CIE Automotive Aktie

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the First Quarter results for CIE Automotive. We have Lorea Aristizabal, Director for Corporate Development. [Operator Instructions]

Now I'll hand over to Lorea. Go ahead, please.

Good afternoon. Welcome to this conference call with the results for this first quarter 2026. A quarter that somehow confirms the disparity between markets with markets evolving at very different speeds and with increasingly divergent dynamics in an environment where apart from all the above, demand and production don't always evolve in a synchronized way as we'll see when we review what happened in each market.

Starting with China, the Chinese market situation can be summarized under 2 concepts: normalization and competitive pressure. On the one hand, normalization. China has already shown a clear adjustment in demand with sales falling by around 20% in this first quarter compared to a more limited output fall of 10%, a demand adjustment that reflects some normalization after the post-COVID years of very strong growth, an adjustment in demand that reflects a mature market with electrification levels close to 50% in both sales and production and demand adjustment to which, without a doubt, the reduction of incentives for electric vehicles has had an effect, which was implemented at the end of 2025 in the context of reorientation of the Chinese government's industrial policy. And in 2026, it has stopped considering the automotive sector as one of its strategic priority sectors in terms of investment.

We also mentioned the competitive pressure, that competitive pressure and the price wars between manufacturers, which continues to be very, very intense. So the adjustment of the domestic demand, combined with this competitive pressure means that a very significant part of the production, a growing share of production is shifting from domestic consumption towards exports to the world; exports, which in 2025 represented 7 million units, more than 20% of the production.

As you know, our exposure to China is not significant. Our share with local OEMs is limited, and this has led to an underperformance in the market, while the Chinese OEM share has grown. But it's a limited share that responds to an approach aimed at preserving high levels of profitability in that market. And specifically in this first quarter, as our CEO already mentioned at the results conference in February, in this quarter, we recorded an outperformance compared to the Chinese market by more than 2 points, reflecting a certain improvement in market share of several international OEMs during the quarter. We will have to look at the trend, and we'll have to monitor it.

Moving to the North American market to the other side of the world, we find that production has stayed flat in this first quarter. If we focus on the U.S., we see a North American market -- sorry, I mean, a U.S. market with also a flat production during the first quarter, a context where we have an increasingly demanding market with an inflation of around 3% and a rise in the monthly vehicle financing rates, which in this first quarter alone rose by almost 5% compared to the previous year, and this is having an impact.

To this, we must add the withdrawal of incentives of $7,500 for electric vehicles as of September 2025. And all this explains the better evolution in hybrid sales in recent months, showing double-digit growth in Q1 versus double-digit drops in the sale of electric vehicles.

Moving to Mexico. It had also shown a flat evolution in production in this first quarter. It maintains its critical role as an automotive hub with the U.S. depending significantly on Mexico, both because of costs and the geographic position in the context of global supply chain configuration moving away from Asia, a trend that clearly benefits us and from which we hope to continue benefiting through our highly solid position in Mexico.

As an additional context to the American market, next July 1 is the deadline to decide whether the current USMCA agreement is extended or renewed. This second option to the renewal seems to me the most likely. And in fact, certain negotiations are already underway, and we'll have to see what happens. In this first quarter, our growth has been below the North American market for once with a contraction of about 2%.

Brazil, moving on to Brazil. The headlines for Brazil, a strong demand and a recovery in production, a market that continues to show itself very strong with a sales growth close to 15% in the first quarter, supported by a domestic demand that has been favored by a slight reduction in rates and the production that is also growing, but is growing half as much as sales. It's grown 7% in the quarter.

This divergence between sales and production depends on 2 main factors. On the one hand, the fact that sales reflect the growing importance of imports of Chinese cars to Brazil. In this first quarter, the imports grew by close to 70% year-on-year to up to 50,000 units, which represents 9% of total vehicle sales in the country. On the other hand, production, which, as we said, have grown less than sales. And that's because they've been affected by a fall of almost 20% in exports, especially to Argentina, Brazil's main foreign market.

Argentina, besides still having a weak economy, also has an increasing penetration of Chinese manufacturers with imports from China growing more than 80% year-on-year and this is reducing the demand for vehicles from Brazil. In Brazil, our position is based on a strong local presence and our capacity to deliver in a market where relationships are decisive in a market where, again, we have significantly beaten the market in this first quarter with 16 points of outperformance considering organic and inorganic growth.

Talking about the India market, and we have to define the growth of this market, we could say that it is a market with a structural and diversified growth. Passenger vehicle production in India continues to grow at a very strong pace in this quarter, approaching double digits with a figure of 9%. And this strength also extends to the rest of the segments with production levels that have grown significantly: 2-wheelers over 20%, tractors over 30%, trucks over 25%. So an evolution that confirms, as we said, sustained growth with support in different segments and with a very favorable outlook in the medium term.

Our strategy and our great advantage in India is based on the technology transfer. We have already carried out diversification, combining differential technological capabilities, deployment of virtually all our technological production and a diversified and healthy exposure, both in segments and clients. All this is reflected in the first quarter where we have significantly beaten the Indian market with an outperformance close to 14 points.

Moving on to Europe, with sales which have remained practically flat and production, which fell slightly by 1% in the quarter. And this again, reflects that part of the demand is directed at imported cars with Chinese OEMs reaching a market share of almost 11% in Q1 sales, higher than the 8% they reached in 2025 as a whole.

In the European market, electrification has already accounted for 30% of the mix in the whole of Q1, half pure-electric vehicles and half hybrid vehicles. And this electrification is driven by regulation and by the growing offer of more competitive prices for models, both from Chinese OEMs and from European and international OEMs.

How do we feel in Europe? We feel that we are in a good position with an advantage that we could say is twofold. On the one hand, we have a multi-technology position, which allows us to supply components for combustion vehicles, for hybrid vehicles and for electric vehicles. And this addition to our portfolio has occurred gradually and in line with the evolution of our customers' demands. And on the other hand, and this is very important, we have a solid financial position in an especially challenging European environment. In Europe, profitability continues to be the main pressure point with roughly 75% of the suppliers operating below 5% EBIT according to CLEPA data, the European Association of Suppliers.

In view of this, our financial strength gives us a differential position in the sector and allow us to organically consolidate market share through new projects assigned to us by our customers that require investment. The outperformance over the European market in this quarter has been 16 points with about half of that growth derived from the integration of Aludec.

With everything I've said about the different markets in the different geographies, this points to a market that has grown by 1.3% in the first quarter, while CIE has grown by 10.4% at constant currency, with half of this growth approximately being organic and the other half inorganic. And this, in total, implies an outperformance of 9 points, a growth that has also been accompanied by excellent margins with a consolidated EBITDA margin that for the first time has exceeded 19%, reached 19.1% and a consolidated EBIT margin that remained above 14%. Different dynamics depending on the geography, but a very well-balanced profitability by regions, which gives greater strength and recurrence to the group's global margins.

In absolute terms, we have a P&L for the first quarter over EUR 1 billion in sales with a quarterly EBITDA, which for the first time has reached EUR 200 million, an EBIT of EUR 152 million and a net result of EUR 96 million, the highest quarterly profit to date. Figures, which, as our CEO said at the shareholders' meeting today, would have been significantly higher without the negative impact of the sharp depreciation of our currencies and very negative impact. Sales were almost 7% lower due to that effect, EUR 60 million less; an EBITDA with an impact of EUR 12 million; and an impact of EUR 6 million less on the net result.

But as we always stress, excellent figures in the earnings account, but they would lose all their relevance if we did not prove that they become cash quarter after quarter. And in this sense, saying that in the first quarter, we exceeded a 70% conversion rate of EBITDA to operating cash flow with an operating cash generation that reached EUR 136 million and which enables us to maintain a very stable and controlled level of borrowing while financing growth, investment and shareholder remuneration.

Growth having completed the acquisition of Aludec with an enterprise value of EUR 200 million, investment that continues with EUR 60 million in maintenance and expansion CapEx in the quarter and with remuneration to the shareholder, having paid more than EUR 60 million between the 2025 interim dividend and other minority dividends. All in all, net debt, which, as I said, is stable and under control of about [ EUR 1.040 billion ], which implies a leverage ratio of 1.3x net financial debt over EBITDA and which is equivalent to 1.1x pro forma debt without inorganic operations.

We are nearing the end of the conference. There's little else to say, but I would like to close with 5 key messages that I think summarize the quarter. A significant outperformance over the market, 9 points, demonstrating our ability to deliver in a very demanding environment. We have maintained our excellent levels of profitability that is balanced on a global and local level. We have generated a lot of operating cash, which is allowing us to support customers with new investments for growth while expanding our perimeter and increasingly remunerating our shareholders.

So all in all, a first quarter very much in line with our guidance for 2026, '27, a guidance that we reconfirm today and which defines a clear road map for the next 2 years, growing above the market, maintaining excellence in profitability and continuing to strengthen our financial position while we consolidate the sector and increase dividends.

I'm not going to go on any longer. So we will now open the Q&A. Thank you very much for your attention, and I'm at your disposal.

We start with the questions, starting with the sales line, the outperformance and so on. First of all, do we have a breakdown of inorganics by geographies for the first quarter? And what should we expect for the whole of 2026?

Well, as we said, the growth in constant currency for the quarter has been 10% approximately. Half of that is organic, the other half is inorganic. And that inorganic growth by geographies, of that inorganic growth, approximately 1/3 comes from Brazil from the acquisitions last year of Engrecon and Techniplas and the other 2/3 come from the latest acquisition, Aludec and which, as you know, is essentially Europe.

And there was a second part of the question, what do we expect for the rest of the year? Will the annualization of that inorganic growth while understanding that Engrecon, it came into -- in the second quarter, Techniplas in the third and Aludec came in, in this first quarter. So whatever that adds up to? Regarding the Chinese implementations in Europe, could CIE work with these OEMs, bearing in mind the cultural differences and the use of their own suppliers abroad?

Well, the answer has to be yes, obviously, yes. They are different from a cultural point of view without a doubt, so are the Japanese OEMs and the Korean OEMs, and to bring it closer, the Indian OEMs like Mahindra or Tata with whom we work with no problem at all. I think that the decentralization of CIE and the CIE model of empowering and managing locally with local teams means that the culture is close in the case of India, as I said, to Mahindra or Tata. We work with OEMs from different nationalities and different cultures, and we have a strong relationship everywhere. I don't see a major cultural problem in working with the Chinese.

And the fact that they take suppliers to the rest of the world, I think we shouldn't rush in our opinion. I think we still have to monitor how the Chinese OEM deployment is going to happen in the world. There are currently some Chinese suppliers around the world, but it's not a massive deployment. We'll have to analyze the profile of Chinese suppliers in China and whether they have the cultural profile, the international profile, the financial profile and the financial muscle that internationalization requires. So we'll have to monitor all that and see. There will be some for sure. There are also Korean and Japanese suppliers, but the rest of us are all still here.

In the case of China, could you explain the change in our underperformance and the possibilities of consolidating in the future?

Well, we've had an outperformance, but it's just a quarter. I said it and I'll say it again, we're going to monitor the trend. It's true that analyzing the Chinese domestic market this quarter has been interesting. It's been interesting because we've seen changes in the trend. But a quarter is not enough to know whether this is going to be a structural change in the trend or whether it's just one quarter and then things change. What do I mean?

Well, for example, if we look at the sales market share for Chinese OEMs, for the first time in a long time, we've seen drops, double-digit drops in domestic sale going from 12% last year to a share of 9% this year for BYD or we have Geely that has maintained market share or Chery that's also fighting to keep its 3% market share. And on the other hand, we have figures from this first quarter from international OEMs where we see slight positive changes. The Volkswagen Group has gone from 8% to 9%, Mercedes stays at around 2%, but Audi goes over 2%. We've seen Toyota, Nissan, Honda also growing 1 point in their market share compared to last year.

And by all this, I mean, that we're seeing changes in the market shares of the various Chinese and international OEMs in the first quarter of 2026. And this has had an effect on our relationship with the market. But I think that a quarter is not enough to determine whether this is structural or not. But it's a very interesting subject to monitor over the coming quarters.

In the case of Brazil, why has been such a positive evolution this quarter, both in sales and margins? What is the key to your success in this market? Well, we like Brazil very much. And I know it's surprising because our latest organic operations have been over there, and we're growing a great deal, both organically and inorganically. And perhaps the question is based on the fact that not many international players can make money or a lot of money in Brazil, keys to our success.

Well, it's a market that has fluctuations in demand that means you have to be agile. It's a market with a diversification in customer segments and products that you need to know how to handle, a lot of bureaucracy with a lot of tax complexities where you need a lot of support to survive in the Brazilian fiscal world, the constant friction with the customer to pass on high inflation rates. It's a market that has been closed for a long time with tariffs on imports. It's an [indiscernible] market. It's a very unique market.

Like in the rest of CIE, we have a local management team that's doing an outstanding job, both in organic growth and in relationship with customers as well as in the inorganic integrations. And I suppose it's a little bit of all this plus a spectacular management team is the key to our success that you were asking about.

The growth in India of some peers is much stronger with an increase in margins. Perhaps will there be a change in strategy there, focus more on sales?

Well, I don't know who they mean, those peers that are growing so much. I think that having 14% of outperformance over the market is growth. 14 points of outperformance in a growing market. I think it's a considerable outperformance. And I think that it shows that we're doing a good job. And it's purely organic, by the way. I think it shows that we're doing a good job.

A change in strategy? Well, we don't like to copy other people's strategies. I think that each player has their own technology strategy or diversification, customer and segment strategies or the way they focus on growth. In recent years, we've been very much focused on organic growth and investments in greenfields that we're getting a return from now. And we've supported our customers in making the market growth. And again, with 14 points outperformance in the quarter, saying that others grow more, I don't know who they mean, but I don't think we need to make the comparison. I think that we have a spectacular absolute and relative growth.

There's a question on the underperformance in North America. Can we add a little color?

Well, as in the case of China, when we had an outperformance, and we said that a quarter -- one quarter doesn't create a trend and the same goes for the U.S. because it is just one quarter. In the last 5 years, we've seen some underperformances in America and Europe, but it's not that important. We should follow the trend. And how do you see Q2?

How do we see Q2? Without major shocks so far, and I say so far, and we have to make a disclaimer because the world can change tomorrow if Mr. Trump wakes up and says something different. But what we have right now on the table, I would say that a solid second quarter with good margins, nothing disruptive. What is the impact of the Iran war on CIE? Perhaps that's what was behind the question. Maybe that was what was behind the question, whether we -- yes, there's another question. Will this affect your guidance?

Well, the Iran war. So far, we don't have an impact on a breakage of the supply chain or lack of supply. There's nothing new in this area. Are there price increases? Well, yes, of course, all over the world. But what do we need to do here? Open negotiations with the customers to try to make a pass-through, as Jesus Maria, said during the shareholders' meeting. We're slightly increasing our safety stocks in certain areas that concern us a little more. We're also developing new suppliers in some areas and a plan B.

So what are we doing? We're managing the situation of uncertainty. That's what everyone is doing. A situation that hasn't had an impact on the first quarter, and we don't expect a significant impact in the CIE consolidated results in the second quarter. If the situation persists and we have oil at $130 for 3 years, it will be a different story. There's an uncertain situation, which is what we have today, and we don't have a crystal ball. But I think that there will be a second quarter without a significant impact.

And moving on to something else. The EUR 263 million in financial debt connected to the purchasing of Aludec with EUR 200 million in enterprise value. Could we explain that a little bit?

There's not much to explain. The adjustment in prices, EUR 173 million. Well, what represent is the variation in net financial debt. So EUR 163 million is the impact on net financial debt.

About Aludec, how is the integration going? And how do we expect it to go during the rest of the year? And is there a possibility of cross-selling with other geographies?

Well, it's going very well. It's a spectacular management team with a marvelous track record. And that's one of the great things about Aludec. Having integrated a team of those characteristics is very good fortune for CIE, and there's a great integration with the rest of the organization. You know that for us, Aludec has meant setting up our eighth division, the branding division, a division which we expect to expand geographically because right now, it's highly concentrated in Europe and has just put a foot in North America, and we expect to grow those North American branding operations. And who knows with the dream of perhaps setting up a world division, expanding it to Asia in the future. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself, but without dreams, you can't reach your ambitions.

And what do we expect? Well, we've integrated a company with a management team that is obtaining an excellent performance, and we expect to maintain it and live up to the support that this division needs.

And we asked about M&A in general. How is it going? They say there has been a lot of activity in the sector from the peers. How is it going?

Well, working very hard on M&A with a lot of operations being analyzed. It's a pity we can't tell you anything about it. But there are operations open, especially in markets, which, as you know, are more strategic for us because of their growth prospects or the position of those markets in the future of automation. And I'm talking about India or going through Mexico or Brazil.

India specifically, there's been a lot of M&A. Yes, India is an active market in M&As. There's a small problem, which are the extremely high valuations which, in many cases, we don't feel are justified. Something we've often said is that in the past, we've used our listed subsidiary in India for the partial payment of some acquisitions, and we may also do it in the future. The fact that we haven't rounded off M&A in India doesn't mean we're not growing in India. But in recent years, we've been more focused on inorganic growth, but we'd be happy if we could carry out inorganic operations over there, too.

And looking at other areas, going back to the North American market. The first question is, are there relevant implementations in the market associated to Trump's tariffs? There's been some news on moves made by some OEMs. How can that be contextualized?

Well, I'm going to answer with objective data, and I'm going to try not to give a subjective answer. We've been monitoring the production forecast in North America, in the United States for the coming years. Since before Trump's election, when Trump came into power over a year ago until today and we've had 1.5 years with all the tariff and protectionist policies with the aim of attracting more volume to the United States. But the objective reality is that we see production forecasts in the United States for the coming years that aren't shifting.

So we're not seeing that the U.S. President Trump's policies are being passed on to a forecast of higher production in the country. That's the objective data and what we see in the IHS forecast. It's true that we're reading certain announcements about increases in capacity from various OEMs, but it's also true that in most cases, there are announcements of investments to be made in the coming years. Perhaps IHS isn't including those volumes. I couldn't say. But the fact of the forecast is that before and 1.5 years after Trump, the production forecast in the United States are not changing.

And the other question about North America, the USMCA, is there anything new?

Well, we don't have a crystal ball, but everything makes us think that the agreement is going to be renegotiated. With Trump during his first mandate, the old NAFTA was renegotiated and became the current USMCA, and we have the feeling that Trump is going to force a renegotiation of USMCA 2.0 to try to close it before the end of this year. The USMCA was 6 years, which in theory ends at the end of this year.

And what might happen? Well, it's being said -- it's just being said that there could be some adjustments in the tariffs for USMCA vehicles. We'll have to see whether the United States manages to bring in something they want to include, which are limitations to Chinese content in the vehicles. It's complicated to control that, but they want to try it.

The limit to labor costs, which is $16 in USMCA, whether that increased that or not or the minimum local content, will it rise over 70%? We don't know. And these are some small changes that might happen. And we say small because we can't forget, and I suppose you can't forget either, all the noise and all the headlines brought about by the NAFTA renegotiation in the current USMCA. And in the end, it's true there were changes, but they were small changes, and it was not terribly disruptive. So perhaps we have to think about a similar scenario, a lot of noise, a lot of headlines and then just small adjustments to the current USMCA, hopefully. That's the probable and desirable scenario.

And that was the last question. Well, thank you all very much for your questions, for your attention, but you know that we're here if you've overlooked anything and need further information. Thank you very much.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to CIE Automotive's Fourth Quarter 2025 Results.

Today, we have Jesús María Herrera, CEO; and Lorea Aristizábal, Director for Corporate Development. [Operator Instructions]

And now, I'll hand over to Lorea. Go ahead, please.

Hello. Good morning, everyone.

We're going to start talking about what's happening in our industry, and we're going to review in detail 3 of the major current issues; the Chinese OEMs, the tariffs, electrification. We think that this helps to put our performance into context. On the one hand, and talking about the Chinese OEMs that you ask a lot of questions about, they have continued to make headway during 2025, both in the domestic market and internationally.

Domestically, they have continued to gain market share. They had 65% of vehicle sales in China versus 60% the previous year. China's exports have continued to grow by over 20% during the year. They've gone from 6 million to 7 million exported vehicles, which means exporting 20% of the Chinese production. And a highlight is an increase in exports to Mexico and the Arab Emirates regions where in 2025, they haven't been penalized with tariffs and they have also increased tariffs to Europe.

The tariffs in Europe only affect electric vehicles. So the increase in exports in 2025 has focused on combustion engines and hybrids. In parallel with the exports and due to the tariff barriers that are being imposed, many OEMs are making progress in their implementations outside China. And this we see in different versions. We see greenfields for CKD assembly as BYD did in Turkey and Hungary, both projects, which have been delayed, waiting for the new European regulation on local content.

We have also seen joint ventures like the one -- Stellantis and Leapmotor have a JV, whereby Leapmotor vehicles will be produced at Stellantis plants outside of China. We've seen the subcontracted of CKD as XPENG have done. They've dealt with Magna to assemble cars at the Austrian plant of Magna. We've seen acquisitions of plants abandoned by other OEMs such as BYD and Great Wall did in Brazil or as it seems might happen in Mexico.

The news in Mexico right now is that several Chinese OEMs are making offers for the Nissan and Mercedes plants in Mexico, and that includes BYD, Geely, Chery or Great Wall or just partnerships with Western OEMs. We've seen the alliance between Geely and Renault in Brazil to share resources or the alliance with Geely with Ford in Europe to assemble Geely cars at the European Ford plants.

In any case, regarding CIE, we confirm that we are fully prepared to pick up the volumes of the Chinese OEMs when they produce in the various markets where they are being deployed once they pass the CKD phase and start with real local production. We are confident that we are the type of supplier they need with an international presence with multi-technology production and with investment capacity.

Secondly, the star issue in 2025, the tariffs. And we're going to look at it from the European perspective first. In the Europe-China relationship, Europe announced in January the potential expansion of the current tariffs on imports of Chinese electric vehicles to our hybrid vehicles, too. Why? Well, the European Commission considers that Chinese hybrids, which are flooding the European market receive the same level of aid and subsidies as electric vehicles and should, therefore, have similar tariffs.

In February, this month, a pre-agreement has been reached between China and Europe, which proposes replacing the current tariff regime with a system of minimum prices and quotas. The first case of the system has been Cupra Tavascan, with China and Europe now open to following that model and to carry out an OEM by OEM and model-by-model negotiation. Europe has also reached a historic agreement with [ Medical Sud ], opening new markets for both.

And as far as import tariffs on components and vehicles are concerned, the agreement is a gradual reduction of existing tariffs by both parties. And this would allow for a larger flow than the current one. And to be realistic, is practically non-existent. And there have also been agreements between Europe and India, a very ambitious agreement between the 2 regions by which the tariff rates are significantly reduced on vehicles and components, but the reduction is very gradual over time. So, we are not seeing a direct impact. And in general, Europe and the world, it is true that there have been certain bilateral agreements. But what stands out most is the progress of European authorities in demanding minimum local content requirements that we expect to be published in the coming weeks.

From the U.S. perspective, which is the star focus for the year. There has been a strong initial escalation during the first half of the year and a partial de-escalation. And you're asking a lot about this U.S. Supreme Court ruling, canceling the so-called reciprocal tariffs does not apply to the automotive sector. They continue to be in force. And remember that the U.S. imports approximately 7.5 million vehicles in big figures, 4 million from Mexico and Canada, 2.5 million from Japan and Korea and 1 million from Europe. And although Trump initially imposed a generalized tariff of almost 30%, he has subsequently reduced that in specific geographies.

What do we have right now with the United States to bear in mind? The 4 million cars that are imported from Mexico and Canada, if they are USMCA compliant, it is 0. And otherwise, it's a 25% tariff. And in the case of non-compliance, the tariff is applied to the non-U.S. content. The 2.5 million cars imported from Asia, a 25% tariff. The million cars imported from the European Union, a tariff of 15% according to the bilateral agreement, although now that bilateral agreement is being questioned.

The cars produced in the United States, there's a credit equivalent to almost 4% of the vehicle selling price, which offsets tariffs paid on imported components. So regarding CIE, this protectionist wave of local production and tariffs should involve a partial reduction in global vehicle exports, and we feel very comfortable with our local-to-local model, which gives us a natural protection and provides leverage in the local implementation of the various OEMs.

Finally, electrification, what progress has it made with very different -- in the different markets. In the case of China, the penetration of electric vehicles has continued to rise. Electrified vehicles now amount to 50% or 55% in 2025, with the support of the extended incentives from '24 to '25. In Europe, it's also true that there has been a considerable advance in the market share of electrified vehicles with an increase of 6 percentage points in 2025, where electrified vehicles in Europe reached 27% of market share in sales, an improvement supported by the incentives brought in, in some key markets like Germany and the launch of new electric models that are affordable or more affordable by European OEMs.

