Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Kendrion's Q4 and full year 2021 results presentation. My name is Joep van Beurden, Kendrion's CEO, and with me online is Jeroen Hemmen, our CFO. For those of you who had planned to join us in the Holiday Inn, thank you for your flexibility. I tested positive for COVID yesterday, so it's clearly not appropriate to have a face-to-face meeting. Thank you for that. Next slide, please. First, I will give a brief update regarding the COVID situation at Kendrion. Then Jeroen will review the Q4 and full year 2021 results, after which I will take over and give you an update of the progress we have made, both strategically and operationally over the past period. Next, I will discuss the outlook for 2022, and then we'll go to Q&A. Now, as to Q&A, we've done this before.
We created the opportunity to ask questions. There are two ways of doing that. One is raise your virtual hand and the operator will enable your microphone, and the other way is to type any questions through the Q&A icon on the bottom of the webcast. Please do state your name and company. Before the COVID update, I would like to draw your attention to the following. Claire.
Certain statements contained in this presentation constitute forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements rely on several assumptions concerning future events and are subject to uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the company's control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. Next, let's go to the COVID update. Our priority in dealing with the pandemic isn't changed. Number one, the health and safety of our employees, their families, customers, suppliers, and all other stakeholders.
Secondly, to safeguard the group's continuity to ensure that we come out of this pandemic stronger than ever. Although COVID seems to be slowly becoming endemic, the situation remains unpredictable, and this online presentation is a living example of that. We therefore continue to enforce all our COVID prevention measures for as long as is needed. Now, let's go to the business review. Jeroen.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Joep. On Q4. In Q4, we saw a continuation of the strong revenue momentum of the previous quarters. Our organic revenue increased with 9%, and on a nominal basis, the increase was 12%. The fourth quarter growth was carried by the industrial business groups, with IAC reporting 18% organic growth and IB even 36% compared to the same quarter last year. This growth was driven by a broad industrial demand recovery, but especially by the trend by which industrial processes are increasingly electrified and automated. Semiconductor shortages affected our automotive customers, leading to a 6% revenue decrease in Q4. As was the case in the previous quarters, we did compare positively to the auto market, where global car production decreased 13%, and in Europe even 28%.
As was the case in the previous quarters, we were able to largely mitigate the sharply increasing input prices. Sales price increases, plus a positive sales mix effect with a higher share of industrial revenue, more than offset the higher input prices and leading to a 70 basis points gross margin increase. Our operating expenses were affected by high demand volatility in automotive in combination with the fast growth in industrial. This created inefficiencies in automotive, and we had to increase the more expensive weekend shifts in industrial. Nevertheless, our EBITDA improved 1% and our EBITDA margin of 19% compared to the previous year. One-off charges in Q4 that have been normalized in the results include a EUR 3.3 million impairment charge related to an automotive project cancellation.
Based on the current state of the compensation discussions with the customer and our technical view of the reuse of this equipment, we have decided to impair the line. An already agreed compensation with the customer includes an alternative but smaller project that will start in 2024. Moving to the full year. Revenue increased 16% on an organic basis and is now only 1.5% below the pre-pandemic levels. Industrial already exceeds the pre-pandemic levels by some 10%. Despite the significant temporary cost measures taken in the previous year, we were able to realize 20% operational leverage in 2021. This led to an EBITDA increase of 25% to EUR 55.8 million and EBITA increased 69% to EUR 31.9 million.
The higher EBITA drove as well the 480 basis points increase in the return on invested capital. For the avoidance of doubt, the invested capital excludes intangibles related to acquisitions. Next slide, please, Claire.
Our normalized cash flow came in at EUR 3.5 million. Last year, this was EUR 31.5 million. A substantial part of the increased profit was invested in higher working capital requirements and much higher capital investments, including the start of construction of our new facility in China. Higher working capital was the result of the higher activity level, the increased revenue share of industrial, which carries typically a higher percentage of revenue in working capital, and also higher buffer stocks to increase or to secure our supply chain.
Our leverage ratio improved slightly to 2.3, having fully absorbed the 3T acquisition, the buffer stocks and the investment in the China building. At year-end, Kendrion had EUR 58 million available in cash and undrawn credit facilities. Next slide please, Claire.
Kendrion will propose to the shareholders a dividend of EUR 0.69 per share, and this is a payout ratio of 50% of our normalized net profits before amortization. This proposal underlines our confidence in our business fundamentals and our financial position. The dividend, as usual, will be optional in cash or in ordinary shares. We move to the industrial groups. Next slide, Claire. Where IB increased for the year, their revenue with 21% and IAC by some 16% on an organic basis.
