Thank you and welcome to our analysts and investors. I will first read out the Safe Harbor statement and then hand over to Yves Kerstens, CEO, and Seppo Parvi, CFO, who will comment on the results and the outlook before we go indeed into Q&A.

This presentation may contain forward-looking statements. These statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to be different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Bekaert is providing the information in this presentation as of today and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in it in light of new information, future events, or otherwise. Bekaert disclaims any liability for statements made or published by third parties and will not undertake any obligation to correct inaccurate data, information, conclusions, or opinions published by such third parties in relation to this or any other publication issued by Bekaert.

I now hand over to Yves Kerstens.

Thank you, Dries, and welcome all. Many thanks for joining today's full-year results presentation.

As per usual, I will cover some introductory comments, highlights, and then Seppo will take us more through the financials in details and also by business unit, and I will wrap up with some updates on operational strategy direction, including outlook for 2026. So 2025, clearly a year with a lot of market volatility and trade tensions.

In that context, we've been working on passing through and mitigating all the effects of the tariffs. We've seen stable volumes in our Rubber Reinforcement business and some volume growth in our Energy & Utilities business.

On the other end, we've seen some project delays in steel ropes and construction business, mainly in the first half of 2025 in US and in some other markets. During '25, we also adjusted our hydrogen footprint in line with the weaker outlook on the green hydrogen business.

In '25, we've been focusing on the things we can control, meaning making our company structure more leaner, more agile. We took a big step in reducing the overhead costs by €40 million.

We created around 40 million, €39 million efficiency in operational excellence, that means how we purchase wire rod, but also how we operate the factories and also by good utilization of some of the factories, creating operational leverage. In 2025, we have €162 [million?]

of one-off charges, which has a limited, only €8 million, cash impact by adjustment we did on the footprint in line with the future demand expectations. Clearly, we will work on a lower cost base, creating us also lower cost base moving forward, and we are also further working on the portfolio evolution of the company.

We took a further step in divesting the LatAm North in Ecuador, Venezuela, Costa Rica business in Latin America in our SWS business. From a financial performance point of view, a lot of focus, we delivered an 8% EBIT thanks to good cost control and on top, a strong free cash flow generation by working on all the levers of the working capital.

Free cash flow above €300 million. We propose with that strong performance dividend increase from €1.90 to €1.95 per share, and we will continue our share buyback until the end of the program this year.

I hand over now for Seppo for some more color on the overall financials, but also some insights per business area.

Thanks, Yves, and welcome also on my behalf to this full-year result call. Now let's start with the Q4 sales performance.

We are now seeing gradual recovery after soft start in the first half of 2025, when tariffs caused significant project delays for customers, especially in our flooring business in US and steel ropes business in US. In the last quarter of the year, we continued the improvements we saw in in the third quarter of '25.

In Q4, like-for-like volume increased about 2% compared to 3% increase in the third quarter, the quarter before before. In SWS, Energy & Utilities had strong growth, especially in the US.

Also in in RR, our Rubber Reinforcement business in China, we we continued to see volume growth, and that helped us to increase the capacity utilization at the plants. Happy to see that we have full plant utilization there continued.

However, there there was continued softness in steel ropes, both in EU and North America. Then weaker demand in hydrogen prompted us to adjust our footprint and cost base, leading to also hydrogen impairment, as I returned to those later in the presentation.

Then looking at the full-year sales, as said already earlier, softer start, soft start for the for the year in the first half due to tariffs had an effect on the full-year sales development as well. Positive news that with the second half of the year, we started to see recovery across many of the BUs.

We are not back to normal levels yet, but I think development in Q3 and Q4 was encouraging. Second half, we saw 2.5% volume growth for the group on like-for-like basis, and for the full year, we were still 2% behind like-for-like, mainly due to lower raw material input cost pass-through as well as then on top of that, there was FX and M&A related issues why the why the sales came down from close to €4 billion to €3.7 billion during the year.

