Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today. It's my pleasure to welcome you to Aalberts' First Half 2024 presentation. My name is Rutger Relker, Director, Investor Relations. This morning, we published our interim results. We delivered a 15% EBITA margin in challenging markets. Together with our CEO, Stéphane Simonetta, and our CFO, Arno Monincx, we will look back to the first half of 2024, and we will look forward to the second half of 2024. Stéphane will kick off the presentation with some key highlights. This will be followed by Arno, who will give a financial update. Stéphane will then share our strategic priorities and outlook. After the presentation, we will give you the opportunity to engage directly with us in the Q&A session. Your questions and feedback are very important to us, and we encourage you to participate.
Later today, we will make both the presentation and the recording of this webcast available on our website. Please welcome Stéphane Simonetta to begin our presentation.
Thank you, Rutger. Good morning, everyone. The first six months of the year have been challenging, as we saw lower activity at our customers, especially at wholesalers, in building technology. We have improved thanks to the work of our teams to improve our added value margins, and we improved our profitability in our industrial technology segments. Overall, we are delivering a 15% EBITDA margin thanks to our cost savings and robust price level. As you see on this slide, those are the key highlights about our first half performance, with an organic growth at -3.9%, with an EBITDA at 15% of EUR 242 million, and an added value at 63.8%, which has improved, as Arno will explain later, in both, actually, our segments compared to last year. As we always do, we are adjusting our costs, especially fixed costs, thanks to our structural cost savings.
You can imagine that most of the cost savings are on our building technology segments. We are deploying and executing our inventory reduction plan to be back on track at the end of the year. Despite the short-term challenges, we continue to invest for the long term, and that's why our CapEx is in plan with last year. We deliver an EPS at EUR 1.61, and we continue to deploy our four strategic actions. I'll give you more color later on. Overall, we continue to execute our strategy. We have delivered 15% EBITA, and we are well positioned for the rebound of the activity. When you look at the operational development, let me give you a bit of color for each of our end markets. Starting with building technology, our eco-friendly buildings, this is where we see lower activity in Europe, especially in Germany.
Despite all these challenges, our added value margins have improved in our eco-friendly buildings, thanks to our robust pricing, our sales initiative, and our purchasing actions. We continue to see a decreasing lower end-user demand in new builds and softer demand in renovations. As expected, the stock level at our wholesalers were still low, but we continue to see better activity in Americas, in Asia, and in some product lines, we are actually doing better than the market. As an example, our groove technologies, our water treatment offering, our pressurization and storage tank, our safety and efficiency valves are actually doing better than the market, which means we are winning some share compared to the market trends. In the U.S., we are still working to improve our service level, and this is where we are expecting a better second half on our commercial valves.
We see the positive trend on some new verticals, especially the data center, where we are also working on offering an innovative solution for our customers. Despite this short-term volatile demand, long-term, it remains a growth agenda because the energy, the resource efficiency in both residential and commercial buildings, they remain long-term growth drivers. As you have seen, this is mostly in this vertical that we see the biggest challenge. Because on the other hand, everything linked to our industrial technology is actually doing much better, and semiconductor efficiency continues to grow. Despite some short-term volatile demand, we are improving our service, and our order book remains at a high level. We continue to see very strong demand on our advanced mechatronic modules, with more and more system integration, especially, as you all know, for our lithography and inspection applications.
We see more and more, which is good news for our sustainability agenda, need for refurbishments from our customers, and this is a growth enabler on top of the technology trend. We are continuing to invest for the long term, right? Because we will need more capacity to serve and deliver the growth from our customers. Very confident, and we expect a much stronger 2025 in this industry because there is a positive technology trend, like AI technology, that will bring additional demand. In Sustainable Transportation, we have once again, this just shows our resilience, a very solid performance. Because also here, we see a mixed demand with a lower in automotive, but continued growth in aerospace. We are, I think, delivering as usual and flexing our costs to sustain some solid margins. That's why we are able to follow the trend, especially in automotive.
