Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to today's Iveco Group 2024 first quarter results conference call and webcast. We would like to remind you that today's call is being recorded. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question during the Q&A session, please press star one on your telephone keypad. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Federico Donati, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Laura. Good morning, everyone. We would like to welcome you to the webcast and conference call for Iveco Group first quarter financial results for the period ending 31 March 2024. This call is being broadcast live on our website and is copyrighted by Iveco Group. Any other use, recording, or transmission of any portion of this broadcast without the express written consent of the Iveco Group is strictly forbidden. Hosting today's call are our Iveco Group CEO, Gerrit Marx, and our CFO, Anna Tanganelli. Gerrit and Anna will use the material made available for download on the Iveco Group website early this morning. Additionally, please note that any forward-looking statement we might be making during today's call are subject to the risk and uncertainties mentioned in the safe harbor statement, including the presentation material.
Additional information pertaining to factors that could cause actual result to differ materially is contained in the company most recent annual report, as well as other recent reports, and filings with the authorities in the Netherlands and Italy. The company presentation may include certain non-EU IFRS financial measure. Additional information, including reconciliation to the most directly comparable IFRS financial measures, is included in the presentation material. Reiterating here again what we already disclosed during our recent Capital Markets Day in March, Iveco Group and Mutares announced the signing of a definitive agreement for the transfer of ownership of Magirus and all of its asset and legal entities performing the firefighting bodyworks and superstructure business. Subject to the regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to be completed no later than January 2025.
In accordance with IFRS 5, as the sale was signed in March, Magirus met the criteria to be classified as a business held for sale. It also met the criteria to be classified as discontinued operations. As a consequence, from now on, 2024 financial data shown in the press release and this presentation exclude Magirus and refer to continuing operations only, unless otherwise stated. In accordance with applicable accounting standards, the figures in the income statement and the statement of cash flow for 2023 comparative periods have been recast consistently. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Gerrit.
Thanks, Federico, and welcome to all of you joining our call today. 2024, our third year as a listed group, is headlined Acceleration, after we delivered our foundational and transformational years in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Today, we will provide you with commentary around our results for the first quarter of 2024. This follows our Capital Markets Day that we hosted in Turin on the 14th of March. We outlined our revised ambitions for the 2024-2028 period and disclosed for the first time, more granular data on our truck, bus, and defense business units, previously grouped along with the firefighting business unit, now reporting as discontinued operations under one single reporting segment called Commercial and Specialty Vehicles.
Individual ambitions and pathways were provided live on stage by the P&L and cash flow accountable presidents of each business unit, including powertrain and financial services, of course. From now on, we will provide you with revenues and EBIT margin performance for each of our five distinctly different business units, which follow specific seasonality throughout the year. As you can see in the materials on our website regarding our historical quarterly financial performance from 2022 and 2023. As we announced in our press release issued earlier this morning, we started the year with consistent profitability improvements across all our business units, leading to an adjusted EBIT margin for the industrial activities at 6.1%, 170 basis points above the first quarter of 2023.
During these first months of the year, we did not experience any unusual increase in order cancellations or net price erosion above and beyond expectations in light of the slower market. As anticipated, we opened the order book for our new model year 2024 lineup in all truck segments, managing the transition from our model year 2022, while continuing to cautiously shorten our order books in the normalizing market environment, particularly as regards heavy-duty trucks. The order backlog in trucks remained rather high, with around 18 weeks of production already sold for light commercial vehicles and around 14-15 weeks for medium and heavy, heavy-duty trucks at the end of March 2024. When looking at our bus business unit, our order backlog covers all of 2024 and is now stretching well into 2025, covering almost entirely the first half of next year.
In defense, we already disclosed that our order backlog, referring only to orders already funded by our customers, covers basically the entire top line for the business plan period, with a solid potential upside at the back end of our plan as allocated. Multi-year spending for military vehicles by European countries is projected to increase in the near term. Finally, in powertrain, we are well on track to reach our target of 100 basis points margin increase per year, in line with the commitment we made during our recent Capital Markets Day. On the back of our efficiency plan and a greater contribution from aftermarket activity. By looking at our financial services business, delinquencies on book for less than 30 days remained at a historically low 2%, which is sequentially flat and 50 basis points better than last year.
As already discussed extensively in our interactions with sell and buy side, the supply chain situation is admittedly still a source of minor surprises, although much more predictable when compared to the first half of 2023. This is enabling us to manage our production schedule quite smoothly, with no major disruptions. Any potential indirect negative impact from the Ukrainian and Palestinian conflicts need to be constantly and carefully monitored, as well as the Suez and Panama Canal situations. Although, at the moment, none of the above has caused any material slowdowns or disruptions in the supply chain. Finally, as anticipated in our previous earnings calls, together with our partners, we have made significant efforts to solve bodybuilder capacity bottlenecks that slowed down the timing of deliveries to customers and affected other OEMs as well.
We still have some work to do in the second quarter, but we expect the situation to level out soon, with normalized deliveries throughout the third quarter. Let me now provide some numbers from the first quarter of 2024. Our free cash flow absorption was at EUR 436 million, compared to last year's free cash absorption of EUR 546 million. Our available liquidity level remains solid at EUR 4.7 billion, broadly flat, flattish, versus the end of December 2023. Anna will provide more details on this later in the presentation, also highlighting the free cash flow delta performance on a year-over-year basis.
Looking at the Iveco Group financial performance for the first quarter of 2024, our consolidated revenues were in line with last year, and the consolidated adjusted EBIT margin was at 6.9%, up 170 basis points versus first quarter 2023. Our adjusted diluted EPS was at EUR 0.57 at the end of the first quarter 2024, which is EUR 0.32 more than first quarter 2023. During the annual general meeting, held on the seventeenth of April, 2024, the shareholders approved this, our proposal to distribute a cash dividend of EUR 0.22 per outstanding common share. This was paid on the twenty-fourth of April 2024.
The board also authorized the repurchase of up to 10 million common shares, with a maximum total allocation of EUR 130 million for a period of 18 months from the date of the AGM. The new authorization replaces the previous one, granted by the annual general meeting of shareholders on the 14th of April, 2023. As you have seen from our press release, issued on the 21st of April, 2024, Olof Persson will succeed me as the CEO of Iveco Group, starting the 1st of July, 2024, where I will take my new role as CEO of CNH, based out of Chicago.
I will comment more on this transition in my closing remarks, but let me just say upfront that Olof has been not only a valued member and the commercial vehicle expert of our board since January 2022, but also has been a close mentor to me and to the senior leadership team as we navigated these past years and crafted our pathways forward. His extensive executive leadership experience, deep industry knowledge, and understanding of our group will ensure continued strong momentum for the plans we recently presented. This handover is a consistent continuation of all the work the Iveco Group team has delivered so far and presented at our Capital Markets Day in March. Let me go now to the next slide, four, on which we have highlighted Iveco Group's main achievements in the first quarter of this year.
All of these items related press releases are already public, so I will draw your attention to just a few of the key achievements. In January, we announced the selection of our first partner for recycling the lithium-ion batteries of the group's electric vehicles. BASF, the world's leading chemical company and biggest chemical supplier for the automotive industry. BASF will mechanically process the batteries to black mass , and then extract raw materials for use in manufacturing new batteries. Working together will reduce our CO2 footprint and push forward a circular economy, which is, which is at the heart of all our thinking when it comes to sustainability. As mentioned earlier, we held our Capital Markets Day on the fourteenth of March, where we unveiled our new 2024- 2028 strategic business plan and the unlimited pathways for each of our five business units.
As you know, the decision to hold the event just two years after our first Investor Day in November 2021 was driven by the group's recent achievements. By the end of 2023, we had already met our key targets set for 2026 or were ahead of proposed trajectories. Also, in March, we announced the expansion of our group-wide partnership with Hyundai Motor Company. Together, we signed an enlarged letter of intent to explore innovation in the electric heavy-duty truck sector for both battery electric and fuel cell electric vehicles. In line with our new reporting structure, I will spotlight the primary achievements in the first quarter of each of our industrial business units, beginning with the truck business unit. Last February, we signed a new supply agreement with Hyundai for an Iveco-badged all-electric light commercial vehicle for Europe.
The new chassis cab, for which we are going to define yet another iconic Iveco brand name, will be supplied by Hyundai Motor Company from its global E-LCV platform and will be exclusively customized, distributed, and serviced in Europe by Iveco Group through its sales channels. This will extend our light commercial vehicle chassis cab range for goods transport to an even lighter category of less than 3.5 tons in gross vehicle weights. Also in February, Iveco received an order to supply 178 S-Way compressed natural gas trucks, equipped with our FPT Industrial engines, for DHL's Post and Parcel Germany division. The order will make use of the most mature solution on the market for reducing emissions, while securing a highly efficient performance.
It might be worth highlighting that today, an LNG-powered heavy-duty long-haul truck offers a TCO advantage over its diesel version of about 1,000 EUR per month, with normalized petrol prices. This segment will continue to play an important role in the decarbonization of transport, as transport, as Iveco always said. Furthermore, Iveco entered into an important partnership with Ford Trucks, signing a memorandum of understanding in March to explore collaboration in developing a new heavy-duty truck cab structure, compliant with upcoming regulations and capable to efficiently host all future powertrain choices for on-road heavy-duty trucking. The non-binding MOU is a preliminary step in assessing the potential for co-development of new products and technologies. As regards to our bus business unit, we won two large tenders during the first quarter of 2024.
In January, Iveco Bus won its largest zero-emission vehicle contract in Italy for the supply of 411 battery electric buses to Rome's public transport company. The tender also comprises a 10-year full-service maintenance plan for each. Then in February, Heuliez secured a contract to supply 200 e-buses to the public transport operator of Marseille. This order will help the city advance on its energy transition goal of becoming 100% electric by 2027. Looking now at defense. In March, we had the official handover of the first unit to the Austrian Minister of Defense, our IDV 4x4 multi-utility vehicle. The unit is configured as a radio command post vehicle, designed to meet the customer's broad spectrum of operation requirements while complying with NATO standards.
