A warm welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to this year's investors and media briefing for the 2025 results for Schweiter Technologies. Very happy to see so many people here in the room and also connected virtually.

I know it's your peak season, therefore we highly appreciate, of course, that you take the time and show interest in our company. Today I'm here with Urs Scheidegger.

He will go into more details then about the numbers, and also our Chairman, Heinz Baumgartner, is here. What have we prepared?

Here we go, huh? I would just wrap up at the beginning shortly some business highlights, high-level the numbers, but in details Urs will go, and then some examples to show you how we implement our strategy and how we progress, huh?

That would be the first part. Then Urs would dig into more details on the results, and then we would wrap it up with the outlook and how we see the current situation, in particular for 2026.

Of course, we have then also time for questions and those physically here, you're more than invited then, of course, for the lunch afterwards. What have we achieved in 2025?

We had a solid cash generation despite the lower net sales. At 904 million Swiss francs net sales, if we adjust it by the divestment of our rail and bus business, we had 891 million Swiss francs.

That's -9% compared to last year. 1/3 coming from the currency exchanges, 2/3 coming from lower volumes and the record-low material prices.

On the EBITDA, we achieved 72 million, again adjusted by the mobility rail and bus business is 74 million, which is in 8.3% margin, about a percentage point below the previous year compared when we adjust the previous year by the Accelerate investments. Operating cash flow, 39 million Swiss francs, solid cash conversion, taking into account that we had about 10 million cash-out of our Accelerate measures, severance payments, etc., that we had then this year what we executed in '24, but the cash-out was then obviously in '25.

The board in good cash generation will propose 15 Swiss francs per share, a stable dividend, to the General Assembly in April. Now I would like to go a bit into the four business areas and provide you some more details what we saw in the market last year.

Maybe I start with Transport & Industry. Obviously, Transport & Industry influenced by the divestment of our loss-making rail and bus business, but this will improve our margin profile for the future.

Also important to know, of course, we had a subdued market demand. We had lower revenues in our industry business, especially also in our traditional vehicle business, where we had lower demand from our customers.

The good thing, of course, is to emphasize is our initiatives we did on the cost and efficiency side were compensating for that and were supporting our margins in the industry business. A highlight certainly our successful launch of our innovation of Duroline.

We shared that in that community several times. That's a fantastic product where we can attack, especially in the vehicle market where we see the structural trend away from metal to plastics.

Duroline is a fantastic answer for that on the vehicle market. We see that we have continuous more interest from our customers.

I will come back to that when we talk about the outlook. To scale up now Duroline is certainly one of the priorities for 2026.

On the Architecture side, we had a slight revenue reduction driven especially by the soft markets in China in particular, but also a bit slower in North America after the record the previous year before. Asia was, as I just said, heavily impacted by China.

China, we had very slow demand from our customers, and the market, the construction market, has definitely not recovered yet. The US construction activity was a bit influenced by the uncertainties, be it on the tariff side, be it on the inflation, be it on the economic instability.

There were some unknowns in there that had an effect on the investments in the construction market and obviously also then on our business. Europe was, that's the highlight, of course, in the Architecture business, was improving in top line and also in margin.

Not compensating fully for the other regions, but certainly a positive sign that in Europe, after now rather challenging construction market years, that there is might now the turnaround ahead. Then on the Core Materials side, we had, despite the lower revenues, we had a solid performance, especially in the first semester, a bit slower in the second semester, but we also had a certain shift over the semester there from some orders into the first semester, obviously that had an impact then on the results in the second semester.

Core Materials was profiting from the kitting operations, which we expanded in China. The highlight there for us is due to those kitting capabilities, we actually are gaining market share against local competition in China.

That shows that also in China, we can differentiate with our solutions and can attack the local competition. This will help us, of course, in the future, because about 80% also in '25 of the installed capacity was in China.

It's certainly the biggest market for in wind, but for us, encouraging that we can win market shares against Chinese competitors. Then also an important element is that we increase the share of recycled PET.

