Hello and welcome to the Alfen 2020 full year results call. For the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question at any time. If you require assistance at any time, please press star zero on your telephone keypad and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Marco Roeleveld, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you, moderator, and good morning, everybody. Welcome to this Alfen 2020 webcast. Let me firstly introduce the participants on our side. These webcasts and the questions that may come forward will be handled by the management board of Alfen. Jeroen van Rossen, CFO, Richard Jongsma, CCO, and myself, Marco Roeleveld, CEO. Despite the impact of COVID on the whole society, the wider economy, and everybody's well-being, we are proudly presenting the results of Alfen for the full year 2020. Although the near future is unpredictable, we are confident that in the course of 2021, we will start with overcoming the impact of COVID, and as a company, we'll be able to leverage on the increased European focus on the energy transition.
In this webcast, we will start with an update of COVID in relation to Alfen, and then we will continue with the highlights of 2020, followed by the progress on our strategy. In this last section of this webcast, we will go in more detail on the financials and the outlook for 2021. Assuming you've noted the user disclaimer, we can now go to sheet three with an update of the COVID situation in relation to Alfen. As also stated at the quarterly webcast meetings in 2020, we can say that our number one priority remains everybody's health and safety. For safe and responsible operation, we continue to enforce strict safety measures. In this place and time, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all our employees, our customers, our suppliers, our partners for their continued efforts to cope with all restrictions, but also to keep business going.
Due to these combined efforts, we've been able to keep our supply chain intake and the production up and running. Although our end markets experience some impacts as a result of COVID, which might be impacting our order intake in the short term, we also have concluded that the long-term energy transition drivers remain strong. We will continue with the highlights of the full year 2020 results on slide four. The revenue in 2020 has risen to EUR 189 million. This represents a growth of 32% compared to 2019. As a percentage of revenue, the adjusted EBITDA in 2020 is 12.9%. This represents a growth of 68% compared to 2019. Later on in this presentation, we'll go in more detail on the financials. In 2020, we've won important new projects and signed several new framework agreements with new clients, and some examples will be addressed later on in this presentation.
With regard to the revenue outlook for 2021, our projected range is EUR 225 million-EUR 250 million. This is based on the ongoing energy transition on the one hand and the macroeconomical impact of COVID on the other hand. Jeroen will now continue with a short summary of the revenue and results of 2020, both financially as commercially.
Thank you, Marco. Let's get into some more details on the year 2020, starting with our revenue on slide number six. If you look at the graph, you see that the revenue and other income increased from EUR 143.2 million in 2019 to EUR 189 million in 2020, a growth of 32%, which is supported by growth in all of our business lines. Let me address some highlights per business line, starting with energy storage. Although storage is an essential component of the future sustainable energy system, COVID-19 did slow down the growth of the energy storage market, thus delaying investments and projects. Yet, energy storage solution costs are coming down, and the market appears to be recovering. On the back of this, we have been able to secure new contracts and framework agreements towards the end of 2020 based on our strong market position.
If we go to EV charging, we see that the EV market has been growing rapidly, also supported by additional governmental support and incentives for electric driving, despite the challenging year for the automotive industry due to COVID-19. We benefited strongly from increasing volumes under our framework agreements that have been set up over the past years, as well as from new client wins and further internationalization. We further strengthened our international organization, and we further expanded internationally. Furthermore, we successfully relocated our production facility to a new and five times larger building, and by that, also significantly expanded our production capacity. Going to smart grids, we see growth driven by continued grid investments to accommodate the growing number of decentralized wind and solar PV installations, as well as the ongoing electrification.
We benefited through our existing framework agreements with grid operators and through new contract and client wins in our microgrid business. Although the number of renewable developments is growing considerably, some projects have been delayed as a result of COVID-19, which affected order intake and thus revenue. From revenue, we now go to our profitability on the next slide. Our adjusted EBITDA increased from EUR 14.5 million in 2019 to EUR 24.4 million in 2020, a growth of 68%. This growth of the adjusted EBITDA is a combination of strong revenue growth together with gross margin improvement and increased operational leverage. This is enabled through our strong market position, the further leverage from increased scale, and a shift towards increasingly complex solutions. To further improve profitability, we continue to drive forward our strategy of leveraging our fixed cost base.
