Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Prysmian Group 9 months 2022 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our speaker today, Valerio Battista, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much and good afternoon to everyone. Welcome to the nine months results of Prysmian Group conference call. First page, the key highlights. The best ever quarter that we had in our history. EUR 432 million adjusted EBITDA in Q3, with a very outstanding performance in terms of margins. Of course, those are results that are driven by the secular trends of electrification. Across all segments, the performance, especially in energy, E&I, OEM, Renewables, are excellent. Telecom is mostly driven by the North American performance, and Projects is growing in line with the expectations. Growing very well. Overall, in the Projects we have a record backlog and a very good order intake. The backlog is over EUR 6 billion, almost EUR 7 billion, with EUR 3.2 billion of order intake in the first nine months of 2022.
The financial highlight of the nine months. Sales at EUR 12 billion, with an organic growth of 15%. A very solid organic growth, mostly in all the segments, with almost 30% growth in projects driven by submarine this time. 16.1% in E&I, with PD recovering and following the very big jump made by T&I. 10.3% in land network components with OEM and Renewables driving the race. Last but not least, 9.2% in telecom with a double-digit growth both in optical and MMS. Optical has been growing 18.2%. Let's have a look at the margins and adjusted EBITDA. The adjusted EBITDA closed at EUR 1.131 billion, with an adjusted EBITDA margin on the sales of 9.4%.
The margin growing almost in all the segments with EUR 1,131 million versus EUR 725 million in the first nine months of the year. Q3, 10.4% adjusted EBITDA margin. Adjusted EBITDA improvement better than the 7.8 in Q3, 7.8% in Q3 2021. Other than the results are growing also the margins. Free cash flow. Everything we have been talking about has to be transformed into cash, and that's what's going on. EUR 344 million year to date with the net debt at EUR 2,372 million. The free cash flow is generating a very good deleverage with a net debt reduction versus last year. The goal is to reach year-end leverage ratio that is around about 1, let's say 0.99x. That's my goal.
Let's move to page four, projects. Our backlog is now extremely high. It's the highest of the history of the company with almost, let's round the number, EUR 7 billion backlog plus EUR 4.1 billion order with long-term visibility, meaning that we have the order, but we don't have yet the notice to proceed. We have been awarded a number of very important projects this year, starting from NeuConnect, EUR 1.2 billion, extension of the SuedOstLink, EUR 700 million, the two submarine interconnectors in Spain for EUR 250 million, and the Lightning Project in Italy for EUR 220 million. A pretty good level of projects awarded this year. Let's look at the right side of the chart to understand that since 2020, when you are seeing here only the year end.
When the relevant part of the project orders was related to the underground and jumped up, thanks to the German Corridor orders. Now, September 2022, the big increase of the order backlog comes from submarine. Out of the EUR 6.85 billion order backlog, we have more or less the German Corridor chunk and the land chunk of the business that has grown not very much, whereas the submarine part has almost doubled. Let's move to page five and analyze the performance across the various segments. Let's start with projects. Projects posted, I'm sorry, 29% organic growth, moving from EUR 1.071 billion sales last year, nine months, to EUR 1.438 billion this year, nine months.
With moreover, a not negligible growth of the EBITDA from EUR 124 to EUR 149, whereas the EBITDA margin has grown to 10.4% in the nine months, compared to the 11.5% of the nine months one year ago. The margins are improving because sequentially, you remember that the first quarter, it was something like 7%, but we are not yet at the proper level. The reason for the improvement comes from the increase of the chunk of submarine compared to the terrestrial land. We expect another jump in the last quarter. We got the full qualification for the 525 kV extruded submarine for the HVDC, and consequently, we are able now to quote for submarine 525, 2 GW capacity transfer line for the energy markets.
Energy moved from EUR 7 billion sales to EUR 9.25 billion, with 13.9% organic growth. Out of energy, splitting in E&I and industrial. E&I grew significantly, 16.1% organic growth. From the Industrial & Network Components point of view, grew 10.3% from EUR 2.074 billion to EUR 2.613 billion. In terms of EBITDA, the biggest jump came from E&I. That more than doubled the result of the nine months 2021, from EUR 269 to EUR 556, with an 8.8% EBITDA margin. Really outstanding. This performance is driven by the market, by the growth driven by the secular trends, regarding data centers, and mostly non-residential contracts, construction.
Industrial network component on the other side grew quite a lot to EUR 204 million EBITDA, with an EBITDA margin of 7.8%, with a very strong growth in OEM, mostly, and Renewables. Finally, the telecom came up with EUR 1.4 billion sales, nine months obviously, comparable to the EUR 1.2 billion one year ago. An organic growth of 9.2%, and a result that has improved from EUR 178 million, nine months 2021, to EUR 221 million, nine months 2022. The growth is very solid, in particular in North America. YOFC has better contributed than one year ago, you know, because maybe you follow YOFC on the Chinese market. The fiber optic situation in China is improving.
The prices have been recovered, the volumes are still very high, and consequently, the results are better. Okay, let's move to the following page. By geography, it's quite clear from the chart that all the regions are growing. One especially, the North American one, is overperforming all the others. EMEA grew 11.2% from EUR 3.9 billion to EUR 4.9 billion, with a very excellent organic growth and a pretty decent EBITDA margin. Moving the EBITDA from EUR 226 to EUR 268. North America is the region that has overperformed all the others. Moving from EUR 2.775 billion to EUR 3.898 billion turnover, with an organic growth of 19.9% and strong results on main businesses.
The EBITDA moved up from EUR 248 million to EUR 551 million. Incredible results in North America. Latin America, from the organic growth point of view, grew from EUR 771 million to EUR 978 million, with an organic growth of 10.7%. Mainly driven by the growth of Renewables. The adjusted EBITDA moved up from EUR 73 million to EUR 95 million. Again, thanks to E&I and Renewables. Last but not least, Asia Pacific, that, has been growing not significantly in terms of organic growth from EUR 744 million euro turnover to EUR 861 million, with an organic growth that is only, in brackets, 1.2%, but a quite significant improvement of the results from EUR 54 million EBITDA to EUR 68 million. Mostly or also because of the YOFC effect in the numbers. Finally, page seven, the outlook.
We are revising the outlook for the second time this year. We feel obliged to revise further the outlook, increasing it from the previous EUR 1.3 billion-EUR 1.4 billion delivered to you in June at the end of the first half, to EUR 1.425 billion-EUR 1.475 billion, for the sake of simplicity, a center point of EUR 1.45 billion, with an increase of the free cash flow guidance too, because there is no EBITDA, there is no results if this does not translate into cash. The cash is increasing to EUR 450 million-EUR 500 million expected free cash flow. I leave the floor to Francesco now for the details on the P&L.
Thank you, Valerio. Good evening to everybody. The usual wrap up of the profit and loss statement, as Valerio said, a very robust organic growth, 15%, +15%, with a third quarter, the same speed, more or less, of the first half. Adjusted EBITDA, strongest quarter ever, with a very strong margin expansion, 9.4% year to date. But just to give you a reference, this 9.4% is diluted by an extremely high level of metal prices, as everybody knows. If we do the exercise to recalculate this, for instance, based on the 2019 pre-pandemic metal prices, EBITDA margin would be around 11%, which is not only in absolute terms, EBITDA, but also in margin terms, by far the highest level ever.
You see the bridge of the quarterly EBITDA broken down by division. Just a few comments. Projects improved very well in line with expectations. We have to say that a further sequential improvement is expected in the fourth quarter, which will lead us to a well-known target around EUR 240 million EBITDA full year for the project business. Energy business is keeping the outstanding momentum already shown in particular in the second quarter and in particular in North America, without any particular sign of weakness or decline. I would say stable. Good and stable at a very high level. Last but not least, Telecom is also showing a very nice sequential improvement, which is evident in the bridge upper right.
Also thanks, as Valerio explained, to pretty robust YOFC results, enjoying the strong recovery of the Chinese market. Another very good achievement is definitely the net income, the Group's net income, and I like to highlight that. As you see, nine months net income, the Group's net income at EUR 431, which is not far from doubling compared to last year. An exceptionally high result despite some negative effects that we had on non-monetary items. You see a total of EUR -116, which is a sizable, even net of tax, sizable burden on the net income, and which are mainly related to non-monetary temporary items.
Such as, for instance, the negative change in metal derivatives fair value, which is, let me call it, quite an irrelevant item because it's temporary, is non-cash, and only resulted from the drop of the metal prices in the last few months. Let me go to the following page, the balance sheet. Working capital increased significantly compared to September 2021, a jump of approximately EUR 500 million. By far the main driver here is not so much the volume effect, I would say, but much more the price effect of our raw material, in particular the non-metal raw material. Inflation in principle. This was an effect, let me say, between EUR 350 million and EUR 400 million compared to the equivalent month of September 2021.
We had also a very large effect, non-monetary by the way, non-cash, coming from the dollar strengthening, so the currency effect. Another one coming from the much higher metal prices, now decreasing but still higher than last year. On the opposite side, a very positive in terms of reducing working capital, job done by the project division in lowering the level of working capital, and in particular collecting in the third quarter some very material down payments which decreased the level of working capital.
Apart from absolute level of working capital, it's also good to underline that this EUR 1.8 billion operating net working capital in terms of on annualized sales is around 10.5%, which is not very different from the level of last September 2021, which was close to 10%, 9.7%, 9.8%. So in terms of percentage on sales, we are not sitting on a very different number of working capital than was the case in September 2021. I like also to stress, as Valerio already did, the strong deleverage with net financial debt going down to EUR 2,372 million, which is a -EUR 300 million from September 2021.
With a leverage in terms of net debt on EBITDA that projected at year-end will be approximately 1.0x. So basically a level of net debt that we estimate to be broadly in line with the level of our full year 2022 adjusted EBITDA. Cash flow last twelve months, September, we reached EUR 344 million. This is the usual bridge of net debt from September 2021 to September 2022. You see the items summing up, the free cash flow amounts to EUR 344 million. This is very well positioned, in my opinion, to achieve the new guidance that Valerio commented, a free cash flow between EUR 450 million and EUR 500 million.
The reason for this is that this 344 still discounts, as you see from this slide, a high level of working capital increase, working capital change increase of EUR 342 million. With the flattening of raw material prices, metal and non-metal, this increase will decline, will flatten out on a full-year basis, will be, I estimate, in the region of EUR 200 million. This effect will be partially offset in terms of cash flow from a higher rise of the CapEx. You see here a level of EUR 310 million on a full-year basis will go most likely around EUR 360 million-EUR 370 million.
These two effects will explain how this EUR 344 million will go into the region of the EUR 460 million–EUR 500 million of our guidance. Let me finally close with some quick remarks on our Q3 performance. As Valerio said, two significant guidance upgrades. In July, now another significant guidance upgrade with a third quarter result. Point number two, these outstanding results are driven by, in our opinion, very secular and very structural trends. To give you clear example, the energy transition and the digital transformation. The energy transition, as we all know, and we have commented already, is not impacting only the project business. Certainly, impacting the project business, but is also impacting at a great length, the energy business.
We estimate that our energy business, more than 50% of that, around 50% of that, is impacted by non-cyclical trends. More structural, more secular trends, like energy generation, like data centers, like electrification. Number three, strong deleverage. Let me highlight that the strong deleverage in a new financial environment, like the one that we are facing now, of much higher interest rates, is even more important. Let me clearly say that there is, in our opinion, no growth without the ability to generate a lot of cash. In particular, when the financial market becomes much more challenging and interest rates grow. It's even more important, our capability to generate cash and deleverage. We hope it's clearly shown by our results. Last but not least, solid order intake and high visibility in the project business.
This is preparing the way to the results, top line and results growth that we target for the next few years. A first very important sign, in my opinion, is that you may have appreciated in the backlog presentation that Valerio gave, is an important change in the mix of this backlog. Because the component of submarine significantly increased in the last 12 months, in principle, versus the component of underground high voltage. This, of course, will have a positive repercussion also in terms of margins, because of simply of the mix effect of margins in the future. I think I'm over with my part, and we can now move ahead with the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Once again, that's star one and one on your telephone. We will now go to your first question. One moment, please. Your first question comes from George Featherstone from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking the questions. I've got a few, so I'll just ask them in turn. I wondered within some of your shorter cycle businesses, I know you just mentioned them, that you're thinking most of the performance this year has been driven by secular trends, but clearly you've had some benefits elsewhere, like construction cables that you called out in the US. I just wondered what you think the sustainability of that is going forward from here, and maybe what the inventories are like in the channel more broadly in E&I.
