Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the analyst and investor web conference regarding the Stabilus results in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. 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 your host, Dr. Michael Büchsner.
Yeah. Hello, and welcome together to our earnings call today. My name is Dr. Michael Büchsner. I'm the CEO of the Stabilus Group. For sure you also have our CFO, Andreas Jaeger, with us in the call today. Actually, in terms of the presentation, we'll see it slightly different today because we wanted to put also a main focus on where we stand in terms of our strategic priorities and also as we're in the transformation, giving you some updates on the transformation along the sideline. What's the current status and what do we plan in the close future to proceed and further improve? The bottom line is a key takeaway. I would say we're progressing very well on our transformation and despite of rough waters, we deliver stable results.
In the past weeks, we did streamline further our industrial footprint in Asia this time around with our Suzhou plant. We'll talk about that in a bit. For sure we also had a lot of new business wins in both automotive and on industrial side. I would also like to highlight one good win, which is actually in terms of the aftermarket, a big win in North America again for electromechanical devices. We're further working on our defense applications. That's important to us. It's steadily growing. We'll have an own section about this business or part of the business in a couple of slides. For sure we continue in general term in our STAR 2030 platforms. This time around, we also talk a bit about the robotics market.
Stabilus for Automation, that's our slogan. We invest in the automation sector, predominantly also in the robotics area in the close future to make sure that we follow the mega trends which we're faced with. There is also a good progress in terms of our personal related measures, which we did introduce half a year ago. We've been fully executing them. This actually helps, and we'll see that on the financial deck to improve our margins along the line because even with lower sales this year around, we could maintain our EBIT margin. That is resilient point is extremely important for us in difficult times, predominantly also with the slogan. This is really what we live, local for local, so in the region for the region to be close to the customer. Now switching to the next slide.
Actually, this points it out, spot on. We had in the second quarter, EUR 304.9 million in terms of sales, which is better than the first quarter this year, where we've been in the range of EUR 291 million. It's 10% less than prior year. The remarkable thing is that despite of lower sales, we achieved the same EBIT margins than last year, which was 11.2%, which underlines again our execution in terms of our cost measurement savings, which we initiated over the course of the past months. Yeah.
I've been talking about the defense sector in the beginning of the slide. Actually, we had significant order wins over the course of the past quarters, and it is significant for us because we already sold EUR 3.2 million, and this will be triple soon. We will be tripling soon where we are selling all kinds of features, be it dampening systems, opening systems, gas springs, gas struts for all kinds of applications in the military sector, starting from standard weapons up to drones. We are basically becoming bigger and bigger in this sector of our business. This is only a starting point because when it comes to the next and even bigger areas like humanoid robots, we are also now in the process to develop the right features to be also present in that market.
You see that with whatever we do, also in strategic terms, we invest a lot in that point. Now to be closer to the customers, we decided to combine our industrial brands under one roof. We had the integration of our new plant in Suzhou, two weeks ago. It was a great success. 65 valued customers have been participating in the same way than representatives from the government. For sure the management was there of the Stabilus Group, and we could open in Suzhou a brand new facility to actually capture our industrial brands under one roof and to be closer to the customers.
This is really appreciated by our customers and we see very nice order intake since that because now we have all the expert brands under one roof, which adds to basically efficiency and it brings us very close to our customers, which is absolutely appreciated and needed this time around. It's in the region for the region by excellence. Now talking a bit about the market environment, and I told you already that the presentation this time around is a little different than the times before because we also would like to talk about the market environment, right? There is still a lot of competitive pressure in the market. You all know that particularly in the automotive industry, Asia Pacific forefront, right? The global lightweight production is below prior year's plan or below prior year's execution by 3%, yeah.
We see some unfavorable currency translation effects driven mainly by the U.S. dollar and the renminbi. At the end of the day, the industrial segment, they are also impacted by the current situation out there in the market. There is a consumer sentiment, which is basically cautious in all kinds of investments for goods. Then for sure, along with that, we are basically working on protecting us in terms of supply chain disruptions, right? Driven by all this geopolitical unrest in the world. Basically, protect ourselves and make sure that our supply chain is independent and robust and stable. This is currently the market environment we are faced with, like many or almost all other companies in the world as well.
