Hello. Good morning, everyone. First of all, sorry for this delay. We had some technical issues. In any case, good morning. Thank you very much for connecting to this results presentation of the Talgo first quarter 2022 results. For this presentation, Gonzalo Urquijo, CEO of the company, will go through the presentation of the results, and at the end, we will open a Q&A session in order to answer and resolve any question you may have.
Good morning to all of you. Sorry for that delay, and thank you very much for joining the call. First of all, as always, we talk of health and safety. It's our number one priority. As you can see from the figures comparing last quarter of 2021 with the first quarter of 2022 severity rate. I think that's good news, and we have continued. That doesn't mean we had some minor accidents, but as I said, minor ones, and we have to continue working. We're working very much with our subcontractors, and you know, our target is zero accidents. As for the backlog, as you can see, it remains high and with visibility as it has a long term.
In terms of commercial activity, I have to say as we see it now, we see the market more active now than what it was a few months ago. In a sense, we've had at least three extensions of our existing contracts on one side. We have another very possible one coming from North Africa, which we hope to see in the short term. Additionally, different commercial movements in Europe or offers that we are analyzing and reviewing. In terms of revenues, figures, and profitability, even though we go into it few pages, two pages ahead from now, but I do have to tell you that clearly we have been, as I would say, practically all companies, impacted by the actual macro situation and geopolitical situation.
In terms of tensions in the supply chains, we have seen aggravated lately with the geopolitical situation, increased cost of raw materials cost, and labor effects. I do have to say, and I'll say it later, we've already put this into our accounts and in our projects going forward. It's already been reflected there. Additionally to that, in maintenance, we do have a recovery, and we are back to what was, I would say, approximately 2019. That is for maintenance. Additionally to that, I think it's important, and in this first page, I would like to share with you, I think this sector is living and is going for a new paradigm. In that paradigm, I think it has three essential stakeholders. One of them is with suppliers. I think we have to review our policies with suppliers.
First of all, globalization is there, but additionally, now, you're very fortunate if you have suppliers that are around you. I mean, all what's coming from China, for us, that is only 6%, is very important because we're not blocked like all the ports are in China. We have mainly around 65% of Spanish ones and another 20% of European. That doesn't mean they could also be somewhat affected, our suppliers, by Chinese suppliers. But I think we have to review, and we are reviewing at present all that. What does it mean in terms of suppliers, having more suppliers? Where are they going to be geographically located? How, at the end, what are we going to do and negotiate with them in terms of contracts going forward? How we can become more efficient in that?
Additionally to that, as a company, we also have to review internally what we do in order we are living now scenarios which have higher inflations, higher energy costs, how we can at the end hedge this one way or the other. Third, and very important with our customers, and clearly for us, it is key that in all new tenders, we want to have price adjustment mechanism. That is clear one way or the other. It can have many ways of building it, but we cannot take a long-term industrial contract and have a closed market, a closed price when you have this volatility in the prices. Unless you put it in the price and you impact what you consider the full increases you may have in the next two years, and then you quote.
In any case, I think the idea is, I believe other companies in their results presentations have also announced it, that this will require price adjustments going forward in terms of materials, raw materials, and additional inflation that could also include, that has also to include labor costs. In terms of outlook, we'll see this in the last page. We clearly have uncertainties, but for the moment we decided not to change our outlook, and we'll see, have to see how the situation and this year evolves going forward. Last and not least, we've had, even though it's not part of the first quarter, we have had an important event that has been the termination for default of the Los Angeles Metro project. This was an overhauling project signed in 2016, October 2016. It was for $53 million.
It had different additions to it. It became $90 million. In 2020, Los Angeles Metro started to stop it because they had some internal issues, and there was a negotiation there that didn't go forward. Then we had the COVID, but since then, we've been working close to them and hard. At the end, the requirements they've been asking for, we believe we'll be fulfilling all of them. They notify us last Friday, the sixth. That termination for default. We believe this is completely unfounded. There's no reasons, and we put in the hands of our lawyers as we believe we have a very strong case. Now, this is all privileged and confidential information, so at the end, we cannot, you know, give much more information than what we just said.
Additionally, to that, if we go to the next page. In terms of manufacturing and overhauls. I would say it's a year first, as I said, impacted by all this, difficult, I would say, execution in terms of, inflation, in terms of increasing costs, and in terms of supply chain. That is clear. It's also a year of transition. We are finishing the high-speed train for Spain. We are doing, as you know, all the dynamic testings. We already have in the rails, two of them, two that have fixed gauge and one of them that is a variable gauge that is moving forward. That's a project that's coming to its end.
