a further acceleration of this synergy harvesting? And then also the DKK 300 million in synergies in Q3, DKK 800 million for the full year as well as '26. If you can provide some guidance on how this is split among divisions, that would be great. Michael Ebbe: Yes. I think if you look at the speed of the integrations, I think if you see what we have moved last time, we said 15% end of this year, and you can say 50% end of next year. Now we have increased to 30% this year and 70% next year. I think it's not that unusual. Remember the size of Schenker that we have acquired. I don't think it's that unusual that you need to kind of get a little bit of a grip on what it is that you have acquired and how you can plan for it. It's a complex thing to migrate 85,000 people in more than 80 countries into our infrastructure. legally as well as organizational and IT as well. So it takes a little bit of a time. That's also maybe why you said last time that it was progressing slower than at least for some of you guys have anticipated. I think what we have found out now, we know what we are dealing with. We have identified all the different scenarios from a system perspective, organizational perspective. So now we have put that into a plan that we are executing on, and this is where we are doing fairly well in execution in DSV. So that is why we are moving faster than what we initially thought through actually. And then in terms of finding, I think Jens already touched upon that in whether there are more synergies elsewhere to come. Right now, we stick to the plan that we have promised to deliver the DKK 9 billion in yearly savings, and we are very committed to deliver that. And of course, to be there as fast as we can. Operator: We now have a question from the line of Kristian Godiksen from SEB. Kristian Godiksen: A couple of questions from my side as well. So first of all, maybe could you comment on the stabilization you've seen in growth that you comment on in terms of what to expect going forward, both in terms of margin progression and maybe also in terms of which kind of price increases you expect to -- you in the market to implement in this quarter? And then secondly, just a household question. Wondering if you could comment a bit on why the legacy Schenker yields are down more, both in terms of sea and air freight than the legacy DSV yields? Jens Lund: If you take the yield question, I think Schenker had, what can I say, a tradition where they were a little bit longer on the procurement side. In certain markets, it had benefited them. And as you can remember, last year, perhaps that was a situation like this. Now if you are longer in this market, of course, then it's -- when the rates are going the other direction, then it's perhaps a different scenario. So I think that will be the explanation to that. I think on the operational side, it's fairly similar volume that we are producing. Then I think if we look at the road side, I think we need to think we don't want too much capacity. We want to have the capacity that is required in the market. This is a journey where you have a ton of infrastructure that you have to rightsize so that you get there. It's part of also certainly, it's also part of me having said that on group, we need to make much more money. Then I think the price increases that we go out with today, perhaps DSV stand-alone, Schenker stand-alone had an aspiration that we need more and more volume. Actually, we got sufficient volume now to have a European network. So we can sit and then look at what's the service, what's the quality of our product. And then, of course, we can then go out to the customers and say, listen, this is a quality product. And this is the SLA that we can deliver to you, and it comes at this price. So we've been out now to our customers basically because also there's pressure from the subcontractors, they want more money. So that with the service catalog, this is a service you get. This is what the price is. And it's, of course, always market driven by the subcontractors at the end of the day. But this in combination then is what we present to the customer. Then I think on the smaller account, if we sit and look at it, of course, we can present that because we don't necessarily have a long-term agreement. But on the customers that we have a longer-term agreement with, it's going to come when we have, what can I say, the freight negotiations basically for the renewal of the contracts. And that's typically happening into the new year. So there's still some bound to cover. But we are off to a good start, and I can see Michael has something he will add. Michael Ebbe: I think also one thing that I don't think that you should underestimate when we talk about stabilization. Remember that legacy Schenker has a huge road organization. And like we also touched upon last time, we have now set the management team, both globally, regionally clusters in the countries. And the team has also worked dedicated to find some of the recovery plans as we call them. So I think that's where we can see that now we are getting hold and grip of these kind of things that also pays into the frame of why we can say that it is stabilized. Kristian Godiksen: Okay. That makes good sense. And just a very quick follow-up on the impact from the longer procurement of volumes from the legacy Schenker. When will we see that impact fade away? Jens Lund: I don't know. It's hard to quantify. I think basically that it's an ongoing exercise that we're talking about. So I don't necessarily -- I don't think we're going to move backwards on the profitability on the road side. We're going to move -- make progress, consolidate and take idle capacity out that is not needed. I think that's -- on the procurement side, we're going to drive, of course, that very efficiently as we've always done and make sure what can I say, we have wholly procurement, let's say, the terminology that was used and think it was wholly management. I mean these 2 words, they are quite different, aren't they? Because it is a procurement exercise for us. We have to deliver the right cost to the customer as well. Michael Ebbe: And of course, it will follow the normal, you can say, renewal of the contracts. So... Operator: The next question comes from the line of Muneeba Kayani from Bank of America. Muneeba Kayani: Firstly, I just wanted to ask around yield mix at Schenker. So Jens, in the past, you've kind of given us a breakdown of the value-add mix for your -- for DSV stand-alone ocean and air yields. How does that look like in Schenker? And kind of along the lines of the previous question on Schenker yields, kind of how do we think about that mix and movements with freight rates going forward? So that's the first one on yield. Secondly, around cost cutting. So your competitor today announced a cost-cutting program. I think what you've said is you need to -- you're looking at it, but haven't really kind of pushed that kind of on top of what you're already doing with the Schenker integration. So what do you need to see to do more of that? And kind of how are you thinking about that? And just a quick one on real estate sales. You've talked about that in the past. Where are you in that process? Can you give us a sense of the time line and potential amount from Schenker real estate sales? Jens Lund: I think if we look at the Schenker yield, it was lower. I don't necessarily think that Schenker had the same focus on selling, what can I say, upselling the services than we had. They had perhaps more an approach where they were also a little bit long short in the market depending on their expectations. We have a clear way forward where we basically don't take positions as a company. And you've seen this play out in the industry as well. That also then leads to some companies then having, what can I say, to make certain decisions on capacity as well when you perhaps have some focus on the yield side that drives what can I say, financial outcomes that are not desired. If we look at our company, we rightsize the company all the time. There's natural attrition. And right now, we can stick to that. We have our performance KPIs, as I talked about when we run the company. So how many shipments, how many transactions per person per day. This is something that our organization, they look at all the time. And we can see what we do on the Schenker integration and with our expectations for the number of shipments we have to produce and the productivity expectations that we have that we don't need to do anything else on top of this right now, which is great. Our staff, they know exactly what we're doing. We're focusing on the Schenker integration and then the normal course of business. We then -- if there's an area here or there where we need more or less capacity, this is adjusted as a normal part of operation. And Michael will talk a little bit perhaps also about this, but also about the real estate as well. Michael Ebbe: I think just a last comment on the -- you say the cost cutting. Now you referred also to one of our competitors. I think you also maybe need to look at the starting point from a conversion ratio perspective and then see what that brings. And like you said, Jens, we are actually looking into, of course, the measures that we normally would take on that one. And for the Schenker real estate, it's correct that we -- that they have been a little bit more asset heavy than what we have. So we are, of course, looking into getting that to fit into our asset-light model and hence, there will be some divestment of real estate. Remember, this is not something that we have, you can say, taken into our business case. So we are looking into that. And, yes, I think we have also mentioned that in the earlier case, it could be around DKK 1.5 billion that we're looking into. And for timing and stuff like that, we need to go in and find a plan for that one before we can say more about it. Operator: We now have a question from the line of Lars Heindorff from Nordea. Lars Heindorff: The first one is on the logistics part of the business. Very strong revenue growth in the third quarter, apparently, a sale of a terminal property. I don't know exactly where and the timing of that. So maybe if you could just give a bit of detail how much impact that has on the top line and also on the gross profit in the organic business? That's the first one. And then secondly, I'm sorry, coming back on the yield questions here. I clearly understand your answer for some of the previous questions on the sequential decline in yields when rates go down in sea freight and how -- depending on how Schenker has been sourcing their capacity. However, in air freight, where we've seen a very, very significant decline in Sinker on a stand-alone basis, we haven't seen a similar decline in rates. So maybe just an explanation why we see that both in sea and in air. And also, I don't know if you can go that far and maybe give us an indication where you think that yields will continue to decline combined into the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter? And then the last one is just a housekeeping question on USA Trucking, the Q2 EBIT impact now that I'm looking for that, now that you've taken it out as a discontinued business. Jens Lund: Good. I think Michael will start, what can I say by answering some of the questions. Michael Ebbe: Yes. If we go to the Contract Logistics side, it is, as always, Lars, and you are aware that we have had some property projects, which we also have talked about in connection with our net working capital and so forth. And we have realized one here. And as always, it doesn't really have an impact on our EBIT and our GP, to be honest with you guys. So that's on that one. For the U.S.A. truck, it's also household, like I said, it's correct that we have now, you can say, classified it as divestment, noncontinued business. We said DKK 90 million on a quarterly. That's the net result, as you most likely know and can see. I think for EBIT impact, it was around DKK 60 million in the quarter. Jens Lund: And then you talked about the yields in ocean freight and air freight as well. I think if you look at the market, what can I say, rates, it's also very different for the 2 products, isn't it? Where it's been declining quite a bit on ocean freight and where it's quite stable, at least the way we see it on the air freight is, of course, declining, but not necessarily at the same pace. So I think this is what drives the difference in outcome, Lars. I think that was basically -- we are at the end of the session. So I would like to thank you all for your interest and look forward to have some conversations bilaterally after this call. But most of all, I would actually like to thank our employees that are listening in on the call for all their hard work, all their efforts and their dedication. We would never ever have been able to pull this off at this pace and with these results if it hadn't been for all your hard work and all your efforts you've overachieved and just continue that. It's really great fun to be at the company right now. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Christa, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the PG&E Corporation Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, we have allotted 45 minutes for this conference call. I would now like to turn the call over to Jonathan Arnold, Vice President of Investor Relations. Jonathan, you may begin. Jonathan Arnold: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for PG&E's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. With us today are Patti Poppe, Chief Executive Officer; and Carolyn Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We also have other members of the leadership team here with us in our Oakland headquarters. First, I should remind you that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements about our outlook for future financial results. These statements are based on information currently available to management. Some of the important factors which could affect our actual financial results are described on the second page of today's earnings presentation. The presentation also includes a reconciliation between non-GAAP and GAAP financial measures. The slides along with other relevant information can be found online at investor.pgecorp.com. We'd also encourage you to review our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2025. And with that, it's my pleasure to hand the call over to our CEO, Patti Poppe. Patricia Poppe: Thank you, Jonathan. Good morning, everyone. Our core earnings per share are $0.50 for the third quarter and $1.14 for the first nine months of 2025. Today, we're narrowing our full year guidance range. We've previously shared a range of $1.48 to $1.52. The new range is $1.49 to $1.51 and we're keeping our bias toward the midpoint which is up 10% over 2024. We're also introducing our 2026 EPS guidance range of $1.62 to $1.66. At the midpoint, this is up 9% from our 2025 midpoint. Last month, on our investor update call, we extended our 5-year capital plan through 2030. Highlights included at least 9% EPS growth each year 2026 to 2030, a 5-year capital plan of $73 billion through 2030, which supports average annual rate base growth of 9% and a financing plan, which does not require new equity also through 2030. With the 2025 California legislative session over and the enhanced protections of Senate Bill 254 in place, our team is focused on collaborating with key parties, advisers and state agencies as the Wildfire Fund administrator prepares their April 1 report and recommendations for how best to socialize and mitigate climate-driven wildfire risk in the state. This report is expected to lay out a wide range of policy options that will inform potential legislative action to stabilize the utility sector in the 2026 session. We're feeling the positive momentum of this process with what Governor Newsom on issuing his recent executive order calls a whole of government response to protect Californians from Wildfire. We share the governor's sense of scale and urgency and are committed to supporting the state's efforts to meaningfully adapt California's policy construct to meet the moment. As this work continues, we know that there's no better protection for our customers and our investors than predicting and preventing catastrophic fires in the first place. PG&E's physical layers of protection are delivering. Through October 20, our total year-to-date CPUC reportable ignitions are down over 35% from 2024 levels and are running lower than any year since we started tracking these data in 2015. Despite this year having seen the second largest number of fires greater than 10 acres statewide since 2017, PG&E is on track for a third consecutive year of 0 structures destroyed due to CPUC reportable fires in high-risk areas under high-risk conditions. We are proud of that. In spite of continued elevated climate-related risk, PG&E's layers of protection from ignition prevention to hazard awareness and response are proving effective. Contributing to this performance, we can point to several ongoing and new mitigations. About a month ago, we marked a significant milestone for our customers. PG&E has now constructed and energized 1,000 miles of power lines underground in the highest fire-risk areas. As we've consistently said, undergrounding remains the most affordable and effective way of delivering the safety and resilience our customers deserve. Customers should not have to choose between safety and having reliable electricity. Undergrounding is the only mitigation that delivers both. This year, we cleared vegetation in a 50-foot radius at the base of nearly 4,000 transmission structures after our data showed this approach would have contained the majority of transmission-related ignitions that we have experienced over the last three years. And we're continuing to deploy advanced sensor capabilities. including installing another 8,500 sensor devices this year, which builds on the 10,000 we rolled out last year. These low-cost sensors, coupled with our existing smart meters and our newly deployed AI-enabled machine learning model are enabling secondary system-wide continuous monitoring. This capability allows us to detect potential faults on the system before they occur, including on the customer side of the distribution pool. We will continue to leverage data to drive our mitigations in the field, making the system and our customers safer each and every day. In addition to executing on this important safety work, my coworkers have been leveraging our performance playbook to deliver consistent outcomes across the business for customers and investors. You can see our simple affordable model is working. Our 5-year plan contemplates $73 billion of customer beneficial capital investment through 2030. At the same time, building on lowered electric rates this year and planned even lower rates for bundled electric customers in 2026, we expect customer bills in 2027 to be flat to down to where they are this year. We are doing this by eliminating waste and delivering on our 2% O&M cost reduction goals, enabling rate reducing load growth by partnering with our large load customers and executing on a financial plan built with flexibility conservatism and credit metric targets supportive of investment-grade ratings, which will lead to interest expense savings for customers. We know that performance is power. When we perform we will have the power to influence perceptions and outcomes. By putting customers at the heart of everything we do and by doing what we say, our brand trust is on the rise and has been since our 2027 GRC filing started to change the narrative on affordability. In fact, when compared to our U.S. utility peers, the second quarter 2025 residential customer engagement study by Escalent showed, we had the highest annual increase in Brand Trust. Our data center pipeline remains robust, at over 9.5 gigawatts. We've seen modest net attrition in our application and preliminary engineering phase since June. However, our projects in the final engineering stage continue to grow and advance. Most of the applications in our pipeline are for 100 megawatts or less. This is a function of existing California regulation but also assigned that data centers designed to support AI inference models have strong and compelling reasons to want to locate in PG&E service area, which includes Silicon Valley, the home of the technology sector. Data centers of this size can be located in densely populated areas close to the end user and benefit from Northern California's extensive existing fiber network. This makes our service area a prime location for these customers who require real-time speed to ensure an optimal user experience. We are laser-focused on making this a win-win-win for our cities, our customers and data center developers. For example, we partnered with the City of San Jose to identify more than 150 acres of land adjacent to our existing infrastructure and in the heart of Silicon Valley that will be power ready for the data center selected from the city's competitive RFP issued earlier this year. Our robust pipeline with a diverse set of projects is a great opportunity for customer affordability and California's economic prosperity. Every gigawatt we bring online offers the opportunity to reduce electric bills by 1% to 2%. I'll remind you that this is upside to our plan, both in terms of customer affordability and in terms of capital growth. Given our bias for conservative planning, our capital plan only includes about $300 million a year for this type of capital, much of which falls under our FERC formula rate. With that, I'll hand it over to Carolyn to discuss our financials. Carolyn Burke: Thank you, Patti, and good morning, everyone. Here on Slide 8, we're showing you our earnings walk for the first nine months of 2025. Core earnings per share are $1.14 and we're on track to deliver on our 2025 non-GAAP core EPS guidance narrowed today. As you can see, we've made additional progress towards our O&M cost savings goal contributing $0.05 for the quarter and $0.08 year-to-date. We continue to see unit cost reductions in our inspection processes and savings through vendor contract renegotiations as two examples of our cost savings initiatives. Another key driver is timing and other. This bucket is contributing $0.10 for the quarter and $0.04 year-to-date. Both the third quarter and nine months include benefits from smart tax planning. As a result of a method change, we're able to accelerate the deductibility of certain mark and recognize greater tax savings. We view this tailwind as upside available to redeploy for the benefit of our customers in addition to protecting future years. Turning to Slide 9. There's no change to the extended 5-year capital plan, which we shared with you last month. Our planned customer beneficial investments support average annual rate base growth of approximately 9%, 2026 through 2030. Our rate base growth in turn, supports annual core EPS growth of at least 9% also through 2030. As a reminder, our rate base forecast excludes the $2.9 billion of CapEx to be securitized under SB 254. Incrementally today, we're sharing more detail on our capital investment plan as shown here on Slide 10. This continues to be a no big bets plan. It includes many important projects over the course of the 5 years to improve safety, reliability and resiliency for our customers while enabling economic growth through capacity upgrades and new business connections. To give you some examples, our plan includes a recently approved upgrade of our Helms hydro facility, enabling at least 150-megawatt increase in generating capacity. It also includes a substation upgrade, which more than doubles the electric capacity and improves reliability north of Sacramento. And it includes deployment of about 300,000 grid edge meters by 2030. These meters have distributed intelligence apps and advanced data processing, which support customer electrification as well as wildfire risk reduction. Last month, I shared with you our financing guidepost, shown here again on Slide 11. Importantly, our plan is built not to require a new common equity through 2030, a key consideration given where we currently trade. I also emphasize that we are continuing to prioritize investment grade ratings including maintaining FFO to debt in the mid-teens. Again, IG is one of the most meaningful potential affordability enablers for our customers. I'll remind you that we're targeting a dividend payout ratio of 20% by 2028 and maintaining that level through 2030. This offers financing flexibility over the course of our plan as well as implying near-term compound EPS growth well in excess of 50% over the next 3 years. Our planning also contemplates the possibility that the Wildfire Fund administrator calls for the contingent contributions authorized by SB 254. Regarding capital allocation, I'll remind you what both Patti and I shared on our September update call. Based on progress in the 2025 legislative session and encourage and signals that the state is serious about pursuing further reform in Phase 2, we see the investment plan we have shared with you as best delivering for our customers and investors now and for the long run. That being said, we'll continue to take a disciplined approach when it comes to capital allocation. If we were to reach a point where we aren't seeing clear indications of progress, we would certainly consider reallocating some capital towards more immediate shareholder return. Of course, always being mindful of our credit metrics. A key differentiator of the PG&E story is our performance playbook and focus on waste elimination to deliver better outcomes for our customers. To that end, we've achieved nonfuel O&M savings in excess of our target for 3 years running, and I'm confident that we will meet or exceed our 2% reduction target again this year. We're also on track to make meaningful improvements in our capital to expense ratio this year and beyond. In 2024, we invested $0.90 of capital for every dollar of expense. We forecast that this year, we'll invest $1.20 of capital for every dollar of expense. On the regulatory and policy front, we expect a proposed decision on our cost of capital application in November. And as Patti said, important milestones are coming up as stakeholders weigh into the second phase of SB 254. I'll end here on Slide 14, with a reminder of our value proposition enabled by our differentiated performance. We're executing on our simple affordable model by generating annual cost savings for the benefit of our customers, enabling load growth with our 5-year capital investment plan and improving our balance sheet. I'm pleased Fitch has taken the first move to return our parent company rating to investment grade. This is just the beginning. As we continue to prove out our philosophy that performance is power. And now I'll hand it back to Patti. Patricia Poppe: Thank you, Carolyn. The fundamentals of the PG&E playbook are undeniable. Strong layers of physical risk mitigation improving every day. Ample runway to continue reducing nonfuel O&M, rate reducing load growth serving customers and California's prosperity, improving credit ratings and balance sheet health and our differentiated rate case proposal as a critical proof point all of which provide a path for customer bills to be flat to down in 2027 from today. These performance fundamentals set the stage for constructive legislation but more importantly, a framework that creates prosperity for customers and investors. With that, operator, please open the lines for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Steve Fleishman with Wolfe Research. Steven Fleishman: So just on the SB 254 process, is there any better sense of in these steps, whether those would be made available that we can see? Or are we going to really more see things towards the end of the process? Patricia Poppe: Yes. Thanks, Steve. On the process front, we do -- we aren't sure what the CEA is going to share publicly. We do know just process-wise, the stakeholder abstracts are due November 3, right around the corner, full submissions by December 12. State agencies will submit final recommendations by January 30 and then that final study from the CEA April 1. We don't know what of those will be public. We're waiting to see that ourselves but we do know those are the milestone dates. Steven Fleishman: Okay. Understood. And then maybe just on the -- just any -- at this point on the cost of capital case, are we just basically waiting for a proposed order the process is done otherwise? Carolyn Burke: Yes. Steve, this is Carolyn. Yes. No, we are. We're -- as we've said in the past, we believe we put a really strong case forward, and the PD is expected in November 2025. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of David Arcaro with Morgan Stanley. David Arcaro: I guess would you expect the policy reform recommendations next April to be prescreened with like the legislature and kind of have buy in, in advance of then going into the session. Is this something that we should have gave you a little bit more confidence that it's kind of vetted and should have a good chance of making it through? Patricia Poppe: So I guess, as we talk about this, David, let's just back up a little bit and talk about where we are and then we'll talk about where we're going. First and foremost, what we saw from the legislature this year is that they took action. Look, there was concerns certainly about the fund durability and the risk then that was to shareholders in the event that the fund were depleted and the disallowance cap was dissolved. So I do want to just step back and remind everyone that this legislature and our governor took action very quickly, and we're thankful for the actions that they took. And there are some key benefits that I just want to reinforce that have been achieved already. I think there's a lot of, obviously, focus on Phase 2, but let me just remind us what happened in Phase 1. You know that protecting the fund and through the continuation account and our disallowance cap was a very important continuation of AB 1054, but there were several improvements to AB 1054 that I just want to hit really quickly, and I'll get to your process question. Moving the disallowance cap date -- to the date of ignition, I'm going to call that the unsung hero of SB 254. A lot of people haven't talked about that, but moving that disallowance cap date to the date of ignition versus after the entire prudence determination process protects investors in the billions of dollars range of lower exposure through the disallowance cap and any dollars that the IOU would have to pay back to the fund. That reduces that exposure dramatically. That was a big improvement. We also, of course, had no upfront contributions and with a significant portion of the contributions from the IOUs to the fund as a contingent call only in the event of a future large utility cost fire that jeopardizes the liquidity of the fund. That was a much improved source of -- or method of refueling the fund versus how it was done the first time. And of course, all new IOU contributions to the fund act as credits against the future regulatory disallowance that again, was a big improvement. And individual utility funding has been rebalanced, reducing the amount that certainly PG&E is paying into the fund by about 25%. So I say all that, just a reminder to everyone that we have some significant improvements as a result of this Phase 1 process of SB 254. We were very thankful that the governor had leaned in so strongly though on Phase 2. He did not have to issue an executive order. The study bills are issued all the time. He wanted to make it clear. I think that the actions of the CEA and the report and the recommendations and then potential action by the legislature in 2026 was a top priority for him through that executive order. And his comments about a whole of government approach to wildfire is very important, I think, for California, for our citizens, for the -- all of our customers and for everyone who lives here, it's just a very important step to take. Now what we know is that the comprehensive language that he shared that was both in the actual legislation and in his executive order was good to see. I would suggest that just flat out too soon to say what the best answer is going to be. We're going to see this range of proposals. The dates I just reviewed with Steve are the dates that the process will work. Obviously, the governor and the legislative leaders will be having conversation as this process unfolds. And -- but I would expect that the CEA report should be providing some really good recommendations to the legislature on which to act. David Arcaro: Excellent. No I appreciate all that color in the context there for the entire process. And then maybe a bit of a separate question here. From what you can tell, is the undergrounding decision still on track for this year? And how should we think about that? Could that still lead to a future acceleration of your undergrounding activities in the future GRCs? Patricia Poppe: Yes. Procedurally, currently on October 30, here just a couple of days, commission meeting. Currently, the final recommendations on the 10-year undergrounding procedure will be -- it currently is on the agenda. All that to say, we certainly have expressed concern with some of the requirements and some of the methodology associated with determining which miles should be undergrounded. And so we'll be watching closely as the commission provides that direction next week. I will say that -- and I shared this in our prepared remarks, we do believe that undergrounding remains the appropriate mitigation in some of our miles, not all miles. And I think that's important for people to understand. The miles that we've been talking about are in our highest risk areas where today, customers are experiencing 10 or more outages as a result of our safety methods. Our safety methods with enhanced power line safety settings, certainly reduces the risk for customers and keeps customers safe. However, the outages that go with that safety choice are not acceptable. And so in these areas, we need to have a higher risk reduction through undergrounding and a better customer experience through a resilient energy system that can stand up for -- through all sorts of weather conditions. Both fire hazard conditions as well as extreme snow conditions et cetera. So we are -- we continue to be bullish about undergrounding as the most affordable means of both reducing risk and providing resiliency in these highest-risk miles and will continue to advocate for that. We'll be obviously working with the commission on the time depending on their timing on our 10-year filing. And we obviously will need to meet the requirements that the commission outlines. But just to remind everyone, as part of our 2027 GRC, we did include a bridging strategy in the event the 10-year plan were delayed in some way. We did propose a bridging strategy to continue our current level of undergrounding, which is about 300 miles a year. And I'm happy to report, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, that we did hit a key milestone of 1,000 miles underground, and we've done that at a 25% lower cost than when we started. And so we continue to improve the cost for customers while we improve their safety and resilience. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Jefferies. Julien Dumoulin-Smith: Just wanted to follow-up, actually, if I can push a little bit more on the Phase 2 piece. How do you think about that conversation fitting into a broader, more comprehensive focus in the state on reform of insurance. Just want to understand what your understanding of the scope of the conversation is in the coming year as well as if there is any nuance to break apart as far as inverse condonation. I get that IC perhaps is maybe a bridge too far or at least it seems like a big ask. Are there other ways to dissect this that are relevant that folks should be thinking about? Again, I don't want to preempt the study per se that's coming out, but how do you think about strict liability conversation more broadly here as best you can tell? I get it's early. Patricia Poppe: Yes, Julien, if I had a crystal ball, I would say that it's too soon to say the governor's comments in his executive order and in the actual legislation itself, we're clear that it's a whole of government approach to insurance and utilities. Look, utilities are so important to California's future. We at PG&E power the tech industry. We power the future prosperity of our state. We think there's a big case to be made that our financial health and our customers' well-being our essential ingredients to California's future. So we'll look forward to how the study plays out, and we'll look forward to fruitful discussions with many parties to determine the best way to protect customers, preventing catastrophic wildfire in the first place and then having the right response and a means of compensation for those people who are harmed. So I do look forward to the whole of government approach that the governor has outlined. Julien Dumoulin-Smith: Awesome. Excellent. And then just following up a little bit on the nuance of the data center pipeline. It was down slightly here, but again, if you can speak a little bit to what transpired there with the 500-megawatt reduction. But more broadly, as you think about it's actually coming into fruition, would you anticipate being able to raise capital as you drive more bill headroom from data center realization? Or is that more about having a more of a linear read to bill reductions at large? Patricia Poppe: Yes. So I would suggest -- and this is great news. The most important numbers to look are the ones that are getting closer and closer to construction. So the final engineering numbers went up, and we expect of that 1.6 gigawatts in final engineering, about 95% to be online by the end of 2030. So -- and some of that's on -- will be online as soon as next year. So all that to say that I would suggest that our pipeline is rich. There's a lot of -- that kind of opening of the funnel is a very fluid number. I had a call this week with another customer that's not reflected in those numbers. So trust me when I say those numbers move a lot. And that's -- I think that's good because we're really taking a stand here that any of this new large load that we add here in California is going to be beneficial to customers and investors. Because what that means is we'll be able to invest in the capital to deploy, particularly transmission to build out the -- and some of the distribution system to build out that new large load for those customers. But the new revenue from that large load more than offsets the cost for customers to fund that CapEx, so we can grow our returns and yet reduce bills for customers. It's a really important win for California. And then you layer in the tax benefits, local property and sales tax to local communities. I'm in continual conversation with community leaders, mayors, et cetera, who are very bullish about this as a source of growth and new revenue for our cities to provide new housing options to provide new public safety options. And so there's really a lot of momentum here across the state to make sure that we bring online this new load. Carolyn Burke: Yes. And maybe I'll just add to your second part of your question there, Julien, as we think about additional capital for these additional data centers, we think about it in three distinct possibilities. One could make the plan bigger. We could make the plan bigger. But perhaps that's the least likely given that -- given our current stock valuation. There's also the potential to make the plan better, as you indicated, right? In terms of affordability and driving affordability for our customers by bringing in this beneficial load from data centers. That's a strong possibility. And then we also could just simply make the plan longer in terms of extending our above-average growth runway. So that's the way we're thinking about it. And as I said, it's more likely the second or third and not the first part. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Carly Davenport with Goldman Sachs. Carly Davenport: Maybe just to start on some of the commentary on the credit side. You obviously highlighted the Fitch upgraded in your prepared remarks. Just curious if anything you can share on conversations with the other agencies and sort of how you're thinking about milestones on the path to potential upgrades there as well? Carolyn Burke: Yes. We continue to have good conversations with both Moody's and S&P. And as you know, Fitch just did the upgrade. I would say they're looking for what you're looking for, which is progress on Phase 2 and that would be a significant trigger for them as they think about our investment grade. They both indicated that our financial credit metrics meet their investment grade criteria to really looking at the regulatory environment. Moody's is on a typical cycle where we see action in the first quarter. But again, that's really up to their internal assessment of the regulatory environment as well. Carly Davenport: Great. And then maybe just on the O&M front. You've executed really well there relative to your targets for a number of years now. I guess just help us frame out what it would take for you to have the confidence to potentially raise that target? Or just curious if that is a potential driver of upside as you think about the 2026 range that you've introduced here? Carolyn Burke: Yes. I'll just say that I just continue to be really odd and proud of my -- of our PG&E coworkers and their use of the lean playbook and driving waste out of the system. As you indicated, 3 years in a row running and we are on target to meet or exceed the 2% this year I have no lack of confidence that, that's going to continue. Just we may -- as we indicated, we're seeing significant progress on our capital expense ratio, but we're still fourth quarter. We still have lots of opportunity to go. So I would say that, that continues to be a driver of our simple affordable model. We are continuing to look at our numbers and where there's opportunity. We're not at the point where we're thinking about raising that -- we're not raising that 2% for this year, but it is definitely a driver for affordability and our earnings. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Aidan Kelly with JPMorgan. Aidan Kelly: Just wondering how comfortable are you with 2026 EPS guidance before you have a resolution on the cost of capital proceeding, I guess just any detail on what outcome ranges are contemplated in this outlook would be great. Patricia Poppe: Yes, I think you can rest assured that we plan conservatively. We think we filed a good cost of capital proceeding or filing. We think there's no lack of evidence that our actual cost of capital is up. All that to say, though, as we build out our plan, and I think you can start to really see the pattern year after year after year that despite a variety of circumstances, we ride that roller coaster so you don't have to, and we deliver what we say. I think we could all agree it's a choppy year, and there's been a lot of conversation here in California, and yet, we continue to deliver. And that's what I want everyone just to get comfortable with that we will plan conservatively under a variety of scenarios and make sure that we're in a position to deliver for customers and investors very consistently. Aidan Kelly: Got it. That's clear. And then on the storage front, I guess, it looks like some positive momentum here for commerciality with your completion of the CRC energy storage microgrid with Vault -- Energy Vault last month. Just curious to what extent do you see this project as like a blueprint for other high-risk communities as you kind of think about the reliability concerns during like safety shutoffs. Patricia Poppe: Yes. We're really excited about that project. And we definitely have other communities that we're preparing to do similar installations. We have -- every time we do these, we learn. This will be another opportunity for us to learn. Look, our ideal scenario is that, number one, we have less outages through infrastructure built for purpose, aka, undergrounding. And then in cases where public safety power shutoffs are a necessary part of our safety tool kit, which they are minimizing exposure by sectionalizing devices by some of these microgrids to harden -- to protect downtown so that they can have critical services during a public safety power shutoff, we want to make these outages invisible to our customers and keep them safe. So -- the whole suite of operational opportunities that we have, we're going to continue to pursue those. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Gregg Orrill with UBS. Gregg Orrill: How do you think about the direction of the payout ratio beyond 2028, if that's possible to know at this stage? Carolyn Burke: Well, as we had indicated in our last call that we are growing the dividend to a 20% payout to '28 and then maintaining it through 2030 at 20%. Operator: And that concludes our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the conference back over to Patti Poppe, Chief Executive Officer, for closing comments. Patricia Poppe: Thanks, Christa. Well, thank you, everyone. We appreciate you joining us. As I hope you hear today, we're on full speed here at PG&E. Our entire team is working to deliver for our customers and for you, our investors every day. You can expect nothing less. With that, we look forward to seeing you at EEI. Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Colby, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the West Bancorporation, Inc. Q3 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would like to turn the conference over to Jane Funk, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead. Jane Funk: Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Jane Funk, the CFO of West Bancorporation, Inc. and I'd like to welcome the participants on the call today, and thank you for joining us. With me today are Dave Nelson, our CEO; Harlee Olafson, Chief Risk Officer; Brad Peters, our Minnesota Group President; and Todd Mather, our Chief Credit Officer. During today's conference call, we may make projections or other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company. We caution that such statements are predictions and that actual results may differ materially. Please see the forward-looking statement disclosure in our 2025 third quarter earnings release for more information about risks and uncertainties, which may affect us. The information we will provide today is accurate as of September 30, 2025, and we undertake no duty to update the information. With that, I'll turn it over to Dave Nelson. David Nelson: Thank you, Jane, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and thank you for your interest in our company. I have a few general comments, and then we'll turn the call over to others for more details. West Banc had another solid quarter with a 16% earnings increase over the prior quarter and 55% increase over third quarter of last year. Our financial performance metrics continue to improve, primarily driven by an expanding margin. The future Fed rate cuts will also be favorable to our margin as well as loan renewal repricing is also helping our margin, and this will continue into enduring 2026. West Banc credit quality continues to be very strong with essentially no problem loans or any 30-day past due loans. Yesterday, our Board declared a $0.25 per share quarterly dividend to common stockholders payable Wednesday, November 19, 2025, to shareholders of record as of Wednesday, November 5, 2025. Those are my prepared remarks, and I would now turn the call over to Mr. Harlee Olafson, our Chief Risk Officer. Harlee Olafson: Thank you, Dave. My remarks are going to be pretty short because credit quality hasn't changed much here. So credit quality at West Banc for the third quarter of 2025 remains very strong. We have no past dues, no OREO, no nonaccruals, no doubtful accounts and no substandard loans. We have a small watch list that is mainly in the transportation industry. These credits are well secured, but the entities are having cash flow issues. Our commercial real estate portfolio is well diversified and is performing as expected. Having strong customers with liquidity and strong cash flows has served us well. We remain committed to our past underwriting disciplines and expect credit quality to remain pristine. After our prepared remarks, I'm available for questions. I now turn it over to Todd Mather, our Banking Manager and Chief Credit Officer. Todd Mather: Thank you, Harlee. For the quarter ended 9/30/25, our loan outstandings were up slightly at just over $3 billion. We experienced a few larger payoffs from asset sales and refinance activity. The majority of those assets were priced below the current environment. We replaced those assets with quality new assets at better interest rates. Our depositing gather efforts continue to be an emphasis, and we have been successful in attracting new customers and depositors. We remain selective in obtaining new loan opportunities, and those opportunities are less than in prior years. We are confident in our abilities to create and maintain positive relationships with our customers and prospects that we are pursuing in a highly competitive market. I will now turn it over to Brad Peters, our Minnesota Group President. Bradley Peters: Thanks, Todd. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to provide a brief update on our Minnesota banks. We continue to see a slowdown with the majority of our manufacturing clients. The economic uncertainty has created a cautious environment in each of our Minnesota regional centers. Our bankers have been diligent in staying close with our clients and have increased calling activities to better manage relationships. We are seeing new business opportunities with the recent M&A activity from competitors in our markets. Our bankers have targeted calling plans and each market has had success bringing new business to West Banc. Our calling is focused on deposit-rich business banking opportunities. We have a disciplined calling approach that has enabled our team to be successful in attracting new business. Our seasoned group of bankers and our business banking focus set us apart from the competition. We are also targeting high-value retail deposits. Our bankers have been successful in winning the retail deposits of our business owners and key executives. We are also attracting new deposits from high-earning individuals in our communities. We do not have specific production goals for our bankers, but rather measure our bankers on doing the right activities that will drive results. This method of performance management is more difficult to manage, but our local leaders are fully engaged with our activity-based expectations, and we have established specific activity expectations, which we coach our bankers on consistently. This method has proven to be successful as we expand our market share in our communities. Our facilities are designed to host client and prospect entertaining. These unique facilities align perfectly with our strategy of building business based on strong relationships. Our team has embraced this and have done an outstanding job of leveraging our buildings to grow our business. Those are the end of my comments. I will now turn it back over to Jane. Jane Funk: Thanks, Brad. I'll make just a few comments on the financial performance for the quarter, and then we'll open it up for questions. So our loan balances increased approximately $43 million in the third quarter, but were relatively flat year-to-date. Core deposit balances decreased approximately $82 million in the third quarter. This decline was primarily due to normal and anticipated cash flow fluctuations in core public fund deposits. Net income was $9.3 million in the third quarter compared to $8 million in the second quarter of 2025 and $6 million in the third quarter of last year. Net income and net interest income continued to improve through improvement in net interest margin, and our margin improved 9 basis points compared to last quarter. The yield on the loan portfolio continues to improve as fixed rate assets reprice into higher yields. In the third quarter, loan yield was 5.66% compared to 5.59% in the second quarter and 5.52% in the first quarter of this year. The cost of deposits declined 2 basis points in the third quarter compared to second quarter. As described earlier, credit quality remains pristine and no provision for credit losses was recorded this quarter. There were no significant onetime items in noninterest income or noninterest expense in the third quarter. And our effective tax rate this quarter was a bit lower than prior quarters this year due to a change in estimate on an energy-related investment tax credit. The effective tax rate was around 19% this quarter compared to 22% to 23% in the first 2 quarters of the year. Those are my final comments on the financials. So now we'll open it up for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Nathan Race from Piper Sandler. Nathan Race: Maybe just to start in terms of where the pipeline stands from a loan growth perspective, nice growth in the quarter, nearly 6% annualized. So just be curious to get an update there. I know Brad indicated there are some opportunities to pull some market share in Minnesota, just given some of the M&A-related disruption there. So I would love to just get an update in terms of where pipelines stand and how you're thinking about growth over the balance of this year and then into 2026 as well, please? Bradley Peters: Thanks, Nate. Yes, I would say in Minnesota, our pipeline is good, but it's not as robust as it has been in the past, and that's probably because we're really being more selective around what we're trying to attract from a credit perspective. But I think we can expect to continue to maintain the pace that we're at today. Nathan Race: Okay. So it sounds like mid-single digits is doable going forward? Bradley Peters: I think so. Nathan Race: Okay. Great. And then, Jane, I think the $50 million municipal deposit that you flagged last quarter, it looked like that came out based on the end-of-period balances. So just curious, is the expectation that you guys can fund that mid-single-digit growth outlook with deposit gathering from here and maybe a little bit as welcome cash flow off the securities portfolio? Jane Funk: Yes, that would be the objective. As we look at the cash flows off the investment portfolio and our opportunities for deposit gathering, that would be our objective. There may be a little bit of wholesale funding or broker deposits that we need to backfill that for a short period of time, but we expect to be able to manage that cash flow. Nathan Race: Okay. Great. And Jane, it seems like you guys have still a decent amount of margin tailwinds at your back in terms of -- I believe you have around $550 million of fixed rate loans repricing over the next 12 months or so. And then if you could just update us on your deposit beta assumptions as we get additional Fed rate cuts going forward? Jane Funk: Yes. On the loan side, yes, we do still see a lot of repricing opportunities. So like in our fixed rate loan portfolio, the average -- weighted average rate of that portfolio is currently like 4.86%. So there's still plenty of room there. And what we look at for maturities and repricing into 2026, we feel there's good opportunity there to continue to improve the yield on the loan portfolio. As far as deposit betas looking forward, I know that a year ago when the Fed did their rate changes, the rate declines, we were able to be pretty aggressive with our betas at that time on deposits. Should the Fed reduce rates another 25, 50 basis points this year and into next year, it's probably still questionable as to whether our betas can be as aggressive as they were a year ago. Just from a competitive standpoint, there's still a lot of pricing pressure on deposits. So I would expect it to maybe be a little bit lower than what we were able to do a year ago. Nathan Race: Okay. And Jane, maybe one last one for you. I appreciate the commentary on the tax rate impacts in the third quarter. Any thoughts on the go-forward tax rate? Jane Funk: I would say the go-forward tax rate is probably similar to what we had the first half of the year. In the third quarter, it's just the anomaly. Nathan Race: Okay. Got you. And then just curious if there's any update in terms of capital management or deployment priorities. You built capital at a pretty nice clip this quarter, and I imagine that should continue to unfold. But just curious if there's any kind of strategic priorities, whether it's additional location build-outs, adding team members to maybe accelerate the pace of organic growth. But I would just love to hear any updated thoughts on just how you're thinking about excess capital management. Jane Funk: We don't have any specific plans necessarily, but I think being able to take advantage of good loan opportunities, organic growth is really what we're looking for. Nathan Race: Okay. Great. Congrats on a great quarter. Jane Funk: Thank you. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of David Welch, private investor. David Welch: This is coming from a guy who grew up in Iowa and then has lived in Minnesota for 20 years. I know you're not a direct ag lender, but soybean prices, corn prices, I'm seeing an incredible amount of press about the distress in the farming community. Is that going to have a knock-off or knock-on effect to West Banc in your opinion? Harlee Olafson: Obviously , the dollars generated off of farm ground is going to be less. Our direct impact will -- it will have some impact on some of our customers, but most of our customers are not specific ag manufacturers. We have some customers that specifically provide pieces and parts to places like John Deere. But overall, we're a little bit insulated from that in our customer base. David Welch: Okay. That's kind of what I figured, but I thought I should ask. And it's been quite a few years now, and it might be a little unfair for me to ask it this way, but what's the medium-term assessment of how the Minnesota growth venture has gone thus far? Bradley Peters: I think it's -- I mean, we never put together a specific projection, but I think I can say with confidence we've exceeded expectations to this point. Each of the markets have contributed to the bottom line, we continue to grow at a reasonable pace. I think at this point, company-wide, it accounts for about 1/3 of our company. So we're pleased. Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Jane Funk for any closing remarks. Jane Funk: All right. We just want to thank everybody for joining us today, and we appreciate your interest in our company, and have a good day. Thank you. Operator: This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Good day, and welcome to WesBanco Inc.'s Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Iannone, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. John H. Iannone: Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to Wesbanco Inc.'s Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Leading the call today are Jeff Jackson, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Dan Weiss, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's call, an archive of which will be available on our website for 1 year, contains forward-looking information. Cautionary statements about this information and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures are included in our earnings related materials issued yesterday afternoon as well as our other SEC filings and investor materials. These materials are available on the Investor Relations section of our website, wesbanco.com. All statements speak only as of October 23, 2025, and WesBanco undertakes no obligation to update them. I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff. Jeff? Jeffrey Jackson: Thanks, John, and good afternoon. On today's call, we will provide an overview on operational efforts and third quarter results as well as provide an update on our outlook for 2025. Key takeaways from the call today are: earnings per share of $0.94 when excluding merger-related charges, which was highlighted by loan growth funded by deposit growth, a net interest margin of [ 3.53 ] and year-over-year fee income growth of 52%. Continued success in our newest markets as demonstrated by growing pipelines and strong customer satisfaction. Commitment to operational excellence in support of profitable long-term growth and enhancing shareholder value. Our third quarter results demonstrate the successful integration of Premier and continued operational discipline. Despite elevated commercial real estate payoffs, we delivered strong loan growth fully funded by deposit growth. while meaningfully expanding our net interest margin and fee income. Combined with our focus on cost control, these efforts drove positive operating leverage and an improved efficiency ratio in the mid-50s. For the quarter ending September 30, 2025, we reported net income excluding merger and restructuring expenses of $90 million and diluting earnings per share of $0.94, an increase of 68% year-over-year. On a similar basis, our third quarter return on average assets and tangible equity improved to 1.3% and 17.5%, respectively. Our efficiency ratio improved 10 percentage points year-over-year to 55% due to expense synergies generated from the Premier acquisition as well as a continued focus on expense management and driving positive operating leverage. Our strong growth in fee revenue was driven by organic growth across our businesses, especially wealth management and our larger post-acquisition customer base. Turning to operational topics. We are pleased to share that customer satisfaction in our newest markets has rebounded even faster than we expected following the Premier acquisition. While a temporary dip is typical during conversions and integrations. Our team anticipated the challenge and proactively put plans in place to support service and quality and customer trust. Today, satisfaction scores in those markets are back to pre-conversion levels. And our overall customer satisfaction across all markets is in the upper 80 percentile level, well above the industry average. This reflects the strength of our integration strategy and the dedication and skill of our teams. That same operational discipline is reflected in our deposit performance. Our annual deposit campaign launched in third quarter is once again delivering strong results. Total deposits grew organically across our footprint by more than $570 million year-over-year and $130 million sequentially, fully funding our organic loan growth. Importantly, this momentum was driven by core deposit categories, not higher cost certificates of deposit, which we have strategically allowed to run down. We have continued to see a pickup in commercial real estate payoffs, which totaled $235 million during the third quarter and caused a nearly 1.5% headwind to loan growth. Reflecting this headwind, third quarter organic loan growth was 4.8% year-over-year and 2.2% quarter-over-quarter annualized. Encouragingly, total commercial loan growth continues to be solid as our teams take advantage of our record pipeline. As of both September 30 and mid-October, our commercial loan pipeline stood at approximately $1.5 billion with more than 40% tied to new markets and loan production offices. Notably, our new Knoxville LPO is already contributing meaningfully, accounting for 5% of the total pipeline. Given the current loan pipeline and CRE payoff headwind, we continue to expect mid-single-digit year-over-year loan growth during 2025. This strong pipeline continues to translate into meaningful wins, including in our newest markets. In one of our premier markets, we secured a major deal with a national motorcycle manufacturer looking to acquire additional dealerships on a tight time line. Thanks to strategic collaboration across commercial banking, treasury management and retail, our team delivered a tailored package of solutions ahead of schedule. The result was an 8-figure loan, 7-figure deposits and additional treasury and swap products. This is a terrific example of how we collaborate to deepen banking relationships and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Our mission is to deliver financial solutions that empower our customers for success while maintaining operational efficiency. To that end, we continue to optimize our financial center network in support of evolving customer preferences and long-term growth. This strategy includes streamlining existing locations continuing to enhance our digital banking capabilities and selectively opening new financial centers or refreshing existing ones within our footprint. Following the strong performance of our Chattanooga loan production office, which has grown to over $200 million in loans in just 2 years. We received regulatory approval to open our full first service financial center in Tennessee. This new location will simplify deposit gathering and deepen client relationships. We are also opening a new center in Alliance, Ohio, where we see strong growth potential. Both centers are expected to open in the first quarter of next year. At the same time, we are streamlining our footprint to ensure efficiency and responsiveness. After a thorough review of our customer behavior and banking preferences, market conditions and proximity to existing centers, we made the decision to close 27 financial centers across our legacy markets. none of which are related to the Premier acquisition. More than 75% of these closures are within 10 miles of another location and deposit attrition is expected to be minimal. These closures bring our total since 2020 to 80 closed financial centers and are expected to generate approximately $6 million in net pretax annual savings. By focusing on the right locations, facilities and customer experiences, we are positioning WesBanco for sustainable growth and exceptional service across all markets. I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Weiss, our CFO, for details on our third quarter financial results and our current outlook for the fourth quarter of 2025. Dan? Daniel Weiss: Yes. Thanks, Jeff, and good afternoon. For the quarter ending September 30, 2025. We reported GAAP net income available to common shareholders of $81 million or $0.84 per share. And when excluding restructuring and merger-related expenses, third quarter net income was $90 million or $0.94 per share, representing an increase of nearly 150% from the $36.3 million or $0.56 per share in the prior year period. On a similar basis, and excluding the after-tax day 1 provision for credit losses on acquired loans, we reported $2.55 per diluted share for the 9-month period as compared to $1.61 per diluted share last year. To highlight a few of the third quarter's accomplishments we generated strong year-over-year pretax pre-provision core earnings growth of nearly 130%. We funded loan growth with deposits and on a year-over-year basis, improved the net interest margin by 58 basis points, grew fee income 52% and reduced the efficiency ratio by 10 percentage points. Our balance sheet as of September 30 reflects the benefits of both the premier acquired balance sheet and organic growth. Total assets of $27.5 billion increased 49% year-over-year and included total portfolio loans of $18.9 billion in total securities of $4.4 million. Total portfolio loans increased 52% year-over-year due to the acquired PFC loans of $5.9 billion and organic growth of $594 million, driven by the commercial teams. Commercial real estate payoffs have continued to increase and totaled approximately $235 million during the third quarter of '25 and $490 million on a year-to-date basis, more than 2.5x the prior year-to-date period and currently projecting them to be near $800 million for the year. Despite this headwind, we remain optimistic about future loan growth with our strong pipeline banking teams and markets, combined with more than $1 billion in unfunded land construction and development commitments expected to fit to fund over the next 18 months. And in fact, we've achieved record commercial gross loan production through the first 9 months of the year. Deposits increased 53.8% year-over-year to $21.3 billion due to the acquired PFC deposits of $6.9 billion and organic growth of $573 million, which fully funded loan growth. On a sequential quarter basis, total deposits increased $130 million due to the efforts of our consumer and business teams more than offsetting the intentional runoff of $50 million of higher cost brokered deposits and less reliance on public funds acquired from PSC Credit quality continues to remain stable as key credit quality metrics remain low from a historical perspective. And within a consistent range over the last 5 years, as expected, criticized and classified loans decreased during the third quarter