thyssenkrupp nucera Aktie

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for standing by. This is Hendrik Finger from Investor Relations.

A warm welcome from my side as well. My name is Evelin Veit. I'm Head of Communications at thyssenkrupp nucera. Welcome to thyssenkrupp nucera's joint press, analyst and investor Conference on our Q3 and first 9 months 2025-2026 results. We are pleased you could join us today.

Our CEO, Werner Ponikwar; and our CFO, Stefan Hahn, will guide you through the presentation, covering key business developments and the financial figures for the past quarter. Colleagues from Communications and Investor Relations are also here with us today. Now before we start the presentation, some housekeeping. First, this call will be recorded, and a replay will be made available on our website later. Second, today's presentation and potentially some answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements. For additional information in this regard, please refer to the disclaimer. As usual, the presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session for journalists and analysts. And with that, I'll hand over to you, Werner, for starting the presentation.

Well, thank you, Evelin. Thank you, Hendrik. Good morning, everyone. Great to have you with us. Let me start by pointing out the main developments since the last quarterly update before deep diving into some of them. Several of these developments have already been communicated. And today, we will place them in the broader context of our third quarter and first 9 months performance. We delivered another solid quarter, supported by the continued strong performance of our Chlor-Alkali business and disciplined project execution across both segments. Speaking of project execution, I would like to briefly draw your attention to the picture in the upper right corner. This image showcases the NEOM project and highlights the strong progress and momentum of our hydrogen projects as they enter the final development stages with the 2.2 gigawatt electrolysis plant nearing completion. Overall, we expect the first hydrogen to be produced at some of our projects before the end of this calendar year. During the quarter, we have also prepared our emerging service business in green hydrogen forward. The service agreement with Moeve marks an important milestone for our service strategy and underscores the strategic value of our growing installed base of 3.5 gigawatts. Furthermore, we are strengthening our position in India, one of the most promising hydrogen markets in the world through our partnership with BHEL. This collaboration enables us to capitalize on expanding public sector opportunities in India as the market evolves unlocking new growth potential for us. Additionally, green hydrogen market activities are gaining momentum driven by the growing implementation of policy measures, funding programs and offtake mechanisms, which are strengthening investment security for many projects in our pipeline.

Lastly, we took the strategic decision to no longer pursue our plans to invest in our own mass production facilities for SOEC stacks due to insufficient short-term market readiness. At the same time, we will evaluate alternative attractive opportunities to valorize the solid oxide technology and also related IP. This decision will lead to onetime EBIT impact in the next quarter and consequently is affecting our outlook for the financial year. Stefan will have all the details on that later. Overall, we continue to execute our strategy of building a leading green hydrogen business while remaining disciplined in the deployment of capital. This quarter delivered further proof points of our strategic progress through our first noticeable service agreements and hence, market access in attractive growth regions, and relentless execution of our large-scale green hydrogen projects.

Now let's turn to our Chlor-Alkali segment, which continues to show strong momentum and provides execution reliability. Starting with the sales pipeline, we secured a new order in China for a large-scale Chlor-Alkali plant, underlining both the competitiveness of our technology and our strong positioning in key growth markets. Beyond this project award, we continue to see an attractive pipeline of new build opportunities providing confidence in the underlying demand environment.

At the same time, our service business continues to perform strongly. Service order intake remains above the prior year level, driven by increasing customer demand for efficiency enhancements, maintenance services and life cycle support. Activity has been particularly strong in China and in Europe, highlighting the value of our installed base and the strength of our long-standing customer relationships. We are making solid progress on our ongoing Chlor-Alkali projects, reflecting strong execution.

Let me highlight 2 recent examples. In Brazil, the chlorum solution plant has been successfully commissioned and is now fully operational. The project demonstrates the advantages of our proven skid-mounted plant concept and the high energy efficiency of our technology supporting environmentally friendly and competitive Chlor-Alkali production.

In the United States, we reached another important milestone with OxyChem. Joint onsite training has been completed successfully, and the project is progressing towards the start of commissioning. This reflects the strong execution capabilities of our teams and the close collaboration we maintain with our customers. The segment remains well positioned to deliver profitable growth, create value and continue serving as a strong and reliable pillar of our company.

Now coming back to the first notable long-term service agreement in our Green Hydrogen business. This contract represents an important strategic milestone in the evolution of our business model for green hydrogen. With Moeve, we signed an 8-year long-term service agreement for the 300-megawatt project in Spain with a total contract value of approximately EUR 12 million. And I would like to add a technical comment on that matter. The order is not yet part of the order backlog or the order intake because the services typically start once projects move closer to completion. So the contract value will add to the order backlog in the coming years.

The financial contribution is, of course, meaningful, but the strategic value of the agreement even extends significantly beyond that. With this first major long-term service contract, we are sending a clear message. Thyssenkrupp nucera is not only a technology supplier, but also a reliable partner for the successful operation of large hydrogen plants. And this perfectly matches a growing customer preference for long-term partnerships to maximize plant performance and availability across the full life cycle of their assets. For the customer, the benefits are clear, higher reliability, improved operational efficiency, reduced operational risk and continuous performance monitoring. And for us, it strengthens our relationship with the customer while creating recurring revenue streams that complement our project business.

And this shift towards recurring subscription-based service models create an ongoing value for both, our customers and, of course, also for us.

Next, let me do a deep dive on India, which we consider one of the most promising green hydrogen markets globally and a key focus area for thyssenkrupp nucera. During the quarter, we signed a strategic collaboration agreement with BHEL, one of India's leading engineering and manufacturing companies with strong relationships across both public and also private sector customers. We believe this partnership provides us with an attractive platform to participate in India's growing green hydrogen market. It combines our proven large-scale alkaline water electrolysis technology with BHEL's strong local manufacturing capacities, EPC expertise and also market access. A key element of this collaboration will be the phased localization of electrolyzer manufacturing in India which is well aligned with the country's ambition to establish a domestic hydrogen value chain and increasingly favors solutions with local content. This partnership extends beyond manufacturing, positioning us to jointly pursue public tenders and advance large-scale green hydrogen projects nationwide. India represents a compelling opportunity driven by supportive government initiatives, favorable renewable power economics and robust industrial demand especially in segments like refining, chemicals, fertilizers and also steel.

Through this collaboration, we are strengthening our presence in a dynamically growing market and underscoring our long-term commitment to actively shaping the emerging green hydrogen economy in India.

Not only India is showing promising developments of its green hydrogen market, we are currently seeing that in key regions, regulation and financing are no longer merely setting the direction, but are beginning to create tangible demand for green hydrogen.

Starting with Europe, several regulatory funding initiatives are progressing simultaneously. In particular, hydrogen demand mandates under RED III are getting fully implemented as just recently announced for Germany and Spain for the transport sector. Together with further initiatives like the Lead Market framework, this is creating greater visibility for future hydrogen consumption and enhancing investment security. At the same time, funding mechanisms such as contracts for difference and national support programs backed by substantial funding budgets are helping to bridge the remaining economic gap and improve project economics. Together, these measures increase confidence for project developers, for offtakers and also for financing partners.

We are also encouraged by developments in India. The SECI tender model is an interesting example of how governments can actively facilitate market development by aggregating demand and creating visible offtake structures for projects in sectors such as ammonia and methanol.

In addition, export-oriented projects continue to secure long-term demand commitments.

Another positive example is Japan. A substantial funding support is being deployed to improve the bankability of low-carbon ammonia project and accelerate investment decisions across the value chain. What is particularly encouraging is that we are no longer seeing isolated initiatives on the production side on, instead, multiple demand drivers are developing in parallel across key regions, including regulation, funding support, offtake frameworks and industrial decarbolization targets. These developments are contributing to a more favorable environment for project FIDs and with that, the advancement of electrolyzer deployment.

While the timing of individual projects will, of course, continue to vary, we see increasing evidence that the key building blocks for our scalable green hydrogen markets are being put in place.

Let me briefly update you on our green hydrogen project pipeline now. Compared to our last update, the overall picture remains stable with around 57 gigawatts on our total pipeline and approximately 14 gigawatts under actively pursued. This is reflecting a market that is increasingly focused on the most viable opportunities. We continue to see encouraging momentum in selected regions, particularly in Europe and in India. The supportive policy frameworks and funding mechanisms are helping projects move forward.

A key highlight is the continued growth in our portfolio of paid engineering contracts under execution, now representing approximately 1.9 gigawatt already. These projects underline the continued progress and increasing tangibility of our pipeline, demonstrating its evolving strengths. These are not just announced opportunities, but projects where we are already deeply engaged with customers and supporting project developments based on our technology and also our expertise. These paid engineering contracts, combined with the 3.5 gigawatt already under execution demonstrate a clear path to future EPC awards and growing service opportunity. As a result, we remain confident that the next green hydrogen order could emerge from this portfolio in the foreseeable future.

Now let me address our SOEC activities to follow up on the statements we have just published yesterday evening. After comprehensive strategic review, we have decided not to pursue the buildup of in-house mass production facilities for SOEC stacks any longer. We continue to believe that SOEC is a promising long-term technology, however, the mark today is not yet sufficiently mature to justify the significant investments required for industrial-scale stack manufacturing.

Capital allocation is a key focus for our company. Given the current level of market uncertainty, and the timing of commercial demand, we believe this is the right decision to protect shareholder value and focus resources on opportunities with a clearer path to return.

At the same time, and let me stress that, we keep the strategic optionality, and we will continue to evaluate asset-light approaches to valorize our solid-oxide technology and IP in line with market developments. Financially, the decision will result in a onetime EBIT impact of around EUR 30 million in the fourth quarter. And this is largely related to asset impairments. There will be no significant cash impact in the fourth quarter as the lower cash outflows are expected to be offset by minor restructuring costs.

Looking ahead, the financial benefits of this decision becomes visible quickly. From fiscal year '26, '27 onwards, we expect lower operating expenses and reduced capital requirements supporting EBIT by up to EUR 10 million annually and improving cash flow by approximately EUR 20 million per year.

And with that, let me hand over to Stefan who will walk you through our financial results and of course, also the outlook. Stefan, over to you.

Thank you very much, Werner, and a warm welcome from my side as well. Ladies and gentlemen, let me walk you through the financial developments of the third quarter and the 9 months period. The third quarter showed encouraging order momentum and resilient earnings, while sales reflected lower year-on-year volumes. EBIT remained broadly stable year-on-year, even with the lower sales base. This was supported by an improved gross margin and a resilient contribution from our Chlor-Alkali business, which largely compensated for lower volume and weaker cost absorption in the green hydrogen. Free cash flow was negative in the third quarter, reflecting the expected timing of project-related cash flows. This development aligns with the normal quarterly volatility in our project business and reaffirms the strength of our financial position.

Looking ahead, we expect free cash flow to improve and return to positive territory in the fourth quarter. In summary, the quarter highlights 3 key messages: improving order momentum, resilient earnings despite our sales volumes and a strong balance sheet that continues to support our growth strategy.

Let me now take you through the individual KPIs in more detail, starting with order intake on Page 14.

In the third quarter, order intake reached EUR 81 million, up 29% year-on-year. Chlor-Alkali contributed EUR 78 million, an increase of 56% supported by both New Build and Service. Green hydrogen order intake reflected the project-driven nature of the business, where larger awards can fluctuate significantly by quarter. Looking at the first 9 months, order intake nearly doubled to EUR 471 million. This was primarily supported by the award of the 300-megawatt project from Moeve in Spain in the second quarter alongside strong growth of 32% in the Chlor-Alkali business.

Overall, the order backlog stood at EUR 638 million at the end of June, providing a strong foundation for the coming quarters.

Let me turn to sales performance. As shown on Slide 15, sales in the third quarter declined 21% year-on-year to EUR 145 million. In our green hydrogen business, sales amounted to EUR 36 million, down from EUR 103 million a year ago. This decline was mainly driven by lower sales contributions from our reference AWE projects reflecting the higher maturity as well as the lower intake in the previous year. By contrast, Chlor-Alkali delivered a strong performance. Sales increased by 34% year-on-year to EUR 109 million supported by growth in both the New Build and Service businesses. This development was partly supported by an earlier-than-expected recognition of sales from major new build projects where project contributions originally anticipated or were originally anticipated for the fourth quarter of 2025, '26 were already realized in the third quarter. Looking at the 9 months period, group sales declined 47% year-on-year to EUR 354 million. Green hydrogen sales declined as the contribution from the highly mature NEOM project reduced and as onetime effects recognized in Q2 continued to influence the year-to-date comparison.

In Chlor-Alkali, sales declined by 5% in the first 9 months. While the Service business achieved sales growth, the New Build business saw a decline compared to the previous year. Sales development continues to reflect the expected trends in green hydrogen as large reference projects mature and with strong underlying demand and a resilient service base in our Chlor-Alkali business.

Moving on to EBIT on Page 16. Starting with the third quarter, group EBIT was broadly stable year-on-year at minus EUR 2 million, demonstrating the resilience of our business mix despite lower sales volumes. The key positive factor was a 3 percentage point improvement in gross margin at group level, supported by a higher contribution from our Chlor-Alkali business.

In Chlor-Alkali, EBIT improved from EUR 30 million to EUR 50 million, reflecting higher sales volumes. In green hydrogen, EBIT declined moderately from minus EUR 13 million to minus EUR 17 million, mainly due to lower sales volumes. Overall, improved earnings in Chlor-Alkali largely compensated for the softer market environment in green hydrogen, resulting in a broadly unchanged EBIT performance for the quarter.

For the first 9 months, group EBIT was minus EUR 69 million compared to EUR 4 million in the prior year period, primarily reflecting the EUR 50 million of onetime project-related costs recognized in Q2 in green hydrogen. Excluding these one-off effects, the underlying operational performance developed more favorably than the reported figures suggest.

Now let me walk you through our operating cost development in the first 9 months. Starting with cost of goods sold, COGS declined year-on-year, largely in line with the lower business volume, particularly in green hydrogen. The decline was supported by the implemented cost-saving measures. At the same time, we achieved an improvement in gross margin quality, especially in Chlor-Alkali, supported by a more favorable project mix.

SG&A costs remained stable at EUR 56 million, reflecting strong cost discipline amid inflationary pressures. Our cost reduction initiatives are underway and are expected to contribute increasingly over the coming quarters.

Finally, on R&D, expenses increased from EUR 24 million to EUR 29 million, reflecting our continued commitment to technology leadership and the development of our future product portfolio. Part of these development activities has been capitalized as in prior periods. Following the elevated activity level during the first 9 months, we expect R&D spending to decline sequentially in the fourth quarter.

Let me now briefly walk you through the bridge from EBIT to net income and earnings per share on Page 18. The newly stable EBIT, along with the financial result that match last year's and lower tax expenses led to an improved net income in the third quarter, reaching the breakeven point. Net income in the 9 months period amounted to EUR 64 million, with earnings per share declining accordingly to minus EUR 0.51. Here, there's a substantial decline in EBIT after project-related one-off costs occurred -- I'm sorry, after one-off costs occurred translated directly into negative net income. Positive financial income, driven by interest earned on our cash position provided a slight offset.

Moving on to cash flow and our balance sheet position. Free cash flow was negative in the first 9 months and amounted to minus EUR 26 million compared with plus EUR 15 million in the prior year period. The development was primarily driven by lower operating cash flow, which reflects the usual timing effects of project execution and milestone payments. The third quarter included higher periodic project-related cash outflows. Operating cash flow declined from EUR 32 million to minus EUR 3 million, mainly reflecting these timing-related effects rather than a structural change in cash generation.

