Roy Jakobs
Analyst · Hassan Al-Wakeel from Barclays
Thanks, Durga. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. We entered Q2 with momentum, and we further strengthened it throughout the period. Order intake grew 6%, building on 9% last year. Comparable sales increased by 1% with strength in Personal Health, offsetting performance in D&T and Connected Care. Margin expanded by 130 basis points in the quarter to 12.4%, demonstrating that our innovation and ongoing productivity measures are driving strong gross margins. We delivered as planned in the first half of the year, and we are sustaining this momentum into Q3. We reiterate our full year comparable sales growth outlook of 1% to 3%, and we increased our 2025 adjusted EBITA margin range to between 11.3% and 11.8%. This 50 basis points increase includes recent tariff developments. We now expect full year free cash flow to be between EUR 0.2 billion and EUR 0.4 billion. Of course, all of the above assume that current tariff levels hold, whilst we continue to focus fully on executing our planned tariff mitigation actions, which are well underway and on track. Now let's look at our Q2 performance in more detail. Let's start with orders first. Q2 order intake growth was broad-based across most regions. We saw sustained double-digit growth in North America and strong performance across growth geographies. Globally, our order book has increased in recent quarters. It's up 7% year-over-year with an improved margin profile from our latest innovations. What does this mean for second half? This order momentum, combined with our robust order book, positions us well to deliver our full year sales outlook. In Diagnosis & Treatment, orders grew double digit across most regions. In particular, its strong demand for our recently launched innovations, which drove order intake growth in both Image-Guided Therapy and Precision Diagnosis. Let me share some examples. Our leadership in minimally invasive procedures was underscored in Q2 by a multiyear nationwide agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Health. This will expand access to image-guided therapy using our industry-leading Azurion platform. Millions of patients with cardiac, stroke and cancer conditions across all of the country will benefit from it. Additionally, this partnership marks a significant step in strengthening Indonesia's health care infrastructure for high-impact disease areas. It extends beyond equipment to services. It includes training, scalable digital solutions and service hubs. It will deliver nationwide long-term care. Meanwhile, in the area of IGT innovation, our award-winning Azurion Neuro Biplane R3, which we introduced last year, is fueling double-digit year-on-year order growth. This new innovation is also contributing to higher win rate across all our Biplane systems. In Precision Diagnosis, we experienced also strong year-on-year order intake growth in both Diagnostic Imaging as well as in Ultrasound, led by North America. This is another great example of momentum driven by strong demand, recently launched innovations and improved commercial execution. In MR, we were the first and remain the only company to offer a commercially available wide-bore 1.5T helium-free system, and this is gaining traction. Customer feedback is positive, and all 1.5T MRI orders today are now from our helium-free BlueSeal system. This breakthrough innovation saves 1,500 liters of helium per system, significantly reduces installation costs over lifetime, while offering full flexibility in facility placement. It's setting MR free. We also strengthened our position as an AI leader with the FDA 510(k) clearance of MR SmartSpeed Precise Dual AI software. This AI solution delivers 3x faster scanning and up to 80% sharper images, all in just one click. CT growth was driven by strong demand for the CT 5300, our AI-enabled productivity workhorse and the clinically advanced Spectral CT 7500. By the end of the second quarter, these 2 systems alone accounted for more than half of all CT order intake value. It clearly demonstrates the clinical and operational impact of these recent launches for our customers who need to deliver better outcomes, but as much need to increase access to imaging. Moving to Connected Care. Following exceptional growth of over 20% in the prior year, underlying order intake remained very resilient, declining slightly. Demand for our solutions in Hospital Patient Monitoring remained strong. This is fueled by significant customer partnerships, including 6 major U.S. agreements finalized in just Q2 alone. And this includes dislodging incumbents. How? Because we drive efficiencies as we streamline operations across care settings and across hospital systems. IntelliVue patient monitors, plus our AI-powered virtual patient information center work together to create comprehensive and efficient patient monitoring and information management system. With a strong and growing order book up year-on-year and improving sequentially and the increasing momentum, D&T and Connected Care are well positioned to accelerate growth and margin in the second half of the year. Now let's move to Personal Health. All 3 businesses within the segment grew, driven by strong traction from new innovations and enhancements to our core products, supported by targeted investments. These innovations are resonating, not just with customers, but also with high-performing partners such as Amazon, Costco, Walmart, MSH, JD.com and Douyin, along with local accelerators. Why? Because they are driving measurable increases in sell-out, category growth and share, and they are accelerating access to consumers in our key growth markets. In Q2, sell-out trends remained robust across Europe and most growth geographies, supported by these partnerships. China continued to lag due to subdued consumer sentiment. In the U.S., sentiment has remained relatively stable, but we are maintaining a close watch on evolving consumer dynamics. More broadly, we are continuously tracking consumer sentiment and spending across all regions to ensure agility in our response. We continue to execute on our priorities from enhancing patient safety and supply chain resilience to simplifying our operations. Here are some key highlights in the quarter. Firstly, with quality embedded in our businesses, innovation and our culture, we have simplified and strengthened our quality management system and CAPA processes, completed deep reviews of post-market surveillance signals and accelerated our response to newly emerging post-market signals. As a result, we have reduced field actions and product updates by approximately 20% year-to-date, following 20% reduction in 2024 compared to 2023, which reflects a sustained improvement in overall quality performance. Moving to supply chain. Through continued product simplification and operational focus, our teams delivered our products to hospital and patients with greater speed and reliability. In Q2, service levels reached an all-time high of 86%, an improvement of more than 10 percentage points year-on-year. Improved supply chain reliability and agility support our progress in executing tariff mitigation in line with our plan. Lastly, we continue to identify and execute opportunities with a new operating model to reduce complexity and better align our resources to where growth is happening, resulting in strong and continued productivity improvements. Charlotte will discuss this further. The fundamentals of the markets we serve remain strong, though the dynamics continue to vary by region. Let me take a moment to reflect on what we're hearing from our customers. Starting with North America. We continue to see steady fundamental hospital demand. Customer pull for productivity solutions remains strong. They seek smarter ways to manage increasing workload and navigate resource constraints whilst having to serve more patients. We are well positioned to meet this need as innovation and productivity partner as evidenced by the double-digit order intake growth in 2024 and the first half of this year. While we have not observed significant shifts in CapEx plans, we are closely monitoring the environment. In China, stimulus activity is picking up and tender activity is increasing, although from a low base. That said, we have not yet seen a significant change in market dynamics. Therefore, we continue to maintain a cautious view on China in our full year outlook. Globally also, capital expenditure remains solid. We are seeing increasing demand in Europe and Latin America. India and Saudi Arabia are investing in health care infrastructure and digitalization, representing high-growth geographies to us, as also evidenced by the shaver deal in Indonesia. Staying close to our customers and partners is more important than ever. They are navigating an increasingly complex environment, facing rising demand, resource constraints and shifting priorities. That's why we're focused on innovating with purpose to deliver better and more care, solving their most pressing challenges through smart, scalable and AI-enabled solutions. I'm proud of how our teams are stepping up and delivering impact where it matters most. Charlotte will now discuss our second quarter performance and our outlook for 2025.