On the other hand, in terms of manufacturing, we do have now the German one that has become more and more important, and that's going to occupy a big part of our production. Additionally, Egypt, we've sent trains, the first one to Egypt. It's already there in the capital of Egypt, New Administrative Capital. And we are now in the following months finishing the following trains. In addition to that, we have Denmark, which is also getting on track. Last and not least, we have the powerheads of Renfe. That's the high-speed powerheads for Renfe. In terms of maintenance. Well, maintenance, as I said, I would say in Spain we are at around 90%.
In the other major countries, that is Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Saudi, we're around 100%. That doesn't mean we are not working. We have ambitions in maintenance and to improve our cost base, improve our margin. Additionally, we are having an active commercial policy in order to try and attract third-party customers. The backlog, as I said, it's EUR 3.1. It's a healthy one, 70% of it is maintenance. Excuse me. Now in terms of the pipeline, you see it's EUR 9.8. I think it's an important pipeline. We have more than 30 opportunities. As I said before, we are very, you know, close and looking at many of those opportunities and we are close to many of them and we think we will succeed.
This should be at least an amount that is equal to our sales. That's how we see that. In terms of the key financial figures, well, revenues have decreased from last quarter, last year, from EUR 147 to EUR 118, clearly. It's basically due to the manufacturing activity. That is, as I said before, this change of mix in the projects and all these disruptions we've had in the supply chain. I think that this and all these increase in materials. In terms of the disruptions, I have to tell you, I'm less concerned. You do have less sales today, but they will come in the next quarter and the following quarters. I would say it's a temporary measure we are impacted by.
The other one, as I said, we are trying also, and I didn't say before, to pass on to our existing customers all the increases, and we're now in open negotiations with them with the idea of passing the increases we've had in raw materials. As I said also, this has already passed through our P&L. That is for all the parts that were already executed. It has gone through P&L. For the future projects we have, this has also been our projects have been adapted and modified to this. That is all the salary increases we've had, the raw materials and the materials in general. That's why we see an EBITDA that's 12.6%. In terms of absolute terms, it's lower, and in relative terms, it's higher than last year, but it's not the 30% Talgo target we had set.
The last page, we want to hear clearly for the moment, we are confirming the outlook. We'll see how the world is progressing in terms of macro and in terms of geopolitical situation. So for the moment, we do confirm the outlook. Additionally to that, clearly, there are uncertainties. But as I said, we can confirm. Last and not least, we did start our shareholder remuneration. As you've seen, of our shareholders, 83% chose to receive the dividend in shares through the scrip dividend, and 17% chose to receive the dividend in cash. As a result of that, we will be issuing just below 2 million shares, 1,997.506 new shares.
Additionally to that, we will be in the market at the end, buying in order to amortize, so the total number of shares will not change going forward. Also, last and not least, I want to remind you that we are presenting our summarized report. As you know, in Spain, the regulator changed the way of reporting, so that's why we are only reporting up to EBITDA and with no balance sheet figures. With this, thank you very much and we are glad and happy to answer the questions about Sumitomo. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session starts now. If you wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad or submit your questions through the webcast platform. There will be a short silence while questions are being registered. The first question comes from Bosco Ojeda from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. I want to ask you a couple of questions. The first one on your margin guidance. I mean, you made 11% first quarter, but you're guiding for 13%. I mean, what makes you think that the margin can improve? Is it the maintenance activity moving to higher levels or on the production side? If you could give some color on both business. Second question is on the, I think you mentioned early on the call that you were working or you did already some contract extensions. If you could give some color on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Bosco. I'll start with your second one. We are working. A few of our contracts have the possibility of extension, and that is what we have not closed those extensions. We are just working because we have been approached clearly with two firms already. The third has expressed his interest but has not given any date, and with two of them, they've already sent this letter expressing their interest to extend. So that is, Bosco, what we are working in. In terms of margin guidance, I have to tell you, well, yes, we put circa 13%. I do think that in the first quarter, we've seen first of all the impact of the cost and with the exhaustion this new scenario of increases in salaries.
