Good morning. Good morning to all of you here in Eindhoven, and good morning also to all the people joining via our webcast. Thank you for taking the time being with us today. I'm really thrilled to show you today how we are going to unleash the full potential of Aalberts, and today, we will show you why we are in attractive end market with leadership positions, and how we plan to set new ambitions. The agenda will be starting with a quick intro, showing where we come from, where we are going, and then later on, you will hear from three or four segments: industry, semiconductor, and building. And then we'll be back for a Q&A session, but before, let me share with you what I believe are the key messages that I would like you to take away.
You may have seen it already in our press release this morning, but first of all, you can count on us to deliver our '26 targets, but at the same time, it's time to prepare for the future. That's why we have set up new ambitions for 2030. The good news is that we are playing in attractive end markets with very strong tailwinds, and this is where we have leadership positions. Today, we will show you how we plan to capitalize on that. At the same time, with our strong balance sheet, not only do we want to continue to deploy organic growth with our capital allocation, but at the same time, we are going to accelerate M&A, strategic M&A. We have a very clear strategy, and we know where we need to improve, but also where we may divest.
But we also know very well where we are going to invest and where we can continue to grow. And at the end, you will see today much more transparency from all of us, and also a better focus. And what brought us here, what we like to call the Aalberts way or operating model, the way we work, you will see how we will continue, but also improve it to unleash the full potential of the company. And to be very clear, what is new today that you may not have seen before? Yes, we are going to use share buyback as part of our capital allocation policy. You will see our new 2030 targets, the new ambitions that we have set for the future.
You will see that from now on, we are going to talk about three segments: where we are playing, where we see attractive growth, and where we have leadership positions. It's all about industry, semiconductor, and building. This is, of course, going next year how we are going to report our performance, our KPI, our organic growth. This is what you will see starting 2025. At the end, bringing all of you more focus and more transparency. After a year, more than a year as a CEO of the company, I've been traveling a lot, visiting many of our locations, talking to many of our employees, visiting and talking to many of our customers. Also, I have a lot of dialogues with many of you in the room or on the webcast. I've learned a lot. I've listened a lot.
And now I would like to share what is really top of my mind right now. Two key things: short term and long term. Short term, delivering our 26 targets, but also at the same time, preparing for the future, what I call preparing for the third evolution phase of Aalberts. And you will see five key points which are really top of my mind. The first one, it's a growth agenda. Growing organically through our capital allocation, through our CapEx, through our business development plan based on our leadership position. Second, rebalancing our portfolio, doing strategic M&A and divesting where we don't see the future or where we see this as a non-core businesses. Third, accelerating innovation. Innovation to differentiate ourselves, either in great products, either in great solutions, or in digital offering. Fourth, accelerating operational excellence, improving our margin, reducing our inventories, and improving our free cash flow.
But at the end, nothing will be possible without having the best team and the best organization. That's why I would like also to build the high-performance team. So that's what is on top of my mind. And the good news is that we are going to do that based on a very strong foundation. The company is strong. We are doing well. But now we have a clear path forward based on our purpose and values that will not change, based on our lean and effective structure, and based on our commitment to sustainability. But at the same time, we will accelerate portfolio technology. And also, the Aalberts way, where we are going to enhance the most, is through our operational excellence. And a lot of things have changed since December 2021, when we had our last capital markets day. These were the targets we set at that time.
I'm sure you know many of the targets. We are already there. Our leverage ratio, our SDG rate, our innovation rate, we are there. Getting closer on EBITDA, and still some work to do on ROIC and organic growth. We still have two years to achieve these targets. In Aalberts, our purpose is unchanged: engineering mission-critical technology to enable a clean, smart, and responsible future. Now, three end markets: industry, building, and semiconductor. Like I like to say, Aalberts is everywhere. For the ones that do not know us, we are a more than €3 billion company with 14,000 colleagues in more than 130 locations. You can see that we are very strong in building. 50% of our revenue is in building. We are very strong in Europe, 70% of our revenue being in Europe.
And we have opportunities to grow in industry, in semiconductor, and in North America. So now, now it's time to prepare for the future. It's time to go beyond 2026. The company is doing well. We have a solid foundation. But it's time to go beyond what we have achieved so far. That's what we call Thrive 2030. We want to thrive because a thriving company is a great company. A great company for our customers, for our employees, and for the society. And we want also to be a great stock because a great stock is a company that always delivers high returns for shareholders in a sustainable way, thanks to a very efficient free cash flow management. And the way we call our strategy, Thrive 2030, is putting three simple words: refocus, rebalance, and recharge. And you may wonder what these words mean.
This is what we will show you right now, what it means and how we are going not only to reach our short-term target, but also prepare for the future. And our ambitions, our new objective for 2030, that's what you see right now. We want to move from more than €3 billion to more than €4.5 billion revenue. We want to move from more than 16% EBITDA to more than 18% EBITDA. That's the new ambition we are putting ourselves from 2026 to 2030. And the how we will do that, first of all, is to use in the most effective way our capital allocation. It's always start when we deploy our capital with our commitment. Never will we compromise on health and safety, on sustainability. This is still our commitment.
And always, we will continue, like we have been doing so far, spending capital allocation with high returns, with shorter payback to continue to expand our capacity and continue to expand our footprint expansions. But at the same time, our CapEx will be used also to drive innovation. And you will hear later on today a few great examples for three segments. And when we talk about strategic M&A, I think I've been sharing that to many of you during the earlier dialogue we had, three key priorities that you can see here. In industry, it's about growing in the U.S. In semiconductor, it's about Southeast Asia and expanding our portfolio. And in building, it's also U.S. and portfolio expansion. So that's what we mean. That's our goals. That's how we will spend our capital allocation for Thrive 2030.
Now, let me show you how we will reach this target. Because you may wonder what it means, refocus. Refocus, it's basically starting from our foundation, the Aalberts way, with our new team. Then I will explain to you what are the three key enablers: our people, our customer-centric supply chain, and our innovation. The foundation, what unites all of us in Aalberts, are our Aalberts values, our five values. They remain more than ever valid. That's something I experienced over my first year in the company. This is what will continue to drive, and that is what continues to unite us, taking care of our customers, reaching our commitments, reaching our results, being open-minded, and always going for excellence. At the end, the benefit all our stakeholders should experience it.
And when we talk about the Aalberts way, that's really, for me, taking the best of two worlds. First, keeping what made us successful up to now, acting like a small and medium company, local empowerment, local proximity, speed and decision-making, full accountability in the business. We will continue to do that. But at the same time, as we are becoming a bigger company, a global company, I want to make sure we take also the advantage of the scale. I want to make sure we drive synergy. We use our financial strengths as a global company, and we avoid having waste or repeating a lot of things locally. And at the end, that will be the Aalberts way, taking the best of both worlds. And we are going through an evolution. It's not a revolution because over a few decades, we started the journey.
Next year, we will celebrate our 50-year anniversary. And we started as a financial holding company doing a lot of acquisitions. Then the second phase was going through four technology clusters. We're starting to have a head office and leadership network. And now we are going to the third evolution phase with three business segments and functional excellence or group function that will be there and act as strategic business partners to support our business segments. So we will keep our lean and effective structure, but at the same time, improve our functional excellence. And who is the team that will deliver and will lead this third evolution phase? It's our new executive team. They are all here on the front row.
You see that on top of me and Arno being in the management board, we have now five business CEOs which are fully accountable with their KPI, with their financial target, with their innovation strategic agenda. You will hear from three of them later today. Two are brand new. They are in the room, and they will join the executive team on the 1st of January. Then our five functional leaders, with also two of them that joined us over the last six months. Now let's go to our three key initiatives. First of all, winning with people. We are going to invest to have a future work, future-proof workforce because we will never grow, we will never achieve without having the best people.
So we have identified five key initiatives that will be deployed by our new Chief People and Culture Officer, Susan, who is here. Second, we are going to invest in customer-centric supply chain because we want our customers to experience best-in-class quality, best-in-class delivery. We want to do better in our cost structure, but also in our inventories to reach our margin and reach our free cash flow target. And at the same time, we want to do that having the best team in all our footprint, in all our operations, with the best health and safety conditions. So we have identified five key initiatives using the SQDICP framework. And this will be under the leadership of our new COO, Luca, who also joined us.
And to reach 26 targets and also prepare for the future, we have very key actions which are actually being deployed as we speak, driving more productivity in our factories, optimizing purchasing costs, and getting lower inventories. And you can imagine that these are very relevant, especially for our building segment. And like I said at the end, it's to do more with the same or to do the same with less. That's what it's about, operational excellence. The third element is innovation. Innovation to differentiate, but always to solve customer needs. Not innovation for the sake of innovation because we are good engineers and we love technologies. You see that decarbonization is definitely a trend that will allow us, that we will use to push innovation. But at the same time, it's about new technology. It's about repair and reuse.
And for semiconductor, it's also having a fully integrated system. And in buildings, this is maybe where there is the biggest opportunity for digital offering, for recurring revenue, also offering full suites and full system solutions. More to come later from our three CEOs how we plan to innovate more. That is how we will refocus Aalberts. Now, rebalance. What does it mean, rebalance? Rebalance means rebalance our revenue between our three segments. Rebalance means rebalance our revenue between two key geographies, Europe and North America. This is what we want to be. And let me show you first what we mean by being in attractive end market with leadership position. We have Kepler, which are there from many external reports. And you will hear more later today from our three CEOs. But industry, semiconductor, building, long-term, mid-single-digit to high single-digit growth.
