Good afternoon, this is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Piaggio & C. SpA First Half 2025 Financial Results Conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephones. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Raffaele Lupotto, Investor Relations of Piaggio . Please go ahead, sir.
Yes, hello. Thank you very much. Hello everyone, and welcome to the First Half 2025 Financial Results Conference call. The conference call will be hosted by Michele Colaninno, Piaggio Group Chief Executive Officer, and Alessandra Simonotto, Piaggio Group CFO. Today, we also have the pleasure to have with us the Group Executive Chairman, Matteo Colaninno. You can access the slides supporting this conference call on the internet at the Piaggio Group website. As you may expect, before the start of the presentation, I need to remind you that during today's conference call, we may use forward-looking statements, subject to risk and uncertainties. I would also like to mention that today, we have also invited the press in a listen-only mode. With that said, let me turn the call over to our CEO, Michele Colaninno.
Thank you, Raffaele. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining the conference. Just a few words, because you know I don't have to go deeply in numbers, but just to tell you what happened in the second quarter of 2025. I have to point out two main things that I think are very, very interesting for analyzing the Piaggio numbers that are the gross margin and the EBITDA. The gross margin of 34.4% is one of the best that we ever achieved in the group, and the 17.7% on the second quarter is still one of the best that we ever achieved in the group. It means that the capability to react to the situation that globally is affecting the consumer business everywhere.
I just only have to say that, you know, everything: wars, tariffs, exchange rates, and all the problems that we have to face daily, those numbers show the capability of the group and the people all around the world to maintain a certain financial stability. Because when you have those numbers at the third level after either declining revenues, given the declining market quite everywhere, like in Europe, U.S., China, I think it is a good result for the group. Also the fact that the net financial position has not worsened compared to December 2024 with lower revenue, it means that we are managing properly the group, the costs, and the margins without entering any price war with the competition. As you know, we are pushing a lot on our brand equity value around the world with all the brands that we manage, both in two-wheel, three and four-wheel vehicles.
That's the strategy that we want to maintain, to have a differentiation compared to other brands that are not only European brands, but are also Chinese brands, Japanese brands, and Indian brands. The work on cash to maintain the level has been satisfactory in my view, because it opened the window to have the possibility to maintain the investments for the medium term, both in products and technology and development of new, you know, assets that we are now discovering, such as the robotic division in Boston. This is just what I have to point out, given the fact that for the remaining part of the year, as I said during our board of directors, we are seeing a low signal, so low signal of recovery in Asia, especially Vietnam and Thailand, and the definitive finish of Euro 5 stocking in Europe.
It means that with that 30% margin for the second half of the year, and maintaining it is not so easy, by the way, but we are working on it every day. I'm not telling you that I got a positive scenario, but I got not a negative scenario. Something's moving. Obviously, consumer products, such as what we are selling to our customers, need a certain stability. I hope not in a worse-turning situation, geopolitically speaking, so far, and also that the tariff wars are at the climax of the problem. We are managing the tariffs, so I think that we can balance it, the U.S. trade balance, and 15% tariffs with other markets. I'm not too much worried of it. It is a problem. Obviously, it is a problem for every company, according to you guys.
Given that we have a presence all around the world, we can mitigate the 16% of cost increase in our products. I think, Raffaele, this is just what I have to say. The numbers are clear on the slides, and you know revenues are declining by roughly 13% in the first half of the year. It's Europe going down, U.S. going down, China going down, Sweden going down. India has to have a showcase of what's happening on the three-wheeler market in India. You know that the electric vehicles are entering the market. They are subsidized by the government, so the customer is buying electric three-wheeler vehicles because of the subsidy. We see every time that the government stops the subsidies, that the market goes down immediately. There's a direct reaction and direct relation with the subsidies.
