Welcome to our H1 2023 results presentation. Olivier and I will guide you through the results of 2023, and some highlights of course the guidance. The highlights. The growth first, a very strong sales growth of 21.3%, an organic growth of 18.6%, and an outperformance of 740 basis points. Maybe two elements to add to this With an US-based BEV OEM, we increased our sales by 73%. With BYD in the same period, we increased our sales by 78%. These two customers are now representing about 10% of our global sales. We also improved the operating margin from 3.5% - 5%. Here, I have to say that we could have done better.
We have not taken into account for EUR 30 million customer offers we have estimated not at the right level, and which we have delayed for their conclusion in the H2 . These EUR 30 million are representing 20 basis points. We achieved on solid net cash flow with EUR 172 million, 1.3% of sales, and we deleveraged further the company from 3.1x net debt to adjusted EBITDA in June 13th, 2022 to end of June, 2023. On track with the priorities we have set and our POWER25 plan. First, we were successful with selective growth, driven by innovation and sustainability. We achieved more than EUR 15 billion order intake with an average profitability, which is above POWER25 objectives.
Here, I also would like to name two mega orders, one for a Seating with an total lifetime sales of EUR 1.9 billion, and another one for Lighting, with a lifetime sale level of EUR 1.8 billion. As I said before, we continue to grow with BYD, with a very significant order intake amount. Cost management and enhanced profitability, effective management of inflation. We will speak a little bit more about this, but we are on track to achieve 87% of compensation. We have also accelerated cost synergies with Hella. You remember, we announced that we would, PNL-wise, achieve 40% of our 2025 target of more than EUR 300 million, EUR 120 million.
We are already above, we gave us a new target for the end of the year at EUR 150 million. We accelerated the deleveraging and debt management. The disposal program, all cash proceeds are expected by the end of Q3. I have a piece of good news. Our Symbio deal, the takeover of one third of the shares by Stellantis, was closed this morning, just before this meeting. We will also speak about the active debt management in terms of gross debts. We have reduced them by an excess of EUR 500 million. I'm sure, Olivier, you will be back on these elements. When we look at our order intake, the EUR 15 billion with a high profitability, how is this amount splitted?
EUR 3.2 billion are corresponding to Electronics. It's 21% of the full amount, 25% at EUR 3.8 billion in China, EUR 7.5 billion, about 50% on Battery Electric Vehicles and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles, and 54% on premium vehicles and SUVs, more than EUR 8 billion. This allows us, again, to be above our profitability target. I have also to say that we have achieved a much lower upfront level related to this EUR 15 billion than what we budgeted. In fact, we are 30% below what we considered. Focus on Electronics, just here, a snapshot about some of our products and on which we have won significant shares. The first one is the latest generation of remote tuner.
It's radio reception, with a compact design using a software-defined radio tuner. You have the steering sensors, which are absolutely key for all power steering solutions. It's a technology to, you know, enable these, and which are contributing also to our steer-by-wire systems. Lastly, the high-voltage battery management system, which is ensuring the safe and reliable functioning of lithium-ion batteries. Here again, we got our first project in the U.S. Accelerating on hydrogen. We are perfectly on track, sorry. We announced that we target EUR 3 billion of sales in 2030. This is most probably a level we will have to upgrade in the months to come. We accelerated. We have the entry of Stellantis in Symbio's capital, I just spoke about.
It's a very important point because it will allow us to grow in America. We believe that the American market, with the large SUVs and the light trucks, have the best use cases for this and significant volumes. We think that this is very short-term, the next development, we will have to deal with. We will also start deliveries of type 4 hydrogen tanks, which are in order, the cylindrical, 700 bar tanks from Allenjoie plant in France. It's the first of its kind facility in Europe and in North America, with a capacity of 100,000 tanks per year. We got significant awards from a tier 1 OEM in hydrogen storage systems very recently, which, again, is putting us perfectly on track with our plans.
Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions reduction path. On this slide, you see the light blue reduction curve. This is what SBTI is requesting from companies to stick to the 1.5 degrees. You see that we are significantly below, as our target in 2025 is to achieve -80%. This is what is corresponding to our 2025 neutrality on one end, on Scope 1 and 2. Now, when we look at what we achieved in 2022, we were significantly below this target. We will again, here, win about 1 year on 2023 versus our red curve.
