Aalberts Aktie

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.

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to our first half '25 results publication. It's great to see so many of you joining this webcast online.

I'm happy to introduce to you our CEO, Stephane Simonetta, and our new CFO, Frans den Houter. Stephane will kick off the presentation, with some business highlights. This will be followed by Frans, who will give an update on our financial developments.

Stephane will finish the presentation with an update on our strategy, and this will be followed by a Q&A session. Please note that today's webcast and the presentation will be made available later today on our website.

Please let me introduce Stephane to kick off the presentation.

Thank you, Rutger. Good morning, everyone.

Let's start this presentation by giving you business highlights to tell you how was the first half and give you also an operational update for each of our segments before handing over to Frans about the financial development.

And I would like to start with a few key messages to summarize the situation where we are. As you have seen this morning in our press release our first half performance has been impacted by the market headwinds and by the increased uncertainty due to the global trade policies.

This has an impact into our organic growth and that's why as a key message of today, we are adjusting our full year outlook to reflect the market condition. But we continue to take action on what we can do to protect our EBITA margin, to optimize our free cash flow and we have made good progress on our strategy with three value-accretive acquisition that we will be sharing later today, two in the U.S., one intended in Southeast Asia for Semicon.

At the same time, we are still actively looking at our divestment program to simplify our portfolio, especially within our building and industry segment. So in a nutshell, managing the short-term challenges due to the market uncertainty, but at the same time, continuing to deploy our long-term strategic actions.

Now looking back at the first half, you can see on this slide, basically, now you see the key numbers that, again, will be explained in much more detail by Frans. So in a nutshell, the organic growth is basically the result of the end market headwinds. As you can see, we are reporting a 3.2% organic decline with actually a mixed picture between our three segments because, yes, in industry and semicon, we continue to see organic decline. Also, Q2 was a bit better for industry, but semicon continued to be very low.

On the other hand, we still have growth in our building segment, we are reporting a moderate organic growth of 1.4%. As a consequence, our margin is basically the result of the organic growth challenges as we have a semicon margin going down following the volume drop. Our industry margin is still solid. Right? And building is stable compared to last year. But of course, we were expecting a bit better performance due to all the actions we are taking.

On the other hand, I'm really pleased that, thanks to all the actions we are taking on pricing excellence and organic growth, we managed to sustain a good added value margins and super pleased also to report that we are improving our free cash flow. Thanks to the great work from our team to reduce inventories and also to manage our capital expenditure.

As a consequence, due to the lower margin, our EBITA is down at EUR 1.38. So in a nutshell, as you can see at the bottom of the slide, good improvement in free cash flow and EBITA margin under pressure.

Let me go now segment by segment. And I would like to start, as you can see here, by our building segment. In a nutshell, our building growth still positive 1.4%. And our EBITA is stable compared to last year, 12.9% compared to 13% last year.

Let me now explain you, as you can see on the left of the slide, why our organic growth, you could say, is only 1.4% because actually, it's a mixed picture. On one hand, very good growth to continue in Americas, in Asia Pacific and in some of our product line, commercial valve, industrial valve, prefab solution, we are actually growing quite well.

On the other hand, all this growth is offsetted by the challenge we see, especially in Germany and French market, but also in our connection systems in product line, which has been a bit lower than expected. And therefore, our organic growth is only 1.4%.

The margin is stable, mostly because of all the action we took, but of course, we were expecting a better margin because all the actions we took are on track, cost out, inventory, footprint, innovation, and that's what we will continue to do to manage the short term uncertainty. So as a nutshell for building segment, good progress on our operational excellence initiatives and lower-than-expected organic growth, but still positive.

If you go now to industry, a different picture. Still a solid performance, 16.8%. And as you can see, the second quarter better than the first quarter, especially because the organic growth is also better in the second quarter than in the first quarter. But overall, you can see it on the top left of the slide, it's a minus 5% organic growth. And we are doing very well, especially in aerospace, high growth in our defense, high growth in our power generation, very good growth. Also in APAC and Middle East.

And unfortunately, this good growth are offsetted by the organic decline of the automotive market. And again, by the French and German industrial markets, which remains soft, and this is where we don't see improvement in the short term.

On improvement, I think, we continue to take out all the cost out measure, footprint optimization, and that's why we sustain a solid EBITA, a bit lower than last year. That's what we will continue to do in the future.

And to conclude, we're very pleased to report that our acquisition with Paulo is actually well on track. And we already see early signs of contribution in terms of growth and in terms of margin, so confirming the strategic rationale of this acquisition.

So to summarize, industry, organic revenue growth, EBITA improved in the second quarter, solid performance. Thanks to all the cost out action we took.

