Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Autoneum's 2025 earnings call. Thank you for joining us today. I will begin with a brief review of our business performance in 2025, highlight our key achievements, and then hand it over to our CFO, Bernhard Wiehl, who will walk you through the financial results in more detail. After that, I will return to outline our outlook for 2026 before we open the floor for Q&A. Please note that this conference will be recorded. We therefore ask you not to make any recordings. 2025 was another demanding year for the global automotive industry. Market developments diverged strongly by region, volatility remained high, and structural change continued to shape our customers' priorities. Against this backdrop, Autoneum delivered a resilient and high-quality performance. We achieved our full year guidance, strengthened profitability year-on-year, and once again generated solid free cash flow, exceeding expectations.
Let me go briefly into detail about our overall performance indicators. Despite diverging global market developments, Autoneum delivered resilient revenue growth in 2025. Revenue in local currencies increased to CHF 2.39 billion, supported by 6.4% of inorganic growth. At the same time, we achieved a strong order intake for the second year in a row, underlining the sustainability of our growth momentum. Profitability further improved year-on-year. Our EBIT margin increased to 5.5%, and the net result rose by more than 14%, reflecting continued operational and financial improvements across the group. Based on this performance, the board of directors proposes a distribution to shareholders of CHF 3.20 per share compared to CHF 2.80 in the prior year. We also made clear progress toward our sustainability benchmarks.
In 2025, we reduced Scope one and two emissions by 5.3%, lowered water withdrawal by 8.7%, and generated 1,743 tonnes less waste year-on-year. These efforts were once again recognized externally with EcoVadis Gold status and a CDP A rating. Growth in Asia accelerated significantly. Revenue in local currencies increased by more than 73%, driven by the two major acquisitions in China that expanded our access to leading local OEMs and accelerated regional development. As a result, 20% of our 2025 group order intake now comes from the Chinese OEMs, confirming the strategic relevance of this customer group for Autoneum. Finally, we continue to advance sustainable innovations across our portfolio.
In 2025, we expanded sustainable product groups with new innovations such as N-Join1, Flexi-Light PET, and BEV-focused E-Fiber technologies, including flame shields and impact protection plates. At the same time, we strengthened our innovation capabilities through the Shanghai R&D Center, reinforcing our ability to develop customer relevant solutions close to key growth markets. This performance was not driven by short-term measures. It reflects strategic decisions taken early and executed consistently. Three factors made the difference in 2025. First, we continued to optimize our footprint and cost structure, aligning capacity with market demand. Second, we maintained firm but fair price management across all regions. Third, we consistently translated operational improvements into margin expansion. The implementation of our company strategy Level Up is on track and moving full speed forward. Order intake.
Order intake was one of the key highlights for 2025 and remains our most forward-looking performance indicator. In 2025 alone, new business awards amounted to CHF 536 million in annual sales. This corresponds to approximately CHF 3.1 billion in lifetime revenue, including the new business awards coming from our new companies in China. As mentioned earlier, almost 20% of the group's order intake in 2025 came from our Chinese OEMs. This strong order intake underlines how well Autoneum is positioned with its customers as a market and technology leader and represents a decisive step towards our long-term sales ambition.
Order intake was well-balanced across all regions and all product families, as well as continued strong momentum in commercial vehicles, underlining the strategic importance of this segment. Sustainability is a core pillar of our Level Up strategy and an area where we clearly aim to set the benchmark in our industry. In 2025, we made measurable progress across all key dimensions. We reduced water withdrawal by more than 8% year- on- year and implemented 140 eco-efficiency projects across our global footprint, targeting energy consumption, waste reduction, and water efficiency. At the same time, we continue to scale circular materials in our products. In 2025, Autoneum used more than 25,000 metric tons of recycled PET, reinforcing our leadership in monomaterial and recyclable solutions for vehicle interiors and exteriors. Our progress is also reflected in external recognition.
As mentioned before, we achieved again an EcoVadis Gold status and received a CDP A rating, confirming our strong performance in environmental management and transparency compared to our peers. Sustainability at Autoneum goes beyond environmental metrics. We were once again recognized as a top employer 2025, highlighting our commitment to a people-centric culture and responsible leadership in our key markets. For us, sustainability is not a compliance exercise and not a trade-off against profitability. It is a real competitive advantage that increasingly influences customer decisions, strengthens long-term partnerships with our OEMs, and supports resilient value creation. Let me now briefly look at our regional performance. 2025 was characterized by diverging regional market dynamics. What clearly made the difference for Autoneum was disciplined execution and region-specific steering. In Europe, markets stabilized after several years of decline, creating a more predictable environment.