What we have to understand is that this first part is mainly related to energy savings, and the second part, between 2024 and 2025, will be more related to PPAs and contracts. About these PPAs and these contracts, we have achieved through 2 significant contracts in Sweden, but on 2 different wind farms, 70% of capacity, which is about 650 gigawatt hours, sorry. The last one we had, we won, is at about 400 gigawatt hour. This, you see, is putting us on a very safe side on these PPA, on this renewable energy we are needing in Europe. It's something which is very concrete and which is, again, perfectly aligned with the targets we have.
Now, a word about the collaboration with Hella, which further intensified in the last time. The sales synergies is ramping up. I just told you that we will be above what we decided as being the target for 2023. We will now look for EUR 150 million, and we, you know, can already say that the EUR 300 million will be achieved and most probably improved. We created FORVIA HELLA Services, which is a consolidation of IT systems and indirect purchasing very recently, which will allow to further boost these synergies. We made a joint management meeting.
You know, we had 400 people in Seville in June, which was important to make sure that we are perfectly aligned, which is the case. We are rolling out the new Faurecia values, which we defined in common with the teams. About these synergies, you have on the left-hand side, the delta between H1 2022 and H1 2023. You see that we have increased this level by EUR 53 million. On the right-hand side, we have the target we proposed for 2023. I just said that this is no more our objective. Our objective today is EUR 150 million for this year. Strong execution on top priorities to deleverage the company.
I think that, you know, the gross debt reduction of EUR 559 million in H1 2023 is an important step. All the three transactions finalizing the EUR 1 billion of disposal program have received clearance and will be closed shortly. They will be closed by the latest at the end of the Q3 . This will allow us to further reduce our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio. At the end of June, we were at 2.4 times. 2.4 times is close to 45% of the reduction towards the 1.5 times we indicated for 2025. I think we are on track, and you will see we have revised the guidance accordingly.
Now, targeting 2 times-2.2 times at year-end 2023. Olivier, the results.
Thank you, Patrick. I will zoom in in more details on the H1 results, starting with the revenues. As mentioned by Patrick, strong growth of our revenues in H1, 21.3%, to EUR 13.6 billion. This is on an organic base, excluding the scope effect, which is the one month of Hella. We consolidated from February 1st, 2022 last year, so we have six months this year, five months last year. Excluding also the Forex impact with the slight devaluation of US dollar and renminbi compared to last year.
We have an organic growth of 18.6% versus an automotive production that has improved in the period by 11.2%, hence the outperformance of 740 basis points that Patrick mentioned at the beginning of this call. The 740 basis points, it's inside, you have a bit of inflation. The overall inflation is lower than what we have seen in the past. You have much less on the raw material, but you have, vice versa, labor and energy. This is only 110 basis points.
Then you have the mix, clearly, because Europe has recovered from the difficulties caused by the start of Ukraine, and a pure volume base of 430 basis points of outperformance, a solid start of the year. Now, if I move on the operating margin, we have improved by 150 basis points compared to last year, to 5%. This is, in fact, stable versus H2 2022 on a similar level of revenue. This is on the back, year-over-year, of the increase in volume, the increase of the mix. You have seen that we, with the electrification is benefiting from us in many respects.
Inside, you have, as mentioned by Patrick, a little bit of the negative effect on inflation, given the tension on the negotiation, and also that we wanted to make sure that the deals we are taking are, in fact, balanced and ensure pro-profitability, not only today, but also in the future. The synergies and the evolution on the Seating program in Michigan are also contributing to the improvement. Synergies, EUR 53 million year-on-year for H1 only. On seating, 2 things to mention: the Seating program in Michigan, we have agreed with Stellantis on the end of the JIT part by the end of September. We will, in fact, only keep the metal part and the covers and trim on the back of our good footprint in Mexico, mainly Monterrey.
In H1, we still had losses, but much less than the last year, and this is the improvement of EUR 20 million. We had losses of around EUR 30 million in absolute in H1. This is part of the improvement, and what is important is that you will be able to see in the future an end of the drag that it has represented on our results in the past couple of years. If I move by region first, in terms of showing the detail of our performance and evolution. The H1 is showing the beginning of a rebalancing of our performance between regions. China, Asia, continue to be strong and solid, and if I may, even more than last year. Strong outperformance.
