Hello and welcome to the Agfa full year 2023 results. My name is Caroline, and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this call is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only mode. However, you'll have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your questions. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero, and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand over the call to your host, Pascal Juéry, the CEO, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you very much, operator, and good morning to everyone. I'm sitting in a room in Mortsel, actually with my colleagues, Viviane Dictus, our Investor Relations person, and with my executive committee colleagues, Vincent Wille and Jeroen Spruit. Unfortunately, Dirk De Man, our CFO, cannot be with us today. He's suffering from a health issue that means he cannot be with us today. He'll be back in a few weeks, okay? So Viviane and I, we will ensure, I would say, the presentation today. So time to come back and wrap up on the year 2023, and we're going to walk you through the elements of the results of the group. So clearly, the headline is a very strong increase in EBITDA, 52% in the year. And I think the key message is this growth is really coming from the growth engines.
And for me, it's the validation of the repositioning of the company portfolio and activity to future-oriented activities. That's really the main message. If we look at quick comments for each of the components, HealthCare IT, just very simple, the highest results ever for HealthCare IT. So fair to say that during the year, we had less visibility on how we were going to finish up the year. The truth is, we finished up the year extremely well, probably a bit higher compared to our expectations. And we do that on the strengths also of improved customer satisfaction and innovation that we brought to the market rather at the end of the year. DPC, very strong evolution but very contrasted. Actually, what works very well in DPC, these are the growth engines, Zirfon. Zirfon starts contributing to profitability. We are very happy.
In less than a year, we could industrialize very successfully. But digital print as well, on the strengths of the Inca integration, is very well oriented and delivers a very good performance. However, in DPC, film activities are suffering from indeed the demand and pressure from macroeconomic conditions. So Radiology is the only division that is under pressure. Actually, again, it's contrasted. The DR business, the Direct Radiography business, improved very much during the year, and the film and CR are under pressure. This being said, I want also to stress for this division that most of the profit decrease during the year is actually currency-driven. Most of this profit decrease comes from the currency, mainly the RMB exposure. So an adjusted EBITDA at EUR 76 million, and again, growing in the right categories, which for me validates our strategy.
Also, very significant improvement in working capital management from 32% of sales to 27% of sales in a year. And here again, we ended up in a very good place in terms of working capital. Well, needless to say, as you see, we are a business with seasonality. This is the way it is. And we have similar seasonality in HealthCare IT, in Radiology in a way, and even in part of DPC, actually. This is the way the market works, meaning actually, we deliver 42% of the yearly EBITDA in one quarter in Q4. It's not my choice, but this is the way the market operates, especially in HealthCare and also in the equipment side of Digital Printing, which is always strong at the end of the year. We have delivered all that in a context that is not very supportive, in fact.
When you look at the macroeconomic environment, it was not supportive for us. We had an adverse currency effect in all our businesses. And actually, we did that in a year where we had to cope with stranded costs coming from the divestment of Offset, which represented 40% of the group activity. In spite of all this, we have delivered as described. Now, if I turn to numbers, +3.2% on the top line, again, it's very contrasted as we are a company in full transformation. Actually, we have a very dynamic sales growth in our growth engine and a decline in some of our legacy and film segments, in fact. But the compounded rate is still positive top-line growth when adjusted for currency. Significant EBITDA growth. And I think the message is very clear. It's all coming from growth engines.
Actually, we're going to show you in the next slide maybe a different way to look at the numbers compared to our published division to illustrate what I'm saying. Look at this slide. When I look at what I call our future-oriented businesses, meaning to make a long story short, our Digital Solutions and Zirfon. In Digital Solutions, you've got HealthCare IT, of course. You've got Digital Printing as well as Direct Radiography and Zirfon, the green membrane. So if you look at the top line, and here we took four years, +24% for these growth-oriented businesses. And the message is the growth is accelerating between 2022 and 2023. As you know, the maturity of these growth engines is improving. And at the same time, we have, of course, a specific decline of what we call the film and legacy business.
When we turn to profit and when we look at actually the underlying improvement of the growth engines within the group, you can see that it was EUR 32 million in just one year. So the message here is we are positioned in the right segment, and the growth is accelerating, actually. The underlying growth is accelerating, which is, of course, validating the transformation of the company. If I turn to the P&L right now, what I want to stress here is, again, we are improving our gross profit not only in absolute terms but also in margin percent, better mix, and again, the impact of we are growing the right part of our businesses. I want also to stress that we are doing that in a very good mastery of our operational expenses.
This is due to the transformation program that we have launched already some years ago that are multi-year programs that continue to deliver. It's a very good illustration that even in an environment that is still inflationary, we are able to master pretty well these expenses. Overall, I think a very good profit recovery during the year. If we turn to the lower part of the P&L, of course, we still have a significant loss for the year. Half of this loss is actually related to the Offset divestment. That's rather something that is now behind us, I would say. The rest of the loss is still very much influenced by the cost of the transformation of the company. You see the restructuring non-recurring charge at EUR 14 million. As we advance, restructuring and non-recurring will decrease already in 2024 significantly.
