Good evening, and thank you very much for taking the time to attend the first quarter results of Gestamp. I am Ana Fuentes, M&A and IR Director. Before we begin, let me refer you to the disclaimer on Slide 2 of this presentation, which has been posted on our website and sets out the legal framework under which this presentation must be considered. The conference call will be led by our Executive Chairman, Mr. Francisco Riberas, and our CFO, Mr. Ignacio Mosquera. As usual, at the end of the conference call, we will open the floor for Q&A session. Now let me hand the call over to our Executive Chairman.
Thanks for attending our call. In Q1 2026, the key highlights for us is in terms of revenues. We have EUR 2.8 billion revenues, which is flat compared with Q1 2025 at FX constant and clearly outperforming the market. In this period, we have a solid EBIT in this first quarter of EUR 307 million, which is 10.8% margin in the quarter with which means 52 basis points better than Q1 2025. Of course, in this quarter also keep on delivering on Phoenix Plan, which is clearly giving us the message that we are right on track, even if the market in North America remains lower than expected.
Referring to the market, global vehicle manufacturing in Q1 has been weak, reaching 21.5 million units, which is 3.4% below volumes in Q1 2025, but similar to the volumes in Q1 2024. Even if vehicle manufacturing in this quarter has been reduced in North America and also in Western Europe by 2%, this quarter shows a very significant drop in China of close to 10%, which is driven mainly by lower domestic sales in that market. This quarter, Gestamp sales has outperformed the market by 2.3% as far as the market in our footprint has gone down by 2.6%, while Gestamp sales at FX constant has been almost flat compared with Q1 2025.
By different geographies in Europe, our solid sales in Eastern Europe has offset a slight underperformance in Western Europe. In Mercosur, our sales have underperformed the market due to lower volumes in some of our projects. In Asia, we have done better than the market, which has been a little bit behind. If we go to the Slide 7, in terms of our reported revenues in Q1 2026, we have reached EUR 2,834 million, which means a decrease of 5% compared with Q1 2025. Most of this decrease is due to a negative Forex impact of EUR 137 million, which is due to the revaluation of EUR versus our main currencies in Q1 2026 versus Q1 2025.
With a slight negative impact coming from the scrap prices, which is driven to this minus 0.3% organic growth in the quarter, despite clearly outperforming the market. Even if sales are down, in Gestamp auto business profitability has increased. In fact, with 5% less sales in the quarter, our EBITDA margin has grown from 10.4% in Q1 2025 to 11% in Q1 2026. We have been able to achieve this improvement in a declining market due to an implementation of many flexibility and efficiency measures, and also thanks to the large improvement coming from the Phoenix Plan in North America.
Following a positive quarter, we are now fully committed to achieve our full year 2026 EBITDA margin of more than 11.9% in our auto business, which was the guidance that we provided some months ago. As already mentioned, we keep delivering on the Phoenix Plan as a key priority for Gestamp. Even if vehicle manufacturing volumes in this quarter, both in U.S. and in Mexico, have been below expectations, the EBITDA margin of our operations in North America has increased from 6.4% in Q1 2025 to 7.1% in Q1 2026. Each quarter, we are improving and consolidating a positive trend that is gonna lead us to achieve the commitment for full year 2026 of more than 10% EBITDA margin.
In Slide 10, for Gescrap, following a negative trend in scrap prices during 2025, in Q1 2026, scrap prices, mainly in Europe, have increased. Comparing with Q4 2025, the revenues of Gestamp in Q1 2026 has increased by close to 12%, and our EBIT margin has improved from 3.9% to 6.4%. We expect an increasing trend on scrap prices during 2026, which should help the Gescrap profitability for the year. Now with this, I hand it over to Ignacio Mosquera.
Thank you, Paco, and good evening to everyone. Moving on to Slide 12, let's have a closer look to our financial performance in the first quarter of 2026.
