Dear sirs and madams, members of the present analysts, warmly welcome you to today's press conference on Stadler Rail AG's Half Year Results 2025. On behalf of Stadler Rail AG, I would like to welcome Group CEO Markus Bernsteiner and Group CFO Raphael Widmer. They both will present the half year results to you. You can also follow the presentation via the web stream afterwards. The Group CEO and CFO will of course be available to answer your questions. My name is Marc Meschenmoser, Head of Group Communication. I'm looking forward to guiding you through this event. [Foreign language]
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We will now switch to the questions in English on the telephone, please. There is one question from Akash Gupta, J.P. Morgan.
Yes, hi, good morning. Can you hear me?
Good morning, we can hear you. Thank you.
Thank you. I got three questions as well. I'll go one by one. The first one is on tariffs. I listened to what you have said so far. Basically, apart from tariffs, we also have inflationary headwinds in the U.S. with a lot of volatility in metal prices in particular, which are significantly above now compared to where they used to be a few years back. My first question is, when we look at this overall inflation, including both tariff and non-tariff, and basically what you are sourcing from the U.S., how does the cost picture look like, and is there a risk that the margin could come out to be materially lower than what you budgeted at the time of bidding?
Sorry Akash, I can barely hear you. Could you please quickly summarize the question again?
Yeah, so I mean thanks for providing the color on tariffs. I think you said tariffs is not really that material given you have more than 80% or you will have more than 80% sourcing in the U.S. The question was outside of tariffs, we have also seen significant increase in metal prices and other cost elements. Therefore, my question was that when we club these inflation in domestic market with tariffs, is there a risk to margins in the U.S. projects that they come out to be significantly lower than what you budgeted at the time of bidding? Good.
Akash, thanks for the question. So far we do not see an impact on inflation stemming from the tariffs discussion in the U.S., and we haven't.
Seen an impact yet.
Whatever will come in the future, we need to see. Important is also to understand that all our contracts have indexation clauses in there, which also cover an impact of inflation going forward. That's all I can say to that.
Okay, then we go further to one question from Citibank. Vivek Midha, please can we have your question?
Good morning. Can you hear me well?
We can hear you well, thank you.
Thank you. I'll stick to two questions if I may. The first is a clarification on working capital. Thank you very much for your comments so far. I'd just like to clarify it sounds like the negative net working capital balance is likely to decrease again in the second half, but remain negative. You expect that negative working capital balance to continue going forward. Shouldn't we think that 2026 is likely to see a further reduction in the negative net working capital balance, or do you expect it to be more stable? Any further color on how you expect next year to develop? Thank you. My other question is on 2026. Thank you for your color so far.
I appreciate you haven't given a guidance on the EBIT margin for 2026, but do you have any early thoughts at this stage given what you can see about where you think you can land on 2026? Thank you.
Okay. [Foreign language]
Okay, I just directly answered the question in English. We expect the net working capital to be further used again in 2025, and my current expectation is also that we will see a reduction in 2026. Also, making a clear comment together with that, advance payments and progress payments can be very bulky, so you can have swings. I think for me, and always said that, is that we work, we have, we keep a negative net working capital position. That's to question one and the guidance of European.
Okay, then we go further to the English written questions. [Foreign language] Can you please explain a significant increase in minority expense in half year 2025? We are clear to hear.
Sorry, I already answered the question before. It hangs together with participations with minority interests, which generate a massive effects result in the first six months, and that basically has to be shown or singled out and reported as minority interest.
There is a second question. What are your plans, if any, to recover and maintain Stadler's attractiveness to shareholders. [Foreign language]
Maybe I also can answer the question. Focus on operation and deliver on our promises. I think a very important element to this is focus on production output, which then will also secure the revenues for 2026 and the following years. [Foreign language]
Investor relations. Thank you for your interest in Stadler. [Foreign language]
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