We see that, in fact, we had 25% reported increase in Asia, 27.8% on an organic organic base, so strong outperformance and strong profitability. We are above 10% in the region and driven clearly by China. A solid and continued base, expanding on the back of the development of the activity, including with Chinese OEM, among others, of course, BYD. We see that improvement in Americas. Americas has improved in the period by 270 basis points. Of course, the reduction of the of the situation in the Michigan contract that I mentioned before, is contributing. Beyond that, South America is at a good level, and also North America is improving its operation and its performance in the period, which is which is an encouraging trend.
Remains Europe, here EMEA, so Europe plus the limited activity we have in South Africa. You see improvement in the profitability, but to a lower extent. This is on the back of inflation recovery, not in full, and second, some difficulties on some launches in Interiors, which are temporary, that have in Eastern Europe, that have impacted a little bit the size of the improvement in EMEA for H1. If I move to business groups, so this is the picture of our six business group. You see that we have, in fact, an outperformance in all of them, including Clean Mobility, even with the development of the electrification. You see also that all of them have improved profitability year-on-year.
If I go to the different ones, Seating, strong growth, stronger performance, and improvement by 150 basis points year-over-year. This is, part of it is, of course, Michigan. There is also the improvement of some operation. Clearly, still a lot of work to do, but this is an encouraging progress. On Interiors, we have an improvement of the profitability by 90 basis points, and I want to make sure that the reference is taken correctly. We are applying IFRS 5 in all those numbers. This is applicable in the totality. This is impacting Interiors. SAS was inside this segment, the comparable number have been revised accordingly.
This is what is reflected when you see 2.9% in H1 2022 in terms of profitability, and 3.8% for H1 2023. The profitability has improved, however, a bit of limitation on the back of the issues I mentioned in Eastern Europe that have been temporary, but have been a drag a little bit at the beginning of the semester. Clean Mobility improvement of the profitability with, in fact, continuing investment in hydrogen and a very strong base managed for cash on the ULE side of the house. On Electronics, you have, in fact, the strong growth. You have, however, a more limited improvement of the profitability by only 20 basis points, from 4.0% - 4.3%.
This is, first of all, with Hella Electronics, which is the biggest part of electronics segment. Strong profitability there, improvement by 60 basis points, and, in fact, the profitability above 7 for the Hella Electronics part. For Faurecia Clarion Electronics, more limited growth, and also some specific logistics and remaining shortage difficulties at the beginning of the semester, which led to a loss inside the period. Those logistics and shortages are largely behind us since, in fact, mid-April, but on the profitability of H1, it has been an impact of EUR 15 million of pure cost. Lighting, you see clearly that the turnaround is well engaged on different fronts. The order intake has been strong.
the key points from the provided text: The text describes a visible conversion in revenue, attributed to innovation and a strong presence in new, innovative fields. This has resulted in a 24.9% increase in organic revenues. Profitability has also significantly improved, rising by 410 basis points to nearly 5%. This 5% figure is highlighted as a key reference point from a previous investor day in November, where it was set as a goal for 2025, not the ultimate potential for lighting. The current numbers are seen as encouraging progress towards this goal. Finally, the text mentions "Life Cycle Solutions" as a smaller activity, but one that still generates over EUR 1 billion on a full-year basis
Solid activity, solid profitability, solid cash conversion, and also the pass-through on inflation has been effective, and this is explaining our Lifecycle Solutions is returning more to the 13% that they have enjoyed in the past, and improving 230 basis points year-on-year. If I now move to the profitability, the full PNL, first of all, on up to the operating margin. I want to highlight that this, of course, represent the evolution, including an additional months of Hella, and therefore it increased all the value, including the cost. I will come back to this. You see that the gross margin has improved by 120 basis points.