And the last segment, semicon. This is where we have the biggest challenge on the organic growth. You see we are reporting a first half at 13% decline revenue. This has an impact in our EBITA margin. And that's why our EBITA margin is down to 11.5%. But this is also where we are very careful in our cost-out action, because we have to manage the short term, but also we have to protect the long term.

We don't want to be short of capacity when the market will recover. And we are fully aware that this industry is about long-term growth. And yes, short term, we are challenged, especially on our frame and module, in our machine conditioning. We believe now the inventory adjustment from our semicon customer is coming to an end. And now we are just exposed to the market trend in our semicon market.

So what are we doing about it, managing the cost, like I said, still investing for the long term in terms of innovation. And of course, the key highlight, even if it's not finalized, is our intended acquisition with GVT to enter the semicon Southeast Asia market. And I'll come back into that because this is where we will improve and we will enter new area for the future growth of the company.

So in a summary, for semicon, we continue to see lower demand, very careful about our Q2 and that's why our EBITA margin is under pressure. But I would say it's also about a choice to not go too low in terms of capability and capacity.

And before I hand it over to Frans, I will just report also that we continue to make progress on our environmental performance. I'm really pleased that we sustain or percentage of revenue linked to the sustainability development goal with more than 70% of our revenue. And we continue to take action on our own footprint. And thanks to the work from our teams, we managed to reduce 8% of Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO2 intensity. So continue to be on track and made good progress in the first half of the year.

That's what I wanted to report as a key business highlights. And now let me hand it over to our CFO, Frans, to share with you a more update about our financial development. Thank you. Frans?

Thank you very much, Stephane and Rutger, and good to be with you here this morning and discuss the H1 results of Aalberts.

But before I do that, I want to thank all the colleagues in Aalberts to give me such a truly warm welcome. I really enjoy being part of the organization, and I look forward to our Thrive 2030 journey. But before we do that, this morning, it's all about the first half year results.

So let me dive into those, in this first slide, where you see four important KPIs that basically summarize where we have been working on and where we are in terms of financials.

First, on revenue, we see a decline of EUR 62 million, which is organically EUR 50 million, and that translates into the minus 3.2% organic revenue decline, driven by -- explained by Stephane already, building, we still see a small growth. But yes, industry and semicon, clearly lose revenue growth. That translates into an EBITA margin of 13.5%. Yes, that's 1.5% below the previous 6 months of last year. Still a very good added value.

As already mentioned, 63% in line with the previous year. And also the net profit of EUR 151 million, translating into EUR 1.38 per share. Of course, we have been working hard to protect our cash position, and I'm pretty pleased with the free cash flow. Also if you compare year-on-year, EUR 8 million up to a number of EUR 56 million. Yes, we lose money on EBITA because yes, that is the translation of the operational step back, but net working capital and CapEx both delivered EUR 18 million and as such, a nice free cash flow of EUR 56 million, and I'll come back to that in a bit more detail.

On CapEx, EUR 100 million, we have been trying to rationalize our CapEx programs and phase them out adjusting to market circumstances. EUR 100 million, EUR 70 million improvement year-on-year. Also good to mention that for the full year, we expect CapEx to be at the level of EUR 200 million to EUR 225 million, which is also a bit lower than our earlier guidance.

So first half year results impacted by challenging markets. And let's dive a little bit more deep into the year-on-year comparison. Here, we see the revenue coming down with the EUR 62 million already mentioned, EUR 23 million by acquisitions. We added SGP and Paolo to the portfolio.

On the other side, we had the divestments of EPC company and then a small currency effect brings us basically to the EUR 50 million revenue decline. As already stated, predominantly driven by industries and semicon, which are in a more difficult period. And I think we'll summarize you at the bottom also driven by the pressure in automotive that is specifically hitting the industry segments.

Next slide, we translate and we look at EBITA. Of course, in acquisitions and divestments, we see the same companies, but then the EBITA effect, small currency effect again, and that brings us to the organic decline in EBITA of EUR 35 million. Basically, three things. We lose EUR 11 million in semicon. We lose a similar amount in industry. And then there's the year-on-year effect of the holding elimination line item where we lose EUR 7 million. And I'll give you a bit more context there in two slides from here and give you a breakdown also comparing with last year.

So organic decline, mainly driven by the drop-through of the lower revenue that you saw in the previous slide.

As said, let's go to free cash flow. Here, we see in the first red bar, the cash -- the lower cash, because of the EBITA that was at the lower level. But then very clearly CapEx focus, rationalizing our programs and phasing them out EUR 18 million recovery in cash position. And then the net working capital also EUR 18 million, driven by lower inventories, which is hard work, driven by collecting receivables and then slightly offset by the payable position that was a bit lower.

