Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a great pleasure to welcome here, to welcome you to our full year results conference here at the Widder Hotel in Zurich. Present from our side are our CEO, Andreas Müller, our CFO, Mads Jørgensen, our Head of Investor Relations, Anna Engvall, and myself, Beat Römer, Head of Global Communications. Andreas and Mads will guide you through the key operational developments and also the financial performance of 2025, share our outlook for 2026, and provide you an update on the priorities of our Strategy 2030.
Following the presentation, my colleague Anna will moderate the Q&A session. We will first take questions here from the room, and afterwards, then from the participants in the webcast. Afterwards, you are warmly invited to join our lunch buffet here in the back or in the room adjacent. With that, I would like now to hand over to Andreas to begin the presentation. Thank you.
Thank you, Beat. From my side, a warm welcome and thank you for joining us this morning. Let's start on slide three, highlights of the year. 2025 was marked by the largest transformation in our corporate history. With the divestment of Casting Solutions, GF has become a pure-play Flow Solutions business, focused on the buildings, industry, and infrastructure end markets. I would like to thank the entire GF organization, as well as external stakeholders, for their support during this time of significant change. With a solid foundation in place, global footprint, broad offering, and innovation capabilities, we are excited about the journey ahead of us, and we focus on executing Strategy 2030, establishing ourself as the leader in flow solutions.
Coming back to our 2025 results, overall, our performance in Flow Solutions was solid, given persistent geopolitical headwinds and a challenging macro environment. Infrastructure continued to demonstrate strong momentum. Industry, however, was impacted by muted demand in general, as well as continued project delays for semiconductors. The European construction market remained mixed, while the U.S. market weakened in the second half. In addition, we faced adverse tariffs and currency effects impacting our industrial U.S. business. It is important for me to emphasize that while we performed well in certain areas, our overall result did not fully meet our expectations. As an organization, we are capable of achieving more.
As such, we are swiftly moving forward with a new effectiveness and efficiency program called Fit for Growth, which will take out CHF 40 million this year, of which most will be secured already by end of Q1. Along with an expected recovery in key end markets in the second half of the year, we expect low single-digit organic sales growth and a comparable EBITDA margin of 14%-16% in 2026, which corresponds to 10.5%-12.5% at the EBIT level. Let's now take a look at some of the key metrics for 2025 on slide four. Sales for Flow Solutions came in at CHF 3 billion, with 0.6% organic growth, more or less in line with guidance.
Comparable EBIT margin for Flow Solutions was 10%, excluding items affecting comparability, which was slightly below our expectations. Including these items, the reported EBIT margin stood at 8.9%. The comparable EBITDA margin was 13.4%. The proposed dividend per share is CHF 1.35, in line with last year's level, subject to approval at the annual shareholders meeting in April. Moving on to slide five. With geopolitical issues escalating through 2025, we leveraged our global footprint and local-for-local presence, which limited, but not eliminated, our exposure to tariffs. We also benefited from diversification, with certain markets and segments compensating for others. The Americas is nearly a CHF 1 billion business today and grew 3.5% organically.
Our Building Flow Solutions business outperformed an increasingly challenging construction market, and our industry business performed well. We continued to invest in our U.S. business and inaugurated a new 15,000 sq m facility in Shawnee, Oklahoma. By doubling our capacity, we are now in a position to better serve our customers in the important and growing natural gas sector. Europe was weaker, down over 2% organically, with strong growth in infrastructure, partially offsetting weaker performance in industrial end markets and buildings. A key development last year for building flow solutions was the start of the expansion of Hassfurt into a central European warehouse.
By streamlining our logistics setup, we will make distribution both more efficient and also faster for our customers. APAC performed well, driven by momentum in marine, chemical processing and various industrial segments, offsetting weakness in semiconductors. Building on our long-term presence in the region, Asia remains an important and attractive market. Last year, we opened our new customer experience center in Shanghai, bringing the GF experience to our customers, in particular, localized industrial solutions for the Chinese market. Moving on to slide six, which summarizes the many steps which have shaped our transformation.
While progressing the machining and casting solutions divestments, we also took important steps to enhance our Flow Solutions business with the acquisition of VAG, which brought mission-critical metal valve technologies to GF. Going forward, GF is uniquely positioned to capitalize on its broad flow solutions expertise across industry, infrastructure, and buildings. Moving on to slide seven. The integration of Uponor, which was of course the initial catalyst of our transformation, is also progressing well. We further reduced portfolio complexity in 2025, optimized our production footprint, and begun harvesting customer and channel synergies.
For example, we strengthened our presence in the fast-growing MENAT region with an end-to-end portfolio of integrated flow solutions for large-scale projects across buildings, industry, and infrastructure. We expanded into the U.S. renovation segment through a partnership with The Home Depot. We also combined Uponor AquaPEX with GF ChlorFIT to deliver complete domestic water solutions for commercial buildings in North America, and as well launched the Uponor Express portfolio in Switzerland to address the attractive hot and cold water and heating applications. In total, we achieved run rate synergies of CHF 29 million in 2025, which compensated for multiple adverse cost impacts, including Forex, utilization, wage inflation, and therefore allowed us to maintain last year's profitability level in Building Flow Solutions.
Looking ahead, we remain on track to reach CHF 40 million-50 million by 2027. As mentioned in the beginning and shown on slide eight, we have launched a new effectiveness and efficiency program in late 2025, called Fit for Growth, to drive profitable growth. With this program, we will take out CHF 40 million of costs in 2026 by reducing non-customer-facing roles and external expenses. We will also continue to optimize our production footprint and rightsize our corporate functions. In total, approximately 600 employees will be affected by the program. We started in Q4 last year and have made strong headway already.