3T is now fully integrated in the IAC business group and contributed EUR 3.4 million revenue at a 19% EBITA, EBITDA margin. The added value margin in the industrial groups decreased slightly in 2021 as price increases are passed on to customers with some delay. Despite the challenging supply chain situation, Industrial was able to increase EBITDA by 34% compared to the previous year, and the EBITDA margin improved further to 16.8% compared to 15.3% last year. Finally, we move to the automotive, where after a promising start in the first half of the year, the much-talked about semiconductor shortages impacted the global car industry significantly in the second half year.
Although revenue in automotive are still on a relatively low level compared to the pre-pandemic situation, we were able to consistently outperform the market in 2021. This was driven by new business wins in the recent years that started or ramped up production in 2021. For the year, automotive revenue increased 13%. On the added value margin, automotive was able to slightly improve the margin despite the sharply increasing material prices. Sales price increases matched the raw material price increase, and in addition, automotive benefited from a slightly improved sales mix. Operating expenses in automotive were affected by the high volatility, making efficient production planning close to impossible.
The EBITDA margin, the EBITDA increased only 8% to EUR 16.8 million, but we have to bear in mind that the cost base in 2020 was reduced by massive pandemic-related cost measures. With a higher activity level in 2021 and a full R&D pipeline, this could not be sustained in 2021, leading to the somewhat lower than usual operational leverage. With that, I hand it back to you.
Thank you, Jeroen. I will now proceed with an update of the strategic and operational progress we have made in 2021. As Jeroen just explained, in 2021, we delivered strong results. A previous slide, please, Claire. We delivered strong results under difficult market conditions. There was significant demand and supply volatility. We faced shortages in many input materials, including semiconductors, steel, and certain plastics. We were dealing with price increases of many of our raw materials, putting pressure on our value-added margin. Of course, COVID was and is still a reality. Against this backdrop, we had a good year with group revenue 70% higher than in 2020 and close to pre-pandemic levels. Our underlying EBITDA grew by 25% and our normalized net profit before amortization by 76%.
I'm extremely proud of what our employees have achieved as a global team, and I'm excited about the accelerating transition towards clean energy that we believe will benefit our growth areas. Industrial Brakes, as it boosts demand for wind power, robotics, and various other segments. Automotive, where we focus on ACES, specifically sound suspension and sensor cleaning. China, where we see the same transition towards clean energy. IAC is focused on profitability and cash generation, but with expanding opportunities for growth as well. Now let's get into a bit more detail. Next slide, please. You know this picture, Kendrion's strategic house. The top of the building indicates our strategic intent. We aspire to continuously grow revenue and profitability by investing in opportunities that help society become more sustainable with a lean and focused organization, and to provide a top-quality work environment to our employees.
Linked to this are our medium-term strategic objectives, such as our target to grow with at least 5% organically on average between 2019 and 2025. Underpinning this strategic goal are three pillars. Automotive, representing around half of group revenue. Here we focus on growth and especially on the opportunity we see developing in actuators for autonomous, connected, electrified and shared mobility, the so-called ACES. In industrial brakes, which is around a quarter of group revenue, we offer a full range of brakes and see ample growth opportunity driven by the accelerating trend towards electrification in robots, both industrial and collaborative, in wind power, in elevators, and more. Here, too, we focus on growth. Industrial actuators and controls, where the focus is on profitability and cash generation.
In segments such as control technology, inductive heating, energy distribution, and safety files for nuclear power, we see more and more growth opportunities here too. In other words, our cash engine is growing as well. Of course, we have our focus on China, active in all three domains with the same intent, growth in auto and brakes profit in IAC. We have introduced this strategy and the related financial targets in September 2020, some 18 months ago, and we have not been sitting still since that announcement. Before sharing some of the highlights of 2021, let me take a step back and see how Kendrion has transformed over the past two years. Next slide, please. Despite the pandemic, we've taken several bold steps to strengthen the company and improve its strategic position. In Q3 2019, we acquired INTORQ, substantially strengthening our position in industrial brakes.
As these brakes are mostly sold and integrated with an electromotor, this is a play on the accelerating and broadening electrification in almost all markets, like intralogistics, robotics, wind power, and more. Two years later, we acquired 3T. This again strengthens us in a segment of significant growth, industrial control technology. It also gives us more critical mass in our ability to develop and deliver software and electronics, and this is strategically important for the automotive group. Just as important, these two acquisitions have changed the revenue profile of the group. Kendrion is now a more balanced company as industrial and automotive both represent around 50% of group revenue. Leo. In December of last year, we broke ground on 28,000 sq m manufacturing facility in Suzhou to facilitate significant growth in the project pipeline and many more opportunities that we are after.
All in all, we invested around EUR 121 million. As you can see on this slide, compared to 2019, not just the revenue profile has changed, but it's also up 12%, including the acquisitions despite the pandemic and despite the passenger car market shrinking with 16% from 89 million passenger cars in 2019 to 76 million passenger cars produced in 2021. This over the same period, our EBITDA grew with 29%. As mentioned, automotive industrial revenue split is now roughly 50/50. Let's look in more detail at the progress we made in industrial, starting with IAC. Next slide. IAC is active in around 30 different product market combinations, and one of the tasks for IAC management is to invest in those segments that offer potential for growth while ensuring the other segments are optimized for profitability and cash flow.
