Georg Fischer AG (GF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the analyst conference of Georg Fischer 2023 here at the Convention Point of the SIX stock exchange. We also warmly welcome all participants, which follow us into the conference in the video webcast. So it's a hybrid event. Today's presentation will be held by our CEO, Andreas Muller; and our CFO, Mads Joergensen. First, Andy will comment on the course of the business, and Mads will then give you further details to the financial statements, followed by an outlook by Andy. After the presentation, we are pleased to answer your questions. I will give you further instructions when we come to the Q&A session. This conference will be recorded, and you will find a recall on our website as of tomorrow. Finally, after the conference, you are invited to an Apéro. And having this said, we will start the conference. Andy, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Daniel. Obviously, it's a pleasure to welcoming you today to our annual conference. Let's turn to Slide #3. Our well-balanced global presence, a diversified group portfolio with a focus on sustainable solutions as well as the strong market positions of all 3 divisions have driven and reinforced GF performance in times of higher uncertainty. We achieved both an all-time high EBIT and EBIT margin in 2022. GF recorded an excellent order intake of CHF 4.2 billion. All 3 divisions contributed to this development, which corresponds to an increase of 10.3% organically. Sales strongly increased by 7.4% to CHF 4 billion. Sales growth was impacted by significant currency fluctuations and the divestment of a light-metal foundry in the U.S. Organic growth was a strong 13.5%. GF increased its operating result by a remarkable 41% to CHF 391 million. The EBIT margin reached the highest level ever recorded at GF with 9.8% already within the target range set in the Strategy 2025, all divisions created value significantly above the cost of capital. The group achieved a return on invested capital of 23.4%, a major increase compared with 16.4% in 2021 and thus exceeded the ambitious average target range of 20% to 22% set out in our Strategy 2025. Net profit correspondingly also increased by 29% and to CHF 276 million. We have reached an important milestone on our way to become sustainability leader. SBTi has validated our science-based targets for reducing greenhouse gases. In 2022, GF has reduced its CO2 emissions, Scope 1 and 2, another 14% compared with the previous year. The focus on sustainability-oriented solutions for our customers and the balanced global presence paid off once more. GF Piping Systems is further expanding its range of solutions for water treatment. GF Casting Solutions is focusing on lightweight components for e-mobility and GF Machining Solutions precision machine tools are more energy-efficient than ever. Slide 4. Let's take a look at the sales development in 2022. Sales increased by NOK 277 million to CHF 3.998 billion. Many of GF's end markets performed well, such as microelectronic production, water treatment and the chemical processing industry to name a few in the GF Piping Systems division. E-vehicles showed strong momentum in 2022 supporting the development of casting solutions and general machinery production, ICT and e-mobility applications continued to drive growth at GF Machining Solutions. GF Piping Systems reached sales of CHF 2.16 billion with an organic growth of 13.3%. GF Casting Solutions reported an organic growth of 17.2%. And on a reported base, the division was even able to overcompensate the divestment effect of the joint venture in the U.S., a remarkable achievement. GF Machining Solutions has well achieved a good organic growth of 10.9% despite a still subdued aerospace market. Slide 5. GF further increased its profitability compared with the midyear 2022 figure. With an EBIT of CHF 391 million, we achieved a corresponding margin of 9.8%, an all-time high for the group and already well within the target range of Strategy 2025. GF Piping Systems focus on value-added solutions, its positioning and ability to pass on higher input costs swiftly and its well utilized plans led to further expansion of the EBIT margin of the division to 13.5% compared with 12.5% the year before. GF Casting Solutions achieved an EBIT margin of 6.2%. The first half of the year was marked by the temporary closure of customers' automotive plants in Europe as a result of the war in the Ukraine, but also by the closure of plants in China following COVID lockdowns. As expected, the relevant markets recovered in the second half of the year and GF Casting Solutions achieved a higher EBIT. The divestment of the light-metal foundry in the U.S. also supported the year-on-year profitability development. GF Machining Solutions increased its EBIT margin for the second consecutive year by another 260 basis points to 7%. An even more meaningful expansion of the EBIT margin continued to be held back by low volumes in aerospace and supply chain disruptions, leading upside potential for the future. Slide 6. GF continued its growth path in Americas and increased sales organically by 21%. The strong industrial and utility business in the U.S. as well as Brazilian infrastructure projects were the main drivers of this development. In Europe, GF continued to benefit from its strong market position and increased sales by 11% organically. Southeast Asia can be clearly stamped as Asia's growth engine. In this region, GF Piping Systems is supplying water treatment system components to numerous industrial projects, including those of leading semiconductor manufacturers. GF Machining Solutions benefited from increased demand specifically in the Aerospace segment, but also in other industries. Despite headwinds from various shutdowns related to the pandemic, organic sales in China matched the previous year level, confirming the solid position that GF enjoys in this country. Beyond the strong development of our financial KPIs, we achieved further important milestones on the way to reaching our sustainability targets 2025, Slide 7. The share of products with social or environmental benefit in the group's total sales has risen to 63%. Solutions such as the bio-attributed PVC product range or products with superior longevity, such as solutions for water and gas pipelines, the higher share of lightweight components for cars and the focus on highly energy-efficient and clean machine tools continue to have a positive impact. Despite higher production volumes and our double-digit organic growth, CO2 equivalent emissions, Scope 1 and 2 decreased again by a remarkable 14%, thanks to various measures such as redesign of energy intense production processes and newly installed photovoltaic systems. Last but not least, 29% of our newly appointed managers are women. Also here, we already achieved our target set for 2025. Slide 8. In 2022, the SBTi validate the GF's greenhouse gas emission targets. This makes GF one of their 4,000 validated companies. GF increased the use of renewable energies by 29% compared with 2021. We also increased our own renewable energy production by 109% and more than doubled the installed photovoltaic capacity during the course of the year. The continuous improvement in operational efficiency enabled GF to decouple growth, that means production output and CO2 emissions. Thus, energy intensity could be reduced by 12%. Let us now continue with a more detailed look at the 3 divisions, starting with Piping Systems, Slide 9. GF Piping Systems sales exceeded the CHF 2 billion mark for the first time, representing an organic growth of 13.3%, thanks to the division's presence in growth markets and segments that meet important sustainability needs. With an EBIT margin of 13.5%, the division reached a new high in profitability. Operating income was impressive CHF 291 million compared to CHF 247 million and an EBIT margin of 12.5% in the previous year. The booming industrial and utility market in the Americas contributed strongly to the division sales development with an organic growth of 21% in that region. Despite strong headwinds in China, the division maintained its sales level in that country. In Europe, industrial water treatment applications compensated for a somewhat subdued building services markets resulting in organic growth of 5% in the region. Piping Systems new plant in Yangzhou is now operational and is expected to further reinforce future growth in this region. The picture on the right is a sweet spot example of growth markets and sustainable megatrends. It shows the lithium extraction facility of one of our customers in China for such refinery applications GF Piping Systems is well positioned with its corrosion-resistant plastic solutions. Let's now look at Slide 10, the illustrating 3 important end market segments of the division. Sales of products and services for the chemical process industry increased by 20% to CHF 186 million. Sales of GF products, especially secondary containment systems continue to be boosted by increased safety standards in the EU. New technologies, such as those related to car batteries require more chemicals and correspondingly additional production facilities. GF