Good morning, everyone here in the Okura Hotel, and also everyone in the webcast participating. Today we are presenting our annual results 2025. Before I go into that, I like to point out to the cautionary note regarding the forward-looking statements. Then I immediately jump into the key messages for H2. For the whole year, of course. Starting with the effect that H2 was substantially better than H1. That is also what we guided for. It was, of course, also backend loaded with the pressure and the drive to deliver a very g ood result in Q4.
Actually, we are proud that we delivered such a strong result of around EUR 70 million EBITDA. It is not working here that the slides move forward. When I looked then into automation had a strong performance, especially in the Smart Vision. Smart Vision had a substantial growth in the profitability, driven by a very strong development of new end markets that we delivered. What we also saw is that the innovation level was really high, above 30%, so above average on, let's say, the Smart Vision activities.
What we see is that especially also the demand in smart software did very well. We are focusing further on solution performance. With strong positions there, we see that the added value has further improvement potential, although the added value is already at a very high level in the vision technology activity. Within automated machinery, of course, there was an impact of the lower order intake during 2024 already leading to a lower turnover.
There we had an extremely well performance in Q4, and that had especially to do with larger projects nearing completion and the operational excellence that we were able to implement, and that led in the end to a higher margin on these projects than that we originally estimated. We were somewhat conservative in respect of the outlook for automated machinery. What is also very good news that we made further inroads with the UNIXX technology . First delivery of a working system and additional orders that we received, and especially a new area where we are penetrating now is the motorcycle business. There's also two UNIXX systems sold in that area.
Within electrification, of course, we saw the impact on the results with the output issues that we had in Amsterdam. We saw gradual, really, improvements during the year and actually a quite good performance already. Not what we targeted for, but a substantial improvement in Q4. You have to take into account that, let's say until the third quarter, the profitability was really low or almost 0. If you look then at the whole year, had a main contribution came from Q4. What is also very good that we won a lot of additional new contracts. Our technology leadership is really proven with a very high market share above 80%.
Still also a very good outlook for the market with until 2030, more than 14,000 kilometer in the pipeline for which we are tendering. Last but not least, we announced also today that we had a very big contract win with Liander, the DSO in the Netherlands, where we announced that we have a 8-year contract with a total volume of around EUR 650 million. Performance is developing in the right direction with the offshore and as well, the onshore, is having also a very good perspective for the coming years. Of course, you all remember the Capital Markets Day in September.
We are excited about that to unlock our value of the TKH Group. Of course, we also have our Capitalize & Execute program to increase the return on our existing building blocks. There's a huge potential and focus there is really key to get the return that we can achieve. We announced there, of course, that the future of TKH is in automation and that we are looking for the separation of electrification and a new shareholder structure for those activities. Later in the slides, we will come back to that we have chosen a dual track.
We have selected an investment banker for that. We are working very hard and making progress. Already in the past quarter, we will also be able to announce, I believe, in the coming quarters, further actions to give confidence that it is a good move and the perspective of the separation is huge. I go in little bit more detail to the results. I try to move quickly through that. I already commented to several remarks on this slide. I like to point out to the Return on Sales, a good level, 14.6%.
Although similar to 2024, yet the performance of the electrification business is not there to be able to achieve an even higher level. Turnover in the electrification business in Q4 was up 29%. Automated machinery down 6.9%, and vision technologies up 1.8%. We have to look at vision technologies that the comparison base was quite challenging because of the delivery of some very large projects in Q4 last year. Here we have the overview of the performance of the whole year 2025. I'm not going to in detail, you can read it for yourself, and I will comment further to the divisions in the next few slides.
Whereas, it is again important to mention here the high innovation rate, 17%. I believe that is really driving the technology leadership that we have and the continued aspiration that we have also there to be a leading technology company in the areas that we are active in. Of course, the leadership leads to above average margins, and that is again in relation also to the perspective we see in Return on Capital Employed, which is not at the level that we targeted at the Capital Markets Day, but there is still a lot of room to improve there. I believe it is also good news that the net debt came down.
We managed, I believe, in a quite well way, the working capital. Elling will come back to that later. I like to mention here the EcoVadis result. We are with the Gold award in the top 5 of companies evaluated by EcoVadis. As we are a very customer-centric company, this helps us tremendously in positioning ourselves in respect of the sustainability priorities we see at the customer base, and that customer base applies to all the divisions that we have in the group, where we see that appreciation for the sustainability position of TKH. I move to the specific results of the 3 segments.
we are still reporting in the 3 segments. We already had a pre discussion before this meeting that of course the desire to get more input on how the automated the automation activities and the electrification will look like starting from Q1 and moving up through the rest of this year and the future. Of course, we will guide there but it was too early to do that in 2025. So we still report it in these 3 segments. I mentioned already the substantial improvement of the vision technology activities related to the EBITDA. Here we see that the order book slightly came down
There is a currency effect in that. Elling will come back to that later. We also have to take in mind that we had some really large projects that in the end normalized during the year into, let's say, smaller but still sizable projects and, with the fantastic short lead times that we have and a very well-organized supply chain, our customers can wait till the last minute to order, and they don't have to book already, let's say, capacity a long time ahead. That's a big change that we saw compared to 2021, 2022, where most of our customers tried to secure their business for a much longer time than that we see today.
A very good improvement of the Return on Capital Employed. 2D machine vision, strong end markets, where especially our technology differentiation worked out quite well to gain market share and to have our market share. We see in 3D machine vision, the focus on the solution business is really helping us to improve the added value. As you can see on this slide, the added value increased from 60.6% to 62%. Yeah, we are quite selective in where we want to be active. We don't want to commoditize our business. There's a lot of potential in adding value towards our customers, and that we get the appreciation and the return we can get on the turnover.