And finally, the case of the United States, which is the opposite to what has been seen in Europe and China. The penetration of the electric vehicle in the U.S. has fallen. It's fallen 1 point compared to 2024. In September, all the incentives were removed associated to the purchase of electric vehicles, and this has penalized the situation.

What do we expect for 2026? Well, the prospects for electrification are not particularly good. In China, because the incentives have already been reduced. The local incentives have been removed and there are anti-dumping policies that have been imposed by the government. So in theory, vehicle prices will rise in Europe because there's been a relaxation of European emissions from '25 to '35, which could increase the lives of combustion engine vehicles. And in the case of the U.S., because the incentives to electric vehicles has been withdrawn and the negative impact of the whole regulatory environmental review carried out by Trump. Well, it seems that this is going to have a negative impact on the sale of electric vehicles.

And you will have seen all the impairments and all the write-offs that the Big Three in Detroit have carried out with over $50 billion in impairments related to the new electrification strategies. And in fact, you will also have seen the review of analysts like IHS regarding the forecast for the penetration of electric vehicles in the future and how these figures have gone down.

From our perspective, the rate of electrification is not a critical issue with us. And what's very important, more than 80% of our sales are agnostic to electrification. We have flexible production means, and we adapt to demand. What has the market done during this fourth quarter and in 2025 in the midst of all these variables? Europe has remained flat in the fourth quarter. And there has been a year of minus 1% overall. North America has shrunk 1% in the fourth quarter and also minus 1% for the whole of the year. Europe and North America are very similar. Brazil has contracted slightly in the fourth quarter. But after a boom and very good figures in the first 3 quarters, the total growth in Brazil for the year has been 5%.

The best news come from India, where production in the fourth quarter has had a spectacular growth, plus 19%, driven by the VAT reduction, the reduction in the tax on vehicles, which has been very significant as well as a good monsoon system and the fact that the Diwali festivities have been concentrated in the last quarter of the year. So, India overall has grown by more than 8%. And other segments that are not passenger vehicles have also done very well, positive in 2-wheelers with 8% trucks, 17% in tractors. It's all helped. And finally, China has grown 3% in the quarter and 10% for the total year.

Our total market, 4% for the fourth quarter and 2% for the total year. Our sales have grown 10% in the fourth quarter, which implies a strong outperformance of 6 points with regard to the market, an outperformance that is still mainstream in the various markets. And in 2025, CIE has grown by almost 4%, 2 points more than the market, accompanying an EBITDA that has grown 8% in the last quarter to EUR 183 million, with an EBITDA margin that has expanded by 80 points in the total for the year and EBITDA that has grown 2.5% to exceed EUR 746 million, with that 19% EBITDA and EUR 543 million in EBIT, almost 14%.

Below EBIT, lower financial expenses than last year, offset by higher fiscal expenditure. So, growth in net profit of 4% in the quarter, up to almost EUR 70 million. And in the total for the year, the profit amounted to EUR 335 million. The headlines, an outperformance of 2 points with regard to the market with a significant growth and an EBITDA margin of 19% and a record net profit of EUR 335 million. That's the summary.

If we look at it from the point of view of cash generation, bearing in mind the complex environment in 2025, our focus has always been on protecting and optimizing profitability and cash flow, a cash flow, which has been very solid, especially during this fourth quarter, bearing in mind that there are no cash outflows related to acquisitions and dividend payments in this quarter. So, we have generated EUR 86 million in the fourth quarter, and this has contributed once again to deleveraging our balance sheet with a new historic debt low of 1.18x net financial debt EBITDA.

We've had headlines for P&L. What would the headlines be for cash flow? We have reduced debt by almost EUR 100 million. While we have closed 2 acquisitions, we have carried out a sort of takeover bid where we have acquired 1% of the capital, and we have paid EUR 125 million in dividends. So the extremely high recurrent cash generation allows us to grow and create value, both through M&A and with remuneration to the shareholders. And also in 2025, we've closed a strategic plan where we have reached all our goals.

Our sales goal has been exceeded 25 points during the period of outperformance over and above the market, an EBITDA margin of 19%, excellence in the sector, excellence in the sector. And that in spite of the huge negative impact of all the variables that we've discussed and we'll continue to discuss with a CapEx at EUR 20 million and complying with the most important thing of all. We have reached a cash generation of EUR 500 million in the year. And achieving those EUR 500 million in cash generation is a special merit considering all the adverse circumstances you're aware of and that this is a goal in absolute value. So, we have to highlight it.

In parallel with meeting our financial goals, we have also met our ESG commitments in the environmental area. We have reduced Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and intensity in energy use. In purchasing, we boosted proximity purchases with a percentage of local purchases that's almost at 80%. Safety continues to be our top priority in people management and an essential pillar of CIE culture, with a percentage of plants with an ISO 45001 certification of 100% of the certifiable plants and sustainable financing, green financing that amounts to 70% of our gross financial debt.

And I'm coming to the end, we believe, that this shows an impeccable performance in 2025 and over these 5 years that should consolidate our reputation for financial discipline and full and unwavering compliance with our commitments. We have closed a plan. It's time to talk about the future, a future that remains uncertain with a great deal of uncertainty. But in spite of that, we believe that we're going to continue to grow in size and results, thanks to our financial model, our business model -- sorry, our financial position and an extremely committed CIO organization. That's where our guidance comes from.

You've seen that we can comment on them during the Q&A, a 1-digit outperformance of the market, maintaining the excellence of operating margins in 2025, a number of ESG commitments with regard to the environment and the social area, attracting talent or in governance and EUR 1 billion or more than EUR 1 billion in operating cash generation. And this takes us to a net financial debt of 0.7x, net financial debt to EBITDA in 2027 and a low debt that allows us -- and this is one of the major headlines, to increase the payout and the remuneration for our shareholders. An increase in remuneration that we can reconcile with the inorganic growth that we expect to have in these 2 years without excessively penalizing the company's debt, thanks to our high cash generation profile.

And now the Q&A. You'll be able to talk to Jesús María, our CEO, who will be delighted to answer all your questions. Thank you.

We're grouping the questions by themes because there are a lot of questions to make it more efficient for everyone.

We'll start with the final acquisition or the latest acquisition. Can you give us more color on the acquisition of Aludec?

Well, good morning, everyone. I'm Jesús María Herrera. And first of all, I think that we have to celebrate the strategic plan 2021-2025 and congratulate all the CIE Automotive team. Regarding Aludec, I'll start by saying that I think that it's one of the few family companies that today can contribute a great deal of value to CIE Automotive, first of all, because it's going to allow us to continue to diversify.

We're going to create a new division, the branding division. And we are also going to be able to grow the current European presence and a small presence in North America, both in Mexico and the United States. And with the synergies with the rest of the group, we have to take this to much larger dimensions. And in the midterm, the goal of also growing in Asia with them. So therefore, we're very pleased with this operation. Very few operations, as I said, can contribute so much value to CIE in the medium and long term.

Some questions on the guidance. On the sales side, how is the plan distributed in '26, '27, softer in '26, stronger in '27? Any clues?

Well, this time, comparing it with the previous plan, perhaps, the previous plan, 2021-2025, you will remember that we grew a great deal in the short term in 2021 and 2022 because we came from major acquisitions in 2019, that with the group synergies and the coming in of new customers brought about a very large growth in the short term. And then in the medium and the long term, like the rest of CIE, we work at medium or low single digit. For the next couple of years, we don't have any major acquisitions, let's say, that will make us see a different 2026 and '27. They'll be very similar, plus or minus 1 point.

And the margins in the guidance, are you being somewhat conservative perhaps because we can see there's an increase in sale, but there isn't an increase in margins. What's the hypothesis behind this? Well, I love the confidence you have in CIE. I love it, how 19% seems like very low. They are insatiable, Jesús María. Insatiable.

Those of you that know me, know that my goal has always been to reach 20%. It's true that we reached 20% at many plants, but it's also true that there are some areas where reaching that result is really very difficult. I think that setting 19%, which I hope will be 19.1% or 19.2%, but our ambition isn't going to stop at 19%, although I think that we have to give it the merit it has.

There's a doubt about whether the guidance includes Aludec. And if so, what's the debt guidance if we include Aludec with the new payout, of course?

Well, let's see that the guidance, as usual, are an organic guidance based on the companies we have as of 31st of December 2025. So, that doesn't include Aludec with regard to the guidance we've presented. As we said, the major cash generation allows us to take the net financial debt to EBITDA to 0.7x. So, we've been to provide a greater payout and includes -- raise dividend to 42% and 50%. If we bear in mind only the dividend, that EUR 0.7 becomes EUR 0.73, 0.74. So, absolutely nothing changes because the dividend in 2026 is paid out in '27 and the 2027 payout will be paid out in 2028 beyond this 2-year perimeter.

And the matter of Aludec, the EUR 200 million, that you all know is EV for the company. With the high generation it gives us, it will be at level of close to 0.9 financial debt to EBITDA because we have to bear in mind the extremely high cash generation that CIE has. And as I always say, CIE almost tends to 0. Over a few years, we are practically without debt. So, carrying out integrations like Aludec that are going to make a very significant contribution. The net financial debt to EBITDA ratio, if there isn't a major acquisition, it's unlikely that it will be over 0.9 and certainly under 1, as I said.

Continuing with the guidance, we are asked about the CapEx guidance because there's nothing in the guidance on this.

Well, I think we've always said that at CIE, in order to grow with a medium to low outperformance, we need 5% of the CapEx. And this 5% coincides with the 5% in amortization. If we can sell and amortize the same amount and yet grow with that medium, low single digit, so we'll continue along the same lines.

We're asked about the geographic evolution and the EBITDA margins in the fourth quarter. Are there any extraordinary elements?

None at all. I think we just have to analyze the margins globally. And globally, they are the recurrent margins for our group. There's nothing to be drawn from it.

And connected to this, we are asked about depreciation and CapEx in the fourth quarter. It's been a bit higher in the fourth quarter, depreciation and CapEx in the fourth quarter.

Well, I said earlier, we have to bear in mind that 5% amortization, although in some months or some quarters, it's a little bit higher or lower depending on production. But we have to bear in mind the recurrency. And over the years, that 5%, which goes between 4.5%, which is the amortization of fixed assets and 5.5% in IFRS 6, this is what's constant and recurrent.

And completely changing the subject, we've seen significant one-offs in OEMs because of the investments in electric vehicles. Does this have a direct impact on CIE?

None. None. We don't have any impact on this year's accounts. CIE has a value of 2 or 3x the assets it has. So, there will be no impairment in that area for CIE in the coming years.

And a very specific question on recent news from Mexico, whether this has had any impact on our activity, the struggle against drug trafficking we've seen recently.

Well, you know that this started over the weekend on Sunday. And it's true that during the night shift where we started the week on Sunday, we weren't able to work. There was a kind of state of emergency in many places, but we did start to work normally on Monday morning. So it was just a shift, one shift. People were very nervous about what could happen, but the plants have been operating normally since Monday.

A question about China, which was a highly profitable business and the size is smaller now. Does it make strategic sense to continue in that market?

Well, yes, you've just said it. It's so profitable and it generates so much cash that we are going to continue. And I hope to give you good news this quarter because I know that you ask a lot of questions on the performance we've had in China, and we may turn things around this first quarter and give you the surprise of going from an underperformance to an overperformance. So, we still have full faith in China, and we have a fantastic team that we can't even think of doing without.

And then we have a question about M&A. How much gun powder do you think you have for M&A? And should we not consider relevant operations? In other words, how far could you go in leverage?

Well, the figures are very clear. As we always say, with our extremely high cash generation and the net financial debt to EBITDA situation, we could have up to EUR 2 billion and not exceed 2.5x net debt to EBITDA. These are our figures. So regarding the second question, obviously, we can undertake a major significant inorganic growth.

And coming back to the other question on M&A. Can we say anything about the growth and margins expected for the coming years, especially in 2026?

Well, the good thing about Aludec is that it does have a growth plan, a significant growth plan, especially in North America with diversification and in the medium term in Asia. And regarding margins, the margins are more or less in line with the CIE margins. And therefore, for the first time or one of the first times, an integration doesn't mean that CIE will have to drop 3 or 4 points in its margins. And that's why we say that it's a company that's going to help us to stay at the extremely high levels of profitability of our group and extremely high levels of cash generation.

And now we're asked about connecting with the call from CIE India the other day. Let's talk about taking production from Europe to India. Can you give us more color on that strategy beyond what was already said and can this be expanded to other regions?

