Thank you for standing by. My name is Kate, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Adecco Group Q4 and full- year 2025 results. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Benita Barretto, Head of Investor Relations. Please, go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for joining our conference call today. I'm Benita Barretto, the Group's Head of Investor Relations, and with me are the Adecco Group CEO, Denis Machuel, and CFO, Valentina Faccaro. Before we begin, please take note of the disclaimer on slide two. Today's presentation will reference both GAAP and non-GAAP financial results and operating metrics. This conference call will include forward-looking statements, which are based on current assumptions and, as always, present opportunities as well as risks and uncertainties. With that, I will now hand over to Denis.
Thank you, Benita, a warm welcome to all of you who've joined the call today. Let me open with a full year highlight on slide four. The group has consistently delivered on its ambitions and targets in 2025. In terms of market share, the group gained 245 basis points relative to key competitors, with ongoing positive momentum. On a full year basis, the group's revenues were up 1.3% year-on-year, gross profit was stable, and the group delivered an industry-leading 19.2% gross margin, evidence of the benefits of its diversification strategy. The group has managed costs and capacity with discipline. G&A overheads were further reduced by EUR 23 million, bringing our total net savings to nearly EUR 200 million when compared to 2022's baseline. Productivity increased 3% year-on-year.
The group generated EUR 693 million of EBITDA and stayed within the EBITDA margin corridor on a full-year basis at 3%. Cash generation was strong, with a 102% cash conversion ratio, operating cash flow of EUR 613 million, and free cash flow of EUR 483 million. Importantly, the group improved its leverage ratio, ending the year at 2.4x net debt to EBITDA, down 0.2x year-on-year and down 0.6x sequentially. Let's turn now to slide five. On the left side, we highlight our consistent outperformance thus relative to key competitors across the past three years. The chart on the right side shows volume steadily improved throughout the year, with flexible placement and outsourcing volumes in the Adecco GBU rebounding from decline to growth.
Management's focus on customer satisfaction, digital innovation, and recruiter productivity, integral to our strategy, is driving strong top line and volume momentum ahead of market trends. Let's move to slide six, where we set out the progress we're making with a run and change agenda, strengthening execution muscle across operations day by day, while investing in digital solutions and new services to drive future growth. There are many points on this slide. Let me highlight only a few. Beginning with the strengthen run priorities. The group has made significant progress in 2025. The Adecco North American turnaround gained traction. Full year revenues were up 12%, and the EBITDA margin expanded to 130 basis points year-on-year. In line with the group's digital strategy, Adecco further expanded its talent supply chain approach to 144 large clients, adding 42 in Q4 alone.
By centralizing, automating, and digitizing processes effectively, the talent supply chain delivered a meaningful 550 basis points year-on-year improvement in fill rates. In Akkodis, restructuring in Germany has locked in EUR 58 million run rate savings, and LHH's career transition business continued to successfully expand in the SME segment, increasing the number of companies served by 17%. The group's change agenda also progressed. Adecco now has six recruiter agents live within the talent supply chain structure in the U.K. and in France. The U.K. agents have achieved approximately 15% time savings in recruiting processes, and this is an encouraging start. We will roll out agents across key markets in 2026 to scale these benefits.
While there is further work to be done in Akkodis Consulting, France's value creation plan improved performance, with the unit growing ahead of market and achieved a 7% margin run rate, up 160 basis points year-on-year. In LHH, targeted investment in EZRA digital coaching platform drove 42% revenue growth and a record pipeline at year-end. Moving to slide seven. On this slide, we detail the firm progress made in the turnaround of Akkodis Germany. Management took decisive restructuring action in 2025, achieving EUR 58 million in annual cost savings on a run rate basis by year-end. This included reducing the cost of sales by EUR 43 million and SG&A expenses by EUR 15 million, with EUR 8 million saved through real estate consolidation across 26 locations.
Last wave of a right-sizing effort is in flight, lowering headcount by approximately 600 in total. In addition, select non-core assets were exited, eliminating approximately EUR 3 million of negative EBITA. The program incurred one-time charges of EUR 46 million in 2025, but has already delivered around EUR 15 million of in-year P&L benefit. As a result, Akkodis Germany achieved a healthy 5.4% EBITA margin run rate at year-end. The group expects incremental savings to crystallize in the P&L during 2026, in particular during H1. With the organization being right-sized, management's focus in 2026 will shift to rebuilding the top line, supported by encouraging new client wins across sectors such as aerospace, defense, and life sciences. In short, the group has made strong progress in stabilizing Akkodis Germany, positioning it for sustainable, profitable growth going forward.
