Dätwyler Aktie

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our live webcast. Welcome to Datwyler's Half Year 2026 Results Presentation. I am Volker Cwielong, I'm CEO of Datwyler. Joining me today are Judith van Walsum, our CFO, who will take you through our financial performance in more detail; and Katharina Immoor, our Head of Communications and Investor Relations, who will then moderate the Q&A session following our presentation.

But before we begin, I would like to sincerely thank all our colleagues around the world for their outstanding commitment throughout the first half of this year. I also want to recognize the tremendous effort they have made over the past 18 months in driving our ForwardNow transformation program.

Ongoing geopolitical tensions, especially the conflict in the Middle East, continued to disrupt global supply chains, constrain raw material availability and drive higher logistics costs. Despite these challenges, our teams ensured reliable customer supply, avoiding any significant production disruptions and supply shortages. And this achievement shows the strength of our global manufacturing network, the hard work of our teams and our commitment to our customers.

Datwyler continued to make solid progress in executing its strategy. Most importantly, the structural trends supporting our Healthcare and Food & Beverage businesses remain fully intact. Against the backdrop of strong currency headwinds and continued softness in some parts of our industrial markets, we improved the quality of our earnings. We further strengthened our portfolio and achieved important milestones in our ForwardNow transformation program, which is progressing according to plan.

Let me briefly walk you through today's agenda. I will start with a business review, and I will highlight the key developments of the first half of 2026. Judith will then provide a more detailed review of our half year financial results. And after that, I will return to discuss our market outlook and our expectations before we then open the floor for your questions.

Let's now turn to our first half performance. Our reported net revenue for the first half of 2026 reached CHF 582.7 million, representing a growth of 3.5% despite an adverse foreign exchange impact of approximately CHF 27 million on our top line. Excluding currency effects and the contribution from the Capsul'in acquisition, which has been consolidated since mid of February this year. Following its closing, our organic growth was at 4.6%.

And at the same time, we further improved the quality of our earnings. Our gross margin increased to 24.7% and the EBIT margin to 13%, driven by a richer health care product mix, a higher capacity utilization, pricing initiatives and procurement improvements. Importantly, we achieved these gains while continuing to invest in innovation, commercial capabilities and future growth platforms.

Division Healthcare continued to benefit from attractive structural growth drivers. Reported revenue rose by 2.5%, while organic sales grew by 9.5%, driven by the successful ramp-up of customer programs, increasing demand for GLP-1 therapies and NeoFlex products and finally, the ongoing expansion of our high-value offering portfolio.

Division Industrial operated in a very challenging market environment with underlying demand remaining soft across the automotive and diversified industries markets. Reported revenue nevertheless rose by 4%, reflecting the consolidation of Capsul'in. At the same time, we continued to actively shift our portfolio by expanding our presence in higher-value applications and attractive structural growth niches.

Turning to ForwardNow. The program has now reached its halfway point. During the first half of 2026, we further optimized our North American healthcare footprint to ensure it's well positioned for future market requirements and decided to consolidate 3 smaller U.S. manufacturing sites serving the oil and gas markets into a new state-of-the-art facility in Houston, which is expected to be completed by spring 2027. These milestones strengthen our competitiveness and pave the way for the second phase of the program, which will place greater emphasis on portfolio transformation and process standardization across all entities in the group.

Since the launch of ForwardNow in December 2024, we have made significant progress in improving our profitability. Our EBIT margin has increased by 230 basis points from an adjusted 10.7% in 2027, excluding provisions related to the transformation program.

In Healthcare, we successfully scaled the commercial supply of components for a leading GLP-1 therapy from our first-line manufacturing site in Middletown, Delaware. At the same time, the demand for our NeoFlex spray-coated plungers continued to grow, particularly for biologics, prefilled syringes and home care applications. We also strengthened our high-value offering portfolio with the launch of the industry's first universal 20-millimeter spray-coated plungers, completing our platform for large volume injectable therapies.

To support this growth, we continue to invest in our production network, making our operations more efficient, flexible and productive to meet growing customer demand and support our future growth. Within industrial end markets, we continue to sharpen our portfolio and focus clearly on higher-value applications.

In Automotive, we further expanded our portfolio of electrification-related applications while strengthening our position for platforms of Chinese automotive manufacturers and beyond light vehicles. Today, more than 1/3 of our global automotive revenue is generated from applications for electrified vehicles. And beyond automotive, around 10% of our revenues in our Transportation and Electronics business unit is generated in adjacent end markets, reflecting our continued diversification.

In the business unit Food & Beverage, execution remained on track. Demand for compatible aluminum coffee capsules continued to develop well, while integration of Capsul'in and the planned expansion of production capacity to support future demand further strengthen our long-term position in this attractive market.

The general Industries business unit secured new customer projects in aerospace and medical technology with the first revenues already contributing to our results. We also made further progress in data center cooling applications where customer programs continue to advance and are expected to become an attractive growth driver over the medium term. Across both divisions, our strategic direction remains clear. We continue to strengthen our portfolio by focusing on high-value system critical applications while improving our operational performance. This disciplined approach fully supports our strategic priorities and our commitment to profitable growth.

With that, I would like now to hand over to Judith, who will take you through our half year financial results in more detail. Judith, over to you.

Thank you so much, Volker. All right. So let's have a look at the first slide. The net revenues, as Volker already indicated, increased by 3.5% in reported terms to CHF 583 million, driven in particular by strong momentum in healthcare and by the acquisition of Capsul'in. Demand in other industrial markets remain subdued.

The high fall-through from healthcare sales in particular, led to a gross profit margin increase from 23.1% to 24.7%. We continue to invest in R&D and in building up our commercial capabilities as you can see from the growth in the OpEx lines. The Capsul'in acquisition accounted for slightly over 20% of that increase. The other operating income line includes a one-time benefit from the sale of fixed assets resulting from our footprint optimization in healthcare, partially offset by a reclassification of sample and certificate sales also from healthcare away from other operating income to net revenues.

Overall, our EBIT grew by nearly 10% to CHF 75.7 million. Our EBIT margin of 13.0% shows an improvement of 80 basis points versus prior year. Now when we look below the EBIT line, our net finance result improved. The interest expenses stayed flattish versus prior year. The improvement rather came from a more stable foreign exchange environment, resulting in less FX exposure and lower hedging costs on our intercompany loans.

Income tax expenses in contrast increased. In part, this is due to the usual withholding taxes on dividend payments in half year 1, an impact that will wash out over the course of the year. It's also due to the conservative decision on our side not to recognize selected deferred tax assets. Despite the higher effective tax rate, our net results increased in absolute terms. And at 6.7% of sales, it stayed flat versus prior year.

So let's have a look at the top line in more detail. As mentioned before, net revenues grew in reported terms by 3.5%. Now what that means in organic terms is that there was a growth of 4.6%. With organic growth, we mean the growth adjusted for the FX impact and for acquisitions. And as you can see on the left side of the bridge, net revenues were materially impacted by an FX headwind of CHF 27 million or minus 4.8%.

On the right side of the graph, you can see that Capsul'in contributed nearly CHF 21 million or 3.7% to our top line. This represents the incremental sales over and beyond the business we had already with Capsul'in prior to the majority share acquisition. Now zooming in on the organic growth of 4.6%, so the kind of the 2 columns in the middle, you can see that CHF 18.5 million came from higher volumes and product mix improvements and CHF 7.5 million from price increases.

Now anticipating a question I typically get, whilst the price increases included some impact from both U.S. tariffs and Middle East surcharges, the vast majority were actually regular price increases that represent the value contribution of our product portfolio. Now breaking down this organic growth between the 2 divisions, Healthcare contributed with 9.5% organic growth and Industrial, excluding Capsul'in, at nearly 1%.

Now what does this top line mean for EBIT? And you can see that on the bridge here, the product mix, so the larger share of higher value offering in healthcare and the better capacity utilization resulting from the processing of higher volumes in this division are the main contributors to the group's overall EBIT improvement together with effective procurement measures and further cost mitigation and cost reduction initiatives.

As already mentioned, the half year results include the positive gain on the sale of a building in one of our sites as foreseen in our transformation program ForwardNow, partially offset by a series of onetime costs, ramp-up costs, the buildup of provisions and the Capsul'in purchasing price accounting adjustments. Capsul'in's contribution to EBIT amounted to CHF 2.4 million. We expect improved performance in the second half of this year following the completion of the post-acquisition integration and also the stabilization of new production lines we have installed in support of the growth of Capsul'in.

Let's have a look at both segments now. With a nearly 10% organic growth in revenues, Healthcare is obviously increasing in importance as a growth driver. Volume and particular mix account for around CHF 60 million of the growth with price increases amounting to CHF 6 million. Over CHF 4 million of these price increases in healthcare are regular. Less than CHF 2 million reflect the surcharges for higher raw material prices caused by the Middle East crisis, particular polymers, chemicals and aluminum are impacted and a bit also by the U.S. tariffs.

Overall, we see increasing interest of pharmaceutical and biotech companies in our capabilities. And as Volker mentioned, particularly in the areas of GLP-1, NeoFlex and also ready-to-use products. Consequently, as you can see in one of the pie charts, the share of HVO has been increasing. To date, over 38% of our revenues come from high value offering with the remainder coming mainly from our advanced product lines. And based on our pipeline, we're confident that the share of HVO will increase further by year-end.

Now as you can see on the right -- top right, I should say, the higher volumes and the improved product mix and price effects come with a high fall-through to the EBIT line with the reported EBIT margin of Healthcare improving by 400 basis points to 20.9%. Now for completeness sake, this includes a CHF 7.7 million gain on sales of assets, you can see that in the financial report, offset by onetime ramp-up costs and additional provisions. So the net positive impact in Healthcare amounts to around CHF 4 million. When we look at the revenue split by regions, I would like to call out the growth that is visible in the East Asian markets followed by the U.S.

Now looking at Industrial. Within Industrial, Capsul'in drove the reported revenue growth of 4%. The remaining segments grew organically around 1% with the growth dependent on the niches targeted and the different market situations. So it's very hard to make a uniform statement around Industrial.

Now when we look at the geographical split of sales, the growth in the European share versus year-end '25 reflects a strong European customer base of Capsul'in. Within the automotive industry, Europe was modestly positive, yet fragile. The U.S. market showed softness, Latin America in contrast strength and Asia was under pressure from China despite strong electrification and having become a net exporter. Oil and gas demand showed a variable picture. Yet in line with our strategy, we saw business wins come through in growth areas such as aerospace, data centers and adjacent mobility, resulting in a higher share of industries in revenues.

The lower EBIT recorded for half year 1 will increase over the second half of the year based on the improved performance of Capsul'in as well as profit protection and other structural measures coming to fruition in the second half of the year. In addition, unfavorable onetime impacts such as the Capsul'in purchase price accounting adjustments and the building of additional provisions will normalize in the second half of the year.

Now clearly, big change from our full year reporting was the acquisition of Capsul'in. And on this slide, you see some key indicators. So we acquired a majority share of Capsul'in in mid-February. Since that date, Capsul'in has been incorporated in our numbers. So this means that the numbers reflect not a full half year, but only the results as of the 18th of February. Capsul'in's revenues amounted to nearly CHF 40 million. As mentioned before, the incremental benefit to Datwyler's top line has been around CHF 21 million given that Datwyler has been Capsul'in's industrialization partner in the past.

Now as you can see in the financial statements, Datwyler acquired its majority stake of 51.5% at a purchasing price including transaction costs of CHF 57.1 million. The fair value of Capsul'in's net assets at the time of acquisition amounted to CHF 55.4 million with Datwyler's portion of these net assets totaling CHF 28.2 million. Consequently, a goodwill of CHF 28.9 million, so the difference between the purchasing price and Datwyler's portion of the net assets was recognized in our books in half year and also booked against equity.

The net assets include sizable intangible assets in the form of technology and customer relations, exactly the reasons why we actually acquired the majority stake in Capsul'in. The net cash outflow was lower than the actual purchasing price. And the reason is that with the majority stake, Datwyler also acquired cash of around CHF 8 million. In addition, the transaction was structured with an earn-out clause that will only be paid out when Capsul'in delivers to its business plan. Overall, the Capsul'in acquisition is fully aligned to our resource allocation strategy of investing in attractive noncyclical growth segments.

Now how did we finance the Capsul'in transaction at a time when we actually also have to pay out our dividends. So the Capsul'in acquisition was financed by a bridge loan of CHF 65 million from our anchor investor. By the end of June, however, this bridge loan was fully repaid and the outstanding balance on the loan to Pema Holding was back at the level of year-end 2025, so CHF 145 million. Therefore, the increase that you see in net debt on this slide from CHF 379 million by year-end '25 to CHF 424 million for half year, so a difference of CHF 45 million, doesn't reflect an increase in debt, but rather a reduction in our cash balances from CHF 125 million to CHF 83 million.

As the loan repayment shows, our ability to generate cash has remained strong. And therefore, the expectation is that we will be able to further reduce net debt over half year 2. With EBITDA expected to improve as well, leverage should further decline from the 1.9 you see here to last year's levels.

Now a slide with a bit of a mixed message. Working capital increased despite improvements in accounts payables versus year-end '25. On the one hand, this is a natural reflection of the structural sales growth that we see in both Healthcare and in Capsul'in. On the other hand, we also see increases in accounts receivables and inventories that we actually expect to be temporary in nature. Half year shows a spike in accounts receivables, notably in Healthcare that is linked to the price negotiations that we've had with key customers around the Middle East crisis-triggered price inflation in raw materials. Most of these negotiations have by now been concluded, yet, unfortunately, not in time for the half year close. Also, inventories show an increase. Safety stocks were deliberately increased to safeguard continuity and supplies.

I would like to call out procurement, thanks to their targeted actions, we have faced no disruption in our production despite several supply chain challenges. Overall, Capsul'in accounts in this picture for 7% of accounts receivables, 2% of inventories and 13.5% of the accounts payables.

This brings us then to the last slide within the financial update. Operating cash flow remains healthy at nearly CHF 77 million, reflecting the underlying cash-generating strength of the business. Despite, obviously, this increase of funds locked into net working capital, as mentioned, we see part of this increase as a temporary spike that should normalize over the second part of the year. Investing cash flow, not a surprise, reflects the net cash outflow for the Capsul'in acquisition as well as continued capital investment. One word here on CapEx. CapEx as a percentage of sales increased to 4.6% from 4.3% last year. However, we still see that depreciation and amortization exceed CapEx by CHF 13.4 million. In sum, the free cash flow reflects strategic investments as well as temporarily higher net working capital. We expect this to improve over half year 2.

And on that note, I hand back to Volker.

Thank you very much, Judith. Let me now turn to our expectations for the second half of the year and beyond. While the external environment is expected to remain uncertain as the security situation in the Middle East has deteriorated further, the structural growth drivers, underpinning our business, remain firmly intact. Our diversified end market exposure and local-for-local manufacturing footprint continue to enhance the resilience of our businesses.

Our ForwardNow enables us to focus on the areas we can directly influence and execute with discipline. Datwyler's strategy remains unchanged. We will continue to execute with focus, invest in tomorrow's growth platforms and further strengthen our competitiveness to deliver sustainable, profitable growth.

In Healthcare, we continue to benefit from strong demand for injectables, biologics and self-administration therapies. We are well positioned through our expanding high-value offering portfolio, the successful commercial ramp-up of our GLP-1 production from our first-line facility in the U.S. and increasing demand for advanced solutions such as our NeoFlex products.

