Good afternoon, this is the Chorus Call Conference Operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the conference call post Board of Directors. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Nicola Sautto, Group CFO of Biesse. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, and thanks for your time. Here with me, there is Sandro Vitale, our Chief of Strategy. Before moving to the number, I would like to present to you the worldwide presence of the group, Biesse. We have more than 4,300 employee around the world. The majority, the roughly 50-51%, is outside Italy. We are present in 22 countries, with the three major region, with the industrial manufacturing area, one in Italy, one in India, and one in Thailand. Just a quick overview on the market situation. We experienced in the last 3 months some difficulties in terms of order and revenues, and this is more or less in line of, on the performance of the market.
We have some numbers from UCIMU that stated a losses in terms of order in the first Q1 minus 20% compared to the previous quarter of 2023. This loss is already embedded also in the number of 2023. In the last quarter of 2023, generally speaking, our sector posted a losses around of 30%. In terms of orders, in the first Q1, the group Biesse. Let me give a general statement before moving to the number. As you probably know, in January, we bought a group called GMM. The numbers that I will provide to you includes this group, starting from the first January of 2024.
In 2023, the numbers that I'm going to present to you are not included, does not include the numbers of GMM. I will present to you in some specific moment the breakdown between Biesse, the old Biesse, the previous structure before the acquisition, and the new company called GMM. In terms of order, in Q1, we posted more or less EUR 300 million, significant less compared to the Q1 2023, where the number was EUR 341 million. But please consider that Q1 2023 was a very strange number because it was boosted from 110% in Italy, and also from some relevant injection from the government worldwide.
So if we consider that number as not in line, because the numbers include these very unusual funds from the government, the losses is less than the comparison. If we consider, for example, the Q4, sorry, 2023, we had a total order of the last quarter in 2023 of total 278 million EUR. So as you can see, we already experienced, as was mentioned before, a significant drop in order also in the last quarter of 2023.
The number of the first quarter twenty twenty-four is EUR 297 million in terms of order, divided between one hundred and forty, the backlog, this is the backlog, EUR 258 million from Biesse and EUR 39 million from GMM Group. In terms of revenues, we posted a total turnover of EUR 196 million, split in EUR 164 million revenues from Biesse and EUR 32 million from GMM Group. In this moment, there are a very specific situation in the world. We noted some slowdown in European market. We noted some increasing difficulties in credit access, and also in the increase of interest rate for our clients. So we have the same problem in our client.
For example, there is a KPI that we track every single month called financial hold, means the order put on hold only because the client did not pay the down payment. And this amount is increased significantly in the last quarter compared to the first quarter of 2023, and this is the picture that we noted all around the world. In terms of highlights, so the revenues were, was EUR 196 million, compared to EUR 210 million of Q1 2023. But as I already mentioned, the Q1 2023 was a very particular quarter that benefited of all the significant injection from 110% and other grants from the states, from the government.
In terms of EBITDA, we posted EUR 16.8 million, 8.6% in terms of turnover. In terms of EBIT Adjusted, EUR 7.6 million, and in terms of EBIT, EUR 6.6 million. The difference is one million of non-recurring cost incurred for the acquisition of GMM. In terms of net result, the final number was EUR 2.8 million, so 1.5% in terms of incidence on the revenues. We had a significant drop in terms of net result compared to Q1 2023, but the reason is related to the sales.
If we consider the not normal level in terms of sales, and considering that our costs are more or less fixed, it's easy to understand that with a significant increase in terms of sales, with stable costs, more or less, the result is an increase in terms of EBITDA and net result. So the positive news is, notwithstanding a very weak situation of the market worldwide, the Biesse Group has the ability to post a positive result also in this Q1, EUR 2.8 million, and sales more or less close to EUR 200 million. If we look to the reasons of the significant losses between the net result of the Q1 2023 versus Q1 2024, there are some reasons. First of all, the significant drop in revenues, partially compensated from an increased gross margin.
We had the capacity to increase our gross margin in the first Q1 2024 compared to the previous year. Then we posted a significant saving in OpEx, EUR 1.5 million, a significant reduction in terms of personnel cost. We will have also a slide related to the headcount trend, but this significant reduction is related to the turnover started 24 months ago, and also benefiting of the possibility gave from the Italian government, Cassa Integrazione. Then we have a reduction in terms of D&A, more related to minor provisions in terms of R&D capitalization. Then we have also positive effect on the taxes only related to the lower pre-tax result.
Obviously, in this number is not included GMM, because in 2023, as I mentioned at the beginning of the call, GMM was not part of the group. So in terms of EBITDA, GMM contributes with more or less EUR 4 million, and then in terms of net result, contributes for more or less EUR 1 million. In the period, so from Q1 2023 and Q1 2024, we also had a negative impact of roughly EUR 2 million of non-recurring item, because in 2023, we obtained a significant capital gain due to the sales of a real estate complex in Italy.
