Straumann Holding AG (STMN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Straumann Group Full Year 2022 Results Conference Call and Live Webcast. I'm Alice, 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 Guillaume Daniellot, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator, and good morning to you all. Thanks for joining this conference call about Straumann Group's full year results for 2022. I very much hope that you, your families and your colleagues are doing well. Please take note of the disclaimer in our media release and on Slide 2. During this conference, we are going to refer to the presentation slides that were published on our website this morning. As usual, the presentation and discussion will include some forward-looking statements. The conference will follow the usual format. As shown on the agenda on Slide 3, we will first give you an overview of our group performance, and then Marcel Kellerhals, our Head of Investor Relations, will share details about the financial. After that, I'll provide you with an update on strategic initiative and on our outlook for the future. As always, we will answer your questions at the end of the presentation. Let's start with our highlights and move directly to Slide 5. While the year was characterized by challenging macroeconomic developments, thanks to our strong teams and innovative solutions, the group was able to deliver another strong performance. Patient demand remained good through the year, while softening in the second half. Straumann Group's revenue reached CHF 2.3 billion in 2022, with organic growth of 15.7%. In the fourth quarter, the group generated revenue of CHF 592 million, which is an organic growth of 9.6%. In 2022, we achieved a core EBIT margin of 26%, which was an increase of CHF 49 million, driven by the top line and influenced by further investments in sustainable growth. We are very proud of what we have achieved, and with all the efforts we have made as a team, we helped more than 4.4 million smiles in 2022. A special highlight was the performance of our largest region, EMEA, which crossed the CHF 1 billion mark for the first time. Another import milestone was the results of our annual employee survey, which reached an employee engagement score of 81 in 2022 with a response rate of 91%. I will be happy to share more details with you later. We remain confident for 2023, and we'll continue to invest in our growth and digital transformation, despite the uncertainties and the volatile macroeconomic environment. We expect organic revenue growth to be in the high single-digit percentage range and profitability at around 25%, including growth investments. With this, we are still on track to achieve our long-term ambition of CHF 5 billion revenue by 2030. Let's move on to Slide 6. The group advanced significantly in all strategic areas and made great progress in expanding geographically. Let's start with our highlights, our EMEA region, which contributes 44% to the group's performance. EMEA achieved more than CHF 1 billion revenue with organic growth of 20.5% in 2022 and 13.7% in the fourth quarter. In this last quarter of the year, Germany, France and Spain were the leading countries, while emerging markets strongly contributed to growth. All business areas showed a good performance with many highlights such as the relaunch of Virtuo Vivo, our Straumann intraoral scanner. In addition to the group's DSO -- in addition, the group's DSO business in this region picked up momentum in 2022. North America being the second biggest region, reported full year organic growth of 11.6%. In the fourth quarter, the region grew 9.4% organically, with more than CHF 170 million in revenue. The performance was driven mainly by premium implantology, the Neodent challenger brands, which grew very strongly as well, and was also supported by the clear aligner business. Digital solutions delivered the highest revenue growth in the fourth quarter. There are now 2 ways to look at the performance of the APAC region, the first one outside China. All the APAC countries grew significantly and averaged 23% organically. Australia and New Zealand were the region's biggest growth drivers. On the other hand, China, the largest country in the region, has been strongly impacted by COVID-19 and by delayed treatments due to the announcement of the volume based procurement process. At the beginning of 2023, the VBP process, as we are calling it, was finalized and the group solutions were selected, which allows us to plan the way forward. Despite the China impact, the APAC region is posting an organic growth of 7.2% for the full year and a decline of 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Our fastest-growing region, LatAm, showed organic growth of 30.4% in 2022 and 18.9% in the fourth quarter, reaching more than CHF 45 million in revenue. The biggest market in LatAm remains Brazil, which posted strong growth, but other territories in the regions grew faster. Neodent together with ClearCorrect are continuing to gain brand recognition, which drives customer acquisition. On top of this, the Virtuo Vivo success story continues in Latin America. With this, I hand over to Marcel Kellerhals, who will provide more details about our financial performance.

