Aalberts Stock

Good morning, everybody. Welcome at our first half 2026 results presentation. It's great to see so many of you joining today's webcast. I'm happy to introduce our CEO, Stephane Simonetta; and our CFO, Frans den Houter. Stephane will kick off the presentation with some business highlights. This will be followed by Frans, who will share an update on our financial development.

Stephane will then share an update on our strategy and actions and provide an outlook for the remaining of the year 2026. After the presentation, we will give you the opportunity to engage directly with us in the Q&A session. Please note that after the presentation, both the presentation and the recording of today's webcast will be made available on the website. Please welcome Stephane to begin our presentation.

Thank you, Rutger. And let me start with our key messages. In the first half of the year, we report positive organic revenue growth in our 3 segments and particularly in semicon. We also report an improved EBITDA margin in our 3 segments. And you can see the strong contribution of all the portfolio updates that we have done last year with our acquisition and our divestments, which are all contributing positively to both growth and margins.

And we continue to see positive end market dynamics based on our good position at Aalberts aligned with 4 compelling global tailwinds being urbanization, technology acceleration, reshoring and decarbonization. So in a nutshell, we improve our performance. We are rebalancing our portfolio, and we continue to see positive market momentum. Going into the numbers, we are reporting EUR 1.5 billion revenue with an organic revenue growth of 5%.

Our EBITDA margin is EUR 225 million, equivalent to 14.4% of revenue. And another solid free cash flow with EUR 89 million with earnings per share improving to EUR 1.47. So improving organic revenue growth, improving EBITDA margin aligned with our outlook. Now going to the operational development. As I mentioned, we continue to be well positioned with these 4 global tailwinds.

Urbanization, where we still see more and more people in the future that will need to live in residential, in commercial building, and it's all about comfort and energy efficiency, and that's where our portfolio is so relevant. AI adoption being used in more and more applications is driving a very high growth in semicon equipment, and we are also well positioned into that trend.

The reshoring trend continues, you produce in Europe for European customers, you produce in North America for North America customer, and you produce in Asia for Asian customer. That's also our strategy. And our footprint is well aligned to these trends. And at the end, we still believe in the long-term energy efficiency driver across all the end markets and across all geographies. So we are well positioned with this long-term growth driver.

Looking at the first half of the year, you see the breakdown of our revenue by segment, by geography, and you see also that we continue to be well aligned with the sustainable development goals. The key change compared to last year is that now you can see the weight of semicon is also increasing, representing now 21% of our revenue. And you can see on the geographical side that Southeast Asia is now a bit bigger, especially after our acquisition of GVT.

And you can see also in North America, we continue to make further progress aligned with our long-term ambition to double our revenue in this part of the world. So attractive market, and we have a good and strong ability to achieve leadership position. Now giving you an overview of our performance by segment. In building, 2.9% organic growth, 13.5% EBITDA margin improvement compared to last year.

In industry, 6.4% organic growth, very strong quarter, where here, we are actually doing a bit better than the market with 18.6% EBITDA margin, which is basically the best proof about all the actions we took last year, continuing to invest in organic growth initiatives in operational excellence initiatives. And in semicon, we are very pleased to see an accelerated growth. Our Q2 has been very strong.

And as a result, we are pleased to report 9.2% organic growth, equivalent to 14.2%, and now we see the strong dynamic in both our front end but also back end. So as I mentioned, improving in our 3 segments. Let's go now one by one with a bit more details by geography, product line and end market. So building first, as you can see, Q2 was actually a bit better with 4.4% organic growth, and it's a mixed picture in the geography.

Strong in the U.S., mixed in Europe as on one hand, we continue to see positive momentum in Europe, in Benelux, in the Nordics and early sign of recovery in Germany. But on the other hand, France, U.K., East Europe remains challenging. And Middle East is still a big uncertainty. In the first half, we couldn't simply ship anything to our customers, and we are looking closely at the situation.

By technology, very strong momentum on the valve, very high order book in all our boiler room technologies and a more stable activity in our connection system linked to the residential building activity, which we also see stable. And on the other hand, we continue to see very high order books in data center and commercial building. And talking about data centers, let me highlight one example of the many things we do.

You can see here a picture of our stainless-steel air separator that is used actually in data center cooling solution. And this is our own IP, our own design and what makes us win is actually our speed to market. We have been very fast to go from prototype to mass production to support the increased need of our customers.

Going into industry, very pleased about the results. I think our team has been doing a fantastic job. And you see that our organic growth is much higher than most of the industrial index, more than 7% organic growth in the second quarter after already a first quarter. And this is a result of all our organic growth initiatives, our geographical expansion, our business development initiative. And we see also here strong dynamics, continued strong dynamics in aerospace, in power generation in defense and more stable activity in automotive and general industry.

And an example I would like to highlight is that we continue to invest in technology. I think we are pleased to now have put our second HIP vessel in Eindhoven, where here it's all about removing the defects of all the parts, improving the material characteristics. And with our HIP vessel, we are putting some parts up to 2,000 bars in order to improve the material characteristics and the strength of all the components we treat. And the good news is we see more and more demand from our customers about this type of service.

In semicon, very strong dynamic, very healthy order book. And it's actually a bit better than what we expected because we already saw a huge organic growth with more than double digit, 16% organic growth in the second quarter. We were more expecting that in the second half, and it came earlier. So we are -- our team are really doing a great job to manage the volatility and the different dynamics of the end market.

So strong in front end, strong also in back end. GVT is already contributing positively to both organic growth and margins. And we continue to invest capacity. Our greenfield factory in Dronten is in the final step, and we are ready for the huge ramp-up coming in '27 and beyond. Also adding capacity in Southeast Asia as we see more and more demand and request from our customers. So great dynamic overall, all driven by AI adoption in more and more applications.

But innovation is also key. And I would like to highlight just one example with a robotic system we are doing for the semicon industry with our prealigner, with our own design, our own technology in order to move wafer in a very accurate way. So just to highlight that innovation remains at the core of what we do, especially in this segment.

And as a last point regarding our operational development, I'm also pleased to report that we continue to make further progress with our sustainable commitments, more than 70% of our revenue linked to sustainable development goals and also now making an additional progress in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 reduction with more than 6.6% reduction compared to last year. So on track with our sustainable commitment. So that's what I wanted to say regarding our operational development.

So let me now hand it over to Frans to give you an update on our financial development. Frans?

Thank you, Stephane, and good morning, everybody, and happy to talk you through the first 6 months of this year and show you these 4 important KPIs. First of all, revenue. Our organic revenue growth improved to 5%. You see very clearly, also in each segment, we had nice step-ups. This all converted into an EBITDA margin of 14.4%, EUR 225 million, which is a EUR 15 million up year-on-year.

Also nice to see added value in a solid place, 65.5%. Net profit, EUR 7 million up, bringing us EUR 158 million in net results. Capital expenditure, you see a step down of more than EUR 30 million. Basically, that's all phasing. We will see the reversal of this in the second half year as we have a bit of timing effects in our capital expenditure programs. So the full year guidance for CapEx to be on around a level of last year, EUR 190 million, is still firmly in place.

Free cash flow improved. Nice to see third year in a row, small step-up in the mid-year free cash flow, a bit more better balance in the year, driven also, of course, supported by the lower CapEx and predominantly the EBITDA, which is also supporting this number. Then the net working capital was a cash out. So all in all, solid performance in the first 6 months.

If you go to revenue, we see nice contributions of our 3 acquisitions. We added Geo-Flo, Paulo and GVT to the portfolio, and you see EUR 135 million step-up in revenue. The divestments of Broen and Metalis and reduced shareholding in KAN brought the number to EUR 178 million negative correction for the divestments and also a negative impact from ForEx, EUR 21 million. Good to see the 5% organic revenue growth, driving our absolute revenue with a plus of EUR 68 million. So on the revenue side, a good set of numbers to go to the EBITDA.

The acquisitions we just mentioned, EUR 24.4 million. If you do the numbers, that's more than 18% EBITDA on the companies that we acquired in the past 12 months. On the divestments, a negative of more than EUR 15 million. That is a little bit over 8%. So 18% on the acquisitions and 8% on the divested companies. Small ForEx, EUR 2.8 million effect.

And then the organic EBITDA contribution was more than EUR 9 million. So good to see there also being back to growth, but also a positive impact on the EBITDA from the hard work by our business teams on driving our improved revenue to a EUR 9 million plus. EUR 225 million, I repeat, EUR 15 million up versus last year.

On the free cash flow, of course, we see, again, the EBITDA and the CapEx effects contributing positive. On the working capital, 6 months rolling, we lose EUR 25 million year-on-year, small -- plus in the other, that's mostly provisions and timings, almost EUR 8 million and then a nice EUR 80.8 million step-up of EUR 30 million.

The EPS, very important slide, EUR 0.09 improvement in the first 6 months, driven by the M&A portfolio. You see a plus EUR 0.18 on the acquisitions and a minus EUR 0.09 on the divestments. That comes, of course, with financing costs, a little bit of a tax impact, negative one-off element there from a divestments, little bit of ForEx impacts, and then really nicely EUR 0.05 improvement from our organic performance and EUR 0.03 improvement for the share buyback program. And this year, share buyback program, we're halfway through the scheme, so still continuing that. And for now, we report a EUR 0.03 improvement to EUR 1.47 earnings per share.

Then we go to the segment reporting. And Stephane already talked you through the revenue and the EBITDA effect. You see the CapEx added here, yes, no surprise. The total CapEx was down. You see that here as well in each segment, but that will reverse in the second half. Specifically in industry and semicon, we will see a step-up as we complete some of the divestment programs that we have ongoing.

In the third column, we added holding eliminations last year. So you see also now again, EUR 13.6 million reported, EUR 3 million up versus last year, some small effects in there. And I think all in all, growth and operational excellence driving improved profitability in the segments. Exceptional costs, yes, we normally report this only at year-end.

