Hello, and welcome to the Agfa Q1 2022 results call. My name is Jess, and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. For the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, there will be the opportunity to ask questions. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question at any time. If at any point you require assistance, please press star zero, and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand over to your host, Pascal Juéry, CEO, to begin today's call. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Agfa Q1 earnings call. I'm sitting here in Mortsel with Dirk De Man, our CFO, Viviane Dictus in charge of Investor Relations, and the rest of the executive team of Agfa. If we look at Q1, what are the key highlights? I would like to comment. First, the level of demand overall for the group is still very satisfactory, and that translate into a good top-line performance, not only for Offset but Digital Print & C hemicals. Overall in our markets, except specific pockets, where we have a bit of disturbance from either a lockdown in China, supply chain issues, or other issues like the Ukraine-Russia situation.
The overall level of demand is rather satisfactory for us. As you know, we are living through a very important inflationary context and, if anything, in 2022 inflation has accelerated compared to 2021, as we all know. In this context, we have been able to remain quite resilient in terms of gross profit margins, and we have been busy increasing prices in pretty much every line of our businesses. This translates on EBITDA with an increase of 22%, despite this pressure and also despite some disturbance in the supply chain that hit us in Q1 and probably will continue to be a factor in Q2. In the meantime, we are continuing our transformation.
We are now in the execution phase of the IT outsourcing and partnership with Atos. Our key personnel is already transferred, I would say, in Europe. As well, we have announced a new initiative in the reorganization of our financial services, and that we will be implementing over the next months. The one area that I want to stress as well is indeed, during Q1, we had a surge of working capital and especially inventory that was a bit higher than normal, I would say. We will explain that. My message to you is, it's gonna get back under control by the end of the year, for sure.
We have specific reasons for which we see this spike in working capital, and we are already, I would say, in matching order to reduce it to a more normal level. Dirk De Man will explain this. If I look at the numbers here in the P&L, what we are looking at indeed is a top-line growth of 7.2%. Actually currency was favorable during this quarter. This top-line growth is also translated into gross profit. However, half a percentage point less than last year. I would argue this is pretty resilient given the inflation that we are going through. Indeed it's a slight margin decrease. SG&A, selling, general, and administrative expenses.
You see, a significant increase here for three reasons. First, we have selling expenses. We have the freight to customers in this area, and I would argue this is a variable cost that increases with the level of activity, and as well, this is a result of specific inflation in this area. Second, currency is unfavorable on the cost side and due to the weakening of the euro. Third, this is impact of inflation. In percentage of sales, it doesn't move so much, but it does create a significant increase overall on SG&A. R&D is stable, and therefore we are able to post a significant increase of EBITDA compared to last year, and indeed, a much better EBIT.
Now, if I look below EBIT, of course, we still have a restructuring and non-recurring charge which is in fact the cost of the transformation of the group, which is significant. We will also come back to that in the outlook to give you a yearly outlook for this transformation cost. Now if we move on and explain a bit more the performance, of course, we will, as you know, it's quite contrasted in a way. On top line, very good performance of Offset and DPC. You will see it later, but Offset is price related and DPC is activity related mainly.
There is a bit of price on DPC of course as well, but it's also activity and volume related. As expected, you all remember we had a record quarter in Q4 for HealthCare IT, so we are a more subdued quarter for Q1, but that was I would say planned and I'm not changing the outlook for this business at all. Radiology, we had a good growth in DR, and we had a bit of a situation in the medical film, especially in China, in terms of volume and mix, we were a bit hit in terms of volume for the first quarter, especially in China. Indeed we had a mix that was not favorable.
I would say that first the first quarter for Radiology is always a weaker quarter. This quarter is in line with last year, and we're expecting this medical film business to pick up as soon as Q2. There is no significant price issue. It's more a mix issue that we have seen in Q1. Price actions are in progress everywhere with satisfactory results. Overall, it translates into what I would call a resilient gross profit margin at 29%. We are not getting ahead except in Offset, but we are able to manage the inflation that we see.
Offset, clearly we are turning the corner, is the word that I would use after we had price increase number four at the beginning of the year. We're implementing, as I speak, price increase number five. You see that in Q1 we have started to regain the lost ground in terms of margin. I would argue that Offset is a bit ahead of the curve compared to other businesses in Agfa. HealthCare IT, Radiology Solutions, significant cost inflation as well. For Radiology, it's more mix effects that is impacting the gross margin. For HealthCare IT, at the same time, we do have a cost inflation, but we are also investing in our capacity to deliver our services.
