Good morning, everyone. I'm Béatrix Martinez, Dassault Systèmes, VP, Investor Relations. From the company, we have Pascal Daloz, CEO, and Rouven Bergmann, CFO. Thank you for joining our First Quarter 2024 Conference Call with Pascal Daloz, Chief Executive Officer, and Rouven Bergmann, Chief Financial Officer, here in London. At the end of the presentation, we will take questions from participants in the room and on the call. Later today, we will also hold a conference call. Dassault Systèmes results are prepared in accordance with IFRS. Most of the financial figures in this presentation are presented on a non-IFRS basis, with revenue growth rates in constant currencies, unless otherwise stated. For an understanding of the differences between the IFRS and the non-IFRS, please see the reconciliation tables included in our press release.
Some of the comments we will make during today's presentation will contain forward-looking statements that could differ materially from actual results. Please refer to today's press release and the risk factors section in our 2023 document, "Rapport d'enregistrement universel," published on March 18, 2024. I will now hand over to Pascal.
Thank you, Béatrix. Good morning, good afternoon to all of you. Always a pleasure to be physically here with you in London. So let's start with the first quarter results. So first of all, software revenue growth, 7%, driven by 3DEXPERIENCE platform, up 29%. I think we deliver an operating margin of 31.1%, slightly, slightly overperforming our profitability objectives, thanks to the discipline, cost management, and Rouven will come back on this. And as a result, our EPS was strong, up 12% at constant currency. The takeaway is, in this first quarter, our 3DEXPERIENCE platform businesses, in fact, deliver very strong results. You have seen it, +29%, with a significant number of top industry leaders in the manufacturing on board on our platform. And I was speaking with some of you just before.
We are at the point where it was just before the COVID, where people now start to consider the platform from end to end, and that's really. It's really visible in everything we do in the manufacturing space. Looking ahead, I think we have a stronger 3DEXPERIENCE pipeline. In Life Sciences, we are definitively devoted to replicate our success in other industry, providing this end-to-end platform, and this transformation lays, I think, the foundation for the sustainable new source of growth. On the short term, we believe, and we anticipate Medidata to be back to growth in the second half of this year. Therefore, if you combine, you know, the good visibility we have on the pipeline with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform businesses, in conjunction with the Medidata outlook, we are confirming our guidance for the full year.
Now, let's move to some strategy and vision updates. You know, we are stepping up in the generative economy, and it's our next step in our journey. And this generative economy goes far beyond to really extend the virtual twin to the living organisms. It's about learning from life. It's about adopting a net positive way of living, which is, you remember, it's we want to give the ability for the industry to give back to the planet and the society, at least as much as what they take to do the manufacturing, to do the trading, to do the usage of the products. We call it the Eco-B ill, the same way we had the bill of materials in the past.
To do this, you need a much more holistic view of the entire life cycle, because you need to measure at the end the impact you are creating on the planet. And to give you certain example, that's what we do in the Transportation & Mobility. You know, it's not only the passenger, it's not only the vehicles, but you have to take into consideration the building, the city, the air qualities, and at the end, it's an entire systems you have to represent. It's also true for the life sciences, when we look at the concept, you know, it's not only the body, but it's also the result of an organic process, and the combination of the two is extremely difficult to master. So this is the reason why we came with this idea of the 3DS Universes.
Because for us, the Universes is really a way to combine different virtual twin together and connect the real and the virtual at the same time. It's very differentiating compared to many of our competitors. It's not fake, it's not a side, it's really a way to connect the two together. And that's the reason why you have this V+ R. And by the way, Universes mean how to unify the virtual and the real for the society and the environment. That's what Universes is about. And you remember last quarter, I showcase an example for you, which was Biogen. Why Biogen? It was an interesting one, because you remember, it's a leading American biotech company and specialize in neurological disease. And what they were doing, they were connecting two virtual twins. One was the patient's brains and the spinal columns, and the other one was a drug.
And why so? Because it was a way to determine the optimal way to inject the drugs for special patients. So this is really how we are creating the connections between the two. Now, moving forward, I think this holistic approach I was referring to is made possible because our 3DEXPERIENCE platform is a, is also a data science platform, you know? And the way we express it, it's a way to connect the models from the science with the data coming from the experiences, which is unique on the market, because none of our competitor can do the same at the same time. And we already have an impressive use cases, list of use cases. For example, in Aerospace & Defense, they are using this ability to mix the two to improve the reliability and the availability on the critical assets.
In consumer industry, people are using this approach to manage the churn, the cross-selling, the upselling, the pricing management. In Transportation & Mobility, people are using this as a way to manage the situation of the supply chains, especially to navigate, you know, in the raw material and energy component prices. It was also a way to make substantial savings on the procurements. It's also a way to optimize the weight and balance, for example, on the product performance. So there are many, many different cases where this combination is extremely relevant, and it's just the beginning. And we firmly believe that the combinations between generative AI on one hand, and the model and science on the other hand, is really empowering the customer to nurture the circularity and elevating all the data into knowledge and know-how.
Now, if I zoom, and I basically return now to the business trend we observed in Q1. First, let's start with the manufacturing industry. I already highlight the excellent performance we have our 3DEXPERIENCE platform, and the progress in terms of adoption within our install base. Looking ahead, I think we have a strong pipeline in Transportation & Mobility, in Aero space & D efense, and I think this is positioning us to secure major contract within the industry leader in 2024. Now, turning to Life Sciences & Healthcare, the sector is currently pivoting towards three things: patient centricity on one hand, technology transfer from the lab to the bioreactors, and the utilization of the generative AI to foster innovation on the research and discovery side. And I think Medidata offers the most comprehensive platform to design, launch, and conduct advanced clinical trials. Why so?
