Valeo SE (VLEEY) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining the presentation of our 26 H1 results, which I will present with Edouard Depiré, Valeo CFO. Over the next 20 minutes of our presentation, you will see that we have had a good H1, solidly in line with our guidance and with our Elevate 28 trajectory. Indeed, the first two engines of our trajectory, profitability and cash, are now confirmed on and running on an upward trend. And the third engine is ready, the return to growth from 27. On top of that, thanks to our cash duration, we have reduced our debt, which is remarkable for the first half of a year. Naturally, I will first walk you through the highlights, then Edouard will share more on our H1 performance. This presentation will be followed by a Q&A session that we will handle with Edouard. So to start on slide four, you will see that we are perfectly in line with our guidance with continued improvement in profitability and cash flow. The group sales totaled 10.4 billion euros. Our operating margin stands at 5%, which is 0.5 points higher than H1 last year. It's also 0.3 points higher than the full year 25, as well as from the bottom of our guidance. Free cash flow after net financial interest amounts to 242 million euros. That's more than double H1-25 and more than half of our minimum full-year guidance. Assuming stable conditions, we expect our H2 operating margin and free cash flow to be at least in line with H1. In this context, we reaffirm our guidance for the year. Moving to slide five now, our performance in H1 is proof of the three engines powering our Elevate28 strategic plan. As a reminder, the first engine profit, which has steadily increased since 22. The second engine is cash, also increasing structurally since last year. And third, a return to growth from 2...