Especially well went in 3D vision battery business and factory automation, including the wood processing business. Within the security vision, the growth was modest again, also related to the comparison base of 2024. Especially the demand for mission-critical systems was very good. Here we see that, with the geopolitical situation, the priority for mission-critical solutions is really high. We are well-positioned there, and that has a fantastic growth perspective, and also doing quite well. We had a very big parking guidance project in the U.S., a very profitable project. That was, let's say kind of breakthrough again in this field of parking.
I believe a good move related to the whole vision technology we can supply in this parking area, including the mission-critical systems that we develop. I move to the next slide, the automated machinery performance. We can see here the decrease in the turnover of 14%. Added value also at a higher level. We see that also in the mix of activities, we had a quite good performance. The innovations play an important part at our tire building activities. Of course, also the divestments helped where we had a lower added value. This is the direction we need to move.
It's a good confirmation again of our USPs and technology leadership in this segment. Record high Return on Sales over the whole year. Last year was already a very high Return on Sales. It was 19.1% and 2024, and last year was 19.4%. We even overachieved, while actually we were somewhat underutilized, related to the lower turnover. The order book came down, that impacted the result. The order book or the order intake was already lower starting by the end of 2024. As I mentioned, the mix of activities is also very important.
The outlook in principle is very, very positive for this activity. The drivers that are there with automated machinery, hands-off, eyes-off manufacturing is really key. We see that many of our customers have really difficulty to find the skilled labor. We keep on developing to eliminate as much as possible operators in let's say the manufacturing with our systems. Again, the positive impact in Q4 related to the excellent operational performance on projects, larger projects nearing completion. I go to the next slide, the electrification. I believe I already mentioned most of the points in the first slide.
What I can add here is again, the outlook is really positive with the unique technology that we have. The dry design technology, which offers really big advantages for the contractors, reduces risk during the installation and again, lowers substantially the cost of the whole installation, including the transportation cost, because we are located at the most ideal location in Eemshaven to serve the contractors that have their equipment close to the Eemshaven. Of course, we saw the impact of the outsourced activities.
We have a sizable project of more than EUR 200 million, the IKOL project and the outsourced services have a very low margin. There's a big leverage has there been to winning this project and, yeah, to secure the business, but the margins are relatively low. We see that back in the added value that was 4% point lower because of this mix in activities. Digitalization, still a very difficult end market. We are not profitable there. We are on the move to get it profitable, but it will certainly take a few more quarters to get there.
The cost base is much lower there now, that is supporting of course to return to profitability, the end market is still difficult. Of course, we see signs in some geographical areas where the demand is higher than the supply, that always helps of course in the global demand also to balance the supply and demand and get to a better pricing potential. Yeah, my last slide here today is about the dual track process that we have initiated. We have not a preferred option at this moment. We keep all options in that respect open related to the dual track process.
I believe we have clearly pointed out, it is confirmed again in this sheet, why we have made this choice for the separation. I believe that has been understood quite well. We are excited to work on this process. We have two very strong activities that deserve also the right, let's say, ownership structure to support the future growth opportunities. Thank you very much for your attention. I see you back with the Q&As.
Thank you, Alexander. Good morning to everybody. As usual, I walk with you through the financials, starting off with the top line, geographical distribution of our revenues. As you can see here, a little bit of change, not too much. Europe remains the center of our activities, 60% just like in 2024, but a little bit of a shift from the Netherlands to other parts in Europe. Asia, pretty strong, 23.7% of the total. That's mostly driven by the fact that the security and visions propositions in Asia have grown compared to 2024, mostly in that particular region. North America, more or less stable, just below 15% of the total.
The other regions, there you see actually a reduction towards 2.7% of total revenue, and that's mostly coming out of a little bit of a different distribution within the tire building revenue, where things went a little bit back to the more traditional regions, I would say, which we disclosed here. If I walk with you through the profit and loss account, what I usually do, then, of course, first of all, looking at the revenue again. Organic growth, 4.9%. As you can see, acquisitions and divestments had almost EUR 27 million impact. About EUR 6 million-EUR 7 million came out of the acquisition of Liberty Robotics, and the other part has to do with the divestments of which Davitron is an important part.
Looking at the added value, Alexander highlighted this already a little bit, how did the added values develop per segment. Clearly, vision is doing well. Automated machinery, a very strong increase in the added value. Also partly driven by all the efficiency improvements and operational excellence programs which have been already implemented since quite some time and getting its full effect. Also the operational performance of the projects which are near to completion. The electrification, the split, the mix between, let's say, own produced and sourced products which are in the top line was different than in 2024, with more outsourced services as part of the revenue stream having impact on its added value. Making good contribution in the end, but added value-wise, lower than when we produce ourselves.
That leads to Adjusted EBITDA for the group of close to EUR 190 million. That's about 7%, 7.2% organic decline compared to 2024. You can see that the effects of the acquisitions as well as the currency fluctuations were rather small. If we go down in the P&L, the one-off expenses, most of it took place, EUR 16.8 million is the total for the full year. EUR 16.3 already was established in the first half of the year.
The biggest ticket, more than EUR 11.5 million, is related to additional transportation costs, which we had in Subsea as a result of the delayed effects in production, for which we then were liable for the transportation costs towards the final customer. The acquisition and divestments had a ticket of about EUR 3.8 million, and restructuring and digitalization, about EUR 2.3 million. On the impairments, I think it's important there, the effects of the transfer of our fiber optic activities from the Netherlands into the new factory in Poland that has been completed, as mentioned earlier. That resulted to some remaining assets to be depreciated as they don't find a place in the new location. That goes within th e chain.