In automotive markets, we continue to expect broadly flat global vehicle production. Rather than relying on market growth, our focus remains on further reshaping our portfolio by increasing our exposure to higher-value applications, electrification and connectors, while expanding our presence on Chinese OEM platforms and broadening our reach beyond passenger vehicles into commercial vehicles and adjacent mobility applications.

In Food & Beverage, our long-term outlook remains attractive. Compatible aluminum capsules continue to grow faster than the overall coffee capsule market, supported by sustainability trends and regulation. And the integration of Capsul'in is progressing according to plan, while additional dedicated production lines scheduled to become operational during the second half of the year will support further growth and strengthen our market position.

And finally, in our diversified industry markets, our focus remains on improving the quality of the portfolio rather than maximizing exposure to any single end market. While oil and gas remains an important business and may benefit from a midterm replenishment cycle following the current geopolitical tensions, we continue to diversify our portfolio into aerospace, medical technology and data center infrastructure. We expect these markets to become increasingly attractive growth drivers as customer programs ramp up.

And at the same time, we expect profitability to improve as enhanced profit protection measures, particularly in the division Industrial, will take effect and recently secured customer projects continue to ramp up. Across all of our markets, our objective remains unchanged, to allocate capital and resources where we see the highest long-term value creation while continuing to improve the quality of our current portfolio.

Let's have a look on our midterm ambitions. Today, we can confirm all previously communicated financial targets. We continue to target higher single-digit organic revenue growth and an EBIT margin above 17% at group level. Healthcare is expected to remain our structural growth and earnings engine, driven by the continued expansion of our high-value offering, which now accounts for more than 38% of divisional revenue. As additional customer programs scale into commercial production and capacity utilization improves, we expect further earnings growth supported by higher operational efficiency and the continued strengthening of the underlying business.

Within Industrial, we are increasingly moving from planning to execution. As our portfolio transformation progresses, profit protection measures take effect, our manufacturing footprint becomes more efficient and recently won customer projects will ramp up, we expect industrial profitability to improve progressively.

Most importantly, our confidence is not based on expecting a broad cyclical recovery. It's based on the structural improvements we are making across the Datwyler Group. At the halfway point of our transformation program ForwardNow, we're improving our operation model, we are strengthening our portfolio, increasing our competitiveness and creating a stronger foundation for sustainable profitable growth.

The progress we have made during the first half reinforces strongly our confidence that we are on the right path towards our midterm ambitions.

With that, Judith and I end the presentation session. And we'll hand over to Katharina. Katharina, I think we are now ready to open the floor for the questions. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Judith and Volker. And yes, a warm welcome from my side as well. As mentioned, we are ready to take your questions, which you can ask via the respective chat function in the system and I'm happy to read them out and we address them here. So first few questions comes from Sebastian Vogel, UBS. and the first two of them are towards healthcare. Maybe we'll start with those two.

In the past, you guided for GLP-1 revenues of low double digit for full year 2026. Do you still share this expectation and the high-value part in healthcare is progressing well. What sort of progress trajectory do you have in mind for the next years?

So first part of the question, Sebastian, for the GLP-1 revenue of low double digit for financial year '26, we are progressing well. So we're above the last expectation, fortunately. So we expect a strong growth in the second half of the year. However, we will stay still in a low double-digit million for financial year '26, however, with a very good trajectory to improve further.

And last question from Sebastian, UBS, would be regarding Industrial. From the subsegment perspective, do you expect the addition of Capsul'in to have been accretive to your F&B margins or rather dilutive?

We see Capsul'in as an accretive part to the Industrial business division. And absolutely, with all the growth around on additional programs, it will help us to stabilize margins in the Food & Beverage business unit, clearly.

Are there any further questions? We don't see anything in the chat yet, but let's give it a few more seconds. Okay. Next question, Miro Zuzak, JMS Invest AG. Food & Beverage revenues excluding the incremental CHF 20.9 million from Capsul'in declined by 6%. Please comment on the underlying decline.

That, first of all, it is a phasing topic. So we had some ramp-up of additional lines. These lines have also caused some downtime for installation and some reset in the production over the first half. So we do expect this to phase out definitely over the full year. And from that perspective, I mean, we would not see any negative effect here.

Next question comes from Bernd Laux, Zurcher Bank. Could you please explain the reason for the high H1 tax rate?

Bernd, so the high tax rate is driven by a number of factors. The factor that we always have in half year 1 and that you can also see in previous reports is that we pay withholding taxes over our dividends, right? That accounts for around CHF 4 million over and beyond the weighted average tax rate that we have. That will phase out over the second part of the year. So generally speaking, we see an improvement.

In addition, as I also mentioned, we did decide not to recognize a number of deferred tax assets. And this is more in line with our overall transformation and the wish to ensure that we create a healthy financial base moving forward.

Next question comes from Estelle from Berenberg regarding healthcare. Can you provide further details on the ramp-up of first line in Middletown? How far are you in the ramp-up? What is the time line we can expect this facility to get filled?

Thank you very much, Estelle. I mean referring to the first-line facility in Middletown, we have a significant growth over this year. So we will grow in volume sales approximately between 60% to 80% depending now on the second half, and this is a massive growth already for this year for this site. So that will help us now to set up the site on a high-volume production setup and framework, which is very important for the next step.

We do expect additional programs to come in, in 2027 and 2028. We will further improve the layout and as well the production flow in this site over this period in order to have a, I would say, 70% to 80% utilization depending on the trajectory of these new programs in 2029, 2030.

We have also opportunities to expand the facility on that site we have. And depending on the speed and the trajectory of the new programs that will come in and for sure, the success in the market from our customers with these new programs, we will then decide upon an expansion of the site earliest in 2030.

Next question also regarding healthcare. Robert Popilock from DWK Life Sciences. Regarding health care, what is the outlook for vial stoppers compared to plungers and which regions are expected to lead performance?

Maybe I'll start with the regional view and Volker, you can then comment or add on. So what is very interesting is actually that the largest healthcare market is and remains the U.S. So this is also a market where we see continued growth, we see continued interest of U.S. manufacturers and is actually one of the reasons why the Middletown factory is of strategic importance to us as well as the footprint optimizations that we're doing in our other sites in Pennsauken. We're basically preparing our sites in the U.S. to drive further growth and to be fit for the future.

At the same time, we see in the regional distribution of our sales also that the demand in the East Asian markets is increasing materially, and that is naturally particularly in those markets with a stronger financial power. So South Korea, China. So very, very interesting developments there as well.

Next question. Are there any plans to modernize Pennsauken or increase production at the site?

We have referred to optimization of the North American healthcare footprint, which was actually going back to our Pennsauken site. So our site basically was a fragmented setup since we have increased production and took on many, many different customer programs over the course of many, many years. So we've decided to streamline the site as such to modernize the building.

And with that, we have further opportunities also to move our portfolio in Pennsauken to a higher level of sophistication and also a higher level of value.

Next question, [indiscernible] Europe. You highlighted focused growth through Chinese OEMs and adjacent mobility applications. Could you elaborate on the strategy, the expected growth drivers and how you safeguard your technologies and intellectual property in China?

I mean the global light vehicle production currently is at around 92.5 million vehicles. That's rather flattish. But if you look at the -- around Chinese OEM production share, so currently, we are at a roughly 27.5% share. We see in China, the domestic market a little bit softer, but the exports and overseas production is expanding rapidly.

And looking at our position here, not in all cases as a Tier 1, so very few cases, the Tier 1, in some cases, the Tier 2. We are not targeting applications that are about to be commoditized in a few years. So we could potentially grow much faster with our mobility applications in China, but especially focusing at the high-value applications primarily, we safeguard a very long period where we can have a premium price point for applications.

Most of the time, we achieve that over a material, over a special application, over an application that also safeguards a certain function while only holding for a low share of the bill of material overall.

Thank you so much. I don't see any further questions right now in the chat. However, if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly at any time, and I'm happy to support you.

Before we finish this call, maybe a last look into our financial calendar. We are looking forward after the summer break to continuing the dialogue with you in the conferences in Switzerland as of September. And having said that, thank you so much for your interest. Have a great summer, and see you soon.

Thank you very much.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today here at Zurich and as well in the live web stream. A warm welcome to Datwyler's Annual Investors and Media Conference for the Financial Year 2025.

My name is Volker Cwielong; I'm CEO of Datwyler. And with me today are Judith van Walsum, CFO; and as well Katharina Immoor and Guido Unternahrer from Investor Relations.

First of all, I'd like to begin by sincerely thanking our global team for their exceptional dedication and commitment to Datwyler 2025. We all know '25 was not an easy year when it came to the market environment, but it was a defining year for us, and a year in which we have created an important momentum toward our ambition and in a year that we could deliver.

We have elevated our operational performance. We have sharpened our strategy with a clear focus on profitable growth. We have talked about that as well in our Capital Markets Day end of last year. We have materially strengthened our earnings quality and created a good momentum behind our transformation program, ForwardNow.

A transformation that is not only a short-term cost saving and improvement program, but also reshaping the way we work, it's reshaping the way we collaborate and as well changing the way how we create value for the future. And in addition to that, with the acquisition of the majority stake at Capsul'in, towards the year-end we made an important strategic move. We have strengthened our position in aluminum single-serve coffee capsules, and we could expand our presence in this attractive market.

And let me briefly walk you through today's agenda. I will start with a short business review and the key highlights for 2025. Judith will then take you through the full year financials in more detail. And after that, I will return to share our market perspective and outlook for 2026 before we open the floor for your questions.

All right. Let's now turn to our 2025 year performance. I think 2025 shows clearly that Datwyler is accelerating with health care-led growth, with expanding margins, and with an improving earnings quality.

We've delivered net revenues of CHF 1.1 billion. We could achieve a 3.1% currency-adjusted growth, facing significant currency headwinds of 3.7% on our top line. And our growth was really clearly defined and driven by the Division Healthcare, and this is also reinforcing the structural shift of our portfolio towards the high-value offering.

We increased our EBIT margin to 12.4%. This is a 170-basis point improvement year-on-year on an adjusted basis. As we all know, previous year's figures were impacted from the transformation program ForwardNow. And this reflects scale effects in Healthcare, a structurally improved product mix, and also first measurable results and benefits from the ForwardNow program, which had only been started and ramped up during the first quarter of 2025. And as our high-value portfolio expands, the operating leverage becomes increasingly visible.

Division Healthcare has clearly reestablished itself as our growth and margin engine. We have delivered 8.1% currency-adjusted growth in that division. And we could successfully ramp up the GLP-1 component production. We could accelerate the momentum for our NeoFlex product range and further shift in our pipeline towards the high-value offering.

And now our pipeline consists of around 70% of total projects in that very segment of high-value offering. And this strong mix evolution underpins clearly the sustainability, the visibility and the quality of our future earnings.

The Division Industrial showed resilience and also improved profitability with an EBIT margin of 8.9% in a particularly challenging environment. Flat revenues, combined with margin expansion, demonstrate first of all a disciplined cost management, a good transparency in that segment and a selective growth in attractive applications, particularly in Food & Beverage and Automotive in China.

Our transformation program ForwardNow is progressing in plan and is already, as mentioned, contributing to our performance. And let's remind, this program is not about short-term savings, it is really a change in the operating model. It also supports a sustainable margin expansion and a long-term value creation as we are targeting based on our strategic targets.

Looking at our end markets. The progress in 2025 becomes even clearer. Healthcare remains our largest and least cyclical end market, now accounting for 42% of the group revenues, while Industrial provides diversification across Automotive, Food & Beverage and selected niche markets in diversified industrial areas.

In Healthcare, growth was supported by the return of strong underlying customer demand and successful new product launches. Ordering patterns normalized from the beginning of the second quarter onward and have remained stable since. At the same time, the increasing share of high-value offerings translated directly into higher margins and better capacity utilization of our factories.

Across Automotive and Industrial, market conditions remain mixed. While the demand in Europe and the United States and Americas, in general, was challenging. We still saw selective growth in China and also continued momentum in Food & Beverage and is also supported by a regulatory-driven shift from plastic to aluminum as material of choice for most of the customers.

Across all the end markets, we continue to sharpen our portfolio with a clear focus on system critical applications, and we could strengthen execution discipline, fully in line with our strategic priorities and our focus on profitable growth.

And before I go in more detail, I would now like to hand over to Judith, who will walk you through the numbers in detail. Judith, over to you.

Thanks very much, Volker. So let's move to the P&L, if we could. As Volker already indicated, we landed the year 2025 with sales or net revenue of CHF 1.1 billion, marginally below prior year. But if you adjust it for the unfavorable FX impact, it actually had a growth of 3.1%. Profitability increased significantly. And a very good example of that, you see if you focus on the gross profit line, where we actually were growing by over 8%.

Two factors drive that. As already mentioned, healthcare started growing again and not just growing in terms of volumes, but also in terms of bringing in the right product mix that allowed us to have a very high fall-through to the gross profit line and subsequently, the EBIT and the net results.

Another aspect was that in parallel, we worked also enabled and accelerated through ForwardNow, our transformation program on taking out costs, on improving the potential for synergies in our organization, on improving operational efficiency, which helped really contain that COGS line.

So the COGS line itself actually contracted by minus 3.1%, which is substantially below naturally the minus 0.6% on the sales line. So that is a key factor for us being able to improve our gross margin from the 21% range to 23.4%.

Our operating expenses went down, but that is particularly due to a baseline effect because in the year 2024, if you may recall, we posted quite a big provision for our transformation program at the amount of CHF 28.5 million, plus an additional impairment of CHF 9.4 million. So the -- obviously, we don't have that provision this year in '25, and that automatically led then to a lowering of the operating expenses.

If you back out, however, the provision, you will see that we have a small increase in R&D, M&D and G&A. I will speak about that increase at a later point in time.

Overall, our EBIT then increased to CHF 136.6 million. That is an EBIT margin of 12.4%. Now what is important is that if we compare that year-over-year, you see massive growth numbers. But that is naturally because that CHF 80 million in 2024 included that unfavorable impact of the transformation program.

If we correct the figures for that impact and try to get to a more like-to-like comparison, you will actually see that the EBIT still increased by around 16% in reported terms and 19% in adjusted terms, so FX-adjusted terms. So double-digit growth in our EBIT over the last year, which, as I said, comes really back to those 2 main factors, the better performance in the Healthcare Division and very, very tight cost management and operational efficiency improvements across the board, but particularly also in Industrial.

This EBIT improvement, you see then reflected in the net result as well, where the net result ended up at CHF 81 million. That is around 7.3% of sales, if I'm not incorrect. Also here, the same logic is applicable. The growth actually on a like-to-like basis was around 17% and FX adjusted nearly 20%.

The net result was supported by a better result on net -- yes, on net finance results, so on the FX impact, the hedging costs as well as the interest payments. We did face, however, higher tax expenditure, and I will come back to that point at a later point in time.

So let's move and deep dive a bit on to the sales, the net revenues. Here, you see the bridge. And I think it is quite visually clear how big the impact has been of the devaluation of different currencies, notably the U.S. dollar against the strong Swiss franc.

Volker already indicated the CHF 41 million accounts for a minus 3.7% impact on our top line, also materially negative impact. However, that impact was to a large extent offset by the increase in volumes and particularly improvement in the product mix, the type of products that we're selling in the Healthcare Division, which led to a very, very positive impact and also by another CHF 10 million in price increases. One word about those price increases, those are not only negotiated price increases. Very often -- or these are, in fact, any product where we have a price increase.

