Hello, and good afternoon, and welcome back. Let's get started with our next presentation, which is from Semperit as part of today's Austrian Select Conference. I'm happy to have with me Bettina Schragl. She's Director Communications and Capital Markets, and she will walk us through the company's presentation, touching on the key milestones and the current market trends. Before we dive in, the quick housekeeping note, the conference is being recorded and will be available later on research-hub.de, and also the presentation will be provided there. For your questions, please use the chat box at the right hand of your screen, and we will answer the question later in the Q&A session. With this, I'll hand it over to you, Ms. Schragl. The stage is yours.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon from my side from here in Vienna. Yeah, my name is Bettina Schragl. I'm happy to join the first, from our view, our first Austrian Select Conference. Shortly to my person, I'm now with Semperit for almost three years, have since the mid of 2023. Yeah, thank you for your interest in our company. Over the next, I would say, 20-25 minutes, I would like to give you an overview who we are, where are we coming from, and what is our plan and our potential for the future. I will walk you through the presentation. The presentation is the same which you can find on our investor relations website. Due to the time constraints, I will not go into detail on each and every slide, but I would like to have the same presentation as it is on our website.
Who is Semperit? Semperit is a global pioneer, a leading global industrial elastomer specialist with a history of more than 200 years. Meaning we focus on high-quality elastomer applications mainly or only for industrial customers operating in defined niche markets where reliability, durability, and high technical performance are critical. Meaning, and this is also our purpose, our products help keep industries running and the world in motion, often embedded in the systems and applications of our customers, but not always visible to end users. As you can see on the next slide, there are very many products where Semperit is inside, and I'm quite sure that most probably you also already today had contact with product or application where Semperit is inside. You can see here an overview of the products and of the applications.
These include seals and gaskets for windows, facades and doors, industrial and hydraulic hoses, escalator handrails, rail beds, sealing elements, and also silicone components, which are used in household appliances, healthcare products, and also specialized solutions for cable cars, snow groomers, and industrial safety applications. To give you one example, 1/3 of the escalator handrails in the world is produced by Semperit. What all these products have in common are their highly technological nature. Meaning, of course, our products are based on rubber or on liquid silicone, but it is by far more than only rubber and liquid silicone. To give you an example, our hydraulic hose, which is used in cranes, in tunnel boring machines, or also in heavy agricultural equipment. These hydraulic hose must reliably withstand the pressure of up to 500 bar.
Meaning, just to give you a comparison, in a typical standard passenger car tire, you have a pressure, a bar of 2.5. Meaning 500 against 2.5. The same applies to our liquid silicone rubber solutions where we operate at the very high end of precision manufacturing. Meaning all these components are used, for example, in several medical technology applications, for example, including parts for insulin pumps. Meaning solutions supporting diabetes care as well as the components used in eye surgery. I think this illustrates our strength in technically demanding applications, but also shows the broad variety of industries we are serving. What is our strategic ambition? Our strategic ambition is quite clear and measurable. The ambition is to grow Semperit as soon as possible to more than EUR 1 billion in sales through profitable growth.
Just to give you an idea, in the last financial year, our turnover was roughly EUR 700 million. This threshold is not just a symbolic milestone because it's a nice round figure. It is a decisive driver for value creation because at that scale, at that turnover of around EUR 1 billion, our production capacity will be optimally utilized. This is because our business model is highly sensitive to utilization. This matters greatly. Strategically, we are consistently focusing on industrial niches. As I said before, here we are looking for niches where we can be among the top three players worldwide with our products, with our performance profile. For us, very important is that we combine our technological excellence with high customer proximity.
What is also very important, and I think if you have the opportunity to take a look into our figures, you can see that we have a resilient business model. Of course, we are a cyclical player, but I think Semperit, and looking back to the 200 years history, is not only used but is also very good in managing such cyclical phases. You will see also later in the presentation even, and also looking back for the last three years, we had difficult demanding times due to the overall economic environment. Nevertheless, I think we really managed very good with regard to cost measures, with regard to increase efficiency, to keep our margins at a satisfying level, I would say. With regard to our strategic ambition, we have defined four strategic levers that guide our transformation.
A quick overview, and here I've already mentioned, first of all, it's growth. Meaning we are focusing on high-growth segments where we, with our expertise, can clearly create value and have differentiation. Second, innovation, and I will touch this item later on. It is one of our number one growth drivers. Meaning here we are constantly looking where we can expand with our existing products into new markets and where we can adapt our products to the needs of our clients' industry. Third of all, performance. Across all our sites, and Semperit has 16 production sites worldwide, spanning from Europe to Asia and America. In all these sites, we have a clear focus on operational discipline, and long-term competitiveness, and of course, last but not least, our people.
I would like to go to this slide directly just to show you how is our overall set up of the company. As you have seen, we are serving several industries, and have quite a broad variety of products. With regard to the structuring of the company, we have two segments, and I think these two segments clearly reflect the main competencies, the main strengths of Semperit. On the left-hand side, you see Semperit Industrial Applications. Here are our hoses and our profiles bundled. Semperit Industrial Applications represents our platform for volume-driven business. Here we have a clear focus on cost leadership, process and product innovation, and mostly standardized high-performance products. As I said, hoses and profiles. On the right-hand side, you see Semperit Engineered Applications.
Here in this segment are bundled our conveyor belts business, our liquid silicone business, and tool making, and also, as we say, our foam business, for example, where we have our handrails, our mountain applications. Meaning in this segment, we focus on niche markets where engineered technology, customer proximity, and also customer customization are the key factors. Both divisions or what unites both divisions is the foundation at the bottom of this slide. Meaning this is our expertise in rubber compounding, which we also do in-house at several locations worldwide, and our R&D. Meaning this shared technological background allows us to combine cost efficiency for both segments. Just, I would like to have mentioned this first before we go back. Sorry for skipping, but before we go back, how we work with our strategy in the different business units.
You can see here with regard to Semperit Industrial Applications in hoses, we are driving organic growth through a clear hose-only positioning. Meaning this allows us to avoid channel conflicts and concentrate fully on our core competence. Meaning here, supplying standard and premium hydraulic and industrial hoses with a leading price-quality performance. In profiles, we have the target to become global leader in EPDM sealing solutions, and looking at our Semperit Engineered Applications, we are scaling more or less proven platforms by sharpening our focus on profitable niches and expanding globally. For example, with regard to our liquid silicone business, this means that we focus on above-market growth, mainly in medical, sanitary, and automotive applications, and also with regard to expansion in the U.S. and also Asia and Pacific. Yeah, the next slide.
I think, as mentioned, with regard to our products, with regard to the industries we serve, you can see that our strategic direction is reinforced by several megatrends which should continue to shape demand in our products. Urbanization, demographic shifts, mobility, climate adaptation. These are long-term drivers that play directly into our strength for elastomer products. Coming to the next slide. As I already have mentioned, the last years have been characterized by a tough economic environment. I will show you later on. I think we did many initiatives which helped us to keep margins at a respectable level. Nevertheless, besides the cost-saving, we also invested into our future growth. Here are two examples which I can show to you. Here on the slide, you see our hoses production site in Odry in the Czech Republic.
This is Europe's largest and most advanced production for hoses. Here we have invested in an expansion of our capacity. You see it here on the left-hand side with the red sign. This is an additional production hall with 17,000 sq m. Meaning, the ramp up already started in 2025 with full capacity expected to be reached in 2030. Approximately half of the investment has already been spent. On this side, you also see one of our production site here in Austria, in Upper Austria, in Thalheim. This refers to our liquid silicone business. Here we also invested about EUR 25 million in the production site, in the expansion of our production site. This especially strengthens our technological leadership, particularly in healthcare applications. Meaning this is also supported by several certifications and clean room capacities. I think, yeah.
I will now give you a quick overview of our operational performance in the last business year. I already mentioned it was again a challenging year marked by weak market environment, customer caution, and also foreign exchange headwinds. It was also a year in which Semperit demonstrated resilience because we had a very tough start in the year due to project delays with our customers and also due to the overall discussions around U.S. tariffs. Nevertheless, we executed on our priorities and tasks we can adjust, so meaning advancing the operational efficiency with meaningful cost savings of another EUR 6 million, strengthening our commercial performance, and also progressing innovation initiatives. With regard to our cost savings, we were among the players or we have been one company which already back in 2023 initiated a strong cost program.
In the last three years, you can see we have taken out more than EUR 30 million out of our system. At the beginning of 2025, we initiated another round of cost savings with a run rate of about EUR 10 million per year. In the current business year, 2025, we already achieved EUR 6 million again. As you can then see on the right-hand side, these actions or all these actions supported a strong margin recovery in the second half of the year. As said, the first half year was a very tough year with an EBITDA margin of 9.6%, but then we increased it to 14.3% in the second half of the year, I think, which clearly shows that we have built up momentum as the year progressed. The fourth quarter was our strongest, with a margin of about 15.3%.
Yeah. As a result, we achieved an operating EBITDA of nearly EUR 84 million, which was above our guidance. Meaning this should show you Semperit is moving on with the clear strategy and yeah. Given the time constraints, on the next 2 slides, you have the specific development of our 2 divisions of our 2 segments in the last year. I will not go into detail right now due to the time, but as you can see, just a view on the margin development. This refers to our SEA business, where you can clearly see a very good improvement over the last quarters and also with regards to our SIA division, you can see also a clear improvement. Just one remark, because you see that very low figure for the first quarter of 2025. This was the reason which I've mentioned before.
We had a tough start because this was mainly due to the project that our customers postponed projects and also, yeah, enlarged the product life cycles for the products. We always said this would be a temporary effect, and yeah, I think the development shows that we have clearly improved until the end of the year. Yeah. A quick word on innovation. As I mentioned at the beginning, innovation is a crucial growth driver for Semperit. So here, the focus is on how we can adapt our material expertise and product portfolio to new markets and also new customer requirements. We have very successful examples like our hybrid handrail, which already support our revenues. Here on this side, you have three additional innovations or product market combinations, as we name, which will support our turnover in the years to come. I will only touch the first one.
This is our RFID Semperit Rubbertec. This Rubbertec enables seamless integration of electronic components, in detail of an RFID chip into rubber materials without compromising durability and performance of this chip. It allows efficient tracking and identification of rubber products, improving inventory management, operational efficiency, and also lifecycle monitoring. Especially this lifecycle monitoring is a very interesting part and an advantage when it comes to Digital Product Passport conformity. Meaning this, providing access to essential product information through a unique electronic identifier. The tire industry will be among the first sectors affected by this EU Digital Product Passport requirements, which makes our Rubbertec a highly relevant innovation for this market. You can see also here on this slide, that we have reclaimed profiles and also with regard to LSR.
All in all, we have by far more product market combinations within our company, but this is also to give you a quick overview. With that, only a very few words on our, I think, very sound financial position. As you can see here with regard to the last year, and I have already mentioned, we further strengthened our operating leverage, with a competitive cost base and continued cost measures. We also managed to keep our free cash flow at a solid level of EUR 37 million, also supported by a disciplined CapEx management and targeted spending. We have a strong balance sheet, as you can see here, with a net debt to EBITDA ratio at 1.2 and I have mentioned the investments or the growth investments into our sites. We also are heavily investing in our digital transformation. We are bringing Semperit into the cloud.
We have already started this a year ago, with our, as we call, One ERP initiative. Meaning the first rollouts have already been done successfully, and this program we will follow until 2028, until the full company will have only One ERP. Yeah. Probably only a few words, because I've mentioned it already regarding the utilization, the role of utilization plays in our business model and also of the strengthening of our operating leverage. This is just a very quick overview of how this operating leverage played out during the year 2025. As you can see on this slide, starting with Q1, revenue declined by 14%, which translated into a decrease of EBITDA by more than 50%. This clearly illustrates the sensitivity of our earnings to lower capacity utilization. By contrast, on the right-hand side, Q4 shows the positive side of this mechanism.
Revenue increased by 5% and EBITDA grew by more than 31%. In other words, 2025, I would say, clearly underlined how our business model reacts to utilization and continuously reducing cost base. I'm now looking at the time, and so therefore I'm going to skip a few slides. Probably just a few words to our outlook. Sorry. Yeah. Here we are with regard to the business outlook for 2026. meaning we anticipate high single-digit revenue growth, which should be supported by both divisions. We have already last week given a quick glimpse on our performance in Q1. Full Q1 results will be published in the middle of May, at 13 May. Nevertheless, we already told the market that our EBITDA in the first quarter would be in the region of around EUR 26 million, which is roughly the same level as the quite strong last quarter of 2025.
Our overall guidance for the financial year 2026 is unchanged. Here, we expect an operating EBITDA of EUR 95 million, which is a clear increase compared to last year. What is the difference with regard to operating EBITDA? This means before our costs for this One ERP digital transformation project. Yeah, CapEx should be realized in the region of EUR 50 million. Nevertheless, in times like this, it has to be stressed explicitly, of course, current developments and the increased uncertainties could lead to suppressed demand in the second quarter of this year, which we have also stressed when we announced our EBITDA for the first quarter.
Meaning, currently, we do not see real shortages in the availability of raw materials. Nevertheless, looking ahead, it also depends how long the current crisis, the current war will take place. This should be in mind. Nevertheless, I think Semperit is very well positioned and we are still very confident to be and to realize that we are back on the growth path in 2026. That's from my side. If it's time for a few questions, I'm happy. Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks a lot for the insights you've provided, and actually we received some questions already. Maybe we can start with the first one. Which division is giving you the strongest evidence that the demand has turned?
I would say, of course, in the SEA division, we had the impact that especially belting and liquid silicone tool making had a weaker performance in the first quarter. Looking back and looking at the situation in March, I would say all business units performed quite well.
Thanks. Let's have a look at the margin and the margin development. How much of the planned full year 2026 EBITDA improvement is volume driven versus self-help and cost out?
Yeah. I can't give you, of course, a final estimation on this because, of course, we have given this guidance in March this year, shortly after the war broke out. Currently, we are seeing, and due to the current economic situation, I would say we see some positive price effects and some negative volume effects because we have seen increases in raw materials, and we are able, or I think we have been able in the past, and we are very confident that we can pass on the price increases to our customers as soon as possible. On the other hand side, the current situation brings some negative volume effects. Therefore, I can't give you, especially in the current environment, not a final estimation.
Maybe speaking more generally about the margin and the development, what is the medium-term margin ceiling, so the upper end, if markets normalize and without a full industrial upcycle?
No. What I can say, I have mentioned that we plan to increase our overall turnover in the midterm as soon as possible to EUR 1 billion. We can do this without acquisitions. Of course, if there would be the possibility for an add-on acquisition, it would go faster, but we can do it without acquisition. With regard to margins, I would say they are normalized at least 15%+ .
Okay, thank you. Maybe a last question regarding the capital allocation. How are you currently balancing the capital allocation between investments in your own core rubber and polymer production, potential M&A opportunities, and shareholder returns?
Yeah. We have a slide on this in the presentation, and I will quickly go through this. You can see here with regard to the last year, CapEx, and as I said, our CapEx guidance for the current business year is EUR 50 million. From today's perspective, around EUR 35 million would refer to maintenance CapEx and about EUR 15 million to growth CapEx. We have a focus on opportunistic bolt-on acquisitions. There is no must to do it, but we are screening the markets, and we are ready to make use of it. Of course, in our capital allocation dividends, dividend payments play an important role. Nevertheless, with regard to the last business year, our dividend policy is to pay 50% of earnings after tax. In the last business year, our earnings after tax was nearly flat. Therefore we did not pay a dividend for 2025, but with the clear explanation that we have a full focus on our growth.
Thanks a lot, Bettina Schragl. Actually, we have a few questions left which we can share with you later on, but actually right now we are running out of time, which brings us to an end. Thank you all for the insightful question you've asked, and to Bettina Schragl, thank you for your time and the insights you've provided with that. We have sent out a short feedback mailing to your inbox, so please feel free to share the feedback with us. After a short break, we will continue with the POLYTEC Group at 2:30 PM, and we'll be happy to see you there. Bettina Schragl, thanks for your insights and being here today.
Thank you very much, and I would be happy to answer the questions we could not address now later on by email, o r if there are any questions, please reach out to me. You have all the contact details on the website. Thank you very much.
Thank you.