But also translation, I think, yes, of good quality of cash, that's been a hard work in inventory and collecting receivables to get this EUR 18 million in our cash position. This, I think, nicely summarized lower EBITA offset by lower CapEx and improved net working capital.

On the next slide, it's a busy slide, but I think it summarizes really well year-on-year, what has been going on in the segments and the holding elimination. Let me talk you through. I think Stephane commented already, of course, in his intro.

In building, you see summarized here, yes, the decline in revenue year-on-year, also because of the divestments, but organic growth of 1.4%, still positive, and I think good to see also the CapEx positions per segment, EUR 25 million, significantly lower than last year as we also try to rationalize CapEx and use the assets that we already have optimally.

In industry, 4.9% revenue decline, but the revenue is still at the same level, of course, supported by the two nice acquisitions that we have added. And CapEx level, yes, similar to next year. And also because we are still finishing some greenfields and also the normal replacement CapEx.

In semicon, yes, you see the revenue is a relatively big delta. So already explained by Stephane, we remain focused on the mid and the long run also supported by our acquisition that the intended acquisition that we announced but also visible in the CapEx where we keep investing in our footprint, because we really believe that the mid and the long run, this will be the place to be for us.

Finally, as I said, holding eliminations. Important line item. Of course, the elimination line item is more an intercompany correction. Let's focus on the minus EUR 10.4 million that we see here, EUR 7 million down versus last year. It's EUR 7 million more cost. But I think, first of all, good to mention that last year, there was proceeds from an insurance claim included in here.

So EUR 10.4 million reflects half of it is the normal holding cost that we have, EUR 10 million to EUR 15 million in total per year. So this is for the first 6 months, let's say, EUR 5 million. The other EUR 5 million come from the acquisition cost for the Paulo acquisition and we settled two small claims, and that brings us to EUR 10.4 million on this line item.

Well, again, summarized at the bottom, building stable, industry resilience, and semicon clearly under pressure.

Now this is a new slide where we review some key balance sheet items. I think it's really important to also have a good look at it, and I'll talk you through.

On the left top, you see clearly that our debt position has gone up with EUR 220 million. That basically reflects the Paolo acquisition that we added to the portfolio, and it brings the leverage to a level of 1.6. Towards year-end, the intended acquisition, we hope to close before Christmas. And that, of course, will then increase the leverage ratio, but we will stay below 2, and we will stay comfortably below the leverage ratio ceiling of 2.5 that we always announced.

On the right top, the equity and solvability, I think, in a good place, representing a solid company. And at the left bottom, yes, the ROCE is lower than last year, which is a setback. Of course, driven by the lower EBITA, but also in the other -- on the capital employed side, we also see the net debt effect that I just discussed increasing our capital employed.

Net working capital, yes, also a translation of good progress already discussed there. We have made progress on inventories, which as Stephane will touch on in a bit more detail, we have been focusing on collecting the cash from our receivables and the payable position year-on-year has come down. So that offsets a little bit, but a nice improvement of our net working capital position.

And that, I think, overall, gives a very strong balance sheet that will support the next steps in our Thrive 2030 journey, Stephane. And I think he will tell a bit more what we're doing there.

Thank you, Frans. So you have seen that we continue to remain very disciplined on all our financial KPIs to manage whatever the market challenges. But while we manage the short term, at the same time, we continue to take action for the long term. And that's what I would like to report to you now, how we are doing, what progress did we do in the first half in our four strategic action as per Thrive 2030, as per our last Capital Markets Day in December.

First of all, a quick reminder of the four strategic action. You can see from the left to the right, accelerating organic growth, optimizing and simplifying our portfolio, evolving our operating system and driving sustainable entrepreneurship. No change. These are still the action with the goal to refocus our company, rebalance our portfolio, and recharge our three segments. That has not changed.

What progress did we do in the first half? You can see it here with a simple scorecard, and this is what we will be reporting to you every half year, every full year. So you can count us to show you the progress every time we are live and disclosing our results.

Obviously, the first action, the status is not satisfactory with a negative organic growth in the first half. This has to be improved. But at the same time, we continue to invest in some specific organic growth initiative. We start to see the early sign of improvement. But obviously, it's still too soon to report progress.

But I can tell you. So when you look at prefab solutions, when you look at our boiler room technology, when you look at our offering for data center, when you look at our U.S. growth ambition, you all will remember, our plan is still the same, to double our revenue in the U.S. over the next 5 years. Aerospace is doing very well, defense as well and also our semicon, which is all about innovation, system integration and design-to-value. More to come, but obviously, the first half results are behind.

