Ayvens Aktie

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Ayvens Q1 2026 Results Conference Call. Today's speaker will be Philippe de Rovira, CEO; and Patrick Sommelet, Deputy CEO and CFO.

I now hand over to Mr. Philippe de Rovira. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you. Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Ayvens Q1 2026 Results Conference Call. I'm hosting this call with Patrick Sommelet. And first, I will present the highlights of Q1, then Patrick will comment on the detail of our financial results, and we will then take your questions.

So let's now go directly to Slide 5 on the highlights of the financial performance. Q1 2026 is a good start to the year for Ayvens as the group has once again delivered a strong set of financial results. First, margins stood at 587 bps of earning assets, an increase of 25 bps compared to Q1 2025. This reflects our focus on profitability with an adequate balance between growth, profitability and tight monitoring of asset risk.

This increase in margin compensated the normalization of the used car sales results, which has continued in Q1 2026 at a similar pace as in Q4 2025. In Q1 2026, the gross UCS stood at EUR 470 per unit compared to EUR 1,229 in Q1 '25 and EUR 702 in Q4 2025. The decrease was mitigated by lower depreciation adjustments. On a net basis, UCS stood at EUR 403 per unit compared to EUR 703 in Q1 2025.

Higher margins and lower costs resulted in strong positive jaws again. Ayvens' underlying cost/income ratio has continued on its decreasing trend at 54%, 4 percentage points below its Q1 2025 level.

Bottom line, net income group share stood at EUR 266 million, an increase of 21% compared to first quarter of last year. EPS increased by 29% versus Q1 '25, reaching EUR 0.31 per share and ROTE increased to 13.9% versus 11% in Q1 2025. This financial performance confirms that Ayvens is well positioned to reach its PowerUp 2026 targets. These strong results, coupled with some additional RWA optimization this quarter again have led to a CET1 ratio at 13.9%, which is above our target, same as last year. This is a topic that we will address as we progress into 2026.

Finally, we have successfully executed 2 new bond issues in euros since the beginning of the year of EUR 750 million each. These are green bonds that attracted a lot of interest from investors and the strong appetite has translated into historically low spreads for the group, including for the low second issue that was executed in capital markets disrupted by the war in the Middle East.

Let's now turn to next slide on the key developments for the quarter. During the period, we continue to deliver on key priorities. First, regarding integration. India and Germany were migrated, respectively, in March and April, and we are on track to deliver our target of EUR 440 million of gross synergies for the full year 2026.

Regarding our ESG commitments, the group has reached an important milestone as we obtained the validation of SBTi on our CO2 emissions reduction targets on all scopes. It makes Ayvens the first international leasing company to obtain such a validation for both near and long-term commitments and strengthens the credibility of our actions for a sustainable future.

Finally, as you know, Ayvens entered the MSCI Standard Index in Feb, thanks to the increase in the floating market capitalization over 2025. This has reinforced Ayvens' visibility on equity markets and has led to an additional increase in the daily liquidity of the stock.

Let's now turn to Slide 7 on fleet and earning assets. Fleet numbers trended lower during the quarter as a result of the continued strategic focus on profitability and asset risk management throughout 2025. Total fleet has decreased by 98,000 units compared to end of 2025, mostly on the back of fleet management contracts. We didn't renew one large contract, which was not in line with the group's expected profitability. Impact on services margin is very marginal.

Earning assets stood at EUR 52.5 billion, a 1% decrease versus end of 2025. Deliveries per powertrain for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles showed stability of BEV penetration at 29% compared to 28% 1 year earlier, while PHEVs and hybrid penetrations increased to 12% and 29%, respectively, in Q1 '26 compared to 9% and 26% in Q1 2025. Conversely, ICE penetration was down 8 points at 27% versus 35% 1 year ago.

I now hand over to Patrick to present you the details of the Q1 2026 financial results.

Thank you, Philippe, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. So let me start with the evolution on Slide 9 of our gross operating income on the left-hand side of the slide. At EUR 816 million, it is stable compared to Q1 '25, but with a better quality mix as higher margins in euro offset the decrease in the net UCS results. This 7% margin increase from EUR 708 million in Q1 '25 to EUR 757 million this quarter has been achieved despite the decrease in the fleet, thanks to the revamped profitability of our portfolio and contracts.

Net UCS results decreased to EUR 59 million this quarter compared to EUR 111 million in Q1 '25, in line with our anticipation of normalization of used car sales results.

Let's now move on the next slide on margin. Total margins stood at EUR 757 million, which is up EUR 49 million versus Q1 in'25 on the back of better underlying margins and lower nonrecurring items. These items consisting mostly of hyperinflation in Turkey reduced by EUR 26 million versus Q1 '25.

Turning to underlying margin, they stood at 587 basis points versus 562 in Q1 '25, continuing the increased trend seen throughout 2025. This improvement is driven by our focus on profitability, supporting our strategy of value versus volumes.

Underlying margins in euro increased by EUR 23 million or 3% versus Q1 '25 despite the decrease in the earning assets. Looking at the margin breakdown, leasing margins continued to be strong, reflecting higher leasing revenues and lower interest charge across all funding sources.

On services margin, they decreased compared to Q1 '25, mainly due to a base effect indeed. They were positively impacted in Q1 '25 by accounting harmonization in the context of IT migration. In parallel, interest margin diminished slightly due to higher quantity of claims as a result of adverse weather conditions in the first quarter of this year.

Let's move to the next page on UCS. So starting with the total UCS results, whose evolution is represented on the right-hand side, as you can see, the normalization trend of our UCS results continued in Q1 '26. The net UCS results shown at the full line of the graph decreased to EUR 59 million compared to EUR 111 million in Q1 '25. This is the result of a significant decrease in the gross UCS result from EUR 193 million in Q1 down to EUR 69 million.

Across all powertrain, January was particularly weak with a gradual improvement seen throughout February and March. This effect was partially offset by lower negative depreciation adjustment, which stood at minus EUR 10 million. This minus EUR 10 million depreciation adjustments include notably minus EUR 21 million prospective depreciation, driven mostly by the evolution of the U.K. BEV market. Other moving parts are detailed on Slide 16 in the appendix.

Per vehicle, as shown on the left-hand side on the dotted line, gross UCS results per unit stood at EUR 470 versus EUR 1,229 in Q1 '25. And on a net basis, the decrease is less steep at EUR 403 versus EUR 703 last year.

Let's turn to the next page on operating expenses. Total expenses are trending down, showing a decrease of EUR 51 million compared to Q1 '25. Cost to achieve amounted to EUR 4 million compared to EUR 36 million in the same period last year. And as guided at the beginning of the year, full year CTA is estimated to be below EUR 30 million in '26.

Underlying costs are down EUR 18 million year-on-year, a decrease of 4.2%, thanks to our continued cost discipline and increased cost synergy. So this combined with higher margins, we have lower operating expense with higher margin, which generates strong positive jaws with an underlying cost-to-income ratio at 54%, down 4 percentage points compared to Q1 '25.

Let's now turn to the next page with the rest of these results. So you see that on cost of risk, we have a decrease of EUR 5 million in Q1 '25 at EUR 26 million or 19 basis points of average earning assets. Profit before tax is up 15% versus Q1 '25 at EUR 365 million. So this is a result of increasing margins and lower expense, which more than offset together the decrease in the net UCS results. And net income group share reached EUR 266 million, an increase of 21% versus Q1 '25.

So now we can turn to next slide on RWA and capital. So RWA at the end of Q1 '26 stood at EUR 52.6 billion, which is a decrease of EUR 1.2 billion compared to Q4 '25. This decrease mainly comes from our continuous effort to optimize our RWA with 2 actions this quarter. First, a decrease of EUR 1 billion, which was achieved as a result of the netting agreement with Societe Generale. This agreement allowed to net off loan liabilities and cash deposits to Societe Generale and thus exclude this deposits from RWA competition.

Second, a further reduction of EUR 700 million, which is linked to the methodology alignment between accounting value and risk exposure value for the computation of earning assets. These 2 actions were partially offset by the increase of EUR 600 million, mostly from off-balance sheet items relating to forward deposits and a slight increase in order book.

This reduction in RWA, together with a strong organic capital buildup led to an increase in Ayvens' CET1 ratio at 13.9% versus 13.2% in Q4 '25, a level which is above our target.

So this concludes our presentation. Thank you for listening, and we are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] First question is from Jacques-Henri Gaulard, Kepler Cheuvreux.

I had 2 questions. The first one is there was press reports about your agreement with Renault about remarketing, I would say, warehouse and factory that's going to help you obviously increase the leasing life of some of your vehicles. If we could have a little bit more color on that, that would be great. That's the first question.

And the second one, obviously, the environment has totally changed with what has happened in the Middle East. And I was wondering if you were seeing a bit of change in demand and if you had any sense about the impact that would have potentially on your used car results going forward?

Well, the agreement of -- with Renault, I would say, is part of our focus to make our remarketing more professional and more efficient. So we've got a lot of work on this activity. And I would say it combines a number of actions that are to make it simple to control much better the pricing, to control much better the channels in which we sell in and to control the cost that we generate when we have to remarket the car.

So this agreement is helping us to answer these 3 -- well, not all the 3 on this one, but it's contributing to these actions. It's -- but the action plan that we are remarketing is much broader than this one-shot agreement and it's something that we are deploying in all countries to have an action plan on the 3 dimensions that are mentioned.

So it means that to be much more KPI-driven that we were at the level of detail on remarketing that is much higher compared to what we were doing, because I think that we've got opportunities in the remarketing area and that will be important to be able to address the challenges of the coming years.

On the Middle East, well, what we can see for the moment related to UCS is we've seen in the second part of March and in April that in the northern countries you've got -- when saying northern countries, I would have mentioned, for example, the Netherlands, but not limited to that, you've got some customers that are asking now for BEVs that were not asking for BEVs before. And it's true that in the last weeks, we've seen in these markets an increase in prices in BEV, which is obviously a positive. And then how long will it last? It's really difficult to say, because is it just a one-shot leak to the war in Middle East or is it a more structural trend because customers will say, well, finally, it makes sense. Frankly, it's difficult to say. But that's what we see.

So that's a positive. On the other hand, on the southern Europe countries the global situation tends to be a slowdown in the demand of cars, which are mainly ICE in southern part of Europe. So all in all, when I look at the UCS, what we've seen is Jan that was very low, Feb, which was better than Jan, March that was better than March -- sorry, March that was better than Feb. And we expect April to be more or less at the same level as March with a change in the mix, as I was mentioning.

Next question is from Sharath Kumar, Deutsche Bank.

Firstly, on the CET1 trajectory, I'd say is very encouraging. Again, thank you for the additional color on the moving parts. Is it fair to say that it would continue to grow in the coming quarters given the strong organic capital generation? And would Q2 be still the right time to expect this capital distribution? And similar to 2025, can we expect a broadly even split between dividends and buybacks? So that is the first one.

Second is on fleet growth. It was negative at minus 3% in the quarter. If you could elaborate on the drivers? And would you again stick to your full year guidance of flat fleet, which means -- which implies some growth in the remaining quarters? And if you could also give some color on the competitive positioning.

And finally, interested in hearing your thoughts in the autonomous vehicle, which has been developing at a rapid pace. How do you see your positioning? Do you see yourself as a net winner, again, given the light of recent developments. Give your updated thoughts.

Okay. Okay. So the first question was about the return of excess capital. So as mentioned in my introduction, it's clear that the level of CET1 is significantly higher compared to our target and the cruising level that we feel comfortable. So we will address that as we progress in 2026.

You've seen that we've done that in 2025, and we'll address that later on in 2026. We cannot give more details at that stage. But obviously, we are committed to returning excess capital.

On the second question, I think it was about the fleet NEA evolution. So what I can say is the evolution of NEA was exactly at the level expected in our internal budget, and our internal budget is consistent with what we told to the market a few months ago in which we were saying that the NEA will increase with a small 1-digit progression and that the fleet we wanted to stabilize it.

So for the moment, this is consistent with our planned trajectory. And what we can say is the order intake of Q1 2026 has been around 20% above 2025 -- Q1 2025, which was a low point. And we've done that maintaining the same rigor in terms of focus on the profitability of the orders.

But all in all, you remember that our priority is value more than growth. So we consider that Q1 is consistent in terms of NEA and fleet compared to our expectations. But anyway, it's not the top priority. The top priority remains the focus of value creation.

You had a third question, but I must admit that I'm not sure I have understood it because the line is really not good. So if you can repeat the third question. I thought it was about autonomous vehicle, no? Can you confirm?

Yes, indeed. Given the rapid pace at which autonomous vehicles have been developing updated. And I'm interested in your updated thoughts as well as your positioning. Do you see yourself as a net winner?

Do you see as a net what? Net winner?

Do you see yourself as a net winner from the ultimate development in which this space could evolve?