That's within China, the Netherlands, where this took place. Then of course, as you always see with the high level of innovation which we carry and the amount and the expense we have related to R&D, there also is some cleanup always in portfolio because not all the portfolio is getting to its full benefit. About EUR 2 million on R&D projects from the past we had to impair. The results of associates, mostly the entire amount, which is mentioned here, the EUR 34 million, is coming from the Davitron exit. A very well-performed exit with a very important benefit. Then on the financial result, we have seen a little bit of improvement there, mostly driven by the exchange rates.
If you look at the delta there, we have about EUR 4, EUR 4.5 million effect, that basically explains the delta between 2024 and 2025 on this particular line. Tax rate, the normalized effective tax rate, just over 22%, 24% in prior year. I think, if you look at also your models, probably in the range of 23%-24% is a element where you can work with. Taking next look at the balance sheet. Important, I think, is the working capital. You can see in our press release the details of the components in the balance sheet, of course. We have always been discussing the inventory levels. Inventories came down pretty well, EUR 340 million.
Still a sizable amount, it was about EUR 400 million, so the reduction is EUR 60. What we see on the other side in the construction contract assets. There we have a substantial uptake. A lot of projects, and that was earlier mentioned, are in the final stages of completion. Of course, they are still in our books. The liability, the contract liabilities are lower due to the fact that order intake is at a lower base, so the delta is substantial. We have a net contract assets in 2025 finishing at about EUR 60 million compared to a negative, so a contract liability of EUR 11 million in 2024. The delta is pretty big, and that goes back in your working capital.
From that point of view, the underlying effects, supply chain improvements, stock levels, et cetera, are doing very well. On the effects of completion of projects within the tire building activities and the lower order intake, you see that basically that effect evaporating, bringing the overall working capital more or less in line in closer to EUR 300 million as we had in prior year. The 17% is too high. We keep on referring to roughly the 15% is where we at least want to be. I think that's also feasible if you look at the steps which we have taken on the various elements. The timing of especially the intake effects see that the level goes towards the 17%. That, of course, has also impact on the net debt levels.
We improved from close to EUR 500 million to EUR 460, a leverage rate of 1.9. At the half year, we were still at 2.6. A good improvement there. If you look at the bigger tickets here, then I think it's important to highlight the CapEx which we have in both the tangibles and intangibles. You see them here accumulated towards about EUR 130 million. As mentioned earlier, and there's been a lot of questions, we had this special strategic investment project or program for quite some time. That had still a little bit of impact in the first quarter, about EUR 15 million-EUR 16 million of this cash-related element in CapEx is related to that program.
Normalized for that, we're in the range of EUR 115 million. That's also a kind of level for your models for going forward. Looking at free cash flow, the ones who follow us for a while know that normally second half is of course better in terms of cash flow generation. We can also see that in 2025. You can see the various deltas here, but I think especially the free cash flow in the second half of close to EUR 100 million compared to a negative of EUR 23 in the first half came out at a total for EUR 75 million for full year. Also there not really where we want to be, but I think it's a good step up in the second half at least.
If you follow the capital expenditure line on the PPEs, then you will see that the impact of the strategic investment program is really diminishing, and we're getting, especially in the second half, already to the normalized level that I talked about earlier. My last sheet is related to the outlook. Our strong building blocks with leading technologies and strong market positions form a strong foundation for 26. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we expect, on balance, organic growth in turnover and Adjusted EBITDA in 26, but with the first quarter being weak. I want to mention maybe before we get immediate the questions on this one, we are a little bit, let's say, less disclosing details on some of the outlook components. In the past, we had a little bit more detail on this.
Alexander already mentioned we are in a dual track phase, there will be a lot of, let's say, disclosures coming up, a lot of, let's say, liabilities in relation to disclosures, coming on the agenda and also in different shapes and forms. From that point of view, we are a little bit more, let's say, reluctant to go in too much depth at this point in time. That's the statement I would like to add to this point here. Let's open up for Q&A. Martijn.
Good morning, Martijn den Drijver, ABN AMRO-ODDO BHF . I'd like to start off with connectivity.
I'm gonna ignore the Q1 for Subsea, but on a pro rata basis, Q2 to Q4, would that 600 km, EUR 180 million in sales, 15%-17% EBITDA margin still apply? Is that upgrading of the equipment and the scaling up still an issue beyond Q1? That's question one.
I believe that is, a really, a key target we have, and we are, let's say, positioned to achieve that.
Okay.
risk than last year. We have seen in the press release that we had excuses related to type tests, larger dimensions, and especially the larger dimensions opened up new issues. We also announced that we did a major upgrade of one of the key lines related to the final process for this cable. The risk is much lower compared to last year and even compared to Q4, which makes the possibility to achieve the 600 kilometer way higher than in 2025
Well, that begs a follow-up. What is low risk in your book?
Low risk? That's difficult to exactly pronounce. Yeah, Let's say the opportunities are bigger than, let's say, the negative aspects.
Okay, I'll move on. Would you be able to help us out? You mentioned the transportation costs, there were also double costs for Lochem in supporting Subsea. There were also double costs for Haaksbergen in their transition to Poland. If you add it all up, what are we talking about of rather incidental OpEx elements that are not likely to reoccur in 2026? Just, are we talking about EUR 15 million? Are we talking about EUR 20 million? Just a bit more color so we can, we know what to expect at the OpEx level.
I think if you look at the elements you mentioned, I think an important part is indeed also the transfer of the telecom activities to Poland. That's probably roughly half of the call it incidental related cost. That will be in a range of EUR 7 million-EUR 8 million. So you're more accumulating that than towards in the range to between EUR 10 million and EUR 15 million and more on the higher end of that bandwidth as being the call it. I don't want to get into a definition question of one-off, but more in response to your question being a kind of incidental related item.
Around the EUR 15 million level. Got it. Then a final question on connectivity, and then I'll move on. Onshore obviously did well. Is that unit on track with regards to the EBITDA margins that you've set? Is that also in that 15%-17% region already? Just to get a bit of sense of where that unit stands.
I believe you underestimate the utilization effect there. The cost level has been relatively high there with the transformation, Elling already mentioned that, from Lochem to Eemshaven. Whereas we could not, let's say, reduce the cost of, let's say, all the employees, as we were preparing for the growth in onshore, both in medium and low voltage as well as high voltage. We see a higher cost level that had a still a quite big impact also in Q4. With the higher utilization, it will in the end move into the substantial higher Return on Sales than that we achieved in the past year.
We'll come back to the level that we saw in, I believe 2023, when we had a high utilization level and the cost conversion was much better in place than it has been in 2025.
Got it. A question for Harm. Can you talk a little bit about the customer behavior in Q4 going into Q1 2026? What are you seeing in terms of your tier one clients and your tier two, tier three clients, China and Asia versus European? What are you seeing? What are they telling you?
e is different for each and every group of customers that you now refer to. If you look at the traditional large players, the tier ones, there you see that the effect of a pressure on the automotive industry in Europe is still having an effect on their total operations and their profitabilities on that. That means that when you really look at modernization plans, expansion plans, that is still in Q4, was that still limited. We expect that at a certain point in time to flip and get back, but that will not be early in 2026.
If you look at the tier two, tier three, there you see that there are still a lot of opportunities seen in for them to export to the large, larger markets in Europe and America. In order to position themselves well, we're talking about a lot of overseas projects in North Africa, in Southeast Asia, in Eastern Europe, but it takes time to convert plans to actual delivery of equipment. That is yeah, happening in a world that is still a little bit clouded when it comes to the short-term economic perspective coming from yeah, import duty effects, import barriers, etc .
There is still some reluctance visible. We are positive when it comes to the 2026 total order intake. We're yeah, we're convinced that that will improve compared to 2025. There's still indeed in Q4, there was still a reluctance to really move on quicker than was happening in the first part of 2025.
Okay. Got it. A question for Alexander and Elling. If I look at your balance sheet, the 1.9 covenant net debt/EBITDA. Your free cash flow conversion, you're guiding for lower CapEx, probably the same networking capital or even better. You're gonna have pretty good free cash flow. Why did you decide not to go for a share buyback given the proceeds of Davitron and give the shareholders something at this point in time? What's the thinking behind that decision?
We have in our Capital Markets Day mentioned that one of the elements is share buybacks. The disclaimer is the 2% level of leverage. That's basically where we are at. There is quite a few points which you highlighted which are to come. At the same time, of course, we are running also this dual track program and a lot of things coming together in 2026.
From that point of view, it's not that we will start with every kind of KPI which gets into a parameter and pull the trigger. We have a clear plan on how we want to execute the overall transition towards a split. And we don't wanna get the process hijacked by all kinds of intermediate kind of steps. In terms of allocation policy, you're right, it's part of our let's say elements which we address, but at the right times in the right co ntext.
Okay. Then just a short follow-up, and then I'll hand over. Where are you now in that dual-track process? Are you still in the selecting of the long list? Are parties already providing indicative bids, non-binding? Where do you stand roughly?
I mean, you're a little bit on a too fast track. The performance is really key that we achieve in the improvement of the result, we don't want to give it away for nothing. The potential is huge. I believe, it is important to show a track record in the performance, that should be close to the guidance we gave at the Capital Markets Day at the benefits of 12%-15%. I'm not saying that we will achieve that this year, we should make a big step towards that target level and prove it in the results in actual figures. There we need Q1, Q2. We can prepare everything. We are preparing everything.
We are looking at the organization structure, doing investments in the organization structure, preparing for the separation. The legal separation is in place. Yeah, we have set several milestones during the year. Let's say, discussions with potential interested parties will not occur before let's say mid-second quarter. You need to prepare well. That, I believe is really key. No, don't be on a track that you are too much hurried, and then you get a kind of, you have to step back in what you want to achieve.
Okay. Thank you.
I can add something to that because that probably will the next question. What is the timing we are targeting? We are preparing for Q4 to do a transaction. Of course, when we look back at the Capital Markets Day, we announced that we would announce material steps within 12 to 18 months. We are very well in that timeframe that we announced there. I believe we... You want to ask something?
Yeah, because if you say, it's true. You said 12 to 18 months.
Yes.
I also remember that in the Q&A, you said when asked, "We'd like to move much faster. We'd like to be faster because it provides clarity both to our employees and to our customers." How do we balance the two, you know?
The balance is working really well, it is a clear, let's say communication that we have. Everyone knows that this is the path and that the patience need to be there. Again, it's also about finding, let's say, the right environment, related to all the stakeholders and, of course, also the right valuation, that we are not going to discount EUR hundreds of millions because of a fast track.
Got it.
Morning, Tijs Hollestelle, ING. Interesting conversation. I wanna also drill down a little bit more on the connectivity division. You provide, let's say, insight on the split test, or the telecom business made EUR 182 million. If I listen to Elling with the accidental OpEx, I would say that then let's say an operational EBITDA loss of somewhere in the range between EUR 5 million-EUR 10 million is an right assumption.
That's correct.
You have, let's say, EUR 525 million in the cable business combined. That leaves about EUR 22 million of other business. It's not really material, but was that profitable?
No.
Loss-making?
Yes.
EUR 2 million?
couple is.
Below 5?
Definitely below 5.
Okay. Yeah, just to get, let's say, the starting point which you had the discussion before the meeting. What was the actual, let's say, offshore revenue in 2025?
about EUR 135-EUR 140.
Oh, that is for me a bit of a positive surprise. You still stick to the EUR 180 million revenue target for this year. There's also potentially upside to that number?
Well, You transferred Martijn's statement towards the target for this year.
I tried to.
That's smart, but condition was that Martijn's assumption was that if you look further down the road, starting, let's say, Q2, if you then analyze the remaining period, should you be back at the 170, 180 with the 70% Return on Sales. That has been confirmed. From that point of view, that is there. It's not the same as 2026.
Yeah. I, I get it, yeah. Let's say the run rate somewhere in the third quarter that people can see there's potentially also...
Correct
... upsides. Yeah. That is indeed what I'm asking. I'm also still a bit puzzled, why don't you give us, let's say, a direct answer on the profitability of the onshore cable business? The recovery is now taking place for three, four quarters on a row. It has always been quite unstable business, core business for TKH Group. I would say that the EBITDA margin is like 10% or so on that business. Of course, that's still not the case because of all the switches and double costs with subsea changes.
Yeah. I think Alexander mentioned already the underutilization, due to the suboptimal, let's say, utilization of the asset base, which we had. Market looks good, but we had a lot of internal, let's say, moving parts.
Yeah
... and some costs which are not yet fully paid for through the utilization itself. That, that's what we are still having in 2025, and that's of course going to change going forward. We see order intake further improving. The market attractiveness becomes bigger and bigger.
Yeah.
That utilization effect comes down, and the other elements within the, call it the connectivity or cabling part, are finding their own ways, in the sense that the telecom part that has been organized has been, separated from the operations in the Netherlands and is, from a cable manufacturing point of view, is, separated and has its own activities, et cetera. From that point of view, I would say in 2026 you will see an improvement, in that particular area.
Yeah. Okay. Now that's, that's helpful. indeed-
Just to-
Yeah
... to finish that part, the full disclosures. That's why you say why we don't disclose this. In the dual track, there will be sufficient disclosure.
Yeah.
I don't wanna be ahead of that process. You know, from that point of view, you will see the disclosures, but you have to be a little bit patient.
Yeah. Yeah. I get that. Indeed, your statement on Q1 for this year in the outlook is also mainly related to the connectivity business, which is still a bit unstable, shaky.
shaky is a word which
We will show a substantial improvement in Q1 compared to last year in connectivity. However, we have, of course, the lower or the intake effect within tire building. The reality is that the profitability there will be lower compared to last year Q1. That is the balancing act where we are in. Again, with a good progress in the electrification business with the result in Q1.
Year-over-year. Okay. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. That's helpful. Some more detailed questions. I also noticed, let's say, relatively low one-off costs in the second half. That is good. With your, let's say, your current projects in the, in the cable business, is there, let's say, any nervousness on the contract dates, or you have sufficient time to produce on time in 2026?
I will not say sufficient because what is sufficient?
A tight deadlines.
You would like to have, let's say, half a year, 12 months headroom. We are close, and we are in control of meeting deadlines. That has also had its impact also in 2025. We were really customer-focused to make it happen, to deliver what has been promised at the right time, in the right quality and the right lengths. That also impacted somehow our efficiency in related to our production. That will also further normalize during the year as we are creating more headroom in the delivery times and then have more flexibility to also combine certain cable types, through which you also get huge additional efficiency instead of continuously changing over from one type to another type.
You have your startup cost and, so that is, has also real, big improvement potential for 2026.
Yeah. Okay. Because of the unexpected delays we had, that's why I'm asking it. I mean...
Yeah
... I understand that you're answering the question based on.
No, I.
... your rollout effects.
I already answered that the risk is much lower, that we will not have our output performance compared to last year. With all the improvements, all the upgrades we did, we still can acknowledge that we have the right technology, we have the best people in-house, but it has been extreme what we had to realize, and that is really has been substantially normalized in the past few quarters. That gives confidence that we can meet the requirements, and we are creating more headroom during the year because we like to have that headroom.
Our customers also, they prefer to have it three months earlier or six months earlier than that they need the cable, because the cable is essential for, let's say, the finalization of these multi-billion projects.
Yeah. Okay. That is clear. Then moving to another division, did you somehow spotted any change in the volumes in the machine vision business coming out of Germany? You see any, let's say, cyclical recovery signals in the German-related business in the cameras?
Well, nothing material, I would say. If you look at Vision as a whole, it has shown nice growth. Europe is a little bit on the weaker side in that growth aspect. Germany is then at the bottom end of that.
Yeah. Yeah. It has been very weak, but yeah, no change in Q-
Nothing material, no.
The FX impact you're mentioning?
I mean, that was indeed on the order book. I mentioned that also in the geographical split of where the revenue takes place with Vision, APAC is important and North America. I think if you look at the order book itself, it's about EUR 130 million for Vision. Prior year was about EUR 140 million. You will get close, not exactly, but you go close to the level of the 2024 order book if you normalize it for FX effects.
Okay.
You probably get, 138 or something like that, or 37.
One final remark. I mean, Harm had excellent results in my view, and despite the depression on the top line, but the conversation on the potential recovery of the order intake basically came back every quarter in 2025.
Yeah.
Some of my clients are, yeah, not really happy with that because it's, every quarterly update, it suggests that an order intake recovery is close by, if you then, yeah, basically it's not happening for four quarters for all kinds of macro reasons, which everybody understands, it's better not to say that and just to report the numbers, otherwise, yeah, you're creating kind of hopes.