What we are seeing in IAC is that some segments, especially the ones related to energy transitions, are offering opportunities for substantial growth. On the actuator side, rotary solenoids for use in intralogistics and a newly developed rotary lock for industrial washing machines are both growing fast with more potential going forward. We have divested over 30% share in Newton, but retained the exclusive manufacturing rights. The production for Newton's beverage dispensing valves in Mishawaka is now starting. On the control side, the development of a 20 kW inductive heating system, and these systems replace oil and gas-based heating, has started. We had a record revenue for the controls for those inductive heating systems.
Integration of 3T is going well, and the IAC team is looking at opportunities in all markets and is finding more and more chances to grow while retaining its focus on cash flow and profitability. In summary, our cash engine is doing well. Next, let's look into 3T a bit more. 3T offers a significant enhancement of IAC's control technology portfolio with substantial cross-selling opportunities, including 3T insourcing from IAC. We have embedded the 3T organization into IAC, and we have also hired the first automotive software and electronics engineers at our offices in Enschede. Software and electronics is becoming ever more important for industrial and automotive products. We foresee more FTE growth. That is why we expect to open an office at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven for July 1, 2022. Next, let's look at IB. Industrial Brakes had a good year.
Volumes were up substantially in almost all markets and segments, driven by accelerating electrification. Despite a difficult supply chain, we managed to deliver our key customers in time. We've also transitioned our U.K.-based service business to Villingen. On the product side, we continue to be successful with our new brake portfolio focused on robotics and logistics market segments. We don't stop there. The IB team has initiated Project Vision 2030 to define the direction and the product roadmap for the long term. In Suzhou, where we anticipate strong growth the coming years, we have started a project to further expand manufacturing and R&D capabilities. Commercially, IB's commercial momentum continues. Next slide, please. We continue with our clear focus on global growth markets, logistics, robotics, and wind power. We expanded our customer base.
On the back of our comprehensive product offering, we added several leading customers. We confirmed and extended our long-term relationship with top two customers. We're also investing in IT to transform IB into a more digital-enabled organization. All in all, a strong year for Brakes with plenty more in the pipeline. Next, Automotive. First, as we all know, the automotive market has been negatively affected by the pandemic. First, let's look at IHS Markit's view of by how much. Year-over-year, vehicle production in 2020 was 16% lower than in 2019 at 75 million vehicles. In 2021, car production was stable at 76 million. According to IHS, it will take until 2024 before we return to the 2018 production levels. Overall, not that much growth in the number of cars, but there is significant opportunity.
The opportunity lies in electrified vehicles that are forecasted to grow with 44% per year between 2018 and 2026 to 28 million vehicles. As a proportion of total vehicle production, the share of electrification is expected to rise from around 1% in 2018 to 26% in 2026. It's therefore not surprising at all that major OEMs and Tier 1s are investing heavily in this. We too have been investing relentlessly in our product roadmap, our commercial organization, and our software and electronics capabilities to make full use of this important trend. Our acquisition of 3T is a key example of that. A few more words on this as we are truly entering a new automotive era. Next slide, please. This era is arriving faster than originally anticipated.
Not a day goes by without an announcement by one of the leading OEMs, Tier 1s, new entrants, or governments about investing in the ACES. Here are a few examples. Mercedes-Benz shows its VISION EQXX at CES. Ford to spend up to $200 million reorganizing for the shift to electric cars. The launch of a whole range of electric SUVs and pickup trucks in the U.S. by Ford, GM, and others. We see consumer electronics companies enter the fray, Sony, Foxconn, Apple. The investment in software and electronics keeps increasing and increasing. In summary, the internal combustion engine is being superseded as the beating heart of a car by the electronics that control safety and infotainment systems. This is a significant transition in which software and electronics are a major component of the vehicle.
Car makers will have to become more like technology firms, and Kendrion aims to be part of this change. Next, let's talk about our 2021 nominations. This slide presents the lifetime revenue and automotive nominations won in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. We calculate this by assuming that projects for passenger cars have a lifetime of maximum 7 years and start after start of production. For commercial vehicles, we take a maximum of 10 years. We use the volumes and pricing agreed with our customers, but do add our own judgment to that. We keep track of the nature of the nominations in two categories related to the traditional combustion engine or ICE, which we call legacy, or independent of the propulsion method, like smart damping or sound actuation, which we call ACES.
