Georg Fischer AG (GF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Georg Fischer Midyear Results 2020 Conference Call and Live Webcast. I'm Andre, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] And the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Andreas Müller, CEO; and Mads Joergensen, CFO. Please go ahead, gentlemen.

Welcome, and thank you for joining our half year conference call. Present on our side are our CFO, Mads Joergensen; Head of Investor Relations, Daniel Bösiger; Head of Corporate Communications, Beat Römer; and myself Andreas Müller, CEO. Let's turn to Slide 2. GF achieved a solid performance amidst the turbulence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Governmental lockdowns affected our end markets across the world. The global automotive market as well as the machine tool industry were hit the hardest. However, GF was able to partially mitigate these effects through its well-diversified group portfolio and well-balanced global footprint. We were therefore able to limit the organic decline to 14% in the first half of 2020. Sales came in at CHF 1.5 billion, which were clearly negatively affected by the strong Swiss franc by more than CHF 80 million and the divestment of the Austrian iron foundry last year in October. GF was able to leverage its agility program started in 2019 to reduce costs quickly in the first half of the year. Our CFO, Mads Joergensen, will come back to this later. The operating result before one-off items was affected by the reduction in sales and declined to CHF 64 million. This corresponds to a return on sales before one-off items of 4.2% in contrast to 8% at the same time last year. GF was able to maintain a solid liquidity level throughout the year and thereby ensured a smooth operation. More importantly, however, we were able to continue and even accelerate our strategic projects and investments in the first half of the year. We made good progress with our new process automation and sensor facility at GF Piping Systems in Los Angeles, U.S. as well with our new COOL-FIT production at GF Piping Systems in Schaffhausen. In addition, we have continued to invest in China with 2 new plants, one for GF Piping Systems and another one for GF Casting Solutions. In addition, GF Machining Solutions started its new facility in Changzhou earlier this year. GF continued its focus on more resilient market segments such as microelectronics, infrastructure medtech and sustainable mobility. The left picture on the slide shows a recently launched virtual welding training program of GF Piping Systems, which allows our customers to remotely train their employees. Please allow me to briefly reflect on the COVID-19 effect so far, Slide 3. GF's strong, well-balanced global footprint as well as the shift to higher-value businesses as a consequence of the last 2 strategic cycles has helped us to quickly mitigate the effects of this crisis. Our pandemic crisis team was able to leverage and build on the experiences gained from our colleagues in China and quickly adopt the plans for other regions and countries. GF is represented in all regions with a strong setup, including comprehensive management functions. Since we produce in the region -- for the region and with our local sales organizations, we have been able to maintain a close proximity to our customers, which has also allowed us to adapt to the local situation immediately during these turbulent times. In many countries, our plants qualified as essential industries because we are providing products for the medical, gas, water and other infrastructure sectors; obviously, a major advantage to partially sustain business. I would like to conclude this slide with a heartfelt thank you to the everyday heroes in our facilities who coped with the crisis exceptionally well. The picture on the left shows our GF Piping Systems' employees in Schaffhausen. The safety of our employees was and continues to be of utmost importance. GF has continued to focus on innovations and the implementation of its Strategy 2020, Slide 4. Despite this, we will not be able to achieve our financial targets this year due to the effects of COVID-19. However, we will be able to implement our Strategy 2020 initiatives on time. A strong focus on digital applications such as connected products and intelligent solutions continued, which can be seen with GF Piping Systems' new virtual exhibition platform. We also launched new water management solutions with the next generation of our Hycleen system. Our Machining Solutions division launched a new bi-laser texturing machine and GF Casting Solutions codeveloped the modular battery housing for sustainable mobility solutions. As previously mentioned, we will be breaking ground and investing CHF 30 million for our new GF Piping Systems production, training and R&D facility in Yangshuo as well as CHF 50 million for new GF Casting Solution plant in Shenyang, North China. We are proud to report that GF has established a new sustainability committee at the Board level, underpinning the relevance of the ESG topics at GF. For more information, please refer to the recently published 2019 sustainability report, which you can find in our download center. Slide 5 shows the sales development of the first half year of 2020. Sales declined to CHF 1.5 billion due to the global impact of COVID-19, which corresponds to an organic decline of 14%. GF Piping Systems has remained strong during these times and delivered a resilient performance with an organic decline of only 3%. The well-known deep dive of the global car industry has left its mark at GF Casting Solutions with an organic decline of 28%. GF Machining Solutions is confronted with historically low PMIs and restrained sentiment with regard to capital goods spending. Of note here is that many suppliers in the aerospace and car industry remain extremely cautious and are therefore delaying investments in new production equipment. On the positive side, signs of recovery can be seen in the ICT and new technology industries. Consequently, GF Machining Solutions came in with an organic decline of 21%. Also worthy of note is the fact that China, a major market for GF, has been at the previous year's levels for the past month. Slide 6 shows GF organic sales development over the previous year's month. The chart on the left shows worldwide sales development of the corporation over the first 6 months. While the Chinese economy started on a low level due to the early Chinese New Year, it was affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns in the weeks thereafter. Since 2 regions were heavily affected by the pandemic during April and May, GF experienced the lowest sales level in this month. As shown in the chart, June came in rather strong with an organic decline of 3.8% only. As you can see in the chart on the right, China, the dark green line, after a weaker start has clearly been above the previous year for the past month, which is also true for all 3 divisions. A recovery in the U.S., blue line, and Germany, green line, can be noted in the recent months after severe lockdowns in April and May affected key industries in these regions. Despite the effects of the pandemic, GF did not close any month with an operational loss. Let us now turn to Slide 7. The EBIT margin before one-off items was strongly supported by the higher share of GF Piping Systems and came in at 4.2%. The solid performance was further supported by the swiftly taken measures to cope with the drop in sales caused by the COVID-19 crisis. GF Piping Systems continued to build on its well-diversified global customer base and delivered a strong EBIT margin with 11.1%. Even though we still have to complete the strategic transformation of GF Casting Solutions with a new plant in the U.S. and the relocation of its German foundry to Austria and Romania, the division had a much more flexible cost base due to the divestment of its iron foundries in the last 2 years. However, the division was hit hard and came in with an EBIT margin before one-off items of minus 7.6%. GF Machining Solutions quickly addressed the reduction of volumes with appropriate measures in all plants and was able to breakeven despite the sales reduction. Let us continue with the 3 divisions, Slide 8. GF Piping Systems demonstrated a high level of resilience with its broad customer base combined with a focus on higher-value business. As mentioned before, nearly all of the division's plants were declared as essential businesses. Strong global infrastructure demand and new orders for microelectronic and cooling applications contributed to the good performance. And the picture on the left is our fabrication shop in Irvine, U.S., which is where products are prefabricated for various applications. Prefabrication and customization is offered in all regions since the trend towards preassembled kits has grown in recent years and especially in the recent months. Sales came to CHF 845 million, which were also affected by negative currencies due to the strong Swiss franc. Sales organically declined by 3%. The operating profit stood at CHF 94 million with a strong EBIT margin of 11.1%. Slide 9 shows the sales development at GF Piping Systems compared to the previous year's month. The division was rather resilient throughout the first half year and was able to grow organically in June. The well-balanced global setup, the qualification as an essential business and the continuation of major construction markets across the world allowed GF Piping Systems to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 quite well. Pictures on the right show water and gas infrastructure applications, a major market of GF Piping Systems. Let's now look at Slide 10. In line with its mission to support customers with intelligent solutions for their sustainable needs, GF entered into a technology and financial partnership with Oxford Flow, an Oxford University spin-off. GF will industrialize a unique pressure-retaining valve made out of plastics to help water management companies reduce water losses in their pipeline infrastructures. On the left, you can see a district cooling pipeline for a hospital to support the secondary cooling system in an environmentally friendly way. The picture on the right shows a new virtual exhibition platform in addition to many new recently launched digital customer services. Let us now turn to GF Casting Solutions, Slide 11, the division hit the hardest during this turbulent times. The global car industry has been in the doldrums for many months, along with the aero engine industry. Consequently, GF Casting Solutions reported sales of only CHF 328 million, an organic sales drop of 28%. Even though the division addressed this decline in orders with strong cost-reduction measures, the operating result before one-off items came in at an unsatisfactory level of minus CHF 25 million. The ramp-up in Mills River was distorted by the lockdown and the reduced call offs. However, the relocation of the Werdohl foundry activities to Austria and subsequently to Romania are ahead of schedule and within budget. The strategic move to close down this site helps to avoid major layoffs because the volume can be absorbed with the existing workforce in the receiving plant. The picture on the left shows the fully automated production in our plant in the U.S. and an artificial intelligence application in our Austrian plant to increase the overall equipment efficiency. On Slide 12, you can see the monthly organic sales development of GF Casting Solutions. Given the consequences of the strategic upheaval of the car industry since 2019, this negative development was strongly accelerated with the COVID-19 pandemic. A recovery of orders can be observed in the last 2 months in the U.S. and Europe, whereas China is already above the previous year's level. During the first half year, GF Casting Solutions had to close down its facilities at the same time as its customers due to the just-in-sequence delivery and replenishment concepts. The global car industry is forecast to be down in the range of 25%, with Europe being down the most. Let's turn to Slide 13. GF Casting Solutions is focusing on new opportunities throughout the world. On the left, you can see a rendering of our new facility in Shenyang, North China, where we received our business license earlier this month. GF has already secured orders for plug-in hybrid, battery-only and conventional cars with focus on lightweight structural components. With its low density of 160 cars per 1,000 people able to drive a car, which compares to 600 in Europe or 1,000 in the U.S., the Chinese market still offers growth potential. GF also entered into a strategic technology partnership with ZF to further optimize the production of, for example, hybrid transmission housings as shown on the top right. Since the demand for e-vehicles has been supplemented by the state subsidies in many European countries, GF was able to secure additional volumes for, e.g., battery housings. Let's continue with Slide 14. GF Machining Solutions has confirmed its Strategy 2020 with a strong focus on new technologies and digitalization of its products and solutions. As we already reported during our media conference in February, machine tool market demand was already lackluster in the second half of 2019. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected demand for machine tools, which fell to the lowest level since the financial crisis of 2009. The division reported an organic decline of 21% and an order intake reduction of 32%. However, GF Machining Solutions was able to quickly reduce external and personnel costs to partially offset the loss caused by the low sales level. The division was able to breakeven due to high-value businesses, such as new technologies and resilient market segments like medtech and ICT, information and communication technologies. On Slide 15, you can see the year-over-year organic development. The severe drop in the aerospace business and subdued PMIs worldwide affected the global capital goods markets. GF Machining Solutions was not so much confronted with cancellations of orders, but rather delays in this segment. In the last few months, the Chinese market came in above the previous year. Our plants in Switzerland have been affected by the government-enforced lockdowns, whereas our plant in the U.S. qualified as essential because it supplies the medical device industry. Let's turn to Slide 16. The division was able to realize success in the medical device industry as you can see on the pictures on the left, showing 3D printed implants as well as highly precise wire cut guides for knee surgeries with our latest EDM technologies. We recently signed a collaboration with the University of Applied Science in Tüßling, Germany, a region that is known as medtech valley with more than 300 companies in this field of technology to jointly develop applications for this industry. On the right, you can see a bi-laser source texturing machine, which is unique worldwide and established GF Machining Solutions as the leading supplier in this field. The machine will enable next-generation texturing on materials such as sapphire, glass and metals. With that, I will now turn the call to our CFO, Mads Joergensen, for a detailed look at our first half financials.