Thank you, Guillaume, and good morning, everyone. Looking at Slide 8, you can see the revenue development. At 2022 exchange rate, our full year 2021 revenue would have been CHF 43 million lower, mainly because of the depreciation of the euro. The favorable development of the U.S. dollar could only partly offset this negative currency effect. In 2022, the currency headwinds were twice as high as the year before. The M&A effect added CHF 27 million to our adjusted revenue base of CHF 2 billion. This was largely related to the acquisition of Nihon and PlusDental. In the middle of the chart, you can see that except for APAC, all our regions reported strong double-digit organic growth for the full year. The absolute organic growth of CHF 315 million was mainly driven by EMEA and North America, which remain our biggest region. Looking at the gross profit development on Slide 9. Our gross margin for core and reported amounted to 75.7% and 75.6%, respectively, in 2022. Currency adjusted, this represents a margin increase of 10 basis points. High utilization rates in our production facilities, combined with continued efficiency improvements to minimize cost increases, offset the higher exposure towards digital equipment and dental service organizations. As shown on Slide 10, investments in expansion as well as the return to normal level of promotion and travel activities, especially in the second half of 2022, led to a currency adjusted contraction of the core EBIT margin of 60 basis points to 26%. In absolute terms, core EBIT increased by CHF 49 million and reached CHF 603 million, which was driven by top line growth. Slide 11 provides an overview of the free cash flow development. Operating cash flow amounted to CHF 450 million in 2022, which is CHF 145 million lower than in the previous year. This was mainly driven by a negative change in the net working capital of CHF 191 million. The expansion into emerging market and higher exposure to dental service organizations increased the days of sales outstanding to 63. Days of supply increased to 191 as a result of further expanding the product portfolio globally. The net working capital intensity increased versus last year, however, is below the previous year's average. Capital expenditures reached CHF 195 million, which represents an increase of CHF 75 million compared to '21. Turning to Slide 12. We can take a look at our core financial. For full clarity, you will find the year-on-year comparison on our reported IFRS basis as well as the core reconciliation table in the appendix of this presentation, and more details can be found in the annual report. The main difference between the core and reported numbers is the amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets amounting to CHF 38 million. This is mainly due to the accelerated amortization of the PlusDental brand. The accelerated amortization as well as the restructuring cost of CHF 9 million were triggered by the group's brand conclusion to run its direct-to-consumer clear aligner marketing business in Europe, exclusively under the DrSmile brand. Net financial expenses amounted to CHF 30 million, reflecting interest on lease liabilities and payments as well as currency-related losses. After income taxes of CHF 84 million, net profit increased by 6% to CHF 482 million, resulting in a margin of 21%. Basic core earnings per share increased by 6% to CHF 3.03. Let's move to Slide 13. Based on the 2022 results, our Board of Directors proposed a dividend of CHF 0.80 per share, which is subject to shareholders' approval and payable on April 13, 2023. This represents an increase of almost 20%, which is in line with the company's policy to steadily increase the absolute dividend amount if profitability allows. In 2022, the group undertook a fair split, which resulted in an increase of the shareholder base of 40%. With this, I would like to hand back to Guillaume.

