Krones Ag Adr

So, good afternoon and a warm welcome from my side. My name is Olaf Scholz, Head of Investor Relations here at Crohn's. We have presented this morning our preliminary figures of the fiscal year 24. With the strong figures, Crohn's improved all relevant key figures and we also published our targets for 25, which represents a profitable growth strategy of Crohn's. Christoph Klenk and Uta Anders will give you more details about these 24 figures, and in addition to further information, they will show you the published guidance for 25. After the presentation, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. Additionally, I want to inform you that this meeting will not be recorded, and it's also not allowed that you use the recording function in Teams. I think we can start. Yeah, so I hand over to Christoph. Christoph Klink, the floor is yours. Christoph Klink, the floor is yours.

Olaf, thank you. Good afternoon. Pleasure to have you all together to the presentation of our numbers. Uta will do as usual together in this audience. And I start immediately jumping in. This is the summary. We don't want to go into that because we tell anything what we have here later on anyway. Those are the numbers which you know. We come to that later on. And I would say that chart is just saying we have achieved all the targets we have set and the governance is achieved. You come to the details. And let's start with order intake and most probably one of the biggest questions everybody has. And I try to give some color on it, where we are with it and how we see the whole thing. I mean, if we look to the last quarter, we had 1.345 billion euro order intake. which was, I would say, to a certain extent, maybe a bit lower than expectation. However, we have been already, let me say, some kind of be cautious how the year end would run because it was not about, let me say, too much about the pipeline. It was even about timing since December has only, let me say, 20 working day or 20 days where we can realize the order intake. So it was quite difficult to get the one or the other on board. Nevertheless, if we look to it we are all in all very happy with what we have achieved in terms of order intake we are above last year and of course we have some proportion of the net start acquisition in but we have communicated that all the time that this will be relevant for the order intake if i look to let me say a bit in the future and i think we will in q a certainly go deeper into that I would say our pipeline is robust, as we have actually stated in our press release as well. We might talk about a bit more about the next couple of minutes than how we see all the intake in the first quarter and how we judge actually 2025. But again, book to bill ratio in 2024 was about one. And again, this brings me to the next slide, important one. the order backlog, which has been increasing once again, which is very good on one side and gives us a good visibility in terms of how we can do the planning of 2025. But on the other side is a bit of, let me say, a burden on the shoulder because we have not decreased delivery time significantly yes we have been going down from 70 to 50 weeks but still there is a challenge on the market that we need a bit of a further decrease in delivery times but again the good story is we have a fantastic order backlog we are looking to 2025 is settled in this in the sense of how can we use our capacities and are pretty clear in terms of the planning and our statement is that we have even beginning of 2026 already some orders booked in so i would say a very good planning horizon and a good stability in terms of our revenue and financial results If we go to the next slide, how the markets are distributed. I mean, we have to be careful once we see that this is revenue. And I would say there's a kind of a certain offset between revenue and order intake of 12 months. Maybe it's a bit longer in some cases. Maybe it's a bit short in other cases. But I want to give you a bit of a reflection where we see the markets. I mean, North America, you see in terms of revenue, it's a bit going down. No surprise. This was for us expected. The more important thing is that we see North America for the time being in terms of auto intake on the plant level. So even with the, let me say, tariffs coming up, which brings unsecurity for the next couple of weeks until maybe it's more settled where the tariffs are, I would say then we have to have most probably a new look on it. I would say when you look to it, how we see the markets and you see the distribution here, but I want to give a bit of a color on how we see the markets. Europe is for the time being OK with what we see in terms of revenues and order intake. We see what we see Eastern Europe and Central Asia is on a good level. We do expect the same one as we see in 2024, maybe for 2025. China is a kind of a problem. I mean, we all know the economy doesn't work well. So this is one of the markets where we have some some shortcomings and even Asia-Pacific, which is a bit of a surprise because there is no economic reason why Asia-Pacific should not work. But it's not yet on plan. We come to that certainly later on as well. Middle East and Africa is working good. So a good recovery. Those have been the latest coming out of COVID-19 and they're doing good. And South America is as well doing good. So it's all on plan. So that's a first view on the world where we are. And with that, I would hand over to Uta that she runs you through the other numbers.