Through strict cost control and continued footprint optimization, we improved our EBIT margin to 5.3% and laid the groundwork for future recovery while continuing to position the region for BEV-driven opportunities, leveraging our lightweight and sustainable technologies. We are confident and see further continuous improvement potential for the region of Europe. In North America, early demand strength was followed by a softer second half year, influenced by trade uncertainties like tariffs and decreasing volumes. Despite this, we increased our EBIT margin to 5%, driven by operational improvements and a strengthened cost base. This confirms the resilience of our turnaround and our ability to protect margins even in a less supportive market environment. Asia was our strongest growth region in 2025.
Revenue increased by more than 73% in local currencies, reflecting the impact of our China acquisitions, which significantly expanded our access to local OEMs and strengthened our regional development capabilities. Asia is now a key driver of above market growth and an integral part of our global strategy. In SAMEA, we delivered a stable and highly profitable performance, despite a challenging inflationary environment. With an EBIT margin of 12.8%, the region once again demonstrated the strength of disciplined cost management, and operational stability, and local execution excellence. Across all regions, we continued to advance our Level Up strategy consistently. This regional execution capability is a key reason why Autoneum can deliver resilient performance in diverging markets.
With that, I would now like to hand over to Bernhard Wiehl, our Chief Financial Officer, who will guide you through Autoneum's financial results for the year 2025 in more detail. Bernhard, please go ahead.
Thank you, Eelco, and good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to walk you through Autoneum's financial performance for the year 2025. While market conditions remained challenging in several regions, we could once again deliver a solid profitability, cash flow, and order intake. I will now provide more details on Autoneum's key figures in 2025. Let me start with our revenue development. In local currencies, revenue increased by CHF 55 million to almost CHF 2.4 billion, right in the middle of our 2025 guidance. The main driver was two acquisitions in China. They contributed inorganic growth of 6.4%. In Swiss francs, revenue decreased by 2.1% to close to CHF 2.3 billion, driven by the strong Swiss franc, which led to a negative currency translation effect of CHF 103 million.
Note that the biggest impact came from the U.S. dollar, the Mexican peso, and the Chinese RMB. On an organic basis, which excludes currency translation and fluctuations, the M&A impacts, group revenue declined by 4.1%. This reflects weaker production volumes in several key regions and ongoing structural market shifts in China from Western and Japanese OEMs towards Chinese car manufacturers. In Business Group Europe, revenue declined by 8.3% to just under CHF 1.1 billion. In local currencies, revenue fell by 7.6% or CHF 87 million. This result was mainly driven by three factors. First, production volumes in the region declined by 1.1% in 2025. Second, we are still experiencing some late impact from the Borgers acquisition. In the period before Borgers insolvency in late 2022, Borgers was awarded only a limited amount of new business.
This is reflected in our lower revenue from the former Borgers business in 2025. This impact will disappear over time as we pursue and secure new awards for the attractive Borgers product portfolio. The third and final factor is our focus on profitable growth. It means we carefully choose which business awards to pursue and avoid projects that don't meet our profitability or return standards, even if they could boost short-term volume. These three factors also weighed on the performance of Business Group North America, where revenue declined by 8.9% to CHF 806 million. A CHF 27 million or 3% organic decline in revenue. This was slightly more than the overall market, which declined by 1.2%, amid trade policy uncertainty.
Turning to Business Group Asia, revenue grew strongly to 74% in local currencies, reaching CHF 326 million, fueled by two acquisitions in China. Organically, revenue fell by CHF 4.1 million or 2.1%, mainly because our largest customers in China, Western and Japanese OEMs, continued to lose market share to their Chinese rivals. Going forward, we expect to reduce our exposure to OEM mix changes in the China market, thanks to our two strategic acquisitions that have significantly improved our access to Chinese OEMs. In Business Group SAMEA, we once again delivered a strong revenue growth in local currencies of 17.7% or CHF 21.5 million. This was primarily driven by the significant price increase agreed with customers to compensate for very high inflation in several countries.
