ams-OSRAM AG (AMS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the ams Osram conference call on second quarter 2026 results and live webcast. I am Sergen, the conference call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]. At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to you, Mr. Rebel, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning. This is Juergen speaking. Welcome to our second quarter 2026 earnings call. Aldo, our CEO, will comment on business performance and strategic progress, and Rainer, our CFO, will walk you through the financials. Please refer to the Q2 earnings call presentation that is available on our website. With that, Aldo, please take us through the quarter.

Thank you, Juergen, and also good morning from my side. We delivered another strong quarter, with revenue and adjusted EBITDA both landing at the high end of our guidance range, while continuing to execute on our Digital Photonics strategy. Let us turn to slide three. Our semiconductor core business grew 13% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis, driven by automotive strength and improving industrial demand. It is nearly twice the growth implied by our current midterm semiconductor model and underscores share gains. We also delivered a record first half design-win performance to secure more than EUR 1.6 billion of future business just in the second quarter alone. Momentum is building across both our core semiconductor franchise and our Digital Photonics growth platforms, reinforcing confidence in our long-term growth trajectory. In Digital Photonics, we achieved several important milestones during the quarter. First, we strengthened our organizational setup by creating dedicated business lines around key Digital Photonics teams, accelerating execution, enabling faster scaling of innovation. We also strengthened the team with external talent. Ashkan Shayegi from Nvidia now leads our AI Photonics business, bringing deep industry expertise and application know-how. Second, we reached key performance milestones in the development of microLED array-based light engines for next generation AI-enabled AR smart glasses, bringing the platform closer to mass production readiness. This positions us to enable a new class of AI-powered user experiences. Third, in AI photonics, we expanded our roadmap by starting development of micro photodiode arrays for the receive channel of slow and wide optical interconnects. This broadens our target portfolio, increases our bill of material opportunity, and supports our long-term objective of providing the complete optical engine. Fourth, on the sensing side of Digital Photonics, we secured initial design wins for our benchmark 3D multi-zone ToF platform in both robotics and smartphones. Taken together, these milestones demonstrate that Digital Photonics is progressing from technology development towards productization and commercial scale. As part of our balance sheet improvement plan, we have successfully placed EUR 1 billion senior notes due 2032 with a 7.25% coupon, replacing much more expensive '29s. This reduces our annual interest cost by EUR 40 million. We also continued to sharpen our portfolio and capital allocation focus through the divestment of non-core businesses. On July 1st, we completed divestment of our non-optical sensor business to Infineon for EUR 570 million. In addition, we signed the divestment of our subscale CMOS image sensor business to indie, further sharpening our strategic focus and doubling down on the most promising Digital Photonics opportunities. In summary, the quarter reflects strong execution across our strategic priorities with profitable growth in the core business, continued progress in Digital Photonics, and a further balance sheet strengthening. Let me now ask Rainer to walk you through some of the financial details.

Thank you, Aldo. Good morning from my side as well. Now turning to slide four. Q2 was another strong quarter, with revenues reaching EUR 805 million, landing well in the upper half of our guidance range. Adjusted EBITDA was close to 17%, the high end of our guidance, supported by strong performance across all three divisions. Revenue increased 4% year-on-year and 9% on a like-for-like basis at constant currencies. Adjusted EBITDA was slightly lower year-on-year, primarily reflecting the deconsolidation of the specialty lamps business. Higher raw prices and foreign exchange headwinds also weighed on profitability. Now let's have a look at the segment performance on slide five. OS benefited from strong demand across the board. Revenues improved 11% sequentially and 6% year-on-year. In several product lines, supply remains constrained, and we are effectively sold out. Adjusted EBITDA improved in line with operating leverage, partially offset by higher raw material costs, particularly gold. Year-on-year adjusted EBITDA declined by EUR 40 million despite higher revenue, reflecting FX headwinds, a more than 25% increase in gold prices, and product mix effects. CSA benefited from a broad-based industrial recovery, including some inventory replenishment in the non-optical sensor business prior to its divestment to Infineon. Revenue increased 14% sequentially and 7% year-on-year. Profitability improved on higher volumes, strong factory utilization, and the favorable mix from industrial and medical applications. Year-on-year adjusted EBITDA remained broadly stable. Lamps and systems certainly requires a closer look. Sequentially, revenue declined as expected due to normal seasonality and the deconsolidation of the specialty lamps business. Year-on-year, the revenue declined a bit due to the deconsolidation effect. Importantly, our traditional automotive lamps business delivered structural growth, supported by market share gains following the bankruptcy of a key competitor. Profitability reflected the deconsolidation of specialty lamps and lower seasonal volumes quarter-over-quarter. Year-over-year adjusted EBITDA increased 16%, driven by strong aftermarket demand and higher factory utilization. Overall, we delivered a strong quarter across our core portfolio with all three divisions contributing to revenue growth and profitability. Turning to slide 6. Adjusted for the weaker U.S. dollar and the exited non-core portfolio, our core semi portfolio grew by a really strong 13% year-over-year. As a side note, the non-core portfolio is now largely wound down, contributing only around EUR 10 million of residual revenue. Looking at our end market. Automotive continued to perform well and increased sequentially, supported by strong order intake during the quarter. We continue to benefit from share and content gains, although we believe some restocking also contributed against the backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty. Importantly, our automotive LED business grew 5% year-over-year on a like-for-like basis, demonstrating the impact of the design wins accumulated over the recent years. Performance improved across all regions except China, where end market demand remained softer and competitive intensity elevated. Industrial medical continued to recover strongly, with revenues increasing approximately 30% sequentially and nearly 20% year-over-year. We saw a strong upswing in horti and continued strength in professional lighting, where we are gaining share, particularly in mid-power applications. Order intake in non-optical sensors was also very strong, reflecting elevated customer demand ahead of the business transfer. Overall, we continue to gain market share across multiple end markets. Consumer performed better than typical seasonal patterns would suggest. Revenue grew sequentially, supported by strong sell-through at selected customers, despite a softer smartphone market overall. Our portfolio remains focused on premium smartphones and high-end wearables. Year-over-year, revenue increased slightly despite foreign exchange headwinds and the phase-out of non-core portfolio elements. With that, let me ask Aldo to comment on design wins and the latest progress in Digital Photonics.

Thank you, Rainer, we now turn to slide 7. We have just seen how fast design wins are translating into growth, market share gains, and stronger business performance today. Our design momentum accelerated significantly in Q2. We secured more than EUR 1.6 billion of new business, bringing the first half total to approximately EUR 2.5 billion, a first-half record. The wins were broad-based, with more than 1,000 trained individual projects awarded during the quarter. Automotive was strong once again, with demand across the entire portfolio and particular strength in advanced forward lighting. Industrial design wins were driven by professional lighting and horticulture applications. Consumer design wins included significant programs in display management and ambient light sensing for smartphones, despite ongoing memory-related constraints in part of the ecosystem. We also continue to make progress across our Digital Photonics portfolio. EVIYOS further strengthened its position as the leading advanced forward lighting technology, with design wins exceeding EUR 50 million during the quarter. We are also seeing strong interest from new customers in China. Advanced optical sensing. Our new multi-zone ToF platform secured its first design wins in robotics and smartphones. Augmented reality. We achieved key development milestones, bringing our micro light engine platform closer to volume production readiness. AI photonics. We expanded our roadmap and moved micro photodiode arrays into full product development, further increasing our opportunity to participate in the complete optical engine in the future. Taken together, these wins reinforce two important trends. Continued share gains in our core semiconductor business and growing customer traction in Digital Photonics. Let's take a closer look on slide 8. EVIYOS is our flagship Digital Photonics product and the market leader in advanced forward lighting. Revenues continue to grow. We continue to secure new design wins. Beyond its contribution to our ongoing share and content gains, EVIYOS is enabling a new generation of intelligent automotive lighting applications. The recently launched NIO ET9 flagship showcases the platform's advanced projection capabilities. The system enables visual communication with pedestrians and other road users, enhances situational awareness, and contributes to improved road safety. It also supports the driver in complex traffic situations through dynamic projected guidance information. Importantly, as OEMs gain experience with EVIYOS and software-defined lighting architectures, we continue to see new use cases emerging and addressable opportunity expanding. Turn to slide 9. Augmented reality smart glasses represents one of our most important long-term Digital Photonics growth opportunities. The market is still at an early stage. Adoption is accelerating. First AI-enabled smart glasses with integrated displays are now entering the market. Last quarter, we outlined our potential bill of material opportunity per device. Depending on the customer architecture and component content, we estimate a potential contribution of EUR 50 to EUR 100 per smart glass, spanning sensing, illumination, and light engine solutions. On this slide, you see an Omdia projection for AI smart glasses and VR headsets. In their view, by 2030, combined unit shipments could reach approximately 60 million devices. Importantly, the study suggests that around half of these devices could incorporate advanced display technologies, implying a market of roughly 20 million AI smart glasses with displays. We believe we are uniquely positioned to lead this opportunity. Our objective is to become the leading supplier of microLED-based light engines for the emerging AR smart glass ecosystem. We are confident in that ambition because our microLED array technology combines superior performance, scalability, and system integration capabilities. With that, let's move to the next slide. Turning now to slide 10. Our leadership in AR light engines builds on more than a decade of innovation. The journey started with our vision to revolutionize automotive lighting to highly pixelated, intelligent headlamp solutions. That vision led to the development of EVIYOS, which today is the market-leading microLED solution for advanced forward lighting. By extending the technology to red, green, and blue emitters and combining it with a unique eight-inch microLED manufacturing platform, we are now applying the same core capabilities to the next generation of AR smart glasses. Our solution integrates red, green, and blue microLED arrays with ultra-small pixel sizes and a CMOS backplane into a highly advanced light engine platform. This architecture delivers several key performance advantages, up to 3x higher power efficiency, enabling lighter and more attractive wearable devices as the batteries get smaller. Significantly higher brightness, supporting outdoor use while maintaining low power consumption, and up to 2x higher angular resolution, enabling sharper images and a more natural viewing experience. These capabilities are highly relevant for the consumer adoption and represent key requirements for scalable AR smart glasses platforms. Importantly, our differentiation goes beyond device performance. It combines proprietary microLED technology, system expertise, manufacturing know-how, and a clear product roadmap. Taken together, we believe this positions us strongly to lead the emerging AR smart glasses market. With that, let us turn to the next slide 11. Let me now move to another important Digital Photonics opportunity. We are expanding our development activities into the receive side of slow and wide optical interconnects for AI infrastructure. Our long-term ambition is clear: to participate in a complete optical engine covering both the transmit and receive functions. This vision is illustrated on the left side. Over the last quarters, we have systematically expanded our development roadmap. We have initiated programs in micro emitters, micro optics, and now micro photodiode arrays, while continuing to evaluate the remaining building blocks, including CMOS ASICs, advanced packaging, and testing. Step by step, we are broadening our technology footprint and increasing our opportunity to participate in a larger share of the optical engine value. With that, let us move to the next slide. On slide 12, let me highlight another interesting Digital Photonics opportunity in multi-zone Time-of-Flight sensing. Our multi-zone Time-of-Flight platform is setting a new benchmark for high-resolution depth sensing with up to 48 by 32 pixels. This performance makes it particularly well-suited for robotics applications. We have already secured design wins in household robotics, including autonomous lawn mowing systems, as well as advanced four-legged robots. The higher depth resolution enables safer and more reliable autonomous navigation. The same performance advantages are relevant to smartphones, where more accurate depth-sensing support enhance imaging capabilities. Importantly, we have now secured our first design wins in both robotics and smartphones, demonstrating the versatility of the new platform and validating our technology leadership. With that, let me hand over to Rainer for a deeper look in the financials.

We start with free cash flow. That was at minus EUR 19 million. I think I announced last time that we will be reducing factoring. The operating cash flow was at minus EUR 77 million. Part of that was because we built up working capital ahead of the smartphone and lighting seasons. We had EUR 40 million reduction of factoring. We have the annual bonus payouts, as well as net interest payments of close to EUR 40 million. CapEx remained fully in line with our full-year guidance of approximately 8% of revenue. Now let's have a look at Simplify on page 14. Simplify is designed to reshape our operating model and deliver EUR 200 million of additional annual savings by '28. Cost, speed, and agility are our guiding principle. Implementation is progressing as planned, we have already realized approximately EUR 10 million of annualized savings. An important milestone in the continued execution of the program was reaching an agreement with the German Workers' Council. By year-end '26, we target around EUR 30 million of realized savings. By end of '27, we expect to have delivered approximately half of the total program or around EUR 100 million of annualized savings. The program remains an important lever for improving competitiveness, increasing agility, and supporting future margin expansion. Let's look at liquidity and capital structure on slide 15. We made significant progress, as you know, on our balance sheet optimization in the second quarter. We successfully replaced EUR 1 billion of senior notes due '32 as a coupon at 7.25%. The transaction was very well received by investors. Demand exceeded the initial offering by 6x, allowing us to increase the issue size to EUR 1 billion. We used the proceeds to fully redeem the 12.25% U.S. dollar senior notes in 2029 and partially redeem the 10.5% [year] 18:32 senior notes due 2029. Following these transactions, EUR 725 million of the '29 senior notes remain outstanding. We repurchased EUR 127 million of our '27 convertible notes through bilateral transactions at a price well below par. After these transactions, we maintained a strong liquidity position. At quarter end, cash amounted to approximately EUR 1 billion. Including the revolver, total liquidity stood at approximately EUR 1.5 billion. Following the closing of the non-optic sensor business divestment to Infineon a day later, on July 1st, cash increased to approximately EUR 1.6 billion and total liquidity to approximately EUR 2.1 billion, including our recently extended revolver. The outstanding balance of the convertible notes has been reduced to approximately EUR 430 million. We have also updated the maturity profile to reflect our current expectation that any potential tendering of the remaining Osram shares is more likely now to occur in 2027, potentially during the first half of the year. The liability associated with the Kulim-2 sale and leaseback remains largely unchanged with small quarterly accruals broadly offset by the movements in the currency basket. Overall, we have meaningfully strengthened our capital structure, reduced financing costs, and increased financial flexibility. With that, let us have a closer look at the coverage of our upcoming maturities on slide 16. July 1st, we received EUR 570 million from Infineon upon closing. As a result, we currently hold EUR 1.6 billion cash. This fully covers all foreseeable near-term funding requirements, and that is the remaining EUR 433 million of the outstanding '27 converts. Following the closing of the divestment, we have 120 days to make a mandatory offer relating to the guarantor assets. The offer will be in the range between EUR 120 million and EUR 150 million. Second, the expected transition effects in 2026, including lower adjusted EBITDA from the divested business, stranded cost transformation expenses related to the Simplify program, the repayment of approximately EUR 100 million of customer prepayments, and the planned reduction of factoring of the order of EUR 100 million. Excluding disposal proceeds, we currently expect free cash flow to remain more than EUR -100 million in 2026, excluding the disposal. However, we continue to expect a substantial improvement in free cash flow in 2027. Assuming business trends remain broadly consistent, we see a clear path to a positive free cash flow, excluding, again, any future disposal proceeds which are not planned. Third, the expected settlement of the remaining Osram minority shares following a final court decision. For planning purposes, we currently assume that this will occur in the first half of 2027. Even after covering all these items, we expect to retain a meaningful cash buffer. Let me reiterate the key point. All foreseeable near-term funding requirements are fully covered by existing liquidity. This allows us to remain focused on further optimizing the cost and maturity profile of the remaining '29 EUR senior notes. We will keep you updated on our progress. On the outlook for the third quarter. Turning to slide 17. We expect revenues of EUR 770 million-EUR 870 million and an adjusted EBITDA around 16 ±1.5 percentage points based on Euro-U.S. dollar exchange rate of 115. In semis, we expect the underlying business to continue growing both seasonally and structurally. However, please have a look at the right side. Following the divestment of the non-optical sensor business, reported revenue will be lower as we will now record only a manufacturing source margin from Infineon, which is obviously much lower, rather than the full revenue contribution. This will reduce quarterly revenue by approximately EUR 40 million and EBITDA by approximately 1.5%. This is illustrated on the diagram on the right. Order intake remains healthy, and our book-to-bill ratio supports a solid third quarter. In lamps and systems, we expect the traditional automotive aftermarket business to show its usual seasonal recovery. For the full year 2026 outlook, that remains broadly unchanged. The revenue modestly lower due to the portfolio divestments and foreign exchange effects. Adjusted EBITDA is somewhat lower than last year, reflecting the divestments, stranded cost, precious metal prices, and other transition-related effects. The net results, they are expected to be positive in the high double-digit million Euro territory, supported by a high gain from the sale of the non-optical sensor business. Net result, positive. Looking ahead to 2027, we continue to see a clear path to positive free cash flow, excluding any future divestment proceeds. Our core semis business is growing, our Digital Photonics opportunities are gaining traction, and our capital structure is significantly stronger than it was a year ago. With that, let me hand back to Aldo for some final remarks.

