I will now hand you over to your host, Pascal Juéry, CEO, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. I'm sitting today in the room with Viviane Dictus, the head of Investor Relations at Agfa, and the executive committee team. For your information, our CFO, Dirk De Man, is still absent due to medical reasons, and we're not expecting him to be back in the next month. We'll give you more information as soon as we can, but I wanted to say that. Therefore, I'm gonna walk you through today the Q2 results, of course. Key message, I think it was a solid quarter for us after a Q1 that was a little bit subdued, as you know, and two, three very positive events.
First, Healthcare IT, we are demonstrating this quarter a clear transition to the cloud journey, and a significant increase in order intake. The PNL delivery was okay, and it's showing the fact that we can continue to improve our margins. But really, for me, the highlight of the quarter is the order intake, which was the highest ever. It's cloud, it's net new customers, and it's a very dynamic order intake, so that's strong positive. DPC also was very positive for the quarter and more here in the delivery side. And I want to stress that it's across the board, and the ink was up significantly, up in volume, but also, I would say we are still making progress in our productivity, so improving also the way we make the ink, and that reflects also on our margins, of course.
And also DPS had good growth in the quarter, 8%, but more importantly, in the ink side, which is exactly what we are trying to do, so we're pleased with the delivery of DPC. So very positive impact. I think the third item that I believe is very positive is we are launching a EUR 50 million productivity program for the film-related activities. Why do I believe it's positive? Because we have confirmed the potential to significantly rebase our cost setup. It's confirmed. I'm not yet in a position to give you all details regarding this plan. That will be done at the next results call.
But today, I can assure you that we have the potential to significantly change the competitiveness of our operations for film, which is mainly in Belgium, but not only, by the way. The two other points, you know, that I would say we are working on is the fact that if we launch this productivity plan for March, for Mortsel, and the film-related operations globally, it's also because we are seeing a volume weakness in the film area, in radiology. So that's something that we have already seen since the beginning of the year, that has a big improvement in Q2, but that will remain for the next quarter.
So that's why it's also important for us to have this transformation program to mitigate what we are seeing here. Another point is the cash outflow of the quarter was still significant on the strength of the working capital buildup, which is, frankly speaking, a bit higher compared to our expectations. But this being said, it's temporary, it's seasonal, and just like as last year, we're gonna get back to normal by the end of the year. It's a seasonal impact. I think point number five, and I'm gonna come back to that in a bit later. We had a significant milestone for the Aurelius settlement and payment, final payment of the offset business.
We've been trying for the H1 of the month to get the expert nominated, the expert that will define the final price. This is done. After a bit of difficulty, this is done. Therefore, the process is, so to speak, back on track. We're expecting a report by the expert in September that should trigger a cash payment in Q4. So yes, it was probably too late, it was probably later than I expected, but it is happening, actually. The outlook for the rest of the year is pretty much what we are seeing in this quarter. I still expect a good drive of healthcare, IT, and DPC. I'd like to remind ourselves also that we have a seasonality, and that Q4, again, will be the strongest quarter of the year.
Very, very clearly, this is the way these markets work, and it's also the way our own dynamics in, for instance, in DPS works. Yes, ideal, for instance, is really taking place in the H2 , not the H1 . For radiology, we will continue to see what we've seen already, meaning a weakness in this area. So, it's not anecdotal, but I want also to point it out, that we have a positive net profit during the quarter. That's also reflecting the fact that we have less restructuring and non-recurring, these programs are coming more or less to an end.
Although we are launching a new transformation program, therefore, we will continue to have a restructuring effort. We expect also that this transformation program will have some positive cash elements in it, okay? That will make up for any restructuring in the United States, in this program. If I look at the numbers, the sales are pretty flat for the quarter, but it's a flat overall with very two distinct trends. The weakness of radiology, you can see it, so within radiology, film is decreasing a bit, a bit more, and DR is actually growing, you know, in single digits, but it's decreasing overall. You can see the dynamic of DPC, 8% on the quarter. I think it's a good and solid growth.
HealthCare IT is below last year, I think for two reasons. The first one is, we are seeing, and that's totally in phase with what we are seeing in terms of cloud development, the fact that our hardware sales are decreasing rapidly. So that's really an external sign that our customers are moving to the cloud, okay? Therefore, they stop buying a bit in advance hardware, and also that's reflective, I would say, of the cycle. We had a bit, the other group was a bit lower, right? The other impact that we have today will show the next quarters, but we had a bit of a lower delivery, PNL delivery in Q2.
