Good morning everyone. Also, a warm welcome from my side to our first Austrian Select Conference today. As a second company, we are happy to host SBO today with us. Judit Helenyi, Head of Investor Relations, will run us through the presentation and the exciting times the company is currently going through. As you all know, some housekeeping. The presentation will last about 15 to 20 minutes, and we will have time for a Q&A session afterwards. The presentation is being recorded and questions can be asked using the chat box at the bottom right. Given that we have a very strict timetable, I would like to hand over to you, Judit. The floor is yours.
Thank you very much, and also a very warm welcome from my side to this conference. I'm really happy to present you SBO at this really interesting time, as you have put it really correctly. What I will present to you is a brief introduction to the company, then show you some financial numbers as we have just recently presented our full year numbers, and then show you the strategy where we are intending to go forward, how we are performing on the strategy execution, and then we will have some minutes for further Q&A. I will just right now jump into the middle of it. If it is working. Which it's not. Now it does. The SBO at a glance. We are a global market leader in manufacturing high alloy, non-magnetic steel, high precision components, and high tech equipment for the energy sector and other industrial sectors.
I think it's important to mention that we are also focusing on other ones. It's not just oil and gas or the energy sector. We do have an outstanding material knowhow, and we are very good in high precision manufacturing and customer-centric innovation. This is, again, important because that says that we are working towards niches, and that is also a positive and an upside factor for the profitability of the company. Precision, as mentioned, is key, and it's a differentiating factor, and we are also protected by a strong IP that keeps our niches safe, if you want to put it that way. In terms of number crunching, we are having more than 20 sites and locations worldwide. We have about 1,500 employees. The number crunching part for last year in figures, we had sales of roughly EUR 455 million.
We had an EBITDA margin in 2025 reaching 16%, which is, I think under the given pressured times that we had seen in 2025, is a good level. Yeah, we had an equity ratio last year at the end of the year of 47%. How is the company structured? We have two divisions. One is Precision Technology, PT, and the other one is Energy Equipment, EE. In the Precision Technology, we are serving the market with very high precision components, advanced additive manufacturing, high strength non-magnetic steel, and high-tech service and repair. The important part that I would like to highlight here is that the high precision components that we are manufacturing are either done by subtractive manufacturing. That means that you have the steel, and you kind of carve out the unnecessary parts, put it very simple.
The other part is that is growingly more important is the advanced additive manufacturing. This is nothing else but 3D metal printing. It sounds easy. It isn't. As I am not a technician, I also asked my colleagues, and they told, yeah, 3D printing of just very common materials like plastics is probably more easy. Metal 3D printing is a completely complicated process, and the beauty of it is that you can construct parts that are having very high complex structures that you couldn't do by subtractive manufacturing. You just build up the layers, and at the end, have the finishing of the tool. There we can bring in, again, our precision knowledge from the subtractive manufacturing. The second part is energy equipment. This is related to high performance steering motors, circulation tools, rotary steerable tools, well completion solutions.
If you hear those buzzwords, you probably will think about oil and gas, service equipment companies, drilling, and well completion, and you are right. This is not just for oil and gas. This is also relevant for industries that are, again, drilling. Just thinking of geothermal or helium, lithium drillings. Having said that, showing you how it looks like in the international field. You see the two divisions, and you see some colorful flags here placed, and that's supposed to give you the impression where we are located all over the world. We are in America, we are in the Middle East, we are in Asia, we are of course in Europe. We have a very wide global footprint here, and that is also relevant because also our customers are playing in global fields, so we can serve them wherever they need us.
That is now that brief introduction to SBO, and I will jump now into the financials. How did the market in general look in 2025? What you see on this page is that we had really challenging times in 2025. We had significant headwinds that we had to face and we had to manage, which I think we did at the end of the day quite well. But in general, you have to keep an eye on those factors. On the one hand, we had an oversupply of oil, mostly because the OPEC increased their production levels. That, again, put some pressure on the oil price. That is not supportive for the oil and gas service companies. That is then again, not that good for our demand.
What we also saw is the evolving tariff situation, and not just that there were new tariffs, but there were completely times of changing tariffs. I've heard statistics where it said that Mr. Trump had, in his first year of government, every third and a half day, a new tariff introduced. Maybe they were not all relevant for us, but it was certainly a sign that there was no security. You couldn't know what to expect the next day. We've also heard that some of our customers had war rooms installed where they are really just focusing on what is relevant, how is it calculating, how can you interpret them, because you also have different interpretation possibilities. That was something that also brought some insecurity into the market.
