Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, welcome to the media Q&A on the Q2 of 2026 of Siemens Energy. I'm Moritz. I'm your call operator. We would like you to know that all people attending are just in the listening room. The call will be recorded. You also have the opportunity to ask a question by hitting the asterisk and one number. Please be informed that you cannot record for your communication purposes. You will now be logged onto the communication room. Good morning, everybody. I'm Tim Proll-Gerwe. This is our earnings call for Q2 2026 of Siemens Energy. Like most of you know, we have slightly adjusted to the format of our earnings calls. There's not going to be a dedicated presentation by the members of the executive board when we get started with our Q&A. CEO Christian Bruch will be answering your questions, and since these are also half year numbers, Maria Ferraro, our CFO, is here as well, and she's happy to take your questions as well. On the 23rd of April, we've published our preliminary figures this morning at 7:00 A.M. There were no surprises, in other words. Here are the numbers. Siemens Energy has followed with a good second quarter despite the geopolitical tensions. We had record orders of EUR 17.7 billion orders and achieved improvements with all main indicators. The order intake was driven by data centers. We're talking about EUR 154 billion of orders, which is another EUR 8 billion more than in the past year. EUR 164 million profit posted before special items and net income was at EUR 835 million. The free cash flow, and this is what Maria Ferraro, our CFO, is really happy about, is almost EUR 2 billion. What I'm saying is this has been a strong second half year for Siemens Energy. On the 23rd of April, we've increased our outlook. We now expect 14%-16% of comparable revenue growth, a profit margin before special items of 10%-12% and a free cash flow of about EUR 8 billion. This is what we want to talk with you about. If you have questions for our CEO Christian Bruch or CFO Maria Ferraro on the numbers or any other questions really, please make use of your telephone line. Journalists have received the number before. If you want to ask a question, hit star and one on your keypad. As always, this call is shown on 2 or transmitted on 2 webcasts, 1 in the original line and 1 with an English version translated by our interpreters, but you can also ask written questions in the chat window. Let me also point out once again, only journalists will ask questions now. Analysts can do that later in the analyst call, and employees can do that also in their town hall meeting. Shareholders cannot ask questions because we often see questions in the chat window on the share price development, et cetera. We cannot answer those. Obviously, we want to ensure that there's no feedback and ask you to mute your line, and there's also a Safe Harbor Statement on forward-looking statements that you also see on the webcast. With that, let's get started with our Q&A. Mr. Bruch, before we take the first question from the journalists, I would ask you on a very brief one. The Middle East conflict is increasing now in terms of tensions and Siemens Energy has a footprint in the region of about 4,000 employees that I'm sure have had a difficult time. You did something that your colleagues on site have really appreciated. You traveled to the region to have a look at the situation with your own eyes. First question, why did you do that? What can you report from your trip? What was your impression that you've had? Thank you very much, and good morning, everybody. It's great you've all found the time today. On this general situation, I always want to see what's happening, what the security situation is on the ground, and also what the general conditions are for our colleagues in the area. We work there, we have a power plant footprint, but also industrial installations. With that in mind, it is important to understand what's happening. Our field service people who work in the region are the people that we wanted to talk to. I must say, I take great pride in how our team has resolved the situation there or is dealing with it. At the same time, we need to keep people safe, quite literally. Therefore, we need to take precautions in a situation that has been unusual for all of us. It's things like protecting them from flying debris. If anything happens, they have to be safe on the construction site, all the way to the fact that the power installations, power plants need to keep operating. This is what everyone has appreciated. Our customers have appreciated as well. Be it as it may, let me say once again, this is a challenging situation not only for our employees, for all people living in the area. As I myself, you know, was in the hotel. I get a mobile phone notification to proceed to a safe location. Well, that was an unusual situation, I found that the way that people deal with the situation, manage the situation is laudable. Again, it's not something we would wish for. No one would wish for. What is fantastic, I must say, is our team has kept operations going, and that was really remarkable. Well, thank you very much. Let's start with our Q&A. Christoph Meyer from DPA asks the first question. Please, you have the floor. Good morning. Can I follow up to what you just said, your trip to the Middle East? Can you say a word or two about the impact on Siemens Energy's business? In the sense that high commodity risks will have a negative impact on your business. Is there any equipment or established fleet in the region affected by attacks in the region, so the military attacks? Second question about Gamesa. Not yet broken even yet. Is it going to happen, the break even in the third or the fourth quarter? What do you think? Okay, thank you very much. Let me talk about the Middle East once again. If you look at the financial indicators, the impact is almost negligible. What we do see is that higher transportation costs, we have higher transaction costs, partly. Again, this is nothing that's significant at all. In financial terms, no. Now, when it comes to orders, in the past quarter, we had an order intake in several countries from that region, Oman, the Emirates, Saudi Arabia as well. With that in mind, the business continues. There are some projects, you have seen that with transformation of industry in the oil and gas sector that have just shifted sideways just because of the situation. Again, I see discussions are ongoing. In other words, I do not believe that the order intake will change in the medium term. However, we have seen that in those countries, there has been a short-term focus on keeping things going, keeping operations going, that is. As far as are we are concerned, our equipment, our installations have not been affected. We had one installation where we had falling debris. Anti-drone defense has worked really well, but still the debris will need to fall down somewhere. It was nearby our installations, but nothing has been damaged. What we do see, however, is that in some places we have increased demand now because other infrastructure elements are now needed. In Saudi Arabia, there's a new pipeline that they operated towards the Red Sea to export oil from there. We are involved in that as well. With that in mind, so far, so good. In terms of Gamesa, we have always said that in the second half of the year or towards the end of the second part of the year, that will be visible. I don't think then we're across the finish line in Q3, we need Q4 as well for that. Thank you very much. Next question from Christoph Steitz, Reuters. Mr. Steitz. Good morning. A couple questions. First one on the U.S. tariffs and paying back or claiming back U.S. tariffs. Mr. Bruch, do you claim those tariffs back? Because in the past fiscal year, you paid about EUR 200 million in tariffs or tariff damage, if you will. Do you claim them back from the U.S. government? If so, have you done it already and towards June? When would you expect a payback of those prepaid tariffs? That would be the first question. For Ferraro. One on the share buyback, which you are now accelerating. How about increasing the overall volume of the share buyback? Is that something that you're considering at the moment, due to the financial performance of the company? An add-on question on I mean, you're saying that the Middle East crisis doesn't really have an impact on you. Could we still get what oil price you're assuming in your models for the entire year? If you could give us an idea about that'd be very helpful. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Steitz. I'll start with tariffs, and then Maria will take over. Of course, we are looking at the situation because you need to see what's happening. That's a normal process because there's one thing we need to bear in mind. A lot of those tariffs were paid for by our customers. What that means is we're obliged to handle the situation properly. We need to see how this develops. The amount that we've named or mentioned was a short-term bottom line effect. However, in our customer agreements, there are provisions on who's paying what. With that in mind, yes, we are involved in this process right now, but we do not expect any major net effect on our bottom line because many of those tariffs have either been passed on or are being clarified. What that means, it's rather an administrative handling of the situation rather than any special effect. Thank you. Hello, Christoph, good morning, and thank you for your questions. Starting with the first one on the share buyback. Yes, we are accelerating, maybe just to put that into context, we had a very strong first half for free cash flow, with the first quarter being just shy of EUR 3 billion and now EUR 2 billion in our Q2. That, as you know, has contributed to the upgrade and increasing of our guidance to EUR 8 billion. As of last week, the end of last week, or currently, we're about at a EUR 1.8 billion in shares already purchased back, hence why we said we would continue to purchase up to EUR 1 billion of additional volume in this fiscal year. Essentially preponing, if you'd like, EUR 1 billion from next year, because if you recall, we indicated approximately a EUR 2 billion per annum buyback volume estimated. At this point in time, you know, we're going to continue to purchase, as indicated, and stay tuned for if there's going to be a change in the capital allocation that's not contemplated at this point. We're still sticking with the EUR 6 billion, you know, up until 2028, and step by step, let's do this additional EUR 1 billion this year. With respect to the oil price, yes, of course, we're watching this, and even at around $105 per barrel, you know, especially in our business, we're not looking at this from a short-term perspective. Our business is very long-term in nature, as you know, and in the models, they account for some of that fluctuation or let's say, volatility. At this point in time, we don't see this as a major effect. Of course, we're watching it closely. Should it go above 120, 130, 150, et cetera, then that would be something different. Actually, in just to maybe put this into perspective, in certain parts of the world where, let's say, increasing oil and gas prices are even more acutely felt, we're seeing that customers are continuing to want to buy and to proceed with, you know, business as usual, per se. Just to put that into perspective. Thank you for the questions. Thank you very much. Let me remember. Hit star and one if you want to ask a question. There's one question from the chat for you, Mr. Bruch, from Sergio G. Carevic from elEconomista.es in Spain. Question about Gamesa. What has been Siemens Energy's reaction to the proposal by José Manuel Entrecanales, the CEO of Acciona and the main shareholder of Nordex, regarding the idea of creating a European leader in wind turbines? Deutsch, English, Spanish. German, English, or Spanish? English. Okay. Thank you for the question. No, I said, you know, I'm not commenting on speculations in the market. This discussion around consolidation in the wind industry is on for a long time. That is not just a European question. I think it's a Western question, which will continue to stay around. This is just speculations, nothing to comment about it. Okay. That was short and decisive. Next question from Axel Höpner from Handelsblatt. Good morning, Mr. Höpner. Good morning. Two questions. Data center order intake, how high is the share here? The second question is: what is the current state of play with regards to the turbines which have been reserved in Germany, and what's going to happen in the future? Good morning, Mr. Höpner. Data centers, when you talk about the gas turbines, it's approximately a share of 25% with regards to the order intake in general. Within the 20%-25% level, we try to keep the situation as it is on a long-term basis. This also means that the large amount and the capacity utilization of the plants depends on the entire electricity development. Conventional class electrification with regards to the grid plants, transformers, it's below 10%. In the overall year, EUR 2 billion in general were used for data centers within the entire grid. We try to find the right balance because we want to have a portfolio which is as diverse as possible with regards to the order intake. Gas power plants, we still have long-term plans. Everything has been reserved so far, and we try to get into the discussions with the operators. We want to have a veritable share of these capacities for which we want to have a public tender, and we are discussing this in close cooperation with our customers. I do hope that in the second half of the year, at least with regards to the governments, we will be able to cross the finish line. With regards to the order intake 2027, this will be of utmost significance, but our plans are still very solid. Thank you very much. There is 1 question that you already answered. We have another question from Jose Ruiz. [Non-English content]. What is the percentage of new orders coming from data centers? You answered the question. Second question is: can you quantify the evolution of pricing in the Gas Services division? Are you seeing cross-selling opportunities between Gas Services and Grid Technologies? Onto the prices. Oh, no. English. Yeah, sorry. Apologies. With regard to the pricing, we publish once a year, every quarter for our pricing development in the different segments, then new units, particular, which is relevant for Gas Services. This used to be, for example, in the, let's say, fiscal year 2025, which was last year, around 500 basis points on the back of prior. Price increases. What we are saying for 2026, it has been substantial price increases since then. You will only see a quantification then with quarter four. We do it obviously not quarter by quarter because it could be confusing because it is volatile. At the end, it's important to see it overarchingly on a full year. In the quarter four, you will see the details on it. On the cross-selling opportunities, absolutely. I mean, that is an opportunity that is, by the way, not only related to data centers, that is really across the board. That is not just between Gas Services and Grid Technologies. We, in the last quarter, had one project where we combined wind and Grid Technologies. That is an opportunity, particularly if it comes to offshore wind. These are things which we obviously try to leverage. Next question from Clara Thier from WirtschaftsWoche. Good morning, Mrs. Thier. Your question, please. Good morning. I have two questions. First of all, concerning transformation of industry. There are wonderful figures that we've presented, but there is one particular arrow where the orders have declined significantly or slightly due to the hesitation of the customers due to the situation in the Middle East. Is this a behavior which is limited in time, or is it more a structural problem? There are sometimes difficulties with, like, this section and transformation of industry. Second question: During the AGM, you announced that with regards to the Mozambique LNG, you would provide us with additional information or that you would rather try to get additional information. Have you done so? If so, what's your conclusion? Order intake, TI. This is of a limited nature. We think that things will change rather quickly, and we also think that this will be the case with a view to the future. New developments will set in. Basically saying transformation of industry rather has conventional process industry customers, chemical, gas, and other process-based industrial operations. Here, the momentum is different compared to the conventional electrification business. Here the situation is a bit more balanced, but we are confident that we will have a healthy book-to-bill order intake with regards to the revenue situation, also with a view to the future, and the postponed order intake will be realized in the near future. With regards to Mozambique, we are still in close contact with TotalEnergies. No deliveries have taken place so far, if I remember correctly. Now I have to look over to my colleague, he gives me a nod. We are still in the middle of discussions. We are trying to review the framework conditions. I cannot provide you with any news compared to the situation back at the AGM. Thank you. There are 2 more questions. This is your last chance. If you want to ask a question, hit star one or use the chat. 1 question in the chat comes from Michael Jenewein from EnergiWatch in Denmark. The first question was already answered by you, Mr. Bruch. Back to reach break even for Siemens Gamesa, you answered that. The second question is, what will be the main drivers to reach break even? We have presented. We showed a couple of elements during our Capital Markets Day. Obviously it is between improving the service profitability, making sure that the quality costs get under control in the onshore, increasing productivity on the offshore factory side, and the fourth element was general cost reduction in the corporate structures. Also, I mean, if you recall, we indicated when we did the takeover of the minorities in Siemens Gamesa, we also indicated that we believe in synergies of around EUR 300 million, which are well on track, I have to say, in terms of being realized. We are working on all ends. The situation, throughout the year, and I said it before, is a bit more challenging because the order intake is slightly lower than we expected in wind, and this is why we obviously have to continue to work on the cost mitigation. This is what we're doing and what the team is doing, in light of this. These are more or less the four levers, what we pulled to achieve the break even. The team is doing an excellent job, I have to say. Thanks. The next question via telephone, Marilen Martin from Bloomberg. Hello, Mrs. Martin. Thank you so much. I have a question concerning the situation that you do not want to focus on data centers only. What's your customer base with regards to data centers? Are these individual key accounts, and what is their regional dissemination? You also mentioned Poland in the press release. What's the demand there? Is it limited in time, or is it a long-term demand? With regards to the data centers, you can see that quite obviously. That's very interesting because we have different customer groups. On the one hand, we've got the conventional project developers that establish the data centers and make them available. You've got the tech companies which are involved directly in the business operations. Of course, you also have customers who are gas suppliers and try to turn it into electricity in order to region arbitrage. It's a rather broad base of customers, different customers. To all, to suit our own interests, of course. What was the second question again? Poland. Oh, yes. Poland developed in a very positive way. We were quite successful there as well. There is something that we consider to be a region which is of strategic significance for us in Europe, not only with a view to gas, and that's what you referred to, but also with regards to wind. In the offshore wind sector, we received a lot of important orders, and of course, we're catching with Grid as well. Poland continues to be in our focus. Thank you very much. The next question comes from the chat from Antje Meyer. She works for the Börsen-Zeitung. Transformation of industry does not grow that strongly than gas turbines and Grid, and the number of orders have declined. For the four different sectors, Transformation of Industry, could you explain to us what the market developments will be and how the four sectors are doing in the market? Well, hello, Mrs. Meyer. I wouldn't say that orders have declined, it's an industrial business operation, you see. It is not so much volatile as it used to be in the field of electricity in the past, this book-to-bill of 2.5 or so can never be reached. Of course, it also has become very obvious that industries such as chemicals are characterized by a great deal of reluctance. I do hope, and I'm confident that we have a stable outlook of a healthy book-to-bill, which means 1 and above. Let us zoom in on the four different sectors or areas. Compression and steam. Good developments can be projected also with regards to compression. Oil and gas will also help us make additional investments into the infrastructure. Here, the high oil price is of help to us, to say it honestly. With regards to steam, we have reached a high level of profitability. I'm also confident with the number of incoming orders because new applications will be used. First data centers will also use turbines. It's a very good market with a view to the future, so we think there are new growth opportunities. Energy is a very broad area from Navy, electrification of different plants. It's an area which in the medium realm will continue to grow in double-digit numbers. That's what we said on the occasion of the capital market. You know, it changes from quarter to quarter because it's a rather small segment. In general terms, I'm very positive. What is weak is SES. These are the electrolyzers. The factory is working hard on that, and there are still some projects which are about to be executed, but we are a far cry from the speculations or expectations that existed with regards to hydrogen. This will not change in the near future. There will be projects here and there, and we will stick to the technology, but it's not really yet a commercial market. Let me just add to that, but remember that five years ago you said that up until the end of the decade, it will not be a commercial market. Therefore, your intention was right. Yes, does it help? It's a pity, you know. Being on the right there doesn't really help you. Okay, point taken. Next question from the tech comes from Philip Akoto from Energate. Delivery times for gas turbines, how have they developed? How long do customers have to wait on average once they place an order? In 2025, you spoke about four years for gas turbines. I'd like to set the stage for you. I would like to repeat this once again. Yes, this is the delivery time that still applies, but we try to become more flexible, whether we shift things back and forth, where there is a demand for smaller turbines that we try to cover in greater numbers because they can be delivered much quicker. The utilization rate is still the same. Let me explain to you that every year, with regards to gas turbines and also Grid Technologies, which means transformers and switch units, we try to increase our capacity. Therefore, it is to be expected that in the course of the next few years, the situation will get better. With a view to the big transformers, we have reached delivery times of three to four years. Last week, I think it was last week, we had groundbreaking ceremonies for three more plants. We are running at full speed, and we're trying to increase our capacities year by year. It will take some time before we get into the right situation, but I think in the next few years to come, we will be able to generate healthy growth and get back to normal with regards to the delivery times before the end of the decade. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. I go back to the chat window. Michael Jenewein is something that we heard from EnergiWatch. He has a question on Siemens Gamesa. Orders are lower than expected in offshore wind. What are your expectations in the offshore business for the rest of the year? He also asks, are you concerned that your growth in orders are so much lower than investors, and why is it so? I mean, this is probably to the quality issues, but over to you. Yeah, this is only related to offshore. No, I mean, first of all, what you have seen, I mean, offshore is always a bumpy business because an order is in the billion or billions, and then obviously, it is volatile, and you always have seen that. 2027, we always expect it as a low. Sorry, 2026 was we have always expected as a low, and then we said more will come in 2027. We have on top of that seen some of the orders shifting from 2026 to 2027. This is also what we see, for example, in Asia, happening. If you relate to comparison, I'm not commenting on competitors, but obviously this is heavily impacted by the Auction Round 7, where some specialties were in terms of the prior agreements. No, I don't see that as a concern. I see it obviously that if you take, let's say, the current European suppliers in offshore, we can serve the total market. I think that is an important message to the customers. I obviously confident that we are able to secure enough orders going forward. Where I'm concerned is that obviously projects which are planned are not getting to FID fast enough. That is mainly also related. Keep in mind, the interest rates have gone up substantially. All the projects face now challenges, which have been auctioned like years ago at a lower interest rate to face now higher interest rate and with this less profitability. This is where I think the policymakers need to think through of what can they do as boundary conditions to ease investment decisions in companies who are investing into offshore wind parks. We are trying to explain to governments that's really needed because we do need offshore wind, particular in Europe. I have to correct myself a little bit. Those were two different questions, so I put them all together. The question regarding Vestas and are we concerned, growth, in order intake was not related to offshore. It's a general question. No, I mean, obviously Vestas is larger than us in wind, obviously we pursue a different strategy, particular in onshore. Onshore is for me about de-risking profitability of service business, then let's see where we take it from there. obviously this was on the back of fixing the quality matters, this is what we're working toward. No, I'm not concerned. We see substantial interest also now with bringing the onshore products back into the market from the customer side. In that regard, I'm not concerned. There's another question from a journalist, Togi Tomas. He asked whether there is any chance that Siemens Gamesa will de-merge as the business is pulling down the improvement of GT and GS. There's no plans at the moment. Okay. Next question is again from Christoph Steitz from Reuters. Please. I would like to know once again, because you said before that tariffs is not going to have a major net effect, but can you still contextualize what are we talking about? Is it double-digit millions that you want to claim back? I mean, could you just say a few more things on that? Thank you. We said before that we paid a lower triple figure amount in millions. EUR 200 million was what we talked about before, now everything is under review and under discussion. What we don't know at this point is which of the funds are allocated to what segment, what could be refunded, what could not be refunded, because the process is not as banal as it sounds. There have been different tariff regimes, tariff numbers or codes. I would be cautious to say that, look, this is the amount that we expect. Therefore we are saying everything and everything we're saying, in fact, of our annual guidance, et cetera, is not based on our belief that we will get something back. If something comes back, well, you know, fair enough, and that's good, but it's no specific plan. And it could actually go forward until quite a while until this is all processed. We had some outflows, and therefore we've referred to the lower, triple-digit million range. Then we have to see whether all of this is eligible, if you can say it like that, or not. We're right in that process. What we did do is, you need to register first. If you had an interest in, you know, clarifying that, and that's what we did. Excellent. Now, currently, there are no further questions. With that, let's end our Q&A for the day. Thank you so much for attending, for your kind interest and the many questions. If you do have more questions, the press team and myself personally will be available. The analyst call will start at 10:30 A.M. with CEO Christian Bruch and CFO Maria Ferraro. You can dial in as well. However, you cannot ask questions anymore. You'll find that link on our website. The next regular journalist Q&A will be on the 5th of August, which will be the 3rd quarter press call, also with Christian Bruch again. With that, have a great day. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our phone call. Thank you very much for attending. See you soon.