We decided to also show this half year, improved transparency, a small number here for the first 6 months, EUR 3 million, mainly or fully related to our project to leave Russia, some progress there in the first 6 months. We're still continuing at that. We hope to finalize it this year. We already mentioned in the annual report that the total exceptional cost expected for this year will be around EUR 25 million, mostly non-cash and that guidance we still leave in place. So there's expected to be more to come in the second half.

And then let's go to the balance sheet, a resilient company with -- you see on the right top, equity and solvency in a good place. On the left top, the debt has gone up. Of course, we drive the M&A year-on-year. Our ratio is still 1.9, same as it was at year-end. But yes, versus 12 months ago, it went up because we increased that to drive the M&A portfolio.

At the left bottom, you see our capital employed, still same level as last year, small step back on the ROCE, but that's a 12-month rolling number. So I think better to deep dive on that at full year again. And yes, very nice to close off, I think, with the net working capital, EUR 62 million lower. That's 2 days reduction.

Its inventories went down a little bit, our receivables as well, and we made a step-up in payables, 6 days in total. also driving the growth of the company, and that's really increased purchasing. So no payment stretch there. So strong balance sheet in supporting our strategy. And yes, to give you a bit more insight how we are driving our strategy, I give the floor back to Stephane to tell you all about strategy and action, Stephane.

Thank you, Frans. So you have seen how did we perform in the first half of the year. Let's see now how did we thrive in the first half of the year. And as you know, 2026, it's only the second year of deploying our thrive 2030 strategy. So you have seen how we continue to be well positioned with these 4 compelling global tailwinds. We continue to rebalance our portfolio across our 3 segments, across geography, across end market application with our organic growth and our portfolio update.

So let me give you a short update, as you can see on the right, with our 4 strategic priorities. And I'm pleased to report that actually, we made good progress in our 4 strategic actions in the first half of the year, driving organic growth, optimizing our portfolio, the Aalberts way being our operating model and then further progress in our sustainable commitment.

If we start with profitable growth, I think one of the key example is the very strong momentum we see in data center, where our order book is increasing month after month, thanks to either our flow control and boiler room technologies, either with our engineering system and prefab solution, but also with our connection and piping system. And we are well positioned in both the primary loop and the secondary loop for the cooling system and solution of the data center.

We see more than double-digit organic growth, and this is all for our building segment. Today, it's only roughly 2% of our revenue, but we see a very good expansion in the coming months. And what makes us win today is our global offering and also our speed to market. We are quite good to go from prototype to mass production. And as you know here, speed is of the essence to support the accelerated growth, especially in North America.

Another great example of driving organic growth is our geographical expansion we are doing in our industry segment. You see here 4 examples of either greenfield or capacity expansion in the Netherlands, in Mexico, in France and in Hungary, this is driving organic growth. And this is the result of all the investments we have done over the years, and we see more and more demand for our services, either with heat treatment or surface treatment in aerospace, in power generation, in defense, but also in automotive, like in Mexico and Hungary.

In semicon, we are investing for the future. The growth is there. The semicon industry remains very strong, and I'm pleased to report that we are ready for the growth. Very soon, we will start and ramp up operation in our Dronten factory in the Netherlands, where we expect the ramp-up in 2027, mostly for lithography systems. And in Southeast Asia, we are adding capacity in Penang in one of our factory to support also the increased demand from the back-end customers. So preparing for the long-term growth.

On the portfolio update, just a reminder that we are well on track. We did 4 transactions on the divestments, mostly in our building and industry segments. And we did 4 transactions on acquisitions in our building, industry and semicon segment, and we will continue. We have an active funnel. We still have the same M&A criteria and the same priority also with our divestment program, where we expect to make further progress in our building and industry segment.

So continuing to rebalance our portfolio in order to have accretive EBITDA margin and organic growth update. One example of the Aalberts way, it's the operational excellence that we continue to drive, making further progress also in our Aalberts production system, and it's all about footprint optimization, about inventory optimization, driving production efficiencies in our factories and also optimizing our asset utilization in order to have a better CapEx intensity.

Most of the drivers today are within building and industry segment, but also semicon is becoming more and more relevant as we see this huge growth, so an opportunity also to safeguard our margin. So continue to drive operational excellence. So now time to give you an outlook. And to be very simple, we are confirming our full year outlook with improved organic growth, EBITDA margin compared to last year because the market dynamics are similar with what we shared in our full year results.

Building remaining a mixed picture, strong in U.S., more mix in Europe. Middle East remaining a key question mark, are we going to be able to ship, but also what will be the indirect impact. And when you look at the product line, strong on valve, strong on hydronic solutions, strong in data center and commercial building and more stable in residential building and some geography.

Industry, we expect similar trend in the second half, mostly driven by our own initiative, but also continued growth, aerospace, defense, power generation and more stable activity in automotive and general industry.

And in semicon, we are actually satisfied to see actually a higher growth than expected. We expect similar organic growth as in the second quarter in the second half of the year, and we continue to invest in the capacity in order to support the demand increase as we see more and more capacity request from our customers in both front and back end. So based on this end market dynamic, we are pleased to reconfirm our full year outlook.

So let's wrap up before opening the Q&A. So as you have seen, our first half of the year 2026, we are pleased to report improved organic growth and EBITDA margin in our 3 segments. We are entering the second half with positive momentum and a very healthy order book. So as a consequence, we are confident to deliver our full year outlook with improved organic growth and EBITDA margin compared to last year.

You see that our portfolio rebalancing is well on track and all our integration plan are progressing well, and we continue to deploy our capital allocation according to our policy, first returning dividend to our shareholders, investing for our business to drive profitable organic growth, doing accretive acquisition and continuing our share buyback program. So at the end, I'm really pleased with the first half performance.

And also, I want to acknowledge the resilience and commitment from all the Aalberts teams. You can see that first half shows the strength of our diversified portfolio. And you can count on us to continue to discipline, to execute in a disciplined way our thrive 2030 strategy. Thank you.

We are starting the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] I would like now to give the word to Martijn den Drijver from ABN AMRO for the first questions.

Three questions, and I'll take them one by one. What was the reason that the building division despite [Technical Difficulty] growth in Q2 [Technical Difficulty] in EBITDA margin [Technical Difficulty] elaborate a little bit on the development?

Maybe you want to ask the 3 questions and then we go one by one.

I'd like to go one by one, please.

So a few comments. You are right, first of all. And I would mention 3 main reasons. First of all, we have had some challenges in Middle East, where we simply couldn't ship any goods. So we have also more inventory, but our invoicing has been nil in the second quarter for the building segment.

Second, I think as we mentioned, we continue to see a challenge in our connection system, especially in Europe due to the low activity of the residential building. And then we have also some one-off costs, especially in this segment. So that's the 3 main reasons where it's a bit lower than expected in the second quarter.

And just one one-off element, is that a material amount, low single-digit millions?

Yes, low single digits. I would put a number like that.

Okay. I'll move on to my second question. Semicon obviously had a blowout Q2. You already mentioned that 16% organic growth, an EBIT (sic) [ EBITA ] margin of close to 15%. How should we think about H2 and 2027 given the positive statements from ASML on the front end and Besi on the back end? And also your own statements in the presentation, a further acceleration. Does that imply that we should think double digits in H2 and perhaps even high double digit in 2027?

I think you mean the second half '26, right?

Yes. H1 2026 was 16 -- almost 16% growth. You mentioned positive statements from -- a further acceleration is expected. We know the statement from ASML and Besi. So how should we think about H2 2026 and 2027?

First of all, you are right, and let me confirm that indeed, second quarter organic growth with 16% in our semicon segment was higher than anticipated. And actually, we can confirm that we expect the similar trend in the second half as in the second quarter, so a 15% organic growth continuation in the semicon, and we are also quite confident for 2027, but you should expect the second half organic growth similar to the second quarter for semicon segment.

Martijn, are you still there? Because you had a third question. I think that we lost Martijn, but we have some good backup. So David Kerstens from Jefferies. Perhaps you can also ask some of your questions.

Two questions from my side, please. First, on the Industry segment, you said momentum in the second half in line with the first half, which was very strong, right, and accelerating to 7% in the second quarter despite the impact of high energy prices and despite the impact from the increasing pressure on the German OEM car industry. What is the impact of those 2 factors, the higher energy prices on the organic growth?

And how do you see the increasing pressure on the German auto industry impacting your industry segment growth? And also margins seem to have reached a new level following the divestment of Broen at 20%. Is that a sustainable level going forward? And then maybe a follow-up on semicon growth, very clear guidance. But I think in the fourth quarter, you will have also GVT coming into the organic growth for 2 months. And from what I understand, GVT is growing more than 20% or 25%. And can you give an indication of what the exact revenue contribution was of GVT in the first half of this year?

Thank you, David. And let me do a first few couple of answers. So on the industry and then the price increases that we saw in the first half, I think, first of all, price increases, be it from energy or from raw material increases, we are able to price that on really well to our customers. So pricing excellence is there. And I would say in the mix, the total impact, 1% to 2% on pricing with inflation in there is, I think, a good proxy. So you can see that the organic growth really driven from the volume is very strong.

And as we said, we give no specific organic growth expectation for the second half. But in the voice, it's pretty clear we expect that to continue. And then on Broen, so you asked a little bit of guidance on the EBITDA levels for the second half of the year. Yes, of course, the impact of Broen is positive. You can see that also in the waterfalls we just showed you, and we give those guidance overall over the whole portfolio. So no specifics there.

But of course, in the second half, this will continue to have a positive impact. And then on semicon, yes, very clearly, the GVT -- organic growth in GVT, you can deduct from the semicon numbers, and we acquired this company at a revenue level of EUR 107 million. Yes, if you do the numbers now, you see quite a significant step-up. And indeed, we don't give guidance and expectations on an individual level. But from October onwards, GVT will be added to the organic growth calculation. And that, of course, will also help the semicon number there.