DPC as well is impacted by cost increases and the overall mix impact within the division. Overall, that translates into a 22% increase in this quite difficult context. Now I'm gonna turn to free cash flow and leave it to Dirk De Man to explain to you the components.
Yeah. Thank you, Pascal. Overall, as you can see, quite a negative free cash flow for the quarter, despite a better profitability but also strong and normal performance, let's say, on CapEx provisions income, taxes, also pensions. We start seeing the effects of the reduction of cash outflow, thanks to the restructuring actions that we took over the past year and a half. The key story here is the trade working capital, where, as you can see, EUR 54 million of buildup versus December is quite significant, and I'll get back to that in a couple of slides when we talk about working capital.
If we move to the next slide, in terms of our cash position, we still have a very strong net cash position, although indeed it decreased primarily due to the working capital impact. Maybe to note also that impact there visible is also the share buyback, which was in the amount of around EUR 8 million in the first quarter. Let's move to the next slide on working capital. Indeed, we are, let's say, back to a 28% of sales in working capital. The key impact is driven by inventories.
Normally, in the pre-COVID period, Agfa always has had a seasonal buildup in Q1, despite the fact that last year we actually had a decline in inventories because we were building down the excess stock after the COVID demand shock that we had built up. It is normal to have that buildup, but in this year, it actually is a bit higher than we would want to. First key reason obviously is inflation. All the costs to make products have increased, not just the key raw materials like aluminum and silver, but everything is increasing. Indeed also the supply chain disruption that we continue to see, and that's a combination of two things.
On the one hand, we have the true transport disruptions that cause more goods to be on the water for a longer period of time, so goods in transit are increasing. On top also, supply chain delays, which means that sometimes we need to wait for certain components before we can complete equipment and deliver it to our customers. Overall, I think it is indeed an increase. It is normal considering the circumstances. Also receivables are increasing, but that's more driven primarily by activity. I'm pretty sure this will also normalize a bit more over the next quarters. We will continue to do what we usually do, is focus very hard on managing those levels over the year and trying to find ways to mitigate the increase in working capital.
No, thanks a lot, Dirk. Indeed, an increase that makes this quarter not a good quarter on cash, but we will work that out. This is a combination of seasonality, inflation, and supply chain disruptions. It's been a focus for us in terms of minimizing working capital as much as possible. We'll continue to have this focus and I'm sure at the end of the year we're gonna be back to a more normal situation here. Now if we turn to the business and let's start with HealthCare IT. Again, a kind of quarter that comes after a record quarter in terms of revenue recognition and especially bottom line.
A more quieter quarter here. You see stability of sales. You see a gross margin still at a very healthy level. You see the impact in SG&A of not only inflation but our move to rebuild some of the capacity in order to be able to address what we believe will be a growing business and growing demand. As well, that translate therefore in an Adjusted EBITDA that is below last year. Once again, I would tell you that you shouldn't look at this business on an isolated quarter basis.
I stand by the outlook for this year meaning indeed a kind of a consolidation year with a profit that's gonna be an EBITDA that's gonna be comparable to last year. But we have the ambition to turn now this business to profitable growth. This is also the reason why we are reinvesting in some of our capacity. Good news as well, we have a very healthy order intake in Q1. Actually increasing order intake, which is a very good sign, and order book is still staying at a very, very healthy level and above last year. Nothing is broken. It's just, as you know, we have different patterns for revenue recognition of our projects. But overall nothing has changed on this business, Radiology Solutions.
Overall, you know, when we compare to last year, it's pretty much in line. Although the performance is a bit different within the division, it's really in line. If you have the same pattern as in the rest of the group, rather resilient in terms of gross profit, quite stable outside currency in terms of top line, resilient in gross profit. We did lose a bit of margin points, but this is due mainly to a mix effect in the film geographies, actually in Q1. Same comment on SG&A, that's inflation, this is shipping, and this is currency.
Overall, there is no drift in the way we are managing our costs and a performance that is very close to the one of last year. Now, in film, let me say it, and Q1 is a seasonally weaker quarter. Again, I don't think there is a price issue. We are increasing prices as I speak in the film. I am not claiming that everything is fully implemented, but so far I will say we are seeing good progress. We do not have so much a pricing issue than a mix issue during Q1 that we expect to correct in the next quarters. Overall for the year, I expect Radiology to be broadly in line with last year. I'm not expecting any deterioration here.