So if we have contracts that were indexed against, for example, the price of crude oil, those price increases are in those numbers as well. If we had an ex-factory contract and tariffs were going up, we could basically also reflect those price increases into the prices put forward or put on towards our customers.

In other words, yes, a big negative FX impact. At the same time, thanks to a much better volume and product mix and price increases, we were able to get to that CHF 1.1 billion, so pretty much flattish versus prior year.

If we now move to how that then translates into the EBIT bridge. Then there are in this bridge naturally 2 items that stand out. I start with the one that you can see totally on the right. Naturally, last year, we had that provision of CHF 28.5 million plus that impairment of CHF 9.4 million amounts to CHF 37.9 million as an impact of the transformation program. If you put that aside and really look at what is operationally relevant for us, then you can see the big fall-through coming from the top line, having in the form of CHF 34 million, having a really good impact on our EBIT.

Not to be ignored is exactly that point that I mentioned before about the development of the COGS line. Minus 3.1% against the top line of minus 0.6% is a good accomplishment and shows the effort that we're putting in, in improving our overall cost structure.

As mentioned, some of those changes are structural. You may recall that we have closed one of the sites over the last year. Some of them are really focused on getting sustainable improvements in procurement and therefore, into the cost of very many of our inputs. So that gives you a bit of an idea.

Now speaking towards the other operating expenditures, you will see in the financial statements that in absolute terms, each of the lines has gone up slightly by roughly CHF 1 million. For R&D and for M&S, naturally, that has been a conscious choice and an essential part also of what we strategically seek to drive. Our R&D is roughly 4% of our sales. R&D is, however, essential to drive future competitiveness. So innovation is a big theme and was also a big theme, for example, in the partial acquisition of Capsul'in.

When we look at M&S, we know that as a very industrial organized company, our commercial focus was somewhat underdeveloped. In the current market environment, we had to address that to build up our capabilities, our commercial capabilities and strength to position ourselves also better towards those customers that are interesting for us, those products where we can actually get a higher margin and where we have higher entry barriers.

The area that is an area that remains very much for us an area to watch is naturally G&A. One should always watch G&A currently at around 6% of sales. We had to increase -- invest a bit in the framework that allows us to manage Datwyler more as one Datwyler versus as a collection of individual sites.

If we want to get the best potential out of the different sites and the geographic presence we have, we had to strengthen some of the functions at divisional and also at group level.

A very good example of this is procurement. And actually, a good part of what we see translated into that lower COGS line is also thanks to the concerted efforts of that strengthened organization.

Let's move to the next slide. We deep dive now a bit on the 2 divisions, and we start with Healthcare. Healthy growth with 3.7%. If we take out CHF 19 million in FX impact, it is actually a growth of 8.1%. It really showed that Q2 onwards, we had that normalization of the order patterns, destocking was over and growth has come back. And the good thing is, in many ways, that growth has back also in segments where we can get a higher profitability.

Against that top line, our EBIT improved with 28%. Now one explanation on the full year 2024, where we list CHF 62 million. This is an adjusted number. We took out of the number or we added back on the impact of the ForwardNow program to be able to have a better like-for-like comparison.

If you really look back at last year's data and you would look at the growth in reported terms, it would be a multiple of the 28%. So we felt it was better to show this to you in a like-to-like fashion. Even so, 28% growth in EBIT against a revenue of 3.7% shows the big fall-through of the product mix as well as a few other factors.

There are 2 additional ones I want to mention in addition to that product mix. One is basically the fact that with more volumes coming through, naturally also capacity utilization in Healthcare is improving. We've mentioned this at several meetings in the past, but in Healthcare due to the investments we've made in the past, we are able to absorb another CHF 100 million and by now, CHF 180 million of the right products without having to invest in another plant.

You would have to clearly invest in people. You would have to invest in additional equipment, but we are able to get to a really good fall-through also because of better -- in Germany, you would say [Foreign Language], right, a better capacity utilization.

A third factor is that also Healthcare is benefiting from the ForwardNow program in the sense that there are operational efficiency improvements that we can particularly undertake in our older plants to really look at the flow of the production, whether the processes are automated to the appropriate level and make sure that through site consolidation and layout improvements, we get more out of the site than what has happened in the past. So those 3 factors contribute to a very good profit result in Healthcare and a 17.1% EBIT margin.

One of the essential parts is the scaling up towards what we call a higher value offering, an offering where you have a higher margin potential. And we make steady but surely progress in that area. We increased from around 1/3 to 35% in HVO.

HVO stands for first line as well as certain packaging solutions like rapid transport and ready-to-use. The revenue split stayed in general, flattish versus prior year, some minor movements on Europe and on Asia, but pretty much still the same picture as what we've had last year.

Let's move then to Industrial. In Industrial, we naturally have faced a very difficult and challenging and very different market situation than in Healthcare. So overall, the top line went down in reported terms by minus 3%, minus 3.3%. And when you take out the FX impact of a negative CHF 22 million, you end up at a flat growth versus prior year.

So in Industrial, what was really important was that particularly cost containment had to be done in order to make sure that we would lose too much on the top line. And it's very nice to see that the team that is under a new leadership since actually a year now, February last year, he was introduced to this meeting that we actually have been able to increase our profitability slightly and grow our overall EBIT. So the name of the game there has been really how do we mitigate these negative impacts on the top line and ensure that through structural cost improvements, we are able to make a way forward.

Now in Industrial, we can't treat all aspects of Industrial in the same way. So we have parts of Industrial, notably in the Automotive business unit that are really negatively impacted by the current environment, yes? If I speak and Volker can speak to that better than I do. But if we speak, for example, about the automotive industry in Europe, that is not very encouraging.

Yet there are also a number of areas where we see the potential for growth and the potential for profitability. And that's particularly in those markets where we're selling towards electrification systems, so where we have platform applications for electrification purposes. China is, in that sense, also an area that stays very much in our focus.

Overall, Food & Beverage, if I switch to another BU, had stable growth and remains a main contributor to our EBIT. And in industries, which is covering, for example, aerospace, defense industry and also very much having a focus on the MedTech industry, we actually see a solid growth from a very low base, but moving definitely in the right direction.

When we look at the sales geographically, a very similar picture, some minor changes between what's happening in Asia and the Americas, but generally speaking, the same distribution of our revenues.

All right. That then brings me to what a slide that we thought was helpful to integrate because it shows kind of like half year 1 versus half year 2. And what you can see is that in contrast to what happened in '24, where we lost somewhat on the second half year, we have actually been able to sustain in EBIT the trend towards a better profitability.

In Healthcare, actually we went up from 16.9% in half year 1 to 17.4% in half year 2. In Healthcare, we had a very challenging first quarter. And really that end of the de-stocking and the start of the normalization and increase again of a solid demand started Q2 onwards. So you saw it already represented a bit in the half year results. It is even clearer now for the full year results.

For Industrial, it took a moment to get some of these structural measures that we have been adopting translated into our number, and they really have come to fruition in the second half of the year. So that sets the stage well basically for the year to come, okay?

Last slide on the P&L. I have to come back to the net finance results and the income tax expenses. So the net finance results are always dominated by 2 elements. On the one hand side is actually the interest payments that we pay over loans. Now we have brought down our loans substantially. We've repaid around CHF 70 million to our anchor investor, and that obviously has led also to a lower amount of interest payments versus prior year.

The other element that we need to look at is, I convenient now called hedging cost, but it is basically we have quite some FX exposure. You can see that also in the financial report. If you look under net finance results, you can see that we had a negative FX exposure on our intercompany loans of about CHF 28 million that we then offset through the fair market value of the hedges, forward contracts that we have in place. Now overall, so -- and therefore, we carry hedging costs.

Now overall, our intercompany loans went down quite materially, and therefore, we actually have around CHF 3.7 million less in -- or CHF 3.8 million less in costs that are linked to hedging. So we benefited clearly from better interest and finance expenses or lower interest and finance expenses.

When we get to income tax, we have to speak for a moment around the base here, the year '24. In '24, we had, in absolute terms, naturally lower tax expenses, CHF 21 million. However, the effective tax rate was over 40%. The reason is quite straightforward. We had naturally in '24, again, that ForwardNow provision. And therefore, the taxable income was substantially or materially lower than in previous years than what it is now.

In addition, we have quite a strict policy of when do we recognize deferred tax assets. In some cases, in the U.S., you can't recognize them because there are limitations on, for example, to what extent you can recognize interest payments. In other cases, we took as an organization, and I've spoken to that in previous sessions, a conscious choice not to recognize it, even though that then leads to a higher tax expense. But that was really based on what we felt was justifiable and towards also our auditors.

In '25, naturally, our taxable income has come up substantially because better performance leads to a higher exposure there. And you can see that in the average tax rate, which actually went up from 21.4% to 23.6%. The overall DTAs that we did not recognize went down, and that leads then in the end to the increase in tax expenses as well as -- but a lowering of the effective tax rate from 40% to 28.7%, okay? So we're moving in the right direction. Maybe I should say it like that.

Let's then move away from the P&L, and we look, first of all, at the balance sheet and some of the key indicators that are relevant for the external community and also for us internally. The first one that I would like to highlight is net working capital.

Overall, net working capital went down in absolute terms to the CHF 295 million range. Also, our cash conversion cycle improved from around 119 to around 114 days. This is particularly due to improvements in our accounts payables. And again, this is where the strengthening of our procurement organization has been -- that was enabled by ForwardNow has been critical.

So we have -- when I look at the other items, accounts receivables in absolute terms stayed relatively flat. Inventories in absolute terms went down, partly because we seek to manage inventories better, partly also because of the fact that we could sell also from or meet some of the increase in demand from the inventories, particularly over the Christmas period.

So is there room for improvement? Absolutely. We're not yet there where we want to be, but the progress made in getting net working capital down to an appropriate level is -- it's a good step forward.

When we then look at the next slide, then you can see a picture where I personally am quite proud of. We were able to get the leverage below 2x, and we ended up at 1.8x or rounded 1.8x to be precise, it's 1.77x. So we were quite happy about that. Part of that is naturally due to the fact that we could repay CHF 70 million to our anchor investor and therefore, lower our net debt or our debt to the -- or our debt, yes, considerably. And in fact, the loans that we have to pay now went down from CHF 250 million to CHF 145 million.

We always look at this picture at net debt, which means that we also take into account the CHF 125 million in cash balances. And there, you can see indeed that year-over-year, we had a lowering of around CHF 68 million from the CHF 447 million to CHF 379 million.

If you look at that lowering in net debt and you combine it with an increase in the last 12-month rolling EBITDA, you do get to that positive result of having a leverage of 1.8x. The last 12-month EBITDA grew in reported terms by around 25%. So that gives you a bit of an indicated. Adjusted, it would be around 2%.

I come to my last slide, and that is then an insight in the cash flow statement. There we basically see that we have been able to maintain a solid free cash flow, marginal improvement of around 1% year-over-year. This matters because that free cash flow tells us what we can pay back in terms of our loans and how we can reduce our indebtedness.

When we look at what makes up the free cash flow, which is basically the operating free cash flow as well as the cash flow from investment activities, we see that the net flow from operating activities increased slightly. You could naturally ask yourself, well, why don't we see that enormous jump in net results reflected in the cash flow from operating activities. In part, that is again due to the fact that you have to take out the cost of ForwardNow because they are not cash relevant. And in part, that is due to the fact that we capture more funds into accounts receivables and inventories due to the higher sales.

When we look at the net cash that results from investment activities, actually, CapEx has gone up to CHF 52.7 million, which is around a 14% increase. However, that is in absolute terms, around CHF 7 million or EUR 8 million. And that, however, is offset by the inflow of CHF 7.7 million in the form of sales of plant property and equipment.

When we close a site in the U.S., we, of course, also could sell the land that came with it. And maybe that's the last point I still would like to highlight that is also relevant for the P&L. We had a one-off impact in the Industrial results of around CHF 4.5 million linked to the sale of land and buildings in the U.S.

So on that note, I would like to hand over to Volker to give an outlook.

Thank you very much, Judith. Let me now turn to our expectations for 2026 and explain how we see both the market environment and how we do position Datwyler to deliver this stepwise growth and the further profitability improvement.

At the same time, we remain mindful that the global environment continues to be highly volatile and very difficult to read. We have an ongoing number of geopolitical tensions and also still an increasing uncertainty, I would say, around trade and tariff policies, although some of the big buckets have calmed down a bit.

Against this backdrop, let me remind you that our diversified end market exposure and local-for-local footprint gives us an important element of resilience in that context.

In Healthcare, structural growth is expected to continue in injectables, biologics and self-administration therapies. This is supported by demographics, innovation and as well a patient-centric delivery systems trend. We are strongly positioned in these applications with expanding exposure to high-value projects to our GLP-1 ramp-ups and as well increasing volumes across scalable primary packaging components.

And particularly, our offering for large molecules applications gain enormous traction at our partners. The global availability of our first-line plant network, and with that, the technology in 3 regions; Americas, Europe and India clearly stands out in the market, and that will remain also for many years, that's my assumption.

In Automotive, we expect overall vehicle production to remain broadly flat in 2026. Asia, particularly China, is likely to continue on a more stable trajectory, while I think that Europe and Americas have a slight potential to see a modest recovery from this very low base we have experienced in 2025.

Our positioning in electrification-related applications in connectors and in system critical components and the powertrain allows us to grow through market share and also through application mix rather than only relying on the overall volume expansion.

In Food & Beverage, regulation is expected to further accelerate the shift from plastic to aluminum capsules. And through a targeted exposure to that segment of aluminum coffee capsules and as well the acquisition of the majority stake in Capsul'in, we are expanding scale and IP in this attractive market.

Capsul'in Datwyler have maintained a long-standing partnership for many years. I mean, the first contract we had in 2019, the first delivery contract was signed in 2020. So we know each other very well from the past. And with the vast majority of Capsul'in's aluminum capsules today produced by Datwyler, we are very confident that this is the right way to go forward.

And in Industries, we could secure strategically relevant new projects, and we also expect a stable demand with a selective growth in structurally attractive end markets such as energy, aerospace, defense and as well medical devices.

Datwyler is selectively positioned in these applications where high technical requirements and regulatory standards create durable and long-standing entry barriers for others. And overall, our outlook is not based on a broad cyclical recovery, but really on structural trends that we see and our deliberate positioning in these segments where we can really sustainably outperform our end markets on the long term. If you want to dig in deep into that, I would recommend the documents from the Capital Markets Day, we really spoke to that for each and every segment.

Well, market set the stage, but execution drives results. 2026 remains an execution-driven year. Our focus is on disciplined implementation of our strategic initiatives and as well on operational improvements.

First, the product portfolio discipline. We continue to enhance the earnings quality and as well, we reduced the complexity in our SKU portfolio by focusing clearly on high-value system critical components in both divisions where we can be the best supplier.

And second, the footprint optimization. We have started with that. Judith spoke to the Vandalia close, but we are further refining our global production and technology footprint, first of all, to improve our cost efficiency, the capital allocation and as well the speed to industrialization. We combine activities, we streamline the layouts, we roll out standards and as well, we enhance the digitalization on our shop floor.

Third, our commercial excellence. We continue strengthening the value-based pricing with our customers and the project selectivity to ensure that the growth we achieved translates into reliable earnings and this in a sustainable way.