All in all, we had a high level of customer uncertainty, and that ended at the end of the day in reduced CapEx spending. What we had seen, for example, is that SLB reduced their CapEx by 31% in 2025. that also resulted in lower well drilling activity. That was -4% last year. this was the ground where we had to operate last year. you will see, of course, some numbers that were declining. All in all, again, I would highlight that I think an EBITDA margin of close to 16% is quite a robust level for an EBITDA margin in the industry. What we had seen were sales that were 80.8% lower below last year's level.
If you take out the FX effect, then it would have been only 15.5%, because as you might remember, we had oil price development coming from close to one, coming to 1.18. That is significantly leaving some effects on our numbers as we have roughly 80% of our sales generated in U.S. dollar. If you take that effect, it would have been EUR 80 million as an impact all in all. The EBITDA and EBIT clearly came down because we saw reduced activities, and that also affected our profit, where we ended at the end of the day with an earnings per share at EUR 1.50. We now proposed a dividend to the AGM that will take place next week of EUR 0.75. That is exactly 50% payout ratio.
I think it's a solid level, given we have the dividend policy of paying out 30%-60% of the earnings. Excuse me. Speaking about the big picture, showing some details. We had, as again mentioned, lower customer demand, especially in the PT business. The sales in the EE business were more resilient. The CS and PT declined very strongly due to the low demand of these service companies. That was clearly impacted by their CapEx cuts. In the EE division, we had a decline in euros, but if you account for the US dollar deviation, it would have been even a slight upside, landing at EUR 277.9. But of course, you have to choose in which currencies you report. We had this decline. That was driven by higher sales and international expansion.
The upside that we had seen that it didn't come to that much pressure in this field. What was also reflected in our bookings is the weak demand. We saw that the bookings declined step by step from Q1, Q2, then to Q3. Q3 was clearly the weakest quarter. Again, in Q4, we already saw an improvement as it was 10% above the weakest quarter of Q3. Having said that, I think it is important to mention that we have seen the improvement, especially in the PT division, which is good because it came down quite strongly during the year. We are also seeing this development coming down the road in 2026, even though I cannot really tell you a lot more about it because we haven't reported our Q1 yet. On the next slide, again, the picture for the EBITDA development. The margin was under pressure.
We came down from 18.2 to 15.6. I think it would have been a lot worse if we hadn't taken all the countermeasures. We had capacity adjustments in the PT division, and implemented cost and efficiency programs. We clearly had some headcount decline, as you see it in the bottom right side of the page. The headcount of PT was reduced by 11% year-on-year. If you adjust it for the effect that we have acquired a company during 2025, it would have been even 15% less headcount. In the EE division, we had resilient sales levels, as you have seen, and therefore the margin was also a lot more solid. We could clearly improve it to 17.2% coming up from 13.7%. We had already introduced operational structure measures here in 2024, and they were clearly bringing the positive effects in 2025.
Not just being on the operational side, let's show some numbers on the balance sheet and cash. We had a positive free cash flow development despite our strategic CapEx and M&A activities. We had an operating cash flow that was strongly influenced by the working capital that was down in PT. The free cash flow was at EUR 25.5 million. If I exclude the M&A activities, it would have been by EUR 34.1 million, so it would have been higher. But again, we had higher CapEx last year. We was at EUR 50 million. The year before it was at EUR 34 million. That you have the comparison. We were strongly focusing on the strategy execution, and investing also on these topics. That means that we had additional additive manufacturing capacities, purchased site expansions, a new distribution center in the U.S. that we had set up. Balance sheet was again very strong.
We had an equity of EUR 421.9 million, with currency translation effect of EUR 67 million. Equity ratio was high and liquid funds was also at a strong level at EUR 281 million. Net debt, if you want to look at that number, was again affected by the U.S. dollar. If it was adjusted for the dollar effect, it would have been about EUR 64 million. That would be about the same level like the year before. That is it about number crunching now. I would like to show you the outlook, how we see the coming year. Before going to the real outlook, I would just simply show you the picture of what is driving right now the markets.