Thank you, Andy. Ladies and gentlemen, also from my side, a warm welcome. I will now present the consolidated financials of the first half of 2020. As you can see on Slide 18, in the last line of the table, the overall sales of GF declined by 20.2% to CHF 1.528 billion. This includes the effect of the disposal of Herzogenburg iron casting facility, which was fully consolidated in the Casting Solutions division in the first half of 2019. Organically, sales declined by 14%. At divisional level, the events of the first half of 2020 clearly had a diverse impact. Piping Systems demonstrated an exceptionally high level of resilience amidst the worst economic crisis in recent decades. The sales of the division came in with a level of CHF 845 million, representing an organic decline of minus 3.1%. The industrial piping market around the world showed strong performance, in particular, in the microelectronics segment and with our COOL-FIT products. The gas utility market was growing strongly in the U.S. and enjoyed solid markets in Europe for repair activities. In China, the utility market for gas largely remained subdued and saw a rebound towards the end of the second quarter. The building technology markets in Switzerland and Germany showed no signs of weakness. But in China and Turkey, the markets were clearly subdued. For GF Casting Solutions, the first half of 2020 turned out to be even more challenging than 2019. Sales declined by 27.6% organically to CHF 328 million. The shutdown of the OEM automotive plants around the world led to an unprecedented drop in production. However, during the month of May and June, the automotive markets in China started to recover and were even ahead of previous year. The GF Machining Solutions division was also severely impacted and declined organically by 21.3% to CHF 355 million. This was primarily caused by the slowdown in the European markets, in particular, the traditional mold and die as well as automotive-related segments. Again, our strategy of growing in new technologies, such as laser, femtosecond laser and additive manufacturing also paid off in the first half of 2020. Whereas sales of the established technologies, electronic discharge machines and milling declined by 30%, the advanced manufacturing technology segment only recorded a minor drop of 3%. The historic decline in oil prices and the corresponding decrease in resin prices also negatively impacted sales to a certain degree. On Slide 19, we show the various effects in the sales development, starting on the left-hand side with the consolidated sales of the first half of 2019, which is adjusted by CHF 42 million for the divestment of the Austrian iron casting foundry. This brings us to a comparable sales level of CHF 1.873 million. In August 2019, the Piping Systems division acquired Global Supply Company, which added a few million Swiss francs to the first half of 2020 sales. The negative currency effects were significant this year as Swiss franc strengthened against all leading currencies. Hence, our overall sales declined organically by CHF 262 million. Needless to say, the biggest impact was triggered by the COVID-19 crisis, which I will refer to later in my presentation. The next Slide, 20 provides an overview of the regional sales development. In the Americas, the organic decline of minus 9.9% was mainly caused by the decline in the aerospace business for GF Machining Solutions. GF Casting Solutions was adversely impacted by the shutdowns of the U.S.-based OEMs. Piping Systems proved once more to be the most resilient division with an organic sales decline of roughly 4%. In Europe, sales declined the sharpest in organic terms, namely minus 19.1%. This was mainly due to the several drop-off in the automotive, aerospace and capital goods markets. Against Piping -- again, Piping Systems performed strongly in all its market segments, actually recording even a modest organic sales growth of 0.3%. The Asian region, and here, specifically, China, proved to be the most resilient to the COVID-19 crisis. By midyear, sales had already covered -- recovered somewhat, ending up at minus 6.4% organically. All 3 divisions experienced substantial challenges through the region. However, we did see certain pockets of growth. Worth mentioning was the boom that Piping Systems enjoyed in the semiconductor sector as well as the substantial machine tool investments done by China to build its own commercial jet engine technologies. Sales in the rest of the world were mostly impacted by the slump in the Turkish construction market and the devaluation of the Turkish lira. Slide 21 shows details of the currency impact. Currency effects amounted to minus CHF 87 million compared to the effects in previous year of minus CHF 43 million. As you can see, the biggest part of the currency effect was attributable to Piping Systems. This was caused by the division's exposure to a long list of foreign currencies such as Turkish lira, Mexican pesos, Indonesian rupee or Brazilian real. GF Casting Solutions was impacted both by the lower euro and the Chinese yuan exchange rates. GF Machining Solutions profited from the situation of the U.S. dollar, which was less impacted. Overall, the biggest effect was from the euro with minus CHF 28 million. This year, the Chinese yuan also recorded a substantial negative effect of minus CHF 23 million. Let us move on to profitability. Slide 22 shows on the left hand the EBIT in million Swiss francs and on the right-hand side, the EBIT margin in percent. Please note that there are 2 columns for the first half of 2020, showing the effects of the one-offs from the GF Casting Solutions' Werdohl relocation project. Despite the situation in sales and the negative foreign currency effects, Piping Systems was able to keep profitability at CHF 94 million. The EBIT margin decreased from 12.7% to 11.1%. Where the European industrial and utility plants remained well loaded during the lockdown, the profitability in North America and Asia suffered. GF Casting Solutions saw a decrease in EBIT from CHF 6 million to minus CHF 32 million. This includes one-off costs of CHF 7 million. Adjusted for these one-off effects, the EBIT decreased by minus CHF 45 million. This was clearly caused by the lengthy shutdown of the automotive OEM plants around the world. As you can imagine, a sales reduction of 37% is a major challenge. However, due to the swiftly implemented countermeasures such as staff reduction, short-term work and furlough schemes, the division was able to reduce personnel costs by almost 30%, close to the drop in sales. The EBIT of GF Machining Solutions decreased from CHF 24 million to CHF 1 million, a drop of CHF 23 million. Most of the reduction in profitability was caused by the lower plant utilization in the shutdown period. At consolidated level, the EBIT declined from CHF 139 million in 2019 to CHF 57 million, including the negative impact of the mentioned one-offs of CHF 7 million. Besides the higher