Aumovio SE (AMVOY) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Yes, good afternoon, everybody. Thank you very much and a warm welcome from my side to everyone joining us today for Omobio's full year 2025 results presentation. We appreciate your time and your continued engagement with us as we have a review here that was both transformative and operationally meaningful for Omobio. Despite a complex environment, we met our initial guidance and narrowed our outlook after the first nine months, demonstrating consistent performance and strong operational control. It was also the year in which our successful spin-off became a truly pivotal moment in shaping Amovio into the focused, independent company we are today. And today, we look forward to walking you through the results of that work. Joining me for today's presentation are our CEO, Philipp von Nierscheid, and our CFO, Jutta Düngers. Together, we will provide an overview of our financial performance, operational achievements, and priorities for 2026 as we enter the next phase of Omovil's journey. As always, all relevant documents are available for download on our Investor Relations website.

Following our remarks, we will open the line for a Q&A session with our self-site analysts. with that i'd like to hand over to philip please go ahead yeah thank you lutz and also a warm welcome to all of you from my side i'm actually very happy to be here with you today and to discuss our financial result for 2026 and the outlook for the next years as you all know 25 was a very defining year for our movie we followed our following our successful spin-off an essential milestone in establishing our Movio as a focused independent company, we delivered solid performance despite a challenging market environment and continued to improve. We stayed true to our strategic direction, executed with discipline, and achieved the targets we set at the beginning of the year. And thanks to the strengths of our global team and the ambition that drives us, we were able to demonstrate the resilience of our business model throughout the year. Adjusted sales for the full year came in at 18.5 billion euros, representing a 5% decline year on year. This development reflects the overall market headwinds as well as our disciplined and more selective approach to project acquisition. Despite these dynamics on the top line, profitability improved significantly. Adjusted EBIT increased by 45% year-on-year to 717 million euros, corresponding to a margin of 3.9%. This substantial step-up was driven by continued self-help measures, by improved project execution and a more favorable project mix, all of which underscore the structural earnings potential of our portfolio. Adjusted free cash flow amounted to 159 million euros, even after absorbing 491 million euros of cash-effective spin-off and restructuring costs. This demonstrates the underlying cash generation strength of our businesses. For reference, adjusted free cash flow is based on cash flow from operating and investing activities. adjusted for interest-bearing investments and M&A activity. Adjusted free cash flow came in at 159 million euros, fully delivering on our ambition of returning to a positive free cash flow in 2025. We also introduced normalized free cash flow as a new KPI, which provides an even clearer view of recurring cash generation. We start with cash flow from operating and investing activities and then exclude items that distort underlying performance, such as interest-bearing investments, acquisitions and divestments, and spin-off or restructuring effects. On this basis, we generated €650 million in normalized free cash flow. Overall, we're very proud to have delivered on our guidance for the year, with adjusted sales of 80 to 19 billion euros and adjusted EBIT margin of 2.5 to 4%, both fully achieved. Before we discuss our achievements and financials in detail, I want to give you a closer look at our transformation efforts and our different focus areas. Continuous transformation is part of Omovio's DNA. In 2025, we made meaningful progress across all pillars that guide how we shape the company for long-term value creation. First, active portfolio management. Our ambition remains clear to focus on margin-accretive businesses and to ensure that every part of our portfolio contributes to profitable growth. We are systematically sharpening our market positioning, allocating capital with discipline, and making targeted decisions on where to invest, where to scale, and where to streamline. Second, cost-based improvement. Here we are driving three major programs across the organization. Our footprint reduction efforts are well underway, and we continue to see a clear need to streamline both our production and R&D footprint globally. Our long-term ambition is to operate 45 production locations, creating a more efficient, competitive, and more resilient setup that drives high plant utilization. this. We achieved our SG&A ambition for 2025, delivering 500 million euros in gross savings from 2024 to the end of 2025 by the execution of a focused headcount reduction program. This reflects strict cost discipline, reduced complexity, and leaner structures across all corporate and support functions. These are gross savings because part of the benefit was offset by salary increases in 2024 and 2025 and the spin-off-related increase in headcount. We are sharpening our engineering processes and resource allocation to further improve R&D efficiency. Our ambition is to reduce the R&D net-to-sales ratio to below 10% by 27. The actions we have taken in 2025 and already this year put us firmly on track to achieve this. Finally, cash