Fr. Vorwerk Grp Aktie

Welcome to the earnings call of Friedrich Vorwerk Group SE regarding the Q1 figures of 2026. The company CEO,

Torben Kleinfeldt and CFO, Tim Hameister, will guide you through the figures in a moment, followed by a Q&A session via audio line and chat. And with that, I hand over to you, Torben.

Yes. Thank you very much for the introduction and also a very warm welcome from my side. Welcome to the Q1 earnings call, 2026 of Vorwerk Group SE. As always, I would like to start up with a short summary of what is happening within our company's group and also with a short market update, then I would hand over to Tim for the financial figures. I would then give you at the end an overview of running projects which we are executing at the moment.

So first of all, Friedrich Vorwerk is active since 60 years in the business of energy infrastructure. Our main markets focused here on the top right of this slide is the natural gas market, electricity market, clean hydrogen market and adjacent opportunities, whereas the adjacent opportunities is mainly our activities in heating, district heating grids and stations, but also biomethane treatment and CO2 separation and transport.

Today, I would still like to show you this slide, although probably most of you know it or have seen it for a couple of times, but there is some change in the composition of our 15 locations. As you have heard, we have sold our property in Lüchow-Dannenberg, where the activities have mostly been taken over from our headquarters in Tostedt. And we have opened up a new facility in the Netherlands called Houten, which is the main office for 5CTEK, our company for our welding technologies. And from Houten, we will guide our international activities in terms of delivering welding services to our customers.

Besides that, still most of our customers are from the TSOs and DSOs. So main customers are on their natural gas and hydrogen site, Open Grid Europe, Gasunie, ONTRAS Gas Transport and on the electricity side of the business, it's TenneT, Amprion, 50Hertz which are among our major clients.

Growth of the company group has still been driven by the energy transition going on year in Europe and looking back on the year '25, we did a great job acquiring more projects. So total project volume acquired in '25 was almost EUR 1 billion to be exact, EUR 991 million, which is a rise of almost 1/3 compared to 2024 figures. And as you know, the total project volume acquired also takes into account our share in the joint ventures we are operating on many projects. Yes, that's for the status update.

And now I would like to change over to the market update. So besides all political discussions going on at the moment, many countries in the EU are still planning massive projects in terms of the energy transition. So the European Commission has just published in late April, the new list of PCI, PMI projects, which also focuses on infrastructure projects, which cross borders between European countries. And from the map, that is highlighted from the European Commission, you can see more than 230 cross-border projects. For example, in smart grids, electricity transition lines but also hydrogen projects and also projects for the transport of CO2.

Projects are shown there are in various statuses. So for example, you will find a Hyperlink project which is operating by Gasunie where we are already active in or H2ercules, which is the core grid projects of Open Grid Europe, where we have also received the first project to execute in the next years. But other projects like AquaDuctus or HyPipe Bavaria are still in tender phase, so permitting phase is ongoing, and execution will be in the next 5 to 10 years. But also other projects are highlighted in this map. For example, export routes of CO2 to Norway. These projects are still under investigation or they published the first project ideas.

So whoever is interested in what is going on in the next 20 years in Europe, I think the map of the PCI, PMI projects of the European Commission itself is a good for us to look at. Yes, but not only in terms of transport grids, there's a huge upgrade in demand, but also there's a huge step in investments in the distribution grids. So the ACER has conducted a survey among the DSOs, so among the distribution system operators in Europe to find out how the investments in the electrical distribution grids are developing in all of Europe.

And as you can see from this graph, there's a huge step up over the last 5 years of almost 80% in investments in the distribution routes. And of course, also, Germany is leading here because Germany is really focusing on new -- I'm sorry, so, yes -- sorry, that was a call coming in. So especially Germany is focusing on developing the distribution grid to get more charging infrastructure and new heat pumps to the households.

And besides the investment in the distribution infrastructure, there's, of course, still a discussion going on in Germany about transport infrastructure, especially in electricity. As you've probably been known that since 2016, Germany has passed a law to move all transport electricity infrastructure underground, so not using overhead power lines, but undergrown cable systems to transport the energy. And now this year, the new government has drafted out new law that will change the Cable Law, which has passed in 2016, and they want to move more power lines above ground again due to cost issues. Of course, this bill has not been passed by the government yet.

And also the next project in electricity, especially the large north, south and west, east corridors, they have already been planned and permissions have already been granted. In some cases of projects, the cables have already been procured. So we do not see a change in outlining these projects, at least not for the next 5 to 8 years. What happens after that will be a point of political discussions.

But in the end, just to give you a technical idea also on the advantages of underground power systems, of course, it creates better acceptance with all the stakeholders that are influenced by the projects. The underground power lines are more resistant to weather issues and also for terrorist attacks. So there are also some electrical issues where using cable systems is more advanced, especially in transport losses compared to the above ground power lines.

So we do not see any changes here for the upcoming projects, at least not for the next 5 to 8 years. And therefore, we are very comfortable that our cable laying services will be required for the upcoming project without any changes.

And with that, I would like to hand over to Tim for our financial figures.

Yes. Thanks, Torben. I would also like to welcome you to today's earnings call on our first quarter figures. Let me now take you through our financial results in more detail, and as usual, at let's start with the top line.

As we already flagged, the first quarter was significantly more challenging in terms of weather conditions than in recent years. In January and February, there was a particularly heavy amount of frost and snow in northern Germany, meaning that work at some of our sites and projects had to be paused in February or could not even begin after the scheduled winter break. This makes it all the more pleasing that we still managed to increase revenue by 5% compared to the previous year, bringing it up to EUR 139 million.

Contributing factors here included, in particular, a very strong growth in headcount over the past few quarters as well as in the current quarter, during which we increased our workforce by almost 4%. And had a very strong performance in March, which allowed us to partially offset downtime for February already.

In terms of revenue breakdown, the electricity segment was once again the strongest, accounting for 56% of total revenue, followed by natural gas at 26% and our adjacent opportunities at 16%. Clean hydrogen revenue was still quite weak in the first quarter. However, we continue to expect strong growth in this area, not least due to the orders already received in Q1, but also due to the very attractive project pipeline related to the hydrogen core network which we outlined in recent calls.

However, our profitability showed particularly strong growth in Q1. EBITDA increased by 75% to EUR 31.8 million, corresponding to a margin of 22.8%. It's already nearly achieving -- reaching the level achieved in exceptionally strong fiscal year 2025. EBIT nearly doubled to EUR 24.1 million, corresponding to a margin of 17.3%. This strong increase in margins is attributable to several factors.

First, we achieved modest revenue growth while simultaneously reducing material expenses by approximately 20%. This is due to a shift in the project mix as Q1, 2025, now included a high proportion of revenue from material deliveries such as the cable protection pipes for our major project A-Nord and revenue in Q1, 2026 on the other hand, was generated with a higher proportion of in-house work, which compared to, let's say, simple material deliveries, naturally leads to a higher margin.

Second, earnings contributions from joint ventures increased from EUR 1.5 million in the prior year to EUR 4.1 million in the reporting period due to the higher order volume handled by the JVs. Third, the earnings figures include a positive onetime effect of EUR 1.7 billion from the sale of our former branch office in Lüchow-Dannenberg.

Let's now turn to the order situation. The top 2 charts here on Slide 2 show the standard metrics of order intake and order backlog. Order intake in Q1, 2026, increased by EUR 110 million to EUR 192 million, even though no major projects were awarded in Q1. Ultimately, this order intake was achieved exclusively through small and medium-sized projects worth up to EUR 50 million each. We do not typically prevent these projects in the project pipeline due to their respective sizes, but the total value of these projects can be quite significant and meaningful.

Among the larger orders received in Q1, there are 2 gas pressure regulating metering stations, one of which is already designed for the use of hydrogen as well as additional hydrogen pipeline projects. The 2 charts below show corresponding figures, including the proportion of order volumes of the joint ventures. Total project volume acquired rose by 50% to EUR 196 million and is only slightly higher than order intake, as no major projects were awarded in Q1. And accordingly, no new joint ventures were formed in Q1.

New, however, is the key figure is the backlog, including joint ventures, which we are reporting for the first time this quarter. This figure rose by 14% to EUR 1.4 billion and includes not only the conventional order backlog, but also the proportionate share of JV orders. In this context, we've also published a so-called production output figure for the first time, which rose by 14% as well in Q1 and also includes the proportional joint venture revenues. This should now provide all relevant key figures to form a complete picture of the company's situation, taking into account the shift in the order structure towards more JVs.

Based on the current quarterly results, we confirm the guidance for fiscal year 2026, which we published in March and which projects revenue in the range of EUR 730 million to EUR 780 million and EBITDA of EUR 160 million to EUR 180 million. But please keep in mind, this forecast is based solely on the company's organic growth and does not include any additional inorganic growth. Given the net cash position of EUR 232 million as of quarter's end, the range of opportunities for further growth remains definitely open.

Yes, let me now hand it back to Torben for some updates on our ongoing projects and upcoming projects before we open the floor for your questions.

Torben, you have to unmute yourself with a click on your microphone.

I'm sorry. So yes, thanks a lot, Tim. And today, we have chosen to focus really on our largest projects going on at the moment. So the first one would be the Corridor A-Nord, which probably most of you have heard of. Within this IPA project, Bohlen & Doyen is responsible for about 40% of total project volume. Actually, the lots being executed at Lower Saxony, progress, especially over the winter has been quite good on the project. The first lot within Lower Saxony have already been completed. We are quite happy with the progress also in terms of all closed crossings we have to execute. So all resources in terms of horizontal directional drilling have been busy over the winter, and this project definitely contributed a lot to the overwhelming Q1, 2026.

Next project is not from electricity market, but from natural gas market. It is our combination of 2 ETL pipeline projects, which are executed for the customer Gasunie Germany. The 2 projects compromises (sic) [ comprises ] of 1 pipeline, ETL 182 with a length of 86 kilometers and a diameter of 1.4 meters and a smaller pipeline called ETL 179-200 with a diameter of 900 millimeters, which will tie into the larger pipeline system at a location called Dieksum. Both projects are executed in a joint venture with PPS and Habau Group.

Project has already started last year with preliminary works. So we prepared pipe yards. The customer already delivered most of the necessary pipes. You see a picture of one of the pipe yards on this slide. And in March this year, the main activities on both projects have been started. We are especially happy that two of the, in total four very complicated drillings, have already been executed successfully, actually, a bit ahead of time. So we are also here quite satisfied with the progress of these two major gas installation projects.