Investing cash flow amounted to minus EUR 23 million compared with minus EUR 17 million in prior year period. The investments are driving progress in technology development with a focus on enhancing module and stack stabilities. We expect a recovery in free cash flow during the fourth quarter as project-related payments profiles normalize. Net financial assets were EUR 627 million at the end of June 2026, a decrease from EUR 656 million at the end of September 2025. The reduction is largely explained by the negative free cash flow during the period. Importantly, our net financial assets remain at a very high level and underlines the strength of our balance sheet. This financial position provides sufficient headroom to support the execution of our strategy, invest in future growth opportunities and maintain resilience in a still evolving market environment.

Lastly, I would like to explain our outlook for the current year, which we updated in our ad hoc announcement yesterday evening. Following our strategic decision not to establish in-house mass production capacity for SOEC stacks, we have incorporated the associated asset impairments into the updated EBIT outlook. In addition, we've also reviewed the remaining guidance ranges and refined some of them based on business development in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2025, '26. For the group, we now expect order intake in the range of EUR 550 million to EUR 670 million compared to EUR 348 million in the prior fiscal year.

Based on performance to date and given that the financial year already ends in 7 weeks, we have narrowed the range from the previous forecast of EUR 550 million to EUR 850 million. For group sales, we now expect EUR 450 million to EUR 500 million, which is attributable to projects already under contract. The previous guidance range was EUR 450 million to EUR 500 million. Following the SOEC decision, we now expect group EBIT to range from minus EUR 105 million to minus EUR 75 million.

At segment level, we anticipate gH2 sales of EUR 100 million to EUR 130 million. The reduction versus previous expectations reflects the timing of revenue recognition from existing large-scale hydrogen projects, part of which has shifted into the next fiscal year, while commissioning continues to progress. The new 300-megawatt green hydrogen project by Moeve in Spain will also see majority of sales in the next fiscal year. EBIT in the gH2 segment is expected to come in between minus EUR 155 million to minus EUR 135 million, reduced compared to the previous outlook due to the onetime EBIT effect impact from the SOEC impairments.

Finally, a comment on the Chlor-Alkali segment for which the former outlook was confirmed. We expect Chlor-Alkali sales of EUR 320 million to EUR 400 million and EBIT between EUR 45 million and EUR 65 million. For both KPIs, we anticipate reaching the middle of the range. Overall, the underlying operating performance remains solid, particularly in the Chlor-Alkali segment by sales and earnings for the current fiscal year were influenced by onetime effects from the green hydrogen business. And with that, I'll hand back to Werner, who will wrap up today's presentation.

Yes. Thank you very much, Stefan. Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude today's presentation by reiterating our key messages. Our Chlor-Alkali business is well on track as it has been over the last years. The segment has again demonstrated consistent profitability combined with sustained market momentum and successful execution. We also observed positive market momentum in green hydrogen and expect electrolyzer deployment to gain momentum over the next quarters. And more specifically for thyssenkrupp nucera, we expect to be awarded a new green hydrogen project still within calendar year 2026. In the last quarter, we have taken important steps in our emerging green hydrogen service business and strengthened market access. By doing so, we built the foundation for margins and sales growth in green hydrogen.

Lastly, our financial situation remains strong. We will continue to keep a consistent and sharp focus on cash flow while maintaining strategic flexibility and optimizing our product portfolio. And that concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention, and we are now happy to take your questions. Hendrik, over to you.

Thanks, Werner. [Operator Instructions] We are aware that it might take a few seconds to get everything going also depending on the settings on your side. So no worries about that.

The first question today comes from Skye Landon with Rothschild.

Firstly, on the next project award that you're expecting during calendar year 2026, are you able to share with us kind of roughly how large projects that would be. Clearly, you have quite a lot of confidence over the idea that you will make the award given that your -- given the kind of description that you've made, but any size kind of indications would be useful. And then secondly, still on kind of like the pipeline side of things. I noticed that the value of the actively pursued projects has dropped down to circa EUR 7 billion from circa EUR 8 billion at 2Q despite the kind of the aggregate size of the pipeline of that actively pursued project list remaining the same. So just wondering if there's kind of like a change in scope, lower sales prices per megawatt or anything that you can describe to us on that, that would be great.

All right. Skye, this is Werner. Just quickly on the project that we expect to be awarded in due course, if you want. If you look at our guidance for order intake and if you look at the interval from EUR 550 million to EUR 670 million, this would certainly push us more actually to the middle of the guidance, so to speak. And that's sort of the order of magnitude also in terms of project size that we would have potentially expected also for this year already, but believe now it's going to be part of this calendar year, but most probably not anymore actually within this financial year.

Okay. So just is that the midpoint of the kind of the old guidance then, if you like? You mean so basically this project...

Yes.

As previously expected to fall in the fiscal year. It's now going to probably fall in the calendar year, so i.e., in the next fiscal year. So if we take the old guidance, we could then infer the project size. Okay. Got it.

Yes. In terms of actively pursued projects being a bit lower, I mean, we have certainly also won in the meantime a project, actually, that was part of our pipeline, and that's certainly was going out of the pipeline and there are, of course, also always some fluctuations simply because projects tend to be postponed again and basically moving in the different categories also in our pipeline again. So this is not a general trend of lower actively pursued project. It's rather, I would say, a minor fluctuation, which is quite natural in a still quite volatile market environment.

The next question comes from Martin Wilkie with Citi.

It's Martin from Citi. Just a question to clarify on the decision on SOEC. I mean you talked about the market development. But was the decision primarily driven by the cost of developing that manufacturing capability? Or is it just really the timing for how that market develops that drove the decision. And then linked to that, I believe, if I understand correctly, that you're retaining the possibility that you could sell intellectual property in the future. Is your development within that technology at a point that it could be commercialized? Or will it still be development costs to further develop pure intellectual property within SOEC?

Martin, this is Werner. So on the decision point is basically, of course, a combination of cost and timing. We believe the timing is currently not right to continue to invest a 3-digit number in terms of CapEx actually building up the manufacturing capacities. And by the way, I think we are not alone actually with that perspective. You've also seen potentially announcement earlier this year from competitors in the field that have started to mothball their plans and the capacities that they have already invested in. So we are confident that timing wise, this is not the right timing. And at the same time, actually, you certainly also know that we are big fans of asset-light operation models. And we would actually try to follow actually also in SOEC our philosophy here, and that makes a lot of sense for us. So again, it's a combination of cost and timing.

Yes, in terms of commercial ability, if you want, of this technology that's certainly at a point where -- and I've mentioned that where we are currently trying to understand alternatives and opportunities in the market, how we can commercialize and valorize actually what we have in our hands in terms of technology and also in terms of IP. And as soon as we are taking decisions here, we will certainly also inform the capital market about that.

[Operator Instructions] There we have Klaus Ringel with ODDO. We can't hear you yet. Could you please unmute yourself additionally, your line should be open and then it will probably work.

I just want to ask on the SOEC impairment and the indication for the impact on the EBIT this year, next year and also on the cash flow for next year, just for clarification. Is there any impact on cash flow from this impairment this year? Or is it, yes, without impact or 0 impact?

Yes. So there's mainly an impact on EBIT. And as we said during the presentation already, the impact on cash flow is very limited, if not insignificant. So it's mainly the impairment from capitalizations that we had in the past.

Of course, going forward, in the next fiscal year, and we pointed to that as well. Presentation, we will have a significant positive effect because in the past, we, of course, invested into that and these investments will not be necessary any longer going forward. So next year, we expect a positive savings effect of EUR 20 million in cash and EUR 10 million in EBIT.

And that's for lower CapEx.

Yes, exactly. Our CapEx get also includes capitalization of development expenses.

There seems to be no more questions at this point in time. For that reason, I hand over to Werner one last time, and he will conclude today's call.

Yes. Thank you very much, everyone, for joining us here today in our call. If you have any more questions during the day, please feel free to reach out to our communications team or our Investor Relations team. With that, thank you very much again. Goodbye, and all the best.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for standing by. This is Hendrik Finger from Investor Relations.

I would also like to welcome you. My name is Evelin Veit, and I'm the Head of Communications at thyssenkrupp nucera. We wish you a warm welcome to thyssenkrupp nucera's joint press, analyst and investor conference on the results of the second quarter and first half year of our fiscal year '25-'26. We are very pleased that you have taken the time to join us today.

Our Management Board is here with us this morning to walk you through the presentation and to discuss our latest business technology and financial developments. Now, before we start the presentation, some housekeeping.

First, this call will be recorded, and a replay will be made available on our website later. Second, today's presentation and potentially some answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements. For additional information in this regard, please refer to the disclaimer. As usual, the presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session for journalists and analysts. And with that, I'll hand over to our CEO, Werner Ponikwar, who will be starting the presentation.

Thank you, Evelin. Thank you, Hendrik. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for your interest and for dialing in today. Let me start by pointing out the main developments over the last months before deep diving into some of them. Given our separate announcement in March and more recently last week, much of that won't come as a surprise for you.

Nevertheless, I think it is important to reiterate that we see new commercial momentum in green hydrogen. Of course, that needs to be backed up by further customer orders and political commitments. But you can clearly see a shift in perception in hydrogen. For us, this has resulted in a new order we received from Moeve for a 300-megawatt project in Spain.

Besides Europe, we do see a lot of momentum in India as well, where we were awarded a FEED study by Juno Joule and where we are also seeing further projects progressing. Both milestones clearly demonstrate the trust our clients place in thyssenkrupp nucera to deliver best-in-class technology tailored to their needs.

The 300-megawatt project in Spain and the previously announced order for a large Chlor-Alkali plant in the Middle East were both recognized in our second quarter, resulting in an order intake of more than EUR 300 million. And this is the highest quarterly order intake since the IPO, or more precise, since the NEOM project was accounted for in December 2021.

Backed by this high order intake, we saw our order backlog increased to more than EUR 730 million at the end of March '26. Our Chlor-Alkali business continues to do well. As reference, we can name 2 larger new build projects in the U.S. and in Brazil, which are well advanced in the commissioning phase. I will come to that in more details in a couple of minutes.

Lastly, we confirm our adjusted outlook for the financial year '25, '26. Both sales and EBIT in the second quarter were substantially impacted by higher costs in our green hydrogen projects. But it's important to note that the higher project costs are of a onetime nature and will, from today's perspective, not spill over to the second half of the financial year.

Now, a brief recap of 2 commercial highlights from our green hydrogen business in the second quarter. Moeve has commissioned us to supply 300 megawatts of electrolyzers. This is currently the largest green hydrogen project in Southern Europe, and it's a great success for our teams. We are excited to support Moeve in the first step for creating the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley with a total capacity of up to 2 gigawatts.

In addition, thyssenkrupp nucera has been awarded a contract for a FEED study for a 260-megawatt green hydrogen project in India. This is an important step towards substantiating the bankability of this project, which is actually the first Indian green hydrogen project in our portfolio. With this, we are expanding our geographical reach into one of the most dynamic growth markets for green hydrogen.

Based on the new build business, green hydrogen service will unlock further value. And that's what we are already proving in Chlor-Alkali, where service accounts for around 50% of sales and thereby provide a stable and recurring revenue base compared to the more cyclical new build business.

And over time, we will see that in green hydrogen as well. We established long-term relationships with our customers based on long-term service agreements alongside our large-scale project partnerships. We are currently in the process of finalizing several long-term service agreements, and we will be able to share more details soon.

With our 360-degree life cycle service portfolio, we create tangible value for our customers through 3 key steps. First, we provide best-in-class Levelized Cost of Hydrogen optimized life cycle management. Second, we ensure high-efficiency electrolyzer performance while minimizing operational risks. And third, we maximize availability while reducing overall operating costs. The market opportunity for services in green hydrogen is substantial. Roughly 3.5 gigawatts of electrolyzer capacity currently under execution already represents a service revenue potential of more than EUR 2 billion with attractive margins over the 25 years average lifetime of the electrolyzers.

And with every additional new build project, the service potential will certainly further increase. In essence, our service offering enables us to generate long-term resilient and recurring revenue streams beyond the initial sale of electrolyzer equipment.

Now let's move on to our Chlor-Alkali segment. Once again, the business has demonstrated strong resilience and outstanding reliability in project execution. Our service division delivered a very strong performance with order intake exceeding the prior year level. We are seeing growing demand for our services across key regions, particularly in China, the United States and also in Europe.

Looking at our major Chlor-Alkali projects, including new plants currently under construction in the U.S., India and Brazil, deliveries and commissioning activities continue to progress in line with customer schedules. At Unipar in Brazil, all six BM electrolyzers are now fully operational. For OxyChem in the U.S., we have successfully delivered the complete equipment package, including also spare parts. At AGC Vinythai in Thailand, commercial operations of the expanded e-BiTAC electrolyzers capacity have commenced successfully. And at the TGV project in India, all key components have been delivered to site. In addition, we see further potential for both service and also new build projects in the current financial year '25, '26.

Turning to our green hydrogen business. We have around 3.5 gigawatts of green hydrogen projects under execution with visible progress and milestones being achieved. Let's start with our projects with Stegra in Sweden. The picture shows the team on site after finishing the erection of the last out of 37 scalum electrolyzers in April. Installation of the module-based systems forms the basis for subsequent cell installation and also commissioning activities.

Next, the teams will be starting initial pre-commissioning activities in preparation for full module commissioning. And the cell stacks are scheduled for delivery at the beginning of next year.

Looking at the NEOM project. It was announced last week that the project continues to make progress and is ready to produce renewable power that will be used in the commissioning of the hydrogen and also the ammonia plants. We are happy and maybe somewhat even lucky that activities at NEOM have not been impacted by recent conflicts in the Middle East so far. And for Shell, the 200-megawatt green hydrogen plant under construction in Rotterdam is also making good progress and nearing completion with commissioning set to take place this year and ramp-up of operations in 2027.

Overall, we remain fully engaged with our customers as they move towards the finalization and commissioning of the first electrolysis plants. Now I'd like to share some more details on our green hydrogen project pipeline. If you remember the figures from our last update, you will find that our pipeline has been quite stable over the last quarter in all categories and also from a regional perspective.

Total pipeline amounts to 55 gigawatts, underscoring the significant market potential. Approximately 14 gigawatts of this relates to projects already at an advanced stage. We observed momentum building in selected regions and Europe and India are good examples for that. You see on the lower right that we are currently working on FEED studies for projects with a combined capacity of 1.6 gigawatts, which comes on top of the 3.5 gigawatts already under execution.

One technical comment here. Compared to February, the Moeve project was signed and is therefore not counted into our pipeline anymore. And at the same time, we were awarded a new FEED study with Juno Joule, and that is certainly now part of the 1.6 gigawatt pipeline.

All in all, it is, of course, not too far-fetched to believe that our next green hydrogen contract will come from this list in the not-too-distant future. I will discuss why this would be valuable for the economy in general and what is needed to support market building on the next slide.

Green hydrogen is fundamentally an enabling lever for European industrial transition. It lets us turn renewables into molecules that can be stored and transported, which is critical for hard-to-abate sectors and parts of mobility. It also strengthens energy security by reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels while building local value chains. And importantly, electrolysis can support the power grids by helping integrate more renewables and easing grid congestion over time.

What will accelerate this market is, of course, bankability -- that means demand-side mechanisms that give projects predictable revenue and all our financing to come in at scale alongside infrastructure that removes execution bottlenecks.

