Inchcape Q4 2025 Earnings Report

Inchcape EPS Results

• Actual EPS: GBX 80.80
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Inchcape Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Inchcape Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2025
• Date: 3/3/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 3:30AM ET

Inchcape (LON:INCH) is the leading global automotive distributor, with operations across six continents. By combining our in-market expertise with our unique technology and advanced data analytics, we create innovative customer experiences that deliver outstanding performance for our partners – building stronger automotive brands and creating sustainable growth. Our distribution platform connects the products of mobility company partners with customers, and our responsibilities span product planning and pricing, import and logistics, brand and marketing to operating digital sales, managing physical sales and aftermarket service channels. Delivering for our partners, our customers and our people – so they can realise their ambitions in the new world of mobility. The Group is headquartered in London and employs over 16,000 people globally. www.inchcape.com

Inchcape Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Delivered a strong 2025: revenue £9.1bn, adjusted PBT £443m (+3% cc), EPS +13%, free cash flow £315m, closing leverage 0.4x, and a new £175m share buyback after returning ~£340m to shareholders.
• Negative Sentiment: APAC underperformed—organic revenue fell ~12% and volumes were down ~1%, margins contracted ~60bps; management has launched cost reductions and flags production/supply disruption risks in H1 2026.
• Positive Sentiment: Continuing to execute the "Accelerate Plus" strategy with 10 new distribution contracts, a healthy bolt‑on M&A pipeline, and reiterated medium‑term targets (including £2.5bn FCF to 2030 and >10% EPS CAGR6% margins, ~100% FCF conversion and >10% EPS growth.
• Negative Sentiment: BYD is increasingly insourcing distribution in medium/large European markets (Benelux contract noted), which presents a potential commercial risk for distributor-led markets even though management describes the move as isolated.
• Positive Sentiment: Higher‑margin aftersales and tech levers are growing: aftersales grew ~4% (outpacing new vehicle volumes), while AI-driven pricing and parts/finance & insurance initiatives are being scaled to boost margins and recurring revenue.

Presentation

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Well, good morning everyone. I'm Duncan Tait, Group CEO, and I'm joined by our Group CFO, Adrian Lewis. Here's today's agenda. I'll give an update and overview on market and market context. Adrian will then run through 2025 results, and I'll sum up and discuss the outlook for 2026. Today's presentation is available on our website, and a recording of today's session will be available later today. After the presentation concludes, we'll take your questions. Let's begin. Inchcape delivered a strong 2025 performance against the backdrop of tariff-related disruption and economic uncertainty, reaffirming the strength of our diversified and scaled business. Our colleagues in the Americas and the Europe and Africa regions posted record PBT performances. Against a number of challenges, APAC delivered a better H2 performance, and we're working with our OEM partners and across the value chain to drive further performance improvements.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We continue to execute against our Accelerate Plus strategy, winning more distribution contracts and executing an acquisition in a new market for Inchcape. During the year, we returned around GBP 340 million to shareholders through dividends and buybacks, grew EPS and DPS by 13%. With leverage of just 0.4 times, we're ready to go again in 2026, starting with a new share buyback program of GBP 175 million. This slide shows how we delivered against all of our key growth drivers on the left-hand side of this chart. That includes the financial metrics I mentioned, including our resilient margins as well as vehicle volumes, customer and colleague-related metrics. On those dynamics, we continue to build on our strong customer reputation in the industry with a 6% increase in our scores on Reputation.com.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

In addition, our employee engagement score of 81%, up 4 points from the previous year, is a clear signal of Inchcape's collaborative, entrepreneurial, and high-performance culture, which is a testament to the caliber and talent of our 16,000 people across our 40 markets. Last year, we generated GBP 315 million in free cash flow, which clearly highlights our cash generative and capital light model. This capital was deployed to drive growth and shareholder returns with a 13% increase in dividends per share, GBP 238 million invested in share buybacks, and GBP 35 million utilized on the Iceland acquisition. We have a healthy pipeline of bolt-on M&A opportunities in place to supplement our organic growth. This delivery of our strategy enabled us to deliver return on capital employed of 29% and helped us grow EPS by 13%.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We continue to execute against our Accelerate Plus strategy by scaling and optimizing our regions. Our objective here is to develop our OEM partner portfolio and geographic footprint, thereby enhancing the resilience in our earnings profile. This will help to drive our progress against our ambition to achieve 10% market share across our markets. Last year, we grew distribution contracts won in previous years. With these contracts being a key driver of our organic revenue growth. We're also awarded 10 new distribution contracts with existing OEM brands, including New Holland in Ethiopia and Kenya, BYD in Lithuania and Latvia, XPeng in Colombia, and GAC AION in Greece, as well as new partners smart in Colombia, Uruguay and Ecuador, and Iveco in Hong Kong. To drive operational execution, we continue to optimize our business in a number of ways.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Firstly, we further rationalized our brand portfolio, mutually exiting 4 immaterial contracts with Komatsu in Ethiopia and 3 Geely contracts in smaller markets in the Americas. We continue to recycle capital by divesting non-core assets. We grew our third-party retail network, enabling broader in-market coverage in a capital efficient way. We continue to drive the penetration of value-added services, in particular growing our distribution of relatively high margin OEM certified parts, as well as delivering and developing financed insurance products by utilizing our global scale and partnerships. We also optimized our business by further collaborating with our OEM partners on product and inventory management, supported by our consistent execution and differentiated technology-based sales and operation planning processes.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

To that end, we positioned ourselves well for the second half of the year from a stock perspective, successfully reducing the buildup of inventory in the first half with inventory cover at the end of 2025 remaining flat year-on-year. Our sales and operational planning processes are supported by AI in a number of areas. In our parts business, we run pricing, optimization and demand models which enable us to trade tens of thousands of parts at optimal price points. We're also leveraging AI to drive innovation across our business. For example, we recently launched a vehicle pricing algorithm in Chile which analyzes price to volume elasticity to ensure we price vehicles even more accurately. Back to our optimization activities. We've also taken decisive action on our cost base, reinforcing our devolved operating model, driving efficiencies, and tackling challenges in certain markets.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