Slide eight sets out the board of directors' dividend proposal. We are retaining our attractive shareholder remuneration with a dividend of CHF 1 per share for fiscal year 2025. This represents a 46% payout ratio, in line with our established dividend policy of paying out 40%-50% of adjusted earnings per share. Shareholders will have the option to receive the dividend either in cash or in newly issued shares. With this proposal, the group provides attractive returns to shareholders, including the option for qualifying shareholders to participate in the group's future growth in a tax-efficient way. The optional scrip dividend aligns with and supports the group's capital allocation priorities, which remain unchanged. It allows shareholders to increase their investment in the Adecco Group while enabling the company to retain cash for growth and prioritize de-leveraging.
Now, let me hand over to Valentina for the Q4 results.
Thank you, Denis. A warm welcome from my side. Let's begin with slide 10 and an overview of the group's strong Q4 results. The group delivered further significant market share gains, leading key competitors by 395 basis points. Revenues reached EUR 6 billion, rising 3.9%, our best quarterly performance this year. Gross profit grew 4% to EUR 1.1 billion, with a healthy 19.1% margin, stable on an organic basis. Our disciplined execution drove good operating leverage. We were pleased to see a strong productivity improvement of 11% and to deliver a strong drop-down ratio of over 80%. In turn, the group's EBITDA was EUR 225 million, up 20%, with a 3.8% margin, up 60 basis points. Let's now discuss the GBU developments, beginning with Adecco on slide 11.
Adecco delivered a strong performance, with revenues at EUR 4.8 billion, up 4.9% and improved sequentially. Flexible placement revenues increased by 4%. Outsourcing was very strong, up 14%. MSP was up 6%. Permanent placement, however, was 6% lower. Adecco's healthy growth margin was driven by firm pricing, client mix, and lower permanent placement volumes. Productivity improved 6%. The EBITDA margin improved 40 basis points to 4%, mainly reflecting higher volumes and strong operating leverage, supported by G&A savings and agile capacity management. Adecco's drop-down ratio this quarter was robust at over 50%. Let's now move to Adecco at the segment level on slide 12. In Adecco France, revenues were 2% lower, stable sequentially and ahead of the market. Logistics continued to weigh, while autos and manufacturing were strong.
The EBITDA margin of 4.4%, up 10 basis points, mainly reflects client mix and benefit from SG&A savings plans. Revenues in Adecco EMEA, excluding France, were up 4% and sequentially improved. Most territories achieved good growth and outperformed competitors. Looking at the larger markets, revenues were up 3% in Italy, with solid activity in logistics, financial services, and consumer goods. Revenues in Iberia were up 7%. Food and beverage, autos, and financial services were strong. In the U.K. and Ireland, revenues declined 1%, a good result in a challenging market. The result was weighed by lower logistics and public sector demand, despite strength in IT tech and financial services. Revenues in Germany and Austria were up 2%, well ahead of competitors, with strength in autos, consumer goods, and defense.
The segment's EBITDA margin of 3.9% was 50 basis points higher, mainly reflecting strong operating leverage and good cost mitigation. Turning now to slide 13. Adecco Americas delivered 21% revenue growth. North America revenues increased 23%, well ahead of the market, mainly due to strong activity from large clients. In sector terms, consumer goods, food and beverage, and autos were notably strong. Latin America revenues were up 19%, led by Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. By sector, logistics, financial and professional services, and retail were strong. The Americas EBITDA margin of 3.3% expanded 150 basis points, reflecting client mix and strong operating leverage from higher volumes. Adecco APAC remained strong, with revenues up 7%. Revenues rose 6% in Japan, 14% in Asia, and 7% in India.
Australia and New Zealand returned to growth, with revenues up 2%. APAC's EBITDA margin of 4.3% mainly reflects the timing of income from FESCO. Let's now focus on slide 14, and Akkodis' strengthened performance. Akkodis' revenue were 1% lower and sequentially improved. Consulting and solutions revenue were up 2%, marking a return to growth for this service line. In EMEA, revenues were flat. Germany was 7% lower, driven by autos headwinds. Revenues in France were up 3% and ahead of the market in aerospace and defense and autos, and the U.K. and Italy performed notably well. North American revenues were up 3%, ahead of market, supported by further modest improvement in tech staffing demand, and consulting and solutions grew 46%. Revenues in APAC were 4% lower. Japan's result was heavily influenced by trading day differences.
On an adjusted basis, revenues were up 5%. Revenues in Australia were 10% lower in a tough market. Akkodis' EBITDA margin of 7% was 90 basis points higher, mainly reflecting benefit from the turnaround in Germany. Let's move to slide 15. LHH has executed well and delivered highly profitable growth. LHH's revenues were up 2%. In professional Recruitment Solutions, revenues were 3% lower, taking share in a subdued market. Recruitment Solutions gross profit was flat, with the U.S. 3% lower and rest of world up 4%. Permanent placement was up 4%, productivity was 8% higher. Career transition was robust, with revenues up 1%. U.S. revenues were 2% lower on a high comparison, while the U.K. and Switzerland were strong, the pipeline remains healthy. Revenues in coaching and skilling rose 27%.
