Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our 2025 results call and the CMD. Together with our CFO, Olivier, glad to receive you, and many thank those of you who took the chance and came to our headquarters here in Nanterre. It's obviously with you as an audience here. Thank you for that. When I started last year, I gave a commitment, right? As Capital Markets Day within my first year, here we are going. We are coming to the end of that, the helm of FORVIA, I'm very glad we chose that timing for the day. To first of all, discuss our 2025 results. I think it is important and for you to convince yourselves about the performance capable, and any talk about strategy and future is gonna be well-grounded in that [inaudible] 2025. Let's start with the results.
We will have first the highlights. I'll give you that part of the presentation, hand over to you, Olivier, for the financial results. I'll do the 20 of that, we go into the first session for Q&A. That's your part. Then a second one also for the CMD. The year started with setting three priorities for ourselves, and I believe you, the financial community, know them as much as everybody in FORVIA right now. It's about performance, this is increasing OI and cash flow, helping the organic deleveraging. We're gonna talk a lot today about our portfolio during the CMD and how we wanna sharpen and focus that. We're also gonna talk under Transformation about our intended Interiors divestiture. Decisions we are taking on the portfolio has financial implications that we are gonna talk about. Last not least, culture.
It's about our operating model that we push into a new league. We are going for empowerment and accountability of our troops, and this has been showing already through a refreshed organization, a new leadership principles that we have been. Last not least, we informed about SIMPLIFY mid of last year. That program now is in full swing. Let's look into our numbers. First of all, very good news. All 2025 numbers are in line or above the guide with you. We have flat organic sales at EUR 27 billion when you look at constant forex, and it was in fact EUR 26.2 billion at the actuals. Operating margin is up 40 basis points, we have delivered 5.6%, and one has to qualify that because that happened all with quite a bit of headwinds in the market.
Last year, we compensated for them. Electronic shortages from Nexperia, now on the DRAM, happened, we compensated for that. Our first year was really characterized by a strong effort of all the global teams to offset and to deliver beyond. We have initiatives in place that help that to EU-FORWARD. We are now at 6,400 agreed departures of 2025. Pretty much 2/3 into the whole program, where we envisage departures by the year 2028. You can see how we front-load that. Cash flow, +47% versus 2020, EUR 162 million, and all that is a much better. Is gonna report out on that. Less of an impact from working capital, but really fundamental savings and CapEx approaches that helped this big increase in cash.
With that, the increased EBITDA, we are now at a leverage on 7x . Remember, we guided 1.8x , that turned out better. With that, we could also reduce our net debt further than anticipated. We are now standing at around about EUR 6 billion. That's EUR 600 million down from last year. I want to really emphasize this is organic deleveraging, it's good to see that we go this 0.3x direction. We are now very confident that in a given year, we can do 0.15x, 0.2x of organic deleveraging. I want to first of all thank the teams for these results. Thanks for having accepted me as a new CEO, thanks we could run so fast together. That's really encouraging. Let's get back to the plea.
You will hear about how we structure the future. We are grow fields. We are going to declare that, and the kind of portfolio rationalization that goes along with it, and that transformation, including the Interiors divestitures that we intend to do, to some impairments we had to do. Cash impairments, the net result. Through that, we are looking at a net loss of EUR 2.1 billion. By no means am I easy-going about announcing that, but I'm equally confident that, and the focus of our portfolio, we prepare for much better value creation in the future for FORVIA. Let us, our net loss that we incurred and our continued focusing leads the board to a recommendation to the general assembly, that comes later, this spring, not to pay a dividend for the prior year.
All in all, good operational performance, more about the non-cash effects we see in the net results. Let's go order intake next. We have EUR 27+ billion of new orders taken in, with lower upfront costs than in prior years. I'm not completely satisfied with that, and we are developing a very strong push and initiative for 2026 to numbers higher again. At the same time, the structure is very important. The structure of the new orders, and it's very healthy in various regards. You see from this chart that 34% of our new orders are coming from Asia and 23% of the global orders from Chinese OEMs, so are above our current shares in business. You can understand how we grow in Asia, and particularly, again, with the Chinese OEMs.
Actually, in China, record order intake of EUR 8 billion, and there of 80% are with Chinese OEMs. We're well track. We've even advanced our trend to be strong OEMs in comparison to the play that the international OEMs have in China. Also, we picked up new customers in China. We went beyond our strengths with BYD, Chery, SAIC, and others. We have now booked the Geely with Luxeed. That's a premium brand between Huawei. Also, we are now working with a new auto player coming from the tech field, amazing vehicles, and has chosen FORVIA as being a supply partner. That's good. The other field, that's the third graph here I want to stress, is our order into space. So 28% of orders come from Electronics, also quite a bit ahead of our current sales levels.
Here's a couple of really prime products that we will for CMD. Zonal modules, this defines the new architectures vehicles. We took in orders more than EUR 1 billion for that product. You'll hear about that in detail during the CMD. You know that Appning is spearheading our software technology and software efforts. Those are the in-vehicle app stores we do. More apps to that. YouTube and Zoom is now available for passengers in the vehicle through the FORVIA Appning app store. Chinese customers to use our technology there. Technology and innovation is at the core of FORVIA. We have technology leadership. That drives our growth. Therefore, I'm really happy to share another couple of examples of businesses that we took in this year that we industrialize. We have significant wins in the area of the software-defined vehicle.
That zonal module, that you'll hear about it, is a really attractive piece of business because it starts from a proprietary that FORVIA HELLA has developed, and then it integrates with the hardware and the software on top. Wanna see start of production in 2028 for that. If you go to the comfort and safety space, Lighting has brought up a new product, highly interesting. We call this flat lights. You know all the little signal lights in a headlamp or a tail lamp for daytime running lights or the turn indicator? To be some LED modules. For our flat lights, we now use micro-optics, and we could reduce the size significantly. What used to be a 40-mm little lamp is now 5 mm thick only. We save 80% of weight and 40% of the energy through that technology.
That's a world first, HELLA, and that creates a very nice revenue pool for us to go forward. On the seating side, here we'll have a deep dive that already. We have launched a Zen Massage Seat. What is that? For the Asian taste, the typical European pneumatic massage is a little soft, and we have developed a mechanical massage. The important and impressive piece of users, we introduced that first time in the last April, and we are now launching the product. From a concept and a demonstrator to SOP, that's moving in one year only. China sets the pace and for to work to that pace. Last not least, Clean Mobility is also moving on technologically. The ICE, the internal combustion engines, has a prolonged lifetime. You see that particularly in North America. There's also technological evolution we are driving.
In particular, when it comes to hybrid vehicles and range extender, special requirements to the exhaust systems. First of all, they have to be pretty compact, 'cause with the batteries and a range extender vehicle, there's only so much space in the vehicle, so we work towards that. Secondly, these exhausts for silencing. If you happen to drive a hybrid vehicle, it can be annoying when you go from electric motor mode. You hear that, right? We wanna dampen down all the noise from vibrations from the exhaust as much. You see technology all over the brand, and the good thing is, with those products you see here, it's always profit pools that we open up through world's first and really innovative technology.
A word on Interiors: the transformation. We have made a very clear decision that we wanna divest from the Interiors business. Current progresses, we are in advanced negotiations with several parties on the divestiture of that business. First of all, the business is very solid. It's a EUR 4.8 billion business. We have about six to 31,000 people, and we have a world-leading position in that business. Why sell? Basically, at the same time, the business is fairly capital-intense, it's not growing so much, and it's a mature and market, in fact, [inaudible] phase. Therefore, we came to the decision that there must be better and more dedicated ownership to lead that business into the future. We can focus on our high-tech growth fields. Its divestiture brings us new financial flexibility and helps us bring the net debt down.
More financial details on that and on the results from Olivier. I hand over to you, Olivier.
Good morning, everyone. In the next few minutes, I will give more details on the final show of 2025. Let me start with an accounting consequence of the advanced status of the interior transaction that Martin just mentioned. We are applying the IFRS 5 accounting ruling, that you should present, in fact, your results pro forma of the excel of interior. Inside the financial reports that we in this room, you will see 2024 and 2025 after. All operating metrics, sales, margin, cash flow, will be in figures and everything reported in one line of the P&L and of the net debt evolution.
For the clarity of the presentation, 2025 results on the current perimeter on which we are, we present all the numbers before so that you can compare apple to apple. What is the net income? There is only one net income, and I will come to this one. Twenty twenty-six will be on the new perimeter, and an outlook that Martin will share will be on the new perimeter with the comparison of 2025 after the sale on the pro forma basis. One more thing is that the financial reports that we are publishing for the transparency, for the clarity for all of us, is providing P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, before and after the IFRS 5, for both 2024 and 2025. I hope it will help everyone to see the impact of the all the metrics.
On this note, let me go through the detailed financials. First of all, as Martin mentioned, flat revenues year-on-year on an organic basis. Let me. You know that the forex is in fact having a negative impact with the U.S. dollar and the RMB. This has been the case most of the year. You see the impact inside those numbers, [inaudible] million. Let me highlight that forex have, in fact, no impact on the operating margin. Basically, we buy and we sell in the same currencies in the big geographies in which we operate, up North America. From an organic flat perspective, let me highlight that product sales actually increase. We are tooling revenues from the very high level of 2024.
In fact, from a production comparison, product sales is 1.5% increase. If I zoom by business groups, you have Electronics, which is a major growth engine. We increased by 12% year-on-year on this segment. We have Clean Mobility in half. This is both the evolution in some of the geographies, as you know, but there is also the gate that we have enjoyed in Europe. Life cycle is also rebounding. On the negative side, you have clearly Seating evolution. Seating is, in fact, currently penalized by the mix between Chinese OEM. You know that we enjoy a strong position with BYD, and we are happy.
Clearly, in the mix of last, of last year, Geely has been growing faster, and we are less present with Geely. We have the continuation of diversification in terms of between the Chinese OEM. Martine mentioned the level of orders that we have with Chinese OEM, and you know how things can go fast. We have currently less favorable mix in China evolve. The last element, profitability-wise, the China is still enjoying a double-digit sense to their cost action. Last but not least, Lighting. You have an aspect of repositioning that is ongoing and of production of some programs, not matched by the new ones. For those that have followed HELLA yesterday, this is driving the evolution of HELLA. The mix by geographies.
Reduction, quite a bit about China, which is the mix between, in fact, BYD side, that are strong customers for us, that have, in fact, had a reduction of production in the second half. We have strong momentum with Chery, and we have, progressively a growing presence that with Geely, but from a low base. On the other geographies, Europe and North America, 70% of our revenues are along the markets, and in South America, and even more important, in the rest of Asia, which is one, in fact, in which we have a lower presence and penetration than the rest of the world, but we will talk about how to expand in this region during the CMD part of the presentation. From a profitability standpoint, we have, an improvement of the margin by 4.
This is coming from cost reductions. The revenue, you see the evolution, EUR 273 million of cost reduction flowing to the P&L in 2025. This is mostly about the EU-FORWARD action that we launched beginning of 2024, on which the progress is quite fast. This is also HELLA, another EUR 63 million, for a total since the start of EUR 400 million, and other actions, as well as, in fact, the launch of the SIMPLIFY project, summer of last year, which is about having overheads in SG&A and in operations at the benchmark of the competition by 2028, which is also starting to contribute. Solid evolution in the operating margin. All business groups attributed to this evolution. The main elements, Electronics, 140 basis points.
Seating, even with a lower, a lower level of sales, given China has been able to increase by 70 basis points. You see also that Clean Mobility continue, in fact, to progress. I will say the life and the value of Clean Mobility, given the evolution of electrification, is only actual. The Lighting, this is, in fact, the main, the main item that we have to turn around after the sale of Interior. That will be, in fact, the sole, the sole one to look after, really from this standpoint. Cash flow. We are at close to EUR 1 billion of net cash flow, from EUR 655 million. This is 47% increase year-on-year. This is also not only an improvement in quantity, but in quality. The driver is pull of investment.
We have reduced investment from 7.5% to 6% of the revenues, about CapEx and capitalized R&D, huh? This means EUR 400 million reduction year-on-year. Actually, EUR 600 million in two years. You see in the graph that we are what we try to call the recurring that plane, what it is, it is the net cash flow with the exclusion of two lines, which is not repetitive per se, as we all know. What is inside the line, which are more one-off element that are sure. You see that we have now a net cash flow that is dominantly on recurring aspect, coming from increase of EBITDA, thanks to the increase in operating margin and the reduction of the investment. This is done with still a high level of finance and restructuring.
It's a good evolution. We took the opportunity to reduce the factoring inside these numbers. You see that we are going from EUR 1.2 billion, and I think everybody should take that as a of confidence and good evolution. You know also that rating agencies are retreating this. I think it's important also to our debt investors. If you look in the details of the numbers, you see we have financial to decrease EUR 46 million. This is with the evolution of the net debt, even with the evolution of interest rates. You have, in fact, an evolution which is slightly negative on tax. Nothing structural, is withholding tax refund on dividends from HELLA, which are depending on themselves, so nothing particular.
We will come back in 2026 about the restructuring, because the restructuring from a P&L standpoint is peaking in 2025, but from a cash perspective, will peak in 2026. Solution is mainly driven by the evolution of implementation of our actions, EU-FORWARD and SIMPLIFY, which increased the restructuring EUR 100 million year-over-year. In short, close to EUR 1 billion of net cash flow in 2025. Coming back to the Interior divestiture, maybe additional color of what it means for the profile of the company. It means a more focused portfolio, a simpler organization. This is clear revenues, we are showing you 2025 before and after the pro forma present Interior being out.
