Nordex SE (NDX1) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

A very warm welcome from the Nordics team in Hamburg. Thank you for joining the Q1 2026 results management call. As always, we ask you to take notice of our Safe High Harbor statements. With me are our CEO Jose Luis Blanco and our CFO Dr. Ilya Hartmann, who will lead you through the presentation. Afterwards, we will open the floor for your questions. And now I would like to hand over to Jose Luis. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much for the introduction, Anja. As well, on behalf of the Management Board, I'd like you to welcome to our first quarter result of 2026. Let's start with a recap of the first three months of the year. Overall, we are pleased to report that the first quarter of the year represents a positive start into the year for Nordex, generally in line with our expectations. We continue to execute well operationally, deliver further marketing improvements, and enter the year with a strong financial position. We maintain a strong presence in our core European markets, with Europe representing 97% of the total project order intake. Germany remains our most important market, followed by Turkey and Sweden. Project order intake amounted to 1.9 gigawatts, which is slightly down year on year. And this development needs to be seen in the context of a particularly strong comparison base in Q1 and Q4 of last year. More importantly, the underlying demand environment and pricing remains stable. Secondly, we continue to deliver solid operational performance across the businesses. the total revenue reached 1.6 billion 11 growth year on year project revenue accounted for 87 percent of total revenue also growing by 11 driven by consistent progress in execution and deliveries Parallel, severed revenue represented 14% of the total and grew as well 11% year-round. Thirdly, profitability improved further in the first quarter. We achieved an EBITDA margin of 8.2%, reaching levels above 8% already in first quarter. And thirdly, our cash position remains very solid. At the end of the first quarter, we reported a cash position of $1.8 billion. Working capital continued to normalize, moving back to around minus 9%, which is consistent with the seasonality of our business. On the strategic side, we continue to see supportive market fundamentals, particularly in Europe and in Germany. Overall, the first quarter confirms that we are on track to deliver on our guidance for 2026. We have started the year with improved margins, continued revenue growth, strong financial position, providing a solid foundation for the quarters ahead. And with this, let's move a little bit more to the next slide for details. First quarter of 2026 saw order intake in line with our expectations. In Q1 26, turbine order intake totaled 1.7 billion, corresponding to 1.9 gigawatts. Order was received from 13 different countries. Average selling price increased to 0.91 million per megawatt compared to 0.87 million per megawatt in Q1-25. This increase was driven by regional mix and project scope. From a regional perspective, Europe accounted for 97% of the order intake. And as always, while we are not providing specific guidance for the year, we remain comfortable in our order intake momentum for this year. Let's move to the next slide, the order book. Let me briefly comment on the development of our order book. At the end of the third quarter, our combined order book amounted to close to 17 billion, reflecting continued momentum in both segments. The turbine order book stood at 10.5 billion, with most orders scheduled for installation in Europe, followed by North America, rest of the world, and Latino America. In the service segment, the order book increased to 6 billion. By the end of the quarter, almost 14,000 turbines were covered by service agreement corresponding to an install base of 49.4 gigawatts. Overall, the order book development supports planning visibility and reflects the expansion of our install base over the past years. Let's talk about the service business. Looking at the first three months of 26, Six, I can confirm that our service business continue to develop positively. Service revenue increased to 218 million euros, and service sales represented around 14% of total group revenues. At the same time, service ebit margin improved further to 19.2%. As we have mentioned before, the margin recovery in service is not linear, but the underlying trend remains clear and steady. This development is supposed by an expanding service order book, contract tenor, and continued discipline in execution. Operationally, fleet availability remains stable at around 97%, And the average tenor of the service contract increased to over 13 years, supporting visibility and stability in the service business. Overall, the first quarter development confirms the continuing improvement in service margin, progressing towards our mid-term EBITDA margin target of crossing 20%. Let's move to the next slide, our installation and production figures. Installations increased to 227 turbines across 14 countries, up 10% in megabytes year-on-year. Installations were mainly focused on Europe, followed by South Africa. At the same time, turbine production increased to 249 units compared to 209 in Q1 last year, largely tracking project scheduling and delivery requirements. Bay production remained stable in the quarter despite temporary delays at one supplier facility in Turkey.

