SÜSS MicroTec Stock

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the conference call of SUSS MicroTec following the publication of the half year figures of 2026. I would like to welcome the company's CEO, Burkhardt Frick; the CFO, Dr. Cornelia Ballwiesser; the COO, Dr. Thomas Rohe; and the Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications, Sabrina Mueller, who will guide us through the presentation in a moment, followed by a Q&A session via audio line and chat. And with that, I hand over to you, Ms. Mueller.

Thank you, and welcome to our conference call following the publication of our half yearly financial report 2026. Before we start, please note that this call is being recorded and considered as copyrighted material. It cannot be recorded or rebroadcasted without permission, and participating in this call implies your consent to this procedure. Please be also aware of the safe harbor statement on Page 2 of the slide deck. It applies throughout the call. And with that, I'll now hand over to Burkhardt to give -- to guide you through our results for the first half year.

Thank you, Sabrina. And also, a very warm welcome from my end. Let's start off with an overview of the key financials for 2026. Order intake of EUR 410 million was very strong. Q2 alone contributed to EUR 260 million. Distribution of demand was across all product lines, but dominated by coaters. More than 40 coaters were booked in May and June alone. The biggest driver was a single order of EUR 115 million for one customer who will significantly scale advanced packaging capacity. This customer also serves the biggest foundry in Taiwan.

Revenue compared to the first half of 2025 is down EUR 63.8 million. But first half 2025 was also the best first half year performance of the company in its history. On profitability, the gross profit margin is well on track at 37.2%, slightly ahead of the guidance corridor of 35% to 37%. On EBIT margin, which is below strong achievements of 2025, but improving. Second quarter EBIT margin was at 9%, up from 4.3% in Q1, and clearly demonstrates higher sales volume improve EBIT margin significantly.

Now some key messages. I'll start with the market outlook and the demand situation. There are significant increased predictions for the semiconductor industry. SEMI raised the outlook for the wafer fab equipment to USD 144 billion versus December estimates of USD 126 billion. SUSS also profited from achieving record order intake in the second half -- Q2, in the first half. Our visibility for 2027 is improving quickly. We note strong orders for the current tool generations, which provides stability and does not cannibalize demand for next-generation tools. Current investments building on existing process of record tools.

On the segments, ABS collected orders from all product lines. Imaging and bonding also contributing in absolute terms. However, with coating as the strongest product category. Photomask Solutions recorded lower sales after particularly slow order intake in the second half of 2025. Couple of key developments. Our new application center officially was communicated, and Thomas will talk about it later. We also managed to launch our first panel level scanner, which is now at a customer site. That was achieved by a very strong effort of the team. Customer will use it to develop the [ CoPoS ] process. On guidance, we confirmed the guidance this morning. Gross profit margin already well within range, EBIT margin improving with rising sales levels, an acceleration of sales expected for the second half.

Now the segment overview, and I spare you the tables which have been kind of publicized this morning. I'd like just to highlight a few things on the 2 segments. On Advanced Backend Solutions, our order intake improving strongly with coating business as a major driver. Segment sales, we show a solid performance also compared to strong first half 2025 numbers. We launched the first UV projection scanner, which is a first panel level tool at a customer site. For Photomask Solutions, our order book increased in the second quarter with continuing strong demand from China. Sales still shows the effect of a weak second half of order entry in 2025. Gross profit margin for Q1 is a major driver. Q2 is lagging due to lower cost coverage.

Now let's have a look at our order intake development. The bar shows the quarterly order intake per segment, and I'd like to highlight 3 points here. First, we achieved a major customer order from Taiwan in the second quarter. This represents EUR 115 million for coater, for a Taiwanese advanced packaging customer. And it's a strong validation of our market position and customer commitment to capacity extension. Our technology is well aligned with customer road maps. Even excluding this order, the second quarter is still at a very strong level.

Second, we have a demand for existing solutions. So the momentum is driven by the existing portfolio. Broad demand across product lines is noted. Market environment supports repeat orders on proven solutions and provides strong starting position for our portfolio refresh and new launches. Thirdly, in the first half of 2026, the order intake performance, we had a third consecutive quarter of sequential growth. We noted the Q1 momentum carried into Q2. The first half year order entry of EUR 410 million. This is already above full year level of financial year 2025 and approaching full year -- financial year after only 6 months.

This is a clear acceleration of customer investment activity and the order book is enhancing our visibility, as you will see on the next page. Here, I'd like to dive into our order book development and the visibility of the order book, which we show here for the first time in such a great detail. The outset point is the record high order book. The order book reached a new all-time high of about EUR 476 million (sic) [ EUR 473.7 million ] at the end of first half. A direct result of a strong order intake momentum over recent quarters. It equals a significant expansion compared to historic levels, and it reflects increasing customer commitment as well as long-term project visibility.

Secondly, strong revenue coverage for financial year 2026. Around EUR 240 million of the current order book is expected to convert into sales in the second half of 2026. This provides a high degree of visibility for the rest of the year and our 2026 guidance confirmation and supports execution confidence plus planning reliability. Thirdly, we now have an improved visibility for the fiscal year 2027. Here, I'd like to make an important note. Please be aware of -- that the figure presented -- represented for 2027 is based on the current order book and currently scheduled delivery dates. It does not represent management guidance or revenue forecast for fiscal year 2027.

Approximately EUR 220 million already scheduled for delivery in the fiscal year 2027 out of this order book, which is an early increase of visibility for expected revenue conversion into 2027. This highlights long-term customer investment and is a strong starting position entering the next fiscal year. Finally, it creates greater predictability and supports sustainable growth. And with that, I'd like to hand over to Cornelia.

Thank you, Burkhardt. And also, a warm welcome from my side to all of you. I will focus on a few key financial and operational messages for first half year 2026. The sales development. Overall, sales of EUR 202.8 million for the first half of 2026 was the result we expected. Q1 was a weaker quarter in terms of sales, and Q2 already showed the expected improvement in the level of EUR 160.2 million.

On gross profit. Gross profit was 25.5% lower than in the previous year and in line with the lower revenue level. The gross profit margin was 37.2%, slightly below the prior year level. This is, of course, also influenced by product and customer mix effects. In addition, profitability was affected by a onetime charge of EUR 2.1 million related to the withdrawal of a product. This product had been already discontinued as a part of our portfolio optimization. Therefore, it is no longer utilized or sold, and consequently was expensed in full through the income statement.

Operating expenses. That means selling expenses, general administration expenses and R&D expenses. This OpEx increased only slightly overall by EUR 0.3 million. Because of lower business volume, selling expenses were lower due to lower freight costs. R&D expenses, on the other hand, were higher in order to support our launches. And for the first half of the year, R&D expenses increased by EUR 1.6 million to a total of EUR 24.9 million. G&A expenses were at the prior year level.

EBIT, and consequently EBIT margin, was clearly below prior year due to less business volume and consequently less gross profit and quite unchanged OpEx level. In addition, a negative foreign currency impact of EUR 1.5 million is reflected in this figure.

Free cash flow was positive with EUR 16.4 million and profited from a positive operating cash flow, thanks to the working capital reduction and a lower CapEx level compared to last year due to investments in our Taiwan site in Zhubei. That represents also a very strong improvement compared to last year. The free cash flow was negative after the first 6 months.

CapEx remained low following substantially higher spendings in the previous year for our facility in Zhubei. This year, we had only minor items for Taiwan. Most of the spending this year was related to German sites for infrastructure and [ demo tools ].

And now let's move to the development of our main financial KPIs for the second quarter. In Q1, we indicated that the order level for Q2 could be above the first quarter. This expectation clearly materialized, with SUSS achieving the highest order intake per quarter in its history. We already highlighted the high coater order in Q2. But even without this order, we would have booked a significant order intake only slightly below the first quarter level. This shows that the overall demand was still very high.

In terms of sales, Q1, as we expected, was the turning point. Sales level in Q2 have been higher, and with a rising level of sales, the fixed cost coverage improved. With EUR 202.8 million of sales of the first half of the year, we are well on track to meet the guidance corridor. This implies that the second half of the year will have higher sales level.

Gross profit margin. With this higher sales level in the second quarter, gross margin -- gross profit margin improved. For the first 6 months of the year, we achieved a gross margin of 37.2%, slightly above our full year guidance corridor of 35% to 37%. But as already mentioned, also the product and customer mix will have an impact on this expected margin.

On EBIT level, we also see the expected development with a higher EBIT margin in the second quarter. Higher sales levels support the cost coverage, so the EBIT margin in Q2 was already at 9% after 4.3% in the first quarter. All in all, the EBIT margin is not yet within the guidance corridor after the first 6 months. Based on the information currently available, including our expectations for sales in the product and customer mix in the second half of the year, we continue to expect an EBIT margin in the range of 8% to 10%, in line with our guidance.

And now let's have a quick look at the segments. The momentum of the 2 segments differed in the second quarter. ABS had very strong order intake, sales and gross profitability. Photomask Solutions still showed good gross profitability, while cost coverage of OpEx was not as good as in the first quarter. In Advanced Backend Solutions, sales came back strongly. We already explained one-off effect of EUR 2.1 million is fully attributable to the segment. Overall, the product mix still benefited from a strong sales contribution of the bonding solutions product line. Also, the higher sales level improved the cost coverage, which led to an EBIT margin of 12.1% in the second quarter and to an EBIT of EUR 8.3 million and EBIT margin of 5.6% in the first half of 2026. This clearly indicates the turnaround in the ABS segment after 2 quarters with a negative result.

Turning to Photomask Solutions. Order intake in the second quarter slowed down. Sales were below prior year levels. Please keep in mind that due to the high unit price and comparatively low equipment volume, timing shifts in projects can lead to noticeable impact on short-term trends in sales and in profitability. Gross profit margin came in at 39.5% in Q2. While lower than the strong 43% reported in the first quarter, margins remain robust and continue to reflect the strong profitability profile of the Photomask Solutions segment. And compared to the slightly higher sales level of Q3 last year, we achieved a higher gross profit margin over Q2 of this year. EBIT margin in Q2 amounted to 12.4%, reflecting lower fixed cost coverage compared to prior year quarters. Importantly, our R&D activities and other strategic projects are progressing according to plan and are reflected in OpEx and consequently in EBIT and EBIT margin.

And now let's have a look on the regional split of order intake and sales. As you can see, the increase in order intake in the first half of 2026 was particularly strong in the Americas and APAC, but EMEA was strong too. In America and EMEA, the push for localized production is now starting to translate in tool orders. And now, in terms of order intake, America was the region with the strongest growth in order intake. The order intake of the first half from America was 14.1% of total order intake. That compares against 9.5% of total order intake in the first half 2025.

In EMEA, order intake also increased, but not as strongly as in the other regions. In our most important region, Asia Pacific or APAC, we also had a significantly higher order intake. The share of the total order intake for the first half 2026 was 75.5%. In 2025, the share was 76.7%. So the share of APAC in relative terms was almost stable. Within APAC, the relative share of the order intake from China decreased. In H1 2025, it was 30.2%. In the first half year of 2026, it came down to 22.4%. However, the order intake from China, in absolute terms, increased to EUR 69.4 million in the first half of 2026.

And now a short look on sales. While sales revenue in Americas and EMEA grew, we see a decline in APAC if we compare the first 6 months of '26 to '25. This is the result of the digestion phase after the initial ramp we had there. APAC's share of total sales revenue was around 75% in the first half of this year after 84% last year. EMEA's share of sales was 10% and America was 15%, after 6.4% and 9.7%, respectively.

And now let's have a look to the most important balance sheet developments. Overall, total assets expanded by EUR 45.1 million or 8.9%. The changes in the noncurrent assets were immaterial. The changes in the positions almost cancel each other out. In current assets, we had an increase of EUR 45.6 million, mainly related to inventories, with a plus of EUR 10.7 million due to higher work in progress. And we had also an increase in contract assets with a plus of EUR 14.1 million and cash and cash equivalents with EUR 13.6 million. The positive free cash flow in the amount of EUR 16.4 million in the first half resulted in an increase of the cash and cash equivalents up to EUR 112.3 million.

And now on the liability and equity side. In the first half of 2026, equity increased due to net income and OCI by EUR 10.6 million. The equity ratio, however, declined from 62.2% to 59% due to increased total assets. Noncurrent liabilities remained at the same level as of December 31, 2025, and amounted EUR 75.5 million end of June '26. Current liabilities increased by EUR 33.1 million or 28.1%. The main driver was higher contract liabilities resulting from increased customer advance payments, particularly in connection with the stronger China business. Contract liabilities rose by EUR 33.8 million. And with that, I would like to conclude the financial review and hand over to Thomas, who will provide further insights into our planned application center as well as an update on the upcoming products introduction.

Yes. Thank you very much, Cornelia, and good afternoon to everyone. As we have already announced during the Capital Market Day in November last year, we want to build a new application and R&D center. Let me briefly explain why this project is important for SUSS. This investment is not about adding capacity. It is about creating the foundation for the next phase of innovation, talent acquisition, customer collaboration and long-term growth.

The new application and development center will serve as an innovation hub. By locating the facility in Karlsruhe, close to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, abbreviated with KIT, we gain direct access to one of Europe's leading research environments. The location improves our access to highly qualified talent. The proximity to KIT and our planned involvement in academic research create an attractive environment for engineers and semiconductor specialists and support our long-term growth ambitions.

The country of Baden-Wuerttemberg also sponsors a professorship in the field of advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration to support not only SUSS, but also the city of Karlsruhe to generate a center of excellence for wafer equipment development. The project will allow us to relocate parts of R&D and application activities from Sternenfels to Karlsruhe.

Finally, the center will strengthen collaboration with our customers. Modern application facilities are becoming increasingly important as customers and equipment suppliers work together to develop and qualify next-generation manufacturing processes. We view Karlsruhe as a strategic investment in the future of SUSS. It supports innovation, strengthens our talent base, enhances customer engagement and creates the foundation for sustainable growth in the years ahead. Planning activities are progressing well, and subject to the relevant approvals, we expect the facility to be completed in 2028.

This leads me to our product road map. As you can see on the slide, we are progressing with a broad range of new product introductions across both segments over the coming years. Some of these developments have already reached important milestones, while others continue to move through the final stages of development and customer qualification. As is typical for highly complex semiconductor equipment programs, time lines can evolve as we work closely with customers to ensure performance and process requirements are fully met.

Looking at the road map as a whole, these programs represent an important refresh of our portfolio and are designed to address key technology trends, particularly in advanced packaging and in heterogeneous integration. Our objective remains unchanged: to strengthen our technology position, expand the applications we can address and create additional growth opportunities over the coming years. While the commercial contribution of individual products may vary from year-to-year, we believe this next generation of solutions will support the continued development of our business well beyond 2027. With that said, I would like to hand back to Burkhardt for the outlook. Burkhardt?

Thank you, Thomas. Just a quick recap. We already booked EUR 202.8 million of sales, and now we have a record order book of EUR 473.7 million. This gives us confidence that we will meet the guidance for the full year. And as we said from the start of the year, 2026 will be a transition year. Q1 marked the low point. Q2 already shows the improvement we expected. Therefore, we confirm the guidance today. Sales range of EUR 425 million to EUR 485 million. We see a broadly stable gross profit margin of 35% to 37%, but a decline in EBIT margin of 8% to 10% compared to the previous year. The expectation is stronger second half for the year. But like Cornelia said, the window for orders that convert into sales for 2026 is closing. And with that, I'd like to open the floor for questions.

[Operator Instructions] We start with Martin Marandon.

My first question is on the order intake. So if you exclude the EUR 115 million of coating order in Q2, orders were still EUR 146 million. It was EUR 149 million in Q1. So I'm just wondering if you should see that kind of range as a reasonable indication of the underlying quarterly demand run rate for H2 as well, or that maybe we should expect more considering the launch of a new equipment, and a new equipment cycle in H2, like wafer cleaning, photomask cleaning and so on. And I have a follow-up.

Yes. Martin, thanks. A good question. I mean of course, you see how our single big orders can create quite spikes in the order entry. So of course, these things, they're hard to predict. But the levels we achieved before were, as you said, but we are not guiding the forward-looking order entry, as a lot of things can still happen. We see different effects of maybe pull-ins and order entries. Therefore, it's very difficult to guide that.

Okay. Understood. And then regarding the '26 guidance and for the backlog in general, I understand that half of the -- almost half of the current backlog is for '27, but that you also expect orders in the following quarters to contribute to '26. So why some customers are asking for tools later? Is it because of different lead times on your end? Some tools you cannot ship in 2026, if orders come today, or that's because of constraints at the customer level, like, lack of cleanrooms, for instance.

Well, as I said, I think the window is closing. So we don't expect significant orders anymore from now on which contribute to '26. So the majority is -- from now on is indeed for '27. In particular behavior of customers, they're hard to judge. We see more longer-term commitments customers are willing to make potentially due to shortages in the industry. So we see request dates which are far above our lead times we have. That's why we already see now big bookings all the way until the end of 2027.

Okay. That's clear. And the last one, if I may. So beyond the large OSAT order that you got in Q2, how broad is the improvement in coating and imaging demand across AI packaging applications in general? And are you seeing similar capacity requirements from other OSATs potentially in the future?

Yes. Well, this one order we, I think, talked about, of course, most of these orders are in context with AI application. Of course, we see less -- at this point in time, less bonder orders and much more OSAT-related orders, which are for the packaging space, but they're also driven by AI activity.

And we move on to Mr. Devos.

I just had one on the exceptional coater order. Just curious whether you could talk a bit more about what drove that exceptional order. I think, is this like a set of stand-alone spin coaters? Or is it like sort of full coat and develop tracks? Yes, just what have been really the conditions that drove this order? And I mean, if we think about coaters, I think I've got it in my notes, it was like roughly around 16% of sales in '24. This EUR 115 million order is already 24%, I guess, of the backlog. So it looks like it's a much higher base rate going forward. So yes, some color on the coater activities would be very helpful.

Yes. Well, that's a good question. I think we mentioned earlier that this is in context with the large Taiwanese foundry. And the orders we are receiving, as I also mentioned, are for existing products we have, which are a substantial part of process records of those customers. And they are kind of increasing significantly their capacity. And therefore, we see these orders because we are the qualified tool of record there. So it is indeed for spin coaters, the different variants of spin coaters, different configurations. But all of these orders are for existing records and existing processes, which are being scaled up as we speak. And we see this at this large one order, but we see similar developments also with other coating customers of ours.

Okay. And regarding the product mix in the backlog, I mean, again, the coater order quite distorts the numbers, but how should we think about the temporary bonder, debonder and the imaging business in the backlog? How did that shape up in the backlog or maybe, the past 12-month orders proportionally?

I think even if you take out this one order, we are at the EUR 140 million level per quarter. And that distribution is quite broad across the existing product lines. So beyond the coaters, nothing is really sticking out. So we do see good distribution for bonding, photomask and imaging solutions. Imaging solutions, of course, is not yet orders for this newly launched UV scanner because we installed this first system in a pilot line. I think there was also a question earlier, I think I forgot to answer. So we don't have except single POs for newly introduced products because they are not reaching a volume phase. That we expect for '27 and beyond.

Okay. And just a final question on margins. I mean for the full year, it seems a bit conservative. I think, obviously, first half year didn't realize that higher volume, higher sales, depressing a bit the operational profits. But I mean, we should see a significant step-up from here forward. What would sort of have to happen in the second half for the full year to land inside your range? I mean, also for the EBIT guidance, 8% to 10%, you're already at 9% in Q2 at only EUR 116 million of sales. So I mean, with a significant step up, what would sort of be the incremental drop-through, not only for H2 '26, but looking beyond that as well?

Yes, I can start answering this before I hand over to Cornelia. But as we said when we put out this guidance, we are -- we see this dip. And this dip is created by much lower order entry activity of 2025. So this has been anticipated, and this is actually now materializing. We also said that we keep our high burn rate for R&D activities going because we want to launch all these new products. So therefore, the spend level is high.

Now if the top line drops and as predicted, obviously the margin drops with that as well. So this is all within the anticipated range. The order entry activity now, of course, dilutes the picture a bit. That's also why we clarified a lot that the big part of the orders we are collecting, especially since the second quarter onwards, are already for next year. So they will not help us to get the top line up. So to answer your question, what needs to happen to improve the margins? Well, in the current constellation, it's a higher top line, but that's something we don't see happening this year. But Cornelia might want to add something more fundamental.

I think you mentioned all what we have to say to this because the OpEx will slightly increase, I would say, in the second half, but this is all planned. And of course, we're in a transition year. And yes, with less volume compared to prior year or what we expect in future in our long-term plannings, of course, EBIT margin cannot reach that high because of the lack of cost coverage. And as Burkhardt said, we do not stop our projects, whether the R&D projects nor other projects we have on our table and what we want to do. For example, digitalization projects like S/4HANA and some others. We will not stop.

And we move on to Michael Kuhn.

I'll start with a follow-up on the guidance. If I look at implied H2, we talk about a good EUR 220 million to a good EUR 280 million. Obviously, you showed that slide, I think, which was EUR 240 million for a backlog conversion in H2, so I think lower end not really an option anymore. And you said, let's say, the window for '26 is closing, but it didn't sound like it is entirely closed. So maybe to give us a little more of a context, what could make you moving higher within the range? Is it rush orders? Is it, let's say, services which are not yet reflected in the backlog? So a bit more of understanding here would be helpful. And then also on, let's say, your availability by product line. I guess, for coaters, you're now pretty much sold out for a couple of quarters after the major order. Maybe a quick idea on also what is your, let's say, available delivery windows for the other products.

Yes. I mean you are trying to connect the dots, obviously, which makes good sense here. Now a lot of things can still happen. We don't have many production slots available anymore to build additional machines than the ones we already have planned. We have a few shorter lead time machines, but it's very rare that we can get a big surprise order still delivered this year. Of course, service orders and these things, they can make a small imprint here. But also, even if we get 1 or 2 more orders in, there's also a chance that some orders are being pushed out. So therefore, we want to be cautious here and not to overpredict. But I think with the granularity we provided, I think you can pretty much estimate where we think we end up.

Understood. And then one more.

Yes. The second question was on the coaters. Yes, yes, we, of course, we have these record order entries for spin coaters, and they are for 200- and 300-millimeter coaters. We already started building the capacity in parallel, not only in our Taiwan site, but also in our German site. Both sites are capable to build this product. So we are now using the operational flexibility we have to build these things in parallel. So far, we can handle this high demand. But yes, we do see that getting parts is becoming also an issue. But so far, I think we can confirm the orders we have received.

Great. And one more on the new products, where you also had one slide included. Obviously, we're moving closer and closer to, let's say, more launches of those new products. Being fully aware, it's a number of things and a complex topic still. Maybe a few words on the progress in terms of discussions with customers, qualification processes and where you would say probably are the biggest chances for nearer-term orders in the product lineup.

Yes. For some of these products, we already have orders. We have to get them out. So that's the challenge we have. The mid-end cleaner, for example, is one of these examples which we are launching this year. That will be the second new product launch, and not only launch, but also shipment this year. There, we have already a number of orders and customers eagerly expecting those machines, and we are building the first couple of machines in the second half of this year. But maybe Thomas want to comment further.

Yes. For sure, the situation is completely different for each and every tool which we develop. So some are, as Burkhardt said, in the phase where we already have orders on hand, which we have to fulfill on short term. Others are still partially in discussion with customers, and others are on the way to be -- to get finished in the next year. And when we ship one to the customer, we have always to keep in mind that the tools are in the first step qualified at the customer for the process.

So this means in this phase also, we have deep discussions with customers about minor improvements or even bug fixes or whatever, so that we have all phases of the product development in our portfolio. And this really brings us in next year also in future, let's say, stress to get all these tools up and running at the customer site, but we are prepared for this. And so it makes us very optimistic to launch all the products we have in our portfolio plan.

We move on to Malte Schaumann.

Yes. Congratulations on the strong order intake, especially. First question is on the product mix next year. I mean, seeing that coaters might deliver disproportionately high contributions in 2027, doesn't that represent a headwind on the gross margin level next year? Or do you -- how do you see that?

No, I can also imagine that if you can build at that scale, it also has a positive margin impact. But coaters, as you know, Malte, they're kind of in the middle of the margin spectrum of our portfolio. So they are not pulling us down significantly or lifting us up. They're kind of in the average. So in that sense, it will not move the needle negatively, for sure not. So -- but we still are looking if we can gain some volume effects by very large material orders. In a world where also supplies are tightening, so it's a hit and miss here. But I think the sheer volume allows us also to build and scale.

Okay. That's good to hear. And is that -- the end application linked to the TSMC outsourcing of CoWoS to OSATs in Taiwan?

That's a good guess, yes. We have mentioned the customer, but I guess your guess is as good as mine.

Okay. Then gross margin for 2026. I mean you have come up at the upper end of the guidance range for the end of first half. Utilization will be somewhat better in the second half of the year. We have seen in the second half of last year, quite disappointing, with lower gross margin levels in Q3, Q4. Do you see the risk for such a decline in any of the quarters? Or how do you feel about the mix in your order backlog for the second half of this year?

No, I think we will stay in that range. That's also why, although we were pushed to positively adjust our guidance, we are reluctant to do so because we see similar mixes, similar effects as we had before. So that's why we stick to this guidance, and we think this is well advised.

Yes. Okay. Then on temporary bonders, how do you assess the Korean customer to place orders in the second half of the year? Do you think that is -- do you see that? Do you have any visibility on that? Do you think that this will happen? Or is that something that might get postponed until '27?

Yes. So far, we haven't seen this happening or developing. And we have to see because we have a strong share in the HBM3E mix, and we have to see how the product mix will look like. But we don't see current momentum from that particular customer.

Okay. And do you think this is because the customer has sufficient utilization? Or do you see potential competition getting orders?

I think it's a mix of both because especially that customer, there is quite significant competition. But it's about the process records, which are changing as we speak. And we, of course, try to stay in this process record.

Okay. Good. Then in terms of the new products, I mean, you have talked about quite a couple of product launches this year, and you seem to be on track. When do you think these might -- or will come through at order intake level to a greater extent? Will that start early next year so that order intake will benefit from a pilot ramp, volume ramp at certain customers?

I have to give you an it depends question -- answer to your question because for the mid-end cleaner, we already have quite a significant number in the high single digits of POs. So that is already kind of starting to ramp at least in order intake. The other products we talked about, we, of course, see now the initial machines being ordered or being installed at customers. And we have a couple of those coming in the second half as well and early first quarter of next year.

And as Thomas already said, I mean, these are initial systems, which often go through a verification, qualification phase at launching customers. And then after that, and that can be a period of 6 to 12 months, then you will get follow-up and volume orders. Sometimes even earlier than that, depends how eager those customers want to move or if they want to first see validation data, real hard production data. So we -- so to answer your question, I think it's -- we will see something in the first half of next year, but then I think more in the second half of next year.

Last one on lead times. Do you think that coater production spots -- slots will extend lead times also for the other products? Or how do you expect lead times to progress towards the end of the year and early '27?

Let me answer this, Malte. I expect no changes on our lead time. We are prepared right now for huge order intakes to really manage them with the same lead times as before. We are prepared for this with our flexible workforce, with our supply chains. For sure, we see actually some minor or some problems rising up in our supply chain because of the huge demand. But from our side, we are prepared for this, and we can really stick to the lead times which we promised to our customers.

Of course, the beauty comes in of our new Taiwanese factory because we can not only add manpower but also increase the space which we can utilize. So we wouldn't have been able to do this in the previous setting. So actually, we have this room to grow, and we are now exercising as we speak.

And we move on to the next participant, Veysel Taze.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

On the guidance, just to follow-up to make sure that I understand that correctly. So basically, the order backlog, is that including service? So the shippable backlog of EUR 240 million for the second half of the year. Would that mean this is now with services? Or would you see that 15% service business on top?

It is with service.

So then it would be wrong to assume that in second half, we will, depending on the revenue level, to assume service business on top. That's already reflected.

Yes. No, it's already included in our guidance and also in the order book as far as we have orders for service.

So got it. And then on the comment regarding that the -- yes, so the order window basically closed, or the shippable order window closed for 2026. I remember historically you said, "Yes, the orders you receive the first 2 quarters, it will be turned into revenues." But this comment has shifted some time last year, particularly with the Taiwanese fab, in the sense that early part of the Q3 orders could be still turned into revenues. What is your stance between these 2 statements today? Do you think July and August orders can be still shipped? Or would you, from today's perspective, exclude this?

I would say, as Burkhardt said even before, it depends. It depends on the tool type which are ordered for sure. We can still really manage to take some orders for easier or simpler tools which have a shorter lead time. For those, we can still accept some orders for this year. But for bigger tools, more complicated tools, also with a more complex supply chain, it takes more time. And for those tools, the window is really closed right now.

So for photomask, basically, it's closed. But I would say...

It closed for mask aligners, for example, perhaps we have some open topics which are open slots which we can use for this year. But -- and the tools is somewhere in between.

Got it. And what about temporary bonder, debonder and the scanner tools? Is that more shorter lead time products or...

These are also long lead time items. So half year is minimum. So this is -- if there would be, let's say, a really very urgent demand for a tool, okay, we can perhaps think about this, but this will not happen. Normally, it does not happen.

And those slots are already taken because, especially for those products, we have orders on hand which we are executing and that took the available slots. There's very little additional you can book, then that's also why we stick to the guidance.

Yes. Yes. Well, but your first -- first half revenues plus the EUR 240 million gives you EUR 445 million, whereas the market is around EUR 475 million, EUR 480 million. So the top end of the guidance range rather than midpoint or low end. That was what I was trying to sense a bit how you think about.

Yes. I think the market judgment is a bit driven by previous assumptions that anything which you book before the end of June, as you said yourself, we can convert. Especially in the second quarter, we got these large orders, which have a large portion in '27. So this old rule of thumb we used, doesn't work anymore. And I think this also has to be more or less put into estimates of the analysts.

Got it. And then this question was also asked, but again, to just make a little bit sure that we understand the business dynamics. If you strip out the large order, the EUR 115 million, then the quarterly order run rate was, for the first half, something around, yes, EUR 145 million versus last year, around EUR 90 million quarterly run rate. And looking now into the second half of the year, why would -- or what needs to go wrong that the order -- quarterly order run rate of first half would deteriorate materially towards the run rate we have seen last year, below EUR 100 million or around EUR 90 million?

Yes. Well, again, this is a glass ball question. So for example, just assume for one second that customers order early. They placed orders in Q2. They would've placed otherwise in Q3 or Q4. If that assumption is correct, then orders for the second half can be well lower. So we don't know. We do see an ongoing strong momentum for the running quarter. But this time I will not be led to make an estimate if we will beat our previous quarter because it will get increasingly difficult. And I'm not taking that gamble.

But -- so we don't know if customers have placed orders early, they otherwise would've placed in towards the end of the year in anticipation of equipment or parts shortage. Until we haven't really understood the dynamic well enough, it will be too early to estimate future intake run rates. You see how we jumped out of our usual patterns just in the recent 2 quarters. So I think it will be super exciting what's happening in the next few quarters. But we see currently still a very strong demand signal.

Okay. Sustained momentum into Q3, so to say. And then final question on China. What we're hearing is that Chinese foundries are increasingly shifting capacities to AI-related products because there's clearly the willingness that in AI chips, the capacity needs to rise and supply needs to support the AI ambitions there. So which basically tells me that demand is quite strong for new capacity buildup in China. Your Photomask business was, in terms of order entry, not really as strong in this quarter. But what is your general view from -- in China? Do you think demand prospects have accelerated versus Q1? Or yes, what is your view there or the signals you are getting?

Yes. I think we already saw that the Chinese activity did pick up in the last 2 quarters compared to expectations, and that momentum can even increase further. Now for Photomask business, of course, these orders, usually they are large orders and few. So large in single order size, but then they are scattered over sometimes months and quarters. So it's difficult to predict. But we do see a positive momentum out of China, which also could result in business opportunities for us. We will see this in the second half of the year more clearly. But it's too early to make a prediction there. But I, in general, share your assessment.

And then final one, sorry, I forgot that. Cornelia, you mentioned during your presentation a one-off expense. I'm not sure if I got the number correct. Was it EUR 2.4 million?

It was EUR 2.1 million.

And it was related to an older project you discontinued or what and in ABS segment, right?

Yes, ABS segment, it's recall of a product that we removed from our product portfolio. Yes, I don't know, last year, yes, in the context of optimizing our product portfolio. And that is what it is. We take -- we have it back and we booked it in full through P&L because it's no longer in our portfolio, and we will not sell it or refurbish it or whatever.

And that was in Q2, right?

Yes.

And there is one last participant with a risen hand, Mr. Johannes Ries.

Can you now hear me?

Yes, now we hear you perfectly well.

That's great. Finally come to call with maybe most questions are answered, but 2 follow-ons. First, on temporary bonding. Maybe you can explain a little bit more follow-on on the question of Malte. What's his answer regarding to your largest customer in the temporary bonding from the 3 memory guys? And how much maybe it could be affected by this technology change or that maybe development at this customer you mentioned? And how is the development at the 2 other players in HBM and at the memory side, especially the one maybe you had maybe seen a chance to enter, which was a closed shop in the past.

Yes. Let's start with the last one, which is the second Korean customer. We booked an order in early Q1. We delivered the system, I think, towards the end of Q2. And I think another one is in the pipeline. So this is too early to see how well this will result in follow-up business. So we have -- yes, we wait for feedback and results because, of course, R&D has to comment and also on operations before we see significant shares there. But the good news is, Johannes, we are in with our hardware there, which was quite a long struggle to be there.

The other customer, which is the non-Korean one, of course, we are heavily engaged there with all kinds of ramp and optimization activities. We are currently increasing the throughput of those lines by using the existing footprint because if there's no space to put in more machines, then you need to make sure you have measures to improve the output of the installed base. And that's what we are focusing on right now because that customer will have a new site, but this is not ready before beginning of next year. So we are now involved in a lot of optimization activities to increase the yield and the throughput of our installed base machines. Plus where we -- where there are slots and spaces available at that customer, we will also install additional machines in the second half of the year.

And there's this third customer from Korea, the third one, you have been also a strong position in the past, a part which had still machines bought and couldn't it utilize in the past, how has the development going on there?

Yes, the utilization goes up. But as I said before, we don't -- we haven't received significant follow-up business. We got a couple of machines, but not, I would say, real substantial volume orders. So that can be a mix of both, still available capacity and new processes we are currently not qualified for.

Okay. Last question from my side. On the wafer cleaner, maybe you talked a lot about the mask cleaner part, but what about the wafer cleaner? How is the process there? Update us when maybe you will launch the first product and where you see maybe some broader launch of the product. Will it be second half next year?

Well, it's -- I think, first of all, we have the first machine running in our application center in Sternenfels. So we have received the first hardware. We are now in a phase where we run our internal validation, plus we are testing customer wafers and use it internally. We were planning to ship out the system in the second half of the year, but we decided to keep it internal to optimize the performance before we get it out. And therefore, customers are coming to our site and running the wafers there. Next year, we want to ship the first system. And also, we want to launch the development of the 300-millimeter version of the wafer cleaner because the current one is a 200-millimeter system.

Really final point. What about pricing? We heard from other semiconductor equipment companies that they partly intend to increase their prices because others, the supply chains, do you see maybe the one or other price increases. Is it also the case for you? How you think about pricing? And if yes, how pronounced could price increases be?

Yes, I will quote you there. We partially intend to increase our prices. So where we can, of course, Johannes, we do this. Usually, you cannot just simply raise prices and cite a shortage or inflation for things. But where we have solid grounds to raise the bar, we will do that. Usually, customers expect new products, new features, and then that's the best way to set a new price. You can do some adjustments based on higher material costs or other aspects, and we do this every time we have a chance to do so. And -- but of course, new products will give you more room to raise the bar.

Well, thank you very much. And with no further questions online, we come to the end of today's conference call. Thank you very much for your interest in SUSS MicroTec. And for a successful remaining day, I wish you all, and I'm handing over for some closing remarks back to Sabrina Mueller.

Yes. Thanks a lot, and thanks to the audience for joining our conference call. And if further questions arise, please do not hesitate to contact us, the IR team, and we wish you a nice rest of the day, and bye-bye.

Welcome to the earnings call of MicroTec SE following the publication of the first Q1 figures of 2026. I would like to welcome the company's CEO, Burkhardt Frick; the CFO, Dr. Cornelia Ballwießer; the COO, Dr. Thomas Rohe; and the Manager of Investor Relations, Florian Mangold, who will guide us through the presentation in a moment, followed by a Q&A session via audio line and chat.

And with that, I hand over to you, Mr. Mangold.

Thank you very much for the introduction. Welcome to our conference call after the release of our interim statement for Q1 2026. For those of you who did not join the full year call short 5.5 weeks ago, a quick disclaimer. This call is being recorded and considered as copyrighted material. It cannot be recorded or rebroadcasted without permission and participating in this call implies your consent to this procedure. Please also be aware of the safe harbor statement on Page 2 of the slide deck. It applies throughout the call.

And now I'm handing over to Burkhardt for -- to guide us through the presentations of the first quarter.

Florian, thanks a lot for the intro. Welcome, everyone, also from my side.

Let's start with an overview of the key financials for 2026. Order intake of EUR 149.3 million marked a new record in the company's history, surpassing the previous record of EUR 147.5 million in Q4 2024. This performance is broadly distributed across customers and applications.

We also see debonder business return along with renewed demand from China. This strong Q1 breaks the usual seasonal pattern. Typically, Q4 is the strongest quarter of the year, followed by a slower Q1 in terms of orders.

Revenue of EUR 86.5 million is down significantly as expected. With product lead times of around 6 months, this reflects the lower order intake volumes of summer 2025. Q1 was expected to be the low point of 2026 with gradual improvements towards the end of the year.

Now on profitability. The gross margin of 36.1% is within our guidance corridor. The EBIT margin is lower due to reduced coverage of fixed costs, but we expect it to improve significantly going forward.

And now we are on the page you are seeing, a few more words on the order intake. Q1 was the best quarter for the order intake in the company's history. Demand came from both segments and across our customer base. We are seeing strength from our AI-exposed customers, but orders are strong across all customer groups.

From a geographic perspective, Europe and North America were strong and demand from China is also returning. Regarding sales, we already stated on the full year call that Q1 will be weak. From here, we expect sales to improve as we move through the year.

Now on the order situation. On the full year call, we were cautious because Q1 could have reflected a pull-in from the second half of 2026. At this point, we continue to see very good order momentum in Q2 as well, and we are ramping up flexible manufacturing capacity again.

Now let's take a look at the performance of the 2 segments. First, to Advanced Backend Solutions. Order intake was significantly above the previous quarter and well above Q1 2025. The main drivers were strong order intake in bonders. Around 50% of the segment order intake was for Bonding Solutions.

Imaging was also strong, driven by high order volumes for the UV projection scanners. Revenue was down significantly. The only product line that grew year-on-year was Imaging Solutions. Bonding, which was down 65%, and Coating, minus 8%, were weak. Each product line contributed roughly 1/3 of sales, another indicator of an unfavorable product mix. Profitability was significantly lower than in the prior year due to a weaker product and customer mix with a high share of Imaging and Coating.

Now let's move to Photomask Solutions. Order intake was approximately EUR 50 million, a solid improvement versus Q1 2025. Orders from China accounted for roughly 1/3 of the segment order intake, indicating that China business is returning at least in Q1 2026. As a result, we almost doubled the segment order book on the back of a strong first quarter order intake. Revenue was lower in Q1, reflecting the lower order volume and reduced capacity. The EBIT margin was under pressure due to lower fixed cost absorption by the decline in sales volume.

And now I'd like to hand over to Cornelia for a deeper dive on our numbers.

Thank you, Burkhardt, and also a warm welcome from my side to all of you. I will focus on a few key financials and operational messages for the first quarter. First, on demand and visibility. Our order book stood at EUR 330.1 million at the end of the first quarter. Within that, tool orders represent EUR 300 million, which shows the visibility improved in the first quarter. More importantly, we have good line of sight on revenue conversion. We expect EUR 255 million of those tool orders to convert into sales during 2026. Roughly EUR 45 million is already scheduled beyond 2026, which means that the backlog for 2027 is starting to build up. This also implies that additional orders are still expected to achieve our revenue target and to fill all production slots in 2026. As a consequence, no solid conclusion can be drawn at this stage regarding the product and customer mix for the full year.

Sales revenue reflects the low order intake during the summer months in the last year, which Burkhardt already highlighted.

Operating expenses, that means selling expenses, administration expenses, and R&D expenses increased overall slightly by EUR 0.9 million. The key driver within that mix was R&D expenses, which increased 12.5%. This is EUR 1.4 million quarter-on-quarter. In absolute terms, R&D expenses was EUR 12.2 million in the first quarter 2026. The other operating expense items were broadly stable. So the increase is largely a deliberate investment choice, supporting our road map while keeping the overall cost base under control.

EBIT was clearly below prior year due to less volume and a different product and customer mix.

On the balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents increased compared to year-end 2025 strongly to EUR 120.9 million. This improvement was primarily driven by lower working capital versus the end of the last fiscal year. Net cash is lower compared to the first quarter 2025, and I want to be clear on the definition. Lease liabilities, including the noncurrent portion is reflected in the net cash calculation. Lease liabilities increased in connection with the lease of a building in Zhubei since the beginning of the second quarter last year, which automatically reduced the net cash position.

Free cash flow and CapEx. Finally, free cash flow increased to EUR 23.2 million in the first quarter, representing a strong improvement versus the first quarter 2025 and the fourth quarter 2025. CapEx was EUR 2.5 million, driven by some technical equipment in Germany, a training tool for Taiwan and some minor items also in Taiwan.

So let's move on the development of our main financial KPIs. Please be aware that the prior year figures have been restated due to changes in accounting policies applied in the fourth quarter 2025.

Five weeks ago, we said we expected a continuation of the positive order momentum in Q1. Typically, the first quarter is seasonally weaker than the fourth quarter. But this year, we clearly outperformed the fourth quarter and broke the usual seasonal pattern. And there is a possibility that the second quarter could be also strong, perhaps even above the first quarter. But this depends on customer timing and project progression.

As planned, quarterly sales of EUR 86.5 million is expected to mark the low point of the year. In the following quarters, we expect rising sales levels. However, the extent of these increases will vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter also in terms of its composition.

Gross profit margin was in line with our guidance corridor for the full fiscal year 2026. And EBIT, due to lower cost coverage, EBIT declined significantly. Looking ahead, we anticipate a higher EBIT margin as cost coverage improves. Overall, we assume from today's perspective that the product mix in 2026 will not significantly change. Based on that, we confirm our guidance of 8% to 10% EBIT margin. It is a reasonable expectation for the full year.

Let me briefly walk through the 2 segments. Burkhardt already talked about this. The positive order momentum continued in both segments. In Advanced Backend Solutions, sales declined versus the first quarter 2025. This was primarily driven by lower sales in the Bonding Systems product line. That mix shift also matters for profitability. Bonding Systems typically carry a more favorable margin profile, so lower bonding volumes have a double impact on both revenue and on margins. As a result, EBIT in the Advanced Backend Solutions segment turned slightly negative as a result.

EUR 18 million of gross profit were not enough to cover EUR 20 million of operational expenses, roughly half of which are R&D expenses.

Turning to Photomask Solutions. Order intake improved significantly as we already discussed earlier. Sales were below the first quarter of 2025, but at prior quarter level. Please keep in mind that due to the high unit price and comparatively low equipment volume, timing shifts in the project can lead to noticeable impact on short-term trends in sales and profitability.

In terms of profitability, gross profit margin improved compared to the first quarter 2025, but was slightly below the prior quarter.

With a total gross profit of EUR 13.3 million and OpEx of around EUR 6 million, we achieved EBIT of around EUR 7 million and as a consequence, an EBIT margin of 23.1%.

As already mentioned and as you can see in the bars here, the first quarter 2026 was truly outstanding for the time being. Let me add a few remarks on order intake dynamics and what we are seeing regionally. The book-to-bill due to the excellent order intake in the first quarter, combined with lower sales volume in the first quarter, we achieved a book-to-bill ratio of 1.73 in the first quarter. From our perspective, that's a clear indicator of strong momentum and supports the visibility we can going into the next quarters.

Regionally, Asia Pacific once again accounted for the largest share of the new orders, but the relative distribution shifted in favor of EMEA and North America. To put numbers to that, for the full year 2025, APAC represented around 77% of order intake with Taiwan as a dominant contributor. In the first quarter, APAC was 65%. The reduction in APAC shares is not a sign of weakness in the region. APAC remains the largest contributor, but rather reflects stronger relative contributions from EMEA and North America in the quarter. Compared to the distribution of the full year, EMEA share increased by 3.1 percentage points. The Americas increased by 9.3 percentage points. So overall, we are seeing a small shift in the regional order pattern versus last year while still seeing strong demand in APAC.

Now I would like to present the main balance sheet developments. Total assets increased by EUR 17.3 million versus year-end 2025 to EUR 524.7 million. Noncurrent assets decreased by around EUR 2 million because depreciation exceeded investments by EUR 1.5 million. And here, we see the depreciation of the right-of-use assets related to the Zhubei site.

Current assets increased by EUR 19.2 million. Without cash and cash equivalents, current assets declined by EUR 2.9 million. On the one hand, we had an inventory buildup of EUR 14 million, which is primarily linked to the number of tools we are currently building. So it is work in progress, which is here the driving factor. On the other hand, trade receivables declined by EUR 16 million as well as contract assets by EUR 6.3 million.

Cash and cash equivalents increased by EUR 20.2 million due to the positive free cash flow.

On the equity side, we have an increase in equity and the equity ratio ends up at 60.7%. It's a slight decrease compared to end of last fiscal year due to the increased total assets.

The noncurrent liabilities were broadly stable at a reduction of EUR 1.8 million, mainly related to leasing obligations and bank liabilities.

Current liabilities increased by EUR 15.9 million, mainly driven by higher trade payables and higher contract liabilities. So trade payables increased by EUR 5.4 million to EUR 30.6 million, and contract liabilities increased by EUR 12.6 million to EUR 57.7 million. The latter was primarily driven by advanced payments from Chinese customers.

And with that, now I hand back to Burkhardt.

Thank you, Cornelia. As said before, Q1 marks a low point in sales. We expect sequential improvement in the coming quarters for the remainder of the year. Higher sales will also translate to increasing profitability going forward. Order book has improved, but it's not yet at the level of last year, which at the end of Q1 was EUR 392.7 million. Therefore, still lower visibility on the final product mix for the year.

Of the current order book, EUR 255 million of tool orders are for 2026. The rest are already tool orders for 2027. Upgrades and services are roughly EUR 27 million at the end of Q1 2026.

In summary, visibility for 2026 has improved in Q1. Our clear expectation is that Q2 will also see a very positive order momentum, potentially exceeding Q1 order intake levels.

As we said before, 2026 will be a transition year. Q1 marks the low point. From there on, we will return on our growth path. Therefore, we confirm the existing guidance today with a sales range of EUR 425 million to EUR 485 million. We see a broadly stable gross margin of 35% to 37%, but a declining EBIT margin in the range of 8% to 10%. Some of you are already calculating whether or not the midpoint in terms of sales seems defensive. That's understandable. Things are looking good at the moment, but this is the view only after the very first quarter, and it has been only 5 weeks since our initial guidance. Once we see a more sustained order momentum, we can better gauge the second half of the year and beyond. Until then, we expect 2026 is developing according to the projection we used to model our 2026 guidance.

And with that, thank you very much for your attention. We are looking forward to your questions. Operator, please open the floor for the discussion.

[Operator Instructions] By that said, we have already received risen hands, for example, by Mr. Janardan Menon.

I noticed that you had -- you're saying that you got bonder orders from HBM customers in the plural. So does that mean that your second customer who you had indicated had not really started ordering in the fourth quarter has also now started to order equipment? Or is this from the new qualification that you got at a third customer recently?

Janardan, that's a good question. It's the latter. So the second large customer hasn't placed significant repeat orders yet.

Understood. And then you're getting Photomask orders from China. Is this for the new Photomask machine, the mid-range one that you are introducing? Or is this still for your older model?

It's a mix of both. I mean, the high-end version, the MaskTrack Smart is not yet launched in China. But we see orders for our existing portfolio, which is the MaskTrack Pro and also the initial orders for our mid-end cleaning system, which we are also introducing this year.

Okay. So you are already taking orders for the equipment that you are still in the process of introducing as an even -- so even for your next-generation UV scanner, et cetera, are orders already being taken? Or do you have to first launch the system before that?

Yes. These are different cases because for the mid-end cleaner, there are multiple customers for the next-generation UV scanner, which will be a panel version scanner. This is launched for our prime partner who is developing cohort solutions.

Understood. And last question is just when we look at the continuing order strength into Q2, is that coming from the same customer trends that you saw in Q1? Or is there any change in that pattern?

It's a mixed bag. It's we -- of course, often, we get reduced to AI. I think I said it multiple times, but we see other customers now also ordering also for other applications. And also, we see a bit the order pattern changing that they place larger orders also for deliveries well into 2027, although usually our lead times for the back end are much shorter now, but we see kind of more momentum ordering big blocks of equipment for multiple quarters.

We have another question by Mr. Ruben Devos.

All right. I just had a question simply on guidance, right? I mean, orders of EUR 149 million. I think last quarter, you talked about orders being higher than what Q4 was, so basically above EUR 118 million. Obviously, if you annualize, you come in well ahead of where your revenue sales -- where your revenue guidance is for the year. Basically, what would need to happen in Q2, let's say, for you to start feeling that the current sales range is too conservative? That's maybe the first question.

Yes, that's hard to say because as I said before, just on the previous questions, we see a different composition of the orders. They are more long-term orders we receive, which stretch well into '27. And therefore, we still need orders to score now to meet our guidance for the remainder of the year. I think Cornelia explained a bit the mix of orders materializing this year in sales and revenue and orders, which are already booked for '27. And that portion, which we see now coming in for '27 is larger than in previous years, which in a way, it's good news because it's longer-term visibility, which we didn't experience especially in the second half of last year. But that doesn't mean that our guidance is, in that sense, secured by the existing order book. We still need to collect orders to make our guidance.

Okay. And regarding Photomask, the order intake of EUR 50 million, I think you talked about second highest quarterly level in history. Could you decompose that a bit? Like, how much of that came from China resuming order intake versus maybe international customers pulling in? Is there maybe some restocking from China after several weak quarters? Or is there really a genuine new fab demand that you're seeing across these companies?

Yes, it's twofolded. So you cannot really drill it down to one factor. I think we said we do see kind of renewed momentum coming out of China, which was seen as being saturated in a way or the other. And we saw that clearly in the declining order intake in the last quarters of last year, especially Q2 through Q3, we saw big drops in Photomask intake.

