The high order level with 9% growth is one key highlight in the quarter. Another strong point for me is the free cash flow of $1.6 billion. We improved on virtually all lines of the income statement: strong revenue growth, improved earnings, margin, and EPS. Let's look at what drove our orders to increase by a comparable 9%, reaching $9.1 billion.

This time, all four business areas improved comparable orders in the range of 4%-17%. Data centers continue to stand out on the strong side, and orders increased at a double-digit pace. In the energy-related area, there was a positive development in the Oil and Gas segment. The demand in renewables declined, but we see increased activity in our nuclear business.

Similar to previous quarters, the process industry area was slow, and within discrete automation, it is still challenging in the machine builders' segment. That said, we saw a sharp order growth in the quarter, but this is more linked to the low comparable when customers were holding back orders after earlier pre-buys. With book-to-bill at $1.01 billion, we add to the already record-high order backlog, which amounts to $25.1 billion. If we instead look at the order intake from a geographical perspective, the Americas was again the main growth engine and increased by 19% like for like.

What went well
  • Comparable orders grew 9% to $9.1 billion, with all four business areas improving orders in the 4%-17% range
  • Revenues hit an all-time high of $9.1 billion, up 9% like-for-like, supported by all business areas across short cycle, long cycle and service
  • Free cash flow improved 32% to $1.6 billion, with all business areas increasing free cash flow and year-to-date FCF over $3 billion
  • EPS was up 29% to $0.66 and operational EBITDA improved 12%, with gross margin above the 40% mark
  • Americas was the main growth engine with orders up 19% like-for-like, U.S. orders up 27% (base orders up 9%), and Europe up 9%
  • Data centers continued to grow at a double-digit pace and utilities remained strong; record-high order backlog reached $25.1 billion
  • Electrification orders up 10% to $4.5 billion with earnings above $1 billion (reaching $1.1 billion, up 17%); Motion orders up 17% to $2.2 billion
What went wrong
  • EMEA orders declined 1%, hampered by weakness in China, where Electrification orders dropped 12% and the residential building market remains soft
  • Germany, the largest European market, declined 4% due to the impact of large bookings from last year (though base orders were roughly stable to positive)
  • E-mobility reported a loss of $26 million, and the Machine Automation division was at break-even level due to under-absorption as volumes have not yet recovered
  • Motion's operational EBITDA margin slipped 60 basis points to 20.1%, with project and systems deliveries somewhat lower than anticipated (revenue up only 3%)
  • Demand in renewables declined, and process industry areas (chemicals, pulp and paper, metals, mining) remained slow; machine builders segment still challenging
  • The corporate line was higher than guided due to FX hedges on intracompany transactions

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Reported 2025-10-16 · figures from the Abb Ltd Q3 2025 earnings call.

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