And you take 20% EBIT margin in the second quarter. That is a new high for industry, right? Now the new sustainable level following the divestment of Broen.

So we only give guidance on a company level, as you know. So we -- I try to give you a bit color where we are. And I think also from the voiceover of Stephane, clearly, per segment. On building & industry, we expect the second half to be continuing at what we see in the first half in general terms. And then there is the guidance on a company level, and that's where we leave it for now.

I would like now to give Martijn den Drijver the opportunity to ask his third question because I see that you are back in the queue. So hello, Martijn? Do you hear us? No, we lost him again. So now I'd like to give the word to Kristof Samoy from KBC.

A few questions, if I may. First of all, just as an observation, looking at the organic revenue growth and the organic EBITDA evolution in your waterfall schemes. Could you comment on the drop-through, which we can expect going forward? Because it's -- in the first year, it was well below 25%. And then in terms of inventory, we typically see a seasonal uptake going from year-end into first year half. But we've seen considerable growth in industry in the first-year half.

We also see considerable growth in semicon. There have been already some optimizations in building. Could you detail maybe what the impact was of the Middle East on the days of the inventory outstanding? And then finally, just on semicon again, to make it clear, you expect similar growth in the second-year half as you have seen in the second quarter. So that means that quarter-on-quarter, you're not expecting any significant uptick in growth in semicon anymore.

Let me maybe start with the last one, and then I will let Frans answer your first 2. So you are right, and I confirm that you should expect an organic growth in the second half of the year for the semicon segment, aligned with our Q2, which was a bit more than 16%. So that's what I can confirm, knowing also in Q4, like I said, I think earlier, we will also add GVT in our organic growth reporting numbers.

Yes. And let me come back on your first question on the drop-through, and that's a good observation because normally, you would expect the drop-through to be of a higher level. It's EUR 9 million. We're happy with positive organic growth. We're happy with the positive EBITDA contribution organically, but it should be a bit higher. Basically 3 reasons: the holding elimination cost that went up with EUR 3 million year-on-year, that's holding us back a little bit.

And then we have, as Stephane in the introduction also shared in building, yes, we see lower profitability because connection systems, U.K. market holding us back and also the Middle East. So those effects, yes, hold back a little bit of step-up in organic, which we will work further on, of course, in the second half of the year. And then you also asked about the impact of the Middle East on inventory. That's also indeed one of the drivers there. I would say single-digit euros as an indication. So single-digit million-euro impact on the inventory from Middle East.

If I may, just one follow-up on building, you mentioned the U.K. situation. But you've recently took some action in Doncaster, what is the reason that the situation there remains difficult or is deteriorating? Could you provide some more color there?

The market trend and especially in the residential building where we don't see, I think, as per our guidance, a flattish market. And this is where also we have our biggest exposure with our connection system portfolio. So that's the 2 elements, market trend, residential and product line exposure.

I'd like to give the word to Luuk from Banque.

First of all, a question about buildings. Do you see any support of the higher energy price and the efforts to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, so maybe more demand for heat pumps and things like that? And secondly, on buildings, how do you look at your portfolio? You mentioned a couple of challenging areas. Do you think that's something that's just cyclical and will improve over time? Or do you think some adjustment in the portfolio would be needed to optimally position for future growth?

Yes. I think we mentioned it, let me repeat because we start to see, you could say, finally some early sign of recovery in Germany driven by higher demand of heat pumps. all the indexes that we see are quite positive. We don't see it yet in the short term, but this gives some hope that the situation will improve maybe in the second half, but also in 2027.

But as you know, there is a usual disclaimer about the government incentive, what will the German government will do to continue to incentivize the demand for house and homeowner to go for heat pumps. So start to improve. Let's see. But it's, I think, compared to the previous year, a bit more encouraging. And the second point, I would say it's a continuation.

We are still, first of all, doing very well in our valve business, doing very well with a very strong order book in our boiler room situation, also doing very well in North America. And we continue to see market stable in residential in Europe, especially, I think we talk about the French market, the U.K. market, East Europe.

And then we are challenged in terms of performance still in our connection system. So we still have the same strategy in terms of portfolio optimization, and we are not done in both our acquisition and our divestment. And indeed, we still have further opportunity to optimize our portfolio in both building and industry segment also where we still have opportunity to do further divestment.

One further question, if I may, on automotive. We see -- saw some mixed signs on the one hand, obviously, all the restructuring in German automotive, but also a pickup in new car registrations. Do you see any signs of improvement after the stabilization that you already...

Too early to say. We see the market still stable. And yes, if you can see some reports of some index showing 1% to 2% growth. But for us, we're still more stable activity. But what I think is more important is that we are doing better than the market with our own initiative, with our geographical expansion.

So in the first half, we have actually grew a bit better than the market also with our exposure in automotive, thanks, for example, to the opening of our factory in Hungary, in Mexico. So we are able to grow a bit better than the market. But to answer to your question, we're still more stable activity in the second half.

It's still nice queue, and I would like to ask Ruben Devos from Kepler Cheuvreux to also ask your questions.

I have the first one regarding semicon still. So that's helpful for the H2 guidance. But just thinking about your visibility, how far forward it could stretch maybe compared to what it was a year ago. I'm just thinking of the prior up cycle, right, during COVID where you were also talking about quite long visibility.

I think it was 12 to 24 months at some point, but then we had quite a drastic turnaround in late 2024. So just wanted to hear a bit your sense of, yes, the visibility you have, the firm commitments you basically get from your customers and how that might be different from the prior up cycle, let's say. Yes, let's start with that one.

I think you are right. We -- I think we also mentioned it. We have a very strong order book, and we have more and more demand for our products and solutions. And the good news is we see that not only in Europe with our very strong exposure to the lithography, but also now in Southeast Asia, so both in front and back end. And not only our order book is very high, but we see more and more capacity requests coming from our customers. So we are doing a lot of scenario, how could we do more?

And that's not for the short term. I think we are quite confident for second half of '27. But what could we do more beyond 2027? And the good news is we are ready with our footprint expansion with our new factory, we will be ready in '27 with our new factory in Dronten. We are adding capacity in Southeast Asia in Malaysia. So very promising, very strong. I think let's see how the second half will be and then will be the time to give a new outlook how we see '27.

Okay. That's very helpful. And then a follow-up on that actually. I mean, CapEx fell almost 30% year-over-year. You still have those -- you basically have the accelerating semicon cycle, right, and then 2 capacity projects running in parallel. Is that CapEx basically just a matter of timing? Or does it reflect maybe a structural shift towards serving the up cycle with less capital than the previous one? And you, of course, have the return on capital employed at 12.5% basically for these new projects in Dronten and Malaysia, what is sort of the hurdle rate you're looking for here?

Yes. So thanks for your question. So maybe a few elements. So first of all, the phasing within the year and also explained in the intro but let me repeat. We have EUR 71 million of CapEx in the first half year, which is relatively low. So we really expect a lot of additional CapEx to materialize in the second half. And Dronten is a significant element there, where we are preparing the finalization of the project and the start-up of our factory.

Total guidance for this year, also, again, repeating it, but good to stress it out, EUR 190 million, which is in line with previous year in indeed an area where we are spending more CapEx than we depreciate. So we're investing in the company. We saw that in building. We keep seeing that in semicon, and we are still specifically in -- we're doing it in industry and specifically in semicon for this year, we see some significant numbers. And we will keep on doing that because we will keep investing. If we have good opportunities organically to drive new projects, we will keep investing.

And I think the market confirms also that we have good opportunities to improve the company performance based on that. And then, of course, there's the ROCE, where indeed, year-on-year, the 12.5%, it's a little bit lower. That's a rolling number, so we need to take a long perspective on that. Yes, the guidance we gave and then we go back to the Capital Markets Day is basically on ROCE in the longer run, where we want to be above 18% in 2030. So that's a number that's clearly in our minds on where we want to go. But that is ROCE guidance, not ROCE. I hope that's...

Yes, that's great. And then just a final smaller question regarding the data center opportunity, right? So I think it comes up in building every quarter now. But we never had that really sized, right? So is it large enough now to move the divisional growth rate on its own? And how does the margin for that activity compare to basically your traditional residential and commercial mix?

I think let me repeat because actually, we started to size it. Today, we have disclosed that it's roughly 2% of revenue of our building segment. And we see an addressable market of EUR 1.5 billion, and we have an order book increasing, and we expect double-digit organic growth, especially in North America. So that's the first sizing we have done and count on us, I think in our full year results to give you a bit more transparency, I can only tell you that we continue every month to win orders and I'm really pleased with the work by our team, especially in North America.

I mentioned a few examples in the presentation, and it can be on our stainless-steel ball valve. It can be on air separator also stainless steel. And we do that with our own IP, our own design, and we are super good to ramp up. And I think that's what as a data center owner, they are looking for. They look for global company that can ramp up, that can provide quality. And I think this is where Aalberts' offering is quite unique. So promising, still a small number of our building segment, but I look forward to share more in our full year results presentation.

I'd like to give the word to Rajesh Patki from Barclays.

I've got 3 questions, please, if you don't mind. We can go one by one. First one is on the semicon business. Thanks for the top line guidance for strong growth there. I guess the next question on that would be, how should we be thinking about the incremental dollar of revenue dropping down to EBITA? And just a follow-up on that. You talked about capacity addition for this business. Once that is complete, will you be in a position to service a 20% to 30% demand CAGR over the next 3 years? Or will you need to add more capacity? That's the first question.

First question, as you know, we don't provide outlook by segment, right? So I think here, we are pleased first to have improved a lot, I think, in the first half compared to previous year, our EBITDA margin. I think it shows the strength of our portfolio. And we are focusing now to support the high demand from our customers, but also adding capacity, adding cost in our operations, in our capability to support the growth because as I mentioned, we see the similar growth in the second half, but we are getting capacity request with that order from our customers.

