Wacker Neuson Aktie

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the H1 2026 earnings call of the Wacker Neuson Group. My name is Peer Schlinkmann, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Thank you for joining today on the occasion of the release of our half year 2026 results. As usual, we will first start with the operational and financial results of the first half year 2026 and give additional insights on the recent developments as well as our outlook for 2026. Following this, we are happy to answer your questions in a Q&A session.

If you are not able to follow today's call via the webcast, the presentation slides are also available for download at wackerneusongroup.com/investor-relations. Please note that the entire call, including the Q&A session, will be recorded and a replay will be made available on our corporate website by the end of the day. And now I would like to hand over to our executives, Karl Tragl and Christoph Burkhard, who will, as usual, lead you through this call.

Thank you, Peer. This is Christoph Burkhard, CFO of the Wacker Neuson Group. Welcome, everybody, to our earnings call, and thank you for joining.

Dear all, a warm welcome from my side, too, and thanks again for joining today's conference call. I'm Karl Tragl, CEO of Wacker Neuson Group. I would like to start the presentation today with a brief overview of our key financials for the first half of 2026. The first 6 months of this year clearly show that the Wacker Neuson Group has made significant operational progress compared to the previous year. After a strong first quarter, we were able to continue this positive trend in the second quarter.

Group revenue reached EUR 591 million in quarter 1 and increased further to EUR 665 million in the second quarter. This resulted in a revenue of EUR 1.26 billion for the first half of 2026, which is up 17% compared to previous year. Even more importantly, we translated this revenue growth into a strong improvement in profitability. Our EBIT in the first half year nearly doubled and reached approximately EUR 105 million. The EBIT margin improved to 8.3%. Looking at quarter 2, 2026 stand-alone, we achieved an even higher EBIT margin of 9.5%. Key drivers were profitable revenue growth and improved coverage as well as discipline in our cost management.

While revenue increased significantly, operating costs remained essentially at the same level of the previous year. This allowed us to realize scale effects and substantially increased profitability. Order intake in the first half of the year 2026 was above revenue, resulting in a book-to-bill ratio of 1.1 as per June year-to-date. However, order momentum weakened noticeably during the second quarter, particularly in Europe. Therefore, we remain realistic and are looking forward cautiously optimistic at the second half of the year.

As we do not expect the remainder of this year to be as strong as the first 6 months, we raised our guidance only moderately. Now let's have a look at our regions. The significant volume improvement in our business were driven by both Europe and the Americas. Europe remained our largest region. Revenue increased significantly compared to the previous year, supported by recovery in our core markets, higher volume and better utilization of our production capacities. Demand in France and the United Kingdom increased in the mid-2-digit percentage range compared to previous year, followed by the positive development in the DACH region.

Also, Southern Europe grew compared to previous year, driven by Spain, Italy and Portugal. In the Americas region, which is one of the growth levers of our Strategy 2030, we also saw clear improvement compared to previous year. Revenue increased strongly and the U.S. market developed positively. Demand in Canada as well as large parts of Latin America also increased compared to the previous year. In the region as a whole, our focus lies on the future ramp-up of our John Deere cooperation and the continued expansion of our local footprint. Asia Pacific was an exception, looking at the revenue development.

Here, revenue declined slightly compared to previous year due to weak demand. How did the regional development translate into our business segments? The strongest growth momentum came from compact, accounting for 59% of group revenue. In the first half of this year, revenue in this business segment increased by 26% to EUR 743 million. Compact equipment was, therefore, again the most important growth driver to the group. This is due to strong order intake at the end of 2025 and in the first quarter of 2026.

In construction, demand was particularly strong for excavators and dumpers. We also saw higher sales of telehandlers and wheel loaders, in Europe. By contrast, demand for skid steers in North America remained below previous year. Light equipment accounting for 20% of group revenue also developed positively in the first half year. Revenue increased by 9% to EUR 260 million. This growth was mainly driven by North America, with higher demand for compaction, concrete and especially worksite technology. Particularly the strong demand for light towers and generators stood out to the booming construction activity of AI data centers.

After a slow start into the year, our Services segment accounting for 21% of group revenues, clearly recovered in the second quarter. For the first half year, services revenue increased by 3% to EUR 263 million. This was supported by stronger demand for spare parts, rental machines as well as maintenance and repair services. To summarize, all of our business segments grew in the first 6 months of this fiscal year with compact equipment as the most dynamic one. Now I'll hand over to you, Christoph, for more insights into our financials.

Thank you, Karl. Let me continue with some insights concerning our working capital development. As you already saw, our net working capital ratio stood at 28.7% at the end of June, which is 4.1 percentage points below previous year's level. And contrary to developments in the past during periods of increasing revenue, we could achieve this reduction despite the revenue growth during the first half year.

Hence, we were able to support higher business activity without seeing working capital growing disproportionately. After a brief increase of our inventories to EUR 647 million in Q1, we reduced them again by EUR 44 million by the end of Q2. My take on this development is that our efforts over the previous 2 years around the implementation and improvement of the end-to-end S&OP process, I believe I've mentioned this previously, are paying off. It is all about a sound system-based planning and alignment process from sales forecasting to production planning.

So having the right products at the right time at the right place, obviously leads to optimized inventory. Of course, not everything is perfect yet, but we are looking at constant and measurable improvements. And this is what counts when driving structural working capital improvements. At the same time, trade receivables as well as trade payables have increased in parallel, reflecting higher purchasing activities in our plants as well as higher demand during the first half of the year. Now let's have a look at our cash flow performance.

The free cash flow development during the second quarter was strong. In Q2 alone, we generated EUR 78 million. This was driven by the strong operating performance, but also supported by the continued discipline in working capital management, which I've just highlighted. So for the first half year, free cash flow increased to EUR 76 million compared to EUR 68 million in H1 2025. And behind those numbers, there is another positive message. We are on the road for a more stable cash flow performance than previously.

And I do expect again after financial year 2025, a triple-digit free cash flow number by the end of this year. As a consequence, we can report another positive number. Our net financial debt at the end of June stood at EUR 173 million. This means we decreased our net debt by 42% compared with last year, leading to an actual leverage of 0.5, the lowest level since Q1 2022. And to summarize, all financial KPIs do support the ongoing implementation and execution of our plans and measures around our Strategy 2030. And with this, back to you, Karl.

Thank you, Christoph. I would like to conclude with the outlook for 2026. First half of 2026 confirmed the operational improvement of the Wacker Neuson Group. Based on positive development of group revenue and EBIT, we raised our guidance for the fiscal year 2026 on the 17th of July. We now expect group revenue in a range between EUR 2.3 billion and EUR 2.4 billion compared with the previous range of EUR 2.2 billion to EUR 2.4 billion.

And we also raised our EBIT margin guidance by 50 basis points to a range of 7.0% to 8.0% compared with the previous range of 6.5% to 7.5%. This reflects the fact that we remain cautiously optimistic for the second half of the year. Order momentum weakened during second quarter and geopolitical as well as macroeconomic risks remain, in particular, in connection with the Middle East war and U.S. tariff policies. We see a higher capital investment volume in the second half of the year in our business. Therefore, we continue to expect a range of EUR 70 million to EUR 90 million for the full year.

With regards to the net working capital ratio, we expect to stay below the strategic target of 30%. Let me summarize the key takeaways of today's presentation. We delivered a strong first half year 2026 and carried on the positive momentum from quarter 1 into quarter 2. We significantly improved profitability, showing our operating leverage in the business. Net working capital ratio and free cash flow developed strongly, underlining the quality of our operational S&OP steering. We raised our full year guidance for 2026 while remaining cautiously optimistic for the second half due to weaker order momentum and continued market uncertainty.

Strategy 2030 remains our North Star, with a clear focus on profitable growth, cost efficiency, capital discipline and customer productivity. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your continued trust and for joining our earnings call today. Before we now open the floor to our questions, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the employees of the Wacker Neuson Group. Their dedication and their hard work remains the true engine behind our value creation for our customers and our shareholders.

So therefore, let me please repeat. Nobody is perfect, but a team can be. Thank you for listening. Operator, we are now ready to start the Q&A session, and we are very much looking forward to answering the questions.

The first question is from Stefan Augustin from Warburg Research.

I'll try again. I hope you can hear me right now.

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay. I have a couple of questions. So the first one would be actually to the ramp-up in the U.S. Is that, currently given, let's say, U.S. strength on the construction side, let's say, in budget or a bit ahead of budget? And how much more volume would you expect currently roughly in the second half versus the first half from that? The second question I have is actually on the outlook in the second half and the connected margin expansion.

I understand the top line development from the book-to-bill. It seems that there is a bit more emphasis on the EBIT margin development in the second half. So can you explain a bit how much rising input costs, respectively, price pressure on certain elements are baked in there? And the last one is actually, there has been a small allowance in Asia. Can you elaborate on that? That would be my questions.

Christoph here, Stefan. Let me maybe start with -- from the end, so to say. I start with the allowance in Asia. That has been around one of our dealers who basically went into insolvency, and we had basically to write off a receivable here. And to be more specific here, it has been -- it is a dealer that basically reduced -- had to reduce his setup in Australia. And I think during 2024, 2025, simply took too much on his book and on his platter, so to say. So that is the correction there. And as you also might know, in Australia is generally depressed market right now. And so we have this casualty here.

Okay. Stefan. Karl speaking. I'll take the other 2.

Questions. Concerning, if I understood it correctly, EBIT development or effects in the second half. In the second half, we always have the weak August where we have closure of plants. So we always have every year a low margin and low profitability, especially in August and then also half of December. So this is one effect on that one. And yes, the increase in transportation cost, a little bit increase in energy as well and pressure on supply chain, this might increase also the input cost on the material side in the second half.

So those are those effects. And as far as your question is concerned on the ramp-up of John Deere in U.S. I just want to repeat that the first 2 models for John Deere are manufactured in Linz, Austria. They are already in production. They are delivering the revenue this year in this cooperation. And I would rather phrase it as the good news is that there is not a major revenue impact in U.S. on the John Deere 2026 because currently, we introduce the biggest machine there. And beginning of next quarter, the start of production is for the second machine.

And those 2 are the volume drivers in the whole cooperation, and those 2 will start to give us revenue for next year. So everything as planned so far, but no major volumes for the ramp-up in U.S. here. We are currently benefiting in U.S. from the data center trends where we are delivering lots of light towers, generators and other stuff, what we call worksite utility worksite and this is giving us the growth part of the growth in [ North America ].

And just a quick follow-up on that one. How confident would you feel at this point in time that there would be higher logistics costs that you would be able to pass them on, on the price side?

Okay. I phrase the question in this way, because how confident can somebody be is a very tricky question, as you know. I rephrase the question the way, how do we behave on pricing in the second half of the year? So we have made progress in pricing in 2026 in North America, where we reacted on the tariffs.

And therefore, for this year, we have increased pricing in the middle of 2026 especially in Europe and in spare parts to compensate possible future negative effects on the material side. How this is balancing out, that's something, many factors are influencing that. But that's the way how we are reacting.

Thank you very much. Currently, we don't have any further questions. We are good in time. Please feel free to ask your questions. So I'm checking again the queue for further questions. There seem to be none at this point. So I would like to then turn over to Mr. Tragl.

Ladies and gentlemen, as we can see, there are no further questions in the line. But before we close today's conference call, I would like to take the opportunity to say a few words to you, Christoph, because this is our last joint earnings call with you as our CFO of the Wacker Neuson Group. Christoph, over the past 5 years, you have made important contributions to the development of our company, to our financial discipline and especially to our transparent dialogue with the capital market. On behalf of the entire Executive Board, I would like to sincerely thank you for your commitment, your professionalism and your teamwork, and we will definitely keep in touch, Christoph. And with that, the final stage is yours, Christoph.

Thanks very much, Karl. I do appreciate a lot your very warm and kind words. And with this, ladies and gentlemen, this is indeed my last earnings call with and for Wacker Neuson. And looking back, I'm very grateful for more than 5 very dynamic and rewarding years with the company. And the Wacker Neuson Group is a great company. And this I really mean from the bottom of my heart here. And the group is displaying excellent products, strong financials and a clear strategy. But most importantly, Wacker Neuson consists of a brilliant team of really committed people.

And this spirit, combining pride and technical expertise with modesty and dedication is what makes Wacker Neuson a successful company despite heavy competition we are all confronted with. I believe the company is very well positioned for the future, and I'm personally happy that all financial KPIs are pointing in the right direction. I would like to thank all my colleagues in the group for the excellent collaboration, and I would particularly thank you today for the always trustful, open and constructive dialogue over the past years. Personally, it has always been a pleasure and intellectually, it has always been inspiring and stimulating. Thank you again and all the best.

Yes. Thank you, Christoph and Karl. It is me Peer speaking again. This brings us to the end of the conference call. As usual, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or the entire Investor Relations team via phone or e-mail. If you would like to meet in person, please let us know or check our website and financial calendar for all relevant roadshow days in the coming months. Thank you again for joining our call. Thank you, Christoph. It was a great pleasure working with you over the last 2.5 years. We wish all of you a pleasant rest of the summer. Thank you for joining today and listening to our call. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the Q1 2026 earnings call of the Wacker Neuson Group. My name is Peer Schlinkmann, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Thank you for joining today on the occasion of the release of our Q1 2026 results.

As usual, we will first start with the operational and financial results of the first quarter of 2026 and give additional insights on the recent developments as well as our outlook for 2026. Following this, we are happy to answer your questions in a Q&A session. If you are not able to follow today's call via the webcast, the presentation slides are also available for download at wackerneusongroup.com/investor-relations. Please note that the entire call, including the Q&A session, will be recorded and a replay will be made available on our corporate website by the end of the day.

And now I would like to hand over to our executives, Karl Tragl and Christoph Burkhard, who will, as usual, lead you through this call.

Thank you, Peer. This is Christoph Burkhard, CFO of the Wacker Neuson Group. Welcome, everybody, to our earnings call, and thank you for joining.

Dear all, a warm welcome from my side, too, and thanks again for joining today's conference call. I am Karl Tragl, CEO of the Wacker Neuson Group.

I would like to start the presentation with a brief overview of our key financials for the first quarter of 2026. Six weeks ago, we presented our figures for the fiscal year 2025, including our guidance for 2026. And we gave a first feedback on our start into the new year. As expected, our first quarter of the year was much stronger than the first quarter in the previous year. Our revenue amounted to EUR 591 million and therefore, increased significantly, almost 20% compared to quarter 1 2025.

Our order intake kept growing in quarter 1 2026, and our book-to-bill ratio in the first months of this year also remained above 1. Supported by higher revenue and unchanged operating costs, our earnings before interest and taxes, the EBIT grew to EUR 42 million. This means that profitability growth exceeded revenue growth, resulting in an EBIT margin of 7.0%, which is 4.5 percentage points up compared to quarter 1 of the previous year. Our net working capital ratio in Q1 2026 decreased by 2.1 percentage points compared to previous year and amounted to 30.7%. Due to investments in net working capital, our free cash flow was slightly negative and amounted to minus EUR 3 million. Christoph will explain the financial details in more depth later.

Now let's have a look at the development of our regions. Revenues in Europe, representing 80% of [indiscernible] rose by about 27% to EUR 472 million. We recorded significant demand increases in our key markets. Furthermore, our brands, Kramer and Weidemann with a focus on machine solutions for the agriculture industry grew by an astounding 65% compared to quarter 1 in 2025. In the Americas, revenue reached EUR 108 million. While this represents a nominal decline of 2%, revenue actually grew by 8% when we adjusted for currency effects. In Asia Pacific, revenue rose to approximately EUR 12 million, amounting to an 8% increase. And adjusted for currency effects, the growth in this region amounted to 12%. This was driven by increased demand in Australia, partly offset by lower demand in China.

In summary, despite headwinds in some markets, we made a strong start into 2026, supported by recovery in Europe and our solid order book. I will come back to our outlook at the end of our presentation.

Now how does this regional development translate into our business segments? The business segment compact equipment accounting for 60% of group revenue reached EUR 356 million in revenue, which translates to a substantial growth of 40% year-over-year. Demand for tele handlers, wheel loaders and excavators increased significantly compared to previous year. Light equipment accounting for 19% of group revenue remained essentially at the previous year's level. However, it increased by 6% adjusted for foreign exchange effects. Accounting for 21% of our group revenue, our services business declined slightly. This was mainly due to lower rental revenue in the DACH region compared to previous year's level. This was due to adverse weather conditions and the delayed start of construction projects from economic stimulus programs, which are releasing the funds slower than initially planned.

I will now hand over to you, Christoph, for more insights into our financials.

Thank you, Karl. Not surprisingly, our net working capital ratio went moderately up in Q1, hand-in-hand with increasing activity level following the low year-end level. But year-on-year, with 30.7% after this first quarter, we do look at a significantly lower ratio compared to Q1 2025 with 32.8%. Overall, we do see a more balanced working capital development than previously. We are convinced that our progress in having an integrated S&OP process across all entities within our decentralized group is clearly contributing when managing the seasonality of our business as well as with regards to the overall optimization of inventory levels. And just to illustrate this, in 2024, hence 2 years ago, after a first quarter with similar revenue number, inventories were 20% higher in absolute numbers than today.

Now moving to net debt. We do see a very similar pattern, which again is not a surprise, acknowledging the interdependence between net working capital and indebtedness. Our net financial debt after Q1 amounted to EUR 196 million, showing only a minimal increase compared to year-end 2025. Compared to previous year, net debt decreased significantly by 34%.

Now repeating the comparison that I did with the net working capital levels 2 years ago, the net debt level today is less than half of the level we had after Q1 2024. This all translates into a current leverage ratio of only 0.6, staying on the same level as at year-end 2025. Free cash flow with minus EUR 2.7 million was about neutral. And I would expect from now onwards a gradual positive contribution throughout the remaining year. And last but not least, to complete the picture, our equity ratio remained at 62%, underscoring the robustness of our balance sheet.

And with this, back to you, Karl.

Thank you, Christoph. Sounds good. I would like to conclude now with our outlook for 2026 and key topics currently shaping our industry. Since our last earnings call in late March, the general business drivers have remained largely unchanged. Global economic and geopolitical environment is still defined by uncertainty. Factors such as subdued investment momentum, trade conflicts and rising protectionism continue to cloud planning certainty. A situation further intensified by the war in the Middle East since early March.

While indicators for the construction industry continue to point towards a moderate recovery, sector remains more subdued. Hence, we are seeing remarkable differences in our end markets. Nevertheless, by efficiently leveraging the increased volume in quarter 1, we significantly improved our profitability. Consequently, we view the remainder of the fiscal year with cautiously positive expectations and confirm our guidance for full year 2026, which means that we expect a slight market upturn in 2026.

With great trust in our customers, employees, investors and in our strategic actions, this should enable us to achieve a moderate increase in revenue and a higher EBIT margin compared to previous year. Specifically, this means that we anticipate revenues between EUR 2.2 billion and EUR 2.4 billion and an EBIT margin in the range of 6.5% to 7.5%. We plan to invest about EUR 70 million to EUR 90 million in the course of the year, and we aim to keep our net working capital ratio below the strategic target of around 30% by the end of 2026.

Let me summarize the key takeaways of today's presentation. We had a strong start into the year 2026. We confirm our guidance for the full year. Our John Deere cooperation is moving forward as we have planned. And we continue to focus on innovation. We have already new machines in the pipeline, and we constantly enhance our solutions. Our strong balance sheet is finally the foundation to execute our plans and to drive future growth.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your continued trust and for joining our earnings call today. We are looking forward to our Annual General Meeting taking place in a couple of days on 13th of May in Munich.

Before we open the floor to your questions, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the employees of the Wacker Neuson Group. Their dedication and hard work remain the true engine behind our value creation for customers and shareholders. Nobody is perfect, but a team can be.

Thank you for listening. We are now ready for the Q&A session.

The first question is from Mr. Stefan Augustin from Warburg Research.

And first of all, my apologies. I was just getting the last lines from your presentation hopping in from another conference call. So if my questions have already been answered, please spare with me. I was wondering if you can elaborate a little bit on the order intake situation, your book-to-bill in the first quarter and then especially concluding from that one, is there the expectation that your own production in the second quarter is likely to accelerate compared to the first quarter, which would actually imply giving from the ramp-up of your inventories? Or is the inventories already, let's say, produced trucks?

Karl Tragl speaking. The order intake is, as we had explained, we are seeing in the last 3 months a book-to-bill ratio of larger than 1. This is always fluctuating, but it's above 1. And asking the production volume over the year, it's generally the case that we have a production volume in quarter 1 and an increase in quarter 2. And then we have to adjust to the order situation and also the timing of the orders. So I cannot generalize this answer in terms of going that way or the other way. Generally, there's a higher production volume, but we have to adjust it to the timing of the orders.

Okay. But I would still conclude from your answer that it is quite feasible to see a higher production volume in Q2 versus Q1, right? And from the situation...

I would not -- Stefan, I would not be right to confirm that because we want to adjust to market demand. Market demand is currently on lead times a couple of months. So we have to adjust to that, and we can easily jump up after 2 months now, and it can easily go down a little bit. So we are -- as I said, generally, the trend is should go up. But we -- and this is our -- what Christoph has explained, this is currently our source for a good working capital ratio that we keep very flexible in production.

You can hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. You can go ahead.

Maybe you can give some more clarity and insight to the mentioned book-to-bill above 1 because above 1 can mean a lot, so that can mean 1.1 or 1.5 or 2 or everything which is above 1. So that would be helpful. And then the second question would be on light equipment. Besides the FX effect, do you have any explanations why light equipment is that much lower in growth rate than the rest or the big equipment. And then in terms of the rental business, that's my third question. You mentioned that especially in the DACH region, the start into the year was weaker also due to weather conditions. But do you, for example, since March and also now in April, see a pickup in the rental business?

Lukas, Karl Tragl speaking here. So in the first quarter, our book-to-bill ratio was around about 1.3. So we are talking normally always in the range between 1.0 and 1.5 fluctuating. That's what we talk about at the moment. The light equipment situation on the one hand, we have to adjust it for currency effects. That was the reason why we have explained that. And we have to take into account that we have high market shares in light equipment. We are, in many respects, market leader there. And we have significant opportunity in some areas of the compact equipment like excavators, where we have smaller market share. So if business picks up and we gain market share and also due to the higher sales volume per unit, 1 unit light equipment is in the small thousands and 1 unit compact is in the small 10,000. So this is 3 effects leveraging each other and therefore, multiplying up in giving this effect that way.

As far as the rental business is concerned, we had an awful start in terms of weather conditions this year and also comparing to the previous year in 2025 with uncertainty at the beginning, the company started to rent rather than to buy generalized. And this year, it's just the other way around. companies start to buy again more and rent a little bit less and both together is giving this slight effect. We are talking on small single-digit percentage growth or declines, but this we can clearly see. And we saw a picking up of rental business in the course of the months from a very weak January, February up to a much stronger March and April.

Okay. And following the book-to-bill you mentioned, is that also a level you saw in April?

I'm hesitating to talk about it because we just have the clear numbers for the first quarter. That's what we have published. So I do not want to comment on it. I'm sorry for that.

At the moment, there seem to be no further questions. [Operator Instructions] Okay. So Mr. Schlinkmann, there seem to be no further questions in the queue at the moment.

Yes. Thank you, operator. Ladies and gentlemen, as we can see, there are no further questions on the line. This brings us to the end of our conference call. As usual, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or the entire Investor Relations team via phone or e-mail. If you would like to meet in person, please let us know or check our website and financial calendar for all relevant roadshow days in the coming months. Thank you again for joining our call, and we wish you all of you a pleasant summer. Have a great day. Thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the 2025 full year earnings call of the Wacker Neuson Group. My name is Peer Schlinkmann, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications.

Thank you for joining today on the occasion of the release of our 2025 full year results. As usual, we will first start with the operational and financial results of the fiscal year 2025 and give additional insights on the recent developments as well as our outlook for 2026. Following this, we are happy to answer your questions in a Q&A session. If you are not able to follow today's call via the webcast, the presentation slides are also available for download at wackerneusongroup.com/investor-relations.

Please note that the entire call, including the Q&A session, will be recorded and a replay will be made available on our corporate website by the end of the day. And now I would like to hand over to our executives, Karl Tragl and Christoph Burkhard, who will, as usual, lead you through this call.

Thank you, Peer. This is Christoph Burkhard, CFO of the Wacker Neuson Group. Welcome, everybody, to our earnings call, and thank you for joining. Thank you.

Dear all, a warm welcome from my side, too. And thanks again for joining today's conference call. I'm Karl Tragl, the CEO of the Wacker Neuson Group.

I would like to start the presentation with a brief overview of our key financials for the fiscal year 2025. Our revenue stood at EUR 2.2 billion, which is essentially on par with the previous year's level. After a weak start in the first quarter, characterized by low capacity utilization following the downturn in 2024, we saw a gradual operational recovery as the year progressed. Throughout the year 2025, our order intake level has been slightly above revenue, resulting in a book-to-bill ratio of above 1. Our earnings before interest and taxes amounted to EUR 132 million, resulting in an EBIT margin of 6.0%. While this represents an improvement of 0.5 percentage points compared to 2024, the margin was impacted by onetime effects in the fourth quarter.

These included legal and advisory costs related to takeover talks, adjustments to our virtual stock option plan and certain asset impairments. Without these effects, the recovery in earnings quality would have been even more visible, especially following the improving momentum, which we gained since the second quarter.

At year-end, we saw a very successful development of our net working capital ratio. We managed to reduce it faster than originally forecasted, reaching about 29%, which is below our strategic target of 30%. This is, amongst others, a result of disciplined inventory management and the efficiency agenda, which we continued throughout 2025. The significant reduction of net working capital led to another increase in our free cash flow, which reached EUR 202 million by the end of the year. Christoph will explain the financial details in more depth.

Now let's take a closer look at our performance across business segments and regions. In 2025, we continued to navigate a challenging market environment. Also, we saw a recovery starting in the second quarter of 2025. Starting with the business segments, light equipment and compact equipment, we had a powerful presence and stood out visibly at the Bauma Trade Fair in April, which led to higher revenue and increased profitability in the second quarter. However, development remained on that level in the following quarters as geopolitical instability, high interest rates and rising costs continued to weigh on construction industry. In detail, light equipment grew by 2% to EUR 460 million, while compact equipment declined by 2% to EUR 1.26 billion.

On the one hand, demand for tele handlers, especially in Europe and skid steers in the U.S. was below previous year. On the other hand, we saw continued growth in demand for dumpers and excavators in Europe. Our services business showed further growth, increasing to EUR 521 million and accounting for 23% of total revenue. Strong demand for spare parts and used machines, combined with structural improvement of our service levels out of the new logistics hub in Mulheim-Karlich supported this positive trend.

Revenues in Europe, representing 79% of group revenues rose by 1% to EUR 1.75 billion. While Germany and France were weaker, we saw growth in the U.K. and Switzerland. Our brands, Kramer and Weidemann with focus on the agriculture industry also regained momentum late in the year. In the Americas, revenue declined by 7% to EUR 422 million, heavily impacted by customer reluctance and U.S. tariffs. In Asia Pacific, revenue fell by 16% to EUR 44 million, primarily driven by a slowdown in Australia.

In summary, despite regional headwinds and the weak start into the year 2025, the recovery in Europe and our stabilizing order intake provide a solid foundation for this year 2026. I will come back to our outlook at the end of the presentation.

I will now hand over to you, Christoph, for more insights into our financials.

Thank you, Karl. I will talk now about working capital. With 29.2%, we were able to stay with our working capital ratio below our target ratio of 30%, which clearly exceeded our expectations. This decrease of working capital was primarily driven by the following reasons. Firstly, we increased our trade payables preparing for 2026. Secondly, we maintained our discipline around inventory management and this despite the complexities around the U.S. tariff situation. Thirdly, a reduction of receivables also supported the overall result. As an overriding feature, I would like to mention our ongoing and successful efforts to systematically improve our integrated system-based planning processes across the entire group.

This concretely enhances our planning quality end-to-end, starting with the sales forecast all the way through logistics, the production planning and supplier management. Eventually, all this has a sustainably positive impact on all working capital levers. Looking ahead to 2026, our expectations towards moderate growth will certainly influence net working capital throughout the year. However, we remain fully committed to our target ratio of below 30%.

Now let's have a look at our cash flow performance. A good cash conversion into operating cash flow, plus the mentioned positive working capital momentum led to a strong cash contribution of EUR 86 million in the fourth quarter. This again generated an overall free cash flow of EUR 202 million in 2025, even exceeding previous year's EUR 185 million. As a consequence, we could reduce our net debt to EUR 185 million, reaching the lowest level since the first quarter in 2022. Compared to the previous year, net debt decreased by over 40%, and this translated into a further reduced leverage ratio of 0.6. And to complete the picture, an equity ratio of 62% underscores the robustness of our balance sheet.

Now let's have a look at our dividend payout. The Wacker Neuson Group is known for its continuity in delivering attractive shareholder dividends, one of the main pillars of our financial policy. Despite the challenging market environment in the past year, our focus remains clear: to successfully increase profitability while simultaneously improving operational efficiency and therefore, preparing ourselves for the next growth phase in times of higher geopolitical uncertainty.

Against this background, we want our shareholders to participate in our results again. Therefore, we will propose a dividend of EUR 0.70 per share for the past fiscal year at the Annual General Meeting, which will be held on May 13 here in Munich. And this corresponds to a payout ratio of around 61% of our earnings per share and marks again an attractive dividend yield of 2.9% based on the 2025 year-end share price. And with this, back to you, Karl.

Thank you. In the following, we would like to highlight a couple of operational milestones, which we completed in 2025. Kramer celebrated its 100th anniversary. To mark this milestone, a completely revised machine design was introduced. Moreover, new wheel loaders and a new tele handlers were launched. We also attended numerous construction and agriculture trade fairs like Bauma and Agritechnica. The trade fairs will not only provide additional sales stimulus, but also enable us to meet our sales partners and our end users and understand their needs in personal discussions. The strong customer interest was also reflected by significant order intake at the trade fairs. And for the first time in September, we exclusively presented new products to key customers as part of a prelaunch 2026 event.

We already announced that we have successfully started the delivery of first excavators for John Deere from Linz in 2025. And very important, in fall, we completed the production line for further models at our U.S. plant, which enables us to start manufacturing there in 2026.

Last but not least, we successfully launched numerous new Wacker Neuson, Weidemann and Kramer, light and compact equipment machines. Our zero emission portfolio was expanded as well, adding further fully electric excavators, battery-powered wheel loaders as well as different light equipment solutions to our portfolio. Additionally, we introduced new digital solutions such as a Wacker Neuson and Weidemann app to provide our customers an even deeper insight into our products and to consistently support them during machine operation life cycle.

Finally, I would like to conclude now with our outlook for 2026 and key topics, which are currently shaping our industry. The global economic and geopolitical environment remains volatile and characterized by significant uncertainty. Factors such as subdued investment momentum, trade conflicts and increasing protectionism continue to impact planning certainty. This is further intensified by ongoing geopolitical tensions, including the war in Middle East since beginning of March. This adds another layer of complexity to energy markets and global supply chains. At the same time, current market indicators point towards a moderate recovery, albeit at a slower pace than previously expected. Against this backdrop, we view the 2026 fiscal year with cautiously positive expectations.

In Europe, we anticipate an environment that remains challenging, yet stabilizing, supported by public modernization investments. In North America, we expect solid demand from building of data centers and further infrastructure projects despite ongoing U.S. tariffs.

Overall, we anticipate a slight market upturn in 2026. With great trust in our customers, employees, investors and in our strategic plan, this should enable us to achieve a moderate increase in revenue and a higher EBIT margin. So this is our guidance for 2026. We anticipate a revenue between EUR 2.2 billion and EUR 2.4 billion and an EBIT margin in a range of 6.5% to 7.5%. We plan to invest another EUR 70 million to EUR 90 million in the course of the year. And we aim to keep our net working capital ratio below the strategic target of 30% by the end of 2026.

In 2026, we will consistently pursue our operational agenda. However, the market environment remains dynamic, shaped by realities of the past 2 years, low market volumes and ongoing geopolitical uncertainties, ranging from U.S. tariff policy to the most recent war in Middle East. Furthermore, we must acknowledge that electrification in construction and agriculture is progressing slower than originally expected. Despite these headwinds, we remain fully committed to our Strategy 2030. It remains our North Star with profitability now moving even more into our focus.

During the course of 2026, we will reevaluate both the underlying market scenarios and the 10 strategic levers. Regarding our revenue up until 2030, we now rather anticipate a level of EUR 3.5 billion. However, what stands unchanged is our commitment to sustainable, profitable growth and continuous improvement of operational performance. Our profitability target an EBIT margin of more than 11% remains the core objective of our Strategy 2030.

Let me summarize the key takeaways of today's presentation. First of all, we have taken action, and we improved our working capital management as well as operational efficiency. So we are well prepared to benefit from this in the expected economic upswing. As for the outlook 2026, we expect moderate revenue increase and EBIT margin improvement, while markets will still be influenced by U.S. tariff policy and geopolitical uncertainties. We focus on innovation, and we have new machines already in the pipeline. And moreover, we constantly enhance our solutions.

Our strong balance sheet is a foundation to execute our plans and drive future growth. And we will reassess underlying market scenarios of our Strategy 2030, and we stay committed to our profitability target of more than 11% EBIT margin. Thank you for your continued trust and for joining our earnings call today.

As we move into 2026, we are energized by the opportunities captured in our motto, driving progress, building success. We look forward to sharing our journey with you throughout the year. If you would like to connect, our Investor Relations team is available to provide further insights.

Before we open the floor now to your questions, I want to express my sincere gratitude to all our employees of the Wacker Neuson Group. Their dedication and their hard work remain the true engine behind our value for customers and shareholders. Nobody is perfect, but a team can be. Thank you for listening.

Operator, we are now ready to start the Q&A session, and we are very much looking forward to answering your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Stefan Augustin from Warburg Research.

The first one is actually on the current order intake trend. And what has -- what have you seen actually on the -- in the very short term, is there anything that you can tell us over the last 4 weeks since the war in Iran started? And did this in any way impact so far order intake behavior at your customers? That would be the one to start with, I think.

Thank you for your question, Stefan. This is Christoph. Let me take your question. We do see -- now starting into the new year, we do see in January and in February kind of very first tender trend for a better book-to-bill ratio above 1. So currently, we do stand at around 1.2, 1.3 within the group. And that ratio is allocated across our landscape with a fairly strong order intake momentum in the U.S. after very weak months towards the end of previous year, as you recall.

But we had a good start into the new year in the Americas, I should say. And Europe is also okay. It's above 1. The only exception still being Germany, where it's kind of sluggish. I think that somehow represents still the overall sentiment in Germany. We are all waiting for a kickstarting the German economy. But overall, we are moderately optimistic also with respect to order intake.

One follow-up here directly. Is that good development in the U.S. in any way connected to the next model ramp-up by Deere? Or is that something that should come on top later in the year?

That's independent from the John Deere collaboration. Looking deeper into root causes there, the feedback we receive is around -- we have been frequently talking about this famous dealer inventories, which have come down. The second thing is we have been looking at quite some months of reluctance, particularly of the big rental companies to place new orders that eventually seems to have come to an end. I mean, anyway, they couldn't stay away from investments from forever. So that's also probably what is gaining momentum here.

Also. I also like your statement that you will focus on the 2030 targets in the longer term on the margin more than on the growth. Maybe as a first step in '26, how much of that you expect in the margin improvement is actually intrinsic and rather on costs and processes and is -- what part is actually on the higher volume based?

It's rather on cost and processes in 2026, definitely. And that also does explain already, let's say, the building blocks then moving into 2027, where we would expect then more to benefit also from growth. But the growth aspect is not the key in 2026.

Yes. So would it be fair to say if the sales would be at the higher end, there would be an additional probability to also be better on the margin side. Is that an implication of your statement?

I can buy into this logic without going into specific amount, but I follow your logic, Stefan, definitely.

The next question comes from the line of Lukas Spang from Tigris Capital.

I would like to start with the topic you just mentioned in your presentation. It's the data center area. And I think that's a very interesting part in the building segment in general. Also, it's probably a very small portion in general. But is it quantifiable for you as a group, how many machines or equipment you are delivering to this specific area? So is it possible to quantify how big the revenue you are making with all stuff regarding data center? And what could be the potential in the future for you? That would be my first question.

Thank you for the question, Karl speaking here. I mean I was -- just a week ago, I visited U.S. talked also to partners and customers. And that was a topic throughout all the discussions as a positive momentum in U.S. in time, and it should be sustainable because it's driven by artificial intelligence, and that's something which will go on for more time and into the future. And it's -- the data center is driving a lot of infrastructure around because you need fiber cables to connect them, you need roads to come to them, you need other topics to people bring them over there. But this is not quantifiable. We cannot quantify such a specific topic in the U.S. But as I said, it's for me, it's a sustainable topic driven by artificial intelligence, and it is driving more investments around just to connect it.

Okay. But you would say that it's more driven from the U.S. than Europe currently?

Yes. Obviously, I mean, just reading through the papers and talking to people, there's only a few data centers currently as projects in Germany as far as I know at least. There's a lot in the U.S. So yes, I fully agree with what you said.

I think we're talking about 20 or something like that more in the U.S.

And then on the guidance, it's a very broad range in terms of revenue, again, like last year. So what kind of scenarios did you bake in for the lower and the higher end on the revenue guidance?

Yes. Lukas, I guess we were a bit burned by last year and to be very frank, and by last year's -- particularly by last year's first quarter. And we lost a little bit trust in short-term recovery with significant numbers. So let me put it this way. The lower end is certainly conservative, and we wanted to really have a gradual approach here in a sense that we -- by May, when we will talk again about Q1, our picture will certainly be much clearer around the lower end of the guidance. We first want to -- we want now to accomplish a successful first quarter, and then we'll see further.

Yes. But the higher order intake you mentioned now on the -- yes, I would say, very nice book-to-bill ratio in Q1 will be then mostly revenue in Q2. Is that right?

That's probably right. However, I need a little bit to tone the enthusiasm down in a sense compared to last year, this is really -- this is good in terms of order intake. However, there are 2 qualifications to it. Firstly, of course, we are looking at a book-to-bill ratio in connection with 2 months with relatively lower absolute revenues because January and February are months with lower revenues, winter months plus months with relatively fewer working days. The heavy months are coming now.

So March, of course, is supposed to be a strong sales month. And here, we need to see again also the higher book-to-bill ratios. That still remains to be seen. Secondly, of course, again, we went through this kind of depressing period partly in 2025 with low order intake. So for the time being, I would not go beyond the statement that this is now according to what we need also. So we are not yet talking about upside or higher-end guidance. That's basically the calibration you need to understand behind our statements.

Yes. But for Q1, after the strong Q3 and Q4, and I think also order momentum in the second half, and also book-to-bill was good. So there should be an improvement Q1 versus Q1 in terms of revenue.

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely right.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Peer Schlinkmann for any closing remarks.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, as we can see, there are no further questions in line. This brings us to the end of our conference call. As usual, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or the entire Investor Relations team via phone or e-mail. If you would like to meet in person, please let us know or check our website and financial calendar for all relevant roadshow dates in the coming weeks and months.

Thank you again for joining our call, and we wish all of you a pleasant Easter holidays. Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you. See you. Bye-bye.

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the 9 months earnings call of the Wacker Neuson Group. My name is Peer Schlinkmann, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Thank you for joining today on the occasion of the release of our 2025, 9 months results. As usual, we will first start with the operational and financial results of the 9 months 2025 and give additional insights on the recent developments.

Following this, we are happy to answer your questions in the Q&A session. Available to follow today's call via the webcast, the presentation slides are also available for download at wackerneusongroup.com/investor-relations. Please note that the entire call, including the Q&A session, will be recorded and a replay will be made available on our corporate website by the end of the day. And now I would like to hand over to our executives, Karl Tragl and Christoph Burkhard, who will lead you through this call.

Thank you, Peer. This is Christoph Burkhard, CFO of the Wacker Neuson Group. Welcome, everybody, to our earnings call, and thank you for joining.

Dear all, a warm welcome from my side, too, and thanks again for joining the conference call. I'm Karl Tragl, CEO of the Wacker Neuson Group. I would like to start the presentation with a brief overview of our key financials for the first 9 months of 2025. Our operational recovery continued in quarter 3 of 2025. Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, which had especially weighed on the first quarter of this year, we were able to increase both our revenue and EBIT margin in quarter 3 year-over-year. This positive development is, among other things, the result of efficiency measures that we initiated last year. Now let's take a closer look.

Our revenue for the first 9 months of 2025 amounted to EUR 1.625 million, marking a 5.6% decline year-on-year. This decline was primarily due to the weak first quarter of 2025 as well as persistently weak demand in the U.S. Our 9-month EBIT margin in 2025 amounted to 6.0%, which is 0.3 percentage points below the previous year. Also here, we were negatively impacted by the weak beginning of this year. However, it is apparent that we have succeeded in further stabilizing our improved profitability. The EBIT margin in the third quarter was at 7.5%, thus nearly on the same level as in quarter 2 2025 despite the lower revenue base of quarter 3. Moreover, this quarter's EBIT margin was 2.7 percentage points higher compared to quarter 3 in 2024.

Looking at the net working capital ratio, we see a slight decrease compared to previous year. However, our yearly strategic target of approximately 30% remains under pressure, especially due to the uncertainties in the U.S. market. Our free cash flow surpassed the triple-digit mark and amounted to EUR 116 million. Christoph will explain both developments in more detail. Now let's look at the developments of our business segments after the first 9 months of this year. In general, the overall picture remains challenging. Recovery of compact equipment was slower than initially expected. It faced a year-on-year decline of 10%. Nevertheless, certain product groups like dumpers differed from the general trend, demonstrating resilient customer interest in our innovative products.

The Light Equipment Products segment stabilized and remained only 1% below the previous year. And moreover, services grew again year-over-year by 1%. The 9 months year-to-date book-to-bill ratio was at 1.1. Nevertheless, we see the agriculture as well as construction industries recovery slower than initially anticipated. We, therefore, keep monitoring our markets closely, and we remain cautious regarding the developments in the last quarter of 2025. Let's take a closer look at our regions during the last 9 months. Revenues in the Europe region, EMEA, after 9 months of 2025 stood at EUR 1.269 billion and made up 78% of our global group revenue. Also, quarter 3 of 2025 revenues increased year-over-year. The 9-month revenues remained 4% below the prior year, still impacted by the negative effects of the weak first quarter.

Moving to Americas region, accounting for 20% of our group revenue, we saw a decline of 10%, resulting in revenues of around EUR 322 million. Demand in the first 9 months of 2025 was further characterized by greater caution in ordering behavior in the U.S. compared to Europe due to ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, mainly due to the effects of the U.S. tariffs. Demand declined not only in the U.S., but also in Canada and Mexico. In the Asia Pacific region, which represents 2% of our business, revenue dropped by 21% to approximately EUR 34 million. The region was primarily characterized by a decline in demand in Australia and China. I will now hand over to you, Christoph, to give some more insights into our financials.

Thank you, Karl. Let's take a closer look at where we stand with our net working capital. Our net working capital ratio based on the last 12 months revenue at the end of September stood at 32.4%, slightly below the value at the end of the second quarter in 2025. In comparison to last year's figures, however, the progress we made is more apparent. Over the course of 12 months, net working capital dropped by EUR 116 million from EUR 808 million at the end of September 2024 to EUR 692 million at the end of September 2025. This reduction is mainly driven by a steady reduction of inventories and an increase of trade payables in the last 12 months. This is the driving force behind the reduction of 1.8 percentage points of net working capital and in the net working capital ratio over the last 12 months, which stood at 34.2% at the end of September 2024.

Now looking towards year-end, I expect a slightly higher working capital ratio, predominantly caused by higher inventories in the U.S. Alternatively, we could have adjusted our production plan for 2025 downwards to the current lower demand in the U.S. This again would have triggered underutilization in our European plants. In light of our stable cash flow generation and in preparation for 2026, we decided to prioritize stable production output over short-term working capital optimization, leading to this temporary increase in finished goods inventories by year-end. We believe that this is the right decision because we avoid additional underutilization costs and at the same time, we expect inventories to decrease again towards springtime due to overall market normalization in 2026.

Now let's have a look at our cash flow. Although our revenues decreased by 5% quarter-over-quarter, we were able to keep our profitability stable on a level of above 7.5% on a quarterly basis. This is also reflected in our stable cash flow from operating activities. Therefore, we could continue in Q3 with a positive free cash flow generation now for the sixth quarter in a row. Due to the just mentioned rising inventories in the U.S. by year-end, I do not expect cash flow generation in Q4 to continue as in the previous quarters.

However, I stick to my previously made statement of a triple-digit free cash flow number at the end of the year. Also on the positive side, we further reduced our net debt in Q3 down to EUR 258 million, reaching the lowest level since the first quarter in 2023. Consequently, also our leverage ratio reduced further down to 0.9. And last but not least, the picture of our capital structure is completed by a robust equity ratio of 60%. And with this, back to you, Karl.

Thank you, Christoph. Before concluding with the current outlook, I would like to give you an update on the implementation of our Strategy 2030. Despite the challenging market environment, along our strategic levers, we are continuing to implement the milestones, which you can see on this slide. The John Deere Cooperation is fully on track. We have successfully started delivering first serial excavators for John Deere from this. At the same time, we are ramping up the production line of our U.S. plant for further models and will start their delivery in 2026. On the chart, you see a picture of our modernized production sites in Menomonee Falls in Wisconsin. I can tell you, it really looks good.

On the other hand, we have advanced our light equipment portfolio. We expanded the range of reversible plates and also introduced new battery-powered versions. The battery-powered rammers gained on efficiency through a feature called the integrated speed control. The compaction performance can now be optimally adapted to the respective application. And last but not least, we have expanded our zero emission portfolio in compact machines and added 2 models of excavators. With just a 1.2 ton operating weight, ESET 10 electric is particularly well suited for applications with a restricted floor load such as indoors.

The green illuminated active working signal increases safety on both internal and nighttime construction sites. The second model introduced, EZ26 Electric is a bigger tracked zero tail excavator. Its emission-free, quiet and low vibration operation makes it the ideal choice for legally restricted or noise sensitive and environmentally critical areas as well as for special work sites with local and time restrictions. As you can see, one of our strategic focus areas remains our investment in sustainable construction. We believe that this is the future of construction, and we are ready to seize the future opportunities.

Now let's move on to our outlook for the year 2025. Also, we have a stable order book development in the course of this year, market recovery is slower than we initially anticipated. Industry outlook partially stagnated as well. And moreover, we have faced a significantly weaker market demand in the U.S. due to geopolitical uncertainty as well as the tariffs. Due to supply chain issues of Nexperia, we only expect a minor impact on our production in the last 2 months of 2025. However, we will closely monitor the situation. Due to all of these factors, we have decided to narrow our yearly guidance. For 2025, we now anticipate a revenue in the range between EUR 2.15 billion and EUR 2.25 billion and an EBIT margin in the range between 6.5% and 6.8%.

We expect our investments to reach around EUR 80 million and our net working capital to be at around 34% by the year-end. As we already mentioned, we succeeded in stabilizing our improved profitability in the current market environment in quarter 3 of 2025. Looking ahead, we will continue to counteract the weak market, especially in the U.S. with efficiency measures and cost discipline. For 2026, we expect market recovery in Europe as well as normalization of market demand in the U.S. Nevertheless, we still remain cautious and track our market developments continuously.

Summarizing the key messages from our first 9 months. Revenue is in line to reach full year guidance. Narrowed margin guidance is driven by underlying U.S. tariff impact and geopolitical uncertainties. We are ready to seize the opportunities in the years ahead presented by the German special fund. Strong balance sheet is our foundation to execute our Strategy 2030 and drive future growth. Before we now jump into the Q&A session, let me send a sincere thank you to all our employees of the Wacker Neuson Group, who relentlessly are giving their best for our customers and our company, even more so in challenging times. So really thank you. Nobody is perfect, but a team can be. Thank you for listening. Operator, we are now ready to start the Q&A session, and we're very much looking forward to answering your questions.

[Operator Instructions] First question is from Stefan Augustin of Warburg Research.

The first one would be actually on the book-to-bill just for Q3. And let's say, with that, maybe a little bit the progression throughout the quarter. Was that rather a stable quarter? Or was it more, let's say, weaker versus the end, something like that and the color on the current situation. That will be the first question, and I'll take them one by one, 2 more.

Stefan, thank you for asking the question. The EUR 1.1 billion in the year-to-date was driven by a lot in the April and the [Baumol] effect. In quarter 3, we have been fluctuating around EUR 1.0 billion. So it's stable at the situation.

Okay. The next one is then a little bit more complicated, and I try to square it a little bit up. Starting from the net working capital ratio that goes up to -- in the new guidance, 34%. And you mentioned the production shipment into the U.S. Is that the right calculation to think about if you are now at 32% and you go up to 34%, that is roughly something like EUR 40 million in additional inventory. And how would this square up with shipments from Linz to the U.S. for Deere, which have been mentioned, I think, in the range around EUR 20 million for this year. Is there other shipments that are also impacted here? Or is it inventory that is not only in the U.S.? How do you need to think about that?

Stefan, Christoph here. Well, you need to add to your John Deere calculation, of course, the imports from Europe that are already phased into 2026. And that, of course, is easily adding up to the number that you have in mind. I don't know, could -- is that the direction you wanted to.

Yes. I think I get this now. I just wanted to come, let's say, how do I come from the EUR 20 million to EUR 40 million, but that's a plausible answer. And then you cut on your investments. Is that actually something you abandon here? Or is that push out? And what is -- what has been, let's say, what is the cause of the lower -- the EUR 20 million lower investments? Where do you think?

Stefan, Karl speaking here. There is no major investment which has been affected by this one. It's just many smaller investments, which we just moved a little bit forward to be on the safe side on that end. So it doesn't affect any future growth or any strategic investments. I would call it, it's a normal effect of cautious cost and cash flow management in such a situation.

And Karl, if you allow me to add one thing here, Stefan, something that sometimes gets a little bit in the background is that our investment number does also comprise investments in terms of our sales network and sales channels. And so we are always evaluating, will we now replace a certain sales outlet. We will replace rent by a purchase of building and real estate, et cetera. So there are just some moving parts where we can be more conservative on the investment side without basically affecting the plants that are really adding to our capability for innovation. So it's not purely plant related.

All right. And then the last one is maybe a little bit on the pricing situation. What do you see right now? Is it okay? Or is it starting to deteriorate in Europe or the U.S.? How do we have to think about that one?

Yes. Pricing situation, pricing expectations towards 2026, Stefan, let me differentiate between 2 major areas here. The first one is, I think we have been discussing that is the current situation in the U.S. where we encounter really difficult to increase prices. Here, we believe that -- I know it's a little bit vague, but sooner or later, I think the market will have to accept some price increases.

I know this is pretty fuzzy, but that's, I think, all of us, even -- and also our competitors are calculating with this for 2026. And so the first part of the -- of our expectation that we will see modest price increases in 2026 is certainly in the U.S. And the second area for Europe, I think we will see the regular slight increase. So altogether, a slightly positive trend from our point of view.

Okay. And finally, a bit of housekeeping question. Can you remind us on the ramping up, the phasing of the Deere operation going from this year, the EUR 20 million to what roughly bracket in '26? And when does the production start in the U.S.

Okay, Stefan, let me take the question. Karl speaking here. On the first hand, I would just want to remind us all that this is another partner who is not on the table, and we have to be careful not to jeopardize any communication from that side, especially we talk about start of production or start of deliveries. But in general, what we can say is, as I said, the cooperation is fully on track at the time we both agreed. Linz is fully operational, as we mentioned. There is start of production in U.S. by end of this year for the first model, which means then delivering next year. And as we always communicated, we are working with a 1-year interval in between 2 start of productions. So start of production of the next model is then obviously somewhere second half of next year in U.S.

A lot has been clarified. I see there are no more questions in the queue right now. [Operator Instructions] There seem no questions to be incoming anymore. So with that, I'm handing the floor back over to Peer Schlinkmann. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as we can see, there are no further questions left from you. That brings us to the end of our conference call. As usual, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or the entire Investor Relations team via phone or e-mail. If you would like to meet in person, please let us know or check our website and financial calendar for all relevant roadshow days in the coming months. Thank you again for joining our call, and we wish you all a wonderful winter and Christmas season. Have a great day.