Okay. Good afternoon to everyone, and welcome to El.En.'s Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. Today's call will be recorded, and there will be an opportunity for questions at the end of the call. With us are on the call, Andrea Cangioli, he's El.En.'s CEO, and Enrico Romagnoli, El.En.'s Chief Financial Officer and Investor Relation Manager. Before we begin, please note that there are management remarks during the conference call regarding future expectations, plans, prospects, and forward-looking statements. Certain statements in this call, including those addressing the company's beliefs, plans, objectives, estimates, or expectations of possible future results or events are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known or unknown risks, including general economic and business conditions in the industry in which we operate. These statements will be affected if our assumption turn out to be inaccurate.
Consequently, no forward-looking statement can be guaranteed, and actual future results, performance, or achievements may vary materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to update the contents of the forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date hereof. At the end of the presentation, if you need to ask a question, please raise your virtual hand. You will have the floor in order of requests. At this time, I want to give the floor to Andrea Cangioli. Please go ahead, Andrea.
Thank you, Nicola. Thank you, Bianca, and thank you everybody for joining this call of comment on the 2025 financials. Enrico Romagnoli will be with me and will dig into the details of our financial performance after my brief introduction. As we released our financial results after market on Friday, looking at the news on the web over the weekend, the main line captured by the press is that our net profit declined in 2025 compared to 2024. I don't believe this line appropriately captures our achievements of 2025, and I would like to describe them under two essential profiles: market positioning of the group on our main outlet markets and overall financial performance for current operations. Market positioning. Sales volume was up in excess of 4% in both medical and industrial sectors.
In the medical sector, net of the one-time events, which I would call inorganic, I mean the sale of the majority of With Us Co. Ltd, our Japanese subsidiary active in the Professional Beauty segment, and the almost complete loss of our historic customer, Cynosure, to its new Korean partners. Revenue growth was, in fact, in the neighborhood of 10%, which I believe is an outstanding achievement for year 2025. DEKA, Quanta , Asclepion, ASA, all the business units and brands marked our sales and profits increase in 2025. The incumbent obstacles that have been hindering our performance, generating turmoil and uncertainty in the political and financial global arena, are surprisingly absorbed and metabolized by the economic environment and, to a great extent, by our organization as well.
There's no dark shadow cast on our financial results by the ongoing war in Ukraine, by the war in Palestine, by the new tariffs hitting trade with the U.S., and by the U.S. dollar weakening over the year. We stood strong in all our main markets, including the U.S., where in the medical sector, we consolidated our market position, retained through our valuable distribution partners. Our brands are well-recognized and significantly improved their visibility in the market. We have provided adequate marketing support to elevate them to prominence they deserve, both on social media and in the physical world. Moreover, with the exit of our Chinese operation out of the consolidation perimeter, the group is making a move towards a prevalence of the medical sector. We continue to be fully committed and engaged in exploiting the capabilities and opportunities of the industrial sector within the group.
Our overall balance is now more oriented towards the medical sectors, which is proving to be more rewarding. 2025, markedly its second half, has been the first period in which we actually operated in the new configuration of the group with a lighter weight of the industrial sector. In 2024, we reported our financials with the same perimeter, excluding China, according to IFRS 5, but we were actually in charge for the Chinese business as well. For what concerns the financial performance, it displayed a very solid result. At EBITDA level, we beat 2024. Due to higher than usual accruals for risk of various kinds, EBIT stood right below the level of 2024. Under this profile, the profit guidance provided at the beginning of the year that we would beat 2024's EBIT in 2025 wasn't fully met.
On this theme, I would like to spend a few more words. EBIT lagged behind 2024's level throughout the year, and entering Q4, we needed, and in fact we counted on an extraordinary performance to close the yearly profit gap. In the quarter. The performance in Q4 was actually very solid. Revenue was EUR 169 million, and EBIT margin was 13.5%, both beating the metrics of Q4 2024. Only a revenue mix that in the Laser Cutting segment was heavily weighted on the lower margin spare parts sales on the Italian territory, leading to a poor performance of the tech sector under EBIT generation profile, inhibited Q4 2025 financial performance to fully close the gap to 2024.