Now we see a kind of a slight reversal, but we have to see if this is sustainable or not. As you see with Western customers, the investments for equipment, for wafer fab equipment is increasing significantly also on the front-end litho side and that also pulls requirements for Photomask cleaning equipment with it. So we see existing Western customers also ordering more than we initially had forecasted to push and to balance the equipment demand. So it's a mixed bag.

Okay. Okay. And then just a final question. I think regarding these 4 new product launches, right, basically, I mean, I have my suspicions, but I would say, right, which one have -- which of these would have the greatest potential to affect your next year's sales? And apart from that, if you look across these 4, where do you see most execution risk rather than the revenue potential?

Yes, that's also not an easy question. I mean the -- they all are, of course, linked to our strategic revenue stream, which then starts from next year onwards. And again, it's -- these are not products which only last for a year or 2. These are really either brand-new products like GreenTech or the mid-end cleaner. So this is 2 out of those 4. But then the MaskTrack Smart cleaner and also the DSC 310, the panel version of our next-generation UV scanner, are kind of evolved new applications addressing customer needs in the future. So you could always say that, well, an extended product, which is just an evolution of existing products, bears a lower risk, but that will be too simple because, I mean, all these projects are running on tight time lines, and they are pretty much on track, but it's tight.

With a brand-new application, we are entering GreenTech that, of course, there we have to prove that we have something which is by far better than competitors. And that proof point is only after evaluation results of the launching customer, which starts in the second half of this year. So I think all these products have revenue potential for next year. The panel version, of course, that's for a pilot line. And as most of you know, panel level production is seen to ramp only towards the end of the decade, starting from 2028 onwards. So our DSC panel version, I don't expect significant revenues before 2028.

We have another risen hand by Mr. Martin Marandon-Carlhian.

My first one is on the temporary Bonding business and the new customer that you announced last quarter. So I guess, my question is how big do you think the opportunity can be? Do you think that this customer can be as big in terms of revenues than the other 2 because it has like 50% or more of the addressable market, even if it's just -- you're just a second source there? And I have a follow-up.

Yes, Martin, that's, of course, if I would have a crystal ball, I could answer this better. But this first orders we received there for single tools, which go to R&D and which then, of course, have to perform against the installed base. And once you see results, then you can better predict how good your chances are because there, we are clearly a second source. On the other installed base customers, we were part of the launching party, which gives you a stronger foothold there. But it's too early to tell. It highly depends on the performance those machines make. We are quite happy that we have a foot in the door, but it's way too early to gauge what ultimate potential can come out of this.

Okay. I understand. And my follow-up is on the gross margin expectation in '27. I know it's already too early to say, but just linked to the new product launch, how big do you think the ramp can be in terms of gross margin in '27? Because I guess there is kind of a learning curve also in assembly for some new equipment. So do you see compared to the trajectory you showed at the last Capital Market Day, do you see a bigger step-up in '27 versus '26 or maybe in '28 versus '27?

Yes, we don't guide multiple years, as you know. And I think -- I mean, we have to see. '27 will be -- the bulk, of course, will be depending on the existing portfolio. And only a small portion will be affected or influenced by new launching products. Having said that, as you always know, the mix of the portfolio has a major role to play here. So if we can increase the amount of Bonding equipment, then we see a much faster swing of the margin than to wait for the effect of the new launching products, which I think in bulk you only will see from '28 onwards. But maybe Cornelia has an additional comment to make.

Yes, I would say it's hard to say at this time, what we will achieve in 2027. As you said, it depends on the mix and also on the share of our new products. And in the beginning, it's -- I expect not such a big share because it will ramp up in a normal pattern. That's all I can say for the moment. And as we said, we have around EUR 45 million order intake that will turn into sales or we expect that this turns into sales revenue in 2026, but only EUR 45 million right now, and we have to wait and see how the mix will turn out in the orders we get in the coming months.

We have another question from Malte Schaumann.

First one is on the third HBM player, which suffered a bit from underutilization over the [Technical Difficulty].

We cannot hear you anymore. I have sent you another invite to unmute yourself.

Okay. Can you hear me now?

Yes. Now it's perfect again.

Okay. Sorry. I was touching upon the third HBM player, which was suffering a bit from underutilization during the past couple of quarters. So what's your take on the opportunity here, especially in the second half of this year? Do you see that customer returning with orders? Or is that rather -- or has that perception changed?

Malte, this is still our working assumption. Of course, we are working close with them. We see utilization is increasing, and we are working with them closely also to be there when they are placing additional orders. And of course, we want them to place them with us. But as you know, it's also a very competitive market. So we have to see what share we get because they have mixed suppliers. And we need to see how we can score there. We've been so far a bit cautious there to make a big forecast because currently, we don't see a lot of activity in terms of orders from that side.

Okay. And that is rather because competition might be stronger than expected or because the customer delays order placement at suppliers due to still existing underutilization?

That's a good question, but I don't have an answer for that. It's -- we have competitive activities at all customers, except some of our Photomask customers. But here, it's too early to say. There are also quite some challenges we have to overcome for next-generation memories. And so we have a long list of items we are working on. We do this closely with that customer. And in the end, of course, when we solve all these issues, I'm confident that we are considered for follow-up orders, but it's too early to say.

Okay. Understood. Then on the capacity extensions or temporary capacity extensions you alluded to, can you elaborate a bit where will these take place, for which product areas are these planned? And what's the time frame for these?

Yes, that's a question, of course, for Thomas, who, I think, will gladly chip in.

Yes, sure. Thank you for the question, Malte. Capacity is already really in progress that we ramp up in Taiwan, also partially in Sternenfels because mainly affected product lines are bonders for sure, but also scanners. So this is in progress. We are making progress. We are still hiring and still ramping up the capacity, but we are on a very good track there.

Okay. So it sounds like this is a short-term thing that will be in place here in a few weeks or so.

Yes, sure. It's short term because what means short term, we know about the order intake from Q4. We prepared for this, and we are hiring people and really -- also really ramping up our supply chain again, which we ramped down due to the low order intake in Q2, Q3 last year. But this ramped up. Right now, we are on a pretty good track there, as I mentioned, and we are very confident that we are fulfilling all the orders, which we get for this year that we can fulfill them this year.

Okay. And I think just to add one thing, Malte, and Thomas, if I may. I think we reported last year that we reduced our large portions of our flexible manufacturing capability, which is our fast way of adjusting to changing environments. Now of course, we have to fill up those flexibility again with flex labor components. That's the first thing we always do. When we see it's more structural and sustainable, then, of course, we also have to increase the permanent workforce. But right now, we are beefing up the flex labor resources, which I think makes best sense.

Okay. And in terms of individual product areas, are there already areas where you are fully booked and new orders automatically slip into '27? Or how does it look for spare capacities?

To make it very short, no. If you order a tool, we will manage to sell it and to produce it this year. And we can really accept more orders this year. So there's no limitation foreseen right now.

Okay. Good.

Another question for the new product, new types of products or next-generation systems. Can you -- are you able to maybe share a number what's the -- what do you expect -- I mean, the big ramp will probably follow past '27, but what the opportunity might be for next year and all these product launch and you get first orders, what the revenue contribution from these areas might look like?

Yes, Malte, as I said, we don't give those indications on a product on specific level. I think we have already a high single-digit number of mid-end cleaner orders, which are out for delivery starting this year and spanning into next year. So that is probably in terms of volume, the fastest movers.

The GreenTech is, of course, a new application launch where we will place first one product with the customer. We expect to get some orders probably, yes, towards the late end of the second half of this year, which then result in sales in '27.

For the MaskTrack Smart, we already have an order for the first volume system, which goes to a lead customer, Western customer, for evaluation purposes towards the end of the year. So we already have a number of POs. To summarize this in a euro number, I don't have that data now here. And usually, we don't disclose it this early.

We have 3 risen hands left, one from Johannes Ries.

Maybe also some short follow-on questions from my side. First, on the flexible capacity. What impact has the flexible capacity on margin? Is the margin effect maybe a little bit lower than your permanent stuff? If you see its ongoing development or it's neutral?

Well, Johannes, this is Thomas speaking. The effect is almost neutral because, for sure, we have some training efforts because we have to train them in the beginning, but we also really managed to keep this time very short so that the effect on training efforts is pretty small. So we expect no real significant impact on the margin. The effect is more really -- or the challenge is more to get the right people on the board, hire them, train them, and get them into production. But we learned over the last years a lot about this, and I think we are pretty good in this meanwhile. So from that point of view, no big effect is to be expected.

Super. Maybe also on the activities -- also for future activities, which we don't mention because maybe they are more in the future. Any update on -- potential maybe changes in the prospects of things like inkjet, or imprint or the hybrid bonding, even wafer-to-wafer. Anything new in the last 3 months, which happened and maybe also changes or opportunities you see in these activities?

Yes. That's a very wide question, Johannes.

What was not mentioned, sorry.

But obviously, all these things you just mentioned are activities we are pursuing. What we see sometimes is that the weight is shifting. You mentioned hybrid bonding. We see more emphasis now on wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding than on die-to-wafer hybrid bonding, for example. So that since we have solutions kind of ready for all these technologies, I think we are in a good base position, and we have to see that we can also adapt to those shifts because also the shifts often come along with technical requirements, whether it's overlay accuracy or very specific like fingerprint -- wafer fingerprint issues on wafer-to-wafer bonding, and we need to deal with that.

So your question was, are there any changes? There are constantly changes. And the point is how do we deal with them, how can we react and respond. And this keeps especially our technology guys active and our application guys.

Okay. Maybe on the whole environment, more and more front-end suppliers are realizing or moving in the direction, applied this in the long term, but also there are rumors that ASML also more looking at the advanced packaging side. How do you see this development? Is it positive? Or is it a threat that maybe big guys are getting stronger and stronger and maybe increasing the pressure on the traditional suppliers?

Well, yes, Johannes, I think you know me. I'm not scared of the big guys and I know a little bit how they tick. So it's -- I think it -- I see it rather as a positive development because these previously separated front and back-end markets are moving closer together. And I think the parties who manage to deal with this changing situation best are the ones who are coming out as a winner, no matter of the size. Now trying to raise walls and build fences will not help back-end players in this respect. So I think it's about how can you deal with the situation. Maybe there are ways of collaboration you can explore. And I think the next few years will be quite exciting.

Okay. Everybody talks with everybody. On other products, I heard that you also maybe offer now a separate cleaner for hybrid bonding because that's one strength of SUSS that you are very strong because of Photomask cleaning in this area. Is that product already available? And if yes, what is maybe the feedback of customers on this?

No, here, I'm not sure what you're referring to, Johannes. Especially cleaner for hybrid bonding?

Yes, your cleaning solution, maybe it's a wrong information I got. You have a stand-alone cleaner offering also for dedicated hybrid bonding solutions.

Then you know more than I do.

Okay, that is a wrong information. Forget it. Okay. Sorry about that. Finally, on the OSATs, how it's -- you mentioned it's a wide range of customers and different sources even for other applications. Are the OSATs also one of the drivers of the activities in Q1 and especially in Q2?

Exactly. And this is also what I meant that it's not only AI driven, although, of course, AI has a big role there to play. We see OSAT orders and especially OSAT orders in context with our coders stepping up significantly. And that's a good sign because that gives a more balanced load and reduces the dependency on HBM only.

Okay. Finally, how much will you have -- looking at your pipeline in your CRM systems, you have all the first indications maybe how the strength of orders could go on maybe in the second half. Maybe you can say the pipeline is still strong or even growing. Any of these indications are available or you can talk about?

Well, of course, there are certain things available, but we cannot disclose all the details, as you well know. But I think we mentioned earlier the order pattern changes. And that is, in that sense, significant because this is very different compared to last year. We see larger orders coming in almost frame orders, which go over periods of 12 to 18 months with big sets, and they come in early, much earlier than they usually would have come, looking at our standard lead times, which have improved significantly.

So maybe this is driven by concerns that there will be shortage in capacity. There's quite a run on equipment as we speak. So then customers really start claiming their slot in the supply chain or they just want to get the best package deal for a large number of order. We see currently a lot of activity concentrating on the first half of this year. And then, of course, we have to see, does this mean that the second half of the year, there's a deflated order momentum because a lot of things were pulled in or does it continue at a reasonable strong level? And that's too early to see.

We see now an unusual strong pull for orders, as already said, against the seasonal distribution in Q1. We see this extending into Q2, where we also said that we can even beat the record order intake of Q1. But then we have to see, is that a pull-in effect? Or is it really a sustainable increase in demand across the entire ecosystem? And until we have a better gauge on that one, we are sticking to our guidance because the second half of the year can look differently.

We have 2 remaining questions, one from Abed Jarad.

You have already touched on my question, but maybe you can give me more color. There are currently like a lot of tightness across wafer fab capacity and HBM, obviously. And at the same time, lead time is lengthening across the semi value chain. So I just wonder if you are seeing any bottlenecks maybe in your own supply chain or maybe also at customer sites that could slow maybe your backlog conversion and impact your performance in the near future, positively or negatively.

Not yet. So -- but I also will ask Thomas in a moment. But the issue is we really had to tone down our material intake in the last quarters and which is reflected also in the low sales levels. So that actually was a problem to us because we ramped up a quite strong supply chain. And now, of course, with the increased order momentum, this is actually really good news because we can get back to the volumes we have secured previously and have access to good prices. Otherwise, those suppliers would have adjusted their pricing due to lower volumes.

So luckily, we prepared the supply chain in the past 2 years. And now we press start again, and we can execute faster. So we currently don't see issues -- supply chain issues. But of course, the geopolitical context we haven't talked about is still pretty critical, and we have to observe this carefully. But maybe Thomas has a view on if he sees any shortages on the supply side, on supply chain management.

No, no, no. Actually, we do not see any shortages, as you correctly mentioned. But the only thing which we see and perhaps this is also really answering partially your question is for sure, some price increases, which we see due to the geopolitical effects on, for example, aluminum prices increase, energy prices do increase. So also partially also the prices for our supplied or bought materials increased slightly. We try to avoid it, and we try to negotiate it away. But for sure, there is some pressure on the price side, not so much on the supply side in general, but really on the price side. But up to now, we manage it pretty well. So from that point of view, I do not see a really big risk in our supply chain.

We do have one last question by [ Lukas Svahn ].

I would like to come back to your statement regarding Q2 order intake and that it is also even possible that Q2 order intake could exceed Q1 levels. So April and the first days of May must have been very good if you make statements like this. So just to get a feeling or a better feeling of the current momentum, can you give any indications how order intake in April has been?

And the second question is regarding Americas. It's still low numbers, but with a very strong relative change in Q1 on the order intake side, so is this just related to 1 or 2 customers? Or is it a broader base? And what product categories is this related to?

Yes. Let me -- [ Lukas ], let me answer your second question first. I think we said also earlier in the call, we see a higher portion of European and U.S. activities. And also -- and that's across multiple customers we have there, but also we get larger orders also out of those regions, which we haven't seen at that scale before. So that is a clear indicator. And it is, of course, good news because it's a more balanced geographical distribution. Now we don't give you any specifics on the order intake in the first 5 weeks, but they are that good that we are bold enough to claim that Q2 will exceed the record Q1 in order entry volumes. So we are very confident about that.

So on a monthly basis, even probably an acceleration in order intake momentum.

I don't know if you say acceleration, but we got some significant large orders, which then, of course, make a big impact. But of course, it's 5 weeks out of 12 weeks. So yes, we have to celebrate at the end of the quarter. But right now, the forecast for the second quarter is quite strong.

Well, there are no risen hands left and no -- as I can see, no questions in our chat either. So I would say thank you. And with no further questions, we will come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you very much for your interest in SUSS MicroTec SE. If any further questions arise at a later time, feel free to contact Investor Relations. I wish you all a successful day, and I'm handing over to Mr. Mangold for closing remarks.

Like said, we are always happy to answer your questions and any follow-ups. Also, we're looking forward to welcoming many of you at our Annual General Meeting, which is due for June 3 here in Munich. Yes, like we already said, have a great day -- have a great rest of the day and speak to you soon. Bye.

Welcome to the earnings call of SUSS Micro SE following the figures of 2025. I would like to welcome the company's CEO, Burkhardt Frick; the CFO, Dr. Cornelia Ballwießer; the COO, Dr. Thomas Rohe; and IR, Sven Kopsel, who will guide us through the presentation in a moment, followed by a Q&A session via audio line and chat.

And with that, I hand over to you, Mr. Kopsel.

Thank you so much, and welcome to our full year conference call after today's release of our annual report 2025, including our outlook for the new financial year.

First of all, one personal note from myself after 3.5 years with SUSS in total, 4 annual reports, 2 Capital Market Days and yes, countless investor and analyst interactions, today marks my final conference call with SUSS. While I truly love the company, I have decided to take on an exciting new role in a different listed German company as of May. So April 24 will be my last day at SUSS, and my colleague, Florian Mangold, will continue to be available to you as your point of contact.

Now back to the official part. As you probably know from earlier calls, this call is being recorded and considered as copyright material. It cannot be recorded or rebroadcast without permission and participating in this call implies your consent to this procedure. Please be aware of our safe harbor statement on Page 2 of the slide deck. It applies throughout the conference call.