This is reflecting, in fact, the improvement of the mix, even in the context of the dilution effect that we know with the inflation. On the R&D, if I take into account the additional months of Hella, in fact, we are at a similar level than last year in gross R&D. Related to SG&A, we have the additional months of Hella that is explaining part of the increase, but we have also some specific one-off in the H1 . Let me be clear on this, both the R&D cost and the SG&A will go down in the H2 in absolute terms. This is part of our fixed cost action and synergy action. You will see the result of this, and you will see the contribution to this in our H2 results. On the net income, we are returning to green.
We are returning to positive with EUR 28 million. We have also a PNL now that has no exceptional effect, whether positive or negative, which is a good thing, and which is also allowing all of us to see what is necessary in terms of operating margin to register a net income positive. If I go in the detail of this, the amortization of goodwill is higher than last year. This is the additional months of Hella. The restructuring level is more normalized. Last year, we had significant impact, including the decision to get out of Russia. The interest expense at EUR 306 million, I want to highlight the content of this.
The net charge of the debt and our and the interest that we have on our bank account is EUR 240 million for the H1 , and then we have EUR 66 million, which are related to hyperinflation charges, which are related also to the revaluation mark to market of our virtual PPA. We have taken a conservative charge of EUR 16 million on this to ensure no surprise going forward. On the income tax, we have an increase, which is in normal with the increase of profitability, both in operating income, but also on the other line of the net income.
Going forward, you can expect that the increase of income tax will be a marginal 20% on the additional increase of profit, because, in fact, with more balanced profitability between regions, the income tax charge will be more normalized than what you have seen last year. The netting, the net income from discontinued, the line plus EUR 18 million, reflect the net income of SAS as a consequence of the implementation of IFRS 5. The results, the net results of SAS are booked on one line, and which is the EUR 18 million that you see here. The last line is minority interest. They are increasing, which means that, in fact, in particular, Hella results, net income is increasing, and therefore, also minority interest associated. If I move on the cash flow.
On the cash flow, two items to mention first, is that we have a EUR 100 million net reclass positive on factoring. We were doing factoring with SAS in the past. We have stopped that as a consequence of the sale, and we are doing it in the rest of the group, so this is inside this number. Vice versa, we have a negative of EUR 69 million related to a withholding tax. The extraordinary dividend from Hella to Faurecia has, of course, a withholding tax associated. This EUR 69 million will come back in 2024 after review and audit by the German authorities.
The confirmation of the likelihood of this is that you did not see any charge in the net income in the previous page, as validated with our external auditors as part of the closing of H1. Now, inside the performance of this increase in net cash flow year-on-year, from EUR 155 to EUR 172, we have the strengths and the increase in the EBITDA, increasing by 27% year-on-year, including the additional months of Hella, and equal, increasing by 50 basis points to 11.8%. You see also the reduction of CapEx, even with the additional months of Hella, that has contributed to this evolution, which is a good sign for what we are doing in the program Managed by Cash.
The last item I need to mention, which is more a reclassification. We had, in fact, one of our customer that was changing their information system, as a consequence, there was a timing issue that they had on their payments. What we did is that we did a bit of factoring to offset that for EUR 35 million, which is in fact, part of what you see in the line factoring. In a normal situation, this EUR 35 will have appeared in change in working capital, which will have make it also more comparable to H1 of last year. The last comment I want to make, factoring, we committed EUR 1.3 billion last year. We add this timing because of this change of system from our customer.
We will come back to EUR 1.3 billion at the end of the year. Of course, the evolution of the cash flow has led to, and the evolution of the EBITDA, has led to a further decrease of our leverage to 2.4. We are showing here two number. The 2.4 is pre-IFRS 5 impact, i.e., the economical, because the proceeds of SAS are coming shortly, but they were not yet in H1. If you do it after IFRS 5, at the present situation, you have to take out the EBITDA, but you don't have yet the proceed. That's why there is this 2.5.
This difference, in fact, will disappear at the end of the year with the proceeds of SAS that are coming shortly. On the evolution of net debt, you see a slight negative of EUR 124 million. This is strictly related to two items. One is the withholding tax impact of EUR 69 million that I mentioned just before, and the other one is that as part of the dividend paid by Hella to its shareholder, EUR 60 million was of course given to the minority shareholders of Hella, and this is part of the -EUR 75 million that you see in the second line of this table. That's, of course, in fact, increasing the net debt.