We are now in the position that we can go up to 100% recycled PET in our solutions if the customers demand that, but I will come back with a bit more details in a minute on that one. The Marine and Technology segment was a bit muted in '25, but the balsa business performed very well and was supporting not only the top line, but in particular also on the margins.

We are extremely happy that we have our 15,000 hectares FSC-certified forest in Ecuador and Papua New Guinea in order to deliver against the expectation from our customers to actually have balsa and PET in our portfolio. On the Display side, we had lower revenues and driven by the economic conditions.

The customer sentiments were certainly still rather negative in 2025 in Europe and in North America. Of course, the top line was also influenced by the record-low raw material prices.

For instance, our main raw material, methyl methacrylate, which is the basis for our acrylic solutions, actually the raw material price was cut in half compared 1st of January to the end of the year. Of course, that has an impact on our top line because there is certain expectation then in the market, of course, to also adapt the prices accordingly.

The portfolio transformation is going ahead. We extended our RE series.

RE series we call the series where we have an increased or even 100% recycling content in our portfolio or in our products. We see there an increasing demand as an option on the one hand to improve the sustainability profile of our customers, and on the other hand, that we improve our cost position because we always say we transform our portfolio towards a more sustainable, but also more attractive portfolio.

The relative margins were protected by our cost and efficiency program, as well as extreme procurement and pricing measures. The procurement activities actually we did in all the four business areas, but the impact was in Display the biggest.

That's a bit the summary what we saw in the different markets in the different business areas. I would like now to give you one or the other example that shows a bit how we implement our strategy and how we want to move forward there.

I would like to start with an example, it's also on the title of today's presentation, the BMO Centre in Calgary. It's actually the largest event location in Western Canada with more than 1 million square feet space, about 100,000 square meters.

Why do I show you that picture? Of course, it's a nice picture and a nice building, but it's really a testimonial for our endless design possibilities, because we won that project because convincing in the color and the color options.

The architect had a clear vision how he wanted to show somehow the prairie and the country of Canada, and we were the only one matching exactly the colors he wanted. That's why we won that project.

That shows with our experts, we have in all the locations color-matching experts, and that's a clear differentiator against our competitors. We do not have just a number of standard colors, we actually can adapt the finishes to the specific need of our customers.

Another example from Architecture where we see, despite the challenging market environment, where we see gross opportunities, one is the data center environment in the Americas. We are actually gaining market share in a growing market.

The key arguments for using ALUCOBOND in data centers, the main argument is again aesthetics and design possibilities. Even in the Americas, it's not so easy to get the permission to build a data center in the middle of a city or close to the cities, hence aesthetics design possibilities are important, and there we have a differentiation against other materials, but also against other competitors.

I mentioned the color capabilities, we have 90 standard colors, but as I said before, we can adjust to the specific needs of our customers. Then durability, of course, low maintenance, you don't need to clean it, there's definitely a low maintenance and low lifecycle cost.

Then the high material recycled content, up to 100%, and it's 100% recyclable at the end afterwards. That's also a key argument for our customers.

In certain cases, even our rear-ventilated facades, ALUCOBOND, can actually improve or reduce the cooling load for the data centers. The one in the middle, we actually won due to that reason.

It was due to that rear-ventilated facade, there was more space for additional isolation without reducing the space of the building, it was an additional argument to go with ALUCOBOND. Not in all cases that's relevant, but in that particular case, that was the winning argument against competition and other materials.

If we look at the numbers in the US market, last year there were about 120 data centers built in the US, different sizes, of course, and there is a double-digit growth projected for 2026. The market size we estimate around 50 million Swiss francs for the facades only, and we have currently about 10% market share of this 50 million, and we have clearly the ambition to grow that market share in the future.

That's one of our focus vertical markets for 2026. Another example where we can show how we implement our strategy.

Two other examples were more on the element on attractive markets, how we want to identify attractive markets where there is growth, etc. This is an example maybe operational excellence and attractive markets where we drive digitalization and want to create more or better access to our customers.

I showed you several times already our virtual world. We extended now that one.