You see that Interior being dilutive, it represents, in fact, an improvement of the quality of the company from 5.6% to 6% for the 2025 results. Actually, it will also below the 5 in terms of restructuring cost, in terms of also dividend to joint ventures, because these two joint ventures, mainly in China. From a debt perspective, it will lead to a further reduction of the net debt by EUR 1 billion. Let me say a few things about those items, which are clearly questions. The transaction is a very sizable, a major change of scope for the company.
Inside this debt reduction, we have included all the expected impact of the in terms of debt adjustment, working capital, pension, in terms in the way of leakage coming from joint ventures. When you sell a joint venture in which there is cash, you sell the 50% or the 60% you have, but you consolidate the totality of the cash position. Here we are taking the full impact, and this is also something that led to sizable carve-out and separation and tax cost in order to have the perimeter in position to be so top—
I would say that in order to assess what is the impact on the financials of the company, the real number you should look at is reduction, the EUR 1.4 billion, because this is representing, in fact, what in terms of future financial cost. Why is that? We will have, in fact, less joint venture, simplification in terms of cash operation. We believe that, in fact, with this, we are able not only to reduce the net debt, but also to reduce the gross debt and therefore the financial cost associated. On the P&L, as Martin mentioned, we will have, in 2025, a net loss of EUR 2.1 billion. This is driven, in fact, by extraordinary non-cash related charges coming from the portfolio transformation and rationalization.
We have EUR 1.8 billion one-off charges. They are all non-cash. The first item is we have done the annual impairment test following, in fact, the strategic review that has been done. This is leading to two impairments for a total of EUR 920 million, the better to Clarion, for as close to EUR 600 million, later to Lighting for EUR 270 million. Clarion is about competitiveness, it's about revisiting the portfolio. Lighting, it's about, in fact, the evolution of the activity from a short-term perspective and, in fact, the timing for the turnaround. The second category of one of our aspect is capital loss on the in for EUR 578 million.
Let me highlight that there will be an additional EUR 150 million charge in 2026 related to this transaction, which will be the cost at the closing itself. This is captured in our evaluation of net debt reduction of EUR 1 billion, let's be clear. From an accounting perspective, it can be booked only in 2026. We have the asset depreciation on Symbio, which is run with the joint venture and all the consequences, which is mainly what you saw P&L-wise in H1, and the deferred tax asset reassessment, which is impairment. Really driven by the portfolio, the portfolio adjustment and the decision and on them. On the debt maturity, no, we have been quite active on the debt market in 2025, and let me say also in 2024.
In two years, we have, in fact, refinanced more than half of the debt of the company, of which EUR 2.7 billion in 2025. We have repaid EUR 3.4 billion. As important as what we did in terms of activity, is we have diversified our. Of course, we are in the Euro bond market. Of course, we are in the Schuldschein market, but we have done a Samurai, we have done a Chinese bank loan, and the most important of all is that we entered with two operations on the U.S. bond market, which is by far the biggest high-yield market that we have worldwide. We have access, and we have presence in all the major source of financing, which is, which is good from a diversity. The consequence of what we did is graphically evident.
We have [inaudible] the profile heavily. You see, for instance, 2027 divided by 2. For the first time since the acquisition, we have a maturity profile that is balanced. You're seeing the debt. We are reducing the gross debt, but as important, we are de-risking the position and make the company stronger in terms of debt management. This will be further, of course, by the proceeds of Interior that will be directly in reduction. This is what we mentioned before, reduction of the debt. L everage improved from 2x to 1.7x , and actually, we have done upstreaming of cash in different jurisdiction so that the reduction in gross debt is EUR 1 million. On this one, we have a clear plan.
We did some of it in 2025. We have more to do in 2026, so you can expect the gross cash by a further EUR 500 million in 2026, helping the reduction of financial cost, which is in fact the objective throughout our plan. On this note, I revert to Martin.
Olivier, thank you. Let's look forward into 2026. Let's start with the market first. The auto production forecast is flat to 2025. We expect to experience some decline in markets that are important for us, such as China, North America, but also in Europe. We are to a soft year in terms of sales, where in particular in the first quarters, we favorable mix in Europe. However, we have new launches in the make. H2 in China, new business goes online, and the rest of Asia remains for us as a very good and at a strong momentum. What does it mean for running FORVIA into this year? We keep to the same priorities and to the same about good cost control.
We're going to continue the drive in EU-FORWARD, SIMPLIFY is going to pay into the results of 2026. When we take that together, we will continue on our route to organic deleveraging, as Olivier explained in good detail, the interest will do its part to our debt also to the leverage. Here's the numbers that we guide for in 2026. Reminder, all that is now according to IFRS 5. Between 2020 and 2021, again, at a constant exchange rate. The operating margin is going to be in the range between 0.5%, we expect net cash flow to be at least 3% of sales. With that, we will reach a leverage ratio at 1.5x of EBITDA.
When we do the strict comparison to our projection from last year, where we said we will be below 1.5x , we missed, and that's basically due to the forex development. Earnings from North America, earnings from China, are not translating into the same EBIT group that holds us back from that. We target 1.5x strictly this year. I believe you see how these numbers also in 2026, lay a very strong foundation for what's going to be our strategic plan up on the agenda. In between, there's a very important agenda item as well, and that's Q&A. With that one, I would like to hand over to having your questions. One little request, please focus on 2025, 2026.
I know you'll have many more questions for the strategy, but let's keep that for the second session.
Thank you. Questions from the room, so please raise your your hand for a microphone. When you speak, kindly introduce yourself with your name and company, and please limit yourself to a maximum of three questions. For those joining, repeat your questions in the chat or via the conference call.
Thank you very much, Thomas Besson. Three questions, please. First, on you're pitching a decline of 3%-4% organic growth versus flat [inaudible] . Is there something extraordinary happening in 2027, 2028 to lift the organic growth in average or above 2%? Maybe it's not the right time to ask this question, as you said, but I find it surprising. Maybe you can explain just why 2026 organic growth is so weak. Second question: I remember Lighting, at least in the way it was presented before, as being part of Electronics. Now, you're separating it again from Electronics. You do a big write-down on these assets. I mean, retroactively, it wasn't great.
Is there a lot more to, uh, write down on, on Clarion ? Is there a plan to eventually completely rid, get rid of, uh, of Clarion? On the second question. A nd the third one, on one of the driver 2025 cash bits. Uh, could you just talk about CapEx, tangible and intangible CapEx in 2026 and eventually, after that, when you've cut that to below 6% or 6%, what is a reasonable level? And is it going to be a headwind, uh, for free cash flow in 2026 and beyond? And can you talk about what's going to happen to capitalize R&D as well? Because it's been a headwind to your profitability in, uh, 2025. Thank you very much.
Very much. It's a bit of a tradition you have in the first question, let's go through them one by one. Let's start with that organic into 2026. What holds us back is a bit the customer mix, and that's both true for Europe, where we are weaker with Volkswagen anticipated. In China, we have that unfavorable mix in H1 from basically our BYD engagement. The same time, as I said, we are going to rebound with new launches. Yes, you mentioned the 2% growth. That's what we anticipate for the period of our strategic plan. We are gonna talk about it, but we see clearly that recovery for the outer years of that free period you are referring to. Question number two, that really qualifies for the CMD. What's happening with Clarion?
You already anticipate, you look at it in two ways. We are gonna get that back to that. Basically, it's part of the portfolio separation that you'll hear later. There's good reasoning about it. I give a couple of comments on what's happening there in terms of the impairments.
First of all those impairments are non-cash, right? The exercise that we are doing is, of course, to evaluate what is the value compared to what we have in the balance sheet. We have tried to do it in a prudent manner, because the idea is to have one-shot items in 2025, but not in the future. This is true for Clarion. Now, strictly speaking, mechanically, you have no headroom by definition, but we have tried to take prudent assumption, and I would say what we are showing also in terms of metrics going forward, should be an indication in this respect.
All right. I'm picking up the third question: How is it going with CapEx and capitalized R&D? You see extremely good values for 2025. That had to do with real work on CapEx, and you'll hear later approaches we are taking, but it also had to do with delay of some of the programs. It's a twofold effect. One is sustainable, the other one with the delayed projects was specific to 2025. Just to keep the combination total expenditure and capitalized on below 7% go forward. You remember we come from times of 8% and then 8.5%. Clearly, below 7% is the guidance there. If you wanna maybe comment also on effects.
Yeah. When we talk about this, clearly below 7% is CapEx and capitalized R&D, so investment in total. Specifically on the capitalized R&D, I think the indicator that we are all following is what is the ratio of the R&D that is capitalized. You see that it has decreased in 2025, I would say this is a ratio that should be equal or decreasing over time. I think at the end of the day, what we want and true performance is cash. I think it's the way to go. This is also why you see that the improvement in EBITDA year-on-year has been higher than the improvement in operating margin, which is a good thing.
Not major changes, but probably the ratio should continue to go down a little bit. Besides, besides the ratio, you have seen the decrease in terms of R&D spending is around 10%. Let me comment that on this one, actually, use the innovation. It's not about preventing the future, is about quality of the costing, is about making sure that the projects are executed as defined at the time in terms of R&D spend.
Hello. Vanessa Jeffriess from Jefferies. You talked a little bit about the DRAM shortage before. I was wondering if you could talk about impact on margins in 2026.
Yeah, that's a good question. The next semiconductor piece, well, we do use DRAMs on the Clarion side and only in the Clarion business for the infotainment solutions. The way we go about it is shortages, we go for replacement, and we can stabilize the supply to the customers. Wherever we see price increases, that's probably the other part of your question, Vanessa, proceed the same way as we have been very successfully last year around the tariffs, around Nexperia. We have to forward these cost burdens to our customers and do that in a very consequent manner.
Do you think that's something that will lead to a pronounced second half split?
Say that again, please.
Like, waiting because of the delay in recovering. Do you think we're close, is what I'm asking?
Oh, are we gonna see the recovery still in the year? I mean, you saw last year's cash performance. We are always pushing reimbursements through our customers. You could see from the cash numbers and the cash flow, that we are successful in doing so.
Maybe a little bit of time, like H1, H2 in terms of cash, but not for the year. The last thing about DRAM is that for us, it's a few tens of million EUR of purchase. Strictly speaking, this one is. The goal is, but the base is quite small.
Just with the delays in order intake you're seeing, do you expect that to continue throughout this year, as in, should it really move lower each year?
No, I think, it's well recovering in the marketplace. Actual reaction of the OEMs last week, last year when tariffs hit, was to slow down also their new vehicle platforms, right? Then in parts of the market in North America, to slow down on electric vehicle platforms in particular. I think the market has fully reoriented to what regulation and consumers want, so we see a good pipeline of business coming in this year. Fields like, clean more benefiting from, re-strengthening, in particular, North America in that segment. We see strengthening of the numbers in.
Maybe this question goes a bit towards the longer term, but if we see from the EU tomorrow some good content, can you talk about the impact on your business?
Yeah. For us as a global suppliers, I mean, we play in all regions, right? Our principle is we want to be local for local, so produce for our European OEMs in Europe. That's the preferred way. We fully support the direction that who is hopefully going to take in terms of local content mandate. Yes, we are in a position that we can also supply from other parts of the world if the cost mandates that. When you think through the whole supply chain structure, it's really imminent that we protect our Tier 2, 3, and 4 suppliers. That's stable. That's going to be enabled by local content rules. I would say for a big Tier 1, like FORVIA, it is important. We want to produce here.
We have a social responsibility for that, but it's even more important for the smaller- tier suppliers.
Thank you. Next person.
Hi, Michael Foundoukidis, Oddo. A couple of questions. First one on the, on the order intake, I mean, you already mentioned it. Beyond the seating, organic growth was not that good, specifically, but we see some of your peers, especially in the U.S., being more aggressive or at least more vocal about some recent wins, probably some of it at your expense. How do you see that in 2026 evolving? That the first question. On all the, let's say, impairments and one-off that we had from some of your clients recently, there's a debate on the suppliers compensation. Are you entitled for some of them in 2026? Is it only cash or it could be, it could be something else?
More generally, regarding H1, was mentioned about DRAM, but is there something else like the LVP that you mentioned that might explain why H2 should be much stronger than H1 in terms of margin? Thank you.
All right. Olivier, I'm going to kick the H1, H2 sequencing question over to you, but let's take first. As I mentioned, the EUR 27 billion are strong in structure, but they are not to my full satisfaction. We see a couple of, say, we got to beef it up and come 2020 to 2026, and that's true for seating as well. Stay tuned on what we have to tell during the Capital Markets Day on the relevance of our Seating business and how we drive growth. That's coming in just a little bit. As we speak, the OEMs have obviously canceled electric vehicle platforms, and there is big supplier compensation coming, potentially. We are not so much exposed to these bigger cancellations.
We have seen more volume degradations from the days of acquisition to what we delivered last year and delivered this year, but are not impacted so much by these cancellations. Olivier, H1, H2?
Maybe, just before a complement on the because I heard quite a few questions, relation in cash by customers. There is a question about how much is it inside the cash flow of 2025. The DSOs that we have are in fact the same as the year before, so we are getting claims, compensation. We add the compensation of the tariff, but it's more the cost themselves. In terms of collection, I have not seen any particular evolution, and the numbers are not reflecting any. The cash flow of 2025 is relevant from this standpoint. Related to H1, H2 in 2026, I will say on both the margin and the cash flow, you should expect the [inaudible] t hat we have had in the past few years, not really no more, no less.
Zoom on the cash flow, you know that we have certain items that are really more topics in H2 versus H1. A lot to tax. You have annual tax returns, you pay the tax in the first half. You have certain timings in different items. I would say H1, H2 2026, the seasonality should be along the average of the last few years.
Hi there. Thank you for taking my question. It's Ross from Citi. Thanks for the presentation. I have three questions. First one, sticking with the seasonality in 2026, would you be able to confirm if on an operating margin basis, you would expect the first half to 6%-6.5% corridor? Maybe linked to that, on the free cash generation in 2026, how should we think about the phasing, let's say, of the cash outre[inaudible], and the sort of year-over-year on [inaudible]. Is the free cash very strongly geared to the second half, or do you see it quite balanced within the year? The second question, I know a lot has changed, and in many ways, you know, it's very soon to be thinking about tariffs, given the news over the weekend.
