Welcome to the PFISTERER Holding SE Publication of Half-Year Report 2026 Call. The conference will be recorded, and at this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to Johannes Linden, CEO.
Hello, good morning to our earnings call, and warm regards from the southwest of Germany. Unfortunately, not so warm any longer from a heat point of view than what it used to be a few days ago, but we think quite hot from the business performance point of view, and this is what we would like to talk to you about today. The presentation that we have prepared is structured into four different chapters. The structures are generally the same as in previous calls. In case you have participated, we will be giving a very brief introduction, in particular for the ones who may be in the call for the first time. After that, we will be talking about the financial performance of quarter two, and then also subsequently, this will be leading to information regarding half year one and the respective relative comparisons for the previous years.
We are going to be sharing a few insights on our three-folded growth strategy in chapter three, business highlights. Lastly, there should be remaining 20 minutes approximately for questions and answers that we will be very happy to answer to you. If I kick it off and start with the introduction, Johannes Linden , my name. I am the guy on the left. I am , meanwhile, more than 30 years in the B2B industrial arena. Out of this, more than 22 years profit and loss responsible in a number of companies, amongst others, also listed companies. I am a co-CEO here in PFISTERER, and I am taking care of the functional areas of finance and operations. That gives me the chance to hand over to my colleague who is sitting next to me.
Hello, good morning. Konstantin Kurfiss , to everybody. Yes, I also have + 30 years in industry, in various companies coming especially out of the, I would say, our industry we are working in, electrical infrastructure. I am more than 16 years here in PFISTERER, from 2005 to 2013, and now from 2020 up to now. I am also the co-CEO here and a board member, and I am responsible for sales and technology in the company. Welcome to our call.
All right. If we take a look at product examples, this will be illustrated on the picture in front of you. Here, we would see a typical transition from an overhead line. This is the wire cable type of element that you see in the upper half of the picture, and these overhead lines would be connected to an earth cable and/or a transformer station. That is why we chose the picture here. This time you see different products of PFISTERER; for instance, insulators would be illustrated here, but also terminations. In the front of the picture, you see the person applying safety equipment of PFISTERER, with which this worker can safely check whether there is any juice on the line, so to speak, whether there is electricity in the system or whether it is safe to be working on the system.
We have, and this is illustrated by the picture, we have products and components that can be found in the electrical infrastructure, and there we are connecting the grid and the mission of PFISTERER, of the team of meanwhile 1,500 people here in our team, is to be the preferred partner for innovative, reliable, and also mission-critical electrical connection and insulation solutions. This is illustrated by the picture. On the next slide, there is another illustration. Of course, this is a very condensed view of reality. It is a condensed view on the electrical landscape. You see here different steps of the electrical infrastructure. For instance, starting with the generation of electricity. This is more in the top area of this slide; onshore wind, offshore wind, nuclear energy, could also be gas turbine, or it could be a solar photovoltaic electrical generation field that is seen here.
In all of these generation situations, electricity needs to be connected, and that is where PFISTERER comes into the game. So we are connecting these generators with the transmission that can be taking place under the water, or it could be overhead lines in the air. It could also be earth cable, underground cable systems. Again, PFISTERER is able to provide the connection and the insulation to all of these different elements. After the transmission, then electricity needs to be distributed into the application arena. This could be a municipality, or it could be rail and mobility, it could be data centers. Obviously, growing very strongly, and it could also be e-mobility, charging stations, and so on and so forth. So PFISTERER is agnostic with regard to the individual application of our products. We provide the products for generation, for transmission, and for distribution.
We provide the products whether they are applied in the air, under the waterline, or in the earth, and we apply the products whether they are on a low voltage spectrum, that would be anything below 1,000 volts, whether they are in the medium voltage, that is, between one and 53,000 volts, or whether they are in the high voltage arena, which is anything above 53 and up to 1 million volts. We are agnostic, and we think this gives our business development quite a robust profile. Speaking about that, on the next slide, there is an illustration again of PFISTERER's footprints. This is demonstrated in the center area of this slide with the world map, PFISTERER being active through 19 different companies, five different production facilities in the U.S. and Germany, and the largest one in the Czech Republic.
In combination and conjunction with our technical distributors, highly educated technical distributors, we are covering more than 90 countries from a sales point of view out of our 19 entities and five factories. The revenue of PFISTERER, this is illustrated on the left, splits into business segments that we are reporting by geography. This is starting with the largest region, Europe and Africa, with 55% revenue share in the first half of 2026, followed by the second largest region, which was the Middle East and India region with a revenue share of 25%, the Americas, which is covering continental Americas, meaning North and South America with 14%, and Asia Pacific with 6%. To take a look at the share, maybe just a brief comment. Europe and Africa is the largest share, and that has also been the case in previous periods.
If you compare the 55% of the first half of 2026 with 2025, back then it was 54%. In 2024, it was 58%. So the revenue share of the largest segment, Europe, is more or less constant over the past years. If we take a look at the segment regarding our products, this is the pie chart at the bottom left. Here, starting with the largest segment, HVA, high-voltage cable accessories, so connectors that are connecting cables to equipment, be it a transformer or be it a gas-insulated gear, a switch station, or others, is the largest segment. HVA with 42%. Overhead lines represent 25% of our revenues, and from a voltage point of view, overhead lines are also typically high voltage. Number three is the components business, low voltage applications with 21%, and then there is medium voltage applications with 11%.