It's a low margin business, so we don't have to push too much on launching electric vehicles, given that those of the thermic ones are good enough for our business in India. The two-wheel vehicles, I told you in the last conference call, we are starting to enter with the new vehicles in the two-wheel scooter market in India. It's a huge market. The capital is helping us reaching the target price that we have in mind, given that flow is growing every year because India is growing every year. Now we are able to face, with some precise scooters, the competition. I have to say this is what I have to point out on the numbers of the second quarter. Obviously, Q&As are more interesting usually than what I have to say.
Thank you very much. We are ready to start the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchstone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and one. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. We will pause for a moment as participants are joining the queue. The question is from Davide Manganiello, Intesa Sanpaolo.
Yes. I don't know if you can hear me. Good morning, everyone. I'm on behalf of Monica Bosio, and thank you for taking my questions. My first question is regarding your performance in Europe. Europe looks to be the primary drag on overall results, and Europe appears to be losing market share in the region. Can you comment on your current market share situation in Europe versus last year and anticipate us how many vehicles does the company plan to reinstock in the third quarter? Can we finally expect in the third quarter a positive stock line growth and a sequential recovery in market shares? My second question is about India. Here as well, performance has been very poor. According to SIAM data, your market share in the LCV segment continues to decline.
Do you expect any improvement going forward, particularly in light of the new product launches mentioned during the last conference call? Finally, do you expect any savings from the logistic costs by year-end? Thank you very much.
Thank you for your questions. Starting from market share, you pointed out correctly that we have lost 1% overall in Europe's market share compared to last year. It is due mainly to the stocking of Euro 5 compared to 2024. We don't see any product problems. Product-wise, I don't have any problem to tell. We took the decision not to discount our product, so to maintain the gross margin. That's why we are performing very well at the EBITDA level and managing all the costs initially for the production for Europe and the U.S. On the third quarter, if I expect a better market share than the second one or than the first half, it could be because we have finished the stocking of Euro 5, definitely. We have to come 10, 20 vehicles somewhere, but no problem.
I hope that all the products that we have launched, so the new bikes that we have launched, will take bigger and bigger space in the market. For what's happening in India, India is a market where, as I told you, electric vehicles have been introduced, low-margin vehicles. We are not pushing too much. On the thermic, overall, we have lost slightly zero points in some states of India, but we have quite the same market share of last year. India is a growing country, so I don't expect the market to decline. It's a market where the money for purchasing vehicles, such as our vehicles for commercial and business, that are the three-wheeler vehicles, are very linked to the price positioning. The subsidy is helping the electric one, not the thermic one. We have launched new vehicles starting July.
I think, and I have clued that in the second half of the year, we can increase our revenues over there, given that India performed better than last year in the first half of 2025. When you have a country that performed better than last year, I'm very happy. We have lost some zero point in market share. The third question in.
Logistic costs are good. The logistic costs.
Oh, logistic costs. Logistic costs, I'm not showing any reductions. We have just some shipping company that now is entering the Suez Canal. The others are continuously going around Africa. For goods and components coming from India to us, to East Asia, the situation has not been better than the previous month. This is given to the war. There's nothing we can manage. To be prudent, we consider the logistic costs continuing to be like the first half in our projection.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Next question is from Niccolò Guido Storer, Kepler Cheuvreux .
Good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question, which is about commercial vehicles in India and the Americas. I see that year to date, the performance in volume terms has been slightly positive, while in revenue terms, it has been severely negative. If you can elaborate on why that is, and what we can expect in the remainder of the year, if any changes to this trend are on the horizon. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. A correct market share and business of light commercial vehicles in India and America, the market is going down. For every competitor, it's going down. We are showing a good market share in Italy. We are thinking to organize better, and we have to do this job, the European organization, to do a better job, especially in Germany, Spain, and France. As you know, we have just launched the Electric Porter in Europe, which is a very good vehicle, very intelligent for big towns and downtowns. That's our mission. You have to consider that European markets are not the only ones that we serve. With the four-wheeler, yes. With the three-wheeler, we export also from India to Europe and Latin America, and the business is going well. That's why you pointed out the numbers that you showed us.