Well, okay. On the autonomous vehicle, what we see is the market starts to exist. We see that in China, we see that in the U.S. and we see that it starts in Europe. And for me, it's not a surprise that it works. And it starts by the collective usage, which means the robotaxi, which has good acceptance by the final customer and makes sense from a financial point of view because you just can amortize the cost of autonomous vehicle by the fact that you save the cost of the driver on intensive usage.

So I'm convinced that this will pick up and it will -- so first start with collective usage like a robotaxi. It will also will be with shuttles that are driving always the same journey in the day. And later on and probably on this second aspect, it will take significant more time. It will go to individual usage.

On individual usage, I think it will take more time because the other cost is much more difficult to absorb. And at the moment, for the customers, at least in Europe, what we -- what the industry -- auto industry is trying to do is already to pass on the cost of electrification to customers. So I don't think that on individual usage, they will be able to pass on both electrification and the -- over cost of autonomy.

So for us, Ayvens, I don't see autonomous vehicle as a threat. I don't see -- I see that more as an opportunity because each players in the value chain is specialized -- specializing on part of the value chain. And I think our focus is to continue to lease the car and provide the right services. We are a company that is supposed to make mobility easy and we'll help these companies that develop in the autonomous business to serve the -- maintain the cars. And that's the direction that we are taking.

Next question is from Geoffroy Michalet, ODDO BHF.

Congratulations for those good results. So 2 questions for me. The first one on synergies since I think you reached EUR 110 million, which if you multiply by 4 quarters is equal to your target of run rate synergies. Does it mean that you -- can you go even further on synergies than you initially planned? So that's the first question.

The second question is more related to your exiting fleet in '27 and '28. Can you give us your view on the pricing assumptions and the volume assumptions on those BEVs and PHEVs for the next year?

Okay. So on the synergies, as you just rightly said, we are on track to for the full year of EUR 440 million synergies. I think what is important is to say that we're going to maintain focus on cost. 2026 is not the end of the story for the cost-to-income ratio. Of course, this pace of improvement will not be the same as what we've experienced in the last 2 years, because we had the huge level of merging organizations that were similar size and making the same business. But we will continue to work on that.

I don't think for the future it makes sense to call it synergies, because by definition, synergies compared to what you would have done if you had not merged. And okay, for the forward plan in 3 years, it makes sense. But one day, you've just to say, well, now we are one company and we just address the cost question.

So directionally, my answer is we'll have to continue to work on the cost-to-income ratio and continue to progress on this with some opportunities, in particular, linked to AI that we need to implement, and we are working on that.

On your second question, if I understand, it was -- when you say existing fleet, so I suppose it's about the mix of used car sales, if I understood well. So you remember that we had a mix of 10% BEV in our used car sales in 2025. In Q1 2026, the mix was 12%. And this is supposed to grow in 2027, '28 to between 20% and 25%. You can never have a perfect forecast.

Of course, you've got the contracts that gives you the forecast. But after that, it depends on the behavior of the customer that want to extend some cars and not others. And you can have distortion on mix on that. It's a decision of the customer. And you can also have other factors like the availability of the different cars of the carmakers that impact that. But as an order of magnitude, for these 2 years, I would give you a range of between 20% and 25% for BEV compared to 10% in 2025 and 12% in Q1 2026.

That's very helpful. And any, let's say, differentiation of pricing in your estimates versus current pricing?

You mean for the U.S. over the coming years?

Yes.

Well, I would say -- compared to what we said 3 months ago, I would say there is no significant change. We continue to have a price scenario that is similar. And as you remember, our price scenario is in the coming years a slight increase of the ICE prices and a significant decrease of BEV prices. So that's what we've entailed in -- included in our scenarios. And we have not changed them so far. We consider that the last months were consistent.

It's obvious that what happened in the last, I would say, 4, 6 weeks in the Middle East doesn't make the exercise of forecasting easier. If it's -- I don't know if that's ever been easy. But for the moment, we consider that our price scenario remains valid with the direction that I've indicated.

And anyway, as I've already stated in our call 3 months ago, the normal UCS, when you've got the perfect crystal ball, is a UCS that is close to 0 because you project perfectly each RV on each and every car. So the message remains the same message as 3 months ago, to make it simple.

Next question is from Nicolas O Sullivan, UBS.

The first one will be on margins. We saw previously that margins can be volatile on a quarter-on-quarter basis. So do you think the margins right now are sufficiently strong that you can afford more rebates and be a bit more commercial in the second half and 2027?

And then finally, the other point is, is that kind of a sustainable run rate of margins going forward and no one-offs in this Q1 print? That will be on margins. That will be the first question.

And then the second question will be on costs. You reported underlying cost income of 54%. Expenses, yes, are down, but flat quarter-on-quarter. So are we actually seeing the benefits of the synergies yet? Or are you investing more in customer satisfaction and IT perhaps? That would be my question.

Okay. Well, on margins, what we can say is it's not our intention to modify our margin policy in order to gain market share of volumes. What we want is to stabilize the fleet this year and with an order intake that remains at a good level of margins, because that's the basis of our policy and we don't want to change the strategy on that.

So which means, for example, that in Q1, when we've seen '26, when we've seen the interest rate increasing due to the Middle East events, we've passed on the increase without waiting to our countries for them to include in their pricing. And I think it's something important to have in mind.

On the cost-income ratio, so we're at 54%. It's a 4-point improvement versus Q1 2025. And 4 points is exactly what we need to do on a full year basis as we -- our target is to move from 56% to 52%. So what we've done in Q1 is perfectly consistent with what we need to do on the full year. And that on a quarterly basis, you can have some volatility between quarters as we've seen last year.

But I would say that we are perfectly on track, consistent with our target. And as answered a bit to your question of -- I think it was Geoffroy before, it will not be the end of the story.

[Operator Instructions] Next question is a follow-up from Sharath Kumar, Deutsche Bank.

I have a follow-up on used car sales results. In light of the comments that you made regarding higher BEV mix in '27, '28, I appreciate this is a bit distant in the future, but do you think there is downside risk to consensus, which currently has gross UCS per car between EUR 300 to EUR 400? So is this consistent with your central scenario?

Well, I think we've repeatedly said that normalization of UCS will take place. And what we see is that is happening in 2026. Now that's -- generally speaking, our policy is not to comment on the consensus on top of that. That's a bit volatile if we do that.

What we have said and that we repeat is UCS is normally 0 or 0 positive, let's say. That's the normal thing that should happen. And that's the way we want to manage the company. It's fair to say that with the increase in volumes of BEV, that puts more pressure on the UCS. But that's the reason why we say that UCS will not be as high as it is, as it was in 2025, in the future. So no change of message on the used car sales.

We have no more questions registered at this time. Mr. de Rovira, the floor is back to you for any closing remarks.

Well, I just wanted to thank you for these questions and comments. I think you understood that this quarter is a quarter in which we consider that we are on track versus what we've announced to the market previously with no significant event or change compared to the messages given in -- a few months ago with the full year 2025 call.

So thanks a lot for your attention, and we'll be happy to meet you in the -- if necessary in the coming days or weeks. Thanks a lot. Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's Ayvens conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Ayven's Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. Today's speaker will be Philippe de Rovira, CEO; and Patrick Sommelet, Deputy CEO and CFO.

I now hand over to Mr. Philippe de Rovira. Sir, please go ahead.

Well, thank you. Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. That's a pleasure to be with you for the first time in my position of the CEO of Ayvens. And I will be very pleased to meet you in person in the coming days, weeks, months.

So I'm hosting this call with Patrick Sommelet, and I will first present the highlights of the year, then Patrick will comment on our full year and fourth quarter 2025 detailed financial results. And we will then be happy to take your questions before meeting with you during our road shows.

So let's go now directly to Slide 5 on the financial -- on the key financial performance indicators. Ayvens posted strong financial results in 2025, delivering on its commitments towards shareholders, thanks to the group's focus on profitability. Margins improved further in 2025 and stood at 565 basis points, up 32 basis points versus 2024.

On used car sales, the group navigated smoothly through the normalization of its UCS results. While the gross result per unit stood at EUR 1,075, down EUR 380 versus 2024. The sharp decrease in depreciation adjustments versus 2024 resulted in a higher net result per unit, which stood at EUR 703, up 38% compared to 2024.

The group made a significant progress on efficiency, reflecting increased synergies on both revenues and costs. As a result, our underlying cost-to-income ratio improved substantially down 7.1 points versus 2024 at 56.1%. Bottom line, net income group share stood at EUR 996 million, increasing 45% versus EUR 684 million in '24, corresponding to RoTE of 12.9%. This strong financial results, fuel capital generation, and together with reductions in RWA, thanks to changes in regulation and optimizations, we proposed a total distribution for the year amounting to EUR 1.15 billion.

This corresponds to a dividend per share of EUR 1.01 versus EUR 0.37 in 2024 and EUR 360 million share buyback already executed last December. In parallel, our capital position remains strong with a CET1 ratio at 13.2% at the end of 2025. So let's now turn to Slide 6 on 2025 key achievements. Overall, Ayvens delivered on its strategic and financial road map, paving the way towards our PowerUp 2026 planned objectives.

So let me start with the financial targets. As you just saw, the group delivered a strong set of financial results in 2025. On all aspects, they were in line or better than our guidance to the market. Cost-to-income ratio, 56.1% better than guidance. EUR 357 million of synergies in line with guidance, CTA spend in line with guidance and gross used car sales result per units stood at EUR 1,075 per unit at the high end of our guidance.

Second, on business activity. We have kept a steady focus on profitability and balance sheet protection throughout 2025, as reflected in the 33 bps year-on-year improvement in our margins. We have successfully reshaped our footprint towards more profitable customers. At the same time, we have kept a prudent stance on asset risk, notably on electric vehicles, for which we have closely monitored market dynamics and lowered our residual values accordingly.

In parallel, Ayvens remain actively developing this franchise in particular, onboarding new partners such as Chery and extending the partnership with BYD. Finally, the group achieved key milestone on the integration of lease plan, IT and legal mergers were completed in 17 countries out of the 21 overlapping ones where the group operates. 90% of allocations to single fleet has been completed across the group. 90% of the fleet is operating on the targeted IT platform of each country.

And in parallel to the strong delivery on the 2026 road map, Ayvens' shareholding structure has been reshaped through the sell-down and exit of the ex-LeasePlan shareholders. Free-float increased to 45%, driving trading volumes upwards. So let's now turn to Slide 7 on fleet on earning assets. Earning assets stood at EUR 53 billion, decreasing by 1% compared to Q4 2024, but up EUR 400 million versus Q3 in 2024. Funded fleet totaling 2.5 million vehicles at end 2025, decreased by 84,000 units versus December 2024 with Q4 2025 showing a slowdown in defleeting versus Q3 2025 with a limited reduction of 14,000 units.

This is the result of our strategy as we have primarily focused on profitability on tight asset risk monitoring rather than growing volumes. This is notably the case in the U.K. where we're structuring our brokered business. In Germany and in Turkey, which still operates in a hyperinflationary economy. Besides these three, Ayven's earning assets increased by 1.1% versus December 2024. In terms of deliveries by powertrain, BEV penetration stood at 32% and PHV at 12%, supporting earning asset growth, thanks to the price effect.

Let's now move to the next slide to conclude on the highlights for 2025. So we recorded in 2025 strong and improving financial results across all lines of the P&L. Revenues grew by 11.3% and reached EUR 3.4 billion. They were supported by a strong increase in both margins on net UCS results. Operating expenses were down 3.9%. Thanks to the ramp-up in the synergies extracted from the lease plan acquisition.

Our net income group share was up 45.7% and diluted earnings per share stood at EUR 1.11, up 52% as it also benefits from the reduction in shares outstanding following the EUR 360 million share buyback executed in December.

And I now hand over to Patrick to take you through the details of the full year and Q4 2025 results.

Thank you, Philippe, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Let's turn on Slide 10 with a detailed view on the full year strong financial performance.

Starting first with the top line. Margins stood at EUR 2.9 billion, up 9.1% on a reported basis versus '24. This increase is mainly explained by the improvement in the underlying margin, which stood at EUR 3 billion versus EUR 2.8 billion in 2024 despite the slight decrease in earning assets over the year.

In 2025, margin represented 565 basis points of our average earning assets, up 33 versus '24. They were further supported by a reduction in nonrecurring items at minus EUR 70 million compared to minus EUR 115 million in 2024. On used car sales, the net UCS results reached EUR 411 million, up 29.6% versus '24. As you can see from the top right-hand graph, the gross UCS results stood at EUR 628 million, a decrease of EUR 280 million versus '24, which was more than offset by the reduction in the negative impact of depreciation adjustments, which were down EUR 374 million versus '24.

In parallel, operating expenses were down 3.9% and reached EUR 1.83 billion on a reported basis. The decrease is supported by a reduction of 4.9% in the underlying cost base, thanks to the growing synergies and the continued strict monitoring of costs across the organization.

Nonrecurring items increased by EUR 14 million. This increase results from a one-off IT impairment of EUR 23 million, on which I will comment further in a few minutes. Bottom line net income group share grew 45.6% and reached EUR 996 million, leading to a return on tangible equity of 12.9% versus 8.6% in '24.