Not surprisingly, the Middle East conflict is clearly something that is having an effect, even though we cannot yet tell how it will end at the end of the day, because the duration of the conflict would be really the key determining factor here. The major focus points here that we have is, of course, the Strait of Hormuz, where you see that 20% of the global supply would pass here through, which is currently not the case, and this is clearly something that puts the limits on energy availability. We have an elevated price volatility, and not just the high level of prices, but clearly the volatility, which is, again, not positive for making decisions either this or that way also for the customers of ours. You have, of course, the limited global supply buffer and the infrastructure resilience, which is clearly at risk.
You know, depending on the length of the crisis, it will be a question mark how much of the infrastructure is still intact at the end of the day. Our expectations for 2026. For the time being, we only saw limited calculable impact of the conflict. We are closely monitoring, of course, the situation. What we see is that in the short term, we have the high uncertainty, but in the mid and long term, the fundamentals are still intact. I will come to that point when we talk about the strategy. The SBO divisions in 2026 see different types of development. PT, again, has improved compared to the low levels of 2025, and we see here a transition year.
If we listen to our customers, they were not yet sure where the journey is exactly ending this year, but they see that there are some signs of change. We see the signs of recovery, but nevertheless, that means that the improvements that we see in bookings now are only going to be reflected in the second half of the year. In EE, we see the possibility to capitalize on our expansion projects. Again, here we again see the possible impacts of the Middle East conflict, where we cannot yet say how far the projects will be influenced. All in all, what we see, we do have our strategy that we have introduced last year, and we are focusing on the execution of this strategy, not just in the oil and gas field and the traditional energy sectors, but also in the new diversified ones.
This is actually the point where I'm going to turn the page and go towards the strategy. We have introduced our new strategy last year, and we said we are focusing on our core capabilities, and this is the foundation for it. We have the forging technology, subtractive manufacturing, additive manufacturing, global footprint, high performance materials. These are the foundation pillars that we can build on and focus when executing the strategy. What we have said is that we will improve our sales to EUR 900 million by 2030, and we want to reach an EBITDA margin over the cycle exceeding 20%. You see we have room for improvement, but we also know that we are right now rather at the bottom of the cycle.
Of course, we have clearly defined sustainable operational goals, saying, the target is 30% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 and 10% in Scope 3. How do we want to reach those goals? We said we have the foundation and we can build on our four strategic strengths, diversification, market expansion, technology leadership, operational excellence. Out of those, of course they are interlinked, but I think the most interesting in terms of what you can see and how you can realize how the strategy execution is diversification. For diversification, we have defined three sub-fields, if I may put it that way. We will leverage on our technology know-how and expand into those new fields that are clearly not in the classic oil and gas businesses. What we see is a focus on geothermal, helium, lithium drilling, and CCS.
We are also focusing on additive manufacturing, 3D metal printing, because this is the field where we are not strongly linked to the oil and gas field, but we can produce whatever we want. We, of course, do have the flow control that is going beyond oil and gas. Just three examples how you can imagine that next generation diversification. The conventional hydrothermal was, in the earlier years, just drilling down and getting the heat out. Nowadays, it's a lot more complex. It's also called therefore the next generation. What we see here, you see it on the chart on the right-hand, geothermal is the second-largest renewable technique for energy resources. The beauty of it is that it is independent of any kind of weather. If you take a look at solar or wind, it is always a question mark what the weather is doing.
For geothermal, you just simply drill and you will be able to generate the energy sources. Here our core strength is coming into the play because we have the complex tools that are also able to work also in the harsh environmental circumstances of the next generation geothermal, where you drill deeper, and that means higher temperatures and higher pressure. That's where the high technology of ours is relevant, because there our tools are still working. The next example is the 3D printing. I think it's interesting to mention that the market chances that we see in the coming five years is a CAGR of 26%. Here you have the possibility to expand into industries such as air, space, defense, other energy fields. You can then focus on these very complex products that you can print that you couldn't do by subtractive manufacturing.
Also here, one upside is, again, you are printing and having only less than 5% material loss because you do not have to carve out the unnecessary parts. On the other hand, it's really complex. It's not just prototyping, but also serial production. It is clearly coming out of the teenager ages and this is a very interesting field for developing into. The third example is flow control. What I would like to highlight here is that it is a huge market. It has a potential of more than $250 billion in the coming years. Here we have high margins, therefore we are working in niches. We have the technologies already from the oil and gas fields, but we can apply those in other flow control niches. These are the diversification strategic pillars.
Again, we are of course still working in the traditional oilfield service businesses. Here we see a very solid long-term fundamental here. We see that oil and gas is still remaining close to half of the share of the global energy mix, if you take 2050 into account. Oil demand is still going to rise. What we see right now is that the E&P spending that you see today is only covering the maintenance of the levels by 90% of the CapEx. Taking into account the demand will rise you will clearly need further improvements here, and this is the promising part for us. This is how we see ourselves. We see ourselves in the conventional business, but again growing in the diversified businesses.
What we have done in 2025 for this development is, you see I'm not going to read out everything, but you see that we are not just sitting and doing and managing the operational challenges, but we are also focusing on the strategy execution. We have introduced new business fields. We are having new expansions in Vietnam, in the U.S. We have photovoltaic systems. We have acquired a new company, 3T-am, for 3D printing. We are also acquiring our own printers. You see that there is a lot happening, and it's not just managing the challenges of 2025.
The last picture here is clearly just some pictures so that you see we had market expansions with the new sites, operation and excellence, where we are expanding and having a bigger representative share in the market, diversification with you see here a printer and the geothermal and new technology products. All in all, what I would like you to remember when you leave this presentation is that 2025 was a challenging year. We are able to manage cycles. You see it on the left-hand chart. We have a proven track record in cycle management. That is also the first part of our slogan, Navigating Challenges. We are doing it, and we have experience. On the other hand, we are shaping the future.
You see, we are executing our growth strategy, in all fields and focusing on the further growth steps so that we will be able to reach the strategic goals that we have defined. Having said all that, I would be now ready for your questions, and happy to answer them.
Thank you, Judit. As we have agreed, I've jumped in just five minutes before the end so that we have some time for the questions. You ended your presentation with the growth outlook, and I'd like to start the Q&A session with the question surrounding the growth. Which geographic markets do you currently see as the biggest growth drivers, and where are you actively investing in capacity?
What we have done last year is actually we had a new site expansion in the Middle East, and this is clearly, for us, a defined growth field. We will have to see how it evolves with the crisis. For the time being, we are still confident that we are fine here. We had site expansion in Asia. We had acquired a company in the U.K. We have the expansion in America. You see, we are focusing on all areas. When talking about the growth potential, we are, for the time being, especially when talking about diversification potential, we are rather focusing on Europe and U.S.
Great. A follow-up from James, he also asked regarding inorganic growth, how are you currently thinking about M&A and are there areas where inorganic growth makes strategic sense for you?
In terms of M&A strategy, we are looking at possibilities where we have synergies and a cultural fit. We are focusing, as mentioned, North America and Europe. We are looking at established businesses and it's supposed to be, of course, non-dilutive. We are looking for majorities or buyouts. What we say here is, of course, these businesses are sometimes having higher ratios. We are very strictly calculating everything when we are looking at targets. We do not want to be dilutive on the one hand, but on the other hand, of course, we know that those businesses are again bringing clearly higher profits, north of 20% more EBITDA margin, and therefore we are also willing to pay, but not overpay. That's an important part.
Okay, perfect. We have two more questions.
Just one addition.
Yeah, sure
It's not just about M&A. We are also looking into partnerships and of course into organic growth. Yeah, the question was directed towards M&A.
Perfect. Given the time constraint, we have two more questions from Tobias. What evidence should we expect by mid-year that Precision Technology is genuinely toughening rather than just stabilizing at a lower level?
I'm sorry, it was a blurry line. Can you come again, please? Sorry.
The question is, what evidences should we expect by mid-year that Precision Technology is toughening rather than just stabilizing at lower levels?
Well, you will hear from the booking levels, and this is something that will be done then, hopefully the evidence. What we had seen is, as also mentioned, Q4 was already clearly improving compared to Q3. We see this positive trend also in Q1. All in all, we see the upside that's supposed to be visible during the second half of the year.
Perfect.
Again, also, the H1 numbers for PT will remain subdued in terms of sales because the bookings are realizing with a delay. The improvement is only expected rather for the second half of the year.
Great. Perfect. Given that we are running out of time, I would suggest that the remaining three questions, we are answering via email to the audience. Judit, thank you very much for this very interesting presentation. To all listeners and investors, the next meeting is Frequentis. I've just put in the link into the chat box. I wish you all a successful day and thanks for joining our meeting today with SBO. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your interest. Bye-bye.