To that end, during the year, we initiated a cost reduction program across the group with a particular focus on the APAC region. I want to discuss our diversified and scaled OEM portfolio. We have long-standing relationships with many OEMs, some of which go back for over 50 years. Our role in the automotive distribution value chain is more important than ever. We continue to support these manufacturers in an increasingly complex and fast-moving environment, growing their volumes and market share in existing markets and helping them to enter new markets. We also have some relatively new OEMs in our portfolio on the right-hand side of this slide, who we've worked with for just a few years. Of those, I wanted to highlight that we are seeing BYD continuing to insource distribution in medium to large-scale markets in Europe.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

This is a BYD-only dynamic. We are seeing our other OEM partners rely on Inchcape more than ever before. On the next slide, here's some market context in what was a transforming automotive industry in 2025. In general terms, the new energy vehicle transition is becoming more of a multi-powertrain story. Importantly, as a powertrain-agnostic business and with our deep specialist market knowledge, Inchcape is well positioned to support our OEMs in their individual new energy transition journeys. Overall, market volumes across our markets grew by 2% in 2025, with the indirect impact of tariff-related disruption affecting demand in our markets in the first half of the year. Inchcape outperformed the market, growing our volumes by 3%.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

The macro environment improved in the second half in a number of our markets, particularly in the Americas and the Europe and Africa regions, offsetting a challenging backdrop in Asia. In the Americas, market volumes were up 8%, with a multi-drivetrain approach playing out. In Chile, our largest market there was a 3% TIV growth during the year with a stable market environment. Colombia and Peru experienced strong market growth, while there was a weaker growth in some markets like Costa Rica. In Europe, another multi-drivetrain story. Southern European markets like Greece and Bulgaria remained strong, while there was weakness in certain Northern European markets like Finland and Estonia. In APAC, BEV adoption continued to accelerate, partly as a result of the successful rollout of BEV in Asian markets. Chinese brands have grown market share across the region in recent years.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

These dynamics have created a highly competitive environment in most markets in the region. The premium segment in APAC remains weak, with consumers in that market segment continuing to hold off on buying higher value vehicles. To date, we've not seen any similar weaknesses in the premium segment in our other regions. On APAC, Australia, one of the largest vehicle markets in which we operate, remains resilient, but it is an increasingly competitive environment. That's it from me for now. I'll hand over to Adrian.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Thank you, Duncan. Good morning, everyone. I'll take you through our results for 2025. We generated revenues of GBP 9.1 billion, with organic revenue growth of 1% and resilient operating margins of 6.2%. Distribution contract wins were the significant portion of growth during the year. Adjusted PBT was GBP 443 million, up 3% in constant currency. Our PBT performance was supported by a contribution of GBP 17 million from the gains arising from the divestment of non-core assets, while translational currency headwinds were approximately GBP 19 million. Excluding the disposal gains, our operating margins were 6% and in line with our medium-term targets. Return on capital employed was again very strong at 29%, highlighting the high return capital light nature of our business.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Free cash flow delivery was a highlight as we produced GBP 315 million with a stronger performance in the second half. This was a 104% free cash flow to adjusted profit after tax conversion rate and in line with our medium-term targets. Closing leverage was 0.4 times, down from 0.6 at the half year and well within our self-mandated headroom of 1 times. Adjusted basic EPS was GBP 0.808, up 13%, predominantly as a result of a lower share count from our share buybacks. Today we declared a final dividend per share of GBP 0.228, taking the total dividend per share for the year to GBP 0.323, up 13% from the prior year.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

In summary, our performance in 2025 was a reflection of our continued operational delivery and progress against Accelerate Plus, which ensured we continued to deliver value for shareholders. 2025 was a year of two halves, and as expected, and as we highlighted during the course of 2025, our second half performance was much stronger than the first half, supported by a wide range of product launches across our business. As a result, we saw stronger half 2 growth rates across our regions, supported by product launches. Subsequently, our volumes and revenue swung from negative growth in half 1 to positive growth in half 2, helping to drive profits and cash flow in the second half. For the year, we delivered organic volume growth of 3%, outperforming the market, which grew by 2%.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

As a reminder, we have published our usual market tracker today, which shows the key market trends. Let's look at each of the regions, starting with the Americas. We built positive momentum in the region during 2025, supported by improving market conditions. Our excellent performance and our growth profile in the region highlights the success of our acquisition of Derco in 2022, as well as the other historic acquisitions and contract wins in the region. These transactions have helped us to build scale and market share, and as key markets have turned to growth, we have similarly seen a stronger performance. Market volumes and organic revenue were both up 8%, with growth from our core brands offsetting the impact of the brands we exited in 2024, and this ensured we achieved stable market share across the region.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

There was a strong performance in our scaled markets, including Chile, Colombia, and Peru, offsetting the weakness in certain markets like Costa Rica. Operating margins were up 70 basis points to 7%. This reflected resilient gross margins and operating leverage from higher volumes. In addition, we continued to efficiently scale our business through cost discipline and capital recycling with a GBP 8 million contribution to profits from non-core asset divestments. For 2026, we expect the market environment to remain supportive, with a typical seasonal weighting towards the second half resulting in a profitable growth for the year. In APAC, our market volumes, which were down 1%, our organic revenue declined 12%. As expected, our second half performance was an improvement on the first half as a result of product launches.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

In Australia, our largest business in the region, it is increasingly competitive and our business remained resilient, supported by our growing and diversified brand portfolio. However, we underperformed in our Asian markets with a proliferation of Chinese brands increasing the competitive intensity, particularly in markets where BEV penetration is high. Additionally, in some markets, the premium segment remained weak. As a result of lower revenues, operating margins contracted by 60 basis points to 7.2%, despite a GBP 9 million contribution to profits from non-core asset divestments in half 2. Actions were instigated during the year to protect margins, including our enhanced collaboration with our OEM partners on product positioning. We also initiated a cost reduction program focused on the regional headquarters and certain underperforming Asian markets to ensure we are more agile in a fast-moving and dynamic environment.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