Of course, the Offset impact is, I would say, final. That explains this loss as we are still a company in full transformation. If we look at working capital, that's clearly one of the successes of this year for me from 32%-27%, meaning we've been able to decrease working capital but more or less EUR 50 million when I remove the impact of cutoff, which is a different perimeter story. But EUR 50 million, significant, five points of working capital in a year. I think it's an excellent job by the operational teams in Agfa. And most of it is related, actually, to inventory. Most of this decrease is really coming from the inventory where we decrease the number of days of inventory by 20 days approximately. Rather positive results as well.
Positive free cash flow in Q4, stemming, of course, from the specific improvement of working capital. Also, I stress that we are a seasonal business and that working capital will always go up during the first six months of the year because we have more or less six months of production and then decrease during the second half of the year where we operate approximately four months. So this is a normal pattern. And here we are seeing the Q4 positive impact of this. If I turn to the full year, we still are consuming cash during the year. Part of it is also due to the cost of the Offset transaction. And of course, the cost of the transformation, you see, with EUR 51 million of restructuring that corresponds more or less restructuring than non-recurring, that corresponds more or less to the negative free cash flow of the year.
What I want to stress here is we have all the liquidity we need. We have a revolving credit facility with access to EUR 230 million that we are hardly using today. We're using a very, very small portion of it. That is until March 2026. I want also to stress that actually, we have on our balance sheet an activity where we finance some of our customers, mainly in DPC and HealthCare IT, meaning we actually provide loans to our customers to finance their acquisitions. That's also an area that is a source of cash, if need be, as we can very well outsource this activity, which we are doing mostly by ourselves today. Third element in terms of cash, we are still expecting, as you know, the proceeds from the Offset divestment. It's not a question of if. It's a question of when.
It's a bit of a long process in order to come to the definitive conclusion, but we are still expecting to be in a position to receive this cash in Q2. All the group is really working towards optimizing the cash generation of the group. The culture, I think, is more and more prevalent in the company. If I turn now to the business, and I'm going to start with HealthCare IT, what are the highlights for me of HealthCare IT during the year? First, we have launched our cloud solutions and our web streaming solutions at RSNA. It's very important because basically, we are catching up with the best-in-class providers in the market. Okay? We were a bit behind in this element. We are not anymore today. Actually, I would even argue that for web streaming, our technology is probably the best in the market today.
So that's a significant milestone for us because we are at the eve also of starting the transformation to go to a SaaS model. That's also the message. In this context, we will continue to innovate in this area. And if anything, we want to accelerate it. So we have decided that we were going to invest a bit more in R&D for the next couple of years to speed up this transition to cloud. We are offering cloud, but we need still to optimize it and make it more efficient. And this is an effort that we expect to be EUR 10 million in the two years, so EUR 5 million per year, more or less. But it's not totally evenly equalized. And for the first time, we will capitalize this effort. It's a specific project. It's a specific project that we do in a specific context.
Therefore, it will be another step to really get to our position of technology best-in-class in HealthCare IT. The other highlight is really the significant improvement in customer satisfaction. We are in a service business, and customer satisfaction for me is the lead to actually success and being able to compete well in the market. In 2023, our customers have become promoters. We have seen a significant breakthrough in customer satisfaction, which is related to the quality of our Enterprise Imaging system, which now is running extremely well. This is further reinforced by the industry recognition. Everybody is looking at KLAS in this market to look at how we position in terms of competition. For the first time ever, we had a best-in-class award on our Universal Viewer. This is a viewer to see the medical imaging.
And we are progressing extremely well in all other rankings. So that's something that is for me a leading saying that we are doing the right things in the market. And combined with the innovation, we are in a good place to compete in HealthCare IT. So if I turn to numbers, +5% in terms of top line when I exclude the currency effect. And again, here, same comment. You have a positive mix effect. Actually, we sold less hardware, and we sold more on IP software, which is what we want to do. So top line as such is not the only indicator. What we are looking at is really the mix. Order intake, we had a strong increase between 2022 and 2021. We have a modest increase between 2023 and 2022, +2% in the 12-month rolling. So that's where we are.
We have order intake for the year at EUR 125 million. I just want to say that unless some of our competitors, we do not include the SMA revenue in this number, so it's only kind of a CapEx part, but not the SMA that will be associated with it. I say it because it's important to define in terms of numbers. I also want to say that about 15% of this total order intake is already what I would call delayed revenue and margin model because it's a service model that is not exactly technically SaaS yet, but this is a similar model in which customers are paying according to what they consume and the service we deliver over a multi-year contract. On the EBITDA, clearly, a very good second half.
Again, I'm not responsible for the seasonality of the business, but 75% of the EBITDA of this business is actually during the second half and more than 50% in Q4. I wish it were different, but unfortunately, these are the market practices. And that's probably also the reason why it was a bit difficult for us to pilot exactly the landing in Q4. And we did probably yeah, we did better than expected. We were more cautious during the first part of the year, but we took actions as well in the meantime and did deliver for Q4. So I'm pleased with the overall delivery of this business. And again, strongest numbers ever. And if you look at the numbers, you see that gross margin is increasing. Again, absolute terms, 10% reflecting the quality of the mix.