From a volume perspective, this business group developed broadly in line with the steady market. Let me now turn to our operating result. The group's EBIT margin increased further in 2025, reaching 5.5% compared to 5.3% the year before. In line with our Level Up strategy to enhance cost competitiveness with a dynamic global market environment, we made structural adjustments in our European footprint and implemented reductions in headcount across all regions. These measures, combined with the disciplined cost management, enable us to achieve an improved EBIT margin. We view this outcome as a noteworthy success, especially given the performance of our peers and the challenging market conditions. Despite lower revenue, Business Group Europe was almost able to maintain its EBIT, which fell by just CHF 1.8 million in 2025.
The region's EBIT margin rose by 0.3 percentage points to 5.3%, reflecting ongoing resilience. This progress resulted from our commitment to operational excellence and the ongoing optimization of our regional footprint to better align our cost base and manufacturing setup with current and expected regional demand, while strengthening efficiency competitiveness and long-term sustainability. In the U.K., for example, the plant in Halesowen was closed and its activities relocated, while the Heckmondwike site was also shut down to better align capacity with the market demand. Additionally, we reduced our headcount in France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and in Spain. While we incurred one-off charges in 2025, these actions are expected to deliver recurring savings, stronger operational leverage, and a sustainable uplift to EBIT from 2026 onwards. Additionally, the sale of a real estate in France generated a book gain in 2025.
In Business Group North America, we made further strong progress. Our EBIT grew by CHF 8.2 million, with the EBIT margin reaching 5%, now at the lower end of our target range for the business group. Relatively stable production volumes, efficiency gains, such as lower scrap and higher labor efficiency, as well as improved supply chain management, all contributed to this encouraging development. In Business Group Asia, EBIT increased by CHF 7.6 million, mainly due to the two acquisitions in China. The EBIT margin declined to 7.6% from 8.6% in the prior year. As we explained last year, the acquired business in China are dilutive to the Business Group Asia's EBIT margin, largely due to the additional amortization charges on assets capitalized as part of the PPA. However, the acquisitions are still accretive to the group's EBIT margin.
After an exceptionally strong year in 2024, Business Group SAMEA's EBIT fell by CHF 2.2 million. While the EBIT margin declined to 12.8%, it remains remarkably robust given the challenging economic conditions in the countries in which we operate, thanks to our disciplined cost management and effective inflation mitigation. For corporate and eliminations, EBIT fell by CHF 10 million, mainly due to two factors. First, lower revenue in Europe and North America affected the level of earnings from the group charges. Second, we had expenses related to the acquisitions in China. Overall, we achieved an increase in our group EBIT and EBIT margin, thereby successfully delivered on our full year guidance. Now I would like to turn to our income statement.
We have already discussed revenue and EBIT, so we can start right away with the group's financial result of CHF -17.9 million, a significant improvement over the prior year. Interest expenses were reduced by CHF 3.2 million, benefiting from lower money market rates and reduced credit margins. The largest positive impact, however, came from the less negative foreign currency loss, mainly driven by valuation gains in 2025 on lease liabilities denominated in foreign currencies, particularly in Mexico and in Czech Republic. Overall, net foreign exchange losses were almost CHF 8 million less than in the prior year, falling to CHF 2.4 million. Additionally, the net loss on the net monetary position from hyperinflation accounting decreased to CHF 2.2 million compared to CHF 4.9 million in the previous year.
Income tax expenses increased by around CHF 4 million in absolute terms, while the tax rate of 26.5% remains on a level comparable to the prior year. Consequently, the group's net result improved once again year-on-year by 14.6% to CHF 80.2 million. Basic earnings per share rose by 15.2% to CHF 10.34. Now we come to my favorite. We achieved another year of strong cash generation in 2025. Our group's free cash flow, excluding M&A effects, increased to CHF 121 million, an improvement of CHF 11 million. This is particularly noteworthy given we have implemented structural adjustments that impacted our cash flow. It confirms our resilience of our operating model and our ability to generate strong and sustainable cash flows over the time.
The higher net result and slightly lower investments in tangible assets in certain regions positively contributed to this result. However, net working capital was somewhat above previous year's level. This is mainly due to the strong order intake, which led to higher tooling inventories, as well as the accrual for the unpaid insurance recoveries from the wildfire incident in Spain in August of last year. Cash flows used in investing activities include a CHF 54 million net cash outflow related to the acquisition of Jiangsu Huanyu Group and Chengdu Yiqi-Sihuan in China. Even including all these items, free cash flow came still in at a solid CHF 67 million. Our strong profitability and cash generation also had a positive impact on the balance sheet, with the group's total assets reaching almost CHF 1.8 billion at the end of December.