There are hypes and our customers sometimes get nervous. And like 30 years ago, it seemed that everything was going to be produced in the East of Europe. And in the end, it all came to nothing. There are certain tensions. But in our case, since we're local everywhere, our risk is nil or extremely low, negligible, I would say, a nuance. The person asking the question, if you heard the conference call, we weren't talking about a massive transfer of production from Europe to India. We spoke about one-offs to make use of the production in India where we have high growth.

Okay. We are asked about the development of the RONA. How has that evolved?

Well, as you know, we closed the RONA, I think, at 20.6%. In other words, CIE, in its normal evolution that you see quarter-to-quarter with its historic records, it improves its RONA. After the acquisitions 5 or 6 years ago, the RONA dropped around 15% more or less. And in these 5 years during the strategic plan, we've improved it by 1 point per year. RONA of 20.6%. It means of all the assets we manage, we obtain 20%. And the assets are financed at a much lower cost than that. So the profitability for the shareholder is almost double that figure of 20%.

After the Mexico greenfield, is there any relevant greenfield planned?

There are countries where we constantly carry out greenfields, countries like India, where you know that M&As are very, very expensive, and we carry out small greenfields every year. And it's true that the most important greenfield we've done recently is the greenfield in Mexico, and we'll do another important greenfield in Mexico with a different technology. So it's the countries where there are the most opportunities like Brazil for doing greenfield. So, organic growth through greenfield and inorganic growth will always continue to be the way our group grows.

Our opinion on the Bloomberg consensus for 2026?

Well, that's a good question. A good question. Well, first of all, I know that you're all very, very, very optimistic about CIE, and we're grateful for that confidence you have in CIE. But I would like to highlight the kind of exchange and euro against other currencies. In 2025, we've lost EUR 150 million to EUR 146 million loss in sales because of the devaluation of all currencies against the euro.

In the first quarter, based on the information we have for 2026, we're going to lose over EUR 60 million, I think you said, because of the exchange rate. So if we properly analyze the exchange rate, we will be in line with the figures we have in our head. And the differences have been based on an erring calculation of the exchange rate versus the euro.

Do you have any views on the remuneration of USMCA?

Well, it's early yet to anticipate the possible results of a possible renegotiation. Historically, this kind of process tends to be long and gradual. But in your case, USMCA is very well positioned. We operate in North America with a high local and regional content under the current treaty. We don't see a direct relevant impact on our operations right now, quite honestly. But as usual, we'll analyze the situation closely and adapt together with our customers if necessary. And about this and other sectoral issues and tariffs, these are things that we've talked about on many different occasions. But there has been nothing that has substantially affected CIE.

Changing the subject. Can we give some color on the European local content legislation? A lot have been said about it, but what is the actual situation?

Well, as you know, as usual, Europe reacts late, but in the end, it has to react. And regarding local content, I don't know if 70% or 80%, but that has to be the solution. What's obvious is that there's a very strong competitive industry in Europe and the European economic community will apply requirements. And it makes every sense to back the localization or internal production here within the community.

And a more philosophical question has just come in. Has anything changed specifically at CIE that explains the 17% rise in the stock market versus the auto sector?

It's very easy to answer this question. We have a strategic plan 2021-2025, where for 4 years, the share price hasn't gone up. It's almost gone down, but it hasn't gone up. And we've just closed with this rise in this year 2025. But what has happened during this period, 2021-2025, what's happened is that CIE has increased EBITDA by almost EUR 200 million. This by a multiple of 6 gives you a value of EUR 1.2 billion, and we've reduced the debt by almost EUR 500 million. So, we've generated a value of some EUR 1.7 billion.

The growth in 2025 doesn't pick up even half of what we've actually done and achieved. So, we hope that from now on, it will pick this up as many analysts highlight and that this will bring us to values close to EUR 40. Now that we've exceeded EUR 30, analysts believe that CIE should be close to EUR 40. So, we have to continue with our improvements and believe that we'll get closer to that figure of EUR 40, which I think is where we should be.

Well, that was the last question.

Okay. Well, thank you very much. As usual, it's been a pleasure to give you a full transparent information on CIE. Continue to trust. We have a unique model, and the most efficient management in the sector worldwide. And obviously, with an outstanding team that is very ambitious and the desire to make this group much bigger, and we will continue to provide significant remuneration to our shareholders. Thank you all very much.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Good afternoon again, and welcome to the results for the third quarter of 2025 CIE Automotive. We have Lorea Aristizábal with us today. There will be questions at the end of the session and questions can only be asked in writing via the webcast tool.

And now I hand over to Lorea. Go ahead, please.

Good afternoon, everyone. It seems there's been a problem with the microphones, and we've received 300,000 messages saying that you were hearing us. I hope we didn't say anything terrible. But good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the CIE Automotive 2025 third quarter results conference.

But before moving on to the results, let's briefly review what's happened in the markets to put our performance into context. Starting with Europe, where production has grown by 1% in the quarter, although in the accumulated 9-month figure, it's still below last year 2%.

News for the quarter in Europe. Well, in the trade area, we have to highlight the agreement reached on July 27 between the United States and Europe, which has somehow helped to ease tensions, an agreement that avoids the initially planned increase to 30% of the tariffs and establishes a tariff of 15%, which is added to the tariff of 2.5% that already existed for vehicles exported from Europe to the U.S., and which is applicable retroactively from August 1. This agreement provides a breathing space for the European car industry and brings some stability.

On the other hand, the European environment is still marked by competitive pressure from Chinese manufacturers who continue to gain market share in Europe through imports. According to the latest data available between January and August, their sales increased by 75%, reaching a share of 4.9% of the market compared to 2.9% in 2024. August was also the fourth consecutive month with a market share for Chinese manufacturers of over 5%.

It is true that the expansion of Chinese manufacturers in Europe is showing different dynamics. Hybrids are gaining ground, which have reached almost half of sales in recent months compared to pure electric and combustion vehicles, mainly due to the fact that hybrid vehicles are free of tariffs.

It's also important to mention that some Chinese OEMs have started local production in Europe. This is the big headline that we are reading every day, but always under the CKD model. That is by assembling vehicles from complete imported kits with little local content. This is the case, for example, of GAC or XPeng, which have started to assemble at Magna's Austrian plant in Graz. BYD is also expected to begin assembly later this year in this new plant in Hungary and Turkey, with a planned capacity of 200,000 and 150,000 vehicles per year, respectively. While Chery has already assembled since 2024 in Barcelona in collaboration with Ebro.

Other variables affecting the health of the sector in Europe, the penetration of the electric vehicles, which continues to consolidate its position in the market. In the third quarter, electrified vehicles, electric plus hybrid accounted for 27% of sales in Europe compared to 21% in the same period last year, a significant increase.

Today, the European regulatory framework on emissions is still uncertain and generates a certain caution among consumers. But it's true that the demand for electric vehicles is being favored by issues such as the launching of new models. And in particular, we believe, because of the new incentives as those announced in July by the British government, in September by the French government, in October by the German government.

This is the scenario. And with this scenario, a fall in European production in 2025 is expected of 2% in an environment of capacity utilization of approximately 60%, which reinforces the need for structural adjustments in the sector, including capacity closures and further consolidation between suppliers as we have been discussing for some time. In fact, several Tier 1s have announced important adjustments this quarter. We've heard Bosch that expects to eliminate 13,000 jobs by 2030. Conti at more than 10,000 cuts, ZF with a reduction of up to 7,600 jobs, Maleo, Schaeffler, et cetera. All these examples illustrate the magnitude of the adjustment process facing the European supply chain.

If we now move on to North America, the market has recorded a growth of 5% during the quarter. And in fact, it's the first quarter this year with a positive evolution putting the accumulated 9 months in a decline close to 1%, a quarter led by a production growth of 8% in the United States, caused in particular, by the advanced sale of electric vehicles following the cancellation of the federal tax incentives on September 30.

In this third quarter, we have also learned that the Mexican government has ruled out BYD's plans to install an electric vehicle factory in the country, given its own trade uncertainty with the United States and because of Trump's tariff policy pressure towards China and also affecting Mexico. With a view to the end of 2025, we expect North America to end the year with minus 2%, with Mexico falling slightly by 1% and the United States falling 2%, reflecting an environment that is still heavily conditioned by trade volatility and uncertainty.

Moving to the other end of the world, China, which has recorded a very solid quarter of growth with an increase of 10% in vehicle production during the third quarter, which means a cumulative growth of 12% in the first 9 months of the year. This is and continues to be the main driver for world car production. The Chinese domestic market has been supported by the expansion of the replacement and decommissioning programs with grants of up to CNY 20,000, approximately EUR 2,500 for electrical hybrid vehicles and up to CNY 15,000, approximately EUR 2,000 for more efficient combustion models.

But these amounts have to be added to the already historic tax benefits for the purchase of electrified vehicles which are enforced until 2027 and which have historically boosted demand. Meanwhile, Chinese exports remained very strong during the quarter, over 500,000 units exported only in September, which has meant a 21% year-on-year, 6% compared to the previous month. They continue to grow. In the first 9 months, exports reached 4 million vehicles, 12% more than in the same period of the previous year. In this context, September, has been the highest monthly production level of the year with 2.4 million vehicles with new energy vehicles already accounting for more than 50% of total production.

The competitive environment in China remains to be tremendously demanding. The price war between manufacturers continues to push margins. We see this every time the results are released from the Chinese manufacturers and there's an extremely high turnover of models in the local market. A context that speaks of a very probable consolidation process in the Chinese market.

There are currently over 120 brands of electric vehicles to give you an idea when the forecast suggests that only about 15 will be able to maintain a profitable position and survive beyond 2030. Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturers continue to consolidate their dominion with a share of 66% so far this year, compared to 24% for Western companies and barely 10% for Japanese and Korean companies.

Going back to America, to Brazil, which confirms its role as of the most dynamic geographies this year. Vehicle production remained flat in the third quarter, but the market has accumulated a growth of 5% in the first 9 months of the year, supported by strong domestic consumption in a solid labor market and also supported by exports.

During this quarter, the implementation of aid programs have continued. In this case, we have the MOVER program, Green Mobility and Innovation, which came into effect in June and replaces the previous program, Rota 2030. The new program brings in a program of incentives and penalties based on the energy efficiency of the vehicles with more than EUR 600 million in aid for 2025 and over EUR 3 billion up to 2028.

And at the same time, and this is very interesting, Brazilian government has strengthened the protection measures for the automotive industry in Brazil. On the one hand, while adjusting import tariffs for electrified vehicles, electric vehicles, imported electric vehicles have gone from a tariff of 18% to 25%, hybrids from 25% to 30% and the plug-in hybrids are from 20% to 28%. And this has been the penultimate step in the tariff escalation since the last stage of the increase is scheduled for July 2026, when the rate -- the tariff will reach 35% for all types of imported electric vehicles.

What has been the trigger for this fast change in tariffs, the fact that almost half of the 200,000 vehicles imported by Brazil in the first part of the year have been electrified models. On the other hand, what else has Brazil done? They have brought forward by 1.5 years the tariff increase for CKD vehicles originally planned for July 2028 and which has now moved to January '27. At this point, the tariff for CDK (sic) [ CKD ] vehicles will go from the current 14% to 35%. All these are decisions that reinforce the country's priority to accelerate the location of electrified vehicles in the supply chain and to enhance local value.

I was saying before that exports have also been one of the pillars and they've showed an exceptional performance. In August, almost 60,000 units were exported, the highest level since 2018. And in the cumulative figure up to August, there were almost 400,000 exported vehicles with a year-on-year growth of more than 50%. Argentina has consolidated as the main destination with close to 60% of Brazilian exports after increasing by more than 150% compared to last year. With a view to the end of the year, Brazilian production is expected to grow by around 8% with a strong final quarter and becoming the geography with the largest expansion this year without a doubt, consolidating its leadership among emerging markets.

We finished this review with India, which adds one more quarter of sustained growth and remains one of the strongest and most stable markets this year. In the third quarter, the production of passenger vehicles increased by 5% and to 1.5 million units. And in the 9 months of backlog, they have advanced by 4% driven by domestic demand and by a more favorable monetary environment. The Central Bank has applied 3 interest rate reductions, 25 basis points in February, 25 in April, 50 in June and has put the reference rate at 5.5% in a country where the vehicle financing rate is around 70%. These decisions have helped to improve access to credit and to sustain consumer demand.

The third quarter has also been marked by the coming into force of the GST reform, which is effective since September, reducing the tax on small- and medium-sized cars from 28% to 18%, while larger or luxury vehicles, however, are taxed at a rate of 40%, a tax simplification that seeks to boost fleet renewal to stimulate demand. And it said that it is expected to have an effect of between 5% and 10% on sales in the fiscal year 2026.

