Tecan Group AG (TECN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Tecan Group Full Year Results 2020 Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Maria, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Martin Brandle, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you very much, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us for our conference call this morning. We are very pleased to discuss with you a strong set of results for fiscal year 2020. With me on the call are our Chief Executive Officer; Achim von Leoprechting; and our Chief Financial Officer; Tania Micki. Before we start, as always, some formalities. The corresponding press release announcing our financial results was issued this morning at 6:30 a.m. Central European time. Both this press release as well as the full 2020 annual report are available on the company website, tecan.com, under the Investor Relations tab. The call is being webcast over the Internet on our homepage, and we have also posted the presentation slides we will use for download. With that, let me now turn the call over to Achim von Leoprechting. Achim?

Thank you very much, Martin. Good morning, and welcome to the Tecan 2020 Full Year Results Presentation. Before Tania will discuss the financial results of 2020 in detail, I will give you an overview of financial and operational highlights. When we presented our financial results 1 year ago, the WHO had just announced that the new coronavirus outbreak had officially become a pandemic. At that time, we were anxiously following the dynamics, trying to understand what it means for our business. We were well aware that our business could face headwinds, but we were also optimistic that opportunities to support the Global Research and Clinical Communities with test solutions could arise and provide some positive momentum for us. Therefore, I am pleased to tell you today that Tecan closed this exceptional and demanding year 2020 with significant growth in sales and profits. And we're even prouder of the important role Tecan has played and continues to play in the global response to manage COVID-19. Looking at some of the financial highlights first. We recorded orders growth of 38.5% in local currencies and 33.9% in Swiss franc, resulting in a record order backlog at year-end. From a revenue perspective, we ended the year with 18.7% growth in local currencies and 14.8% growth in Swiss francs. Especially pleasing is the fact that both of our business segments and almost all regions finished the year with double-digit growth in local currencies. With the strong growth of the pipette tips, our total recurring revenues, which includes sales of services, spare parts, reagents and consumables, increased to 43.6% of total sales. We are also pleased that the reported EBITDA margin increased to 21.8%, with reported EBITDA up by 29.6%. Our reported net profit grew by 42%, and the earnings per share reached CHF 8.69. Our operating cash flows more than doubled as we generated CHF 208 million, which corresponds to 28.5% of sales. Now let me comment on some of the operational and product highlights of the year. Our first priority was to ensure the health and safety of our staff by implementing a wide range of measures. Also, we are very focused on limiting any supply chain and freight interruptions and maintaining business continuity to support our customers in these challenging times. Through the implementation of these measures, we continue to be fully operational at all production sites and provided undisrupted support to our customers in the field. With substantially increased COVID-19 clinical testing and high demand for related products, we took a number of steps to secure supplies of materials and expand capacity and supply for specific product lines including certain instrument platforms and disposable pipette tips. Throughout the year 2020, we were supporting our customers in a variety of areas. Through existing as well as new customers and partners, we were leveraging our laboratory automation technologies to scale up COVID-19 diagnostic testing. One new partnership we signed was with Thermo Fisher Scientific to enable PCR-based COVID-19 testing. The Thermo Fisher Scientific amplitude solution is a molecular diagnostic testing system designed to analyze up to 8,000 samples in a single day, and it incorporates 2 of our fluid platforms plus introspect our analysis and reporting software. The amplitude also relies on our high-quality pipettes tips. You might also recall that on the call 1 year ago, I talked about the launch of the DreamPrep NAP that has just happened, an integrated, fully automated solution, simplifying nucleic acid extraction workflows for many genomic applications. Now turned out to be perfect timing. The DreamPrep NAP help lapse quickly and efficiently to scale up both COVID-19 testing to accommodate larger test volumes as well as other genomic workflows. We also continue to invest in research and development to position the business for sustained and accelerated growth, and we made good progress in these projects despite lockdowns and restricted access to labs. One of the key elements that kept projects into projects internally and with external partners on track was the development of new digital tools, such as Advanced 3D System Programming Simulations. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tecan has been at the forefront of the global efforts to contain this outbreak. Our ability to rapidly and efficiently step up to the challenge is deeply rooted in Tecan's core competencies and strategy. Scaling PCR and NGS workflows from nucleic acid extraction to the readout has long been a basis of our wider genomics and molecular diagnostics competencies. Doing this with a strong experience in regulated environments, gives our partners the assurance of quality and compliance even when time lines are tight. Through innovative solutions, which includes digital tools, our customers are able to manage large numbers of instruments and complex laboratory settings with confidence and all needed operational data at hand. Also, as we spend the entire spectrum from basic research to pharma and in vitro diagnostics, we are in a strong position to leverage learnings and innovation across the spectrum. More concretely, this means in the context of COVID-19 that we support virus research like sequencing for the analysis of virus origins and mutations, mRNA and classical vaccine development, PCR as well as serology testing. Clearly, a significant and wide range of important workflows, which are not at all limited to address infectious disease challenges like COVID-19. Here, you see several Tecan employees of our Life Sciences division, installing and adapting solutions in customer labs around the world. Similarly, in our partnering division, we worked closely with partners where we supplied full systems like Abbott, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Sansure, CyBio, Mobidiag and several more. On the composite, we have to scale the manufacturing of other instruments, for example, for DaAn Gene, Codex DNA or AusDiagnostics. And of course, we supplied literally billions of pipette tips globally. What we achieved together with our customers and partners would not have been possible without the passion, experience and exceptional commitment of our employees. I would like, therefore, to thank our great teams that they have made this possible against all operational and personal challenges we were facing. Maybe 1 of the most underappreciated elements of a COVID-19 PCR tests are the pipette tips, a seemingly simple product. However, in reality, the manufacturing equipment used in producing these pipette tips is highly specialized, requiring a fully automated production line capable of precise molding and in line visual quality testing. Therefore, it can typically take up to 18 to 24 months to create additional manufacturing capacity. We quickly recognize the importance of expanding capacity and supply of disposable pipette tips to support crucial testing for COVID-19. In anticipation of a dramatically increased testing demand, we launched an expedited process for creating new production lines early in 2020. These measures have already resulted in tripling of Tecan's worldwide pipette tip production capacity. In October last year, we were delighted to announce that the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, awarded Tecan a USD 32.9 million grant to support equipping a U.S. Pipette Tip manufacturing facility. These new U.S.-based manufacturing lines are expected to start producing pipette tips in fall 2021, augmenting the steps we have already taken elsewhere. With this, I hand over to Tania Micki, our CFO, for a more detailed discussion of the 2020 financial results.