So I think our biggest customer has made it public, they expect 30% growth this year. They are asking their supplier to be ready for 30%. So work is in progress to ensure we don't miss the upturn. But so far, I can confirm that we have our capacity plan well aligned with the demand increase from our customers.

The second question is on margins. The added value margin has grown more than 200 basis points in the first half year-over-year. Can you talk about what has driven that? And do you think that is a sustainable level going forward? And a follow-up on that as well. The EBITA margin has grown only by 90 basis points. Is the difference between the 2 related to fixed cost investment in the semicon business?

Thank you. Good observation and indeed a good step-up in our added value. And honestly, there is also a positive contribution from our M&A that we have done. So the mix effect. Specifically, if you look at the divestments that we've done in the industry, they typically carried a lower added value. However, also very good pricing discipline. So we saw price increases on raw materials, on energy, general cost increases, and we were able to price that on really well to our customers.

I think as a guidance, we have a target to be around this level. So we want to sustain this number. So that's why we keep on also executing the pricing discipline and making sure we drive towards that number. And then I think on the EBITA, I think your question was, I think, more on the drop-through again. Can you repeat exactly the point you were asking?

No, I just meant the added value margin was up more than 200 basis points, but the EBITA margin was up 90 basis points. The lower improvement in EBITA margin, is that related to fixed cost investment in the semicon business? Or is there something else in there?

And that's why we said this goes back to the drop-through. So we saw -- yes, the holding elimination cost, the margin in building specifically in the Middle East and the U.K. connection systems that Stephane commented on holding us back a little bit. And that's the reason why you see the added value not one-on-one translated into the margin.

And lastly, on M&A, can you talk a bit about how your pipeline is looking? Are you focused on any specific region or businesses? And do you see much opportunities on increasing the scope for your semicon business?

Let me confirm, we still have our 3 same priorities and to do further acquisition, I think we are well on track with our portfolio rebalancing, as you have seen also. And we still have the same priorities. So in building, looking at further expansion in North America and also from a portfolio optimization, especially in our commercial building, where we see high exposure to building consuming more energies and exposed to key verticals like data center, health care, hospitality. So that's still the priority. And we have a good funnel to look at target. Also water treatment is actually one of our priorities.

Second industry is to continue what we have been doing. So I think Paulo was a great example. So continue to expand in North America but also looking in Europe in higher exposure to key verticals in order to rebalance our exposure between automotive and nonautomotive. So we have a good funnel in Europe for bolt-on acquisitions. And in semicon, after having done, of course, GVT, we are now fully focusing, and I'm really pleased with the progress by our team to do the post-merger integration.

And soon it will be time to go to the next one. And we already have a funnel to continue to look in Europe, in Southeast Asia, additional M&A to expand, I think, our portfolio and to become more and more an integrated module provider, right, in order to support our customers in both the front end and the back end.

And we see actually more and more synergies and more and more, there is a need to have global supplier, global partner I think that is where we are well positioned. So here also, we have a key funnel. I think in semicon, you should not expect some move in '26, but I think we still have some further acquisition to be done in the coming years.

Chase Coughlan from Van Lanschot Kempen.

I just have 2. Firstly, on building. Previously, we saw the stock levels at wholesalers and distributors were at relatively low points. Could you just speak to where those sit today? Was there any pre-buying effect in the second quarter? And how do you expect sort of inventories to progress throughout the course of the year?

And then my second question would be on the semicon plant, the Dronten plant, when you flagged as sort of on track to ramp up in 2027. Could you give any indication on how fast you expect this plant to be, sort of, comfortably utilized, any kind of sales indication as well as what kind of depreciation step-up we can expect on the P&L on the back of that plant becoming operational?

So let me start with the first, and I will let Frans answer the second one. So the first one, I think what happened over the past year, with the famous destocking about wholesaler, we see that more as a new normal. I think the wholesalers have been used to having low inventory. And of course, we have also been used to delivering more just in time, and it's all about delivering on time.

So we still see the same very low inventory at the wholesaler overall, right? And then product line by product line, depending on the raw material price exposure, there is some additional buy for the -- from some customers in order to avoid all the coming price increase or inflation. So in some technology, we see some prebuy, but I would say, overall, it's still about the same situation. And we don't see yet restocking in this segment compared to the previous year.

Yes. Maybe on the depreciation, yes, earlier, we already indicated assets under construction way over EUR 200 million. Majority of that is related to Dronten. I think that's at least 2 statements we made. Depreciation guidance should be around EUR 6 million for this location.

And now I would like to give a third attempt to Martijn to ask his third question we are waiting for now for quite a bit of time. So Martijn?

Yes, I apologize. I had some glitch. I want to come back to industry, please. If general industries machine built in automotive was stable, and that represents roughly 75%, 80% of your sales, how did you get to 7% organic growth in Q2? Can you elaborate a little bit on that? And my second question also on Industry.

Would it be fair to say that given the ramp-up towards commissioning in Dronten and the GVT expansion, not only in Malaysia, that you're incurring OpEx in 2027 -- excuse me, in 2026 in preparation of taking those plants really into sales mode. In other words, are those OpEx investments not hampering your 2026 EBITDA margin already in semicon -- excuse me, in industry?

The first one, you are right that what we see by stable is the market, right? But we are doing better than the market. I think that's where I'm really pleased with the work done by our team in the industry segment, all our business development plan, like the IP expansion that we are doing, we see more demand. And let's not forget that aerospace, power gen and defense are going quite well. And we say high single-digit organic growth. We see that in both parts of the world.

And in automotive, even the market is flattish, we have actually had a better growth than the market with the additional service and our exposure to some new platform where customers can maybe move or have the same activity. But when they move operation from West Europe to East Europe, for example, for us, it could mean additional volume or additional services even if the number of cars they produce is the same and same -- we see the same trend also in North America. So I think the simple answer is we did better than the market.

Sorry, could you repeat your comment, Martijn?

Yes. I asked whether the GVT expansions in Malaysia and the expansion in Dronten, the 2 new plants, whether that was not already resulting in OpEx investments. Therefore, the EBITA margin in semicon is probably hampered a little bit in 2026.

No, very clear. And indeed, we are investing there, and we are planning to commission those plants. That will bring some OpEx. Most of it is CapEx, of course, but there's always some. I think that is a minority, and it's not a factor in our EBITA numbers that you see. So it's not material. And the moment we will start to operate those sites; it will contribute in a positive way. So there is no leakage on EBITA because of the OpEx on CapEx investments nor in GVT nor in Dronten.

Okay. And my final question for you, Frans. Are there any components of working capital that we should be aware of in H2 in terms of how free cash flow in the second half will develop? Normally, you have a release of working capital. Is there any element or development that we should take into account that would influence that normal seasonality?

No, I think not other than what we saw in the first half. So in the ramp-up, there is an impact because your payables and receivables and also inventory increases. So there is, in that sense, a bit of a negative, but we saw that in 6 months. Yes, how that exactly will evolve in the second half, that's difficult to forecast.

But yes, if that further enlarges, it's a positive thing because that's a result of further growth, and that's what we want. And so there are no other one-off elements that you should take into account on working capital. I think if we look at cash flow, there's clearly the CapEx that you should not extrapolate. There's a phasing element. So that will be a significant switch in the second half.

It's good to see that we also have some questions actually coming from the Q&A forum. And one I would like to address to Frans, and that is whether you could comment a little bit on your full year outlook for holding costs.

Yes, that's a good question indeed. So we saw EUR 13 million in the first 6 months, so EUR 3 million up. Basically, the run rate we saw in the first 6 months, you take that as an assumption for the second half, so basically doubling it. But there's always the question, what are the one-offs that we will encounter. Last year, we had some gains from divestments and book gains. The year before that, we had some income on claims. So that's always a bit unknown. But yes, as a basic assumption, I would just keep H2 in line with the first half.

Okay. Thank you. There were some other questions submitted, but I think they've been answered already during the call. So I think that we are concluding today's webcast. I'd like to thank everybody for joining today again. Later today, we will make the presentation and also the recording of today's webcast available on the website. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Enjoy your day.

Good morning, everybody. Welcome at our full year 2025 results presentation. It's good to see so many of you joining today's webcast. I'm happy to introduce to you our CEO, Stephane Simonetta; and our CFO, Frans den Houter. Stephane will kick off the presentation with some business highlights, followed by Frans, who will give an update on our financial developments. Stephane will then share some insights on strategy in action and provide an outlook for the year 2026. After the presentation, we will give you the opportunity to engage directly with us via the Q&A session. Later today, we will make both the presentation and the recording of today's webcast available via our website. Please welcome Stephane to start the presentation.

Thank you, Rutger, and good morning, everyone. Let's start this presentation with a few key messages about our 2025 results.

First of all, it is no secret that our performance has been impacted by the continuous short-term end market softness. And during the year, we have been focusing at Aalberts in what is within our control where we could still take action, and we did some good progress in our operational excellence initiative in order to protect our margin. Very good progress in free cash flow improvement with lower inventory, lower CapEx. Very good progress. This is for me one of the key highlights in '25 with our portfolio optimization with great acquisitions and also progress in our divestment.

But '25 was also the first year of the deployment of our Thrive 2030 strategy, a foundation for future growth. So in a year when on one hand, we celebrated our 50th anniversary at Aalberts, we took a lot of action to strengthen our portfolio, improve our position and navigate through the end market challenges.

The results going into the numbers, and Frans will give you a more details in the financial development. So EUR 3.1 billion revenue with a negative organic growth of 2.5%, EUR 410 million EBITDA equivalent to 13.2% of revenue and sustaining good added value margin of 63%, more than EUR 360 million free cash flow, CapEx at EUR 189 million and as a consequence, an earnings per share at EUR 2.61. In terms of shareholder returns, we are proposing a stable return with a stable dividend at EUR 1.15 and starting a new share buyback program of EUR 75 million.