In 2021, we won EUR 305 million worth of new business or a book-to-bill ratio of around 1.3. Of the 2021 nominations, 60% is related to the ACES and 40% to legacy. A major nomination driver was the successful sound projects with our PHANTONE product line, representing EUR 120 million of nominations in 2021. If we look back over the past four years, we have won around EUR 1.25 billion in business, and we've adjusted this for the effect of, on the one hand, cancellations and on the other hand, extensions of legacy revenue. This represents an average of book-to-bill of 1.3 over the past four years, and we are beginning to see this in our revenue line. Last year, automotive revenue grew while the production of passenger cars was flat.
Next slide, please. Here you can see that the positive book-to-bill of 1.0-1.3 on average over the past four years is beginning to make a positive impact on our automotive revenue. In 2020, Kendrion's revenue was in line with the drop in the passenger car production. In 2021 we did substantially more, 13% more revenue in a market that was largely flat. Overall, we are 10% lower than where we were pre-pandemic while the market is off by around 20%. Let's look at the commercial traction in 2021. As mentioned earlier, the star of 2021 was our AVAS sound PHANTONE product line with a record nomination level of EUR 120 million lifetime. We expect to start producing these products late 2022 in China.
We also have growing momentum in suspension, where three Tier One signed eCDV suspension contracts. Generally, we saw strong demand for our suspension valves despite the global supply shortage. Sensor cleaning is a bit further away from revenue, but here too we are making progress. Through our strategic collaboration with Tier One Kautex, we can provide a complete sensor cleaning system as a one-stop shop. Together, we offer a technically leading platform and have high interest from OEMs as well as robotaxi ventures. All in all, a good year commercially for automotive, with the fast-growing opportunities in the ACES reflected in the high share of our nominations. Next, let's look at China. In China, we continued to grow during 2021, and our nominations are again higher than the size of our business.
China's government's 14th five-year plan is heavily emphasizing green energy, electric vehicles, robotics, driving enormous opportunities for Kendrion. Which is why we are pleased that we have broken ground on building our new facility in Suzhou in December. Next slide, please. Here you get an impression of our plant facility located in Suzhou's Industrial Park or SIP. SIP is recognized as the most high-tech area in Suzhou and is the premier location for technology and advanced manufacturing companies there. In phase one, we plan to build close to 28,000 sq m with the possibility to add another 16,000 sq m in phase two. The building, including a fully automated warehouse, is now under construction. We expect to move in in the second half of 2022.
Of course, as you can see, we are planning photovoltaic panels on the roof and expect to generate 1.1 MWh, which should cover up to 60% of our internal energy requirements. Which brings me to the progress we made on our corporate social responsibility program. Before we do that, I'd first like to show you a short impression of the building site in Suzhou. As you could see from that short clip, lots of activity in China, and as I mentioned, we hope to complete and move into the second half of this year. Let's continue with our progress on corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility is an integral part of the way we do business at Kendrion.
We respond to the increasing environmental awareness of society and our stakeholders by focusing our resources on the development of sustainable products. When it comes to our product portfolio, we develop products that will help to either keep you safe, products that will keep you healthy, or products that reduce climate impact. On this slide, some examples drawn from our three business groups. Our goal is not just to create sustainable growth, but grow to help sustainability. It's not just the products in our portfolio and on our roadmap. We've made real progress in sustainable business practices in 2021, and continue to make good progress towards our 2023 sustainability targets. Next slide, please. We have reduced our relative energy consumption with 8% on our way to a target of reducing that with 15%. Good progress with still some work to do.
When it comes to the relative reduction of CO2, we're at almost 18%, so ahead of our target of 15%. This means the relative CO2 emission of our facilities is now 54% lower than in 2015. We will continue to push this, and implement further mitigation measures. We also reduced our total waste and improved our recycling rate. Over the coming years, corporate social responsibility with all its components, natural capital, social and human capital, and responsible business conduct, will continue to get full attention by all Kendrion employees, starting of course, with the supervisory board, Jeroen and me. Next slide, please. Next, let's go to the outlook. We do expect current economic environment to continue in the first half of 2022, with potentially a more stable supply chain in the second half, especially when it comes to commodities like steel and plastics.
Semiconductors is less clear. We do see a substantial and sustained opportunity for growth with products that help advance the global push towards electrification and clean energy. We expect the positive business fundamentals from which we benefited in 2021 to continue with our main objective, delivery of sustainable, profitable growth. Which brings me to our long-term targets as announced in September 2020. Over the past two years, dominated by COVID-19, I believe we have shown resilience, making full use of the available cost saving and cash preservation instruments when orders were down, and using our operational leverage to grow our profitability when demand improved. We also kept progressing our strategic agenda, having invested around EUR 120 million in acquisitions and production capacity.
Over the past year, we have made an important step towards our medium-term targets of average organic growth of at least 5% per year from 2019 to 2025, and an EBITDA margin and return on invested capital of at least 25% by 2025. Thank you for attention, and I'd like to go to Q&A now.