We are all aware that short-term, there are some challenges. But long-term, let's not forget the big picture. It's still a growth place. And we see this growth supported by four tailwinds. More people will need to live in cities. And the buildings, we need to be greener, smart homes, smart buildings. We see the push for technology, the acceleration of AI, everything being connected, another growth driver for us. And we see, of course, the reshoring, which is going also to be a growth driver for us. So four tailwinds that are supporting our three business segments. And this is where also you can see we have leadership position. Leadership position in where we are playing. And in industry and semiconductor, more than 50% of our revenue is with leadership position. In building, less than 50%.
So we still have some opportunity to increase market share and grow our business because that's what we want to do in leadership position where the market is growing. And how are we going to do it? Actually, what we have been doing over the last 12 months, we have looked at our full portfolio. And the way we have been looking at our portfolio is based on two dimensions. Are we able to win? And is the market growing? And you can see that as an illustration. We have many of our businesses which are on the top right. And you can assume that this is where we are spending our capital. This is where we are growing. This is where we are making acquisitions. And we have some businesses which are in the bottom left. This is where we need to improve.
This is where also we are looking at divestment, and this is where also we are making restructuring to improve the performance, and let's not forget that we have a lot of our businesses which are in the middle where we are managing for cash and optimizing margins. As an example, you have seen one of the divestments we did during the summer. It's a business that was in the bottom left, and some acquisitions we did and some acquisitions we are working on are on the top right. This is what is our methodology, and this is what guides us in the way we allocate the capital, and for every time we have a divestment and an acquisition, we are asking ourselves a few questions, but the goal is to move as many of our businesses, of course, to the top right.
That's what it's about, also rebalancing our portfolio. We are always asking six key questions when we look at an assessment of our portfolio. I think you now understand ability and market attractiveness. But also, we want to make sure there are synergies within Aalberts. It can be a great business doing financially very well, but we are asking the question, are we the best owner? Or maybe someone else will be the best owner, whatever is the financials. So that's what is guiding our choice, and that's where we'll be using. And the last initiative to rebalance our portfolio is North America. Our ambition is very simple. We want to double the revenue by 2030 because the market attractiveness is there. And we have defined three actions. First, organic growth. We have a fantastic brand. We have a local footprint. We have a local team.
Up to us to grab the market and win share. The way we will do that, through innovation, through operational excellence, we can still do better in terms of availability, in terms of quality. But also through footprint expansion. And you will see us at the end doing some acquisition, especially in industry and building, to expand our footprint and support the growth agenda. As a consequence of doing portfolio review, acquisition, divestment, organic growth, doubling in the U.S., you will see us moving from today, where we are roughly 50% in building, 14% in semiconductor, and 36% in industry. You will see us going to a more balanced portfolio. And you will see also U.S., North America going roughly from one quarter of our revenue to one third of our revenue. And something that will not change while we rebalance the portfolio is our commitment to sustainability.
We still want to reach our net zero carbon by 2050 or earlier and keep more than 70% of our revenue linked to sustainable development goals. All the initiatives will continue to be under the leadership of Anne-Lize, which is here our sustainability leader at Aalberts, and we are pleased to share with you two new things today. Releasing our 2030 targets on Scope 1 and 2 CO2 intensity, as we want now to be at -50%. And at the same time, setting 2030 target for Scope 3, focusing on raw material and waste because this is where we can have the biggest impact for the environment. That's what we mean by rebalance, so now you have seen how we will refocus the company. You have seen how we will rebalance the company, but of course, now you should see how we are going to deploy our capital.
So let me welcome on stage Arno, our CFO. And let's talk about our financial ambitions. And I'm sure there are a lot of expectations, Arno, right? How much acquisition are we going to do? How much divestment are we going to do? And what do we exactly mean by share buyback, right?
I will explain, Stéphane.
Thank you, Arno.
Thank you for your good introduction. Welcome, everybody, also from my side, and also welcome in the webcast to this Capital Markets Day in Eindhoven. And let me start with my key messages for you today, where we, of course, want to make crystal clear that we are proud to have such a strong track record. And that is also the reason that the red line in this ambitious plan towards 2030 is that we are committed to reach our objectives also for 2026.
Disciplined capital allocation, the base for sustainable, profitable growth for 2025 to 2030. That is how our business teams drive more profit and more growth going forward with making the right decisions for capital allocation. Of course, we can do that because of the strong financial base that we have with our balance sheet. We are able to make the right choices and to allocate it really to the right projects. A divestment program to even accelerate our portfolio with acquisitions, to even accelerate our market position, because that is why we do acquisitions. We never forget that we do acquisitions to accelerate our market position and to accelerate our organic growth potential. Then last but not least, already mentioned the share buyback, now part of our capital allocation policy. This is the Aalberts Way as a winning formula for driving returns.
Let me start with the financial foundation. I already said organic growth. Approximately two-thirds of our growth plan is still organically. We believe that is the best return for your capital employed. That's also why we are still driving our business plans and allocate our capital and management accordingly. Besides, we drive constantly lean programs to reduce operational costs and to improve the performance of our businesses. The portfolio optimization. As said, rebalance, rebalance the company also from a geographical point of view, but also from an industry point of view, from a second point of view. We try to bring it more in balance. For that, we are aiming to acquire approximately EUR 800 million to EUR 1 billion of revenues in the coming years until 2030, where at the same time, we will try to dispose EUR 400 million to EUR 500 million of revenues until 2030.
So the net growth from this part of our financial plan is approximately EUR 400 million-EUR 500 million of revenue growth. And then financial control. We focus on free cash flow conversion ratio in relation also to our increased CapEx for the good plans that we have. Continuous operational excellence to lower inventories, lower working capital to really perform the healthy free cash flow that we need. And the disposal proceeds will also allocate our acquisitions, as already said. These guidelines are driving our objectives towards 2030. And let me start with that. Revenue, a target, an objective of more than EUR 4.5 billion in 2030. It's ambitious, but we strongly believe it's achievable. And besides, with this strong revenue growth, we also want to improve our EBITDA margin. And everybody knows that our objective is more than 60% in 2026, which we are committed to realize.
We are raising the bar for 2030 towards more than 80% EBITDA margin. Besides, we have a free cash flow conversion ratio for a healthy free cash flow that enables us to continue to invest for the future of more than 65%. Then we have another new objective, the ROIC, the return on incremental capital employed. What is that? That means that the incremental return EBITDA divided by the incremental capital employed that we allocate to our balance sheet, that is a percentage that's the outcome of that percentage, more than 80%. That is over the last 10 years. That is the number that we always report in our annual report and also explain that that actually shows the effects together of all the capital allocation that management put to the business and the return out of that.
We believe, given our growth agenda for the coming years, that this is the best KPI to measure the success of our capital allocation policy. And last but not least, we do this all in a very responsible way by keeping our leverage ratio below 2.5. We can never be successful if we are not very disciplined with our capital allocation. So let me take you through this capital allocation policy. First, as said, as always, stable. We allocate 30% of our net profits of our growing profits going forward to our shareholders with the cash dividend policy. We believe it's very important that also our investors know what to expect from their share. And secondly, organic growth remains a very important part of our growth ambition. And we allocate EUR 250-300 million annually in value-creating business plans from our business teams. Third, strategic acquisitions and divestments.
We will have a net M&A deployment of EUR 200 million-EUR 250 million annually. That means the value of money that we have to allocate to our balance sheet as a balance of acquisitions that we buy and the disposals that we sell, and then last but not least, share buybacks when excess cash is available, and that is very important for us, not delaying our strategic M&A agenda and our organic growth plans because, of course, that cannot be the idea of share buybacks, but yes, we are aiming for an annual share buyback, and by disciplined capital allocation, we are strengthening our leading positions in the marketplace, then M&A playing a crucial role in our future, also as it has been doing in the past, also in the future, it is important, and we are quite experienced there, as you all know.
We have a playbook where we really work towards to get the best targets into our company, and yes, we remain very critical. We remain very disciplined, and we will not make an acquisition when not everything is right. That is also the success of the past, and that is what we will also continue to do going forward. We have a clear focus. For the building, we are looking for adjacencies in the sort of to fit our portfolio, and besides, we are looking for a footprint expansion in the USA. In semiconductor, footprint expansion, Southeast Asia, we believe crucial to be there represented to also deliver our growth agenda for semiconductor business and also help to serve our customers in their own growth plan globally, and besides, it remains very interesting to also strengthen the portfolio in semiconductor there.
And then, last but not least, in industry, footprint expansion, also USA for customer proximity and the end market diversification. It's a continuous portfolio and strategic optimization of the company. And I think a very clear direction for the future. Then, on the request of many of you, we also have changed a bit in our reporting. In our reporting structure, first of all, as Stéphane already said, we are now moving towards three business segments. So from two reporting segments, we are moving towards three business segments. And actually, as you will all understand, the industrial technology segment will be split into semiconductor and industry. That is the big change. Besides, we are also changing the calendarization.
We have been doing trading updates for the first four months of the year and the first 10 months of the year, which was a little bit different than other companies did. We believed in the cadence that it was also giving the right information structure at that time. You all have given clear feedback that you would appreciate more the quarterly reporting. We will change also towards quarterly reporting. We will change with the new segment reporting, first in 2025, but with the full year 2024 numbers. In February, we will, for the first time, report into these three business segments. In Q1, we will give the first quarterly update, and it will be key financial metrics for Aalberts Total, including a qualitative description, as you were used also in the trading updates.
For the first half-year reporting and a full-year report, no changes, of course, the full deck. So actually, I think, Stéphane, that was what I wanted to explain about the financial guidelines of your growth plan. But I think everybody's now really waiting for the recharge part because this is the most exciting probably, yeah?
I think you are right. You have seen how we will refocus, rebalance, but at the end, where are we making an impact in everyday life? It is in our business segment. So I think we are really excited that now you will see from three of our business leaders how they will unleash the full potential in their segments. So you will hear from Arno that will show you how he is going to recharge industry. You will hear from Patrick how he's going to recharge semiconductor.
Then you will hear from Maarten how he's going to recharge building. Let's go.
Yes.
At the forefront of decarbonizing industries, we engineer durable, lightweight technologies and improve material characteristics, enhancing product lifetime, enabling weight reduction, reducing CO2. We enable industrial customers to extend product lifetime and realize energy efficiency. Please welcome Oliver Jäger.
Okay, good morning, everybody. I'm delighted to welcome you here in one of our most exciting facilities in my own backyard here in Eindhoven, where operation happens compared to your normal office environment. Here to my right-hand side, you can see one of our most recent investments into HIP technology. Just four weeks ago, we have opened that 1,500 sq m facility, giving that HIP facility a proper home. What does HIP stand for? It stands for hot isostatic pressing. Nobody knows what that means too.
So we have materials which have defects, and we eliminate those defects in an extreme environment of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius and 1,000 bars. And those defectless parts, they will find their home, for example, in jet engines, in industrial gas turbines, in medical implants, or parts being additively manufactured. So you could see it's a high technology-specific application demonstrates once more the mission-critical engagement of Aalberts. As the industry leader, you may expect me to talk about the further improvement of durable material, the production of industrial products. And you're right. We're doing that with surface treatment, with precision extrusion, with precision stamping, and also producing industrial end products for diverse end applications. You also think that we enhance the surface of certain materials, and I'll demonstrate to you how we can do that. And again, you're right.
In surface treatment, it's all about the improvement of the material below the surface. And that's what I'm willing to do in the next 10 minutes or so, give you some insights and unlock what's below the surface of the industrial segment. I will make you comfortable with the achievements and success we have achieved during the last years. And I even further will unlock what is going to happen in the years to come while we as Aalberts preparing ourselves for our 50th anniversary next year. As all of us, we have key messages to you to make the whole thing as an introduction understandable and easy. When you would like to have two focus segments, one is the technology area where we look in, and on the other hand, we look for regional things bringing us forward.
On the technology side, we have an increase of electric and hybrid vehicles going to be produced, as well as a lot of materials being used for air traffic. It goes on lightweight material. Air traffic is increasing. On the regional side, we see a lot of reshoring activities into Europe and into North America. That facilitates us from the location and from the geographical point of view. Fueling those developments on the technical side and also on the regional side with acquisitions to drive growth further and more specific. So where do we stand in the industry segment? So with a workforce of 6,000 highly diversified people, we do amazing things through all of our technologies, whether that is surface technologies, whether that is stamping and extrusion, or the production of industrial end products.
With more than 100 locations, we are well placed regional-wise in the key end markets we are delivering, whether that is automotive, aerospace, power generation, or the industry in principle. So how is value created in those diverse end markets we are delivering into? When we grab out the sector of surface technologies, so we do heat treatment, surface treatment, polymer technologies, and reel-to-reel coatings. In stamping and extrusion, we make precision stamping parts predominantly for electronic end applications and do extrusion of lightweight material for the aerospace industry and also for the optical industry. Industrial products, we do, for example, fuel efficiency systems for the maritime industry, and we do valve technology for air conditioning and also for the hydrogen industry. The hydrogen industry, you may wonder what that is. I got the questions in the preparation. What does hydrogen stand for?
Hydrogen is predominantly a storage medium for renewable energies. Whether you look for electrolyzers, you store the hydrogen, and then you can reuse it at a later stage to make you a bit independent from the occurrence of wind and solar. You see that it's quite an important technology to drive the sustainability of the industry forward and getting more independent from alternative energy sources. With our key development, we play a key role in the development towards renewable energies. Besides all those technical and geographical things and our good organization, we have also exciting end markets. With a minimum CAGR of 4%, we're looking quite positive forward for the years to come. Whether that is in automotive or aerospace or maritime or the machine build, we have exciting development to see. Where does that growth come from?
In automotive, as I mentioned, we see the increased production of electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, which fuels, let's say, our production in that market area. When you look in the aerospace environment, we see an increased demand for lightweight material. And on the other hand, you can see that air traffic is still increasing, which is a natural fuel of that business we are into. Fuel efficiency systems in the maritime market give us a further boost into that area. And in machine build, we have a wide application of different products we are offering for the machine build industry, where we see positive in the future for further development. Besides the fact that we have good markets, which are promising, a good organization, and good technology skills, we're also benefiting from major tailwinds in the market or megatrends, however you would like to call those.
Urbanization plays for us a key role. While people living closer together, there's more proximity of the people, and that needs more requirements for sustainable mobility. Technology acceleration needs higher complexity and more developed products, which we are able to offer. The reshoring activity I have mentioned at the beginning gives us a need for a closer supply chain or supply chain proximity, which fuels our system because of the nature of the business we are into, and last but not least, decarbonization is one of our natures in a lot of areas we are working on. We have a strong footprint on lightweight materials supporting the CO2 reduction. As having said that, growth that comes not by itself. We have just mentioned the HIP vessel we have invested in, where we have invested into that building, which offers obviously room for more growth. We also look for regional expansion.
We just recently have started an expansion in Meximieux for reel-to-reel coating, where we are predominantly serving electronic end applications with highly specified coatings. We also do the same thing for electric and hybrid vehicles in Hungary, where we are doubling our capacity in Eastern Europe. As I mentioned in the beginning, we are also looking for acquisition, and we did one in North America, widening our footprint with the acquisition of uncertain p roducts offering thermal spray coatings for diverse end markets. If you have more interest in digging into one or the other, perfectly on our website, we have videos giving you more explanations. And I would think also that the Q&A session allows you to dig a bit more into that. What is our competitive advantage towards other players in the markets we are playing in?
So number one is the global network we have that brings us into the position as being the engineering partner for global key accounts. Secondly, the combined offering of highly specialized surface technology solutions. The deep industry expertise brings us into position to offer tailor-made processes and innovations for one or the other bigger industry partner we are running with. The fact that we deal with lightweight materials and that we are active in fuel reduction systems makes us into a front-running position of sustainable production and a sustainable industrial environment. So while Aalberts is focusing on its strategy Thrive 2030, we talked about refocus, we talked about rebalance, and we talked about recharge of the industry. So if you would like to conclude that, then you could see that business development, fueling organic growth, is one of the key drivers of our success.
The decarbonization of the industry is one of the major tailwinds offering us future opportunities to grow. The reshoring activity in Europe and in North America gives us more opportunities due to supply chain proximity, for example, and further on, we can fuel our growth with acquisition as laid out. We have a good pipeline for doing that, so you could see that the industry segment is perfectly placed for further development and underlining and underpinning what Stéphane and Arno have pointed out in their issue from an Aalberts' perspective. I would like to come to an end here, and I can tell you with all those positive points I have at hand, I'm really looking forward to the upcoming 50 years to run that business.
Maybe my age comes to a restriction area, but at least I'm looking forward for the years to come to develop that business further, and I would like to thank you so much for your attention.
In a world connected by microchips, we engineer leading-edge tailor-made technologies together with Semicon OEMs, delivering ultra precision and ultra cleanliness, enabling accuracy and control, facilitating nanometer precision. We support OEM growth by accelerating technological breakthroughs. Please welcome Patrick Duflot.
Good morning once again. Isn't it amazing that mankind has created technology to squeeze more than a billion transistors onto this little tiny chip? And with that, we're able to connect, communicate, industrialize, and automate across all corners of the globe. And yet, at the same time, we find ourselves having to build more complex, more expensive, and more bigger tools than ever. And behind me, you see some of just what is needed of the technology that is created in the Eindhoven area, which is also called the Silicon Valley of Europe. So let me spend a few minutes explaining what it is that we do to help our customers continue this technological journey and create the next breakthroughs in this amazing industry. And I will do so by touching upon some of the interesting market trends that we see, the tailwinds that we have.
I will talk about, more importantly, what are the strategic actions that we're executing to make sure that we are ready for the next phase in this very, really amazing industry. And also, I will talk about some of the very, very important things that we're doing and that I'd like to underline the ever-creative focus we're putting on integrating all of the capabilities we have into one offering. But before I do that, Stéphane, Arno, Oliver, they already talked about the 50 years of Aalberts. I'd like to go back to the remarkable progress that we have made in the rather new field of Semicon. And to do so, we draw on the 1,500 people that we have from technologies and engineers all the way to skilled workers in our factories creating the tools and components for our customers.
You will see that today, mostly, we do that out of Europe. But going forward, you can expect us to grow in the U.S. and Asia to be able to serve our customers in the regions where this equipment is needed. We are focused on three distinct areas of technology that I will highlight a little later. And you can see that today, more than half of our revenues is coming from lithography. But as advanced nodes do not stop with lithography, we see more and more of our technology also being introduced in other sides of the supply chain for Semicon. So how do we create value in this interesting industry? It all starts with the huge frames that are needed to build these tools.
Simply put, if you're not capable of getting the accuracy and the stiffness of this basic frame right, you simply won't get to the level of accuracy to print those highly accurate lines on those wafers, and we combine that with precision frames and modules. That's all about entry of gases and fluids and bringing them to the point of use. Going forward, as nodes will get smaller and smaller, the accuracy of those gases and fluids will become even more important, and thirdly, it's all about mechatronic technologies. It's about quick movement times and quick settling times. Because you might not feel it today, but we're constantly exposed to micro-vibrations. So the key thing is that we cancel out those micro-vibrations through active vibration isolation, and that allows us to quickly go into printing of new lines, improving both yield and output.