Fourth, innovation to launch. We prioritize the speed from development to commercialization. Particularly in Healthcare, we see that from NeoFlex, very strong growth in our portfolio here. And selected Industrial niches and as well our venture units. They gained real momentum and delivered really good results and progress, but this needs to translate into growth and earnings. We will focus that much more than in the previous years. It's now the time to harvest what we have invested.

And finally, execution discipline through ForwardNow. We set ForwardNow with the transformation office. We spoke to that in earlier events. And the program continues to deliver measurable efficiency gains and higher margins, and it's supporting really the progress towards our midterm targets.

And this combination really confirms and underpins the confidence in the way ahead for 2026 that we can deliver the promised step-wise uptick and improvements towards these midterm targets.

If you look at our business model and the competitive advantage we offer, this lies in how we create value from early-stage collaboration with our customers to a scalable industrialization. So we do combine our core competencies, material expertise, solution design and high-volume automated manufacturing or product industrialization.

And this we do with a continuous improvement culture that gets stronger and stronger within the organization. We do engage early in our customers' development processes. We do co-engineer optimized solutions, and then we do scale them efficiently into serious production.

And this end-to-end integration from design to industrialization and delivery, this creates durable differentiation and as well is a very good and reliable basement for long-term partnerships. And exactly this integrated business model allows us to operate in demanding, highly regulated applications where really reliability and quality are decisive for our customers and partners.

And with various initiatives underway, our portfolio will increasingly shift toward products and projects that cover the maximum portion and the largest share of the value chain, allowing us to capture more value from each and every transaction.

And our capital allocation follows a similar principle. We consistently balance 3 dimensions: profitability of a business, cyclicality of a business and as well the intensity of investments in that particular business. Healthcare, for instance, combines structural growth and strong margins and therefore, will clearly remain our primary growth engine.

Within Industrial, we are deliberately steering the portfolio towards lower cyclicality and higher-margin niches, while at the same time, maintaining strict capital discipline. The objective of that is to build a business portfolio that is structurally more resilient, that is more attractive and more focused.

Selective inorganic growth supports this approach clearly, but only when it strengthens our core business model and improves the quality of our earnings. And nevertheless, our current focus clearly remains on delivering our ForwardNow initiatives. But this brings me directly to our engagement in Capsul'in.

The announced majority participation in Capsul'in is a clear example of our capital allocation discipline in action. Why? Datwyler and Capsul'in have maintained a strong -- a very long-standing and strong partnership built on complementary strengths.

Capsul'in focus on solution design, and market asset-light business model. While Datwyler was contributing to this partnership with deep material expertise and the operational execution as industrial partner. And this collaboration has proven highly successful over 7 years.

Strategically, the transaction further strengthens our solution design capabilities within our Food & Beverage end markets and integrates them more firmly into our core business model. Combining innovation, material know-how, and industrial scale under one roof.

In a nutshell, our strength has always been the combination of material expertise and industrial scale. With Capsul'in, we extend this model upstream by embedding solution design capabilities earlier in the value chain.

And it strengthens Datwyler's position as a partner delivering complete high-performance solutions in a highly regulated Food & Beverage environment, which is a strong asset. And therefore, Capsul'in does not diversify us away from our strategy, vice versa. I mean it reinforces and completes it clearly.

And let me close the outlook with our midterm targets, which we can confirm today. At group level, we continue to target organic revenue growth in the higher single-digit range and an EBIT margin of more than 17% under normal operating market conditions. Healthcare is back as the core growth and margin driver, while Industrial is expected to deliver moderate growth with steadily improving profitability.

The progress we made in 2025 in execution, in portfolio quality and the earnings resilience gives us confidence that we are on the right path. And I remember what I've promised 1 year ago. I've promised reduced complexity. I've promised to increase the quality of earnings. Judith promised to reduce our debt. And to create a momentum that stands and proves a continuous increase of sales of growth with high margin quality. So Datwyler is back in the race with a clear plan, a sharpened and focused strategy and powered by an exceptional global team.

And with that, I will briefly touch on the planned changes in the Board of Directors. At the upcoming Annual General Meeting, Jurg Fedier and Dr. Gabi Huber will step down from the Board after many years of dedicated service. On behalf of the Board and the Executive Committee, I would like to sincerely thank them for their invaluable contributions and their long-standing commitment to Datwyler.

On a personal note, I'm especially grateful for the outstanding and trustful collaboration we have shared over the last 2 years, their guidance, their experience and support have meant a great deal to me and to our company. They have helped to shape that Datwyler's path forward, and we owe them our sincere appreciation.

At the same time, the Board of Directors will propose Stephanie Bregy and Christian Holzgang as new members of the Board of Directors, both bring a strong leadership expertise and relevant industrial and governance expertise to further strengthen the Board's overall competence profile. These changes ensure continuity while adding fresh perspectives, fully in line with our long-term strategic direction.

And in addition to that, the Board of Directors has nominated Jens Breu as a successor to Paul Halg, as Chairman of the Board, effective at the Ordinary General Meeting in 2027. Paul Halg will continue to accompany the company during the ForwardNow transformation, ensuring continuity during this really important phase.

Jens Breu has been a member to the Board of Directors since 2019, and he brings extensive experience as CEO of the SFS Group. He knows our markets and is deeply familiar with the strategic challenges of a global technology-driven component supplier. This planned transition reflects our commitment to orderly succession to stability and to a strong governance.

With that, Judith and I end the presentation session and are happy to take your questions. I will now hand over to Katharina to open our Q&A session.

Both here in the room and for those joining us online, thank you for your strong interest. Thank you for your engagement and the trust you place in Datwyler. We highly value this dialogue and your continued support, and we look really forward to your question and the discussion ahead. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Volker and Judith, and we will start with the questions in the room. So please feel free to raise your hands. We can pass on the mic.

Torsten from Kepler Cheuvreux. I have 2 more technical questions, if I may. Firstly, you managed portfolio -- you mentioned portfolio management. Can you give us a feel for the effects from product pruning on revenues 2025? And also what's the outlook there in the future? I mean, are you losing volumes deliberately, of course?

And secondly, it was all a little bit complex to understand the tax situation and outlook. Is there a chance you can guide a little bit on tax rates going forward?

Would you like to start with the pruning?

Absolutely. So let me take the first question. So for this year, as you would call, pruning, is consisting of basically of 2 aspects. First of all, the products that we actively push out of our portfolio, which is in the lower single-digit million. Other products, we just do not continue, because we do not go for the next order. We do not go for the next -- for the contract prolongation, which does more or less, yes, caused no growth in that area. But also that is in a single-digit million area.

On the other hand, when I speak about active portfolio selection, this is more into the midterm, respectively, in the short term when it comes to new projects that our teams are winning in the market. So let me give you one example. We could win a lot of business in China for battery sealings for vehicle applications, where we know today that these businesses are highly exposed to a potential commodity turn, right? So that you invest a lot of time in these products, or projects, you invest a lot of resources in these projects and local manufacturers may be able to do that significantly cheaper. So this is what we are not going for.

And that means the selective approach really to check each and every quotation for a potential earnings quality, reliability and the potential duration of entry barriers through material expertise solution design and production industrialization capabilities. Does that answer your question, Torsten?

Yes.

Yes. Thank you.

Torsten, the simplest explanation I can give to tax, because that's really also materiality-wise, the biggest impact is that we had in '24, the impact of the ForwardNow related costs, which lowered our taxable income, and we don't have that in '25. So the direction we have to take it through is -- I mean, historically, we've been between 25% and 27% in effective tax rate. So with 28.7%, we are moving in the right direction. And over time, we hope to get back into that range closer to the 25%.

[Indiscernible]. I have a question to Healthcare. You showed that the U.S. or Americas is at 24% of total share. Can you help me how much did Americas grow to previous year?

And secondly, on that, you mentioned also your pipeline. 70% of your pipeline is HVO, so I'm wondering how much is America or U.S. in this pipeline?

And then obviously, the follow-up question on this U.S. synergies is, what kind of exchange rate did you -- have you taken when you set up your midterm targets? So I'm wondering whether your midterm targets could be at risk because we have seen a depreciation of the U.S. dollar in between.

Yes. So in our midterm target, first of all, we always say under normal market conditions, right? So if there would be a crash of the U.S. dollar one way or the other or a war breaks out, some of these targets naturally will have to be adjusted, right? So maybe aside of that general disclaimer, in Healthcare itself actually the share of the Americas in revenues stayed stable versus prior year. So I would say we had a stable growth. It was 24% in '24, and it was 24% of sales in '25.

We have a local for local policy. So in Healthcare itself, 83% or so of what is produced is actually also sold in the U.S. market, which naturally reduces our exposure to a good extent. We also seek to ensure through our procurement organization that we get what we get in via raw materials, aluminum and all that, that the majority of that, so is really sourced in America as well to make sure that we are dealing with this.

Also from a revenue point of view, if you not take the production point of view, but the revenue point of view, the majority of Healthcare sales are coming from the U.S. itself.

Let me add to that. I mean, especially looking at the first line facilities, it's important for us to fill all 3 first line facilities because the operation costs for a first line facility are the highest compared or much higher compared to a normal facility focused on essential and advanced products.

So from that perspective, first goal clearly is to ramp up U.S. as fast as we can. And here, looking at the overall share of our business in the U.S., we had a very pretty weak year in Industrial, especially in the first half. You can see that if you look at the documents. But a good trajectory, especially in the fourth quarter when it comes to Healthcare growth in the U.S.

We have a translation effect, clearly because of the U.S. dollar, which was, yes, more and more weaker by end of the year, towards the end of the year. So that may have covered and smoothened a little bit the operational effect, but stands clear at 8.1%, which primarily came from 3 quarters towards the previous year.

We do expect further volume growth in the U.S., especially for our first line facility next year since we have invested a lot of time and resources in the validation, a successful validation of products and customers in that facility over the last 6 months.

Okay. Can I quickly add 2 quick ones on other topics? I was surprised about this divestment in property, plant and equipment. Do you have more in the pipeline for 2026? So should we expect another positive surprise here?

Again, I didn't get it acoustically.

Surprised about the reduction in project price and equipment. So there are 2 answers to this, right? Are you referring to the fact that the PPE (sic) [ PP&E ] in the balance sheet has gone down? Or are you referring to the fact that we sold...

You have this one-off gain of CHF 7 million, CHF 8 million. So if this becomes recurring for the next 2 years, it's still sizable then.

So for that latter part, we are continuously looking at our footprint and footprint optimization. It's one of the pillars on the basis of which ForwardNow is based. So footprint optimization could come in the form of a plant closure. It can also come in the form of optimization, so consolidation and therefore, that you can sell off one building that you have on site or part of the site that is not used. It is also coming in the form of layout optimization. So is this a topic we continue to look at? The answer is yes.

Okay. And then the last one, probably I was not listening carefully. But on the OpEx hike, it is roughly CHF 4 million or CHF 5 million. Is this a one-off OpEx hike more? Should we look at as an investment? Or is it recurring for the next year? Or should it even increase?

You can flip it in 2 areas. I mean, the closure of the site that we have conducted and sold the building, which is the book value difference that you would see falling into the EBIT for this year as a one-timer. We do not operate this site in the future. So what you see as a sustained effect is the elimination of the operation costs of that facility for the years to come.

In the other case, we have decided to combine activities, means that there will be a shift to a building that's a little bit larger and causing a little bit more cost. But based on the business model, it will be a positive business case anyway. Other than that, we wouldn't have done it and will -- I mean, reduce a lot of -- or gain a lot of efficiencies in the future on the cost base also in that case, yes.

I think this still refer to the question around the reduction in PPE. Were you referring to the other operating expenditures R&D, M&S and G&A?

It has been 2 separate questions. One was the divestiture of PPE, where you reported an extra gain of CHF 7 million to CHF 8 million.

That's correct.

The question here was, was this more in the pipeline to divest in the future.

And we've answered that.

And the second question has been on the OpEx hike.

Correct.

So on the P&L, whether this CHF 4 million, CHF 5 million higher OpEx are recurring or more had to be seen as a onetime investment?

So part of it is, as I said, it is a strategic choice or has been a strategic choice for us to look at R&D and making sure that we have enough funds set aside for R&D to drive our future innovation capability. So I think that is -- that doesn't mean that it automatically has to increase overtime. But to be in that range of, say, 3% to 5% should be a reasonable number for where we want to drive our innovation capabilities.

Clearly, in the area of M&S, we had to make a one-time investment because we had to do a capability shift so that we are better positioned to sell and play in the HVO segment in Healthcare in particular. So there has been an upskilling taking place. That always goes hand-in-hand with also letting go those capabilities, you need less.

In the area of G&A, it is a buildup. Over time, that should deliver the efficiency savings that we're looking for. I mentioned procurement as an example because we already see it paying off. But that's not the only area that we're working on. Also the whole harmonization and more consistent approaches in processes and standards across our organization will allow for synergies. Those synergies, however, take 2 or 3 years to come to bear. Yes. So that is -- should go up a bit and then you phase down.

Let me catch up one part of your question, the 70% of high value in our own portfolio. I mean all the projects that we're handling currently in a late stage and early stage across the whole organization in Healthcare. If we look back 12 months ago, the share of the number of projects in that pipeline was approximately half of that was high value. And now this really gets an uptick. We see that customers are interested, especially in our NeoFlex product and as well in the large molecule portfolio.

And these are the projects that are coming now to the development in the market, and we are really happy and proud that we are -- that we could win a substantial part of that development agreements with our customers.

I don't see questions in the room. There's another one. Thank you.

And we see encouraging margin progression on the group level and looking at both segments, it's mostly driven by Healthcare, a bit more moderate 40 bps improvement in Industry. But in industrials, obviously, we have these 3 quite different segments, Beverage, Automotive and Industry. Could you give us a bit of more granularity, how the margin developed in each segment, particularly as it seems Food & Beverage is pretty stable, as you say. But what about the Automotive and Industrial? How did margin develop there?

If you look at the Food & Beverage area, we have pretty much full utilization of our facility. So it means that -- I mean, we've invested now in additional expansion to new contracts or contracts with our customer, Capsul'in that have been conducted late last year before our majority stake takeover. So Food & Beverage and the overall market, not the best year ever, but growth and a reliable growth. That's important to us.

If you look at automotive, particularly in China, we see good utilization of our sites. We see a very active customer peer group that asks for new projects, for good volumes. So to now for 2025, this was a good market for us with higher margins compared to Europe and Americas.

In Europe, I mean, this is, I think, not a secret that the Automotive year for Europe was at a very low level. And what we have experienced as well is that Americas, as such customers were withholding investments because of uncertainty, especially international companies where we work for. And yes, we do -- I mean, cannot take infinite, so when decisions have to be taken, volumes have to go up. So from that perspective, I would assess that Europe will move first and the U.S. will then follow hopefully.

In the area of general industry, it's also exposed to a bit pruning, as we've discussed just before. So some of the products that have high complexity, low volumes where we are not the best supplier for our customers are about to leave. I've mentioned target segments where we have invested a lot of resources and gaining new projects that will ramp up end of '26 and beginning of '27, so it's basically an investment in the future.

And for the oil and gas market, I mean, still the impact on Venezuela, I would have expected this with a higher traction, which also was shown by the first very optimistic developments in the capital market on related companies, right? It did still not really carry out. We see the Brent is hanging around somewhere, but not at the level that we would wish for to get another uptick. But our oil and gas market is -- our segment is profitable. And yes, hopefully, getting more utilization over 2026.

