Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Beatrix Martinez, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Razia. Thank you for joining us on our Q2 and Half Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. With Bernard Charlès, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Pascal Daloz, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer, and Rouven Bergmann, Chief Financial Officer. Dassault Systèmes results are prepared in accordance with IFRS. The financial figures discussed on this conference call are on a non-IFRS basis, with growing growth rates on a constant currency basis unless otherwise stated. Some of the comments on this call contain forward-looking statements that could differ materially from actual results. Please refer to today's press release and the risk factors section of our 2022 Universal Registration Document. All earnings materials are available on our website, and these prepared remarks will be available shortly after this call. I would now like to introduce Bernard Charlès.
Thank you very much, Beatrix. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone, thank you for joining us today. It's always a pleasure to be with you. We delivered strong Q2 results with broad-based momentum on total revenue, up 8%, accelerating by one point from Q1. Our new business was up double digit, combining the upfront license on the subscription. We see evidence that the acceleration in total revenue will continue in the second half of the year. Turning to profitability, we outperformed our objective with an operating margin of 31%, while continuing to invest in our future growth, of course, increasing headcount by 7%. Our EPS was strong, up 7% in the Q2, or up 15% at constant currency. Rouven will of course provide more detailed insight into our performance, while Pascal will focus on our business environment.
As usual, I would like to provide you with an update on our strategic positioning and highlight this quarter, the transformative journey we undertook, if you remember, in 2020. Transforming the, from things to life. This strategic shift empowers us to significantly amplify our impact on society and, of course, explore new horizons. Since 1981, I have summarized on one page the Dassault Systèmes journey, and it has always been focused on sustainable innovation of products that are central to our life and core to the development of the society. In parallel, our ambition to harmonize product nature on life has led us to develop a new understanding of the relationship between life and nature. This is why in 2020, we unveil our ambition to develop the virtual twin experience of humans.
A good illustration of that statement, from things to life. As we look to our next horizon, 2040, we will build on this heritage to catalyze a metamorphosis, thanks to the virtual twin experience for a sustainable world. This aligns with our ambition to foster a human-centric and sustainable economy. Our fundamental belief is that the virtual world not only extends, but also enhances the real world. To make a tangible impact, we have consistently supported the workforce of the virtual with our innovative solutions. In our presentation this morning, we included a video from the Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris, demonstrating this idea. With immersive reality, we have created a bridge between the virtual and the real world for the operation. In this case, it's the hospital itself.
This allows us assist the doctors and practitioners in making better-informed decisions through virtual twin experiences. It's really a video that we will post. It's a very interesting one, and the link will be posted on the 3ds.com in the financial section. Really, it's a moving video because it shows exactly how people are now working, using the iPad in an immersive environment to really understand what's going on that is not visible to them. To do that, science plays a pivotal role in our endeavor, as it allows us to see the world with new eyes, making the invisible, visible. Focusing on the theme of science metamorphosing society, we recently held our Science in the Age of Experience on the Virtual Human Twin Experience Symposium. This was in Boston a few weeks ago.
This brought together an impressive collection of clinicians, scientists, researchers, industry players, and regulators to explore AI, modeling, simulation, and research breakthrough, thanks to the virtual twins. Let's focus on the same theme: AI modeling, simulation, and virtual twins. Recently, generative AI captured the attention of the world, that's a system. The truth is that AI has always been part of our DNA for many years, over, I think, 15 years. We started with V5 architecture. This morning, we presented an example of AI-driven therapeutics design. It's really generative AI on science. The goal was to develop a new oral antidepressant molecule that met specific criteria, including solubility, no liver toxicity, no adverse effects on the heart. Additionally, the molecule needed to effectively target the brain's dopamine system.
Leveraging AI, our software generated millions of potential molecules, and with the aid of MODSIM, so by using the result of those molecules, doing modeling and simulation, we predicted their ability to meet the criteria, assigning a success score to each of the options. Expert researchers utilized this result to select which molecule should be advanced to the test phasing, because, as you know, it's a very extensive phase. Currently, a shortlist of safe and effective molecules is ready for real-world lab testing, and later on, of course, the different phase of clinical trial. It shows very clearly that the combination of AI and modeling and simulation proves to be a powerful approach, in which AI opens the realm of possibilities, and MODSIM reduce the space of possibilities by doing better assessment of the capabilities.
You know, it made me think about Google's AlphaFold that represented, in the past, a very strong move forward. We see now that with AI-based therapeutics design, we also are replicating for therapeutics, this kind of breakthrough for medical treatment. This is very well connected to what you know already, which is we call our multiscale, multiphysics approach to phenomenon, and it's at the core of our simulation strategy. Multi-scale, multiphysics framework that we continue to enrich over the years. In the field of biology, we master various levels of scale, from individual cells to large population cohorts. With our multi-physic capabilities, we cover several medical disciplines such as dermatology, neurology, cardiology, endocrinology, and more.
This virtual twin is connecting a representation of those organs, elements, and connecting them with the real-world evidence, which we think is creating a new space that we call the milieu for experimentation. Virtual twin experience of humans is about extensively using this approach. We have made significant progress in the last 3 years to create the virtual twins of keys organs: brain, heart, lungs, living cells, microbiota, to name a few of them. These advances are revolutionizing medical practices that we are packaging in industry solutions, basically, to empower medical practitioner to make more informed decisions, evaluate the practices on their implementation before going to surgery, with planning, operation, sequencing, and comparison, arbitration between the different solutions. We think that it's a major step toward personalized medical device customization. Our purpose is really in action, we think.
In the last three years, it has accelerated. The 3DEXPERIENCE is creating those universes that are connected to the real world, and we believe that it's a major contribution to harmonize product nature and life. Understanding the importance of life, we believe, is going to be essential for not only life science, also for manufacturing, to change the processes, the materials, infrastructure, and it's truly a new perspective for the industry of the 21st century. We believe that the foundations that we have, that were well communicated at the Capital Markets Day, and illustrated with the levers for the future, thanks to Pascal on Rouven on team, will are the foundation for the next five years plan. Now, let me hand over to Pascal. He will tell you a little bit more about customers and business.
Thank you, Bernard Charlès, and hello, everyone. Always a great pleasure to be with you at this time of the year before the summer break. Before to dig too deep into the customer case and the performance by geo, by product line, let me share some observations of what happens during the Q2. the first one is we saw a renewed focus on the investment in innovation from a customer standpoint. This positive shift in the market was evident in our strong performance, driven by the broad-based momentum with both the large enterprises and the mid-market across all the geos. You will have more data on this topic. The second point is, you know, the convergence between the experience economy and the circular economy is really driving a deep transformation across all the sectors.
As businesses and industries continue to evolve, we saw a growing demand from our customers to address the critical issues of sustainability, environmental responsibility, maintaining a competitive edge through the rapid innovation and optimizing operational efficiency at the same time. To give you some concrete example, let's zoom on the customer case for this quarter. Let's start with the manufacturing industries. As I was stating, circularity is more than just a concept. Our clients recognize the tangible benefit of what we bring to their concrete projects. We are, I think, driving forward sustainability innovation in manufacturing, using AI in the combination with our virtual twin, to minimize the waste and recycle the raw materials. This quarter, we have a great proof point with Unilever, which is almost, you remember, an extension of what we did with PepsiCo. I presented this case a few quarters ago.
Unilever has a bold ambitions, in fact, to reduce the plastic waste with a target of reducing what they call the virgin plastic by up to 50% by 2025, so in two years from now. To support this ambition, in fact, they are using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to drive material efficiency through automated optimization processes, and they are also leveraging the real-world evidence and AI in order to optimize and do right the first time. Now, turning to life sciences. The significant time required, at the level of upfront costs and production risk involved in the clinical development, all provide barrier to innovations in the life sciences industry. We aim to help to reduce and break down some of those barriers across the sectors to enable greater innovations.
Last quarter, Novartis expanding its trust in Medidata. Novartis is a long-standing customer of Medidata, and they, you know, they are betting for the future on our partnership. Our mission is really to assist them in achieving a remarkable 50% reduction in clinical trial cycle time. At the same time, they are also standardizing their clinical development on a unified cloud platform. This is the foundation for them to, at some point of time, connect the dots and manage a drug development life cycles across all the domain, from the research and discovery to the manufacturing. Our commitment to Novartis' success is stronger than ever, and it's evidenced by the expanded partnership with a new five year commitment.
It's a five years commitment to expand the scope, to expand the share of wallet, and at the same time, to standardize on everything we do. Now, let's move on infrastructures and cities. The importance of the clean, safe and sovereign energy has always been mission critical, and in the recent year, this topic has gained significant attention worldwide, particularly as we transition toward the global carbon-free energy. While we have frequently showcased successes in energy productions, this time, I want to emphasize how we can drive innovation in the domain of the grid. Red Eléctrica, the sole operator of the Spanish electricity systems, has adopted the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud, not only for design, but also to operate the virtual twins of energy network for Spain next generation smart grid.
