This time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Raffaele Lupotto, Head of Investor Relations of Piaggio. Please go ahead, sir.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Piaggio Group first half of 2026 financial results conference call. The conference call will be hosted by Alessandra Simonotto, Piaggio Group CFO, and me. The slides supporting today's presentation are available on the Piaggio Group website. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during today's conference call, we may make forward-looking statements based on Piaggio's current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, these statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied. These factors are discussed in the safe harbor statement on page two of today's presentation. With that, I would like to hand the call over to Alessandra.
Good afternoon to everybody. Welcome to our conference call today. I believe that you have already seen our slides and our press release. As you can read there, the results of this first half of 2026 are something that generates in every one of us a pride for what we have done versus last year. The most important result is what we already communicated to the markets at the beginning of July, in terms of revenues, because we are facing solid growth of the revenues, both in constant foreign exchange and with the current foreign exchange we want to see. Gross margin at 31.6% is the best we've ever reached in the last six years. The EBITDA margin is, in the first half, the highest we 've gotten in our lives.
About the net financial position, we got the best-ever results, both in terms of the second-quarter results and also the first-half results. What happens in the six months? We face, as Mr. Colaninno underlined in the press release, a period in which the group got growth in vehicle sorts and revenues all over the world, with all the markets that more or less are recovering versus last year in the same period. The sales in the semester grew by about 8.5%. The revenues are at 3.2%. We are facing a very heavy period if we want to see what is happening overall in the market. We are waiting for new results about There will probably be some impacts about inflation in the next six or 12 months. We don't know, because the market is down.
It's half the cost of gas and some precious metals and so far can be different day by day. As of now, we get the results without an impact. We were able to manage all the situations, getting the best result that you see here. We think that we can work in the same way for the next months. This is our task. This is our goal. This is what we have already done. This is something that we think we could maintain the same positioning that we've got as of today.
Okay. Thank you very much, Alessandra. I think that we can start immediately 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 their touch-tone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Monica Bosio, Intesa Sanpaolo.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Actually, I have four. The first is on the second part of the year. Given the set of results, I was wondering whether you still view the 2026 consensus. Which implies a double-digit revenue growth, overall aligned with your internal expectations? That's the first question. The second one, if you can share with us what has been the volume trend that you have ever seen so far in July, and is it in line with your expectations? The third is on the volume trend in Western countries in the second half. What kind of growth in terms of volumes in Western countries do you see in the second part of the year? How do you see the pricing evolution?
As I've seen that in the second quarter, the price per unit in the Western country was, if I'm not wrong, lower year-on-year. Very final, sorry, is given a strong free cash flow generation in the second quarter; do you still confirm your previous EUR 500 million net debt target by year-end, or do you see room for some better results on this side? Thank you very much.
Hi, Monica. Good afternoon. I will try to answer some of these questions, and on the others, Raffaele will answer to you. About the second part of the year and the consensus, yes, in this moment, on the basis of the volumes of sales and forecast we have in our hands, we confirm what we see in the consensus for the year-end. We think that in the rest of 2026, we will be able to get the results that you can see in the consensus.
Okay.
Okay. Monica, concerning your second question about the volume trend in July, what we are seeing is a similar trend compared to Q2 this year. We have positive contributions coming from all geographic areas. Okay. And to your first question.
Net financial position.
Okay. No. Right. The first question was about pricing in Europe. In reality, revenue per unit was pretty much in line or even higher than last year. It's just a mixed effect, given the fact that there is a reduction in volumes for motorbikes.
Yeah.
Scooter improved significantly in Q2. It's just a mixed effect.
The last one was about the net financial position. Yes, we confirmed the consensus. We think that the result at the end of the year will be more or less around EUR 500 million. We will do our best, just like we have done in the first part of the year. We will wait and see.
Okay. Thank you very much. If I may, just a clarification on the Western countries' volumes and pricing. Thank you for the clarification on the mix. In terms of volumes, can we say that the second part of the year could be a little bit better or at least aligned to what we have seen so far in Western countries?
You are talking about Western countries.
Yes.
I think that the figures are more or less aligned on what we are seeing in July.
Okay.
I think that we are seeing that the volume is going better. We think that also in the last part of the semester, the trend will be more or less the same.
Okay. Thank you very much to both.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you. Bye.
The next question is from Emanuele Gallazzi , Equita.
Good afternoon, everybody. I have three questions. The first one is a follow-up on the cash generation in the second quarter. If I look at the payables, they were particularly high and up more than EUR 150 million. Can you just comment on this, and what do you expect for the remaining part of the year? The second one is on Europe, specifically on the market share, because I think in the press release, you were mentioning a flat trend in terms of market share. If I look at your number, specifically your volumes in the first half were down low- to mid-single digits, while the ACEM data show an increase of 15%-16% in the first half in Europe. Can you elaborate on this? Just try to understand this gap between your data and the ACEM data. The last one is on India.
We have seen solid numbers for the second quarter. Can you comment on the Indian market dynamics, and what do you expect for the remaining part of the year? Thank you.
Yes, Emanuele, Raffaele speaking.
[Non-English content], Raffaele.
ACEM data, yes. Market share. I can confirm that our sell-out was quite strong, and that is the reason why we kept the market share pretty much in line with last year in the scooter segment. We lost something in motorbikes. That is it. I can confirm that probably, clearly, still in H1, the sell-out was outstripping sales. This is the only explanation we have. These are what we publish essentially in terms of market share. Stable market share in scooters and a slight decline in motorbikes. This is for you, as you have seen, we gain significant market share.
Okay.
About the payable, yes, you have seen a slight increase versus June 2026 because the comparable data is clearly not December. Our business, as you well know, in any case, maintains a different contribution quarter by quarter. As you well know, the second quarter and the third quarter are more important than the first and the fourth. This is why if you take a look at the payables of June 2025, we were at EUR 625. Now we have got EUR 637. This is not such a big difference in the same period of the year. In this moment, we have more or less closed all the CapEx for Guzzi, and we will inaugurate it in September. We have higher volume than June of last year. This is the reason for this slight difference.
On the other hand, we have to consider that at the end of the year, the payables are lower than in June.
About India?
For India, do you mean market trend?
Yeah, exactly.
Market trend, as we have seen, has been very supportive in H1. I would like to underscore that we gain market share overall around 1 percentage point, according to SIAM data. If we consider just the internal combustion engine vehicles, we gain market share markedly, I would say, in the region of 3.3 percentage points. So far, we haven't seen any sign of slowdown, so probably July will be another very strong month. Just to give you an idea, in June, the market and Piaggio grew 40%, and July will be another strong month. This is for light commercial vehicles. The trend is still positive in two-wheelers. On top of that, and this is something that also our competitors have been highlighting, the export market is very strong and keeps on being very strong.
In H1, according to SIAM data, our export grew 56%, and the trend is very supportive. We have strong growth, coming from African countries mainly, but we also have decent growth in Latin America. This is for, I hope, an answer to your question.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
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Okay. If there are no other questions, I think that we can stop the call now. As usual, if you need further information, you can call me later this afternoon. Thank you very much. Bye.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.