EZRA's revenues were very strong, rising 68%, while General Assembly's B2B business grew 31%. LHH's EBITDA margin was 9.7%, up 510 basis points. The year-on-year development is flattered by the absence of charges recorded in Q4 2024, related to the wind down of General Assembly's B2C activities. On an underlying basis, the margin expanded 230 basis points, reflecting positive mix and volumes and strong operating leverage, with productivity up 12%. Let's now turn to slide 16. Gross margin was healthy at 19.1%, stable year-on-year on an organic basis. The group's gross margin was driven by a negative effects impact of 20 basis points negative impact coming from flexible placement, mainly reflecting client and country mix.
10 basis points negative impact from permanent placement, reflecting lower activity in Adecco, and a 30 basis points positive impact in outsourcing, consulting, and other services, mainly driven by Akkodis Germany. Let's now look at slide 17 and the group's EBITDA bridge. At 3.8%, the EBITDA margin, excluding one-offs, was strong, rising 60 basis points year-on-year. The result was driven by a 10 basis points negative impact from a mix, a 30 basis points favorable impact from Akkodis Germany, and furthermore, excluding Akkodis Germany, a stable gross profit contribution at healthy levels, an encouraging 50 basis points positive impact from operating leverage, including G&A savings, as well as strong productivity improvement, and a 10 basis points negative impact from the timing of FESCO income.
Among key metrics, SG&A expenses, excluding one-offs, as a percentage of revenues, was 15.4%, down 70 basis points, while G&A costs were just 3% of revenues. Productivity, measured as Gross Profit per selling FTE, rose 11%. Moving to slide 18 and the group's cash flow and financing structure. The last 12-month cash conversion ratio was strong at 102%. Full year operating free cash flow was EUR 613 million, and free cash flow was EUR 483 million. Both outcomes are strong, given the group's continuous improvement in revenues. In Q4, operating cash flow was EUR 476 million, a modest EUR 15 million decrease from the prior year period. This outcome reflects strong collections and favorable timing of payables, partly mitigated by working capital absorption for growth.
We have maintained discipline regarding payment terms and are very pleased to report that the group's DSO improved 0.4 days to 51.8 days, remaining best in class. Capital expenditure was EUR 50 million, and free cash flow was EUR 426 million, a modest EUR 20 million decrease from the prior year period. The group also strengthened its balance sheet. Gross debts were reduced by EUR 280 million in 2025, supported by the repayment of a CHF 225 million senior bond in Q4. At the end of Q4, net debt was EUR 2.29 billion, EUR 186 million lower. Leverage ratio improved to 2.4x, down 0.2x year-on-year and down 0.6x sequentially.
The group is firmly committed to bringing the net debt to EBITDA ratio to 1.5x or below by the end of 2027, absent any major macroeconomic or geopolitical disruption. On slide 19, we provide our near-term outlook. The group has seen continued positive momentum in volumes this quarter to date. For Q1, the group expects gross margin and SG&A expenses, excluding one-off, to be broadly stable sequentially. As a reminder, the prior year period benefited from the timing of FESCO income. We are rigorously executing the group's strategy and run and change priorities, focusing on market share gains while managing costs and capacity with discipline to drive profitable growth. With that, I hand back to Denis.
Thank you, Valentina. Let me conclude with slide 20 and key takeaways. We launched the Agility Advantage value creation path and run and change agenda at our November Capital Markets Day. We are successfully executing against group strategy and driving momentum. During 2025, the group delivered on its full-year margin commitment, captured market share, and returned to revenue growth, and we are encouraged to see continued positive momentum in volumes to date this quarter. Moreover, as we successfully advance our strategic priorities, the group's financials are improving, underpinning an improvement in the year, and net debt to EBITDA ratio, which was down 0.2x year-on-year and 0.6x sequentially. We remain firmly committed to achieving a net debt to EBITDA ratio at or below 1.5x by year-end 2027.
With this said, thank you for your attention. Let's open the lines for Q&A.
At this time, I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a question, press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Grobler with BNP Paribas. Your line is open.
Hi, good morning. Just a couple from me, if I may. Firstly, just on free cash, it was very strong in Q4, led by payables. Could you talk through, you know, what you did to drive that, and whether any of that is gonna reverse into early 2026. Secondly, just a slightly broader one around client behavior. Are you seeing any change in client behavior in terms of their desire for flexibility, in terms of the interactions they're having with you? Or do they remain broadly pretty cautious in those end markets? Thanks very much.
Thank you, Andy. Valentina is gonna answer the first part, and I'm gonna answer your second question.