If we add up overhead lines and HVA, both are high voltage, meaning above 53,000 volts. They are making up 70% from a segment share point of view, and that number has substantially increased over the past years. It was 62%-63% in the past two years. Meanwhile, it has grown to 77%. Maybe I am a little bit too early mentioning this, but we are happy about that for the time being because the higher the voltage is, typically also the margins are the highest. On the right, you see also selected customers. Maybe I can mention here that we have a very broad range of customers from a customer characterization point of view. They are reputed utilities worldwide.
To name just a few, TenneT is the one here on the top left, but there is also Swissgrid, or there would be Enel in the more southern regions, but it could also be Edison in the United States or the SEC in Arabia. We are working with cable manufacturers. The second group here, Hellenic, are Sterlite from India now. We added this illustration here because this wasn't mentioned in the past, but Sterlite India is also a good growth region for us. ZTT is also mentioned here newly. We have been working with ZTT already for a number of years, and we also want to illustrate there that we are working with Chinese cable manufacturers in China, but also in Asia and also to a growing extent outside of Asia.
Southwire would be an American company. LS Cable & System is a Korean one. You see the cable manufacturers across the globe are working and relying on PFISTERER. Technical distributors, I mentioned the most prominent business partners from a reputation point of view, I guess, are the OEMs, such as GE Vernova, ABB, Hitachi, Siemens Energy. As a fifth customer group, we are working with the contractors. This is also represented by a number of recruited companies you see there. The largest single customer of PFISTERER is in the area of 3% revenue share. We believe this gives us quite also some robust business exposure, as we are not focused on one customer or one customer group, but it is well-distributed across the groups, the customers, and the segments. One last comment from a more holistic point of view.
We believe that the electrical infrastructure continues to have a very positive and sustained tailwind, and that gives us confidence that we will see PFISTERER also continuing to grow sustainably for the future to come. First, we think this is supported by the fact that the global electricity demand continues to rise. If the growth in electricity in 2025 was at 3%, it is projected to be 3.6% in this year and even more, 3.8%, in 2027. We think the underlying trends, e-vehicles, heat pumps, air condition, are robust, and of course, data centers are being built. I believe the United States is investing $1,000 billion. I am mixing up billion. Billion, yes, billion dollars next year into data centers, so there is a growth in electricity. The grid investments are obviously correlated to the electricity consumption and demand. This is growing just as well.
In 2025, the growth in the grid investments was calculated to have been at 11%. This year, the global grid investment is expected to grow at around 17% relative to last year. This is a very fertile solid ground we are working on. Maybe as a last example, speaking about Europe, we think that the political support in the European Union in accelerating permitting procedures is also worthwhile to mention. I do not want to talk too much about politics here.
Everyone has his own opinion there. But if we look to the permitting procedures, we believe there is positive notice to be made. If you look, for instance, in Germany, the average approval time for onshore wind has reduced in the past two years from 2023 to 17 months. And we immediately see that in an increased approval of capacities in 2024, 14 GW were being approved, and in 2025 it was already 21 GW. And maybe it is also worthwhile to put that into perspective.
So in those two years, Germany approved 35 GW on onshore windmill capacity, but Germany only installed 8.4 GW. So that means more than four times the capacity has been approved than what has been installed. And I believe that gives us confidence that we expect also major growth to be taking place in the future ahead of us, and I think this is also being confirmed by the most recent statements from the windmill companies such as Vestas and GE Vernova, who increased their guidances, but also Nordex and Siemens Gamesa are working as per their expectations. And this will be leading me to chapter two, the financial performance of half year one.
Let's talk about the quarters first, and then we will be coming to the half year. If we look at the order book and the revenues of PFISTERER in the quarterly view, looking back over the past five quarters, I think we see a quite satisfactory picture. Our order book increased year-over-year by 8.9% to a new record number of EUR 340 million. If you take a look at the revenues, we see that the revenue in the second quarter with EUR 129.8 million once again reached a new all-time high. It is an increase relative to the previous years, a quarter two of 14.4%, and EUR 129.8 million has never been accomplished by PFISTERER before. If you look to the average quarterly revenue of 2025, back then it was 112.5%.
So far, the first two quarters this year have an average of 128.4%, and we're going to be covering this later, but we have reason to believe that this number will continue to increase also in the second half of the year. If we look to the product segments and our individual regions that we see here, then it can be observed that all four product segments showed a growing revenue year-over-year, all four. We can also state that three out of four regions showed growing revenues year-over-year, and the strongest increase we have seen were in HVA. If you look to the individual regions, we see that the strongest performance in the second quarter was Europe and Africa.