is one of the world leaders and suppliers of plastic piping solutions for chemical process capturing such capacity extensions. Sales of products for microelectronics and data centers increased by 32% and reached CHF 236 million. Strong global demand continued in 2022, particularly boosted by the regionalization or near onshoring of the semiconductor industry. Raw material shortages have slowed down potential growth. A compounded annual growth rate of 7% is expected in the semiconductor industry over the next 8 years. I also -- even so when these materials are very scarce, I bought a few of these products which go into these kind of applications. GF is providing PVDF entire piping systems. That means fittings, valves, automated valves, sensor technologies, jointing technologies for the high-purity water loop in semiconductor facilities. You need a very high cleanliness of the water. Otherwise, a chip would actually not work or the production yield would be well below the expected level. And this product is actually pretty scarce. So many of our customers are may now tell us that they are going to have the 3 of them here on this [ podest ] and showing it to you. We also have been on that table over there we have displayed them be awarded by the 2 leading semiconductor industries, player one is TSMC. So we have been awarded one out of 18 suppliers being named -- one of the top suppliers supporting developing products and solutions and to ensure, let me say, the operations of their facilities. And as well, we have been awarded by Intel, one out of 24 of their suppliers. And you can imagine, we talk about hundreds of suppliers for such a semiconductor facility, which has a range of CHF 10 billion to CHF 20 billion. So we have been also one out of them, which makes us obviously quite proud. And as we -- a couple of times said, we are one of the 2 players in that field producing that one, and we have been hold back by the resin supply because not only the product has to be produced under clean room conditions, also the resin, which is required for these kind of products needs to be treated and produced under special conditions, and their capacities are rather limited on a global scale. Let me move back to the slide and moving to the third segment we displaying. The water treatment segment has grown by 19% and reached CHF 254 million in sales last year. Water reclamation is becoming a clear way to address water scarcity and has become more mandatory in many cities. GF is uniquely positioned to provide complete flow solutions as a one-stop shop, including capacities are rather limited on a global scale. Let me move back to the slide and moving to the third segment we display. The water treatment segment has grown by 19% and reached CHF 254 million in sales last year. Water reclamation is becoming a clear way to address water scarcity and has become more mandatory in many cities. GF is uniquely positioned to provide complete flow solutions as a one-stop shop, including smart valves, sensors and connectivity technologies. Slide 11, the picture on the top left shows our new production and manufacturing and training facility for Piping Systems in Yangzhou, China. The new facility is laid out to enable our division to double its production output of industrial components in China. The picture bottom left shows a water infrastructure project in Brazil. Demand for municipal water and gas supply solutions is steadily increasing in this country. FGS, a company which we had acquired in 2021 is already smoothly integrated into the Piping Systems division. So growth in this market was already above 25% in 2025 -- 2022. The picture on the top right shows the battery module production in China. To ensure stable ambient air conditioning systems are essential. GF introduced its comprehensive Cool-Fit system for HVAC and dehumidification processes in China. GF system is 30% more energy efficient than previous solutions. And given that 40% of the plant's energy is consumed to ensure stable ambient air, this result not only in substantial energy savings for the client, but is also a clear lever to achieve his own SBTi or ESG targets. Two new clean room manufacturing centers, one in Malaysia and one in Taiwan can be seen on the bottom right. GF entertains nowadays 17 of these centers. These both vendors have received orders from the local semiconductor industry and are therefore running at full capacity for a minimum of 2 years. Let me move now to Slide 12. I think I have a special passion for this kind of application because it may will be one of the answers how you can produce lithium much more CO2 efficient than what is being currently available in terms of production. Just to explain shortly today, lithium is produced either in hard rock mining or in evaporation processes. That's the 2 predominant concepts how to produce lithium, more or less both of them share 50-50. The megatrend toward alternative and sustainable energy storage is driving the industry to innovate in an environmentally friendly production processes. A predominant material for efficient batteries is lithium. Demand for lithium is likely to increase fivefold to 3.5 million tonnes by 2030. Direct lithium extraction, or DLE, is a possible solution to ensure the availability of environmentally friendly produced lithium. Instead of evaporation processes, DLE extracts lithium directly through membrane systems and ion exchange. And the explored water is pumped back into the ground. GF developed flow solutions to convey the various process materials as well as the highly corrosive salt, salt water. The unit chemical resistance of our plastic piping solutions is a perfect sustainable and long-lasting solution for this new technology. The total investment of a DLE industry is expected to reach in total CHF 20 billion by 2030. The market potential that GF can address is in the range of USD 500 million to USD 700 million, in that segment alone. We strive for market share of 1/3 for the solutions and applications we offer to this industry. And actually, there's even a more beautiful aspect to such kind of facility. What you see on the picture is direct lithium extraction facility in the U.S., but it's only the left picture, which is the extraction. The big picture demonstrates actually a geothermal plant there. So it's actually extracting thermal heat out of the ground and is a combined solution now where the direct lithium extraction is being added on. Moving to GF Casting Solutions, Slide 13. Also, the global automotive industry has started the year 2022 on a more optimistic note, the war in the Ukraine hit the European automotive industry hard in March and April. In China, we have seen production delays of 4 to 8 weeks due to COVID measures. These supply chain shortages and the war impacted the division sales performance in the first half of the year. In the second half of the year, markets normalized and the demand for EV components and light structural components increased. The division reported sales of CHF 892 million, an organic growth of [ 17.2% ]. The division grew by 1.4%, with the large difference being organic and consolidated growth mainly due to the successful divestment of the stake in the U.S. joint venture. GF Casting Solutions reported an operating profit of CHF 55 million, representing an EBIT margin of 6.2% compared with 0.5% in the 2021 and also enabling the division to be value accretive to the group. Lifetime order intake for e-vehicle components increased to CHF 566 million compared with CHF 433 million the year before. Total lifetime order intake amounted to CHF 1.25 billion in 2022, contributing significantly to the division's strong short- to medium-term positioning and corresponding outlook. As announced in early May 2022, GF Casting Solutions entered into a strategic partnership with Mexico-based Bocar Group, a leading provider of light-metal casting solutions. Our new light-metal plant in Shenyang, China is now operational and enables GF Casting Solutions to better serve its customers in the world's most important automotive market. Let's continue with Slide 14. E-Mobility is gaining momentum and importance in Europe and Asia. According to LMC, a leading automotive research company e-vehicles accounted for approximately 13% of global automotive production in 2022. In China, e-vehicles had a high share of 25%. The green bars by the way, represent the pure battery electric vehicles, the blue bars represent the plug-in hybrid cars. The graph in the middle shows GF Casting Solutions sales growth of 27% in this area. The division's order intake for e-vehicle components amounts to CHF 566 million, representing 57% of the total order intake in the die casting segment of that division. GF's order portfolio is well diversified, both by region and by customers. With the strong order intake for e-vehicle components and the positive momentum of this segment, the division is well positioned for the future. Slide 15. The picture on the left shows our new light-metal production site in Shenyang, China. The state-of-the-art fondly captures GF's targeted and gradual expansion to better serve customers in the Northern China regions. When working at full