And that's why at Aalberts, we've worked so hard to have a leading position in this field. And later today, you will be able to see some of that technology and will demonstrate the capabilities of that. Let me make a quick step to market dynamics. Obviously, we all know this market is growing. It's very fast growing. The opportunities are endless. And yes, it's cyclical. But make no mistake, it will continue to grow at a predicted rate of more than 8% year over year. And within that, the Semicon production equipment is even growing faster. And that's exactly where we play. And that's exactly where we support our customers in bringing new technologies to the market.
We do expect lithography to pave the way, but also in the other fields of applications, we will expect speed and increasement to make sure that we continue to move on to the next nodes. Then we already touched upon tailwinds. Stéphane talked about it. Oliver talked about it. I just want to highlight a few. Increasing demand in semicon chips will be needed to power our cities, urbanization. The smart grid is the only way forward to create solutions that allow us to connect the solar panels that we're using with the energy that we're creating at times that we can't use in our factories and then stick them into batteries, maybe over our battery electric vehicles. So there will be a lot of chips needed to power these cities going forward.
Then the number of new applications that are created every day, connected devices, AI, we simply are not capable yet, I think, to fully understand the impact that we'll have on the future. As new GPUs will come to the market with even more capability, faster processing times, we will see engineers experimenting with the new large language models that are being released as we speak. We simply will not be able to fully comprehend how that will continue to change our lives, the way we work, and the way we live. There's just one but. There is a major challenge as well in this. As these chips are using quite some energy, studies have shown that if we do not change the energy consumption of those chips, we will find ourselves consuming more than 30% of world energy by chips alone. 30%.
That's just not sustainable. That's a thing that we as an industry have to solve. That will further drive new requirements for technological breakthroughs to make sure that we solve this problem as an industry and continue to drive Moore's Law in this remarkable journey. How do we translate that as Aalberts into the major growth initiatives that we're executing? Obviously, we will continue to invest in the existing technologies that we have. We will continue to build on them. We will continue to improve them. Going forward, we'll see quite some expansion happening as well in Southeast Asia, not only because we have our customers there, but also because we believe that there is this regionalization as chip becomes much more of a regional play. Going forward, we'll expand into Southeast Asia.
On the sustainability front, we're opening a repair and reuse center that allows us to bring equipment back from the field, but also support our customers to do upgrades and retrofits to make these existing machines that are typically there for many, many years more efficient and more capable of producing chips. There is a nice video on our website, so if you're interested later on, take a look and it explains a bit how we see this and what we do, and then on innovation, we're investing to further develop new black box, white box solutions in collaboration with our customers, and let me highlight two of what I call the main initiatives in this field of Semicon. One is the new state-of-the-art factory we're building here at the heart of the Netherlands, and I'll talk about integrated modules for a bit.
At the heart of the Netherlands, we are building this mega factory to be able to produce those mega frames. Here you see simply the sheer size of the building, the foundations, and the equipment that goes in. These milling machines are more than 12 meters wide, 8 meters high, and that's the requirement that is needed to machine these huge frames. That's as tall as a three-story building. It gives you a bit of a perspective on what's required. That allows us to also translate that into what I call vertically integrated modules. Because going forward, to deal with the challenges of this industry, to provide the next level of technology in the new nodes and take care of the energy consumption challenge, we will have to work as an industry in a very integrated way.
At Aalberts, we have a lot of capabilities and technologies in-house that allow us to combine that into vertically integrated modules. I'd like to show you a short animation of what is a remarkable capability we already have today and which we believe going forward will allow us to help our customers even further in driving progress. Oh, sorry. So here you see some of the big frames, machined in aluminum, vacuum chambers to be able to do processes. All needs to be isolated from the active vibrations that we have around the world by this vibration isolation technology. Wafer technology, wafer handling technology, robots, movement, motion, all kinds of technologies we have combined with gas cabinets and gas flow solutions. And if you combine that all into an offering, you can see what we're capable of combining into one system.
We believe that to drive progress, that is what will be even more needed going forward to help this industry get further into the future and solve the energy challenges as well that we face as an industry. So let me go back to where I started a few minutes ago. These big machines, these huge tools, those ever more complex systems that we have to build to create chips. At Aalberts, we have a unique combination of technologies combined with our own IP and a long-lasting relationship with our customers that help us co-develop this into new solutions. And obviously, not to forget the investment power and our capability to speed up decisions to make sure that we invest in the next things that need to be happening to further support this growth.
And to summarize, in my short comments today, I wanted to provide a flavor of our position and strategy that will allow us to ride the semicon wave from now and 2030 and beyond. For us at Aalberts, it's all about enabling the technology roadmap of our customers in a more and more integrated way. And we will do so in partnership with our customers by focusing on the challenges we face together as an industry. We cannot do this alone. Our customers cannot do it alone. Our customers of our customers can't do this alone. This needs to be done in a fully integrated way. And that's the only way we can create better technologies and better tools that will fuel progress in connectivity and AI. And it's already happening today. And it will continue.
AI will change the way we work, the way we live in ways that we can't imagine. And that's why I'm proud and excited to lead my team and be part of this industry with boundless opportunities. Thank you so much.
At the heart of every great building, we engineer integrated systems for heating, cooling, and sanitary applications, enabling energy efficiency, providing safe and clean drinking water, mitigating labor shortages. We bring buildings to life by achieving energy and resource efficiency. Please welcome Maarten van de Veen.
Did you know that buildings, and because you probably know already, but did you know that buildings consume 40% of the global energy? And did you know, and you maybe do, that Europe alone has 65 million inefficient boilers that need to be replaced by renewable solutions like heat pumps and underfloor heating?
And that's where prefabricated skids come in, like this great one, filled with all the products of the Aalberts building segment, like boiler room technology, like connection systems, like valve systems, like our hot water treatment solutions. Solving the problem of time and labor shortage and helping us to tackle these issues going forward. On behalf of my more than 6,000 colleagues of the Aalberts building segment, I can say with absolute certainty that's the opportunity we come to work every day to help unlock. That's why, after nearly three decades with Aalberts, I'm as excited today with all the opportunities ahead of us and the power of entrepreneurship and innovation we are having in our company to unlock this potential as I was on my first day back in 1996.
So allow me to tell you a bit more about what we are doing across the building arena to unleash the potential of our people, our customers, and those they serve. So what are the key points about Aalberts' successes and the plans that I would like to share with you today? These are the headlines. The greenification of buildings is absolutely driving the demand for renovation and for renewable systems significantly. And as a result, pre-assembly and prefabrication are absolutely playing a significant role in reducing construction and installation time scales. These kind of tailor-made solutions are also used in the fast-growing data center market, where we build skids like that one, including all our solutions and all our products. We are also actively increasing our share of wallet and projects through cross and upselling. And this is driving the growth in our product lines. And that's not all.
We are also fully focused on growing our U.S. business. We are focused on the growth with our valve and connection systems, our boiler room technology, of course. But also, we focus a lot on inorganic growth by broadening and completing our product range, especially in so-called adjacent technologies that are close to our core. Our dedicated sales teams are fully focused on increasing our market shares, of course, supported by continuous new product developments. On some of these developments, I will come back later on. Finally, when it comes to energy efficiency, the quality of the water is super important. It's absolute super important. This water has to be increased continuously in order to get the right conductivity. If you have the right conductivity in your heating water, you're really reducing energy consumption a lot.
That is, of course, this whole business is a major source of growth for our service business. Aalberts is really well prepared and positioned to achieve even greater growth. We have a well-balanced product and service portfolio combined with a major focus on digitalization. Let's have a closer look. We have absolutely leading positions across our key areas and markets, with our sales currently spread mainly across North America and Europe. Across our segments, we have a balanced exposure to renovation and new build, as we also do between residential and non-residential. We are placing a growing emphasis on digital solutions because that's so important to have these digital solutions also in place to support the whole maintenance and replacement market. How do we create value in buildings? The answer lies in a careful combination of our products and services.
We have a really comprehensive offering of connection systems, pipe systems, and boiler room technology, and together, together with our water treatment services, we apply them in this kind of skids. This kind of skids that we supply also to data centers, but this kind of skids that we also supply to the retail market, to other commercial buildings, to the district heating market segment as well, and of course, we support, we actively support, let's say, our customers with design services, digital services as well. Because it's not only about products and services. It's about how we apply them across every step of the building process with an integrated one-stop product approach, so we focus on the complete building lifecycle, and maybe some of you have seen this lifecycle before because not completely new. We are focusing from the idea phase to the completion and beyond.
We focus on design services in the design phase with technical drawings, and we support our customers there also with calculations, energy use calculations, for example, so when it comes to the next phase, the construction phase, we supply the prefabricated skids and all the preassemblies. When you look to the completion phase, we are adding services to our customers. We are making service contracts with the building owners, but we also supply all kinds of commissioning and training to the people that work with our products, for example, the maintenance people, and during the operational phase, of course, we supply digital services continuously and maintenance and service as well, and via our lifecycle sales approach, we supply our skids and solutions again during the renovation phase, so that's the end of the circle, and then we create recurring revenue, recurring sales. That's how we call that.
To continuously be partnering with our customers, like building owners, architects, owners, and consultants, we really create finally recurring revenue and sales for our business. Let's have a look. Let's have a look into our market environment. We are benefiting from a market that is showing strong long-term growth. Stéphane was already referring to it. There is a short-term and there is a long-term. This market absolutely will benefit from long-term growth drivers. We see that across all our businesses, all our market segments, like the residential market, like the commercial market, and especially, of course, the whole data center market is really growing significantly, as you can see also at this slide. Of course, there is no company or industry that is living in isolation.