We will take our first question from Frank Claassen. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, all. First of all, a question on the cost inflation. I was quite surprised to see that your gross margin was still up in Q4 despite the higher raw material prices. My question is related to that. Have we seen most of the raw material price increases? And what can we still expect? And how are you dealing in general with cost inflation, maybe wages? Are you passing on via price increases? Could you elaborate on that, please? That's my first question. Secondly, on CapEx, what can we expect for 2022? And will it be? How much will roughly be the new Chinese plant and what are other CapEx plans for you? Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Frank. Let me talk a bit about cost inflation and hand it over to Jeroen, who may want to add some stuff there and also talk a bit about CapEx. On cost inflation, you rightfully note that we managed to limit the impact of that. In fact, we expanded a bit our value-added margin. The gain there is that on the one hand, of course, we try to push back as hard as we can on our own suppliers, but most importantly is that we timely reflect the increasing prices in the prices to our customers. Now, that is inherent. There's always a bit of delay there, but as you can see, we've been quite focused on that and we've done reasonably well.
I don't expect this is the end of it, so we'll have to continue this game. Now, it's a highly unpredictable environment. We of course know that the pandemic is still with us, but you know, not telling anybody anything new, as the broad expectation is, among all other uncertainty around the Ukraine, is that, for instance, energy costs will go up, and we will need to deal with that as well. In my view, the world in which we will need to protect our value-added margin with a lot of energy is going to stay with us in 2022. Jeroen, maybe a bit more on that and the CapEx question.
Not much more, I think, on the inflation as it's quite clear. There will be some also from the current price level, some additional impact in 2022, because some of the contracts, supply contracts end right now. Then you get only confronted at the end of the year with the higher price. But also those prices, we are confident that we will be able to pass it on to the customer via raw material clauses.
Automatic surcharges. On the wage inflation, currently that has not occurred yet, but as you've already mentioned, we are fully focused on that, as with the higher energy prices. On CapEx for the regular CapEx, we anticipate slightly higher than depreciation. Yeah, let's say 10%-15% margin. In addition, we of course have to go the finalization of the building in China, where from the investments that we have done in 2021, I expect another EUR 14 million in 2022 for the completion.
Of the other investments that will be driven mainly by production lines for newly won business in automotive. Also important is the ongoing localization and extension of capacity in China, and that is particularly driven by industrial brakes in Europe. Given the high growth, we are looking at capacity extensions. Those are the most important components of the CapEx going forward.
Okay. Thank you very much.
We'll take our next question from Thijs' Hollestelle.
Thijs?
Yeah. Can you hear me?
Yeah, no, we can.
Yeah.
Good morning.
Good morning, everybody. My first question is you're mentioning signing up of 2 or a few leading customers in the IP business. Can you tell us which customers that are or in which end markets that was?
Yeah, as you know, that's always difficult, but it is worth elaborating maybe a little bit, Thijs, because these are two, or not two, a few customers. One is particularly interesting from a volume perspective that have long eluded both Kendrion and INTORQ. You see the power of combining these product portfolios. Of course now, by now this is well established in the industry. The acquisition is more than two years ago. That it makes us a much more interesting one-stop shop for many of these buyers. That was always one of the strategic rationales behind this acquisition, and now it's playing out. That is, that's very good news.
It's difficult to name them, but these are global brands and we expect them—we could potentially benefit over time, not just in Europe, but also for instance in China and potentially also the US. In general, I would say the commercial traction and momentum on the IB side is really strong. Of course, also driven by a fast expanding market. This is not necessarily a market share fight where you have to go in and say, "Okay, let me offer better pricing." There's just a lot of opportunity and then with, you know, high quality products and a full range of applications, we simply are in a very strong position to win these types of deals.
Is it fair to say that, let's say the performance of INTORQ, the integration, everything together in Industrial exceeded a little bit your expectations?
Yeah.
In the last, let's say, four or five quarters?
I would say yes. I mean, that's not just INTORQ, that's also true for our own brand business. We were, I mean, you know how this goes with these types of M&A discussions. You have your case, and it was a very interesting case. Otherwise, of course, we wouldn't have done it. The market around this energy transition trend that we see and that we expect to continue is better than what we have originally 2.5 years ago when we looked at this assumed. Yes, definitely. I mean, the integration generically, we talked about this before, went really well. Then you get now the benefits of, as I said, the cross-selling opportunities, the comprehensive product portfolio.
Yeah, the INTORQ business is doing very well, the former INTORQ business, as is our former IDS business as well. This is an important segment for us. Yeah, well, you can see, I mean, you've seen the results. It's growing fast, and we expect that to continue.
It's also fair to say that, let's say, margin expansion will be, let's say, limited of course from these levels there, because you set up probably the cost structure a couple of years ago with COVID-19 taken into account, et cetera. It is now giving you the operational leverage you aim for this business. There probably will be some upside from it.
