Bystronic AG

Good morning, everybody. A warm welcome to our Bystronic full-year research for 2025. I'm happy to welcome Heinz Baumgartner, our Chair, dear investors. We will go through the presentation. I have Javier Perez here, our new CFO. He will maybe introduce himself later as well. Please take a minute to go through the disclaimer. I will read it at the same time and then continue in the expectation that you are as fast as me by reading it.

Perfect.

So we will start with a business review. Javier will then take over for the financial review. We will do an outlook together and we will take a little bit more time for the Q&A session. Let me start with the business review. You have seen the numbers already this morning. I will elaborate a bit more later on the regions and so on. So we had an order intake of 634.5 million Swiss franc, which is a 5% increase at constant exchange rate. We had, as expected, a little bit lower net sales compared to last year at constant exchange rate by 2.2%. I will elaborate on the reasons why and so on as well. I think what was an achievement, of course, we are not happy with the numbers, but it was with an extremely improved EBIT, which is minus 19.8 million compared to the 84 million we had in the previous year. Adjusted EBIT without the one-offs was 47 million, which is in comparison to last year, a big improvement because we have even much less net sales. The operating free cash flow was slightly higher than in 2024, despite the fact that we had the payments of the one offs with severance payments. So the cash out was this year, but we will elaborate on this one as well. So in overall, the numbers are in line with what we have expected. Again, on the A-B side, slightly higher. On the H-A, slightly lower than we had expected. What is really positive in my eyes, it's the first time after a few years, for not saying many years, to have a positive book-to-bill ratio, so order intake is higher. for 2025, then the net sales, which of course results as well in a higher backlog. If we go to the quarterly view, you see that there is not a real recovery in the market. At least we have now over, I would say, seven quarters a stabilization in auto intake. The last quarter, 2025, was good. And with that, I'm coming to the regions, starting with Americas. We had a solid demand. We had a lot of headwinds. You know, the whole tariff discussion, it was a hit for us. But due to our local production, we could mitigate some of the costs. Nevertheless, especially in net sales, we had a few weeks. during the summer period, you know, all the famous first of August when everything was announced. We had some customer postponing. We even stopped some deliveries because it was very uncertain how to calculate and so on. This had a certain impact. But in terms of order intake, It was really stable. And I think we were even able to somehow pass some of the tariffs to the customers. Of course, what was sold and in delivery was a pain for us. And it cost us a hell of a money. And we will shortly elaborate this when we talk about the EBIT as well. Meanwhile, I can say... When we made the presentation last week, there was a stabilization of the terrorist discussions over the weekend. We have now a new development. Nobody can exactly say what it means, but in overall, for us, it will not have an additional negative impact and will not have an additional positive impact because whether it is the 10 or the 15, adding the existing terrorists, we stay more or less in the same range. In EMEA, we saw a slight recovery. We had very good performance in Italy and in Spain over the whole year. And we had a quite good development in the last quarter, even in DACH, Germany and Switzerland were quite strong, but really pushed by smart factories. Now the definition of smart factory is wide, but I'm saying about larger systems, not single machines. So there is a strong trend towards automated system, less single machines. So exactly what our strategy pays in. And the last quarter was really strong and they made it up for the, let's say for the full year. China is quite stable with even a positive development at D&E. That's our second brand. As you know, we made a new repositioning of our D&E brand. We decoupled D&E completely from Bystronic with look and feel, different sales channels and so on. And we even relocated the whole company from Shenzhen to Foshan. So we have now a state of the art factory where we could increase the efficiency of building machines. We are coming close to 1,000 machines building out of this factory, which is very, very positive. But even the Bystronic brand in China seems to stabilize, but even towards smart factories. The weak point is definitely APEC without China, so with Southeast Asia, especially South Korea, is slow. It was slow over the full year. And we are right now investigating what to do in this region, which was a quite important region in the past for Bystronic. So a little bit how we developed the auto intake. I already mentioned a few times that we, if you look, At the numbers, you will recognize that we are doing less business in the single machines, so in the standard machines. So a big driver in order intake and growth is definitely driven by the smart factories. So larger projects, there is a really big demand and growing demand for smart factories. Our software solution pays in a lot, so I think we can make a differentiation with our overall system. As you know, we still have a lot of small customers. I don't want to call it mom and pop shops anymore because they have smart factories as well, where they like to have the full software solution we offer. What is very strong, and this is a sign of recovery, is spending. We cannot sell more bending because we don't have more capacity. So the request for bending solutions and even here for automated bending solution is extremely high. We will invest heavily even in this year in bending solution as a fully automated bending solutions. I already mentioned the D&E relaunch. I think I don't have to repeat it again, but here on the picture, You see the factory. It's a 50,000 square meter factory. One floor located in Foshan and not anymore in the city center of Shenzhen. Of course, we have even a cost advantage. But the reason behind is really to build more efficiently machines and not having it divided over different floors. A highlight of 2020. 