Overall, operationally, the activity in the first quarter developed in line with our expectations, supporting execution of readiness for the higher activity in the quarters ahead. and now i would like to hand over to william for the financials thank you uh welcome also from my side and as usual i will guide us through financials in starting with the income statement so i've mentioned battles release in the first three months of this year sales rose by around 11 percent to 1.6 billion from 1.4 billion in q1 of 2025 this development was primarily driven by higher activity levels in both our project and service business we again further strengthened our gross margins reaching 29.4 percent in this first quarter compared to 27.3 percent in the same period of last year. As a result, we generated an absolute EBITDA of 89 million, which is higher substantially than 35 million in the first three months of 2025. This development translates to further EBITDA marginal improvement from 5.5% to 8.2% year-on-year. On the back of this operating performance, we reported a net profit of $54 million for the quarter, representing a substantial improvement, versus the $8 million in Q1 of last year. And with this, we already move on to the balance sheet. Looking at the balance sheet, the overall structure remains on a comparable level when looking at year-end 2025. We ended the first quarter of 26 with a cash position of 1.8 billion, as already mentioned by also as well, and then the working capital normalized from minus 12.4 percent end of the year to minus 9 percent end of this past quarter. Equity ratio improved and reached 19.4 percent at the end of the first quarter, and then course this development is largely driven by a further increase in net profit now together let's have a look the other balance sheet kpis on the next slide so the next net cash as a result reached 1.5 billion euros at the end of the quarter and remaining at a arguably strong level in a quarter which is usually softer working capital ratio one more time at minus nine percent or in total numbers 690 million at the end of the quarter which is a reflection of the normalization in working capital usual for a for a q1 and with that let's go to the cash flow and capex slide cash flow from operating activities before that working capital stood at 175 million years at the end of the quarter and again reflecting the strong operational performance of the company with the working capital normalizing as i just said cash flow from operating activities after working capital amounted to minus 69 at the end of the quarter million of course and as a result we generated a negative free cash flow of minus 98 million euros in the first quarter of this year however for the full year we continue to expect a solid free cash flow generation capex spendings amounted around 27 million in that quarter and this is pretty similar to the ones in the previous year our investment focus remained largely unchanged compared to last year with investments primarily in blade in the cell production facilities and tooling for installations, and transport. And with that, I would like to hand it over back to Boris for the guidance slide. Thank you very much, Ilya.

And based on a healthy first quarter, I would like to confirm our guidance we set at the end of February and that we expect profitable growth to accelerate in 2026. This is, of course, assuming no material disruption in the market due to recent geopolitics development and market normalizing at some point during the first half of the year. Our guidance for 2026 is as follows. Sales between 8.2 and 9 billion euros, meaning a top-line growth between 9% to 18% year-on-year. The EBITDA margin in the range of 8% to 11%. We believe that midpoint plus is the most likely outcome as of today, working capital ratio below minus 9%, capex, approximately 200 million. Regarding free cash flow, as Ilya mentioned, we don't provide formal guidance. However, based on the building blocks we have shared, you can likely conclude that we are position to deliver another solid free cash flow year. And with this, handing over to Ania to open for Q&A.

Thank you, gentlemen, for the presentation. Lorenzo, you can now please start with the Q&A.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered in the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participant requests to use all the headsets while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from the line of Aya Patel from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you very much for the presentation. Two questions, if I mind. if we look at the quarterly performance like the first quarter despite being a relatively low revenue quarter has delivered quite a sizable increase in margins and if you kind of extrapolate that into the rest of the year it would imply a bit more than the midpoint statement that we just said over the course of the presentation so I was wondering to what degree you could maybe point to as how the profile of margin will evolve over this year not giving a forecast but just understanding why that if you have a relatively low revenue quarter this way you've got a good margin but then the future quarters should have sizable operational leverage which should lead to quite substantial increase in those quarters too so if you could help us with the dynamics there that would be really helpful and then the second question was more around just more policy than anything else. In March, there was a paper out which was on the EU Industrial Accelerator Act, and it had some restrictive EU origin requirements. I just wondered if you could just talk to that and how that may affect your portfolio for at all. Thank you.

Yep. Let's do this together, Ilya. I think regarding the first quarter, as we always mentioned the majority of the activity is always in the second in the second half of the year and this is a project business so the the composition of the marking you know changes with with the scope with you know quality and quantity of of your projects you are executing in your planning phase. So, yes, you might get some general early indications, and this is why with information we have as of today and with the disclaimers that these geopolitics get settled in the first quarter, in the first half of the year, we think we can do you know middle point plus so we see slightly more chances than risk to exceed the midpoint but to go more into details I don't know if you can provide more light I'd say probably combining

in one response hopefully too so A to the profile I think for calibrating I think we did that on a full year call So, yes, a step up in total and percentage numbers in the probability, probably to a similar pattern, different absolute terms, obviously, than last year. So, that's how I would see the trajectory. And second, the important points on what it looks today in the actual school has made, I would just make one addition. As you said, AJ, it's a bit of a slow, weaker revenue-wise quarter.

