Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the JOST Werke SE Earnings Call Full Year 2025. I am George, the call's operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question from the webinar, you may click the Q&A button on the left side of your screen and then click the Raise Your Hand button. For written questions, please click the Q&A button and then the Text button and type in your question. If you are connected via phone, please press star and one on your telephone. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Joachim Dürr, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good morning from our headquarters in Neu-Isenburg, and a warm welcome to our earnings conference for the financial year 2025. Let's look at the highlights of last year. We had a year of growth in JOST with the consolidation of our Hyva business. We successfully integrated that business into the group starting February 1, and we were able to capture the first synergies already in the year 2025. Another part of that integration was that we successfully sold and carved out the non-core cranes business that we've acquired with this transaction and were able to swiftly close that also in December 2025.
We also had support for market share gains through new customer projects, as we successfully combined our local-for-local approach in regions with our global OEM contacts and our global strength. The market environment was not supportive last year. U.S. markets were shrinking by 25%-30%. Despite this, we were able to manage and achieve an organic growth in the JOST organic business. We've achieved our outlook for 2025, with earnings at the upper end of the corridor supported by the fast implementation of the synergies of the Hyva transaction. Let's look at the financial highlights. Sales growth of 44% to about EUR 1.5 billion in 2025, supported by the M&A effect, but also supported by an organic growth of about 2% in our continuing business.
Our Adjusted EBIT from continuing operations grew 29% to EUR 145 million, and the Adjusted EBIT margin reached 9.5%. At constant currency, 9.6%. The free cash flow grew by 6% to EUR 126 million, reaching a new record, and that was driven by the Hyva contribution and the improvements in working capital. Our leverage came in at 2.27 times at the end of 2025, reaching the target of below 2.5, based on the debt-financed Hyva acquisition. The growth accelerated significantly in the fourth quarter. All regions were supporting and all business lines were supporting.
In Q4, we had a sales growth of 71% to EUR 387.7 million, and that was organically supported by a 15% growth in our organic business. Adjusted net income from continuing operations went up 12% to EUR 84 million, and adjusted EPS from continuing operations grew 11% to EUR 5.52. Let's look at the market environment from last year. I already mentioned that the markets were not supportive. You can see in transport we had slightly positive markets in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Americas was low based on the uncertainties due to the tariff situation and also due to the emission regulations for 2027.
Asia Pacific was slightly supportive in trailers and supportive in trucks based on a strong Indian market and also an export from the Chinese manufacturers to other regions. Tractors environment was still low, but for us, the business developed quite well based on the market share gains that we achieved especially in the agricultural segment. You can see in Europe and North America, markets were contracting. Only in APAC we had slightly positive markets environment. Hydraulics, we saw a stable market and our hydraulics business you know was integrated last year, and we could benefit from that stable market and get some of the synergies already on the sales side implemented.
If you look at the entire picture, the weak market environment, the strong growth in JOST, that is based on a resilient business model and that has various elements, one of them being that we are selling in all regions of the world with EMEA accounting for 47% of our sales, Americas 27% of our sales, and APAC 26% of our sales. We generate our EBIT also in all regions. All regions contribute. Europe 25%, 30% in Americas, and 42% in APAC. We also serve different industries.
The transport industry with 51%, the agricultural industry with 18% and growing, and the hydraulics and infrastructure industry with 31%. Based on this resilient model, we're able to have a very successful year, and we could complete our outlook and fully achieve our outlook. Next slide, please. Yeah. Here you see the final results compared to the outlook.
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Just in case, I summarize the achievements.
Mm-hmm.
We had a very strong year, 2025, with the Hyva integration obviously being the biggest highlight of the year. With that and in a fairly weak market environment and not supportive market environment, especially in North America, we're able to achieve our outlook for 2025. Our sales was confirming at EUR 153.4 million . That's up 43% versus the outlook where we said we would be up between 40% and 50%. Also on Adjusted EBIT and Adjusted EBITDA, our growth is 28.6% on EBIT, 29% on EBITDA, and that is on the upper end of the range that we had in the outlook, where we said 23%-28% versus prior year.
Our CapEx ended up being 2.8% of sales, which meets the outlook of approximately 2.9% of sales. Our working capital ended up at 14.8%, which is below the target of 18.5% that we had given in the outlook. Overall, for us, year with exceptional growth, mainly based on the acquisition of Hyva, but also with our organic performance and meeting the outlook of 2025. Oliver will lead you through some more details.