Then on the EBIT view, and and and I I would say that first of all, we have continued to defend the margins. We have to support the margins by cost reductions and footprint optimization, there, I think the work done is paying off of well.

We managed to protect margins well despite lower volumes, thanks to cost control, both overheads as well as operational improvements when it comes to efficiency at our our plants. We had high plant utilization in China, leading to better fixed cost absorption in RR, and cost savings were done in all levels.

I think all throughout the organization, our teams have been contributing in all plants, all functions, as well as in the corporate center to the to the margin protection work through the cost savings. We have €40 million reduction when it comes to overheads as well as another 39, close to about €40 million, when it comes to operational cost savings and better plant utilization.

We continue to focus on cost base and to protect margin and cash flows also going forward. It's important to notice that we are more cost-competitive now than ever before, so that when volume growth returns, our improved operational leverage will support our higher profitabilities, levers going forward.

Then let's look at the various business units, how the business was developing, and let's start with Rubber Reinforcement, where we had stable margins in challenging environment. Despite the significant challenges in the market that exposed us to weak truck tire market and intensive competition in many of the markets, our cost and footprint actions allowed us to report stable volumes and margins.

Full year, volumes were slightly up, 0.2%, and lower wire prices, with the exception of US, and lower selling prices due to pass-through mechanism, as well as with a bit more volumes in China, led to 2.7% mix and and and raw material price impact. Organic sales decreased 2%.

Like I said earlier, in in the at the group level, we also saw here encouraging development, especially in the second half, when when the volumes were up 2%, and especially we saw positive development in China, North America. Important step was also our acquisition of the of the captive tire cord production plants of Bridgestone in China and Thailand.

This was announced announced after the new year, but it's worth to mention also here. It is, I think, important step to to to strengthen our position in the growing Asian market, as well as amongst the big five five customers, where Bridgestone is one of the most important customers we have globally.

As you many of we have a good track record when it comes to consolidating captive production from key customers, and I think this also reflects Bridgestone's confidence in our quality and operational excellence when it comes to running tire cord production. The the sales on annual level will be increased about €80 million, thanks to this acquisition, and cash consideration that we paid is about €60 million.

We expect to close the the the deal during the next month or two once we get all the antitrust approvals in place. Then next, moving to Steel Wire Solutions, where strong volume growth was driven by Energy & Utilities demand, and also profitability was was strong.

Important to notice that following the LatAm disposals back in '23, as well as last year in '25, we have now repositioned business into higher-margin markets. For instance, Energy & Utilities is now 30% of the sales.

We are seeing double-digit growth in in North America in this business, and and that is, I think, important important proof point of our position already in the electrification market, which we think is is an in interesting growth opportunity area in general as well. For the full year, like-for-like sales were up 4%.

Of course, the divestments and previous capacity closures are having effect on the on the on the reported sales, but but an important notice that there is good underlying growth. Strong profitability, EBITU margin remains close to 10%, despite temporary delays in pass-through of raw material costs in North America and unfavorable mix in Europe, where we had more agri and construction wire business and and some project delays in Energy & Utilities.

Next, let's look at our ropes business, BBRG, where, like I said earlier, steel ropes were affected by tariffs uncertainty, but synthetic business has been performing well throughout the year. I think it's fair to say that the Bexco acquisition that we had done a couple of years ago has been well integrated and created new business growth opportunities, where there are two good two good proof points also when it comes to to largest ever contracts that they have been able to win recently.

I think Yves will mention about those later a bit more. When it comes to A-Cords, there we had slightly lower volumes due to weaker construction markets in China and Europe.

Otherwise, I would say that A-Cords has continued also stable performance throughout the year. Then moving to Specialties, where I would say that the challenges were probably largest, looking at different BUs.

There, we had slower growth because of the and that has led to adjustments across the businesses. In the construction, like I said earlier, tariff uncertainty was high, especially in the first half, and US customers were delaying projects until more visibility was available.

That had significant impact in the first half, followed by a recovery in in in the second half. Like said, we are not yet back to normal.

