Thank you for joining our full year 2025 financial results presentation. With me today are Marco Deiana, our CEO, and Alessandro Ugo, our CFO. They will take you through our key achievements and financial performance for the period. After the presentation, we will open the floor to questions. Please note that our results material are available for download on our IR website under the Results & Presentation section. The full annual report will also be published shortly. With that, I will now hand over to Marco to begin the presentation.
Thank you, Paola. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. 2025 was a defining year for Ferrari Group, marked by strong operational execution and our successful IPO on Euronext Amsterdam in February. This was a significant milestone for the group. It enhanced our visibility and strengthened our position among our global client base. Importantly, throughout this period, we remain focused on delivering our strategic priorities, and that's clearly reflected in our strong financial performance. We delivered revenue of close to EUR 360 million, up 4.8% at constant currency, with adjusted EBITDA of more than EUR 93 million and a robust margin of 25%, demonstrating the resilience of our business model and our ability to sustain profitability while investing for growth.
The strength of our cash flow generation has allowed us to significantly enhance our net financial position, reinforcing our strategic flexibility and positioning us to actively pursue further growth opportunities. It has also enabled us to propose a dividend of EUR 0.33 per share, which is 22% higher than what we paid last year and represents a payout ratio of 56%. Moving to slide seven. We entered 2025 with a clear strategy focused on geographic expansion, deepening our client base and service offering, while future-proofing our business through digital transformation and enhanced execution capabilities. I'm pleased to say we have delivered meaningfully across all pillars. Let me walk you through the key highlights. First, on geographic expansion, we have significantly strengthened our global footprint, particularly across high-growth and strategically important regions. The statistics on the left-hand side of this page highlight our progress in this area.
We have added more than 40 employees and 5,000 sq m of space across 10 projects in high-growth regions, expanding our existing branches or establishing new ones. Second, on expanding our client base and service offering. While we remain deeply rooted in our expertise in hard luxury goods logistics, in 2025, we took important steps to broaden our scope. We successfully leverage our capabilities, particularly in security, precision handling, and time-critical delivery, to extend our services to a wider range of high-value goods. Our new subsidiary based in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, which will be dedicated to airport handling of high-value goods for a major airport handler, has been successfully established. We have taken steps to expand our operation in Southeast Asia, which include a new logistic hub in Bangkok and ongoing preparation for direct opening in other key location, and I'll cover this in more detail shortly.
This strategic evolution allows us to address a larger addressable market while staying true to our core strengths. It's also reinforced our positioning as a trusted logistics partner for clients who demand the highest standards of care and reliability. Third, on digital transformation. Digitalization continues to be a key enabler for our long-term competitiveness. In 2025, we advanced phase one of our new transport management system and started its deployment in Spain. This initiative is designed to enhance visibility, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen coordination across our global network. It represents a foundational step toward a more integrated and data-driven organization. At the same time, we made further progress in strengthening our cybersecurity framework and upgrading our digital infrastructure. In an increasingly complex risk environment, ensuring that security and resilience of our system is essential. Finally, on leadership and organization.
To support our growth and improve execution, we adopted a more regionally focused leadership model this year. This approach brings decision-making closer to the markets we serve, enhance local accountability, and allow us to respond more quickly and effectively to client needs. By strengthening our leadership structure, we are ensuring that our global strategy is executed with local precision. Coming to slide eight. The map on slide eight shows our key focus areas when it comes to geographical expansion in 2025. In addition to the expansion in Amsterdam, which I mentioned earlier, in Europe, we also continue to refurbish our facility at Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. In Southeast Asia, the new logistics hub in Bangkok allows us to handle the logistics flow for an important watch manufacturer and enhances our ability to serve similar clients in the region with greater speed and efficiency.
We also relocated to a new office and opened a new warehouse facility at the Thai Standard Exchange in Singapore, further consolidating our presence in one of the world's key logistics hubs. In Taiwan, we expanded with a new office near Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, improving connectivity and responsiveness for our clients. In North America, we opened a second free trade zone and office in New York, relocated our New Jersey hub, as well as launched a new branch in Doral, near Miami, reinforcing our position in our critical gateway markets for the Americas.
In the rest of the world, we established a new subsidiary in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Looking ahead, we have laid the groundwork for continued expansion in 2026, which we will come on to later. Together, this initiative reflect a disciplined and targeted approach to growth, bringing us closer to our clients while strengthening our global network.
As we have expanded globally, we have also strengthened the depth and quality of our organization. We have brought in new talent, enhanced our capabilities, and maintained a strong retention across the group, an important reflection of our culture. From this year, our regionally focused leadership model will begin to deliver clear benefits, which we expect to see in our financial performance. This investment in our people and structure are critical as we continue to scale the business and deliver on our long-term ambitions. Moving to slide 10. In addition to delivering robust financial performance, we continue to advance our sustainability agenda. On environment, we are advancing our decarbonization plan, enabling us sustained value creation over the medium and long term.
We have set science-based targets officially validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative, targeting a 63% reduction in Scope 1 and 2, alongside a 37.5% reduction in Scope 3 emissions by 2035. We also importantly achieved the EcoVadis Silver Medal certification in recognition of our sustainability initiative and placing us among the top 15% of companies globally for ESG performance and underscoring our commitment to responsible and sustainable growth. On social, we continue to execute our people-centric strategy focused on inclusion, engagement, and development. To ensure accountability at board level, we now have a diversity-related KPI to strive towards. We are also scaling our global learning platform, targeting 100% ESG training across the network by 2030, expanding ISO 45001, and strengthening our talent pipeline through academic partnership. On governance, we maintain a strong integrity lead framework.
This includes board level ESG oversight, integration of ESG into supplier standards, and robust compliance, whistleblowing, and remuneration structure aligned with long-term value creation. Overall, we are embedding ESG across the business to support our long-term growth and ensure continued alignment with customer needs. I will now hand over to Alessandro to provide a more detailed overview of our financial performance.
Thank you, Marco, and good morning, everyone. Moving to slide 12. As you can see, we have made progress across our top line, profitability and net financial position, which I will be diving deeper into on the coming slides. We delivered strong top-line growth in the fourth quarter of 2025 and a solid full-year performance slightly above guidance. While our reported numbers were affected by FX trends, at constant currency, our Q4 revenue increased by 5.2% year-on-year to EUR 99.6 million and by 4.8% to EUR 365.5 million for the full year. Key drivers behind this performance include the strong growth across shipping volumes, taxable weight, and the network coverage in terms of both countries and route. Despite the ongoing expansion, our strong focus on profitability ensure continued improvement in adjusted EBITDA and broadly stable margin at 26%.
Thanks to sustained momentum in cash generation, our net cash position improved by close to EUR 50 million. We believe this shows the resilience of our business model amid the dynamic market condition. As shown on the chart on slide 13, the continued improvement in our top line was primarily due to organic growth. I will go into key trends across our business division on the following slides. Before we move on, I'd like to reiterate the notable FX impact on our reported numbers outside Europe. Looking at our performance by services on slide 14, international services, which represent 2/3 of our revenue, continue to drive growth at 2.5% year-on-year or 4% at constant currency, supported by higher value and weight of goods transported across both existing and new routes.
Domestic services also performed well, with an increase of 4.2% year-over-year benefiting from increased international volume flowing to domestic activity, particularly in key markets such as France, Germany, Italy, the U.S., and UAE. Warehouse and logistics services deliver stable revenues. These reflect some softness in Asia, particularly in China, which was offset by strong demand in Europe, where expanded warehouse and bonded capacity continue to support secure storage needs. Finally, special and other services generate a strong revenue growth at 6.7% year-over-year, equivalent to an 8.5% at constant currency, driven by growing demand for tailored services, especially hand-carry and wide-load services. The fourth quarter remained stable due to some activities being brought forward earlier in the year. Overall, performance across services highlights the strength and resilience of our diversified business model.
Moving on to our revenue by geography on slide 15, you can see that Europe remains our key growth engine. As anticipated, we saw an acceleration in momentum in the fourth quarter, with strong contribution from North America, Brazil, and the rest of the world. While Europe continued to deliver a stable performance, Europe recorded revenue growth of 4.4% to just over EUR 212 million for the year, primarily driven by our French, Dutch, and German subsidiaries, reflecting the positive impact of recent investment in these markets. In Asia, we deliver a particularly strong Q4 performance with organic revenue growth of 13.9%. This was driven by robust results in markets such as Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand, supported by the launch of our new logistics hub in Bangkok, as well as our return to growth in Hong Kong.
This more than offset continued softness in China, where we are now seeing gradual signs of improvement. While this was not enough to fully offset weaker performance earlier in the year, it does represent a clear turning point for our operation in the region. In North America, Brazil, Q4 revenue grew by 13.5% at constant currency, reaching nearly EUR 50 million. This trend contribute to a robust full year performance. While foreign exchange movement impacts the reported financials, underlying demand remains strong. In Brazil, higher gold prices supported volumes, while in the U.S., we expand capacity with the recent opening and expansion in New York and Florida. Finally, in the rest of the world, which represent 12% of our group revenue, full year revenue increased by 14.1% at constant currency. This strong growth was driven by demand in India, Australia, UAE, and Botswana, again, with foreign exchange impacting reported figures.
Overall, the fourth quarter performance reflects both strong underlying demand across key markets and the benefit of our continued geographic expansion. Slide 16 outline our consistently high profitability with stable margin despite investment for growth. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 1% year-on-year to EUR 93.3 million in full year 2025, while adjusted EBITDA margin remained broadly stable at 26%. This was due to a more than proportionate increase in personal costs related to ongoing investment into business expansion and services offering. As you can see on slide 17, we have continued to manage costs in a disciplined manner with only modest increase despite the ongoing expansion of our business. This was mainly driven by higher service costs, particularly shipping in line with growth and further internalization of key activities. Our growing scale and ability to consolidate more shipment reflects in the slightly lower overall shipping cost as a percentage of revenue.
Personnel costs reflect targeted investment in key hire to support our expansion and digitalization. Other costs include a one-off payment related to Italian Customs litigation . Which brings us onto CapEx trend on slide 18. You will see that the capital expenditure during the year was focused predominantly on investments into tangible asset, which form a key element of our footprint expansion and new warehouses. The investment into intangible assets is related to our digital transformation project, which Marco touched on earlier. Overall, our CapEx for the period was stable as a percentage and revenue and only marginally higher than 2024, thanks to our disciplined approach to capital allocation and our asset-light approach.
Moving on to our cash flow generation on slide 19, you will see that close to 23% improvement in cash position to more than EUR 142 million was driven by EBITDA growth, achieved through positive momentum in our operating activities. Cash usage in investing activities is related to investment in tangible and intangible assets. Lower cash used in financing activities mainly reflect the lease repayment and the dividend distributed.
Moving on to our net financial position on slide 20, as you can see, we leveraged our robust performance to further reinforce our balance sheet. Our net financial position is up nearly EUR 15 million year-over-year, and our cash position is up EUR 27 million. This give us a high degree of strategic flexibility as we continue to grow the business. It also allow us to pay our shareholder an attractive dividend of EUR 0.33 per share as mentioned at the end there.
With this, I will hand back to Marco to close with our priorities and expectation for 2026.
Thank you, Alessandro. Looking ahead to 2026, our priorities are focused on driving sustainable growth, strengthening our network, and continuing to enhance profitability. Firstly, we see a significant opportunity to increase our share of wallet across our existing customer base. By leveraging our new regionally focused leadership model, we plan to deepen client relationship and capture greater value across a broader set of locations. Secondly, network expansion remains a key priority. We are focused on completing the operational rollout of our 2025 launches while executing our 2026 pipeline. This will further strengthen our global platform and support future growth. Thirdly, we continue our targeted expansion into new segments. By leveraging our capabilities in hard luxury logistics, we aim to extend our services to a wider range of high-value goods, opening up additional avenues for growth.
Across all these initiatives, we are focused on driving efficiency synergies as we scale the business. At the same time, margin improvement remains a key focus. We will continue to manage costs in a disciplined way while investing in growth and digitalization, with acceleration expected as a new hub and project begin to deliver both revenue growth and efficiency gains. Our operating environment remains dynamic, with the macroeconomics and geopolitical factors continuing to shape global trade patterns. In this context, our resilient business model positions the group to navigate the complexity and support long-term growth. Looking at 2026 specifically, we expect to continue to grow our revenue at the rate of 3%-6% while keeping our margin broadly stable compared to 2025. To support successful execution of our strategy, we plan to maintain a steady level of CapEx at around 2% of revenues.
On the right-hand side of slide 23, we have outlined the key assumption underpinning our targets for this year, including our expectation for the operating environment and our investment plans. Our medium-term expectations remain unchanged and assume that new offices and ongoing project will reach full capacity and begin with making meaningful contribution to revenue alongside efficiency gains from digitalization. On slide 24, let's say that in summary, we deliver a robust performance in a dynamic environment, demonstrating the resilience of our business model. We continue to execute our strategy, expanding our footprint, strengthening our services, and advancing our digital capabilities. Our focus on profitable growth and cost discipline remains clear, supported by a strong balance sheet and solid cash flow.
