OPmobility

OPmobility

9.10
EUR
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(-0.38%)
1.96BMarket Cap
Feb 25Next Earn

Q4 FY2025 · Earnings Call TranscriptFebruary 25, 2026

Félicie Burelle

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this 2025 annual result presentation, and thank you for joining either here in Levallois or remotely.

I am pleased and honored to do this presentation for the first time as Chief Executive Officer, and you might have seen in our press release this morning that the Board of Directors and the chairman here present in the room have entrusted me with the great mission to lead our company into the next phase of development. As many of we have been shaping our company over generations with very strong family and engaged values, long-term commitment, financial discipline, and also a deep sense of ownership toward our stakeholders, and I'm pretty proud to be continuing this legacy in the years to come.

I'm focused and determined to keep on executing our strategy, and I'm particularly pleased to present to you today a solid, very solid set of results, which I think are demonstrating the relevance of our strategy, the way to move forward, and the resilience of our company. Besides that, we are actively positioning our company on the future mobility topics, and there are many: electrification, digital, AI, competitiveness, you name it.

A lot of challenges ahead, but a strong roadmap to go there. I would like to do a special thank to the executive committee of OPmobility, who is here in the room today, and all of the OPmobility teams that are engaged in delivering this roadmap.

Now I will walk you through the results alongside Olivier Dabi, our CFO, and Stéphanie Laval, investor relationship and financial communication and also strategy planning, you now have the same person helping me building the strategy and explaining it to the market. Before jumping into the results, a bit of context on the market that you know is quite complex to apprehend today.

More than ever, the regionalization and the pace of what is happening in between the region is growing and is diverging. We still have Asia representing 50% of the market, and the North American market still strong in terms of demand with a sizable consumer market, and Europe that is having its own challenges.

In that context, we are actively pursuing the diversification of our footprint and of our customers. Again, 2025 has been a year with some challenges in terms of OEMs' volumes and supply chain volatility, still the semiconductor, but other topics that somehow have impacted our customers.

Again, we have shown resilience and flexibility and demonstrating our capacity to adapt to that and taking the measures necessary in terms of cost reduction to sustain this pace. 2025 definitely has been an intense year in terms of geopolitical impact, starting with what happened on Liberation Day back in April, impacting the strategy of our customer and the dynamics of the footprint.

We have leveraged our sizable footprint, 150 plants everywhere, and this is providing us the balance to really be close to the customer and mitigate the impact of what can happen at each region. Besides that, the pace of technology and innovation also is a different approach by region.

We can see a lot of topic on AI, autonomous driving, and robotization coming out of Asia, and a lot around autonomous driving in the US. We are getting closer with adapting our organization to be able to better understand the customer dynamics and their needs.

Which is enabled us to make some great achievement for 2025. We took the commitment to improve all of our KPIs, and we did.

We will come back to that. We have reached all of our targets, which has enabled us to put in place still a very robust financial structure.

Our net debt to EBITDA decreased from 1.7 to 1.4, all of that demonstrating again the solidity of our business model. Strong acceleration: 2025 was definitely an intense year in terms of movement for the North American market.

We have also initiated some strong initiative for Asia, and I'll come back to that a bit later. We are happy that two-thirds of our order intake for 2025 is targeting region outside Europe, which doesn't mean that we don't want to consolidate Europe, but we want to focus on the countries showing significant room for growth.

Finally, we took the commitment for 2025 to be carbon neutral on Scope 1 and 2, which we have obtained. That including the lighting activities that we bought in 2022, which were not considered when we set up the target back in 2019.

A bit of color on the activity by region. You can see Europe still representing half of our revenues, and in a market that slightly decreased, we have been happy to enjoy some growth, mainly in Eastern Europe countries led by exterior and our module activity.

North America represented 28% of our revenues. If you look at globally, you can see that OPmobility decreased by 1.5%, but if you look at the reality by country, we grew 1.2% in the USA while decreasing in Mexico-Canada by almost 5%.

Obviously, the trade tariff has had an impact on the Mexican market, and slower ramp-ups and some delays have led us to that decrease in the region. Almost 20% of our sales from Asia, and again with a bit of different dynamics in between China and Asia, we have grown in both region.

In China, slightly less than the market, but still enjoying some growth mainly coming from YFPO while the C-Power activity was stable. A very solid growth in the rest of Asia with exterior in India, C-Power in Thailand, and the module activity enjoying a very strong growth in Korea with JV SHB for electrification modules.

It was also a year of strong launches, flawless launches, 144 launches. You can see here the split: almost 50 launches in Europe, 23 in Americas, and 73 in Asia, with some of the key launches highlighted.

We can talk about this US EV player, which we cannot mention, for whom we are supplying big modules that have launched this year and that sustained the growth in the USA, but also the Jeep Grand Wagoneer, to whom we're supplying our exterior parts. In Europe, quite important, we are supplying the MMA platform for Mercedes, and you can see here notably for the CLA in Germany, which was awarded Car of the Year, but also some key programs in the rest of Europe.