As a reminder, with 76 of 77 production activities located outside Switzerland, most of our assets are held in subsidiaries denominated in currencies other than Swiss francs. This exposes our balance sheet to currency fluctuations, which are clearly visible as of December 31, 2025. For example, our total assets lost CHF 108 million in value due to the strong Swiss franc, and shareholders' equity dropped by close to CHF 48 million for the same reason. It is also important to note that the acquisition in China impacted almost all balance sheet items, as shown in the table's M&A column. Nevertheless, the shareholders' equity ratio still exceeded 35%. Considering the negative currency effect and the acquisition in China, this represents a moderate decline of 1.9 percentage points compared to the prior year-end 2024.
Turning to net debt, it remained almost stable year-on-year, despite a significant impact from our two acquisitions in China and the dividend paid during the period. As we already discussed, free cash flow amounted to CHF 121 million and provided a strong underlying offset of these cash outflows. M&A consideration paid total to CHF 65 million and relates to the acquisition of the 70% majority stake of Jiangsu Huanyu Group and the full ownership of Chengdu Yiqi-Sihuan. In addition to the purchase consideration, we assumed approximately CHF 36 million of net debt from the acquired Chinese legal entities. Dividends paid in 2025 amount to CHF 31.4 million in total, including distributions to Autoneum shareholders and to minority shareholders in our joint ventures.
Finally, while the strengthening Swiss franc had a negative impact on our P&L, it helped to reduce net debt with a positive impact of CHF 14 million. This is mainly driven by the lease liabilities denominated in U.S. dollar and in euro, as well as some smaller bank debts denominated in Chinese RMB. Let me conclude with a look on our leverage, one of our key financial KPIs for the medium term. As a reminder, we are targeting net debt to EBITDA of less than 1.5x . As you can see on this slide, we have continuously improved the net debt to EBITDA ratio since 2022 through disciplined cash flow management and sustained profitability improvements. Despite the acquisitions in China, we increased our debt levels. We maintained the ratio at 1.6x in 2025, which is already very close to our midterm target.
In conclusion, this financial strength, our technological expertise, and our reputation as a reliable supplier form a solid foundation for Autoneum's future. It supports both our organic growth ambitions and leaves some room for selective strategic transactions should attractive opportunities arise. Thank you, and I will hand now back to Eelco.
Thank you, Bernhard, for the detailed overview. As you have seen, our financial results clearly reflect the progress we have made over the past year in terms of profitability, cash generation, and balance sheet strength, despite a challenging and volatile market environment. Let me now turn to our outlook for 2026 and outline how we plan to build on this solid foundation as we move forward. Our focus in 2026 will remain firmly on execution of our Level Up strategy with clear priorities. Our growth ambition remains selective and profitable. We will continue to focus on high quality order intake, prioritizing programs that meet our margin and cash flow requirements. A key growth lever will be the global expansion with Chinese OEMs, building on the strong momentum we achieved in 2025.
At the same time, we will further strengthen our position in commercial vehicles, where demand dynamics and content per vehicle offer attractive growth opportunities. We will continue to integrate our recent acquisitions and actively evaluate additional M&A opportunities where they create strategic value. Growth for Autoneum is not about volume alone. It is about value-accretive growth. In a volatile and structurally changing market environment, cost discipline remains a decisive success factor. In 2026, we will continue to actively manage our footprint, adjust capacity where needed, and ensure that our cost base remains fully aligned with market conditions. We will further optimize SG&A structures, leverage scale effects, and continue to improve productivity across our operations. At the same time, we will increasingly use digitalization and AI-based solutions to streamline processes and enhance operational efficiency.
Our objective is clear: to drive margins and cash generation, even in a softer market environment, while actively preparing for profitable growth. We also continue to actively shape our product portfolio toward long-term structural trends such as electrification, lightweight construction, recyclability, and thermal efficiency. In 2026, we will further expand our offerings for battery electric vehicles and trucks and accelerate the industrialization of cost efficient and sustainable solutions. Innovation remains a key value driver, supported by our global research and technology footprint, including the R&T center in Shanghai, which enhances customer proximity and speeds up development. Sustainability is another core differentiator, with continued scaling of recyclable and low emission solutions alongside progress on our zero waste and zero CO₂ roadmaps, as detailed in our 2025 corporate responsibility report, which was also published today.
