Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q1 2026 AUMOVIO SE investor and analyst call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions shortly. If you would like to ask a question, please press nine followed by the star key on your telephone keypad. If you wish to cancel the question, please press three followed by the star key. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Lutz Ackermann, Head of Investor Relations.
Yeah. Thank you very much, and a very warm welcome to everyone joining us today for AUMOVIO's Q1 2026 results presentation. With me for today's presentation is our CFO, Jutta Dönges. We will provide an overview of our financial performance and operational achievements in the first quarter of 2026. As always, both press release and today's presentation are available for download on our IR website. Following our remarks, we will open the line for a Q&A session with our sell side analysts. With that, I will hand it over to Jutta to begin with an overview of Q1.
Thank you, Lutz. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call today. Let me start with a brief overview of our first quarter performance. Overall, Q1 2026 is on track to deliver our full year outlook despite a continued challenging market environment. While our top line continues to reflect this environment, our results clearly demonstrate ongoing transformation progress and disciplined execution on profitability and cash. Adjusted sales in the first quarter came in at EUR 4.4 billion. On a year-on-year basis, Q1 adjusted sales declined by 7.8%, equivalent to around EUR 376 million. This decline reflects both continued market headwinds as well as ongoing portfolio and footprint measures in line with our strategy to prioritize profitability over volumes. Despite lower sales, we improved profitability.
Adjusted EBIT increased by 14.3% year-on-year, reaching EUR 169 million compared with EUR 93 million in the prior year. Overall, this is a strong adjusted EBIT performance in Q1, particularly given the lower sales base, clearly reflecting our tangible progress. Cash generation was another highlight of the quarter. Normalized free cash flow increased by 35.2% year-on-year, primarily driven by our disciplined CapEx approach and continued efficiencies in net working capital management, both of which remain core priorities for us. Beyond financials, we achieved several strategically important milestones. In Architecture and Network Solutions, we won a contract for the CoSmA Digital Vehicle Key System, marking our first end-to-end delivery of a fully integrated digital vehicle access solution.
In User Experience, we secured a major order for an OLED display unit featuring an invisibly integrated under-display camera, reinforcing our leadership in advanced display solutions. In addition, we entered a joint development with tesa on a dependable adhesive solution for displays, enabling faster corrections during production and more efficient repairs across the product life cycle. All three examples reinforce AUMOVIO's strategic and innovative strength from component supplier to system and solution partner with tangible order intake and near-term monetization. During the quarter, we also made further progress with footprint reduction, including closure of Changsha and the signing of the divestments of Rheinböllen in March and Mechelen in April 2026. These actions are fully aligned with our objective to create a leaner, more competitive, and more resilient operational setup. Overall, Q1 confirms that we are executing well on what is within our control.
We continue to strengthen our profitability, demonstrate improved cash generation, and stay consistent in advancing our transformation, even in a challenging external environment. In the first quarter, earnings and cash flow improved despite softer sales development. Sales development in the first quarter primarily reflected lower volumes and pricing effects, combined with foreign exchange headwinds of around EUR 150 million. This outcome is fully in line with the market backdrop and our continued selective value-focused approach to business. In contrast to sales, profitability continued to move in the right direction. Adjusted EBIT and margin progressed year-on-year, driven by the ongoing impact of our transformation measures, strict cost discipline, and further R&D efficiencies, confirming our ability to expand margins despite a lower revenue base.
Both normalized free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow increased year- on- year, supported by operational improvements and lower investment levels, reflecting our disciplined CapEx approach and continuous focus on working capital optimization, demonstrating the underlying cash generation strength of our business, even in a challenging market environment. We also continue to make visible progress in shaping our global footprint to support long-term competitiveness. Our ramp down plan in advancing in a structured manner fully aligned with our clearly stated ambition to simplify the manufacturing network and reduced fixed cost. The previously announced closures of our sites in Changsha, Nogales, and Babenhausen will become operationally effective in 2026. The closure of Kaunas and Lingyuan were announced at the beginning of 2026. We also recently announced the planned divestment of Rheinböllen and Mechelen.