In parallel, we need simpler and more harmonized regulatory requirements. And finally, industrial scale-up needs continuous dependable funding framework. So the pipeline can convert into real FIDs. We're not just waiting for the ecosystem to mature, we are actively shaping it. Through our industry engagements, we help pushing common standards, pragmatic regulations and fit-for-purpose infrastructure planning. The upside is, of course, straightforward. clearer rules and faster permitting make projects bankable and that moves the market from pilot to scale. Now let's talk technology and who would be better suited for that than our CTO, Klaus Ohlig. Klaus, over to you.

Thank you, Werner, and a very good morning to all of you also from my end. When speaking about technology, the current slide covers learnings from deploying our 20-megawatt modules. The following one will then be looking at ongoing technology developments and future trends. We have seen higher cost in project execution, which led to onetime effects in the second quarter.

These are linked to the first of its kind nature of our AWE modules we brought to market in 2021. They were built on more than 50 years of experience in the Chlor-Alkali field, but obviously, we also gained significant insights since then as well. For that reason, we are carrying out upgrades that reflect feedback from engineering, construction sites as well as test facilities over the last 5 years, which will be embedded across 160 delivered modules ahead of commissioning.

We continue to build on our technological lead, added sensors and adjusted plant design supported by new intellectual property are not incremental tweaks. They are designed to lift reliability and safety in a way that benefits the full life cycle. Reliability drives returns. For customers, long-duration assets only work if they operate consistently. Our focus is reliable performance over 20 to 30 years while actively reducing operational risk. Services are a margin and differentiation lever.

We are building on an LCOH-optimized service life cycle model to maximize availability and reduce OpEx. This is where our competitive advantage lies. Moving on, I would like to talk about our green hydrogen product offering, which we are consistently advancing in line with evolving customer requirements and with a clear focus on scalability, standardization and cost competitiveness.

For example, we are currently working on a new full-scope plant solution based on our successful scalum alkaline water electrolyzer systems. We will soon launch a fully integrated and standardized 120-megawatt plug-and-play electrolyzer system that significantly reduces complexity and enables faster deployment for our customers.

This solution also includes compression of up to 35 bar is designed for a use and is expected to further reduce cost per megawatt.

At the same time, we are taking the next step with our pressurized AWE systems, building on our proven modular design approach. This product will initially target the market and applications of up to 100 megawatts, a play [indiscernible] smaller, more flexible and complex systems are able to provide best levelized cost of hydrogen.

The successful start-up of a prototype in Denmark based on the technology we acquired from GHS last year marks an important milestone and demonstrate both the technical maturity of the concept and our strong execution capabilities.

In parallel, we're continuing to assess the strategic role of SOEC technology. While SOEC offers significant efficiency potential, it still requires longer time to market. Therefore, we are conducting a thorough review of our road map to explore and evaluate different strategic options to ensure an optimal use of resources while meeting market demand.

Across all of these initiatives, our clear priority remains the further reduction of levelized cost of hydrogen. We are addressing this through lower CapEx driven by standardization and scale as well as maintaining industry-leading OpEx through reliability and design to service. And with that, I would like to hand over to Stefan for the financial section.

Thank you very much, Klaus, and a warm welcome from my side as well. Ladies and gentlemen, let me start by summarizing the key financial developments in the second quarter. The second quarter performance was mixed. We saw strong commercial momentum reflected in a sharp increase in order intake in both segments.

At the same time, our reported sales and earnings were temporarily distorted by one-off and largely technical effects in the green hydrogen business. After taking a more cautious approach during half-year closing, these effects amounted to around EUR 50 million. This was higher than initially expected, but it also reduces the risks for subsequent quarters.

Importantly, our financial stability remains solid and unchanged. So overall, the key message is our commercial momentum is strong. Our fundamentals are intact and the current shortfall is related to onetime effects and in terms of sales, mostly a technical accounting effect in nature. Let's now take a closer look at the KPIs displayed here and start on Page 16 with order intake. In the second quarter, we recorded an order intake of EUR 316 million, which is the highest quarterly figure since our IPO in 2023.

It reflects major project wins in both segments, green hydrogen and Chlor-Alkali. In the gH2 segment, order intake stood at EUR 176 million and was marked by the 300-megawatt new build project with Moeve, which we secured in March.

In line with the fulfillment of typical financing requirements, we were able to already recognize this project as order intake in the second quarter. In the Chlor-Alkali segment, order intake rose by 76% to EUR 140 million, mainly reflecting the large newbuild order in Middle East, which we signed in December.

Looking at the first 6 months, order intake increased by 119% compared to the prior year period, reaching EUR 391 million. This increase was driven by the development in the second quarter supported by both segments.

Order backlog for the group increased to EUR 732 million at the end of March, of which EUR 380 million related to the gH2 business. With that, order intake and backlog are now already clearly above the full year level and the prior fiscal year. Above all, this development underlines the relevance of our technology portfolio and provides significantly improved visibility for the upcoming quarters.

Let's now turn to our sales performance. As you can see on Slide 17, sales in the second quarter declined by 77% year-on-year to EUR 50 million. This development was largely driven by the green hydrogen business, which posted sales of minus EUR 33 million.

The sales decline and the negative sales figure as such are primarily technical in nature. Higher project costs in connection with onetime effects in the gH2 segment led to a reduction in the percentage of completion under IFRS accounting, which in turn temporarily lowered revenue realization in the second quarter.

In addition, sales were negatively impacted by the termination of the contract of a 20-megawatt pilot plant in the U.S. Together, both effects amounted to approximately EUR 50 million. In Chlor-Alkali, sales decreased by 14% year-on-year to EUR 83 million, mainly due to lower new build sales, while service sales remained broadly stable at prior year level.

Looking at the 6-month period, group sales declined by 59% year-on-year to EUR 197 million. Green hydrogen sales were down mainly due to lower sales contribution from the NEOM project due to the high degree of project completion, combined with the onetime effects we saw in Q2.

Chlor-Alkali sales declined by 25% in the first 6 months. However, the translation of the significant higher order intake in the first half of the year into sales will accelerate in the coming quarters.

Overall, despite the sizable onetime effects that weigh on Q2 sales, our assumptions for the full year remain valid and our sales guidance intact. Moving on to EBIT on Page 18. Starting with the second quarter, group EBIT amounted to minus EUR 65 million compared to minus EUR 4 million in the prior year quarter.

Importantly, this development does not reflect a material deterioration of the underlying operating performance across the group. The group EBIT decline was predominantly driven by the green hydrogen business, which posted an EBIT loss of EUR 78 million, which is EUR 60 million lower than in the prior year quarter.

EBIT was negatively impacted by the aforementioned one-off items, which had a negative impact. In the Chlor-Alkali segment, the decline in sales was largely offset by an improved gross margin driven by a higher margin project mix. In the 6-month period, group EBIT declined to minus EUR 69 million compared to EUR 4 million in the prior year period.

To assess what this means going forward, there are a few key points to consider. First, our underlying operating performance is significantly more stable than the Q2 figures alone suggest. Second, we expect sales momentum to accelerate compared to the first half of the financial year, driven by previously secured Chlor-Alkali orders and the partial reversal of the accounting-related negative sales effect in green hydrogen.

Third, we will realize further cost reductions, cost and optimization measures, which I will elaborate on in the next slides.

Taking all of this into account, our full year EBIT guidance remains appropriate. Now let me walk you through our operating cost development in the first 6 months. Starting with cost of goods sold. Cost of goods sold declined year-on-year, reflecting mainly the lower sales level in Q2. Margins in the gH2 segment were adversely impacted by the one-off effects we mentioned earlier.

In contrast, the Chlor-Alkali segment achieved a strong improvement in gross margin, driven by a more favorable higher-margin project mix. Turning to SG&A. Costs remained stable at EUR 37 million despite inflationary pressures. This underscores our disciplined cost management and restrictive hiring approach.

Importantly, we already see a sequential improvement compared to the second half of last fiscal year, and we expect further reductions as we move through the remainder of the year.

Finally, on R&D. Expenditures increased as planned, reflecting our continued focus on technology and innovation. As in prior periods, a portion of these costs were capitalized.

In summary, while one-off effects weighed on reported performance, we maintained cost discipline and continue to invest selectively in our future growth. Building on the cost discipline I just touched upon, we launched a comprehensive cost containment program to proactively address the current slowdown in sales.

Starting with cost structure optimization. We have reduced the use of external consulting, we have reorganized our IT costs. We have implemented a hiring freeze, and we have reduced working time in our German entity for tariff employees, equivalent to a reduction of roughly 40 FTEs and are optimizing our office footprint.

These measures alone are expected to deliver annual savings of more than EUR 25 million with full effect in the next fiscal year '26, '27, compared to fiscal year '24, '25. Beyond that, we are taking a number of strategic measures to structurally improve our cost base. This includes adjusting module yard capacity, streamlining our R&D and gH2 product activities with a clear focus on long-term competitiveness and increasing leveraging best-cost countries across engineering, supply chain and support functions.

These initiatives are expected to contribute an additional EUR 50 million plus in expected annual savings. Overall, this program is well underway and will not only mitigate the current market softness, but also enhance our structural efficiency and competitiveness going forward.

Let me now briefly walk you through the EBIT bridge from EBIT to net income and earnings per share. Both in the second quarter and first 6 months, the substantial decline in EBIT translated directly into a negative net income. Positive financial income driven by interest earned on our cash position provided a slight offset.

Net income in Q2 amounted to minus EUR 64 million and minus EUR 66 million in the half year period, with earnings per share declining accordingly to EUR 0.50 -- minus EUR 0.50 and minus EUR 0.53, respectively.

Cash flow from operating activities in the 6-month period declined to EUR 15 million. Lower earnings and cash outflows related to reductions in trade payables were driving this. These effects were partially offset by higher project-related cash inflows as well as lower inventories. The cash-out from the onetime effect in Q2 will spread over the coming quarters. Cash flow from investing activities was roughly stable at minus EUR 12 million.

Overall, this resulted in a positive free cash flow of EUR 3 million in the 6-month period. Net financial assets increased slightly to EUR 655 million, which represents a very comfortable position. Overall, these developments underline our balance sheet strength, providing sufficient headroom to balance cyclicality and the ramp-up profile of our green hydrogen business.

Lastly, let me reiterate our outlook for fiscal year '25, '26. We adjusted in our ad-hoc communication in mid-March, and we continue to believe it is appropriate based on the business developments in the first 6 months. For the group, we expect order intake in the range of EUR 550 million to EUR 850 million, compared to EUR 348 million in the prior fiscal year.

Based on the development so far, we are confident to reach the lower end of the guidance range. To reach the upper end, further newbuild orders in both segments, but especially in the green hydrogen segment are needed. For group sales, we now expect EUR 450 million to EUR 550 million, largely supported by projects already under contract.

At segment level, we anticipate gH2 sales of EUR 120 million to EUR 170 million and Chlor-Alkali sales of EUR 320 million to EUR 400 million. The new 300-megawatt green hydrogen project from Moeve in Spain will have only a limited impact on sales development in the current fiscal year.

For group EBIT, we continue to expect a range of minus EUR 80 million to minus EUR 30 million. EBIT in the gH2 segment is expected to come in between minus EUR 125 million and minus EUR 90 million, while the Chlor-Alkali segment is expected to deliver between EUR 45 million and EUR 65 million.

Overall, this year's sales and earnings will be visibly impacted by the aforementioned onetime effects from the green hydrogen business, while the underlying operational performance remains sound.

The revised commercial momentum together with our focus on cost savings and disciplined project execution, strengthen the foundation and lay the groundwork towards future sales and earnings growth.

With that, I'm handing back to Werner, who will wrap up today's presentation.

Thank you, Stefan, and also Klaus. Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude today's presentation by reiterating our key messages. We observed a positive momentum in green hydrogen market and plan to also leverage that. While political support remains essential for the midterm development of our industry, our robust order intake over the past months has enhanced our near-term visibility with respect to capacity utilization as well as sales and earnings forecast.

The Chlor-Alkali business has demonstrated consistent profitability, strong cash flow and reliable performance. We are pleased to have this asset in our company. The company's quarterly financial performance was, of course, not satisfactory as it was significantly impacted by higher project costs in the green hydrogen business.

It is noteworthy though that these higher project cost elements are connected to the first-of-its-kind nature of our large green hydrogen projects and that they are onetime expenses. Additionally, our strong liquidity, our strict cash discipline and the ongoing cost-saving measures provide substantial downside protection.

Lastly, we keep on implementing our strategic agenda. We improved our competitive position by expanding our range of products and services to meet and surpass customer expectations in a rapidly evolving market environment. That concludes our presentation.

Thank you for your attention, and we are now ready to take your questions. Hendrik, over to you.

[Operator Instructions]

The first question today comes from Skye Landon.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, Skye.

Can I just ask about the 1.6 gigawatts of FEED contracts? Positively, Moeve came out, Juno Joule went in topping it back up. But just wondering if you could give some more detail on the other 1.4 gigawatts of projects.

Beneath this, how many projects are included within the 1.4? What are the size of these projects? And what are the likely time lines for FID on these?

Then secondly, on your SOEC program, I'm just wondering if you have any plans to also look at the fuel cell side of things and SOFC. And then thirdly, just wondering now that kind of major projects are getting close to completion. Just wondering if you'd be able to provide some color or give us an update on the outlook for service revenues in the green hydrogen business.

All right. This is Werner. I will start, and I would start actually with the 1.6 gigawatts of FEED contracts. Of course, we cannot share now customer names or anything like that. But in general, when it comes to sizes of these FEED contracts and project sizes, that's between 100 and 600 megawatts of projects, predominantly in Europe.

But also we have also apparently now our project in India with Juno Joule in that pipeline as well. In terms of time line, of course, that remains, I would say, almost a secret of our customers, as you can imagine. But as mentioned, we are pretty confident that out of this list also in the near term, we will potentially see also new equipment contracts coming along. For SOEC, I might hand over to Klaus.

Yes. Thanks for the question, Skye. With respect to SOEC, our focus remains on electrolysis. We have certainly looked into the fuel cell side of the business, but focus remains on the electrolysis side to also fit into our overall product portfolio.

And maybe to the service revenue very quickly. In general, I think I've mentioned that also in the presentation, we see that over the lifetime of such a plant, which is on average 25 years, we typically see a similar amount of revenues coming in as the initial investment in the plant.

So as I said, for the 3.5 gigawatts, we would estimate around about EUR 2 billion over 25 years coming in from these assets alone. And of course, every additional assets that we are able to deploy in the market will, of course, create additional revenue streams in terms of service.

It is, of course, important to note that these streams are not coming in actually on, I would say, a very constant basis, if you want, because services are typically working in peaks for individual plants. That means there are revamp cycles where every 4 to 8 years, depending on the technology and location -- you would see, I would say, a larger revamp where cells and electrodes and coatings basically are looked at and potentially renewed as well. And that certainly those peaks you would potentially see in service revenues from within these time frames.

And of course, there is continuous service activities with clients like spare parts supply, but also digital services that we provide in terms of preventive maintenance and maintenance efforts over time. But if you basically lay over a number of individual plants and their service patterns, then of course, you get a very constant revenue stream. As we've seen that already in the Chlor-Alkali field where we have deployed so many plants that statistically actually that's flattening out. I hope that was...

The next question comes from Kevin Roger with Kepler.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you Kevin.

I have 3 questions, if I may. The first one, I was wondering if today you can provide us maybe a bit more color on the extra cost and maybe the reason why you decided maybe to, in a way, front-load a lot on Q2 and reduce the risk for Q3, Q4. So maybe a bit of color on those extra costs.