Thank you, Marcel, and let's move to Slide 15. We have a clear ambition to become a digitally powered oral care company. We have defined an investment road map for our digital transformation and made significant progress in 2022. One of the key pillars of the group's digital transformation strategy is to connect customers and patients to services and software solutions via a new cloud-based platform. In parallel, we are further developing our e-shop and next-generation services to deliver exceptional and consistent customer experience across all digital touch points. Another key pillar of our digital transformation is also to increase our internal capabilities and drive efficiency in both the commercial and operation sites. To achieve this, we need to invest in advanced data and analytics capabilities, and further enhance our cybersecurity across the organization. Finally, the most critical enabler to execute successfully on our digital transformation, our global Straumann Group team members, driving the digital mindset and upskilling a large part of our team and also adding new expertise. As an example, we hired a Chief Technology Officer as well as a Chief Information and Security Officer in 2022 and established software development centers in different parts of the world. Moving on to Slide 16. You can see the concept of our comprehensive cloud-based platform approach from clinicians. At the center of it, our new Straumann access customer portal launched in North America in 2022, is providing access to the key digital services of the Straumann Group, such as Smile in a Box and Scan & Shape for prosthetic customized solution. It supports a direct connectivity to key clinical data imported from CBCT and intraoral scanners, and provides a seamless integration between the different software solutions, eliminating the need for entering patient data manually in different systems along the treatment journey. In the meantime, our digital business performance was very successful during 2022, especially driven by intraoral scanners, such as 3Shape and Virtuo Vivo. This is essential because it is the foundation for driving more users to our Straumann access platform in the future. Let's move to Slide 17. To further transform our offering, the group entered into a partnership with SmileCloud in September. This is a digital smile design and collaboration platform developed by dentists for dental professionals, which will also be integrated into Straumann access in the future. SmileCloud allows clinicians to design virtual mockup smiles for patients with the help of a 3D biometric library using AI technology to support the best possible treatment outcome for patients. We will present further details at the IDS Conference in March in Germany. On Slide 18, coming back on our core business. You can see our strategic imperatives for implantology on the right side as we presented them at our last Capital Markets Day. Innovation remains a key driver to gain share in a market which grew from CHF 5.2 billion to CHF 5.4 billion in 2022. Thanks to our latest solutions and educational efforts, we were able to gain market share again in the premium and value segments, which leads to a 30% market share for the group. On Slide 19, I would like to highlight once again the massive market opportunities represented by both the fully and apically-tapered implant segment. To strengthen our offering in the premium fully tapered implant segment, we further expanded with Straumann BLX and launched Straumann TLX implant line in the premium segment in new countries. In the fully tapered value challenger segment, we launched Anthogyr Axiom X-ray. Finally, the Neodent Zi, apically-tapered solution, has been launched in 2022. It is a ceramic implant which strengthens our positions in the growing value esthetics segment by being more affordable, thanks to a new injection molding manufacturing process ,and presents a viable alternative to titanium. Let's move on to Slide 20. In 2022, more activities and customer interactions were possible again, especially in the second half, which is a great opportunity to demonstrate our latest innovations and technology. We have, therefore, organized several events such as the International Esthetic Days conference, which included presentations from 80 key opinion leaders and was attended by more than 1,000 professionals and 5,000 online participants. We also shared our latest product and scientific achievements at the European Association for Osseointegration, the EAO Conference, which is one of the leading associations within the field of implant and [ T-series ] in the world. In Curitiba, Brazil, a global launch of Neodent Zi was celebrated at a virtual event that attracted more than 1,600 viewers from 92 different countries. Let's move to Slide 21. In line with our strategic imperatives for ClearCorrect, we are sharpening our value proposition through new integrations through -- with intraoral scanners and software upgrades, to support more advanced dentist clinical needs. We are relentlessly working on our innovation road map and plan to launch our last ClearPilot 6.0 version in March at the IDS Conference. Another important step to increase aligner usage for clinicians was to further build medical expertise in orthodontics and work on our education offering. We established a global clinical advisory board and started to collect [ security ] reasons to strengthen our value proposition. All these efforts have been very much welcomed by our customers and helped us to further penetrate the market in 2022. Also strengthening our offering is the basis for further market share gains in the future, which leads us to Slide #20. Last year, ClearCorrect significantly invested in geographical expansion. We ramped up our manufacturing capacity in the U.S., Brazil and Germany, and continue to introduce ClearCorrect in new countries, which bring us to 56 countries where our clear aligners are available today. We have also received the regulatory approval for ClearCorrect in China, which is an important next step in the geographical expansion of our orthodontic business, and will allow us to leverage our new manufacturing site which we have built in Beijing. Slide 23 takes us to our brand positioning strategy. Brands are a key asset of our company, as powerful brands are supporting faster penetration of new solutions, premium pricing and also increased customer loyalty. To keep our key brand attractiveness, we conducted a brand project with 3 major objectives. The first one was to further energize our iconic Straumann implant brand, embracing the digital side of dentistry. The second objective was to reposition our ClearCorrect brand as a professional clear aligner brand, demonstrating its new clinical expertise and capabilities, highlighting its constant innovation efforts. Finally, the third objective was to establish a strong Straumann Group corporate brand, positioning it as a leading and attractive oral care company for its critical stakeholders. Our employees ensure talent, our shareholders and also the global public community. Another key critical aspect of our success is obviously our people, which is why we ask our employees every year for feedback. On Slide 24, you can see that we have achieved a high employee engagement score of 81. With this result, we are proud to belong to the top 25% of companies globally. This score is one of the few metrics consistently associated with business success, and I'm convinced, these high results is reflected in our strong financial performance. Additionally, we are focusing also on 2 very important reasons that are in line with our sustainability goals. The first one is our ability to support our colleagues' development, and we are pleased to report that 76% of our employees told us they have good opportunities to learn [Audio Gap] the CO2 emissions for 2021, which helped us to set our goal to achieve net 0 emissions by 2040. In addition, we are especially proud that we are using 80% of electricity from renewable resources today, coming closer to our 100% goal which we set for 2024. I would like to encourage you to read more about our sustainability progress on Page 39 of our annual report. Let's now move on to Slide 26. While we are well underway with our growth strategy, and in parallel, our addressable market is also constantly growing, in 2022, the overall addressable market went from CHF 18 billion to CHF 19 billion, leaving us with huge growth opportunities in all business areas. To ensure we keep capturing a significant share of this market potential, we have to invest for future growth. As Slide 27 is showing, this is what we have done in 2022 and what we have -- what we will build on, going forward. The group further trained employees and hired new people who also bring skills that are important for supporting growth, mainly in production and sales-related functions, but also contributing to our digital transformation. The group's global workforce increased to more than 10,400 employees, adding around 1,300 new positions. In addition, we have invested more than CHF 100 million in R&D and in building capacity for the core business. In 2022, the site in Villeret, Switzerland, expanded by doubling the floor space, increasing capacity. In Curitiba, Brazil, additional CNC machine lines were added for implant production. Clear aligner production was expanded and a new resin production line was established. Ongoing expansion projects such as the China Campus and the Group Technology and Innovation Center in Arlesheim, Switzerland, are progressing well. And with this, let's move to our outlook directly, to Slide 29. From a global market perspective, we expect macroeconomic uncertainties and market volatility to remain in 2023. But as long as the unemployment rate remain low, we believe, the global patient flow will remain stable. On a more specific implant market dimension, the Chinese market will go through a strong year of transition due to the execution of the volume based procurement process. Finally, we will continue to invest in growth in our digital transformation journey to prepare our organization for the future. Taking all of this into account, we expect organic revenue growth to be in the high single-digit percentage range and profitability at around 25%, including growth investments. And with this, I would like to open the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Chorus Call, can we have the first question, please?