If we move on to the next page and take a look at results information we are sharing on the presentation here, we have in the past, and also we do it this time just the same as before. We are sharing gross margin and adjusted EBITDA data for the individual quarters. If we start with the gross margin, the second quarter is the second quarter in 2026 with a gross margin above 40%. So we see a four as a first number, 40.4%. Gross margin is slightly down from the first quarter, 43.6%, which again was a record number on the gross margin in itself. The past five quarters have shown four quarters with 40% gross margin. We think this is quite an achievement.
If we then turn to the adjusted EBITDA, which is, of course, positively influenced by the good margin, but also by the good volume that we have seen, then our EBITDA with EUR 24.7 million in the second quarter is an increase relative to the previous year's second quarter of 33.4%. Again, this is an achievement from our point of view that makes us look into the future quite positively. We move on to the individual breakdown of order intake and order books in our reporting geographical regional view. On the next page, we will be sharing the same on the product segment view, but let's start with the geographical regions. We have seen in the second quarter, somewhat softened order intake relative to an extraordinary prior year. I think that is worthwhile to mention an extraordinary prior year.
If we, at the same time, look at the order book, which is the basis for revenues to come, we see that based on the extraordinary prior year's order intakes, the order book has continued to show a growth on a year-over-year comparison view, and that again is our comfortable situation on which we are growing the business. If we look into the individual geographical region in the Americas, we have seen a decline in order intake, which is mainly attributable to a lower demand in Argentina. Nevertheless, the order book in itself is down less than what we see on the order intake. The order book in the Americas is relatively low from a product segment characteristic point of view because the products that we are serving in the Americas have shorter lead times than in the other regions. That is, I believe, also relevant to say.
If you look to Europe and Africa, we see that the order intake in the quarter went down in Germany in OHL, but the order book in itself went up a relatively strong +9% , and that is primarily driven by the product segment HVA, which we're going to be seeing on the next page. In the Middle East, we have seen an order intake that is down compared to quarter two. That was a record number in quarter two last year, again, to be mentioned, and the order book went up still in the second quarter relative to the second quarter last year by +6%. Lastly, in the Asia-Pacific, we have seen a steep increase in the order intake, +94%, and we also see a positive development in the order books with +32%.
Overall, the order books went up by EUR 28 million, which is a + 8.9%, which is the basis for future revenues. If we move on to the product segment breakdown here, there we see that the order intake as such, of course, the sum is the same. So there is also a lower order intake in total relative to the super quarter two last year. We see in particular now the breakdown in the individual product groups. That's the order intake at the strongest reduction in OHL. At the same time, we maintain the very strong order intake in HVA, and that results then in the order book overview with growth in HVA, in MVA, as well as in overhead lines and a constant order book in components.
If we go more detailed into the individual elements, we see that in HVA, we had growth in Asia-Pacific and in the Middle East, and at the same time, there was low activities in America and Europe in the second quarter in itself. The order book increased, therefore mostly in the Middle East, but also in the European region. In medium voltage applications, we see that the order intake improved, and that is reflected by high demand in Europe and Africa. The order book nowadays is mainly consisting out of Europe. In components, we see that the order intake declined slightly, which is connected to the Argentina effect. I was mentioning that on the previous page already. But we see a very stable trend in the order book in the Americas and also in Europe. If you look to the overhead line business, the order intake moderated.
That has been also shown on the previous page in the Middle East and there in Saudi Arabia. We all know that in the second quarter in the Middle Eastern countries, people had also other things to think about. We recognize that some projects, the placement of the projects with regard to order intake, has been a little bit more hesitant. These projects have not been canceled, but they haven't been awarded at the speed that they used to be awarded. We believe this is a temporary effect, which will be washing out over the quarters to come. That leads me to the profit and loss, or the KPIs, in the second quarter of this year. The comparison Q2 2026 to the comparison Q2 2025. Starting with the order book at the top line.
Order book is standing at EUR 340 million here at PFISTERER, which is an increase compared to the second quarter of +8.9%. Our order intake with EUR 139.4 million is below the second quarter, which was a record number of EUR 146 million. Nevertheless, our order intake is positive in the sense of a book-to-bill ratio larger than one, since we are showing revenues of EUR 129.8 million in the second quarter, and that is an increase of 14.4% relative to the second quarter in the previous year. With our gross results increasing by 9.4% to EUR 52.4 million in the second quarter, we are achieving a gross margin of 40.4% in the second quarter. This then leads to an EBITDA increase of 42.8%, namely EUR 24 million on EBITDA. The adjusted EBITDA, EUR 24.7 million.
This is shown a few lines further down, as we are typically referring to the adjusted figure. As you may remember, the adjustment in itself is related to our virtual stock option program, which is a one-off-based incentive program to more than 35 managers in the company. As we do not intend to have another IPO anytime soon in PFISTERER, this program will be running out next year, and then the adjustments of the virtual stock option program will be history. So our adjusted EBITDA with EUR 24.7 million represents an EBITDA margin of 19%. This translates into a positive EBIT development increase of 45% and even more into a super result for the period in the second quarter of EUR 19.8 million, which is an increase of 97.1%. Maybe here it should be mentioned that EBITDA, EBIT, all of this is true business performance.
