Hello and welcome to MAIRE Conference Call. My name is Laura, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this call is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only mode. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero, and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Silvia Guidi, Head of Investor Relations, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to our First Half 2025 Results Conference Call. Apologies for the delay, which has been due to a technical issue with the telephone line. My name is Silvia Guidi. I'm the Head of Investor Relations. I'm joined today by our CEO, Alessandro Bernini, our NEXTCHEM Managing Director, Fabio Fritelli, and our Group CFO, Mariano Avanzi. Today, we plan to discuss the H1 business highlights of our business units. This will be followed by the review of our H1 financial results. At the end of the presentation, we will be happy to take your questions. Let me now hand over to Alessandro for some introductory remarks.
Thank you, Silvia. Good afternoon, everyone. 2025 so far is showing strong fundamentals. The first half has delivered remarkable growth, driven by solid project execution, effective operating leverage, and high value-added engineering services. As a result, revenues and EBITDA grew by over 31% and 36% year-on-year, respectively. These outstanding financial results have been accompanied by a EUR 5.6 billion order intake, with significant exposure to high-growth regions. This has substantially diversified our geographic footprint and led to a EUR 15.7 billion backlog. Finally, in the first half, we deployed nearly EUR 183 million to reward our shareholders through the highest dividend in our history and to empower our employees via a dedicated share buyback program supporting the long-term incentive plans. Moving to our commercial achievements, with EUR 5.6 billion of new awards in the first half, we reached a book-to-bill of over 1.6x .
Looking at our geographical footprint, more than half of our backlog is now outside the Middle East, with significant operations in North Africa and Central Asia. Exposure to the U.S. remains limited for our engineering and procurement contracts business, while we maintain a positive outlook for our existing technology and service business in that part of the world. Let's now look at our people. At the end of June, our total headcount reached almost 10,200 employees, growing by over 400 people in the first half and reinforcing our execution capacity. Earlier this month, we proudly obtained the DNV certification on gender equality, a testament to our unwavering commitment to a sustainable, inclusive, and continuously improving organizational model. Let me now give the floor to Fabio for a detailed look at the NEXTCHEM operation performance.
Thank you, Sandro, and good afternoon, everyone. The Sustainable Technology Solutions business line continues to demonstrate good momentum in the current challenging scenario, securing almost EUR 212 million of new awards during the first half and bringing STS backlog to approximately EUR 381 million. These awards span a broad spectrum of solutions, from technology licensing and high value-added services to proprietary equipment, supporting projects in fertilizers, hydrogen production, low carbon fuels, and waste-to-chemicals. As you can see from the awards, our low carbon energy vectors business line is gaining strong traction, aligned with the growth trajectory of the high potential markets we are exposed to. The tangible example of this traction is provided by one of the most strategic projects, the Pacifico Mexinol contract recently signed with Transition Industries. The total value will exceed EUR 230 million, and the final investment decision is expected within the next few months.
This is set to become the world's largest ultra-low carbon methanol plant, and we are proud that our licensing, engineering, and proprietary equipment solutions have been selected. The project leverages our NEXTCHEM AdWinMethanol Zero technology , an ATR-based solution with integrated CO2 capture, positioning us at the forefront of decarbonized methanol production. Once operational, the plant will produce 350,000 tons of green methanol and 1.8 million tons of blue methanol per year, serving multiple end markets, including plastics, paints, fuels, automotive, and construction. Operations are expected to start in 2029. Let's now turn our attention to some opportunities which are expected to contribute to this year's results. To further explore the potential of the e-chemistry, we are developing intellectual property and provide technical services for the conventional island and balance of plant, supporting next-generation nuclear technology providers.
This technology unlocks new opportunities for our e-factory platform, enabling the electrification of hydrogen and chemical production using zero-emission nuclear power. Further opportunities coming from our proprietary NX eBlue technology, an electric steam methane reforming process, enabling the production of low carbon hydrogen using renewable energy. With integrated carbon capture and scalable design, NX eBlue sets a new benchmark for sustainable hydrogen solutions, confirming our leadership in electrified hydrogen. Now we'll hand over to Sandro for a detailed look at the operational performance of the integrated E&C solutions business unit.
