Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this 2025 Annual Result Presentation. Thank you for joining either here in Levallois or remotely. I am pleased and honored to do this presentation for the first time as a Chief Executive Officer. You might have seen in our press release this morning that the board of director and the chairman here present in the room have entrusted me with the great mission to lead our company into the next phase of development. As many of you know, we have been shaping our company over generation with very strong family and engaged values, long-term commitment, financial discipline, and also a deep sense of ownership toward our stakeholders.
I'm pretty proud to be continuing this legacy in the years to come. I'm focused and determined to keep on executing our strategy, and I'm particularly pleased to present to you today a solid, very solid set of results, which I think are demonstrating the relevance of our strategy, the way to move forward, and the resilience of our company. Besides that, we are actively positioning our company on the future mobility hot topics, and there are many: electrification, digital, AI, competitiveness, you name it. A lot of challenges ahead, but a strong roadmap to go there.
I would like to do a special thank to the executive committee of OPmobility, who's here in the room today, and all of the OPmobility teams that are engaged in delivering this roadmap. Now, I will walk you through the result alongside Olivier Dabi, our CFO, and Stéphanie Laval, Investor Relations and co- Financial Communication, and also Strategy Planning. You now have the same person helping me building the strategy and explaining it to the market. Before jumping into the result, a bit of context on the market that you know is quite complex to apprehend today. More than ever, the regionalization and the pace of what is happening in between the region is growing and is diverging.
We still have Asia representing 50% of the market. The North American market still strong, in terms of demand, with a sizable consumer market, and Europe, that is having its own challenges. In that context, we are actively pursuing the diversification of our footprint and of our customers. Again, 2025 has been a year with some challenges, in terms of OEMs volumes and supply chain volatility. Still, the semiconductor, but other topics that somehow have impacted our customers. Again, we have shown resilience and flexibility, and demonstrating our capacity to adapt to that and taking the measures necessary in terms of cost reduction to sustain this pace.
2025 definitely has been a intense year in terms of geopolitical impact, starting with what happened on Liberation Day, back in April. Impacting the strategy of our customer and the dynamics of the footprint. We have leveraged our sizable footprint, 150 plants everywhere, this is providing us the balance to really be close to the customer and mitigate the impact of what can happen at each region. Besides that, the pace of technology and innovation also is a different approach by region. We can see a lot of topic on AI, autonomous driving and robotization coming out of Asia, and a lot around autonomous driving in the U.S.
We are getting closer with adapting our, again, our organization to be able to better understand the customer dynamics and their needs. Which is enabled us to make some great achievement for 2025. We took the commitment to improve all of our KPIs, and we did. We will come back to that, but we have reached all of our targets, which has enabled us to put in place still a very robust financial structure. Our debt, net debt to EBITDA decreased from 1.7 to 1.4. All of that demonstrating again, the solidity of our business model. Strong acceleration. 2025 was definitely an intense year in terms of movement for the North American market.
We have also initiated some strong initiative for Asia, I'll come back to that a bit later. We are happy that two-thirds of our order intake for 2025 is targeting region outside Europe. Which doesn't mean that we don't want to consolidate Europe, but we want to focus on the countries we're showing significant room for growth. Finally, we took the commitment for 2025 to be carbon neutral on Scope 1 and 2, which we have obtained. That including the lighting activities that we bought in 2022, which were not considered when we set up the target back in 2019. A bit of color on the activity by region. You can see Europe still representing half of our revenues.
In a market that slightly decreased, we have been happy to enjoy some growth, mainly in Western Eastern Europe countries led by Exterior and our Modules activity. North America represented 28% of our revenues. If you look at globally, you can see that OPmobility decreased by 1.5%. If you look at the reality by country, we grew 1.2% in the USA, while decreasing in Mexico, Canada by almost 5%. Obviously, the trade tariff has had an impact on the Mexican market, and slower ramp-ups and some delays have led us to that decrease in the region.
Almost 20% of our sales from Asia, again, with a bit of a different dynamics between China and Asia. We have grown in both region. In China, slightly less than the market, but still enjoying some growth, mainly coming from YFPO, while the C-Power activity was stable. A very solid growth in the rest of Asia, with exterior in India, C-Power in Thailand, and the module activity enjoying a very strong growth in Korea with JV SHB for electrification modules. It was also a year of strong launches, flawless launches, 144 launches.
You can see here the split, almost 50 launches in Europe, 23 in Americas, and 73 in Asia, with some of the key launches highlighted. We can talk about this U.S. EV player, which we cannot mention, for whom we are supplying big modules that have launched this year and that sustained the growth in the U.S.A., but also the Jeep Grand Wagoneer, to whom we're supplying our exterior parts. In Europe, quite important, we are supplying the MMA platform for Mercedes-Benz, and you can see here, notably for the CLA in Germany, which was awarded Car of the Year.