It's not just a supermarket and a shopping mall, we have now also a petrol station and a car dealership shop, so that shows we are extending that offering. What we actually achieved is that the number of visitors of our virtual world, we doubled, and also the mean residence time doubled.

At the beginning, a visitor stayed about 1 and 1/2 minutes in the virtual world. In the meantime, we are above 3 minutes, so that shows we somehow can show our applications and can show what can be done with our solutions and it really showcases the applications and not just talking about the product.

Another example is our Sintrex. Sintrex is a new solution that we launched the beginning of 2025.

Instead of just always telling you how great our products are, I brought you today a testimonial from a customer, that's Amari Plastics in London, and they published actually that LinkedIn post on the left-hand side. Can you see the difference?

Performed, built to last. The time between the left picture and the right picture is a month, and that was actually also all the time outside in the rain, in the weather, in the cold, etc., and there's no difference visible.

Hence, that emphasizes how good the quality is of our Sintrex, how you can advertise and use it also for outside applications. That shows we are also there on the right track with our innovations.

Since we launched last year, we see now the recurring orders from our top customers, and already more than 50% of our top customers placed recurring orders. Of course, the ambition is that it's at the end 100%, but already 50% of our top customers placed additional orders on Sintrex, also like the Duroline I mentioned before, certainly a focus area to leverage now the possibilities with Sintrex and to drive it in 2026.

When we talk about PET, that's a PET solution, then we can also talk about PET recycling. Another example where we maybe more on the operational excellence, how we try on the one hand to save costs and reduce our costs, and on the other hand, helping our customers to improve their sustainability profile.

We had a PET waste in our [unclear] Poland kitting operations. We gathered that and it was about 1,200 metric tons in 2025.

We recycled that and feed it fully into our production again. That reduces, on the one hand, our CO2 equivalents in Scope 3 emissions, about 3,000 tons, but also costs.

You can assume, depending a bit on the specifications, a ton of PET costs between 1,000 and 1,500 Swiss francs times 1,200, so that initiative brought a saving between 1 and 2 million. That shows, again, we are working in all dimensions to reduce our costs and at the same time adding value for our customers.

What we also did additionally is that we secured the supply chain to post-consumer PET in order to make sure that if our customers want our PET with 100% recycled material, that we also have the raw material. It's not so easy to get recycled PET.

It's a fight in that market, but we have that supply chain now secured with a cost advantage for us, again, transforming our portfolio into a more sustainable, but at the same time, more attractive portfolio. This closed-loop system supports now that we can significantly increase our recycled PET, not only technically, but also that we have the raw materials available, of course, always without making any compromise on properties or on the performance of our products.

These were a bit the examples that show how we implement our strategy. If I look outside, the winter is almost gone, but we still have a picture from winter here where our products are used.

Last year, we showed you a picture at the sea, but also in wintertime, our products are used, be it in the skis when you have a balsa core or be it on a chairlift or the protections of the ice rinks. Of course, we used it this year because we were obviously also present with our Sintrex at the Olympic Games, huh, especially in Bormio and in Cortina.

A lot of the signages were Sintrex, and of course, that emphasizes also in winter times our products are relevant and used in different applications. With that, I would hand over to Urs to dig a bit more into more details in the numbers.

Thank you very much, Roman. Also, good morning from my side to all of you.

Thank you for being here. I present first the key financials of the group for the full year.

All right. Net sales, top line, we see a reduction of -11% to 904 million, FX-adjusted -8%.

If you then further adjust it with the divestment of the rail and bus segment, we reach 891 million, which is then a reduction of 9% and FX-adjusted 6%. Despite the lower net sales, the group was able to secure profitability with 72 million EBITDA, which is the same level as one year ago, 72 million.

If you then adjust it in '24 with the Accelerate expenses for our efficiency and innovation program, and we adjust it for the exit of the divestment mobility, we reach 74 million Swiss francs. This is now the continued operations going forward, compared to the 92 million one year ago.

Despite lower net sales, we reach a secured profitability of 8.3%. EBIT stands at 30 million Swiss francs compared to the 23 million last year.

The 23 million was impacted by the Accelerate provisions. EBIT-adjusted without the mobility business, we reach 34 million.

