Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Aumovio SE pre-close call fiscal year 2025. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions shortly. If you wish to ask a question, please press nine followed by the star key on your telephone keypad. If you wish to cancel your question again, please press three followed by the star key. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Lutz Ackermann.
Yeah, thank you, operator, and good evening to all of you. This is Lutz Ackermann speaking. On behalf of Aumovio SE, I wish you a very warm welcome to today's pre-close call ahead of our fiscal year reporting 2025 on 18th of March and the quiet period which begins on February 16th. This call is intended for sell-side and buy-side participants. If you do not belong to either group, we kindly ask you to disconnect now. Today's call is designed to ensure all market participants have equal access to the latest publicly available information regarding Aumovio's performance. The key points we discuss are also available, available in our reference sheet, which we just published on the IR section of our homepage. As we are closing the fiscal year 2025, I'd like to highlight the achievements that Aumovio has made since the successful listing in September.
We made progress in advancing our transformation, strengthening the performance culture, and increasing the agility of the company. Inclusion in the MDAX marked an important milestone end of December. We take this progress as a starting point and look ahead with confidence as we continue to develop Aumovio with the aim of realizing the company's value creation potential. Starting with the market environment. According to our latest market intelligence and external data providers, global light vehicle production saw a slight increase by 1% in the fourth quarter. However, there are differences from a regional perspective. While Europe and North America declined by 1.4% and 0.5% respectively, China continued to grow by over 3%. As Europe still represents close to 50% and North America close to a quarter of our group sales, sales development was impacted by the regional trend of each region.
Additionally, we remain committed to pursuing only those projects that contribute positively to our midterm profitability targets. We already mentioned at our nine-month reporting that the build-to-print business in A&S, which we wound down and that had a negative sales effect in 2025 versus the prior year. Contract manufacturing, which we will largely phase out in 2026, also had a negative sales effect in 2025. Portfolio effects, as reported before, were the divestments of Cairo Montenotte and Lohmar, which also had a negative impact on sales year-over-year. Currency effects were largely dominated by a stronger euro and had a negative impact on the sales development year-over-year as well. Overall, the sales development in the fourth quarter is well reflected by our current guidance for sales in fiscal year 2025 from 18th to 19th of the year.
On the earnings side, our continued focus on self-help matters, to which I will come back later again, contributed also positively to the earnings developments in the fourth quarter. As a reminder, the year-end quarter is always the strongest from a seasonality perspective, as it includes the majority of customer reimbursements. After standing at 2.9% adjusted EBIT margin for the first nine months of 2025, the current outlook is to reach the upper end of the guidance range from 2.5%-4%. Implicitly, that means the year-end quarter was again seasonally the strongest. The impact from tariffs remains limited due to our high share of USMCA-compliant imports. We are continuously working on sustainable solutions with our customers and expect to recoup the tariff burden over time. We do not expect major impacts on our business results.
Free cash flow generation is a high priority at Aumovio, and we consistently stated out our ambition to achieve a positive adjusted free cash flow in 2025. In this context, let me remind you of the roughly mid-three-digit EUR million amount in cash-effective one-off costs for restructuring and spinoff that we had to absorb in 2025. Excluding these one-time effects, you can already see the underlying cash generation potential of Aumovio at this stage of the transformation phase. With regard to this, I would like to draw your attention to the latest update on our transformation process from January 27th, in which we announced additional measures to strengthen the competitiveness of our global research and development activities. These measures include a reduction of up to 4,000 headcount worldwide, which is expected to be largely completed by the end of 2026, subject to negotiations with works councils.
By focusing our R&D spending on value-creating technologies, expanding development partnerships, and implementing further efficiency measures, we are reaffirming our goal of reducing the R&D-to-sales ratio to below 10% by 2027. The measures will primarily affect Aumovio locations in India, Singapore, Romania, Serbia, Germany, and Mexico. For our site in Germany, we anticipate a need to reduce positions in the high triple-digit range. I would also like to remind you of our announcement from February 18th, 2025, so pretty much a year ago, regarding our transformation program. At that time, we communicated a reduction of around 3,000 R&D positions worldwide to be completed by the end of 2026, with less than half of these reductions taking place in Germany. To put both announcements into perspective, there is no overlap between the two measures.
From the 84,500 employees at the end of the third quarter, it is a fair assumption that the reduction of roughly 800 employees per month, which has been announced at our Capital Markets Day last year, has continued until the end of 2025. For the new R&D announcement, we have not yet disclosed the financial impact, as we are only entering negotiations with the employee representatives. The cost savings expected for 2026 will depend on how quickly the programs will be executed. As a result, we will not yet see the full effect of savings in 2026. Most of the savings will materialize in the following years. The fact that part of the reduction involves employees in best-cost countries also affects both the level of achievable savings and the associated cash outflow. Overall, we are taking strong and decisive steps to improve the robustness of the company's profile.
We are bringing R&D spending down to a competitive level and further streamlining our global footprint. We are gradually shifting production to best-cost countries and building a financially resilient company. As a result, we are becoming a leaner, more efficient, and performance-oriented company. Now, let me please give you an update on how we see the current trading conditions regarding price increases in raw materials and memory products. We have observed significant price increases in raw materials relevant for Aumovio, including steel, aluminum, copper, and silver. However, for most of these materials, we have sustainable solutions with our customers to cover such increases, for example, by indexation agreements. We are confident that these mechanisms will allow a fair cost sharing. While we're able to realize efficiency gains across a significant portion of the product procurement portfolio, prices for memories, including DRAM and NAND, particularly have risen sharply.
Importantly, we have already secured volumes and, to a large extent, also prices for 2026, and we continue to address these effects, amongst others, by adjusting our pricing structure to reflect market conditions. Overall, we consider the situation manageable. Looking ahead into 2026, we have already indicated that the earnings momentum is expected to come more from cost efficiencies and margin improvement potential than from top-line growth. That concludes my prepared remarks for today, and now I'm happy to take your questions. Please limit yourself to two questions so that we can ensure everyone has a chance to participate.
Thank you very much. Dear ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and the star key now to enter the queue. I repeat, the combination is nine star. If you wish to cancel your question again, please press three and star then, but for now, please press nine star. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from Christoph Laskawi of Deutsche Bank. Over to you, please.
Hi, good evening. I hope you can hear me okay. Hi, Lutz. Thanks for taking my questions.
Hi.
The first one will be just on the communication of the guidance, on the high end of the range. Would that mean basically at the high end or towards the high end, and the latter being sort of like a 3.7%-4% range? The second question will be just in terms of building blocks for 2026, what you've shared so far in the meetings more recently, and also, would it be fair to assume that you need to take a provision of, call it, EUR 150 million for the foreign, 4,000 people that you look to restructure and roughly a similar amount just spread over a couple of years in terms of cash out, for that program? Thank you.
Yeah, thank you so much, Christoph. So with regard to guidance, it's clearly that we stated to come out at the upper end of the guidance range, and I think, pretty much that what we have seen in the fourth quarter should be in line with that. So I think, nothing more to say about that. So it's basically in line with the expectations. And if it comes down to the restructuring cash outs that we have, for sure we announced so far for the old program, so to say, that we see a restructuring cash out of EUR 150 million in 2026. I mean, with the additional measures that we have announced now, it's clear that there will, yeah, some more restructuring cash out comes on top.
We have not yet laid out how much that will be, but of course, that number will be a bit higher. Will it be higher than the restructuring cash out we have seen in 2025? That has to be seen, but, yeah, it will be probably a bit higher than the number we disclosed so far.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Then we are moving on to the next question. The next question is from José Asumendi of JP Morgan. Please, over to you.
Hello. Thank you for taking time. Just a couple of questions. The first one, have you provided any additional comments in the past weeks with regards to the cost-cutting actions that could be implemented in the near term to improve the profitability of UAX and—and AM? And then second, out of the, I think 3,000 workers, I think you mentioned, by the end of 2026 in R&D positions, how much of those 3,000 workers have already been laid off, and how much is—how much is left? Thank you.
Yeah, maybe starting with the last question that you had. So, I mean, to be very clear, both announced programs that we have I mean, last year we announced a program pretty much a year ago and now as well. So these are two programs which are independently from each other. I think with regard to the reduction, the only thing that I can say is basically that we had, on if you take an average, you had per month roughly a reduction of 800 headcount, and I think that gives a good idea of how this rate has, yeah, developed into the end of 2025. And also, if you look into 2026 and beyond, I think that gives you some kind of an indication. It's always a question of how quickly we ramp up.
This is why it's difficult to give you an exact timing and an exact number of reduction per month, per year, but I think the run rate I just spoke about is basically the best thing you can think of. If it comes to the reduction that we announced, it's basically across all units that we have, for sure. You have some areas where you have per se, or by definition, a higher share of R&D people allocated, but it's basically across all of the units.
Thank you.
Perfect. Thank you so much. In the meantime, a little reminder, dear ladies and gentlemen, nine and the star key is the combination to submit a question. Moving on, the next question is from Horst Schneider, Bank of America. Please, over to you.
Yeah, thank you for taking my questions too. I want to get back what you said on, the chip prices, DRAM prices, and that you have got pass-through clauses, and you can pass it on partially, you said, I think. So that means that you need to carry part of the costs, or is there really an automatic pass-through, or basically every, I don't know, contract needs to be negotiated? That's what we know from the years 2023, 2024, which meant in the end that you could pass on large part of the cost, but of course, then we had a very weak H1 versus a strong H2. Is that something we should expect also then for 2026? So some more color on that would be great.
Yeah. So basically, I mean, what I said is that we have covered all the volumes and the prices to a very high extent. I mean, the question is always, what point in time do you take? I mean, what are we talking about? I mean, is it like, to which point in time in the year we have fixed those prices? And that's always a question. So I think, first of all, on the volume side, that's very positive for us, and we are aiming for everything of it. I mean, but that's the normal course of the business. If it comes to compensation of those costs, of those higher costs that you face, you always go for the whole increase. Yeah, so that's the normal course of the business.
I mean, we have seen that also we're in the over the last years, and that's always something that you have to negotiate with. So you look into approach your customers and try to, yeah, to compensate as much as you can. And I think we have been quite successfully in that. It may have a timing effect, but overall, we have been quite successful in doing so, and this is the same as we expected this time.
Mm-hmm. I don't know if that goes too far, my question, but I nevertheless, I try. If you could maybe quantify your chip purchase volumes, per annum, what part of that is DRAM, and to what extent you see market prices moving up? I just try.
Yeah. Yeah, sure. I mean, one reference that I can give you, and I think you all are aware of, let's say, the top 10 purchases of DRAM. If you look into the S&P study that is paid basically, of which you're aware, you can see that Aumovio is not amongst the top 10 purchases of DRAM. So I think that's basically what you can see. For sure, there's a certain exposure, but again, it's the impact that we may face is also depending on what time you're looking at. I mean, if it's like the status quo or the pricing from a point in time, which was earlier, it's a little depending on that. So this is why I'm shy of quantifying that effect, yeah.
Yeah, okay. Then more housekeeping item. That's the last one from my side. You talked about special items. I think you only talked about full year. I don't know, some guidance on Q4. Not sure if I missed that, and you mentioned that. If yes, sorry, but if you've got more details.
Yeah. I mean, what I wanted to make clear is that we are streamlining the portfolio, on a daily basis, and we are very much focused on only continuing projects on which we earn money and, where the margins are in that regard, where we want to see them. So, there's just always a bit of a difficulty to announce that in advance. It's more also of the cases that you look into that you afterwards can say, "Okay, these are the projects that we have stopped," or "These are the projects that we have worn down." And when we have the reporting, we will give you some, a clearer picture on that, how much of the projects we have stopped, and not continued.
Okay. No worries. Thank you.
Perfect. Thank you very much also from my side. At the moment, there are no more questions in the queue, so last call, dear ladies and gentlemen, please press nine star if you have a question or a follow-up question. All right. A question from Vanessa Jeffriess, from Jefferies.
Hello. Thanks so much for taking my questions. I was just wondering, on the fourth quarter, was all the compensation you received just normal R&D in the normal course of business, or was there any kind of compensation for cancelled programs in the U.S.?
I think what I can say is that overall, if you look into reimbursements, you know that the fourth quarter is always the quarter where you see most of them, and this determines also the seasonality that you have throughout the year. I think I made earlier also the statement that in 2025 it should not have been different compared to years before. The pattern is basically as it was in the year before.
Okay. Thanks. So you're not expecting any of that compensation in 2026 either?
No. Yeah. I would only refer to reimbursements as a whole, not specifically on cancelled projects.
Okay. Thank you. And then just wondering if you could talk a bit about order intake in the fourth quarter and if you still saw that kind of postponement to 2026?
Yeah. That should have been an okay-ish quarter. So a bit of the continuation of that what we have seen in the third quarter. So it was overall an okay-ish quarter. For sure, there are some regions where it was a bit better, where it was a bit weaker, but overall, there was an okay-ish close of the year. For sure, within certain areas, we see that some of the projects are postponed, or let's say that the final award of projects is a bit postponed, but overall, it's clear that we see a very healthy project pipeline, and this is unchanged.
Okay. Thanks so much.
Thank you. There's also a follow-up from Horst Schneider of Bank of America. Please, Horst, yours.
Yeah. Thanks for taking a follow-up question. I was just here getting enthusiastic about the R&D cut number that you were saying. So 7,000 people, I don't know, I would say I should assume EUR 100,000 salary per R&D worker. Is that a too high number? So it sounds like a terrific saving you were getting in the next 2 years.
Yeah. I think on the savings side, it's up to you what kind of calculations you make, but I think it's fair to say that this time, if you look into the cost-cutting, it's fair to assume that the salary per worker is maybe a bit lower than that as there has been a higher share of people that are leaving the company in West Coast countries. So I think, compared to former programs, maybe the salary is a bit lower than the number you are taking.
Okay. Thank you. But that materialized over 2 years, you said, right? So it's not just straight, of course, in 1 year. So it materializes over time. So we should pencil in a part in 2026, and it's going to be finished in 2027, correct?
Yeah. I mean, it's always a ramp-up, and I think it's important to understand that the negotiations with the unions are pretty much starting. So, we for sure try to achieve as much as we can in this year. So I would rather say it depends on the ramp-up of the program execution. I think it's also fair to say that the majority of the effects is coming beyond 2026 as then the full impact will take place.
I guess it's the first program, I think, was 3,000. That's probably 2026, and the 4,000, that's a higher share than in 2027, right?
I mean, we for the current program we just announced, we are striving for getting that executed as much as we can in this year. But the effect, I mean, if you always have to look into the point in time when people are leaving. So the effect on the numbers is rather beyond this year, but we try to execute that as much as we can in 2026, yeah.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Since there are no more questions in the queue, I am closing the Q&A session now and handing the floor back over to the host.
Yeah. Thank you, operator, and thank you for everyone, in participating in today's call. Just as a reminder, the quiet period starts next week on 16th of February. Over the next days, you will be approached by Vara, who is our external service provider for compiling our consensus, and we highly value your input and your contribution to that. With that, I'd like to conclude today's call. Thank you, and have a very nice evening.