In terms of revenues by geography, the group has a worldwide presence, as I mentioned before, and the presence is in terms of turnover, 24% of our turnover is recorded in Americas, the 63% in EMEA, and the remaining part in APAC. So, with this number, you can see easily that the group is focused especially in EMEA, but has a significant presence all around the world in 22 countries. In terms of headcount, this is a very significant number for us. We closed the Q1 2024 with more or less 4,300 people all around the world. In Italy, more or less 2,200. In this number is included, obviously, the person from GMM.
The total amount from GMM Group is four hundred and forty. So if we exclude this number from the total amount, just to give the comparison of the account only related to the previous Biesse Group, so before the acquisition, the total amount is more or less three thousand and eight hundred. So with a significant reduction compared to one year ago of more or less three hundred people. And this is a trend confirmed the decision from the board to start to reduce the people in the headquarters and to increase the structure locally, to be ready to face all the commercial issue locally.
In terms of net working capital and net financial position, the net working capital at the end of March 2024 was EUR 84+ million, compared to EUR 36 million in Q1 2023. The significant increase was only due to the consolidation of GMM. In fact, if we compare the previous number only with the number of Biesse Group before the acquisition, we see that the final number in terms of net working capital was 52 million. Obviously, there is an increase compared to last year, but if we look, for example, on December, the number of net working capital at the end of December 2023 was 42, so in Q1 2024, EUR 10 million plus compared to the end of the fiscal year.
The reason for this increase is only related to the down payment that we ask to the client before proceeding with the order, and is related to the drop in terms of order. In terms of cash, the group closed the quarter with a positive net financial position, so cash more or less EUR 120 million, and the financial debt EUR 160 million, so more or less 2.3 net financial position. There is a significant drop registered in the quarter, obviously, due mainly to the payment of GMM. We already paid EUR 69 million in January 2024. We are just reviewing the final price. At the end of May, we will have the final price.
We already know that we have to pay an additional amount of more or less EUR 3.5 million. So the difference is, compare December and March was mainly due to the payment of GMM. Then we have also working capital effect, other payment made by GMM related to the acquisition, more or less EUR 1.5 million, and also EUR 13 million in terms of taxes. In terms of dividend trends, as you already know, we present a proposal for the dividend of 0.14 per shares is significant lower compared to last year, related obviously to the performance of the group. I more or less, I arrived to the end of the presentation, so I will leave the stage to your question in case you have.
This is the Chorus Call conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Alberto Francese with Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for taking my call, my question. First question is on order intake. I'm looking at the slide number 6, where you have also the organic order intake for BS, which is a decrease year-on-year about 12%, which is more or less aligned with the last quarter of 2023, if I remember well. The question here is if you can give us some color on what's going on currently in the second quarter of the year, if you see now as it has been stable, now, fourth quarter versus the first quarter, if there is an improvement in order intake in the second quarter of 2024. Second question regards the employees.
There is an important reduction, as you already announced, in the end of 2023. I was wondering if there will be other provisions in 2024 related to the layoff plan that you announced now in October 2023. More in general, if on top of the EUR 1 million non-recurring that you mentioned for the GMM acquisition, if we may expect other non-recurring during the year for some other reasons. Thank you.
... Thanks, Alberto, for the question. Let me ask to the second and the third, then I leave the stage to Sandro. In terms of provision, we put all the provision at the end of twenty twenty-three. As you may remember, we posted 13 million of provision related to the employees, because the plan was already public. So we posted all the provision in the last quarter of twenty twenty-three. In fact, if you look at the slide number 8, where I present to you also the Q4 standalone, you will see a negative result of 3.5 million, mainly due to the recognition of 13 million of provision.
So, we do not add any provision in the first quarter, and we are not expecting to post other provision during the year. In terms of non-recurring, the non-recurring was a one-off in the first quarter, only related to the payment to the advisor appointed by GMM during the due diligence. So we are not expecting to have other non-recurring items during the next month, so until the end of the fiscal year.
Okay, so we move to the first question. So the Q1 2024 as compared with the Q1 2023, which was particularly high, I think the highest in the history of the Biesse. So we have seen a stabilization in April with the order intake in line with the budget and a stabilization also in May. Overall, we look very closely at the order intake situation, as you have seen the numbers from the machine tooling industry, from UCIMU, which are very weak. So the first quarter of 2024 the production and export at the Italian level, which is very representative in terms of production together with the German manufacturers, was almost minus 20%.
So we see for sure a weak market condition, more in the woodworking than in other materials, but overall, we look very closely at the order intake.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. For any further questions, please press star and one on your telephone. Mr. Sautto, gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time.
Thank you very much. Thank you for being here today with us. We remain at your disposal in case you will have additional questions in the next days. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
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