Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Alstom Q3 orders and sales conference call. At any time during the presentation, you can press star one to ask your question. This conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to hand the call over to Laurent Martinez. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Happy New Year to all of you. It is still time. Welcome to our Alstom webcast dedicated to our Q3 for the fiscal year 2022, 2023, which is focused on orders and sales. Starting with the order intake, we saw continued good commercial performance during the first Q3 with order at €5.2 billion. This quarter has been marked by the exercise of option on a frame agreement in Spain, Ireland, also in Kazakhstan for locomotive, and as well the completion of the Elizabeth line in London, which enable us to book the associated service contract for more than EUR 1 billion, leading to EUR 5 billion of services orders over nine months.
All together, order intake is at EUR 15.2 billion year-to-date, with a book-to-bill at 1.2, which brings our backlog to around EUR 85 billion with a negative Forex effect over the quarters due to EUR appreciation. Overall, I am very satisfied by the quality of this order intake. Margin on orders continues to largely exceed our margin trading in the P&L, fully consistent with our midterm objective, both in terms of margin and cash. As a result, our margin in backlog is improving, supporting our trajectories of profitable growth. Looking at some of our commercial successes on this slide with nice pictures.
First, with a strong H1, on Coradia Stream platform, happy to see new orders in Spain with Renfe adding 49 on the backlog on this very successful platform, which is now exceeding 900 trains ordered. We have seen as well a number of option on frame agreement, Kazakhstan, locomotive, Irish Rail. This highlights obviously the quality of our long-lasting relationship with our customers and as well provides increased industrial visibility on product which has been already developed. Second, you see a continuous positive trend I was explaining before on bundle offers, rolling stock, and services. Again, Kazakhstan and Delhi Metro with services commitment over the full life cycle of the product. Turning to sales. 9 months year-to-date, sales increased 8% against last year and 6% organic.
We recorded EUR 4.2 billion in this quarters, 5% up compared to the Q2s. We've seen in particular positive development on our rolling stock activities during Q3, with sales growth accelerating +5% year-on-year in the Q3 from +2% in H1, resulting altogether, as you see on the slide, by 3% increase over 9 months. I remind as well that rolling stock activities reflected as well in our system sales, with around half of the system growth which are linked to rolling stock activities. Looking at the other product line, equally successful system momentum, year-to-date remains extremely positive. As you see, +29% thanks to Cairo Monorail and Canada ramp-up. Services increase remains extremely solid, 15% year-on-year. Signaling continue on a steady growth as well.
Overall, execution is progressing well in line with our trajectory. Moving to next slide illustrating on a couple of project milestone in the last quarters, starting with the U.S., where we successfully delivered an extension of 2.5 mile on the PHX Sky Train, our Automated People Mover system. In Netherlands, we successfully concluded numbers of tests demonstrating for the first time a full autonomy driving on shunting locomotive. In Greece, we completed the infrastructure work for all of the 6 station to the extension of the third line of the metro in Athens. Turning to Egypt, which in very important countries for Alstom, as successfully delivered signaling control system for Cairo third line of metro.
In the UK, the flagship completion of the Elizabeth line in London during this quarters, following the final acceptance of the system and the last trains. To conclude, let me highlight a few messages. Number one, our delivery is on track. We have a positive ramp-up in rolling stock and a continuous good performance on signaling services and system supporting our trajectories. Second, the demand momentum is dynamic. Our pipeline is strong, and I do confirm the EUR 190 billion of opportunities in the next 3 years based on our latest commercial plan. Ridership is back, as to a pre-COVID level in many countries, and government funding are confirmed and unfolding, supported by stimulus packages and as well, of course, focus from public decision makers on fleet replacement and green transportation transition.
Third, we continue to expand our backlog, focusing on quality orders consistent with our midterm profit and cash target. Finally, our business model is resilient, and we are laser-focused on managing external headwinds. Supply chain risks is including electronic components are under control. Related to inflation, salary negotiation in our 70 countries are starting as expected, while pressure is reducing on energy and raw materials as expected. Based on this, we confirm our outlook for this fiscal year and our midterm target, specifically for this year. Order intake confirmed at a book-to-bill above 1. Sales growth consistent with midterm guidance. Adjusted EBIT between 5.1%-5.3% and Free Cash Flow between +EUR 100 million and +EUR 300 million.