Good morning, Andy. On free cash flow, it was a very strong performance. You've seen that we landed on EUR 483 million. The commercial ratio was very strong, above 100%. It's particularly strong, this performance, if we can see that we've done it on the back of a year, and most importantly, Q4, where we were growing. You know that our business absorbs working capital when we grow at this level. If I try to unpick a bit what are the most important components, fundamentally, it all goes down to very strong working capital management. We've been very diligent on collections, and you've seen how our DSO continues to be very strong. We are down year-on-year.
It's not easy to keep the, to keep going down on year and year in this, in this market, so we're very pleased with that. In terms of AP, yes, we did have some favorable timing on payments, but we've also done quite a lot of job in terms of scrubbing all of our balancing, negotiating payment terms, and you really start to see how the impact on that comes through also on our AP management. Overall, we're very pleased, and we continue to be laser focused on working capital. When you think about 2026, I would, I really think about free cash flow generation this year to the behavior to be similar.
Just as a reminder, seasonally, our H1 is an outflow versus an H2 that is an inflow. That's the way that I would model it. Again, laser focus on working capital because that's the key of our strong free cash flow performance this quarter.
As far as the, what our clients are telling us, we see pretty good momentum on, particularly on Flex. I must say, Adecco is firing on almost all cylinders. We have a soft results in France and the U.K., but apart from that, even though in France, we are ahead of the market, apart from that, we're really, really strong. We see momentum, we see a demand for flexible workers across the board, across geographies. It says something also a little bit about, of course, the uncertainty that we live in, but the economy is pretty good. There's demand, there's work to be done, and we're surfing on that.
You know, we're surfing on that through, of course, our sales dynamism. We surf because we are a very strong delivery engine, and that makes me very confident. There's one sign which is interesting, it's we see a little bit of a pickup in permanent recruitment in LHH. It's 4%. It's not, you know, it's not big yet, and we start from low volumes, but it's, you know, it's a little bit positive. Overall, I'm very, very optimistic on the momentum that we have. We have a great momentum as well in outsourcing. You've seen, you know, double-digit growth. I think the market is there to support our development.
Thanks. Can I just ask one quick follow-up, just on LHH and NRS in particular? You noted that perm was growing, but gross profit was down in that segment. That suggests that your kind of gross margin and your contract temp businesses is lower. Could you just talk through what's going on in that segment, please?
Well, actually, you've got to look at LHH as in two dimensions. There's perm and flex on one side, there's the U.S. and outside of the U.S. In the U.S., we are - 3%. In the rest of the world, we are + 4 overall. That says something about the geographic differences. But overall, I mean, let's be clear, the whole industry is operating at pretty low historical level, what we do is we are outperforming the market, which matters to me.
I would also add that if you look, if you look overall at the performance, you see also how LHH has really worked on productivity to offset also some of these elements. LHH productivity was up 12% in Q4, and their sales FT was down 4%. You see how they are acting also on what Denis just mentioned.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Your next question comes from the line of James Rowland Clark with Barclays. Your line is open.
Hi there. Thanks for taking my questions. My first is just on the answer you just gave about good momentum. Just to be clear, I understand you've taken a lot of market share in the last few quarters. Is that momentum comment about you specifically taking share, or do you think that's more market-based? Just if you could help of those two elements, that'd be great. Secondly, on EBIT margins in 2026, I think consensus has got 30- 40 bits of margin growth. Are you comfortable with that? Could you help us bridge that improvement across organic gross margin, which looks to be under pressure going into this year, but also then offset by SG&A?
I'd love just to get your sense on the, on the moving parts, to achieve that margin, if you're comfortable with it. Finally, on leverage, you're guiding to down to 1.5 x by the end of 2027, so you've got to lose half a term a year, between now and then. Do you see that as a linear progression or faster in 2026 and 2027 or vice versa? If so, why? Thank you.
Thank you, James. I'm sure Valentina would be super happy to take the EBITDA and leverage questions. I'm gonna talk about the momentum. Two things here: As much as I believe that the way we operate, the way we've put in place a very strong sales dynamic, which we adjust as per market conditions, as per the industry we are facing, et cetera, as per the geographies. You know, we have also put a very strong delivery engine that helps us gain share from our own merits, and that makes me very confident for the future. I also believe that it's overall the market conditions that are also improving.
You know, we have been through some difficult quarters, I would say, in the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025, and we see an overall better traction on the markets. On that, we are well-positioned because we've done all the hard work to strengthen the muscle in sales, strengthen the muscle in delivery. I would say it's a, it's a bit of both that help us grow our as we do. Valentina.
