Good morning, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our conference call regarding NORMA Group's quarter two 2024 results. My name is Guido Grandi, with my colleague, Annette Stieve, accompanying me. Together, we will proceed to the following slides. At the end of the presentation, we will be available to answer your questions. Let us start with some key figures for the second quarter of 2024. Our net sales totaled EUR 306.3 million in the second quarter of 2024, which represents a decrease of 5.5% against previous year's quarter. Despite the drop in sales, we were able to record an Adjusted EBIT of EUR 26.1 million. As a result of our Step Up efficiency measures, the Adjusted EBIT margin rose to 10 basis points to 8.5%.
Likewise, to the previous quarter, our net operating cash flow showed a strong increase of more than EUR 11 million to a total of EUR 43.6 million in quarter two. Coming to the balance sheet, our equity ratio further improved and reached 47% at the end of June. Our non-financial performance is just as important to us as our financial results. As you already know, CO2 emissions are our key non-financial figure. Here we can report a decrease of 10.7% in the first half of 2024, compared to the same period in the previous year. Let us move on to the next slide, where we show our top-line development in more detail. As mentioned in the beginning, sales declined in the second quarter.
You can see on this slide, the reduction was 5.5% compared to the second quarter of 2023. If you look at our sales for the first half of 2024, we see a decline of 3.8%. We're not satisfied with this, but it more or less meets our planning scenarios within our forecast for 2024. You may remember, we were expecting a bumpy year in passenger cars and even a stronger decline in the truck business when guiding for 2024. These expectations are now, and I must say, unfortunately, becoming reality. Moreover, the weakness in the Chinese economy and continued elevated interest rates in the EMEA and Americas region, put additional pressure on major end markets.
All in all, this had a noticeable impact on our business volume, particularly in the mobility and new energy, as well as the industrial applications business units. While the price effects of 0.5% increase even reflected a slight price improvement, the volume fell by 6.4% in quarter two. Positive currency effects mainly resulted from the US dollar in the Americas region, which were partially offset by negative currency effects from EMEA and APAC. As a result, they had an impact of +0.2%. At the same level, effects from the acquisition of Teco contributed positively to our sales development. The breakdown of sales by region reflects what has just been said. Sales in the Americas are up in Q2, which can be attributed to pleasing contributions from our water management business. To be fair, currency had a contribution, too.
Water management also developed well in Europe, organically, and as a result of the Teco acquisition. In Q2, the APAC water management sales grew by 1.2%. Nevertheless, this was not enough to offset the negative trends in mobility and new energy and industry applications in both regions. Let's take a closer look at the sales development by region and SBU on the next slide. In the Americas region, the industry applications business recorded slightly weaker demand with more or less stable prices. Water management contributed positively with a solid increase of 4.9%. In the Americas, the mobility and new energy business recorded a decline, with higher prices unable to cushion the reduction in volume.
All in all, the positive growth in water management and a sequential improvement in the industrial applications business in Q2 versus Q1, together with positive currency effects, supported the overall performance. In the EMEA region, the industry applications business was impacted by an overall weak economic environment. Compared to the first quarter, the second quarter showed at least some sequential improvements. Water management recorded a strong increase, to which the Teco acquisition added an above-average contribution. It should be taken into account that heavy rainfalls in springtime, some major markets of the continent, caused a drop in demand for irrigation systems. The mobility and new energy business in EMEA mirrored the development of the automotive industry. In the APAC region, the industry applications business recorded a weaker demand due to a further delay in the recovery of the Chinese economy.
Water management was stable despite some harsh weather patterns in our most important market, Australia. Finally, mobility and new energy has also experienced a negative development in Asia. On top, negative currency effects had a weakening effect on sales development in the APAC region, in addition to the weaknesses in volume. At the next slide, we will report on our sales per SBU. As already discussed, we are in the process of reorganizing our reporting system. As part of this activity, we have been reporting our sales performance for our three strategic business units since the first quarter of this year. This is a very important step in promoting our SBU structure and increasing transparency about our progress. Let's start with industry applications and its development in Q2 2024.