India, we had a rather good quarter in terms of sales, but the market of India is still quite volatile in terms of order intake. Overall, I repeat, first quarter weaker, but just like last year, we picked up in Q2, Q3, with Q4, and I would expect it to be the same this year. There is one caveat, one question on the demand for the medical field, and that's China. Indeed, if we have major lockdowns in China, that might impact the market demand. For the time being, it's not so much the case, even with the Shanghai lockdown. If Beijing, for instance, would go into a lockdown, we would start seeing probably the impact on the market demand, but that's not yet the case today, I have to say. DPC.
DPC, so very good performance, top line, but unfortunately not translating fully into bottom line. Indeed, in terms of inflation, in most of our activities, we are able to increase prices, but not in all of them. We still have work to do in order to translate the higher costs into higher prices in some areas. Same phenomenon that you see in the SG&A, especially across the board, shipping, currency, and inflation. Now, if you look a bit more in detail, in fact, we are quite happy with the development of the digital print business. Our specialty technical range like ORGACON for hybrid vehicles and ZIRFON membranes are doing extremely well.
PET film is the one that does not go so well, volume and price. Volume, because basically we are hit by the China situation today in terms of disruption and COVID. And price, so this is probably where we lag a bit in terms of putting prices up effectively, but we're working on it. Overall, well-oriented businesses, but the weight of inflation during Q1, we are still positive for the outlook for the year. The top line, that's for sure, but even the bottom line, we maintain that we are going to grow the bottom line of the business for the full 2022.
Now, Offset, rather, I would qualify it as a good quarter, given what we have been going through for the past couple of years in Offset. When you look at sales +11.6%, 7.6% outside currency, all of it is price and mix. We are, our units are fully utilized, so the lever for us is really to target sales in high margin markets, so in higher margin segments and increasing prices. You see that we have turned that corner and we remember that Offset was the first being hit by the wave of inflation, and it took a bit of time for us to review our contractual arrangement. This is done, and now we can see the first results.
We're increasing gross margin in percentage and in absolute terms as well. Overall, that creates, I would say, a good momentum in terms of profitability of the business. It's been a while since we have not seen such a quarter. We expect this to continue. By the way, price action number five is in May, that will continue to support the level of the business. Happy with the price development, happy with the turnaround in business. This is not the end of the road. The goal is not to generate 4% EBITDA in this business.
I sincerely believe that this is an industry that needs to deliver at least double-digit EBITDA level, and we will continue our price actions in order to get to that, to this level. This is clearly our objective. This is not the end of the road, but at least it's a good milestone that was reached towards this goal. Now, if we look at the outlook, that indeed I would say it's almost mathematical. The inflation, the full impact of the cost inflation is coming in Q2, in Q2 this year. On top of that, as you know, we navigate volatile or uncertain climate when it comes to China.
The economic slowdown in China and the lockdowns are here, and it has an impact. The Ukraine Russia situation. Russia sales for the group are less than 2.5%. Of course, some of our businesses have been already impacted or stopped, of course, due to the situation. We are doing additional price actions to continue to tackle the cost inflation. That's pretty much in place across businesses.
Therefore, if I'm assuming that the current level of demand is remaining at the current level, meaning no deterioration of the overall market demand and economy, then we believe that the second half of 2022 will be better than the first half due to the additional action that will come into effect for the group. We will work on the working capital improvement, and we will get it back to a more normal level. That's for me a given. If you remember, I mean, it has been a pattern that we had always. During the first half, we run our production units pretty full. During the second half, adjusting production according to demand, and we will do that once again.
In the meantime, all the ongoing transformation actions that we are undertaking will bring some results starting in 2023, and 2022 is really the year of implementation and cost. Which is why, I will now turn to Dirk again for him to give us an outlook on what you need to expect in terms of non-recurring and restructuring charge for 2022, the full year, and other consideration on the balance sheet of the group that we'd like to share with you.
Yeah. Thank you, Pascal. I just wanted to give you some perspectives, financial guidance. First one may be minor, but in terms of cash out for taxes, we estimated in 2022 to be below EUR 10 million, so in the range of EUR 8 million-EUR 10 million. Restructuring and non-recurring. This will be a heavy year. Our estimate at this point in time is around EUR 55 million.