I'll build on the comments that Denis just mentioned about momentum, just to give you some more flavor on guidance for Q1 EBIT. I think that what you mentioned, James, is reasonable. The way that I think about our Q1 EBITDA is the continued positive volumes behavior gives us confidence in terms of revenue outlook, and gross margin is broadly stable sequentially. If you think also about the comparison year-on-year is we have a 20 basis points headwind coming from FX. You may remember that last year in Q1 2025, this represented a tailwind, that gives you a flavor why also a year-on-year Q1 gross margin is actually broadly stable.
In terms of SG&A, our normal seasonality from Q4 to Q1 usually sees SG&A going up by EUR 10-15 million. The fact that we're guiding for broadly stable tells you about the cost discipline that we continue to enforce. You saw that we've mentioned the FESCO income because we assume FESCO to continue to contribute positively on a full year basis, but the timing last year, it can vary, and last year it happened in Q1.
On a full year EBITDA, we don't guide overall, but I think this gives you a bit the moving pieces that you need to model in terms of getting there, and your assumption that you mentioned are quite reasonable. Moving to leverage, I think it's, you know, the free cash flow generation, the performance that we had, the trajectory of the performance that we had throughout 2025 delivered a good levering, 0.2 year-on-year and sequentially 0.6. The path to 1.5 is clear. We don't guide specifically on 2026 and 2027, but clearly the levers that we have in our hands and we are already pulling are modest growth.
You've seen how growth has dropped through in operating leverage over the past quarters. We expect that to continue throughout the next quarters. We have additional benefits coming from Akkodis Germany, but also other elements like the turnaround in North America, like the improvement in France, that will continue to help us get there, as we've shown you in the last in recent quarters.
That's very, very helpful. Thank you very much.
Your next question comes from the line of Suhasini Varanasi with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
Hi, good morning. Just one question for me, please. Just want to clarify the exit rate and momentum that you saw year to date, because I think your slide on slide five seems to suggest, at least on the GBU, Adecco GBU front, the momentum is continuing to improve in year to date. Just at that GBU level and at the group level, can you please clarify how the exit rate has looked, compared to the 3.94% growth that you reported last quarter? Thank you.
Good morning, Suhasini. I'll take this one. Just to give you a sense, the exit rate was very much aligned with the quarter average, so a group level. I hope that's helpful to give you a sense.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Your next question comes from the line of Simon Lechipre with Jefferies. Your line is open.
Morning. First question, looking at your Q4 results, if we exclude Akkodis, gross margin was down 30 basis points on an organic basis, and SG&A was probably flat organically. In prior quarters, it seems you were able to offset the gross margin pressure through cost savings. Does that mean it is no longer the case? I mean, how should we think about the future quarters in terms of the relation, gross margin performance and SG&A? Secondly, in terms of your Q1 gross margin guidance, stable sequentially, I would assume the seasonal effect is from Q4 to Q1 is negative. It seems you're also talking about, like, FX negative impact being a bit stronger. How would you offset these two factors to get to the stable gross margin sequentially?
Last thing on AI, we see more and more evidences of how AI can make the business more efficient, so I would assume this suggests some deflationary effect on top line. How do you think about the net bottom line impact in the future? Like, do you think your SG&A would continue to reduce, and would that be enough to offset this initial deflationary trend on the top line? Thank you.
I'll take the AI piece, and Valentina will be very happy to take the gross margin question and the FX.
Starting with your two questions on gross margin, Simon. I think when you think about the performance that we had in Q4, at 19.1%, it's a very healthy level. It's industry-leading, it reflects a number of components. It's not just Akkodis, right? There's firm pricing and client mix, and there's GBUs mix that contribute positively to the gross margin build-up. Yes, Akkodis Germany is a component of it, but it's not the only one. There's clear added value in the gross margin that comes from the service lines that have higher gross margin profile, like outsourcing, like EZRA.
You've heard us mentioning a number of service lines that have grown double-digit in Q4 and will continue to do that. There are a number of levers that we can continue to work on, Akkodis Germany is one of them, to work on our gross margin and keep it at these stable levels. When you look at, by the way, permanent placement continues to be subdued, clearly. When permanent placement picks up, it is a further lever that we can capture, because we will capture permanent placement growth when it comes, and that's another further lever that we can pull. When you think about Q1, let me just take a moment to walk you through the elements. You've called out the facts. It's correct.
As I was mentioning before, actually, it was a tailwind in Q1 last year, so you do have a 20 basis points gap, or when you look at it from a Q1Q perspective. Then we again have several pieces, because there's modest impact coming from perm and flex, but there's also modest positive impact coming from the other service lines. That is why we continue to say it's really broad, broadly stable, even on a year-on-year basis. If you take out the FX, we are continuing to see how the benefits of the other service lines of Akkodis that we are implementing is affecting the modest client mix that we had in flex and perm.
Yeah, fine.
may I have just a quick follow-up on GM and also on SG&A? It was - 1% organically year-on-year in Q4, so it's mainly driven by Akkodis. Does that mean, like, the other GBU, SG&A is now trending kind of flattish year-on-year?