Hi. Thank you for the question. Let me try to give you a very quick answer. Surprisingly, the stock in the supply chain has not or is not growing. What does it mean? That there has not been a very significant growth of the output, even for matters related to the supply chain instability. Customers are asking for volumes, not very much, but are continuing to ask for volumes. What's surprisingly very positive is the ability we have to pass the cost increase to the market, even adding some additional margins. That's especially in the North American market.
If I may add, George, this is Juan Mogollón, and I'll just expand a little bit on Valerio's answer. In regards to your question on the cycle nature of our business. Let me just remind you that in North America, which is the biggest the lion's share of the growth this year, residential is less than 5%. As my colleague, Francesco, mentioned it, more than half of our energy portfolio is coming from what we consider secular trends, including the electrification such as mining, mobility, Renewables, medium voltage. I'll share with you a couple of data points that will help you formulate your own perspective. Our PD business organically grew 90% in the first nine months of the year.
This was not just price, this is price and volume. Our order book, right now we're sitting on 17% higher order book than the same period last year. Our order intake continues to be higher than last year. I do not see a slowdown in that segment, George. That's a segment that is driven by the grid expansion and the Renewables projects, which I think you'd all agree that it's a pretty secular trend. The other one is a segment that Valerio mentioned, it's in the electrification. Say, for instance, in Renewables, which is for us solar and wind.
Our order book right now, we're sitting on an order book that is 25% higher than the same period last year, and the order intake continues to be double-digit higher than last year. I feel pretty robust about the sustainability of that, primarily because over the years, we have expanded our footprint in areas that are way beyond the construction that is closer to consumer.
Okay. Thank you very much for the additional color there. Just one quick follow-up before I move on to the next question. Of the 22% organic growth you saw in North America in the quarter, how much of that was price versus volume, just out of interest?
Can we say that is 80% price?
I think.
Try to make it simple, huh?
Yeah. Again, if I may, expand on that as well, George. North America, yes, the lion's share is price, particularly in T&I. Let me just mention the point, the fact that our volume have been flattish in T&I. Let me remind you that again, in North America, specifically in the US, our T&I is non-residential. In the PD and industrials and in the OEMs, it was a combination both of price and volume. The reason I'm making that remark is because the implication of that is that the mix of the portfolio, we're continually graduating it into more richer, into sustainable secular trends, rather than the pure construction or non-residential construction.
May I also add, maybe a point that it is certainly true that the lion's share of the North American growth is price, but this doesn't mean that the market is not growing in terms of volume. It more means that the supply chain is a little bit constrained, and a certainly higher demand than in the past, driven by the non-residential construction, by the secular trends, is kind of pushing against a constrained supply chain, and this gives leverage to the manufacturer to pass inflation and, as Valerio said, even more. The fact that volumes are flattish or slightly growing, we have to be very clear on this.
In North America, particularly, it doesn't mean that the North American market in the energy business, so in the grid hardening, power distribution, and in the construction and the non-residential construction is not growing. The other way around, I would say.
Okay, thank you. My next question would just be on receivables factoring. I noticed that for the first half of the year anyway, by the end of Q2, you'd got it to about EUR 496 million of receivables that you factored, which compared to about EUR 295 million at the end of the year last year. I just wondered how that's evolved in the third quarter and how we should expect that throughout the rest of the year.
Look, the level of factoring in September is in line more or less with September 2021. The level will increase, as usual, in the fourth quarter, but once again, it will be in line with December 2021. Apart from the absolute level, it's not a differential in our cash flow. The level of receivable factoring without recourse is more or less stable, and this applies both to September and will apply also to December.
Okay, thank you very much.
Welcome.
Welcome.
Thank you. We will now go to our next question. One moment, please. Your next question comes from the line of Massimiliano Severi from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thank you very much for taking my questions, and congrats on the strong quarter. I have one by division, so I'll go one by one, if I may. First on energy. I was wondering if you could help us with some indications on how much of the EUR 300 million EBITDA uplift in North America comes from T&I. Secondly, if you could help us understand how much of the EUR 50 million CapEx that you put in PD North America will convert into higher sales in 2023.
Okay. Thank you very much, Max, for your question. Point number 1. Out of the EUR 300 million additional in North America we have seen this year, is clearly stated in page 6. How much come from T&I? We have the exact number.
Can I give you. Maybe not perfect number, but I would say two-thirds, more or less.
Two-thirds, yes.
Comes mostly from price, not from volumes. Let's say that EUR 200 million out of EUR 300 are coming from the North American price. The CapEx for PD, we have launched $50 million or $60 million, I remind sixty, of additional CapEx for power distribution in North America, that are coming into fruition next year, increasing the capacity of the aluminum medium voltage in our plants. You will see, or we will see, the result of these investments during 2023. I'm right, Massimo? You have any.
To give you a bit of a quantification, this $60 million will add 15% extra capacity to our footprint in North America, and this translates into some, let's call it, $120 million worth of revenue. As I said, this investment will kick in in mid-2023. You'll see half of this amount occur in next year in the second half, and it carries over with the power distribution in North America. It's actually the first step. We're already working on a second stage, a second step, because we see the greater demand growing and accelerating in North America, we will have a second round of investment to the bottleneck and increase this capacity very soon.
Okay, clear. Thank you very much. Secondly, on projects, most of your capacity expansion, if I'm not wrong, will come online in 2024 and 2025. I was wondering, by how much can you expand revenues organically given where your backlog is right now, but capacity will come online in 2024 and 2025? Secondly, if you can get back to 2021-like margins without the benefit of capacity expansions already in 2023.
Okay. Thank you very for the question. The answer is pretty simple. As you said, the additional capacity is coming online 2024, 2025. I don't see anything different from it as of now. From the margins point of view, I believe that by next year and the year after, we can improve further the margins, as you said. Did I answer to your question? Hakan, do you want to add anything?
I would say the biggest improvement and the capacity increase is going to be a little bit later than 2025, also within 2025. As Valerio said, in 2024 we will improve a little bit the capacity. Overall, the margin. Yes, we are improving the margin. You will see also sequential quarter by quarter, not only in percentage terms, but also we are improving in absolute terms. To the sales number, sales number is very volatile, depending also on the raw materials and also the inflation effect. Therefore, if everything stays same, of course there is going to be a growth, but depends, if the raw materials are going to come down, which will affect the sales going forward.