On the second action, this is where we are actually making good progress with two closed acquisitions, one intended acquisition. And as I said earlier, we still are working actively to make progress about divestments in our building and industry segments.

The third one, the Aalberts way, it's all about the functional excellence, but where we did the biggest progress in the first half is on our operational excellence, footprint optimization, and I'll show you a bit more because we are quite pleased with the progress on our inventory days, reducing 10 days compared to last year. Well on track with our target to be less than 90 days this year and 85 days next year.

And on sustainability commitment, also well on track, but let's not forget that also here, it's about investing in our people to ensure we have a future-proof workforce to enable our strategy. And as you can see, almost 400 of our leaders have been trained or went through our leadership development program that, of course, what we will continue to do as we cannot win without our people.

Now one example, which I think, it's showing you and it's all not about the size because it's still a modest order book. It's still low revenue, but this is where we are investing. Just showing you an example of a prefab solution that we are doing in our factory with one example of what we ship and sold to data center in London, and we are doing that in Europe. We are also looking at expanding this offering also in other verticals like commercial buildings, and this is also an opportunity in the U.S.

So you are talking here about a global vertical and our modular thinking where we can use many of the things we do at Aalberts. You see our expansion vessels, some of the valve, and we are very pleased with the progress, and we are investing in people, in footprint to be part of the growth because that's one of the growth driver for the coming years to come.

You can see also in the summary, the three value-accretive acquisition and it's all about growth, it's a growth agenda, which also enable us to keep our leadership position, so obviously, aligned with our strategy. And you can see one closed acquisition for our industry segment with Paulo, in the U.S., one close acquisition in the middle -- on the right, sorry, with Geo-Flo for our building segment in the U.S., and in the middle, still an intend, based on what we announced for our semicon segment to enter Southeast Asia, and let me tell you a bit more about this great opportunity. Because indeed, you could say it's a transformative move for Aalberts.

We are going to enter the semicon Southeast Asia market. This is going to open new growth area for us. And the way we do it is by having synergies, intending synergies between GVT and our Aalbert's advanced mechatronics solution.

Why we are so excited about it? You are talking here about growth agenda, to support GVT customers and continue their expansion, where we will bring from Aalberts all our internal capability competencies.

Second, we can also grow with our current customer and support the regional supply chain footprint development. So you are talking here about commercial growth, synergy, also cost synergy, footprint, commercial, we have many synergy identified. And that's why we still believe and we really plan to close this acquisition by end of the year, because it's going to support our organic growth and also supports our margin profile, as you can see here, synergy that will enhance our profitability and cash. So fantastic opportunity.

Let's close it, and I look forward to report more once the acquisition is closed, but not for now.

And on divestments, I'm sure you remember the slide from our CMD. And now just a reminder that we are still working on divesting potentially EUR 400 million to EUR 500 million, especially in our building and industry segments, and we hope to make progress in the second half, but that what we're working on at the moment. So based on the same criteria, ability to win and market attractiveness.

The Aalberts way, this is where -- as you say, we are quite pleased with the progress. Our operations team did a fantastic job.

Look at these numbers. And that's what I like when you talk about functional excellence. Its initiative that deliver results. And you can see now, right, footprint -- and footprint, we are on track with our optimization. But I think, due to the market uncertainty, it's all about scenario planning. We have a task force looking almost on a daily basis of the tariff impact.

We have made progress on inventories, as I mentioned, EUR 110 million drop compared to last year, 10 days, EUR 10 million saving on operational productivity on the first half and 14% CapEx reduction going down to EUR 100 million. That's what we will continue to do, and that's why we are building what we call capabilities to invest in resource and to ensure we have a continuous improvement culture, so that we can repeat that year-over-year and not do that as a one-off. Good progress, outstanding work from our team.

And on the decarbonization level, also no change. We are still working on our six levers, as per our strategy. And it's actually to achieve two key objectives. The first one is our own footprint, to continue to reduce our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emission or intensity. Thanks to our energy-efficient programs, thanks to the usage of renewable energies and also to electrification.

And the second goal is to help our customers to reach their sustainability targets through smart product design, through circular economy, and also through value chain collaboration. And I always like to say the sustainability agenda is good for the environment, but it's also good for our business and good for our growth agenda.

So now you may wonder, based on the current headwind, what do we plan to do as a short term. We understand that the market uncertainty will continue. We understand that the market softness will continue for the second half. So we will continue to take the action that we took in the first half in order to protect our EBITA margin and improve our free cash flow.

