Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Analysts and Investors Half Year 2024 Conference Call and Live Webcast. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing Star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press Star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Eva Borowski, Senior Vice President, IR and Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Sasha, and good afternoon, good morning, everyone. As you know, earlier today, Landis+Gyr issued its results at H1 release and accompanying presentation for the first half of financial year 2024. You can find these documents on our website. Before we get started, we want to emphasize that some of the information discussed today contains forward-looking statements, and we want to explicitly emphasize that there are numerous risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond Landis+Gyr's control that could cause Landis+Gyr's actual actions or performance to differ materially from the forward-looking information and statements made from this conference call or in this presentation. Consequently, Landis+Gyr can give no assurance that those expectations will be achieved. For more information, please see page two of the presentation and our press release issued today.
This conference call will follow the presentation, so we suggest that you have it on your screen or otherwise available to follow along with our remarks during the first part of this call. Afterwards, you will have the opportunity to ask questions, and Sasha will provide further instructions as we start the Q&A. With that short introduction, I'd like to turn over the call to our Chief Executive Officer, Werner Lieberherr.
Thank you, Eva. Good afternoon, good morning, everyone, and welcome to our half year 2024 results. I'm here with Theresa Andorfer, our Head of Group FP&A, and Eva Borowski, our Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, and we are very pleased you all have been able to join us today. Elodie Carr, Group CFO since November 20, is unavailable today and will embark on new endeavors upon the expiration of her contract. A search process for her successor as Group CFO has been initiated on behalf of all of us at Landis+Gyr. I would like to thank Elodie for her valuable contributions and wish her all the best for the future. Assuming you have seen our second announcement this morning, we are excited to announce the decision to pursue a strategic review of the group to drive sustainable shareholder value creation. The review includes the following elements.
First, creating value by focusing increasingly on our highly attractive Americas business, which is most aligned with our strategy of providing integrated edge-to-enterprise energy management solutions. Second, launching a strategic review for the best value creation from our EMEA business to position the region for long-term success. Third, evaluating the merits of a potential listing in the U.S. over the medium term to create value for our customers, employees, and Landis+Gyr shareholders. With that said, let's review the first half of financial year 2024 before we come back to the strategic update prior to the Q&A. We are pleased to announce a solid order intake driven by the Americas, resulting in a book-to-bill of 0.9 and a continued high backlog of almost $3.7 billion. Net revenue was stable on the back of an extraordinarily high FY23 base, and we expect a back-end loaded year picking up in H2.
Adjusted EBITDA margin came in at 11.7%, driven by the Americas and APAC. Free cash flow minus 13.5 million was driven by elevated inventory levels to support backlog conversion, and we expect a normalization for the full year. A personal highlight is our steadily increasing software revenues, which now make up 24% of total revenues, demonstrating the value of our strategic transformation investments. The rise in software and services is driven by the rapid push for electrification and the resulting increased demand for energy efficiency and grid resiliency solutions. These factors, paired with our strategic transformation, provide a solid foundation for sustained profitable growth and further expansion of our software and services offering and recurring revenue generation.
In addition, the increased need for intelligent energy grid edge positions us in the sweet spot of the energy transition as we continue to expand our edge-to-enterprise solutions to enable our customers to manage energy better and drive the decarbonization of the grid. Let's turn to slide four and have a look at the developments in each region. I'll start with the Americas, successfully led by Sean. Our continued strong Americas performance was fueled by market-leading innovation and our customer success-driven teams. We are very pleased to report on the growing adoption of Revelo with long-term partners Unitil and Portland General Electric, to name just two examples. In addition, we continue to drive growth in software and services, including the successful migration of over 30 customers to our modernized cloud-based Emerge head-end system next to a growing services penetration.
Proud to be a leading innovator for edge-to-enterprise solutions, we continue to expand our cloud-based analytic platform, which provides actionable insights to drive efficiencies as well as cost and carbon emission savings. In addition, we are excited to share that we all have joined forces with OATI to deliver an integrated edge-to-enterprise DR management solution to help utilities leverage demand-side assets in grid operations to enhance grid resiliency and capture decarbonization goals. With our leading innovative solutions, we are excited to play a vital role in future-proofing critical infrastructure in the Americas for continued profitable growth. Let's move on to slide five and take a closer look at EMEA. This morning, we announced that Bodo Zeug, who has led the EMEA region since September 21, has decided to continue his professional path outside of Landis+Gyr. We thank Bodo for his valuable contributions and wish him every success for the future.
