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Iveco Group NV reported its financial results for the third quarter of 2025, revealing a notable earnings miss. The company posted an adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of €0.15, falling short of the forecasted €0.48, representing a significant negative surprise of 68.96%. Revenues for the quarter were €3.12 billion, also missing the expected €3.43 billion by 9.04%. Following the announcement, the company’s stock price experienced a slight decline of 0.05%, trading at €18.43, down from the previous closing price of €18.44.
Key Takeaways
- Iveco’s Q3 2025 earnings per share fell significantly short of expectations.
- Revenues declined by 3.6% year-over-year, missing forecasts.
- The company launched a new electric vehicle lineup in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment.
- Iveco maintained a strong position in the European bus market with a 21.3% market share.
- Management is optimistic about increased profitability in Q4 2025.
Company Performance
Iveco Group’s performance in Q3 2025 was marked by challenges, as the company reported a 3.6% decline in consolidated net revenues year-over-year. Despite the revenue shortfall, Iveco continued to advance its product offerings, launching the Model Year 2024 for trucks and completing its electric vehicle lineup in the LCV segment. The company also signed a significant agreement for up to 4,000 low- and zero-emission buses, underscoring its commitment to sustainability.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: €3.12 billion (-3.6% YoY)
- Adjusted EBIT: €111 million (3.6% margin)
- Adjusted net income: €40 million
- Adjusted EPS: €0.15
Earnings vs. Forecast
Iveco’s Q3 2025 results fell short of market expectations, with an EPS of €0.15 compared to a forecast of €0.48, marking a 68.96% negative surprise. Revenue also missed the mark, coming in at €3.12 billion against an expected €3.43 billion, a 9.04% shortfall. This performance marks a deviation from previous quarters, where the company had maintained closer alignment with forecasts.
Market Reaction
Following the earnings announcement, Iveco’s stock saw a minor decrease of 0.05%, trading at €18.43. This movement places the stock within its 52-week range, with a high of €19.80 and a low of €8.84. The market’s muted reaction suggests that investors may have already priced in some of the challenges faced by the company.
Outlook & Guidance
Looking ahead, Iveco Group remains optimistic about its future performance. The company expects full-year 2025 adjusted EBIT to range between €830 million and €880 million. Despite the current quarter’s challenges, management anticipates increased profitability in Q4 2025 across its business units. Industrial activities net revenues are projected to decline by 3-5% year-over-year, with an expected industrial free cash flow of €250 million to €350 million.
Executive Commentary
CEO Olof Persson expressed confidence in the company’s strategic direction, stating, "We believe that the worst is behind us." Persson emphasized the acceleration of Iveco’s efficiency program, targeting savings of €150 million in capital and operational expenditures. He also highlighted the strength of the bus order book, providing visibility well into the second half of 2026.
Risks and Challenges
- Continued revenue declines could pressure profitability.
- Macroeconomic uncertainties in South America may impact consumer confidence.
- The Chassis Cab subsegment remains challenging.
- Supply chain disruptions could affect production capabilities.
- Competitive pressures in the European market may impact market share.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the recovery of the LCV market, to which management responded positively, noting that they are sold out for the remainder of 2025. Questions also focused on pricing discipline and the potential growth in the powertrain segment, with management highlighting new third-party contracts as a positive development.
Full transcript - Iveco Group NV (IVG) Q3 2025:
Conference Operator: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to today’s Iveco Group third quarter 2025 results conference call and webcast. We would like to remind you that today’s call is being recorded. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations, Iveco Group: Thank you, Razia. Good morning, everyone. I would like to welcome you to this webcast and conference call for Iveco Group third quarter financial results for the period ending 30th September 2025. This call is being broadcast live on our website and is copyrighted by Iveco Group. I’m sure you appreciate that any other use, recording, or transmission of any portion of this broadcast without the consent of Iveco Group is not allowed. Hosting today’s call are Iveco Group CEO, Olof Persson, and me, Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations, standing in for the financial section usually covered by our CFO, as Anna Tanganelli could not be present today. Please note that any forward-looking statement we make during today’s call is subject to the risk and uncertainties mentioned in the safe harbor statement included in the presentation material.
Additional information relating to factors that could cause actual results to differ from forecast and expectation is contained in the company’s most recent annual report, as well as other recent reports and filings with the authorities in the Netherlands and Italy. The company presentation may include certain non-IFRS financial measures. Additional information, including reconciliation to the most directly incomparable IFRS financial measures, is included in the presentation material. Furthermore, on the 30th of July 2025, Iveco Group announced the signing of a definitive agreement to sell its defense business, IDV and ASA brands, to Leonardo S.p.A. The transaction is expected to be completed no later than 31st March 2026, subject to the customary regulatory approvals and carve-out completion.
In accordance with IFRS 5, non-current asset held for sale and discontinued operation, as the sale became highly probable in July, the defense business meets the criteria to be classified as a disposal group held for sale. It also meets the criteria to be classified as discontinued operation. In accordance with applicable accounting standards, the figures in the income statement and the statement of cash flow for 2024 comparative periods have been recast consistently. Additionally, in 2024, the firefighting business was classified as discontinued operation. Its sales were completed on the 3rd of January 2025. As a consequence, 2025 and 2024 financial data shown in this presentation refers to the continuing operation only, unless otherwise stated. Finally, please note that subject to applicable disclosure requirements, pending the publication of the final offer document, we will not comment on the tender offer.
As per the joint press release on July 30th announcing the entering into the merger agreement and the press release by Tata Motors on August 19 announcing the filing of the document with CONSOB, anyone interested is invited to refer to the offeror’s notice published on July 30, 2025. This indicates the legal basis, rationale, condition, terms, and key elements of the tender offer. All the aforementioned material and announcements are available on the Iveco Group corporate website, where any additional relevant information will be published in due time. We will not comment on the sale of the defense business to Leonardo either. The rationale, terms, and condition of the sale, with the details as currently available, were disclosed on July 30th. As announced, the transaction is expected to be completed in Q1 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals and carve-out completion.
Consistently with the agreement reached with Tata Motors, Iveco Group will distribute the net proceeds of the transaction based on the enterprise value agreed with the purchaser via an extraordinary dividend estimated at EUR 5.56 per common share to be paid out to the company shareholders before the tender offer is settled. With those points covered, I’d like to turn things over to our CEO, Olof.
Olof Persson, CEO, Iveco Group: Thank you very much, Federico. Let me add my own warm welcome to everyone joining our call today. I’ll start with slide three, outlining the main highlights from our third quarter performance, excluding defense. Throughout the quarter, we maintained a high focus on our long-term vision and maintained discipline in the execution of measures that will help achieve it. These include tight control on inventory levels, diligent cost management, and the ongoing commitment to our multi-year efficiency program, as well as its acceleration for the current year, which is proceeding as planned. We have also identified additional areas of improvement, which will deliver further full-year savings. In our track business unit, we concentrated on balancing pricing and market share.
The focus was on protecting our leadership position in the LCV Chassis Cab subsegment, where pricing dynamics were more challenging, and maintaining a very strict pricing discipline in medium and heavy in support of the final phase of the introduction of our Model Year 2024 across European countries, and thereby ensuring the quality, performance, and the full potential of the product. I’d now like to break down our performance by business units. In Truck, industry demand in Europe remained particularly low in the Chassis Cab subsegment, which affected profitability in the quarter that was only partially offset by strict cost control measures. European deliveries in the period were down year over year, particularly for light commercial vehicles, which were down 27% versus last year. At the end of the quarter, worldwide book-to-bill for Truck came in at 1.0, up 25 basis points versus the same period last year.
In powertrain, we began to see the first sign of a sustainable recovery in engine volumes, as had been expected, supporting profitability improvements. In our bus business unit, profitability was impacted by costs associated with a ramp-up of production in our NNI plant in France. Despite this, our order books remained strong, providing us with a clear long-term visibility. Free cash flow absorption in the third quarter of 2025 was at EUR 513 million, broadly in line with last year’s performance when we excluded from last year the positive effect of the deployment of the higher inventory levels that we registered at the end of June 2024. You will recall that this was linked to the phase-in and phase-out of the new model year in trucks.
Going forward, we will continue to remain very focused on quality and operations in line with our long-term pathway, maintaining tight control on production levels and inventory management, and on delivering our efficiency program. Slide four outlines our indicative timeline for the first half of 2026, with the sale of our defense business and the tender offer with Iveco Group progressing in parallel. Regulatory filings for both transactions, including those required by the European Union, are currently underway and subject to final approvals. Both the sale of the defense business to Leonardo and subsequent distribution of the net sale proceeds through an external ordinary dividend and the tender offer by Tata are on track for completion within the first half of 2026, as we stated previously. If we’re then moving on to slide six.
The track segment, we maintained pricing discipline and tight inventory control throughout Q3 in 2025. European industry volumes increased by 5% year over year for both light commercial vehicles and medium and heavy trucks. Iveco’s third quarter LCV market share was 11.7%, of which 29.7% was in the chassis cab subsegment, and 65.8% was in the upper end of the segment. Industry growth overall was largely driven by the camper subsegment, where Iveco has limited exposure. Chassis cab volumes, on the other hand, remained under pressure, yet we managed to protect our leadership position. In medium and heavy trucks, our market share reached 7.2%, with heavy trucks accounting for 6.4%. I do apologize.
In this segment, we implemented a selective sales mix strategy throughout the quarter to optimize challenge profitability and support the final phase of the introduction of our Model Year 2024 across European countries, and thereby ensuring the quality, performance, and full potential of the product. Our ability to adapt to segment dynamics while preserving pricing integrity and managing inventory effectively reflects the strength of our commercial execution and the strategic clarity of our truck business. Moving on to slide seven, our worldwide truck book-to-bill ratio reached 1.0 at the end of the quarter, registering a 25 basis point improvement year over year. This reflects balanced commercial performance across geographies and product categories. In light commercial vehicles, our European order intake rose by 17% compared to Q3 2024, supported by a book-to-bill ratio of 105.
This increase, we believe, is a welcome first sign of recovery, coming on the heels of a prolonged period of production coverage well below last year’s levels, seven weeks this year versus 12 weeks last year. In South America, we experienced even stronger growth, with order intake up 37% and book-to-bill ratio of 1.11. In medium and heavy trucks, European order intake declined by 3% year over year, with a book-to-bill ratio of 0.82. South America saw a more pronounced contraction of 21%, with a book-to-bill ratio of 0.94. While these figures reflect a softer demand environment, the backlog remains stable at seven weeks of production coverage. Let’s move to the next slide, number nine, with bus industry volumes and market shares. Iveco Bus during the quarter continued to demonstrate strong competitive positioning across Europe.
In the intercity segment, our leadership was reaffirmed with a 55.1% market share in Q3, representing a 5 percentage point increase year over year. This gain can be attributed to the successful introduction of electric models, which are contributing positively to both volumes and brand perception. In the European city bus segment, our market share stood at 15.1% in Q3. We expect an acceleration in deliveries during Q4, consistent with the seasonal patterns and supported by backlog conversion. Overall, Iveco Bus maintained its consolidated number two position in the European market with a 21.3% market share year to date. Moving on to slide 10, in Q3 2025, our bus order intake declined by 17%, following the strong momentum we enjoyed in the first half of the year. This front-loaded demand contributed to a 6% year to date increase as of September.
Deliveries rose 20% compared to Q3 2024, demonstrating robust execution and sustained customer demand. The book-to-bill ratio stood at 0.77 at the quarter end, a figure impacted by scheduling of orders early in the year. Importantly, year to date, order intake remained higher than 2024 at 108, demonstrating the segment’s resilience. On the 29th of October, Iveco Bus signed the framework agreements with Île-de-France Mobilité, a leading public transport authority managing one of Europe’s largest and most complex transit networks. Iveco Bus will supply Île-de-France Mobilité with up to 4,000 low and zero-emission buses and coaches between 2026 and 2032. This is in line with the brand’s long-term strategy to building on zero-emission and electromobility solutions. In conclusion, we maintained a solid long-term visibility for intercity and city buses, with coverage now extending well into the second half of 2026.
On slide 12, we have the delivery performance for our powertrain business unit. After nearly two years of consecutive year-over-year decline, engine volumes increased by 1% compared to Q3 2024. While modest, this improvement reflects the recovery we predicted last quarter. During the period, new third-party customer contracts were signed among Lindner and JCB. Production for these orders will begin in 2026. These contracts position FPT Industrial as one of the main references in the agriculture industry and are in line with our long-term strategy to grow the number of third-party clients. Operational discipline remains central to our approach. We continue to manage cost diligently and remain committed to our efficiency program. These efforts are helping us to protect margins and ensure sustainable delivery as volumes recover. Looking ahead, we expect a recovery in deliveries to third-party customers to continue throughout Q4 and beyond, supporting profitability improvements.
Going to slide 14, it looks at our electric vehicle portfolio, where year-to-date delivery volumes continue to grow across the business units, despite the challenging market demand scenario. This clearly shows the competitiveness of our product lineup and our unique positioning in LCV, where Iveco is the only truck maker to offer a complete fully electric product lineup ranging from 2.5-7 tons. With that, I finished my opening remarks, and I will now hand over the call to Federico.
Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations, Iveco Group: Thank you, Olof. Let’s now take a look at the highlights of our third quarter 2025 financial results on slide 16. Again, all figures provided in the presentation refer to continuing operation only, excluding defense, if not otherwise stated. Q3 2025 closed with EUR 3.1 billion in consolidated net revenues and EUR 3 billion in net revenues of industrial activities. These figures reflect a contraction of 3.6% and 3% respectively on a year-over-year basis, mainly due to lower volumes in Europe for truck and a negative forex translation effect, primarily in Brazil and in Turkey. The group adjusted EBIT closed at EUR 111 million, with a 3.6% margin, and the adjusted EBIT of industrial activities reached EUR 76 million, with a 2.5% margin, both contracted by 210 basis points versus Q3 2024. The net financial expenses amounted to EUR 58 million in the third quarter this year, in line with the same quarter last year.
Reported income tax expenses came to EUR 17 million in Q3 2025, with an adjusted effective tax rate of 25%. This resulted in adjusted net income for continuing operation at EUR 40 million, down EUR 54 million versus last year, with an adjusted diluted EPS of EUR 0.15. Moving to our free cash flow performance in the quarter, Q3 2025 closed with a EUR 513 million cash outflow of absorption, which was broadly in line with last year’s performance when we excluded from last year the positive effect of the deployment of the higher inventory level that we registered at the end of June 2024, as Olof said in his opening remarks. I will provide more details further in the presentation. Finally, available liquidity, including undrawn committed credit lines, closed solidly at EUR 4 billion on the 30th of September, of which EUR 1.9 billion was in undrawn committed facilities.
Let’s now focus on net revenue of industrial activities on slide 17. As you can see from the chart on the right-hand side of the slide, all regions contracted compared to prior year, excluding South America, which was flat versus Q3 2024. Looking at our net revenues evolution by business unit, bus was solidly up versus prior year at +31%. Powertrain was flat, and truck contracted 11% versus Q3 2024. More in detail, truck net revenues totaled EUR 2 billion in this quarter, down 11% versus prior year, primarily as a consequence of two factors. First, a lower delivery rate in light-duty trucks due to the continuing challenging environment in the Chassis Cab subsegment. Second, a selective sales mix strategy throughout the quarter in heavy-duty trucks in order to optimize channel profitability and support the final phase of the introduction of our Model Year 2024 across European countries.
Additionally, the top line was affected by adverse year-over-year foreign exchange rate trend, mainly in Brazil and Turkey. Our bus net revenues were up 31.4% in Q3 2025, reaching EUR 719 million thanks to higher volumes. Finally, our powertrain net revenues were broadly in line year-over-year at EUR 745 million, with higher volumes offset by an adverse foreign exchange rate impact. Sales to external customers accounted for 49% in line with Q3 2024. Turning to slide 18, let me briefly comment on the main drivers underlying the year-over-year performance in our adjusted EBIT margin of industrial activities. Volume mix contributed negatively EUR 67 million in the period, mainly due to lower truck volumes in Europe. The decrease in deliveries of light-duty vehicles particularly impacted the overall truck profitability. The year-over-year net pricing contributed positively for EUR 15 million at industrial activities level and was positive across business units.
Production costs were negative EUR 7 million year-over-year, with negative performance in truck and bus, partially offset by solid positive performance in powertrain. Finally, the year-over-year improvement in SG&A costs, totaling EUR 17 million in this quarter and EUR 50 million to date, is again a result of the acceleration of the efficiency action announced and launched at the beginning of this year. Let’s now take a look at the adjusted EBIT margin performance for each industrial business unit on slide 19. Truck closed the quarter with a 2.9% adjusted EBIT margin. As already mentioned, this was a result of lower volumes and negative mix, mainly due to the continuing challenging environment in the Chassis Cab subsegment, which experienced lower volumes in Europe. The negative absorption due to lower production level was only partially compensated by the cost containment action implemented in the period.