In Asia, you can see some of the players: BYD, Chery, Maruti Suzuki, which are all customers that are, I would say, enjoying a strong push and growth now and in the years to come. Overall, coming back to this solid performance, I think this slide's pretty much illustrated again the solidity of how we engage and we deliver, execute our strategy roadmap.

Looking back on the three years, '23, '24, '25, strong increase in operating margin, almost €100 million-plus of operating margin, strong increase in net result group share from €163 million to €185 million, and that with our capacity to absorb all of the impact on foreign exchange and cost of borrowing and non-recurring cost. Impressive performance.

Finally, free cash flow generation, which is definitely important and key for us, with almost reaching €300 million for 2025. Very solid performance, and I will let now Olivier get into the details of it.

Olivier Dabi

Thank you, Félicie, and good morning, everyone. In 2025, OPmobility posted very strong results, significantly improving versus 2024.

This was achieved thanks to a very strong operational performance in our plant, as well as a strong grip on our cost and a decrease in our break-even point. On this slide, you have a snapshot of all the main KPIs of the group, starting with economic revenues, which amounted to €11.5 billion.

It is a 1.7% increase on a like-for-like basis versus 2024. The EBITDA amounted to €1 billion and €1 million.

This is an 8% increase versus 2024. I want to highlight that this is the first time since 2019 that the group is able to exceed €1 billion in EBITDA.

A substantial increase in operating margin, amounting to €490 million, up double-digit versus '24. A strong net result: €185 million, increasing by 9% versus 2024.

As far as cash and debt are concerned, the group posted a free cash flow of €297 million, up an impressive 20% versus 2024, and in line with our strategy of deleveraging, the debt was reduced in '25 by €167 million and amounted to €1.4 billion. All in all, our '25 metrics was achieved, were achieved in line with the guidance that we gave last year and that we reiterated throughout the year.

As Félicie highlighted, this is a testimony to a relevance of our strategy and the quality of its execution. Let's now look at each of these KPIs, starting by revenues.

Revenues of €11.5 billion, increasing by 1.7% on a like-for-like basis after taking into account €300 million of negative Forex, with most currencies depreciating against the euro, mainly for OPmobility, the USD, and to a lesser extent, the Korean won, the Argentine peso, and the Chinese yuan. There was no scope effect in 2025.

Looking at the performance of each of the business segments, starting by Exterior and Lighting: Exterior and Lighting posted sales of €5.3 billion, fairly stable versus 2024 with two different trends. Exterior continued to increase its sales despite having less SOPs, less tuning and development activity than the year before, while Lighting continued to suffer from the poor order book prior to the acquisition.

I am pleased to say that in 2025, Lighting was able to secure additional orders and should be back on a growth track in subsequent years. Modules was the fastest-growing segment of OPmobility at €3.6 billion of economic sales, posting an impressive close to 6% increase, with sales in South Korea, as highlighted by Félicie, but in Europe as well.

Finally, the Powertrain segment increased as well by 1.4% on a like-for-like basis at €2.6 billion, with all its components increasing. C-Power continue to have a very strong leadership in the fuel systems, strong market position, increased volumes in all geography, and benefiting as well from the slower electrification ramp-up and a back to increase of hybrid volumes.

Battery pack continue to build its business model, and it will be highlighted shortly that OP won a major order very recently, while hydrogen continued to build its order book and its portfolio. Let's now have a look on the impressive increase of operating margin: €490 million, increasing by €50 million in 2025, up 11.4%.

That's a 60 basis points increase versus '24 at 4.2%. As Félicie highlighted, over the past two years, the group has been able to increase its operating margin by one point and by close to €100 million.

Looking at the key success factors of such operating margin increase: all the historical activities posted strong profitability with excellent operational execution. A word on the cost control initiatives that we accelerated and intensified in Q2 after the tariff announcement, and I will highlight two specific initiatives.

Our SG&A decreased in '25 by €10 million. This is the second year in a row that the group is able to decrease its SG&A and fully absorb inflation, while we decreased our labor cost by 3%, amounting to 17% of revenues.

In the plant activity, OPmobility put in place efficient flexibility in order to adapt to volatile volumes. Looking at each of the business segments, starting by Exterior and Lighting: Exterior and Lighting posted an operating margin of 5.4%.

This is an increase of 10 basis points versus last year, with a trend similar to what we have seen in revenues, i.e., Exterior posting very solid results, while Lighting is impacted by a decrease of sales. Moving on to Modules: Modules operating margin amounted to 2.7% in '25, an increase of 50 basis points versus '24.

I want to highlight that over the past two years, the operating margins of Module went from 1.6% in '23 to 2.7% in '25, going close to Module's run rate. Module was able to grow, but to grow profitably, thanks to the quality of its order book, operational excellence, and as well a strong focus on cost.

Finally, Powertrain increased its operating margin by 30% at 5.5%. Our C-Power activity operating margin continued to be benchmark and best in class, while to a lesser extent, the hydrogen business was also able to improve its result, thanks to a strong focus on cost reduction in order to adapt to the market.