The operational loss for the mobility business, January to July, seven months, was 3.5 million. This business we have exited.

The 34 million is now the ongoing operation. Net income stands at -10 million because this is including 27.5 million impairments, depreciations of the shareholder loans to the mobility business, and transaction costs.

This is included. Overall, we have an impact of 31 million for the mobility business, 3.5 million above EBIT and 27.5 million below EBIT in financial expenses.

Free operating cash flow stands at 39 million Swiss francs, a solid number. This was achieved with cash conversion, strict working capital measures, and CapEx management.

We will see it a bit later. All right.

Thank you. We see here the breakdown of the net sales on the left-hand side in volume, price, mix.

You notice we have an volume impact of 50 million, which is mainly related to the Display business, in particular in the second half year. In the Display business, as in Europe, the distributors were destocking and also went on a wait-and-see attitude for our display products due to the falling raw material cost notations.

The Core Material and Architecture business was much more resilient for the full year 2025. Core Material a bit stronger in the first half year and a bit weaker in the second half year.

This is a bit seasonality and how the OEM blade producers are ordering the material. T&I, Transport & Industry, was confronted with much more muted demand for the full year.

The price impact of the 15 million is clearly related to the Display and acrylic business in Europe. In particular in that segment, the PMMA and MMA costs went rapidly down, and that also had an impact then on the net sales pricing.

All other business segments, Core Material and particularly also Architecture, were much more robust in pricing, and we are able to keep the prices or increase it. We have a slight positive mix change as the group is further transforming to the more attractive and more profitable segments, and that will further run into 2026.

Currency translation is a negative hit of 30 million Swiss francs due to the higher appreciation Swiss franc, particularly to the US dollar for our company. You see how the business composition has developed, and Architecture is slightly increasing the share in particular, and also Core Material is able to increase the share.

Then towards the EBITDA development, we start from the 92 million in 2024, this number is adjusted by the Accelerate expenses, and then the 74 million, which is adjusted by the divestment of mobility. Relative gross margins remain robust and healthy, and you see that as well in that bridge that gross margins are even slightly further increasing.

This has to do with our self-helping measures, particularly in procurement, where our material costs in percentage of net sales are further reduced to 51.0%, one year ago 51.5%, and you remember two years ago, it was 53.5%. The group is actively working to optimize procurement with more sources and also changing specifications at lower cost with the same or even better quality.

SG&A, we have a saving of 12 million. That's mainly related to the realization of the Accelerate program, right?

Savings out of the closures of plant and personal cost reduction. That was a good contribution, but not only Accelerate, the company, of course, worked to reduce SG&A across the board.

Here you see the development on the margin profile. I explained, gross margins even slightly better and healthy.

SG&A, of course, with a lower denominator on net sales, despite the 12 million savings, cannot fully compensate at the moment. We are now moving to the cash flow.

Cash flow is reaching 39 million Swiss franc. I'm talking about free operating cash flow, which is about 6% ROC, and the development is as follows: We have a bit the neutral impact on EBITDA.

We are further improving change of net working capital. You see that in the cash flow segment of 16 million Swiss francs better, improving due to our actions.

On a change-on-change, 2024 was even 26 million, then it's a negative move of 10 million. The group is working to optimize the inventory levels, the safety stocks.

The operational measures are improving across the board on days of sales outstanding and receivables, on days of payable outstanding, and on inventories. This is moving in the right direction.

On CapEx, you see the 7 million, and on the cash-out, it's only 16 million Swiss francs CapEx. You need to neutralize this a little bit because we received a grant in England for an investment project of 3 million, the normalized CapEx is about 20 million like in 2024, and much, much lower than in the past.

The 20 million for last year is a sustainable number. We are working hard to keep at that level.

You also remember, we said the maximum cap is 30 million Swiss francs, which we want to spend for CapEx. Then we have the 15 million, and this is majorly a cash-out of severance payments of the Accelerate program due to the closures, which resulted in cash-outs in 2025.

