Hello, and welcome everyone to the Kingspan Preliminary Results 2025. My name is Becky, and I will be the operator today. All lines will be muted throughout the presentation portion of the call, with a chance for Q&A at the end. If you wish to ask a question in this time, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypads.
I will now hand over to your host, Gene Murtagh, CEO, to begin. Please go ahead.
Excellent. Good morning, thank you and welcome, everybody. I'm joined here by Geoff and Dave to take you through our 2025 results. If you could please just go to slide 3 in the results deck titled 2025 in summary. Just in brief, we saw revenue growth to EUR 9.2 billion, which was pre-currency growth of 9%. On the EBITDA, we were just over EUR 1.2 billion, which similarly was 9% up. And trading profits was just over EUR 955 million, and again, like-for-like or pre-currency growth of 8%, which brought our EPS to EUR 3.70.
Once again, on our continued emission reductions program right across the group, we've seen since 2020, a Scope 1 and 2 internal reductions of 77%, which is pretty extraordinary, and that continues to advance along the lines that we've discussed previously. Backing up those results clearly and exiting the year, the Insulated Panel order bank, as part of the Envelope, was ahead 8%. Actually, the intake in the same product group is ahead 8% for the first six weeks of this year. In the ADVNSYS business units, the revenue was up 12% in the year, which obviously accelerated through the second half. The backlog at the end of the year was ahead 24% in that whole product group.
And the order intake in the ADVNSYS product set is double prior year in the first six weeks, and we expect that growth rate to actually accelerate from this point forward. So all in all, it was a strong year, given the circumstances. We entered this year with, I would say, very encouraging backlogs and activity right across the business. And notwithstanding the weather-hampered start to the year, which won't surprise anybody, we do expect to see a significant growth in 2026.
So just for some more color and all that, I'll hand you over to Geoff now.
Thank you, Gene. I'm on page six, the financial highlights. Firstly, group revenue at EUR 9.2 billion, up 7%, or 9% at constant exchange rates. The principal FX move year-on-year was US dollar to euro. To be specific on that, the average translation rate from euro to U.S. dollar was 1.08 in 2024, versus 1.13 in 2025, in terms of our average translation rate. Group EBITDA, EUR 1.22 billion, up 7%. Trading profit, EUR 955 million, up 5% or 8% at constant exchange rates. Earnings per share at EUR 3.70. Our total dividend for the year, EUR 0.555, a payout ratio of 15%, which is our policy guide.
Strong free cash flow of EUR 429 million, and I'll come to the components of that shortly. Trading margin, at a headline, down 10 basis points to 10.4%, but actually underlying, pre-acquisition, we were actually ahead by 20 basis points to 10.7% year on year. Net debt, we ended the year EUR 1.88 billion. In terms of leverage, net debt to EBITDA of 1.65 times. Turning to page seven, just bridging revenue and trading profit year on year. Our 2024 revenues of EUR 8.6 billion. Clearly, the significant component of sales growth during the year was the EUR 707 million contributed by acquisitions year over year.
And then we had the FX move of 2% or so, clipping sales by EUR 138 million. From a profit perspective, 2024 was EUR 906.7. Currency shaved EUR 21.4 million off that. It's worth highlighting that of that EUR 21.4 million, EUR 19.6 million of that occurred in the second half of the year, 'cause that's really when the pronounced exchange rate move actually happened. Acquisitions contributed EUR 49.5 million in the year. Initially dilutive, but will kick on from here in terms of trading margin and underlying profitability up by EUR 20 million. The geographic profile of sales set out on page 8, pretty consistent year-on-year.
The Americas at 22% of the business, rest of world at 8%, and Europe, all told, across all territories, 70% of the business in both 2024 and 2025. Turning to free cash flow on page nine. Naturally, the strongest component of free cash is the EBITDA of EUR 1.22 billion. Working capital, an outflow of EUR 151 million. Our working capital to sales ratio is 11.9%, which on a five-year view, is an efficient performance. That happened to be up by 50 basis points on the very low level of December 2024. About half that move reflects the timing of acquisitions versus year end. CapEx, EUR 325 million, and we're guiding EUR 350 million for this current year.