This is the first of a total of 260 vehicles and marks a new segment for IDV, with many other customers showing a great deal of interest in this cost-effective and versatile platform to replace large fleets of dated legacy vehicles. Our powertrain business unit saw important accomplishments as well. In January, FPT Industrial supplied state-of-the-art engines for power generation at the construction site for the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, an 18-kilometer tunnel that will provide the fastest connection between Scandinavia and Central Europe and become the world's longest immersed tunnel. In March, FPT Industrial set a new record with the production of its 200,000th engine in Córdoba, Argentina. This milestone came just two years after reaching the 150,000 mark and reflects the strategic partnership we have in the area. The Córdoba plant is recognized for its operational excellence and sustainable processes.
Moving on to slide seven. We show the total industry volume percentage change versus first quarter 2023. As you can see, we have not changed our disclosure regarding industry changes, considering the sensitive data of the defense segment, which at par with other industrial businesses, is not disclosable. Moving to the quarterly performance of the industry. Europe, excluding the U.K. and Ireland, was up double digits in light-duty trucks, while medium and heavy-duty were down 3%. For buses, the industry in Europe was flat versus the previous year's first quarter. Latin America, industry volumes were down by double digits in both light-duty trucks and buses and saw a single-digit decrease in medium and heavy-duty trucks. On a worldwide basis, the market experienced double-digit volume growth for light-duty trucks and was down by single digits in both medium and heavy-duty trucks and buses.
The next slide, number eight, has our recurring quarterly update on channel inventory statistics. Company inventories were sequentially up, both in light-duty trucks and medium and heavy, reflecting our normal seasonality. Looking at dealer inventory, as anticipated in my opening remarks, our teams have already done a very good job in this first quarter. We expect the bodybuilder bottlenecks to level out progressively during the third quarter, allowing us to finally deliver the products currently held up in bodybuilder activity for end customers. As you can see from the takeaway message at the bottom of the slide, the percentage of dealer and company inventories already sold to customers across segments has remained solid at around 70% of the actual dealer inventory and 76% of the company inventory.
Lastly, looking at production activity versus retail, we overproduced retail sales of both light-duty trucks and medium and heavy by 29% and 9%, respectively, responding to our still long order books and preparations for cutting over from Model Year 2022 to Model Year 2024. Let's move on to the next slide with order intake and delivery statistics as of the end of the first quarter of 2024.... We still have a rather large and strong order book in trucks, covering almost 18 weeks of production in light-duty trucks and around 15 weeks for medium and heavy-duty trucks. Our Model Year 2024 has been very well received by customers.
Orders are at 80% of the total collected during the quarter for light-duty trucks and at more than 40% for medium and heavy-duty trucks, where we delayed the opening of the order book to fully leverage on our successful Model Year 2022. Deliveries of the new model year will gain momentum in the second half of 2024 as we proceed with the rollout of customer engagements. We are continuing to work to lower weeks of production already sold, with the aim of reaching an optimal level of 8weeks-10 weeks for light and 10weeks-12 weeks for medium and heavy-duty trucks. In our bus business, the book-to-bill was at 1.21, covering all of 2024 and almost the entire first half of next year.
Looking at deliveries in the first quarter, trucks were up 9% on a worldwide basis versus first quarter 2023, with light commercial vehicles up 32% and medium and heavy-duty trucks down 26%. Buses were down 7% versus last year. Europe was up 15% in trucks, with light-duty trucks up 34% and medium and heavy down 25% versus first quarter 2023. Bus deliveries in Europe were up 4%. When looking at order intake level for trucks, it was down by design versus last year, mainly on the back of our continuous effort to purposely lower weeks of production already sold through a tight pricing discipline. This was to preserve profitability on the back of a very solid and historically high order book, and to accommodate the phase out and phase in of Model Year 2024.
As a result of this effort, worldwide total book-to-bill, truck and bus, was at 0.73 at the end of the first quarter. The next slide, slide 10, shows our market share performance in Europe, excluding the UK and Ireland, in our truck segments and buses. Starting with light duty, we ended the quarter solid at 13% of the market share in the 3.5 ton- 7.49 ton segment. We maintained our market share leadership in the chassis cab subsegment, ending the quarter at 30.4% and solidified our historical leadership in the upper end of the light duty, 6ton- 7.5ton segment, with a market share of 64%.
In heavy duty, we ended the first quarter with a broadly flat market share versus the first quarter of 2023, at 7.5%. In medium and heavy combined, market share was up 20 basis points to 8.7% versus the same period of last year. In heavy-duty trucks running on CNG and LNG, we ended the quarter at 38.2% of the market share in this cautious subsegment of the market, despite compelling TCO advantages. The registrations were rather low in the previous quarters and quite spotty by country, leading to volatility in our market share, where we traditionally hold 50% and more of the segment. For bus, we increased market share both for intercity buses and city buses.
In intercity, we further solidified our leadership, closing the quarter at 50.5% market share in Europe, up 130 basis points versus the same period last year. In city bus, we closed the quarter at 13.7%, up 90 basis points versus first quarter 2023. Not on the slide, but important to be mentioned, our electric city bus segment closed the quarter at about 10% market share, up 200 basis points versus last year, demonstrating the strong success of our product in the market. I will now hand the call over to Anna, who will take you through our first quarter financial highlights, after which I will conclude with final remarks.
Thank you, Gerrit, and good morning, everyone. Let's now take a look at the highlights of our first quarter 2024 financial results on slide 12. Before we start, let me please remind you that all the financials shown in the next slide refer to our continuing operations only, as our firefighting business unit has been declassified as discontinued operations following the signing of a definitive agreement for its transfer of ownership in March of this year. As a result, in accordance with applicable accounting standards, also 2023 figures have been recast consistently.
Q1 2024 closed with consolidated net revenues of EUR 3.4 billion and net revenues of industrial activities of EUR 3.3 billion, both in line with prior year, supported by a continuous positive price realization, mainly in trucks, which fully offset the negative effects impact, as well as impact of decreasing volumes in powertrain and in South America. Financial services net revenues totaled EUR 145 million in the quarter, up 46.5% compared to prior year. Consolidated adjusted EBIT was up EUR 59 million, or +34% versus Q1 2023, closing at EUR 233 million, with an adjusted EBIT margin of 6.9%, up 170 basis points year-over-year.
Adjusted EBIT of industrial activities reached EUR 201 million, up EUR 55 million versus prior year, posting a record first quarter at 6.1% margin, up 170 basis points versus Q1 2023. Financial charges decreased substantially in the quarter, closing at EUR 21 million. Thanks to the positive impact of hyperinflationary accounting in Argentina, and as a result of the series of action we have implemented to contain our foreign exchange exposure in the country, as well as to reduce our overall cost of hedging following the devaluation of the Argentinian peso occurred in December last year.
In light of this positive first quarter result, while we remain cautious on the evolution of Argentinian economics, namely foreign exchange rate and inflation for the remaining part of the year, we now expect full year 2024 financial charges to be below 2024 levels at around EUR 350 million. Reported income tax expenses for Q1 2024 were EUR 53 million, with an adjusted effective tax rate of 28%, in line with full year 2023. Consolidated adjusted net income for the period closed at EUR 153 million, up EUR 77 million compared to prior year, and including EUR 115 million of negative one-off impact related to the transfer of ownership of Magirus. As a result, adjusted diluted EPS was EUR 0.57, up EUR0.32 compared to first quarter 2023.
As usual, in this slide, we report the adjusted net income attributable to Iveco Group, which totaled EUR 156 million in Q1 2024, and excludes the profit attributable to non-controlling interests. Moving to our free cash flow performance. In this first quarter of 2024, seasonal absorption was EUR 436 million, EUR 110 million lower than prior year, thanks to the remarkable profitability uplift across all our businesses, combined with a disciplined cash flow management, which partially offset our structural business model cyclicality. Finally, available liquidity, including undrawn committed credit lines, remained solid at EUR 4.7 billion, substantially flat versus 2023 year-end. Let's now focus on net revenues of industrial activities on slide 13.
Looking at Q1 2024 net revenues split by region, as you can see from the pie chart on the top right-hand side of this slide, Europe and rest of the world were flat or slightly up year-over-year, while net revenues in South and North America decreased by 31% and 6%, respectively, compared to prior year. As for the net revenues evolution by business unit, all our businesses, with the exception of Powertrain, posted a growth in sales versus the previous year. In particular, truck net revenues were up 2.3% year-over-year, totaling EUR 2.3 billion, mainly driven by a continuously positive price realization in both light commercial vehicles as well as in medium and heavy.
Bus net revenues increased by 1.7% to EUR 414 million, also on the back of a positive price realization and a favorable mix. Net revenues of Defense grew substantially compared to prior year at +34%, reaching EUR 230 million, thanks to higher volumes and a positive mix. Powertrain net revenues were down 12.9% year-over-year to EUR 969 million, mainly due to a decrease in volumes in the period, with sales to external customers accounting for 45% in Q1 2024. Turning to slide 14, let's now briefly comment on the main drivers underlying the year-over-year improvement in our adjusted EBIT of industrial activities.
As previously highlighted, net pricing continued to be positive in the quarter, and combined with a substantial reduction in product costs across the board, more than offset the negative impact of lower volumes, mainly, as said, in South America and in Powertrain, and the continuously adverse foreign exchange rate scenario compared to prior year. As a result, Adjusted EBIT margin of industrial activities closed with a record 6.1%, up 170 basis points versus the same period of last year. Let's now take a look at each industrial business unit Adjusted EBIT margin performance in the quarter on slide 15. First of all, all our businesses posted a robust profitability uplift, both versus prior year as well as compared to the last 12-month period, confirming the growth path outlined in our strategic business plan.