We have reached revenues of EUR 2.834 billion, which entails a 5% decrease when compared to EUR 2.983 billion from Q1 2025. Revenues continue to be strongly impacted by Forex impact in most of our geographies, while organic growth has been almost flat. In terms of EBITDA, we have generated EUR 303 million in Q1 2026, meaning a 10.7% margin. Excluding Phoenix impact, EBITDA in absolute terms would amount to EUR 307 million, therefore an EBITDA margin of 10.8%. We have achieved a margin expansion of 60 basis points quarter-on-quarter or 50 basis points excluding Phoenix impact.
Reported EBIT decreased by 5% year-on-year to EUR 114 million, with an EBIT margin flat year-on-year of 4% as a result of higher one-off amortizations in the period, which I will explain in the following slide. Net income in the quarter has been EUR 49 million. That compares to the EUR 27 million reported in the first quarter of 2025, driven mostly by a strong EBITDA, one-off financial income, and lower exchange losses. As for free cash flow, we have a negative free cash flow generation in the quarter versus last year due to the normal seasonality and less factory maintenance. Net debt has closed the quarter in EUR 1,977 million, reducing net debt in EUR 242 million compared to the first quarter of 2025.
To sum up, we continue to demonstrate our ability to perform strongly and improve our profitability while retaining balance sheet discipline in difficult end market conditions. If we now move to Slide 13, we will detail the one-off impacts that have led to a strong net income improvement. On a like-for-like basis, net income has improved by 62% year-on-year from EUR 27 million to EUR 43 million. In addition, net income has experienced a total of positive EUR 6 million one-offs, which entail a EUR 15 million write-down linked to our electric vehicle programs, more than offset with a EUR 23 million financial income accounting impact from the syndicated facility agreement amend and extend, which we announced in Q4 and have closed in Q1 2026. As a result, there is an EUR 8 million positive impact, which results in a net of a EUR 6 million impact after tax.
If we now move to Slide 14, we can see the performance by region on a year-on-year basis. Looking at each region in detail, revenues in Western Europe have decreased by 4% year-on-year in 2026 to around EUR 1 billion. Performance in the region has been affected mainly by volume pressure in the period. In terms of EBITDA, it reached EUR 98 million and an EBITDA margin stood at 9.6% in the period, improving by 90 basis points from the 8.7% reported in 2025. Improvement in the period is derived from flexibility measures that we're applying, as well as one-off restructuring costs that we had in Q1 2025. In Eastern Europe, the performance in Q1 2026 has been very solid, proving again our strong positioning in the region.
On a reported basis, during Q1 2026, revenues have decreased year-on-year by 2.8% up to levels of EUR 494 million, and EBITDA levels have decreased in EUR 5 million to EUR 75 million in a context where the region has been strongly impacted by Forex this year. EBITDA margin stood at a solid 15.2%, in line with the profitability reported for full year 2025 and being our strongest region. The profitability continues to reflect the project mix, highlighting the strong project ramp-ups in Turkey and the good evolution of the business in the remaining countries. In Europe overall, considering both regions as a whole, we continue to improve our profitability, partly due to the shift in the mix to Eastern Europe.
In North America, Phoenix Plan continues to show signs of improvements in the underlying operations with a good EBITDA margin evolution in Q1 2026, despite underlying end market conditions and the tax impact. Our revenues have decreased by 5.7% year-on-year, while EBITDA has increased by 4% if we exclude Phoenix impact of EUR 3.4 million in Q1 2026. This higher EBITDA in absolute terms leads to an EBITDA margin of 7.1%, improving last year profitability by 70 basis points. As you all know, turning around the operations in North America to improve our market position and profitability is at the top of our priorities, and these results set the path to achieve the target of a 10% margin by end of the year.