Also some key programs in the rest of Europe and in Asia. You can see some of the players, the BYD, Kia, Maruti Suzuki, which are all customer that are, I would say, enjoying a strong push and growth now in the years to come. Overall, coming back to this solid performance, I think this slide pretty much illustrated again, the solidity of how we engage and we deliver, execute our strategy roadmap. Looking back on the 3 years, 2023, 2024, 2025, so strong increase in operating margin, almost EUR 100 million plus of operating margin.
Strong increase in net result group share, from EUR 163 million to EUR 185 million, and that with our capacity to absorb all of the impact on foreign exchange and cost of borrowing and non-recurring costs, so impressive performance. Finally, free cash flow generation, which is definitely important and key for us, with almost reaching EUR 300 million for 2025. Very solid performance, I will let now Olivier get into the details of it.
Thank you, Félicie, good morning, everyone. In 2025, OPmobility posted very solid results, significantly improving versus 2024. This was achieved thanks to a very strong operational performance in our plant, as well as a strong grip on our cost and a decrease in our break-even point. On this slide, you have a snapshot of all the main KPIs of the group, starting with economic revenues, which amounted to EUR 11.5 billion. It is a 1.7% increase on a like-for-like basis versus 2024. The EBITDA amounted to EUR 1.001 billion. This is an 8% increase versus 2024. I want to highlight that this is the first time since 2019 that the group is able to exceed EUR 1 billion in EBITDA.
A substantial increase in operating margin amounting to EUR 490 million, a double digit versus 2024. A strong net result, EUR 185 million, increasing by 9% versus 2024. As far as cash and debt are concerned, the group posted a free cash flow of EUR 297 million, up an impressive 20% versus 2024. In line with our strategy of deleveraging, the debt was reduced in 2025 by EUR 167 million and amounted to EUR 1.4 billion. All in all, our 2025 metrics were achieved in line with the guidance that we gave last year and that we reiterated throughout the year. As Félicie highlighted, this is a testimony to a relevance of our strategy and the quality of its execution.
Let's now look at each of these KPI, starting by revenues. Revenues of 11.5 billion, increasing by 1.7% on a like-for-like basis, after taking into account EUR 300 million of negative Forex, with most currencies depreciating against the euro, mainly for OPmobility, the USD, and to a lesser extent, the KRW, the ARS, and the CNY. There was no scope effect in 2025. Looking at the performance of each of the business segment, starting by Exterior and Lighting. Exterior and Lighting posted sales of EUR 5.3 billion, fairly stable versus 2024, with two different trends.
Exterior continued to increase its sales, despite having less SOPs, less tuning and development activity than the year before, while Lighting continued to suffer from the poor order book prior to the acquisition. I am pleased to say that in 2025, Lighting was able to secure additional orders and should be back on the growth track in subsequent years. Modules was the fastest growing segment of OPmobility at EUR 3.6 billion of economic sales, posting an impressive close to 6% increase with sales in South Korea, as highlighted by Félicie, but in Europe as well. Finally, the Powertrain segment increased as well by 1.4% on a like-for-like basis at EUR 2.6 billion, with all its components increasing.
C-Power continued to have a very strong leadership in the fuel systems, strong market position, increased volumes in all geography, and benefiting as well from the slower electrification ramp-up and back to increase of hybrid volumes. Battery Pack continued to build its business model, and it will be highlighted shortly that OP won a major order very recently, while Hydrogen continued to build its order book and its portfolio. Let's now have a look on the impressive increase of operating margin. EUR 490 million, increasing by EUR 50 million in 2025, up 11.4%. That's a 60 basis points increase versus 2024 at 4.2%.
As Félicie highlighted, over the past two years, the group has been able to increase its operating margin by 1 point and by close to EUR 100 million. Looking at the key success factors of such operating margin increase, all the historical activities posted strong profitability with excellent operational execution. A word on the cost control initiatives that we accelerated and intensified in Q2 after the tariff announcement, and I will highlight two specific initiatives. Our SG&A decreased in 2025 by EUR 10 million. This is the second year in a row that the group is able to decrease its SG&A and fully absorb inflation, while we decrease our labor cost by 3%, amounting to 17% of revenues.
In the plant activity, OPmobility put in place efficient flexibility in order to adapt to volatile volumes. Looking at each of the business segments, starting by Exterior and Lighting. Exterior and Lighting posted an operating margin of 5.4%. This is an increase of 10 basis points versus last year, with a trend similar to what we have seen in revenues, i.e. Exterior posting very solid results, while Lighting is impacted by a decrease of sales. Moving on to Modules. Modules operating margin amounted to 2.7% in 2025, an increase of 50 basis points versus 2024. I want to highlight that over the past two years, the operating margins of Modules went from 1.6% in 2023 to 2.7% in 2025, going close to Modules run rate.
Module was able to grow, but to grow profitably, thanks to the quality of its order book, operational excellence, and as well, a strong focus on cost. Finally, Powertrain increased its operating margin by 30% at 5.5%. Our C-Power activity operating margin continued to be benchmark and best-in-class, while to a lesser extent, the Hydrogen business was also able to improve its result, thanks to a strong focus on cost reduction in order to adapt to the market. Let's now look at the bottom of the P&L with the net result. As I have stated, the EBITDA amounted to more than EUR 1 billion, back to its pre-COVID level, 9.8% of sales, almost 1 point increase compared to last year.