Effective immediately, I'm very pleased to announce the appointment of Rob Evans as our new Head of EMEA. Rob has successfully shaped the company in various leadership roles. His leadership and experience position him well to play an integral part in the announced strategic review for the best value creation from our EMEA business. Turning to the region's performance, we have seen a steady performance in smart metering across EMEA with strong sales in Switzerland, Germany, and the U.K., and new opportunities developing in Denmark, Spain, and Poland for H2. We also have seen a strong performance in our industrial, commercial, and grid business with wins across the entire region, and we are able to demonstrate strong growth in heat and water solutions, reinforcing our diversified portfolio.
In smart infrastructure, we continue to build momentum in the European e-mobility sector with strategic partnerships and key contracts across diverse markets, setting the stage for future deliveries across EMEA. While EMEA continues to recover from supply chain headwinds, we remain focused on driving innovation, positioning EMEA well to capture profitable growth in the coming years. Now, let's take a look at Asia-Pacific on slide six, led by Dave. Dave, who took over the leadership role in APAC in April, and his team continue to expand into Southeast Asia, and we are excited about the APAC region going forward. In smart metering, we continue to expand our partnerships with China Light & Power and Hong Kong Electric.
In grid edge intelligence, we are progressing to grow our software and services offerings in Australia and India, especially with Intellihub and also with Esyasoft, a joint venture for which Landis+Gyr provides software solutions for the Indian market after ceasing manufacturing activities in the country last year. In smart infrastructure, we continue to expand our EV solutions footprint and have steadily grown our water meter deployments. Overall, we see a continued positive trajectory that allows us to drive future success in APAC. Now, let's turn to slide seven and take a closer look at our consolidated results. We see a continued solid backlog, primarily supported by order intake in the Americas. Revenue decline was driven by project timing in EMEA, as we expect a back-end loaded financial year.
Adjusted EBITDA expansion in Americas and APAC was supported by operational efficiencies, the continued recovery of supply chain costs, and gains from a real estate transaction in India, and partially offset by lower operating leverage in EMEA. And now, Theresa will give you a more detailed review of the financials. Afterwards, I will come back to our guidance before we open up the call for questions. Theresa, please.
Thank you, Werner. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. I would now like to walk you through the financials for the first half of 2024, ending September 30th. Order intake was at CHF 812 million, resulting in a book-to-bill ratio of 0.9 for the company. Landis+Gyr recorded a solid backlog of CHF 3.7 billion, down 2.3% year- over- year. This decline was mainly driven by EMEA, where timing of large tenders and softening in key markets affected orders. However, the Americas partially offset this with an increase in backlog of 1.8%. Let's now turn to net revenue. The net revenue result for the first half was CHF 925.6 million, a decrease of 4.3% in constant currency year- over- year. Overall, the decline in revenue was mainly driven by EMEA, while the Americas revenue performance continues to be strong, enabled by focused backlog execution.
The decline in revenue in EMEA is driven by timing of large project rollouts, market softness in the U.K. and Turkey, as well as demand for EV solutions. APAC experienced a slight decline in revenue, predominantly driven by project timing. Despite the decrease in revenue, Landis+Gyr achieved an overall EBITDA margin expansion in the first half of 2024. Let's have a look at the details on the next page. Adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 2024 was CHF 108.2 million, translating into an adjusted EBITDA margin of 11.7% and expansion of 60 basis points versus the same period in the prior year. Gross margin was impacted negatively by a shortfall of revenue and unfavorable product mix in EMEA. This was more than offset by two factors. First, improved operational performance, a steady recovery in supply chain costs, and the gain from a real estate transaction in India.
Second, the decrease in adjusted operating expenses of 6.4 million year- over- year, benefiting from last year's OPEX restructuring initiative and a disciplined approach to spending. We continue our commitment to innovation and investments in strategic areas throughout the year. Turning to the next page, we will discuss the bridge from reported to adjusted EBITDA in more detail. The bridge between reported and adjusted EBITDA contains three items. First, restructuring. In the first half of 2024, restructuring charges are mainly related to the completion of a global initiative launched in FY 2023. Second, warranty normalization adjustment. This adjusts the warranty provision amounts made in the financial year relative to the three-year average of actual warranty costs incurred. The downward trend from prior years continues due to lower warranty cases in recent periods. Finally, timing differences on FX derivatives.
Our FX exposure is in the U.K. and Australia, where we contract revenues in GBP and AUD respectively and incur supply chain costs largely in other currencies. The adjustments exclude unrealized gains of CHF 0.4 million related to mark-to-market differences on certain FX hedges. Now, let's turn to the cash flow performance. In the first half of 2024, our free cash flow, excluding M&A, was at CHF -13.5 million. Cash flow from operations was unfavorably impacted by the change in working capital due to increased accounts receivable and unbilled receivable balances, both driven by collection timing. Capital expenditure decreased to CHF 11.7 million as prior year initiatives focused on new product introduction and automation upgrades in manufacturing facilities have been completed. Other assets and liabilities were driven by timing in deferred revenues, offset by lower incentive for goals.
Lastly, the net interest payments increase is driven by the higher debt utilization to fund net working capital requirements. Moving on to net debt. As of September 30, 2024, the net debt position was at CHF 226.3 million. Net debt was impacted by the following items: the dividend payment of CHF 72.5 million made in July 2024. Free cash flow was at negative CHF 13.5 million. And finally, FX and other impacts were negative CHF 9 million. Those were related to the acquisition of the remaining 25% equity interest in Etrel, as well as the purchase of treasury shares. Overall, we continue to maintain a solid balance sheet with a net debt to Adjusted EBITDA ratio of 1.01. This provides a solid foundation for future growth opportunities. With that, let's move on to the regional performance, starting with the Americas.
In the Americas, order intake was at CHF 565 million, resulting in a book-to-bill ratio of over one. Revenue performance remained strong at CHF 558.7 million, a decrease of 0.2% in constant currency, maintaining revenue levels in line with prior years. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 130 basis points to 17.2%. The expansion was primarily driven by operational costs out and continued recovery of supply chain costs, partially offset by further ramp-up investments to support backlog execution and investments in strategic initiatives. Moving on to EMEA. In the EMEA region, we recorded a book-to-bill ratio of 0.6. Order intake was impacted by timing of large tenders in the U.K., Poland, and U.A.E.. Revenue decreased by CHF 11.4 million in constant currency to CHF 286.1 million, mainly due to unfavorable timing of large projects and softening in the U.K., Turkey, and the EV market.
Adjusted EBITDA decreased to CHF -5.6 million, resulting in a margin of -1.9%. The decrease was driven by low operational leverage and product mix. Continued investments in EV and the ultrasonic water meter technology were more than offset by OPEX restructuring benefits. Moving on to the APAC region. The APAC region recorded a book-to-bill ratio of 0.9, supported by wins in Hong Kong and Esyasoft, have established in India. APAC revenue decreased by 4.1% in constant currency to CHF 80.7 million, driven by project timing in Australia and Southeast Asia. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 25.2% due to gains from the disposition of real estate in India and favorable mix in Hong Kong and ANZ. With this, I will now hand it over to Werner for the guidance.
Thank you, Theresa. Very well done. Turning to slide 17, let's talk about our reconfirmed guidance for FY24. Following an extraordinary year of growth, we expect low single-digit revenues growth for 2024 compared to FY23, while we continue to focus on expanding our profitability. As a result, for FY24, we expect an Adjusted EBITDA margin between 11% and 13% of net revenue. In addition, we will continue to drive our strategic transformation forward by managing our costs diligently. On slide 18, you can see our guidance for FY25, which is hereby also reconfirmed. Let's move to slide 19 and talk about this morning's announcement. We are sharpening our strategic focus to drive value creation for you as our shareholders, our customers, and also our employees by making sure that we position each part of the business for the greatest possible success.
The review consists of three parts, as you can see above. First, we are focusing on the Americas business, which offers the greatest opportunity with higher-value software and services solutions as part of our differentiated edge-to-enterprise offering. In addition, already today, the Americas is our largest and most profitable segment and offers the highest return on capital. Second, we are launching a strategic review for the best value creation from our EMEA segment to position the region for future success, building on our leading position and successful optimization initiatives we have implemented over the last few years. And third, we are evaluating the merits of a potential U.S. listing, gaining access to a larger pool of capital and facilitating easier comparison with key peers. On slide 20, we will take a more detailed look at the Americas region as it stands today.
