Good morning and good afternoon to everyone, and thank you very much for joining us today. For your information, this call is being recorded and a replay will be available on the investor section of our website at the end of the call.

As it has just been mentioned, a Q&A session will occur after the end of the formal presentation today with Luc Themelin, our CEO, and Thomas Baumgartner, our CFO. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Luc Themelin.

Thank you, Véronique. 2025 was a busy year marked by a contrasting global environment, and we can say that Mersen delivered solid performance under these conditions.

2025 was not a uniform year across our markets, but it was a year that clearly demonstrated the resilience of our portfolio and the relevance of our global and diversified footprint. Reported sales for the full year reached €1.186 million, representing an organic decline of 3.2%, which is at the high end of the guidance we communicated in October.

We faced strong headwinds from exchange rates with the US dollar and the RMB representing two-thirds of the total exchange rate impact. I would like to stress that these are only conversion impact as the group is global with an industrial presence where it sells.

Throughout the year, we achieved strong momentum across several key markets: wind, energy storage, power electronics, aeronautics, rail, and electrical distribution, to name the most important. This helped offset the weakness in the solar and silicon carbide markets that have already commented on in previous calls.

I will now turn over to Thomas, who will go into more details.

Thank you, Luc. Hello, everyone.

As you can see on the slide, the sales evolution over the year was impacted by several factors. The first one is currency effect.

As Luc mentioned, the depreciation of the Chinese renminbi and the dollar, US dollar, to name the most important ones, had a significant impact on the reported figures amounting to approximately €40 million for the full year. This was partly offset, or totally offset, I would say, by the scope effect.

Scope effect reflects the contribution of the acquisitions made in 2024 in the US, and also compensated by the pricing power. We reached to increase the price by 1.5%—the effect is 1.5% for the full year.

Regarding the business performance, we had strong commercial successes in a number of our markets. I will come back to that later on.

Conversely, softer market conditions in solar and SiC semiconductors mentioned by Luc earlier on. All in all, we reported full-year sales of €1.186 billion.

Now, you can see market by market what happened. First, my first comment is to say that our diversified end markets provide us a good level of stability, and we could compensate a decline, a sharp decline in solar and SiC semiconductors.

As you can see, we had positive momentum in other markets fueled by strong drivers, as mentioned on the slide. First, stable and solid growth in wind and energy storage.

We benefited also from a return to more stable condition in the Si semiconductor markets with the second half of the year much stronger than the first one, first part. We benefited also from a strong growth in power conversion supported by significant contracts for HVDC lines, underlining our positioning in large-scale grid investments.

We had also a continued growth in, and strong growth in aeronautics and rail. We see also some stable markets, typically EV markets, which was stable, reflecting two opposite trends: from one hand, growth in vehicles, and from the other hand, a decline in charging infrastructure.

Then, we benefited also from a very strong year in electrical distribution. Many, many markets doing well and in growth.

From all what I said, it represents almost 60% of total sales. The rest, the remaining part, concern process industries, chemicals, and conventional energies, which were globally flat compared with the last year.

If we break down by this performance by geography, I will start with North America because it's by far the largest area in terms of revenue. As you can see, we were resilient with a growth of 0.7% despite the very weak demand for SiC semiconductors.

On the other hand, Asia suffered from a decline of 13%. It was the region was strongly impacted by the solar market in China and weak deliveries in chemicals.

In the middle, I would say Europe, the decrease is a combined but limited decrease, is a combined result of strong performance in HVDC lines, aeronautics, and rails, which was more than compensated by wind markets, in process industries, SiC semiconductors mostly. If we look now by segment, starting with Electrical Power, this segment experienced growth throughout the year with very strong drivers in rail, wind, power conversion, and electrical distribution in the US.

On the other hand, you can see that Advanced Materials segment is in decline affected by a sharp drop in solar and SiC semiconductor, as already mentioned. We had also, but to a limited extent, a small decline in chemical and process industries, which was in line with our expectation, and this was to a certain level compensated by dynamic markets such as aeronautics, wind, and rail.

For the fourth quarter, we experienced -0.5% organic decline compared to -4% in Q3, it's a significant change. This translates into a 2.2% sequential improvement in Q4 compared to Q3.

We had also this quarter impact of exchange rate which was more significant, I would say, this quarter than before, amounting to -€18 million. Just to remind you, the dollar against euro was at 1.05 at the beginning of the year, and it was on average at 1.13 over the year, and I would say almost 1.16 or 17 in the last quarter.

More generally, dollar was the most significant impact, but we were also impacted by the appreciation of euro compared to most other currency. If we look at regions, Europe had been quite resilient this quarter with good momentum in chemicals, grid, wind, aeronautics, and rail that compensate for the decline in semiconductors.

North America performed well with a growth close to 3%, especially thanks to electrical distribution still very strong. By segment, Electrical Power performed well over the period thanks to strong momentum in both power electronics and electrical distribution markets.