The key element of the program will be the continuation of the ICS transformation, indeed also the recently announced transformation in finance, but also the continuation of the standalone setting of the Offset division and different efficiency programs that we have in the different divisions, primarily in Offset and Radiology. Thirdly, I would like to give maybe an update on the pension side because we've gotten some feedback from our actuaries around discount rates, and I know this is an important topic also in the press and in the markets in general with increasing interest rates. At this point in time, we estimate our weighted average discount rate to be at 2.25%, which is an increase versus the 1.42% we had back in December.
We did a quick estimate on what that impact would be on the net liability, so not the gross, but the net liabilities. We think at this point in time, it would be around EUR 100 million improvement in our net position. This is focused on the material countries. As you may recall from the previous session we had, the material countries was around EUR 617 million, so that would reduce it to EUR 517 million. Now, obviously, this comes with a lot of caveats. This is a quick estimate. It excludes any other FX going forward. Again, impacts like FX exchange, asset return, and all the other actuarial assumptions that have not been updated.
I just wanted to share at least an impact analysis that we did quickly to give you some guidance on that. That's it from my side.
Thank you. If I move forward, last but not least, a word on sustainability.
Yes.
As you know, we have embarked into a specific roadmap detailing specific sustainable development actions that we are committed to. The first one is around safety at work, and I'm happy to report a 56% reduction of the number of accidents with minimum one day lost in the first quarter. We have renewed, I would say, our focus on safety, and we are rolling out a number of programs, behavior-based safety, in order to make Agfa a safe place to work. It works out. Actually, we are doing better than in the first quarter than our roadmap, but the overall direction of travel is really this one. We are launching a full diversity and inclusion initiative.
We have translated that for the time being as a gender equality drive, in which we want to increase the representation of women across the company and, more specifically as well in the leadership of the company. We have given us a goal on the number of women that we are now hiring, trying to increase this and come as soon as possible to full gender parity. Last but not least, we are also very active in CO2 emission reduction actions.
Actually, if I look what we have in place for this year in terms of actions, we'll probably be totally in line or more with the Paris Agreement to decrease absolute emissions by a few percent through diverse set of actions. For instance, in Belgium today, we are buying 100% renewable electricity. That's one of the actions we are taking, not the only one. We are busy working on a CO2 reduction roadmap, you know, with the ambition, of course, to have a long-term view and further decrease CO2 emissions. We were recognized by EcoVadis last year. We will continue to work on it and try to improve our ranking as we go. Sustainability is extremely important.
The sustainable development programs are considered as important as the economic results of the group, and we are truly committed to make it happen. Sustainability is good for the business. At the end of the day, this is what we need also to win in our markets. In a nutshell, a quarter that is still marked very much by an extraordinary inflation impact that we are busy working out. A good level of demand and overall, the outlook for the year remains for me positive.
It's gonna be a year of progress for the group, even if the first half is probably a bit impacted by the need to eliminate all inflation impacts. I'm gonna stop there and take your questions. Questions from the analysts are the ones that we will take. Operator, back to you.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please ensure your line is unmuted locally as you will be advised when to ask your question. The first question comes from the line of Kris Kippers from Degroof Petercam. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Kris Kippers from Degroof Petercam. A couple of questions from my side. Firstly, thank you very much for the insights on the pension liabilities. I think indeed it was a nice request for the market, so very clear on that side. Firstly, on Radiology, you mentioned in your press release. Hello?
Yes.
You mentioned your press release on Radiology. Of course, there seems to be no pricing issue. You are adapting. On the other hand, you say indeed Q2 should be quite well, but our Radiology needs to become more agile. Could you share with us what this in reality means, this agility? What are you missing? Or is it just a temporary setback with clients on the one hand who are postponing decisions and on the other hand some hiccups, of course, which is logical in China, I would guess, on the other markets. Thank you.
Okay. Well, for the pension, thank you for the comment. Indeed, we thought it was important to give you this perspective because we live in a world that is rapidly changing in terms of these countries and indeed, it's important. For Radiology, I'm not sure I fully understand your question, actually, Kris. Again, I repeat, for the film, we have increased or are increasing prices in pretty much I would say all regions. We cannot do it in China, but we are actually seeing a price increase from the currency appreciation in China, so we are not really being impacted by margins in China.
What hit us a bit in Q1 is, first, it's always Q1 is a lower volume quarter for us, and you see it. Second, we had a wrong mix, so to speak, a wrong geographical mix during the first quarter that impacted a bit. We sold more in lower margin regions than we sold to higher margin regions. It's a mix issue that will correct itself in the next quarters. Now, as I'm not sure I understood fully your question, if you have a follow-up, you can take it now.
