rewrite this title and make it good for SEOEarnings call transcript: R. Stahl AG Q4 2025 reports stable EBITDA amid challenges By Investing.com

R. Stahl AG reported its Q4 2025 earnings, highlighting a stable EBITDA margin of 11% despite a year-over-year sales decline of approximately 9% to 10%. The company’s stock currently trades at $15.47, down roughly 22% over the past year and trading near its 52-week low of $14.29. This performance reflects resilience amid challenging market conditions and internal operational hurdles.

Key Takeaways

EBITDA margin maintained at 11% despite sales decline.Net profit fell significantly to 3 million EUR.Free cash flow reached breakeven, a notable decline from previous years.Continued strategic focus on innovation and portfolio transformation.Rising net debt due to free cash flow deficit.

Company Performance

R. Stahl AG faced a difficult fiscal year in 2025, marked by external economic pressures and internal challenges. Despite these hurdles, the company managed to stabilize its EBITDA margin at 11%, reflecting effective cost management. However, the overall financial performance was impacted by a decline in sales and profitability compared to previous years.

Financial Highlights

Revenue: 330 million EUR, down approximately 9% to 10% year-over-year.EBITDA: 34 million EUR, flat compared to prior years.Net Profit: 3 million EUR, significantly lower than previous years.Free Cash Flow: Breakeven, a substantial decline from more than 50 million EUR in the prior year.Net Debt: Increased by 35 million EUR due to free cash flow deficit.

Outlook & Guidance

R. Stahl AG remains committed to its strategic transformation, focusing on innovation and expanding its digital capabilities. The company aims to enhance its competitive positioning through the NEXUS program, which targets a shift from traditional products to integrated solutions and digital functionalities. According to InvestingPro analysis, while the company wasn’t profitable over the last twelve months, analysts predict it will return to profitability this year. The platform also indicates R. Stahl appears undervalued based on its Fair Value assessment, placing it among potential opportunities on the most undervalued stocks list.

Executive Commentary

CEO Dr. Klaus Bischof emphasized the importance of maintaining a stable EBITDA margin, stating it as “really good news” in the current economic climate. However, he acknowledged that the company’s free cash flow performance is “definitely not acceptable” for long-term sustainability, highlighting the need for cost flexibility and structural cost reduction.

Risks and Challenges

Continued decline in order intake and backlog poses a risk to future sales.High personnel costs, exacerbated by severance expenses, require restructuring.Rising net debt levels could strain financial flexibility.Geopolitical uncertainties and reduced global investment activity may impact market conditions.Maintaining competitive positioning in a challenging market environment.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts questioned the company’s strategies for improving free cash flow and managing rising debt levels. Executives highlighted ongoing restructuring efforts and the focus on innovation to drive future growth and operational efficiency.

Full transcript – R. Stahl AG NA O.N. (RSL2) Q4 2025:

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the R. STAHL earnings call for the fiscal year 2025. The results will be presented by the CEO, Dr. Klaus Bischof, and the Chief Commercial Officer, Tobias Popp. We will have a Q&A session following the presentation, and in case you do want to ask questions, please feel free to enter them into the chat box on the lower right-hand corner of your screen. Please also note that the earnings call will be recorded, and you will find the recording later today on R. STAHL’s webpage, in the IR section, and on Research Hub. We’re covering R. STAHL, and I will supply a link to our comprehensive research in the chat box as well in a few moments. Please also pay attention to the disclaimer on page two of this presentation.

Thanks again for joining everybody, and I will now hand it over to Klaus and Tobias. Gentlemen, the floor is yours.

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: Good morning also from our side, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to our 2025 earnings and investor call. My colleague, Tobias Popp, and myself will-

Tobias Popp, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), R. STAHL AG: Good morning.

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: Quickly walk you through our 2025 results so that we have sufficient time to talk about our new strategy and our future program NEXUS. Starting with an overview of 2025. We had a very good first quarter, but then over the year, it becomes more and more challenging, mainly caused by economic and geopolitical uncertainties, but also from challenges we had internally. Overall, we saw, thanks to a strong finish in the fourth quarter, we could limit our drop in sales and order intake roughly by 9%-10%. The EBITDA, we could even hold on last year’s level due to temporary positive one-timers, especially in the fourth quarter. The free cash flow, nevertheless, dropped down deeply, and came to the break-even point, mainly caused by increase of working capital, and we could not adjust it to the sales drop. Net profit, we came out around EUR 3 million.

Now going more into the details of our financials. First, top-line KPI. We see overall high in our sales in 2024, and our results 2025, around EUR 330 million. This is roughly equal to average if we are looking at all these four years. On order intake, we see unfortunately now third year in a row a decrease in order intake and also in order backlog. Especially we see the steep decrease in 2024, where we eaten up our order backlog for the 2024 sales. As I mentioned already, key reasons for the decrease in top line are externally driven, but also, we need to take into consideration that we critically have to work on our market position and competitiveness, because we have to take also into consideration that the future markets might be even more challenging than today. Switching over to bottom line KPI.