Just a remark on this slide, for agenda and practicality reason, we have decided to include ESG topic into our Investor Day on May 10 instead of having a separate date in March. You will see on next slide our investor relation timetable for this calendar years with notably all conferences where we intend to participate for your reference, and I will be glad to meet you as well. Thank you for listening in on this introduction. With this, back to you, operators, proceeding to the Q&A section. Thank you. We have a small technical issue that we need to fix, so bear with us. The operators will be back soon.T hat's clear, thank you.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question on today's call, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our first question today comes from Jonathan Tang of Credit Suisse. Please go ahead
Hi. Thank you very much for taking my question. I've got two. The first one is in terms of the demand, have you seen any signs of changes in customer activity and planning? I do appreciate that you mentioned many of your customer has been confirming or government has been confirming plans, but if you could elaborate a little bit there for us, that'll be great. Do we expect to see any order growth slow down in fiscal year 2023 and 2024? 'cause given you mentioned a big chunk of your service order growth is coming from the TFL long-term contract recognition. In particular, how should we expect service growth in this fiscal year and the next, please?
Thanks, Kevin, for your question. Number one, on your global question in, on demand, I do confirm that the demand is extremely positive. A couple of trend on these matters. Number one, as I say, ridership is resuming to post-COVID-19 level with an exception in the U.S., and we had some record level of ridership in Europe in this summer, for instance. There is obviously a number of stimulus packages which are unfolding in Europe, in U.S., in Australia, to name a few countries. We have obviously the trend on the replacement fleet.
You need to bear in mind that, looking ahead, around 70% of our market is geared toward replacement, and the rest will be, of course, incremental capacities. This as well includes of course the diesel replacement. The trends are very positive, and I do not see any sign, to your question, Kevin, of slowdown on our demand globally. Your second point on the services growth. Very pleased by the global services performance, and we have a EUR 5 billion of services orders for this first nine months. I see a continuous positive trend, which are backed by 2 trends.
Number one, the fact that we have more and more bundled contracts, and the second fact that, there is, I would say, the strategic purpose of operators more and more to move to OEM services.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question now comes from Alasdair Leslie of Société Générale. Please go ahead.
Hi, Laura. Hi, Martin. This is Amit, dialing in on behalf of Alasdair Leslie. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. First, when we look at new orders taken since April 2021, on average, it seems there's been a significant reduction in risk profile, specifically on new projects versus the legacy projects. Do you kind of agree with that? How important a driver is that in terms of realizing your margin ambitions? Maybe if you could expand on the potential implications for cash generation as well. I will follow up on my second question after that.
Indeed, we have, we are focusing in our order intake on standardization of our platform, and the success of Coradia Stream is a perfect example of this. This is linked with our global strategy of standardization of our platforms, post-Bombardier acquisition and on our activities of maturity of platform. You are absolutely right to say that by having this standardization, there is a reduction of the risk profile on our rolling stock orders specifically.
Thanks. And maybe, my second question, you mentioned in your opening remarks about wage negotiations and, which is underway in most of the countries. If you can, provide us small insights into key countries like France, Germany, U.K., and U.S. A follow-up there is, are you still confident on the inflation trajectory peaking this year and ramping down over the next two years? Thanks.
On wages, definitively, we are just starting, as I say, the negotiation, which will be on 70 countries. It will be, of course, a complex negotiation, with, of course, the current inflationary environment. It is just starting, so I cannot provide you any colors. Still, if I look at the moving part on inflation, raw material and energies are easing as anticipating, and, of course, there is the wages, salaries negotiation to come. All of this is within our global scenario that we have been using to define our guidance of 5.1%-5.3% that we are confirming today. Just want to remind as well, Amit, that two-third of our backlog is protected by indexation clauses.