This is a combination of the same. Overall, so stable, but as you see, very, very different dynamics between business. In terms of, in terms of EBITDA, in spite of this a bit weaker sales in healthcare IT, you can see that we manage very well our PNL efficiency, cost efficiency, increasing margin, and therefore it has no bearing, it had no bearing, this decreased sales on our profit. To be noted also that the sales, part of the sales that are decreasing are the less margin-producing sales. DPC, well, no need to exemplify, and that reflects the growth of DPS and ZIRFON. And ZIRFON, it's volume, but it's also the fact that we are making progress in making ZIRFON.
We are also improving, and so our margin here. Remember, Xertone is a relatively young product. We are not yet at the end of the road in terms of productivity. Radiology, we limited, I think, given what we see in the market, the damage, but it's below last year. In fact, that's a trend that will continue for the next quarters. We are not expecting a bounce back for radiology. What we are expecting is to make it up with our self-help and transformation program. Now, if I turn to the PNL, for sales, I already commented on it.
Gross profit, well, you see a significant improvement versus last year in both absolute terms, but also relative terms, reflecting the number of actions we are making, but also a better mix, let's say it. We have a better mix in the business. Operational expenses well under control, below last year. I think we continue to develop our productivity programs, and we are able to do more than just offsetting cost inflation. So that reflects in, I would say, in a positive EBITDA, EBIT for the quarter. If I turn to the lower part of the PNL, you see that, indeed, as I was mentioning, you know, less restructuring and non-recurring, which is also normal.
We've been doing a lot of transformation program in the company in the past years. We still are today continuing to deploy it, and therefore, indeed, we're still spending cash on in this area. But much less, we have initiated no significant new programs. And as I said, we'll guide specifically on the transformation program when we issue Q3 results. But again, I repeat, we do have also some positive cash impact involved in this program, while we will also have the structure. So non-operating results, it's mainly financial results. And therefore, at the end of the day, well, for the first time in quite a number of quarters, I guess, we have a positive net profit.
Working capital, we you know we always have a build-up actually during the H1 . I said it a number of times. Look at 2023 pattern. It's always Q2 is always the peak in the peak working capital for the business, and then it decreases quite significantly during the H2 . We're expecting a similar pattern this year. No change, and we expect to be at the same level as last year in terms of % of sales. To be noted that in this number that's not helping us are two things. Indeed, the fact that shipping routes are disrupted now for many months, and it means more product in the water, on the water, not in, on the water of course.
The silver price means our inventory is a bit more costly. So free cash flow has been negative on the strength of this, of two things, of this significant capital working capital outflow for the quarter, which was probably also a bit higher than expected for us, huh? But for specific reasons, but as I told you, CapEx is a kind of a peak CapEx. Now we are in the full swing of building the different plants. So it's representative of a high CapEx environment, and pension this quarter actually was higher. But in fact, if you take the six months, it's absolutely in line with the guidance, which explains the cash outflow of this quarter.
Now, if I turn to business, well, I already commented on the sales of HCIT. I think really, again, the news of the quarter is more about the order intake that is basically doubled the previous quarter, to be clear, than anything else. To be noted, I will, given the nature of the contract we're taking and the move to cloud, it's larger contracts. It takes a bit longer to be written and contracted, especially as it's a transition to the cloud. And therefore, the order intake, quarter by quarter, will, is, and will be lumpy. It's not, we are not the only one. Everybody operating in this same pattern, we have a lumpy order intake.
What's important is also the last comparison to last twelve months, and we are plus 22% versus last twelve months, and we expect to finish up the year with the team, I would say. But again, the big news here is the cloud transformation train has left our station, and we are very successful today in this area. I'd like to remind you that this year, last year at this time, we had no cloud solution. And today, which represents already a significant portion of what we do. So we are, I think it's a good sign for us. What is reflected on the right-hand side of the slide is a good management of the PMM.