We see that since 2023, we have a really solid EBITDA pre level. We could continue this also in 2025. As I mentioned already, this is around EUR 34 million, which equals roughly to 11% margin. Also, if we are looking on the left-hand side, we see an increase to roughly EUR 35 million. If we take this into consideration also in relation to EBITDA pre, we are still on a solid level. Where we definitely have to work is on our free cash flow performance. If we ignore the one-timer of 2024, where we had positive effects in reducing our working capital out of the corona time, we see that over all four years, we are not delivering positively. This, of course, is not acceptable if we are looking in a solid way to the future.

This will be the key action point we need to work on in the future. Key data of income statement. We see that we are coming really from a good material ratio level, but we see also that we could not compensate the drop in sales 100%, so we ended up by EUR 110 million in cost of materials. We need to take into consideration that this includes one-time effects. Anyhow, in terms of flexibility of our costs in the future, we need to work. On personnel cost, we are traditionally at a high level. We see here that even in 2025, we increased. We need to take into consideration here that the increase is mainly driven by severance costs caused by our personnel cut-offs, anyhow, this will be a working field for the future. On the other operating expenses, we see we could work.

We ended up at EUR 63.7 million. Also here, we need to take into consideration, we had one-time expenses of EUR 3.6 million. If we balance this, then we can say on the other operating expenses, we were able to flatten this like our costs. Overall, the EBIT then decreases reasonably to the point I mentioned before, to EUR 6.6 million. We worked then very intensively on our EBIT so that we ended up on the EBT on the breakeven point. Take into consideration that deferred taxes helped us a bit here on this point. We ended up on a net profit on EUR 3 million. I mentioned already that if we let’s say, eliminate all the one-timers before, you see that the EBITDA pre level is very constant at 11%, what is, from my perspective, really good news from this income statement.

Moving now over to the cash flow key data, we see that the net profit, as I mentioned already, came down to EUR 3 million. We have then a decrease also in the cash flow to EUR 90 million, which is not only caused primarily by the net profit but also by the related non-cash items. The changes in working capital I pointed already out. This is not an adjustment mainly on the material side. We see then that the operating activities to invest, we keep on the same level so that all in all, the free cash flow ended up in breakeven. To compensate the missing free cash flow, we need to use our debt so that the net debt increased to roughly EUR 35 million.

With having this said, I like to hand over to my colleague, Tobias, who will now guide you through the regional aspect of our top line.

Tobias Popp, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), R. STAHL AG: Yes, thank you, Klaus. Talking about the regions. The sales decrease by an average 9.1% is, in a nutshell, mainly driven by significant less global investments over the year. When we look about the different regions in Germany, where we had a decline of 10.2%, that was, for instance, nearly no investments behavior in the chemical industry. When you look at the central region, which was declining by 6.3%, basically okay, but the major projects have been missing completely. When we look at Americas with -13.9%, that was mainly driven by the pressure on oil price over 2025, which has significantly slowed down the investments in oil and gas there. When we look at Asia Pacific, it’s a slightly different situation there. It’s a heterogeneous scenario. While India, for instance, I’m talking about the pharmaceutical behavior, was performing quite good.

We had, for instance, in Korea, nearly no relevant export business in place. Talking about coming slightly over to the strategy, I would like first to discuss about the market potential in general. When we look at our scope of electrical explosion protection, we are facing that against the potential in the market of roughly $10 billion. This $10 billion contains the IEC, the NEC, and of course, the harsh portion we are facing. Of course, it’s segmented in Asia, Americas, and Europe. When we now scale it up in direction of 2030, we foreseen there a development of $13 billion-$15 billion. What lands in an average growth rate of 6%-9%. We will be faced there as well with extended global competition. That means it will be much more fragmented as it is today.

Nevertheless, we see us quite good positioned in that environment and look really forward to get more out of this potential. Talking about our outperforming market position, you see at the right bottom where R. STAHL is as of today. At the left, we position some of the competition there, what we see mainly positioned in quadrant one. While you have on the X-axis, the customization, on the Y-axis, the solution and technology capability. Our journey will be on the way to get a bit of complexity out and in parallel, driving our technology and solution business forward. That will give us a unique position at the end of the strategic journey.

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: As Tobias pointed out, we have a growing market in front of us, and this is really the good news. The key question is how we as R. STAHL can participate from this market growth. Taking in consideration that we have significant knowledge in explosion protection, we need to find a way how we cash this out in a broader way, and to bring us in a position that we can participate on the global growth. Overall, this will end up in a position as a global leader for solutions in explosion protection and harsh environment. That’s a huge step for us as R. STAHL, and the key question is what do we need for this step? Of course, as Tobias has shown, there will be significant competition. Therefore, the key element for us is really to have a solid outperforming market position.

This market position must be fueled by a technology-driven portfolio. We need a structure that helps us as a mid-size company to act really growing and to handle this broad portfolio. At the end, we need capabilities and innovative work styles to shape it as a company. All what I have said need a solid fundament. It means before we are talking about our way into the future, we need to ensure that our foundation today is solid. Therefore, before we go into the future, we need to work on our financial stability and on our operative performance. All the action elements I pointed out will be framed until 2030 with our future program NEXUS. Taking into consideration the sophisticated elements and the broad context we are talking about, we decided not to have a big bang transformation.