As I said, we are fighting through that because our EBIT margin basically stood on the same level than last year with even lower sales, which underlines the execution and the effect of our activities at the Stabilus Group. On the next page, we jump directly into our deep dive and the different market segments we have on hand. Actually now at 50/50 between automotive and industrial businesses. Our industrial business actually did grow organically 2%. However, the FX rate was an issue in the first half of the year, particularly also in the second quarter. The automotive industry, as I said before, minus 16%, is impacted by the currently weak automotive market around the globe. You see that on top of the slide on the right-hand side, 16% down year-over-year.
The industry machinery and automation market is impacted by that. People are consuming less. This also brings to the point that the companies are investing less in automation. They're investing less in industrial machinery. This is certainly something we feel. Distribution and forefront the commercial vehicle and also the aerospace, marine, and rail sector, they are performing well. This is basically for us, particularly the commercial vehicle sector, an indicator for growth in the future, because typically the economy starts to grow with commercial vehicles and commercial vehicle growth. This basically drives the economy on global scale, despite of the current headwind we're seeing in the global economy. With that, on the next page, I would hand over to Andreas Jaeger, leading us through the financials for the last quarter and the first half of the year.
Thank you, Michael, and also from my side, a very warm welcome to this conference. If you look at the first, at the second quarter, where I will start, that's January to March, then I will go into the half year result. In the first, in the second quarter, we lost compared to prior year, 9.8% in the revenue. You see about two-third is really coming from the volume, where one-third is impacted by foreign currency translation. We had headwind from that side. If you then look where this volume drop is coming from, it's mainly Asia-Pacific, and also Americas isolated Q2 had a softer revenue result than in the prior year. What we also did realize, also in the second quarter again, are some synergies from the DESTACO combination of EUR 2.4 million.
If you look at the EBIT margin with - 9.8% in revenue, we could maintain the EBIT margin at prior year level. That shows we really could flex our cost basis. From the revenue side, you see it later on in the bridge, we lost more than EUR 9 million in EBIT, where we're really strong was in the compensation with overhead cost of EUR 7.6 million. Just bear in mind, we reduced them by EUR 7.6 million compared to prior year, with despite the headwind we have from all the inflationary price increases. If you move on to the profit for the second quarter, you see it went down by 17%. However, it's important to notice that the deviation basically comes from the EBIT.
Below the EBIT, there was not a lot of movement as compared to the prior year. The adjusted free cash flow in the quarter, and it's important in the quarter standalone, was clearly below the prior year level. The main driver behind there was the strong March. We had in March, very strong sales, clearly above the normal run rate that we have, and these sales were then reflected in higher accounts receivable. If I then move on to the half year results, you see the revenue in the half year 0.2% down. Here also half or two-third volume, half FX impact. What you see then if you look at the whole half year 2026, it was predominantly from Asia-Pacific, and in Asia-Pacific, a big portion from POWERISE.
If you look at the whole half year 2026, we realized more than EUR 4 million of sales synergies in with DESTACO. In the EBIT, a similar picture, you see, the gap to prior year was closed a little bit in the second quarter. That's also why we see a bigger deviation in the first half year. The margin still 10.6% in the quarter standalone. The major impact when you also compare it in absolute numbers compared to prior year also comes from the volume effect. You see in the full half year 2026, we even reduced the overhead cost by EUR 14.3 million. Here you see the effort from all the measures we took, we really see in the results. Moving on to profit, similar picture for the second quarter.
The major deviation in the profit as compared to EBIT comes from the lower EBIT in absolute terms. If you move directly on to the cash flow, you see if we compare the full second half-year with prior year, we even generated slightly more cash flow. The reason being, in the prior year, the Q1 was weak, and now this year Q2 was rather weak. If we compare the whole, the full six months to prior year, we could even slightly increase it. What you also see, if you just go for one second back, you also see that on one hand, it's the operating cash flow, but for clearly adjusted also current level of the business activity was the cash flow from investing activities.
We then move on and look more the sequential view, that's also a new slide that we prepared and also a new kind of presenting the result. You now see the quarters trailing for the last 12 months. You see we improved our revenue as well as our EBIT from the first quarter to the secnd quarter. One hand, that's driven by the higher revenues that we could achieve, and also by the good March revenue that we could book. You also see that our cost measures on cost of goods sold, but also on the overhead cost, showed its positive impact even more in Q2 than we saw it in Q1 2026. I then go into the region and give you a little bit more flavor about the region, the three region developed quite differently.
