Welcome to the presentation of our 2022 report. It has indeed been a very busy year for Schouw & Co., and I'm pleased to say that we had a very strong and satisfactory year under very difficult circumstances. Our top line grew 35% to DKK 33 billion. Of course, organic growth was the main part, main driver for that, but also our input cost impacted a lot on our growth. We had a growth from our newly acquired activities of DKK 1.8 billion during the year. Our EBITDA was record high in 2022, DKK 2.3 billion, 5% up. Underlying, in fact, we saw even higher EBITDA, but we had what we say non-operational impact of around DKK 100 million on our EBITDA.
We had also a very strong development in our associated companies. They delivered a result after tax of DKK 130 million, which was significantly up compared to 2021. We also really continue to push the ESG agenda throughout all our companies. We are starting to deliver on our ambitious targets. One example is that in 2022, 21% of all our electricity came from renewable sources. We will continue to push hard and focus ESG also in future. If we look into our net working capital, we saw a very large increase. It's really a focus area for Schouw & Co. It has been it over the last two years.
Net working capital increased from a very high level in 2021, with more than DKK 2.5 billion throughout 2022. Main impact is coming from the newly acquired Enics, which came into GPV in Q4 2022. We have to understand that it reflects really the supply chain volatility and material shortages around the world. We have to understand the kind of the business and the climate we are operating in. We are a business-to-business company servicing large customers around the globe, and delivery abilities is very important for us. Our inventory days went up, and especially in our electronic company, GPV, we saw a huge increase, but that was also strategic decision we took. Most of our other companies were well in control with the inventory buildup.
We saw high inventory levels because of also increasing input costs. Looking a little bit at our development in net interest bearing debt, we also here saw a significant increase. We now have a leverage of around 2.4x our EBITDA. Net interest bearing debt was up DKK 3 billion throughout 2022. The bricks for this development consists of three items. As I already mentioned, our net working capital built, and then we had investments both in CapEx and also in mergers and acquisitions. Lastly, we gave out to our shareholders nearly DKK 700 million in 2022 in share buybacks and dividends. Still we feel that we are at a very comfortable leverage in Schouw & Co.
We also had significant CapEx going on in 2022, a huge CapEx program of DKK 1.1 billion. This CapEx program is now easing off, although we also will see a significant CapEx level in 2023. That's based on decisions already made in 2021 and 2022, where we see the cash flow effect in 2023. There is huge activity across the portfolio. Looking at one of the companies where we have invested a lot, Fibertex Personal Care, we really see that CapEx will slow down over the coming years. I will now jump into each of the companies in our portfolio and starting with the largest company in the portfolio, BioMar. BioMar had in 2022 really a very satisfactory development.
Their top line grew 34% to nearly DKK 18 billion. The volume was flat, so we saw a huge impact from increasing raw materials into the top line. When I say volume was flat, it's mainly in our salmon division. We were hit by a lot of regulatory issues in Chile. Of course, we also stepped out of Russia and saw less demand for shrimps during Q4, also meaning that the shrimp farmers demanded less feed from us. EBITDA was strong. We were, for the first time, crossing the DKK 1 billion EBITDA mark, which we were very pleased with.
Also is very good to see that BioMar were able to offset what I would call exploding costs, also our withdrawal from Russia, which also impacted especially our EMEA division quite a lot. We saw strong margin management throughout the divisions of BioMar. BioMar also expects a strong 2023 turnover in the area of DKK 18 billion-19 billion and EBITDA up to a level of DKK 1.08 billion-1.15 billion. It's mainly driven by higher volume, more mix in the different regions, continue to push hard for margin management throughout BioMar. Moving from BioMar to Enics, to GPV, sorry. GPV, which is our Electronics Manufacturing Services company.
When I say Enics, it was because we acquired Enics and merged that into GPV in Q4, and thereby created a really new European leader, GPV. The new GPV will now be top two in Europe. Top line grew 86% to DKK 5.9 billion, but also I have to say that the accounts for 2022 will be a lot of the merger and so on. It's first when we really get into 2023, we will see a full effect of what has been going on in this company. Enics came in in Q4 and added DKK 1.4 billion to the top line of GPV. Our EBITDA was DKK 465 million, and came out stronger than expected some months back.