Next project is from hydrogen market. We've received order from ONTRAS Gas Transport to plan and erect gas metering system and regulating system at the location of Bobbau, which is a major compressor station within the grid of ONTRAS Gas Transport. Here, we will deliver in this year and beginning of next year, mainly engineering services and procurement services for the project and then we'll start with the actual execution of this mid-two-digit million project beginning of next year.

And besides this, adjacent opportunities are also going quite well. The Friedrich Vorwerk Group is active in numerous district heating projects all across Germany. Major project at the moment is, again, in the city of Hamburg, where we are executing a major district heating pipeline connecting the waste to energy plant at Rugenberger Damm to the main grid of Hamburg. Pretty much similar projects executed at the moment in Leipzig. It's called the so-called REFILL project, connecting industrial facilities to the main district heating grid of the City of Leipzig.

This project will still be going on this and the next year and it compromises (sic) [ comprises ] of roughly 12 kilometers of newbuild district heating pipe, DN 700 and DN 900. But also a lot of renewing work is going on in terms of district heating grids. So our branch in Berlin is at the moment active at the Berliner Zoologischer Garten to renew a couple of old district heating pipelines, DN 500, 400 and 600 only over a short distance, but still it's quite a challenging and big project for our branch office in Berlin.

So that's it for the update on our projects. I'm really happy and excited about the first quarter, and I think we are up for a great year '26 so far. When the weather stays good, which at the moment, it looks like, I think we will have a great year in front of us. So please stay with us, and we are ready for your questions.

[Operator Instructions] And we do have the first 2 hands up. Lasse Stueben, please.

Just to confirm on the Erdverkabelungsgesetz. So it feels like this was a bit of a nonevent in the short term. Is it fair to say that, I think you said no projects kind of impacted earlier than 2032 or 2035. If you could just give some more color on kind of the near-term impact of that law should it be passed?

And then the second question would be just around sort of how the business has done so far in the second quarter. It looks like the weather has been much better. So just wondering about the phasing of revenues throughout '26 and whether there's anything unusual just given sort of maybe Q1 was a bit weaker than it has been in prior years? And then finally, the headcount additions of 4% in the first quarter. Is this roughly the run rate you're targeting for 2026?

And then finally, just on the M&A front, if you have any sort of extra sort of information you can give on what you're looking for, if you're close to anything on the acquisition front?

Maybe I'll take the first part of your question in terms of underground cable systems. So for the upcoming projects, say, up to 2030 to 2032 for most of the projects, permission procedures are on the way. And these permissions are all based on earth cables. For some of these projects like Wind At West and others, at least a part of the cables are already pre-procured. So we do not see in terms of cables have already been purchased or ordered and permission process is already ongoing, that there can be a change in these projects because that would mean a total stop to the projects.

The permitting procedure had to be reestablished from hour 0, so to say, so there would be a large fallback in the timeline of these projects. So I do think that at least for the next projects seen in the grid development plan, there will be no change from the cable systems. We have discussed it before that for the future projects, so the second wave being executed in the years 2032 and after, it is feasible that some of the projects could be executed by overhead power lines, although there are still technical issues, which do have a strong advantage on the side of the cable systems, for example, losses in the transitions are much lower than in overhead lines.

So that probably needs to be discussed in details with each TSO and the final decision, he doesn't make on the technology he uses, but for the next years, I don't -- do not see any impact if the law's passed. I mean we've already seen that, for example, Schleswig-Holstein and the Federal Country of Lower Saxony, they've strongly post to this idea. So we'll see what comes out in the end and if this bill is in the end passed, we don't know yet.

I will then take over the remaining questions from Lasse, to start with the Q2 question, apart from the relatively weak start in terms of weather conditions to the year, we expect to see a regular year in terms of the seasonality of the business. Also April in terms of weather conditions was quite normal compared to recent years. So we will see increasing revenue in Q2, Q3 and then the reduction in revenue in the last quarter, depending on the weather conditions in December.

If we go regarding headcount growth, if we just take the 4% in Q1 as a basis for the next quarter then we would end up with another 15%, 16% headcount growth for the third year in a row, which we definitely don't intend to do. As we've communicated before, we would see it more sustainable to reduce the speed of hiring this year so that we will end the year with like 6% to 8% headcount growth in total, meaning that the speed of hiring will definitely slow down in the next quarters.

And yes, regarding M&A, we currently have various targets on the shortlist, which we are at different stages. These range from small add-on acquisitions that gives us access to either new regional markets or new technologies to further expand our own value chain or to larger companies that are mainly an interest for us due to their workforce we can integrate into our projects.

Thank you for your questions, Lasse. [Operator Instructions] And with that, we're going on to Luyda Schumacher.

My question is also on the cable law. I mean you did say it's unlikely to have an impact on you for a long time. I'm interested in the background to the, well, potential change of the law. I mean, my experience is that in Germany, high voltage lines are either underground or they're not going to be built. So what is driving the political drive to change the law? It doesn't seem to make any sense other than maybe demonstrating that somebody somewhere is thinking about cost, but I think the reality is still that if you want new high-voltage lines, they just have to be underground.

So what is the motivation behind it? And is there a chance that maybe we are going to get a sensible outcome where they're saying, "Well, you know what? We thought about it, and it's just not practical to seek a change in the law". What is the timeline there? When are we going to find out if the law will pass or not?

Well, first of all, a good point. I mean, we still need to distinguish between transport grids and distribution grids. So I think for the distribution grids, we do not have a discussion within Germany, we will not go back and tie the electrical lines in front of our houses. So that will undoubtedly be underground systems. And if we look at also the volume, which goes into the distribution grids, it's just still sheer project volume in underground cable for the distribution grid. Of course, cost is an issue for transport power lines. It is estimated that an underground system is 5 to 8x more expensive than above-ground power line. So that, of course, also triggers politicians to look into it.

But in the end, I think before that bill really passes, it has to pass the Bundestag, then also the Bundesrat. If you look at the Bundesrat, Schleswig-Holstein, so all the northern federal countries have already strongly opposed to changing this law. So even if it passes the Bundestag, it is not 100% sure that it will also pass the Bundesrat. I'm not sure about the political timeline to pass that law. Probably we'll see more before summer. And in the end, it is then to each and to each individual TSO to decide what technical system is the best.

And if it gets approved by the grid development plan, so by the Bundesnetzagentur, since all or most of the next projects have already been approved by Bundesnetzagentur and are also confirmed in the grid development plan, we do think even if the law changes, no change for upcoming projects.

And then what is your best guess as to the political motivation behind it, because with grid security...

Reducing costs for the energy consumers. Reducing costs for the energy consumers because they have to pay for the grid extensions.

Okay. And if infrastructure just doesn't get built, we can all celebrate savings, but you don't worry about the consequences. Is that right?

Yes.

Thank you, Luyda, for your questions. And we are moving on to the questions in our chat box. Was the strong order intake in Q1 more of a one-off effect or do you currently see a general acceleration in contracting activity?

Well, as Tim already elaborated, we didn't have an order intake of major large-scale project. It was a lot of district heating, small, medium-sized projects, not only from district heating, but in the end, from all markets. And I think it does show a tendency that both in distribution and also in transport grids, there are a lot of activities, not only in major projects, but also in smaller to medium-sized projects that need to be executed. And I think in the end, it does show the huge demand, which is really driven by the energy transition.

Thank you. And the last question for now, ladies and gentlemen. [Operator Instructions] There is much excitement in the U.S. for Enhanced Geothermal Systems, EGS. Over time, can you drilling technology and value -- add value to this industry?

Well, in the end, our drilling technology is horizontal directional drilling. If you are looking for geothermal power, also in Germany, you need to do -- execute deep drilling. If you look at the different landscapes here in Germany, the bores need to be at least in the northern Germany between 5,000 and 6,000 meters deep to get the real -- the warm water out of the ground and use it for heating purposes. These very deep drilling are very cost intensive.

And that's we have looked a couple of years, I think 10 or 15 years ago, we looked into these projects, but the risks of finding the right horizon where you can extract heat from the ground has a very high risk, and the investments are just huge. So at the moment, I do think our horizontal drilling technology will be core for boring infrastructure in a no dig way. So in a non-open cut way, and that is the main focus of our technology. So I think this technology will not be used for geothermal power plants.

Thank you very much and this is it for now. With no further questions, we have come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you very much for your interest in Friedrich Vorwerk Group SE. A big thank you also to you, Torben and Tim for your presentation and your time.

Should you have any further questions later on, please feel free to contact Investor Relations. And with that, I wish you all a successful day around the world and handing back over to Torben for some final remarks.

Yes. Thank you very much for listening today. To be honest, I'm very happy with the Q1 we had so far. I think we haven't had a stronger Q1 so far in company's history at least as I can recall it, Hopefully, this year goes on like this. And if weather is with us, I think we'll come out with a very strong year 2026. And I'm really delighted to join this with you. Have a good week.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the earnings call of Friedrich Vorwerk Group SA regarding the full year figures of 2025. The company's CEO, Torben Kleinfeldt; and CFO, Tim Hameister, will guide you through the presentation and the figures shortly, followed by a Q&A session via audio line and chat box.

Having said this, Torben, the stage is yours.

Yes. Thank you very much, and also a warm welcome from my side. Welcome to the Friedrich Vorwerk Earnings Call 2025. I will, for everybody who is not in detail familiar with Friedrich Vorwerk, run you very quickly through the main topics of our company and then give you a short market update about the latest developments in our main markets. Then I will hand over to Tim for, of course, the financial figures, which are key to this meeting here. And then I will give you a business update about our current projects we are running at the moment, at least the large ones.

So yes, Friedrich Vorwerk has been active since founding in 1962. So with more than 60 years of experience in the business of engineering and constructing energy infrastructure here in Germany, mainly. We can look back at numerous very successful projects in our highly attractive main market, which is natural gas transition, electricity transition, clean hydrogen transition, and of course, adjacent opportunities where we sum up our activities in district heating, CO2 treatment and transport and treatment of biomethane. Today, we are operating from 14 locations within the north, mainly in the north of Germany with more than 2,200 well-trained employees.

And yes, due to the energy transition, which is still going on here in Germany, we can look back at a very strong order intake already also in 2025. So we were able to acquire projects in a total volume of almost EUR 1 billion in 2025, which is an increase of 27% compared to the figures of the year 2024. Yes, where do these order intake come from? Main customers here in our 3 markets are, of course, the large TSOs operating the energy transport grids, not only in Germany, but also in the middle of Europe. So it could be in terms of electricity transition companies called TenneT and Amprion in looking at the market in clean hydrogen transition and natural gas transition, we have customers like Open Grid Europe, Gasunie and others. But of course, you can also find petrochemical companies and cable manufacturers within our customers.