For 2026, Australia is expected to remain stable, but challenges in other markets in the region are expected to continue. We expect operating margins this year to be supported through the ongoing implementation of the management actions I mentioned. Additionally, production disruption is expected to impact certain APAC markets in half 1. This disruption relates to production reconfiguration by some of our OEMs, which will have a short-term impact on supply. On to Europe and Africa, where we again delivered well and outperformed in a growing market. Market volumes were up 3%, with our organic revenue growth ahead of the market at 6%, supported by a contribution from distribution contracts won in recent years. As Duncan mentioned earlier, BYD continues to insource automotive distribution in medium to large-scale markets in Europe.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

We have a contract with them in Belgium and Luxembourg, which contributed less than 5% of regional revenue and around 1/3 of our 6% regional organic growth. At a group level, this contract represents less than 2% of group revenue and less than 1% of group adjusted PBT. It's a financially immaterial contract in the context of the group and the region. While we have performed well for BYD in Benelux since our appointment in 2022, given the commercial approach in medium to large-scale markets in Europe, we do not anticipate that this contract will be renewed. It expires in Q3 2027. Our role in the value chain is a critical part of how OEMs access markets where we specialize. As Duncan mentioned, we are not seeing other similar moves by other OEMs.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Now back to my regional review of Europe and Africa. Our acquisition in Iceland is performing well, and there was a particularly strong performance across our business in Southern Europe, supported by good consumer takeup of a range of hybrid products and strong growth in the market. Africa continued to grow through distribution contract expansion. Operating margins were down 10 basis points to 4.6%, but in line with historical norms, with gross margin resilience and operating leverage from scale offsetting the initial dilution from immature distribution contracts. During 2026, growth rates are set to slow in certain markets, which will be partly offset by the full contribution of Iceland, as well as continued operational execution and momentum across the region and the growing contribution from the multiple contracts won in recent years. On to our financial performance, and this slide shows our income statement.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

We delivered adjusted operating profit for the year of GBP 563 million, down 1% in constant currency. Regional mix impacted gross margins. This was largely offset by the continued cost discipline where our overhead to revenue ratio fell by 20 basis points. Adjusted net finance costs decreased by GBP 19 million to GBP 123 million, driven by lower average net debt and a more favorable interest rate environment. Adjusting items amounted to an expense of GBP 37 million. This was primarily driven by one-off costs relating to acquisition and integration of GBP 10 million, mainly in relation to the final stages of the Derco integration. There were also restructuring costs of GBP 23 million, broadly split evenly between the cost reduction actions that I mentioned earlier and the continuation of our back office restructure following the UK disposal.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

An adjusted PBT was GBP 443 million, 3% higher on a constant currency basis. The effective tax rate was flat at 31.4%. Adjusted basic EPS was up 13% to 80.8 pence, up 17% in constant currency, well ahead of our medium-term target. This was supported by a reduced number of shares in issue as a result of the share buyback programs executed during the year and the effect of averaging from the buyback program in 2024. This slide shows our net debt bridge. Inchcape has a strong balance sheet supported by consistently strong free cash flow generation, which ensures we can execute a disciplined approach to capital allocation.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Having generated over GBP 300 million in free cash flow, dividend payments amounted to GBP 101 billion, share buybacks amounted to GBP 238 million as we executed our capital allocation policy. There was net M&A spend of GBP 29 million, including the GBP 35 million in cash invested in the Iceland deal. The net of these elements saw leverage fall to 0.6x EBITDA, down from the 0.6 seen at the half year, providing the group with capacity to continue to allocate capital to drive growth and shareholder value. Which brings me to our capital allocation approach, which remains disciplined and returns-based. We will continue to pay dividends at 40% of earnings.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

We will continue to act with discipline in the balance of capital allocation between the value accretion from share buybacks and value accretive acquisitions whilst running leverage below 1 times EBITDA. Having completed the Iceland deal last year, we will continue to activate our healthy pipeline of bolt-on acquisitions, acting with discipline on valuations. We see merit and strategic value in expanding the scale of the group. However, a large deal is not currently in our consideration set in the near term. Since August 2024, we have repurchased GBP 400 million in shares through our share buyback program, reducing our shares in issue by around 13%. Today, we are announcing a new share buyback program of GBP 175 million, which is expected to complete over the next 12 months.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