resilience of our attractive Piping business, GF demonstrated a high level of agility and flexibility in the cost structure. With an overall sales decline of minus 20%, GF was able to reduce personnel costs by 15% and operating expenses by 14%. As a result, the EBIT margin before one-offs only declined from 8% in previous year to 4.2% for the first half of 2020. Including the one-offs, the EBIT margin was 3.7%. On the next slide 23, you'll find some additional information on the estimated effects of the COVID-19 crisis. On the left-hand side, you find the estimated impact on sales by division. And on the right-hand side, the estimated impact on EBIT. Overall, we estimate that the effect of the crisis on sales was approximately CHF 330 million in the first half of 2020. On EBIT, the effect is estimated to be roughly CHF 100 million. The longer-term effects of the crisis cannot be assessed at this point in time. On Slide 24, you see that also this year, the strength of the Swiss franc had a severe impact on the profit of GF. In the comparable period of the previous year, the negative currency effects were minus CHF 11 million. In 2020, the negative effects increased to minus CHF 23 million and clearly weighed down on profitability. On the left-hand side, we show the currency effects by division. GF Piping Systems was impacted negatively from a multitude of foreign currencies against development of the Turkish lira added to the negative impact. If we adjust for these effects, the corresponding EBIT margin of Piping Systems would have been above previous year's 12.7%. Due to the natural hedge in euro and Chinese yuan, GF Casting Solutions was covered on the adverse development of these currencies. Slide 25 brings us to the income statement of the corporation. As mentioned earlier, sales declined by 20% to CHF 1.528 billion. Gross value added decreased by CHF 176 million compared to previous year. Gross value added as a percentage of sales decreased from 38% to 36%, which also reflects the further increasing weight of GF Piping Systems on the group sales. The personnel costs decreased by CHF 78 million. First, we took countermeasures and decreased the headcount by 734 people compared to the first half of 2019, hereof, 256 relating to the divestment of the Herzogenburg facility. And secondly, we implemented various short-time work schemes around the world. EBITDA decreased by minus CHF 98 million to CHF 118 million. Despite the substantial decline in sales, the EBITDA margin remained at a healthy 7.7% level. Depreciation and amortization decreased by minus CHF 16 million to CHF 61 million. However, I want to remind you that the 2019 number includes a onetime CHF 14 million of impairment. Moving on to the financial result, which improved by CHF 2 million to minus CHF 10 million. The decrease was due to reduction in financial hedging costs and lower interest costs in China and Turkey. The drawing of the syndicated loan impacted the result by slightly more than CHF 0.5 million. As you may have seen from recent media reports, the Fondium Group achieved an official restructuring [ program ] and entered into an agreement to reduce the staff level. As part of the restructuring and as originally planned, GF disposed of the remaining 20% stake in the company and waived future interest payments of the loans. The financial effects amounted to overall CHF 7 million and are shown in the line share of results of associates. Income taxes decreased to CHF 9 million. This corresponds to a tax rate of 23% compared to a tax rate of 20% in 2019. Net profit after minority interest decreased from CHF 101 million to CHF 34 million. Turning to Slide #26, which shows the balance sheet as of 30 June compared to the 31 December, 2019. Here we see that the liquidity situation at GF remains very strong. Cash and cash equivalents increased from CHF 530 million to north of CHF 770 million. This was achieved by drawing short-term loans of CHF 435 million, which is reflected in the development of the line current liabilities from around CHF 1 billion to roughly CHF 1.4 billion. A slight increase in trade accounts receivable of CHF 660 million is entirely of seasonal character and mainly driven by GF Piping Systems. The equity ratio decreased from 43% at year-end to 37%, still at a strong level. It should be noted that adjusting for the drawing of the short-term loans would bring the equity ratio back up to 42%. Slide 27 shows the development in free cash flow. The lower EBITDA has a significant impact on the free cash flow. The increase in net working capital is largely of seasonal character. The biggest impact comes from the reduction of accounts payable of more than CHF 60 million due to the lower level of activities and investments. The operating cash flow dipped only slightly in negative territory compared to the CHF 10 million positive in 2019. Investments in property, plant and equipment amounted to CHF 70 million, CHF 10 million lower than previous year. Due to the strong liquidity and the less severe impact of the pandemic situation, GF decided to continue and in case of Werdohl relocation and Mills River even to accelerate our strategic investments. This leads to a negative free cash flow before acquisitions of minus CHF 73 million, reflecting the known seasonality of previous year. It is worth noting that in particular, the second quarter of 2020, GF generated alone CHF 60 million in free cash flow. This is a clear demonstration of the overall resilience of the corporation in very demanding times. On Slide 28, we have summarized the key figures. Net debt increased slightly by CHF 16 million to CHF 420 million. However, the net debt/EBITDA multiple increased from 0.9x to 1.5x. At the very start of the COVID-19 crisis, GF decided to draw a liquidity buffer of CHF 435 million in order to be well prepared for the potential unforeseen effects of the crisis. Due to the cash flow situation, liquidity remained high in excess of CHF 770 million, but the decrease in EBITDA caused the deterioration of the net debt/EBITDA multiple. Compared to the same period last year, the equity ratio decreased from 41% to 37%. The main reason of the decrease is the drawing of the short-term loans of CHF 435 million. Again, having repaid these loans, the equity ratio would increase to a healthy 42%. The return on invested capital decreased from 13.8% to 5%. Piping Systems with 20.8% clearly earned over and above its cost of capital, whereas the return on invested capital of the 2 other divisions declined significantly. This decrease was clearly attributable to the decrease in net operating profit after taxes. Adjusted for the one-off effects, the return on invested capital was 6.3%. The number of employees decreased by 734. Most of this reduction relates to the strategic transformation of GF Casting Solutions and the adaptation of capacity at GF Machining Solutions. Thank you for your attention. I will now pass on to Andreas for the outlook.