Truck pricing in Europe was positive year-over-year, confirming our tight price discipline. The Q3 2025 adjusted EBIT margin for our bus business unit closed at 4%, down 110 basis points versus prior year, with higher volumes and positive price realization offset by higher costs associated with the ramp-up of production in our Annonay plant. Finally, the powertrain adjusted EBIT margin closed at 5.1% in the third quarter, resulting from continued and diligent cost control and operational efficiency, as well as a slight increase in engine volumes. Let’s now have a look at the performance of our financial services business unit during the quarter on slide 20. The Q3 2025 adjusted EBIT for financial services closed at EUR 35 million, with a managed portfolio including unconsolidated joint ventures of EUR 7.5 billion at the end of the period, of which retail accounted for 45% and wholesale 55%.
This figure is down EUR 106 million compared to the 30th of September 2024. Stock of receivable past due by more than 30 days, as a percentage of the overall on-book portfolio, was at 2.1%, which is slightly up versus last year. The return on assets remained solid at 2.1%. Let’s move to our free cash flow and net industrial cash evolution on slide 21. As said previously, the Q3 2025 free cash flow absorption came in at EUR 513 million, which is broadly in line with last year’s performance when we exclude the positive effect of the initial deployment of the higher inventory level that we registered at the end of June 2024. The lower adjusted EBITDA was offset by positive year-over-year swings in financial charges and taxes, the positive delta in working capital, and lower investments.
The negative year-over-year swing in provision was driven by lower sales volume in our truck business unit. Lastly, investment totaled EUR 150 million in Q3 2025, down EUR 39 million versus the same period last year. This is in line with the already disclosed acceleration of our efficiency program and the reprioritization of some of our less strategic investments. Moving now to slide 22. As of the 30th of September 2025, our available liquidity for continuing operations, excluding defense, stood solidly at EUR 4 billion, with EUR 2.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents and EUR 1.9 billion of undrawn committed facilities. Looking at our debt maturity profile, the majority of our debt will mature from 2027 onwards, and our cash and cash equivalent levels will continue to more than cover all the cash maturities foreseen for the coming years.
Moving now to my last slide for today, number 24, with the discontinued operation performance of our defense business unit. The net revenues for defense came in at EUR 293 million, up 9.7% compared to Q3 2024, driven by higher volumes. The adjusted EBIT was EUR 25 million compared to EUR 23 million in Q3 2024, resulting from production efficiency, partially offset by higher R&D costs. The adjusted EBIT margin was at 8.5%, down 10 basis points compared to Q3 2024. The funded order book level at the end of September 2025 reached almost EUR 5.3 billion, up close to EUR 300 million from the end of June 2025. Thank you. I will now turn the call back to Olof for his final remarks.
Olof Persson, CEO, Iveco Group: Thank you very much, Federico. I would like to conclude this presentation by looking at both the outlook for the industry and our own financial guidance. I will also, as usual, provide some takeaway messages from what you have heard today. We confirm our total industry outlook for the current year across the segments and regions. Specifically, we expect demand to remain low in the Chassis Cab subsegment and South America to continue to be negatively impacted by reduced consumer confidence and less willingness to invest in heavy-duty trucks, given the increase in interest rates in Brazil since the beginning of the year. The next slide has our full year 2025 updated financial guidance, also expressed as continuing operation, which means excluding defense. Our full year 2025 financial guidance has been revised across all key performance metrics, except for the industrial activities net revenue, which remains unchanged.
This update reflects the year-to-date performance negatively affected by two main circumstances. Firstly, the slower-than-expected recovery in light commercial vehicles during the second half of 2025, particularly in the Chassis Cab subsegment, which has negatively affected our truck business unit’s year-to-date profitability. Secondly, we have allowed for extra costs associated with the ramp-up of production in our Annonay plant, which negatively impacted our bus business unit’s profitability in the third quarter. Implied in our updated guidance is increased Q4 profitability year-over-year across business units and an additional positive effect from the acceleration of our efficiency program compared to the initial EUR 150 million CapEx and OpEx. Based on these premises, the updated guidance for our full year 2025 is as follows.
