Hello and welcome to the Syensqo First Quarter 2026 Earnings Results Analyst Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sherief Bakr, Chief Communications Officer and Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Syensqo's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. I'm Sherief Bakr, Chief Communications Officer and Head of Investor Relations. I'm joined today in Brussels by our CEO, Mike Radossich, our CFO, Christopher Davis, as well as Rodrigo Elizondo, President of the Composite Materials Business Unit. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded and will be accessible for replay on the investor relations section of our website later today at syensqo.com/investors.
I would also like to remind you that during this call, we will be making forward-looking statements regarding our future business and financial performance that are subject to risks and uncertainties. The slides related to this presentation, along with today's press release, are also available to download from our website. Turning to today's agenda, Mike will begin with an overview of the quarter, with Rodrigo covering the performance of Composite Materials.
Chris will then go into more details on our financials before turning the call back to Mike, who will discuss our outlook for the balance of the year. We will then be happy to take your questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mike.
Thank you, Sherief, Good morning and good afternoon to everyone joining us today. During our call at the end of February, I outlined how I plan to lead the company, our near-term priorities, and what we expect for 2026. Today, having completed my first 100 days as CEO, I want to share what we have accomplished and how these actions will deliver on the board's mandate to accelerate our value creation trajectory. Turning to our Q1 performance, we delivered in line with the outlook we provided despite a complex operating environment and saw improved order momentum. We delivered net sales of EUR 1.4 billion with underlying EBITDA of EUR 251 million, up 6% sequentially. Volumes were stable year-on-year, reflecting improved momentum versus the previous quarter.
We also delivered a resilient gross margin of 32%, reflecting our specialty value proposition and ongoing focus on driving our gross margin performance. The quarter also saw us secure a new multi-year agreement with Boeing across both commercial and Defense programs, reinforcing our position as a leading partner to the world's leading Aerospace manufacturers. From a portfolio perspective, we completed the sale of the Oil & Gas business in January with net proceeds of approximately EUR 130 million. Moving now to the conflict in the Middle East. This began affecting global markets in early March, driving a sharp increase in energy costs, greater logistics complexity, and ultimately higher raw material prices. Our direct commercial exposure to the region remains limited as sales to Middle Eastern customers are not material.
At the start of Q2, we implemented pricing actions, including surcharges, to offset these cost increases across both Specialty Polymers and Performance & Care. In Composite Materials, we have not seen any material impact on Civil Aerospace demand or build rates. There may be some incremental demand in Defense, although this is unlikely to be reflected in our near-term financials. Overall, the conflict has disrupted global logistics, resulting in higher freight costs, longer lead times, as well as increased input and energy costs. To manage the uncertainty and volatility, we have established a cross-functional task force across all business units, focusing on mitigating actions across our supply chains and commercial operations, maintaining agility, and addressing customer needs. That said, the longer the conflict persists, the greater the risk and the potential for more structural impacts on future demand.
For the full year, based on what we know today, we currently expect the impact of the conflict to be limited. I also want to spend time today going through the pillars I set out in February: transparency, execution excellence, innovation leadership, and disciplined capital deployment, and the evidence of progress against each. On last quarter's call, I said I would be open about what is working, what is not, and how we will fix it. Let me start there. While we delivered on our outlook for Q1, it is clear that relative to our potential, our performance is not yet where it needs to be. Let me share what has changed over the past three months and our rapid shift from diagnosis to action.
In addition to completing my new leadership team, we have launched targeted commercial and operational programs in the businesses where the gaps are the greatest. On leadership, we announced three external appointments, starting with Kerstin Artenberg, our new Chief People Officer. Arnaud Valenduc has joined as President of Specialty Polymers, with the role elevated to full representation on our Executive Leadership Team.
This deliberate change underscores the importance of restoring growth in that business through structural actions independent of near-term market dynamics. We have also appointed Arnaud Wisnia to the newly created role of Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, focused on driving the operating model changes needed to accelerate growth and improve efficiency. Having spent significant time within the Specialty Polymers team over the past 100 days, I have gained deeper insight into how we translate our innovation and application expertise into value by addressing specific customer needs.
