MSA Safety Announces Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2025 Results

"We reported solid 2025 performance in a challenging operating environment," said Steve Blanco, MSA Safety President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our team delivered resilient full-year results despite headwinds to organic sales and margins, driven by strong execution and effective SG&A management. This year, our sales growth headwinds included pockets of industrial end market weakness, timing challenges in the U.S. fire service, and difficult comparisons. We are entering 2026 with strong momentum, due to our Mission-driven commitment to deliver innovative products and solutions to our customers, along with a solid commercial pipeline. The team remains confident in our ability to execute our Accelerate strategy to deliver on our 2028 financial commitments."

Financial Highlights

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

"While macroeconomic conditions presented challenges, MSA delivered organic sales growth within our low-single digit 2025 Outlook range, free cash flow conversion that surpassed our annual target range and higher capital returns to shareholders," commented Julie Beck, MSA Safety Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. "Our strong balance sheet and ample liquidity continue to provide us the ability to deliver on our balanced capital allocation priorities of organic growth, M&A, and capital returns to shareholders, which will enable us to execute our strategy to invest and drive profitable growth," Beck added.

The company deployed capital in line with its capital allocation strategy in 2025 by acquiring M&C TechGroup for $189 million, returning a total of $162 million to shareholders via dividends of $82 million and executing $80 million of share repurchases, while investing $68 million in capital expenditures. MSA maintains a strong liquidity position with net debt at the end of the fourth quarter of $416 million. The company's net leverage ratio was 0.9x at December 31, 2025. MSA's strong financial profile, including ample liquidity of $1.2 billion, continues to provide optionality around execution of strategic growth initiatives, including acquisitions.

2026 Net Sales Outlook

The company is expecting mid-single digit full-year organic sales growth in 2026, and has provided an update on the operating environment below:

Tailwinds

• Increasing global safety standards creating demand for sophisticated safety products and solutions; diverse end markets provide resiliency
• Favorable underlying demand for fixed and portable detection, including MSA+ connected ecosystem solutions
• Carry-over from fire service late AFG funding and U.S. Government shutdown in 2025
• Industrial PPE to benefit from continued momentum in fall protection
• Positive contribution from strategic pricing actions

Headwinds

• Continued macroeconomic, tariff and geopolitical policy uncertainty
• Mixed industrial end market demand globally
• Non-recurrence of large detection orders in Latin America

Conference Call

MSA Safety will host a conference call on Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the fourth quarter and full-year 2025 results. The call and an accompanying slide presentation will be webcast at http://investors.msasafety.com/ under the "News and Events" tab, subheading "Events & Presentations." Investors and interested parties can also dial into the call at 1-844-854-4415 (toll-free) or 1-412-902-6599 (international). When prompted, please instruct the operator to be joined into the MSA Safety Incorporated conference call. A replay of the conference call will be available at http://investors.msasafety.com/ shortly after the conclusion of the presentation and will be available for the next 90 days.

Management believes that organic sales change is a useful metric for investors, as foreign currency translation, acquisitions and divestitures can have a material impact on sales change trends. Organic sales change highlights ongoing business performance excluding the impact of fluctuating foreign currencies, acquisitions and divestitures. There can be no assurances that MSA's definition of organic sales change is consistent with that of other companies. As such, management believes that it is appropriate to consider sales change determined on a GAAP basis in addition to this non-GAAP financial measure.

Adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures and operating ratios derived from non-GAAP measures. Adjusted operating income is defined as operating income excluding restructuring charges, currency exchange gains / losses, acquisition-related  amortization, net cost for product related legal matter and transaction costs. Adjusted operating margin is defined as adjusted operating income divided by net sales to external customers. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as adjusted operating income plus depreciation and amortization, and adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as adjusted EBITDA divided by net sales to external customers. These metrics are consistent with how management evaluates segment results and makes strategic decisions about the business. Additionally, these non-GAAP financial measures provide information useful to investors in understanding our operating performance and trends, and to facilitate comparisons with the performance of our peers. Adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin are not recognized terms under GAAP, and therefore do not purport to be alternatives to operating income or operating margin as a measure of operating performance. The company's definition of adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies. As such, management believes that it is appropriate to consider operating income and net income determined on a GAAP basis in addition to these non-GAAP measures.

Management believes that adjusted earnings and adjusted diluted earnings per share are useful measures for investors, as management uses these measures to internally assess the company's performance and ongoing operating trends. There can be no assurances that additional special items will not occur in future periods, nor that MSA's definition of adjusted earnings is consistent with that of other companies. As such, management believes that it is appropriate to consider both net income determined on a GAAP basis as well as adjusted earnings.    

Management believes that Debt to adjusted EBITDA and Net debt to adjusted EBITDA are useful measures for investors, as management uses these measures to internally assess the company's liquidity and balance sheet strength. There can be no assurances that that MSA's definition of Debt to adjusted EBITDA and Net debt to adjusted EBITDA is consistent with that of other companies.

About MSA Safety:  

MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE: MSA) is the global leader in advanced safety products, technologies and solutions. Driven by its singular mission of safety, the Company has been at the forefront of safety innovation since 1914, protecting workers and facility infrastructure around the world across a broad range of diverse end markets while creating sustainable value for shareholders. With 2025 revenues of $1.9 billion, MSA Safety is headquartered in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania and employs a team of approximately 5,300 associates across its more than 40 international locations. For more information, please visit www.MSASafety.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Except for historical information, certain matters discussed in this press release may be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve various assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential" or other comparable words. Actual results, performance or outcomes may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements and may not align with historical performance and events due to a number of factors, including those discussed in the sections of our annual report on Form 10-K entitled "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors," and those discussed in our Form 10-Q quarterly reports filed after such annual report. MSA's SEC filings are readily obtainable at no charge at www.sec.gov, as well as on its own investor relations website at http://investors.MSAsafety.com. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements, and caution should be exercised against placing undue reliance upon such statements, which are based only on information currently available to us and speak only as of the date hereof. We are under no duty to update publicly any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this earnings press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures:

This press release includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. These financial measures include organic sales change, adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted earnings, adjusted earnings per diluted share, debt to adjusted EBITDA, and net debt to adjusted EBITDA. These non-GAAP financial measures provide information useful to investors in understanding our operating performance and trends, and to facilitate comparisons with the performance of our peers. Management also uses these measures internally to assess and better understand our underlying business performance and trends related to core business activities. The non-GAAP financial measures and key performance indicators we use, and computational methods with respect thereto, may differ from the non-GAAP financial measures and key performance indicators, and computational methods, that our peers use to assess their performance and trends.

The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures does not comply with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). These non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed as supplemental in nature, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, our reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP. When non-GAAP financial measures are disclosed, the Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation G requires: (i) the presentation of the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP and (ii) a reconciliation of the differences between the non-GAAP financial measure presented and the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. For an explanation of these measures, with a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, see the Reconciliation of GAAP Financial Measures to Non-GAAP Financial Measures in the financial tables section above.

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SOURCE MSA Safety