You see also that our expenses are under control, the reason being we are, thanks to the quality of our product, driving more efficiency. In fact, we are more efficient when implementing, servicing, and whatnot. So overall, I would say a positive development. DPC, and I'm going to start with the two growth engines. DPC, double-digit growth in top line for DPC on the strengths of the Inca acquisition. And the even better news is actually, our consumable business is growing faster than the average growth of DPS. And as you know, consumables is really the profit driver for us. It means our ink swap program for Inca is working well. And it means as well we are in the right segments of the print business.
So I can tell you that in the non-digital world, I mean, 2023 was not a good volume year for ink and print in general. So very pleased with what we do. Strategic partnership EFI, acceleration for us, significant impact on top and bottom line. We are next week at FESPA, which is the yearly fair for Digital Printing, and we'll be presenting our new model that we are sourcing from EFI. And EFI will do the same. I think we will have a joint PR. It's a good partnership for us. It accelerates the growth. And it also means EFI, who is larger than Agfa and a market leader, actually does recognize the quality of our solutions. It's a very heavy year for us, 2024, for Digital Printing. We launched the SpeedSet back in December in Cambridge. We have our first contract signed already today.
It's a customer in the U.K. It's what we call a beta customer, meaning it's still a development customer. And we are going to have full access to the machine to make sure that we can really develop it further. So we are very pleased. And we are expecting probably another one very soon as well. So as planned, very heavy innovation agenda. We never had so many launches, actually, in DPS. We have a new generation of mid-range products actually coming up, the 5-meter all-to-all machine then that we are supplying from EFI. So very, very dynamic and really very happy with the results here. Zirfon. Over 100, I think. We are at 130. So it's not anymore over 100, but it continues to evolve very well.
The big news is we've been able to successfully industrialize Zirfon production, which is never a given when you go to industrial production. We make progress almost every month on the way to make it. We have started the works to build the new unit. Well, still a way to go. We don't expect the new unit to be operational before October 2025, but it's in full work. As you know, we have received EUR 11 million of subsidy from Europe. Again, in terms of cash, it's going to be only EUR 2 million this year and EUR 9 million in 2025 when the unit will be built, actually. I want to make this precision. The capacity we are building, both it's going to be more productive and give us the capacity to access market demand. We have prolonged our cooperation with VITO. VITO Zirfon comes from this collaboration from VITO.
So we are very pleased to continue to work with VITO. And for 2024, it's a business in which we have a very good visibility because we have already more than 80% of the 2024 volume that are committed by our customers. So there will be no surprise here. We are relatively modest in our volume growth for 2024 today. So we feel very good overall about it. Now, if you look at the numbers, how does it translate? You see 12% top line growth for overall DPC. Interesting to know that DPC is now our largest business. And all this on the strengths of the growth engines. If you look at film and foil, I mean, it's a rather flat-ish business. The businesses that are increasing are really DPS and Zirfon. So overall, very happy with the profit recovery.
The profit recovery that we have has a very different profile, of course. Historically, the main profit of DPC was coming from the legacy business of film. Today, it's coming from the growth engines, actually, more and more. So very good evolution. If we look at the P&L, again, same comment, strong growth of the gross profit in percentage and in absolute terms because we also took price actions. That's an area where we invest. Operational expenses are a bit higher due to the fact that we are expanding and doing Zirfon. Of course, we resource this part. A good recovery that will be confirmed in 2024, actually. If I turn now to Radiology Solutions, the highlights, really, what I want to stress is in our DR business, we believe the innovation doesn't come so much from the hardware, but it comes from the software.
And here, we have been very diligent in adding artificial intelligence-powered solution to our X-ray modalities, so meaning we are able to do at the same time to add value to these modalities by helping to detect pathology in an automated basis, so to speak. And we are also considered as a thought leader in the X-ray market with various recognition from different markets. So this is really what we are positioned for. Really, the differentiation for us in X-ray is truly through the software part and the solution part. Overall, for the business, as you know, very difficult year overall, -4.5% outside of currency, reflecting, in fact, the difficulties we still have in the film business and especially in China. But not only China. We are also impacted by other geopolitical issues. Russia, for instance, used to be a significant market for us.
But DR has been performing quite well, especially on the bottom line. The top line was rather muted. We have seen good dynamism in emerging markets, but rather subdued environment in developed markets. So overall, this translated indeed with a profit decrease. I repeat, most of this profit decrease is actually coming from the currency impact and mainly the exposure to China, while we are making progress in India. So profit and loss very quickly. You see this is the only business where we have a profit actually decrease in terms of gross profit. In spite of the very good control of the operational expenses, you see a significant decrease of these expenses, but we cannot make it all up given the complex market conditions we have in film in China. Now, I'm going to turn to you, Viviane, to have a few words about CONOPS.
Yes.
So indeed, the fourth division and the smallest one, so the Contractor Operations and Services. So that's actually the supply of film and chemicals that we do towards the new owner of our Offset business, which is ECO3, also some other services. And you see, of course, sales-wise, it was stable, 2022 versus 2023. EBITDA-wise, you do see a nice improvement there. But of course, the way we report the costs is different. In 2022, actually, the costs were still all in the CONOPS division, the stranded costs. In 2023, they are allocated to the other divisions. So that's, of course, why you see a huge increase there. On the other hand, we also have cost savings. So structurally, this division actually should run about with a zero EBIT going forward.
Thank you very much. That gets me to the Outlook, the outlook for 2024. Well, the message is clearly, we are going to see the continuation of this trend, meaning we are expecting, actually, HCIT to continue to progress during the year, to continue its journey. We continue to invest as well, as I told you, to make sure we remain the solution of choice for our customers. DPC, significant top line and profitability growth is expected. Actually, for me, the first source of growth in 2024 will be DPC, then HCIT. Significant on the strengths of all the initiatives we have and the ramp-up also of Zirfon. And last but not least, on Radiology, we're still expecting a similar situation as 2023. The medical film will continue to be under pressure in China, although we are coming to a point where the market evolution will stabilize.
We will continue to make progress in Direct Radiography in the meantime. Overall, gross margins will continue to improve the profitability of the company. I stress again that indeed, we are, unfortunately, a seasonal business, I would say, and that we are going to see a similar pattern as what we've seen in 2023, meaning a much weaker first half than the second half. This is the way it is. Again, we can discuss it a lot, but this is really the seasonality we have in our businesses.
And on top of this seasonality, given the fact that some specific elements like the EFI partnership will be more impacting the second half of the year because we are launching these products right now in March, and also that we have a kind of a ramp-up for Zirfon, that also contributes to the fact that the second half of the year is significantly stronger than the first half. This is the way it is. And I want to stress it again. In terms of cash profile as well, what is different from 2023? First, what's going to be different? We cannot repeat what we did in terms of working capital improvement every year. That is a given. So we'll continue to be very stringent in managing our working capital, but don't expect another big improvement. That's for sure. We have less restructuring.
We are a bit at the end of the restructuring program, and we are not launching any new initiatives now for some time. We are just pursuing and delivering the initiatives that were already launched, meaning you can expect a lot less cash out in terms of restructuring to non-recurring, I would say, half of what happened in 2023. The tax cash out will be below EUR 10 million as well. However, we will face in 2024 and 2025, by the way, the peak CapEx, the peak CapEx for Zirfon. And as I told you, we are not going to receive the subsidy before the end of 2025. So we are facing the peak CapEx due to Zirfon and also the increase in R&D in HealthCare IT. So that's also what I wanted to share with you in terms of outlook.
Before leaving the floor for questions, I'm going to just discuss briefly also about sustainability. It's extremely important. But the story here is we're making a lot of progress in CO2 reduction plan. We are now committing 62% reduction according to the Fit for 55 objectives. We are making commitment. We have joined the Science Based Targets initiative to further refine our reduction targets for the group in the next two years, including the Scope 3 reduction. On the people part, safety is an area where we need to make progress. We are not exactly at the safety level that I would like us to be. We have taken a lot of actions in this area, and we have a very aggressive target of reducing the number of accidents. At the same time, we continue to increase the share of women in our workforce.
We are recruiting at about 50% more women than we currently have in the company. It's in progress. We have also DR initiatives that are starting to bear fruit. Last but not least, we started to have an external ranking with EcoVadis only two years ago. In two years, we are now part of the first quartile in terms of performance of EcoVadis. It shows that indeed, we could very fast, very quickly come to the best-in-class part in terms of sustainability management. I think it's important for us. Before we talk to questions, of course, a slide on pensions. Of course, it was expected. I will ask Viviane to take it, please. Viviane.
Yes, indeed. So once a year, we give, of course, an update on the pensions because then we have, again, an actuarial calculation. And then on this slide, actually, first, you can see that the fund status, so the net liability actually of the pension, decreased, so moved in a positive way with EUR 54 million. Most of that is related to the sale of Offset Solutions. When we dig deeper into the pension costs, so you see that costs moved from EUR 28 million to EUR 32 million. And then you have, of course, always two parts in those costs. You have the part which is included in EBIT and the part below EBIT, the interest cost. And you see that the first part in EBIT moved from EUR 19 million to EUR 13 million, which is following actually the movement of the discount rate.
When you see the movement of the discount rate of the years before, it shows here, actually. The interest cost, of course, below EBIT, the financial cost, moved in the opposite way, so increasing from EUR 9 to EUR 19. If we look at estimates for 2024, you see a decrease in interest costs as well and in service costs. Service costs decreased, maybe related to sale of Offsets. Less active participants in Belgium on the bottom. Pension cash out, because indeed, always also an important element to look at, stays stable. 2023 versus 2022, we did normally expect a bit of decrease because of the Offset sale. But unfortunately, due to inflation of the salaries in Belgium, it stays stable. You see for the next year that we do forecast, again.
Yeah. So we had a blip due to the high inflation and indexation in Belgium in 2022 that has impacted 2023 in terms of pension impact. That's what happened. One word on Germany and the fact that we have a new actuarial calculation, Viviane, or?
Yes. So maybe, yeah, you see the bit below EBIT also moving. And aside from indeed the higher inflation in Belgium, we also did change the actuary. So it's a new party doing that now for us. And they have a kind of more conservative approach to it. So that's why you see a bit of, yeah, a change in cash out.