With execution progressing as planned, we are fully on track to reach our target of fewer than 45 production locations. Let's have a closer look at the key financial KPIs for the first quarter, let's start with the development of our top line. To put the quarterly performance into perspective, reported sales in Q1 2025 amounted to EUR 4.8 billion. Following the divestments with a sales impact of around EUR 25 million, adjusted sales for Q1 2025 stood at EUR 4.78 billion. During the first quarter, adjusted sales were also impacted by our active portfolio management and footprint reduction measures. These included minus EUR 80 million of portfolio effects, driven mainly by the disposal of the Display business and User Experience amounting to minus EUR 41 million, as well as the phase out of contract manufacturing contributing minus EUR 39 million.
Excluding these portfolio effects, sales for the quarter came in at around EUR 4.7 billion. In looking at the remaining drivers, Q1 was characterized by two items. Sales were further reduced by EUR 296 million, with roughly one half attributable to foreign exchange effects and the other half to volume and pricing pressure. Accordingly, adjusted sales amounted to EUR 4.4 billion in Q1 2026. From a regional perspective, our adjusted sales exposure in the quarter remained well-balanced. Europe accounted for 51%, North America for 21%, China for 12%, and the remaining 16% came from the rest of the world, primarily Japan and Korea. Next, I will turn to the key factors explaining the movement in adjusted EBIT on slide 7.
Starting from adjusted EBIT of EUR 93 million in Q1 2025, after accounting for deconsolidation effects of EUR 4 million from the reported figure, we delivered a clear year-on-year earnings improvement in Q1 2026 despite the lower sales base. While adjusted gross profit decreased by EUR 31 million in absolute terms year-on-year, we improved the adjusted gross profit margin by almost 1 percentage point year-on-year, reaching 19.9% in Q1 2026. This improvement reflects pricing discipline, material cost optimization, a better product and project mix with a clear focus on higher margin products. Adjusted net R&D expenses decreased by EUR 36 million, representing a 6.6% reduction year-on-year and reflecting the ongoing impact of our R&D efficiency initiatives.
The adjusted net R&D to sales ratio, however, increased from 12.2% to 12.4% year- on- year in light of the top line decrease. Despite underlying strict cost discipline across group functions, adjusted SG&A expenses increased by EUR 18 million year- on- year, driven mainly by temporary post-spin-off build-up costs for central functions. Other items contributed EUR 26 million to the increase in adjusted EBIT, primarily driven by foreign exchange effects. Combining these effects, adjusted EBIT for Q1 2026 reached EUR 106 million, corresponding to an adjusted EBIT margin of 2.4%. This represents an improvement of 0.5 percentage points compared to Q1 2025. Let me now turn to the performance of our business areas on slide 8.
In the first quarter, we recorded a mixed earnings development across our business areas, with performance clearly differentiated by segments. User Experience and Architecture and Network Solutions delivered year-on-year improvements. While Architecture and Network Solutions and Safety and Motion contributed equally to overall adjusted EBIT of the group. In Autonomous and Commercial Mobility, ACM, adjusted sales declined by 13.1% year-on-year, mainly driven by foreign exchange effects and lower volumes. Q1 2025 benefited from exceptionally high EU Mobility Package 2 related volumes in the first half of the prior year. The termination of this package and the postponement of the third package resulted in lower volumes and a negative mix effect in the current quarter. Adjusted EBIT declined versus the prior year, reflecting the lower volume and less favorable product mix.
Autonomous and Commercial Mobility remains a development-focused business, continuing to invest in future technologies and execution on cost and efficiency measures helped mitigate part of the negative top-line impact. In Architecture and Network Solutions, adjusted sales decreased by 4.1% year-on-year, driven primarily by foreign exchange effects, while volumes remained broadly in line with the prior year. In contrast, adjusted EBIT increased by 61.2%, reflecting the continued effectiveness of our transformation program, disciplined cost management, and structural efficiency improvements. Our business area Safety and Motion delivered solid operational performance in a challenging environment. Adjusted sales declined by 7.2% year-on-year, driven by foreign exchange headwinds and volume effects. adjusted EBIT decreased by 22.2% year-on-year, primarily reflecting these effects.