With a moderate inflation in the range of 1.5% to 3% and a monsoon that has been favorable, it has just finished, the market dynamics have remained positive across all segments the various segments we're in, tractors, trucks, 2-wheelers. And including all the segments, India has already consolidated its position as the third world automotive market. And again, including passenger vehicles, bikes, trucks, tractors, and they have even surpassed Japan with a total volume of close to 25 million vehicles per year, a market that continues to grow and which is reinforcing its structural weight in the global industry.

We closed the chapter on markets by referring to the global market, where our market grew by 3% in the third quarter and 1% in the first 9 months of the year, a context where CIE has recorded a growth of more than 7% at constant exchange rates in the quarter, surpassing the global market by 4 points, and excellent performance in the third quarter that has offset the lower growth we had in the first half of the year, and which has consolidated the outperformance in these first 9 months of the year.

For 2025 as a whole, the CIE market would close with a growth close to 1%, supported by the strength of the emerging markets, particularly the growth in Brazil, India and to a lesser degree, China, which will offset the moderation of other geographies and mature markets. This is the market context. This is what has happened in this third quarter.

And what has happened at CIE during this third quarter? Well, sales that reached EUR 974 million, 2.5% more than in the third quarter of 2024. Despite an unfavorable currency environment that has greatly affected the reported figures, almost by EUR 100 million, accumulative figures up to September, where sales grew 1.9% at constant exchange rate, which means doubling the 0.9% growth of the market in the fiscal year 2025 and operating results where our margins again show a very solid levels.

In the quarter, EBITDA stood at EUR 184 million with a margin of 18.9%, an EBIT of EUR 133 million with a margin of 13.7% and an EBITDA that grew by 4% in absolute terms compared to the same period the previous year, EUR 184 million, we have said, compared to EUR 177 million last year. Without the negative impact of the exchange rate, the EBITDA would have exceeded EUR 200 million. In the cumulative figures up to September, an EBITDA of 19% and EBIT of 14.1%. And this should remind us that our margins do not depend on the where, but on the how of the management model because the homogeneity of margins between geographies confirms the strength of the global margin.

So to round off, operating results, we show a net profit of EUR 80 million in the quarter and EUR 266 million in the first 9 months of the year, which would have been more than EUR 275 million at a constant exchange rate.

We now move on to the cash flow and the balance sheet where the performance is reflected. In the first 9 months of the year, CIE has generated EUR 384 million in operating cash flow, which is equivalent to a conversion rate of almost 71% of EBITDA, a performance that is supported on the one hand, by efficient working capital management, on the other by a CapEx of EUR 144 million, 4.8% of sales, the lowest level since 2022, reflecting an investment that I have to say has already been normalized after the practical completion of the greenfield plant in Northern Mexico, a plant that's in the ramp-up phase and a project that will bring a significant growth in sales and results progressively over the coming quarters.

So discipline in the use of capital with financial payments and taxes as foreseen, a payout to the shareholder of EUR 54 million, the supplementary dividend for the financial year 2024 paid out last July and the self-takeover for a final value of EUR 27.4 million.

In the area of inorganic growth, and I'd like to remind you that during the third quarter, the acquisition of the Brazilian company, Techniplas was formalized, a Brazilian subsidiary of the Techniplas Group for an amount close to EUR 65 million. With Techniplas, a company specialized in plastic injection, we strengthened our historical relationship with European and American manufacturers in Brazil and our most recent relationship with important Asian manufacturers in Brazil. This means an important complement and an upgrade for our technological portfolio. It's a project that offers us the opportunity to grow significantly in the coming years, thanks to projects that have already been brought in and investments in production capacity that have already been made.

And despite the disbursements for the dividend payout, the takeover and the acquisition of Techniplas, the net financial debt stands at EUR 981 million, with a leverage ratio of 1.3x EBITDA at historic lows. If we adjust this figure for the nonrecurring effects, such as the acquisition of Techniplas and the self-takeover, we will be talking about a net recurring financial debt of around EUR 888 million, equivalent to a pro forma ratio of approximately 1.2x net financial debt EBITDA, a position that reflects a balanced and sustainable balance sheet, which is strong, sustainable and with a very high generation capacity.

With 9 months completed and with this snapshot, we confirm the objectives for our strategic plan 2021-2025, which we will achieve, thanks to the balanced performance and the contribution of each and every one of the geographies and the operational cash flow generated quarter after quarter.

So thank you all for your time and for your interest in CIE. And with this, we conclude the presentation, and we are available for your questions.

Okay. We have a lot of questions. Let's try to group them together. I'll start with questions regarding Q3 at CIE. I'll put 2 together, the impact of the hack suffered by Jaguar Land Rover and how much the acquisition of Brazil contributes to this third quarter?

The impact of the hacking at Jaguar Land Rover. Well, first of all, Jaguar Land Rover is not a significant customer among our customer list. There's been a small impact, a direct impact for some of our Euro plants and an indirect impact through what we supply to some Tier 1s such as WALLNER, but nothing relevant.

What was the other question, sorry?

The contribution of Techniplas in the third quarter.

Well, I think it's in the presentation. When we talk about growth, there's part of the growth this quarter, which is -- well, the 9 months given in the presentation is approximately EUR 0.6, which in round numbers is about EUR 15 million.

And another couple of questions on the third quarter. Can we give some details on the currency impact by region and the impact of energy in India in the third quarter, the Maharashtra issue?

Yes, this was mentioned in the results call. It was mentioned in the results call for CIE India the other day because qualitatively, it was important to highlight it. It hasn't been relevant enough for CIE India to give a quantified number. So it's even less so for CIE globally where the figure isn't significant. So we don't think it's going to be a relevant impact.

And regarding the currency, those of you that were connected at the beginning, I think, heard us talking about it. There has been practically a negative impact on all currencies, a double-digit impact in Brazil, an important impact in India and somewhat less significant impacts in China and NAFTA. But yes, we've seen that the impact of the exchange rate at 9 months means almost EUR 100 million in sales, EUR 18 million in EBITDA. Yes. And in fact, it's been important.

Moving on to the market, the market in the fourth quarter. What are our estimates for the fourth quarter and also for next year, estimates in general.

This is as simple as giving the IHS figures. I believe you all have them, and I don't think they add very much. But I would like to make a reflection here about this subject beyond the concrete volume. And if you like, I can talk about the concrete volume that IHS says, and they say that there've been a global quarter of 22 million vehicles, 23 million in the second, and they're talking about 23.5 million for the fourth quarter with an increase between 22.5 million and 23.5 million in the third and fourth quarter, 1 million vehicles and practically, this can be attributed to China that goes from 8 million in the third quarter to 9 million in the following quarter. It's true that Europe also goes up a little bit, offset by the fact that North America goes down.

So this is simplified by saying that in the last quarter, there's going to be 1 million more cars produced in China. But beyond that -- and volumes for next year, sorry, to give the whole answer. Volumes for next year, according to IHS, this year, we're going to finish at 91.5 million vehicles and next year at 91 million.

And then I move on to what I think is important, the reflection. I don't really know how valid those figures are. Why do I say that? And I'm talking about real figures. In the second quarter of 2024, just over a year ago, we said that in 2025, there were going to be 92 million vehicles produced in December '24, the figure had been dropped by 3 million. It was said that 89 million were going to be produced that year. At Easter, the forecast for this year had dropped below 88 million. In summer, we were caught at 90 million. And now we're talking about a market forecast of 91.5 million for this year and 91 million for next year.

What am I trying to say with this? Well, that the world has changed. 10 years ago, when we spoke about estimates, there was a lot less volatility and much fewer impact variables. And I think that estimates were more reliable. Right now, I think that the degree of uncertainty is tremendous, and that means that the volatility of any forecast made by IHS or any other analyst is somewhat more limited in value. So these are the figures, a stronger last quarter, especially because of China. And next year, it could be practically flat globally.

And now also talking about the future, but more related to CIE, there are a couple of questions. One regarding the outperformance we've recovered in the third quarter. How sustainable is it in the future through new contracts or whatever, whether it's sustainable? And how we expect to reach a margin according to the guidance in Q4 that is worse as a season?

Well, things have to go very badly in the fourth quarter, not to reach the 19% in our guidance, to be diverted from that figure of 19%, something terrible would have to happen that we don't currently foresee.

And the outperformance, how sustainable is it after this Q3? Well, it's true. In the first and second quarters, things were a bit weaker, flat and trend to a slight underperformance. And the third quarter has been very strong in outperformance. What does this say? Well, what we always tell you, and this reinforces it, you can't look at a single quarter or just 2 quarters or 3 quarters. You have to look more long term. When we gave the guidance for outperformance for this strategic plan, it covered 5 years. And I hope that nobody expected the 5 years to be mathematically the same and much less 5x for 20 quarters that are mathematically the same.

The first 2 years, '21 and '22, we've had a stronger outperformance. We've had weaker years in outperformance. But we have to look at longer time periods. I think that if we analyze longer time periods and not just a quarter, what it tells us is that on a structural basis, CIE is growing more than the market in general in all geographies. I'll leave China aside. And I think that this can continue to happen, not because we have a contract more or less or because I'm thinking about a certain figure or another figure, but because we're the kind of supplier that customers need. We are global with all the technologies to be flexible and supply all kinds of vehicles with a presence, as I said, in the main markets with the main technologies and with a solid balance sheet that enables us to run through the filter that many companies use to decide who has the capacity to invest. I think that, that gives us a great deal of strength. And conceptually, beyond a certain figure, I think that CIE is doing a better structural job than the market.

A very specific question about steel in Europe and the possible impact of the possible measure to reduce quotas or increase tariffs on imports.

Well, I don't know much more than you do and what's been published. Brussels, the other day proposed reducing steel imports by half. tariff-free imports that the European Union allows and double the tariff from 25% to 50%. Well, the goal is very clear to fight against surplus capacity in the sector and especially to fight against the subsidized Chinese industry.

As far as I know, this still has to be approved by the Euro chamber and the member states. It would come into effect, if I'm not mistaken, in June '26, and we'll see what happens then. There's not much else I can add, except that it's another one of those protection measures from the European Union against the different manufacturing conditions and the subsidized manufacturing conditions in Chinese industry, in this case, with steel.

A question from Robert on hybridization. There are some European players that are talking about a greater demand of electric or hybrid vehicles, and this will give Europe higher content in vehicles. How would this higher demand affect CIE?

Robert, always not now or 5 years ago, when we started to talk to the electric car manufacturers, and I'm talking about a decade ago practically, I think that everybody conceptually and in an intuitive way felt that moving from the combustion engine to the electric car would be easier by using a bridge, hybridization. European legislation has tried to force that bridge to be very short. But the end consumer, I think, is saying that, that bridge needs to be longer than the European legislation provides.

So great, everything that means a gradual transition. For industry in general, I think it's helpful and also for us within that industry. So I think that reality comes from the end of consumer instead of trying to force through legislation.

And now regarding the possible impact of Expedia, the chip issue. And are we facing a new chip crisis?

Well, that's a good question. Let's hope not because our hair stands on end when we remember the 11 million vehicles that weren't manufactured in 2021 and almost 4 million vehicles that weren't manufactured around the world in 2022 because of the chips. But it does seem that there might be some minor tensions. I'll leave it at that and not talk about crisis. I assume everybody knows the story. The Dutch company, Nexperia, with Chinese capital has been intervened by the Dutch government at the end of September, concerns over national security. And as a response to that, China controls the Nexperia plants in their territory. So there isn't a natural flow in the supply chain to the European plants of Nexperia.

So there could be a certain impact in the supply from Nexperia for those automotive chips. If I understand it, the Nexperia chips are very basic. They're not the most sophisticated, but because they're basic, they're absolutely indispensable. And we've been hearing about some customers like BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Stellantis. We even heard it from Bosch saying that they have stock. They have a certain amount of inventory, but they're talking about a few weeks. And a number of emergency groups have been set up to look for solutions and evaluate the damage.

Could production be affected in November? Well, let's hope not. Let's hope not. I think that they're forcing the Netherlands to negotiate with Putin to see how the controls can be adjusted, but this is just another part of these tense geopolitics. I'll answer quickly. I hope it won't be a new crisis, but there may be some slight tension.

We're now asked about the future of the CapEx in view of the CapEx in the third quarter. What can we expect in the future in terms of CapEx? And related to this, what is the ramp-up for the Mexican greenfield?