But I said, it is very difficult to read the markets currently. I would say like the last 20 years that I'm actively in that business, it is really belonged to the most difficult periods to read the markets.

Only a quick follow-up. You have probably presented a slide with the seasonality of H1, H2 2024, 2025 with sales and EBIT development and you show that you see a clear stabilization now sequentially. How should we think now for 2026? Do you expect H1 to -- on a stable level to H2? Or do you see like in the past or so much more higher H1 to H2? Or what are the dynamics in 2026 of what you see today, obviously, in your crystal ball?

I mean you have to look at the underlying reasons why this used to be in the past, right? So if you have a stable year, you would -- and companies that -- or factories mostly in Europe that deliver your sales and margin, then you face in the second half of the year more celebration days or less working days. So this is basically the underlying model and reason why in the last years the seasonality was stronger. So the first half was usually a little bit stronger than the second half.

So 2 aspects that we have to look at. First of all, growth in other regions. So we are growing in India. We are growing in the U.S. So it will be more balanced over the next years to come. If you look at this year, we had a pretty weak first quarter, still some parts of destocking we could see. So the order patterns have normalized starting by mid of March, beginning of April. And so this has caused a little bit more flattened situation compared to the years before.

What we see now is that this momentum has come back. So with more and more exposure to India, first line and U.S., this will -- I do expect that this to disappear over the next 5 to 7 years more and more in our portfolio.

With that, I would -- considering the timing for a short amount of time, at least move into the chat. We have received some questions and starting with Sebastian Vogel, UBS.

Can you remind us of the share of high-value products in Healthcare in H1 versus or compared to H2?

I would say that in H1, the share -- I mean, I don't have the number here at hand. I can just guess a bit. I would say it's somewhere between -- to be very, very mathematically correct, something 33%. And with the ramp-up of some of the products, especially the NeoFlex product and the GLP-1 ramp-up, we have gained in the second half more share of high value. So if you see that in average, I would see that the second half is pretty much a little bit above the 35% and the first half a little bit below.

And maybe one last question from the chat, [indiscernible]. Two questions. Products in the high-value segment increased to 35% in the Healthcare division, while the project pipeline jumped to 70%. When will these new projects be realized? Maybe you could explain FX on margins as well? And the second one, could you give an indication for Capsul'in's EBIT margin? Is it on group level?

First question, I mean, as I said, we are increasing our project -- the number of projects in our pipeline. When it comes to assessing the average sales and sales contribution in that pipeline, it's always depending on the success of the drug of our customers. So there is some uncertainty in it that whatever this goes up and down over the course of like 3 years, maximum 1 year, depending. So a lot of ramp-ups we see in '27 and '28. But some of the products clearly are in an early stage with a ramp-up rather than '29 and 2030.

On the other hand, what we see is, as I've mentioned, the number of biologics and large molecule projects we have that are also expected from our customers to be very successful in the market because it goes hand-in-hand with the trend and the therapies that are expected to grow. We are very, very confident that this works out well. We do not -- I mean, since the closing has not happened yet, I mean, please excuse that I'm not talking too much about Capsul'in.

On the other hand, if you have followed our slide when it came to the capital decisions and the 3 criteria that we have put to make our decision, I think it's clear what the answer to that question is.

Thank you very much. So Guido and I, after the event, will reach out to the remaining questions coming in from the chat right now that have not been answered because we are running out of time.

And with that, I would like to briefly highlight our financial calendar. And again, thanks again for your time today, for your continued interest in Datwyler, for your trust and for the constructive exchange. We appreciate your continued trust, and I personally look forward to staying in close contact. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone, And welcome to the Dätwyler's Capital Markets Day. First of all, it's great to see so many of you here at Zurich today. So it's overwhelming. I'm very happy that you took the road to the circle here at Zurich. And obviously, you're sharing the confidence in the road ahead with us, and that makes me very happy. And some of you may even join us on that journey. Also, a warm welcome to the participants of the live webcast.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's a real privilege for me to stand here today not just as the CEO of the company, but as someone who is genuinely sharing the way forward and who is energized by the journey we are on together. And I think it's a really defining time for the company since end of last year, we have made a deliberate choice. We have made a choice that we will not only adapt to the changes around that, but we want to drive it. And this is what our transformation program ForwardNow is all about.

And further than that, we have sharpened our strategy. We have strengthened our foundation and we have proven that focus and discipline drive real results. And all of this in a time where the world is simply refusing to stand still, as you all know. But this day is not about reporting numbers. It's about showing you the engine behind the numbers. To show you the strategy, the innovation, our culture and as well the conviction that drives our decisions. And today, you'll see how our efforts have transformed in a real momentum. And we are entering a phase where our opportunities become bigger. Our platform really gets stronger and as well our ambitions are sharper than ever before. And we're here because we want you to see what we clearly see. The Dätwyler is not waiting for the future to happen, but we're building it with a comprehensive strategy and as well with a credible plan to get there.

So thank you for being here. Thank you for dialing in, and thank you for the trust and your partnership. And let's start today an open, dynamic and a forward-looking conversation.

And before we dive in, I'd like to take you a moment to walk through how we structured today. We will begin together here in the plenary session with our presentations and a Q&A, both of which will be broadcasted live for those joining us online. At 11 a.m., we'll wrap up the live stream, take a short break, and then we'll move into the breakout sessions, which will start at 11:30. And there will be 2 rounds of sessions today, giving everyone the chance to explore different topics in more depth. For all of you here at Zurich, our team will guide you to the assigned room. You may also have a look on your batch where you can find either an A or a B, but we'll get there. So I'm not -- I'm sure we'll make that. And after the second session, we'll be delighted if you join us for light lunch just outside the corridor, and that's also a perfect opportunity and chance to continue the discussions and exchange ideas.

And I'm really delighted to host this event together with the Dätwyler Executive Committee, who will cover the plenary session today. Judith, our CFO; Frank, our CTO; and Michael, our COO, for the division Industrial. And as well with leaders from both divisions as well as from our technology and innovation function, who will give you really a good insight on specific areas that really do matter today and the current times. And during the breakout sessions, you will get to know Francesco, Michael, Bram, Claudia, Emiel, Karl and Mattia. Our COO, Division Healthcare, Dirk sends his warm regards as he's not able to attend today due to personal matters.

Throughout the day, we are opening the hood for you and giving you a deeper insight into our strategy, our progress and the opportunities ahead. And you will also meet more of our [indiscernible] and experts during the breaks and at lunch. They're here to share their experience and their perspectives with you. So please take also the opportunity to connect and to ask questions. And yes, you recognize them easily. They're the ones who proudly wear our beautiful Dätwyler jackets today. And I'm also delighted to introduce our future Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, Catarina who will start at Dätwyler tomorrow, and is here today to get to know you for the first time. Catarina will take over from Guido Unternahrer, who will be leaving us at the end of the first quarter 2026 after a seamless transition process.

And finally, a big thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this day possible. On the preparation, the planning, the energy behind this event, it all comes really from a great team. Some of them were among those who greeted you warmly at the reception desk this morning and some others who will take care on the audio and everything around. Thank you very much for making this day possible.

There are companies that have significant impact on the lives of millions of people every day without most people really being aware of it. Dätwyler is truly one of these companies. You don't see our products, you don't feel them. Yet they are really everywhere. They make a car safe, medicine effective, machine reliable and the coffee better. And they are small, they are precise and they are in conspicuous. And that's exactly why they are so crucial. If our components don't work, systems don't work, a lot of devices do not work either. And this is why whatever we develop and deliver must be reliable, must be safe, must be durable. So truly components for systems that must never fail.

Dätwyler is a global industrial partner specialized on the joint development and the delivery of system-critical components primarily based on advanced elastomer materials. We collaborate with leading companies in the industries worldwide and supply also various key markets with 25 production sites on 4 continents, and 7,500 dedicated employees, we generate over CHF 1.1 billion annually. And with over 110 years of history and a strong anchor shareholder, the Pema Holding, we really combine legacy with a forward-looking approach.

Every single day, we deliver more than 100 million components to customers around the world into every [indiscernible] into medical injection systems, into coffee capsules, machines, electronics, into the things that make modern life possible. And we all do that meeting the toughest regulatory environment and with the highest expectations on function and quality.

Our business with system critical components is organized into 2 divisions, health care and industrial. And over 40% of our revenues come from health care, while the Industrial Division accounting for the remaining share. In health care, our portfolio includes components for injectable drugs along with related development and packaging services. In Industrial, we offer a broad range of custom molded seals, grommets, multi-component parts and, as you know, aluminum capsules for coffee.

And these 2 divisions cover 4 key end markets. For the first half of 2025 around 42% of our revenue came from pharmaceutical and medical applications, 27% from the sector of automotive niche, applications and 20% from the food and beverage industry, coffee capsules. The remaining 11% from elastomer related products from other diversified industrial markets, such as oil and gas and industrial machinery. In total, this means that nearly 2/3 of our revenue is generated in markets with low cyclicality. And this is, for us, a factor of stability, particularly in uncertain times.

And especially in those times when the world is becoming more unsettled with trade conflicts, supply chain issues, geopolitical tensions, the strength of our local-for-local approach comes really evident. We produce where our customers are and need our parts, and we source raw materials regionally wherever it is possible for us. And this allows us to remain independent, to remain flexible and resilient while also contributing to sustainability and regional value creation. And more than half of our revenues still comes from Europe, yet our growth centers are increasingly located in the Americas and in Asia. And this is where our future markets are emerging.

All of our businesses go back to the mastery of 3 core competencies. And we do really master that in order to develop high-end product solutions for these key end markets. So material expertise, solution design and product industrialization at scale are key for us. This is the area we bring. And we enter our customers' development process usually very early, often already in the concept phase. And based on the requirements of our customers' applications, we develop materials, we designed the components and then join the customer's journey towards the scaling into a serious production with zero defects and sometimes with billions of units per year. And this combination of material expertise, solution design, and excellent manufacturing is really unique, and this is our promise to the market. And at the same time, this is the reason why we generate additional value for our customers in their applications.

Now we're talking about -- we've talked a lot about system critical components, but what is a system critical component. And let me illustrate that with 2 examples. So our elastomer components are used in prefilled syringes, as you can see on the left side, in direct contact with the medication, the so-called primary packaging components must be absolutely pure, chemically resistant and functionally reliable. And if our components do not work perfect, the medication is not useful.

We are the only company, by the way, that masters 2 possible coating processes, thin coating and spray coating. And this gives our customers security, flexibility, also for upcoming market regulation. We'll have a deep dive later in one of the breakout sessions on that topic because that really matters for us.

In electro mobility, especially in the high-voltage area of an electric vehicle, such as connectors, charging units and this will drive every detail must be right. And our components seal protect and they insulate. If they fail, the safety of the vehicle or the main function of the vehicle is at risk. Both examples show clearly that our customers turn to us when there is simply no room for error. When decision purity, reliability are really system critical. And our components may represent only a small share of the customer's bill of materials, but they make really a big difference, often the decisive difference in performance in safety and in trust.

Our customers trust us because we do really understand their business and their needs. We support them throughout the entire value chain from the initial idea to serious production in zero defect quality. We listen, we understand the application in that we designed the product and we continuously improve it. And that's how we create value and build partnerships that really last for many years and decades. And as these principles of generating customer value are similar for all of our end markets across the divisions, we also ensure that the synergies in the organization lead to a constant improvement in material development, in innovation management, in project management and in industrialization.

So what's in for the investments? From my point of view, Dätwyler focuses on applications where quality, precision and trust matter and where we can be the best supplier in the market. And this creates high barriers of entry for competition and as well stable margins for us. We deliberately avoid products that quickly become commodities. And instead, we do invest in demanding niches where we can really deliver clear customer benefits. And that's sometimes really difficult for the teams to assess that while they have customer engagement, while at the other side, very crucial for our future portfolio. And you will learn more about these entry barriers throughout the day, while speaking to the people outside who can explain you all the products and depth and all the applications in that and as well throughout the breakout sessions.

And this way, we really remain focused, we remain differentiated, and we will also become profitable long term. If you look at that every time you would consider a new product perhaps an acquisition or something that perhaps has to leave the portfolio, you have a guideline. You have really something that you can consider to find your way in all of that complexity we have around in all markets.

And all the activities are specifically aligned with the megatrends of our time. You all know them. Demographics, health, technology, geopolitical shifts and as well as sustainability. And these developments really shape our future markets, and on the other hand, open upgrade opportunities for us from medical, technology, to e-mobility, to robotics and automation. A lot of these applications, you will recognize outside and as well in the breakout sessions. And our local-for-local approach gives us the important resilience in serving our customers worldwide. And with the Platinum rating of Ecovadis, we are among the 1% of all rated companies worldwide when it comes to sustainability.

This year, we have committed ourselves to the science-based target initiative, and are actively working to reduce our resource consumption, lower our CO2 emissions and make our materials and products more sustainable.

We are convinced that the selective approach focusing on attractive niches will help us to overpass the average growth in the 4 end markets or market sectors we serve. In health care, our pure-play strategy opens all customer groups for us, drug manufacturers and system suppliers, and there we can succeed with our high-value offering more later into depth in the sessions of health care and in the breakouts.

Our focus on automotive niches in that sector and as well on winning customers, which gets more and more difficult for us to assess, but we're mastering well in the respective regions will help us to navigate the vibrant environment in automotive with products where we can be really the best supplier for our customers. And the close collaboration with 2 leading key partners in the market for single-serve coffee capsules, and our focus on aluminum as the material of choice will be also key factors for us to succeed in that sector.

In the industrial sector, we are confident that our profitability will continue to grow because we really, really clearly focus on high-value solutions. This is where we can really make the difference. So the targeted alignment of 6 drivers for us in the strategy also leading this cooperation is the essence of what counts for our business strategy. And this ensures a clear focus on what is really important and where we can create value. So we will unlock more product -- production capacity. And still, we have, especially in health care, some capacity from the investments from the recent years.

We will improve our product mix, especially with the focus that I've outlined before. We also go more and more into the core development entering early cycles in the customers' development process. And we have a lot of opportunities with the new organizational model, especially in the area of industrial to do cross-sell of components and services.

So in the innovation and with everything that is upcoming in terms of new products, we create scalable technology platforms because that is where we have to invest our resources. And with that, we will complete our portfolio in a targeted and structured way when it comes to inorganic growth in the long term.

So what are the growth drivers or some of the growth drivers? We actively focus on applications that enable us to grow faster than the market sector on average. And let's have a look at 3 of those speed trains, as we call it, that we expect to experience particularly strong growth in the next years. So electromobility here, the electric powertrain, especially in China. The high-voltage connector is growing at also more than 10% CAGR for charging and energy distribution.

And last but not least, the components for prefilled syringes in health care. Those are just 3 examples where we always have a clear focus on where we can offer a really, really good product portfolio that needs exactly the requirements to outpace the growth in that sector. And in all of these areas, we possess leading technologies, we have a strong customer relationship and we have also scalable production capacities.

At the same time, we also remain disciplined and focused. We consolidate where necessary to pull our strengths and reallocate them accordingly.

We all know that profitable growth needs structure. And then in that, you will not win in the mid and the long term. And this is why at the end of 2024, we have launched the transformation program ForwardNow. And this is not a cost-cutting program, but a program for the future. It's a strategic initiative that aligns Dätwyler for exactly this growth in the target sectors that we are heading to. So 4 areas of action are at the center, the production network, the commercial excellence, the product portfolio and the target operating model, we'll talk a little bit about that later when it comes to the divisions. But in total, we are implementing over 20 initiatives from these areas. And you learn more about that and what stands behind these activities throughout the day. Our head of corporate transformation, Marcel, is here as well. Feel free to get in touch with him.