Yes. Just regarding. If you look at the press release, what you mentioned in Direct Radiography, there you state literally, "We are taking actions to increase our agility." I was just wondering what that implies.
Yeah, that's not for film, that's for DR.
No, correct.
That's for DR.
Indeed. Indeed.
As I said, we had kind of a double-digit sales increase for Q1. we are still working on the way to indeed get this business at scale and therefore yes, agility. it's related to DR.
Okay. Second question would be coming, a question for Dirk on the working capital. If you look, indeed, of course, we all anticipated some higher working capital, which is logical. But if you would exclude the normal level of inventory that you have in your company, and you would exclude the pricing effect of that, how much is linked indeed then to the slower evolution of the sourcing and hiccups in the supply chain as such?
Yeah.
Is it possible to split it up?
Well, it's impossible to split it up, but a good proxy is you look in the inventory in the number of days, okay? You will see in the year we have increased by approximately, I would say about 10 days, more of inventory. Actually, not even that, seven days compared to the end of Q1 2021. You see that in number of days, we are not holding a lot more inventory than before, although we are impacted by supply chain disruptions, as described very well by Dirk. In fact, you know, take as an example Offset. Aluminum has doubled in a year. Doubled the price. And aluminum is probably half the cost of making a digital plate.
It means, all of a sudden, your cost in your inventory has increased tremendously, the unit cost of Offset. It's a combination indeed of cost inflation. It's a combination of the supply chain disruptions. You see seven days more, a week more of inventory compared to last year. It's not like we are changing totally the way we are running the company. We are stressed by the supply chain. There is also the impact of this cost. If you allow me to go one step further, when you look at the cost of inventory, you look at the cost of inventory now, and when you do the ratio on sales, you do last 12 months. Last 12 months, that was also before the corresponding price increase.
You have, in percentage of sales, a time where indeed it's gonna increase. But again, on working capital, I don't think anything is broken. I think we had a higher quarter than expected, but we know what to do in order to get it back where it should be.
Okay, very clear. Now just a last question, coming back on Offset. You see a nice drop again in SG&A. What will be a run rate of SG&A going forward on an annual basis with the restructurings that you've done? Could you give an idea on that?
Wow. On the reduction of SG&A, no, I'm not gonna get there and guide specifically on this, huh.
It's going to improve further, I guess?
Well, we are always looking at cost action. Yes, indeed, yes, we will continue to do things in cost and especially in Offset. We are not at the end of what we need to do. The team is doing it quite efficiently.
All right. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from the line of Guy Sips from KBC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. I have three clarification questions. First is on the pension. I presume the calculation you made was at the end of the quarter. Second question is on the restructuring costs. Will that be more back-end loaded in the year, so more of the cost will come in the fourth quarter? On the working capital, is it fair to say that it first will become worse before it becomes better, so that the second quarter will also be heavily impacted by this working capital impact as you just explained on the raw material prices as well?
Thanks, Guy. On the pensions indeed, we took the situation, also the asset valuation at the end of Q1, indeed that was the Q1 situation. On the restructuring, it will be moving forward over the different quarters. Indeed, we did announce like the financial restructuring in Q2. We're actually still into a social process, so we don't know the end conclusion. I'm pretty sure we will take provisions in Q2 already, but some will come later in the year. I would say it's maybe a bit spread over the different quarters. And sorry, on the working capital.
On the working capital at the end of Q2, actually I.
I do expect that normally we see seasonality where also Q2 is still an increase versus Q1. I indeed think we'll have a continuation still in Q2, but that is also a more normal seasonality. One of the points to think about this is that actually in Q3 out of the three months there's actually with the vacations and shutdowns and plants, maybe only two months of production. In Q4 also, during the first six months we're actually producing more, in the second half we're producing less. That's also one of the reasons why you have that kind of seasonality building up. Indeed a bit worse, but not drastically.
Indeed, we are still committed to, we went, we ended up the year at 26%.
You know, going forward, we believe that we can go below this in terms of percentage of sales, and we have the plans in order to do that. It's a temporary pickup that we are seeing right now, which is more seasonal than usual 'cause it's compounded by all the supply chain issues and the cost inflation. We're gonna work that out.