Many of you know us. Let me just remind you the value proposition in our 3 segment. In our building, we are engineering solutions in heating, in cooling, in sanitary system, mostly in residential and commercial building. In industry, we are providing services to all the global industrial OEM in Europe, in U.S.A. with heat treatment, with surface treatment, and we are helping our customers to improve their energy consumption. And on semicon, offering system solution to all the global OEM, not only in the front-end, but now also on the backend side of the value chain. So definitely, we want to continue to engineer mission-critical technologies, enabling a clean, smart and responsible future.

And when we look at the long term, why Aalberts is still very well positioned for the long-term growth driver because we are very well exposed to 4 global trends. These 4 global tailwinds, which are urbanization, technology acceleration, reshoring and decarbonization. Long-term value creation is still very well promising.

Now let's go to our operational development in 2025. How did we do in building? How did we do in industry? How did we do in segment? Starting with the global revenue. The breakdown of our revenue by segment, by end market, by geography and by SDG goal. So on the geographical side, no major change compared to last year, same on the SDG exposure. And you can see that building is still 50% of our revenue, industry 35% and semicon 15%. I'll come back to the exposure by end market during the next slide. Our strategy is the same. We want to have leadership position, and we want to be aligned with attractive end market. And so where we are investing is definitely aligned with some of these megatrends.

Our performance by segment, a mixed picture. We will not repeat again what I said earlier, but we are back to growth on building with 1.3%, still a moderate organic growth. But of course, the margin has been challenging with 11.7%. Industry, better organic growth than last year, but still minus 2.8%. And this is where also we sustain very solid margin at 17.2%.

And in semicon, as you remember, it started in the last quarter of 2024, and we have seen quarter after quarter still the destocking ongoing from our customers. Now it is coming to an end, but '24 was still -- '25 was still minus 13.8%. And our margin as a consequence, down to 11.9%, but also with a conscious decision for us to sustain our capability for the long term and not go too low in our cost optimization. Now let me go through each segment and tell you some of the highlights and some of the low light.

So in building, on the good side, on the market, continued growth in commercial building in our key prioritized verticals like data center, like hospitalization, like district energies, and this is where we continue to optimize. Very good solid growth also in the U.S.A., in our overall segment and more challenge in France and Germany, more challenge in our connection system, some of the highlight on the market side. And on the performance side, we continue to optimize our footprint, continue to drive operational efficiency and are now also accelerating purchasing initiative to get back to a more robust margin in the coming years.

Looking at the market trend, you see what we face in '25 and what is our view about 2026. So more stable trend on 2026 in residential building more positive on commercial building and also on infrastructure industry and utility building. So we continue to have very good position in residential building, but we don't expect major growth on the market side, and we actually see many growth opportunity where we are also pushing organic growth initiative in commercial building and in infrastructure. That's our view about the 2026 market.

Now if I go to the other segment with industry. So -- where did we do well in '25 with a good growth with good organic growth in aerospace, in defense, in power generation and where we face the most challenge has been definitely in automotive, in the machine build and that's also what we continue to see in '26. Solid margin, we continue to drive operational efficiency, further footprint optimization and have the success to continue to deliver such a good performance.

And the market trend, a bit similar to 2025. Actually, we see automotive now coming to a plateau with a flattish organic growth. Same for machine being and other industrials, but more positive, and we continue to see more order, more positive growth on aerospace, power gen and defense, where our order book in some part of the business is really increasing. So positive momentum, some more stable.

And semicon, I mentioned it already, challenging on the front-end with the destocking from our customers, but we start to enjoy the growth of backend only two months since the acquisition of GVT. Very good also progress in defense in this segment where we have some of our technologies, some of our factories also supplying a major OEM in the defense area. And as you can see now in our breakdown by technologies, you have a new segment called system build and qualification, which is actually what we do in GVT. I'll come back later about our backend exposure and why we are so excited about the future growth opportunity.

And here for '26, it's actually more positive, right? We see growth in the front-end, even higher growth, growth in the backend and growth in other industries. So more positive based on what we see on the market trend, based on what we see on our customer order book and all the requests we are getting. So a positive momentum going forward.

And to conclude the 2025 operational performance, very pleased, very happy to report that we are still on track with our sustainable commitments, still with more than 70% of our revenue linked to sustainable development goal. We are reporting 71%. And year after year, continuing to reduce our CO2 emission in Scope 1 and Scope 2 absolute emission also based on the portfolio, acquiring company, divesting companies. So good progress, aligned with our targets. So pleased with the performance on the environmental side.

And that's what I wanted to share for our 2025 operational performance. Let me now hand it over to Frans that will give you an update about the financial development of the year.

Thank you, Stephane, and good morning, everybody. And indeed, let me talk you through the financial developments of 2025.

First of all, on the revenue, you see on the left here, the challenging market circumstances resulted in a negative organic growth of minus 2.5% and the year ended with a total of EUR 3.09 billion. On that revenue, we delivered 13.2% EBITA margin, which is 1.8% lower than 2024 and translates into EUR 410 million of EBITDA. The net profit landed at EUR 284 million.

We have been focusing on finding the right CapEx balance, and we aim to be below EUR 200 million by year-end, and we landed the number for CapEx on EUR 189 million, still investing in the future of the company in organic expansions, in innovation, but also being mindful of the cash impact. As such, free cash flow number is really strong, EUR 361 million, 64% conversion, really a good number, of course, reflecting the CapEx that I just discussed, but also inventory, net working capital, and I will come back on that in a bit more detail in a slide to come. So 30.2% margin as a conclusion in a challenging market for the year 2025.

Let me give you a breakdown of our revenue impact. And first of all, corrections for the M&A. In the acquisitions, you see EUR 105 million plus, basically driven by the acquisition of SGP in 2024, and we did 3 acquisitions that we completed in 2025. Geo-Flo, Paulo and GVT were added to the portfolio and delivered, as I said, EUR 105 million.

On the divestment side, in 2024, we divested EPC and December '25, we announced divestment of Metalis and also confirmed that we have reduced our shareholding in KAN to 45%. With that, that company is now accounted for as an associate and no longer fully consolidated in our books. EUR 59.6 million minus on the divestment in terms of revenue.

ForEx did not work in our favor in the revenue side, specifically the U.S. dollar, minus EUR 26 million. And the organic decline translation of the minus 2.5% total EUR 77 million, bringing it to EUR 3.09 billion on the revenue. If we then go to the EBITDA breakdown, again, of course, the M&A impact, and you see for the acquisitions that we've done, really a good contribution to the EBITA margin, EUR 18.7 million in the first year of integration. And on the divestment side, as we have progressed our portfolio also there, the minus EUR 4 million is the impact on the EBITDA. Of course, also a small currency effect, minus EUR 3 million, basically also predominantly the U.S. dollar. And then the organic decline on EBITDA is EUR 73 million.

And that requires a bit of context because there are a few elements in there, I would like to highlight. First of all, minus EUR 20 million on inventory, a noncash one-off correction as we have revised the group accounting policy for inventories to make it more robust and aligned throughout the company. That again, resulted in a minus EUR 20 million noncash correction. On holding elimination, we see a year-on-year deterioration of EUR 10 million. I will come back on that in the next slide. And then the remainder is really the drop-through of the lower revenue that we saw in the previous slide. Also, please bear in mind that on semicon, we have been careful in flexing our costs as we see and want to be prepared for the growth in this segment in the short future. Totaling EUR 409 million, 30.2%, basically most important driver, the lower organic decline.

Coming to free cash flow. I already mentioned we're very happy with this number, EUR 361 million. That's a healthy free cash flow. We have a 64% conversion, which is 10% higher than the previous year. And we -- in the waterfall, you see, first of all, of course, the negative impact of the lower performance, almost EUR 60 million of EBITDA impact on the cash flow in a negative way and that we knew to compensate with CapEx and net working capital. In the line item other, there's a cash out on the provisions that explains this item.

On a earnings per share bridge, yes, you, of course, see here the translation of the lower organic performance also in the EPS impact, EUR 0.3 the biggest one in this list, but also be very mindful of the financing costs that have gone up with EUR 0.13 as we have increased our debt level in the company with EUR 300 million to support the acquisitions that we have done. Yes, acquisitions and nice to see also that the acquisitions contributed positively and were value accretive from an earnings per share point of view. Small impact positive from the share buyback and then totaling the earnings per share on EUR 2.61 for 2025.

On the segment reporting, yes, Stephane already showed the revenue and the profitability, but here, you see also the CapEx that we added. If you look in the building segment, be very mindful in the 11.7% EBITDA margin, there's also the impact of the one-off noncash inventory correction of EUR 20 million that I just explained. But also please be mindful of the CapEx, where you see really almost 50% reduction. As we have been investing also in '24, in preparing for growth, you see this year that is more a modest number.

In industry and in semicon, CapEx numbers are in both segments comparable with the previous year. Well, in industry, we keep investing, of course, in our footprint and in expansion and also good to see 17.2% EBITDA margin in a challenging market. I think still earmarks a resilient performance in that segment. In semicon, markets have been tough, but still, we are fully confident in the long term. We have invested in an acquisition in a nice company called GVT, but also you see here that the CapEx is still of a high level, EUR 53 million. As we also invest in our new factory in Dronten, which will come into operation early 2027. So you see still there a lot of assets that we are having under construction in this segment.

As I said, holding elimination in the last column requires a bit of context. We see a minus EUR 4 million in 2024 as a comparable number. Please be mindful that there was an insurance claim proceed in that number. So that number was really lower than it normally is. For this year, 2025, minus EUR 14.8 million, which basically translates the normal run rate of holding cost. We earmarked that between EUR 10 million and EUR 50 million, and that number is in this range and comparable with last year.

On top, the movements in '25, there were significant additional M&A costs. You already saw some of that in the first half, but we have been able to compensate that with the book profits on the divestments that we have done. So that netted out. That was circa EUR 30 million of book result compensating the additional M&A costs and bringing this to basically reflecting the normal run rate on holding cost.

In the tech line, you see at the bottom here, low profitability due to challenging end markets. I think that summarizes from a P&L point of view. If we go to the balance sheet, on the left top, net debt increased with EUR 300 million, I already mentioned, which translates into a leverage ratio of 1.8. Yes, we target always to be below 2.5, and we're comfortably below that number. We already deleveraged a little bit, of course, additional year-end because of the proceeds from the divestments that we have done. And then with that, a leverage of 1.8x.

On the equity side, we see, of course, the impact of the lower result, but also, again, the dividend that has been paid and the share buyback had impact and yes, a small step down in solvency, but still 56.1% earmarks a resilient company and also has the balance sheet to support the Thrive 2030 agenda in the coming years.

The capital employed and the ROCE at the left bottom, yes, ROCE has come down with 2% to 12.7%, partly because of the majority is explained by the lower profit from the P&L. And the other part is because of the increased capital employed, which is driven by the higher debt that we also just touched on.

A bit more context on net working capital because there, yes, we see really an important step from 80 to 71 days, EUR 563 million net working capital, reflecting lower inventories. We improved our inventory position with 12 days to 82 days DIO which is a good number. We had a three day improvement on accounts receivable and a six day lower accounts payable, which then compensates the other two parts because the lower payable position is a cash out, of course. And with that, on balance, a nine day improvement. If we go into a deep dive a little bit on the 12 improvement days on the inventories, there are a few elements to mention. Roughly half of it is really hard work by many people in the organization, managing our stocks, managing our supply chain and really understanding well what the forecast requires from our inventories.

That is half of the progress. The other part, we were also supported with some tailwinds. Two days of ForEx, for example, in our favor. The whole M&A mix and the impact on inventory was also another two days, and the inventory item, the noncash EUR 20 million correction that I've discussed earlier translated in a two working day improvement. So six days of one-offs and the rest is really because of progress on inventory management, which was absolutely in a good step in 2025.

Then let's go to the exceptional costs. Three items in there totaling EUR 84 million. First of all, operational excellence, EUR 40.8 million. Yes, we keep making our -- progressing on our efficiency programs and drive operational excellence into the organization. And with this EUR 40.8 million, we target a yearly reduction of EUR 50 million as a benefit. Then EUR 28.9 million as an impact from the write-off on investments. The majority of this is explained by semicon innovation where we have been investing money. But yes, we do not see the perspective on how to commercialize this. So it's a nice technology, but we have no -- not sufficient confidence and perspective on commercialization, resulting in a write-off of EUR 28.9 million.

In 2024, the company has already decided to exit Russia, which is a lengthy and complex process. Again, in 2025, we made progress on this and EUR 14.5 million as a result in the exceptional cost for, yes, the Russian exit that we are working on.

And with that, let's also take a little bit of a wider perspective into capital allocation. And you can see in this slide, we keep, of course, investing in our company. In CapEx we just discussed how it was for 2025. In M&A, we also touched on this and here you see over the past five years, how we have been investing in the profitable growth agenda. Next to that, we value shareholder returns, and we think it's important. And you see here a perspective on the past five years, where we allocated almost EUR 700 million to the shareholders, normally in dividends, but in 2025, also complemented by a share buyback program.

And that is a nice bridge to the proposed shareholder return for this year. As my last slide, and as Stephane already mentioned, we proposed a dividend of EUR 1.15 over the year, and we announced a share buyback program that will start tomorrow of again, EUR 75 million. And with that, 2025, we deliver a stable return to our shareholders.

And with that, I would like to hand over back to Stephane to update you on our strategy.

So let's talk now how did we do progress in our Thrive 2030 strategy. First of all, let me say that while I'm not satisfied with the performance and the lack of organic growth in '25, I'm actually quite pleased with the progress we did deploying our four strategic action. And you know our Thrive 2030 strategy. I mentioned already, we still see positive long-term trend with the four global tailwind, and we still have the same four priorities. So let me now just give you an update for these four strategic actions on profitable growth, on leadership position, the Aalberts way and sustainable commitment.

And let's start with growth. And you see that we are not pleased with the progress. On one hand, we continue to see good traction on many end market, on many -- of our initiatives. But on the other hand, we are still reporting negative organic growth because of many of our end markets, which have not been growing. I already mentioned it, exposure to residential, exposure to automotive and destocking in the semicon. So we need to do better on profitable growth.

Leadership position, very good progress. I'm really pleased about the shaping of our portfolio, making 3 acquisitions, making 3 transaction in our divestment program, aligned with our strategy, right, progressing in the U.S., entering backend and Southeast Asia in semicon and making a divestment program, mostly in our European footprint for industry and building segment. So good progress for the first year of our strategy.

The Aalberts way, a lot of progress in all our functional excellence, driving synergy across our businesses, but also making progress on productivities and synergies. I will show you a few examples later today because I think we've start to see the impact either in our balance sheet or in our P&L. And on sustainable commitment, another year where we made progress, so well aligned with our 2030 and 2050 target.

Let me now go through one by one and give you a few highlight about the progress in this four strategic action. So organic growth, this is where we are investing. There was limited impact in '25, but we are more positive about '26 and '27. In building, going from component to system to solution, working on to be able to offer also digital offering linked to connectivity. And this is where the One Aalberts building segment portfolio makes sense. When you put everything we do in our connection system, in our valve, in our prefab solution, in our boiler room technology, we have a unique proposition.

Industry, it's continued our geographical expansion. Like Frans mentioned, our greenfield are coming to an end. We have now additional capacity in East Europe, additional capacity in Europe and the U.S. also to support the growth of aerospace. We have also entered Mexico, so all ready to capture the growth. And semicon I mentioned already front-end, we see now potential recovery later on and now also we are exposed to the backend. So global footprint, synergy between all the technologies that we have unique value proposition for our customers.

And one example of data center, which is still today quite small when you look at the numbers, only 2% of our building segment revenue is exposed to data center, but it's a $1.5 billion addressable market. And this is where we see double-digit organic growth in the coming years. It's about offering cooling solution. It's about reliability, it's about connectivity. And this is where, as I mentioned before, offering all solution together in term of valve, in term of system, in term of engineering system, prefab solutions, our packing and connection system, we have a unique proposition. And we are working with the big data center OEM, helping them to drive energy efficiency or helping them to have better cooling solutions. So more to come. We will be reporting in our half year result the progress we are making.

Of course, the organic growth, it's not only with the geographical expansion, it's not only with capacity expansion, it's also with innovation. And I'm quite pleased actually that we have delivered another year with 20% of our revenue coming from innovation done during the last four years. So at the end, delivering what we call innovation rate at 20%. Even if, as you know, innovating in building, innovating in industry or innovating in semicon is actually quite different. And that's what we continue to do. So good traction also, good progress here. Of course, this is more long term. And once again, we have now to do better on this strategic action to get back to positive organic growth.

Portfolio, I mentioned it. We started in '24, fantastic progress in '25 and committed to do more progress in '26 and 2030. So our strategy is the same, our three priority is the same, Good progress in industry with the acquisition of Paulo, and now we want to make further progress in '26 and '27 in aerospace in the U.S.A. Good progress in semicon with the acquisition of GVT. So of course, now the full prioritization is on the integration, on the driving synergies. Good progress in building in the U.S. with the acquisition of Geo-Flo, but this is where we need to accelerate. And this is, of course, top of our mind to continue to drive growth in what we call the source to emitter scope in the U.S.A. We have also water treatment as a key focus area. So this is where we are prioritizing and to do further progress in our building segment in terms of inorganic growth.

And divestment, fantastic progress. We are basically halfway with our 2030 target. So still some opportunity to make further progress in our divestment program, especially in our building and industry segment.

And just as a nutshell, why I'm so positive, why I'm so excited by the transformation acquisition we did with GVT. Not only we are entering a new part of the semicon value chain, but also we are now entering a new geographical area, and we have now a global footprint between our footprint in Europe, our footprint in Southeast Asia. Having both technology altogether, we are able to provide to all the global OEM exposed in front-end and backend, a unique value proposition.

And as you can see in front, in back and also now being exposed to life science with some of the technology, so not only in lithography, but also in advanced packaging, in measuring, in metering and in other key equipment, we are ready for the growth. We have seen already positive momentum in '25 with GVT in only two months, and we are excited by the further progress in 2026.

If I go to the third priority, operational excellence, a lot of effort deploying all the lean toolbox, implementing our Aalberts production system, but I'm pleased that we start to see the impact, and it is just the beginning, continuing to optimize our footprint, four site were closed in 2025, and we will continue to optimize major progress in inventory, like Frans mentioned, driving lower days on hand, especially in our building segment. This is where we have the further opportunities. And driving operational productivity to align our capacity, to align our cost based on the customer demand.

So a lot of initiatives to reduce fixed cost, secure our added value margin and do better job to do sometimes the same with less or to be ready to do more with the same cost and at the end, support our margin expansion. That's very high for our building segment, industry doing quite well and some opportunities in semicon.

And to conclude, on the last strategic action, delivering our sustainable commitment, good progress on Scope 1 and Scope 2, as you can see with our CO2 intensity reduction, where here we have a baseline compared to 2018. And now also doing further progress on Scope 3, where on one hand, we continue to make progress on the purchasing good CO2 intensity. So going down, but also making progress in reporting on the waste, but also here, not so pleased because we have actually an increase in our waste, and this is where also we need to do better, mostly linked to portfolio change, but also because now we have better reporting, so more transparency, which give us opportunity to improve. So well aligned with our 2030 target and definitely on track still to reach our long-term 2050 to be net zero or earlier.

That was the update about 2025. You have seen how did we do on operational side. You have seen how did we do on the financial side. So let me tell you how do we see 2026. I mentioned some of the market trend, but let me repeat some of the element segment by segment.

It's actually a mixed picture. On building, we continue to see the same trend in 2026. Expect commercial building to continue to grow, expect to continue to see positive momentum in the U.S., but also not yet expecting a recovery in residential and French and Germany market. Still a lot of uncertainty about the U.S. trade, that's what we see for '26 on the building market.

In industry, a bit continuation as '25, positive aerospace, power generation, defense, more flattish market trend in automotive and also in the French and German industrial and many uncertainty again in the U.S. But in semicon, it's now very clear. We see growth. We see our order book increasing. We see the customer destocking coming to an end. So backend has been growing very well and I think the growth is not an issue. But now also front-end, we really see an opportunity to have a recovery in the second half of '26. So being more positive. Long term was never an issue in semicon, but now we do see an opportunity to have a recovery in the second half.

So based on this market trend, our outlook is actually quite simple, is to improve organic growth and improve EBITDA margin in 2026, improve organic growth, improve EBITDA margin. And on the other hand, continue to deploy our four strategic actions.

So in a summary, 2026, we have a key priority is to get back to growth, driving organic growth in our attractive end market with our business development, geographical expansion and innovation. Like I mentioned earlier, you can count on us to continue to drive operational excellence, to improve margins, and should the market increase and improve better than we expect, it will automatically drive even better margins.

On the other hand, continue to manage the short-term dynamics. So something I think we have done quite well in '25 is to manage both low case and high case, and we will continue to do that in '26. Be ready for a potential higher growth, but also be ready in case the growth is not that high.

Continue to do a good job on free cash flow. After such a good year and always optimize our working capital. And at the end, continue to do what we did very well in '25 to optimize our portfolio, rebalancing between Europe and U.S., rebalancing the end market and divesting when we believe we are not the best owner.

So in a nutshell, continuing to strive for the long term, but also now perform and perform for us is what we put in our outlook, better growth and better margins. That's the end of the presentation. Now let's open the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] And I would now like to give the word to David Kerstens from Jefferies.

I've got three questions, please. Maybe first question on semicon. Organic revenues were down 13.8% last year. Yes, the slide shows much more positive outlook for 2026. But did I hear you say you only expect a recovery in the second half of the year? And how should we see that recovery in the light of the much better-than-expected order intake and guidance from your largest customer, ASML?

Yes. Thank you, David. You're absolutely right that we are more positive for 2026 because during the last three, four months, our order book have been increasing month after month. Also, we are getting a lot of requests for additional capacity simulation. So you should expect better numbers also in the first half. But talking about recovery, we see it more in the second half.

Also in the second half, we will also have the further organic growth coming from GVT in the backend. So better number in the first half, but the major impact will be more in the second half because it simply take times for the order to go through a customer order book to their customers and then finally to us. So Q1, you should expect, I think, a moderate improvement. Q2 a bit better and definitely second half much positive.

All right. That's clear. That sounds good. And then second question on the margin. I mean, a lot of moving parts in impacting the margin this year with last year's acquisitions of Paulo and GVT and GVT towards the end of the year and then all the divestments announced in December. How will that portfolio optimization impact your EBITDA margin this year?

Frans here. Yes, we haven't given specific guidance on an EBITDA margin impact for the year '26. But obviously, also visible in the waterfalls that we just showed that these are at the lower margin end of the range, but also the revenue impact totaling EUR 400 million. That was the number that we gave year-on-year with already then the first EUR 60 million in the waterfall you saw in the presentation. So no specific guidance on the exact margin impact, but we did give some numbers there.

Yes. Okay. And maybe finally, on the one-offs in EBITDA before exceptionals. You highlighted the EUR 20 million inventory write-down and a EUR 30 million book gain. Were those all booked in the fourth quarter?

Yes. Both items were booked. So the EUR 30 million book gain following the divestments we've completed in December, and the inventory correction also a Q4 event in the closing process.

Thank you, David. Now I'd like to give the word to Chase -- Chase Coughlan from Van Lanschot Kempen.

My first question, just regarding the guidance, and I suppose it's more to do with semantics. But when you say you expect improving organic growth, is that an improvement versus what we saw in 2025? Or is that really implying actual organic revenue growth?

It's actually improving compared to what we saw in 2025, and we also mean it for our 3 segment. So we expect better organic growth in our 3 segment compared to 2025.

Okay. Yes, that's clear. And I wanted to ask a little bit about your raw material prices. So copper obviously inflated quite a bit alongside some other metals. And I understand you're planning to protect your gross margin and pass that through. What do you think will be the net effect on volumes or the competitive positioning of Aalberts products throughout the course of 2026?

We see a continuation. I think -- 2025 is the best evidence about how well did we manage the situation with our price increase and the added value margin that we sustained at a high level. So we are confident to do it again in 2026. We see definitely an opportunity to have price increase in 2026 and without having an impact to our margin. So monitoring very closely, but we have a good, I think, operator model to manage that and sometimes it gives actually an additional opportunity to improve margin based on the good work we are doing on the purchasing side on the raw material.

I'd like to give the word to Tijs Hollestelle, ING.

My first question is about the semicon business that there was an organic decline of about 10% in the fourth quarter and quite a substantial impact already from the Grand Venture Technology acquisition. What is the annual expected euro number from the Grand Venture Technology business in 2026? And is there any seasonality in that business? That's the first question.

You are right that Q4 was around 9%, 10% negative organic growth. But let me remind you that when we report organic growth percentage, it is still excluding GVT, right? So you will see the impact of GVT in our revenue top line increase and I can tell you it's going to be very good in 2026. But the organic growth of GVT, you will see only the impact in Q4 2026 when we have own GVT a full year. So just to manage that. So the number you see in Q4 are pure with the former scope of advanced mechatronics.

Yes. And let me rephrase it. I understand that the acquisition is not in the organic growth number, but it seems that the Grand Venture Technology already generated almost EUR 30 million of turnover in the fourth quarter based on two months. Is that a fair assumption that it includes the December month, which in my view, a light one.

So maybe Tijs, the number we put out there, SGD 160 million equaling more than SGD 120 million annual revenue in GVT and it was in our books in the fourth quarter. And then Stephane already mentioned that we see good growth in this company. So that also helps already in Q4, in the top line. But you don't see that, of course, as Stephane explained, in the organic revenue number as a percentage until Q4 next year. Does that clarify?

Yes.

And coming back to the seasonality to make sure we answer your question. We see more seasonality actually in the front-end with a better second half than first half, like I explained earlier, compared to GVT in the backend, which is actually quite more balanced.

Okay. Yes. And then I appreciate your additional comments you just made on the recovery in the second half of the semi business. But can you give us a bit more feel for the, let's say, the potential magnitude? What kind of scenarios can we expect there because we have seen massive, let's say, organic declines in some of the quarters earlier in 2025. Is that something we can also expect for, let's say, that recovery? It is not impossible that, for instance, in the third or fourth quarter, organically, the business is coming up by 20%? Or would you say it's more moderate?

I can only repeat what I said that we see second half will be much better than in the first half. And we have decided not to give a specific organic growth outlook by segment. But you are right that Q3, Q4 should be much better because we also see much higher number in 2027. We just need to have more time to see all the orders coming in the value chain, but we don't disclose number by segment.

Okay. No, that's fine for now. And then if I may, I also have a question about the building division. I was also -- I mean, I think you mentioned back to organic growth, but that was indeed on the full year basis. So there's also a small organic decline again in the fourth quarter. I think underscoring that market conditions remain very volatile, difficult to predict. But what was the impact of the write-downs because I saw a EUR 3.4 million write-down somewhere in the press release. And if I, let's say, apply that to the fourth quarter EBITDA of the building business, it explains, let's say, a more normal margin. But you also mentioned EUR 20 million. So where is the EUR 20 million showing up throughout the year in the building business?

Yes, that's reported in the inventory line item in the balance sheet and then taken as a cost in our margin. So you don't see it as a separate line item, not as a write-off, Tijs. It's an inventory revaluation.

But the EUR 38.1 million EBITDA in the building division seems to be very low. Is that -- these write-downs or not?

Tijs, could you repeat your last question because the line was bad.

Is the -- let's say, the EUR 38.1 million EBITDA in the building division in the fourth quarter, is that negatively impacted by some inventory write-downs and how much?

Yes, the EUR 20 million is in there. Yes. Sorry, Tijs, I misunderstood your question -- The EUR 20 million inventory correction is impacting the 11.7% margin in building and has been taken in the fourth quarter. I thought you were asking where -- fully, yes. I thought you were asking where to pinpoint it in the press release, but you don't see it in the numbers on the P&L as a separate line item, of course, I thought that was your question. But it's in the books, in Q4 impacting the building performance. So EUR 20 million one-off noncash if you do your calculations.

And then the [indiscernible] the 15.5% EBITDA margin, is that kind of the level we should take into account going into 2026?

Again, sorry, Tijs, the first part is you are -- we lost you and that probably was the most important part of the question. Can you repeat?

I asked that the fourth quarter, 15.5% margin then adjusted for that, is that also the margin underlying to take with us going into 2026?

Yes. So that's -- we don't give guidance per quarter per segment, but -- and I think you have to see this in the light of the whole year. There are always quarterly swings, pluses and minuses. But yes, there's no denying that the fourth quarter for building was really strong if you take this one-off out. But I think you should look over the overall picture, 11.7% and put the EUR 20 million as a one-off correction in doing your numbers.

I'm happy to give the word to Kristof Samoy from KBC in Belgium.

Just I want to come back again on semicon and you're quite firm in terms of the anticipated recovery in the second year half. But if you look at the numbers of your largest front-end customer, ASML, from a high-level perspective, you see that their new system sales drop, yes? So they're selling more expensive products. How -- in such an environment, how can this have positive volume impact for a subcontractor such as Aalberts? This is the first question.

