Pasubio - comment

Pasubio continues its efforts to refinance its 2028 bonds, with BofA and Goldman Sachs sounding out investors on a new c.€400m high-yield issue. As part of the process, the company released a cleansing statement covering trading for the first five months of 2026.

While the headline appears encouraging, with EBITDA up 9% YoY to €29.7m, scaling up the five-month figure implies H1 EBITDA is only around €0.5m ahead of Sarria's own forecast for H1. So unless we have been far ahead of market expectations, this EBITDA improvement should not be big news.

The trading update reinforces our existing view. Automotive remains in decline: management notes that the low single-digit revenue contraction reflects both weaker underlying volumes and lower leather prices being passed through to customers. Although profitability in the division improved, the revenue outlook remains subdued and the secured order book was merely stable rather than growing.

The strategic shift towards Fashion is positive but in our view, the refinancing remains dependent on investor confidence in a business whose core Automotive operations continue to face structural headwinds.