So, this is why service margin outweighs and outperforms a bit. so i i don't think you can necessarily extrapolate um that first quarter to the rest and regarding the industry the eu industrial acceleration act i think uh is is a policy in the right direction uh you know our sector as as everybody now understand is super critical for you know not only to fight climate change but to deal with affordability and we saw that in the options in Germany to deal with a resilient energy market to have energy sovereignty and to have technology sovereignty as the role that this sector plays to national security and critical to critical infrastructure. So, what the EU Industrial Acceleration Act is somehow trying to address is to make sure that roadblocks are removed to unleash demand growth. A good example was a very successful case in Germany. So, hopefully, this Acceleration Act will provide some leeway as well for other countries to follow, and somehow we'll put in value what our sector brings to governments and to society in terms of affordability, resilience, and autonomy.

Great. Thank you very much.

The next question comes from the line of Konstantin S. from Jeffries. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much for taking my questions. First of all, congrats on another really strong print. I've got three questions, please. The first one related to the Middle Eastern conflict. Now, so I think last week you were in an article in Recharge, and this morning I spoke to Ilya as well, and it doesn't really seem that you guys are seeing much headwinds currently, either in terms of supply chain or inflation at the moment, at least in Q1, but Q2 doesn't really seem to be an issue there as well. So I'm wondering, you know, you're obviously assuming that you can do midpoint plus if the situation ends in the first half. So what exactly are you seeing in Q2 which would change that view if this conflict continues into the second half? That would be the first question.

I mean, as in a project business, everything is about risk and chances. Of course, this situation has had some some impact that we were able to deal with with the chances in in other areas of the of the business and and regarding q2 i would say all things being equal uh you know we should be able to deal with that as well. For us, the biggest concern is security of supply. If one thing is price of what you procure, this is quite volatile. There are certain cost factors that, you know, regardless what the price in the market, you know, versus were contracted. So, you know, the high prices in the market It might not hit you in your P&L, although it might have some impact. The biggest concern is if the situation prolongs for long, we might start to see disruptions in supply, which will affect our ability to deliver. And then there is a knock-on effect that might impact more 27 than 26, which is inflation. that this will potentially bring to the markets where we operate, but not that much in 26, potentially in 27.

Understood. Okay. Question number two then on order intake for the remainder of the year. So, you know, you obviously made a statement in a presentation where you're confident about the sustainability of the trajectory of order intake. Assuming the U.S. does not happen this year, Are there any markets in Europe which are, you know, other obviously than Germany having lower auctions compared to last year, are there any other markets that are potentially underperforming and would lead to a view where you would tell yourself that order intake could potentially be below last year or are basically all markets performing pretty well and therefore we should expect probably flat orders assuming no change in the U.S.?

I would say with the typical disclaimer, Konstantin, that we don't guide all the state, we see, I would say, all regions we are organized performing business as usual. Let's put it that way. Maybe some challenges in Nordics due to temporary low electricity prices. But materially speaking, this could be compensated by slightly more volume in other regions. So I will, U.S. apart, I will consider the situation stable.

Thank you so much. And then last question. Now, this one is a little bit harder to answer, and I get it, but I'm just trying to, I just want to get your view on this. So if Germany really transitions to the EEG27 the way it currently is, meaning we would go into contracts for difference, radius batch, you wouldn't be awarded for that anymore if you're curtailed. So clearly the return environment is getting worse for the developer. I understand that Germany wants to auction 10 gigawatts per annum until 2032, but I'm assuming that if the developer isn't getting a good return, we won't see the 10 gigawatt. So I'm trying to figure out how do you think the market will evolve from the current feed-in tariff to the contracts for difference? What are you hearing from developers about keeping these volumes running at these higher levels, i.e. 10 gigawatts?

It would be great to get your view on this. yes no our view and our strong advice to policy makers is to think well through the changes so the changes can be implemented in a way that volumes are not delayed because on the positive aspects we saw the beauty of of bringing permits to the market The auctions were, you know, reducing prices quarter and quarter, contributing massively to one of the key concerns of all governments, which is affordability. So we are part of the affordability. We are part of the resilience of the strategic autonomy. So if you delay that, that's not good for Germany. So I hope that this is taken into account, but you name it. I think every time that a system changes from Model A to Model B, there are going to be adaptations needed that might or might not affect volumes. You know, we saw the opposite a few years ago when German implemented the overarching and overriding public interest, which accelerates the market. So hopefully this is taken into account by the policymakers and volumes are somehow stable. I mean, the redispatch discussion is a good one to have, but, you know, who carried that risk? the developer or the system if you are aiming for net zero you know the path is clear the end game is clear so maybe it's not very smart to push that risk to the developers because it's going to be more expensive for the system because they need to price it so i think hopefully they will take this into account and hopefully this change does to compromise the speed of the energy transition which by the way we are late in our in our overall