But in spite of lower sales, we had more profitable sales, actually, and a better management of overall efficiency and cost. So kudos to the team. If you look at the numbers, so lower sales, but same gross profit, 3% more margin. Operational expenses, well under control. It's not because you are in a growing business, that you shouldn't take care of your operational expenses, and that also reflects on your efficiency and therefore, quite a good quarter for HCIT. The main comment is really our business is changing. 40% of the deals in Q2 are cloud for the H1 , it's about a third. So this is happening. Net new customers, 35% of our order intake. It does reflect the fact that we have momentum in the market.
We are winning new accounts and significant ones. Project business is now 60% of our business. It was 90+% last year. This year, it's 60% with recurring business, 42% for the quarter. So you see the nature of the business is changing. When we say recurring, it's kind of pay-as-you-go model. I'm not using the word SaaS, because SaaS is one of the way we can do it. And for the time being, we do have SaaS, a number of it, but it will develop further in the next quarter. But there is the shift, okay? And the good news is we are part of the shift, we are in the market, and we have success in order. I think that's really the highlight of the quarter.
Good example is one of the contracts we landed this year, Alliance Medical, which is U.K.-based, 120 sites. We won this contract. This is the largest contract we won during the quarter, so that's a good example of that and cloud, by the way, is not only in the U.S., but this deal is in the U.K., and that's a cloud. Okay, so I continue as we told you to invest in this transition to go a bit faster with a specific innovation program that is underway, so that's where we are. This being said, the transition to cloud has also a consequence. The revenue recognition timing and the margin recognition timing will be spread over time.
So the net consequence is the short term, you will see less growth, so to speak, revenue and margin. We'll probably try to give a lot more guidance on that when probably at the end of the year, but that is impact. Whereby a project, you know, we recognize most of the revenue in one go, and then we have an SMA. A recurring contract is higher in value, is higher in margin, but is spread out over a certain number of times. But that gives also great visibility on the business, and with long-term contracts is recurring. So this transition has really started now. For DPC, as I was saying, you know, dynamic quarter, 8+%, actually. 62% increase in their fund.
I know it might be surprising to you because you hear in the newspapers that the green hydrogen market does not develop as fast as probably the ambitions were. Yes, but it's still happening. Not as fast, but this is still happening, and we have a global footprint, and we are pretty much the reference in this market, and therefore, we have growth. 60% growth is not the yearly growth. I always say, and I repeat, the yearly growth will be around 30%, okay? For ZIRFON. But I want also to make clear, you know, we are of course very close to our big customers, and we look at their announcements, but when you need to realize that we never took the announcement in our hands. We always were a lot more conservative, okay?
So when we said, when we communicated about our prospects of the outcome, it was taken into account the fact that we never believed what our customer told us, in fact, and that we were a lot more cautious, so there is no negative surprise from ZIRFON, and everything goes well. DPS sales growth of 8%. What I like is, the fact that, you know, during the first months, we kind of renewed a very important part of our portfolio, so it's always very delicate when you do that, and I can tell you today with a bit of confidence that it's a success, we are seeing good momentum in order intake in this, in the past where we are seeing.
We are seeing the EFI collaboration develop as we planned, but most of it is, of course, in the second half, as we told you, and when you look at, and so that works. Overall, the equipment sales in the first half were not great, I would say, due to all these transitions, but when I look at the Q3 and Q4, I'm very confident that we are gonna get where we need to be. Inks, 24% growth, and that reflects also the success of our strategy. I'd like to remind you that we are always moving upmarket with machines consuming more inks, but also we are very successful with the ink swap, and, you know, out of the whole ink swap is probably already a third of it. So it is working, this strategy.
Therefore, it translated indeed in a strong quarter for DPC. Indeed. When we talk about improved manufacturing efficiency, most of it is different, in fact, so it's the future. If you look at the PNL here, what I think is very, very interesting in terms of the transformation of DPC is the gross profit from 24% to 32%. Okay, it's a good quarter, okay? But that shows the direction of travel and the fact that indeed DPS and ZIRFON, when you have inks and ZIRFON increasing, you know, these are good margin products, as it should be.
Operational expenses are also under control, although you see here, it's an investment area, and indeed we have invested a bit, especially in ZIRFON to help explain the growth of the product and a good quarter bottom line. So I'm not gonna repeat what I already said. The only thing that I would add on this slide is really the fact that as we speak, and I have pictures, you know, on my computer of a SpeedSet being installed at Delta, a U.K. customer. It's almost done, the install, when I look at it, and it will be started by the end of September. This is the goal.