We will address this in a stepwise approach, and for Tobias and myself, it’s important that it’s an inside-out activity so that this transformation is really driven by our employees. Of course, we will tie in certain experts to support us. Let us dig together a bit deeper into future program NEXUS. As I pointed out already, we have a stepwise approach. We see 3 main phases. Phase number 1 is foundation and stabilization, more or less saying setting the stage. The key phase is phase 2, transformation and building. It will start already in 2026, but full results will be available around 2027, 2028. Here we establish and enable our market position as a solution provider. The third phase will be then the further growth and scaling phase, where we especially globally further grow and fully execute a scalable value chain.

In this today’s call, I only want to go shortly in phase number one, which is already in execution. We work here together with our external partner, Alvarez & Marsal, and our social partners to reduce the personnel costs. We saw already in this call that we have here a high level still, and that we need to structurally bring down. Second point is that we will streamline the organization and the structure of the company and establishing here in the company capabilities to act future-oriented and to handle this transformation from the company inside organization. All of this will be executed in a, let’s say, unfriendly world outside. I pointed out already the challenges from the market. We were quite conservative in our sales planning here to keep it stable. Definitely the first phase will address our net debt ratio and EBITDA pretty much.

Phase number two, transforming and building. As I mentioned, this is already the key element of the transformation, and the north star of transformation is our outperforming market positioning. This market positioning follows the mega trends that drive the market growth that Tobias pointed out. Overall, we see four megatrends. Megatrend number one is that the needs and the requirements for safe and secure operation increase dramatically all over the world. Secondly, we see a high requirement for efficiency. The value of digital data and the cost pressure bring also a lot of challenges to the OEMs and the operators of our industries. Here we have a significant chance to grow. The third point is we see all over the world that the willingness to work is reducing, and especially if we talk about harsh environments and unsecured environments, this is even more dramatic.

We see in all our industry a strong move into automatic and autonomous operations. This is the third megatrend and is a megatrend that will fuel our market position. Last but not least, we have the need for resilience and sustainability. If we sum all these four megatrends, the question is how we can build our market positioning in this frame of megatrends. Here, from my perspective, it is important that we start at the core of our capabilities. You see here already on this slide, if we move forward in the outperforming market position, we start with our existing core portfolio. We are already working intensively in streamlining it and adding innovation on this portfolio.

Two key areas I brought here with us is our new materials and function integration of the components, because if we can integrate the function, we reduce interfaces, which are always challenges for quality, reliability, and cost. Based on this extended core portfolio, we will then add an extended automation portfolio. One key element in this extended portfolio is the smart data. Smart data means we are getting more and more in the digital world, and the mass of data overwhelms our customers. We are at a connecting area between, let’s say, the operational product and the control level, I come to this later, which give us really a pole position to enter this smart data functionality to address new products and digital features. Based on that, we will then move forward to connect different products, to connect different functionalities to solutions.

This will be for our customers and for the operators. There’s a significant benefit because he can then come directly to us as a one-stop provider for solutions in harsh environments and explosion protection. This will be very important in the growing market because I mentioned with the megatrends, complexity of safety secure needs will increase. For our customers and the operator, this area is not the key competence. It’s an area that is of high risk to his business. Therefore, we see here a major cornerstone for our growth that we can support end customers and operators here with a one-stop shop. The fourth step will be then the international scaling of our products, but also our competence. A significant point will here be that we are working intensively on growing a global partnership network. I come to this later.

This partnership network will help us to enter new markets and will help us also to extend our competencies and our portfolio. The fifth and last cornerstone in our new market position will be independent service company. Already today, we offer with our product service and support, but what we mean here is a complete different approach. It means really supporting the customer over the life cycle, the complete life cycle with capabilities and with a dedicated overall service from cradle to grave. That means from planning over ordering, over components to execution and also, let’s say, maintaining and replacing. These are the five cornerstones of our new market position. One key element of this new market position is that the five levels give us a chance to multiply cashing out our expert knowledge.

That is coming from the core portfolio, but now is really, let’s say, stretched over the entire life cycle through extended automation portfolio, the solution providing internationalization and service company that is rounding up all over the life cycle. As you see here, this will be a market position that is very sophisticated, especially taking into consideration that we are acting here in a global context. This is a huge challenge for a company like us because we are a mid-size company with, let’s say, its limitations in core structures and core capabilities. Therefore, one very important cornerstone for this success is that we establish a structure that helps us with our, let’s say, mid-size structures to expand globally and to handle this sophisticated portfolio. The structure will be a decentralized network.

In this decentralized network, the headquarters, which is here in the center, dark blue, is moving in a direction of the governance function. That means here we are giving the strategy guidance and we ensuring by governance that scaling of synergies and excellence are implemented and executed. Based on this frame and acting fully within this frame, we then establishing independent local to local hubs. Independent means they really handle their P&L responsibility independently, and they are independently also responsible for business execution as long as they stay in the governance frame. You see here we have a, let’s say, modularization on this hub. We have a full-blown organization, with value stream, with manufacturing, with sales, we call local to local full-size hub. We have also a reduced variant we call sales hub, where we most likely have on a P&L responsibility, sales execution.

Also here, completely independent responsibility for execution and customer interface. As I mentioned already, we are going for a full-scale digital service company, and this decentralized structure gives us also the freedom that we can integrate a fully independent company in our ecosystem here by defined interfaces. Beyond these interfaces, the digital service company will have the freedom to act on its own governance, on its own structures, its own processes, and capabilities. That 100% is ensured that we have a dedicated execution to service, which from our understanding is a key matter of success. Last but not least, this decentralized organization will also enable us to integrate global partners. As I pointed out, the key element of our new market position and the key element is that we are here really global, that we tie in all over the world key competencies, key capabilities to fuel our market position.

As you see here on the dark blue arrow, a decentralized organization like this needs a very strong communication backbone that enables to handle this globally as a mid-size company. Here we develop our already established digital processes like SAP, like PLM, to a full-scale digital operating model that worldwide, the scaling and the governance is deployed not by people talking to each other. It will be employed by a PLM system where the governance is 100% digital and intrinsic, and an SAP that ensures that worldwide, order to cash execution is 100% in line. I now hand over to Tobias, who will give us more insight about this digital operating model.

Tobias Popp, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), R. STAHL AG: Thank you, Klaus. You already set the scene for the digital operating model. I would like to share some insights with you. What I would say, we already achieved a quite good level of end-to-end digitalization in the main value stream. The one task will be, of course, to bring that to the next level of operations by doing some well-selected extensions. For instance, bringing SAP from R/3 to S/4HANA and stuff like that. For instance, to bring the webshop, to enrich the webshop with additional functionalities, like having an online configurator as part of it. There will be as well some more elements, some new elements in that landscape. You see at the left, for instance, the AI-driven part, which is mainly foreseen in the first wave at the front end.

That will allow us to really couple closer to the customer needs in matter of providing their much better performance, much better reaction times, and much better prequalification on demands from the market. On the top you see what Klaus already mentioned, the PLM. That means the product life cycle management, which is then the chance that we can really couple our basic R&D activities to things like local to local hubs, that we mentioned before. That will be really a huge enabler in order to support our internationalization. That will be our journey with the first wave, and of course, this is not the end. There will be much more of such models. There will be much more AI in the future, but we will start with that scenario first. We heard a lot about the organizational things, and we heard a lot about the local to local hubs.

You see here the two main ones, which will be enlarged accordingly. First of all at the left, the Americas, and secondly, at the right, this is then our Asian hub in India. They will have all the functionalities needed in order to provide a proper backup for the, let’s say, front end, meaning sales, in order to fulfill the promises we made there. In order to provide a second level when it goes then deeper in technology, as we heard before. In addition to those hubs, which will be enriched and empowered accordingly, we will build up as well a business service center. That business service center, which is foreseen in Tunisia, will provide us then different options in order to be quicker at the one or the other task we need to drive on our digital journey and on our performance journey.

It will definitely start with the digital side. That means software-based activities there in order to really speed up our AI activities and fulfill our application store with the necessary content. That’s to say about the internationalization, the hub structure. Klaus, I would like to go back to you.

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: Thank you, Tobias. After the journey of Tobias around the digital operating model and internationalization, I invite you to have a stop by with us on, let’s say, three highlights of the technology-driven portfolio. In last year’s call, we introduced to you our automation portfolio, which is exactly the interface between control center production operations and which handles the communication between a digital and analog world. The company was really successful to implement, let’s say, infrastructure on a communication side, with our field switches and I/Os. Exactly this product line brings us in a pole position because as you see here, we are in the center of the communication. That means we are in the center of data. The challenge is only we need now application competence left or right so that we can work with the data.

This is exactly the way we are now started to work on to extend our automation, that with partners, we extend our knowledge left and right with the application competencies. By doing so, we can then build on the base of communication new electric products that ensure safe operation with scheduled functions dedicated to hazardous areas. As you see here, we are already in there, but we will extend this with our partners also to the field level. What’s very important in the new world, in the feedback level that will, let’s say, in a digital world, give a status of the processes so that they can be optimized. The next level will be the smart operations in the processes. That means with the feedback loop. Now our customers and the operators have the chance in real time optimizing the process.

You remember what I mentioned, megatrend of efficiency and effectivity. This is exactly the cornerstone which expresses these needs. Because now even complex systems like ships, like chemical facilities, can be optimized overall with this feedback loop. The asset management brings this to the next level. Because with knowing the data, smart data, that means not raw data. Smart data means raw data that is connected with the knowledge of the application. It gives us a chance, especially with AI tools, to learn. If we see a certain behavior of the data in the past, we can predict what will be the future and also ensure that maintenance and diagnostics help our customers. That will be a significant benefit to reduce downtimes and very important to avoid risks that might cause any damage. At the highest level, we talk about autonomous solutions.

That means execution, operation, all autonomous without the human beings and this will be a very important stage that sums up all and this comes also along with the function integration. Let me show you one example for this solution integration. The next generation we are working on is a control cube. Control cube is, let’s say, extension of our existing UPS that we have in our portfolio, that we also deliver to offshore applications where you integrate, you can say, all control, all key components that you can buy by Rittal. But now we are adding in all this world, you see it on the left side, the new features of automation and extended uses of smart data. What’s important is, all these control cubes will be implemented in critical and harsh environments.

There will be also the question, how can we ensure a continuous operation even if we have uncertainties in power supply? Therefore, we are working with partners on new better technologies, resilient and sustainable battery technologies, and we will integrate also here infrastructure and products from our partner. That it is really then for the application you see in the top, a one-stop shop. One last comment on harsh environment is we see here huge potential in critical infrastructure. We all see from news that with the crisis from Iran, the critical infrastructure becomes more and more focused, and this would be a significant good field for us. To make this happen, and this is something I really like to point out especially in this call, we need to have in mind smart manufacturing.

Having smart manufacturing product value stream is on the same importance level as the competence on the product side to bring it to a market success. Last cornerstone, only short, the service company. Here, I’m happy to share with you, we are working already very intensively on setting up this new company, and we are bringing here together best of three worlds. Number one, we are bringing in knowledge and experts from Rittal, also including the reputation of the brand. Second, we are working here really on a complete new company with a dedicated service structure. Third, I’m happy that we are working with a startup company out of RWTH Aachen, that has a lot of knowledge of digitalization and scaling dedicated service in industry. I’m absolutely convinced that this will be really a big step forward for the company.

What’s also important, out of this service providing, we will learn a lot about the environmental and the use cases of the end user. This will also then fuel again our product component because as I mentioned, we learn about application, about environmental, and can fuel our product. This would be for today an overview about, let’s say, phase two. Phase three will start in 2028. This will be the further growth in scaling. Very important is here that we expand the footprint, especially in Asia and America, and increase our market penetration. Key element for this is that we work on a fully automated value stream based on the digital operating model, but also, let’s say, with a higher automation degree on the manufacturing. A chance we are always looking on is inorganic growth.

It’s here that a plan under 2028, 2030 might become also earlier. Let’s see what opportunity is out there. Overall, the third step will lead us then to the level I announced. We assume that we can come here in a level of EUR 500 million above. Honestly saying, this is also my perspective, we will need this size so that we can work really on a proper global level. With having this said, I like to come back at the end of today’s presentation again from 2030 to the outlook of 2026. Talking back in the coordinating system of NEXUS, 2026 is a time of stabilization and foundation. This you see also on the guidance for 2026. We are quite comfortable on the sales forecast. We see around EUR 285 million-EUR 300 million.

Also taking into consideration here the challenging geopolitical situation out there. What I mentioned already, EBITDA, but even more the free cash flow will be something we have targeted and we are working on. The key point is, as I mentioned, this will be something we need to work on also with the social partners. This is nothing where we expect that we have the big impact already in 2026. We will have the solutions in 2026, but we will see the impacts more upcoming in 2027. Let me summarize today’s call. We started with an overview about our financial performance. We then guided you through our future program, NEXUS, and Tobias and myself are absolutely sure will bring us on the next level, especially because it’s a program we set up to be executed from us to us.

Hopefully we could also share with you and bring you in the picture today, that it’s a program that will address all elements that’s needed for success, including the outperforming market position, technology-driven portfolio, organization, decentralized network with digital operating model, and key competencies, including also a full-blown service company that ensures that we can participate in the market growth that is in front of us. I also like to say all this content we shared is nothing but an investor call presentation if we do not succeed in that the key shareholders of the company, the board of directors, we as Managing Board, the leadership team, employees, and our key partners work together stronger and more successful than our competitors.

Because this working together, staying together and, let’s say, executing together with passion and with capabilities is, in Tobias and my picture, the only way how we can ensure that all the slides that have been shown today could be brought to life. I’m more than happy that we can continue our conversation that started when I came out, or Tobias and I came out on a directors meeting, board of directors meeting this week, and also good conversation with shareholders last week that were very promising. I’m looking forward, together with Tobias, to continue this journey. Now I stop talking and hand over to the Q&A session.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you so much, Klaus and Tobias, not only for the look back, but especially for the look forward that you supplied us with and the insights you shared. We do have a lot of questions, so I will jump right into it. The first question is regarding the international expansion, and the question is regarding the past and the future, because it says that international expansion as such is nothing new as a topic for you. You’ve mentioned that previously in the previous years. What things have changed now that makes it different from the growth that you had supposedly envisioned in the past in the internationalization versus the growth that you can show now? And what structural changes are in place that ensure that the execution will be sustainable going forward?

You’ve touched on that partially during your presentation, but maybe you can wrap it up in a few sentences.

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: It’s a really good one. Let me start with the most important point. Internationalization starts with the people. The first thing that Tobias and I changed, that we brought international colleagues on the first leadership level, so that we really can ensure that thinking and acting in this company begins to be international. This is the first big change. The second point is that with the new structure and the new governance, we really ensure that responsibility is on the shoulders of the local organizations. Yeah. In my opinion, and this is a question in all of the industry, we need to learn and, let’s say, to accept that the world is no longer following German rules or following, let’s say, German perspective.

