The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Jack Reynolds-Clark - RBC Capital Markets Inc - Analyst
: Jack Reynolds-Clark, RBC.
I had two, please. One kind of near-term focused and one slightly longer-term focused, both regarding margin. My first question does have
a few parts. I was wondering if you could walk through the building blocks for EBITA margin guidance for next year. You mentioned that
some of the unknown political and regulatory risks are not included, but I wasn't sure if other headwinds around the IOL withdrawal in China
and VBP are included. So if you could just run through that.
Then a second part to that, VBP, could you just run through what your latest thoughts are on the potential kind of basically what's going to
happen and what the impact is going to be on your business there? And then moving on to the midterm guide, could you talk through your
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DECEMBER 11, 2025 / 6:00AM, AFXG.DE - Q4 2025 Carl Zeiss Meditec AG Earnings Call
latest thoughts on delivering that 16% to 20% EBITA margin? Did I interpret the slide later on in the deck that actually it might not be till 2028
where we start to see that kind of come through more meaningfully.
Question: Falko Friedrichs - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst
: Falko Friedrichs, Deutsche Bank.
My first question is a quick clarification on the wording of the midterm EBITA margin target, is the plan to increase the margin towards the
16% to 20% over the next three to five years? Or do you plan to be inside this range in three to five years?
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My second question is on the phasing of growth and your targeted margin expansion in fiscal year '25, '26. Will this likely be a more back-end
loaded year again or rather a little more evenly split? And could you give a first glimpse into how Q1 is shaping up?
Question: Volker Stoll - Landesbank Baden Wuerttemberg - Analyst
: Yes, I have a question regarding the Japanese market. We saw the yen heavily declining in the last five years and you mentioned that you
want to enter the market with more refractive activities. How should we think about the pricing capability with this exchange rates? And is
it then a growth market for the coming years?
Question: David Adlington - JPMorgan Chase & Co - Analyst
: Can you hear me?
Question: David Adlington - JPMorgan Chase & Co - Analyst
: Perfect. Great. Most of my questions have been asked, but maybe a slightly bigger picture question and a follow-up. Just given the challenges
of the last couple of years, has that changed the way that you built up the guidance for this year?
And then following on from that, what have you assumed in your guidance for Chinese VBP? Have you assumed that your new product will
be approved in time for the tender or not?
Question: Graham Doyle - UBS AG - Analyst
: Hopefully, you can hear this.
Question: Graham Doyle - UBS AG - Analyst
: Sorry, it's a new system for me. Okay, so just one question. Again, it's on the guidance, Justus. So it kind of follows up on Dave's question
and to your last comments. The last few years have been tricky because there's been a number of heads and tailwinds and so it's been
hard to kind of forecast and largely H2 weighted.
Now I'm just looking at the numbers, you've done like mid-250s of EBITA this year. The guidance implies EUR290 million, so that's EUR35
million. There's a EUR15 million to EUR20 million on my numbers headwind from FX. And then we've got this China scrappage thing, which
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may be difficult in terms of the comp of like EUR10 million. So on that basis, and I know there's tailwinds, but it's like EUR65 million of
incremental EBITA to get to where we're going.
What of that's in your control? You just talked about external factors, but what's actually in your control to get us there? It's a big number.
Question: Graham Doyle - UBS AG - Analyst
: Maybe just going back on that, Sebastian, so you would have sold, call it, EUR10 million last year, which you may scrap now. But the point
is regardless, you won't sell it. It's unlikely you'll sell it in fiscal '26 if it's not registered, right? So that will be a EUR10 million kind of headwind.
That's more what I mean --
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