About 10 million of the 15 million is related to the severance payments. You see that if you then would adjust the 39 million with 10 million severances, which is a one-time hit, but calculate back the 3 million grant, you will reach 46 million and then about 6.5% ROC.

You see on the periods the 39 million how it stands historically, despite clearly lower net sales, the group is able to keep a robust free cash flow of 40 million. We have a positive net cash, net liquidity of 56 million, which is still further improving year on year.

The equity ratio stands at 68%, we have a very solid balance sheet. It is proposed to the General Assembly to pay a 15 Swiss francs dividend per registered share, which is a payout of 21 million Swiss francs for the total dividend.

With that, I'm handing over again to you, Roman, for the outlook.

Thank you, Urs. In the outlook, I would like to start with that picture that you know.

In that volatile business environment we are in, we are convinced it's about consequent implementation of our strategy. We confirmed our strategy along attractive markets, innovation, portfolio transformation, operational excellence, focusing on our people and cash flow, huh?

To stay agile and to implement consequently will be key for success in 2026 in those challenging times. On the left-hand side, you see a bit in more details how we judge currently the markets, huh?

If I start with Transport & Industry, what we see at the moment, still confronted with subdued market demands. On the other hand, maybe on the positive side, the manufacturing PMI was for a long time above 50 in February.

Maybe that's a positive sign. Question is, how sustainable is it, huh?

Then on the Architecture side is certainly linked to the predicted increasing construction activity. Also there, if we look at Europe, the Euroconstruct shows also positive momentum, the index, huh?

After weak '24 and '25, it also shows a positive momentum. Also there, the question is how sustainable is it, and will it have a direct impact or a fast impact?

On the Core Material side, Urs explained it, we had a very reliable and stable business last year. We expect that also this year.

There's even a bit of sign for an upswing in the second semester, due to the discussions we have with our customers. Also there, still a bit of unknown, still quite some months to go until the second semester.

On the Display side, certainly we are dependent on the consumer sentiment. If we also take maybe from Europe the consumer confidence index was in February -12.1, still negative, but it was negative for the last couple of years, huh, but it was the highest since November '24.

Also there is the question, will it be now a bit better than '25, and is there a positive movement? Also there, uncertainty how sustainable those good indications of the indexes as we follow are.

Of course, the visibility for our business is still very limited. For instance, in the Display business, we see about four to five weeks, and what is beyond, we are not sure anymore because the customers started to order in much more shorter lead times.

They expect also shorter lead times. That's also an opportunity again for us, because we produce very close to our customers and don't need to bring it from far away.

The question is, again, also here, how sustainable that development is. If we look into '26, we expect short term still a demanding situation on the top line.

Also driven by the low raw material prices we still have. Also there, the raw material prices increased slightly now in January, February.

Obviously, we also adapted our prices in the market. Also there is the question, how sustainable is that development?

Will it now rather increase over time or will it hover again on the levels we are now? The visibility, as I said now several times, is just very limited, and we are not sure in which direction it will go.

Of course, want to make transparent also which indexes as we follow that give indications for our business. We have a lot of measures initiated that are designed to gain market shares, also in a market environment that is stable or even shrinking, and to safeguard our margins.

Just to highlight maybe a couple of those actions, because we are convinced we need to focus our energy on the things we can influence. Therefore, we want to do our homework, that we are more than ready then in case there's a bit of tailwind.

On the attractive market side, maybe just to highlight two elements, that we really drive the vertical markets that we specified where we see growth. Data centers I mentioned.

In the Display business, it's certainly the grocery stores. I just was at the EuroShop this week in Düsseldorf.

That's the biggest retail trade fair where all the shop builders, etc., also exhibit. We have been there with our booths and our team as well.

If we look at what they exhibit, they exhibit 70% to 75% is grocery stores, and not for shoes or whatever, but shops for food. That, of course, shows us that we believe there's a growth potential in there.

We also have a differentiation there, because normally in a grocery store, you have higher humidity, you need better quality material that it lasts longer, and we have the right answers there. Then the other main element for the attractive markets and to create growth is that we drive our specification business, that we do not only talk to our distributors, but rather with the end user, that they specify our material and create a pull effect from the market.