In the Americas region, and in the U.S. in particular, we are leading with integrated edge-to-enterprise solutions and are proud of the record backlog, which will continue to allow us to drive profitable growth going forward. Our technology leadership and the increased levels of recurring software and services revenues, paired with the high quality of the Americas backlog, position the region well to benefit from future market developments and capture wins by serving today's and tomorrow's needs of our critical infrastructure customers. Already today, we are generating 60% of group revenues and over 80% of adjusted EBITDA in the Americas region and are poised to continue to win in the market with strong customer relationships and a laser focus on technology leadership. Now, let's turn to EMEA on page 21.
Operating in a different market environment, our EMEA region has demonstrated a great amount of resilience and worked hard at driving efficiencies while strengthening our technology leadership position in the region. We have made significant progress in further optimizing our EMEA operations and are well positioned in all key markets of the region. We see a clear path to uplift profitability by driving supply chain improvements, operating leverage, enhanced efficiencies, manufacturing optimization, and cost-saving initiatives. That said, in order to fully capitalize on EMEA's unique market dynamics, we believe that the region requires a different long-term strategic focus than our operations in the Americas. As such, the board management has determined that now is the right time to explore value maximizing strategies for the best value creation from our EMEA region. We will provide updates on the process and developments as they become available. Now, we would like to open the call for questions.
We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Anyone with a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Michael Roost with Baader Helvea. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good afternoon, everybody. How are you?
Hi, Michael. Very good. Thank you.
Excellent. Thank you. So I've got two questions, if possible. The first one is regarding the strategic review. Now, obviously, I don't expect you to tell me exactly what the timeline is, but just to give a bit of an idea in terms of your priorities over the next period of time, i.e., are we talking about that we would expect a little bit more information maybe at the CMD at the beginning of next year, or how would you expect that to sort of start to flow through in terms of information? The second question from my side is on North America in terms of order intake. I was actually surprised that it was not more negative than what it was at - 6%. Did that also include a little bit of weakness due to the upcoming U.S. elections, i.e., that you would expect things to improve in the second half a little bit? Thank you.
Yeah, very good. Thank you, Michael. The first one, yes, the strategic reviews, as you can imagine, all that takes time. When we think about EMEA, obviously, you know where we said we look on one hand, we look at optimizing the current segment, meaning, for example, taking out low-margin projects or maybe closing a low-margin business. Or a second option is maybe sell part of EMEA. Third option, sell full EMEA. We engaged an investment bank. We are looking into this in detail, but frankly speaking, that's a process of 12 month- 18 months, just that we speak about the magnitude. When we think about, for example, a potential U.S. listing, also that, first of all, the board will need to come to the conclusion that we want to do it.
And if we were to make the decision that we would do it, then this is not something which comes tomorrow. So we are really talking here about, I would say, 2026 at the earliest, just that we put some timeline into these things. These are considerations which need to be done very, very carefully so that all takes time. And we definitely see a CMD coming up in 2025 where we want to give more feedback. Then the second question was, Michael, in terms of the U.S. order intake.
U.S. order intake, yeah.
U.S. order intake, yeah. So that's really a little bit the timing at the moment. On a half-year basis, we see sometimes, for example, we have a large project which hopefully we can capture in H2. So that's really just the timing as the stuff comes available. I would say, generally speaking, the market environment is extremely positive, remains very positive. There are large grid fundings available, which actually for the utilities are there to grab. We are working with utility actually on these use cases. So it's a very conducive environment. I also believe the decision which we will hear next Tuesday, whether it will be Harris or Trump, will make little to no impact actually to the current environment because we need to keep in mind these decisions are actually made on state level.
And maybe if I can just remind everybody, I mean, National Grid, which was a huge order for us, a $300 million order, then followed by two other orders from National Grid totaling $800 million. But National Grid New York was made in October 2020. And that was really when actually COVID was at the highest point in time with 400,000 new cases a day, high unemployment rate. But the regulator of New York said, "Hey, we need this technology." So that's how we see a little bit this whole environment, Michael.
Okay. Okay. So then you would expect the second half to maybe be a little bit more of an improvement, half of a half. Is that right?
Yes, if we can say that, yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Very good. Thank you very much.
The next question is from Jeff Osborne with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning. Good afternoon for you. Just a couple of questions on my side, Werner.
Yeah.
Yeah. You just mentioned the environment in the U.S. I'm just curious, with the Department of Energy releasing the grid funding recently, is that something that any of your customers have won and you would expect as they go to the state commissioners to seek approval that that would benefit you in the second half?
I would say, Jeff, maybe second half or not. I mean, there's always a little bit of timing involved, but generally speaking, Jeff, I mean, the whole grid funding, and you know that I sit on the Grids Infrastructure Advisory Council for that. It's extremely positive, you know what I mean, and so is it second half. Some of it maybe goes out a little bit further, but just very positive, yeah.
Great to hear. And then I think you mentioned, if I heard you right, 24% of revenue was software and services. Could you just—I haven't heard you mention that percentage in the past. Can you just give us a bit of perspective on what that was maybe a year ago or how the backlog complexion is as it relates to sort of the tech portion of the business?
Jeff, I wanted to surprise you a little bit today. No, it is a high number, and look, about maybe a year ago, it was around 20, I think, when we talked last time. And it does fluctuate a little bit. I also want to be clear about that, Jeff, but you remember when you and I talked, our view is clear that, my view is, I mean, we want to move the whole company from 20% plus in the direction of 30%. And I think we should be able to achieve that.
Perfect. And then just what level of comfort do you have that some of the softness in Europe (this is my last question). I think you said the U.K., Turkey, and some of the EV markets. Do you anticipate any of those three to resume growth in the coming months and quarters?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, when we look into the EMEA business, then it's a timing issue, which I think it's very, very important to see. We actually, I would say, we should be around in H2, we should be around 90 million higher than in H1. And when I look at the opportunities which we are having, I think they will come in. We are talking here about from a book-to-bill, from a 0.6, I think we should be able to move up the needle to around 0.85, 0.9 in that neighborhood. But I feel confident that we actually should be able to achieve that. And with that, then, of course, Jeff, also the margin is coming along.
Great to hear. That's all I had. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Jeff. Thank you.
The next question is from Patrick Rafaisz with UBS. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks and hi, everybody. Can I?
Hi, Patrick.
Hi. Can I follow up on this last point about EMEA? Book-to-bill 0.8-0.9, was that in reference to H2 or for the full year, which would mean above one for H2?
That would be full year then. So we see a little bit in EMEA, I think, to get to 1%. I see this to less, sorry, to 1 on 1. I see to a lesser degree for the full year. But I'm talking 0.85%-0.9% for the full year for EMEA.
Would that be the sequential improvement you're anticipating for the second half also in EMEA, I assume? Would that be enough to bring EBITDA back into positive territory?
Yeah, definitely. I mean, look, when we look at EMEA, I think it's a little bit at this point in time, maybe I would call it undervalued, so when I think about this - 1.9%, at the moment, the consensus which is out there is about 4.6%. I think we will achieve that. What I think is important is, when I think about EMEA, as I told you before, about CHF 90 million, and CHF 90 million, that will give us then a volume effect of around an EBITDA level of around CHF 35 million, then we have some mixed improvement of about CHF 9 million. We see supply chain around CHF 10 million and then plus minus. So the clear objective is that in H2, considerably better in the direction of around 9%-10%, which will give us then around the 4.5%-5% margin for the year, EBITDA margin for the year.
Okay. So, a clear improvement. Okay. I'm understood.
Yes, definitely.
Understood. Excellent. And then on the strategic review, maybe one or two questions. The first would be on EMEA. And you mentioned a bit the various options here, streamlining the offering, divesting parts or all of EMEA. What's sort of the plan A? And which one of these would be plans B and C on the priority list?
Look, I mean, at the moment, we drive this pretty much in parallel. We don't have a view because what I think is important, we now need to do a proper analysis. I mean, one definitely thing we could do is instead of having a $660 million EMEA revenue, maybe it's a $400 million, but it's much more profitable. I think that's a very doable solution. And then also the second option is to offload, to sell some of the low-margin business, definitely also a very doable option. Or the third one is then sell the whole segment. I mean, I had, during the course of my five years at Landis+Gyr, I had every so often, I had interested parties. But Patrick, you know as well as I do, at the end of the day, it's not only interest, it's also do we match price?
You know what I mean? And these are all open questions. The process just started, I think, with Investment Bank and us. And we are now carefully looking into it and keep you abreast as we go. But at the end of the day, it's best value creation. I think that's very important. And we also need to be clear that this is not coming from today or tomorrow. If we were to do a sale like that, we are talking probably 12 month-18 months realistically.
Yeah. Okay. And then my last question would be on the refocusing on Americas. And in particular, what would that mean for your smaller businesses like the EV charging business, gas metering, water metering, right? If you refocus on Americas, does that maybe put into question these businesses as well as a part of the portfolio, or is that a different discussion?
I think at the moment, as I said, it's a very good question, Patrick, at the beginning of the review, but we need to keep in mind, when I think about the U.S., water is an extremely important element in the U.S., so gas is a very interesting, important business, so I think that's very, very important, and then obviously also software, as you could see, also Patrick, 55% of backlog becomes more and more dominant, but so in summary, we actually look at these pieces holistically, what makes the most sense and whatnot, and then we will inform you accordingly.
Okay. Thanks for this.
Thank you very much, Patrick. Very good. Thank you.
The next question is from Akash Gupta with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Good afternoon. And thanks for your time. I have a couple of follow-ups. I have a couple of follow-ups as well. The first one is on potential U.S. listing. Can you tell us where are you in the process of evaluating a potential listing in the U.S.? I mean, is this process of evaluation starting just today, or have you done any work in the background before today's announcement? And let's say once you come out that, okay, you are going to do a listing in the U.S., how long will it take to delist from Switzerland and list back in the U.S. just from the timing standpoint? I know you were saying it's more 2026 if you decide to go ahead. But just for technicality, let's say if you come out announcement on a day, then how long will it take to do the whole listing process?
Yeah. So look, where we stand in the U.S. listing pretty much at the very beginning, obviously. We had a first look. That's why we want to communicate it to you, meaning we engage consultants. But then to do the whole analysis, that's a bigger thing. How we do it, in which form would it be for a private issue? Would it be domestic? All these type of questions. And that takes time. And so we want to do this review very carefully. That's why I want to be clear. This is a process which is 2026 or beyond, to be very clear. And secondly, then also if it would come to that, then in terms of ADRs and all that which follows, and then this is a process which is definitely it's a long drawn-out process. But I think it can be very interesting depending on the outcome.
But it needs to be done very carefully. We don't want to forget all our existing shareholders. I think that's super, super critical that we are not doing something which, first of all, in a rush, or also something which would be detrimental to our existing shareholders. So we take great care also of that, right? Akash, you had a second question, I think. Which one was that?
No, I mean, the second was more on the timing. Let's say once you decide to go ahead, how long will it take to do it?
Yeah. Yeah. But as I said, these things, you have only one chance to make a good first impression. And we need to keep that in mind.
Okay. And my next one is on your full-year guidance. So you still guide net revenue growth of low single digit for the full year. For the first half, we had -4.6%. Again, I mean, you don't report quarterly numbers, so it's difficult to call it from outside. But maybe can you say this growth that you are targeting in second half, which is more than mid-single digit or maybe slightly more than mid-single digit, is it more back-end loaded like in Q4 of your fiscal year, like January to March 2025? Or is it more evenly balanced between Q3 and Q4, so to speak?
Yeah, yeah. So when we talk about maybe first, Akash, the guidance itself, we say low single digit, and we really mean low single digit, to be clear. Just when I look where we are now, I think that's very important. The whole business this year, it's back-end loaded. So that means really we see mainly now Q3, Q4. These revenues happen. And I think a substantial piece is obviously also that we see actually EMEA increased revenues, in particular this 90 million I spoke before. I think that's a very instrumental piece, actually, to get to the low single digit. But I feel that we can do it. When it comes to, Akash, the EBITDA guidance, there I think a good assumption probably in the middle of between what we have out there in terms of range.
Thank you. And my final one is on U.S. business. So again, I mean, we have elections next week, and people are a bit concerned about how Republican versus Democrat presidency might look like. Again, on the topic of tariffs, let's say if we have Republican sweep and we get tariffs, can you tell us how did it impact last time around? And let's say what sort of impact would you expect if there is, let's say, 10% or 20% additional tariff on imports in the U.S.?
Yes. So when we look actually, let's say from Obama to Trump, and then from Trump to Biden, and now either to Harris or to Trump again, it's interesting that thankfully it was very, very unexciting. We pretty much didn't see much. And the way this whole thing goes is this large legislation which has been spoken. I mean, these grid fundings, they are billions, as you well know, Akash, and not much affected at all. And we actually don't expect pretty much anything also from next Tuesday, one way or the other, which I think is very positive because we need to keep in mind in the U.S., there is such a demand for energy between now and 2050. I mean, it needs to double, so to speak, the production. And so all that and the data centers alone, 9%, 10%.
So there's such a draw of energy that this thing needs to proceed. There's not enough capacity built, or as we sometimes are saying, the utilities are too late to actually build their way out of the problem. That means that we actually are the right partner. We are in the sweet spot with our solutions that we actually can make the energy grids more intelligent. And that's, I think, for us, it's very, very good. There could be one thing which we need to watch a little bit from my perspective, Akash, if Trump would say maybe I put some tariffs on Mexico. He was thinking about that during his last legislation, as you maybe remember. Then obviously we will need to think about that. And that would mean that we actually would move. We are already in Reynosa. That's our manufacturing plant in Mexico for the Americas.
We would actually move that over the border. Then we already started with automation. So I'm not saying it's perfect for us. It creates some additional costs, but it could be managed.
Maybe a follow-up. You have not seen any hesitation among customers to place orders before election results, given no matter who will be the next president, these investments would be essential and required. Or have you seen any hesitancy among customers to place orders before elections?
No, not at all. I mean, also when you look now at this H1, I mean, Americas is at the book-to-bill of 1.01. And we expect that actually to continue. So we feel actually very good. Americas is going strong and with a $3 billion backlog. And I think that will continue like that.
Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you very much, Akash. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, you may press star one on your telephone. The next question is from Urs Emminger with Research Partners. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, Werner.
Salut, Urs.
Hello. I have two little additional questions. The first one, you just mentioned the ADRs in the U.S. That points towards a dual listing, if any, and not a single listing in the U.S. Would that assumption be correct if you do something? And the second one, last year, I seem to remember that Turkey was very profitable. And today you mentioned a softening in Turkey. Is it still profitable, or is that also under pressure? That's it.
Yeah. Thank you, Urs. As of the first ADRs, sorry if I was not clear enough, the ADRs, that would be a transition period in terms of from actually if we ever were to go from Switzerland to the U.S. in terms of a listing, that would be a temporary period, maybe for nine months or something like that. But as I said, no decision made. Same also goes in terms of listing. We just need to keep in mind the dual listing. It limits liquidity. So we just have to keep that in mind. But as I said, at this point in time, we are in analysis and no decisions being made. At Turkey. Yeah. At Turkey, there was a question from your side. Yes, in Turkey. Can you, sorry, Urs again? The question was?
Last year, you mentioned that Turkey was very profitable. And today you said you mentioned Turkey a softening. So is it still profitable? Yes or no?
Yes, but on a lower level and what we see, Urs, is Turkey. We do see some local but also Chinese competition. I think we have the right team in place, but it definitely is a different market dynamic than it was a year ago, but for us, it's not only about the Turkey business itself. It's also leveraging Turkey as a low-cost platform for EMEA, which I think is very important, Urs, which is also critical in terms of the further margin progression for EMEA.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Urs. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question.
Yeah. Very good, Sasha. Thank you. Then from my side, I just want to say first of all, thank you for your questions, and as always, we are here. Pretty much all of you on the call here talk to us on a regular basis in one-on-one meetings or also in Teams meeting. Please keep doing that. We are very happy to speak with you. We are very interested in your feedback. Now, in closing the call in a moment, before that, I would like to leave you with this slide as a reminder of the key takeaways of today's call. First, we reconfirm our financial guidance for FY24/25. I think that's important, underscoring our confidence which we have in the company's strategic direction. Secondly, with a strong focus on the Americas, very big margins significantly exceed the group by which we are well positioned to catch a further growth.
I think that's also very critical to mention, and then, as I said, in line with our commitment to future capital allocation and value creation in the Americas, we are evaluating the merits of a potential listing, which just started, as I mentioned before, and that would also obviously provide us with access to a larger pool of capital, enhanced comparison with key sector peers, and present a compelling value proposition over the midterm. But as I said, we look into that, and then we also have initiated a strategic review for the best value creation from our EMEA business, aiming to position the region for long-term success and strengthen our overall financial KPIs, and as I mentioned before, really three pieces. One is smaller EMEA, more profitable. The other one is selling part of it. And the third one is sell the segment.
With that, thank you for joining us. Stay safe and healthy. And I look forward to meeting all of you soon, virtually in person. Thanks a lot. And have a very good day. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.