Drägerwerk AG & Co. KGaA (ETR:DRW3)
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Apr 28, 2026, 5:35 PM CET
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Earnings Call: Q4 2025

Mar 24, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Drägerwerk Full-Y ear 2025 Earnings Call. I'm Moritz, your call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in a listen only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question- and- answer session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Stefan Dräger, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Stefan Dräger
CEO, Drägerwerk

Well, good afternoon, and thank you for joining our conference call on our financial results for the fiscal year 2025. I have with me today Gert-Hartwig Lescow, CFO, as well as Thomas Fischler and Nikolaus Hammerschmidt, both Investor Relations. We would like to take you through the results with the presentation that we made available on our webpage this morning. Following the presentation, we will open the floor to your questions. Let's get started on page 5 with the business highlights. In 2025, we continued our successful course and generated the highest net sales in our company's history. Both divisions and all regions contributed to this. At around EUR 3.5 billion, net sales are slightly above our last forecast and around EUR 25 million above the level of the exceptionally strong coronavirus year 2020.

Unlike during the pandemic, this is a new record that we achieved entirely without a special economic situation. Thanks to the operating momentum, our earnings before interest and taxes also developed very well. EBIT rose by more than 20% to around EUR 233 million, despite difficult conditions. The EBIT margin increased by roughly one percentage point to 6.7%, also exceeding our last forecast. This shows that we are making progress in improving our profitability. Order intake also developed very well. As with net sales, both divisions contributed to growth. This underlines the continuing demand for our technology for life and gives us a positive outlook for the future. Positive is also the keyword with regard to our cash flow development, which Gert-Hartwig Lescow will explain later. We have also performed well on the stock market.

Last year, our common shares rose by more than one-third, while our preferred shares even increased by almost half and were included in the TecDAX. This means that we are once again one of the 30 largest listed technology companies in Germany. This listing increases our visibility on the capital market and could make us even more attractive to investors. In mid-January, we published our preliminary business figures for 2025 and our forecast for 2026. Our shares then rose significantly again and reached their highest level since July 2017. This shows that investor confidence in Dräger is higher than it has been for a long time. Our first goal remains to increase profitability, such that our EBIT margin is the same as the last digit of the calendar year, as we have more goals that are strategic to steer the company.

We are strengthening our innovative power and expanding our competence in the systems business and further expanding our services and recurring business. In our Medical division, we are particularly driving forward the marketing of network solutions. To this end, we launched a large marketing campaign in 2025. Our goal is to strengthen Dräger's position as the leading provider of connected solutions in the hospital sector. That said, we are also launching a big wave of SDC-based solutions. That is Service Oriented Device Connectivity, the new standard for interoperability of Medical devices according to IEEE 11073. It creates new functionalities and therefore added value. With our new Silence Care Package, for example, we contribute to solving one of the biggest problems on the ICU by reducing the alarm noise fatigue. In the Safety division, connectivity is becoming more important, too.

Our FireGround monitoring system, for example, helped us to win the Paris Fire Brigade as a new customer in 2025. Speaking of firefighting, we also received the important approval for our PSS AirBoss SCBA in North America, reaching a milestone for strengthening our position in this key market. In addition to our core business, we are consistently investing in new business opportunities in areas such as cleantech and defense. Last year, our defense business grew significantly. We are well on track to triple our defense sales to more than EUR 300 million by 2028. I will talk about the other highlights on the past fiscal year, the dividend, and the outlook at the end of our presentation. I would first like to explain in more detail on page 6 what challenges we had to overcome last year. Page six, headwind compensated.

Ladies and gentlemen, 2025 was a very successful year, particularly in light of the difficult conditions. In 2024, we had benefited from positive one-off effects from the sale of a non-strategic business activity that was the smoke and fire alarm systems in the Netherlands and some real estate lot in the United States. This had boosted our EBIT by around EUR 22 million. In the past year, we missed these effects and also faced strong headwinds from tariffs and currencies. The tariffs imposed by the U.S. government had a negative impact of roughly EUR 26 million on our EBIT. Around EUR 21 million out of this was attributable to the Medical division and around EUR 5 million to the Safety division. In addition, EBIT was impacted by currency effects initiated from the White House and propagated over the world, totaling to around EUR 45 million.