Operating the virtual twin of their network is obviously ensuring the highest grid availability, while managing different various source of energy. It's enabling also easy grid connection, which is something extremely important because, I mean, all the different households could become an energy producer, as you can imagine. We are also supporting them in designing the next generation of reversible hydropower plant for energy storage. Which is also extremely important, because the more you move to the renewable, the more you need to find a way to store the energy, and these systems need to be at scale. In addition, we are also assisting them in managing the construction program for the power lines, the substations, and the storage facilities.
This case is a good example of how the 3DEXPERIENCE platform can be used, not only to design the network, but also to operate the network. I mean, you can imagine it was extremely competitive bids. You have all the different, you know, traditional players, and with this platform approach, we have been able to be game changer and to convince Red Eléctrica to standardize against on one platform. Now, let's move to the performance for the quarter, and let's start with the software revenue performance by geography. In Americas, the revenue growth accelerated sequentially to 10%, driven by strong performance, mainly in aerospace and defense, as well as high-tech and well supported by life sciences. The key point is we have seen in Q2 the large deals being back.
In Europe, the momentum with revenue growth of 9% and the region benefited from strength in Germany and France, mainly driven by consumer packaged goods and retail. Believe it or not, the largest transaction we have this quarter is with a large retail company in Europe, and transportation and mobility, which is still core and growing extremely well. In Asia, the growth was up 4%, thanks to the rebound in China, with a growth up high single digits and continued with high double-digit growth in India and strength in mainstream and innovation. Turning now to the product line performance. Industrial innovation software revenue saw 7% growth in Q2. Within that, CATIA delivered a double-digit growth in both upfront licenses and subscriptions, and thanks to the strong cyber systems adoption.
SIMULIA also performed well, with the software revenue growing high single digits during the quarter. ENOVIA delivered a good subscription results during the period. In life sciences, software revenue increased 7%. Medidata deliver a high single digit growth, lower than in the previous quarter, driven by mainly an industry-wide reduction in study staff when compared to the very high post-COVID level, as well as on a very strong baseline effects when you compare to the Q2 last year. At the same time, as I was explaining with the Novartis case, we experienced a strong performance in the top pharma companies, including several multi-year renewal. Novartis is one of them, but also Gilead is another one, just to name a few.
Again, keep in mind that when we renew, we are not renewing on parity, we renew with an extension of what we do, and the average is 20%. Importantly, I think that's probably the main message on this topic, we plan to return to double-digit growth before the end of the year, and we have the visibility to commit on this. Mainstream innovations. Software revenue increased 12%, specifically driven by SOLIDWORKS, which achieved a strong double-digit growth with a broad-based expansion across geographies, notably in China, where the software revenue increased by 25%, it's a notable rebound compared to the -22% the Q1. At the same time, CENTRIC PLM reported an excellent performance, driven by the consumer packaged goods retails, we saw a continuing pleasing momentum across all the core business verticals.
Now, zooming a little bit more on CENTRIC PLM. I think, you know, the solution is used today by over 12,500 brands and has a significant footprint in the market. However, we are convinced that the potential opportunity we see in front of us is much larger. Why so? Because there are several axes to continue to expand. The first one is the move from fashion and apparel to new markets, including food and beverage, cosmetic, personal care, home and furniture, and consumer electronics, just to name a few. The fact that we are also moving from the brands, which are the core today, to the retailers, the manufacturers, and also the consumer, which are more and more part of the loop.
This quarter, as I was saying, I was telling you, we signed a very important deal with one of the large retailers. From a solution standpoint, we are also expanding from being the collection management systems, to establishing the CENTRIC PLM as a business platform for the consumer industry, serving as a backbone for the e-commerce. I think if you do the sum, we are convinced we are very well positioned to continue to expand and to execute this strategy, to become a global leader in this, in this area. We believe that CENTRIC PLM has the potential to become, at some point of time, a billion US dollar businesses. Having said that, it's my turn to give the floor to Rouven, to discuss a little bit more of the financial in details. Rouven, you have the floor.