I explained that within these indexation clauses, there is as well labor indices, which represents, by the way, a very large share of this protection. This is something where we have a edge, a natural edge coming from our customers.
Thank you. We now take our next question from William Mackie of Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Good morning to you all. Happy New Year. The first question is just a general question with relation to orders and then a specific follow-up on orders, which relates to what extent have you been able to improve the terms and conditions in the order bookings that you've been making during this year compared to previous years, to perhaps incorporate greater flexibility in a more inflationary environment? The specific follow-up on orders is, could you perhaps describe the environment in India and your prospects for order wins in India and any feedback with regard to perhaps the locomotive opportunity that went to a competitor? That's my first question around booking in revenues that we might expect this year or what was taken in Q3. Thanks all.
Good morning, Will. Thanks for your question. On your first question on orders, yes, we do improve our TNCs related to inflation specifically. If I look at, for instance, our Q3, we are in the 75%-80% protected in terms of inflation, which is above our two-third. If I look at our pipeline, we have a lion's share of our pipeline opportunities which are protected by inflation indices, because our customers understand that as a company, we cannot take inflation risk on mid to long-term projects. On your second point on India, just to remind a couple of facts, we are, as very strong in India. We have more than 10,000 people.
We just won Delhi Metro for the Q3, which is a key success. We are developing and delivering very successfully our e-locomotive in Madhepura, where which is a contract of 800 locomotive, as based on our local manufacturing and supply chain. I will not comment, of course, any specific orders from our competitors. We are definitively committed to India, and we expect still a very positive momentum for Alstom in India based on our footprint and track record. On your second question on Will, on 0% margin. Bottom line, in line with what we explained in H1, so around EUR 2.4 billion for the full year and Q3, fully consistent with these trajectories.
Absolutely as expected, this is reflecting the quality of our execution for this quarter.
Thank you. Can I ask a follow-up around China? You have a number of joint ventures in China. Is there any insight that you could share regarding the effects of the opening up, either on the short-term health impacts to the business or perhaps the medium-term opportunity as the business starts to normalize?
On China, if I look at the dynamic of the various market, Will, signaling remains extremely positive. CASCO is a success stories with a large share of the market, which is addressed by this joint venture. On the metro line, there is a steady evolution, I would say, and there is a ramp down on the very high speed, on the new very high speed, where we are expecting as well a rebound in the next years with the first wave of replacement. All in, I would say, contrasted pictures in China.
All in, if I look at our contribution of our JV, I do not expect any major evolution moving forward on the basis of this signaling, urban and high speed portfolio.
Thank you very much for everything.
Thank you. Now we are moving on to Daniela Costa of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, and Happy New Year. I just have one question, I wanted to follow up sort of on cash. Obviously, you're reiterating the guidance for this year. Your medium-term guidance is the fiscal 2024, 2025. There's one year in the middle. Can you run us through, is there any reasons why we shouldn't think about a linear progression between now and that in terms of cash conversions? Are there any makeups in the bridge that we should remember if it is different to a linear progression? Thank you.
Thank you, Daniela. Happy New Year as well to you. A couple of rewind on the key cash flow drivers for this second half of the year for the full fiscal year 2022-2023, where we have definitively as drivers, number one, the profit uplift, which will be reaching 5.1%-5.3% for the full year. For the second half, I see a working capital stabilization with the ballistic headwind of the provision consumption. I was saying around EUR 300 million for the full year. Half of this is in the H1. The tailwind on execution and continuous positive down payment. Finalizing on the second half cash, CapEx acceleration with the usual seasonality.
That is the drivers, Daniela, to the, to this, fiscal year. Early days to answer to you on next year. Something of course, where we will provide you colors in our next full year result in May.
Thank you.
Thank you. Up next we have James Moore from Redburn. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Hi, Laurent. Happy New Year. Thanks for taking the questions. I have 2, if I could, to follow up on your comments on inflation. The first one is on your comments that you feel good about raw materials, supply chain and energy. My understanding is that if metal prices finish the period higher than the average of the contract, your indexation escalated covers book enjoys a positive final delivery impact, which we saw at the half. Now that metal prices have dropped a lot and energy prices have dropped a lot, could there be any final impacts that are more negative? Is that a topic we should think about? That's the first question. The second question is on wages. You mentioned we are going into negotiations, which feels like a risk yet to be firmed up.
I am somewhat concerned about wage inflation. Consensus expectations of the old margins to lift 120 basis points next year, which is a meaningful progression. Could wages pose a topic to this degree of development?
Good morning, James. Happy New Year as well to you. On your point on metal price up and down, you're absolutely right that this is something which is potential headwinds, limited one, because as our raw material are representing only 7% of our cost base. This is in line of course with our global indices, with our contracts. There is a couple of edge to this. Number one, we are buying the material over a long period of time, so we are averaging out our cost output. Second, we have as well back-to-back close with our suppliers on this matter.
There is, I would say plus and minus into this equation of the raw material evolution, when it comes to inflation. To your second point on wages, as we have defined a global scenario in terms of inflation and that we have reflected in our guidance of 70 to 90 basis points. All in, today we confirm the guidance of 5.1% to 5.3%. We'll see of course at the end of the day all of this, but I do not have any sign that globally, our assumption are wrong as we speak.
Just to follow up on that, my sense was as the degree of revenues that are covered with indexation increase, say 60%, 70%, 80% over the next three fiscal years as the higher cover in your order intake rolls through the P&L, that one should expect the inflation headwind to fade almost linearly even with the current wage environment. Do you think that's still possible?
No, absolutely. That's what I explained in H1, James. Absolutely. 70-90 basis point, call it 80 basis point, is a peak as we see it. As we delivers our backlog not protected and replenish with the backlog which is protected, this will be linearly reducing. What I said is that in 2024, 2025, our level of sales exposed to inflation will be from 40% this year to 20% in 2024, 2025. This is confirmed and that's part of course of our global edge we are having on inflation. I want to add as well, James, that we are fighting of course inflation with terms and condition. We are fighting as well with cost out measures in our overhead, direct cost and projects.
That's something that we are of course increasing the momentum as we speak.
Thanks, Laurent.
Thank you. We will now move to a question from Akash Gupta of JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good morning everybody. My question is on service growth, where you had another double digit growth in the quarter and year to date we had 15% growth in service revenues. Maybe if you can elaborate what is driving it and given that you still guide solid mid-single digit CAGR in service as part of medium-term growth outlook, shall we expect below mid-single digit growth in the coming years? There could be some upside to this medium-term service growth target. Thank you.
Good morning, Akash. Thanks for your question. Indeed, very positive performance on the first nine months on services, as you say, around 15%. We see a continuous increase in the last quarter as well in terms of services evolution, maybe less spectacular than what we had in the first nine months. The drivers are very simple. It is increased ridership, increased usage of our fleet with our strong franchise in the UK and in Italy and in the US. As well, of course, the benefit of all of the win of new orders that we have had in the last years on services.
I want to add as well, in terms of drivers, Akash, that we are focusing more and more on small orders businesses, small orders capture, which are generating short cycle sales, and this is something which is very valid for services and signaling as well. To your point on the trend for the years to come, definitively, we see services contributing more in terms of growth than the average of the group, so in excess of the 5% CAGR that we have as a target.
Thank you. Our next question now comes from Vladimir Sergievsky of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, Laurent. Thank you for taking my three questions. My first one will be on this very big EUR 1.1 billion 30-year service contract in the U.K., which is good to see it. Would it be fair to assume about EUR 30 million+ of average revenue per year from this contract? Does it kick in linear or not? Also, do such contracts carry material prepayment? Are those revenues defined in the contract through all 30 years ahead or they are subject to certain assumptions? That's the first one.
Vlad, sorry, we did not get your question, acoustically. If you can recap.
Yes, 100%, Laurent. Hope you hear me I am asking about this EUR 1.1 billion service contract in the UK. Do such contracts carry material prepayment? Also, do such contracts specifically define revenues in any given year over the next 30 years, or those revenues are subject to assumption?
On this one, no, there is no specific prepayment on this contract. On services, as Vlad, we typically do not have down payment or very limited one.
Understood, Laurent. Laurent, if I can also ask you about rolling stock revenue progression. It ticked up in Q3 this year. Would you be able to share the organic growth rate for rolling stock sales specifically in Q3 this year versus Q3 last year?
Yes. Regarding the Q3 results, Vladimir, comparing this year to Q3 last year, global growth is 5%. The organic growth is close to that figure. You must keep in mind that we have the deconsolidation of our [uncertain] activities, which is impacting our sales negatively for this quarter. Organic growth is close to actual growth in terms of rolling stock.
Perfect, Laurent. My last one, very quick. Could you talk about potential impact on your interest cost going forward from variable interest rates, if there is any impact at all?
Indeed, there is, as you know very well, Vlad, the interest rate has been increasing from around -1%, say to +2%, +3%, during the second half. Indeed, there will be headwinds in terms of financial interest cost in the second half compared to the first half.
Thank you. Now we are moving on to Jonathan Mounsey of HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could just elaborate a little bit more. You talked about the service orders focused on the small service orders and shorter cycle. Does that mean that the level of base orders that you should talk about has increased at all? That's my first question. Secondly, I was wondering if you could touch a little bit on the stimulus plans and the longer term sort of impact of stimulus plans and where you sort of see those coming through. Thanks.
Good morning, John. Thanks for your question. On services orders, indeed, as I say, we are focusing on this short cycle, which is drivers, a positive drivers for our sales. We are talking just to illustrate on spare part. We are talking about on ad hoc services that we are having. We are talking as well about step up on the current scope of our long-term contract with incremental activities, which are variation orders to our large maintenance contract, which are multi years.
These are the drivers that we are having on our short cycle, something which is very positive in terms of margin accretion. To your second point on the stimulus packages, we have an expectation of support on stimulus packages in terms of the in the U.S. We are expecting a step up of the order intakes, thanks to the Biden Infrastructure Plan specifically. We have some specific opportunities in as well in Canada, which are supported like the Toronto area, which is, as the electrification of Toronto areas, which is a multi-billion EUR contract to illustrate.
On Europe, we see next-gen starting to unfold, specifically in Italy, in Eastern Europe, with first clear contracts which will be signed in the short term. We see globally as well, European signaling systems, ERTMS to unfold. Just to illustrate, we see a doubling of these activities from this year to the next three years, which will be as well extremely positive for our signaling activities.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. As a brief reminder, that is dial 1 if you would like to ask a question today. Up next we have Gael de-Bray of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you for taking my question and having me here as well. Two questions from my side. First one on the Elizabeth line contract. In the report, you said that you've realigned the order intake. Does it mean that there's something, let's say, unusual about this? Or is just the word realigned, it is just poetic freedom, so to say. The second question would be on wages, we've seen in within the industrial space, wage increases, so far in the high single digits, low teens or so. I guess you said that so far you feel like your wage inflation outlook is confirmed. Does it mean that high single digit, low teens is something that we should model as well for next year? Thank you.
Thank you very much for your question. On your first question, this Elizabeth line, just to be very clear, is we have reached a number of milestones, which is a system completion and final deliveries, and that is for us our internal triggering points to book the full extent of the contract. It is more a technical matters. On your second point, on wages, I will not comment on the countries by countries. I just want to remind that we have not far from 40% of our head count, which are based on based cost countries, which are having, as always, a very high inflation, and we are living that since many years.
The dynamic is very different from one countries to the other. Again, we confirm our global guidance of 5.1%-5.3%, and the negotiation is starting, and will update you of course, in May on the outcome of it.
Thank you. As there are no further questions in the queue, I would like to hand the call back over to Laurent Martinez for any additional or closing remarks.
Thank you very much, all, to for your attention. Just to wrap up, for our Q3, mostly positive market momentum is fully confirmed. Very pleased with it. Very pleased as well with the execution, which is fully on track. On this basis, our trajectories for the full year is confirmed. Thank you for your attention. I look forward to meeting you next in May for our full year result. Thank you.