We continue to see high growth for the high-precision manufacturing parts, especially also some good opportunity on surface technology because there is more and more need for lightweight materials. We are also continuing here to support the e-mobility agenda, sustainability, and all the reshoring continues to be a growth driver in this end market. Industrial niche, a bit more challenge because, of course, here it's following the overall economy, and we see some lower demand, especially in Western Europe. Once again, also Germany is more challenging with the overall industrial need going down. Also, U.S., and we continue to see growth in Asia. So, we are adjusting our costs, but the order intake continues to be very strong on the other hand in the U.S. for industrial valves. And that's why we expect also the second half to be better. And we still see growth opportunity.
That's what we are working on to capture a growth and win share in North America on our Industrial valves. So, in a nutshell, that's where we have been doing on the first half with a very strong picture on Industrial, where we are able to continue the growth on semiconductors, more stability on Sustainable Transportation, and more challenging on industry. And then we are taking all the measures to secure our margins on Eco-friendly buildings. Let me now hand it over to Arno. Arno?
Yeah, thank you, Stéphane. Good morning, everybody. Also, from my side, I would like to take you through the financial developments of Aalberts over the first half of 2024. Starting with the revenue, where you see the decline of 3.9% organically over the first six months versus last year, and where we see the headwind in building, as Stéphane also explained, ending up in 6.7% organic decline for building technology. And then industrial, a reasonably flat situation, minus 0.4%, which is actually given the market circumstances, also in industrial, quite a strong performance. In total, it's minus 3.9%. And the EBITA margin, there we sustained a good added value. We even improved our added value, as Stéphane said, with 1.5%, which is a great result and a great performance of the teams.
That is clearly always our strategy, that we really protect our added value margin because there it all begins with the earnings, of course. So, there we are still with 63.8% at a very good level. And that is also one of the reasons that we could at least keep our profitability to the level of 50.0%, although it's a decline of 0.4%, but still 50.0% in challenging market situations. The earnings per share before amortization, let's say the net profit before amortization ended up at EUR 178 million. And also there we see that the net finance costs were clearly lower than last year. So that is also a positive thing, and that also helped to at least have EUR 1.61 per share as an EPS versus the EUR 1.71 last year.
Then the cash flow from operations, where we decreased from EUR 221 million in the first half of 2023 to EUR 182 million in the first half of 2024. We have also put here the two main reasons for that. First of all, of course, a lower EBITDA level, a EUR 60 million effect to this operational cash flow. The other one is the net working capital move of, let's say, which was EUR 27 million lower than the move last year. That clearly has to do with the normal seasonality trend that you build up stock in the first half year and you reduce your stocks in the second half year, also because of the seasonality.
And where we had the situation in the first half of 2023, as we came from a very high stock level in 2022 at the end of 2022 due to all the supply chain issues, as you may remember. So that was clearly, let's say, a positive situation for the cash flow in the first half of 2023. But this gives more or less the normal seasonality. Then the revenue per end market, where we see eco-friendly buildings with 51%, actually quite stable. Semiconductor efficiency continued to increase in the share of the total towards 50%. Sustainable Transportation also slight increase to 70%. And here we see the industrial niches really reducing towards the 70% coming from 2019 full year 2023. The revenue per region, I must say, quite stable. Actually, there's not a lot of change.
The only thing is that APEC Middle East Africa is 1% lower than full year 2023. Western Europe is 1% higher than full year 2023. The revenue bridge coming from the first half of 2023, EUR 1.717 billion. Then we have no effect from acquisitions in the first half of 2024. The net effect of the disposals, the divestments versus 2023 was EUR 37.3 million that we lost of revenues. It had to do, of course, with the divestment of Disptek. Currency effect, the small plus EUR 3.8 million, mainly impacted by Great British Pound and Polish zloty. And then it results in the organic revenue decline of EUR 64.8 million.
Again, the 3.9%, as explained earlier, and that is totalizing towards the EUR 1.618 billion we realized over the first half of 2024. The same for the EBITA bridge, where we started from EUR 264.2 million over the first half of 2023.
No effects from acquisitions. We lost EUR 4.9 million versus last year due to the divestment of Disptek we did in 2023. Then we had a slight positive translation impact, mainly again, Great British Pounds and Polish zloty of EUR 0.4 million. That results in the organic EBITA decline of EUR 70.5 million of EBITA lost. That is, as said earlier, mainly realized in building technology driven by lower volume, where we saw the margin going down from 14.0%- 30.0%. I will explain in the next slides also, and where we still see that industrial technology improved the EBITA margin, but also come back to that in the next slide.