Because it's the only platform connecting the three, the three parties, if you want. The pharma company on one hand, the hospital on the other hand, and the patients, and you need to connect those three at the same times. Many of the competition, they have a fragmented way to address this market. At least they are using different platform in order to make it happen. In the Infrastructure & Cities sector, I think the decarbonization is becoming crucial, and it's contributing at least to... Why so? Because this sector is contributing to one third of the global emissions. And sustainability is really driving the commitments on many things. One of them is, you know, to triple the nuclear capacity, to shift to clean energy, and innovating in a much more inefficient way.
Among the challenges, I think we see reviving nuclear construction at scale and shortening the time between the nuclear constructions and the commissioning. Now, let's look at some win chart. This quarter is about the win back. Let's start with the first one, Volvo. You remember, they are using CATIA for a long time, but they were not using the rest, especially on the PDM systems. And as you can see, they have decided to, you know, to embrace the new generation of CATIA, CATIA's 3DEXPERIENCE at the same time, and they are obviously deploying the 3DEXPERIENCE platform everywhere. And at the end, the end result, they are migrating the 1,500 CATIA users to the next generation of CATIA. Why they do this?
Because they want, again, to transform from multiple platform to one single one, which is scalable, which is facilitating the real-time collaborations, which is helping them to reduce significantly the time to market. And this is basically the, the most important things happening in this industry right now. Why it's difficult thing to do? Because you have to integrate the hardware and the software at the same time. And the gain, because they have been able to measure the gain, it's not weeks, it's months. It's really a, a significant gap compared to the way they were doing it previously. The next point for them is really also to reduce their carbon footprint. And as you may know, we have invested a lot in life cycle management capabilities to integrate these impacts on the sustainability, and especially to predict how much carbon footprint you will generate.
In this case, their, their target is reduced by 40%. So I think it's just the beginning for the Volvo car journey with 3DEXPERIENCE platform, and I think there are much more expansion we can do, specifically on system of systems, the MODSIM, to generalize the MODSIM approach, but also the data sciences. Another win case, which I think will be interesting for you, is TFS. Why it's an interesting one? Because in this case, we have displaced Veeva. So for the one who are convinced that Veeva is disrupting us, I think you have the proof that it's not the case.... This company is a contract research organizations. They are based in Sweden.
Why they have selected Veeva, sorry, Medidata against Veeva, it's exactly for the reason I just mentioned before, because they want to have one single platform to address the different stakeholders. As a CRO, you know, if the system is already deployed in all the hospital where you are basically practicing the clinical trial, it's a huge advantage in terms of costs. So that's the reason why, you know, it was, I think, a wise choice for them. And the second thing is also they want to streamline, at the same time, the clinical operation and the data management operations, which is something you cannot do if you have two different systems. And Rave is offering this ability to do both at the same times.
And last but not least, they are using Medidata AI as a way to enhance the study enrollments and the feasibility. One of the difficulty when you do a clinical trial is to identify the potential, you know, patient you have to enroll, and to do this, you need to assess the different hospitals, the different sites, in advance. And this ability we have within Medidata, with the AI capability to guide the decision process, is pretty unique on the table. So again, good, good case, for you. The next customer win I selected is Sizewell. You know it because we are in U.K. And as you know, it's very important because it's a way to offer, you know, an electricity, and to decrease the dependency on the fossil energy to 6 million household in here in U.K.
So they have selected the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to... for several things. One is really to increase the nuclear capacity. More importantly is to enable the nuclear constructions and reducing the time to operations. That's what is at stake. And why it's difficult things, because on one hand you have intensive engineering activities, and on the other hand you have a lot of construction activities. And the two needs to work extremely well together, and in not in sequence, in parallel. And this is the reason why having one single virtual twin to aggregate the two view is fundamental for this sector. So as a result, we are talking about 200 users, but in the next phase, we will expand to more than thousands of users, because we need, again, to connect all the different stakeholder in this project.
Before to hand over to Rouven, let me do a quick wrap-up. I think we had a solid start of the year. Our 3DEXPERIENCE platform business is delivering strong results, and we have a strong pipeline going forward. In Life Sciences, the sector is pivoting, right? I think we are uniquely positioned to address those changes. More importantly, we are anticipating Medidata return to growth in the second half of the year. I think simultaneously, we are laying out the foundation for the future growth by leveraging the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, enabling our clients to connect, on one hand, the data from experiences, and on the other hand, the model with, from science. They are using the generative AI to nurture the circularity and to elevate the data in what we call the knowledge and the know-how.
I think now let's look at the Q1 performance and the outlook for Q2 2024. Rouven, you have the floor.
Thank you, Pascal. Thank you, Pascal. The slides are going automatically, or?
No, you have to press.
Okay, I have to press it. Okay. So, we are—Thank you, Pascal, and also welcome from my side, for those who are here with us today and those who follow us on the webcast. As you heard, we are entering into the year with a solid start, as we remain focused on our fundamentals and the fundamentals of our business model. The combination of subscription revenue and upfront license revenue together grew 9%, while the operating margin was up 50 basis points to 31.1%, and EPS grew by 12% ex FX. We knew that coming into this year, that Medidata would weigh on our subscription performance, and in this context, subscription revenue is up 10% in the quarter. If you exclude Medidata, subscription revenue is up 22% and is driven by the strong growth in 3DEXPERIENCE.
The share of recurring revenue remains high at 84%. Upfront license revenue was strong in the quarter. It is up 7%, driven in part by good performance of our business in Asia, and as well, a stronger demand for CapEx investment, supporting our customers' business model preferences. Now, adding to the fundamentals, we generated EUR 671 million in operating cash flow. While below last year's level, cash flow conversion remains healthy at 1.44 times of non-IFRS operating income. This trend reflects the progressive shift to subscription, as we see a more rentable cash generation going forward. Now let's review briefly how we performed relative to our objectives in Q1 2024. Total revenue at EUR 1.5 billion, it was in line with our objectives, just below the midpoint, while lower software and service revenue were partially offset by currency.