Just be interested how you're thinking about the tariff. If you know, if you hear any potential changes that could be of benefit or on the tariff side, I appreciate it's very early days. Finally, just on the factoring, you know, very good to see you're working on getting that down now. I think EUR 100 million last year. Is the target to take that down going forward, or how should we think about factoring in 2026? Thank you.
All right, Ross, thank you. I'll take the tariff question first and then kick the financial ones over to you, Olivier. We are gonna observe what's happening in the tariff world, right? The Supreme Court judgment is certainly there. We're not quite sure yet what it really means, are there gonna be reimbursements, yes or no? It's important that in the last year, we stayed free of financial impact from that, right? That was really non-material, we are on the safe solve with regard to possible reimbursements, yes or no. In terms of what's coming, are we gonna go from 10% to 15% for all the world? It's speculation. It's not ruled at this point in time. We will stick to the same base principles. That means we will mitigate that effectively for FORVIA.
Again, it starts with being local content in the various regions. We work with the sort of strength from that, and whatever exposure is left over, we will go see our customers and ask for compensation in a very strict.
On the financial questions, related in particular to seasonality, we are giving which is 6%-6.5%. I will not give a guidance per se, inside H1, but I would say that the goal automatically is to be to be in this range, but it's it will be on the low side. You will have a seasonality comparable to previous years. This is really on the full year, not strictly H1. Related to related to cash flow, maybe first to explain what we expect on the net cash flow year-on-year, before even the seasonality. The solution that we expect is driven by two specific item. One, I mentioned it, is the restructuring increase. This is the implementation of the actions that we have taken.
You see that in the P&L. We expect to have a restructuring cash out throughout 2026 of around EUR 100 million. This is mainly in HELLA, and this is reflected, by the way, in the guidance that HELLA gave yesterday morning. Let's say it's to accelerate the rationalization. It's part of the EU-FORWARD. It impacts, in fact, different part of the business. This time is more is more HELLA. The second thing on the evolution of the cash flow year-on-year, is that we are specific one-off that we expect to settle in terms of litigation that can play a little bit inside.
Just turn year-on-year is not really on the structural item, but we are trying to capture the elements, let's say, in a prudent approach to make sure that the guidance is really the minimum that we shoot for. Now, between H1 and H2, I think the similar, and you have a bit of working capital seasonality inside, but no more, yes. On factoring, I will not commit on the further reduction. I will say that we know perfectly that factoring is on the one side, it's a source of funding. It's a source, in some cases, of pressure to customer to pay, but it is also having a financial cost. On the selling, why not?
I will not give a commitment and let alone a trajectory on this one. We have this in mind, and I think with 2025, we wanted to show that we do.
One very last question.
Good morning. It's José Asumendi on your left.
José.
Good to see you. Thank you very much.
Hello.
For the presentation. Just a couple of questions, please. On cost savings, can you comment on the planned cost savings for 2026? Can you give us some color by geography or product division, which divisions will benefit the most? Then, Martin, can you talk a little bit about the margin evolution by division in 2026? Which divisions will drive the margin improvement, which ones lag, but still improve year-on-year, and as we think about that margin range for the year? Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks, José. That's quite a few detailed questions digging into the business. When it comes to cost savings, I mean, every business group is encouraged, right, to move forward, push forward. We also have our central initiatives, in particular, EU-FORWARD and SIMPLIFY [inaudible] cross, that are gonna push across the board. I would never tell you everybody is really working, and we will do it in the same strict way as in 2025. We have developed a completely new approach, looking at our numbers and a new approach in terms of being thrifty, and we are gonna continue that. As far as the margin ambitions are concerned, you see that we made good progress in 2025 for all business groups, but Lighting.
Business groups that have shown good tendencies and trends in 2025 are gonna continue. We have a major repair to do on the Lighting side. Happy to have the new CEO of HELLA here today. One of his top priorities is to bring better performance back to our Lighting team. We will see a year of not so good performance and yesterday to the market, what that will be.
Thank you very much to everyone. This is all the time we have left. We have another Q&A session afterwards. Moving on to the next session.
Yeah. Thank you very much, everyone. Any questions after the CMD part? That's where we're arriving now. It's time for the Capital Markets Day section. First of all, clean the stage for that, and then we'll kick off with a brief video. Be alert . Well, here we go. It is IGNITE. IGNITE is our medium-term strategy and ambition. You see the tagline: "Drive what matters today to unlock what's next." You will see now a sequenced roadmap on how we get to long-term value creation. I consider 2025 was our year zero of IGNITE to lay out a first set of results that prove we can execute, we can transform FORVIA in a credible manner.
We our IGNITE strategy into two phases: 2025 to 2028 to Focus and Strengthen the group and lay a very solid foundation for the second phase, where we want to Lead and Grow. Phase 1 is all about discipline and focus. We are gonna streamline our portfolio, strengthen execution. We are gonna drive profit and cash generation, and that way, you saw a couple of initiatives that we already referred to this morning, EU-FORWARD is materializing, SIMPLIFY is now in execution, and you have seen the new investment discipline that we show to ourselves and to the market. Last, not least, also the intended divestiture of the Interiors business is clearly pointing in that direction.
For 2028, we have solid foundations financially, we have a strong balance sheet, and we will have a very concentrated portfolio to enable growth. This Phase 2, we want to lead in growth. You will hear about what are the businesses we rely on, and we will have very strong ones in that I want to prepare for that growth at a much faster growth than so far. IGNITE will be a much stronger, a more focused and more competitive FORVIA. Let's refer back to the three strategic priorities: best-in-class performance, business transformation, and invigorating our culture. Today, we want to give an extended progress report on how we are in this.
Performance enhancement is taking place on the R&D, on the engineering side, obviously in our operations in the plants, and there's a clear enabler activity in the application of digital tools and artificial intelligence. We're gonna hear about that one. The business transformation, it's all about sharpening of the portfolio and do that really for leadership positions that we are having with some of the elements of our portfolio, and that's where investments. Gonna be clear with ourselves and you as the investors, where our CapEx locations go with priority. We have the divestiture or interior, so that's part of the transformation, a very first good and visible step. Let's now move pillar, our invigorating culture. It's all about accountability and I told you early on, I saw really strong accountability already as a good cultural trait in FORVIA.
That element of empowerment, of trust to our people, that is new, and that is gonna really resolve into much better performance. We'll be faster, we'll be agile, and we'll take good care of our clients in that sense. You see the three strategic priorities that I announced early last year are very relevant for the continuation under the IGNITE framework. Let's look forward. Where do we want to be there? Here's a financial projection. Olivier has more details afterwards. We're gonna be a EUR 21 billion-EUR 22 billion company. This comes with an organic growth in the range of 2% over that time frame, but we also reserve for more divestiture in that number. There's about, you'll see about EUR 1 billion of revenue that we reserve for possible divestiture. The operating margin will be 7% and above.
We expect net cash flow in the range of 3.5%, and we've down the leverage ratio to 1.2x . That's important. We have shown how we can do that even organically, very important, because 1.2x in the automotive world qualifies us for investment grade. [inaudible] deliver that 4x, but 1.2x is the entry barrier we are taking. With that, we are gonna get to a very solid financial structure, and that allows for the growth in Phase 2, where we want to Lead & Grow. Here's the agenda. How are we gonna go through the day? First of all, we'll stay on IGNITE Transformation, and I believe that's the most important part for you. What's the future structure of the company?
Part, I'll have Peter Laier, our new CEO for FORVIA HELLA, on stage, and then also Sébastien Limousin in the first row. He's the EVP for the Seating business, so formation part. After a break, we get to IGNITE Performance. Olivier Lefebvre, our COO, is gonna take care of that. I'm gonna take over for the Culture piece, and then Olivier Durand is back with all the numbers, wrapping it up, and Q&A at the end of the day. Let's start with Transformation. All right, we needed to wake up everyone. Let's look into reshaping our portfolio, and how we focus our resources on these areas where we have the strongest right to win. Here are the automotive trends, and, I mean, there's really powerful shifts happening, as you know, in the automotive space.
When we go a bit through the various technology fields, let's start with Clean Mobility. It's about but not only about pure battery electric vehicles, but also hybrid vehicles. Range extenders are coming up really in great numbers. Second field, connectivity and the digital experience we have. We want to be always on as users, the integration of our smartphones, everything has to be seamless. That's our expectation. That's forming a strong trend. In the middle there, the software-defined vehicle. It's much more than just the buzz. It means that architectures for electronics and the wiring harnesses are strictly simplified. We get to fewer computers in the car, at the same time, more and more features of the vehicle are determined by software, that is upgradable over the lifetime, a very good trend that goes across all systems in the vehicle.
If you go to the safety and comfort space, also there, core advanced expectations, it's driven to a good extent by the Chinese consumers. When you then think about autonomous driving, automated driving, it's a whole new level that opens up space for more comfort, and many of those products we have. For me, it's very important that our activities link well to these trends, and that we even shape the trends with our technological offerings. You can see on the top, Electronics fuels it all, and that's why it is a super growth field for us, and we are gonna go into a deep dive a little later to say what are the specific areas that we grow from. Also, Seating and Lighting, right? With that request for safety and comfort, there's more content coming, and we are driving that.
Even a seat is in the meanwhile, well controlled by software. That software-defined vehicle trend also impacts our Lighting business and gives opportunity to the Seating business as well. Clarion, connectivity, and digital experience. Last not least, we have our Lifecycle Solutions business, which serves half. You can see how that benefits actually from all the content that goes into vehicles. Our activities that we have are very well with the driving trends that we see in the market. Much for a technology quick overview. What are the market dynamics? We have a clear view on that, and there's a lot happening in Asia and in China. That's where the key growth is focusing. At the same time, the world gets very diverse. Regulations are specific to each country. We know we follow that.
Yeah, we talked about trade barriers, the tariffs, also something to have in mind. How does FORVIA kind of complex environment? First of all, we have a clear global reach. Our marketplace, we want to be there for everyone, for all customers in all regions. That's the aspiration. We have a global footprint, so we are also close to our customers. When we discuss tariffs, we said, "No, our belief is local for local production, local for local sourcing," so that's good. Of course, that proximity gives us also the intimacy with the customers that we need to score and to grow even faster. This intimacy is really taking place with our well-established customers, let's say, in Europe, in the Americas, but as well with new entrants and in particular, with the Chinese OEMs.
From that point, I say we are very well prepared for our future growth. Before moving, a quick summary I want to give. Think about where we are. We say we have a portfolio that's well connected. The world is our playground, right? What do we have to do? Now we have to select where we want to play the strongest. Where is the strongest right to win? That brings us, in fact, into that slide here. I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that's at the core of the strategy, and I know you have waited for that to know where is FORVIA going to focus. You see on the one-hand side, on the other hand, the Value cluster.
We divide our portfolio into. Both groups have different roles when it comes to strategy, and both roles are very important to have in FORVIA. It's not about importance one over the other, but it's different roles in life. We position Seating and Electronics, where we enjoy a very strong tech leadership, where we have a diversified customer portfolio, and again, where we have the right to win. Here, we are very ready to invest, obviously, always in a disciplined manner, but that's the mainstream to you. Then on the other side, when we look on the value segment, we have Clean Mobility, we have the Life cycle business, the Lighting business, and the business [inaudible] in that one. As I said, the focus is different. Here, it's about real performance, performance, and cash generation. That Value cluster fuels [inaudible] story of FORVIA.
I think it goes without saying, we need different leadership, one with that clear performance focus, the other one, sure, also with performance, but then with growth in mind. We have different assets in those two different clusters. We choose Electronics and Seating to be in the Growth cluster. Electronics, we talked about the trends and how this is a super growth engine. Electrification and autonomous driving, it's pretty obvious there's just tons of opportunity. Also seating is growing in terms of content, better comfort expectations by the users. Those of you who have been using Chinese vehicles, maybe in China, have time all that to appreciate all that comfort, right? That new seats bit. Also safety requirements are still increasing for seats, they matter, and there's also sustainability requirements that drive that Seating business.
We have good leadership positions in both of them. Let me see. Why those two together? Let's have that look, too, right? You understand the individual strength, and combining those two, because there's the ultimate growth in the Electronics business, but also on the Seating side, we have resilient growth. Every car continues to have seats, but by that content growth, we are on that continuous ramp as well. We have complementary business of something very resilient and stable. Yes, we take more chances and risk a little more also on the Electronics side, but together, it's a strong complement. One step deeper, let's look a bit into. We have a strong momentum going in that segment of an annual gross growth rate of about 10%. That's where we are.
We have very strong leadership positions already in body electronics, in the energy management for components business. Components are sensors and are also actuators. Going forward, we want to double elements, and Peter is gonna share them. We believe that there are strong growth opportunity [inaudible] controllers, with more integrated power electronics and also within cabin electronics. Peter, I look forward already to your presentation, really doing a technology to those areas. Overall, we see that we can even boost the growth rate of our Electronics business. Think about the second phase, Lead & Grow, is gonna be in excess of the 10% we offer here at your perspective. You got it, right? There's more comfort, wellness, safety requirements that drives content per seat or content per vehicle. We play in the seating area very well from our China strength.
You know that we are the leader there with the Chinese OEMs when it comes to seating applications. We innovate locally, very fast, we are very competitive in that field and are very fast in industrializing business. Those are strengths that we transfer to the rest of the world. When Sébastien is gonna be up and talk about his growth, it's gonna be not only, but also about further geographic extension. Asia is a playing field. Good focus is gonna go into India. We are gonna talk about an extended customer base as well. Today, we are passenger car vehicles, but we can extend that very well to the commercial and then also in that field, we see strategic partnerships that we can have around the world as an additional growth driver.