In particular, starting from truck, adjusted EBIT margin was up 130 basis points year-over-year, reaching a record 6.5%, thanks to a significant improvement in product costs over the period, combined with a continuously positive price realization, only partially offset by lower volumes in South America and in medium and heavy-duty vehicles in Europe, and the still adverse effects impact mainly in Argentina. As for Defense, adjusted EBIT margin posted a remarkable 650 basis point increase versus prior year, crossing the double-digit threshold at 10.3%, driven by a favorable mix, higher volumes, as well as a positive pricing. Bus adjusted EBIT margin closed at 5.1%, up 190 basis points versus Q1 of last year, driven by a positive mix and also on the back of a solid price realization.
Finally, Powertrain adjusted EBIT was up 70 basis points, reaching 6.2%, thanks to lower product and structure costs, which fully offset the impact of the decrease in volumes. Let's now briefly comment on the performance of our financial services business unit during the quarter on slide 16. Q1 2024 adjusted EBIT closed at EUR 32 million, up EUR 4 million versus prior year, supported by an increase in the managed portfolio, including unconsolidated joint ventures, which reached EUR 7.9 billion as of 31 March 2024.... of which retail accounted for 39% and wholesale for 61%, and up EUR 1.3 billion compared to 31 March 2023.
Worthwhile to highlight here is that the stock of receivables past due by more than 30 days, as a percentage of the overall on-book portfolio, remained at a historical low of 2%, versus 2.5% of March 31, 2023. Finally, return on assets, as shown in the chart on the top right-hand side of this slide, remains solid at 2%. Moving to our Q1 2024 free cash flow and net industrial cash evolution on slide 17. As said, in the first quarter of this year, free cash flow of industrial activities was negative, at -EUR 436 million.
In line with our historical seasonal working capital evolution, but partially offset by significantly positive contribution from adjusted EBITDA of EUR 430 million, up EUR 74 million compared to last year, and by a strong reduction in our financial charges. As a result, as said, of the series of actions we have implemented to contain our foreign exchange exposure in Argentina and to reduce our overall cost of hedging. Cash out for taxes and pure interest income and expenses were EUR 37 million in the period, substantially in line with prior year, with the increase in base rates accounting for EUR 9 million versus Q1 2023.
Our seasonal working capital absorption was broadly at the same level of last year, with Q1 2024 inventories negatively impacted by the phase-out, phase-in of our Model Year 2024 trucks, as well as by the order book growth in Bus and Defense, combined with a lower contribution from the change in trade payables versus last year, mainly as a result of the higher payments due in the quarter, linked to the increase in investment in Q4 of last year. Change in provisions and similar contributed positively for EUR 126 million compared to prior year. Thanks, as said, to the strong reduction in financial charges, including the positive impact of the Argentinian hyperinflationary accounting.
Investments in the quarter were EUR 125 million, substantially in line with Q1 2023, with total investments for the full year 2024 confirmed at around EUR 1 billion. Finally, please note that the foreign exchange and other line item includes the purchase in the period of certain U.S.-linked bonds in Argentina, namely the BOPREAL , as part of the previously mentioned actions and hedging strategy implemented in the country. Moving now to my last slide for today, page 18. Our available liquidity as of 31st March 2024 stood at EUR 4.7 billion. This includes EUR 2.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents, and EUR 2 billion of undrawn committed facilities.
Looking at our debt maturity profile, it is immediately visible from the chart that our cash and cash equivalent levels continue to more than cover all the cash maturities foreseen in the coming years, totaling EUR 1.7 billion. Thank you, and I will now turn the call back to Gerrit for his final remarks.
Thank you, Anna. Let's conclude with the industry and financial outlook, as well as some final takeaway messages. Our preliminary industry volume outlook for 2024 reflects our current visibility and is broadly in line with what was already disclosed by some of our peers who released their financials before us, as well as what was already disclosed in our full year earnings call. On a worldwide basis, both light-duty trucks and buses are forecasted flat or slightly up year-over-year, and heavy-duty trucks are expected to be down at least 10%-15%, with larger variances of such decline by markets. Europe, excluding the UK and Ireland, is expected to range from flat to slightly up in both light-duty trucks and buses, and heavy-duty trucks are expected to be down at between 15%-20%.
The next slide, number 21, has our full year 2024 preliminary financial guidance. As stated at the top of the chart, this financial guidance excludes Magirus, our firefighting business unit, and has been confirmed in its entirety in what was disclosed during our Capital Markets Day. Based on the strong start of the year, the current industry outlook, solid order backlogs, and no signs of unusual levels of order cancellations, the company is confirming its guidance as follows: At a consolidated level, group-adjusted EBIT at between EUR 920 million and EUR 970 million, and for industrial activities, net revenues, including currency effects, to be down around 4%, adjusted EBIT from industrial activities at between EUR 790 million and EUR 840 million. Industrial free cash flow at between EUR 350 million and EUR 400 million.
Investments in property, plant and equipment, and capitalized intangible assets at around EUR 1 billion. In conclusion, let me summarize the messages we gave today in our presentation, providing some takeaway messages. First, our current full year 2024 estimate, preliminary financial guidance, has been confirmed on the back of a convincing start of the year and evolving order backlog. This guidance includes a prudent view of the second half of the year, as we need more visibility on how the market decline, particularly in heavy-duty trucks, unfolds in pricing pressure and volumes…. Additionally, our industrial activities free cash flow, full year expectation mindfully includes a certain level of prudence, particularly when looking at the still unpredictable dynamics in hyperinflationary countries, predominantly Argentina. Second, as already disclosed in our previous earnings call, embedded in our guidance is profitability improvement for our powertrain, bus, and defense business units.