It is worth noting that of the 2025 buyback program, where we repurchased 9% of our equity, only around half of this has been recognized in EPS with the effect of averaging, and this will have provide a tailwind to EPS for 2026 of around 4%-5%. Our capital allocation policy will help to drive EPS growth and deliver further value for shareholders whilst retaining the capacity to expand through acquisitions. To sum up my section, here is a reminder of our medium-term targets, which we are reiterating today. To the end of 2030, we expect to generate GBP 2.5 billion in free cash flow. We will deploy this free cash flow to drive shareholder value with a consistent dividend policy and in excess of 10% compound growth in EPS. That's it from me. I'll now hand back to Duncan.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Hey, thanks, Adrian. I wanted to give you a midterm review of how we have transformed Inchcape's investment proposition over the last six years, driving growth and value for shareholders. Over that period, we have become a pure-play automotive distribution business, divesting of a number of retail-only assets and ensuring our business is more resilient, higher margin, and generating better returns and more cash. Over decades, we have built an unrivaled, diversified portfolio of global OEM partners, winning over 50 contracts with a range of the world's best manufacturers since 2019. As a distributor, our powerful commercial relationships with these partners operate across global, regional, and local levels. We have continued to deliver a strong performance for them, supported by our differentiated data-driven approach, nearly doubling our distribution revenues.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We've also delivered a 200 basis point improvement in our operating margins from 4% in 2019 to 6% today, increasing return on capital employed over that period from 22% to 29%. Driven by this growth and strategic focus, we've generated GBP 2.3 billion in total free cash flow and raised around GBP 900 million in cash from the divestment of non-core retail-only assets. This has enabled us to return GBP 1.3 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks while we continue to invest in value-accretive acquisitions. EPS grew 35% over the period. I hope that by reinforcing our track record of delivery, this gives you a sense of what we expect to deliver in the coming years as a capital light automotive distribution pure play.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We have a compelling capital allocation policy and clear medium-term operational and financial ambitions, which we are very confident of delivering against. To that end, as a management team, we're extremely excited about the future for Inchcape. This is a reminder of our Accelerate Plus strategic framework, and that's enabled our performance as we continue to scale and optimize our business. We will continue to deliver against our medium-term ambitions, supported by our strategic enablers outlined here. Finally from me today, onto the outlook for 2026. We expect to deliver a year of growth at constant currency in line with our medium-term guidance. This will be achieved by the delivery of organic volume growth towards the lower end of our 3%-5% guidance range, supported by contract wins.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We expect continued momentum in the Americas and Europe and Africa regions, while we are decisively addressing the challenges in APAC. We expect to deliver resilient operating margins of circa 6% this year, in line with our medium-term guidance, supported by further penetration in aftersales and finance and insurance, enhanced collaboration with our OEM partners, and our actions on cost reduction. We also expect to deliver free cash flow conversion of circa 100% and EPS growth of more than 10%. Our performance this year will be skewed to the second half due to usual seasonality in the Americas and supply chain phasing in APAC. We also reiterate our medium-term targets, which will be delivered through our highly cash generative and capital light business model and a disciplined approach to capital allocation to deliver greater than 10% EPS CAGR to the end of 2030.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Just to sum up, Inchcape delivered a strong 2025 performance, reaffirming the strength of our diversified and scaled business as we continue to execute against our Accelerate Plus strategy. We expect to deliver another year of growth in 2026, and our confidence about our prospects for the year is underlined by our new GBP 175 million share buyback program. That's it for the presentation. Let's take your questions, firstly from people here in the room, then the phone lines, and finally from the webcast via our head of IR. Rob. My word, what a popular morning.

[James Bayliss, Associate Director and Equity Research at Berenberg]

Yeah, lots of hands.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Dear me. James, can we go to you first, please?

[James Bayliss, Associate Director and Equity Research at Berenberg]

Morning, both. Thanks. It's James Bayliss from Berenberg. Two, if I may. You referenced you increased your value-added services penetration in the year. I can see aftersales gross profit was up 4% year on year on an underlying basis. How should we be thinking about that profit stream going forward relative to vehicle distribution, giving everything that's going on in supply chains? My second question, can you just elaborate on that BYD disintermediation piece in its larger markets? You seem quite reassured that's not a trend that should impact other OEMs in your portfolio. Any comments there? Thanks.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Sure. Very good. I think I'll take, I'll take these. Look, first of all, in terms of value-added services, it is quite clearly a higher margin portion of our overall business. Unsurprisingly, James, I'd like to grow it. We have a number of initiatives across our finance insurance business and our parts business to do so. You saw that coming through in 2025, where new vehicle volumes were 3%. Value-added services or aftersales grew at 4%. To put it simply, I would like us to continue to grow our aftersales business faster than new vehicle volumes. I think we have the opportunity to do so over time. Don't expect us to be able to pull a lever and immediately see an uptick.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We have to do a lot of things across our business to grow that, but I'm confident in the team's ability to execute accordingly. To your point about BYD, look, let's put this in context. We have a brilliant portfolio of long-term relationships with OEM partners. We celebrated 60 years in January of this year with one of our OEM partners in one of our markets in Europe. 50 years in Guam, Saipan, and Brunei with other OEM partners. These are long-term relationships. We've won over 50 contracts, the majority of which have been through our existing OEM stable, including some of the Chinese OEMs that we've had relationships for over 20 years, like Changan and Great Wall. At the same time, it's become really obvious in Europe, hasn't it?

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

The BYD's been in sourcing contracts in medium to large scale markets. That describes a story that we envisage in BeLux. We're not seeing that with other Chinese OEMs or other OEMs. The way I feel about it, with uncertainty in the world and with the backdrop of EV transition, we're even more powerful for our OEM partners than we have ever been. Thank you. Let's stick on this side of the room, please.

[Andrew Grobler, Financial Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Hi, Andy Grobler from BNP. Just a couple, if I may. Firstly, you talked about Australia getting increasingly competitive.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Mm-hmm.

[Andrew Grobler, Financial Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Can you just talk through how that is manifesting? Is it through price or anything else? Secondly, a few more contract wins in 2025. Can you just talk us through the tailwinds you're seeing from completed deals into 2026?

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Yeah, sure.

[Andrew Grobler, Financial Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Thank you.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

I'll do 1, and could you do 2-

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Sure

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Mr. Lewis. Yes, look, if you think that Australia market, about 1.2 million TIV, so total industry sales last year, about flat on the previous year. We have seen more Chinese OEMs enter the market. If I go back to when I first started at Inchcape, there would have been about 55 OEMs operating in Australia. There's now closer to 80, and they'll all be fighting for share. I think what you see with our Subaru portfolio, which is, you know, we have a unique customer base that values the Subaru value proposition. We've introduced more models in 2025. We'll do so again in 2026. You know, also at the same time, we've launched the FOTON range of trucks or utility vehicles into that market.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

That product launch has gone really well. We'll steadily build up that FOTON business over the coming years. We've seen good growth already in January, if I compare it to where we exited 2025. We've launched Changan's Deepal range of products. We are well positioned. My intention in our Australia business is to double our market share over time. Let's recognize the market's getting a bit more competitive.

[Andrew Grobler, Financial Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Are you seeing that impact price to any great degree?