Okay, thank you. My final one would be on telecom and the level of demand. I was wondering, are you seeing customers, maybe particularly in Europe, postponing fiber rollout plans to wait for fiber prices to come down? Or is it something that you're not seeing and customers are just accepting the higher energy costs related to fiber and a higher fiber price?
I leave the floor to Philippe to give this answer.
Good evening, Mas. If you're talking about Europe, the situation of competition is still there. Not all the customers accept to bear the increase of cost that we see in our raw materials and energy. We have been able to pass a significant part of this cost, more than 50%. In the US, of course, as you know, the situation is different because the market is buoyant and it's much easier to pass our costs to the market. Does that answer your question?
You don't see any slowdown in customer demand resulting from the high current fiber price?
Okay. I took the part of passing the cost to the market. Thank you, Massimo. In terms of demand, no, we don't see a slowdown. We see a confirmation that the countries that have to build their infrastructure are growing, and it is confirmed. We don't see any sign of slowdown, even in Europe today.
Thank you. We will go to our next question. One moment. Your next question comes from Daniela Costa, Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. I have two questions, actually. The first one I wanted to ask is about projects and then the topic of capacity. We're just thinking recently we've seen from one end, some of the utilities in the US, like Avangrid, delaying some offshore projects, and talking about sort of the IRR maybe not making so much sense at the moment, given where inflation is. We've also seen a lot of players announcing capacity increases. Obviously, you have your own capacity increases, but I think JDR and Xlinks are building plants in the UK, for example. Can you talk a bit about if we go for this more bearish US offshore scenario, potentially of, given the companies are questioning orders.
Could we be risking in 2025, 2026 having overcapacity, or do you think there's sort of enough out there to fill everyone's capacity? My second question just relates more to, you've mentioned net debt below one. I think when we go back and look over history, the only periods where you've had net debt below one were probably around 2016, 2017 before the General Cable deal. How should we think about capital allocation once you get there? Because you seem to always generate sort of cash, so we imagine that continues to come down. Is it sort of dividend buyback, M&A? Sort of what's your thinking at the moment regarding what's the most efficient use of the balance sheet?
Daniela, thank you for the question. For the project question, I leave the floor to Hakan Ozmen.
Okay. Thank you, Valerio. Daniela, for the question regarding, first you have different questions in the same question. The first one is about North America. There is no reduction in expectations in North America. I would avoid to discuss individual projects there, but in project business, everything is long-term negotiation. Nothing is concluded until you have you know the financial closure. I think, of course, there is the right to ask for escalation on the current circumstances of the inflation towards our customers. I'm sure that also our customers are doing that. Specifically, you mentioned some names, they are doing the same.
Because the nature of these businesses are long-term, I don't see anything that is threatened by these negotiations that are going on. This is, of course, my interpretation and our interpretation of the circumstances that you described. On the contrary, I feel there is not a bear market, a bull market, let me say, on projects, especially in North America. As you know, California announced 4.5 GW expansion of, you know, offshore wind, floating already right now. They are planning already to go to the next technology. Therefore, this is regarding the first part. I don't see any issues. Apart about the increase in capacity, yes, everyone is increasing the capacity.
I think our capacity increase was foreseeing also the expansion of the market. We don't see also these capacity increases that are happening currently in the market as a threat. I think the market is growing more than the capacity increases that are, you know, coming into the market, as you mentioned, JDR. I would not comment again about XLCC, because XLCC is, I think, it's further down the road and there are lots of things that has to happen that this project is going to go forward. I would not say that it is. You know, I would not comment positive or negative on it. I would just say it's not in the picture.
It is one project which will feed automatically if it happens, with the capacity that they are going to construct, so it has no effect on the market. Having said, I don't expect overcapacity in 2025, not in 2026. On the contrary, I think we have to, our capabilities have to increase. I see that because the voltage levels are increasing, there are less people, less companies that are capable of doing high voltage, with also with deeper and longer length. Therefore, I think the specific capacity is going to be not enough. We as a company also, we have to evaluate further expansions down the road. I think it's completely the opposite as of today. We will see how it is going to go altogether. I see fairly the market bullish rather than a bear market.
Daniela, in terms of technology, I'm quite convinced today that the next frontier will be the offshore floating. There is a technology we are working on now in order to be ready within two years, three years max, to comply with the market requirements.
Thank you. Actually, if I can follow up on that, on the floating, do you think your peers also will or will this be a market share growing opportunity for you? What's the status out there in terms of people being ready for it?
Okay, we know that out of our peers, the ones that have been working already on the umbilicals have an advantage.
In the oil and gas.
The players of oil and gas for electrification of oil platforms. We are one of them, and I believe that will be the next frontier. Now, we are discussing about certain projects at the very early stage that may become in the order book in the next two years.
If I may add, Valerio, Daniela, if we are talking about the very long term, because we are talking offshore wind floating, that means many things, maybe many moving parts have to come together. Beyond three to five years, the major growth is going to come from floating. All the fixed, bottom fixed offshore wind is going to be stable, but the significant growth is going to be coming from the floating. There is also the capability of developing this cable, a determining factor, how the capacity that is out in the market is going to be utilized. Therefore, this is another addition, as Valerio said, whoever has that capability, apart from the capacity, will be able to play in this growth market. We will be definitely one of them.
Daniela, about your second question, the ratio between the debt and the EBITDA. We are targeting a number that is below one year-end. Let's say one, because Francesco is prudent. I'm asking him every day 0.99x, no more. Let's see. The capital allocation, first of all, is crucial to have the capital. Then we can debate about the capital allocation. Capital allocation may means certain acquisitions. You have not to forget that for the projects, we need to expand the capacity organically because there is no capacity available, at least to us, in the market because of our market share. Consequently, there will be a further, probably, increase of CapEx in our P&L. Having said it, our ability to leverage and to get money from the markets is still pretty good, and we may decide to make some move. Today, I don't see anything very relevant at the window.