Thank you, Rainer. Let me summarize the key messages from today's call. I am on slide 18. In Q2, we delivered revenue and profitability at the high end of our guidance range. Our core semiconductor portfolio grew 13% year-over-year on a like-for-like basis. We secured more than EUR 1.6 billion of new semiconductor business, reflecting continued market share and content gain. In Digital Photonics, we aligned the organization around key growth teams through dedicated business lines, accelerating execution and scalability. We achieved important development milestones for the microLED-based light engines for AI-enabled smart glasses, bringing the platform closer to mass production readiness. We expanded our AI photonics roadmap by adding micro photodiode arrays to our optical engine development activities. We secured the first design wins for our high-resolution multi-zone ToF platform in robotics and smartphones. Together, these milestones demonstrate continued progress in building the next generation of Digital Photonic growth opportunities. We executed at the same time our balance sheet improvements as intended. We completed the divestment of our non-optical sensor business, Infineon, and received the proceeds. We signed the divestment of our CMOS imaging business to indie Semiconductor. We successfully placed 1 billion of new senior notes at a coupon of 7.25%. We redeemed the expensive U.S. dollar senior notes and part of the EUR senior notes due 2029, reducing annual interest expense by approximately EUR 40 million. Before we continue with the Q&A, I would like to briefly note that as announced last week, the supervisory board has extended my contract to 2031. I appreciate the trust placed in me and the continued support from our investors and stakeholders. Together, we've built a strong foundation, and I look forward to executing the next phase of our strategy and capturing the opportunities ahead. With that, we're happy to take your questions now.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. We have the first question coming from Janardan Menon from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got two. One is on the smart glass microLED project. You've said you have achieved milestones towards mass production. I'm just wondering, are there further milestones that are still to be achieved on the smart glass side, both on your part as well as with your customer? Are we sort of reaching the end of the development process, where, if all is well, we can move into commercial production? The second question is on the optical opportunity. You've started development work on the photodiode array, as you had said you may do in your previous call. I'm just wondering, regarding the revenue opportunity from this, is it significantly more than just the emitter side? Will it be 20% or 50% higher? Any kind of indication? I know it probably gets covered in the triple-digit million EUR number that you've already indicated, but just how much it enhances it. Is there an opportunity to sell this in your initial development with your first partner that you announced a few months ago? Thanks.

Yeah. Thanks, Janardan, for those questions. Let me perhaps start with the second one. You're right. The photodiode is not of the same value as the microLED array. At the same time, it is, I think, a very important part also towards our optical engine ambitions. We feel there's a very nice opportunity for us as a company that combines III-V and CMOS capabilities to do more than just a component, but to integrate those components into a larger subsystem that then can be used by our customers. To optimize the photodiodes towards the emitter, we feel is a natural extension, and we are looking at further extensions as we go. Yes, it is still a nice additional revenue, but it's also especially a way towards higher system integration on our side, and with that, a more stickier approach. On the smart glass topic, we are progressing well. There's still work to be done, both on our side as well as on the customer side, but things are progressing well. As we said already in the last call, EVIYOS is kind of the technology of today. The opportunity for tomorrow is in smart glass. The opportunity for the day after tomorrow is in the data center space. Yeah, we continue to work on our roadmap here and are making progress to mass production here.