You mean on brakes, Thijs, or in general?
The new acquisition, but it will not be. Yeah. Let's talk generally in the industrial side. I mean, the margin is quite attractive, so maybe some improvement going forward, if market conditions are okay, but no major steps from self-help or adjusting the cost base further.
No.
No.
No. Operational leverage can still help.
Yeah. Some operational leverage will still help. Obviously, as you mentioned, to continue that growth, you also need to invest in that growth. There's some upside potential, but definitely not in the cost base of the organization. The focus is really on growth.
Okay. That's clear. Yeah, basically the same question for the automotive business. I think it was slide 19. You see, let's say, the production levels of the automotive industry. I think you're showing 2018, but I think it was even higher in 2017.
Yeah.
I mean, of course, a lot of things have changed with the EV transition. Back then you had a lot of diesel revenue. By and large, you could say that if the automotive industry is freed from the supply chain levels, you get back to those, let's say 2017, 2018 levels in terms of volume. I think you set up your business in such way that you then have, let's say, the targeted for margins also in the automotive industry. There, there's a lot of movement going on, but on a high level, this is what we should expect.
Yeah. You know, and then of course it depends on your view of how fast this industry is going back to these levels. Now, the slide that you refer to, IHS Markit is not that optimistic. They say it will take until I think 2023, 2024 before we get to certainly the 18 levels. The good news for us is of course if this goes, you know, if we get out of the supply chain crunch, I mean, and even in 2021 as you know, some analysts indicate that 10 million more cars could have been produced and sold if it wasn't for these shortages. Now, that would have helped us of course immediately enormously on the revenue side, on the operational leverage side. More stability and demand would help us optimize our factories better.
That's obviously a great benefit. Even without volume expansion, if we get into a more stable world, that will help us. For us, what is important, and again, we had a good year from that perspective in 2021, is two things. One is the transition towards actuators that are relevant for electrification. I think we did very well there in 2021, but also overall, because even if you look at that slide, you can see there's still a lot of combustion engines being produced over the next, not necessarily growing that much, but over the next few years.
The overall book-to-bill of 1.3 over the past 4 years means that in the pipeline we do have substantial growth, both in the electrification but also on the legacy side.
Yeah. Okay. That's clear. Yeah. Then, I mean, on the nominations, because I got a few questions from investors this morning who said, "Oh, it's down." They look at it kind of like an order book. I mean, it has to be down for a couple of years in order to say anything on the directional trend of your revenue. Looking, let's say the past four years, it still points to potentially massive growth.
Yeah.
from the past.
Yeah.
Okay, that's pretty well.
That's certainly the way to look at it in our view, Thijs. That's also why we will do that again next year. It's not so much about what happens in 2021. It is really you can begin to see that because as you know, you win something, usually there's a year and a half, two years delay between that and production.
Yeah.
Then of course it ramps up. Of course, it is a long time, so things can and have changed. We really think about this in terms of our overall pipeline that we have built over the past four years. They're on average, compared to our average automotive revenue over those years, which is of course also fluctuating in line with the market. We have a 30% higher pipeline than we have current business. As you say, that points to growth. In 2021 you see a bit of that.
Yeah. Okay, perfect. Thanks, Philant.
Thank you.
We'll take our next question from Johan van den Hooven.
Yeah, good morning, Joep and Jeroen.
Good morning, Johan.
Johan van den Hooven, Edison Group. A few questions. If you look at the ability of Kendrion to pass on the higher prices of raw materials in general, and we look at the organic revenue growth of 16% for the full year, can you give a sort of revenue growth split between volumes and prices, please? Shall we do the questions one by one?
That's a good question, Johan, but that's a little bit too detailed in my view. I understand why you'd like to know, but let me try to be a bit helpful here. Our ability to pass on price increases on the raw material side to our customers is almost directly correlated to the size of the customer we're talking about. From that perspective, you can understand that in automotive this is the most difficult. If you're dealing with the big name companies like Volkswagen or Continental, this is all contractually set, but there is always a delay. Of course, the delay means that during that period of time you will see pressure on your value-added margin.
In Brakes it's a little bit in between. We have some very big customers and but also a whole range of smaller ones where it's a little bit easier. In IAC it's almost the opposite. There we can proactively raise prices on the many smaller customers that we have. What we saw there is actually we saw a bit of added value margin expansion. Now, if you then add that all up together and then you get of course a little bit of a mix effect as well, because Industrial, which has bigger margins, has grown so much, you see that as a group we've done reasonably well. Automotive most difficult with most delay related to the nature of that industry. Brakes in between.
IAC, that's where we have the most leverage, if you like.
To help out Johan a little bit here. Of the 16% growth, 90% is driven by volumes.
The great majority is volumes.
99%.
Pricing, price did have an effect.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
Yeah.