You know, in Spain, we've increased 5% for last year, 4% for this year. With all the raw materials, with all the materials, that has been fully impacted in our P&L. That has affected our maintenance. Now, we do think that going forward, this impact in the manufacturing won't be there. Additionally, we will at least, to say the least, maintain in maintenance. If not, we do have an internal target to make progress. Costs are contained, and we're looking at costs, if we can even make progress on that. That's why, for the moment, we maintain the margin of 13%. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, just a reminder, in order to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Jaime Escribano from Banco Santander. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. A couple of questions from my side. One is regarding some news flow saying that in the hybrid tender bid of Renfe, there is only CAF bidding. I just wanted to understand if that, if this is the case or if you still see opportunities at Renfe tender bids in the following months or this year. I have a second question regarding your prototype of commuters. Just to have an update on that one. I remember it was quite promising. You managed to win one contract that in the end it was given to Škoda in Lithuania or one of these countries, or Estonia, if I recall well. Since then we haven't heard on that.
Maybe you can tell us out of the pipeline if there is anything interesting where you can start selling this or commercializing this commuter prototype. Maybe another question on the termination of the contract. I understand you cannot give us a lot of information, but just for us to understand and being able to explain to investors. What exactly are they alleging to terminate the contract? What is your version of the story? Finally, just on the business plan to know if you are going to give us some Capital Markets Day or some info on the new business plan anytime soon. Thank you very much.
Well, in the tender of the EMU of Renfe, we did not go to that offer. We know that there was at least five companies had been analyzed. Only one company has gone to that tender. You know, why didn't we go? Clearly, it was a contract that had a price based on what? Nine months ago. It was a fixed price. When you had all the increase of raw materials, all the increase of materials, all the inflation you've had, labor what, so the costs are what they were. At the end, that was taking you into a contract. We'd had a fixed price, a price fixed one year ago with different prices of all the elements you're using, and now they go. That's why we decided not to go. We thought it did not meet our standards in terms of profitability.
Look, the majority of the players did not go either. A competitor went, but I'm sure he has good reasons for that. We don't know. Clearly for us, it didn't make sense when it was a fixed price, a close price one year ago, and the increase we had seen in all the materials. That is the one.
Okay.
As for the price, Jaime, gracias for the question. For the prototype, we do have it ready. I mean, we are looking now at other offers which could help the prototype of EMU. We are looking now at other offers. That is, so we are fine, and we are open to that. We will be bidding in other contracts which have EMU or offers clearly, Jaime. In terms of the termination contract, we'll look. They've said it's for default. Now they have not given us. From a legal perspective, this is all privileged and confidential, so we have to, we are very restricted here. No, we can only talk to our lawyers now. I can only tell you we don't know the reasons at this moment why they have taken.
We know that what we've done, and we are convinced everything has been done in time and in an adequate manner. That's but little more we can tell you that they say that we still don't have the breakdown of what the exact reasons for this are. I'm sure we'll have them in the following days. Additionally to that, in terms of our Capital Markets Day. Yes, we did, and we've been since the beginning of the year saying that we would have one. On the other hand, the volatility in the market at this moment has pushed that. Let's say, we've delayed it, I would say, like the supply chain has delayed us also. That's what I say. I do think we should have one. Just give us your feedback, all of you.
I mean, when do you think we should have it? When is the adequate moment that we should go out with our capital markets day? We are open to that. That is what we are living now. We thought it didn't make that much sense, and the best was to postpone it some more. We were thinking of doing it next fall. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. One further follow-up question, if I may. Regarding the three extensions, you said that one, just confirming, to see if I understood correctly. The one that you think that could happen in the short run is in North Africa, I guess, is the one in Egypt maybe. I don't know if you can confirm that the other interest letter is the one in Germany or the one in Denmark, because obviously the German auction is much bigger than the Denmark one. I think it would be relevant if you can give us a little bit more insight on which of the two is. Thank you.
No. Can you hear us? Yeah. The extension is, I wasn't referring to Egypt, clearly.
Oh, okay.