Thank you very much, Joachim. Welcome from my side. As usually, let's go a little bit deeper into the numbers first, starting with our EMEIA region. You can see here in sales that driven obviously by the Hyva acquisition, we had a strong reported sales growth of 28%. Hyva was contributing there on a full year basis by EUR 126 million. But important is for us, even on an organic basis, we achieved a growth in EMEIA by 5%. That is predominantly driven by our agriculture business line, which achieved for the full year a 7% organic growth. Even transport, despite the challenging market, was more or less a blank zero on organic growth basis.
What we see on the fourth quarter development is that organic increase even accelerated in the second half of the year and especially also in the fourth quarter by an organic increase of sales by 15% to EUR 178 in the fourth quarter. Again, here also driven predominantly by the agriculture segment, but also transport kicked up. However, we assess also in Europe this recovery, so to speak, as fragile at the moment. The Iran conflict might have influence here as well, but I believe Joachim will come to that point once we are discussing the outlook. If we go down into the Adjusted EBIT for the EMEIA region, we see an expected dilution by consolidating of the Hyva business.
We achieved a roughly EUR 36 million Adjusted EBIT in the EMEIA region, which is close to 5% Adjusted EBIT margin. Yeah, the big effect is here that the Hyva business, hydraulics business in the EMEIA region is dilutive on the one hand, and on the other hand, although Hyva has a strong presence in Americas and in APAC in generating there the operating results, a lot of central costs for R&D as an example, or other headquarters are allocated into the EMEIA region. That together with certain adjustments in the fourth quarter between regions in terms of cost sharing led to a relatively weak EMEIA Adjusted EBIT in the fourth quarter. All in all, fully as expected.
Going forward, we see an improvement step by step now with the synergies also in the EMEIA region ramping up, especially in the SG&A segment in 2026. If we then go to the Americas region on the next slide, we also here see, first of all, a very strong reported growth by 24%. Also here, I think it's important to highlight that, despite the strong markets decline in transport in U.S., we achieved an organic decline of only -4% in the whole Americas region. Basically here, the same development then compared to EMEA, that growth momentum growth recovery, so to speak, accelerated in the fourth quarter. We were strongly supported here by two effects. One is in South America.
We have a strong business in South America, consolidated in that region where we gained new business with customers like Caterpillar and CNH, and that business has been started to ramp up by, let's say, the second quarter of last year, and it's going to continue also in 2026. That supported organic growth in the region and also to a certain extent in the trailer segment in the North America market. We gained the one or the other customer, partially driven by the tariff effects that in that sense here supported our market shares. That's helped that the overall organic decline, again, in the Americas region is only -4% for the full year.
If we go down to the Adjusted EBIT, we have also seen that from our point of view, it was a very successful year despite the challenging markets. We achieved for the full year the same Adjusted EBIT margin was 10.9%, compared to the previous year, despite the integration of the Hyva business, which indeed has a certain dilution. However, that dilution in the Americas region already disappeared fully in the second half of the year by a very strong business of Hyva in the second half of the year, resulting in an Adjusted EBIT of EUR 44 million for the full year.
Also here we see in Adjusted EBIT that the fourth quarter was quite successful, driven by all business lines, driven by the recovery of transport to a certain extent, and also driven by the hydraulics contribution into that fourth quarter. If we then go to the APAC region, definitely the region with the biggest change in 2025 in basically all numbers, for sure driven by again the Hyva acquisition. We more than doubled our sales volume for the full year up to a little bit shy of EUR 400 million, starting from EUR 167 million in 2024. That's 1 + 136% growth, driven by EUR 235 million incorporated from the Hyva acquisition.
What we see here is the markets in APAC, as Joachim described, were a little bit up and down. We were benefiting despite FX headwinds here from a strong export business out of China, basically across all business lines. We are working here closely together with Chinese customers that are successful at the moment by exporting their products into Far East, into Africa and other emerging markets with JOST products. You also can see here in the fourth quarter that growth even accelerated again in the fourth quarter, like within the other regions. Also here a little bit like with India, we need to be a little bit, let's say, monitoring the whole situation. The APAC region might also be impacted by the Iran conflict.
Nevertheless, what we see at the moment is still a strong order book in the region that supports us both for our China business and our India business, which gained a little bit momentum beginning from September last year when tax adjustments were done in India, supporting the economy overall there. That from a sales perspective, a very successful year for the APAC region. If you go down into Adjusted EBIT, for sure, driven by the strong growth, Adjusted EBIT went up to almost EUR 62 million. Also from a dilution point of view, we achieved a margin of almost 16% for the whole year in the region, which is better than we anticipated originally.
We knew that we will have a little bit of a dilution through the acquisition of Hyva in the APAC region as well because of product mixes and also set up of the supply chains within Hyva, a little different than in JOST. Nevertheless, with almost 16% again, we are very proud and for sure that helped massively the overall Adjusted EBIT for the total group. Also here you see in the fourth quarter, now with ramping up of the synergies, the huge potential of that region in the new combined group by having leverage effects from higher capacity utilization and so on and so forth. So that's the summary for the three regions.
If we now combine everything together into the group, as Joachim said, we have seen a strong reported growth of 44%. Organically, that means for the total group, still a positive organic growth by 2% despite all the challenges that we have. That underpins definitely our resilience models being present all over the world, across all regions, and being diverse via our customer base and our industries. That organic growth has been in the fourth quarter, even 15% up from EUR 226 million to EUR 387 million reported-wise and organically, as I said, 15%.
If you go down to Adjusted EBIT also here, Joachim already mentioned, EBIT has grown from EUR 113 to EUR 145.2, representing a reported margin of 9.5% also here better than we anticipated at the beginning of 2025. Several success factors were important here. As you all know, we have sold the cranes business that we have acquired together with the Hyva acquisition that has a little bit of an EBIT kick. But also, the other side and going forward, then even more important is that we see that the synergies are ramping up, that the combined business is more successful than the single ones, right? That resulted then in an Adjusted EBIT growth of almost 29%.
Also likewise with the regions, we see a very strong fourth quarter with an Adjusted EBIT that almost doubled from EUR 18 million to EUR 35 million. Again, driven by a very successful APAC region and a certain recovery in EMEA and in APAC. That's for sales and Adjusted EBIT. Now, let's have a look into adjusted net earnings or our adjusted net earnings bridge. We start with a net income of EUR 9 million, depressed, as we have already announced with the prelims a little bit by extraordinary effects. A big one here is the purchase price allocation effect that comes with the Hyva acquisition that has in the initial year of the acquisition an additional effect of almost EUR 20 million of inventory step-up, depreciation and order book depreciation.
That's why we see a total TPA in our P&L of EUR 55 million. The runway going forward might be roughly EUR 20 million less. Just to let you know. On the other side, we had roughly EUR 15 million of exceptional items, as we announced before. We will have with the integration costs and restructuring costs related to the Hyva acquisition, roughly EUR 20 million-EUR 24 million exceptional expenses. From the start of the acquisition, which was beginning of last year, we have consumed now EUR 15 million, and this is predominantly by layoff costs, restructuring costs, consolidation costs of footprints, et cetera.
That together with the reported tax result and with the reported finance results sums then up to an Adjusted EBIT of EUR 145 million. We then have to deduct again an adjusted finance results. There are two special effects in the finance results to report, which combined account for EUR 6 million extraordinary expenses. That's then EUR 30 million finance results and an actual tax expenditure of EUR 32 million. We are then ending up with an adjusted net income of EUR 84 million, and that's an increase versus prior year of roughly 11%, resulting into an adjusted net earnings per share of EUR 5.52, which will be then also the basis for our dividend, of course, going forward.
If we then go to the next page, some capital and cash flow efficiency numbers that we regularly report. First here is the ROCE. We had a ROCE of 16.9% last year. Well, in 2024. We ended up now with almost 16%. Also this in the first year of such a big acquisition, which will dilute a little bit the ROCE in the first year, as you have a strong balance sheet extension. As we had, as we have a higher debt load to finance the acquisition, I think is a very decent result we are proud of.
When we look into the equity ratio, that has been now, as expected, decreased from end of 2024 to end of 2025, down to 21.2%. There are two, three main effects that we do have to disclose here. The biggest one is why of that decrease is simply the balance sheet extension. We financed the acquisition of Hyva. That extends the balance sheets, and that's a dilution of the equity ratio. On the other side, as you probably all realized, with other companies, we have net assets in regions all over the world. Bigger net assets, especially in the USD regime.
With the weakening USD versus the euro, we had a strong negative FX translation effect in equity, accounting for almost 2 percentage points of equity decrease or almost EUR 40 million. Going forward, especially with the capital increase that we did end of February, that's going to significantly jump up already in the first quarter now. When we look into net debt leverage, as I mentioned, that has, as expected, grown, driven by the financial debt load to fund the Hyva acquisition. We show a leverage of 2.27x EBITDA, and that's indeed lower than our initial target that we have set for 2025.
We wanted to make sure that we are at the end of 2025 below 2.5, which is a little bit of a threshold for us in terms of credit ratings and so on and so forth. Kind of an important threshold. Proud to achieve that, and that also helps our finance expenses for this year. If we then go to the next page, we see a very strong free cash flow again, like with the last year, cash conversion rate of 1.5 and absolute free cash flow EUR 126.4 million. A strong contribution from Hyva in the operating cash flow on the other side. On the other side, for sure, we have tried to optimize our working capital in 2025.
You never know what happens in the next year, and we all see this at the moment to be robust, to be ready for whatever is needed in terms of the future of the company. Yeah, I think we can be proud again for another very good free cash flow performance. CapEx spendings have been well under control. EUR 43 million we have spent, reflecting 2.8% of sales. That includes already here and there certain investments into our future. By the way, we have just opened last week in Brazil a new off-highway cylinder production facility. We have also moved into a new modern facility in Melbourne, in Australia.
Both facilities will achieve further growth in the future, and that investment here I think is well spent, but still fully in range of our corridor and a little bit below the guidance that we initially pointed out for 2025. Working capital, I already mentioned, very successful working capital year. The ratio in percent of sales is 14.8%. I think that's the all-time low. However, as I pointed out already in the one or the other meeting, this is partially driven by factoring online that we used and year-end working capital optimization. That's probably not a through-the-year run rate, but nevertheless a big achievement and supporting our deleveraging year-end. Next page, please. Last quick snapshot on our ESG/sustainability performance.
As you all know, our most important KPI that we are tracking here is energy consumption and CO2 emission in production hours, so to speak. For sure the energy consumption driven by the M&A effect has grown, however, less than the turnover, so to speak. There is efficiency in both energy and gas supply incorporated in the numbers. We are pushing in JOST pretty much all over the world, our photovoltaic usage to get our own energy production ramping up, and that supports not only the P&L, that also supports our CO2 footprint. Very proud to present those numbers here.
When we look into the CO2 intensity, also here we can see, probably focusing on the right part of the lower chart, a -2% organic decline in the CO2 intensity. Despite the fact that the number has already been decreased more than 50% compared to our initial targets that have been set in 2020. That's 2.76 CO2 intensity number will be now the new basis going forward.
We have just discussed a couple of weeks ago with the supervisory board new targets for that number until 2035, and the goal is to reduce that number on top by another 50%, showcasing that JOST is willing to play its own part in CO2 emission in the world, so to speak. I think then it's back to Joachim.
Yeah. Thank you, Oliver. A very important year, 2025. Very important for JOST in the growth plan in our Ambition 2030. How do we look into 2026? Let me guide you through the current assumptions for the markets. If you look at the transport markets, a slight increase in Europe, Middle East and Africa for trucks and trailer expected from the analysts and prognosis institutes. In Americas for truck, also a slight increase. For trailer, around zero, a slight decrease to around zero. For APAC, also a slight decrease expected for this year. On the agricultural markets, it is a slight increase in Europe, a slight decrease in North America and also in APAC.
Hydraulics, more or less a stable market environment around zero. That's the expectation that we see from the institutes and from the analysts. There is a few upsides and a few risks obviously that we can discuss. You know, upside is on the one hand that in Americas we do have the tariff situation, and if that calms down and gives more stability or even a reduction in tariffs, then that will lead to a market, because I assume there is already some pent-up demand due to the low volumes that we've seen in the last year. That's an upside potential if we see some stability there.
The other one would, on the truck side, be a potential pre-buy effect for the 2027 EPA regulations, that there is still some uncertainty around that. If the White House and the administration clarifies that, then that is another upside potential. Downside potential obviously is the high energy cost and the high transport cost that could come with the current Iran conflict, and we will have to monitor that. Based on this market assumptions, our outlook for the year 2026 is that we will continue to grow despite the more or less stable market environment in a single-digit level. Our Adjusted EBIT margin and our Adjusted EBIT will grow higher than that. The Adjusted EBIT grow higher and therefore the margin will increase.
Single digit growth in sales, mid to high single digit growth in Adjusted EBIT and an increase in the Adjusted EBIT margin comes out of that. For CapEx, same as the last year, we assume that we will be around 2.8% of sales and the working capital between 17.5%-18.5% of sales, which is our normal range throughout the year. Those are the outlook numbers. Summing it up, we are closing a very important year for 2025 with exceptional growth for JOST, based on the Hyva acquisition, but also with the positive organic growth in a difficult market environment. We're on a good way to reach our AMBITION 2030 goals.
Sales being up 43%, EBIT being up 28%, record cash flow. We consider that a very successful year, 2025. Based on that, we're also well-positioned to achieve further growth potential in 2026 and to continue to generate value for our shareholders. Based on that, we propose a dividend of 1.5 EUR per share, which is 30% of our adjusted net income. That's the upper range, like last year, of our dividend corridor. We expect the Hyva PMI to conclude in 2026, so that we can confirm our synergies by Q4 of 2026, that we will have all synergies implemented by the last quarter of this year.
We continue to actively work our M&A pipeline to see what other opportunities there will be this year. We believe that this year will be a year where there are opportunities that will come on the market at a reasonable leverage and at reasonable prices. Our diversification across the end industries and across customers and our regional strength that provides the resilience and the profitability in what could be another difficult market environment this year based on the slide that we've just seen and the upside and the downside potential, which requires the flexibility that we have been able to prove in the last years. We are seeing a very robust order intake in Q1 2026. We see a visible recovery across all business lines and also across all regions.
The year has started quite well, and we will see if we can continue that way. We're also closely monitoring the potential impact of the Iran conflict. There is energy prices going up. There is freight costs going up, and we will have to see how long that will be and how that will impact the overall global economy. We are prepared to swiftly and flexibly adjust to that. That's the summary, and we're open for your Q&A. Thank you very much.
We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may click the Q&A button on the left side of the screen and then click the Raise Your Hand button. For written questions, please click the Q&A button and then Text button and type your question. If you are connected via phone, please press star and one on your telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press the Lower Your Hand button from the webinar or press star and two in your telephone. Anyone has a question may queue up now. The first question comes from Yasmin Steilen with Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thanks very much for taking my question. I have three again, so I will take them one by one, if I may. The first on the guidance. Could you provide more granularity what you have baked into your guidance? Or put it the other way around, did I get it correctly that the upper end of the guidance implies some positive upside from the truck market, while the lower end reflects some impact from the Iran conflict? Or would this come on top?
Yeah, I can take that directly, Yasmin. Thank you for the question.
Yeah.
Currently, the guidance is based on the market environment that I have been shown. If we see the upside potential of this, especially on the U.S. markets, that would come on top of that. If indeed we see the tariffs go down, or if we see a pull-ahead effect for the purchasers because the EPA 2027 regulations supports that pull-ahead effect, then that would increase the guidance range that we've currently given. On the down end, it does not assume any major and long-term impacts from the Iran crisis. You know, we're currently already seeing some increases in fuel costs and also in transport costs.
If that does not continue a long time, then we don't think there will be a big impact. Of course, you know, depending on how long this conflict will be, and how much impact that will have on the global economy, then that would be, you know. That is not included in the lower end of the guidance. It assumes the global economy more or less as we've described in that slide about the markets.
Okay. Perfect. Maybe just to follow up, do you expect any impact on your agri business from a potential shortage of fertilizers? Is there anything you've heard already from your direct clients or from a dealer side? Looking at the CEMA business barometer, it moved slightly to a negative territory again in March. Anything you can share from this side?
No, really we don't expect a big impact on that, based on the current situation as we see it. The CEMA has been moving around zero for the last months. We do see with the dealer stocks going down, we do see a bigger demand at the dealer channel and also at the OEM channel. The numbers that you're seeing on that market slide is for the entire tractor market. Our segment is the mid-range tractors. They are actually a little more positive than what you see on this general slide, because there we have seen the volumes go down earlier and on the high horsepower tractors, it went down later.
Now the mid-range tractors are coming back quicker than the high range tractors. It's actually a bit more positive than what you see on that slide. We have no indication that the fertilizer will impact that market at this point in time.
Perfect. Maybe final question, just following the capital increase. Could you provide or share more color on kind of your timeline in terms of M&A? To what extent maybe the current macroeconomic uncertainties might impact this timeline. On the one hand, you maybe becoming a little more or a bit more cautious keeping your powder dry, and on the other hand, a potential impact on the pricing, if there's any.
We don't look at it that opportunistic. We look at it more strategic. We have a number of targets that we're looking at, and if we have an opportunity to close a deal with a target that fits into our strategy, then we would do that. At this point in time, I would not say that we're trying to keep our powder dry. We're continuing the same way as we would have done four or eight or 12 weeks ago. No implication from that point. We have an industrial story that we've laid out in the AMBITION 2030, and that is the main driver for our M&A ambition.
Not so much that if we have the capability or the power, the firepower. It's more the strategic view.
Mm-hmm.
I don't see a change to what we have communicated about six weeks ago. There is targets that are on the market, and it's mainly driven because of a change in the industry, a change in ownership, and I think we are well-positioned and we have the right financing structure to be able to act if we see the right targets, and with the right industrial footprint and the right strategic fit to us. I don't know if you want to add anything to M&A.
No. Totally agree.
Perfect. That's all very clear now. I'll step back into the line. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Yasmin Steilen.
Thanks. We have some questions that were submitted by text, from Jorge Gonzalez from New Ways. I understand the cautious approach given the geopolitical events, but could you give us your view on the improvement momentum on truck and trailer ordering in the U.S. after a long recession? Do you think there is more positive opportunity than further deterioration risk?
Yeah, I think I've mentioned that a little bit. I believe that the replacement rates have been low the last year because of that uncertainty. The vehicles have aged. There is some statistics that the aging in the last two year was one year of the vehicle age. That means there is some pent-up demand. That's why I mentioned the upside potential really is if there's some more stability in the pricing, and the pricing depends a lot on the tariff situation, and if there's some more clarity on the EPA 2027 regulations, I think we will see that pent-up demand convert into numbers.
I'm personally more positive than what you see in the official numbers for the North American market. All depending, as I said, a little bit on the environment that's and the stability that is given by the administration.
Okay. Thank you. We have another question submitted via text from Sindre Iversen from Salt Volume. Regarding the organic growth in the second half of 2025, how should we think about that given the weak performance in the first half of 2025? Can you give us some color on the development during the year, and how should we think about organic growth going forward?
Yeah. I think you have, we have to take into account, also, if you look at it that way, the previous year, to 2025, so 2024. In 2024, we had a strong first half year and a weak second half year. If you do that year-over-year comparison, it appears like, 2025 has been weaker, in the first half and stronger in the second half. It's actually from the build rates, and that's not really the case. It's only if you compare it in, year-over-year that you see that picture.
Our organic growth, we have been following the markets, but we have, in addition to that market, gained market share, especially in the agricultural sector and especially in the Americas region, as Oliver has pointed out in his details. That has helped us to have the 2% growth in that market that was especially in North America, down 20%-30%, and also not very supportive in all the other regions. I wouldn't say that we had a strong last half year and a weak first half year. I would say we had a strong overall year, organically and of course, adding more potential, with the Hyva integration.
As you probably have seen in previous presentations, in those synergies that we have with the Hyva integration, the EUR 20 million that we want to achieve overall, there is some sales synergy. Some of that will come with additional sales opportunities, and this is what we will capture in 2026.
Okay, one last question submitted by text from Felix Overdiek, DMS Financial Services. Does the rising working capital requirement forecast in 2026 imply a weaker free cash flow conversion more towards the one time target?
That's correct, Felix, right. I mentioned that in the at one or the other investor event already. We were exceptionally good in 2025, also in 2024. Always it's a little bit easier to manage working capital in phases where the market and the business is stable or slightly decreasing, right, to release working capital. With the topics that Joachim was mentioning, for 2026, we see ramping up organic pipeline, especially in off-highway for us, that will consume a certain portion of working capital, affecting then the free cash flow. The other point is also, we have to mention that we are at the moment a little bit cautious when it comes to supply chains all over the world, right?
To protect our market share, to be able to deliver, to protect our customers like we did it very successfully, by the way, during the COVID crisis. That's why we have incorporated a little bit of a cushion in that working capital number. However, nevertheless, now we will try to achieve the best result that we can and stick to our overall long-term target of 1.0 adjusted net earnings free cash flow conversion. Yes, answer is yes.
Okay, that was the last question submitted by text.
As a reminder for questions from the webinar, please click the Q&A button on the left side of the screen and then click the Raise Your Hand button.
There's another one from Felix.
Oh, there's another one from Felix. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Yeah, this one. Yes, from Felix, a follow-up. Revenue growth forecast, LSD, low single-digit to mid-single-digit growth, including one month of fewer, which was consolidated as per February, which would add some 3%, perhaps a little less due to the cranes carve-out. Roughly speaking, it's an organically flat scenario, what you're currently
I don't think that this is 100% true, Felix. Not because, a little bit different to compare to other ones. We don't exclude any FX effects. We expect a certain FX, negative ex-FX effect in 2026, probably in the range of 2%-4%. As the average, let's say euro rate versus main, foreign exchange, currencies that we have, Brazilian real, USD, also Chinese renminbi, that is still increasing, and that will hit just the reported sales top line.
If you exclude that, we are coming back to that initial range that we said mid-single digit somehow is a realistic number, up towards the upper end, with more of an improvement in North America and probably even to the very upper end in case we have that pull-ahead effect from the EPA. You need to take definitely for 2026 into account that there will be FX effects.
Okay. Let me just check.
We can say the guidance includes a negative FX if-
We haven't excluded, right? Yeah, we stick to that guidance even in case we will see that FX effect.
Mm-hmm. That's it.
Okay.
Ladies and gentlemen, this was our last question. I hand back over to Joachim Dürr for any closing remarks.
Yeah. Thank you very much for your interest. I think for us, as I mentioned, an important step in our Ambition 2030.
We have one question.
Okay. Please go ahead.
One, one from Fabio still on the line. Sorry, it just came in. If you can please, moderator, put him back in. I'm sorry for that. We didn't see it.
Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, can you hear me?
Yes. Yes.
Okay, perfect. One question left, on minority interest going forward. As far as I can see, what's left now is mostly, and I'm, I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly, Usimeca, the recycling business in Brazil, the 25%. You have earmarked EUR 15.4 million for the put option. Do you plan to exercise this in 2026? If yes, would that translate to basically zero minorities going forward? Thank you.
Fabio. Let's hope that the minority shareholder is not listening to this call at the moment. That's the provision/liability we booked based on a fair value assessment that we did in the annual report, that the final price depends on final negotiations. Probably it's not so much on that we decide. We have a call, he has a put. There is a high likelihood, right, that he will do the put option, call the put option, so to speak. Then you're right, the most likely outcome will be that this liability then goes away, and on the other side, we will then consolidate to 100% that business.
The reason why that put option has increased in value, jeopardizing a little bit the finance result, is that this business has improved a lot over the last 12 months. So very successful business. Also going forward, the outlook for 2026 and 2027 for that business is a very good one. I hope that answers your question, Fabio.
It does. Yes. Thank you.
Still not over. One more question from Felix. Are you willing to share some quantifications on synergies for at EBIT level currently anticipated for 2026?
I mean, that doesn't change to what we have initially said. When we did the acquisition beginning of 2025, we said over the three years, it would be around EUR 5 million in the first year, 2025, and an incremental EUR 7 million or EUR 8 million in 2026. Summing up to a run rate of around EUR 13 million in 2026, and for 2027, the full EUR 20 million synergy. You should expect an incremental EUR 7 million-EUR 8 million EBIT for 2026.
Okay. It looks like now there are no more questions. I will wait a bit. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much for your interest on this. Joachim, please go ahead.
Thank you very much for your interest and for the questions you're posing. For us, this is a very important step in 2025 on our Ambition 2030 plans to increase our sales and our margins, and a successful integration of Hyva to this point in time. Good basis for 2026. We see slightly positive environments, and we will be able to adjust upwards or downwards to use the opportunities or to manage the risks that we see currently and that we have discussed. Thanks again, and see you at the next meeting.
Bye bye.
Bye bye.
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