Second question about the EUR 120 million nominations in sound. Can you give us a bit more detail, please, about how many customers there are? Which ones, of course, if you want to give names.
Yeah. Yeah.
How many customers there are?
No, I mean, we so big names, you can see that the numbers, so there's a range of different nominations that we won. There were two particularly large ones with big name customers that everybody would recognize, globally active. The interesting thing is the product, and we didn't elaborate on it this time. We talked a bit about it at first half results.
We have a complete product offering that you say, "Look, it's not just the electronics and software that produce the sound, but there's also a so-called software development kit that we ship with it that allows OEMs, tier ones, anybody who uses this product, not only to create their own sound, but also to test that in the vehicle as you drive it, to adjust it." It is really a complete software and electronics product almost. Then there's various flavors of loudspeakers that you can combine it with. We have our own what we call the Impulsgeber, which is really high-end. But if you don't wanna do that, and you wanna go for something lower price and of course a little bit lower quality, that's possible as well.
We're getting a lot of traction on that. Sound is important as the proliferation of electric vehicles continues. The OEMs, and that's also quite interesting, they view this as an important differentiator. The sound that these products make is part of the brand and of the brand identity. The notion that they can tailor this exactly as to how they want to sound this, and we make that very easy for them, is an important differentiator in this product line. We mentioned EUR 120 million, that's a record. There's a lot of traction, a lot of activity. We hope, of course, that we will continue the momentum going forward.
Last question for now. Perhaps a detailed one about Newton, the sale of the 30%. Can you also there give a bit of details? What about the potential in years to come? Or it's a startup, but give us a different flavor, please.
Jeroen, maybe you want to say a few words about that.
Yeah, it's a very promising technology, but as is typically in certain industrial areas. It is quite niche. Don't expect EUR 10 million revenue or something from that in the coming years. If it ramps to EUR 1 million or EUR 2 million, then we are happy.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Joep, maybe on that. It is indeed a startup company, so we took a 30% share in that a couple of years ago. It turned out that the company continued to need more cash and cash infusion. Now, of course, we are not a venture capital firm or a bank, so this is not natural to us. There was an opportunity to divest. We make a small book profit, but we retained the upside that Jeroen just talked about. We felt that was a good exercise. We get this off the books. We don't have to worry about this anymore from an equity or investment perspective, but we do get the manufacturing upside.
Okay. Thank you.
We have no more verbal questions in the queue.
Anybody still questions? Cleo, is there any written questions?
We do have another verbal question from Bastian Rogmann.
Okay.
Hi. Good morning.
Hi, Bastian. Good morning.
You can hear me?
Yeah.
All right. Good morning.
Sure. Yeah.
Perfect. On your question on your market share in automotive, you mentioned that you, and you showed nicely, that you outperformed the market. Is this mainly due to the fact that you have just now more exposure to the growing EV market? And I'm wondering if you also are outperforming that particular market as well?
It is really generically related to the fact that if you look at our pipeline, and that's why this one slide with the four years of nominations, lifetime nominations, is important. If you look also at 2018 and 2019, and these are the type of products that are basically starting to contribute to revenue now, you see that actually the share of electrification was still quite low, in line with, of course, what the market was at the time. Today, I would say it is still mostly driven by additional wins that we had in 2018 and 2019, in legacy. A bit, of course, also in sound and suspension. Going forward, you know, this will shift over the coming years.
It's very difficult because, you know, you look at the projections on electrification, but it's such a dynamic market. Everybody knows it's growing really fast, but it's very difficult to gauge from quarter to quarter or even from year to year as we, you know, for the year 2021.
How much growth was actually directly related to or not. I mean, for us, we of course know how much was legacy and not, but we don't really know if we're then outperforming a very fast-growing and very fluid electrification market as well. But that's why also for us, the visibility is such. We look at this and say, okay, you know, in Industrial we are way above the 2019 revenue levels. We've explained why we think that is, and we just talked also a bit about brakes and related to Tijs' question. In Automotive, we're not there yet. Of course you say, "Look, is that us or is it the market?" You see that indeed it's still down, but it's relative to the market.
It's better than what it could have been without this full pipeline. For me, it's a long question, but it simply points to a pipeline that is bigger than the size of the business.
Okay. What about the customer base in that pipeline? Is it mainly like the existing OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, or do you also have a lot of nominations from more relatively new startup companies in that space?
Yeah. We certainly see that, and that is exclusively on the EV's side, so on sound for instance. But also potentially on suspension, we see there's a lot of new entrants. These are not the ones that I mentioned in the presentation. This is not, you know, Sony and Foxconn and Apple, because that's a little bit more speculative. There is a lot of new entrants globally around the world in these new types of cars. We certainly see fantastic opportunity and the first nominations as well. Now, revenue-wise, that, you know, it's still today not contributing a lot, a little bit, sampling revenue and things like that. We have high expectations with that.