Thank you, Pascal, thank you, Bernard. As you can see, Q2 was a strong quarter. We delivered on all our key objectives, encompassing revenue growth, margin, and EPS, driven by broad-based strength across pretty much all geographies and a healthy contribution from the large deal activity. As a result, we wrapped up a good first half of the year, which puts us on trajectory to achieve our full year objectives. Before I'm going through the details of the numbers, I want to recall quickly that when we introduced our objectives back in Q2, in April, we highlighted three main drivers, which were the condition to accelerate the growth in the Q2. The first one was an acceleration in North America, the second, continued momentum in Europe, and third, return to mid-single digital growth in China.
I want to share with you that all these elements, we delivered not only the expected, but also better results in this quarter. Let's turn to our Q2 results in detail. Total revenue and software revenue grew consistently 8%, while services revenue was up 7% at constant currency and in line with our objectives. Upfront license revenue was up 6%, ahead of the Q2 objectives, driven by the rebound in China, very good performance in mainstream innovation with SOLIDWORKS, and a healthy contribution from large deals, mainly in Europe and North America. Related to the performance in China, we highlighted during our Q1 call that we saw evidence of increasing activity in March, and in fact, this trend continued, driving 8% growth in China in the Q2.
We are confident that this progressive trend is further raising the potential for growth in the rest of the year. Recurring revenue rose 9%. Subscription revenue is up 13% year-over-year. Together, subscription and upfront license revenue growth was up 10%, highlighting the improving momentum for Q2. For the first six months, the share of recurring revenue increased to 81% of total software revenue. This represents an increase of 200 basis points versus last year. Subscription revenue growth for SOLIDWORKS, CENTRIC PLM, CATIA, and ENOVIA together was up over 30% and significantly above the average growth rate this quarter, we experienced a temporary slower growth at MEDIDATA, as highlighted by Pascal earlier.
To complement Pascal, I'd like to go highlight 3 points to explain what's driving the Medidata performance in the Q2, as well as for the rest of the year. We have the impact of lower clinical trial starts, as observed by global industry data. We have the impact of the COVID mega studies, which phased out during Q2 and Q3 of last year, and the momentum we have with top 50 large pharma customers. Let's go through this briefly, one by one to explain. We are seeing a more deliberate investment environment in which CROs continuing to adjust volumes. Worldwide, in the Q2, 2023, according to global industry data, clinical trial starts decreased by around 10%. While study start volumes are under pressure, our win rate remains at a strong level, industry-leading levels at around 75%.
Second, when we compare to Q2 last year, we had the benefit of the ending of the mega trials, which were started during the pandemic, and typically at the end of such complex studies, we are entitled to true up revenue. This creates an unfavorable baseline effect with an impact of approximately three points to the growth rate. We expect a similar effect in Q3 before we are back to double-digit growth in Q4. Third point, we signed several multi-year renewals with top 50 pharma. This is evidenced by the strong total quarter bookings up 17%, which will drive revenue in future periods. On top, we continue to see strong renewal rates, more than 20% above par over the trailing 12 months, and our revenue retention rate remains all above 99.5%.
To summarize, the lower subscription revenue growth contribution in Medidata is temporary, and we are confident that growth will rebound towards the end of the year and further into 2024. Looking at our strategic growth drivers of 3DEXPERIENCE and Cloud. 3DEXPERIENCE revenue in the first six months grew 5% at constant currency. This reflects a share of 31% 3DEXPERIENCE addressable software revenue, flat year-over-year. This is relative to a strong comparison base last year. Highlighted, before, our 3DEXPERIENCE deal roadmap is strengthening in the second half, we expect this share to increase in H2. Cloud revenue in the first six months rose 14%, now representing 24% of software revenue, an increase of 2 points. While Medidata growth contribution was lower this quarter, for the reasons mentioned, the growth in 3DEXPERIENCE Cloud remains at a healthy clip.
Now, let's review how we perform relative to the objectives we set for the Q2. We reported total revenue of EUR 1.449 billion, and unlike in previous quarters, we had a currency headwind of about 50 basis points, resulting in a negative FX impact of EUR 7 million during the period. Adjusted for this currency impact, total revenue was EUR 5 million higher than the midpoint of our target range due to the outperformance in software revenue by EUR 4 million and in service revenue by EUR 1 million. We reported an operating margin of 31%, 50 basis points above the high end of the range and 80 basis points higher than the midpoint. Better revenue performance and lower OpEx growth together contributed 110 basis points improvement versus the midpoint, partially offset by negative currency impact of 30 basis points.
