Good morning, and welcome to the SGS First Half 2025 Results Call. My name is Ariel Bauer, and I'm in charge of communications and investor relations. I'm here with Géraldine Picaud, our CEO, and Marta Vlatchkova, our CFO. Please note that this call is being recorded and will be available for replay on the SGS website. Throughout today's presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session, and you can register for questions at any time by pressing star one on your keypad. I would now like to turn the conference over to Géraldine Picaud, CEO of SGS.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and very warm welcome to our half-year results presentation. Thank you for your presence today. This is a pleasure for Marta and myself to share with you our H1 achievements. H1 has been marked by the signing of the acquisitions of ATS. This deal, combined with bolt-on acquisitions and organic growth in the region, brings us very close to our initial objective to double the sales in North America in 2027 compared to 2023. This is a key milestone for our Strategy 27. We are also very happy with the progress we have made on the other key items of our strategy. Digital trust and sustainability have grown effectively by close to 20% each, driven by both organic development and bolt-on acquisitions, confirming that they remain growth engines for the group. On the cost side, you know that we have two efficiency plans in progress.
The first one, dealing with corporate simplification, has been announced from the start with our Strategy 27 in January 2024, and it has a magnitude of CHF 100 million. This one is fully implemented with almost all the savings already accounted at the end of June this year. Later in November 2024, you remember that we have identified and announced during our capital market event CHF 50 million savings in procurement. The second plan will be fully secured and implemented at the end of this year and will contribute significantly to our H2 and 2026 results. On the financial results, we report a solid organic growth of 5.3%. Thanks to our efficiency plans, we've been able to significantly increase our margin rate. We're also very proud of the cash generation, with the free cash flow increasing by 34% compared to H1 2024.
We're well on track and clearly reconfirm our outlook for the full year. Let me now comment about ATS, and we are extremely happy with this acquisition. ATS is a great company, which records $460 million sales and employs 2,100 professionals across the United States. They have a strong brand and a great service culture. This is a perfect match with SGS, as we have very complementary operations, which will allow strong synergies in terms of cross-selling opportunities. It's also a perfect fit with our Strategy 27. As I said, the target of doubling the sales in North America is almost achieved. On top of this, ATS will give us access to fast-growing markets in the U.S., such as manufacturing, aerospace, and insurance. It also rebalances the geographical portfolio in an increased presence in mature markets. ATS, at a glance. Look, ATS is a diversified player.
The first business line is inspection, which accounts for 41% of the sales, followed by two business lines, which don't exist at SGS North America: calibration and forensic consulting, which will present 22% of the sales each. Finally, testing is 15% of the total. The business is very resilient, with a large base of blue-chip customers and a high level of service and a great reputation. With 85 locations across the United States, they have a nationwide footprint. I will now give more colors on the business lines. Let's start with specialized testing. Testing services range from materials testing and product assessment to advanced environmental simulations. They also have strong expertise in chemical and contaminant analysis, including trace metals, volatile organic compounds, and regulatory testing. Importantly, ATS operates in high-growth, highly regulated markets such as aerospace and defense, automotive, and medical devices.
These segments offer structural tailwinds, premium pricing, and attractive margins. Recent investments in specialty capabilities, for example, additive manufacturing, materials testing, all capitalize on emerging trends in target markets. As an example of cross-selling, we see significant potential to leverage SGS testing capabilities, and we can offer expanded solutions to ATS's existing client base, mainly across electronics, energy, mining, and infrastructure sectors, where SGS has established expertise and ATS has growing demand. Inspection is the main business line of ATS. It's a stable and recurring business with a high cash conversion. They deliver highly advanced services that are critical for ensuring integrity and reliability of complex infrastructures and industrial systems. They operate in various sectors, including aerospace, construction, power, and manufacturing, which have strict regulatory requirements, recurring demand, and high barriers to entry.