Nevertheless, Safety & Motion continued to demonstrate strong underlying operational leverage, supported by its structurally robust cost base. In User Experience, adjusted sales declined by 4.1% year-on-year, mainly due to foreign exchange effects. At the same time, adjusted EBIT improved significantly, driven by effective self-help measures, stronger operational execution, and further improvements in the cost structure. User Experience delivered the strongest earnings increase, earnings improvement versus prior year, underlying the success of the turnaround measures implemented over the past quarters. Overall, the solid year-on-year earnings improvements confirm the healthy underlying earnings dynamics of our business, even in a volatile market environment. In the first quarter, we delivered strong cash conversion, further proving the cash generating power of our business. Adjusted EBIT amounted to EUR 330 million.
Its adjusted EBITDA amounted to EUR 330 million and forms the starting point of our cash flow development in Q1. Net working capital increased in Q1, driven primarily by a strong buildup of receivables of EUR 131 million, which could only be partially offset by higher payables of EUR 57 million. Inventories had a minor positive impact of EUR 3 million and were not a material driver in the quarter. Cash effective investments of EUR 87 million underline our strict CapEx discipline. Interest and tax payments amounted to EUR 77 million, reflecting an improvement in net interest payments, while income taxes paid remained largely unchanged year-on-year. After these effects, normalized free cash flow reached EUR 147 million, reflecting the underlying strength of our operating model and disciplined capital allocation.
Cash effective restructuring and separation related costs continued to weigh on free cash flow in the quarter. These amounted to EUR 150 million in total, including EUR 138 million of restructuring cash outflows and EUR 12 million related to spin-off and separation. After reflecting these special items, adjusted free cash flow for Q1 amounted to minus EUR 3 million. Overall, this performance underscores the resilience of our cash generating profile and confirms our ability to deliver strong operational and free cash flow. Our net cash position remains a key strength and continues to underpin AUMOVIO's financial stability and strategic flexibility. At the end of 2025, net cash amounted to EUR 1.389 billion.
During the first quarter, this position was supported by EUR 5 million of free cash flow, EUR 12 million of other cash movements, and EUR 22 million related to changes in gross financial debt, including leasing obligations and changes in derivative cash. As a result, net cash increased to EUR 1.43 billion at the end of March 2026, confirming our strong liquidity profile. At the same time, net pension liabilities further declined from EUR 1.065 billion at year-end 2025 to EUR 998 million at the end of March 2026. This reduction was primarily driven by the increase in the discount rate from 4.3% to 4.5% in Germany, which had a positive effect on the present value of our pension liabilities.
Overall, our strong net cash position and disciplined financial management ensure that AUMOVIO remains well-positioned to navigate market volatility while preserving the financial flexibility required to support ongoing transformation and future growth. As outlined at our full year 2025 results presentation in March, we will present our capital allocation strategy later this year, providing further transparency on how we intend to deploy capital in a disciplined and value accretive manner. Operating in a changing and increasingly volatile market environment, we confirm the outlook for 2026 as presented with our full year 2025 results. Our expectations for adjusted sales, profitability and cash generation remain unchanged. Let me quickly repeat our outlook.
For 2026 profitability, we expect an adjusted EBIT margin of 3.5%-5%, supported by a more favorable project mix, continued R&D efficiency gains, and further optimization of our global footprint, partially offset by temporary headwinds from raw material and memory price developments. The first quarter of 2026 adjusted EBIT is fully in line with our expectations and supports this outlook. In terms of cash generation, we forecast normalized free cash flow of EUR 500 million-EUR 800 million. Underpinned by strict capital expenditure discipline, with CapEx below 5% of sales. Ongoing price pressure and supply chain volatility may limit further working capital improvements. That said, the external environment has become more uncertain. S&P Global Mobility's April light vehicle production forecast reflects a shift in geopolitical assumptions, incorporating a prolonged conflict scenario in the Middle East.