Very solid increase in operating margin of EUR 50 million that was able to more than offset the increase in other operating income and expenses. Every year, the group invest open eight, open nine % of its sales in competitiveness. Looking at the other operating income and expenses for the year, it mostly includes competitiveness action, reorganization, the merger of Exterior and Lighting Business Group, for instance, and a plant closure in Germany. Financial cost. The cost of debt of the group was down to 4% in 2025. The group was impacted by negative Forex. Our income tax amounted to EUR 79 million, our effective tax rate amount to 35%. That's 1 point below 2024.
The group was able to generate very solid net result group share of EUR 185 million, which represents 1.8% of sales. Let's now look at the free cash flow generation. Very strong free cash flow generation. This is a trademark of the group. Close to EUR 300 million at more than 20% versus 24, 2.9% of sales. Looking at the main components, our gross cash flow, i.e., the cash flow from operations, increased by 60 basis points, close to EUR 50 million, mostly coming from the EBITDA.
When we launched our cost-saving program in Q2, we also launched an initiative to preserve cash and set the objective of reducing the investments, 2024 investment of half a billion EUR, by 5%-10%, and we were able to decrease our investments by prioritizing by 11% at EUR 448 million. Our WCR remained fairly stable. 2024 was marked by an increase in our factoring programs, while they remained stable in 2025. After distribution of EUR 54 million of dividends to our shareholders and other items, mostly is leasing, our net debt at the end of 2025 stood at EUR 1.4 billion, a deleveraging of EUR 167 million. Let's now move to the financial structure and the debt maturity schedule. I'll start by commenting the leverage.
Two thousand and twenty-two was the year in which the group completed significant acquisitions in lighting, in electrification, buying out the last third of what was then HBPO, close to more than EUR 900 million of enterprise value that was put on the table by the group. As a result, our leverage increased to 1.9. As Félicie was stating, thanks to a strong financial discipline and cash flow generation, at the end of 2025, the group leverage stood at a reasonable 1.4. Looking at the debt maturity over the past 2 years, I remind you that the group has raised EUR 1.1 billion in public bond and private placement in order to restructure and reshuffle its debt maturity schedule.
As you can see on the right top side of the graph, the group does not have any major debt maturity schedule before 2029 and will be able to absorb, at constant perimeter, the maturities of 2027 and 2028 with its existing resources. One point on the bond issuance that we did in 2025, EUR 300 million oversubscribed by 11 times at a very competitive coupon of 4.3%. Finally, our liquidity remained extremely strong: EUR 2.5 billion, increasing by EUR 100 million compared to 2024, with EUR 600 million of cash and EUR 1.9 billion of credit line, with an average maturity of 4 years. I remind you that neither the debt nor the credit lines do carry any financial covenants in line with the group independence and discipline.
Finally, with the debt down year after year, stronger equity, EUR 2.1 billion at the end of 2025, logically, the gearing of the group reduced by 10 points at 66% and by 20 points compared to the peak of 2022 after the acquisitions. Overall, in 2026, the group can account on a very solid financial structure, reduced debt to pursue its long-term growth objectives. That concludes my 2025.
Thank you.
F inancial highlights. Félicie, back to you.
Thank you, Olivier. As you said, very sound and strong balance sheet, which will enable us to maneuver and develop for the years to come. We'll come back to that, but before that, Stéphanie will talk to us about the achievement in terms of sustainability.
Thank you, Félicie, good morning, everyone. If you remember well, in 2021, we set a key ambition to be carbon neutral on Scope 1 and 2. In 2025, we are carbon neutral on Scope 1 and 2 at group level, meaning including our lighting activities, we just acquired three years ago. It's a great achievement by the group. How do we succeed in achieving this carbon neutrality? First, by reducing our energy consumption. We have improved our energy efficiency by +19% compared to 2019, which is the year of reference. Second, we have increased the share of renewable energy with close to 40 sites that are equipped with solar panels and wind turbines. We have bought some power purchasing agreement to reach that level.
We are very proud of this achievement in 2025. We have also achieved a strong momentum on our Scope 3, upstream and downstream. Our energy consumption on Scope 3 have reduced by 37% compared to 2019, which is also the year of reference. Which is totally in line with the objective we have by 2030 of reaching -30%. We will continue, of course, to maintain our action on that scope in order to maintain that level while the activity will continue to progress in the year to come. At the end, we are still committed to reach and to be net zero in 2050. Moving to the ESG ratings and the significant progress we made in safety. You know that safety is really key in the company.