Recently, they have invested to address more attractive markets and geographies: power generation and chemical industry manufacturing, for example. Physical proximity to client sites is critical to winning business in this segment. ATS has wide coverage in its existing geographies, but it is important to note that there is still significant geographic white space and a fragmented supplier base in the U.S., for ATS to expand. In addition, the complementarity between ATS and SGS client bases creates compelling opportunities for cross-selling. Now let's turn to calibration. ATS is a recognized leader in precision calibration. Calibration is essential to ensure equipment accuracy and full compliance with national standards. This is a recurring, high-value business. Their offering ranges from electrical and environmental calibration to avionics calibration, where they support the accurate functioning of aircraft instruments. This is one of the most technically demanding and tightly regulated segments.
ATS stands out as one of the few providers in North America with a depth of expertise, specialized lab infrastructure, and certifications required to operate at this level. Post-acquisition, we will immediately activate SGS Global Commercial Network to offer ATS calibration expertise to existing SGS clients, and this will unlock tangible revenue synergies. The last business line is forensic. Their capabilities here range from accident and failure investigation to litigation support, structural assessment, and building safety certification. They serve clients across insurance, legal, real estate, and manufacturing sectors. More precisely, the majority of revenue and growth derives from investigations and litigations related to insurance claims in property, construction, and building industries. In the U.S., the number and size of claims has been growing dramatically in recent years, and this is due to weather events, higher construction costs, and more generally to a growing tendency to litigation.
This trend is expected to continue. Forensics is a high-value, expertise-driven business where trust, speed, and precision are critical. Their teams use highly advanced imaging and scanning technologies to deliver these services. From a strategic standpoint, forensics is a high-growth, high-margin segment that will be a strong addition to our business assurance portfolio. After going through the business description, let me now explain how this deal creates a lot of value for SGS. First, it brings us very close from where we wanted to be in North America. With ATS, we have a strong presence in what we believe will remain fast-growing markets in the US, and I already commented on this. Beyond the ATS business, the combination will allow the implementation of synergies. We have identified $30 million so far, of which a bit more than half comes from cost and the rest from sales.
Such synergies will be achieved in the third year post-closing. After the closing, we will confirm areas of optimization from both sides and implement the necessary actions. Sales synergies will progressively ramp up over three years. Basically, due to the complementarity of our services and expertise, we expect ATS customers to become SGS customers and the other way around. We are already working on the integration plan, starting to build a dedicated team, which will be in charge of implementing the synergies as soon as the deal is closed. Let me now remind you of the financial terms of the deal. The enterprise value amounted to $1,325 million. We are happy with the deal metrics, which we believe are good for an acquisition of that size in North America. The return on invested capital will be above the buck in the third year.
I had the opportunity already to comment on why this deal will be a growth booster. Thanks to the synergy, it will also increase the AOI margin. Please also keep in mind that the capital intensity is lower than SGS due to a high part of inspection in the business mix. Let's now move on to our strategy growth drivers. In the first half of 2025, our sustainability services delivered under the ImpactNow framework achieved excellent growth of 19%. Growth was broad-based across all four key pillars of ImpactNow: climate, nature, circularity, and ESG assurance. We move on now to digital trust. That's a key growth driver of Strategy 27, which delivered 20% growth driven by increasing demand for data privacy, cybersecurity, wireless testing, functional safety, and artificial intelligence certifications.
A key milestone here was our accreditation by the American National Accreditation Body , which positions SGS as one of the few globally recognized players with the authority to assure AI governance. Additionally, CertiX, our digital assurance business, joined NVIDIA's HaloSLAP ecosystem, strengthening our role in certifying AI in autonomous vehicles, robotics, and industrial automation. Reinforcing here our leadership in responsible AI. We also extended our high-assurance cybersecurity footprint. BrightSight achieved the highest EU certification level across its European labs, while GSMER, acquired last year, continued to deliver strong double-digit growth. These achievements put us firmly on track to meet our Strategy 27 goal of CHF 200 million in incremental digital trust revenues by 2027. Confirming our leadership in supporting safe, reliable, and resilient digital ecosystems. In 2025, as of now, if we look now at our M&A activity, we have signed 12 bolt-on acquisitions.