Sébastien, you're gonna explain how you put growth into gear and make it to a 4% growth business in the future. That was the Growth cluster and businesses that belong to it. Now, I would like to turn to the Value cluster and give what's happening in the various businesses there. With Lighting and Clarion, we have two business will enjoy operational improvement, top of the game as we speak. There's margin upside in both of them. Let's start with Lighting. There's a EUR 3.6 billion business today, and I think you can agree that FORVIA HELLA lighting is the undisputed tech leader when it comes to lighting over the last 100 years.
Nevertheless, we had to focus cost, and we got to be much more CapEx and cash conscious in that field, because playing that old premium segment was good, we want to expand that business to really hit the volume space. First step is gonna be bring cost structures in the right spot and then grow into the volume market. Going to Clarion, EUR 4 billion business in cockpit electronics. Here we are gonna gain competitiveness through structuring our R&D approach and R&D cost much better. Here's clear rationalization potential, and another route that we pursue is looking for partnerships in that area. This is so R&D intense, and you can imagine the tons of software that go into an infotainment cluster. We wanna be able to share these efforts with. Again, the business gets more R&D effective and therefore then also more profitable.
In summary, performance cash to be improved on those two segments. Part of the Value cluster, we have Clean Mobility, Lifecycle Solutions, and are already strong cash generators as we speak. Clean Mobility is, and we are the world leader, both in terms of volume and technology. I explained already earlier that there is an outlook also on more technology coming for hybrid vehicles, for range extender, so we are gonna keep boosting that via [inaudible]. What is really important for that business, well, in a way, to load our existing capacities, because there's no doubt the number of internal combustion engines is still gonna decline. We wanna remain and strong market share and increase our market, this thing, capacities. We've been pretty successful in doing so. Customers give us organic business, and they help organically consolidate. What does that mean?
When customers used to do the owning and wanna get out of it due to the transformation, they hand over these volumes to us, and the same thing is true for players who decide to no longer play in that space. What I call this organic integration and consolidation is something that we continue to drive. One and all, that results in double-digit margin cash generation. Last one on the Lifecycle Solutions. here, it's a EUR 1 billion business, and we benefit very well from the strong HELLA brand in the. Why is that business so successful over the years and very robust? We have a good combination of knowing the OEM business, of being with the workshops. We do diagnostics means and devices for garages.
We know what parts are being needed to repair vehicles. We have our aftermarket parts to the point of use. That's a strong proposition, and again, it has very resilient margins and cash flow. Also, I want to give you an example. Value cluster businesses can still grow. We intend to do that in aftermarket, right? Aftermarket is a trading business. We can grow in an asset-light manner, taking other companies' products and channel them into our aftermarket routes. You see how growth is not contradictory to being in a member of the Value cluster family. All right. I think with this, we are through the most important piece, growth and value. Now let's look forward. We want to boost, obviously, the whole company. I gave you examples, also in the Value cluster.
We have two more dimensions in which we will boost the growth, geography, and also by the customer segment extensions. Let's talk geographies first. China is a strong game of FORVIA's. Last year, we had 21% of our EUR 1.5 billion after IFRS 5 in that market. Far ahead, 50%+ of our business. I mentioned the order intake, right? EUR 8 billion, 80% with Chinese OEMs, that's putting the whole year. The customer extensions we are doing right now. We said we are strong with BYD. In the past, we were not strong enough with Geely. We are adding Geely now to the portfolio, all others. That's good. You'll hear this year about partnership that we'll be announcing.
Same quality as we have been doing with BYD and Chery, where we become a major part, large OEM in China, providing their seating solutions. China is important, and I mentioned that, but I want to repeat it because it's really a learning and training center for us. locally, we drive it at speed, we drive it at great cost, so our global OEMs are gonna benefit from that. It goes without saying that we also join the Chinese OEMs when they go entrance. BYD, Chery, Leapmotor are now customers of ours here in Europe or when they go to South America as well. In summary, the further growth in China, and particularly with the Chinese OEMs, it should represent round about 16 global sales by 2028. That's a, I think, impressive number. Let's continue. In terms of diversification and segments, opportunity.
We have opportunity with Japanese and Korean OEMs, we have opportunity in India, and we have opportunity in the commercial vehicle field. Let's start with the Japanese and Korean OEMs. I mean, firms deliver 32 million units a year. A third of the world market, and we are round about represented with 10% of the global FORVIA sales with Japanese and Korean OEMs. You can see what kind of an opportunity that. Why is there special interest by the Japanese and Koreans these days in FORVIA? It again goes back to China, where we prove innovation, cost competitiveness, speed. We just had a very fine order that we took in from Toyota this past year, where exactly due to these traits and capabilities, they chose FORVIA into a commodity with Toyota that we had not served.
China is really good practicing ground, it makes us very attractive. Next one, India. By that market to be 7.5 million vehicles. Our sales last year was EUR 450 million. Compare that to our 26 billion cities. At the same time, we already have 6,000 people on the ground in India. They have more than 2,500 engineers. So far, these engineers serve the global projects as extended workbench for R&D, and they are ready and capable to now drive local business. What's easier than putting India to work towards the Indian customers, both the international ones and the local ones? Also here, I want to leave a number with you. We expect to double our EUR 400 million by the end of this decade.
Good, the third column here, very quickly, again, we mentioned that already with regard to the Seating business. We have a great ops to commercial vehicles. Today, that segment is good for 2% of our global sales, which is the [inaudible] market, commercial vehicles are super attractive. It's driven by regulations. The products, the technologies are highly innovative, we can enjoy a long lifespan once we get into these programs. Therefore, we have now structured dedicated product lines, dedicated teams that are gonna tap into the commercial vehicle market for us. You see in both dimensions, geographies and customer segments, there's more we can do and we will do. Let's zoom out once more. I tried to take all of you really on that IGNITE journey, right?
We start. I said, "Okay, we understand the trends. We know how the FORVIA business groups relate to these trends. We have IGNITE Phase 1 pretty much laid out, right? Performance, Transformation, and Culture. Deeper into Transformation and the portfolio, two clear clusters that are gonna drive our capital allocations between the Growth cluster. If you go across the board, we have additional growth opportunity for everyone by driving the right geographies and extending the kind of customer segments we [inaudible]. That's where we stand so far, and I want to invite you to two deep dives. We chose, obviously, the two businesses in the Growth cluster to give you an idea, what are the technologies, what are the growth opportunities? First one on stage for the Electronics portion, and then Sébastien is gonna follow up on the Seating side.
Peter, you're very welcome to the stage.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As mentioned by Martin, Electronics will play a central role in FORVIA's IGNITE Transformation. Please allow me to start at first with a summary of the three key takeaways I want to convey in my presentation in the next few minutes. First, Electronics business gives us over proportional growth opportunities with the bottom- line performance. Second, we are very selective in identifying our targeted business arenas, specifically in Electronics, to play to our strengths. Number three, we have already remarkable business wins in Electronics and contracted technology partnerships with our customers that confirms that we have selected the right arena. In summary, the motto to remember is, business arenas carefully to unleash profitable growth.
Let me start on the next slide to show you which trends are shaping our industry and how we turn this into attractive business for us. Our Electronics portfolio is allied key trends in electronics: software-defined vehicles, or in short, SDV, the electrification of the vehicles and the powertrains, and in-cabin user experience. The SDV trend increases the software content in the vehicle and the software content independent of hardware. This increasing software content and the related functions leads to a move from increasingly distributed architectures to less complex, more centralized E/E architectures, in which the centralized hardware is characterized by domain and SOA, and those ECUs are running the computing and the decision-making. By 2035, we expect somehow 60% of newly produced vehicles to operate in some form of those centralized E/E architectures.
There is an innovation race to be won, being first to market with leading at edge technology. The trend you see on this chart is electrification. Despite some hiccups which we have experienced in the Western World, electrification will continue to ramp up across all different electric powertrains. The powertrains will raise to approximately 70% of newly produced vehicles in 2030. We anticipate a prolonged period of parallel electrification. We will have mild hybrids, we will have plug-in hybrids, range extenders, and full battery electric vehicles. One thing all those technologies have, they will continue to drive an above-market trend demand for battery management and power electronics, because solutions for electrical efficiency, and that is exactly what we can provide. You see on the chart is in-cabin user experience.
This is on the one side, driven by safety regulations, and on the other side, by an ongoing expectation of sophistication of user experience in the vehicle. In the future, automated driving vehicle generations have the need of driver behavior monitoring to fulfill safety regulations. This results in an in-cabin monitoring solutions. At the same time, the users like integration of their own digital environments in the vehicle. This drives a demand for solutions that provide technology-agnostic connectivity and platforms for digital in the car of the future. We are operating in a market which is sizable and growing significantly fast and underlying vehicle volumes.
As you can see on this chart, the segments we are driving merely EUR 30+ billion in sales. While vehicle production will only increase by around about 1% per year until 2030, we expect an average growth rate of around 10% per year in our slice of the market. That means this market around about EUR 50 billion by 2030. Our Electronics business is actually around EUR 3.1 billion strong today. That means we have a market share of round about 10%. As mentioned in my introduction, choose our business arenas carefully to unleash profitable growth. We have proven since many years with a strong track record that we are selecting our playing fields carefully. That in line with the related segment attractiveness, our ability to differentiate and to play to our strengths.
You can see here on this chart, all areas we have selected to play, be it battery and power electronics, be it body electronics, be it selected components, be it in-cabin electronics, all of them will high, above average growth rate. Let me now talk a little bit what says and how we will win this game. We have established, and we will continue to expand our leadership in market positions and technology. We are already today amongst the top three electronics in selected components, as well as in in-vehicle app markets. Already today, getting 80% of our order intake in highly innovative and fast-growing areas of the business. High-growth business with components, for example, where we are with our industry-leading radar sensors in a very good position. Our customers are trusting in us.
Already today, over 50 OEM technology partnerships reflects that our deep and long understanding of the customer relationship, our early involvement in technology is proving that we are the partner of choice. Our right to win in electronics is sustained by a broad skill set, spanning the full value. From components [inaudible], from hardware to software. Our market leadership provides us a scale with space, which we need to ensure healthy returns. Let me now go a little bit deeper about the selected key growth drivers, which we have in our business, and how this is shaping the mentioned industry megatrends. What you see here, examples how we choose our arenas carefully to unleash profitable growth. In the arena of SDV, the newly relay architectures, here in this area, we selected specifically zonal modules to play to our strengths and to win.
At the same time, we have decided actively from high-performance compute and the domain ECUs. In electrification, we have a strong base in battery and power electronics. By combining both of them in our so-called X-in-1 energy management system and integrating further functions, we provide a key and future for efficient energy management in the next generation of electrified vehicles. In regard of our in-cabin user, we focus on two areas: the interior monitoring and the in-vehicle app map [inaudible]. Our allocation of capital, as mentioned by Martin, as well as our resources, is focused exactly strategically selected segments, where we can play to our strengths and realize profitable growth. Look now to this slide here, let me dive a little bit deeper in the SDV structure and our strategy in that regard.
Before I do, allow me to show a short video about the characteristics E/E architectures in the future.
As vehicles evolve into software-defined platforms, their electrical-electronic architecture must be, and the key enabler of this shift. Today, car makers are shifting from complex architecture, separate electronic control units to zonal architectures. A central computer now works with a few zonal modules, each managing the functions [inaudible]. This approach cuts the number of ECUs, simplifies wiring, allow processing, and improves power and data distribution. It only works if each zone can reliably manage, distribute, and protect both data and power, a key requirement for vehicle safety. A zonal module keeps safety-critical functions running even during a fault. Acting as the real-time intelligent hub within the vehicle's power and data network, it becomes the foundation of software-defined architecture. This is where FORVIA HELLA stands out, delivering a full range of solutions from chip-level components to hardware, software functions, and complete system integration.
With 30 years of experience in E/E architecture, FORVIA provides all the key building blocks: eFuse, ensuring instant protection, iConF, our advanced fuse, designed to maintain critical functions even during a fault, powered by a unique compact chip. Intelligent power distribution modules, IPDMs, the power distribution panel, and zonal modules, the local control hub. In short, FORVIA is where to find vehicle era.
Yeah, as shown in the video, you can see that the shift towards the E/E architectures concentrates the value in domain and zonal ECUs. With that, we focus on zonal ECUs, as mentioned, and we are to capture larger span of spend of the OEMs in this arena. Our integrated one-stop-shop solution for zonal modules offers chip, design and software at the same time. This increases the agility and enables the OEMs in their transformation to central ECUs to act according to their needs, that they have the partner of choice with us. First, to market in execution with leading OEMs and the order intake of already now over EUR 1.5 billion provides tangible evidence that trust in us and that we are able to grow in this area reliably.
On the next slide, we dive into different types of electrification, as I mentioned, from hybrid to battery electric vehicles, demand will increase in the next few years. There is a demand for advanced power electronics integration on system level. With our innovative X-in-1 system, we are combining battery management, board, onboard DC converter, together with software-enabled compactness into one ECU. This new inverse, somehow 35% volume reduction, 20% weight reduction, and 5% efficiency improvement compared to the combination of the standalone components. Selected partnerships we have already with battery cell manufacturers and early OEM co-development, positions us as a major player on the future of XEV platforms.
Our order intake is, in 2025, over one point just for battery and power electronics. This provides, again, a clear evidence of customer trust in us and gives us a clear indication of future growth opportunities. In regard of in-cabin user experience, as mentioned, regulatory and insurance regulation standards are elevating safety requirement specifically for increasing number of automated vehicles. This translates into tangible growth for us, with in-cabin sensor content, which is increasing by somehow 20% per vehicle annually. In parallel, the connected vehicle base rise by 10% per year, due to the mentioned user expectations and the seamless digital continuity, which we are having as a related with the technology agnostic platforms that integrate personal digital ecosystems into the car.
We address both the opportunity spaces through integrated hardware and software capabilities, which we have, and in 2025, as a proving point, we strengthened our cooperation with Microsoft to voice-enabled interactions, intelligent content discovery, as well as personalized user experiences. Our confirmed orders already today for interior monitoring cover on vehicles, and we have a broad adaptation for our Appning in the vehicles. As well, this provides, again, tangible proof of our opportunities in the future. To summarize, we will expand our organic business systematically. Until 2028, we grow with a CAGR of 10% in line with the market. Earnings guidance for the until 2028 is 8% operating margin. As mentioned, we prioritize investments in the mentioned high-growth innovation. From 2028 onward, we expect to benefit from those prioritized investments as industry [inaudible].
Our growth outlook beyond 2028 is 12% or above, driven by market share gains on the one side and the creation of further leadership. With that financial outlook, I would like to close my presentation. I would like to thank you for your attention.
Thank you. Good morning. I'm going to highlight today our ambition on strategy for FORVIA Seating. They are based on two pillars. The first one is resilience and stability, geographic mix, but as well, a consistently improving operational performance. The second pillar is growth. We have a strong potential for, thanks to the exploration of new market and new segments, and thanks to innovation. That's what I'm going to present. First of all, let's look at our product with a simple fact. A seat is one of the most complex system in the vehicles. It integrates numerous technologies and more than 80 components. We have more than 80 components. In addition, a car manufacturer can order up to 20 different variants just hours before deliveries. Managing this level of complexity requires, one, to deal with metal, textile, foam, but as well, sensors.
We need more than 20 different skills. In addition, we need to be compliant. We have to be compliant stringent safety regulations, like OCS in the U.S., Occupant Classification System, in the U.S. A seat is a safety component. What is the conclusion of all of this? Seating is a concentrated market because not every single supplier can master this level of complexity. In this, FORVIA holds a unique competitive positions. First, we are number one worldwide on mechanism and structure, t hird, on complete seat. Our strengths come from our dual business model. On the one side, we deliver high volumes and highly engineered product, mechanism, and structure [inaudible] massified on regional hubs. We have just-in-time facilities, assembly. They are located very close to our customer to ensure maximum flexibility and reactivity. This business model give us resilience and is highly cost effective.
In addition, we have a balanced customer and geographic mix. We are particularly strong, including China, of course, where we generate more than 30% of our revenue. Our stable and growing performance is driven by a strong industrial performance with the goal of setting the standards. First, we rely on automations, automation and artificial intelligence, improving our process. Secondly, on the second level, is a selective vertical integration in our just-in-time facility, further reduce cost, and improve efficiencies. The last one is modularity. We have launched a module concept for process and product in order to further reduce our cost and to increase our flexibility. A clear evidence of all of this is the factory you picture. We have been awarded as a Lighthouse Factory for Outstanding Performance in Productivity by the World Economic Forum in January 2026, in our Yancheng plant in China.
This external recognition, it's an external recognition, is a clear evidence of our leading position in manufacturing. Let's now look at our market, seating market. This is a EUR 65 billion industry in 2025, but several segment very fast. The first one is comfort and wellness solution, with a growth expected from 5%-8% per year until 2030. This is directly aligned with the premiumization we see globally, particularly in China. The second one, and Martin mentioned it earlier this morning, is India. India is another major driver for growth, and I will explain later why we are well-positioned to capture this growth. The last two front, so Japanese and Korean OEMs and commercial industry vehicles, these are the segments where we have a strong potential to increase our market share later.
To conclude, our growth pillar is a commitment dynamic markets, on the other side, the exploration of new segments and geographies. Our stability and growth is really fueled by our roadmap. We capture the market trends, which are, on one side, more comfort and better user experience, sustainability. Let me share with you a few examples of our innovations. The first one is Safe 60. Is a concept of seat, which enables you to incline your seats at 60 degrees, like that, while ensuring the safety of the occupant. This is a strong demand from the customers, and we have developed a unique solution, sorry. On comfort, we are continuing to expand further on heating, on ventilation, on massage, we have either.
In addition, we have developed a new concept of a sensor for OCS, or Occupant Classification System , which address the upcoming regulation in the U.S. Finally, last but not least, sustainability. Sustainability is really embedded in everything we do. A few examples. The first one is Ecorium. Ecorium is our solution. It's a recyclable material, which is an alternative to leather. It is PET and hemp, this material, Ecorium, enable us to reduce the carbon emission by 90%. This material, Ecorium, is already in serial life production for two customers. We provide as well lightweight architectures with low- carbon steel, a demand from our customer, and we design product from recyclability. All you see here contributes to reduce our carbon emission, which is our goal. China plays a key role in our innovations.
Actually, FORVIA Group, was one of the first Tier 1 suppliers to invest in China, where now our seating division employs more than 1,000 people in three R&D centers, serving major clients like Li Auto, for instance, or Chery, or BYD. Our strong relationship in with the customers in China enable us to be at the forefront of the innovations. One, speed and agility to develop our innovations. One example, Martin mentioned it earlier this morning, is a 3D Zen Massage, you see here. We are able to develop this innovation in less than a year for serial life production, and we did it in China. The second example I want this morning, and we develop it in China as well, is the Intelligent Seat. Let's look at a short video.
FORVIA introduces the Intelligent Seat, an AI-powered, software-driven platform that learns, adapts in real time to you and your driving context. The Intelligent Seat sense acts, high-resolution pressure mapping with embedded seat sensors, actuators, and an AI seat agent work in closed loop, the right posture every moment. Automatic seating modes continuously adapting to the driving context, from relaxed comfort to dynamic support. Speak naturally to your AI seat agent or just sit back. Intelligent Seat adjusts seamlessly to you and your environment, responding to each situation. Defined vehicle era, an upgradable platform that enable continuous improvement. The Intelligent Seat, AI-powered comfort and safety for everybody in every moment.
What is a key takeaway of this innovation you saw in this video, and that you can see in our facility today? What is a key takeaway? We are able to combine our expertise in our knowledge of software and AI to provide the best experience on board, and that's really our strength. On wellness expertise enhanced with AI and software. It is, as mentioned by Martin, one [inaudible] automotive market with a strong growth projected at around 7% every year in order to reach EUR 4 billion in India in 2030. FORVIA Seating is extremely well-positioned to [inaudible]. Why? First, we are already present in India, and we have a long-standing relationship with both global and local OEMs, such as Tata, [inaudible], Mahindra, and Maruti Suzuki.
Secondly, we are now our footprint in India. What we are doing is to move on structure footprint that we have today to offer a full co-footprint in the coming month [inaudible] to reach 10% of market share in India. This is our ambition, 10% of market share in the coming years in India. IT for us, where we have a really huge opportunity to increase our market share, is a commercial and industrial vehicles. This market, new this market in 2024, and it is, for instance, considerable, both in China and India are expanding. We have already built strong partnership. Two examples, one strong partnership with the European truck manufacturer on the on-highway segment is a co-partnership and contract with an American manufacturer in agriculture.
We have already secured a multi-billion [inaudible], which will enter into production in [inaudible]. What is new now? In this segment, we are reinforcing our portfolio with a dedicated offer for commercial vehicles. In both segments, so in on-highway and off-highway, we are really developing product specifically adapted for this market. Our ambition is that these markets, so commercial and vehicle segments, represent 10% of our overall sales. Now, let me conclude with our financial trajectory. On one, our sales are expected to grow at 4% on average from 2028. This progress is driven by three strategic pillars that I just presented. New product, new geographies, and new markets. That's only one part. The second one is that we are focused on discipline execution, organization of our architectures, automation and AI, selective vertical integration with a discipline of CapEx allocation.
These initiative I just mentioned are already visible in our manufacturing excellence and our financial. To give an example, we improve our profitability by 7 basis points in 2025 versus 2024. To sum up, and in short, our transformation is both innovation-driven and performance-driven. Thank you for your attention.
Sébastien, thank you.
Thank you, Martin.
Let's wrap up the Transformation session of IGNITE. You saw we are working in different phases. Phase 2 of IGNITE is about discipline, and that's true for a streamlined portfolio. It's true for a much more consequent execution. It will generate better profit and cash and leveraging that way. You saw we want to play to the strengths, and those two deep dives served to show where the real deep technologically rooted. We are going to go into these established areas, but also selectively expand the portfolio. With that, we get into growth phase of IGNITE, where we can work from a healthier balance sheet and have a more focused portfolio. We can expand leadership villages where we have that long-term right to win and can create that longer-term value.
In summary, IGNITE is pretty simple and has to be simple and can be communicated that way. IGNITE is to drive what matters today, to unlock what next. That brings us to what's next. It's an 18-minute break. I would ask you everyone, be back at 11:40, make it 18 minutes. There are some beverages and little snacks available for the people in the room, and we see you back online as well at 11:40. Thank you.
Welcome back, everyone. We get into the chapter, and that's IGNITE Performance. I would like to welcome our COO to stage, Olivier Lefebvre. Get us through that part of the program.
Thank you, Martin. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad to be with you today as a committed FORVIA leader to building an engine to scale profit and keeps us ahead. Today, I want to make one thing absolutely clear: our strategy for best-in-class performance follows two powerful directions. First, we focus on delivering excellence now. This is our foundation, our core, and it deliver fast and tangible results. Use this strong base to scale our performance for tomorrow. That means driving the structural changes we need today. Take you through these two directions. Let's start with where we come from. FORVIA has a unique operate, the FORVIA Excellence System. It already give us a strong bet on safety, customer focus, and sustainability. Safety. In just three years, we have reduced our accident by three consistent application of our standard.
Our ambition is total safety for our employees, with less than per [inaudible] million, our [inaudible] MAR in our industry. Looking at our customers, we have improved quality year-over-year, reducing claims by 30% versus 2023. This progress earned us more than 160 award in 2025. Our customers now see FORVIA as one of their best partner: responsive, proactive, and transparent. Regarding sustainability, we have reduced Scope 1 and 2 by over 90%, thanks to the commitment of our site. We reduce our Scope 3, a 4% versus 2019, while keeping aligning our strategy with our customer. Thanks to our FORVIA Excellence System, FORVIA stands on solid [inaudible]. Before going further, I've short video that bring this system to life.
At FORVIA, the FORVIA Excellence System is our operating model to drive strong systems. FES enables us to build safer workplaces and world-class products, from design to production and supply chain, and from top management to frontline teams in every site, every day. To make this a reality, we develop our teams through a structured learning path. On-the-job coaching, dojo modules, shop floor workshops, and shared standards applied consistently across all plants. This ensures that everyone speaks the same operational language. FES also brings discipline and stability in shop floor enforcement, daily routines at all levels, and a problem-solving mindset focused on immediate action. Since 2025, every site has been audited yearly to track progress, benchmark against the best, and identify risks before they appear. These really push us to deliver best-in-class performance. Every day, FES creates value by improving investment in labor efficiency and material usage.
FES gives us the discipline to improve today and the capability to accelerate tomorrow. It is the backbone of our operational excellence. Ensured with [inaudible] performance growth.
Our FORVIA Excellence System that does not just create foundation, profitability. You saw in this video our FES drive continuous improvement, lower, better equipment and labor efficiency, material usage. It creates value every day. FES is also for mass discipline. When I review plant performance as CEO in 2025 [inaudible] months, with the most limited FES [inaudible] , located mainly in U.S., Mexico, and Interior Systems. These are the plants at the bottom left of the graph. In just 12 months, FES, these plants improved their MAR by 5 points. This was a major contribution to our last year performance. We are changing how we operate. It is a cultural change. We want FES apply everywhere at any time, FES [inaudible]. What is even more important, by lifting our plants to the big blue square, we prevent [inaudible], and we enable the transformation of the potential we have identified operational excellence.
At the same time, we are also transforming in a structural way through four decisive work streams in order to scale the performance for tomorrow. Firstly, we are strengthening our operating resilience. We need to further adopt their investment structure. Thirdly, we need to continuously improve our cost base. Finally, we are scaling digital everywhere and AI transformation on a selective, but with very high potential domains. This is how we achieve best-in-class performance. To secure our performance in a fast-changing business environment, we must adapt our value and enforce cybersecurity. Best-in-class value chain management requires both, on one side, resilience, and on the other side, best cost. We already have 80% of local to local that already provide a strong core, but resilience today requires much more. It means end-to-end, proactively redesigning our supply chain network, and it means creating optionality, not after it.
To keep delivering best-in-class cost, indeed, we leverage AI. AI sourcing agent for our purchasing team to capture the best opportunities, AI to optimize our transport along with organization transformation. This creation, by 2028, our transport cost to sales ratio will drop by 20% versus 2023. In short, we are securing our execution, the biggest external challenges in a structural and competitive way. We are also boosting our agility by bringing CapEx and capitalized R&D clearly below 7% of sales. We've already accelerated our development lead time to match Asian market expectation. Last year, we cut lead time on key European programs by up to 50%, thanks to a smarter balance between standardization and targeted customization. The key point now is to scale these achievements.
By leveraging our know-how, our lessons learned, and our best practices with virtual twins, we will reduce development hours on all our programs by 30% by 2028 versus 2023. Without compromising performance. Thanks to a stronger discipline in how we allocate and shape our footprint, thanks to standardization and lean design to massify equipment and lower cost, also by limiting investment, efficient efficiency, and reusing asset. In short, we are reshaping our investment base to fuel sustainable growth, as we saw before, and stronger cash generation. The third pillar of our transformation is how to define a more competitive cost base, powered by, on one side, smart automation, and on the other side, a simpler, faster organization.