targets across europe and in germany as well ilia but i think i i see it the same way i think um from those uh two points you mentioned constantine in the in the legislative process i i'm not so concerned about that they would be touching volumes, the total volumes of the market. Could there be some outliers of people being unreasonable or some irrational behavior when bidding into the auctions? Yes, that can happen, always happens. But by and large, it is what José Luis said. If you, and that's not a German discussion, I mean, go back to any given US project. If you have a PPA where your offtaker takes it as produced, you offer price A. If the optaker wants you to bear the curtailments and the risk of the uncertainty of the curtailments, you get a price of A plus X. So the market should resolve that. The underlying question for policymakers is whether it's cheaper to bear that on the system directly or through indirect effects on bidding. But I think on the total volume, that, again, provided largely rational behavior, that shouldn't change. And the same is true for the CFE mechanism. If I'm to now get an opener clause to go to direct marketing and you, let's say, don't get that in the future, well, you will have to bid initially your auction a bit with a different level. So pricing will basically adjust for whatever the legislature decides.

And we should not forget that this journey requires grid deployment and renewables deployment at a great scale. So I encourage more policymakers to accelerate the grid deployment to deal with the curtailments than to decelerate the capacity deployment of Wynonshore, which is going to delay on all main KPIs, on net zero, on resilient, on affordability, on everything.

Understood. Thank you so much. The next question comes from the line of Vivek Mida from Citi. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much everyone. Good afternoon. I have a couple of questions. I'll go one at a time if I may. The first one is a follow-up around your comment around cost inflation potentially being more of a 2027 topic than 26. I was wondering if you could give some color or commentary around where you see your pricing power. I mean, customer returns are maybe a bit more squeezed than where they were post-COVID. We've seen the auction prices in Germany fading, but then on the other hand, the turbine prices have spiked. We have, of course, still a pretty strong German market in volume terms and so on.

I mean, how do you see how easy it'll be to push on higher prices given that cost inflation thank you no thank you for the question i mean i i think it's q1 what i can comment in q1 that q1 we are happy with the quality of the intake for the quarters ahead or for and for 2027 is too early to comment on that but you name it I think if oil is costing more logistic might cost more, resins might cost more and then the rest is what are the other levers the other levers is what is the price allowable price for the market and this is supply and demand and competition we will try to do our best to capture the best possible prices as it should be. And then there is efficiency gains and productivity gains that we need to squeeze further to deal with this margin pressure that we might have, provided we cannot pass those post increases directly to customers.

That's clear. Thank you. My other question was just a follow-up on the free cash flow. So, in general, completely agree that working capital to sales should generally improve from here seasonally, given this is Q1. But the payables line does still stand out as quite a bit higher than where it was, say, six months or so ago. So, is there anything we should bear in mind about how that particular line should develop? Should it stay at this sort of level for the coming quarters?

I think this one I'll take. No, that's a good observation, Vivek. However, this is just the size of the business and how the manufacturing, the production, everything is lumped, so to speak, in general terms. And again, one more time without guiding anybody, I would repeat my statement from the full year call that we clearly expect a conversion rate more normal than last year. not that high, but a conversion rate of EBITDA to cash of around 50%.

Thank you.

The next question comes from the line of Richard Dawson from Berenberg. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. I've got two, please. Firstly, on services, there was another step up in service order intake this quarter to what looks to be a new record level. Is this a reflection of a better renewal rate than before, or is this more just a generally growing and store base within projects? That's my first question. And the second one, more of a broader question on the industry. ASPs looked elevated this quarter. I appreciate there's some geographical scope in there on why it's a bit higher. But I guess the main thing is it looks like pricing discipline has been pretty well maintained within Europe. What are your views on the industry competition? We've spoken about the re-entry of Gameta into Europe. But what about some of the Indian OEMs that are looking to re-enter or to enter the European market?