In the meantime, clearly, we have a lot of what I would call very hot prospects, people who are ready to close to conclusion in terms of SpeedSet. So in Q4, we'll be in a position to have our first running customer, I would say, for SpeedSet. And that's a very important milestone for us, because as you know, this represents the entry in packaging and therefore represents a significant growth area for us. In the meantime, we continue to be recognized, and that's very good with some of the new products we are putting to market.
I'm not repeating about SpeedSet Orca, because I just mentioned it, but we are seeing the extension, but also on our new range of low to mid-range equipment. So overall, very positive for DPS. Green Hydrogen Solutions. Well, sales increased 60%, but this quarter, we are comparing ourselves with the second quarter of last year. But again, for the year, it's more 30% that we are expecting in terms of growth, so nothing is broken with ZIRFON. The market development, of course, was slower for a number of reasons. First of all, regulatory, the rules of the game were not fully clear for the people having to make final investment decisions.
In some cases, by the way, in some countries, it's still not fully defined, okay? So that delayed a bit some of the activities. We are fully aware of that. But again, we never took it to the bank, right? We were extremely cautious in the way we were planning for DR fund, and therefore, today, we are not surprised by the announcement being made in the market. We already had it in our forecast. This being said, we are also seeing some problems. FIDs are increasing since a few months, and we remain confident that it is going to happen. In the meantime, we are continuing to do manufacturing efficiency improvements. DR fund is already indeed a profitable product.
This being said, it's still a very cash negative aspect, because we are investing in the plan, so let's also remind everyone that. But again, we know about the lull in the market, but we are seeing today the early sign. We are seeing more already for a few months, the early signs of the positive development. Radiology are a totally different story for radiology. So negative sales evolution, the only thing that grows in radiology is DR, and it's mid-single digits, which is kind of okay-ish when I look at the market. But a lot of challenges in film and CR.
CR is declining technology, but in film, and on top of that, as you know, we have totally reorganized our go-to-market in China, and it has an impact when you do that. I mean, we have disciplined the different team, I mean, the our distribution channels, and we are also changing some practices. It has an impact on us, but there is also a market impact as well. The volume decrease in film. That is translated, of course, by profitability, which is negatively impacted by all that. Although we tried to, and you can see the gross profit is almost in line with last year. That you can see it in the P&L, less sales, less gross profit.
We make it up partly with operational expense, but we cannot compensate the full impact of volume. So I repeat, this is also why we are launching this transformation program to significantly reduce our cost base in the film-related activities. I'm not gonna repeat all this. The only thing that I want to add is, you know, the way we do DR today is we believe it's as much an AI play, then it is actually a modernity play. All our innovation is really directed to offering customers a software power of the solutions, and most of them AI-based, in order to differentiate our products. Conops, nothing really to report. I will skip it here, and I'm coming to the outlook.
But the outlook is pretty much a continuation of what we are seeing, actually. We confirm the growth and also further progress in BPC and Healthcare IT. Healthcare IT, with the caveat of the impact of the cloud transition, but overall, all these goes in the right direction for the future. Radiology Solutions, we're not expecting any improvement in the market in the next quarter, though. We are very clear, and the necessity for us to deliver our cost reduction plan to make it up. Working capital, back to normal by the end of the year. All the actions are already in place, and our shifting is that already, is already, by the way, delivered.
As I told you, the last and final payment for the offset disposal is well in progress. I mean, it took time, but finally, the expert has been appointed, and therefore, the process is, I would say, back on track. So of course, I will give you more news as soon as we have a view on that, because I fully understand it is a material amount of cash for us. It is about EUR 30 million. By the way, the full EUR 30 million are not in this week. Part of it is already fully agreed, but a significant part is being discussed.
We expect, as I told you, the expert to give his report by the end of September. Just a word on sustainability. We continue to make progress in terms of CO2 footprint, and we are committing to an objective of reduction that is aligned with Fit for 55 package. We are also joined the Science Based Targets initiative, meaning we will continue this drive in a very committed way, I would say. DEI is also something that is dear to my heart, and we are making specific progress in the area with now very concrete initiatives for our employees.