Okay. Crystal clear. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Maxime Stranart from ING Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. Two on my end. First of all, on Radiology, the quarter was indeed in line with last year, but if I recall correctly, the one of last year was abnormally weak given the change in procurement process in China. Just to have a view on what is the, let's say, new normal for Radiology. Is it something that will recur now every year, such a weak quarter, although you see some improvement going forward? Secondly, on Offset, you mentioned that you would target a double-digit EBITDA margin level at some point in time. Could you shed some light on the building blocks to arrive there and maybe a time schedule so that we can track the improvement over there? That would be all for me. Thank you.
All right. In Radiology, yes, indeed, it's a repeat of a weaker quarter, first quarter. Yes, I think this is a new pattern that we are seeing. Actually we have a weaker quarter in Q1 and Q2, Q3, Q4 are rather at the same level and at a higher volume. Well, it's difficult for me to explain. This is the way the business works. Indeed this is what we are seeing. I don't know how to comment further. Regarding Offset, yes, what I'm saying is, you know, basically we are now EBIT positive, but we are still at an EBITDA margin that is extremely, I would say, low.
Indeed, my goal is to bring in as soon as possible above 10%. Now, the way to do it, price. I mean, that's clearly the first and foremost lever. Apart from that, we have a bit of self-help measures continuing to do what we've been doing, meaning reviewing our go-to- market. We still have a bit of a negative impact of Ipag sa, the Spanish subsidiary that we are shutting down, that will start. We have a few things we still need to do, but the main short-term lever to increase the profitability is to continue to put prices up, and this is what we are doing in May, and we'll review also our next actions.
Now, in terms of timing, I would like to tell you as soon as possible. Again, I'm not gonna give guidance on this, but as soon as possible we need to get it up, and this is really what we want to do with the team.
Very clear. Thank you for that. That's all for me.
The next question comes from the line of Alexander Craeymeersch from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes, hello. Do you hear me?
Very well, Alexander.
Okay, fantastic.
Very well.
Hi. I had two questions. One was also on the pension liability. It's nice that you mention it. Just two on that. One, the pension liability that you say net pension liability. That means that you already took into account the return year to date of the assets. Second, on the pension liabilities, is it correct that it hasn't still been adjusted on the balance sheet? Because I still see that the remeasurements on the balance sheet didn't change.
No.
Two questions.
If I can quickly. Normally, and that's why I gave the update as an outlook point, right? Because
Yeah.
Normally we do the update once a year, and we do that at year-end, and it's a very intensive exercise with the actuaries. It takes a lot of time, it costs money, and normally we do it at year-end as we usually, many companies would do. Now, given the context we are in, and also I know that analysts would appreciate that kind of information, we did a quick estimate based indeed on the asset base also of Q1, what the impact would be net overall, of the discount rate increase. It is an estimate, and again, it only takes into account discount rates and nothing else.
It's not an accounting grade quality estimate, but it gives a good indication towards the, let's say, overall sensitivity that we have on the net impact on our pension liabilities. Sorry, and-
Okay.
The second question was?
Yeah, no, you answered both.
I answered.
The second question that I had was on digital printing. Could you confirm the closing of the acquisition that you recently did? Do you still aim for mid-teen EBITDA margins on this segment? Or do we take the last quarter a little bit more as
Closing, yes, we will close by the end of Q2. We still have. We are trying to rush it to close as soon as possible. Yeah, I mean, we are confirming what we say for DPC. Yes, absolutely. I stand by it. By the way, you know, I was at Inca myself 10 days ago. Just you know, coming back on the Inca story, so one existing line already in the market, on which we're gonna plug our services and inks as soon as possible and as soon as we close. Even now we are preparing this, and that's enough to justify the deal. Now, the two other machines, you know, during the call we probably used the wrong wording.
These are not R&D projects. These are machines that are running. I've seen the machines running. There is one that is being built right now as a beta machine that in a few months will go to a customer, and we have the choice, I would say. A lot of people are eager to test it. The partnership machine with BHS is existing, it's working, and it's about to be shipped in a matter of a few weeks. These are not R&D projects. These are projects in the final stage of hitting the market. As in six months, both machines will be actually working at a customer site. Just wanted to make this point. Yes, we are standing by it.
Yeah. All right. Thank you very much. That's it. That was it from my side.
All right. If no other question, we are gonna stop here. Thanks very much, everyone. I wish you a good day. Again, thanks for attending the call today. Thanks.
Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your lines.