Let's now turn to Slide 11 on our quarterly results, starting with revenues. So on our revenues, our quarterly results shows the same trend as for the full year. Gross operating income, total revenues reached EUR 830 million, marking a strong increase of 16.5% compared to Q4 '24 reported. This is supported by both higher margins and higher net used car sales results. Total margin stood at EUR 747 million, up 10.7% versus Q4 '24 on a reported basis. This increase is driven by higher underlying margin at EUR 749 million compared to EUR 721 million and lower nonrecurring items totaling minus EUR 2 million versus minus EUR 46 million in Q4 '24.

As we communicated last quarter at the end of October, Ayvens reached an agreement with the Lincoln consortium on the contingent consideration and related matters. The outcome of this agreement had a positive impact in total of EUR 40 million on Ayvens profit before tax in Q4 '25. EUR 47 million, we are booked in leasing and services margin, which we flagged as a nonrecurring item. The remaining minus EUR 7 million is booked in over expense line on the income statements.

Net UCS stood at EUR 83 million, showing a significant increase versus EUR 38 million at the same time last year on which I will elaborate shortly.

Let's now turn to the next page on margin. So our action to improve profitability have resulted in higher margins in euro in '25, despite the deflating generating by the reshaping of our footprint and the resulting reduction in earning assets. In Q4 '25, underlying margin reached EUR 749 million, representing 567 basis points, up 26 versus Q4 '24. This was driven by an increase in leasing margin due to lower interest costs, thanks to both lower funding costs outstanding and lower interest costs across all funding sources.

Underlying service margin was stable versus Q4 '24, the ramp-up in synergies being offset notably by the reduction in the peak. Compared to Q3 '25, total margins were down 26 basis points. As we indicated last quarter, Q3 '25 was a very high point. Supported by lower than usual maintenance and tire costs as well as a few positives linked to ongoing integration and accounting amortization.

Negative impact of nonrecurring items totaled minus EUR 2 million. This was mainly helped by the exceptional revenues of EUR 47 million from Lincoln Consortium, as we already mentioned. On the other hand, negative hyperinflation impact amounted to minus EUR 27 million, and we incurred one-off loan breakage costs of minus EUR 16 million. These brokerage costs are related to qualitive termination of loans, the remaining impact from mark-to-market observative benign at minus EUR 1 million.

Let's now move to the next page on UCS and depreciation adjustments results. Net UCS results reached EUR 83 million, up 120% versus Q4 '24, which stood at EUR 38 million. This increase results from a significant lower level of depreciation adjustment at minus EUR 16 million compared to minus EUR 162 million in Q4 '24. Excluding these, gross UCS stood at EUR 99 million, which is EUR 100 million lower than Q4 '24, continuing the trend of previous quarters. The normalization of the gross UCS results was very gradual over the first 9 months of 2025, but accelerated in the fourth quarter with growth UCS results per unit at 702 versus 1,110 in Q3 '25 and 1,267 in Q4 '24.

Q4 '25 gross UCS results was impacted by the increase of the volume of Battery Electric Vehicles sold whose results per unit remain negative on the old vintages that are being sold. These results per unit are stable compared to Q3 '25. In addition, in the back of end of year seasonality, result per unit on ICE car declined for some brands and models. This price and volume position by powertrain remain consistent with our scenario and overall financial trajectory.

Conversely, thanks to the lower depreciation adjustment, net UCS per unit stood at EUR 589 up versus Q3 '25 at EUR 536 and also Q4 '24 at EUR 239. Total volume of cars sold were stable versus Q3 '25 at 141,000 units and down versus Q4 '24, which was at 158, 000. This reflects the lower number of new vehicles, which were delivered in '21 and '22 in the context of supply chain disruptions at the time.

Let's move to slide on operating expenses. Total operating expenses stood at EUR 477 million, broadly stable compared to Q4 '24. Cost to achieve amounted to EUR 34 million compared to EUR 41 million in Q4 '24. Besides an impairment charge of EUR 23 million was booked this quarter. It relates to the review of our IT portfolio of assets, which led to the write-off of those assets, which have become obsolete in the context of IT migrations and the rationalization of IT applications across the group.

Excluding CTA and this one-off impairment, underlying operating expenses amounts to EUR 420 million, a decrease of minus EUR 3.1 million versus Q4 '24. This decrease is reflecting the ramp-up in cost synergies, which stood at EUR 41 million versus EUR 13 million in Q4 '24 and also continued strict cost monitoring across the organization. Compared to Q3 '25, the underlying cost base increased by EUR 8 million, which is explained by client investment in information initiatives and service quality. Combined with growing margins, the decrease in underlying operating expenses resulted in an underlying cost income at 56.2%, decreasing by 4 percentage points compared to Q4 '24.

So let's now turn to the next page with the rest of the income statement, starting with the cost of risk, which stood at EUR 28 million representing 21 basis points of average earning assets versus 27 in Q4 '24. This is very stable compared to prior quarters in '25. Profit before tax stood at EUR 318 million, which is up 56.2% versus Q4 '24 as a result of higher margin and also net UCS results.

The Q4 '25 effective tax rate stood at close to 27%. For the full year, it land at 29.1%, which is very close to our previous estimate. Ayvens' net income group share reached EUR 232 million in Q4 '25 compared to EUR 160 million in Q4 '24. As a result, return on tangible equity on this quarter came at -- came in at 12.3%, which is 4.5 percentage points higher than last quarter Q4 '24.

So if we now turn to the next slide on RWA and capital. So total RWA at the end of Q4 '25 stood at EUR 53.7 billion, which is a decrease of about EUR 600 million compared to Q3. So the decrease mainly comes from -- the decrease of EUR 400 million, which is resulting from our continuous efforts to optimize ad value was. And this quarter, the improvement comes from credit RWA with the alignment of methodologies on potential client segments as well as data quality corrections.

It also comes from a reduction in the group's deposits due to our funding optimization. This leads to a reduction of EUR 500 million in RWA. And this is partially offset by an increase of EUR 500 million linked to the growth in earning assets. This reduction in RWA, together with the capital generation led to a strong and steady capital buildout throughout '25, resulting in an increase in Ayvens CET1 ratio at 13.2% at the end of the year versus 12.8% at the end of Q3.

I now give the floor back to Philippe to present our outlook for 2026.

Okay. Thank you, Patrick. So our strong financial performance in '25 puts us in a good position for 2026. And I'm pleased to confirm and reiterate our core over 2026 financial targets. Cost-to-income ratio excluding UCS on nonrecurring items at circa 52%. Pretax gross annual synergies to be delivered at EUR 440 million. CET1 ratio circa 12%, AoT in the range of 13% to 15%, payout ratio to remain 50%, in line with the group's distribution policy.

On earning assets, the 6% CAGR over 2023, 2026 is not being targeted any longer in the context of a strategic shift towards profitability and strict residual value selling. For the rest, our scenario continues to be the normalization of used car market with an increasing share of electric vehicles in the volumes to be sold in 2026.

The gross UCS results is estimated to stand in the range between EUR 200 and EUR 600 per unit. Integration will continue with IT migrations to be executed in some of our core countries, namely: Germany; the Netherlands; and the U.K., and we estimate the associated cost to achieve to be below EUR 30 million in 2026.

Now a few words on our strategic priorities for next year -- or for this year 2026: First, the execution of IT migrations in the remaining countries will be a priority in order to fully extract synergies from the LeasePlan acquisition; second, we will aim at enhancing further our focus on customer satisfaction and operational excellence; third, we'll continue to prioritize profitability while preserving the value of our balance sheet by managing asset risk responsibly in an industry that still undergoes a transition to electrification.

Going forward, in a competitive and fast-changing environment, we will continue to push on cars to build a leaner and customer-centric mobility platform, reaffirm our commitments towards the value for all our stakeholders. I take this opportunity to announce that we will hold the Capital Markets Day on the 21st of September 2026 to elaborate on our strategic and financial road map beyond 2026.

Before that, will be on the road in the next few weeks together with Patrick, and I look forward to exchanging with you, shareholders and investors.

This concludes our presentation, and we are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions]. The first question is from Jacques-Henri Gaulard, Kepler Cheuvreux.

Yes. Good morning, Philippe, welcome. I wish you a long and fruitful tenure. And Patrick, congrats on the promotion, mate. Two questions. First, despite all the distribution, you end up with a quite spectacular CET1 ratio. So I guess the first question is, what are you going to do with all this money? If we consider that 12% is still adequate CET1 threshold for you.

And lastly, because there's been a lot of debate this morning already on the level of used car sales, and Philippe, good luck with that because you're not -- you had the first question on used car sales, probably the first of 2 million by the time you finish your tenure. But even with that level of used car sales per unit, can we consider that a 13%, 15% RoTE target in the very long term for the company? Would still be something you're comfortable with?

Okay. Well, thank you for the two questions. Well, on the first one, I think -- in the past year, we see that as a cruising level, 12.5% of around 12.5% of CET1 ratio is something we feel comfortable with. Of course, we can vary a bit up or down compared to this level. And I think we've shown in 2025 that we are ready and willing to return excess of capital to the shareholders. But obviously, we are only Feb the 6. So it's very early to talk about the '26 action on this respect.

Well, on the UCS, yes, obviously, this is not the easiest thing to predict. But I think while we expect a normalization of the UCS and we know that if we had a perfect crystal ball, the UCS should be closer to 0, which -- but we never have the perfect crystal ball. But long term, I think -- what is important is to drive the company focusing on what is fully in our hands. What is fully in our hands is working on the leasing margin, on the service margin, on the OpEx and on the remarketing efficiency.

And I think we have a lot to do on all these factors. After that, the UCS depends also on the valuation of the market. So the purpose is to work on these items that are in our hands. And that the variation of the market, we predict as much as we can with a stance that is an intent to be careful. That's what we want to do for the moment, especially as electrified accounts market is not yet mature.

So I do think that on the short term, it's much better to take this stance. And if we take a long-term view on the long-term view, the BEV will become the new normal, but it will take a while, which means that for the moment, we should be rather careful. And as years go one after the other, we should be -- we would be more and more aggressive. So the purpose of the CMP will, of course, to be -- to give a trajectory on our financial from the coming years, but these are already a few thoughts about this topic.

The next question is from Sharath Kumar, Deutsche Bank.

I have three, please. Firstly, I'm interested in I hear you when you say that you want to preserve profitability and manage asset risk responsibly. But is there a risk of you being overly conservative on fleet growth? How do you assess your competitors' positioning against R1, especially after the recent acquisition and significant growth that they have achieved in the last couple of years will be conservative 2026 fleet outgrowth -- growth be offset by margins being high around current levels? So that's my first question.

Second, a bit a longer-term perspective, interested in hearing your views on the potential risks and opportunities presented by autonomous vehicles to your business model? And if I can just sneak in a third on RoTE guidance, 2025 is already at the low end of your 2026 guidance and with most cost synergies to come, so what will prevent you from not being at the mid-high end of this range? Is it mainly UCS, that's the main risk?

Okay. So maybe let's start by the third question, and it's the quickest answer. I think your assumption is right. The UCS result is always very hard to predict, given the volatility of this market. So we give a range of UCS -- gross UCS result per car that is between 200 and 600. And obviously, there is some consistency with the range that we give in the AoT range of 13% to 15%.

On the first question, so the sense that we have on the profitability and the asset risk and the relation to competition. Let's summarize the thinking. The thinking is our scale put us in the first league. And it's clear that Arval combined with Aknom will be in the same league. So that's something that we need to acknowledge. And I don't think that it can be a mid- and long-term vision to say that we don't -- that we wouldn't have wanted to grow the fleet at the opposite -- it's to resume growth at a point in time is something that will be important. But I don't think that's a priority for 2026, the priority for 2026 is customer satisfaction and delivering on the financials and maintaining this stricter stance on the reserve value.

This is fundamentally because I believe that technological improvements on BEV remains very significant. As you may know, I'm coming from a carmaker, spent 27 years in the car industry. We are not yet a major industry in terms of BEV. And at the beginning, the steep of progress is very steep. The -- sorry, the pace of progress is very steep, quick, which means that the result values in percentage of listing price are much lower is BEV compared to ICE. But that is an effect that will decrease over time.

So it makes more sense for the moment to remain careful on the BEV to focus on fixing the customer satisfaction issues to prepare the company for next developments. And that as we see gradually the acceptance of the BEV by final customers growing, that will be the time to accelerate. So that's kind of a broad scenario that I gave.

As that we see that in the daily life that, for example, when we are in dual supply with some competitors and in which it's just a battle on RV because we're already selected and we are in dual supply, some orders go to the others on BEV. So it's not a problem of operational excellence of the company. In that case, it's a pure assumption that is different on the RV and BEV, but I prefer at that stage to be mistaken being too careful on BEV rather than losing potentially some share than the opposite.

But this is, I would say, a 2026 view and we'll continue to adapt in function of the evolution of the market and in -- and we'll tell you more in the CMD. But should not conclude that Ayvens still want to grow. There will be a second step with more growth, and I think it will make sense.