That is as per number one. That wouldn't be extension. It is public, and then some Egyptian newspapers have quoted. We're looking there at a new contract, and we hope that is signed soon, and we'll announce it to the market. There's three extensions, another three contracts, not Egypt. Of course, you know that one of them we have is Germany. Other one is the Danish one. Another one is the Saudi Arabian one. That's what we are looking at now, and that is where we are now. Okay, Jaime.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Beltrán Palazuelo from DLTV. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the hard work. I have two questions. First one is regarding the margins. If you could go a little bit more in detail, Gonzalo, what has had to happen in order to achieve the, let's say, the target of 30%? Then regarding next year, seeing current backlog, is there a possibility, let's say, of improving this 30%? Or at the moment with the current backlog and with the current costs, it's complex. Then second, regarding working capital, seeing your guidance on senior EBITDA, your working capital investment around the end of this year should be, let's say, EUR 240 million-EUR 250 million, which is more than 0.5% of the market cap.
What with the current backlog, what would be the shape of the profile of the working capital next year? Thank you very much.
I'll start with the last one. In terms of working capital, we have not given exact guidance. I do tell you it's going to be a year of working capital where we're going to have, as we've already said, it consuming cash. Now, we are doing all our efforts to try and do cash-ins from here till the end of the year to manage that most diligent and efficient way we can. That is, we are pushing very much our customers, so we get paid before, and our suppliers to, at the end, extend wherever we can the payment period with that. Beltrán, thank you for your question. That's for the first one.
We do see it as a year, and we do see. I said in our outlook that it's going to be difficult in that sense, and we will consume cash this year. That is as for number one. In terms of your first question, it was a margin of the 13%. I do think that margin of the first quarter reflects what we've done in the first quarter, and we've had all what we owe as the increase in salaries, the increase in materials has all been passed in the first quarter. That's why we are maintaining it, and that's why we think that going forward it should be better. I insist on the uncertainties we have.
That means additionally, we are working even to improve our margin in heavy manufacturing and also in maintenance, basically to cost and cost cutting, which we are continuing in addition to that. The third question was in terms of the Beltrán Palazuelo, in terms of the backlog and the profitability of our projects, going forward. Is that it? Was that the question?
Yeah. If my question is, let's say the cost inflation were to be, let's say, not as high as it is currently. Is there a possibility of, let's say, having a margin of 14 or 15% there next year or with current contracts, it's complex. Just to see if it's, let's say, a difficult year and it will be next year better if things stay as they are or it's complex to improve the margins if things are as they are now next year.
I think with the existing contracts, it is complex. Even though I want to tell you we've opened negotiations with all our customers in that sense, that is not going to be an easy task. Now, going forward, I think the new contracts clearly are going to come in with a different gross margin, for sure. That's what I can answer you now. That it's not easy with what we have. We are renegotiating it. For the future, clearly it will have different margins in terms of our manufacturing, for sure.
If I may, last question, Gonzalo Urquijo. Of course, when we see aluminum, when we see, let's say, steel, when we see copper, of course it's volatile. Are you already closing, let's say, as much of the costs as possible for, let's say, current contracts? Or at current levels, you're not hedging as much as possible because maybe there's a possibility when we see steel, aluminum and all that is coming down. Maybe next year it's under what is now. What is the policy of the company? Hedging as much as possible and closing, let's say, this 13% margin or where you are now, you're taking a risk of maybe some things go down and you have better margins next year.
Look, I think the policy of the company as always is prudent and is hedging as much as possible. That is as for number one. Now, for the orders we have now, a big part of the raw materials have already been acquired or have been hedged in that sense. Going forward, as I said at the beginning, clearly we want to go to an open book or we want to go to a price escalation or call it to price adjustment in our tenders. That means we are open with the customers. We are not willing to take the risk of having a. Because as you say, it may come down. If it's true, steel is at EUR 1,200, cold rolled steel, and it was half of that one year ago.
We've seen where aluminum is, we've seen where copper is. Clearly we want to, at the end, transfer this risk to the customer, which is we think that's how it should work going forward. You see in Spain, and you know it well, Beltrán Palazuelo, even the state has accepted that for the civil contracts you're able to renegotiate the cement, the steel, et cetera. That is what we are looking at now, Beltrán Palazuelo, and what we are pushing. We're also pushing it with the government and through our association, et cetera. I think that is a movement we are in, now. Okay?
Okay. Thank you very much for the hard work, all of you. Thank you.
Gracias. Thanks to you, Beltrán.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, just a reminder, in order to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. Thank you.
Okay. It looks like there are no additional questions, so we will bring this call to a close. Thank you very much, everyone. Of course, as we usually do, there's an open line through the investor relations team to clarify any additional question. Thanks again and looking forward to hearing from you for the following call.
Thank you to all and all the best. Bye.