to 3.2% through a combination of credit upgrades and loan payoffs, the allowance for credit losses to total loans at September 30 was 1.15% of total loans or $217.7 million, a decrease of $6.2 million from June 30, 2025, was primarily driven by the runoff of a $5 million qualitative factor that was established in 2023 to capture elevated interest rate risk, which ultimately more than offset increases associated with slightly higher unemployment assumptions and loan growth. The third quarter net interest margin of 3.53% improved 58 basis points on a year-over-year basis through a combination of higher loan and security yields and lower funding costs. As I mentioned last quarter, our net interest margin declined 6 basis points sequentially as the CD book from PFC matured and repriced partially offset by our core margin improvement of 3 basis points. Deposit funding costs of 256 basis points for the third quarter decreased 29 basis points from the prior year period. And when including noninterest-bearing deposits, deposit funding costs for the third quarter were 192 basis points. For the third quarter of 2025, noninterest income of $44.9 million increased 51.5% year-over-year due primarily to the acquisition of Premier. With combined premier fee income, we again set record highs this quarter in several fee income categories, including trustees, service charges on deposits and electronic banking fees, we also saw a nice improvement in gross swap fees, which increased $2.1 million year-over-year to $3.2 million in the third quarter, reflecting both the interest rate environment and traction within our newest markets. Noninterest expense, excluding restructuring and merger-related costs for the 3 months ended September 30, 2025, was $144.8 million an increase of 46% year-over-year due to the addition of Premier's expense base, higher core deposit intangible asset amortization that was created from the acquisition and higher FDIC insurance expense due to the larger asset size. Salaries and wages of $60.6 million and employee benefits of $18 million each increased year-over-year due to higher staffing levels and higher health insurance costs, but were consistent with the second quarter as staffing reductions offset the full quarter impact of annual merit increases. Health care during the third quarter continued to be somewhat elevated by about $1 million over our baseline projections for the quarter due to larger-than-normal claims driven by a few high dollar claimants compared to historical claim experience and general increases in health care costs. We've incurred restructuring and merger-related expenses of $11.4 million during the quarter, which included approximately $7 million of charges from the disposition of assets and lease terminations associated with the planned closure of 27 financial centers with the remaining $4 million associated with the Premier merger. We anticipate incurring additional personnel-related restructuring charges here from the closure during the fourth quarter, while nearly all of the merger-related expenses from PFC have been recognized. Our regulatory capital ratios have remained above the applicable well capitalized standards. On September 10, we raised $230 million of Series B preferred stock which will be used to redeem the $150 million of outstanding Series A preferred stock on November 15 and $50 million of sub debt acquired from PFC later in the fourth quarter with the remaining net proceeds to be used for general corporate purposes. Reflecting the new Series B preferred stock, which is considered Tier 1 capital we realized sequential quarter improvement across all of our capital ratios. And when we use the proceeds to redeem the Series A preferred stock and sub debt, we anticipate our fourth quarter CET1 ratio to continue to build 15 to 20 basis points per quarter, while Tier 1 risk-based capital to decline approximately 50 basis points from the third quarter, reflecting the redemption of the Series A preferred stock. Turning to our current outlook for the fourth quarter. And as a note, we will provide our outlook for 2026, during our January earnings call. We are currently modeling a 25 basis point Fed rate cut in October, However, given our relatively neutral rate sensitive position, we do not expect a meaningful impact on our net interest margin from this or the September cut here in the nearer term. We anticipate our net interest margin to rebound during the fourth quarter to the mid- to high 3.50s, reflecting continued improvement in funding costs, fixed asset repricing and loan growth. And while trust fees and securities brokerage revenue are subject to equity and fixed income market valuations, we anticipate noninterest income and noninterest expense to remain relatively consistent with our third quarter trends -- and we expect the planned closure of the 27 financial centers to occur late January with a pretax annual savings of approximately $6 million to begin thereafter. During the fourth quarter, we anticipate preferred stock dividends to total approximately $13 million, which includes the Series A dividend of $2.5 million the Series A redemption premium of $5.5 million and the new Series B dividend of $4.9 million. And lastly, the provision for credit losses will mostly be dependent upon loan growth economic factors and charge-offs. And of course, our effective tax rate should be in that 19.5% range for the year. So we are excited to see positive momentum from the continued margin improvement, our financial center optimization strategy and continued growth in our new markets as well as the organic growth and expansion opportunities that lie ahead. So with that, operator, we are now ready to take questions. Would you please review the instructions? Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Karl Sheppard with RBC Capital Markets. Karl Shepard: I guess I'll start with you. I think it seems like you're very happy with the production in pipeline for loan growth, but CRE paydowns is still kind of a bit of a headwind. Just help us understand maybe what you're seeing for production a little bit more -- and then what's the path for pay downs maybe? I hate to use the word normalizing, but coming back down a little bit and driving a little stronger overall growth. Jeffrey Jackson: Yes, sure. Very, very pleased with the production. I think if you look at just year-over-year, I can give you a couple of numbers through third quarter. So third quarter last year, we did about $1.7 billion in new production. This year, we've done $2.3 billion. So almost basically $600 million more we've done this year. And so the pipelines are really strong, about $1.5 billion and have remained strong. And so I believe that we should have a really strong fourth quarter. We should hit the mid-single-digit loan growth target that we've set out for this year. As far as pay downs, some of it looks at -- in the third quarter were things we wanted to pay down. If you didn't notice our CNC came down 50 basis points. A lot of that was pay downs that we had requested. So feel very good about that. I think when we look into the fourth quarter, we could see another couple of hundred million in pay downs in the fourth quarter. But looking over a normalized period of time, I would say it's going to be on an annualized basis would be in that $400 million to $600 million, $700 million range on a full year basis. This year, we should be -- we might be touching $800 million to $900 million on an annualized basis. Once again, fourth quarter, we don't know exactly. But I would say our pipelines are very strong. We feel very good about mid-single-digit loan growth for the remainder of this year. And next year, we are still looking at mid- to upper single-digit loan growth. Karl Shepard: Okay. That's very helpful. And then, Dan, 1 for you. On the margin, I think it came in right where you were expecting this quarter, but I just wanted to check to see, are you still thinking 3 to 5 basis points of quarterly expansion in the core -- and is there anything kind of out in '26 that we should think about that might disrupt that trajectory? Daniel Weiss: Yes, Karl, I do feel very good about that 3 to 5 basis points of continued improvement. So I don't -- we're not providing much guidance here on 2026. But outside of what I provided last quarter, which feel good for the next couple of quarters, to see continued margin improvement. And of course, for our purposes today, we're modeling a 25 basis point cut here next week as well as 1 cut in each of the next 3 quarters thereafter. So that's kind of where we see it there. The 1 thing I would note, and this is baked into the 3 to 5 basis points of margin expansion. But you'll notice that our Federal Home Loan Bank borrowings are down $475 million versus the second quarter, which is great. I would point out that the $230 million in capital that we raised $150 million of that $230 million will be used to pay off the Series A preferred. And so that effectively will be borrowing back from the Federal Home Loan Bank of that $150 million. And then, of course, at the very end of the year, we'll have the $50 million of sub debt premier but we'll be paying off and absent normalized deposit growth, we would anticipate to see that Federal Loan Bank borrowing balance to be up probably a couple of hundred million dollars. Operator: Our next question comes from Catherine Mealor with KBW. Catherine Mealor: Just go to ask on expenses. It was nice to see the announcement for the branch closures. I know you're not giving '26 guidance yet, but is there -- can you help us just kind of frame at least as a base how you think about the impact of branch closures kind of offsetting new hires and just kind of what organic loan growth could look like, trying to at least frame up the expense trajectory and potentially more operating leverage and profitability improvement as we get into '26? Jeffrey Jackson: Yes. As far as the loan growth, I'll start out and I'll let Dan talk about the expense base. We feel very good about mid- to upper single digits and loan growth. And a lot of that is obviously driven by our premier markets that are getting ramped up. I would also say our new health care vertical and then our LPOs. Our LPOs are just operating at a tremendous level Tennessee ones of Chattanooga and Knoxville and Nashville, Indianapolis is doing a great job as well. And then Northern Virginia has really taken off. So we feel very good about those prospects on the loan growth piece. I'll let Dan talk more about the expense base. Daniel Weiss: Yes. I would say once again, just to kind of reiterate, we're still in the process of finalizing our budgets and forecasts here for 2026 and we'll provide some more guidance at the end of the year. But I would say, certainly, 0.7 branches, there's going to be a tailwind to expenses heading into heading into '26 as a result. So I think that provides some opportunity potentially for reinvestment in technology, people, process and technology. But we certainly also make sure that we are recognizing that expense benefit to the bottom line as well. So pretty excited about where that -- where we're at there. Jeffrey Jackson: And just to add on it just to add on briefly. As you know, we are always looking to optimize the branch network, and we'll continue to look at that in the future as well. Catherine Mealor: Got it. And so it's fair to assume though, without giving targets that the efficiency ratio should continue to improve as we move through '26. Daniel Weiss: Yes. That would be our model today. Operator: Our next question comes from Dave Bishop with Homsey. David Bishop: You noted the health care team, I think you noted there's some opportunity to grow that portfolio pretty materially. Any way to ringfest how big the opportunity is there from that new team you hire? Jeffrey Jackson: I would say, currently, I believe they've closed about $250 million in loans and brought in about around $80 million in deposits and closed about, I believe, about $2 million in fees. So -- and they've been here approximately 6 months. So if you extrapolate that out, you can kind of look at next year, potentially they could do anywhere from $300 million to $500 million in loans on an annual basis. Very excited about that team. We're looking to grow that team. And it could be larger than that, but that's what I kind of pencil in today. David Bishop: Got it. I noted the increase in average deposit cost on a sequential basis. Was that purely a function of the purchase accounting impact and how aggressive you think you can lead on into these Fed rate cuts? Daniel Weiss: Exactly. It has all to do with what we described last quarter and that being the temporary nature of the CDs that we had acquired 7-month CD specials that were effectively rolling off and don't expect that to see that repeat. That's behind us at this point. Operator: Our next question comes from Russell Gunther with Stephens. Russell Elliott Gunther: I appreciate all the color on the capital actions taken this quarter. It would be helpful to just get a reminder as to where you would plan to kind of manage capital levels to going forward, be it TCE or CET1. And then just any updated thoughts as to how you're thinking about the potential to reverse the CECL double now. Daniel Weiss: Yes, sure. Great question. I'll take that. So from a CET1 standpoint, I would say our internal targets are kind of between that [ 10.5% ] and 11%. And we're growing CET1 about 15 to 20 basis points per quarter, and that's what we're kind of projecting here. over the next several quarters. I would tell you, and as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, that we do have a little extra total risk-based capital with the duplication of the Series A and Series B, the Series A being temporary. It will go back down about 50 basis points. But if you compare it off of the second quarter, we will still be up 70 basis points on total risk-based capital. So excited there as well. As it relates to the CECL double count at this point, we're still evaluating -- but unlikely -- really the FASB has to issue the ASU before we could really make any determination. But I would say the more time that passes, probably the less likely that we would do something there. Russell Elliott Gunther: Got it. Okay. And then last question here would be just use of excess capital going forward and any appetite for buyback around the current level? Daniel Weiss: Yes. So I would say right now, we're still -- we continue to be in a capital build mode -- and as you know, Russell, buyback is typically on the lower end of the spectrum in terms of priorities. So today, I would say certainly less likely in the near term for buyback. Jeffrey Jackson: Yes, I was just going to say really focused on capital build back and then obviously, that would go toward dividends and really loan growth. Russell Elliott Gunther: Excellent. If I could sneak 1 in, in terms of you gave us some incremental color on the health care vertical. It sounds like a good runway there. Anything kind of adjacent or similar vertical add-ons you would contemplate down the road? Jeffrey Jackson: At this point, we're just really focused on health care and then also the LPO strategy. That's really working incredibly well, would potentially look to other cities end markets to continue to expand there. We talk about different verticals, but at this point, nothing really to share right now. Operator: Our next question comes from Daniel Tamayo with Raymond James. Daniel Tamayo: Maybe first on the deposit side. So obviously, you had the impact from the premier CDs repricing. It looked like money market and savings deposit rates were up a bit in the quarter as well. Just curious the type of deposit competition that you're seeing, if you can kind of size it for us from a relative perspective, it's gotten more intense or still somewhat similar to what you saw in the prior quarter. Daniel Weiss: Yes, I would say it's pretty similar to what we've been seeing over the last several quarters, not expecting and not seeing anything intensify. And -- but I would say with CRE paying off in general, I do think that, that could provide some relief on deposit pricing in general. David Bishop: Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe for you, Jeff, you just touched on it a little bit with your comments on the appetite to continue the LPO strategy and perhaps into new markets as well. But just curious if you have any overall thoughts as, I guess, post your capital build when your target that you want to be at where does M&A fit in and relative to the LPO strategy do those 2 things have to be separate? Or can you do both? Jeffrey Jackson: Yes. Right now, I would say we're totally focused on LPOs and verticals and growing our organic business. So that's where we're totally focused at right now. And we feel like we've got a great growth runway just to do this organically. I can't tell you how proud I am of the team and how excited I am about the LPOs and -- what's amazing is we've had a lot of great people that we've been able to hire and that has turned into more people and people hearing about our brands as we expand south and expand West. And so we feel like we've just got a lot of great organic opportunities for us. that we're really going to be focused on in the next year plus. So that's really where our focus is today. Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Jeff Jackson, CEO, for any closing remarks. Jeffrey Jackson: Thank you. We are continuing to deliver meaningful improvement in our financial metrics and strategic positioning to deliver enhanced shareholder value, highlighted by third quarter earnings per share of $0.94. The strong customer satisfaction scores and continued optimization efforts. We remain focused on driving positive operating leverage through sustainable long-term growth. Thank you for joining us today, and we look forward to speaking with you at one of our upcoming investor events. Have a great day. Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the West Fraser Third Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded on Thursday, October 23, 2025. During this conference call, West Fraser's representatives will be making certain statements about West Fraser's future financial and operational performance, business outlook and capital plans. These statements may constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian and United States securities laws. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, which may cause the West Fraser's actual or future results and performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied in these statements. Additional information about these risk factors and assumptions is included both in the accompanying webcast presentation and in our 2024 annual MD&A and annual information form as updated in our quarterly MD&A, which can be accessed on West Fraser's website or through SEDAR+ for Canadian investors and EDGAR for United States investors. I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Sean McLaren. Thank you. Please go ahead. Sean McLaren: Thank you, Inna. Good morning, and thank you for joining our third quarter 2025 Earnings Call. I am Sean McLaren, President and CEO of West Fraser. And joining me on the call today are Chris Virostek, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Matt Tobin, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing; and other members of our leadership team. On the earnings call this morning, I will begin with a brief overview of West Fraser's Q3 2025 financial results and then pass the call to Chris for additional comments before I share some thoughts on our outlook and offer concluding remarks. West Fraser posted negative $144 million of adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter of 2025 as we continue to operate within an extended cycle trough. Of note, this quarter included a $67 million out-of-period duty expense related to the finalization of Administrative Review 6 or AR6. New home construction remained relatively stable during the period, albeit at uninspiring levels, with annualized U.S. housing starts averaging just 1.31 million units through August on a rolling 3-month seasonally-adjusted basis as mortgage and interest rates continue to present headwinds to U.S. housing demand and affordability. And as we've noted for several quarters, repair and remodeling demand was subdued once again this quarter. Despite the tough Q3, our balance sheet continues to demonstrate strength as we exited the quarter with nearly $1.6 billion of available liquidity and a healthy cash position that remains positive net of debt. A strong balance sheet and liquidity profile, along with our investment-grade rating remain key elements of our defensive capital allocation strategy, which allows us to invest in our business countercyclically and take advantage of investment opportunities if and when they arise. With that brief overview, I'll now turn the call to Chris for additional detail and comments. Christopher Virostek: Thank you, Sean. And a reminder that we report in U.S. dollars and all my references are to U.S. dollar amounts, unless otherwise indicated. The lumber segment posted adjusted EBITDA of negative $123 million in the third quarter, inclusive of the previously mentioned $67 million out-of-period duty expense. This is in comparison to $15 million of adjusted EBITDA reported in the second quarter with the sequential change driven largely by lower pricing and the AR6 duty expense. Of note, operations at our old Henderson site are winding down and the new mill is entering its commissioning phase. Our North America EWP segment posted negative $15 million of adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter, down from $68 million in the second quarter, with the sequential change largely driven by lower OSB pricing. The Pulp and Paper segment posted negative $6 million of adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter compared to negative $1 million in the second quarter, with the sequential change largely attributable to Cariboo Pulp's annual maintenance shut that occurred in the third quarter. Prior to and following the maintenance outage, we are seeing improved operating performance from Cariboo Pulp in terms of daily output. Finally, our Europe business generated $1 million of adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter similar to the $2 million reported in the second quarter. In terms of our overall Q3 results, lower product prices for our lumber and North American OSB products were the largest contributing to tractors as compared to Q2. We were also buffeted by a number of major maintenance activities during the quarter, most significantly the Cariboo maintenance shut. Cash flow from operations was $58 million in the third quarter with our net cash balance at $212 million, down from $310 million in the prior quarter. The relative decrease in our net cash balance reflects lower earnings offset by -- in part by a reduction of working capital plus the impact of $90 million of capital expenditures and approximately $65 million of cash deployed towards share buybacks and dividends. In terms of our 2025 shipments guidance, with the demand softness, we continue to experience across our lumber product portfolio, we are narrowing our outlook by reducing the top end of the guidance range for both SPF and SYP 2025 shipments, while maintaining the North American OSB and EU OSB shipment guides for 2025. We are also confirming our 2025 CapEx guidance range of $400 million to $450 million. All updated views on our 2025 outlook are presented on Slide 8. Regarding softwood lumber duties. Earlier in the third quarter, the U.S. Department of Commerce released final CVD and ADD rates for AR6 which are based on the year 2023. These rates were largely as we had anticipated and at a combined rate of 26.5%. West Fraser has the lowest duty rate in the Canadian industry. More recently, the U.S. administration issued a proclamation that imposed Section 232 tariffs of 10% on imported softwood timber and lumber into the U.S., which came into effect on October 14, 2025. This tariff is in addition to the existing softwood lumber duties. With that financial overview, I'll pass the call back to Sean. Sean McLaren: Thank you, Chris. Looking forward, we continue to monitor macroeconomic conditions complicated by shifting trade policies. Despite such a backdrop, the company remains well positioned to navigate the dynamic and difficult business environment we face today, backstopped by a strong financial position. As a reminder, we acted early in this down cycle, optimizing our portfolio of assets to create a more resilient company. This included permanently removing 170 million board feet of capacity in our Canadian lumber business in 2022 and 650 million board feet of capacity in 2023 and 2024, through the permanent or indefinite closure of 5 of our leased economic lumber mills in the U.S. and Canada. Combined, these capacity removals account for 820 million board feet, representing approximately 12% of the company's lumber capacity prior to the actions taken. Considering our shipment guidance for 2025, our implied Q4 operating rate reflects the curtailment of approximately 20% to 25% of that capacity. Furthermore, we divested 3 pulp mills for $124 million in 2024 and acquired high-quality lumber and OSB assets. In the aggregate all these actions to high-grade the portfolio have made us better at the bottom of the cycle. Going forward, we will continue to take this approach of managing our asset portfolio to do what is both prudent for the long term and necessary in the short term. Also expect us to continue to be flexible in our operating strategy, meeting the needs of our customers and operationalizing the benefits of our strategic capital to drive down costs, all while keeping our focus on a safe working environment for our employees. We are wrapping up a number of capital projects that have been in progress during the current market and expect the start of these projects will continue to lower cost as they are operationalized. We will also continue to pursue a balanced capital allocation strategy that includes investment in value-enhancing projects, pursuit of opportunistic investments in growth, and the return of capital to shareholders as we leverage the competitive advantage of our balance sheet strength and available liquidity. In terms of our more general medium- to longer-term outlook, we will continue to lean on our industry knowledge and experience to make the decisions that we believe will not only keep the company resilient in the trough of the cycle, but will also allow the company to be better prepared for the next industry demand recovery whenever that may be. North American support lumber supply has been trending lower in recent years, with a material proportion of that capacity closed permanently due to factors including high-cost fiber supply, legacy technology, shrinking residual markets and now more recently, increased duties and tariffs. When lumber supply demand dynamics eventually find balance and demand cyclically improves, we expect our ability to add material new supply will face the same significant obstacles, access to economically viable fiber, high capital costs that challenge returns on investment and long-term viable outlets for residual products. Shifting briefly to tariffs. Regardless of what may happen on this front, as we have said before, we continue to monitor the Canada-U.S. trade situation closely and remain agile and ready to respond as needed, and we will continue to work closely with our federal and provincial governments to support discussions when called upon as they relate to softwood lumber. In closing, at West Fraser, we aim to deliver strong financial results through the business cycle. We achieved this leveraging our product and geographic diversity, modern, well-capitalized assets and the dedication of our people and culture rooted in cost discipline and a commitment to operate responsibly and sustainably. We remain steadfast in the strategy. Although we continue to have a challenged near-term outlook, we are optimistic about the longer-term prospects for our industry and for West Fraser, and we look forward to continuing to build one of the world's leading sustainable buildings products companies. Thank you. And with that, we'll turn the call back to the operator for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from the line of Ketan Mamtora from BMO Capital Markets. Ketan Mamtora: Maybe to start with and recognizing that this is a pretty tough backdrop right now. I'm just curious sort of your approach to managing production in both lumber and North America OSB, particularly in this environment, which increasingly looks like that demand is likely to remain soft here in the near term. Can you sort of just give us some part on sort of how do you approach sort of managing production, particularly as we are looking at sort of another year where EBITDA could be kind of negative in lumber? Sean McLaren: Ketan, happy to touch on that. And maybe I'll just start with -- by reinforcing a few things that -- the actions we took early in the cycle, which we're closing permanently or indefinitely a number of our mills adjusting our shift configurations. And we have remained nimble in our lumber portfolio against after those actions. And as sort of -- you have seen in our guidance as the year has unfolded. So we maintain in both of our main -- all of our product lines, but in particular, lumber and OSB, a variable kind of operating strategy that first runs to our economics and our customer demand needs. So that's how we manage that, and we make those decisions all the time within our platform. Ketan Mamtora: Understood. And then on OSB, what was sort of the implied Q4 operating rate looked like based on what you all have discussed. You talked about sort of 25% temporary curtailment in lumber. How does that look like in... Sean McLaren: Yes. I'll let Chris touch on that one. Christopher Virostek: Yes. I think, Ketan, as you'll recall, I think when we've discussed this before, right, Q4 is always very heavy for us on maintenance shuts. We strategically take that maintenance downtime in Q4 because it is a weaker seasonal period. So I think our -- with the shipment guide that is out there, that would imply an operating rate of somewhere around 80% in the fourth quarter. Ketan Mamtora: Understood. And then just last one from me. On the balance sheet side, clearly, the balance sheet is very strong. You've got a net cash position. Curious about sort of how you think about M&A opportunity in this kind of down cycle at the moment? And where do you think you've got the most opportunity for inorganic growth? Christopher Virostek: Yes. Sure. I'll jump in there, and then Sean, you can add if you like. I think we're very consistent the last several years in how we've talked about M&A. And for us, it's quality first, right? And I think clearly, an environment like we're in today necessitates that -- it just shows how important that quality-first approach is around all those things that Sean mentioned that are challenges, whether that's residual supply or asset quality or workforce availability or timber availability. So I think the way that we have the balance sheet we have flexibility to pursue our -- the strategy that we've always had, and growth has always been part -- inorganic growth has always been part of the company's DNA going back decades. So -- but we're going to be guided first and foremost by quality and things that make the company stronger. And I think you can see that certainly in the actions that we've taken over the last several years where we've added to the portfolio, it's been very selective and high quality, and we've also removed things from the portfolio that we don't think make us stronger at the bottom of the cycle. So I think that will be the guide as to what we consider as opportunities is there's got to be -- we got to be satisfied with the quality that's out there. Sean? Mark Wilde: No, that's perfect, Chris, all quality and enhancing our strength at the bottom of the cycle. Those are the priorities as we think about what might be next for West Fraser. Operator: And your next question comes from the line of Ben Isaacson from Scotiabank. Ben Isaacson: Just two questions for me. Sean, I think last conference call, so 3 months ago, the federal government was starting to talk about a possible support and conversations around that when it comes to lumber. So it's been 3 months and things have not really improved in terms of the macro backdrop. Can you talk about what you're willing to share in terms of how those conversations are going and how federal support for lumber is starting to stack up. Sean McLaren: I can't remember, I don't have the exact date in front of me. I believe it was in early August, and it was in British Columbia, which was encouraging at a small business in -- a small lumber business for the premier rolled out some different support measures. I don't have all the details are all in the public domain, but they were providing some level of support for the industry, some level of funding for exploring different markets. But that would all be in the public domain. I think we, as a mandatory responded, we continue to and frankly, with a balance sheet that we -- that remains strong. We continue to support those measures for the industry with the government. And at the same time, are kind of maintaining our own balance sheets, which is reinforcing our operations. So I probably wouldn't add more than that Ben. Ben Isaacson: Okay. That's fair. And then just a second question is perhaps for you or for Matt. With respect to your own customers that you talk to regularly, can you give some kind of sense in terms of how many months or days or weeks of inventory is in the U.S. channel, again, when it comes to your customers only relative to normal conditions for mid-October. Sean McLaren: Go ahead there, Matt. Matt Tobin: Sure. I can answer that. I would say we don't really have visibility into our customer supply chain or their inventory levels. What I can speak to is our inventory levels and they're lean in both SYP and SPF which has been intentional in this uncertain market to run our inventories lean. Ben Isaacson: Okay. So just to be clear, I mean, from the rate of reorder, you don't have a sense as to -- in terms of planning when your customers are going to come back and what their needs will be in the next kind of 2 to 3 months. Matt Tobin: No, I'd say they're buying as their needs come to them, and we're ready to service them in whatever regions they're in. But I would say no fundamental change or visibility to their inventory levels. Sean McLaren: One thing I might add to that, Ben, is our customers are -- products readily available. So they're buying what they need as they need it. And I think our guidance would -- we're maintaining our inventories in a below average position. And so our guidance would -- things are flowing through based on that guidance. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Sean Steuart from TD Cowen. Sean Steuart: Sean, I want to follow up on the M&A question, and I appreciate your comments around all the assets and building strength at the bottom of the cycle. I guess the follow-on is, we're 3 years into this lumber downturn in North America. Have you seen more opportunities coming to the surface. And if so, would those opportunities include the types of assets you're looking for? I guess I'm trying to gauge what the opportunity set looks like now and how that's changed over the last 3 to 6 months. Sean McLaren: Sean, probably not -- I think we maybe had this question on a prior call. Probably not a lot of change this year. I think there -- what you typically see is early in an upswing as people are thinking about if a quality asset to sell, people would then maybe look to market that. And then I would say in the pipeline, I don't think there's anything any more than normal and for sure, higher quality assets typically are being held to a better time to market them. So all those things saying that we wouldn't be -- there wouldn't be anything that is jumping out today, that is high quality and available that fit. Sean Steuart: And I also wanted to follow up with your comments on North American supply management on the lumber side and appreciating you've done a lot of work on permanent and indefinite closures over the last 3 years. Is a part of the decision making for you at this point in the cycle, we're arguably closer to the end of this downturn than the start at this point, hopefully. Is there reluctance to take more permanent or indefinite shuts at this point when maybe we can see the light at the end of the tunnel as affordability headwinds start to ease. Is that part of the thinking and the thought process when you're gauging sort of rolling downtime versus further definite or permanent closures. Sean McLaren: Yes. No, it's a good question. I think we always look at it against the backdrop of how is that asset holding up during the current down cycle, and do we have a clear path for the next down cycle. And we make kind of decisions against that backdrop, it's really hard to predict. I mean, I agree with your comments that hopefully, we're here closer to the end than in the middle or the beginning, but we really don't know that. So I think we always have to really challenge ourselves, especially in this environment. Is there a a better operating model that lowers our cost here at the -- and makes us more competitive at the bottom of the cycle. And I would look across our SPF business, Southern Yellow Pine, OSB major business lines and volume is coming out of those businesses and costs are lower. So that's really the way we look at all those decisions and -- but they really -- every asset gets pressure tested in this environment. Operator: And your next question comes from the line of Matthew McKellar from RBC Capital Markets. . Matthew McKellar: I appreciate all the details so far. First from me, could you maybe just share with us how conditions in the Canadian markets have evolved in the last few months, is there anything to call out in terms of differences with the band between the U.S. and Canada? And then are you seeing any of your competitors behave any differently in the Canadian market since higher U.S. duties or the tariffs took effect? Matt Tobin: Yes, I can take that. I would say that the Canadian market remains competitive. It's a much smaller market than the U.S. market. So while it's an important market for us and we service those customers, it generally doesn't drive demand. And I would say it remains competitive just with where we are in the cycle and all the other things you've mentioned going on, but I would say nothing unusual, just having to compete every day to service our customers in that market. Matthew McKellar: And then just a couple of cleanups. If we're in an improved, but still, relatively soft wood products market next year, how should we be thinking about CapEx? I appreciate that Henderson will fade year-over-year. How does that evolve into '26 in your view? And second would be just the fire of the Cowie facility, can you help us understand what the state of that facility is today? Christopher Virostek: Sure. Yes. Thanks. So on CapEx, as we look forward, I think as we said in the comments, right, like we've spent a lot of capital. And I think that's one of the advantages of our strong balance sheet is we've been able to be durable with our capital allocation strategy and invest for the future in what have been pretty difficult market in the last couple of years, considering that, as Sean said, we're wrapping up a lot of fairly major projects here, and our focus is shifting to operationalizing those. So I think you can sort of think about what that means relative to 2026. We'll be out in February with our 2026 CapEx guidance. We have had 2 pretty busy years with with big projects going on. With respect to Cowie, I think, flagged in the materials, right, that incident happened about 5 weeks before the end of the quarter. Facility has been repaired back up and running, and I think we're pretty pleased with what we're starting to see in the European segment in terms of maybe some green shoots of things starting to turn around there. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And your next question comes from the line of Hamir Patel from CIBC Capital Markets. Hamir Patel: Sean, we don't have access to the U.S. trade data at the moment during the shutdown. But on the ground, are you seeing any signs of European lumber imports increasing just given that their competitive position has improved relative to Canada with all the duty and tariff changes since August. Sean McLaren: Ask Matt, if there's -- I don't think we have a lot of visibility to that, Hamir, without the data coming in. But Matt, would you add anything to that? Matt Tobin: No, I'd say like you said, not a lot of visibility and no meaningful change that we can see in them. Hamir Patel: Okay. Fair enough. And I just want to ask in Europe, if you have any comments on -- with respect to OSB demand, how things are faring on both the new res and R&R side? Sean McLaren: Yes. And Chris sort of touched on that as unfortunate incident at Cowie, our team did an excellent job of making the repairs and getting the mill back up and running and it kind of shadowed that event really did shadow some progress in Europe, and we are seeing -- hard to say how much is kind of demand driven, some of it still may be supply driven, but kind of sequentially quarter-over-quarter, we are seeing some price improvement in OSB and seeing some demand improvement there. So we're looking more optimistically in Europe over the next few quarters, and we'll see how all that unfolds. Operator: And we have a follow-up question from Mr. Sean Steuart from TD Cowen. Sean Steuart: Chris, you guys have done a good job on working capital management. And yes, I appreciate the seasonality in Q1 you'll update big log deck builds in Canada. Can you speak generally though, to, I guess, the changes you've made in terms of how you're managing working capital, over the mid- to long-term room for more reductions there, ability to pull more cash out of that, just broader perspective on how you're thinking about that item. Christopher Virostek: Yes. Look, I got to give a lot of kudos to the operations teams across the company on this front, right? I think it spans all elements of the working capital, we manage our credit and receivables very tightly, while still maintaining good relationships with our customers. The cycle there is pretty short. I think as Matt indicated in his comments, in many of our businesses were at or below target levels and operating with fairly lean inventories, which, look, presents some challenges from time to time in terms of filling orders. But the teams are doing a remarkable job of managing through that and learning how to operate with lower inventories. And then lots of work, I'll say, going on in terms of on the procurement side as well as vendors and vendor selection and things like that. So say it spans all aspects of this. And I'd say it's not just something that because of the environment that we're in, that it's getting any more focus than it ordinarily does, think the teams work hard on this stuff all the time. They're probably tired of hearing me talk about working capital. But it's really been, I think, a source of strength for us here in the last while, really releasing on, frankly, all aspects of the balance sheet, and it helps run a more efficient and effective business. So what does that translate into going forward? Hard to say on the way out, but I think some great learnings across the business and a deep focus on strong execution. Operator: And there are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Mr. Sean McLaren for any closing remarks. Mark Wilde: Thank you, Inna. As always, Chris and I are available to respond to further questions as is Robert Winslow, our Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Thank you for participation today. Stay well, and we look forward to reporting on our progress next quarter. Operator: And this concludes today's call. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.
Operator: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to World Kinect Corporation's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press 11 on your telephone. To remove yourself from the queue, you may press 11 again. I would now like to hand the call over to Braulio Medrano, Senior Director of FP&A and Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Braulio Medrano: Thank you, Latif, and good evening, everyone. Welcome to World Kinect Corporation's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call, which will be presented alongside our live slide presentation. Today's presentation is also available via webcast and on our Investor Relations website. I'm Braulio Medrano, Senior Director of FP&A and Investor Relations. With us on the call today is Michael J. Kasbar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Ira M. Birns, President and Chief Financial Officer; and Mike Dejada, Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. And now I'd like to review our safe harbor statements. Certain statements made today, including comments about our expectations regarding future plans and performance, are forward-looking statements that are subject to a range of uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to materially differ. Factors that could cause results to materially differ can be found on our most recent Form 10-K and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. This presentation also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in our press release and can be found on our website. We will begin with several minutes of prepared remarks, which will then be followed by a question and answer period. At this time, I would like to introduce our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Michael J. Kasbar. Michael J. Kasbar: Thank you, Braulio. Earlier today, we announced a series of important leadership changes. The board has unanimously elected Ira M. Birns to become World Kinect Corporation's next CEO and join the board effective January 1, 2026. This is an important and positive milestone in our company's history for several reasons. The first is confidence in leadership. The board has full confidence in Ira's ability to efficiently allocate resources, accelerate our focus on core businesses, and aggressively drive growth and returns. And the second is the strength of the team. With John Royall's commercial and operational expertise and Mike Dejada's deep commodity, financial, and accounting acumen, we have a talented leadership lineup tested and ready to lead us forward. This transition has been years in the making. Over the past several years, our leadership team has taken on increasing responsibilities and gained invaluable experience. Equally important, this team has the temperament and skill to navigate cycles and events. Pandemics, wars, deglobalization, the disciplined judgment to evaluate risks and uncertainties prudently allocate capital, and maximize long-term value. They are well-seasoned to deliver. Most importantly, we have the right people in the right roles to drive our goals and future growth, demonstrating our commitment to talent development and organizational capabilities that will sustain success for years to come. With improved organizational strength, operational readiness, and a sharper portfolio, we are well-positioned for the future. The entrepreneurial spirit that built this company in fragmented markets is now complemented by the operational and financial discipline required to profitably scale in today's environment. I am incredibly proud of our transformational journey. Simple broker and reseller to a strategically important partner providing mission-critical supply to some of the largest and most important companies around the world. I couldn't be more proud. Turning to the business. Aviation delivered another solid quarter of double-digit earnings growth, driven by improved operating leverage in Europe, and profit growth in both business aviation and government activity. Our recent announcement to acquire Universal Trip Support Services expected to close in Q4 will add momentum and significantly expand our service offering to our core business and general aviation customer base. Marine faced a challenging quarter amid lower bunker prices and low volatility, but we see strong opportunities for greater cash generation when market conditions shift. Land rebounded significantly from Q2 and we are confident that our accelerating portfolio reshaping efforts will improve financial returns and earnings predictability as we move into 2026. We are nearly through our portfolio sharpening, and Ira, John, Mike, and the rest of our team have my full support to deliver on our strategic plan and drive the business forward. I'll now turn the call over to Ira for a financial review and his business comments. Ira M. Birns: Thank you, Michael, and good evening, everyone. And be prepared. I unfortunately have a lot to say today. Mike, I want to begin by expressing my deep gratitude not just for your extraordinary leadership over the years, but for your unwavering commitment to our mission, our people, our customers, our suppliers, and our shareholders. Your vision and passion have shaped this company into what it is today, and I've been truly honored to work alongside you for so many years. I'm incredibly excited about the road ahead and the opportunities that lie before us. This next chapter builds on the strong foundation you've created, and I'm grateful that you'll continue to be part of our journey as executive chairman. Over the past several quarters, we've been sharpening our focus, as Mike just mentioned. Making deliberate decisions to exit non-core and underperforming businesses. While there is certainly still more work to be done, this is already enabling greater strategic clarity and is allowing us to concentrate more of our time, energy, and capital on the areas where we see the greatest opportunities for growth. Across our aviation, marine, and land platforms. As we move forward, executing on this strategy will continue to be a team effort. And I'm especially looking forward to continuing to work closely with John Royall, who will step into the role of president, and Mike Dejada, who will succeed me as CFO. Both bring tremendous expertise, drive, and integrity to their new roles. And I have every confidence in their leadership. With a strong foundation and a world-class team, I believe we're well-positioned to unlock greater value for our shareholders, our customers, and our employees throughout the world. Mike, again, I look forward to your continued support as executive chairman and I am excited about working alongside our exceptional leadership team and our board as we move into this next chapter. As Mike Dejada will be assuming the role of CFO after we file our 10-Q tomorrow, I will now take you through our quarterly financial results for the seventy-fifth and last time. Before we review our financials, please note that our non-GAAP results reflect approximately $5.8 million of non-GAAP adjustments this quarter, or $4.2 million after tax, principally associated with the finance transformation initiative we initiated last quarter where we continue to make progress. In line with our expectations. Reconciliations are as always on our IR website and in today's webcast presentation. So now let's turn to our third quarter non-GAAP results. On a consolidated basis, third quarter volume was 4.3 billion gallons, that's down 4% year over year. And consolidated gross profit declined 7% from last year's third quarter to $250 million. Although our gross profit