2025 was definitely our tube business. As you know, we established tube as our own business unit in our organization. We put the head of this business unit and we really focused on the market. The tube market for small tubes is not a sheet metal market. This is something we had to recognize. And of course, what was a big highlight in terms of order intake, but not in net sales, was the large tube machine, the 330, which I think is really breaking through and contributing a lot in terms of order intake. Why I'm saying net sales? Delivery times. I mean, we can tell it, but you will not have the final acceptance within the year where we do the sales recognition. So that's something you see in the net sales as well. And it's normal. I explained it before. If you have single machines which you deliver within three to six weeks and you do an installation within two weeks, you will have sales recognition very close to the order intake. As more you go to systems, you will have a sales recognition just delayed, right? That's something you see in the net sales. That's something you will see even in the coming quarters because there will be, when you do a shift from single machines to systems, you will have a small down till it recovers and it stabilizes. Okay, I think the organization, the reorganization is nearly done. I mean, there are always some minor adjustments to do. I think what makes me extremely happy is that we finally have the EC, the Executive Committee, finalized with Javier, a CFO, with Alberto Martinez, having a huge experience in our sheet metal business leading the division systems and with Wilfrid DeBacco having somebody having a very long standing experience in service business for the division service. I think we have now a very strong market focus so we aligned our organization to the needs of the of the market. I think we are much leaner, you see it in the in the cost savings. So of course we are now more agile and we are able to do very fast decisions. We increased our efficiencies, bundled our competences, we consolidated our group function. I think there we still have some potential but I think now together with Javier We will tackle new topics as well. So in optimization of our production setup, we did a lot. I think there is still some room. Innovation, as I told already last time, we integrated R&D into the divisions. So Tube, which is not a division part of the system division, but they have a dedicated R&D, which are very close to the market. We have R&D in our division system. And of course, we put a huge focus on automation solution. Well, meanwhile, the headquarter of the automation development is in Switzerland. So we finalized this move. Expansion of smart factories, I think I don't have to repeat it. Last point, opportunities. You know that I was very open during the last conferences. We had quality issues. We had reputation issues. Some of you might ask why service is slightly lower. That's because we decided we want to move more towards the customer. Maybe we squeezed a little bit too much our service business. And with that, we disappointed some customers. So, and of course, the price pressure in the past led a little bit to a situation where we did not put the quality on the first priority. I think we are back now there. We see this even in terms of warranty costs and so on. Is there still possibility for improvement? Definitively yes. And I mean, I mentioned it with the R&D market oriented product portfolio. And last but not least, the focus on tube laser cutting systems remains very important for us. I think it's last time I'm showing something about the restructuring. The EBIT we are showing was only possible because the restructuring went better than expected. When I'm saying this, it's not that in overall we are doing more, but it was more in effect already in 2025 than we anticipated. So we will have less of this savings in 2026. The target to achieve the 60 million annualized savings, I think it's achieved. Unfortunately, it's a sad number. We reduced by 600 FTEs, even slightly lower. As I mentioned already, nearly 85% of these savings are already achieved in 2024 and 2025. I think overall we are satisfied with the outcome of the restructuring. Okay, shortly on the ESG, I think we can be proud here. I mean, we have plus 24% in renewable electricity. We have minus 6% in waste and circularity, and we still have a waste of 2,150 tons. So our scope one and two, we reduced by 14%, which is, by the way, in line with the STBI. And for me, I would say the most important one on this slide, not because of CO2 and so on, but the workforce injuries went down. So our total recordable insurance rate went down by nearly a third, so by 28%, to a rate of 1.15, which is, I would say, in our business, a good benchmark, definitely. So coming to our strategy, I want to just elaborate that now because we did an acquisition, we are not only moving towards acquisitions. We still want to be in a growth mode in our core business. We need ongoing investments in our productivity, in our automation solution for our sheet metal market. We are offering broader options. range of products for our full lifecycle management. It goes in combination, by the way, even with our service offerings. We still see some white spots in the world, so we will focus on expanding regional markets. And of course, we still aim to gain back some market shares. I don't have final numbers. One year ago, I told you that we lost market shares. I can tell you today we've certainly that we gained market shares back. We will elaborate these numbers and maybe during some roadshows or so we can even share more information on this one. And then something which was the main focus of mine and coming from a world having a lot of OEMs. Astronic does not have a lot of OEMs. You know, the few ones they have, they were more concentrated on smaller mom and pop shops. I think here the focus on OEMs as well is here. Then we made some strategic partnerships. I think these two are in my eyes quite important. You know that Japan is always a difficult market for Europeans. So either you are Japanese or you don't make business basically. So we have a strong alliance with Komatsu. Basically, the final signing will be in two weeks from now at the Komatsu headquarter, where together we want to establish a kind of a sales force and enter to the Japanese mainland. We see quite huge chances here. Then we partnered up with SSAB on green steel solutions, so we still push towards our ESG targets. And last but not least, besides of the organic growth and becoming again profitable with our core business, of course, we are targeting more M&A. You all read it. In the next slide, I will elaborate a little bit. We definitely want to have a diversification on one hand, but only on our DNA. So we don't want to become Concetta again. So we are definitely not buying back Mammut. So don't worry. It has to have our DNA. And so that's very important. Why I want to have this, we have to become more resilient and not being depending only, let's say, from the sheet metal market.

