DocMorris AG

Dear ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the conference call of Sororza Group AG. As our customers expect, this conference will be recorded. As a reminder, all participants will be in a listen-only mode, and after the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If any participant has difficulty hearing the conference, please press the start key followed by zero on your telephone for operator assistance. We are now handing over to Lata Oberhensley, who will lead you through the conference.

Go ahead. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and a very warm welcome to Zerose Group's half-year 2021 results conference call. Zerose is in the middle of the really most exciting time that I personally have experienced in my 20 years, eight years since the foundation of that company, and I'm happy to provide the latest update on our path to electronic descriptions and beyond where we are very much on track. With me today are Marcel and Walter, who will present the financials and especially the latest ERX update firsthand. The first half year was really an exceptional period in several concerns, and I'd like to highlight a few points in particular. We were first able to accelerate our growth performance once again with Q2 growth of 26.2% on group levels and impressive 35% in Germany. Our active customer base grew to 11.7 million, which equals an increase of 3.6 million compared to last year. We always aimed for the biggest possible customer base at the forefront of ERX and therefore are really excited now about that great number. What a starting point. On the ERX front, we were able to launch our new DocMorris app, including the scanner function, and delivered the ERX server for Gematix as part of IBM on time for the launch of the test phase, which started already in July. We see the development in making everything ready for the ERX, furthermore, fully on track. As already explained at our full year results call, we initiated a large TV campaign with the initial focus on branding. And I'm happy to say today that we achieved our targets with an uplift in unaided brand awareness by 8 percentage points. Additionally, and obviously most importantly, customers state Doc Morris as the most relevant brand when being asked about which company come to their mind when thinking about ERX. Eight brand awards, which we have won, including renowned Red Dot and New York Festival Awards, proved the brand building capabilities within SOSE. In terms of new business, we were able to launch our first ecosystem partnership with Novo Nordisk by implementing DocMorris Adipositas Care at the end of the first quarter. We also made another step regarding integration with the completion of the transition of our board to DocMorris. Last but very much not least, I'm extremely happy about the addition of Madhu Nuttakri as group CTO. The first three weeks now with him on board have already shown that he is very deep in the topics that concern us the most, and that he has a relevant experience and insight that he will apply to help us reach our mission. I'm fully convinced that he's the right person to help us transition from an e-commerce pharmacy to your leading healthcare ecosystem and also to improve our products such as the DocMorris app continuously and really very fast. As already explained at our Capital Markets Day in June, I see actually five key pillars for the future success that I want to reiterate today. First, and at least in the short term, the biggest and most important topic is obviously the opportunity that the introduction of the electronic prescription in Germany is bringing to us. This is the largest growth driver for the next years, and the main factor was to reach our mid-term targets. We just visited Apothea in Sweden this week to better understand the dynamics of electronic prescription in that market, where the Rx online penetration has jumped to 12% after COVID-19. These learnings coming from Sweden confirm our confidence in our target in Germany once again. All disruption in the past had always been in favor of the customer, doing things better for them was always the main driver. People are dealing with really too many challenges in their journeys and the efficacy of medication is by far not where it could be. Here comes in our approach with combining medication with digital services, what will lead to a better adherence and therefore better outcomes. There is so much place for improvement. Let us empower people to manage their health in a much more convenient, personalized, and effective way. Therefore, our vision is to create a world where everyone can manage their health in one click. This means to build the healthcare ecosystem of Europe, providing personalized and seamless health journeys specifically designed towards the needs of chronically ill people. We are really up to boost our core business as well as create new business models based on tech and data. Tech is more and more in the core of our business as well as we see technology as the key enabler to reach our vision. With Madhu joining our team, we work and we took another big step to get closer to our mission. All of us at Zurose are committed and really excited to execute on that strategy and create value for customers, employees, partners, and with that, our shareholders. I now hand over to Marcel, who will explain the financial performance of the first six months of 2021.

Thank you, Walter, and good afternoon from my side. I'd like to start with emphasizing again the three highlights from a financial perspective. First, the gain of market share in Germany resulting from the really impressive 35% growth rate in the second quarter support our strong position in preparation for the launch of electronic prescription. Second, the spending in the marketing campaign are showing promising returns and increase in active customers and increase in brand awareness, especially with the RX focus and support our growth rates. And third, the significant reduction of networking capital by roughly 2.5% of sales is leading to a more efficient use of capital. Let's go into more details, starting with the group sales performance in the first half of 2021. We once again accelerated our growth rate to really compelling 20.8% in local currencies with a strong development in all segments. In Switzerland, we achieved a solid and sustainable growth rate of 5.6%. In Germany, we were able to grow external sales by 30% with the important fact of increasing our market share. The Rx business continued to develop with low single-digit declines despite discontinued paper prescription marketing and the bonus ban. The OTC and BPC business developed very strong, especially when taking the rather weak market development into consideration. Segment Europe achieved 22.9% growth in local currency. This somewhat lower growth compared to prior periods is a result of the very strong demand driven by previous year's hard lockdown in Spain. I would now like to highlight the performance of the second quarter. On a group level, we achieved a very strong growth of 26.2%, mainly driven obviously by our performance in Germany, where we achieved this really exceptional 35.6% growth. Switzerland and Spain both show atypical performances caused by previous year COVID impacts. Let's dive into our KPIs. The key development here is the growth of the number of active customers to 11.7 million. Compared to last year, this is an increase of 3.6 million a combination of 1.1 million Varia Rapotale acquisition and 2.5 million organic increase. Due to the continued higher goals of the German OTC as well as the marketplace business with typically more commoditized products and slightly smaller baskets compared to RX or B2C Switzerland, the average overall basket size decreased from 54 to 52 euros. The same applies for the order frequency, which is at 2.2 times per year. Our repeat order rate remains at the high level of 74%, which shows the significant loyalty of our customers. The decrease was driven by the large number of new customers. In terms of site visits, we saw a slight decrease to $234 million in the 12-month period ending June 21. We see this as a result of the peak in Q1 2020 due to COVID-19. As we stated in our full year results, this year is, in our view, a critical one in regards to building the strongest possible position ahead of the InScript launch. We increased our growth expenses significantly, especially on the marketing side, which resulted in accelerated growth and in an increase in brand awareness. This on this slide shows the adjusted numbers without extraordinary items. The gross margin came in below previous year, again driven by the pandemic with a very strong increase in 2020 and the slowdown of the market, especially in Q1, as a result of the missing flu season. It is, however, in line with the second half of 2020. Personal expenses developed in line with revenue growth, despite increased expenses for future growth. The main reason for the increase in marketing expenses is our marketing campaign that we launched to increase awareness ahead of the eScript launch. The marketing ratio is currently at 5.9%. Distribution expenses show a slight improvement in relation to sales. and other operating income and expenses include some costs of new business initiatives and developed in line with our expectations. This led to an adjusted EBITDA of minus 42.9 million Swiss francs. I will explain the adjustments and the bridge of 2020 to 2021 earnings in more detail on the following two charts. Depreciation increased as a result of a higher base due to acquisitions and also higher spending in tech development. And the net financial results improved compared to previous year due to a positive exchange rate effect. The adjustment on ABTA level in H1 2021 reduced significantly compared to previous year. Amundey related adjustments amounted to 5 million Swiss Francs while integration, mainly related to the upper road integration, amounted to 1.2 million. Including other adjustments of 0.7 million, total adjustments declined to 6.8 million compared to 13 million in 2020. This chart gives you a chance to understand the drivers of the earnings compared to previous years in more detail and build the bridge from H1 2020 adjusted EBITDA of minus 11.5 million to H1 2021 of minus 42.9 million. First, we increased e-script related expenses by 14.2 million compared to last year in order to achieve the best possible position ahead of the ERX opportunity. The amount is mainly attributable to the marketing campaign. Second, as explained at the Capital Markets Day, our new businesses, Telemedicine, Platform as a Service, and Ecosystem Collaborations appear a high future margin potential which is why we increased our spendings in these initiatives by 6 million. As explained in the P&L previous year, exceptional gross margin impact caused by the pandemic and the slow market development caused by the missing gross margin compared to H1 2020, with an impact of minus 9.2 million on earnings. The remaining 2 million from other line items are additional expenses that occurred as growth expenses, overcompensated our operational improvements in these areas. Our balance sheet remains in a good shape ahead of this fallout. Our cash position is at about 250 million Swiss francs, from 300 million at year end, driven by our operational performance and the reduction of net working capital by 34 million. This reduction was driven by a stronger management focus, which led to a decrease of inventory, a decrease of receivables in relation to sales, and an increase of payables and accrued expenses. Significant investments of 23 million in our technology resulted in an increase of intangible assets of 12.5 million. Overall, the balance sheet with a negative ratio of 37.2% and 250 million of cash has the financial strength to invest in this great opportunity. A quick word on our financial outlook. which is well known. It confirmed both our communicated 2021 and also our targets. Our profitability also remain unchanged. With this, I will hand over to Walter Hess who will give you the latest update and look forward to answer your questions in the Q&A session.

Okay, thank you, Marcel, and welcome to everyone. I'm very pleased to provide you with a brief update on the most exciting short-term initiative within our company, the introduction of VRX in Germany. Summarized, everything is and remains on track for the mandatory launch on January 1st, 2022. And we are all really excited and stay very much focused to tackle this unique opportunity in the best way possible. In July 2021, the launch of the test phase of ERX has happened, fully in line with the schedule of the German government and Gematik. Right now, Gematik is in the process of extending the initial test phase to 50 physicians and 120 pharmacists. We, as Doc Morris, and also the remaining brands in Germany, are ready for ERX and are looking forward to receiving the first real eScripts very soon. In Q4, there will be the rollout of the ERX technology nationwide so that all participants can test and will also be ready for 1st of January when ERX will become mandatory in Germany. The leading providers of physician information systems remain positive that they will be able to roll out their ERX modules to their customers, the physicians, in time for the mandatory rollout. One example, just recently, the ERX module of the CompuGroup TurboMed system has been certified by the key KDV association of the statutory health insurance physicians. And therefore the system is ready to be rolled out. Something that is still pending is the publishing of the specifications of the third party APIs, which was expected for mid of this year. However, We do not expect this ordinance to have a major impact on us. And bear in mind, we as a pharmacy are anyway connected directly to the telematic infrastructure based on our pharmacy license. So yes, of course, the schedule for Gematik and the other stakeholders involved is tight until the end of the year. But we are convinced that Gematik will deliver And we are also convinced that the other participants have to deliver and will deliver as well. Let's move now to our own readiness and roadmap. As explained at the Capital Markets Day, we will size the ERX opportunity with our healthcare ecosystem approach. To create the world, everyone can manage their health in one click is our vision, and it comes to life now. Last December, we launched the DocMorris Plus app, renamed recently to DocMorris Express, as part of our DocMorris e-commerce platform, with the main scope to test delivery options and gain experience with same-day deliveries by using our marketplace functions. And of course, also to lay the foundation for our partner pharmacy network. We remain on a good track to achieve our target of 200 partner pharmacies by end of the year, and we'll have onboarded about half of them by end of this month. Beginning of July, we have launched the new DocMorris e-commerce app, already including the new ERX functions. like the convenient ERX scanner, which enables patients to simply scan the ERX tokens and place an order with us. By end of the year, we aim to include the DocMorris Express service into our DocMorris eCommerce app, just in time for the mandatory launch of ERX to provide best-in-class user experience for our customers. For the first time then, customers will really be able to redeem an ERX and at the same time, in the same buying process, purchase OTC and beauty personal products at best prices. And in addition, they have the choice to get the product delivered according to their needs, either within 24 hours, most of them up to 48 hours via mail order, or same day or click and collect through one of our pharmacy partners. During the pandemic, the population has become very used to download an app and scan and use QR codes with their smartphones. For example, to download their COVID certificates, or to register in a restaurant. As a result, we believe that even more people will choose an online pharmacy to redeem their ERX already in the near future. A new study of VidCon published end of July only confirms that the digital health offerings became much more important for Germans due to Corona and shows that 22% of them who choose an online pharmacy for their ERX. And exactly for them, we will have the right answer in place. By bringing together e-commerce, health services, and marketplace, we will be able to offer the most convenient customer experience for chronically ill patients and for acute demand, with flexible delivery options and state-of-the-art health services and support. Let me now conclude my short presentation by once again reiterating how excited, committed, and focused the whole team at the ROSI Group and I personally are for the ERX opportunity which really is just ahead of us. With that, it is my pleasure to open the Q&A session and to look forward to your questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our question and answer session. If you have a question for our speakers, please dial 0 and 1 on your telephone keypad now to enter the queue. Once your name has been announced, you can ask your question. If you find your question is answered before it is your turn to speak, you can dial 0 and 2 to cancel your question. If you are using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selection. One moment please for the first question. The first question is from Alexander T. Jeffries. Your line is now open. Please go ahead, sir.

Hi, good afternoon. I hope you can hear me. A couple of questions from my side. First question for Marcel on the improved working capital efficiency. Could you provide more details on what is driving this change and how should we account for working capital going forward? If I remember correctly, your target is around 6% of sales. The second question would be for Walter Hess, would be on your logistics. How are you progressing with your new logistic hub, and how far are you currently with increasing the efficiency at the other two hubs? And my last question would be for Walter Overhensley, perfectly fitted for a lawyer, and it is on the accusation that has been pushed into the market from a non-covenant broker, which might imply that you're not complying with the RX bonus banner, which has been enacted since December last year. Could you clarify once again what has been the difference between shop and your strategy that the broader market basically understands what's happening on the RX growth rate there. Thank you.

Thank you for your question. Maybe I'll start with the network and capital development. And there, our stronger management focus on these topics leading to a higher turnover in inventory, leading to reducing base outstanding in the receivables and therefore the main part of this improvement is really sustainable and makes us fit for the ERX opportunity and are now below the communicative targets of this 6% of sales. This also because in the future in the e-script topic the networking capital will be a little bit higher because of the receivables from the insurance companies. But all together I think this improvement was very important and again makes us fit for the future goals.

Walter Hess here. I can answer the second question. Yes, our DC2 distribution center tool is well on track. So we will start as planned with the test phase within the next two weeks. And also as planned, we will go live with it in the first half of next year. With regard to our activities for operational improvement, the focus in the last quarter was very much on the speed through the processes And there we have really achieved very relevant improvements, which we also see in fulfilling our service promise and increasing the orders which are delivered within next day delivery target.

Okay, so the question number three, which is the question about bonus band. So, I mean, what we can say is that we have a very, very loyal customer base. And secondly, we did, after the bonus spend topic came into the picture, we decided not to acquire our ex-customers anymore, which has two effects, maybe the ones you are asking for. But on the other hand side, we would not like to comment on shop apotheke.

Okay, thank you very much.

The next question is from Rupen Boyajian, Finance of Wirtschaft. Your line is now open, please go ahead.

Hello, thanks for taking my questions. You were mentioning that from the from the technology third-party app applications were missing and also that if I understood correctly to Rose is not so much affected. Could you again give some more details about that or are you not affected at all or only slightly and then maybe you can say something on the the projected uptake of the ERX business in Germany for next year.

Yeah, so the missing specification will specify the API guidelines for third-party apps. Third-party apps is everything which is not a gematic app. And therefore, we are concerned, no, we are not concerned as we are a pharmacy and our app is a pharmacy app. And as a pharmacy, we are not, it is not relevant for us what the third party specifications would say. As I said, we are directly connected to the Gematix server and can read in the medication data directly to our pharmacy. And the projection, what we can say is that we can just confirm, and we are very much convinced that within the next three to five years, market share of online penetration will go up to 10%. And it starts 1st of January on a mandatory basis. And yeah, so this is what we already can say.

But do you think it's going to start rather slow or do you expect a speedy start?

Yeah, there, of course, we have several scenarios in our planning and there might be some In relation of our active customer base where we already have 11 million active customers and by statistics about 25% of them do have a chronic disease. This would lead to a rather fast take up, but we did not give a guidance of the first month of development because it's really crystal ball what we strongly believe and are convinced is that this double-digit online penetration will be achieved in the next couple of years.

Thanks a lot.

The next question is from Olivier Covey. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you very much. Hi, good afternoon, Walter and Marcel. I would have five questions left. First one, what revenues from Apotal and Medpex did you consolidate in the reported revenues line? Can you explain what is the mechanism? Could you come back over the sales performance of Medpex and Apotal, in particular this half year versus last year, please, where obviously we didn't have Just quickly remind us of what the structure of the contracts that are in place is. Second question would be on the warehouse situation. Can you remind us your thinking or potential timing for the rationalization of your warehouse footprint, notably in the German geography in particular? Third question would be on the marketplace. Can you explain to us how you will drive customers to your own offers versus your partner pharmacies on the marketplace? And confirm, just acoustically, I couldn't just double-check the number of pharmacies you plan to have onboarded by the end of the month. The fourth question would be on the active customers in the German market. Of those 10.3 million you talked about, could you share the number of customers that are currently active DocMorris customers, please? And finally, just to confirm on RX, could you just confirm that you've been respecting German law on RX pricing in H1? and whether the EU Commission's letter that you have received in July has changed anything to your strategy. Thanks.

Thank you for your questions. Maybe I'll start with the performance of Netbex and all the single brands. We do not disclose the single brands because we steer the business on a segment level of Germany and allocate marketing standings on the brands which we have the best performance and the best KPIs and for us it's important to have the overall performance and dynamics and there the KPIs we disclosed show that we have a very good growth rate on external sales and external sales as you know is the sales to the customers And the reported sales includes all the services and deliveries to the pharmacies. And so that's the difference of this. Also in terms of active customers, we do not disclose number of customers of single brands. The second point was about the warehouse ramp up and there, as Walter has mentioned, We will finish the additional distribution center end of this year, and then it's a rollout testing and scaling in the first half of next year in order to be ready and have the capacity in the ERX rollout and scaling.

Okay, and sorry, just to confirm, on the German warehouses, can you give us any color on any rationalization that you plan there?

Overall, the capacity is in the focus, and that's why we do not integrate further warehouses in the short term, because we think in this situation it's most important to have the flexibility and the capacity to fulfill on the upcoming demand.

Okay, thanks. We forgot the customer journey that you asked on our app. So the customers come in via our DocMorris app or DocMorris website, and they will have the choice either to purchase via mail order or they also will have the choice to choose same day or click and collect with our partners. And once they choose click and collect to our partners, then the orders will be

Okay, so just to confirm, so if I want aspirin, there's one product, and then I choose, depending on the method of delivery, where it goes, right, to you or to the partner?

You can choose either. Once you choose the product, you can also choose right at the beginning if you want to go for same day or click and collect.

Okay, thanks.

And with regard to number of pharmacies, so end of this month, we will reach close to 100 pharmacies, including the branch pharmacies.

Okay. So we do not give bonuses anymore for a long while, actually. And what the letter of the EU Commission concerns, so Actually we see in this letter a confirmation of our strategy as the Commission clearly points out that the bonus plan as it's marked in the last changes of law is not compatible with European law.

Okay, thanks.

At this point, just a brief reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press 0 and 1 on your telephone keypad now. And the next question is from Michael Heiden, World of Research. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hi, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my questions. Many have been answered, but just to reconfirm, can you reconfirm the question? rx growth you have seen or decline rather you have seen i think you have given a number which i i didn't catch then uh this question was also asked but maybe i asked a little bit differently um what can you give us a feeling what the organic growth was in the first half then a third question on what what is the profitability um roads going through into the second half. Do you expect marketing expenses on a similar level than you have seen in H1, or are you planning even to increase your marketing efforts shortly ahead of the introduction of the mandatory ERX? Then also a question on the new app, the DocMorris app. Just for my understanding, I mean, is the transfer If I have a DocMorris Plus app, let's say, will I be automatically transferred to the latest versions with the RxScan function, or do I have to actively download the latest versions every time it's renewed? And then last question, again, on your partner pharmacies. I mean, you've given us the target again. You're saying close to 100 at the end of the month. I mean, maybe you can just give us the current picture. So how many pharmacies you really actually do have at the moment? That would be very helpful. Many thanks.

Let me start with a more specific question. You asked about the RX growth in the first half of 2021. And here it's very sustainable and also comparable to the growth rates we had last year. It's in the minus low single digit percentages, again, because we have very low partners and we did not acquire new customers with the monetary incentive in the last couple of years. And so that's in line with our expectations. In terms of organic growth, as you know, we closed the acquisition of Apotale in the second half of last year, so it's an acquisitory part in the growth rates included. But again, for us, it's very important to have the market share as a group and as a as a strong starting point for the launch of the electronic perception and the overall active customer base and there we already also in this half year we did a lot of progress and organic growth rates would be significantly double digit for the first half of this year. And the third question was about the profitability in the second half. Here we still need the flexibility in our marketing campaign depending on the development of the access for electronic description of our German customers and cannot give an exact guidance because we still believe also in a ramp up this year and then we will accelerate our marketing campaign In general, we believe that this will be the case, that we accelerate our spendings in marketing in the second half of this year.

With regard to the app, if you have today the DocMorris Express app, yes, you have to download the new DocMorris app. And once we integrate via an opt-in that we will ask the customers, we can then transfer based on the opt-in, the existing data. Regarding partner pharmacies, right at the moment, we are at 95 pharmacies, as I have said, including the branch of pharmacies. So we are already quite close to 100.

Great. Thanks a lot. You're welcome.

The next question is from Andy Schmitten, Z Capital. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hi, gentlemen. I have a question on the balance sheet and your ability to finance your growth through your break-even target. A lot of people fear that there will be a cap increase rather sooner than later because you are generating quite high losses at this point in time and also in H2 and probably sort of next year. What can you tell us about that? What makes you confident that you don't need a cap increase?

Yes, we have it. It's 250 million cash. We have the financial power for the electronic prescription opportunity, which is in our plan, and it leads to our guidance. And for this, we feel quite comfortable. This is what we always said. And if there are additional opportunities, we have to look at this, and we have to plan this. But this is, at the moment, not part of our business plan.

But given that now we are in 1st of January and you start growing, what will change from this year? Of course, we have the US, but do you think that your marketing spend per new customer, the customer acquisition cost will just go down that dramatically, that fast? Because if you, if you, if you, if you again lose, 60, 70 million in the second half, and then in the first half of next year, yeah, the balance sheet will be quite stretched.

Yeah, but we have our business plan. We have our liquidity needs in this plan, and it shows that this existing cash position is enough for the interest rate opportunity to terminate.

So the reason why you're confident that your losses will decrease significantly at the next year is because, why? I mean, you won't dial back on marketing next year, I guess. So what will be changing in 2022?

Well, it's all in line with our guidance and what we said that the target rate even 12% to 18 months after 2021. And if you look into our unit economics and the contribution margins of electronic prescriptions, this leads to this business plan.

So the reason will be that new customers you gain through Oryx will cost you much less and bring much higher profit. That's the reason, right?

especially the contribution margin of electronic descriptions, as we have shown in the capital markets, they will be significantly higher and leads to additional positive cash flow, which we can spend again in our marketing campaigns.

Okay, perfect. And in other cost savings, what can you tell us about that? you integrated people's on a lot here and now up or on that.

So first of July or June, uh, how much savings will that bring annualized included in our job where we show what's the one way is when we have executed on the integration plans and also the synergies. And with this, we are able to achieve an ABTA margin between 2% and 3%. This is, on the one hand, synergies out of the integration. On the other hand, it's cost reductions through our additional distribution centers. And these all come together to this ABTA margin between 2% and 3%. Okay. Thanks.

The next question is from Patrick Holstein . Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thank you very much for taking the question. I would like to know if you already know when you have to consolidate the first turnover or sales from the marketplace segment. If it will be in 2022 or later, and how much do you expect to come from this channel? And maybe you could, again, explain the pricing model for RX on the marketplace. Are you getting a fixed fee or margin of the product? And finally, my question would be if you are going to print or to deliver your partner pharmacies in any way.

Well, on the first question, As I've said, for us, the marketplace or the offering of same day and click and collect is a value added services for our customers. So therefore, we expect that relatively high share of the orders, the RX or OTC, the customers will ask to deliver them at home next day. 48 hours latest. So we expect that the share through marketplace will not be over 50% at least. Regarding the pricing model is unchanged to last time. So for our partners, if they want to use the The marketplace function, there is a license fee which is unchanged to what it was before. And the third question, can you please repeat again? If you're going to print the pharmacies in some way? No, this is not foreseen as of today.

Okay, thank you very much. You're welcome.

Hello and good afternoon.

The first one would be on the Swiss business. Your B2C business developed quite well in the second quarter. I was wondering how much COVID self-tests or any other COVID-related measures have played into that one?

Yeah, there was some demand on COVID-related products, but we cannot quantify this. I think overall the growth in the Swiss business is very solid and sustainable and in line with what we always communicated as a target of the development of the Swiss business in the mid-single-digit area. And with this more than 5%, we are fully in line with this.

Understood. The next question would be on cash and balance sheet as well. What sort of cash level your business needs to run the underlying operations and what sort of equity level you feel comfortable with or at what level would you say your balance sheet would be looking stretched?

We do not disclose any target KPIs or covenants of our balance sheet. Of course, we I want to have a healthy balance sheet with the power to be flexible and have the financial power for the future. In terms of cash, the amount we need for the ongoing business is about 50 million, but also here is the chance to do this via bank credit or networking capital, for example. We have a strong balance sheet and a lot of options in this regard.

Understood. And one last question with regard to your German business, hence including the one, the unconsolidated one. When I'm comparing Q2 with Q1, you sequentially seem to be down. On the other side, flu season has been not there in the first quarter. At the same time, in the second quarter, your competitors seem to have some logistic struggles. Why had there been this sequential decline and not potentially sequential increase?

I do not really understand your question in terms of growth rates. We accelerated our growth in the second quarter and gained market share. We are quite happy with the developments.

In terms of absolute numbers, so if I calculate correctly, you had like something like 340 or 337 in the first half, and you had like 319 in the second quarter, so that's a sequential decline, right?

So that's the normal seasonality we have for the four quarters in the year, and important is the relation and the development compared to the previous year quarter.

But, I mean, normally one part of the big seasonality is also the flu season that, as you said, didn't take place in the first quarter.

Yes, that's true. But, again, it's the seasonality and the comparison to previous year shows that we accelerated our growth rate in the second quarter.

Understood. Many thanks.

And there are no further questions at this point, so I'll hand back to the speakers for closing remarks.

Okay. Thank you very much for your attendance and for your many questions. Thank you for your interest, and have a nice afternoon.