On the results for the period, there is also taxation elements included, which goes back to the treatment of the virtual stock option program. As on local gaps, these elements are reducing tax, and at the same time, on IFRS group account, they are not reducing our profit. Therefore, we have a positive impact there on the taxation results on the group level. Our net debt is at EUR 4 million, and the net working capital with 24.7%, well below our guided 27%-28%. If I summarize this, PFISTERER managed with 9.6% more employees to generate 14% more revenues in the second quarter, 45% higher EBIT, and 97% higher results for the period. This leads me then to the overview for the first half of the year, illustrated on the table again in the same structure as before.
Half year one relative to half year one 2026 relative to half year one 2025. We see a revenue increase. I am sorry, we see an order book increase of 8.9%. We see the order intake with a 262 at -9.4% relative to the previous year. We see the revenue growth, meanwhile, in the first half of the year at +20%, 20.2%. Based on this revenue growth and the strong gross profit, we see an adjusted EBITDA going up by 32.7%. We see EBIT going up by 43%, and we see the results for the period going up by 75.9%. PFISTERER, in the first half of the year, managed to have an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.4%. This is almost 2% higher than a year ago, and I think this is quite a good intermediate result that we are showing here for the first half of the year.
Our adjusted operating cash flow, maybe this is also worthwhile to mention, amounted to EUR 29.1 million. We believe also there, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, is well converted into cash. That gives us the room to maneuver and to continue to invest into the consecutive growth in the company as based on our growing order intake. I am sorry, order book. We have to invest and increase our capacities in order to continue to grow also the revenues and also to show consecutive order intake growth in the future. On the next page, our results for the period translate into earnings per share. In the second quarter of this year, 2026, we are seeing a significant positive development of EPS, despite the fact that the number of shares on a quarterly basis in a relative comparison keeps on going up.
There has also been a small capital increase in the second quarter, which is more a statistical effect. It does not show a big impact here on the figure but should be mentioned just for reasons of total information. With 1.11% earnings per share in one quarter, we are seeing a year-over-year comparison, an increase of 73%, and this despite the fact that the number of shares went up by 25%, approximately. We think that the results in the first half of the year, but also in the second quarter, are very satisfactory. We believe this is a very solid basis for us to continue to develop our company, and we also believe this gives us the confidence, not only on our midterm targets that we have expressed before, be it for revenues, EUR 800 million-EUR 900 million in revenues, be it on EBITDA margin of +20%.
This we have already seen in the second. I am sorry, in the first half of this year and in the first and second quarter of this year. We believe this also gives us the confidence that we will be hitting our revenue target for this year, which was a growth of 12%-17%. We have seen 20% growth in the first half of the year, and this also, and even more, based on the order intake of the past six weeks. This is not what you see in the first half of the year. We are very confident that we are going to be also meeting our guidance on the order intake for the full year, which has been the order intake that we have seen last year with EUR 550 million. Now I want to touch on a few business highlights.
In chapter three, the business highlights are structured according to the three-pillar growth strategy of PFISTERER, starting with our technological milestone development project, where we are really and truly driving technological innovation in our industry. This is related to our HVDC market launch, which is knocking at the door. We have this year, in the first half, earned a patent for our HVDC connector technology. As you know, we are continuing to build our HVDC laboratory here in Winterbach, which is the basis for starting production based on the qualified products. We have shared with you previously that we have, meanwhile, successful 320 kV tests with customer cable, type tests with customer cables, and we will be applying our patented technology in various applications up to 525 kV.
This patent that I'm putting here prominently into the window, it's the latest one, and we are, I think it's fair to say, a little bit proud on it. But it's only one of 166 active patents that PFISTERER have today. If we move on to the second pillar of our growth strategy, beyond the technological disruptions we are working on, we also have a number of innovations already in the market, recently introduced or on the way of being introduced, where we are expanding our business boundaries. This is an example here of a product called, we call it HOCCA. This is an outer cone. It's a little bit of a technical term. Innovation projects. PFISTERER have recently introduced this into the market.
It's an application that you will find in wind turbines, where PFISTERER now can also deliver a full system from the generator down to the bottom of the windmill, where then the transmission is starting. We are applying in these products our mechanical connector technology that we also apply in other connectors. So we think this is, from a core competency point of view, quite a smart approach as we apply the core competencies of PFISTERER into new product applications, and this is why this development is qualifying as a business expansion activity. We have already successfully introduced this in the United States, and we are seeing further opportunities, in particular in Asia, where the wind market in Japan and South Korea is very bullish and robust.
Then I would like to share with you a third slide that is also the third column of our growth strategy. We are pushing our core businesses and our core markets, where we see the biggest immediate effect when it comes to figures or the intake or the books and also revenues, as these are introduced products. The way we are doing business, if I start on the top left, is of course meanwhile influenced by IT, and PFISTERER is, fair to say, is very dynamic when it comes to automation of individual steps in our business activities, and this is also reflected, of course, in efficiency gains. But we want to share with you here that approximately 5% of our revenues are investments into the IT and digitization into the group, where I think this is a relatively high number if compared with peers.