Yes. So what's the latest market update. First, I want to focus on the development of -- since German government has agreed with the EU Commission to set up new power plants in Germany. These very flexible power plants are necessary to support the production of renewable energy, mainly driven by wind and solar farms. And at times, you don't have wind and solar available. You need to have an energy source, which can be ramped up very quickly. So Germany is planning to install roughly 10 gigawatts of capacity in terms of gas-driven power plants. And that, of course, is an opportunity also for Friedrich Vorwerk Group, both in pipeline construction to run new natural gas pipelines and later on also hydrogen pipelines towards these gas-fired power stations.

But also, we have a division in our plant construction department, which can supply the necessary fuel gas systems to supply those turbines delivered by companies like Siemens, GE or others. Other latest developments since we have all heard that the hydrogen economy has been struggling a bit over the last month. German Parliament has passed a so-called Hydrogen Acceleration Act. Main part of that is, of course, to install the so-called core grid for hydrogen transport in Germany, which could be the nucleus to develop the hydrogen industry in Germany because it will cut off costs for transport of hydrogen when the core grid is available and consumers and also producers of hydrogen can be easily connected to this grid. But also they want to secure and make investments in hydrogen production here locally in Germany easier and more reliable for the investors.

And of course, all our other businesses like natural gas transition is also still ongoing since new LNG terminals are still developed on the coast of Germany. So the Bundesnetzagentur has just published the first draft of the new grid development plan, combining the investments in natural gas grid development and hydrogen grid development. And this plan looks out to the year 2035 with still investments in the natural gas grid of roughly EUR 3 billion. And they also found out that probably developing the core grid for hydrogen will be more costly than predicted 2 years ago. So the revised plan for setting up the hydrogen core grid roughly sketches out investments of EUR 25 billion instead of EUR 20 billion, which was estimated before. So also here, in the market of natural gas and hydrogen, huge potential for our company's group.

And therefore, I would like to hand over to Tim for last year's financial figures.

Thanks a lot, Torben. And also a warm welcome, everyone, from my side to today's earnings call. Overall, 2025 was a fantastic year for Friedrich Vorwerk. We achieved record-breaking results across all KPIs, successfully completed 2 acquisitions, secured numerous new major projects. And last but not least, we launched our proprietary welding robot in collaboration with our subsidiary, 5C Tech. Therefore, I'm very pleased to now present these strong results in detail.

In terms of revenue, we've steadily increased over the course of the financial year and delivered a fantastic final quarter, which despite the seasonal nature of the business, nearly matched the strong performance of Q3. Overall, we benefited from favorable weather conditions in fiscal year 2025, not only in Q4, but especially in the first quarter when we were able to resume work after a short winter break on many projects as early as mid-January. This point, I would also like to briefly note that the first quarter does not always benefit from good weather conditions. This year, for example, in 2026, we've seen a harsher winter again after a long time with plenty of ice and snow, particularly in Northern Germany, resulting in a question of production stoppages even in February.

However, depending on weather conditions in the next quarters that are more relevant in terms of revenue and earnings, we expect to be able to offset at least parts of this effect over the course of the year. For the full year 2025, we generated revenue of EUR 704 million, representing a remarkable 41% increase over the previous year. This was primarily due to our continued success in recruiting new employees, which led to a 15% increase in the average number of employees as well as an increase in productive hours per employee, higher equipment utilization and, of course, some pricing effects. The electricity segment's share of revenue has contributed -- has continued to rise, now standing at 52%, making it the primary driver of growth in 2025. While this is largely attributable to A-Nord, we are simultaneously working on several medium-sized projects in this segment, such as BorWin6, the Baltrum HDD project and several converter stations as well.

2/3 of the current order backlog is attributable to this segment. So continued growth is expected here. At the same time, we anticipate a significant growth momentum from the Clean Hydrogen segment as larger subprojects on the hydrogen core grid are also expected to be put out to tender in the foreseeable future. Furthermore, we expect additional growth in the adjacent opportunity segments in 2027 and the following years due to the German government special fund. The development of profitability was particularly impressive in the fourth quarter with an EBITDA margin of almost 29% and EBIT margin of almost 25%, even taking into account the dilutive effect of the cost plus fee contract in our major A-Nord project.

In addition to the favorable weather conditions already mentioned in Q4, our success in claim negotiations, which typically take place in the fourth quarter was a key factor in the exceptionally high margin, along with higher earnings from joint ventures, which increased by nearly EUR 10 million compared to the same quarter of previous year. Accordingly, we also concluded the 2025 financial year as a whole, thanks to our high-quality order backlog and a flawless project execution were successful. We increased the EBITDA margin by 7 percentage points from 16.2% to 23.2% and more than doubled EBIT from EUR 59 million to EUR 137 million. Despite the tremendous 40% growth, we still managed to further reduce trade working capital, which along with the higher profitability, played a significant role in improving the net cash position.

As a result, we were able to increase net cash by more than EUR 100 million compared to previous year, bringing it to EUR 262 million at year's end. It should be noted, however, that the trade working capital is always at its lowest level at the end of the year and rises as the construction season progresses. These swings between summer and winter can amount up to EUR 80 million or even EUR 90 million. With regards to capital allocation, our top priority remains investing in organic growth, specifically in the purchase of new pipe layers, drilling rigs, cranes and excavators and of course, our welding robots. We've budgeted approximately EUR 50 million for this in 2026. Furthermore, we will certainly be open to pursuing a larger M&A deal again provided we find the right target and of course, at a reasonable price. And finally, we would like to share the company's success with shareholders in form of a significantly higher dividend payout, consisting of EUR 0.70 base dividend and a EUR 0.40 special dividend.

Let's now take a look at the development of order intake. In addition to the conventional order intake figure, we've already introduced a new KPI last year, the total project volume acquired. This new KPI also includes a proportionate project volume from the joint ventures in which Vorwerk is involved. And therefore, in our opinion, provides a more transparent view of the actual order situation regardless of the structure of the contract. The total project volume acquired rose by 29% to EUR 991 million in 2025, while conventional order intake at EUR 538 million is around 20% below previous year. The main reasons for this are, on the one hand, a shift in the order structure towards more joint ventures, especially in H1 2025. And on the other hand, our already well-filled order book, combined with a limited capacity of our resources.

The order backlog, which corresponds to the conventional order intake figure declined, therefore, slightly to EUR 1 billion for the reasons stated before. We've learned from several investors that the communication regarding order intake and the contract structure is not yet clear enough. Therefore, we are currently working on reporting an order backlog KPI that includes our share of joint venture projects as well, starting with the Q1 report. And I expect that this additional metric will provide a transparent picture for all shareholders by then at the latest.

Yes, and then based on our consistently high-quality order backlog, we expect our growth trajectory to continue in 2026 with revenues in the range of EUR 730 million to EUR 780 million. It should be noted that following 2 years of very high employee growth, we intend to slow down the expansion of our workforce somewhat in 2026 to give the organization and the administrative functions the opportunity to grow at the same pace while simultaneously focusing our recruiting efforts on attracting senior construction and project managers. At the same time, revenue growth is somewhat slower in 2026 due to the higher proportion of joint ventures. And this change in the project mix also means that we are now forecasting absolute EBITDA instead of EBITDA margin, specifically in the range of EUR 160 million to EUR 180 million for 2026 as this number is unaffected by the order structure. This guidance also takes into account the slightly softer Q1 2026 due to the adverse weather conditions.

With that, I'd like to hand back to Torben for the business update.

Yes, Tim, thank you very much. And of course, we did pick for this meeting our most outstanding projects at the moment. Please remember that during the year, we are operating on more than 500 smaller, midsized and also large projects. So we can, in this meeting, only give you a glance of the most outstanding projects. And I would like to start with the natural gas business here. It's a project we've already been working on last year. It's the so-called EWA pipeline, which is a 48-inch pipeline running from the caverns of Etzel towards compressor station of Wardenburg. This pipeline will continue in size of 40-inch towards the station of Drohne, which is more to the Rhine-Ruhr area, so in the south of the area. We have already finished the construction on EWA last year with a pressure test and the handover to the customer. So there's already gas on this pipeline.

And the WAD pipeline is construction progress at the moment. We have already started in January with the first wells on site using our new welding robot, PX2 developed by our subsidiary, 5C Tech. We have completed roughly 400 wells on the project this year. And again, with very, very low mistakes in the wells. So it's -- the repair rate is definitely under 2%, which is very good in terms of fully automatic welding. Yes, changing actually over to the next natural gas pipeline project, which is, at the moment, our still largest project executed in a joint venture between the Habau Group and the Friedrich Vorwerk Group, compromises of 2 pipelines. First, the ETL 182 with a diameter of 56-inch and the ETL 179.200, which is a 36-inch pipeline. Altogether, a mid-3-digit million euro project and both pipelines are being executed by the same joint venture combination.

As you can see in the picture below, we have already started some civil works to erect the pipe yards that has been done already in 2025, and we have already received most of the project pipes, which are purchased by our customer Gasunie. And we've actually started in the latest weeks to make preparations for the first loading procedures, so for the tunnel crossings and for the horizontal directional drilling, operations are already in place and will be executed in due course of this year.

And then maybe next slide, we are not only active in pipeline cable laying, but our plant division construction is also very busy with a new project at a gas metering station called Groß Koris. This is the main metering and supply station for the company, ONTRAS. Here, we have a project to renew the full installation at Groß Koris with a volume of mid-2 million-digit range. And we have to deliver the full scope of engineering and also construction activities and will then commission the new plant as is foreseen at the moment in 2028. And the system will already be constructed in a hydrogen-ready way. So later on, once the usage of natural gas in the system is over, it can be easily converted to use for clean hydrogen and meter and also regulate the hydrogen being transferred in the grid.

Next project is also a hydrogen project, which we have already been working for 1.5 years. This is the so-called HH-WIN project. So the city of Hamburg is trying to set up a hydrogen grid in the Port of Hamburg. Key figures here is an electrolyzer plant, which is located at the former power -- electrical power station of Moorburg, where about 100 megawatts equality of hydrogen is being produced and then fed into the Habau Grid, so the HH-WIN grid. And Friedrich Vorwerk has already executed 3 lots of this newly established hydrogen grid. And we have been recently awarded with 2 new lots to set up this hydrogen grid. The first lot involves actually a micro tunnel of almost 200 meters where we later on install the piping DN 300 for the transfer of hydrogen. And the following lot compromises of roughly 1,500 meters of new build hydrogen pipeline.