And after almost 1 year in a pretty turbulent economy, we are in plan. And we are also on a good part to deliver our promise. As we remember, cumulative effects of around CHF 52 million as well as step up in results of at least CHF 24 million per year after the completion of all of these initiatives latest by end of 2027.

Our next generation of products and materials is perfectly aligned with our technology trends that are shaping the future. They can detect pressure. They move, they send signals from the human body, and they would send chemical elements that will come -- will become increasingly important in the years ahead. And the goal for us is to build scalable platforms that address customer problems with reliable solutions, smaller, more durable, more cost effective and more energy efficient. You'll also learn more about that from Frank and during the breakout sessions later.

Let's have a look at our portfolio from a different perspective. Almost 60% of Dätwyler's sales come from the Industrial division. However, the division accounts for less than half of our EBIT contributions. So you see that represented by the upper left diamond in the chart. The Healthcare division, on the other hand, contributes more than half of our EBIT while generating just over 40% of sales, illustrated by the low right diamond. And now we did an exercise from how to find our path forward, where to allocate our capital and allocate our focus. The vertical axis shows the cyclicality of the business, while the horizontal axis represents the capital intensity of that business. So basically, the pay-to-play in that respective sector.

And within the industrial portfolio, the cyclicality varies. The automotive and the industry belonging more to the cyclical parts whereas the food and beverage tends to be more stable with higher CapEx needs more in the lower end of the industrial shape. And in health care, cyclicality is generally low, but operating in this sector requires a significant structural investment. So overall, more than 60% of our sales, the food and beverage part and the health care part comes from businesses with low cyclicality. At the same time, most of the required structural investments in these areas are already in place for the midterm. Judith will show you later, based on that graph, where we will move financially and when it comes to the capital allocation.

So when I look at Dätwyler today, I see more than numbers. I see more than factories or markets, I see an idea. I see the idea that excellence in small things can achieve great things and represent an attractive investment. Our products may be tiny, but their impact is really enormous. Let's go into it and start with the healthcare division.

In our Healthcare division, we see great potential ahead. We are strongly positioned for growth, especially in our high-value offering. And this is also why we are confident that we'll outperform the average growth in the sector over the midterm. So today, around 1/3 of our portfolio belongs to the category of high value, including products from first line, rapid trend support and ready-to-use packaging services. And what's truly exciting is that roughly 2/3 of the growth we expect in the next years will come from new projects in that area. Emiel will give you a deep dive on that calculation later on in the breakout session.

But the case of experience in Materials & Coatings, we work really side by side with our partners on an eye level. From leading drug manufacturers as well, with system suppliers due to the pure-play approach we take. We are really engaged early in co-development of the next-generation primary packaging for injectables. And because we operate first-line facilities in the United States, in Europe and in Asia, we can guarantee the same standards of quality and safety across every region.

Our ambition is to be the partner of choice for new drug delivery solutions in our target markets. And to achieve this, we forehold the broadest component portfolio for large molecule solutions and home care applications. This is really what matters today. And we all know if you don't have it today when the market is really scaling up, you're 5 years to late or maybe even a decade. And a global network, and I always call it global to local network of experts, scientific teams and a state-of-the-art manufacturing technology. A pure-play position as a component supplier who is not in competition with system suppliers in the market, and a full set of processes and procedures to ensure end-to-end partnerships on an eye level with our partner from the idea to the high volume supply with zero defects quality. You remember the circle before everything is perfectly in shape for that business model of healthcare.

So talking about timing, market dynamics. I possibly believe that it is now a perfect timing to leverage our position in the market. We have experienced the destocking phase over many months that we expect to be over now. Our half year results and our orders on hand for the months ahead give us the confidence that this is clearly the case. And our components portfolio fits well to the demand we experienced in chronic diseases, and in home care. And that require more prefilled syringes, more cartridges and auto injectors. And this is exactly the products we have developed over the last years, and there are now available in our portfolio.

And we do answer already the rising regulatory standards regarding manufacturing practices, so good manufacturing practice NX1 with our first-line facilities and as well the materials such as the PFAS with our solutions already today. Also on that topic, we'll have breakout session later on.

So our focus is clear -- sorry, we deliver premium products. We offer premium services based on our premium technology, and we improve our materials further, stay in the pure-play position and will enter the development cycles of our customers earlier and earlier. And this is how we generate exactly the value and the flexibility that our partners are looking for.

Are we already perfect everywhere in healthcare? No. Our transformation program ForwardNow offers opportunities also in the division Healthcare and will accelerate our journey. We have uplifted our organization with experienced and proven leaders that prepare the division already today for the challenges in the years ahead. And we teach everyone what creates value for our partners and whatnot. And we improved our organization step-by-step based on a comprehensive target operating model. And our vision is that, for instance, an expert from our European site can support a product launch in another region from the day of arrival without adapting to other routines, other processes and other spends. And we will further adapt our portfolio for a high-value offering based on what we know today. PAUSE from our earlier customer engagement, and we will speed up our time to market for these products, with clear processes and clear directive.

We will improve our manufacturing site in terms of utilization. Also on that topic, we have a deep dive later on. That's to benefit from our recent investments as long as possible and make our lounge routines more flexible and scalable. Without compromising for sure, the safety and quality of our components for our customers. And I'm really proud to see the teams improving every day, and I'm looking really forward to seeing the outcome of those initiatives in the near future.

And with that, let me hand over to Michael, who will continue our plenary session with an overview of the Industrial division. Thank you very much.

So good morning, everyone, and a warm welcome. My name is Michael Holler, and I joined Dätwyler at the beginning of 2025 as the COO of the division Industrial. My professional experience and background over the past around 30 years was mainly in the automotive industry, but also in industrial sectors.

Our division Industrial is serving 3 pretty different markets. One is the automotive niches, which Volker already indicated, the second one is food and beverage and the third one are the industrial sectors. This market mix gives us resilient demands across market cycles, and is a strong base also for continued growth.

Our business units, transportation and electronics, food and beverage and so-called general industry, are managed by regional sales organizations, are driven by engineering expertise, which we have embedded in our global product lines and are operational in global network, which is shared across the business units. This product line architecture reduces complexity, but also accelerates development solutions for our customers.

In addition, we also leverage global synergies in engineering, but also in operations. We operate a manufacturing network that shares capacities, but also best practices, and we manufacture in a local to local approach to mitigate any tax, but also any foreign exchange impact to be foreseen.

Our value focus is deliberate. We target market niches with sustainable growth cycles, and we compete in our core competencies to solve customer challenges. And we deliver high quality, but also high performance components.

As a preferred innovation partner, we co-develop with our customers with the target to achieve shortest times to market. And shortest time to market also means shortest response times to our customer needs, which becomes more and more a differentiator.

Let me give you the example of a customer inquiry in China. A Chinese local customer is not expecting us, as Dätwyler to respond to a request for quotation within weeks, but on average in about 3 working days. This requires us to have accelerated, but also very structured and solid processes being set up.

In summary, we have a diversified and market focus, a customer-led innovation model and a scalable operations platform globally. That's how we target to convert our strategy into high-margin customer solutions.

In the next minutes, I would like to outline to you for these 3 business units, our current positioning in the market, the respective market context, but also the way how we will contribute to the profitable growth of the Dätwyler Global Group.

Let me start with our business units, Transportation and Electronics. Our ambition in this business unit is to be the preferred partner for high-value sealing products. Starting in automotive niches, but extending even beyond those niches. What makes that ambition realistic for us is our position across the value chain. We bring material expertise and solution design and take the products all the way through to the industrialization. Remember the wheel, which Volker had shown earlier in his presentation.

We work hands on with our customers, embedding into their structures and embedding into their processes. We unlock cross-selling opportunities, which we had created by integrating both former business units, so-called mobility and connectors to the newly formed business unit, transportation and electronics. And we apply a regional sales and application focus, leveraging advanced elastomers, silicones and hybrid material solutions.

Our business unit, Transportation and Electronics strives for high-margin niche applications in all our automotive sectors, building on the automotive and on the electronics strength and expertise. The products which are displayed on this slide, but also on the following pages will be shown to you and will be also explained to you by the group during the breaks, during the lunch break and during the coffee breaks in more detail.

Looking at the automotive market in specific, the global automotive market is almost stagnating. The pure ICEs, the combustion engines are projected to rather decline whereas hybrids are seen to moderately grow in the next years. Whereas battery electric vehicles are foreseen to have the highest growth with a rate of approximately 15% CAGR. In the business unit, transportation and electronics, we are well positioned in components for electrified applications, especially in one of our focus regions, which is China. We approach successful customers in attractive and growing applications such as air suspension, thermal management or connector modules, and we will become powertrain-neutral.

In air suspension, for instance, we have recently successfully acquired a new business from a local Chinese customer. We will extend our segments to high-margin niches beyond the classical passenger cars or commercial vehicles, to niches such as off-road, railways or naval applications. Our naming -- the new naming of the business unit, Transportation and Electronics reflects this shift already. Our business units will prioritize margin enhancement before pure growth development, and we will avoid becoming commoditized.

Moving on to food and beverage. Here, we aim to advance our leading position for premium functional packaging. We will leverage our expertise for complex deep, grown processes, but also for advanced liquid sealed products, which are a clear differentiator to us -- for us, excuse me. We are ready to further scale up the opportunities we have based on the long experience and capabilities in high automated clean room manufacturing. Our ability to take design from laboratory to automated mask production reduces the time to market, but also any risk for global brands, which we're serving to.

We aim also here for solution design on top of our industrialization expertise. Later on, our business unit leader, Karl Frei will share with you some more details during one of the breakout sessions.

In the global coffee capsule market, the continued growth is expected. The packaging and packaging waste regulations are raising the requirements, promoting recyclability of materials such as aluminum, which has significant advantages with regards to functionality, but also shelf life and the coffee taste in general. The markets have already started to consolidate. During summertime, we got aware that Dr. Keurig Pepper had acquired JDE for the Nespresso compatible systems. In springtime, even earlier this year, Constantia and the packaging had acquired Aluflexpack. We see and we evaluate such changes rather as additional opportunities for us to expand our leading position in our classic coffee capsule market while also maintaining our barriers of entry.

In addition to the classic coffee capsule business, we aim to explore adjacent market niches and applications for new coffee capsule formats or also for functional beverages such as ready-to-drink [ coolers ]. Our food and beverage will strengthen our market position for single-serve coffee capsules while entering new market niches in functional packaging opportunities.

Moving on to general industry. Here, we are building the partner of choice for high-performance sales in higher margin niches, such as medical, such as energy or also aerospace niches. Applications where failure is not an option and performance and reliability are purchasing decisions. We differentiate by taking customers from our material expertise and solution design to the industrialization of our products. We established here co-developments and also manufacturing already strongly in Europe and also in the United States. We combine speed and proximity and a deep sector know-how.

Our industry-specific elastomer and composite portfolio enabled sealing solutions, that withstand extreme conditions, but also meet stringent industry requirements. Our business unit industry, general industry will grow from its current traditional oil and gas business beyond to penetrate attractive new market niches.

In the recent months, the oil price drops to a level around $60 per barrel. The OPEC had recently stated to open a new barrel -- excuse me, a new major well in Iraq that will be opened quite soon, which will increase also the supply to the global markets. In these market conditions, we are expecting a moderate midterm recovery of the oil and gas market in the range of about 3%. Today's low penetration in Asia, our low penetration in Asia will offer significant additional potentials for us. The business growth anticipated in aerospace defense and in medical application is more expected in a robust development. Such niche markets will position ourselves stronger to grow together with our customers.

Let me give you an example of medical applications or medical devices we are targeting for. So here, we are seeing applications or components for instance, for diagnostic devices, for dialysis or also for dental equipment to go for, scaling these applications of our active materials, which is our next vector for growth will be another priority to go for. All this will be facilitated by using digital channels to our markets, such as AI supported web pages to attract our customers.

Now summing it up. The division Industrial becomes an even more sustainable value contributor to the global Dätwyler group, fostered by our transformation program ForwardNow. Our new modular organization enables maximum synergies between the business units while generating global operational efficiencies. The merger of the former business units, mobility and connectors enables strengthened customer focus, but also cross-selling opportunities. With the consolidation of our manufacturing sites in Vandalia, Ohio, we have streamlined our manufacturing network in the United States. And we have optimized our fixed cost structure and improved our capital efficiencies. Besides those cost reduction measures realized, we invested in the development of new products and to support our niche market strategy.

One example is today in the high-voltage applications, we have already a pipeline of about 50% of new business wins, which we are bringing to industrialization as we speak. In a nutshell, the division Industrial is a sum of attractive niche market applications.

As a preferred partner in co-development, Dätwyler's division Industrial, such standards for innovation, responsiveness to market and for operational excellence. Thank you very much.

Good morning, everybody. A warm welcome from my side. My name is Frank Schon. I'm responsible for technology and innovation. I'm almost 22 years now with Dätwyler in different R&D functions. And it is a pleasure for me to talk about innovation in the next 15 minutes. I want to explain you how we approach innovation. I will talk about some examples where we already start to be in serial applications, some examples about where we are close to market entry and also some projects which are in earlier development phases.

By the way, on the picture here, you can see a tensile testing machine, which is used to qualify our -- or measure the mechanical properties of our elastomer materials.

Our innovation focus is on product, process and material level, and we support with that profitable growth in high-value applications, as Volker mentioned, as Michael mentioned in their speeches. Triggered by technology trends, but also from market needs, our innovation funnel is filled with projects in early stages, midterm and long-term opportunities, and how do we prioritize now such innovation projects? Well, we have a stage gate process with decision gates after each phase of the innovation process.

Let me be a bit more concrete here. Looking back to yields. In the first phase, we call that ideation, we had roughly 320 ideas, which we evaluated. And we concluded to go ahead with 60 of such ideas in a second phase, which is the so-called exploration phase where we put together a small team and look at the ideas and possibilities, market opportunities in more detail. Out of that 60 exploration processes or projects, we started 21 development projects, and I will give some examples later on. Once the development is successful, we start customer-specific projects and scale them up for serial production, that happens usually in the business units or I will talk also about our venture unit approach later on.

In technology and innovation, we have 3 main pillars. The advanced technology team has multiple technology domain knowledge and is focusing on the early and mid-stage projects in development -- in technology development. And in this stage, we have also various cooperations with the universities. I mean, here in Switzerland, we have a great potential to work with ETH in Zurich, to work with [ EPL ], but we work also with start-ups and other technology partners to combine our internal knowledge with external knowledge and speed up the development cycles.

In the area of material and surface technology, we built up over many years application-specific knowledge for the different markets, be it for health care, be it for division Industrial for the different business units. And from an innovation perspective, that is a very interesting aspect because we have kind of cross-industry knowledge and can combine the different perspective for our innovation projects. Bram Jongen will later explain you more details in the breakout session.

With our venture unit concept, we want to commercialize breakthrough technologies as fast as possible, especially when the scope goes beyond 1 business unit. Currently, we have 2 such venture units. One is the variable sensors. And the other one is soft sensing and actuation. We have set them up to operate like a startup within Dätwyler to strengthen the entrepreneurial mindset of our teams. And Mattia will be leading a breakout session. You can also talk about the venture unit concept with him.