In the U.S., the top line went down quarter-to-quarter by 11.5%. That's really driven by the automotive business. You also must note that the automotive business was only in the second quarter, particularly weak in the U.S., where we achieved good, or I would even say very good results, is industrial components, and particularly in the form of DESTACO, where we could increase in Americas the revenue by 6%. If you then look at the development of the EBIT, we said it already in Q1 presentation that we are not satisfied with the EBIT that we delivered in Q1 with the EUR 5 million. In Q2, it is a little bit better with EUR 9.9 and 8.8% margin. Still not there where we want, and it has basically two reasoning there.
Reason one is the challenges we had in the production of gas spring in Mexico. We already discussed that in the last call for Q1. What you also see it so in the second quarter, when we produce in Mexico, we ship a big part of our products to the U.S., and we invoice that in US dollar. When then the currency moves and the dollar gets weaker, we then get less Mexican peso when we convert it to Mexican peso in order to cover our cost. When we then look at EMEA, we see a different picture. If you look at quarter-to-quarter, we could basically maintain our revenue level organically, even slightly increased it, mainly also coming from automotive gas spring.
Interesting to see is that industrial components, even in Europe, where we, like really can say, have not an easy economic environment, we could increase the revenue by 4.3%. In Europe, different to the other region, we could maintain or even slightly increase the automotive POWERISE business. We then look at the EBIT margin, also here a clear improvement quarter-to-quarter from 10.8 to 11.2%. Also here we see on one hand the volume impact that we could realize with a better EBIT, what we also see that the cost saving measures are really booked now into the results. Asia Pacific also again a different picture than EMEA and Americas. In Asia Pacific, we clearly see the lower revenue.
The top line was down 28% or 26.6% if you compare it quarter-over-quarter. Mainly, this mainly is coming from automotive and within automotive, especially from the POWERISE business. What I would stress here and highlight is the EBIT and the EBIT margin. I mean, we lowered the revenue significantly driven by the economic, mainly in China, but we still deliver EBIT margin of 18%, 16.7%, what I would consider as a strong result. When we then move on to the bridge, that's also a new slide that we now share with you. Here we compare the EBIT from Q2 2025 to the EBIT Q2 2026 to give you a better flavor what is the driver of the result. You see clearly on the negative side is the impact from the revenue with EUR 9.3 million.
On the margin, I could say the -0.4 is almost flat. We adjust our cost of goods sold to the new volumes that we have in Q2 2026. You see the savings we realized totaling EUR 7.6 million, a little bit in R&D, but mainly in selling, and what is even more important in admin expense, that we could reduce by 7.4% in an inflationary environment. The adjustments also were a little different than in prior year. That brings us to the EUR 34.1 million in Q2 2026. We also prepared for you a similar bridge for the cash flow. In the cash flow, we compare the cash conversion, and you see we started the EBIT, and then we add the depreciation and amortization so that we are at the level of the EBITDA.
You see the change in net working capital with the strongest negative impact. The change in net working capital is mainly explained from the higher accounts receivable from the good revenues we had in March 2026. To a lower extent, it is also driven by the fact that in prior year, we reduced the inventory in the second quarter, and notably, and this reduction, we obviously cannot repeat year-over-year and year. In comparison then to prior year, this has also a slightly negative impact as well as tax and others. That brings us to the operating cash flow of EUR 15.7 million. If you then make the bridge to the adjusted free cash flow, we invested EUR 15.4 million in our facilities and also in new production equipment.
Significant less than last year to adjust, also to preserve the cash, then you see with the adjustment, it gives us a free cash flow of EUR 4.1 million in the quarter, which is clearly below prior quarter standalone. As I showed at the beginning, if you look at the first half year, we were even slightly above. With that, I would also show you how the net leverage ratio developed, it went slightly up because the debt increased slightly as compared to 2025. However, we continue our deleveraging, our reduction of net financial debt over the years, we will also continue that path in the second half of 2026. We also initiated actions and plans in order to particularly work on the inventory level in order to bring that further down.
The last slide is then from my side on the net working capital. Here you see the increase on trade accounts receivable. You see it also on the right-hand bottom side. The major increase to 27.7% comes from accounts receivable by the strong month, March 2026. That's what we prepared for you in respect of a deep dive into the numbers, and I would hand back to Michael for the remaining presentation.
Thank you, Andreas Jaeger. Thank you for leading us through the financial sector. As you see, considering the lower sales we saw over the course of the first half of the year, we are protecting our margins, and we're also on the same level of cash flow than last year, which is a good indicator for us that we are spot on with our strategic initiative, particularly when it costs and maintaining good cash conversion. This is very, very important for us. How do we do that? How do we continue this development? You see the strategic pillars which we have on hand. Basically, it's all about the strategic pillars to us.
I wanted to give you an update on what we achieved over the course of the first half year and also where our impact will be and next milestones will be to further progress on this improvement path. When you talk, for example, about the motion control innovations, right? Innovation is key for success for us. We did invent the industrial POWERISE solutions for us, the door actuation system, and also for sure, automation-related products like POWERISE for automation. This is something which drives our performance. It drives also the shift from automotive to industry, and it guarantees a healthy and good margin profile. What's the focus in terms of the next milestones? The industrial automation will also bring that to the defense applications now, right? We are working on humanoid robot systems. What are we doing there?
We have, for example, the hinges, right? There is more than 20 hinges in a humanoid robot, and you need a reliable motor with a gear system and the right software. Due to the fact that we work together with our partners like Synapticon, where we acquired a certain stake, as you know, we have the right software and the right hardware and execution to be successful in that market, and this is something which we are now driving. It's under the umbrella of Stabilus for Automation, which also captures the doings in terms of the business. Talking about that, this is basically for us the motion ecosystem, right? Stabilus for Automation, for sure, also along with that, our dealings with AI. AI rules the world.
It's for us on the product side with Stabilus for Automation, but also it's in terms of, for example, sales channel management. Be faster to the customer with the right product and the right product quality. This is how we use AI and big data amongst and throughout our company. Yeah, for sure. We also did good progress in terms of sustainable and profitable company, right. We've been installing several solar systems, new, progressing in terms of renewable energy, we'll even put a stronger focus based on that. Going forward on our growth levels, including the margin improvement measures to basically progress on this path of a stable, profitable, and sustainable company. Asia center of gravity. Andreas has been talking about that a bit. There is a big shift in Asia, as you all know.
There is, on one hand side, the big pressure from the competition. On the other hand side, it's very, very important to deliver not only steady and stable results there, which we do with our financial performance of around about 17% EBIT margin over the course of the first half year. Also on the other hand side, it will be very, very important to be in the region, for the region, and this is what we do with our additional footprint, with further empowerment of people, local decision-making, and that's something which we also execute along with our transformation program. For sure, in terms of operations agility, we're driving efficiency in the plants, right? We've been investing a lot in automation, particularly when it comes into the production of POWERISE systems.
It's fully automated now. We improve our labor productivity with that along the line. That's what we did. Here we also wanna focus on further cost savings and cost initiatives to bring the cost of our products down and to invest more in operational excellence. That's basically an update on the strategic execution. You see in terms of the product, it goes more into innovative products with humanoid robots, but also defense areas. The cost management is extremely important to us and for sure, the flawless execution. This is what it brings down to. In terms of cost measurements, and we talked about that also at the beginning of the slide, and Andreas highlighted that our cost savings, they're coming true, right? The cost savings the first half of the year were EUR 14.3 million.
The expected savings for 12 months effect is EUR 19 million. Even in 2028, we will see EUR 32 million out of this complete reorganization and transformation program, including the restructuring, which we've been doing over the course of the past month. That's not over yet. I mean, these first initiatives are done. We are executing them. We are flawlessly executing them along the line. For sure, we continue this path of success and cost management in our company because that's vital these days. This is also why we achieved similar EBIT margins in the first half-year, even with lower sales by 10% compared to the prior year. Talking a bit on the next slide about our programs, our transformation program, right? The transformation is key. We drive it in each and every region. We do the organizational transformation.
We've been reducing hierarchical levels in all the areas. Our new plant in Suzhou is one example, right? We're taking out different layers, bringing the businesses together in order to be close to the customer and take out costs, because this is what it's all about in these days, making us vital, making us fast and agile in a difficult environment with a lot of headwinds. That's what we do. Location-related measures, this is one example, the Suzhou plant. Also we've been working on our facilities in Germany, U.S., Singapore, and Thailand to bring things together and combine them to take out costs.
This is something which we will progress over the course of the next quarters as well, because there is one thing which is extremely important to us, being close to the customer, managing our costs well, and also drive our top line with innovations. The personal related measures, we executed them already according to the plan which we did set up last year in September, October, taking out 450 employees, predominantly on the overhead side, which is actually 6% of the global workforce. It's predominantly in Europe and Americas, for sure in Asia Pacific, driving a little bit of different spin because there we need to invest in local for local and also feed our engine for growth for the future.
Bottom line, you see the programs are on track, so we are investing in these programs, but nevertheless maintain our healthy EBIT margin in an environment of lower sales. Also we are maintaining our cash flows, and I think that's remarkable. On the next page, we've been talking a bit about the sustainability areas. This slide shows you some results, right? We're investing in renewable energy. We've been basically, despite of lower volumes, increasing our renewable energy share. You see it on the top left. Also there is CO2 reduction of our emissions in the facilities. A big point, we could do that by another 20%. Also we are harvesting our own energy with solar power systems in place, which basically adds one-third more than before in terms of being sustainable.
It also gets recognized by the sustainability ratings we recently got. You see it on the bottom right. They are all in a very good level with good ratings and also progressing well. We'll do further steps in executing on that long-term plan for us because it's important to be sustainable and profitable for us as a company. Over the course of the past quarters, I did tell you that we will reduce our investments, which is vital for us because we want to tailor our investments to the needs we have and also to the current market situation. We basically have been going down in terms of investments to a range of 5.5%, as I always promised, right?
We talked about it the last year that the investment in the range of 6%-7% is not a level which we will pursue a long run. Now we are at 5.6%, and at the end of the year we will also be in the same magnitude. We are investing where it matters in terms of new technology, but we are very cautious in terms of capacities and for sure save wherever we can to underline our vital financial performance in difficult times. On the next page, this basically leads to the key priorities for the year. Deleveraging is the most important thing for us. We need good financials for that. Stable financial transformation in terms of creating and generating cash. That's what we do. We need a swift execution of our personnel-related measures for that.
The footprint organization and optimization goes on. The stringent cost management. Despite of all this cost management, we still need to invest in the development of the latest technologies like humanoids, because we don't want to miss that share, because it's a fast-growing market and also in terms of defense. As traditional markets are basically suffering or running flat like the automotive industry, with even a slight decline, we are investing and getting business in terms of new technologies like Stabilus for Automation, automation technology and humanoids, and also the defense area. This is the main drivers we have to continue our success. We have also operational measurements, like ramping up factoring and other points to, in difficult times, stabilize and continue stable progress of our business. Yeah. I will lead to a summary now.
The next two pages are basically giving you a summary and outlook before we conclude the meeting with our guidance for the year, which by the way remains unchanged due to the fact that in the first half-year we could deliver stable results. For sure we'll have later a Q&A session. Let me summarize before that. The first half of the year was impacted by a drop on the in terms of sales, however, driven by a market which is unfavorable. However, we could maintain our margin position with 11.2%, particularly also in the second quarter. We've been having a good financial result overall. Also, our cash generation is similar than last year, even with lower sales.
The local-for-local approach is extremely important for us, not only because we want to be close to the customer, it's also a natural hedging for us, right? In difficult times, where you never know how the margins, how the FX rates go up and down, you need to have kind of a natural hedging. This fosters basically a resilience in this currently geopolitical unrest situation. This is extremely important for us to continue to do that. Then for sure, the transformation program is on track, as I said, with the savings attached and also taking out hierarchical levels. Forefront, it's important for us to invest also in the future innovation to be spot on with Stabilus for Automation and also our investments we do in the defense areas.
On the next page, basically, also giving you a bit of an outlook, how markets and the economy from our perspective will continue. We see moderate growth. We see some light at the end of the tunnel in terms of how the economy is developing. As I said, also at the beginning of the slide, commercial vehicle for us is a little up in terms of sales, and this is an indicator for us that, at the end of the day, we went through that valley and see also some positive signs here. We see also stronger momentum in the U.S. and China to start with, and this is basically a good sign for us.
We are in the next quarter, that'll be particularly important, strengthen our supply chain, protect from supply chain disruptions, because we also see that in a market environment where the economy is suffering, also our supply chain needs to be secured, not only within the region, for the region, but also with certain measures to stabilize our supply base. At the end of the day, we see that the light vehicle production stays flat now at 92 million units produced. It's slightly less than last year. Let's end at the end of the day, we see in the second half of the year slight improvement as well. That's what I mean with light at the end of the tunnel.
We see in the commercial areas, commercial vehicle areas, some improvements, we see slight improvements in the vehicle market in the second half of the year, which should lead to a better environment in the second half of the year. That's what we're having as an outlook and prognosis for the next half year. Towards the end of the meeting, confirming the guidance for the year 2026. As I said, we see slightly lower sales than last year. This is something which we had from the beginning in our ballpark of our prognosis and our guidance for the year. That's why in the first place we've been shaping the guidance within revenue of EUR 1.1 billion-EUR 1.3 billion, we are within this corridor well to the midpoint.
In the same way, you see that with the performance of 11.2% in the first half of the year, we see that we are within the guidance in terms of the EBIT margin, which was at 10%-12%, and then our cash flow. We all know that Stabilus typically, due to seasonality, generates more cash in the second half than in the first half of the year. We've been on similar levels than last year. We will also confirm here that we are within the guidance in terms of the cash flow. The guidance here is between EUR 80 million and EUR 110 million. This is basically an overview of the Stabilus Group, where we stand as a company.
As I said, cost management, de-leveraging, nevertheless, investing in the latest technologies to grow in the humanoid robot market as a Stabilus for Automation and also on the area of defense. That are the priorities for us. Now we are happy to receive your questions. We will start the Q&A session with that.
Thank you very much. Dear ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and the star key on your telephone keypad if you have dialed in into the conference call. I repeat, the combination to ask a question is nine star. If you wish to cancel a question again, please press three and then the star key. For now, we are looking forward to your questions. Please press nine star. The first question is from Yasmin Steilen from Berenberg. Please over to you.
Hello. Thanks very much for taking my questions. I have three, if I may. The first one on your confirmed free cash flow guidance. Could you shed more color on the free cash flow development in H1? You said already that in general it's kind of the half where you generate higher cash flow. However, how should we think about inventory impact from potential supply chain disruptions there? Cash and inventory to be built up. Is there anything we should keep in mind in context with the door actuation ramp up in H2? Just to clarify, you adjust for the entire cash out related to the restructuring program. That's my first question. The second on the deleveraging.
In Q2 we have seen a sequential increase on higher debt levels. How should we think about the EBITDA leverage by year-end? The last question on the door actuation system. China announced the ban of the fully hidden pop-up electric door handles starting as of next year. Do you expect to push towards semi-hidden designs? How will this impact the demand for your door actuation system, if at all? Many thanks.
Just because, I had some click in the, in the line, Yasmin. The third question was in terms of the penetration of door actuation, you mean?
Basically kind of the development, with the kind of upcoming ban in China for the fully hidden pop-up electric door handles, how this will impact the demand for your door actuation systems and kind of if you have anything in particular from your Asian OEMs as a feedback so far in terms of?
Mm-hmm.
The expected ramp up or then kind of, also the overall penetration.
Thank you. Thank you for the clarification in terms of the question. Thank you for your questions, Yasmin. I will start answering them and then I for sure hand over to Andreas. Last year we had EUR 190 million free cash flow. This year the guidance is between EUR 80 million-EUR 110 million. That means one of your points was did you reflect or what's the impact of the accrual we did and the cash out of our restructuring program? This is considered in that.
It was EUR 18 million. We considered in our free cash flow guidance that this EUR 18 million is an outflow, because when you then deduct from last year's plan the reduced sales and thereby the reduced EBIT, and then also the cash out of the EUR 18 million, this basically is leading us to the midpoint of the guidance corridor. From that point of view, there is for sure in the second half of the year a lot of things to work on. You mentioned them like there's the ramp-up of the door systems, which has not a big impact on our inventories, because typically the automotive industry, you just like have just-in-time and sequenced production and delivery of these parts, and that's why it will be average in terms of our inventory needs.
On the other hand side, if you look into our financial set, for sure there is higher inventories this day already in our plan due to the fact that we see some headwinds coming when it comes to supply chain securities or safety or stability. Bottom line is, in our current forecast, there is included the current softer sales, but also the ramp-ups, and we did deduct the cash out of our restructuring program of EUR 18 million. If you count that all up, it, basically, we are still in the guidance corridor, and this is why we can confirm it. To this point for sure, or maybe Andreas has further things to add. In terms of debt level, our target is for the year-end to be below three. Huh? You saw now 3.2.
We have some strategic measures, but also some measures which we put into here and now, like the factoring or also reducing inventory numbers, to bring our profits up and also to delever further. Bring our profit up is also main priority towards the second half of the year. Here we concentrate with our programs to reduce costs on bringing up the margins further in order to generate good cash to delever. As I said, there are also strategic levers in place which we plan to execute in the second half of the year, which will lead us to a net leverage ratio of below three. The third question is in terms of the door handle, there is fully electric doors in China coming up to the market. This, however, doesn't impact the door actuation.
The door actuation is basically the electromechanical device to open and close the doors itself. That door is actuated. You can do that still by tipping on the car, slightly manually open it, or with gestures. This is basically embedded into the vehicle. It has nothing to do with the pure electromechanical device to open and close the doors in conjunction with the radar systems. However you activate the door, you need a radar system, the software, the ECU, and the electromechanical parts to then open and close the doors mechanically. That means there is a limited impact there. Also we get very good customer feedback. You know that there was the Beijing Auto Show, particularly in the mid and upper segment of the cars, there is no brand anymore without a door actuation in there.
We've been recently, and we monitor that, as you know, every quarter, have been winning with Great Wall additional door actuation systems. For us now, in China, there is not a single OEM who's not jumping on the door actuation. In Europe, the big car manufacturers who are in the mid and premium sector, they are all awarding the systems now for their SOPs. You know that with BMW, we are about to have the launch in a couple of weeks for the first bigger and biggest volume in the Western world. We see the same thing in North America. From today's perspective, this product and this technology is very well accepted by all OEMs and the end customers who are desperate to use them. That's in terms of the three questions.
Andreas, from your perspective, anything to add when it comes to the free cash flow guidance and the debt levels?
I think on the free cash flow, I could probably help with the rough calculation. We made in the first half-year about EUR 30 million. That would bring us to EUR 60 million for the full year. On the EUR 60 million, you should add then certain aspects and effects that will come in. First of all, on the net working capital side, we launched a inventory reduction program. As I said, we had at the end of Q2 this extraordinary impact from the high accounts receivable over the time. Over the next couple of weeks, our customers will pay us, and then this levels out. More on the financing side, we also have two initiatives we'll be working on. On one hand, we rolling out the ABS program, so an asset-backed security program for our accounts receivable.
We also roll out the reverse factoring program, or the bankers among us, better known as the Cflox program. These two initiatives is then more on the financing side, also support in order to reach the guided free cash flow. On the rest, I have nothing to add unless you would have a specific question.
Maybe a follow-up on the door actuation system. Could you remind us who are the main competitors on the door actuation market? Is it mainly Ningbo or have you seen also other Chinese competitors entering the field?
I would divide it in two regional aspects, right? If you look into the Western world, it's still the main competitors we know, right? It's Brose, it's Kiekert and Magna. If you go for China, it's Yes, the main competitor is still Engine. Then there are two or three smaller ones who are basically working with minor local brands. The biggest one remains Engine. The biggest one actually is also not only a competitor of ours in terms of door actuation, as you know, but also tailgate opening systems in general terms. That are the biggest competitors we have.
Okay. Perfect.
Remain somewhat unchanged.
That was very clear.
Thank you very much.
I'll step back into the line. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much also from my side. Dear ladies and gentlemen, a reminder, the combination to ask a question is nine and the star key. At the moment, we have no more questions in the queue. Please type in nine and the star key to ask a question. Let's wait a couple more moments. There seem no more questions to be incoming. With that, I hand over the floor back to you.
Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you for joining today. I think that saves us a couple of minutes. We all need desperately in our day-to-day business anyways, particularly on Monday. Thanks for joining today. Again, the main priorities are for us deleveraging, execute and improve further our cost position, and then for sure, nevertheless, in difficult times, invest in the latest technologies needed in the market. Thank you very much, and I wish you a good and successful day and week. Thank you. Goodbye, everybody.
Thank you. Goodbye.