Finally, execution excellence is underpinned by engaged teams with continued investments in leadership and a strong culture of accountability and collaboration. Looking ahead to 2026, our focus is very clear. We will continue to execute profitable growth and efficiency actions across all regions, fully aligned with our Level Up strategy. In Europe, our priorities are continuously centered on operational discipline, improvement of plant utilization, and cost measures. We will carry on pursuing for truck and BEV-driven opportunities, as well as leveraging our lightweight and sustainable technologies while ensuring that the cost base remains fully aligned with market conditions. In North America, our improved cost base provides margin resilience. In 2026, we will further strengthen operational stability and focus on continued footprint optimization and structural adjustments. The focus remains firmly on execution and margin protection. Asia will continue to be a key growth driver.
In 2026, we will fully leverage our 2025 acquisitions, further strengthening customer access, and launch local innovations to enable above market growth. At the same time, we will continue to integrate our businesses in a disciplined manner, ensuring that growth is profitable and sustainable. In SAMEA, our priority remains managing highly inflationary markets to secure our strong margin profile. Disciplined cost management and operational stability will continue to be the foundation for resilient performance in this region. Taken together, this action plan reflects our commitment to disciplined performance, regional accountability, and consistent execution, the key levers for delivering sustainable value creation in 2026 and beyond. Let me address our medium-term outlook. We have adjusted our revenue ambition to reflect currency effects, most notably the continued strength of the Swiss franc.
Compared to our original 2024 assumptions, currency translation reduces our midterm revenue outlook by around CHF 300 million, resulting in an updated revenue target of CHF 2.7 billion at the current February 2026 exchange rates. In addition, we factor in a reduction of around CHF 100 million due to weaker underlying market development. This impact is, however, fully offset by approximately CHF 100 million of outperformance versus the market driven by our organic and inorganic growth. As a result, our updated revenue ambition reflects both a more cautious market view and our ability to outperform on our growth ambition. Importantly, our fundamentals remain very strong. Supported by both organic and inorganic growth, we expect to outperform the market while our medium-term targets remain fully intact.
An EBIT margin of 6%-8%, free cash flow of at least 5% of revenue, and a net debt to EBITDA below 1.5x. In addition, we remain firmly on track to deliver on our 2027 sustainability commitments, including a 20% reduction in scope one and scope two CO₂ emissions, and a 40% reduction in non-hazardous waste compared to the 2019 baseline. Before turning to our outlook and our guidance, let me briefly address the market environment for 2026. According to the latest industry forecast, the global automotive market is expected to stay flat in 2026. Production volumes are anticipated to decline in the first half of the year, followed by a recovery in the second half, resulting in a small overall decrease on a global level. The picture remains regionally diverse.
In Europe and North America, we continue to see ongoing differences driven by ongoing trade uncertainties, cost inflation, and a more cautious consumer environment. In China, domestic production is expected to moderate, while Chinese OEMs continue to expand their international footprint, particularly across Asia and other global markets. Looking ahead, the outlook for 2027 appears more constructive, supported by stabilizing macroeconomic conditions and a gradual recovery in vehicle production. Autoneum enters this environment with a more competitive cost base, a clear strategic focus, and a resilient business model. As our products are not tied to a specific powertrain or a drivetrain technology, we are well-positioned to manage volatility across different market scenarios. Our strong regional execution, diversified product portfolio, continued emphasis on operational excellence, improvement of plant utilization, footprint and headcount optimization position us well to navigate this volatile market while continuing to deliver profitability and free cash flow.
Let me now turn to our outlook for 2026. As mentioned, according to the latest market forecast, global light vehicle production is expected to basically remain flat in 2026, with continued pressure in Western markets. Against this backdrop, we expect group revenue of CHF 2.2 billion-CHF 2.4 billion in 2026. Based on this revenue range, we anticipate an EBIT margin of 5.5%-6.1% and a free cash flow of more than CHF 100 million. Before we move to the Q&A, please be aware of our upcoming key dates. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with you on these occasions. We will now start the Q&A session. Let me briefly explain how the question process works. To ask a question in writing, please click on Text Q&A in the left-hand bar of your screen.
