Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Prodways Group Half Year 2021 Results Conference Call. I now hand over to Mr. Raphaël Gorgé, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Prodways Group. Sir, please go ahead.
Thank you very much. We are proud to present you our H1 figures, and starting on slide three, the key figures of H1. Achieving record results, because as you can see, for the first time, we are posting a positive operating income of EUR 0.9 million. Record EBITDA margin with EUR 4.5 million, and strong revenue growth compared to last year, +27% with a highly recurring profile. I switch directly to slide five. I think it's important to recall that looking at sustainable development goal number 12, 3D printing and the activity of Prodways has a positive impact on the manufacturing industry for different reasons. First, it's a more efficient production process, up to 80% reduction in CO2 emission compared to other traditional, conventional manufacturing. The fact that you can print on demand, reduce or eliminate the need for large physical inventory.
The fact that you can localize manufacturing, reduce the logistics, and bring the production close to the customer, you reduce transport from delocalized low-cost factories. On slide six, Prodways is a reference player relying on three strategic pillar. We are positioned on the whole value chain of 3D printing, from part design to manufacturing, enabling our client to 3D print by themself or printing on our side for them. We focus on plastic. We think that first it is the largest market in additive manufacturing, more important with the highest added value and the more interesting business model. Last point, we focus on industrial and mass production compared to the initial usage of 3D printing, which was rapid prototyping. We focus on industrial medical application, the application which are demanding and high productivity and accuracy and precision. On slide seven, you have our two divisions.
First system, providing turnkey solution for 3D printing, which represents 60% of the revenue, comprising software, materials, and printer. On the other side, the product division. We are now one of the largest 3D printing service in Europe. This represent 40% of the revenue. We now have a fleet of 52 printers in France and Germany, thanks to the acquisition of the German company, Creabis. I will come back on it later. Offering a large range of technologies and brand. We do the design and printing on demand, and also, we sell some custom medical device in audiology, podiatry, and dental. On slide eight, Prodways is a global player, especially for its machine and material business. France represent only 20% of the turnover. The biggest market is North America, and Germany represent 24%.
Our teams are located in France, Germany, and the U.S., close to the markets and close to our customer. I will switch now on slide 10, because a major step has been achieved over last year and the beginning of this year, and we were able now to present a quite transformed company, more efficient. Typically, the regroupment of teams and technology, which were located in four different location in France, and now are regrouped in one new site in Annecy. Mix with 3D printing fleet, engineering and design service, and production of SLS printer. This organization is more efficient, and the reduction of cost impact is quite significant. Also interesting to focus, because you remember that our ESG preoccupation is important. We have transformed this former industrial site into a low-carbon building, recovering the heat of the machine to heat the facility.
This project was carried by a significant majority of local companies. On the business model side, it's important to highlight that Prodways has a highly recurring and growing revenue profile. The growth is there. I mentioned 27% of growth this year, it happens that it's the average growth rate that we have since 2015. If we compare H1 2015 to H1 2021, the average growth is exactly 27% per year, combination of organic and external growth. The recurring profile has also significantly improved from 25% to roughly 60%. Combination of fully recurring business like the material or software maintenance, but also a highly recurring or reoccurring business from medical device. On slide 12. We think important to notice compared to the startup environment in which we evolve, we have disciplined financial policy to support healthy balance sheet.
Cash flow from operation, which was positive in 2019 and again positive back in first half of this year. The positive net cash position is still EUR +3.7 million net cash and EUR 20 million value. Our investment in R&D are focused 10% of machine and material revenue, which are the only activities requiring significant R&D. The overall investment policy is disciplined between EUR 2 million-EUR 3 million gross investment on a stabilized basis in R&D and CapEx, partly offset by government subsidies and tax credits. As I mentioned previously, the ESG strategy is accelerating. It's an important focus on our side. You see the improvement on the Gaia rating. The governance also is significantly compliant with the Middlenext code, 50% of women in the board and roughly 40% of independent board member. The shareholder structure is there.
Groupe Gorgé is owning 57% of the shares, and the rest is free flow. With Fimalac, Safran, BP still on board. I will leave the floor to Laurent, who will present the financial performance.
Thank you, Raphaël. As previously mentioned, the group recorded strong growth in its activity during the first half of 2021. Turnover reached EUR 34 million, of which about EUR 22 million for the division system, the System division, sorry, and about EUR 13 million from the product divisions. The growth, about 27%, as mentioned by Raphaël, came roughly equally from the both divisions, with record growth in the software and material businesses, both little affected in 2020 H1 by the health crisis and now over their 2019 level. The medical business, which was heavily impacted by COVID in 2020, grew by 56% over the half year. Next page, 16. In line with the growth in turnover, EBITDA increased significantly in the first half of the year, reaching 13% of the turnover, almost double that of the previous two years. This doubling came from the two divisions.