Drilling down into the performance of the Various Market segments, revenue mix continued to be favorable in the medical sector and was very unfavorable in the Industrial segment, leading to a wide divergence in the profitability of the two segments. In medical, the demand trend confirmed what we had experienced throughout the year. Competition is driving down volumes and prices in the Hair Removal segment. The volume misses in the Hair segment are replaced with expansion in the anti-aging rejuvenation application space, where the margins we can achieve are higher, an effect of the excellent branding and positioning of the technologies and procedures that we offer in the segment.
It is meaningful to mention that both CoolPeel, which is the brand name of the procedure that is performed with our CO2 lasers to effectively, rapidly, and painlessly rejuvenate the skin of the face, and ONDA, our unique microwave technology for body shaping and skin tightening, are witnessing an important increase of imitations, which are more or less blatantly setting forth claims of equivalence with our systems and procedures, which are recognized as the market leaders and reference. We are taking care of this with our legal department, but this circumstance testifies the strength and enviable market positioning we reached in this space. In the Medical area, we did very well once again in surgery, and specifically in urology, where sales volume increased for laser system and even more for the consumable tied to the performance of the surgical procedures, the single or multiple-use sterile optical fibers.
Optical fibers revenue exceeded EUR 40 million in 2025, a notable achievement, which is not materially affecting the gross margin yield, but as the expense involving the sale of the product is marginal compared to systems, has an important effect on EBIT. Finally, in Medical, I'd like to mention the excellent performance, both in the last quarter and in the full year 2025, of the business unit dedicated to physiotherapy systems, ASAlaser, based in Vicenza, Italy, which contributed to the group's performance with an increase both in revenue and in profits. Wrapping up all these elements, in the consolidated financial performance, we ended up with yearly revenues EUR 428 million, EUR 114 million in the quarter, and with EBIT margins sailing above 17%. I'm talking of the medical sector, of course.
The last quarter performance was not as favorable in the industrial sector, markedly for the cutting sector. The results in terms of sales was remarkable, but the mix, in this case the geographical mix, was not favorable. Sales were concentrated mainly on the Italian territory, which for the cutting market is currently very competitive and bears very low margin compared to the US market and the other European markets, which normally provide a stronger contribution to sales and margins, but that were extremely weak in the quarter. As the Cutting System segment is by far most relevant in terms of revenue in the industrial sector, it accounts for EUR 121 million out of the total EUR 162 million for the sector.
Its weak quarterly performance impacted on the sector profitability, driving EBIT down to roughly 1% only in the quarter and roughly 2% only for the year. Among the other segment within the industrial sector, I would like to highlight the excellent performance of LASIT and its subsidiaries. As you know, LASIT is engaged in the laser marking business for identification and small surfaces. Revenues were just slightly up on 2024, but the quality of revenues and margins improved a lot, to a remarkable 46% increase in EBIT and to an EBIT margin in excess of 13%, which makes this segment more similar to the Medical Sector segment's profitability-wise. While our EBIT targets were substantially met, under a cash generation profile, 2025 was an outstanding year.
Our net financial position is up to EUR 172 million at the end of the year, and we have EUR 11 million more of cash invested in so-called long-term financial assets. The 62 and change million increase were due to one-time events, meaning the sale of the majority of Penta Laser (Zhejiang) for about EUR 24 million, excuse me, while roughly EUR 30 million or 38 million were generated by operation, net of about EUR 80 million paid out in dividends and about EUR 80 million more of capital expenditure. Net working capital decreased on a yearly basis, contributing to cash generation and inverting the increased trend that had initiated with the post-COVID supply chain crunch. Capital expenditure was higher than forecast and was mainly allocated to facility expansion and capability improvements.
Quanta System is building its new sterile optical fibers manufacturing facility with improved capacity and automation of certain processes, an investment that will exceed EUR 5 million over the 2024-2026 time span. El.En. rebuilt part of the building on the other side of the street here in Calenzano, as a new home for the Medical Service Department, which moved there last week, which now has a dedicated facility with appropriate offices, services, and logistics, and freed up the manufacturing floor space in the main building. LASIT in Torre Annunziata increased its investment level in this year, also taking benefit of the significant aid that investment in fixed assets are receiving in southern Italy.
The determinants that from a comparable starting point in profits from operations make the 2025 net profits results diverge so much from 2024's result can be summarized in the opposite impact for both foreign exchange variances and the extraordinary management entries related to the sales of the Chinese subsidiary. I leave the floor to Enrico that will provide you with all the relevant details on this specific matter and on the 2025 financial performance.