capacity, the plant should generate products for the sales level of up to CHF 100 million. The facility is closely connected with the Suzhou light-metal casting unit and the Chinese R&D centers in Suzhou. The picture in the middle shows the so-called mega or giga casting mold. GF is working with its customers to create new approaches for efficient production of light-metal car bodies. A mega-cast part integrates 30 or even more components into one single cast part. Consequently, streamlining the structure body production process significantly. The picture on the right shows a gas turbine from GE Vernova, ready for the use of up to 80% hydrogen, GF has developed and is supplying super alloy cast products, but not only to this customer. Megatrend sustainable mobility. Slide 16. Empowering our customers with solutions for sustainable mobility is at the heart of our strategy. The need for lower emissions and more environmentally friendly vehicles is posing significant challenges for manufacturers. One such challenge is the weight of car bodies. In the past, companies typically assemble individual parts to build the car bodies, but the body of the future will consist of fewer and larger structural components referred to as mega or big castings. Also here, I have brought with me one of these kind of products. This is a so-called cross car beam [indiscernible]. This is underneath your dashboard. And this part may replace 10 to 15 different products in the past. Sometimes it was much cheap metals being weld together, and it functional integration happened and you have one part. But not only this kind of parts being produced now in such kind of mega casting, but also what you can see here on the top, that's the rear part of a car, you're going to replace 20, 30, 40 individual parts, which have been weld together. And so you're going to save up to 1,500, 1,600 welding dot points in producing such a car. And you can imagine how that eases the production processes overall of a car. When you don't need this welding robots nor you need to handle this various multitude of different products. So maybe a car body consists in the future, so like Eon Musk said of only one part, but maybe out of 10 or 12 compared to a couple of hundreds today. And this is mega cast where GF is strongly focusing on making use of installed capacities because one of the critical points could producing this part is the mold. The picture, what you see there, you see a human being just next to this mold. It's a 2.5 to 3-meter high mold and the mold itself is a 60-tonne monster, I call it that way. It is really huge. And now the installed capacity today is not able to be even beyond that kilograms or these tonnages. So the installed base may would be obsolete if you go for the next level of giga or mega cast and GF has developed concepts and methodologies to be able to go on existing capacities of die casting cells, which is obviously a strong advantage. As said, GF Casting Solutions is working with its customers to develop components that are light, combined as many functions as possible and can be manufactured in just one shot on existing high-pressure die casting machines. The use of existing installed die casting machines lead to an extension of their lifetime and hence, to higher economic and ecological benefits. Large high-pressure aluminum parts will ease and streamline the assembly processes of the OEMs worldwide. Let us turn now to GF Machining Solutions, Slide 17. The division maintained its favorable momentum also in 2022, delivering solid growth with automated high-precision solutions. Order intake increased organically by 3%, thanks to a positive development in key markets such as Medtech, new energy vehicles and general machinery. Sales increased organically by 10.9% to CHF 948 million. Sales developed positively in Europe, North America and in major parts of Asia. In China, sales remained stable despite COVID lockdowns, which led to a slowdown in the industry overall. Operating income was $67 million, up 42% year-on-year. The EBIT margin was 7%. The aerospace market is still below 2019 volumes, which is weighing on the division's profitability. The division's automated solutions activities grew by 30% year-on-year. Machine tool integration and flexible automation concepts are response to labor shortages and higher operational efficiency. Energy efficiency plays an important role in today's production facilities of our customers. The picture on the right shows a mold stamp for the production of lids for the packaging industry. The new machine we developed is about 30% more energy efficient versus its predecessor. I also report along a small demonstrator, obviously, it is too heavy to bring one of these machine tools. But this, for example, is a stamping device. It's a 3D -- not the 3D, it's a 3-axle EDM process, die charging process, electronic die charging process. And you produce very accurate structures on the surface, for example, to stamp paper, the picture demonstrates here a stamping tool for yoghurt lids. And today, the lids for yoghurt are not made any longer out of aluminum. You're still going to have a few brands which are going to use this aluminum, which is obviously in terms of CO2 and environmental footprint rather bad. This is a lid stamp for one of the latest technologies in terms of materials used for the lid. It's a multi-composite material. And it's so thin that the accuracy of this mold is 2 micron, just to give you an idea what is 2 micron, you're going to take one of your hair and you cut it not the length, in the width in 50 pieces, that's 0.2 microns. Just to get a little bit of feeling how accurate this kind of molds need to be why they are so accurate because the material becomes so thin that you have a much better ecological footprint on this material, but it's at the same time even better in terms of permeation. So it keeps the yoghurt itself actually longer at a good quality. So this is the kind of applications our machine tools being used to like this rolling stamp, which is creating also in the range of 2 to 5-micron accuracy a structure on a piece of paper or on a carton or in this case, a plastic lid. Slide 18, we show the sales development of selected end market segments of GF Machining Solutions. The general machinery market segment has grown by a strong 24% to CHF 230 million, precision machines for the production of hydraulic and [ pneumatic ] applications or a [indiscernible] steel component production for the semiconductor industry are just a few examples. The ICT segment benefited from the regionalization of its clients especially across Asia. For the GF Machining Solutions, this segment grew by 6% to CHF 162 million. Automated precision remains one of the key growth drivers of this segment. Sustainable Mobility is a new and fast-growing segment. Sales increased by more than 200% to approximately CHF 40 million from an admittedly still low base GS ultraprecise machine tools are used to produce equipment for the production process of E-engines, electric connectors and switches. Slide 19 illustrates some of the division's recent innovations. In 2022, energy efficiency and digitalization remains the focus of our R&D departments. The energy efficient certified by [indiscernible] demonstrates the annual savings potential. The FORM P die syncing EDM machine, for example, saves up to 43% of energy compared to an equivalent machine tool. The generated savings from just one machine in 1 year would allow to charge an e-vehicle around 250x. GF is continuously improving the overall operational efficiency of its machining solutions. The digital twin application and end-to-end simulation of a production process enables customers to optimize production processes without wasting material, energy or machine run times. Slide 20 illustrates GF's answer to one of the challenges faced by businesses worldwide, skilled labor scarcity. This trend has been further amplified by the regionalization or near-shoring of production to reduce dependence on individual countries. Fully automated production solutions is one key answer. GF's customer today request machine tool solutions that are highly integrated, provide transparency, optimize resources and can be operated with few skilled workers. GF was able to increase sales of automation solutions by 30% in 2022. This includes simple tool filling machines up to complex machining lines for example, medical parts or the automotive industry. GF System 3R is a leading supplier of such solutions. Slide 21. One of our strategy pillars is our culture. And GF is focusing on evolving its corporate culture towards superior performance and learning. GF employees are part of this inspiring transformation process and have become ambassadors of our new corporate values. At GF, we foster a winning culture based on performance, learning and caring. By creating a psychologically safe environment, we motivate employees to give candid feedback in teams while encouraging them to apply what they have learned, the ultimately leads to higher performance that had been closing the gap to the best in class. With that, I will hand over to our CFO, Matt Joergensen, for a detailed look at our financials.

Thank you, Andy. And also from my side, ladies and gentlemen, welcome, and it is with distinct pleasure this year that I present to you our financial statements. On Slide 23, we see in the upper part of the table, the sales per division. The 3 double-digit organic growth rates illustrate that 2022 was a year with strong sales. At group level, sales increased organically by 13.5% to CHF 4 billion. At GF Piping Systems, the strong market drove the sales growth to CHF 2.2 billion. The main drivers were a boom in investments in industrial applications such as semiconductors, water treatment and process automization. The utility business performed strongly in North America and in the first semester also in Europe. The building technology sector experienced a challenging year with subdued markets conditions in China and Turkey and also increasingly so in Europe. Overall, the division achieved a remarkable growth of 13.3%. Sales at GF Casting Solutions increased to CHF 892 million. The division benefited from a favorable recovery of the passenger car segment and the loosening of the supply chain constraints in the second half of the year. Reported sales increased despite the divestment of the U.S. joint venture in end of March 2022, which explains the strong organic growth of 17.2%. Sales at GF Machining Solutions came in at CHF 948 million. The strongest growth contributors were the electrical discharge and the milling segment. Overall, the division ended up 2022 with a 10.9% organic sales growth, with the strongest increase stemming from Asia, but without China and from Europe. In the lower part of the slide, you will see the growth rates by semester. While in absolute terms, the growth rates were identical, the organic growth of 15.9% clearly accelerated in the second half of 2022. Overall, price adjustments make up a quite substantial part in the top line development in 2022. In footnote number two, below in the table, you can see that the sales growth last year, price adjustments of GF Piping Systems amounted to 9% to 11% and GF Casting Solutions 14% to 16% and GF Machining Solutions 3% to 5%. Moving to Slide 24, provides additional details of the sales development. Starting from the left with the effect of the successful divestment of GF Linamar, the joint venture in the U.S., Effects from acquisitions were only minor and explained by 2 smaller machine tool servicing companies in France and Italy acquired in the first half -- in the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022. In the year under review, we experienced once more a material adverse effect from foreign currencies, last year at levels not seen since 2020. Most importantly, the organic growth was 13.5%, which brings sales close to CHF 4 billion in 2022. Slide 25 provides details on the foreign currency effects. On the left, you see the foreign effects by division. The strong negative effect of GF Piping Systems largely relates to the weakening of the Turkish lira and the U.S. dollar. The table on the right-hand side illustrates the effects by currency. In 2022, only the U.S. dollar gained on average against the Swiss francs and hence, contributed positively to sales. However, in the last 2 months of the year, the U.S. dollar depreciated against and triggered negative transaction and valuation results on the EBIT. Overall, with an effect on group sales and group EBIT of minus CHF 142 million and minus CHF 39 million, respectively, the effect from currencies was significantly more adverse than in 2021. Slide 26 shows the EBIT and the margin development. GF Piping Systems came in with an all-time high EBIT of CHF 291 million and an EBIT margin of 13.5%. This is 1 percentage point above 2021. The higher sales growth of industrial piping systems price adjustment and higher plant utilization were the main drivers. GF Casting Solutions reached an EBIT of CHF 55 million and an EBIT margin of 6.2%. In the first quarter of 2022, GF Casting Solutions was still negatively affected by the significant losses at the U.S. joint venture. When in the second semester, the division started to benefit from price increases and was able to achieve a profitability within its strategic target corridor. EBIT for GF Machining Solutions came in at CHF 67 million with an EBIT margin of 7%. The increase in profitability was explained, of course, by the sales growth, but also by the improved operational conditions at the Swiss milling plant in Biel. The consolidated EBIT of the GF Corporation came in at CHF 391 million with an EBIT margin of 9.8%. Despite the war in Ukraine and the resulting European energy crisis, lockdowns in China and recessionary trends in a number of countries, Georg Fischer was able to achieve an all-time high EBIT and an all-time high EBIT margin. In the lower part of the table, you will see that the profitability was substantially higher and even double digit in the second half of the year. On Slide 27, you see a summary of the consolidated income statement. Gross value added increased by 11% to CHF 1.56 billion, more than the increase in sales, and thanks to the high amount of higher value-added products sold. The personnel expenses increased by CHF 58 million to CHF 1.05 billion. The increase was mostly due to inflation-driven increases in salaries around the world, but also due to an increase in our headcount by 96. EBITDA increased from CHF 412 million to CHF 507 million, the EBITDA margin expanded from 11.1% to 12.7%, an all-time high as well. It exceeded substantially the previously highest EBITDA margin of 11.8%, which was recorded in 2017. Depreciation and amortization came in at CHF 160 million down from previous year due to the divestment of the U.S. joint venture and lower impairments. Now moving on to the financial result. Higher interest rate income and a positive result from currencies of, in total, CHF 11 million could not compensate the higher interest cost of CHF 28 million. Our technical value adjustment on loans to third parties negatively impacted the financial result by CHF 27 million because the reference discount used to discount the net present value on these loans tripled from 2.5% to 6.3%. The tax expenses increased substantially to CHF 74 million, reflecting an increase in profitability. However, the effective income tax rate remained stable at 21%. Net profit attributable to GF shareholders increased from CHF 214 million to CHF 276 million leading to a 29% increase in earnings per share to CHF 3.37. Slide 28 shows the asset side of the consolidated balance sheet. Liquidity remained very strong in 2022. Cash and cash equivalents remained close to CHF 900 million. The increase in trade accounts receivable of CHF 49 million was mainly attributable to the strong sales at the year-end as well as price increases. The days sales outstanding increased marginally by only 2 days to 61 days. Inventories increased by CHF 56 million, more than half of which relates to GF Piping Systems. This was caused by higher safety stock towards the end of the year to ensure supply as well as increased raw material costs. Hence, today's inventory outstanding increased from 117 to 130 days. In total, our assets decreased from CHF 3.77 billion to CHF 3.7 billion, mainly as a result of the divestment of the U.S. joint venture, and that led to a reduction in assets of CHF 127 million. Slide 29 shows the liability and equity section of the balance sheet. Current liabilities decreased from CHF 1.32 billion to CHF 1.2 billion, a reduction of CHF 160 million. This was caused primarily by the repayment of EUR 150 million corporate bond and CHF 29 million due to the deconsolidation of the aforementioned U.S. divestment. The divestment also explains CHF 126 million in the reduction of noncurrent liabilities. GF's equity increased from CHF 1.5 billion to CHF 1.66 billion, as a consequence, the equity ratio increased to a very solid 45%. Let's move on to the free cash flow statement on Slide 30. The further EBITDA increased by CHF 95 million to CHF 507 million was the main positive driver of our cash flow. However, the increase in working capital adversely impacted the operating cash flow by CHF 176 million, this was driven on one side by the supplier at price increases and higher levels of safety stock and on the other side, the strong sales growth in December, which increased the accounts receivable by year-end. Our cash outlay on capital expenditures increased to CHF 160 million. The top 2 most important CapEx project implemented in 2022 was again in China, CHF 13 million were invested on further development of GF Casting Solutions plant in Shenyang and a similar amount went into Georg Fischer's Piping Systems new plant in Yangzhou. Cash flow from acquisitions and divestments relates mainly to the divestment of the U.S. joint venture, which had a positive cash effect of CHF 61 million and the remaining CHF 6 million related to a small acquisition of a machine tool service. Most important CapEx project implemented in 2022 was again in China. CHF 13 million were invested on further development of GF Casting Solutions plant in Shenyang and a similar amount went into Georg Fischer's Piping Systems new plant in Yangzhou. Cash flow from acquisitions and divestments relates mainly to the divestment of the U.S. joint venture which had a positive cash effect of CHF 61 million and the remaining EUR 6 million related to a small acquisition of a machine tool service company in Italy. Eventually, we generated free cash flow before acquisitions, divestments of 106 -- CHF 146 million, broadly in line with our guidance as well as with the previous year's result. On Slide 31, we show the most important key figures in summary. In 2022, the improved profitability led eventually to a net cash position of CHF 159 million compared to a net debt position of CHF 54 million a year ago. This is the first net cash position of the group in recorded history. Moving to the return on investor capital. This important KPI increased from 16.4% in the previous year to 23.4% in 2022, driven by the achieved expansion of our profitability. GF Piping Systems reached an all-time high ROIC of impressive 35.6%, and GF Machining Solutions also passed the 30% threshold. The latter with an EBIT margin of only 7%. It is important to note that in 2022, all divisions earned above their cost of capital and other highlights of the financial year. Finally, as mentioned earlier, the number of employees increased by 96 despite the divestment of GF Linamar, which resulted in a reduction of 454 employees. Hence, the adjusted increase is 550 employees. On Slide 32, we show the proposed dividend for the business year 2022 because of the solid balance sheet, the sound free cash flow and the strong liquidity situation. Our Board of Directors will propose to our shareholders an increase in the dividend by 30% from CHF 1 to CHF 1.30 per share, in line with the increase in earnings per share. This corresponds to a payout ratio of 39% at the upper level of our targeted payout range of 30% to 40%. Now let me finally reflect on the financial results. Looking back on 2022, it was surely a successful year for Georg Fischer. Despite significant challenges faced in supply chain, raw material cost increases, lockdowns in China, geopolitical tensions, a war in Ukraine, Georg Fischer achieved a significant increase in sales. Our record profitability and our cooperation further reinforced its already very solid balance sheet. Thank you very much for your attention, and I'll now pass on the word to Andy for the outlook.

Thank you very much, Matt. Let me now turn to Slide 34 for the outlook 2023. Megatrends continue to support GF's development going forward. The new shoring amplifies the construction of new factories. Our ongoing urbanization requires new solutions for clean and hygiene water Non-revenue water remains a major challenge and the decarbonization is a major driver for sustainable mobility. Last but not least, we have to find answers to the omni percent labor scarcity. Geopolitical macroeconomic uncertainties are persisting in 2023 and are thus further impacting visibility for the full year. However, GF remains well positioned in growing segments such as semiconductors and water treatment for GF Piping Systems. GF Casting Solutions is set to further benefit from the increasing demand of e-vehicle components and GF Machining Solutions has started 2023 with a solid order book. We also expect a further recovery of previously subdued markets such as aerospace or marine. Markets in China are also expected to stabilize and further grow after the COVID-19 induced slowdowns seen in 2022. Bearing any unforeseen circumstances, GF expects to continue our growth path also in 2023 at an operating profitability well within the Strategy 2025 corridor. To conclude, let me shortly summarize our 2022 result. GF delivers the best profitability ever. All divisions generated value for our shareholders, who in turn benefit from a proposed all-time high dividend. Our global footprint as well as our Strategy 2025 continue to clearly pay off, and GF remains well positioned to benefit from the current global megatrends. Thank you very much for your attention. We are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] So we will start the Q&A session first with the participants here in the room and then we'll take the questions from the webcast. [Operator Instructions] With that, we are ready to take your questions. Thank you.

I'm the icebreaker, Patrick Laager, Credit Suisse. Quick question regarding casting solution. You are if -- I'm right, you are guiding for 9% to 10% EBIT margin here, and you had 6.2% margin last year, which was a very decent number. I'm just wondering how you will move this margin to this 9% to 10% range, looks quite ambitious here. This would be my first question. And then the second is more about your potential price increases for 2023. You have provided some indication about price adjustments you made during '22. And I'm just wondering what could be the price pill over in 2023.

Thank you very much, Mr. Laager, for your questions. I think I will answer you shortly the first one before I will hand over to our CFO for the answer of the second one. As you're absolutely right. There's still a gap for comparing to our guidance, what is the profitability target set in our Strategy 2025. Whether what we have to mention is that the first quarter of the year 2022 were still somehow subdued in terms of profitability, but is still a consolidated facility in North America, the Mills River facility. Secondly, the transformation process to focus more on these large cast products and on e-mobility will further drive the profitability of these facilities and of this division.

Moving on to the potential price increases for 2023, actually, Piping Systems has already increased the prices again this year. We are in all 3 divisions talking about premium provider. And we have last year demonstrated very strong pricing ability in all 3 divisions. Where we expect the highest positive effect will be from Piping Systems again this year.

Daniel Koenig from Mirabaud Securities. I have 2 questions. First on personnel development. There are some industrial companies in Switzerland, which are quite scared about potential salary increases and higher wages, et cetera. What is your opinion on this topic? And then second, on the strategic partnership with Bocar, what does this actually mean in concrete terms? Do you miss your position in North America? Do you think that this is not totally perfect then? What is -- what are your thoughts on that?

Well, thank you very much. I think we are obviously not immune against labor cost inflation. So we will also face during the course of 2023 higher labor costs. I think we have seen the highest closing results in terms of increases in Switzerland since the last 10 years with an average in the industrial environment between 2.5% and 3%. So we also see across Europe, obviously, high inflation, but as said by Mads, we also are here to set higher prices with our customers. As said Piping Systems did already the first one of price increases for the year 2023. So we will have this kind of adjustments to compensate on that one. But obviously, yes, this is a logical consequence of the currency and high inflations across the world, particularly in the Western world. Coming to our partnership with Boca, it was a very important move for the Casting Solutions division. I think it's a twofold partnership. On the one hand side, we are very closely collaborating when it comes to research and development. Boca is one of the leading die casting companies across the world, but with a footprint only in Mexico, but having international customers. And as much we are having customers which are active around the world, we are very much complementary in terms of our offerings. So when we need to supply out of the U.S., we can still talk to our partner, Boca, who could step into this supply line, whereas we could take over supply issues in other areas of the world when it comes to that one. So I think the partnership is a very fruitful partnership and you should not underestimate the collaboration when it comes to research and development, but also industrialization of products across the world. Does this answer your questions Mr. Koenig?

This is Walter Bamert analyst at Zürcher Kantonalbank. I was only able to identify one-off in the financial result, as you mentioned. Is there anything else which is -- which you could highlight which is not that recurring, for example, related to the pricing in the automotive space, where sometimes there is some retroactive adjustments, for example, needed? Or is there something else you could flag?

In the year under review.

Yes.

In terms -- I would not flag any other than this one-off item. Of course, we had higher interest rates, paid more interest. We had also higher interest income. But on the financial side, there was no further one-offs in that. In terms of pricing, I think in the Casting Solution that's almost by automatic and contractually fixed this 3 months delay in passing on increases and decreases in raw material.

And the energy effect there is not a bigger issue for you?

Energy, obviously, has played a major role also already in the year 2022 and will play a major role in the year to come. But here, the Casting Solutions division is also having contractual agreements with their customers to pass on energy prices based on indexes.

Then I move on to the second question regarding the CapEx that has been slightly higher in the past years. I don't know if that's the inflation effect or you invested also more projects. Is that the level from where we should drive it relative with sales growth? Or do you have specific projects which caused more in the current year.

CapEx, we actually CHF 160 million would probably be on the lower end of what we want to achieve. We are aiming between CHF 180 million and CHF 200 million. Some of the projects have been delayed. We have for quite some time, tried to build a plant in Egypt, which is a bit of a challenge. But eventually, we have now walls and a roof and getting production equipment in as well as well, but it's significantly delayed. We will continue to prioritize greenfield growth and CapEx investments in all markets. And I would expect that number to remain CHF 180 million to CHF 200 million in the coming years as well.

Bernd Pomrehn from Vontobel. You mentioned that you are now enjoying a net cash position for your first time in your recorded history. What's in your view, the best use of this liquidity share buybacks are becoming increasingly popular in Europe, not only in the U.S. but also in Europe. You haven't been very active regarding M&A in the last years. How do you feel about adding technologies, adding new markets by M&A? Could you spend some words on that?

No, I think, first of all, we are not yet at the end of our Strategy Cycle 2025. And as we have said an outlay in our strategy that we would like to acquire additional business volumes in the range of CHF 600 million. We're still on this path. So we will not give up on that one. It's made a little bit like an iceberg, right? Sometimes you have a lot of activities when you say there is no activities. However, it needs at the ultimate end 2 or 3 on an M&A. And most of the acquisition targets we are looking after our family-owned businesses, which are normally quite long processes. I think a few to name. And I think we have said it a couple of times, the one in Turkey was a 7-year journey as well a 5-year journey in the American ones, which has been accomplished only a couple of years ago. So it will take its time and it's not a market where you're going to find multitude of targets. And our focus is still within the Piping Systems division on this topic. So best use of our cash position at this point of time is materializing and realizing our strategy 2025.

If there are no questions here from the room, we would move to those in the web and come back then later to the room. With that, I give over to the operator, please. Could you takeover.

The first question from the telephone comes from the line of with Christian Obst of Baader bank.

First of the 2 new plants in China one is casting in Shenyang and the other piping in Yangzhou. Can you give us the idea when you try to reach the target of CHF 100 million of sales in casting in the first plant? And what is the target of additional sales you get from the piping plants there? And do you have to invest any more? You said that the main CapEx drivers in the last year, the 2 main CapEx drivers were the 2 plants, and they are now more or less completely ready. Is that right?

All right. So I think I will take your question right straight. And I think the 2 new plants, the one in Shenyang, the Casting Solutions plant, as said, is outlaid to achieve a volume or sales volume of approximately CHF 100 million. This target is set to be reached in a period of 4.5 to 5.5 years. We assume lower sales in the range of CHF 15 million to CHF 20 million in the year to come. Obviously, each and every new project being ramped up in that facility will come along with some investments, but obviously, not with this initial investment, which is in the range of CHF 35 million to CHF 40 million, which is an initial investment and then you're going to have normally per each and every project you're going to take on. And for that kind of facility, we talk about 6 to 8 projects in the range of CHF 5 million to CHF 7 million in addition, but that will come over a period. As to the piping systems facility. Here the capital expenditure for machinery, that means for injection molding machines is rather minimal. We talk about the potential additional volume also in this facility in the range of CHF 80 million to CHF 100 million. But this heavily depends on what kind of materials we will produce in this facility. At this point of time, we also consider some PVDF production there. PVDF as seen on the right in our room here is a very expensive material. Normally, it's in the range of 15x to 20x more expensive than a conventional plastic. So you would obviously ultimately boost it. So sales in piping systems heavily depend on the product range you're going to produce. So -- but it's also in that region. Does this answer your questions?

Yes. And then I have a question concerning casting, again. So the price effect was between 14% and 16%, like you have shown in your footnotes there. So with an adverse development of aluminum and magnesium prices, can we expect a decline then coming from that path that you have also to give price decline of raw material impact to your customer? Is that some kind of a spread for the sales growth going forward. And when it comes to machining there, the price effect was 3% to 5%. So there is more some kind of a delay how you are able to push through prices to customers so that we might see a positive effect in the machining area in '23. Is that some kind of a right assumption?

I think overall, when we talk about the casting solutions materials, which are exposed to this contractual agreement to pass on price, we talk about approximately CHF 150 million magnesium and aluminum which is exposed to this kind of volatility. So that's the volume embedded in our sales. And what we have seen in the year 2022 was a very volatile development. And we might have seen towards the Q3, these high peaks and these very high prices, which have come down towards the end of the year. So we talk about an average price. So at this point of time, we rather expect a minimal effect going forward on the metal prices since they more or less remain on an average volume on an average level as we have seen in the Q4. So going forward, but we never know, it depends. It might could also be if we're going to see more scarcity if the Chinese industry going to ramps up immediately, we're going to see obviously more scarcity on these metals and therefore, prices will go up. This is the normal situation what we might going to see. So there is some offsetting situations across Europe, but there could be also some increasing situations which we see out of China. When it comes to machinery. I think the machine tool business is, a machine tool consists of normally 10,000 components. So it is quite a puzzle, let me call it that way, in terms also of pricing and pricing effects. And we have seen a couple of items last year being something 10x even 100x more expensive when you talk about transistors or controllers, IC controllers, which costed before maybe only [ 50 reps ]. This only cost CHF 50 and things like this because of the insane scarcity, we don't hope that we're going to see that in the year to come. So there will be also some pricing increases, but that means mainly due to the labor cost in the assembly processes.

Okay. But labor cost, you normally cannot give to your customers, you will have to compensate that by internal measures, I would suppose. But the last question is concerning your expectations where you expect the main increase in additional growth, you mentioned Aerospace and Marine Systems. Do you expect there really -- will we just see strong order intake coming in '23 there?

The Marine business is definitely picking up. What we're going to have seen. I think it was one of the highest booking months in January for cruise ship to us, but also, I think all sorts of ships being built at this point of time. So GF is not only in ships for tourism. We also are in functional ships when it comes, for example, to all sorts of exploration, but also when it comes to wind mills, offshore wind mills. I think so this is a wide variety where we are in the marine business, and here, we're going to see some growth in the year to come. Microelectronics remains a very stable business for GF since we are in a part of the facility, which is some of when the facility has been constructed the loops and the clean water piping systems are being installed. So we're going to see this kind of growth of 5% to 7% in this business going forward. So yes, we are confident that there are pockets of growth around the world in the year 2023.

The next question from the phone comes from the line of Jörn Iffert with UBS.

The first one would be please on China. China is a quite important region. But do you see in the other trends already the benefits of the opening of the economy that some projects are starting to accelerate? And the medium term in China, given deglobalization trends, some multinational accounts moving out of China regarding supply chain, isn't this a risk for you and for the medium term. That will be the first question, please. And the second question is on your cash flow conversion, cash collection and the free cash flow return with capital. I mean you have 40%, 50% EBIT conversion on the equity free cash flow and do not have more room, for example, to outsource inventory to your distributors and piping or any other initiatives how you can improve the cash conversion going forward.

I think I will answer the first one about China, and then I will hand over to Matt for the second one. Talking about China, yes, you're absolutely right. It's a very important market for GF, but may not only for GF, I think it's one of the biggest markets seen on this globe. It's the #1 market when it comes to the car production. It's the #1 market when it comes to machine tool consumption. It's also most likely the #1 market when it comes to piping systems for all sorts, whether it's being water treatment and industrial applications or whether it is water treatment for civilization or whether it is gas or all sorts of kind of distribution. So whether we're going to expect some positive impulses in the year 2023 from China, I guess, we do. We believe that quarter 1, most likely also being earmarked by COVID waves across China, as we have seen also in January. We assume that China will pick up in Q2, Q3 and Q4. So therefore, we are rather optimistic on this country. Multinationals moving out of China, this is -- on the one hand side, there's a demand for China in China. So as GF, for example, is producing most of the products which we are selling in China. So there's other industries as well. So when we talk about this iconic companies, which have an Apple on their products, and they're also going to give us a hands up that they're going to move a part of their production to India, most likely it is in a scope of a strategy that the entire volume is increasing. When I said in my speech about the Southeast Asian region, we are rather optimistic that this previous call Tiger states going to have, let me say, a boost in the years to come. We see definitely regionalization or production moving out of China to Cambodia to Vietnam, Vietnam is in all people's mouth at this point of time. But we should not underestimate Vietnam, it's not such a big country, such as we're going to see in China. So we will be at limits considering what is the potential you could actually relocate to Vietnam. But yes, for the years to come, we're going to see positive impulses from this region, whether it's being Thailand, which is ramping up being a car supplier like Indonesia does but also Vietnam, Cambodia being obviously markets which have to be watched.

And in terms of cash conversion, yes, we expect this rate to improve going forward. A lot of survivors are put in, in order to improve especially the inventory side. However, we should not forget if you benchmark us to [indiscernible], it's not really comparing apples to apples[indiscernible], being in a building technology, has a situation where most of its inventory is with the dealers. And since our biggest business is industrial piping systems as well as utility, those industries are actually completely different. Most of the inventory is with the manufacturers much more than the dealers. So we have a, you can say, an industrial and structural disadvantage compared to where -- but we're working on this topic clearly for improvement going forward.

The next question from the phone comes from the Martin Flueckiger with Kepler Cheuvreux.

First one on Piping Systems. If I remember correctly, you've got 3 customer market segments in the utility industry and building technology. Can we just -- I'm pretty sure utility is going to be rather resilient given the characteristics of the market. But just to -- could you walk us through your expectations for the, let's say, the biggest or the most important segments within industry, but also within building technology because looking at building permits for the building sector here in, I believe your markets are mainly Germany and Switzerland, right, in Europe, doesn't look -- at least Germany, doesn't look rosy at all. So if you could elaborate on that a little bit. That would be my first question. So with respect to industry and building technology and piping systems. And then my second question would be on your EBIT sensitivity or your operational leverage. Now during a simple calculation with incremental EBIT year-on-year over incremental sales, I get an EBIT -- an incremental EBIT margin of 41% for '22. And for H2 of last year, I even get 53% of an EBIT sensitivity towards incremental sales. So that's pretty high. And it's a number -- those are 2 numbers that were really higher than what previously been talked about in earlier calls. Could you just explain a little bit why we've seen such a jump in terms of operational leverage or EBIT sensitivity towards incremental sales in '22 and particularly in H2 and what we can expect here across these 3 divisions for '23.

Right. Thank you very much, Mr. Flueckiger, for your questions. Let me shortly walk you through the 3 segments. I will start with the biggest one, which is industry in the piping systems. I think key drivers in that industry are multiple drivers. I think I highlighted a few of them in my presentation, such as, for example, this chemical process applications in the direct lithium extraction but obviously, not only direct lithium extraction also refining processes, urban mining processes at the sweet spot of this kind of industrial businesses where we see growth rates clearly above the GDP growth. And another segment in that industry segment is obviously the microelectronics. And I think I have given some information on that one, just repeating how this industry is supposed to grow over the next couple of years with a range -- in the range of 7%. So we obviously hope to benefit. I think there is a water treatment a part of it, water treatment, but also water treatment is used in twofold. On the one hand side, you have an industrial process. For water treatment on the other hand, it is about drinking water. Thinking about water scarcity across the world, desalination, talking about just taking river water to be treated. That kind of applications are also being in the part of the industrial segment. I think utility is mainly gas and water distribution. Here, it is about non-revenue water, what we are talking. This kind of segment is supposed to grow in the range of 2% to 3% to 4%. This is not because there is more need that is because you can't hardly digest a higher rate in terms of opening up streets and going to replenishing or exchanging piping systems. It's always a very common some process if you're going to have to repair. So you talk a lot about repair products in this business. And that's also one of the reasons why non-revenue water is at a high of nearly 35% on a global perspective. And even across European countries, you're going to find higher rates than global average. Coming to building technology. It's not exactly now that we are only here in Switzerland and in Germany, the lion's share of the DACH region, obviously, is in Switzerland with our company acquired more than a decade ago, JRG, I think here, we are in the hot and cold water supply, but also in many fold provisioning, in terms of building technology, we also talk Hakan, which is our Turkish business. So we are quite strong in the Turkish business when it comes to building technology products. And in addition, we have a minor part of our building technology businesses in China. So -- the dynamics are a little bit different. So we are not so much in the residential housing. We are more in commercial buildings. We are more also in industrial applications. Also the marine part is partially using the building technology products, which we are having under this industrial or under this Building Technologies segment.

Could I take the topic, EBIT sensitivity. And thank you very much for this analysis, Mr. Flueckiger. And I would say that your assumptions looks, of course, linearly correct, but it's difficult to extrapolate these numbers. There are a couple of things in the results of 2022 that you should probably better understand. First of all, the price increases that we've done. We've previously communicated multiple times that the division Piping Systems has been able to slightly overcompensate for all input factor increases. That, of course, is one factor for this unusual increase in profitability. And then again, something which is below the water surface that you don't see is we have substantially improved some of our operational problems. We let go of an anchor in the U.S., we call it the anchor because it dragged our profitability and overshadowed very good work done in casting solutions in many other companies for years. That is now gone. That is, of course, a huge step. And we also substantially improved the operational performance in one of our, let's say, problem plants at the plant [indiscernible], we talked about that, and that loss was actually half last year. So we have a number of improvement operationally that you would not be able to necessarily extrapolate that way.

But what are decent assumptions for the individual segments going forward then in terms of EBIT sensitivity? I'm talking about this because I seem to remember that you've indicated such numbers in the past before.

I mean obviously, the division with the highest operational levels is Casting Solutions -- look just at what happened in the COVID 2020 was the only division with a loss. We know that the resilience of piping systems even in strong headwinds is able to keep up with the performance of previous years. And Machining Solutions is a classical cyclical case when we have our books full and a good order backlog, then we're happy. But we don't necessarily provide specific calculations on how the leverage is. But Casting Solutions is clearly the one that has the highest operational leverage and therefore, so the possibility to increase profitability.

Okay. We have one last question in the web.

The last question from telephone comes from the line of Alessandro Foletti with Octavian.

I have a couple of small ones. Just to understand, the casting plant in Shenyang, is this a 100% Georg Fischer plant? Or is it 50-50 with your joint venture?

It's 100%.

It's 100%. Okay. Fantastic And then depreciation and amortization as in comparison with CapEx at CHF 116 million is quite low. So can you give an indication of how you expect that number to develop? I would imagine that if CapEx goes up also the depreciation should follow suit, but maybe there was something special or maybe you can tell us how much it will take to get to the CapEx level.

That will take some time, of course. We have had a couple of years where we did not invest so much about CHF 150 million, you see CHF 160 million. But of course, we expect over time this to trend. As I mentioned earlier, we continue on to invest between CHF 180 million to CHF 200 million. But knowing how these calculations run, it will probably take several years until the depreciation and amortization comes close to that number.

All right. And another understanding question, you increased prices in casting by 14%, 16%, is this all related to the surcharges? Or there was something inside that we could sort of call more underlying price moves?

I think the lion's share of these price increases is really due to the metal contractual agreements we have with our customers so that we can pass on higher aluminum magnesium prices in the year 2022, a new surcharge came into play, which is the energy surcharge so also a part of this increase is due to this energy surcharges which we have seen in the year and structural adjustments of base prices, they are in the ordinary course of our business.

All right. Understood. And then maybe my final question, maybe a little bit more general for you, Mr. Muller, I guess, I'm trying to understand speak a lot about sustainability and that is embedded in your business and so on, many companies do that. And obviously, I do understand what you're doing and why it is relevant for sustainability. But let's say we were 5 years ago and you would have the same sales with the same product portfolio, et cetera, would you be able to tell exactly how much more sales you do because of this sustainability trend?

An honest answer most likely, we are not. So this is -- I think what we're going to measure is obviously our products that we are selling with an environmental or social benefit, which is a clear taxonomy, which we have set in our own recordings. I think we are able to tell you how much more we have done in this terms. Obviously, many of the end market segments we are supplying in are driven by sustainability trends. So I think a good portion of GF's sales is ending in markets where sustainability is a driver to some sort.

Thank you very much. With that, we come back to the room. I think there is one question from Mr. [indiscernible].

I think [indiscernible] and I do have a question, the impairment that you mentioned because of the [ higher risk ] contract. Is that a reference to the Fondium Group?

As reference to the former iron casting facilities.

And -- as I do remember, there was a loan of CHF 60 million or something like that?

Yes, there is...

Does that mean now 50% of that has been written down? And do you expect or can you give an update about the term. Do you expect to invest more there or what is there to come?

The situation in Fondium, of course, was, you can say, impaired by the overall situation in the European truck business, 2023 looks a lot better. The overall exposure approximately remains where it was when in 2018 when we did the transaction overall. We have supported the company in the situation that we're in and the net exposure remains almost the same as in 2018 at the moment. The reason why we had to do this impairment was out of calculatory reasons, BBB- credit rating, that went up to [ 6.3% ] at year-end actually it was even higher in November. But that's a situation that's how mathematics work.

But there is no further cash outflow. You don't expect to give them more cash?

For 2023, we don't expect that necessarily at all.

Are there a last follow-up question? Otherwise, I would hand over to Andy.

No, I think, as usual, we appreciate very much that you have taken the time and the interest in our company, and we are glad to invite you for ones which are here with us at the Six Convention Point also called Apéro. For the other ones, we wish them a nice evening. Thank you very much and see you soon.