PVA TePla AG (ETR:TPE)
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27.28
+0.68 (2.56%)
Nov 6, 2026, 5:35 PM CET
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Earnings Call: Q3 2026

Nov 5, 2026

Summary

Nine-month order intake exceeded €273m, up 55% YoY, while Q3 revenue rose 12% and margins improved. Management expects to meet 2026 targets and sees strong order momentum supporting growth in 2027.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Let me start with some good news. We have seen very strong order intake over the past nine months. In fact, we are on track to achieve the highest annual order intake in our company's history. This gives us confidence as we look ahead to 2027. We expect these orders to translate into revenue and put us back on a growth path next year. Our Metrology business is a key driver of this development.

Over the past months, we have invested a great deal of effort into expanding this business, and we can now see that our strategy is paying off. We have successfully won Tier-1 customers in the logic and memory sector, and we continue to receive new orders for our technologies, particularly in scanning acoustic microscopy.

For 2026, we remain on track. We have not reached our targets yet, but we are making good progress. We expect which should allow us to achieve our full-year targets. We are confident about the weeks ahead and optimistic about 2027. Let us now take a closer look at the highlights of the third quarter and the first nine months. The demand for our technologies remains very strong. Our order intake has reached a record level.

I n the first nine months, we received orders worth more than EUR 273 million. That is an increase of 55% compared to last year. Both our segments contributed to this growth, with particularly strong performance in Metrology business. At the same time, we are still facing a lot of challenges. As you know, we have invested in people, technologies, and structures to prepare also our Material Solutions business for future growth.

These investments have increased our cost base. Particularly in the first six months, capacity utilization in Material Solutions remained at a lower level due to an unfavorable product and project mix, but also due to lower order volumes in the first half of 2025. As a result of that, revenues were not yet sufficient to fully offset these effects, which consequently impacted the segment's nine-month results. We expect this to change significantly in the fourth quarter.

As a result, we are not quite where we wanted to be at this point. However, the third quarter has been a step in the right direction. Revenue increased 12% year on year, and both gross margin and EBITDA margin improved. Our focus now is on execution. We will turn our strong order backlog into revenue, improve product mix, and increase capacity utilization.

In short, we need to translate the strong demand into profitable growth, and we expect a strong finish of the year. Several customer projects are scheduled for completion in the coming weeks, and these will contribute to our fourth-quarter revenue. With these projects on track, we fully expect to achieve our targets for 2026.

A strong order intake puts us in a solid position to return to growth in 2027. Ladies and gentlemen, as already said before, we are following our strategic path step by step. Short-term success is important, but what matters most for us is long-term success of the company, and this mindset is something that we are sharing across the entire organization. With having said that in the first part, it's your turn, Markus.

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Thank you very much, Jalin. Good morning, and a warm welcome from my side. Before we start to go into the details of our financials, I would like to give you the three most important headlines from our perspective. As Jalin said, order intake is at a record level, and Q3 has been very strong, with Metrology clearly above our expectations.

For Q4, we expect that the momentum will be kept. Sales and EBITDA have been in line with our expectations, and Q3 has been the first quarter of the year where we did not have any material one-offs and are able to show the strength of our business model. As we announced, we approach double-digit margins in terms of the EBITDA. For Q4, we see ourselves on track to reach the guidance, and we will give you the details how to do so in the coming minutes.

Let us start with our revenue. In Q3, we achieved a revenue of almost EUR 63 million, which means an increase of 12%. Metrology is 46% over the comparison timeframe in 2025, and the growth shows how we are translating the order intake of the last quarters into revenue. Material Solutions, on the other hand, is 14% below Q3 in 2025.

As we will see with the order intake, the order book is constantly growing, and it is a matter of timing, not of demand. For the first nine months, we are 4% above 2025 with EUR 182 million, and it is more or less the same picture we have in the third quarter. Metrology is 29% above 2025, and Material Solutions is 13% behind. For those adding up the individual quarters, I would like to give a little side note here.

We have a change of presentation in the second quarter, which means that there, what has been shown as cost before is now deducted from the revenue, in the direction of EUR 1.4 million. Coming to the order intake. Order intake in the third quarter was above our own expectations with EUR 87 million. Material Solutions is behind the third quarter of 2025, but this is also due to the project nature of our business here. If you compare it with the second quarter in 2026, we are 20% ahead.

