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Message from the CEO

2025 has certainly brought its share of unexpected events in what has continued to be an uncertain macro- and micro-environment. We, at D’Ieteren Group, are trying to navigate the twists and turns that happen around us and try to use them as opportunities, both within our individual businesses and at Group level. We could hope for things to stabilize, for all to go back to normal, but we don’t. We take it as our base assumption that the economic environment will remain unpredictable, that the geopolitical context will continue to set the tone in unforeseen ways, and that technological disruptions will be impacting us all faster and faster.

Agility and stamina in 2025

That is the approach we already took in 2025, and it served us well. None of our businesses went through the year as planned at the beginning of the year. Their markets faced more headwinds, tariffs fluctuated, foreign exchange rates worked unfavourably, regulations evolved, customers’ behaviour changed continuously, and I
could keep going on. Navigating this environment required a lot of agility and stamina from our management teams, which they demonstrated. At the end of the year, the Group delivered solid performances, both in profitability and in cash flow generation. This is something we can be truly proud of.

  • Belron confirmed its status as a best-in- class service company, delivering another record year, further raising the bar in service excellence and performance, with more than 7% topline growth and 16% operating profit growth at constant foreign exchange rates.
  • In Belgium, D’Ieteren Automotive achieved another exceptional performance in a lower car market, leveraging its leading position as a mobility service provider, including in the transition to electric mobility. This led to another year with strong profitability levels.
  • PHE continued to strengthen its market share as the leading independent after-market distributor of automotive spare parts, expanding its European footprint with the addition of Ireland while further consolidating its positions in key markets such as Spain. The company achieved more than 6% top-line growth and good profitability
    in an environment characterized by less pricing support and some cost inflation stickiness.
  • While TVH was most affected by softer markets, evolving trade conditions, and a leadership transition, it was able to improve volume growth towards the end of the year.
  • Finally, Moleskine continued to navigate in a challenging wholesale environment, while its direct channels performed well.

Investments in our businesses and our people in 2026

Embracing uncertainty is also the approach we continue to take in 2026. A “wait and see” mindset is not an option and therefore, we have encouraged our teams to keep developing their businesses proactively despite the many unknowns ahead. At Group level, with the €500 million bridge loan repaid mid-2025, we have intensified our origination efforts and reactivated our share buyback programme. The recent announcement of PHE’s exclusive negotiations to acquire two AD Parts distributors in Spain is a good illustration of our renewed investment momentum.

This is in line with what we presented last year at our Investor Day in London which brought together one hundred investors and analysts. The event enabled us, together with our companies’ CEO’s and CFO’s to formulate clear strategic directions and medium-term ambitions for the next three years. Pursuing those plans and delivering against those objectives is now the focus of everyone. To that end, we have introduced a new Value Creation Initiative framework which now serves as an agenda-setting backbone for our Business Review Meetings and our Boards. We are also continuing to invest in people and talent:

  • We launched “Voyager”, a new Group-wide Development Programme, bringing together around 20 senior leaders from across our businesses and Corporate team for a six month journey on transformational leadership. This first cohort marks the start of a programme we intend to roll out over the coming years, allowing us to become more comprehensive in our talent development and succession planning.
  • In our team, following the departure at the beginning of the year of Nicolas Saillez, our Chief Investment Officer, the Executive Committee has moved to a new collaborative model, working more closely with our Investment Directors on origination activities and participation management.
  • Across several of our businesses, leadership transitions are underway and some top management changes have occurred. At TVH, Patrick Lecluyse has acted as Executive Chairman since the departure of our long-serving CEO Dominiek Valcke after the summer of 2025. At Moleskine, we transitioned from Christophe Archaimbault as the CEO to a new setup with two Co-CEOs, Laure Browne, who brings over 35 years of global consumer and retail brands experience, and Thomas
    Boucar, who has been Investment Director in our own team and contributes strong strategic and operational leadership with a deep understanding of Moleskine’s challenges.

I want to use the opportunity to thank Nicolas, Dominiek and Christophe for the fantastic contributions they have given to our family of businesses over the years. They each have left a positive and lasting mark on both the organizations and the collaborators at the D’Ieteren Group, TVH and Moleskine respectively, and they have been true entrepreneurial builders.

At the end of last year, we have also adopted a new ESG roadmap. Building on the foundations laid by our previous plan, we continue to strengthen our governance and corporate capabilities to better navigate the increasingly complex regulatory environment and the risks and opportunities that come with it. We remain focused on the matters that are most essential to the long-term success of our businesses, notably the development of climate transition plans.

Let me finish this year’s CEO message by sincerely thanking all our leaders and teams across the D’Ieteren Group for their relentless dedication, drive and determination. You have shown tremendous agility and stamina in 2025, and you have delivered financial and non-financial results we can all be truly proud of. Thank you!

Francis Deprez
Chief Executive Officer