No, we continue to see the same performance. We call out Akkodis when we mention that because we want to call out the nice progress that we've done in the restructuring and the fact that most of it is coming through SG&A, but it's broad-based. You've seen it also in our productivity numbers. They're up in all of the GBUS, not just in Akkodis, in our G&A over sales, that is just 3%, that is not just Akkodis, it's broad-based.
Let me take now the AI impact. I think there is a top-line impact, positive impact, and also an impact in productivity that's gonna help our profitability overall. On the top line, I believe that AI is really an opportunity for us. Remind you, we are on fragmented markets, so the more, you know, optimized we are in how we deliver our service through AI, the better we can gain share. I'll give you 2 examples. You know, we've embedded generative AI into our Career Studio in at LHH. When people use Career Studio with AI powered, they find a job 32 days earlier than the ones who don't. This is creating value for our clients. This is help us penetrate bigger, faster our clients.
This has a positive impact on the top line. If I look at the way we deliver, you know, with our AI agents in the UK on our recruitment, we have fill rates that have improved 550 basis points. Okay. This is an impact. We have improved our time to submit by 24% quarter-on-quarter. This helps us be more efficient, that even more. A positive impact on the top line. In doing so, we have operating leverage, as Valentina was saying, and in terms of how we optimize our cost, of course, we will progressively embed AI into our processes. We, you know, embed AI in our middle and back office, this is gonna create also efficiencies.
I believe that AI will have a positive impact both on the way we capture market share and the way we improve our profitability.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Rémi Grenu with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Morning, Denis. Morning, Valentina. Just one question remaining on my side. Focusing a little bit on North America and the very high growth there. I mean, the acceleration came in Q1 and Q2 last year, if I remember correctly. Can you help us unpack a little bit the performance there, if it's been driven by a few contracts? And if we then should expect some kind of annualization of these benefits in Q1 and Q2 this year? Just trying to understand a little bit from the 20% organic growth you're currently growing out in that country, what we should expect in term of potential normalization over the next few quarters.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Rémi. I f I go back to history, you know, Q1, we were at -1% year-on-year. Q2, we were at +10%. Q3, we are +21%. Q4, we are +23%. Of course, w e're very pleased. This shows that all the effort that we've put in the turnaround plan in the U.S. is delivering. We have productivity improved by 10%. We have a very strong dynamic on the large accounts. We also are positive in the SMEs, but that's the point where we need to focus our efforts, because the growth on our large accounts is a bit higher than the growth on small and medium companies.
To your point, yes, let's be clear, we started from a low base, okay? T hese double-digit growth trend rates are encouraging, but as we anniversary some of the wins of the large clients, we will go more towards more market trends, a bit of a normalization. Still, our focus and, you know, our efforts will be to gain share, to be ahead of the market, and I'm quite positive that we can achieve that, but probably not to the extent that we've had this year. We have good traction in customer goods, in retail, in autos, in food and beverages. I mean, there's traction on the market.
The economy in the U.S. is still pretty good. We will surf on that. We are much stronger than we were two years ago, and yes. You know, you can expect growth, probably not with a such a differential with the market.
Understood. Just maybe building up a little bit on the question from Simon, the operating costs guidance for Q1. I mean, I'm a little bit surprised by the comment on stability. Can you help us a little bit quantify the building blocks to get there? I mean, discussing with some of your competitors feels like that they're forecasting some wage inflation around 2% or a little bit more than that. The higher volume of activity, the 4% organic growth and positive momentum probably would mean, under a normal cycle, that you need to invest a little bit more in resources. Yes, can you help us a little bit on that stability of operating costs?
I'm just trying to understand as well if, to what extent you think that stability comments and these cost efficiencies are already driven by AI initiatives, or if it's just about Adecco removing some of the inefficiencies in the cost base that you had there and had to address? Thanks.
Let me start by a little bit of how we strategize that growth. You heard me say in the past that what we try is to be very, very granular in the way we inject the resources that are linked to the dynamic of the markets. If I talk markets, it's by country, it's even by region in a country, it's by industry in a particular region, a particular country. Really adjust through this empowerment that we've put in place years ago, that's what we let people adjust very precisely to the market conditions. Yes, we will need to invest in some places, but we're also cautious in some others. That's how we operate.
Definitely, we will, we have improved our cost inefficiencies. We've really readjusted our SPs, we have adjusted our G&A. I think we continuously optimizing the resources, and I think AI will nicely help us on that. On the building blocks for Q1?
