ABB delivered what management described as another record quarter for both orders and revenues, with orders reaching about $12 billion for the first time (up 28% comparable) and revenues at a record $9.5 billion (up 12% comparable). Operational EBITA rose 20% to $1.9 billion, lifting the margin 90 basis points to 20.2%, and the book-to-bill was a positive 1.27 across all three business areas, taking the backlog to a record $30 billion (up 28%). Electrification was the standout with orders up 58% and a record 24.9% margin, while Motion posted 20% order growth but a margin decline to 18.5% and Automation saw orders fall 14% against a very tough comparable that included a $600 million single booking. Demand was broad-based across the energy expansion, efficiency and resilience megatrends, with data centers showing triple-digit order growth and management noting no evidence of pre-buying. The company also announced three acquisitions adding about 3.5% to 2025 revenues, headlined by an offer to acquire actuator maker Rotork for about $5.5 billion. On the strength of these results, management raised full-year comparable revenue growth guidance to low double-digit to low teens.
Welcome to this presentation of ABB second quarter results. You will hear from our CEO, Morten Wierod, and our CFO, Christian Nilsson. They will talk through results as per usual tradition. After this, we will run through the Q&A session. I'm Ann-Sofie Nordh, Head of Investor Relations. With that, I will just simply hand over to you, Morten, for the presentation.
Thanks, Ann-Sofie. Let's talk through the building blocks that resulted in another record quarter for both orders and revenues, good earnings growth, a solid margin improvement, and good cash flow. In total, things progressed more or less as planned. We delivered on our guidance, I'm pleased with the results. I want to start with M&A. You have heard me talk about the teams being active on a good target pipeline. Now we see these efforts result in three recently announced acquisition, which combined would add approximately 3.5% to our 2025 revenues. This includes two smaller deals, one being in the Italian company, Specialtrasfo, who is specialized in medium-voltage transformers. I want to make it clear that we're not going back into the general power transformer business. No, these are custom-engineered components aimed at industrial and energy applications.
It fits well in the Motion High Power division, as they can integrate these transformers with our large motors and drives into fully optimized powertrain solutions. The other small deal is in the Marine & Ports division in the business area Automation. Their acquisition of the marine automation specialist, Høglund, is a nice complement to our existing offering. Høglund's integrated automation system handles automation, monitoring, and control tasks on board of ships. By combining data from engines, power generators, and cargo systems, it helps improve safety, energy efficiency, and overall operational performance. This will further strengthen our already leading position in marine. This morning, we also announced a larger deal, namely our offer to acquire Rotork. We have followed Rotork from a distance for a long while, impressed by their technology. They are a leading manufacturer of actuators and would expand our automation offering.
Importantly, timing is good, as ABB is in good shape. We have improved governance and performance of our own company. We are ready to welcome Rotork into ABB. This is an important step to expand the ABB automation offering. It broadens our scope in what we call the Sense, Control, Act automation loop. We can take these solutions into our extensive market reach and build on our digital and technology capabilities. We see a strong strategic fit between Rotork and the ABB purpose and our leading position in the Electrification and Automation. This deal will bring together two businesses with highly complementary technology portfolios and similar customer relationships, geographic footprints, and strong installed bases. Beyond the strategic fit, we see Rotork's culture and operating philosophy similar to ours. Last year, they generated revenues of GBP 777 million and a high adjusted operating margin of 24.6%.
Absorbing this into the ABB result for 2025, our revenues would increase by about 3%, and Operational EBITA margin would improve by about 20 basis points. This acquisition would be accretive to our earnings per share in year two, as the first year is burdened by certain acquisition-related costs. We have agreed on a price of GBP 5.03 per Rotork share. In USD terms, this comes to about $5.5 billion. In 2025 multiple terms, an EV-to-sales of about 5.3x and EV-to-EBITDA of about 19.5x. This represent a discount in the region of 5%-25% versus our own multiples. Accounting for synergies, the EV-to-EBITDA multiple reduces in the mid-teens range. From a timing perspective, we expect the transaction to close in the first half of 2027, post Rotork shareholder vote and customary regulatory approvals.
It is our strong view that Rotork joining ABB adds long-term value across the stakeholder groups. The Rotork board is aligned on the strategic fit, and it is supportive and recommends the offer. What do we actually mean when we talk about the Sense, Control, Act automation loop? I would say that automation is about closing feedback control loops. You are sensing a condition. You take algorithmic decisions in controllers, which triggers an act in, for example, a motor and drive running a fan, pump, or compressor. First, there is sensing. The sensor feed process signals into the automation system. These are signals of pressure, temperature, flow, or level, or the chemical composition of gases and liquids. The automation system controls, monitors, and optimize the continuous production processes. This can be in a pulp and paper plant or on an oil platform.