It's clear from the numbers, we delivered on our profitability targets while continuing to invest. We added over 300 net new employees during the quarter and over 650 for the first six months. Due to our disciplined investment approach, we are well on track to manage our OpEx growth in 2023, offsetting the carryover effect resulting from the strong hiring last year. This gives us the visibility to continue our focused investments in the second half of the year to address our long-term opportunities. Turning per share, we reported EUR 0.28 as reported at the high end of our objectives range, which was EUR 0.27-EUR 0.28, and we offset EUR 0.004 of negative FX impacts. Turning to cash flow and balance sheet items.
Cash and cash equivalents totaled EUR 3.345 billion, compared to EUR 2.769 billion at the end of Q4 of 2022, an increase of EUR 576 million. At the end of the quarter, our net financial position totaled EUR 352 million, an increase of EUR 579 million, versus net financial debt of EUR 227 million at the end of last year. Let's look at what is driving our cash position at the end of the Q2. We generated EUR 1.026 billion operating cash flow year-to-date. This was slightly lower by 2% or EUR 22 million when compared to the first six months of last year. There are two main reasons or takeaways to explain this. First, we continue to see a good momentum in working capital.
In fact, the net change in operating working capital is up 5%, driven mainly by strong collections, evidenced by sequentially improving DSOs. This is partially offset by a slightly unfavorable change in the non-operating working capital due to higher tax payments. Second, the net income adjusted for non-cash items is lower versus last year, because, number one, as discussed, we decided to invest at higher levels in 2022 to accelerate top line growth, as a result, we are absorbing the expense carryover effect now in 2023. At the same time, the progressive revenue growth acceleration is taking off. Lastly, the remaining gap is a result of an increase in social charges for share-based compensation due to the higher share price versus last year. I refer you to more details in our reconciliation table on cash flow.
To sum it up, operating cash flow was mainly used for CapEx of EUR 67 million, repayment of lease liabilities of EUR 42 million, and the cash dividend paid in Q2 of EUR 276 million. Lastly, of note, we had a negative FX impact of EUR 56 million year to date, 2023. Let's turn to our fiscal year 2023 objectives. We are maintaining our guidance. The key takeaway is that we are on a good trajectory to achieve our long-term financial objective of EUR 1.20 earnings per share. Total revenue growth between 8%-9% at constant currency remains unchanged. In absolute terms, we are offsetting the FX impact of -EUR 7 million to the year by raising the performance to maintain the range as is of EUR 5.914 billion to EUR 5.990 billion.
This assumes that we expect progressive growth acceleration throughout the remainder of the year, driven by an increase in contribution from large deal activity in H2, and mid to high single-digit growth in China, continuing the good Q2 trend. Finally, we reaffirm the operating margin range of 32.3%-32.6%. Before moving to the Q3 objectives, I would like to emphasize that the unchanged full-year revenue guidance assumes that we maintain growth rate at constant currency of software revenue, 8%-9%, service revenue of 5%-7%. Continue to expect recurring revenue growth in the range of 10%-11%, with strong subscription revenue increasing in the range of 17%-18%. Following the good trend of Q2 in upfront license revenue, we remain confident for the full-year range of 2%-5%.
Let's turn to our Q3 objectives. We are targeting total revenue growth of 8%-10%, with recurring revenue increasing by 10%, driven by strong subscription revenue growth of 17%-19%. We're forecasting upfront license revenue growth of 6%-10%. This reflects an acceleration in subscription revenue growth in Q3 versus Q2, this is driven by an increasing share of 3DEXPERIENCE subscription deals in the second half of the year, continued momentum in adopting the subscription-based pricing of SOLIDWORKS customer base, and strong growth from CENTRIC PLMs. As mentioned, and for the reasons outlined before, Medidata is expected to continue mid to high single digit growth in Q3 before returning to double-digit growth in Q4. For services revenue, we are predicting a normalized 2%-5% growth.
In terms of profitability, we are forecasting an operating margin of 30.2%-30.5%, with diluted EPS of EUR 0.26-EUR 0.27 in Q3. For additional information, I refer you to today's earnings presentation. In conclusion, we've had a good first half of the year with strong Q2 results. As you heard, the growth is broad-based, and the momentum is improving across all major geographies, driven by strength in industrial and mainstream innovation. We are on track to achieve our objectives for the year, reflecting an acceleration in revenue growth in the second half of the year. Clearly, these results demonstrate our platform strategy is well aligned with the priorities of our clients.