The second question, the working capital movement this quarter, is it 100% related to the prepayment on the 300-megawatt hydrogen contract, just to understand the move this quarter.

And the last one, so today, you announced this new 120-megawatt modules on the hydrogen space. As a kind of follow-up on the commercial pipeline, how many projects or capacity are we talking about in terms of projects that are already, let's say, working on this potential 120-megawatt solution, please?

Kevin, let me start with the last question and then I hand over for the extra cost and more details to Klaus. And then I think working capital is in the domain of Stefan. So on the new product, I mean, this is a bit prelaunch still. So the launch will happen towards the end of May, beginning of June.

And it's a new product that we are offering to the market as such. Of course, there has been no, I would say, firm discussions right now in the market with customers on that particular product. But we believe it's providing a lot of additional value as an offering, in particular when it comes to reduction of cost, but also different other features.

And as we see that the sizes in the market of hydrogen plants are increasing towards plus 100 megawatts. In the meantime, we believe that with such an offer, we would be sort of hitting the sweet spot also in terms of size over the next 5 years quite accurately.

And as such, we believe it's the right sizing as well, and it gives a lot of opportunity to optimizing cost, of course.

Now, extra costs?

Yes, extra costs. Yes. Thanks, Kevin, for the question. And maybe just as a clarification ahead of explaining or answering your question, the technology is working, and we're continuously improving or we have been improving the performance in terms of specifically safety and reliability.

And it is important to keep in mind that any technological improvement is part of a maturing industry. And there was certainly the question, when is the best timing to do these enhancements.

And it's much better to do such improvements right now before commissioning as this is a lot easier than compared to doing it after start-up.

So basically, that decided or defined the point in time when we started to do the adjustments, the enhancements and that then incurred the respective costs. Stefan, I don't know if you want to add something to...

I think that [indiscernible] quite well. There's not much to add. I would rather answer the third question you had, Kevin, which related to the net working capital development. And you noted quite correctly, net working capital was down, and there were 2 effects mainly driving this.

One you already mentioned, it is the prepayments, and you can observe that in our balance sheet, contract liabilities are significantly up, which leads to a reduction of net working capital in turn.

The other -- and this is the second driver is inventory optimization. You will also note by looking into our balance sheet that inventories are down EUR 22 million, and that's the second effect that can be observed here. And the 2 drivers have led to a significant reduction of net working capital as a whole.

Thanks, Kevin. Before handing over to Marco Cristofori with Intesa. [Operator Instructions] But now Marco, over to you.

Can you hear me?

We do. Hello Marco.

I will start with your guidance, which has been confirmed despite, let's say, a weak second quarter. If I see -- at the mid of the range of your guidance for green hydrogen, I see that for the second half of the year, you expect still a huge decline of sales around 45%, but a strong improvement of the operating performance.

If I accounted well, around EUR 8 million EBIT losses compared with EUR 30 million EBIT losses reported in the second half of last year. So if you can give more color on the strong operational improvement expected in the second part of the year.

My second question is on the order of Moeve. You said that there will be a limited impact on sales in 2026. Just to understand if the average profitability or margin of this order is similar to the margin you recorded on other large orders.

And the last thing, very short, you mentioned during the call that part of the impact of lower revenues, negative revenues in the second quarter in green hydrogen will be reversed along the year. Is it correct? And how much is -- could be this impact of this reversal?

Okay, Marco. I think I will take all 3 questions. You started with the guidance. And you noticed quite correctly, we indeed do expect an increase of performance in gH2, but not only gH2 compared to the first half quarter here this of course, quite important to adjust for the onetime effects that, of course, have significantly hit into the segment EBIT here.

But even adjusted for that, you are correct. Our current EBIT guidance here is minus EUR 125 million to minus EUR 90 million, and it goes without saying that performance improvement is expected here.

Also for Chlor-Alkali, we expect a higher performance for the second quarter than in the first half year. This is -- I mean, differences or variations in performance here from quarter-to-quarter are quite usual in our business, plant engineering business. And here, we can see that the project mix is more -- will be more favorable in the second half quarter.

And I think this explains when we come to our overall guidance, which shows at least stable and in worse a slightly negative following quarters, but potentially positive ones. I hope that answers that question.

Then the second question was related to the Moeve project and the limited impact on sales. In this current fiscal year, also this is typical for such a large project where we usually start with an engineering phase and revenue realization during that engineering phase is not very significant compared to later stages in the project.

This is very typical. Due to the project time line, we will realize a larger part of the sales in the next fiscal year. And your question related to margin is this project has the same margin as comparable, for example, Chlor-Alkali -- larger Chlor-Alkali projects as well. So there's no big margin difference to mention.

Your third question was related to the reversal of the onetime effects. Also here, this is a very technical accounting effect related to the POC accounting. And the additional costs that were accounted here in the projects will indeed reverse. This is an effect that will stretch across the 2 to 3 -- across the 2 to 3 following quarters. So also when the revenue that is now accounted for negatively will reverse in the next quarter and the quarter after that mainly that is true, yes. I hope that answers that question as well.

Thanks Marco. Next in line is James Carmichael with Berenberg.

A few technical issues at my end, so apologies if you've covered any of this. But just a couple from me. Firstly, on order intake and the bridge to the low end of the guidance. I guess just based on your commentary, it sounds like we should essentially expect almost all of remaining orders for the year to be in the Chlor-Alkali business.

Just wondering if that is fair and a bit less confident on the green hydrogen time lines. And then looking at the sort of cost reduction measures, you've announced EUR 40 million or over EUR 40 million in total. Just wondering if there are any one-off costs associated with those and sort of how -- I guess, ultimately, how quickly you can implement that?

And then lastly, just on the conflict in and around, I guess there's no sort of direct operational impact to you guys, but just if there's anything that you're seeing in your supply chain or in your customer supply chains that are sort of affecting their ability to execute projects.

Maybe a quick comment on the first one, actually, on the order intake, is it fair to assume that it's going to be only for Alkali for the rest of this financial year, I would say, no. As mentioned, we have that 1.6 gigawatts of FEED contracts that we're currently working on. And of course, there are still potentials for this year that one or the other of these projects materialize in green hydrogen even for this -- for the remaining financial year.

But again, it's a potential, and we have seen now things slipping over the last years quite significantly. So there is, of course, also probability that will slip into next year. But as of today, I would say we are rather confident that something is still able to materialize also in green hydrogen.

I will touch upon the question on the cost reduction measures you've asked and your question was whether there are many one-off items or onetime items included in that. The answer to that is the cost savings that we've reported here are mainly sustainable in nature. However, most of them are reversible.

That is important to say. For example, especially looking at the personnel measures, we have always said that we have some flexibility in our working contracts, and this is what exactly what we used here. We have reduced working times here, which individual FTE, and that can be easily be reversed going forward if order intake should significantly pull up. Of course, there are some cost reduction measures that are not as easily reversed with the reduction of office space might take some time, but general comments to these measures, most of them have a sustainable effect.

Maybe to the last one, I'm not sure whether I fully understood the question correctly, but if it's about our supply chain and potential challenges with that supply chain on customer side, I would guess you're referring more to the Middle East supply chain and what we're doing there.

As stated also in the presentation, as of now, we don't see any impact on our project, in particular, NEOM project in Saudi Arabia. It remains rather quiet on that end of the country. And we would also cross fingers that going forward, there will be no further impact on that.

As stated also by our customer, I think last week in their own earnings call, there's been currently no impact on the overall project, and we all expect that this will remain as that. I hope that was answering that question as well.

Next question is coming from Klaus Ringel.

Hope the mic is open now, and you can hear me.

Yes, we can hear you.

Actually, it would be 2, I would like to take them one by one. The first one would be a clarification again on this cost containment program. And if there will be any implementation costs we should be aware of, not just in terms of savings, but any, let's say, kind of one-off costs for the implementation that we should see in the coming quarters?

No significant ones. You are probably referring to the personnel matters, I described in my answer before how we use flexibility that is included in the work contracts and that goes without any limited implementation costs. The best cost country approach might here and there incur slight cost, but this is not significant here related to the savings.

Thanks for the clarification. And the second one would be a technical question, and thanks for sharing the efforts here for development of these next-gen green hydrogen products and the 120-megawatt electrolyzer system. You mentioned that this is bringing -- or hopefully bringing significant cost savings. Can you give us an idea of what we are talking about here in terms of savings in percentage or cost or whatever?

I would -- I hope you can bear with us for a few more weeks for the launch of the offering. And along with that, we will also be a bit more precise on the cost savings, but they are rather substantial, I'd say.

There seems to be no more questions at this point in time. For that reason, I hand over to Werner one last time, and he will conclude today's call.

Yes. But then thank you very much, everyone, for joining us today in the call. If you have any further questions during the day, please feel free to reach out to our communications and also our Investor Relations teams. For now, all the best, and goodbye.

Hello, everyone, and a warm welcome. This is Hendrik Finger from Investor Relations. Thank you for joining this conference call at such short notice. I'm sure you've already seen our latest updates, and there have been quite a few developments since yesterday afternoon. As one research report put it, nucera is currently producing more news flow within 24 hours than it usually does over a couple of months. That is not entirely wrong, which is why we have stated this call in between quarters to provide further details and address any questions you may have.

We will host the call in the usual setup. Our CEO, Werner Ponikwar; and our CFO, Stefan Hahn, will guide you through the presentation, which has been kept very brief given to the short lead time and to allow more time for Q&A.

Now before we start the presentation, as always, some housekeeping. First, this call will be recorded and a replay will be made available on our website later. Second, today's presentation and potentially some answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements. For additional information in this regard, please refer to the disclaimer at the end of the slide deck.

And with that, I hand over to our CEO, Werner Ponikwar, who will be starting the presentation.

Yes. Thank you, Hendrik, and welcome, everyone. Great to have you with us again. During the last 24 hours, we have to admit that there had been quite some news flow, and we are certainly happy to provide more color on these events today.

So now today marks a truly exciting milestone for thyssenkrupp nucera on the project pipeline side. Moeve has selected us to deliver 300 megawatts of electrolysis capacity for the first phase of the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley. This is not just another project. It is a clear signal of a renewed commercial momentum for our company and strong recognition of our competitive product offering.

This project known as Onuba, will become the largest green hydrogen installation in Southern Europe, being able to produce around 45,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year and with that helping to avoid roughly 250,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. It will enable the production of sustainable fuels for transportation and also accelerate decarbonization in the chemical and also fertilizer industry.

We are proud that Moeve has selected our technology, and we are very much looking forward to be shaping such a lighthouse project for Europe's energy transition. The order has a low triple-digit million euro value and will be booked in the second half of this fiscal year. This allows us to raise the lower end of our group order intake outlook for the current year.

Phases for this project will largely materialize in the next financial year '26, '27, but the strategic significance is, of course, immediate. This is the kind of commercial traction we have worked for over the last months and quarters. It shows that the market is turning, and I firmly believe that we will see further project FIDs and further project wins for thyssenkrupp nucera in the next months and quarters.

Further evidence supporting this view comes from the FEED study for a 260-megawatt green hydrogen project in India, which we announced yesterday. Europe remains the hottest market in the short-run, but green hydrogen will be rolled out globally.

Now turning to the less pleasant news from last night. Let me walk you through the drivers behind our updated outlook for the fiscal year '25, '26 on Slide 3. Over the past months, we have seen strong commercial momentum driven by 2 major project wins, the large-scale chlor-alkali project in the Middle East booked in the second quarter and the new 300-megawatt green hydrogen project, which will be booked in the second half of this fiscal year.

These projects give us a more solid commercial baseline, allowing us to raise the lower end of the order intake guidance range. And at the same time, several project-related factors influence our earnings. Some of our green hydrogen projects require higher implementation costs. These costs primarily relates to specific enhancement measures for already delivered electrolyzer modules, ensuring that the reliability and safety of our electrolyzers stay at the highest level.

We're also seeing the financial impact of the termination of a 20-megawatt pilot project contract in the U.S. where the customer no longer saw sufficient return expectations. The combination of these factors results in a low double-digit million euro impact on our EBIT. Also, this additional cost caused technical timing effects in revenue recognition under IFRS 15.

The higher costs associated with green hydrogen new build projects reduce the accounting percentage of completion, which in turn leads to a technical negative revenue effect in the low double-digit million euro. This is why we expect sales for the Green Hydrogen segment in the second quarter to be around 0. While technically -- technical, these effects still had to be reflected, of course, in our updated guidance.

Taken together, this combination of positive commercial traction and higher project-related costs and timing effects explains the adjustments to our fiscal year '25, '26 outlook. The fundamentals of our business remains strong, and our focus remains on disciplined execution and delivering reliably on the projects that we have secured.

And with that, I would hand over to Stefan for further color on the outlook.

Yes. Thanks very much, Werner, and a warm welcome from my side as well. And based on what Werner just has explained, I will walk you through the adjustments of our full year guidance for 2025, 2026.

First, we have refined our order intake outlook and significantly raised the lower end of the range. For the group, we now expect EUR 550 million to EUR 850 million, which is significantly above the EUR 348 million that have been realized in the prior fiscal year. This adjustment of the lower range especially reflects the Moeve order that has just been explained by Werner, hence the large contract in the Middle East that we've communicated in December in the last calender year.

In the Green Hydrogen segment, we have lowered our sales and EBIT expectations. We now anticipate the green hydrogen sales of EUR 120 million to EUR [ 170 ] million based on the technical effects that were just explained. For the full year and EBIT expectation ranges between minus EUR 125 million to minus EUR 90 million.

At the same time, the chlor-alkali segment continues to perform very well. Therefore, we have raised the lower end of the EBIT range to EUR 45 million to EUR 45 million, the upper range to EUR 65 million, while keeping the sales outlook for this segment unchanged. As a result, these adjustments flow through the group level. We now expect group sales of EUR 450 million to EUR 550 million and group EBIT in the range of minus EUR 80 million to minus EUR 30.

Let me give you a quick rundown of what this means for the second quarter. We expect order intake to be strong, driven in particular by the [indiscernible] for order in the Middle East, which was booked in February and will hence be fully reflected in our Q2 figures.

In total, we anticipate group order intake of more than EUR 150 million in the second quarter, placing us clearly above the prior year quarter and also meaningfully ahead of a sequential basis -- ahead on a sequential basis.

On the sales side, the primarily accounting-related effects tied to the higher project costs in the green hydrogen segment, which were outlined earlier, will be recognized in the second quarter. As a result, the GH2 segment is expected to report sales of around EUR 0 million due to this technical effect. Chlor-alkali sales will be up on a quarter-to-quarter basis.

The higher project-related expenses will also be booked in Q2, which means the EBIT loss at group level will increase accordingly. And with that, I will hand back to Werner, who will wrap up today's presentation.

Thanks, Stefan. Ladies and gentlemen, we are aware that the recent announcements are certainly a lot to digest. Let me briefly summarize the key messages for the group. Our new 300-megawatt green hydrogen order from Moeve demonstrates the strong trust the industry places in our technology. Together with the 260-megawatt FEED study from Juno Joule in India, it underscores that the positive momentum we are seeing at the green hydrogen market continues to mature.

We are building on our proven track records and remain fully engaged with our customers as they move towards the finalization and commissioning of the first electrolyzer plant. At the same time, we are, of course, fully aware of the EBIT and cash impacts from the announced higher-than-expected project related costs. We are actively evaluating additional cost measures to mitigate these risks and maintain operating discipline.

And importantly, our profitable cash-generating chlor-alkali business, together with our solid balance sheet gives us the stability and headroom to navigate the current environment with confidence while staying focused on long-term value creation.