Thank you, Mads. Outlook for 2020, Slide 30. We believe the months to come will be more stable than the previous ones. If there are no unforeseen circumstances or a second global lockdown, we forecast a performance in the second half of 2020, which is at similar level to the first half year 2020 sales and profit levels. GF Piping Systems will remain resilient and continue its performance as in the first half. Microelectronic, infrastructure, cooling and water treatment projects are supporting the business of the division. GF Casting Solutions will finalize its relocation project ahead of schedule in quarter 4 and may see its first positive impact towards the end of the year. Further, the division will build on stronger demand across the world in the second half. GF Machining Solutions will still have to deal with the low order intake of recent months. However, we may see a slight recovery in sales towards the end of the year supported by market segments such as ICT, information communication technologies, medtech and new e-car applications. Overall, we remain confident about our strategic direction and well positioned with our 3 divisions with regard to our focus on higher-value business and addressing the sustainable needs of our customers. Our strategy process 2025 is well on track, and communication is scheduled for Q1 2021. Thank you for your attention. We are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Martin Flueckiger from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Actually, I have several, but I'll start off with 3 and then go back in line. First question is, if you could elaborate a little bit on the status quo, the River Mills plant in the U.S. and also the financial implications with respect to expected ramp-up costs and their reversal? That would be my first question, and I'll take one at a time.

Thank you very much, Mr. Flueckiger, a short reflection on our Mills River facility. As I said, the ramp-up was distorted by the lockdowns, which we had to adhere to the local authorities in that region. The ramp-up costs amounted in the range of mid-million amount, but also we had a COVID-19 effect on this company during the first half year.

So when you say mid-million amount, you mean a low -- mid-single digit amount, right?

Yes, a mid-single digit amount. Yes.

And can you talk a little bit what's going on in China with regards to that major coal-to-gas project? I haven't heard anything recently, and I was wondering whether there's anything moving around regarding that project?

The gas-to-coal project, which has delivered in previous years outstanding growth rates in the range of up to 20%. It's not any longer of national priority, and so we assume that we see growth rates in these infrastructure projects in ordinary levels, which means between 3% and 5%.

What is the reason why that is no longer of national priority?

That is something now which we can't answer. It has been removed from this national priority list. However, I think the infrastructure penetration is now at the level, which is decent.

Okay. My third and final question for the time being, I was just wondering about COVID-19 infection rates resurging again in a number of relevant markets for you guys, most notably in the U.S. But also, we see the U.S.-China trade war intensifying again. Do you see any early indications in customer markets and respectively for demand, particularly with respect to casting and machining solutions as a result of those resurging problem areas worldwide?

It's a little bit more complex answer. I think, obviously, the China-U.S. trade war affects businesses already since more than 6 months. It already had a severe impact in the year 2019. The philosophy or the setup of GF is in the region, for the region. So therefore, our local sales are not so much affected by this global trade, which is obviously giving us a certain level of resilience. The further effect as we have seen them in our charts presented, I can repeat them now, but I think it was quite clear that we have been affected by the COVID-19 across all regions with an early start in China, subsequently also in the Asian -- South Asian regions, but also Europe and followed by the U.S. Recovery signs have been seen as well as we have shown in our charts as the organic sales decline in the month of June was only 3.8%. Does that answer your question, Mr. Flueckiger?

Not really, to be honest. I understand what the situation has been with regards to COVID-19 worldwide over the last few months. But at the same time, if you look particularly at the U.S., at an all-time high with regards to infection rates and also death cases and also other countries in Europe, including Switzerland, the rising infection rates again, now I understand the political will is not there for further national lockdowns, but maybe for regional or local lockdowns. And I was just wondering whether you're seeing any kind of reactions so far?

So far, I think at this point of time, it's maybe not up to us to speculate on nationwide lockdowns in the U.S. However, city and county lockdowns have been seen, which affect at this point of time predominantly public life, not so much industries. As we have seen, no industry has been asked to lockdown at this point of time in the U.S. That is all what we have seen and what we can confirm. But I think that's public knowledge.

The next question comes from the line of Christian Obst from Baader Bank.

I have 3 questions also. First, on cash flow. So the free cash flow was lower than the last year. And despite the fact that we've -- from some of the industrial companies, we have seen an increase in free cash flow because of lower working capital. You talked about lower accounts payable and then some kind of increase in the Piping System, but can you give us a more detailed argument why free cash flow declined in the first half year and maybe an indication for the second half of the year? Second question is about the valuation of your casting stakes. You had a special item of CHF 7 million in the first half. So what will you expect in the second half? And are there any discussions with the auditor about the value of the remaining stake in the iron casting business. And the last one is on machining systems. Now for 4 half-years in a row, we see some kind of an order decline. And in the first half of 2020, the delta between sales and order intake is minus 10%, which is also some kind of a record. So what do you expect going forward? Have you adjusted some of your capacities maybe going forward because of an ongoing lower demand, especially from the aerospace and possibly from the auto industry?

Thank you very much. The first 2 questions will be answered by our CFO, and I will give you a short update on the third question in regards to our Machining Solutions division. Orders have been subdued -- order intake have been subdued in the first 6 months, predominantly due to the lackluster demand in the global capital goods spending markets and industries. Here, we have to note that orders being only recorded a down payment of approximately 1/3 of the order value has been concluded. And that obviously has been delayed in the first 6 months. Whether we will be -- and have to cope with the low order intake in the upcoming quarter in the Machining Solutions divisions, where we assume that we're going to see towards the end of this year some recoveries. The cost structure in that division is, since it is an assembly process -- mainly an assembly process, we are rather flexible in that division. And we are using at this point of time the instruments such as short-time work, but also reduction of overtime and with flexible -- flexibility with [ losing ] employees. Now I will hand over for the first 2 questions to our CFO.

Thank you very much, Mr. Obst. Concerning the cash flow, as you can see, the main reason for the lower seasonal cash flow is obviously the profitability. On the net working capital, it is correct that you have said that we have not made a hard break on the inventory side but the main effect, as I mentioned in the call, is actually that simply because of the lower level, we procured less. We invested and that had a massive effect on our accounts payable more than CHF 60 million negatively. In terms of investment, that is another thing. We decided really to continue the investment of our strategic projects around the world and then using the liquidity situation that we have that is basically the reason for slightly more negative free cash flow in the first half of 2020. In terms of the second half, it is very, very difficult to say where we will be traveling, and we have decided not to give any guidance on the free cash flow for 2020 full year. Your second question is relating to the Fondium Group, the divestment of the iron casting. It is correct that it influenced the result by CHF 7 million this first half. Half of that was the impact for the equity accounting and the second half was a technical value adjustment of the loans we had outstanding due to the wavering of the interest rate. The company has received a restructuring opinion according to the German standard IDBS 6, and it basically confirms the going concern of the company. So for the second half, we expect the company to continue to implement its restructuring measures and see, of course, the future according to that plan.

Maybe some -- 2 additional questions on that. So are you -- so this means that in the discussion with the auditors, there's no problem with the value of these stakes when it comes to the next 3 years. So you don't have to adjust more, of course, then. I'm right with that?

As said during the call, we have divested the stake of 20% in this group, which was anyway scheduled and foreseen in the years after the divestment. The GF is not holding any longer a stake in that company.

Okay. And one last one is for the guidance for the next -- for 2025, of course. Now it's not the right time to make such a guidance. Did I understand it right that you will provide a new guidance for longer term with the Q1 numbers next year?

Yes. In the Q1 2021, we will publish our strategy 2025.

The next question comes from the line of Charlie Fehrenbach from AWP.

Given the fact that most of the facilities worldwide are producing again and also Georg Fischer is working with our plants again, isn't your guidance for the second half consensus profit, not rather cautious? Could you give us a little bit more light there?

Thank you, Mr. Fehrenbach. It is -- as we have said, the second half of our corporation is normally marked or is marked by the seasonality of the summer shutdowns across Europe in our division Casting Solutions and Piping Systems as well as a month of December, which is in normal circumstances also a reduced month in the Casting Solutions, but also in the Piping Systems division. So therefore, as we said, we expect a similar result compared to the one of the first half of 2020.

The next question comes from the line of Alessandro Foletti from Octavian.

I would like to come back to this outlook question because it was also for me a little bit surprising that you guided the same level H1, H2. Now I do understand that you typically have the seasonality effect. But also when I look at your chart that you've published, like the slides on Page 6, 9, 12 and 15, where you saw the organic growth on a monthly basis of the 3 divisions, they are all pretty much below last year. Now it is not very likely that we will see, for example, in the automotive business another lockdown worldwide for many weeks at all factories above what is like normally planned. So maybe can you give, again, a little bit of an indication on a divisional basis what you expect for H2?

