Hello, everyone, and thank you for being with us today. The call will last about 30 minutes. With us are Jean Mouton, Chairman of the Board of Nexans, and Christopher Guérin, who will share some remarks following this morning's announcement. After their statements, they will take a few of your questions. Mr. Mouton, over to you.
Thank you, thank you. Good morning. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us. As you saw in our announcement this morning, the board of directors has appointed Julien Hueber as Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Christopher Guérin with immediate effect. Christopher will remain fully engaged until October 31st to ensure a smooth and orderly handover. Over the past seven years, under Chris' leadership, Nexans has undergone a remarkable transformation, becoming a leader in sustainable electrification with solid financial performance, strong balance sheet, and a renewed sense of purpose across the organization. I just want to repeat, this company is in excellent shape. Let me be very clear. This decision has nothing to do with the company's operation, its business performance, its ongoing projects, or any issue of conduct or behavior. Nexans continues to perform in line with its roadmap.
The board decision is about creating a new momentum to deliver on the roadmap presented during the last Capital Market Day. We want to go further in sustaining Nexans' long-term success, which mean strengthening our operational excellence and competitiveness, fostering a more agile and efficient organization to support profitable growth, and deepening our focus on innovation and the adoption of new technologies, including artificial intelligence. These are some of the areas where we see the greatest opportunity to further improve value creation while staying fully aligned with the strategic course we have already defined. This decision was made following a disciplined and robust governance process led by the Nomination and Governance Committee, with the support of a leading executive search firm. The board acted in full clarity and alignment on the leadership profile it believes is the best suited for Nexans' next phase, including by benchmarking against external candidates.
We are very pleased that the next CEO comes from within Nexans. Julien Hueber appointment is a testament to the depth and quality of the company's senior leadership bench. He's been with Nexans for 23 years, has been a member of the executive committee since 2018, and has successfully led our largest Power Grid & Connect Europe, a EUR 2.6 billion activity with 23 industrial sites. Julien combines deep operational expertise, intimate knowledge of our businesses and customers, and a proven ability to accelerate performance. He is fully ready to lead from day one. On behalf of the board, I want to thank Chris for his exceptional leadership, his energy, his passion. He leaves behind a transformed, respected, and confident company, and brought us back in the pack of the leading companies of our industry.
Now, before handing over to Chris for his remarks, let me reaffirm a few key messages. First, our strategy on sustainable electrification presented during our CMD remains fully intact. Our CMD financial targets and guidance for 2026, 2028 are confirmed. The management team is strong, experienced, and deeply engaged in delivering our strategy. The transition is organized and controlled, ensuring complete continuity. And now, Chris, the floor is yours.
Yeah, thank you, Jean. Hello, everyone. That's my last call. It's a strange moment for me, but I wanted to share with you that, of course, it has been a very true honor and privilege to lead Nexans over the last 7 years. Together with my team, all around the world, we have been able to achieve a profound transformation. First, to restore trust in 2019 to 2021, and after, to reposition Nexans as a leader of, one of the leaders of Sustainable Electrification, with a clear purpose on strong financial results. So I'm very, I would say I'm very proud of with what we have been able to accomplish with my team. We have delivered our strategy commitment. We have refocused the business portfolio. We have improved profitability, almost by 3.
Since 2018, the cash generation was about EUR 2 billion, Return on Capital Employed in electrification moved from 9% to close to 30%. But of course, more important for me, since 2018, we have been able to restore confidence both internally and externally. So that's that was the journey. I'm as well very proud that my successor has been selected within my team, because that's a mark of continuity. We built together a clear workforce, a strong organization on a very clear mission, so that Julien will continue. So this is for me, today, Nexans is a very strong, solid, and forward-looking company with the right foundation, the right talents, and the financial strength to continue creating long-term value.
You know, we need to keep growing organically and inorganically, and I think we now, Julien, you have all the means to perform that. So the board has decided that now is the right moment to open a new phase of development under a new leadership. Of course, I fully respect this decision, and I will work closely with Julien till the end of the month, to ensure an orderly and effective transition. Julien is an exceptional leader. I know him for many years. He knows Nexans inside out. He has a very deep operational experience and bring a very strong track record in terms of execution. So he has my full confidence. Julien, I'm a shareholder as well, so I have full confidence in him and full confidence in his management team.
So I want to thank as well our employees, our customers, our partners, and of course, our shareholders, that are, many of you are connected today, and thank you for your time, your patience over on your trust over the last seven years in New York, in Boston, in London, and in Paris. I make my best to restore the right condition of Nexans. Nexans now entering in a new phase from a position of a great strength, and I'm very proud of the legacy I leave, and remain, of course, fully confident in the company's future. So that's the few words I wanted to say, Jean.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Chris. Let me, let me conclude this first section by saying that Nexans stands on very solid foundations, with clear strategy, strong leadership, and a committed board. This transition reflects our shared ambition to foster value creation responsibly while maintaining full continuity in our strategic direction through structural performance and discipline execution. We are confident in the company's future and its ability to deliver sustainable growth under Julien's leadership. You will have the opportunity to meet and hear directly from Julien very soon, at the time of our Q3 result publication on October 23rd. That will be the first opportunity for him to engage with all of you and share his perspective of the next phase of Nexans' journey.
We thank you all for your continued confidence and interest in Nexans, and we'd now be happy to take a few questions.
Thank you very much. If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. We kindly ask you to keep it to one question per analyst. The first question comes from the line of Daniela Costa of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. I just wanted to ask a question to Mr. Mouton, regarding sort of the immediacy of the transition period, I guess, sort of until the end of October is a fairly short period. Was this something that you were always planning to do, this revise, what was the change of momentum or pace, as you said, for the company going forward at this point in time, once certain milestones were achieved? And if so, sort of why the transition so quick, especially when the company is without a CFO at the moment? That's my question, and then all the best for Chris, and thanks for all the past interactions.
Thank you, Daniela.
Thank you. Thank you for your question. So, we had many discussion about this specific point about immediate. The very fact that we were, we are lucky enough to have within our company, a very strong person, Julien, who has been working with Chris for the last 20 years and particularly the last 8 years on the ExCom, that we all thought that it was not a good idea to have a too long transition between them. So that's why we said, "Well, we decide," and now Julien takes over. As you know, now comes also the times of the budget, and we thought it was also the good time for Julien to really be in charge and put together with the team, the budget for the year, for the year to come. Now, concerning the CFO, you asked a question.
On the CFO, we see Christine Pévol becoming the interim CFO as of November first. Obviously, the hunt for a new CFO is very well advanced, and we'll get back to you with the name of the new CFO in very, very shortly.
Okay, thank you very much. So the next question comes from the line of Jean-François Granjon of Oddo BHF. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Yes, good afternoon, Jean-François Granjon, speaking from Oddo BHF. Two questions from my side: so I understand that you mentioned a new phase for the company. What do you mean more precisely, and why not this new phase with Christopher Guérin and the Jean-Christophe Juillard? So, to be honest, I don't understand why there is a change. The second question, someone mentioned the fact that Julien Hueber has a good experience from the Asian country, so do you expect some more development in this area? Thank you. And, I also wish the best for Christopher.
Okay, thank you for your question. So maybe let me let me rewind a bit. Over the last seven years, Chris made an outstanding job to bring back this company, as I said earlier, in the back of the best performing company of our industry. And he did that, I would say, with a very, very, I would say, very complexity reduction, transformation, he explained to you many times, this tool of SHIFT, all these things, that at the end of the day, created a lot of value for the company. Now, at the last CMD, in November of 2024, what was presented was what to do to amplify, after having done the simplify phase.
Which means how to develop on a more profitable growth, and in doing so, we identify how important it was to improve on industrial excellence and industrial performance. And hence, since we are doing on a regular basis a CEO succession planning within Nexans, by that I mean, in 2022, in 2023, in 2024, and this together with Chris, we had identified a few internal candidates regularly. We gave them, I would say, a track to keep developing.
And hence, in matching what we feel are the right attribute to take this company moving further, we thought that what Julien Hueber had done in the past, and he's currently doing within this company, and by that, having a very strong background on industrial excellence, made him a perfect fit for this new phase of our company. And that's how we decided to end up with Julien. And we do feel that Julien, who's been really together with Chris from so many years, is a perfect chance to ensure also continuity. As we said, there is no change of strategy, no change at all.
The point is, to pursue on this continuity and have a, from an internal standpoint, having somebody who will take the whole group, the whole group further. Now, you mentioned Asia. Yes, Julien, as you read, Julien spent about half of his time, in Asia. I mean, he's Nexans now about 25 years, of which more than 10 in Asia, but this does not mean that we have specific plan of Asia. I mean, in the very CMD, we explained what is our strategy, but the very fact of appointing Julien, you should not infer that we have anything in particular, for Asia.
Okay, so the next question comes from the line of Nabil Najeeb of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, yeah. Thanks for taking my question. You alluded to wanting to create new momentum on the execution of the CMD roadmap. Could you maybe talk about where you saw momentum lagging, and which specific areas are you now hoping to accelerate progress on? And thanks,
Sure.
Good luck to you, CG.
Okay. So on momentum, I mean, let me be clear. As I said, this company is in great shape, but we want to take it to the next level, and we want to increase the momentum on what I was referring to industrial excellence, which is obviously something... I mean, and when I say industrial excellence, I'm not at all meaning that we should abandon what we've been doing in the past. It is adding another layer to what has been done so much successfully by Chris over the last years. So this momentum is on industrial excellence, enhancing our, I would say, our competitiveness on industrial operations.
Got it. Thank you.
Okay, thank you very much. The next question comes from the line of Miguel Borrega of BNP. He got disconnected, so we apologize. Yep, he got disconnected. Maybe we can wait for a few seconds.
There's another question, I think, Amelia?
Yes. The next question comes from the line of Elias Cohen, of Neuberger Berman. Please go ahead.
Hi there, thanks for taking the question. I just wanted to clarify one thing: You mentioned utilizing an external recruiting service to consult with you guys to compare internal candidates with external. Just when was it that you started to engage with them?
Okay. So, let me be clear. When we are conducting this CEO succession, CEO succession plan, we always have been working with the headhunter to support us on a regular basis, in 2022, in 2024, because we do think that it is important, like, we do think it is good governance to have this CEO succession plan always ready. Which means that we have to go through, each time, an assessment of the various person we think are the closest to the CEO position, and also, decide what is then the route, the journey for these people to keep developing. So that's why the headhunter is always active with us on this journey of the CEO succession plan.
Now, it is important also to have this headhunter for the benchmarking, because obviously when we thought, well, we would like to have this attribute, then the question was, have we got these attributes within our candidates internally? And hence, we did a benchmark with a long list of external possible candidates, together with the headhunter, and at the end of the day, when we are matching this list, our internal candidates, and what we wanted to achieve, and I repeat again, we want to convey a sense of continuity of what has been done, and adding a layer to what has been done, we ended up, and we conclude with Julien Hueber. Next question?
Okay.
Please go.
Next question is from Miguel Borrega of BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.
Hello, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I just have one. For you, Chris, if you were to continue, what would be the next focus? The balance sheet is in great shape, the high voltage backlog is full, margins are solid. So if you were to choose one, Chris, what would you advise Julien to be the next flag? Is it accelerate M&A, breaking low and medium voltage margins to a new level, or make your high voltage business shine again?
Thank you, Miguel. So, I would say that first the main topic is the capital allocation. You know, we have a great balance sheet. We need to speed up on M&A, because if we don't speed up on M&A, we'll have to talk about share buyback or dividend, which is not a problem, of course, but I think we have a great opportunity ahead to accelerate acquisition, and to keep consolidating the market on our position in some key areas. So I think that will be the key focus. Innovation is of course bringing a lot of margin premium in all the business where we have been able to implement. We are getting better and better in the execution of our transmission business.
We need to fix the GSI, but there is some improvement in the last days, but we have other project in the pipeline that come up. So of course, I think we still have a lot of gain, and potential gain in the industrial performance on cost competitiveness, because we have been so good in terms of transformation through SHIFT, that we know that we have this potential of improvement, that we have been not untouched, but I would say reserve in the future, and I'm sure Julien will work on it. But of course, you know, it's not. I'm not missing any ideas, you know, I have a lot of ideas, but I will let Julien running the show now.
All right. Thank you. At this point, I will hand it over to Ms. Audrey Bourgeois, for closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Sorry, I think there is a question coming from Chris Leonard, UBS. Please go ahead.
Yes, we will take that. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah. Hi, guys. Thanks, Audrey, for slipping in at the end there. Just to follow up, obviously it was mentioned earlier that there's been no operational issues or any issues with any contracts, and it may be helpful if you could just allude to what you think is so important on the sort of industrial excellence, and what you're pushing for there, and what we should, you know, hope to see in the future from Julien. And then secondly, in follow-up to Christopher's remarks there, is there any elaboration you can give as to what's improved on the contract for GSI in the last few days? That would be super helpful. Thank you.
So Chris, I think we cannot comment on GSI right now, because it's not the purpose of the call, but Julien will give you an update on the 23rd of October. But Julien is with me on the line, so maybe Julien, it's time to-
Yes, hello, everyone. So I will have the opportunity to, I will have the opportunity to present myself a bit more deep on the 23rd, but c learly, to answer the question regarding industrial excellence, we, you know, we are in an industry where we have electrification is entering in a cycle of increasing volumes. And, of course, we will demonstrate this month after month. But our industrial footprint needs to create the maximum outputs that we have. Of course, we do CapEx to increase capacity, but we also have the existing footprint we have, and my priority will be really to generate as much output we have from our plant. That's my one element.
And also, you know, the M&A we did in Europe recently shows also a lot of opportunity to create a lot of synergy between the industrial footprint, meaning that it's not only one plant, one country, but when you start to create the synergies between, like, mutualization of industrial footprint, you get a maximum of it, and this is really one of the priorities that we are going to take on.
We have another question from Jean-François.
Okay, so we are taking the next question from Jean-François Granjon of Oddo BHF. Please go ahead.
Yes, the last question from my side. During the M&A, you have mentioned recently that you probably made some potential acquisition in the coming months, which you would expect with the plan. Is there a risk to see some delays to make some acquisitions due to the change on the CEO or not?
Thank you, Jean-François. I will take it. It's Chris. No change.
I just want to reinforce what Chris is mentioning. I mean, obviously we had that, we had that discussion, and we said we have a strong company, we have a strong team, and there is no reason to postpone anything.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Jean-François. We will finish with that. It's Chris speaking. So just first, I wanted to thank you all for staying in on this, on our investors, because over the past seven years, you have believed in Nexans, you believe in me and my team, Jean-Christophe. Your trust has been the cornerstone of everything we have accomplished. So I want to thank you sincerely for your confidence, your constructive dialogue, your very tough questions, and, of course, standing by us through each phase of the journey of the last seven years. So I'm leaving with this great gratitude and pride, and thank you all, and see you maybe in a different, we say, journey. Thanks a lot.
Thank you again, Chris. Thank you again.
All right, so thank you very much, everybody. You may disconnect now.