flow optimization. Strengthening free cash flow remains a top priority. We are continuously optimizing working capital, improving project execution discipline, and sharpening investment decisions, all to ensure sustainable cash generation. We are continuing the consolidation of our global footprint. At the end of 2025, Omovio operated 84 locations across 24 countries. This includes 55 production sites and 47 R&D locations. While this global presence is a strength, we also recognize the need for a more focused, higher utilization network. The continued consolidation across production and R&D is a key driver of competitiveness, efficiency and resilience. For 2026, we have already decided on further steps in both Europe and Asia. to align our number of production sites with the level required for efficient and sustainable market coverage. These measures build on the progress already made toward our long-term ambition of operating 45 production locations. This morning, we announced consolidation measures affecting four production locations, One in Europe and one in Asia as part of our shift towards a leaner, more resilient network. More actions will follow in line with our strategic roadmap. As mentioned earlier, we delivered substantial cost improvements through our self-help measures. We are also seeing a consistent uplift in our sales-to-variable headcount ratio. This is a strong indicator of improved productivity and operational efficiency across the organization. It shows that our teams are delivering more value per role, reflecting better resource allocation, stronger project execution, and the impact of our ongoing efficiency matters. One of the most visible indicators of our progress is headcount development. Our global workforce reduced by more than 20,000 headcounts between the end of 2023 and the end of 2025. This reflects our disciplined approach to building a leaner, more agile organization aligned with our transformation priorities. A major component of this effort was our fixed cost reduction program, through which we successfully delivered gross 500 million euros in fixed cost savings. The program combined targeted reductions affecting more than 5,000 roles and the simplification of organizational structures resulting in the successful completion of the program as planned. In parallel, we made significant progress in R&D efficiency, a core pillar of competitiveness. In financial year 2025, adjusted net R&D expenses improved by €154 million year-on-year, resulting in an adjusted net R&D to sales ratio of 11.1%. The progress reflects the impact of our structured multi-year R&D efficiency program. In 2024, we consolidated engineering units to unlock infrastructure and process synergies. In 2025, we optimized R&D workforce through natural attrition and internal redeployment. And in 2026, we are continuing to sharpen our technology portfolio, align our resources with market needs, and consolidate our operations accordingly. Together, these actions strengthen our cost base, sharpen our technology focus, and significantly enhance our cost base. ensuring that our Movio remains both competitive and resilient in an increasingly demanding marketing buyer. We continued our active portfolio management strategy and to pursue a disciplined and value-accretive order intake strategy in 2025, resulting in a total order intake of 20.4 billion euros. Our disciplined approach is paying off. Order intake improved by €1 billion year-on-year, rising from €19.3 billion in 2024 to €20.4 billion in 2025. More importantly, this is not just higher volume. It reflects a continuous focus on the quality and margin profile of the orders we secure. While order intake alone does not determine profitability, The mix and commercial terms of the new business we are winning clearly indicate that our stronger order intake is coming with improved profitability. At the same time, we are already seeing that several OEMs have postponed sourcing decisions into 2026, which will affect the timing, but not the strategic relevance of future awards. Regionally, our order intake remained well diversified. Europe accounted for 40%, followed by North America 24%, while China contributed 21%. Within China, 43% come from international OEMs operating in the country and 57% from local Chinese OEMs, underscoring the increasing importance of Chinese brands in our globe portfolio. The remaining share came from other regions, including and specifically Japan and Korea, which is reflecting our strong global footprint and one of the cornerstones of future expansion possibilities. Across our business areas, we secured a broad range of strategically important advancements. awards. In our business area, Autonomous Mobility, we recorded substantial wins for surround radar, long-range radar, and satellite camera systems, including a notable long-range radar award with a Chinese OEM worth 0.6 billion euros in Q4. These awards confirm our competitive strengths in the component business. Meanwhile, the Aurora program continues to progress well and remains fully on track for start of production as indicated. In architecture network solutions, we achieved a major success with a large telematic control unit award from a leading German OEM. In addition, we secured a significant zone controller project and important wins in body controllers, connectivity, and smart access, further strengthening our position in vehicle architecture and software-defined platforms. Our business area safety and mobility, safety and motion, won multiple programs across key product groups, including Mark C2 for several Chinese OEMs, airbag control units, electronic parking