We had a very strong Q4, especially our legacy GPV delivered very solid in Q4. Net working capital increased, as I already touched on, to a very high level. It's a focus area throughout GPV, but also at Schouw level. Inventory build has, of course, been made to facilitate a very, very high backlog order intake. Still very impressive for GPV also looking forward. We are now integrating at full speed. GPV has took over in Q4. 2023 will really be a year of integration for the new company, and then they will of course push hard for synergies and looking for the strategic potential we are seeing in this merger.
We are still targeting a DKK 10 billion company and a 10% EBITDA as a long-term target for the new company. Looking into 2023, as I say, we are operating a new platform. It's the year of integration. Turnover expected to be DKK 8.4 billion-DKK 8.8 billion and EBITDA around DKK 590 million-DKK 640 million. Turning on to HydraSpecma, where we saw really solid development throughout 2022. They have really worked in a very volatile environment, also a lot of component shortages, et cetera. To one of their segments, wind slowed down a little bit, but still turnover growth 10% to DKK 2.5 billion and mainly driven by what we call global OEM, the vehicle segment.
Also a very satisfactory EBITDA of a little more than DKK 300 million based, created by very high efficiency throughout HydraSpecma and also very solid pricing excellence throughout the year. Always difficult to go out in the market and ask for compensation when costs are increasing. We are building a much stronger HydraSpecma. We announced the acquisition of Ymer Wind, and we closed it by February 1, 2023, and thereby also created a renewable division. We are, with that new division, that new acquisitions, ready to capture the expected long-term growth in the wind segment.
For 2023, we are expecting a turnover of DKK 3.1 billion-DKK 3.3 billion and EBITDA in the level of DKK 310 million-DKK 340 million. We see wind slowing down a little bit, or expect wind to slow down a little bit in 2023, but that will also then give a good opportunity for integrating Ymer and then being able to really push hard for growth in the years to come. Looking at Borg, where we had a full year effect from our trading, from the acquisition of the trading activity, SBS, and that really came in. We saw a turnover increase of 33% to DKK 1.8 billion. Main growth there really came from the trading activity.
Our reman market slowed down throughout second half of the year due to a lower mobility in Europe. We always see that when inflation and costs are increases, then people are driving a little bit less and don't need that many spare parts. EBITDA came out of DKK 180 million mainly because we saw a very strong finish from our trading activity that compensated the slowdown in reman. We are building a new platform. We are now full integrating the trading activities and pushing hard for innovation on new products to do reman on. We are also in the hard work on implementing a new IT and synergies.
We expect 2023 a turnover of DKK 1.7 billion-DKK 1.8 billion, meaning no significant growth. That's because we have experienced full effect from the pull out of Russia and also a soft first half from our reman activity. EBITDA expected to be DKK 160 million-DKK 190 million. Finally, our two Fibertex companies, starting off with Fibertex Personal Care. Personal Care had a really tough 2022. Demand in Asia was low, something started late 2021 and has really been pushing into 2022. Turnover, however, was up 10% to DKK 2.5 billion, but volume was down 10%, excluding only coming from our facilities in Asia.
The Asian market soft, and competition in that region very, very hard. EBITDA DKK 40 million down to DKK 270 million, and we also have to say we had, throughout the year, positive effect from pricing on polypropylene and Forex of around DKK 70 million. We are preparing for our line 9 in Malaysia to be up and running in 2024. We are pushing hard to build volume through innovation and a new customer base. We see and expect soft 2023. Long-term outlook still positive. Turnover around DKK 2.2 billion to DKK 2.4 billion.
EBITDA, we have to say, at an unsatisfactory level, DKK 180 million-DKK 210 million, but that's without any impact of PP pricing, flat PP pricing, flat volume, and flat impact from Forex. Last, Fibertex Nonwovens had a very, very difficult year in 2022. In fact, I would say it was the perfect storm for that company. Our important U.S. market collapsed. Our customers were destocking. Energy prices in Europe soared and was really up, and then raw materials also very much up. Turnover up 14% to DKK 2.1 billion. Volume, however, down 7%, mainly driven from U.S. market and really gave EBITDA a hit. EBITDA down 50% to DKK 111 million.
Europe energy prices or effect into our European activities was DKK 60 million in higher energy prices, which we could not compensate in the market. We have had very hard work going on throughout the company on pricing excellence and really driving hard for getting compensation. We are having new capacity coming in the U.S. market. Of course, one could ask why are you investing in new capacity in U.S. when you had such a difficult 2022? We are investing in capacity to capture high value markets, new innovations, and we have a very, very attractive project product project going on, so a lot of new things is happening in U.S. Turnaround in U.S. in 2023 is to secure profit. We have strong plans.
Expect turnover to be DKK 2.3 billion-DKK 2.5 billion, and EBITDA up to a level between DKK 140 million and DKK 170 million. That was a very short tour de force to our six companies. Close off just by an overall look at the guidance. Looking into 2023, we still, at a high level, say uncertainty and volatility, but I also think we have throughout our companies a cautious, positive look on opportunities. We expect to continue to grow and develop. Top line to be between DKK 36 billion and DKK 38 billion. EBITDA level from DKK 2.4 billion-DKK 2.65 billion in 2023. That's how we look at things now.
We have started up the year. It's very, very early days, but so far so good. That's the best guidance we can give to the market as we speak. With this closing remark, I would open up for questions. Claus. Claus. Welcome. Are we getting Claus through or? Yeah. Try Ulrik Bach. Pardon? Ulrik Bach. Ulrik Bach. If we can hear you.
Yes. Hello. Jens, can you hear me?
Yeah, I can, Ulrik. Welcome. Thank you.
Yeah. A couple of questions from my side. Just on the BioMar guidance, you have previously talked about improving market fundamentals and that new contracts are negotiated at higher levels than the ones they replace. To what extent is this dynamic included in the guidance for BioMar, considering that you're actually guiding for a weaker EBITDA margin for 2023 versus 2022?
Yeah. As new contracts, everything is reflected into our guidance. That's as we see the world as we speak. When you look at the also on turnovers, of course, we also have to take into consideration the that raw materials. Although things seems to be in a better balance now, raw materials really impacting a lot on the margins. We are, for the time being, more looking into to a margin per kilo in real value instead of %. I think we have taken into consideration and into our guidance what we are seeing now and then still expect quite a significant uplift in what we see next year.
All right. Can you just repeat your assumption in terms of volumes for 23 for BioMar?
We expect the volumes to grow, but also with a different mix in the different regions. That also affects a lot. We are back on growth, and we expect also to grow within salmon, and expect to grow a little bit within our LATAM. We also have to realize that the effect from pulling out of Russia also means a lot on on our EBITDA, and that volume is not coming. We will lose volume. We lost, of course, also last year volume to Russia, but now we have a full year effect of that also.
Okay, that makes sense. Then a question on GPV. How much of this positive delta on EBITDA is driven by the Enics acquisition and how much from the organic part of GPV?
It's difficult to say because we are looking into integration costs throughout the value chain and synergies, et cetera. Of course, now Enics is coming in with a lower margin than GPV in general. We still expect the GPV to continue growing on their margin, and then we need to bring Enics up at level, and it will take at least throughout 2023 and into 2024. We don't see full effect of synergies yet because we still have a very high inventory level. Of course, sourcing procurement means a lot in such a merger as this one.
Okay. That connection, the EBITDA margin target of 10% that you have for GPV. Does that mean that we need to wait until 2025 before that materializing or 2026? How do you view that?
I think 2026, that's a long period. We see 2023 as the year of integration and a lot of things is going on, and we'll push hard on synergies and everything. We think we announced that we expect synergies in the level of DKK 100 million, and they are going also to fuel the 10% ambition. We should end in 2024 start to see effect from these things. 2025, I think, that's where we are expecting that the margins will be close to target level.
Okay. That's very clear. A final question. You had a comment about uncertainty in supply chains for your guidance for 2023 in GPV. What do you mean by that? Is that sourcing of components, or is it something else?
It's still sourcing of a few key components. As I also said, it seems as supply chains in general are easing up. Specifically if you go into the electronics, there are still very few, very key components that there is a lack of capacity of. It's something we really need to be on. We have seen it easing up and do not expect in general terms that long delivery times any longer. Still, if we miss one or two key components in GPV, then we have problems in this delivering.
That's very clear. Thank you so much.
Right. Thank you.
I have no further questions.
Super. Thank you very much, Ulrik.
Sindre Sørbye. Yes. Hello. You hear me?
I do, yeah.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question.
Of course.
Just a couple of questions. First, BioMar. Volumes were down pretty hefty during the second half of the year. I mean, you described, at least partially why. Just looking at history, there's a clear historical seasonal pattern in that operation. If you look at BioMar now, it seems like the first half for salmon in, especially in Europe, will be unusually low production, whereas it will pick up in the second half of the year. Secondly, you have your new lines in Ecuador for shrimp feed.
Yes.
Entering production. Also on a year-on-year comparison, the Russian volumes, I guess those were phased out during the second quarter in 2022. Does that mean that the... on a change basis that this year will be unusually tilted towards second half of the year in BioMar?
That's a quite good point. I think we will see the tilting a little bit towards the second half. We also know normally as a Q3 is really our main season, so I can't say it will tilt a lot, but maybe we will see it going in that direction. Also, I think we have to see that we expect getting more volume in salmon outside Europe because we saw Chile last year where we had a lot of regulatory issues that specifically hit some of our large customers. Meaning that, they were down on volume in especially second half.
Of course also, as you mentioned, the new extruder capacity coming in in production now in Ecuador. That will level more out because volume in Ecuador is more equal and months-monthly and not so much seasonal. But I don't think we will see a huge effect towards second half. Of course, as you all rightly point, Russia volume was phased out Q2 last year, so that is already taken into consideration.
Have you given any indication of the volumes in the new lines in Ecuador? Any tonnage or effect of that?
No, we do not give any guidance specifically on lines, et cetera. We don't do that. Of course, we will have more capacity, but we also know that it's extruded capacity coming in, and then we will take out pelletized capacity. We are in this period where we are phasing out pelletized feed to extruded feed. Capacity-wise, of course there will be more capacity, but we will also take something out.
Okay. Great. Finally on the GPV, I think it was quite impressive numbers taken into the account that I think you quoted in the presentation that there was DKK 35 million of integration costs already there. Looking at your guidance, I mean. It appears that, Well, taking into account that Enics had, let's say approximately half the margin of GPV. It will face integration costs. I think the guidance is quite bullish for GPV this year. Would you say that you bought it in the right moment, or is that business? Mathematically, if you use last year's or your indications of the margins in Enics, the guidance appears very bullish.
I think you'll have to try to look into Q4, and as you said, the integration cost, et cetera. Q4 is not a indicator for profitability in general, but I think we had a very solid Q4 if you look at taking off PPA and integration costs, and so on. rightly, Enics is a company that delivered lower margins than we than GPV historically have done. that's also the basis for the entire business case that we think with the GPV business system and the way we do production and efficiency, that we can run it more efficient, we can bring up margins, and then there's quite a significant amount of synergies to take in, but they will not materialize throughout 2023. We feel quite confident on our long-term target, as the 10/10 , as we call it, DKK 10 billion turnover, 10% EBITDA.
can you say anything about the level of integration costs that you have built into your 2023 guidance?
We have built in in the magnitude of DKK 20 million-30 million of integration costs. Then we have a PPA and things going on. That's a lot of things as I also said, it's a year of integration. We'll try throughout the year to make it as transparent as possible.
Excellent. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Klaus.
Yes. I hope you can hear me.
Loud and clear, Klaus. Thank you.
That sounds good. The first question goes to this input cost deflation, inflation. You are trimming your top line a bit, which I guess is given some areas of lower input cost. Which areas do you see and I know you don't guide on cash flow to avoid talking about net working capital, Jens?
Yes. Thank you.
Maybe we should just talk, cash flow. What should we think, from this point?
Yeah. Yeah, no, but I think it's very relevant, Klaus, what you're saying. Of course, we are pushing hard on also bringing our cash flow up. We have built a very high net working capital and inventory level, and that's what we are pushing hard on throughout 2023. We also see that raw material prices are going down. We see better supply situation on a lot of components, but we have also built, especially in GPV, and we have to look maybe mainly into GPV. We've built up a lot of stock because we have such a strong backlog. Bringing down inventories, of course, will create stronger cash flow, and it's really something that we are very observant on that. We need to have stronger cash flow in 2023.
You think, you know, one-fourth of the build-up of net working capital in 22 will come back this year or, you know, just some flavor on what the magnitude could be would be very helpful.