Well. Let's take it bit by bit. The Mexican greenfield and CapEx, starting with the Mexican greenfield. The Mexican greenfield is a project. I think we told you about it. It's been EUR 80-some million, about $100 million in round numbers, almost 70%, more than 2/3 of the investment was made in 2024, the rest in the first part of 2025. A plant that is expected to reach a volume of $200 million, but that won't be until 2029. And then gradually, this year, it has started to operate. And until 2029, sales will gradually be added on with a couple of more significant jumps in '26 and then in '28.

Regarding CapEx, well, because of this project, we saw a year 2021, '22, '23 with around 5% over sales or 5-point something. And we saw a 2024 that went up to as much as 6% CapEx over sales because of -- or basically because of the deviation in this plant. Without that plant, we would have been talking about 2024 also around 5%. And 2025 where we have that figure of 4.8%. And without this Mexican plant, it would be closer to 4%.

So what am I saying with this? The question was what CapEx we can expect in the future? Well, now since there are no other projects of this magnitude planned in the short term, in principle and on a normalized basis, we ought to be around 4-point-something, 5% that we saw before this nonrecurrent period with a somewhat higher CapEx. I'm not going to go into details on the figures because this comes under the umbrella of the future guidance beyond the strategic plan. In this strategic plan, we're going to meet with that approximately 5% in CapEx over sales that we planned.

Talking about the strategic plan, there's a question. Do you know whether a strategic plan is going to be presented soon? And could an extraordinary dividend be considered if there's no M&A?

Well, I'll give the same answer that Jesus Maria gave when he was asked this question in June, I think, in the results for the second quarter. And that is that we still haven't finished the current strategic plan. So we can't set dates to present the future plan. In February, we'll all come back here to talk about it, I hope. And there, we'll close a 5-year period that has been complicated and it's also been very ambitious. And from there on, we'll see what the future guidance is. But I'm not going to go into the strategic plan or dates for his presentations. I'll defer this for when we discuss it in the fourth quarter.

And the other question, whether there could be a special dividend if there's an absence of M&As. Jesus Maria also said something along those lines. The payout to the shareholders is, without a doubt, one of the most important capital allocations if there's no significant M&A with the extremely low debt and with the very high cash generation, it wouldn't be the first time or the second in the history of CIE that there are extraordinary payouts.

Connected to this, a question has come in regarding what we plan to do with the shares bought in the self-takeover bid.

Well, the obligation is, and this has been published, these are shares that we cannot use to reduce capital. These are shares that should naturally be put on the market and try to atomize them as much as possible because the only goal was to create liquidity. And completely changing the subject, we asked about another possible disruption, the possible impact of the fire at Novelis in the United States.

Novelis in the United States, -- if I'm not mistaken, this is outside the third quarter as such because this was at the beginning of October. But it's true that it's happened during the last few days. There was a fire at a very important company that supplies aluminum. Have we had a direct impact? We don't have aluminum operations over there, but it's true that it could have an indirect impact through our customers. I think that there were customers from the beginning like Toyota or Hyundai that said that there wasn't a major effect. Stellantis spoke about temporarily shutting down one plant.

I think that the most affected was Ford. They were affected because one of their best-selling models, the 150 pickup, which is very aluminum intensive was penalized. And in fact, they talked about an outage of approximately 3 weeks in October of a couple of their plants in the U.S., their plants in Michigan. Perhaps we'll suffer a small indirect impact through this, we don't expect it to be significant. If you like, we can discuss it at the fourth quarter.

There's a question regarding that there has been significant progress in CIE India when it comes to getting into new segments in the end market and in the customer diversification.

I suppose that's a way of looking at it. I would say that it's been tremendously successful. First of all, we can't get into more segments because we're already in all of them. And secondly, commercial diversification, we continue to work on it every day. And I'd remind you, when we bought these plants, just over 10 years ago, they had 2 main customers that had all the sales, Tata and Mahindra. And nowadays, we work significantly for the #1 in the market, Maruti Suzuki. We work for the #2 Hyundai Kia in the market. We've included new segments and have practically covered all segments. So I suppose it's a matter of perception. If you ask me, I think that the success has been enormous.

Could you give us an update on tariffs, especially for 2026 with the potential review of the USMCA?

Tariffs. Well, the news from the last few days, I'm not going to say they're positive because talking about tariffs is implicitly negative. But I do think there's been a slight deescalation because we've had the agreement between the U.S. and Europe. It may be good or not. Some people believe 15% is higher. But at least we have a scenario that companies can work with and make decisions. Apart from that deescalation in recent days, we've seen how the trucks produced in Mexico and Canada and which had tariffs are now like passenger vehicles, and they don't have that tariff if they're USMCA compliant, obviously.

We've also heard the U.S. Secretary talk about potential tariff relief for aluminum and steel imported into the United States. The trade department is saying that it will evaluate almost on an individual basis, that's what we've understood, the request from each company, but they will consider whether it comes from Mexico or Canada and is USMCA compliant or whether it has been melted in Mexico or Canada or comes from other markets. And they put a lot of emphasis on the fact that they're going to consider whether there's a commitment from the company, a commitment that can be proven that they're going to set up capacity in the U.S. and will pass part of their aluminum and steel production to those plants.

So these are some things we can think of in a situation, which I'm not going to say is getting more stable because with Mr. Trump, we don't know if that's how things are going to stay or whether there will be more news tomorrow. But we do see signs of a deescalation, and it seems that it's coming to a certain stability, but with a lot of quotation marks.

How do we see India as an export hub for the Asia Pacific market?

For the Asia Pacific market as an export hub for that region, let's say. Well, there's a lot of important competition in that region from countries that are tremendously competitive like Thailand, Vietnam, the ASEAN area. If Indian plans to export, I don't think they're thinking of exporting to Thailand, Vietnam or that area. We're thinking about a very competitive India trying to export to markets where production would be more expensive. If I'm not mistaken, India exports almost 4 million bikes, 700,000 or 800,000 passenger vehicles and local production expectations in India. And we'll see what happens with the tariffs. But India is implicitly attempting to be a production and export hub for the world.

How is CIE coping with the loss in market share of the Western manufacturers versus the Chinese OEMs?

In China?

No, in general. They don't ask about a specific market, the general loss of quota.

I don't think it makes sense to talk about China because we all know what the situation said. And I've said that the Chinese quota in China is being reinforced. They're already at 66% and Western companies have lost 25% of the share. So knowing that our main customers are Western companies is not good news. But for the rest of the world, I think it's too early. We're still talking about shares in the rest of the world.

Well, I'm not trying to say that only 5% of the European market is covered by Chinese cars. But there's very little we can do when there's a CKD import model and with the local content is tremendously small. So that's not good news in the short term. It's true that we all believe that this is going to change in the medium term. And when that changes, we hope that there will be a supply chain from Chinese manufacturers to the rest of the world that will be normalized like American companies in the world, European companies in the world, Japanese companies in the world and Korean companies in the world, where there's a balance between the original suppliers and local suppliers. Why not believe that this is also going to happen with the Chinese?

And an update on M&A, where are we? And also about the rationale of looking at Thailand because of the 2-wheelers.

Where are we in M&A? Very active, working very hard. Nothing new as to what we're looking at. You know that because we've always said it. Strategically, it makes much more sense to concentrate on all our efforts on growing markets, not on mature markets. And by mature markets, I mean basically Europe and United States. And by growing markets, I mean more Mexico, Brazil, like the case of Techniplas, India. And you were talking about Thailand as an example, for a new market. I think that's fine. Any country, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand are interesting countries, countries where analyzing ASEAN produces more than 4 million vehicles, may call it the second Asian Detroit or the Asian Detroit because it produces a lot of pickups. It's the second part of the world with the highest pickup production.

And as we've always done, when we were only Europe, we went out to America. And when we were only Europe and America, we went out to Asia. In the 25-year history of CIE, we've always had an eye on markets where volumes start to become of interest and where it would make sense to go. And I think that ASEAN is a part of the world where especially in the short term, there are certain question marks. But I think in the medium and long term, it's a market that makes sense. And what are we doing? We're working on it.

We don't have any more questions.

Well, exactly 1 hour. Thank you all very much. And again, we regret the somewhat chaotic beginning, and I hope that we didn't say anything awful. Thank you all very much for your attention, and we're at your disposal if you have any other questions.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the conference call for CIE Automotive for the second quarter. Today, we have Jesus Maria Herrera , CEO; and Lorea Aristizábal, Director for Corporate Development. At the end of the presentation, there will be a Q&A and questions can only be asked in writing through the tool available on the webcast.

I'll hand over now to Lorea. Go ahead, please.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome once again to the results conference call for CIE. Juan said, we have Jesus Maria Herrera, our CEO, with us today, who will answer questions at the end of the presentation.

So if you like, we can start by reviewing what happened in the main markets during the second quarter, a period during which we again saw an enormous spread between geographies and a quarter that has been marked by the commercial and geopolitical tensions as a result of the Trump administration agenda.

Starting with Europe, production has shrunk by 2% during the second quarter, accumulating a drop close to 4% in the half, a second quarter that has confirmed the dynamics that we saw in previous quarters and which have had an especially negative impact on production activity. On the one hand, we have the growing pressure from Chinese manufacturers that continue to take over market share from the traditional European manufacturers and some figures.

In April, the registration of Chinese vehicles reached 50,000 units, 80% year-on-year, driven by brands like BYD, Chery and MG. In May, the sales of Chinese cars exceeded for the first time, 5% of total sales in Europe. However, growth of Chinese automobiles in Europe is showing nuances. It's advancing much more strongly in the hybrid segment, both plug-in and conventional, but is giving up ground in pure electric vehicles and in combustion engine vehicles.

On the other hand, in Europe, we have the U.S. tariffs on European vehicles and components. 25% is currently being applied universally, although it's under negotiation. This has penalized exports to one of the main foreign markets for Europe. The United States represent over 10% of total European vehicle exports. On a regulatory level, we positively highlight the flexibilization of the European emission reduction goals, which have been extended from 2025 to 2027, approved by the European Parliament in May, which gives manufacturers more room to adapt their vehicle ranges.

And what's also positive is the opening up in July of a public consultation to review the emission goals for 2035, a very critical issue for the sector. And where verdict is planned to be issued by the second quarter of 2026. Meanwhile, the electric vehicle continues to gain weight in Europe in the commercial mix in the second quarter. The sales of electrified vehicles, pure electric and hybrids now represents 25% versus 23% in Q1 and 19% in Q2 2024. So a significant increase. And in the short term, the demand for electric vehicles in Europe could be pushed by new incentives established by governments such as those announced in July by the British government.

With all this for 2025, we anticipate a drop in production of 3% in Europe in an environment of capacity utilization of approximately 60% on average which reinforces the need for Europe to move forward in the structural adjustments of the sector, including manufacturer phasing out of capacity and a greater consolidation of the ecosystem. In the medium and long term, the forecast point at a drop of 1% next year in 2026, although afterwards, there will be a certain recovery of the market with an estimated growth of 2% for the following years, '27, '28 and '29.

Going to North America, we have a market marked by the Trump trade policy, where the universal tariffs of 25% on cars and their components have had an impact on production and have brought in a major component of caution or prudence in the decisions made by the manufacturers. In Mexico, we've seen how production in the second quarter have dropped 2% with an accumulated figure for the half year, which is practically flat. But what stands out is the change in the trend.

In Mexico in 2024 was very positive with a growth of plus 5%. The first quarter also was with a growth of 4%. And it's now in the second quarter where we've seen this change in the trend, which certainly can be attributed to the announcement of the tariffs by Trump. And in some cases, the manufacturers have decided to limit or temporarily delay certain production activity while waiting for greater clarity.

In the United States, the situation is very similar. Production that also dropped 2% in the quarter with an accumulated figure for the half year of 5%. What's happening in the United States. The more expensive imported components increases the final cost of the vehicles, reduces competitiveness and forces manufacturers to be more prudent, more cautious in their production plans in view of the risk of a weaker demand if the consumer doesn't take on higher prices.

On the other hand, we have the recent elimination by Trump of the support measures for electric vehicles that have been implemented during the Biden administration. And this could act as a positive catalyst to reactivate some volumes of combustion engine vehicles in the short term. We'll see. Unlike production, which have been negative, the demand for vehicles in North America showed a positive behavior in the second quarter with a growth of 2%, 4% in the half year. And this comeback can be explained partly by the anticipation effect of consumers and distributors that have been bringing forward purchases to make use of the available inventory before the impact of the new tariffs.

For 2025, a shrinkage of the North American market is envisaged of 3%, although the prospects have improved compared to what we discussed in the first quarter. If you remember, a drop for the year was expected of 9%. In the medium and long term, an additional drop of 4% next year, in line with Europe falling too, followed by a gradual market recovery in '27, '28 and '29, also in line with what's happening in Europe.

China has maintained especially positive evolution, tremendously positive in the second quarter with a growth of 9% in vehicle production, which gives us an accumulated total for the first half of 12% and they are certainly consolidated as the main driver for global growth in the quarter, a dynamism that has been backed on the one hand by the good performance of the domestic market benefited by the car stock renovation policy and the incentive campaigns implemented by OEMs. And on the other hand, exports, which have also showed a strong recovery in the second quarter after the first few months of the year where they were weaker and were dropping.

But in spite of this major growth, the context in China is competitive. There is a very demanding competitive context, an environment marked by the intensification in the price war between manufacturers with very tight margins and payment periods of over 200 days in some cases for suppliers and affected by average capacity utilization rates below 60%. Yesterday, we read that it's estimated that in 2024, barely 50% of the capacity of China will be used, the lowest figure in history, a context where Western OEMs continue to record relevant drops in production with drops of almost 20% in the case of some European manufacturers like Mercedes or 17% for Tesla and a loss of market share where globally, it's already below 25%.

For the second half, a certain stability in volume is foreseen in China, perhaps a risk of it dropping because the Chinese government is considering the gradual withdrawal of incentives, and they've already done it in some regions after finding extensive cases of fraud behind the incentives. We'll see what happens. We'll have to monitor the situation. And medium and long term, the Chinese market maintains a growth trend of approximately 1% a year for the coming years.

In the second quarter in Brazil, Brazil is considered to be one of the markets with the biggest growth in our geographies, 8% in the quarter, 8% in the accumulated figure for the first half, too. On the one hand, a performance based on the domestic demand with sales that stand at high levels. In May, for example, 214,000 vehicles were sold, which is the highest monthly volume since -- for the year 2025. On the other hand, exports have also been a major driver with a growth of 60% compared to the same period last year.

In June alone, over 50,000 vehicles were exported, 75% year-on-year with Argentina as the main destination, thanks to the improvement in the economic context and the new bilateral trade agreements between Brazil and Argentina. All this has been accompanied by a commercial mix with a clear protagonism of SUVs and pickups in Brazil, intense promotion activity by OEMs and a higher sales penetration for fleet renovation, which in some months have exceeded 50% of the total registrations.

For the second half, it's expected that production will accelerate with around 1.4 million units planned versus 1.1 million in the first half. In the medium and long term, the growth forecasts are between 3% and 6% per year until 2030, a tremendously interesting market.

We move to India that has reinforced its position as one of the most solid markets in growth during this period. In the second quarter, vehicle production grew 3%, increasing the accumulated figure for the half up to 4%, driven by the launching of new models a contained inflation, 2.1% in June and by the recent cutback in interest rates by the Central Bank, which has reduced the rate by 100 basis points down to 5.5% in a market where vehicle financing is important.

A second quarter where India has launched a new state strategy, a new policy for electric vehicles. Now OEMs are allowed to import up to 8,000 electric vehicles a year with a reduced tariff of 15% versus the usual tariff of between 70% and 100% for imports in exchange for a minimum investment of $500 million in local production capacity in a period of 3 years. This is a strategy that is designed -- a policy that is designed to attract manufacturers like Tesla, and this reinforces the goal of the country of positioning itself as a key center for manufacturing and exports on a world scale, helped by the current geopolitical context and also the transfer of certain projects from China.

The second half of the year is expected to speed up the rate of production. Yesterday, you heard the CEO of our subsidiaries, CIE India, talking about this acceleration in India with an estimated growth of 6% with the backing of more product availability and a solid demand in all segments, not just in passenger vehicles. With this, the forecast for 2025 points to a growth of 5%. And in the medium term, we can expect average growth rates of 4% up to 2030.

We've reviewed all the markets. The global automotive market has recorded a growth in the second quarter of 2.6% especially driven, I already said it, but I'll repeat it by the major growth and the major volumes in China, a market that carries a little weight in our sales mix, barely 7%. And this means that the CIE market, the CIE exposure market has grown less, 0.5%. This same dynamic is reflected in the accumulated figure for this first half with a growth of more than 3% for the global market, but a drop of 0.3% in the CIE market.

Usually, there aren't significant differences between developments in the global market and developments in the CIE market. But when the Chinese market with its gigantic volumes deviates a lot from the average has occurred this quarter, there are differences that mean that the CIE market growth is a much more representative comparison for us.

Regarding the forecast, global forecast, the second half of the year expects a shrinking of more than 2%. And this would mean closing the year 2025 practically a flat 0.4%, a flat performance, which, as in the past, hides the facts. It hides the major regional differences. It hides the fact that while China, India or Brazil continue gaining traction, Europe and North America continue to show a much weaker evolution. For the future between 2026 and 2030, we can talk about an average growth close to 1%.

We'll now review the P&L. And if we start with sales. During this first half of the year, the negative exchange rate impact has been strong, especially in the second quarter, and it's been strong and all our currencies have had a negative impact. This has meant a drop in sales of around 2.5 points in the quarter and a half year where we have been, as I said earlier, in line with the market. The exchange rate impact has been much stronger in the second quarter than in the first, as I said, with a drop in sales in the quarter of 4.5 points because of the exchange rate. And at a constant exchange rate, our sales in the second quarter have grown almost 1%. This means a slight outperformance compared to the growth of 0.5% of our market.

To properly understand the figures for the second quarter and some of you have asked about this, we have to explain that the market figures for the first quarter have been finally better than those that were initially published. Production in the first quarter improved by more than 0.5 million vehicles, which in practice implied a CIE first quarter slightly below the market.

In terms of EBITDA margin, the second quarter has been very much in line with the developments we already saw in the first quarter. We have achieved a tremendous expansion of almost 500 basis points in margins. And for the second quarter running, we have reached a level of 19% in EBITDA margin over sales. An expansion in the EBITDA margin is consolidated and high quality. This is to be highlighted, high quality with all geographies maintaining or increasing their margin and most of them exceeding 19%, all of them with a great deal of merit. We shouldn't take merit away from anyone, but perhaps especially in Europe, where with all the difficulties going through, it has exceeded 8% EBITDA margin in the second quarter.

And EBITDA, which in absolute value has slightly dropped compared to the second quarter last year with a negative impact of the depreciation of the currencies. The -- over EUR 170 million reported would be EUR 195 million at a constant exchange rate and would represent a growth of more than 3% compared to the previous year, with all geographies increasing their EBITDA in absolute value at constant exchange rates. The EBIT margin trend is the same as EBITDA, again, exceeding 14% consolidated in the second quarter is accompanied by a net profit of EUR 92 million, more than 9% over sales, which has contributed to having reported the best half year result in our history in the first half.

Talking about the balance sheet and cash flow, we have to highlight an operating cash flow generation of more than 70% in the second quarter of the year, the highest ratio we've had in the current perimeter and have again exceeded EUR 125 million, totally aligned. This is important with our commitment to generate approximately EUR 500 million a year. A dividend to minority shareholders of over EUR 9 million, 10% more than last year, showing once again our firm commitment to remuneration for the shareholder. A total CapEx of 4% in the second quarter which is more normalized after we've overcome most of the greenfield investment in Mexico.

As a reminder, in 2024, the CapEx percentage was slightly higher than the usual 5% because of this reason, because of the Mexico greenfield. But adjusting the effect, the percentage would have been at normalized levels of around 5%. And in this first half of 2025, the normalized CapEx without that Mexico greenfield is even slightly below 4%. Even so, we're capable of continuing to deleverage and have reached a historic level in terms of deleveraging with 1.2x at the closing of June from the 1.5x months ago.

Our net financial debt continues to move away from the EUR 1 billion and is at EUR 925 million with a robust operating cash flow and a minimum debt. We continue to strengthen our financial position to tackle any future challenge with confidence.

Two subjects for the second quarter, although their impact hasn't been felt on the cash flow yet. First of all, the signing of the purchase of the Brazilian company, Techniplas, the closing of the operation is pending approval by the competition authorities, and we estimate that this will happen in the third quarter, which is when the payout related to this purchase would be made and where it would be included in the CIE perimeter.

And the other relevant factor this second quarter has been the voluntary auto takeover for 9.675% of our shares at a price of EUR 24 per share, an offer, which, as you know, had the goal of providing all company shareholders the possibility of having a one-off liquidity related to the stock market operations in a complex macroeconomic situation. It was approved on June 13 by the CNMV. The acceptance period ended on the 2nd of July and the settlement was made on 11th of July with a payment of EUR 27 million, which were reflected in the cash flow in the third quarter, EUR 27 million, which correspond to an acceptance level, which has barely reached 10% of the total shares.

It was aimed at less than 1% of the share capital. And we believe that this represents a vote of confidence from the market in the potential and the value of the company, as indicated by the analyst reports, well, your reports recommended, in fact, in most cases, not going to the offer at EUR 24 when the average target price for the CIE share is at EUR 33, almost 40% higher.

And I'll end by reconfirming that with the excellent results reached until June and trusting in the forecast for the rest of the year with caution because of the context, but with confidence, we reaffirm our commitments for 2025.

And with this, we move on to the questions for which I'd like to remind you that we have Jesus Maria, our CEO, awaiting. So thank you all very much.

Okay. We have a lot of questions. There's a lot of interest this quarter. We'll do what we can to order them and to be efficient.

Starting with sales, a specific question about NAFTA. The performance has got worse compared to the market in the second quarter. So reasons and what do we expect for the future?

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Jesus Maria Herrera. I think that it's not relevant. In the first quarter, it's practically been in line with the North American market with a difference of practically 0.6 percentage points in 6 months. So we believe this is part of the normal variation margins. Interpreting the data of 1 quarter can lead us to erroneous interpretations. The thing is that we have solid margins and operations in the region. We continue to be very selective in the programs we participate in. We always look at profitability more than volume.

Two questions on the outperformance of India. First of all, we're growing less than our comparisons. Is this because we're being very conservative? I would say that we need to know who the comparison is with.

Yes, because in India, we've grown over 3% more than the market. So it's a difficult question. But having said this, I would give the same answer I gave for NAFTA. Our focus continues to be profitability. Our focus continues to be to provide a return for all the investments and not so much the volume. But again, we've grown in India and Brazil more than the market, substantially more in this first half.

And also regarding this question, I think it's a difficult compare, compare with what the company in India has a specific distribution by segment. Passenger vehicles, 2-wheelers, tractors, trucks. And I don't -- not really sure that those comparisons that are being used by the person asking the question have the same segment distribution. So if we're being compared with a company that's 100% focused on 2-wheelers or tractors, well, I think it's more complex. So I'll refer to what Jesus Maria said, but we have to be careful what we compare with. We should compare apples with apples.

And the second part of the question was related to the outperformance. What do we think about the -- what our position is regarding the new products that are being demanded by the market, ABS, a more premium vehicle in India, how are we positioned there?

Well, we're in a good position. That's our focus. And we're picking up significant orders that are going to give us growth and stability without a doubt.

A very specific question on roofs in general. Do you see a better competitive environment in prices because of the restructuring efforts that are being made by some important competitors?

Well, it's true that all our competitors are suffering a great deal. CIE is the only roof company that has very positive results and a very healthy balance sheet without a doubt. I think we have a competitive advantage compared to the others. And our customers when it comes to taking on new project will trust more in a healthy company than in a company in trouble that could shut down launching projects because of their financial problems.

We move on to another subject related to capacity utilizations. Yesterday in the CIE India call, it was said that you're at 40%, 50% in Europe, 80% in India. The question is, how are you in NAFTA, Brazil and China with regards to utilization?

Well, I think that yesterday's answer by Dear Ander, I don't think was properly understood by the analysts and investors that were at the conference call. Ander was only referring to a specific plant we have in Italy. He wasn't referring to all of Europe. In Europe, we're close to 80% utilization. And it's true that in markets like Mexico or Brazil, we're closer to 90-some percent capacity. So the capacity figures for our investments are very high because you know that we are very cautious when we take on new investments.

And this is shown by the profitability we have obtained at the closing of the second half of the second quarter. You've seen the stock market report, the return on investment, the RONA for all of CIE has once again exceeded 20%. It's at 20.5%. This can only be achieved if the utilization level of resources is very high.

Questions now related to margins. The first question, there has been a sequential improvement in markets like China and Europe, where in sales, perhaps we have a better performance. But is there any one-off behind the margins that explains some of these sequential changes?