Let's now look at the bottom of the P&L with the net result. As I have stated, the EBITDA amounted to more than €1 billion, back to its pre-COVID level, 9.8% of sales, almost one point increase compared to last year.

Very solid increase in operating margin of €50 million that was able to more than offset the increase in other operating income and expenses. Every year, the group invests 0.8%, 0.9% of its sales in competitiveness, and looking at the other operating income and expenses for the year, it mostly include competitiveness action, reorganization, the merger of Exterior and Lighting business group, for instance, and a plant closure in Germany.

Financial cost: the cost of debt of the group was down to 4% in 2025. The group was impacted by negative Forex, while our income tax amounted to €79 million.

Our effective tax rate amounted to 35%. That's one point below 2024.

As a result, the group was able to generate very solid net result group share of €185 million, which represents 1.8% of sales. Let's now look at the free cash flow generation.

Very strong free cash flow generation: this is a trademark of the group. Close to €300 million, up more than 20% versus '24, 2.9% of sales.

Looking at the main components: our gross cash flow, i.e., the cash flow from operations, increased by 60 basis points, close to €50 million, mostly coming from the EBITDA. When we launched our cost-saving program in Q2, we also launched an initiative to preserve cash, and set the objective of reducing the investments, '24 investment of half a billion euros by 5% to 10%, and we were able to decrease our investments by prioritizing by 11% at €448 million.

Our WCR remained fairly stable. 2024 was marked by an increase in our factoring programs, while they remained stable in 2025.

After distribution of €54 million of dividends to our shareholders and other items, mostly is leasing, our net debt at the end of '25 stood at €1.4 billion, a deleveraging of €167 million. Let's now move to the financial structure and the debt maturity schedule.

I'll start by commenting the leverage. 2022 was the year in which the group completed significant acquisitions in Lighting, in electrification, buying out the last third of what was then HBPO, close to more than €900 million of enterprise value that was put on the table by the group, and as a result, our leverage increased to 1.9.

As Félicie was stating, thanks to a strong financial discipline and cash flow generation, at the end of '25, the group leverage stood at a reasonable 1.4. Looking at the debt maturity, over the past two years, I remind you that the group has raised €1.1 billion in public bond and private placement in order to restructure and reshuffle its debt maturity schedule.

As you can see on the right top side of the graph, the group does not have any major debt maturity schedule before 2029 and will be able to absorb, at constant perimeter, the maturities of '27 and '28 with its existing resources. One point on the bond issuance that we did in 2025: €300 million, oversubscribed 11 times at a very competitive coupon of 4.3%.

Finally, our liquidity remained extremely strong: €2.5 billion, increasing by €100 million compared to '24, with €600 million of cash and €1.9 billion of credit line with an average maturity of four years. I remind you that neither the debt nor the credit lines do carry any financial covenants, in line with the group independence and discipline.

Finally, with debt down and, year after year, stronger equity, €2.1 billion at the end of '25, logically, the gearing of the group reduced by 10 points at 66%, and by 20 points compared to the peak of 2022 after the acquisitions. Overall, in 2026, the group can count on a very solid financial structure, reduced debt, to pursue its long-term growth objectives.

That concludes my 2025 financial highlights. Félicie, back to you.

Félicie Burelle

Thank you, Olivier. As you said, very sound and strong balance sheet, which will enable us to maneuver and develop for the years to come.

We'll come back to that, but before that, Stéphanie will talk to us about the achievement in terms of sustainability.

Stéphanie Laval

Thank you, Félicie, and good morning, everyone. If you remember well, in 2021, we set a key ambition: to be carbon neutral on Scope 1 and 2.

In 2025, we are carbon neutral on Scope 1 and 2 at group level, meaning including our Lighting activities we just acquired three years ago. It's a great achievement by the group.

How do we succeed in achieving this carbon neutrality? First, by reducing our energy consumption.

We have improved our energy efficiency by plus 19% compared to 2019, which is the year of reference. Second, we have increased the share of renewable energy with close to 40 sites that are equipped with solar panels and wind turbines, and we have bought some power purchasing agreement to reach that level.

We are very proud of this achievement in 2025. We have also achieved a strong momentum on our Scope 3, upstream and downstream.

Our energy consumption on Scope 3 has reduced by 37% compared to 2019, which is also the year of reference, which is totally in line with the objective we have by 2030 of reaching minus 30%. We will continue, of course, to maintain our actions on that scope in order to maintain that level while the activity will continue to progress in the year to come.

At the end, we are still committed to reach and to be net zero in 2050. Moving to the ESG ratings and the significant progress we made in safety.

Safety is really key in the company. OPmobility stands among the best and the leaders in its industry, as you can see on the left of the slide, with, for the third consecutive year, the A rating by the CDP Climate as well as the B rating for the CDP Waters, which is really a remarkable achievement.

The other ESG agencies also consider OPmobility as a leader in its industry with a B-minus compared to a C-plus before with ISS ESG rating. It is a prime status, which is only given to only 10% of the total companies.

We maintain our double A rating in MSCI. Looking at the right of the slide on safety, which is very key for the company.