Net sales fell by 5.2%, mainly due to a weak global economic environment and weak demand, particularly in the APAC region. However, compared to the first quarter, we do record a sequential improvement, showcasing some positive effects of our Step Up initiatives. I will elaborate a bit further on these at the end of the presentation. Water management, on the other hand, recorded a robust sales growth of 6.7% across all regions. This is based predominantly on organic growth and additionally, the Teco acquisition, which contributed around 0.2% to the positive development. Our mobility and new energy business division reported a decline in volume that could not be offset by slightly positive price effects. Sales fell by 10.7% compared to the second quarter of the previous year.
We will come back to this later, but it is worth mentioning at this point that we have come a little closer to our goal of adjusting the sales ratio in the first half of 2024. As you may recall, NORMA Group's traditional sales split is 60% mobility and new energy, while industry applications and water management together account for 40%. As of June 30, the share of mobility and new energy has now decreased to 56.5%, while the share of water management has risen to 25.6%. Now that I have explained our sales results to you, I would like to hand over to Annette Stieve, who will give us more details on our financial results.
Thank you, Guido, and hello, everyone, and a warm welcome also from my side. While Guido Grandi has just explained the rather mixed development in our sales, let us now focus on the other line items of our financial results, and they are developing pretty well in many areas. I will give you an overview of the development of our income statement. Our most important message here is that we have worked hard on our profitability and can show further successes. The material cost ratio was slightly higher in the first half of 2024 than in the previous years' period. This is the result of the following two factors: firstly, although the cost of materials fell, this was disproportional compared to sales, which is partially due to changes in our product mix.
Secondly, we had an increase in inventories of finished goods and work in progress this year, while in the first half of 2023, a corresponding reduction in these points had lowering impacts on the material cost ratio. Personnel cost expenses rose compared to 2023, which is due to inflation-related wage increases. The personnel expense ratio rose, too, as an effect of the lower sales. Other expenses continued to decrease. In the second quarter, lower freight costs and special freight in particular, were the main reasons for this development. Total freight costs in H1 decreased by about EUR 5.6 million, compared to the previous year's H1 number of EUR 16.7 million. This was primarily achieved through significant optimizations in the purchasing and the supply chain finance, and in the supply chain management.
These departments contribute important measures to the Step Up growth and efficiency program. Our Adjusted EBITDA and EBIT demonstrated decent improvement, particularly in relation to a sales situation characterized by headwinds and uncertainties, it is becoming evident that our efforts are bearing fruit. With an Adjusted EBIT margin of 8.4%, 5% in Q2, we are showing an increase year-over-year, but also quarter-over-quarter. In the first half of the year, our EBIT margin reached 8.4%, exceeding the previous year's figure of 7.8% by 60 basis points. Let's get over to the next slide, where we show the development of the region. Major reason for our positive development is the considerable recovery in our EMEA region.
Despite lower sales in both Q1 and Q2, our Step Up efficiency measures are now evidently increasing our margin profile in EMEA. With an uptick of 130 basis points in H1, from 4.9% to 6.2%, the EMEA region is continuing its solid way to a substantial margin improvement in the current year. These improvements are primarily based on the continued implementation of operational efficiency measures in connection with Step Up, which are proven by significantly reduced logistics costs, and here, in particular, as already said, freights and special freights. Adjusted EBIT margin in the Americas was robust and almost on previous levels, on previous year's level.
Ramp-up costs at the new water production site in Lithia Springs dampened the margin in the first half of 2024, while lower price level for freight costs also had a positive effect. In Asia Pacific, which is currently contributing about 12% of our group sales, the adjusted EBIT margin was impacted by the decline in sales, especially in the second quarter. Various countermeasures, such as strict cost savings and operation efficiency improvements, could only partially compensate the weak market environment. However, overall, the margin development gives us the necessary support to continue our course and deliver strong results. The next slide, our service slide for you, we show our operational adjustment in the PNL. In 2024, these will predominantly relate to PPA effects from our acquisitions.
Just as an additional information for you, the Teco acquisition will contribute with about EUR 600,000 per annum to our PPA effects. Continuing our PNL, let's have a quick look to our on our EPS. As for the first half of 2024, adjusted EPS and reported EPS decreased by 12% and 17.5%, respectively. While our adjusted EBIT has increased by 4.4%, the lower financial result and the higher tax rate had a dampening effect on our EPS. The net financial result is influenced by the promissory note issued in Q3 2023 as a refinancing at a higher interest condition, conditions due to the general rise in market interest rates, and for sure, also the corresponding full year effect out of it.