And now I hand over to Burkhardt, our CEO, for some opening remarks, followed by our CFO, presenting the financial development. Burkhardt, please?

Sven, many thanks, and also thanks for your great contribution over the past 3.5 years. We really enjoyed you having on board, and I'm sure you will have an exciting future ahead of you. So thanks a lot from my side.

Let's now start with an overview on the key financials for 2025. Our order intake ultimately came in at EUR 354 million, more on this shortly with a particular focus on the fourth quarter. Revenue recorded at EUR 503 million, once again, a double-digit growth and exceeding EUR 0.5 billion for the first time. Profitability with a gross profit margin of 35.7% and an EBIT margin of 13.1%, we came short of our initial margin expectations. However, we did meet our most recent guidance.

Now a few more words on revenue. EUR 503 million marks another record revenue figure and an all-time high for SUSS. Even more important, we have increased revenue over the past 2 years from around EUR 300 million to EUR 500 million, an increase of EUR 200 million. SUSS is now a significantly larger and more capable company. We are a growth company, and we intend to resume this growth in the midterm.

Regarding order intake, in November, I stated that we could achieve EUR 100 million in order intake in the fourth quarter. We now can confirm an order intake of EUR 117.5 million. The book-to-bill ratio was thus around 1. Both segments contributed to the improved order situation with AI being the dominant driver, both in terms of HBM and CoWoS. Further good news, this positive momentum has continued into the first quarter of 2026.

Now on profitability. We explained the deviation from our original plans during the Q3 conference call. And as we said in the Capital Markets Day in mid-November, we introduced the new product generations and innovative solutions to achieve a substantial improvement in margins. That's why we are very much looking forward to the next 2 to 3 years and the multiple launches we have lined up.

Now let's take a look at the performance of our 2 segments. First, Advanced Backend Solutions. Order intake was approximately EUR 25 million lower than in the previous year and was distributed fairly evenly across the 3 product lines: imaging, coating and bonding. Demand for our imaging systems, specifically for UV projection scanner used in CoWoS process remains strong. Demand for bonding solutions was lower than in previous year, but has improved since the fourth quarter. Revenue grew by 10.7% to around EUR 350 million, while bonding was below 2024.

Imaging and Coating Systems contributed the most significant growth, each posting an increase of more than 50% compared to the previous year. Profitability was significantly lower than in previous year, primarily due to weaker product and customer mix, strong growth in Imaging and coating and the frequently mentioned increased temporary ramp-up support provided to our customers for already installed tools as well as the establishment of our new production facility in Taiwan.

Now to Photomask Solutions. Order intake of approximately EUR 80 million was significantly down by EUR 43.5 million from the previous year. Out of this number, EUR 31 million was due to lower orders from Chinese customers. However, Q4 showed an improved trend versus Q2 and Q3. Revenue growth of 17.3% to over EUR 150 million is very encouraging. Thanks to our improved operational capabilities, we have further significantly reduced our backlog and accelerated the completion of customer projects. Higher sales volume and an improved product and customer mix also led to a 5% point increase in the gross profit margin and an 8% point increase in the EBIT margin.

Now let's zoom in on the fourth quarter of 2025. I already mentioned the positive order intake of EUR 117.5 million, reversing the negative trend of the first 3 quarters. Of this amount, EUR 92 million was attributable, difficult word, to the advanced back-end solutions and EUR 25.5 million to Photomask Solutions. We once again received several orders for our UV projection scanner for CoWoS process as well as for HBM-related follow-up orders, particularly for one of our memory customers. Orders for our mask aligner from customers in mainstream applications have also improved significantly. It may still be too early to speak of a turnaround in this business, but this was certainly a strong intake quarter.

Revenue of EUR 119 million was almost unchanged from the third quarter of EUR 118 million. This demonstrates our significantly greater stability when it comes to executing customer projects. Gross profit margin remained low at 34.9%, though it improved slightly compared to the third quarter, where we had 33.1%. EBIT margin was 9.8%, which was slightly lower than Q3, but still better than we originally had expected.

To wrap up the first part, here's a look at our new production facility in Zhubei, Taiwan, which is already fully operational. Following the opening ceremony at the end of October, all relocation work has since been completed. As planned, we returned all existing locations to our landlords by the end of February. We delivered the first tool made in Zhubei, a UV projection scanner to our customer already in February. Production is now in full swing, as you see on this picture, about 10 tools were built in Zhubei during the first quarter in 2026. Further capacity increase is under preparation. Q1 '26 is, therefore, also the last quarter in which the P&L will be impacted by the implementation of the new site.

And with that, I hand over to Cornelia for some details on our financial development.

Thank you, Burkhardt, and also a warm welcome from my side to all of you. Here, you see our key financial figures. First of all, I would like to point out that the previous year figures have been adjusted due to accounting changes made in the connection of the preparation of the 2025 consolidated financial statements. These changes are explained in detail in the notes in our annual report, which has been published today. The adjustments for fiscal year 2024 in short are a sales adjustment amounted to plus EUR 0.5 million.

Gross profit was adjusted by minus EUR 1.5 million and EBIT by minus EUR 0.5 million, and net income was adjusted by EUR 0.4 million. In a nutshell, the main changes are based on a more detailed approach to revenue recognition. In particular, installation service following the delivery of our tools and upgrades are no longer recognized on a point-in-time basis, but rather on a period basis. This is from shipment to final acceptance by the customer.

The second significant change was made to the provision for the equity-based compensation, which is now recognized on a pro rata temporary basis over the entire 4-year period, the vesting period rather than at the time of the grant of the virtual shares at their estimated value. This resulted in an adjustment of plus EUR 1.2 million in EBIT.

And now let's have a look on our financials here on the screen. The order book was EUR 266.8 million at the end of 2025. The vast majority of these orders will be produced, delivered and recognized as revenue throughout 2026. Expenses for selling, administration and R&D increased from roughly EUR 100 million to EUR 118 million in 2025. The main reasons were an increase in R&D, plus EUR 7 million spending to support several product and technology development projects and for IT and digitalization projects, such as the mitigation of our ERP system. But that's not all. There are some other systems we introduce. And the full cost impact of new hires made in 2024 has an impact or the full impact in 2025. Net profit amounted to EUR 46.1 million in 2025, down from EUR 110 million in 2024 when the sale of the MicroOptics business had resulted in a significant onetime gain.

Cash and cash equivalents were at EUR 98.7 million and compared to 2024, reduced by EUR 33.5 million. And this mainly because of a significant lower prepayments from our customers and of course due to our CapEx in 2025. Net cash amounted to EUR 49.1 million in 2025. And this is because of the deduction of the leasing liability from the lease agreement for our new Zhubei site which caused this decline. Free cash flow from continuing operations was EUR 20.6 million (sic) [ EUR 22.6 million ] in 2025 and in total at minus EUR 26 million. The fourth quarter was cash flow positive at EUR 5.6 million, but that was not enough to bring the figure back to 0.

As our dividend policy is based on free cash flow and is designed for a payout of 20% to 40% of this figure, a dividend of EUR 0.04 per share will be proposed to the Annual General Meeting in June. CapEx increased to EUR 23.2 million in 2025, driven in particular by our new site in Zhubei.

Now let's move to the development of our main financial KPIs over the fiscal year. Please be aware of that the '25 quarterly figures are as reported. This means they are not restated. In our reporting, in 2026, all prior year figures will be restated. Burkhardt has already mentioned the significant improvement in order intake in the fourth quarter of 2025. While this can certainly be attributed to seasonal factors and a traditionally strong fourth quarter, it is all the more important that we are able to confirm this improved demand in the coming months.

We have already discussed profitability in the past. This overview clearly shows that profitability came under pressure particularly in the second half of the year. The decline in the second half of the year is not unexpected. The weak order intake in the first 2 quarters and the shift in its composition as well as some nonrecurring items and extra costs are clearly evident here. To achieve a significant improvement, we are working on new higher-margin product solutions, which will only begin to gradually impact the P&L starting in 2027. In both segments, we have an order intake trend reversal with strong bookings in both divisions versus previous quarters, and this trend continues in the first quarter.

Photomask Solutions benefited in the fourth quarter from product and customer mix, also in connection with upgrade and service business and from some currency gains. The fourth quarter of Advanced Backend Solutions, a lower top line in the fourth quarter than in the third in combination with very negative product mix affected gross profit margin and EBIT margin. There were a lot of UV scanner, but we had the lowest amount of bonus in the fourth quarter. As you know, the double rental costs for the new fab in Zhubei affected the result.

And in addition, write-offs for clean room equipment in our old Hsinchu site, which cannot be used in our new fab in Zhubei. This impacted the result in the fourth quarter. And also R&D expenses rise in the fourth quarter to support future growth projects. The R&D expenses also left the mark on the fourth quarter, especially projects for left chamber improvements and for a CoPoS project.

On this side, we see our order intake by segments and regions. The order intake by region shows a familiar pattern. The APAC region once again accounted for the largest share of new orders at around 77%, with Taiwan as a dominant contributor. The remainder was distributed relatively evenly between EMEA and Americas.

Now I would like to present the main balance sheet developments. Total assets increased by EUR 7.6 million. For the noncurrent assets, the main driver was the Taiwan expansion with the right-of-use asset and CapEx for the interior layout of the building in Zhubei. And as well, there were some CapEx in Europe, around EUR 8 million, mainly in Germany. In current assets, we have a decrease by EUR 54 million to a total volume of EUR 386.7 million. Inventory declined by EUR 39.1 million on a year-on-year basis and amounted to EUR 171.6 million at the end of '25. Contract assets and trade receivables in total increased by EUR 20.6 million.

Cash and cash equivalents decreased, as I said, by EUR 37.5 million and of course, due to free cash flow of minus EUR 26 million. And of course, of the dividend payments in the last year and some repayments of our financial debt together in the amount of around EUR 10 million. On the liability side, the main changes already happened in the second quarter with the inclusion of the leasing liabilities from the Taiwan site. In noncurrent liabilities, the main driver was this lease liability for the Zhubei site.

Current liabilities decreased at the same time, minus EUR 60.2 million. Here, the major drivers were lower prepayments from our customers who supported last year's steep ramp. And now we have less orders from customers, which usually accept prepayments. Equity increased by EUR 32.5 million, and equity ratio was at 62.2% at the end of December '25, which means that we have improved the equity ratio by 5.6 percentage points. Net income contributed with EUR 46 million and other comprehensive income and dividend payments amounted to minus EUR 13.7 million.

And finally, I would like to give you a brief overview of the new syndicated loan, which we announced back in mid-February. Despite the current healthy liquidity position, it is very important for us as a company to increase our financial flexibility to finance further growth and to maintain sufficient reserves to cover industry typical fluctuations. We achieved this with the new syndicated loan agreement and the volume has roughly doubled to EUR 115 million, thereof EUR 85 million for revolving credit facility and EUR 30 million for guarantees.

The new contract has a term of 5 years with 2 optional 1-year extension periods. We are now even better positioned to support our growth plan and we have sufficient buffer against industry-specific fluctuations as well as against a general deterioration in economic conditions and economic cycles. Finally, we had significantly reduced the liquidity risk.

And now I gave back to Burkhardt, who will present the outlook for 2026.

Thanks, Cornelia. As you said, I now would like to come to the guidance overview. As said before, 2026 will be a transition year. After that, we expect to resume our growth path. Forecasted sales range of EUR 425 million to EUR 485 million, indicating a decline of 9.6% at the midpoint of the range. We see a broadly stable gross profit margin of 35% to 37%, but a declining EBIT margin of 8% to 10%.

On the next 3 pages, I will provide a bit more color on all 3 KPIs. First, on the sales guidance of EUR 425 million to EUR 485 million. When we compare the starting points for 2024, 2025 and 2026, obviously, we are beginning the year with a significantly lower order book. You see a detailed comparison on the right side. As a result, visibility at the start of the year is lower. Therefore, we decided to expand the guidance corridor from previously EUR 40 million to EUR 60 million.

The extent of the revenue decline compared to 2025 will highly depend on the volume of orders we will receive in the first half of 2026. Thanks to our improved operational flexibility and shorter lead times, we will be able to execute the majority of the orders between January and June within the same year and recognize them as revenue.

On gross profit margin, we forecast 35% to 37%, and thus are broadly stable in our expectation. As said before, in the financial year 2026, we will be offering more or less the same portfolio as in 2025. For portfolio-driven substantial improvements, we will launch and ship our new product solutions in the next 2 years.

A change in the product and customer mix could still affect margins during the year, depending on the order intake from the first half of the year and beyond. For example, higher demand for Bonding solutions would generally be beneficial for us. Then there are various effects that are likely to neutralize each other.

On the positive side, fewer one-off events such as the establishment of a new site in Taiwan and a more normalized ramp-up support for our customers for already installed tools. On the negative side, the impact of the expected decline in revenue on the fixed cost coverage.

Finally, our EBIT margin, which is forecasted to a range of 8% to 10%. We had already explained in the Capital Markets Day that the expected decline in revenue is likely to impact the EBIT margin development. In that regard, I don't think the guidance came as much of a surprise. A few analysts had already placed their estimates within that range. So here is what we do expect to happen. First, lower sales volume, combined with a broadly stable gross profit margin will weigh on profitability. We have made a conscious decision not to reduce the R&D budget despite the lower revenue forecast.

On the contrary, we actually expect an increase in this area as we are setting the base for future growth in the coming years. At the same time, we expect only a slight increase in sales and administrative expenses, and I can assure you that we will continue to strictly manage those budgets.

Now some words on the expected development in our 2 segments. First, Advanced Backend Solutions. Expected sales decline of roughly 10% versus '25 is expected. Slight increase in gross profit margin and a broadly stable EBIT margin as lower business volume will have an impact on profitability. We anticipate the following trends in the market demand. Imaging Systems, there we see a stabilization of the strong 2025 level provided there is continued CoWoS-related demand for additional UV projection scanners.

Coating, we see a slight improvement expected provided that the mainstream business picks up alongside a continued strong packaging and OSAT business. And on Bonding, significant improvements versus 2025 are expected as HBM customers commit to add more capacity again after a temporary digestion period which we experienced last year.

Secondly, on Photomask Solutions, we have similar sales expectations as in the backend unit with roughly 10% versus 2025. Profitability is expected to decline as a result of the lower sales volume. On the market outlook, I can comment that we expect an improved order situation as high demand for semiconductors, again, driven by AI requires additional front-end equipment, see also the strong ASML order trend and consequently, also additional mask cleaning equipment.

Preparation of customers for the introduction of High-NA also can play a role. Potential for additional momentum from the launch of 3 new solutions like the high-end mask cleaner, the mid-end mask cleaner and the first wafer cleaner addressing the 200-millimeter market can also give us a boost. When looking at our guidance for 2026, some might think that this year represents a step backwards for SUSS. I personally don't see it that way.

As said, 2026 is a transitional year or rather a year of preparation for further growth and a substantial improvement in margins by 2030. These goals, which we presented in November Capital Markets Day, remain unchanged and recently are even getting tailwinds. Thanks to a strong focus on R&D and the development of new innovative solutions and next-generation products for selected faster-growing markets, 2026 is an important year and a necessary stepping stone into our bright future.

And with that, we are opening the floor to your questions.

[Operator Instructions] We have already received some risen hands, for example, by Mr. Menon.

Burkhardt, I just want to check whether you can give us any indication on how you would expect your sales and gross margin to trend through the year? Is it possible that Q1 is your low point for both sales and gross margin and then you will see a gradual improvement from there? Would that be a reasonable assumption? Or any other color how you see the first half versus the second half develop would be great. And I have a small follow-up.

Janardan, that's a really good question. And of course, you are spot on. We see really us hitting in Q1 as a low point of the effects we saw last year. Remember, we had a 3-quarter declining order intake, and it started showing, of course, in the last quarter of last year, and it will extend into the first quarter. However, this is offset, of course, with a reverse trend in order intakes, which, of course, will take a couple of quarters to materialize in an improved situation. So we think we are approaching the bottom here and will climb up from there.

Understood. And then I was in Taiwan recently, and there is some talk in the Taiwan market about TSMC looking to localize their equipment, especially on the backend where possible and working with some of the local companies. I was just wondering whether you have any thoughts on that. Do you see this as a potential threat? Or is this mainly in areas where SUSS is not involved right now?

I see that as an opportunity because we are local at the doorstep of Taiwan with our main production site. That's, by the way, also where we are developing our next-generation EUV scanner also in Taiwan. So in that sense, you could even call us a local company. But at least on those products we are designed in, I think we have a fairly solid position.

Understood. And last one, a short one. Is the prepayments that have fallen, is it mainly Chinese customers that give you prepayments? And is the cash impact because of lower China orders?

Yes. Yes, it's the Chinese customers and Chinese demand is not that strong. But there are some other institutes like R&D institutes who make prepayments, but mainly from China customers.

We have another question from Madeleine Jenkins.

I have a few. Just the first is on a slide you just showed on the different segments. And if I understand it correctly, you're saying that Imaging is going to be kind of roughly flat so as Coating and then Bonding is significantly higher than 2025. But then you've got your sales expectation down 10%. So I'm just trying to understand where exactly that weakness is coming from for that sales forecast.

Madeleine, also good question. Of course, the lower expectations, they stem from the accumulated order intake we collected in the last quarters. So from this, we can, of course, pre-calculate what we have already in our books. The rest, of course, are orders which we have to collect in the running year, mainly in Q1 and Q2 and '26. And both together will, of course, create a forecast which we picked. We picked there a decline of 10% for both units because we see various effects, as I think detailed out in our presentation. For Photomask, it's the decline we saw from Chinese customers. And for the backend, it's really the combined effect of the low intake we have received so far. Now this trend, we see partially being now offsetted, but we need to know and, of course, experience how strong this new high order intake trend will last.

Perfect. Makes sense. And then my second question is just on HBM. I think you mentioned in your opening remarks that only one of the customers was really in the Q4 order book. Do you have any indication of when the second customer might come in? And also at your Investor Day, you mentioned the potential qualification of SK Hynix. Is that -- could you provide an update on that as well, please?

Yes. As you know, the other Korean customer still sits on a lot of underutilized equipment. So we carefully planned in some kind of demand resuming in the second half of this year. But of course, that has to materialize. But I have some good news on the other -- the second Korean memory maker. There, we did receive some HBM-related orders. So basically, we can now claim that we are in all 3 major memory makers.

That's great. And just a final question quickly. On the wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding side, there's a lot of talk recently on its kind of application in 4 F-squared in DRAM. I just wondered if you're kind of in any early conversations here. Do you expect to be inserted in supplier for this in the next few years as that transition is made?

Yes. Hybrid bonding, as you know, Madeleine, is moving a bit sideways, a little bit away from die-to-wafer application because runways are extended for TCB bonding equipment and also some customers, they are struggling with the process. Therefore, wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding also comes in because you can bond the wafers first and then do the die stacking. I think there's some momentum going on there. But I think it's still in a, I would say, more experimental phase where we do see some interest, but we haven't seen it materializing yet.

As you also know, we are not at the forefront with wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonders. I mean there are 2 other customers -- sorry, 2 other suppliers ahead of us. But we have our systems at IMEC, where we are running tests, and we can provide very good data. So I also expect more momentum picking up on that side also where we can benefit from.

We have another question by Michael Kuhn.

Firstly, on the transition year again, maybe you could provide us with an update on, let's say, which of the products, the renewed products or the all new products you expect to contribute to sales first? What kind of ramp-up costs you expect and whether you see, let's say, some cost portion that you incurred this year as kind of nonrecurring and also for the context of R&D, is that mostly on medium-term projects? Or is there also a bigger portion, maybe including some external providers for, let's say, final engineering steps ahead of the product launches?

Michael, yes, that's quite a mixed bag there. So let me start with the R&D side. So yes, we have external and internal R&D. And I think we made very clear in our call here that we have not reduced our spend in R&D. In reverse, we increased the spending to make sure that we can stick to the launch timing of those products we have in our pipeline. The first products are coming out this year, and there are notably 3 Photomask products. One is the high-end mask cleaning, the MaskTrack Smart. There we received the first order also in the first quarter of a large memory customer. And so that's the first shipment we are preparing for the second half of the year.

The mid-end mask cleaners, we also there, are working on the first systems because we have more than a handful of firm orders for that mid-end cleaner, which will replace also our aging mid-end platform, which we then take from the market. And the wafer cleaner, that's the third product, we also received first hardware, and we are doing our internal commissioning and evaluation before we send it to a launching customer. So there are 3 projects which are really in the final stage for rollout this year. And then there's a backend product, which is our EUV scanner, which is panel capable, 310 x 310 projection scanner, which will be launched in Q3, also, of course, with a large Taiwanese target customer who already has set up a pilot line to evaluate the panel application.

So in that sense, 4 products, which are launching this year. Maybe we can squeeze in the fifth, but we have to see to get all these projects on the road. And that's also the reason why we deliberately in that sense, bit the bullet in high continued spend in R&D because we want to make sure we are not letting down the customers. And we anticipate, therefore, this gap or this drop in EBIT. But this is, in our view, just very short term until we can reverse the trend.

Understood. And then maybe a follow-up in that context on wafer cleaning. At the CMD, you mentioned you're obviously starting with 200 millimeter, but saw pretty strong demand also for 300 millimeter and also accelerate that project. Where do we stand here in the time line?

Yes. I mean, as you rightly said, the launching product is a 200-millimeter product. We want to, of course, get some feedback first, a, from our internal evaluation and then, of course, also from the first customer feedback, which is then also an input for the design. But we are preparing the design phase for the 300-millimeter tool in combination with an external partner. And we probably will kick off that design in the second half of this year, and we should see first hardware in the first half of 2027.

And then last one on the new EUV scanner. My understanding is that the current product comes with a relatively low gross margin. So should we expect the new product to be launched in Q3 to have a, let's say, sizable effect on the gross margin then because it's probably a relatively big part of your top line right now?

Yes. That was the point in also redesigning this platform, which really came to age. Unfortunately, of course, the current CoWoS run, I couldn't wait for that. That's why we have to ship the old version, and we probably have to keep doing so because the first product we are launching is the panel version, which goes into a pilot line and panel production is not going into volume until '28-'29 time frame. So -- but very shortly after this panel version, of course, also our wafer version of the UV scanner, the next generation is coming. But that launches in 2027. And that, of course, depending on the conversion rate will then also improve this very low margin for the current DC.

We have another question from Mr. Schaumann.

First one is on timing for potential Photomask uptake in demand for Photomask orders. We have seen quite a strong Q4 order intake at ASML, obviously, with shipments mostly scheduled for 2027. Is that kind of supporting the assumption that you would expect an uptake in demand in the second half of this year for the Photomask cleaning business?

Yes, Malte, that's a good assumption. Of course, we are loosely connected because lead times and cycle times are very different if you compare us with an EUV system of ASML. But ultimately, we should see these effects. And as a matter of fact, we already see those effects because despite our expected decline in China, we currently see Chinese customers speeding up again, especially for photomask tools. But we also see international customers considering to pull in orders. So we are in the middle of evaluating the impact of that, but that is a trend which started late in Q4 last year, and we see it continuing in this quarter -- in the running quarter.

Okay. And for the Chinese demand you alluded to, is that then linked to the new mid-end cleaner? Or would these customers still order the current equipment?

Actually, both. Of course, due to the equipment in use in China, the mid-end cleaner is more suitable for that market. But we see still a fairly high amount of high-end cleaning demand picking up again in China, which we didn't anticipate.

Okay. A quick one on Hynix. Do you see or do you expect kind of more or less regular follow-up business when production lines get extended with the product you have placed at Hynix?

No, we are only interested in one-off sales, Malte. No, sorry, but I make a joke here. So obviously, yes, that's the intent to see follow-up business. But I think for us, it was important to get back into the door. So we are not talking volume orders here, but at least we have our hardware place now in the most recent HBM R&D line, which we can then, of course, exploit and hope fully get follow-up business.

Okay. Then on the guidance, I mean, given the current strength in orders that has continued into the first quarter of the year, the low end of the guidance at the sales level, actually appears a bit low. Is that reflecting uncertainty at customer level you're recognizing? Or is that rather linked to the overall global situation, which is not that stable at the moment?

Yes. We -- of course, one good quarter doesn't make a full year, as we all know. And although we really have a very strong expectation because the quarter is almost over for the first quarter in intake. We have to see how long this strong push remains. When we created the guidance and also set our budgets, we had quite some expectations, and there was also a certain concentration in the second half of the year.

But now we got strong demand already in the first quarter. And we have to see if this is a continued trend because if the second half also remains strong, then of course, we can come up with better results. Also the mix will have an important contribution here. So -- it's too early to just base it on one strong first quarter in order intake, I must say, because in sales, we will not see a strong first quarter.

Yes sure. Okay. Last one on double costs or one-offs, which are baked into the earnings guidance for this year. So are you able to quantify an amount, which is linked to double rent ramp-up costs and the like?

There are some one-offs regarding Taiwan, as you know, because in the first quarter, we have some double rent double cost. And yes, that's more or less what we included in our guidance.

And that is a low single-digit amount.

Yes, it's 0.4, something like this.

We're moving on to Mr. Ries.

Also a couple of questions from my side. Maybe let's first start with Taiwan, a short recap. How high was this payment you had made for the leasing which reduced the cash significantly? Remind us, please, how high this impact was? And how high is -- how much capacity you have now finally in Taiwan only to a reminder because it gets more and more important.

So Thomas speaking. The investment in Taiwan was a low 2-digit million euro budget, which we invested into the clean rooms and all these kind of stuff. And the leasing contract is now for 20 years and about EUR 40 million of leasing agreement, which we have there. But the cash out is really only on a yearly base for sure, but the leasing has to be accounted in our books already for the complete period.

And the capacity only to really make this clear, we are really fully loading the factory as much -- as soon as possible. Right now, we have a load of around, let's say, about 70% with the old sites, which moved all into the new sites. So we are really heavily working to fill it up completely by at least the end of the year.

Sorry, I just want to add, as Thomas explained, of course, the leasing liability is booked. It's around EUR 40 million. But you asked for cash out, and cash out is around EUR 2 million to EUR 2.5 million this year.

Okay. The reduction in last year, but you mentioned partly was the leasing reason that the net cash or the cash has come down heavily. So that's a booking effect.

Yes. It's KPI net cash figure, but it's not -- yes, it does not really says something about the duration of the liability in this case. So it's just net cash. But cash out is over the 20 years.

Clear. On the capacity, from a revenue, how much revenue you can handle with the capacity you have now in Taiwan? Is it -- I have something of EUR 150 million, EUR 200 million in my head. Is that right?

That's a really good question, but it heavily depends on the product mix. As you know, we are introducing scanners there, coaters and bonders. And so from that point of view, it's really hard to say how much really revenue we can generate with this. But in general, I would say right now because we have half-half between Germany and Taiwan. So from that point of view, it's roughly perhaps the right order of magnitude, probably a little bit higher.

Okay. Half of the total revenue came already from Taiwan?

Not yet completely, but we are targeting for this.

Super. On the OSAT business, we hear from the OSAT that they are Amkor and ASE that they definitely heavily increased their budget. How much you have already seen in your own order income is much more -- it's more to come in the coming quarters from this side?

Johannes, it's Burkhardt here. We already saw it last year, and I think I also mentioned that we saw this strong uptick for our Coating and Imaging business, which was mainly on the coating side contributed by additional demand from OSATs. They are expanding in their existing sites in Asia, but also they are planning to expand in the U.S. as also some other companies are. So there also, we expect a continued strong demand.

And you mentioned that the Coating and Imaging business, there's also scanner in, which is low margin, but there's one reason for the lower margin. I always in my head that the coating -- at least coating had a quite good margin. Has it changed? Or is it only that maybe the scanner has brought down this average margin of Imaging and Coating?

Coating is kind of pretty in the center of our margin distribution. So it is not as good as the bonders, but by far not as bad as the EUV scanners.

Okay. I expected this. And also for your forecast, you're expecting a stronger business with temporary bonding for this year, but the margin in Advanced Backend Solutions will nearly stay flat. What is the reason? Because last year, it was a pressure coming partly from the temporary bonding came down, we expect an increase. Why is not maybe -- why we couldn't see a little bit stronger margin development in Advanced Backend?

It depends how many more orders we see, especially from the bonding side. When we set out these corridors, we assumed a certain mix. We now see strong intake also on the bonder side. But we have to see how sustainable this is, Johannes. As I said, one good quarter doesn't make a full year. If the other Korean HBM maker doesn't place orders in the second half of this year, then I think we did everything right in our prognosis. But a lot of things can be happening. And as we saw last year, where we had to go in and correct twice our guidance. This is something we don't want to repeat.

It's clear. But the bonding business is still above average at the margin side.

Yes, well above average.

Last question, R&D, will it further increase this year and only feeling how much it could increase? It will further increase but how much?

So it will increase only slightly. There are no big change really planned for this year. That's much more than EUR 2 million or EUR 3 million in total in absolute values. But we try to keep the headcount stable and also the investment in R&D.

Maybe to add, Johannes, since the top line reduces, so the R&D ratio increases even faster.

That's a fair point. Very fair point. But finally now, because I will meet him in person in the weeks, but I think it's the last call maybe of Sven as IR. And I think maybe even in the name of all other participants, all colleagues, I really want to say thank a lot for his work and great support, and it was a pleasure to work with him.

Thank you so much, Johannes. It was my pleasure.

We're moving on to Mr. Devos.

I had one follow-up on the EUV projection scanner. I think you've provided already quite some indications, but I was looking or whether you were able to maybe quantify what the EUV scanners actually contributed to the top line last year and whether you could give us a sense of the 2026 order funnel because I mean, there's many growth parameters out there. I think in itself, the products could be quite sizable for you, not only this year, but in the next 5 years. So it would be very helpful if we know a bit where you are currently.

Yes. It's, I think, fair to say that the revenue contribution of the EUV scanner alone was between EUR 30 million and EUR 40 million last year. And this year, this number will be larger.

Okay. All right. That's very helpful. I think on the -- and then just thinking about your other, let's say, younger products out there, thinking about the hybrid bonders, but also the inkjet printers, like on a combined basis, are we thinking this is about 5% of sales in '26? Or how should we think about that?

Yes, that is really a low contribution because we sold single units to customers who are evaluating those systems. So this is not what I call a volume state. We are at the very beginning of that. So we had last year 2, 3 systems we sold. This year, we probably also have a couple of systems, but it's in the very single-digit percentage range.

Okay. Okay. And then just for the temporary bonder business, looking a bit further out, with HBM4E and HBM5 sort of requiring thinner dies and even more bonding complexity. Are the existing platforms already compatible with those, let's say, next-generational stack requirements? Or will there be a meaningful upgrade or new tool generation needed?

Well, our current generation of temporary bonders is, as we speak, qualified for HBM4. Otherwise, we wouldn't have received those orders. But of course, we are continuously improving those -- our products and also listening to our customers, what else they need. So we have, in parallel, a flanking program to improve bond chamber performance to meet also future needs because we are working both with the volume side of those customers, but also with the R&D centers who already work on the next N+1, N+2 generation of HBM stacks. So we stay tuned. And then we work with our customers when are we phasing in which improvements. It can be a running change. It can also be introduced in the next-generation platform. So we do both. I hope that helps.

Okay. Great. And then just a final question on, I think co-packaged optics, you also talked about in the CMD, specifically on co-packaged optics on the interposer as a potential future opportunity. I mean, in the last few months, excitement on co-packaged optics has quite strongly accelerated. So my question is like within that further integration complexity, do I understand it well that basically your EUV scanner and coating portfolio map well on to this? And what is generally the last -- the traction you've been seeing in the last 3 to 6 months on Photonics in general?

Yes, you're absolutely right. There's a lot of hype there, and we are kind of positioned with our existing portfolio. But of course, we need to enhance or upgrade our portfolio to also serve the co-packaged optics market well. So -- but it's from our side, more kind of technical feasibility, what additional features are needed, which can be added to our existing portfolio to also play a role there. But it's too early to really turn this into concrete products. So right now, it's on our side in an R&D development stage. And as soon as we have something noteworthy to report, we will do so.

I think Mr. Schaumann has a follow-up question.

One follow-up question on the orders in the first quarter of the year. I mean the environment is pretty dynamic. So a continuation of the trend can have several meanings. So maybe some more color on what does that actually mean? I mean, typically, Q1 is not the strongest quarter in terms of order intake. So despite that fact, should we expect kind of more or less stable order development from the fourth quarter and the first quarter, which would be already good? Or do you see even an acceleration? So some additional color would be appreciated.

Yes. I was almost fearing that this question will come, but it comes late now. So the -- I mean, first of all, I can confirm that we are breaking with that trend that in terms of order intake, this first quarter in '26 is a really very good quarter since we are in the last 2 days of the quarter. Of course, we already know what's coming. We know most of it. And I can say that much that we will be well above the Q4 number of last year in terms of order intake.

We have another question by Mr. Jarad. Hello. Can you hear us? I can see that you're unmuted, but I cannot hear you.

Yes, sorry. I have a question regarding -- a follow-up question regarding the sales forecast. So maybe you can help me understand it better. But based on your order book of EUR 267 million and assuming like 18% of aftersales, your implied order intake needed in H1 to reach the midpoint is very, very modest. And you are saying that in Q1, order momentum was strong.

Yes. Of course, we need to have 2 strong quarters to complete the year because only what we have an intake in the first 2 quarters, the majority of that, we can still turn around in products assembled, shipped and recognized. So the first quarter, if that is strong, definitely helps to secure the guidance we provided. If we have a second quarter, which is also strong, that pretty much gives us some assurance that we are safe with that guidance. But again, this is speculation, so I don't want to speculate. I can only see a strong order momentum carried over from last quarter into the first quarter. And based on these 2 quarters, we have made our sales projection.

Okay. Maybe correct me if I'm wrong, did you just mention that Q1 order intake is above Q4?

Yes, I did.

Okay. Wouldn't this already put you on the midpoint of guidance? So EUR 267 million plus EUR 117 million, let's say, and 15% after -- even assuming conservative 15% aftersales, you are above guidance? Or am I -- like midpoint of guidance?

Well, first of all, the EUR 117 million of Q4 already included in the order book. So I cannot follow your math there completely. But yes, of course, the first -- if we have a strong first quarter, that relieves some of the concerns because it's a continued reversal of the trend at a very high run rate. And if we can also get a decent second quarter in, then I would start agreeing with you, but we are not yet in the second quarter.

Maybe, Abed, if I may add one sentence, the order book number of our annual report also always includes service business. So if we get service business, for example, a contract for 2 years, the entire period, this 2 years period is included in the total order book number. So service is not getting on top completely. It's partially already included in order book.

We have one more question in our chat box by Mr. [ Dion ]. He's asking, do you see competition of ASML in the scanner business? And do you think there could be a competitor in hybrid bonding as well?

Yes. I think ASML was late to the party to also join the backend business with the recent announcements and also their focus in that arena. I mean they already have a scanner out there targeted for backend. But this one, we don't see as a competition in the CoWoS process we are currently involved in. However, that is, of course, competition for other markets, our real competition, which is Canon is facing. So that I don't see us as a threat.

The other activities, I think it's too early to gauge where this is heading. But of course, I mean, there are other companies, whether it's AMAT or Lam and already TEL who is already active in this domain. So with ASML, this is just the last party -- the last company joining the party. And I think this ultimately will just help the ecosystem to get on common ground here. So I see this rather as an opportunity to collaborate than anything else.

I guess we have one last question by Mr. Jarad. He is raising his hand again.

Yes, my bad. That was a mistake.

Okay. Thank you so much. Well, with no further questions, we have come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you very much for your interest in SUSS MicroTec SE. And a big thank you also to you, Mr. Frick, Mrs. Ballwießer, Mr. Rohe and Mr. Kopsel for your presentation and your time. If any further questions arise at a later time, please feel free to contact Investor Relations at SUSS MicroTec SE. I wish you all a successful day, and I'm handing over to Mr. Kopsel once again for your closing remarks.

Yes. Thank you so much and nothing really to add. So take care and yes, get in touch if you have any more questions. Thank you. Take care.

Dear participants, we warmly welcome you to today's conference call of the SUSS MicroTec SE following the publication of the 9-month results of 2025 earlier this morning. SUSS is represented by the CEO, Burkhardt Frick; CFO, Dr. Cornelia Ballwießer; and COO, Dr. Thomas Rohe. The Management Board will speak shortly and guide us through the presentation followed by a Q&A session.

But before we start the presentation, let me hand over to Sven Kopsel from Investor Relations.

Thank you, Sarah. Yes, and many thanks. Welcome to our Q3 conference call. As you probably know from earlier calls, this call is again being recorded and considered as copyright material. It cannot be recorded or rebroadcast without permission and participating in this call implies your consent to this procedure. Please be aware of our safe harbor statement on Page 2 of the slide deck. It applies throughout the conference call.

And now I hand over to our CEO, Burkhardt, for some opening remarks, followed by our CFO, Dr. Cornelia Ballwießer, presenting the financial development.

Burkhardt, please.

Thank you, Sven, and many thanks, and welcome, everyone, to this call. I will go a bit faster over the next few slides to have more time to focus on the margin analysis you guys are all interested in, I'm sure. We showed the next page, we showed this exactly this page already 9 days ago in the extraordinary call. So nothing new here. The changes -- there are no changes to the figures since then.

We also mentioned the low level of EUR 70 million in orders received in Q3. After various customer meetings in Korea and Taiwan last week, I'm very happy to report that activities are picking up in the fourth quarter. Orders exceeding EUR 100 million are likely. We do see quite some momentum here. We already communicated last week about the pressure on margins and the fact that we had to adjust our guidance for the gross profit and EBIT margins once again. I will go into details of margin development in a moment. However, I would like to state that the current margin pressure does not impact our 2030 ambitions. We will present our new midterm expectations at our CMD on November 17.

Last week, the development of our 2 segments was not yet included. So I'd like to highlight a few things here. First, Advanced Backend Solutions. The order intake remains strong for coaters, but this was not quite enough to offset the decline for bonders. The demand for our UV scanners remain intact. Imaging and Coating Systems showed year-on-year sales growth of larger than 50% each. Bonders still showing slight growth after 9 months. Gross profit margin significantly impacted, more on this shortly.

Photomask Solutions, we have a very low order intake again. Orders from China now down EUR 32 million versus previous year but more significant orders expected in this Q4. Still high year-on-year sales growth, but Q3 sales was lower than expected. Unfavorable product mix is the main reason for low gross profit margin of 31.7%.

Now we have prepared 3 pages where we compare our initial 2025 guidance for sales, gross profit margin and EBIT margin with the actual year-to-date 9 months figures. Firstly, on sales. After 3 quarters, we reached EUR 384 million or 78% of the midpoint of our sales forecast and therefore, are on track and achieved what we expected to do. Q3 sales, as expected, was EUR 118 million, lower than previous quarters. Reason here lower order intake in the first half of 2025.

In the fourth quarter, we need sales of EUR 85 million to EUR 125 million to meet our forecast. EUR 105 million would, therefore, leads to the midpoint, which is EUR 490 million. The product mix is different as planned at the beginning of the year with more coaters and fewer bonders based on orders received in the first half of the year. The recent postponement of 2 high-margin projects to 2026 will have a negative impact on gross profit margin in Q4.

Now we'd like to provide more transparency on our negative gross profit development. Let me first explain the methodology we applied here. The table on the left shows our actual figures for the first 3 quarters. These are the left columns and a projection of what our gross profit would have been if actual sales had a gross profit margin of 40%, which is the midpoint of our original forecast of 39% to 41%. Our analysis shows we have a gap of EUR 16 million, which we like to explain. On the right-hand side, we allocate these EUR 16 million to special effects, quantify them, specify the timing and if these effects can be considered as one-offs or not.

From top to bottom, first, the UV scanner in Taiwan, the ramp we performed there in the first half of the year. We had extra expenses for training and supply chain efforts amounting to EUR 3.2 million, and that's a one-off. Secondly, we had a write-down on discontinued technology projects amounting to EUR 2.2 million that affected Q2. Also, that is a one-off. Expenses for our new site in Zhubei, EUR 1.2 million for double rent relocation and utilities, they affected us only from Q3 onwards. And they will have -- this will have an impact on expenses in Q4 as well as in Q1 2026.

Rework during assembly and customer ramp-up support amounting to EUR 2.4 million since Q1 were necessary to support customers to improve performance of recently installed multiple lines and maximize the output and availability of these in the field. This was really important and is an ongoing effort and it also will open the door for follow-up business, which we are, of course, looking forward to expect. The last point is the unexpected product and customer mix changes, which we often use also to explain deviations in our margin. This is for more coaters, less bonders, many low-margin photomask tools for key customers, and that results in also lower fixed cost coverage due to lower sales and overall business activity. That amounts to EUR 7 million in Q3. In total, EUR 16 million of which slightly less than half can be characterized as one-offs.

Now on this page, we focus on the EBIT. We applied the same methodology. Left column shows the actual development of first 3 quarters, right column, the projection with midpoints of initial gross profit and EBIT margin targets, which was 15% to 17%. The gap here is EUR 7.2 million, which means that more than half of the gross profit gap of EUR 16 million was offset by stricter cost management and a positive balance in other operating income expenses.

According to the original guidance, we allowed for OpEx of EUR 92.3 million after 3 quarters and would still be on track to achieve the original EBIT margin targets. The actual OpEx, that is expenditure on R&D, sales and administration amounted to EUR 86.8 million. This shows our short-term cost-cutting measures are having an effect, savings of more than EUR 5 million compared to Q2.

In Q4, OpEx is expected to be below EUR 30 million. However, most likely above Q2 level based on increased expenses on IT and digitalization projects as well as rising R&D costs also to support scheduled product launches. I think I said above Q2, I should have said above Q3, right? Yes. We will correct this, and you will see it also in the tables.

Now after all these numbers, here are a few impressions from last week's opening of our new site in Zhubei, Taiwan. It was an amazing day with a great atmosphere. We welcomed over 100 guests, including Taiwan's Vice Minister of Economic Affairs, a C-level representation from a leading HBM manufacturer and management from the top foundry in Taiwan. We got a broad confirmation that it's important to increase our presence close to the heart of the semi industry sector. We introduced our large clean rooms and made it clear that we are set for future growth. First modules and tools are already being built in Zhubei and will be delivered to our customers in early 2026. Leases for all old locations will terminate by the end of Q1 2026. The financial double burden will also end at this point.

And with this, I'd like to hand over to Cornelia to provide some more insights on our financial performance.

Thank you, Burkhardt. After we've already discussed Q3 in detail, I will just summarize some additional developments on the next slides. We already talked about the slow order intake, which leaves us with an order book of EUR 276.1 million as of end of September. This is 35.9% below the level of the first 9 months of last year. Tool orders with roughly EUR 140 million are scheduled for delivery in '26. The visibility for '26 is improving. Our free cash flow from continuing operations came in at minus EUR 0.7 million in the third quarter with operating cash flow of EUR 5.9 million and cash flow from investing of minus EUR 6.6 million. After 3 quarters, free cash flow is now at minus EUR 28.2 million.

For the full year, we still see potential to generate around EUR 28 million of free cash flow so that we could end up at end '25 in slightly positive territory. Total CapEx for the 9 months is EUR 17.8 million, mainly driven by our new fab in Taiwan. At the end of the year, we expect to land at CapEx level of EUR 25 million. In '26, we will return to a level of clearly below EUR 20 million. Without additional projects, the level will be approximately at EUR 10 million.

On this slide, you see the development of our most important key performance indicators for the last 7 quarters. You can very clearly see the margin development, especially in the last quarter due to the effects we already talked about today. On this slide, you see the two segments. In the Advanced Backend Solutions segment, margins in the third quarter were roughly at the same level as in the previous quarter. Burkhardt already mentioned the most important drivers. In Photomask Solutions, the margin level is in the first 2 quarters of the year higher. Overall, we're still at 38.4% gross profit margin for the 9-month period. However, the third quarter was weak, mainly due to an unfavorable customer mix, as already explained.

Here, you see our order intake by segment and regions. The book-to-bill ratio continued to remain at a very low level of 0.62 for the 9-month period. This is, of course, far too low for a company with growth ambitions as we do have. But as already discussed, we expect increasing orders in Q4. Demand from China continues to be very low. The China share of total order intake in the first 9 months of '25 is now 18.5%. In '24, also after the third quarter, the share was at roughly 30%. But generally speaking, we do not have major shifts in the order intake by region.

Finally, let's go over the main developments of the balance sheet. Total assets increased by EUR 22 million. For the noncurrent assets, the main driver was the Taiwan expansion with the right-of-use asset for the site and further installations at the site as well as CapEx in Germany, which we already showed in our half year report. Current assets, we have a decrease by EUR 29 million to a total volume of EUR 413.3 million. Inventories declined and are now EUR 12.9 million below the value of end of December '24. Contract assets and trade receivables increased by EUR 22.7 million. Cash and cash equivalent decreased by EUR 41.8 million due to free cash flow in total of minus EUR 31.5 million and the dividend payment as well as repayments of financial debt, including the leasing liabilities.

On the liability side, the main changes also happened in the first half of the year with the inclusion of the leasing liability from the Taiwan site. In noncurrent liabilities, the major driver in the 9-month period was also the inclusion of the lease liability for the Zhubei site, which already happened in the second quarter. Current liabilities decreased. Here, the major drivers are still lower advanced payments from our customers who supported last year's ramps and less orders from customers, which have prepayments. After the 9 months, the equity ratio is at 58.2%, which means we improved the equity ratio while we had our ambitious investments.

Burkhardt?

Now let's turn to the outlook for 2025 as a whole. First, here is a page that was already shown last week with the reduced guidance ranges for gross profit margin and EBIT margin. Everything stays the same as communicated last week. Last week, we already explained that we are discussing possible measures to sustainably improve the cost structure. However, I ask for your understanding that all decisions will be carefully considered. I do not currently expect that we will be able to communicate these possible measures already in 2025. For now, our full attention lies on Q4 to bring in the anticipated new business and set the stage for 2026.

We are now opening the floor for your questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] We will start with the first raised hand with Janardan Menon.

I just want to go back to the order increase that you're expecting in Q4. 9 days ago, you had said that you would see an increase in orders. You said above EUR 100 million is possible. But at that point in time, you had also just commented that your Q4 is always typically quite strong. You've seen a very healthy double-digit increase in quarter-on-quarter in your Q4 orders in both 2024 and 2023. So my question is, this increase that you are expecting in Q4, is it purely a seasonal thing? Or do you see an underlying trend of improving orders amongst your customer base?

And -- especially, you have been seeing quite low orders on the temporary bonding side. And one of your big customers looks like he's -- they're getting qualified or have got qualified, who knows. And so is there a clear upswing that you see in that market? Also on the UV scanner, are you seeing an upswing? What I'm trying to get at is the sustainability of this order. I mean it may not be huge, but does Q3 mark the bottom and then more than the seasonal, are we getting a more improvement into next year? Whatever your current thoughts are?

Second question is just on the margin. Just trying to piece together the whole thing. You'll end up at about 36% gross margin this year based on your guidance. Are you -- do you think that as some of those one-offs go away in the first couple of quarters of next year? You're likely to get to a higher margin than that? Any kind of color on where we could expect based on current expectations? Where you assume your sales are down in line with consensus for next year? Where would your gross margin end up for next year? Any thoughts there would be great.

Yes. Of course, we have to be careful in forward guidance, but let me start with the order intake. Yes, there has been some seasonality in the past years. But of course, customers order when they really have demand. And so therefore, I would not really call it seasonality at all. I would rather see it as a consequence of activity in the AI space picking up again. And that has been, of course, communicated for the frontline AI players already a quarter earlier, but it takes a while until this goes through the entire equipment chain and also leads to orders.

So there's not an immediate effect at the moment a big memory supplier gets qualified or post their future plans, it will not immediately trigger orders. This is more a question of how utilized are your lines, how much throughput can you get on the existing lines and when is the next window to increase? And that seems to now nearer than before. And that's also why we are confident that we get AI-related orders in the first quarter and especially after those discussions we had with our lead customers.

Now this will be a mix, of course. So there will be, of course, HBM-related orders, but also CoWoS or packaging-related orders requiring multiple systems, but we see a clear upward trend. How big this one is, as I said, well, I feel confident that it will be larger than EUR 100 million that -- I stick to that number. How large we have to see because we also have to make sure we can also deliver and build these machines on short notice because the demand is required on short notice.

On the second question on the margin expectations, I can hand over to Cornelia. But of course, we want to improve our margin performance. There's no doubt in that. But even in line of potentially declining top line, we have to make sure that we do this with good sense.

In terms of margin, of course, our ambition is to have a better margin or to achieve a better gross margin in '25. What I can say is it is probably lower as '24. Currently, we are preparing our budget. And as you see and as explained, the margin depends on the customer and product mix, and we are working on this. And that's all I can say for the moment. Regarding your one-offs, yes, there are, of course, one-offs that will not occur again in '26. For example, the write-down of the discontinued technology project, then our double rent relocation and utilities costs in Zhubei, in Taiwan will end, end of the first quarter '26. And yes, the rework, we will see. It depends how we can satisfy our customer or what is needed. But that's what I can say regarding the margin for the next year.

So -- and then we move on with [indiscernible]. I can see that you're unmuted, unfortunately, we cannot hear you.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Yes. Great. Sorry for the background noise. A few questions. On the order backlog, can you give a little bit the split in ABS segment? What is the CoWoS, the scanner part in the order backlog? And then in the cleaning equipment market, what is the part of the China business in the PS segment? In the backlog, right, not for order entry.

Yes, we are not being specific on the individual products on our backlog. Please accept that because we do give this granularity. The China portion, of course, is declining, as already previously mentioned. We see it in both in sales, but order intake significantly. We have for China, for example, only 18.4% of the order intake are China bound. For Taiwan, for example, in contrast, it's close to 40%, that's usually what we can disclose. In terms of further information on the backlog, we have, of course, also announced that EUR 140 million of the current backlog is already bound for 2026. And we can also safely state that we have about EUR 20 million in service and upgrade business also for '26 already slated.

Okay. Maybe let me ask a little bit differently. On your CoWoS, I think the scanner is a little bit older technology generation, right, if I understood that correctly. And the question would be, what are your lead times? I mean when the customer places an order with your scanner business until you ship and final acceptance, what is the time lag there for the scanner business?

Yes. For scanners, of course, it's around 6 months. But of course, as we stated also in previous calls, we tripled our output capability this year. That means also we are pretty full in that sense. So that's also why we concentrate on our main application field, which you rightly state is CoWoS. Now of course, we also get inquiries, how quickly can you top this up. And that's exactly the discussions we are currently having with those lead customers because they expect basically deliveries already as early as in Q1 next year.

So right now, we have very active engagements with these customers who also realize that our lead times reduced, but I think they are waiting really until the last second how to place orders. And then we also have to make sure that we can react very quickly, and that keeps us busy. But that's also causing a bit positive momentum of the last days.

Okay. And would it be fair to assume that the gross margin, the product mix impact was also due to this, yes, high volume ramp in scanner business and that this is a little bit more service intense for you in order to have the machines up and running with your lead customer, and that might change with the second generation of the scanner tool you are planning to introduce next year?

Yes, it definitely will change with the next generation of scanners. But we need to distinguish between product margin and supporting efforts. So I think the supporting efforts of our scanner are not higher than other 2.5D or HBM type products. So you need to account for that. For some of our products, our support efforts were higher than anticipated, which I explained earlier, which caused the extra cost. But I mean, you're absolutely right that the scanner is not our highest margin product.

Got it. And then final one. If you look at your product mix or backlog, what you have right now and the EUR 140 million for 2026, do you expect that the share delivered from your Asia business will be substantially different from this year? I mean that you have much higher shipments in your Asia locations than here in Europe? And if so, what would be the incremental there, the incremental shipments?

You mean shipments from or to.

No, from your Asian manufacturing footprint, right, your fabs in Asia.

Yes. Thank you. So first of all, our regional mix will not change, except what we explained, the decline of the China portion. In terms of the products we manufacture out of Asia, they are the same products we are currently manufacturing. But of course, this can change if we are introducing new products. As you know, we are launching up to 5 new products next year. And we have to see also where we will produce those products. So there's a fair assessment, a fair judgment that the amount of products will increase, which we are going to produce in Asia.

But you cannot quantify like EUR 50 million more sales from your China -- Asia footprint and versus this year, it's not possible right now from your backlog?

No, that's -- I can answer this. We use both sides really pretty flexible in terms of where we do have rich capacity. So we try to leverage our load of factories in both sides as well as in Asia as well as in Germany.

So by now, we have 4 participants left who raised the virtual hand. So please be patient. And the next one who is able to ask his question is Michael Kuhn.

I'll start with one on the guidance once more. If I just use the midpoint of your sales and gross margin guidance and then combine it with the midpoint of your EBIT margin guidance, I'm ending up at Q4 OpEx of EUR 34 million, which is clearly above the less than EUR 30 million you're envisaging for the final quarter. So let's assume you do midpoint sales, midpoint gross margin, is it fair to assume that you would rather end up at the upper end of the EBIT margin range, excluding obviously any one-offs you might book in the fourth quarter?

We calculated various scenarios over the last past days. And if we achieve the gross profit margin in the middle of the range, let's say, 36%, it is likely that the EBIT margin will end up above the middle. Yes, could be.

That is good to hear. Then one more in the context of OpEx. So we are obviously in the upper 20s run rate-wise right now. This is still including some double costs. At the same time, I guess, IT costs will rise into next year. From today's point of view, what would you think is a realistic OpEx run rate to assume for next year, maybe from the second quarter onwards when you don't incur the double cost in Taiwan anymore?

Yes, good question. Our ambition is that we have a run rate, let's say, EUR 30 million.

Around EUR 30 million. Okay. And last but not least, you mentioned product launches already. Obviously, those include new products in the Photomask area, including the mid-range product. Do you think part of the softness you see from Chinese customers right now is due to those customers waiting for those products? And that said, is there a chance of, let's say, a little China revival at some point next year once the new product range is available for orders?

China revival sounds like the rolling stones in concert. But I -- obviously, the mid-end range of the mask cleaner is really geared for nodes between 30, 90 nanometers, which are the predominant nodes China is running on. In the past years, they bought very high-end equipment, which was basically overspecced because they don't have EUV equipment in China. So the mid-end range is a better fit for the Chinese market. So yes, we do expect that, that business will pick up once that system is in mass production. And we already have several reservations and quite some are out of China. But also, of course, this mid-end product is interesting enough to replace the aging fleet of old mid-end mask cleaners. Therefore, there is also quite some replacement need lining up.

And then we will move on with Madeleine Jenkins.

I just have one clarification. The customer that is pushing for kind of expedited deliveries in Q1, I think you said. Is that memory or logic?

It's fair to say both. It's not a single customer who is pushing.

Okay. And then in terms of -- on the kind of HBM side specifically, are you still running at like underutilization at your big Korean customer? Or is that kind of back to the levels where you'd expect incremental orders?

Well, I think one -- we have 2 out of 3 HBM players. And one is really running at full swing. And then, of course, that's also the one which kind of further scales up. The other one, of course, is just about to accelerate again, and they still have, I would say, headroom left. So we don't see short-term excess business coming up there because I think they're not running at peak utilization.

Okay. So the kind of Q4 orders isn't necessarily driven out of Korea. Is that fair?

Correct.

Okay. And then I just had a -- you've got a high-NA cleaning tool, Photomask cleaning tool coming out. Could you just give us a sense of kind of when you expect the first orders for that? And also what sort of ASP uplift versus the low-NA version?

Yes. Madeleine, you're referring to the MaskTrack Smart cleaning platform, which is launching pretty much as we speak. So we are working with some lead customers who want to position this system in kind of -- it's more than just evaluation. It's kind of early production state. So we do expect that we get the first orders still this quarter for this first system. But we are, of course, in the middle of the negotiations, and it's important that we get this first volume customer order for that system, but we anticipate it this quarter.

And just on the ASP...

Sorry, say again?

Just on the ASP, is it kind of significant uplift versus the last generation?

It is somewhat more expensive than a MaskTrack Pro. But as you know, it highly depends on the configuration. So this is a tool which can be configurated to a larger extent and therefore, will be also more expensive than the existing platform.

And then we move on with the questions from Johannes Ries.

Also some follow-on questions to the cost side first. Maybe first, what -- the leasing cost for the old production side, which will fall away at the end of Q1, how high is this maybe regarding to the full year or for the remaining 9 months. Therefore, what is maybe the positive impact? Then maybe on the bonders, if the bonders recover, will they have the same margin like in the past, there have been maybe some special high prices regarding the shortage or maybe the urgency at the customer side to cut the products in the past. So are you achieving the same pricing at the temporary bonding side like in the past?

And on the coaters, is anything possible also to increase the margins there because it seems that they have comparable low margins. I know there is more competition from Tokyo Electron, for example, but maybe also an update there. And you talked a little bit now on mask cleaners. How is the ramp for all the new products with better margins, the scanners? I have also something like you have a new coater coming on the market for next year. That's maybe all impacting a little bit the cost and the margin side. Therefore, I took all these questions in one.

Yes. Thanks, Johannes. That's a lot of questions. Let me try to start taking them down one by one. So the bonder orders, of course, we had at the very early phase of the ramp, they did have somewhat better margins because we were -- these were rush orders. We had to expedite things. So once we got into real volume phase, also we had more volume prices applied to that. So the initial systems were more profitable than the volume systems. But this has stabilized now, so we don't anticipate unusual things there. So they are above average compared to the rest of the portfolio.

On coaters, we have -- we keep getting stable repeat orders from existing OSAT customers. And that is a very stable business and also this customer continues to place these orders. There was also one of the customers I visited early last week. So we can also expect a good solid business there. You are absolutely right. The competitive situation is very strong. But when you're a tool of record, you at least can retain your seat, but you have to price competitively. And that's why coaters usually are more on the average spectrum of our margin.

For the Photomask tools, we are launching, so the new systems, they are completely redesigned. They do have a different margin structure, but you cannot just increase margin without offering new features. So it's always a mix of both. Then I think you had a question on the rental cost, right?

Yes. The impact of the additional rental cost for the old site rental cost that turns out in a positive impact next year is EUR 600,000 per quarter.

Per quarter, okay. And when will the scanners be launched this new scanner generation, will it happen in the first half next year?

No, I think that's a bit too early, but we will deliver the first system around, yes, mid next year to the first customer. And that's, of course, we get more feedback. The broad launch of the system is more towards the end of next year.

Okay. Super. And also maybe there's definitely much more but not to go in too much details. The wafer cleaning product will also not launch next year or will it come over the next year?

They will launch next year. And we kind of -- we get the first hardware at the turn of the year. And then, of course, we need to refine the processes. We have one lead customer who will start evaluating. And then we will have not only the volume tool because the first one is a 200-millimeter wafer cleaner, low volume, there will be high-volume tools coming shortly after. And we have -- since we kind of got quite some customer traction, we have now 300-millimeter customers interested in that tool as well. So we are also now checking how fast can we launch a 300-millimeter tool. So wafer cleaning will be a family of tools, the first one coming next year.

Super. Great. Maybe also on our calculation for next year, you mentioned you have on top of the EUR 140 million in product backlog for next year, you have also 20-point something on service and spare parts. What is the normal number for service and spare parts for the whole year? I think it's more than EUR 20 million.

Yes. Johannes, usually, it's about 15% of the total revenue. I think the numbers, I think we stated before were, of course, the first 9 months and then the portion of 26 out of those first 9 months. But I think it's -- you can roughly assume 15% of the total revenue is the service-related part.

Only maybe a follow-on. You mentioned it already in the comments. The recovery you see maybe in the pipeline coming on maybe the whole back-end market and also driven also partly by the strong business with AI. It's not only the OEMs, it's also the OSATs you see a recovery.

Yes. And they -- of course, they are somewhat connected because the 2.5D players, they are closely linked to OSATs as well. And you have all these new sites evolving based -- driven by CHIPS Act projects, which are also starting ramping. I mean all the big news were, of course, for the front-end fabs, but you also need the back-end operations somewhat close by, and that's starting to evolve as we speak.

So before we move over to Martin Marandon, who is waiting for such a long time in the queue, please be reminded that it's still possible to ask questions if you may have. And with this, Martin, please go ahead with your questions.

The first one is on temporary bonders. I was wondering there if you mentioned the AI demand picking up. There is also the qualification of one of your customers. But I was wondering if the transition to HBM4 is already a factor here because we know that the number of layers are increasing -- the average number of layers. So it should demand more equipment. So do you think it has started now? Or will we see these effects maybe a bit later? And I have some follow-ups.

Yes, it's a good question. Of course, our -- at least one of our lead customers is in active pursuit of also planning the ramp for HBM4. And we received the good news last week that we are qualified with our temporary bonder for the HBM4 process. And that is good news because the ramp of that will start from late Q1 or starting Q2 next year onwards.

Okay. That's very clear. And maybe still on temporary bonders. I mean, Johannes mentioned some competition with Tokyo Electron, but I was wondering about new entrants as well. So like EVG, for instance, if that's something that you see at some point, multi-sourcing in that market or you do not see it at the moment?

Yes, we do see, of course, our competition. There are no new entrants. They are the same. They have been the same in the past years. And indeed, EVG and TEL are our main contenders there. And yes, they are actively pursuing our base. So yes, so this is happening to some extent. But I think for now, we have the majority of our equipment at those existing customers of ours.

Okay. That's clear. And the last one is on the EBIT margin for next year. I mean, I know it's too soon to give a guidance. But I'm just wondering with the backlog that we see at the moment, it probably implies a down year next year, and you have the consensus down by about 15%. And I'm just wondering in that context, let's say, of a double-digit decrease of sales, how much space do you have to reduce cost on the OpEx side next year? Do you think that, for instance, mid-single digit could be a credible scenario if you have such a down year? Or is it too aggressive?

You mean mid-single digit for what, which...

For decrease of OpEx.

Yes. I think that's a reasonable assumption. I think we need to stay below EUR 30 million. I think this was mentioned before. We also said that we will not reach gross margins of the heydays like '24. So we will be also there, I think, definitely below 40%, but above the numbers we are currently seeing. So because we have to compensate this with a lower top line.

And now we have a further virtual hand from a person who has dialed in with the phone ending 847. [Operator Instructions] I can see that you are unmuted, but unfortunately, we cannot hear you.

Can you hear me now?

Yes. Now we can hear you. So if you can please introduce yourself to us.

It's Malte Schaumann, Warburg Research. First question is a follow-up to the former question of -- related to Chinese waiting for the new tools and the environment of the demand. I would broaden that to the overall customer base. Do you see potentially among other customers kind of holding back because you're about to introduce new product generations? I mean you indicated a pickup in activity and in the pipeline. But do you see generally some customers holding back in light of the upcoming product workovers? Or is that not really the case?

Yes, Malte, that's very hard to say because we cannot judge if they're waiting for new products, but some of these new products are only launching late next year. So if there is a demand and we don't have the right product, I'm pretty sure customers will order elsewhere. So if they wait, of course, good for us. But we -- where we see a kind of more wait behavior that's on the mid-end cleaner because that is the right tool for that market. There, we get a lot of inquiries. But of course, we have to get the first tool out first before we can be bullish about that. But other than that, we, I think, see customers simply wait till the last moment until they order and then they are rushing and then we have to see how we can, even with our reduced lead time to make it happen. That's the current discussions we have also with our -- among our sites.

Okay. Then on the rework on some tools that impacted the gross margin. What caused that basically? I mean that this happens from time to time, but what caused it this time? Was it kind of design flow? Was it new customer demand? Was it the extreme -- potentially extreme ramp? And do you think that you more or less sorted these out? I mean you indicated that this is kind of mixed effect so might reoccur next year. So maybe you can expand a little bit more on that topic.

Well, Malte, Thomas speaking here. So the question cannot be easily answered, to be honest, because it's a lot of facts which really come into this point here. On the one side, for sure, our customers are also very demanding with the request for support there because they also ramped up in a pretty short time and really they already have by themselves a very demanding customer. So the support was really requested by customers to be there on site, sometimes even 24/7 to support this ramp-up of our customers, and this was really partially -- only partially anticipated, and we were really a little bit overwhelmed by the request and also the hard request from customers.

Nevertheless, we supported them pretty good, I guess, and this is also why we still have really very good relations with these customers because they are taking us into account also for our next-generation HBM4, as Burkhardt already said. And also, if you go really in this steep ramp-up, we see sometimes also some topics which we did not see if we use our tools in a normal way or 2-shift way. So this is some, let's say, improvements, which we also did also because customers changed the process chemistry partially, where we also had some learnings together with our customers. And this is -- these are the main reasons why we had to support more than we anticipated before.

Okay. And the reason why you indicated that this is a mixed effect that you think you're not fully through, so that might reoccur?

I don't think that it might reoccur. We learned a lot and we learned together with customers and they let us learn together with them. So from that point of view, the learning curve also for us should go down so that we really reduce it. It will not go away completely, but it should really be reduced significantly.

And we have further virtual hand from Nicole Winkler.

So basically, I have one left regarding operating cash flow development. So basically, in Q3, you turned positive again. Can you give us an indication what we should expect for Q4 and where we could end up for full year 2025?

Yes. As you said, in Q3, we turned in terms of operating cash flow into a positive number. And we think that there is a good chance that we can end up at EUR 25 million in a positive territory. So this means in Q4, we will have or there are a good chance to have the EUR 28 million cash inflow that we need to get in a positive number.

That's for free cash flow, Cornelia, right?

Free cash flow, yes.

And for operating cash flow, for sure, this would mean that this number should be a bit higher because we also still have CapEx ongoing.

Yes, that's right. It's around -- yes, I would say, EUR 30 million, EUR 35 million we need in terms of operating cash flow.

And then we have a follow-up from [indiscernible]. So you should be able to speak now.

A brief question on your next-generation scanner tool. If I remember correctly from your previous calls, this is also enabling panel level packaging, right? If so, if -- can you give a little bit color around -- I mean, what we hear panel level packaging could bring cost advantages to TSMC, et cetera, well above 30%. So the technology seems to make sense. But then can you elaborate a little bit, are you covering different parts of the manufacturing process? And can you give a little bit color on the competition part of the business? So are you working with one lead customer and you're exclusive there? Or are other companies in the qualification process as well? A little bit color would be great.

Yes, [indiscernible], thanks for the question. I mean, obviously, yes, this is really for panel level packaging. This new UV scanner can handle both wafers and panel-level package applications. There will be several versions of that also with a path to 1 micron resolution. So it's also a more accurate system, but this will not be launched from the get-go. The first focus is indeed panel level packaging for that one lead customer whom we develop this closely together. So this is the launching platform. This will be applied in similar applications as spaces as the current ones, but we have access to more layers and more process layers than before. And also, it will open the door for more other customers because this is a very interesting field to be. So we will be able to broaden our exposure there.

And competition part?

Well, competition is the same as we have now, which are I-line steppers and scanners, you have already in the market, but we currently have a lead over them in cost of ownership and throughput. And we, of course, want to maintain that lead.

And in view of the time, we will come to the end of today's earnings call. So thank you to the Management Board for your presentation and the time you took and also to you, dear participants, for joining and your shown interest. So should further questions arise, yes, Sven Kopsel from Investor Relations will be happy to assist you. And on that point, it was -- yes, it was our pleasure to be your host. And Sven, final sentence belongs to you.

Yes. Thank you so much. Just one remark. You know that we are going to have this CMD on Monday, the 17th of November. If you have not registered yet or if you are unsure, maybe please just contact me or Florian Mangold as soon as possible. We are still accepting registrations. So take care. Goodbye.