The FR2, which is the accident frequency rate we measure every year, reached a record level at 0.43, totally and better than the target we had for this year at 0.5. What does it mean?

It means that more than 80% of our sites published zero accident in 2025. We are benchmark in the automotive industry.

Félicie Burelle

Not only obviously it is important for our people, but it's definitely also a lever of performance. That's why we are really very cautious and focusing on that KPI.

Now moving to some strategic highlights, which I will explain with Stéphanie. Back to our strategy that is based on four pillars, I'll come back quickly.

First one, the technological leadership and diversification, which we engaged with those acquisition already in 2022, and also we launched at the beginning of 2025 the One for You integrated product. I'll come back to that with some significant milestone that we have reached again in the year.

The geographical diversification, I mentioned it earlier: two-thirds of our orders last year were to capture growth outside Europe, and we'll keep on doing that. 2025 was very much North American-oriented, and we'll push forward with Asia.

In terms of customer portfolio, the, I would say, the market is pretty shaky in terms of dynamics, customer dynamics. We saw newcomers taking quite a big share of the growth and some others repositioning.

We are adapting to that new reality and making sure that we adapt our own customer portfolio to this dynamic. Finally, expanding beyond automotive: yes, historically, the passenger car market has been our home market, but we want, we are pushing to expand beyond automotive that is for sure smaller in terms of volume, but where we believe we can grow faster in terms of value content.

We have two big segment now in terms of product portfolio. The first one, which are the exterior solution, back to my comments on the One for You where we believe we can provide some more disruptive products and module to our customer depending on the level of integration.

As I said earlier, we launched that back early 2025, and we got 10 significant awards, which is been quite effective first year of our rolling out this product offer. We secured those product, those programs in the three region.

We have one that is pretty important that we have secured with one of our historic European customer, which SOP will be in 2028 and that will enable us to mobilize our footprint in Spain and in Morocco on all the three products: bumpers, lighting, and the integration of that. It brings weight saving, it increase our content per car, it provides the OEM the flexibility to come up with some more original and innovative design, and obviously the integration of that enables us to be more efficient in terms of developing the product.

We will keep on pushing this product line, which we believe has strong potential. On the Powertrain, which is the other segment, we are capable of supplying all products, fuel tank, battery pack, and hydrogen.

Fuel system, we keep on pushing our last man standing strategy, consolidating the market. We have 23% of the market and still aiming by 2030 to have 30%.

Obviously the slowdown of electrification will impact positively the length of the development of this activity. We are also benefiting from the increasing demand on the PHEV EREV segment, where we believe we can grow from 9% to 15% on this market, and we took 10% of our order intake for those solutions.

Battery pack: we announced that last week. We have been won a major award for European OEM in the US, and we will supply 1 million units over the time, lifetime of the contract.

This is a key milestone that is confirming the relevance of the acquisition that we've made in 2022 of ACTIA Power, which was more on the heavy duty market, but now shifting to the passenger car. Finally, hydrogen: we have a pretty unique portfolio in terms of certified vessel compared to what is available on the market.

We have capacities in place. We are acknowledging the delay of the market and refocusing all of the efforts on Asia where the market is definitely shifting, and where we have secured new orders, but also to serve the European market from there.

Stéphanie Laval

Moving to the second pillar, which is geographical pillar. As previously mentioned, starting with Europe, which is our main market today, we would like definitely to consolidate our leading position there.

We can rely on our solid industrial footprint and the leadership of our historical businesses within this region. We would like, of course, thanks to this asset, to accelerate with notably the Chinese OEM that are coming into Europe, and I will come back on that later on.

We are fully in line with that strategy. We are also We would like to rebalance, of course, our geographical footprint.

That's the reason why we had in 2025 a strong focus on North America. I remind you that the US is the first market for the group, it's been now two years.

We have inaugurated a new headquarter gathering all the business groups in Troy, it was end of 2025. It means that we are fully committed to accelerate in this region.

Our ambition in the US remain the same, meaning that we want to double the sales by 2030, with, of course, leveraging on our existing footprint, but also we will gain new, of course, awards supporting the OEMs that would like to expand in the US in the context of the tariffs. Moving to Asia, where we have strong, of course, ambition, and 2026 will be a year with a strong focus in Asia, starting with China.

China today, we have a strong positioning thanks to our YFPO, you know our JV with Yanfeng that belongs to the SAIC Group. It's a leading position, in the exterior parts, with YFPO equipping one car out of five, in China with exterior parts, meaning bumpers and tailgates.

We want to, of course, go a little bit further, and that's the reason why we have announced end of 2025 that we have the ambition to expand the activities of YFPO to Module and decorative lighting. It will, of course, let us grow in this market and accelerate our exposure to the Chinese OEM.

Today, the Chinese OEM in China represent roughly 40% of our revenue and two-thirds of our order intake. We are very well positioned to accelerate in China.

Last but not least, I will make a focus on India. India, where the group operates for many years now, we have five operational plants.

The last one we inaugurated, end of 2025, which is quite unique in the market because it gathers the Exterior activity as well as the C-Power activity. We have strong ambition there also to more than double the sales in India, and to help that, we have a sixth plant that is under construction for the C-Power in Karkada.