This has resulted in higher expected oil prices, increased market volatility, and downward revision of global light vehicle production, particularly in the near term. For 2026, global light vehicle production is now expected at 91.4 million units, around 750,000 units lower than the March forecast, with reductions concentrated in Asia ex China and China. The 2027 outlook has also been revised downward, reflecting continued geopolitical stress and emerging demand headwinds in key markets. Against this backdrop, our focus remains firmly on what is within our control. Disciplined execution, cost and cash flow management, portfolio focus, and continued progress on our transformation. Given the current unpredictability of geopolitical developments, including the situation in Iran, no specific impacts related to these events have been factored into our assumptions at this stage.
At the same time, we will actively manage external factors where possible, maintaining flexibility to respond to a dynamic environment. With that, I conclude our presentation. Lutz, back to you.
Yeah. Thank you, Jutta. Operator, please take over for the moderation of the Q&A session.
Perfect. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and star on your telephone, if you would like to cancel it, please press three and star. We have first questions coming in. The first question comes from Christoph Laskawi from Deutsche Bank. The floor is yours.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one would be on current trading. If you see any sort of deterioration in Q2 with regards to call-offs, or any change in demand pattern of your customers. Also with regards to the cost headwinds that you've highlighted, could you comment a bit on the phasing of those headwinds and how the mitigation should phase 2? With regards to Q2, could you confirm or comment on the margin potentially being in the range? The second question would be on the cash seasonality. You had a pretty strong start to the year. Is there any sort of guidance that you could give how we should think about the seasonality and how you would see the cash flow evolving throughout the quarters in the year?
Obviously, you have a quite strong cash position, as you said, and you will introduce the capital allocation framework later in the year. Could you just initially comment potentially on what type of role M&A will play in that? I think currently you're obviously rather looking to dispose assets, and I would think that sort of cash distribution to shareholders would probably be further up than any sort of additions to your current portfolio. Sorry for a lot of questions, but the last block would be just on growth opportunities in the future. Aurora reported last night sounding quite optimistic on the projects that you have with them. Is this in line with what you're seeing? Is it or even potentially slightly better?
Lastly, the discussion came up a lot just on your project with Mentee. If you could, potentially comment on that, where you see it, how do you see it evolving? Thank you.
Good morning, Christoph Laskawi. Yes, long list of questions. I noted five questions, and if I miss anything, just remind me. Let me start with the current trading, Q1 and whether we see any call-offs or changing demand patterns from the customers. I would say, what we currently see is similar to the first quarter, where we also reported that demand was muted, and you see that in our top line. There is no expectations on any change in this pattern. Phasing of headwinds from raw materials in Q1, obviously there has been some headwind mainly on the raw material and memory price to a lower extent.
As we say that Q1 is supporting our full year guidance, and the full year guidance also contains some reflection on raw material and memory price increases. We expect that there is more to come, more increases to be seen in our numbers. I think what is important to put into perspective, in particular also for Q1, we, while we can pass on partially the price increases to our customers, based on index clauses in the contracts, et cetera, and price negotiations, we need to take into consideration that there's obviously a time lag. The costs will be only visible in our P&L, and the compensation will come at a later point in time. Let's say three, six months later.
Therefore, as Q1 was, it will be in line with the overall outlook. There will be some effects on the cost side. Yeah. We are very confident that this will be compensated later during the year, which will also mean that profitability in the second half of the year will improve overall in line with our guidance. I think also overall in line with our normal seasonal pattern that we see with Q1 being the weakest quarter in terms of adjusted margin and then a continuous improvement during the year. That is on current trading.
Cash flow seasonality, in terms of normalized free cash flow, I mean, this is as we just explained it for Q1, this is driven by CapEx, and CapEx has been rather low in the first quarter, so we should assume that this will pick up over the next couple of quarters, and that obviously then has an impact on cash flow. Overall, we confirm our guidance for the full year. If you look at just the free cash flow, so after restructuring items, obviously, the phasing of restructuring cash outs will have an impact. That is while for the overall year we confirm what we have been guiding for, there may be timing effects and any different developments quarter on quarter.
On cash distribution to shareholders, you have linked that to M&A and whether there's anything in the pipeline on the disposal side. Two main disposals, we just announced in March and April. We are not looking into any other disposals as of today. With regard to cash distribution, we said that we will come with a capital allocation framework in the second half of this year, and one item of this framework will obviously then also relate to M&A and whether we would reserve a pocket of war chest for M&A activities. Further update only in the second half of this year. Growth opportunities, you explicitly mentioned Aurora.
Yeah, I mean, Aurora remains a strategic, strategically strong and very encouraging partner. We also share the positive sentiment that has been expressed following the strong Q1 results and the overall optimistic outlook. We see that Aurora is well-positioned for the next phase of what they are doing. There have been recent customer commitments, also some progress on the regulatory front, notably in California, which is all very supporting. We continue to state what we said before. Aurora is a very important strategic partner for us and with the expectation that production will start then in 2027, we also would see first sales and material sales then picking up in 2028.
Confirmation of what we said before and we are very pleased on what we currently see, how Aurora is making progress and we, in our partnership with Aurora, are making progress. Last one was on Mobileye and Mentee. What we have is a signed MOU that dates back to end of last year. This MOU covers a evaluation phase. We are looking into how a business case, a business plan could look like. There's nothing on production or a commercial agreement. This is really on MOU on the overall evaluation of a partnership going forward.
Thank you. Just a brief follow-up, if I may, on the question if Q2 could be within the guidance range, on the margin or not. Can you comment on that or too early for now?
Q2 in the Well, I think we can confirm our outlook and, as I said, there's a seasonal pattern for adjusted EBIT in the quarters. Yeah. I mean, the start into Q1 was a bit softer, but overall, we are confident that we can we expect what we guided before.
Okay.
There's no specific guidance on Q1, Q2 out there, as you know, but in the overall context, the overall picture is, as I said, confirmed.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much. The next question comes from José Asumendi from JP Morgan. The floor is yours.
Thank you. Thank you very much. José from JP Morgan. Just a couple of questions for you, Jutta. Good morning. Can you please talk about the restructuring cash outflows you're expecting in 2026 and 2027? Second, when you look at your balance sheet from an overall, you know, maybe discussions with the rating agencies, overall balance sheet, how much cash do you think you need to have on your balance sheet? Are we looking at 10%-15% of sales? Do you look at it on sales? Do you look at it on net cash or on absolute cash levels? Then three, can you help us a bit more on UX, or UX? Are there any of those assets still up for sale?
The display business, is it still for sale? or not. final one, this is question four. Apologies. When we look at ACM, autonomous mobility, should we expect on a full year basis this division to be slightly loss-making, or do you think you have the right tools to bring this division to break even money-making? Thank you.
Thank you very much, and good to talk to you again. On the restructuring cash outflow, I just confirm what we said when we guided for 2026. We expect overall restructuring related and a spin-off and listing related cash outflow in the magnitude of low to mid triple-digit million EUR. A part of that comes from spinning and listings, and that is in the double-digit range. There has been a recent better understanding of some tax related payments that may come in 2026 already. That's why we are guiding for a double-digit impact from spin-off and listing related cash outflow. For the restructuring cash out, that is unchanged for what we said before. Yeah, low-mid triple-digit.
If you add that up, that brings you probably to a mid triple- digit EUR number. You also asked 2026 and beyond. I think what we can say, there will be additional, not additional, but there will also be restructuring related cash outs in 2027. As of today, given what we have announced, we would expect that by 2028, this restructuring cash out will really come down. On the balance sheet, and what the right composition of the balance sheet is also in terms of liquidity. Here I would ask you for your patience. This is an important part of our capital allocation strategy that will come later this year.
I think as of today, we are, and I repeat myself that we are very happy that we are in this very good, comfortable situation that we have plenty of liquidity on our balance sheet to do what we think is strategically the right thing and to continue on the transformation of the company. There's no update on UX. You ask whether it is for sale or parts are for sale. We just need to reiterate what you said before, and this is part of a strategic review. We will do this, perform this review over the course of the next couple of weeks, and then there will be clarity on UX.