In Mercosur, revenues have decreased by 4.4% due to customer and project mix. While EBITDA has increased by 13.4% year-on-year, leading to 11.5% EBITDA margin versus 9.6% last year. We have been able to improve profitability in 240 basis points, thanks to the flexibility measures we're implementing in the region, as well as restructuring costs that we experienced in Q1 2025. In Asia, reported revenues have decreased by 9.5% year-on-year in Q1 2026 to EUR 424 million, which in a complex and very competitive market environment. However, our performance continues to evolve positively in these market conditions, being able to improve a slightly profitability year-on-year.
Our approach continues to be focusing on premium products in the region. We keep on working to gain positioning in this region, maintaining strong levels of profitability. Asia region remains a great opportunity for us, not only China, where we continue to develop high value-added products, but also India, where we have undertaken new projects with a strong performance. Finally, Gescrap has seen revenues decreasing by 2.5% year-on-year to EUR 157 million as a result of a comparable, relatively strong quarter in Q1 2025. EBITDA in absolute terms has increased by EUR 1 million, reaching EUR 30 million in the period.
As Paco explained earlier, improving market conditions show the path to achieve year-end targets for Gestamp. Overall, this quarter, we have seen once again that our unique business model and geographic diversification has supported and driven our performance in a period marked by volume volatility and lack of growth. Turning to Slide 15, we see the way we started 2026 with a net debt of EUR 1,177 million, which is EUR 156 million above the EUR 1,821 reported in December 2025. This EUR 156 million increase includes a dividend payment of EUR 31 million and a positive EUR 18 million impact of Forex in the quarter.
The company has generated a negative free cash flow of EUR 142 million, excluding extraordinary Phoenix cost in the first quarter, being negatively impacted by our traditional business seasonality and less factory intensity. As mentioned in our Q4 results call this year, we have guided to achieve a group operating cash flow conversion of 35%. For Q1, the reported metric is 33%, therefore reiterating our commitment to achieve the target at the end of the year. Moving to Slide 16, we ended March 2025 with a net financial debt of EUR 1.977 billion, which implies a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 1.5 times.
This is the lowest debt level and leverage ratio since the IPO of the company for the first quarter of the year, showing our strong commitment to be on our 1 to 1.5 net debt to EBITDA target. Our priority is to preserve our financial strength, and we remain disciplined over leverage in absolute and relative terms. Finally, in Slide 17, we show our dividend payment in 2026 against 2025 full year net income. A total of EUR 0.08 per year per share will be distributed in two payments, an interim dividend that we have already paid in January 2026, and a complementary dividend approved at today's general shareholders meeting that will be paid next July.
Gestamp maintains a clear shareholder remuneration policy within a stable dividend payout of 30% of reported net profit, in line with the target that was announced on 2023 capital markets day for the period 2023 to 2027. Our long-term strategy is focused on generating value for shareholders. Thank you all. Now I hand over the presentation to Paco for the outlook and final remarks.
Thank you, Nacho. Moving to Slide 19. For the auto market in 2026, we have just seen a downgrade from the volumes expected in the beginning of the year. Of course, the main reason behind this downgrade is the uncertainty created by the Persian Gulf conflicts, which with fears around the potential supply chain problems and also around the potential problem in cost, around cost inflation damaging global demand. This current forecast could reverse, of course, like it happened last year after the liberation day, but it's the best estimate we have today. Now for 2026, the volume suspected is 91.4 million vehicles, which means minus 1.8% respective 2025 volumes. Again, this year with reductions in markets like Western Europe and North America.
For the first time in years, is expected a very important decline in Asia, mainly due to China, as we have already seen in the first quarter. Far, for Gestamp, we have not experienced a meaningful impact from the conflict on our results. However, we have prepared a resilience plan just in case things get worse. In case of potential supply chain disruptions, basically, we have no suppliers coming from the area of conflict. Most of our purchasing are local, in the case we have a limited exposure, we are already creating an alternative sourcing solution. In the case of potential cost inflation, I think for us the most important input is the raw material, basically steel. Basically what we have is the pass-through system.