This includes understanding where we are winning in the market, where we are not, and what is driving these outcomes. What I've learned is that the recent performance of Specialty Polymers, particularly over the past several quarters, reflects cyclical or temporary challenges rather than longer-term structural issues or a permanent loss of market share. Nevertheless, there is more we must do to accelerate our growth trajectory, drive new business wins, and better serve our customers, which takes me to our actions to improve our commercial performance. On commercial execution, we are moving at pace with a clear focus on accelerating and delivering new sources of growth, as well as increasing our share of wallet with existing customers. This has included a recalibration of our key account priorities and shifting the operating rhythm of our teams, and we're already seeing results.
Through the actions we have implemented, the initial indications show opportunities are converting more quickly than otherwise would have fallen until later quarters. This is something I'm personally overseeing and expect to come back to you in the coming quarters with both the quantifiable measures as well as the progress we are making. More specifically, within Specialty Polymers, we have also moved quickly to shift from identifying the root cause of issues in Electronics to quickly acting to fix them. This has included changes in our leadership team, and along with Arnaud, I have recently spent time visiting our key customers in the semiconductor end market. I'm pleased to report the inventory levels are normalizing, and we remain confident that we will see a recovery in volumes as we go through the balance of the year, driven by underlying demand from key customers to support new fab construction projects.
Turning to innovation, our competitive moat, and key driver of sustainable growth. As I have mentioned previously, we need to accelerate the pace at which we convert innovation into growth and focus our investments on projects where more directly linked to customer demand. In line with this, I have set two specific targets for the teams. Within Specialty Polymers, we aim to increase the vitality index, which is the share of sales from products less than five years old, to 30% over the next five years, up from approximately 23% today. We'll do this by leveraging existing resources with a stronger focus on shorter-term, higher-impact projects. We also plan to reduce the cycle time from initial customer opportunity to commercial realization from around 24 months to less than 12.
To achieve this, we are driving more focus throughout our research and innovation processes and leveraging digital tools and AI to improve how we design, test, and scale new solutions. This will help us accelerate development, improve success rates, and bring innovation to market more efficiently. While our innovation engine is a source of strength and differentiation, our next wave of innovation needs to be delivered faster. This is a key lever for us to both accelerate growth and continue to deliver strong margin performance. Turning to capital deployment, our near-term focus is on doing more with less and prioritizing returns from existing capacity over new commitments. During the quarter, we further tightened our CapEx envelope, resulting in CapEx expenditure of EUR 97 million, down 44% year-on-year.
For the full year, we have reduced our CapEx outlook by up to EUR 50 million, reflecting our increased discipline around capital deployment, and now expect CapEx to be around 20% lower than in 2025. Finally, on the broader topic of capital allocation and portfolio optimization, having completed the divestment of the Oil & Gas business, the process to divest the Aroma business is advancing, and I expect to share more specific updates by our Q2 call at the end of July. Overall, we will continue to focus our portfolio on the areas where we have the strongest right to win and the greatest opportunity to create value. Let me hand it over to Rodrigo to share his perspectives on Composite Materials and the growth drivers in our Aerospace segment, our largest end market. Rodrigo, over to you.
Thank you, Mike. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. It's my pleasure to share some insights about the Composite Materials business and our performance for the first quarter. As a reminder, our business develops, manufactures, and supplies advanced high-performance composite materials and adhesives for the Aerospace and Defense end markets, as well as the premium end of the high-performance Automotive market.
We also develop solutions for the energy sector, where our activity remains more limited today but represents an additional avenue for future growth. Composite Materials is a business built over decades of M&A and technology innovation. Our portfolio of innovative solutions has set the benchmark for performance and field deployment, supported by qualification databases that underpin certification for some of the most advanced aircraft programs in operations today. In short, we solve our customers' challenges through materials innovation.
As Mike mentioned, Aerospace is our largest end market and a key growth platform, reflecting the strategic importance of Composite Materials within Syensqo. Within our full year 2025 sales mix, Civil Aerospace represents about 60%. Space and Defense is 35%, the balance comes from high performance Automotive and energy, which together gives us a well-diversified and resilient portfolio across the Aerospace and Defense value chains. Within Aerospace and Defense, the majority of our business is secured under long-term contracts that both require execution and reinforce our position on critical programs. Syensqo's breadth of technologies and product portfolio gives us presence across virtually every major aviation platform, from legacy aircraft to the newest launches.