I think we are here quite progressive, and we are not doing this in order to spend money, but we are doing this because we are counting on further efficiency gains due to these investments in future periods to come. If I look to the bottom left, there I want to share with you that we have invested into machine capacities but also into working time models in operations and efficiency gains through automation on the shop floor. So tangible automation via robots and other elements, and by doing so, we have achieved to grow our output on the mechanical connectors, we call it MECON, in the two manufacturing facilities of PFISTERER in both Southern Rochester by a prominent +46% within one year. I think this is quite an accomplishment, and we are not hesitant there. We will continue in a similar way also for the years to come.
On the top right, you see the new HVDC Qualification Center, already mentioned before. The construction is absolutely on schedule and will be finished and started up in the first half of next year. Then on the bottom right, we were touching the operating cash flow earlier. Operating cash flow in the case of PFISTERER is used in order to increase our CapEx and, in the second quarter of this year, also to pay dividends to our humble shareholders. But if we look to the CapEx expenditures into machineries and also real estate in the production sites of PFISTERER, we have invested close to EUR 40 million since the IPO, and we are doing this because we see that PFISTERER has the right products in the right markets, has the right teams, and is continuing to show positive development for years to come.
With this, it is exactly 40 minutes. I am happy I am, from a timing point of view, doing pretty well. The very last slide is upcoming events and conferences where you can be meeting. Please push for the next slide. Someone. There we go. Where you can meet our investor relations team and also executive board members. We are present on a number of conferences in the remaining rest of 2026, August, September, November, December. We will be presenting our Q3 figures on November 18th. We will be publishing our Q4 figures on the 24th of March 2027. This is three weeks earlier than this year. So there you see also efficiency gains, amongst other things, in our admin team. The year-end results next year will be presented on the 12th of May, which is also four weeks earlier than this year.
I thank you for your attention listening to the presentation, and we are happy to receive any questions, and we will do our best to give you precise, honest, and good answers. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star nine and pound key on your telephone keypad. If you would like to cancel your question, press star three and pound key. You can also use the dial-in function in the webcast if you would like to ask a question by phone. We have first questions coming in. First question comes from Yasmin Steilen from Berenberg.
Hello, good morning, and many thanks for taking my questions. I have three, if I may, and I will take them one by one. Just before I start, please allow me one general comment. In my humble view, it would be very helpful to get more time on the Q&A while you might reduce the time for the general remarks. On my first question on high-voltage AC, we have seen a rock-solid development in terms of 29% sales growth in Q2, but the order intake was only up 1%, implying a book-to-bill of 1.1. Could you provide more color on the high-voltage AC order intake, what was the reasons for the slower development, and what are your early indications from customer discussions on the second half, also with the implied acceleration on your order intake guidance? Many thanks. Hello?
I think this is because I am maybe on mute.
Okay.
Oh, I was muted. Hello, Yasmin. Good morning.
Hello.
Hello. There are two constant factors here. PFISTERER is a great company, that is one, and the second is you are the first person asking questions, for example. I am happy about this. The order intake in HV, yes, I agree, has been robust on a year-over-year comparison. You need to see if you go a little bit further back in the history; last year has been a tremendous increase in order intake, so this year we are repeating this increase. If we look to the order book in HVA, the order book a year ago was at EUR 155 million. Meanwhile, we are at EUR 182 million, and the order book needs to be digested before we will see further tremendous increases on the order intake.
The order book will be carrying us into continued growth on revenues. In the HVA segment, we have seen this on a year-over-year comparison. Quarter two this year was EUR 59 million. It was EUR 46 million last year. Half year one this year: EUR 109 million from the figures now; last year: EUR 86 million. We will see a continued growth on HVA revenues based on the order book, and we will also see continued order intake growth. That was the first question. Could you repeat the second one, please ? I am sorry for this.
Sorry. I have asked for a second. The second one is on high-voltage DC. You have not reported any order intake so far. However, your customer, Hellenic Cables, has been awarded for high-voltage electrical interconnection. Is it fair to assume first-order intake on high-voltage DC for you also in the second half of the year?
[crosstalk] Okay. I think we have finally completed several type tests, with cable manufacturers also in Europe. You are also mentioning Hellenic Cables. There are other cable manufacturers, and I think there will be official publication, even from one of our partners, quite soon about the successful type test. The successful type test means now the system is ready to be ordered or to be executed for the market. That means then a PQ test can follow, and the PQ test will have the basis that there also will be an order coming up for PQ test because there is a project behind. Our ambition, and like we said, is 2027 to have an order intake there. Whatever comes earlier, we are happy to publish.
But I think, for the HVDC projects, especially with the Europeans, but not only with the European cable manufacturers, I think we are on a good way. I see a good perspective; I would say end of this year or beginning of 2027.
Okay. Very clear. Then finally, and then as I step back into the line is, just housekeeping question. You mentioned on your tax rate that the treatment of the virtual stock option program had a positive impact. How should we think about the full-year tax rate, and also assume the stock option program should phase out? Is it fair to assume a normalization of the tax rate to the mid-20s mid-term? Many thanks.