The other significant cash flow item, tax, of EUR 132.8 million, in line with our income statement charge, with an effective tax rate of 16% in 2025, and our guidance for 2026 is an effective tax rate of 16.5%. All of that combined to give us free cash flow of EUR 429 million. From a capital perspective, that's set out on page 10 in terms of the reconciliation of opening and closing net debt. We reduced debt by the free cash. We deployed EUR 258 million in acquisitions, and incurred EUR 168 million in deferred consideration.
We also acquired 2.2 million shares during the year for a consideration of EUR 148.6 million. That's an average share price of €67.58. Dividends paid of EUR 99.5 million during the year. So net debt, end of the year, EUR 1.88 billion. A feature of the business for a long period of time has been the strength of our balance sheet, some commentary around that on page 11. The group has significant liquidity. The principal strands of that are our undrawn EUR 800 million green revolving credit facility, which is fully committed to May 2028. We have cash balances on hand of approximately EUR 600 million.
Our total gross debt is about EUR 2.2 billion or so between private placement and public banks. The weighted average maturity of all of our drawn debt is a little over four years, and we have no significant maturities in the current financial year. With that, I will hand back to Gene.
Thank you, Geoff. So just to, you know, look at the structural growth drivers of the business. Once again, you know, a lot of you will be familiar with this, but just in summary, if we can go to slide 14, which is likely multifaceted growth drivers for the Insulated Envelope. And again, we'll go through this in some more detail with Dave shortly, but the three primary strands here are growth and penetration, which continues even in European markets, not to mention North America, APAC, and South America, with very significant runway for us there into the long term. The continued geographic rollout of the business continues, again, I would stress, even in Europe, and all of the other regions that we've just mentioned.
The product portfolio within the Envelope is expanding way beyond what it was five, 10 years ago. Obviously, huge growth in the QuadCore business, but expansion into other technologies like wood fiber and the acoustic insulation sector, stonewool, not to mention, obviously, the roofing expansion, which is going on worldwide, and most significantly in North America, where we have very large ambitions for our business there. I'd say similarly on slide 20, which is the growth drivers for ADVNSYS. You know, and this clearly is quite extraordinary and won't come as a surprise to anybody, but the sector itself we're operating in is demonstrating very strong double-digit growth in itself, which naturally, we're in the middle of. The business is growing share as we go along as well.
Market share growth as we expand our product portfolio is a significant driver for us. The share of wallet is just way beyond what it was even five years ago, where per megawatt, we had exposure of about $100,000 per meg, and that is now 5x that and growing. As we've expanded the product portfolio, got into water cooling and now obviously into air handling, that continues to grow. That spread of business and share of wallet, we expect to continue to expand significantly into the future.
Thanks, Gene. If I could take you all to slide 16 now, please.
I think just as we enter a period where the macro backdrop looks like it's a little more stable than it's been for some time, it's probably worth reflecting on the markets that we've faced over the last 5 to 6 years. What the slide is showing you is, look at a very challenged backdrop, particularly across Europe, compared to 2019 on a volume basis. Which if you look at the total footprint of the Kingspan markets, it looks like volumes in our addressable market, down between 4% and 5% globally when we compare that to 2019. Over the same period, organically, Insulated Panel volumes have grown by nearly 14%. So it's been a very consistent 3% outperformance, which will become more evident as markets stabilize.
With the conversion to more energy-efficient products, you know, has never been stronger. If I can bring you on then to slide 23. Look, you've seen our global expansion map before, and really, in taking advantage of all of the opportunities that Gene has outlined across the data business, the roofing opportunity that we have started in Europe and are embarking upon in North America, alongside the structural growth of the vast array of our products.
You can see the investments we're making across the globe now and then over the next 2-3 years to unlock all of that potential. So we look to have projects in the pipeline that will require investment of about EUR 1.2 billion, which is nothing out of the ordinary in terms of capital allocation, but has the potential to unlock about EUR 2 billion of revenue over the fullness of time, which again, if you flip onto slide 24, will underpin that consistent long-term growth story that you've been familiar with, with Kingspan. With that, hand it over to Gene.
Thank you, Dave. Just on slide 25, which is the outlook and how we're feeling about the near-term future. We've, as we said earlier, entered the year with very strong backlogs right across the business. They have continued to grow significantly through the first six weeks, although clearly, dispatches and deliveries have been hampered somewhat by weather, but we expect that to recover pretty swiftly through March, April, and beyond that. Really, just when we step back, the business clearly has grown, you know, consistently over the last forever. You know, we reached our target for 2025. We expect growth of, you know, in or around 10% in earnings for the current year, and we would expect that rate of growth to accelerate beyond that into 2027 and 2028.
difficult to be specific about that, but we're certainly seeing a pipe of longer-term activity and engagement that would give us a high degree of confidence to deliver what we've just expressed there now. So, with that, we would be delighted to take your questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypads now. If you feel your question has been answered or for any reason you would like to remove yourself from the queue, please press star followed by two. We do ask today that you limit yourself to two questions per person. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. Our first question comes from Shane Carberry from Goodbody. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Morning, all, and thank you for taking my two questions. The first one, maybe just to follow up on that last point you were making, Gene, about the kind of level of growth over the kind of medium term or out to the end of the decade. Can you just give us a little bit more color on, you know, exactly what you mean in terms of, you know, that trading profit growth exceeding what we've seen over the last couple of years would be helpful. And then the second is just thinking about the product evolution from a data perspective and how you kind of keep apace with all the change that's happening in the industry, and are you still confident in terms of achieving a kind of EUR 600 million EBITDA number, kind of over the next 4-5 years?
Okay. Morning, Shane. So on the first point, so the—like, we really have multi-stranded growth across the business, and it's actually very, very exciting, very encouraging. But if you look at our Envelope for a start, like we've clearly got the evidence through the backlog and order intake in the insulated panel product strand, and obviously our entry into roofing, which has been both acquired and now increasingly organic, predominantly in North America, which really, it just hasn't kicked in at all. That's something for, you know, second half of this year and into 2027 and beyond. And that's going to be significant, and as I say, clearly not evident just yet.
We've got another dimension which is happening, and I think it's going to be significant and here to stay for some time, which is inflation. So there are all kinds of trade barriers coming up left, right, and center. The result of that is that our big inputs, like steel and chemicals, are going to be subject to significant inflation in the current year. It's happening, and we see it happening consistently quarter by quarter into the future. And, you know, as odd as that sounds, that, that actually is a very positive dynamic for the group once we-- once you get past the, the lag phase, and that's going to be, I think, you know, more and more materially evident as we go through even 2026.
Beyond that, which affects both ADVNSYS and the Envelope business, is just this truly seismic transition that's going on in the tech sector, and in particular, around the move towards AI. Like, as a group, we are positioned right at the core of all that, and that's both internal and external. When you just piece all that together, and you consider the level of tangible engagement we've got with our client base, which is now much more long-term because of the nature of these projects, the pipeline we're looking at is actually just really extraordinary.
On the product evolution piece, we've obviously been able to keep, keep at or above the pace of that, you know, moving from what was just a simple access floor, which was giving us exposure today to going back 20, 25 years, in fact. Like now, the product portfolio is just not comparable to that, and it continues to expand. Like, all I can-- like in terms of us being able to keep apace of that, all I can say is, you know, the evidence of the past is that we have been able to do that.
We're, we're able to pivot and move with whatever the technology and the solutions have been going all along, and I'd be extremely confident that we continue to be at the forefront of that, with, with our clients. Confidence around the EUR 600 million EBITDA, yes, we'd be at least as confident on delivering that, as when we kind of mentioned it three or four months ago. That's obviously wherever kind of four or five-year target, but the trajectory towards that is, is, is very, very evident.
Really helpful. Thanks, Gene.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Cedar Ekblom from Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much, gentlemen. I've got two questions, one quite simple one. On your free cash flow, you had quite a big swing in working capital in 2025. I wonder if you could just give us a little bit of commentary around the working capital investment there. Is that simply associated with new plants, or is there something else that we need to think about there, and then how we think about that sort of working capital development into 2026? And then secondly, on your roofing portfolio, can you talk a little bit about your decision to invest beyond these two initial assets? I believe that recently the commentary was around making a third investment in residential roofing. It would be good to just hear how you're thinking about that cadence.
Beyond maybe the next two years or so, can you talk to us about what your ambition is in the U.S. roofing space? You're a new entrant. There's a lot of concern around disruption to pricing, et cetera, and I'd just like to hear how you would like your business to be positioned, you know, towards the end of the decade. Thank you.
Cedar, just to take the free cash flow question first. Over time, a highly efficient measure for us is a working capital sales ratio, less than 12%, and that's been the, the measure of efficiency over time. At the end of 2024, it was 11.4%, which was particularly low and particularly efficient for, for a number of reasons. It was 50 basis points higher at the end of December 2025 to 11.9%. That's our assumption as we go into, 2026 in terms of, average working capital levels. It can be-- it can vary for a whole number of reasons to within 50 or 60 basis points, but 11.9% is what we see the profile of the business.
Specifically, about half the move during 2025 was associated with the timing of acquisitions and the working capital move between the date of acquisition to year-end. So that'll naturally normalize as we move through 2026.
And then, Cedar, on the roofing side, we've got the first two, as you mentioned, Oklahoma and Maryland. They're happening as planned. On the commercial roofing side, we'll be moving to a third facility as well in the not-too-distant future, more than likely in Utah. So that's gonna give us, you know, really an ability to service the market pretty much nationally. And as you mentioned, there are our intended entry into the resi side, like, that's kind of always been on our radar. You know, it won't surprise you to know that we've been looking at acquisition opportunities on that side as well. It's a huge market.
There are, there are tens and tens of facilities around the, around the country, and us entering with one, you know, will hardly even be noticed. But obviously, we've got to step into it at some point. That clearly, just by the nature of the size of the project, is more long term, probably more like a three-year project. And as you know, that, that side of the roofing market is, is pretty challenged at the present time, but that's, that's just a moment in time. So we just see it as part of a wider roofing portfolio longer term. You know, how, how, how we'll be, you know, received or what our success rate will be, well, that's all TBC, but we haven't, we haven't failed yet. You know, in terms of disruption, market pricing, it's not something I'd be particularly concerned about.
You know, it's a huge market. It's a growing market on the commercial side. We would expect that certainly in the earlier years, our capacity additions will be readily absorbed by the general pace of growth in the market. And our previously stated ambition of getting to a 15% share of the addressable side, bearing in mind, we don't want any presence in the EPDM market or the bitumen market. That remains our ambition, and we have every confidence of succeeding in getting there.
Thanks very much for the color.
Thanks, Cedar.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Flor O'Donoghue from Davy. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I've a couple questions I might just ask on ADVNSYS. First of all, just in terms of the order book, how much visibility that gives you when you talk about it being the intake levels doubling and just generally the conversion of an order book, is there a long time lag, just the kind of dynamics of how that works? The second one I might ask is just, you mentioned in the document about the board's business in Europe in terms of capacity management and actions you've been taking. Just a little bit more color on that would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
Yeah. So just on the ADVNSYS backlog, Flor, it's approximately nine months, but it's actually becoming even longer. So it's getting larger and longer, and then we would have very solid engagement of work right through 2027 and even into 2028. Now, that's obviously not—they're not purchase orders. And so not entirely bankable, but on the basis of the type of engagement we've had with these end clients going back, we'd have a fair degree of comfort in that work coming through. And none of that will come as a surprise when you look at the general scale of investment into AI. You know, it's only a tiny little bit around the age that we're after.
In terms of the board capacity, we have been-- it's obviously not a huge part of the group any longer. It's become overpopulated, to be frank, particularly in Europe, largely granted by Brussels, which is completely daft, but that's the situation we've got. It's become unattractive in many markets. We've invested in probably the finest plant in the world, in Winterswijk, in the Netherlands. Huge capacity, and what we're on course to do is to really kind of gear up on that facility and get out of lesser performing, more niche manufacturing plants around. Finland, we've exited. Sweden, we're in the process of...
We have a facility in France that we're not starting up, and we're likely to take out of commission another facility somewhere in the middle of Europe. And like I say, really just gear up on one core plant in the Netherlands and just make that work hard. But importantly, we're gonna be repurposing this capacity. It's not going in the bin or, you know, gonna be, you know, growing cobwebs. So at least two of those lines I've just mentioned are gonna be, one of them is brand new, in Riom in France, that, like I said, we're just—it's not wise to start it up. It's gonna be going to, into the, roofing sphere in the U.S., and one other of the European facilities is likely to be Utah-destined as well.
So we just see a better future for those, those assets in that market, and that's, that's kind of what we're about doing.
Great. Thank you for that. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Arnaud Lehmann from Bank of America. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good morning, gentlemen. A couple of questions on my side. Firstly, on ADVNSYS, obviously you decided not to IPO the business. Can you confirm that this is now a closed idea and that you're gonna keep 100% of ADVNSYS and obviously keep the full, full consolidation of this high-growth business? And secondly, just to follow up on U.S. roofing. As you know, there's been a decent amount of consolidation and M&A activity in the distribution side of it. Is that an opportunity for you in terms of the new owners of these assets are maybe more open-minded to take on your products, or does that create new challenges? Thank you.
Great. Arnaud, yeah, the ADVNSYS IPO idea is put to bed. That's it. We're retaining 100% and moving on. That was a fantastic exercise, very interesting for us as well. That's where we've ended up. In terms of the U.S. roofing, yes, there's an awful lot of, an awful lot of moving parts on the distribution side, which, to be honest, it's neither positive nor negative for us because we're starting from zero. It's opportunity one way or the other, is the way I would characterize that. Bearing in mind, by the way, that we're obviously, through our Insulated Panels business, a direct-to-market model.
So our relationships are with specifiers and, you know, delivering direct to size, and invoicing contractors is our primary presence in North America. So, you know, we're gonna be multi-stranded in terms of how we approach the market, which we're already doing. So distribution we'd see as a route as opposed to the route. And, you know, it'll take us a while to find our feet, but we have a blank page, and we're looking forward to it.
Very clear. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Arnaud.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Elodie Rall, from JP Morgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi. Thanks for, thanks for taking my questions. My first question is actually going back on Q4. If you could get us, maybe a bit more color on the organic growth for both businesses, price volume, that would be helpful. My second question is, going back on U.S. roofing, on 2026 guidance, what do you have with regard to that part of your business, and how should we model start-up costs as the plants are ramping up, please? Thank you.
Thanks, Elodie. I'll take those questions. Firstly, as it relates to Q4, I mean, as we've said before, our business ought to be judged over a 12-month period. You get ebbs and flows through various months and quarters. We guided in November that we would do approximately EUR 950 million in trading profit, and we came in at EUR 955. I think it would be fair to say as well, that our intake in Q4 was strong, both within Envelopes and ADVNSYS, such that we ended the year on the panels dimension to Envelopes with the backlog 8% ahead. So that did build through Q4.
And as we've highlighted previously, the intake in ADVNSYS was strong as well, both in Q4 and beyond that.
As regards to the components of the growth into this year and the 105, since we gave the guidance of 105 in November, the FX headwind has become steeper. Weather has been more acute in the early part of the year. Notwithstanding both of those factors, we're still-- we still have a lot of conviction around the 105, given the momentum in the business. Specifically within that, there's about EUR 30 million of scope in terms of the run rate annually of acquisitions we've already made. They're the constituents of that.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Yassine Touahri from On Field Investment Research. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thank you very much for taking my question. I think the main question I would have is that what kind of sequence of organic growth do you see throughout 2026? I think the organic growth was very slow in 2025, in H1 and H2. I understand that the first quarter will be a little bit, a little bit slow as well. Do you see an acceleration for the rest of the year? Would be great if you could give us a little bit of a, of a more color on the element of the growth in our trading profit. What is scope? What is organic? What is FX?
Yeah, just to deal with the last part of your question first. The scope is about thirteen million in terms of acquisitions that we've already made and annualizing that through 2026. At FX, at current spot rates, so we can only assume what's out there at the moment, is broadly a seventeen or eighteen million headwind for 2026 versus 2025. Much of that is in the first half because exchange, the euro dollar rate really moved in a pronounced way from the second quarter, so much of that is the first half.
As we've highlighted, Q1 is likely to be soft enough in the early part due to weather, but given the backlogs that we have, we see momentum picking up considerably from March onwards. And it's always difficult for us to kind of trend things from quarter to quarter, but over the course of the year, we're absolutely poised for decent growth.
Thank you.
Thanks, Yassine.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Pujarini Ghosh from Bernstein. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hi, and thanks for taking my questions. So, going back to the roofing in the US. So could you talk about the progress on the you know, build-out of the plant? And you just highlighted that potentially the contribution to the P&L in 2026 is not that material, but then how should we expect that to progress in 2027? And also you know, regarding your approach to commercial roofing, you know, going greenfield and then potentially considering M&A for residential roofing that you just talked about, what is the difference that you see in the market which you know, informs the difference in the way you're considering entering the market in these two sides of roofing? And my second question is a little bit broader.
Could you talk about your exposure to OpenAI and any potential opportunities or headwinds you see in the medium to long term?
Hi, Pujarini. Thanks for the questions. Just on roofing first, to be clear, it, we're leading out with an organic investment. We've said we're keeping our options open with regard to potential M&A, but at the moment, you know, the investments in Oklahoma and Maryland are organic investments. Similarly, on commercial, when we move towards the West Coast, that'll be organic as well. And as we appraise and go after the shingles market, you know, that's again, an organic investment. None of that precludes M&A, but we are leading out with organic for the time being.
Yeah. Like, and as regards to the broader question of, you know, exposure to OpenAI, like, I guess AI, never mind OpenAI, just AI itself, like, it's like what's going on is. There's no other word for it except extraordinary. And yes, our exposure to it is extremely significant. And honestly, like we've seen exciting times in the past and growth in Kingspan, obviously, over the years. But in terms of what we're looking at for the next number of years, like, who can see way beyond? We're kind of looking at activity levels, just way beyond growth levels that we've ever experienced in the past. So our exposure to it is, yeah, very significant.
The roofing profit contribution in 2027, if you have, like, any indication?
Yeah, I mean, we should see sales activity from the end of this year in roofing, and we'll ramp up through 2027. Trading margins in roofing will still be single digits in 2027, but building out to group average rates into 2028 and beyond. That's assumed in our forward guidance. You know, at this, at this stage, we would expect sales in the US in roofing to be somewhere in the region of $150 million-$200 million in 2027, and building out to $300 million in 2028.
That's great. Thank you.
Thanks, Pujarini.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Julian Radlinger from UBS. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks very much, guys. Two from me. So hey, morning. So first of all, the stronger or the very strong order intake in ADVNSYS year to date, that's obviously similar to what we've seen from many other data center exposed plays. I suppose, why might that not lead to upside to the EBITDA guide for ADVNSYS for EUR 300 million, that you gave a few months ago? Is that because you're basically sold out for 2026 already, and that order intake translates more into 2027 or what are the moving parts here? And then second question on inflation, so you called this out explicitly. Is that more steel or MDI that you're seeing? Just because I'm looking at MDI prices, they were actually...
I think they're actually down year to date in the U.S. So is it more about, more about steel here? Thank you.
Okay, Julian. So yeah, just on the ADVNSYS EBITDA, so like that's progressive. You say if you go 2024, 2025, 2026, and it's largely organic, it's kind of EUR 180, EUR 230, EUR 300. So that's obviously pretty lively. So I guess in all of that, you know, we were indicating that it was gonna grow significantly, and I think that's kind of that qualifies as significant. But, you know, we're not gonna hold the business back. And the EURO 300 million number for this year would be a minimum, actually, to be honest. So let's see how that progresses. And then in terms of the... the other point was, oh, yeah-
On the inflation. Yeah.
Inflation. So steel by far and away, like it's, it's multiples of, size and impact versus chemicals, not just MDI. So we do see it as been predominantly steel. It's largely as a result of, protective measures all over the place. And it's starting to kind of jump ahead now. MDI, whatever MDI is doing in the U.S., just spot, I wouldn't be particularly... Like, for a start, our consumption in the US would be tiny by comparison to Europe. So and in Europe, it's definitely trending upwards. And if it's not, I'll just have to speak to the procurement guys because that's the message I've got.
Great. Thanks a lot, guys.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Chase Coughlan from Van Lanschot Kempen. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, gentlemen, and thank you for taking my questions. Just two quick ones. Firstly, could you provide a bit more color around your pricing strategy for this year? I mean, you just discussed raw material changes, but also in the context of potentially wage inflation, what sort of, yeah, pricing measures are you taking throughout the course of 2026? The second question, going to ADVNSYS. Obviously, there is sort of somewhat of a rebrand over the last few months. I think it, it's likely to cause some more attraction commercially. I'm just curious on what you're hearing from competitors, especially given the more modular solutions you're offering. I think Vertiv was quite bullish on this in their last results. I'm just curious on, yeah, what you're hearing there and how you're seeing that rebrand, yeah, with customers.
Yeah. So in terms of pricing, like our approach successfully at all times has been just to pass through. So whatever cost inflation we're seeing, we have always succeeded in getting it through to market. That's over decades. So I... we don't expect that to really be any different. Like, from a wage inflation perspective, that's not a particular kind of dial mover for us. The materials would be much more significant and much more public and obvious in terms of our ability to actually pass it through as well. So that's kind of our approach to that. You know, in terms of the positivity that Vertiv have been propagating, like, we clearly would agree with that. We see it, we're growing into it.
We're coming from opposite ends of the spectrum, if you like. Like, we're literally coming from the floor up, up through the white space into gray. I'd say predominantly, Vertiv is at the higher tech end, very deep in gray, and to some extent, kind of moving south into the white. I think, yeah, there's certainly enough for all. I think, yeah, we'll be looking... Our ADVNSYS business will be increasingly looking more like it, I'd say more so than the other way around.
Mm-hmm. Okay, perfect. Thank you for the clarity.
Thanks, Chace.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Priyal Woolf from Jefferies. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one, I guess, is just a clarification, just on the U.S. residential roofing. I appreciate you talked about this being something that you're looking at more in the longer term, but in your usual slide on global expansion, you've talked about a plant in Georgia in 2028. So I just wanted to check, is that locked in or is that sort of still TBC?
And then the second question is just in terms of capital allocation. You've reiterated that you're looking at the EUR 650 million share buyback in tandem with other growth opportunities. Should we interpret that as you potentially don't fully reach that EUR 650 million level if you see bigger or more interesting organic and M&A opportunities, or you think you'll get there regardless, and it's more just about the timing, which is the uncertainty? Thank you.
Mm-hmm. Okay, Priyal. So just on the first point, that remains our ambition and our plan. Like, that clearly can flex. It's not gonna come forward, but it could push out, and that depends largely around timing of machinery, plant construction, all that kind of stuff, as well as market conditions. We clearly want to, at whatever point we enter that site, want conditions to be as favorable as possible. And naturally, right now, it's about as bad as it's been in recent years. So thankfully, it's not right now that we're entering because they're all under an awful lot of pressure, as you know. But, you know, three years from now or whatever, that's some time out. And on the buyback?
Just on the buyback and capital allocation, generally, as we've said previously, we at all times compare opportunities that are external to Kingspan versus buying ourselves in terms of the relative valuation of both. We're fortunate that we have a healthy pipeline of development opportunities within the business, both organic and inorganic, and we'll continue to get that balance right and assessment right as we move through the year. We've done about 23% of the announced program, and we'll just see how that evolves through 2026.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Harry Goad from Berenberg. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, morning. Just a question on the panels business, please. Can you give us a rough idea of what the annual increase in new capacity is? I appreciate probably can't be too exact year to year, but in terms of the percentage number on average over the years, just think about the sort of steady increase in contribution from that division. Thanks.
I guess it's difficult to give a global answer to that in terms of capacity. It's pretty regional and localized. We're addressing different markets in different parts of the world. Naturally, we've seen very strong intake in a lot of the regions that we've entered over the last decade, in particular, like Latin America, APAC, all of those. We've put down a lot of capacity in recent years, but we're now seeing the fruits of that come through, through intake and orders. As I say, it varies very significantly from one region to another, and capacity is regional.
Rather than think about it as one lump sum, Harry, if you go back to that slide 16, just think about the average construction cycles and the investments that we're making. That feeds the 3% outperformance very consistently.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We currently have no further questions. This concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.
Great. Thanks.
Fantastic. Thank you all for joining and, we'll be in touch over the coming days.