brake, and air supply CARES. These awards highlight our continued global leadership in braking and safety technology. In our user-experienced business, we secured major awards for display solutions from Asian OEMs. These wins reinforce both our strong customer relationship in the region and our leadership in digital cockpit technologies, even as some sourcing decisions were postponed into 2026. What is important? Postponement does not mean cancellation. UX has already captured roughly half of the order intake data between 2034 and 2035 within the just first two months of 2026. This clearly demonstrates that the underlying demand remains intact and the delayed awards are now flowing back into the pipeline. Well, we need to get data there. That is very clear. And we need to ensure that the pipeline is going to be filled in the upcoming years. Overall, our 2025 order intake demonstrates the robustness of our technology portfolio, The diversification of our regional footprint and the strength of our customer relationships, all essential drivers of long-term profitable growth. Armobio is exceptionally well-positioned to capitalize on the major structural megatrends reshaping the automotive industry, including the rise of AI. Our ability to combine deep technical expertise, strong ecosystem partnerships, and a comprehensive hardware, software, and services portfolio enables us to capture CPV expansion driven by software-defined vehicle penetration. Our Mobio's core strengths align directly with the industry's most powerful technology shifts, and our business is strategically weighted toward the most attractive, high-growth automotive domains. Our Mobio is developing next-generation solutions for the future of mobility across all business areas, and our product pipeline remains exceptionally strong, as the following examples show. One example is our night-capable camera system, which represents a major step forward in safety and driver assistance. The system provides significantly enhanced visibility in low light and nighttime conditions, enabling more reliable detection of road hazards and vulnerable road users. It also reduces glare from incoming headlights, delivering a clearer and more comfortable driving experience. In vehicle electronics, our vehicle-controlled high-performance computer, now integrated with the latest chip technology, provides the technological foundation for vehicles to seamlessly receive new and enhanced software functions throughout the entire lifestyle. Among our key innovations are, of course, our full-by-wire and fully redundant brake systems, a critical enabler for autonomous driving and next-generation vehicle architectures. In addition, we are advancing dryback systems that deliver high performance at a lower cost. These technologies strengthen our leadership in future brake solutions. We are also advancing our surface projection technology, which uses cutting-edge projection to display visual content directly on the cockpit surface, enabling a new level of in-cabin interaction. Together, these innovations demonstrate how we continue to push the boundaries of safety, digitalization, and software-defined mobility. So before handing over to Jutta to walk us through our financials, I would like to highlight my priorities for 26. As we enter the next phase of our transformation, the focus of 26 is very clear. We need to drive sustainable value creation across the entire company. This means we are going to continue our self-help value creation story, building on a strong foundation we have established over the last years. and we ensure that structural improvements are going to translate into long-term and profitable developments. A second priority is leveraging our robust innovation pipeline. We will continue to advance the next generation of technologies from high-performance computing to safe systems, autonomous capabilities, and digitalized vehicle architectures, ensuring that our Mobio remains at the forefront of the mobility transformation. And what we do see day by day that operation excellence and specifically resilience are equally critical. In 2026, we will further strengthen our execution discipline. We will focus on supply chain stability and quality performance to ensure that we are going to be a reliable partner for all our customers across regions. We will also continue to optimize our production footprint. balancing efficiency, flexibility, and competitiveness while maintaining the global reach required to support our customers. At the same time, China remains a strategic growth market for us, and we will pursue targeted initiatives to expand our position and deepen customer partnerships in the region. Finally, we are shaping a high-performance organization, one that is faster, more focused, and more empowered. It is important to acknowledge that the market environment will remain challenging in 2026 with more headwinds than tailwinds. Several customers have postponed sourcing decisions. Demand visibility has become more dynamic and many external factors remain outside of our control. Market cycles, geopolitical uncertainty, regulatory shifts and OEM timing decisions. We have started the year already with encouraging business rules, confirming that demand for our technologies remain intact. And this makes it even more important to stay focused on our side, to stay focused on what is within our control, strengthening our resilience, execution with discipline, driving operational excellence, and steadily unlocking our value potential and create sustainable solutions and value for our shareholders, our customers, and employees. And with that, I hand over to Jutta.

Thank you very much, Philipp. And a warm welcome to everyone joining us today. I'm very pleased to be here and present our first four-year financial results as an independent listed company. A closer look at our financial shows that adjusted sales for 2025 amounted to 18.5 billion euros, a decline of 5% year-on-year. This development was driven primarily by negative foreign exchange effects as well as continued softness in the automotive market. In addition, our targeted portfolio adjustments also contributed to the lower top line. Organic sales declined by 2.5%, also reflecting our disciplined focus on selective, margin-equative business. This outcome is fully aligned with our strategy to prioritize profitability and value over volume. Despite the software revenue base, adjusted EBIT increase significantly, rising from 493 million euros to 717 million euros, an improvement of 224 million euros or 45% year-on-year. This performance was driven by a higher gross margin, reduced net R&D in line with our targets, and strict cost discipline across SG&A. These improvements demonstrate our ability to compensate for top-line decline and enhance profitability even in a demanding market environment, and represent meaningful progress toward our midterm adjusted EBIT margin target of 4% to 6%. In order to show free cash flow in line with adjusted EBIT, we now introduce a new KPI. In simple terms, normalized free cash flow is our existing KPI adjusted free cash flow, excluding any cash-relevant items of adjustments between the reported EBIT and adjusted EBIT line. Normalized free cash flow increased by 27% year-on-year. Adjusted free cash flow amounted to 159 million euros in 2025 compared to 252 million euros in 2024. The year-on-year decline in adjusted free cash flow is primarily driven by substantial cash-effective runoff costs related to the spinoff and restructuring measures executed in 2025. Excluding these effects, normalized free cash flow improved materially, reaching €650 million versus €511 million in the prior year. This improvement was supported by higher adjusted EBIT, efficient working capital management, and a disciplined investment approach. Overall, our self-help measures, cost controls, operational discipline have allowed us to more than offset the impact of lower sales, to strengthen profitability, and to maintain a solid cash generation profile despite a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. These results highlight the resilience of our business model and once again confirm our ability to deliver sequential earnings and margin improvements, even in a volatile market environment. If we take a closer look at our performance in the fourth quarter of 2025, we see that results were impacted by lower volumes in a weaker market environment. Despite the decline in top line, adjusted EBIT remained stable, demonstrating continued cost discipline and operational resilience. Adjusted sales in Q425 declined by 8% to 4.5 billion euros compared to 4.9 billion euros in Q424. The majority of the decline is attributed to negative foreign exchange effects of approximately 150 million euros. In addition, targeted portfolio adjustments reduced sales by around 54 million euros. Adjusted EBIT declined by 6% in the fourth quarter, coming in at 308 million euros compared to 327 million euros in the prior year quarter. The decrease was mainly driven by lower revenues in the business area, autonomous mobility, reflecting negative foreign exchange effects, and reduced business volumes, particular in North America. Despite the lower top line, the adjusted EBIT margin remains stable quarter-on-quarter at 6.8%, supported by the cost measures implemented as part of our ongoing transformation program. Looking at normalized free cash flow, we recorded 862 million euros in Q4 2024. In Q4 2025, normalized free cash flow amounted to 448 million euros. Adjusted free cash flow declined from 799 million euros in Q4 2024 to 309 million euros in Q4 2025. This development is primarily driven by different working capital phasing throughout the years. In 2024, the majority of the working capital reduction was achieved in the last quarter, while in 2025, reductions in working capital were evenly distributed across all sectors. In addition, Q425 adjusted free cash flow was impacted by higher restructuring and spin-off costs, with 3% wall-off effects related to the separation from Continental. The adjustments include €59 million of restructuring cash outflow, €82 million of spin-off-related cash outflows, and €3 million of other cash inflows. Let me give you a detailed overview of the transformation and one-off items that affected EBIT and net income. When comparing 24 to 25, several effects need to be considered. As mentioned earlier, adjusted EBIT increased significantly year-on-year by €224 million. On the adjustment side, special items in 25 totaled 388 million euros for restructuring, 218 million euros related to the spin-off, 67 million euros from disposals, and 114 million euros from impairments, PPA amortization, and other effects. As a result, reported EBIT was 360 million euros lower year-on-year. Interest expense decreased by 187 million euros compared to 2024, mainly due to the refinancing activities linked to the spin-off and the separation from Continental cash pool, the wind-down of leasing liabilities, and interest effects related to long-term provisions. taxes were higher year on year driven by temporarily elevated tax rate this reflects non-credible withholding taxes valuation allowances tax provisions for prior periods and non-deductible items net income after minorities declined by 366 million euros year-on-year and amounted to minus 655 million euros in 2025. Now, let's have a look at the key financial KPIs for full year 25 and start with our largely flat organic sales development year-over-year. To put the development into perspective, reported sales in 2024 amounted to 19.6 billion euros following the reclassification of certain activities, including fleet management, Cairo-Montenote and other units, 116 million euros were treated as divestments. Adjusted sales therefore stood at 19.5 billion euros for 24. In 25, adjusted sales were impacted by our active portfolio management and footprint reduction measures. These include the exit of a built-to-print project with a long-standing customer in ANS, the disposal of a display business in user experience, and the previously communicated phase-out of contract manufacturing. In total, these actions reduced sales by 489 million euros. These effects were intentional and are fully aligned with our transformation strategy. Looking at the remaining drivers, 25 was characterized by one additional headwind, 498 million euros of ethics effects, many driven by currency movements and key markets. Taken together, these effects resulted in largely stable organic sales year-on-year, with most of the decline coming from our strategic portfolio actions rather than underlying business performance, leading us to achieve $18.5 billion of adjusted sales in 2025. Our adjusted sales exposure for the year remained well-balanced across regions, with 49% in Europe, 21% in North America, 14% in China, The remaining 16% came from the rest of the world, including key markets such as Korea and Japan. Next, I will turn to the key factors explaining the movements from EBIT to adjusted EBIT on the following slide. Starting from an adjusted EBIT of 490 million years in full year 24, responding to a margin of 2.5%, We achieved meaningful improvements across all profitability levers in 2025. Adjusted cost profit increased by €212 million, supported by better project execution and a step-up in gross margin level to 19.9%. The improvement in gross margin from 2023 to 2025 reflects a series of structural drivers. We implemented value-based pricing with customers. We achieved consistent improvements in material costs. We enhanced operational excellence with lower scrap rates, realized fixed cost reductions in the plans, and benefits through targeted restructuring programs. We also successfully executed our redesign to cost measures, and we benefited from active portfolio management actions. R&D efficiency also contributed significantly to the EBIT uplift. Adjusted net R&D expenses decreased to 150, decreased by 152 million euros, reflecting the full impact of our R&D excellence program, as explained by Philip. This reduction is fully aligned with our midterm ambition to bring the net R&D to sales ratio below 10%. In addition, we increasingly leverage AI as a powerful enabler to accelerate internal R&D processes and improve the efficiency of our engineering activities, supported by the ongoing consolidation of our R&D footprint. Adjusted S&D and FG&A expenses improved by a further 56 million euros, demonstrating strict cost of discipline across all overhead functions and continued execution of our transformation initiatives. Other items reduced adjusted EBIT by 198 million euros, driven by foreign exchange effects, movements and other operational income and expenses, non-income tax charges, and a lower level of tooling reimbursements compared with the previous year. Combining all of these effects, adjusted EBIT for the full year 25 reached 717 million euros, corresponding to an adjusted EBIT margin of 3.9%. This significant improvement confirms the strong upward trend in our earnings trajectory and demonstrates tangible progress toward achieving our mid-term margin ambition. Let us now look at the performance of the business areas on the next slide. In 2025, we recorded a mixed but overall very positive earnings development across all business areas, with strong EBIT improvements in SAM and UX driving overall EBIT improvement. In autonomous mobility, adjusted EBIT improved by 10.5%, increasing from minus 46 million euros in the prior year to minus 41 million euros in 2025. Reflecting the benefits of cost reduction and efficiency measures, which helped mitigate the impact of lower sales. Adjusted sales declined by 5.5%, driven by lower volumes in the United States, foreign exchange headwinds, and continued market weakness in CSV during the fourth quarter. Autonomous mobility remains a development-focused business, continuing to invest in future technologies such as Aurora. 2025 was therefore a year of sustained strategic investment. In architecture, Enertox Solutions adjusted EBIT decline by 14.1%, moving from 419 million to 360 million in 2025, primarily driven by anticipated lower top line. Adjusted sales decreased by 9.2%, reflecting negative currency effects, reduced demand on the US and in Europe, and the early termination of a build-to-print project as part of our active portfolio management. Strict cost discipline and improvements in the overall cost structure helped to stabilize profitability and partially offset reorganization impacts, however, could not fully compensate for the top-line decline. Due to the reorganization measures, the 25 figures are not fully comparable with those of 2024. And safety and motion delivered a particular strong performance with adjusted EBIT increasing by 42% from 269 million euros in 2024 to 370 million euros in 2025. Sales increased by 1.1% when adjusted for consolidation and foreign exchange effects. Earnings momentum was driven by efficiency gains, lower material costs, and reduced production expenses, demonstrating the strong operational leverage embedded in the segment. We are also very pleased with the turnaround in user experience. Adjusted EBIT improved substantially, rising from minus 147 million euros in the prior year to a positive 11 million euros in 25. While adjusted sales declined by 2.5% due to foreign exchange effects, the underlying operational performance was stable. The significant earnings improvement reflects the impact of structural measures, stronger operational execution, and lower material costs across the portfolio. As targeted, UX has comfortably achieved break-even. Overall, strong adjusted EBIT growth in safety and motion and the successful turnaround and user experience underline the healthy underlying earnings dynamics of our company. On slide 18, we show that we delivered strong cash conversion in 25, even in a year characterized by substantial cash-effective restructuring and separation costs. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to 1.67 billion euros and prompted the starting point of our cash flow development. Networking capital reductions contributed 274 million euros, while employee benefit provisions and other effects totaled minus 227 million euros, resulting in operating cash flow before interest and taxes of 1.72 billion euros. Cash-effective investments amounted to minus 674 million euros, and interest and tax payments combined totaled minus 394 million euros. After these effects, normalized free cash flow reached €650 million, reflecting the underlying strength of our operating model. Cash effective adjustments related to restructuring, listing, and separation activities had a substantial impact in 2015, totaling minus €491 million. euros. These included approximately 367 million euros of restructuring cash outflows, 132 million euros of listing and separation costs, and 8 million euros of other cash inflows. After reflecting these extraordinary items, adjusted free cash flow for the full year came in at 159 million euros. This outcome underscores the resilience of our cash generating profile, even during a major transformation year, and confirms our ability to maintain strong operation and cash discipline despite extraordinary charges. Our liquidity position remains a key strength of our move view and provides both stability and strategic flexibility. Supported by strong cash flow generation, total liquidity amounted to 1.7 billion euros at the end of 25. complemented by an undrawn credit facility of 2.5 billion euros. Gross financial debt including leasing obligations stood at 340 million euros and derivative assets were 11 million euros taken together. This results in a full year 25 liquidity position of around 1.4 billion euros underscoring our solid financial footing as we enter the next phase of our transformation. And at the same time, the pension liabilities decreased noticeably, moving from 1.3 billion euros in 2024 to around 1.025 billion. This reduction was driven by the increase in the German discount rate from 3.5% to 4.3%, which had a meaningful positive effect on the present value of all pension obligations and contributed to greater than cheaper sales. Overall, our strong liquidity base, lower pension obligations, and available credit capacity ensure that Omovia remains well positioned to navigate market volatility while maintaining the financial flexibility required to support continued growth and transformation. Now, looking ahead. The global production outlook for passenger cars and lightwalks, as projected by S&P, points to a subdued year in 26, with recovery expected to begin in 27. Important to note, S&P's forecast sits at the higher end of our own expectations. For global light vehicle production, 26 is projected to decline by 0.4% to 92.6 million vehicles, reflecting continued trade pressures, supply chain frictions, and geopolitical uncertainties. From 27 onward, protection is expected to gradually recover, reaching around 94.1 million vehicles. Regionally, Europe is forecasted to produce 16.3 million vehicles in 26, a 0.7% decrease, driven largely by rising imports from China and adverse trade flows. A stabilization and gradual recovery is only expected from 2027. In North America, production is projected at 15 million vehicles in 26, down 2.2%, primarily due to the higher tariffs and increasing cost pressures. Growth is expected to resume from 27 as OEMs continue to focus on high-margin segments. And in China, the world's largest market production is expected to reach 32.5 million vehicles in 26, representing a 1.4% decline following reduced government incentives. Export momentum, particularly in NEVs, is set to soften, adding to a temporary dip in domestic demand before conditions improve from 27. In summary, 26 is shaping up to be a softer year across all major regions, with moderate defiance expected. However, the broader 27-28 trajectory indicates a return to growth as supply stabilizes and markets normalize. Now, let me tell you how this translates into our 26 guidance. Operating in a changing and challenging market environment, we view 26 as a transition year to hoard our midterm targets. For adjusted sales, we expect a range of 17 to 18.5 billion euros at constant foreign exchange rates. This outlook reflects a continued impact of excess portfolio management, delayed project ramp-ups at several customers, and assumes a foreign exchange environment as of December 31st, 2025. For profitability, we expect an adjusted EBIT margin of 3.5 to 5%. A year-over-year improvement would be supported by a more favorable project mix, lower R&D expenses, as efficiency measures are expected to continue to take effect, and ongoing progress in optimizing our global footprint. At the same time, we expect temporary headwinds from raw material and memory price developments, which we currently estimate in the low triple-digit million-euro range. With respect to cash generation, we forecast normalized free cash flow in the range of 500 to 800 million euros. We maintain strict discipline around capital expenditures, keeping CapEx below 5% of sales. However, we also anticipate that price increases and supply chain volatility may limit the potential for additional networking capital improvements. The guidance for normalized free cash flow excludes any potential tax payments related to prior years. Cash-out effects for spinoff and restructuring activities are expected to be in the low to mid three-digit million euro range. Spinoff-related cash-out flows will be in the low double-digit million range, while restructuring costs will be driven primarily by ongoing R&D and footprint-related measures. For net income after minorities and earnings share, we expect a significant improvement compared to prior year 25. This outlook assumes a lower level of special items, an improved financial results, and a more normalized tax rate. Overall, the guidance reflects both the headwinds we anticipate in 26 and the substantial progress we target to achieve as we continue our path towards our midterm financial ambitions. our start into the year reflects the trends we saw in the first quarter with fx headwinds and cautious demand continuing to weigh on sales also our project pipeline remains healthy from an earnings perspective our cost matters continue to support performance and based on the early indicators we expect the first quarter to set us on a path toward year-over-year earnings growth across all business areas 26 will reflect the continuous impact of our strategic transformation. While sales in all segments are expected to be moderately lower due to foreign exchange developments and market conditions, our focus remains firmly on driving profitability through operational improvements, portfolio discipline, and cost efficiency measures. In autonomous mobility, we expect moderately lower adjusted sales driven primarily by currency effects, lower volumes in ADAS, and continued weakness in the U.S. commercial vehicle market. At the same time, we anticipate lower R&D costs compared to 25. The business area, autonomous mobility, is expected to deliver a stable adjusted EBIT supported by cost savings across R&D production, sales, and admin functions. In architecture and network solutions, adjusted sales are also expected to be moderately lower due to foreign exchange effects. Also, project ramp-ups will help compensate for onboarding phase-offs. Profitability is expected to remain stable, supported by cost reduction initiatives, reduced central cost measures, and continued improved in R&D efficiency. In safety and motion, we foresee moderately lower adjusted sales, mainly driven by foreign exchange effects and the challenging automotive environment. Nevertheless, we expect a moderate improvement in the adjusted event margin as the segment continues to benefit from R&D cost efficiencies, footprint optimization, and operational excellence measures. Finally, in user experience, we anticipate moderately lower adjusted sales, mainly as a result, again, of foreign exchange movements. However, the adjusted EBIT margin is expected to continue improving, supported by structural measures such as planned consolidations, operational excellence initiatives, and material cost efficiencies. overall while 26 will affect moderately lower sales across all business areas due to planning effects instead of the portfolio decisions we remain fully committed to enhancing profitability and reach our midterm adjusted EBIT margin targets of four to six percent so let me come to an end and close with my priorities as CFO as we look ahead to 26 and beyond my priorities are centered on ensuring that OMOVIO continues its trajectory of disciplined execution and sustainable value creation. First, capital allocation strategy. Later this year, we will present a transparent capital allocation framework, ensuring that investments remain aligned with strategic priorities, support profitable growth, and reflect our commitment to disciplined spending and return focused decision making. Second, disciplined cost management and efficiency programs. We will continue to drive strict cost discipline across SG&A, R&D, and operations, ensuring that our efficiency programs deliver sustainable structural improvements to our cost base and support our midterm margin ambitions. Third, cash flow performance. Strengthening cash generation is a core priority. We will continue to drive improvements in working capital efficiency, maintain strict return-focused CapEx discipline, and ensure that operational improvements translate into higher free cash flow. Fourth, financial risk management. Given the continued volatility in global markets, we will reinforce our risk management capabilities, ensuring robust liquidity, active ethics management, and protection against interest rate and supply chain-related exposures. Fifth, strengthening the financial steering model. This includes sharpening our performance-oriented framework and steering across all functions and areas to ensure that financial insights translate directly into operational actions. And finally, we will further modernize our finance functions with streamlined processes, enhanced data centricity, digital tools, and the use of AI to become a true value-driving strategist. Together, these priorities will strengthen our financial foundation, support profitable growth, and ensure that our Movio remains on track to deliver sustainable value. Now, this concludes our presentation. Let's talk to you.

Thank you, Jutta. Thank you, Philipp. Operator, please take over for the moderations of the Q&A session.

Thank you very much, Mr. Ackerman, with pleasure. The first questions have already been submitted. The first question is from Christoph Lescavi, Deutsche Bank. Please, sir, it is.

Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got a couple. the first would be on the revenue guidance how much of the guided decline is actually related to plan closure closures or portfolio measures if you could quantify that is it fair to assume that around one or one point five percent negative impact in the year-over-year growth would be related to that and then the second one on a specific part of your ebit outlook you're guiding to a triple digit million headwind from raw materials and memory could you elaborate on that a bit further is it a part where you don't expect any pass-through opportunities or could you still see a certain portion of that being passed on to the oems and then third one just on the q1 trading comment thanks for already indicating top line down but but earnings actually up because of the cost measures could you comment also on the rough margin would it be fair to assume that you are below the four-year target range still in q1 any color there would be appreciated and um last question sorry these are a few um just on ux with book bill below one quite meaningfully at only 0.5 but it's not profitable So historically, you said you are not necessarily the best owner. At what point could you review that asset again and come to another strategic decision?

That's all.

Can I start with the first one and then maybe you on the X?

I can also on the memories. I can also.

Okay. Hi, Christoph. Thanks for your question. On the revenue guidance, actually, this is taking into account FX. And as we explained, we have anchored our guidance towards the X exchange rates at the end of the beginning of this year. And the other major driver is really the overall volume that we are expecting. As I said, we are a bit more cautious than what we hear from S&P. And this is the explanation for the revenues guidance that we give. Maybe to the upside of that guidance, if everything goes into the right direction, we actually think that we can achieve the level that we have seen in 2025. But that would also require some opposite ethics movements than what we have seen in the past. But what we have actually also seen already just recently on the EBIT impact of raw materials and memories, I give it a try and then maybe if you can. What we are saying is that we see overall as a cost impact, a low triple digit number. This does not mean that a low triple digit number at the end of the day will end up in our P&L. but this is actually the exposure that we currently see when we take all of this together, raw materials and memories. And we are obviously working to pass through those price increases to our customers. We have contracts with index clauses that allow us to immediately pass through the costs. And in other areas, we are depending on the outcome of negotiations with our customers. Maybe, Philipp, do you want to add?

Yeah, let me quickly add to that. We have, meanwhile, experience with the sudden cost spikes. So we are in constant discussions with our customers about how to secure volume and how to ensure that pricing is accordingly, as we did so for tariffs, as we did so for the silicon crisis. So we, as Jutta said, we cautiously and conservatively, we take this kind into consideration, but the task now is to mitigate on A, on the pricing side, and B, also on the technical side. So there are many times opportunities to replace one with the other. That's what we always call as redesigned to cost measures. And that's what now is the machine is now starting to run. And so we are quite confident that we have good chances to compensate for the costs.

Then maybe I take the third question on Q1 current trading. You asked whether it's fair to assume that the margin that we expect for the first quarter is below the full year margin. I think that's a fair assumption. We have in the back of our slide deck, we show margin development quarter by quarter for 24 and 25. And obviously, there is a certain usability in our profitability, and therefore, we expect the EBIT margin, adjusted EBIT margin for Q1 below the targeted range for the full year. What we can say is that we are very confident that what we are seeing in January, February, and now also last couple of weeks is really supporting our full year guidance.

Yeah, I mean, that's already because of Chinese New Year first quarter is always below the other quarters. So that's not a surprise. But let me take over the book to build of user experience. You're absolutely right. The book to build is significantly below 1.0 in user experience and by that, not satisfying. So we have always said we focus on turning businesses around and ensure that we are creating value before we start growing again. You might remember that also, for example, Architectural Network Solution in 2022 were highly loss-making and then we turned it around in one and a half, two years, and now we do have a very profitable business. And that's why we have been also at that time more focusing on managing the bottom line and costs instead of targeting and hunting for additional volume that's why also architecture network solution is not going to grow so fast as one could assume because at that time we were more focusing on getting the business up and viable again same we apply now as a project towards user experience we have had our challenges in 2024 we have seen great achievements in 2025 we always said this is a case where we need to get operational excellence into the plants. That's what we see now that we are going to get there. And now we can also comfortably reach out again and acquire business. And we, as we always said, we are doing strategic alignments and evaluations over the course of the first half. And then we see also how user experience is doing and then we decide how to move forward.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, also from my side. The next question is from Horst Schneider, Bank of America. If you were to use OBT.

Yeah, hello, and thank you for taking my comments. The first one that I have that relates to revenue growth, because it's obvious, I mean, to me, the story is that you are successfully cutting the costs, but also the top line is shrinking for good reasons, because you do this active portfolio management. So when I look at your slide four and listen to your comments, my understanding is in 2027 that it's basically finished or by end of 26 is going to be finished in 27. It's going to be a more normal business environment for you. In that context, could you maybe outline your underperformance versus light vehicle production in Q4, 25, and then also what we should expect in terms of regional underperformance in 2026? And then for 27, with which rate of outperformance we should work then again? So is it the kind of plus 2% standard that it used to be, or is it more a gradual ramp-up that we should expect from that? And in that context, I remember that when I look at the long-term targets, a large part of the growth should come from autonomous mobility, where you have got the ramp-up of the Aurora contract. and I'm not sure where we stand there. You haven't talked about that for a while, so maybe you could give an update on where you stand in this segment on this very important contract. Is it still leading to the high growth that you expect or has the growth prospects shifted maybe towards other segments and where?

Thank you.

Okay, I can start with the question on the fourth quarter of 25. Thank you for your question. Horst, good to hear you. I think what we have seen in Q4, the decline 8% compared to previous year quarter, is to a very large extent driven by our business area, autonomous mobility, where we have seen really difficult market environment, in particular in the U.S. truck market. And we are expecting that to continue, at least for the first half of 2026. This is also answering the question in terms of regional performance, where we, as I said, only expecting an improvement, if at all, in the second half of this year in the U.S. stock market. Does that answer your question on the Q425? largely if not i would get back to you again but then maybe on the outlook also then for 27th out performance we should work with that would be useful well i think overall what we always said also at the capital market day um back last year is that we are expecting the market and the production volumes to grow by um on average a percent a year but this is not the main driver for our top line but this is really the content per vehicle where we are expecting over the entire period

4-5% sales increase means what out performance then? well you cannot give this guidance yet of course but any tendency when we think about ramp up and the magnitude of increase I could imagine it's getting more 28 going to be higher than 27 So the background of my question is that 27 is also a more flattish year, still a kind of year transition of if you should expect some stronger outperformance already in 27.

I mean, as we said before, we are also expecting a significant contribution in the later years, 28, 29, 30 from Aurora. And that is probably the bridge to your other question, what the status is. And the question is, when is this coming into growth? I think we said it in our presentation that we are expecting production to start in 27, the earliest. So any meaningful sales, we will only see in 28 or even later.

I mean, we do see, I mean, you do see if you follow Aurora, significant improvements. They add additional lines. They are driving now in all weather conditions. so the program is starting to run however um to get it done into an operational and scalable outcome it still needs some time so we assume that end of 2027 we are going to start production and then it's going to ramp up in 2028 and it's going to take full-fledged then in the years thereafter okay all right okay if i could maybe sneak in one last one that is on reimbursements, because we have seen from quite a few OEMs, especially in the US, all these significant provisions and termination of some

EV programs. That was not yet an issue for you in Q4, I guess, that you got any reimbursements there already. I think it's more a matter for 26. Can you give any indication on that?

Right. I'm so deriving. We have not seen any additional... I mean, we do have our normal reimbursement for R&D costs. That has been running through in fourth quarter, as always, as the seasonality claims. But we haven't seen any big reimbursements for whatever canceled EV platform. I strike through big. I think we haven't seen any reimbursement for canceled EV platform. But yes, of course, I mean, that's something where what needs to be discussed, no?

Yeah, just to add, I think in Q4, We actually have seen reimbursements as expected, also driving cash flow, obviously, in the last quarter, in line with the overall, I would say, good payment discipline by our customers.

That's great. But it's not yet included in your guidance.

These reimbursements coming from US OEMs potentially is not in your guidance or is in your guidance? i mean we don't see also i mean we have been always working with our customers in order to have a risk-based approach towards these ev platforms no so there is also not huge reimbursements foreseeable okay yeah all right that's great thank you so much yeah we are powertrain agnostic so whatever we do is always capable to be transferred also to any platform and if a customer manages its stuff properly he has sourced us on both platforms that's clear thank you and see you soon see you thank you very much also from my side at the moment no further questions in the queues So, dear ladies and gentlemen, last call.

Please press nine star now if you wish to state a question. Nine star is the combination. We'll wait a couple more moments. I'll write as a follow-up from Holschneider again. Over to you.

It's great that I can ask all the questions. I love it. Sorry for that. Then I had another one on my list that I was unable to ask, and that is number one. if you see already any impact from the Middle East crisis and is this Middle East crisis already, if it has got an impact already considered in your guidance, number one. And number two, regarding guidance again for 2026, you mentioned better financial results, lower special items, and significantly improved rate. It would be great if you could quantify a little bit and describe numbers to that, to what extent the various items are moving. Thank you.

Let me take the first one. Middle East crisis. I mean, we are not an energy-intense company. Of course, what we do see is you see higher transportation costs. You also see also that there are some time-wise increases in delivery, meaning it takes a bit longer that stuff is going to get and to go to our premises. We are also not so much raw material-based company. So we do have, of course, we have copper, we have gold, but we have aluminum, but not as others are affected. So, I mean, I think it's very difficult to foresee what's going to happen in the Middle East and to say, is everything what might come there in the future in our guidance? But we do see in other areas a bigger exposure of ours. I mean, we discussed the memories, which is an exposure. But in general, we do have this crisis as much as it's disturbing global trade well under control from a supply chain point of view. Okay, that's great.

We have not taken into account anything from the Middle East conflict into our guidance. But, I mean, if there is – you can think about those scenarios also affecting not energy prices but then inflation going up and that may have an impact on interest rates, which is not a big topic for us given a strong balance sheet. But overall, if there's negative implications for the overall macroeconomic environment, that obviously would also have an impact. But we have not specifically taken that into account in our guidance. On your other question with regards to what is happening basically below the adjusted EBIT line or the EBIT line in our P&L, I mean, we have deliberately not given any guidance for those items. but that we give a bit more information and provide you with some of your assumptions as we are not going to really guide these items. Our further assumptions, as we put them, need to be seen in relation to the significant, and particularly on the tax side, the significant tax expenses, and therefore the guidance is that we are really expecting that to be different. so much better in 2026 and then below the line that should all other items equal or as guided should lead to a positive net income for the full year Okay, alright Thank you Very welcome Thank you very much A very last question from Michael Puzzet

Die Zeitbank Please Michael, over to you Yes, Michael Puzzet, good afternoon I have one question with regard to the field of autonomous driving.

Can you give us any kind of an overview of what you see as a trend in the different regions like the US, Europe and China? And what is your expectations for the upcoming growth? Is that related to level 2++?

Or do you expect that we will see introductions of level 3, level 4 systems, which will then drive your business unit forward? Yeah, what we do see as trends is that the development in China is much more stormy than we do see it in the rest of the world. So there is a significant invest. There are a lot of companies working, and you do see already a significant progress in level 2++, level 3 in China. So this is based on a different scale and a different system. That's why we have also decided to partner in China with Horizon Robotics and have built up a joint venture where we market the solutions which we have together in that respective area. What we do see today is a significant expansion on level 2++ systems. And we do see also, of course, in the robo-taxi area, and they are specifically in the US, quite some improvements and movements. But, I mean, as a general and a mass market solution, we mainly see these days level 2++. Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much, also, from my side. And as there are no more questions, I am closing the Q&A session now and handing the floor backwards. Thank you very much.

Yeah, thank you very much. We've come to the end of today's Q&A session. Thank you for your participation. If there are any questions open, don't hesitate to contact the IR department. Our next earnings call is already on May 7th. We look forward to sharing some updates with you on Q1 then. And with that, I would like to conclude today's call. Thank you very much and goodbye.