Yeah, good afternoon also from my side. I mean, as always, first of all, we talk about all P&L related topics, including segments, and then I'll come to balance sheet. Let's start with revenue. One further remark in advance. I will not talk about guidance 2025, although you see it on the left side. We'll keep that for the for the end of the presentation. I mean as you can see we have recognized the revenue of 5.294 billion euro which is a 12.1 percent growth compared to 2023 and with that we are on the upper end of the guidance as we had also communicated as our expectation in the last calls or in the last conferences. I mean this is due also to the fact that we had a strong quarter four with 1.419 billion which was also a 14.9% growth compared to 2023. And yes, we have net style included here also as one of the effects why the revenue is increasing. Net style was approximately a little bit more than 150 million, but I mean, you can do the math also without it. We have been growing quite significantly. And one of the reasons is also that, and we'll talk about that probably later, supply chain shortages have eased further and deficiency in production has increased. EBITDA. Yeah, we have recognized or we have achieved an EBITDA of 537.1 million euro as you can see. 17.4% increase compared to last year in all or in absolute numbers more than 80 million. And I mean looking at the margin 10.1% and we all remember 9.8 to 10.3 has been our guidance. And as we had also communicated in the last months, we expected to be somewhere in the middle, as we also did. And this is despite of higher new machine business, also something you hear from us quite regularly, where we have some, if you want to call it, diluting effect because it comes with a lower margin. And which is, on the other hand, also, I mean, evidence of backlog quality that we have achieved that despite of this. And also what we have mentioned several times, we have a diluting effect of net style included in here, which is 0.2 percentage points. Looking at Q4, 146 million, 10.3 percent. And that also here, despite of the diluting effect of net style. Now coming to EBT also here, 381.6 million is quite a significant increase, 70 million compared to last year, a 7.2% margin. I mean, all has been said already on EBT in terms of development. I mean, what I want to mention here also is we had a financial income, as you can read on the left side, of 13 million, some extraordinary effects included in here, and a depreciation, as you can also read here, of close to 170 million, but all in all, also in line with our expectations and also with a margin of 7.2%. Yeah, and that is because of a stable development of personal expense or personal cost and material cost of the major components of our of our cost base, starting with personal personal cost. I mean, you can see one point five eight one billion euro. And you have heard from us several times, it's important to stay below that 30%. So with 29.7%, we have achieved that. And I mean, looking at the increase of personal cost, yeah, that is the result of on the one hand, which we will see on the next page, increase in FTE, but at the same time, the merit increases as we have also communicated it. Material cost also here. You remember we had always said staying below the 50 percent is important for us. Forty nine percent. Two point six or three million. So that is a good ratio. And also here, despite of the effect or despite of the situation, the fact that we have higher new machine business in here now coming to two employees. I mean, we had already after nine months passed the threshold of 20,000 employees. Now we are at 20,379. So it's close to 1,900 more than we had end of 2023. And it's to one third approximately, it's the acquisition of Netstar. Another third approximately is increase in Germany. Another third approximately is outside of Germany. And if we look Where did we increase? I mean, you remember that we had always said service technicians is important for us. So we have increased close to 200 service technicians and everything else actually is worldwide. And it's important for us to mention also in this conference, I mean, as you can also read in the headline, we have now close to 1,600 people in the United States. So also a significant increase here. And I'm sure we'll talk about that also later. Now, coming to the segment, I mean, filling and packaging technology, all I'm seeing refers very much to what I already said for the group, starting with revenue development, €4.454 billion, somewhat of a €529 million increase, 13.5%. So we are slightly above the guidance here, which was 9% to 13%, also due to a strong quarter four. And now looking at the margin, 464.3 million, 10.4 percent. So an absolute number, 60 million increase. If you look at the margin, it seems little, 10.4 compared to 10.3. But have in mind two effects, diluting effect of net style, but also all in all, a high new machine share here. And also here we have confirmed or we have achieved our guidance we had given here for the EBITDA margin. Now continuing on with process technology, 508 million Euro revenues, so 55 more than 2023, 12.0% increase. Our guidance had been 15 to 20. So we are slightly below the guidance we had given because of less turnkey projects and POC recognition coming from there. I'm sure we'll talk about that also later. But all in all, still a significant growth. And also, if we took out AMCO, we also would have grown in the process technology segment because AMCO in 2023 was not fully here. I think more important is or more significant is also looking at the margin. Forty nine point five million EBITDA. So it's a 15 million increase compared to last year. And if we look at the margin, two point zero percentage points more. So nine point seven percent. And our guidance here had been eight to nine. So we are well above the guidance and actually continued also what was visible already in the first three quarters. that we do well in terms of margin. Intralogistics, 332 million euro revenue. I mean, as you can see, 11 million less than last year. So we have not achieved the guidance, despite of the fact that we had a very strong quarter four as we had also indicated to all of you 112 million itself in quarter four. But despite of that, we did not achieve that. But I'm sure we'll talk also about the expectations later when we talk about the guidance for 25 because, and you have heard that from us several times, all the intake was good, all the backlog and also for 25 is good. More important, also important here from our side is looking at the margin. a seven percent margin ebd imagine a very strong quarter four with 9.6 itself in quarter four coming then to the upper end of the guidance which we had given with six to seven percent for the intra-logistic segment yeah So far, from my side, with everything P&L related, now let's come to balance sheet and everything which is related to here. I mean, I think if we look at our overall numbers, maybe there's one surprise in the numbers, which may be cash to all of you. We had indicated already that there may be some upside potential, and we'll see that in cash flow also later. We have close to 300 million cash flow. and that brought also our cash position to 442 million as of end of December and with free credit lines used once we come to liquidity reserves which are very close to 1.3 billion with 1299 and which gives us enough room for organic but also inorganic growth going forward. Now, coming to the right side, equity, we have grown in equity by 207 million, coming to 1.922 billion. And that 207 million is a result of 277 million net income. And you already know the dividends we paid out in quarter two, 70 million. And the increase in equity itself was 12%. And our balance sheet total grew by 6%. And then applying math, we come to an equity ratio of 40.5%, which is higher than last year and slightly higher also than we were end of September. Continuing on with working capital, I mean, one of the reasons or the main reason why we have hold the cash position we hold and have generated close to 300 million cash flow is because of stability in working capital and also even a further reduction in working capital, as you can see. 17.0% compared to the last year's steady decrease. I mean, you remember that we have always said that 20% is our threshold, so we are well below here. And if I look at the individual components of working capital, starting with receiver with POC, on the very right side, on the upper end, 36.2%. So, I mean, decreased by three percentage points, 3.1. And that's also a result of the faster delivery times we are having and also the increase in revenue, because in absolute numbers, actually, receiver with POC increased slightly. Accounts payable more or less developed like revenue. I mean, you can see that also from the ratio we are holding 15.4%, 813 million as of end of December, absolute value. Inventory is quite a significant step down, 12.9% compared to 14.5%. And you also remember that we had always said that we were holding safety stock, which we now want to stabilize. Looking at absolute numbers, we kept inventory on the level we had December 2023. And received prepayments, also that is a result of faster delivery that this is increased or decreased by 4.6 percentage points and also in absolute numbers to 927. All in all, 856 million working capital, we had 766 at the end of 2023. Difference of 90, you can see the 90 on the third line of our cash flow statement. and but starting with the general overview of free cash flow i mean i already teased it at close to 300 292.5 million a quarter for itself was 147 so we did in quarter four uh what we did the other three quarters and i mean we have mentioned that also in the individual talks with some of you i mean we always have a strong court a strong december and here in particular the last 10 days So quite well here. But if we look overall also on the development, I mean, you can see from earnings, it comes from earnings, it comes from other non-cash changes. And I already talked about change in working capital. I want to mention CapEx because that also relates already a bit to the free cash flow expectation or orientation we're going to give. 3.4%, 180 million here. And M&A activities, I mean, you know what we have acquired in 2024, net style, the major component. And all in all, Net change in cash, 6 million, coming to the 442.5, which I already mentioned earlier. Free cash flow, here we give You know, we don't guide it, but we give kind of an indication. Some of you may wonder why our indication now for 2025 is lower than what we have achieved in 2023, 2024. Sorry. Yeah, that is a number of different reasons. Yes. First of all, and you'll see that in the guidance, we expect EBT. Yes, for sure. But at the same time, we also expect the working capital to increase. And also, I mentioned the three point four percent capex earlier for twenty twenty five. We expect the four percent and here the zero point six plus an increase in revenue actually makes that up that we have all in all, the slightly lower number than we had for 2024. But still, we believe it's a good cash flow generation we are showing here also for 2025. Rossi, 18.2%. And I mean, it's a result of EBIT development, which increased over proportionally over average capital employed increase And also here, because that's our third number, which we are guiding, we have some diluting effect from that style included here because the EBITDE and EBIT respectively is not yet on the level of the group. Yeah, so far from my side.