Most of our purchasing for this year are already closed. In terms of volume and the risk, still difficult to handle, but we have our flexibility plans in place and of course, open communication, open talks with customers in order to react as soon as possible. In this case, I think I will remain focused in everything which is under control and keep delivering in efficiency, trying to control our fixed cost, trying to keep on working in flexibility, trying to be able to right-size our operations, and try to be able to have a clear revaluation of our capacities and of course, preserving our balance sheet. Regarding the guidance that we provided some months ago for 2026, we clearly reiterate our guidance for 2026.
In terms of the margin of EBITDA, we are committed to have a EBITDA margin of more than 11.7% full year 2026 and increasing also the margin in each of our businesses in auto with an EBITDA margin of more than 11.9% and in the case of Gescrap, to generate an EBITDA margin of more than 7.4%. In the case of the group operating cash flow conversion, we reiterate our commitment to have our conversion in around 35% range for the full year 2026. As far as we have seen that we are very close already in the first quarter, which is always the most difficult.
With this, just to end up, my closing remarks is that we have had a solid start in 2026, that is providing us a good visibility for the full year 2026 around the guidance. In terms of Phoenix, it clearly is a priority. We are on track, and we have a also a very good possibility to reach 10% EBITDA margin that we have also promised. In the case of, what could happen if anything gets worse, we are prepared to react if any unpredictable change in the market happens. Prepare, good visibility, and prepare to react. With this now, I think now we are open to all your questions. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the Q&A session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star five on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind, please press star five again. Please ensure that your devices are muted locally before proceeding with your question. Our first question comes from Christoph Laskawi from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. You already highlighted that you didn't see material impact so far of the Middle East situation. I'm still interested if the call of volatility or the discussions with the customers have in any way changed a bit in tone or slightly in volumes in Q2 over Q1. Then what we see in the past from oil price shocks is that not necessarily there's a significant volume impact in the U.S., but there could be trade downs from bigger cars to smaller ones. Do you see this in the customer schedules, and would it have any meaningful impact for you with earned customer exposure?
Another question would be, obviously, you're well hedged with regards to raw materials for 2026, but could you just remind us again how the lag effect from spot to actually hitting the P&L works, and what the lag between the cost impact and then the pass on to the customers would be. The last one, you highlighted, obviously that you are very cost-focused in the current environment, and you've shown in the past that in volatile times you can quite well flex the costs. Is there anything above the Phoenix Plan which you are considering, and the current situation actually might provide an opportunity to do more, that will be appreciated too. Thank you.
Okay, thank you for your questions. First starting with your first question around whether we see an additional further impact coming out from the conflict on the Gulf. Far, we are in close contact with all our customers, and we don't see a kind of a big problem with them. It did not happen in first quarter, and we are not expecting that to happen also in the second quarter. Right now, there is no issue right now for the volumes for the Q2. Again, for the rest of the year, we have not seen any change in the EDI coming out from the different customers. Far, quite stable.
Everybody very much concerned, having a lot of questions whether we have some potential suppliers for us which could be in danger, that we have been already checking with them all the potential problems. Everything is more or less under control in terms of that. Let's see what happens with the volumes. You did a specific question around what could happen in the case of U.S. I think it's still very early to consider whether the impact coming out from the Gulf could be a structural topic or is gonna be something which is gonna affect several months, no. The decisions in order to buy new kind of cars are of course related to a kind of perception that that could be an structural topic.
We don't see today a big change on that, even though it's true that in U.S. right now, for consumers, the increase of the prices of the oil is starting to be a real problem in terms of consumption. Could be that they could go for EVs. Could be that they will go for smaller SUVs or smaller cars. It's true that the Asian cars, Japanese and Koreans, have been very successful in the last months and years. Let's see what happens. So far, I have not seen a clear change and a structural change in the trend in terms of consumption in U.S.
Around raw material and special steel for us, I would say that we have in the market like two different kinds of negotiations and prices. One is regarding the spot, which is not basically related to automotive, which is moving prices of spot prices every day. These spot prices have been increasing a lot already for months. In the case of the automotive prices, we do negotiations and our customers do negotiations once a year. Basically, what has happened this year is that it's been a slight increase compared with previous year. In this case, what we have is a mechanism in place with our customers to do the pass-through. In some cases, it's a kind of automatic pass-through. It's a visual system, and in other cases, it's an agreement that we do.
We do with most of our customers, and we do it always retroactively from the beginning of the year. In the case of what kind of things, we are doing more in terms of flexibility, a part of what we are doing already for Phoenix, I can tell you that we are doing a bunch of things, not only this year, but also previous years. In fact, as you could imagine, we have seen volumes in Europe are going down already for months and years, and we have been able to preserve our profitability. Basically, we have because we have implemented quite important flexibility measures in the different plants in Europe, not only in Europe, in other areas in the world.
Thanks, Roland.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, please be reminded that if you'd like to ask a question, you must press star 5 on your telephone keypad. There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand it back to the management team. Oh, we do have a question. Our next question comes from Anthony Dick from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hello, hello. Good evening. Thanks for letting me in. Just one on the raw materials topic also. I understand you've got a pretty good pass-through mechanism in place. However, you know, there's still some impact on the top line and maybe a bit of dilution on the bottom line in terms of % margins. I mean, do you expect this to be significant at all at some point in the year? Did it already contribute in or have an effect in Q1? Just wanted to, you know, have your view on that one. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. Yes, we do have a mechanism of pass-through. It's true that in terms of mathematics, it could be some kind impact of in terms of dilution. We are committed. We know that that is gonna happen. We are already working on that, and we are gonna be able to commit to all that we are intending to do in order to preserve our margins, even though this is gonna be this kind of increase in terms of our revenues. Yes, it's an impact, but it's not significant, and it's already considered in our commitment.
Okay. Perfect. Thank you.
Good. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Robert Jackson from Banco Santander. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, Michael. I just have a question regarding your thoughts on the numerous announcements which are being made related to the partnerships between European OEMs and U.S. OEMs and even Chinese OEMs. There's a lot of talk, a lot going on. What do you think, and what are your thoughts on how it can possibly affect Gestamp in the medium to longer term?
Well, it's still difficult to understand, Robert, what is gonna happen. It's clear that the trend of some of the Japanese big OEMs is that they will expand globally, and in order to do so, the possibility to do just exports and not localize it is, of course, not an option. So, they are all intending to localize, and this is something, of course, that is happening with different projects in Europe. The ones that we have seen announced in Spain and in other areas. Of course, yeah. I'm referring to the Chinese, not the Japanese. No. Of course, the market is a little bit more closed today in U.S. for them, so they have been trying to do something in Mexico.
Now we will have the USMCA, which is starting to be renegotiated now. It's not going to be easy to see what is going to happen. Of course, the negotiations between Chinese OEMs and American OEMs should have a kind of impact. We still don't know what is going to be this impact. We see also these OEMs, these Chinese OEMs, being very active for areas like Brazil. Everything is still moving. So far today, in this first quarter 2026, most of the manufacturing of the Chinese OEMs is happening right now in China, a little bit in some countries like Thailand, and very limited outside from China. We are probably going to see very soon some localization in different areas, like for instance in Europe, but still, we are waiting for that.
Okay. My second question is related to the increase in volumes in North America. That 1% outperformance in North America. Are you starting to maybe increase your exposure to the U.S. OEMs? Could that have helped at all?
Well, it's a kind of a mix of the different programs that we have over there. It's true that some programs, especially around combustion in the up in north, are doing well for us. It's true that there are some other programs and basically some European. Some of them are running not so bad, and others are running bad.
Okay
A mixed impact.
Okay. Thank you very much.
There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand it back to the management team. Go ahead.
Thank you very much for your time today. We hope the call has been useful. For any further questions, you have the IR team at your disposal. We wish you all a very good evening.
Thank you. Thank you very much.