So the first question comes from the line of Daniel Buchta with ZKB.

My first question would be on China and VBP. I mean, there was no real comment on how you see things there. I mean, everything regulatory-wise should be through. Is your guidance of an expected ASP cut for you, still 30%, 35%, with the rest being followed by distributors? And how do you see potential spillover effects to the private market there? And then maybe on the patient flow. I mean, you just commented on the outlook. But if I see your '23 guidance, if I extract price increases which you aim to implement, you basically guide for lower volume growth, but patient flow still seems to be pretty strong. Maybe a bit of a wording there, what you have seen in the first few weeks of the new year?

Yes, Daniel. I think China VBP is -- if we look overall, the price, the ASP, more importantly, the average selling price, will decrease between 35% to 45%, depending on the segment, the product line and the company. In the meantime, we expect the volume to significantly pick up step by step along the year as the procedure will now be more affordable. Then we expect that we can plan potentially for a 25%, 30% volume growth on the implant Chinese market. Which means that if you combine those 2 effects, the overall total value market will go down by 20% to 30%, which is pretty significant and which is an impact that we are going to have also on our side. Then, we believe that, moving forward, the growth will come back very strongly because the base would have been adjusted, but 2023 is obviously a significant construction site to make sure that we can adapt to this new reality. Looking at -- you said private market side, as the public pricing, the way it has been expressed for VBP, has been fully transparently published, I think the private market jumped on this, and we believe that the private market will follow. I don't believe there will be a big part of the private market that will be able to get -- to stay out of the VBP and they will request the same pricing. This is also why we kept a product line out of the VBP, which is our highest technology with Roxolid, which is not driven by the VBP regulation and where we can support clinicians to upsell patients with higher technology in order that we can cover some of those impacts. When it comes to patient flow price increase, I think, yes, we are planning for an overall price increase of around 4% that we were planning. However, this is completely then washed -- this is -- this will be washed away by the China pricing, which is then divided by -- almost by 2% -- in between 2% to 3%. Then the overall pricing effect will be much less than what we were anticipating because of the significant decrease of the Chinese price. Which means that all in all, we do believe we will have to grow significantly in volume, and that's why we believe that our high single-digit guidance is -- yes, it's quite ambitious for the different headwinds we're having in front of us.

The next question comes from the line of Chris Gretler with Credit Suisse.