Understood. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you. We will now go to your next question. One moment, please. The next question comes from Akash Gupta from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good afternoon, everybody. Most of my question has been answered. I just have a couple of follow-up questions. The first one is on projects margin in Q4. Francesco, you said in your comments that for full year, you are targeting EUR 240 million in EBITDA for projects, which would imply EUR 91 million in Q4 and quite a step up from the run rate that we have seen in the first three quarters of the year. Can you tell whether this higher Q4 contribution is coming from higher revenues or basically it's driven by margin recovery, given we saw Q4 last year was also quite a strong quarter?
Yeah. Thanks, Akash. I have to say, first of all, that a strong Q4 is very typical of the project business. In the end, these EUR 91-92 million that we'll have of adjusted EBITDA in Q4 is not much above the level of last year. This will drive a higher margin, and we estimate that the current level of margin year to date will increase, but not far from the 12%, 11. Between, let me say 11.5%-12.0%, something like this. This of course is not enough. It is a first step in our clear target to achieve, to go back to a level of 14.0%-15.0%, but this will take, let me say, a couple of years.
The quarter itself is, it will be above 12.
Absolutely.
It's going to be around.
Yes.
I mean, in order to come to the 11%-12%, you have to have a very strong.
On projects, it's very important to read the full year.
Yes.
Because it's very quarterly, also driven by the installation phasing. I recommend to look at full year results and full year margins. Because as the first quarter is low.
Typically over the past many years, also the fourth quarter is typically higher than the average, right? It's very important to take a balance view and look at the full year for progress. Okay.
Thank you. My second and last question is on pricing and inflation. I think this year you have seen very good pricing, which has given you some boost on margins. As we go in 2023, I think inflationary headwinds were going to increase, particularly on wages and energy side. When it comes to pricing, are you looking to increase pricing further? Do you think that your customers would be, like, you would be able to pass it on to your customers? Or whether, like, this positive price cost that you had this year. Like, how should we think about price cost when it comes to moving from Q4 to next year in terms of your ability to increase prices further?
Akash, I don't like to tell stories, you know. I believe that a significant chunk of the cost increase we are seeing today and we expect to see next year, we will be able to pass to the customers. Doesn't mean that we are gonna keep, especially in North America, the results we currently have. I expect a little bit reduction of the margins in U.S. because they are really outstanding today. I don't see at the same time today any reduction of the demand by the customers. Crossing fingers, let's see what my friend here wants to say.
Hello, Akash. This is Juan Mogollón. I'm gonna expand a little bit on Valerio's answer because your question on pricing refers a lot to my division, Energy. Look, I think we have to divide this into two pieces. There is a short cycle piece, which is the T&I, and there is an element of price elasticity. How much can we push it before we price ourselves out? Now, the answer is pretty scientific because we need to understand the elements that are driving the price and that the customers are able to continue to pass the price. For instance, the segments that are very close to consumers, we're starting to see a plateau on that, like the residential.
The piece that is non-short cycle, like the mid-cycle, longer cycle, which is PD, Renewables, OEMs, it's a lot more predictable, and we're definitely now seeing a normalization there. I think your question about how do we look at it, you know, look, it's a matter of price discipline, you know. Like, we instituted not long ago this element of project selectivity, where we're not chasing just any volume. You know, we have implemented terms and conditions and escalation clauses which allow us to accordingly adjust the price depending on the raw materials, the labor, inflation, and other things that now we are seeing in the inflation. The other is the element of training our commercial sales team so that they are able to have the conversations with the customer. One good example of that is utilities. Most utility companies have escalation clauses.
Collaborating with them, sitting down with them to explain it to them, we make their life easier in order to pass the cost, the price to their own customers. In a snapshot, no, I'm not seeing a deterioration of price. We're very vigilant on the short cycle business, on the T&I, and we're also vigilant not to increase it so much that we break the elasticity and then we start losing volume. Does that answer your question, Akash?
Thank you.
Thank you. We will go to our next question. One moment, please. Your next question comes on line of Vivek Midha from Citi. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much, everyone. Good afternoon. So I just like Akash, most of my questions are being answered, but a few follow-ups, please. Firstly, following up on the discussion on energy, if I understand correctly, the demand remains very positive and there's a large element of supply bottlenecks. I mean, how have those supply bottlenecks and shortages been evolving in the last quarter or so? How do you see that evolving into next year? Thank you.
Thank you. How is evolving the bottleneck on the supply and demand in energy? The bottleneck is made by two reasons. The first one is the availability of raw materials, and the second one is the availability of labor. Whereas the availability of raw materials may improve or have improved, the availability of people, in the U.S. I'm saying, is not improving. It's not improving at all because there is all the repatriation of certain activity from offshore that is requiring additional workforce that is not very available in the U.S. other than pretty expensive. I don't see a quick rebalance of today's imbalance between demand and supply. That make me reasonably comfortable that some peak in the T&I we may lose. We shouldn't lose anything on the PD expansion or in the specialties, and we are not gonna lose for sure in the telco.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for letting me expand Valerio's question, and I will expand it from the customer perspective. You know, look, I see customers almost every week in all continents, in the Middle East, Europe, and North America. So far I don't sense that they are concerned about the volume or the demand. I continue to hear their concerns is more focused on the supply chain and the service. This is coming directly from the customers that I meet.
Thanks very much. That's very helpful. My last question is.
Sorry, just an addition. What may push a little bit the breakeven is the cost of the money and considering the level of investment our customers are ready to progress. For the time being, we don't see, we have no signs at all, but it is prudent, it is something we have to assume.
Thank you very much. My second question is on telecom. You had another good quarter of organic growth. North America remains strong. In terms of your latest view on the sort of through cycle long-term growth outlook in that business, and what sort of growth rates do you see as sustainable given the various initiatives to support demand there? Thank you.
I give the floor to Philippe to give this answer.
Yes, good evening. The market is set to grow 5% globally. That's what all the experts say today, and I share this. It's also my view. What you have to keep in mind when you talk about Prysmian Telecom is that we also have inside shrinking segments, like, copper telecom, and occasionally also an effect on specialties like we are seeing today actually, because we had a very big order last year. I can add that I see a very strong growth. We are, as you know, adding capacity to our operations in telecom, in optical. If you want a more sequential number, we grew our optical telecom in quarter three compared to quarter three last year by 23%.
If I look at the same optical only in North America, our organic growth is above 30%. We are definitely following the market, more than following the market, where we decide to be present and to add capacity, which is the case of the North American continent at this moment. We don't see a slowdown of that growth in the coming years. Did I answer your question?