The majority of measures will be secured by the end of Q1. Importantly, Fit for Growth will allow us to continue to invest in our future, specifically our strategic priorities, which underpin Strategy 2030. We expect to reinvest a part of the achieved savings in our sales organizations to ensure effective and superior customer service. We also have started a net working capital initiative to enhance the performance of our net working capital. Let's move to slide nine. With our transformation, sustainability has become even more closely linked to our business and strategy, and we remain fully committed to our ESG journey.
I'm very proud to confirm that we successfully delivered on key targets of our 2025 sustainability framework. We expanded our portfolio of products with social and environmental benefits to reach our target of 77%. We also reduced Scope 1 and 2 CO2 equivalent emissions by 51% compared to our 2019 adjusted baseline and increased our number of carbon neutral sites to 12, including Sissach and Seewis in Switzerland. Very important, we also reduced accidents by more than we have targeted. Moving on to Slide 10. Overall, Industry and Infrastructure Flow Solutions, I&I Flow Solutions, grew sales by 1.9% organically, driven by the strong momentum in infrastructure in Europe, as well as gas distribution in the U.S.
Organic sales growth in H2 was 2.2%, up from 1.6% in H1. Demand in industry in the U.S., Middle East, and Northeast Asia also remained solid. In Europe, geopolitical tensions weigh on our customer willingness to invest. Demand in certain end markets, such as chemical processing and mining, remain muted. Semiconductor-related sales landed below expectations at -16%, driven by persistent project delays, especially in the U.S., Europe, and China. Looking to 2026, we see an improved outlook for semiconductors, driven by AI-related infrastructure, high-performance computing, and memory demand. We have secured key projects and are well positioned with advanced new technologies such as the SYGEF Ultra, where we are setting new purity and performance standards for ultrapure water systems.
We also anticipate demand for data center cooling solutions to accelerate, albeit from a relatively low base. Sales tripled to around CHF 30 million in 2025. Comparable EBIT margins for I&I Flow Solutions declined to 10.9%, driven primarily by unfavorable product mix, given lower semiconductor-related sales, Forex, but also tariffs. The Forex impact at EBIT level was clearly nearly CHF 19 million. Moving on to slide 11. As we highlighted at our recent Capital Markets Day, liquid cooling for data center presents an attractive growth opportunity. With seven pilot projects, more than 30 proof of concepts commissioned, as well as more than 20 initiatives currently in advanced discussions, we are seeing encouraging signs of polymer-based solutions gaining traction in the market.
We are particularly excited to be working with Rittal as the provider of a complete cooling piping infrastructure for nLighten's new data center in Velbert, Germany, covering the facility water system, the technology cooling systems, and room cooling. This is the first project where we have supplied the entire polymer-based cooling loop from chiller, free cooler to the chip, including all components. Behind the products and systems, GF was also responsible for the entire design and engineering work, as well as the prefabrication, which enabled fast project execution. We also brought a few of these products and the ones which haven't been with us at the Capital Markets Day.
We brought our new energy valve, which is a balancing valve, which controls the flow when it goes into the racks to ensure the most efficient removal of heat. We strongly believe that in the generations to come of data centers, the liquid, as being water, will take over glycol-based systems as we see them as per today. The polymer solutions offer multiple advantages, which I will not stress at this point of time, but looking up here, GF is also outside the building, which is the facility from the compressor to the cooling distribution units, the CDUs, which serve then the cooling liquids to the individual racks.
GF offers a comprehensive and complete solutions in polymer, and we're gonna see an advantage in water over glycol in the years to come. We will launch this energy valve, the balancing, the delta T balancing, in the months to come. Moving on to slide 12. To support growth in broad range of industry and infrastructure applications, including liquid cooling, we have invested in our Seewis plant in Switzerland, the Canton of Grisons. Following the upgrade, Seewis is a world-class facility for production of ball valves and actuators with high levels of automation and increased efficiency in all areas, ranging from production to logistics to energy use.
Moving on to slide 13. On the infrastructure side, we are capitalizing on strong market momentum by helping customers upgrade their water networks and minimize water loss. Together with VAG Group, we were uniquely positioned in the market as a one-stop shop solution provider. Our high-performance DMA Flowise chambers enable installation in one to two days instead of weeks. With industrial prefabrication, their high quality reduces water loss, improves pressure management, and provides faster response through continuous network monitoring. Moving on to slide 14. The acquisition of VAG Group made us uniquely positioned in the market as a one-stop shop solution provider.
The integration after the closing in Q4 is well on track, and our plans are executed to drive commercial synergies. I think one of the greatest samples is this so-called DMA, district metering area, pressure control chamber. Such a chamber is being used 50 times for approximately 20,000 inhabitants. What does it do? It keeps the pressure in the network always constantly on the same level to ensure, first of all, that when you open the faucet, you are not getting splashed or you don't have any water at all. It is much more important in terms of keeping the network well intact.
With a good thought-through pressure management, you're gonna reduce the exposure and the aging of a network by more than 75%. GF uniquely positions throughout the urban or infrastructure integration, which produces this kind of special real-life chambers. With our existing product portfolios of couplers to multiple systems, with a pressure-retaining valve, which is only a third in terms of complexity compared to conventional technologies, we offer a very easy-to-install solution. Such a chamber can be between CHF 30,000 and CHF 40,000, as said, on a 20,000 population city, you most likely would deploy some 50 of these chambers. The prefabrication makes it so unique due to the fact that you have a controlled quality within this chamber.