did fall below guidance for the quarter, we were able to offset most of this impact by effectively reducing variable costs. This brought our operating expenses below expectations and resulted in operating income that was within our guidance range and very close to the midpoint. In the third quarter, our aviation volume was 1.8 billion gallons, down 4% year over year. While volume declined, aviation gross profit of $143 million increased $14 million or 11% year over year. Driven principally from continued strong results at our airport locations in Europe, an increase in government sales, and our business in general aviation activities. Speaking of business aviation, as Mike mentioned, in September, we entered into an agreement to purchase Universal Weather and Aviation's trip support service business. This business provides end-to-end operational support for business aviation flights worldwide covering everything from flight planning and overflight permits to on-the-ground coordination at more than 3,000 locations throughout the world. This transaction is expected to be approximately 7% accretive to adjusted earnings per share in the first twelve months with additional accretion from the realization of approximately $15 million of annual cost synergies within two years following the closing date of the transaction which we now expect to occur within the next two weeks. As we look to the fourth quarter, we anticipate Aviation's gross profit to again increase year over year supported by the expected contribution from the Trip Support acquisition in addition to continued momentum from our airport locations throughout Europe. In the third quarter, land volumes declined 8% year over year, mainly driven by the sale of our Brazilian business in last year's fourth quarter and the sale of our UK land business in the second quarter of this year. Land gross profit was $81 million, that's down 20% year over year. Principally due to continued unfavorable market conditions in part of our liquid fuel business in North America, most notably ongoing transportation inefficiencies tied to our fuel delivery business and the impact of our recent exits from the UK, Brazil, and certain operations in North America. For the fourth quarter, year over year gross profit is expected to decline again, primarily due to the impact of the various business exits over the past year and continued macroeconomic headwinds in parts of the business. While we've already taken significant steps to reshape our portfolio, exiting Brazil and the UK and select activities in North America, as I just mentioned, we are now sharpening our focus even further. Going forward, our priority will be to concentrate resources and capital on our core, most profitable land business activities. Those with the greatest potential for sustainable growth and earnings consistency. In the short term, this means working to quickly further streamline our portfolio while leveraging operational efficiencies across our core land business activities. These initiatives are designed to drive meaningful improvement in our land segment's performance, as we move into 2026 and beyond. Positioning us to deliver stronger overall shareholder returns. In Marine, while volumes increased 3% year over year, primarily driven by a recovery in the dry bulk markets, gross profit decreased 32% year over year. This decline is principally due to lower profit contributions from certain physical locations, as well as lower margins driven by low market volatility and a lower fuel price environment. As we have consistently communicated over the years, the spot nature of our marine business closely aligns performance with pricing environments and market volatility levels. While periods of lower prices and reduced volatility can impact profitability, as they certainly did this quarter, since Marine operates with modest capital requirements we generally generate cash in marine across cycles. We also remain focused on further strengthening the segment's resilience during cyclical troughs. While positioning Marine to best benefit when prices and volatility increase. While we anticipate some sequential improvement in our results for marine, in the fourth quarter, with market volatility and prices expected to remain low through the fourth quarter we expect marine gross profit to decline year over year in Q4. As we look to the fourth quarter, and with the backdrop of the related segment gross profit comments shared a moment ago, we expect consolidated gross profit to be in the range of $237 million to $245 million. Moving on to expenses. Consolidated operating expenses were $181 million, that's down 7% year over year. As mentioned earlier, this is well below guidance primarily driven by lower variable costs during the quarter. As always, we remain focused on disciplined expense management always focusing on additional opportunities to drive efficiencies across the business. As we look to the fourth quarter, we expect operating expenses to be in the range of $181 million to $187 million. This outlook reflects a partial quarter impact from the recently announced Trip Support acquisition again, expected to close within the next couple of weeks. Despite the additional expenses related to the acquisition, we still expect a year over year decline in operating expenses driven by the businesses recently exited and our continued focus on driving greater cost efficiencies throughout our platform. Interest expense was $26 million in the third quarter, up approximately 8% year over year, consistent with the guidance provided last quarter. For the fourth quarter, interest expense should be in the range of $25 million to $27 million. The anticipated increase in interest expense associated with funding the Trip Support acquisition is expected to be generally offset by the impact of declining interest rates. Our third quarter adjusted effective tax rate was 27%, slightly higher year over year but consistent with guidance provided last quarter. Looking at the fourth quarter, we expect our adjusted effective tax rate to be generally in line with the third quarter approximately 26% to 28% which should result in an adjusted full year effective tax rate of 20% to 22%. One highlight of the quarter, our cash flow generation remained strong. With $116 million of operating cash flow and $102 million of free cash flow generated in the third quarter. This increases our year-to-date operating and free cash flow to $259 million and $215 million respectively. In closing, I want to leave you with a few thoughts. Actually, several thoughts. Aviation results this quarter reflect the strength of our service network. Especially our European airport locations and our business and general aviation activities throughout the world. We're truly excited about the addition of the universal trip support business. Trip support services have always complemented our global fuel distribution activities. Now with this acquisition, our trip support business will triple in size. Further enhancing and expanding the value we deliver to our aviation customers alongside our fuel offering. Land results reflect the impact of our recent exits from the UK, Brazil, and certain operations in North America. As stated earlier, we are continuing to sharpen our focus in land with more activity underway which should result in meaningfully better results and returns for land in 2026. Marine performance was principally impacted by lower profit contribution from select physical locations, as well as broader impacts from the continued low price, low volatility environment. And we also continue to focus on driving greater operating efficiency in marine to enhance returns in this business. Operating expenses again came in below our guidance range under flexibility in our variable cost structure and our disciplined approach. To managing expenses. Our ability to generate strong operating cash flow is a testament to our level of excellence in working capital management. This quarter, again, we generated cash flow of $116 million operating cash flow. And free cash flow of $102 million. This lowered our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio to under one times enabling us to maintain our strong liquidity profile. We haven't talked about the targets we shared at our Investor Day event, a couple of years back. In a while. So it's a sensible time to provide an update as we approach 2026. Our cash flow generation to date remains in line with the five-year aggregate free cash flow target we had set. While we haven't yet reached our adjusted operating margin target of 30%, we remain focused on achieving this target before the end of next year. Driven in large part by many efficiency initiatives well underway. We have also been meeting or exceeding our targeted free cash flow allocated to buybacks and dividends as we remain focused on enhancing shareholder value through these programs. As a matter of fact, since the beginning of 2024, we have returned $214 million to shareholders through buybacks and dividends, representing more than 50% of free cash flow over that time period. Exceeding our Investor Day target of 40%. Regarding the EBITDA target we shared at our Investor Day event, progress has been affected by several factors. The impact of businesses we have exited, subdued M&A activity due to the persistent high-interest rate environment, which is now changing. And market weaknesses in certain segments. As we've discussed along the way. As a result, reaching this target will take longer than anticipated. Nonetheless, we remain focused on further improving operating efficiencies, generating strong cash flow, and boosting returns. All of which should pave the way for more meaningful EBITDA growth. With our strong financial profile and healthy balance sheet and liquidity profile, combined with declining interest rates, and more reasonable market multiples. We also see increasing opportunities to invest in our core business activities at more attractive returns. Finally, and, yes, finally, I'm almost done. As I prepare to take on my new role, I'm energized by the opportunities ahead and I am fully committed to leading our efforts to drive growth and enhance shareholder returns. I would like to thank all of you for your continued support and I look forward to spending more time with our customers, suppliers, employees, and the investment community in the months ahead. I'll now turn the call back to Latif, our operator, for Q&A. Operator: Thank you. To ask a question, please press 11 on your telephone. To remove yourself from the queue, please press 11 again. Ken Hoexter: Our first question comes from the line of Ken Hoexter of Bank of America. Please go ahead, Ken. Adam Russkowski: Hi. Adam Russkowski on for Ken Hoexter. Michael, Ira, team, thanks for taking our questions. And, congrats on the promotion. Evan. Maybe I'll just you're welcome. Maybe I'll just start with land. I mean, you noted the sharpening focus in this segment, but also some unfavorable market conditions and some transportation inefficiencies. Maybe what is it gonna take on those last two points to maybe turn that around? What are you seeing over the next quarter, year or so? Curious how you view the market. Thanks. Ira M. Birns: Yeah. We'll share a lot more about that next quarter, Adam. But, you know, in the short term, if you look at something like inefficiencies, we're looking at different strategies to manage delivery of product in North America in particular that could be significantly more cost-efficient. There may be some markets that may not make sense for us long term. So we're really digging into every piece of our North American business and even some of the activity in land overseas to figure out whether there are better strategies to drive greater returns or whether there are some parts of the business that may not make sense for us longer term similar to the storyline that we've shared for Brazil and the UK over the last twelve months. So we're working through that. I'm pretty confident that we'll have a lot more details to share as we get into the end of the year on the land business. Obviously, we've been disappointed with performance, but the team is really focusing on a lot of ways that we can make that business dramatically more profitable in a relatively short period of time, and we're spending a lot of time focusing on that. Adam Russkowski: Got it. That's helpful. Thanks. Maybe going back to the latest acquisition, 7% earnings accretion in the first year. Broadly, do you have a thought on the cadence of how that flows in the first year? Does it ramp sort of at the tail end? Any thoughts? Ira M. Birns: We've been conservative. So if we're just looking at the current run rate of business, we're again, we're not assuming any immediate synergies. So as we hopefully close at the very beginning in November, it should be fairly ratable on a monthly basis. There isn't material. There's maybe a little bit of summer seasonality in the private jet industry, but the numbers should be fairly ratable over the first twelve months. And then as we get beyond twelve months, we should start seeing some increase in their bottom line contribution from the achievement of synergies over about a two-year period after we complete the first year. Adam Russkowski: Got it. And Michael noted that you're nearing the I think he said the nearly through the portfolio sharpening, but also noted that interest rates coming down that could spark some M&A opportunities. So maybe how are you balancing kind of further sharpening divestitures from here? And what you know, and potential M&A opportunities from here. Ira M. Birns: Well, great question. So, obviously, we have a lot going on in the short term, which is, as I said, we'll share more in Q4, in terms of fixing restructuring some things, putting land in a much better position, and then also a lot of work to get the Universal acquisition integrated as quickly and as efficiently as we can. So that's a lot of work right there. But at the same time, with interest rates coming down, we're actively looking at opportunities beyond the universal transaction. I don't foresee any of that happening overnight. But, you know, we have a pipeline of opportunities that we're looking at. We have a much sharper focus on what makes sense versus what doesn't than we may have had several years ago. So the door is opening a bit wider. I wouldn't expect anything to happen tomorrow, but I think over the course of 2026, some more opportunities should hopefully materialize in our core where we know we could get synergies, we know we can integrate effectively and drive EPS growth through that mechanism. Adam Russkowski: Got it. And know, got some support this quarter from the variable cost side. You spoke about some of the opportunities in land. Maybe just broadly, any other areas that you expect some runway? And if you could speak to any of those other kind of variable cost efficiencies you can have here. Ira M. Birns: Yeah. So, you know, land is a big piece. So we've talked about a couple of times already. But we're every day, we're looking at every part of the business where there are opportunities to do things more cost-effectively. One of the things we talked about a little bit, had a charge this quarter associated with it is our global finance transformation initiative. Mike Dejada and I are actually heading overseas as part of that next week. And that, you know, that's only kicking off. It takes a while to ramp up one of those programs, but that will start paying dividends for us in '26 and even more so in '27. So, you know, that's one example of something we're doing within one function that'll generate several million dollars of benefit for us over time. And, you know, we're, of course, looking across all of our activities that are ratable, that have synergy opportunities, and then have potentially opportunities to operate under a more efficient cost structure. So the finance piece is one example. We've done a little bit of that in IT similar to the outsourcing initiative in finance. And we'll look at more opportunities of different flavors over time where we could drive efficiencies. And not only save money, but add more value to the business. Right? That's the goal as well. Right? To improve our back-office functions, make them more supportive of the business to help the business accelerate growth, make it easier for them to operate on a day-to-day basis. So there's a lot going on. There's one example, and over time, we'll share additional examples. Adam Russkowski: Alright. I'll hand it off. Thanks so much for the time. Ira M. Birns: Thanks, Adam. Appreciate the support. Operator: Thank you. Once again, to ask a question, please press 11. I would now like to turn the conference back to Michael J. Kasbar for closing remarks. Michael J. Kasbar: Okay. Well, thanks for joining us today. It's a quick call. I want to once again congratulate Ira, John, and Mike in the new roles. We look forward to speaking to you next quarter. So stay well. Stay safe. And, watch this space. Thanks very much. Take care, everybody. And thanks to our global team. As always. It's it is a great pleasure to work every day alongside each and every one of you. Take care. Bye-bye for now. Ira M. Birns: Thanks, everybody. Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.