Okay, maybe last question then on the impairment charge that you took. Could you tell us a bit more about maybe the project size? Yeah.
Yeah. You mean-
How much this is compensated, maybe a percentage or. Because you mentioned a small project.
Yeah.
Instead of-
No. Yeah, this was actually a large project. Last year it was clear that the volumes would be a lot less. It was a combustion engine project to improve the combustion engine exhaust and the particles. That specific technology was not needed anymore because of changed emission rules to help the automotive industry in the COVID pandemic. During this year, it became clear that not only the volume would be lower, but the project would be fully canceled. Last year we took an impairment on capitalized R&D. This year to be prudent, we impaired the equipment. Discussions with the customer are still ongoing.
Like I said, for reasons that so far technical analysis has shown limited reuse of the equipment. To be conservative, we have taken the impairment on the alternative project that we have one that is significantly smaller than this one. It helps a bit, but it's like EUR 30 million lifetime revenue or something.
Yeah. To just make sure that there's no confusion. The revenue impact of that has been, you know, when we talk about-
Yeah.
Nominations and we said, "Look, these are the nominations over the past four years." Adding it all up, we think is EUR 1.25 billion in lifetime revenue over the past four years. This is reflected in that number. You can well imagine that 2018 and 2019 projects, some are doing better, you know, some get canceled altogether. We take that out. This one, of course, is part of that. But there is also lots of existing revenue from legacy projects that we assumed to be sunsetting that are still with us because, you know, it's not just us that invest far less in legacy actuators. Everybody does that. Which means that existing products run for longer. So that is all.
We try to do that, of course, on a regular basis to gauge our pipeline, and that EUR 1.25 billion over the past four years includes this cancellation and others.
Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Thanks a lot for clarifying that. Really helpful.
Thank you.
I will take a question from Martin.
Martin?
Martin, you're allowed to talk.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah. There you are.
Okay. Thanks. It's Martin of Abeco. A couple of questions from my end. First of all, at IB, there was a very strong acceleration in the Q4 sales numbers. Could you provide some more color on that?
Well, yeah. I mean, I would say look, quarter by quarter is always a little bit risky, if you like. Or not risky, but you know, it's. You're comparing, of course, compared to Q4 last year. Now, Q4 is always, as you know, traditionally our weakest quarter from a revenue perspective. That is also the case for IB. What we see there is, and this was evidenced specifically in this Q4, that there is so much opportunity and demand that,
Our customers asked us to basically produce, well, not over Christmas, but much longer in the December months than we typically would do. Also compared to Q4 2020. Therefore, that's particularly comparable. That particular comparability for Q4 only then looks really strong. I would say the underlying trend, it's better to look at the full year growth. And it's very strong double-digit, and it's driven, as we talked about, by this trend towards more electrification across really all segments.
You believe it has brought sales forward, so that maybe Q1 could therefore be slower?
No, no. I don't think so. Of course you will see, but I don't think so, Maarten. I think this is simply if you say, look, for instance, if you produce one more additional week. Typically in December, we're closed for two weeks over Christmas and New Year. Now, if this year one week, then of course you compare that to last year, you get a lot more revenue, and that shows up. It's not necessarily bringing it forward, it's just a reflection of our customers' wish to get these things delivered as quickly as possible, and we responded to that.
Thanks.
Yeah. The strength in IB also into Q1 continues.
Okay, thanks. A follow-up on what Thijs asked earlier to IB customers. I can imagine you can't mention their names, you said they are volume clients, but could you maybe still inform us in which areas they are active?
Yeah, they are. I mean, it's, you know, typically, they are active in intralogistics. They are active in robotics. I mean, it's quite broad, and that's the other interesting feature of this trend. It's not just the wind power mills themselves. It's everywhere where electromotors get deployed is where you see opportunity. So it's quite broad. And the other interesting thing from our perspective is that also some of these customers have a global footprint, which gives us over time, I mean, not immediately, but over time the opportunity not just to sell this in China, in Europe or in the US, but everywhere.
With respect to the sound system order, did I hear you right that you mentioned that this one will be produced in China? Follow up, is it also just-
Sorry, yeah.
Sorry?
Yeah. It will start in China for sure. At the end, we said that we expect at the end of 2022, maybe it will move into 2023. We do expect this project to run. The first project, but there are quite a few more. The first one will start in China. Not all of the EUR 120 million, but.
Is then also for Chinese customers?
No.
Okay.
No. No. There's one Chinese customer and one global customer and one European customer.
why, if you opted to produce it in China, can also make those from an easy perspective to produce it more locally?
No, we produce in principle local for local. That is the reason why.
Okay, thank you.
We have no other questions.
Okay. Cleo, anything in writing?
No.
No? Okay. Well, then I thank everybody for your attention and your flexibility. If you have any follow-up questions, you of course know how to reach us. Thank you very much.
Thank you.