The building technology segment revenue came down from EUR 932 million- EUR 873 million in the first half, which was the 6.7% organic decline versus the -1.5% decline we faced in the first half of 2023. The added value improved thanks to robust pricing, also mentioned by Stéphane, sales initiatives, and purchasing actions. We believe that our teams also, in this difficult market circumstances, did a great job to protect their added value.
That, at the end, helped a lot to sustain the EBITA margin to the 30.0% that we reported versus the 40.0% last year. Let's say also here we see that the capital expenditure, we continue to invest despite difficult market circumstances. That's also, yeah, we are still investing for the long term, of course, because we believe that the long-term perspective also for building is still positive. Last but not least, America and APEC, we saw better activity than in Europe.
Then the industrial technology segment, also a slight decrease of revenues from EUR 785- EUR 746, which organically was, let's say, only -0.4% because also here, of course, we faced the disposal of Disptek. And don't forget that last year, the first half of 2023, we really had a very strong organic growth performance in industrial technology of +60%. Then the EBITA margin, despite the lower volume, we managed to improve our EBITA margin. And there the teams really did a great job to flex their costs, also with slightly lower volumes to even be able to improve EBITA margin to this good performance of 70.8% in the first half. Also here, we continue to invest, although the CapEx is slightly lower. That is related to the timing because also in the industrial technology segment, we will continue to invest for the long term.
And again, continued growth in semiconductor efficiency, a stable activity in Sustainable Transportation, and a lower activity in the Industrial Niches. That is the takeaway from the three end markets. Then the two segments divided geographically from their revenues. We see 54% Western Europe in building technology, which is a little bit higher in the total than the full year. And for the rest, I would say there's not so much change. Also in the industrial technology segment, it's only slight changes in Eastern Europe. But for the rest, Eastern Europe is a little bit lower than last year. For the rest, it's more or less the same. Stéphane, back to you.
Thank you, Arno. So when we talk about strategy deployment, as you all know, we have our sixth KPI, where we made great progress last year, and we continue to work on this one. And as you know, in 2023, we were at the 26th target on SDG, on innovation rate, on leverage ratio, getting close on EBITA margin, and continuing the improvement on ROCE, and then with some way to go still on organic growth. So we continue to work on this sixth KPI in 2024. And let me report now some progress on our four strategic actions. And the first one is our portfolio optimization, like we mentioned also in our full year result presentation. It's both acquisition and divestment. So on the acquisition side, no change.
We continue to prioritize three areas where we want to grow inorganically in hydronic flow control, which is still a mix between new technologies that we want to add in our portfolio, but also in the U.S.A. , in advanced mechatronic, which is also a mix between new technology in our portfolio, but also looking at the Southeast Asia footprint and U.S.A., as I mentioned before, but also looking at some bolt-on acquisition on surface technologies. And divestment, we continue to look at our portfolio, and we will divest when we believe we are not the best owner on some of our business, as we have done in the past. The organic growth, really, I'm trying to continue the growth in the U.S., in Asia, to have also more geographical balance overall.
And growing, it's thanks to our innovation, and we see that this is where we have been also able in the first half to have some growth in some niche, thanks to innovative solutions in our eco-friendly building, thanks to the, of course, semiconductor efficiency trend, but also in aerospace. And that was also what we want to continue to increase our innovation power. And we continue because it's also geographical expansion in Mexico for our surface technology, and in Netherlands also for semiconductor efficiency and some eco-friendly building, where we have also had some extra capacity to support the sustainability agenda in Europe. Operational Excellence, I think the first half is a good example. What it means, right? Thanks to the great job of our pricing excellence, that's what also always means, right? When there is more stable volume, how can you do better?
So that's what we have been doing in the first half, pricing excellence, structural cost reduction, and footprint optimization. We continue, and of course, we will make some progress in 2024 towards our 2026 goal. We are accelerating, continuing the continuous improvement, especially in the business and where we have more operational challenge, not only to reduce costs, but also to improve service level and reduce our inventories. That's Operational Excellence. You can imagine that we have a lot of prioritization in our building technology segment to address these challenges. But let's not forget something also very important to us, that we continue to drive our sustainability initiative, improving our health and safety for all our employees. We make some good progress in the first half, and we continue. And also preparing next year's annual report as per the CSRD regulation.
We are preparing everything, working on circular economy together with our customers. So overall, continuing to make progress on the whole ESG agenda with all the KPI and the initiative we are working on. So we expect to report some good progress also next year in our next annual report. So when you look at the outlook or more specifically the second half, right? So what do we expect for the second half? And I think first of all, we expect the soft market in eco-friendly building to continue, especially in Europe. And we continue to see opportunity to grow, to do better in the U.S. and in Asia. On the other hand, on industrial technology, we still remain confident for the long term with the semiconductor growth agenda and industry, more a mixed picture, as I mentioned, between aerospace, automotive, more stable.
So different by technology, by regions, and also by end markets. Portfolio optimization, we continue to stay disciplined in our capital allocation. So doing CapEx, but also ready to make some bolt-on acquisition and optimize our portfolio. So we continue to make good progress here. And as I mentioned, we will continue to provide more transparency, especially on our scope three emission, more upstream in our value chain to also make progress in this area. So overall, we remain very well positioned for the rebound of the activity, thanks to the deployment of our initiative, thanks to the restructuring cost we took, and thanks to the market trend, as we have been doing in the first half. The outlook is not changing. We are still in deployment mode in 2024 with our four strategic actions. That's what I mentioned at the beginning.
So organic growth, operational excellence, portfolio optimization, and sustainable entrepreneurship. But what we are planning at the end of the year is a new Capital Markets Day that we will do on the 10th of December. And because I think it's after three years, it is time to give an update on our strategy. And also because 2026 is getting closer, we have decided to give to all of you and to all our stakeholders an update on our strategy at the end of 2024. That's all I wanted to share with you. And let me step back and hand it over to Rutger. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Arno and Stéphane. As we are starting the Q&A session, I'd like to remind everyone how to participate. For conference call participants, please press star one on your phone to join the queue. Those tuned in via the audio webcast, please submit your questions via the Q&A form. I would now like to give the word to David Kerstens from Jefferies for the first questions.
Yes, good morning. Thank you very much, Rutger. I've got three questions, please. First of all, can you explain the deterioration in organic revenues in the months May and June? I think -5% in industrial tech and 8% in building tech, particularly in industrial tech, notably weaker than in the first four months of the year. And then maybe the second question, what is the impact of weakening incentives to move towards heat pumps? I think the new Dutch government wants to abolish the mandatory change towards heat pumps. Maybe we can keep gas boilers from 2026. I think previously you talked about the positive impact from replacing 65 million gas boilers in Europe. What will be the impact if we can still keep gas boilers?
And then maybe finally, do you see some signs of inventory restocking already in the second half of the year ahead of the expected recovery in demand later this year? Thank you very much.
Thank you. Good, great question. So the industrial technology, it's very tactical and short-term, like you mentioned, because I think many of our customers, especially in the German market and in our surface technology, have been managing their half-year result and basically stopping and postponing a lot of their services from June to the second half. So that's why the June months, so it's very a short-term issue. They have been optimizing and postponing things to the second half. That's why the June months have been more challenging on industrial technologies. The second point is you are right, right? I think we see it. The stock remains very high at our customers on heat pumps, and they're really struggling to get that out of their doors because there are less and less incentives by the government.
But for us, it's actually, I would say, more neutral because we are still selling expansion vessels when you need gas boilers. And actually, we see a unique growth. You may have seen in our operational update that we are winning share and we are doing better than the market trend on expansion vessels because you need more units on gas boilers than on heat pumps. And then the installer can do more jobs to install a gas boiler than to do heat pumps. So I will say it's neutral, but if you look at the units, it's slightly positive for us when you see this trend. And the third point, I think here also talking to our customers, having visiting, we are more cautious that the stock will continue to remain very low, right? And because that's what we see from our customers.
We expect and continue to see soft demand in the second half, and we are not expecting a huge restocking before next year.
Okay, that's clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you, David.
Martijn? Martijn?
Are you there? I think he's not there.
No, apparently not.
No, no, I am.
you are.
Okay, sorry.
Good morning.
I am. Can you hear me now, guys?
Yes, we can hear you now.
Good. I apologize. I couldn't hear you. Okay, everything's fine now, at least in terms of audio. My first question would be about building technology. You mentioned that the value add was up also for building technology, but your EBITA margin is down. Now, normally, I would expect if your value add goes up, that your EBITA would go up. So what's driving, despite that better value add, that decline in EBITA margin for building tech? That's question one. I'll do them one by one.
Okay. Let me take that question, Martijn. Yes, we are quite, yeah, let's say, happy with the added value development that we realized in building technology, given our strategy to protect that constantly in the market. But also, of course, we need a better added value to also compensate for higher OpEx on one side. So that is why we also need a higher added value. On the other side, let's say the negative volumes have impact in the flex of costs. And therefore, let's say, although the teams did whatever they could to flex their costs at the maximum, with the volume decline of -6.7% organically, we face, of course, also some drop down. And that is resulting in the EBITA reduction of, let's say, 40%-30%. But it would have been.
So translating that.
Maybe even lower if we would not have had such a good added value, of course.
Then, I think I would add, there is a timing issue to see the effect of our structural cost-saving action that will come more in the second half than in the first half.
Okay. That is good to know. Moving on to Semicon, growth was substantially higher than I had anticipated at 10%. I think the guidance from Aalberts was roughly for the whole of 2024, mid-single digit. Is this guidance of mid-single digit still applicable for Semicon for the whole of 2024, given the strong performance in the first half? And related to that, did the margin, the EBITA margin for Semicon go up?
No change with our guidance, right? Because as we wrote and I think we mentioned, we continue to see a lot of volatile up and down, especially on the short term. So long-term, high confidence, still a growth agenda. There is a slight chance we may do better than our guidance, but the guidance is still the same because we have seen also some short-term movement from our customers. So that's exactly what we were anticipating, actually. And then on the margin.
On the margin, I think also for Semicon, we were able to slightly improve margin also in the first six months versus last year.
Got it. Got it. Then on the announcement of the Capital Markets Day, 2024 is a difficult year. Is it a year that we could probably qualify as a transitional year? Why would you go for a Capital Markets Day, even though that you're not even close to your strategic targets for 2026? And the agenda in terms of M&A and capital allocation is pretty clear as well. So what made you decide to go for a Capital Markets Day?
Two reasons, like I mentioned, because the last one we did, it's now three years ago, and a lot of things have changed in the last three years. And it's because also at the end of the year, before we enter 2025, we will be one year away for 2026. So we believe it's time to give an update of our strategy to all our stakeholders. That's the two main reasons.
It's only about strategy.
It's a strategic update that we plan to give.
Okay, but targets remain the same then.
We will share the update of our strategy, and you understand that the strategy includes a lot of points. That's what we plan to do. I think I can only comment on what I said. As you know, in 2023, we were already on target with three of our indicators, getting close to the number four. Then we had two where we still have some work to do. We will share the update in December of our strategy, and the strategy includes initiatives and the targets.
Clear. Two final questions for Arno, if I may. There's EUR 18 million in other income. What's included in that EUR 18 million, given that there is no gain on the divestments?
Now, first of all, what's actually the main difference with last year is an insurance income that we had because of the damage that we faced. So that is in the other operating income, the main difference versus last year. And as you may have seen also in the holding eliminations line, we are still quite stable versus last year. So that also means that this, let's say, additional income we have also allocated for more extraordinary spend. And like Stéphane already mentioned, we have already started also a restructuring program, and that is also where we allocated the cost to.
Okay. So that's par for the course as to how Aalberts does it with these types of incidentals. I get it. And my final question on net working capital. Arno, what should we or what can we expect in terms of net working capital and specifically inventory towards the end of the year?
Yeah, let's say, because what I believe is that maybe some have overseen the effect that we had, the positive income effect that we had in 2023, that there was not a normal because of a normal seasonality trend that you build up your stocks in the first half and you reduce your stocks in the second half. And I can tell you that although in days, we are only slightly above last year, for the full year, we still remain confident that we are able to improve our days working and days inventory outstanding also to the objectives that we have set. We have a lot of initiatives ongoing, and I'm still confident that we will do. And of course, with a decreasing top line as we face it in the first half year, the days are a challenge, but the trend is still good.
Maybe you have seen it, but we are lower than June last year. We are EUR 60 million lower than June last year. We will continue to optimize it also in the second half year.
All right. Those were my questions. Thank you very much, gentlemen.
Okay, thank you.
I'd like to give the word now to Chase. No, excuse me, to Elliott Robinson from Bank of America. Elliott, your line is open.
Hi, guys. Just three questions from me, if that's okay, and I'll try and take them one at a time. The first one is just I was wondering if you could run us through any potential impact on yourselves if there were tariffs implemented in the U.S. So, for example, what does your production versus sales footprint look like? That's my first one. Thank you.
Now, let's say, as you know, we have always the approach that we produce where we are also selling. So we have a local approach. So I think Aalberts is especially in an area where we face tariffs by importing from other continents of the world. Yeah, I think Aalberts is well prepared for such trends because of the local footprints that we have and that we service.
Okay. Nice one. Thank you for that. The second bit was just on the net working capital. I suppose going back to that again, I suppose in H1, I suppose you would have thought with the organic decline, it could have come down maybe a little bit more than it did. I was just wondering, what was kind of the moving parts within that on the net working capital? And what gives you confidence on the fact that you think that you can reduce it further in H2? Obviously, there's the seasonality in that.
Yeah. Let's say that's actually the biggest reason because the movement in net working capital was negative versus a positive movement in the first half year of last year. And it clearly has to do with that in the first half of 2023, we reduced our stocks with EUR 30 million coming from an extremely high DIO of 101 days. And now we increased our inventories for the season during the first half year. And in DIO, we are still very close to where we would like to be, although we are two days higher because of also the lower top line, of course. But again, we remain confident that we will continue to reduce that further towards the end of the year.
Sure. Just as one extra bit on that point, is there any sort of split that you gave on inventory by the business unit or anything like that? Or should we think of it as higher capital intensity within certain parts of the business, for example?
Now, of course, the building is a big part, but also in our semicon business, we have also substantial inventories. The only area where we have less inventories is in Surface Technology business because there we perform a service to our customers. So there, the inventories level are the lowest from the group.
Right. Perfect. Thank you. And then my last one, if that's okay. And thank you for all the questions and for taking the time. You mentioned about data centers. I mean, could you just expand a little bit on maybe what your exposure is there and what you've kind of seen, I guess? Thank you.
Yeah. We see really an opportunity with our offering in our hydronic flow control portfolio to offer more prefab and kit system to handle that. Also with our IPS portfolio. So the opportunity for us is to offer a complete system to address the heating and the cooling challenges of the data center, right? And the key is to offer a turnkey solution to our customers and also be able to help them in the design of the system before they do the buildings. So that also allows us to not only selling one-off or component or product, but offer more services. So we are really investing a lot in terms of capabilities because we believe it will be a long-term growth driver. So a lot of things are done in the backend.
Now, the sales and the revenue, it's still very, very small, but we are preparing for the growth of this market over the coming years.
Perfect. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Cheers.
Cheers.
Okay, thanks. I think it's time for the next person. That is Christoph Greulich from Berenberg. Christoph, your line is open now.
Yeah, good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. Three from my side, please. Firstly, on the added value margin, yeah, it looks to me like you've reached a record level here, at least what I can see in recent history. So just checking if this level will be sustainable going forward or if there have been any one-off effects in H1, like very fortunate timing of raw material purchases or things like that, yeah, which kind of have added to the added value margin in H1. Then the second one on the structural cost savings, which you have already mentioned. Could you just give us a bit more color on that and on the magnitude of savings in OPEX that we can expect going forward here? And then just the last one on the outlook for H2.
So I hear in your statements that you expect construction markets in Europe to remain soft in H2. But just wondering if you compare it to what you've seen in H1, do you think it's going to get any worse or will it be more or less stable? Just asking because the comparable base in H2 will be a quite different one. And yeah, if you were to deliver the same revenue number as in H1, that would imply a return to growth in H2, which is, yeah, checking what you're expecting here.
Yeah. Let me first take the added value margin where we faced improvements both in building and industrial, although building was slightly higher improvement than in industrial. And in industrial, the added value margin is on a higher level because also with the previous question about stocks, we perform a service in service technologies. So there we have a reasonably high added value. And in advanced mechatronics, of course, we also have a material component. So there the added value is more at a normal level like we also perform in building. So let's say, yes, we are happy with the improvements. And yes, that has also to do with, I think, relatively, let's say, the covered material that we have in our coverage of raw materials and then going forward with the pricing trends.
We believe it's sustainable, although improvement potential, of course, there is a limit to added value. There comes a moment that you cannot further improve anymore. But let's see how I think also the mix, so it's also depending on the mix of these two segments, how the development of added value will be going forward. Because, as I said, in the industrial technology segment, we have a relatively higher added value than in the building technology segment. And then maybe about the structural cost, you want to take that?
Yeah, yeah. I think just on added value, I would add that fantastic job by our teams in such a challenging market because we never compromise on price, right? And we, of course, in some product line, there is more competition with the price pressure, but that's where we don't go at all cost just for volume. And that's why we are able to sustain such a good performance. On the structural cost, you can imagine, actually, we are taking action. First of all, executing what we planned because we were expecting a soft market in buildings. So a lot of it is already in progress. And that's why we expect some impact already in second half, especially in building technology. And this 2025. So really reducing fixed costs, like I always say, we need now to do more of the same with less, right?
Then in 2025, we will have a better fixed cost to the building technology. It's a mix of footprint of fixed cost that we are doing mostly in our building technology. We are still adjusting in industrial technology, but most of the restructuring costs on OpEx are on the building technology side.
And then the outlook?
And the outlook, we see actually a flat compared to first half, right? Because we, as I mentioned, the stocks are already very low on building technology, and we believe they will stay there. So we don't expect an increase in building regarding the inventory. And then in the industry, we follow our customers. So that's not where is a major challenge. So that's why second half with a flat volume and additional cost-saving impact, that's a bit what we expect in the second half.
Yeah. Yeah, very clear. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Perhaps for some participants again, if you would like to join, please press star one. Yes. It's Luuk van Beek from Degroof Petercam. Good morning, Luuk. Your line is open now.
Yes, good morning. I have two remaining questions. One is on the U.S. commercial sales. Can you elaborate on the efficiency that you've taken to improve your service levels and what's happening there? And the second is if you can give an indication of how you see the impact of raw materials going forward. You saw a strong spike in the copper price, for example, in recent months that came down. So do you expect any significant impact from that in H2?
Thank you, Luuk. So yeah, commercial valve, it's all about service level based on some operational challenges we have internally. So we are improving. We have a very strong June, right? And that's what we expect to continue. So the growth is there. The order book is there. We just need to do even a better job and continue the improvement to get more product out of the door. So one hand is to get back to the service level we need for our customers. And we believe when we will get there, there are more growth opportunities for 2025. So 2024 is to get back on track and to the service level for our customers. And then let's see 2025 if we can actually start to win. So exciting opportunity, but the market is there and it's up to us to get it.
Yeah, then for the raw material, as you know, Luc, we are covered with our materials for 4-7 months ahead. So that gives us always the view how we should anticipate with pricing towards the trends of raw materials. And it looks like, as it looks right now, because the trend is also upward in the raw material pricing, that probably, yeah, in the beginning of next year, we will do some pricing initiatives again to compensate for that. But that is to be seen, of course, in the remainder of this year. But that is how it looks like today. And we will see how the trends will be affected in the second half of the year. But we are always ahead of the game there because we are covering our materials ahead. So that is the positive thing.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Luuk. I think there's another person. It's Chase Coughlan from Lanschot Kempen. Good morning, Chase. Your line is open.
Good morning, all. Thank you for taking my questions. Apologies, I had some technical difficulties earlier, so I'm not sure if I missed the question already. We've obviously spoken quite a lot today about the raw material price inflation and how you pass that on successfully, improving the added value margin. I'm just curious on if you look for that building technology space, what exactly are your competitors doing actually? Is there a risk that some players are not raising prices and could potentially undercut you and effectively gaining market share or having you lose market share? Is that a risk that you see happening at the moment?
There is always a risk that people will sacrifice their price to get volume and get deals, right? But that's not our strategy. That's what we have been doing very well. Of course, that's where innovation matters. I'm super pleased to see on some product line, we have been doing better than the market on building technology because our offering is unique, because we have better product and better availability also. That's the best way. Where we see the biggest pressure on price is where there is less innovative solution, right? This is sometimes where we are not afraid to just let it go because also it's where we have also lower margins. Where there is a higher pressure on cost is actually not a risk for us.
Okay, that's very clear. And then just one final question from my side. You also spoke quite a lot in the presentation about acquisitions, potentially some bolt-ons in the U.S. Could you potentially give us sort of a more indication on size here or even on a timeline in terms of when we should expect a deal to come through? Is that something that we could expect in the second half of 2024 or even going more into 2025? Any more color there, please?
We have a strong funnel that we are working on, on our three priorities, like I mentioned. So we expect to make progress in the short midterm on this. And the bolt-on is, as per our current strategy, when we reported in the last Capital Markets Day in 2021.
Yeah. With the areas of Americas?
Hydronic Flow Control and Advanced Mechatronics, so in the U.S. and maybe also in Southeast Asia for Advanced Mechatronics.
Yeah.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you.
Thank you all. We have received some questions which have been submitted via the Q&A form. I'd like to start with this one. Yeah, this is a question whether we could repeat or give perhaps even a bit more clarity about what we said about cost reductions being more visible in the second half versus the first half. As a result, follow-up question, can we also see margin evolving even better?
What we can say about that is that we have, as Stéphane, I think, also explained, we have already started a lot of, yeah, let's say, structural reduction actions. So the reduction of structural cost actions, we have started a lot of that. I just explained some of these costs are already taken in the first half year, which also, let's say, was the holding eliminations cost to be more or less flat versus last year because the income from the insurers we also allocated to that part of improving the business. And we expect more to come in the second half year. And that will also then give the benefits in the second half of the year of these structural cost improvements.
Thank you, Arno. There's another question.
Even more important is that it is also really improving our basis for 2015. We have the full year benefit.
I think you have seen that we are able to flex all our variable costs that actually improve. Most of the action we are taking now, it's to address, of course, some short-term volatile demand, but also prepare for the long-term having a lower fixed cost base. When the rebound of activity will come, we will be even better prepared to continue our margin expansions.
Thank you. There's another question which probably has been answered already, but let's repeat it because apparently it's an important question. Again, about what growth trends could we expect in building tech and industrial tech in the second half of this year?
I think we can repeat. So soft demand we expect will continue. So more second half similar to the first half on the building tech. And a bit the same on the industrial tech because we see mixed demand. So that's what we expect. But just to remind you that last year, the second half also was weaker than the first half organically. So from a comparison base, it might be a little bit easier.
Yeah. Okay, thank you. Stéphane, there's another question for you.
Yes.
Specifically, how do you make progress on your observations after your onboarding?
Yes. Thank you for asking. I'm pleased to say that we are making good progress. Actually now we are more in action mode based on some of my first observation, right? So continuing to invest and accelerating on all our people and culture agenda as we just welcome also a new member in our executive team. So it's also preparing for the future, having the right leadership, talent development, diversity. So this is, I think, well in progress. The second point was, as you know, Operational excellence, right? So we continue what we have been doing, but now we are even investing more to become leaner and faster to improve our service level, reduce our inventory, and also optimize our CapEx.
So a lot is put on the machine utilization, better maintenance, and we are adding a lot of capabilities to drive that, also preparing for the long term. And on technology and innovation also, especially in building technology, we are working also on some initiative to prepare and work on some innovative solution to offer more than product and offer solutions to our customer in both residential and commercial building. So that's some of the things we accelerated in second half, preparing for the long term. So no short-term impact, but preparing the long term.
Thank you. There's another question also for you, Stéphane. Can you explain again what do you mean with portfolio optimization?
Yeah, I think it's a good one. It's one of our four strategic actions. So portfolio acquisition is to, and that's something which we will always do, right, internally or externally. But I think we always need to optimize our portfolio to make sure it's a portfolio where the market is growing, where we can have a good position, where we can be in the leading position, and where we can make good margin in a sustainable way. So back to Aalberts' DNA, sustainable and profitable. So what it means now on one hand is to do acquisitions. So that's what we are working on. And then what it means is divestment based on our internal portfolio where we believe we are not the best owner.
If there is lack of synergies or we believe there is a better owner than us that can invest in this business, we will simply divest it. That's what I mean for portfolio optimization.
Thank you, Stéphane. I think I have no further questions now coming in. So I think that we can conclude today's webcast. So first of all, I would like to thank each of you for your participation. I hope today's presentation has provided you with a clear understanding of our achievements, our financial health, and once again confirmed our strategic direction going forward. Thank you once again for joining us today.
Thank you.
Thank you.