Okay. The effect on the tax rate in the second quarter is in the area of EUR 4 million. If it would not have been for this, the tax rate would have been in the area of 20%.
That is also the range that we are on; let's say, on a non-VSOP year, under the given conditions, we would see as a normal tax rate in our case. Since the thing took place in the second quarter, maybe this gives us the opportunity to have, on a full-year basis, to have a lower tax rate than the 20 as the other four. Next year, there will be probably, the VSOP program . From a guideline point of view, from a program point of view, leaves us a certain freedom, how we can reward the money value of the options, whether we do full equity, whether we do full cash, or we do a mix. This year it was a mix.
Assuming we would be doing the same, then this year, which was 50/50, and assuming we would have the same share price next year, we would see another EUR 4 million tax effect next year. Then that is it, as the VSOP program will be finished after the third and last installment. Is that good vocabulary? The third and last reward period.
Okay. Perfect. That is very clear, and I will step back into the line. Thank you.
The next question comes from Cosmin Filker from GBC.
Yes. Hello. Thank you very much for taking my question. Hello, Mr. Linden and Dr. Kurfiss. I also have three questions. If it's okay for you, I would ask them one by one. The first one is regarding the plans of the site expansion in Kadaň. You already communicated in the last call that there is the option to buy more land next to the production site now. What are the plans? When will the expansion be finished? Is the target of EUR 65 million for 2026, in CapEx, still in place now?
All right. I will be taking this, [inaudible]. We have, meanwhile, like you said, in two steps, we have acquired real estate. The one step was last year, roughly 50,000 square meters. This year, roughly 45,000 square meters. This year's acquisition is also comprising warehouse and office buildings. Last year it was only ground. Both of these acquisitions took place in the same industrial park where our today's rented facility is. At the same time, we have also expanded the rented lease space. This year it used to be 19,000. We have added another 12,000. So 19 went up to 31. We have now the real estate of approximately 95,000 square meters acquired. The building start of constructing new factories on the acquired ground due to the fact that on the second acquisition, there is already buildings there. There is less pressure on executing this.
The building start is intended to be in 2028. Now we are making up our mind how the design of the factory is going to be, like, how the value stream, the material flows, et cetera [inaudible], and how this is going to look like. Then we need to go into a building permission procedure. This is, to my knowledge, in Czech Republic, not really quicker than it is in Germany. Therefore, as we talk, we should believe that breaking ground is that right, Konstantin? Breaking ground will be in 2028. Regarding the investment for this year, we have in the first half of the year invested. I need to look that figure up now. Last year was 30—hold on. We have invested EUR 20 million.
We have in our optical quite a relevant amount of money for finishing and continuing our HVDC laboratory, but also a number of machines, capacity expansions in manufacturing machines that we will be adding in the second half of the year. We are foreseeing an investment to be in the area of EUR 60 million -EUR 70 million CapEx this year.
Okay. No change there. Thank you very much. The second question regards the insurance payment. In the first half year, they sum up at around EUR 2 million, EUR 1.9 million. In the last call, you already explained us that there are two parts. The one is the [Non-English content], and the other one the [Non-English content]. Are there still payments expected in the third quarter now?
Let's say in the second half of the year, absolutely yes. Whether it's going to be in the third quarter, I would say this is like being on sea. You never know what happens, how long the experts take in order to get their final evaluation. I think there is a good chance of seeing more in Q3; whether it's going to be finished in Q3 or whether there's going to be two more installments, that needs to be seen. Yeah.
The last question—
To be on the safe side, I would expect November. To be finished in November, to be on the safe side. It could happen also already in Q3, but this is—
Would be—
—hard to determine.
—volume-wise, would it be the same amount that was paid in the first half year?
Well, I wouldn't be against it, yes.
Okay. So the—
We will be asking for more. We are asking for more.
Okay. The last question is regarding the EBITDA in the region North and South America. Compared to the first quarter 2026, it fell down to EUR 1.4 million. Yes. In the first quarter it was EUR 4.1 million, despite a slight increase in revenue. Can you just explain what led to this development?
Yeah. In the Americas, in the first quarter, we had quite a positive intermediate situation. There was a very strong margin project that we saw in Argentina, and there was also quite a good EBITDA margin in the U.S. in the first quarter. However, in the second quarter, we had a project mix which had a relatively high share of preassembled cables. With the preassembled cables, that leads to the fact that you have a relatively high portion of third-party material that, with only a small markup, goes through the books, and that then reduces margin. This is a one-off effect, if you want to say so. This preassembled cable project is finished and done, and we should expect to see things somewhere rather in quarter one level for the second half of the year than in quarter two level.
Thank you very much.
Welcome.
Thank you. The next question comes from Adrian Pehl from ODDO.
Yes. Hi, everyone. Good morning. Thanks for taking me. Actually, a question first of all on your order intake. You said already on the question of Yasmin, basically on HVA, that there's some digestion going on. On the other hand, to come up with significant growth for 2027 and taking into account your lead times, we should assume probably that in Q3, latest Q4 probably, that the order intake accelerates from the existing levels. Is that something that you are confirming and looking at? A question linked to this: is there any capacity constraint? Because I recall a bit the answer on a question in the Q1 call that makes you reluctant on accepting orders, for example, in Asia Pacific, potentially on capacity constraints that might be an obstacle for an acceleration of the order intake. That's my first question, and then I have another, probably.
Well, starting with the second half of your question, Asia Pacific, we have seen an increase in the order intake in Asia Pacific, and this is because we have somewhat prioritized businesses there. We weren't happy with the development before, so we believe Asia Pacific will be picking up based on the order intake and also the increase in the order book that we have seen. Amongst others, this is also HVA business. Moving to the more general question, I believe, on order intake. Yes, absolutely. We are very confident that in the second half of the year, we will see a pickup relative to the first half of the year. There's just a logic error with my previous comment, and maybe we should have stressed that in the written documents more than what we did. We confirm the guidance that we have given, yeah?
That is a revenue guidance and an order intake guidance. The order intake guidance has been that we are going to continue what we've seen last year. That was EUR 550 million full year.
Right. That was also one of the reasons why I'm asking, because I think that missing concrete guidance statements in a press release is probably contributing to the lower share price this morning. Anyway, a question on the out—
Buy the dip, Adrian. Buy the dip.
Yeah, absolutely. So question on the outlook for revenues. Just doubling what you did in H1 brings us to 14% revenue growth. Now, you said 12% to 17%, so what's the element of uncertainty? Given that you have probably seasonality going into the second half, the upper end of this guidance or revenue growth seems more likely or much more likely than the lower end. So just want to hear your thoughts on this one, and then I have one or two housekeeping ones.
Well, the general sentiment on this is that we do have the order book, and we have also confirmed deliveries that would be justifying an expectation of higher revenues in the second half compared to the first half. At the same time, you know that there are global uncertainties. Is it so that in October you can still rent a boat to go to the Red Sea in Saudi? Is it so that somewhat in August we will still be able to book ships going through the Rhine to Rotterdam or from Rotterdam down south? So there are, let's say, operational elements that are beyond our reach that we want to be cautious about. We don't want to overpromise relative to that. It's like you say, if we double the first half of the year, we will be ending up at EUR 413.
That will be the growth that you mentioned. The 12%-17% we have given as guidance. We don't see a necessity to narrow this at this moment in time. But based on everything that we see and ceteris paribus, it will be more likely to be on the upper end than on the lower end.
Great. Just two questions on the regional setup that you have, or let's say the reporting there. On Asia Pacific, also, the margin was very low, actually slightly loss-making in Q2 when I got my math correctly. Just want to hear your thoughts on that and how that is proceeding. The second one is actually on the positive side of things. Obviously, it looks like that Europe is accelerating a bit. Is that something we—otherwise, phrased differently—your growth last year, to a large degree, has been coming from the Middle East region pretty much, and Europe was fine in my view but could have done better. Is that now the phase where we see Europe accelerating with more orders and then essentially revenues, which actually would be contributing to the margin and a nice top-line development?
Let me answer first, and then maybe Konstantin also wants to add. I start. Regarding Asia-Pacific, Asia-Pacific is a small region, et cetera, and looking at EBITDA, you have in between the operational business gross profit and the EBITDA, there is a lot taking place, which also has some statistical elements in it. I prefer not looking at the EBITDA in Asia-Pacific, but I look at the gross profit. The gross profit in the second quarter is okay. It is not great, but it is okay, and we believe that based on the HV projects that we have recently booked, that we will also see a positive continuation there. If we look to the first half of the year, the gross profit, gross margin, half year one this year compared to half year one last year is exactly the same; it is 0.5% better.
I would call this the same. There is no trend from a negative point of view in Asia-Pacific when it comes to margin. In Europe, you are absolutely right. We have seen last year a tremendous steep ramp-up in the Middle East. We believe due to the political situation, that may come to a halt, meaning that may stabilize now for some quarters on a high level. We do not see any decline. We will continue to see an increase in revenues. This is just based on the backlog, but on the order intake, the order intake situation in the Middle East, we believe, will be stabilizing this growing, this growth, this grown. Grown is the right, I think, past perfect. This grown revenues we have seen, and Europe will continue to be our supporting factor. Europe is very strong. With this, I hand over to Konstantin.
Yeah.
Maybe just three comments. One to Asia-Pacific. We have to respect that the activities we are having in Asia-Pacific also load in a certain sense on the other regions, because our activities with cable manufacturers, even with wind park manufacturers, then are materialized in other regions because we go to the country of destination where we then deliver the turnover to it. This is one thing. So there is also a positive effect from Asia-Pacific into other regions. This is one, maybe, which is important than what we see in Europe, and this is also driving the Europe business. If you look a little bit into the legislation, how they are driving now at the moment, even the projects, the average, I would say, time for bringing a project to life went down from two to three years. Now, I would say from one to two years.
That also will accelerate, I believe, what is happening in Europe on that side, and that also drives us. What we see maybe as a third comment in the Middle East, we are on the project. We know the projects. I think we had a little bit of a slowdown, which is clear on the impact we had on the Middle East situation. But what I see from the customer side, it means from the cable manufacturers and utilities, I do not see a downside for our continuous business there, just as a quick comment.