The system uses the sensor signals to infer a process state, to analyze deviations, and to calculate corrective actions. This takes us to the Act phase. The DCS signals the actuators, which triggers, for example, a valve to optimize how much is open in order to adjust the pressure of flow or liquid or gas. Our position within the automation loop has this far been biased towards the DCS and sensing. Rotork is a leading independent manufacturer of actuators with a particularly strong position in electric actuators. By adding this to our portfolio, we would improve our offering into the Act phase and further strengthen our competitive position. As part of the Automation extended platform, it will enhance our ability to help our customers through increasingly digital, connected, and autonomous solutions across energy and process industries.
There are, of course, different types of actuators, and Rotork is leading player across electric, pneumatics, and hydraulic actuation. Electric actuators represent more than half of Rotork's sales. From a customer perspective, these come with the benefit of consuming energy only when performing work. This reduces operational cost and improves energy efficiency. They also provide highly accurate positioning and motion control. This is essential for applications requiring multiple points of positioning or precise adjustments. Rotork will be a really strong match, extending our current offering. In the combined setup, we are better balanced in the Sense, Control automation loop. As I mentioned earlier, we have followed Rotork for a long time. They have many qualities as the plan is that they will operate as a separate division within the Automation business area, adding about 12% to revenues.
By running them as a separate division, we would retain accountability and operational focus, very much in line with the ABB Way operating model. Automation products is a profitable business, so our mix improves. In the combined setup, the business area operational EBITDA margin would have been 15.2%, 120 basis points higher than reported 2025 actuals. We are very hopeful about what we and Rotork can jointly accomplish. Together, we will be a strong partner to customers as we move towards increasingly digital, connected, and autonomous solutions across energy and process industries. Let's turn back to Q2. We delivered new record levels for both orders and revenues. In the order chart, you see that this is the first time we generated about $12 billion in one quarter.
The very strong comparable increase of 28% is driven by a broad and good activity across most of our customer segments. Notably, the Automation business area even tempered overall order growth for the group. Importantly, their market environment remains strong, so their order decline is linked to the very tough comparable. Christian will talk more about this shortly. Speaking of strong markets, we had surging order growth of 58% in Electrification and a very strong 20% in Motion. In total, the elevator pitch would be that all of our three business areas continue to see a robust overall market situation, and we don't see a pattern of pre-buys. Demand is rather unpinned by sustained customer investments across the secular megatrends of energy expansion, energy efficiency, and energy resilience. Areas where ABB's portfolio is very well-positioned to deliver.
Looking closer at the different customer segments, data center stands out with a triple-digit order increase. We had a challenging comparable in the Utility segment, but the market is strong, with investments in grid build-out, stability, and reliability. We also see good demand for upgrades on electrical infrastructure in, for example, tunnels and airports. A link to transport, marine, and rail continue to be strong areas. In the building segments, orders were up in the commercial area, including for HVAC. In the quarter, we got yet another proof point of what we can accomplish with the combined strength of our business areas, the power of ABB. Under the extended partnership with VoltaGrid, Motion and Automation will supply synchronous condensers with the associated prefabricated E-house units. These are systems that act as critical stabilization assets, enabling the voltage stability required by next-generation AI chips. Well done by the joint team.
As I mentioned, revenues were the highest on record at $9.5 billion. You can see in the chart that revenues tend to be sequentially up in the second quarter, but this year the uptake was larger than usual, in line with our guidance. Revenues increased in both the project and short-cycle businesses, and higher volumes was the biggest contributor to the strong comparable growth of 12%. This includes a good pricing contribution of close to 2% with the teams balancing customer relationships and defending our own profitability. As a net total, we delivered a positive book-to-bill of 1.27, and it was positive in all three business areas. The backlog is up at the record level of $30 billion, up 28% on a comparable basis. In my view, we performed very well in a strong market. Looking at the different geographies, orders were up by double digits in all three regions.
The Americas continued to be the strongest growth driver. Orders increased by 52% like-for-like. Looking specifically at the U.S., orders were up by as much as 62%. This high number includes some large bookings, but also base orders were very strong and improved by about 30%. Europe was up by 12%. Here we saw a decline in the largest market, Germany, but this was more than offset by order improvements in several of the other large countries. Asia, Middle East, Africa improved by 12%, with China being up 10%. Let's turn to earnings, which reflects both favorable market conditions and a strong execution. We converted the 12% comparable revenue growth to a 20% increase in Operational EBITA to $1.9 billion. This reflects a margin improvement of 90 basis points to 20.2%. Similar to the prior quarter, we had pressure on gross margin.
Thanks, Morten. Let's take a look at what happened in different business areas. As usual, we start with Electrification, which delivered new record highs across virtually all the headlight numbers. Comparable orders were up by as much as 58%. The absolute intake advanced from an already strong trajectory, and for the first time hit the +$7 billion mark. This is underpinned by strong, broad-based sentiment across major customer segments. I actually noted that this was the sixth consecutive quarters with a positive book-to-bill in Electrification. In Q2, it was 1.39. The order backlog increased by 59% to $13.7 billion. Looking at the different segments, data centers stood out again with a triple-digit order growth. Still, we see a solid project pipeline, with data centers requiring increasingly more Electrification content. The market is clearly very supportive. We are performing well in this strong market.
There are very good developments also in the other markets. If we exclude the data center segment, Electrification orders still increased by double digits. One segment to highlight is land-based infrastructure. This is driven by modernizing electrical infrastructure for tunnels, roads, or rail. Demand in the building segment also improved, driven by commercial activity. The utility segment is another strong market, although in this particular quarter, the order growth was limited due to last year's high comparable. Now turning to revenues, which amounted to $5.2 billion on a comparable growth of 19%. This was driven by good progress in both the short cycle and project business. Higher volumes was clearly the main driver, but the team did well also on price management, which added about 2%. It was encouraging to see the sequential acceleration in pricing in the second quarter.
We still have a bit of a gap in price versus input cost to cover in gross margin. Here we expect to be at least neutral for the full-year. In the second quarter, this gap was more than compensated for by efficiency improvements and stringent SG&A control. As a net total, the Operational EBITA was up by 26% to $1.3 billion. This reflects a margin of 24.9%, yet another record high from the Electrification team. Looking at the third quarter, we expect comparable revenue growth to be at least similar to what we saw in Q2, and Operational EBITA margin should improve from the second quarter levels of 24.9%. Let's turn to Motion. Contrary to the usual seasonal trend, orders actually increased sequentially and reached $2.6 billion.
This reflects a comparable growth of 20% from last year, driven by improvements in both the short cycle and project business. As Morten mentioned earlier, we see a good demand for our grid stabilization technologies with our industry-leading synchronous condensers. Other positive segments were rail, marine, and mining. On the more short cycle side, there was strength in HVAC for commercial buildings as well as in data centers cooling. Similar to recent quarters, the softer areas are the process-related segments like chemicals and pulp and paper. Turning now to revenues of $2.2 billion, with a comparable revenue growth of 4%, more or less equally driven by volume and price, with an additional percentage of growth derived from portfolio changes. As we mentioned, coming into the quarter, profitability was under pressure. Operational EBITA margin dropped by 130 basis points to 18.5%. There are multiple factors to consider.
First, the positive impact by operational leverage on comparable revenue growth. This was, however, more than offset by our Gamesa Electric acquisition operating at a loss and diluted margin by around 70 basis points year-on-year. This is similar to what we saw in Q1, and we expect it to be dilutive for the remainder of this year. Additionally, we still have some operational inefficiencies in our High Power Division. These should, however, be resolved during the second half of the year. Lastly, there were some timing impacts in production volumes in the traction division, which had an adverse impact on profitability. The high-level view for Motion can be summarized as good orders in a solid market, but some challenges on profitability, which partially will linger throughout the year. Looking at the third quarter, we expect comparable revenue growth in the mid to high single-digit range year-on-year.
Operational EBITA margin should be similar to the second quarter. Let's turn to Automation, where orders remain sequentially stable on the level of $2.5 billion. These orders actually make it one of their strongest quarters, but still recorded a year-on-year decline of 14%. This is due to last year's high comparable, which includes a very large single booking of $600 million. You can see it in the charts on the left-hand side. Let's take a look at order drivers. Demand for Marine as well as port automation and Electrification continues to be strong. Overall, our performance in oil and gas remained solid, with any disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict contained to the local market. Similar to what we see in Motion, the softer demand is noted in the process-related industries of pulp and paper and chemicals.
We still see a muted CapEx environment in the Mining segment. Revenues came through slightly better than expected, with comparable growth of 7%. Overall, we generated revenues of $2.2 billion, it came with somewhat of an adverse mix. The higher share of revenues from the project and system integration business had a slight negative impact on gross margin. Still, the team improved Operational EBITA margin by 120 basis points to 15.4%, supported by a stringent cost control, not least in SG&A. I should also mention that in the quarter, we had about 70 basis points of margin support from a one-timer. This stems from a provision release linked to a project settlement. Overall, another solid delivery from the Automation team. Looking at the third quarter, we expect comparable revenues to improve in the mid-single-digit range. Operational EBITA margin should improve year-on-year.
Cash was another solid point in our results. As noticeable in the chart, we didn't have the usual pattern of sequentially higher free cash flows. As you may recall, the first quarter was boosted by about $425 million from a real estate sale. On a year-on-year basis, we improved slightly to $881 million. This was backed by a good operational earnings increase, which offset the impact from higher CapEx spend in continuing operations, as well as a lower cash flow in discontinued operations. All in all, this was a good cash quarter. We are well on track to improve our free cash flows from last year's strong level of $4.6 billion. With that, I hand it back to you, Morten.
Thanks, Christian. Let's finish off with the outlook. As evident in our Q2 results, we play in strong markets. Order backlog is rising, and the short-cycle business is clearly supportive. We raise our growth guidance for the year to a low double-digit to low teens increase in comparable revenues. This adds confidence to our current margin outlook, which is to improve from last year, even when excluding the real estate gain in the first quarter of 2026. For the third quarter, we expect a low- to mid-teens growth in comparable revenues year-on-year, and the Operational EBITA margin should show sequential improvement from the second quarter. Ann-Sofie, let's open up for questions.