OPmobility stands as among the best and the leaders in its industry, as you can see on the left of the slide, with, for the third consecutive year, the A rating by the CDP Climate, as well as the B rating for the CDP Waters, which is really a remarkable achievement. The other ESG agencies also consider OPmobility as a leader in its industry, with a B minus compared to a C plus before with ESG, ESE, sorry, ESG rating. It is a prime status, which is only given to only 10% of the total companies. We maintain our double A rating in MSCI. Looking at the right of the slide on safety, which is very key for the company, we...
The FR2, which is the frequency rate, the accident frequency rate, we measure every year, reach a record level at 0.43. Totally and better than the target we had for this year at 0.5. What does it mean? It means that more than 80% of our sites published zero accident in 2025. We are benchmark in the automotive industry.
Not only obviously it is important for our people, but it's definitely also a level of performance. That's why we are really very cautious and focusing on that KPI. Now, moving to some strategic highlights, which I will explain with Stéphanie. Back to our strategy that is based on four pillars. I'll come back quickly. The first one, the technical, technological leadership and diversification, which we engaged with those acquisition already in 2022. And also we launched at the beginning of 2025, the One for You integrated product, and I'll come back to that with some significant milestone that we have reached again in the year.
The geographical diversification, I mentioned it earlier, 2/3 of our orders last year were to capture growth outside Europe, and we'll keep on doing that. 2025 was very much North American-oriented and will push forward with Asia. In terms of customer portfolio, I would say the market is pretty shaky in terms of dynamics, customer dynamics. We saw newcomers taking quite a big share of the growth and some others repositioning. We are adapting to that new reality and making sure that we adapt our own customer portfolio to this dynamic. Finally, expanding beyond automotive.
Yes, historically, the passenger car market has been our home market, but we want, we are pushing to expand beyond automotive. That is, for sure, smaller in terms of volume, but where we believe we can grow faster in terms of value content. You know, we have two big segment now in terms of product portfolio. The first one, which are the exterior solution. Back to my comment on the One for You, where we believe we can provide some more disruptive products and module to our customer, depending on the level of integration.
As I said earlier, we launched that back early 2025, and we got 10 significant awards, which is been quite effective first year of our rolling out this product offer. We secured those programs in the 3 region.
You have, we have one that is pretty important, that we have secured with one of our historic European customer, which SOP will be in 2028, and that will enable us to mobilize our footprint in Spain and in Morocco on all the three products: so bumpers, lighting, and the integration of that. You know, it brings weight saving, it increase our content per car. It provides the OEM the flexibility to come up with some more original and innovative design. Obviously, the integration of that enables us to be more efficient in terms of developing the product. We will keep on pushing, this product line, which we believe has strong potential.
On the Powertrain, which is the other segment, we are capable of supplying all products, so fuel tank, Battery Pack, and Hydrogen. Fuel system, we keep on pushing our last man standing strategy, consolidating the market. We have 23% of the market and still aiming by 2030 to have 30%. Obviously, the slowdown of electrification will impact positively the length of the development of this activity. We are also benefiting from the increasing demand on the PHEV EREV segment, where we believe we can grow from 9% to 15% on this market. We took 10% of our order intake on for those solution. Battery Pack, we announced that last week.
We won a major award for a European OEM in the U.S. We will supply 1 million units over the lifetime of the contract. This is a key milestone that is confirming the relevance of the acquisition that we've made in 2022 of ACTIA Power, which was more on the heavy-duty market, but now shifting to the passenger car. Finally, Hydrogen, we have a pretty unique portfolio in terms of a certified vessel compared to what is available on the market. We have capacities in place.
We are acknowledging the delay of the market and focusing, refocusing all of the efforts on Asia, where the market is definitely shifting, and where we have secured the new orders, but also to serve the European market from there.
Moving to the second pillar, which is a geographical pillar. As previously mentioned, starting with Europe, which is our main market today, we would like definitely to consolidate our leading position there. We can rely on our solid industrial footprint and the leadership of our historical businesses within this region. We would like, of course, thanks to this asset, to accelerate with notably the Chinese OEM that are coming into Europe, and I will come back on that later on.
We are fully in line with that strategy. We would like to rebalance, of course, our geographical footprint. That's the reason why we had, in 2025, a strong focus on North America. I remind you that the U.S. is the first market for the groups. It's been now 2 years. We have integrated a new headquarter, gathering all the Business Groups in Troy. It was end of 2025, it means that we are fully committed to accelerate in this region. Our ambition in the U.S. remain the same, meaning that we want to double the sales by 2030, with, of course, leveraging on our existing footprint, but also we will gain new, of course, awards supporting the OEMs that would like to expand in the U.S. in the context of the tariffs.
Moving to Asia, where we have strong, of course, ambition, 2026 will be a year with a strong focus in Asia, starting with China. China, today, we have a strong positioning, thanks to our YFPO, you know, our JV with Yanfeng, that belongs to the SAIC group. It's a leading position, you know, in the exterior parts, with YFPO equipping one car out of five, you know, in China with exterior parts, so meaning bumpers and tailgates. We want to, of course, go a little bit further, that's the reason why we have announced end of 2025 that we have the ambition to expand the activities of YFPO to Modules and decorative lighting.