We are expanding in all the market, consolidating in Europe, and have strong ambition both in America and in Asia. I was mentioning the expansion of the YFPO JV we had.

We announced end of 2025 that we will expand this JV. We can We expect to finalize the deal before the summer this year, you will have the first impact in 2026, in H2 2026.

It will definitely strengthen our presence in China, where the group already have 10% of its revenue today, but it will should increase in the coming years. Moving to the third pillar of our strategy, which is our portfolio and expansion of our portfolio in all our mobilities.

You can see on the slide the top 10 customers we have on the left, you already know them, but we are expanding with them as well as with the winning customers that you can see in India, but also in China. That the group is, of course, focusing on accelerating beyond automotive, in railway, in self-driving, in off-road mobility.

Just a quick focus on our expansion and supporting the Chinese OEM in their international expansion. That we have signed a contract with Chery to support them in their expansion, both in Spain and in Brazil.

It's clearly the intention of the group to be to work with the Chinese OEM in China, but also outside China. You can see on the slide that we have signed other awards with other Chinese OEM, both in Spain and in Malaysia.

We are definitely supporting them, the Chinese OEM, in China and outside China.

Félicie Burelle

Thank you, Stéphanie. Quick update on some of the key priorities we have engaged and that we are active on.

We announced early Jan the signature of MOU to potentially acquire the lighting activity of the Hyundai Mobis company. This MOU is in place.

We are hoping to have a signing by mid of the year and potential closing of the transaction by end of the year. This move, this transaction would be significant because it fits to our strategy.

It's addressing one of the leading OEM, which today only represent 5% of our sales. It's in Asia, and it will accelerate the development of our lighting activity, which we never hide that we were first focusing on the organic growth, but also looking at some potential addition when it would make sense.

We believe here clearly this deal would make sense to develop and grow our lighting business to the next level. We are also focusing on innovation.

I won't come back on the CES. We are having many different types of initiative, and I think what is also important is that we are the AI obviously is a hot topic and most importantly now with and shaking a lot the financial markets, but we are looking at opportunities that we can embark either on processes or on products that can help us to either propose something different to the customer, which is the case of E-RE, which is a 3D-printed carbon fiber battery pack that we are proposing and developing with this startup, or, and I'll come back to that, which is one of the key initiative, how to be faster in terms of simulation, which is the neural concept projects that is ongoing.

That makes a good transition with what will be key for us this year. It's improving again our competitiveness, but engaging in medium-long term initiative to have a sustainable competitiveness.

Here you have three initiatives among others that we have. The first one, which is how to be more efficient in terms of development and R&D cost.

We want to reduce our hours by 30%, and that goes obviously by decreasing the hourly rate and expanding our footprint in best-cost countries. We are also repositioning the organization on back some back-office topics like HR, digital and IS, and finance, and we have today five hubs in best-cost countries again.

We have mutualized 500 people so far, which is two-thirds of our ambition on this specific topic. Again on the supply chain, we have launched a new tool that should help us to decrease our transportation costs by 10%.

We have launched that in Mexico, and that should be roll out throughout the group. We also have some other automation initiatives.

We would like to have more AGVs and improve the level of automation of our plants. All of that are our transversal approach as we want to have benchmark practices that can be deployed throughout all BGs.

Strong push on that for 2026. Based on the results of 2025, we will propose to the next General Assembly in April '26 a dividend per share of €0.49, which represents 37.7% in terms of payout, which is again an increase versus 2023.

2024 was an exceptional year given there was an interim dividend that was made. In terms of outlook and perspective, I won't come back on all the strategy, but it remains the same, and we believe that we have the good model to be able to project ourselves again in improving all the KPIs for 2026 on the operating margin, on the net result, on the free cash flow, and on the net debt.

I would conclude this presentation before taking your questions by saying again that we have a very solid and robust 2024 year with very strong financial metrics, again accelerating on all the front of our strategy, and we believe we are well positioned to really address the challenges of the market. 2026 will be a transition year in many aspects.

It's not going to be The market is projected to be flat, to be stable, but still in that context, we believe we can deliver a solid performance again in 2026. Thank you very much, and happy to take questions.

Thomas Besson, first question.

Thomas Courtois

Good morning, thank you very much, it's Thomas Besson at Kepler Cheuvreux. I have a lot of questions, as usual.

I'll start with the easy one, financial questions. First, can you comment on the diverging trends for Powertrain and the Exterior and Lighting margin trend in H2?

Exterior and Lighting actually was strong, improving. Powertrain was weaker.

Can you explain why the seasonality is this way for these two businesses, and whether there was anything affecting them differently in the second half?

Olivier Dabi

Thank you, Thomas, for the question. There was no significant deviation in profitability between S1 and S2.

Both Exterior and C-Power posted a very solid profitability, both in S1 and S2. In S1, we did €260 million of operating margin.

In S2, we did €230 million operating margin with slightly lower sales in S2.

Félicie Burelle

With the seasonality, usual seasonality.