Patrick mentioned early on that we were quite active on our debt management in H1. Indeed, we were on three fronts. First of all, we have extended the maturity of our credit facility by one year, with an option of an additional, an additional year, up to 2028, therefore. We have, in fact, a liquidity of EUR 5.5 billion, EUR 3.5 billion in available cash, and EUR 2 billion in credit facility from both FORVIA and Hella. The second thing is that we reduced the gross debt in total by EUR 559 million in the period.
The third is that, as you can see graphically, we have also extended the maturity of different facilities, which is leading to a situation in which we have almost nothing to reimburse for the end of the year, a lower amount in 2024. We will be concentrating in the H2 of a further reduction in the gross debt with the proceeds of the disposal, as well as a further extension of the maturity profile, especially related to after 2025. On this note, on the debt, I give the floor to Patrick on the full year guidance.
Thank you, Olivier. Let us start with the volume assumptions. You have the 2022 volumes, which, you know, guided us to the 82 million vehicles, and you have the 2023, with the last Standard & Poor's July forecasts, and what we took into account. The main difference between the 86.7 and the 86 we have considered is maybe some opportunities we want to keep in China. S&P Global Ratings is forecasting 14 million vehicles in China. We are considering 13.4 million vehicles in China. We would see, but this can only be an positive if these volumes would materialize.
What is also a little bit specific this year is that in the H2 of 2022, we made, so the market made 43 million vehicles, which is the volumes we had in the H1 , and which are the volumes we are considering in the H2 of 2023. We have to remember that the H2 of last year was very strong. Very strong because of the backlogs and the inventories, which had to be renewed in the US. Also because of an improvement on the semiconductor supply offer.
This is continuing to happen, so today we have a much better situation on the semiconductor side, and I think we still have some backlogs in the H2 , at least covering the Q3 , and we will see. The Q4 might be a little bit more related to the demand. This is good news, and considering, you know, what we had as a forecast for the year, the main difference is related to the H1 with these EUR 43 million we did not expect. Now, when we look at what does it mean for the operating margin? We see here that we will have, versus the H1 of this year, a mix and Forex improvement.
Of course, we will have an increase related to the inflation pass-through. It's pretty normal to have, you know, the conclusions of our pass-through negotiations more in the Q2 than in the Q1 . The carry forward is providing a significant difference between the two semesters. The synergies, we spoke about that. We have achieved a very good level, and we will further now add our new objective. The Seating program in Michigan, which, you know, will stop the complete seat, the JIT program, will stop at the end of the Q3 . We will keep the metal production in Monterrey, in Mexico, and also all the covers in Puebla, in Mexico.
This, of course, will have a positive impact, and we have a slight scope effect, which is negative. The inflation management, I spoke about this. We are considering that we are perfectly able to achieve the 87% we had in mind. It's also clear that on some of these inflations, and especially the wages, we have to increase our own productivity to cover these elements. I think we have to take into account 1.0-1.5 in excess of the average we had before the crisis, and which we have to cover. We do this with more automation. We do this with more digital tools, and this is an ongoing, successful process.
Michigan, I think I said all. What is important for you to understand is that the deliveries from Monterrey for the metal part have started. We are completely inside this new setup. Also, of course, the covers from Puebla. We are now just, you know, closing progressively and until end of September, this element, which will provide us a sustainable situation for WS, for the perimeter, we will keep. The deleveraging, we know we are at 2.4%, like to like, you know, if you want to compare it to the 3.1 times, and Olivier just explained.
Again, the good news about Symbio, the EUR 150 million, which were closed this morning. I do confirm that on the 2 other disposals we have announced the closing. All, you know, the antitrust and these type of considerations are behind us, positively behind us, that we can tell you that they will be closed before or until, and third quarter. We also, because of this, decided, you know, to adjust our guidance on the net debt to adjusted EBITDA, to 2.0-2.2. It was 2.0-2.4 previously. This is the new guidance. Sales, EUR 26.5 billion-EUR 27.5 billion.
This is now based off around 86 million vehicles. Previously, we were at 25.2 to 26.2. Operating margin, we revised up here also. We were at 5-6%. The new guidance is 5.2-6.2% of sales. The net cash flow was not changed. It is obvious that the absolute figure will follow the improvement on sales and on operating margin. This is the minimum. The net debt to adjusted EBITDA has been also revised and improved from 2x-2.2x, was 2x-2.4x. The takeaways, the main, the main takeaways about this H1 , and maybe I can also tell you a few words about the H2 .