Just to give additional color, and hello, Remi, from my side. On the operating cost, sequentially stable, and it's all about cost discipline, right? The continuous focus on productivity and G&A gets us there. If you look for a seg on the Q4, I think it's also very helpful to see how we have performed. Productivity was up, broad-based, +11 in at group level. If you look at each GBU, Adecco was +6, LHH was +12, and Akkodis is, even with Germany, softer, kept a 90% utilization rate, approximately. If you look at our employee, you know, group employees, they're actually slightly down.
That tells you how we are combining very well growth with good cost discipline and good productivity. That gives you a sense of, you know, why we guide for this to continue to be stable as we continue building on these two clear levers that has been key to the operating leverage, that you've seen our results.
Just to complement on AI, yeah, we see 30 basis points improvement when we serve the clients by three AI initiatives, but it's not at the scale that I want to see. We said that we would cover, you know, 60% of our revenues by agentic AI, over time, by the end of 2026. I mean, it's progressing. We yet have to fully scale. More to come. We'll keep you updated on the progress. I remain prudent in the impact of AI because, you know, there's no magic in AI. It's hard work. You need to scale it. I think we have all the levers and the foundations, but let's see how it goes. The trend is positive.
Okay, thank you. The last question is on the SME, which you referred to, Denis, I think in one of your previous answers, saying that you need to address this segment better. Is the issue market-related? Is just the momentum between the two markets, if you separate them between SME and large enterprise, still very, I mean, diverging a lot in term of volume of activity? Is there any initiative at Adecco's level, which you need to implement to be better at serving this cohort of client? Because it has implication, obviously, for gross margin and profitability, I guess.
Well, actually, we've really doubled down in the past couple of years, in how we serve the large clients, and enhance talent supply chain and enhance all that. We still have a pretty good dynamic in SMEs, but this is a place where we accelerate our efforts because we know, to your point, that is very accretive to our margin. I think we are in a good place in how we roll out all our technology into our talent supply chain, and we are also rolling out progressively the technology through our branches. I believe that the strength of branch network is that proximity, that, you know, that deep understanding of the local ecosystems.
That's one of the top priorities for 2026, is to inject as much energy and technology into the SME segments as we have done in the large accounts.
Understood. Thank you very much.
Your next question comes from the line of Simon Van Oppen with Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is open.
Hi, good morning. I have a question on margins. We see margins in all divisions strengthening in Q4, most significantly in Akkodis and LHH, especially on an underlying basis. Can you unpack a little bit the main drivers for the strengthening of your margins by division? What do you expect in terms of margin for each division in 2026? In extension to that, should we expect more one-offs in 2026? If so, roughly by how much by division? Thank you.
Valentina?
Thank you, Simon. Good morning. Let me explain a bit around the, you know, each GBU and how they evolved in terms of margin, and then we can also quickly touch on formal one-off guidance. The, I think what is the common denominator among the three GBUs improvement is volumes up, operating leverage drop through. That is clearly, and it's, if I take it for a moment, Akkodis is out, it's a clear denominator, right? If I take one GBU apart, you have Adecco that grew materially, right? You've seen how in Q4, it's up almost 5%, with the pockets that are even double digits.
Clearly, the Adecco story is a story around strong operating leverage, but also diversification with the service lines like outsourcing that grew double digits, to give you a sense. It always comes on the back of good cost discipline, hence the operating leverage and the improvement in margins. In LHH, you've seen us mention that there's an element of the improvement year-on-year that is because we had headwinds last year. It is a 500 basis points improvement, but in fact, underlining is half of it to 250, which is still a very significant improvement.
It's mainly coming from Citi continuing to performing very well, but also the contribution of other lines like EZRA and like the B2B business in GA that have grown double digits and they come with very healthy, high growth margins. Finally, in Akkodis is clearly the main driver of the improvement in performance is Akkodis Germany, and the fact that we are progressing well in the turnaround. In terms of FO's, sorry, of one-off costs, the guidance that we're giving you is down from EUR 60 million this year to EUR 40 next year. The EUR 60 million clearly this year is mainly coming from the Akkodis Germany turnaround.
We're basically guiding next year to be lower in one-off, mainly because Akkodis Germany is basically completed.
Okay. Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Your next question comes from the line of Gian Marco Werro with ZKB. Your line is open.
Thank you, everyone. Two questions from my side. The first one is on the gross profit margin in flexible placement. I would appreciate if you can dive there a little bit deeper into this development of 20 basis points decline year-over-year. Can you maybe elaborate please on the gross profit margin dynamics in temporary staffing, especially in your key markets like France, Germany, and also the US, please, just to grab a little bit better the dynamics, how is it evolving, still increasing, stable, declining? Then on the second question is on AI also.
Denis, I appreciate your optimistic tone about the opportunities lying here, very frankly speaking, don't you also see also, of course, some headwinds here of jobs that become redundant, like many operations of warehouses, IT, white collar, back office work, that in my view, is certainly also affecting your top line negatively? I would appreciate if we can just talk here briefly about the dynamics that you observe in the industry. Thank you.
I'm gonna start by answering your questions on AI, Gian-Marco, and then Valentina will talk about the gross margin. Fundamentally, we don't see any impact of AI at this stage. We know that as all technology evolutions that are happening, some jobs are gonna be impacted, some destroyed, but so many are going to be created. That's what history tells us, okay? For the moment, if you look at the numbers coming from career transition, okay, which is the world leader in our placement, 1.4% of the people are telling us that they've been laid off for, or due to AI. That's it, okay?
12% say, "Yes, there was a bit of AI coming in." To date, there's no, you know, massive impact, no impact of AI. Let's be clear, and I'm not the only one to say that, a lot of companies are doing layoff plans, pretending that it's coming from AI because it makes them look good, okay. Fundamentally, this is not the case, okay. Now, nobody knows within three or five years, what the relationship is between the jobs destroyed and the jobs created, okay. If you look back, 10 years ago, nobody was talking about cloud architects. Nobody was talking about, you know, content moderation, you know. These jobs have been created because of the, you know, digital world, et cetera. This is gonna come as well with AI, okay.
I believe that because of this massive reshuffling of the labor market, this is a massive opportunity for us to upskill, reskill, move people around, accompanying people in their agility. That's what we are here for. You know, AI is not new. It has been now around for more than a couple of years, and look at our numbers, okay? We are trending nicely in this world of AI. We are reshaping the future of work in this AI era, and we are well-placed to accompany our clients on the agility that is necessary with AI. That makes me very confident. Now, on the gross margin.
The year-on-year development you were asking about, Gian-Marco, on flex. First of all, it's a modest impact. Overall, the flex gross margin remains quite healthy. We are happy with pricing. It stays firm. We have a positive spread, bill to pay rate, the modest impact that you see is fundamentally a client and country mix. Just to build on the question that you were asking about, what about countries, France, U.S.? It is really all about how do we grow, right? Sometimes in some countries, but also in some industries, we may see, you know, one client segment growing faster than the other. It's the case right now, as Denis Machuel was mentioning in France and North America.
What is really important is that as that happens, we also operate on cost base, right? Because these are also clients that come with a lower cost to serve. The most important thing when we think about margin, yes, it's the gross margin, but it's also the mix that we have between SMEs and large, and the drop-through, on the overall margin.
Okay, thank you. No specific comments you want to make here on the three countries I mentioned? About the development of the gross margin, is it stable or any mention, most probably, yeah?
I think the trends in these three countries are aligned with the overall trend of the GBUs. Yeah.
Thank you so much. Thanks for the elaboration.
Your next question comes from the line of Irene Austin with Barclays. Your line is open.
Hi, thanks for taking my question, and thanks for the presentation. I just had a quick one on the hybrid. I believe on your third quarter conference call, you mentioned your attention to refinance at the time, the hybrid. Just wondering whether that's still the case. Thank you.
Thank you, Irene. Good morning. Yes, y ou're correct. We are refinancing the hybrid. We are in progress of doing that. We are constantly the market to understand when the right moment is to execute, but you should expect that to be happening.
That's very helpful. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Grobler with BNP Paribas. Your line is open.
Hi. Just one follow-up, if I may. Just on the dividend, you moved to the option of a scrip. What drove that decision, and to what extent is that part of the plan for getting to 1.5 x leverage by the end of next year? Thanks very much.
Thanks, Andrew Grobler. Let me put the overall perspective. The group has a very clear framework on capital allocation and a clear dividend policy. Every year, of course, depending upon the results, the annual performance, the board evaluates all options within that framework and within given policy to provide what the board believes is the best outcome for shareholders. This year, the decision has been made to propose the choice between a payment in shares or payment in cash, which we believe is the right balance between our de-leveraging priority on one side and also retaining cash for growth. We also felt that this is an optionality that is financially attractive for shareholders, for qualifying shareholders on, you know, tax, on the tax side. I think it's a pretty good decision for shareholders.
Now on the leverage, yeah.
As Denis mentioned, the scrip is an option, completely independent from the path that we've discussed to reach our EUR 1.5 billion. That path is based on performance, growth, operating leverage, the turnaround that we're doing. The scrip is an option, and it's independent from that.
Okay, thank you.
I will now turn the call back over to Denis Machuel, CEO, for closing remarks.
Thank you very much, everyone. We really appreciate your presence today. Just to wrap up, I think our 2025 results make me very confident for the future. I must tell you that our teams are energized, and they are focused on delivering performance. Yes, we still have a lot to do, but the momentum that we've created and which continues at the beginning of 2026, as we said, puts us in a very good place. In a very good place to deliver profitable growth moving forward and to delever. With that, thanks a lot for having been with us today, and speak to you next time. Have a great day. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.