With more than 2,000 AGV and 7,000 robots already in service in our plants, we have already proven that how selective auto-productivity and optimize cost. We scale this globally, focusing on short payback opportunities. It will help us to increase our labor productivity by 10% by 2028 and strengthen our margin. At the same time, we are simplifying how the company works. We are driving a real cultural shift. Fewer layers, faster decision, streamlined and AI agent to automate end-to-end processes. This is our SIMPLIFY program [inaudible] delivering EUR 110 million in cost base reduction. In our market, defined by speed and competition, we are moving to operate faster, lighter, and stronger. Our fourth axis is our digital and AI transformation. Our ambition is clear: connect, integrate, and scale AI to unlock value creation. Connectivity is already transforming our performance.
We have today more than 5,800 production lines that generate real-time data structure cloud. This power quicker deviation, faster problem-solving, better optimization, and strong plant performance through tools like, for instance, predictive maintenance. We are also eliminating intermediary system that break digital continuity across the product Lifecycle. Within three years, sales, engineering, purchasing, and plants will fully integrated system. That means better cost and margin visibility and seamless data continuity to manufacturing. Finally, we are leveraging AI to increase our value creation. As [inaudible] AI Transformation Studio, we are industrializing the development of AI in value creation and quick-payback digital bricks. More than 30 AI agents moving from decision support to automated decision-making, so every function can lift its performance.
As already underlined by Sébastien in the sitting part, we are very proud of This plant has been recognized as a Lighthouse Factory for Outstanding Productivity by the World Economic Forum. Let's immerse ourselves to discover how they connect, integrate, and scale AI [inaudible].
Network digital transformation is powering the next generation of manufacturing. Our Yancheng plant is one of the clearest proof points, recognized by the Forum as a Lighthouse Factory for Outstanding Performance and Productivity. [inaudible] and seating plant, located in China, operates as a fully connected ecosystem. Machines, robots, and sensors continuously exchanging data in real time. Yancheng has deployed over 40 use cases, leveraging machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI to enhance performance across planning, quality inspection, predictive maintenance, and production control. The results are measurable and fast. The plant achieved a 7.5 month ROI on its AI solutions, significantly accelerating value creation. A multimodal AI quality control system has reduced cost, increased quality, and eager [inaudible]. A big data model now replaces and active testing, improving efficiency and consistency. Predictive maintenance algorithms have contributed to efficiency and reducing unplanned stoppages.
Generative AI has boosted die change optimization by 46%, directly in ability and throughput. Yancheng is not an isolated success [inaudible] blueprint for FORVIA manufacturing transformation worldwide.
To conclude, we built on our greatest strength, the FORVIA Excellence System, to deliver excellence everywhere at any time. At the same time, for structural transformation that will scale our performance for tomorrow. Together, this strategy will lift our operating margin from 6% to above 7% by 2028. Leadership is always making the difference, and this is exactly what Martin will talk about now in the IGNITE Culture chapter. Martin?
Thank you. IGNITE Culture, the third element. The question is, how do we operate as an organization? That is actually the key to delivery in the end. Coming in and looking, I came to a quick conclusion that we have to refine the operating model. We have to be simpler, faster, and more accountable at the same time. We touched on the organization. We are undergoing refresh, and we are also calling principles that I would like to share with you this morning. At the back of it, empowerment. Empowering teams, while at the same time reinforcing accountability. A more agile organization, in my eyes, is absolutely mandatory to master the complexity and the volatility of the market. We want to have people decide where it is, and that's the empowerment I'm talking about. Let's look at organization first.
We've announced last year in October that we are going into a division-centric organization. I want to explain what that means. Divisions in our language are business units that act locally. It's a subgroup of a global business group. Let's say Seating China is a division, or Electronics North America is a division, and this is where we strengthen the organization and the accountability a lot. Why do we do so? Well, those are the people on the ground to the customer, closest to the market. They know what's needed. Traditionally, that division has already owned its operate to everything from the customer and in the plant. What we are changing right now is that we are reducing the matrix organization that was in place.
Divisions used to get engineering services from organization, and I did not find that very good, because then accountability is diluted, right. You want to give the engineers that [inaudible] are products to these divisions, and that's what's happening right now. At the same time, we're increasing authority limits for the divisions as well. Within a well-disciplined framework, they have now greater rights to choose how to invest and what kind of contracts to have with the customers. I find that authorization is very important, also clears up. We mean it. We do empower you, but also we expect results. There's this full accountability for the outcomes. That is important. Full accountability means you get everything successfully. At the end, it's about delivery. It's not about excuse in that framework. The result are faster decisions, better adaptability, and good ownership.
That, for me, is a key enabler for IGNITE. Now let's look bigger. Obviously, driven by our employees and rotated through good leadership, and therefore, we have three principles: guide, empower, recognize. Our leaders are here to guide in the first place. We're setting the directions, we're giving the priorities, and we are removing for the teams. Second, on empowerment, you got that. Through the division-centric organization, we wanna make decisions at the point of impact. We show trust to our people. We enable them to deliver, but also we hold accounts. The third element is recognition. Tell you, we have been always pretty straight feedback in FORVIA. I want that to happen in both ways, right?
Real things, yes, we are ready to take that critique, I want to also us to recognize good performance and really foster that collaboration, that team spirit, and value good results. That's why we've picked number three, the recognition. I want to assure you, those are not only aspirations, guide, empower, recognize, first of all, we work with the leaders to establish those principles, we do also measurement for it. Already last year, our top leaders got feedback from their teams. How am I in guiding, empowering, and recognizing? That feedback went into the performance appraisals, finally into the merit for those top leaders. We're gonna do that this year for all 6,000 leaders in FORVIA.
Every one, single one of us, is gonna get a feedback from our teams on guide, empower, recognize, and it's gonna impact my performance appraisal every year. You see how we have systematic leadership development now in place as a transformation driver. Okay, no clicking possible, which means we come to the next stop. Olivier, back to stage. Wrap it all into financial for us.
Good, good morning again. You have seen that we have set for FORVIA clear, a clear strategy, clear priorities, clear choices. Now, I would like to show how they translate in financial outcome. I will focus on four key messages. The first one, balance sheet. We have progress that we have achieved, and we have the forthcoming divestiture of Interior. The second message is about a new way to manage the company. We have differentiated activities in two clusters, is a differentiated approach, which enable clear and decisive investment allocation. It's about structurally improve financial metrics, about cost reduction and a stronger recurring cash flow. Fourth, what will be FORVIA in 2028?
FORVIA in 2028 will be a solid and resilient company with a clear financial structure, with a focus on the development of Electronics and Seating, and the flexibility to fully unlock those possibilities while maintaining strict financial discipline. Let me go through the different points. First point is about the balance sheet. We have just strengthened clearly the balance sheet since the HELLA acquisition, and I would say 2025 is showing an acceleration of the organic deleveraging. We have seen the number earlier on. We have reduced, organically, the leverage by 30 basis points. On average, since the acquisition, the organic deleveraging is 20 basis points.
The second is that the situation at the end of 2026 will be, in fact, through the organic cash flow generation, organic deleveraging, but complemented by the Interior divestiture, with more than EUR 1 billion of net debt reduction, EUR 5 billion in debt [inaudible]. On both metrics, it means a division by 2 from the start of the journey, since the acquisition. As you, as you see, and as I showed this morning, we have refinanced 50% of the debt. Security profile, we are with a balanced maturity, 3.4 years of average, and we have the diversity of funding. We have a stronger and more resilient balance sheet that we can start with. Looking to 2028, company will be more focused and more disciplined, in fact, with a disciplined and it's restoring the financial flexibility. How we will do that?
It's about the two clusters: differentiated management, [inaudible] investment allocation, selective investment. The second is that we consider, say, a further selective portfolio optimization. As you have seen, and I will go in more details, contemplating an additional divestiture in the Value cluster to further sharpen the profile of the group. As a result of this, by 2028, 1.2x in leverage, which is setting to be eligible for investment grade, given the metrics of this industry. This is enabling us, in fact, to unlock the growth in the strategies and addressable market that we want to address in Electronics and Seating, but with a clean and solid balance sheet. Now, what is giving confidence, in fact, in this trajectory? But the first step is what Martin was calling the years, which is the achievements.
I will not come back in a lot of details on this, but clearly speaking, 40 basis points improvement in operating margin. This is coming from cost reductions. Improvement of the net cash flow in both quantity and quality, up 47% in quantity and in quality, much more recurring because it's based on EBITDA improvement and reduction of investment. As a consequence, the evolution in debt I mentioned early on. On top, inside this, there is a bit of the cash we have because we have reduced the gross debt, not by EUR 600 million, but actually by EUR 900 million. There is further progress in terms of utilizing the cash that you can count on in EUR 2,600 million. That will help the reduction of the financial costs even more.
The second, of course, the second element that is giving a solid trend will be the planned divestiture of Interiors. It's a pivotal milestone. It's changing the profile from a portfolio standpoint. In we will be able to be more driven in the new setup of the company. You see the evolution in terms of profitability since Interior is actually dilutive today. You see, as I mentioned earlier today, the debt reduction, and I want to stress again that, in fact, you have to look at two metrics: the net debt reduction, but also the gross debt reduction, because we will simplify the joint ventures. Less complexity in terms of location means better cash management, easier to repatriate cash, [inaudible] to cash pooling.
It means gross debt reduction of EUR 1.4 billion, and the financial cost is associated to this number. On top, you have a complement, which is, if we have less joint ventures, we have less dividend to minorities. That is also helping the translation of actual cash flow performance in net debt reduction. The second message is about driving the portfolio in a way. We have shown you that we are differentiating the different businesses between and the Value cluster. What are the relative weight of them? Basically, a 50/50. You see that in 2025, pro forma of the divestiture of Interior, we are talking about business in gross, 50% in value.
In 2028, we will be close to 60%, and leading mid-term [inaudible] third on the Growth cluster, in, give the growth is automatically in the first one. It means that the sales growth potential is increasing accordingly. Let me go in a bit more detail in each of those clusters, starting with the Electronics and Seating Growth cluster. here, what do you [inaudible] Sébastien, Peter presented in more details the different businesses, but you see the track of growth. Electronics, 10% CAGR, 2025-2028 at constant forex, accelerating afterwards with the expansion of the benefit of the leadership position that he mentioned and with the technological advantage.
In terms of Seating, the 2%, the 2% is for 2025-2028, accelerating afterwards. The growth is a bit different, is about enlargement of the CPV and enlargement of the market. You can derive that, in fact, the embedded growth of Seating is more than the embedded growth of the car market volume, because we are attacking markets in which we are not too present today. So, CVI and in terms of profitability, first of all, you have a mix advantage. The more Electronics, the better the margin. Second, you have the cost and competitiveness on both R&D, but also in terms of operation. I think some of them are also related on the operations. Both, above or equal 7% on this activity.
If you take CAGR of this Growth cluster, you are at an aggregate CAGR of 2025, 2028, 4%, but actually 6 after 2028, which is giving you the potential of this evolution. The Value cluster, here businesses today, as mentioned earlier by Martin, the situation are not exactly the same. You have two groups inside. You have Clean Mobility, Lifecycle, that are already solid cash conversion. I would say Clean Mobility, given the evolution, the electrification, has a bigger value than three years ago, and clearly, we are very happy to have it. Lighting, and Clarion, Lighting that in need of repositioning and competitiveness recovery.
End point, you can expect organically to be basically [inaudible] 2025 and 2028 , but you see that the drop in revenues that we are showing here is related, in fact, to potentially having additional divestiture, if and when conditions are met and appropriate inside this domain, that will even more solidify the evolution of the balance sheet, but it's only if it is meeting the conditions that we set ourselves. That's why you have, in fact, on face value, a decrease in revenues inside this cluster for the period. From a profitability standpoint, we expect to be also here above 7%, but this is coming from cost reductions, competitiveness, in particular, Lighting and Clarion, and to further develop the profitability in Clean Mobility and Lifecycle.
We know that we're in, for instance, in Clean Mobility, we have some possibilities compared to benchmark. What does it mean for the aggregate company? This is, in fact, starting my third message about what it means in terms of improve for the total group. First of all, selective growth, 2% organically over the period 2025-2028, before this potential divestiture. The second is about sustained cost and recurring cash flow conversion that I will show in the next page. Revenues, the growth is coming from the cluster of the same name. In terms of profitability, you see that the majority of what we expect in improvement in profitability is coming from cost measures, actually, in both clusters. Not only value, but also in term, the Growth cluster.
I would say almost first of all, the mix, is because we are driving the evolution of the mix with the development, in particular in Electronics. Overall, to be above 7% by 2028. The conversion in cash flow. We are, you see that this graph is continuing to talk about a bit two metrics per se, but also the quality of the cash flow, i.e., [inaudible] the cash flow. Here, what we are aiming at is, in fact, [inaudible] a cash flow that is improving, more solid, and actually less cyclical. The expectation in 2028 is that there will not be a contribution from working capital, which is still much smaller, but still the case in 2025. It comes from the operating margin improvement by 100 basis points.
It comes from investment clearly below 7%. It comes from restructuring normalization. By 2028, we will have completed the big wave of restructuring that we have to do, that we are underway. EU-FORWARD on one side, the other side. You will have, of course, the reduction of the financial cost, the reduction of the debt that we are doing in the meantime, and the repatriation of cash, is improving our financial cost, and we expect to be clearly below EUR 400 million by 2028. Last but not least, is normalization of tax, and I believe better after 2028 on the tax profile. The tax will be stable in value because the increase in operating margin is one thing, but the other side is the geography. Geographically speaking, we have countries in Europe, for instance, in which we are losing.