Thank you, Achim, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen, from my side as well. As most of you know, this is the first time I'm presenting to you results for a full year. I have to say 2020 was an extraordinary year by all means, which led for Tecan to an extraordinary strong set of results as our products were instrumental in the fight against COVID. So see for yourself. Let's start with order entry and sales. In 2020, we recorded a surge in orders. As Achim has mentioned, this was predominantly for product lines, supporting the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Full year order entry increased by 33.9% to CHF 855.2 million. That's an increase of 38.5% in local currency. This translates to a book-to-bill ratio of 1.17. After orders already grew by 24.3% in local currencies in the first half of the year, order entry accelerated further in the second half. In the last 6 months, orders increased by 51.8% in local currencies. Order backlog even grow at a significantly higher rate than full year order entry to reach a record high as of December 31, 2020. Sales for fiscal year 2020 climbed by 14.8% to CHF 730.9 million, corresponding to a growth of 18.7% in local currency. Also here, the growth trend accelerated in the second half of the year, with sales increasing by 23.5% in Swiss francs and 27.8% in local currencies. Let's now look at the sales performance of our 2 business segments. Sales in the Life Science business segment grew by 13.2% to CHF 408.8 million for the year. This equates to a rise of 18.7% in local currencies. The Life Sciences business experienced strong demand for products supporting the COVID-19 response mainly liquid handling and automation workstations as well as the associated disposable pipette tips. Despite the strong increase in sales, we should not forget that part of the Life Science business also experienced significant disruption as customer facilities were closed or access was restricted to slow the spread of COVID-19. Product groups that were adversely impacted included detection instruments, research reagents for next-generation sequencing and consumables for mass spectrometry sample preparation. Sales growth accelerated further in the second half of the year with sales increasing by 26.2% in local currencies. Looking at order entry in the Life Sciences business, as mentioned before, for the group orders in Life Sciences, also outpaced the recognized revenue significantly in 2020, with order backlog increasing at a high double-digit rate. The partnering business segment generated sales of CHF 322.1 million, which corresponds to a strong increase of 18.8% in local currencies, and 16.8% in Swiss franc. We observed similar patterns to those in the Life Sciences business in this segment as well, with automation platforms, OEM components, and disposable pipette tips to support COVID-19 testing being in high demand. By contrast, sales to customers exposed to other areas of in vitro diagnostics were adversely impacted. Segment sales in the second half year increased by 30% in local currencies and 27.9% in Swiss francs. Also, in the partnering business, order entry increased at a substantially higher rate than sales. Now looking at sales development in the different regions on Slide 12. To no surprise, the regional performance was also significantly impacted by the COVID-19 demand. As Achim has already mentioned, almost all regions delivered double-digit growth in local currencies for the year. In Europe, sales increased by 9.6% in local currencies, and by 7.6% in Swiss francs. The increase in sales was driven by the Life Sciences Business with instrument installations supporting PCR-based testing as part of the European COVID-19 response. However, sales of the Partnering Business declined in Europe as several customers saw lower demand based on the decrease in doctor visits and related lower volumes in routine diagnostic testing as well as restricted access to labs. As you are aware, regional Sales and Partnering Business is defined by the location of our customers, that means the in-vitro diagnostic companies, not the end user labs. So this can destroy the effect to that extent. Sales growth in local currencies accelerated in the second half of the year to 12.9%. In North America, sales grew by 24.9% in local currencies and 19.5% in Swiss francs for the full year, with both business segments delivering double-digit growth rates in local currency. You might recall that sales in the Life Sciences Business were still down in the first half of the year. However, in the last August call, I mentioned that demand for higher throughput automation systems accelerated substantially in the course of the second quarter in North America. In this context, I mentioned that the Life Sciences Business recorded a double-digit increase in order entry in the first 6 months. These orders translated into sales into the second half with Life Sciences growing by 25% in local currency. The Partnering Business even reached 70.7% growth in local currency in the second half of the year. Therefore, for the whole group, sales in local currencies increased even by 43.3% in the second half of the year, reflecting the surge in demand for COVID-19-related products. In Asia, we recorded an increase in sales of 22.7% in local currencies and 17.5% in Swiss francs. Also in this region, this increase was driven by double-digit growth rate in both business segments. Growth in China outpaced that of the Asia region, as a whole, and I'm delighted to share with you that the total business in China exceeded the CHF 80 million mark for the year. In the second half, sales in Asia increased by 20.8% in local currencies and 16.8% in Swiss francs. Our next slide addresses our gross profit. Gross profit increased to CHF 354.9 million, which was CHF 57.6 million or 19.4% above the prior year figure. The reported gross profit margin increased to 48.6%, 190 basis points higher compared to the prior year. As always, we had several factors impacting the gross profit margin. I want to highlight the main factors that led to the higher gross margin. The largest contribution to the gross margin improvement came from product mix and the overhead cost absorption. This was despite the fact that the share of consumables has increased, which usually come with lower margin on the GP level. I also mentioned that in the call in August last year, when that was still a negative factor. However, with the growth we saw, also consumables have a higher contribution once nonstandard costs are covered. As a second positive factor, we were again able to increase prices. The first negative effect came from an underabsorption of our service organization due to closed facilities and the restricted access to labs. In the second half of the year, this underabsorption turned into an overtime situation which obviously isn't efficient from a cost point either. As already reported for the first half year, the second negative effect came from higher freight and logistic costs. As mentioned back then, this is due to less capacity available due to the pandemic as there is obviously less cargo space with a much lower number of flights. And lastly, FX rates were affecting our margins negative. I'll come back to that point when discussing the development of our operating margin. On the next slide, some comments regarding our cost structure. Overall, our operating expenses grew less than sales and totaled CHF 234 million, or 32.9% of sales. Sales and marketing increased slightly less than sales to CHF 105.4 million despite continued investments in the market unit with a focus on further expanding our sales force. We also continue to invest in research and development to position the business for sustained accelerated growth. In absolute terms, R&D expenses were up by more than CHF 2 million. The ratio shows a relative decrease compared to sales or in other words, sales increased even more than absolute R&D spend. As you will recall, we started the year with a more moderate sales outlook for the year and have increased our expectation in the course of the year. R&D programs, however, can't be scaled or started at the same pace. However, we used our momentum to accelerate some programs also with a bit more outside support, which bodes well for 2021 and 2022. So our financial strength and ability to commit to these investments could prove to be a competitive advantage in the longer term. Overall, R&D activities and gross expenses were also higher compared to the prior year. This includes the capitalized cost as well as the customer funding of OEM projects. Gross R&D was at CHF 78.5 million or 10.7% of sales. General and administration expenses increased to CHF 66 million, mainly due to more cost on the corporate level that were mostly related to performance-based personnel costs and it also took the opportunity to invest more in process improvement and digitalization projects to accelerate our future growth opportunities. Looking now at the EBIT and EBITDA development in more detail. We see that in the full year 2020, our reported EBITDA, the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose by 29.6% to CHF 159.1 million. The increase in reported EBITDA was mainly driven by benefits of scale due to the significantly higher volume. In addition to common economies of scale, the reported EBITDA benefited from an even more positive impact as the overall cost base was not yet fully adjusted to support the business on a sustainable basis. The results development was also held by a onetime positive effect from an adjustment of the Swiss Pension Plan as well as increased capitalization of development costs as projects neared market launch. I mentioned that on the previous slide. On the other hand, exchange rate movements in major currencies versus the Swiss franc had a negative impact on the reported EBITDA comparable to the effects from the capitalized R&D and the reduction of past service costs in the pension plan. The reported EBITDA margin grew correspondingly by 250 basis points to 21.8% of sales. Assuming exchange rates in line with 2019, the reported EBITDA margin would have stood at 22.5% of sales. With plus 36.9%, the profit before interest and taxes, EBIT grew even faster than EBITDA and came in at CHF 121.4 million or 16.6% of sales, up by 270 basis points compared to the prior year. Now looking at the operating profitability on the segment level. Reported EBIT in the Life Science Business rose to CHF 78.2 million, and the operating profit margin increased to 17.4% of sales. This positive performance is primarily a result of sales growth as well as a strong margin contribution from the consumables business and as discussed, the lower net R&D. Reported EBIT in the Partnering Business increased to CHF 59.1 million, while the operating profit margin grew to 18.3% of sales. The drivers here were the volume effect as well as the favorable product mix. We move on to the next slide on net profit. Reported net profit for the year 2020 rose by 41.7% to CHF 103.7 million. Thanks to an improved financial result, net profit increased by more than EBIT. The net profit margin amounted to 14.2% of sales. Only a brief discussion on the next slide. Earnings per share increased to a new high, reaching CHF 8.69. On the basis of the further increase of net profit in 2020 and the ongoing positive business perspective, the Board of Directors will propose at the company's Annual General Meeting an increase in the dividend from CHF 2.20 to CHF 2.30 per share. Half of the dividend, that is CHF 1.15 will again be paid out from the available capital contribution reserve and is, therefore, not subject to withholding tax. Let's now continue with the cash flow on Slide 21. Cash flow from operating activities more than doubled and reached CHF 208.3 million for the year. This corresponds to 28.5% of sales. As I mentioned in August, we had a special focus on cash collection and cash management. Additionally, although we do have a well-established credit control system, and also in normal times, work with prepayments during the pandemic, which caused potential financial issue on the customer side, we got more strict and ask for full prepayment from distributors and up to 70% prepayment before delivery with first-time customers. Our DSO, the days sales outstanding went down from 45 days to just 42 days. The operating cash flow includes CHF 37.7 million for amortization and depreciation, CHF 10.9 million from IFRS 16, another CHF 4.7 million for the amortization of the purchase price allocation from past acquisitions, and CHF 11.1 million from development costs we capitalized in the past. On the other hand, we invested a total of CHF 288.7 million. So please bear in mind that this figure includes an investment of CHF 270 million in time deposits. Also included in these figures, our CHF 15.3 million for newly capitalized development costs, which compares to CHF 12.4 million in the prior year period. The cash flow from investments also include an inflow of CHF 17.9 million from the contract award for Grant from the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support equipping a U.S. Pipette Manufacturing facility for COVID-19 testing. I also want to point out that this payment had no impact on the statement of profit or loss. Also, our investments in PPE, property, plant and equipment, increased by about CHF 13 million. The majority of this increase is related to the grant from the U.S. government, I have just mentioned, and the respective orders for the equipment we issued to our suppliers. Moving on to the cash flow from financing activity. This includes the dividend payments we made in April this year in the total of CHF 26.2 million. Cash and cash equivalents were at CHF 148.4 million at the end of the period. Our net liquidity position, adding the cash and cash equivalents and also the short-term time deposits and then deducting all bank liabilities and loans reached CHF 467.7 million as of December 31, 2020. This compares with CHF 354 million on June 30, 2019, and CHF 312.4 million at the end of 2019. The next slide shows the key figures. As always, this is just for your reference, as I have already presented most of the figures on this slide. And with this, I now hand back over to Achim for your question again. Achim?