We are focused on execution to deliver sustainable growth, and we remain confident in our ability to advance towards our EPS objective of EUR 1.20. Now, Bernard Charlès, Pascal Daloz, and I are looking forward to the conversation and your questions.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Once again, please press star one and one if you have any questions or comments at this time. We are now going to proceed with our first question. The questions come from the line of Jay Vleeschhouwer from Griffin Securities. Please ask your question.
Thank you. Hello, Bernard Charlès, Pascal Daloz, and Rouven. Let me start with a couple of questions-.
Morning.
Good morning, or good afternoon for you. Let me start with a couple of questions around the sources of recurring revenue. by brand, as best we can tell, products like CATIA and SIMULIA, their percentage of total revenue that is recurring is considerably above the corporate average. ENOVIA seems to be around the corporate average, SOLIDWORKS seems to be around the corporate average. When you look at the other brands that seem to be below the corporate average percentage of recurring revenue, how are you thinking about increasing that % for products like DELMIA and, and the rest, in terms of increasing that recurrence?
Second question around recurring revenue is, and Pascal, you and I talked about this a bit in Paris last month, can you comment on what you're seeing in terms of expected next 12-month revenue coming out of backlog? I know you disclosed that in the annual report, but perhaps you could give us some indications of how that's trending, you know, through the mid-year in terms of growth of expected conversion of backlog.
I start with the first part of the question. There are a few things to be noticed in the recurrent revenue. First of all, the weight of the subscription is going bigger and bigger within, right? You remember we used to have 60/40. 60% was coming from maintenance and support, and 40% was coming from subscriptions. Given the acceleration we have seen on the subscriptions, and it's really happening across all the core brands of Dassault Systèmes. SIMULIA is already high, as you know, ENOVIA also, but we see this trend extremely predominant also now happening for CATIA and SOLIDWORKS. SOLIDWORKS, it's also increasing rapidly. Now, you mentioned specifically DELMIA. DELMIA, you are right, we used to have traditional license, upfront license model. Again, same things is happening.
We see more and more the trends towards subscriptions, especially for the manufacturing operations management systems. Because it's really an operating cost, if you want. Many, many customers, they want not anymore to have a CapEx approach, but to have an OpEx-based approach. That's the reason why we see the trend to also happening to DELMIA. If you remember what Rouven said during the Capital Markets Day, he was explicit about this. He said this 60/40 mix will shift to the opposite. 60 will come from the subscriptions, and 40 will come from the maintenance and support for the next five years plan. That's what I can say. For the next 12 months backlog, again, it's a difficult things to touch, because it's not an indicator.
We are, you know, communicating to the market, and to a certain extent, we are following, but with the different parameters and probably the one you expect. Nevertheless, there is one business which is running this way, which is the big data one. I think it's probably good also to give this indication, because we are mentioning that, you know, it's temporary, the fact that we are a single digit growth, and we are committed to be back to double digit growth in Q4. The more important is this backlog concept is extremely important because the bookings are increasing almost twice the growth we are reporting right now. Which is, to a certain extent, a good indicator, how it will be translated into revenue in 2024. That's what I can say at this stage, Jay.
Okay, well, thank you for that. Secondly, this is something of a follow-up from your presentation last month, and has to do with the, let's call it, the completeness of your portfolio and how you're thinking about addressing that. First of all, in simulation, SIMULIA, you have a very large business, probably the second largest in the group, but it also seems to be very narrowly based in terms of percentage of revenue from a particular physics. The question there is: how are you thinking about broadening the multiphysics portfolio for simulation? Secondly, the infrastructure and cities presentation last month was quite interesting, but it's not clear, how complete the portfolio is for that, as compared with the quite obvious completeness of the portfolio for transportation and mobility and for life sciences.
Perhaps you could address one or both of those in terms of how you're thinking about more broadly covering, different processes and flows and so forth, within both of those two large opportunities.
Want to take it, Bernard?
Yeah, I can do a brief. First, on the SIMULIA side, which is basically the brand that supports all multiphysics, multiscale. You're right, the landscape multiscale, multiphysics is gigantic. In some way, it does include also the system view. More and more people doing simulation wants a system view of their simulation. We continue to expand the scope. Jay, I would debate the fact that we have a narrow view, a narrow portfolio at this point in time. We cover linear, nonlinear structure, we cover EMAG, we cover flow very well. We cover also very specific solutions related to global optimization.
For example, the full interior optimization of a car in terms of ambience, noise, heat or cooling system, and so on. Which, basically, are not done by others. The roadmap is a broad roadmap, you're right. I think we are pleased with the dynamic, and as you know, the platform phenomenon is giving us a lever, whereby very old installation, you have been following our industry for a long time. Very old installation, very old solvers, are put under question when you go platform. We see that very visible with all customers who have adopted the platform, they are bringing together with them integrated multi-physics simulation. Why? Because it's extremely fast.
They reduce the cycle time with this, they don't want to reinvest in building connectors. I think you will see a sustainable, strong growth in this area. You're right, we need to continue to expand on the portfolio. Briefly said, on city infrastructure, I think we are progressing on the fact to understand that city and infrastructure is not only construction. First, on the construction side, we have very large project going on. They are limited, but they are very large. I think we mentioned Vinci, on the number of project Vinci is doing now with our platform are significant. Nuclear project, this is construction.
Railway project. I think what was quite interesting in Pascal's presentation this morning, and I think he mentioned this just at the call here, is this Red Eléctrica, electrical company, very novel, doing a full grid in Spain, EUR 10 billion investment or something like this. Gigantic investment, creating the virtual twin to construct a grid, maintain and operate the grid. I mean, those are new things that, in the past, everyone will recognize, were only managed with documents.
Mm.
We see a lot of opportunities there. Virtual hospital, which is part of what we call our MEDITWIN initiative in Europe, to have the patient flow within the hospital. We probably are taking this sector from a different approach than just creating software for buildings, touching the real infrastructure. It's going to take time, but I think we see now new companies coming in with the investment, especially in infrastructure, in energy infrastructure. That's in short, how we are shaping the strategy forward.
Okay. Lastly, I think Pascal would be terribly disappointed if I didn't ask about SOLIDWORKS. On that.
No, he would be disappointed if you were not the first to ask the question at the afternoon.
Oh, very good. Very good. Would it be correct to infer that the year-over-year new volume growth for SOLIDWORKS was, let's call it 11% to between 19,000 and 20,000 for the quarter, and up sequentially from Q1? Relatedly, Pascal, are you still expecting that by the end of this year, 3DEXPERIENCE Works will have had about 6%-7% penetration of the eligible SOLIDWORKS commercial base?
I do not have the number in mind, precisely, but I have the trend. In volume for Q1, we are decreasing by 20%, 20+, compared to last year. In Q2, we catch up, +22 in volume, right? Which is also an important topic you mentioned, because, you know, you have this question about: Is it an anticipation of the price increase we are doing in the middle of the year? We can claim it is not, at least, it's of use. The major gap, the major catch up is coming from Asia, especially China. This is where we have seen the volume being back to where it used to be.
coming back to the WORKS family, I think I'm still on this plan, that we will be over 5% of the contribution of the 3DEXPERIENCE Works family in the mix in 2023. yes.
Okay. Well, thank you as always.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Jay.
Thank you, Jay.
We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Michael Briest from UBS. Please ask your question.
Yes, thanks. Good afternoon. A couple of follow-ups. Just in terms of the 2025 ambition for EUR 2 billion in cloud, are you still confident in that, given the sort of deceleration that Medidata causes for it? On Asia, 4% growth, obviously, China was strong, you called out India. Maybe you can say something about Japan and Korea, and if there's any sort of weakness in those other countries, whether that comes back. Just a final one, Rouven, on the stock-based compensation, I think you started the year at EUR 124 million. It's now EUR 241 million. It's gone up a lot in the last 3 months. Can you explain what's driving that, and how we should think about how it will develop in future years? Thanks.
Sure. I start, Pascal?
Yeah, please.
Yeah?
Please.
I start with the cloud question.
Yep.
Stock-based compensation, and you take Asia.
Yep, I take it.
Okay. Starting with the cloud question, Michael, the EUR 2 billion, of course, this is a plan that we have put in place for a long time, and it is very much in action, and the one that we're confident to achieve. As we said, the Medidata performance is temporary. We didn't talk so much about it, but we signed some significant bookings in the 2Q, which will drive revenue in future periods. We also have a number of good opportunities in our pipeline, so we are very, very focused and also confident to achieve the EUR 2 billion 2025. On the stock-based compensation, if you look at the reconciliation between IFRS and non-IFRS, you see also there the difference.
Specifically in Q2, there's an increase of EUR 50 million in the stock-based compensation expenses. Michael, this is related to two effects. The first one being the Together Plan, which is our, the expenses we incurred for the stock plan for our employees that we put in place. It's the second plan now, after the first one that we've launched. You know, we have given those shares at a discount of 15%, and the cost associated with this plan is about EUR 30-35 million. Around EUR 20 million is related, the incremental expense of the new plan that we have put in place. It's a new LTI that was launched, which has an incremental expense of EUR 20 million in this quarter.
That explains the difference, and of course, if we expand to additional quarters, you will have the cost of the new plan included, which was not you know, at the beginning of the year, because at that point in time, the plan was just not approved by the board. That's why we cannot report those expenses, and we don't forecast or guide on them.
Related to Asia, and the side of China and India, because we gave the numbers. To summarize it's flattish in Japan for the quarter. It's mid-single digit for Korea, and the growth from Korea is coming from subscription specifically. If I remember, it's higher than 30% growth of subscription in Korea.
Thank you. Rouven, will that sort of, is the 240 now the sort of steady state, we should assume?
Um-
Will it grow with revenues in future years?
Yeah, of course, I, we will adjust, but I think from a size, in terms of the number of shares that were issued, we are fairly consistent with previous years. Of course, the cost of the plan is associated with other factors, too. As you know, we have the new plan is contingent on 2 performance criteria. It's not only the EPS, it's also the ESG criteria.
Yep.
The valuation of this plan had to follow a new methodology, which was slightly more expensive, but at the end of the day, it's the right thing to do. Michael, the envelope is the same.
The total envelope is the same. Yes.
All right. Thank you.
Important.
Yeah.
As a reminder, once again, to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question comes from the line of Jason Celino from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please ask your question.
Great, thanks for fitting me in. On the topic of the large deal activity in North America and Europe, it's definitely nice to see that return. Maybe first, you know, what sectors are you seeing this large activity in specifically, and maybe where in the pipeline, could that change, in terms of strength?
Okay. Rouven, I take it? I was, as I was commenting this morning, I think aerospace extremely well. You remember last year was also a good year? To give you an indicator, it's we are close to 20% growth for the sector. It's coming obviously from the large OEMs, but also the supply chain, which is starting to also being equipped. The second thing is transportation and mobility is still a steady market for us, and we have a lot of sizable deal in the pipeline. Much more on H2 than we had in H1, and they are spread across Americas and Europe and also Asia. Shipbuilding is also a sector where we have large transactions in the pipeline, in Europe and in Asia, and also to a certain extent in Americas.
Believe it or not, we also have more and more large transactions coming from CPG and retail. I was mentioning PepsiCo, I mentioned Unilever. You remember we had P&G. This domain is starting to be equipped, and now the level of transaction start to be comparable with what we have done in other industries.
Centric is big.
Centric is obviously the one driving this. Last but not least, we are against on the life sciences. They are very large customers of Dassault Systèmes. We were mentioning the top 50s, and we also have large renewal transactions. You remember, each time we renew, we are also expanding what we do. If you do the combination, I think, we have a good visibility on the pipeline for H2, and it's diversified from an industry standpoint, which is I think, the reason why maybe you notice we have a certain level of confidence.
Yeah. No, none of those sectors are really surprising, especially since these are your core, you know, industries. Maybe my follow-up here is, do you think that this large activity you're seeing is a reflection of just the macro environment being a little better, or at least not worse? Or is this competitive wins or internal executions? You know, curious on how you'd frame it?
No, I think I made this comment in my sections. Believe it or not, I think we have seen a rebound in the investment cycle for innovation. It's happening across the geos and across the sectors.
Yeah.
I think since the beginning of the year, especially in Asia and certain countries, the investment cycle was really here to foster the, I would say, the ramp up of the consumption. We see more and more the industrial cycle investments to be considered, and I think the level of priority of our projects are extremely high. That's the reason why also it's something which is really different compared at least for the last six months. That's the reason also what we have, this, I would say, backloaded years, where the largest transaction are a lot more on H2 than H1. It's a little bit counterintuitive, because you're right, if you look at the PMI index increasing, but the reality in our pipeline, we see the opposite way.
Perfect. Thank you. I appreciate the call. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Is it, was it the last question? Yeah. Or do we close here? Okay.
Thank you very much, all of you, and we appreciate your participation. Of course, we continue to be there, and Pascal and Rouven are going to have additional roadshow in the next coming days, as we should. For those of you who have not, having not taken your summer break, enjoy your summer break, and talk to you soon. Thank you everyone, for your interest in Dassault Systèmes.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.