Yeah, that's indeed very important. Because if you look at the CapEx forecast from Saudi Energy, it seems that the peak is behind a bit. Still, they have very high levels going forward, but momentum is waning a bit. Is that something that makes you concerned in any way or not really?
Not really making concerned. We are in good contact with Saudi Electricity on the project when it comes to cable projects, when it comes to overhead line project, and also how Siemens is driving that region in the intermediate connections with transformers and switchgears that shows those projects will be done in the upcoming months and years, definitely. I'm not worried there, to be honest. Yeah. For sure, the good thing, we will see all the people next week on the CIGRE in Paris. There will be all the cable manufacturers worldwide, and I think all the utilities we work with, and then we also will get a, how you say, a certain taste what's happening.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you—
From my point of view, the investment plans from Saudi Energy are stabilizing. They are not going down. They are stabilizing on a very high level. That is our viewpoint. That goes in line with my previous comments also and what Konstantin said.
Very good. Thank you.
Perfect. Thank you very much. The last question for today comes from Volker Stoll from LBBW.
[inaudible] . Good morning. Thank you for taking me. I have a question regarding order dynamics in North America. Could you give us, please, dynamic in North America only so that we can extrapolate from bottom up how we think about the order dynamics in Q3 and Q4 forthcoming? Which products are preferred in North America? SECON is a very famous product you already mentioned. Could you give us another example of which products are running there really well?
Okay. Maybe from my side a comment there. It is the SECON. The SECON is one of the main drivers. What we see beside the SECONS, if we come to data center, also the MV-CONNEX plays a role there, which is a connector going from 10 kV to 36 kV, which we are producing and providing to the big OEMs when it comes to the connections of the data centers. We are also producing, I would say, for big factories when it comes to battery storage, the connections in between the batteries that will be a product where we have an order intake and will drive the business in the future, and which is ramping up.
For sure, we see a little bit the differentiated, I would say, approach in the U.S. because there is, on one side, there are a lot of utilities which are working together and driving, I would say, the energy transmission. I think there is still a lot of potential when it comes to the high-voltage grid, where we also see with our high-voltage products, I would say, a good drive into the next couple of months and years.
Basically high voltage is still important due to—
Yep.
—the manufacturing restrictions. How is the capacity utilization in North America, in Rochester, now evolving? You are heading higher. Are there already some further expansion plans, or are they more granular, the expansion plans?
Maybe one comment, and then I think Johannes can comment from the production side. What we see, there is more; I would say, there is more quantities coming for the SECON and also for other products, for overhead line products , what we are seeing. That is why I believe now I hand over to Johannes. Now it comes to the investments, and this is what we are planning for this year or next year to follow this higher demand in components in HV, but also the insulator business.
Okay. Thank you.
Hello. Good morning, Stoll.
Yeah, good morning.
Regarding the building premises, we have sufficient space in the rented building that we are operating in the U.S. There is at least nothing to be added there in the foreseeable future. Regarding manufacturing capacity for mechanical screw connectors, we have more than doubled the capacity through two steps in the first half of this year, and those machines did already start to produce product. The machines are sold out, so capacity is 100%. This then immediately will be also reflected in the revenues in the Americas. But the components business in the Americas is in the area of, I believe, 40% of the revenues of Americas is components, meaning it's not one-to-one. You will not see an increase in components necessarily one-to-one from a percentage relative point of view also then in the Americas' revenue. But things are developing well. Yeah.
The customers are very happy with us being local, because now for them, lead times are much shorter. They don't have to worry about transportation. There is less import duty than what used to be before when we were producing these products out of Germany. One of the reasons also why the new machines are immediately sold out is the fact that we are moving production from Germany into the U.S. as well. So in the past, we did not produce; last year, for instance, we didn't produce all the American connectors in America because we didn't have the ability to do so. So a portion of that was always coming out of Germany. Now we are shifting as we are growing the capacities in North America.
We are shifting parts of these products from Germany into the U.S., and this is freeing up capacity here, which is then helping us in growing the revenues in Europe. This goes back to square one and also to an earlier question. I believe, from a business point of view, the most prominent reasons for the incoming quarters will be Europe first. That's good news because it's a profitable ground.
Yeah. Okay. We have to think about double-digit growth rates in North America regarding the orders also in the coming quarters.
I didn't say that. I don't want to give a precise information on segments and regions here. This is a little bit too much. We will see good development on our intake on a group level. This is what we said before. We are very happy with our business development in the Americas as well.
Okay. Understood. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you, Stoll.
And that concludes our Q&A for today. I hand back to Johannes Linden for some closing words.
Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention and even spending 13 additional minutes with us as we are already a little bit over time. I think PFISTERER has shown in the first half of this year a super development. We have grown revenues by 20%, we have grown our EBITDA by 33%, and we have grown our result for the period by 75%. I believe these are achievements that shouldn't be forgotten. We think that PFISTERER is active in the right market. Electrical infrastructure is continuing to give us opportunities. Based on the growing order book, we will also see a positive development in the future. Thank you.