It will, of course, let us grow in this market and accelerate our exposure to the Chinese OEM. Today, the Chinese OEM in China represent roughly 40% of our revenue and 2/3 of our order intake. We are very well positioned to accelerate in China. Last but not least, I will make a focus on India. India, where the group operates for many years now, we have 5 operational plans. The last one, we inaugurated, you know, end of 2025, which is quite unique in the market because it gathers the exterior activity as well as the C-Power activity.
We have strong ambition there also to more than double the sales in India. To help that, we have 6 plant that is under construction for the C-Power in Karkala. You know, we are expanding in all the market, consolidating in Europe, and have strong ambition both in America and in Asia. I was mentioning the expansion of the YFPO JV we had. We announced end of 2025 that we will expand this JV. We expect to finalize the deal before the summer this year, so you will have this first impact in 2026, in H2 2026.
It will definitely strengthen our presence in China, where the group already have 10% of its revenue today, but it will should increase in the coming years. Moving to the third pillar of our strategy, which is our portfolio and expansion of our portfolio in all our mobilities. You can see on the slide the top 10 customers we have on the left, you already know them, but we are expanding with them, as well as with the winning customers that you can see in India, but also in China. You know that the group is, of course, focusing on accelerating beyond automotive in railway, in self-driving, in off-road mobility. Just a quick focus on our expansion and supporting the Chinese OEM in their international expansion.
You know that we have signed a contract with Chery to, of course, to support them in their expansion, both in Spain and in Brazil. It's clearly the intention of the group to be to work with the Chinese OEM in China, but also outside China. You can see on the slide that we have signed other awards with other Chinese OEM, both in Spain and in Malaysia. We are definitely supporting them, the Chinese OEM, in China and outside China.
Thank you, Stéphanie. A quick update on some of the key priorities we have engaged, that we are active on. We announced early January the signature of MoU to potentially acquire the lighting activity of the Hyundai Mobis company. This MoU is in place. We are hoping to have a signing by mid of the year and potential closing of the transaction by end of the year. This transaction will be significant because it fits to our strategy. It's addressing one of the leading OEM, which today only represent 5% of our sales.
It's in Asia, and it will accelerate the development of our lighting activity, which we never hide, that we were first focusing on the organic growth, but also looking at some potential addition when it would make sense. We believe here clearly, this deal would make sense to develop and grow our lighting business to the next level. We are also focusing on innovation. I won't come back on this. Yes, we are having many different type of initiative, and I think what is also important is that we are the AI, obviously, is a hot topic, and most importantly now, with and shaking a lot of the financial markets.
We are looking at opportunities that we can embark, either on processes or on products, that can help us to either propose something different to the customer, which is the case of ARI, which is a 3D printed carbon fiber Battery Pack, that we are proposing and developing with these startups. And I'll come back to that, which is one of the key initiative, how to be faster in terms of simulation, which is the Neural Concept projects that is ongoing. That makes a good transition with what will be key for us this year. It's improving again our competitiveness, but engaging in medium, long term initiative to have a sustainable competitiveness. Here you have 3 initiatives among others that we have.
The first one, which is how to be more efficient in terms of development and R&D costs. We want to reduce our hours by 30%, that goes obviously by decreasing the hourly rate and expanding our footprint in base cost countries. We are also repositioning the organization on some back office topics like HR, digital NIS, and finance. We have today 5 hubs in base cost countries again. We are, we have mutualized 500 people so far, which is two third of our ambition on this specific topic. Again, on the supply chain, we have launched a new tool that should help us to decrease our transportation cost by 10%.
We have launched that in Mexico, that should be rolled out throughout the group. We also have some other automation initiative. We would like to have more AGVs and improve the level of automation of our plants. All of that are our transversal approach, as we want to have benchmark practices that can be deployed throughout all BGs. Strong push on that for 2026. Based on the results of 2025, we will propose to the next general assembly in April 2026, a dividend per share of EUR 0.45, which is EUR 0.49, sorry, which represents 37.7% in terms of payout, which is again an increase versus 2023.
2024 was an exceptional year, given there was an interim dividend that was made. In terms of outlook and perspective, I mean, I won't come back on all the strategy, but it remains the same. We believe that we have the good model to be able to project ourself again in improving all the KPIs for 2026 on the operating margin, on the net result, on the free cash flow, and on the net debt. I would conclude this presentation before taking your questions by saying again that we have a very solid and robust 2024 year, with very strong financial metrics, again, accelerating on all the front of our strategy.
We believe we are well positioned to really address the challenges of the market. 2026 will be a transition year in many aspects. The market is projected to be flat, to be stable. Still, in that context, we believe we can deliver a solid performance again in 2026. Thank you very much. Happy to take questions. Thomas, first question.
Good morning. Thank you very much. It's Thomas at Kepler Cheuvreux. I have a lot of questions, as usual. I'll start with the easy one, financial questions. First, can you comment on the diverging trends for Powertrain and the Exterior and Lighting margin trend in H2? So, Exterior and Lighting actually was strong, improving. Powertrain was weaker. Can you explain why the seasonality is this way for these two businesses? Whether there was anything affecting them differently in the second half?