While our truck business unit will leverage on Model Year 2024 and on the sustained performance of the light commercial vehicles to mitigate the negative impact of the European market slowdown in heavy-duty trucks. We will take decisions on how to navigate our production capacities, especially in Q3, to sensibly manage costs and cash in the seasonally weak quarter ahead of us. Third, we will continue our efforts to manage our order books and preserve profitability, as well as further reinforce our control over cash. We expect bodybuilder bottlenecks to level out gradually, starting from the end of second quarter and into the second half of the year, depleting the related inventory. Our Model Year 2024 across truck segments is receiving very good feedback from customers, with deliveries to gain momentum in the latter part of 2024.
Robust order books for both our bus and defense business units are continuing, reinforcing expectations. Fourth, our commitment to maintain a sound level of available liquidity is continuing and intact. The same applies to our firm objectives to maintain positive cash generation every year, which includes a sound level of investments synergistically optimized through our delivering partnerships with strategic friends. Fifth, the transfer of ownership of Magirus GmbH and its affiliates performing firefighting business is proceeding and subject to regulatory approval. The transaction is expected to be completed no later than January 2025. And six, the recent announcement about the change of Iveco Group's CEO will not trigger any change in our medium and long-term targets. These are all confirmed in their entirety, crafted and carried by strong independent leaders and management teams, pursuing individual pathways for each of our business units.
Since the foundation of Iveco Group, Olof Persson has been deeply involved in every major decision we have taken, as well as in the preparation of our updated strategic business plan, recently presented to you. The transition will be smooth and full continuity with what we have promised to the market. Each of our business unit presidents own their respective pathway and is accountable for their individual P&L and free cash flow. Given this is my last earnings call as CEO of Iveco Group, I would like to add a few personal words before opening up the microphone for questions. I joined Iveco back in 2019, when our Iveco Group businesses were embedded in the CNH Industrial structure of that time, and from there, many transformations have happened.
We began operations two years ago as an independently listed company, perceiving some skepticism at the time about us and our ability to deliver. Quarter after quarter, everyone at Iveco Group has gone beyond the obvious to build our credibility, always delivering what we promised and often exceeding it. I'm really proud to have led such an incredible team of humble fighters and fearless creators. Collectively, we outpaced and here and there, also outsmarted much larger groups whom we cannot and do not need to outspend to compete. Our team repeatedly demonstrated that we have what it takes to skillfully turn every challenge into an opportunity. It is not, easy for me to leave such an incredible group, but I'm happy to pass it on to Olof.
His extensive executive leadership experience, deep industry knowledge, and profound understanding of our group will keep the company on the pathway to success. I know that all of the senior leadership team and all of Iveco Group's people will continue to go beyond leveraging on the solid foundations that we have built together to ensure continued profitability and market growth. I'm sincerely grateful to every colleague for sharing your talent and solidarity, and I look forward to seeing how far beyond you will go from here. From the first of July on, I will return to CNH as CEO, continuing the journey Scott Wine and the CNH global leadership team have laid out, with three consecutive years of record earnings and a very strong product and digital pipeline to come.
As Iveco Group's FPT customer for powertrain solutions and financial services partner for EMEA, CNH and Iveco Group will remain connected for more fearless co-creations to come. I'm truly humbled and excited about this next chapter in my professional pathway. This concludes our prepared remarks, and we can now open it up for questions. To be mindful of the time, we kindly ask you that you hold off on any detailed modeling and accounting questions on which you can follow up directly with Federico and the investor relations team after the call. Operator, please go ahead with questions.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. We will take our first question from Daniela Costa of Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you. I have three questions, if it is possible. I'll ask them one at a time. But first, on your commentary regarding the guidance and the uncertainties in the second half, also wanted to understand, in the market guidance, you're actually slightly upgrading the LCV in Europe. So why don't we see a sort of a reflection of that on the company guidance? Is this related to the pricing side or something else, sort of, that you view could be worse off in the second half? Can you elaborate first on that?
Hi, Daniela. The markets uptick in light, I think we are taking a pretty cautious view on how the heavy-duty market is going to unfold in the second half. I mean, as we walk into this year further, we do see some markets developing quite differently in this decline. All of them are down, yeah. But hence, we have seen some opportunities on the light, and we are remaining quite cautious on the heavy. So I think those two in our forecast are offsetting each other.
Okay. And then in terms of, like, you overproduced, I think I believe you heard you earlier saying 29% in LCV. Can you talk about production plans for the rest of the year, and what's been the margin implications of this overproduction in Q1?