But besides those existing projects where we've already started execution, we are, of course, still busy in our estimation department working on new estimates for new projects. Just to give you a small idea what could be coming up over the next years. In terms of pure natural gas transition, we are at the moment, working on estimation for the so-called Spessart-Odenwald-Leitung, which is also DN 1000 pipeline, about 115 kilometers long for Terranets and also other projects coming up from Open Grid Europe, setting up the core grid for hydrogen here in Germany. And also for Gasunie, new projects like ETL 187, which is directly in conjunction with the current project ETL 182, is at the moment in tendering phase and execution and commissioning would then be in '27, '28.

But also still very attractive is the electrical market, where we are now facing the so-called second wave of large-scale electricity highways, projects like NordOstLink Section 2, SuedOstLink and SuedOstLink+ are being tendered out over probably end of this year and beginning of next year. And these projects will be commissioned in the mid-2034s -- in the mid-2030s. So also here, a huge potential also after 2030 for our company's group. And under adjacent opportunities, we were able to already win lot of the Rheinwater transport pipeline. This is a very large diameter pipeline, 2.2 meters in diameter that will later on transfer water from the river Rhine to flood the coal mines of RWE. And at the moment, we are working on the next lot to establish this water transfer pipeline.

And also a very new business to our company, the transport of CO2 is ongoing. So the first tender we have received is the CO2 link from Lagerdorf, where Holcim is operating a cement factory towards the port of Brunsbuttel is on the table at the moment. Commissioning is foreseen for 2029 and tendering phase ongoing and probably construction phase will be '28 to '29. So this, of course, can only be done if we can establish to grow our headcount and our number of employees where we were very successful last year. So today, we can look at a workforce of more than 2,200 employees. Of course, the labor market within Germany, especially due to the low capacity in building construction, we were able to employ a lot of new blue-collar workers we could integrate in our projects. And probably during this year, we will definitely have a focus on growing our engineering staff and our overhead staff on the construction site. So challenge will be also to look for well-educated project managers and construction managers to manage all the blue-collar employees we were able to attract over the last month.

Yes, that's it from our side. We are happy to receive your questions either by phone or by chatbot, and happy to answer them.

[Operator Instructions] And the first hand is up from Lasse Stueben.

I wanted to ask just on the Q1. Is there any more color you can give roughly in terms of what we should expect in a year-on-year comparison just to avoid any sort of nasty surprises. The second question would be, what should we expect for headcount growth broadly in '26? And then the third question is, you mentioned sort of slowing down headcount growth, but then you also said that you would be willing to do a larger M&A or potentially do a larger M&A transaction. So how do we kind of square those 2 kind of comments? Because I guess a larger M&A deal would also involve many new employees. So just any color there would be great.

Well, we've seen compared to the year before, some weeks of weather-related production stoppages in February, combined with the growth of the headcount could be possible to see a rather flat Q1 in 2026 in terms of revenue growth. And as I said, which could potentially partly be offset by stronger quarters in Q2 and Q3 as the overall share of Q1 on the full year revenue isn't that relevant.

Regarding the headcount growth, when we talk about slowing down recruiting efforts, this is only in terms of organic growth, meaning directly hiring people, not including any M&A. From organic growth side, we expect to grow headcount by 5% to 8% in 2026 and any M&A would be add-on, on that. And of course, usually, we also acquire project managers and the respective engineering and administrative functions when doing a larger M&A deal.

And additionally and slightly regarding question in the chat. Friedrich Vorwerk is guiding for a slightly lower margin in 2026 compared to a strong 2025, midpoint of 2026 guidance at 22.5% versus 23.1% in 2025 despite continued revenue growth. Could you provide a margin bridge for 2026 versus 2025 and outline the key driving factors?

Well, we've always communicated that we see the margin potential in the mid- to long term at our company between 20% and 22%. However, in particularly strong years as in 2025, it's also possible to achieve an even better margin, more than 23% due to basically a flawless project execution, good weather conditions and so on. But on the long run, we feel pretty confident with 21%, 22%.

And the follow-up from the person. Could you please provide more details on the Nord-A project, specifically regarding the recent delays and their potential impact on bonus malus payments. Additionally, is there any bonus or malus effect already factored into the 2026 guidance?

Yes. As we already communicated last year, A-Nord project is expected to be slightly delayed with completion now anticipated in summer 2027 instead of end of 2026 due to missing permits. We are still in discussions regarding adjustments to the bonus-related milestones. And these discussions have been ongoing for some time. We do not yet have a definite outcome on these discussions, but we remain still confident and hope to sign their respective contract amendment in the course of the second quarter 2026. And based on this information, at least a portion of the contract liability we've already included into the books since and accrued over the project duration. Part of that could be reversed once this amendment is signed in the second quarter. However, we did not factor in any positive impacts from that amendment as it is not signed yet.

And for now, we have no further questions. Ladies and gentlemen, I will hold the room for another moment in case someone might be typing right now. And there is a hand up from Lasse Stueben, again.

Great. Just a follow-up on sort of -- you mentioned kind of the JV share of projects is obviously going up. Should we expect that kind of level of the JV income you saw in '25 to be roughly the same in 2026? Or how should we think about that?

All the new JVs we entered into last year, we expect to -- that the net earnings of the JVs will even increase compared to 2025.

And another hand up from Leon Muhlenbruch.

I have a quick question regarding to the current geopolitical situation. With the energy crisis already on the way and inflation likely to rise similarly to 2022, which had a significant impact on Friedrich Vorwerk, how are you prepared for such a scenario?

Well, first of all, we were able to have a better negotiation position in most of the contracts that are in the order backlog at the moment. So most of the contracts have included price escalation clauses. So we can -- on the most bigger projects, we can forward the price escalations to our customers, although, of course, not to 100% because they are mainly bound to indexes which are more general, for example, the steel index or the crude oil index, which is not always 100% equivalent to the products we are actually using in our projects. But in the end, we can at least -- we are at least in a way better position this year than in 2022. Also in 2022, most impact was from a plant construction project where we had to bring a lot of material to the project. If we look at the current large-scale projects we are operating on, it's mainly the pipeline projects where the bare pipe is supplied by our customers. So we are mainly supplying equipment and personnel, so services, which are, at the moment, not that much affected as back in 2022.

Another hand up from [ Lueder Schumacher ].

I've got a few questions on margins. One is, are there any kind of older projects which have lower margins in them that which are running out and should be supportive to the group margin outlook once they do? And what about the margins implied in the order intake? Can we assume that they should be at a premium to the margins you've seen in 2025? Or should it more be in the region of the long-term potential of 20% to 22% you've been hinting at?

Well, there are currently no such legacy projects in the current order backlog, although we still have the dilutive effect from our major project A-Nord, which will run until summer 2027, where the base margin is definitely lower than the group average. Apart from that, there are no legacy projects with low margins. And well, I mean, we have already seen such strong margins in 2025. We do not expect that we can further increase this margin profile. And therefore, rather to suggest that you can assume the long-term potential at around 21%, 22% for the next years.

In your order intake you had in 2025, we should already assume this? Or is this still at the margins you've seen in '25?

Well, the margin profile calculated in those projects is roughly on the same level as we've seen the year before. However, on the one hand side is the calculated margin. On the other hand side, is the actual project execution on the fields. And this has also a major impact on the earnings in the end.

And we're moving on to 2 questions in our chat. Are you planning any buybacks? What are the key impacts for the Iran war for you? And what are you doing to hedge against it? For example, natural gas inflation, diesel?

At the moment, there are no plans for any share buybacks. We've decided to instead increase the dividend and to also pay out the special dividend of EUR 0.40 per share. Adding on the answer from Torben regarding Iran, the major impact for us at the moment is, of course, the higher cost for fuel, especially diesel. To give you some color on that, the total cost of diesel last year was around EUR 12 million. So it's not the largest position in our P&L statement. And we've, of course, already hedged some of the amounts needed already before the war in Iran. So there will be, of course, some effect, but not a significant one.

But on the other hand, the crisis also has a positive impact on the market because at the moment, customers are really pushing the projects and trying to get more LNG receiving capacity in Germany, which then, of course, also means constructing new pipelines and constructing new plants, which is then also good on the market side for us.

Can you discuss your appetite to revisit medium- to long-term guidance? And what milestones would trigger an upgrade?

Well, that's definitely a thing to consider this year as we are pretty well on track on the older mid- to long-term outlook. So maybe we can expect to see a new outlook in the second half of this year.

Ladies and gentlemen, we still have a minute for your questions left. And if there should be no further ones, you can always get in contact with Investor Relations. And this is it. With no further questions, we come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you very much for your interest in Friedrich Vorwerk Group SE. A big thank you also to you, Torben and Tim, for your presentation and your time. I wish you a successful day around the world and giving the last words to Torben again.

Yes. Thank you very much for listening. I think especially this year, we can look at some very, very interesting projects we can execute for our customers. And please stay with us and hear the latest news from our projects in the future. Have a good time around the world. Bye-bye.

Bye.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and I warmly welcome you to today's conference call of the Friedrich Vorwerk Group SE following the Q3 figures of 2025.

And as always, I'm delighted to welcome CEO, Torben Kleinfeldt; and CEO, Tim Hameister. So the gentlemen will speak shortly and guide us through the presentation and the results. And afterwards, we will be happy to take your questions if you may have.

And having said this, Mr. Kleinfeldt, the stage is yours.

Thank you very much, and also a very warm welcome from my side. My name is Torben Kleinfeldt, CEO of the Friedrich Vorwerk Group SE. I'm on board Friedrich Vorwerk already since 2001 from profession civil engineer. And I'm responsible of the total overall strategy of the company group and also still focused on a lot of hydrogen projects, which are in progress here in our company's group.

Yes, a little bit about Friedrich Vorwerk in detail to all of us who have not seen us yet, Friedrich Vorwerk Group is active since 60 years in the industry of energy infrastructure. The company group is very well represented in the northern part of Germany with 40 locations, about 2,200 employees by today. And we can look back on a very strong growth over the last 5 years with an annual growth of above 20% each year.

Our main markets here in Friedrich Vorwerk is, as I said, energy infrastructure, mainly covering natural gas, electricity, hydrogen and we have a -- other piece of adjacent opportunities where we cover all our expertise and services in biomethane treatment and also in district heating. And the business update will today will shine another light on some upcoming projects, which would be within our adjacent opportunities here as well.

Main customers, of course, the large TSOs operating here in Germany. So on the electricity side, we see TenneT, Amprion, 50Hertz. On the gas side, it's more Open Grid Europe, Ontras, Gascaribe, these are our main customers, but for very special services also serving the chemical and petrochemical industry here in Northern Europe.

Due to the energy transition going on here in Germany and in Europe, we can look back on a very strong order backlog today, still having more than EUR 1 billion of orders in the book by today. So what is Friedrich Vorwerk actually doing? Very short update on that or not an update, but a very short introduction to our business. This slide basically represents what we are doing.

On the top, you can see our activities within the natural gas infrastructure. So usually, we are able to set up LNG plants or cross-country pipelines and cross-country stations where Germany is taking over natural gas from various sources outside Germany. Then we are able to engineer and also construct large diameter pipelines to transfer the natural gas to, for example, storage facilities or compressor stations, which are needed roughly all 200 to 300 kilometers in the pipeline to boost the flow of gas and finally bring the natural gas to the consumers.

And right at the edge of the consumers, which could be a big city or an industrial plant, it requires also gas pressure, let down and regulator stations to supply the natural gas in the right pressure and the right volume. And of course, there, it needs to be metered for later invoicing as well.

So Friedrich Vorwerk is basically able to engineer and also set up, maintain and operate all these components of the natural gas split. Pretty much the same activities. We can supply on the future hydrogen grids, which you can see at the very bottom of this slide, except that, of course, hydrogen cannot be found in nature. So it has to be made by splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen. This is basically done by large electrolyzer stations, where we are also able to supply engineering services, and we have a full range of small to medium electrolyzer arrays from 1 megawatt to 5 megawatt, which we can supply to the market.

Business in electricity infrastructure, which is shown here in the middle of this slide, looks a bit different. Usually, our services start when we take over underground cable lines from offshore units. So when new wind farms that are situated outside in the North and the Baltic Sea, cables have to be transferred to land. There's a so-called landfall, which is typically done by a horizontal directional drilling method to under board the crucial environmental areas on the shores of the North and the Baltic seas. And then we are able to engineer and also run underground cables to the next transformer of converter stations with laying cables, we can handle up to 525 kilovolt in transmission voltage. And we are also able to engineer and set up transformer inverter stations, inverter stations unnecessary to switch the current from AC to DC.

And of course, in today's grids, we can also connect the electricity grid to the heat grid. So we are also able to engineer and set up large-scale power to heat stations.

Okay. Short business update, this time, not on our core markets, electricity, natural gas and hydrogen, but on some adjacent opportunities, which came up lately. First of all, I want to focus on what we call the NATO grid. The NATO grid here in Northern Europe has been set up in the cold war area. So in the -- starting in the '70s and '80s, on the right hand, you can see a sketch of the existing NATO pipeline grid, which is basically transferring jet fuel to crucial air fields of the [indiscernible] and the allies as you can see, basically, the NATO pipeline grid ends pretty much in the -- at the former inner-German border.

And now since activities are going more to the east, this nature pipeline grid will be expanded by another 300 kilometers towards the Polish German border and then also into Poland and possibly also to the Baltic states. Since this is the pipeline system, pumping fuel, this is, of course, within our scope and it's a very nice addition to our usual portfolio estimated costs to set up this pipeline grid is roughly EUR 5 billion and also the first steps and the signing of contracts with Poland has been done in October. So we really see that this project is being kicked off, and we'll probably see tenders from the NATO grid in 2027.

Next and also very interesting for us is decisions made by the German government concerning ramp-up of hydrogen activities here in Germany. First of all, of course, German government has emphasized that they're still looking for further investments in the pipeline infrastructure and also the plant infrastructure mainly focusing on setting up new electrolyzers to fill the hydrogen core grid, which is planned to be set up here in Germany until 2035, which, of course, requires not only the import of hydrogen, but also the production of hydrogen.

They also made decisions to accelerate the tenders by digitalization and which is, I think, the most important decision which has been taken that they also accept not only green hydrogen, but also other colors of hydrogen to be transferred in the corporate and make it available for the consumer. So that's very important decisions for our hydrogen activities.

And at the moment, we really see that both on the pipeline side and on plant construction sites, new projects pop up, and we received quite a bit of inquiries for setting up electrolyzers and also pieces of pipeline grid, which is summarized under the core grid here in Germany.

And the third outlook I want to show is activities in CO2 transport because also here, very important decisions by the German government have been made in early November. So for example, they've agreed in general that we are able to split up the CO2 for certain industries, which cannot eliminate the emission of CO2. So for example, the cement industry is one of the core industries where you cannot get rid of the CO2 except to capture it and then transfer it to a storage facility.

And of course, one of our largest customers, Open Grid Europe is already looking into the future CO2 grid, which will connect the emitters of CO2 to the neighboring country, Belgium and Netherlands because these countries are able to take CO2 and pump it in former gas and oil wells to store there for a long, long time. And also one of the CO2 clusters, which is planned is the so-called Elbicluster, which is pretty much in front of our doorstep to transfer CO2 from the cement industry to the ports on the North Sea and then, there it will be liquefied and brought by shipped to Norway, and Norway is able to take over the CO2 and also store it in old natural gas wells.

That's it from my side for the moment. And with the update of our future -- possible future activities, and I would then hand over to my colleague, Tim, who will present the financial performance of the company's group for the third quarter.

Yes. Thanks a lot, Torben . Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and a very warm welcome to our earnings call and the Q3 figures. My name is Tim Hameister, CFO of Vorwerk. And I'm very pleased to walk you through our extremely strong Q3 figures and the updated outlook today.

After reporting record revenue in the second quarter, we once again managed to beat that figure in the third quarter, achieving quarterly revenue of more than EUR 200 million for the first time in Vorwerk's history. Despite ambitious year-on-year figures, this represents growth of a fantastic 39%. Although the start of the third quarter in July was mixed due to challenging weather conditions, this was more than offset in August and September.

The continued success in recruiting contributed significantly to this, enabling us to hire more than 100 new employees in the third quarter alone, also including a small M&A transaction consisting of roughly 35 employees. From a project perspective, the largest revenue drivers in Q3 were, of course, still the large-scale Anord project, followed by a number of pipeline projects, such as the EWA pipeline as well as several large volume gas pressure regulating and metering stations, which ensured high capacity utilization for our plant construction division.

Consolidated revenue for the first 9 months of the year amounted to EUR 505 million, representing growth of 49% compared with the previous year. In both percentage and absolute terms, our electricity segment was once again the growth driver. However, it's also noteworthy that absolute revenue in the natural gas segment increased slightly again compared to the previous year, particularly due to the high number of plant construction projects.

Revenue in the clean hydrogen and adjacent opportunity segments is roughly on the same level as the previous year. However, the development of profitability in the third quarter is particularly remarkable. Once again, the already very solid EBITDA margin of 21% in the second quarter was improved by another 4 percentage points to 25.4%, compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of 8 percentage points and a doubling of absolute EBITDA to over EUR 50 million.

The EBIT margin even rose by 5 percentage points to a new record high of 19.1%, corresponding to EBIT of EUR 45 million alone in Q3. All segments contributed to this improvement in earnings are the largest increases that were achieved in the pipeline construction projects.

In addition, the share of profits from joint ventures, [indiscernible] doubled compared with the previous year due to the higher number of projects awarded in this specific contract structure. Accordingly, the 9-month period closed with EBITDA of EUR 105.8 million, corresponding to a margin of 20.9% and adjusted EBIT of EUR 87.3 million or an EBIT margin of 17.3%.

These fantastic results include minor catch-up effects in the mid-single-digit million euro range from variation and change order negotiations, but as already in Q2, the vast majority was achieved with our ongoing projects fueled by our high-quality order backlog.

Now let's take a look at the development of order intake. In addition to the conventional order intake figure, we've introduced a new KPI with the half year figures, the total project volume acquired. And I would like to use the opportunity to once again explain the differences between the two key figures to all shareholders who were not present at our last earnings call.

So there are basically two different types of project structures. In Option A, Vorwerk acts as a general contractor and handles the entire project through its own P&L statement, which means that 100% of the order value goes into order intake and later into revenue.

And the second option, the client awards the entire project to a joint venture. And in this constellation, we do not show the proportional share of the total order volume and conventional order intake. Instead, we are only allowed to show the supply of personnel and equipment to the joint venture, which can, in some cases, be significantly lower than the proportional share of the total project.

The order intake figure, therefore, does not reflect the actual project volume handled by the Vorwerk Group, which is why we also report this new K figure. And this KPI also includes the proportionate project volume from the joint ventures in which Vorwerk involved. And therefore, in our opinion, provides a more transparent view of the actual order situation, regardless of the type to contract structure.

So the total project volume acquired rose by 45% to EUR 886 million in the first 9 months of 2025, while conventional order intake at EUR 419 million is around 20% below the same period last year. The main reasons for this are, on the one hand, the shift in the order structure toward joint ventures, especially in H1 2025. And on the other hand, our already well-filled order book.

Nevertheless, we've also acquired many new and attractive projects in 2025. Some of them, Torben will present later in this call. The order backlog, which corresponds to order intake declined slightly to EUR 1.1 billion for the reasons stated before and currently consists of around 70% order volume attributable to the electricity segment.

In addition to the strong development in both revenues and profitability, the development of net cash is impressive as well. Compared to Q3 2024, we've increased net cash by EUR 80 million to EUR 112 million. And thereby creating an excellent basis for further organic and acquisition-driven growth. The main reasons for the significant increase are, firstly, significantly higher profitability. Secondly, an improved negotiation position with regards to the payment terms in the contracts and thirdly, improved working capital management with regards to our internal processes and project controlling.

Yes. And based on the strong performance in the current year and especially in Q3 and an unchanged positive outlook, we raised our guidance already for the second time this year, a few weeks ago. We now expect revenues in the range of EUR 650 million to EUR 680 million with an EBITDA margin of 20% to 20%, 22%, which corresponds to a margin improvement of 5 percentage points at the midpoint year-on-year.

Now let me now hand it back to Torben for some updates on the ongoing and upcoming projects before we open the floor to your questions.

Tim, thank you very much. Yes, very proud to present another major pipeline project, which will be executed in 2026. It is a project driven by German Gasunie division. The project is strongly in conjunction with the ETL 182, which is a 56-inch pipeline running from Stuttgard at the river banks of the Elbit towards the city of Bremen. In the end, this pipeline will be constructed also by a joint venture driven by Friedrich Vorwerk to bring regasified natural gas from Stuttgard to a hub in close to Bremen and the ETL 179.200, which has been awarded in the last month also to the same joint venture will basically connect the Dow Chemical facility, which is located in the northwest of the city of Stuttgard to this new pipeline grid.

It is a 900 so 36-inch pipeline, roughly length is 18 kilometers, very difficult terrain for constructing pipelines. But since it is tight conjunction with the ETL 182. This is a very nice top-up to the existing project and we are actually managing this project also with the same resources as the other project.

So second project I would like to represent is the TenneT project, which has already been ongoing this summer. It is one of the landfall projects, which is driven by TenneT, basically a framework contract where we are entitled to cross different islands north of the mainland of Germany in the North Sea by means of horizontal directional drilling.

We have to execute in total 39 boreholes for the later use of -- with the cable -- with the high-voltage cables. We have already executed five drillings under the island of Baltrum this year and basically stopped operations now over the winter and we'll continue with the operations on the island of Baltrum next year in May when the window for working in the [indiscernible] is being opened.

And once all the cables under the island of Baltrum have been laid, we'll shift to the next islands and then also to Buzon, which is shown here on the top right side of the picture. Friedrich Vorwerk and [indiscernible] share here in this joint venture is roughly 40%. So we'll also be entitled to do most of the drillings, which are necessary to complete all landfalls.

Third project I want to focus on today is also from natural gas or hydrogen market. It's a plant construction project, a rather large gas metering stations and pressure letdown station, which is located at the compressor station in Boa, which is in former Eastern Germany. This project is set up by Ontras Gas Transport, and it is necessary to transfer hydrogen, which is taken over from the YAGAL pipeline and will be supplied into the grid of Ontras Gas Transport, where it is then transported to numerous industrial consumers in Sachsen and Sachsen-Anhalt.

Friedrich Vorwerk not only has the contract to set up this plant, but also to do the full detailed engineering scope. And we have already started executing the engineering part of the project and will then be executing the actual project in 2027 and 2028. So here also a very nice project for our Plant Construction division, not only here in Halle Saale, but also in [ Vismore ] for the prefabrication activities, which are necessary to perform this project.

Final project I want to focus on is another district heating project. You know that we have just finished the so-called [indiscernible] in the city of Hamburg, which is a large diameter district heating system, bringing heat from industrial producers in the port area of Hamburg to the north. And the follow-up project is, so to say, the -- it's called the [indiscernible], which in the end then transports the heat from these industrial consumers more in the middle of the city of Hamburg.

This is a project in tendered in 3 lots. We have actually been awarded with lot number three. Pipeline here is also flow in the return line, diameter DN600 and 700 millimeters right in the middle of Hamburg. So very difficult inner city terrain to execute. But since we have a very well trained and very well executing district heating team here, we are really happy to have won this project so they continue -- they can continue their good work from the previous projects. And also looking in the future, there will be numerous district heating projects, especially in the city of Hamburg.

For example, we are at the moment working on the tender for constructing also a large diameter pipeline grid towards the airport of Hamburg, which will later on supply the actual airport and also the Lufthansa facilities, which are located right at the Hamburg Airport.

Yes. Now final slide from my side, at least on the technical part, is a short update on our newly developed welding system, the so-called PX2. PX2 has been developed and is also operated by our subsidiary, 5 CTECT welding system, fully automatic, being able to trace the actual well, so it can adjust automatically. It doesn't need an operator anymore to be run around the pipeline. system has first been tested on the EWA pipeline this year and has now continued on the pipeline. First experience, very high productivity, very little weld defects. We had a defect quota of below 1%. So repair rate below 1%, which is very unusual in the past with other welding systems, we had almost double-digit repair rates.

So we are very, very happy to have developed the system, and we were already able to receive contracts outside Germany, for example, in Croatia and Turkey. And at the moment, we are actually supplying welding services in Turkey to a 40-inch pipeline and quite happy with the production. We are doing almost 100 wells a day, which is a very, very good performance and still with a very low repair rate. So the investment in the development of the new PX2 system is, in general, very good for us and opens up a complete new market also on international projects.

And of course, finally, switching back to our HR department, I think Tim already focused on it. We have grown by more than 13% in the third quarter of 2025. So taking on a lot of new employees. And in the end, that has really helped for numerous projects, and we are -- we hope we can keep up the pace with our employees and hope with all these people on board for a very successful 2026.

This is the end of our presentation, and we are, of course, very happy to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] We received the first question, or hand from Mr. Stueben.

I'll have three questions, please. First of all, the margin profile in the natural gas segment, it was really high again in Q3. I know that's probably in part due to those negotiation payments. But I'm just wondering, can you just give some more explanation to that? And what we should be looking for in terms of the margin profile going forward?

The second one is you spoke in the past about a potential delay on the Anord project. I just wanted to ask how that is looking or if there's an update there and what the possible impact is for you?

And the third one is the duration of your backlog now. That EUR 1.1 billion that you have in terms of the phasing, does that already cover you for potential double-digit growth in 2026? Or is there still, I guess, some gaps to fill with some short-term projects for 2026 to potentially achieve double-digit growth?

Yes. Thanks for joining today, Lasse. I would like to start with the first question regarding the segment profitability. In Q3, there were actually two drivers for the strong margin for the natural gas margin. On the one hand side, I already mentioned, there were some negotiation one-off effects from change in variation orders from past projects.

And the second effect here was the high share of joint venture profits because this structure is mainly used at the moment in pipeline construction projects. Regarding your second question, Anord, I still foresee that there will be delays in construction due to a lack of building clearance, especially in terms of missing permits, and we are still in constructive discussions with the client to adjust also the relevant targets for the bonus-malus clause since it's not our risk here in the end. So the customer is responsible for obtaining the permits. And we expect to have a result here on this before Christmas this year.

Regarding the third question, the backlog. There are just a few projects such as the [indiscernible] project, Torben , as presented, the [indiscernible] duration until 2028. But apart from that, the majority of the backlog will be transferred into revenue in 2026 and 2027. And therefore, we have a very strong basis for further growth in both of the 2 years.

All right. Thank you so much. Yes, no, we did not receive any further questions. So having said that, we received -- yes, just go ahead with you. The follow-up.

Yes. Just a follow-up, please. And then just on guidance, revenue guidance for this year. I mean, we've seen in last year, I know it was probably a bit special with Q4 being stronger than Q3. Guidance this year implies that Q4 is quite a bit weaker. So I'm just wondering, sort of -- what the thoughts are behind that and what that kind of means in terms of also potentially a contribution from Anord. I saw it was roughly EUR 180 million in 9 months. I think originally, you were guiding for I think, EUR 250 million or above for this year. So I'm just wondering if that's still current or if we should be modeling a bit less than EUR 250 million from Anord.

So based on the current forecast and the Q3 figures, this would imply revenues between EUR 145 million and EUR 175 million for the last quarter this year. When you think about the usual seasonality of our business, Q4 is easily weaker than Q2 and Q3, although we had an extraordinary strong Q4 last year.

But in general terms, it's are more likely to expect a weaker Q4, at least in terms of revenue due to the weather conditions and less working days since we usually close the construction sites mid-December. And of course, we also try to reflect risks and uncertainties from our project business within the guidance.

Regarding Anord due to the missing permits on some of the sections on the track. There will be shifts of revenue to 2027 as well, at least to the first half of 2027. And therefore, we expect that the revenue contribution this year will be a bit lower compared to previous expectations.

And in the meantime, we received questions in our chat box. And the first one is, to put it simply, which is the better leading indicator of future revenue recognition, the order intake or the new KPI total project volume in your opinion?

So in our opinion, it's of course, the total project volume acquired. That's the reason we have introduced this figure because can transparently show how much project volume is in the end, handled by the Vorwerk group. Although it's important to say that the total project volume is not the figure that will translate into revenue in the next years. Only the order intake will translate into revenue. However, you will see higher profit shares from these joint venture constructions so that in the end, the total EBITDA will be the same regardless of the contract structure.

Next question, how likely is it that you will be able to generate revenues with the CO2 transport network already next year, assuming the Federal Council's approval is greater this year?

We do expect not to have any revenues in CO2, at least not in the pipeline business because the first project is being set up here between cement industry farm in [indiscernible] in the Port of [indiscernible] We do expect that public permits for this projects will be applied for next year. We expect to have a duration of about 12 months to get the permits approved. So construction will probably be '27, '28, '29, but we already have some revenues in the CO2 business, we are delivering CO2 purification and liquification plans, especially as an add-on to our biomethane treatment plants.

So this liquefied CO2 goes in the food and also in the beverage industry. And we have already supplied a couple of CO2 electrification plans to the market until today.

And the next question, what are your plans for share buybacks?

Well, we have plans for at least capital allocation, not necessarily for share buybacks our priority number one, to use our cash is, of course, still organic growth, which means that we continue to invest primarily in technical equipment and machinery.

In addition, we have to take into account the working capital swings across the year and maintain a very solid balance sheet at all times as this is part also of the pre-liquification processes for our projects. Yes. In addition, we are keeping certain amounts of cash available for potential M&A transactions. And we also expect to pay a higher dividend in the next year since this is linked to the net profit of the company.

And another last question. Do you expect a higher margin in the electricity segment from H2 2027 onwards. Once Anord is completed and follow-up projects will not be executed via IPA?

Yes, of course, once the dilutive effect from the Anord project has run out in the next years, and there are no follow-up projects with this specific contract structure. We will, of course, expect higher margins in electricity as well.

So with you now chat and in the queue, there no further question pops up and that seems, we will come to the end of today's conference call. So thank you, everyone, for your showing interest in the Friedrich Vorwerk Group SE and also a big thank you to you, Mr. Kleinfeldt and Mr. Hameister for the time you took today. It was a pleasure to be a host, wish you all a lovely remaining day or evening and hand back for some final remarks, which concludes our call.

Yes. Thank you very much for hosting us. Also thanks for listening today. And I can only say let's keep fingers crossed that the weather stay with us to make it a very, very successful year here in 2025 for Friedrich Vorwerk and hope to come back with good news in the beginning of next year. All the best and bye-bye.

Good day, and a warm welcome to today's earnings call of the Friedrich Vorwerk Group SE following the publication of the first half year figures of 2025. The CEO, Torben Kleinfeldt; and CFO, Tim Hameister, will give us a presentation shortly and guide us through the results. After the presentation, we will move on to a Q&A session and wish you will be allowed to place your questions directly to the management. So we will go forward to the presentation.

And with this, I hand over to you, Mr. Kleinfeldt.

Yes. Also from my side, welcome to half year's earnings call of Friedrich Vorwerk Group SE. Today's presenting team is our CFO, Tim Hameister, and myself, Torben Kleinfeldt, CEO of the company's group for myself, 25 years in the business with clearly [indiscernible] by now and today, responsible for the overall strategy of the company's group. And I'm still looking in very detailed into some hydrogen project, which hopefully will be developed in the next time.

So for this presentation today, we will first give you a short introduction above over the activities of our company's group. For those who are not 100% familiar with our business at the moment, and afterwards, I will give you a short market update on what is going on in the energy infrastructure market here, especially in Germany. And then, of course, I will hand over to Tim for the financial figures and come back later with some very interesting projects. We are -- we have just been awarded and that we will be executing over the next month and in due course of next year. So for everybody who's not 100% familiar with our company's group, short introduction.

Friedrich Vorwerk has been founded in 1962. Since then, always been active in the sector of energy infrastructure. So in the end, we are capable of developing new energy infrastructure projects in terms of cables, pipelines and also other buried infrastructure, which is able to transform energy, for example, clean hydrogen and our adjacent opportunity where we cover all our activities in terms of district heating, water main lines, but also biomethane treatment. As you can see on this slide, on the left-hand side, our branch offices are well located in the north of Germany, covering vast area of Northern Germany, where most of the activities of the company's group are going on. Over the years, we have developed very strong ties to our customer.

On the right-hand side, some of our customers mentioned here, of course, the large TSOs like Amprion, TenneT from the cable side and also players like [indiscernible] and Open Grid Europe on the pipeline side, but you will also find here some cable producing entities like NKT, Prysmian, where we execute mainly cable lines, which connect the offshore wind farms with the onshore inverter stations. And of course, over the last years, the energy transition going on in Germany has boosted our growth. And today, with the order backlog of roughly EUR 1.1 billion, very strong order backlog for the future and also for the upcoming year. So what does Friedrich Vorwerk actually all about I think the next slide can show that quite well.

For example, we are able to engineer and execute large pipeline systems. So for example, taking over regasified natural gas from LNG terminals or from a water connection station. Then we are able to do the engineering and also the execution of large-scale and long-run pipeline systems with all adjacent stations that are necessary to run those pipeline grids. So for example, storage facilities are necessary, but also compressor stations to boost the flow in the pipelines and actually bring the gas to the consumer. And at the very end of this downstream pipeline, so to say, we have gas pressure regulating in metering stations, which are responsible for supplying the gas in the right quality in the end, also in the right pressure and in the right amount to the customers.

And of course, in these stations, the gas flow will be metered for later invoicing of the customer. Basically, the same setting is also for the future hydrogen grids, which we see on the bottom of this slide with one difference, except from the pipelines and also the compressor stations that are needed in the hydrogen pipelines, it requires electrolyzers at the very beginning of the production because hydrogen can usually not be found in nature, so it needs to be produced by mankind. And that's why Friedrich Vorwerk is also able to set up large electrolyzer systems where actually water and electricity is converted to hydrogen.

And in the middle, the cable systems, usually, our cable projects start with a landfall of the cable systems coming from offshore wind farms. They are being pulled onshore means of, for example, directional drilling which we can engineer and also execute. This method is usually used to underbord very sensitive areas of nature in -- at the north and in the Baltic Sea. And then we can run these cables underground to the next transformer Ulta stations. And of course, Friedrich Vorwerk are also able to set up power to heat systems. So when electricity is in access in the grids, can transform to heat and can be used in the households for heating purposes.

Yes. And then maybe on the next slide, short market uptake because it's a very new development. We had a plan already in the 2016. Germany had planned on the CO2 transport grid. So basically catching all the CO2 from the large power stations in the [indiscernible] area and bringing into the North Sea and then dump it in old oil fields or gas wells. And now Germany has just ruled out the law that Open Grid Europe is able to set up a CO2 grid again to collect these [ heterogases ] and transferring it mainly to Norway where it will be stored for a long period of time. First, estimates of this grid will be an approximate length of 1,000 kilometers. It will be all new build pipeline because existing gas pipelines are natural gas pipelines cannot be converted to CO2 pipelines and also this first CO2 start with, so to say, a roughly EUR 14 billion as it is planned and shown on the little map of Germany here on the left-hand side.

So news development. And of course, setting up [indiscernible] will be excellent new business case also for begin engineering and also setting up those CO2 grids and the adjacent stations.

So yes, after this new development, I would like to hand over to Tim for some financial figures.

Thanks a lot, Torben. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Friedrich Vorwerk earnings call on H1 figures. My name is Tim Hameister, CFO of Vorwerk, and I'm very pleased to walk you through our very strong half year results and the updated outlook. But before we dive into the figures, we've summarized the key news items on this slide.

First and foremost, we were delighted to announce the listing of Friedrich Vorwerk shares on the ASX Small Cap Index in April. Since then, we've climbed a good 30 places in the rankings to reach the middle of the table, where we've maintained our position. In addition, there were many positive market developments in the first half of the year, starting with the decision to allocate the special funds for infrastructure. and also new estimates of the investments required to renew and expand the drinking water and sewage grids in Germany as well as further political progress on the CO2 storage and the corresponding pipeline transport projects.

So yes, let's continue with the top line development in H1. Following historically strong first quarter, our growth momentum continue virtually unabated. Supported by favorable weather conditions, very high capacity utilization and continued strong growth in qualified employees. We increased revenues in the second quarter by 45% to EUR 170 million, which is Vorwerk's highest quarterly revenue to date. In addition to the not cable route, many new projects, such as the [indiscernible] and some projects that we started after the winter break such as multiyear drilling project in [indiscernible], which will only be worked on in Q2 and Q3 each year, contributed to the strong revenue growth in Q2. This led to outstanding revenue growth of 56% to EUR 303 million in the first 6 months.

As already announced in recent presentations this growth is mainly attributable to the electricity segment, which now accounts for more than 50% of group's revenue in while the other segments remained roughly at previous year's level in absolute figures. The development of profitability in H1 and in particularly in the second quarter of 2025 is all the more encouraging. In the second quarter, we increased the EBITDA margin by more than 6 percentage points to 21.3%, achieving the best quarterly margin since the IPO in March 2021. This very rapid and successful turnaround of profitability after the transition year 2023 was made possible by a very good project execution, better operating leverage and a strong project mix.

The improvement in earnings can be observed across all segments, which is the largest improvement in the adjacent opportunities segment, which benefited from a high demand and it is state and biomethane subsegments. The EBIT margin even rose by almost 7 percentage points to a new record high of 17.6% corresponding to EBIT of EUR 30 million alone in Q2. Accordingly, we generated EBITDA of EUR 54.5 million in the first half of the year with a margin of 18% and EBIT of EUR 42.7 million. These fantastic results and final catch-up effects in the low single-digit million euro range from amendment negotiations, but the vast majority was achieved with ongoing projects from our high-quality order backlog. We also reaffirmed our outstanding market position in terms of order intake.

In the second quarter, in particular, we secured several major projects. These include, for example, the kilometer long ETL 182 pipeline, the third construction, a lot of the South German natural gas pipeline and also construction, a lot 3 of the [indiscernible], but also small and medium-sized projects, such as several sections of the Hamburg hydrogen grid and inner city corporation, construction projects in which we are renewing several systems in parallel, such as drinking water and sewage, power lines and telco lines. And in these projects, we benefit from the fact that we as Vorwerk Group have approvals and permissions for each of the different infrastructure operators.

We've also introduced a new key figure in the H1 financial statements, so-called total acquired project volume. Since all major projects in this half year were awarded to joint venture, which we call [indiscernible] Germany. The pure order intake of EUR 220 million is significantly lower than the previous year. This is because in constellation, we are only allowed to shorter supply of personnel and equipment by Vorwerk to the joint venture as order intake, which does not reflect the actual construction volume. The new key figure, total project volume acquired also includes a proportional project volumes from these joint ventures and in our view, enables a more transparent presentation of the services provided by the Vorwerk Group regardless of the type of the contract structure and the work procedure.

The total project volume acquired rose by 42% to EUR 613 in the first half of 2025. The order backlog which corresponds to order intake declined slightly to EUR 1.1 billion for the reasons stated before, and it currently consists of around 70% electricity projects. And then we also have a look on the balance sheet, which remains very strong and also relatively unchanged compared to December 2024. We've continued to invest in our noncurrent assets such as drilling and Q2, especially in welding equipment or subsidiary 5CTec. For seasonal reasons, working capital again increased compared with the end of the year. However, the working capital management, which was a great priority in the last 2 years, has achieved continued positive results.

Therefore, our net cash position has improved by EUR 95 million compared to Q2 2024 and as in the previous year, as a clear positive free cash flow is expected for the 2025 financial year as a whole. And here, due to the fantastic performance in the second quarter, we revised our guidance for the 2025 fiscal year upward last month. We now expect revenues in the range of EUR 610 million to EUR 650 million. which corresponds to growth of 30% at the upper end. Furthermore, we expect the EBITDA margin to improve by 1.5 percentage points would be between 17.5% and 18.5%, which already takes into account the usual uncertainties inherent in our business model. And even at the lower end of both ranges. We will, therefore, achieve EBITDA of more than EUR 100 million and EBIT of more than EUR 80 million this year.

Yes. Let me now hand it back to Torben for some updates on the ongoing projects and also on our recent M&A acquisition before we open the floor to your questions.

Thank you very much. And of course, you already touched on some of the projects. First project, very proud of this, the award of ETL 182, which is a natural gas pipeline projects is run by gas unit, Germany. The pipeline is actually already made hydrogen ready. So in the first stage, this project will carry natural gas from the LNG terminal in [indiscernible] and transported towards the infrastructure -- existing infrastructure close to the city of Raymond. Pipeline is a 56-inch pipeline. So a very large diameter that's already made for the future use of hydrogen because hydrogen, of course, is less energy dense than natural gas. So it requires a larger diameter pipelines.

Whole pipeline [indiscernible] here is roughly 90 kilometers. Some of that is very difficult to rain for constructing. And so -- we are very, very proud that [indiscernible] handed over this job to the combination of Slovakia and we have already started executing some of -- in parts of the pipeline track, the pipe storage yards because the pipe for the pipeline will be already delivered in October this year, and main construction activities are expected to start in February next year. Next project almost in the same region of Germany, running more or less parallel as a cable system.

It's actually the #3 of the [indiscernible]. Basically, the slot picks up the cable route from the so-called Alex, which is a large tunnel system crossing the River albeit with a double cable system, and we'll pick up the cable from the tunnel shafts and then run it in southern direction towards the city of Steven. Total length of the lot is 43 kilometers in the end to cable systems in parallel. A lot of horizontal direction drillings have to be performed here. And also here, we are in a joint venture with email and Mattel. [indiscernible] forward with its subsidiary, [indiscernible] responsible for HDDs and some civil works here on the track. And looking at the -- next market section is actually a hydrogen project called Hamburg Wind, which is the setup of a hydrogen grid in the Port of Hamburg.

Key figures here are 100-megawatt electrolyzer, which is set up in the port area. And then in the end, a hydrogen grid within the end, 60 kilometers of length in numerous diameters, which is able to supply industrial customers in the port area with clean hydrogen. And [indiscernible] besides able to execute the electrolyzer works or the what we call the balancing of the plant works on the electrolyzer but also we have already been awarded a couple of lots to set up the hydrogen grid in the port area. And actually, 2 lots have already been handed over to the customer. So this project in part at least finished [indiscernible] before that, but also there will be other sectors of the hydrogen will be awarded in the near future. And of course, we will hope to also gains were in the hydrogen grid here in the Port of Hamburg because it's right in front of our doorsteps.

Next project is from adjacent opportunities. It's actually -- the main scope is to renew water main line, which is running in the street in Hamburg called Ultras. It's a very old water line constructed around 1,900 diameter is 50 milliliters and we'll basically take out the old water pipeline put in new one. And besides the water pipeline, of course, all other energy infrastructure like gas mains electricity tables, but also fiber optics will be renewed in the area we will reconstruct the water pipeline. Here, we are together in a joint venture with [indiscernible] our own subsidiary, [indiscernible] and Friedrich Vorwerk. Activities have already started. And for everybody who has been recently to Hamburg. Of course, we have been responsible for the one or the other traffic German in the area of West of Hamburg because the [indiscernible] mainly blocked due to the construction works.

Yes. And last but not least, our company's group has grown again. We were able to take over a branch office of [indiscernible], which is in the very, very Northeast of Germany. The company has roughly 35 qualified employees in the field of rent construction, water construction also heat and water remains. If you look at the map, Vorwerk not really represented in the Northeast of Germany. So this branch office is a very nice place, and we do expect further cable projects and also pipeline projects in the area of Northeastern Germany. So this is a very good branch office to start activities on these new projects. And not only in terms of M&A where active and quite satisfied with the success, but also our growth in terms of employees has been almost up to the target this year.

We have grown from 1,948 to more than 2,100 employees so far this year. So looking at the rest of the year, 10% growth in head count is still possible for this year. And of course, we are also happy that we were able to acquire a lot of good and well trained and qualified employees for the upcoming and very challenging projects we have to deal with. So that was it from my side and also from the current projects, and I would hand back to you, and we will be ready to take your questions.

Yes. Thank you very much for your presentation and to dive into your numbers. Ladies and gentlemen, now it is your turn as we move on to our Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]

And we already have our first hand up from Mr. Lasse Stueben.

Two questions, please. Just on A-Nord, just in terms of where we are in the progress of that project, is it fair to say and Q3 will be peak revenue contribution from A-Nord? Or can you help us just on the time line just given how your progression has been? And then the second question I have is on the segment profitability in natural gas which was very high in the second quarter, I think almost about -- above 30% EBITDA. So just curious to hear what's happening with that profitability.

Yes, thanks for the questions. Regarding A-Nord. We have pretty good progress on the sections and lower Saxony. Although it's foreseeable that there will be some delays in the sections and [indiscernible] due to the lack of building clearance there. And we are currently in discussions with the client to adjust the relevant targets also for our bonus miles close. And I think we were able to report more on this in detail in the coming or in the 2 quarters. And regarding the revenue, as I said, we are mainly working in Lower Saxony, which is our part. Your assumption is right that we will see the highest revenue from North in 2025, yes. Regarding the question on the segment profitability.

As I said earlier, we had some minor effects from the amendment negotiations, positive effects these were reflected both in natural gas and the adjacent opportunities segment.

Okay, great. And then one more just on the acquisition that you made, was that done already in the second quarter? Or is that in Q3?

The second acquisition this year was beginning of August this year. So just a very fresh.

Okay. So that's not included in the head count you provided.

And with this, Mr. Stueben, another question, please.

Yes. Just one follow-up, if I may. Just in terms of the typical seasonality you usually have in the business. I'm just wondering, has that somewhat changed given the strength in the second quarter? I mean, should we assume Q3 is roughly in line with Q2? Or has there been anything to mention in terms of weather or anything else that's affected your performance in Q3? And then Q4 does tend to be the strongest quarter of the year from pretty much from all standpoints. So I'm just wondering, does that hold this year again, given how strong you've been in the first half of the year.

So to start in the second half of the year, especially in July was not that good in terms of the weather conditions. We had a lot of heavy rainy events in July. But apart from that, usual the Q3 is in line with the Q2, if you look at the historical figures and then the profitability in the last quarter is also partly depending on the success on the claims negotiation, which take place. We have the final invoices in November and December. But as you can see, we've already given a pretty strong guidance also for the full year. So nothing to worry about.

No, I would say nothing changed in general. Of course, we cannot influence the weather. But I think so far, except from the heavy range in July, we did quite well on all of the projects. And let's hope that we could get a very dry and nice fall this year, and then I think we can still see some nice figures at the end of the year.

And we have one more question in our chat box. Can you reiterate your IPO targets for EBITDA guidance for 2030? Do you expect to meet or exceed this now that some time has passed since then?

So during the IPO, we've grown up our, let's say, vision 10-year vision. And we envisaged revenues of EUR 1 billion in years after the IPO, given the current growth trajectory, I think we are in a pretty good position to be able to reach that if we are still successful in hiring new employees. And also in terms of the margin. We always said we want to grow to EUR 1 billion and keep the margin we have back in that time, which was around 20% EBITDA. And I think we've already shown with this strong that we are pretty close to that at least.

Thank you very much. Can you explain again the difference between total project order intake and order intake?

Yes. This -- as I said, this is a new KPI. We've introduced due to the fact that some clients tender and their large-scale projects only to joint ventures. And then this constellation, we are only allowed due to the accounting principles to post the share of over machinery and personnel, which we, so to say, rent to the joint venture as order intake, but it doesn't reflect the for example, materials and other stuff, which is directly procured by the joint venture. So we've decided it would be a more transparent way to include these volumes also into the project volume. And the order intake, as I said, just reflects the -- from our own projects, the full project volumes and in terms in the projects we have these joint venture constellations the rental rates for personnel and machinery and equipment.

And the last question, in terms of German infrastructure spend initiative for which we will need still need details. How much of a tailwind could this be? And which segments could benefit most? Anything from this in your plan currently or all upside potential?

Well, in the end, our planning is at the moment based on the redevelopment plans drawn up by the large TSO, both on the cable side, so on the electricity market and on the natural gas market plus the first time [indiscernible] published redevelopment plan for hydrogen. So our plan is basically based on those 3 major development plans since the German government has not announced where the extra infrastructure money is spent, we do expect that it will be spent on felines district heating, also water mains, which are desperately in need of some investments because they have been not been treated very well over the last decade.

We do expect that we'll see further investments in these assets, especially when it comes to renewing streets, then it's logical that all infrastructure with this underneath the streets will be touched and renewed as well. And that, of course, gives an upside potential for Friedrich Vorwerk as well.

And the question concerning the same point. I'm a very long-time investor. Times are booming now. The trees grow to the sky. After the big boom after 2030, when the big German infrastructure works are done, how do we see the order intake after the big boom and in which segments?

Well, looking today at the predevelopment plans, natural gas reaches out to 2032. Also, hydrogen is planned up to 2035 roughly. And if you look at all electrical infrastructure group development plan is at the moment looking out up to 2045. So we do expect that the infrastructure will not end in 3 also taking into account that some projects will be shifted a bit backwards due to the difficult permitting system here in Germany. We do expect that we definitely have a lot of projects and a huge market in front of us, at least until 2040.

And a follow-up question on that. Belgium is coming behind. Do you see an expansion in Belgium, Netherlands, which are the chosen countries and the person is writing as a begin, please stay way out of Belgium and administrative [indiscernible]

Well, in the end, we did make a decision within our company, not to execute projects south of the helps. But definitely, the Benelux states are same as the Nordics are definitely within our target, at least for cable and pipeline projects. Since we -- especially for the Netherlands, know the customer gets [indiscernible] very well. If there are big projects coming up, we'll definitely tender for them. We have so far not worked in Belgium. It seems to be very difficult there. But in the end, [indiscernible] decline, we know as well. So in the end yes. At the moment, the biggest market is within Germany right in front of our doorstep. So why go elsewhere. But in the end, also Netherlands and Belgium could be a potential market for us.

Thank you very much. And the next question, how will you accelerate workforce growth and manage it in a potential unit labor market given that larger players like Siemens Energy have announced aggressive hiring plans?

Well, at the moment, I think we are doing pretty well in especially acquiring blue collar personnel. We have set up a small team looking for employees not only within Europe, but also outside of Europe. I do think that also accept some overlaps with Siemens Energy, for example, electricians. We are probably not looking for the same personnel. So I'm quite relaxed in consume energy. And also when we keep up our de getting us especially blue-colored workers from outside Europe, I think we are definitely capable of growing by 10%, which is at the moment the target organic growth of 10% in headcount. And I think looking at the figures today, that's definitely achievable and should also be achievable over the next years.

Thank you very much. In the context of grid expansion required for the energy transition, what changes are you observing in the discussion around overhead versus underground lines specifically, how are customers assessing the trade-off between the significantly lower cost and faster deployment of overhead lines versus the higher investment and longer lead times of underground solutions?

Well, currently, I mean it's only top within the electrical market. So we, of course, know that there are discussions going on. But in the end, for the first what we call the first wave projects or all major cable projects that will be executed until 2030, all permits and most of the cables are already procured. So there will be -- no major change in those projects. I'm very sure that customers will look into the second wave of major electricity highways and figure out if it's feasible to change from underground to [indiscernible] lines. Although what you have to take into account that there are also some technical reasons to put the lines underground, especially when it comes to DC cables.

The large transition corridors, bringing energy from north to south. They are usually DC voltage. So because they are not connected to the rest of the grid. And then cable definitely has a big advantage and also in the long term in terms of maintenance cost, I think in the end for these major highways, the cable will always be the first choice.

Thank you so much. And the last question on our chat box, could consolidation makes sense in your sector?

In consolidation in terms of what -- can you maybe give us some more details M&A?

Companion -- companies, yes.

I mean M&A has always been a part of the growth strategy of the group. Alone since IPO, we made acquisitions, smaller ones in [indiscernible] also we did larger acquisitions like [indiscernible] before that. And we are constantly looking for new companies, as you can see with the most 2 recent acquisitions this year. This will be also going forward, part of the strategy here.

Thank you very much. And I will hold the room for another moment if there should be any questions left. And that is not the case. We, therefore, come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you for joining and you have shown interest in Friedrich Vorwerk. A big thank you also to you, Mr. Kleinfeldt and Mr. Hameister for your presentation and the time you took to answer the questions. It was a pleasure to be your host today. I wish you all a lovely remaining sunny Thursday. And with this, I hand over again to Mr. Kleinfeldt and Mr. Hameister for some final remarks.

Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening today. I think for the next future, very interesting projects ahead of us, especially in pipeline construction and in cable construction, huge projects coming up. And what can I say? It will be, I think, a very challenging time over next year. Stay with us, and good to see you next time. Bye-bye.