At consolidated level, including defense, group adjusted EBIT now at between EUR 830 million and EUR 880 million, and for industrial activities, net revenues, including currency effect, confirmed to be down at between 3% and 5% year-over-year. Adjusted EBIT from industrial activities at between EUR 700 million and EUR 750 million and industrial free cash flow to be between EUR 250 million and EUR 350 million. On this slide, we have also shown what this guidance implies for continuing operations only. The free cash flow forecast, excluding defense, is not included due to ongoing activities related to the separation that could affect some balance sheet accounts. We will continue to manage production levels for truck in Europe in line with the retail demand, while at the same time maintaining diligent cost management and leveraging the benefits of our efficiency program across business units. Now to slide 28, let me provide you with some takeaway messages from today’s call.
First, as I said, implied in our revised guidance is increased Q4 profitability year-over-year across business units. If we break that down by business unit, in truck, our LCV and medium and heavy vehicles are sold out, covering the remaining two months of the year. This, combined with strict control on pricing and cost management, will positively contribute to higher profitability compared to the fourth quarter of last year. In bus, ramp-up costs are now behind us, and we expect higher volumes to contribute positively to the year-over-year performance. Lastly, in powertrain, as mentioned earlier, third-party client volumes are expected to continue their year-over-year growth, supporting progressively profitability improvements. The increase in third-quarter order intake for light commercial vehicles is an encouraging early sign that the worst is behind us.
In heavy-duty trucks, we will continue to maintain strict pricing discipline to support our Model Year 2024, ensuring the quality, performance, and the full potential of the product. In Powertrain, new third-party customer contracts were signed, among which Lindner and JCB, with production for these orders beginning in 2026. Our bus order book remains strong, providing solid visibility well into the second half of 2026, and the funded order book for our defense business unit reached almost EUR 5.3 billion at the end of September 2025, demonstrating continued momentum in the industry. Thirdly, we are proceeding at pace with the acceleration of our efficiency program and reprioritization of certain investments, confirming the expected EUR 150 million in savings in CapEx and OpEx for the current year, as well as additional areas of improvement, which will deliver further full-year savings.
Finally, we are on track to complete the sale of our defense business to Leonardo as per our original combination, and the tender offer by Tata Motors is expected to be completed within the first half of 2026. In conclusion, as always, we are focused on our commitment to operational excellence. Each business unit remains laser-focused on its short and long-term objectives, working to deliver lasting value for all our stakeholders. With that, I would like to thank you and hand it back to Federico.
Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations, Iveco Group: That concludes our prepared remarks, and we can now open it up for questions. To be mindful of the time, we kindly ask that you hold off on any detailed modeling and accounting questions. For this, you can follow up directly with me and the investor relations team after the call. In addition, as already pointed out, pending the publication of the formal offer document on the tender offer by Tata Motors, we will not comment on the legal basis, rationale, conditions, terms, and key elements of the tender offer. In this respect, for the time being, you are kindly invited to refer to the materials already published in the Ad hoc section of the company website. As for the sale of the defense business to Leonardo, the activities are ongoing and on track, consistently with the timeline commented during the presentation.
The company will strictly comply with applicable disclosure requirements, but for the time being, it has nothing to add vis-à-vis what has been already announced. Opretos, bricos a él.
Conference Operator: Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Once again, please press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. We are now going to take our first question. The questions come from the line of Akshat Kakar from JP Morgan. Please ask a question.
Akshat Kakar, Analyst, JP Morgan: Good morning. Hello. Federico Akshat from JP Morgan. A couple of questions, please. The first one on the truck and LCV business. Obviously, the trends this year have been difficult to forecast and understand given the pre-buy last year and also the change over in the product family. Could you just help us understand how you’re looking at the business going forward, probably into Q4, but also any early signs on how you expect the LCV business to develop going into 2026? And if you could just add some color regionally as well between Europe and Brazil. We have heard from a few of your peers that inventories are high in the Brazilian and LatAm market, and overall, there is some pricing pressure. Some details there would be helpful. The second question is on the powertrain business.
You’ve talked about a slight increase in engine volumes, first signs of recovery. Could you just give us some more details in terms of where are these green shoots emerging from, and do you not expect volumes to turn positive going into fourth quarter, please? Thank you.
Olof Persson, CEO, Iveco Group: Okay. On the LCV market, I mean, as we said, the indications we’re getting now and also on the book-to-bill and the increase in order intake gives us confidence that we believe that the worst is behind us and we will see a gradual update. We see that also in the activity levels in the market. As we said, we’re sold out now for this year and going into next year. I think it’s always difficult to really judge where this is going coming from such a long period of lower market. I feel the LCV side, I think we have the worst behind us. Exactly how that will pan out coming into 2026, we will have to see. We need a couple more weeks or months to see that coming into it.
I would say so far so good, and it’s really good and encouraging to see that this is opening up. That is, of course, then moving also in our key segments on the cab over and both in the medium and the upper side of it. On the LatAm, I didn’t really under LatAm pricing.
Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations, Iveco Group: No, I was referring to inventory level, if I understood correctly. Correct, Akshat?
Akshat Kakar, Analyst, JP Morgan: Yeah. That’s right. And what your peers talked about, the weakness in that market, specifically in the medium and heavy prices.
Olof Persson, CEO, Iveco Group: Yeah. When it comes to the inventory, both our own inventory, the dealer inventory, and the whole chain, we manage that very carefully, as you know. We do that also in LatAm. When we see the order volumes going down, we, of course, adjust production, and we do that rather quickly in LatAm because it is a simple one-factory system where we can really manage that in a good way. I do not have any concerns about the inventory levels in LatAm going forward, even though, of course, on the heavy-duty side, there is, as we said, a decline in the market and the order intake. The final question was around.
Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations, Iveco Group: Engines.
Olof Persson, CEO, Iveco Group: Engines, yes. The green shoots for the engines, I would say that there are a couple of things. One is, of course, that we are getting third-party business. The team in powertrain has done a great job in actually capturing more third-party business, which is good. We also see, of course, and we have said that before, it is around the stock level of engines out there in the market. The time it has taken to destock that, given the downturn that we have seen over the last basically two years, also gives you confidence that this is covering up for the destocking coming to an end, and thereby the volumes are coming back up again. It is a combination of that, plus the fact that we actually are then successfully getting third-party business. That is giving me confidence going forward in the powertrain side.
Akshat Kakar, Analyst, JP Morgan: Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now proceed with our next question. The next questions come from the line of Martino De Ambroggi from Equita. Please go ahead.
Martino De Ambroggi, Analyst, Equita: Thank you. Good morning, everybody. The first question is still on the LCV. Olof, I understood your qualitative comments on LCV for next year, but could you provide what is your feeling in terms of European and South America, if in 2026 the market overall is able to have at least a small single-digit rebound in terms of volumes? The second question is specifically on the defense business because you are providing the guidance with and without defense. I was wondering if in implying what is the defense EBIT and revenues. Is it correct to take EUR 150 million of adjusted EBIT and probably close to EUR 1.3 billion sales, or there are inter-company or other items that could affect these figures? I clearly understand you are not providing any updated guidance without defense on free cash flow.
Could you comment about what is the normalized free cash flow or cash conversion for this business, or what was in the past? Thank you.
Olof Persson, CEO, Iveco Group: Okay. If I start with the LCV market, I think I need to stay a little bit on top and give you the feeling I have right now because we need a couple of, I would say, weeks or at least a month to really see where the activities are going to start with in 2026. I mean, we now have a visibility in for the rest of the year, sold out, and then we need to see how the activity is going. As I said, so far so good. I mean, the activity levels that we see from our customers, the tender activities we see is coming. We do see, as you have seen, an increase in the order intake coming from very low level in Q2 and so on and so forth. The indications are good.
Let’s see when we have got that all together, and we will come back to that with a more detailed market development on that one. On the other two questions, I leave it to you.
Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations, Iveco Group: Yeah. On the defense side, I think, Martino, on the heavy side, yeah, you can be rounded to the number you have mentioned as well as on the top line. In terms of the free cash flow of defense, as you know, we have never disclosed it by business unit. The only thing I can say is that it is a cash generative business, but on a full-year basis. I hope this helps phrase it.
Martino De Ambroggi, Analyst, Equita: Okay. Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. We are now going to take our next question. The next questions come from the line of Nikolai Kempf from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Nikolai Kempf, Analyst, Deutsche Bank: Yeah. Good morning. It’s Nikolai from Deutsche Bank. Thank you for taking my questions. Also, too. Maybe coming back on your full-year guidance. It does imply a significant step up in Q4 of around EUR 250 million in Q4 of earnings versus EUR 300 million in the first nine months. I mean, you mentioned that all segments will be stronger in Q4, but can you just give a bit more color. Which segments should drive that? It’s probably going to be the light trucks, but any help would be appreciated here. The second one, if I look at the EU heavy truck market share, came in at 6.4%. I think historically even closer to 9% or 10%. That is despite the fact that you have launched a new model year.