Thank you, Thomas, for the question. There was no significant deviation in profitability between S1 and S2. Both Exterior and C-Power posted very solid profitability, both in S1 and S2. In S1, we did EUR 260 million of operating margin. In S2, we did EUR 230 million operating margin, with slightly lower sales in S2.
With the seasonality, usual seasonality.
There, there's no there's no trend of having margin reduced in any of the two businesses.
Thank you. Can you give us some indications about CapEx trend in 2026? I mean, you've cut CapEx by 11%, so a lot less in H2 than H1. Should we assume a CapEx ratio above 4.5%, between 4.5% and 5%, or an absolute level of CapEx that goes up a bit in 2026 to prepare growth ahead, or?
I'll continue on the financial questions. Like you said, 25, we reduced CapEx to 4.4% of sales. We have a capital allocation framework that we discussed already, in which CapEx are around 5%. This will be the level that we will reach in 2026. We will still improve free cash flow.
Thank you very much. I'll move to more general question. I mean, I notice that you reframed, like last year, to guide for higher revenues. I'd like you to discuss, if possible, the organic revenue dynamic for the group, in 2026. What, what we should expect, by division, by region, by clients, at least, general, qualitative comments. Could you, in particular, put a focus on what we should expect, in the U.S. and India, as you're aiming for very substantial growth to 2030? Is it something that starts in 2026, or that we should expect more in 2027 and beyond? One specific project I'd like you to say something about, even if I think it's difficult, it's the robotaxi project.
Yes.
I think it just started.
In 2 months.
In two months. Just starting so, remind us your exposure to that. Thank you very much. I have one more after that.
On the revenues, 2026 will be stable versus 2025 in terms of sales. The market dynamic for 2026 is what it is, stable, with the big difference versus 2025 being the Chinese market, that will be significantly down. Obviously, there are some different plus and minuses within each BG, but all in all, you should consider that sales will be stable. In terms of the rebound, and all of the, I would say, the deployment of the order intake that we have embarked, should more start impacting 2027.
We obviously, within HBPO, namely the module activity, will show significant growth with topics like the robotaxi that will kick in in 2 months' time. On that, there are a lot of different assumptions, obviously. Some are more bullish than others. Our customer is pretty positive about the development of the sales, and we are too. Anyway, we are engaged in such a relationship that we'll find ways to adapt, and we are showing flexibility, obviously, to adapt to the change in volumes. It's an important lever for them to grow in the years to come.
You're fairly exposed to that product as well, in terms of revenue per cap? Yep. Thank you.
In the USA.
Last question on lighting. Two aspects about this question. Can you give us an idea of the magnitude of the revenues in 2025 and how they developed organically, and the level of operating loss in 25 versus 24, and whether we should expect this business to grow organically in 26 and reach breakeven in 26? The first part of that question on lighting. The second part is about the business you're looking at. Can you share with us some details, financial details about the Hyundai Mobis activities? You're talking about taking a controlling stake.
Yeah.
Would that mean, you'd have a JV with Hyundai Mobis? Can you just give us an idea of the magnitude of the financial implication for OP and whether this is something you can finance organically with the existing liquidity, or is it the share count would not be affected by this transaction?
On the lighting, on this project, in terms of sale, it's EUR 1 billion plus. It's five plants, two in Korea, one in China, one in Mexico, and one in Czech Republic, which will be a good complementarity footprint with ours. It's a profitable business, so having a positive impact on our business. The JV consideration obviously is still ongoing in terms of discussion. It's an important step for us to develop and build a relationship with this customer, because and more than 90% of the sales of this business is with the Korean OEM.
It's, I would say, a positive approach on both sides to make sure that it's a secured transaction, given it's a carve-out that has to be operated by the seller. It will be a majority stake, still to be defined how much. Given the size of the business and its financial profile, which unfortunately I cannot detail, but we have the sufficient financial means to do this acquisition without a specific deployment of... to be done. Obviously, that, together with our Lighting business, will make it a more sizable overall global business. We would more than double our market share with that move. Today, the Lighting activity is still suffering.
You mentioned the low order intake from the past. It's not only that, huh? It's the market situation itself. We are accumulating, I would say both burdens. The level of sales is in 2025, lower than what we thought. We have a lot of SOPs to come this year. We should have a quite significant improve in terms of profitability in 2026, that will accelerate in between H1 and H2.
Breakeven in 26 is something credible for these activities organically?
Sorry?
Breakeven for the existing lighting business should be achieved in 2026?
We are on the path to improve significantly by the end of this year.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Any other questions?
If you wish to ask a question, please dial the pound key followed by five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. The next question comes from Michael Foundoukidis from Oddo BHF. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Michael Foundoukidis from Oddo BHF. Also a couple of questions. I will ask them one by one. Maybe the first one, you highlight in the press release that the full year 2025 margin performance was particularly notable in Q4. Could you explain us a bit in more detail what were the Q1 offs versus structural drivers, and how much of that, let's say, Q4 run rate should we consider sustainable into 2026? That's the first question.
Maybe one point, and then you can add. Obviously, we mentioned a lot of volatility throughout the year, and obviously a lot of the topics that we are negotiating throughout the years in terms of compensation happens by the end of the year. That's one of the reason of this impact in Q4.
Yeah, I would say in S2, we did EUR 15 million more operating margin than in S2, 2024, and it was a combination of indeed, discussion with customers and cost-saving initiatives that we put in place.
Thanks. Second question. When we look at your launches in 2025, Asia represented more than 50% of the group launches. Of course, it does not tell a clear picture in terms of implied volumes and revenues. Still, what does it mean for 2026 revenues in the region? Should we expect a significant acceleration in Asia and the region growing clearly above, let's say, the 20% threshold of group revenues?
The value per car in Asia is, in general, lower than in the rest of the world. Obviously, the growth will materialize and will start to impact, again, generally speaking, 2026 will be stable and you should expect the rebound to come afterwards.
Thanks. Maybe on North America, do you expect the trends that we've seen in 2025 to continue into this year, namely, outperformance in the U.S. alongside, let's say, weaker dynamics in Mexico and Canada? More broadly, how do you see OPmobility in the context of potential OEM reshoring in the U.S.? Do you believe that your strategic footprint, and industrial footprint, of course, would allow you to benefit and is sufficient in this respect? Thank you.
Um, so, so yes, we, we believe, uh, that, uh, we will continue to entertain, uh, uh, a, a good growth in, in this market, which is why we are investing, and we are projecting our, uh, sales to, to double in, in the region. Um, and, uh, indeed, all of what is happening, uh, is impacting the, the strategy footprint, uh, of, of the customer. Uh, and that's the... The benefit of, uh, having a sizable footprint in the region is that we are able to size some of the new opportunities coming out and to rebalance, uh, in between our plans, uh, should the, the OEM, um, propose us to, to, to localize and, and need our support. So i- indeed.
Okay, thanks. Maybe a follow-up to Thomas' question on the lighting segment and more generally about the lighting business overall. It seems more competitive than it has been historically with Chinese players also growing in that field. What's your take on that, both in China and outside of China? Maybe from a product standpoint, do you think that the integrated offer that you again highlighted in the presentation is sufficient to differentiate you versus those peers?
business is a much more fragmented business versus the other activities that we have. But we believe that the footprint we have and the technology we have makes us more agile versus some of the big players that are more anchored in Europe and in more mature markets. We can be more agile by delivering from this footprint. And obviously, with this transaction of Hyundai Mobis on the lighting activities, that will definitely accelerate this evolution. Yes, the technology itself is changing a lot
Finally, being a player entering now with a footprint that we can adapt and being more agile, I think it can make the difference. A difference per se on the product itself, the lighting, but also when it comes to the One for You, where we are very few players to be able to offer the integration of lighting in big, bigger parts, bigger modules.
Thanks. Maybe as last questions, a couple of follow-ups, more financials. First, on the revenues, following your comment that stable sales would be relatively stable this year. Is this organic or reported? Meaning that there's probably FX headwinds. Just to be sure on what you meant by that. Second questions, would you say that all divisions should again improve their margin performance in 2026 versus 2025?
On the top line, yes, it's without, it's as is, it's scope as is. Whatever the no foreign exchange, no perimeter. Sorry, the last question was? The second question was? Improvement of all.
Yes.
The performance of all BGs, yes.
Okay. Thank you very much. Congrats again for this performance.
The next question comes from Ross MacDonald from Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, it's Ross MacDonald at Citi. I think only a few remaining questions from my side. On the financials, firstly, can you maybe talk about the tax rate in 2026? Should we expect that to be stable at 35%?
Yes. Tax rate should remain stable at 35% in 2026. We aim to improve it a little bit, but it should stay within this ballpark.
Understood. Secondly, on the free cash flow, some of your peers in 2025 benefited from some working capital release. Obviously, that hasn't been the case at OPmobility. For 2026 free cash flow generation, you've touched on the investment spend. Obviously, the operating performance should be a small tailwind to free cash flow. How should we think about working capital in 2026? Should we expect no further benefits or tailwinds from working capital release this year?
As you say, we'll increase the investments, and since we plan to increase our free cash flow, it will be financed by both an increase in operations, i.e., the gross cash flow, and an improvement in WCR, notably inventory management and payment terms on which we have a dedicated initiative.
That's clear. Thank you. Two slightly more strategic questions. Firstly, on the fuel tank market share, good to see that moving up at 23% now. I think it was 21% at the CMD in 2022. Obviously, at the current pace of share gains, you know, slightly below the 30% target. Can you maybe talk around when these market share gains in C-Power will accelerate? Is that really quite back-end loaded in this decade, or should we see that accelerate maybe in 2026?
Yes, you're correct, Ross. The market share in C-Power has increased from 21% to 23% in 2025. We were in 22% last year, we are really on track with the target we have of 30% by 2030. If you look at the mix, geographical mix, you know, we'll continue to accelerate in North America, especially. We'll have a different mix between regions, it will also participate to the increase in the market share we have. We consolidate in the markets, you know, where players, some players you know are decreasing, even disappearing. We are still consolidating our position in this market, and it will continue to reach the level of 30% of market share by 2030.
Thanks, Stéphanie. Moving to the beyond automotive comments. Quite interesting, a number of suppliers talking about looking beyond, like, vehicle production into some commercial vehicle, et cetera, end markets. Can you maybe speak to whether that opportunity is specific to one division, or if there's a division within the group that lends itself best to growth beyond automotive? You know, really interesting, if you can maybe give some midterm aspirations around revenue contribution from those activities.
Yeah, today, the beyond automotive only represent 1% of our sales, it's pretty much focused on what is linked to the electrification, i.e., the battery packs and H2 activity, we are addressing the EV mobility with trucks, buses and small fleets. That we will keep on growing. We are also. I mean, when we think about beyond automotive, coming back to the question on the robotaxi, we do see a lot of movement on this market and that we believe will grow in the future. There is one player with whom we are today engaged, but we are also in discussion with others.
We believe that should be part of what we call also the beyond automotive, because the business model there will be pretty different from from our conventional market, I would say.
Thank you. Final question. Appreciate you can't give the numbers on the balance sheet impacts from the M&A you announced recently with Hyundai Mobis. Can you maybe reassure investors, just given that the last acquisition in lighting obviously had some execution headaches around the order bank? How should we think about the order bank in that business, and, you know, would it be fair to assume that, you know, that there should be much more stable, instant contribution to revenues without that sort of a decline that we saw with Varroc? Thank you.
I mean, the situation is totally, it's not comparable. Back in the days, I mean, the first acquisition we've made, clearly the situation in which the business was very different. It was a depressed business. Now, what we are considering here, it's a very sizable business with one leading OEM, more than 90% of its sales engaged with that. Back to the JV topic, it's about how to further engage and set a stable relationship with that customer, and also use that as a lever to grow beyond lighting with that customer. Those are very different, two very different objects.
That's very clear. Maybe if I can sneak one quick final one in. Obviously, the dividend has come down. I understand why, given the very high starting point. With this M&A objective, how do you think about the dividend going forward? Is the objective to hold it at least at the current level going forward?
Sorry, I, can you repeat? The sound is not very good.
Apologies. It was just on the dividend. Obviously, given the balance sheet impacts from this deal, how should we think about the dividend going forward? Would your objective or mission be to try and defend this EUR 0.49 dividend in 2026?
I mean, irrespective of our strategy, we always have a policy of serving dividend to the shareholders, so that should, remain the case.
Thanks very much. Nothing else from my end.
I think there-
The next question comes from José Asumendi from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Good morning, this is José Asumendi.
Good morning.
A couple of questions. Good morning. Just a couple of questions, please. Can you talk about the opportunities to grow with Chinese OEMs in Europe, provide more content with new contracts, or LATAM or any other region that you consider appropriate to comment? Second, can you provide a bit more color regards to the lighting division? Then where do you see the growth coming from in 2026? If you could just provide a bit more details, either by region or by customer. It looks like you've done the cost-cutting necessary to reposition the business model. Growth needs to drive the margins going forward.
Final one, are you expecting to benefit from growth in the US and particularly focused on Stellantis, where production is going to be up quite sharply in Q1 and first half 2026? Do you have the strong content with Stellantis, and do you see that also as a benefit in the first half of the year? Thank you.
I think your first question was on the Chinese OEM outside China. Indeed, we are really leveraging the relationship and the footprint that we have in China to accompany them whenever they want in Europe. We have a lot of interaction and also because, you know, China now is clearly on the innovation side, investing for China, but for elsewhere. We really focus on growing the relationship beyond our YFPO JV , also in the other product lines, to be able to serve them elsewhere.
Today, I think part of the challenge is that Europe has not yet defined its strategy in terms of the tariffs and the local content. There are still some OEMs that are wondering whether they will invest. Logically, we should be there where they want to invest at some point. For sure, whether it will be Western Europe or Eastern Europe, we have the footprint right there to support them. On the lighting activity, as we commented, unfortunately, 2025 was a low point in terms of sales, but we've been now for 3 years in a row. Again, we will have a sizable order intake in the lighting activity.
That order intake will start to materialize, and the SOPs are ramping up this year. Back to your point of your question on Stellantis, we actually have a quite strong activity with them in the Lighting and in North America, in general, but and also on the different One for You topics that we discussed earlier.
Thank you very much.
I think we're good. We don't have-
There are no more questions.
Okay.
I will now hand the conference back to the speakers for the closing comments.
Thank you very much for your time. It was a long session, but it was our pleasure to present to you this, those solid results and looking forward to the next meeting. Thank you.