The sustainable growth and solid cash generation, this was achieved in an persistent inflationary environment, and we believe that this will last. We had a growth about above 21%, you saw it, and an outperformance of 740 basis points, which I think is a good performance. The strong order intake with a very high profitability and a low upfront, this is related, I think, to the attractiveness of our innovation projects. We could have done more. We are selective on the order intake. We have set for each of our business groups, three criterias, which are defining the interest of an order, the sales level, the operating margin, and the upfront, and we have thresholds for all these criterias.
Synergies from combination from EUR 120 million-EUR 150 million PNL impact in 2023. Here, it works very, very well with the Hella teams, so no issue. Deleveraging is well underway. We spoke about this in large. I just remind you that the gross debt was reduced during H1 by EUR 556 million. The guidance, you know, we have revised it. We have revised it because of the good news related on the volumes, clearly, but also because we are progressing on the execution. We are progressing on the CO2 plans, so the momentum is positive, and it will provide a significant improvement in the H2 .
Thank you very much for your attention on this presentation. We are now opening the Q&A session. Sorry, I've forgot this last slide, but I'm, you know, so used to confirm it at each of our meetings. We are still on track, perfectly on track, on the 2025 targets, which I remind you, where with sales above EUR 30 billion and operating margin above 7%. This, by the way, is what we call POWER25. Net cash flow at 4% of sales and a net debt to adjusted EBITDA below 1.5%. The deleveraging of the company very clearly stays our first priority.
You will probably notice that all of this was calculated based on volume assumption of EUR 88 million. We will wait until the end of the year to see what if the EUR 86 million are confirmed. We will wait until we will have a clear picture for 2024, and if the market is confirming on positive evolution, we will also have to deal with it on these, on these targets. Now the Q&A.
As for our listeners, if you want to ask a question, you can press star nine to raise your hand. We have a first question from Mr. Besson of Kepler. Mr. Besson, the line is open. You can press star six to activate your microphone.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. It's Thomas at Kepler Cheuvreux. I have a few questions, please. Could you update us on your plans on potential further disposals? You had mentioned the possibility to go for that if you had an appropriate offer. Given the developments you've shown in H1 and your outlook for H2, do you feel it's still necessary, and is it unchanged, or have you made up your mind on what you're gonna do? Lighting margins were striking. Last year there was a kind of funny element supporting profitability. Could you confirm that the 5%, the figure you've achieved in H1, is completely clean, please?
Thirdly, could you explain the profitability of FCE Electronics implied by the level of Hella Electronics? It seems to be still very challenging. Is there any improvements seen ahead, or do you need to further cut costs or do something in that business, which has been already substantially addressed, I thought? Finally, I'd like you to give us, if it's possible, more details on the Michigan agree-agreement. Are you going to have any losses still in Q3 before you finally exit the pit? Are you getting any financial compensation or new orders from Stellantis to compensate for the accumulated losses, which I think amount for more than EUR 150 million? What's effectively the deal there? Thank you.
Thank you very much for your questions. About the disposal, you know, we have achieved EUR 1 billion of disposals we have announced. We repeatedly said that this is not the end of the story. We have identified other assets which we believe are not strategic for us. We are active, we are working on these non-strategic assets, and we will dispose them, but we refuse to take a new target because we want to do this in the best possible conditions. Yeah? The potential, I can tell you, is significant and will further contribute to the deleveraging of the company. Lighting margin.
The, the lighting margin improvement is coming from two main elements, and I will let you Olivier speak about how clean the, the results are. On one hand, the selectivity on the order intake, but also the transformation of this business. Lighting is becoming more and more an electronic business, and I think that the characteristics are moving. On the top of that, we have new products like the physical shields, you know, which are taking the full front end or back end, and which are very complex parts, which are reducing competition and are allowing to have better conditions. The other point which we are doing with high pressure is we are massifying our footprints. We are specializing the footprint.