On the Omdia numbers that you showed on the AI smart glass, do you think the display part of that forecast can be captured by your microLED solution? Or will the microLED be more sort of on the high end of that display part of the market, and some of the others will be captured by LCOS, or micro OLED, or other display technologies.

Well, yes, you're right. There are some alternatives, I think the technology we are developing is quite superior in terms of picture quality, energy efficiency, and brightness. I do expect that this goes pretty broad into this market. This microLED is, in my mind, the winning technology for this application.

Understood. Thank you so much.

Sure. Welcome.

The next question comes from Sébastien Sztabowicz from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. On the free cash flow side, you had, again, a quite substantial cash burn in Q2. Where do you see the cash burn for the full year '26, including net interest and excluding the divestment on the business? Attached to that, on the CapEx front, you forecast 8% of sales for this year. Is it a run rate that we should expect for 2027 onwards? A second question is linked to the smart glasses again. When do you expect to record the first significant revenue? Because it seems you have progressed well. Is it something for '27, or is it early, more '28 and onward? Thank you.

Yeah, Sébastien. Starting with the free cash flow. This year, excluding the proceeds from the divestment, I guess it will be negative, a bit more than EUR 300 million. That is really why we are putting everything into this year. We're reducing the factoring by a good EUR 100 million. We are repaying the EUR 100 million customer payment. We are paying a lot of the restructuring expenses and everything else that should be paid to clean up, to have a proper start into next year. Obviously, the free cash flow, including the disposal proceeds, will be significantly positive this year. Going into next year, CapEx. Yeah, CapEx might be a bit higher, certainly, for the new opportunities. It's not that we pay all of it so far. I think although at [chiplet], we are sharing a lot of the cost, both on the R&D side and also on the CapEx side, with the customers, and we expect that also for the futures, that we share the risks and the opportunities with our customers. On the smart glass timing, like I said before, we're making good progress. We are not allowed to share the details of the launch, but yeah, still a bit of work to do, but have progressed very well overall.

Okay. Last one on the AI photonic. You mentioned an expansion of your bill of material. What kind of bill of material do you have in mind for this kind of optical engine for you in the next few years, for instance?

Yeah. We haven't shared the details of that yet. We do see that overall, if this market scales, this is overall a triple-digit million EUR opportunity in the end of the decade type of timeframe. How exactly that will ramp is to be seen. It's still early days. And of course, the more value we can capture, the bigger that number gets. It's something where we feel excited about. We feel the technology has a place here that we're offering. But, yeah, it's still also a journey, and we will see this business develop nicely over the next years.

Okay, thank you.

The next question comes from Didier Scemama from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for taking my question. It's Amelia Banks. Just one question on automotive. I think it came in really strong in the quarter, but just some commentary around this. We've been hearing from peers, some attributing it to content growth, some restocking, some citing pull-ins ahead of maybe shortages. Just what you are seeing around here. I saw it was very strong in semiconductors, but maybe in lamps and systems. Is it just really because of seasonality, or is there a bit of a weakness there in the end markets for lamps and systems? Thank you.

Yeah. That's right. The two businesses have different reasons to show these very nice growth rates. The semiconductor side, I think it is a lot about share and content gains. The EVIYOS platform is a much higher ASP than our conventional LEDs. That category is growing, as an example. It's also about share gains. You might remember that one of our competitors, Samsung, has exited the market, or mentioned it already about a year, a year and a half ago. We won a lot of that business, and that is now, as he's pulling out, also coming our way. That's also kind of a special positive effect in that we are gaining a significant share, is our feeling, in these markets. On the lamp side, it is the case that our main competitor, First Brands, that is using the Philips brand in the retail channel, fell apart about nine months ago or so. You might recall the scandals around that. We, of course, are asked by their customers to help them in this period, and we're happy to do so. Of course, looking also to longer-term commitments in this context. To make sure that it's not only short-term help but also long-term business. We are very successful in that. We are expanding our share significantly in this market at the moment, and will defend it going forward. It's an extraordinary opportunity, and it's really because of the strength of organization, the strength of the brand, that, yeah, this business comes our way.

Thank you.

You're welcome.