Your third question -- or your second question was about autonomous vehicles. Well, when you see what happens in both China and the U.S., you see that autonomous vehicle for me has a clear future for a number of usage. So it means that we should pay a lot of attention to work with these players and offer them our services because, well, these cars are autonomous, but they need also the same kind of services that we've been always able to provide in which is our core business.

So, for me, no doubt about the fact that autonomous vehicle will increase in volumes and will become significant because it answers well some customer needs. And we are seeing now that both American and Chinese players are entering in Europe. So that's what I could tell on your three questions, hoping that I answered your questions.

Just a follow-up on the first question on margins. So are you confident that given the fleet growth will be relatively lackluster in 2026 as well. So margins could it be maintained at current levels?

Well, as you know, we don't guide on margin, but if we are consistent with the policies that have indicated, we should have an evolution that is consistent with what we've seen between '24, -- I would say in the last months that in 2025, and so on.

The next question is from Geoffroy Michalet, ODDO BHF.

I have only one question. would you be able to share with us some hints on your underlying assumptions that brought you to give this UCS guidance in terms of volume, price, mix and maybe assumptions by materialization, qualitative assumptions, indeed?

Well let's have in mind that in '26, we've got cars that were put on the road, mainly in 2021 and 2022, and there are different factors that go in different directions. You've got on the ICE cars. It was a period in which production in the auto industry was very low, and that has a tendency to support the prices of the ICE cars, which remain the majority of the volumes. So this goes in a favorable direction. On the other hand, you've got an increasing number of BEV coming back. So to give you an idea, there should be around 20% more BEV coming back in '26 compared to what we had in 2025. And that's generating headwind in our UCS results as at that time, 2021, 2022, the forecast of reserve value or not let's say, carefully enough on not taking enough into account the future improvement of technologies.

So that's something that is going clearly in the opposite directions. After that, in terms of global volume between 2025 and 2026, we don't expect a huge variation of volume of sold cars. So that should not be the main driver. And in 2026. I don't think that -- and they can be after that impacts of the regulation because it's obvious that when some countries implement some incentives of a new vehicle, it can have an impact while it's more that it can have. It has an impact on the used car market.

So the crystal ball, you've got things that go in different directions. And so globally, we plan for the normalization of UCS maybe one important point is to have in mind what happened in 2025 at the end was consistent with the price scenario that we had even if it was not consistent quarter-to-quarter, there were differences with Q2, Q3 being more favorable than the price scenario in Q4, a bit less favorable.

But all in all, the ending point is consistent with the price scenario of the company, which is a very important point in 2026. So we confirm our pricing scenario and hence the normalization of the UCS results that we've indicated.

The next question is from Matthew Clark, Mediobanca.

Could you give us some guidance on the leasing and contract margin on leasing services and contract margin outlook. I mean, it's been very volatile quarter to quarter even stripping off the EUR 15 million gain you had last quarter, it's come a long way back. And I'm just struggling a bit understand quite why it's so volatile quarter-to-quarter when this is ultimately a 3- or 4-year business. So some help understanding those movements and what we can expect in 2026 would be helpful.

And then a second question, just coming back to the surplus capital. When do you envisage it will be the right stage to take a view on distribution of that surplus? Because obviously, if it continues to accrete, it starts to be very material and would imply a harder or more restrictions on distributing just because of the liquidity, et cetera.

Okay. Well, on the first point, well, again, we don't guide on margins, but we had anticipated in Q3 that the service margin will be lower in Q4 that was anticipated and announced to the market. But I will ask Patrick to give you more.

Yes, Matthew. So indeed, we said in Q3 that all the lights were green and margins in Q3. So it should be no surprise that it comes a bit down basis points in Q4 '25 and again, as we have discussed many times, we don't guide because there is volatility on a quarter per quarter basis. This is an annualized number. Again, it's not reflecting a stable year-end number. So specifically to answer a bit more in detail on your question between Q3 and Q4, we had higher than usual repair and maintenance and tire costs in Q4 which were driven mostly by harsher winter starting early in the season and leading to cost for tires in replacing those tires.

So this is playing a role on the decrease in service margin.

As to your second question, I would say there is no precise time line. I mean we are very early in February for the moment, I'm much more focused on a few topics. Well, that our change of organization that we announced this morning with the departure of John Saffrett and the change, and we'll elaborate on that if that's of interest to you with an idea with the organization to improve or to simplify the organization and have a faster decision and also a leaner organization. And that, we focus on both execution on 2026 and the different priorities that I've mentioned with a renewed focus on customer satisfaction after a period in which the company was more centered on itself, we really needed to be more centered on the customer, the market, the competitors.

And the second big priority is to build the strategic plan. So we've launched the work streams that will make the detailed work 2 weeks ago already. And that's our priorities. And so that -- well, as we said earlier, we've shown in 2025 that the excess of capital can be returned to shareholders, and it makes sense but we will see a month after month how the situation is evolving and in function of the evolution, we will give a communication to the market.

The next question is from Nicolas O'Sullivan, UBS.

This is Nicolas Sullivan from UBS. The first one would be on -- again, on a follow-up on the leasing and service margins. I just wanted to confirm if you still see that the range of 550 to 580 basis points leasing contract service margin is still correct.

And secondly, do you think that the print you delivered today in Q4, if we strip out the RMT effect, is it the right way to see the business in 2026 as you implement those synergies? That would be my first question.

And the second question would be on actually those synergies. Actually, you used to communicate or actually disclose in the slides in Q3 and previous quarters on the growth synergies you delivered each quarter, and that's not the case. I just wonder why that changed? And also what specifically led you to add EUR 30 million in CTAs for 2026.

Well, so on the first one, the range that you mentioned in terms of our margins make sense. I think it's consistent with the evolution of the business. And the second question to be front in terms of what was communicate before in detail, I am not sure to have understood exactly the question. What is clear is the accumulated CTA that we have on a 3-year basis of the plan are consistent with what we had announced. There is a slight timing effect in the sense that some CTA or the CTA this year is at the low part of the range and some is postponed to 2026 but we didn't accurate that the year of '26 that is fully consistent with what was previously announced.

Patrick, if you want to elaborate or...

Yes, I think you are looking for the disclosure on synergies, there on Page 6, footnote #3 where you can find the detail on the full year on a quarterly basis, and we will keep on updating the market with those detailed numbers, which are important, indeed, a bit less CTA spend so far. So some real CTA in 2026.

Okay. Understood. And I mean, basically, the timing effect. So I guess in terms of CTA the timing slight delay, is that related to what you said on customer satisfaction. And also, if I can follow up actually on cost. Underlying expenses quarter-on-quarter were up 2%. So is that also related to the whole discussion on client satisfaction efforts?

No, I would not link that directly to the customer satisfaction. I mean for me, the question of customer satisfaction is more about the rigor in execution about a number of processes that we need to improve and about the managerial focus that has to be increased at the whole level of the company as we are telling you well, I had various expenses of big mergers.

And I say it's not sure that in big mergers, it's pretty difficult to the same focus on the customers in the external world. Naturally, people have a more focus on what happens internally in the company because all the time is taken by legal mergers, process mergers, IT mergers, HR contracts, mergers, et cetera, et cetera. So no, I would not take this CTA to customer satisfaction more to the cadence of the migration of IT of the different countries.

The next question is from Delphine Lee, JPMorgan.

I just have one, actually. Because I know as you've given quite a bit of color. But I mean just going back to used car sales. I mean, what are you seeing right now in terms of dynamics? Because I guess -- it feels like there has been some stabilization. So I'm just wondering kind of like how we should think about the outlook.

Great. So when we think about the dynamics of the UCS, we have to split per energy because per powertrain, these are different dynamics. I would say the BEV prices continue to decline, but I would say, as expected, and it's logical, and I think it will continue that and that's what is embedded in our price scenarios when we set the reserve values. After that, on the ICE market, when we take what happened in Q4 versus Q3, we have not seen very significant price move except in Italy, in which there was a decrease in the ICE prices. But once again, it was something that we were expecting in terms of lower ICE.

On the PHEV, so the plug-in hybrids, we've got a decline that is relatively similar to our overall, if I take them in markets compared to what we got in BEV and that also is consistent with our pricing scenario. So well, forward-looking, I would say, ICE, I think, should continue to be quite robust. And BEV and PHEV should continue to decline.

As that when you think about Q4, there is always an element of seasonality between Q4 and Q3. One of the reason is the carmakers tend to push a lot on the end of the year on the destocking these cars with doing that in my former life, and that has an effect on the pricing on the market because they want to have the balance sheet that is the best possible in terms of stock. So we always see that every year. This year, it was maybe a bit more pronounced than summer of the year due also to the fact that in some markets like in the Netherlands, the modification of benefit in kind of regulation in the first of Jan 2026, pushed some defeats and some higher return and that puts some pressure on the local markets.

That's what I can tell you at that stage.

Great. And then the other thing is -- just on the earnings assets, I mean I understand your comment around fleet volumes, but just what should we expect sort of going forward, it looks like you -- I mean, you don't want to guide too much, but like any progression you should have like in '26, '27?

Well, I will answer for 2026 after that for 2027, I think we will answer later on. But for 2026, what we plan is a fleet in volume that would be flattish, flattish basically, which means given the per unit pricing evolution, in particular, due to the mix of BEV low single-digit growth for the NEA.

The next question is from Owen Paterson, Jefferies.

Just a couple kind of broader ones. The first one on fleet growth? I know you've kind of spoken about prioritizing profitability and risk in '26. That's well understood. But just kind of more broadly, what's the kind of opportunity in the kind of market backdrop there? If you did want to get a bit more aggressive. Would it be fairly receptive. And if you could give a bit of kind of color by geography as well and maybe inside outside of Europe? I mean, I know most of the business is focused on Europe. That's the first one.

And then the second one, again, just kind of a bit more long term. I'm just wondering if there's any trends that you want to flag in the services business. You've -- I guess you've been operating a fairly large portion of your fleet being electric vehicles for a few years. Do you see any kind of structural differences in the maintenance spend in general, is maintenance costs kind of higher inflation, are you still facing kind of you have a fairly costly maintenance spend there, just basically any changes, I suppose, into the way that the services business is run?

Well, thanks for the two questions. On the -- I will start with the second one. Well, electrification can mean different things between BEV and PHEV. On the PHEV, the car is more complex and the fact what the numbers show is the level of maintenance to be on. In fact, it's more than a traditional ICE. That's coming from my slide, I would say, on the BEV, it's obvious that some operations that exist on the ICE cars will not exist. And that -- we can see that as a challenge. But I think there are also opportunities to have other services more specifically to BEV car that we need to implement in the coming years. That's the point.

And the other part is efficiency of procurement of the components of the cost of service margins have to be improved. So that will be something we will also work in the strategic plan because this needs to be addressed. We cannot just stay there and say, well, the mix of BEV, ICE moves and it's unfavorable. So that's something that is a clear point of attention and that we need to do in the coming months.

On the fleet growth, opportunities. I think it's a question of geographies on one side. It's a question also of segments in which we want to operate. If we talk about geographies, at the moment, if we want to have a present stance, it makes more sense to push on Italy, Spain, for example, rather than in the U.K. And in that respect, the restructuring of the U.K. activity, I think, makes sense because the return on tangible equity that we can get in that country for the moment, is not as high as one would like.

And in Italy and Spain with a percentage of BEV that is quite low on margins that are quite good. It's a place where we think it would make sense to push more. And that, you can think about the segments and markets. And obviously, moving to a small fleet is something that is direction that makes sense for us. Our bigger strength is on the biggest fleets, and we are one of the very few not to say the two players to be able to address all kind of customers, but we've got our qualities and the smallest on smaller fleet segments.

And the next question is from Reginald Watson, ING. .

So the depreciation adjustment from gross to net UCS result quite a lot lower in Q4 versus Q3. I was just wondering if you could explain the reason for that, please? And also, given the EUR 83 million disclosed stock of unused depreciation adjustment, how you expect that to unfold over the course of '26?

And then my second question is just on the sort of '26 volume flattish. Is that flattish to the upside of 0 flattish to the downside of zero?

Okay. So on the first question, I'm going to ask Patrick to answer to give you the details.

Yes. As you may remember, in Q3, '25 we booked an additional prospective depreciation or depreciation adjustment of EUR 48 million in relation to the U.K. fleet given the price evolution we were contemplating towards 2025 in the country, especially on BEV car. As you know, U.K. is a difficult country well open to competition and external international competition when it comes to tariffs. It's not as protected, and we have, therefore, a very significant level of price pressure in this country.

So this is the main part, which impacts the level which is lower in Q4 than in Q3. Then as referring to the second part of your question, we give as at each quarter in -- this is the -- EUR 83 million of remaining adjustment in depreciation will take place and the account for actual results for '26 and '27 .

Okay. On your first or second question, I remember, while flattish is we're the best thing I can say now. And frankly, in terms of priorities, I don't think that for Ayvens, this is the key point to say flattish will be above zero or just below zero. I don't think it's what matters more for us in 2026. I think what matters more is execute well on the last IT migration that we got in Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. side.