Yeah. I'm not giving an exact figure, but of course we are also very ambitious here, and I think we will get a better flavor on it, looking a few months ahead. We expect it to be significantly higher than in 2022. We have an ambitious plan for driving that hard. You might expect a much stronger cash generation throughout 2023.
If I could say that doesn't say a lot, giving DKK 1 billion, you know, being added to the net working capital. Okay, we have to wait for.
Yeah. Yes, you have to.
You know what I'm going to ask then.
I know, exactly. Yes.
May. Okay. The second question, as you said, supply is easing within the GPV business. Do you see customers changing behavior, that they are not, you know, trying to source, you know, that long as they did in 22 ahead, of their demand or anything there to notice?
I do. So far, not at all. We have started up and seen the first two months, very strong, and long-term order intake. Of course, we are very observant on what's going on there, we have still very high order intake and backlog, and it's really something we need to work on. How do we handle such a big order intake and backlog, how can we service our customer? Because GPV is really is a service company that are doing Electronics Manufacturing Service. We have to see how can we get around it. Of course, we also need to look into do we source home or do we buy and make obligations toward our suppliers long term because we have this backlog? It's really a delicate question and problem.
Okay. Then, the Fibertex companies. You know, your slides show that profitability is half. Is expected to more or less half.
It is, yeah. Yeah.
We've been talking about these, also in the past. What strategic thoughts do you have with the future of these two divisions?
I know let's start with Fibertex Nonwovens. We have a lot of things going on. We had really, as I said, the perfect storm. There we have a clear strategic plan. We need a turnaround in U.S., and we have built a very strong plan on that, reorganized, done a lot of things, and then it was really a year where many things went the wrong way. We also had some raw material contracts that were not in our favor to really be honest on that. That really pushed also the company a lot. We have a strong plan going on on that, and we are bringing in a new capacity into a high added value product area where we expect a lot from.
We have strong projects from Tier 1 customers there. We will have to do this turn and see the turnaround in US really come through, and then we will look at the business and the opportunities after that. Looking at Fibertex Personal Care, you could say, yeah, we have the issue is that in Europe we are at full capacity, but of course, the prices have been pushed hard. In Asia, all by a sudden, a lot of capacity came in from China. We expect Asia to grow, but of course, we are looking at opportunities and strategic ways for this company also. We evaluate the companies on a running basis.
It sounds like you think you should, you know, invest yourself out of, out of the issue, you know, adding more capacity et cetera, et cetera. You know, the history is full of investments and-
Yes.
You know, the return of these investments seems not to be that high.
No, I think I said also in my presentation, Klaus, that if when it comes to Fibertex Personal Care, we do not see any large investments for quite a significant period. We have a line 9. It's paid, it's in, we already paid, it's in the books, but it's not up and running before end 2023, beginning 2024, meaning we have a lot of capacity to go to the market with. We do not need any capacity investments in that company for quite a long time. On the other hand, Fibertex Nonwovens, we have 2 lines that are invested. We have paid them. The first line is up and running second half 2023 in U.S.
We have a line that we have not decided 100% where to place it in Europe because we are looking more into also the energy prices and things. This energy situation really changed our mindset on that. That's, that's the way it is. We do not see any new investments for quite a significant period. We have done the investments we need.
Okay. The low electricity price, and this will be the last question. The low electricity price should, you know, help these businesses.
Should, yes.
What do you assume of a tailwind from that point of view?
Well, we assume tailwind, absolutely. We have already seen a small effect from it, but of course also we have contracts, so we do not buy electricity on a daily basis. We will see effect, a positive effect from that throughout the year, and that's also factored in to the companies. If you look at last year we had in especially in Fibertex Personal Care, we had some energy back from our customers where we had a surcharges mechanism. We didn't get everything back, whereas Fibertex Nonwovens really were fighting. We see positive impact in these two companies on energy. As I said, just to make on Fibertex Personal Care, we. Our guidance for 2022 is flat volume, flat PP, and so meaning no plus or minuses from PP, and also flat on energy as it is now. Yeah.
Okay, thanks. That was all for me.
Super, Claus. Thank you very much. Frederikke Olsen. Hello? Frederikke, do you have a question? You need to unmute. Maybe, yeah. Should you unmute, mute, or, I think that's a follow-up from Ulrik Bach. Ulrik, you're welcome.
Yes. Just a question on HydraSpecma.
Yes.
Similar question as for GPV. We have Ymer Technology into the numbers the entire year. Can you provide any indication of the impact from that versus organic?
Impact from Ymer expected to be DKK 30 million-DKK 35 million. Yeah, on the EBITDA, it's DKK 35 million, but on the top line we expect impact of DKK 5 million-DKK 6 million, around DKK 500 million on that.
Okay, that's great. You mentioned that you have, yeah, the OEM segment is expected to do well in 2023. What is your visibility and the order backlog length of OEM orders? Will it last all year? Will it drag into 2024, or how do you look at it?
It will last this year. I think now OEMs are not giving that orders that long any longer, especially not in the vehicle segment and so on. We still have a very solid backlog for 2023. As I also said, we expect wind to soften a little bit in 2023. That's what we see and expect, also on the backlog.
Okay. A final question, follow-up on the shrimp demand in BioMar. You mentioned in Q4 it has weakened a bit. Does that provide any concerns for 2023? Have you any indication of the drivers, underlying drivers for this weakened demand?
The strong driver or the key driver, especially for Ecuadorian shrimps, that's China. In Q4, demand was down, prices were up, and demand were down also because of still the COVID situation and so on. We are rather optimistic on shrimps now in 2023 because China totally opened up and people started traveling again and so on. That is really the key driver for us. We have our Vietnamese setup, which has also been very difficult in 2021, and that has been due to corona and things in China because Vietnam is delivering a lot into China also.
Okay. volumes are expected to grow in Ecuador, shrimp volumes?
Yes, they are.
All right. Thank you.
Super. Thank you, Ulrik. Karine. Karine, maybe you are. Should you try again? That's strange. She is somewhere.
Can you hear me?
Yeah, now I can hear you. Yeah.
Fantastic. It's working. Thank you for taking the questions.
Of course.
I think the vast majority has already been answered, so I only have two left. Looking at your ROIC, it was considerably lower than last year. I understand this is mostly caused by higher invested capital. That you of course focus on bringing this down. But, could you maybe also elaborate on the timing of when you expect a normalization to your ROIC? Taking into account the acquisitions you completed in 2022.
Yes, now I super good ending. You know, we have this ROIC target of 15%. Of course we have been. It has been hammered by our net working capital build. We expect to bring that down. Then also we have, we have in fact, investments of around DKK 1 billion. So the two, or in fact three lines in the two Fibertex companies, they are invested, but they do not, they have not brought in any EBITDA so far. That's of course a key driver for the, the push on ROIC. We expect when they get into, to operation, of course also that should help our ROIC back in towards our 15% target.
Okay. Yes, you also write in the CEO statement that you see indications early in the year of cost inflation and general economic uncertainty. When you think about the key concerns or sort of areas of risk to address in the coming year, what topics are on top of that list?
As a topic, number, I would say, one is really to be able to offset costs if they continue to increase, but also, at the same time, to be able to withstand the pressure on lowering our sales prices because some costs maybe starts to lower. We still need to have a high prices or the price level we have now to compensate what we didn't compensate earlier on. Really to withstand the push on lowering sales prices and then, as I've said it several times, looking on our net working capital and deliver strong on cashflow. That is really what we are looking into. 2023 should be a year where we are looking and focusing very much on the operational side of our companies.
Okay. Maybe just a quick follow-up. Thinking about the risk of selling price deflation. What business areas do you see the greatest risk, for that in?
I think it's to be honestly, it's across the companies, but of course we have very, very large tier one customers. We are strong in the automotive segment. We are in the personal care business, Procter & Gamble and the likes. We have a lot in the wind turbine, the Vestas, the GE and so on. They are carefully monitoring costs and inflations, and of course, they're coming back with a lot of good ideas on what we should do and so on. It's something we really need to balance, and that's why we also work with what we call commercial excellence. It's part of our thinking. It's not only pricing, but a lot of other things involved in maintaining strong margins.
Okay. That's clear. Thank you so much.
Yeah. Thank you very much.
Doesn't seem there are any more questions.
Good. I am just being told no more questions. Thanks a lot for everyone listening and also for the questions. On that note, we will stop from here and wish everyone a good weekend.