With that, we conclude today's presentation. Thank you for your attention, and we will now open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Marco Cristofori from Intesa.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

A couple of questions, if I may. The first one, if I see at the middle of the range, your reduction in EBIT is around EUR 40 million. And if it's possible to know the split between the project canceled in the U.S. and the higher implementation cost.

And specifically higher implementation cost, do you think it was a one-off or there is a risk that also on other project, we can have higher implementation cost? And my second question is if this reduction can have any impact on the expected cash flow generation this year and on maybe net cash evolution.

Sure. So I'm happy to answer your questions. First question was on the mid-range EBIT minus EUR 40 million and the split between the 2 topics mentioned here. We are not disclosing detailed figures this time. And as you are well aware, of course, all the figures are still not audited and preliminary. That's the main reason. But what I can say here, and I'm sure that this already sufficiently answers your question is that the major part of this loss is related to the cost overruns that we've seen in the projects. That is the major part.

Directly related to that is your third question regarding the cash effects. And as you are well aware and also in the past quarters, we are very focused on our free cash flow. And of course, it's always our aim to have a more or less balanced free cash flow. And also here, the cash effect from the cost that we see now will realize over the next 3 quarters. So it will not be a one-time cash effect inching into Q2. Rather, the impact on Q2 is pretty much close to 0, and we will see first impacts over the next 2 to 3 quarters. That doesn't necessarily mean that free cash flow in these quarters has to be significantly negative. So this will be a bit more stretched over a longer period. But surely, sooner or later, that will realize.

And then your second question was, is it a one-off. Of course, the cost that we booked right now is our expectation that we have in the projects and it also shows one other thing, and that projects are now close to being -- close to commissioning and they have a very high percentage of completion. That is also the reason why a big part of these losses are now directly hitting into our P&L. If we were at a much earlier stage in our projects, they wouldn't directly into our P&L. That is just a common practice in POC accounting.

And currently, this is our -- this reflects our expectation. But as you know, the projects that we are working on are reference projects and now it is important and this is what really [ met us ] that the plants are commissioned and running. And then the projects will be finalized. And hence, we cannot fully exclude that additional costs might realize to finalization of these [indiscernible] current reference projects, which is also not typical for these kind of projects we are working on.

The next question comes from Kevin Roger with Kepler Cheuvreux.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we do. I can.

If maybe we can start from what you mean in terms of specific announcements because it's very vague for us to understand what it means exactly because you have delivered a number of modules, everything on site. So what does it mean exactly? You need to change the project, you need to change some elements, you need additional equipment on site? So just to understand exactly what you mean by a specific [indiscernible] measure on those projects and notably the one in the Middle East [ NEM. ] And as a kind of second derivative, what does it mean exactly for the performance of your 20-megawatt electrolyzer?

Because on one side, you have those additional costs on the big project. You have the termination of the contract with CF Industries that basically are telling us that the performance is not good enough. So implicitly as a second derivative, based on what you need to do and what you mean by specific announcement, what does it mean for the performance of your 20-megawatt electrolyzer module, please?

And the second one is maybe on how you protect yourself in the contracts, things like that. But how is it possible that basically CF Industries moving away from a contract like that and that you have to pay the bill at the end on something that you were working on with a contract. So how do you protect yourself in the future in the terms and condition of the contract that I don't know, sorry for that, but I'm going to make a stupid example, but -- and maybe a very impossible one. But that on this 300-megawatt contract that you announced this morning, the client will not in a 6 or 12 months' time, move away, and we're going to see exactly the same thing again.

Okay. Thank you for the questions. This is Werner. Let me elaborate a little bit on the specific enhancements that we're planning. And I cannot go into all technical details here. But clearly, to start with actually, let's not forget that technological improvements are always part of a maturing of a technology in an industry. And it's not very uncommon that you identify over a period of time over the last months and quarters, improvement potentials and you need to think, okay, and we do that together with our clients, with our customers, how to deal with that. Do we want to do that right now? Or is it something that we would tend to do later.

And let's not forget that these -- our systems are made for operation for 20 to 30 years. So it's rather now if you want sort of a pre-invest into the future of our systems than anything else to ensure that these systems will be working safely and reliable over the course of the next 20 to 30 years. And this is why we have decided also together with our customers to invest now in these additional enhancements, if you want, that in generally are targeted on 3 different things. One is certainly -- we see that there are potential regulations upcoming actually that we sooner or later will have -- the whole industry will have to comply with. And that's certainly something that we want to proactively now improve in our system.

Certainly, in addition to that, we also learned over the last year that there's still room for improvement when it comes to safety. There always is. I'm not saying that our systems were unsafe, but you can certainly always enhance and improve in terms of safety of the overall system, making sure that actually you can minimize the risk to lowest maximum extent here as well. And that's certainly something that we have decided to do as well together with our clients.

And then thirdly, actually, that certainly also has an impact on reliability and also that is something that we are typically trying to keep at the highest possible level. And with that certainly also a part of these specific enhancements are targeted in these directions. Now that's sort of how we -- the different specific measures that we want to take. And there's a number of -- they are not only equipment and hardware, but it's also on the software side. So there's a big, I would say, update, if you want that we are doing actually on both ends here.

It certainly -- and coming back to your concern about [indiscernible] has nothing to do with the performance of our systems. Our systems are working. They're working properly, and we have also demonstrated already that they're working according to the expectations that we have and that our clients do have. And that was basically the same also in the U.S. with CF. CF has announced, they don't see economical justification anymore to continue actually with the plant. That has certainly a lot to do with also, I would say, the market in the U.S. actually and how they look at green hydrogen and sustainable energy right now that was driving this decision on their side.

But this has an impact on us contractually, yes, it's something that is certainly not in our favor. But you can be rest assured that with every contract that is in place right now after CF, and don't forget that CF was the first one that we ever have established in the field of green hydrogen that with every contract that was agreed after that, the clauses are different.

Okay. And sorry, just to follow up, just to be sure I understand, when you say that those specific announcement stuff have been done together with the clients, does it mean that the costs are shared and that the client is also paying or it's in a way, an open discussion that you had. And at the end, it's only you that are paying for the additional improvements that you placed on the electrolyzer.

There's certainly an expectation that this is not only on our shoulders. So this is certainly something where we also see that our clients take a share in these additional costs because it's, of course, in our joint interest here as well.

The next question comes from Martin Wilkie with Citi. [Operator Instructions]

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Just a question just on the timing. I think some of the deliveries for the project where you have the overruns were going to be in 2027. So just to clarify, when you talk that -- obviously, you can't rule out that there could be some more cost adjustments later. Is it possible that could impact 2027? Or is it more that you see the impact of this if there were to be future impacts, it would still be within the current fiscal '26 year? That was my first question.

Martin, it's Stefan speaking. So as it is common practice in POC accounting, the cost that we are realizing right now, our expectation for expenditures that -- our expectation for expenditures that we realize in the future. That is common practice in POC, and that also explains why the cash out will be stretched over 2 to 3 quarters. What has been described by Werner will be implemented over probably within the next 3 to 9 months.

And there is a corresponding cash out behind it. But the EBIT effect that is realized right now as is common practice in POC accounting and the reason for that is that we have a very mature project pipeline with a very high POC percentage. And in these cases, these kinds of expectations are realizing directly in P&L. That is not unusual. So to put in short, from what we see right now, there will be no further effects in the next fiscal year.

Great. No, that's really helpful. And the second question I had was -- and maybe this is not the right forum for it, given we'll have an earnings call coming up in the near future. But obviously, with the changes to the sort of macro backdrop with higher energy costs and so forth, and we're going to have an EU summit in the next couple of days where we expect the EU to sort of double down on green energy and energy efficiency and all these kind of things. What's the sort of mood of your customers now in terms of delivering or accelerating your pipeline?

Obviously, you do give us quite a lot of detail on your pipeline. Has there been any sort of sense of acceleration of conversion? Or is it just simply too early to tell as to what the impact from the current conflict could be?

This is Werner. I mean we certainly, I would say, see some tailwinds already, but it's too early to tell whether that is sustainable really. I mean it's a bit like we've seen also in other occasions where there was flooding and everyone was discussing climate change and now we need to do something urgently and so on and so forth. This typically holds for a couple of months and then things are changing again and different topics are of more interest. So I would be a bit cautious.

It's certainly now initiating again a discussion of sovereign, resilience, energy independency, in particular, of course, in Europe, as you can imagine. And that certainly, I would say, supports projects that are close to FID. Let's put it that way. And that's also why I was mentioning we are confident that there's still more to come. But how much that is really sustainable and will be dominating, I would say, discussions and political decisions going forward remains to be seen.

Thanks, Martin. There seems to be no more questions at this point in time. For that reason, I hand over to Werner one last time, and you will conclude this.

Thank you very much for joining this call, of course. Again, I think there's a lot to digest. I hope that we could shed some more light on the events now with this call. In any case, if you have further questions, then please do not hesitate to contact our Investor Relationship team. Certainly you know pretty well anyway. And with that, yes, thank you for joining, and let's stay in touch, looking forward for our next events as well. Thank you very much.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for standing by. This is Hendrik Finger from Investor Relations. I wish you a very warm welcome to thyssenkrupp nucera's joint press and analyst, and Investor conference on the results of the first quarter of our fiscal year '25-'26. We are very pleased that you have taken the time to join us today.

Our CEO, Werner Ponikwar; and our CFO, Stefan Hahn, will walk you through the presentation. They will highlight the latest business developments and provide an overview of the financial figures for the past quarter. In the room with us this morning are my colleagues from the Communication and Investor Relations teams as well.

Yes. Thank you, Hendrik. And I would also like to welcome you. My name is Evelin Veit, and I'm here the Head of Communications at thyssenkrupp nucera. So ladies and gentlemen, for the first time, we have decided to hold a joint press and Investor Relations conference. By bringing both audiences together, we create one forum where all questions can be asked and answered at the same time. This makes our communication more efficient and just importantly, more transparent. Everyone has the same information in the same moment with the same context. That is exactly how we want to communicate, open, clear, and accessible to all stakeholders who follow our company.

So our German journalists are welcome to submit their questions in German, and we will respond in English and are happy to provide a German translation afterwards.

And before we start the presentation, some additional housekeeping. First of all, this call will be recorded, and a replay will be made available on our website later today. Secondly, today's presentation and potentially some answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements. For additional information in this regard, please refer to the disclaimer. As usual, the presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session at this time, as Evelin pointed out, for journalists and analysts, as we are holding a joint conference. We will repeat it again prior to the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]

But with that, I'll hand over to our CEO, Werner Ponikwar, who will be starting the presentation.

Yes. Thank you, Hendrik. Good morning, everyone. It's great to have you with us. As this call takes place only a few weeks after our full-year reporting, I will focus on recent developments and how our business has evolved since then. First of all, let me stress that based on the financial performance in the first quarter and our ongoing performance, we are confirming our full-year financial guidance. In chloralkali, we observed good order momentum, which is expected to translate into rising order intake and could potentially result in a record quarterly order intake in the second quarter of this financial year. The key driver is the new chloralkali electrolyzer contract in the Middle East, which was signed and also announced in December already.

In green hydrogen, we continue to execute our existing projects while advancing our pipeline, specifically through a number of engineering contracts good for 1.7 gigawatts of electrolyzer capacity in Europe alone. We remain committed to adding further engineering studies for projects to our portfolio and ultimately to convert them, of course, into electrolyzer supply contracts over the coming months and quarters.

In India, we launched a cooperation to accelerate green hydrogen and power-to-X markets with GIZ, a German federal enterprise specializing in international corporation. This strategic partnership further strengthens our position in a priority growth region where we are already a quite strong footprint in the chloralkali sector.

Lastly, our financials were in line with expectations. EBIT softness was modest relative to sales decline. Our profitability was supported by an improved project mix and disciplined cost containment, confirming that our underlying margin improvement measures are effectively working through the P&L. So in a nutshell, our project execution remains disciplined, the full year outlook intact, and the commercial funnel is progressing. Let's add some more details about the stage of project execution in both segments.

The NEOM Green hydrogen company announced a couple of weeks ago that construction of the green hydrogen plant is 90% complete, which is a significant achievement. And for Stegra, our electrolyzer modules have been handed over, and site works in Boden is progressing as planned. In fact, Stegra pointed out last week that only 10 electrolyzer modules remain to be installed. These projects are undeniably significant milestones for the green hydrogen industry, given the status among the world's largest green hydrogen initiatives.

Looking at our major chloralkali projects, including new builds in the U.S., in India, and also in Brazil, it is fair to say that deliveries and also commissioning activities continue reliably and fully in line with customer schedules. Commercially, our pipeline remains solid with around 13 gigawatts of actively pursued opportunities in green hydrogen, which will be displayed in more detail on the next slide. In chloralkali, we do see significant potential for further service and also new build orders. The recently-signed large-scale contract in the Middle East highlights the strong demand for our technology. Overall, we are executing all major projects in a timely and diligent manner and are well-positioned to capitalize on the next wave of growth opportunities.

The market for green hydrogen continues to consolidate, and many planned projects are reaching a stage where they are either being approved or finally canceled. This is visible in our project pipeline on Page 7 as well. Our pipeline has been reduced in number of projects and its overall value, but it is also way more focused and healthy than a year ago. It will come as no surprise that the rightsizing in our actively pursued pipeline is closely linked to the developments in the U.S., where the window of opportunities for funded green hydrogen projects will close in January 28, at least temporarily. We dedicate our strongest efforts on projects with a high likelihood of realization, supporting our customers from the initial concept to final investment decision and also execution of the project.

This certainly includes the already mentioned projects with a combined capacity of 1.7 gigawatts, for which we are currently executing project engineering. With our engineering work, we have to progress these projects towards FID with the potential to be converted in firm equipment orders of close to EUR 1 billion in the near to midterm. The total pipeline amounts to 55 gigawatts, underscoring the significant market potential, and approximately 13 gigawatts of this relates to projects already at an advanced stage.

Our regional pipeline distribution highlights Europe as currently the most attractive market for green hydrogen projects with additional opportunities spread across Australia, the Americas and also in India and the Middle East. Regarding Europe and India, I will share our perspective on the market in more detail on the next slide as well. But to summarize our project pipeline first, we remain confident that we will secure selective wins out of our engineering contracts over the coming quarters.

Now I'd like to share some thoughts on the green hydrogen market. We observed momentum building in selective regions, and Europe and India are good examples for that. In Europe, the transposition of the EU directors international law is progressing with drafted implementations clearly indicating that RED III quotas, for example, will drive real demand for green hydrogen in the next years already. This will ultimately result in a significant buildup of production capacity over the coming years, from which we will be benefiting. Estimates for necessary electrolyzer capacity to meet the quotas by 2030 are in the double-digit gigawatt range, representing billions of euros of potential electrolyzer orders. Although only full national transposition will tell the real demand, even a smaller part of the full potential would provide already significant growth opportunities for electrolyzer OEMs. And EU quotas for sustainable aviation and also shipping fuels would offer even more potential.

Turning to India. India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies and one of the most promising future markets for Greentech. As outlined in the National Green Hydrogen Mission, India aims to become a global leader in producing, using, and also exporting green hydrogen and its derivatives. The plan includes huge investments in production capacity for green hydrogen based on very substantial renewable energy additions. We have been active in India for decades already in the alkali business, and we will play a role in green hydrogen as well. We do see first projects being implemented, and we are also having promising discussions with potential customers and also partners.

And with that, I am pleased to hand over to Stefan for the financial section.