Second fix the processes and improve customer satisfaction in the countries that have been disturbed by the previous IT migrations to be able to have a solid basis for future growth because it does make sense to push more on growth if your processes are not fixed and if it's to make your customer unhappy. So I cannot give 10 priorities to the people. I prefer to give a limited number of priorities so that they can execute on them. But this is a short-term vision. And we will -- and it's not the intention to shrink the company, obviously, but that's for the short term.

Okay. I think that's clear. I mean just coming back to your point that it's not your intention to shrink the company. Obviously, this is a balance sheet business and shareholders would like to see the balance sheet growing profitably. But it feels like '26 then remains a transition year still based on the priorities you've outlined before. Is that a fair assessment?

Yes. In terms of '26 that growth is not the priority of 2026.

Okay. That's clear. I look forward to seeing the CMD at the end of the year and finding out what the priorities are for the following years.

Next question is from Mourad Lahmidi, BNP Paribas.

Yes. So three for me, please. The first one is on the cost income. So you are ahead of your target for 2025 but you maintain the 52% for 2026. So how comfortable are you with the 52% given that you are ahead of that target. The second point is on your funding costs. So if you look at your latest around the financing, they are much better compared to what prevailed 2 years ago. So is there a scenario where you would benefit from a windfall tailwinds from those lower cost of funding as you renew the contract.

And finally, I have a question on the general pricing environment. how do you feel the competition right now? Is pricing more conducive or the competition more fierce than, let's say, a year ago?

Okay. Well, on the cost-to-income ratio, that's fair to say that we're better than what we had guided for 2025, which is obviously good news. 52% is an important number. So we have confirmed that, and it will not be the end of the story because we are in an industry in which we cannot stop to improve. And it's important to this mindset of Kaizen, as the Japanese say, of a permanent improvement. So it's an important milestone. And that it's not the end of the story. So anyway, we ask all the teams to think about the next steps and not only in terms of number obviously, but in terms of concrete actions to be able to deliver the further improvements.

On the funding cost, well, that's -- you're policy right that the last news were good in terms of funding costs. And obviously, as you well know, it progressively goes into the margins, not overnight, but that's -- so when you talk about windfall, I don't think we can that you will have a big windfall in 2026 because this is something that is coming up progressively into the margin. And feel free to elaborate on that if you want.

On the pricing environment compared to 1 year ago. I wouldn't say that it has changed very significantly. We can see that a number of competitors are following us in terms of RV moves. So we tend to be the first to move. And a lot of people are looking at what we are doing.

So we've got a number of markets in which people for us, in particular, on decreasing the harvest on BEV to be consistent with the evolution that we project for the price of these cars in the future. So I would not talk about a very significant move compared to 1 year ago in terms of the pricing environment. Patrick, if you want to elaborate on this topic more?

Thank you. On the funding cost, it's true that we have had better price table. We have also been able to optimize the volumes during the year which translates into lower cost in Europe, obviously, after having merged the entities in some countries, we have been able, and it's part of the impact of some recurring items in Q4. As you have seen in the disclosure to lower some source of financing, which will help future years.

Okay. It's 11:03. I think we need to be respectful of time. So I will thank you all for your attention and for your questions. And as always, we -- our Investor Relations team is available to answer any further questions you might add. And once again, I repeat that I will reiterate that this will be a great pleasure to meet you in person in the coming days, weeks and months thanks all to all of you. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's Ayvens conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Ayvens' Q3 2025 Results Conference Call. Today's speaker will be Tim Albertsen, CEO; and Patrick Sommelet, Deputy CEO and CFO. I now hand over to Mr. Tim Albertsen. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this Ayvens' Q3 2025 Results Conference Call. I'm hosting this call, as always, with Patrick Sommelet. First, I'll present the highlights of our third quarter, then Patrick will comment on our financial results. We'll then take all the questions you may have.

Let's go directly to Slide 5. Continuing on the positive trend set in the first half of the year, Ayvens has posted strong financial results for the third quarter. Margin stood at a very high level at 593 bps of earning assets versus 521 bps in Q3 '24. Used car sales results after depreciation adjustments stood at EUR 536 per car, showing an increase of 9% compared to Q3 '24.

This result includes a EUR 48 million prospective depreciation charge on our U.K. fleet on which Patrick will come back in a few minutes. The underlying used car sales results, excluding accounting adjustments, stood at EUR 1,110 per car, continuing on its normalization trend. Cost-to-income ratio stood at a low 52.8% for Q3 '25, supported by both higher margins and lower underlying expenses.

Finally, net income group share stood at EUR 273 million, an increase of 86% compared to Q3 '24 and broadly stable compared to Q2 2025. For the first 9 months of '25, net income group share amounted to EUR 764 million, an increase of 46% versus the first 9 months of 2024. On the back of this strong financial performance, positive announcement of the U.K. Motor Finance Commissions by the FCA early October and a further reduction in RWA calculations, I'm pleased to announce the distribution of EUR 700 million to our shareholders, which comes in addition to the current distribution policy of a 50% dividend payout ratio.

This distribution will consist of a share buyback program of EUR 360 million starting tomorrow as authorized by the European Central Bank, combined with the payment of an exceptional cash dividend of EUR 0.42 per share for a total amount of around EUR 340 million.

As indicated previously, the objective of this exceptional distribution is to return the excess capital build up throughout 2025 and to bring Ayvens' core Tier 1 ratio closer to our target. This is in line with our commitment towards value creation for our shareholders.

Factoring in this EUR 700 million distribution, our RoTE for Q3 stood at 14.3% and our core Tier 1 stood at 12.8%. Let's now turn to next page on key strategic and business developments for this quarter.

First, Ayvens is continuously strengthening its asset management setup as the protection of our balance sheet has been and remains a strong focus. To that purpose, I'm happy to announce the appointment of Roderick Jorna as Chief Remarketing and Asset Management Officer. These missions include optimization of the usage of the group's funded fleet at contract end through the industrialization of our multi-cycle lease capacity, especially for electric vehicles.

To that purpose, it will also leverage and develop further Ayvens car markets, our leading remarketing platform. As an illustration of this strategy development, we recently opened the Ayvens factory in Veendam in the Netherlands. This is our largest car refurbishment facility in Europe with the capacity to manage the entire remarketing process from inspection and maintenance to damage repair and resale or re-lease in one single location for the whole Ayvens fleet in the Netherlands.

The capacity of this facility is about 1,000 vehicles per month. This initiative demonstrates our commitment to sustainable mobility and will contribute to the acceleration and growth of our used car leasing. Today, at group level, our used car leasing fleets amount to 71,000 cars, an increase of 5% compared to the end of 2024.

Second strategic highlight is the ongoing reshaping of the Ayvens shareholding. With the successful execution of the third ABB mid-September, where 48 million shares changed hands, representing close to 6% of Ayvens' capital with ex-LeasePlan shareholders now holding just below 12% of the group's capital. Post this transaction, daily volumes of Ayvens stock have significantly increased.

I'm also pleased to announce that Ayvens reached an agreement with the ex-LeasePlan shareholders on the contingent considerations and related matters. Finally, integration is on track with the migration of 2 additional countries, Slovakia and Brazil in Q3.

This brings the total number of migrated countries to 16 out of 21 overlapping countries. We delivered EUR 251 million of synergies in the first 9 months of 2025, of which EUR 104 million for Q3 2025 alone. This is in line with our target of EUR 350 million for the full year of '25.

Let me now take you to the next slide and the evolution of the fleet and earning assets. As you know, the portfolio review that we conducted in 2024 aimed at restoring profitability and protecting our balance sheet. This has weighed on our fleet and earning asset growth.

In parallel, we have also restructuring -- we have been restructuring 3 specific parts of our business, namely the broker channel in the U.K. and subscription business in Germany and our fleet in Turkey. Earning assets stood at EUR 52.6 billion, down 1% compared to September '24, but up 0.8% when excluding the 3 parts under restructuring. Total fleet stood at 3.2 million vehicles, a decrease of 3.7% versus September '24.

However, our restructuring efforts are now well advanced, and we start seeing encouraging results as the decrease of the total fleet is being limited to 0.3% versus Q2 '25. In terms of deliveries by powertrain, the EV penetration decreased to 37% versus 39% in Q3 '24 with BEV at 26% and plug-in hybrids at 11%.

Let me now hand over to Patrick on the latest development in the U.K.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As we have been indicating for several quarters, Ayvens has been reshaping its business footprint in the U.K. in the backdrop of the portfolio review, which has supported the uplift in the group's profitability since early '24. In the U.K., this review has consisted of the restructuring of our brokered business as large parts of this distribution channel were below our profitability threshold.

In that segment, fleet is going down 29% versus September '24, resulting overall in a decrease of 28,000 cars in the U.K. funded fleet. This restructuring is well advanced and is expected to be completed in the course of next year and will still weigh on the fleet evolution for the next few quarters, albeit to a lesser extent.

Nonetheless, the U.K. is and will remain a key market for Ayvens in which we continue to push for delivering sustainable and profitable growth. Our commercial franchise continues to develop with our fleet with large corporates increasing by 2% and our footprint with retail customers, excluding brokers, remaining unchanged.

Another key area of focus in this country is our asset risk. Price dynamics are quite specific in the U.K. in comparison with other European markets. While prices for both new and used cars are evolving in line with our expectation for ICE cars and PHEV, evolution for prices on BEVs is trending below our anticipation. This situation is very specific to the U.K. and driven by a mixture of adverse local conditions impacting BEV's new and used car prices. First, the absence of tariffs on Chinese imported cars.

Second, the recent introduction of subsidies on new battery electric vehicles. And finally, these used cars cannot be exported because of the right-hand wheel, which exporting is an effective mitigant usually to losses on used BEVs in other countries where export is doable.

This has led us to book a prospective depreciation charge of EUR 48 million on our U.K. fleet. We keep monitoring closely market dynamics. For new productions, we lowered the residual values on BEVs across the group early in the cycle to levels we are still comfortable with.

Finally, on the U.K. Motor Finance, following the FCA announcement on the 7th of October, we reiterate that our provision of EUR 93 million remains sufficient. Let me now turn on to the section on the financial results. So I will follow up with revenues on Slide 10.

This quarter, again, Ayvens posted high revenues with gross operating income reaching EUR 851 million, an increase of 17.6% compared to Q3 '24, thanks to higher margins. Total margins stood at EUR 776 million, up 20% versus Q3 '24. This increase was driven by a very high level of underlying margin at EUR 782 million versus EUR 693 million in Q3 '24.

It was also supported by a strong reduction in nonrecurring items totaling minus EUR 5 million in Q3 '25 versus minus EUR 47 million 1 year ago. UCS results and depreciation adjustments was overall stable at EUR 75 million compared to EUR 77 million in Q3 '24. Before depreciation adjustment, the underlying UCS results continued its normalization and stood at EUR 155 million versus EUR 222 million in Q3 '24.

This decrease was offset by a reduction in depreciation adjustment, which stood at minus EUR 80 million versus minus EUR 145 million in Q3 '24. To be noted, this minus EUR 80 million in Q3 '25 includes the prospective depreciation charge of minus EUR 48 million booked in relation to the weakness of U.K. BEV prices, as I mentioned earlier.

Let's now turn to the next page on margins. Total margin stood at EUR 776 million, up EUR 130 million versus Q3 '24. They were supported by very strong underlying margin at 593 basis points of net earning assets. Diving into margin subcomponents, the leasing margin stood at a very strong level in continuation of the trend seen in previous quarters. It was supported by lower interest costs across fundings -- all funding sources and was further helped by a few positive one-offs in countries post IT migration.

We do not expect these one-offs to reoccur over the next quarter. Services margin also increased, supported by lower maintenance costs further to underpinned by the ramp-up in program in procurement and insurance synergies, which are being delivered according to plan. Overall, 9 months 2025 underlying margin stood at 569 basis points versus 530 for the first 9 months of 2024.

To finish on margins, impact of nonrecurring items was very limited this quarter at minus EUR 5 million versus minus EUR 47 million in Q3 '24, thanks to much lower impact for both hyperinflation and mark-to-market of derivatives. We expect that hyperinflation should be higher in Q4 '25.

Let's move to the next page on UCS and depreciation adjustment results. The UCS results and depreciation adjustments reached EUR 75 million versus EUR 77 million in Q3 '24 and EUR 143 million in Q2 '25. The UCS results before depreciation adjustments per car has dwindled from EUR 1,420 in Q3 '24 to EUR 1,110 per car in Q3 '25.

While still remaining at a high level, the UCS results show significant disparities between powertrains with ICE car profit still being elevated and BEV losses per car remaining substantial, albeit stable compared to previous quarter.

In Continental Europe and other regions, the evolution of BEV has remained consistent with our anticipation. However, used BEV prices in the U.K. have decreased beyond our anticipation, leading us to book a prospective depreciation charge of minus EUR 48 million.