Thank you, Richard, for the question. So, I would say services, I mean, we are steadily growing that business and improving profitability, but, you know, improvement doesn't happen overnight. It's a low pace of improvement, let's put it that way. We expect to continue, provided things keep working as they are working. We are super happy with the technology. And in the service business, of course, the main driver is reliability on the technology and then efficiency that the growth brings and dealing with potential inflationary pressures we might have on people and on certain materials. So we expect the journey to continue, but a steady pace. I think there should not be expected big jumps. We always say high single-digit, low double-digit growth, and whatever profitability that this growth might bring to the business for things being equal. Regarding the industry and ASP, I mean, ASP is, as we always mention, an indicator, which is an indicator that doesn't reflect, in fact, the quality of the business and is driven mainly by in this case you know i cannot disclose the quality on the order intake but we are happy with the quality of the intake has not deteriorated but the key contribution for the sp is geography and product and product mix regarding how this could affect in the in the future with new commerce. So hopefully the market will grow in the areas where we operate to accommodate the newcomers and long term or medium term. And I think short term, the market is in execution focus. The volumes that were auctioned need to be contracted, need to be executed. So I don't see, I mean, with all disclaimers, and I might burn my fingers, but I don't see customers willing to change the way they operate until we process this big volume that was auctioned and contracted. This might change long term, but so far we don't see it.

That's clear. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Sebastian Grove from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for taking my questions. It's pretty for me. The first one would be on mix, and we had the debate before around the gross profit margin of more than 29% in the first quarter. So I was wondering if there were any one-time effects or if you would consider the regional mix in any particular way favorable. So maybe you could just quickly comment on that and then have two more.

I think it's probably a notch to the high end. So I wouldn't expect that to be always recurrent on that level. Again, one more time, smaller quarter, more service helps the profitability. So I think the trajectory is clear, but it's probably for a single quarter, which I always would ask us not to look too much at quarters so I wouldn't read too much into the number, but at least ballpark.

And no specific one-offs, no specific one-offs either way. Okay, that's good to hear. And the next one on provisioning, so there was around 45 million the first quarter. I think it's not necessarily an outlier, but I just wanted to check in whether there's any change to what you had planned for.

I think you had been guiding previously to three to four percent or so but you could just um comment on on that one ilia yeah good observation thank you uh that gives me the chance to to to talk about that yes for the quarter a bit of a higher number but um very clearly we're not um uh so the gross additions were were basically with that like at four percent when you talk about warranty provisions and um we keep our um our basic message from the last quarters especially the full you call somewhere between three and four percent and yes you might expect that to for the full you go to up to four percent but not beyond that all right and then the last one just on the volumes um i think over the last 12 months you

have assembled almost nine gigawatts of turbines um if i'm not mistaken then you did not provide a gigawatt number as part of your midterm target update so can you talk about the ambition for the company when it comes to considering probably europe being about eight gigawatts or so alone in 26 and that is however before factoring in any contributions from from canada from the us or from australia so i was just wondering if you feel comfortable in talking about volumes and where you want to take this company over the next couple of years that's a good question i I would say, in times of instability,

you need to invest a little bit in overcapacity to have room to maneuver, as well as to accommodate to project scalars and so on. But, yeah, the nine gigabytes, it might change from component to component because the timing and the project demand is is slightly different and the over capacity is slightly different per component to deal with different risk profiles but yeah yeah we are ready to to to deliver in that ballpark 9 10 gigawatts a year yes when you say over capacity on the one side you are doing already as a run rate about nine so how much leeway would you then have and and well but um it depends a lot sebastian in in ourselves substantial in place less depends because you do a risk assessment of you know all different aspects that might impact your business different import duties taxes so once or four future view of what uh necessary industry might have for your business so in ourselves we have of course way more than 10 gigawatts a year in blades ballpark that number and last one then quickly on the blades part because apparently you were able to then also equalize or set then what you've been missing in terms of service blades by external partners so how do you see the scope for then also getting better supplies going forward if need be that intention to phase out low performance suppliers and to concentrate in internal factories and suppliers with better quality performance and now the focus is is to further growth in india to ramp up turkey and and keep working with our chinese suppliers in Morocco and in China.

Okay, thank you for that.

The next question comes from the line of Colin Moody from Royal Bank of Canada. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my questions. I have two, please, if I could. One on the central costs. So I understand that there's an investment need to support your strong order intake, but it has continued to ramp sequentially for quite a few quarters. Could you help us understand or better estimate what the normalized level should be presumably should begin to flatten at some point and then my second question uh just a kind of macro question uh on the u.s just curious to see uh you know how your customers our conversations are going with your customers right now um you know what the interest levels are and the holdups especially as we approach that july 4th safe harbor deadline thank you sorry colin uh we couldn't get this first question in full, I don't know.

I'm not sure, Colin. Have you asked about kind of a calibration of a run rate for the investment, the CapEx part?

No, sorry. Apologies if the line is unclear. I was asking about the central cost line. It continues to ramp, as it has done, for several quarters. Can you help us understand the allocated central costs, you know, $120 million of EBIT, what that should levelize and normalize at? And then the second question was just what you're seeing.

Yeah, the second one we got. So the first one is basically still ramp up activity driven, increasing of the business. That goes back to a bit to the conversation that Sebastian and José Luis just had in a different shape, which is about the capacity. So I think if the business develops as good, but within the ballpark of what we're calibrating you, we should be getting close to at least by Q3, the latest Q4, by a run rate. And I don't think that the increase will be so steep going forward when you compare them, let's say, in the last 12 to 18 months. So not so much more, I would expect.

And regarding the U.S., I would say you need to understand that, you know, we don't have the market position we have in Europe. In the U.S. it's investors and yield. Nonetheless, we see substantial commercial activity. most of this commercial activities is subject to certain federal permits that needs to happen to release those final investment decisions but from now to to july we see very much what the volume of the market could be for for the foreseeable future but i must say that for us we see a momentum which is not minor.

Understood. Thank you very much. The next question comes from the line of Deepa Vinkateswaran from Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to follow up on some of the topics we've already discussed. So the first one on inflation, you mentioned that this might be more of a topic for 2027. Given that you've locked in most of the ASPs for your 27 production, maybe last year or even in 24, I was wondering whether there is any specific indexation to bunker fuel or raising costs. And I suppose, given you are producing a lot of your turbines in China and India, the cost of moving that to Europe, should your customers be willing to bear that? So that was my first question. And the second question was a bit more on the German auctions. So I think the recent auction price was also below, I think, at 55 euros per megawatt hour, roughly. And it is now, I think, the last time it was in these levels was probably in 2018 or so. So I wanted to just check how you're thinking of pricing, because so far you and the rest of the industry have maintained that discipline.

But it seems like developers are maybe losing it. a bit so what is your comments here i think one of your smaller peers said that uh he was not willing to uh lower prices in germany so wanted to kind of take uh give your get your take on this topic thank you so um let's go to the to the first one very much uh our indexation policy ilia can elaborate more but very much we try to lock what is firm orders so the moment we we lock an order we try to lock the logistic and the towers to to have certainty on the deliver but we don't who we don't do forward forward so we are not long in in fetching fuel for expected ordering date so so the future margins of the volumes that are unsolved are gonna depend of what is the cost base at the moment we we lock the order and the price we can get from the order which is gonna be a typical competition with your against your competitors to to win the order. And this is, you know, 26. We are comfortable because three quarters of the activity, all part, is very much locked with contrast. One quarter or one-third to one quarter of the activity still needs to be shown. And consequently, we will figure out what the margin of this expected ordering take is for 26 small portion and for 27 big portion when we talk about german options and and the and the and the pricing and adjusting or not adjusting again supply and demand we will try to harvest the best market conditions possible but we need a prerequisite the project needs to be viable with with the wing with the campus with the land lease with the finance with expected return for the customer and with healthy margins for us we learned painfully in in previous in previous years how devastating can be for a sector of doing irrational things. And I hope that we can make a living all in the sector at the current auction price. I don't know if you can elaborate, but it is.

I think you nailed it. I think maybe the 2018 comparison with all due respect is a bit screwed because it was a different system under subscribed auctions, but still the general trajectory or the direction of the question is totally understandable nonetheless let's not forget that the auctions as they stand today still have an opener upside to the electricity market so it is not an absolute data point where the auction lands the developer the ultimate owner is still entitled with those tariffs to step in and out of a of a power marketing system in in germany so that might change with the cfds i think we had this conversation early on nonetheless i think you summarized what we called in the full year call also germany will become a more normal market it will have oversubscribed supply and demand auctions hence the whole value chain in germany that arguably was a bit healthier than in other markets with those set feed-in tariffs will normalize um and then basically we will have a market with a very good volume but on margins and comparable and comparable markets in europe but it's a great market to be i mean to 200 projects the the capillaries you need to build to to execute that you know is is you don't you don't build it overnight you don't lose it

overnight. And Germany and Central Europe is the highest price for electricity in Europe for several reasons. So you are in a market where electricity is paid more than in Baltics or Nordics or Iberian Peninsula, where there is a huge demand and where the company has amazing capabilities to deliver. So, yes, we've always won better auction prices. But I think we can do reasonable business with the current volumes and auction prices.

Okay, thank you.

The next question comes from the line of Sean McLaughlin from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon. A question on service. You talked about crossing 20% in your comments. I'm just curious as to really what are the drivers and, I guess, blue sky, how far above 20 should we start thinking about? That's the first question.

Yeah, well, I mean, all things being equal, volume. And for volume, you need to be patient. And, you know, if we keep growing 10 percent, every seven years we duplicate the business. But the margin will not grow in that proportion. I mean, it's hitting an asymptote. Because, I mean, we cannot deliver better margins than the ones we sell. And the ones we sell, you know, are, I think we cannot disclose in that detail, but margins in services will, the growth rate, and you see it in the previous quarters, is slowing down, as it should be. thank you and another question just on the service fleet um because i i'm just wondering if today if you break down your fleet how much of your um of your fleet steal of the older awp turbines and how much already is is delta um just on the assumption that i suppose you're getting better to margins on turbines you're selling today i would say big majority is is is now delta and and delta 4 000 we are losing renewals and the weight of the weight of the age will be fleet is decreasing by two factors because the overall is increasing and we don't and we lose renewals. So over time, the AWP might be phasing out and in a very small portion. Still, we have a big fleet under service in Latin America, in Spain, in several countries. But the trend is lower AWP contribution over time.

Understood. Thank you.

The next question comes from the line of Alex Jones from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Two, if I can, please. First, just to follow up on the EU Industrial Accelerator Act. As you currently understand the draft legislation, would that require any changes in your supply chain to move more into Europe, or do you see the footprint currently as well positioned? And then secondly, just in your customer discussions in Europe since the start of the Middle East conflict. Has that changed at all the tone of those conversations with customers? Are they accelerating things due to movements in fossil fuel prices or any hesitation given the inflation and interest rate environment that we're in? Thank you.

That second is the typical thing. First, in the Acceleration Act, no changes for our supply chain. We were preparing for that and planning for that to have to have different different options we might bring some more towers from a to b and we might produce a little bit more modules in country or country b but generally speaking it's not a surprise to us because we were expecting that i'm planning for that because, you know, we always mention in the past that we didn't want to have all legs into the same basket, just planning for having optionalities for the future. So that's regarding supply chain configuration. Regarding customer compensations, two for here. I think one is great. I mean, everywhere is a drama, but for our sector, what has happened or what is happening in the Hormuz State is reinforcing the contribution and the importance to renewals, and especially wind onshore to the resilience of the countries and to the affordability for consumers and hopefully accelerated electrification. It is true that in the past, you know, many countries were questioning a little bit that might need to consider back gas or is gas the solution for Europe? All those things, I must say, are very much out of the table, which is only good for our business because then policymakers focus in accelerating renewals because it gives you a better country, a more resilient country, less exposed to volatility and so on. when you translate this to car to customer discussions i would say the helicopter view is great because your sector is needed and needs to be accelerated but in the short term you need to deal with volatility with costing with pricing with margins and and so what with financing getting the projects bankable and financed, and this might have some short-term impact, I think we should be able to manage that. I don't think this will affect dramatically our sector. What I hear from customers is that a reasonable project in Europe, We're not sure which permits gets filled in almost every country. Of course, in Germany, the options oversubscribed, that's not totally true. But over time, the sector is not lacking capital. And BPAs in certain markets are not adjusting. In others, are adjusting to the new reality. So it depends a lot of market to market, but generally speaking, we're not sure it's a good market to be. Thank you.

The next question comes from the line of John Kim from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Hi, can you hear me? I wanted to focus in on the second half just a little bit. Quite a growth in nacelle production in Q1, Blades Flat. given what you describe around kind of pricing bunker fuel resin and outsourcing what is can you give us any sense of kind of safety net backlog that you have in blade supply and how we could think about kind of q2 into q3 given what happens or what we're seeing right now I mean nobody can really predict the end of a conflict but if the Straits of Hermes is not out then when we start to see uh later deliveries or supply training constraints in the second half numbers and will it be played no thank you john i think the the i would say the activity in q1

is is mainly driven by high activity last year so we accelerate the build up of the stock because the company is a growing company, and at least our view is expected to be a growing company in the foreseeable future, so strategically we were anticipating inventory to be in a better position to deliver higher quantities over the quarters, mainly in Germany, and this was advisable to slow down a little bit in Q1, that was on purpose. but everything normal regarding you know the slightly cost increases that we might have in blades but even considering that you know we are still committed to the mid-term plus in the guidance we will figure out how to how to manage in other in other commodities In parallel, we are ramping up blade production in Turkey. At the same quarter of last year, that factory was produced in blades. And then went into Chapter 11, and then we rescued the assets and are starting up as we speak to produce blades. So I'll say business as usual with the typical changes in the models that are allocated to different factories, but we are well-equipped to deliver our projects without impacts, and that affects blade production, blade production costs, and fuel costs. Of course, if the situation deteriorates in the second half and you don't have availability of components, I wouldn't say that projects even might survive without LDs and so on, but percentage of completion will be under pressure because if you don't produce, you don't recognize revenue and margin. But too early to say.

The assumption is that the factories will work in second half. understood follow-up question if i may if we isolate just to your project margins in q1 very strong year in your delivery and expansion here kind of 360 third basis points how would you characterize that is that better profitability on the project deliveries overall is there a strong mix effect from the nacelle production and how should we think about that through maybe be at Q2, given your current outlook.

I would say Q1, I will categorize that in every project business, you have risk and chances. And risk didn't materialize, and chances materialize. This might or might not be the case in the future quarters. Maybe it's a more balanced approach, or maybe the trend continues, but too early to say. Okay, thank you.

The next question comes from the line of William Mackey from Kepler-Chevro. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. A couple, please. Firstly, going back to the discussion on gross margins or project margins, is there any way you can throw some more, or can you please throw some more color on the differential between the project margins or gross margins you're achieving and the service gross margins just so we get a sense of mix effects into the year and on that topic would you describe your project margins sort of flying at target altitude or is there scope for expansion around mix that's my first questions let's do this together i think q1 as ilia mentioned before is is lifted

as on an avid level as the contribution of services that the service business will expect it to grow steadily in the in the quarters ahead of us But the contribution of service will decrease once the project business ramps in Q3 and Q4. So you will have less service contribution to the overall profitability. And the rest is portfolio, Ilya.

I think in the first part, I don't understand William's question, but I think that is as specific as I would go on a public call on a stick between the two. I think to the underlying or the other question that William is asking us about how do you feel about the project margins, is that the target run rate you have? I think here what we're saying is, and please correct me if I'm wrong, when we now sell the projects and go into execution, they absolutely are, but then it is a function of how we perform against the risk and chance and the contingencies we've baked into them. so last year for example um we came out in november as you might some of you might remember with that that our talk notification that we were just doing substantially better but this is what we also said the full year call when we gave the guidance for this year we are budgeting this in a very similar fashion so whether this ultimately will be the target rate or the rate we're targeting I think that everything goes well or a bit better than planned. Totally, if it goes much better, well, that's why we guide for a range towards the upside. If some risks, which we haven't seen in so far, materialize, it goes the other way. So I think that is what we would say. It depends on the bandwidth of contingencies we're baking into our calculations.

Thank you. The second question would be around technology or product mix going historically and going forward. I think you're in the phase of ramping up the N175, you know, a significant opportunity in the six megawatt category. When we look back on the success of the Delta 4000 around the four and five megawatt platforms, you know, how should we think about the risk as you evolve onto the six megawatt platform? And specifically, is this something which has similar levels of profitability or better? Or, you know, how should we think about mixed effect with regard to product development in the project business?

That's a very good question, William. I think first the 175 is one further extension and based on the same platform we started 149.4x 5x 6x 163.5x 6x now 175 6x and then even 77x so on the product I consider this product one evolution, and my expectations is that the reliability of the product doesn't deteriorate. Contrary to what you could think, in the previous upgrades of products, every new variant of Delta 4000 was performing slightly better than the previous one. which I have no reason to believe that 175 should be the other way around. So that's from a reliability point of view. From a matching point of view, I would say this product makes projects viable and bankable at price levels that otherwise those projects were not bankable. So are we capturing the extra value in increasing profitability? The honest answer is maybe not. Maybe this is the product that you need to make sure that we keep profitability slightly improving in an auction price market that is declining. So this is part of the solution. while we think we can make money even with the auction prices in Germany dropping so substantially.

Thank you. The last perhaps relates to one of your flagged risk issues around supply chain. If I recall, your turbine volume production stepped up 50% in China last year. I think it's about 40% of the volumes you booked. how would you frame the risk around supply chain from China and going back to some of the earlier questions about addressing the European localization content do you have the capacity to ramp up if you need within Germany and Spain to flex or to balance between the two in in value added around the nacelle we do we we clearly we clearly have the possibility to substantially to double if needed our capacity in in in europe so far we are keeping we are keeping that

possibility and we're using that possibility a balancing cost and an obligation for the next zero industrial option and eventually even doing a little bit more in europe than and strictly required but we have possibility to do more yes super thank you very much you're very welcome as a reminder if you wish to register for a question please press star and one on your telephone.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to José Luis Blanco for any closing remarks.

Thank you very much. And let us close, as always, with a few takeaways from the first quarter. First, we have a positive starting to the year with healthy order intake and continued confidence in the order intake trajectory across our core markets second our focus remains on generating positive and sustainable free cash flow supported by good visibility on margins and the continued recovery we see across the business throughout the year third we confirm our guidance for 2026 and last overall the first quarter supports our view that we are setting a consistent path towards our upgraded mid-term EBITDA margin target of 10 to 12 percent. Thank you very much and wish you a great afternoon ahead.