Thereof, EUR 38 million were attributable to the Medical division and around EUR 16 million to the Safety division. Overall, we have to compensate opposing effects of more than EUR 90 million. The fact that we even overcompensated these effects is a clear proof of our resilience. We were therefore able to improve our profitability even under difficult conditions. Let's take a look at the margin development of recent years on page seven. Following the significant loss in 2022, we have shifted our focus from net sales growth to earnings growth. We have thus set ourselves the goal of increasing our EBIT margin by an average of one percentage point per year from 2024. Focus on profitability in accordance with our corporate objective number one has worked well so far.

After the strong turnaround in 2023, we were able to improve our EBIT margin by roughly 1 percentage point in both 2024 and 2025. While positive one-off effects in particular contributed to the improvement in 2024, the improvement in 2025 came mainly from the operating business. This is a development that we very much welcome. We have our strategic corporate objective two is innovation, and our corporate objective three is systems business and recurring business. Now, I would like to hand over to Gert-Hartwig Lescow to explain our business development further. I will then turn back with the dividend and the outlook. Gert-Hartwig Lescow.

Gert-Hartwig Lescow
CFO, Drägerwerk

Thank you, Stefan. I would also like to extend a warm welcome to everyone joining this conference call for our results for the fiscal year 2025. Please turn to page six for a view on the Dräger Group. As usual, I will be stating currency-adjusted figures, and I will be later referring to both rates. As Stefan mentioned, demand for our Technology for Life remained strong. Overall, orders increased by 7.7% to around EUR 3.6 billion. In Q4, orders rose by 5.6%. Both divisions contributed to growth in both reporting periods. Net sales climbed by 5.3% in the full year and by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. This was due to good development in both divisions and all regions. Like for orders, the Americas region and the EMEA region were the biggest growth drivers.

At around EUR 3.5 billion, net sales in 2025 reached the highest level in the company's history. In addition to the high order intake, this was mainly due to the strong year-end business. Benefiting from the record net sales in December and the margin improvement in the Medical division, our group's gross margin rose slightly by 0.3 percentage points to 45.2% in the full year. Functional expenses rose by 4.6% in 2025 after they had been positively impacted by one-off effects of around EUR 32 million in the prior year. These effects included the net sale of a non-strategic business in the Netherlands and the sale of real estate in Spain and the U.S. Excluding these one-off effects, the increase of functional expenses in 2025 was only 2.5%.

This increase is attributable to higher personal expenses, which went up due to collective wage increases in Germany and higher number of employees, among other things. Despite the missing positive one-off effects in 2024 and the negative currency and tariff effects in 2025, our EBIT increased by more than 20% to around EUR 233 million. Consequently, our EBIT margin rose from 5.8% to 6.7%. The mentioned headwinds were overcompensated by the high order intake, the strong net sales momentum, and the improved gross margin. In addition, the strong year-end business contributed to the resilient development. Our EBIT improved by around 37% in the fourth quarter, while the EBIT margin climbed to 13.7% from 10.6% in that period.

The full-year EBIT development is in line with our medium-term goal to increase the EBIT margin by one percentage point above the average. The guided 2026 EBIT margin includes an additional margin improvement on the higher end of the guidance range. The results of the strong increase in earnings, our DVA in 2025 improved by roughly EUR 36 million to around EUR 9 million. Let us now take a closer look at the development of the two divisions, starting with the Medical division on page 10. Following the slight increase in the prior year, our order intake in the Medical division rose by roughly 9% in 2025. This was primarily due to the high demand for our anesthesia machines, ventilators, services, and consumables. In addition, we received a major multi-year order for hospital infrastructure systems from Mexico, which significantly supported the above-average growth in the Americas region.

Demand also developed positively in the other regions, particularly EMEA. In the fourth quarter, order intake rose by 2.2% as the decline in APAC and EMEA was overcompensated by significant growth in Americas and a high demand in Germany. By growth in all regions, net sales in the Medical division increased by 7.4% in 2025 after a decline in the prior year. In Q4, net sales rose by 13% thanks to considerable growth in EMEA, Americas, and Germany. Net sales in the APAC region were around 3% below the prior year level. Our gross margin in the division rose by 0.6 percentage points to 43.6%. The negative currency and tariff effects were overcompensated by the favorable product and country mix.

In Q4, on the other hand, the gross margin decreased by 0.6 percentage points due to higher inventory write-offs. Functional expenses climbed by 5.7% in 2025, having been positively impacted in the prior year by one-off effects of around EUR 50 million from the sale of real estate and the adjustment of the put option. Without these effects, the increase in 2025 amounted to only 3.7%, with higher personnel expenses being the main cause. The EBIT of the Medical division doubled to EUR 57 million after a decline in the prior year. Subsequently, the EBIT margin rose from 1.5% - 2.9%. In Q4, the EBIT increased significantly too, by around 40% to roughly EUR 80 million, thanks to the strong year-end business.