Our teams joined forces across Europe. Already today, we have focused with the VAG integration on a few countries. We have done so far good progress already also here in Switzerland. The customer feedback to have a first-time, one-stop solution when it comes to urban water infrastructure systems was well appreciated. Let's move on to slide 15, Building Flow Solutions. The business declined by 2.7% organically. Adjusting for discontinued product lines, the organic decline was 1.8%. On a quick note, in Switzerland, we have been able to grow by around 5% in that market, also due to the fact that we have launched new products from the Uponor range into the Swiss markets.
Europe remained mixed during the year, down 2.1% organically. Adjusting for discontinued product lines, Germany held its ground amid the slow market recovery. Residential building permits were up 11% year-over-year in 2025, after several years of decline, indicating positive momentum in construction activity beginning towards the end of 2026. Switzerland, Benelux, Iberia, Poland, and some of our key European markets were in positive territory. U.S. and Canada also proved resilient in a slowing market. Our collaboration with The Home Depot to expand in the U.S. do-it-yourself market got off to a good start, with our presence increasing to 30 stores on the West Coast.
The comparable EBIT margin remained stable at 8.7%, supported by the value creation program. The currency effect at the EBIT level was - CHF 6 million. With the measures implemented, we are confident that we have set the base to achieve our target margin. Moving on to slide 16. As we increase our exposure to the renovation market, innovations such as Siccus 16 underfloor heating system play a key role. By 2030, nearly 16% of the E.U.’s building stock will require renovation due to energy performance standards introduced by the E.U. Our Siccus 16 underfloor heating system enables energy-efficient, comfortable heating as well as cooling, with fast installation times.
The system also combines seamlessly with our Smatrix AI wireless control system, which intelligently adjusts room temperature for maximum comfort and efficiency. Looking at slide 17, Siccus 16 and Smatrix are compatible with both traditional systems and heat pumps, connected via pipes such as the next generation GF Ecoflex VIP 2.0. With its superior thermal performance, flexibility, and fast installation times, Ecoflex is a natural fit for every new heat pump installation. Our offerings perfectly match the need for efficient heating and cooling. Driven a push towards energy security, decarbonization, and affordability, heat pumps have overtaken over traditional energy sources and are expected to grow at a CAGR of 15% until 2030.
Supported by this momentum, the Ecoflex range was one of our best-performing solutions in 2025. Allow me quickly to reflect on what will come along with the exchange of conventional thermal fossil systems in housings. A heat pump allows you simultaneously to make benefit of cooling, and this is something which is largely and highly appreciated by many of the households and being obviously also considered in new build. We offer not only refurbishment solutions, what you see here with ceiling cooling systems, which can nicely then be connected to heat pumps.
We also offer systems which can go in new build, but also the smart control, which allows then to make best use of the heat pump, where we also have interfaces to control the heat pump through our Smatrix systems, especially when it should be used in combinations with cooling and not only heating. We see we have set the ground with the solutions, not only Ecoflex, but also our indoor climate control systems, a good base to profit from this trend in the market. With this, I will now hand over to our CFO, Mads Jørgensen, to go through our financial performance.
Thank you very much, Andreas. The transformation obviously has had a quite an impact on our financial report. To provide transparency, we present our income statement in discontinued and continuing operations. The discontinued contains 12 months of Casting Solutions and six months of Machining Solutions until the closing of the sale, which was on the 30th of June, 2025. We also have certain one-off effects from the divestments, including non-cash books, book gains and losses, which I will elaborate on later. Starting on slide 19, here we provide an overview of the net sales of the GF Group.
Net sales were CHF 4.1 billion, down from CHF 4.8 billion, primarily driven by the deconsolidation of Machining Solutions, the foreign exchange effects. Organically, group sales were down 1.7%. Focusing on our Flow Solutions business, Industry and Infrastructure Flow Solutions was up 1.9% organically, Building Flow Solutions was down 2.7% organically for the reasons Andreas mentioned earlier. Casting Solutions, consolidated for the full 12 months, declined over 8% organically, driven by a continued weakness in the European automotive market. These movements are broken down on the bridge on the next slide. Looking on slide 20, sales were down CHF 74 million organically, driven by Building Flow Solutions, Casting Solutions, and Machining Solutions.
The foreign exchange effect had a negative impact of CHF 153 million. I'll come back with more detail in a bit. The consolidation of VAG from October 1st added sales of CHF 54 million, and the deconsolidation of Machining Solutions lowered sales by CHF 492 million. Moving to the full income statement of the GF Group on slide number 21. As a reminder, continuing operations reflect our Flow Solutions business, although with certain one-off effects this year. Discontinued operations include Casting Solutions and Machining Solutions, as mentioned earlier. Gross value added of the group declined as a result of the sale of Machining Solutions.
Continuing operations increased, primarily driven by the book gain on the divestment of Machining Solutions of CHF 143 million. Personnel expansions declined for the group. For continuing operations, they increased slightly to CHF 841 million, driven mostly by new employees joining from VAG. The personnel cost ratio increased to over 28% from 27 % in the prior year. Reported EBIT of the Group was CHF 326 million and a margin of 7.9%. This includes impairment charges for GF Casting Solutions of CHF 83 million, shown in discontinued operations. The net financial result amounted to - CHF 136 million for the group, including additional value adjustments of CHF 83 million on the affiliated GF Casting Solutions business.