We are also making good progress on sustainability, aligning closely with client expectations and future needs. Overall, we are well-positioned to sustain this momentum into 2026. Thank you for your attention. We are now happy to take your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our Q&A session. If you have a question, we ask that you please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. Once your name has been announced, you can ask a question. If you want to withdraw your question, please lower your hand using the raise hand function. If you have dialed in by phone, please use star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. Thank you. In a moment for the first question, please. Our first question is from Nicola Stora from Kepler. Please unmute your line and ask your question.
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Yeah.
Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Thanks for the presentation, and thanks for taking my four questions. The first one is about 2025 figures, if you can give us more granularity in particular on what's in other operating costs, which have increased particularly in the second part of the year, and also other income lines. The second one is about your guidance for 2026. Basically, which are the, let's say, assumptions you have made on main cost items, and in particular on personnel cost, which have increased massively again, also in 2025. Third question is again on guidance. I mean, 3%-6% growth in the current environment is good, in my opinion.
I was wondering what you have seen so far as an impact from the war in the Middle East, and if this performance of the first three months of the year is overall consistent with your expectation for the full year, or if you are expecting maybe an acceleration in the second semester, so this guidance is more back-ended loaded. Last question is about pipeline. You have mentioned 2026 pipeline on top of clearly keeps executing on 2025, so if you can give us some more color about what's in your 2026 specifically pipeline. Thank you.
Okay. Maybe I can go starting on the first question that, if I'm not wrong, but correct me, is on other operating costs. The other operating costs.
Yeah, cost and the income. Yeah.
Yes, the cost and income are mainly referring to the operating cost increase due to the Italian customs litigation. That was the payment of debts. Related to that, there is an effect of the real estate operation that we did in September that we already discussed for the Q3 in Hong Kong. Other part, minor part of other litigation costs are due to some legal costs that are referring to 2025. We're adjusted for the reason. On the other hand, on the other income, there is the side effect of the real estate operation as well. There are the IPO costs that were revealed to the shareholding company, and that was Deiana. This was for the other operating costs and other income. The second question is related to the 2026 growth expectation.
I can say that we expect a broadly consistent growth versus previous year. Given the highlighted volatility, we have provided a slightly wider growth range than previously. We will update the market as the situation progresses and as we gain better visibility through the year, of course. We also have a number of projects going on, which we expect will contribute to growth in the future and accelerate the progress toward our midterm targets. That was the question related to Middle East, I think. It's too early for us to assess the full impact on 2026 performance given the fluidity of the situation, of course. We are monitoring developments closely and the regular dialogue with the customer regarding their plans and needs. By the way, our business model is strong and provides a real advantage in these circumstances.
Our global footprint and expertise allow us to react swiftly and redirect business as needed. Some initial observation, high-value products, watch and jewelry, continue to be shipped to other geographies, so we expect to see a shift in revenues to other regions or between quarters. Demand for storage, for instance, has gone up significantly. We have a proven track record of navigating similar crises, which often bring not only challenges, but also opportunities, if you want to say it this way. The last question was referring to the pipeline. Yeah, we are exploring a number of opportunities in Asia in particular, and we will provide further details during the year as we progress in our pipeline. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Robert Jan Vos from ABN AMRO. Please unmute your line and ask your question.
Yes. Hi. Good morning. I hope you can hear me. Maybe a follow-up on the previous question. You reported an increase in personnel costs and also cost for services that was quite a bit ahead of revenue growth in 2025. What to anticipate for the current year? Will these cost items increase faster than revenue in 2026 as well? That's my first question. My second, related to the first question, indeed, 3%-6% in the current environment is quite a robust guidance for revenue growth for the current year, yet you guide flat EBITDA profitability in 2026. My question will be, maybe it's related to my first question, but my question would be, why are you seemingly a bit more cautious on EBITDA profitability for 2026?