The venture units go beyond our existing core, for example, by combining our elastomer components with electronics or software elements. And they feed our divisions with the next generation of products, always with a strong focus on scalability.

Our SoftPulse products, which are softened dry elastomer electrodes have been developed during the last years as a solution for various variable devices and we have first year end sales based on that product. We transferred here our material knowledge from the healthcare area, where we are developing very clean materials to the venture unit, that is relevant that we have -- because we have skin contact that we don't have irritation. So also here, the materials need to be very clean.

The product and process development takes now place in Switzerland with product designs for the different form factors of variable devices, be that headset, wristbands, smart glasses and so on.

We started the journey with a focus on brain signal monitoring, EEG signals for long-term monitoring to make that more convenient for patients. However, beyond that medical applications for remote patient monitoring, also lifestyle applications get more and more interesting, be it for fitness, be it for virtual or augmented reality. A lot of startups develop very interesting innovative solutions to improve our concentration level to monitor our sleep quality and many more. And even more interesting, big tech companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, all of them are investing in that available applications. And there, our scalability and global footprint plays a very important role, which sets us, let's say, apart from competition. All in all, we assume the addressable market to be in the range of CHF 200 million to CHF 300 million.

Currently, we see the biggest market traction for in-ear applications for smart glasses and wrist bands, where our electrodes enable high-precision body signal monitoring this compact designs, and we aim to expand our offering by providing reference solutions for the different form factors for high-quality data acquisition. So that should speed up the adoption of our products. And again, increase the entry barrier for competition.

The next 2 product innovations, which are close to market entry are developed in the venture unit, soft sensing and actuation. We complemented our product offering here. We started with electroactive polymastic for actuation, and we added magnetically active polymer-based technology for sending solutions in order to use synergies in technology as well as in business development.

Let me start here with the EAP based actuators. You can just imagine a piece of rubber, which starts moving when electrical voltage is applied. How is that possible? Well, such an EAP is based on very many layers of polymers and electrodes in between. They are contacted and when you apply the voltage [indiscernible] contract when it is discharged the stack expands again. With this technology, we provide energy-efficient and noise-free actuation solutions, and we can also make the solutions more compact. They operate in a broad temperature range, and we target, for example, look in with applications we set. Imagine how annoying it would be that the smart lock in your hotel room does not open anymore because the battery runs out of power. Our solution based on EAP would work without any battery.

Very important trend for valves is miniaturization and compact designs. And here on the bottom right, you can see a difference, and you can later see its live. You see the size difference between EAP solution, which is much smaller compared to a solar need-based solution. Furthermore, we have customer developments ongoing this very thin EAP stacks and that is for haptic applications, for example, in a glove. We could successfully scale that unique process technology. Others only have it available on lab scale. We have now a pilot line available to scale that up together with our customers.

Let's move to the magnetic active polymer sensors. Here, you can imagine a rubber part, which measures force or pressure or even gives information on the ceiling state. Well, the sensors are based on a magnetic elastomer. And if you deform that, the magnetic field would change. And you can translate that change of the magnetic field with algorithms into a change of force of pressure and use it, obviously, is a force of pressure sensor. Our solution offers there a very high design flexibility. We can produce basically every shape of such a sensor based on our elastomer technology. And we can use our material expertise to ensure that the sensor is stable against temperatures or even different media, which sets us apart from other sensors.

Currently, we see 2 main application fields. In the field of robotics, there is a growing need for force and pressure sensing for complex and versatile gripping task. There it is, of course, very important that gripper does not damage the product and also slippage should be avoided. And our MAP-based sensors can be designed to fit on the fingertip of a robotic hand to allow sensitive gripping.

The second target application would be condition monitoring in order to do predictive maintenance. Imagine seals, which are exposed to aggressive liquids or high pressures, for example, in the chemical industry. Today, the seals are replaced in a certain time sequence. When we can monitor the state of a seal, then the customer can replace it when it's really needed. The addressable market here, we estimate to be in the range of CHF 200 million to CHF 300 million.

Apart from our activities in the venture units, I would like to highlight some additional important development projects. In healthcare, the patient safety is of utmost importance. And in line with that, the regulatory requirements are increasingly stringent. Our Materials & Coatings are already today tuned to give lowest levels of extractables and [indiscernible] and the team is working already now on the newest generations of materials and coatings, all this is the focused on highest cleanliness and chemical compliance.

We run also various developments in cooperation, as I said in the beginning. We can see here in the middle picture, a micro fluid chip, which was developed here in Switzerland with the CSEM in the consortium project. This chip is designed for rapid and high precision analytics. You can see it also later outside.

And last but not least, there is a clear trend to use more and more simulation. We do that already since many years in the industrial area. We transferred the knowledge and apply it also for health care applications. And we have set competent centers in Europe, in China and in the U.S. to be close to our customers to engage with them in early phases to do co-development projects. We characterize our material properties with special measurement techniques, [indiscernible], our own material models, which locks the customer in onto our material. And based on that model, we can support the customer to optimize the product design. We can also simulate the processability and optimize our malls before we build them. And last but not least, with digital twins, today, full production processes can be simulated.

With that, I would like to close my short overview. You will get more information from Bram on the material topics from Mattia on the venture unit variable sensors. And in the break, please visit us to talk about the applications. Thank you.

As Volker mentioned, we've tried to give you an overview of the engine that is behind our numbers. Even so, we will not forget the numbers, and I will deep dive and give you a financial outlook and overview for the midterm.

I would like to say that based on the market trends that we have shared with you, based also on our chosen positioning in these markets that we are well positioned to reach our midterm financial targets. We're anticipating a higher single-digit growth in our net revenue and an EBIT margin of 17% plus. In other words, we are confirming the midterm outlook that we have given and shared with you in February this year. I wouldn't be financed. If I wouldn't put a disclaimer in somewhere, we assume normal operating market conditions.

Now this translates into different numbers for our 2 divisions. Healthcare will outgrow the market. And you may recall that we set the market growth at 5% to 7%. The EBIT margin will be around 22%, so well above the 20%. Industrial, on the other hand, will face a single-digit growth more in the mid-range and a strong EBIT margin in the lower single or the lower double-digit range, yes, around 12%. If we look at the next slide, the question then is naturally from these numbers, you will see that we will and are foreseeing a material increase in our EBIT margin. In 2024, we ended the year at around 10%, corrected for the provision that we booked for our ForwardNow transformation program. And we're aiming in the mid-term to get to that 17% plus.

The ForwardNow program is critical in this one because it helps us unlock the potential that we have in our organization. I would like to highlight a few factors that matter in this respect. First of all, as mentioned already, we have significant operational leverage from the fact that we currently still have underutilized facilities. Particularly in healthcare, we have invested in the period '21 to '23 in top-notch facilities, and then we're facing the fate of destocking, which basically meant that we could not optimally use our production capacities. However, with destocking being over and growth coming back, what we see is that without major investments in the midterm in new plants, we will actually be able to accommodate for the growth that we are foreseeing. Therefore, the fall-through is high. We've seen this already in our half year numbers, and we expect that this will continue in the mid-term.

Michael highlighted the importance of the optimization of the production network. This is important in Industrial, but I would argue it's equally well important in Healthcare. And our Head of Operations, Claudia will speak to that at a later stage. It allows us to basically take out unnecessary cost to leverage synergies. But most of all, it allows us to place our production in those areas where we need to be able to scale up and to effectively manage that. Now that is actually only possible if we work in parallel on centralized standards and processes. We're not fully there yet, but we're moving in the right direction, thanks to ForwardNow to ensure that, indeed, it doesn't matter where you are and that we can basically ensure a higher compatibility and consistency in our production capabilities across the globe.

The key word for me is the streamlining of our product portfolio and with that, our client portfolio. With our explicit focus on higher value offering, it also means that there are areas where we need to put in our resources and invest. And there are areas where we need to let go and streamline the products and potentially the customers out of that portfolio over time. We have to upscale basically the portfolio that we are currently sitting on. And already, over the last year, we've made good progress in that area. That allows for a mix improvement, higher margin and also for value-based pricing.

Helping us improve our financial performance will naturally have a positive impact on our operating cash flow. Another factor that is equally important is actually to improve our net working capital. And with that, I particular mean the capital that we are currently locking into accounts receivables and our inventories and naturally accounts payable as well. The actions we've started and where we see the first results coming through in terms of being much more disciplined and focused in terms of our collection processes of accounts receivables of really looking at the end-to-end stream -- value stream and see where our inventory sits and what do we really need wear and a very, but strengthening of our procurement organization help us deliver significant improvements in that area today, but definitely over that 3- to 5-year time period.

Now why does operating free cash flow matter? It matters because it allows us to reinvest in growth, and increase our CapEx as a percentage of sales.

If we go to the next slide, I would like to then it then raises the question about where would we invest? And I'd like to come back to Volker's diamond slide. As he mentioned, we have 2 divisions, 1 accounts for around 60% of the sale. However, less than 50% of the EBIT and the other one accounts for around 40% of the sales and has a disproportionally higher EBIT contribution. In Industrial, we've learned from Michael that actually the mix offers a lot of interesting potential, provided we focus on those market niches where we have high entry barriers, higher growth, higher margins.

Some of those niches or some of the areas where we currently play have a higher cyclicality. Oil and gas is a good example. On the other hand, we also have segments, food and beverages that deliver sustained high margin in a noncyclical way, and that's where we want to play. We want to play in that area of industrial, where we do have those higher margins and yet have less cyclicality.

In the area of health care, it is very much about building on what we have, unlocking the capacities and the competencies that we have and working with our customers in offering those solutions to their problems.

Capital intensity plays a role in healthcare. And we've seen that in that period of '21 to '23 when we made all those big investments. So the sweet spots that we're also looking for in terms of driving our organic growth are very much in the area where we can leverage our competencies and yet not have to make huge capital investments. We will not move in that direction where we would move away from the pure play, for example, in healthcare. And focus on system integration, which would also add to the capital intensity that is needed.

So a balanced approach in our capital allocation between profitability, finding industries, market segments, niches that are less cyclical and CapEx intensity will drive our internal investments, our CapEx and sustain basically the growth that we're looking for. This is also applicable to any inorganic growth that we might be looking for. So we have set certain clear guardrails.

If we move to the next slide, then a few considerations around how we are reflecting our strategic objectives in that capital allocation strategy. Our first focus will be on internal growth. What can we drive from our own facilities, our capabilities, our competencies, our people within that rider itself. And I would like to highlight, in particular, 2 aspects, which is CapEx and which is ROCE. Our CapEx to date, and you have seen that in the half year results are around 4% of sales. We do expect that over the midterm that percentage of sales will grow, not because we have to in the 5-year time period, put new plans in place. But because we have to make the additional investments that are needed, machine-wise, visual inspection wise, automation wise, that are needed to support our growth in the various growth areas that we have across both divisions.

So we do expect that the CapEx ratio will increase, hence, the importance of having tight net working capital management and better operating results.

Our ROCE is expected to increase in line with what our main competitors are doing, and possibly despite the fact that we have also segments that deliver a lower return on investment. So we're aiming there for over 17% return on our capital employed.

While our main focus will be on our internally driven growth, that doesn't mean that we close doors for inorganic growth. In fact, improving our capabilities and space to allow inorganic growth is very important. We've made great improvements in our leverage over the last 2 years. We will continue this path to reduce our debt and our net debt and naturally improve our EBITDA so that our leverage will trend over that time period in the direction of the 1.5 multiple or lower. You will see this already coming through to a large extent in the 2025 time period.

To the extent that we would do external acquisitions, they would be very targeted. There has to be a strategic fit. They have to follow the guardrails that we've set in that diamond slide. And clearly adds to our strategic agenda and our overarching goals.

Shareholder returns, a very important way in which you also can allocate your capital, Dätwyler has taken pride in keeping a good earnings or dividend per barrel share over the last years, that was not necessarily connected to the underlying earnings that were there. What you can expect from us is that we will stay at that level or above, yet that over time, we will link it back to the underlying earnings, which leads to basically the guidance of an over 50% payout ratio.

This brings me then to the last topic, and that is a summary of the reasons why one should invest in Dätwyler. I would actually like to state or start with the item in the middle. In our strategy, we stay truthful to our original purpose of delivering system critical components. We take pride in that, and I hope we have been able to share with you how important it is and how important these components are. They may be small, but they have a huge impact. We have, however, sharpened our focus to ensure that we truly put our emphasis, our resources and our efforts on a product portfolio offering that will drive higher value and that will drive growth in the longer term.

Our core competencies will be critical for that because without those core competencies, we would not have those entry barriers, but we would also not have that competitive edge that is needed to support our customers and compare favorably against our competitors. I would like to highlight there, in particular, that what we can do with our close collaboration and our customer orientation is that we work together with our customers to help them solve their problems. And that's where we make a difference for our customers. So thank you very much.

So a warm welcome from my side. We have reached the end of our plenary presentations, and I would now ask Volker, Michael and Frank to join the stage and we will start our Q&A session. And I would like to remind you, we have a webcast going on. So also the Q&A session will be broadcasted. So I kindly ask you to wait for the microphone until you start asking your question, and please also mention your name before you start your question. So who wants to start? Charlie?

I'm not sure if I'm -- how to read your guidance exactly you're implementing your ForwardNow program until 2027. So does this mean that this 70 plus EBIT margin is reach for first time in 2028?

We typically take a 3- to 5-year view on the midterm. So I would say it's between 3 and 5 years, counting from '25 that we would hit the 70% plus. The ForwardNow program is absolutely valid for the 3-year time period. So when we speak about the CHF 52 million kind of accumulated benefits and the sustained base -- cost base reduction of CHF 24 million. That is applicable as of '28 and is one of the factors, not the only one, but one of the factors to drive our financial results.

I have a question about capital allocation in regard to M&A. You said strategic fit, strategic fit will be high growth, higher margin. So you would not invest into Industrial Solutions. You would only focus on the health care solutions, is this correct? And secondly, on that, you said leverage 1.5x net debt EBITDA. But what does it mean when you make an acquisition, what would be the higher level? Or would you take this 1.5x?

Perhaps on your first question, I mean, I wouldn't exclude Industrial Solutions in general. But as we've explained, we have this bucket of Industrial Solutions business models. And some of them are less cyclical and some of them are more cyclical, yes? So we would not exclude to do that, but our focus is basically in the middle, in between these 2 diamonds or within the health care as such.

So this is clearly the focus. And when it comes to the 1.5, I mean, depending on the intensity of such a potential inorganic growth, we would take a reasonable time frame to go back to this 1.5 once we would have a spending that we just go -- yes, which has changed that ratio massively.

Yes. To add to that, the absorbability of any potential future acquisition will have to be taken into both financially as well as in terms of the integration within our organization. However, the target of 1.5 in that time period stays.

So when the opportunity window would open again from your perspective to do acquisition?

It's hard to assess. It depends. You -- now purely refer to when are we financially in a position that we can start considering this, right? So I would say when we get to the level of multiple of 2 or below, and I do believe that is within reach.

Benjamin Thielmann from Berenberg. I would have 2 questions, if I may. First question is on CapEx. You said it's -- sorry, now it works -- sorry. Benjamin Thielmann from Berenberg. You said CapEx is 5% to 8% of revenues. Could you maybe split that across the 2 divisions that you have? You mentioned already there is some investments into automation. There seems to be a couple of machines that need to be replaced. There are necessary investments that you need to do? How much of those 5% to 8%, can I assume it's going to be split into your Healthcare division? And how much of that goes into the industrial business?

Yes. So typically, we don't provide split. However, it is fair to say that the CapEx will follow the growth that we're foreseeing. So that gives you good indication of the answer.

And then maybe a follow-up question on your 1.5x EBITDA leverage or slightly below 1.5x that you're guiding for. You also confirmed the dividend strategy. There is no change in that regard. Do you aim to actively pay down debt in the future? Or is that multiple solely coming from the EBITDA recovery that you expect in the next 3 to 5 years?

No. It's both, an absolute need to improve and continue to improve our operational results of course, but we continue to pay down debt. We have paid off CHF 25 million of our debt to payment in the first half of the year. And you can expect that we continue doing so in the second half as well as next year. At some point in time, '27 basically our bond becomes due and that's also a critical point in time for us.

Okay. Perfect. Maybe one follow-up, if I may. Just quickly, maybe it's one for the breakout sessions. But you were mentioning low double-digit growth expectations for the prefilled syringe market. I mean GLP-1 is a big growth driver, but there is not only the preference, right? There is the glass vial. And we see, for example, Eli Lilly is developing a pill, for example, okay, for GLP-1. And I was just wondering how would that affect you guys? I mean, on a net basis, it's probably everything is growing because the market is overall growing pretty strongly on the volumes. But do you see any headwinds that there is a move away from prefilled syringes and glass wired [indiscernible]? And what is the margin different for you guys? Let's say you said the plungers for the prefit syringe, but you're also selling the aluminum cap for the glass bio that then goes into like a shot or a [indiscernible].

Does it make a difference for you if drug comes in a preference syringe or if it comes in a glass vial?

I mean -- just to address the first part of your question, so how to assess this overall GLP-1 market is, I think, fair to assume that there will be alternative therapies in the market. But with the massively downgrade the growth expectation with injectables, we believe, no, because we see what our customers and partners are investing still in facilities and in production to scale that business for the next, let's say, 5 to 10 years to come. So I mean, in addition to our current deliveries, we are engaged with some of our partners into new medications, all of them injectables that go into the GLP-1 generics, if you would call it, and this is for us still a growth part. It's clearly important to us.

On the other hand, as we have proven that we are able to scale and to launch such a product, there are more doors opening with customers that now rely on our capabilities here. And this is even more important for us than the sole GLP-1 traction. It has really proven that we can do that, that we can do that fast, that we can do that reliable and this serves very much to us now in that field.

And the last part of your question, for sure, a preferred syringe is a little bit more complex when it comes to the development and to the co-engineering with the customers. So in some cases, you could argue that there is a higher price for the component, although I have to put it in relative terms, not in every case, yes? So I'm also still learning in health care. It's sometimes really astonishing how the market dynamics is going on. But also, I can underline that Emiel will give an overview on the breakout session and some valuable additional information on that.

If I could add one thing, what is typically -- so if there's a new development in the market, we are always tacking naturally what does this mean for us, right? So oral drugs right now, at least in GLP-1 area are less effective than the injectables. And that's a topic that we need to take into account, right? So possibly that threat may not be the most immediate one, but by virtual is working very, very closely with our system integrators and the pharmaceutical companies themselves, we are very close to where it's happening and what is the likely development where do we need to take this. And I think that makes a big difference.

[indiscernible] JMS Invest. I have a question regarding Page 18 of the presentation where you have your assessment of the market growth numbers, which, if I compare it to the numbers that you had published in the past, are in 2 areas much lower now. So the first one is in food and beverage. You used to say 6% to 8%, I would say 2% to 3% and in general industry from 6% to 2% to 3%. Now the question is [indiscernible] there a change in the market? Or was it like a different assessment of this market that you've changed your view about the market?

[indiscernible] I think it is the next one, [indiscernible] right? So you're referring to the health care market -- the food and beverage market and the automotive market?

Actually, the industries and the other ones are just a bit lower, in food and beverage industries [indiscernible] significant.

I mean in food and beverage, we for sure see that especially the classic espresso system is somehow getting saturated in the market, and the growth is getting a little bit less in terms of volumes from our side. This is what we see, although we have a good market share here. What is something we cannot 100% confirm right now, which might have been taken into consideration is also a trend, how strong is the trend from plastic into aluminum. So we're talking here about aluminum capsules, perhaps the previous assessment was done on plastics on aluminum and every competitive capsule.

So this is the relevant market for us. Also here, we'll have a breakout showing the numbers, how we have basically created this assumption here later in the breakout sessions.

On the industries, it is mainly shaping a little bit more the direction as we've laid out the high-value segment. So where are the segments where we can really make a difference. So if you take the whole market, there are some segments that may render into commodity sooner than others, yes? So that's why we also sharpened a little bit our targets for the topics where we can really make a difference and where we can then also come across with better margins with higher margins. And that is clearly an influence here in the industry sectors. Positive impact is the part in the connectors that comes from the acquisition of QSR back in 2022. Another part is that is maybe a little bit less optimistic is the oil and gas market because although we've expected that, we know it's very cyclical. It is depending on the oil price, and there are so many factors where we stay a little bit softer right now in assessing the midterm.

[indiscernible] from NZZ. Two questions. You've mentioned that the growth in the future, will be rather in Asia and in the Americas rather than Europe. So how concerned are you maybe about this -- in this -- the industrialization in Europe? I mean, is this porting you maybe and especially, of course, with regard to the automotive sector, but not only -- the second question is, I mean, you've also mentioned that you have seen a turbulent year. So what about the transformation program? Is this really it? Or would you have to take further measures maybe in order to maybe cut costs?

So your first question, deindustrialization is clearly impacting the overall sentiment in the industry. So when you look at automotive in Europe, when you look at automotive and industrial in Europe, it's softer than most of us would have expected it to be a couple of years ago. Are we impacted by relocations of product to more customers to China? Yes, this is the case. On the other hand, what we are doing against is clearly, we're focusing on the high-value products that we can keep in Europe, in Switzerland and in our sites in Germany now regarding the industrial business. And we do believe that this is important as well to feed our innovation cycles with our sites in Europe. This is clearly our target.

The focus on these high-value components will give us a little bit more resilience because the markets here are not so efficient. We need to react on relocations, react on volume versus price and so on, yes. So a major part of our portfolio is we need in that segment is really strong. And so we are confident that we can also keep a part of our business here in the industrial and automotive part.

Second part of your question, the timing, I spoke a little bit of the timing in ForwardNow. Did we expect in November -- October, November, December when we designed the ForwardNow program, that this would come end of January and February 2025, obviously not, yes. But on the other hand, if you look at the 4 areas that we are tackling. This has been exactly the right -- the right playing fields for that, yes? And so to your question, do we have to add more measures. Clearly, no. We don't see it currently from the market situation. We're expecting at the moment. We do strongly believe today that ForwardNow is -- has the real -- the right answer to the question also to the additional questions that came across from February 2025.

[indiscernible] can you please switch to your innovation section, please. You have provided details on the products that you're developing, and it appears they have been more or less the same that you presented 2 years ago, but you're progressing towards commercialization. Now what's a big missing is the timing. We can see the ambitious targets of the impressive opportunities for those products, but will they already make a difference next year, the following year? Or when do we expect significant volumes here to see in the P&L?

Thank you for the question. As I explained, we are already in serial sales with the wearable sensors. You will hear more from Mattia later. There, we expect in the next 12, 15 months, 7 digit figures in terms of sales and, let's say, on midterm, we assume to go into the mid million range, single-digit million range in these areas.

For the EAP based products, I mean we did a significant progress in scaling that technology from a lab scale to a pilot line. We have active customer projects and yes, we are not yet in serial sales, but we have different potentials, and we added the magnetic active polymer sensors to it to have a broader base.

Perhaps to add SoftPulse is a little bit unfair when you look only at this advance and normally, we forget what is already in serial applications. So NeoFlex has been also an innovation 5 years ago. And just remind NeoFlex is really kicking in this year with a good progress, a good traction. And I mean, for us, it's very, very important that when we get such a product in the market such as NeoFlex there is no room for error, yes? So -- and that's why we may take a little bit more steps to make sure that these products are safe, reliable and that they really add to our promise in the market. And so that's a little bit balancing that. But I'm really confident you will enjoy Mattia's insights into the variables later on in the breakout session, and that gives really a good insight on what is possible with these products.

Sebastian Vogel from UBS. I've got 3 questions, a couple of them on the guidance. With regard to the sales guidance, you mentioned that you aim for sort of a higher single-digit number over the medium term. Can you a little bit elaborate what means higher for you in that regard. It's a bit nearly, but nonetheless. Second question is on the margin guidance. You have also laid out that where you are, where you want to go and sort of the blocks or the steps to get there essentially. Is there a chance to elaborate also a little bit further how much the individual building blocks are supposed to be contributing to the sort of step up a little bit understand what is more relevant and what is the less relevant?

And the third and last question is, if I compare it to Capital Markets there, I guess, in 2021, a long time ago, but nonetheless, and when I compare the margin ambition in health care that was laid out there compared to the one that you laid out today, if I'm not mistaken, it's like 200 basis points below that number, of course, 2021 is a long time ago. But nonetheless, if you can add a little bit of a comment there, what was driving the delta, that would be appreciated as well?

Yes. So maybe I'll start with the last one. So it's an earlier Capital Markets Day in 2021 or 2022, clearly, a higher range was indicated. That was based on the know-how and knowledge at that point in time. Please take into account that we've had since then COVID, which really changed the perspective. It helped us on the one hand side. On the other hand, it has also impacted the overall economic environment, and led, for example, to the destocking in the health care industry.

And the second point is naturally what I would call the breakdown of the international trading order and the supply chains, which have particularly impacted the automotive industry, which were set up in a very, very global way, right? And I also strongly believe that even if we may be able as Dätwyler to manage the implications, for example, of the tariffs right now reasonably well. At the same time, the overarching economic environment is more conservative, right? So this is leading to us going in with what I would call an ambitious midterm target, but one that we also can stand behind.

Now in terms of the factors that I mentioned, yes, that are needed to drive that EBIT margin, it's hard to say what is more important or is there 1 or 2 things that are really more important, right? I will not give a breakdown Sebastian between this line means ex that line means why, right, in our model. What is really essential and what is at the core of what we seek to do is that focus on higher value offering, improve your product mix systematically and be tough and take the hard decisions on where that is not the case. That guardrail is critical.

In parallel, we are ensuring that we take unnecessary cost out, that we leverage our synergies, that we better optimize and use the resources and capabilities we have across the board. So it will be end-to-end, right? We can't drive that growth without in turn also that some of those preconditions for growth that are provided via the ForwardNow program are in place, yes.

And then in the last term, we keep that open. We say high single digits for the group. I think you could make a rough estimation if you see the development of health care and the growth and what margin we expect there. It gives you probably a fair indication of where we end up, yes.

[indiscernible]. I've got 2 questions, please. The first one is co-development you were mentioning a couple of times. Is there also co-financing you could develop with your client or [indiscernible] just the upfront, you pay anything or...

It depends on the markets and to the kind of routines in the market. In health care, the earlier you start with the customer development, the more the customers willing to have a share of these costs. This is what we experienced clearly. And it always shows 2 things. First of all, the customer is serious to bring that product to a serial application or at least to the next stage in the development cycle. And second is that our value that we create is worth something, yes. So in health care, we have experienced that over the last 2 years, increasingly because we're also stepping up in the high-value segment, also going earlier and earlier with our customers starting the development.

In automotive and general industry, it always depends on the application. I would say in the commodity field and automotive, clearly no. This is also why we will focus that less and less in the future, so we will focus on high value. And here, it depends really on the complexity of the application. If it's a standard application and you have your material specified or special material for that. Usually, this is easy prefinancing because this is your receipt, you all have it, you have the knowledge. Large investments normally get shared.

[indiscernible] also on the net working capital, the question to the CFO, does that help in the future have kind of prefinancing -- bringing the net working capital into a shape? Or is that not to the extent that helps the net working capital?

I mean I would say it helps in the sense that you have an additional source of revenue either under other operating income, yes. So in that sense, it helps, yes.

And then the second question is more on the product portfolio. I mean you were mentioning that the product portfolio goes more to the value-add components. And you're going to [indiscernible], if I may say, the existing product portfolio. Can you give us a feeling how much of your current product portfolio will be subject to reduction or phase out or I don't know how to call it. And maybe an additional question to this, do you see in the market, speed up of products that become commoditized, if I may say, with the point that you have to intensify the R&D development, maybe the dynamics in this area that would be of [indiscernible]?

I mean your first part or first question, you usually have 3 categories that you would tackle if you want to make a portfolio change. The first one is what you really need to get out, yes? So this is not a lot for us. You have to imagine that we have acquired many, many companies over the last decades. And some of them have started perhaps 20, 25 years ago as a small family-owned business and as well have some remaining parts in their portfolio that go back to that time. So we are no more the best supplier for these parts, yes? And this is basically the way you find other solutions with your customers. You look at it -- can you have an all-time demand just covered by one delivery. So this is somehow how we get that solved. Normally, I mean if you look at our portfolio in industry, this is clearly in the 1-digit million range, right? So it's not a large amount.

The second part of the portfolio, this is something that you would let run out, also clearly look at your price position, your price position has to -- does not -- or it's not possible at this price position is strong in diluting your average portfolio. So we don't have strategic projects in the case that they would be very, very unprofitable. This is -- we have a clear transparency in our portfolio. This is not what we are doing. So this is going to run out with a decent price.

And the third, I think, most important area of that is what are you acquiring as new business that will ramp up in industrial in 2 to 3 years. And in health care, where it is not so prone because we are mainly playing in high value, then in 5 to 7 years. And that also covers a little bit of second question. So if you look at the market for battery sealings, battery pack sealing, cell sealings in China. So we could really get a lot of business there while competing on price. But if you have a huge investment in ceiling toolings for battery pack sealings that are very simple and that will be commoditized in 2, 3 years from a Chinese local suppliers. This is not where we can compete, and this is not where we want to compete. And this is why the selective approach, what out of this area of possible applications in the battery, in the connectors and whatever in the powertrain of an electric is the -- are the ones that really fit to our core competencies. And this is exactly what we are focusing is what the teams get trained in and exactly the way forward.

In order to say in time, we can take one more question now in the plenary. And then I invite you to ask your questions during the coffee break to our team. So who would like to? Okay. So Charlie made the beginning and he makes the end.

I hope it's of common interest. I understand that today, you would like to talk about the midterm future. But I think we would also be a good [indiscernible] to give us an indication about your margin and your sales development in the current year, it's end of November, almost you may could say something to that?

I mean, during the half year results, we have indicated that we are positively optimistic and we can reinforce that statement today. So I think we are in line with the expectations that we gave ourselves and that we've communicated at that time.

Okay. This would be the end of our Q&A session here in the plenary. You have now the well-deserved coffee break ahead of you. So we'll take a 30-minute break. Outside in the aisle, the coffee should be ready. There's also a wide assortment of products that you can take a look at. There are a lot of colleagues from the business here to be able to explain to you those products. So please take the opportunity and talk to our people, talk to our management representatives. After the break, we will split this group into 2 groups. On your name tag, you have either an A or a B. So we have a group A, a Group B. We have 2 additional rooms right next to this room, where we have the so-called breakout sessions. And my colleague, David Friedman, and myself will then take Group A to room 5 and Group B to Room 6. But I'll remind you after the coffee break, again, with mic outside in the aisle. And the breakout session will start at 11:30. Thank you for your attention.