Gender balance, we have an objective, you know, to basically increase the percentage of females in our workforce. For the time being, we are doing well. We are hiring at a much higher rate than the current ratio, and we continue this program. I would say for us, the next subject is really the compliance with the CSRD. CSRD is a new, as you know, reporting guidelines, which proves to be a bit very comprehensive and it's very complete. That's really what we are working on today in terms of sustainability or roadmap. So I'm gonna stop here, and I will take the questions.
I suggest we take the questions from the room, where we have the analysts from the press and, from the web, I will take the question from the press. Alexander, if you can speak in the microphone so that everyone can hear you.
Hey, good morning. Alexander Kremer from Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe. So on, just on radiology, you mentioned that trends will continue, but actually, your results are up, quite a lot quarter on quarter. Just wondering what you exactly mean in the sense that have we reached now the trough, and that you mean that the level of profitability that we've seen Q2, that we can expect this to remain in H2? Or do we, do you mean that volumes are going to continue to decline and that we have not yet seen the trough in this area? And then the second question would be on DPC. So DPC was under pressure for many quarters.
And you mentioned that now you had a good quarter, but basically, I think the story almost remains the same, which is around inks and ZIRFON. So I'm just wondering what happened in one quarter that is suddenly so positive? And then, is this level of positivity in DPC now driven by CapEx orders, or is it driven by CapEx orders? So, and then maybe the last question would be on the subsidies from Europe. I think there were some subsidies from Europe related to the hydrogen project. I'm just wondering if you could give us an update on the timeline on when-
Oh, sure.
expect the subsidies to be recognized.
Thank you. On radiology, Q1 was a bit impacted, not only by market issues, but quality issues also that we had, which is why the Q1 were, I told you, was not kind of a repeat quarter. This being said, Q2 was a rather good rebound for us in radiology. Going forward, it's not a question of a trough, it's not a cycle, huh? We monitor the market evolution, and we know that the direction of travel in a number of markets is a market decrease. It's not new, by the way. Now, the question is the ramp up and how it does. Then on top of that, which is a bit more complex to analyze for us, is a kind of inventory valuation path.
But let me be clear, it's not a cycle. It will continue to go down over the next quarter, and the pressure will remain absolutely the same. But again, Q1 was an outlier because we had more issues, you know, unrelated to the volume, but with self-inflicted, so to speak. So that's for Healthcare IT. For DPC, you want to comment on... Just before, Vincent will comment, I will, but just, I mean, DPC, no, I think we had a very good Q4 in DPC last year, but it was, the problem with DPC we have, it's a bit lumpy, quarter by quarter, okay? But here, what is different? Frankly speaking, what is different is the margins, you know, the gross margin development, the margins are different. That's different, okay? That's very stable, okay?
What is also different is the equipment, the ink sales are continuing to grow, and that's a good stabilizing factor. Even in the first half, equipment sales were not that great for us, okay? So it shows the resilience on the way forward. Now, will DPC be more regular? That's exactly what I believe so, but you will still continue to see quarterly variations in DPC, because half of DPC is still film, and here we have a little bit more of variation on the PNL on the film path. You want to add on this CapEx orders, OpEx orders, what is driving?
Yeah, I can come back to the several points. So, indeed, I mean, I don't think it's more of the same, absolutely not. If you look two years ago, we had the profitability of three million EBITDA. Last year, we brought it back to 19 million. This year, we will have a double-digit growth in that EBITDA. So, what we will continue to see is that there will be variations from quarter to quarter. I think Q1 to Q2 now was a bit extreme. But indeed, there are always tons of reasons. It's not one reason, it's tons of reasons, both accounting-wise, both the recognition of equipment. The full PNL impact of a single equipment is always taken when we actually install it and have that finally installed.
That's one of the reasons, for instance, that our Q4 is always a very high and good quarter for DPS. So we will always have some of that seasonality, but I'd just like to stress that first of all, the profitability is really increasing of DPC as per plan, and also actually within DPC, we have a lot of different businesses, and it is shifting from the more mature film businesses. The profitability is growing and the growth is going to DPS and ZIRFON, and where that was almost, that was a lot lower two years ago, and it's really, that is taking over. So there is a big shift happening there. OpEx to CapEx, I would say, in Q1, Q2, it's mostly as you have seen, service and inks, so that's more on OpEx related elements.