Based on the divisional level, as we said, we assume that GF Piping Systems will remain resilient and will continue with its performance as seen in the first half. We see microelectronic projects across the world, not only in China, but also in the Southeast Asian region, in the U.S. and Europe. We see interesting applications around our new COOL-FIT 4.0 product range, which is shown also on one of our [indiscernible] also offers applications such as in data center. So therefore, we assume that we continue with the level of resilience as seen in the first half of the year. And -- but as said, we have to care about the fact that the second half is normally the weaker half year of that division. Casting Solutions as -- you are perfectly right, but here, we're going to rely on the situation of call-offs of our customers, and the call-offs have remained on that level what we have now guided, but we see that there is towards, the end of the year, definitely higher requests for products than in the first half year since we had 6 to 8 weeks complete lockdown in many industry -- car industries across the world. For example, 3 weeks in China, but we have 6 to 8 weeks across Europe, and we have also seen 6 to 8 weeks in the U.S., which we do not assume to be repeated in the second half of the year. As said with GF Machining Solutions, order intake has been subdued, and that affects our Q3 because lead time of these machine tools are in the range of 2 to 4 months, and so we have to overcome this period. And we assume that we can build on projects in the ICT, but medtech, but also new e-car applications for stronger development towards the end of the year. I think I can't and I'll rephrase what I said to overall, we expect a similar performance in the second half of 2020 as seen in the first half of 2020, barring unforeseen circumstances.

But is it fair to assume, if I look at the 3 divisions, then that maybe Piping, which made like CHF 97 million EBIT in H1 maybe brings in a similar amount of millions, maybe lower -- a little bit lower. But then Casting from minus CHF 25 million, it should almost only go in the positive direction, even if they make another loss, it will not be as deep as it was in H1. So somewhere there must be, let's say, you go from minus CHF 25 million in Casting to minus CHF 10 million, it means you have to lose another CHF 15 million somewhere else. So is it correct to see Casting like better and the 2 others maybe Piping because of seasonality and Machinery because you said of the order intake that sort of compensating or is it?

What we have to keep in mind is the strong seasonality effect in Casting Solutions. At this division, we see July and August, which comes in with the summer breaks and the holiday season in our European facilities, and that is pretty much in line with our customers' development. And even so when you may would have expected after a rather subdued first half that our customers would not close down the facilities during summer break, they do close down the facilities during summer break. That means you're going to have to keep in mind that the second half consists of 3 months. That means July, August, but also December, which are normally not at the ordinary capacity load of our facilities as foreseen.

Yes. All right. Can I ask you 2 very small, maybe almost curiosity-like questions. You mentioned in the call that EDM was down 30% and the new technology was flat. Can you give an indication about how HSM has been doing?

Sorry, I didn't got the second last sentence. Can you maybe repeat that?

I think it was Mads who gave an indication orally about the development of the different businesses in Machining. He was saying that Electrical Discharge Machineries was down 30% while the laser and new technologies almost flat. So I was wondering about high-speed milling.

On high-speed milling, the milling part was down, pretty much in line with the EDM. So it was down by minus 30%. So we had a rather resilient service business with minus 20%, if you can see the markets now being down in the range of 30% to 40% in the first half of the year, if you're going to reflect on the published statistics of systems or for VDMA. So customer service was down approximately 20%. And as said, the new technologies and the laser field have been flat.

All right. My very last question. The minorities, if I look at your P&L, obviously, made the loss. I was wondering if it was China that did that and if it was like COVID-related or is it something else?

It's a very simple answer. As we said, already answered the question of Mr. Flueckiger, it was not that our [indiscernible] facility. No. No. I did not say that, that has an impact on the minorities. Sorry, sorry. Don't get me wrong. But the results of our Mills River facility in North Carolina, obviously, has an agreeable effect. And therefore, we have a positive result on this minority issue. So therefore, result after minorities is above the result before minorities.

The next question comes from the line of Armin Rechberger from ZKB.

You mentioned good markets in semiconductor business at Piping System. Can you elaborate a little bit on that? And then regarding this waiving of the things and at your iron foundries, are they waived for how long now? Or do you expect any payments later on, I mean, in 4 to 5 years? Or what happens there?

Thank you, Mr. Rechberger. I will answer the first question. I will hand over to our CFO for the second question. The semiconductor business has been strong across the world and has shown a growth of approximately 16% above an already strong first half 2019. So major projects have been in the U.S., U.K. but also Taiwan, Japan and other Asian countries and China. So the microelectronics business is also profiting from the nationalization. I can say that we're going to see more facilities being erected across the world. So now hand over...

And can you tell about how much sales you do there in this -- in semi?

This is in the range [ above ] CHF 60 million for half year.

Your first question, Mr. Rechberger, the interest payments were waived for about 3 years only. And the effect of CHF 4 million is a technical net present value calculation. So as we move forward into the -- closer to the repayment date, that effect is actually reversed in the accounts.

And when you calculated your EBIT margins and so on, you discounted for the one-off effects. So this effect was not discounted when I got it, right?

The effect is not in the EBIT. It's below EBIT. It's in...

Yes, right. Correct.

It's below EBIT. So it's actually -- it's CHF 7 million, but the CHF 7 million that we are referring to are the relocation costs from Werdohl. Numerically, the same.