There has been increased competition in the EU market and Australia, impacting volumes and prices, and it's fair to say that EU market has remained rather slow. We we see strong growth in the new regions, Middle East and India, where we are building a position and penetrating the markets at the moment.

Of course, it's starting from low low low low base, but quite encouraging development there. In hydrogen, slower demand outlook has been visible now for some time, and it's very much linked to the regulatory delays in in Europe and US.

That has led us to adjust footprint and cost base and also to impairments that we have taken to be aligned with the new demand outlook. Profitability in Specialties was impacted by weaker demand, unfavorable mix in construction, especially in the first half, and lower demand in energy transition-related end markets, not only in in hydrogen, but also in in some of the others.

Then let's take a look at the at the joint ventures that we have and how how they have been performing. Top line was slightly coming down, that's mainly driven by the by the foreign exchange rates, a bit also lower volumes.

Important to notice that they continued good cash flow generators for us. If you look at the dividends received again last year, about €50 million, in line with the year year before.

This is an important contributor to our cash flow continues. Then to summarize the the the restructuring and impairment charges that we had taken last year, €162 million in total.

Important to notice that only €8 million cash impact on net basis is coming coming from here. In Rubber Reinforcement, in total, we had €40 million, that is related to restructuring in China.

We we closed some some plants there a couple of years ago, and and there were some some additional one-offs still as we had not been divesting those plants yet, so we we we had to take that. In Europe, Europe also related to restructuring, streamlining, and rightsizing.

Steel Wire Solutions, €50 million, big part of that relates to LatAm disposal, as communicated also earlier, and €13 million to impairments and restructuring costs mainly in Belgium. In the ropes business, €40 million, that relates to consolidation of synthetics ropes business from Scotland to to Belgium.

Then finally, Specialties, in total 61, out of which 51 €55 million relates to hydrogen business impairments and consolidation of the activities to China. Important to notice here, we are not exiting hydrogen business, we are adjusting our footprint and capacity to the current demand, and and we are ready to ramp up the production in Belgium when we see that the demand is coming back.

We we we need to, of course, face the realities of the market currently. Then looking at the full profit and loss, I don't start to go through it line by line, but maybe a couple of comments to summarize a bit a bit the development through the year.

Strict cost control has improved our cost base, reduced SG&A costs, and other overheads has safeguarded our margins. Our reported EBIT and profit was significantly impacted by the mentioned one-offs, even though that they were quite neutral when it comes to cash impact.

You you you might notice that ETR, effective tax rate, is quite high for the year, 69%, but if you exclude and neutralize the impact the the the effect of the one-offs and impairments, ETR would have been 24%, in line with the year before. I think that's reasonable level also looking into the future.

We obviously work work on optimizing the the ETR going forward. To to another focus area, in addition to costs, in in 2025, we were very much focusing also on working capital and cash flow.

There, I think our teams have been doing excellent work in addition to cost control. We have decreased working capital from €650 million to €520 million, €130 million reduction on on working capital.

Working capital is now 15% of of the turnover, coming down from 17.3% a year earlier. Actually reaching the target level we set internally sometime ago for the working capital.

Of course, work continues. It's of course more difficult going forward to take out another 100 million for working capital, but I'm sure there are still some some smaller pockets that where we can we can we can release some cash.

This led also to excellent free cash flow, €314 million, up from €193 million a year before. That also led to reduced net debt.

Net debt came down €100 million during the year, and balance sheet is very strong. Our leverage is 0.4 if you look at the net debt-to-EBITDA.

That means that we have acquisition firepower when and and when we find suitable targets to to to deploy. Working capital, in addition to working capital, our also capital expenditure was reduced to €139 million as we did not foresee needs for for for any major growth capex.

We had done some smaller steps during the year, but I would say that the level 139 is still reasonable, and and and and we are able to take care of the asset base, I don't see any any issue with the current level that we would not that we would put our asset quality in danger. What we expect in the year that has started, in 2026, is that it would go up to about around €170 million level, depending a bit on the execution of growth projects, depending a bit how the how the year develops during during the coming months.