But again, it has... And the second one, what we're targeting as well is, of course, even in our core... Please wait while you are joined to a comment.

Okay. So even in our core business, we still have some white spots which we could fill with product. So maybe shortly on the recent acquisition we did, I think you know that we just close it by the end of January. It will be in our book starting from the 1st of February. We acquired the business the machine tool business from from coherent um i i know this company from from my past quite well so it was uh really a target we were seeking for it so they made around about 80 million so far we only share the 100 million us dollar now you can say it's 80 million swiss franc around about 400 employees out of them around 300 in germany

Japan is the homeland of one of your main competitors. Could you elaborate? What's the reasoning behind that expansion plan and how do you think you can compete there versus another?

The point is that this competitor is even a competitor of Komatsu. Komatsu has a wide range of products for the sheet metal. processing industry but they don't have a strong laser to compete against AMADA and we do believe that together we might have a chance to get bigger orders in Japan. That's really a strategic alliance for Japan mainland at the beginning.

Thanks and related to that But specifically towards the US, do you see that the weaker yen versus the strong Swiss franc has a competitive impact for US-related business so that Armada would have an advantage pricing-wise due to their weak currency?

Yeah, of course. I mean, this was a big driver over the last few years. I mean, that's the truth. I mean, the Japan UN decreased, I don't know, 30% year over year in average, right? It was a big competitive advantage, but we should not underestimate that we are quite strong localized already. So there are import taxes, and I do believe that the company will make... Who will make the race is the one to have the right mix between import and localization. AMADA is doing the same. AMADA is localized quite heavily like we are. From this point of view I don't believe that this will be a further big advantage. I can tell you price-wise we are more or less in the range. It's not that we are more expensive than AMADA. we are tracking the pricing quite closely. So I would even say that we are slightly below.

And last question for now. Thanks. Since you don't expect the market recovery for now, could that also result in an additional cost savings since you actually When you announced the cost savings, you expected the recovery of orders already by the second half of 2025?

As for today, otherwise I would have announced it, we are not expecting a restructuring in the way we did last year. We are further improving our setup and adjusting our setup, as I mentioned before. the project and the product mix we have is not anymore the same like we had in the past. In the past, we produced single machines in high batches, in a line, and now we are going more towards projects. So it is rather a transformation to meet these requirements from the market. And with that, Of course, we're always working on improvement on our cost base.

Thomas Boris, VVAG. What is the reason for the weak South Korean market? Is there due to the political unrest which we have seen, or is there a structural change in the market?

We are right now checking it. The first view is that, of course, it is becoming less a Western country. South Korea was always a Western country for me, very strongly related to the U.S. They were buying stuff. I mean, when you went to South Korea, you see German cars, you see American cars. I think the most McDonald's outside of the U.S. are definitely in South Korea, Kentucky Fried Chicken. And now we see a little bit to switch towards Chinese products. Low cost products, right? Is this a trend? Is this a reality? We are checking it right now. On the other hand, we see that there's a big demand for smart factories. So when I'm talking about smart factories, it's whole systems, not only a single machines. And there we still see a huge potential. For Bystronic, but of course, we from our side, we have to decide, is it more Bystronic premium product market or is it more Chinese? Then the D&E would maybe be the better fit. So far, we serve it very strongly with Bystronic premium product. So this is something we have to analyze. We are right now. So some of our people right now over there, we're doing a market study to understand it. But I personally believe it's more structural change in the behavior of the South Koreans.

I'm not sure if I fully understand the guidance you mentioned. a step toward profitability, but that means you expect not to reach profitability yet in 26.

There is something, it's a good question. It's too early to say it. I mentioned today that we are going towards a system supplier, which was always our strategy, which in my eyes is the right strategy. It depends a lot on how much net sales we can recognize this year. Again, the delivery times are in a completely different sphere than we had in the past in the machines. For me, the more important indicator will be the top line in bookings, in order intake, and the net sales depending on when we have the order intake within this year. If we get the 700 million order intake In the last quarter, we will not make net sales. This is a change in paradigms. This is a change in how you have to look at Bystronic. We have long delivery time. I think Javier will maybe mention something on this. We are checking whether our sales recognition is the right one as we do it today. Because we only do it after the final acceptance test. If we have a customer which wants to have a different screw, we have to wait till we change this screw so that we can do. So we are checking a few things on here, but it all comes with the volume in this case. So if we will have the net sales, there's a big chance that we can achieve it. If the net sales will stay a little bit behind just because of this reason, then it will be very challenging.

Good morning. Can you remind us of the forex sensitivity of the business in its new scope? I understand that the euro, the dollar in particular, are much weaker versus the Swiss franc in the new setup, and you have a lot of production and overheads in Switzerland. And when I look at the results for 2025, I see in the financial result quite significant hedging and intra-company financial forex-related items. Should I expect them to be in the same magnitude more or less in 2026, given the current spot rates?

I would say yes. There will be not a big movement. Obviously, with Rofin coming in as from February, there will be also a slightly change, but I would say that their split of currencies is actually similar.

And just if I may, you have stopped disclosing regional or geographic revenues, right? This is...

We did not show this, in fact. I mentioned this, that let's say for bisonic it's 50, for Europe 35, North America and let's say APEC plus China it's 15.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I would like to go back to the question of I forgot your name. You mentioned that Now you're looking for more sales coming back to a positive financial result. Well, more sales also says that you have more bills to pay and you have more payouts. For you, where is the point where you can get a positive result? What is the target of sales in total where you can say if you have those sales, then we have a positive result.

So you are looking for the break even point, right? Yes. So let's say we will still have some positive impacts from the restructuring and not a huge amount, which will be in 26. And I don't know if you should say it, but if we can get somewhere between 650 and 700, then... let's say, excluding ROFIN. If you add ROFIN, then for sure, we will be positive.

I think with the 150 million of sales, you can reach additional EBIT of 90 million.

In combination with ongoing savings still, plus roughly 40 million more in sales. Yes. Thank you.

Yes, maybe a question from my side, Mark Bosar, VVAG as well. Concerning the change from like single machine to projects, and you talked about the sales recognition, I would wonder about the cash flow side. Can you elaborate on the shift towards like prepayments, then milestone payments and end payments in percentages on the time axis in order for us to understand.

I mean, this is absolutely no change there. We are quite safe, I would say. I mean, we are getting usually around about 30% down payment and 60% before delivery. This will not change even if we sell a system. So basically we have 90, usually in average, we have 90% of the cash in-house before we deliver. We have only a few big OEMs like John Deere where we might make an exception, but in general we have 90%. There is no shift even if we go for systems. And we are not aiming to change yet to POC or whatever. So what we are doing with the sales recognition is not in any connection with the payment, not in any connection with the customer.

This is probably an important message, right? So payments is one thing and obviously sales recognition is a different thing.

Just to come back to the previous question, the 650 million breakeven on an EBIT basis or on a NEP basis?

On an EBIT basis.

EBIT, okay.

Thank you.

I might have missed it, but the mid-term guidance, you didn't reiterate that. That still stands? It stands. Five to seven percent. A detailed question, just out of interest, you mentioned data centers were a big supportive driver this year. How much of sales does that make up or of orders?

I would say it's difficult because many of our customers are supplying parts you know i mean not 100 percent of their of their of their volume goes only to data center right but i i mean this would be a rough estimate but i would say 10 percent of the system business so the overall of the group we are talking about six six seven percent and why we did mention it is especially for the large tube machine, where we got large orders last year because of data centers in the US, really. As on the tube, I can say there we have a few projects dedicated only to the build of data centers. Whereas on the flat sheet metals, it's a product mix, which is difficult to predict.

We still have another question concerning the visibility due to the business kind of shift towards more project orientation that is longer lasting, but where visibility should increase. Is that correct?

It is correct. We have much better visibility. That's why we are cautious. We see the project. We have a kind of a better planning, but it requires a longer time. waiting because the customer is playing for a longer time instead of buying a single machine. So this is different, but it's the world I'm used from my past. And again, this is the only, there will be a kind of a time till the shift is done, especially in net sales. And that's why I look very much on the auto intake.

Concerning the capital employed, there is little change there, no? There should be no change, no.

The volume per project is obviously bigger than selling a single machine. But from what you mean now, the working capital impact should be really minor.

Do you consider factoring solutions in order to smoothen out certain balance sheet days? No. If you consider factoring, using factoring, for instance, that's not a topic.

No, right now not. It's also an expensive financing method.

Yeah. Do we have any questions in the call? For questions from the phone, please press star and one. We have no questions from the phone so far.

We have a last second registration from Walter Bamert, ZKB. Please go ahead.

Hello, everybody. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Perfect. Can you help me with modeling the Rofin? So you gave 80 million revenues and I think the company has a decent profitability standalone, but perhaps you have purchase price allocation issues and perhaps also you would invest some money to put it on let's say more fit for the future with more R&D or whatever. So that could also lead to a lower profitability. So what should we expect for this year and let's say five-year in the future.

Okay. Let me answer on this. You bring it to the point, right? I mean, when we made the announcement of the acquisition, I said it has to be higher than our corridor. Coming back to what Mr. Obertos asked, right? So, of course, it should be higher than what we expected in the mid-term for By Stronica, it's a completely different market. For the first year, I would say we have integration costs. We will have some investments and we should not forget that partially it is a carve out. So the big chunk is coming, of course, with the company we bought in Germany. But the rest of the world is a carve out. It's combined with certain costs. But even though I would say we are in the lower range of the of the mid-term guidance we gave even already for the first year. This is our target.

Okay. And investments into the future, any plans are made already?

Oh, can you repeat it?

I missed the first part. Will you step up the R&D, for example, of this company or other activities where you say we need to invest first a little bit?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, the first target is to have a smooth integration, so a smooth decoupling from the owner, from coherent. I think this is the first target. So for me, it's like taking a baby out of an incubator, cutting all the tubes and see whether they still can walk. We are pretty confident. So we will be very cautious at the beginning. But yes, we see huge synergies. And as I mentioned, they are bringing technologies we do not have yet in-house, like marking, laser marking, laser drilling, which can be combined to our product. So it's not only that we have a market access system, to a new market like semiconductor and healthcare. But of course, in terms of R&D, we will invest quite significantly. I think Bystronic always spends a lot of money. I think we can ask our chair. I think we are quite on the big side in spending in R&D. So innovation is key. So we see huge potential there and we will invest. Yes.

Perfect. Thank you. Awesome.

Just for online. Thank you. Yeah, to be on the safe side with microphone. Conceptually speaking, you're moving up the share of automation business compared to single machines business. In this transition and kind of outside in perspective, it's a little bit clouded when you go into project related and execution related business mix. How should we look at the risk inherent to strategy compared to selling standard machines, basically?

It's always risks and chances, right? The risk is that we have an organization who cannot carry projects, that we have an organization who does not have the visibility or the transparency to track the project. And the chances is we have a great CFO now who helps me to bring me this transparency. I know the system business well. quite well. I think next week there will be the announcements even from hundreds and I think you will see great numbers so you can make good money with projects. We are benchmarking, you know, even with peers and so on. And the biggest chance I see is that we have a kind of a USP with our solutions, especially driven by the software, right? And the difference is, Thorsten, nobody of you asks how much the costs are of the engine of your car, right? So basically, either you buy a BMW or a BYD or a Daimler or a Volkswagen, and this is the price for the system you get, right? And you want just to drive from A to B. That's exactly what we have with our customer. So my expectation is that we, even on the margins of the single machines, which are still part of this of the system so we should not forget we we still have the same components combined together to one system and nobody talks anymore about the single engine which is built in there so that's that's a big chance for those projects not not for no no but this would this would be like the the path to evaluate right i don't know you

You stole the microphone from Thorsten, maybe? He didn't want.

One question from the chat from Aurélien Sivignon from OdoBHF regarding roe, fin and diversification of the Rofindil, would you say it's time now to focus on consolidation and integration, or do you see further opportunities for diversification in 2026?

I mean, we talked a lot together, right? If I would be alone, I would drive the diversification even more, right? And I'm always saying, hey, of course, we have to make an integration. Of course, we We have to stabilize the business, but I'm always saying opportunities are not always there. So if the opportunity is coming tomorrow and it is the perfect, the right fit, then we have to do it, right? It's not that we can say, okay, now let's stabilize everything and so on. And in three years, we start again. The opportunities might not be there in three years. So that's my clear focus. Of course, you need to have a stable management, which we have today. I think again, we still have negative numbers and I'm absolutely not happy. But if you see the change, despite the lower net sales to this profitability, negative profitability we showed, we need a big, big step in the right direction. And now we can always say, let's wait, let's wait, let's consolidate and so on. Again, if there is the right opportunity, we will make bold decisions and try to make it. And I can only say that cooperation with the board of directors is great in this direction as well.

So we are perfect in time for the questions. Exactly. Very good. Perfect.

So anything I have to say, just thank you very much. It's by the way, a pleasure to see so many attendees here and uh thank you very much i mean we will anyway stay uh connected please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions javier is uh is here and uh we will have still the chance to talk for uh out here right i think there's an apple and uh yeah thank you from my side thank you so much