Since the Q1 call, we have welcomed four more companies in the SGS family: H2 Safety, which is based in Canada and specialized in emergency management and safety solutions; Ecolas, in the Netherlands, and is an expert in environmental emergency response and remediation services; EFBE does testing for bicycles and e-bikes in Germany; and finally, Roche in Peru, specialized in environmental and social management. It provides services to the infrastructure, mining, and energy sectors. Let me now share some key highlights from our business lines, and let's start with industries and environment. Strong organic growth in environment led by continued demand, as you can see, it delivered solid results with 5.3% organic growth and an improved adjusted operating income margin of 12%. Organic growth in environment was strong, mainly in the Americas and Asia-Pacific.
The safety services accelerated to deliver double-digit growth, and this included robust activity in road safety and in industrial site protection services, notably related to asbestos, noise, and radiation. Projects and advisory benefited from supervision and consulting mandates across multiple sectors. Key wins here included new railway and mining projects in Mexico and Chile, as well as large infrastructure and renewable energy supply chain projects in India. In industrial testing, growth was partly offset by the completion of some low-margin contracts in non-destructive testing, which we continue to gradually and voluntarily exit. Let's now look at natural resources, which delivered resilient organic sales growth of 2.9% and adjusted operating income of 12.9%. Mineral soil solid growth. Driven by robust trade services and double-digit performance in metallurgical testing, supported by new contract wins across the Americas and Asia-Pacific.
We observed here strong demand in North America and critical metal testing, reflecting the shift toward U.S. production and federal incentives. Oil and gas and chemicals delivered moderate growth despite lower trading volumes, which were influenced by ongoing geopolitical and economic uncertainty. Agriculture remained broadly stable, with encouraging early signs of a stronger crop season in Europe. Connectivity and products now. Connectivity and products delivered strong organic sales growth of 6.5% and improved adjusted operating income of 22.3%. High single-digit organic growth in connectivity was supported by large contract wins in wireless in North America and Asia-Pacific, particularly in support of next-gen 5G, 6G technologies, and connected consumer devices. Continued momentum from our recent acquisitions, GSMER, Arclight, also contributed to performance. Soft lines delivered high single-digit organic growth driven by growing consumer awareness and regulations, putting pressure on brands for sustainable textile production.
You know we are very proud of our blue sign label, which helps brands and manufacturers to produce sustainable textiles and reduce hazardous substances. Hardline reported mid-single-digit organic growth despite some near-term volatility created by tariffs in early 2025. Let's go to health and nutrition, which delivered excellent performance with 8.9% organic sales growth and 11.8% adjusted operating income. Food recorded double-digit organic growth, and this was supported by rising food safety demand and new rules around nutritional labeling in China, India, and Japan, and growing focus on food toxicology. We have upgraded our capabilities in Southeast Asia in analytical platforms to respond to the growing demand. Strong organic growth in pharma was driven by drug testing, where we will continue to strongly focus and invest on biologics capabilities. Solid organic growth in cosmetics and personal care was partly impacted by tariffs.
Business assurance now delivered 4.4% organic sales growth and 17.9% adjusted operating income. Mid-single-digit organic growth in certification was led by double-digit trends in medical devices and digital trust assurance. Continued double-digit organic growth in ESG was fueled by strong demand for non-financial reporting assurance. Social audits, and greenhouse gas emissions verification. This reflects the growing adoption of our ImpactNow framework. Platform with recent project wins, including Botsukem in Europe and multiple new contracts, especially in India. Consulting remained soft in North America due to ongoing market uncertainty and investment decision delays. With this, I will now pass on to Marta.
Thank you, Géraldine, and a very good morning to everyone. Let me start with the main financial KPIs of the first half. The sales reached CHF 3.4 billion, supported by a solid 5.3% organic growth.