Then let's look at the shareholder returns before hand before I hand over back to Yves. We have consistently generated strong strong cash flows, and that has enabled us to also increasingly give better and better returns to our shareholders.

We continue this also in 2026. The the proposal by the board to AGM is AGM is that we would increase dividend to €1.95 a share, that's 3% increase about year-on-year, and we continue our share buyback buyback program that was already announced year and a half ago, we continue that still until end of November this year.

Now, back to you, Yves.

Good, thanks Seppo. Clearly, in the current environment, we've been really working on strict cost control and good cash generation, and Bekaert is really coming out of the current environment stronger and more cost-competitive than ever before, and our operation leverage has really improved.

In parallel, we've been continue to work on our transformation of the portfolio with the divestment of SWS, footprint changes, making each of the BUs more market-driven, but also more independent, and exploring M&A opportunities in the area of sustainable construction, Energy & Utilities, electrification, and lifting and mooring segment. Let me pivot now to each of the business segments or the end markets we operate in.

Let me first start with tire reinforcement and give some comments how we see the global tire market. It's a different message or picture by region.

If you look at China, very strong demand, of course driven by local demand, but also global business of the tiremakers out of China and Asia. We see in Europe a more subdued demand, mainly in the B2B business for the tires, combined with an increased import of let's say tires imports from Asian countries.

Then in the US, we've seen in '25 a pretty strong tire demand, but also there, an increase of import tires from Asia up to almost 80% imported tires. That means for us a very strong position tire cord demand in China and Asia, and a more subdued demand for local tire cord in Europe and in the US.

We continue to evolve in our strategic strengthening of our position in tire reinforcement, we have an addition two acquisitions of two plants of Bridgestone, one in Thailand and one in China, and it will strengthen our position moving forward and strength our relationship with the Bridgestone Corporation and the top five premium players worldwide. If I move to the transmission and performance wires, as mentioned, we've seen a nice demand growth in our power and data transmission markets, supported by funding in the different regions, and certainly in the US with the modernization of the grid.

Thanks to also the divestment LatAm and the further mix improvement, 30% of our Steel Wire Solution business is now focusing on Energy & Utilities, and we will continue that trend. Moving to advanced lifting and mooring markets, we serve with our BBRG business both steel ropes and synthetic ropes.

We've seen weaker demand in North America linked to the uncertainty of the tariffs, certainly first half of the year, and also in Europe due to less mining activities, but we've seen a very strong order book and business in our synthetic ropes business. I want to highlight two nice projects in this business that we've been attributed.

One is the Coral Norte project, where Bexco will deliver the synthetic ropes for the mooring solution here of a floating LNG platform in Mozambique. The second win is a project in the Tiber-Guadalupe project, which is in the Gulf of Mexico, where is an oil and gas platform where the connectors of Flintstone will be used to connect the platform.

Nice wins in new businesses we are focusing on. Pivoting to sustainable construction, as a couple of time mentioned, North America was difficult market in the first half, second half of '25 recovery, and we see this constant recovery in the first couple of months of 2026.

Increased competition in Europe and Australia, local competition, but also due to imports. On the positive side, we continue to have nice growth and nice wins in the Middle East and India, and also pivoting, we have tunnels, we have the mines application, we have the flooring application, we are in precast, but also moving into new applications like rafts.

I would like to highlight two let's say important projects here is one is the win of the Dubai Metro Blue Line project, where let's say the segment lining reinforcement will be done with our Dramix, and on the other hand, closer to home, in Antwerp, where the new SD Worx headquarter in Belgium has been built using the Dramix fibers for the foundations for the rafts, which gives a very strong TCO advantage also in a new application area like the rafts. Moving to the last segments, energy transition, covering our filtration business, covering our combustion technology business, and also the hydrogen business.