As a result of the strong increase in earnings, our DVA in the Medical Division improved considerably in 2025 from around -EUR 50 million to -EUR 23 million. I will now turn to our Safety Division, which delivered another good performance. We are now on page 11. Our Safety business continues to grow. Order intake rose by more than 6% in 2025. This was primarily due to the high demand for Engineered Solutions and gas detection devices. In addition, respiratory and personal protection products, as well as alcohol and drug testing devices contributed. The EMEA and Americas regions recorded a significant increase in orders while the APAC region also developed positively. In Germany, demand declined after we had received a major order for NBC protection filters in the prior year. However, industrial demand in Germany is also generally restrained at present.

Net sales increased by 2.6% in the fiscal year, driven by the positive development in the EMEA and APAC regions. In Germany, net sales were roughly on par with the prior year, while the Americas recorded a decline. In Q4, net sales rose by just under 3% as the decline in the Americas from Germany was overcompensated by the growth in EMEA and APAC. Our gross margin in the division remained stable at 47.3% in 2025, with the negative currency and tariff effects being offset by the more favorable product mix and price adjustments. In Q4, the gross margin slightly decreased by 0.2 percentage points.

Functional expenses went up by roughly 3%, having been positively impacted in the prior year by one-off effects of around EUR 17 billion from the sale of a non-strategic business area and from the sale of real estate. Excluding these effects, functional expenses fell by 0.4%. The capitalization of development costs led to a reduction in functional expenses in the reporting year. The EBIT of the Safety division increased in 2025 by 6.4% to around EUR 176 million, while the EBIT margin rose from 11.3% - 11.9%. In Q4, the EBIT climbed by around 32% to roughly EUR 77 million as a result of the strong year end bids. The EBIT margin also improved significantly by four percentage points to 16.5%.

Our DVA and Safety division increased by around EUR 9 million to around EUR 113 million, coming from around EUR 104 million in the prior year. All in all, a very positive development in our Safety business. Let's move on to some key ratios on page 12. Thanks to the strong growth in earnings, our cash flow from operating activities improved significantly by around EUR 71 million to around EUR 238 million in 2025. At the same time, outflow from investing activities rose from just under EUR 55 million to around EUR 98 million. Among other things, this was due to a supplier loan granted and the purchase of further shares in an investment.

Moreover, the sale of our fire alarm systems business in the Netherlands and the sale of the property in the U.S. had led to a considerable inflow in 2024. All in all, our free cash flow amounted to around EUR 120 million, which is a considerable improvement of around EUR 60 million compared to the prior year. Since free cash flow was on par with net profit, the cash conversion rate amounted to 100%, a level we also expect for the current year. As a result of the increase in free cash flow, cash and cash equivalents rose significantly by around EUR 22 million to EUR 282 million. This led to a considerable decline in net financial debt by around 25% to EUR 123 million.

That said, the ratio of net financial debt to EBITDA declined from 0.5 - 0.3, keeping our leverage at a very healthy level. With regard to net financial debt, we expect the figure to increase in the current year. A large distribution center is currently being built in Lübeck, where we intend to consolidate various logistics warehouses in the future. Dräger will rent the property on a long-term basis, with which under IFRS results in a higher lease liability. This, together with high investments, is in turn a key driver for the higher expected net debt in 2026. With an increase of around 4% to EUR 1.7 billion, capital employed rose much lower than our EBIT.

Therefore, our 12-month return on capital employed went up from 12.1% -1 4.2%. Net working capital was around 2% higher than in the prior year at around EUR 755 million. Due to the good business development in particular, our equity ratio stood at around 52% as of December 31, coming from roughly 50% at the end of the prior year. Let's take a closer look at our EPS on page 13. With the increase in earnings since 2022 that Stefan Dräger mentioned at the beginning of his presentation, our EPS has also improved continuously over the past years. Coming from around -3.50 per share in 2022, earnings per common share climbed to more than 7.40 in 2025.

At the same time, earnings per preferred share rose from around [EUR 6.67] to roughly EUR 7.50 per share. Again, this clearly underlines the progress we are making in improving our profitability. Now, I hand back to Stefan Dräger for the outlook, starting with our dividend proposal on page 14.

Stefan Dräger
CEO, Drägerwerk

Why, thank you, Gert-Hartwig Lescow, thank you. Well, in line with our dividend policy, we intend to distribute around 30% of our net profit to our shareholders. Since our net profit has increased significantly, we will also increase the dividend significantly again for the third time in a row since 2023. We intend to propose a dividend of EUR 2.21 per common share and EUR 2.27 per preferred share to our annual shareholders meeting in May. Our equity ratio is clearly over 50%. Provided that the equity situation remains as positive as it is now, we will continue to distribute at least 30% of our net profit in the coming years. That said, let's move on to our outlook for 2026 on page 15. Ladies and gentlemen, with good demand, record sales and significantly improved earnings, 2025 was a very successful year.

This is even more apparent when you consider the headwind from a difficult economic environment. Our operating business is showing good momentum. Both order intake and order backlog are at a high level. We therefore want to increase net sales again in the current fiscal year. 2026, we expect an increase in net sales of 2%-6% net of currency effects and an EBIT margin between 5% and 7.5%. Both divisions are likely to contribute to net results and a positive EBIT. We will continue to counter the U.S. import tariffs by raising prices. In the past fiscal year, we developed a package of measures to compensate for some of the customs duties. We expect this compensation to be more effective due to the course of the 2026 fiscal year than before.

For 2026, we expect the level of customs duties at group level to be similar to the prior year overall. The burdens in the Medical Division are likely to be significantly higher than in the Safety Division, where we have more possibilities to compensate and forward with the improved prices. The corporate planning, therefore the net sales and EBIT forecast for 2026 are based on the assumption that customs duties will remain at the level of the reporting date for the annual financial statement. However, when we recall the trade war discussion over a certain weekend in this spring, this is not guaranteed, and it motivates us to further pursue increased profitability to be able to live through the challenges and uncertainties. When it comes to the war in Ukraine, we do not see any material impact on our business so far.

We are present in the Middle East with our own Dräger people in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Our local employees are doing well so far. In general, the region remains a growth market for us. Risks from the war depend heavily on its duration and regional extent and its impact on the global economy. We are able to mitigate risk through our high level of diversification. We are very broadly positioned in terms of markets, products, geographies, business mechanics, and customers. This strengthens our resilience and gives us a positive outlook to the future. With this, I would like to end the presentation and hand over to the operator to open the floor for your questions. Please.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from Oliver Reinberg from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.

Oliver Reinberg
Head of German Equity Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

Good afternoon. Thanks very much for taking my questions. Three FMA. Firstly, just on the Middle East situation, I just want to confirm that you don't expect any kind of larger impact. Can you just confirm that there's also not any kind of expected impact on the developments, basically, in terms of supply chains and inflation? That would be question number one. Secondly, can you just provide an update on the ventilation market? We've seen quite some changes, basically, with Mindray. I saw with Medtronic and Vyaire actually exiting the market, and I think Mindray is now entering in the U.S. market. I mean, it's also high base. Do you continue to expect actually significant growth in this market segment? Any update on developments here would be helpful.

Thirdly, as you called out corporate objective number three to increase the kind of recurring business at Dräger. Can you just provide some kind of flavor where you stand these days percentage-wise, and any kind of targets that you can share in that regard? Thank you.

Stefan Dräger
CEO, Drägerwerk

On the Middle East, I confirm that we do not see a material impact of the war on our business at the moment in the foreseeable future. Including the supply chain, there is no, not to our knowledge, a significant impact on any specific component of production that we can see so far. We have taken some measures in the past, work with our suppliers more carefully, the group works and has some reasonable stocking levels for our inventory for components. We, of course, cannot compensate for all thinkable effects, and we will remain interdependent from the diverse in the supply chain.

However, I confirm there is no impact that we can see from the current conflicts in the Middle East. What I do see, though, is that the energy prices will remain worldwide on the current level and not return to the level they were like six weeks ago, including the electricity, gas, and fuel at the gas station. However, our sensitivity to energy in Dräger is quite limited, so you know, that has no material effect on our outlook and the prognosis. Your second question, Oliver Reinberg, on the ventilation. So yeah, there were two major players have exited the market, and yeah, Mindray is there.

Well, on the other hand, we do not see a significant effect or even, I would say, threat from Mindray having a more comprehensive offer in the U.S. Where we see them more and we see they are more active is in Africa, in remote regions where they have also political Chinese government has political influence in financing some of the African governments, or I think very obvious direct influence and control on the government and purchasing decisions. There, we are out, but on the more developed markets, I would not say it is a significant new development or a threat.

On a global scale, yes, it is a good copy of Dräger with similar offerings and a similar portfolio on both the geographical and in scale and the portfolio. It is a very viable market companion, well, not only on ventilation, but in many modalities to watch, geographic mostly in Africa. Your question on our corporate objective number three, which is the development of the business models further from transaction-based device selling towards interoperability and systems, the business component in actually doing including recurring businesses and services that are based on contracts instead of the transactions. Yes, we can say that, last year we crossed the EUR 1 billion threshold in services.

There are some countries in Europe, our sales, the majority already is in services more than in devices, including our home market in Germany. Some other European countries as well, services sales is greater than devices.

Oliver Reinberg
Head of German Equity Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

Thanks so much. Can you share any kind of targets, like where you want to go with this kind of offering?

Stefan Dräger
CEO, Drägerwerk

Yeah. The, the goal is to so go this further, as it is a good, the way to defend our business over a small business that is purely on cost, like only some of the business mentioned from Mindray is in Africa, when the decision is on cost alone. We have the largest share of mind and are more deeply entrenched with the customer in offering a service. It is we have a better understanding of the customer needs, and it's more challenging to replace than if it's on a pure device that is, the trend is that it may become a commodity.

Oliver Reinberg
Head of German Equity Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay. Super. Thanks so much.

Operator

The next question comes from Harald Hof from mwb research. Please go ahead.

Harald Hof
Senior Equity Research Analyst, mwb research AG

Thank you for taking my question. As we talked about the Ukraine conflict already, just two questions left from my side. The first one is, talking about the tariffs. The situation has changed significantly, so what does this mean for Dräger, and will you apply for import reimbursements? The second question is, how has the defense activities developed so far in 2026?

Gert-Hartwig Lescow
CFO, Drägerwerk

Happy to. Firstly, there is a couple of developments. Firstly, the court decided that the tariffs that the Trump administration has put in place are not legal, and we have in fact also filed for a reimbursement. As of today, it is open how fast the courts will decide and when or if a reimbursement will in fact be paid out. Secondly-

Stefan Dräger
CEO, Drägerwerk

It's not part of the plan.

Gert-Hartwig Lescow
CFO, Drägerwerk

It's not part of the plan at this point. If there was a significant payout, that would be upside, so to speak. The signals have been mixed how quickly that can happen. I think you've read the news. Two courts, as far as I remember, have decided they are not allowed to delay it, but so far nothing has happened. There is a chance that we can recollect some of our tariffs. Having said that, given that the previous tariffs have been declared illegal, the Trump administration has put in place another set of tariffs which are a little bit lower by 5 percentage points, but they are intact for the full year instead of just two-thirds of the year.

If when those run out after 150 days, there are other potential tariffs to be enacted. The one that may run out, the so-called Section 122 tariffs may be replaced by Section 301 and Section 232. We would expect that that will actually take place in the second half of the year. When it comes to effective tariff burden, we still assume that they will remain in place. As we have seen earlier this year, and as Stefan Dräger has pointed out, sometimes there's even a discussion about additional 301 tariffs or not. So far, we expect actual tariff burden to be of the same magnitude as last year.

Stefan Dräger
CEO, Drägerwerk

Okay. Your other question on the defense business. Well, in general, we benefit in both divisions. The Medical also benefits if there is the need, for instance, to additionally serve 1,500 wounded soldiers that come per day from the eastern front. What they're currently preparing and planning for, that needs capacity in the German hospital system, or the field hospitals or hospitals aboard warships. But that is regular medical equipment that we fairly would not directly classify it as defense business.

What we do call it such is part of the Safety portfolio that can be specific products for personal protection, like the classical gas mask for a soldier or gas detection equipment, special filters for military vehicles to protect those who protect us and our freedom to operate in our democracy. Last year, around the same time of the year, we predicted that that would actually more than triple until the year 2028 to approximately EUR 300 million. Already last year we saw a good development, and we crossed the EUR 100 million threshold with these elements of the portfolio.

We confirm that we think in 2028 it can be 300, because there are quite some opportunities out there.

Harald Hof
Senior Equity Research Analyst, mwb research AG

Thanks. Just a quick follow-up. When talking about tariff reimbursement, do you communicate volume? How much is the figure that could be reimbursed?

Stefan Dräger
CEO, Drägerwerk

We communicated that we paid EUR 26 million.

Gert-Hartwig Lescow
CFO, Drägerwerk

That's actually the net effect. To the degree that it will be the net effect, it will be net order. The gross effect is 10 higher, runs around EUR 30 million. That would be the impact if we get full reimbursement without the need to pass on anything to customers, in that context.

Harald Hof
Senior Equity Research Analyst, mwb research AG

Okay.

Gert-Hartwig Lescow
CFO, Drägerwerk

As I said, this point, we view that as, well, perhaps not speculative, but we have not received clear indication that we should account for that in the near future. We'll keep you posted, obviously, when that situation changes.

Harald Hof
Senior Equity Research Analyst, mwb research AG

Okay. Sure. Thanks a lot for these answers.

Operator

The next question comes from Pierre-Yves Gauthier from AlphaValue. Please go ahead.

Pierre-Yves Gauthier
Co-founder and Head of Strategy, AlphaValue

Yes, good afternoon. Thank you. My question relates to your capital spending. You had quite a big surge in 2025. Is that likely to last or is it some sort of a bump that we will not see in 2026, 2027? Thank you for your answer.

Gert-Hartwig Lescow
CFO, Drägerwerk

Part of the higher investment are due to the loan which actually has to be accounted for to one of our suppliers, which have to be accounted for under IFRS as an investment. I'm not sure whether that is. That actually was one of the reasons for the bump and that we do not expect [audio distortion] 20 26 nor later. We do, however, as I pointed out in the presentation, have to account for an investment for a rental agreement. Again, that's due to the fair value. All in, we expect an increase in the investment volume from around EUR 103 million- EUR 110-EUR 130 million.

The substantial portion is, in fact, the long-term rental agreement, which is, as these things are, not cash effective for the full amount in the period of 2026, but over the course of the rental agreement.

Pierre-Yves Gauthier
Co-founder and Head of Strategy, AlphaValue

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

We do have a follow-up question from Oliver Reinberg from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.

Oliver Reinberg
Head of German Equity Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

Oh, yeah. Thanks very much for taking my follow-up. [audio distortion] , and one on China. Can you just provide an update what you see there on the grounds? I mean, it's not a huge market, but any kind of a pickup will be helpful to just get the latest dynamics here. Secondly, I think Q1 nearly comes to an end. Any kind of light you can share how you start into the year. Then last question, just on currencies. I mean, I think last call we got hit for quite a significant impact. If currencies stay where they currently are, can you just give us any kind of flavor what kind of isolated margin impact you have? Thank you.

Stefan Dräger
CEO, Drägerwerk

Well, Stefan Dräger speaking. I can pick the start in 2026, where we started with a good order backlog after the order intake at the first quarter was also very good. With this, we had a good start in 2026. The order intake and sales at this moment is according to our expectations and planning. It's on the way to deliver on our forecast and prognosis.

Gert-Hartwig Lescow
CFO, Drägerwerk

With regards to the FX development, in addition to the headwind that we had in 2025, we overall see a further deterioration, but not by another similar amount. Our currency headwind, when we look at net sales, is around one percentage point, and when it comes to the EBIT margin, it's between 30-60 basis points.

Stefan Dräger
CEO, Drägerwerk

I think, Mr. Reinberg, this is important to figure in when you compare our actual 2025 result, in particular the EBIT margin and the prognosis for 2026. Because the prognosis for 2026 and the whole planning for 2026 is based on less favorable exchange rates. If these develop and they would be the same as the last year's actual exchange rates, then the outcome, of course, would be better than the current forecast and prognosis. From our perspective, it's not safe to assume that it would be the same. We have our best guess included into the planning, and that is a major reason, if you wonder, why our forecast does not show a stronger improvement.

Because our goal is to improve our profitability by one percentage point per year, so on average, that is unchanged.

Oliver Reinberg
Head of German Equity Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

China.

Stefan Dräger
CEO, Drägerwerk

Yeah, China. We didn't touch China. There is no relevant news on that. That is relatively stable and continues to be on a much lower level than it used to.

Oliver Reinberg
Head of German Equity Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay. Bye. Thanks very much indeed for the follow-up.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one at this time. It looks like there are no further questions, so I would like to turn the conference back over to Stefan Dräger for any closing remarks.

Stefan Dräger
CEO, Drägerwerk

Well, thank you very much for all of you being with us today during the results conference for 2025. Thank you for your questions and the interaction. I look forward to meeting you again, either online or preferably some point in time in the not-too-distant future in person. Have a pleasant afternoon and evening.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded and you may disconnect. Thank you for joining and have a pleasant day. Goodbye.

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