Thank you very much, Werner, and a warm welcome from my side as well. I'm pleased to present the financial developments of the first quarter of our new financial year '25-'26. Ladies and gentlemen, our overall financial performance in the past quarter was in line with our expectations and with our full-year guidance. Despite the decline in quarterly sales, the decrease in EBIT was modest, underscoring our ability to manage costs effectively and navigate periods of market slowdown. Importantly, our financial stability remains solid and unchanged. Let's take a look at the financials displayed here and start on Page 10 with our order intake.

In the first quarter, we recorded an order intake of EUR 75 million, which was 21% below the level seen in the prior year. Order intake in the GH2 segment continues to be impacted by project shifts and the overall delayed market ramp-up. Order intake in the chloralkali segment reflects the usual volatility in the project business. In the second quarter, order intake will rise significantly, driven by the new project for a large-scale chloralkali plant in the Middle East. We signed the contract in December, but it was not yet included in Q1 figures. The contract value will now be recorded as order intake in Q2, in line with the fulfillment of further conditions.

Order backlog for the group stood at EUR 489 million at the end of December, of which EUR 186 million relates to the GH2 business. The decline compared with the last reporting period is due to further progress in project execution and lower order intake in the GH2 newbuild business. For the above-mentioned reasons, we won't see a further decline in the second quarter of this financial year.

Let's continue with our sales development. In the first quarter, sales declined by 44% year-on-year to EUR 147 million. The sales decline was witnessed across both segments and reflects the achieved progress in executing our existing order backlog. In the GH2 segment, sales totaled EUR 77 million, representing a 50% decrease compared with the prior year period. The decline is driven by lower sales from the NEOM project due to the high degree of revenue realization, while the Stegra project in Sweden contributed the largest share to segment sales. In the chloralkali segment, sales amounted to EUR 70 million. The year-on-year decline of 35% is driven by the new build business, while service sales remained on prior year level. It's fair to assume that chloralkali newbuild sales will recover over the next quarters based on recent order intake. Overall, the sales development in our first quarter reflects our progress in project execution and was in line with our expectations and our full-year sales guidance.

Moving on to EBIT on Page 13. In the first quarter, group EBIT declined by EUR 12 million to minus EUR 4 million, primarily driven by the lower absolute sales volume in both segments. EBIT in the GH2 segment fell to minus EUR 12 million, while EBIT in the chloralkali segment declined to EUR 8 million. The EBIT development was attributable to some extent also to negative derivative effects of EUR 2 million from raw material hedging. This is a consequence of the unusual high volatility currently seen in raw material prices. If you adjust this one-off item, the operational result would be significantly closer to breakeven. On a positive note, a strong increase in gross margin of 5 percentage points due to an improved project mix partially offset this effect. The same applies to our active cost management, at which we will take a closer look as part of our operating costs on Page 14.

Cost of goods sold improved strongly as a percentage of sales, especially supported by a more favorable project mix. To mitigate the knock-on effect of the recent sales decline and cost absorption, we have taken a proactive and disciplined approach to cost containment. Our measures include reducing overtime, cutting back from the use of external services as well as a restrictive hiring policy. In addition, we have adjusted working hours in line with the applicable collective agreements and are increasing the efficiency of our existing infrastructure and digital resources. I'm pleased to report that these actions are already delivering results. This is also reflected in the year-on-year stability of our absolute SG&A expenses and even more evidently in the quarter-on-quarter decline of EUR 4 million compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year. For the second half of this financial year, we also expect a further sequential decline in SG&A.

On the other hand, we keep our innovation speed up. Research and development expenses increased as planned, with most of the investment directed to our AWE stack and AWE module development, but also our R&D activities related to the SOEC technology.

Moving on to review our development from EBIT to earnings per share on Page 15. Financial income declined by EUR 3 million, primarily reflecting lower income from lower interest rates. Income taxes totaled minus EUR 1 million. As a result, net income declined to minus EUR 3 million from EUR 9 million in the previous year. Earnings per share decreased accordingly to minus EUR 0.02 per share. Cash flow from operating activities declined to EUR 1 million in the first quarter. In addition to lower earnings, the decrease was primarily driven by cash outflows related to reductions in trade payables and contract liabilities. These effects were partially offset by cash inflows from reduction in inventories and trade receivables.

Cash flow from investing activities was roughly stable at minus EUR 6 million. Overall, this resulted in a slightly negative free cash flow of minus EUR 5 million, which leads to a slight decrease of cash and cash equivalents to EUR 677 million. Deducting gross financial debt of EUR 29 million, which reflects long-term leasing contracts, net financial assets totaled EUR 648 million, which is unchanged at a very comfortable and high level. Our focus remains firmly on cost control and balance sheet preservation.

Lastly, let me reiterate our outlook for fiscal year '25, '26, which remains unchanged. At group level, we expect order intake in the range of EUR 350 million to EUR 900 million, driven primarily by major new build projects in both segments and robust demand in the chloralkali service business. Our group sales for group sales, we expect EUR 500 million to EUR 600 million, largely supported by projects already under contract. At segment level, we anticipate GH2 sales of EUR 150 million to EUR 220 million and chloralkali sales of EUR 320 million to EUR. For group EBIT, we expect a range of minus EUR 30 million to EUR 0 million in fiscal year '25, '26. EBIT in the GH2 segment is expected to come in between minus EUR 80 million and minus EUR 55 million, while the chloralkali segment is expected to deliver between EUR 40 million and EUR 65 million.

With that, I will hand back to Werner, who will wrap up today's presentation.

Thank you, Stefan. Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude today's presentation by reiterating our key messages. Our first quarter performance demonstrates resilience and disciplined execution in a challenging market environment. We are delivering financial results in line with expectations while positioning the company to capture the next wave of growth. With a strong foothold in chloralkali and new momentum in large-scale green hydrogen, we see tangible opportunities ahead. Our continued focus on technology and innovation strengthens our competitive position and our robust project pipeline, including 1.7 gigawatts of engineering work with a clear conversion potential. We remain fully focused on disciplined project execution, cost control, and value creation, and delivering sustainable growth for our shareholders.

And that concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention, and we are now ready to take your questions. Hendrik, over to you.

Thanks, Werner. [Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Michael Kuhn Deutsche Bank.

Starting with the project pipeline, you said that, let's say, the U.S. was the main reason for the shrinkage of the pipeline. Is there still any projects in the U.S. that you are pursuing for now? Or is that -- has that basically dropped to 0?

Michael, this is Werner. Just a quick answer to that there are only a few left in our pipeline, let's put it that way, that we are still pursuing. These are typically projects which do not require funding and are geared towards exporting their products finally to Japan and South Korea, for example.

Then on the conversion of the 1.7 gigawatts of engineering contracts, you say near to midterm. Would you be able to define that a little precisely?

I mean, unfortunately, that's certainly very much depending on our customers rather than ourselves when they are ready to take FID. And there's a lot of, I would say, framing parameters that certainly have an influence on that. But to put it that way, there are, I would say, quite some projects actually where we would expect over the next weeks to months that they could take FID, but there's also projects in this portfolio, which might come a little bit later, so maybe a couple of quarters.

And then on India, I mean, you have been there for a little while. Now you have signed the cooperation with GIZ. Would you expect that to speed up things? And sorry to stick with that time line issue, but would you be willing to roughly frame what time frames you would expect for India until projects might be realized?

Yes, happy to try as good as I can because, again, also here, it's very much depending on how customers are progressing their projects. But one thing is actually for sure, I mean, we've also tried to sketch out a little bit that the ambitions in India and also, I would say, the governmental support is quite significant, which is certainly are good drivers for the market. However, what we see as well is, of course, that with these ambitions, there's a lot of also ambitions when it comes to establishing projects. And I would believe that not all of what has been now announced will finally also reach FID.

There has been a number of projects that are already moving towards implementation, but I would say the vast majority will still take a while. So in terms of timeline, I would not expect that there will be a lot of FIDs taken within the next month and quarter in India. But in the sort of near to midterm, so meaning towards the end of this calendar year, beginning of next year, we could potentially see already the first positive signals coming out of the Indian market.

Again, it's for them a bit more early stage also in terms of their development than, for example, in Europe, where green hydrogen is discussed for and back and regulated up and down for many years now. That's certainly also a development that needs to happen in India to a certain extent, and that will certainly also determine to a certain extent, the timelines of projects being progressed right now.

And then very last question on CapEx, broadly flattish year-over-year, around EUR 6 million, EUR 7 million. Is that something that we should also expect for the upcoming quarters?

I think that will be pretty much the range we will see in the next quarters as well. It's a good reference. And it's mainly capitalized immaterial goods. And for that reason, it will be in the similar range.

The next question comes from Klaus Ringel with ODDO.

I actually would be interested looking at your full-year guidance parameters for the group in terms of order intake, sales, and also on EBIT, and looking at your Q1 performance. And the question would be, if you could share some flavor where you're seeing yourself within these ranges. I mean, order intake is a rather broad range, while sales and, yes, EBIT is maybe a bit nearer. It would be great if you could give some color here.

Sure. So starting with order intake, as you said, it's broad. And of course, it's, as always in our business, highly dependent on order intake of larger new build projects. I think here, the lower range is slowly would mean we would have only chloralkali service orders. I think it's quite likely that this is a very conservative figure, the EUR 350 million, we were able to sign the bigger chloralkali order in December already. So it's very likely that we will be above that. The EUR 900 million will only be reached if larger newbuild orders in GH2 are realized. And that might give you a better perspective of that range.

Regarding sales for chloralkali, as I already mentioned, as we've signed this big new build contract in chloralkali in December, it's quite likely that for the sales range, we will touch the upper half of that range with that order now being effective. So here, we are rather tending towards the upper range. For the GH2 sales, the lower range, EUR 150 million would mean that we mainly work on the order backlog. The upper range would be reached if new bigger new build orders are realized in that segment. It's typical for our business. Once we sign bigger orders, it takes a while until they have a significant contribution on sales. And for that reason, even if we sign bigger orders now, they wouldn't have a very significant effect in this fiscal year. And for that reason, this range is not as broad. I hope that answers your question.

Yes. Perfect. Just one question on maybe potential future unfolding of further efficiencies or cost savings. Is there something material to come that we should keep in mind, which will also have an impact on the EBIT?

Yes. I mean for this year, I think we are well set with our cost measures. And during our presentation, you heard they do not yet even have full effect. The reduction of working hours will be fully effective starting in Q1. So we will see the full effect starting in Q3 of the measures. And with that, we are on the right path. And for our current order intake assumptions, the measures are well set. And of course, it will be dependent on further order intake how we proceed with that.

Next in line is Marco Cristofori with Intesa.

Is on the conversion potential of this large 1.7 gigawatt order. You said EUR 1 billion roughly, and this is anyway above your guidance. So there's something I'm missing here. And second thing also on this order, I guess it would translate into revenues after some months. So if you would be able to get the order, you would see an impact on revenues on the top line, let's say, from second half of 2027. And so I mean, my question mark is if you are going to do some, let's say, restructuring at green hydrogen, given that the potential revenues would come only after 18 months, or you are going to keep your structure, your industrial framework as it is?

Marco, this is Werner. I'm happy to take and answer your question. So just to clarify, the 1.7 gigawatts in terms of engineering works that we are currently providing to clients is for more than just one project. So it's a small number of projects, actually. Some of them are a bit larger, some of them are a bit smaller, which we are currently intensively driving forward the engineering work for that. So that means that it will not be in one go, 1.7 gigawatts. So these are projects that will come in different points in time if they take FID. Again, as also mentioned already earlier, we believe some of them could -- are quite tangible, I'd say, could be converted in the next months. Others may take somewhat longer. And that is sort of also how they would finally contribute to our top line.

And you are, of course, absolutely right here. This regardless of whether we're going to sign something tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, and we will be able to realize order intake that will only have a limited effect for this fiscal year's top line. Most of that will certainly be then realized over the next couple of years. And that certainly, as you also rightfully said, means that we cannot, I would say, reduce our structure in terms of our cost-saving measures because we are confident that we will have to utilize our existing structure going forward once these projects are kicking in. And this is why the cost containment measures that we have currently implemented are all reversible. So they basically can very quickly also be lifted and turned around. And we were very carefully selecting them to preserve our existing resource structure and have enough resources available for the time where these projects that were mentioned are kicking in, and we need to spend a lot of engineering hours on those.

Okay. And if they would not come, that's a big question mark, I guess, for the management in thyssenkrupp .

Of course, I mean, if they would not come, then we will certainly have to see what we need to do in terms of additional cost measures. Then the -- I would say, the dip in terms of growth would be then larger than we would all expect from today's perspective. And that's certainly something that we will decide once we see clearer on if that is a possibility at all. From today's perspective, we feel quite comfortable that this will not be an option. So we will see order intake coming in again. And with that, basically, I think that the measures that we have that we are taking are the right ones for this year, and again, are reversible, which makes a lot of sense in a situation where you potentially see new orders coming in quite quickly.

[Operator Instructions] And with that, next in line is Skye Landon from Rothschild.

Just on green hydrogen, I was just wondering if you could share anything around the potential of winning any major Middle Eastern projects, given some awards have been made to the supply chain for a 4-gigawatt project. So I was wondering what's nucera's chance of picking up all or some of the electrolyzer volume, which has not yet been announced? Just any detail on that would be great.

Yes. Of course, you can -- I mean, you know that we are well-positioned currently in the Middle East, in particular in Saudi Arabia, with our new projects, where we are currently in the final stage of delivering the equipment and moving towards pre-commissioning and commissioning. And with that, certainly, we have already quite a strong reference in the market. Is that a guarantee for getting now the next big orders? It's certainly not, but it's, of course, a good reference, let's put it that way. And we are, of course, as you can imagine, in quite active discussions with potential clients in the region and also in particular in Saudi Arabia for the next larger projects. But again, that's certainly something that we will be happy to report on if and once they are substantiating.

There seems to be no more questions at this point in time. For that reason, I hand over to Werner one last time, and he will conclude today's call.

Yes. Thank you, everyone, for joining for this call. If you have more questions during the day, then, of course, feel free to reach out to our communications and also our Investor Relations team. And with that, let me say goodbye and all the best, and thank you for joining.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for standing by. This is Hendrik Finger from Investor Relations. I wish you a warm welcome to our conference call on the full year results '24/'25 of thyssenkrupp. Our CEO, Werner Ponikwar; our CFO, Stefan Hahn; and our CEO, Klaus Ohlig, and will walk you through the presentation. In the room with us this morning are my colleagues from the Investor Relations team.

Now before we start the presentation, some housekeeping. This call will be recorded, and a replay will be made available on our website later. Please also don't forget that today's presentation and potentially some answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements. For additional information in this regard, please refer to the disclaimer. After the presentation, there will be the usual Q&A session for analysts. However, we are using Microsoft Teams for the call for the first time, and that changes the process slightly. [Operator Instructions].

And with that, I'm handing over to our CEO, Werner Ponikwar.

All right. Thank you, Hendrik. Good morning, everyone, and great to have you with us. Let's kick things off with a look at our highlights of the past fiscal year. For thyssenkrupp nucera, fiscal year '24, '25 was a year of diligent project execution, but also of technology innovation and focused investments. We advanced our positions in green hydrogen and chlor-alkali and kept our financial base robust, which is essential in a volatile market.