The adjusted operating income grew over proportionately to reach 14.9% margin on sales, a strong 80 basis points improvement. This translated into an excellent free cash flow of CHF 208 million, which is 34% higher than prior year. Furthermore, in the first half of this year, we sold our Geneva headquarters building, which brought additional CHF 80 million of cash. Let's now move on the next slide and see how the sales compared to last year. In the first half, sales reached CHF 3.4 billion, up 2.6% in reported terms. First, the solid organic growth of 5.3% resulted in CHF 175 million of incremental sales, demonstrating the strong fundamentals of our business. Second, the net scope contributed 1.4% of growth, or CHF 47 million, driven by the acceleration of bolt-on acquisitions, partially offset by non-core businesses' divestments in EMEA.
Finally, the sharp appreciation of the Swiss franc against all major currencies as a reaction to the market uncertainties triggered by the liberation day in early April resulted in a negative translation forex of CHF 135 million, or 4.1%. Let's now see how the sales breakdowns by region. First, in very important growth was supported by all regions. In testing and inspection, Europe grew organically by 1.1%. Impacted by the completion of low-margin contracts in industries and environment, and soft trading volumes in natural resources. This was partially offset by strong growth in pharma and cosmetics. Asia-Pacific remained very strong, expanding by 6.5% organically. The growth was fueled by high single-digit growth in connectivity and products, and double-digit growth in food. North America sales increased by 4.7% organically, with acceleration of growth through Q2, supported by the strong pickup of demand in minerals.
Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa remained strong, with 8.4% organic growth despite soft trading volumes in natural resources, impacted by the political uncertainties in the region. Latin America expanded by 13.4% organically, supported by new project wins. Finally, as commented earlier by Géraldine, business assurance delivered 4.4% organic growth, driven by digital trust and ESG, while consulting remained soft in North America. Moving now to the adjusted operating income. I'm proud to report an overproportionate growth in margin, which reached 14.9% on sales, a strong improvement of 80 basis points. The adjusted operating income grew organically by CHF 52 million, equivalent to 80 basis points of margin improvement. It benefited from the efficiency plan savings, partially offset by growth investments. Accretive bolt-on acquisitions added CHF 13 million, contributing 20 basis points of margin progression.
Lastly, the negative forex impact of CHF 27 million, equivalent to 20 basis points, was driven, as commented earlier, by the sharp appreciation of the Swiss franc post-liberation day in early April. Moving now to the efficiency plans progress update. The disciplined and fast execution of the efficiency plans continued in the first half. The linear operating model is now completed, while the procurement plan is progressing well, with 70% savings secured. Let's now see how the phasing is shaping through the P&L. As a reminder, the first positive impacts from the linear operating model were accounted for in H1 2024, with CHF 9 million savings, followed by CHF 41 million in H2 2024. In the first half of 2025, additional CHF 46 million were delivered, bringing the cumulative savings to CHF 96 million compared to the 2023 baseline.
The remaining part will mostly come from the procurement plan, on track to be completed by the end of the year, and flow through the P&L until 2026. Let's now have a look at the full P&L. As previously outlined in the first half, the sales grew by 2.6%. The adjusted operating income expanded over proportionately by 8.1%, equivalent to 80 basis points of margin improvement. In addition, one-time transactions were recorded below the adjusted operating income, with a net positive effect of CHF 34 million. This included the gain on our Geneva headquarters building sale, the loss of non-core businesses' divestments in EMEA, and strategic transactional costs. As a result, the operating income reached CHF 486 million, up 17.1% versus prior year. The financial expenses, as well as the effective tax rate, were broadly stable. With that, the EPS was CHF 1.64, an increase of 13.9%.
Or around 5% growth, excluding the one-time transactions I just described. Moving now to the free cash flow. The strong performance of the first half translated into an excellent free cash flow of CHF 208 million, up 34% compared to prior year, with continued attention on working capital and disciplined CapEx focused on growth. Furthermore, in the first half of this year, we sold our Geneva headquarters building, bringing additional CHF 80 million of cash. With that, I hand over to you, Géraldine.
Thank you, Marta. To conclude this presentation, let me give you a few words about H2 2025. On sales, as you've seen, H1 results are totally aligned with our full-year guidance, and we expect this trend to continue in the second half of the year. Our profitability has significantly increased over the H1, far above the full-year guidance.
This was mainly attributable to the corporate simplification plan, which delivered almost all the expected savings of the year already in the first six months. Therefore, we are very confident about our full-year guidance, which we confirm again today. Finally, we have demonstrated our ability to improve the cash generation and confirm here again the strong free cash flow generation for the full year. This is obviously excluding the non-recurring impact of the sale of the building of the HQ in Geneva. Thank you for your attention. We can now take your questions.
We will now begin the question and answer session. You can register for questions at any time by clicking on the Q&A button in the webcast and then pressing star one on the virtual keypad. If you're joined by phone, just press star one. Please limit yourself to a maximum of one question and one follow-up question.
One moment, please, for the first question. The first question comes from Annelies Vermeulen from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, Géraldine. Good morning, Marta. Two questions, please. Firstly, just on tariffs, I think hard lines in CMP and cosmetics and personal care and health and nutrition, both of those, you mentioned a partial impact from tariffs in Q2. Could you elaborate a little bit on the dynamics that you saw there in Q2? Which regions or customers, anything you can comment on, and how you expect that to develop over the second half? Appreciate there's still a lot of uncertainty, but interested to hear what you're seeing on the ground. Secondly, just on ATS, I think you mentioned calibration is new for you in the U.S. Could you remind me if that's something that you do elsewhere in the business?
And you've talked about cross-selling that to other U.S. customers, but is this something that you plan to roll out to customers globally over time as a sort of a new service offering as part of the portfolio? Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Annie. Look, we had a good growth in our hard line for the H1. That's the first thing to bear in mind. We were doing quite well on the tariffs. I would say the first point is that we accompany our clients wherever they are, right? So, whatever the supply chain shift that our customer wants, we are there. We are in more than 110 countries, and we can accompany our customers wherever they are. That's the first thing.
The second point, of course, when you have some economic uncertainties and things are changing quite frequently, that creates a bit of a wait-and-see attitude on certain of our customers. I would say overall we are very resilient, and we don't see any, I would say, major impact about the tariffs as we speak on our results. That's why we fully confirm the guidance for the full year and also on medium term. That's on your first question. You mentioned on calibration. Yes, actually, we don't do calibration in North America, but we do calibration in Europe. This service exists in Europe and in other countries, actually, of the group, but not in North America. Obviously, there are opportunities to grow because we are going to expand all these services to broader geographies. As I said, it will be a package with testing services.
A lot of cross-selling opportunities as we look at our ATS acquisition and what we can do.
That's great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next question.
The next question comes from Carl Raynsford from Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Hi, morning, Géraldine. Morning, Marta. I'll ask my one question on ATS, please. I just want to talk about the multiple. From my calculations anyway, it's relatively diluted from a return on capital perspective. How confident are you that the earnings profile of ATS can be one that means returns in a few years appear much stronger? On top of that, could you talk a little bit about the CapEx intensity for the business and if you believe there is any risk whatsoever that it's been underfunded in the past? Thank you.
Thank you, Carl. Look, I mean, it's on the multiple. As you know, we've disclosed it. 14 times multiple pre-synergy, 11.2 times post-synergy on 2026 EBITDA multiple, as we are estimating that we'll close the acquisition end of this year, beginning of next year. We do think that we will deliver all the synergies. The 30 million that we have started to identify. This is going to ramp up. We have strong drivers in ATS, actually, long-term drivers for all the markets that they are in, which are growth boosters. I mentioned it, aerospace, defense, infrastructure. Power. All this looks very, very strong and accurate to our current KPIs. You mentioned about the CapEx intensity. Look, this is also a very positive thing with ATS. ATS, as I said, has a major part of its business as inspection, and they are below. They are below our own CapEx and lease.
If you take the CapEx and the leases of SGS and you compare it to the CapEx and leases rate to ATS, ATS is much below in perfect terms.
Thank you, Géraldine. Maybe just as a follow-up on, you've got ATS, as you say, most inspection, and we talked to DIRETTAS earlier in the year. It does appear you're trying to get more exposure to those inspection activities. Just from a sort of high level, could you broadly talk about what the idea is in gaining more inspection exposure? I know, obviously, you're doing acquisitions of bolt-ons with lab exposure, but it appears to be a strategy that you're targeting inspecting a little more.
This is specialized inspection, as I explained, in the right sectors, in the right market industries where we are not, where we can do this cross-selling. That's why I explained we're very complementary.
We can leverage a lot of other services, and it's fast-growing industries. This is a new market for us, such as aerospace, where they are one of the market leaders. It's a highly specialized inspection with low capital intensity. All good.
Thank you very much, and I appreciate it. Thanks, Géraldine.
You're welcome.
Next question, please.
The next question comes from Rory McKenzie from UBS. Please go ahead.
Oh, good morning. It's Rory here. Two questions, please. Firstly, on business assurance, appreciate it's a tough market for consulting at the moment. Can you talk about plans to re-accelerate growth for that division? You've obviously made a change in divisional leadership, so wondering whether that signals a new approach or strategy there overall. Secondly, to ask about margins after the strong H1.
The organic increase in profits looks like it can be nearly all accounted for by the step-up in savings, which is great. Clearly, that suggests that you're making a lot of organic investments back into the group at the moment. Can you talk about the expected payback you think about for making organic OpEx investments into businesses and how we think about that evolving over the next few years? Thank you.
Thank you, Rory. Look, on BA, it's true to acknowledge that it was below my expectation, and you've noted yourself that we made some managerial changes, so I won't comment further. I would say, look, business assurance, we have a strong legacy here. We have a strong reputation in core business. We're fully engaged with clients and customers and their needs now and on the future needs. We have existing schemes. We have also new schemes that we're developing.
Sustainability, as you know, ESG assurance and the ImpactNow framework. We're developing the medical device. All this is new schemes that are bringing a lot of growth and will pay off as we go. Further to 2026. There is, on main point, a pipeline refresh ongoing. I already signed that as we go, the comparison basis will ease, obviously, and that will also help us as we progress towards 2026. You mentioned about the margin. I would say, look, our H1 margin is effectively very strong. It's fair to say that we will have less on a full-year basis, less increase, obviously, as I'm maintaining the guidance. This is on purpose, as you mentioned it, actually, Rory, because we want to get flexibility to invest as we wish. Therefore, it is on purpose that we are conservative. Thank you.
Thank you.
Can I just follow up, sorry, about the expected payback on those organic investments? Say you spend $5 million on hiring new headcount or opening these new services. What kind of timeline would you give that investment to kind of become break-even and then, obviously, accretive to the group in time?
Marta wants to jump in here.
Yeah, Rory. Indeed, the investment in growth is really in sales and marketing and ramping up new services. With a payback of below one year, translated into boosting our sales growth.
In 2026, you will see some progress in 2026 and beyond, Rory. Okay?
That's perfect. Thank you.
Next question, please.
The next question comes from Neil Tyler from Rothschild & Co. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you.
Just following up on Rory's question, actually, with regard to the balance between savings and reinvestment, can you help us connect the $100 million of savings basically sort of to the year-on-year development by divisional margin? Where the savings have settled most significantly and where the reinvestment is. More reinvestment is required. Can you just sort of perhaps call out a couple of divisions which top each of those lists, please? And then secondly, on the ATS business, can you just help us understand the growth trajectory that that business has been enjoying, even in sort of quantitative terms, if you can provide it. At sales and EBITDA or operating profit, whichever you prefer, just over the last two or three years, please? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Neil.
We will start with the saving and reinvestment, and Marta will give you more color on the amounts there and a bit of the split of how much is reinvested. Obviously, on where digital trust, sustainability, and all the growth drivers are the primary focus for the reinvestment. Maybe, Marta, can you take over?
Yeah. Yeah, indeed. The savings, as commented also earlier, were mainly targeting overheads. Close to half of them are corporate overheads. The other is the country regional overhead. Really bringing the business to be more agile. In terms of. Regions, for the portion which was concerning, which was targeting corporate. Overheads, it was really focused on Europe and North America. Now, as far as the reinvestment, again, sales and marketing, and this is across all regions, we have restructured how we do sales, how we frontline that. And again. That is one part.
The second part is ramping up services. Notably. Again in ESG. And specifically on medical device.
Thank you.
Now, on your question about ATS, Neil. Look. The business has been growing mid-single digit over the past year, depending on which division. The forensic business has a very strong growth momentum. Testing and calibration business are exposed to high growth and markets. Also, here. High single digit in manufacturing or aerospace, as we mentioned. On top of this, ATS has blue chip clients, and the complementarity of our businesses opens opportunities for cross-selling, as I said.
Thank you. That is very helpful.
Okay. Thank you, Neil.
Next question, please.
The next question comes from Suhasini Varanasi from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Just a couple for me, please. Within the cash flow statement, congratulations on the strong cash flows.
I just wanted to check if you had any outflows linked to the restructuring charges that you booked last year, the CHF 80 million or so. Has that come out of the cash flow statement yet, or is that yet to come out in the second half? Just a second one, just a follow-up on the ATS question. Organic growth at ATS in recent years, has it been consistent with SGS growth rates of mid-single digits? Thank you.
Thank you, Suhasini. I am going to start with ATS. We just commented on the growth rate, and I just said it. You know the growth rate of SGS. On ATS, we are enjoying. They have enjoyed a mid-single digit from mid-single to high single digit over the past years, with the forensic division going very strong, testing and calibration on high single digit.
They are exposed, as I said, high growth and markets such as manufacturing or aerospace. They really have a good growth potential. They will be growth boosters for SGS in the future, which is what it counts. Marta, do you want to take the question about the free cash flow statement?
Yeah. Suhasini, regarding the cash flow and specifically the outflow on restructuring. Last year, we spent around CHF 40 million that impacted the free cash flow. In H1 this year, we have around another CHF 30 million. I would say we have CHF 10-15 million to come in the second half in terms of cash out.
Thank you. That is very clear.
Next question, please.
The next question comes from Arthur Truslove from Citi. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you very much. First question is on the margin.
Arthur, we cannot hear you, I am afraid.
Arthur, if you could go closer to your mic.
Can you hear me now?
Yes. Much better. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Firstly, on the margin, so you obviously did 80 basis points in the first half. Clearly, foreign exchange is going to be a headwind in the second half. Are you expecting year-over-year margins to go up in reported terms in the second half once again? I guess within that, how significant is the FX headwind to margin at current spot rate? Second question, from an organic growth perspective, clearly at Q1, you were saying Q2 would be the weakest quarter of the year in terms of organic growth. It's obviously come in slightly ahead of what most people would have expected. Are you still expecting Q2 to be the weakest in terms of growth? Are you therefore expecting H2 to be better than Q2 in terms of growth?
Thank you.
Yes. Thank you, Arthur. Look, it's true that Q2 was 5%. That's our guidance. Our guidance is 5-7%. We do expect effectively that Q2, in terms of organic growth, was the weakest organic growth quarter. That's correct. Q3, Q4 to be better. Nonetheless, we remain cautious. There is uncertainty, and that's, we don't want to guide too high here. We remain on our guidance of 5-7%. There are some projects in the pipeline, a lot, but there is this economy uncertainty. It depends a bit on timing. We are positive about our organic growth, and we confirmed our guidance for the year and for the medium term as well. That leads to the margin. I'll let Marta comment a bit further. What I can say is that we have guided to reach 16.2% in reported term by 2027. We're fully committed to that. We're not there yet.
Let us grow gradually to that level. We have plans, and we will deliver on this guidance. Bear with us on that. Marta, do you want to comment a bit on the FX headwinds? It's always hard to predict, right?
Yeah. I mean, the proof is Liberation Day and the sharp appreciation of the Swiss franc as a reaction. Listen, 80 basis points in H1, the margin will continue to improve in H2, but of course, to a smaller proportion because, as we commented, the leaner operating model program is now fully delivered. We will have the positive impacts, of course, of the procurement savings that start flowing through the P&L, but this is a smaller program. In terms of Forex, you saw 20 basis points negative impact in H1. Concretely, in H2, we should be looking at another, these two slightly increased to around 30 basis points.
We do not forecast, again, this is if the rates remain as they are now.
I would say, remember that we are guiding in reported terms. We can put whatever we want in the Forex. We will progress on our margins, whatever the Forex is, which simplifies help you in your modeling. Arthur, as we are guiding and we're the only one, as you know, that guides increase in margins in Swiss francs.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Thank you. We're going to take our last question.
The last question comes from James Rowland Clark from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I've got two questions, please. My first is on organic growth. As you just outlined, Q2 should be your weakest quarter of the year, but the second half is implied in order to hit the full year guidance of 5-7% is implied.
5 at the bottom then and 9 at the top. So, I'm conscious that comps are a little bit easier in the second half, but maybe could you talk about some of the items that could get you towards the top end of the range? I think you just alluded to potentially some new contracts in the pipeline, and it depends on timing. Can you just elaborate on some of the items that can get you from 5 to 9 in the second half, including easier comps, some of the tailwinds that you're currently seeing, maybe easing, and any of the contracts coming in a little earlier? Secondly, your free cash flow exit disposal was up 34% year on year.
I realize it's a very good performance and driven partly by the higher profit you've generated in the first half, but it's also driven by lower CapEx, which looks to be around the 3% of sales. I just wondered if that's a sustainable level or whether it's sort of lumpy and to do with timing and perhaps to extrapolate that, if it is underlying, whether you're sort of shifting to being a less capital-intensive business and which should help your returns. Any comments on that, please? Thank you.
Yes. Thank you, James. On the organic growth, the environment remains uncertain. I remind you, the guidance is 5-7%, not 5-9%, 5-7%. The environment remains quite uncertain. We have powerful drivers. We have sustainability. We have digital trust. We stay on our guidance of 5-7%. That's all I can tell you here.
That's for this year, and that's going to be for strategy 2027, so until 2027. When it comes to the free cash flow, we have also guided on a cash conversion that we want to be strong. We stay on this. We have CapEx that are more focused than they used to be, maybe in the past before I took the role. This is something we are now very much cash flow focused. We look after our generation of free cash flow. Do you want to comment, Marta?
Yeah. Just to also remind that CapEx is to be seen with our bolt-on acquisitions acceleration. You have seen already 12 bolt-ons to date. This is actually additional CapEx that comes through in the pipeline, but already working and growing. This is the second factor besides being very focused in investment.
It is to be seen with the acceleration of bolt-ons, which was not the case in the prior years with one or two acquisitions per year.
Yeah. Now we do two per month. Good. Okay. James, is that all right?
Second half could be 5-9, not the full year, 5-9. I guess that's just quite a wide range. Now, just wondering what the flex of options are.
James is 5-7, not 5-9. I mean, I'm happy if we reach 9, but it's 5-7, our guidance. That's what it is. It's 5-7, no? That's what we wrote on the outlook, right? And that's what we've given as our guidance on strategy 27. No change here. With this, I think we have reached the end of our Q&A session. I want to thank you, all of you.
We have delivered, as you noted, strong H1 results thanks to the fast execution of strategy 27. The signing of the acquisition of ATS is a perfect fit, and our target of almost doubling sales in North America is almost achieved. We continue to accelerate our growth and profitability. I'm proud of our performance in sustainability and in digital trust, as also you have seen. SGS, all in all, is well on track to meet its objectives, and we remain focused on executing strategy 27, accelerating growth, building trust, this at full speed. Thank you very much. Thank you for joining us. Thanks.
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