Well, look, we are in the cut-over phase between the model year 2022 and the 2024. And right now, particularly the third quarter, to be more precise, the second quarter and partially also the third quarter, these are the quarters when the two are basically sitting in our production lines side by side. And with this, you naturally in focus on a high output in order to have both lines, the one to run out, the other one to ramp up. So this is a bit why we have overproduced, and this is very natural in a cut over between these models that we are producing at fairly high volumes in our Suzzara and Valladolid plants.
Thank you. And medium and heavy duty, finally, just wondering if you could give us some color on how the margin progression has been in there, and then I think in prior quarters, you commented on the margin level, so if you could help us there.
Medium and heavy, when you take the, the combustion engine, which is the, the vehicles which we sell, yeah, at this point, predominantly, they are holding up versus last year despite a, let's say, increasingly challenging market environment, as also our other market participants have commented. And, as you can see also from our book-to-bill ratio, we remain pretty cautious on price versus volume, being, having benefits of a significantly smaller industrial machine that we need to feed in both of those segments, yeah. So we are cautiously shortening, continuing, the cut over from 2022 to 2024.
You're profitable in one Q in medium and heavy?
Medium, heavy, we are a mid-single-digit, low-mid-single-digit profitable in Q1.
Clear. Thank you for that. Then see, see you on the other side on CNHI. Good luck.
See you there, Daniela.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question from Nicolai Kempf f of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, Nicolai Kempf , Deutsche Bank. Yeah, first of all, congrats to a strong start to the year. My first question would be, on the momentum in South America, what a mixed picture, because some of your peers actually reported better volumes, but I guess that's more referring to the heavy side and very heavy side. Would you expect that also light and medium to give a pick up momentum in the coming quarters?
Well, in Latin America, your assumption is correct. So the market in the very heavy is the segment that we have just recently reentered with our S-Way launch, and there we see the market to hold on a low level, yeah. Because the market in Latin is overly pretty suppressed today. Well, last year already, yeah. And in the light commercial vehicle business, I think if you take the mix, we are more on a volume point of view, relatively more exposed to light, and hence that's why our volumes roll up. So I think your observation is pretty correct.
And then, Gerrit, if I may also integrate, that we are also more exposed on Argentina versus most of our peers. As you know, the market is quite small, so there are not many localized players. And so as a result, that's why we are quite prudent or more impacted from the downturn in Argentina, predominantly as part of South America.
Okay, thanks. And my second final one. Yeah, I mean, your market guide implies that the volumes will come down further in H2, but on the other side, you have more models coming up, and is it then fair to assume that this should help you on pricing as well as profitability in the second half of this year?
Well, look, the Model Year 2024, as I mentioned in other occasions, and now also proven by competitive driving experiences we have done with all, you know, heavy-duty truck brands, heavy-duty truck vehicles of other brands over the last couple of months with customers and our own dealers, has proven that the Model Year 2024 stands out in almost every aspect of a heavy-duty truck. And with this, the feedback is very good to our Model Year 2024, and we have now delivered or in the process of delivering the first units to the dealerships and to our customers who placed already orders. And we do expect the momentum around this product to increase once the vehicle is in fleets, operating, delivering the promises in the day-to-day work.
This is as expected, and yes, this is a strong product, but let me just emphasize again that the heavy-duty truck market, particularly when you look at the German-speaking and the Nordic countries, is predominantly, as it's a lot impacted by a slowdown. So the average, as I highlighted, is around 15%-20% down across Europe, but there are certain markets that are impacted even harder. And we are taking a pretty cautious view, what kind of competitive dynamics this might unfold across the region. Hence our, hence our guidance, hence our very consistent, prudent view on pricing and our outlook for the remainder of the year.
Understood. Thank you, and, all the best in your new role.
Thanks.
We will now take our next question from Shakeel Kirunda of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Shakeel Kirunda from Morgan Stanley. Gerrit, wish you all the best in the new role. Volumes in European and medium heavy duty fell 3% year-on-year, but Iveco delivery fell 25%. In absence of any sort of major supply chain issues, what drives this difference? You know, is Iveco exposed to segments which are declining more, or is it just a model changeover effect?
Predominantly, the model changeover that we talked about. And there are also right now in the heavy duty segment, when you look at the deliveries that are currently made, a predominant amount of those is with a pretty large fleet, and they have usually very high levels of registrations by markets in any given month. So there's quite some volatility at this point as the retail business and the, let's say, small and national key account business for heavy duty trucks at this point is rather cautious. You know? So it is predominantly the cut over, and it is also related how we position ourselves in the markets and reposition ourselves in the market with the new model.
Got it. Thank you very much. And, what do you think about the disparity between the LCV market and medium and heavy in Europe? Are your LCV customers not concerned about the same macro conditions as your heavy duty customers? What keeps LCV growing?
Well, look, when you, when you check on the, when you break down our cab chassis light commercial vehicle business, you find a lot of subsectors that are not, directly related to the transportation of, let's say, goods in, for, for large piece goods or for, for other types. And so we... For example, we have refrigerated goods transport. We have construction applications, in this. We have specialty vehicles of all kinds, like, you know, garbage collection or street sweepers. The, the light commercial vehicle, cab chassis segment is very, very diversified across multiple subsector, sectors, and is way more, let's say, robust against one specific indicator when it, when it comes, for example, to panel vans in the last mile delivery or so. Yeah.