My third question, the exchange rate impact on your revenue growth, I remember from March that it was a bit stronger the headwind than at least I had expected. The visibility on that is not great. Based on the current exchange rate, what is now your best guess for exchange rate impact on revenue growth in 2026? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll start with the first question that was related to the personnel costs. We are expecting costs to remain broadly stable in 2026. The quality of the people in our differentiator and enabler group to preserve this we will continue to prioritize retention and invest in talent, a critical element as we continue to deliver on our growth strategy. At the same time, we have identified a number of areas where we can enhance efficiency to mitigate the rise in the personnel costs, and we push through duly in 2026. The second question was related to flat EBITDA. That is related exactly to that. We want to stay conscious of what we said in growth, 3%-6%.
We think that this year, the EBITDA remains stable due to the huge operational activities that we put in place, also in terms of investment, that considering the nature of the company will impact the OpEx because the new opening that we have in mind, the new geographies, the new route, the following, the strategies needs to be prepared, and be prepared means for us, OpEx, especially in terms of labor cost. For that reason, boosting strongly the investment, even in 2026, we will keep the margin stable for the reason. We contribute to growth in the future and accelerate the progress towards our midterm targets as always we said.
The FX participation for 2026 is strictly related to the fact, as we usually say, that our model of billing is related to Incoterms and is related to mainly the decision of the client, who can decide in terms of the Incoterms where we bill and the cost and we bill. Clients usually want to be billed in local currency, and the Incoterms can shift the way to a currency to another as per decision for the client or for the strategy of the client or the methodology of the route or the weight of the local market that can change. The visibility will remain the same that we have on 2025, and the fact of OpEx, of course, was mainly due to the US dollars effect. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from David Kerstens from Jefferies. Please unmute your line and ask your question.
Hi. Good morning, everybody. A couple of questions from my side, please. First, regarding the 2025 EBITDA. The adjusted EBITDA came in at EUR 93.3 million, but I think reported EBITDA at EUR 90.3 million. Can you explain what this EUR 3 million adjustment is for? And then also perhaps in adjusted EBITDA, you highlighted the one-offs.
Can you quantify those effects related to the Italian customs litigation as well as the real estate gains in adjusted EBITDA so we have a better picture of all the one-offs in your reported results? Second question is also on the pipeline for 2026. Do you see now more opportunities to expand compared to the start of 2025? How is your pipeline compared to last year, and when will it start to level off, leading to a full utilization of capacity and growth and margins towards the medium-term objectives, as you describe in your press release?
There may be a question on the impact of the conflict in the Middle East. I think it's leading to a tightening of air freight capacity, not just in the region but elsewhere as well. What's the impact of this tighter air freight market on your business, and does it impact shipments elsewhere? Maybe finally, back in November, you flagged early signs of recovery in the luxury sector, boding well for a pickup in growth and revenue. Have you seen this continue, or has that disappeared now with the Middle East conflict? Those are my questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, David, for your question. I try to follow the flow. The first one was related to the difference between EBITDA margin and maybe adjusted EBITDA. That is mainly due, as we said, to Italian customs litigation. That was around EUR 12.5 million. Then there is the fact of the gain from the acquisition, from the sale of the building that was close to EUR 12 million as well, so EUR 11.8 million. Then non-recurring expenses that are EUR 2.4 million that are related to legal costs. This is the difference between the two. The second one was on pipeline 2026. Yes, we see an expansion, especially in Southeast Asia, where we see the focus and where we have a planned strategy. We already have in mind a great boost there for 2026.
It's an area where we see a great focus, both sides, from client side, global, local, and as well our interest, as we said previously, is more driven by our capacity to predict this type of consideration. There were conflicts. The effect of the conflict, we see an effect of the conflict on the airlines activity. Yes, definitely, it's completely changed the level of the number of the flights that we can use for a certain destination. This comes with the challenge that we have to reroute to other country, reroute to other destination, or reroute and leverage in a different way. As we said before, this could be a challenge, but as well an opportunity for us because every time there is a situation of risk management, I think that Ferrari is perfectly suited to serve that.
We are very close to the client also to potentially put in place a different strategy of distribution. For the last one that was related to the luxury market, I hand over to Marco that is in a perfect position to answer.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Talking about the luxury market and the recovery we saw in September, let's say that, yes, we see the different strategy among different clients. As you know, we serve all our main brands in the luxury logistics market, and we see some expansion, different expansion, this different growth in different geographical areas from different clients. Let's say that we can face all the needs of our main valued clients due to our flexibility to serve them in a different flow, in a different route. If they decide to change the direction of the final destination of the shipment, maybe due to the war or other event. That's why we do not see a big effect about the war also in this situation during these days, because we see different decisions from our clients to change destination and market.
At the end, to give us goods to be shipped. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you. Our next question is from Beltrán Palazuelo from DLTV. Please unmute your line and ask your question.
Hello. Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yeah, we can hear you.
Good morning, Marco, Alessandro, and Paola. Thank you for taking my question. I have a couple. First of all, regarding margins long term, as in the new Ferrari Group, where you do not own your assets, where you lease them, I think that maybe the EBITDA margins long term are less important than the EBIT margins long term, because we can see now that since three, four years, the EBIT margins decrease, as you are saying, because you're investing for growth. Maybe for, let's say, medium to long term, once your, let's say, your new capacity is filled, where would you situate now your EBIT margins long term? That is my first question. My second question is regarding balance sheet. I think you state that you have, like, EUR 101 million of net cash.
Well, that is counting now the leases, which is not actually a debt, it's an obligation to rent it, so your financial position is more around EUR 140 million. If I'm not wrong, the last times we talked, you said you need, let's say, EUR 50 million-EUR 60 million to manage the company. With that excess of, let's say, EUR 90 million of cash, what type of opportunities now are you seeing in organic growth, M&A, and how much of that excess position of cash do you really need to have a strategic flexibility, as you mentioned? My last question is regarding competitors. You said that every crisis there is, it's an opportunity for Ferrari to really show your client your value added, which I totally agree. How are you seeing your competitors in this situation? How is the pricing? How are you seeing the strategic way they're acting?
Just to have a little background. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Beltrán, for your question. I'm going to the three. The first one on margin, we are consistent what we guide at the time of the IPO. The goal in the midterm remains to reach a level between starting 20% and reaching 29% in the midterm. Right now, we are in the year of huge investment and new opening, and this new opening in terms of route, together with the digital transformation, will help us to find internal efficiency in the journey that we have in mind are the two measures that will boost our margin in the future. Because as we usually say, digital transformation will help us find internal efficiency, and the new routes and new openings contribute to the model of leverage that is in place in the operation.
In the future, we remain consistent on what we guide at the time of the IPO, 27%-29% in terms of EBITDA margin in the midterm. Related to the balance sheet, you are right. For that reason, we partially do what we discuss as a measure, so increase the dividend ratio and create a level of rewarding, level of payment of dividends. Last year, we were 43% of dividend ratio payment. This year, we move to 56%. That is a big jump. Again, we are opening, and remain open, to potential tactical M&A. On that, we are very careful looking in the markets, and this could be something can arrive, especially in the concept of the geographical expansion.
Regarding the competitor, we see clearly that in this moment, the great presence all over the world, the geographical part of Ferrari is 100% an annual value compared to the local or regional competitor, based on the fact that as the big one, maybe the fourth big one, we are able to reroute, we are able to spread, we are able to shift between the geographies. Even in our niche and even with the closest competitor, we think that for the structure that we have, for the flexibility, for all the barrier that we discuss, even in terms of structure, physical structure, and the ability to manage, capability to store, right now, we are in the best shape to manage this type of situation. Thank you.
Thank you very much. All the support.
Thank you. Our next question is from Timo thy Pedroni from Schroders. Please unmute your line and ask your question.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yeah, we can hear you, Tim.
Hi there. Thanks for the call. Quick question. I'm circling back to the personnel cost. Can you please comment a bit more about personnel cost pressure? Is it more retention packages? Is it more, let's say, bidding war for the right profiles in the new geographies? Just understand how to think about this cost line going forward, also for the next few years. Also on the same topic, retention rate, you have 86%, if I got it right, in the presentation. Can you again just comment on that number? Is it high or low historically, and how are you planning around that, please? Thank you.
Yes. Thank you, Timothy, for your question, and I think you underline the reason behind the increase of the personnel cost. We have three measures. First, we are hiring, and we are hiring because we are in a spending phase. On top of that, we are hiring for operations. On top of that, we are hiring because the organizational part of the company is changing. There are ancillary services that are very important for the company, where we boost the team, and we create a large team to be a different company on the market.
I can quote just two that are not strictly related to operation, but I think that increase a lot, the IT team, the cybersecurity team, and goes well for the third, the ESG team are increasing because we would like to underline again that we are a different company who take care even of different aspects. Related to that, of course, this type of activity, this type also of services create retention with the client and are able to boost the revenue in the long term. We consider all an investment, and of course, the new openings means that we have to create a structure able to manage the business, maybe in a new country or in a new branch in a country already established. They are the main reason back on that. I hand over to Marco for the last part of the question.
Yeah, good. Thank you. I would like to add that for us, our people are our differentiating factor. Retention is a key and has gone up, and for that we are so proud. I would like to add only that concept. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Robert Jan Vos from ABN AMRO. Please unmute your line and ask your question.
Yes. Sorry to come back with two additional questions. The first one is on the dividend. You already said that you did increase the payout ratio and that you're open for tactical M&A. My first question on dividend is: Is it your intention to grow the absolute dividend per share annually? In other words, in normal circumstances, is the EUR 0.33 the new floor level as from which level you expect further growth in absolute dividend per share? My second question, again, coming back on the cash position, EUR 140 million at the end of 2025. You talked about tactical M&A that is probably not bold, or that's not game-changing acquisitions. My question would be: Can shareholders anticipate additional cash returns shortly? I think you talked about the possibility of special dividends in the past. That's my first question. Second one is on taxation.
It was quite low, both in the P&L and also in the cash flow statement. Can you elaborate on this? Maybe related to this, was the litigation payment to the Italian customs, was that tax deductible? Thank you.
Okay. I start with the first question that was related to the dividend ratio and the dividend per share. If we have the aim to increase that, as we said, yes, gradually, yes. Strictly related to the performances that we achieve in the future. Yes, we would like to create this model. On M&A, as we said, we are looking to potential acquisition in the market. That's true that the tactical M&A can't be the only one that change the level of the cash, as you mentioned. In consideration of greater geographical expansion in different direction, this could be on west, on the east, or another part there is the opportunity to have maybe more than one, and altogether consolidator, even a small, can become partially consistent in terms of the value. On the tax rate, honestly, it's something that comes directly from the activity.
Of course, the switch of the importance of different country can partially have an effect on this. Again, related to the fact that the Incoterms drive the final allocation of the billing, and the distribution maybe can have partially an effect due to the fact that we remain super consistent on our transfer price rule. The litigation tax deductible, the component of the interest, yes, it is deductible, and the part related to the VAT, the amount itself is not deductible, is a cost. Partially is yes, but the huge part, no. Again, the litigation was related to the fact that we disclose last year, even during the IPO process, and the amount was as a cost close to EUR 12 million. Thank you.
Thank you. Clear.
Thank you. Our final question is from David Kerstens from Jefferies. Please unmute your line and ask your question.
Hi. I have two follow-up questions from my side as well, please. Can you elaborate on the wider range of high-value goods that you are contemplating to include in your network? That was my first question. I think you flagged that there are early signs of recovery in the market in China, which was relatively weak during 2025 for international brands. What is your strategy with regards to the Chinese market after you've changed the management? I think you said earlier that you were targeting more of the local brands. How will that impact the growth in China this year? Thank you very much.
Apologies, David. If you can, just the first question is related to the range of the goods?
Yeah, thank you. In terms of strategy, you were talking about looking at a wider range of high-value goods in your network.
Yeah. I got you now. Yes. We can say, I don't know, Marco, if you want to jump in on that one, that is more related to different adjacencies that we can consider.
Yeah. Let's say that we would like to develop other commodities, basically to use the leverage we can have in our structure. Let's say that we are considering to go deeper on the metal market, to leverage mainly on the international air routes, the shipment, the international shipment, about that kind of commodities. Of course, historically, we go deeper on the finance and other chances in our business, remain focused on value-added goods. Let's say that we will elaborate more in coming months, and you will appreciate our evaluation in the next time we will meet, we can go deeper on that, of course. Talking about China, and coming to your second question, it's true that China has been an important market for us. Now, let's say historically for Ferrari, among the years, was a country where we deliver goods for brands.
Now we are developing a different approach, considering China also the local client, this medium, small producer and client we can get it in China at local level to develop the export. Let's say that historically we consider China as an import market, but China is also an export country, and we are developing also that kind of client that could be really interesting, and this could be benefit for all the Asian region. Remember also that we're investing in other countries, new countries, to develop new market in that region. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. This concludes today's Q&A session. Thank you for your participation. I will now hand back to Marco for his closing remarks. Marco, please go ahead.
Thank you. Thank you for your question and for joining today's webcast. We appreciate your continued interest and support. We look forward to updating you on our progress at the next result announcement. Have a good day.
That concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.