Olivier Dabi

There's no trend of having margin reduced in any of the two businesses.

Thomas Courtois

Thank you. Can you give us some indications about CapEx trend in '26?

You've cut CapEx by 11%, a lot less in H2 than in H1. Should we assume a CapEx ratio between 4.5% and 5%, or an absolute level of CapEx that goes up a bit in in '26 to prepare growth ahead or

Olivier Dabi

I'll continue on the financial questions. Like you said, '25, we reduced CapEx to 4.4% of sales.

We have a capital allocation framework that we discussed already in which CapEx are around 5%, and this will be the level that we will reach in 2026. We will still improve free cash flow.

Thomas Courtois

Thank you very much. I'll move to more general question.

I notice that you refrained last year to guide for higher revenues, and I'd like you to discuss, if possible, the organic revenue dynamic for the group in 2026, what we should expect by division, by region, by clients, at least general qualitative comments. Could you in particular put a focus on what we should expect in the US and India, as you're aiming for very substantial growth to 2030?

Is it something that starts in 2026 or that we should expect more in '27 and beyond? Then one specific project I'd like you to say something about, even if I think it's difficult, the robotaxi project, I think it just started or

Félicie Burelle

In two months.

Thomas Courtois

In two months. Just starting, remind us your exposure to that.

Thank you very much. I have one more after that.

Félicie Burelle

On revenues, 2026 will be stable versus 2025 in terms of sales. The market dynamic for 2026 is what it is, stable, with the big difference versus 2025 being the Chinese market that will be significantly down.

Obviously, there are some different plus and minuses within each BG, but all in all, you should consider that sales will be stable. In terms of by the rebound and all of the, I would say, the deployment of the order intake that we have embarked should more start impacting 2027.

We obviously, within each BGs, namely the Module activity will show some significant growth on with topics like the robotaxi that will kick in two months' time. On that, there are a lot of different assumptions, obviously.

Some are more bullish than others. Our customer is pretty positive about the development of these sales, and we are too.

Anyway, we are engaged in such a relationship that we'll find ways to adapt, and we are showing flexibility, obviously, to adapt to the change in volumes. It's an important lever for them to grow in the years to come.

Thomas Courtois

You're highly exposed to that product as well, in terms of revenue per car? Thank you.

Félicie Burelle

For the USA.

Thomas Courtois

Last question on Lighting. Two aspects about this question.

Can you give us an idea of the magnitude of the revenues in 2025 and how they developed organically, and the level of operating loss in '25 versus '24, and whether we should expect this business to grow organically in '26 and reach break-even in '26? The first part of that question on Lighting.

The second part is about the business you're looking at. Can you share with us some details, financial details about the Hyundai Mobis activities?

You're talking about taking a controlling stake. Would that mean you'd have a JV with Hyundai Mobis?

Can you just give us an idea of the magnitude of the financial implication for OP, and whether this is something you can finance organically with the existing liquidity or the share count would not be affected by this transaction?

Félicie Burelle

On these projects, in terms of sale, it's €1 billion-plus. It's five plants: two in Korea, one in China, one in Mexico, and one in Czech Republic, which will be a good complementarity footprint with ours.

It's a profitable business, having a positive impact on our business. The JV consideration, obviously, it's still ongoing in terms of discussion, but it's an important step for us to develop and build the relationship with this customer because more than 90% of the sales of this business is with the Korean OEM.

It's, I would say, a positive approach on both sides to make sure that it's a secured transaction, given it's a carve-out that has to be operated by the seller. It will be a majority stake, still to be defined how much.

Given the size of the business and its financial profile, which unfortunately I cannot detail, but we have the sufficient financial means to do this acquisition without a specific deployment of to be done. That, together with our Lighting business, will make it a more sizable global business.

We would more than double our market share with that move. Today, the financial the Lighting activity is still suffering.

You mentioned the low order intake from the past, but it's not only that, it's the market situation itself. We are accumulating, I would say, both burdens.

The level of sales is in 2025 lower than what we thought, but we have a lot of SOPs to come this year, we should have a quite significant improve in terms of profitability in 2026 that will accelerate in between H1 and H2.

Thomas Courtois

Break-even in '26 is something credible for these activities organically?

Félicie Burelle

Sorry?

Thomas Courtois

Break-even for the existing Lighting business should be achieved in '26?

Félicie Burelle

We are on the path to improve significantly by the end of this year.

Thomas Courtois

Great. Thank you very much.

Félicie Burelle

Any other questions?

Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please dial the pound key followed by 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. The next question comes from Michael Foundoukidis from Oddo BHF.

Please go ahead.

Michael Foundoukidis

Yes, good morning, Michael Foundoukidis from Oddo BHF. Also a couple of questions, I will ask them one by one.

Maybe the first one: you highlight in the press release that the full-year 2025 margin performance was particularly notable in Q4. Could you explain us a bit in more detail what were the Q1-offs versus structural drivers, and how much of that, let's say, Q4 run rate should we consider sustainable into 2026?

That's the first question.