Thank you, Andrea. Good morning, everybody. As usual, I will briefly comment the full year 2025 financial result released last Friday. As already mentioned by Andrea, we already applied for the interim account, the full year 2025 consolidated income statement has been prepared in accordance with IFRS accounting standards, excluding the consolidation line by line of Chinese activities, both in 2025 and 2024, due to the negotiation for the sale of the Chinese division in accordance with IFRS 5. The majority stake of the division was sold on July 15, and the residual stake is about 20%.
The contribution of Penta Laser (Zhejiang) for the first six months has been accounted in the line of the discontinued operation, when the contribution for the second part of the year is accounted in the line of other expenses below EBIT, which include the contribution of associated company consolidated using the equity method. For the full year 2025, El.En. recorded revenues of EUR 591 million, up 4.4% versus EUR 566 million in 2024. The medical sector grew by 4.4% in line with previous quarters, while the industrial sector reported a similar annual increase, plus 4.3%, supported by a significant recovery in the fourth quarter.
The gross margin reached 259.8 million EUR, up 5.7% on the year, with margin improving from 43.4% to 44%, mainly driven by a favorable product mix in the medical sector. The industrial sector showed a slight lower margin profile due to a higher weight of Italian sales, but the overall effect remained positive. In 2025, the weakness of US dollar in Medical and Industrial, and real in industrial sector only, had a cumulative negative impact on the growth of sales minus 0.9%, -0.8% in medical and -1.1% in the industrial.
In terms of operating expenses and costs, we had an increase in value and an impact on sales, mainly in G&A, +7%, mainly due to R&D and IT costs, and sales and marketing activities, +11%. Staff costs increased due to an increase in headcounts and in salaries. On December 2025, the group had 1,412 employees, compared with last year when they were 1,353, excluding China and Japan, with an increase of 59 employees, +4%. EBITDA was positive for EUR 92.8 million, up on the EUR 91.8 million of last year, notwithstanding a slight reduction in margin, 16.2% in 2024, 15.7% in 2025.
EBIT recorded a positive balance of EUR 77.8 million, slightly down from the EUR 78.3 million of last year, due to more significant provision for risk and charges compared to the previous year, with an EBIT margin decreasing from 13.8% to 13.2%. In depreciation, amortization, provision in 2024, there was the reversal of a provision for risk and charges for EUR 1.6 million, due to some legal disputes that were resolved more favorably than expected. Moreover, in 2025, the amount of depreciation amortization increased by EUR 0.4 million due to the investments made in the year and the past periods. Financial management recorded a loss of EUR 0.8 million compared to a profit of EUR 0.8 million in the previous year.
Financial income generated from the investment of liquidity amounted to EUR 3.9 million, EUR 2.8 million last year, while interest expenses on debt amounted to EUR 1.6 million this year, EUR 2.2 million last year. Foreign exchange rate differences showed a significant overall negative balance of EUR 3.1 million, primarily due to the exchange rate of the US dollar. There is also a one-time exchange rate loss recorded in Q1 for EUR 908,000 following the release of the currency translation reserve resulting from the sale of the majority in With Us. This release reflects the amount of exchange rate differences accumulated over the years in a specific equity reserve, and this is particularly negative due to the performance of the Japanese yen.
The contribution of associated companies included in other expenses is negative for EUR 2.7 million due to With Us, - EUR 0.4 million, and Penta Laser (Zhejiang), - EUR 2.5 million. When ELESTA was positive for EUR 260 thousand. In other income, last year was accounted the one-time income of EUR 5 million due to the write-off of a financial liabilities related to the earnout to pay to former minority Chinese shareholders in case of IPO of Penta Laser (Zhejiang). The pre-tax income was positive for EUR 74.3 million, down from the EUR 84.1 million. Below this result, there is the net result of the discontinued operation, negative for EUR 6.6 million, and is composed of four main items.
The contribution to the consolidated income statement by Penta Laser (Zhejiang)'s first six-month result, equal to a loss of EUR 3.9 million. The consolidated capital gain on the sales of the stake equal to EUR 3 million, net of an adjustment for cost incurred and expected as of today for the conclusion of the contract. The financial components related to the release of the currency translation reserve, which resulted in a cost of EUR 1.9 million, and a charge of EUR 3.8 million following the definition of a fiscal litigation relating to Penta Laser (Zhejiang) raised in 2025 by the Agenzia delle Entrate, the cost of which were borne by OT-LAS in accordance with the contractual agreement underlying the sale.
The group closed the 2025 financial year with a net profit of EUR 43.4 million, down from the EUR 51.6 million of last year. The tax rate, the effective tax rate in 2025 was 32% versus 25%. In 2024, there were two positive one-time effects. The no taxability of the EUR 5 million in other income as write-off of the financial liabilities related to the earnout previously mentioned in case of IPO of Penta Laser (Zhejiang). The cumulative accounting of the so-called patent box in El.En. For the year 2024 for a tax advantage of approximately EUR 3 million. Moving now to the balance sheet. In 2025, we had an increase in fixed asset with CapEx around EUR 19 million. The main investment referring to plants, lands, and buildings.
In the year, we registered a decrease in net working capital for -7.6%, with also a reduction in the ratio on sales from 35% to 31%. On December, the net financial position is positive for EUR 172.2 million, up from the EUR 110.6 million at the end of 2024. The board of directors held on Friday proposed to the shareholders meeting a dividend to be paid on May 2026 of EUR 0.25 per shares compared to the EURO 0.22 per shares, for a total distribution of EUR 20 million to be paid at the end of May.
For what concerns the revenue breakdown by business, the medical sector reached EUR 429 million revenues, up 4.4%, driven by the strong performance in Surgical +7%, Aesthetic +4%, and Laser Therapy +5%. Despite the exit of With Us, our Japanese subsidiary, and a challenging environment in the U.S. market. The sales of consumables and after-sale services remained very satisfactory. Driven by sales of optical fiber in urological surgery, more than 50% of the sales of the segment, which kept service revenue growth to 2% despite the loss of the service contract revenue from With Us.
The exit from the consolidation perimeter of With Us Co. Ltd entails an inorganic revenue loss for the service sector of more than 8% service revenue. Organic growth in the segment was therefore approximately 10%. The industrial sector recorded revenue of EUR 162 million, up 4.3%, supported by Cutting and After Sales service, with particularly strong growth in Italy, whereas marking and laser sources recorded a decline in revenue. The revenue breakdown by area in the medical, Italy led the growth, supported by solid performance across Europe, plus 7%, and on the global markets. High international exposure, around 90% of revenue and successful product in Asia, offsetting the With Us Co. Ltd exit and US headwinds and confirm the strong competitiveness of the group.
Industrial in Italy showed a significant recovery in the second half of the year, supported by renewed confidence in the manufacturing sector and fiscal incentives for investment like ZES for the south of Italy and Industry 5.0. However, international exposure remains lower than in the medical sector, with foreign sales below 50% of revenue, despite structurally higher margin abroad. In Europe, performance has yet to fully stabilize, as its subsidiaries are now reaching maturity while certain pan-European branches underperform expectation. In the U.S., order intakes was negatively affected in the year by uncertainty linked to potential Chinese acquisition, although a recovery in order emerged towards year-end. Please, Andrea, go ahead with the guidance.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Before going to the guidance, I wanted to mention another point, I believe also anticipating your request. The point about any planned M&A activity, also in light of the considerable amount of cash retained by the group today. We are today considering opportunities of expansion, especially related to the U.S. territory, on which from the days of Cynosure, we do not have a stronghold anymore. Opportunities, it's stayed plural, since we operate in Several Market segments, and each of them would need a specific organization. Quanta System is interested in creating an organization for its surgical business, ASAlaser for its physiotherapy business, DEKA for its aesthetic business. There is nothing more than this, which is worth mentioning to date.
The guidance we disclosed in the press release outlines a 5% growth in revenues and a stronger growth in EBIT. Order intake has been very busy in the last months of the year and also in January and February. Our backlog mix reflects the latest mix of revenues in medical, more weighted in anti-aging devices, on the pro at first place. It is much more balanced on international sales, including the higher margins bearing sales to the U.S. market for the industrial sector, including and specifically in the Laser Cutting segment. The level of confidence that our operating units display is high. Had we delivered guidance on February 15, the message we would have broadcasted would have been more optimistic and the shared expected growth more aggressive. The bombing of Iran could have an impact on our business, though quite unpredictable.
Short-term, we are seeing the reaction, quite understandably, from the Gulf area, which is particularly relevant for the medical aesthetic sector. The immediate impact is the increase of gas prices for cars, and that are hitting in whatever is related to energy and transportation. Hoping in a quick solution of the conflict, we'll have to see how this will impact on the overall economic trend and propensity to invest. There's a great deal of uncertainty tied to the outcome and effects of this new conflict, and as I often have said, uncertainty is one of the worst enemies for capital equipment manufacturers that sell their equipment to customers based on their solid expectation to receive solid results.
In closing these remarks, and before we answer your question, I would like to confirm that in any circumstance, we feel our organization is today strong, stable, and well-positioned, and we are confident in our abilities and capabilities to pursue our expansion goals. Thank you.
Now we can open the Q&A session. I kindly ask investors if they have some question to raise their virtual hand, please. We have the first one from Carlo Maritano. Go on, Carlo.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yes. Ciao, Carlo.
Okay. Ciao. Hi, everyone. Just have three questions from my side just to begin this session. The first one is on the Middle East. You just mentioned that it's a relevant market for you. Can you remind us how much of your revenues come from this area, and which are the applications in the sector that are most affected from the current situation? The second one is on CapEx. This year you invested more than expected to add the capacity. I was wondering if next year, given that you expect still some important growth, if you expect the current.
The level of 2025 will be basically the same in 2026, or it will be more, we can say, normal, around 15%... 15 million per year? The final one is on the marking business. In the fourth quarter, there was quite a decline. I was just wondering if you can provide us some more color on the performance of this division. Thank you.
Thank you, Carlo, for the question. Middle East, it's worth roughly 15% of our Medical Aesthetic sales, where it's way less significant in any other segment. This is the amount of risk, let's say, of the area. The Middle East is quite a broad concept, because Egypt is part of Middle East, and Egypt today is not affected at all, at least by the current situation. While the areas in which we sell that are more affected are the Emirates, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Those are the three areas where we have very good sales volume in medical. The situation is uncertain.
Dubai Derma, which is an exhibition which was due to take place at the end of March, has been for the moment suspended, obviously. We'll see. I mean, of course, we would need to somehow put up with this situation. We hope that it won't last too long. Second question was CapEx. I wouldn't expect 2026 to replicate by any means the volumes of investment in 2025. We bought a building for Cutlite Penta, which was worth EUR 3.5 million, which we don't expect at all to replicate in this year. We had several infrastructure investments in LASIT, which are not gonna be replicated in 2026. We built the new building in the other side of the road this year will not replicated,
Actually, we could have some investment in expansion of capabilities or in refurbishing of certain parts of our manufacturing plants. As you said, I expect the CapEx in 2025 to remain well below the EUR 15 million mark. The third point was marking. Marking industry has seen overall a decline. We have three companies engaged in various means in the marking arena. The first one is LASIT, which is engaged in the small surface identification market, and they had a small increase in revenue. We're basically even. The second company is OT-LAS, which is engaged in the decoration wider surface market. They didn't have a good year.
Part of their business is also related to the fashion market and this year was a very bad year for all the manufacturers related to the fashion market, so there was no stimulus incentive for our customer to invest. The third area of marking is a special system of El.En. El.En. is our major parent company. They has an industrial division which specializes in two specialties, mid power laser sources and marking systems, which sometimes are sold together, sometimes are sold separately. In this case, I'd like to mention one of the worst events of 2025, where we had to withstand the bankruptcy of an important customer of ours in Israel, which was a very interesting customer for our marking systems that were used in digital converting.
Unfortunately, even though the company was a listed company, they went bankrupt. It's one of the reason why we had so large accruals with respect to 2024 in 2025. Looking forward, since you brought me into the Marking segment, we believe that 2026 can be a year of recovery. LASIT has an extensive budget with an expansion both in service related to existing system and in the sale of new systems. OT-LAS is seeing a very interesting recovery in their own application fields.
Also with El.En., I mean, I wouldn't say it's for laser markers and laser sources, but with both we are in this moment envisaging a good return to growth in sales.
Thank you, Andrea.
One thing I have to mention that sometimes our sales volume is important, but the mix of products within the sales volumes is very important as well. LASIT and its subsidiary did not materially increase the sales in 2025, but they shifted their mix to special system, which means system that are not standard and on which there is less competition because they are customized versions for customers' needs. By this means, with the same revenue, they increase materially gross margin and materially EBIT margin, which is good news, which makes LASIT a kind of company which operates with the level of margins, both in gross margin and EBIT margin, which are comparable to the medical sector.
Thank you, again.
Other question from the investors?
Yes.
Yes. We have Giovanni Salvetti from Berenberg. Go on, Giovanni, please.
Hello, everyone. Can you hear me well?
Yes.
Yes.
Hi.
Ciao, Giovanni.
Hello, everyone. The first one is probably to stay on the point that Andrea was making now on the mix. I was wondering what changed compared to the third quarter, because I would assume that if most of the order intake for the Industrial division was Italy, unless you were assuming a different profitability in Italy, it should have been already clear then that the guidance would have not been met. Because it seems to me that you were saying before that these instances run at a lower profitability compared to other countries. In Italy because the market is more competitive. But at the same time, you should have had the visibility on where these orders were coming. I was wondering if maybe the profitability realized was lower than you actually expected.
The second one is on M&A. During the last call, you were mentioning that, if I'm not mistaken, you were close or not too far from closing some bolt-on deals, while now it seems more that there's nothing on the table. Is something happened there? The third one is mostly very short on the tax rate for maybe Enrico. Is it fair to assume that it's gonna be around 32% structurally going forward?
Andrea, if you want, I can answer to the tax rate.
Yes.
Last year, as I mentioned before, there are two non-recurring benefits on the tax rate. For the future, I think that if you assume a tax rate around 30%, could be a reasonable tax rate from 30%-31% around.
No, we are sure it also. Concerning profitability in the fourth quarter, you are somehow right. Basically, guidance was a mess for a very small amount, which within all the determinants of a quarterly result are, I mean, a minor issue. We thought we were gonna deliver certain units to the U.S. We thought that we were gonna deliver more units in Brazil. The performance of Brazil in the fourth quarter was very poor. Sales revenue in Brazil was zero. These two elements by itself change the guidance. Excuse me, not change the guidance.
Caused enough margin reduction not to meet the guidance. The good news here is that the orders that we could not deliver in 2025 are due to delivery now, and so we expect a better mix in the industrial business in the cutting sector, especially now starting in the first quarter of 2026. Concerning M&A, you are right. Actually, what I described in my comments is that we are considering those bolt-on transactions for these segments. That today I have nothing to add because there is nothing disclosable more than a vague description of an intention to move in that direction.
Okay. Thank you.
Andrea Bonfà.
Another, Andrea Bonfà. Yes. We have another question from Andrea Bonfà from Banca Akros. Go on, Andrea, please.
Hi. Good afternoon. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yes.
Hi, Andrea.
Hi. Hi. Ciao, Andrea. Now, very quickly, is it possible for you to elaborate how is the U.S. market doing in the light of the, let's say, nominal duties, and then now the potential that the duties will not be applied anymore?
In this moment, our forecast for the U.S. market, duties or not, is very strong. Of course, if duties will actually be relieved, which I don't know if I have to believe in full, the situation will be better. All our forecast is based on purchase volumes, which, for our customer, bear the 50% duties. Shouldn't the duties be applied from a certain date on, of course, we would have an advantage. We would probably also have a compression of sales, because if a window will open, everybody will try to purchase in that window. I mean, we don't have a model for that today.
Okay. If I understood correctly, for the time being, more or less you are dividing, you are sharing the royalties or the duties 50% with your client. Is that right?
Not exactly. Basically, in the medical sector, most of our customer in the United States are bearing in full the cost of the tariffs. In certain case, we provided a contribution which is though way lower than 7.5%. I believe that, as of today, as manufacturers, we have borne in full the effect of the foreign exchange, which was worth close to I mean depends when you look for 7%-8%, let's say today. But we didn't bear any material cost in taking charge of the duties. We are not beyond 2% or 3% in the seldom circumstances in which we agreed to contribute.
Okay. If I may, a follow-up question. On your guidance, the 5%, top line, sales growth, is that expected to be about the same for the two division or do you see a faster growth in Medical or versus Industrial, or if you can comment on that?
As of today, both sectors are expected to grow at the same speed. Of course
Okay. Thank you very much.
Yes. Yes.
Is there any other question for, the company? No. It looks like there are no more. Yes, Andrea Bonfà again. Okay.
Sorry, I exploit the fact that there are no questions for the time being. Andrea, I will ask you. I mean, you mentioned that if it wasn't for the war, your guidance in February would have been, let's say, more important. But is that? Is the current guidance already reflecting a slowdown, or is it still hypothetical for the time being?
We could talk long on this issue. We had a guidance which provided for certain growth rates in several countries, including the Middle East, and provided on a certain, let's say global situation. We decided to be more conservative following the bombing of Iran by Israel and the United States. We are factoring in a certain degree of prudence which takes into account two major facts. One, the fact that the Middle East countries will probably not be a market as large as we were expecting for the medical aesthetic sector. We applied a reduction on that specific market.
Second, also a more cautious approach worldwide, which, I mean, overall, led us to disclose the guidance that we have disclosed. Unfortunately, you can understand, 10 days after the beginning of a war, we have no means to understand how this will actually impact the business. Maybe the impact could be negligible. I mean, if the war ends and we have no impact, especially on the supply chains. We are worried about the supply chains. We were already worried by the supply chains for events which are unrelated to the war, because we are encountering an increase of pricing in certain electronic memories in...
Especially in memories, which, of course are related to the increase of demand for AI. We already have some concern on certain of our supply chain, let's say channels. Should other supply chain channels become hurt by the situation, we would need to face further problems. For the moment, we just we are the beginning of the year. We just decided to apply some prudence to what we thought we could actually perform. For the moment, we believe that 5% growth is something we should be able to achieve.
While achieving 5% growth, we should, especially by recovering in terms of profitability in the industrial sector which has been so poor as also Giovanni Salvetti was somehow or as we commented with Giovanni Salvetti before. These kind of achievements is something we feel quite comfortable to reach.
Okay. Sorry for the level of detail. If I understood correctly, in your guidance, the areas, the countries affected by the geopolitical event are now seeing with a sales decline in your guidance. Is that correct?
Um-
Is it lower rate?
Listen, I'm probably yes. I don't know. I can tell you that if we had EUR X million of sales in the Gulf, we applied a reduction of sales to the Gulf. I don't know if after the reduction we applied on the budget this is increases or not, but I believe yes, it's probably since we did fairly well last year, not very well. Last year, we did extremely worse in the Far Eastern market. We did not do so well in the Middle East markets because there were already some structural problems related to the unease of the area. I'm not able to tell you if there will be a decrease in Middle East. For sure, we decrease the forecast.
Okay. Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
We have one more question from Giovanni Salvetti. Go on, Giovanni. Thank you.
Yeah. Hello. Hi. Two quick ones on my side. The first one is related to again, M&A. Before you seem to suggest that probably also Quanta would like to expand in the US. In this respect, I saw that you already opened a commercial presence recently with Quanta. So, I was wondering if you are deciding to go on with your own, just say, a commercial sales force or you, if you still would like to find a distributor. The second one maybe again is on guidance. Is it because it's almost done already, the Q1, is it fair to assume that Q1 is gonna have an increase of revenues that is more than 5%, considering what you just said?
What's gonna happen the rest of the year depends on many things, and I'm aware of that. Is it fair to assume that Q1 is gonna be stronger than +5%?
First question, you're right. We opened a company called Quanta US. We incorporated a company. This is not setting any direction. It's just giving us, let's say, a logistical in terms of a financial logistic base to develop the business. Again, it's too early to disclose the way we will develop the business. You're right, we have this subsidiary, but we will tell how this will develop in an activity later on as soon as we have everything in place. For what concerns 2020, the first quarter, you know, we are quite hockey sticked always. March is the most important month. The last week of March is the most important week.
We are subjected to cutoff, which is technical. We might have delivered product, but we are not necessarily able to book it for revenue. I would say that I would expect a good growth in Q1 2026. But yes, I would expect it well above 5%, but it's not granted. It's not granted because we have to see how things evolve with deliveries in these weeks. Also in the United States, also in the Middle East. If we didn't have this issue of the bombing, I would be more confident.
Being a very short period and it being affected by cutoff, I mean, we had the end of periods with EUR 15 million of cutoff. EUR 15 million of cutoff is worth 10% of our revenue on a quarterly basis. It's sometimes very difficult to evaluate until the very last moment. Let's say that I hope and I'm confident that we could improve our revenue by over 5%, but I'm not guaranteeing it and I have no certain visibility on it.
Thank you.
If there are any further questions from investors still connected, please raise your virtual hand. No more questions, Andrea. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. If you have any inquiries in the future, please do not hesitate to contact Enrico Romagnoli, who will be happy to assist you. Thank you for attending this conference, and we hope to have you all again next time. Goodbye, everybody. Bye.
Bye-bye. Thank you.