We are absolutely in a unique position to capitalize on a number of positive tailwinds that will help to propel our growth and success even further. And my colleagues have already mentioned these tailwinds, so I won't repeat what I have said. All what I would like to add is that for Aalberts building segment, we are really strongly connected with the whole energy transition. We are really enablers of the energy transition. And with this kind of solutions, like the skids here, but also the skids that you have seen probably at the entrance that are focused on the residential market, we can really accelerate. We can really help accelerate the energy transition a lot. So no matter how positive the market is, all strategy must be turned into execution. All strategy has to be turned into real action. And that's what we are doing.
Many of our new product developments are focused on reducing the energy consumption. Others are focused on mitigating the effects of lack of skilled labor or reducing the failure costs in new build processes. Let me just highlight two of these new product developments. One of them is, of course, the skid that you see next to the stage, and I think I already explained that this product is bringing together all kinds of Aalberts building products, solving the problem for our customer regarding time, absolutely solving that problem and making the life of our customers much easier. Another product development, great product development, is this de-gasser. You just see a black box maybe, but it is a degasser, especially focused when you have heat pumps in combination with low temperature systems, underfloor heating.
All underfloor heating systems in the world should have this product because it is creating much more energy efficiency by taking away the small gas and air bubbles in a system. And the more small gas and air bubbles you have in your system, the more resistance, the more resistance, the more energy you have to consume. This is solving that problem. So when you go home, call your installer, tell them that they have to install this Flamco XStream. It's a really great product with a great future. If you draw everything together that I've said, why are we in such a good position to compete? Because we really combine a set of clear advantages in a way that positions us to drive really profitable growth and to maintain our leadership.
And those sources of a competitive advantage, that's including our complete integrated system offering that is providing a complete HVAC solution focused on including connection systems, valve systems, expansion systems, etc., into the prefab and digital solutions. And our engineering knowledge and customer partnerships enable us to co-develop and customize project-specific solutions like that one. We work absolutely closely together with our customers, contractors, architects, installers, wholesalers, our distribution partners to provide perfect support in the field throughout the whole building lifecycle. And our sales force, our extensive sales force in more than 50 countries where we have local presence, especially in Europe and the U.S., do, of course, support our customers with market knowledge, with technical support, with telling them all the benefits of our products. And they, of course, also know a lot about all the local regulations.
This is supported by a strong global supply chain and our sourcing capabilities, of course, ensure product availability, a good quality of the products, good costs, and lead time optimization. As you can see, we have a clear strategy and a clear plan to recharge the building business, and our commitment to energy efficiency, to clean drinking water, and to time-saving solutions continuously is recharging our approach to the full building technology range. We think we are unique. We are unique in our offering of a complete, really complete and comprehensive product range that is providing one-stop service for our customers in combination with digital solutions.
As a result, there is probably no other company quite as well positioned as Aalberts to support the whole drive towards energy efficiency, the evolution of smart buildings, and the way that Aalberts can support the whole energy transition and the way to smart buildings will absolutely give us a competitive edge and will further recharge the building business in the years ahead. It has been my pleasure to tell you a little bit more about what we are doing in the Aalberts building segment, and I'm absolutely looking forward to the discussion later today. Thank you. Maybe I can hand over to Stéphane again.
Thank you, Maarten. You have just seen how we will recharge our three business segments. You have just seen what makes us unique. You have just seen how attractive the end market is where we are playing.
You have seen our plan to reach short and long-term targets. Now that we come to the end of our capital markets day before opening the Q&A session, I would like to summarize it all. Thrive 2030, it's about setting new ambitions for Aalberts. It's our roadmap for the long term. It's our path to unleash the full potential of the company. As I mentioned, we are committed to our 2026 target. We still have two years to reach them. Some of the KPIs are on track. Some obviously are under challenge, like the organic growth and the growth CAGR, but that's still our commitment. As you have just seen today, Thrive 2030 is in three words: refocus, rebalance, and recharge. Refocus is where we can lead. Leadership position based on the Aalberts way, investing in people, investing in operational excellence, and investing in innovation.
Rebalancing between our three segments, between Europe and the U.S., with our capital allocation, with our accelerated M&A, divesting what is non-core, and doubling our revenue in the U.S. Recharging our three segments. You have seen it today. You have seen the commitment from our business leader. You have seen the excitement. They have shown you how we are going to recharge our three segments, and at the end, Thrive 2030, it's about us reaching these two targets, being more than EUR 4.5 billion revenue and more than 18% EBITDA but again, not only being a global company, but being locally driven. That's what for me is very important, that that remains the way we work and that what makes us win at the end, the Aalberts way, so we are ready to unleash the full potential of the company.
And thriving for us will mean that we are a great company for our customers, for our people, for society, but at the same time, we are a great stock for all our shareholders with the returns we will deliver. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure to host all of you today. And now we are going to prepare for the Q&A session. Thank you very much.
Please welcome Rutger Rölke.
Yes, good morning. It's time to start with our Q&A session. I would like to invite everybody also joining via the webcast to submit questions because we will try to answer all your questions. We will start nevertheless with questions here live from the audience. So let's see. David. David Kerstens from Jefferies.
Thank you, Rutger. Good morning, everybody. It's David Kerstens from Jefferies. Two questions, please.
First, on the rebalancing, how will you? Can you elaborate on how you will grow the semiconductor business to one-third of your revenue by 2030? I think that compares to around 10%-15%, 15% maybe today. Does it mean that all the M&A you are targeting, the EUR 1 billion in incremental revenue from M&A will mostly come from semiconductor? And it probably means that building will become smaller. Is that where you see most of the divestments? And then the second question, Arno, you talked about allocating EUR 200 million-EUR 250 million to M&A per annum. And I think that is a net of divestments. How do you see the prices that you are going to pay? And what are the opportunities you are seeing in Southeast Asia and semiconductor? Thank you very much.
Let me just make an intro and then hand it over to you, Patrick.
First of all, I think in all our business, we have an organic growth path. In semiconductor, actually, the organic growth, based on the long-term commitment we have and agreement with our customer, is there. The factory we are building is out for the long-term growth. The growth is already there. I would say it's going to be also a balance between organic and inorganic, also in semiconductor. Let me hand it over to Patrick.
Yeah, and to add to what Stéphane said, obviously, we already have quite some substantial growth in organic growth in semiconductor for the last few years, and we expect that to continue. As we see this market evolving into more integrated systems, we believe that we also need to expand our offering.
And that is not only M&A to create a bigger footprint, but it's also to make sure that we integrate more technologies to be able to serve our customers better. So you can expect us to look at all kinds of opportunities to expand our portfolio. And M&A will be one way of doing it, but we'll look also at what we can do organically to further innovate and create more solutions going forward.
I will add before I hand it over to Arno that actually we see also in our M&A agenda a balance between building industry and semiconductor. So you should not expect us to do most of the acquisition in semiconductor because in building, again, like we mentioned, portfolio in the USA and in industry in the USA. So you should expect a very good balance of acquisition across our three segments.
Now, about the.
Yeah, and clearly, of course, there is some difference in pricing when you look to the different segments for acquisitions. But I think we also always are very clear in how we look at that. So if you talk about disciplined capital allocation, we really clearly look to the payback. So in how much time can we earn back our money that we deploy on such an acquisition? And for that, we always have a very solid, let's say, criteria. It should be between seven-eight years' time. So even if you have to pay a little bit more for a company or for a segment where apparently the growth is also stronger, and still you are able to earn back your money in an acceptable time. So for us, that is how we look at these projects. And you're right.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it correctly, but the net deployment of 200-250 million EUR annually is the sum of, of course, cash-out acquisitions and cash-in of disposals.
Yeah. Thank you.
Martijn den Drijver, ABN AMRO ODDO.
Thank you, Rutger, Martijn den Drijver, ABN AMRO ODDO. My first question is about that target for 2030, the 4.5 billion EUR. If you take out the net of the acquisitions and the investments, I think Arno will say that it's about roughly 500 million EUR. You get to 4 billion EUR. You're now at 3.1 billion EUR or around that number. If you calculate that growth rate, that's exactly the same as 2021, 2022, 2026, 4-5%. So why do you need more CapEx to realize the same organic growth? That's question number one. And my second question is for Martijn and Patrick, speaking a little bit more incremental, not in generalities.
Can you add examples, real examples of products that you're going to add to the product line? Thank you.
Okay, let me maybe take the first one about the CapEx. You said correct that the organic growth is still the main part of it, but it's in the benchmark of 4%-6% that we also at this moment. On the other side, first of all, the company is growing. So the relative spend of CapEx in this growing business is going down. And secondly, yeah, if we don't continue to invest in innovative product lines with pricing power and higher margin, we can also at the end not achieve the increased EBITDA target. So it's a combination of that.
And then on the question of where to add products, I cannot be very specific of where it will be, but I can tell you that we continue to look at what are the challenges this industry is facing. And that's no surprise. It's all around making sure that machines are able to produce chips faster with higher output, higher yield, smaller lines. And that is putting a lot of requirements on all the technologies we already have, including maybe some of the additional adjacencies we're looking at. So we'll be focused on those areas that can improve yield and output.
Yeah, Martin, if I tell you what companies we are looking after, that will drive up the price. So I'm not going to do that, of course. But wait. What we are looking for is, let's say, adjacencies to our core.
So, we are really strong, let's say, in the boiler room, but maybe you are not complete. So that's the reason that we acquired a few companies in water treatment. Such an important market for us. That's what we did over the last few years. So you can think about this kind of opportunities. Secondly, in the U.S., we still have the opportunity to broaden our product range. Arno was already mentioning the source-to-emitter philosophy. You also know that already because you have seen that many times in our factory in Almere, how we do this. We are in the U.S. not complete. So we are starting all kinds of initiatives to focus also on organic growth, starting with the production of expansion vessels, for example. But also we are looking to further complete our whole product range.