To ask a question via audio or video, please click on Join Video Q&A as shown on the slide. Once you are admitted, please allow your browser to access your microphone and camera. If you would like to ask a question, please use the Raise Your Hand feature. The moderator will then call your name. Please make sure to also unmute yourself when prompted, as we cannot do this for you. You may also, of course, activate your camera if you wish. Once your question has been answered, you can again leave the Q&A area, and thank you for your cooperation. I will now hand back to Ulrike, our head of corporate communications. She will manage your questions, and I would ask Ulrike what questions do we have.
Yes, Eelco. The text Q&As are lining up. We have a couple of them. The first one came from Arben Hasanaj: Do you expect to grow organically in line with the market going forward, or could you even outperform in the coming years?
Okay. We believe we will at least grow in line with the market, actually slightly outperform, based on our new footprint structure, including the Chinese acquisitions and our cost competitive structure, where we'll continue to optimize our footprint. We believe we can actually outperform versus the market organically.
Thank you. Next question comes from Klaus Ringel: Will increasing China footprint enable you to outperform global light vehicle production in 2026 already?
I think, first of all, first question is regarding the footprint. I think our footprint in China is now very well represented. Of course, the organic Autoneum business had a significant footprint in Asia and especially in China. With our two acquisitions, we cover, in principle, almost all regions within China. Actually the reverse is valid. We see some opportunities where within certain cities or certain provinces, we actually have two or three plants. We believe there might even be a possibility to do some of the consolidations of plants in China, and that's also part of the synergies we see through the acquisition of the two Chinese companies.
Nevertheless, we might still invest one or two additional sites for specific OEMs in regions where we are maybe currently not yet present. We will talk about that maybe in the next few months as well. Then on the growth specifically, we expect to at least grow in line with the market in China going forward. Of course, we are still strong at the international OEMs, but we have now access to all the Chinese OEMs and like to benefit from that. I think that is also reflected in the order intake, what I mentioned, where 20% of the group order intake is now generated by Chinese OEMs. This will help us going forward for sure.
Thank you. Klaus had another question: Looking at your medium-term target to achieve CHF 2.7 billion revenue, does this look more likely for 2028 or for 2030?
We always say it's the medium-term target, so I would say that's always the timeframe of 2028 to 2030. Time will tell. It depends also a little bit on the market situation. The timeframe you mentioned is correct, 2028 to 2030.
The third question from Klaus: How are you directly or indirectly affected by the war in the Middle East?
We are not directly impacted. Potentially there might be an indirect impact over time if customers would buy less cars or car production would be slowed down, which we do not see yet today, honestly. There might, of course, be potentially an indirect impact when oil remains at a very high level, which we would then have to pass on like any other inflationary elements. Today, at least there is no direct impact. And actually, we hope that the situation will stabilize again as soon as possible, not only for us, but especially for the people living in the region.
Thank you. Next questions, there are two from Patrick Rafaisz. Can you add more color on the trucks order intake? Where is the strength coming from, and what is the outlook for 2026 by region? Second question was, can you share some thoughts on the EBIT margin bridge in 2026?
First maybe on the truck. I think the main order intake we reported for 2024, a very strong order intake on the truck. 2025 was again a very strong order intake. We expect actually in 2026, another strong year, which is mainly driven by the European market. If we are successful in 2026, we would in principle be present at all major truck manufacturers in Europe going forward. The ambition doesn't change. Means we wanna have 10% of our global revenue generated by our truck customers. I would say we are well on track with this ambition. From the regional distribution, as I mentioned before, it's mainly Europe today.
We also received some orders in the Americas and in Asia, which is today still much smaller, but that could potentially be a second step on the midterm. The second question was related to the EBIT on regions or-
Yes. Can you share some thoughts on the EBIT margin bridge in 2026?
On the EBIT? Sorry.
On the EBIT margin bridge in 2026.
A bridge.
Bridge.
Walk from 2025 to 2026. I think that's what I understood out of it.