Note that this CHF 83 million is in addition to the CHF 83 million mentioned just before, so that the total is CHF 166 million for 2025. Income taxes decreased slightly for the group. The corporate tax rate was temporarily elevated at around 40% as a result of the non-recurrent taxes and other one-off effects. It will likely remain elevated in 2026 due to the divestment-related effects before normalizing in 2027 at around 26%. Net profit to GF shareholders declined to CHF 103 million, including all items affecting comparability. For the continuing business, the net profit increased to CHF 196 million, including the machining book gain. I'll elaborate more on the net profit in a moment.
Looking at comparable EBIT on slide 22, the margin declined to 7.6% for the group. As can be seen, this decline was driven by the lower profitability of I&I Flow Solutions, Casting Solutions, and Machining Solutions. BFS remained stable at 8.7%, despite a weaker top line, benefiting from synergies achieved via the value creation program and including SKU rationalization from plant closures that we did in Italy and Turkey, as well as procurement savings. Slide 23. Overall, our core Flow Solutions grew 0.6% organically for the year and 1.2% organically in the second half. As mentioned earlier, the decline in industry and buildings was offset by strong growth in infrastructure.
The comparable EBITDA margin declined to 13.4%, while the comparable EBIT margin fell to 10%. This was due to the unfavorable product mix and due to lower semiconductor-related sales, as well as adverse FX effects and tariffs. Slide 24, which provides details on the items affecting comparability. At the EBITDA level, these items include CHF 44 million of restructuring and other expenses. The purchase price allocation impact of CHF 3 million refers to the inventory step-up that we did on the VAG acquisition. The deconsolidation refers to the CHF 143 million book gain that we did on Machining Solutions, and the total on EBITDA level is CHF 96 million.
Including impairment charges of CHF 83 million relating to Casting Solutions and value adjustments of CHF 83 million, the total impact on net profit is - CHF 71 million. On the right-hand side, important note for 2026, the EBIT and EBITDA will be negatively impacted by a divestment-related CHF 180 million, mainly non-cash, loss from recycled currency translation effects, also CTA called, and goodwill. This is also being communicated, but it affects the 2026 accounts. Let's now take a closer look to the EBITDA bridge on slide 25. Starting from 2024, with a comparable EBITDA of CHF 618 million, the organic impact was - CHF 64 million.
FX effect was - CHF 34 million. The divestment of Machining Solutions and VAG Group acquisition led to CHF 53 million lower EBITDA contribution, resulting in a comparable EBITDA of CHF 467 million. Reported EBITDA was CHF 564 million. On slide 26, yet again, we saw significant adverse currency effects in 2025. Almost all major currencies, particularly the U.S. dollar, developed negatively against the Swiss franc. The total effect on group sales was around CHF 153 million, and on EBIT, -CHF 29 million. Given the significant one-off effects, we show an adjusted net profit on slide 27.
Adjusting for the book gain of Machining Solutions of CHF 143 million, and the impairment charges and value adjustments relating to Casting Solutions, in total CHF 166 million, as well as one-off taxes and other effects, we derive an adjusted net profit of around CHF 147 million. Moving on to the asset side of the balance sheet on slide number 28. Our cash and cash equivalents decreased to CHF 569 million, reflecting free cash flow development and M&A activity during the year. Overall, total assets decreased to CHF 3.6 billion, down from CHF 4.3 billion, driven by the divestment of Machining Solutions.
As for the liability and equity side of our balance sheet on slide 29, our current liabilities decreased by more than CHF 600 million, driven by proceeds from the divestments, and the total equity decreased to CHF 41 million. Now to the free cash flow on slide number 30. Reported EBITDA, which includes the book gain on Machining Solutions, was CHF 564 million. Net working capital increased by CHF 86 million, driven by the increased inventory levels to improve service levels at I&I Flow Solutions. Please note that the net working capital will also be addressed as part of the Fit for Growth program through supply chain optimization and other measures.
The interest paid decreased as a result of the repayment on and the refinancing of the Uponor-related acquisition debt. Deducting the non-cash Machining Solutions book gain, cash flow from operating activities declined to CHF 268 million. CapEx remained elevated, driven primarily by investings in Casting Solutions for production facilities in the U.S., of which approximately CHF 40 million has been repaid by the new owner. Excluding M&A, free cash flow declined to CHF 21 million. I would like to highlight a few additional figures on slide 31. Net debt was around CHF 1.7 billion at year-end, including approximately CHF 300 million cash proceeds from Casting Solutions and the building in Biel, it was CHF 1.4 billion.
Net debt EBITDA was 3x at year-end, in line with expectations. The equity ratio has decreased now to 1.1%. As already mentioned, the 40% tax rate was temporarily elevated in 2025, for the reasons explained before, and it should return to a normalized level of 26% in 2027. Turning to my final slide, number 32. The proposed dividend is CHF 1.35 per share, in line with last year's level. I would like to hand back the word to our CEO.
Thank you, Mads. Let's turn to slide 34. After a challenging 2025, which saw a significant escalation of geopolitical tensions, we are seeing certain tentative signs of improvements in our end markets, with momentum expected to accelerate in second half of the year. In the construction market, building permits have ticked up in markets such as Germany and the Nordics. In industry, we expect semiconductor-related sales to accelerate based on our growing project pipeline, while infrastructure is expected to remain strong on the back of aging water investments.