Thank you, Fabio. Integrated engineering and construction solution delivered a strong operating performance. We secured EUR 5.4 billion of new awards, particularly in new regions, demonstrating the strength of our diversification strategy. This brought our engineering and procurement contracts backlog to EUR 15.3 billion as of the end of June. This new contract spans key geographies such as Kazakhstan, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and Malaysia, and covers petrochemicals, gas processing, hydrogen production, and energy infrastructure upgrades. Let me now walk you through the two major projects awarded in Kazakhstan. The new awards in Kazakhstan mark a significant step forward in our strategic expansion into Central Asia. The Silleno Project, worth around $3.6 billion, involves the development of a large-scale polyethylene plant by a joint venture led by TECNIMONT. The production of polyethylene at the Silleno plant will be fed by the natural gas processor at the Tengiz facility.
The Tengiz project encompasses the development of a gas separation complex. TECNIMONT will perform the engineering and procurement activities for a value of approximately $1.1 billion, while a third-party player will be in charge of construction. Strategically located near abundant gas reserves and a robust logistic network, these projects are well-positioned to serve high-demand markets in China and Europe. In line with our increasing presence in Central Asia, we are also establishing a new engineering and operations hub in Kazakhstan, reinforcing our long-term commitment to the region and aligning with the local in-country value strategy. Let me now give you more details on the execution of the Hail and Ghasha development project. I am pleased to confirm that the execution is progressing well and remains on schedule. As of today, overall progress stands at approximately 33%, with all major milestones being met.
We have surpassed 18 million safe man-hours, a testament to our strong focus on safety and disciplined project management. Engineering is advancing steadily, procurement is well underway, and construction activities are ramping up across the site. Let's now look at the broader picture with a brief update on the backlog phase. Looking at our engineering and procurement contracts backlog by year of execution, we benefit from a strong revenue visibility despite a volatile global environment. As of the end of June, our backlog remains well balanced in terms of workload management and time horizon, with approximately 20%- 22% expected to convert into revenues in the second half of 2025, another 38%- 40% in 2026, and remaining from 2027 onward. It also ensures a solid foundation for sustained growth, supported by a diversified geographical footprint and a healthy mix of early and late-stage projects.
Now let's move to the financial results with our CFO, Mariano. The floor is yours.
Thank you, Sandro. Our financial results continue to show a sustained growth across all key performance indicators, with increased profitability. Revenues were EUR 3.4 billion, up 31.3%, driven by steady project execution. EBITDA was EUR 232.1 million, up 36.2%, thanks to higher revenues and an improved operating leverage, resulting in an EBITDA margin of 6.7%, up 20 basis points. At the bottom line, the positive operating performance, together with an effective financial and tax management, led to a consolidated net income of EUR 132.9 million, up 37%, and a margin of 3.9%. Let's now analyze the financial results by business unit. STS delivered remarkable results with revenues of EUR 194.5 million, up 22.7%, driven by a variety of products and proprietary technologies, including low carbon, circular fuels, CO₂ capture, and fertilizers. EBITDA increased to EUR 38.6 million, up 25.2%.
Improved profitability was driven by a product mix characterized by a higher contribution from licensing and high value-added services. Integrated E&C revenues were EUR 3.2 billion, up 31.8%, thanks to the excellent execution of projects in our backlog, starting with Hail and Ghasha, as well as the ramp-up of the Algerian projects. EBITDA was EUR 183.5 million, up 39.5%, representing a margin of 5.6%, up 30 basis points. Moving on to the balance sheet, let's analyze the cash flows dimension. Our adjusted net cash position at the end of June reflects the healthy operating cash flow generation of about EUR 180 million, driven by the efficient management of our projects. The period was also characterized by the payment of our biggest dividend ever, EUR 119.5 million, and share buybacks for EUR 63.4 million, highlighting our commitment to shareholder value, as well as our support to the employee share ownership programs.
After accounting for taxes, CapEx, and net financial charges, our net cash position at the end of June was EUR 300.1 million. CapEx were focused on sustaining the internal development and scale-up of proprietary technologies, accelerating digital innovation, and advancing the development of our Green Innovation District in Rome, which is set to become our focal point for research and development within the group. This concludes the review of our financial results. I will now hand over to Alessandro for his closing remarks.