As an advanced material partner to OEM and suppliers, we provide the materials and expertise that support current production in the next generation of programs that will ramp over the coming decade. The scope of our program is evident in our backlog, highlighting our broad exposure across large OEMs such as Boeing, Airbus, and COMAC, as well as across multiple programs and end markets. This diversity provides multiple avenues for growth and underpins the resilience of our business. Building on this, Space and Defense is an increasingly important component in our portfolio. From 2023 to 2025, Space and Defense sales increased more than 20%, reflecting our strong positions and long-term customer relationships. This growth adds another layer of diversification and another lever to drive value.
Against that backdrop, we believe we are well-positioned to deliver sustainable growth and value because our advanced materials address some of the industry's most critical needs, such as performance, lightweighting, and energy efficiency. Together, these drivers support our continued growth and reinforce the role we play in enabling innovation in Aerospace. Our order book remains robust across nearly all market segments, reflecting sustained demand and disciplined purchasing behaviors from our customers.
Quarterly book-to-bill ratios are running roughly 5 percentage points above prior years as customers place orders earlier to support increasing production rates, and our full year order book is already approximately 90% filled. As production rates continue to ramp, both OEMs and their suppliers are securing inventory proactively to ensure production continuity and supply chain resilience. That gives us strong backlog visibility and supports our growth outlook.
This broad-based strength reflects not only the resilience of the Aerospace end market, but also our strategic positioning within it as customers continue to prioritize supply chain reliability and capacity readiness to meet their accelerating build rates. Now, turning to our first quarter performance. We delivered the second highest quarter sales in the history of Composite Materials expressed in US dollars, surpassed only by the fourth quarter of 2025.
Year-on-year organic growth of approximately 1% was driven by growth in Civil Aerospace, supported largely by the Boeing recovery and higher demand from Airbus. As expected, this growth was partially offset by lower volumes in Space and Defense applications. Sales in these segments are closely tied to government contracts and defense equipment replenishment, and therefore can fluctuate from quarter to quarter.
Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, we expect Space and Defense sales to be roughly in line with last year, a strong prior year comparison. On a sequential basis, Composite Materials sales were 2% lower compared to a record sales fourth quarter, reflecting softer Space and Defense volumes offset by solid growth in Civil Aerospace and disciplined portfolio management across all end segments. Looking ahead, our priorities are clear.
We are investing in capacity to support growing demand, executing flawlessly on time, in full on our long-term contracts, and continuing to leverage our technology and qualification base to create value and win on both existing and future programs. With our differentiated and innovative portfolio, strong backlog, and deep integration into our customers' platforms, we are confident that Composite Materials is well positioned to deliver sustainable growth and value. With that, I pass the call to Chris, and I look forward to answering any questions you might have in the Q&A session.
Thank you, Rodrigo. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone on the call. The first quarter of 2026 was broadly characterized by a challenging operating environment, volatile trade policies, and geopolitical uncertainties that disrupted supply chains. Despite this, higher value niches tied to advanced materials remained comparatively resilient, and in Electronics, we are seeing improved momentum in the semiconductor end market.
Turning to Slide 12, reflecting the first quarter financial results. Net sales for the quarter totaled EUR 1.4 billion, with overall volumes stable compared to the prior comparable period. Sequentially, sales have improved 5% against the last quarter of 2025, supported by higher volumes in Automotive, Healthcare, and Industrial end markets. I will talk more about the sales drivers of each business segment in a later slide.
As we have previously mentioned, we remain committed to defending our gross margins as this reflects how we manage both our sales and cost of goods sold. Taking into account our gross profit of EUR 444 million for the quarter, this resulted in a gross margin of 32%, a 260 basis point sequential improvement driven by higher volumes in Technology Solutions and margin benefits in Composite Materials. EBITDA of EUR 251 million for the first quarter represents a 6% sequential improvement driven by Specialty Polymers, Novecare, and Composite Materials. Operating cash flow was EUR 82 million in the quarter.
The performance reflects a higher working capital requirement, primarily driven by the increased inventory to support stronger Composite Materials sales, higher accounts receivables following the stronger sequential volumes in Specialty Polymers and Novecare, as well as the timing of taxation payments and the last of the separation costs. For 2026, we continue to expect operating cash flow of approximately EUR 700 million. Turning to operating performance by segment on Slide 13, starting with Materials. On a year-on-year basis, Materials net sales decreased by 2% organically. This was primarily driven by lower pricing in Specialty Polymers, as well as lower volumes in Space and Defense within Composite Materials. Specialty Polymers net sales decreased 4% organically, primarily due to selective pricing actions in the Automotive and Healthcare end markets to support volume growth.
Specialty Polymers volumes were approximately flat year-on-year, driven by growth in the Automotive, Healthcare, and in Industrial and Chemicals end markets, offset by lower volumes in the Electronics and food end markets. Higher volumes in Automotive were driven by strong execution and share gains in under-the-hood applications such as thermal management and electrical components. Higher volumes in healthcare were driven by hemodialysis and medical devices.
Whilst volumes in Electronics were in line with expectations driven by lower sales in smart devices. Finally, lower volumes in food packaging were driven by the challenging comparison versus the first quarter of 2025, when volumes increased by more than 30% year-on-year. Net sales in Composite Materials grew 1% organically against the prior year. As Rodrigo commented, the Composite Materials business recorded its second highest quarter of sales on record in the first quarter of this year.
The stronger performance was driven by increased production rates on key civil aviation programs as well as business jets and engines, with sales up almost 10% year-on-year, while growth in Space and Defense applications was impacted by the timing and maturity of certain programs. Space and Defense remains an important growth driver for Composite Materials. In the first quarter, our Materials segment delivered an underlying EBITDA of EUR 215 million or a 10% sequential improvement driven by higher underlying EBITDA in both Specialty Polymers and Composite Materials. At a segment level, this translated into an EBITDA margin of 26%, up 170 basis points sequentially. Moving to Performance & Care, year-over-year sales were down 2% organically, driven by lower volumes in Novecare, partially offset by strong volume growth in mining within Technology Solutions.
Within Novecare, growth in Industrial and Chemicals and Home & Personal Care was offset by softer demand in coatings, which has continued to be characterized by uneven demand, regional divergence, and ongoing price and mix pressure in several sub-segments as persistently high interest and mortgage rates continue to weigh on the housing market, particularly in the U.S. Turning to Technology Solutions, the first quarter results reflect the increased demand driven by higher copper prices, which are boosting reagent demand. The net result is that Performance & Care delivered an EBITDA of EUR 82 million in the quarter, up 11% sequentially and an EBITDA margin of 16%. Within the Other Solutions segment, EBITDA was EUR 3 million for the quarter, with an EBITDA margin of 4%.
Importantly, at a Syensqo group level, sales and EBITDA increased 5% and 6% respectively versus the last quarter of 2025, driven by Specialty Polymers, Novecare, and Composite Materials. The net effect of what I have just described is reflected on slide 14. Moving to EBITDA for the quarter. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange and scope, underlying EBITDA of EUR 251 million declined by 13% year-on-year, driven by lower underlying EBITDA in Specialty Polymers, partially offset by higher EBITDA in Composite Materials. The decrease in EBITDA for Specialty Polymers was primarily driven by selective pricing actions in certain end markets as well as the expected softer demand in the Electronics end market. This was partially offset by improved performance from the Composite Materials segment.
The net result is a EUR 27 million decline in underlying EBITDA in Materials on an organic basis compared to the first quarter of 2025. In Performance & Care, EBITDA declined by EUR 6 million in the first quarter of 2026 on an organic basis compared to the prior year, primarily due to lower margins in Technology Solutions and lower volumes in Novecare's Coatings business. This was partially offset by strong year-on-year volume growth from mining customers within Technology Solutions. Other Solutions were down EUR 5 million compared to the prior period. At a total company level, EBITDA of EUR 251 million increased 6% sequentially with improved performance in both the Materials and Performance & Care segments. Turning to capital expenditure on slide 15.
Our total capital expenditure for the quarter was EUR 97 million, down 44% year-on-year, including capital expenditure for the new ERP program. We have previously stated we will leverage our existing spare capacities that we have today to meet future volume growth. This requires no significant additional capital expenditure. As a result, we have performed a further detailed review of capital expenditure for the year and are reducing our full year capital expenditure outlook by up to EUR 50 million, resulting in a new capital expenditure outlook of approximately EUR 450 million, which includes the capitalized spend on our SAP implementation. We will continue to carefully manage capital expenditure and cash to balance our shorter term targets with longer term value creation. Turning to our financial position on slide 16.
I am pleased to report that we continue to have a strong balance sheet with our net debt at EUR 2.0 billion, a gearing ratio of 24%, and a leverage ratio of 1.7 x. We continue to have strong levels of liquidity available as demonstrated by the EUR 1.5 billion of undrawn committed bank facilities and a further EUR 700 million of cash on hand. On March 31, 2026, the group redeemed its EUR 500 million bond due in 2027, efficiently allocating available cash resources, de-leveraging, and strengthening our strong investment grade profile.
As previously reported, the divestment of the Oil & Gas business unit was completed in January 2026, with net cash proceeds of approximately EUR 130 million, reducing the net debt and sharpening our focus on our core businesses. Our credit rating remains investment grade at BBB with S&P, and I am pleased to report that Moody's maintained our Baa1 rating with stable outlook at their recent annual review.
Net financing costs of EUR 3 million were incurred in the quarter and remained in line with our full year outlook of approximately EUR 130 million. As a reminder, the coupon payments on Syensqo's outstanding bonds are made in the second and fourth quarters of the year. With that, I'll turn the call back to Mike. Thank you.
Thank you, Chris. Turning now to our outlook for 2026. At a high level, our expectations on volume growth and profitability remain unchanged. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has created additional uncertainty across value chains. We will continue to mitigate the direct impact on our financials to the extent possible. As I mentioned earlier, we now have lowered our full year CapEx envelope by up to EUR 50 million, aligned with our focus on capital discipline and further improving cash flow generation. The change is driven by actions we have taken to reduce sustenance and ERP-related spend. We continue to expect our first quarter EBITDA to be the lowest of the year, supported by improving order book trends we have seen in Q2, as well as a gradual recovery in year-on-year volume growth as we go through the balance of the year.
For example, in Composite Materials and in Electronics within our Specialty Polymers business unit. Given this, and despite the ongoing uncertainty in the Middle East, we now have greater line of sight towards the delivery of our full-year EBITDA and operating cash flow outlook, which remains unchanged. In closing, we delivered on our outlook in Q1, and we are working at pace to drive the necessary changes to improve our performance across the company, with a focus on accelerating growth as well as improving cash flow and returns. With that, we are happy to take your questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mike. I kindly invite you to limit yourself to two questions and to rejoin the queue as necessary in order to allow more analysts to ask their questions. Operator, can we please have our first question?
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Thank you. Your first question comes from the line of Katie Richards with Barclays. Your line is now open.
Hi there. Good afternoon. My first question would be just sort of on the competitive landscape and how you've seen that change in the last month, particularly in relation to Novecare and Specialty Polymers, please. Have you noticed any reduced import pressure here? My second question is for you, Rodrigo. To what extent are the synergies between Specialty Polymers and the Composite Materials division commercial when it comes to the cross-selling of prepreg materials? What I mean by that is, in a hypothetical scenario, if Syensqo were to separate these businesses, can you give us an idea how margins in the Composite Materials division would change from losing this integration?
Thank you, Katie, good afternoon. With your first question with respect to the competitive landscape, particularly on Novecare, no, we have not seen any material impact from changes in the competitive dynamics. Really, again, spillover effect for your question around Specialty Polymers. We haven't seen really any implications on most of our businesses as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. As mentioned, we currently assume that there will be limited impact to our product volumes for the Middle East, and that's reflected in our full year 2026 outlook. When it comes to supply of raw materials, we are leveraging our diversified supplier base, as in previous periods of disruptions, we have been very successful in implementing pricing actions to mitigate higher costs. Rodrigo, over to you for question two.
Thanks for your question, Katie. Composite Materials has dedicated commercial teams covering Aerospace, Defense, and the high-performance Automotive. We do have areas where there are synergies that go beyond commercial activities. For instance, and as I mentioned in my presentation, we have a meaningful business development opportunity in thermoplastic composites for energy applications where we have clear synergies. We have common customers with Specialty Polymers. We have our raw materials integration and of course we have our complementary expertise. I must say that as an advanced materials company, we do have synergies in material science and expertise overall. Of course this brings benefits beyond commercial of having a larger talent pool.
Thank you, Katie. We'll go to the next question.
This question comes from the line of James Hooper with Bernstein. Your line is now open.
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks very much for taking my questions. The first question, obviously you've referenced the improving order book. Can you go through some of, in more detail, where those improvements have come from? Also help us put in the context of Q2, if you could help us a little bit around where, you know, the market's expecting an improvement there, what sequentially would be driving that and what year-on-year growth rates perhaps we can see? Then the second question is around the pricing approach. Can you go into a little bit more detail around where you're using surcharges and kind of pass-through and lags? Then secondly, on pricing more strategically, you've cut price in Auto in the past, and that's clearly leading to volume growth. Are you considering doing something similar more broadly across the business by not raising price in this environment to capture some volumes? Thanks.
Yeah. James, thanks very much. I'll take the first question. I'll try and lead you through some of the moving parts Q2 and all the way through to the end of the year. I mean, in line with our original February outlook, our Q1 EBITDA is expected to be the low point of the year. Now, what we have seen is improving order trends and a gradual volume recovery, particularly in Composite Materials and the Electronics sector within Specialty Polymers. This would support stronger growth through the year and particularly now where we sit in quarter two, we have greater visibility over that, and as a result, expect a higher EBITDA versus quarter one.
More specifically on Q2, we also expect to see volume improvements sequentially, primarily in the Materials and Specialty Polymers space across most of the end markets and including in particular, as I mentioned, the Electronics and also to some degree in the Automotive applications. On Composites, we also expect to see volume improvements in Civil Aerospace. In fact, we're expecting a reasonably decent second quarter in that respect. With respect to the year-on-year developments, as I mentioned in the outlook that we gave previously, we anticipate a gradual recovery in year-on-year volumes over the year. This is really expected to drive the stronger growth for the balance of the year. For example, as I've already mentioned, Composite Materials and Electronics.
Now, from a pricing perspective, we're expecting that to be broadly neutral through the year, as we have implemented pricing actions to offset inflationary pressures from the conflict in the Middle East. I'll pause at that and then hand you back to Mike for the rest.
I think I need to pick up on the Automotive end market. Pricing in the first quarter was lower than in the prior year, and that was deliberate, you know, deliberate for price volume trade-offs in a very highly competitive market environment rather than a structural shift in our pricing model. In the first quarter of 2026, these targeted pricing actions supported higher volumes and translated into market share gains, particularly in the under-the-hood applications. You also asked a comment around the rest of the portfolio. Let's say across the rest of Materials segment, we continue to price for value, with the exception of Healthcare where we have selectively adjusted prices in Q1 to protect volumes. I would say in Novecare, where our businesses operate in a more intensely competitive setting, we are also actively managing price volume elasticity there.
Thank you, James.
Thank you.
We'll go to the next question.
Your next question comes from the line of Tristan Lamotte with Deutsche Bank . Your line is now open.
Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. First one, I was wondering if you could maybe give a little bit more detail on the semiconductor business. As I first say, this is about 4% of sales, but quite high margin. Any idea on kind of how large that business is? Maybe a little bit more color on the inventories in the chain and how much that could pick up through the year, given the structural drivers out there.
Linked to that, I'd also be interested in the size of the business in coolants for data centers. Secondly, one for Rodrigo maybe. Your peers saw commercial Aerospace sales up 19% in Q1 and Defense was up 7%, and I think they have a larger exposure to Airbus. I think your organic growth was 1%, I was wondering if you could maybe try to explain some of the difference there and the extent to which you expect a better catch-up through the year. Thanks.
Hello, Tristan, and thank you very much for the question. I'll start with an overview on an update on semicon. We have disclosed in the past that approximately 8% of our group sales in full year 2025 related to our Electronics business within Specialty Polymers with around 70% of that linked to semiconductor applications. We're, you know, we're principally a key supplier into semicon fab construction. Since late 2024, the business has been impacted by elevated customer inventories following delays in certain fab projects. Conditions are now gradually normalizing, supported by improving order trends and we continue to expect a progressive recovery through the year, broadly flattish versus full year last year. What I said at the end of February was for the full year we'd be flat.
For 2026, we would see a stronger second half than first half as some of those new construction projects started to materialize and inventories normalized. That's pretty much what we're seeing here today. We don't disclose margins by end market, but what I can say is that our Electronics margins are directly directionally above our Specialty Polymers average. On your last point, regarding data centers. Our current exposure to data centers is rather modest. Again, the majority of our business is related to fab construction, and we do have some consumables. Data centers, you know, does have long-term growth potential driven by AI and advanced connectivity and we all see the ongoing data center expansion. This is a target for us.
We do have some modest sales into here with some of our products, around cooling, as you mentioned. We are trying to increase and improve our value proposition here, to drive stronger growth. Rodrigo, I will turn it over to you on the composites question.
Yes. First of all, you know, I would like to clarify that the supply chains in our business are extremely long. From the time we supply a product that can be to one of our tiers of the OEMs, it takes a long time to get it to a delivery of an aircraft, and this varies program to program. My message is, you know, one quarter in such a long cycle business is very difficult to reconcile numbers. Second message is that in Syensqo, we are exposed to many, many programs. We are not overexposed to a specific program. I suppose by your question, you know, you refer to a peer that might be exposed to a, you know, to one company or one program.
As you read in the slide that it was in my presentation, we are very exposed to basically all the programs. What you will see over the coming quarters is, you know, the growth will be following the growth in Civil Aerospace. Thank you.
Thank you, Tristan. We'll go to the next question, please.
Your next question comes from the line of Laurent Favre with BNP. Your line is now open.
Yes. Good afternoon, everyone. I've got two questions for Rodrigo, please. The first one, if we compare the backlog that you presented today versus the backlog slide of when you presented at the spin-offs, there's, I guess one big change at the top, which is COMAC and C919. I think it went from 100 aircraft to over 1,000. I'm just wondering, how do you think about, I guess the, let's say the cadence or the ramp up there. Are we talking about an opportunity which would start to drive meaningful growth over the next two years, or is it more longer dated? That's the first question. The second one, on margins.
I think we were told two quarters ago that you were composites was back to low 20s in percentage term. From here, do you think you need to reinvest into the business and bottom line growth will broadly be in line with sales? Or would you expect to see further operating leverage helping margins? Thank you.
Thanks for your question. I think your question about COMAC, just to put it in perspective, COMAC is supplying, you know, a single aisle aircraft, you know, competing with the likes of Boeing and Airbus. Comparatively, you know, comparing the build rates, this is a very, very small portion of the single aisle market. It's, it's growing and it's ramping up, but from a very, very low base. Will it grow substantially in the future? The answer is probably yes, but this is a very long cycle business. I don't expect a sudden growth that will move the needle for the aviation industry. It's, it's a very long cycle business. We need to keep that into perspective. Yeah. The second question, just to clarify, can you repeat the question because I didn't take note.
The question was on profitability. I was wondering whether, as we are now back to low 20% in, for Composites, whether we should be expecting further reinvestment into the business to cap margins, or would you expect operating leverage to get margins a bit higher, a bit closer to Materials average or Specialty Polymers level?
Yes. We are focused on satisfying demand. We're going through a very good cycle. In terms of capacity, we have many activities. Debottlenecking, you know, our activities. Where we see bottlenecks, we are debottlenecking. This is also an industry where it's not like the chemical industry. You operate machines with shifts, so we're adding shifts and process improvements to get more product out the door. We are looking at our assets. We have 13 industrial sites. We are rebalancing our product and asset combinations to satisfy demand. Of course, we have projects that are very targeted on increasing our capacities wherever we see bottlenecks.
Yeah, Laurent, if I could just add to that. You'll recollect from a previous call where we indicated we are focusing our growth capital on areas where we have the customer demand and where we're operating at capacity. One of the examples I gave at that point was investing in additional adhesives capacity, given that that's the secret sauce. It's an area of focus for us as a business.
Thank you, Laurent. We'll go to our next question.
Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Yates with Bank of America. Your line is now open.
Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. It's really just one for Mike, and I'd like to talk about the changes you're making to the executive team as you sort of implement your strategy. I'm curious why you decided to make two appointments of former Solvay executives. Is there not an argument to be had for trying to change the culture and the performance of a group that perhaps it would have been better to go externally if you wanted to have a sort of a different perspective? Is there something about those specific individuals that you felt was the right fit for the roles? Thank you.
Sure. Thank you very much, Matthew. Appreciate the question. Culture is extremely important to me, and I've had worked both with the both Arnauds, Arnaud Wisnia and Arnaud Valenduc in the past, with a long relationship. They have, they had left the company for various reasons, and we've always kept in touch, 'cause I always had tremendous respect and value for them, what they accomplished and how they do things. When I recast the executive leadership team and I also looked at roles and responsibilities and, you know, we eliminated the role of Chief Operating Officer and created a new role called Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer.
I did look externally, then I compared them to, including the two Arnauds, to internal candidates. After an exhaustive search, you know, it was very clear to me that bringing back the two Arnauds was the right thing to do. You know, based on what I see for this company, what we need to do, how we need to do it, the speed, the execution. They already have a running knowledge of some of our systems and products and things like that. They weren't gonna be starting from zero, and I wanted to drive with pace. For me, they were clearly the best candidates to complete my team.