Also there, an example that gives us or encourage us for 2026, we tripled the number of projects in Display compared to last year now in the first couple of weeks. That shows that we can create momentum, but again, question is how sustainable, and how will it go into the next months?

On the innovation side, scale up the innovations, Sintrex, Duroline, also Monarch, that's certainly the main focus. Of course, we fill the pipeline further with our RE series, with new ideas, etc., but the main focus is on scaling up the innovations we just launched.

For instance, we also just launched this week the DIBOND recycled that is 100% recycled core, and the aluminum cover sheets are up to 95% recycled, so, again, optimizing the cost position for us at the one hand, but on the other hand, also improving the sustainability profile of our customers. On the operational excellence, main focus: procurement, procurement, procurement.

We reduced our percentage versus net sales of our material costs. We want to continue that path, and we strongly believe that we have the right actions in place to do so.

Of course, we will also proactively manage the working capital and the CapEx. Urs mentioned the magnitude, CapEx between 20 and 30 million, rather at the lower end, so that we also protect our cash flow in the year to come.

Again, we have a lot of measures in place and actions in place where we believe we can create some growth via market share and protect our profitability. We have to admit, we also depend a bit on the market, but again, we focus our energy on the things we can influence and are ready when a bit of tailwind is coming.

Thank you very much. That's the short summary of '25 and our outlook, and we are more than happy to answer your questions.

Thank you. I probably have to mention for the ones who are connected virtually, there's a blue button you can press so that you can ask your questions then directly.

Any questions?

Tobias Klöpper from ZKB for online. What are the main levers to achieve further cost savings next to procurement?

I imagine further potential in SG&A is limited. Do you also consider maybe footprint or portfolio optimization?

The footprint optimization, of course, is always a topic. We look at that, how our different factories develop.

That's certainly always in focus, and we revisit that constantly. In terms of portfolio, we believe the portfolio we have today in terms of companies and those four markets, we believe we have enough growth potential in there, and believe that's the right setup, yeah.

Thank you. Then maybe another question on the cash flow.

If you consider flat revenues, would you be comfortable saying that this is also flat free cash flow development going forward?

Maybe a question for you, Urs.

Let's look on the three elements driving cash flow. As we have presented here, even if top line is challenging, there are many actions to further improve our profitability and so our EBITDA in '26, right?

Our self-helping measures in the procurement segment to realize the full run rate savings of Accelerate, and also the divestment of mobility will help the EBITDA. On the CapEx, I mentioned the around 20 million Swiss francs, you can assume.

On the working capital, assuming raw material costs remain where they are now, we will certainly further optimize. Of course, there is a chance that raw material notations go up, but that also helps us on net sales and then operational EBITDA.

We will keep a robust cash flow also in this environment.

Thank you, Urs.

Thank you.

There was another question here. Fehrenbach.

Fehrenbach, AWP.

It's on.

I have two bit different questions. One is, given the 31 million extra costs you had and the loss of minus of 10 million Swiss francs on net level, is the assumption correct that this year you will be on net level positive again?

The second question is, maybe for my understanding, after the divestment of the bus and rail business, what business you have left in the transport

Can I quickly complete the first question? Certainly, this 27.5 million is an accounting loss.

It's a one-time loss in '25, which is not recurring in '26. Yes, we also get rid of the operational loss of another 3.5 million.

Certainly, we will have clearly positive net income in 2026.

The second part of the question was what is remaining in the Transport & Industry. The industry business we have is still heavily focusing on vehicles, but more on construction vehicles or farmer vehicles, etc., where it's more about the covers.

The difference is much more the technology behind. The rail and bus business had sandwich structures, etc., and our industry or the remaining industry business is now a business where we produce the sheets and normally deliver to a thermoformer or directly to the OEM.

They form it then for a coverage of a tractor, etc., in the different colors, etc. The vehicle business is still in there, the sanitary business when we talk about shower covers, shower trays, etc.

The example we showed when we talk about IsoQ, the covers and the protections of the walls, that's industry business. We still have mainly sanitary, vehicles, and the construction market in the industry business in there, yeah.