Thank you very much, Tania. We now turn to the outlook, and I would like to start with some new important product launches that happened already in 2021. The key part of our growth strategy is to drive and scale innovation to solve key challenges in research, drug development and diagnostic workflows. 2 exciting product launches happened already this year, the Fluent Mix and Pierce Workstation and the Frida Reader Module. While initially, both new products will be commercialized through our Life Science Business, they are, of course, also available for OEM partners going forward. The Fluent Mix and Pierce Workstation now offers end-to-end automation for whole blood pipetting in clinical environments. For many labs, the handling of whole blood in, for example, high throughput sampling for latent tuberculosis testing is now possible without tedious manual intervention. The new Frida Reader, on the other hand, adds to our cutting-edge portfolio of workflows for genomic applications. Specifically, the Frida Reader enables the precise quantification and purity measurements of nucleic acids in a hanging drop. This means no sample is lost which makes this module ideal for high-value samples. And we expect the launch of further new products during 2021. In our Partnering Business, we focus on production ramp-up of existing systems as we expect the rebound and recovery of routine diagnostics testing during 2021. We believe this will affect both our Synergence systems business as well as our Cavro components franchise where various recently launched instruments incorporate our Cavro modules. This now increasingly extends to smaller near-patient testing systems. As we have made significant progress with the developments of key partnering development programs, we also expect new launches in the 2021 and 2022 time frame, including the already communicated system solution for our partner, The Binding Site. We continue the developments of several new platforms with global partners, especially in the areas of molecular diagnostics and protein analysis. Given the range of these different programs, we expect that the new individual solutions to each generate revenues from single-digit to double-digit million amounts per year in Swiss francs at full launch. As we have come out of an extremely turbulent 2020 where Tecan has shown both reaction speed and resilience, we expect that 2021 continues to still be significantly impacted by COVID-19. One example data point of this ongoing dynamic are the total PCR-based testing volumes reported for the U.S. In the first quarter of this year, estimates indicate that in this time frame, already 60% of the 2020 test volumes will be performed despite the increasing numbers of vaccinations. Interestingly, in the U.K. and Israel, to other countries with a relatively high vaccination rate to date, daily tests per 100,000 people has gone up significantly in recent weeks. So it appears that testing continues to be a key element of managing the pandemic. While we believe that there will be normalization of testing somewhere during 2021, the impact of such dynamic for Tecan is still dependent on a variety of factors. The duration and magnitude, for example, of elevated levels of PCR testing for acute SARS CoV-2 infections both leveraging already installed systems as well as newly ordered systems with the associated consumption of pipette tips. The shift from acute to broader community testing and the mix of testing solutions used for those efforts, the role of PCR tests for confirmation of positive antigen tests and symptomatic negative cases. The deployment of surveillance testing solutions and the role of sequencing. The magnitude of serology testing and T-cell assays to assess immunity status and duration after vaccination or infection. And last but not least, the role of low-plex and multiplex testing for flu and SARS CoV-2 variants in the post vaccination world. Although we can't predict those dynamics, we feel very well prepared to again respond and contribute to those before mentioned requirements. Now turning to the financial outlook for the year 2021. As discussed, we ended the year 2020 with a record order backlog. Based on this high backlog as well as the elevated demand we continue to see for instruments and consumables, we expect a very strong business performance in the first half of 2021. As all of you are aware, demand trends for COVID-19-related products are subject to greater uncertainty in the second half of 2021. And therefore, we can't rule out a decline in sales in the second half compared with a very high base of the prior year period. On the other hand, particularly for the second half year, we expect some recovery and a more positive market environment in areas that have been negatively affected by the pandemic, such as Life Sciences research, pharma drug discovery and development and non COVID-19 diagnostic testing. We, therefore, forecast sales growth for the full year 2021 to be in the mid-single-digit to mid-teens percentage range in local currencies. These projections are based on the assumptions that supply chain remain undisrupted and all production sites stay fully operational. Despite a more negative currency environment, and the absence of some extraordinary effects from 2020, we expect the reported EBITDA margin for the full year 2021, at least at the 2020 level of 21.8% of sales. The expectations regarding profitability are based on an average exchange rate forecast for the full year 2021 that you see at the bottom of the slide. They are lower than the actual rates in 2020, which means that the margin guidance is already taking into account a negative impact from FX. And as always, the outlook of 2021 does not take account of potential acquisitions during the course of the year. Now let me conclude this presentation by saying that Tecan is well positioned for this year and beyond. Our position is stronger and the Tecan brand more visible than ever before. It is our core business to empower our customers and partners by automating complex laboratory processes and scaling innovation from fundamental research to disease diagnostics. When the pandemic started to spread around the world, we were well prepared to quickly refocus our capabilities on the fight against COVID-19. In this respect, 2020 also illustrated our resilience and that we have set the right priorities in the execution of our strategy. Going forward, there's a huge opportunity to build on what we have learned from the global response to SARS CoV-2 and apply to other health challenges like cancer and metabolic diseases and, of course, other infectious diseases. With a broad portfolio of existing products and new important launches, we expect in 2021 and 2022, we are confident and excited to continue to scale innovation to the benefit of health care and the lives of people. We will continue to increase our modular systems offering for complete solutions with complementary reagents, consumables and software. And we continue to have a strong focus on our employees on their talent and leadership development, where diversity and inclusion are at the core of our beliefs in the Tecan culture. We understand our company culture as a dynamic journey that comes to life through participation and communication. The fact that this -- that we were officially certified as a Great Place to Work in January this year indicates that we are on a good path. However, we take this as an encouragement to drive further improvements. In this context, we are committed to continue to deliver above-market average growth, while at the same time, applying the principles of sustainability. Sustainability is deeply embedded in our corporate culture and strategy since many years. I invite you to read our sustainability report that was also published today as part of our annual report. In there, you can read about various topics that are of particular relevance to us. For example, that we gained the climate neutral certification for our Männedorf site and also for our leading fluent automation platform. With that, I would like to open up the line for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Maja Pataki from Kepler.

I would like to start with a question with regards to 2020 sales, and trying to understand a bit the breakdown of the tailwinds and the headwinds COVID-19 presented for you in 2020. Are you able to give us a rough Swiss franc estimate of how much is COVID-related revenues? And how much do you think you've lost on your base business due to COVID-19? That will be my first question. My second question is you had very strong EBITDA margin improvement in 2020, also well above your guidance stated in December. To understand how much of this EBITDA margin is sustainable going forward? And I'm not looking at 2021, which is obviously going to be another strong year with regards to COVID. But how much is really structural and should be sustainable going into 2022 and forward? And maybe related to that, what was the positive impact from the pension plan in Switzerland? And then lastly, just for my understanding, with regards to your sales split that you provide in your annual report, we've seen quite a strong uptake with a classification for leases. I would -- it would be very helpful if you could just remind me or tell me what that refers to.

Excellent. Thank you very much, Maja, for your questions. I will start as soft, and then I'm sure Tania will add some more details on the second and the third question. So yes, as you know, Maja, I mean when talking about the headwinds and tailwinds, it's always not so entirely easy for us to earmark what is truly in demand for the COVID testing environment. However, I think when we talked about H1 2020, I said that we estimate the ballpark around the headwind to have been CHF 30 million. It's probably -- when we look at it, a good estimate to think about the headwind effect having been somewhere between CHF 60 million to CHF 80 million. And then, therefore, the tailwind being somewhere between CHF 150 million and CHF 170 million, obviously. So I think as we think about this we feel pretty good about now the participation in COVID, obviously. And I think also the fact that what we are shipping out, both from an instrumentation and also from a consumable standpoint, is obviously not a COVID single trick pony solution. So that's why -- I mean, typically, we try our best to understand where they're going, but many of the systems are, of course, multi purpose. And they can be used for different purpose. But maybe what I said, the kind of figures are a good kind of proxy for calculating the headwinds and tailwinds. But it was, as you see, it was a significant swing in demand. And I think we came through with pretty good resilience and dynamic from particularly our operational and logistics standpoint. Maybe with this, I hand over to Tania to answer the question on the sustainability of EBITDA and the leases.

Thank you, Achim. Maja, for the EBITDA margin improvement, I mean, you have seen that I mentioned that there were various factors and some positives will stay and some others not. The largest contribution in 2020 to the improvement came from the product mix as well as the overhead absorption. And here, obviously, the pandemic caused a huge shift in the mix, which at the end proved to be quite positive for the margin. And in 2021, the mix will be different, but we still have said in our outlook that we would expect at least a similar level to 2020 coming from different parts. We know that we will expect or we continue to expect freight and logistic costs to be on the high side again. But then there is still the volume effect that will always help. So on 1 hand, you have seen, we were hit by higher freight costs, which we believe will say by some service under absorption and then over time, this will actually still have to stay in the sense that we will have to add more capacity from our service perspective in order to be able to sustainably service our installation and our customers. On the other hand, the volume effect as well as our production efficiencies and the processes improvement we started to work on in 2020 as well as I've mentioned, some of the digitalization investment we were making this year -- last year as well. So all of this should bring us to continue to improve our margins as we actually always said we will be doing. I hope that answers to your second question. I think you mentioned a positive impact from the pension plan. That was CHF 2.2 million effect.

How much?

CHF 2.2 million effect. And this, of course, is a one-off. Having said that, I mean, 2020 was such a year that we had some one-offs that were positive and some one-off that were negative. And all in all, they should balance each other. From the leases perspective, I'm not sure that I understand the question because our leases were actually similar to last year, there was no significant change to it. And I don't know if you refer to the IFRS 16, there, we were about CHF 10.9 million. So that was very much in line with 2019.

Okay. I'll take that up off-line. But just 2 clarification questions. Thank you very much, Achim, for the breakdown of headwinds and tailwinds. It will be correct to say that the tailwinds were very much skewed towards the second half of the year. And with the majority, actually would be the tailwinds in the second half of the year. Is that correct?

I mean relatively, yes, I think we saw some acceleration in the second half, which also probably you can see from the H2 overall performance and the backlog build that we have. So yes, I think it's fair to assume that, that was a H2 -- dominant effect in H2, yes.

Right. And I know you're not guiding for 2022. But obviously, as you're indicating that it cannot be excluded that your revenues will decline in the second half of 2021, and we're going to have another very strong H1 2021. Shall we also then not exclude that your revenues declined due to the base effect in the first half of 2022 until you return to normalized growth rates in the second half?

I would not draw that conclusion necessarily. And clearly, I mean, we are still kind of in early days of 2021. So let's see how the dynamic and the phasing then really falls and where things will land at the end. But I mean, what you also heard me say is, I mean, we're very confident and personally, very positive about the rebound of the non-COVID business and the new product that we're launching. And that's why I tried to emphasize it in my presentation that I mean you will continue to see a cadence of new products coming to market with admittedly a variety of top line and bottom line contribution potential. However, I think that is making us very confident that, however, COVID will fall and the dynamic will fall, we will -- and we do look positively at 2022. So yes, I think probably that's where I would probably leave it at this moment. And as I said, I mean, the dynamics will be what they are. But the biggest effect that we already, I mean tangibly see is what I also mentioned before that I think Tecan has come out of the -- or is going through the pandemic with a significantly elevated visibility and brand recognition, we can see that in both divisions right now. So we see also, in combination, a very healthy, at least commitment and credible projection of increased investments into Life Sciences, into pharma vaccine development and in vitro diagnostics in the midterm. So without going into kind of mid term guidance, and I believe we're in a very good position as a company. And that's why with all the, I would say, operational efficiency and resilience that we've shown, I believe we're in a very good position to also mitigate any potential shorter-term effects in the second half '21 and maybe the first half of '22. But I think we have a lot of steam under the hood right now to also be positive for 2022.

The next question is from Daniel Buchta from ZKB.

Congratulations to the, obviously, very good results. A few questions from my side. The first one, maybe a bit on the order mix and where the growth in the, I would say, next 1, maybe a bit more than 1 year is going to come from. I mean the COVID-19-related demand is that now going forward is still instruments. So are the governments still building up installed base? Or is that done? Or is that now going forward only more reagents and consumables because now the installed base is there, so you're running more tests and you need more of these products. So where is the growth here expected to come from? And then the second one, maybe a little bit related to what Maja was asking. I mean, if you assume whenever it is exactly, COVID-19 is gone, the governments have ramped up massive testing capacity with testing demand at some stage, probably not being that pronounced anymore for COVID-19. What is going to happen with this much bigger installed base? I mean, are there more standard tests run on it? Or is there actually the risk that older installed instruments will basically will be scrapped or -- and with that, then 2, 3, 4 years out from now, demand for new instruments and also maybe reagents and consumables is much lower from that time on? That's the second. And then the third one, maybe on your top line guidance. I mean you guide from mid-single-digit to mid-teens local currency growth. But as you highlighted, it's quite impressive how your order book has grown now also in the second half with almost 52%. If I assume that simply nothing happens and this 52% growth turns into revenue growth, then I'm already at mid-teens local currency sales growth. Well, basically, am I wrong with this view? Or because usually, you say translating the order book into sales, takes 6 to 12 months. So that means, in my view, especially the lower end of the guidance, I have difficulties to understand that, but even the upper end of the guidance could turn out to cautious given the order book growth you have seen.

Super. Thank you, Daniel. And again, I will kick us off and then I would invite Tania to jump in and complement what I'm saying. I mean, your first question on the mix of what we're seeing in terms of instrument dynamics and consumables dynamics. Actually, we still continue to see very good and solid order intake for both for instruments and consumables. However, I come back to what I said earlier. For us, we don't discriminate. I mean, if an instrument is shipped to a lab for COVID testing or for another level of testing that is done in that lab or any other workflow. So again, as we are not earmarking it and we're not selling single trick solutions. This makes it a little bit again, difficult to say how much really is now COVID related. But what I can say that it is a mix of still COVID-related infrastructure buildout. And clearly, answer there would be, it depends on the region and sometimes even depends on the country, how governments and also labs are thinking about the continuation of build out and beat of build out in respect to the maturity maybe of their testing systems overall and where they want to go. And there is -- I mean, as you know, there's quite heterogeneous picture globally. Where the dynamics are -- cannot be just summarized in 1 headline. It is also, of course, fair to assume that consumables in our prediction will be very strong throughout the year. And hence, why we're very pleased with the fact that we are now getting these new production lines online, and including the 1 co-invested by the U.S. government in the second half, '21 in the U.S. So I think it's a very healthy mix. It is probably also fair to assume that we see some level of non COVID-related business now coming back, particularly in the Partnering side. So I think in the long and short answer is we see still a very good mix of instruments and consumables. And I think the dynamic, particularly as it relates to the normalization of COVID tailwind will I mean, of course, maybe then trail off earlier for the instrument pent-up demand as it will be then for the consumables for more and more in the midterm. So when we think about the testing demand, and I think your more macro question what was in around the future of the equipment that is now being placed. I mean, of course, we are in very close, as you can imagine, communication with all the labs that we are working with and the OEM partners on our Partnering division to exactly try to see where their thinking is. But I think, again, the 1 thing that makes me feel very confident about the midterm outlook is that the systems that we are putting out in many geographies are I mean I would call it falling into a dry pond. But in many geographies, the scale of multi-purpose testing infrastructure is still significantly below what I would say, a sustainable health care environment would demand. And there, I deliberately abstract from COVID-19. So I think what we see as relates to the kind of COVID based increase of installed base, some of it and maybe the smallest portion will be used by labs to earlier replace aged equipment. But everything that we're hearing at the moment, there's a lot of heft already ongoing to repurpose and modulate the systems, which we can do very elegantly with our modular platforms to cater for different and more, I would say, wider range of applications and testing menus than just to COVID-19. But the other element, again, I just wanted to mention is that, of course, this now relates to a very specific area of our end market, which is the clinical testing laboratories. I mean there's, again, quite significant markets for us in pharma, biotech and research, that have been quite subdued in their capacity and ability to buy and install solutions like the Fluent platform, EVO or some of our other products. So I think there will be these kind of counter movements, maybe some kind of modulation, as you said. But I think in aggregate, I come back to what I said before, I feel very good about the -- I would say, notion of increased levels of investments overall in Life Sciences and pharma and diagnostics, which, again, bring us into a very good position because this is the broader market we are serving. So I must say, on the midterm, I think it will be a -- having a net positive effect. And I mean, the modulation in between will be what it will be, but I think we are well prepared to respond and react to this. And yes, I think your point on the guidance, I mean, we -- as you know, there's quite some uncertainty still around. I mean, how normalization will happen, and that's why we decided for the full year to guide on a wider range. And I mean, our order book, as we look at it, typically spends a 12 months shipping horizons, so timing and dynamics and phasing sometimes is clear, sometimes it's not entirely clear. And this is why I think the conversion, we'll have a certain dynamic between H1 and H2. However, for the year, as I said, we feel good about the entry point for the year. And of course, now H1, we will closely monitor the situation in the geographies in our end markets. And then we absolutely continue to believe that the range that we're offering between mid-single-digit and mid-teens is absolutely is the range that also incorporates the backlog that we have built up and still requires significant order conversion throughout the calendar year 2021. I don't know if there's any more initial comments you want to make Tania. But I think that's how we think and this how we calculate. And I don't believe it's overly conservative, but just a reflection on the turbulence and the uncertainty of the end markets and, of course, our relative exposure to COVID and non COVID markets.

No, absolutely, Achim. I mean the lower range factors in a steeper normalization for the second half of the year. And we know that we have quite some uncertainty still at this stage for how it will look like. And of course, backlog is quite strong, and we started with much higher. But as Achim mentioned, it's sufficient to have a strong head start of the year. It's not yet for the full year, the clarity of where we will be ending.

The next question is from Chris Gretler from Crédit Suisse.

I actually have maybe 2 or 3 first on the amplitude. Could you comment how much that was an effect on your order entry in the second half and how that demand is going? Probably I'll take it one by one.

Okay. Yes. And thank you, Chris. And as always, as you know, in our partnerships and relationships, we are bound to strict confidentiality. So your question probably would be better addressed to Marc Casper and the Thermo Fisher Scientific leadership team. But I'll come back to also what I said. I think when we announced the collaboration, it is a meaningful, I would say, contribution to the COVID testing landscape for sure. I mean, otherwise, I think both companies would have not decided to go and publish and communicate this prominently. So again, without going into areas that would be uncomfortable, amplitude and Thermo Fisher, as you've also heard from their financial reports have been a quite successful system in the market with a very, I would say, specific value proposition around high throughput and a quite good integration of extraction and the PCR processing. And clearly, I mean, the dynamic of the system to market was all in the second half. When I look at 2020, all in the second half because the system was literally brought to market within a couple of weeks from early start of the discussions. And then the scale-up and ramp-up in our hands was fairly easy because we were, of course, utilizing more or less standard modular Fluent systems and 2 per amplitude go into an installation that we then also support it with our software and the consumable tips as well as we supported our partner with installations and service, and I would say, quite agile fashion. So it was quite meaningful, please except my apologies for not being more specific exactly for that reason that I mentioned in the beginning.

Okay. It was worth a try. No comment. And then the second question relates to your gross margin. I mean, first of all, kind of, on the product mix, could you be a bit specific on what actually kind of you mean by product mix because the business mix now, kind of has been fairly stable, Life Science, Partnering. That would be kind of an order Part A. And then Part B is basically on the pricing environment. Could you also comment on how that basically going? And kind of what you see observed on that front? Because apparently, it must be quite positive, I guess, given kind of the -- it's a seller's market?

Yes. Maybe again, you say, Tania, can start off with the product mix question, then I will talk a little bit more about pricing and what we see.

I mean, basically, the product mix is the strong demand for instruments automating different steps in the PCR workflow in both segments and Life Sciences and PB. These are systems with a high-value and well-defined configuration. So therefore, we had a little bit higher margins on them. And in addition, we also have seen strong growth for Cavro components in the partnering business, and this is also a business with good margins. So from that perspective, I think that was the main mix impact. Also, as I mentioned, the consumables, which usually or lower gross margin. But in this case, because we had an uplift and because we had a higher absorption of the nonstandard cost, they also delivered with a positive mix impact.

Yes. And then maybe just kind of an additional comment on the product mix and what we've seen, actually, in both divisions Fluent, our newer and flagship platform has seen a quite significant boost in demand because of its capabilities. And I mean, the abilities of the system to be extremely user-friendly and be used in an environment where the automation experience is probably lower than in some of the core facilities or expert automation there. So Fluent has been a big, big part of the kind of mix swing in the product range overall. So that was very pleasing to see alongside the effects that Tania mentioned on the other products. And I mean, from a pricing perspective, you're right. I mean, I think as you know us, we take a quite prudent view on asking for market-relevant value pricing for our innovative solution and 2020 was no exception there. But as always I mean it depends on the environment if those were new customers, it is probably safe to assume that 2020 was not a year to give you huge discounts on solutions because demand was so high and that was good for us. On the other side, of course many of the other interaction particularly with key accounts and on the partnering side as you know we typically have more longer-ranging frame contracts. And again there we of course honor these contracts and then when these would be up for renewal we would then renegotiate and try to push up pricing but in aggregate I think we feel very good about our ability to continuously increase prices even outside of a specific environment COVID.

