Well, thanks, everyone for being here. It's my pleasure to have up next, Vimal Kapur, Chairman and Chief Executive of Honeywell. Thanks very much for being here, Vimal. Maybe we'll just start off with, you know, the broad demand backdrop. I think there's a lot of enthusiasm among investors about the prospects for industrial pickup in the U.S. Maybe any thoughts around what you're seeing on that front, and then on the sort of traditionally strong areas like Aerospace demand, you know, any thoughts around that?
I mean, demand, I would say in the U.S., from 25 to 26, as the calendar has turned, we have not observed any significant change. The Aero demand remains very, very strong. So, we expect another strong year for Aerospace in 2026. The demand for Building Automation remains, again, you know, strong for us. Industrial Automation business also actually in North America is doing very well. Our challenge is the business has a higher mix of Europe and China content, and there, the markets are not as favorable, so net-net, it becomes more flat to, you know, slightly negative. But North America is doing extremely well for Industrial Automation. I think the only part of Honeywell portfolio where we see less demand is in energy sector, where the demand for investment, you know, short cycle is, at best, flat.
The process markets, customers' willingness to invest due to various reasons, overcapacity and other drivers, essentially, that's how we guided the process segment to be more flattish in 2026. But, I mean, if I take the larger picture, there are more positives.
Yeah.
Very limited negative, and the negative being more flattish versus things shrinking.
Great. And as you said, Aerospace and building seem, you know, in good shape. In the other areas, what's kind of the main gating factor you think holding back customer investment?
I think, as I said, in Industrial Automation, our business is now much more around sensing and measurement across different sectors, and it's much more short-cycle business, so it's much more linked to local economy. As I mentioned, we have exposure to China, and that's-
Mm-hmm
... probably not growing, and Europe is more flattish. And if your business has a large exposure to those two geographies, that's basically—it's much more... It's not that we have any other drivers apart from that.
Mm-hmm.
I think the real change for us is the process market, where at one end you have a high demand in LNG, on other end, and also in refining, actually. People are putting more capacity in refining, not in the U.S., but in other parts of the world. But there's excess capacity of petrochemicals. That is driving lack of any investment and cautiousness across the board on willingness to invest, even short cycle, and that's putting more, I would say, flattish growth in the process segment. So, to me, it's a cycle. How long will overcapacity remain? You know, our guide suggests it will remain for all of 2026, and therefore, we have guided the way it is. But if things go better, clearly, we will have a better performance in the year ahead.
Perfect. You know, orders are something that Honeywell historically didn't talk too much about firm-wide. You've started to mention it more in the last couple of-
Mm-hmm
... earnings calls. The very strong orders you had second half of last year, I guess, to what degree do you think those are sustainable into this year? And are you seeing any kind of pattern towards, say, longer-dated orders, which a lot of other companies-
Mm-hmm
... seem to have seen?
I think the orders trend was very robust in the second half of the year, as you mentioned correctly. We expect, as I said, I haven't seen any change occurring in 2026 so far. Those trends will change. You know, surprisingly enough, the process automation and technology process segment, where we are forecasting a flattish revenue, our backlog is up double-digit. But the cycle time of those projects to actually turn is 12, 18, 24 months. So the turn cycle remains longer, and we will see more uplift in the orders there and the revenue there in the second half of the year. But even in Q1, we are expecting another strong quarter for process automation and technology. So, the backlog keeps building, but it's more long cycle. To your question, are people placing orders more ahead?
Part of it is, in some segments, there is a more demand than the capacity. Like LNG, for example, we are booked for next 2 years, probably 2.5 years. So, we'll. It just. If more demand comes, then we are booked for, like, 3 years. You know, we just keep pushing to the right. But the demand in aero continues to be strong. Demand in Building Automation continues to be strong. So long cycle demands remain very, very robust. It's a short cycle, which we talked earlier, has some bit of variability-
Mm-hmm
... either by the end market or geography, in particular, China.
Great. If you look at kind of the cadence of sales growth through this year, you know, first quarter starts a little bit lower than the balance of the year. I guess, what's the confidence that the sales growth picks up the next few quarters? You know, how much of that is already in backlog and that type of thing?
So, most of our, I mean, I think our typically second half tends to be slightly bigger than the first half. That's very traditional. So, this year, guide is not substantially different. I think the only difference is that in the process segment, we have forecasted higher revenue in the second half versus first half. That's because we have a higher backlog. These are all firm projects. These are not wins. These are purchase orders, and the timing of their execution is in Q3 and Q4, versus Q1 and Q2. So, I don't see in the guide... So, I think the guide, if you see 3%-6%, the variability here will be how some of the short cycle will perform.... And if short cycle remains stable the way it was in 2025, then we have a, a scenario here on being on the upper end of the guide.
If things become changed and different in some direction, then we will be in the lower end of the guide. Obviously, we are working hard to be on the upper end of the guide. We are, you know, we're not gonna stop there. So, repeating 2026 per 2025 revenue growth is possible, and we have guided that. I mean, we are, we are not saying that's not possible. But, forty-five days into the year, probably too early to put your hands onto it and give a firm commitment.
Yeah. When we think about the cost and price environment-
Mm-hmm.
you know, how easy is it to pass on higher costs to customers? Is there any kind of price fatigue that you're seeing in customers?
I mean, look, one thing which probably we'll all have to internalize is that industrial economy, it's become high inflationary now. This is, 2026 will be the third year in a row in which we are talking of the price of the order of 3%, maybe even 4%, 3%-4% range. We did that in 2025. We did that in 2024. So we, we will be doing 2026, yes. I mean, I don't see any concern. But my foundational concern is that longer term, industrial markets have become more inflationary. Honeywell buys three broad things: electronics, commodities, and labor. You know, electronics cost is going up with the shortage of semiconductor, memory. That obviously increases input cost.
Commodity prices keep going up due to constraint, while there's a lot of commentary on rare earth, but price of copper is going up, price of zinc is going up. We use our precious metals in manufacturing of catalyst. Those prices have gone up by 75%, 100%, and the labor cost is going up. So, what we really—what I really think about it is that how you deal with that in a 3- to 5-year horizon versus 2026. 2026 will just pass through, but 2027 and 2027 and 2028 is ahead of us, so how should we think about it? So, fundamentally, we're doing three things differently. First is making inflation and pricing as a constant dialogue with our customers and our channel partners.
I don't remember, I've been working for nearly four decades, you don't go and meet with a customer and start talking about inflation. That's not... You talk about your business-
Mm-hmm.
and your next product and opportunities, and now we talk about inflation as a standard. It helps to condition the whole system, and it allows us to have a step-based approach to pricing changes, so nobody's shocked so that's certainly a change. Second change is that how we manage our elasticity. It means that while inflation is a reality, productivity has to play, and how we make sure that productivity offsets inflation so that we have optionality of pricing to maintain our volumes. Because if we have to grow in upper end of our 2026 guide to 6%, I need 3% volume, and that volume protection has to happen through elasticity analysis. So certainly, there's an element of that sophistication which has entered into our operating model.
Last but not the least, which is very important, is how we create new products which create more value, so the pricing is less of a dialogue. Because I'm more creating more economic value, the outcome is creating more opportunities for my channel partners, my OE customers, or my end customers. They're less debating on, "This is 5% expensive than the previous version," because they are saving money, their revenue is increasing, so new product has to become a much more integral part of the equation. So, there is no real... I think the operating model essentially has evolved compared to what it was, and I do believe that inflation is very, very sticky. It's very stubborn. I have no data point to tell you in 2027, it won't be another 3%-4%.
It just foundational elements are not going to change. Therefore, we have to be far more proactive to think about 2027, 2028 today, versus thinking about it at close of the year, and we're getting more sophisticated about that.
That's interesting. On the point around, you know, new products is one way to push-
Mm-hmm
-price and innovation. You know, there's often a concern among investors, you know, in the past, did Honeywell underinvest? Does it need to step up investments?
Mm-hmm
to get more new products and take share back? Kind of, what are your thoughts around that in Aerospace and in the automation company?
No, I think that's something which is definitely a perception, which we have been trying to, specifically for Aerospace, since the Paris Air Show.
Right
... we've been trying to showcase the data that our R&D spend is actually at a median or above median of the industry. We did have some course corrections in 2025-
Mm-hmm
-on R&D spend, so we are much more levelized now. Honeywell is, like, close to 5% or 4.8, 4.9. So, I-- we are already above median for automation and for Aerospace. So, we don't have to rerate ourself to spend more money. However, we have to spend that money wisely. You know, just because you have the right amount, it doesn't mean you will give the right results. But fundamentally, from a financial perspective, we are in a good spot, and you would not see any change in our margin rates in 2026 because now we are investing furthermore in R&D. I think that stabilization has occurred. If any, it'll be a minor 10 basis points bouncing around here and there, but nothing, nothing material moving forward.
When you think about the automation side of things, in particular, you mentioned inflation pressures could be here for-
Mm-hmm
some years. Are there things you're doing differently on the cost base now as you think about the next few years, you know, there'll be stranded costs from the spin-
Yeah.
but maybe some other measures as well.
I mean, the stranded cost is the nature of any separation, so that's a reality. And our goal is that the stranded cost is taken out in about 12-18 months from the date of separation, which will happen in Q3. So, this time next year, I should be reporting to you that stranded cost is almost done, you know, or, or will be done shortly. So, I think we already have a plan, but we cannot execute the plan because we are still one company. So it's a little bit of challenging task that you can't take people out just because you think there's a stranded cost ahead, because you're still one $40 billion business as it exists today.
More forward speaking, I would say that RemainCo, Honeywell Automation, which I will lead, our corporate costs will not be any different as a percentage of revenue what it is today. You know, so we are working towards that stranded cost elimination, which will happen, I would say, 12-18 months of time. So, I don't see that being a headwind or a tailwind, either way. I think it's just gonna be a transitionary period in which it'll just you know get eliminated. Longer term, you know, cost has to play an important role in margin expansion. And we need to watch to make sure that, you know, the margin expansion levers, the cost, the fixed cost leverage remains a important element.
Certainly using more and more tools like, you know, I think AI is a great tool to drive productivity and how we use more of that into our operating system, into our operating model. And that productivity then helps us to keep our fixed costs flat, but also gives us leverage on pricing. You know, that has to be an important element of it. So, you know, I'm a big believer of keeping fixed costs fixed, and volume leverage should then show up in terms of the pricing gain or margin gains.
When we think about that kind of margin expansion entitlement at the automation company-
Mm-hmm.
Is it sort of similar to that 50 bips or so annually that Honeywell itself has often talked about?
Yeah, I mean, look, our goal will be that as a RemainCo, we have to compete for shareholder retention with others. So, we need to have an earnings growth, which is compelling. We cannot come and talk about an earnings growth, which is not first or second quartile. Now, I recognize the fact that we are not a singular factor-linked company, like we are not a data center-linked company or a utility-linked company, but you have much more broader, secular trends. And therefore, we are happy to be second quartile versus being the first quartile, which means we have to be high single digit in a typical, year through the cycle without dividend and without any M&A. I'm just saying organically, which defines then the basics of what we really have to do. We have to drive a revenue growth of mid, mid-single.
We have to drive margin expansion, something close to, you know, 30-50 basis points, which gives us a high single earnings growth in a typical year through the cycle. That's what we are working towards. I mean, if you ask, my confidence factor is very high because fundamentally this is how we are constructed. But of course, there's a work to be done, as we proceed. More to come in Investor Day. I'm not trying to set up a guide for what the new company will look like, but more thinking about if we do not have a goal, we don't know what we are working towards. This is our goal. We are working towards this direction. We need to turn that into an actual performance through every quarter and every year.
You mentioned just, you know, while on the subject, sort of a high single digit organic profit growth-
Mm-hmm.
-aspiration for Automation Co. It will get a good amount of cash-
Mm-hmm.
-from Aerospace upon spin. Any early thoughts on sort of acquisition appetite? You've done a fair number of deals-
Mm-hmm.
-a lot more than in the previous few years since you became chief executive. What's the appetite to kind of keep going on M&A?
I mean, near-term focus is for us to retire our debt so that we maintain our investment-grade rating. It's critical for us for... You know, we are A2-rated company, and I and Mike want us to be remain in investment grade because that's one of the feature of Honeywell we want to absolutely protect. So, 2026 probably is gonna be more dormant because we are focused on spin and protecting our credit rating on investment grade. But moving forward, absolutely, I think we'd like to build a great franchise of pure-play automation and create more bolt-on acquisition in each of the three end markets we serve, which is Process, Building, and Industrial. There's an opportunity in each one of them on the bolt-ons.
We have proven already that all the acquisitions we have done, all of them are performing above economic rate of returns, what we had modeled for. Which shows that we are doing acquisition, which are by strategy. They are very targeted. We know how to operate in those markets. These are not random ideas while acquiring in, you know, things like LNG, made 2 acquisitions, made a lot of investment in security. We believe world will have more security threats, whether cyber or others. In case of Aerospace, we made 2 acquisition in defense. So, everything is looked to certain broad driver, which we believe in, and then we are investing into a property and bolt-on to one of our existing businesses. So, I think that fundamental premise will remain. One area where I will do more work is Industrial Automation.
At the exit, once we complete separation of the two businesses, which are under transaction right now, we'll become a pure play sensing and measurement business. And I truly believe that there's an opportunity to create a new category of sensing and measurement in industrials because there's no one large player who exists. You know, it's a fragmented market, and we have already proven in Building Automation that we can create scale in fragmented market. We want to create the same scale now in Industrial Automation. We're starting from a good base. We have a $4 billion of sensing and measurement business. That's not small. These are all products which are mission-critical, these are all regulated products, and we like that kind of high quality because it's high-margin business, high cash flow.
Now, can we add more to our current position in sensing, in gas detection, in metering? We have a lot of good positions and leading positions, so, that will be one of the focus area that we grow from our current position to go to the next level. But doesn't mean we won't acquire or consider opportunities in, buildings or in process. But all things being equal, we will be more biased to grow our Industrial Automation space and, make it a more meaningful part of Honeywell.
Great. On the buildings front, as you said, it's grown...
Mm-hmm.
well above most peers
Mm-hmm
-for sort of 18 months now. Do you think it can carry on growing at a decent rate, assuming no big macro changes?
Fundamentally, what we are doing there is, in the business, two very foundational things. First is mixing the business towards end markets, which are growing faster. And the four end markets, which are our focus, is, one, of course, is data centers. We started from a very modest position. Hospitality. You'll be surprised how many hotel rooms are coming in the world. They are, they are staggering. They're never-seen kind of numbers. So, that's-
Mm
... a big focus for us. Hospitals, and then the fourth vertical we talk about is clean tech. It means you need manufacturing environment to make a controlled environment. So, battery manufacturing, semiconductor, you need to maintain humidity and temperature to make the product. So, these four, we're increasing our mix, so, that's one thing. These markets are growing at high singles and lower doubles.
Mm-hmm.
So, that's strategy one. So, more mix of our business increases here, more we will grow. Strategy two is do new products to keep share or gain share. And clearly, the new product strategy is working, and we are broadly gaining share for five quarters in a row. Now, one summary question that if we have been growing high single for five quarters in a row, why you guide mid-single? Because you cannot be assuming you'll keep gaining share. So, you want to act as a more pragmatic to say, "Somebody will catch up with us, and we'll get back to market." But we are putting every action to keep gaining share. And it's a model in which we compete with local players in every market. Building Automation, our key players are geographic. We have different competition in U.S. versus Europe versus China.
Mm-hmm.
We have a scale position at a global level while we compete with local players. That model is really helping us to keep propelling our new products to compete effectively. We'll see. I mean, we have guided mid-single digit plus. The indications are so far that our momentum is with us, and I haven't seen, as I said before, that things will change, and
Yeah
... but we'll see how we perform by end of the year.
Great. Then switching to Aerospace for a minute, you know, I think there's questions around potential margin pressure as you get this ramp-up in commercial OE rates. Does that cause accelerated kind of retirements of existing, you know, very profitable aftermarket platforms? So, maybe any thoughts around the margin pressure there, particularly as you sound more confident on aero margin expansion now than a year ago?
Yeah. So, we have been bouncing around 26% margin rates for-
Yeah
... the last two years. I think this year, we believe that margins will move up in range with the Honeywell guide. And essentially, there are four things which are changing in the business now through the cycle. OE mix is no more normalizing. We had outsized the OE mix. So, now OE mix is synchronizing with the growth rate. So, still you know, nine or 10% growth, even if you take high single digits. OE mix is not more 15% or 20% growth. So, that's normalization of that. That's factor one. Factor two is just a mathematical. We did acquisition, large acquisition. It had a negative impact due to integration cost. That's behind us, so that's simply a math.
Third is supply chain cost has peaked out, and as volumes keep growing, now we will start seeing, slowly seeing the volume leverage, even though not substantially, but it's no more a headwind, which was a headwind for 2023 and 2024, even part of 2025. And last but not the least, the we had lagging effect of tariff in 2025. Aero industry has long-term contracts, and OE contracts do not allow price pass-through. That it will become a less of a factor in 2026 because of the renewal of the contracts and others. So, I think as you start adding these factors together, things are the headwinds have become neutralized or slightly tailwinds, so we will see margin progression in 2026. We'll see margin progression in 2027.
So, business is set up, I mean, you know, for high single-digit growth and a, you know, a small margin expansion every year for next several years ahead of us. So, it's extremely well positioned.
You know, when you talk about the programs on the last point and the inability to pass through, so you wait for the program renewals-
Mm-hmm
... kind of how is it possible to scale how important that program renewal element is?
It is. I mean, we are negotiating, you know, as a matter of course, our OE contracts, both in commercial and business jets, come for renewal.
Yeah.
So, we have several of those under works in 2026. But large impact of that will be observed from 2027 onwards. There'll be some favorable impact in 2026, but larger impact from 2027 onwards, which, which gives— That was the point I'm making. While we will expand margins in 2026, but 2027 again. So, the fundamentals are becoming more favorable. We had a unique position of a lot of headwinds coming together, and those headwinds are neutralized or becoming more of a tailwinds now, this being a tailwind in this case.
People often ask ahead of spins around kind of stranded costs and that type of thing, you know, how confident are you that Aerospace, you know, will be set up with stranded costs that are sort of, you know, reasonably measured?
It will be in parity with the, you know, rest of the market. We have basically said, you know, 150-250 basis point in that range. Obviously, we want to do at the lower end versus higher end, and that will be known when the spin is created. We do not see the stand-up cost creating any different, any disadvantage for Aerospace. You know, fundamentally, it will be in line. And we have mostly announced all the leadership team for Aerospace, so that's done. We are actually doing, this week, the larger Honeywell org announcement of separation between Aerospace and rest of Honeywell, because that work has to start.
Mm-hmm.
Right? And it's... People have to be told what's your new role. So, actually we're doing it as we speak. S o, that people are prepared for what's coming ahead of them. So, yeah, but we are confident that the cost basis will be in parity with the market. It will not be either tailwind or a headwind.
Great. And then when we're thinking about a couple of other kind of spin-related elements, you know, the apportionment of kind of a pension-
Mm-hmm.
between the two sides, and then any differences around free cash flow conversion or free cash margin that you'd emphasize.
The pension will be, you know, Honeywell pension is overfunded by nearly 40%.
Yeah.
We are going to equally separate the pension. It's equitable distribution between the two entities, so, it will evenly split. You know, net of pension income, which is non-cash, both businesses are high 90% free cash flow conversion. I mean, I'm very confident about automation. It's a low CapEx intensity business, and you know, our investments are more organic in R&D, et cetera. I think but Aerospace is also very well positioned because the inventory cycle peaking, 2026 will be the first year that inventory actually will reduce after probably four or five years. Now, our days of supplies have reduced because our revenue has increased, but absolute dollars inventory is also becoming favorable, which bodes well for the free cash flow conversion.
I mean, short answer is both businesses are well positioned for 90% free cash flow conversion, 90% plus, you know, the non-cash income of pension.
Fantastic. Well, unfortunately, I think we have to move now away from the Q&A towards audience response questions. So, if we could bring up the first question, please, just on current ownership of Honeywell shares. So, 80%, no, for the time being. Second question is around, you know, general bias or attitude to Honeywell at present. So, slightly positive starting point. Next question, please. This is around kind of through cycle EPS growth. This is for, for now, for total company against broad industrial peers. So, kind of in, in line with the peer set. And very quickly, Vimal, on, on that point on, say, Aerospace growth, you know, how are you thinking about organic growth there as the sort of medium-term in type?
A single-digit, I would say, through cycle. I mean, the demand is so high. It's constrained. It's a... I wish there was a business in which you're constrained by supply side and not by demand side. It's a, it's a massive challenge. We have been growing our volume by double-digit for, like, 15 quarters in a row. But, so that's the good news. The bad news, we have to do for 15 more quarters in a row, and it's just hard. Just making so much products, physical products. These are large APUs and engines and avionics. These are not easy-to-make products. So, but I think a very capable team, and they will deliver on that growth.
Perfect. And then next question, please. What should Honeywell do with excess cash? And I suppose this leans more towards the automation company, you know, post-spin. Okay, so, it's a bit of a mishmash. I suppose debt paydown and internal investment.
Yeah.
And then I think the penultimate question is around the valuation. So, the next question, please. You know, where should, I guess, total Honeywell for now trade on this year's earnings? So, around kind of 20x, it seems. And the last question is kind of why, you know, what's the biggest factor holding back, you know, your view of why it, it doesn't deserve a higher multiple, let's say? So, organic growth, the biggest question, presumably at RemainCo. Great! Well, with that, thanks very much, Vimal-
Thank you.
for being here.
Thank you.
Thank you. Lovely.