Pascal mentioned that we're the sales of equipment was okay-ish, but not great. We will actually see from all of our product launches we did in the first half of the year, we will see an effect of that in the second half of the year, and those take time. Typically, when a customer orders, it takes at least two months, but it can easily be four, five, six months before an install is happening, sometimes even longer when the customer is not ready on the side. So, we will see the effect of that in the second half. The effect of our single pass machines and the really big machines, like the SpeedSet, that was always actually as per plan.
We said this year would be our first beta, but we will not even see them on P&L, and we have some ink sales of that, but the machine will be recognized very likely next year. So as of next year, we will see the really big machines, the SpeedSet, coming also into our revenue. Maybe also on the funding, the second question?
Subsidies, yeah.
The subsidy, the European subsidy for ZIRFON, that's an EUR 11 million-ish subsidy. We have EUR 2 million of that this year. The next milestone is about an EUR 8 million milestone. That's the big one, and that should normally happen in the course of next year, but it's also something we do not have fully under our control. We have a timeline to respect. We have a lot of things to deliver to Europe. Our plans will be ready, but then, of course, there is a certain time, and this is months, that the European Commission has to review this and come back with questions. Okay, we target for next year, but we don't have it fully under control a nd then the last million is actually over years after that links to our.
The two million, is it first half or second half?
First half.
First half. Any other questions from the room?
Yes, um-
So, Guy Sips from-
Sips, KBC Securities. I have four questions.
Yep.
First is on the fifty million productivity-
Yeah.
Self-help transformation plan. You told us that you would give more information at the moment of the 3Q results, but I'm gonna make them a moonshot anyway. Can you give some color? Is it back-end loaded or front-end loaded? Are the costs... Yeah. Are there already costs over in 2024? And is it only at the materials level? So, and is it a coincidence that these are 50 million EUR, that is equal or close to your investment in ZIRFON? How should I see this? The second question is on healthcare IT. You were mentioning that on the slide, there was indicated that you're having a 10 million EUR capitalization of a project on top of your R&D investments. Can you give some more color on that one?
And the third question is related to what Alexander was asking on EPC. Is there some FESPA effect as well in this quarter? And the last question is on Aurelius, and you were saying that a significant part of the 30 million euros, is that still under negotiation or is that fixed? I'm not sure on that. And-
Okay.
Can you give some more color on significant? What's-
Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure.
Some more color on... Yeah. And, yeah, to prevent that we are kicking the can down the road, is this now a fixed timeline, that September will be the hearings and the decision and the payment in Q4, or is it still possible that we will kick the can down the road?
Okay.
Thank you.
Thanks. On the EUR 50 million program, no, it's absolutely unrelated to the amount of investment on ZIRFON. Absolutely not. It's not. It's what we believe is achievable in terms of reducing our cost base, and that's a significant reduction of the cost base, if you look at it, with this amount. Is it front-end or back-end loaded? I'm sorry, but for the timing, I can tell you, yes, there will be a significant impact already in 2025.
But some of the measures that we are taking will take time to implement, so it's a bit too early to answer your question, but I can tell you, impact in 2025 will already be significant, but we'll give more guidance a bit on how we see the things developing in this area. To be clear, we are leaving no stone unturned. We are looking at capacity utilization. We are looking at operational excellence. We are looking at management reorganization. We are looking at operating the plant very differently from what we do today and reorganizing the old labor setup, you know, of the company. So it's quite a comprehensive program, and we are touching a number of elements.
To your point, are there any costs already associated with this program? I would say very little. The one cost that I can mention is the fact that we are doing with this program with the help of a consulting firm, but I would qualify the investment as quite modest or extremely modest versus the potential reward. Okay. Does it address- Yeah, you had a follow-up question now, Alexander, on this?
Maybe if I can just follow up on just, I know, like, these are always sensitive matters, structuring, but is there like a minimum cost that you can already give us?
No, it's a bit too early. It's a bit too early. The only thing that I would mention is there will be restructuring, of course. There will be some restructuring. There will be some kind of social impact. But keep in mind here that we have a significant demographic situation in which that should. We are not talking here of a massive layoff plan. We don't need it, actually, with the demographics of the plant. Okay? That's not what we are talking about, okay? Yes, there will be some impact, and by the way, it's not only Belgium, as I told you, it's global. But don't expect a significant you know kind of social layoffs impact. This being said, I prefer, I wanted to give the, the unions are already aware.
We have already engaged in preliminary discussions. Everybody is aware internally, that's why we are also communicating externally to be very clear about our intent. But we need right now, at the stage where we need to work out all, I would say, the implementation plan, and then we will give a specific update in a few months. Capitalization of projects in HealthCare IT, we have, we are accelerating, you know, this transition to the cloud, and therefore, it's a very specific program in which we have actually we are relying on external contractors, you know, it's well identified, and that's really to, I would say to accompany on our cloud transformation. That's really what it's all about, okay?
And I think we were right to do it when I see today the market moving that quickly to the cloud. DPC FESPA effect?
And maybe just bouncing back on one question here that you asked, because somebody else asked me the same question, and I want to make sure there's absolutely no misunderstanding. So the investment we're making in ZIRFON is going on as planned, and we're not stopping anything in that, and it's totally unrelated. This is a one-off CapEx, one-time CapEx versus the 50 million EUR OpEx recurring savings that we want to have per year.
It has nothing to do. Yeah, a bit surprised, huh?
So the total, the two are unrelated, and again, the investment on ZIRFON is absolutely not impacted by that. So just want to stress that. FESPA impact, yes and no. I would say on the P&L, not too much yet, because FESPA was in March. As said, and then, customers at the FESPA show or closely after that, start taking orders, and we did indeed do quite some product launches. But we do see in our order book right now, we do see quite a big effect of that. But that is not yet in our P&L because as I said, we take that in the P&L when actually the machines are installed. So I'm expecting Q3, Q4 to see indeed the benefits of that.
Oil use. Oil use, first question. It's about one-third is agreed, two-thirds is not, is still in discussion, technically today. Can it slip? Well, the thing is, you know, the expert is today the master of the clock, so it's difficult. Normally, there is a time set, you know, in the contract, but that time could be extended if the expert believes it's necessary. So I'm not fully controlling this timing. But this being said, when I say September, it's what the expert indicated to us in terms of deadline. Now, could the process drag further? Normally not, and especially once the expert is rendering his verdict, it starts to be interest bearing, okay? Which has also probably an impact, but is it absolutely ironclad guaranteed in terms of timing? I cannot tell you that. Not fully. Yeah, it's still a bit early days. Laura?
Yes.
Of course, question in the room, yeah.
Laura Roba of Degroof Petercam. Three questions from my side. First, on the Healthcare IT, how should we look at top line growth for the coming quarters? I understand that with the recurring revenue contract, your domestic are not in place. But so my question is: When do you think it will translate into revenue growth? Second question, on DTC. I understood that there will still be variability, but you still expect Q4 to be the strong quarter of the year. And then on ZIRFON, yeah, you mentioned that the market development has been growing slower than what you expected initially, but that this was taken into account. Do you already have a view on when you think that this will accelerate?
All excellent questions. On Healthcare IT, well, the trend we are looking at revenue will continue in Q3. Probably less in Q4, it's gonna be higher, right? That's our current plan, Nathalie, who's leading this business. Right, Nathalie? Now any comment on the transition to cloud and the impact on the top line? If you want to speak in the mic. Thank you.
So as Pascal mentioned, a detail that is relevant with your question is that the length of the contract, the cloud contracts are much longer. So we're looking at seven, 10, even 15 years. With that, the revenue is spread over that length of time. As we are acquiring more volume of cloud, you know, it is important we do it fast, and that's how we should see our revenue growing in the recurring space. So I think we should see a decline, as we mentioned, and, you know, but then followed by a trend up within the time frame.
We are just at the start of the cloud transition. Our first cloud implementation is forecasted for Q4-
Right.
Beginning of Q4, and therefore, it's just the start. The more we have done, I think you notice that we try to give you more transparency every time, you know? Now we tell you, not only what is the order intake, but how much is cloud, how much is project and recurring, how much is licensing. I mean, we are sharing more and more information in this. We will continue to do so, and we'll try to guide you as best as we can on the impact on the cloud transition. But there are still a lot of moving parts right now, so bear with us. We'll do it. But again, the momentum is here, and the train has left the station.
DPC, your question on DPC is about Q4, Q4. But, yes, we're expecting a rise from Q4, right? I don't know why, but I keep asking my teams, but we install an astounding amount of machines, you know, between Christmas and New Year's Eve, okay? And I'm wondering why these technicians, you know, are happy spending their holiday season doing that, but this is the reality of the market, no?