The next question is from Catherine Tennyson from Bank of America.

I have 3 questions if I may. The first is just following up on Mr. Gretler's question on the order book, and apologies if I have missed this. But H2 was very strong but can you help me understand roughly what was the composition of that order book if you were to break it down into hardware and consumables I'm talking in terms of regions where you saw the most strength there. And if were to think that how that materializes into the rest of this year, is it fair to assume that the majority of this folds in H1 versus H2? My second question would be on your product pipeline into 2022. There obviously has to be plenty in the works there going on. Is it fair then to assume that we see a step-up in R&D as a portion of sales to adjust or compensate for this? And finally, picking up on something you mentioned earlier. You talked about customers being early talks about remodulating platforms for post COVID disease. Can help us understand what buckets or what types of customers are having these conversations with you? Is it the large reference lab or is it more tailored for the smaller customers and perhaps the hospital or more point-of-care staffing?

Very good. So maybe, Tania, you can start with the order book. And as always, Catherine, thank you very much for your questions. And yes, we will try to be as specific as we can in answering the order book question and maybe also helping out Chris even more in understanding where things are and why we're guiding the way we're guiding.

So on the order backlog, maybe if you remember, I mentioned that the book-to-bill ratio was at 1.17 and in absolute terms, that means that we had about CHF 125 million more orders than revenues. And this is how much we further build the backlog but keeping in mind that at the beginning of 2020, we already had quite a high backlog when we entered that year. You're correct. The vast majority of the backlog will be revenue recognized in 2021, however, not necessarily in the first 6 months that can go over the next 12 months, actually. And in terms of the split between the instruments and consumables, we are probably something around 2/3, 1/3, again, over the next 12 months. So yes, from that perspective, we feel pretty confident, as I mentioned before, in our guidance for the year. Having said that, again, the H2 is quite uncertain at this stage for us. And that is where the backlog helps. But at the same time, not really being able to predict yet the second half, we are ending at the outlook that we are at the moment.

Yes. And maybe just to add 1 more sentence there on your question on regional differences. I mean, we see -- actually, all regions being quite strong. But as I said in the beginning, with quite different dynamics. I mean, clearly, as you can imagine, China follows a very different dynamic for us as Europe and the U.S. But 1 element, of course, it also plays into, I think, the current situation, the backlog that we built in 2020, but also the ongoing dynamic is, I think, that we have been quite successful and strengthening our position also in areas like what we call distribution countries. So in Russia, in India, in the Middle East and Israel, where we've seen, of course, a boost through the COVID pandemic, but we're already now engaging with quite a variety of new and existing labs that then think about the midterm build-out of the infrastructure, having seen us as a very reliable and competent partner for many disease areas that they would like to capture going forward. So I think that's another element that, again, makes us feel quite positive about this year, but also the periods beyond. And then, Catherine, on your question on the product pipeline, I mean, your specific question on R&D. I think we have been driving quite a significant, I would say, shift in mindset and execution in our R&D organizations. In the sense that we put a lot of effort also over the last few years already in modularizing our platforms. And that gives us now the ability. And you can see that clearly, when you go back to last year when we announced the next Fluent DreamPrep variant. Now this year, with Fluent Mix and Pierce. And I said already at the beginning of last year that you can expect more of this system modulations coming to market in a faster cadence. And this is all made possible because we had already pre-invested in modularization of both hardware modules and particularly important software that give us now the ability to bring our product in shorter time frames with the same aspect of reliability and performance. So I think that underlying and the focus and maybe a bit of a sharpening of our strategic areas of interest. R&D, you can expect will continue to be very efficient for us. And of course, last year, from a percentage standpoint, was a bit skewed because, of course, we can't kind of scale up R&D just by pouring money into the system, but we take a very substantially ambitious view on this. But you should not expect that the R&D percentages deviate massively from what you've seen from us in 2019. Again, always keeping in mind that when we think about R&D, it's the net and the gross figures. And as we get paid by our OEM partners for significant portions, if not all, of the development programs, I mean our teams overall are quite well sized and capable in that aggregate of what we invest in R&D ourselves versus what we can then pour in and use for infrastructure and personnel buildout from our OEM position. So I think I feel very good about where we are. And for us, it's more about focus and efficiency. However, I mean, if there would be kind of new innovation programs that we get very excited about. I think we have shown that we can efficiently turn our R&D programs into revenues and profit, and this is also what we're looking at in the midterm to see how can we strengthen that rather than tone it down. So -- but that it shouldn't mean for the percent contribution of R&D, that there is a step-up or something planned or expected. But I think all I wanted to say is that we feel very proud about our organic ability to innovate and grow the company. And then your last question on reconfigurations of platforms. Again, this is, I would say, very heterogeneous picture. And where -- I think what you mentioned, reference labs versus smaller labs all are affected to some extent. But the discussions ongoing right now, what I tried to mention in the presentation around now how can we migrate, for example, Fluent solution from PCR testing to next-generation sequencing, which becomes another element of the surveillance mix going forward. So I think these are more of the discussions we're having right now rather than saying, can you turn the Fluent system into a proteomics workstation. So I think it's more in that context of the technology mix and application mix around COVID and infectious diseases. However, of course, these labs are aware that these systems could also eventually be even converted to do serology testing or T-cell testing if that would become a bigger requirement for the testing of vaccination efficacy. So I think that -- again, the picture is quite heterogeneous, but we are in very close dialogue with our partners. And probably the ability to modulate the systems is clearly a strength while companies believe this is a very future-proof investment, and they rely on our platforms also in the midterm.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from Scott Bardo from Berenberg.

Congratulations for the results. A few questions from me, please. Firstly, just wonder if you could have a broader discussion on the amplitude system, which sounds like it's been a significant part of your H2 growth and order dynamic. I'm struggling to understand what the sustainable market for such a product is given the very high throughput nature of these systems outside of the pressing requirements for COVID, I wonder if you could share thoughts on sustainability. Second question, please, and this relates to your order book. Can you highlight how stable your order book is? Is there any risk of cancellation? And maybe could you highlight how the order trends have unfolded in the first months of this year? That would be helpful. Third question, please. On pipette tips, just squaring your comments on tripling of capacity for pipette tips versus what I calculate to be around the 50% year-over-year revenue growth from pipette tips. What is encapsulated for pipette tip growth, please, within your low -- mid-single-digit to mid-teens revenue guidance range? And last question for me, please. Clearly, an abnormal year and an abnormal performance from Tecan, both in 2020 and arguably encapsulated within your 2021 guidance. In many ways, it feels like you're performing like a diagnostic company and benefiting from COVID-19 tailwinds. And I just want to understand then with the prevailing school of thought that diagnostic companies will correct both in terms of revenue and profit in 2020 and 2022, why that would be any different from Tecan?

Very good. And thanks for your creative turn around 2 questions into 4. So great to have you, Scott. And again, as you can probably anticipate, I will not be as specific as you and Chris was hoping for around the amplitude system. But what, of course, I can say is that when you look at the system and the way it is configured, it is a very elegant, I would say, array of highly modular underlying systems. And I think, as I said, I mean, what we are contributing to the amplitude system is a Fluent for extraction and Fluent for PCR preparation, it's probably without a wild imagination that there are conceivable use cases where these systems are used independent for different other workflows or even converted in aggregate to do other applications than PCR. So again, I would prefer you maybe back to Thermo Fisher Scientific for their strategic view on the amplitude. But I mean, what I said about the modularity is probably the most important element to consider with, of course, also the ability to spend more PCR products over that form maybe different molecular tests going forward. But again, I will need to leave that with Thermo Fisher and their communication around their strategic views. But from our side, we are very ready and happy to support any modulation and expectation of the system exactly in the line that earlier in response to the questions of capital. Well, on the order book, I mean, your question on cancellations and deferred. I mean, as you know, our order book spends 12 months shippable commitments from our clients. And that's why we also illustrated that for many orders we do have, of course, shipment and commitment date for others like frame orders for plastic consumables or some instrumentation that is earmarked to be delivered and I thought in the second half, there is some flexibility in that order book. But I think for us, important to note that from a time perspective, are back to kind of normal lead times for instrumentation and equipment, which is around 4 to 8 weeks, depending on the configuration. We don't feel like there will be -- forbid any disruption from a supply chain, but from our normal behavior, we would be able to turn that out in the demanded time frames. But it is quite flexible in the order book. And as Tania said, it's a significant portion of a 12-month frame orders for plastic consumables, where, of course, we know what the end revenue will look like, but the month-by-month consumption can be some extent, modulated by customers and partners. Yes, on your question the tips capacity. Again, you probably will not be surprised that we're not guiding on individual product lines or where things are falling within the forecast. But clearly, I mean, as you highlighted, we foresee not just for the COVID but also beyond a very healthy growth perspective for our plastic consumable tips. That's why the U.S. facility that we are building, as we speak, will add to the mix. We, of course, have also contractual abilities to modulate the incoming production as the markets would change. So I think visibility gives me everything in confidence that we would deliver against our existing order commitment in other future modulation of that demand that could be at least in the current climate of the COVID respond. So I think the growth of pipette tips has been significant in 2020. And it will continue to be a significant contribution in 2021, in everything that we said in the order to revenue conversion. And then maybe quick on the -- on your comments on abnormal year abnormal performance, I would say, an abnormal year, but hopefully, not too surprising performance from an execution standpoint. And what I want I said, the resilience I to build into our operational systems, which clearly helped us to deliver, I would say, robust numbers for 2020. Now your question, will we follow dynamics that are foreseen for pure-play diagnostic players? I would, again, maybe offer a couple of thoughts for consideration. One is what I said also earlier, our platforms are quite flexible. And I mean even if there would be agnostic environment, typically, we, of course, have participation on instrumentation service parts and now the plastic consumables, which again are not COVID specific, but they are broad-based in their utilization. So I would say -- and maybe it's a good data point to know that we are not selling PCR kits for COVID testing or significant amount of specific reagents in that segment. And that gives us, I think, a bit more modulation space when things normalize. The other element, of course, is that we are very active in other disease areas, like I mentioned before, metabolic disorders and cancer probably being the biggest one, where we've seen quite significant tune down of demand in 2020. And we already now see that there is some level of rebound happening in these markets that are outside of COVID. So I think we have a pretty broad exposure in the diagnostic field itself, which is good for us. And then lastly, of course, we have a significant franchise also in pharma and academia, as you know, probably not the biggest portion of what we do. But again, that gives us, and we see that already happening in China, again, areas of growth, outside of the core clinical diagnostic and specifically the COVID-related markets. So I think I feel very good about the breadth of our portfolio and the diversity.

The last question for today is from Daniel Jelovcan from Mirabaud.

The standard question every year not yet asked about M&A. According to my calculation, with 3x EBITDA leverage you could probably spend CHF 1 billion with firepower for an acquisition, not even included the EBITDA of the target itself. So it would be very nice to see that Tecan can also improve the M&A picture. I mean, it's clear that last year, it was difficult with traveling and proper due diligence, but can you elaborate a bit on that? That's the first question.

No, absolutely. And thank you very much, Daniel, for the question. I was already getting nervous that no 1 would ask the cash deployment elephant in the room. No, but clearly, as you said, and again, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but we are fully committed to deploy our capital into M&A. And I think a sign of reassurance there, should also in Tania's comments on the dividend increase, which we, I think, is meaningful. But we want to, of course, also signal with this, that we are driving the M&A environment through our corporate development team. And effectively, the entire management team of Tecan very focused and as fast and hard as possible. Now as you said, 2020 was probably not a very accommodating year, especially for us in general because of the market dynamics and the ability to move and initiate M&A projects, particularly when -- in the absence of pre-COVID touch points or due diligence. So I think we are now seeing -- and that may be some level of, again, reassurance that I can share a very high level of activity going into 2021. It's probably fair to say that we have been probably never been that busy at that period of time with M&A discussions as we are now already in the first quarter. And this again, I don't want to project it out. I mean I'm not also saying that we're immune to some of the, I would say, dynamics of very high prices and also some, I would say, other momentum from investments through sparks or PE, they also taken interest in some of the markets we're interested in. But I believe our -- again, pipeline is quite broad. And I think we will continue to be disciplined in discriminating target that fits to Tecan and our strategic growth aspirations. And I think that's what you continue to expect from us. But as you said, I mean, the numbers that you called out, we absolutely have the same in mind. And I think we have targets in our pipeline that would, yes, need that level of cash and overall investment. So this is where -- I think now I will probably leave it, but 2021 has already started very, I would say, active for us, as I'm sure you're hearing from other companies, but the -- it seems like the dynamics have a little bit been broken from the -- some of the more subdued M&A environment from last year. So I believe we are already running out of time here. So I would like, therefore, to conclude the call. And as always, if you have any further questions, we defined us through Martin or our Investor Relations communications channels. And with this, I would like to thank you very much for your attention and look forward to talk to you. And hopefully, see some of you during 2021 in person. So thank you very much, and goodbye, and stay safe.

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