Good morning everyone and welcome to our conference call on our fiscal year 2025 results. Turning to the financial highlights on page three, please. Group sales reached EUR 1.73 billion, representing an organic decline of 6.5% year-over-year, driven by the weakness in OE demand, mainly in North America and parts of APAC. Nevertheless, we achieved an adjusted EBIT margin of 9.5% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.3%, underlining our solid profitability. Operating free cash flow amounted to EUR 111 million, reflecting continued focus on working capital management in a challenging environment. Leverage stood at 2.3 x and was influenced by additional lease liabilities related to the new Rowlett, Texas plant.
In a nutshell, we achieved our guidance with respect to the adjusted sales outlook and came out slightly better with respect to our profitability. Also the CapEx ratio of 3% remained within our guidance. On page four, you can see the development of Group sales and the adjusted EBIT development. In the fourth quarter, organic sales turned into a positive territory and showed an organic growth of 4.4% year-over-year, supported by improved demand in EMEA, while North America and APAC remained subdued. As a result, full year sales declined by 7.6% and include a negative FX development of 2.3 percentage points. While the robustly developing aftermarket business was able to offset part of the decline.
Looking at the profitability, we achieved a strong adjusted EBIT margin of 10.1% in the fourth quarter, showing a margin improvement which reflects a better fixed cost absorption and catch-up effects related to the U.S. tariffs incurred since April 2025. For the full year, the adjusted EBIT margin amounted to 9.5% and was impacted by a negative FX valuation effect, but benefited from our continued strict cost discipline, a favorable product mix, and the ongoing realization of synergies from the Haldex takeover. Overall, our resilient margin profile once again confirmed the robustness of our operating model. Moving to the sales split by region and customer category on page five. Here you can see in 2025, EMEA accounted for roughly 51% of Group sales, supported by a recovery in trailer demand and a strong aftermarket business.
By contrast, the Americas were affected by tariff-related investment restraints, which weighed on both the trailer and truck markets and were further impacted by unfavorable FX developments. APAC, meanwhile, faced weaker demand in the Indian trailer markets during the first half of the year and encountered continued reluctance to buy in the Asian region, driven by the U.S. tariff policy as well as FX valuation effects. Now, looking at the split by customer segments. Weak commercial vehicle markets, particularly in the Americas or U.S. and APAC, led to an overall decline in OE sales of around 10% to approximately EUR 1 billion. As a result, the truck segment accounted for about 12% of Group sales, while the trailer segment generated roughly 48%. Once again, the aftermarket business demonstrated its stabilizing role, now contributing nearly 40% of total Group sales.
Let's turn to the development of the EMEA region on the next page, please. As OE demand improved, EMEA achieved a significant organic growth of nearly 11% year-over-year in Q4. For the full year, sales remained broadly stable, reflecting a solid performance developing in line with a slightly declining overall trailer market while being supported by a strong aftermarket business. The adjusted EBIT margin improved in Q4 to 9.1%, supported by our continued cost discipline and an intercompany overhead cost reallocation partly offset by adverse FX effects. For the year as a whole, EMEA reported an adjusted EBIT margin of 8.2%, underscoring solid operational performance despite negative FX valuation effects, mainly related to the Swedish krona as well as higher Group cost allocations. Overall, EMEA showed a solid performance during 2025.
Now, speaking about the Americas region. Also here, OE demand remained subdued throughout the year, mainly due to ongoing uncertainties surrounding the U.S. tariff policy, which continued to weigh on customer investment decisions. In the fourth quarter, organic sales declined slightly by around 1%, while the aftermarket business remained robust and continued to be a resilient pillar. For the full year, sales declined organically by 8.8%, but still outperformed the underlying market. FX effects continued to have a negative impact on sales, reducing them by 7.75% in Q4 and 4.3% in 2025. The sales trend was ultimately also reflected in the adjusted EBIT. Accordingly, the lower fixed cost absorption and higher depreciation relating to the new Rowlett plant were reflected in the region's bottom line.
For the full year, despite lower fixed cost absorption and additional costs arising from new tariffs in Q2 and Q3, profitability remained solid with 10.8%, supported by effective cost-cutting initiatives and retrospective tariff-related price adjustments which we got during the year. Last but not least, speaking about our Asian APAC region on the next page, please. Here you can see in APAC, market conditions remained challenging towards year-end 2025. However, demand in the Indian domestic trailer market continued to stabilize and recorded year-over-year market growth of 5% in Q4. Over the full year, sales were affected by weaker trailer demand in India during the first half, as well as tariff-driven investment hesitancy among Asian customers with end exposure to the U.S. Market.
In addition, unfavorable foreign exchange movements weighed on reported sales, with FX headwinds amounting to -10.3% in Q4 and -6% for the fiscal year 2025 as a whole. Despite the lower top line, strict cost management and operational discipline enabled the Group to maintain a double-digit adjusted EBIT margin for the 12th consecutive quarter now. As a result, profitability for 2025 reached 10.8%, once again highlighting the resilience and profitability of our APAC operations, even in a challenging environment. Having said this, I hand over to Frank for the key financials for 2025.
Yeah. Thank you, Alex, and hello to everybody on the line. As usual, let me start with a short overview on the EBIT to adjusted EBIT reconciliation for the Group on page 10. In the fourth quarter of 2025, reported EBIT declined by 14.8% year-over-year to EUR 29.6 million, primarily reflecting the lower sales base in the period. Adjustments in Q4 totaled EUR 7.9 million and were mainly related to restructuring and transaction costs. These included expenses associated with the ongoing efficiency program in the indirect workforce, integration costs from recent acquisitions, as well as restructuring expenses related to the optimization of production and logistics processes in North America and EMEA.
In this context, production from one of the Dumas facilities has been relocated to our new plant in Texas, while preparations for the relocation of the Wylie production are ongoing. In addition, depreciation and amortization from purchase price allocations were adjusted as usual and amounted to EUR 5.4 million in the quarter. As a result, SAF-HOLLAND delivered an adjusted EBIT margin of 10.1% in Q4 2025, while the adjusted EBITDA margin remained robust at 14.2%. Looking at the full year, the adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.3%, which is almost unchanged compared to the prior year, clearly demonstrates our ability to flexibly adjust the cost base and protect profitability even at lower volumes. Moving on to page 11, there you see the bridge from EBIT to basic earnings per share.
As mentioned earlier, reported EBIT for the fourth quarter amounted to EUR 29.6 million. At the same time, we made further progress in actively managing below-the-line items. The financial result remained at a low level of -EUR 10.4 million. As this was around -EUR 5 million below the prior year level, it should be noted that the comparison period benefited strongly from a positive currency effect. Thanks to our implemented measures to mitigate FX valuation effects, we successfully avoided any material valuation impact at year-end. Full-year financial result ended up at EUR 50.6 million, including a EUR 16 million negative impact from unrealized FX devaluation. Within the full-year financial result, we further optimized our external financing structure, and interest expenses were reduced by 18% or EUR 6.2 million year-on-year.
This proves our continued focus on financial efficiency and disciplined balance sheet management in addition to the general Euribor improvement. Income tax also declined meaningfully in the fourth quarter, with the tax rate coming in at around 32%. Consequently, the effective tax rate for the full year remained broadly stable at 34.9% in line with the previous year. Finally, the adjusted EPS of EUR 0.53 in Q4, respectively EUR 1.86 during full year 2025, underscores the underlying resilience of the Group's earnings profile in a challenging market environment. Moving further to page 12, you will see the dividend development of the past years. Over the past years, SAF-HOLLAND has consistently demonstrated a reliable and sustainable dividend policy.
Building on the solid operating and financial performance achieved in 2025. The management board and supervisory board will propose a dividend of EUR 0.65 per share to the annual general meeting to be held in May. This proposal is based on the new calculation methodology for distribution relevant net profit introduced in 2025, which adjusts for the unrealized foreign exchange rate effects within the financial results, as well as the corresponding tax effects. As a result, the proposed dividend represents a payout ratio of approximately 47% of distribution relevant net profit, and therefore lies in the upper half of the Group's stated payout guidance range of 40%-50% of available net income. When measured against the reported net result for the period, this corresponds to a payout ratio of around 57%.
Based on the year-end 2025 share price of EUR 15.30, the proposed dividend also translates into an attractive dividend yield of 4.2%, underlining SAF-HOLLAND's continued commitment to delivering an appealing and sustainable shareholder return. Moving to page 13, where you see the development of the equity ratio. Compared with year-end 2024, equity declined by 6.7% or EUR 35.1 million to EUR 492 million. This development was primarily driven by the dividend payment of approximately EUR 39 million and negative foreign exchange valuation effects of around EUR 33 million, reflecting currency movements rather than underlying operating performance. At the same time, the balance sheet total decreased by 2.8%.
As a result, equity ratio stood at a solid 29.6% at year-end 2025, providing a sound foundation for the Group's financial stability. Turning to page 14, I would like to speak about the net working capital development. Net working capital at year-end 2025 was influenced by several factors. During the year, SAF-HOLLAND operated with relatively elevated inventory levels, driven by the impact of the U.S. Tariff policy, as well as the relatively stronger performance of the aftermarket business. By year-end, however, inventory levels were successfully reduced compared with the prior year, reflecting an active working capital management. By contrast, trade receivables increased mainly due to slightly improved demand toward year-end in the EMEA region, typical reporting date fluctuations and structurally different customer mix.
Overall, despite these offsetting movements, the Group continued to improve its net working capital ratio over the course of the year and closed the year at a level of 16.8%, well within our targeted range. Looking ahead, we expect the net working capital ratio to remain within a corridor of 16%-18% of sales in 2026. Now let me address the cash flow development on page 15. Net cash flow from operating activities amounted to EUR 81 million in Q4, resulting in a total of EUR 160.3 million for the full year 2025. Compared with the prior year, this development primarily reflects lower market-related earnings as well as a cash outflow from working capital.
This is mainly driven by slightly improved demand toward the end in the EMEA region, as well as higher trade receivables, as outlined earlier. In addition, tax payments increased slightly, reflecting the strong operating performance in previous years. The other line comprises a mix of items, including several tax-related effects in the reporting period, as well as pension and M&A related movements in 2024. Investments in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets totaled EUR 49.2 million, corresponding to 3% of Group sales and remaining within our targeted guidance range. Overall, these investments focused on further automation and modernization of production processes, regulatory measures for the new plant in Rowlett, Texas, the capacity expansions at the Düzce and Alvorada sites, as well as the takeover of the GRANIT PARTS portfolio in North America.
Finally, the company managed again, even on challenging markets, to deliver more than EUR 100 million cash, what provides a solid basis for a reliable capital allocation. Moving further to an overview on the leverage development on page 16. Despite the refinancing measures implemented in recent months, the net debt to EBITDA ratio increased to 2.3 x at the end of December compared with end of 2024. This development was primarily driven by higher net debt, reflecting an increase in lease liabilities of EUR 21 million related to the new Rowlett plant and the associated optimization of our operational footprint.
At the same time, EBITDA declined to EUR 221.7 million, mirroring the challenging market environment experienced throughout 2025. Importantly, when excluding the IFRS 16 effect, our leverage would have amounted to a significantly lower level of 2x at year-end 2025. Looking ahead, we expect to gradually reduce leverage in the coming quarters, supported by continued operational measures and improving market environment. Our clear target remains to stepwise reduce leverage to below 2x over the coming quarters. Having said this, I hand back to Alex.
All right. Thank you, Frank. I'm on page 18, showing the fiscal year 2026 forecast for the trailer and truck markets. As expected, 2025 proved to be a weak year overall for the CV sector. In particular, the purchasing reluctance in North America and APAC, driven by the U.S. tariff policy, led to a further decline in production volumes in key segments, most notably in the U.S. itself, and was compounded by persistently low freight rates. By contrast, European truck market showed positive growth over the year, while the trailer segment remained broadly stable. Importantly, sentiment improved as the year progressed, especially in the second half of the year. Against this backdrop, we have entered 2026 with confidence and a more optimistic outlook.
For EMEA, we expect the market for trailers to develop steadily to moderately positively, and the market for heavy trucks should even grow more strongly to up to 10%. In North America, we continue to expect stable business development in the trailer and Class 8 truck segments. However, demand could develop better than currently expected if additional impediments emerge from the ongoing political and regulatory processes. This includes, in particular, the renegotiation of the USMCA agreement and possible adjustments to the EPA 20 27 emission standards. In the APAC region, market developments are expected to remain differentiated by country. In China, following a year of significant support from government subsidies, we anticipate stable to moderate growth. In India, meanwhile, the positive momentum observed in the domestic markets during the second half of 2025 is expected to continue, with both commercial vehicle segments growing between 5% and 10%.
Overall, these regional dynamics and market trends form the basis for our guidance for the year 2026. Next slide, please. Looking ahead to 2026, SAF-HOLLAND expects an overall positive business development in EMEA and APAC, supported by the respective improvements in trailer and truck OE market conditions. In contrast, market conditions in North America are expected to remain subdued. At the same time, the aftermarket business is anticipated to remain stable, underpinned by the solid product population built up over prior years in all markets. Against this backdrop, the Group forecast sales for 2026 in the range of EUR 1.7 billion-EUR 1.85 billion, assuming stable exchange rates.
From a profitability perspective, performance is expected to be driven by the resilient aftermarket business, scale effects in growing regions, and continued progress in the efficiency program for the indirect workforce that is expected to enable savings in a mid-single digit EUR million amount. These measures are expected to gradually ease cost pressure and help offset the general increase in wage levels. In addition, a shift in the regional sales mix is anticipated, with a higher share attributable to the EMEA region. Within this context, SAF-HOLLAND is targeting adjusted EBIT margin in the range of 9%-10% for 2026. The CapEx ratio is expected to be usual, in the usual range of up to 3% of sales and will focus on optimizing the production network, especially in the U.S.
Further automation to enhance manufacturing efficiency as well as the continued rollout of SAP S/4HANA. Let me briefly summarize the key takeaways for the fiscal year 2025 on page 20. In last year, our business model helped us navigate a highly volatile market environment. Our diversified footprint and the strength of the aftermarket business allowed us to effectively offset weaker OE demand. Even under these conditions, we were able to protect profitability. Strict cost discipline played an important role here and clearly demonstrates the flexibility of our business model, which gives us confidence that we can continue to deliver resilient earnings as volumes recover. At the same time, cash discipline remained a clear priority throughout the year.
We delivered a solid operating free cash flow, and this strong focus on cash conversion combined with a controlled CapEx, supports our financial flexibility and further strengthens our balance sheet. Looking ahead to 2026, we are cautiously optimistic and focused on profitable growth as we expect positive momentum in EMEA and APAC, alongside with the gradual normalization in North America. Supported by ongoing efficiency initiatives and a disciplined investment approach, we continue to prioritize margin resilience. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the presentation. We can now start with your questions. Operator, the first question, please.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their 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. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable loudspeaker mode 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 Yasmin Steilen from Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Hello, thanks very much for the presentation. I have three questions, if I may. The first one with regards to your guidance, the guidance provides a very wide range reflecting the macroeconomic uncertainty. Could you please walk us through your assumptions where you see downside and upside risk on your underlying market outlook? What are your assumptions in terms of energy and freight cost inflations? I just try to get a better sense to what level of conservatism is baked into your forecast.
The second question on M&A, you have mentioned during the Capital Markets Day in March last year that you could also consider M&A in the area of off-highway. Can you provide us any update on your considerations there? Finally, on the truck air disc brakes business, could you share an update on the production ramp up in 2025 and what growth trajectory we should expect in 2026 in the segment? Thanks very much.
Thank you, Yasmin. I take the first question related to the guidance. Guidance is always a difficult point in this uncertain geopolitical environment. We see, as mentioned already during the call, we see improvement in EMEA, so slight recovery, a solid order book development, what is not really pushed by big infrastructure investments from the government. It looks like an upcoming normal market recovery after two years with low markets, especially in the trailer industry. This makes us somehow optimistic in Europe, remembering that one year before we were talking about short-term work and cutting shifts here. Now, this has improved, and we have really good view on the EMEA market. More difficult, I would assume, is the U.S. Market.
If you take the last ACT update from November till now, it goes from -20 to 0 to +10 up and down. This is something that is a bit more difficult to predict here. We always refer to our really resilient and sustainable business model. As long as trucks are running, aftermarket business is running, and this is where we generate our margin and cash mainly. Sales-wise, yes, we have a broader range with EUR 150 million, but it's not really, I think, what is still a precise guidance.
In terms of EBIT, we feel quite strong that with our resilient business model, we can manage. If we see any reasonable cost changes in our cost base, we have proven the last years as well that in our oligopolistic market we can manage this in terms of passing this through to customer. Also here, I think we have a quite effective and efficient business case, business system running. No doubt on the guidance today.
Okay, I will take over the M&A off-highway portion. As a reminder, we are not only looking into possible M&A targets in the off-highway sector, but also in other adjacent industry which would fit to our overall setup. As you might know, we already have very high market shares as market leaders or second market leaders in the big regions like EMEA and North America. Here to outgrow or further grow, it's quite difficult. It's possible, but to really make big jumps in sales, we are looking into M&A targets. Well, we have some targets on the list. We are undergoing some talks and investigations, but as I said, not only focusing on off-highway, but also other adjacent industries.
Whenever we are ready to inform the outside world, we will do as SAP, but at the moment, nothing new to report other than we are investigating. Speaking of the truck air disc brakes, we did a good step forward in 2024 and 2025. We have now four production facilities around the globe. In China, we can produce meanwhile both trailer air disc brakes as well as truck air disc brakes. Of course, we have our big facility in Sweden where we can produce everything and also renewed equipment, a new assembly line, machining cells, KTL.
Everything got upgraded last year. We have now also, since the second quarter of 2025, air disc brake facility in Turkey, where we manufacture our local needs for the trailer brakes. We can now manufacture both trailer and truck air disc brakes in North America. We already listed now with two U.S. OE truck manufacturers and two more in the approval process.
We are supplying three truck OEs in Europe now and also starting in China to supply truck air disc brakes to Chinese truck manufacturers. That's a good step in the right direction. Of course, all these things take some time. We have the right setup with our aftermarket and all our sales points here, where we supply our aftermarket components also then for the truck air disc brakes, so there is more to come. As a summary, as I said, we did a great step forward in 2024, but 2025, we have sufficient capacity for both trailer brakes but also truck brakes and of course, bus brakes. Does that help?
Yes. Thanks very much. Very clear. I step back into the line.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one at this time. The next question then comes from Klaus Ringel from Oddo BHF. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. One would be if you could give a bit of an indication what we can expect for your adjusted free cash flow in 2026. If it's fair to assume another three-digit million figure again. This would be the first one, please.
Yeah. Thank you, Klaus, for the question. I take this related to cash flow. If you look into our guidance for 2026, the midpoint in sales, the midpoint in margin and the hints that we have given as well on the expected other issues like tax rate or financing, I think you can see that it's stable to slightly positive tendency. We don't give a guidance on cash flow, but if you take the numbers of guidance and the hints we have disclosed during the presentation, you see that it's stable to improving.
From my side, if we would do with a three-digit free cash flow, I would be personally very disappointed.
Me too.
To be honest.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Second one, would be if you could give an update on your current view, what would be your M&A watch list, that you could spend on, yeah, value creating, bolt-on deals?
Well, we cannot speak about that other, if we would be doing that, we would immediately have the BaFin sitting on our neck. As I said before, we had a long list, we have a short list. We are making some talks, further investigations. Nothing yet to say anything new. If we have something to say, then as I said before to Yasmin already, we will immediately inform the outside world. But w e are looking, I would say to some bigger targets, not the small ones.
They really have to be bigger in sales, but also profitability. We are not doing any restructuring cases. We don't wanna do that. If it would be perfect, sales in all regions, a good portion of aftermarket, of course, and in adjacent industry. It has to make sense. There is no need to buy just to buy now something. We have time to do so. We will do that in a very clever way, smart way. Of course, we don't want to overpay. That's also very important for us.
With another year, like 2024, with solid cash performance, even on low markets, also our funding power has not changed. We can really look for targets of EUR 1 billion or even higher easily as we have really a good financing power with the business case we are operating.
Okay, perfect. Thanks for the update, and have a good day.
Thank you.
As a reminder, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one at this time. It looks like there's no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Frank Lorenz-Dietz for any closing remarks.
Yeah. Thank you everyone for participating and also for the few questions. Our Investor Relations team is available in case you have any follow-up questions later on. Don't hesitate to contact us. We will be, as always, on the road on some conferences and also some roadshows the next weeks and months and looking forward seeing you there. Thank you very much.
Thank you, everybody. Stay healthy.