Pardon? Industry?

Not Display? It's different customers.

The Display business normally goes to someone who cuts it and does not form it, and prints it or, etc. The industry business, they take the sheet and they form it.

They form it via thermoforming typically and then apply it for industry applications, yeah. The customers and the go-to-market is different because on the industry side, it's much more that we talk directly to the OEM or the thermoformer, and in the industry, it's much more than the retail or the end user, yeah.

Other questions? Herr Seitner?

Pascal Seidner, Seitner Capital. I have a question regarding your cash position and capital allocation, and maybe also to Heinz Baumgartner.

Why didn't you talk or think about a share buyback on these levels? Wouldn't this be the best way to get cash reduced?

Or do you have any plans for M&A? Maybe that's the reason why you didn't announce a share buyback, because more than 10% free cash flow yield, net cash 56 million, wouldn't that make sense?

The question came up already, of course, and we discussed it already a couple of weeks ago together. Share buyback was not in focus.

The dividend was in focus in terms of asset allocation. What the future will bring, we will see, but at the moment, it's not a highest priority.

On

M&A?

M&A plans, we always said our main focus is organic growth in the areas, and we opportunistically add via acquisitions in case we can add market access, we can add a new technology, it needs to make sense to somehow complete the value chain, etc. The focus of M&A is not to add a new business area or another segment.

Opportunistically, of course, M&A is always an option, of course.

One more question on the Core Materials business and your plans in China maybe. There's a lot of fear in the market that there's overcapacity from China.

What makes you confident, I think you're investing now there, that you can compete with local producers on prices?

We have to probably look at it differently. One hand is what is happening in China, and we invested into kitting capabilities, that's in the Core Materials business, to actually complete our value chain.

I believe I mentioned it, that we with that complete value chain, we are in the position to also compete against local competitors because we have also differentiation in the product itself. An example is Sealex.

Sealex is a product that absorbs for the same properties less resin. The resin is extremely expensive, and if the customers can reduce the resin uptake and can save money there, then the total cost of ownership are lower.

Also with such differentiation on the product, we can win market share. It's not only about capacity and volume, but we need the differentiation on the innovation side, and we believe we have good answers for that.

That's maybe the example in China. Then what is happening in Europe due to overcapacity coming from China, for instance in the Display business.

Also there, of course, the focus needs to be that you differentiate one on the product itself, and I showed a couple of examples, but what we also differentiate in the service. I mentioned lead times, that we can react much faster than our competitors who need to transport it in from China.

There we have a competitive advantage, especially in the current environment where the lead times are getting shorter and shorter. Then how is it to interact with us, that we have the digitalization, we have with all the top customers, we have now EDI connections, it's also convenient for our customers to order with us instead of ordering with someone else.

That has also a value. We do differentiate ourselves, on the one hand, on the product itself, but also on the services and how it is to work with us.

We strongly believe that like that we can protect ourselves from the competition. Of course, it's a constant fight and it's demanding, and it keeps us on the toes, yeah.

I would like to add that most of the blades are hybrid. Hybrid means PET and balsa wood goes into the blade.

Schweiter is the only supplier who can provide both materials, and we still see really good demand on the balsa worldwide and also in particular in China.

Any other questions? Any online?

No? Okay.

You have to push the button and then you can talk, huh? Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe with the mic so that people virtually can hear it.

Roelof Renders from AMG. On your guidance for '26, that's pretty vague and it's not really linked to your strategic targets.

Can you specify that a bit more so that I understand what you actually mean with that, also in this plan to get to 7% to 9% EBIT margin?

Of course, over the cycle, we want to achieve and we confirmed this 7% to 9% EBIT margin. Of course, we are working on the cost positions and Urs elaborated on that, and of course, we are also working on the top line.

Short term, we don't see that it will change immediately, but we believe short term that we have all the measures in place that will support that, but a bit of support from the markets we will need in order to make the big next step. Short term, we are working on improving our profitability profile, and the first milestone we want to achieve 10% EBITDA margins again.