Operationally, we executed a substantial order backlog in both green hydrogen and chlor-alkali and worked on our maturing project pipeline, where we have been named preferred technology provider for green hydrogen projects with a total capacity of more than 3 gigawatts. Our service business grew and we demonstrated financial resilience through strict cost discipline. We invested in our green hydrogen technology portfolio to accelerate time to market and to reinforce our leadership in hydrogen cost efficiency.

Our commercial momentum in chlor-alkali accelerated, supported by technology upgrades and service expansion, and we secured new contracts for state-of-the-art chlor-alkali plants. Just yesterday, we were awarded a new contract for one of the largest chlor-alkali plants in the world, which represents a record order intake for us for a single project in this segment. I will share some more details just shortly.

Let's turn to the numbers and compare them with our outlook. While group sales came in slightly below the guidance range of EUR 845 million, I am happy to state that we returned to positive EBIT territory with EUR 2 million, reflecting an improved project mix in green hydrogen and resilient execution in chlor-alkali.

On top of that, we achieved all our segment targets. The green hydrogen segment stood at EUR 459 million in sales and minus EUR 56 million in EBIT. Chlor-alkali contributed EUR 387 million in sales, which is, by the way, a record high and EUR 58 million in EBIT.

Now moving on to our largest green hydrogen projects on the next slide. For NEOM, project execution is on track. All 110 electrolyzer modules have been completed and handed over to our customer. To get there, we recorded over 400 -- 4 million safe working hours without a lost time injury at our module yard in Vietnam. Construction of the green hydrogen facility in Saudi Arabia is about 90% completed in time. And going forward, we will continue to provide technical support on site with commissioning planned for the second half of '26.

Let me step back from our daily work for a moment and look at the bigger picture. Our accomplishments in these projects are major achievements. At times, it may seem like we take the flawless execution of this very complex project for granted or see it as routine, but it truly stands out as remarkable. We are very proud to be part of the world's largest green hydrogen project, a contribution that will continue to benefit us well into the future.

With that back to our largest European project. At Stegra, cell fabrication and delivery are on schedule. We have handed over more than 80% of the electrolyzer modules and more than 50% have already been installed on site in Boden, in Sweden. The project will feature a total of 37 electrolyzers across 4 cell houses with continuous operation targeted by the customer for late '26.

Now let's talk chlor-alkali. In the last fiscal year, we saw a growing order book momentum with the highest demand coming from U.S. and Saudi Arabia. And with the new build project in the Middle East, which we announced yesterday, it is quite likely that order intake will grow in the current fiscal year as well. From that project alone, we expect a high double-digit million euro order intake in the second quarter of our running year '25-'26, which is, in fact, the largest single order we have ever received in that business. We will be able to tell you more about it over the next weeks.

Commercially, I'd like to add that project execution is on track and that sales reached an all-time high, with service business accounting for 60% of our chlor-alkali sales. Recently, we also launched new BM and BiTAC cell generations with industry-leading power consumption and introduced also a 360-degree life cycle service portfolio, further enhanced by the digitalization.

Now turning to our ESG agenda and the respective developments. In '25, we completed a revised double materiality assessment. We opened new energy-efficient offices in Houston and also in Riyadh and achieved over 4 million safe working hours without a lost time injury in our module yard in Vietnam.

Overall, our commitment to good governance and social responsibility is clear. It shows, for example, in the high completion rates for trainings and supplier code of conduct implementation in partnerships with nonprofit organizations and very active employee engagement. These efforts are also recognized externally as in ESO certifications or ESG ratings.

In that regard, we are particularly proud that we have received a gold rating from EcoVadis in August '25, placing us amongst the top 5% of our sector for sustainability. These achievements underscore our dedication to responsible growth and stakeholder value. And now I'm very pleased to hand over to our CTO, Klaus, for a technology deep dive.

Thank you, Werner, and good morning, everyone. Before I move on to my slides, I'd like to make a few brief points since this is my first appearance at thyssenkrupp nucera's quarterly analysts and investor calls. I'm excited to be on board, and I've already met many talented and engaged colleagues during my first months here. I'm certain that we will jointly see great achievements. Today, I will give you a general overview of our technology approach and recent developments that strengthen our position in the market.

Our focus is on driving technology leadership and innovation to support the global transition towards sustainable and CO2-free value chains. Let me start with our chlor-alkali business. At thyssenkrupp nucera, we are known for our leading electrolyzer solutions, backed by over 60 years of experience in more than 600 plants worldwide. Our approach combines reliable, durable and safe technology with deep system integration know-how. This foundation allows us to maintain an industry-leading track record and build long-standing client relationships, supported by our global service network. Innovation is at the core of what we do.

We continuously improve our technology to ensure cost competitiveness and leadership in the market and also to be able to further expand our offering to ensure a one-stop shop experience for our industrial clients. Our latest developments include new BM and BiTAC generations, which deliver higher performance through unmatched low electrical power consumption, easier maintenance and simpler installation.

Additionally, we have launched our 360-degree life cycle service portfolio designed to support customers throughout the entire operational lifespan of their plants and to leverage the benefits of digitalization and artificial intelligence. To sum it up, we reinforce our position as a leader in electrolyzer solutions by combining cutting-edge technology with a robust service network and continued innovations. Now turning to green hydrogen.

As you know, we are delivering our technology to the largest green hydrogen projects in the world. Our 20-megawatt alkaline water electrolysis module based on proven cell design and operating at atmospheric pressure delivers exceptional durability and efficiency. In addition, we have secured a supply chain capacity of 2 gigawatts per year, ensuring scalability and reliability for our customers.

Our customers' needs are in the center of all of our R&D efforts. Therefore, we are working tirelessly to reduce levelized cost of hydrogen for our customers and to expand our product range, for example, by adding balance of plant elements. We are continuously optimizing our solutions to lower installation costs and energy consumption, reinforcing our cost leadership. Nevertheless, quality and safety remain key.

Furthermore, we are strategically expanding our product portfolio into pressurized alkaline water electrolysis systems and high-temperature electrolyzers or SOEC, offering efficiency and flexibility. With that, we are positioning ourselves for the next wave of market growth. Our vision is clear: to lead the hydrogen market by setting technological benchmark and delivering solutions that enable industrial decarbonization and long-term value creation for our customers. That's it from my side. Stefan will now continue with the financials.

Thank you very much, Klaus, and a warm welcome from my side as well. I'm pleased to present the key financial developments for both the fourth quarter and the full year 2024-'25. Afterwards, I will provide an outlook for the new fiscal year 2025-'26. Let me start off with summarizing our financial performance in the past financial year. Ladies and gentlemen, thyssenkrupp nucera delivered a solid operational performance in a challenging environment and remain focused on the diligent execution of its order backlog.

Order intake was impacted by market uncertainty in green hydrogen, while chlor-alkali improved due to rising service orders. Group sales were slightly lower than last year, reflecting the phasing of ongoing new build projects in both segments. Chlor-Alkali business achieved record sales, which was offset by softer sales in green hydrogen. Our EBIT improved markedly in the past fiscal year, driven by a stronger gross margin in gH2 segment, supported by a more profitable project mix. The chlor-alkali gross margin remained on a high level. Active cost management supported the cost ratio despite lower sales.

Bottom line, we recorded a positive net income and earnings per share. Lastly, free cash flow improved strongly and was in positive territory. And with net financial assets remaining at a high level, we continue to operate from a position of financial strength, supporting both resilience and future growth. Let's now turn to Page 16 for a more detailed look on order intake. In the fourth quarter, we recorded order intake of EUR 107 million, reflecting a sequential improvement, though still marginally below the level seen in the prior year.

Order intake in the gH2 segment remained subdued, while the CA segment in order intake rose by 5% year-on-year. This increase was driven by a strong performance in the new build business, including new project wins in the Middle East and India. For the full year, order intake decreased by 45% to EUR 348 million, with EUR 26 million generated in the gH2 segment and EUR 322 million in chlor-alkali. The decline in gH2 reflects project cancellations and postponements in light of the ongoing hesitancy around financial investment decisions during the reporting period. It is also important to remember that previous year's figure included more than EUR 300 million of order intake related to the Stegra project.

In contrast, order intake in the chlor-alkali segment increased by 15% year-on-year. It was driven by a very strong service business with Central Europe, the Middle East and the United States serving as a key regional contributor. Order backlog stood at EUR 606 million at the end of September. The reduction compared with previous reporting periods is primarily the result of further progress in project execution as well as the current absence of major new gH2 orders.

Let's continue with our sales development. In the fourth quarter, sales declined by 28% year-on-year to EUR 182 million. The strong increase in chlor-alkali sales was more than outweighed by lower contributions from the gH2 segment. For the full year, group sales edged down by 2% to EUR 845 million. Sales performance was largely driven by the execution of the order backlog across both segments.

H2 segment, sales totaled EUR 459 million, representing a 12% decrease compared with the prior year. Progress on the Stegra project in Sweden supported the result by sales from the NEOM project, still the largest contributor to the segment declined due to the high degree of completion already achieved. Chlor-Alkali delivered a strong performance with sales rising 14% year-on-year to EUR 386 million, an all-time high for this business.

Growth was primarily fueled by the service business, which accounted for an impressive 60% of total chlor-alkali sales during the reporting period. Moving to EBIT on Page 18. In the fourth quarter, EBIT was in line with the prior year at minus EUR 1 million. The solid improvement in gross margin across both segments was offset by a higher cost ratio, reflecting the decline in gH2 sales. For the full year, group EBIT increased by EUR 7 million to EUR 2 million.

EBIT in the gH2 segment improved by EUR 20 million to minus EUR 56 million, while EBIT in the chlor-alkali segment decreased slightly to EUR 58 million. The increase in group EBIT primarily reflects a stronger gross margin in the gH2 business and driven by a more profitable project mix. This improvement more than compensated for higher expenses for the further development of SOEC, which is included in this segment. In the chlor-alkali segment, EBIT came in slightly below last year despite higher sales although due to an increase in other cost of sales that weighed on gross margin.

Importantly, EBIT in the chlor-alkali business actually improved year-on-year when adjusting for onetime effects that had positively affected EBIT in the prior year. Next is the development -- the development of our operating cost. Cost of goods sold improved as a percentage of sales, especially supported by a more favorable project mix in the green hydrogen segment.

In light of the declining sales trend, we acted early with disciplined cost management, and I'm pleased to report that our efficiency measures are already taking effect. SG&A expenses remained stable year-on-year in absolute terms. As we enter the new financial year, we will continue to focus on cost containment to mitigate the impact of lower sales on cost absorption.

Research and development expenses increased slightly in absolute terms with most of the investments directed towards the gH2 segment. As a percentage of sales, R&D remained stable. However, this picture is somewhat distorted as our overall R&D activity has actually expanded and a higher portion of these costs was capitalized compared to the previous year. In total, EUR 8 million of development costs were capitalized in the reporting period.

Moving to the bridge from EBIT to earnings per share on Page 20. Financial income declined to EUR 70 million, primarily reflecting lower interest income. Income taxes totaled EUR 50 million. The year-on-year increase in tax expense was driven by higher earnings before taxes and higher deferred tax expenses.

As a result, net income declined to EUR 5 million from EUR 11 million in the previous year. Earnings per share decreased accordingly to positive EUR 0.04. Net working capital caused a small cash out of EUR 5 million, mainly related to payments from project execution and movement in corresponding accruals. Cash flow from operating activities improved strongly in '24-'25. It totaled EUR 50 million compared to minus EUR 62 million in the prior year period. This improvement was largely driven by project cash flows.

Cash flow from operating activities increased to minus EUR 39 million, mainly due to higher investments, mostly related to intangible assets, such as development cost capitalization and technology acquisition. Overall, this resulted in a positive cash flow of EUR 11 million, representing an improvement of EUR 89 million year-on-year despite increased investments. This underlines our strong financial position.

We are able to finance our business from operating activities, which is beneficial for our strong financial foundation, as shown on the next slide. Net financial assets amounted to EUR 656 million at the end of September 2025, remaining at a very robust level. The year-on-year decline primarily reflects the signing of a long-term lease agreement for our new offices in Dortmund. Even after this reduction, our financial resources remain substantial and more than sufficient to navigate the current market environment and to support our future growth plans.

Lastly, let me walk you through our outlook for fiscal year '25-'26. Based on the current economic environment, we continue to regard the guidance published in our ad hoc announcement on November 2025 as appropriate for the group. It will reiterate this guidance and complement it with an outlook on order intake and segment performance. At group level, we expect order intake in the range of EUR 350 million to EUR 900 million, driven primarily by major new build projects in both segments and robust demand in the chlor-alkali service business.

Order intake remains highly dependent on the timing of individual large new build contracts, particularly in the gH2 segments, where projects often amount to several hundred million euros and may shift between reporting periods. Against this backdrop, the lower end of the range assumes no new significant gH2 customer orders, while the upper end reflects winning several major new build projects across both segments. For group sales, we expect EUR 500 million to EUR 600 million, largely supported by projects already under contract. At segment level, we anticipate gH2 sales of EUR 150 million to EUR 220 million, primarily driven by the existing order backlog. Additional sales contributions from new hydrogen -- from new green hydrogen projects are not expected to materially impact sales in the current fiscal year.

In the chlor-alkali segment, we expect sales of EUR 320 million to EUR 400 million with the upper end contingent on securing additional new build and service orders during the financial year. For group EBIT, we expect a range of minus EUR 30 million to EUR 0 million in fiscal year '25, '26. Lower cost absorption resulting from the planned sales decline will be partially mitigated by cost efficiency measures already underway. EBIT in the gH2 segment is expected to come in between minus EUR 80 million and minus EUR 55 million, while the chlor-alkali segment is expected to deliver between EUR 40 million and EUR 65 million.

In summary, our outlook reflects a year of diligent project execution, prudent cost management and contingent strategic positioning for growth as large-scale project decisions materialize. With that, I will hand back to Werner, who will wrap up today's presentation.

Well, thank you, Stefan. Ladies and gentlemen, let me now turn to the commercial and strategic outlook for the near and midterm. We continue to operate in a period of significant volatility and uncertainty in the global green hydrogen market. In Europe, project development is progressing, but the route to final investment decisions remains slow due to the high complexity of large-scale projects and persistent uncertainties.

To date, less than 1 gigawatt of capacity has been developed in Europe, well below the 2025 targets of 6 gigawatts. In the U.S., the recent One Big Beautiful Bill Act has given clarity for a certain period of time, but has simultaneously increased long-term investment risk for the sector. Despite these challenges, the outlook remains compelling. Global installed green hydrogen capacity is expected to reach approximately 30 to 50 gigawatts by 2030, presenting substantial market potential. To fully unlock this potential, the sector will require greater investment security and clear, stable regulatory frameworks. What does that mean for us? Within this uncertain environment, we remain disciplined and focused.

Our leading technology portfolio designed to deliver market-leading levelized cost of hydrogen positions us competitively as projects advance. Our asset-light business model and global organization gives us the flexibility we need to respond quickly to market changes. Financially, our ability to fund operations from our own cash flow provides resilience and minimizes the reliance on external capital in volatile periods. In addition, our project pipeline matures, and we expect to convert FEED studies into delivery contracts for large-scale projects over the course of the year 2026.

All in all, we will continue to navigate rigorously through the current market conditions while ensuring the company is well positioned to capture long-term value. Now as the market for green hydrogen continues to mature, our project pipeline on Page 26 has become more focused and has strengthened in quality over the course of the year. We concentrate on projects with a high likelihood of realization, supporting our customers from the initial concept through the concrete implementation.

Overall, we are seeing a substantial pipeline comprising a large number of opportunities. The total pipeline amounts to almost 70 gigawatts, underscoring the significant market potential. Approximately 17 gigawatts of this relates to projects already at an advanced stage. Our regional pipeline distribution highlights Europe as currently the most attractive market for green hydrogen projects with additional opportunities spread across Australia, North America, Africa and also the Middle East.

Noteworthy are the paid engineering contracts, the FEED studies and the basic engineering studies that we are currently carrying out in Europe, which have even increased in capacity since the last reporting to 1.7 gigawatts. Our planned engineering work in these studies is paving the way for investment decisions on large-scale hydrogen projects in the near to midterm based on our leading alkaline water technology.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude today's presentation by outlining our key priorities for the year ahead. Commercially, our focus is on strengthening and expanding our customer relationships and strategic partnerships across both chlor-alkali and the green hydrogen markets. We aim to increase our order intake by securing new large-scale projects as well as long-term service contracts. At the same time, we intend to accelerate the growth of our service business in chlor-alkali through our new 360-degree life cycle offering while fully capturing the emerging opportunities in the green hydrogen sector.

From a technology perspective, we will continue to leverage the benefits of standardization and modularization to achieve the economies of scale and improvements required to further reduce the levelized cost of hydrogen. Moreover, we will broaden our green hydrogen product portfolio to include high-pressure electrolysis systems and to drive continuous product enhancement across both our alkaline water electrolysis and chlor-alkali plants.

On the cost side, we are maintaining strict discipline across all divisions and regions, ensuring that our operations remain efficient, agile and aligned with market conditions. We take a prudent approach to cash management, but we are prepared to seize opportunities in the green hydrogen market as they arise.

Ladies and gentlemen, all in all, we remain focused on disciplined execution, cost control and innovation as we move into 2026. With these priorities, we are creating the right conditions to react flexibly to market changes, expand our technological leadership position and ensure sustainable growth. And with that, we wrap up today's presentation.

Thank you all for your continued interest and trust. We are now ready to take your questions. Hendrik, back to you.

Thanks, Werner [Operator Instructions] We're aware, just a side note, that it might take a few seconds to get everything going, depending on the settings worries takes a few seconds.

The first question today comes from Martin Wilkie from Citi.

It's Martin from Citi. The question I had was on the pipeline. You've given some updated numbers on the -- both the pipeline and the actively pursued projects. Now we know the industry has obviously changed over the course of 2025. But when you considered the new pipeline, in terms of the surety that some of those contracts will actually end up being signed across the industry and will go ahead as opposed to being canceled.

How have you gone through that in terms of ensuring that what is still considered actively pursued is still sort of economically viable from the customer's perspective and therefore, is likely to convert at some point over the next few years?

Well, Martin, this is Werner. Thank you for the question on our pipeline. I think in terms of how we qualify and ensuring that we understand the likelihood and the maturity of projects in our pipeline, nothing has changed really. I mean we are still running a very rigorous diligent gate process on our pipeline actually.

We're trying to feed in all the information that we are able to gather in the market to understand the maturity grade of individual projects. And that has certainly also led to what you have certainly recognized actually that the -- in particular, the substantial pipeline actually has seen some deletions as well. Projects that simply through our process were not seen anymore as being likely to be realized. Many of them, I would say, were projects that were sitting in the U.S.

And for obvious reasons, actually, in particular, because of the very tight deadlines now for the 45 a number of these projects are simply taking too long and will not make it actually to the finish line. And that led us to the conclusion, for example, that these projects we have to remove from our pipeline because they are not very likely to really be implemented.

We are pretty sure that, in particular, the projects that we have in our actively pursued pipeline, so the 17 gigawatts, as you see here actually, that they are -- they have a very high maturity grade already. And I would believe that quite a number of these projects actually we would be able to realize in the next months and maybe towards the end of 2017, most of them actually should be reaching FID.

That's helpful. And in terms of the timing, obviously, you've given order guidance for next year, which understandably is a very wide range. What is the trigger, if you like, that is going to drive an order you book next year or not? I mean a lot of the regulatory backdrop is now a lot clearer than it was, say, 12 months ago. But are there other factors that are causing an order to be signed in January 2025 '26, rather than, say, a year later?

Yes, Martin, I mean, that's a very good question actually, and it would potentially require some sort of a crystal ball as well. It's very -- I would say the correct answer is it depends it's really project by project actually the obstacles and the challenges to really reach FID are different. I mean we have projects in our pipeline.

And you can imagine that, in particular, the ones where we have a standing reservation agreement, for example, with [indiscernible], there are you can have problems in -- or you can have challenges actually in supply, in energy, in grid connection, you can also have still issues actually moving ahead when it comes to your funding. Some projects actually need to finalize their offtake agreements and so on and so forth.

So there's really every project has its own challenges, if you want. What is clear for all of these projects is the larger the projects, the more complex it certainly gets to move towards FID. And that is something that we have experienced also over the last fiscal year. But you also see that these projects are all progressing, and that keeps us very confident that moving into the next calendar year '26, we will see also projects reaching FID and with that basically us also being able to book order intake.

Thanks, Martin. The next question comes from Michael Kuhn from Deutsche Bank.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, we do.

Perfect. A few from my side. Firstly, on the guidance in CA, EUR 40 billion to EUR 65 billion, I think quite a broad range with the lower end, I think, pretty much covered by the backlog. Maybe you can give us a few more details on what would make you reach the lower end versus the higher end and what would need to happen, let's say, over the course of the year?

Yes. Sure, Mr. Kuhn, this is Stefan Hahn speaking. Of course, I think as our chlor-alkali business is quite stable, the past years are a very good reference here on what we have usually in service business under execution and the amount of sales that we are realizing in service business.

The upper end is clearly -- so this should pretty much explain the lower end as it assumes that no bigger chlor-alkali project would be booked during the fiscal year. The upper end certainly requires larger chlor-alkali projects. And as you've just heard in the beginning of our presentation, yesterday, we announced the signature of one of the world's largest chlor-alkali plant projects.

And of course, it takes time until the sales are realized out of that project, but they will certainly also impact this fiscal year as we were able to book it quite early. So for that reason, I think rather the upper end of that range becomes more likely in this fiscal year. I hope that answers the question.

Definitely very helpful. Then one on cost containment. Obviously, we are all keeping our fingers crossed that Green H2 orders arrive better sooner than later still. If we're, let's say, temporarily running into a situation where you realize like just a marginal level of segment sales, what would that mean for profitability? So basically, what is your current kind of overhead OpEx in the segment? And what would be a loss in the absence of project sales?

Your question relates -- to ask your question now relates specifically to the gH2 segment?

Exactly.

I think as you have heard during our presentation, the sales that we have in our outlook for the current fiscal year mainly relates to our order backlog. And for that reason, we do not expect our absence of these sales is quite unlikely.

Fair enough. But let's say, towards the end of the upcoming fiscal year and then maybe early into next fiscal year, if we see some further delay, what would be the kind of loss that we should expect or let's say, the OpEx run rate maybe on a quarterly basis?

Of course. As we are always saying, we try to keep flexible here, and we can do that by using very different kinds of measures. First of all, currently, and as you've just heard, we have quite substantial order backlog in our CAD business. And this, for sure, allows us to also shift resources between segments because -- and that is our big advantage here, we can do that.

For that reason, we can always mitigate the impact of a lower order backlog position in one segment. And here, we have currently a very strong segment. So this effect can certainly be mitigated Secondly, our expectation is, as you've just heard, that we can book further order intake in the gH2 segment.

And for that reason, it is not our current assumption that no bigger gH2 order is booked in the current fiscal year. Third, of course, if that should happen, we will react that. And I mean, that is also certainly not a surprise with further cost-cutting measures, but this is an assumption that we currently do not have.

And then last question. Obviously, we have heard some regulatory news out of the EU also around synthetic fuels or RFNBOs. And I've read some comments in that context that this might be a major driver also for the demand for green hydrogen. Would you share that view? And could that change the market outlook for Europe also in the maybe not near term, but not too distant future?

Michael, this is Werner. Yes, that's definitely the case. That's certainly something that we expect. I mean, we also observed that as very positive developments, in particular, when it comes to the mandates, the existing mandates that were part of Riyadh, 3 in the European Union, which is now converted actually into national law in many of the member states. which requires a certain percentage of SAF being blended actually into aviation fuels going forward.

And I think most importantly, that is also penalized if you're not achieving that. And that has become -- and that has proven to be, I would say, quite an effective mechanism in other cases to really drive also the implementation of these quotas. So we are quite positive when it comes to e-fuels that this development will drive additional demand for green hydrogen and that certainly also electrolysis system.

And as you were saying, certainly not in the short term because we all need to consider that projects that would be geared towards those applications, they certainly also need some development time, but we see already a number of projects starting to develop in that space, which is also for me, and that's true in particular in Europe, and that's certainly, I would say, a quite encouraging development.

The same holds true also for RFNBO regulation where we have also been, I would say, a bit more noisy in the past about these regulations being too firm. And with these firm regulations, cost of green hydrogen will never reach a level to make it really a cost competitive alternative to other energy carriers, in particular in Europe. And if these rules would be relaxed, you could immediately, if you want to shave off up to EUR 2 per kilogram of kilogram of green hydrogen simply because you would be able to run your systems more efficiently and effectively and so on and so forth.

So yes, also there and here also the European Union has signaled that they want to review the rules now beginning of next calendar year, and that could also lead to an additional push in terms of developments in the green hydrogen market, in particular in Europe.

The next question comes from Skye Landon with Rothschild.

On the technology side of things, I was wondering if you could give us like a timing update on the pressurized alkaline systems. When should we be expecting to see these be a commercial offering? And the same on the SOEC side of things with your high-temperature electrolysis, how is that going? When could we expect to see a commercial offering there? And then as a second kind of subquestion on solid oxide, are you looking at the fuel cell side of solid oxide at all? Or for now, are you concentrating more on the electrolyzer side of things?

Yes. Thanks for the question. Klaus, speaking here. Let me start with the pressurized alkaline water electrolysis topic. As you may recall, we have taken over assets from green hydrogen systems earlier in the past financial year, and we are currently integrating this into our portfolio offering.

So expect a rollout rather soon, probably in the next financial year. And that would certainly be linked to respective customer engagements. SEC, the high-temperature electrolyzers, let me answer the second question first. We are focusing on the electrolyzer side, not on the fuel cell side, simply because the fuel cell side is a rather smaller system, and we are focusing more on large installations.

On the electrolyzer side, with respect to rollout timing, we see initial, let's say, very, very vague developments with respect to the market development here. So we expect that this will still take some time until high-temperature electrolyzers will really find its way into the market. And we will adjust our timing to fit to that market development here.

Great. And then I've got another question on the financials. Switching to the Chlor-alkali division. If I look at last year's numbers, it is a 15% EBIT margin. This year, at the midpoint, it's 15% margin. How should we think about service versus new build as a mix and margins? And as you move up and down the range within the range of guidance that you've given for chlor-alkali for '25, '26. Is kind of 15% the broad EBIT margin target that you think we should be looking at?

Yes, that's, of course, a very good question. As we presented, the service share in last year's revenue was quite high with 60%. I would say this is extraordinarily high, and we expect it to rather be balanced going forward again, so balance with the new build business. And of course, new build business has a slightly smaller contract contribution margin. And for that reason, of course, a larger share of new build business diminishes the overall margin a little bit. However, as you've noticed, we are currently operating on a very, very high level and that usually ensures margin at a high level. So I think the assumption is right that is also shown by our outlook for this fiscal year that we expect the margin to be on a similar level.

Thanks, Skye. Next in line is Klaus Ringel with ODDO. [Operator Instructions].

Can you hear me? I hope so.

Yes.

It's probably more a broader one as well, maybe more a qualitative one because I want to understand the metrics for the tipping point for new orders. And here, the question would be, I mean, we see that the European Union is currently reviewing the regulatory framework for the automotive industry.

On the one hand, a bit more relaxing on this combustion engine end date 2035, but it seems that they are formulating something like a green steel rate or mandatory use of clean steel in cars looking ahead? And in your view, and I appreciate you won't be able to quantify, but maybe from a qualitative point of view, how you would view this as a potential tipping point?

I mean you said there's high policy uncertainty and also investment security, which is holding back potential customers from placing orders. But is this a point where you would say, okay, that could trigger really new orders in gH2?

Klaus, this is Werner. Absolutely, it can, along with many other of these potential events actually that could also do the same check, if you want, right? So I mean, we see green steel and the steel industry anyway as one of the applications that has a significant near-term potential simply because emissions are pretty high and in particular, in Europe with the emission trading system actually -- and basically also with the very limited effect on the end product, so the steel that goes into a car and then the final car price, for example, certainly something actually that still keeps us positive that green steel will move ahead.

And of course, if there are regulations coming into place, and we know that also for other applications, the European Union is working on some more stringent rules here that certainly always is an additional driver for potential market pickup. I think there's not one inflection point or one tipping point, if you want, that now does the trick, but we see a very positive development in many different applications right now across green steel, but also refinery and also ammonia fertilizers, et cetera, which we believe -- and not to forget SAF, so e-fuels where also there have been some interesting developments even in Germany.

You would not think that, that could happen. But even in Germany, we see that actually there is a positive development that could all be additional triggers for additional demand for green hydrogen going forward. Absolutely.

Thanks, Klaus. There seem to be a follow-up, Skye. Do you want to ask another question? Then please, do so.

Yes. Sorry, I couldn't help myself given we got a little bit more time. In terms of the green hydrogen division, is there a megawatt number or a revenue or sales number that you see as kind of the key number based on current bidding figures and so on and so forth that would allow you to get to kind of EBIT breakeven? And would you be able to share some color on that with us as we kind of think about the longer term?

So I would love to give you that figure. However, we will not have it due to several reasons. As I just said, we have the great advantage to shift resources between segments here. That means if one segment is very busy executing orders, we can shift resources to that one. And for that reason, we have certain flexibility that also allow us in the gH2 segment to be more or less profitable with similar sales volumes.

Secondly, sooner or later, also for the gH2 segment, and I'm now going mid- to long term, also service business will kick in here, which is more stable and usually also comes with a higher margin. And for that reason -- and thirdly, of course, it also highly depends on the project mix and the contract gross margin of individual projects.

For that reason, I cannot give you a precise sales number that allows us to become profitable in the segment. I think what can be observed quite well over the past 3 years is that we make continuous progress on our gross margin in that segment. And even this year, despite lower sales, we were able to improve it significantly. And I think this is a trend you can also expect going forward.

That's great. And you mentioned service in the gH2 business. Can we expect to see service contracts or have you got service contracts for the NEOM project and Sweden projects?

We are working in both projects actually on the service contracts. They are not finalized, but for both of the projects, actually, we are currently in discussions there. I mean it goes without saying that these are all systems, and that's regardless of the technology or the OEM they all need significant maintenance and service as we know and as is also demonstrated in the chlor-alkali field.

And our customers are pretty much aware of this, as you can imagine. So everyone is currently looking for long-term service agreements. That's certainly also one asset we bring to the table. We know how that should work. We know how to do that very efficiently. And we are also well prepared for long-term engagements there. So yes, we are working on that for both of those projects, and we will certainly also leverage that in projects to come.

Thank you, Skye. There seem to be no more questions at this point in time. For that reason, we close the Q&A session, and I hand over to Werner one last time, and he will conclude today's call.

Well then, thank you very much, everyone, for joining us today. Of course, if you have more questions during the day, please feel free to reach out to Investor Relations. And with that, and also on behalf of my colleagues here, goodbye, Merry Christmas and all the best to all of you, and talk to you next year again.