Thank you, Mariano. Now we have to look ahead, and looking ahead, it is certain that our group commercial pipeline remains strong at over EUR 60 billion, EUR 60 billion, up compared to March, a confirmation of the resilience of the solid fundamentals supporting the downstream energy segment. We are pursuing relevant opportunities all over the world, which include fertilizers, gas treatments, gas monetization, and the upgrade of existing infrastructure to serve the new energy vectors' needs. Prudently, we have confirmed our expectations for a full year 2025 order intake to reach at least EUR 8 billion, of which 70% has already been secured. However, it is worth to highlight that in the second half of the year, several projects which have been tendered by our group will be sanctioned by the relevant clients, located predominantly in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. Some of them are multi-billion dollar projects.
Considering the ongoing discussions and negotiations, we have encouraging evidences that the additional awards by the end of the year could exceed even significantly our before-mentioned EUR 8 billion target. Let's now turn to our revised guidance for the full year 2025. We are upgrading our revenue and EBITDA expectations, reflecting the strong project execution performance in the first half and the backlog runoff in the second half. In particular, we are increasing the revenue guidance of the E&C business unit from EUR 5.9 billion to EUR 6.1 billion to a new range between EUR 6.3 billion and EUR 6.5 billion. Similarly, we are raising the EBITDA guidance from EUR 310 million to EUR 330 million to a new range between EUR 350 million and EUR 365 million. This implies a 20 basis points margin improvement compared to the previous guidance. We are confirming our revenue and EBITDA guidance for the STS business unit.
We expect an acceleration in the second half, driven by the recent awards, as well as by projects expected to be acquired in the coming months. In the current uncertain environment, NEXTCHEM will also benefit from our integrated strategy, leveraging on our E&C leadership. As a result, we are raising the group revenue guidance from the prior range of EUR 6.4 billion- EUR 6.6 billion to a new range between EUR 6.8 billion and EUR 7 billion. We are also raising the EBITDA guidance to a new range between EUR 460 million and EUR 490 million, increasing the EBITDA margin guidance from the previous range between 6.6% and 6.9% to a new range between 6.8% and 7%. We also confirm our CapEx and adjusted net cash position guidance. Overall, we remain focused on the execution, value creation, and to deliver on our strategic roadmap. This concludes our presentation.
Fabio, Mariano, and I are now ready to answer any questions you might have. Operator, please go ahead.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. We'll now take our first question from Massimo Bonisoli of Equita. The line is open. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the very interesting presentation. I have two questions. The first question is on the pipeline following the strong order intake in Central Asia during the first half. Could you provide more color on the remaining commercial pipeline in the region? Are there any sizable opportunities at an advanced stage that could materialize in the near term? The second question is on the guidance range, which appears quite wide. Could you provide more color on the assumption underpinning the low and the high end of the range? To what extent does the variation depend on project execution dynamics versus potential upside from growth in NEXTCHEM? Thank you.
Thank you, Massimo. Let me go through your first question. The appropriate direct answer is yes. Of course, we have several projects located in Central Asia in our commercial pipeline. I do not expect that something else will materialize before the end of the year in that part of the world. Since almost all of them are in the initial stage, most likely there will be some feed which will come on stream in the last part of the year, leading then in 2026 to the EPC projects. These opportunities come once again from Kazakhstan, but also the neighboring countries like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, all of them countries where all of them concentrated in investing in the downstream, in particular in the gas monetization infrastructures. We are a little bit optimistic for the future.
As I was saying before, I do not expect to gather additional projects before the end of the year in that part of the world. As I have already confirmed during the presentation, most of the opportunities are expected from the Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as from Europe. I don't know if I have answered to your question, but moving to the second one, you are talking about a wide range. You know, EUR 200 million in particular, talking about the revenues, to me, is not a huge amount of money considering the magnitude that we are promising to deliver all over 2025. I mean EUR 6.8 billion- EUR 7 billion in terms of revenues. Of course, we are engaged in these revenues that will come predominantly from EPC projects.
All of them are part of our backlog, so we do not need to book any additional projects before the end of the year to deliver this level of turnover. An EPC project could have some uncertainty. With the traditional prudence that we apply in delivering our estimates for the future, we have considered, to me, is a very limited, very small range. If there will be any influence on the result, this could come only from something which is presently not predictable. Based on, and can confirm that based on the schedule of each individual project under execution, I can say that most likely our revenues will achieve the top line of the range that we have communicated.
Let me complete the question because you also mentioned orders for the STS side of the business for NEXTCHEM. I may say that the results achieved to date are in line with what we were planning at budget level last year, where we see a number of awards coming through in the second half of the year, which will allow us to meet the targets we have communicated to the markets. If your question was related to that part of the business, we confirm, as it has already been done, the guidance given for NEXTCHEM business line.