As reported in the last one year, one year and a half, we've of course seen the delay there. If I give you some perspective on how we look at that market is that 3 years ago, we were looking at installed base of electrolyzers cumulatively by 2030 worldwide at 170 GW, and then one year and a half ago was revised to 80 GW, and today, we look at the market for 2030 at 35 GW.

You see a constant evolution of the outlook of the market and the demand. On the positive side, we've seen an increase of 30% of the final investment decisions of big projects investment, on the ground, it continues to further scale, but of course at a much more lower growth rate than initially predicted.

We continue to invest in the business in terms of R&D. However, as mentioned, we have been rightsizing our footprint in line with the market outlook.

In our customer base, we deliver let's say all big electrolyzers OEMs, and of course, some of them did some strategic reviews and repositioned the business. On the other hand, we have some of the really big companies who are specking in our Currenta PTL in their future products, so that's a positive news and a positive evolution.

A segment to be monitored, to be watched in the future. I would like to take a moment to step back a little bit on the perform, transform, grow of the company and certainly focus on the first one, the perform, and look at three periods: pre-COVID, COVID, post-COVID.

If we look at pre-COVID, it was a market environment which was positive, stable demand, low inflation, and on average, we delivered a 6% EBIT. During the COVID period, 2021, 2022, of course, a sharp contraction of the market, but also strong rebound of many demands, markets, supply chain.

In that context, we delivered on average an 8.6% EBIT margin. Then I would say post-COVID, 2023, 2024, 2025, characterized by geopolitical challenges, the war, energy crisis, inflation, slow growth around the regions, we delivered also consistently 8.6% of profit.

Well-delivered on the performance, well-delivered on let's say the cash generation, and so certainly the focus points moving forwards continues to further improve the profitability by operation leverage, but also by growth. Good, I would like to wrap up.

'25, from our perspective, a resilient performance, strong cash flow generation, positioning the company from a cost structure for the future, continue to transform the portfolio, nice shareholder returns. If you look at 2026, with what we see today, we see a continued evolution the geopolitical situation and trade uncertainty.

We see some recovery in construction, some growth further Energy & Utilities, some more challenging market environment in core markets. In that context, we look at a stable 2026 on the top line and on the margin side, if we look at from a like-for-like basis.

I would like to wrap up here and open the session for Q&A.

Yes, thank you, and good morning. I have a couple of questions.

First, around Rubber Reinforcements, can you elaborate on the competitive landscape in China, and I'm specifically making reference to Zenith, how is that impacting the overall market structure and pricing levels in the market? Can you then also elaborate a little bit on, yeah, the balance of your volumes between, yeah, core contracts and maybe filler business, how that is evolving?

Then also, can you comment on the profitability per, yeah, per geographic region in Rubber Reinforcements? Is China at group levels or division levels or above?

Now, and then a question on the overall regulatory environment. It looks like, yeah, there's going to be changes to US tariffs, also in the EU regulations on steel quota, etc., is changing.

Can you maybe impact on how you view that regulatory environment and how is that factored into your guidance? Thank you.

Good. Thanks.

Good morning, Wim, and thanks for your questions. Let me first start with the RR and the competitive landscape.

As we know, Zenith is scaling up their business and their operations. Now as we know from history, making tire cord at the right quality, the right performance, consistency is, I would not say an art, but it's something you need to get experience with.

They gradually are scaling up. Their primary focus, of course, is more on the lower end, the commoditized businesses, which we are less in, we less feel the price competition in this segment.

Of course, over time, they will further, let's say, develop and further increase their capabilities. For the moment, I would say from that competitive landscape, no big change.

Our position in China remained very strong. That brings me to the second question of your point and is the combination of the core business and what you call the filler business.

Now out of competitive situation, we don't give details here, but so we had a very strong '25 loading of the factories in China. With a good outcome of mix, but also resulting in a good financial performance, yeah?

I think of course, the majority is our base good businesses and the minority is of course the filler business, where we opportunistically trade off the volume effect of the plants and the business we can generate with that, yeah? In terms of profitability, as we don't give profitability per region for RR, but you can assume that the profitability is on average across the board, correct, with of course different mixes, but on average, all our business are very well profitable and around the average levels of RR.

Of course, I think you referred to China market, and there you have to remember that we focus more on high-premium segment of the market, and it's fair to say that customers globally, not only in China, but also elsewhere, and especially in China, they appreciate our innovativeness, our good quality, service level, which also supports that we're able to keep margin level also at the domestic market there at a reasonable level. We are very selective also when it comes to customer product portfolio.

That's important part of the business, status management, how you manage your portfolio. Then

let me pivot to your second questions on the evolution of the tariffs, yeah? There's two components.

On the US tariffs, the steel tariffs and the aluminum tariffs under Section 232, basically there's no change, and they remain in place, and there is no changes. The only changes that there is is on the reciprocal 10 15%, which is applicable for non-steel and non-aluminum products, and so that is, I'm not saying it's not irrelevant for us because it influences a little bit how the market and the trades looks, but basically for us from a tariff point of view, it's not changing versus the last year, yeah?

On EU, I think there we go into 2026, where the Steel Action Plan will come in place by the middle of the year, correct? To be monitored how that will be influencing the demand and supply balance of steel in Europe and the pricing, but not active in the first half of the year and to be monitored for the second half of the year.

Understood. Thank you, very helpful.

Hello?

Sorry for that. Good morning, Frank Claassen, Degroof Petercam.

I got a question on your margin guidance, the flat margin for '26. Can you say anything about what you see in phasing, let's say, the first half versus the second half?

A bit similar for the different BUs, do you expect all BUs to be round about the same level as '25, or do you see some pluses and minuses there? Thank you.

Typically, if you look at the phasing of our business, typically first half is stronger than second half. You have to remember the second half, what we have is that there is, of course, holiday season in most of our markets, as well as Christmas, New Year, which is having effect on the volumes and cost coverage.

Then when it comes to businesses, I think if you look at the guidance and outlook, we do see some, like I mentioned, also recovery on construction and steel ropes in US, where the first half of last year was quite challenging and difficult, and growth opportunities continue in SWS Energy & Utilities segment. Other than that, I would say that it's rather flat, flattish,

yeah. Seasonality as well, yeah.

Okay. Maybe a last question on your capex, it's going up.

What are the main growth projects for '26?

The different components of the capex consists first of all about what we call our compliance capex and maintenance capex. Secondly is what we do the improvements in terms of productivity, yeah, aspect.

What they foresee for next year is less on the growth because we don't need extra capacity in some businesses, but it's more on automation, correct, to get productivity up, cost down, efficiency. That's mainly what's more driving the increase than really growth initiatives.

Okay. Then

we have some growth capex in Energy & Utilities in US, relatively small in the total, but some to be able to capture the growth we see there at the market.

Thank you.

Hello, thank you for taking my questions. I'm looking at capex these days, and it's now standing at 3.7% of sales, versus I think it was 5% historical level.

I'm wondering how long we can keep the capex at these levels. Then maybe a somewhat related question, which is what is the normalized levels of working capital at the moment?

Because I thought that was standing around 16%, but now we see that's 14% of sales, which is obviously a nice improvement, but, yeah, again wondering how sustainable it is in the long term. Third question would be on Bridgestone, hey, you acquired a plant there in Asia, I'm just wondering, considering that these are relatively old plants, if you also foresee some capex for these in 2026, and then maybe if you can just shed a bit of light on what the long-term supply agreements look like with the deal here.

That's my questions for now, thank you.

Thanks. Maybe I start with the capex and working capital and then hand over to Yves on the Bridgestone-related questions.

On capex, if you look at the capex structure and needs, we need roughly 80 to €100 million a year for the maintenance and compliance capex. As you can see, with €140 million level last year, we are above that, even that allows for some additional improvement and growth capex.

If you compare to previous years' levels, you have to remember that there we had quite significant growth investments included, for instance in hydrogen, which are now not needed as we are well invested for the current demand on the market, not only hydrogen, but also in other businesses. Like we have said earlier, that if, and not only if, but when the growth comes back, we are ready to increase the capex levels from the levels we are currently having to say €200 million or depends on the needs.

We have balance sheet to do it when the need comes. When it comes to working capital level, we are now at 15% level, and there's quite a nice, significant improvement year-on-year from over 17% earlier.

It's sustainable, I dare to say. We have been working a lot on structural improvements.

We have worked on improving our processes to reduce overdue receivables when it comes to dunning, we have better processes in place there, there has been significant reduction of overdues. We have improved our inventory management, our sales and operations planning to be able to reduce the inventory levels that we have.

We have worked on improvements of our supplier payment terms, procurement team has been doing there good work and continue to do it. Also on the sales side, in addition to collections, we have been working on the customers' payment terms.

I would say that it's sustainable level. Of course, the challenge is that the lower you get, the more challenging it's to reduce more, and that's, I think, fair to say, and important to keep in mind that that it's more like I said in my part of the presentation that I see some pockets where we could still reduce the working capital, but do not expect another 100 million, just to be realistic.

Good, then let me pivot to the question on the Bridgestone acquisitions, tire cord factories. Two factories, one in China, one in Thailand.

In China, we have our own factories, and of course, this is a complementary location here, which will also give opportunities let's say for synergies with our China operations. Secondly, in Thailand, which is a country where we didn't have tire cord production, another additional supply base for us.

This, of course, like usual, is going together with a multi-year supply agreement, not only for this plant, but also part, of course, of our continuous collaboration with Bridgestone globally. From a capex point of view, we know this technology, we know the operation, we've been acquiring Bridgestone plants before, and we've been supplying Bridgestone with all our factories worldwide, we know their products and we know their technology, and there will be opportunities for optimization with smaller capex, but there's no exceptional capex needed for these operations.

They're in a good shape and we can integrate them in our operations.

Maybe if I can just have one follow-up there. On that multi-year supply agreement, is there a sort of, yeah, agreement that you would bring in maybe technologies that are present in Europe that maybe Bridgestone uses here already to those plants there, or what was the trigger for them to, yeah, basically sell this business with a multi-year supply agreement?

I don't want to comment instead of the CEO of Bridgestone, correct, on their strategic rationale, but it was part of their strategic plan to focus on the core businesses and basically to create leverage here by allocating these two plants to an existing supplier.

Thank you. Then just one for housekeeping.

I think you mentioned that the hydrogen plant came up and is now being depreciated, which weighed on Specialty business margins. Could you maybe remind us of as of when in 2025 the plant started to depreciate?

Thank you.

Full-year effect on the line. Yeah.

Full year.

Full year, okay, thank you.

Hi, good morning. My question is on the expected dividend from your JV in Brazil in 2026.

How is the market environment in Brazil, and could you give us more details on the competitive landscape in Brazil?

Of course, when it comes to joint venture dividend, we don't give guidance there, but if you look at the history and trend, they have been quite steady performers as well as when it comes to cash flow and joint ventures there, the dividend flow has been quite steady. Last year, they suffered from currency translation effect if you look at the weak local currency, and there has been some increasing imported volumes.

I think they are well positioned on their markets, and in that sense, we are confident they continue solid performance. I cannot go more into details of those joint ventures.

We are minority shareholder there, so that's good to keep in mind.

Maybe on the competitive landscape in Brazil?

Perhaps I can give you some color there, but two businesses we are in, in the Steel Wire Solutions and then in the Rubber Reinforcement business, yes? Steel Wire Solutions, very local, very good presence, strong competitive position there for our joint venture.

If we talk about the Rubber Reinforcement or the tire cord business, there you have a different, a little bit picture with more competition, growing also from imports. The biggest part of that joint venture is the Steel Wire Solutions,

yeah. Very clear, thank you.

Good, no, thanks for participation, thanks for your questions, thanks for following the company. Wish you, I'm not, but I suppose a very nice, a beautiful day, and thanks for attending.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.