Gurit Holding AG (0QQR) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning. I welcome you to the presentation of our half year 24 results. I'm here in GURIT's corporate office in Zurich together with my colleague Javier Perez, CFO. Let's start and have a look at today's agenda. I will start the presentation by providing you a business update highlighting the key events and achievements of the first half year. Javier will provide details on the financial performance before I spend a bit more time explaining our view on the markets and our full year outlook. Following the presentation, we have scheduled the Q&A session. So let's start with an initial look at the key financials of the first half of 24. After a slow start in the year, impacting sales of all business units, We experienced a stronger second quarter driven by ramp-ups of new wind blades and higher demands in the non-wind markets. This resulted in the first half net sales of 213.5 million francs, yielding an adjusted operating profit margin of 5.4%. We were able to decrease our net debt from 78 million Swiss in the previous year period to 63.4 million Swiss. Javier Perez will provide more details on the financial performance in his part of the presentation. So let's continue with the highlight of the first half. We start with the wind markets where we saw some encouraging developments. Strong permitting and auction improvements in the European Union and the renewed interest in onshore wind in the UK. The Inflation Reduction Act impacted the restart of numerous wind production sites in the US. China wind installations stay at good levels and, very important for GURIT, our structural profiles business is on track to deliver the targeted break-even performance this year. Still, we have seen headwinds approaching the industry and impacting our wind business. Western wind c...