So if there was, and I'm not saying there is, but if there was a slowdown in last mile delivery e-commerce, which is not to be expected, it would immediately impact the panel van business where we are not very strong. While when there is, let's say, a slowdown in construction, we have a nice exposure to food distribution, and communal services or city applications. And so it carries a nice diversification inside of itself as a segment, which makes it quite strong, actually, and this is why it is where it is.
Got it. Very much.
We will now take our next question from Martino De Ambroggi of Equita. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everybody. First of all, Gerrit, all the best for the new appointment, also from my side. Three questions. The first one is still on the new Model Year 2024. What is the pace of acceptance? Is it in line with your target to close the gap with competitors in terms of pricing? Could you remind us what are and what were the proportion and where you are moving in terms of closing the gap? The second question is still on the profitability of medium and heavy trucks. Clearly, Q1, low single digit, but assuming a more prudent view on the second half, are you confident to remain profitable in the for the full year for medium and heavy?
And the third is on the EBIT bridge. You are presenting EUR 94 million pricing effect for all the industrial activities. Could you split by division and provide an idea where this figure will move for the rest of the year? And still on the EBIT bridge, there is a block of EUR 92 million Forex and other. I suppose it's probably 100% Forex, or I don't know.
Thank you, Martino, also for your words, and good wishes. I think the bridge Anna will take, but let me quickly co-comment on the, on the price gap. We narrow. That's, that was always the, the message I delivered. We are narrowing further the price gap to competition. This is the, objective we had, and that is the discussions we are having with customers when it comes to the model year 2024. I mean, again, I mean, imagine you take a-- there's a certain Scandinavian brand, and they sell an equal product at, let's say, EUR 140,000 retail price, and, and we today are sitting at whatever, EUR 115,000 or something, 10 or 15 in an equal position.
The Model Year 2024 will allow us to capture part of that gap with a product that is consistently aligned with the functions of the very best in the segment. So this is what the discussions are with the customers. And when these promises, and that for customers, these are promises until they have the vehicles in their fleet, running a considerable amount of mileage. And once that is proven in their TCO, they do see that this vehicle is going to earn them the money we promise, and hence the price gap for these orders is realized. Or let's say, the price gap is narrowed to the best in class. So we do not close the gap, but we narrow them.
We close them to some other competitors, but we will narrow them further to the very best in the segment where we have now a product that is fully aligned in, again, every aspect of what a heavy-duty truck should provide to a customer in the segment. And on the medium and heavy, yes. I mean, the medium and heavy, for the combustion engine portfolio of medium and heavies that we are selling, we expect for a full year, profit, positive profit territory for the combined medium and heavy-duty segment. Yes. So as we said last time. And Anna, on the EBIT bridge.
So for Q1, out of the EUR 94 million of positive pricing impact, I would say the majority, so around 80%, is linked to trucks, while the rest is evenly split between, bus and defense. For the full year, the proportion is, different in the sense that truck for the full year, year-over-year, will have, I would say, a flattish pricing performance. While we will start seeing in H2, as we commented also, last—when we gave the guidance for the full year, we will start seeing a positive price realization in bus and in defense. I would say predominantly in bus, but a good chunk also on defense.
Thank you. The Forex other block?
Ah, sorry, you're right. On Forex and other, I would say almost 100%, or let's say substantially, it's all Forex, as you correctly spotted.
Okay. And if I may have just a flash on 10%+ profitability in defense is possible for the full year, as it was in Q1?
Well, we will definitely be very high single digit. Let's see if we can exceed the threshold of a double digit, but for now, I would say the guidance is high single digit.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our final question comes from Virginia Montorsi of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. Just a quick follow-up on defense. Can you just give us a little bit more color on the order momentum and the backlog visibility that you have as of now, given the very strong performance in Q1? Is there anything specific that we should keep in mind for the year?
Hi. So look, the order momentum is intact. We keep, you know, gathering orders, on the, let's say, more run rate business that we have, like these, truck-derived, military vehicles. But also we keep having pretty good momentum on the existing contracts with, with customers around the world. So it's steadily, tracking to plan, and, I think we are around EUR 4.5 billion order backlog at this point, around that level. Yeah. So it's, it's according to plan. It's really... The name of the game for our defense business is obviously to keep, that momentum, yeah. And, to either one or the other, fairly sizable, large, new, big program, coming up for award that will only impact the outer years of the, of the plan, obviously.
But the name of the game is really to scale up the business now with this order momentum. And as I mentioned in some other calls, it was a EUR 500 million revenue business in 2019, and it's doubled up to this point to EUR 1 billion, and it keeps growing, and I think that demands us to make capacity investments, technology investments, and to keep everything else in the business growing from a before EUR 500 million business to one that exceeds substantially EUR 1 billion. And I think that is going hand in hand with the increase of the order book and the confidence the customers have in us to deliver them products that keep us safe.
Thank you very much.
So let's conclude today's call. I would like to thank everyone, and have a nice day. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. That will conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation. Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect.