I would say that our Q1 order intake is evidence of that, as we, for the first time, reached orders of more than $11 billion. We improved across all P&L headlines, we had record cash flow for a Q1, and ROCE was at a standout 27%, and about 25% without the real estate gain. I am sure we will get to the topic of capital allocation at some point today. Outside of investing for organic growth, we distribute $2.1 billion in dividend.

This corresponds to about 1.3% in dividend yield based on recent share price. I've already messaged that we want to allocate more capital to acquisitions. With net debt to EBITDA of 0.3, we have plenty of headroom. At 44%, I think it's fair to say that the orders surged in Electrification.

The short version is that we see persistently high demand across most of the main customer segments. Looking at the developments through the quarter, the overall demand remained strong throughout. For us, the Middle East conflict has not changed the overall demand picture so far. Turning to revenue of $8.7 billion, the usual pattern of sequentially lower Q1 is visible.

What went well
  • Record order intake of $11.3 billion, up 24% on a comparable basis (plus 7% FX), broad-based across all three business areas
  • Electrification orders surged 44% comparable to a record $6.6 billion, with data centers up triple digits and all main segments up double digits; segment operational EBITDA rose 25% to $1.1 billion at a 24% margin (up 80 bps)
  • Revenue of $8.7 billion grew 11% comparable, a bit better than expected, driven mainly by higher volumes across both project and short-cycle businesses
  • Record Q1 free cash flow, roughly doubled year-on-year to $1.3 billion (including about $425 million from a real estate sale)
  • Operational EBITA of just over $2 billion at a 23.5% margin; excluding real estate gains in both years the margin was up 70 bps (50 bps business-driven), aided by SG&A falling to 19.2% of revenue from 20.8%
  • Positive book-to-bill of 1.29 and record backlog of $27.5 billion, up 22%
  • All regions up double digits led by the Americas +48% like-for-like; U.S. orders up 67% with base orders up about 30%; ROCE at 27% (about 25% ex real estate gain)
What went wrong
  • Gross margin declined 290 bps to 39.4%, about two-thirds due to unrealized FX and commodity hedges, plus operational impacts from portfolio changes and a negative project-driven mix
  • A price-cost gap, especially in Electrification, where price (about 1%) did not fully offset higher commodity and tariff costs; price adjustments lag realized P&L effect
  • Motion operational EBITDA margin fell 110 bps to 18.5%: the Gamesa acquisition (just over $60 million revenue, a small loss) diluted margins by 70 bps, and High Power Division operational inefficiencies diluted another ~15 bps
  • Automation saw weaker March demand in the Middle East region (energy-linked customers hit by attacks on energy plants); Middle East is just below 5% of group revenues and about one-third of that is Automation
  • Automation oil and gas orders were down against a challenging comparable; chemicals, pulp and paper, and machine-builder (discrete) markets remained soft or cautious
  • Adverse revenue mix in both Motion and Automation from a higher share of lower-margin backlog-driven project business

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Reported 2026-04-22 · figures from the Abb Ltd Q1 2026 earnings call.

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