Yeah. Indeed, the actuarial calculations are a bit different and a bit surprising. To say that it's not for me in terms of but okay, this is what it is. Let's now turn to question and answers. I propose to take questions from the room where we have analysts and press, and then to turn to the virtual room for press, if any questions. Who wants to start?
Hey. Hello.
Alexander. Okay. Go ahead, Alexander.
Alexander from Kepler Cheuvreux here. So yeah, in HealthCare IT, you have a part of the legacy business, the old PACS, and you have then the new systems, say, Enterprise Imaging, etc. Could you give a bit of granularity on the sales split between the new systems and old systems? And then, yeah, the order book that is right now, if I calculate it, it's probably a bit flat to slightly up versus last year. What are the moving parts there? Is there a growth decline in the old system and growth increase in the new systems? And then second question, also on HealthCare IT, you mentioned EUR 10 million in capitalized costs. That is EUR 10 million on an annual basis or just EUR 10 million split over two years? And then maybe it's over two years that that fund's forwarded or backloaded.
Yeah, I just wanted to get a bit of an understanding on the quality of the division. Is that a specific project there, or is it really an investment in a new technology that you think will lead to an increased growth with multiple clients? And then the third question would be for Vincent. If I read through the outlook, I mean, it's clear that DPC is where you expect probably the strongest profitability increase. Could you shed some light on this? And specifically, okay, you have delta from last year to this year, which was last year a loss, this year a small profit. Can we expect the same delta maybe for next year? I don't know. Or do you think it's maybe less possible?
Well, okay. Thanks very much, Alexander. Well, on the second question, the capitalization, it's EUR 10 million over two years, okay, not per year. Okay? And the nature of the benefit is actually more to the cost of providing the solution than the benefit to customer, okay, meaning actually, it's a self-serving investment, so to speak, where we're going to improve our cost to deliver. So there is a clear payback, in other words. That's what I can say. On your question on HealthCare IT, I'm a bit perplexed because we don't look at our business in this way, actually. Everything that we now propose to the market is Enterprise Imaging. It's not the old solution of the past. That's really what we are. So when you look at the order intake, I would say the vast majority in order intake is this.
Now, in the order intake, you have different nature of orders. I mean, totally new system where we implement. It can be adding features. It can be different options. So there are a lot of different components, in fact. But to make a long story short, today, we are fully towards the Enterprise Imaging system and not anymore with PACS. It's not an area of focus. And if anything, what we are doing is migrating our old, I would say, older PACS customers to having EI systems. This is the way it works. For DPC, Vincent, what's your comment?
My comment on DPC would be that very clearly, comparing to 2022, we had to indeed restore profitability. In the second half of 2022, we were impacted by high-cost inflation. On top of that, electronics market being down. In 2023, electronics market is actually still quite a bit down, but we restored profitability thanks to overall price increases, thanks to growth in Zirfon as well, and growth in ink volumes, and also some restructuring we did actually end in 2022, begin in 2023. So those important price increases and restructuring efforts we did will not necessarily be redoubled because that was really to restore profitability. But we should see in 2024, indeed, a similar from the growth businesses from DPS and from Zirfon, from Green Hydrogen Solutions, we should see a similar growth in topline and in profitability.
What is a bit more difficult to predict, maybe, is on the specialties on the chemical side, the legacy businesses on that side. Of course, there, we have a lot of actions in place to also improve profitability. But there, the growth, I mean, there is some areas are growing. But overall, this is a mature and declining business. So in DPC, you have that mix, of course, of those two.
But again, we say, yes, DPC will be the first contributor of the growth today, and mainly on the strengths of Zirfon and Digital Printing. Look, we have a ton of initiatives in DPS. We are already on a good ramp of growth. And Zirfon, again, we ended up the year in productivity in a very different place when we started the year 2023. So today, I mean, together with the volume growth and the productivity improvement, we will see Zirfon evolve very favorably.
How much is Zirfon of DPC right now?
Sorry?
Zirfon, how much is it?
Well, Zirfon today is still about, in sales, less than EUR 25 million, okay? But it is already profitable and very profitable, I would say.
He's KBC Securities. Some questions on the SpeedSet. And then a link to the next-gen, Anapurna. Is it the same kind of numbers that you can expect in that kind of machine? So for SpeedSet, sales price in the range of EUR 5 million and EUR 1 million ink per year consumption, roughly, is that a good guideline? And what is it for Anapurna? Will that be same magnitude, or how could we see that?
Okay. Allow me to take this. Yes. So thank you, for the question. SpeedSet and Anapurna are actually at the very extremes of our portfolio. So the Anapurna range is the low end of our machines. These are machines ranging between EUR 100,000-EUR 250,000 in sales price. But of course, we sell a lot more than we will ever per year, and then we will ever sell SpeedSets. We will never sell 100 SpeedSets a year. I would not say no, but the market is not.
Why not?
But no, no. It's a totally different animal, and you're really talking totally different ends of the spectrum. So our new Anapurna, by the way, we launched at a new name next week. You will see it at FESPA. We will launch a rebranding of our inkjet portfolio. But all of our portfolio is actually moving up in terms of speed, in terms of performance. So the new next-gen Anapurna is actually the higher end. It has some new features as well. I won't go technical here, but it's upping up the speed. You're talking about 30%-40% more speed and ink consumption than the Anapurnas we have today. And here, we're changing or we're bringing into the market the high runner, let's say, and the biggest of our Anapurnas. Anapurna is one name, but it's actually several machines and several widths and so on.
The idea is in the next 2 or 3 years that all of them will be renewed to this new yeah, to move the next generation.
To the new platform.
To the new platform. On SpeedSet, so SpeedSet, I think the order of magnitude you're giving there is indeed correct for one machine. The idea is we've seen yesterday our press release. We signed our first beta customer now for the U.K. The idea is that this year, we will have two betas installed. That does not mean that they will necessarily be in revenue recognition because they will still be in testing phase. And as you know, before they come actually into our revenues, the final sign-off with the customer has to happen. So as of 2025, as per plan, and I think as per what we've always communicated, as per 2025, you should see recurring sales on inks and on equipment for SpeedSet in our numbers.
But they will still pay for the ink, the beta customers.
The main question is actually, can we expect from the Anapurna new range a kind of same effect on the sale of inks as we can expect from the SpeedSet? So overall, of course, you will sell much more Anapurnas. But will it surpass the ink?
It's a replacement market, okay? It's a replacement, okay? So are we expecting growth from our new initiative in low-end? The answer is yes, okay? But I wouldn't place it in the same category as SpeedSet, okay? Anapurna is a replacement; it's a replacement and an upgrading. I would say it's a kind of incremental growth, so to speak. SpeedSet is a breakthrough growth for us, okay? So it's totally different ballgame. Here, we are managing the portfolio with Anapurna, which is good because we are renewing and coming with a next-generation machine to maintain our market share and whatnot. SpeedSet is a weapon to win share, okay, so to speak. It's very, very different.
Second question is on Zirfon. You're doing quite a good job on hiding the success of Zirfon for the moment. You were indicating a little bit less than EUR 25 million of sales, but the growth range, right, is what is now keeping Zirfon back from doubling, tripling again? Is that production capacity?
No, it's not production capacity. It's implementation of projects, okay, in Europe mainly, which takes slower than expected, okay? That's it. In a year, we have multiplied by 5 Zirfon between 2022 and 2023. In 2024, we have a much more modest assumption behind our outlook of about 20%-30% growth, okay, which will be enough anyway to have significant leverage on the profitability. But here, this is the rate at which the projects are being financed and decided. During the past year, the last 12 months, I would say the rate of implementation of hydrogen projects was rather low in Europe. We believe it's picking up right now. And especially, we believe that North America, India are going faster, okay? And we are also presenting these opportunities. It's more like this, okay? We are ready for our customers.
By the way, our customers are giving us very precise. We have all the orders almost in place for 2024 already. We are already working today about 25 with our customers. But the ramp-up is defined by the velocity of projects being financed and built.
Two small questions. First, you were guiding for higher CapEx this year and next year, and that will be the top of the CapEx cycle. Can you be a little bit more precise and give some exact numbers?
Sure. EUR 50 million is a good number for CapEx for the next couple of years.
That includes the EUR 10 million?
That includes.
Then you're always prudent when you talk on the sale of Offset Solutions and the money that has to come in. You were indicating end of March before. Now it's second quarter of this year. Is it kicking the can down the road, or what?
I'm not prudent. I'm prudent about the timing, not about what we are going to receive, okay? That's more about the timing because basically, we are in the last phase of, I would say, third-party expertise and judgment on this matter. I'm not the one controlling the clock. Actually, the advisor is controlling the clock, actually. That's why I'm more prudent on the timing because I don't master fully the timing, okay, but not on the fact that we are going to receive it.
The timing will be in Q2.
I believe it will be in Q2, yes. Yeah. But again, it's not a question so I feel extremely good about are we going to receive the money. I have no doubt, okay? But the when is defined by the process we are going through, and that involves a third party for which I do not master exactly its clock, so to speak.
Just yesterday, you had the board meeting, and I think some of these board members will also look at the share price. What was the atmosphere around the table related to the share price? Were they agnostic to that, or what was the?
No, no. Nobody is agnostic to a share price, although we don't watch it every day. Nobody is agnostic to the share price. Last time we talked to the market was in November. Between November and pretty much today, we've seen a significant decrease of the share price. So nobody is immune to that. Especially, we are aware about how we did in 2023 for a few weeks now. And we cannot be we expect to answer to the market with our delivery. That's it. We are really focusing on that and doing what's the right thing to do for the company. Here, the message is, again, I think the repositioning of the company works. We are exposed to good growth markets in which we are performing. It takes a bit of time because in the meantime, we still have pressure on the legacy business.
Overall, I feel very good about the overall story. In terms of cash, as I told you, we have enough liquidity to see us through this period without any particular stress, I would say. No, you don't need to push the button.
I don't. Sorry.
Sorry. No, no, no problem.
Okay. First question on HealthCare IT. How do you look at the order intake for 2024? And then could you also remind me how the service invoicing works? Do they pay fixed amounts, or do they pay once a listed service?
The service. The service, okay.
Then also a question on the restructuring charges. You said it will be held this year. How should we look at that then for 2025?
Bon, okay. So on HealthCare IT, so today, as we said, we're talking not about the order book, but the order intake. We say it's basically in line with last year. What I want to say in order intake, it becomes a bit more lumpy, okay? And again, we are doing last 12 months, but it's very dependent on we have more and more large deals that will influence a lot the given quarter. And that's what we should retain. And the reason why we are only at 2% is because we had a customer contract that slipped and was signed in the first week of January, okay? Just if we included this contract, the number would have been very different, actually. So we need to take it with a pinch of salt in terms of lumpiness of this order intake.
If all of a sudden, we have a contract for EUR 20 million, you see the order intake of the year is 125. So it's a significant event, right? So today, that's our first priority, order intake. This is really, if you ask me, the first priority of the business is really order intake to make sure that we can deliver the year. To your question regarding service, we typically, in a traditional business, you pay for the project and the CapEx when you install. And then you typically have a 15%-20% service fee every year, which is a service and maintenance fee. This is a classical model. We are going to move more and more to a model for the timing. 15% of our order intake is a managed services, meaning it's a different model where we actually provide service as we go.
So there is less invoicing at the start and more during the next year. And then we will also, we are moving to a SaaS model as well where it's a similar pattern. You have less upfront and more along the life of the contract with a different pricing mechanism, so to speak. So in a first instance, by the way, when you have a transition from a CapEx model to a more managed services and SaaS model, it will have an impact on the profile of the business. That's for sure. We will recognize less upfront. Probably, we will modelize it and give probably more details later this year.
On the restructuring charge?
On the restructuring charge, well, I would expect the restructuring to continue to decrease but never go to zero because we will still have in the next years things to adjust. Remember that it's a company we're so far. So part of it is declining. And we will have to take some steps regarding specific businesses that are a bit end of life. But the general trend will be a decrease. Maxime.
Good morning. Maxime Stranart, ING. Two questions on my end and one final one that's a bit more philosophical, I would say.
Philosophical, okay.
I will start with this one. You mentioned significant a lot of time in this meeting. In my vocabulary, it means an increase or a decrease of 12%-20% in the way you look at it as well.
But for DPC, it should be even more than that.
Okay. And then the real question now. First of all, looking at 2023 and the volume and pricing dynamics, obviously, you have some price increases in DPC. I understand in other divisions, like at HealthCare, it was more difficult to implement. Could you shed some light on what the pricing and volume dynamics at group level and per division? And secondly, on Radiology itself, could you shed some light on the weight of the film business on adjusted EBITDA so that we can better model all this to the board in the years to come? Thank you.
Okay. So let's start with the pricing. To make a long story short, we had positive pricing everywhere except in film in China. And when I say film in China, it's medical and non-medical. Except from China, pricing, we were okay in DR, in DPC. In HealthCare IT, we have indexes and so on and so on. And I told you it's not perfect, but not a big issue. We're testing, I would say, now. Your second question, just to make sure, can you please.
On Radiology, obviously, you have two activities.
Yes, we have two.
The film.
We have three, actually. Three activities: the film, the CR, and the DR.
Yeah. Just to equipment and the former Offset, if I may say, which was a big component of profitability before that collapsed quite materially over the last 12 years. Could you shed some light on what's the weight now of the 2023?
We don't disclose this granularity within Radiology. But let me tell you that film is still very profitable. Even with the decrease and what we are going through today, it's still a profitable business for Agfa. Also in China, although it's much reduced. Also in China.
One follow-up on that. So you mentioned price increase in HealthCare. If we look at the top line, I think it's 2.4% increase for two years, basically meaning volume surplus. Is that the fair way to look at it?
No. Well, as I said, there is a significant mix effect as well, Maxime. So we sold a lot less hardware. We sold more services and own IP software. So we are selling hardware. We are selling own IP software. We are selling third-party software integrated in our system. We are selling implementation services. We are selling professional services. And we are selling service and maintenance. So it's a rather complex mix overall. And as I told you, the different components of the mix have different evolutions. If I look at sales of hardware, it's probably a double-digit decrease. If I look at own IP software, it's a double-digit increase. And then it depends pretty much on your activity. So your question is not that easy to answer. But look at the margins of HealthCare. I mean, the gross margin of HealthCare for the year has increased.
I think that's a good response to your question.
That's very clear. Thank you.
Peter- Jan, the press, can you speak in the mic, please?
Absolutely.
No, no, no problem. No problem.
I have a question about Zirfon. So now the revenue is about EUR 25 million. And for this year, 80% of the orders is already there. So you said you can give me a guidance on the revenue for this year, I would think.
Can we give a guidance? I said that we were expecting for the year from 20%-30% increase in volumes, okay? So.
Volume?
Yeah.
In terms of price?
Sorry?
Price.
Is there a price effect as well?
There is a positive price effect in the Offset as well. But when I was talking, I'm talking of the volume here.
If I may ask some follow-ups. Unless Peter, you still have a?
I had one other question when you.
Go ahead, Peter- Jan.
The only question was to get a full picture of the company because in the past, the colleague wrote a depiction of the tanker firm. Where is the tanker now?
Well, the story is to try to turn the tanker into a motorboat. But we are not there yet. We're still in full transformation. But I think we have enough signs today that this transformation is truly happening, actually. There are very tangible signs that this transformation is now in full swing, okay? And again, it's a transformation of the company on the portfolio and the operating model, also on the people and culture. And the nomination of Jeroen, by the way, is a good illustration of the renewal of the leadership also in the company. So it's a full-fledged transformation that we are going on. And that is not done in two years, okay? That takes a bit of time. But indeed, the idea is to transform the tanker into a motorboat.
So to Jeroen, who is the new president of Radiology, I'm just wondering, what's your plan to turn around this business? Because obviously, it's been suffering a lot from the currency in China. Is it your plan to travel more to China to get that pace, or how do you want to convince these Chinese officials to buy your films and to buy at a higher price as well? And then also maybe if you could shed some light on the currency effect. And then I still have a second question, which was around Offset benefits. Obviously, it's a bit longer than expected in the beginning. I guess there's some disputes around the table. Maybe if you could just shed some light on what the third party is looking at, then why is it at the core of the discussion?
And then the third question would be on HealthCare IT because you mentioned if you would include the order that you had in January this year, the order intake would be higher. How much higher would it be?
What are we going to do, Jeroen, to fight the China situation? Actually, we have taken action already.
Yeah. Yeah. So with regards to China, I think that the most important thing that we have been doing is basically strengthening what I would call a boost on the ground in China, both from an HQ point of view, but also from strengthening the team that is really locally on site in China and is running the activity in that market. And honestly, it's all about having a strong local presence and being really present and early in the market at the moment that tenders show up. And there, we are stepping up compared to what we have done in the period where, due to COVID reasons, it was quite difficult for us to be really present in the field on site and to follow all these things up. So that is absolutely an action that has already taken place that is what I would call in flight.
At the same time, when you look at the rest of the business, we really monitor the market, which is still clearly there and clearly okay. But we have quite some actions with regards to just streamlining the activity and streamlining the operations that are behind this activity, also in line with two other businesses that we have inside Radiology and just improving the overall efficiency of that machine.
Very good. Very good. To be clear, I'm going to be crystal clear. In fact, what happened was we basically are changing our China team. We had a new GM in China that started, actually, a couple of weeks ago. We have replaced, I would say, a number of people in our go-to-market organization. We are rebuilding this go-to-market organization in China. We are not staying idle as well. That's very true. It's done.
That's not bad because, I mean, obviously, you're losing out to Chinese players.
Well, let's be careful here. We are not losing out market share. We are not losing out volumes, okay? What is under pressure for us is the margin, meaning the prices, okay? But we are not losing out on volume so much, actually, or in market share, okay? And we are not helped, as I told you, by the currency. That makes it a bit more complex. Offset, well, obviously, if it takes time, it's because the seller and the buyer have different opinions regarding a certain number of elements of the closing statements. That's what it's about, okay? We feel very good about it because we went through a first, I would say, a first analysis. And basically, we feel good about it. But there is a recourse that is possible for the buyer.
The buyer will utilize to the fullest extent this recourse, which is why today we are in a second, I would say, and final arbitrage in the matter. So that's why I'm saying I feel very good about the what. I have a little bit less certainty about the when. When I say when, it cannot go forever. I mean, it's just finished time. But I feel good about it. In HealthCare IT, well, as I told you, if you have a EUR 10 million or EUR 20 million contract that moves from a quarter to another quarter, you know that our yearly order intake is EUR 125 million. You can do the math yourself.
20 million in January.
I'm not saying it's a EUR 20 million contract, but I'm saying I say EUR 10 million or EUR 20 million. And you have this order of magnitude. But again, it's not super important for me. What's important is the fact that we have improved two major points to our offer. First, we really have cloud solution and web streaming technologies that are now operational, and that's extremely important for us if we want to be efficient in answering customer needs. And our customer satisfaction is going up very, very much with our. And recognize that also changes our position in the market. We were in a Radiology congress in Vienna a few weeks back. I mean, the attendance at HealthCare IT stand was much higher than the years before. And especially, we had a ton of new customers that came to meet us, okay?
So that's what I'm looking at when I want to look at the leading indicator. That's why I feel good. Now, turning this customer satisfaction into order does not happen in a week, of course. But it's a positive trend for the business. It's a very positive trend for the business. Any other question in the room? Then do we have a question operator by the press? We are taking press question only, so just checking. If none, okay. So just a few words. Indeed, I'm pleased with 2023 results. I'm pleased by the nature of the results and where they come from and what they bear as a promise in terms of strategy development for the company. I'm also pleased, by the way, we are managing cost and working capital as well.
And again, I feel confident that we made the right choices in terms of activities going forward. So that's, for me, very good. Last but not least, we have all the liquidity we need to see us through what is going to be the next two years where we have a peak CapEx, of course. We'll continue to improve profitability year after year. And therefore, for me, the transformation is in full progress. And these are very clear and factual signs that this is the case. But we are also a company where the seasonality of the business is don't ask us too much short of the first half. Remember, the delivery of the business by nature and by some specific elements will be more back-ended during the year. That's very, very clear to me. Thanks a lot. Thank you, operator.
Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect.