Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the ASTA Energy Solutions Half Year 2026 Conference and live webcast. I am Moira, the conference call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question- and- answer session. To ask a question from the webinar, you may click the Q&A icon on the left of the screen and click on Raise Your Hand. For written questions, please click the Q&A, select text, and type in your question. If you are connected via phone, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. For operator assistance, please press the Operator Assistance button on the bottom left side of your screen or star zero on your telephone keypad. At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Karl Schäcke, CEO of ASTA Energy Solutions. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Karl Schäcke, and together with my colleague and CFO, Daniela Klauser, it is a pleasure to welcome you to ASTA's Half Year Conference Call. Before we turn the business update, let me briefly start with what ASTA is really about, especially for those of you who are new to our story. Our mission is simple. We power the energy transition globally. On the left, you see our four product pillars. Our continuously transposed conductors are the heart of high and medium voltage transformers. Our copper windings go into power generators and locomotives. Our flat wire for stator hairpins drives the shift to electric mobility. In short, wherever electricity is generated, transmitted, or converted into motion, ASTA is inside. On the right, a few examples of where our technology is at work today. The 2 GW offshore platforms in Germany, the Glen Canyon Dam in the U.S., the world's largest transformers in China, the SuedLink transmission project, and Siemens Vectron dual mode locomotives. These are the backbone projects of the energy transition. This is built on a unique foundation, more than 210 years of history, a position as a global technological leader, and over 40 patents protecting our know-how. When we talk about the mega trends of electrification and grid expansion, ASTA is not a beneficiary on the sideline. We are an enabler at the core. After last week's guidance upgrade, many of you will have anticipated this already. ASTA Energy Solutions delivered an outstanding half year with record sales, record earnings, and further margin expansion. I'm very proud of the entire ASTA team around the globe, which is converting the strong demand environment into profitable growth, cash generation, and sustainable shareholder value creation. There are three messages I would like you to take away from today's presentation. First, the structural drivers behind our markets remain firmly sustainable and robust. Second, our pricing discipline and product mix support further profitable growth. Third, our capacity expansion projects are being executed as planned, allowing us to successfully convert our backlog into higher sales and earnings. Our investment case is increasingly benefiting from favorable commercial momentum, growing backlog secured through long-term agreements, capacity investments, and structural market growth. The question is not only how strongly these markets grow, but how effectively we translate these opportunities into sustainable value for our shareholders. I'm pleased with the progress we have made in the first month as a listed company. Let me now turn to the key achievements of the first half year. Supported by continued strong market demand, ASTA delivered a record half year with adjusted EBITDA of EUR 37 million, an increase of 54% year-over-year. Revenue increased a record of EUR 435 million, the highest level we have delivered so far. The continuing investments into capacity expansions and operational improvements over the past quarters are really translating into revenue growth and improved financial performance. Net income more than doubled year-over-year, underlining the significant step up in profitability and the value we are creating. On the commercial side, we extended key long-term agreements, securing visibility until 2032. Operationally, our capacity expansion is progressing on schedule across all plants. Based on this strong performance and our confidence in the second half, we have raised our full-year guidance last week. We now expect an adjusted EBITDA in the range of EUR 60 million -EUR 64 million while confirming our top-line outlook. This is an important milestone, and it is based on the tremendous effort of the entire team and all employees worldwide of ASTA. Let me start the business update with the demand environment, because this is the foundation of our growth story. Demand in our market is driven by four powerful and structural trends. First, global grid CapEx and a massive build-out of transmission infrastructure. Second, renewables and the connection demands they create. Third, the electrification of industry and mobility. Finally, data centers, where AI is driving power demand. None of these are short-term cycles. These are decade-long investment programs. You don't have to take my words for it. Just look at our customers. GE Vernova's electrification backlog grew 65% year-over-year to $45 billion. Siemens Energy grid technology backlog is up 34% to EUR 51 billion. Our key OEM customers are accelerating, and this market is accelerating directly into ASTA's strength. How do we translate this demand into visibility and stability for ASTA? Through our agreement structure, shown on the right side. Up to 5% of our business is spot markets, order by order. Roughly 45% runs through framework agreements with defined volume corridors. About half of our business, around 55%, is secured through long-term agreements in all regions, multi-year contracts with fixed volume and price formulas. Here's the key message on this slide. In the first half, we extended selected LTAs with valued longstanding partners like GE Vernova, Siemens Energy, Ganz Electric, and Andritz, securing visibility up to 2032. This is what favorable commercial momentum looks like. Strong structural demand converted into contractually secured, profitable growth. Let me now give you an update on our capacity expansion program, which continues to progress according to plan. Do we have the capacity to deliver on this demand? To be very honest, today, demand exceeds our production capacity, and that is exactly why we are investing. The task ahead of us is not to find demand, but to scale our capacity to capture it and to do so in a very disciplined way. Our capacity expansion is on track across all three continents, Americas, Europe, and Asia, to serve the growing demand of our customers. Our flagship project is the ramp-up in Bosnia, which supports our European market. Beyond that, we are expanding in other regions as well, including Brazil, China, and India. Let me emphasize one point, because it is central to how we run this company. Our expansion is driven by contracted demand, not by speculative build-out. Every major capacity decision is backed by the long-term agreements I just described on the previous slide. Wherever possible, we expand within our existing footprints. The second element of this slide is our supply chain integration, what we call closing the loop. Copper is uniquely suited for this. It can be recycled infinitely with no loss of quality or performance. We are building a circular business model together with our customers and utilities. Copper scrap flows back to us, is processed through our internal recycling and casting capabilities and reenters production as high-quality input material. This strengthens our security of supply, improves our cost position, and improves our environmental footprint at the same time. Going forward, we will expand our recycling and casting footprint further by fully leveraging our platform in Brazil and by building a second platform in Europe. We expect this to involve meaningful investments in Europe. More on that, we report Q3 in November. With that, let me hand over to Daniela for the financial review. Thank you very much, Karl, and good afternoon from my side. It is a pleasure and an honor that I can present the strong financial performance in the first half year of 2026. As Karl already highlighted, and some of our analysts anticipated, we delivered a record half year across all important KPIs. Let me keep this slide brief and use it as an overview before we go into the details. First line, net sales grew by 22% to EUR 435.8 million. Adjusting for the copper price effect, we also have the net-value sales, including finished and unfinished goods, our underlying top-line measure. It increased by 33% to EUR 98.4 million, driven by capacity increases, as Karl informed, but also by the product mix. The most important number on this slide, adjusted EBITDA of EUR 37 million, up 54%, with the margin improving from 6.7%- 8.5%. As a reminder, the first half year is structurally the stronger one for us. Because in the second half year, we have the maintenance windows concentrated in July, August, and December. Please keep this in mind when thinking about the second half. This strong operational performance flows through the entire P&L, and it shows on the left-hand side down a net income more than doubling to EUR 22.5 million. Two more points, noting free cash flow also more than doubled to EUR 22.8 million. This is supported by the operating performance and the phasing of certain CapEx outlays. On the CapEx itself, we already spent EUR 14.2 million, slightly above prior year. The phasing towards the later quarters of 2026 is intentional and reflects our disciplined approach to capital deployment. Let me now walk you through the key drivers behind these numbers in more detail, starting with the top line. Net sales reached EUR 435.8 million in the first half year, which represents a 22% versus prior years. As you know, net sales include the copper price, which we pass through directly to our customers. That is why we focus on net-value sales as our underlying top-line measure. It strips out the copper price effects and shows the value we actually generate. Net-value sales includes the change in finished and unfinished goods, increased by 33% to EUR 98.4 million. Let me briefly explain these two components and why we include them in this analysis. The darker part, the net-value sales of EUR 73.8 million, reflects invoiced deliveries to customers. But up 5% year-over-year, driven by our capacity increase and product mix. The lighter part, the change of finished and unfinished goods, amounted to EUR 24.6 million. More than doubling versus the prior year and up 40.4% compared to the first quarter. This position reflects production. This is ahead of invoice sales products we have already manufactured in preparation for upcoming deliveries, but which have partly been shipped, but the risk has not been shipped to the customer and partly not invoiced. Given our strong order book, we purposely built up this position in the first half to prepare for the delivery schedule of the second half. I can tell you our order books are full. Importantly, this is the timing effect, not a structural one, as these products are delivered and invoiced over the coming months, and the finished and unfinished position typically becomes smaller towards the end of the year and converts directly into net-value sales. So what you see there is, put simply, future revenue that is already produced and waiting for delivery or for taking over by the customer. Taken together, the picture is clear. Strong volume growth, supported by pricing discipline and a production pipeline that underpins our expectations for the second half. That was the top line. Now let us look at how this is translated into profitability. Adjusted EBITDA, EUR 37 million for the first half year, increased by 54%. A clearly over proportional growth compared to our top line. This was driven by our pricing power, by the volume growth, and also by our product mix. You can see the margin expansion in two ways on this slide, measured against net sales. The adjusted EBITDA margin improved from 6.7% - 8.5%, 1.8 percentage points higher. But given the copper pass-through, the more meaningful measure is the margin on net-value sales, including the change in finished and unfinished goods. Here we reached 37.6%, up more than five percentage points versus prior year. This is the number that really shows the operational leverage in our business model and the pricing power in our sales. The same picture holds further down the P&L. Our operating result, earnings before interest and tax, EBIT, increased by 62% to EUR 31.7 million, with margin improving accordingly. One technical remark for full transparency. In the first quarter, we reported IPO costs of approximately EUR 2.6 million attributable to the issuance of new shares, which were initially recognized in our operating expense in the first quarter. In the second quarter, that was the reason why we announced it preliminary. We are reclassified to equity following an IFRS reassessment. Our adjusted EBITDA definition excludes non-recurring IPO preparation costs either way, so this has no impact on the adjusted figures. The key takeaway from this slide, our growth is not just volume, it is profitability growth with margin expanding on every level. Let's move to the bottom line. Net income more than doubling from EUR 10 million in the first half of 2025 to EUR 22.5 million this year, an increase of 125%. This was driven by two factors. First, the higher operating profit I just walked you through, and second, an improved financial result following our post-IPO refinancing. We used the IPO to put a significantly more efficient financing structure in place, and you now see that benefit flowing through to net income. Earning per share increased from EUR 1 to EUR 1.66, up 66%. You will notice that earnings per share grew less than net income. This is purely a technical effect. It reflects the higher weighted average number of shares outstanding following our IPO in January 2026. No dilution surprise here, simply the larger share count following our IPO. Let me now turn to capital expenditures and cash generation. CapEx amounted to EUR 14.2 million in the first half, up 6% versus prior year, and at 3.3% of net-value sales, slightly below last year's level. Let me be clear on one point. This does not mean we are slowing down our expansion. The CapEx phasing towards the last quarter of 2026 is intentional. It reflects the timing of the IPO and supports our disciplined approach to capital deployment. You should expect to step up in CapEx in the second half, full in line with the capacity expansion projects Karl Schäcke described earlier. On the right side, free cash flow. Free cash flow more than doubled to EUR 22.8 million. This was driven by our improved operating performance, coupled with the phasing of the CapEx outlays, as I mentioned, and as a result, our cash conversion rate, calculated as free cash flow divided by adjusted EBITDA, reached 61.6%, up more than 17 percentage points versus prior year. We calculate free cash flow as adjusted EBITDA less CapEx. Also one remark on interpretation, given the CapEx phasing and the maintenance window scheduled for the second half. The second half naturally see a lower cash conversion. The key takeaway, we are investing into our growth in a disciplined, well-phased manner, while at the same time more than doubling our free cash flow. To wrap up the financial review, let's look at working capital, the balance sheet, and how we are putting the IPO proceeds to work. Trade working capital stood at EUR 83.9 million as of end of June, more than doubling compared to year-end, and at 11.5% of net sales on a last 12 months base. Let me explain what is behind this increase, because it is an investment, not a warning sign. The increase is mainly driven by three factors: higher inventory level as part of our proactive supply chain management, the crisis in the Middle East, not solved so far, and that is why we have to secure our input materials in a tight market, further ramp-up of our recycling activities in Brazil, and the impact of a higher copper price, which mechanically inflates inventory values. This ties directly into what I said earlier about finished and unfinished goods. We are building up stock to serve the strong delivery schedule of the second half. Turning to the financial position, our balance sheet is in an excellent shape. As of June 30, ASTA had a net cash position of EUR 47.4 million, compared to net debt of EUR 56.6 million at end of 2025. That is a swing of more than EUR 100 million, includes the net IPO proceeds of around EUR 120 million, which we partly used to repay loans and phase out working capital financing facilities. The refinancing effect you already saw in our improved financial result, and it will also be better in the second half of the year. We are investing into working capital to enable our ramp-up, and we are doing so from a position of financial strength. Which brings me directly to my last slide, how exactly are we deploying in the IPO proceeds? We committed to a clear allocation at the time of the listing, and I want to show you where we stand on each of the four pillars. The first two pillars Karl has already covered in his business update, around 40%, so about around EUR 50 million of the net proceeds are dedicated to capacity expansion. The project across all regions with the Bosnia ramp-up as our flagship and further expansions in China, India, and Brazil. This is on track. Another roughly 20% goes into supply chain integration, extending the recycling and casting platform in Brazil, building a second platform in Europe and our Green Copper Alliance. This is in progress fully as planned and will provide an update with our Q3 results in November. The third pillar, financial flexibility with around 20% of proceeds is delivered. We have strengthened ASTA’s capital structure, and the stronger equity base improves our credit profile. You saw the effect in today's numbers, a better financial result and a higher conversion of EBITDA into net income. And fourth, deleveraging, also around 20%. We have reduced our leverage, improved our debt metrics, and strengthened our credit profile. As I just showed you, we are now in a net cash position, which enhances our capacity to self-finance further future growth. This pillar is on track as well. The message to you as our investors is simple. We are deploying our capital exactly as promised at the IPO, disciplined, transparent, and with visible results just a few months after the listing. With that, let me hand over to Karl for the outlook. Thank you, Daniela. Now let me turn to the outlook for 2026. Last week, we announced that we are raising our full-year guidance for 2026. Let me walk you through the details. For net sales, we reconfirm our guidance of more than EUR 790 million, based on a copper price assumption of $11,500 per metric ton. Likewise, we reconfirm our net-value sales guidance of more than EUR 170 million. The key change is on profitability. We are raising our adjusted EBITDA guidance from previously EUR 55 million - EUR 59 million, as communicated in April, now to EUR 60 million - EUR 64 million. Even at the lower end, this represents an upgrade above the previous top end of the range. What is behind this increase? It is exactly what you have seen throughout today's presentation. Strong operational execution, sustained pricing momentum, and a favorable product mix, combined with the visibility that our order book and long-term agreements give us for the second half. Let me put this into perspective. With an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 37 million already delivered in the first half and the guidance of EUR 60 million -EUR 64 million for the full-year, the second half will be seasonally structurally softer, as we have communicated and Daniela was explaining before. The two main reasons for this, first, scheduled maintenance windows at all our plants, which are concentrated in the second half. The second, the second half of the year will reflect the expenses related to our employee stock ownership program, which we launched following the IPO. Both effects are planned, well understood, and fully reflected in our guidance. There is no change to the underlying earnings power of the business. In summary, top line confirmed, profitability raised. Finally, let me briefly reiterate what defines ASTA's investment proposition. Four points, which you already also see summarized on this slide. First, resilient sales growth backed by structural demand. We operate in a market environment supported by strong structural tailwinds, electrification, grid expansion, and power transformer replacement in U.S. and in Europe, and increased investment into energy infrastructure. Second, high visibility supported by long-term agreements. Our longstanding customer relationships and the LTAs, in short, long-term agreements, we extended in the first half year, securing visibility up to 2032. Give us a solid foundation on which to plan and execute as we continue to grow. Third, margin expansion achieved through operational excellence. This growth is not coming at the expense of profitability. With operational excellence and our focus on high value application, we are able to continuously expand margins and further strengthen the quality of our earnings. Fourth, a strong cash flow profile supported by disciplined capital allocation. Our capital efficient business model enables us to fund growth while maintaining financial discipline, as you have seen today, to a large extent from our own operations. With that, we conclude our presentation. We thank you very much for your attention, and we are now looking forward to your questions. We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question from the webinar may click the Q&A icon on the left and click on Raise Your Hand. For written questions, please click the Q&A, select Text, and type in your question. If you are connected via phone, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered a queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press Lower Your Hand from the webinar or press star and two on your telephone. Anyone who has a question may queue up now. The first question comes from the line of Yasmin Steilen from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Hello. Many thanks for taking my questions, and I have three. I will take them one by one. The first one on your EBITDA guidance. I obviously understood your remarks with regards to the headwinds in the second half. Just looking at the midpoint of the adjusted EBITDA guidance implies a sequential decline in the second half of around 30%. If I strip out around, whatever, EUR 4 million stock option costs, the decline is still around 22%. Could you walk me in more detail through the headwinds in terms of the kind of planned maintenance in the second half and your general assumption in terms of seasonality, which is reflected in the increased guidance range? Many thanks. Hello, Yasmin. I take these questions. We guide for EUR 60 million- EUR 64 million, as you mentioned, right? The EUR 4 million for the stocks options, ESOP plan. You also, when you look at the first half year, it is six months fully operation. That means in the second half year, you can reduce it by one month, only five months in production, because we have maintenance break of at least four months in Europe and in- Four weeks. Brazil. Weeks. Thanks. Four weeks. Yes. That means you have only divided by six, multiplied with 11. As we are in the ramp-up phase in Brazil, also in Europe, there are higher personal costs not reflected in the higher volume. That is the reason. Okay. Perfect. That is very clear. The second question on the U.S. So if I remember correctly, you are in talks with your OEM customers if and how ASTA might enter the U.S. with an own CTC production. Could you provide us an update on your thinking there? Yasmin, as we said already last time, I will give you the same answer. We are still in analysis. We are analyzing very in detail now what will be the next couple of years in the U.S. market, including also data centers, decisions on the grid, and also already capacity investments of, let us say, players in the U.S. market. We have not finalized the analysis, and we have not passed the supervisory board with our proposal, which we will do soon. Therefore, in the third quarter, I said last time, we will come up latest in the fourth quarter with a decision on the U.S. market. Okay. So that's kind of the time schedule is unchanged. Is unchanged, yes. expect a decision by the last quarter. Okay, perfect. And then, on my last question on slide six, in your slide deck, you show your contract structure. Is this a new contract structure reflecting the most recent LTA wins? And does this then also mean you're not striving for more LTAs as you initially considered a maximum of 60% kind of covered with LTAs as your target, or have your view changed on this topic? That's my last question. Thank you. You're very familiar with these structures, Yasmin Steilen. It's no change. It shows also it's approximately. We cannot define, let's say, if it goes 55% or 60%, sometimes it will be maybe 60% or 65% even. But this is, let's say, an overall idea of the frames we have. Also, no change in the logic and the strategy in applying it. Because there's also a difference between the regions, therefore no change, and the structure will approximately stay the same. Okay. Many thanks. I'll step back into the line. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Adrian Pehl from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, Daniela. Hi, Karl. Thanks for squeezing me in, actually. I've got quite a few. Let's also do them one by one, maybe. Another question on your guidance, or let's say, on the developments that we saw so far. If, let's say, a client comes to review ASTA by the time of the IPO and now, and then he looks at, let's say, the 20% increase of the EBITDA, actually from the original kind of thinking, what you had in the guidance previously. What he can observe is a significantly higher copper price. So the question that I'm raising is there any way we are kind of, let's say, misunderstanding a bit how the copper price is benefiting your EBITDA? Or is there something else we should factor in, or what would you give this client as an answer if you want so? That's my first one. We always calculate our margin. Hello, Adrian, first of all. Hi. We always calculate the margin on the net-value sales. Net-value sales is neutralized from the copper effect, sales, and material expenses. Why we raised the bar? You saw in the first half year, we have 37.6% EBITDA margin. We see a switch to more profitable, more difficult products. The switch is there. That means we also have the same net sales, the same net-value sales, because the orders are more difficult, but we also have a higher price. That is the reason we also guide a high EBITDA based on this. Okay. That means product complexity, or what are you referring to in terms of when you say more difficult? Karl always guided, we do not want to guide quantities for our group, because when the square meter goes down, then we have a higher price, but we have a higher margin, and this affected this first half year of 2026, and also the shift from round wire to energy business. These are the two effects that we now reached a 37.6%, and this is included now in our guidance. Mm-hmm. A question actually on net-value sales, which actually you confirmed. You can say it is larger than EUR 170 million, so it means it could be EUR 180 million, and it still would be fine. On the other hand, not quite sure why, for example, you did not say, for example, more than EUR 175 million. So effectively copying the increase that you had on the EBITDA for net-value sales. Just wanted to hear some thoughts about that. It should be actually rather assumed that the EUR 170 million is something we should be really looking at by the end of the year? That is the same answer from the last question. With less quantity, higher margin on the more difficult products. You have the same net-value sales compared to the first guidance, and a higher margin on the net-value sales. That is the topic. Mm-hmm. Okay, and then I have got two kind of housekeeping ones, actually. Just to understand, you changed, as you rightfully and thankfully explained in the presentation, the way how you adjust on the EBITDA. Just to reflect this in Q1, that would basically mean that actually the other operating expenses are lower by this amount of EUR 2.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA for Q1 should not change, I guess. Is it something we should factor in here just to do the reconciliation between Q1 and Q2 pretty much like? Yes. You are completely right. The adjusted EBITDA does not change for the first quarter. That means when you compare the first quarter, with the EUR 17 million, now with the EUR 37, this is in line. What happened, that was the reason why we wrote in Q1, preliminary, because it was a discussion according to IFRS, is everything equity related or has to be shown in other operating expense. Now we got the final decision. For ASTA, everything is related in the equity, and that's the reason why we reallocated. The second topic is that we have to split the expenses, so there's also an on-charging to the mother companies. Okay. Got it. Just very quickly, two short questions. One is actually the tax rate in the second quarter was pretty low, actually, which also contributed to the beat you had on the EPS line. That's number one. Number two, you mentioned in the report that obviously you have repaid quite a bit of loans. I was just wondering which loans did you finally repay, and should we assume that your interest burden should then consequently be lower in the second half? Thank you. Tax expense is always related with deferred taxes. As you know, we have losses carry forward available, so every quarter we make a new assumption. What can we compensate? That's the topic for the tax line. Also, we have a good tax reduction program in place that will really show where we can shift the earnings. We have different tax rates in the whole group. Also from the second question with the repayments of the loans, we have investments in China where we increased a little bit the portion for the CapEx loans on a very low interest base and repaid in Brazil, already started repayment in Brazil, the higher interest loans. This will also be, in the next quarter, our main topic, because now we see what is the expansion. The profits are there. So now we will also enlarge the repayments of high interest-bearing loans. Thank you. You are welcome. The next question comes from the line of Rajpal Kulwinder from Baader Europe. Please go ahead. Hello. Good afternoon, everyone. Hope you can hear me well. Three questions on my side as well. First of all, on IPO proceeds, I wanted to really understand how is the ramp-up of recycling proceeding in Brazil, and particularly to understand the timeline in Europe in particular because, it is an important aspect for reducing supply chain dependency. Secondly, on the order book, it is great to see that you have a good visibility until 2032, but I wanted to understand what happens if an end customer cancels an order with one of your customers. Do you have additional customers lined up who are willing to take up that capacity in case it gets canceled? How are you thinking about the risk of cancellations at this point? My last question is on pricing, excluding copper. Have you been able to pass on the pricing to your customers, particularly the high energy costs that we are seeing currently due to the geopolitical tensions? Or is there some pushback from the customers or any lag that you are seeing in pricing at this moment? Thank you. Thank you. Hello. First of all, I will start with the first question, IPO proceeds. The ramp-up for recycling for the first phase is done, well in operation, and we have the output what we expected now. The second is a little bit enlarged because there is also the ramp-up in the energy business, the shift from the round wire to the energy. We are good on track here. In Europe, at the moment, we are preparing all necessary steps for the implementation of the recycling capabilities, and we will have in September our next supervisor report meeting where we will present everything for the Europe. Second question? Second question, how are we impacted by cancellations of end customers towards our OEM customers? I understand this like this. So far we have not seen any cancellation of end customers. Also to our knowledge, we do not see. On the contrary, we see such a high demand that they try to get power transformers anywhere they can get it. More power transformers, let's say, are transported over other areas, and smaller power transformer producers are stepping into a pipeline, where there is a higher need which can be fulfilled. Also to be concrete in the case of long-term agreements or framework agreements, we are not impacted at all because the customer has to pay. Pricing. We still do higher pricing. We can put it through. As far as we saw that the EBITDA margin of net-value sales is increasing, we are quite confident that we not only keep it, but we want to go for the sky is no limit. Therefore, we do not stop our sales guys to go forward. I came back even from Andritz, Brazil, where we also are in negotiations for extensions there. That would be copper bars. All around the world is a very positive sentiment and a strong demand. Thank you. That is very clear. Appreciate it. Welcome. The next question comes from the line of Thomas Adolf from Exodus Point. Please go ahead. Mr. Adolf, your line is open. Mr. Adolf, we cannot hear you. Maybe your line is on mute. We proceed with the next question coming from the line of Kevin Tracey from Oberon Asset Management. Please go ahead. Mr. Tracey, your line is open. You can proceed with your question. Oh, can you hear me okay? Yes. Hello. Yes, we can hear you. Okay, great. Sorry about that. My first question is on your product mix. My understanding is that you have a much larger share in larger size transformers versus medium sized transformers, and I imagine these might be more profitable than average when you talk about product mix. First, can you, I guess, confirm or dispute whether that's right? Second, given the long-term agreements you've signed, do you have any visibility on changes in product mix between larger transformers and medium-sized transformers? Okay. Thank you. I take the two questions. The product mix is more sophisticated. Even if you have a large power transformer, it's not only the deviation between large power transformer and medium power transformer. You can even have a medium power transformer, which is very sophisticated. Specialties, they are taping and things like this. This can be for the product mix, also an upside. The difference you might keep in mind is that the design of a power transformer is a one load size. Sometimes it might be a new place where they can not have any limits in the volume and, let's say, the size of the power transformer. It's easier to design it and you can even go, let's say, with a CTC, which has a thicker and easier way of producing the CTC. Or you have a replacement in Europe where the size and the foundation below is the same. The request is a higher performance of this transformer. That would be reflected in a more difficult design for the CTC. It's not only between large transformer or medium size. It is, yes, but in between these two categories, there's also deviation between the two, which is reflected in the mix. I go back to your question. In the long-term agreements, we are underlying always that the last three months of a portfolio. That means, if the portfolio which we define in the contract is different, let's say changing towards substantially a lower diameter of the total portfolio or has especially high proof strengthening, in addition, this would lower the capacity of our production. Therefore, this is reflected in the long-term contract, meaning that all quarter by quarter, we are evaluating together with the customer this portfolio, which would put us into the opportunity to renegotiate prices only one-sided by us if the portfolio changes substantially, and this is defined in all long-term contracts. Got it. Okay. You have come to preliminary agreements with your major shareholder to sell and lease back your properties. What are the expected sales proceeds and the go forward related rent expense? With the sale-and-leaseback, as we have transparent in our Q2 report, we have the option contracts finalized per entity. It is finalized in Bosnia, in Austria, and in Brazil. India is postponed due to local regulations. We will see. The ongoing status is there are contracts in place, they are at arm's length, and we will see in the third quarter, fourth quarter how it will go on. It is not in our hand. Okay. Within financial expenses, second quarter interest was EUR 4.8 million, and this is against loans of only around EUR 80 million, which I believe most of which is relatively low-cost debt from affiliates. Relative to loans, the overall effective interest rate implied by your reported interest expense is very high. Can you explain this, and do you engage in quite a bit of off-balance sheet factoring or anything else that would explain the high interest expense relative to the debt? We are using a low million value of factoring that is also written in our financial statements 2025. The main topic is that we have hedging costs because we are operating in India, China, and Brazil, where you know from the rates, they are fluctuating, so there are also hedging costs in, and this is the main portion of the financial expenses. We always guided that in 2026, that we try to have a single-digit million financial result. Got it. Okay. Thank you. You are welcome. The next question comes from the line of Thomas Adolf from ExodusPoint. Please go ahead. Mr. Adolf, we cannot hear you. Unfortunately, we cannot hear you. The next question comes from the line of [Patrice Yag] from Amundi. Please go ahead. Yes, hello. Do you hear me? Yes. Hello. Yes, [Patrice]. Yes. Okay, perfect. Thanks. Thank you for taking my question. A question about, you mentioned that H2 will be impacted by the maintenance program. Last year, if we take last year, the sales were equally split between H1 and H2. There was no maintenance done last year in H2? You mean quarter two? No, H2 versus H1 in 2025. You mentioned that the net-value sales were equally split between H1 and H2 last year, if I do not make a wrong calculation. But I am pretty sure that it was equally split between the two half year. Okay. You mean because now the second year is the net-value sales is not that high. Yes We have a different product mix. We go down with the round wire business in Brazil. That means there you have a lower net-value sales with a lower margin compared to the energy. And we have in the energy segment, different products. That means in this energy, you have less quantity but higher margin. That is the reason why we increased the BAR to 37.6% of the first half year, and this reflects the different to last year's net-value sales. You are right. Okay, so last year, it was equally split between H1 and H2, but this year, due to what you said, we will have a difference. Is that? Correct. The maintenance will Okay. So will be more severe. Second question about, as you said, the difference on the finished and unfinished goods, it was much higher in this first half versus last year. So means that you are producing kind of capacity that you will deliver in H2. In accounting methodology, this unfinished good are recorded at cost of goods, so meaning that margin will be recorded in H2 when the sales will be done? A small portion of the margin because we have the margin increasement per production step also for unfinished goods and semi-finished goods, and this little portion will be reflected in the second half. That is right. Why we have an increase, it is two points. First, the increase of the output in Europe and in Bosnia and in India and in China. And the second topic is when we have more export business, then the risk has not been shifted over to the customer, and this happens in the first and the second quarter. Okay. Yes, thanks. You are welcome. I think we got to an end, more or less. We are running out of time. Hello? Okay, then I take over. Thank you very much, everybody, for your time, for all the questions and the interest in the company, ASTA. As you can see here, we will be attending a number of investors events between now and the end of the year, and we are looking forward to meeting you everywhere in person. For individual meeting requests, please contact our investor relation team. To close, I can only repeat, it is a great time to be in the energy industry now, and I want to reaffirm that ASTA is fully committed to creating shareholder value and returns, not only this year, but especially also the years ahead. The entire management team and all employees are firmly committed to continuing this growth over the coming years. Thank you very much for joining Daniela and me today. Have a great day. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.