We need to be more humble also as company here and rely on our international colleagues, support our international colleagues, that we really come to a local to local approach. This is, in my opinion, a really important cornerstone, this local approach for responsibility, but also execution. Last point, we will establish a global partnership network that ensures that we are connected globally and partner network is on the competent side, but also on the execution side.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you very much. A big, almost pivotal point of your strategy going forward are partners that you are looking for or maybe already have some of them secured. The question is regarding, can you give a few examples for a potential partner that you are looking for or maybe already have on your radar screen? Are you currently working with partners in certain areas, and what are your experiences with those partners? The other question, which kind of ties in with that, describe what kind of partners you’re looking for on a global scale.

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: Let me point out two examples for partnerships. We are working on the service side with a startup company coming out of the ecosystem of RWTH Aachen. It’s called My Technical Service. This is a very young company that is focusing on service dedicated 100% to industrial applications. What I feel very important is that we succeeded to connect this company via this network concept with the key experts, for long time, I think, key experts of the company. We could, as I mentioned, bring here together, let’s say, the two good things of different worlds. This is one good example. Second good example is a company, HITECH. HITECH is a company, solution provider, more focused on automation on a fabric automation perspective, but they had really good ideas for retrofitting established processes and facilities.

Our teams are working at the moment together on a solution to transfer this competence or to combine, better saying, these competencies with the competencies of R. STAHL in explosion protection, so that we can support, especially in Europe, our customers with a retrofit of analog facilities into the digital world. I’m happy that we can also, let’s say, follow at this point of time that we go for having a solution to be shown together on the SPS this year in Nuremberg.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you. Let me continue with NEXUS, and you’ve elaborated on that in quite some depth, looking at the EUR 500 million that you might potentially have in revenues in 2030. There were a lot of initiatives that you were talking about, things that you need to change within your organization and new things that you have to form. Do you think that you might need additional funding for that? The question reads: Do you need fresh money for the NEXUS transformation? In that same context, maybe you could give us an overview of what measures you’ve already implemented so far as part of the NEXUS program. Thank you.

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: That was quite a broad, complex question. Yes. Let me start with your last term first. I’m happy that we are already on a good execution status on the foundation and stabilization perspective. We’re working here with the partner Alvarez & Marsal and associate partners. We shared this week with the board of directors that we are now through, let’s say, with a concept of a streamlined structure that will make us more agile, that make us faster. We will be happy that we can implement this fully within this year. Secondly, I can say that we implemented, especially here in the company, two key elements we call business board and governance board. These are, let’s say, marketplaces where we ensure fast and cross-functional global decisions. Now you can just make your perspective, Tobias and myself.

Once a week, we are sitting two or three hours in a meeting, and we are there just to make decisions or to listen to escalation so that we, let’s say, ensure that globally decisions are made fast and decisions are made fast in a way that we’re doing sophisticated decisions, connecting all perspectives of the company. As the last example, I pointed this out already. We have introduced global leaders to certain key positions. For example, the global responsibility for portfolio is already that a non-German, is a Norwegian colleague. From the market side, for market management, the global leader is an Indian person. And the last point, for example, global commodity management for mechanicals, we put the full global responsibility already named to the Indian organization. It shows also, let’s say, that we significantly made steps forward in the international market.

To the point of investment, of course, you can imagine with the point I made with beginning building up a fully digital operating model. Bringing our portfolio on the next level to be really technology-driven, be 100% automatic and autonomous ready. This will be a significant step that, of course, will especially also on the manufacturing side, will need investments. It’s too early to talk about because it’s important that we have a clear picture of what we are talking about in terms of volume, but also in timing. This will be a next step that we need to finalize around, let’s say, this year’s annual meeting.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you for that. Looking at the market overall and your key assets are the customers. The question is regarding customer loyalty and steps that you have undertaken to secure and expand on that. It reads, “Unfavorable market conditions are only one side of the coin. What specific steps has management taken to strengthen customer focus and customer loyalty, thereby laying the groundwork for future profitable growth?

Tobias Popp, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), R. STAHL AG: Yes. Thank you for that question. We already raised it up, mentioning the so-called business board, because the business board will be then the, let’s say, the center where we bring the business, means the customer in the company. That will have, of course, two directions, the outside in, which is then, let’s say, what the market needs from the company and the inside out is then things like technology push and so on. That means where we can differentiate, what is the things we would like to talk with the markets about. This business board will be then the point where we bring the business together with the company in a structured, organized way. That will help a lot in order to bring as well markets in the company, which are not seen on the surface right now.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you. I have a follow-up question regarding the capital raise in relation with the NEXUS growth initiative. It focuses on the leasing obligations and cash flow. It says leasing obligations have increased by roughly 22%, while the cash flow has dropped from EUR 50 million to roughly break even. What consequences does the company need to draw from this? And what is your view on the longstanding demand from external shareholders that R. STAHL must strengthen its equity base?

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: As I pointed out when we talked about the cash flow, and it’s not only the cash flow, it’s the entire bottom line. We need to adjust the structure that we are better in reacting on drops or peaks in the market scenario. Because we all learned from the past that, let’s say, the uncertainty and the instability in the markets is the new normal. What you can see in our 2025 results, there was a lot the company did. There was really good performance in adjusting. The structures of the company were not allowing the employees to do the work we need to flexibilize in the extension and in the full-time that we needed to bring the cost down. This is definitely something we need to work on.