None, none. Everything we presented are the operating results, the results of our day-to-day management, our industrial efficiency, our cost control and our focus on profitability. That's all. And obviously, these are recurrent results. I don't know whether they're referring to something else Ander mentioned yesterday.

Ander yesterday referred to a small one-off that are the restructuring expenses at Metalcastello.

Yes, but it's a small amount. No, they were referring to that because it came up in yesterday's conference calls. But on a CIE level, there's no impact. We're talking about EUR 2 million in EBITDA of over EUR 700 million. Obviously, it's not significant, and that's why I didn't mention it. But that's what they were referring to.

And we're also asked about the sustainability of the high margins in Brazil and India when we have margins that we're managing to maintain. Is it possible that those high margins will start to turn around?

I don't think so. All the margins are the result of the work done, the significant management effort, and they are absolutely recurring margins. It's obvious that we're not going to set the goal to continue to improve over 19%. But there is a greater opportunity being improved than dropping. And in the market of Brazil, we're still going to have organic growth much more than the market and markets like India, where we also have growth bigger than the market, I would say that especially in India, the figures are going to be even higher.

We move on to the forecast for the second half of the year. First of all, sales what absolute sales level makes sense for the second half of the year, especially bearing in mind the exchange rates.

Well, I think that the second half is going to be in line with what the second half usually is. We have the effect of the third quarter, the effect of December. But taking away these effects, it's going to be very similar to what it usually means. We shouldn't expect anything different to the normal market estimated developments. You will have the estimates for production for the market and CIE will be at the same pace of growth or volume than the market.

And regarding the exchange rate, just to share, in the first half, more or less with this exchange rate level. Obviously, we hope it will improve. But if it's content -- if it's constant, as we said earlier, we've lost more or less EUR 46 million in sales and EUR 9 million in EBITDA. As everybody knows, the P&L adapts to the average rate accumulated over the months. Therefore, at the end of the year, we will be around EUR 100 million in sales losses and EUR 19 million, EUR 20 million.

The good thing about CIE in summary is that, that loss of EUR 20 million in EBITDA because of the exchange rate factor will be offset by an improvement in margins of 0.5 point, an improvement of EUR 20 million exactly out of EUR 4 billion. So once again, a negative variable and the significant devaluation of 13% in the dollar devaluation of 11%, in the rupee, almost 11% too.

If we turn all that around with the operating improvements and improvements in margins in order to not have a drop of one single euro in EBITDA. This has already answered the question in a way, but we were also asked about the second half of the year, how to match the fact that seasonally, the volume is lower and reaching that 19% margin for the year, which is the guidance for 2025.

What are the drivers, let's say, the driver is that the improvement is continuous. So these are improvements day by day. In the first 2 quarters, in the first quarter, our sales were higher. We obtained 19%. In the second quarter, the improvements are still progressive. And with fewer sales, we've obtained the same figure of 19%. In the third quarter, it will be less with the holiday effect. But since we are continuing to improve, we are convinced that we will obtain that 19%, both in the third and the fourth quarters.

A question on the first half on the significant reduction in financial expenses compared to last year. The question is, what is our estimate for the whole year in financial expenses?

Well, without being able to give a figure, it's obvious that financial expenses are tending to go down much more significantly in the second quarter than in the first because there's been a gradual reduction in rates. So this is going to help, as I said earlier, to offset EBITDA with efficiency and the bottom line is going to grow substantially at CIE because of the reduction in financial expenses.

A couple of questions on cash flow. The first is what are the other movements that we can see in the second quarter, around EUR 50 million negative. What's their nature?

Well, it's what we were discussing. Our cash positions in the various countries with a strong revaluation of the euro and the devaluation of the rest of the currencies means that for example, in China, we've had a variation of EUR 26 million, a variation of EUR 15 million because of the rupee in India and more or less EUR 10 million in North America. In Brazil, there hasn't been an effect because the exchange rate has been more or less the same than in the first half last year. And these EUR 50 million have been reflected. But until we have the official exchange rate, it's not as a loss as such. It's an accounting item.

And related to cash flow, too, 2 very specific questions. Why is CapEx significantly lower? What do we expect for the second half of the year? And for the future, is it going to be similar?

We always try to have the same CapEx as the amortization more or less. We assigned 2% for maintenance CapEx. So this year it has been less. And we analyze the growth CapEx for all projects with maximum rigor. And to carry out that CapEx, we need to have a significant return on investment over 20%. We have less CapEx than last year, as Lorea explained, because last year, there was a very specific project with an extremely big investment with a multi-technology plant. There's still a certain CapEx to be carried out, but most of it has already been realized.

The complete CapEx at CIE for a growth of 2% or 3% is a CapEx of 5% over sales, and that's where we are more or less this year.

Connected to this, what do we think about the 2025 Bloomberg consensus?

Well, they gave me a shock this morning when they showed me the consensus. I said this is wrong. It's wrong. The Bloomberg figures were wrong. No, no. I saw very good figures for the results in general. And I was happy to see the confidence in this group in CIE Automotive. But in debt, there was a very major error. But that's being corrected. It was an error in Bloomberg's data extraction. Go to the current figures.

Okay. I'm just explaining what happened. But with the current figures, it's absolutely reasonable. in line with our guidance and reflects what's happening month after month, solid margins, high cash flow and balance sheet to control. There's no disconnection between the market expects and what we are delivering and going to deliver. We're going to change the subject.

China in the world, is there anything relevant, anything new with these international expansions?

Well, what we already mentioned at previous meetings, we are making progress with various Chinese OEMs in Brazil, we always talk about BYD and in other regions, and the process follows a certain pattern. When they set up outside China, they start with a CKD format, they import everything and only do local assembly. And years later, they start to develop a local supply chain. In this context, we're having discussions with them that will take place over the midterm, anticipating that second localization phase. We believe it's not a sprint. It's a matter of a strategic position. We believe that we are where we should be.

To supplement Jesus Maria answer, there was a news item this morning about BYD, which I think is the benchmark Chinese player with regard to going out into the world. This morning, officially, BYD announced that they were delaying the start-up of the Hungary plant. And when it starts, which is expected to start in 2026, they aren't going to start with the initial volume of 150,000 cars to move it up to 300,000. They're saying that they're going to start now with a few tens of thousands, and it will take several years, they say, several years until they reach the volume they'd initially planned of 150,000.

On the other hand, they say they bring forward the operation of their plant in Turkey, where there's a capacity of 150,000 vehicles, and they expect to make it grow immediately. What the analysts say is that behind this announcement, we all see a lot of ad saying that the Chinese are going out into the world. But as Jesus Maria says, things are more complicated. It seems that in Hungary, they are finding labor cost issues, labor legislation, energy cost issues, a lack of executives, a lack of know-how, et cetera, et cetera. And they're finding it harder than they thought.

And yet in Turkey, they have an advantage, and that is Turkey has no tariffs to export to Europe. And that seems to be the market context, and that's the BYD context. And I'll take the opportunity to say that not everything that glitters is gold. We've been talking about only the Chinese for years about how much the Chinese grow in China and in the rest of the world. And we're starting to see the first figures that indicate that things aren't what they seemed. BYD has been losing market share in China for several months. And it's the first time in the history of BYD that their annual goal of 5.5 million vehicles produced in the year is being questioned.

So yes, China is growing. But as Jesus Maria said, let's be cautious, stay calm. Things take time. So let's be calm.

Yes. Since you mentioned BYD, there's still also the subject of Brazil. They went into Brazil in Bahia. They went in with an agreement with the government, and they went in with a commitment to hire local people. And what they've done is to take 3,000 Chinese people that live in the plant in infra human conditions. So they're getting into a lot of trouble because they're not meeting any of the commitments they've made to the government and to the trade unions. And it's very difficult for an implementation to be successful outside China if they don't meet the local conditions. If they don't do that, they'll never be successful.

Another thing they're asking about because there's been news on the Trump administration tariffs. Is there anything relevant we can highlight or which has had an impact on us?

Well, looking at our crystal ball, Well, I would start by saying that for the time being, it's just news, but nobody knows exactly what will end up happening and when. It's still early to identify specific impacts. There's a great deal of uncertainty, both regarding the schedule and the actual scope of the measures that have been announced. As of today, we haven't seen a relevant impact on our forecast, but obviously, we are following it very closely.

Everybody should understand what our business model is. We produce locally for local customers. So we considerably mitigate the risk of a changing environment, but it requires constant monitoring. And you've also been able to see how at the beginning of the tariff negotiations, they started with tariffs of 50%, 25% and ended up like Japan today with 15% or they started with the U.K. at 25% and everything has come to nothing. We are all aware that it's impossible to have those tariffs because obviously it would go against the world economy, but obviously, it would go against the American economy.

It's Trump's way of doing things. But in the end, the impact will be very, very small, especially for those that are local and that produce in the United States and other countries and don't export, as you know.

We have several questions on M&A and on capital allocation. Do you expect any relevant acquisitions before the end of the year?

I would say, in summary, you all remember that in 2019, we carried out a number of very relevant acquisitions, not just endeavor that you all remember, but also significant growth in India. And during this 5-year strategic plan, we focused on obtaining a maximum return from the investments and the results are plain to see. The results obtained before I said we were back to 20.5% profitability and the debt is at a historic minimum, as we've said. And I do agree that with this goal achieved, now we have to redirect this discipline and focus towards new inorganic growth projects to reinforce our sustainable and profitable growth model.

So in reply to the question, yes, we're going to look much more fondly at inorganic growth, and we continue to believe and we are convinced that we'll continue to be the market consolidators. This morning at the Board, we were analyzing developments in car production in the last 10 years. It's been flat. We have the same 88 million or 89 million cars in the last 10 years. And the turnover has doubled during those 10 years. So I think that something similar will happen in the next 10 years.

The increase in production volume is important. But for CIE as a consolidator, it's not that important. And now we've met all the goals in the guidance for 2025. Now that we have that high profitability over 20% now that debt is around EUR 925 million at the closing of the half year. And without exchange rate effect, we would be at EUR 875 million. In other words, we are getting close to a ratio of 1:1 and in the coming months. So it's time to continue to consolidate the market and focus all management efforts on the integration of new companies.

And specifically, we asked about the acquisition of Techniplas, a company with higher margins, the rationale or some more color on the reason for the acquisition.

Well, first of all, because it's a great company, it's a great company that give us a very significant product diversification. It also gives us entrance to very important customers, especially Asian customers. So it's a complement to the Brazilian Plastics division, which is very successful. So I'm sure that we'll also see additional plastic operations with the help of Techniplas in the coming quarters. It's been a strategic acquisition with an outstanding team that is going to be a complement to our team.

Any plans to increase the stake in CIE India versus the Indian peers?

You know that the best investment is to invest in CIE, which is the cheapest thing there is in CIE Automotive. And even if we have discounts in India, it has multiples much higher than CIE. So no, we're not currently thinking of increasing our stake in India. We believe that the available resources, which are many, we want to dedicate them more to the inorganic growth I mentioned.

We are also asked about the low acceptance of the self-takeover bid, whether we consider a buyback or an extraordinary dividend. And what are we going to do with the shares, a share buyback and what are we going to do with the shares we bought?

Well, I would say that to talk about the takeover bid, when we decided to launch the bid, we knew that any scenario was positive for us. We reached that almost 10% acceptance. We considered that to be a success because it allows us to provide shares with liquidity and stabilize market performance. If nobody subscribed to it, it's also a clear message. Shareholders trust in the value of CIE. They know that it's much more valuable. Today's consensus is around EUR 33 per share, much higher than the price offered. So the reading is simple. The market believes in the potential of our company. We haven't thought about paying out a dividend in the short term.

As I said earlier, we have a very significant capacity for inorganic growth and for market consolidation. So our availability, our economic and financial resources are going to be used for that inorganic growth more than for other things at this point.

A question has come in from a shareholder. Some companies are talking about being listed in the U.S. again to improve the price of the share to increase the multiple. Is that something CIE could consider?

Well, the fact is, we have discussed it at various Board meetings, and we've discussed leaving Spain and going to England, for example, or going to the United States like others have done. But we haven't taken it seriously as yet. We think that we need to continue to work on our project. We need to meet all our commitments month-to-month. And in the Spanish market, the value of our company, it may be EUR 33 or EUR 43 depending on how you want to evaluate this major cash generation that absolutely no one has in this sector. And we hope that the Spanish Stock Exchange will value it.

We've added -- we've considered it, but we haven't taken it anyway.

This would be the last question.

Well, great. Well, thank you all very much for your questions. All of them very interesting. And you can be sure that you're in the best company with the best human team, the best management that guarantees today and tomorrow. So thank you all very much, and have a good summer.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]