Meanwhile, we have started the year with a streamlined corporate organization and lower cost structure based on already secured Fit for Growth measures, and we are fully committed to achieving the full CHF 40 million, with the majority already secured by end of Q1. Overall, we expect organic sales growth in the low single digits and a comparable EBITDA margin of 14%-16% for 2026. Before we wrap up, I would like to take a few minutes on Strategy 2030 and our key priorities for this year. Our vision, or North Star, is clear: We want to be the global market leader in flow solutions in our three business areas, buildings, industry, and infrastructure.
Let's move to slide 37. Strategy 2030 provides a path to get there. Based on our four strategic thrusts, we want to maximize our core business and grow with new applications and innovative solutions to drive growth and margin expansions towards our 2030 targets. In the near term, we intend to double down on certain key market opportunities which offer accelerated growth. I would like to highlight five in particular. Importantly, these are not only new bets. We are in these businesses with the right solutions, and sometimes even with significant sales already. Now we want to take them to the next level.
With data center capital expenditures estimated to reach $1.7 trillion until 2030, and performance standards continuing to increase, we see a tipping point in the industry in favor of polymer solutions over the midterm. With our innovative and complete solutions, which are based on water as the ultimate coolant, we aim to grow this business to $300 million in sales over the next five to six years. Based on current customer acceptance levels, we believe we are on the right track. Liquid cooling for HVDC, high voltage direct current converter stations, for example, renewable energy, we offer unique capabilities which our customer value.
We are well positioned to further expand this portfolio and grow regionally to expand in this very attractive segment. Driven by multiple mega trends, including AI and digitalization in general, the global semiconductor market is set to reach $975 billion in sales in 2026, up 27% year-over-year. To capture this growth, we continue to innovate to set new purity and performance standards. In December, we launched SYGEF Ultra, our next-generation purity peak piping solutions for the efficient transport of hot, ultra-pure water, expanding the boundaries of purity. We alluded earlier to indoor climate and the potential we see given the rapid growth of heat pumps.
With our superior solutions from the heat pump to climate management in the building, we are well positioned to benefit. Finally, on urban infrastructure, we can now offer a unique one-stop solution based on the combined offerings of GF, Uponor, and VAG. We have received the first custom orders for pressure-regulating chambers and see great potential in continuing to help customers upgrade their networks. It is important to acknowledge that water scarcity will only continue to become a more pressing topic over time. I firmly believe that GF can make a difference as a one-stop shop for urban water infrastructure with our cutting-edge technology and solutions.
All in all, these growth opportunities, combined with our value creation and Fit for Growth programs, are a feedstock of achieving Strategy 2030. With that, it's time to move on to our Q&A section. I will hand over to Anna to moderate the Q&A session.
Thank you, Andreas, and good morning, everyone. We would now like to move on to the Q&A session. As Beat mentioned, we will first take questions from the room and then from the webcast. If you have a question, please raise your hand and make sure to wait for the microphone so that people in the webcast can also hear you. I think we are first here in the right corner. Mr. Iffert, please go ahead.
Thank you. It's Joern from UBS. Two questions, then I go back in the queue, please. The first one is on the cost-saving program, the CHF 40 million, and you are freeing up 600 headcounts. Is this also changing your processes and your structure, or is it really pure headcount reduction in processes and structures, including go-to-market strategies will remain unchanged? This is the first question. The second question, just a technical one, on the net working capital program you have launched, what are you doing exactly? What do you expect is the contribution to the equity free cash flow? Then also in general, what do you see in terms of equity free cash flow generation in Flow Solutions in 2026, after maybe the more muted 2025? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Iffert. I would like quickly to elaborate on our Fit for Growth program. The Fit for Growth program, as said, is not only taking out headcounts or costs. We're gonna focus on OpEx, but also on our employees' cost. It is a structural adjustment in a few areas, but it is also in a few areas, an adjustment to a new volume and optimization of processes. We also will leverage, obviously, new technologies to allow GF to become more efficient. It's a largely efficiency-increasing program.
In terms of net working capital, the increase in inventory was mainly to increase the service level of I&I Flow Solutions. To counter that, we have set a target of a reduction of inventory of 5% for the end of the year. The measures will be SKU rationalization, so product pruning, have to go back to the basics, as well as supply chain optimization, which could involve some changes of the layout and how we do our warehousing and production layout. In terms of free cash flow guidance for 2026, we aim at CHF 175 million-CHF 200 million for the Flow Solutions business.
Okay, thank you, Mads. Next question here, if I saw correctly. Go ahead, Mr. van Holst.
Yes, thanks. Tobias van Holst from Bankhaus Lampe. Speaking about the margin weakness in 2025, the 10% adjusted which you achieved was a 10.5% target at the low end of the range. Can you provide a little bit more color on the reason for the deviation? What has been the deviation impact of semi market, currencies, tariffs? That would be my first one.
I think. Thank you very much. As we have alluded, we had a severe impact of the Forex, so the currency effects have been quite substantial. We had a minor effect of the tariffs, but overall, we had a mix change in terms of what we have sold. The infrastructure business is attractive, but it is not as attractive as, for example, the semiconductor business. As you might have seen, the semiconductor business has been affected by - 16% in the year under review, so was the industrial business subdued across Europe. It's more or less a mix, which has largely affected also our profitability, next to the currency effect and the tariffs.
Okay, looking ahead into 2026 and your guidance, why is the range so wide, and would be the base assumption to reach the middle?
The base assumption to reach the middle, you know, would be obviously, you know, the growth being at the upper range of our guidance. I think we feel good in terms of executing on our Fit for Growth program, but also that certain end market subsegments need to develop favorable.