Very clear as usual. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now take our next question from Kévin Roger of Kepler. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good evening. Thanks for taking the question. I have two, if I may. The first one is a kind of follow-up on NEXTCHEM, just to try to understand the EBITDA margin guidance, because you argue that basically H2 top line will increase quite strongly. H1 EBITDA margin is already at 25%, the top end of the range. What are the elements in a way that should mean higher revenue leads to lower EBITDA margin for STS? Don't you have any kind of operating leverage, things like that in the division, just to understand the reason why you did not also fine-tune the EBITDA margin for the STS, considering the H1 performance?
The second one is on the comments that you just said on the order intake side, saying that you would be at least at EUR 8 billion and that considering the pipeline, you could be significantly above the EUR 8 billion. If you had to take a guess and not being guidance, would you say that it's likely that you would be above EUR 10 billion order intake this year finally? Thanks.
Let me start with the first question because it's dedicated to NEXTCHEM. In the second half of the year, we are expecting a mix of services which should deliver higher revenues for a relatively higher percentage of services and equipment, which will increase the overall revenue deployment. It is also fair to say that in the second half, we will also have a mix of licenses, which were planned in our preview of the year. The overall result is an EBITDA margin which is more or less in line with what we have deployed in the first half of the year.
Yes, Kévin , as far as the E&C business unit, I have to say that in the second half of the year, we expect to conclude to achieve the final completion for certain projects which come from the past. We'll prevail projects recently awarded with a higher marginality. On top of that, it is important to me to emphasize also another element, we will be able to manage a higher volume for revenues with the same organization, with the same supporting organization. The incidence of our overhead compared to revenues will be much lower compared to the past, resulting in a higher profitability. Predominantly, the higher profitability is the combination of higher marginality for the project which will generate revenues in the second half of the year associated with a lower incidence of the structured cost, as I mentioned before. Your second question is a little bit tricky.
You are not a friend because if you would be a friend, I shouldn't raise this question. However, trying to provide an answer, there are at least three projects presently under discussions. Each one exceeds $1 billion in terms of value. We have already experienced that the client, before taking the final investment decision, could take some additional time. Based on the present knowledge and the level of negotiations, we are confident that the new awards from now until the end of the year could be in the range of EUR 3.5 billion- EUR 4 billion. Please, it's not my personal expectation considering that I am directly involved in the negotiation with the client. Of course, competition is tough and there are several elements which could play adversely. For the time being, I am a little bit optimistic to be able to deliver this amount of new awards.
Thanks a lot. Thanks. Have a nice evening.
Thank you. We'll now move on to our next question from Marco Cristofori of Intesa. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for taking my question and also congrats for your strong result in the first half. A couple of questions, if I may. Given that you just said that you are expecting a substantial order intake in the second half or maybe in the beginning of 2026, can you give some color on what you are expecting next year in terms of revenue development? My second question is on CapEx. You just confirmed your guidance, EUR 130 million and EUR 150 million range. In reality, in the first half, you just spent something like EUR 29 million, if I'm not wrong. Which are the main CapEx you are expecting? Is included some M&A deal, maybe? Thank you.
Here I am. I intend to satisfy your first question. I truly believe that we have already provided the market with the basic information about the growth that we expect to deliver, not only in the short terms, but also in the medium terms when we have released our strategic plan at the beginning of March. Today, it is for sure too early to anticipate a precise figure. What I can say, considering the existing backlog and what we expect to get before the end of the year, is that I can only say that we are expecting to deliver an additional step of growth in 2026. The magnitude of such growth will be communicated traditionally as soon as we deliver year-end results by the end of February, March next year.
However, you have to expect an additional step of growth in line with what we have already communicated during our meeting where we have communicated our strategic plan.
Let me take the second question on CapEx. Just to say that you're right, the first half saw something in the range of EUR 30 million, which is entirely dedicated to R&D, to the deployment of the net zero, the net zero, sorry, plan that will allow the company to reach carbon neutrality for scope one and two by 2029 and even in advance, and by some deployments in additional investments we are doing internally. The second half, if we want to compare apple by apple, so if we want to compare the EUR 30 million, it's going to be slightly more intense because we will have the entry into action, let me call it this way, of a couple of relevant investments. One is the Green Innovation District we are deploying in Rome to concentrate all our technologies in one site.
The second is the acceleration on the deployment of a project for the polymerization of PLEXIGLAS, which will reach completion in early 2026. Comparing apple with apple, the second half will be slightly more intense in internal R&D. As you have rightly pointed out, we always maintain an envelope for M&A opportunities. That number you see is a conservative number because we may end up investing that money. Let me remind you that as we did last year, what we declare is the amount of CapEx, but not necessarily this does not coincide, as you know, with the amount of cash we actually deploy. All the acquisitions made so far have seen a limited amount of cash upfront, and then the substantial part of the cash out is linked to the achievement of certain milestones with the seller.
However, yes, there is an envelope in that amount which is dedicated to potential M&A.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question from Mick Pickup of Barclays. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everybody. A couple of questions, if I may. Firstly, it's great to see the backlog strength and 2026 filling up really quite nicely. A big chunk of that is still Hail and Ghasha, and I do love the disclosures you're giving on that. Can you just talk about the next challenges and milestones on Hail and Ghasha that need to be achieved? The second question is, you've talked today about the world's largest low carbon methanol plant. One of your competitors talked about the world's largest low carbon ammonia plant, and another competitor talked about the world's largest green ammonia plant. There seems to be a lot on the decarbonized hydrogen ammonia methanol route at the moment. Are they just the first ones coming through? Are they a big chunk of what's coming down the pipeline in these projects you're expecting to win? Thank you.
Thank you, Mick. I'll try to satisfy your first question. Let me say that for our organization, Hail and Ghasha, that deserves challenges every day. Because, of course, since we are extremely concentrated in delivering a perfect completion for this job, there are no specific milestones which could represent an additional challenge compared to the previous one. It is quite normal that the project will deliver some more difficulties when we'll enter in a more operational phase. Now we have almost satisfied the engineering requirements. We have placed almost entirely the orders for the long lead items. We are completing the orders for the bulk materials. We have already entered into the subcontracts with the construction companies. All the organizations which have to participate to the contract execution have been arranged. Now we are entering into the execution in data construction.
I repeat, the organization that we have set up in order to manage properly the execution of this project is well prepared to face all the challenges that we have to solve, we have to face all over the next few months. Nothing in particular. Every day it's a challenge, but we are very happy to cope with that.
As far as the second question is concerned, let me clear one point. I will not attach when talking about the largest methanol project under development. We're not talking of the involvement of the E&C side of the business. It's purely a contract which will be performed by NEXTCHEM. It's not going to be one of the contracts that Sandro was referring about. On the specific, the advantage of that project, as much as the advantages of the other two projects you mentioned, so the largest ammonia and the largest green ammonia projects around, it's very much tied to the specific geographic location of this project and the advantages in terms of competitiveness, allow me to say. The one we are pursuing is based on the Pacific coast. It's the only major infrastructure that will be deployed on that side of the ocean.
It's going to be extremely competitive to serve the Asian markets. You're right to say we are at the time of the largest projects around. We are not yet at the stage of several projects being deployed at this point in time. The energy transition is going through this momentum of flagship projects, and we are proud to be fully involved in one of these.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question from Isacco Brambilla of Mediobanca. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, everybody. Actually, the bulk of my question has already been answered, so just one on my side. Considering the outlook for NEXTCHEM for the STS division, just if you can provide a bit more color on the trajectory you expect for the second half, so a directional indication on the split between the third quarter and the final quarter. Putting things in other words, should we expect already an acceleration in this quarter, or will it be more back-end loaded with a huge chunk of business in the final part of the year?
Thank you. Thank you for the question. According to the indications we have from our commercial people, first of all, we're talking of, differently from the E&C part of the business, a variety of initiatives that span from the fertilizer sector, the low carbon energy vectors, and also the waste-to-chemical and recycling activities. We are talking of a much larger number of opportunities which we're expecting to come through. The most natural answer I can give you is that they should be more or less evenly spread between the two quarters, probably with only one award ending towards the end of the year. I wouldn't say there will be an entire backloaded set of acquisitions. They should be more or less evenly spread between Q3 and Q4.
Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you. That was our last question. I will now hand it back to Alessandro Bernini for closing remarks. Thank you.
Thank you very much for having attended this meeting with us. I have nothing else to say than saying a good vacation to all of you. Thank you very much.
Thank you. This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.