Okay, good. I mean, we don't have an actual EBIT 2026, so it's difficult for me to make a bridge from 2025 to 2026. I think our guidance we give with 5.5%-6.1%, that means we wanna be at least equal or better. And I think, with the range, we indicate that, it's very likely to be better than 2025 on the EBIT. And, we see, improvement potentials on the operations, which I mentioned in the speech, so from our industrial execution. We also did some footprint optimizations last year, but also this year. I mean, beginning of the year, we announced the consolidation of our two Canadian plants, so we continue to see benefit there.
Last but not least, in the SG&A and overhead, we have also started a project to generate more synergies and define a more efficient setup. We believe through all the different levers, we can continue to improve our margin in 2026 compared to 2025.
Thank you.
A little bit, also some more examples. As you may have seen, with our headcount reduction, we have not that huge programs as, very often, others are indicating. You see, we gradually adjust to the new market environment on each side. The headcount, and when you look at the segment reporting from 2025, versus 2024, you see that we proportionally adjusted our headcount structure to stay competitive, to adjust to new market realities. This for sure will, going forward, bring us sustainable, I would say structural cost benefits. Then if the volume is at least not anymore dropping, but stable or even the one or other times also a little bit coming back, this gives us, a certain benefit in our margin.
That we less depend on volume growth, but this will help then in the future addition. Just to add a little bit comment.
Thank you. Now moving to the next questions from Walter Bamert. Can you help me, please, with the one-time effects? Are they booked into the regions?
We book in the business groups the events and the subjects where it applies to. On the group, we have the corporate functions and the intercompany eliminations in the company. This is unchanged. The business exception is always booked in the local and the segments and it will not change. Having said that, we don't report any more one-timers, but I want to highlight that we have non-recurring and non-recurring items. We had positive ones and we had negative ones. As usual in business, we had for sure positive ones, as I mentioned in my topic, that we also sold out of the footprint optimization site in France, which we don't need anymore.
On the other side, we had also a lot of costs on the footprint optimization to transfer machineries that we have reduced gradually in all countries, a lot of headcount. Somewhere accrued, somewhere we have expenses. We have also the JLR cybersecurity event, which had a big headache on our revenue in half year two in Europe. When you add all these things together, there might be a slightly positive impact in half year two, especially in the Business Group Europe, but a lot of things equal each other out.
Thank you. Next question. You mentioned the new lifetime orders of CHF 3 billion. What is the entire backlog?
The entire backlog, I would say it depends on how quickly some of the development or the newly awarded programs are completed and launched. Because when the product goes into mass production, we take it out of our backlog, and it goes into the running production. On average, we have, say, two to three years of development time. Actually, the Chinese are more in the one-year development time on average. The overall backlog will be around CHF 7 billion, CHF 7-7.5 billion nowadays.
Thank you. Next question. Is the 20% Chinese OEM contribution to lifetime orders purely organic, or does this include the orders from the acquisitions?
Exactly. It combines the organic Autoneum acquisitions at Chinese OEMs, as well as the awards which our acquired companies have achieved during 2025. It's a combination of the two.
Good. Last question so far from Walter. Do you have one-off restructuring costs in 2025, or what is this all from using existing provisions?
I think we have some, but I think, Bernhard, you can maybe answer.
Yeah. I think it was a mix. We have accrued according the rules. You can. When you have a restructuring plan, then you are allowed to accrue for the severance in the time when you communicated to do that. But we have a lot of also things which are going to expenses when I transfer machines or I carefully I would say reduce the headcount to new and right size the headcount in a individual plant. Therefore, it's a mix of both, but I think the other I tried to explain in my answer before. I hope this answers. Otherwise, please ask again that I can fulfill all your needs.
You could also use the video Q&A, then we can see you, and the line will remain open, so then you can keep challenging Bernhard if you want, Walter.
I'm happy.
That was the last text questions. We have Klaus still in the video Q&A.
Yeah.
Klaus?
Perfect.
Klaus, if you still want to ask a question, please raise your hand. Oh, I'm sorry. He sent a text message. No, sorry. We are done with our questions. Maybe we give the participants a few more seconds to decide if they maybe want to ask another question.
Yeah. Either via the text or also the video.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
I hope you all know.
Lothar Lubinetzki. Lothar Lubinetzki has raised his hand.
Okay.
Lothar, the stage is yours.
Good morning.
Good morning, Lothar.
First of all, congratulations to good results, given the difficult market environment. Eelco, Bernhard, a couple of questions. Order intake, very strong, again this year. How much of the new orders are actually coming from new products?