Contributions came again from the energy sector, and we are happy to announce that we have a second customer for indium phosphide, with the first systems here in the order intake. Metrology is way above our own expectations here with 64% increase and an order intake of almost EUR 51 million, and the demand is clearly driven by the ultrasound SAM systems.

For the fourth quarter, we expect that this momentum will be kept with contributions in Material Solutions coming from crystal growing and the energy sector, and in Metrology to be, the whole loop roughly stable, in other terms, between Q2 and Q3. Our group profit shows a gross profit of EUR 19 million in the third quarter, which is an increase of 17%, and an improvement in the gross profit margin from 29.4% to almost 31%. In comparison to the second quarter, from 28.1% to 30.8%. Here, as a side note, the change in presentation I noticed before also immediately affects the gross profit.

In the first nine months, we're behind 2025 with 29.1%, which is primarily caused by the lower utilization and an unfavorable product mix in Material Solutions in the first half of the year, which is, as Jalin explained, caused by the low order intake in the first half of 2025 and the specific nature of the projects where the orders have been received late in 2025 and early in 2026.

Our EBITDA in the first nine months is at EUR 10.4 million, which is clearly behind our goals, and here, non-period-related and one-off effects in the direction of EUR 5 million affected our results. Looking at the third quarter, we achieved, as we announced, or approached double digits with 9.6% and an EBITDA of EUR 6 million, which is a clear improvement of 61%. We take a closer look at our individual segments.

Here you can see, as I said, that the revenue is clearly below the previous comparison time frames, but the order intake is constantly improving. With an order intake of EUR 125 million in the first nine months, we're plus 36%. In terms of the order intake, we're still at a high cost level, and these orders need to be translated into revenue to offset these costs.

This is expected to accelerate in the fourth quarter and in 2027 onwards. Metrology, on the other hand, revenue is constantly growing due to the order intake and the shorter project lead times we have here. The EBITDA in the third quarter has been extraordinarily strong with an EBITDA margin of 23% and EUR 8 million. Let's conclude how we want to achieve our full-year guidance.

The third quarter had an EBITDA of EUR 6 million, which means in total we're at EUR 10.4 million and lacking a little bit more than EUR 15 million to reach the lower end of our EBITDA guidance. For the fourth quarter, we expect the revenue to rise significantly due to the projects where the orders have been received late 2025 and early 2026 in Material Solutions, and other projects which are terminated for the fourth quarter.

These will help us to raise the gross profit margins due to economies of scale, but also due to a way stronger product mix we're seeing here coming into revenue. So we're approaching the mid-30s in terms of gross profit margin. At the same time, our overhead is expected to develop flattish, which will then bring us to an EBITDA in the fourth quarter necessary to reach our guidance. That's it from my side. Happy to be available for the Q&A, and now I'm handing over to Jalin for the strategy update.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Thanks, Markus. Ladies and gentlemen, our strategic focus is beginning to deliver results, and our Metrology business is a key driver of this process. I would now like to take a closer look at the opportunities that we see in scanning acoustic microscopy. In acoustic microscopy, we are seeing a clear shift in customer demand. More and more customers are moving towards a more high-volume manufacturing.

This requires fully automated inspection systems that can be integrated directly into production lines, and we are well-positioned to benefit from this trend. We have now qualified our technology at five Tier-1 customers in the logic and the memory sector. These Tier-1 customers have now become the largest group of customers in scanning acoustic microscopy, and they accounted to more than half of the revenues in Metrology in the first nine months of 2026.

At the same time, smaller customers still contribute to our order intake, and despite that growing demand on automated solutions, manual SAM systems are remaining a very important part of our portfolio, and this mixture gives us a very attractive customer mix in the Metrology segment. With this new customer group, we need to follow different requirements and also produce even more automated systems starting from next year.

Due to this, we already announced that we increased our production line, or in the increase of our production line, and now I can say that the facility is finalized now and will get into operation until year-end. With this capacity increase, we now have enough space to produce more than 100 fully automated systems per year in midterm. Our short-term focus now is on the education of the team.

Ladies and gentlemen, I started the presentation with good news, and I would like to end on the same positive note. Based on a now developed existing customer base, we see a clear path toward achieving our revenue targets in Metrology. Our focus within the midterm strategy is strongly shifting from market development now to execution, and there is more potential ahead for upcoming years.

Our estimates for market size of acoustic metrology remains unchanged, and we are where we are today. We are on track to develop a market share of 30% to 40%. Our strategy is clear. We will continue to focus on the fast-growing market for acoustic metrology. We will expand our service offering for existing customers, and we will focus on executing our current orders. To meet the strong demand in acoustic metrology, we have also decided to sharpen our product portfolio.

This means that we will no longer offer certain niche optical metrology tools, something that we already announced in the first quarter of 2026. However, we continue to explore new opportunities in optical metrology. Over the medium to long term, we expect scalable optical metrology solutions to contribute to our growth as well. Let me conclude. 2026 has once again been a challenging year.

We are managing organizational improvements, volatile market demand, and a difficult economic and political environment. But at the same time, we see enormous opportunities ahead. New technologies and the growing demand for AI are creating significant potential for our business, and we have made important progress to position PVA TePla to capture these opportunities. With that presentation, we are finished, and we are happy to take your questions now.

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

First up, we have Michael Kuhn.

Michael Kuhn
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Good morning.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Hallo, Michael.

Michael Kuhn
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Good morning.

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Morning.

Michael Kuhn
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Thanks for taking my question. Essentially, three quick ones. First on indium phosphide. Good to hear you have a second customer here. Would you be able to confirm that both customers in that sphere are from the U.S.?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

No.

Michael Kuhn
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

No, not from the U.S., or no further comments on the customer mix?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

We cannot confirm that both customers are from the U.S.

Michael Kuhn
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

All right. Thanks for that. Would you be able to or willing to share, let's say, the location of the customers?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Not really. The market is very tight, so with commenting on any location, we would give too much information. We can say that customers are coming from different regions.

Michael Kuhn
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

All right, fair enough. Then on Metrology, obviously the customer base here is significantly broader. You mentioned five Tier-1 customers. Can you give us an update on, let's say, what is the split logic versus memory? What is the country split? And probably even more important, how much further qualifications you currently have underway?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yes. We are qualified at five Tier-1 customers. This is the final situation that we achieved now, and this is where we are building up our execution of the orders and also the order intake over the next months and years too. Customers are splitted North America, Asia, and from the logic and memory side, it's a little bit more in logic than in memory, but getting close to each other.

Michael Kuhn
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

That sounds a bit like two versus three. And on, let's say, the rollout plans of those customers, what visibility do they share with you? Are you discussing multi-year plans into 2027, 2028, 2029? And let's say, what is current backlog versus what you are in discussions with those customers?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yeah, it's based on forecasts for several years. So very close and fluent discussions about investment projects where we are involved and where we're getting transparency so that we can plan our capacity based on that and agree on delivery terms. The volume of forecasts is significantly more today as the volume that we are already having in the order book.

Michael Kuhn
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Okay. On, let's say, on servicing those customers, is your service organization now all in place, or is there, let's say, a little more work to do, much more work to do? Just to get an idea here.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

There's still some work to do. We made a lot of progress in adding people in the locations where we are already having very fluent activities. There we are working more on the education side. When I take the locations, for example, then North America is something where we are already having a very high level of professional team members. In Asia, it's a little bit diverse. On the one hand side, teams are in the final size available, but need some more education. In new areas, we still also need to add some people.

Michael Kuhn
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Understood. Thank you. Lastly, on Q4, I mean, obviously, I heard your confidence on increasing deliveries, gross margin, and also that driving operating leverage. Where would you say are the remaining risks in Q4? Is that more, let's say, on your side, not, let's say, finishing things, or is there also remaining risks on the customer side in terms of readiness to actually accept the tools and have everything in place to take delivery?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

I mean, fair question. I think the main risk is on our side on the operational part, but obviously this is all connected. If we need a little bit more time, it becomes tighter to get the final acceptance before the year end. But primarily risk is our operational one.

Michael Kuhn
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Understood. Thank you very much.

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

All right, thank you. Next we have Constantin Hesse.

Constantin Hesse
Analyst, Jefferies

Morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I would like to focus just a little bit more on the short-term perspective of things. I am curious, I think you mentioned Metrology orders in Q4 dropping quarter-on-quarter to a level between Q2 and Q3. I am just wondering, just to think about this, right, because I always had the impression that we should see gradually growing orders now, because especially with the guidance that you have out there for 2027 of significantly above EUR 300 million, we obviously need to see orders running significantly higher.

Should we continue expecting this lumpiness? Do you expect that you could potentially catch up towards the end of the year? How should we think about this, and are you still comfortable with the targets that you gave us for 2027?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yes, we are still very comfortable with the targets that we gave you to 2027. Compared to the revenue, we always will see some volatility or lumpiness, let's say, in the order intake, because this is always something where it's also a matter of signing everything and receiving the final orders compared to what our discussions with customers are already.

We have a lot of transparency in a very early stage. On the Material Solutions side, for example, it's sometimes always already over years where we know that there will be an investment plan before we are getting the final orders. In Metrology, it's also similar that we are having months ahead already transparency, what is coming up, and then we are receiving the orders right in front of that need of move-ins. We'll be lumpy, but we'll be still growing.

Constantin Hesse
Analyst, Jefferies

Can I ask, just out of curiosity, if we look at the target that you have for 2027, what's the rough breakdown that you expect for Metrology versus Material Solutions? Because I just want to make sure that, obviously for Metrology, I understand the confidence levels, but when we look at Material Solutions, we have been seeing some weakness in that area. I'm wondering what kind of visibility you have for this business in 2027.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yeah, look, in Material Solutions, we had a market weakness in 2025, which we had to go through. We have done a significant shift in activities that we are providing into the market, and we strategically worked on that to address different customer groups. This is something which is taking place today step by step. We are expecting to further have a growing order book, which is getting more of these new orders coming in. So, there's a change in activities that we are seeing step by step as well.

Constantin Hesse
Analyst, Jefferies

Understood. Maybe just lastly, out of curiosity, when it comes to the CapEx, obviously dropping a significant decline from next year. When it comes to capacities, are we now at a good place towards the end of the year, or do you expect some further expansions in 2027?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

We are already at a good place. Of course, we have shifted some of the investments from 2026 to 2027, where we have some finalizations in the Material Solutions side, which were originally planned in 2026, which we actively shifted a little bit into 2027, but this is not the majority.

Constantin Hesse
Analyst, Jefferies

Okay. Understood. Great. Thank you so much.

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

Thank you, Constantin. Johannes Ries, Apus Capital is next.

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

Yes, good morning. Three follow-on questions from my side. You mentioned the five qualified large customers for Metrology, ultrasonic Metrology. Are you in discussions with other guys, for example, especially with the OSATs, which also get more and more important for the advanced packaging topic?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yes, of course. This is something which is not included in that Tier-1 customer base that we mentioned. But it's still happening.

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

So, there will be further names maybe qualified in the next 12 months?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

There are already activities on that side.

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

Great. Second question on Material Solutions. You mentioned the forecast for Metrology. You have a clear view about maybe the expectations of your customers. How good is the visibility maybe at the Material Solutions side? How close you are to the customers, how much it gets forecast, and therefore, maybe what visibility you have for maybe for the order intake pipeline, maybe for Material Solutions in the coming 12 or 15 months?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yeah. Materials is a little bit different to Metrology. It is more long-term oriented investment plans of customers which we are supporting. Discussions are starting in a very early stage. We see that our pipeline for projects which are supposed to close over the next 12 months is getting stronger and stronger, and we are having a very good visibility of that everything which we started is also counting into our business.

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

New compound semiconductors materials you now add to your portfolio as driving the growth?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

That is, of course, driving the growth, yeah. It is a significant pillar of what we want to achieve, yeah.

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

On the capacities on the cleanroom, you mentioned you have the capacity for 130 automated systems. Will that be enough to achieve your 2028 targets in Metrology? Remind us, what is the price at average you get for an automated system?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yes, this is the volume that will be supporting what we want to achieve midterm. The price of the system is a little bit diverse, between EUR 1 million and EUR 2.5 million, depending on the setup of the system and the area where it's going into.

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

Okay. Thanks a lot.

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

Thank you. Maissa Keskes is next. Hi, Maissa.

Maissa Keskes
Analyst, ODDO BHF

Hello?

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

Hi.

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Hi. Good morning.

Maissa Keskes
Analyst, ODDO BHF

Good morning. I have three questions. First, can we take the Q3 order intake for Metrology as a new run rate going forward? Because I think to reach the EUR 500 million in 2028, you need additional orders for Material Solutions for sure, but we cannot stay at just EUR 30 million of quarter run rate for Metrology. What do you think about it?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

We can see constantly that the order intake is growing over the quarters, but inside this moving average, you have some kind of a little bit of lumpiness due to the project nature. Jalin just explained it. We can see constant growth there, and we will develop in the necessary direction. There is no question mark for us.

Maissa Keskes
Analyst, ODDO BHF

Okay. Yesterday, Siltronic mentioned that they start discussion with key equipment supplier regarding additional equipment. Could you share where you are seeing similar momentum in customer discussion, and how should we think about the timing of potential order intake? Is it something that could materialize starting from Q4, or it will be likely for 2027?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

I have to say sorry on that point. It is a question for them, and that is something that we cannot comment on.

Maissa Keskes
Analyst, ODDO BHF

Okay. When you said that you are serving five Tier-1 customers, it means that you got the qualification from the Korean customer?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yes. We are having finally five customers in the boat where we are delivering continuous systems to.

Maissa Keskes
Analyst, ODDO BHF

Okay.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

It is also including Korea, yeah.

Maissa Keskes
Analyst, ODDO BHF

Okay. Thank you.

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

All right. Edwin de Jong, please.

Edwin de Jong
Analyst, Edison Group

Yes. Good morning. Can you hear me?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Yes. Good morning, Edwin.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Morning.

Edwin de Jong
Analyst, Edison Group

Good. A couple of questions from my side. First on Material Solutions. Q4, you indicated, will be better for crystal growing. Should we see a recovery mostly in silicon carbide part or in the silicon part? Maybe as a starter.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yeah. On the crystal growing area, we have four materials where we see a strong contribution.

of our targets. It is silicon carbide, indium phosphide, and calcium fluoride.

And already over the last quarters, but also in the upcoming quarters, there will be continuous order intake coming from that four fields.

Edwin de Jong
Analyst, Edison Group

On all of them?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yes.

Edwin de Jong
Analyst, Edison Group

Okay. On silicon carbide, you were already delivering, I think, a 12-inch tool there now. How is that going? Because I also saw a Chinese player going into that field in 12-inch silicon carbide.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yeah. We are having 12-inch technology available that we are offering to the market and where we are already having discussions with potential customers to step into. Our process development also is shifting into 12 inch, so it's not only for proof of concept. Yeah. It's not for developing real processes and producing wafers. Yeah. Not going into competition with customers. We are shifting the systems at the moment to showcase the 12-inch process and also give our customers availability to do some test runs at our site.

Edwin de Jong
Analyst, Edison Group

Okay. Great. On indium phosphide, I think you mentioned in the previous call, you had, let's say, a tool market of 100 to 175 tools, yeah, for PVA as an addressable market. Is that still the case, or has that actually increased because there is so much going on there?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

It stays as we announced it in the second quarter. The competition that we're facing is in-house production. This is a field where it's harder to move into customer relationship rather than when there is external competition. This is still what we see.

Edwin de Jong
Analyst, Edison Group

Okay. Helpful. On the Metrology side, there is great progress on the acoustic metrology market. You also mentioned in optical inspection, there can be a scalable opportunity. That is what was said. Where should we see that part? Is it more in the back end, the front end? Should we look at memory, or is it logic, or where is that opportunity?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

The opportunities or the areas of application where we are addressing in the optical field are, on the one hand side, in the very front end and in the front end, but also reaching out a little bit into that new back-end application. Advanced packaging is something that is also included in there.

Edwin de Jong
Analyst, Edison Group

Yeah.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

It will not count in before late 2027. We are in the early stage of these activities. As mentioned in the presentation, we shifted a little bit the focus from optical to acoustic for the short term to use the capacities in the right way. We moved out some optical activities, which originally have been planned to contribute to the targets, out of the business and now concentrate on that more long-term developments, which are, I think, scale potential.

Edwin de Jong
Analyst, Edison Group

Absolutely. If we look at the longer term for the optical inspection tool, we should maybe look more at the back end, I would guess, for CoWoS or-

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yes

Edwin de Jong
Analyst, Edison Group

EMIB from TSMC and Intel.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Yes. It's more, the growth perspective on the long term is going more to the back-end applications. Yes.

Edwin de Jong
Analyst, Edison Group

Yeah. Okay. Finally, the final question on supply chain. I think a big question in the market for all the equipment players is, how much control do you have over the supply chain? Where do you see the most supply chain risk for your supply chain?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Yeah, I think we can observe that the supply chain becomes tighter also for us, but our supply chain is primarily European-based. For the moment, in the ongoing projects, we don't see any issues here. But we noticed that delivery times have become longer for several parts. Yeah, we can observe that, but it hasn't been an issue for us yet.

Edwin de Jong
Analyst, Edison Group

Okay. Great to hear. Thank you very much.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Thank you.

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

Thank you, Edwin. Niklas Fevreus is next.

Speaker 9

Good morning, everyone. Thanks.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

Morning.

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Morning.

Speaker 9

Thanks for taking my questions. I just have one additional one regarding the EBITDA guidance for this year. The guidance is now targeted at the lower end of the range. I think you're requiring something around EUR 60 million in the Q4. Can you give us a little bit more outlook on which projects are driving this and how much of the targeted Q4 revenues is already backed by order backlog with fixed delivery dates?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Yeah, sure. I mean, obviously, we're in the last quarter of the year, so almost all revenue is coming from the order book as of today. There are only smaller after-sales order where we will be able to deliver those this year. In terms of the product mix, as we said, we expect that the projects we received late of last year and early this year will go into production or are in production and will contribute to the revenue.

Here we have a stronger product mix, and also other projects are timed to be delivered in the fourth quarter, which will also increase our gross profit margins in Material Solutions. For Metrology, we expect that we will also see strong contributions, and everything combined will drive the gross profit margins here. Small correction, not terminated, don't get me wrong, it's timed, yeah.

Speaker 9

So you're very confident to reach that EBITDA guidance?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Yes. I mean, obviously, it's not a walk in the park, but from everything we see today, we see ourself reaching the guidance.

Speaker 9

Okay. Thank you very much.

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

Thank you. Hartmut Moers, please.

Hartmut Moers
Analyst, Matelan Research

Yes, good morning. Can you hear me?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Yes, good morning.

Hartmut Moers
Analyst, Matelan Research

Great. I have just a couple of housekeeping questions. The first one is on the investments. You have already said that you have shifted some of the planned investments into 2027. But are we still looking at a major increase from the EUR 3 million to EUR 4 million that you have spent in each of the first three quarters of this year, or are we looking at a similar level?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Our expectation was initially that the CapEx will be in 2026 in line with 2025. Then we, after the first half year, slowed some projects which are not of strategic relevance, and those will be then shifted to the next year, and others are a little bit delayed. We expect to be a bit below EUR 20 million this year, and everything else is then shifting to 2027, where we initially expected to be at the maintenance level. This will be then a little bit elevated here.

Hartmut Moers
Analyst, Matelan Research

Okay, great. Second one is, I mean, order intake in the third quarter was quite good. Was there anything special in it? Any larger order or anything with a one-off effect? Or is it more, let's say, now a run rate with the usual lumpiness that's due to timing?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

I would be careful with the word run rate, but there is nothing out of the ordinary in the order intake.

Hartmut Moers
Analyst, Matelan Research

Okay, great. Next one is the holding costs. You had reported some EUR 2.3 million in holding costs, which is roughly EUR 500,000 above the level that you had in the previous quarters. Is there something specific in here, or is this now, again, the run rate that we should be looking at and where you're saying, "Well, this is a cost level that we have achieved now and that we want to maintain"?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Yeah, I mean, there is a little bit of lumpiness because it's not only all fixed costs. There are projects going on, et cetera, like take the sales force we're currently implementing and other projects. But in general, we don't see a material increase in the future years. Again, would be careful with the word run rate, but I think it's okay.

Hartmut Moers
Analyst, Matelan Research

Yep. Are you indicating that the EUR 2.3 million is a bit high, or are you indicating that the EUR 2.3 million is now a level that we should count with?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Yeah, I think you can use this as a level.

Hartmut Moers
Analyst, Matelan Research

Okay, great. The last one is, I mean, you have given in your outlook. You said that in Metrology, in the fourth quarter, you expect the good development to continue on the sales side. I mean, you also had a very strong margin in the third quarter in Metrology. Is your indication also that you will be able to maintain that level, or are you coming back to the level that we have seen in previous quarters?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

Yeah, I think it is between. I think, as I said, the margin has been extraordinarily good. It is nothing we can maintain yet. It is our goal for post-growth to be in this direction. Yeah, sure, you can expect that Metrology is stronger in the mix with Material Solutions there. But I think for the moment, it will be between a little bit less. Let us say it like this, yeah.

Hartmut Moers
Analyst, Matelan Research

Okay, great. Thank you very much. That was it from my side.

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

All right, thank you. If I look correctly, Johannes Ries, is that a follow-up question, or did you forget to lower your hand?

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

Yes, I didn't follow.

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

Okay.

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

Good morning. Again, two follow-up questions. First, in the past, you had done, and you mentioned also some maybe smaller M&As are also added, are planned. Is it still the focus, or you are now concentrating on the execution, the internal execution, and the organic growth?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

We are concentrated on the organic execution of the business that we already achieved. We're still open for M&A activities when there is something coming around which is of interest for us. But there is no active M&A strategic approach behind that to grow with M&A in their targets anymore.

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

Okay, thanks. On the qualification topic, if I count right, if I maybe add the Japanese customers, there are six big guys out. We have five qualifications. There's still one left. Is that right?

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

There are still possible customers that we could achieve on the Tier-1 side. For now, we are very much focused on the execution. Doesn't mean that we are not open to discuss and open to go for, let's say, midterm add-ons, but we also need to get the quality into the processes, and it's important to focus on what we already have in-house.

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

It's clear. Finally, I ask this every time, but for me, it's clearer than ever. The 2028 target is only maybe one point on the way up. If I see that, for example, the trend for advanced packaging will definitely go on after 2028. If you see that maybe new materials like indium phosphide are really getting traction after 2028, and things like maybe the optical metrology, the new technology you are targeting for also starts to fly in 2028. It's more to come after 2028, and the EUR 500 million is not the final target, to make it clear again.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

We set our targets for now for midterm, which are the EUR 500 million to achieve. We did not set any further targets yet. This is something which will come next. Of course, we internally have plans and discussions about what is coming next, we are working on what is coming for the future, but it would be too early to disclose on anything today.

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

Potentially, the available market is growing further after 2028.

Jalin Ketter
CEO, PVA TePla

We have a huge market potential in front of us, and we are wanting to catch a lot of that market potential, and we are working on how to.

Johannes Ries
Analyst, Apus Capital

Okay, thanks.

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

All right, perfect. Adam Jakubowski is next.

Adam Jakubowski
Analyst, SMC Research

Yeah, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have just one question left. Regarding the reorganization in Material Solutions segment, is it already finished, and are there any additional costs to be expected for Q4? And maybe can you tell us something about the savings you expect for the reorganization?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

I think investment-wise, some of the CapEx delays we mentioned are based in Material Solutions. There are two workshop extensions which have not been completed yet, but that's it on this side. All other costs are expected to be at a stable level here.

Adam Jakubowski
Analyst, SMC Research

Okay, there are no additional one-offs we should expect?

Markus Groß
CFO, PVA TePla

No.

Adam Jakubowski
Analyst, SMC Research

Okay, thank you very much.

Sebastian Gonsior
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, PVA TePla

All right, thank you very much for dialing in today. As I said, this presentation will be made available on our website within the day. Thank you all, and have a great day.