Félicie Burelle

Maybe one point, and then you can add. Obviously, a lot of have we mentioned a lot of volatility throughout the year, and obviously a lot of the topics that we are negotiating throughout the years in terms of compensation happens by the end of the year.

That's one of the reason of this impact in Q4.

Olivier Dabi

I would say in S2, we did €15 million more operating margin than in S2 2024, and it was a combination of, indeed, discussion with customers and cost-saving initiatives that we put in place.

Michael Foundoukidis

Thanks. Second question: when we look at your launches in 2025, Asia represented more than 50% of the group launches.

Of course, it does not tell a clear picture in terms of implied volumes and revenues, but still, what does it mean for 2026 revenues in the region? Should we expect a significant acceleration in Asia, and the region growing clearly above, let's say, the 20% threshold of group revenues?

Félicie Burelle

The value per car in Asia is, in general, lower than in the rest of the world, but obviously, the growth will materialize and will start to impact. Again, generally speaking, 2026 will be stable, and you should expect the rebound to come afterwards.

Michael Foundoukidis

Thanks. Maybe on North America, do you expect the trends that we've seen in 2025 to continue into this year, namely outgoing outperformance in the US alongside, let's say, weaker dynamics in Mexico and Canada?

More broadly, how do you see OPmobility in the context of potential OEM reshoring in the US, and do you believe that your strategic footprint and industrial footprint, of course, would allow you to benefit, and is sufficient in this respect? Thank you.

Félicie Burelle

Yes, we believe that we will continue to entertain a good growth in this market, which is why we are investing and we are projecting our sales to double in the region. Indeed, all of what is happening is impacting the strategy footprint of the customer, and that's the benefit of having a sizable footprint in the region is that we are able to seize some of the new opportunities coming and to rebalance in between our plants, should the OEM propose us to localize and need our support.

Indeed.

Michael Foundoukidis

Thanks. Maybe a follow-up to Thomas' question on the Lighting segment, and more generally about the Lighting business overall.

It seems more competitive than it has been historically, with Chinese players also growing in that field. What's your take on that, both in China and outside of China?

Maybe from a product standpoint, do you think that the integrated offer that you again highlighted in the presentation is sufficient to differentiate you versus those peers? Yes, the Lighting

Félicie Burelle

business is a much more fragmented business versus the other activities that we have. We believe that the footprint we have and the technology we have makes us more agile versus some of the big players that are more anchored in Europe and in more mature market.

We can be more agile by delivering from this footprint, and obviously with this transaction of Hyundai Mobis on the lighting activities, that will definitely accelerate this evolution. Yes, the technology itself is changing a lot, finally being a player entering now with a footprint that we can adapt and being more agile, I think it can make the difference, a difference per se on the product itself, the lighting, but also when it comes to the One for You where we have very few players to be able to offer the integration of lighting in bigger parts, bigger modules.

Michael Foundoukidis

Thanks. Maybe as last questions, a couple of follow-ups, more financials.

First on the revenues, following your comment that sales would be relatively stable this year, is this organic or reported, meaning that there's probably FX headwind, just to be sure on what you meant by that? Second question: would you say that all divisions should again improve their margin performance in 2026 versus 2025?

Félicie Burelle

On the top line, yes, it's without is as is, scope as is, whatever the no foreign exchange, no perimeter. The last question was, the second question was?

improvement of all the performance of all BGs, yes.

Michael Foundoukidis

Okay. Thank you very much, and congrats again for this performance.

Operator

The next question comes from Ross MacDonald from Citi. Please go ahead.

Ross MacDonald

Hi, good morning, it's Ross MacDonald at Citi. I think only a few remaining questions from my side.

On the financials firstly, can you maybe talk about the tax rate in 2026? Should we expect that to be stable at 35%?

Olivier Dabi

Yes, tax rate should remain stable at 35% in 2026. We aim to improve it a little bit, but it should stay within this ballpark.

Ross MacDonald

Understood. Then secondly on the free cash flow, some of your peers in '25 benefited from some working capital release.

Obviously, that hasn't been the case at OPmobility. For 2026 free cash flow generation, you've touched on the investment spend, obviously the operating performance should be a small tailwind to free cash flow, but how should we think about working capital in 2026?

Should we expect no further benefits or tailwinds from working capital release this year?

Olivier Dabi

As you say, we'll increase the investments, and since we plan to increase our free cash flow, it will be financed by both an increase in operations, i.e., the gross cash flow, and an improvement in WCR, notably inventory management and payment terms on which we have a dedicated initiative.

Ross MacDonald

That's clear. Thank you.

Then two slightly more strategic questions. Firstly, on the fuel tank market share, good to see that moving up at 23% now.

I think it was 21% at the CMD in 2022. Obviously, at the current pace of share gains, slightly below the 30% target.

Can you maybe talk around when these market share gains in C-Power will accelerate? Is that really quite back-end loaded in this decade, or should we see that accelerate maybe in 2026?"

Stéphanie Laval

Yes. Yes, you're correct, Ross.

The market share in C-Power has increased from 21% to 23% in 2025. We were in 22% last year, it's we are really on track with the target we have of 30% by 2030.

If you look at the mix, geographical mix, we'll continue to accelerate in North America, especially. We'll have a different mix between regions, it will also participate to the increase in the market share we have.

We consolidate in a market, where players are decreasing, even disappearing, we are still consolidating our position in this market, and it will continue to reach the level of 30% of market share by 2030.

Ross MacDonald

Thanks, Stéphanie. Then moving to beyond automotive comments, quite interesting a number of suppliers talking about looking beyond light vehicle production into some commercial vehicle, etc., and markets.

Can you maybe speak to whether that opportunity is specific to one division or if there's a division within the group that lends itself best to growth beyond automotive? Really interesting if you can maybe give some mid-term aspirations around revenue contribution from those activities.

Félicie Burelle

Today, the beyond automotive only represents 1% of our sales, and it's pretty much focused on what is linked to the electrification, i.e., the battery packs and H2 activity, who are addressing the heavy mobility with trucks, buses, and small fleets, and that we will keep on growing. We are also, when we think about beyond automotive, coming back to the question on the robotaxi, we do see a lot of movement on this market and that we believe will grow in the future.

There is one player with whom we are today engaged, but we are also in discussion with others, we believe that should be part of what we call also the beyond automotive because the business model there will be pretty different from our conventional market, I would say.

Ross MacDonald

Thank you. Final question: appreciate you can't give the numbers on the balance sheet impact from the M&A you announced recently with Hyundai Mobis.

Can you maybe reassure investors just given that the last acquisition in Lighting obviously had some execution headaches around the order book? How should we think about the order book in that business, and would it be fair to assume that, there should be much more stable instant contributions to revenues without that sort of decline that we saw with Varroc?

Thank you.

Félicie Burelle

For the situation is totally it's not comparable. Back in the days, the first acquisition we've made, clearly the situation in which the business was very different.

It was a depressed business. Now what we are considering here, it's a very sizable business with one leading OEM, more than 90% of its sales engaged with that.

Back to the JV topic, it's about how to further engage and set a stable relationship with that customer, and also use that as a lever to grow beyond Lighting with that customer. Those are very different two very different objects.

Ross MacDonald

That's very clear. Maybe if I can sneak one quick final one in: obviously the dividend has come down.

I understand why, given the very high starting point. With this M&A objective, how do you think about the dividend going forward?

Is the objective to hold it at least at the current level going forward?

Félicie Burelle

Sorry. Can you repeat?

The sound is not very good.

Ross MacDonald

Apologies. It was just on the dividend.

Obviously, given the balance sheet impacts from this deal, how should we think about the dividend going forward? Would your objective or mission be to try and defend this €0.49 dividend in 2026?

Félicie Burelle

Irrespective of our strategy, we always have a policy of serving dividend to the shareholders, so that should remain the case.

Ross MacDonald

Thanks very much. That's it from my end.

Operator

The next question comes from José Asumendi from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

José Asumendi

Good morning. Good morning, Félicie.

It's José Asumendi. A couple of questions Good morning.

Just a couple of questions, please. Can you talk about the opportunities to grow with Chinese OEMs in Europe, provide more content, win new contracts, or LatAm or any other region that you consider proper to comment?

Second, can you provide a bit more color regards to the Lighting division, and where do you see the growth coming from in 2026, if you could just provide a bit more details either by region or by customer? It looks like you've done the cost cutting necessary to reposition the business model, but growth needs to drive the margins going forward.

Then final one: are you expecting to benefit from growth in the US, and I'm particularly focused on Stellantis where production is going to be up quite sharply in Q1 and first half 2026? Do you have a strong content with Stellantis, and do you see also as a benefit in the first half of the year?

Thank you.

Félicie Burelle

I think your first question was on the Chinese OEM outside China. Indeed, we are really leveraging the relationship and the footprint that we have in China to accompany them whenever they want in Europe.

We have a lot of interaction, and also because China now is clearly on the innovation side, investing for China, but for elsewhere. We really focus on growing the relationship beyond our YFPO JV, also in the other product lines to be able to serve them elsewhere.

Today, I think part of the challenge is that Europe has not yet defined its strategy in terms of the tariffs and the local content, there are still some OEMs that are wondering whether they will invest. Logically, we should be there where they want to invest at some point, whether it will be Western Europe or Eastern Europe, we have the footprint right there to support them.

On the Lighting activity, as we commented, unfortunately 2025 was a low point in terms of sales, but we've been now for three years in a row, and again we will have a sizable order intake in the Lighting activity. That order intake will start to materialize, and the SOPs are ramping up this year.

Back to your point of your question on Stellantis, we actually have quite a strong activity with them in the Lighting and in North America in general, and also on the different One for You topics that we discussed earlier.

José Asumendi

Thank you very much.

Félicie Burelle

I think we're good? We don't have

Operator

There are no more questions. I will now hand the conference back to the speakers for the closing comments.

Félicie Burelle

Thank you very much for your time. It was a long session, but it was our pleasure to present to you those solid results, and looking forward to the next meeting.

Thank you.