First of all, it depends how you define new products. We had a discussion internally because we see, for example, on the carpet system, that the latest BMW M car, for example, which has been launching their first vehicles, which uses our 100% polyester, 100% recyclable carpet system. Actually, that's a big innovation, which the customer also very much appreciates, so we consider it as a kind of new product. But of course, it is still a carpet. You can argue whether it's new or existing products. Many products go into a sustainability or lightweight version or a 100% recyclable product solution.
If we would consider this evolution on the same products, I would still say that more than 90% is on existing products, existing products with passenger cars or existing car products with commercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles is maybe also a growth segment or a newer segment for us, but it is still based on our core product base today.
Okay. Thank you. I have more. A question for understanding, actually two. If I look at the margin development in North America and Europe, H2 versus H1, I start with North America. Despite a roughly 10% decline in the top line, 9, nine-point-something. The margin deterioration was only 30 basis points, and this compares to 100 basis points a year ago. Is that basically due to the cost progress or efficiency progress you were doing?
I think regarding North America, yes, we have progress on operations, on the execution within the plants, on some of the efficiency measures. Some price management topics still with customers where we made progress. We believe that actually the improvement you have seen with the 2025 results in North America is also sustainable going forward.
In Europe, so I understand that in the second half, you benefited partly from some real estate sales.
Mm-hmm.
In Europe, H2 is more than 10% lower than H1. Your margins last year,20 25 but also 2024, are significantly higher in the second half than in the first half. What is the underlying reason for that?
Okay. Maybe I'll start and then Bernhard can complete that. I think, first of all, what you have seen in Europe that we have continuously improved our capacities and our footprint in the different sites. We have reduced some of the headcount and we have focused more and more on the profitable programs and also addressing the low margin programs. This is showing a continuous improvement year-over-year, which again should also be sustainable going forward. You have to take, of course, the average of the 2025 result as a basis, because as you mentioned, H2 is potentially overstated, and I think Bernhard can maybe complete it.
Yeah. There's a pattern coming up on the working days difference, where in Europe for sure the working days are lower in half year two than half year one. On the other side, we have also an effect, where sometimes non-recurring items or retroactive items are coming up in the recent years. For sure, the JLR was in half year two an event, but also the real estate was more in half year two. There's a third element, which I want to highlight, and this is a little bit also related to our latest history. When we have price negotiations, we don't look on the half year or on each next announcement. We negotiate to have a fair agreement on both sides.
In case we don't have the agreement, we don't stop or agree then on a half year or on a full year. This pattern, in some way, accumulates then over the year, and it is then always retroactive effective after the agreement. By chance, a lot of also on the customer side, they on long-run agreements, very often in half year two at the end, they then find with us a compromise where is also acceptable for us. This is a pattern coming up, as the outcomes are a little bit more crowded in half year two in the recent years in Europe than in half year one.
Am I right to assume that although the overall market or competition for the European OEMs has become tougher, you are still progressing well on pushing through your own price demands?
We are looking for fair solutions, but we also don't give up. Fair means both sides do their duties and also get well priced. We don't overprice, but we also don't want to have our additional cost according to the agreements compensated. Yes.
Final question from my side. Looking at Asia Pacific, the margin development there, I understand that the reported EBIT margin is just affected by PPA. What do you think is a realistic EBIT margin range for that region?
I would say, the region Asia should deliver for sure above 8% on average of the complete region, BG Asia. Yeah.
All right. Thank you.
Thanks a lot for the valid questions.
All right. I'm back to Ulrike.
Oh, right in this second, I got another text question. "What is the fluctuation rate in the United States?" Asked by Marc Maurer.
The fluctuation rate, I think it's, if you look to voluntary fluctuation, especially on direct labor, it's still around 50%, if I have to do it by heart. It increased slightly compared to 2024. I think we have had much higher numbers in the past. The overall market has stabilized, but still has been a little bit volatile during 2025. I think we have been better able to adjust to this, say, new normal we have to say, unfortunately. Ulrike, we will take any other question on whether it's on written or also on the video Q&A.
There's no more questions in writing. There is another question in the Q&A session. Nope. We are done with the questions.
All right. If there are no more questions, we would like to thank you very much for your attention and active participation. A recording of the presentation will be available on our website this afternoon. Thank you very much. Goodbye.
Thanks a lot.