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

I'm not seeing it impact pricing in the Australia market. Look, we'll continue to do what you'd imagine a brilliant distributor does, which is bringing the right products in, configuring them in a way that gives the right pricing and margins for Inchcape. We have a team in Australia who can tell you the ins and outs of every segment of TIV growth, how pricing affects volume aspirations. I think you can see that in the way we've positioned the FOTON brand, about gaining share in the right way, in a way that's profitable for us and our OEM partners, what we'll continue to do.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Just on your question on contract wins and the tailwind it might provide us with. Look, if you go back to 2025, most of our growth in 2025 came from that contract win performance. If I take you up to our medium-term guidance, we talk about our markets growing at around 1% to 2% in aggregate. Lots of noise within that, and you see that in our market tracker. Our ability is, and our contract win performance will help us to outperform the market. That's what you should expect to see us continue to do in 2026.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

If you think about that guidance we've provided around the average contract, 1-3 years as we build momentum, figure out how a brand is going to work in a particular market, and years 3, 4, and 5 is when you start to see scale. A lot of the 50-plus contracts that we've won, they're still in years 1 and 2 of their maturity curve. We've got the tailwind of those to come in 2026, 2027, and 2028. You'll also see us act with commercial diligence. You've seen us exit 4 immaterial contracts this year where it wasn't commercially viable for us to do so. We'll continue to see, to make sure all of our contracts stand up and work, stand up on their own two feet and work for both us and for the OEM partner.

[Andrew Grobler, Financial Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Thank you.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Thanks, Andy. Okay, can we go to Sanjay next, please?

[Sanjay Vidyarthi, Panmure Gordon at Liberum]

Morning. Sanjay Vidyarthi from Panmure Gordon. A couple from me. First one, can you give a bit more detail in terms of the cost action that you're taking in APAC, exactly the nature of that? Would it be sufficient, do you think, to hold margins stable in the year ahead? Second question, in Europe, I guess just wanting to understand, it's more of a fragmented market in terms of market shares for you in most markets, I guess, outside of Greece. How are you thinking about kind of building the same kind of operating leverage of the infrastructure that, say, you're starting to do or doing quite nicely in the Americas? It's clearly, I guess, harder to make acquisitions.

[Sanjay Vidyarthi, Panmure Gordon at Liberum]

There's a small number of contract wins, but how should we think about that opportunity? Thanks.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Okay. Thank you.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Okay. Shall I do cost actions first?

[Sanjay Vidyarthi, Panmure Gordon at Liberum]

Yeah.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Yeah, we've talked about the cost actions and around, if you think about that adjusting item that we posted, around GBP 10 million of the investment we made in adjusting items was related to that cost action. It is both at a regional level and in specific markets where we are trying to get flexibility in our cost base to make sure we can have the right resource structure for the market that we're facing into. Do I think it'll underpin margins? That's exactly what the phrase we've been using. Of course, we've got the property contribution to lap as well, so it's gonna help to offset some of that as well.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

I would say as well, we're gonna continue to make sure we drive flexibility in our cost base and act with commercial diligence around our portfolio of brands that we operate in APAC. We've got a bit more work to do before we're finished, so we can expect some more in the first half of 2026.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Very good. Thank you, Adrian. onto Europe and Africa. Clearly, we'd like to do what you're suggesting, Sanjay. look, haven't that Europe and Africa team done a great job over the last few years? 2025, an even better performance as they gained share and delivered record top line and bottom line performance for Inchcape in the region. If you look, you called out Greece, but actually we've grown market share in the last few years sustainably in Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, and in Belgium. The team is executing really well.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We've won a chunk of contracts in that Europe and Africa region over the last few years with companies like Changan, BYD, GAC, and with XPeng, and I would hope a few more to come. Getting above that 10% magic number that we refer to in the company, our Europe and Africa team are very much focused on that. We've also expanded out in certain markets, and I can see the fruits of that going on in Greece, where we've been building a B2B business with small to medium-sized businesses in Greece. We're doing the same in more markets, which I think will give us an opportunity to further scale. Look, you referenced it might be a bit more difficult to do M&A.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We have our Iceland deal, my challenge to our team is to find some more. Your point about having more and more units and revenue going through an optimal cost base to generate better returns for shareholders. We're very focused on that. Thank you. I think let's be efficient and hand the mic.

[David Brockton, Equity Research at Deutsche Bank]

Thank you very much. It's David Brockton from Deutsche Bank. Can I ask two, please? The first one following up on Sanjay's question in respect of APAC. Appreciate the cost actions you're taking. Is there anything that can help to mitigate the pressure from a top-line perspective in terms of new models that you could touch on? Secondly, you obviously talk about the strategy to further diversify the business from a brand perspective, but equally, you talk about the virtue of rationalizing brands in the Americas for the smaller ones. Is there a minimum level where below that it is not economic for you to act as a distributor? Thanks.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Very good. Let me have a go at both, and Adrian will correct me if he feels necessary. Look, on Asia Pacific, the market has been very competitive, and we are seeing, you know, intense competition in many of those markets. As I would say internally, and that's our job, that's what we do every day. In our 40 markets around the world, we compete and drive great performance for our OEM partners. I think it's quite natural for us to make sure that our cost base is at the right point for that business to protect margins. We also have to focus on the top line to your point. What are we doing? We're working really closely with our OEM partners to make sure we've got the right products for those markets.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

I'd give you an example in Hong Kong, where we've just launched in Q4, bZ3X, which is a Toyota pure EV made in China that gave better market share in December and again in January. It's a really great product for that market. I would hope to see it in other markets across APAC. We've had new brand launches I referenced before in Australia, like FOTON and Deepal, which will give us some top-line momentum. We will launch 10 new products this year in Singapore from Toyota and Suzuki across hybrid and EV range to get us back to where I'd like us to be in those markets, which is back to gaining market share.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

we'll look after the bottom line through cost, and we are here to compete and win in the marketplace and drive top line.

[David Brockton, Equity Research at Deutsche Bank]

Second question.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

The second question, in terms of brands, look, you'll forgive me if I don't say who fits into each of these categories. Look, we've effectively classified our OEMs into As, Bs, and C category OEMs. We wanna build our whole business around A and B OEMs, where we can have headquarter relationships, regional relationships, and of course, local relationships. Those OEMs, we think we are fit for the market, and we can make good returns for shareholders with. There are some OEMs that don't fit into the strategic category, where they just have to wash their face and make money for us and our shareholders.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

When we find those brands are not able, for whatever reason, to compete in that marketplace and make returns for us and gain market share, then I think the best thing for us to do is to very cordially, politely, and collaboratively exit those relationships. By the way, you should expect us to continue to do that in 2026. You already have the microphone, Mr. Nussey.

[Andrew Nussey, Research Analyst at Peel Hunt LLP]

Yeah. Thank you. Andrew Nussey from Peel Hunt. Couple left from me. First of all, the phrase enhanced collaboration with OEMs strikes me as a great catch-all. Beyond sort of the model line up, are you negotiating better inventory support? Are they helping share some of the costs? Are you getting better buying terms in those regions which obviously are under a little bit of pressure? Is the first question. Secondly, specifically on the Chilean market, just your thoughts on TIV there, the penetration of your brands, and the ability to keep scaling margin in that particular geography. Thank you.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Chile. Right. Okay. I'll take them both, and Adrian can supplement if it's okay. In the catch-all of enhanced OEM collaboration, Andrew, look, you would expect us to have really good relationships with the OEMs that we've been working with for decades. I think bringing the power of those relationships to bear on our markets is really, really important. To give you an answer about some of the more specifics of what we're doing. We're repricing certain models where we need to regain competitiveness and therefore give us an opportunity to grow share. We've done that in a number of our markets across our OEM portfolio. We're investing in the brand and front-end salespeople and after sales people. After sales, of course, being important to grow this value-added services proportion of our business.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We've been investing, as you know, over the last few years in making sure that our customers, our customer satisfaction, as witnessed in Reputation.com, is going up, up and greater than our competitors in every one of our markets, which you can see APAC grew substantially last year, and the overall group did too. We're working even more closely with our OEMs to make sure we're getting the right products into our market to drive our competitive position. I mentioned some of them before in terms of bZ3X, for instance, into Hong Kong, more Suzuki products. Similarly with Subaru, you can see what we're doing with Great Wall Motors and Changan and FOTON in Australia. Even deeper collaboration, bringing our knowledge of markets with our OEMs great products to make sure we win in the market.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

In terms of Chile, where do we see that brand portfolio playing out? Look, our market shares are there or thereabouts, around 23, 4, 5% in Chile. The economic indicators in Chile are pretty good. You've seen a new government come into place. We're seeing interest rates in about the right place, inflation coming down, consumer sentiment in the right place for us. This year, we think the market will grow 5% or 6%, but it's still at an all-time low, really, low 300s. It might get to 330,000 vehicles this year. It's been as high as 420,000, 30,000 previously. I think as we move, we're not saying this year will be the year for a big recovery in Chile, maybe in 2027, but an uptick in growth.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Look, in terms of our brand portfolio, oh, my word, do we have a great brand portfolio in Chile. Right from entry-level vehicles right through to the top end. And our portfolio, I think is for me, is in about the right place. You obviously product cycles coming through where we may see one OEM dip, but another one will build up. And we have a great retail network with our own and third parties inside the country. Add anything.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Yeah. The only thing I would add, Andrew, is for those of you that are watching the market data, do be aware that in the fourth quarter, there was some regulatory change which we think probably pulled a bit of volume into the fourth quarter. You saw higher rates of growth. That's not the exit rate in reality. You probably see a slightly weaker Q1 off the back of it. As Duncan said, we're calling a 5%-6% growth off a 310 market, 330. That's still a good way short of historical peaks.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Yeah. Very good. Thank you. Good to see you're organizing yourselves very well. Thank you. Please carry on.

[Tim Ramskill, Head Small and Midcap Research at Bank of America]

Thanks. It's Tim Ramskill from Bank of America. 2 questions from me, please. I'll sort of, kind of it's probably 2 parts to the first one, but there's obviously a lot of discussion around competitive dynamics, in particular the APAC market. I guess my simple question is, why don't those characteristics play out as those Chinese OEMs continue to develop further in your other locations? Linking to that, how does that play into your thoughts around M&A? You've obviously called out M&A today as an incremental focus. What are your target businesses that you're looking at facing in terms of some of the characteristics for them? They're smaller, typically. Are they facing even greater pressure? Does that make their willingness to-

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Through cost actions. To your point, it's not just APAC that's seeing competition. We're seeing competition throughout Europe and the Americas, and look at the results we've delivered in the Americas and Europe and Africa with record bottom line performance in both regions and a record top line performance in our Europe and Africa business. We have the opportunity to perform even better in APAC. You can see that with what we're doing in our cost base and OEM collaboration to drive the top line. To your point around M&A. Look, do I see it? If you go right back up to the top on what Adrian was saying before, in terms of our capital allocation policy, we can wisely use shareholder funds to grow this group's EPS.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We will do it by continuing to reduce our share count and looking for value accretive opportunities through M&A, the bulk of which I would say at the minute would be in our Europe and Africa regions and in the Americas. I want the APAC team super focused on driving improved performance, top line and bottom line. Abby, I think you're next.

[Tim Ramskill, Head Small and Midcap Research at Bank of America]

That was my first question. Sorry.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Oh.

[Tim Ramskill, Head Small and Midcap Research at Bank of America]

I was, I was-

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Oh.

[Tim Ramskill, Head Small and Midcap Research at Bank of America]

It was well hidden, I recognize.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

That was. Yeah.

[Tim Ramskill, Head Small and Midcap Research at Bank of America]

Just sorry. The second one really quickly. There's obviously the GBP 17 million of sort of more one-off gains, which you do include in the sort of.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Yeah

[Tim Ramskill, Head Small and Midcap Research at Bank of America]

... you know, the reported adjusted PBT.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Is there anything you might anticipate in the next couple of years of a similar nature? Is there any other sort of non-core tidying up that might bring with it a small gain?

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

This is probably mine.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Yes.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Thank you, Tim. Yeah, GBP 17 million. If you look back over history, this group has a track record of capital recycling where we've deployed our assets around the group and where we see those assets deploying sub-optimal returns, 'cause I want to be very clear, these are not sale and leasebacks. These are non-core asset disposals. And as we look forward, yes, we continue to see the opportunity to optimize some assets that continue to be deployed. There's nothing factored in, you'll for 2026, and you'll see nothing held on the balance sheet as a asset held for sale. It's probably over, slightly over the mill medium term that we see the opportunity.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Let me be very clear, these are not tactical steps that are there for other reasons. These are strategic moves as we look to optimize returns and recycle capital.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Thank you.

[Abi Bell, Equity Research Associate Director at UBS]

Morning. Abi Bell from UBS. Just two questions from me. Firstly, on the Q4 trading trends, it looks like there was quite good volume momentum, although a bit softer than the strong Q3 you reported. How should we read your guidance to be at the lower end of that 3%-5% range for this year? Can you specifically talk about any contract ramp-ups, losses, or product launches that we should be aware of or anything else? Secondly, just back to the BYD contract. Can you explain how the BYD contract differs to other contracts in your portfolio? You highlighted that the tenure of the relationship has been shorter than other brands. How does that translate to the performance or the conversations you have? Can you explain why you're therefore confident in the longer-term relationships such as Changan or JAC? Thank you.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Sure. Adrian, you want to?

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Yeah. I'll start off. I mentioned earlier on the question around some of the Latin American markets, we saw some real positive momentum. There was a bit of phasing in Q4, which might might support that. If you, if you look at our half two growth rates where organic growth was 5%, that's probably a better guide as to the barometer. If you think about the momentum in Asia Pac versus the momentum that we've got in Europe and Africa and the Americas, they're the offsets that get you to that lower end of the 3%-5%. You saw a small price mix headwind as we skewed the business more, more towards a heavier weight in the Americas where average selling prices are a bit lower. I'd expect that to be broadly neutral across the course of this year.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

They are the building blocks that get us to the three to five and towards the lower end of that, as we think about 2026. Duncan on BYD.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Thank you very much, Adrian. look, if I take a step back, BYD seems policy-driven, and you can see that in Germany, what's happened in the Netherlands with other, with other distribution companies, what's happening in the Nordics. It seems to be more policy-driven. If I look at our performance in BeLux, we have performed, as you would expect Inchcape to perform, really, really strongly. We will collaborate as ever with our OEM partners and BYD. look, we've performed well also with the BYD contract we have in Ethiopia and in the Baltics. You mentioned about our other Chinese partners and Changan and Great Wall in particular. Look, through the Derco acquisition, we have relationships that go with those OEMs back for 15 or 20-plus years.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

They are big believers, as I am, that using independent distribution enables them to drive performance. We look after those small to medium-sized, more complex markets, while they drive performance in the larger markets in the world. I think that's exactly what you see playing out with both of those OEMs that you reference. If I look at Changan, of the 50 contracts that we've won over the last few years, they represent a good chunk of those. Would be more than about 15 contracts with many in the Americas and our Europe and Africa region and in APAC. You've seen us call out deals with their sub-brands like Deepal, Nevo, Avatr. We just launched Avatr in Costa Rica. We're working super closely.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We know them at headquarters, regional, at regional levels, and we're driving performance for them. similarly for Great Wall, where we've won more contracts in the Americas, hopefully more to come, and of course, contracts in APAC. as ever, we will be super collaborative, but I think we have a brilliant portfolio of long-term relationships and brands.

[Abi Bell, Equity Research Associate Director at UBS]

Thank you.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Arthur.

[Arthur Pineda, Head Asia Pacific Telecoms and Singapore Research at Citi]

Hi. Thanks very much. Arthur from Citi. First question from me. In terms of your markets as a whole, are you able to just talk a little bit about which markets you think are performing kind of above historical norms and which ones below historical norms? Second question, just on Europe. Are you able to just talk about, you know, which countries you're particularly optimistic about in 2026 and, you know, which ones performed particularly well for you in 2025 and indeed the vice versa? Finally, just on the after-sales stuff. If I remember correctly, some of your markets performed incredibly well in 2021 and 2022. When do you sort of think that then starts to translate into after-sales? Thank you.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Okay. Duncan, the second one.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Sure.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

I'll comment on your make comments on your market points, Arthur. If I start on the left-hand side of the map, and let's go through the big markets. Look, we, you know, post the Derco acquisition, those big markets, think Chile, Colombia and Peru, where are they now? Chile at the low end of the 10-year average in terms of total sales in that market. This year, it might get to around a 330 number. I think it'll pick up in subsequent years. The economics are set, I think, for 2027 and onwards to have a nice boost in that marketplace, and I'm very pleased with our share. In those other two markets, Peru and Colombia, oh my word, are we pleased we bought that Derco business.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

We've gained share in Colombia. We've gained share in Peru. Both those markets grew at over 20% last year. I am optimistic for their performance in 2026. Our story in Europe is very much of super performance in those Southern European markets, where we have gained share, and the markets seem to be supportive of longer term growth. Greece, I think, will continue to grow for us. We're optimistic about Bulgaria. Romania's had some changes in taxation and legislation, which have moderated the market a little bit, but our performance has been super strong. I think in Northern Europe, if I take markets like Finland, I just think those economies might take a little while to come back. There's still many of those markets at historic lows, including places like Estonia.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

If I move to APAC, look, I think Australia will be about flat at 1.2 million units or so this year. We saw an interest rate tick up a little bit in the fourth quarter, which generally moderates consumer demand. We've got a good portfolio, and I think we'll grow share. Look, on our Asian markets that we operate in, you know, they're still at their lows. Singapore still has another three or so years to go, and that's upward COE cycle. We're getting better products into that market to enable us to access some of that growth. I think APAC in general, those markets will grow over time, and we're working super hard with our OEM partners to make sure we have the right products that we're bringing into those markets.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

On aftersales, Arthur, let me sort of explain a little bit of the dynamic as to how this works. We've got one of our European colleagues at the back of the room, he knows very well that some of the Japanese brands, we see vehicles staying in the retail network for the main brands well into the tenth year of a particular vehicle's life. We get very high levels of retention rates. The opportunity for us to take the things that we do for those brands into the Chinese brands, where we typically see substantially lower levels of retention, is the thing that's gonna drive aftersales gross profit at a faster rate than our vehicle growth. That's the opportunity that really presents.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

If you think about the UIO that we've got in Latin America, particularly, to take the learnings we have from the Japanese brands and deploy it into those sorts of brands across the region, I think the opportunity is really big for us. That's some of the dynamics that will help. We're not gonna give you a timeframe of when we're gonna do that, and we're not gonna say, "Look, you know, this brand in this market's, you know, retention in the tenth year is that," but that's our strategic intent.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Thank you. Very good. I think,

[Company Representative at Inchcape plc]

We've got one on the conference line.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Okay. Let's move to phone lines.

[Operator]

We now have the questions from the phone line. To ask a question on the phone line, please signal by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Akshat Kacker from JPM. Your line is open.

[Akshat Kacker, Equity Research VP and European Autos at JPMorgan]

Good morning. Akshat from J.P. Morgan. Just two left, please. The first one on APAC. I see you mentioned some production disruption in certain markets in the first half. Could you just give us more details on that? If you think we can maintain the margin profile in that region to around 6%-7% in the start of the year or should we be below that range in the first half? The second question is on contract exits and wins that you've announced. With Geely, I remember you signed a global strategic agreement in 2021 with a focus on LATAM. Does the recent development mark a full stop to distributing Geely vehicles for now? On the other hand, I see you have been making a lot of announcements with XPeng.

[Akshat Kacker, Equity Research VP and European Autos at JPMorgan]

Could you just give us more details on discussions with these multiple Chinese OEMs and which ones should we look out for going forward? Thank you.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Good morning, Akshat. Thank you very much for those questions. Look, I think, in terms of the first one on APAC, Adrian, if you could comment on margins. Actually, you may as well comment on production as well, and I'll talk about portfolio management.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Sure. Thank you for the question, Akshat. Production disruption is very specific to what some of our Japanese OEMs. Again, it's a very similar dynamic to we had last year, where there's some repurposing and re-engineering of some of the production lines that will impact supply in the first half, and push supply and push us into a second half waiting, particularly in Australia. To your question around margins, look, I think the work we are doing around cost and making sure we've got the right cost base across the region and in specific markets where we've got a slightly different rate of sale as to where we've had previously, I think that will all serve to underpin margins as we have seen previously.

[Adrian Lewis, CFO at Inchcape plc]

Hopefully, that gives you some reassurance around the work we are doing to make sure margins stick. Duncan, back to you.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Very good. Thank you. Thank you, Adrian. Akshat, in terms of then portfolio management, the first thing to say is I expect us in 2026 to continue to optimize our portfolio with an eye on shareholder returns for OEMs that we don't necessarily have at the top end of our strategic analysis. Your specific question about Geely. In 2021, I recall us signing that relationship with Geely, and I was very clear at the time, we're gonna start in Chile, and if we can make Chile work mutually for customers, for the OEM partner, and for us, then we'd expand. We did take on three further markets.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Now, my view on that is that the product portfolio relative to where those markets are in their transition to new energy vehicles, it is difficult for them to be a 5 or 5% market share player or greater, which is the aspiration for that particular OEM. Our belief was that portfolio was not capable of getting to that market share, and therefore, we have been working constructively with Geely across 4, and we would call them immaterial markets in the Americas, to move those on to other distribution partners. Relationship, that has all been handled in a super smooth way, just as you would expect Inchcape to behave.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Now, at the same time, with those core OEM partners that we've been growing relationships with for 20 years, we've signed more and more contracts, Geely and Great Wall being a good example. Then we have started working with XPeng, initially in Europe, in our northern European markets. We've also taken XPeng into the Iceland acquisition, where that business is performing quite nicely. We have just secured that XPeng in Colombia. Let's see what else happens this year. In terms of go forward OEMs and contract signings, look, this is a lumpy business we're in. We'll give you a regular update at each of our quarterly earnings updates.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

As usual, we'll show you, and you can see it in today's pack, the last slide in our deck will go through, and the appendix will go through wins during the year and exits too, just so you can keep close to how we're managing our overall portfolio. Final thing I'd say is we have a brilliant portfolio of long-term great OEMs. Thank you very much, Akshat.

[Arthur Pineda, Head Asia Pacific Telecoms and Singapore Research at Citi]

Thank you.

[Duncan Tait, CEO at Inchcape plc]

Nothing on the webcast. Very good. In that case, thank you very much for coming along to hear about how Inchcape performed in 2025. We delivered a strong 2025 performance. We grew EPS greater than 13%. We intend to grow in 2026, and our midterm targets and our aspiration accordingly are in rude health. Thank you very much, everybody.

Participants

Executives

• Adrian Lewis, CFO
• Duncan Tait, CEO
• Company Representative

Analysts

• Abi Bell, Equity Research Associate Director at UBS
• Akshat Kacker, Equity Research VP and European Autos at JPMorgan
• Andrew Grobler, Financial Analyst at BNP Paribas
• Andrew Nussey, Research Analyst at Peel Hunt LLP
• Arthur Pineda, Head Asia Pacific Telecoms and Singapore Research at Citi
• David Brockton, Equity Research at Deutsche Bank
• James Bayliss, Associate Director and Equity Research at Berenberg
• Sanjay Vidyarthi, Panmure Gordon at Liberum
• Tim Ramskill, Head Small and Midcap Research at Bank of America