Uh, I-
... the guys in the room, we have to model them maybe in an upward recovery, which is not happening. It's not helpful-
No
so better not to-
Uh-
do these statements.
I do understand that, there is, that people are really looking at the volume of order intake per quarter.
Yeah
... and the size of the order book to make a best guess on what is coming in the.
Yeah
in the first period. We do understand that. At the same time, I would say that the recovery signals are really there and that the. It is also pretty unclear. What you can see in the financial results over 2025 is that the performance was in our opinion, very good.
Yeah.
I think that is the most important part, right? If you perform well, even with some top-line pressure, then that stands out. Okay, point is clear, I think we can restate that in the course of 2026, the order book will improve. It, indeed, it's taking a bit longer than expected. We still have an order book, it's not that we're out of work, so to say.
Yeah, yeah. Okay, thanks.
Good morning. Michael Roeg, Degroof Petercam. I've also a question about the Vision business. If I remember correctly, consumer electronics is one of your larger segments. Do you see any hesitance among customers because of the turmoil in some of these consumer electronics categories due to the strong increase in memory prices?
No, I think that has not really an effect. What you see is that the driver for our Vision solutions in the consumer electronics production is mainly on new innovations on the consumer electronics side. If you see changes on battery packing inside smartphones or when you look at foldable phones, et cetera, there are really new elements that need to be inspected, new technologies and new software developed, where we are excellently positioned. I think that's more important than when you see the pricing effect of the consumer electronics going to the end markets.
The thing is there's quite a big decline forecasted for smartphone volume, 10%-15% decline, and other consumer electronics categories are probably gonna be going down as well.
But if you look at, for instance, ear pods, huh? The wireless connection for hearing, that is an element where there are zero memory chips in. There are also some other elements in that. Also in these peripherals, we are very well positioned, so I'm-
It's again all about innovation.
Yeah.
Also in the ear pods, you see that there's new battery technology involved, which needs a much more detailed monitoring and security related to the whole manufacturing process. That is what drives our, let's say, growth in the consumer electronic market. It's the innovations that continuously ask for new vision technology to monitor what's going on during manufacturing.
Okay. Most of your Vision products are for inspection and not so much for recording and storage, so I assume that memory chips are relatively small within your bill of materials. Is that something you can quantify?
Yeah.
Where we do need memory chips, for instance, when you talk about machine learning, AI, kind of applications on production lines, there we have secured for a longer period of time the pricing and the supply. We're confident that it has not a material impact on our performance.
Okay. That's reassuring. Thank you. I'm gonna quote something from the press release. "Within electrification, we've solved the main challenges relating to the ramp-up of the subsea cable plant." Well, the word main suggests that there may be some smaller things left. Would you say now that you are at 95% of the desired productivity of the plant or 90%, something like that?
Let's say the productivity has more potential than it grows from 95 to 100. It is more the stabilization of the manufacturing, which is at 95%. That has been proven especially in the first 5 main processes, and then there are another 3 processes. In the last 3 processes, there was 1 process where we had difficulties with the larger dimensions, and that has been solved actually not before January. So we solved that in January. It was a major upgrade. So that, yeah, is, we are now running at 95% of, let's say, perfect technology. The last 5%, that has nothing to do with the productivity because we will see that we can improve.
I mentioned already the joining the same cable types in one manufacturing room. That is a huge productivity win, and that is not incorporated in the 95%.
Okay. Your month of February operationally was already even better than January?
Absolutely. Yes.
Okay. good. That's it from my side.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Maarten Verbeek at the IDEA!. Like to have a brief chat about your largest offshore project whereby you also have all kinds of services. If you break that project into three, prior to production and after production, have you now completed the first p art of that project?
Yeah, that is. How do you find the first part? The first part, you can say.
Yep
... moving away explosives in the field that is almost finished. I would say at 80%. In this year, the installation will start mid of 2026. Before mid of 2026, we have to manufacture all the accessories and of course, the cables to support the installation starting mid this year.
If the survey went well, and we do know that has depressed your added value within this segment, but the profitability was solid, as you always stated.
Yeah. Bottom line, yes.
Does that mean that if we subtract that from the other offshore activities, that that was more or less still loss-making?
Yes.
Okay.
Because of the huge underutilization.
Yeah. You had a very successful rate in the inter-array. Lately, one of your competitors won the BC Wind project. Do you know why you have lost that project against your competitor?
Yes. But I'm not going to explain that here. I never mentioned that we would win 100% of the projects. The original business case to come to an EBITDA margin of around 20% is based on, let's say, 25% up to 30% market share. So we're overachieving there, and it's good to have also a good filled order book at reasonably good margins. Again, we are not yet planning a second plant. But I believe from the opportunity, we could overutilize what we have invested. But that's good. Let's first see that we utilize the complete plant and that everyone is smiling here in this room and all our stakeholders are having a big smile.
You stated with production of inter-array, you can produce at the same rate level as your competitor, but your ESG rates are much better.
Yeah.
Does that imply that they are now more or less?
No. We are still the only one who is offering the dry design cable technology, and we are really far ahead of competition, especially if you look at the bumpy road we had to go through since 2016 to get it, let's say, Yeah, translated also in the right manufacturing processes. It's not just the ESG advantage, it's also the installation advantage, which is a big cost saving that can go up to even 15%-20% of the total project price. In some cases, it can be that you can use smaller dimensions of cables, which have a substantial lower price than the higher dimension cables.
That is because of the ampacity we can offer with our technology, which is much more efficient than we see conventional cable types. Yeah, the USPs are really huge, not only related to ESG, but also to cost. We have a much lower transportation cost because we are in the Eemshaven, and most of the contractors are close to the Eemshaven. That can save on a project of EUR 50 million, about one and a half million if you have to transport it from another location. I'm not going to mention the location, but you can imagine which location.
Do believe last time you said you also wanted to expand more into defense. Can you provide a bit more information where you stand at this stage?
Yeah, that is mainly related to our vision technology. And the application of that is in the situational awareness area, as you can say. We're engineered in when it comes to certain solutions and projects. The actual volumes for supply are still to come. We expect already this year a positive effect of that in our vision activities. When you look at, and I think that's quite obvious, the main focus for us is Europe and North America for supply.
Okay, thanks. Lastly, still on the TKH building, again, you mentioned we do expect order intake to improve in the course of this year. You also always have a certain lead time before you will start to produce.
Yeah.
Does this imply that Q2 will also be depressed for you, and then more or less earliest recovery should or could start in Q3?
I think if you look at production volumes, that is indeed in Q1, Q2 will be lower. It's more back-end loaded when it comes to the results. I take the point.
Oh, don't give a forecast. It was the advice.
Sorry. We're, how do you say that? Actively monitoring the situation now. I think you're right. The second half will be better than the first half.
You still give a forecast now. Lastly, now it slips my mind, just as confirmation, you mentioned CapEx tangible and intangible will more or less be similar to this year.
Yeah. If you take out the special investment program, which we announced earlier.
Okay, thanks.
Yes. Ruben Devos from Kepler Cheuvreux. Got a few small questions left. First one's actually on the Liander framework contract. I think you talked about EUR 650 million over 8 years, so it's about EUR 80 million a year. That's quite substantial already. You also referenced framework agreements with other DSOs, but which are not reflected in the order book. Curious about whether you could potentially size the annual revenue opportunity here, because it feels a bit like an underappreciated structural growth driver, actually.
Yeah.
Um, so-
The, the issue is what Elling already announced. We have to be really careful to already give this, disclose this information. We will do that in the course of this year. Yeah, sorry that I cannot be more specific there.
Okay. I mean, if I look at the market, it doesn't seem to be in a very bad shape. Obviously, you've gone through a bit of restructuring and 2025, if you said, was loss-making. Do you see 2026 maybe more as an inflection year? Is it still a bit of a restructuring? I think you've talked about, yeah, I think you talked about electrification, the fact that you wanted to have a solid run rate of profitability before, you know, maybe moving to the next step. Do you have a bit the same rationale for digitalization?
Yeah. To start with, I mean, we have mentioned last year already that digitalization is to be exited, that's no change. That exit is independent, as we communicated in the Capital Markets Day, from the, call it, electrification automation split. If you look at the market itself, I would say that on a global level, there is some dynamics, especially in North America, it's pretty strong, driven by data centers and also the trickle-down effects of the federal funds leading to more Fiber to the Home initiatives. That's pulling some capacity towards that region. It also requires a lot of Build America, Buy America concepts. Now, we are not, we don't have any plans to establish something over there, so our focus remains Europe.
In Europe, we see that actually the volumes in, and these are preliminary figures for 2025, the volumes itself in Europe are minus 13%. From that point of view, we look at a world where different dynamics in different regions takes place. We are very well-positioned. We have chosen from the beginning a market segment which is really on the high end. What that means is that our fiber specifications are really in the top of the market. From the beginning, that has been the concept, to be as much as possible away from the commodity kind of portfolio. That fiber spec is, in the end, also what is currently looked for within the data centers. Data centers is one of the drivers, as I said, for North America.
It's also something which will in Europe become a bigger kind of theme. There are some, let's say, elements which give positive sign. The question is how we get access to the right projects and how we do that. I think portfolio-wise, we are in a good base. 25 was a transitioning year. We mentioned earlier already in the second half of last year, everything was transferred in Poland. We are fully staffed. We have full running. Delivery times are going down compared to, let's say, a year ago. From that point of view, I think we are in the right track at a lower cost base. Doesn't mean immediately we meet all the targets of TKH, but the transition 2025, 2026 is a positive one.
The reasoning is basically similar in terms of timing, how you think about a potential divestment or separation of digitalization.
Correct.
Okay. Okay. Well, I think for Security Vision, I also have one question. Just, I think you've mentioned a few times now that you're increasingly winning larger projects on a structural basis. My curiosity is what's really driving that shift, you know? Is it mostly because of a different geographical mix? Are you upselling more software? Is it largely project deliveries? Like, yeah. How should we think about these larger projects as well? Like, are we talking a few EUR million, or is it already maybe EUR 10 million? Yeah.
The largest project until now is EUR 25 million. The success why we win these bigger projects is the integration of the technology that we can offer. The combination between mission-critical communication, vision technology, access control. We are one of the few that has this offering and including the software to really being a differentiator and to have a low risk profile for the potential customers to award us these larger projects. We see also in the performance of these larger projects that we are, let's say, having a really well operational excellence related to also the profitability and to the forecast that we made in delivering on ti me.
Okay. The very last one for me is just, and I think you might have mentioned it somewhere, but maybe I missed it, but, I think you talked about a EUR 15 million cost saving program at the start of the year. How much did you eventually realized? What may be the aggregate cost savings embedded in the full year outlook of this year?
Well, we didn't announce it as a specific cost saving program, but, based on the question of Martijn earlier, what were some, call it, incidental related cost. This is in the basket of about the EUR 15 million. As I said, it's part in the energy segment, and the other half is more in the digitalization part. That's basically the kind of element you should take with you. Of course, there are some further growth initiatives, for 2026, which will have a slight, yeah, driven effect on the, on the OpEx. The EUR 15 million is basically what you should not see back in 2026.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Yeah, Martijn den Drijver for ABN AMRO ODDO again. On vision, if I look at, let me take what Cognex, Rockwell, Honeywell, Keyence have said about 2026. If you summarize it, they're basically guiding for mid-single digit growth, organic growth. Would you be comfortable with that number, or is that Germany component enough of a reason to guide for or be a little bit more cautious than that mid-single digit organic growth that we see in the market?
I think the what they are mentioning is indeed reflecting what you could say the growth in market and obviously we're doing our best to stay there well-positioned.
You've really learned well from Tijs now.
Of course.
Okay. Thanks, Thijs. It said in the press release, and you've also mentioned it in the Capital Markets Day that you were going to do this. Had the merger of the brands within to the.
Yeah
... the integration of the back offices. What the efficiencies that you were looking to realize? Did you realize that? What does it mean in terms of lower cost or efficiency in 2026?
Well, what we last year, we made a big step in one of the entities where a German entity, N.E.T. was dissolved into mainly into Allied Vision and partly into SVS. That leads to a lot of efficiencies. I think I'll refer to Ellen when it comes to the pure financial side on that. Early this year, we end of last year, early this year, we announced the one brand for the 2D group as Allied Vision. That was also received very well, by the way, early this year in the market.
If you look at the absolute figures, we're talking about low single numbers with further upside going forward, but that's not 2026. The other element you have to take into account is the additional commercial opportunities which come out of the integration as well. The one brand and the one, let's say, commercial organization to the market and all these kind of things, that's where in the end, the benefit of integrating has to come from. It's not just a pure cost-cutting exercise.
No, that's true. That's true. A final question on vision and linked to the capitalized development cost. If my memory serves me well, during the Capital Markets Day and also thereafter in the discussion, I think it was even in the presentation, that there was a common platform that had been developed for both 2D and 3D.
Yeah.
That was in place.
Yes.
The first products.
Correct.
aimed at utilizing that platform were going to be introduced. My question actually is, why are the intangibles then guided for at the same level? I would expect, you know, if the platform is done, you have done your work, then why do you need all these R&D and capitalized development costs?
Well, there are a couple of things. It's not that, the whole R&D only works on one platform. There are much more portfolio elements which are in the range of activities which they handle. Of course a platform is not something which, once you launch it's gonna be like that forever. You always see the upgrades, et cetera. It's a matter of allocation and time, which resources are being allocated to what kind of projects. There's always a lot of, let's say, enthusiasm in these teams on what else could be done or should be done and has to be done. That's an area where in the end, I think, if you wanna deploy your resources, of course you have to be very careful.
We also highlighted in the Capital Markets Day that we wanna bring the CapEx and amortization levels to be more in line. That's not all in 2026, but going towards 2028. There has to be a level of prioritization coming through in the R&D projects to make sure that, let's say, the gap is closing. It doesn't mean that completing a particular platform, everybody is off the hook for tomorrow and everybody can go home. There's a lot of activities ongoing.
Software platform.
Yeah, yeah.
It was not a hardware platform.
Oh, sure. I get it.
It was the integration through the software that we could use plug and play the several technologies that we have in one system. The hardware platforms is a different ballgame, and there we are still on the move, especially related also to new end markets like the defense market. That's a huge investment program that we have aligned with the opportunities we have in the defense industry, where you have to match the specifications, and some of these specifications are completely different compared to monitoring a smartphone in the consumer electronic. Fair enough. Thanks for the additional color.
Maarten Verbeek, the IDEA! here. Follow-up. You mentioned, concerning the added value of vision systems. You're more or less Made a huge progress over there, but you reached a level which you think this is a level which cannot be improved much further, or do you still see that you can gain more in that respect?
Related to the electrification?
No, no. Vision.
Oh, vision.
Vision. Vision.
That's interesting for Harm.
Well, when you see a shift going more into the software proposition side, and if you look at more recurring revenues from software, then there is potential in the future to bring this figure further up. I think the 62% is already a very nice achievement.
We should not be too enthusiastic about further improvement in that respect?
Yeah.
No, I believe it's a very really fair and very good margin. Well, the improvement potential is in the further alignment of the portfolio. We still have some commodity activities there in the security business, and we are, that's on the divestment list of the EUR 250 million. Of course, that helps then to improve the margin, but that will be perhaps a few tenths and not a percentage.
Maybe you already have answered my next question because you want to focus on automation. You are seeking a new owner for your energy and digitalization business. Are there other business units within TKH you still like to bring to another owner?
I mean, we have the Capital Markets Day included the sheet, and it's also in the handout which you have, and it will be also on the website as part of the presentation which we gave today, where you can see that, in some of the segments in automation and the electrification, both have what we call, if I put it blunt, a kind of non-core or other business, which in the end will be exited. That's independent, as I said, from the big separation topic, automation, electrification. That agenda has not changed. The majority of the basket I referred to is of course within the connectivity part. The biggest there is of course the digitalization basket. There are some other bits and pieces. Yes.
The other bits and pieces, do you expect that to be completed this year, that program?
I cannot give you a guarantee on that, but we are working on getting things executed.
Thanks.
Web. Okay. No questions anymore. I'd like to thank you again for being here, but also for all the time you invest in TKH, which is not an easy case, I believe, to do your analysis in the right way. That means that you need to spend a lot of time, and I really appreciate for that, also in the name of my colleagues. Also I'd like to thank everyone in the webcast for participating and we will come back in beginning of May with our Q1 results. After that we have our annual shareholders meeting. Hope to see you certainly again during road shows or in August with the presentation of the half year result. Thank you very much.