From the numbers, we now go to some examples of commercial successes in 2020 on slide number eight. I'll start with smart grids. We are very proud to have won the framework agreement with Enexis, one of the two largest DSOs in the Netherlands, for the exclusive supply of substations with an initial term of four years, which can be extended with four additional years. An example in the projects part of our smart grids business is the new three-year framework agreement, which we concluded with PerPetum Energy, a Belgian developer of smart energy solutions for the supply of transformer substations for their renewable energy projects in the Netherlands. If we go to EV charging, we want to highlight ENGIE, with which we secured a three-year framework agreement to supply EV charge points to their customers throughout Europe through their European subsidiaries.
Furthermore, we concluded a framework agreement with BEE, one of Sweden's leading charge point operators, to supply them with charge points. Marco will address the British Gas example later on in the presentation. The third business line, energy storage, there we see that next to already existing framework agreements like the one with Fortum, we concluded another three major multiple-year framework agreements with EnBW, Centrica, and SemperPower to provide them with the full portfolio of our energy storage solutions. All in all, 2020 was commercially a successful year for Alfen. These selected examples clearly show that we further expanded internationally with these internationally well-known clients. Furthermore, we concluded various multiple-year framework agreements and thus secured the growing business for the future. Now we would like to go into some more detail on innovations, and for the highlights on these innovations, I will hand over to Marco.
Thank you, Jeroen. Investments in innovations are key to the future growth of Alfen. I will give some examples of larger innovations. First, introduction of recycled cement in our products to achieve further CO2 footprint reduction. During cement production, considerable amounts of CO2 are released, and we have started testing the uses of recycled cement for the concrete housing of our substations to further reduce our impact on the environment. The second example is the implementation of the latest communication protocol for charging stations. This open charge point protocol is an open communication standard between smart chargers and the back office for charge point management. As one of the first in Europe, we've implemented this latest version. The 2.4.0 version provides additional features, such as more support for smart charging features by back office settings and information on price transparency.
The third example is our next generation mobile energy storage solution. After our first introduction in 2018, we launched our second generation mobile energy storage solution in 2020 with new and improved features such as improved grid interaction and battery mode control capabilities. This further solidifies our market-leading position in this segment. On sheet ten, we go in more detail on our CSR strategy. Corporate social responsibility is a key focus point for Alfen. In 2019, we formulated our new CSR strategy based on a stakeholder survey. We focused our CSR strategy on four elements that were aligned with the relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In the picture on sheet ten, we show the summary of the 2020 progress in relation to these four elements of our CSR strategy. One element is linked to the number seven United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, being affordable and clean energy.
Looking at our progress on this element, we can conclude that we have helped to avoid the emission of about 1.4 million tons of CO2 with our installed charging stations for electrical vehicles, and we have helped to avoid harmful emissions with our smart grid projects, where we have been able to make solar energy available for about 142,000 households. To go in further detail on all aspects of the progress on our CSR strategy, I would like you to take a look at the relevant section in our annual report of 2020 that is available on our website. I now will continue with the progress on our strategy. On sheet 12, you can see the four levers of growth that are supporting our growth strategy. On each of them, I will go in more detail. The first driver for our growth is our market growth.
On sheet 13, we show updated independent relevant market data. For the coming years, this market outlook is strong for all of our business lines. The grid operators are expected to further increase grid investments, and the decarbonization of the energy system continues to drive up the demand for electricity. Also, the grid has to be accommodated for the decentralized influx of renewable energy. Annual installed EV charging points in Europe are expected to grow year on year from 2019 to 2025, also driven by the European Union's targets to have at least 30 million electrical cars on the roads by 2030. The annual industrial-scale battery energy storage systems across Europe are expected to grow strongly from 2020 to 2025. The second driver for our growth, being the further internationalization, is shown on sheet 14.
We continue to pursue our internationalization strategy and have been able to grow the revenues outside the Netherlands with 57% to EUR 61.4 million in 2020. This revenue growth has predominantly been driven by our EV charging business line. Our international organization covers 13 countries, having entered Italy, Spain, and Poland in 2020. Additionally, we further strengthened our organization in the countries we are already operating in, by Germany and France. Besides our own organizational presence, we are also benefiting from clients with an international footprint, and we have installed our products in more than 25 European countries. The service offering for our products is the third growth driver and is shown on sheet 15. In 2020, we have further expanded and optimized our service offering across our business lines.