Thank you, Mike.
Thank you, Matthew. We'll go to our next question.
Your next question comes from the line of Chetan Udeshi with JP Morgan. Your line is now open.
Yeah. Hi, thanks for taking my questions. The first question probably is for Chris or Mike, whoever is good to answer, which is, if I look at the consensus for second quarter, you know, it's about EUR 285. There was always a bit of a, you know, whether you call it hockey stick or a big ramp-up in your guidance for the full year compared to what you've delivered for Q1. I'm just curious, as you sit today, are you happy with the consensus that we have for second quarter? That would probably need another step up in Q3.
I'm just curious from the order book that you have, are you comfortable having another step up in Q3 versus Q2 because to some extent that is required to get to your guidance, assuming some seasonal decline in Q4. The second question, which is for Chris. You know, you talked about, you know, the changes that you are implementing or have already implemented, you know, in the first 100 days. I think there was a section or comment on execution excellence that you referred to, which mentioned increasing share of wallet, but also recalibrated key account priorities.
I'm quite curious to, you know, understand what have you done on both those points, especially around share of wallet, because at least externally, the impression we've got is, Syensqo may be actually losing share of wallet rather than gaining because you lose or you lost some business in Electronics, you know, in EV batteries or storage batteries. You're not participating to the same extent because of the different chemistry type. How will you drive that increased share of wallet? Maybe you can also throw some light on what does recalibrated key account priorities mean in practice. Thank you very much.
Chetan , I'll take your first question about the EBITDA consensus. In line with our February outlook, our quarter one EBITDA continues and is expected to be the low point of the year. Importantly, we do have better visibility on Q2, and we have greater line of sight on the full year outlook of EUR 1.1 billion that we've previously guided to. With respect to your question regarding the consensus for the second quarter, it is reasonably aligned with our full year outlook, but at this stage we are not providing a specific Q2 outlook. More specifically on Q2, we expect to see sequential volume improvement primarily in the Materials space and in Specialty Polymers across most of our end markets. We also expect to see volume improvements in Civil Aerospace.
I'll take the second question was related to the first hundred days. You know, specifically on execution, the focus is being much more targeted and disciplined commercially. We've recalibrated our key account priorities to focus on the highest value opportunities and we're working to increase our share of wallet, as you mentioned, with existing customers. You know, I'm out visiting with our customers and we're not losing share of wallet. I think that we've been growing in line or outpacing some of our key market segments where we're focused.
We're doing that through tighter commercial execution and really a more structured pipeline management, looking at that opportunity pipeline management, making sure that we're bringing together the technical, the operational and commercial teams with a strong biorhythm and making sure that we're driving accountability and capturing these actions. Again, we've also made some several changes to our Specialty Polymers leadership team to increase that commercial and operational focus. I mentioned Arnaud Valenduc, who's leading now the Specialty Polymers business, and we also changed out our leader in the Electronics business segment. Along with Arnaud or you know, I'm out there spending time with our customers, visiting our key customers.
Was recently with our semiconductor market customers, where our performance has been weaker and, you know, as a result of those visits and the insight that we gained, we've taken targeted actions there to win back business, and we're already seeing signs of faster conversion of opportunities into sales.
Thank you. If I can follow Chris, are you also implying Q3 has to be better than Q2 just to get the guidance? I guess it does, just wanted to clarify.
Sorry, Chetan, what was the question again? Am I implying what is better than Q2?
Q3.
I mean, I'm just saying that if let's say Q2 consensus is the right, you know, number, you know, in the right zip code, Q3 has to be better than Q2, I suppose, to get the full year guidance. Would that be part of your trajectory that you've, you sort of assumed in the full year guidance?
Yes, it would be. I mean, ultimately, I think when we came out with our outlook in February, we indicated that the second half of the year would be weighted with the incremental volumes coming from Electronics as well as the initiatives that we had generally put in place. Also what was happening on civil aviation.
Got it. Thank you very much.
No problem.
Thank you, Chetan.
There are no further questions. I will now turn the conference back over to Sherief for closing remarks.
Thank you, Angela, and thank you everyone for joining today's call. That ends our session for today. Thank you to everyone for your participation and questions. As usual, the investor relations team is available to answer any remaining questions. Have a great day. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.