To recover the situation in those ones is not, in fact, having the tax impact per se. The focus is to have not only the 3.5% of net cash flow that we aim at for 2028, but in fact, what we call the recurring net cash flow going up between 2025 and 2028. In 2025, is actually at 3%. We expect to be, as the graph is showing it, in fact, above the 3.5% in 2028. Not only the value, but also the quality is what we are aiming at so that we have the cash flow is more solid, more recurring, and more resilient to actions that can happen in terms of volume or activity. Now, what does it mean in terms of capital allocation policy?
First of all, we aim for a solid financial structure, not only short term, but midterm as a company, and this is the base on which we will do selective growth in the domains in which we believe it makes sense. The second, we remain committed to long term capital return. There will be no dividends proposed on 2026 on the results of 2025, but we have clearly, of the day, all the metrics and all the parties need to have the return. The policy that we set ourself is, in fact, to say dividends and share buybacks will take into account every year the group financial results, share position, including the level.
As a bit of a conclusion for the overall financial framework, what will be FORVIA in 2028? FORVIA in 2028, you see the numbers. Sales, EUR 21 billion-EUR 22 billion at constant forex. The potential divestiture templates we could contemplate in the Value cluster. It means an organic growth of around 2% for the company over the period. Operating margin above 7% between the two clusters, and with the distribution of profit, I would say, more spread. A cash flow at 3.5%, but with a better quality and lower financial cost, not counting on working capital contribution.
Annual leverage at 1.2x, compared to the 1.7x that we have at the end of 2025, and the 1.5x that we expect at the end of 2026. In summary, a more solid, a more resilient company in full capacity to seize the opportunities that we presented this morning, in particular in Electronics and in Seating, the rigorous financial this industry requires. On this note, I leave it back to Martin for conclusion.
Thank you, Olivier. Quick conclusion before we get into Q&A again. IGNITE is a very clear and step-by-step path to success. We drive what matters now and unlock what's next. It has the three elements, best in class. Here it is about disciplined profit generation, cash deleveraging, and deleveraging of the company. We reinforce the foundations, right? You heard about from Olivier about the quality that we put into our operations and beyond. That is gonna drive that reinforced performance we need. Second, we have business transformation. We do that with utmost discipline and focus. You heard about the Value cluster and the Growth cluster, and we are very disciplined in putting the businesses in there and capital suite. It is important that where we play, we lead.
It's not about the sheer size, but it's about scaling in our successful activities. Last but not least, invigorating our culture. It is about accountability and empowerment. We wanna do and make decisions at the right level of the organization, at the point of business and use, and that will develop agility and the pot. Personally, I'm very confident that IGNITE is gonna deliver sustainable growth, and the financial results are invested with that, a good long-term value that we are gonna generate for FORVIA. Thank you very much for your attention this morning. We now build the stage for Q&A.
We'll start from questions from the room. For those joining remotely, feel free to submit your questions in the chat by clicking on the upper right corner button, Q&A, or via the conference line N1. When you speak, kindly introduce yourself with your name, and limit yourself to a maximum of three—
Hi. Stephen Reitman from Bernstein. Over here. First of all, a question about China and about, I guess, working capital. Could you comment on what the developments you've been observing in terms of payment terms in China? There being changes, have the government regulations had a material impact in terms of shortening terms, times? Does that have any positive impact as you're obviously increasing your exposure to the Chinese OEMs? Secondly, I guess the question about Seating. Oh, sorry, on Lighting. Obviously, we've seen it. You've moved it into this value category. To what extent does this reflect the SDV move, the sense that the total value of those units you're selling has moved from modules, complex modules, to more components? Other parts of the business have faced that kind of pressure.
Of course, you talked about maybe moving toward a volume strategy on the Lighting side. Is that to compensate as well to, for this reduction in parts per value per part or so? Thank you.
All right, Steve. Let's get started on China and the working capital. We have not seen much of a change happening on that front, and at the same time, we are very consistent on how we handle working capital between the customer side and on the supplier side. We don't get into a position, but we translate pretty much the terms that we get from customers to the suppliers. The second question on Lighting. Very good question. How is the value generated in lighting products? Still see additional value, new products. We have traditionally been strong in headlights and tail lamps. You now see a complete new suite coming up of car body lighting solutions, and one of our showcases is the new BMW iX3, where you have that beautiful fascia, right? Certainly with the headlamps, but with many more lighting elements.
That is a trend that benefits. You're also right when you say, how is it modularizing? How is it getting to be more standardized? Let's go back to a headlamp. Yes, we have very strong light modules that are getting platforms, so we can scale volume with that. That's another trend we face. Peter, taking over, that's something when we want to go into the volume segments, where that platforming becomes more and more important.
Beside platforming, because you talked about SDV. Yes, you're right, some functionality we will move from Lighting, E lectronics onto this centralized E/E architecture. It moves directly on the modular systems, where we, with our zonal modules, will play a role as well. It's more shift of value from here to there.
It's José Asumendi over here. Thank you very much. A few questions, please. Just back to Lighting, can you explain a bit better, just go through the concept again of how to [inaudible] Lighting? Is it growth across some of the regions? Is it cost savings actions, and how do you capture that growth, maybe in China as well? Second, on cost savings, for the group level, what are the key actions to drive margins higher? I mean, cost savings was the biggest bucket in your profit bridge. Just give us some examples of that. Then three, Clarion. What are the levers also to improve the profitability? Is this division also potentially for sale, or is this a division that is for patients?
All right. Good questions, José. Thank you. Let's go in the sequence that you posted them. Peter, maybe you're going to comment on the opportunities that you see in Lighting, in terms of cost improvements, and was also an element of China coming in for Lighting.
I think there are different things we focus on. On the one side, in Lighting, for sure, we have a performance optimization program ongoing. You heard already about the SIMPLIFY program or our European focus program, which we call EU-FORWARD, which is about to start, and it's ongoing. It's focusing on operational improvement, R&D improvement, efficiency improvement, all those classical things, these classical improvement programs. In addition, Martin already talked, we will work more on the design, working on platforms, and with that, have to step into the volume segment. We want to realize growth in China, and China growth can only happen specifically with Chinese OEMs if you work in China for China. That means local R&D, local operation, local sourcing, empowerment of the local organization, and all of that in Chinese speed.
José, I would come to your second question: How do you get to cost savings and better results, therefore? We talked about the two big [inaudible] EU-FORWARD, that's taking costs out. Same thing for SIMPLIFY, where we are seeing significant potentials for fixed costs, and that's also what Olivier had in his bridge to highlight how much more potential there is. I wanna reiterate on the SIMPLIFY target. We are shooting for EUR 110 million in cost reduction by 2028. We are gonna see a first impact now in 2021 already make it to 40% of that savings potential, so push that allow for the first 40% to year.
I think it is also important, Olivier, maybe want to look a little bit deeper into operations on how do we drive performance, how do we drive productivity in that area?
Yes. The first one is to continue what I explained on them. We have a very clear link between the compliance to our system and the profitability of our plants. Which I think looks obvious, because if you apply all the best practice, you deliver better. We concentrate to put all our plants on the right corner I explained. The second one, a smart automation, everywhere we can, with short payback. We have also all the action we do on our supply chain. Mixing on one side, very cost effective, but also the maximum resilience we can deliver. We are working also actively on our transportation cost, because when we reduce transportation cost, we gain on our cost, firstly, we gain on.
Also, this is helping to drive urban plants. These are the same major actions we have launched on the top of our digital transformation and AI that I explained before.
Okay, José, you had one more question, Clarion. First of all, the results in 2025 already show that we are substantiating the performance into a much better space. This has worked on two levels. We have also, for Clarion, the organization, we figured out that for a EUR 1.4 billion business, there was too much matrix happening, that helps. The R&D space, where we have to create software platform that can serve various customers, cannot be too individual in all these developments. I mentioned earlier, partnerships in that field, that we can reduce on various levels of software, our own efforts. That's gonna drive profitability.
Hi, Christoph Laskawi, Deutsche Bank. I'd like to start with on disposals, further disposals or potential for that. Coming a bit back to what Thomas asked initially in the first Q&A, if we think about this outlined, it could fit, for example, Clarion, that you just also high can improve margins. What is your strategy for those disposals? Would it be an entire division? Could it be just smaller stuff? If we think about Clarion, is that already fully carved out? I would think it is. That will make it easier to relatively quickly sell. Looking at LCS and of it, the size, I think it's rather unlikely because of the ownership structure, if you could comment on that. Second question would be for Seating.
There is obviously currently a trend on going to reshore production into the U.S., which probably puts a little bit of an advantage relative to your industrial footprint, right? How do you cope with that? How are you competing with them? Both Audi and India, again, are relatively outspoken to gain share currently. Lastly, just on Electronics, obviously quite impressive growth. Now, could you comment a bit on the regions that are driving that, and is there any margin difference? Within Electronics, is there a mix effect mostly in the improvement, or is it simply operating leverage on scale? Thank you.
All right. Thanks, Christoph, strategic questions. Let's get started with the disposals. Right now, the full attention go toward the divestiture of Interiors. I think what got us to that point, there is strategic consideration to really strengthen the portfolio, but there's also the need for the cash that we bring the debt down. Once we do that Interiors, plus we continue on our good organic deleveraging, we have a little bit less of a pressure than before. When you look now to that 2028 horizon, and we reserved for a bill [inaudible] divestitures, it's not top priority right now, but across time, we will see what qualifies, what can be done, where are interested buyers. Far too early to speculate on one business over the other that could qualify for those divestitures.
EUR 1 billion in sales, just to tame down any expectation.
Very true. EUR 1 billion in sales. Good, then, let's go to Seating. You said, "Hey, what's new in the U.S.?" Right? With the push from the administration to do more locally and, all competitors pushing into that market. Sébastien, to say how are we competing?
I confirm that North America is a really a strategic pillar for us, for our growth, especially in the U.S. We rely, of course, on us, but as well on our industrial performance, which is really improving. We work specifically on automation at the U.S. to further reduce our cost, and I want to share with you one success, FORVIA Group announce the win of a major contract in North America, more than EUR 1 billion with a European OEM, and seating as a big part of this win. Clearly, the U.S. remains a clear strategy for us and a clear priority.
Okay, the third question, Christoph, was on Electronics, and we have significant. Yes, they are global in nature. When you think through some of the products that Peter explained, it's very important that we go global and scale. Remembering back the zonal modules, where it all starts from a little chip from an ASIC [inaudible]. A lot of IP, a lot of know-how enables the upscaling into the full zonal computer. All this lives from volume, and that's why we are targeting the global market with all these. I'm sure you have a couple of more thoughts on that as well.
Yeah. At first, the growth will basically happening, balanced, worldwide. We have a specific focus on Asia, China, India, Japanese, or Korean OEMs, and on North America. The scaling for sure, that comes with the localization of manufacturing, which we are targeting for. You ask about margin distribution, that will be balanced somehow across the region level.
Emmanuel Chatonnay from Banco Itaú . I wanted to ask you regarding the Latin America region. I think it has not been mentioned within the presentation this morning, and I was wondering if it's a strategic hub for the group, and if yes, to what extent, please?
In that region, we operate by about EUR 1 billion, and it's a very fine region for us, both in terms of development of the business, it's also a profitable business that we enjoy. We are very present with all the various business groups and in the best spirit, night culture. We empower that team very much to serve the local market with all its specificities, right? With that, ever of waves of inflation and so on. A very capable team of who drives that business. Here and there, we even develop specific technical solutions to serve the specific market needs, so we are definitely holding on to that. It's valuable.
Thank you very much.
Hey, Vanessa from Jefferies. I was wondering if you could just talk about the commercial vehicle growth strategy you have, and what have been the barriers to growing that in the past?
Yeah, good question. First of all, barriers I would not have even seen. It was just not a really strong focus of the group. Now, two, three years ago, we started realizing that's really an opportunity, we go business group by business group to develop. I would say it's even more established, Peter, already on the HELLA side. Maybe you wanna talk to that a little bit, I'll pick it up for FORVIA again.
Yeah. In HELLA, it is under Lifecycle Solutions. It's a sub-business group, where we are already strong in Lighting in some areas and where we develop further now in Electronics later as well. Commercial vehicles will go in the direction of these new E/E architectures, and that provides for us a new growth opportunity to step in.
Good. We heard from Sébastien earlier this morning what that means Seating, and there's other business groups where we now prepare their respective product lines and an organizational set up to serve these customers full swing.
I don't want to detract from the great opportunities you've presented today, but it's interesting, a lot of your peers are talking about the non-automotive opportunities, like data centers and defense, et cetera, and you're maybe the only one who isn't. Why have you chosen to go that route?
Well, we are in Phase 1 of IGNITE, and that's all about strength, and that's what we do these days. We have a lot opportunity, both on the cost side, also in growing with us, so that's where we want to focus. We are not ignoring those spaces, but we look at them really for adjacencies. We are testing into fields like defense, where we usually translate good in that new sector, and if it's adjacent enough, we consider it, but we are not gonna go into big investment that right now we cannot afford. That's where we stay, we focus, and we strengthen who we are today. We get to Lead & Grow, right, and have the financial flexibility for that as well, then those fields are relevant for us, too.
Lastly, hitting the success you see in China with your development times. I feel like we've heard this a lot for the last couple of years from all of your peers, you. What are the barriers to doing that still? I mean, would your customers say it's you guys, and you guys would say it's customers?
I would say it's our customers and us who have to break through, because over decades and decades and decades, we have developed a very solid way to do automotive business together. It isn't all. It's also a very slow way of doing business together. Right now, Vanessa, I really sense a good motivation, right? Particularly from the Chinese market, that makes OEMs and us Tier 1 suppliers FORVIA get closer together to really tackle it. This is discussion today in the management boardrooms, where we are on the highest levels, we say: How can we bring innovation much faster here in Europe and North America as well? It's gonna be a leadership act, right? We have to influence very positively our organ up to get to that speed we need to be globally competitive.
Thank you.
Thomas on again. I'd like to go back to my initial question. Can you explain what's going to growth in 2027? 2026 is the third year of revenue decline, and revenue decline versus production accelerates in 2026. Can you explain how you can grow and maintain a limited CapEx at the same time? Confirm that you don't plan any more cost-saving plan after 2028, which I find a bit surprising, because usually there's always a saving plan in this business. Seating, you've explained that commercial vehicle was becoming possible. It was impossible before. Can you explain what has changed?
Because, before we were told it was a too small market, it was different types of seat, they were not enough seat in the trucks and these kind of things. Why don't you do a seat for aircrafts? They are more technical, they are more. It's also adjacent to some extent. Maybe it's for the next phase of the plan. Can you explain if you have had any wins in OEMs? Because I haven't seen that. You've talked about it, and I haven't seen it. They tend to be quite integrated, or they used to be integrated, in seating. Lastly, maybe more for Olivier. In 2025, you still had three underperforming business, Interior that is going out, but it's still going 2026, Clarion and Lighting.
What was common between these three businesses? Industrially in the U.S., is there any execution issue? Is there any reason for selling interior and keeping the other two underperforming businesses? Thank you.
All right, that's a mouthful. That's three times, three questions, Thomas. I'll give the best to keep us all organized around that. When you start on order intake and how are we gonna return to growth in 2027? That's exactly what's happening. We are gonna benefit from the order intake of it's gonna push growth forward. When you see what really holds us back end of last year, early into this year, it's predominantly that customer mix that we have seen in China. Okay, this is now a book forward from there. In terms of CapEx limitations, how can we keep that in check in spite of the growth? Well, you see how in 2025, and we announced that we will be returning to a certain degree, but keep it clearly below 7%.
I think that describes well the range we have to maneuver and how we are gonna allow for that additional growth. You ask also, "Hey, how about future restructuring?" We can't believe it's all open and all ended in 2028. What we translate into the plan is that in 2025, we really had the peak in cost. The cash is gonna come after, and from here we are tempering off.
I would say EUR 100 million of restructuring cost in a given year i s probably the level we are gonna sustain, but you know that we are coming out of times now with EUR 400 million a year. Good, then seating. What's different? What's new? Why now commercial vehicles, Sébastien?
Why it's possible now is because we have developed a complete new set of seats dedicated to this market. The technical requirements are different. For instance, you need a suspension, and we have developed new solutions, both in-house and with partnership. Now we are able to address this market. Already major contracts entering into productions in 2027, is expanding our— as well our growth after 2026 because it's entering into production. We really are growing now significantly. Our strength is that we are able to combine the new product with our comfort and wellness solutions we have developed for passenger cars. That's why now we are growing very fast in this market. We are not planning to expand to aircraft. Technical requirements are completely different, volumes as well. No in this field.
Japanese and Korean OEMs. Yes, we are growing. I didn't mention it. We won contract with Korean OEMs, both in Korea and inside. In Japan, we, with Japanese OEM, we are building a new plant production this year.
Good, last but least, Thomas, you had a question on Clarion, Lighting, and Interiors. Are there any patterns, right, for performance that we wanna improve? I would give three characteristics. On Clarion, we talked about overstructure and too- high R&D cost. [inaudible] front, I think Peter sphere tougher from capacities we had built.
F or a much stronger European, it was still in a 20 million vehicle range, not at 15 million. We got to get that out of the capacity. On the Interiors side, yes, you're all well aware, we did have operational struggles in North America in the last two years, and Olivier, you described very well how systematically we have into to fix that, and you also mentioned a number in terms of margin improvement that we have seen. There's not that common pattern, but three cases where we have to add [inaudible].
Yes. Thank you. Ross MacDonald, excuse me, at Citi. Three questions. Olivier, firstly, on cash flows, be interested to push you a little bit more on dividends and buybacks. I think the consensus for 2026 has a small dividend in there. Just be curious how you think PIs for moving back towards cash returns, how you think about the mix between dividends, buybacks when we get there, linked to that, if you would, if you do dividend EPS or if you consider thinking more about holistically the cash generation and using any for buybacks and dividends. Second one on Electronics, linked to Christoph's question, maybe in a different way. Obviously, it is a growing part of the order bank, specific platforms within there, any customers?
You mentioned it's diversified by region, but, you know, for that growth to crystallize, are there any specific OEM SDV platforms that we should really focus on? Final question is a big one. It's specifically on AI. You've talked a lot about AI benefits. You know, I think it's fairly obvious that suppliers can get the R&D down, and that's a huge opportunity. How do you think about holding on to those savings? Because obviously, AI can be deflationary. So how do you make sure you retain those AI P&L savings? Linked to, you know, what should we think about EU R&D headcount in the group, steady state? Because a lot of the R&D expenses, of course, labor expense. Final point on this: you talk about restructuring costs normalizing in 2028.
You know, if these AI tools are as good as we're led to believe, how realistic is that? And can you maybe remind us level of cash out restructuring for a steady state? Thank you.
All right, Olivier, you want to go ahead on the dividends and the general cash returns?
As, I think for the time being, it's getting a restoration of the financial structure. I think the decision, to be clear, the recommendation of the management and then of the discussing the board and recommended by the board to shareholders for the 2025 results, I think is fairly obvious. We need to have our balance sheet fully restored, and this is not yet the case. We are on a good trajectory, but we need to get to 1.5x, and we need to have the closing of Interiors.
Going afterwards, I would say, having all the metrics being back in place, and it will be an individual decision with the board every year, taking into account not only net income and EPS, but also the actual financial. If I made the context externally. I think it's a cautious policy, and I think for the time being, this is what we should stay on. Our share buyback, if and when we are at this situation, probably we will look at both elements. We know perfectly that the operation went a fair amount of dilution in back in June of 2022. We have this consideration as well.
That's effective way for having a return to shareholders, and it can be, it can be either or. Yeah.
Good. Second question was about Electronics. Are there any specific vehicle platforms, customers, Peter, where are we?
Yeah, as I mentioned in my presentation, we have somehow the expectations that 60% of the vehicles produced in 2030 will be on these new platforms. Actually, I announced it, we have EUR 1.5 billion already sales in our booked order books. Those bookings are coming mainly from European OEMs. We are now talking with North American and Asian OEMs about the same, in the future, that will be distributed. Due to the fact that these new E/E architectures will be so much more efficient and needed for software-defined vehicles, it's not a specific platform any longer. All OEMs are moving step by step now in this direction.
Good. Then question around AI, how do we generate these savings? Important to you, how do we hold on to these savings, right? Then probably there's an attachment of the fourth question as well. What does that mean to R&D forces? Olivier, maybe give the AI a piece of shot.
Yeah. First of all, as I explained, we focused a lot on digital first, data, real-time, and now we know our datas and how to boost performance through that in our plants or in our development by the return of datas on experience. What we have launched is a very pragmatic AI scaling, and we, and all four are in what we call the AI Transformation Studio. We have a monthly review, where our team members are presenting their project, and we finance them then month after month. I think it's clearly answering your question. That means we first scale the project, ensure the paying, the KPI to monitor the payback, and then we launch the full investment for the project. It's why we start by 30 agents, which is our first.
With this AI Transformation Studio, we really want to be, I think, as our strategy, to really leverage our end-to-end processes and step-by-step generalize the AI, but on a very pragmatic way.
To your last point, what does that mean now in structuring and possibly continued restructuring? You remember Project SIMPLIFY as something where we work into our overhead structures, into the SG&A adjust, and a good part of those savings will rely, in fact, on artificial intelligence. We go through our processes end to end, of the processes, and then bring AI to work after that. When we talk about the savings of SIMPLIFY, but also the restructuring office, efforts that we have quantified as EUR 150 million round, that's already part of AI effects that you can see in these numbers as well.
Maybe, just to make sure that the understanding of maturing, it does not mean no restructuring. it's, the envelope that we are considering is EUR 100 million to EUR 113 million cash out of restructuring because new technologies, new processes, the mobility of the act, it's not nothing. When I, when we, I mentioned normalizing, is normalizing compared to the big wave we have done, it's not assuming that there will be nothing to do in 2028.
Is there any question left in the room before we move to the chat? Yes, one last question.
Michael Foundoukidis, Oddo. Two last questions on my side. First, we talked a lot about Chinese OEMs, but what about suppliers? We see more, notably in Electronics, but not only in Lighting, for example, and not only in China, but elsewhere and in Europe. What's their behavior in terms of commercial policies, this kind of thing? That's the first question. Second one, still on Electronics and following up previous ones, what's your view on where OEMs, legacy OEMs stand on SDV? Do you see them as more stabilized in terms of specifications, meaning that the risk over further delays is more limited than before, and how do you assess that? What would be the possible impacts on your ambition in this business? Thank you.
Okay, let's start with the Chinese market and competitors that we have certainly in the Tier 1 space, game for the last couple of years across the r ange of [inaudible]. For us, it means we have to play strong, which we do. It starts, first of all, with our local for local or the empowered Chinese team, where from innovation over R&D to manufacturing, supply chain, sourcing, everything is deeply localized, and that way we are competitive. What always keeps setting us apart is that extra piece of innovation and innovation speed. We deal with that part of the competition. When I started in March last year, we were in China together, and I challenged our Chinese team. I said, "Hey, we'll be back end of the year. I want you to innovate locally. I want to innovate to the needs of the market here."
In November, we went back as the management board, as the executive committee, and we could look at 30 brand-new processes and products that got innovated there. The speed from that innovation to really the car, you saw that with the example of massage, right? That's quick. [inaudible] our engine over there, really [inaudible]. On the Electronic side, where do the conventional OEMs stand? Still on the way, they are on the way. With what Peter described in terms of the more centralized architectures, all architectures now, that's becoming stronger and stronger with quite a few of the Western established OEMs. If that transition into new electronics architectures and software structures is really mandatory and the recipe for finally success in that direction.
Playing software-defined vehicle in an old electronics and electrical architecture is just not working. That's why we are now playing on that trend so hard of zonal computers, 'cause it's taken off.
Yeah, a nd you're right, some OEMs in the Western world struggled for some period of time, a little bit with those new architectures, but that is stabilizing now, and I think we can support them with our know-how in the areas I mentioned. And imagine what that means for us as a company. I mean, I talked about this, the show of value add. If the value add is concentrated on domain and zonal modules, and we are going into the zonal modules with our one-stop-shop solution, that is providing another growth opportunity when all the OEMs now step by step, go in this direction.
We'll now move on to the questions in the chat. The first question is coming from Marco: Thank you for your time and presentation. Regarding FORVIA, do we expect any risk for the group in terms of operations following the disposal of this business regarding plans, tech, or IT? This coming from Kjell Galan from APG: In view of deleveraging having priority, can we rule out FORVIA buying out the minority shareholders in HELLA before 2029? Last question, still from Kjell Galan from APG: With the expansion of possibilities in Seating, for instance, zero gravity, do you expect to gains from passive safety systems, which have high margins moving into seats?
All right. Three strong questions. First of all, interior risks, or, no, let's say risks from the intended Interiors divestiture. That's the right question to ask. Those risks are limited. As part of our choice, why do we divest from Interiors? One consideration is it's a pretty independent business. OEM source, Interiors business, separate from Seating, so there is no interaction between these businesses, first of all. When it comes to really operational carve- out, [inaudible] added plans for our Interiors business, [inaudible] only a very few minor, two or three plans, where Interiors would share space with other business groups. The carve out can be pretty clean in that regard. At that point, we'll have a dedicated team that takes care and is gonna mitigate any kind of risk that could come up.
The second question regarding HELLA, and, I think the question behind is, we are intentional about purchasing the remaining HELLA shares from minority investors. This remains not to be one of our priorities. As you heard us say, we keep working in that setup that we have. We have found very good and safe processes to drive strategy, to drive synergies. You see the new level, we have reached EUR 400 million in synergies. That is not one of our priorities. We will focus on the other elements where we strengthen our portfolio, as discussed, through IGNITE today. The last one, Sébastien, how are passive safety devices gonna enter the seating space?
Indeed, we can see more and more contents in seats, in Seating, especially in Asia, whether it's on safety or wellness and comfort. You mentioned zero gravity. Yes, it's a fact. We have an innovation, as I mentioned earlier, the Safe 60, where you can incline your seat while being in a safe condition, and this is pretty new. This additional content is generating for us additional revenue and therefore additional margin.
Yeah, one addition you heard, we talk about partnership in various areas. In that, passive safety seating integration, we are partnering with Autoliv, so we have a very strong firm by our side to again, push and drive the trend there.
Thank you everyone in the room and offline. This is all the time we have for today. The floor is back to you, Martin.
Okay, that brings us to a final statement on time. That's really well appreciated. Maybe we can have the respective background here as well for a little summary. I think there's three key takeaways. We got you through the IGNITE story, and we spent quite some time in repetition, so I won't do that. The three statements that I want you to leave with from that conference here is: FORVIA's performance is improving very strict and strong manner, and 2025 was the first year to prove that. Second, in terms of portfolio, we are focusing on the most competitive assets where we have the strongest right to win, and that's where we want to scale, right? The third point, if you take that together, there is a clear path, a growth trajectory on sound financial footings. That's important, too.
Those are my three key takeaways for you for that day, and I want to thank all of you for being here, and I truly enjoyed our very active dialogue, where your questions were both financially oriented, but also very much strategy, and I hope we can drive that business forward together in that good sense. A big thank you to the FORVIA team, to the FORVIA team as a whole, for what was a powerful and effective year 2025, and then to all the thinkers and helpers who made that day possible. Great effort, but it was also utmost important for us to convey where we want to drive FORVIA to. Thanks to not only the speakers, everybody behind the curtain as well, you made it possible.
With this, everyone here in the room for lunch, you know the area by now. Thank everyone on the phone and on the screen as well. Thank you very much. See you for our next event.