As a consequence, UCS results and depreciation adjustments stood at EUR 536 per car, down from EUR 972 per car in Q2 '25, but still slightly up versus Q3 '24. For the 9 months '25, UCS results and depreciation adjustments stood at EUR 740 per car, which is slightly above our full year guidance '25, which was EUR 300 to EUR 700 per car.

Volumes stood at 140,000 vehicles. Again, the decline in quarterly UCS volumes compared to last year is mostly explained by the lower number of cars that are being returned at the end of the contract due to 2020 to 2022 vintage shortages.

On the next page for operating expenses, so we can see that total operating expenses stood at EUR 429 million, showing a decrease of 6.7% compared to Q3 '24. Costs to achieve amounted to EUR 17 million versus EUR 20 million in Q3 '24. Our CTA over 9 months '25 amounted to EUR 79 million, in line with plan for the full year ranging between EUR 115 million and EUR 125 million.

Then looking at underlying costs, they stood at EUR 412 million and were down 6.1% versus Q3 '24, driven by the ramp-up in cost synergies as integration progress is well on track and strict cost monitoring continues across the organization.

This cost decrease, combined with a very high level of margins, led to a cost-income ratio at 52.8%, down by 10.6 percentage points compared to Q3 '24. cost-income ratio for the 9 months '25 stood at 56.1% versus 64.3% for the 9 months '24.

For the remainder of the year, we are expecting some increase in BAU cost compared to Q3, which is related to the year-end closing, and we keep our full year '25 cost income guidance unchanged at 57% to 59%. So for the rest of the income statement, we have starting with cost of risk, as shown on the left-hand side graph, the cost of risk, which is stable at EUR 27 million, representing 21 basis points of average earning assets versus 22 in Q3 '24, so still a benign environment there.

Profit before tax stood at EUR 390 million, up 70% versus Q3 '24 as a result of a very strong margin and well-controlled operating expenses. Effective tax rate is at 29.7% and continues to be in line with our indication for the year and net income group share is slightly higher than last quarter at EUR 273 million, but strongly up 86% versus Q3 '24.

As a result, return on tangible equity stood at a strong 14.3%, further supported by the EUR 700 million capital distribution. Now turning to our final slide on RWA and capital. RWA stood at EUR 54.3 billion at the end of Q3 '25, which is a decrease of EUR 1.5 billion compared to Q2 '25, very largely due to a significant decrease in market risk RWA.

As a reminder, the RWA, this market risk RWA results from the group's foreign exchange exposure, which is made up exclusively of equity position in non-euro countries. The RWA decrease in Q3 reflects the waiver approved by the ECB. This waiver allows us to exclude part of this equity exposure from RWA computation as their volatility is contained within certain boundaries.

The graph on the right-hand side of the slide details the 160 basis points of CET1 capital that Ayvens has generated between end '24 and Q3 '25, and it can be broken down as follows: First, the implementation of CRR3 in Q1 '25 led to a reduction of EUR 3.4 billion in operational RWA translating into a saving of 77 basis points of CET1.

Second, the authorization from the ECB to apply a foreign exchange waiver starting in Q3 '25 brings an additional saving of 33 basis points. At last and importantly, the increase in retained earnings since the end of last year, reflecting higher profitability of the group represents a total of 51 basis points.

On that basis, the Board of Directors authorized a total distribution of EUR 700 million, representing 133 basis points of CET1 ratio, bringing this ratio down to 12.8%, closer to our target.

I now leave the floor to Tim to conclude the presentation before our Q&A session. Thank you.

Thanks, Patrick. As this is my last call as Ayvens' CEO, I just wanted to share my appreciation for the discussion and exchanges we have had and the trust and support that you as investors and analysts have shown us over the years.

I recognize that the beginning of our ALD-LeasePlan merger was quite a challenge for all parties. But I think with today's results, the significant return of capital to shareholders and the prospect of the future of Ayvens is a good sign of appreciation to those of you who kept believing in our story.

The 1st of December, I hand over to Philippe, a great platform and a company that is in a good place to deliver the promises that has been set. I'm immensely proud of what my ex-group colleagues and the teams have achieved over the past years. Their determination, professionalism and shared ambition have enabled us to successfully bring together 2 great companies and establish Ayvens as a truly global leader in sustainable mobility.

Together, we have built a group with a unique scale, capabilities and a new momentum, one that is very well positioned for the future, I believe. With that, we are now ready to take any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Jacques-Henri Gaulard with Kepler Cheuvreux.

Tim, congratulations. I hope you enjoy the sun a lot during your retirement. And congrats for the results. I have so many questions, but I'll ask two, okay. The first one, if you can remind us maybe the agreement on the contingent liabilities with Lincoln would be great and what it's going to entail? And maybe because you've addressed the BEV situation in the U.K., if we could have maybe an outlook on the BEV situation for the whole perimeter of Ayvens would be great. And congrats again.

Thanks, Jacques-Henri. Let me start on your question on the BEVs in the U.K., and then I think Patrick can give you a bit of more details on the contingent payments for the consortium. So I think -- so first of all, what we are seeing in the U.K. is quite a specific situation. I think, first of all, I think Patrick mentioned that, first of all, when a car is in the U.K., it stays in the U.K. to some extent because obviously, the wheel is in a different side than what it is in Mainland Europe, which means we cannot use one of the mitigations we have in the rest of Europe to actually bring a car to a more attractive market.

So that's one thing. And then the second thing that is pretty important for the U.K. market is the fact that there are -- I mean, there's no tariffs on the Chinese manufacturers. So the Chinese manufacturers have actually through price mainly, gained, I think, 13% market share very, very quickly and brought down the prices of new cars. And last but not least, the U.K. introduced new subsidies, which also again have an impact on the new car prices and hence an impact on the used car price of BEVs in the U.K.

And then overall, there is typically shorter contracts in the U.K. than there is in the rest of Europe. So that is actually leading to significant losses on the BEVs in the U.K. It's been like that for quite some while, but obviously, it's pretty bad.

We don't see any contagion on Mainland Europe, mainly because of there is tariffs, first of all, on Chinese BEVs in -- within the EU. And we are capable of exporting -- we are exporting more than 50% of our returns on BEVs to other markets. And where there is actually several markets today where there is a real demand for used BEVs. It means that in areas where the demand is not that great, we can actually bring these cars to other markets.

So for the time being, we don't see in anywhere near the same -- actually, we see quite a stabilization in Mainland Europe in terms of the BEV prices that we have seen for the last couple of quarters. And these price scenarios that we are using that we're also back testing is fully in line with our anticipation. So that's on the BEVs, Jacques-Henri. Maybe Patrick, on the...

Yes, on the agreement for contingent consideration. So as you may recall, and it's disclosed in our annual report and the notes there was a remaining agreement with the former LeasePlan shareholders, whereby Ayvens, depending on certain conditions to be met, was supposed to pay a contingent consideration in time to LeasePlan shareholders -- former LeasePlan shareholders.

So it's been a long negotiation with them and many topics that we openly discussed with you in previous results publication and many things that we -- that came -- became apparent post closing. And all this topic have led to a very significant level of discussion with the former shareholders, which is now closed, signed and executed.

And as we put it in the press release, the outcome of this agreement is expected to have a positive impact on Ayvens' total revenue in Q4 '25 mostly in revenue, by the way, and we will record it in the Q4 results. So these specific items are a mix of reimbursement from TDR and release of provisions we had built over time in balance sheet. So I could name a couple of them, such as the list Russia loss reimbursement, contingent consideration on CSF order book, coverage of some tax risk and many other things.

It's a long list of items, which have led to an overall negotiation. So this result is actually showing a positive outcome of a long-lasting negotiation, as I mentioned. But in parallel, we continue to restructure our operations to continue reducing our cost-income ratio beyond the levels we are currently showing this quarter.

Albeit it is very low and it might be back in higher territories in Q4. As such, we are maintaining our full year guidance. So in relation to this exceptional booking related to the federal agreement, we will book additional transformation charge in the next Q4, and we will give full disclosure on that with Q4 disclosure.

Overall, it's the one offsetting the other, and it's not expected to impact significantly the profit before tax. But it's fair to say it will distort the readability of our accounts in Q4. But again, in due time, we will provide the full items helping you to see what is the level of underlying activity.

The next question is from Sharath Kumar with Deutsche Bank.

Congratulations, first of all, Tim, for a wonderful career and good luck for your future. I have 3 questions, please. Firstly, on the margins. Can you quantify the small one-off elements, which you said boosted the margin? And where do you see the outlook from here? Is it safe to assume margins well north of 550 basis points from here?

Also, you spoke about lower funding costs. Can you elaborate on the reasons? And should we be worried about potential higher borrowing costs for the French sovereign in 2026? So that's the first one. Second one is on fleet growth. You've been pretty cautious rightly so on fleet growth, but anything that you have seen to change the mood here? So when do you think is a reasonable time frame to expect a resumption? And what sort of quantum are we talking about?

And where are we in the de-fleeting efforts in the 3 markets that you cited? Lastly, on RWA, very encouraging to see the progress on market RWA. Can you give us more clarity on the ECB waiver, whether this is permanent or is there more to come? And sticking with the same topic, I see your operational and market RWA despite the improvements is still slightly higher than many European banks. So can you comment on this and further scope to reduce here?

Thanks, Sharath. So yes, let me take your second question. I think there was actually more than 3 because there was a few ones in. But I'll leave that to Patrick to talk about the margins and the risk-weighted assets.

On the fleet growth, so I think you saw a number on the U.K., it's around 30,000 units that we have been de-fleeting in the U.K. in 2025. And we are -- it's a very, let's say, targeted way of looking at the market. There is particular segments in the U.K. market that is just not at par with profitability, and that's where we are exiting.

We are still very committed to the U.K. market. As you have seen, we're actually growing a bit in the corporate market, and that's where the margins are correct. And I think in Turkey and on Fleetpool mainly, which is the subscription activity we had in Germany, I think we are talking around 15,000 units all in for '25.

And on those 2 markets, we are pretty much done, not completely done yet with the U.K. Then I think we have talked a lot in the last couple of quarters of all the activities that we have been putting in place to actually reactivate a more stronger commercial, let's say, effort.

And it's a big ship, and there is a long tail on our business, whether it's actually slowing down business or the other way around, it takes time. I think we are seeing the first signs, at least the last 4, 5 weeks, we have seen a trend where the new order intake is improving, which means we are starting to filling up our order bank probably by end of this year.

And hence, we do anticipate slight growth in 2026. But again, we are not anticipating 2%, 3% organic growth on the fleet in '26, at least where it is now, but the market has been quite adverse in '25 as well. I think we said there has been some changes on the benefit in kind taxation in several of our larger markets, in particular, France and Italy.

It's one of the reasons why we have seen quite a sluggish order intake in those 2 countries in the first 6 months. That is -- seems to be on a good track now. I think the new taxation have been absorbed and understood by the market, and we start seeing a bit of activity there as well.

So I think you'll see that from '26, the restructuring of the 3 areas I mentioned is pretty much done. There's still a bit more to be done in the U.K., but not necessarily in the same level as we see in '25. And we start seeing that some of the initiatives and probably important as well is that we have been or we are cautious on residual values on EVs.

And in the, let's say, the first 6 months of '25, we did not necessarily see competition following us. But in the last quarter, we have seen that the market is aligning more to our position, which again, should help us also regaining some growth in some of our more important segments. So that's on the fleet, Sharath, maybe over to you, Patrick, on margins and risk-weighted assets.

Yes. So starting with risk-weighted assets, indeed, we've been able to -- and so again, it's not something that comes all of a sudden. We've been working on that for the past 2 years probably. On the ECB waiver, the ForEx waiver, the ECB, the ForEx waiver approved by ECB. So it's basically, if you can demonstrate that your ForEx risk is contained within certain boundaries, you can get a waiver as per regulation and it's on regulation, which is applicable to any player, any bank in the market.

So we have been able to demonstrate that and it has been acknowledged as such, and it's an improvement that -- and I think we had mentioned previously that we are expecting to optimize our RWA. There was the operational risk improvement at the beginning of the year. There is no the market risk, which is optimized. We do not rule out additional optimization for the future as we remain a business, which has a relatively high level of consumption of RWA.

If you look at total RWA versus total NEA, it's about -- it's still more significant, which is not usual in the banking industry. But let's say, we have been able to partly address this issue and to make our usage of capital less intensive, which is good for the overall profitability and return of the firm.

Coming back to margin, indeed, we have a small one-off in the quarter in the leasing margin, which is around EUR 15 million. It's a release of provision in a number of countries which have been migrated and which were holding a couple of reserves back in case they would have had issues in migrating the clients from one IT system to the other.

So EUR 15 million represents 10 to 15 basis points when annualized. So you see how much this margin basis points when -- which is a quarterly number, which is then annualized, can be volatile. And that's why in consistency with our past practice, we don't give a guidance on this margin, but it should not remain at this elevated level in the next quarter also because we want to put a bit more emphasis on volume growth versus the defense of margin.

And also the lower funding costs we are seeing this quarter and which will probably last, indeed the rest of the end of the year is relating to the fact that the NEA are coming down and NEA are coming down because -- and that's a well-anticipated evolution.

The fleet is going down. And that's, again, something we are monitoring very closely because we want to restructure some parts of the business, which are not the right profitability. But also -- and that's an important evolution that we observed throughout the year, the NEA per car is coming down.

And this is reflecting actually the pressure on the prices on new cars, which are starting to decrease now from a year. That's the case on BEV cars less on ICE, but clearly, that's the case on BEV cars. That's also corresponding to the purchasing synergies we are able to generate further to the merger between LeasePlan and ALD.

So this lower NEA per car have led us to review our expected NEA our projection of NEA and review slightly downward our funding program, which is then leading to lower funding cost as it is -- as it can be anticipated.

The next question is from Matthew Clark with Mediobanca.

So a question from me is on proposed French tax changes, both for dividends and buybacks. How do you expect these to impact you, if at all, both for this program and programs going forward?

I think it's fair to say the French tax landscape is rather uncertain right now. It's difficult to comment as we don't have a finalized decision and budget law and we have a little visibility on that. We don't expect this change to have a meaningful impact as we speak on our French business.

And the evolution of the French tax on buyback. So we have a French tax on buyback, which is accounted for in our equity for the current buybacks. Again, we have limited visibility on the evolution of that. At this stage, we do not plan that it would have a significant -- it would impact significantly either our French business or our capital return policy to shareholders as we speak.

Okay. But just to clarify, is your understanding of the new buyback tax proposal that it applies to the nominal balance rather than the par balance as per the existing lower buyback tax. Is that the right read?

Yes. But again, it's difficult to comment on nonfinite tax of law.

The next question is from Geoffroy Michalet with ODDO BHF.

Congratulations for the strong results and strong underlying improvement as well. Two questions for me. First one has to do with the one-off contingent consideration that we should see in Q4 and on which you said it would be rather on revenue and its counterpart, let's say, the increased OpEx for transformation.

Can you give us a sense of the magnitude of those 2 elements that are set to offset one another? That was the first question. And the second question is that I noticed that the mix of EV delivery this quarter has slowed down to 37% versus 43% last quarter. Is it something deliberate? Or is it more a demand from your client? How can you -- how can we read this?

Thanks, Geoffroy. Let me take your second question first, and then Patrick will elaborate a bit more on the contingent considerations. So no, I think what -- I mean, as you know, we took very conscious decisions back in early '24 to reduce the numbers of the residual value on BEVs, and we have taken quite significant steps there. And as you know, we have typically an order bank that takes 6 to 9 months to deliver.

So we are starting to seeing the first sign of that. I think what we have said is part of as well, to some extent, the fact that we are not growing very fast is that we have priced ourselves for a period out of that market. So now you start seeing the results of that. I think there is still a big appetite from our clients to go electric if it's affordable.

And we still serve quite a number of our large clients with EVs. But this is really, I would say, a result of our pricing on the residuals on EVs and I would say, also our wish to decelerate a bit the electrification in our fleet to take a bit more time to do the transition to electric. So I think that's. But maybe on the one-offs...

Yes, on the one-off to be expected so far in Q4 '25, the order of magnitude you were asking for is somewhere between EUR 50 million and EUR 60 million.

The next question is from Nicolas O Sullivan with UBS.

Congratulations on the delivery today. My first question would be, what do you think is the right level of CET1 ratio to run the business going forward? And would you consider in the future to return any excess above roughly 12% CET1 ratio back to shareholders? That will be my first question.

And the second question would be whether you see more operating leverage going forward once you implement the synergies from this plan? If you grow in the retail segment, second life leasing and the current portfolio reshaping you are doing, if you could tell us about your potential there, please?

Yes. Thank you, Nicolas. So let me take your second question first in terms of operational leverage. I think it's fair to say that we have our 52% cost income guidance for '26. That's quite ambitious still even so we are trending quite well for the time being.

Coming -- I mean, past '26, we obviously still think there is more operational leverage to be done. I think we -- when you do a merger like this, you do not necessarily optimize your processes. We have put in place a new target operating model that is there, but probably can also be optimized. And I think with some of the new technologies around AI, there is obviously opportunities as well.

Some of it will come with investments as well. So the question is how much flows through the P&L in the first years. But obviously, there is another step to be taken. And I think that's actually on my successor list to get done. Philippe will be looking at that as he arrives as well and can work on operational excellence and obviously try to trim the cost base and the margins even further. And maybe on the CET1, Patrick?

Yes. On the CET1, I think for now, we are at 12.8%. I think we are happy where we are. I think the 12% target we have is probably -- actually, we've always trended slightly above this level. So we have no plans to go back exactly to this level in the short term because we believe the current level is more or less appropriate.

But I would like also to point out on the Slide 15, we have put in the results in the presentation that now we can see that this business post restructuring, post-merger, is generating significant capital surplus. So it will be on the upcoming quarters and years, it will be a Board decision of what is the right way to address this significant capital generation over the years if the environment remains as it stands and if the fundamentals of the business stays what they are. But indeed, it's an important point to take into account when looking at Ayvens today.

[Operator Instructions] The last question is from Owen Paterson with Jefferies.

It's Owen from Jefferies here. Just a couple of quick questions. First, technical clarification on the buyback. Will Societe Generale participate proportionately in the buyback to keep their shareholding at the same level? And then my second question is just the end of year increase in OpEx that you've signaled. You've spoken about a few moving parts in that already, the contingent liabilities, and it looks like some cost to achieve as well. Is there anything kind of underlying those? Is this kind of like a typical seasonal shift or not? Just a bit more color there would be good.

I think I'll leave both of these questions to Patrick to give on those.

So on the buyback, I cannot really speak for Societe Generale, but the buyback, the shares will be canceled. So if nothing is done, obviously, the shareholding of Societe Generale will increase, but the rest of the question needs to be asked to them actually to know exactly what they want to do.

And the contingent consideration, so yes, if I understood well your question, yes, there is a positive effect of the contingent consideration, which is -- which will give us additional transformation charges that we need to take for the improvement of the business and even making further productivity gains in the overall organization.

But it's also fair to say that the underlying cost of Q3 is rather low due to a number of accruals we need to make sure at the right level throughout the year. And also because post migration, we have a number of countries where there's a lot of operational improvement to be done, and we need to spend a bit of money in [indiscernible] to help them going through issues relating to customer satisfaction, which are coming from the merger and the fact that the habits of the customers have been changed through the merger of the organization in the various countries. That's why we say that there will be probably an increase in underlying OpEx in Q4. And that's why we are sticking to our full year guidance in terms of consumer.

There's a follow-up from Sharath Kumar with Deutsche Bank.

A quick follow-up on the CTA. Can you clarify that it will be still around the EUR 120 million levels that you guide to? Or are we talking about a higher CTA now in lieu of the one-off gains?

I think we remain with the EUR 120 million. There might be -- as Patrick just mentioned, there is a few things we might look at for Q4, but it will not be impacted significantly. That's all. We remain around the EUR 120 million for the year.

Gentlemen, there are no more questions registered.

Okay. Well, thank you all for your attention and for the questions. And as always, our Investor Relations team is ready to answer any further questions you may have. So don't hesitate. And thanks again. Thanks a lot for the years that has passed by with us. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's Ayvens conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Ayven's Q2 2025 Results Conference Call. Today's speakers will be Tim Albertsen, CEO; and Patrick Sommelet, Deputy CEO and CFO. I now hand over to Mr. Tim Albertsen. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this Ayven's Q2 '25 Results Conference Call. As in previous calls, I'm hosting this call with Patrick. First, I'll present the highlights of the second quarter, and then Patrick will comment on our financial results. We'll then, as always, take your questions at the end.

Let's go straight to Slide 5 on our financial highlights. Ayvens has posted strong financial results for the second quarter, continuing on the positive trends set in the first quarter despite an overall subdued environment. They reflect the disciplined execution of our PowerUp '26 strategic plan with decreasing revenues and constant reduction in operating -- with increasing revenues and constant reduction in operating expenses. Margins stood at a high level at 550 bps versus 539 bps in Q2 '24. Used car sales results after depreciation adjustment per unit stood at EUR 972, up 57% compared to Q2 '24. It benefited from a sharp reduction in depreciation adjustments due to the end of the PPA amortization in Q1 2025 and lower release of prospective depreciation. Conversely, used car sales results before depreciation adjustment has decreased compared to Q2 '24 and stood at EUR 1,234 versus EUR 1,480 in Q2 '24.

These strong revenues, combined with the continued reduction in operating expenses, resulted in a cost/income ratio of 57.6%, down by 4.3 percentage points versus Q2 '24. Over H1 2025, cost/income ratio stood at 57.8%, in line with our guidance for the full year 2025 of between 57% and 59%. As a result, our net income group share stood at a very high level at EUR 271 million, up 39% versus Q2 '24, corresponding to a return on tangible equity of 13.7% versus 10.1% in Q2 '24.

This level of net income has been supported by the strong used car sales results. Going forward, we expect normalization to continue in line with our guidance for the full year 2025.

On the balance sheet, our core Tier 1 ratio stood at 13.5% at the end of June '25, showing an increase of 30 bps versus March '25, mostly driven by a decrease in our risk-weighted assets, on which Patrick will provide more color when detailing our financial performance.

Let's turn to next page on key strategic developments for the second quarter. Integration is advancing according to plan with IT and legal mergers further progressing this quarter and covering now approximately 70% of the group. Synergies are ramping up as planned, reaching EUR 146 million in H1 '25, in line with our annual guidance of EUR 350 million for the full year '25.

Now that the PowerUp 2026 strategic plan is well advanced, I have announced my retirement on the 1st of December '25. A smooth management transition has been secured by the Board with the appointment of Philippe de Rovira as CEO of Ayven starting the 1st of December. Philippe is a seasoned executive in the automotive and leasing industry, having held various positions in businesses and finance at Stellantis over the past 27 years. Thanks to a strong background and the support of the executive team, I'm sure that he will be successful in leading Ayven in delivering the PowerUp '26 plan and embracing the next step of strategy and developments of Ayven in the coming years.

Last but not least, ex-LeasePlan shareholders have started to sell their stake in Ayvens as expected through 2 successful accelerated book buildings performed over Q2 '25. Altogether, they sold around EUR 90 million of their shares to both new investors and existing shareholders, and they now hold around 18% of Ayvens' capital versus 29% before these 2 transactions.

Ayvens free float have now increased to 30%. Subsequently, trading volumes are trending higher, and Ayvens was included in the STOXX Europe 600 Index in June, contributing to the increased visibility and trading of our share.

Let's now turn to fleet and earning assets. The overall economic environment in Europe has remained subdued over the last quarters, also impacting the dynamics of the mobility industry. New car deliveries for passenger cars in Europe are down 2% in H1 '25 compared to H1 '24, remaining well below pre-COVID levels and demand for operating lease products from corporates is less dynamic, also affected by changes in taxation regimes across Europe. Against that backdrop, we are not seeing yet the results of the commercial actions that we have launched to resume profitable growth.

In Q2 2025, our total fleet is down 4.5% compared to Q2 '24, still reflecting the comprehensive review of our client portfolio in 2024. And as a consequence, earning assets are slightly decreasing, standing at EUR 52.9 billion, down EUR 300 million compared to Q2 2024. If we exclude the 3 businesses under restructuring, namely U.K., Turkey and the subscription activity in Germany, earning assets were up 0.7% and up 1.1% when further excluding negative ForEx impacts, underlining that earning assets are still supported by a significant price effect even if lower than before.

In terms of deliveries by powertrain, EV penetration reached 43% versus 39% in Q2 '24, with full electric at 30% and plug-in hybrid at 13%. As indicated in previous quarter, a series of commercial actions have been launched to fuel future profitable growth.

Let me now turn to the next slide and give you some color on our strategy on the retail segment, which has a strong growth potential. On top of our core corporate client franchise that represents close to 66% of our activity, Ayvens benefits from a wide and well-established retail network with retail clients representing about 1/3 of Ayvens' funded fleet of which 65% to SMEs and 35% private individuals.

We address this retail segment through 3 channels: first, through 18 partnerships with OEMs, both well-established brands and promising new market entrants, representing 42% of our retail fleet. Second, indirectly through more than 400 partners such as banks, insurance, mobility providers and brokers, representing another 42%. And finally, directly under the Ayvens brand and platforms, representing the remaining 16%. With the Ayvens brand now rolled out across the group, our plan is to develop our direct reach with retail clients, offering us full client ownership with greater cross-selling and upselling opportunities and better margins on a growing market segment.

For that purpose, we have extended our product offering to meet distinctive and evolving mobility needs for SMEs and private individuals. Besides, we have scaled up our capabilities to develop our direct retail channel with dedicated teams, digital assets and online offering in our core markets. We are well positioned to capture retail growth opportunities and we will continue to develop our capabilities further. I also expect that Ayvens can benefit here from Philippe's vision and experience in leasing to retail clients.

I now hand over to Patrick to comment on our strong Q2 '25 financial performance.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning to all. I will start with a few words on our revenues on Slide 10. Ayvens posted very strong revenues in Q2 '25 with gross operating income amounting to EUR 855 million, up 9% versus Q2 '24 and plus 4% versus Q1 '25. These revenues were driven upward by both increased margins and higher UCS results.

Margins stood at EUR 712 million, up EUR 25 million versus Q2 '24. Impact of nonrecurring items, mostly hyperinflation in Turkey reduced to minus EUR 19 million versus minus EUR 27 million in Q2 '24. Underlying margin were up EUR 17 million compared to Q2 '24 at EUR 731 million. UCS results on depreciation adjustments were up 46% versus Q2 '24, reaching a high level of EUR 143 million, highlighting the careful management of reserve values we have put in place over the last 2 years.

As shown on the graph on the right-hand side of the slide, the strong EUR 45 million increased results is a result of 2 opposing trends. First, a EUR 53 million decrease in used car sales results before depreciation adjustments, which stood at EUR 181 million versus EUR 234 million in Q2 '24 and then a EUR 98 million decrease in negative depreciation adjustments amounting to minus EUR 38 million versus minus EUR 136 million in Q2 '24. As Tim mentioned earlier, PPA impact on UCS ended in Q1 '25 and the release of prospective depreciation is gradually reducing.

Let's now turn to the next page on margin. Underlying margins were robust and stood at 550 basis points in Q2 '25, up 11 basis points versus Q2 '24. They were underpinned by the ramp-up in procurement and insurance synergies. Compared to Q1 '25, margins are down 12 basis points. As explained last quarter, margins were supported in Q1 '25 by a very strong performance in all the services components, which have come down a bit in Q2 '25, especially on short-term rental revenues as well as fleet management and maintenance revenues. From that perspective, Q2 '24 is more in line with the normal quarter.

On the other hand, leasing margins have increased, benefiting from our actions to restore margins and lower residual values on EVs, leading to higher financial revenues. As indicated in previous quarters, the swing between the various revenue lines from a quarter to another are also partly explained by accounting alignment taking place across the organization, along with integration. Overall, margins were strong in H1 '25 at 557 basis points versus 531 basis points in H1 '24.

Let's move to the next page. The UCS results and depreciation adjustments reached EUR 143 million versus EUR 98 million in Q2 '24. This is a high level that compares well with the industry, mainly driven by lower impact of depreciation adjustments with the end of the PPA amortization in Q1 '25 and lower release of PD. Over the last 3 quarters, our result per unit before depreciation adjustments has remained almost stable overall, marking an apparent growth in the UCS results normalization.

Behind this trend, there are strong disparities between powertrains. While ICE UCS results remained strong this quarter, BEV UCS losses are not improving on the back of new BEV prices evolution, notably in the U.K. As indicated earlier by Tim, normalization of used car sales results is expected to resume in line with our full year guidance, notably driven by the growing share of EVs in our fleet going forward.

Volumes sold were down 11,000 units versus Q2 '24 at 147,000 vehicles. The decline is mostly explained by the lower number of cars that are being returned at the end of the contract. Indeed, these cars are mostly '20 to '22 vintages. And as you may remember, production in those years were negatively impacted by supply chain disruption following the COVID crisis and to some extent, to the start of the war in Ukraine.

Let's turn to the next page on operating expenses. Total operating expenses are trending down, showing a decrease of EUR 28 million compared to Q2 '24. If we look first at underlying costs, they were down EUR 21 million versus Q2 '24. This is a decrease of 4.8%. Cost synergies have gained momentum as IT migrations and legal integration are being executed in mid '24 and early '25.

This is delivering savings increasingly and according to plans. Continued strict cost monitoring across the organization also helped drive down operating expenses. This cost decrease, combined with higher margins has led our cost-income ratio to 57.6%, down by 4.3 percentage points compared to Q2 '24. Cost to achieve amounted to EUR 26 million versus EUR 33 million in Q2 '24, in line with plans. Our CTA over H1 '25 amounted to EUR 61 million. And as a reminder, our guidance for the full year is between EUR 115 million and EUR 125 million.

Let's turn to the next page with the rest of the income statement. Starting with cost of risk. As depicted on the left-hand side graph, the cost of risk is trending a bit lower than previous quarters at EUR 27 million. This represents 20 basis points of average earning assets versus 23 basis points in Q2 '24. Profit before tax stood at a strong EUR 386 million, up 38% versus Q2 '24 as a result of higher margin, lower depreciation adjustment in the used car sales results and also lower operating expenses as we commented and lower cost of risk.

Effective tax rate stands at 29.5%. This is in line with our indication for the year, and the net income group share is strongly up at EUR 271 million, an increase of close to 39% versus Q2 '24.

Let's now turn to our final slide on capital and RWA. So as Tim alluded to at the beginning of our presentation, RWA were down EUR 900 million, standing at EUR 55.8 billion versus EUR 56.7 billion in Q1 '25. So this decrease results mainly from the following factors. First of all, the RWA earning assets were down EUR 200 million. So this is linked to the evolution of the balance sheet.

Second, the market risk-weighted assets, which results from the net equity position in subsidiaries outside the Eurozone were down EUR 300 million versus Q1 '25 due to intragroup dividend distribution from the subsidiaries, Turkey representing around half of the decrease.

Third, RWA and cash deposits declined by EUR 200 million decrease of deposits indeed.

And lastly, RWA and Ayvens insurance were EUR 200 million lower due again to intragroup dividends, reducing its net equity position. So that leaves us with a CET1 capital of EUR 7.5 billion at the end of June '25. Our CET1 ratio stands at a high level of 13.5% versus 13.2% at the end of March '25.

This concludes our presentation. Thank you for listening. We are now ready to take any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Jacques-Henri Gaulard with Kepler Cheuvreux.

Tim, congratulations on your retirement, although we'll probably hear from you later, like you. Two things. The first one is on excess capital. I remember that you linked the usage of the excess capital to the conclusion of the FCA Motor Finance case, and we know that the Supreme Court is going to give it's view on Friday, actually tomorrow. Is it fair to assume that we should have a decision quickly after that?

And the second point is, I appreciate that you gave a bit of guidance for some of your -- of the metrics during the call, but you didn't repeat them in writing. Does it mean that for the outlook, generally, you leave that to your successor? Or should we assume nonetheless that the 2025 guidance is still valid, more or less?

Thank you, Jacques. Yes. So on your first question, it's true that tomorrow after the market closing, we expect the Supreme Court to give the ruling. And then anticipated is that the FCA will come back in September, basically how to execute the verdict. So we will, first of all, have a direction tomorrow evening, which is good. And we anticipate to have more clarity by end of September, early October. And you're right, excess capital, let's say, decisions will not necessarily -- will not be taken before we have clarity on the U.K. case.

On the guidance, I mean, first of all, we have a policy of giving guidance once a year and that we have not stated it this time, it doesn't mean that we do not keep our guidance for '25. We are still in line with that. Fair to say that probably one of the next questions will be about the growth of NEA. But obviously, the main guidance that has been given is still within reach, and we have built ourselves flexibility on all the other metrics if we do not see that the market is coming back to growth basically. So yes, guidance for '25 and for that matter, for '26 is confirmed still.

The next question is from Sharath Kumar with Deutsche Bank.

I have 3, please. Firstly, on margins. I hear you when you speak about the moving parts within leasing and service margins. So do you think going forward, is it fair to expect further softness given that you would expect to resume fleet growth? So any guidance on margins from here would be helpful. Also, we saw some softness in service margins in the third quarter. So is it likely to repeat this year as well? So that is the first one.

Second, on used car sales results, I again hear your comments on seeing a faster normalization going forward, increasing share of EVs, et cetera. But even considering this, I feel that your full year guidance of EUR 700 to EUR 1,100 is conservative. So what reasons have prevented you from upgrading this guidance?

And lastly, just on the succession. So what has been the initial feedback received from investors and clients on the new CEO? Can you talk about transition plans that we can expect in the second half?

Thank you, Sharath. So I'll let Patrick comment on the margins, but let me just do the used car sales and the succession plan first then. So on the used cars, it's quite -- there's quite a different trend in the market. So overall, it looks pretty good, as you mentioned. So what we see is the ICE cars, the hybrid cars are performing extremely well, and we anticipate that to keep going. We are seeing that the BEVs is actually trending a bit worse. Now it's quite specific markets. I think Patrick mentioned the U.K., which is a real problem to be honest.

So I think overall, anticipation is that the, I would say, ICE cars remain strong and the hybrids for that matter. But as you know we will have a bigger portion of BEVs coming through and that we have not seen an improvement there yet. Obviously, we expect to see that normalization coming through. So the 700 to 1,100 is still a valid guidance on that point.

On the succession, so I think, first of all, this has been obviously planned well. The Board have had time to go through a proper selection process. And I think the choice of Philippe has been very well received. I think it's well received that it's an executive coming from the automotive industry. Personally, I think that's also very good. When we look 5 years ahead, the transformation in the automotive sector is quite significant for the time being. And obviously, it will have an impact on our business as well. And hence, having a deep understanding of how the automotive industry will evolve over the next 5 years is certainly a plus. And again, the feedback, both from clients, partners and the markets have been positive also that it has been, I would say, done in a very orderly manner. So I think that's important.

Patrick on the margins?

Yes. Thank you for the question. Indeed, on the margin. So we had indicated in previous calls that throughout integration, we were aligning the accounting practices and the accounting classification of the various types of revenues. So this is explaining this quarter a bit, not all of it, but a bit the lower service margin that we have had, representing approximately EUR 20 million from Q1 to Q2 and from Q2 to Q2.

It's between the margins revenues. It's also between service margin and UCS as we have aligned the classification on some fees, which are earned through the sale of UCS cars with something which needed to be done. So it's behind us now. We might still go through some accounting alignment in the following quarters, but expected at lower level. So it should not be noticeable going forward and that has taken place. So apart from that service margin, and I think I indicated on the call in Q1 that all the subcomponents of service margin in Q1 were at record level.

This quarter, some of them, and it's really business as usual are a bit weaker. That's explaining the other part of the weaker service margin that we have in Q2. It's not something that we can predict or we can say it will reproduce or not. It will come again or not, but it's clearly visible this quarter despite the extraction also of higher synergies. And I think you have question as well on -- you have questioned us as well on Q3, which obviously, at this stage, I cannot comment as the month of July is barely over.

The next question is from Geoffroy Michalet with ODDO.

Congratulation for the results. I have 2 questions on UCS. The first one is if you could give us a bit of help on the mix element in the Q2 UCS results. I mean, has the share of EVs resold this quarter gone down versus previous quarter, for instance, that would have been a support for the overall margin per unit? And the second question also linked to UCS is, can you give us some elements to appreciate the range of profit that you are making on ICE per unit and the range of loss that you are making on EV?

Thank you, Geoffroy. So to be honest, we don't really give numbers on the different powertrains and we start doing that. But obviously, let's say, the ICE cars are trending still very high to the past, mainly driven by natural, I think we mentioned that before, the supply and demand situation is that there is still obviously less ICE cars, used ICE cars for sale. Also, the manufacturers have stopped producing the segment A cars like the Fiesta cars and these kind of cars, which means that the entry-level pricing is high.

And obviously, it means that people typically are buying maybe a used car, which helps, let's say, the ICE cars to perform really well. And it's, I would say, structurally, we believe for at least the next 12 to 18 months. And as I mentioned, obviously, on EVs, it's not a clear picture. So it's quite specific to markets. And I said the U.K. market is particularly bad hit because of big volumes in batteries, but also the fact that we cannot bring these cars elsewhere. They stay in the U.K., you have to sell them in the U.K., whereas in, let's say, Mainland Europe, we are actually -- I think we said that before as well, we are cross-border selling typically up to 50% of our EVs and bringing to the markets where we obtain the best prices.

And the more mature the EV markets are, the better the performance is. So typically, in the Nordic countries, you actually see already a kind of maturity of the EV markets and people looking for used EVs. That's not the case in Germany. It's not the case in France. It's not the case in Italy and Spain yet. Obviously, we expect that to come. But -- so we don't necessarily expect a big improvement on the BEV side for the time being.

And to your question, I mean, obviously, we have been taking more and more EVs into the fleet since 2020 or '21. And obviously, the number of EVs going through the used car sales is increasing. I mean the majority of our sales is still ICE cars. I hope that answers your question.

Yes. Just maybe to help us understand better, are we speaking about a couple of hundreds of lots or a couple of thousands of lots on EV?

We talk in thousands.

[Operator Instructions] Mr. Albertsen, there are no more questions at this time. The floor is back to you.

Okay. Well, thank you very much for listening. Thanks for the questions. I think from our side, we want to wish you all a nice summer vacation. And of course, if there is any further questions, you can always address our Investor Relations teams. We're ready to answer any questions you may have. Thanks a lot, and have a good summer.

Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's Ayvens conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.