Advanced Materials sales were down by 6.6% of the quarter with strong growth in wind power, aeronautics, and rail markets, but still a sharp decline in solar and SiC semiconductor markets. I would say less SiC semiconductor market this quarter compared to solar.

I now turn the back to Luc.

Thank you. Now for the full year, we can be more specific.

Current EBITDA margin remains at around 16%, similar to what had been disclosed in October. Current operating margin will be around 9.2% in the mid-range of the guidance disclosed in October.

Finally, we have managed to reduce again the CapEx level, which will end up being around €135 million. I would like to conclude with a few words on 2026.

That we will disclose our full guidance on 18th of March, we will not answer precise question on guidance at this stage. I want to underscore an important message.

We have focused on CapEx discipline, as was the case in 2026 already. We will continue to reduce CapEx in 2026, and this should bring free cash flow back into positive territory in 2026.

All the elements we have discussed today are fully consistent with our 2029 roadmap. Despite a challenging and uneven market environment, our strategic priorities remain in change.

Our roadmap is built on structurally attractive end markets such as electrification, energy transition, clean mobility, grid reinforcement, and advanced technologies, which will continue to drive demand over the medium term. Our margin ambition are based not just on market condition, but also on the key levers at our disposal: pricing discipline, portfolio mix, and operational efficiency.

Moreover, we have also focused on being selective in our CapEx and discipline with working capital to improve free cash flow. Taken together, this give us confidence in our ability to deliver on our 2029 ambitions.

If you have questions, please, it's the time for questions.

Okay. I will go with a question that we have received on the platform.

The question is: Are you present on data center market and what is the level of sales in this particular market?

The answer is quite difficult to give you in a precise way, but yes, we are because we have customer delivering the data center in terms of electrical protection. It's easy to find through the distribution.

Indirectly, as there is plenty of power electronics in data center. We are in, but it's more difficult to identify.

The trend of this market is easy to see, I would say, since 2 years in our fuses business, and it's still good. I would say '26 will be nice as well.

It explain partly the growth. We had the very, very good start—

In North America.

Yeah.

One other question is can we expect a rebound in SiC in 2026 and the same for solar?

We don't expect a big move in silicon carbide in '26. We see more something happening in mid-'27 at this stage of our knowledge.

Solar is more difficult to answer because there is a situation in China not easy to understand. I guess you read already some result from some Chinese company like LONGi.

They are not in good shape. They are not profitable.

It seems that again, this market is trying to be reorganized by the Chinese administration soon. We will see, but we don't expect something extremely booming in solar this year.

More question, and I will read because it's quite long, the question. So: NVIDIA and ecosystem partner are transitioning data center power distribution to 800 VDC architecture to support megawatt-scale AI racks starting in 2027.

How is Mersen positioning its product portfolio, particularly liquid-cooled busbar, power distribution blocks, and cooling distribution unit, to capture this opportunity? More specifically, are you currently engaged in design-win process with hyperscalers or tier-1 OEM for 800 VDC infrastructure?

Can you quantify the potential revenue opportunity per megawatt of install 800 VDC capacity versus traditional 54 V 400 VAC architecture? What is your expected commercialization timeline and when do you anticipate meaningful revenue contribution from 800 VDC-related products?

The question is coming from Mr. Gilles Chauffour, I read.

We need to hire you, because you are extremely good in your question. First, on the power conversion in the data center, I think we will cover this new, I would say, specification.

I don't think that they will need more liquid cooling busbar or cooling device in this case than before. About the question about the voltage and the fact that they will move from AC to DC, it should help a little bit the fuse technology because the breaker this time cannot really cut the current in the DC shape.

As well, because we see NVIDIA on your question, people are working on solid-state breaker and it's more in the hand of company like Schneider, but we are quite happy, not only on data center, to see the direct current coming in our market because it's more interesting for Mersen that the AC. In short, because—

Now we have the question from Thomas Renaud that was not able to ask his question directly: Could you share with us the group like-for-like performance in Q4 excluding the solar and SiC markets?

Yes. In Q4, it was between 5% and 6%.

I don't have the precise figure. In H1, if my memory is correct, it was 3%, something like that.

Yes, far better than in Q1.

Any reason why the operating margin is expected to be at the low to midrange of the guidance while like-for-like growth came at the top end? Is this driven by potential FX effects?

In fact, when you remember we change our guidance of sales in October, we didn't change the operating margin, which was large, in fact, and we are in between. In fact, this is totally consistent with the fact that we have lower sales than at the beginning of the year.

We have the midrange of the margin. We are resilient in margin.

This is especially due to the fact that we have lowered the CapEx, we have lower amortization.

Could you elaborate on the dynamic in the process industry in Q4 and how you see this segment evolving in 2026?

Q4, it was a little bit different between Electrical Power, which was really tremendous, very, very good, I would say, especially, but we said, data center typically, and it was not so good in Advanced Materials segment, however, not so bad as well. Difficult to predict in 2026.