I think that those types of vehicles, especially for Europe and the situation that we are foreseeing for the next decade, where every city, every big city wants to intervene to reduce traffic jam and reduce the CO2 emissions. The Electric Porter , in a long scenario, so not tomorrow morning, is the right vehicle. Frankly, I didn't expect the quality to be so good. The characteristic of the vehicle is, we think, the right vehicle for downtown.
Thank you.
Next question is from Emanuele Gallazzi, Equita .
Good afternoon, everybody. I have three questions. The first two are on Europe. Starting from the volume side, I know that it is a little bit difficult to read numbers with the Euro 5 but when we look at the data for registration across Europe in the first semester, there is basically a divergent trend between Italy and Spain, resilient, I would say, and on the other end, a weak performance in France, Germany, and the UK, which are all down in the double digits. How do you explain this trend across Europe? The second one is still on Europe and is on pricing because you said you are not entering in a price war with Asian players. I'm just trying to understand if you are seeing a more aggressive commercial policy from your Asian competitors. The last one is on the second half.
First of all, thank you for the comments on the second half. I'm just trying to understand because if I look at the consensus right now, it is pointing to an implied 10% growth in revenues and EBITDA in the second half. Is it your base case scenario at this stage?
Europe, as you said, markets are down. I think that markets are down not because the customer is no more interested in a two-wheel vehicle, let's say, but because the consumer attitude is to postpone the buying of the vehicle. It's not a question of the market declining because it has no interest and so the product is old. The product is still good. The expectation that we have is that market will do better in the future. We have to see as every piece because this is what we analyze every time to the group in Europe, especially in Europe. People are waiting. Nothing else because every day they read on papers about problems, about wars, about interest rates, about the money they have to spend for their house, about the services, about energy. That's a cost for a family.
They are just not for all the brands that we manage, for instance, because that's not affected, let me say, too much by these aspects. If I think about commuter scooters from A to B, easy, downtown. The Piaggio brand, for instance, it's our brand for commuting. It is a little bit affected by this situation of postponing the acquisition of the vehicle. The second question was about pricing from Chinese. I'm not worried about pricing from Chinese. Obviously, they are growing in quality, so I will never say they're not producing good vehicles. Luckily for us, we have brands that are of a value higher than other competitors. What we are doing in our investments, especially in marketing and dealers, is to maintain and to invest to maintain this equity.
What I think we have to manage, and that's why we are in a good position, I would not say better with others, but good position with the dealer's distribution network with the Motoplex project, that is able to display and show a de facto multi-brand shop. The multi-brand is owned by the Piaggio Group. We can give to the dealers, and at the end of the day, to the customer, a proposition that is quite unique. I think we are in a good position with our product range. We are in a good position of pricing compared to the competition. What we have to maintain is the good relation with the dealers. Because Asians and Indians are entering the dealer's distribution network in Europe with, you know, commercial policies that are somehow difficult to be met by European OEMs.
What we have is that we have a good relation with our partners. We have a multi-purpose, multi-brand activity. The Motoplex is enough for an entrepreneur that works with us to manage their business. The consensus of the second half, it's difficult today to have a brutal and objective projection for the second half. What I can tell you is that for the third quarter, we are seeing, and we can see numbers at the top line that are better compared to last year. This is what we are forecasting. Obviously, revenues are not sufficient because when you do the revenues, then you have to maintain the 17% margin on an EBITDA. That is a strong work. It's a tough work every day around the world. Compared to last year's quarter, I can tell you that we expect to do better.
Thank you.
For any further questions, please press star and one on your telephone. Mr. Lupotto, there are no more questions registered at this time.
Okay, I think that the call is over. Thank you very much for attending the call. If you need further info, you can call me later as usual. Thank you very much. Bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephone.