Welcome to the Nexans' Half Year 2026 earnings call. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answer session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. I will hand the conference over to the speakers, Julien Hueber, CEO, and Vincent Piquet, CFO. Please go ahead.
Good morning everyone, thank you for joining us today for Nexans' H1 2026 result call. I'm here today with Vincent Piquet, our CFO, and together we'll take you through our H1 2026 performance. As usual, our disclaimer noting that this presentation contains forward-looking statements subject to the usual risk and uncertainties. Slide three. Let me show you the key highlights of our H1 2026 performance. Nexans delivers once again its strategy of profitable growth and further increase its exposure to the U.S. market. Starting with group performance. Standard sales reach EUR 3.2 billion, up by 1.5% organically, driven by a strong electrification performance with organic growth up by 4.5%, more than offsetting the expected decline in other activities linked to metallurgy. The group delivered a solid adjusted EBITDA amounting by EUR 388 million, representing a healthy margin of 11.9% of standard sales.
Also driven by our electrification business, which delivered a robust adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.2%. Let me highlight once again that this is a high level of margin supported by our positioning as a pure player electrification bearing fruits. On cash generation, our cash conversion ratios stood at 42.7%, underlying the quality of our earnings. Turning to capital efficiency, the group ratio stood at 15% in H1 2026, and electrification ratio was at 17.4%. The variation compared to last year was mainly explained by the goodwill added through our recent acquisition, notably Republic Wire in the U.S. With the completion of the acquisition, Republic Wire, Nexans further expand its North American footprint with now close to EUR 1 billion of current sales, that is a platform to further continue the buy and build story in the U.S.
Not only the U.S., as we also remain opportunistic in our M&A pipeline. We also recently completed the divestment of Autoelectric on July 3rd, marking the successful completion of our transformation into a fully fledged electrification pure player. Finally, on being our H1 2026 on operations, our transmission MI line will be loaded until mid-2028 with a project of interconnection in the Mediterranean Sea that should start by the end of 2026, reflecting sustained strong demand for cutting-edge high voltage solutions leveraging our leading technological capabilities and engineering expertise. Electra, our third cable-laying vessel, successfully enter into operation starting, as you know, in June 2026, further strengthening our fully integrated installation capabilities.
I also would like to highlight on PWR-Grid that we expect our capacity in Europe to increase by around 40% between 2025 and 2028 to ensure a buoyant market where demand still materially exceeds supply. These investments are part of our 2028 guidance announced in 2024, and again, the amount of work to be done in PWR-Grid worldwide is massive. The significant extension and duration of frame agreements with our customers, our platinum customer, is the best illustration of this. Moving to next slide. Before we deep dive in our segment performance, I really wanted to insist on a structural transformation that is reshaping our industry and creating unprecedented opportunities. This slide capture why our pure player model is so powerful. We are witnessing the emergence of a new market paradigm, fundamentally reshaping our industry.
Our customers are rapidly changing the way they work. This is opening the door to entirely new type of partnership, new channel to market, and new business opportunities. The shift is particularly pronounced in fast-growing verticals such as data center, battery energy storage system, and solar, where electrification needs are surging, and where being close to the end customer is becoming a real competitive advantage. This is exactly why our pure player positioning makes Nexans a preferred partner worldwide, thanks to our agility and strategy built on three pillars. First, innovation. Our R&D center on Passy, Lyon, is dedicated to addressing the critical needs of end user and decision makers directly, giving us a direct line into how these fast evolving markets are shaping the requirements and giving us desired solutions ahead of the curve rather than reacting to them. Second, industrial excellence.
By mutualizing our industrial footprint across the group, we are structurally improving our time to market. You know that this topic is important for me. With our ongoing capacity expansion, we are positioning ourselves to capture a substantial share of demand growth. Third, M&A. We continue to consolidate our positioning across electrification, the momentum speaks for itself. Three acquisition in 12 months with ramp-up of their capacity expansion. You remember we explained that RCT is increasing capacity as well as Republic Wire. We intend to keep pursuing external growth with our discipline approach to further strengthen our electrification activities. Put together, these three pillars are precisely what allow us to address our customer critical needs for reliable, efficient, and sustainable solution with a speed to market that is now essential to winning contract in this new paradigm. This is a full strength of Nexans pure player model.
Moving to slide seven, our H1 summary. Let me break down our H1 2026 performance between electrification other activities. Electrification remains a clear engine of our performance in H1, with organic growth of +4.5% in the upper range of our midterm guidance. The group adjusted EBITDA margin reached 11.9% of standard sales, flat versus 2025 margin pattern, but slightly below compared to H1 2025. H1 2026 remained constrained by an adverse mixed effect among the three segment of electrification, with a strong performance of PWR-Transmission. PWR-Grid staying at a high level while PWR-Connect still facing a mixed effect. Finally, on other activities, mainly Metallurgy, the segment witnesses a -15% organic decline. As you know, this is due to a strong comparison basis in H1 2025 as customers brought forward copper orders ahead of type implementation in the U.S. Moving to the slide eight.
Let's walk through business by business, starting with PWR-Transmission, which delivered a strong improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin in H1 2026. Here also, I am very happy to announce that our MI line will be loaded up to mid-2028 with a project in the Mediterranean Sea. This project will start to contribute to performance by the end of this year. Standard sales came in at EUR 777 million, up by 4%, which include the growth of -0.1% organic growth as expected, as we are lapping an exception comparison base after two consecutive years of a strong momentum. The growth pattern is now starting its normalization throughout the year with comparison basis that will become even higher in Q4, while margin improvements will continue on their trajectory.
Adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 107 million, up by a strong 21% year-on-year with a margin of up almost 200 basis points to 13.7% of standard sales. This confirm our strong operating leverage and that we are firmly on track towards our high teens margin trajectory by 2028. Our adjusted backlogs stood at EUR 7.7 billion at the end of June, essentially flat versus December. The backlog remains subsidy-driven and give us good visibility into our activity all the way to 2028. As you know, our MI line in particular being now loaded until mid-2028. Moving to slide nine on Nexans Electra. As you know, our third cable laying vessel has successfully entered into operation in June this year, 2026.
Electra brings a real step up in capabilities with a 3-ton table to a total cable capacity of 13 tonal tons, which is up by 35% versus our other vessels with the ability to lay up to four cable at the same time. Beyond the technical specification, what matter the most is what this vessel give us strategically. Greater efficiency, lower energy consumption, and above all, additional agility. Indeed, owning our own vessel means we control our execution capacity directly rather than depending on the charter market, which directly supports future profitable growth in PWR-Transmission. Moving to slide 10. Let's move to PWR-Grid, where Nexans continue to build on its strong positioning in the buoyant global market. First, the standard sales reach EUR 702 million, which is up by 3.7%, including a solid 4.9% of organic growth in the range of our midterm targets.
This was supported by strong underlying trends and accessories business that remains particularly dynamic. All this driven by robust customer demand for high value-added solution linked to grid modernization and the ongoing expansion of power infrastructure. The adjusted EBITDA came at EUR 108 million with a high margin of 15.4% of standard sales. This level is fully in line with our expectation. It's worth recalling the structural mix of this business. Around two-third is underpinned by frame agreements. The remaining third, by project activity. Given the timing and execution profile of this project, some quarter-to-quarter margin can variate simply by a mechanical consequences of that mix. Overall, buoyant demand combined by a strong positioning in high value-added solutions continue to support passing power. We are also seeing strong momentum in North America in infrastructure project and data center.
Our Nexans is actively preparing to capture this business, and that has started in H1. Let me also touch briefly on inflation context. As we've explained before, we saw a slight lag effect in the early stage of the conflict, which was quite minimal and is now behind us. All our price are now fully indexed to the current price situations, and we passed inflation through to customers. At this stage, we do not expect any further significant impact on the pass-through. That said, we remain cautious and continue to closely monitor the situation both in the Middle East and at the macro level. Finally, the key point in that global demand is now significantly outpacing available industry capacity, which is why we're investing to expand our own capacity. On the next slide 11, illustrates just how attractive the market perspective are worldwide.
I want to highlight two figures that really capture the scale of the opportunity. First, around 80 million of kilometers of cable will need to be built or replaced by 2040. This is the equivalent of rebuilding today's entire grid over the next 15 years. Second, close to 50% of the world power grid will not be fit for purpose to handle this renewable energy by 2030. These needs are driven by structural force. Modernization of aging grid, the rising share of renewable energy in the electrical mix, the need for greater grid capacity, and the growing importance of grid reliability. The reality today is that capacity is saturated globally and notably in Europe, with demand materially exceeding supply. This is precisely why we are investing to expand our power grid capacity in Europe by around 40% between 2025 and 2028.
These investments were included in our 2028 guidance we presented at our Capital Market in November 2024. We are simply executing on the plan we laid out to capture a demand environment that remain exceptionally strong and probably even stronger than expected at the time of our Capital Market Day last November 2024. Let's go to slide 12, PWR-Connect. Let's finish with the business review with PWR-Connect, which showed very dynamic underlying momentum with a resilient margin performance despite an adverse mixed effect. First, on standard sales. They reach nearly EUR 1.4 billion, up by 15.4% in total. This breaks down into 7.3% organic growth, an exceptional high level which supported a very dynamic trend in Latin America and several European countries, including growth from Italy, which illustrate our ability to progressively deploy our innovative solution in that market.
On top of this acquisition, recent acquisition added a 10% sales growth, reflecting a contribution of five months of Cables RCT in Spain, six months of Electro Cables in Canada, and one month of Republic Wire in the U.S., three value creative deals. Second, on profitability, our adjusted EBITDA came at EUR 162 million, representing a margin of 11.8% standard sales. As expected, this segment remains subject to a temporary adverse mixed effect driven by two factors. The Nordic countries, where our best-in-class operation are still constrained by market conditions, and Italy, where margin are still below the segment average. The key message here is the sequential improvement. If you look at the progression from H2 2025, our margin improved by 80 basis points from 11% in H2 2025 to 11.8% now in H1 2026.
This was supported by synergies in Italy, improvement in Latin America, and the continued expansion in high-value verticals such as data center across our different geographies. The trend is moving in the right direction, and despite the mixed effect, we see our efforts bearing fruits. A quick word on inflation. As we discussed for grid, the dynamic is similar here for Connect. With that, I will now hand over to Vincent, who will take you through the financial review.
Thank you, Julien, and good morning, everyone. Let me start with the standard sales bridge, which walks you from the EUR 3,093 million in H1 2025 to EUR 3,249 million in H1 2026, representing a total sales growth of +5%. Organic growth is at + 1.5%. As Julien mentioned, this reflects a solid electrification performance of 4.5% organically, partly offset by the expected decline in other activities linked to metallurgy, down 15.6%, and that should mechanically recover in H2 2026. The second and largest contributor was scope at 3.8%. This is where our value accretive acquisitions are really starting to bear fruit. It includes six months of Electro Cables, five months of Cables RCT, and one month of Republic Wire, which we consolidated from June 1st.
On Republic Wire specifically, we will have a seven-month contribution over the full- year 2026, so you will see this scope effect continue in the H2 . I would also like to say a word on Republic Wire as its integration is off to a very good start. We are progressively bringing in our know-how, our culture of operational industrial excellence, and we are already working on generating the first synergies. Finally, foreign exchange had a slightly negative impact of - 0.3%. The US dollar and the Canadian dollar weighted on our sales, though this was partly offset by the appreciation of the Norwegian krone. This brings us to EUR 3,249 million in standard sales in H1 2026. Let me now turn to how this translated into profitability with the adjusted EBITDA bridge.
The bridge takes us from EUR 372 million in H1 2025, restated for IFRS 5, to EUR 388 million in H1 2026, an increase of 4.3%. Looking at the organic contribution by segment, growth was primarily driven by the strong performance of power transmission, which added EUR 16 million and was clearly the main engine of our profitability improvement this half year, thanks to the quality of execution and driving a strong operating leverage. Power grid contributed a further EUR 2 million. Here I would note that unlike in some prior periods, there were no particular one-offs projects this half. But we remain at very high level of margin, among the best-in-class performers, and we will continue to grow our margins gradually from here. Please keep in mind also the structure of the business, as reminded by Julien. Two-thirds with long-term firm agreements and one-third with projects.
PWR-Connect added EUR 3 million, including organic and scope. We have deliberately combined organic growth and scope effects as we increasingly optimize production flows between our existing and recently acquired plants whenever it makes strategic sense. This reflects our industrial mutualization strategy and our ability to adapt to the new market paradigm, as previously highlighted by Julien. We will keep mutualizing our plans to optimize our production capacity, improve our time to market, and capture commercial opportunities. We are confident in our ability to extract value from this transformation of our footprint utilization, and the benefits will progressively, on time, be fully reflected in our figures. On scope, acquisitions contributed around EUR 20 million, composed of six months of Electro Cables, five months of Cables RCT, and one month of Republic Wire.
Foreign exchange accounted for EUR -3 million and other activities weighted by a further EUR 2 million. All this brings us to a solid adjusted EBITDA of EUR 388 million for the H1. Let's now go through the P&L. Starting with our adjusted EBITDA that grew at +4.3%, as explained, with strong contribution for PWR-Transmission. We then have the impact of depreciation, mainly linked to PWR-Transmission recent strategic CapEx, as well as the acquisitions. Positive Corex mechanical effects of copper price increase over the period, offset by negative Forex impact related to our hedging activities. Our income taxes remain broadly stable at circa EUR 60 million in H1 2026 compared to circa EUR 65 million in H1 2025, resulting in an effective tax rate of 32.7% in H1 2026, more or less in line with the full- year 2025 rate that was at nearly 31%.
Net income from discontinued operations decreased by EUR 17 million, reflecting the net losses generated by Autoelectric during the H1 2026, while H1 2025 benefited from the net gains on the disposals of AmerCable and Lynxeo, partly offset by an impairment related to Autoelectric at the time. Let me now walk you through the net debt bridge for the H1. The first item to highlight is the positive operational performance in EBITDA and working capital. On capital expenditures, spending was relatively high this half, mainly driven by the investment in Nexans Electra. I want to flag here that H2 CapEx should be more or less in the same range as in H1 as we continue to finish the investment in transmission and metallurgy.
This brings me to our free cash flow, which came in at EUR 165 million, representing a cash conversion ratio of 42.7%. With our transmission down payments this half, this is a solid performance illustrating our discipline on cash management. On dividends and equity operations, the cash out was lower than last year because last year we ran the successful Act employee shareholding plan. At Nexans, we believe it is important to associate our employees with the group's performance and long-term value creation. On M&A, this includes the acquisition of Republic Wire together with the earn-out and the transaction fees associated with that transaction. Putting it all together, we end the half year at a well-controlled leverage ratio of 1.4 x. It gives us ample headroom to continue investing in our growth, both organically and through M&A.
Let me finish the financial review with a word on our financial structure, which remains solid even after the acquisition of Republic Wire, giving us the flexibility we need to continue executing our investment plans. Our liquidity position remains very strong at around EUR 2.5 billion, including EUR 1.5 billion of cash and cash equivalents, alongside our undrawn EUR 800 million revolving credit facility and EUR 250 million of undrawn EIB financing. In the context of the Republic Wire acquisition, we put in place a bridge to bond term loan of EUR 500 million with an initial 12 months maturity and two six months extension options. This is a temporary instrument indexed to Euribor that partially finances the acquisition while we prepare a bond issuance.
Setting aside that bridge, 100% of our debt is at fixed rate and our nearest maturity is our EUR 200 million EIB financing due in April 2027. Our average cost of debt stands at around 4.1%, which is a very good level. On our credit rating, we remain BB+ with a stable outlook from S&P. This rating reflects the strength of our balance sheet and the discipline we apply in deploying our capital. With that, our leverage at 1.4 x and its robust financial structure leaves us well-positioned to keep investing in our growth. Let me now hand back to Julien.
Thank you, Vincent. Let me take you through now our 2026 guidance. We expect an adjusted EBITDA for full- year of 2026 to be between EUR 770 million and EUR 840 million. On the free cash flow, to range between EUR 235 million and EUR 325 million. This guidance does not assume execution of the Great Sea Interconnector Project in 2026, as you know, but includes the load of the MI line at the end of 2026. This guidance takes into account the contribution of Republic Wire, the new acquisition in the U.S., starting from 1st of June 2026, and excludes the contribution of any further acquisition. All in all, the opportunities ahead are competing, and we have all the capabilities to succeed as a pure-play electrification.
We will continue to execute with discipline, strengthening operation excellence on further leveraging our integrated industrial footprint. This transformation will be gradual, and we are confident in our ability to deliver sustainable value for our stakeholders. Nexans will continue to operate within a disciplined financial framework for benefit of its shareholder, employees on the broader economy. With that, thank you all for your attention. Now, with Vincent, we will be happy to take your questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six. The next question comes from Akash Gupta from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good morning, thanks for your time. I got two. I'll ask one at a time. My first one is on guidance. Previously, you said that you expect H1 to be softer, meaning H2 to be stronger. Given the H1 performance that shows year-on-year growth in EBITDA, my first question is that, does this comment still hold, i.e., should we expect a better H2 on underlying basis before adding six months contribution from Republic Wire acquisition?
Okay. Thank you, Akash, for your first question. Yes, indeed, you have seen that we have raised our guidance by EUR 40 million, at least the low end of the guidance. A few things. First one, you have seen that our H1 is more dynamic than our initial hypothesis in term of phasing of project, in term of growth, specifically in some area like Connect on Grid. We are very confident for H2 also. The backlog are both in Grid and Connect are very strong.
We see also a good H2, but as you know, we are living in a geopolitical environment with Iran that is when they're in, when they're out. We want to remain prudent overall. Clearly, we are not shooting for the end of the guidance, we are shooting for the midpoint of the guidance. Clearly, we are very satisfied with H1, which was stronger than our initial hypothesis.
Thank you. My second question is for Vincent. I think when I look at the D&A expense in H1, it was EUR 153 million with just one month of Republic Wire consolidation. If we double this amount and add a few million more for Republic extra D&A, should we expect full- year D&A to be around EUR 310 million, or is there any one-off in H1 that we shouldn't expect to be repeated in full- year? Thank you.
Yeah, you're right. Our H1 was at the same level as H2 last year. We expect, due to specific items, our H2 2026 to come back to levels that are more in line with what we saw in H1 2025. There'll be a slowdown in H2 2026 versus H1 2026 on the depreciation rate.
Thank you.
Thank you, Akash.
The next question comes from Daniela Costa from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. I have one clarification on the answer just before, then I'll ask my question. Just on the guidance, on the sort of EUR 30 million-EUR 40 million of the change in the range, is that just Republic or is there anything else in it? I think if we look at the multiples you've set for Republic, it seems like this is just Republic. Can you just clarify if there's anything else in the guidance change beyond Republic?
No, it is more than Republic. We've included the impact of Republic, there's more than Republic in that EUR 40 million that reflects the strong performance of H1 and the positive outlook we have on H2.
Okay, got it. Thank you. Just looking at the backlog you had in March was EUR 7.9 billion. Now you have EUR 7.7 billion. If we look at sort of the sales you had during the quarter, that implies that you got some orders at around EUR 235 million. Is that the Mediterranean order or the Mediterranean order comes over and above that? Maybe just helping us understand how that then fills up the gap of GSI, if it is just the EUR 235 million, sounds like a much lower value than what one would have expected GSI to be in 2026 and 2027 and mid- 2028.
Okay. I will take this one, Daniela. The backlog we have reporting end of June does not integrate the new MI order that we are adding with the Mediterranean Sea. It does not include it yet. We have been winning some projects. You remember that we explained in H1 that we were winning some project in order to progressively use [inaudible] line, do MI, and we win also some medium-sized projects in the transmission. That's explaining the EUR 7.7 billion of backlog. By getting this MI project, we are now the preferred bidder, and we are in exclusive discussion with our customers. As soon as, let's say, the regulatory process will be finalized, it will be an official award, and then it will become in the backlog. It's not yet in the backlog.
Got it. Thank you very much.
In terms of size, I'm sorry, Daniela, in terms of size was your second question. It's using our capacity for 18 months, so it gives you an idea of the size of the order.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Scott Humphreys from Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Hi. Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, on Connect. We saw some quite exceptional growth, organic growth in Connect in Q2. Margins, as you say, were up some 80 basis points from H2 2025. Could you talk a bit about the different components of this sequential improvement in the Connect margin? I'm thinking specifically as well about the sort of margin differential between the Nordics and Southern Europe in particular, and the extent to which that gap could close. Thanks.
Okay. Connect, indeed the geographies dynamic are different. We explained already, if you remember in Q1, that the Nordic market was sluggish. In fact, it has not restarted, which is, for us, our biggest margin level for Connect. It's several points above the margin. Several points means that it's more than five to six points above the margin of Connect in the average. Nordic is not growing, not yet. We estimate, and we hope that it will recover progressively in H2, but in H1 it has not recovered. At the same time, we have seen some other European countries are growing quite well. Italy, very strong growth with our Italian business we have there, pushing for innovation. Margin improving step by step, but the margin in Italy, as you know, are not yet at the average.
When we are pushing on getting more volume, extra activities for Italian market, it has a negative mixed impact on our margin. France is doing very well. Belgium is doing very well. Spain is doing very well. We are extremely satisfied with the market recovery in this part of the world. We also have good dynamic sales in South America, extremely strong in South America as well as in North America, coming out. Overall, our topics we need to solve, and it's ongoing, is really the Nordic that's hurting us, and quickly continue to transform the business we have in new acquisitions to bring them, typically Italy, to bring them to the at least average of Nexans for Connect.
Great. Thank you. If I can just ask a second as well. On the MI production line, it sounds like you've got this long-term project sort of starting by the end of 2026. When we think about your 2026 guidance in H2, could you kind of confirm what that assumes in terms of maybe some of the shorter-term actions that you were talking about previously? Has anything changed in relation to those smaller pieces of work and utilizing the line this year?
No, I think it doesn't change. We're preparing for the start of production towards the end of the year, and in the meantime, we're continuing to use the line with very short orders, the spares that we've talked about before. It doesn't change. We now have certainty that the line will be fully used starting at the end of the year until mid-2028.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Nabil Najeeb from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi. Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. Just to follow up on Connect-
Hi, Nabil.
Hi. Obviously, a solid organic improvement in the quarter for Connect. Just wondering, to what extent, if at all, demand was helped by extreme weather conditions, particularly as Europe experiences multiple heat waves, which, yeah, we have seen that has supported HVAC demand for some. If it did help, do you expect that to remain a tailwind into Q3?
We do not see the demand has been positively impacted by the heat wave. We do not see that because I might say the opposite because it could have slowed on some of the construction works outside during the day. It didn't have any positive effect for us. It's really the fundamental market that is driving this growth. Commercial is picking up, industrial activity is picking up. Of course, data center, but also battery storage and all this. We also are quite satisfied on the solar. Solar, it's either grid on Connect depending on type of cable. Medium voltage [inaudible]. Bringing the solar panel to the grid, but also we have ample of Connect business in solar. It's a mix of several elements, and we do see a continuation of a good momentum in the growth in the H2 of the year.
Great. My second question is on Republic Wire. Could you give us an update on the progress on the capacity build out there and the progress made with increasing medium voltage sales in the U.S., using Republic Wire as a base?
I was in Republic three weeks ago. I spent the time to meet, first of all the sales network, sales agents. I was very impressed by the quality, by, I would say, the amount of sales guys across all states in the U.S. in the right location, California, Texas, Michigan, Florida, and so on, pushing on selling our product there. I was very impressed by the quality of these sales agents. The integration is doing very well. We already have started the industrial synergies between our Fergus plant in Ontario and Republic Wire on different elements, compounds, metallurgy. The plants are supporting each other.
That has started from day one. It's moving in the right directions. I'm very also enthusiastic about the capability to extend our Nexans portfolio product to these Republic Wire sales agents, willing to extend their range of portfolio. That's also moving very fast at the right pace. We have already in place a very strong integration teams on sites in order to review all the different stream we have. It's a cadenced weekly reviews and so on. That's moving fast as well.
Regarding your question about MV. MV expansion in the U.S., for the time being, at this day, we are doing it from the outside the U.S. plant, so Canada and South America, as we have explained. We are currently investigating different option of medium voltage capacity increasing for North America. Clearly, we will increase our capacity to sell more medium voltage in the U.S., either from the internal manufacturing or from the outside. We are currently working on two options.
Got it. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Lucas Ferhani from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. The first one is just on transmission. How should we think about kind of the growth in the coming years? You're not adding any more capacity. I think you have the vessels now. You're adding a little bit in high voltage, kind of onshore. How do you see the growth? Is it mostly a margin story, or is there more to get on the top line as well from here? Thank you.
I can start. As we've said before, clearly transmission is in transition. After two, three years where the business doubled, we are going to see much lower growth rates going forward. It's also dependent on the timing and the lumpiness of the projects in the backlog and their execution. What you saw in H1 will probably continue in H2, and that's what we see. It doesn't have an impact, importantly, and to your point on the profitability expansion rate. The backlog is very healthy, and the execution is doing very well right now. We're on track for the EBITDA expansion, the EBITDA rate expansion. I think maybe I will add one thing. Clearly, our focus today is profitability of transmission. This is clearly our main focus. You know where we want to land by 2028. We are on track. There's a trajectory.
There's an action plan. It's about execution. This is where we push the team to focus on the H1 results, demonstrate the capability of the team to deliver. There's still a long way to go, and we are confident that the action ongoing will deliver results in H2 2026 and in 2027. Trajectory is there, the plan is there. We are pushing the team to execute on profitability.
Very clear. Thank you. The second one was just on M&A, just the cadence of kind of potential further deals. I get that this leverage has gone up a little bit in the H1, but you're deleveraging. Do you want to wait to kind of further integrate Republic Wire? If you see opportunities, are you happy to kind of already start to do further deals? How do you think about the cadence of M&A?
Our strategy is profitable growth. The profitable growth strategy is based on expansion, both organic and inorganic. Part of our strategy is to do M&A, and we will continue to push to discuss with targets and to execute via M&A. We will not wait any times. Any opportunity which sounds good to us, in line with our strategy, we will action that.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Sean McLoughlin from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. Just coming back to the Connect margin mix. What kind of timeline should we expect to bring the LTC margins to the Connect average? Is this just a structurally lower margin business compared to Nordics? Just thinking about how that margin mix evolves through the H2 and the 80 basis points that you mentioned, is this the kind of level that we should expect in terms of year-on-year improvement? What other moving parts should we consider there? Thank you.
When we have done the acquisition of LTC, the challenge on the strategy on that acquisition was to buy this acquisition at a low multiple. If you remember, it was around the five multiple. Of course, when you buy a low multiple, you get a lower margin at start. All our challenge and all our strategy is to transform this low-margin business to a high-margin business. This is what the team has been executing since now two years, and it generates results. First of all, we have reduced the number of customers. We have done the sift method on these activities. A big part of it has been done. We've reallocated the capacity to the best vertical what we build.
Most important, we have injected innovations to a business, both to Italian business, but as well other country business, because LTC is not only Italy, it's also covering other geographies. The plan is there. The plan delivers according to exactly what we expect. We are still below the average, but we're making progress on our expectation for the H2 on the years to come is not to be at 11.8% PWR-Connect. We believe we can be above 12% and step by step raising this bar. That will come from transforming some of this acquisition, but also acquiring different geographies. Third, by developing ourselves to verticals that are having more appetite for innovations such as data centers, BESS, battery storage, and so on.
The plan is, we have a plan for LTC. It's moving right directions. It takes time because there's a big demand and of course, when you have a nice industrial footprint, you want to use this capacity, which is what we are doing. The growth of LTC is extremely dynamic in this H1. We'll continue. It will remain dynamic in H2, and we need to quickly inject more and more innovations to raise this margin level.
Brilliant. Thank you. A second question, just coming back to the guidance that includes the MI line loading by end of 2026. Is the base assumption that you will secure more short-term work, or are you already baking in this larger project win by end of 2026 in that guidance?
Yeah, we're baking in a small portion of that new project into the number at the end of the year. We're working on that. In the meantime, if we have ability to continue to execute on the spare orders that I mentioned, we will do that. Yeah, there's some of it in.
Wonderful. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Chris Leonard from UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe two from me, actually.
Hi.
Could I start by going back to Nordic region? You mentioned that you hope to see that sort of recovery coming through in the H2. Has there been any signs of any sort of recovery and growth in early Q3 to date? Which geographies in particular would you be looking for to see an early recovery?
Well, first of all, Q3 in the Nordics is better in term of volume than the Q1 this year, clearly. You know the last several semester, we had this typically the Sweden, Swedish business has been going down quite a lot in our mix but also in pipeline sales because of a local economy. We are not the only one facing this problem. We do see some start of recovery in Q3. For us, our ambition is to go faster than that because we expect them to go even faster. This is, by the way, both in Green and Connect, because we are selling also Connect on grid business to some of our distributor there. The recovery is coming, but it is still not at the level we expect.
Thank you. Second question on transmission, maybe. You spoke about this new contract you are hoping to get in that would keep the MI line occupied for maybe 18 months. I think previously you stated maybe you are also seeing other inquiries for transmission on the MI line. What sort of timeframe might you expect for those discussions to get more mature? If you were to confirm additional contracts for the MI line, would those take priority for delivery ahead of the current GSI contract? Thanks.
Yeah, we're actively working on different projects. There's clearly appetite for projects using this technology specifically. As we've mentioned before, there's only two actors in the world who actually can produce this MI technology, and the demand is strong because it's a requirement in many geographies. Specifically Mediterranean, but not only. The timeline and the sequencing of these projects is both our competitors and us, we are basically coming towards the end of the backlog that we have visibility at 2028, 2029. It's normal for the activity to start to pick up in 2027, so that we start to refill the backlog and the projects will be executed in 2029, 2030 and beyond. It's probably during the course of next year that some of these projects will materialize.
I just want also to highlight the strong agility of the transmission team in Nexans that managed to basically reposition this production MI line to this new project. You can imagine that in this world of transmission, you normally have long cycle of projects. When we understood that the GSI was postponed to a different date, it was not so long ago, it was more or less six months ago, on the beginning of the year. The team has done a great job to quickly fan out in the markets, talking to customers, and you explained that customer was eager to also use this capacity to make it happen in six months' time. I think this is quite impressive in terms of cycle time. It only shows the agility that the team has been doing. I think that's something to highlight.
One compliment from me, sorry, Chris, to answer specifically your question. As we've just done with this new deal, if GSI doesn't move fast enough and we find another deal, we will do that other deal before GSI.
Perfect. Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Akash Gupta from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, thanks for taking my follow-up. It's just on transmission business. The question is that, when we look at all of your production and installation assets in transmission business, by when should we expect you would be fully saturated on that? Is it by end of the year when you start executing on this new MI project? Or do we need to wait for a few months until you have produced the cable and you start installing it? Just curious, when should we be in 100% utilization of all of your assets in transmission? Thank you.
We've got different plants in the world, I would say the answer would differ from one plant to another. We are still, at this moment, building capacity in Charleroi land high voltage. This capacity will be up and running by end of the year, not before. Of course, the consequences on the saturation equipments will differ from each of these equipments. Overall, we are well loaded until 2028. Both Charleston and Halden submarine plants are loaded. To improve also our profitability, the team is also improving the industrial efficiencies, and that also creates some capacity availability that maybe we didn't have few years ago. That give me the willingness to also go after other smaller size deal. In the industrial world, our job is to keep on improving, working on the efficiency, execution, selectivity of our project.
I think that overall, our equipment is well loaded, but the improvement in the industry give us also still some room to keep on developing extra sales in 2027 and 2028 and the year after. For the case of Charleroi is just to have this new equipment. It will be loaded for the big TenneT project that will be starting. Some of it already started. That will load our plants in term of land high voltage. We keep pushing because, industrially speaking, we need to keep on improving our efficiency with speed of reliance on in order to capture extra miles of capacity.
Thank you.
Thank you, Akash.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Scott Humphreys from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Scott Humphreys, your line is now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Apologies. A couple of other companies with exposure to the solar space have reported recently. They've seen some pretty strong growth in that market. Could you please provide a bit of color on the scale of solar within Grid and Connect, and the extent to which sort of these are current dynamics due to the energy markets, government incentives that are sort of driving this segment versus a structural longer term trend?
It's a very interesting question because it's a vertical, one of our strategic verticals we really want to go in. It's extremely dynamic perspective in terms of growth looking forward. It's very much active in South America where we are currently producing, building, installing large solar projects. The same for Mediterranean Sea countries like Morocco. On the south of, I would say, south of Europe. There is plenty of activity that I should mention Australia as well, by the way, because Australia, we also are currently producing for larger activities. The long-term perspectives are extremely dynamic. This is part of the growth we are having, both in Connect and Grid, as I explained previously.
We do produce the low voltage cable for solar that are between two solar panels. We're also, of course, producing medium voltage to link this solar farm to the grid. For the two market segments, Grid and Connect, benefiting from this dynamic, it's already a significant part of Nexans sales growth. It will continue because we have innovations, capabilities, different types of packaging that fit completely with this market.
Great. Thank you.
As a last reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad.
Since there are no more questions, let me close by a few words. The H1 of 2026 was another strong demonstration of our profitable growth strategy in actions. We delivered solid electrification growth, a resilient EBITDA margin on the cash generations, all while further increasing our exposure to the attractive U.S. market. We completed our transformation with the divestment of Autoelectric that you know we finished by early July. Nexans is now officially a global electrification core player, a simpler, sharper, and more resilient business, backed by a solid balance sheet that give us the flexibility to keep investing in our growth.
The perspective ahead of us are truly exciting. We operate in markets where demand structurally outpace supply, whether in grid modernizations, in subsea interconnections, or fast-growing vertical like data center, Battery Energy Storage, and solar. With our innovations, our industry-leading sales, and our disciplined approach to M&A, we are exceptionally well positioned to capture these opportunities and to keep creating value for all our stakeholders. I want to thank you all for joining us today. This concludes our H1 2026 result call. Thank you, and see you very soon.