Yes, Laura, we are indeed expecting for DPS, for the equipment side, as every year, a higher Q4. That being said, on all of DPC, we will probably see some higher impact, cost impacts of silver in the second half of the year. So just like you, we don't like variability, so we are trying very hard to actually get Q3 and Q4 more in line than not having, you know, one down and one up. At this stage, I'm actually expecting that both will be in the same ballpark, that we'll not have one down and one up. But for DPS, specifically on the equipment side, yes, that will-
Yeah
... be the highest quarter.
By far.
Yeah.
Okay, so DPC Q4 is done, and so for different, I think we already said a lot. What we can probably say is next year, we are still expecting a similar growth as what we've seen this year in our plan, and between about 30% on-
That's what we expect today, yes.
Yeah. That's what we expect today. So you see, we don't. We are not over-optimistic on the effort. We try to be very realistic, actually. But we keep. When I look at the number of offers, of commercial offers that we are making, it continues to go up at a very fast pace, actually, right? Any more comments, Pascal, on this?
No, no, I think it's correct what you said.
So I understand, you know, there were probably, like in any market, you know, at the beginning, there were probably higher expectations in the market. Because when you look at the number of projects of the effort that exist today, you're close to almost a thousand gigawatts, okay? However, today, we deliver the equivalent of what, one point five to two?
Maybe two, yes.
Maybe two, okay, per year. So you see where we are versus the profile of the project. We will look for all the pipelines of our customers, but again, as we told you, we take a significant cut to the impact. And we never believed that, you know, we would go this year to five or six gigawatts per year. Absolutely not. And actually, today, we are pretty much on plan. Any other questions? Ian and Ben, okay? If you don't mind.
One follow-up question on the outlook statement.
Yes.
The outlook statement is, a lot of companies can take an example on that, but it's rather qualitative, so can we-
Yeah
... make it a little bit quantitative? I'm just gonna ask the question, the consensus of the analysts of the reading for this year is EUR 13 million. Are you comfortable with that?
I'm okay with that. Yeah, I think it's a good way to put it. We don't give qualitative guidance, but quantitative guidance. But indeed, we look at the consensus for the year, and when I see what you have, it's...
Thank you.
Ben, uh.
Yeah, thank you. Most of my questions were already asked by the room, so thanks.
... Just one short follow-up, maybe on Aurelius. I was wondering if you could shed some light on or elaborate a bit on what the discussion precisely is about, because it's still pretty unclear to me on like, like, can you maybe, like, give an indication of what the fork is between what you are asking and what they are offering? Something like that, just-
Yeah.
Something more.
If we understand your question, well, you have very objective elements, you know, like the adjustment for the working capital. It's not a discussion, okay, but then you have elements that are a bit more complex to apprehend, especially when it comes to liabilities of the business or what is in, what is out, okay? That's more about these elements that are not like fully fact-based, but are based on assessment, you know. According to practice, there is a very clear practice for the assessment of some of these items that there might always have disagreeing views, okay, but I feel good because I would like to remind everyone that this closing statement and the final price determination was audited by KPMG, okay, and that they confirmed basically our view.
So today, it's a new expert, but it's been looked at by what I believe is a pretty serious audit firm. So we're not starting from scratch in this process. But to your question, some elements are more an appreciation based on commonly accepted practice. Not everything is mathematics, so to speak. Any other question? Okay.
There are no questions raised by participants on the phone, so I hand back to you, Mr. Juéry, to conclude.
Thank you very much. Okay, again, what I believe is a solid quarter and validating the positioning we have on our three growth engines, momentum in order intake and cloud transition for Healthcare IT, momentum in DPS, ZIRFON business that is improving quarter after quarter, even if it's not like the explosive growth so that we would like to see, it's still delivering very solidly. A challenge in the film-related area that we are addressing through a self-help program that is one of the clear management priorities for the rest of the year. And last but not least, a cash situation that will be similar as last year.
I mean, a strong build-up of working capital in the second half and a strong decrease in the first half, and a strong decrease in the second half to come back to the level of 27%. So overall, we'll see you at Q3. We'll give you more details on the transformation plan, and we'll continue to also explain as much as we can the cloud transition impact on HCIT. So thanks a lot for your attention. Thank you.
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