For example, we have widened our service offering for smart grids, and for our EV charging business, we have further optimized our service proposition to fulfill customer needs even better. For EV chargers, Alfen offers remote and on-site service throughout Europe, while we have international service partners lined up. We are increasingly benefiting from our growing installed base, both through existing and new customers. The unique cross-selling capability of Alfen is the fourth growth driver that is shown on sheet 16. The ability to offer integrated solutions across our three business lines sets Alfen apart in the industry. Therefore, Alfen not only benefits from positive market dynamics in each of our business lines, but also from cross-selling and integrated solutions between our business lines.
An example of cross-selling is Centrica, for which in 2020, we have concluded a framework agreement for the supply of EV charge points with Centrica's daughter company, British Gas, that is the U.K.'s largest energy supplier. The process to come to this framework agreement made it easier to become a preferred partner for Centrica for the supply of battery energy storage solutions across Europe. An example of an integrated solution is [Tree Energy Solutions] , an energy supplier in the Netherlands. We supplied an energy storage system in combination with grid integration and a charging plaza at our office in the Middelburg municipality. The charging plaza is equipped with smart Alfen EV double charge points that are combined with our dynamic load balancing solution software to optimize charging speeds for the electric vehicles. The battery storage container is used to make optimal use of the connection to the local grid.
As the energy transition evolves, more and more complex challenges arise from which a holistic integrated approach is required. Jeroen will now continue on sheet 18 with a more in-depth explanation of the group financials and the outlook for 2021.
Thank you, Marco. Let's take a look at the financials, where we indeed will start with the income statement on slide number 18. Overall, the numbers clearly show that we generated profitable growth in 2020. I will now go into some more detail on the line items, starting by the revenue and other income. If we look at revenue and other income, we see that we increased the revenue and other income from EUR 143.2 million in 2019 to EUR 189 million in 2020. This revenue growth is driven by growth across all our business lines. The gross margin percentage increased from 35.1% in 2019 to 36.7% in 2020, which is the result of our strong market position, our leverage from increased scale, a shift towards increasingly complex solutions, and favorable product mix effects within each business line.
Personnel costs increased from EUR 27.2 million in 2019 to EUR 34.4 million in 2020, an increase of 27% compared with the 32% growth in revenue, thus resulting in further operational leverage. The average full-time equivalents increased from 464 in 2019 to 571 in 2020. The other operating costs increased from EUR 9.2 million in 2019 to EUR 11.1 million in 2020, also showing further operational leverage. As a result, our EBITDA increased from EUR 13.9 million in 2019 to EUR 23.8 million in 2020. If we exclude one-off costs and special items, we arrive at our adjusted EBITDA, which increased from EUR 14.5 million in 2019 to EUR 24.4 million in 2020, a growth of 68% compared to 2019. This improvement of the adjusted EBITDA is the combination of higher gross margins with operational leverage. Finally, our adjusted net profit more than doubled in 2020.
From the income statement, we now go to the balance sheet on the next slide. Let me start with the non-current assets. They increased from EUR 27.7 million at the end of 2019 to EUR 37.8 million at the end of 2020. The capital expenditures amounted to EUR 9.6 million, being 5.1% of revenues, compared to EUR 6.7 million, being 4.7% of revenues in 2019. As we also addressed at the presentation on the semi-annual accounts, as well as with the Q3 trading update, these capital expenditures in 2020 include the investments in the new molds for smart grids, as well as investments in a new and significantly larger EV charging production facility. Additionally, we capitalized EUR 5 million of development costs, which demonstrates our continued efforts to invest in innovations for the future.
Going to the working capital, we see that the working capital reduced to EUR 2.5 million at the end of 2020, compared with EUR 3.1 million at the end of 2019, despite the further growth of our business. Inventory increased due to some strategic stock for additional resilience related to COVID-19, as well as increased stock levels reflecting the further growth of our business. However, this was offset mainly by an increase of the trade and other payables. Finally, our equity increased from EUR 13 million at the end of 2019 to EUR 74.2 million at the end of 2020, a combination of our capital raise in June 2020, as well as by the addition of the net profit over 2020 to our other reserves. Finally, we go to the outlook on slide number 20.
We expect that in 2021, COVID will continue to impact the wider economy and our end markets, which may impact order intake and thus revenue growth. To what extent depends on the duration of the pandemic and how quickly vaccines can successfully be rolled out and get the virus under control, as well as any measures adopted by governments. At the same time, we expect the energy transition to keep building further momentum, as European governments increasingly take action to further support the European Union's Green Deal to become climate neutral by 2050. As such, we continue to anticipate long-term positive market developments in all of our business lines. In 2021, we plan to further invest in our organization, in new innovations for the future, and in the further optimization of our production facilities.
Finally, we expect our revenues for 2021 to be in the range of EUR 225 million-EUR 250 million, based on the ongoing energy transition while taking into account the impact of COVID-19. We are now at the end of the presentation, where I will hand over to the moderator for any questions. Moderator, could you please take over?
If you would like to ask a question, please press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. Please ensure your line remains unmuted locally. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press Star 2. You will be announced when you can ask your question. Our first question is coming from the line of Peter Olofsen from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, gentlemen. I have a couple of questions. Maybe first, two questions on energy storage. Is it fair to say that because of the delayed decision-making by some of your customers last year, that your backlog going into 2021 is lower than what it was at the beginning of 2020? On the new framework agreements that you have, I understand that in case of Centrica, it's for sub-10 megawatt systems. Is that the segment where you think you are particularly well placed? Or do you see scope for Alfen to also participate in larger projects and then have some follow-ups on smart grids?
Maybe to start with the last one, Peter, is that I think that what we already always have stated, that we will be as Alfen in storage will be, say, be active in different areas of the market. One is the mobile energy storage solutions, where we are, say, the leading provider of systems at this moment. On the other hand, with the redevelopment of the high-density concept last year, we also think that we are or not only think, we are convinced that we can play a role in also the bigger project. Where the small and big is more or less changing parameters, that is, of course, something to discussion. We are convinced that we can also be a relevant partner for projects with go to higher power ratings, whether it is 50, 80, or 100 megawatts.
We think that we will be competitive in a wider range of applications for energy storage in the coming years. The question of backlog, what we see, of course, we have concluded framework agreements. We have at this moment, say, projects running. Where in history, maybe we announce every individual project, we have to be mostly clear on that also that we can also communicate on individual orders when we have, say, final agreements also from customers that are willing to disclose the information that there is a project running. At this moment, we have to limit ourselves to the not only limit, but I think that is quite a positive approach to the framework agreements, which we have, say, with quite large player in the whole European area. We are convinced that we can grow our business in the coming years.
Okay. Two questions on smart grids. First, on slide 13, where you show the investments by the top Dutch DSOs. It actually shows that for 2021, 2022, the investments could be broadly stable versus 2020. Is that consistent with what you are seeing based on your discussions with some of those DSOs? Or do you think it could be, yeah, a bit more positive and continue to grow? A question on the Elkamo business, where you've previously talked about some projects or business that you had won in Sweden. Is that already starting to show a more meaningful contribution? What are you seeing at the switchgear business of Elkamo? Is that still somewhat under pressure? Or is that starting to recover?
Hi, Peter. It's Richie here. Thank you for the questions. To start with your first question, where we see the investment from Dutch DSOs in the future. Of course, we've seen the objective information as well. However, be aware that on the European level, you see that all the European grid companies invest more than EUR 40 billion on a yearly basis to prepare themselves for the energy transition. The energy transition goes on in the Netherlands as well. There is no reason why it would not be growing. Also, the local Dutch authorities, the ACM, reviewed the plans and have indicated that the plans are too conservative. We look at that as well. Don't forget that for us, smart grids is not only the DSOs, it's also the projects and the projects for renewables. That one is growing quite fast as well.
We believe, at the end of the day, that the growth for the smart grids will be there.
If we look at the Elkamo situation, we have seen that, say, when you look at Scandinavia in a more wider sense, that's Finland and Sweden, where we're now active in, we see that there is a delay of investments in Sweden, where we expect them to be picking up in the coming years. We see a stronger strive for, say, coping with, say, the energy transition in Finland. Therefore, at this moment, we grow steadily in Finland. We are preparing ourselves to have a good entrance into Sweden, where we have won, of course, our first contracts. The numbers are, say, relatively low. On the other hand, it gives us the opportunity to tune the products which we are planning to supply to Sweden to tune them optimally to the requirements, which are a little bit different than what we see in Finland.
The aspect of the low for the switchgear, we see that there is a continued more or less lack of investments or delay in investments, mainly related to one of their bigger customers being Vattenfall, which has difficulty in continuing their revenues in the area of, say, power plants across the world. As a consequence, on low for the switchgear, we see that the overall revenues there is not growing. On the other hand, we see that within Finland, there will be we expect investments in especially the paper industry. We are, say, confident that with the right attention, we'll be able to benefit from those renewed investments in Finland.
Okay. My final question is related to EV charging, where the sales about doubled last year. Could you shed some light on the growth that you saw in your home market in the Netherlands and the growth that you saw outside the Netherlands? Was there a big difference between these two?
Peter, we do not report on the different markets. What we see is that the very strong position that we have in the Dutch market, we maintain and we grow it. You see that on a European level, we outpace the growth of the market. We do that in the different segments. You have the public, the semi-publics, the business, and home. On all the three aspects, you see the growth of our business accelerating. What you also see is that we, of course, have entered into new countries. As you know, we pre-invest in new countries by putting people in place in the different countries to make sure that we prepare ourselves for that country. You see that the markets surrounding us, where we also invest in expanding our teams there and expanding our product offering, that the growth is very satisfying.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you.
The next question is coming from the line of Lotte Timmermans from ABN AMRO ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen. First, a question on the Nexus contract. I did not hear any comment in the call, but you said something one-on-one that that might have partly delayed some DSO revenues. Could you give some more color on that regarding the new substations you are supposed to deliver? Is this going to positively influence rollouts in Q1? That is my first question. I will do one by one.
I think if you look at the Nexus part, Lotte, indeed, what we see is that we are very proud, of course, to have won that contract, long-lasting, multiple-year contract. We engineered a new product range of transformer substations for Nexus under this new contract. We were in Q4 as well as also in Q1 in the situation where we phase out the old range of the product portfolio and phase in the new range of the product portfolio. As, of course, there are two organizations involved in that, we, as well as Nexus, we try to balance that as good as possible. We are currently also still in the phasing in of that contract.
There will be more into Q2 as well?
It's not, as I said, directly organized that way. The hard split is, say, what is in quarter. The basic situation is that in 2020, in the fourth quarter, we were ramping down, say, the older modules so that we had a hard transfer to the new designs in 2021. Then slowly ramp up our production so that we not only are the ones ramping up the production also, but that Nexus can cope with the different substations that have to be incorporated in a different way within their grid. We are stepping up our production in the first quarter. We are hoping that we'll have a stable situation in, say, starting around the second quarter, whether it is starting half of March or half of April. That's not fully clear yet at this moment.
Okay. Thanks. On the earnings outlook, I know you do not guide on 2021 earnings and do not say any specific ones. Looking at your performance this year, especially year-end, can you give some more color on your views on margin improvement in 2021? Do you expect gross margin to still improve as services becomes a larger part of the mix, for example? What would it be translated to in terms of EBITDA margin?
Of course, good question. I can't give the precise guidance there. You know it. What you see is that, again, in 2020, we saw an increase in our gross margins supported by, as we mentioned before, our strong market position, the increased leverage, the leverage from increased scale added that we see, as well as more complex solutions that are needed as the energy transition is going on. Also, some favorable product mix effects. We explained before that there are some elements which are of a more structural nature. There are also some elements which are more of an incidental nature, which might be up or a bit down. The policy and the strategy is still to generate profitable growth. That profitable growth, as we said also at IPO, is gradually increasing the gross margins and at the same time create the operational leverage.
I think we're very proud to see that we have been able to increase the gross margins. You see the signs of the operational leverage kicking in. That's definitely the strategy that we want to continue with. We'll keep on and we'll focus on going forward.
Looking at your medium-term targets, I think you're well on track for the EBITDA margins. Would you say that you're ahead of schedule on that one?
What I can say is that we are very pleased with the outcome of 2020, that the adjusted EBITDA mid to high teens objective is still there and that we will do our utmost to reach that. That's how we look at it. Looking at 2020, we're very happy with the results.
Okay. Final question. On your net cash position, can you give some more detail on what your plans are with the cash? I think it's still there at least. Is there any update on your plans instead of the breakdown you've given before?
I think the breakdown we've given before is still valid. It's not that we raised that capital just for one purpose. That would have been easier to explain, of course. It is still for the wide range of elements that we address. We did increase, of course, our capital expenditures in 2020. We invested further in innovations. We also expanded internationally. I think those elements we are doing. We also continuously look at potential investment opportunities. You can expect of us to invest in a sensible way to support our strategy. That's how we look at that.
Okay. Thanks. That was it for me.
The next question is coming from the line of Tanuj Agrawal from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. This is Tanuj Agrawal from Barclays. Thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple of questions. I'll start one by one. The first one is on the supply chain, actually. Given the recent shortages we are seeing on broader industrial supply chains emerging and commodity prices moving up, especially copper and steel at such elevated levels, chip shortages, and I presume there are semiconductors that go into your chargers. I'm just trying to understand how are you prepared for supply shortages and these shocks emerging. Within that, how do we see the elevated pricing for copper and steel being passed to the customers? How are the margins being protected in that sense? That's my first question.
Okay. If you look at the supply chain, Tanuj, up to this point, we have been able to keep our supply chain up and running. We are in a constant dialogue, sometimes even multiple times a day, with our suppliers. We have very tight connections with them. We have a category strategy in each of our categories, which includes multi-sourcing as a philosophy. We focus on that. Of course, and it's fair to state, we cannot influence the macroeconomic situation. If the whole world comes to a standstill based on components, yeah, then it would be very bold to say that we will not be impacted by that. Having said that, up until now, we cope with that. We have multiple sourcing. We also stated that we increased safety stock with relation to COVID.
All in all, so far, we keep on monitoring that situation very, very closely. With respect to prices, yeah, of course, we see price increases. We also see that we have leverage from increased scale. By becoming bigger, also, your purchasing power increases. All in all, of course, margin is always the outcome of prices on the market as well as on cost prices. That is also something we are very strictly monitoring on a constant basis.
Sure. Thanks. The other one is you have highlighted in your presentation and continue to highlight that service is one of the levers of your strategy. You last reported a mid-single-digit type share of services, if I remember. How are we seeing that service share evolve by division? I know you have said it takes time to build on the installed base that you can then service. For example, now you have sold quite a large number of chargers out there. You command market-leading positions in certain markets. By when do you think you can start to accrue sizable service revenues? How do you define the timeline? Any target you plan, say, X% of service by over three years, five years target from where you stand today?
Your questions are related to the service revenues in our overall revenue statement. You can appreciate the fact that there is a timely delay for service revenue to enter into, to come into the business in relationship to the supply of our products. First, we have to supply the products. Then we have the warranty period. After that, we start more or less with the period where the service contracts are relevant for. Whether it is a one or two-year time delay, that is something to bear in mind, that there is, say, a quite strong time delay from, say, the initial delivery of the equipment and the moment where we more or less have the service proposition creating revenue.
Due to the fact we have quite a strong growth line for our new equipment line, there is more or less a double time delay in relationship to our service revenue. That is the fiscal time delay due to the fact that the service revenue only kicks in after a certain time. Due to the strong growth, the number starts to grow, say, from a lower level, say, from the revenue from two years ago. In that way, it will contribute to our overall revenue and also to our overall profit margin. There is a time lag. The time lag is due to the fact that we have strong growth as a consequence at this moment that the service revenue is still limited.
I think that's it from my side for now. Thank you.
We currently have one question remaining. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. The next question is coming from the line of Jan Richard from Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two follow-on questions, please. The first one is on your slide number 13 on EV charging and storage, where you show us the key guards from third parties in terms of the longer-term growth of each segment. What we're seeing since the H1 update you provided is that these third parties seem to be more conservative in the key guards they forecast. I just wanted to hear your view on this. I mean, is this something you share as well? Are you shorter-term as well, a bit more cautious maybe? Or is it just their view? You're just showing their view and you might not agree with it. That would be my first question, please.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a good question. What we see is that the market for charging stations is increasing rapidly. You see that despite the COVID-19 situation, there's an enormous increase in electric cars coming to the market. That's contrary to the sales development of combustion engine-driven cars. We see also that the Green Deal is supporting this. We see that local governments are supporting this. We see, of course, these figures. However, we also feel that the long-term fundamental drive, and especially also, for instance, Jaguar announcing that by 2025, they will stop producing all the cars than electric cars. We see that actually that the revenues seen from the future, the number of charging stations in the future will only increase.
Maybe to add to that is that we have overstated that there's not one element being market growth that is relevant for our growth of our revenue. It's a combination of market growth, internationalization, cross-selling, service. All those four elements, those are together making the growth of our revenue. If we only look to market growth, you could consider that the growth number of the overall market is lower than what we are more or less showing. We're doubling our revenues now for the third year in time on EV charges. You have to bear in mind that in this situation, we are levering, say, those four levers of growth towards our revenue growth.
Okay. Very clear. The second one is on CAPEX. It's good to see you guys investing more, of course, in CAPEX. I understand that a portion of 2020 CAPEX is related more to one-off projects as opposed to longer-term CAPEX programs. Could you please help us isolate the portion of your 2020 CAPEX, which is a bit of a one-off, to see how the trend towards your 3% mid-term target is going?
I think, Jan, to add to that, the medium-term target is set to address and point out that we are asset light. I think that's the main message that we want to give. If you look normally at the capital expenditures that we have on a regular basis, that's occasionally in molds. If we grow the business, it's in furniture and fittings, more or less to that part related. Do not expect us to build a EUR 100 million factory somewhere in Europe. We do not need that. We can increase the production capacity as we have shown before. We will keep on, however, investing in the innovations for the future. The capitalization of the development costs from an absolute point of view will continue to rise. Especially in 2020, more or less two of a more incidental items came together.
That is the investment in the molds for smart grids as well as the relocation of the production facility for our EV charging business to a completely new and five times larger building. That is, of course, giving rise to some CAPEX. To emphasize, CAPEX normally is more in furniture and fittings within our company, that part, next to capitalization of development costs.
Okay. We should rapidly come back down to this 3% target, right? It's not like when you say mid-term target for EBITDA margins, CAPEX, and revenues, it's not like the CAPEX target would be at the end of the decade and margins and revenues target would be closer to the midpoint, right? You're looking at all at the same time, pretty much, in terms of.
We look at all at the same time, Jan. It is like with operational leverage. Of course, it is not a linear line. We focus on that. By increasing, of course, by increasing revenue, you will also see that we increase our capital expenditures from an absolute point of view. Nevertheless, as a percentage, it should go down. Please do not misunderstand me. We will keep on investing.
Yep. Very clear. Thank you.
The next question is coming from the line of Peter Olafsen from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you. I had a follow-up question on EV charging. I understand that since November in Germany, there is like a EUR 200 million budget available for grants for home chargers. Have you seen any effect of that on the demand for your products? Have you recently seen similar kind of initiatives in other markets in Europe?
Hi, Peter. Thank you for your question. Yeah. We have for sure seen an uptake. Germany is one of our fast-growing countries for EV charging. That's good to see. The incentive of EUR 200 million has really helped. Even better, in the German market, it was just announced that they'll expand this program for another EUR 300 million. We expect that also to accelerate our revenues for Germany. What you also see is that all over Europe, you see all kinds of incentives being in place, being enlarged, or being started to accelerate the change from normal cars to EV cars. Yeah, and as you know from us, we are very fast in developing and adapting our products to the local markets. We see a big opportunity for us there.
Okay. Thank you.
There are no further questions. I will hand you back to your host, Marco Roeleveld, to conclude today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you, moderator. With this, I would like to thank everybody for their attention and wish you a pleasant day. We hope to speak to you again in a short time. Thank you.
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