In addition to the increase in turnover, it's also the result of the restructuring carried out last year, which allowed strong fixed cost reduction. This EBITDA increase bodes well for coming years. Slide 17. In addition to the performance in terms of turnover and EBITDA, operating profit from ordinary activities also increased to EUR 2.2 million, up by EUR 5.1 million, partly due to some write-off booked last year. The operating results, by reaching almost EUR 1 million, are positive for the first time in the history of Prodways, despite some costs related to the restructuring initiated last year. It should be noted as well that this performance was helped by a forgiveness of EUR 0.9 million under the U.S. CARES Act. I will give the floor back to Raphaël for the outlook.
Thank you, Laurent. We switch to slide 19. We think that Prodways has still strong potential for industrial application and new development of new application for 3D printing. Typically, you know that we are already on the orthodontic and dentistry market, jewelry, rapid prototyping, and some new markets are emerging. Audiology is growing significantly, podiatry also. New potential market in optic or precision casting, especially for aeronautics application. It's something that we communicate on it frequently. No special development or no news on this, but we still are convinced that the potential is there. One focus on slide 20 on what is our biggest market, the market of clear aligner, which is a new 3D-printed orthodontic application. We put here the comparison between the growth of dentistry player and clear aligner player. The difference is quite significant. This market is booming, and we are benefiting from it.
It is booming, and we think that it is bigger than what we expected a few years ago. A significant portion of the sales of the machine and the growth of the material are coming from this specific application, which, as you remember, is the biggest application of 3D printing in the world. All material and all markets overall, I mean. Okay. Now, focus on the last development, which was not in H1, but was the sign of the restart of acquisition process. We acquired the German company, Creabis, in July, and in a strategy of accelerating the development of the Prodways division. The integration of Creabis is well on track. Creabis is one of the top 3D expert in Germany. Its founder, Ralf Deuke, is an expert of this industry since probably 20 year. The company is not that big, but I would say significant.
A fleet of 11 printer from five different technologies. For your information, we knew Creabis for many year because he was one of the first German customer to buy one of our machine. His highly diversified base of client generates roughly EUR 3 million revenue last year, and 50% are coming from serial production. The complementarity with Prodways is significant because we are now one of the biggest 3D printing service in Europe with a fleet of 52 printers, widening Prodways offer with new technologies, but probably more important, significant synergies potential. Creabis has already started to sell the Initial capacity. Initial is the name of our 3D printing service in France, in Annecy. We are quite confident that those synergy could produce interesting results.
To conclude, we think it's time to be a little bit more precise about our guidance, which was previously a two-digit growth. We are now confident that it could be around 20% growth, obviously subject to the evolution of the sanitary context. About profit, we think that we can sustain the same trend in H2 compared to H1 2021. This presentation is finished. Our next release will be for our Q3 2021 activity, October 20. Now we are ready to answer to the question you may have. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, you may press 01 on your telephone keypad. We have one first question from Mr. [Olivier Sevignon] from ODDO BHF. Sir, please go ahead.
Yes. Good evening, thank you for taking my question. I have three actually. First, could you give us more color on the guidance upgrade on the top line, on the 20% for the full year? I mean, is it a better trend on 3D machine orders, or is it mainly related to the stronger dynamic in material especially? Do you think that H1 EBITDA included the full effect of the cost saving measures? The positive impact can be very higher on H2 cost structure? Last question on M&A specifically. After the acquisition of Creabis that you just talk about, could you consider a bigger M&A operation in the coming months or quarter also regarding Prodways' healthy balance sheet? Thank you.
Okay. Your first question was about the growth and where does it come from? I would say several activities. For sure, material are performing well on one side from the install base, which is growing. On the other side, also on the growth of our partners to whom we sell the resin. Second, the software integration division is also performing well. Last, the medical application, especially audiology, is performing well also driven by the new regulation in France driving this market because now the level of reimbursement of hearing aids has significantly increased. Your last question was external growth, and I talk about your last question because I don't remember the second one. Laurent will answer to that. About acquisition, we are not looking at big acquisition for the moment. We could, but we have nothing active on this side.
We are facing a significant problem is that the valuation are significantly high and higher than the one of Prodways. Most of the valuation, especially when you look at the U.S., are two or three times the valuation of Prodways, which is a kind of drawback when you are targeting bigger acquisition. Your point was about also the effect of cost reduction. Most of the effect is already in H1. Yes. The full impact will be on H2.
Okay. Thank you. It's very clear. Maybe an additional question, going back on the hearing aid that you just mentioned. Do you have an idea of your market share in this segment?
Yes, between 70%-80% in France.
Okay.
This is a local business. We are almost selling nothing outside France.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Okay.
Thank you, sir. Next question is from Mr. [Katie Sherrington] from Exane BNP Paribas. Sir, please go ahead.
Hi, gentlemen. Thank you very much for taking my questions. I had three as well for the time being. The first question was on sustainability. You clearly made some very notable progress during the first half of the year to improve your Gaia score by eight points. Could you walk through any of the other measures that you have in play and what could be the potential in the coming years to improve that score?
Yes. Okay. You want to have your three question now, or we do it one by one?
Sure. Okay. I can ask the other two as well. The second question was on audiology. I appreciate that there's been some changes in legislation and how consumers can recoup the cost of hearing aids. What I wanted to understand was, because this is quite a new initiative, have you reached the full peak of order flow yet, given that you have such a massive market share, or is it still going to grow in the coming quarters to reach its full potential? The third question was on expansion into new areas such as optics. What would it take to execute on growth? Do you have the capacity available? Is it all about just marketing your capabilities to potential customers or waiting for the market to grow? Some color there would be useful. Thank you.
Okay. I will take the last two. One Hugo will answer your question about sustainability. New expansion in new markets like optics depends on many parameters. Most of the key factors are located in the market itself and in the player. The technology is ready. We still have some improvements. In an industrial process, it takes very long time to validate all the parameters. Typically, on the optics side, I already have seen some lenses which are perfectly transparent. The question is, will they remain transparent after three years under the sun, typically, or will they resist to different shocks or things like that? I think that we are not so close to a launch of this application.
The good news is that the partner we have, which is Essilor, has confirmed that the only technology which is able to reach this target is Prodways MOVINGLight. I have no clear view on this. To answer, if this technology was adopted at large scale, yes, we would be able to produce and deliver because we will probably have time to prepare ourselves. On the audiology side, I don't know if the peak is reached. It is still growing for the moment, and we are facing some internal difficulties to ramp up the production, but not huge difficulties. I cannot tell you that. We don't see, for the moment, a downturn in this flow. I think that the market is supposed to double or something like that, thanks to this new regulation. For sustainability, Hugo will take the answer.
As you noted, we improved our grade significantly in the past year. What we are working on now to go further is on several targets, quantitative targets on each of the topics of environmental, social, and governance, especially on environmental and social, actually, to implement at five years horizon. It would be a target on reduction of carbon emissions and reduction of the turnover, specifically, which is a major topic in the company.
Thank you. I would add one general comment on this topic. We understood, and personally, I understood the importance, which is growing so much, and now I understand more clearly your concern. I mean, you on the analyst side of investor. The conclusion would be, we want to help you to improve the grades of your funds. Basically we will work on this because it's an important topic for the company, and we have also to match the criteria to improve the grade, because better grades means more investor potentially interested in Prodways. We will work hard on this, and this will deliver results.
Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. We have no other questions. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind you that if you wish to ask one, you may press 01 on your telephone keypad. Next question is from Mr. Augustin Socié from Portzamparc. Sir, please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Just one question regarding the part of recurring revenues in the mix. Can you give us some color about the evolution of this part in the short term, meaning 2022 and 2023? Thank you.
To be honest, I don't have the answer, but my guess is that it has evolved steadily, in a normal pace. The more we sell material, the more we sell software, the more we have recurring business. Because those business are growing a little bit faster than machine, for example, or less recurring part of our business. I don't expect it reach, in the coming years, significantly higher level than that.
Okay. Thank you. That's very clear.
The only evolution that we could see in the coming years would be if the serial production represent a higher part of the part production activity. We are working on it.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Next question is from Mr. [Katie Sherrington] from Exane BNP Paribas. Sir, please go ahead.
Hi. Just to loop back with two more. The first was just a little bit of clarification on the profit or margin guidance. Do I understand this as the contribution margin? Because I presume there should be some operational leverage factors to consider for the second half. Or is this on a reported EBITDA margin basis? The second question is probably a little bit more complicated, but I wanted to understand whether the materials division is still ramping up its sales to the installed base of machines that you have sold. Just as an idea of how we can understand the lead time from installing a machine and what the potential sales are to a given machine from your materials division.
Okay. Understood. Okay. On your first question about profit margin, we expect not such a big difference in overall value of the turnover on the H1. In term of percentage of absolute value, it means more or less the same. I don't know if it answer to your question. The second question about the ramp up of material sale after install base, I have to clarify something. The increase of material comes from three different origins. First one is the increase of the number of installed machine. Second is the increase of the production of our client. Typically, this is what we had last year. A customer didn't purchase many machine, but they increased the usage of their machine.
Typically, working in two shifts. The third growth potential is coming from the third-party player who are buying our resin to put in their machine because those players are not able to develop by themselves those resin, and they are buying our resin or recommending our resin for their customer. Typically, once you have sold the machine, it might take, let's say, three months before they handle the machine properly at full capacity. Then after, they can increase again the level of consumption by producing more or improving their design, or working in many shifts, one or two shifts per day. This is the answer I have for this.
Got it. That's very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. We have another question. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask one, it's zero one on your telephone keypad. zero one on your telephone keypad. We have another question from Mr. Thomas Renaud from Gilbert Dupont. Sir, please go ahead.
Yes. Okay. Thank you. Just one question for me on your 2021 guidance. Can you give us the potential impact of Creabis in the guidance of + 20% growth? Thank you.
Yes. We expect that Creabis will contribute from something like EUR 1.5 million on H2.
Okay. Thank you.
We have no other questions. Back to you for the conclusion.
Well, thank you all of you for attending this presentation. Our next meeting is on October 20 for the Q3 report. Thank you. Goodbye.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call. Thank you all for your participation, y ou may now disconnect.