I have 2 questions, maybe one to follow up on China and VBP, and also your margin guidance which is down year-over-year. Could you elaborate to what extent this [indiscernible] driven by VBP? There's no price effect. And to what extent, by the growth investments? That would be my first question. And the second question is with respect to phasing as we progress throughout the year. I note that you have a relatively high comp base in Q1, especially from last year, and I guess, due to COVID -- maybe, could comment on the current growth that we're seeing right now, and basically how you see the year progressing, so that [indiscernible] about how phasing should happen this year? That would be great.

Yes, a good question then. I would say, when it comes to the VBP effect, yes, it will have an impact on the bottom line and our EBIT margin. That we are going to cover or a significant part of it, that we have some work actually ongoing for adapting to the new situation in China, and adapting, of course, our structure over there in order to be able to capture this additional volume, but also being able to do that in a more lean approach, I would say. The second side is, of course, driving some operational leverage and even more efficiency that some of the impact will be then significantly removed on the EBIT side. For the rest of our EBIT guidance is -- as you know, we are a growth organization and we need to make sure that our infrastructure are going to support the vision that we're having of becoming a $5 billion company by 2030. And for this, there are 2 major areas where we are going to continue to invest. The one is making sure that we can face and support the demand, which has still been quite dynamic. You have seen in 2022 then we have expanded all our manufacturing places for implant and for [ ortho ] in 2022. And we are going to continue in 2023 because we have a brand-new manufacturing place now in Mansfield, Texas, which is still receiving machines and tooling to be up to speed with the magnitude that we are looking for. We are Arlesheim R&D center in Switzerland that we are building up. We have obviously our China Campus where we are investing significantly because we believe that manufacturing in China will be a significant advantage moving forward. And that's without mentioning the R&D that we do, which is the name of the game for gaining share. And that's the -- I would say, what we are usually doing with adding, of course, feet on the ground to continue gaining traction in the marketplace. One additional area in this year, and I would say, in the next couple of years, is making sure that we can drive and accelerate our digital transformation. This is in line with what we expressed during our Capital Market Day end of 2021, where we explained that being a digitally powered company for being successful in the future is critical. Then we are investing significantly also in digital transformation, which is in 2 dimensions. The first one is the people side, in the expertise side. We need to have in-house now some expertise that we were not having before. Everything is becoming software. We need to support and empower clinicians with software solutions that we need to further develop. And we can do that by M&A, but also by organic growth. And the second one, as soon you have the people being able to drive this, is obviously driving the tech stack, which we need to have the technology supporting the vision of our digital transformation. The last point, Christoph, that you have is about the phasing, and that's a very good point. Obviously, if you look at our very high Q1 on the one side and the drastic COVID-19 we had in China in January as an example, and the slow ramp up after VBP, obviously, Q1 is going to be rather slow on our side, and we are looking and expecting a ramp up of our growth capabilities within the year, and we should see some improvements step-by-step on a quarter-by-quarter basis. Then, yes, I think Q1 is still expected to be rather soft and growing moving forward.

The next question comes from the line of Maja Pataki with Kepler.

Also 2 questions from my side. First, on the investment in the digitalization. You have shortly elaborated, Guillaume, that it is a multiyear process, obviously. Can you maybe give us a bit of a feeling whether it's going to be 1 or 2 years heavy investments and then that's going to ease off, just to understand a bit what the margin progression could look like during the strategic period that you've given? And then my second question goes a bit into the direction that Christoph has already elaborated. Given the strong base effect that we had in Q1 and what we've seen from the COVID perspective, shall we still expect to see positive growth in Q1? Or should Q1 be a quarter where we see a short dip into negative territory?

Yes. Good question as well. When we look at our digital transformation, it's a -- yes, I would say, a couple of years investments. But we also want to see some of the outcome in our top line, not in the too long term. Then, while I think we can see those kind of EBIT level in 2024 as an example, we are convinced that we will continue raising our EBIT percentage afterwards, as we have done in the past, by continuing driving top line supported by those technology. And I don't expect to be several years like a major investment without seeing some of the fruits of those investments. The second question, no, we don't plan a decrease in Q1, at least. And linked a little bit as to what we are seeing since January, February, yes, it's very difficult in China. But I think we are still having quite dynamic -- in the other regions. Then it will cover potentially on all the China downside, and we hope for a small growth. But no, we -- I don't think we will be decreasing, Maja, on this one. I don't think.

The next question comes from the line of Daniel Jelovcan with Stifel.

First is 2 concrete questions. I mean, Germany, when you look at the annual report, I guess, adjusted for currency was with slight organic growth. So is it fair to assume that Germany probably lost momentum in the fourth quarter, not surprisingly, when you look at the depressed German consumer moods? And how do you see the future there for '23? Or is that trading from premium to challenger and so on? And France, according to my calculation, had mid-teens growth organically. And -- yes, why is that? Do you have more upsides, less penetration in this country? Would be curious. And the second question is the general digital CAD/CAM and so on was strong in the fourth quarter. Was that because of the new scanner? Or is it just the usual budget spending towards the year end?

Yes. Germany is a mix of, I would say, with [ fee ] effects. You have the classic B2B. You have the direct-to-consumer with DrSmile, which is having an important effect, an important growth actually. And you have a very, very strong FX rate effect. Then that's what explaining a little bit of what could be perceived as rather a softer year. But actually, if you remove the FX effect, the performance from our German subsidiary was really satisfactory. They had a slower movement in the third quarter. But other than this, if we look at our market share development, we have been keeping -- gaining market share in the German organization. And that's also an important point because Germany is obviously a very important market for us. While France has been dynamic for 2 reasons -- First, because we have digital, which has performed very well, and we have also had our Anthogyr brand with a new product that I mentioned before, Axiom X3, which is a really fantastic innovation from Anthogyr. And the -- France is the home market in Anthogyr, and they have -- really, really strongly being able to penetrate that market. And this product is more expensive than the former line that they are having, then that's why we have a positive effect on new product introduction also on the French market. When it comes to IDS and -- on iOS and digital, yes, I think, one, we can say -- what we can say for iOS and digital this year, we had a very strong contribution on our both product lines, which is the technology that 3Shape is developing, that we are happy to be a partner with. And we do believe that there are still continuing market share to gain with that technology. But also, we know that we are in the S curve, in a very strong moment of technology acquisition, and being able to answer a different price point of clinicians, it's also very important. And as for the proof of this, we see our Virtuo Vivo, which is an entry-level scanner, but it's very popular among general practitioners that just want to put their toes in the water. Then we benefit from this double effect that we believe we'll be able to continue in 2023, thanks to the platform that we are putting in place as well.

Just on Germany, was there down trading? And you haven't really said something about '23. I guess the visibility is as always quite low, right?

Yes. No down trading in Germany. We have not seen this. And we believe Germany will be growing next year, yes. Then we have the visibility. We have a good start in Germany, actually. Then we are positive about the German market.

The next question comes from the line of James Vane-Tampest with Jefferies.

Firstly, just on margins. And perhaps if you could just clarify the margin guidance is reported rather than constant currency? And if so, what the FX impact you're assuming is? And just on growth investments, is that directionally more or less than last year? And my second question on the midterm guidance. 50% market share in the premium segment, and clearly, the marginal gains to outperform here become harder. So do you see a natural seeing in time where we have to invest more to capture an equivalent market share from here, and DSOs going up as well on the receivables? And do you see that kind of peaking as well?

And a lot of questions here. The first one was about -- again, could you -- what was the first one again?

Just margins. Can you confirm that's reported rather than constant currency, and growth investments directionally higher this year?

Got it. Marcel, do you want to comment the EBIT rate?

The margin are reported. I mean, as we show them core EBIT, what you see on Slide #10, that's what we guide for. So that's our reported.

Then on the midterm guidance, yes, I think midterm guidance for us -- as I said, for -- we are confident about the investment that we are doing, and we believe that our CapEx will stay at the level that we are planning in 2023, which are -- which is higher than 2022. Actually, we spent a bit less because of what we have seen with the China situation during 2022. We were planning something like CHF 220 million and finally, we ended up a little bit lower the CHF 200 million mark. But we believe that this year, we are going to be above – around, yes, CHF 220 million, CHF 240 million, and this is the kind of a very healthy investment capabilities that we see together with additional OpEx from a people standpoint. When it comes to the DSO receivables, yes, I think, we are working on it. They are -- when you are gaining new customers and significant customers, then there is a kind of alignment to find, and this is what we are doing at the moment to come back also to -- what we were having from a historical level coming to the receivables side.

The next question comes from the line of Falko Friedrichs with Deutsche Bank.

And my first question is a clarification question on the China VBP figures you mentioned. So thanks for providing that detail. But for instance, that the total value market should go down by 20% to 30% -- My question is whether those numbers refer to the public market only or whether those already include a potential spillover to the private market? And then my second question is whether you can share a bit more color on the clear aligner performance in the fourth quarter and your outlook for that business in 2023?

When it comes to the China VBP, it's -- the process per se has been involving the entire public side, but also already the Chinese authorities have asked some major large private player on the DSO side to join the VBP process, meaning that, by its rules and definition, the VBP was -- already included some private players. Secondly, as the VBP outcome has been now published with all the pricing for all the competitors, you are in a very transparent market, and all the private players are looking that some of their competitors will get access to very low price. Then it will be very difficult to sell at a price significantly higher than the VBP, a new pricing reference to anyone in the Chinese market. And that's why our assumptions going forward is that the entire market will have that ASP downward consequence that will be applied to most of the market volume. Once again, I think it's important also to note that their strategy to sell higher than the current VBP pricing, it is by -- being able to keep some product line, which is the latest technology, that are not going to be selected in VBP, which is the case for us with our Roxolid technology. And we can, of course, help clinics to be able to upsell latest technology to patients that are ready to pay more than the public price. Then that will be, I would say, a small lever in 2023, but I think it will increase moving forward with potential new innovation that we will be able to bring on the Chinese market. When it comes to clear aligner on the fourth quarter, I think our clear liner fourth quarter has been positive. We have seen already some effect on our latest ClearPilot 5.0 that has been launched in October. Then we have been able to see on the clear aligner business, growth in the B2B side and growth on the B2C side, which is really obviously helping us to increase our market penetration. And we are very confident in 2023 that our clear aligners business will continue to grow because our latest upgrade in terms of software will allow dentists to treat more cases. Then, this is the 6.0 that will be launched in a couple of weeks from now. And the direct-to-consumer has proven to be resilient so far from a demand standpoint in the European geography. Then, yes, we believe ortho will be a contributor to the high single-digit growth that we are planning for 2023.

And just making sure I understood your first comment correctly. So when you flagged to us that the total value market in China should go down by 20% to 30%, my understanding is now that this also -- that this applies to the entire market for both public and private?

That's correct, because VBP has been done, and with that transparency and the discussion we are having with all the key players and stakeholders in the Chinese market, this is the direction the market will take definitely.

Your next question comes from the line of Veronika Dubajova with Citi.

I have 3, please. The first one is just a follow-up on the clear aligner question that was just asked earlier. If you could maybe just update us on what the revenues were in 2022 and what the regional breakout is? And really helpful to get your color on Europe, maybe just also comment on your U.S. performance when it comes to clear aligners, and how you're feeling about when you're positioning in that market heading into 2023 since that seems to have had more of a macro impact in the short term? So that would be my first question. My second question is obviously -- listening -- just going back to the margin for '23 and listening to the commentary that you've made on China. There is clearly some margin impact from China, yet, in spite of that, you are maintaining profitability and continuing to invest. Just curious what your ambitions are in terms of reducing the cost base in China and how significant that is in your ability to maintain margins on an FX-neutral basis? And then I have a third follow-up, but maybe I'll ask that after those 2.

Yes. When it comes to our clear aligner business, I think this has continued to grow, and we are pleased to look at -- not only when I was talking in Q4 that we had good results on both of our businesses, B2C and D2C, we have also a double-digit growth for 2022. Then -- we are then the several hundred millions on this business, which is really, of course, developing in line with our plan. More on the D2C than the B2B actually because of a little bit what we have seen on the lack of resiliency of this clear aligner business versus the implant one. Then, as you were Veronika asking for the U.S. side, then U.S. side for the fourth quarter has been pretty flattish on our side, but we see some improvement already in the first month of the year in 2023. When it comes to the margin in China, yes, that's a significant hit to the China P&L. Then the way, of course, to be able to cover a part of it is to become leaner. Then that's currently what we are undertaking. And I will not be able to give you any numbers for the time being, but, we believe that we will be profitable in China because of the volume that will be coming significantly. And if you can serve the same customer with a much higher volume, you have some of your -- then the synergy effect that can still apply here. Then that's why we are still very bullish about the Chinese market. We believe, this is an area where the volume is going to be very, very significant, and with our positioning, our brand recognition and our expertise of the team on the ground, we can significantly get some growth moving forward in the future at a lower profitability, but still at a profitability that will be interesting for the group.

And then my final question would be, I'm just -- in terms of the full year margin of around 25%, given the various impacts in China, is there any phasing there we should be bearing in mind? And I'll jump back into the queue.

Yes. I think this is still something that -- as we would -- I think that's a good question. As our top line will increase sequentially, I think, quarter-by-quarter, then I believe that our EBIT will also see a little bit the same approach, which is quite different than what we had in the past because, in the past, our EBIT was always stronger on the first half versus the second half. I think this year, it's going to be a different picture.

You next question comes from the line of Graham Doyle with UBS.

Just 2 on regional growth. You cited some of the emerging markets in EMEA as being particularly strong. Could you maybe talk a little bit more about which particular markets? And maybe just give us an update on how you're performing in Russia? I know that was a bit more of a challenge from one of your peers. And then it'd be great to get a bit of a sort of a mix split in terms of price and volume in terms of how your LatAm business is performing? It's clearly been the [ rocks ] over the last year. So just to get a sense as to how much more that has to go from the volume side as well?

When it comes to EMEA, the very significant part is obviously coming still from the countries that are representing the largest volume. And then for this, it's -- we have France, we have Spain, we have Germany. But a lot of the new market, as we are calling it, has been a very strong volume market, as an example, where we are capturing significant market share. Then, this is a really healthy mix and a possibility for us to gain growth from really multiple markets and multiple geographies. Russia is obviously a special case, unfortunately. Then we have decided to continue to pursue the patient treatment that were ongoing. That's the continuous -- of care that we have to give to all the patients that received implants. There are some activities going on, but this is not an investment place, obviously, looking at what is happening. We are just helping our current subsidiary to be self-sustaining for our team to be able to deliver the existing customers with the product they were used to use. Now, Russia is -- we see, unfortunately, from our side, it's a bit different than something like 1.5% to 2%, never more than this. And this is where we were always speaking about market share gain because this is mainly the -- our reason why we are growing. And while I said that we will have the higher price increase leveraging then the inflation environment in all geographies, the China impact will decrease this price effect. Again, this area of the world and the disruption that came from this side, I think, it's difficult to plan any circumstances that would be coming. But if things are staying the same, yes, I think it's going to be rather flat versus what we have been planning for 2023.

The next question comes from the line of Oliver Metzger with ODDO.

The first one is on your orthodontics growth aspirations in North America with your current ClearCorrect approach. In this context, can you also make some comments about -- going forward, you see also more direct consumer opportunities. Are there indications that the lead generation costs might have come down, which would allow also the entry of DrSmile in North America? Second question is about your market -- penetration market share. And do you have -- give us any indication where you stand in volume terms, please?

When it comes to the ortho growth in our clear aligner in North America, then we are planning to grow. We have obviously then the opportunity to leverage what is going to be our -- that it is more dynamic. We expect to be in the potentially high single-digit growth for North America for Ortho. That would be really important for us, and I think we can do that. On the direct-to-consumer, we are focusing in Europe. I think this is really the -- direct-to-consumer, it's about reaching the critical mass. You know that in Europe, I think, we are leading the way significantly, and this is one of the reasons why different brands and so many different pricing in the different geographies. But I would say it would be just a guess and you take it with a grain of salt, but I think we might be around the 10% volume market share that we can look at, while we can achieve a 16% in value because we are tally speaking, selling at a higher price than competition. Even more on the challenger side, ortho should be growing double-digit. And digital, I would say, the same if we are able to deliver the technology that we are looking for. But as the major part of our business is our premium side, and this is the one which is going to be the most impacted by China, I think the franchise, that will be less dynamic. Then all our other franchise will be premium..

The last question is a follow-up from Mr. Buchta with ZKB.

Sorry. Maybe one question quickly on the ClearPilot 6.0 launch. I remember, you said in the past that you expect one additional launch to come now this year, which would make you basically competitive also in the comprehensive and potentially also pediatric market. Is 6.0 now this launch you were indicating in the past? Or is there another update to come to really make you fully competitive to align?

Well, first, what we are looking is, yes, instead of looking at competitors, it's a lot about looking at talent groups, and what we want to be able to do is to enter into the orthodontics list online today. And of course, you are welcome to contact our colleagues in Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. That concludes our conference today, and we look forward to meeting you at one of the upcoming roadshows or at the IDS. Our schedule is outlined on Slide 33. We wish you, your colleagues and everyone around you the best, and have a nice day, and goodbye from Sunnyvale.