I mentioned already with Alvarez & Marsal, we made significant work to streamline the organization, to streamline also the decision processes so that we first of all become more agility. The capability to trust and the things that we’ll be in discussion also with the social partners, that we find a way that we can also more flexibilize our costs.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Okay. Thank you very much. Another follow-up question to the potential rights issue would be looking at sales beyond EUR 500 million or at EUR 500 million in 2030 and talking about inorganic growth on the one hand and lowering net debt on the other hand. That seems to be slightly contradicting on the one hand, dishing cash out to acquire something externally and on the other hand, having net debt being lowered. Do you think that you can convince the main shareholder to accept a reduction in the shareholding, which probably means also a dilution if you do a rights issue?

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: Let me phrase my answer in that way. The first thing in today’s call is only the starting point. We need to work intensively, and this is, first of all, the job of Tobias and myself, but then also more of the other stakeholders that we, let’s say, align together on this NEXUS program. That we all have a common picture of what it is, and we have a buy-in that this is the right way for R. STAHL. If this is in place, then the next step is how we bring it on the road. These are, let’s say, all the questions that you wrote in after that is then falling in place.

As is in the question, how do we finance it and how can we align that shareholders are, let’s say, on the same page in terms of content, but also on the same page on report.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you. Talking about One Us in 2025, you mentioned, if I recall correctly, EUR 5 million for severance and EUR 3.6 million other operating expenses. Can you be a little bit more specific as to how these are composed? What parts goes in there?

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: That we can point out here is, let’s say, there’s no good English translation for this word. This is the employee cut-off program that was decided and executed in 2025. It was addressing roughly 80 people, and we have cost in the one-time for, let’s say, transformation itself, but also for the development cost. It’s okay. One example.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you. Talking about 2030 and the NEXUS and EUR 500 million in revenues, do you already have an idea of what your margin expectation on the EBITDA level would be? EBITDA pre for 2030.

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: Let me talk about, let’s say, the EBITDA level and margin level. Let’s say a bit easier that they also recalculate this with the entire range. I think in 2030, when we have the portfolio in place, when we have the new organization in place, and we have then really fully digital operating model, our target must be clear to come to a double-digit margin and based on EBITDA.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you. Let’s stay with EBITDA for a second and look at the EBITDA outlook. Which cost category or cost categories do you see as having the greatest potential for savings, and how do you expect personnel costs to develop now that you have a reduced head count and without one-time expenses in 2026, such as seven payments?

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: When we talk about, let’s say, the financial figures, we saw that still our biggest portion is the personnel cost. This is something that we need to work structural-wise on this. Now, we launched already last year a cost cutting program, and we are now at a point where we need to work on this on a structural way. Structural way means it’s not a question of, let’s say, pure cost cutting. It’s something where we need to streamline structures of the company to improve our operating performance, to use digital tools. One thing that we also need to use more is a global footprint. Tobias shared internationalization landscape. You saw already we are working now on de-risk of country locations. We have now really started to build a new factory in India.

As I mentioned, we are moving over the global responsibility for commodity buying mechanicals into the India area, and we are working to build service center, internal service center for administrative services into Asia. Now, this is our approach, where we work on the most important point. That is, let’s say, reducing the personnel costs. Allow me here also to add, and to make clear, if Tobias and I, we are talking about reducing the personnel costs, it’s not a matter of exclusively laying off people. This aspect of personnel cost is quite a complex one and the situation we are in Germany, we need to work on the entire aspects. That means we need to work on a flexibilization of the cost. That we are becoming here better. One point is also on flexibilization of payments.

that if things are challenging, we can also participate in, let’s say, reducing salary level. On the other side, if things are going good, of course, we can also ensure that employees participate in a proper way. This is something overall, where I can say we are in good discussions with the social partners, but still they are ongoing, so we cannot share more on today’s call.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you. Let’s stay with that topic just a little more. You already talked about the tariff partnership. The question is reading: how did employees react to the company’s withdrawal from the Beschäftigungssicherungstarifvertrag?

Tobias Popp, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), R. STAHL AG: The change process. That means we do a lot of communications these days. We try to bring a lot of people in the strategy framework, what we explained before, in order to explain why we are doing what, and that turns out more and more that we get multipliers in the team as well.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you. I don’t even know if you separate this out, but one question is regarding the harsh environment market segment, and it reads: What potential in terms of revenues and earnings do you see in the harsh environment market segment?

Tobias Popp, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), R. STAHL AG: The magic thing is to keep focused. We did a lot of pilots the last couple of months. We presented the one or the other in that format. For instance, the UPS we did, for instance, the nuclear power plant we did, and those things will pay significantly in that future basket. As said, we need to keep focused because we cannot be everything for everybody, because there is a huge commodity market in the harsh environment. There is as well a nice niche for us where we can do a lot of business with. If it seems like those ones or others, I’m talking about offshore wind parks and stuff like that, there’s a lot of nice things where the capability of Stahl can provide an added value too.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you. Looking at NEXUS on one of your slides, you actually showed the market growth on the one hand, but you said that competition within that market is most likely going to increase. The viewer is asking, what will you do to differentiate R. STAHL in the markets to guarantee increased profitability and growth in a market that is increasingly competitive? You’ve addressed that during your presentation, but maybe in a few sentences as a wrap-up for that question.

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: I’d like to pick up also what Tobias said. I think the most important thing is that we develop outperforming market position, but we develop this coming from our core competencies and core capabilities. That we are not, let’s say, screwed up because there might be significant potentials outside, but we need step by step working along our key competencies and core capability. This is the first thing. Second thing is, we really need to be open-minded for new technology. I like to say always the technology we today not even know will solve problems we think they are unsolvable today. This is really something, this is a mindset change. Especially for R. STAHL, but also from my understanding in the global German society. That we are more positive and more risk-open to use new technology to be open. Maybe one or the other time it will fail.

At the end, I’m absolutely convinced that the sum will make us successful. The third point is that we are open for partnerships because I’m absolutely convinced that this one-stop solution, that we are one partner for our customers but also for the operators, will be a major keystone of success. Therefore we need to be the one with strongest global network. This would be the third point I like to highlight here.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you. Let’s look at 2026, 2027. The market environment remains challenging. Do you have any additional cost-reduction measures planned over the next two years to, on the one hand, secure profitability and stabilize the results?

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: The first phase of NEXUS is mostly dedicated to manage costs and to get a stable foundation. Under QF, this is the entire first phase. As we’ve shown here, the main phase will be highlighted in 2026. We will see the effect fully in 2027. This will be a starting point. Looking forward, I think, and we had a good conversation about this also in the Board of Directors, is that we need in this company a culture mindset that say being cost-effective is a continuous way of working. Daily business is always to challenge ourselves. Are we cost-effective? What can we do? I like to share with you, I had really good meetings, even when I was here at lunch in the casino.

That conversation started with some of the employees where I just asked, “Hey guys, do you have ideas how you could improve your cost efficiency?” I thought, now they stop talking. The opposite was the case. We started one conversation and it ended up that we were sitting together, and I got two reams of paper full written with ideas of these colleagues. I was deeply impressed that the company has such broad ideas, and it’s up now to us within NEXUS to bring it on the road. Again, to sum up, managing the costs will be focus of phase one and then continue in our daily work.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you so much. Which brings me to the last question for today, and that is once again, circling around the capital structure of R. STAHL. It reads: You mentioned that you were in good or are in good talks with the main shareholders. Will these shareholders support R. STAHL financing future growth? How much investment is necessary to achieve sales of EUR 500 million in 2030, you think?

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: As I mentioned, this is a good and right question, but there will also be the right time to answer this. To answer the numbers, what investments are needed, today is not the right time. What I can say, we are at a starting point to discuss with already established shareholders, investors, but we are also in a broad conversation with new kids on the block, so to say. We are still in the initial phase, but what I’m really happy is that, let’s say, the genes and the main ideas of the program NEXUS that I shared with you today, we are falling on a fruitful base. I see a good potential, and I’m quite optimistic that we will find partners also in the investor side to make it happen. It’s one of the questions I already pointed out, it will be also needed.

This is definitely, if you see our cash flow situation, it’s quite clear and it’s not a sophisticated answer that we cannot fund the investments that we need out of our operating performance. Investors from outside of the company, established ones and new ones will be needed, and it’s a need on a significant level. This is absolutely clear. There is nothing to hide on that.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you. Thank you, Klaus. Thank you, Tobias. We are out of questions. If you have any closing remarks from your end before I do my closing remarks, this is your floor.

Dr. Klaus Bischof, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), R. STAHL AG: First of all, Tobias and myself, thanks all of the attendees for today’s call. It was a pleasure for us to present the financial results but also give first insights about NEXUS. Thank you. As we pointed out, it’s a starting point, so we are looking forward to a broad conversation. It should be an open conversation because NEXUS is nothing that is, let’s say, written in stone. It’s something that should be our team’s question, how we bring it to life, and all feedback, all input will help to make it a broader success. Today’s call, please understand also as an invite for a further conversation. Good possibilities for a follow-up is the next upcoming earnings call on the seventh of May. Of course, also let’s say, middle of June, then the annual meeting.

We enjoyed today’s call, Tobias and myself, especially because there was really a broad number of questions, really good questions. Thanks for that because it gave also a feedback that today’s content was really something that was, let’s say, well taken by all people that are in. Thanks for that. For all of you, have a good week. For all of us, hopefully day by day, we are living in a more safe world. Thanks. Thank you very much.

Unknown Moderator, Earnings Call Moderator/Analyst, Research Hub/IR Team: Thank you so much, Klaus. Thank you so much, Tobias. Thank you so much for everybody who joined this call. Thanks for your great questions. I have a few slides that I just want to show while I’m doing my wrap up on my end. Couple of things, if you have any additional questions in the aftermath of this call, please feel free to reach out to the IR of R. STAHL, or also, of course, you can talk to our analyst if you have any more questions. In addition, we will send out or already have sent out a small questionnaire, a feedback form for this call. We’d very much appreciate if you take the time to just fill it out so that we can supply the company with feedback about this call.

Of course, last but not least, this call was recorded, and you will find it a little later today on the R. STAHL webpage in the IR section and on Research Hub. I wish you all a great afternoon, and thanks again for joining. See you all on May seventh. Bye.

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