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now go to our next question. One moment, please. Your next question comes from Miguel Borrega from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Just have two questions. The first one, I wanted to try to understand a little bit better the pricing situation in energy in North America. I know you've touched on demand and pricing, but it's still not quite clear to me what is allowing the situation. Maybe you can talk a little bit about competition in the market. Are you seeing the same level of pricing in your competitors? Maybe just touch on the distributors. I think a couple of them are already signaling some destocking. Are you seeing that over recent months, or would you expect that over the coming quarters? More big picture, what do you think will happen next year? I mean, what can you do to offset if pricing rolls over?
Last quarter, I remember you saying, Valerio, that the new normalized margin for energy would be around 7% and not 5%. What gives you the confidence that if pricing really rolls over, how can you offset the impact on margins? That's my first question.
Okay. Thank you, Miguel. Let me remind you that the North American market is definitely different from Europe. Finito. That's very, very clear to us, in particular to me, because I'm a European and I come from Europe. I've been working in Europe for 30-plus years, and I discovered that the North American market is a completely different market from the mentality point of view. Customers are not looking at the lowest price for each component they have to buy. Customers rely a lot on the long-term relationship with the suppliers. Suppliers are not so many, and they rely most of all on the suppliers that have the capacity and the potentiality to follow them. The price is a secondary problem for them.
I like a lot this way of thinking, having been for 20-plus years in Europe, fighting with each customer for each single dollar or euros. It is a different market. The pricing in North America is extremely high today. The margins are outstanding. Will stay as they are forever? I don't believe. I think that one way or another, the market will redirect the balance between demand and offer, and consequently, the prices will slightly reduce. Not going back to the time of 2019. That I'm quite sure. Massimo wants to add.
Want to add another angle to understand this peculiarity of the American market. This is, as I said multiple times, is not the residential market what we serve, is a project business market. Now, when customer has to deliver projects, so like cables for an industrial plant, for a commercial center, for an airport and so on, what matters the most is to have cables available in the shortest possible time or at least on time. Price is not an element that we discuss with customer at this stage. As long as this imbalance in the market between capacity and demand remains, and we think it will remain because of the point that Valerio mentioned before, scarcity in raw material will probably soften a little bit, but still will remain.
Actual people will remain an important constraint to add extra capacity. These two key factors will remain. We see this imbalance remain. We see us well positioned to maintain the same benefit in terms of pricing, in terms of unit margin on this project T&I type of American business. As far as we see today, the pipeline of projects, so the business in North America for non-residential construction is still very long and active, with a lot of activity going on, also fueled by the subsidies from the government, the Inflation Reduction Act and all this type of thing. We don't see signals so far of possible slowdown.
Last but not least, how we think to compensate. First of all, today we are having here the CEO of North America. First of all, there are other way to compensate the possible pressure on price or reduction of margins in the U.S. I believe that there will not be a very significant drop of it. Anyway, we are organizing ourselves in order to manage it at the best possible scenario. The North American team is already starting to prepare counter actions in case of price reduction is gonna come in place. That is not the case for the time being.
Just to confirm, you're not seeing any of your competitors cutting prices as of yet, North America?
No. Absolutely not, because the imbalance between the offer and the demand is still there. The demand is higher than the offer.
Okay. My last question on free cash flow, specifically in Q3. I understand Q3 is usually negative free cash flow with working capital absorption, but I was surprised to see that this year, since you had a record quarter in energy, which is much higher in cash conversion than any other segment. Can you help us understand how working capital is evolving and perhaps also going into Q4? I believe the corporate impact is now lower. Correct me if I'm wrong. Just thinking about Q4, what gives you the confidence that you'll be able to generate roughly EUR 1 billion? There may be obviously an element of down payments from recent awards, but if you exclude the down payments from new awards, how do you think would be in Q4? Thank you very much.
Thank you very much to you, Miguel. Have to be clear, this year, differently from the past, we didn't wait the summer to cut the stock. I gave end of the first quarter the instruction to reduce the stock. Take or leave it. The team did it. That's the reason for the reasonably strong, I say reasonably because it can be even better. Cash flow of the Q3. That's it.
Let me start from the third quarter first of all, taking piece by piece. The third quarter, as you correctly said, has already a pretty good cash conversion, specifically for the energy business, but also very good for the project business. For the project business, it's mainly related to some down payments, and down payments are driven by the very sharp growth of the market, that this year were a little bit anticipated compared to a normal year. In a normal year, they tend to be loaded more on the fourth quarter. We will add down payments also in the fourth quarter, but this year specifically, for instance, we had a very large one, a very big one in the third quarter, and this helped the net debt and cash flow dynamic in Q3.
The other important element was in the rest of the business, say, the energy business and partially also in the telecom business, where the raw material prices started to flatten. The peak of raw material, let's keep it, keep this always in mind, was reached actually springtime 2022. Since then, raw material came down a bit, flattened, and this, of course, started to help the cash flow generation already in Q3. Going to Q4, this dynamic of generating, you mentioned EUR 1 billion, it's not far from reality, is very typical. If you take the last 10 years, even longer, I've been CFO of this company for the last 15 years, to be exact. I've always seen this level of cash generation.
Because our business, in the end, our working capital is extremely seasonal, and this is one. Also in the project business, typically, the milestones and the installation is mainly done in the late summer, early fall, and this delivers milestone collection in terms of cash, mainly in the fourth quarter. These are the two most important elements why we generate such a large cash flow in the fourth quarter. I think it's even easier to neutralize the seasonality to always think in terms of last twelve months free cash flow. In September, as we showed in our presentation, the last twelve months is EUR 344 million. We have to increase by, say, taking the median of our guidance, EUR 125 million.
As I explained, the flattening out of raw material prices will decrease the growth, will mitigate the growth of working capital compared to the last 12 months of September. EUR 340 will flatten down to most likely EUR 200. This will generate the boost that we need to achieve our free cash flow guidance. It will be only partially compensated by a rise in capital expenditure. Miguel, I don't believe that our free cash flow is disturbing you.
It is not. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Miguel.