And then on the portfolio review, you have been very active in the strategy execution in terms of disposals and acquisitions. Can we assume that for 2026, management has enough on its hands and focus will be on post-merger integration, and we should not expect major transformational M&A this year?

Thank you, Kristof. Two great questions. The first one, I would like to say that, first of all, we are not a subcontractor, right? We are a strategic partner of ASML. We are a strategic partner in the whole semicon ecosystem, so much more than a subcontractor, right, just to clarify this point.

And you're absolutely right. I think you have a very good point looking at the numbers. That's what also we have been explained in 2025, the link between the number of system shipped and the link to what we produce, right? And then you have, of course, the inventory in the middle. But where we see the highest growth is definitely all the growth expected by our key customers and what they see from their customer on the EUV. And on the EUV, we have unique positioning. This is where also we have the capacity ready. And this is where the AI push would require more and more of this technology.

And we will benefit from this growth, and that's why we expect it in the second half, not in the first half because the whole value chain need to ramp up. So we're actually quite bullish for 2027. And like I mentioned earlier, that's what we expect every quarter to improve so that the whole value chain ramp up. So that's why we see it.

Even when you look at the last quarter, you are right, there was a mix change between what they ship on high value, between what they do in terms also of services and refurbishment, where we are not exposed, but EUV is definitely more promising in 2026.

And on the second point, I will say, definitely, yes, on semicon, you are right that our top priority is post-merger integration, right? Now utilizing our global footprint that we have between Europe and Southeast Asia, now the broadening portfolio that we have with all the technologies that we have from our advanced mechatronic and now from GVT and supporting the customers in their technology road map with this full offering.

But on the industry, we still see opportunity to continue to make bolt-on acquisition, especially in aerospace and in the U.S.A. So we have a strong funnel, and we are still active in this segment. And in building, this is where also we see opportunity to make further progress either in our water treatment source to emitter and also in the U.S.A. So you should expect us to be more active in building and industry, but less active in semicon.

[Operator Instructions] I would like to now already touch two questions which have been sent in via the Q&A form. And the first one is for you, Frans. That's about guidance for CapEx for the year 2026. Could you give us a bit of a comment there?

Yes. But before I do that, maybe a small correction. I just mentioned for GVT, the Singapore dollar revenue, SGD 160 million, which is correct. The exchange rate would translate into SGD 207 million of revenue, just to make sure that number is accurate out there.

Maybe on CapEx, so EUR 189 million this year, which is a good number. I already mentioned in the -- when discussing the slides, assets under construction is quite high, EUR 226 million. And also there, you see a bit of a step-up versus our depreciation, which is EUR 170 million. As we are investing in our business in organic growth in -- also in the new company, GVT that we acquired. So you need to correct, of course, for M&A.

If you do all that, based on the current portfolio for the coming year, we are still -- will be around the same level that we spent this year. So circa EUR 190 million as a first number for 2026.

Okay. Thank you. There's another question I want to -- is coming in now, which I think it's a relevant one for I think for you, Stephane, about the write-off on the semiconductor innovation part of the exceptional. Perhaps you could give a bit of a color on that topic.

Yes. So let me remind you that, first of all, I see the question. It has nothing to do with GVT, right? It's really something we started four, five years ago, right? And when you start to innovate, when you start a new technology, so it was linked to a deposition technology, which was very promising at that time with a lot of opportunity to further commercialize. But after four, five years, we came to the conclusion that there is still not a path to commercialize, and that's why we are putting this cost as an exceptional cost. So not linked with our current business and not linked with GVT.

Okay. Thank you. I'd like to -- it's a very long question. I can see whether I can summarize it a little bit. Yes, there's a question on the data centers. I think you already gave quite a bit of a color on what we do there. So I think that -- I think that answer -- that question has been answered.

Then I find another question on CapEx for you, Stephane, whether you could give a bit of color where you spend the CapEx? Would it be mostly growth, innovation, ESG, capacity? Well, you have a lot of options, I see. If you can give a bit of color there.

Absolutely. I think you have seen in the number that Frans presented, first of all, that our CapEx intensity is quite different by segment due to the nature of the industry, right? Definitely, in semicon, this is where we have been investing a lot for capacity for the long-term growth. So most of the investment we have been doing of the CapEx we have been doing in semicon, it's for capacity, it's for technology.

When you look at industry, a big part of the CapEx we do is for repair, it's for maintenance, but also for geographical expansion with new footprints because it's a very local and -- local and local-for-local business. So we follow our customers when there is a need. So a lot of capacity expansion, repair and maintenance. And when you look at building, this is more for efficiency. This is more for productivities because we already have the good footprint, and this is also where we are driving more automation in order to improve the utilization of our assets.

And then across the three segment, we continue to invest for our people, working condition, sustainable environment. So quite balanced overall at Aalberts between ESG, between capacity, between operational efficiency and also now more and more on innovation. As I mentioned, I think, already last year, our weight linked to new building and capacity expansion is coming to an end. So we are going to spend more on R&D and on innovation.

Thank you very much, Stephane. I see also that somebody has joined the queue, which is Philippe Lorrain from Bernstein.

I'm quite new to the case, but I wanted just to ask a question on earnings adjustments. Because I see in the press release and also from what you say that there's a bunch of things that you flagged in the text, which are actually not adjusted from the earnings, i.e., this inventory write-down in Q4 and also the insurance proceeds. But at the same time, you have many different adjustments that you flagged at the back of the press release. So what's your policy on that? And what should we expect going forward?

Yes. So thank you for the question. Yes, be very clear. So there are -- indeed, there are three items that we earmark as exceptionals. And those we report in a separate section in the press release and also in a separate slide in my presentation. Basically, all the numbers that we see are excluding the impact of the exceptionals. So with that, we want to make sure that the numbers of the company are well comparable year-on-year. So you can do also the underlying performance evaluation in a better way. And that's why we put them in a separate bucket, if you like. We label them exceptionals. And of course, we explained very well what's in there. And then -- there's an operational excellence element in there. There is the innovation in semicon that Stephane just discussed, and we're in an exit of our Russian businesses, yes, which are three very specific one-off items that we label as exceptionals -- And they are not reflected in all the other numbers that you've seen. Is that clear?

Okay. Perfect. Yes, that's clear on that front. And just to follow up on that. So the write-down in innovation in semicon, is it related actually to fixed assets like in terms of PP&E? Or is it more intangible assets?

It's a combination. So it's intangibles because there's absolutely also development and innovation, intellectual property in there, but also, yes, some other balance sheet items. So it's a combination. We didn't give the breakdown, the total impact. There are also some other elements in there, we said the majority is the semicon items and the total that we disclosed is EUR 28.9 million.

Then I think there's a follow-up question from Chase coming in.

I just wanted to come back quickly on the guidance, particularly to do with the margin. I think it was asked a little bit earlier as well, but I'm trying to understand sort of a large portion of this margin improvement you expect in '26 is probably a result of the divestments, of course. Could you also talk a little bit about what you expect sort of from an organic standpoint as well from a margin level?

Yes. I understand, I think, the question. So we actually see four enabler and why we are confident to say we will improve margins. So let me go through the four points, which we believe will help to have a better margin.

First of all, we are planning to get better organic growth. And automatically, that will generate better margin because where we are growing also, this is where we have been investing and all the key verticals we are growing have also better margin profile on commercial building, in aerospace, power generation, defense and semicon. So first, organic growth.

Second, you will have indeed the benefit of all the operational excellence program that we did in the previous year of footprint optimization so that you will have the benefit -- the in-year benefit in '25. Third, you have definitely the impact of the divestment that we did, right? So that also will help us to improve the margin. So some -- three elements that will definitely help us.

And then -- the last one is that we don't expect another one-off in our building segment. The one we took in Q4, like Frans mentioned, the EUR 20 million, that also will not happen in 2026. So these 4 elements give us confidence that we will improve our EBITDA margin in 2026.

And then I think the last question of this today Q&A, I'd like to give to Tijs again, also a follow-up.

Yes. Stephane, I was thinking about what you said on the semi recovery. And I think you also mentioned visibility for 2027. So is it fair to assume that you are very busy with the current planning of the shipment schedules of your clients, and that makes it difficult for you to pinpoint, let's say, an exact recovery trajectory, but you have the orders and you have the client activity. Is that a fair assumption?

Yes and no because I -- we already have some good orders, and that's why we are confident it will be better, but we expect even more order to come, right? So I think '26 looks very promising. Now the question is how will be the ramp-up?

I think we have always said over the last year that long term, the growth was never an issue. The only question was when it will be coming. And now we see definitely coming in '27. We are actually quite exciting by 2027. And the question is how much will be already happening in the second half of the year. So we are, of course, now very confident based on the current order book. So we know '26 will be better. We are not getting a lot of capacity simulation request, and that we don't know yet how much of this simulation will become a real order or not. And that's why answering your question, we cannot confirm yet because there are different scenario. But in all scenario, it's a growth scenario.

Yes. And the current existing capacity of Aalberts is sufficient that you can handle much higher revenue levels?

Again, that's why it's such a good news because it just confirms the strategic investment we did. Our factory in Dronten in the Netherlands has always been there for the growth of EUV. So we see now very good utilization potentially in '27. So perfectly in line. Of course, we will have hoped to have it earlier. But now '27, it will be there. So the question is how big will be the utilization, but we have invested capacity, if you remember, for the '27 2032 growth. So we have -- we are ready for the growth. And now on top of that, you have the backend growth and our footprint in Southeast Asia, so we can also support our current customer, we have also access to all the new customers we didn't have before. And now we can also do load balancing depending on their need. Do they want deliveries in Europe or do they want us to supply from Southeast Asia, we are ready to support them.

Thank you, Stephane and Frans, for the answers. Yes. As we conclude today's webcast, I would like to thank everybody to join us today. And also please remind that both the presentation and today's recording will be available on the website later today. Thank you.