Thank you. Thanks.
Okay, let's go to the middle of the room. Yes, please, go ahead. Yep.
It's Dominik Feldges from Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 600 employees you've mentioned, that's the reduction of your workforce. Can you elaborate a bit on where that is going to happen? Especially, how much the headquarter, I think you mentioned also corporate functions, I think, how much it will be affected here, the workforce here in Switzerland. Then, you've mentioned the construction market, I think, in the U.S., which is becoming increasingly challenging. What is happening there? If you may allow one more question. Tariffs, you've mentioned that there was an effect, a minor effect, you said, but how much in terms of tariffs did you have to pay? Will you now try to reclaim these tariffs?
Thank you very much, Mr. Feldges. The headcount reduction, which is broadly in line with the efficiency increase program, is approximately 5% of the global workforce. It is more or less equally spread, with a slight overweight across Europe. Switzerland will be also affected, with approximately 10% of the addressed 600 people. Yes, you're absolutely right. We will also realign our central functions, but not only on the corporate central functions, also on the divisional central functions. Coming to the U.S. construction market, I think, you know, yes, we have seen a weakening towards the end of the year.
We are confident that we will outperform the market, particular that we also outperformed the market in 2025 compared how the last quarter has been developed. I think we have been slightly negative, but only slightly organically negative in the U.S. Clearly less than the overall market. We believe with our new solutions, I have mentioned the combination of AquaPEX and our ChlorFIT, you know, to allow also move into more commercial applications, but with the do-it-yourself market entrance to address the very important refurbishment market, which we haven't addressed in the years before, at least to this extent.
Talking about the tariffs, as we mentioned, you know, it had a minor effect, but it had an effect, so it was clearly above CHF 5 million. So it was in the mid between CHF 5 million and CHF 10 million. How to reclaim? I think, you know, we are rather wait and see what is now the ultimate solution on the most current developments. We are obviously, you know, will go for our rights, but we would be first wait and see how the whole thing will actually turn out.
Okay. Yes, Mr. Bamert, go ahead.
Thank you very much. You have given us the sales figures for Industry and Infrastructure separately. Can you also give us the adjusted EBIT figure, and will you continue to do that in the future?
For the split of Industry and Infrastructure?
Yes.
For the reported figures, we have, let's say, a consolidation system that we have two divisions. The split is an approximation. We've set strategic targets. We will continue to provide updates on how the separate businesses will go also on a profitability. We're not prepared for this meeting.
Not at this meeting, but from half year figures.
We have also said.
We can expect to get three divisions, or will you also.
We do not provide three divisions. We provide three business areas.
EBIT and top line.
Remember that these profitabilities are because of the account, the way the accounting system is put together.
Yeah
It’s an approximation.
Okay.
Yeah.
You also split the Building business between Europe and North America? That will continue only on the top line, or will you also add a split of profitability there?
It's a good question. We have not decided fully on our segment reporting in the new setup.
Not also regarding the top-line reporting?
We have not decided that.
Okay. Yeah. Material cost. You should have some tailwind from the lower material prices. How does that translate over time into your profitability, last year and this year and the future?
Material cost, uh, it's correct. We had seen some downward trends on a number of the resin prices. About CHF 600 million of the Building Flow Solutions business, as well as CHF 300 million of the I&I Flow Solutions business, is linked to this lower material cost. So it's actually priced on a daily basis and therefore also priced into the market, which means that we have followed partly also the decreasing material costs, which leads to, for instance, in BFS, there we were able to compensate a bit. But overall, the price effect overall for both BFS and I&I Flow Solutions has been very little in 2025.
Okay, next question. Yes, let's go here to the front.
Yes, good morning. Alessandro Foletti, Octavian. Can I ask you a couple of questions? Maybe a quick one, if you can provide order, organic growth for the order intake in the two flow divisions.
What?
The organic growth for the order intake in the Flow Solutions business overall, it was for I&I Flow Solutions, we're looking at an order intake growth of a notch over the growth, so about 2% order intake for the full year. For BFS, we had a decline in the order intake, also in the area of 2.5% decline.
Great. Thank you very much. On the one of cost, or let's say the Fit for Growth program. What I'm a little bit surprised, you mentioned in the slide that it will cost you CHF 15 million. Oftentimes, when companies do this restructuring, the ratio is between cost and saving is more closer to one to one. Maybe you can explain why you'll be able to do it with less money.
I think, our Fit for Growth program, as we have also alluded to, has stressed in the last year more on the portfolio optimization, which normally comes along with higher charges in terms of restructuring expenses. When we have, for example, closed down our— one of our Turkish operations and consolidated multiple places across Europe, that came along with higher restructuring costs. Whereas the program to go is focusing, as said, on OpEx, operational expenditures, but also on efficiency activities in our headcount functions. Yes, here we talk about severance payments.
Okay. Maybe last one, can you give an indication on the expected leverage, net debt to EBITDA for end 2026?
At the end of the year will be below three.
Below-
End of 2026, it will below 3, yes.
That also, that means, for example, not around 2.5?
No, it will be closer to three.
All right.
Below three.
Okay, great. Yeah, let's go here.
Hi, Ingo Stössel from UBS. Regarding your M&A guidance, to reach your midterm top-line targets, do you have any update here? I think you probably need to buy quite a bit to get to the range which you have. Are there any gaps in your current portfolio which you see, especially in your focus areas?
Our focus areas are very comprehensive solutions at this point of time, I have to say. I think when we talk gaps, we talk maybe regional gaps. We have front-loaded our M&A activities with the acquisition of VAG already in the year 2025, which gave us the opportunity to combine our mission-critical valve technology with our existing offering. I think, you know, we are well on track in terms of our M&A pipeline. Nevertheless, talking about M&A, we will see more activities in the years beyond 2026 and not in the year 2026.
Thank you. To follow up on that, what would your leverage guidance look like after 2026 if you say you probably will buy something and.
We have said that if we follow the plan completely, it would be at the end of 2030, our leverage would be below one. Since we are planning on acquiring companies, we would estimate that we will be around two at the EBITDA at the end of 2030.
Thank you.
Great. Next question. Let's go ahead. Yeah.
Yeah, morning, gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, I need to say. Martin Flueckiger from Kepler Cheuvreux. I've got two questions, and I'll go back in line afterwards. First one is on, I think Andreas' statement regarding the development in the semiconductor business. If I remember correctly, - 16% organically was already the number for H1. Now you're saying, if I understood you correctly, that it is the same number for the full year. Yet, again, if I remember correctly, at the half-year stage, you guys were guiding for a rebound in the second half.
I was just wondering whether you could elaborate a little bit on what went wrong in the second half in semis, and what exactly you're expecting for 2026. That's my first question. The second one is on your targeted reinvestment into the sales organization going forward. You know, you were talking, or in the press release, you're talking about CHF 40 million savings, if I understood correctly, in 2026. Part of that is gonna be reinvested. I was just wondering how much of that will be reinvested and, you know, what the net figure will be in terms of in terms of cost savings. Thanks.
I think two excellent questions, Martin. Thank you very much. I think, yes, that was something, you know, which we have not seen, and we have been quite optimistic. You know, when we have released mid-year results, then we have seen an increased project pipeline and also quite a nice order book on our semiconductor businesses. We have seen that many of these projects have been pushed out of the year under review. That was also for us, as I said, you know, our results didn't live up to our expectations. That was one of the key drivers.
We have expected, you know, to be rather seeing a slight growth in the second half of the year, which we haven't seen. Going forward and outlook-wise, we believe that semiconductor could grow some 15% in the year to come. That's at least what we expect in that field. We see ourselves well positioned. We also have a couple of proof of concepts of the GF Ultrapure Water System, which is giving the opportunity now also to move into the hot ultrapure water applications, which substantially drives down the rinsing time of installations.
We are set in a couple of validation processes and homologation processes, so we believe, you know, we have set quite a new standard in that applications. GF is an early mover when it comes to that industry, so we can't compare our business development with a VAT or INFICON. This is a bit of a different momentum when this kind of application is being installed. Yes, in a nutshell, that was one of the disappointing factors in the year 2025. Reinvestment in our sales force, I have elaborated a bit on our new growth opportunities.
As I have spoken, you know, we have been nominated on a quite substantial order in Latin America for urban water infrastructures. That means for us that we also have to care to have the right sales force, the right technical expertise at the front, and we will invest particularly in that one. Also when it comes to data center, this is a field where we have already employed a bit less than 40 people, but we will go and continue since we know that this is a different type of business. It's an OEM business versus a construction business.
The OEM business requires also some special attentions, let's call it this way, we will also employ more people in that field, but also across Europe with our solutions and Building Flow Solutions. We see still, let me say, wide spots when we look at the markets across Europe. Overall, we anticipate between CHF 5 million and CHF 10 million to be reinvested in our sales force, but not only sales force, also customer-facing resources.
Great. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Miro Zuzak, JMS Invest. I have a couple of questions, if I may. The first one would be, how much or how large or how big were the data center-related sales in 2025? The next question is a bit more a technical one. You mentioned the new valves here on stage. You also have introduced a couple of new products, late 2025, including now covering the range even into the server blades, if I'm not mistaken. A couple of questions related to this. Firstly, in the entire change, there is still missing the cold plate parts or the very last part.
Are you intending to close this gap at some point in time, and how? Slash through acquisitions? Secondly, can you please give some feedback about the initial response regarding the new products that you have introduced, how they are basically accepted by clients? Thirdly, maybe you can mention in which platforms that you are, I don't know, Vera Rubin, HP, and so on. Maybe you have other clients which have already co-developed with you and how you are positioned. Lastly, the question about glycol versus pure water. Maybe you can give some color there, how this is currently shifting towards pure water.
Lastly, you mentioned that the core business would be This business would become CHF 400 million-500 million in a couple of years, three to four years. How much of this additional growth comes from the new products that you've just introduced, and how much comes basically from the products that you already had in place last year?
It's a lot of questions. I should have brought my technology expert with me. Thanks a lot. First of all, the DC business in 2025 was approximately CHF 30 million, troubling from CHF 10 million to CHF 30 million, where our outlook for the year 2026 is approximately another growth in the magnitude of CHF 20 million. The new valve. First of all, the feedback which we have received on the comprehensive solutions, what we have displayed now on multiple exhibitions, was very positive. Nevertheless, the go-to market is a slight different one than in our other businesses.
The so-called cooling processes is a very close business to the HVAC installation companies, but it's also an OEM business. That means you have different kind of contraction partners. As we all know, NVIDIA is specifying down to the concept, to the horse, to the quick connect, how a rack which is serving their GPUs should be constructed. Talking obviously to this kind of experts and expert and homologation experts is not that easy, right? We have co-developed a lot of things together with big players such as Google, but also we are in touch with LG. We are talking to AWS.
We have good inroads to that ones because we have been already, in hindsight, in the facility water. We differentiate facility water, which is everything which goes out, let's call a white room. Anything what is outside there, GF is well present already today. We also are now present in this kind of applications. For example, we have equipped a very well-reputed data center facility of one of the big players in the Nordics with the stormwater management, which is also then an application which nicely fits into the GF comprehensive offering. Coming back to facility water, going down into the technology area, that means the technology water, that is new for GF.
Here we are now with the first, as I have shown you, the nLighten, with Rittal being one of the big supporter and promoter of this kind of solutions. LG was also a big promoter. We have multiple smaller developers, but we are also in the big ones. Next, cold plate. I have to say, you know, we have not looked into cold plate. We believe, you know, this is a technology, you know, which we're gonna leave to the experts. We also believe that the cold plate technology might gonna see some strong innovations in the years to come, which means that a cold plate will be replaced by a direct-in-the-packaging cooling channel.
Here also, we believe that liquid water, a high-purity water, will be superior over anything else because the purity of water is something which GF has played since decades, and so therefore, we can handle that one. The initial response, I said, you know, was very positive. I think the platforms I have mentioned, I just would like to correct, I said, you know, we strive for CHF 300 million in the Strategy 2030 in terms of data center sales and new products, at least in the white room.
A lot of our most recent presented innovations, whether it is being the balancing valve, energy valve, or whether it is being the quick connects, what we have also here on display, or the manifolds which we provide, we assume in the white room, even 2/3 would be stemming from new products. In the white room, which is more or less, you know, most likely a 50/50 or a 60/40 split in terms of the entire installation.
If you look at the entire large-scale hyperscaler, when we go from stormwater, which would be a bit infrastructure applications, to the facility water, from the chillers to the CDUs. The conveyance of the entire system, then it goes white room distribution here, I think, you know, this is obviously that would be quite attractive and appealing.
Okay. Thank you, Andreas. Any further questions? Another one, Mr. Flueckiger? Yeah.
Thanks. I'd just like to come back to your statement, Andreas, regarding the CHF 300 million targeted long term, yeah? If my memory serves me right, at the CMD, you guys were talking about CHF 150 million-CHF 200 million. That's quite an increase. What's changed there?
I think, you know, our market insights, also certain customer feedback, and also the belief that water as a coolant is superior over glycol, makes us believe that in a second generation, you're gonna see more polymer-based solutions. We target, it is still not that big. You know, the total expected capital expenditures in regards to piping systems in a data center is approximately CHF 3 billion. At least that is the anticipation, you know, for the year 2030. We're gonna believe with our solutions, we are quite well-positioned, and also our discussions and our proof of concepts installations with the positive feedback made us, you know, to believe that CHF 300 million is an achievable target.
Of course, it's not the the focus today, but still, you have sold now the also your the with the Casting business, you know, the timing there. You know, I mean, was it I mean, could you not have waited for it? I mean, do you really have to I mean, is that not really unfortunate, you know, to sell it really at the bottom of the cycle, it seems, you know, and you have had an impairment. I mean, why not being a bit more patient, maybe like the Chinese, who just wait and to put it maybe a bit provocatively?
I think, what is the right time of an acquisition and what is the right time of a divestment? I think, you know, that becomes, quite a complex question. When we reflect a bit on how the business is being set up and embedded in the industry, we believe with the transformation, we have seen a lot of European suppliers, but also European OEMs strongly suffering, you know, from the developments. We have seen that also in our call-offs and in our orders and order fulfillment rates, even of the most recent order acquisitions, let me say, over three and five years.
As you may know, you acquire an order, and you execute on this order in three to five years on these businesses. We have seen many of the platforms, over-promising and underperforming of our OEMs, which also resulted obviously in severe headwinds on this entire group across Europe. Let's talk a bit more China. China is the second pillar where GF has been strong with its Casting Solutions business, particularly with the automotive part of the Casting Solutions business. We have seen also a shift there in terms of which OEMs are the successful ones and how the supply base has changed.
Being less money being deployed in real estate, as we have seen, let me say, some 10 years ago, nowadays, a lot of venture capital flows into technologies and in manufacturing setups. We have seen a lot of new competitors growing over the last two to five years. Mads’ has presented the figures of the discontinued businesses, and he has also presented the figures of what has been achieved in our Casting Solutions business. If you take now the a bit more than 3% EBIT margin and think about that, we still keep a very profitable precision casting business, which serves the aerospace, commercial, but also the industrial gas turbine business.
You can imagine that May profitability is far out of what has to be expected. If you ask me, I think it was one of the best possible moments in the last couple of years to get at least a decent strategic buyer attracted by our business, where the combination with Nemak being one of the largest or the largest player in that field, makes a very nice combination. We believe it's a right moment. I think waiting wouldn't be the right recipe. You wouldn't have liked that.
Right.
If I may compliment Andreas on, in terms of timing, if you go back in 2019, was not a good year for automotive in China. 2020, COVID. 2021, supply chain. 2022, chip problems, et cetera, et cetera. What actually happened over that period is that the automotive industry changed fundamentally, and it's really in a such a transformation at the moment that we were happy to be able to exit this business. We're very happy to be able to exit this business.
Okay. Thank you, Mads. Any final question from the room? If not, I will ask the operator if there are any questions from the webcast. So far, there are no questions from the webcast. Okay. In that case, I will thank you for joining us this morning and invite you to join us for lunch in the room next door. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.