On top, we recorded net currency losses from financing activities in the first half of the year 2024, compared to positive results in the previous year's period. Our adjusted tax rate in Q2 2024 was at 44.6%. Reasons for the increase included unrecognized deferred tax assets on losses, as well as non-allowable withholding taxes and non-deductible expenses. For the second half of the year, we are expecting improvements in the adjusted tax rate. Based on the recent projections, we estimate an adjusted tax rate of around 40% for the full year. Let's move over to the balance sheet figures on the next slide. Our net financial debt increased by 6.44% against year-end 2023. This represents a sequential decline compared to the end of March, when this figure was still 9.95%.
At the end of June, our leverage was at 2.3x Adjusted EBITDA, well below the 2.7x at the end of June last year. The equity ratio has further improved and reached a healthy 47%. In addition to our very decent improvement in our adjusted EBIT, also our net operating cash flow increased significantly. Overall, our net operating cash flow has increased by more than EUR 54 million compared to H1 2023. Moreover, we have further reduced our supply chain financing programs by about EUR 4 million compared to the end of 2023, and even by about EUR 10 million compared to the end of H1 last year. An improved working capital management led to reduced working capital outflow compared to previous year. Moreover, CapEx spending in H1 was sequentially lower than in the previous year.
We nevertheless expect to catch up the expected level in the second half of this year. This pretty sound earnings and cash flow performance makes me quite optimistic towards our further recovery progresses. By this, I hand over the floor back to Guido Grandi.
Thank you, Annette. Ladies and gentlemen, as Annette just said, our results demonstrate the success of our strategy in navigating the NORMA Group through a challenging economic environment. We are pleased to confirm that we are on track to deliver on our commitments as outlined in our guidance. We remain confident that we will achieve our targets for this financial year. However, we experienced headwinds on the top line in the first half of the year, the dynamics of which have tended to increase. We're thus considering the lower end of our sales guidance as appropriate at this point in time. Nevertheless, our full year guidance, as detailed in our annual report, published at the end of March, remains unchanged. In the remaining slides, please let me provide an overview of our progress with the Step Up program.
We have already given you an indication at one point or another today, that our Step Up program is becoming more and more visible in our results. Personally, I think this evidence is more meaningful than the simple fact that we had already identified more than 1,500 initiatives by the end of June, even if this figure makes us proud as a team of one NORMA. I told you earlier that we are already well on the way to shift the sales split away from mobility and new energy towards more water management and industrial applications. In addition, our efficiency measures in the EMEA region are becoming visible in our income statement and cash flow. The weakening market in the second quarter has somewhat disappointed us for industry applications.
However, we are encouraged by the fact that our sales team has still managed to implement higher prices. As far as water management is concerned, it has undoubtedly developed well up to this point. Regarding mobility and new energy, in the moment, it is simply the market that is in a phase of exploration. We cannot escape from it, but we believe that with a decent amount of flexibility and determination, we will manage reasonably well through this phase. The recently published order from one of the major OEMs gives us confidence that we are on the right track. Coming to the end of this presentation, let me give you two examples on how our entire team at NORMA Group is working together with creativity to make Step Up an absolute success.
Just as a reminder, our Step Up program consists of two components: One aims to optimize our group's efficiency, while the other focuses on growth. In order to improve our profitability, a higher level of efficiency is the key to success. A specific project in this context concerns the implementation of distinctive new processes and automation systems in our production facility in the Czech Republic. Through the optimization of manual processes and reducing the need for non-value-added work, we estimate that we can significantly reduce the associated direct labor costs in certain workstations by up to 30%. On top, we're focusing on advancing production automation as much as possible. Our goal is a flexible automation system that minimizes human activity. The new system is designed to cover the entire range of manufacturing operations of the clamp assembly process, regardless of the product group or range.
We're already implementing the new processes. The necessary investment into the described automation is scheduled for next year and is included in our budget. As for the growth part, our aim is to broaden our horizons in order to bring our expertise and capabilities to additional industries and make them available to new customers. By shifting engineering capacities from mobility and new energy towards other applications, we want to enable a faster adoption of product initiatives and speed up product innovations. A great example of our approach is the large order for an energy storage facility in Germany, as announced last week. It applies to the VPP Bi-Cone type clamps, as shown in the picture, which function as a flange connection with a high degree of tightness. This represents our new approach to transitioning and redeveloping key products for mission-critical solutions.
A type of clamp originally developed by our engineers as an efficient connection for metal pipes in the automotive industry, is now being used in renewable energy. As a result, our product range now includes clamps used in the cooling system of energy storage systems in Germany, and we are proud to be making an important contribution to the energy transition to the supply of our products.... Moreover, with this order, we are enlarging our industrial applications footprint in the EMEA region, paying into our long-term strategy of growth in both sales and earnings. Ladies and gentlemen, with these two examples, I would like to conclude today's presentation. They should give you a flavor of the efforts we have made over the past year since I joined the team, to create a new and different company.
During the presentation, we have demonstrated the positive impact of our Step Up program on our financial performance. This is shown by the significant improvement in our margin profile and cash flow. Despite the ongoing economic and political challenges in multiple regions, we're confident that we will sustain the gradual improvement of our company's overall performance in 2024 and beyond. Thank you for taking the time to participate in our call today. We now look forward to addressing any questions you may have.
The first question comes from the line of Yasmin Steilen , Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks very much for taking my questions. I have three, if I may. So first on EMEA, in the Q1 call, Guido, if I remember correctly, you guided for EUR 35 million-EUR 40 million Adjusted EBIT in EMEA for the full year. So at the low end of the guidance range, this implies an EBIT margin of at least 7.5% in the second half. Could you explain the reasons for the sequential margin improvement in H2? And to what amount water-related investments are reflected there? If I remember correctly, EUR 3 million-EUR 5 million for the full year. So what is reflected in H2 versus H1 would be my first question, then the second one on APAC.
In your fiscal year guidance, this implies a sales growth at the lower end of 5% in the second half. So what are the main reasons for the expected sequential improvement here? And also in this context, specifically on the water management, so sales were flatish in Q2. You also mentioned Australia, but looking at India in particular, following the re-election of the Indian Prime Minister Modi, what are your early indications for water infrastructure investment in H2 and in the coming years for India, please? And finally, on APAC margins, the adjusted EBIT margins in APAC were down some 250 basis points. So what was the main reason for the sharp decline, and how should we think about the margin progression in the second half? Many thanks.
Okay, thank you very much, Jasmin. Those were three main topics and many questions. So be patient with me. I'll try to address them all, but don't hesitate to come back and dig a little deeper if I don't answer them.
Will definitely do.
Starting with EMEA. First of all, I don't want to be misunderstood. My comments during the presentation concerning a, let's say, conservative look at the year 2024 are predominantly targeted at the revenue level. We are well underway concerning our EBIT margin level, as we have proven in the second quarter, and we're very confident we can keep it, keep it up that way, relative to revenue. We're swimming with the storm, so to say. We cannot make the economy around us better than it is, but we're making the best of it. So my comments were more targeted towards the top line and not the bottom line.
Nevertheless, for EMEA, I think when you look at our EMEA region over the last year, maybe even the last one and a half years, you do see a continuous improvement of our margin. And you can see a continuous improvement of our EBIT results, which are driven mainly, let's call it, by self-help efforts, where we're improving the performance in our plants. Of course, we're also dependent on external effects like the revenues around us, and the revenues are obviously, especially in the EMEA region, not to our satisfaction, especially as it refers to the vehicle production for heavy vehicles, predominantly, but also to a certain degree to light vehicles. So, in summary, for EMEA, we're very confident on our own performance and the EBIT improvements we're making.
We're somewhat more concerned about the overall economic situation, especially as it relates to industrial applications and the M&E business. For the water management business, that has developed nicely in EMEA. Nevertheless, it is still the younger child or the smaller child of the family. And therefore, the contributions from water management in EMEA region are maybe not as noticeable on the overall performance of EMEA, but as a standalone, water management in EMEA is running fairly well. Maybe to check- Please go ahead.
Just to follow up, what is reflected in your margin, in the first half, in terms of ramp-up costs, and what do you expect for the second half? So are you still targeting EUR 3 million-EUR 5 million in the full year?
Yes, that should be s till applicable. Yeah.
Perfect. Thank you.
Okay, then, the second group of questions you asked were around APAC and the development of the APAC region, especially the water business and also our APAC business in India, if I recall correctly?
Yes.
For APAC, as you can see, comparing our three regions, APAC is probably the region where we're fighting the hardest in the moment against the economic situation over there. Nevertheless, to be more specific, we're fairly pleased with the Indian market. We're not quite as pleased with the development of the Chinese market. In the Indian market, we're doing fairly well, for mobility and new energy, for example, as car sales in that region have been fairly positive for the first half of the year. We are fighting a little bit on the water side. As you might recall, we're represented in the Indian market, specifically by our Kimplas company, out of Nashik, in India.
That company is producing what we call flow systems, piping connection systems, and so forth. These businesses are dependent on government contracts, and government contracts have been down in the first half of the year, as you indicated, due to the election that we had in India. A lot of these government contracts were put on hold, or the bidding for these new contracts was put on hold. We're expecting that to come back now in the second half of the year, but yes, that had some implications for us in the first half of the year. Any other questions concerning APAC?
No, basically only the margin question.
The margin being?
So, yeah. So basically, the 250 basis points year-over-year decline we've seen in the second quarter. On the one hand, what were the main reasons behind, and how should we think about the margin development then, going forward?
Yeah, I think the margin development in Asia Pacific, in general, and in India specifically, are mainly volume- driven.
Okay.
Based on the fact that we only have a... I mean, we're trying to flexibility in our production sites as much as we can, but if volume drops down to a certain degree, it becomes more difficult. So, it is really more a question of acquiring or getting back to a planned volume levels.
Okay. Basically, with the implied at least 5% increase in the second half, we should also see then gradual improvement in the profitability.
Yeah.
Okay, perfect. Thanks very much. That's very helpful. I'll step back into the line.
Thanks.
The next question comes from the line of Peter Rothenaicher, Baader Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes, hello. Firstly on order backlog. So you mentioned that the order backlog declined relatively strongly by almost 9% in the first half of the year versus first half 2023. Is something- is this something which makes you a little bit worried regarding prospects for the second half of the year? And can you comment on your view about project activity of the automotive industry? Are you here well positioned? Is there more to come? Yeah, can you comment on that?
Yeah. On order backlog, this might sound strange to you, but as a matter of fact, I actually see that, to a certain degree in a positive view, and let me explain to you why. We're coming from a situation for those of you, and I know most of you did follow us for a period of time. We're coming from a situation in 2022 and still early 2023, where the company was suffering from backlog, or more or less, our customers were suffering from backlog. That led to a situation where a lot of customers put orders in to protect the supply of their own customers in the value chain.
Which then, at a first sight, might have looked good for us because we had a strong order book, but at the end of the day, it was a reflection of the backlog that we had to these customers. As we improved our performance in EMEA and actually worldwide, relative to delivering to our customers, and that, of course, applies especially to the industry applications sector. We now see a little bit of a decline of the order book, which is really just a reflection of that they reduced their safety stock as we're delivering a little bit better. That's one effect of it. The other effect is that we do see a little bit of a different trend in the market, which I guess is also caused by the higher interest rates.
Where in the past, customers were willing to give more long-term orders and were willing to also keep higher levels of inventory. We now see that these orders are coming in more short term, as also our channel partners are reducing their inventory levels. The whole system has become a little bit more short term, which also puts some pressure on our order list. For the automotive world, of course, that's a little bit different because we're working with the EDIs and forecasts from our OEM customers. Over here, it's more a matter of the little bit of a inconsistency in the transition as we move from internal combustion engine to battery electric vehicles.
We had effects here in the first half of the year with one of our larger customers that actually shut down their plans for electrical vehicles for several months. They are now coming back on stream, but those effects, of course, also show in our pipeline or show in our order book, as especially we're headed into the summer season, where a lot of our heavy vehicle customers were reducing production.
Okay. You mentioned heavy vehicles. I think in the first half of the year, this was particularly affecting your sales situation. What do you expect here for the second half of the year? Is commercial trucks business somewhat recovering, or might this remain very weak?
I think overall, we expect it to remain fairly weak. Maybe we will have a little bit of a pickup now after the summer break, because naturally, a lot of our OEM customers, also in the heavy vehicle field, use or utilize the vacation season in the summer for plant shutdowns. Those are mostly behind us now, so we have a natural effect now that production will pick up a little bit. But I guess overall, from an economic standpoint or from a overall volume standpoint in the heavy vehicle sector, we don't expect any huge improvements here for the second half.
Okay. And my second question is on personnel, and here, particularly, on temporary workers. So if you look at the personnel costs, it's looking rather disappointing with the strong cost increase. But I think this is not showing the complete truth, so if as you had a strong decline in the number of temporary workers, is this correct, that this is then being reflected in other operating expenses? And if you put both aspects together, personnel costs and the cost for temporary workers, does it then look better? And yeah, how should we see this in total?
Yeah, you're fully right, Peter. The temps are shown in the other operating income, and we could make a huge progress there actively. So we saved, we are better by nearly EUR 2 million out of temporary workers. So we could with special freight and freight costs, these are the major pillars. The other EUR 2 million coming from temporary workers, where we really improved, and this is shown in the other expenses. Well, the major impact on our personnel expenses is what everybody bears finally, that is, I always call that the last wave of inflation, that in 2024, we will, we all everybody need to prepare for quite a higher wage increase in total all over the world.
Okay. So for the second half of the year, do you have additional headwind from wage increases then from IG Metall? I think this is starting in the fourth quarter, is it correct?
Well, let's see. So, I think that, we, as everybody, you prepare yourself for these things, but, these rounds will be, they ought to be, higher than in normal years, but I don't expect there, anything extraordinary what we for the time being don't see. But the wage increases are, in average this year, higher than the years before. That is, again, out of this last inflation wave, where, the full price index for private living stepped up.
Regarding the number of employees, is it fair to assume here, regarding your own employees, a stable development and further decrease in temps?
So we decreased also this year in the absolute figures of our headcount i n temps. W e will never be on zero, because we always have to keep in mind that, in particular, our Maquiladora structures, for example, in Mexico, these are always structures where each and every worker is a temp worker, but he feels and behaves as our worker. This a typical construction. So therefore, this will always stay, but we optimize all over, also in our own headcount expectation and as well as in our temp structure in Mexico. But all in all, we are nearly getting out of temps in Europe and so on, what was a countermeasuring for, I would say, the inefficiencies in the previous years.
Okay, this topic of inefficiencies is now almost done?
Yeah, we nearly forgot it. So,
Okay.
I think you can see that, you can see that line by line in the P&L, that we are really making ground there, and that we are continuously improving there, and we will never stop that. But fortunately, not in this big steps, like we needed to do that, up from the compared to the last year.
My last point, with regard to the price negotiations with the OEMs, can you comment on this? Is it going solidly? I know it's always a hard negotiation, but how would you consider the situation? Is it normalizing, or is it perhaps even getting now tougher again with the difficult situation of the OEMs?
I would say it is overall, unfortunately, it's overall normal. But I, I think our team is doing a very good job, because relative to where we expected to be at this time of year, we were able to keep our pricing quality up. So, we're, we're pushing back on maybe requests on reductions and other things. I mean, obviously, the whole environment has changed a little bit. The high inflation on material cost has come down. We've seen in end of 2022 and beginning of 2023, that has come down somewhat. But as Annette or she already said, we now have another wave of inflation, which is the merit increases or the increased labor costs. And of course, we're discussing that with our customers as well.
So far, we're making good progress by holding our prices at a good quality level.
Okay, thank you.
It is also a little bit different in the regions, because in EMEA, for sure, as long as we have these conflicts in the world, in the Near East and so on, this is always a bit dampening. So like this, we suffer with like everybody else in the world.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Nikita Lal, Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hello. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. Actually, I have only one left. You guided towards the lower end of the sales guidance. Could you elaborate which regions are here key drivers and which segments?
Yes, to run through it, it basically is in line with what we reported on the second quarter. We're very happy and satisfied with the development in the Americas region. We expect that to continue also in the second half of the year. On the other side of the coin, the APAC region, we're struggling with that in the first half of the year. We're expecting a slight improvement in the second half, but nothing that will catch us up. And in EMEA, we're gonna be just about a level. So in other words, Americas is great, APAC is difficult, and Europe is obviously a little bit dependent on the overall economic situation that we are facing here in Europe.
All right. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Guido Grandi for any closing remarks.
Ladies and gentlemen, we want to thank you again for participating in today's call. As you heard from us and saw in the presentation, we are working in a very challenging economic environment here in the second quarter of 2024. We're convinced, though, that the company has shown a very good resilience to deal with these economic challenges, and therefore, we're also confident as we're looking at the second half of this year. Thank you very much for your participation.