Operating margin was at 31.1%, as said, above the high end of the objectives, driven by disciplined expense management. Importantly, we continue to invest to support our strategic initiatives with a net headcount growth of around 1,200 over the last 12 months. This sets a strong basis for continuing growth and margin expansion in the future. As mentioned earlier, EPS at €0.30 is reflecting good operating performance and strong financial income in Q1. So to summarize the financial results, in the context of the Medidata transformation, we delivered solid financials in the first quarter. Lower contribution in subscription revenue was offset by stronger upfront license. Clearly, 2024 is a back-end loaded year, like 2023, underpinned by continued momentum in 3DEXPERIENCE and a return to growth for Medidata.
Profitability is strong as a result of effective cost control, while we continue to make focused investments to shape our strategic cost drivers of 3DEXPERIENCE and Cloud to support our full year and midterm objectives. Now to our growth drivers. 3DEXPERIENCE revenue was 29% in Q1 at constant currencies, driving the share of 3DEXPERIENCE to 36% of addressable software revenue. In this quarter, three-fourths of the growth related to 3DEXPERIENCE is driven by deals larger than EUR 2 million, highlighting the strong value of potential and the momentum in our customer base. In Q1, we had several key customers expanding their 3DEXPERIENCE platform use, such as Volvo, Honda, Dana, Damen Shipyards , B. Braun, and EDF. Cloud revenue grew 6% in Q1 due to the anticipated lower growth contribution of Medidata.
Excluding Medidata, cloud revenue was up around 50%, driven by continued growth momentum in 3DEXPERIENCE cloud. The cloud is now representing 24% of our Q1 software revenue. Key customers expanding on 3DEXPERIENCE cloud use in the quarter were Renault, Weiqiao , Schindler, Honda, Dassault Aviation, as well as Sanofi, besides many others. We are confident that we will continue to capitalize on the momentum of our growth drivers and continue to grow our market share in 2024. Now, let me highlight to you the performance across geos as well as product lines, starting with the geos. Americas was up 5% due to the lower but anticipated contribution from Medidata this quarter. Excluding Medidata, Americas is up 9%, driven by strong momentum in Home & L ifestyle, Aerospace & D efense, and durable growth in Transportation & Mobility.
Europe was up 7%, with strong double-digit growth in the North and Western regions. We saw a well-diversified growth profile across multiple industries such as T&M, Energy & M aterials, Construction, as well as Home & Lifestyle. Asia had a rebound in Q1, led by strong growth in China, up 17%, driving the strong license performance this quarter. Also, Japan, India, and Korea delivered high single-digit software revenue growth. Now, from a product line standpoint, we saw continued good momentum in Industrial Innovation, up 9% overall. CATIA and ENOVIA were up high single-digit, while DELMIA net wins were up double-digit in software revenue. Subscription revenue already represents more than two times the license revenue in Industrial Innovation and was growing 20% in Q1.
Life Sciences was down by 2% overall, with Medidata at -3%, versus a strong comparison base in Q1 last year. On the other hand, BIOVIA had a good quarter, delivering high single-digit growth in software, driven by renewals and expansions with major customers such as Regeneron, Gilead, and Takeda. Now, let me provide you with an update on the market trends in clinical trials and our progress since the beginning of the year. First, on a trailing 12-month basis, we see market growth trends normalizing. In fact, since the beginning of the year, over the last three months, study starts are stabilizing to be slightly up versus a decline of -10% at this time last year. Second, in this improving market environment, our growth bookings in Q1 support our plan to return to growth in H2.
In fact, our study-based bookings are back to growth, driven by an increase in partner consumption. In addition, we have started to see increasing activity in the mid-sized pharma segment, which has always been a catalyst of our growth. Lastly, and important to highlight, we are competing well with win rates up across all segments, driving market share gains, specifically in phase III trials. To summarize, our market share dynamics are positive, adding about two points versus last year. On Mainstream Innovation, we see good performance with 10% growth, driven by an excellent performance of Centric PLM. In this quarter, we won with Abercrombie & Fitch, our largest deal in the fashion and apparel business. This, plus strong renewals, delivered excellent performance. For SOLIDWORKS, we are clearly transitioning to subscription at scale. Subscription revenue is growing over 60%, offsetting the decline in license revenue.
More importantly, we expect this trend to continue and further accelerate towards a higher share of subscription revenue, to continue to drive sustainable growth. As I just mentioned, a key contributor of our growth, Industrial Systems, is provided by Centric PLM, which continues its strong growth trajectory with signing of new large enterprise deals quarter-over-quarter, adding new logos to our growing list of brands. In addition, we are successfully renewing with existing customers, expanding our share of wallet, which was demonstrated with a number of strong renewals this quarter. As you can see, the momentum is broad-based. Centric today delivers an integrated platform from concept to customer, leveraging generative AI as a competitive differentiator. This is truly a new category of PLM, and we are confident in building our path to a billion-dollar-plus business.
Now, let's turn to cash flow and balance sheet IFRS items. Cash and cash equivalents totaled EUR 4.096 billion, compared to EUR 3.568 billion at the end of 2023. This represents an increase of EUR 528 million. At the end of the quarter, our net cash position totaled EUR 1.103 billion, an increase of EUR 526 million, versus net cash of EUR 578 million on December 31, 2023. This clearly highlights a disciplined and efficient capital allocation policy. Now, let's look at what's driving our cash position at the end of the first quarter. We generated EUR 671 million in operating cash flow for the quarter, versus EUR 783 million last year.
Cash flow from operations was mainly impacted by a lower decrease in trade accounts receivables this quarter versus last year, and this can be explained by two main effects. First, there's an impact of over EUR 65 million of receivables, which shifted to April as customers pushed payment dates to after the bank holiday dates at the end of the quarter. Almost all of them have been collected to date. Secondly, receivables are trending above last year's level due to the progressive adoption of mix of subscription contracts, in which invoicing is spread over the contract term and creates a new pattern in the cash collected when compared to the upfront license model.
In 2024, given the dynamics highlighted above, Q1 represents about 38%-40% of the expected full-year operating cash flow, while in previous years, Q1 averaged about 45% in the first quarter, 45% of the full year. As such, we expect a positive catch-up effect already in Q2. For any additional information, you will find the operating cash flow reconciliation in our presentation published this morning. So to sum up, operating cash flow was mainly used for the repurchase of treasury shares of EUR 131 million, investment in CapEx of EUR 57 million, and repayment of lease liabilities of EUR 24 million. Lastly, the total FX impact was about EUR 33 million versus December 31 last year, last year. Now, let's turn to the objectives for 2024. Most important, we confirm our full-year objectives.
Total revenue growth of 8%-10%, operating margin of 32.5%-32.8%, and the EPS at EUR 1.29-EUR 1.31. Our pipeline supports our growth objectives, as it's broad-based across multiple levels, as mentioned, with a more back-end-loaded shape. We have good visibility in the continued momentum of 3DEXPERIENCE growth contribution, including sizable transactions. Medidata is on track to return to growth in H2, based on stabilizing market environment of clinical trial starts and continued good execution, as evidenced in win rates and market share gains. As mentioned as well, SolidWorks is progressing well, transitioning to the subscription model as planned.
As mentioned, we are reaffirming our full-year objectives, which also includes double-digit growth in recurring revenue in the range of 10%-11%, upfront license revenue in the range of 2%-5% growth, and services growth expected at 8%-9%. Now, to update your models, I would also like to share some additional information related to Q2. We expect total revenue and software revenue in Q2 to grow between 7%-9% each, with upfront license revenue in the range of -1% to +7%, recurring revenue up 9%, and subscription revenue up 15%-16%. Services revenue is expected to grow 6%-7%.
Our profitability is expected to continue to expand, with operating margin up 50 basis points at the midpoint ex FX, reflecting a reported range of 31.3%-31.5%. EPS is expected to be in the range of EUR 0.30-EUR 0.31, up 10%-12%. Now let me conclude. We had a solid start to the year. Our core business is performing well and is expected to accelerate throughout the year. 2024 is a back-end-loaded year, underpinned by continued momentum in 3DEXPERIENCE.... For Medidata, we see progress towards recovery in the second half, supported by the stabilization of the clinical trial market and good execution in terms of booking calls and win rates. As such, we're confirming our full year outlook, and we look forward to updating you throughout the year.
We have several investor roadshows planned over the upcoming weeks, including in the U.S., end of May, and we look forward to meeting with you in person. And now, I would like to turn it back to the operator and questions. So maybe, Béatrix?
Yes, we'll start with questions from the room.
Thank you very much. Hi, it's Fred Boulan at Bank of America. Thank you very much for taking the question. I have two. One is on China, a very good quarter. If you can spend a bit of time on the outlook there, what you're seeing, in for the rest of the year, in the macro outlook, that remains a bit complex. And then coming back to Medidata, Q1, if you can share with us, like you did in the previous quarter, the delta between what you're seeing on the software side versus services. And when you look at the expectation of growth going forward, I mean, you mentioned return to growth in the second half of the year. Again, if you can be a bit more specific on the software component versus the rest of the business, that'd be very helpful. Thank you.
I can start with China, and you will follow up. So I think China, you have seen 17% growth, more than 20% for the license. Remember, China is really a license-driven market more than a subscription one. On one hand, you could argue that compared to last year, Q1, it's an easy comp, which is true. But on the other hand, I think, you know, given the uncertainty we have, I think we are relatively pleased with the momentum we are seeing. The growth is coming from multiple industries. Obviously, the auto sector is extremely dynamic for us, and as you may know, we have a large footprint with all the EV makers in the, in China. Construction is also driving this growth, and aerospace as well.
More and more, we see also the recovery on the industrial equipments, and the proof of this is really where the good dynamic we have with the mainstream markets. China is a significant market for SOLIDWORKS, and we had good bookings in Q1. Now, if I look at the rest of the year, the pipeline is better compared to what it used to be. And there is one simple reason for that: China is investing a lot in innovations, and the geopolitical environment to a certain extent is forcing them to eliminate certain dependency. And there are, I mean, the government is investing in many, many different sectors in order to accelerate the innovation cycle, and we are benefiting indirectly from this investment cycle. Rouven? Yeah, a few words about Medidata.
Yes, absolutely. So, Medidata software revenue was very much in line with services. Also keeping in mind, Q1 last year was a very strong quarter for both software and services. More importantly, we're building our backlog for software and services costs.
I think you have to question the mix between service and software.
For Medidata?
For Medidata.
No change.
No change.
No change. It's fairly aligned, right, between the, the two. It's there. We're down about -2.5%, rounding to -3%, to be super precise.
I would just-
The same is true for services and software. It's very fairly aligned this quarter.
Just last year, we had a very strong-
I know. It's not the case in Q1.
Right.
It's not the case in Q1, and we are really focused on building the backlog for the growth in the back half of the year and next year. Services bookings have been also good, yeah, but they will produce revenue in our quarters.
Hi, sir. Charlie Brennan here from Jefferies. I'll do two questions, if I can. Firstly, it sounds like you anticipated the Medidata weakness at the start of the year. So can you just highlight where the disappointment came in the recurring line of the business? And then secondly, it's been a while, I think, since I've seen a software company beat license expectations. Can you just give us some sense of what products contribute to the license line these days? And you've obviously got some of those that are already in the terminal decline cycle, like SOLIDWORKS, that's switching to subscriptions. So just at a high level, can you talk through which ones are growing and which ones are declining?
And then just as a final follow-up, can you give us the proportion of the upfront subscription that fell into the license line? Thank you.
Okay. So, what drove the mix this quarter? You know, we give the choice to customers to purchase in the subscription, the OPEX model and the CapEx model. And so, as a result of that, the mix of deals can vary from quarter to quarter, and we are trying to give a precise outlook quarter to quarter, but there can be some fluctuation. So in this quarter specifically, we had very strong performance in China, which is predominantly a perpetual license business. The license revenue in China is up more than 20%, and it contributes to the license costs over proportionally. We also had a couple of larger transactions that were recognized as upfront license and not subscription this quarter.
That's an important point to highlight, because on the subscription side, we report on only what subscription what is recurring year-over-year. And if something's not recurring year-over-year or multi-year, two years more, it's re-represented in the upfront license part, which you see contributing to the strong upfront license revenue this quarter. So, to summarize the question, there can be fluctuations from quarter to quarter. Subscription revenue growth for Medidata also was a bit at the lower end of our expectations, while we are focusing on building the cost for H2 with bookings driving the backlog. And if you exclude Medidata, subscription was 22%.
And the last point I would like to make, and it addresses your third question: if we look at the subscription revenue run rate over the last 12 months, ex Medidata, it's growing 29%, and it's up 2 points year-over-year at the exit of Q4 last year. So while the subscription number at the surface looks soft, the dynamics in our subscription momentum, ex Medidata, is positive. Remains to be positive. And as we are getting through the cycle of Medidata on the other side, we will see also the rebound in subscription. And for Q2, we have a number of large transactions in our pipeline that will benefit the subscription revenue. That's what we expect. So we will see a progressive increase in subscription revenue reported Q2 over Q1. And maybe to the products, Pascal, is there anything specific we can say?
No, but I think there is no specific trends toward the product line. It's much more the way we structure the deal-
Yeah
As Rouven was stating. And when you have the multi-year, I think it's, it's a good practice, and it's much more readable for you to have the non-recurring parts, so-called subscription anyway, to be in the license more than in the subscription line. Because by ensuring this, we are sure that the volatility is only on one items, right? Not on the other one.
What proportion of the license is upfront subscription?
We don't disclose that on a quarter-to-quarter basis. There are 12-month subscription deals, so 1-year subscription deals, that are recognized in the quarter for the license part while the support is ongoing. But I don't think there's any value in carving that out to give you the number. I think it's more important to look over the trend, which is up 2 points year-over-year, ex Medidata, which demonstrates the momentum we are creating and showing that there's a strong progression. There is no volatility in the numbers. The volatility is in the license upfront.
Thank you. Balajee from Citi. Three questions from my side.
Yeah.
Firstly, on Medidata. While you expect to return back to growth in second half of the year, will it be fair to say that the full year, on full year basis, are you still expecting growth for the business? Then two questions on capital allocation. Firstly, on cash flow, your days receivable increased by 12 days on year-over-year basis.
Yeah.
While multi-year subscription contract potentially is contributing to that, did you also extend easier receivable terms to some of the, in some of the larger contracts which has contributed to this? And the second part of capital allocation on M&A is, M&A is part of your midterm target, but over the last 4+ quarters, since you have de-leveraged your balance sheet, we have not seen any meaningful announcement. So where are the bottlenecks, and how is the pipeline looking right now?
Well, you take the first two, and I will try to the last one.
I'm happy to take the first two. The trajectory for Medidata is the H1, H2 story, yeah? And we are right now focused on building the growth for the second half of the year. Q1, we had a tough comp. We saw some bookings improvements, as I highlighted in my prepared remarks, which certainly for the partners and the partner consumption, which means the sell-through to the contract research organization, is trending positive for the first time in three quarters, which is a really positive signal. And that will return back to growth over the next quarters. Now, for Q2, I want to be prudent, as we are focused on building H2, and for the full year, we expect flat to be flat.
Maybe we can be slightly up, but for now, my baseline assumption is to be flattish. And that will be, we will be then, for the second half of the year, build the ramp for double-digit growth in 2025. That's the trajectory which we are on. And I think so far, our, from our differentiation, from what we hear from our customers, plus the momentum we are seeing also in mid-size pharma companies, that has always been a catalyst of our growth. I think there's good signs that give us the confidence that we are on the right track. And of course, we will update you as you will ask us, during the next quarters, for sure, yeah. But I think we have good visibility on our path, on our trajectory.
For the DSOs, so you're right, the DSOs, they have increased year-over-year. However, they are stable sequentially or slightly down sequentially. There are two main reasons for the increase on year-over-year. The first one is the timing of seeing a large contract, such as JLR and Renault, for which we expect an improvement in Q2. And the second piece is the overdue payments, which contributed eight days to the DSO increase, of which four days are related to the payments that slipped from March to April. So that will already improve, or that has already been reversed. So there was kind of a bump in the number in Q1, Q2, the slippage at the end of the last days of March to April because of the unfavorable calendar here that we could not avoid.
So in summary, I expect the DSO in Q2 to improve to be below what we saw in Q1. And that's what's happening. I think there are distinct effects. We have not provided more favorable financing terms to customers. We can be and have to be, if we have very large transactions, we have to work with our customers as they are making large commitments with us. We are working with them in partnership, and that's why I highlight JLR and Renault as two such examples, but they are paying customers. There's no issue with any of those client contracts. In fact, in Q2, we have a large invoice, and we will have large receivables from those clients.
Related to the M&A, you're right. I mean, it's part of the model, and it's also factor in a way in the long-term, you know, plan we, we shared with you last year. The pipe- we have a pipeline. The good news is we have a pipeline. We are working on it. However, I think we have something which is, could characterize the way we do it. We are extremely disciplined in term of value creation. And if you look at the recent transaction in our space, many of them have been done on a very high multiple. And I think, remember, you know, the software, every, 10 years, you have to bet again. So if you are not capable to have the payback in less than a decade, I think, it's probably, questionable from a value creation standpoint.
So that's my way to answer to your question. So really, we are working on it. Pipeline is there, but we want to do it in, in our own standards, in a way to ensure we will continue to deliver the value to the shareholders. And also, you know, the M&A is not too much for... I mean, usually when we, when we acquire companies, it's not for what they do, it's what we want to do together. And the together is sometimes more important than what they do. So it's taking time with some of the folks, so but, but I'm pretty confident that, it's moving forward the way we want.
Thanks. Michael Briest at UBS. Just a quick clarification on Medidata, Rouven. Is that double-digit growth for fiscal 25 or in fiscal 25? And then just on SOLIDWORKS, I mean, you gave an interesting data point on the Q4 call around, I think, EUR 200 million exit rate in subscription. Can you maybe just talk a bit about the transformation there, of how much of the business is still licenses, how much is cloud as opposed to sort of, or SOLIDWORKS, as opposed to just on-premise subscription and just the trajectory?
Yeah, thank you, Michael, for your questions, and I clarify the first one. I think the articulation of our explanation, where we are on the recovery and transformation of Medidata, is going well. We are creating an exit run rate in 2024, where we are back to growth, and we will continue to build that exit run rate through our 2025 to be a double-digit growth. So I'm really looking for building the backlog growth at 10%+, to support 10%+ revenue growth. That is going to be our objective, to be there in 2025.
Related to SOLIDWORKS, I think, the statistic I have in mind is this quarter, if I look at the number of units, which is usually a good way to assess the balance between the upfront license and subscriptions, is two-thirds is licensed and a third is subscription. I think it was less than 20% last year, I think around 10%.
Actually.
For the cloud, I don't have the number in mind. But it goes with it, I mean-
So, and on the cloud, maybe I can clarify.
Okay.
The cloud is fairly geo-specific as well, interestingly. We have good momentum in the Americas, but we also have in Europe North and in Europe West, the cloud, in terms of number of seats, is over 40% of the total seats sold. So there are geos where we are progressing extremely fast on our cloud business, while others will take a little bit more time. But it's working.
But remember, we took a decision, it's for, to have, the platform being, the connection to the platform being mandatory for SOLIDWORKS. So, and the platform is already will be on the cloud for the mainstream markets. So, the momentum is really in time. We are building the momentums to have the cloud proportion accelerating in the SOLIDWORKS install base in the coming quarters. I think we are relatively pleased by the shift.
Thank you. Two questions. Firstly, as you start to drive some of these larger standardization deals, this is obviously gonna have impact around kind of the cash flow dynamics of the business, and create that sort of volatility. So to the extent that you can just help us kind of parse some of these different moving parts, because there's obviously the component of license with delayed invoicing. You also talked about as you build subscription and move to more quarter, quarterly invoicing, help us understand that should we assume that when you sign one of these big deals, in the subsequent few quarters, expect kind of weakness in that sort of free cash flow temporarily, even if it is the case?
I don't know if there's a way to kind of list some of these moving parts in the free cash flow, you know, in order of magnitude, just so we have a kind of framework of how to think about this impact. Thank you.
Thank you, Mo. I think, Rouven, this question is for you. You have a fantastic opportunity to clarify, because there are many, many, misunderstandings, let's say, this way. Because we are clear?
Yeah. No, we are clear. I think we had also the opportunity to address this topic in some of the previous questions. But I think specifically for the large deals, we have in large deals an upfront component and a recurring component. And the upfront component is reported as part of the license, upfront license, and only what is recurring is reported in the subscription. Some of our large transactions, like the one that we talked about last year with Jaguar Land Rover, also had a cloud component, which is a purely rentable component, which you recognize quarter to quarter. But the parts that are upfront, on a multi-year contract, they are reported in the upfront license, and so they're not creating volatility in the subscription.
That's, again, why I was going back to the twelve-month subscription run rate, to illustrate to you that the run rate is increasing, like, outside of Medidata, despite some of the perceived volatility, but the run rate is consistent and is increasing. So from a cash standpoint, those large deals, you're right, they can have some level of volatility as those are ramping, and customers need some level of financing at the early phase of the transaction. It can be in the first year or second year, until the revenue recognition and invoicing and collections is harmonized. So we expect to be at that level of harmonization in 2025, with the two large deals that we signed in previous years, being Renault as well as JLR.
So, I think that volatility at this point is temporary, as a result of the these large transactions as it relates to cash flow. But when we look at the combined 12 months, you know, the volatility is small. I mentioned Q1, which we had an elevated DSO, as I explained, which was in part the result of some deferred invoicing schedule related to JLR, which will reverse in Q2, and that has created some of the unbilled receivables that we report, which are up year-over-year. But as we are consuming these deals and invoicing them, they will start to normalize.
And then just secondly, in terms of sort of the overall pipeline makeup and build, particularly on the kind of core manufacturing business, I think you highlighted that there's sort of more of these standardization contracts to come. You know, I know each one is kind of varied. Some of them are kind of upgrades to 3DEXPERIENCE and the full platform. Some are kind of V5 to V6. Where is the kind of... as you look at that pipeline, and I know every customer is different, but can you give us a flavor of the evolution of that pipeline? Is it still very auto-centric, or should we see some of these standardization contracts in other verticals as well?
Because obviously this is key to kind of underpinning that medium-term visibility you have on the, particularly the top line growth.
Okay, so there are a few questions within your question, Mo. The pipeline is, I mean, structured around three things. One is, as you say, certain customers who have adopted the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, expanding their footprint. And in the car industry, I would say it's probably representing more than, I mean, close to 40%, right? Then we have some win backs in the car industry, where I was mentioning Volvo, but I hope this year it, this will not be the only one... and we have large, win back in the pipeline, whether it's in the auto sector, but also in the aerospace supply chain. And this is probably, something like, 15% of the pipeline in value, right?
The rest is coming from the diversifications, and we see more and more tractions in consumer goods and consumer packaged goods. You know, you remember the time when we had P&G, almost it was the only reference we had that in this space. It's not anymore the case. And it's not only coming from Centric PLM, which is giving us a huge footprint in this space, but also the combination with the rest of what we do. For example, the reformulation in the CPG industry is driving a lot of new PLM needs. And we are very well positioned, in fact, for this. Architecture and constructions, believe it or not, but the platform is more and more used to do the data science part. As an example of I'm seeing, L&T is a good case.
It's also in the infrastructure space. You have seen with my reference, the energy transition is calling also to change the way we produce the energies, the way we distribute the energy. And the platform is really considered now being, I would not say at least a standard in the nuclear activities, but more and more considered also for the distribution network. You remember, I was highlighting the Red Eléctrica case, which is a Spanish, electricity distributor, but they are not the only one considering the platform right now. So I think, it's helping to, balance, the different opportunity across multiple industries, having different investment cycle impacts.
That's the reason why I think if you do the mix between the expansions, between the win backs, between the diversification and the momentum we have in the diversification, we are very confident on the path for the pipeline for the year. Great.
I suggest we take some questions from the webcast. May I ask just one question, so that we have time for everyone?
Thank you. Now we're going to take our first question, and it comes from line of Laurent Daure from Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is open, please ask your question.
Yes, good morning, Pascal. Good morning, Rouven. I have three questions. The first one is going back to Life Science. I understand your comment and your cautiousness on the second quarter, but should I read that the trough is in Q1 or in Q2, given the easier comps in the second quarter? My second question is on the Medidata, on the large pharma, on your historic clients. When you look at the new trials that they are launching, let's say over the last six or nine months, do you still have a very strong retention, or have you seen on the specific clients, some of them switching to competitors, to be clear? My final question is a clarification on the cash flow.
Given the comments you made on the first quarter, have you changed your view on the full year outlook, or are you still eyeing for the same momentum in operating and free cash flow? Thank you.
Okay. Thanks, Laurent. Thanks for your questions. On the first one, regarding the second quarter, as I said, I think the second quarter outlook is in a similar range than the first quarter results, as we are focused on building our growth for H2 to be flat next—for this year. So we're really focused on building our backlog back to growth to support double-digit growth. For Q2, we continue to win market share, as I said, in the first quarter, and the win rates are very good, and we will continue to execute in this market to expand our footprint and our relationships.
The other thing that Pascal mentioned, the importance is of the differentiation of new products that we brought to the market, that we are focused on with our customers to adopt those new products that are differentiating us and are driving future growth. And then to the med, to the pharma, to the large pharma, for the new trials, I think it's we are very much in line with the market trend. Our existing subscription customers continue to start new trials with us on our platform. You know, they have long-term subscription contracts, and we are confident about expanding those contracts with us as we go into renewal phases. So there's no indication other than that.
We are of course focused not only to renew what we have, we want to grow on top of that. On the cash flow, the answer is simple. There is a timing impact and there is no change to the full year.
Maybe I can add one thing for you, Laurent. It's a statistic I was looking carefully. It's how much new clinical studies we are starting, you know, quarter after quarter, and I was comparing Q1 last year with Q1 this year, and it's 1,000 more. So it's significant, huh? It's probably more than many of the competitor we have. But it's giving you an early sign about how the market is back against to the normal growth.
Pascal how many of the top 20 pharma are you working with? Could you share that with us?
The top 20 pharma?
The largest, 20 largest.
Look, we are working with almost all of them. We had, at the Medidata time, we used to have a famous list of those who were with Oracle. But from those customers, that on the top pharma we used to have, we continue to have the same number of clients, top pharma customers, where there could be some changes in the deployment and mix of what we do with them. But if your question goes in direction of have you lost any footprint with your existing customers? The answer is no.
Yeah, that was my question. Thank you.
Thank you. Dear participants on the phone, if you would like to ask a question, please limit yourself just to one question. Now, we're going to take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Nicolas David from ODDO BHF. Your line is open, please ask your question.
Yes. Good morning, Pascal and Rouven. Thank you for taking my question. My question relates to the mix between license and subscription in Q1 and Q2. So you explained well how you classify the upfront part of subscription, but nevertheless, you had some volatility in other software subscription. Could you explain a bit deeper what will drive this nice acceleration you expect in Q2? Because I think it's like a more than 10-point acceleration you expect in all the software subscription in Q2. And the same time also, you increase your annual guidance for license. So what prompted you to do that? And should we think that also expect better support growth? Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Nicolas, for the follow-up. On the mix, I think for now looking at Q2, we have a good pipeline, which is really geared towards subscription in Q2, and that's why we have very good visibility. Medidata, as I said, will continue to be in the same range. So it's really coming from our core business, the acceleration. And related to the license increase in our guidance for the full year, is simply a reflection of the first quarter. Now, we make some adjustments reflecting first quarter results. But you also saw that in the Q2 guide, the volatility really is in the license range of -1 to +7. That's what's a bit difficult to preempt, right? That's why we wanted to have there more flexibility.
Compared to Q1, you think that you have a better visibility regarding the subscription.
Yeah.
Excluding Medidata that you have?
Yeah.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Nicholas, the difference is we have more large deal, the pipeline for Q2.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The next question comes from the line of Gianmarco Conti from Deutsche Bank. The line is open, please ask your question.
Yes. Thank you, Pascal and Rouven, for taking my questions. I just have one. Sorry to come back again, to come back on this again. I wanna be very specific here. I was hoping you can share some more detail again on the visibility Medidata to get back to growth in H2 and double-digit into 2025. I'm wondering if you could share some detail on whether the visibility is driven by several conversations you had with CROs that are giving you confidence in the guidance, or trying to understand the underlying assumptions, like here, if it's more macro-driven in the form of inputs from these conversations, or are there particular large deals in the pipeline that you see progressing further to conversion? Thank you.
Absolutely. Thank you for your persistence and reiteration, so it gives me an opportunity to make it even clearer. So you're right, there are several factors, but there's a macro factor where we see evidence that from a market standpoint, the number of clinical trials starts to become much more predictable and be back to the normal course trend than what we saw pre-COVID. And we see the evidence in the first quarter. That was in part of my prepared remarks. So that's one factor. That's a stabilizing factor. The second factor you mentioned is the visibility with CROs, where for, yeah, more than nine months, for the first time, we saw an increase in partner consumption. So the throughput, the sales throughput through the CRO partner, being up versus the previous three quarters.
Where CRO partners were, in terms of their volume, shrinking, and now they are stable to growth. So we see growth through our channel, which, you know, we are essentially in a new upswing cycle with our partners. Which is also, by the way, a sign that, you know, we are not losing to the competition, and we are continuing to take market share, and our partners continue to commit with us. And then there is this, there's a third element besides the partners. We talked about enterprise and mid-market. The mid-market business in North America and Europe has always been a catalyst of our growth, so mid-sized pharma companies. And here we see momentum picking up of platform implementations, but also single trials, large phase II, phase III trials.
And they can be quite large and significant in terms of revenue contribution. And then the last element is the baseline effect. We will have a new baseline effect. We are rebalancing, which will be much more favorable compared to last year. So we are back to we are able to build a backlog growth, that has also a different baseline than previously. So these are the effects that give us visibility and that we track quarter to quarter on how we are performing against that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The next question comes from the line of Ben Castillo- Bernaus from BNP Paribas. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Good morning, Pascal and Rouven. Thanks for squeezing me in here. Can I just come back to the next quarter, Q2's license guidance? The range is quite wide there versus what you typically give. I know you touched on this already around, you know, some larger deals in the pipeline, but is this a new normal? Is Q2 particularly different from others? Perhaps you can expand and just unpack on what's in that pipeline, just give us a bit of a flavor. Thank you.
Yeah. So the way we have designed the pipeline for the second quarter is we have good. If I start with the geographical way to look at it, maybe we expect cost acceleration in North America. Europe had good growth that I think is durable and will continue to see that also in the second quarter and could have some potential to pick up. Asia had a very good quarter with, of course, driven by China, but also with good growth in Korea and Japan. And for all those markets, we have good visibility and also the mix of pipelines from larger, midsize and smaller transactions.
We expect also [CRE], SOLIDWORKS, to have a bigger impact in the second quarter growth than in the first quarter growth. And as you saw in the first quarter, there could be certain deals that can flip to a license with a subscription model that's sometimes difficult to predict. And also, the dependence on China and the impact China had in the first quarter, translating that to the second quarter, we felt that we should give us a bit more flexibility on license, depending on the evolution of how the conversion of pipeline to revenue and deal closing will occur in the second quarter. But I think we have a better structural pipeline in the second quarter than in the first quarter, specifically in North America, but also in Europe.
Okay, great. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Maybe a last question before we close the call?
Yes, of course. Now we're going to take our last question for today. The question comes from the line of Toby Ogg from J.P. Morgan. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Yes. Hi, hi, good morning, Pascal and Rouven, and thanks for the question. I just wanted to come back on the cash flow comment. The Q1 operating cash flow should be 38%-40% of the full year. I think that implies close to EUR 1.7 billion of operating cash flow. So it doesn't really imply any kind of real improvement on the cash conversion side versus sort of a lower level in 2023. So is that firstly, is that the right interpretation of that comment? And secondly, you know, when do you expect an improvement in the cash conversion, and what gives you the confidence in that? And then also just linked to the free cash flow as well, the CapEx looked like it was up a lot in the quarter.
What was the driver of that, and are you expecting higher CapEx going forward? Thank you.
Thanks, Toby, for the question and the opportunity to clarify. So if I look at the numbers, 38%-40%, if you take the 38%, the operating cash flow will be better than EUR 1.7 billion. It's closer to EUR 1.8 billion. Now we want to give us a little bit of room because we have some volatility, as we experienced this quarter. But definitely the comment on 10%+ operating cash flow improvement, that's what we expect for the year, and that has not changed. So the volatility that we discussed this quarter, in Q1, is the majority is timing related, and we will expect Q2 to rebalance that already. Maybe not in full, but we will see the progress.
That for H1, for the first six months, we will see similar conversion from operating income to cash flow than what we had last year. And then we will see on the, on that, as our, of course, our operating income is growing, this year by around 10%, we will see that reflected in the operating cash flow, plus some of the working capital improvements that we discussed previously, that these are still to come. So from that perspective, the outlook has not changed. I think there was just more clarification in terms of timing required that we see in the quarter, and I think we've explained, we've explained that. That was the first one. Toby, what was your second point?
Just on, thanks, Rouven. Yeah, just on the CapEx.
CapEx, we are slightly higher, and that's mainly due to some of the investments we made into the expansion of our of our office space in real estate, real estate. We've opened two new spaces that are driving some of the CapEx investments. But they are in the context of our growth strategy, and, and so, we also... That will, yes, that's, that's the reason.
Brilliant. Thank you.
Thank you. There are no further questions for today.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone. And we have our call later today if there are any follow-up questions. Thank you.