Thank you. We will now go to our next question. One moment, please. Your next question comes from the line of Alessandro Tortora from Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Good evening to everybody. I have three final questions. The first one is related, let's say, to the telecom profitability, clearly excluding, let's say, YOFC. The question is if you are happy with this 13.5% EBITDA margin and if we can consider, let's say, something sustainable also on the back of, let's say, the energy cost. That's the first question. The second question is on. Sorry, but if you can come back also on the, let's say, energy division. You mentioned during the call order, let's say, backlog trend for, let's say, the PD and also the other structural sector. Can you comment a little bit also trend for non-residential, residential?
The last question is on, you mentioned, let's say, the prequalification, 525 kV for the submarine. Can you comment a little bit also on the implication? Because if understood well, there are also some other producers that got the prequalification and, are there, let's say, the tender around the corner or is it something, let's say, propaedeutic for something in the medium term? Thanks.
Thank you, Alessandro. First of all, the telecom margins. The telecom margins, excluding YOFC, have been reasonably good. I would leave comments to Philippe, but I don't see any significant shrinking of these margins. Are these margins, if I remember well your question, appreciable to me? The answer is no. I have to take into consideration the increasing cost of the fibers because of the energy bill. Fibers are very, very energy intense, and consequently, the cost of energy for fibers produced in Europe is a little bit difficult. Philippe, please.
Good evening, Alessandro. A few comments. If you take back the history of telecom in Prysmian and you exclude YOFC, you will see that we were operating at higher margins in the year 2017, 2018. Came the crisis essentially due to the Chinese dumping on price. In 2021, actually, our EBITDA margin, excluding YOFC, dropped to approximately 13%. This is where we are today. This is where we still are today. In the meantime, we had many things happening, and we were able through business and customer pruning, through passing the cost increase to the customers, partly through pushing on the right geographies that were more favorable to us and to our differentiation. We were able to maintain the 13% excluding what you have seen now for two years in a row.
If you look at 2022 itself, there are quarters in which we do the same as last year. It was quarter one. In quarter two, we did not as good as last year. In quarter three, we do better than last year. I see a quarter four, which is less relevant in any case, more or less flattish compared to last year in percentage of EBITDA. I see that this 13% is rather solid, robust. Of course, as Valerio said, the cost of energy can impact us next year, but it's still to be understood better because it's rather volatile. It's a bit early to have a definitive quote on this. I think.
The 13%, from what we see today, is a very sustainable number. If the energy cost has an impact that is larger than our cost reduction combined with the percentage that we can still pass to the customers, then we will take a hit that is going to be something like, I mean, 1% of EBITDA, something like this. It's not something that is going to divide our profitability by two. I want also to be c lear on the levels of magnitude we are talking about here. 1.5% maximum. This is how I see things today. Again, I want to insist on one point, Alessandro. It's too early to have a real view on the energy cost of next year because things are still moving.
In regard to the second question, Alessandro. Hi, this is Juan Mogollón. Your question about the order intake and the backlog for the non-longer cycle business, I think you're talking specifically T&I. Let me just break it into the two pieces because they're quite different, as Valerio said, the North America piece and the European piece. In the North America piece, right now we're sitting, as I said a minute ago, exactly on the same order book as we had last year at this period of time. The order intake, the weekly order intake as an average, also the same. I do not expect that to decline for the reasons that Valerio also said. I'll just be a little bit more specific.
Our T&I in North America is fed by more secular trends like data centers. Data centers is about 20% of our revenue in North America, and that continues to grow at a very high single digits and even double digits. Also infrastructures and OEM and all the things related to the Inflation Reduction Act. I feel pretty good about it. One more thing also. The exit speed of price so far continue to remain robust. In Europe, it's a little slightly different. In Europe, the south part of Europe in our portfolio has a big chunk of residential. You know, we're somewhere between 30%-40%. That we're seeing a little bit of normalization in the residential piece of South Europe.
We're not dismissing that because that could be a trend. As Valerio said, our teams are getting ready for that from the standpoint of securing the first of all, a quality order book with a reasonable level of price. Secondly, making sure that we capture growth in other areas in the T&I piece in South Europe. Overall, Alessandro, right now we're sitting on an order book generally that is pretty close to the same that it was last year. I do not see a decline in the price, generally speaking, the T&I portfolio, and I see a little bit of normalization in the order intake in South Europe.
Okay.
Last question you made was referred to the homologation of the 525. HVDC submarine.
I have a sample I have received just yesterday, if I'm not wrong. A sample of the PQ. It's a very nice cable. We passed completely the test and consequently, we are ready to offer the system to the customers. We have been, let's say, the first, even if the French colleagues came on board just the day after, if I'm not wrong. We are ready to develop these systems for the customers. There are tenders for it, mostly in the North Sea. I believe that the next year, we or someone else, who knows, will be awarded for the first 525 kV HVDC submarine projects. That will open the era of the 2 GW transmission line. Hakan, I don't know if I missed something.
No. Actually, you were absolutely correct. Just to give maybe a few details. Yes, the TenneT is the first 525 kV project. The IJmuiden Ver project will be awarded if there is no delay in February next year. Of course, this year we will have to complete our submission. Eight competitors, including us, has applied. One failed, two delayed it to next year, and the rest seems to be coming to, you know, to be homologated. Being homologated does not mean much, because you have to be able to install this cable also, and you have to be able also, for the interconnect, install it in deeper, let me say, condition. There are many projects for 525.
I'm not going to list them, but TenneT and Amprion has. If you just follow their website, they have, like, maybe 10 projects going, coming on. On the other hand, the interconnect, you know, also all the interconnects that are starting from some cable to, you know, to any big interconnect is going to be 500 because it's the lowest cost per megawatt that you transfer. It will be a challenge for the ones that are going to claim that they will be able to do. On the other hand, it's an opportunity for us because we think that this technology is going to reduce the costs to the customer of the whole system, and will enable us to further develop Renewables energy for the industry.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will now go to our next question. One moment, please. Your next question comes to the line of Sean McLoughlin from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Thank you and good afternoon. Just one from me. Thinking about the energy division and sales into segments with the secular trends, maybe the strategy to offset the impact of the cycle, how are you thinking about increasing sales here? You know, you're going from 50% today to what may be 70% in five years' time, any guide there would be useful. Also any kind of new product capabilities and adjacencies that you might be thinking of kind of moving beyond the cable towards. Thank you.
Sean, I believe that for this kind of business, we need to be relevant for the customer segment we are addressing. Let's skip the adjacencies. That is a much larger and probably difficult field. I believe that we can grow not because we are gonna grow organically. Doesn't make sense. There is the capacity in the world. Maybe that this is a field where some consolidation may make sense. The new product capabilities are coming online, and specifically, we launched a development of a new solar cable, because I'm quite sure, convinced at least, that the solar generation is the next frontier for the energy generation. Adjacencies is a more complex chapter. I don't know, Sean, if I have answered your question.
Yes. That's fine. I mean, you're not willing to say where 50% of the sales of energy might look like in, say, five years' time?
Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Why not?
Sean is referring to the weight, if I well understand you, Sean, of the secular trends on total energy business, which is
Correct.
Currently 50%. Well, I think to move this from 50% to 70%, frankly speaking, looks.
I would say.
It looks too big because it's very difficult to move percentages this way. I believe that this market, this part of market will definitely grow more. I think that we have also better opportunities to grow our position even better in this, on this, part of the market. It may certainly increase above the level of 50% in my opinion, a bit difficult to say now where it will end. It's the reason why I'm prudent on this is that, for instance, also the part of the non-residential construction, which is not this 50%, is the remaining 50%. This part is growing very much. By the way, in U.S., also this part is impacted by maybe not secular, but pretty medium long-term trends, such as, for instance, reshoring.
Reshoring of activities that in the United States is very, very evident. Also that part will grow, and then it's difficult to say where the secular part will land, but both of them are very valuable part in our portfolio.
I think the only thing I would comment on that, Francesco, Valerio, is the fact that, you know, this mega trend of electrification and energy transition is. I mean, I know we talk a lot about the Renewables and the things that are in the front end, but there is a number of other segments that are part of the electrification that are growing faster than most economies. Mining, as an example. Mining is. I mean, you all know the capacity in mining is increasing because mining is a big part of enabling the electrification. We play very well there. The other one is part of the mobilization. Our order continues to grow in the railways and the rolling stock because it is part of the electrification. Finally, a little bit of the digitization.
To some extent, the digitization, because it's a mega trend also that all these trends, Sean, over time, I believe will take more of the portfolio of the energy mix. To what extent and what speed, I think it's too soon to say it.
That's very helpful. Thank you.
Welcome. Thank you, Sean.
Thank you. We have one further question. One moment please. The question comes from Massimiliano Severi from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my follow-ups. I have just very broad questions, general. The first one will be on telecom and on the fiber market, total addressable market. If I think about 5G against FTTH, what do you see as the difference in the total addressable market among these and the growth trajectories that these two different end markets can have in the midterm, like five years from now or so?
Philippe.
Max, these are two trends that are successive, depending on the regions. Today, the most of the market is still about FTTX. We see a trend for the 5G to become an additional engine that is driving towards more fiber needs. You have another one adding to this, which is the long-haul interconnection of data centers, which is getting momentum. You have these three trends that are acting together. Today, the market is still very much FTTH. 5G is starting slowly in Europe, a bit more, a bit faster in other regions like Asia or the U.S.
Then on top, you have these long-haul projects to interconnect data centers that is a fundamental asset to manage the speed and the latency of the signal between data centers. We see more and more investments in that field. All these three trends, even if in certain countries the FTTH part is now shrinking because most of the work is done, there are still many places where it's still needed to do it for FTTH. On top, we have these two other engines that are starting up. These three trends made the experts and myself included thinking that this market will grow definitely in the next five years and probably even more as a market globally.
Thank you. Would I be right in thinking that, however, the 5G would be somewhat smaller than FTTH in terms of total market potential?
This is true. This is correct. Because when you already have an FTTX network in place, the 5G benefits from it as well. This is a correct statement.
Absolutely. The 5G will drive much higher quantity of data.
Even the local networks have to be reinforced.
Yes, absolutely. The 5G, you know, needs fiber definitely to the antenna, which was not the case to the 4G. Because the 5G characteristics are much more, much higher than the 4G. There is a nice market in front of us, I would say, in all regions. That's what I can say. One trend taking over from the other successively. There is no reason to think that this market could shrink unless massive geopolitical big issue. This is not what we see today.
If I can, one of the most important upside I personally see is that many, many hyperscale data centers are gonna be built.
Sure.
Have no sense for the customers not connecting the data centers. We are seeing it growing in North America with specific lines, with a lot of fibers to interconnect data centers. That's a trend that is gonna grow and is gonna progress the quantity of fibers needed in the network.
If you follow our press releases, you have certainly noticed that we have a project ongoing with Telstra in Australia, which is exactly about this. We are going to build a SAN network specific to interconnect their large data centers and the landing points of their submarine cables as well across Australia, which is a very nice project and very high tech project as well, taking the best of our innovation. This is a trend that we see emerging.
Perfect. Thank you. Very comprehensive. My final one would be on floating offshore wind opportunities. If I think about the cable that you need for offshore wind, I mean, most of the export cable would anyway lie on the bed and would not need to be flexible, I think. When I think about the additional opportunities that you see in floating, would it be mainly the medium voltage inter-array cable that needs to be flexible, or would it be just the final part of the export cable?
Sorry, Max. You have two chunks of cable. The traditional export fixed, bottom fixed. The last two miles more or less that are gonna be flexible to reach the platform and all the inter-array that are gonna be flexible. What does it mean? That customers are not gonna give the project to who can provide them only the fixed part of the connection. The players, of which we wanted to be one of them, is to provide the entire connection, flexible, static. Flexible and static will be the preferred one.
This is Hakan speaking, Max. As Valerio said, the full cable, even there is a part on the export which is static, there is also a part which is dynamic. The issue is going to be the factory joint, because you will not be able to do an offshore rigid joint between the dynamic and the static. You have to do this in the factory to make it robust. What is going to happen? You are going to do the full cable. Whoever has no dynamic capability, even they have the capability of the, you know, the static cable will not be able to.
The market, when we talk about floating market growth, of course it includes also the static market, the static part of the export cable. This is significant. It is going to be, in the long term, as big as the static one, as of today.
Okay, clear. Thank you very much.
Thanks to you.
Thank you. There are currently no further questions. I will hand the call back to you.
Thank you very much. Thanks to all, to have been present to our nine-month conference call. I wish you all the best and, to the full year results. Thank you. Bye-bye.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.