Should we expect that next year you should have a higher market share or rise below the historic run rate despite having a rather new product in the market? Thank you.
Olof Persson, CEO, Iveco Group: On the Q4, I think I gave the guidance that. I mean, I can give at this point in time. The basis for the improvements that we see is there. In the truck side, it is, of course, good to see that we are sold out. That means that we can push. If you look at the backup of the slide, you can also see that the inventory with our dealers has gone down. We have managed the dealer inventory together with the dealers and our own dealer very well as well. We are having a sort of a system set up for an increase in terms of on that side, which I think is promising and stable in that respect. As I said, powertrain, bus, increased volumes, the profitability. We have the cost behind us on the ramp-up in NNA.
Just to comment on that, it was absolutely necessary to make sure that we create a very stable, efficient NNA plant in terms of quality, volume, and efficiency. We have that behind us, and we are pushing forward now. Of course, on the powertrain side, on top of that, as I mentioned, and it has been mentioned a couple of times, efficiency program. Do not forget the efficiency program. That is never a linear kind of coming into the profit and loss. It is actually an accelerating program. It is always those programs very often are. Of course, the majority or a big chunk of that program will now start to come in fully with all the activities we have done, not only on the EUR 150 million that we talked about, but also the activity that we have seen.
Those are the things that actually are going to drive the Q4 in. Coming back and making the result up to the guidance we have. On the EU market side, I think we specify we now enter into the final phase of the launch, and we have been in the market situation that has been really focusing on keeping the price level on this new vehicle because I truly believe that we’re going to live on this product for many, many years, right? And we need to make sure that it’s getting into the market in the right way. We have had a very stringent price discipline. We will continue to have a price discipline to really ensure, as I said, all the different aspects of the product.
I definitely see this product going forward in the mid and the long term being a product that definitely has a potential for more market share than it has today. That’s for sure.
Nikolai Kempf, Analyst, Deutsche Bank: Great. Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now take one final question. Our final question today comes from the line of Alex Jones from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations, Iveco Group: Thank you. Good morning. Two from my side as well, please. Could you talk a little bit about the medium and heavy-duty outlook that you see in terms of order trends, also into 2026? I know you talked a bit more positively about LCV, but medium and heavy orders were down 3% year on year in Europe. Your thoughts would be interesting. Second question on defense. Can you be more specific at all on the mixed factors, the weight on margins this quarter, at least sequentially, and whether you expect those to continue going forward Q4 and into next year? Thank you.
Olof Persson, CEO, Iveco Group: On the medium and LCV, that was the feeling going forward into the fourth quarter and into next year. Again, I repeat myself. On the LCV side, I have a good feeling on the activity level. Also, I would say on the medium and heavy. As we progress with our final implementation and launch of the Model Year 2024, we are going to see impacts there as well, not only in terms of market, but also in terms of market share over time. We are going to continue to keep a strict, selective approach, making sure that we get the pricing. I would say we come back in the beginning of next year, as we normally do, to have a view on the market and where the market is going on the heavy and medium. We are well positioned in both of these markets.
I think, as I said, I feel comfortable that once we are really sort of fully launched this product now, we’re going to see the positive impacts coming. Full confidence in that. It is a very, very good product in terms of all the different aspects. I leave to you, Federico, on the.
Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations, Iveco Group: On the defense, sorry. You were talking and referring to the mix, if I take your question correctly. Correct, Alex?
Nikolai Kempf, Analyst, Deutsche Bank: Yes, please.
Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations, Iveco Group: Yeah. I think in defense, more generally speaking, you need to consider that we have a very long and solid order book that just needs to be deployed. Probably looking at the defense just on a quarterly basis, it is much better to look at it on a full-year basis and the marginality also. This is just a question of looking at it on a yearly basis, and the mix can change also by region and by country and by product itself. As Olof said at the beginning, we are expecting the performance of each single business unit up year over year, and that will be the case for the defense as well in Q4. That is what I can share with you.
Nikolai Kempf, Analyst, Deutsche Bank: Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. That concludes the question and answer session. I will now turn the call back to Mr. Federico Donati for any additional or closing remarks.
Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations, Iveco Group: Thank you all, and have a nice rest of the day. Thank you. Bye.
Conference Operator: That concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all for your participation. Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect your lines.
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