Thank you, Martin.
I think I just want to add. I always, I think, mention when you go in the boiler room and please go whenever you are in a building or at home or when you are in your hotel, everywhere, go and look and you will see all the Aalberts' products. But look also in this room what is not part of our portfolio. That's where all the candidates are and that's why Martijn is looking at what will make sense for us to add in our portfolio, but always in this source-to-emitter scope. There you see a lot of opportunity to expand from a portfolio point of view.
Thank you for the addition, Stéphane.
Luuk van Beek, Degroof Petercam. One question about the profile of the companies you're looking to acquire because I know in the past you've been a bit reluctant to buy large companies becuse there's more competition for them. They tend to have non-core parts and sometimes there are turnaround candidates which are not looking at. Has that changed or have you identified new large targets that don' t have those objections? W
What do we mean by large targets? Let's say, I think, of course, when you look at our M&A plans, when we talk about portfolio, these not necessarily have to be big companies. But when we talk about footprint, for instance, for Maarten in North America or for Patrick in Southeast Asia, yeah, it could be a bigger company. It could be a larger company.
But then automatically you have less overlap because it's outside the area or you're not strong yet in that area or it's outside the area where you're active at this moment. So we see good opportunities there also for bigger acquisitions.
Can just tell you we have a very strong funnel of target which we are looking at, right? And then the question is the right valuation because never we will overpay, right? And whether we will be able to conclude, we'll see next year, but the funnel is there according to the three priorities. So I think you should expect more dynamic in 2025.
And on the divestments, is that spread more or less evenly across your portfolio? And can you say anything about the average margin of the companies that you're looking at?
I will not mention the margin, but you can understand that with our ambition to be more than 16% in 2020, things are going beyond 18%. This is our real focus. But I will just say that you should expect most of our divestments between building and industry. That is where will be most of the activity, not obviously in semiconductor.
And maybe to add, the 18% plus objective for 2030 is for all our three segments. So at the end, we are targeting all our three business segments to perform above 80%. Thank you.
Ruben Devos from Kepler Cheuvreux. I just have one question related to the data center opportunity and just how could we assess that? I think you talked about RESI, non-RESI, the sort of CAGRs you expect, 4%, data centers 10%. Just, of course, what's the exposure today to data centers?
And I think if you look at your comprehensive product portfolio within building, what is most accustomed to the data center demand? How easy could that scale? So any thoughts you could share on that? Yeah, first of all, that market is growing very fast. We all know that, of course. We did not start a very long time ago with, let's say, approaching this market, but we are really well established, I think, to make all, let's say, this kind of solutions like these kits we built in one of our factories in Poland. We already were building their kits for the district heating market. And we are really creating more space, let's say, to, or we already have created more space there to ramp up very fast.
We have a focused sales team, both in North America and Europe on this market, and it will absolutely become a more significant part of our revenue in the future. It's currently quite small. It's not really big, but growing really fast. It's absolutely growing really fast, not only by the way in the data center business, but also in the commercial market, retail. It's a very attractive market for all of us, and I would say later on, you can, of course, have a closer look into this kit, but it's mainly boiler room equipment in combination with all kinds of, let's say, connection systems, valves, but also the water treatment, as I said in the beginning, is absolutely very important. We are really capable with the expertise we are having in our factories to answer this demand in the market.
This is not only in Poland, by the way. We also have a factory in Germany where we can build the smallest kits that you have seen at the entrance for the, let's say, more residential market. And that's already part of our DNA for a long time, I would say. So we're really capable both on the technical side, but also on the, let's say, production capabilities and also on the sales part to cope with this much higher demand that's coming into the market.
I will add on top of that that in the US, right, our team are actually working on that right now, trying to make an offering because there is such a huge growth in the USA.
And Martin with his team, nw also with Jacob, our new CEO for IPS, they are working together and see how we can bring some complete offering for the U.S. data center. So it's one of the key growth drivers in our doubling revenue in the U.S.
All right, thank you. And then just a second question related to semicon. And I think you talked about strategic footprint expansion in Southeast Asia. I think today you have more than 90% in Europe. Yeah, very curious whether you could talk about, yeah, is that because of sort of you want to set up support centers for a lot of local production that's taking place in that region? Are you looking to make inroads maybe in non-litho because you have a relatively concentrated customer base today in lithography?
So yeah, interesting to hear whether you're also looking at opportunities and deposition and etch and these types of.
Yeah, basically the answer is yes, yes, and yes. We will look at all options. It's clear that our customers today are not only in litho. We are already supplying some of the technology as well outside of litho, and that is growing quite fast. And most of that is already in Asia. So some of our shipments already go into Asia. Going forward, we will see more production regionalizing in the different regions in the world. And that requires us to also make sure that we can supply them out of those regions. And then on top of that, that will allow us also to cross-leverage the capability and sometimes the lower cost structure that we can see in Asia and utilize that as well into our European customers.
We need to anticipate the fact that going forward, also our European customers might not always continue to do production only here in Europe. We need to be ready for that. That's why we're so adamant on making sure that we have our future footprint there. Thank you, Ruben.
Thanks.
Morning, gentlemen. Thijs Hollefstelle, ING. Sorry to circle back to the disposal program, but is it, let's say, four companies of 100 million you're going to divest, or is it smaller pieces to get a sense for how quickly you could achieve the full disposal program? It's some bigger and some smaller, Thijs. It's a mix of sizes, I would say. In relation to that, what are the parameters for us to calculate the potential share buyback and also the size of these share buyback programs?
Now, let's say, first of all, we aim to do it annually, as I already said, but secondly, we see it as when we announce the full year results that we also announce, of course, the share buyback proposal for that year, so I would like to wait for the full year 2024 closing before we announce it, but then we will make it clear.
Marking back to the idea just to follow up, do you have then some kind of criteria for leverage ratio that it needs to be below a certain level, or what kind of financial criteria do you use to determine the amount for your share buyback?
Let's say it's not only leverage ratio, it's also what is on the table, right? A nd therefore, I believe the period of the closing of the year in the beginning of the next year is the right moment to make the right estimation of what we still need to allocate for our growth plans, both for CapEx as well as for acquisitions, what is on the table for those disposals. So we will make an annual analysis of that before we announce it to the outside world.
To come back to the organic growth that you foresee, the 4%-6% range, actually a bit surprised. First of all, it already was mentioned a much higher elevated CapEx level. And on top of that, also a sizable divestment program of which I do believe that that organic growth is below the average of the group. So why shouldn't we, or why should have we, why do you expect still this 4%-6%?
And with respect to this 4%-6%, how much do you think will be priced and the other volume?
I repeat my answer to Martin, of course, that the relative CapEx is going down because the business is growing with about 50% from where it is today to 2030. And what we now give as a guidance is a slightly higher CapEx allocation on an annual basis. So I think it goes down relatively. Remind me your second question. The price impact for the next year. Yeah, let's say we always assume a normal inflation of, let's say, 1%, 1%-2% per year. That's how we anticipate for future plans.
I'd like to get back on the CapEx because I think it's two times the same question, maybe to try what we mean that if you look at the next two years, we see the CapEx going to peak without including M&A. So when you take the business we have right now, that's what we mean that the CapEx intensity should go down beyond two years. Then when you see an increase of CapEx, it's in anticipation on the M&A we will do because, of course, when we acquire business, we add CapEx, we fuel the growth to drive additional profitability. So expect us, and I think that's what I was maybe talking to some of you over the last months, that the next two years you'll see a peak and then you'll see more normalization excluding M&A.
And now when you see the absolute value, you see an increase, but because of the M&A we plan to do beyond the next two years.
Thank you. And lastly, with respect to transparency of your financial reporting, is that just presenting Q1 and Q3 results, or are you also willing to provide more financial KPIs?
Let's say in the quarterly reporting in Q1 and Q3, we will give revenue, organic growth, EBITA and EBITA %. And in the half year and the full year, of course, the full financial pack, including free cash flow and CapEx, etc. But in the segment reporting, what we will disclose in the half year and the full year will be the same as what we do today. So revenue growth, organic growth, revenue, EBITA, EBITA %, and CapEx. Thank you. Arno.
Chase, Van Lanschot Kempen. Thank you.
This is Chase Coughlan from Van Lanschot Kempen. Just maybe one more question on the EUR 4.5 billion 2030 target. I think you showed a lot of slides that included the expected CAGR for all the businesses you have. Mostly we're all around 4% plus, some even higher. So I'm curious on this target, as we've already discussed, if you strip out the acquisition growth, you're looking at around 4% organic. You just mentioned 1%-2% inflation. Is there some conservatism there and what other sort of factors are you baking in? Also, if you expect some market share gains, that seems a little bit conservative to me, but just curious on any more commentary for that.
Thank you. Thank you for the push and for the question. I think first of all, we need to deliver our 2026 target.
Let us reach our goals in 2026, and then we can talk even for beyond 2026, but we still believe it's ambitious because we are also very cautious of what is happening on the short term. That is finding the right balance between short term and long term. A bit, you could say, confident with what Patrick shared with the semicon, as we see mid- to high-single-digit growth, but with building and industry, more mid-single-digit growth. That is why between the challenge on the short term and the excitement on the long term, we believe this is the right realistic target. By the way, we are proud of our track record, so to overdeliver and underpromise. That is also, of course, important when you set your goals further.
Thank you for that. One more final follow-up.
I just believe there was a slide that talked about some further footprint optimization in the presentation. I'm curious on the size of that, if there's a number of facilities you want to close or any more commentary on that would be helpful.
Thank you for asking the question because indeed we are still on track with 2026, and what was the target we set up in 2026? Was to go to 108 sites from 130 today. So you can do the math. We are still on track to reach the 108, but I want to be very clear, the goal is not the number of sites. Because if you look in all business, actually more sites is more business, more margins. So the goal is to reduce cost, improve margin, and reduce inventories by optimizing our footprint.
But for 2026, you should expect 108 sites, so still 22 to go. Okay, very clear.
Thank you for the presentations.
Thank you, Chase. Do we have yes? Another question from Christoph Berenberg.
Thank you. Christoph Greulich from Berenberg. Yeah, I wanted to follow up on your commitment regarding the 2026 target. So you mentioned that some of your KPIs seem like they're under challenge, including the organic growth. Do you already see any more positive signals from, let's say, the key end markets that make you more optimistic or that give you that confidence? And are there any ways for you to mitigate potentially if the end market weakness will last for longer? And then secondly, another one for Patrick on the semicon business. So you talked about the importance of the integrated solutions.
How much of the current revenues in this segment are already coming from such integrated solutions? And is there any target for the medium term in place? How much they should contribute?
Okay. Let me answer the first one. I think we just did our trading update 7 of November, where we gave, I think, colors about the market dynamic. I have to tell you that three weeks later, we don't see major changes. Still, the same challenge on the building side, especially in France and Germany, and still better outlook in the Middle East, in Asia, and in the Americas. So I would say no major change, and we don't foresee a major change also, at least in the first half 2025.
And then in the rest, in semicon, it remained very volatile, different dynamic, and it can go from the top to lower in a short period of time. And in industry, like we say in the trading update, automotive slowing down, but still some growth in the power generation in aerospace. So I would say no major change compared to the last trading update, at least for the first half next year. Patrick?
Yeah, and on your question of how much is already integrated, I'm not going to give you any percentages, but I can tell you that we're already shipping quite some stuff from the different sites to each other and then integrating that. But typically, this ecosystem way of working that we have in this industry has a lot of potential to further optimize that.
And for us, that means that we can fully integrate what we're already offering and supplying out of one plant. That's step one. And then on top of that, there is a huge opportunity to further think about how can we optimize the designs going forward, take cost out, and offer more value to our customers. And that's why I wanted to highlight that that is definitely something that we're already doing partly, but there is much more opportunity going forward, and it is needed. It is needed in this industry to bring it to the next level.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Christoph. Another Christoph.
Good morning. Christoph Selbach, KBC Securities. Just a few questions on the disposals. Regarding the timing, is there any chance you would require additional restructuring before fetching the right price and doing the disposal?
And then on your website, you published a release in which you announced the deduplication of leadership in IPS. How should we read into this? Is this part of the disposal agenda? And then finally, now that the share buybacks are part of the capital allocation policy, does this mean that maybe you first want to dispose before you do a big acquisition? Thank you.
Thank you. A lot of questions. Let me start, but something which I want to be very clear. The leadership change we have done has nothing to do with divestment. It's for me a way to accelerate growth, to accelerate proximity, to accelerate innovation, and to accelerate operational excellence because the agenda in the U.S. and the agenda in Europe are quite different. And that's why I'm so excited to have two new colleagues that are here in the room that will drive that.
So the goal is margin expansion, cash optimization, and growth because I have seen, and I was so pleased to meet many of our customers, and I see the potential with the footprint we have in the U.S., with our brand, with our portfolio, with our people. I think I mentioned to many of you, it's up to us to grow this business. So that's for the first questions. Talking about divestment, you want to? I think divestments, divestments. The major topic, of course, is timing. So we will, of course, prepare divestments in a good way, as we have always been doing also in the past, to create the maximum value for our shareholders in that perspective, and we are not in a hurry because it's not necessary to do first a divestment to be able to make an acquisition.
That's exactly the reason that we always want to be comfortable in our leverage ratio because we can move forward for any opportunity that passes by and not necessary to wait for before we do a disposal. So that's not the issue. Yeah, you're fine. Good.
Thijs Hollefstelle, ING.
Yes, good morning, and thank you for taking my question. So Thijs Hollefstelle from ING. Trying to understand the semicon acquisition landscape in Southeast Asia. So are we kind of talking about 10 or over 100 companies with relevant revenue range of, let's say, EUR 10 million-EUR 100 million annually?
You want to go first? Maybe you start.
Well, the landscape of possible candidates is obviously big. There are many companies in Southeast Asia. What is important to understand is that it requires quite some capabilities to be able to serve this semicon industry, from cleanliness to accuracy to process to methods.
Then when you dive into that, then the landscape is getting already a bit smaller. And for us, it's important to make sure, and that's why we're continuously evaluating all options, what are the best possible ways to increase that footprint. And we will do so with scrutiny to make sure that this will truly add value to what we offer to our customers.
Thank you, Patrick. Second round of questions. Martin.
Hi. Maarten Verbeek, The Idea. Besides the, let me say, official targets you set for 2026, there was also one concerning your inventories between, I do believe, 17.5% and 18.5% of revenues. Is that still one you believe is achievable in 2026? And is that still one which is maybe also valid for 2030?
Yeah. Let's say, as you know, we are working on these inventories all the time. And that is really driven per business team.
Everybody has an inventory improvement plan and is on top of that. We are making progress. Although, of course, when organic growth is as it is today, it is a little bit more difficult to really reduce the number of days in a short time, but also there we focus one to two years ahead, and we are still comfortable that we have always said we want to come back to the 2021 situation in 2024. Now, that looks that we are close down towards a better level. It's a continuous process, and for sure, we see opportunity to improve it further also after 26, so that is one of the reasons that we are also comfortable with this free cash flow conversion ratio objective of 65%. Yes, I will say to your answer, especially in building.
This is where we have the biggest opportunity to lower inventories.
And that's what operational excellence, with what I present, should deliver. This is where, while improving service level, we can lower inventory in our building segment. Because you can imagine in our industry segment, it's less relevant as most of it is about services. So we don't have a lot of inventory. And in our Semicon, this is not yet, let's hope it will never become an inventory issue, at least inside us. But building is where, so in 50% of Aalberts today, this is where we need to do better, especially in 2026. And then we will raise the bar even more in 2030. But let's deliver first 2026 target.
Thank you. Another question. Hilco.
Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. Hilco Wiersma from Antaurus, long-term shareholder since 2007. Thank you for the clear presentations. But besides refocus, rebalance, and recharge, we miss re-rating, re-rating of the shares Aalberts.
Aalberts went public in 1987 for 30 times price earnings multiple, and now we are around 12 times, so we are glad, very happy that besides the capital allocation plans with the share buyback, what is the definition of the cash available, the cash access? Please explain.
The definition is that we should not be delayed in our growth plans for capital allocation, so both for CapEx and for acquisitions, so yeah, it is, I understand that you are looking for more, let's say, definition, but that is the open definition that we can give you. It is one of our allocation priorities, but it is also the number four, of course, so it's first the dividend, then the CapEx, then the acquisitions, and then when still cash is available and not blocking our growth plans, we have the ambition to do an annual buyback program.
So I would say be a little bit patient for February, where we will announce the first program. Thank you.
Thank you. David.
Thank you. Follow-up question, Arno, on your target for incremental return on invested capital of at least 18%. Can you remind us where you are today? I think you're probably already almost there, right? And previously, you targeted 18%-20% average return by 2026. That's with an EBITDA margin of 16%-18%. Now, 18% EBITDA margin, 18% return. Does it mean your business is becoming more capital intensive?
Let's say we believe that the return on incremental capital employed is a better KPI to evaluate the success that we have with the allocation of our capital, with increased allocation of capital. That's correct. So we are going to intensify acquisitions.
CapEx, I don't fully agree because also the business is growing, so that will be more or less the same. But that should drive, at the end, profitability higher. But for sure, of course, we are going to acquire companies so that is normally dilutive for your ROIC, where CapEx projects are accretive to your ROIC. So in that balanced way, we believe that the return on incremental capital employed over the last 10 years gives a good performance indicator. At this moment, you know, last year we were at 20.9% in 2023. So my expectation is that it is a little bit under pressure in the coming years because of more capital allocation. But still, in 2030, we should be able to perform again above 80%.
Thank you. On the webcast. Anyone.
Willem Burgers, Add Value Fund. I've been a very long-term shareholder in Aalberts.
I'm happy to be on the journey still, so I'm looking forward to the next five years. Now, my first question would be on your key global clients. I wonder, over the years, has the composition of that group changed? Is it growing? Are your key clients performing better than your average performance? Can you give us a little color on this first question, please? Thank you.
Thank you. I think, first of all, our key global clients, our first global clients, by segment. And you can imagine, and in building, actually, it's even more by regions. So we have global clients in Europe, in building, global clients in the U.S. And that's where we have a growth opportunity either to increase our share of wallet or to make them even more successful. When you look at Semicon, they are all growing, and that's part of the growth.
Patrick is serving the top five key global OEMs in this industry. So we follow them, and actually, we could grow even more. So the challenge is on us to have the right footprint, the right capability, and to be there more as a technology supplier to help them to reduce their complexity. So Semicon, they are doing well, and we follow the wave. And I think in industry, it also depends because the global account on automotive, on aerospace, but don't forget, we have also very local presence. So the global account, I think maybe Oliver can say something about the global key account. I would say they are also quite regional. And I can tell you, some regional accounts are super excited. I think this space is a very good example. When we did the inauguration, many of our customers were in the room.
I can tell you, they were just asking, "Expand capacity. Where are the next modules? We are ready for the growth." Because they see on aerospace a full order book. That's where is the potential for us. But maybe Oliver.
To bring you a bit of that context, the market I have referred to was one automotive and the other one was aerospace and gas turbine. If you look in the automotive industry, when you go some years back, development cycle was six-to-eight years. So Mr. OEM, he thought about making a new vehicle, so then he investigated what he was doing. You have six-to-eight years change. When you look at the current market dynamics and people looking for more electrification of cars, that is not market-driven, where people are having a certain amount of time, that is from rules-driven.
So that means it has to go faster because I think in whatever years, you have to have electric vehicles. So that makes the whole thing more capital-intensive for the entire supply chain. When you go down to the T1 suppliers, T2 suppliers, that is normally our customer structure. So when we talk about growth acceleration because of that development, which is faster than, let's say, the normal market dynamics, we have opportunities, especially when you look at the business segment, where Stefan said it's a local business where we, because of the proximity which is required in that business, that we have the capital strength and the balance sheet also to follow investment requirements. And when you come to the aerospace industry, we have demonstrated that here with that HIP vessel, which everybody has seen, there is a capital-intensive piece of equipment which not everybody can invest to.
We followed, so to say, technical developments by investing into newest technology, which gives us that unique position, which also facilitates growth in certain areas partly above the normal market dynamics. That is why we are so confident for, let's say, for the development of the future.
Probably one more question on the share buyback and your new proposal because it's not very like Aalberts.
In the old days, Jan Aalberts used to call me and say, "Willem, I'm going to do a sub 10 again. Are you in again?" I normally would have been. Today, as my old colleague Hilco just mentioned, there's a big discrepancy between your share price and all the specialists here involved. Their target price on your website. I can calculate the average share price target of Aalberts today is a little over EUR 45.
Today's share price is only EUR 37 and a little bit, which means a discount of 18%, which I think is not a fair reflection of the quality of your great company, your great stock. So I would suggest, but it's only a suggestion of long-term shareholders, maybe the priority of share buyback should be a little higher on your list.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you, Willem. Do we have more questions from the audience? Yes, Martin. Here you are.
Yeah. Follow-up, Martin and Ralph, Eamon and Monroe. You always talked about a drop-through rate target of 25% based on your current portfolio. Now you're shaking that up. You're divesting underperforming businesses that don't fit your target anymore. You're acquiring in higher margin businesses. Is that drop rate of 25 still a target, or should it actually go higher given the portfolio changes you envisage?
First of all, not all disposals are below average margin because we are looking at market attractiveness and the ability to win. So that can also be still a company with a high margin, but not growing that fast, for instance. So that's first. And let's say, secondly, we still have the ambition for that drop-through percentage also in our future growth. Thank you. I think if you, it's a great question, but if you look at the potential portfolio optimization and what could be in the agenda, you have two types of companies that will be candidates for divestment, right? The ones that are underperforming, that we don't see a path to growth, and we don't see a path to reach our EBITDA target. So we will improve, we will restructure and prepare for divestment.
And then you have some which are already doing very well financially, like Arno was saying, but we don't see the fit in Aalberts. And this is not where we want to invest. So this one, we will just keep them, continue to have good return, and wait for the good opportunity to get the best valuation and deploy the capital in more strategic and adjacent M&A. Thank you, Stéphane. I think it's time to go to some of the questions submitted by the webcast audience. Yes, there's a question here, is there a new target of percentage of new products developed over the last five years? The innovation rate, I think that's what's meant with this question. First, it's the last four years, and our ambition is more than 20% innovation rate.
So going forward, more than 20% of our revenue should be coming from innovation, which has been done in the last four years. Excellent. Thank you for clarifying. Then we have some questions about CapEx, whether it's possible to specify a little bit the CapEx in capacity expansions and innovation. Let's say, when you talk about CapEx, I would say approximately half is maintenance, and the other half is always a combination of innovation capacity because for every capacity expansion, of course, you also take the newest production technology. So it's not so easy to make a clear distinction there, but you could assume that about 50-50. Okay, thank you. There's a question about the free cash flow conversion. Can you please explain a little bit more what are the key components in that equation?
It's the free cash flow, so it's the cash flow from operations deducted for the CapEx spent cash out. And that is what you divide on your EBITDA. So that is the free cash flow conversion ratio. Excellent. Then I have a question for Martijn about recurring sales in buildings, especially coming from services and digital. What could be the potential percentage that could become in the future? Percentage of your total revenue. Yeah, we think, of course, that this will grow significantly, and it will absolutely be much more than the 5% that I was showing earlier. And it is already growing very fast, and it will even grow faster in the future, is our expectation. It's difficult to say an exact number. I don't want to do that. But it will absolutely become a significant part of our business in the future. And it's an enabler.
It is, especially the digital part, absolutely an enabler for the rest of our business. So the more digital you sell, also the more, let's say, products you sell as well. Again, like Maarten said, the goal is not about digital sales, so this should not be a standalone KPI, right? The goal is to solve customer challenges, either through a best-in-class product, through a solution, or through a digital offering. And sometimes digital offering is the enabler to sell more of the core products. So by experience, I think we need to be careful to not just be targeting digital for the sake of digital. It's just one tool when the customer wants this. And of course, we see the potential to have higher, but to put a target, it's always for me challenging.
I can show you that later on, but it is also already integrated in the products. This part of the product, so we shall not include it. Thank you. I have a question for Oliver about automotive business, which faces at this moment quite a bit of headwinds, especially in your home country, Germany. You show a quite positive picture. How should we combine these two potentially conflicting signals? The growth you see in the picture versus the headwinds you face at this moment. I will lay out that we have principally a growth path in, let's say, in entire Europe or the markets we have a presence in. When you have short-term headwinds, yeah, you have short-term headwinds, and that is how it is, and that is how the business is structured.
We, as a company, being, let's say, so long in that business, have our abilities to manage that. Also, on a short-term basis, we could flex our cost as much as possible to keep the quality of the results alive. So we don't see that as a challenge, which is a long-lasting event. I think the challenge on automotive, it's very fair, right? We got the question always, but that's also one of the reasons we want to be more diverse in end market, right? So you see in industry between Europe and the US, and that also can help to balance automotive, but also to have a more balance, that's what we mean also rebalance between automotive, aerospace, machine build, and other industry. That will make our performance even more resilient for the future and be a bit less dependent on automotive in the long term. Thank you.
Then, I have a question for Arno about return on capital. We have now an objective for return on incremental capital employed. Will you still report on the return on capital employed? Yeah, of course. Every year we report on the return on capital employed. It's one of our normal KPIs. Yeah. Excellent. Thank you. I think there's another live audience question. Yes, here you are.
Hi, Peter Sandé, Antaurus Europe Fund. A question for Maarten, please, while we have some time. I'd love to tap your brain a bit on what you see in your renovation business. I think if we were to be standing here a few years ago following the start of these energy crises in Europe, I think by now we would have anticipated to see more activity on the renovation side. I think it's a little bit more subdued, perhaps, than people had envisioned.
Could you share some of your feedback, what you're seeing and hearing from the market, and when you anticipate that renovation rate to really start emerging? Of course, absolutely, there is a need for the whole energy transition. There's absolutely a need to make buildings much more greener. And I think we don't have to mix up short-term and long-term, so to say. This whole energy transition and the greenification of building that will happen on the longer term. But of course, that is a little bit tempered currently because of all the inflation, everything was happening also in the different governments. That is not really helping. But finally, we believe that legislation will absolutely drive the long-term growth in this business. And we see already that countries where there is still, where there is a stronger legislation, that the market is growing faster than, let's say, than the markets.
For France, for example, there is a very strong regulation also in the U.K., and that will come in more and more also in the other countries. So we still believe, and once again, there is a difference between the short-term and the longer-term, but absolutely this will become a large growth driver for the future. And maybe a small follow-up. If we look at the status quo of your building product portfolio, probably everything related to new build is currently down. Also, if you look at the underlying end markets in Germany, France, etc. But how is the renovation portfolio doing? Is that also currently slightly down, or is it flattish? You can imagine, of course, that the new build is, of course, yeah, developing different, I would say, than the renovation market. Renovation market is always more stable than a new build.
New build market is always more cyclical, let's say, than renovation. And absolutely, renovation is more stable than the new build. Thank you. Thank you. Question from Bini. Here you are.
It's Bini Zell from Artisan Partners. Just a question on compensation, Stéphane. And for the three BU leaders on the stage, Maarten, Patrick, Oliver. And Oliver, can you talk about the changes? I'm sure you've made some changes, how you compensate these BU level leaders. And what's the biggest delta when you compare now versus before? And what are you emphasizing more? What are you emphasizing less? Thank you. Thank you. You can imagine I'm not going to disclose publicly our remuneration policy and the breakdown of our incentive for all our business leaders.
But what I can tell you is that everyone is measured like us in the management board with their top, bottom line, and free cash flow targets. So that is what is driving them. But like also us, everyone has also some non-financial targets to achieve, which can be some for their BU or some on behalf of the group, because the way to keep the lean and effective structure only works if everyone in the executive team is also acting on behalf of the group. As an example, Maarten has been leading one of our digitalization networks to make sure at the company level we see what we can, what we call share and learn initiative. That's some non-financial targets to act on behalf of the group.
But they are all measured, to be very clear, on their sales growth, on their EBITDA, and on their free cash flow, and with some non-financial targets. And I think for the rest, I will ask you to wait for our annual reports where we may share more a bit about remuneration policy, but not for now. Thank you, Stéphane. I think we have no more questions from the webcast nor from the audience. So I think this would be the proper time to end this webcast. Well, thank you all five for your presentations. Thank you for the audience for your great questions. Also for the webcast, thank you for your interest in Aalberts. So we'd like to close the webcast now. Thank you.