However, I must say we are very pleased with the current progress. We see that the turnaround is working, that our measures are really effective. We are quite confident on the overall guidance that we have given for 2026 that profitability will be increased further. Then on the other business area, ACM, you asked whether we expect this business area to be break even. As of today, yes, this is our ambition to really also bring overall adjusted EBIT of ACM into positive territory. However, we have significant headwinds on the top line as we have also seen in the first quarter.
We really focus on what is under our control, cost measures, discipline with regards to production, et cetera, all these things that we can really do. As you said before, ACM will continue to be the business area which is very innovative and where a lot of R&D spending is necessary. This obviously has an impact then on the overall profitability. As I said, the ambition is to reach break even this year.
Thank you for that. Thank you very much.
You're very welcome.
The next question comes from Stephen Benhamou from BofA. Stephen, the stage is yours.
Hello, good morning. I have three questions, please. The first one is on Europe. There's a stronger performance in the region. I was wondering if it's mainly driven by this portfolio management or in some divisions you are experiencing some market share loss. This is my first question. The second question is regarding your guidance. I know that it's quite complex for you to precisely guide on what could be the impact of the current context. I was wondering what the magnitude of the adjustment that you've made on your underlying assumptions regarding the impact of this Middle East crisis as compared to the assumptions that you had mid-March for your results.
To what extent you're able to compensate those headwinds with customers compensation given the natural lag. This is my second question. The last question is a more broader question. If the oil price stays at a high level, I would expect to have a faster transition toward electrification and there'll be EVs. To what extent this is a tailwind or headwind for you if this EV transition materializes. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Let me start with the question on impact of Middle East crisis in our guidance. As we said in March, and we also repeat it now, we have not taken into account any impact from the Middle East crisis because it's really difficult to predict what is clear to nobody, I guess, is how long this will continue. However, I think it's important to note that the direct impact from the Middle East crisis is very, very limited. If at all, we talk about increased transportation costs, which is not reflected in our Q1 results as the increase in the transportation prices only started at mid-end March.
The other topic is on energy prices, where we also don't see any impact for the first half of this year because we are covered by forward buys. Where we see some impact, but it's not really material, and it does not have a really material financial impact is some supply chain difficulties. It takes a bit longer to get certain parts. There's this discussion around helium and what it means for semiconductor, but this then is rather reflected in the overall semiconductor situation where we see significant price increases. By the way, for 2026, this is something where we are not concerned in terms of the volumes.
We have secured a very large part of the volumes in memory for memories. We have also to a large extent fixed the prices. Iran is not considered in our guidance, in the confirmation of our guidance. As I said, there's only as of today limited impact. Oil price, whether that would be a tailwind for us. Well, actually, I don't think so. As I just said, the oil price, if at all, has an impact on energy prices and there the exposure is limited as of today. On Europe, there was a question, did I get that right? Under performance in some region driven by portfolio management.
Well, the portfolio management decisions were mainly in Europe, so there is no other impact beyond Europe. Was that the question on Europe and is that the answer? Is that okay?
Yes. Thank you. Regarding the second question, it was more about the consequences of oil prices, not the direct impact. The consequences of the oil prices is potentially a faster EV transition. I was wondering if.
Oh, okay. Yeah.
EV transition is a tailwind or headwind for the business.
Okay. Thanks for repeating the question. I now understand. I mean, we are, as we always say, we are agnostic, so we do not have a powertrain business, and we also do not depend on EV or combustion engine cars. If there is a push to electric cars, I mean, that overall helps on the overall transition. But, as I said, as we are powertrain agnostic, this is not something that we really take into our considerations.
Okay. Thank you. Maybe if I may, a last question, it's regarding what you've said for the DRAM prices. You've covered most of your volumes and pricing for 2026. I would assume that the negotiations for 2027 will start. Given that DRAM prices surge between 70%-90% year to date. I was wondering to what extent what could be the impact for 2027, given the negotiation that will be based on the higher price?
Yeah, you are right. 2027 is the focus. I think we explained that before in March that we are in looking for volumes to secure the volumes, we do that in very close alignment with our customers. The focus is really on getting the volumes. We discuss with our customers how the increase in the prices can be shared. That is part of the overall price negotiations or compensation negotiations with our customers. The focus is first of all on getting the volumes, therefore it's really important to understand what the volumes are that our customers are looking for. That's a close close cooperation that is taking place right now.
Just to come back on 2026, to reiterate that, I think I said it's a very large part of our volumes that we need, is covered, to be more precise on that 90% of 2026 delivery requirements are covered in volumes.
Enough. Thank you.
Next question comes from Harry Martin from Bernstein. Please proceed.
Hi. Yeah, good morning. The first question that I had, I just wanted to ask about China. We're back to underperformance versus the LVP and Q1 order intake, with the Chinese OEMs was somewhere around EUR 750 million in lifetime revenues. You know, is this underperformance and the slower order intake just transitory, related to the weaker market, or is there still some adaptations to the product portfolio you need with the local OEMs in China?
Actually, I would argue that China actually showed very positive momentum in Q1 2026 with regards to the order intake. We see ongoing customer engagement, and we have been quite successful in securing new and strategic awards. As we explained before, the business area that is doing well in China is SAM. On top, I think that Q1 was in particular also strong with regards to our business area A&S, in particular in China. I think that as our the split of the overall order intake also demonstrate we are doing fine. We're actually doing well in China and the share of order intake with Chinese OEMs stays at the same level as also reported for 2025.
With close to 60% with Chinese OEMs. That is actually going in the right direction and is confirming our strategy to really focus on China.
Okay. I had a follow-up on the non-automotive growth opportunity. You know, it has become a real trend for Tier One suppliers to spend earnings calls talking a lot about non-automotive use cases for the technologies in the portfolio. You know, it's notable to me that you haven't really focused on that even though some do exist. Do you think it's counterproductive versus focusing on the core strategy? I mean, do you have any other thoughts about the long-term potential in some other end markets as well?
I would not say that we are not focusing on this. Actually, we are looking into this to expand our product range and also get into non-automotive sectors. We are not at a point where we can talk about this in the public, but take for granted that we are looking into this, and when there is an update, we will communicate.
Got it. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Vanessa Jeffriess from Jefferies. Please proceed.
Hello. Thank you for taking my question. Just firstly, on order intake, understand there's a large one-off last year and lots of uncertainty, but even when we look at the first quarter versus, say, the fourth quarter of last year, I mean, is there anything else we should be aware of in that decline? Second, I was just wondering if you could just talk a little bit about the medium-term targets that you set out last year and kind of your confidence in achieving those on, you know, 3- and 5-year basis, just given what's changed. I mean, maybe which division you think, you know, the backdrop has changed the most in.
Yes. Thank you, Vanessa. On the first question, the overall order intake, as you rightly pointed out, when you look at ACM, it's hard to compare the numbers to the first quarter of 2025 because there was a major award, significant amount. If you would take that out, the comparison to Q1 2026 would be different. I think overall, what we see is the timing is a timing effect. Several OEMs have postponed their sourcing decisions, and we expect award decisions to be postponed. They are not off the table, but they basically only come later. That is a temporary deferral of our order intake then, obviously.
We have seen, as we also show in our presentation, very good and strong order intake in SAM, in UX. We have very good, major wins also in A&S. I think for UX, what you can see, and you probably remember when we talked about 2025 and the low order intake compared to the prior year in UX that has been now partially recovered. We said that the low order intake in 2025, in the last quarter in particular, that was because of a postponement of a sourcing decision, and this has now landed into the first quarter of 2026.
That also shows that our confidence and our strong pipeline is correct and that we are impacted by delayed decisions on the customer side. Medium to medium-term targets, we confirm them as of today. Nothing really to update. Also with regards to the PAs, there is no change in the overall midterm to long-term outlook. That's all confirmed as of today.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you. There are currently no further questions. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and star on your telephone. We will wait a moment to see if there is another question coming in. That seems not to be the case, so that concludes the Q&A session, and I will hand back to Lutz Ackermann for some closing remarks.
Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you to all of you for participating in today's conference call. If there are any further questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We will be happy to speak to you. The next conference call and the next reporting date is on August 6th. We're looking forward to that. With that, we would like to conclude today's call. You may now disconnect. Thank you very much and goodbye.