So continue to pursue organic growth initiatives, deployed the operational excellence program, as we announced last year. Further accelerate cost out, especially building segments and through operation productivity but also purchasing savings, new area, new opportunity, continued inventory reduction, continue with our CapEx reduction and we hope to make progress on divestments in the second half of the year.

So overall, whatever are the market headwinds, we still have strong foundation. We have clear priorities, and the full leadership will be focused on execution, is focused on execution, and that's what we will do to manage the short-term challenges.

Now as a conclusion, of course, let's go back to our outlook as we have released this morning in our press release. And you could say, based on the current market softness and market softness based on the uncertainty, looking forward, we don't expect an improvement. As you can see in the middle of the slide, we don't expect an organic revenue growth improvement in the second half of the year.

Consequently, we are adjusting our full year outlook EBITA margin to 13% to 14%. And you can count on us to continue to take action to protect our EBITA margin, optimize our free cash flow. And while at the same time, we will continue to deploy and invest for the long term, deploying our strategic action as per Thrive 2030. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Frans. Thank you, Stephane, for the presentation.

[Operator Instructions] I would now like to give the word to Martijn den Drijver from ABN AMRO, ODDO for the first questions.

Martijn den Drijver from ABN AMRO. I have three questions, one each for each division. I will do them one by one if you'll allow me. The Q2 was softer than in Q1 in terms of organic growth. Is that end market demand softening? Is that destocking? Can you tell us something about customer behavior and what you're seeing there? And in relation to that, you mentioned corrective action taken. Can you elaborate a little bit on what type of actions we're talking about. So that would be question one.

Thank you for the question, Martijn. And you are right that Q2 organic growth was a bit lower than the Q1, I think, especially in our building and semicon market. So semicon, it's basically the continued effect of the destocking for our customers. So seeing no major change. It was expected at least for us. And that's what we have seen in the first half. And the corrective action we took with semicon, as I say, finding the right balance, adjusting costs, but keeping the flexibility and the capacity for the long term. So I think that -- and that's also where we don't see improvement in the second half, so expect the same activity in semicon.

On building, actually, you are right, the organic growth has been a bit lower than the first half. And we saw a market, I think, impact, especially in our connection system and in the German market. That's where the second quarter, so it's market driven, but softer than expected. And that's why the growth in the second half, I think, was only 1%, it's a bit lower.

And if you look at industry, you have seen actually Q2 organic growth was better than the first quarter, right, from almost minus 7. We reported minus 2. So here, we saw improvement, still negative. So what we plan to do on the corrective action? I think, industry, it's all on track and because the footprint initiatives, the cost out, actually, we expect the benefit higher in the second half than in the first half. So that's why in the first half, almost 17%. I think it's still a solid performance.

And in building, it's basically continuing. So the footprint benefit should also come in the second half. We just finished to close one major site at the end of the first semester. Then you continue to take operational productivity, so about flexing our cost in the factory. It's about direct labor, some variable overhead, fixed cost also, a lot of SG&A cost action taken in building, but also in the other segments.

And it will not be for the second half, but we are taking a lot of action on purchasing that should help to have a better impact also in 2026, because we are just starting to launch a new initiative on purchasing and basically using the power of our segments across our business team to have more functional scale and also global scale.

Okay. You've answered quite a number of questions. But to come back on semicon that, that would be my second question. My understanding, you correctly that previously, the statement was, we expect destocking to flush out during the summer. Meaning, more stabilized sales perhaps growing with the market. Are you now guiding for the same type of development in the second half? Is that the right way to think about it? Or do you still expect that flushing out to occur?

We don't expect improvement in terms of organic growth in the second half. That's our statement. We believe the destocking is coming to an end. That's what we see, but we don't see higher activity and higher requirements from our customers in terms of new equipment.

Clear. And then the third question is on industry. In the second quarter, as you already pointed out, the EBITA margin was quite strong, 17.2%. You made some remarks about production footprint, operational action. Is that 17.2% sustainable, you think, in H2, given the top line developments?

As you know, we are not giving outlook by segment. But I can tell you that we expect the benefit in the second half of all the cost out action we took in the first half. On the other hand, we don't expect organic growth improvement in the second half based on the current market condition.

I'd like to give the word to Chase Coughlan from Van Lanschot Kempen.

I have a couple as well, and I'll take them one at a time, please. Maybe also starting off on semicon. Obviously, there's been quite a lot of talk in the market the last few weeks about maybe 2026 expectations for the space being a bit softer than initially anticipated. I'm curious also given the, let's say, the commissioning of your new plants, do you -- what are your expectations there internally? And do you think there's any risk of underutilization for that facility for the coming years?

Thank you for the question. Let me first report that our new plant is still on track. We have actually equipment being installed and tested. So aligned -- also aligned with the need from our customers to have this new facility ready. And I would say, the market is quite dynamic.

There are so many uncertainties that at the moment, we are really focusing on '25 and '26. It's too early to say. There may be growth, it may be stable. We will report when we have more visibility, [indiscernible], I think we can only report that we don't expect a recovery in the second half in '26, still a lot of uncertainty whether there will be growth or not in the semicon market.

Okay. And my second question, going back to building and specifically in Germany, there was another building products player who reported recently, who actually spoke rather positively about Germany saying that there was some inflection in new dwellings and building permits. So I'm curious on where specifically you see so much weakness? Is this more from sort of the renovation side of things? Or if you could elaborate a little bit more on that German market from the building standpoint?

Yes, it's a -- you are right that we all expect better trend due to all new investments that are happening on the German industry. We just believe it's too soon to promise that second half will be much better. We are still doing well in our boiler room equipment, also in Germany, where we see the biggest pressure is in our connection system. So it's a specific product line. It's not all our product line, but that's what is making us only growth, like I mentioned, with 1% to 2% and a bit lower than what we were expected. So we are expected much higher organic growth. Now on this specific product line, this is where we see the biggest challenge.

Okay. That's clear. And then my final question, I believe you booked a EUR 20 million release of provisions in the P&L in the first half. Could you maybe elaborate a little bit on what that was? Or if I misunderstood something there?

Yes, of course. Indeed, the release of provision of EUR 90 million comparing with EUR 2 million last year, and that EUR 90 million is related to restructuring costs that come out of the balance sheet.

Well, we have some more people in the queue. So I'd like to get the word to David Kerstens. David?

I also have three questions, please. I'll take them one by one. First of all, regarding the building segment, you're guiding for similar organic growth trends for the second half of the year. But I was wondering what will be the impact of copper price inflation and potential tariffs of 50% on copper, which should be accretive to top line growth line, but potentially dilutive to margins. What's your view on the impact here, please?

That's something we are actively working, and I think it's too soon to report if there will be an impact. I can tell you, we have been able to manage in the first half especially in the U.S., thanks to our pricing, all the impact on the tariff. And at the moment, we don't expect major impact based on what we know today, thanks to the latest development. So not something we expect to have a major impact, and that's why we are giving as an outlook, a similar trend for the second half.

Okay. And then my second question is related to the acquisition of GVT in semicon. I think in December, you highlighted that portfolio optimization, including M&A, should be accretive to margins and drive profitability towards at least 18% by 2030. But GVT seems to have relatively lower EBITA margins. I understand you have not quantified the synergy impact yet. But does it become more challenging in semicon to get to the 18% EBITA margin target by 2030, because of your acquisition strategy here?

I think, you're absolutely right that, what they have reported in '24, it's not at the level where we want to be in Aalberts. Let's see what they will report for '25. I think this is still within their end. But we are quite excited with the potential synergy that we see, as I mentioned, in terms of commercial synergy, cost synergy, footprint synergy. And we believe, together, we can make it accretive for margin, for organic growth, and for EPS, are still our long-term ambition.

So really, it's about the synergy that we have identified during the due diligence process. So let us close the acquisition first and I really hope to be back next year to explain you a bit more in detail our plan to bring it to reach our long-term objective.

Okay. Great. And then my final question is on the unallocated cost of EUR 10 million in the first half of the year. Frans, you indicated EUR 5 million was related to acquisition costs for Paulo and settled claims, small claims in the first half. What will be the figure for the second half? Will you also have acquisition costs related to GVT in the second half that will get into the same number of around EUR 10 million, so a EUR 20 million number for the full year?

Yes. Thanks. And I think an important one. Indeed, we will have acquisition costs of GVT expected to close this year. So then we will add that as well. That will be a higher number than then to one for Paulo. So the guidance would be that the second half will be a bit higher even than the first half in terms of the normal holding costs, which are between EUR 10 million and EUR 15 million per year. So the guidance would be based on what we now know, EUR 20 million to EUR 25 million for the line item for the full year.

It's time for the next person in the queue, which is Kristof Samoy from KBC.

Yes, a few questions have already been answered, but I have two left. First on semicon. In the first quarter, you indicated that you would optimize the cost, but you didn't quantify it. Can you now give us a little bit more color on the exercise you have been doing there in terms of costs, saving potential, and the timing of when these costs and savings will kick in? That's the first one.

And then on the recent transaction that you announced and that you hope to close by year-end. At the time of the announcement, 65% of shareholders approved with the transaction. Is there a scenario where you would go ahead with the acquisition, if you don't arrive at 100% of shares, meaning that you could end up in a situation of 80% of shares and a continued listing in Singapore?

Let me take the first question. And I'm sure you have noticed that actually our margin in the second quarter was a bit better than the first quarter already for semicon, right? Almost 10% versus 12%. So and the action we are taking is, first, to, of course, take out all the variable costs -- variable costs in our factories, in our operations. So that has been taken. We are also adjusting our SG&A to the level, is an absolute minimum, to not compromise the long term. That's basically what we have been doing.

We're still trying to do a bit better also on the purchasing side. But that's why we said the 11.5%, 12% is actually, you could say, our choice even if it is not satisfactory compared to last year, but to find the right balance compared to the long-term growth also to be ready to do all the synergy work with the intent acquisition with GVT. That's the action we have been taking. So also in semicon, costs and SG&A has been taken up.

Yes. And then your second question on GVT. And the answer is no. So we really want full control over the company. That's also where bid assumptions are based on, and we're confident that we have an attractive proposition. But that process is, of course, for GVT to comment on. Because it's a discussion between their management and their shareholders. But we're confident we have a good proposition for them. So let's wait the coming months, how that will work out.

Now I'd like to give the word to Christoph Greulich, Berenberg.

Also two from my side, please, if I may. And the first one is regarding the semicon business. I was wondering after the minus 13% organic growth that we've seen in H1, if you could roughly quantify how much of that is attributed to customers destocking compared to general underlying end market trends?

And then I was wondering, implied in your guidance for the second half that we see a similar organic growth trend. If you look at the comp base, I mean, that gets a lot easier, especially in Q4. So if I take into account the easier comp base, does that actually mean that the situation is getting worse from here? Yes, that will be my first question.

And then the second topic would be the GVT acquisition. If you could just remind me what is the timeline to reach or obtain the shareholder approval? And then, also in the press release, you are flagging an immediate EPS accretion. Yes, could you quantify that what are you expecting there in 2026 and taking into account the financial expenditure -- expenses for the investment?

Thank you for the question. Let me take the first one on the semicon. So in the first half, most of it is coming from destocking that we have seen from all our customers. As you remember, it started in Q4, and that has been the major driver. We see lower demand. And that's what we don't see at the moment. Second half getting better. That's why we are adjusting our outlook.

We don't see that it will be worse, but we don't see an improvement in the second half of the year. That's basically the reason for adjusting our outlook.

When you talk about the GVT acquisition, I think the vote is expected in September. So that's why we also report that following the vote, we expect to close before end of the year. And you understand that before we talk about all the synergies and all the potential, like the previous question, our first priority is to close this acquisition, then we can be more open and transparent about all the synergies and action and opportunity we see following this acquisition.

Yes, that's very clear. And just maybe to confirm. So when you provided the guidance for H2 semicon, you took into account that the comp base is getting a lot easier in Q4.

We took all the latest outlook from all our customers because we have, of course, have a good collaboration with them, and that's what we believe is a realistic outlook. There are still opportunity like our customers are mentioning also in '26, but for the second half, we don't see improvement in our organic growth.

Perhaps on the GVT timeline.

We just discussed it.

Yes, Stephane. There's just one more on the -- there's one more question.

Yes, it's Ruben Devos from Kepler Cheuvreux.

I just had three questions as well. I think -- I'm sorry, if I repeat a question that has already been answered, because I was a bit later to recall, but it rather revolves around your -- the margins, right? So I was thinking about the quantification of the moving parts. I think the 13% to 14% full year guidance, is that mostly operational deleverage from lower volumes? Or is there other factors like product mix or pricing pressure that we have to think about? Yes. And then I have a follow-up on that.

Thank you for the question. Let me just repeat the first half and then answering the -- in the first half, the margin drop is mainly linked to two key points, right, the lower volume in our industry and semicon. And that's what we expect also in the second half of the year, plus also, like Frans mentioned, higher extraordinary holding cost compared to last year. So mostly driven by lower volume impacting our organic growth in industry and semicon.

Okay. So the -- I guess, in H1, sort of the revenue decline was EUR 60 million. I think the EBITA decline was EUR 30 million, so let's say, 50% sort of drop through. I guess, is that I mean, typically, you had 25%, right, drop through, but that 50%, is that fair to assume that continues maybe 25%, but if an up cycle would happen?

Yes. Yes. I think there are three elements. So first of all, indeed, if you look at the drop-through of the EBITA of EUR 32 million on the revenue of EUR 50 million, we first need to correct the holding elimination line item, that Stephane said. I think second, we lose EUR 11 million in semicon half year-on-half year, but there's also a decision to protect our capabilities. And Stephane explained in his introduction, yes, we also look at it in the long term and make sure we're ready for the upturn.

A third element in comparing is that in industry segment, we have been continued operational excellence programs, where we expect also some further results in the second half. So that brings that percentage a bit more in perspective.

Okay. And then something related to semicon, I think you've said that the construction of the new location in Dronten is on track with equipment being installed and tested. Just curious, given the current market softness, how are you thinking about the pace of this ramp up? Will you align the pace of bringing this capacity online with the market recovery to protect margins? Or how should we think about that?

I can only confirm that the pace is fully aligned with our customers. We are working very closely. And again, it's about managing the balance between short term and long term. And the long term, the growth is still there. And the long term, this capacity is still needed. So it's fully aligned with our customer. That's what I can tell you now.

Okay. And then final question, just on the inventory reduction. I think you've already gone a long way now in H1, but what's the additional potential for further improvement in the second half and into '26, please?

I think, we are well on track. You're absolutely right. So first of all, we need to continue and sustain this level to be less than 90 days, and we are well on track also to deliver our '26 target shared earlier during the year to be at 85 days.

And maybe it's good to give a bit of extra color, because indeed 10 days reduction and really good work by all our teams, it's also fair to add that we -- 2 days improvement is driven by the Paulo acquisition that typically brings a lot of revenue and not so much inventory. And also the ForEx exchange was helping us with 2 days. So I think 6 days of real progress, but you see, yes, some elements like ForEx, of course, an M&A impact are also to be considered. So also if we give guidance for the full year, please take that into consideration as well.

I'm happy to see that also we received quite a bit of questions also via our web. So I'll pick one, which I think is quite relevant. It's a question about the full year '26 EBITA margin, the target of 16%, whether that is still achievable.

Yes. I fully understand the question. Let me first repeat that our priority right now is to continue to take action to protect our margin for 2025. That's where all our team is focusing. And then regarding '26, we will get back in February to update our new target for 2026 based on the current market condition.

Thank you, Stephane. I have another question also for Frans, about CapEx. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the CapEx towards 2030, as mentioned in the CMD?

Very good. Good question. So let me repeat. For this year, we guide on a CapEx level of EUR 200 million to EUR 225 million. And it is based on the current portfolio. For next year, we expect a similar amount organically. So no M&A impact taken and after that, that level of CapEx will come down as we now have modeled, and it will be around EUR 200 million, say, '27 onwards.

The number that has been mentioned in the Capital Markets Day, which is higher is -- yes, is a preliminary number based on also a very larger company. So we mentioned EUR 4.5 billion of revenue there with an active M&A agenda, there was an indicative CapEx number of EUR 250 million and EUR 300 million. I think that's 5 years from now and a lot of open questions, I would like to focus on the guidance on the current portfolio, which I hope we clarified this morning. Thanks for the question, that was a very important one.

Thank you, Frans. There's another question coming in, and that's about the status of the divestments. You could give any color on the progress here, and how could divestments potentially also benefit your net debt or EBITA?

Great question. I think, I can only repeat what I've said that we are actively working on it. In our industry, and building segment, we hope to make first progress in the second half of the year, continue next year. The goal is still the same, EUR 400 million to EUR 500 million revenue. And the divestment we intend to do should help us to improve our net debt position and also improve our leverage ratio.

Very good. Thank you. Well, similar topic on the M&A. Do you expect, Stephane, also to do still more acquisitions in the second half of this year?

It's a great question. But first, we need to close our intended acquisition. That's priority #1. We need to close the great opportunity we have with GVT. Then we are still looking at potentially bolt-on acquisition, but the second half priority is clearly GVT.

Thank you. Very clear. There's another one on capital allocation, perhaps one for you, Frans. The EUR 75 million share buyback program is nearly completed. Do you intend to propose an additional share buyback program in the second half?

No, I think share buyback is -- it's good to have a program this year, and I'm really happy with the capital allocation policy of Aalberts where this is a final consideration. So we always look at strength of the balance sheet. We invest in our business -- we look, of course, at M&A. And then, if it comes to shareholders, very committed to the 30% of net result dividends. And then just to rehearse a bit, how the sequencing is, when there's excess cash available we look at share buybacks. And that is a discussion we do after we close our books in discussion with our Supervisory Board in February.

Thank you very much. I think that we have had all the questions. Yes, I think we've managed to answer all of them. So as we conclude today's webcast, I would like to thank everybody. Also thanks, Frans, Stephane, for joining us today.

Thank you. Enjoy your day. Bye.