Do you refer here to EBITDA margins or the EBIT margins? Because I

We refer in our over the cycle targets on EBIT margins, 7 to 9, but the first intermediate step is now that we achieve 10% EBITDA margins.

Then follow-up maybe to the other question on the share buyback. Can you give a bit more economic rationale?

Because basically you only say it's not in the focus, but that's not providing a lot of insight.

Of course, these are options that have been discussed, but the conclusion was currently not in focus. I don't know, Heinz, if you want to add one or two sentences to that.

Musscht uftaschte

ans Mikrofon da.

You basically outlined it. First priority for us has to keep the strong and healthy balance sheet.

Second priority has to generate decent cash flow. Now, having said this, you basically have the options to do a share buyback or to invest it in the business or to pay an attractive dividend.

The board has decided that regarding shareholders, we want to pay a continued attractive dividend. For us, the dividend has a higher priority than a share buyback program because we are convinced that once the operating performance is there, what we are targeting, the share price will also be there where we believe it should be.

Having said this, we have the third option of instead of giving the excess cash to our shareholders, investing it in our business. Regarding this, the management has clearly outlined that if we have an opportunity for, let's say, some bolt-on acquisitions or investments, we do that, but we are not targeting at this point in time a significant acquisition because we're convinced that we have enough growth potential in the existing business we are in.

That's a little bit to share what was the considerations at board level. Are you satisfied with this answer?

Thank you for the explanation. This gives a bit more insight, but it doesn't really link it to return potential.

You cannot really make up your mind why at this level there is no share buyback. The whole element with cost of capital, can you please add that to the arguments why not to do a share buyback now, and just give cash back to shareholders who maybe have to pay a tax on it?

It just doesn't make sense. Economically, it doesn't make sense.

I cannot give you further rationale besides what I just mentioned. I'm not excluding that at one point in time we might consider additional measures, and an additional measure could be a share buyback program.

I'm not excluding this. I'm simply saying at this point in time, we want to pay an attractive dividend and we want to focus on further improving the performance, because the performance is the single most important driver for the share price.

We believe long term, the share price will be again there where it should be. If you are of the opinion that there might be some, let's say, short-term deteriorations, or the share price is not where it should be, then it might be a good investment opportunity.

Again, to focus on the cash flow, to keep a strong balance sheet, not to, let's say, run into undecent debts, that is the view of the board. I am convinced it is the right view.

We have a long-term thinking and not a short-term optimization thinking. Because

you basically don't want to elaborate it, while actually shareholders have the pain here, right? You currently have the situation that you have four years where you don't create shareholder value.

The shares have lost 90% of the value. It seems that you focus on the right things operationally.

I'm happy to hear that you are convinced that this will play out. If that is the case, exactly now is the moment to do a share buyback, not once you have achieved it.

What I notice is that in this setup, the shareholders take all the pain and there's no one from the executives who is joining the boat. That's just not satisfying.

Maybe we can elaborate it on another moment, but I think you missed some serious points in shareholder value return and what you are doing with this strategy.

Thank you. Other questions?

Da ist noch eine da.

Manuel Bortolotti, Lienhardt & Partner. Could you give us an update about your sale process from the closed plant in Mainz?

It is classified as a asset for sale in the balance sheet, about 6 million. Maybe a second question, you mentioned the signs in the Core Materials for a potential upswing in H2.

What are the signs that you see in the market?

Maybe the second question first. The signs in the market, it's more signs with our customers, that we see what new models they plan, where we are able to provide prototypes, etc.

We have signs in the dialogue with our customers that there is a potential upswing. That's why we formulated also could be.

It's not that we have the orders in the books already, but there are signs in the conversations with our customers that there is a potential upswing. On the Mainz side, yes, it is for sale, and we are in the process.

We have discussions with interested parties. If that is now in a month or two months or a bit longer, we will see, but that process is running, yeah.

Maybe a final question? Otherwise, thank you very much for your interest, and also virtually no questions?

Good. Then thank you very much for your interest and for being here, and for the ones joined virtually, and for the ones who are here, you're more than invited for lunch afterwards.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.