Why? Because it's driven by the macroeconomic, by the industrial GDP.

As in electrical distribution, even if the trends in more electrification, more grid, storage, etc., you need more electrification, typically more of our product. We know as well that electrical distribution, between the order and the sales are quite quick.

It's a bit difficult to predict today. I can't say more.

Maybe we will say more in March.

Now I think there are some question on the phone if I can say.

Can you hear me?

Yes, oui.

Hello, everyone, and thanks for taking my questions. I think I missed the first 5 minutes, maybe you're already said that.

I have three questions. The first one is that if you can, in a way, break down this price increase across division.

Is it mainly price increases in Electrical Power, or is it across the whole firm? The second question is if I look at your slide, I can see that the silicon carbide accounted for 5% of total sales in 2025, which means basically 59 million, which would imply a fourth quarter of 20 million, which is quite above what you reported in the past quarters.

I was wondering if you can explain why they've kind of accelerated in Q4, and what is a rough range we can expect for 2026. The last one is on CapEx.

Is this reduction in the CapEx related to let's say a growth that is lower than what you had in mind, or is just because you think you can deliver the same growth with lower CapEx needs?

Okay. I will start with the price.

In fact, the pricing, it's more important in Electrical Power than in Advanced Materials, and more important in the US, as you can imagine, than in Europe and in Asia. In fact, you certainly note that the pricing effect is more important in Q4, especially because we have some tariffs, but it's limited, and we totally covered this tariff increase by pricing.

That is first question. The second one—

Silicon carbide.

Yeah. The silicon carbide, in fact, when we say 5%, it's about 5%.

If you want the figure, it's around €55 million for the full year. Yes, the Q4 was better than the Q3 with around €15 million, not 20, 15.

In fact, yes, we said that it will recover—

Slowly.

—slowly. Maybe—

No, but it's quite difficult to explain by the number because we have mainly four or five main and big customer. All are not at the same level of inventory coming from the past.

That means one is asking a little bit more end of the year than the other. At the end, the average will be a little bit better in '26.

We had already discussion before. We don't see a dramatic increase on silicon carbide demand next year.

We see a growth, huh?

We see a growth. The CapEx, we could deliver more, but as you may know, we invest quite a lot 2 years ago, I would say, to reach the demand that everybody were asking us.

That means huge demand in silicon carbide, but since this date, this demand decreased quite a lot. That means we have started to invest, and considering the demand for the next 2 years, we decided to reduce as much as possible.

Most of the CapEx was already spent. This is why we try to be focused on having less and less CapEx, but the amount is still high.

Okay. Thank you very much.

I will continue with a question we received. Can you confirm the organic growth for the full year without solar and SiC?

Yes. It's less than 4%.

It's between 3.5% and 4% for the full year. Then

the second question is with a low level of CapEx at €135 million, can you forecast a free cash flow close to break-even in 2025?

You remember that I said that it would be difficult to reach a free cash flow in 2025, and I think I will make a teasing. I don't know, we will give some idea in March, huh?

You will wait for that answer.

One more question on SiC. I read the question, but I think this is not a confirmation.

Could you confirm that H2 sales in SiC are superior to H1? I can answer that it's not the case,

huh.

We didn't say that. We say, and maybe it was not clear enough, that for silicon semiconductor, H2 was superior to H1, but it's not the case for— Yeah.

In SiC, it's more or less stable between H1 and H2. In H1, in H1, we had we benefited from in Q2 especially, you remember we've done a very good Q2.

In fact, we we benefited from, some, how to say, payment from customers in the frame of renegotiation of our contracts.

One more question from Bruno Hertz: Are you still working on the SmartSiC project?

Yes, we are still working. You have behind the question, the market at the end is the same than silicon carbide.

SmartSiC and silicon demand the same end market, EV. It slowed down like the silicon carbide in term of commercial activity.

I would say in Soitec, they are not very busy. In Mersen, we still have some things to do in a technical aspect the next 6 months to be absolutely ready to supply.

Yes, we are still working. We are still starting equipment as a schedule.

One more question from Timur: Once you have completed your committed CapEx program, how much more capacity will you have as a percentage of '25 volumes?

We need to come back maybe 2 years ago because we did release this announcement as a big part of the CapEx on Advanced Materials, because we had few on the Electrical side, were to address the silicon carbide demand. We decide to invest to move up by 4,000 tons of isostatic graphite to cover this market at the beginning.

This is always the positive of the group. Now we need to see this demand coming back.

At this step, we have quite a lot extra capacity to address this market.

Yes,

we cannot answer in percentage, really.

I would say 30%, 30% or maybe a little bit more of available capacity.

I don't have other question on the platform. Maybe no more questions.

If no additional question, we look forward to seeing you on March 18th for the full-year result. It will be in Paris.

If you are in Paris, you can join the meeting in person at 10:00 a.m. It will be at la Maison des Travaux Publics, rue de Berri in Paris.

Easy to find.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.