We are automating and digitalizing this footprint, I think that we see the first elements of that. Here we have a lot of potential, which we will execute in the months to come. Is it clean?
Regarding lighting, we mentioned last year that the elements related to the opening balance sheet accounting. You still have a bit of this, so we can say that there is around 1 point that is related to this. I think this is why I'm mentioning that we are on the road to our 25 objective in lighting, which is 5% in 25. The fact that we have already this number today is encouraging. The 25 will be an economical. It's true that the lighting progress in a way is faster than what we could have imagined, and this is a positive element.
About FCE, our Clarion Electronics versus the Hella Electronics. We were penalized, as Olivier mentioned it, by special transports, which were related to some supply issues with semiconductors. We organized these transports to make sure that we would not stop or penalize our customers. This is over, yeah, and the plan is clearly to be positive on the full year on FCE. That's not enough, yeah? We want to have an FCE, at least at 6% operating margin after having executed the plan. What is the plan? The plan is first, an product portfolio streamlining, and we are working on this, which might, you know, contribute to some divestments.
The footprint reduction and optimization with the launch of a new state-of-the-art plant in China, in Xiangyang. It is happening in the moment, and it will be officially running and opened at the end of this year. We reduce our footprint from eight to six plants, which will allow us to increase our sales per square meter from EUR 6.7 thousand-EUR 9.3 thousand. This until 2025. R&D, we are also, you know, reducing the number of sites we have. We have an R&D which is too much geographically split. We will go for more than 70% in low-cost countries, and our R&D costs will drop from 22% today to 12% in 2025.
We will also consider, clearly, all and AI, so the intelligent artificial intelligent possibilities and tools. Finally, we will locate our IVI and HMI activity in China for the global, for the worldwide needs, because it's, I think, here in China, where we see, you know, the market leadership evolving at the highest speed. We are in the moment, also discussing with a few partners, especially related to SoC, which will allow us to improve this situation.
Final compensation, which.
The Michigan agreement.
Yeah.
We were having last year, a significant restructuring charge related to this. This is not the case anymore. The consequence of the deal have been fully taken into account. The Highland Park site will not be used anymore, and we take the consequence even on the social front, and this is already taken in our financial results. In terms of remaining activity, you still have 3 months. We had a loss of EUR 30 million in the H1 . I would say that for the Q3, we expect, and we have countered on EUR 10 million-EUR 15 million of losses related to those last 3 months. The JIT activity of Michigan are done, and this is a closed file.
It's an amicable agreement we have with Stellantis, which is considering all the possibilities to achieve the right compensation. I'm saying it again, after having closed our JIT business, the remaining part is perfectly sustainable.
Thank you very much.
We have another question from Mr. Pescatore of BNP Paribas Exane. Mr. Pescatore, the line is open. You can press star six to activate your microphone.
Hello. Hi, thanks for taking my question. The first one on the guidance, there is quite a big gap between the lower end and the higher end of the range on the margin, especially given that we have only 6 months to go on the end of the year. Can you maybe help us explain what would make the difference between you reaching the lower end versus the higher end of the, of the guidance, and which part of the range do you feel more comfortable with at the moment? The 2nd question on free cash flow. Given the strong volume performance, especially in the last couple of months of the Q2 , I would have expected maybe a slightly better free cash flow generation.
You have highlighted a one-off effect, but maybe can you help us explain, what, you know, if there has been any other effects at the working capital level that prevented a higher cash generation in H1? Maybe lastly, on the financial expenses front, can you maybe give us an idea of what we should expect in terms of interest and financial expenses, both at the P&L and at the cash flow statement, for the full year? Thank you.
Do you want to respond?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
On the... Thank you for your question. On the three points, indeed, we have kept a range fairly large. First of all, is a range fairly large because of the range in revenues, if I may. We have updated our expectation, given the evolution of volume, given the H1 , and given the traction and the ordering take. There is still a little bit of volatility and potentially an opportunity in China that is not fully captured. This one aspect. The second is, the guidance of Hella remains quite large and is part of our profitability. We are embarking this one.
Let me say that the third one is on the inflation recovery, for which there can be a bit of volatility. Having said that, of course, if we are presenting you a range in revenues, in operating margin or in leverage, it means that what we are in fact expecting is today, to be in the middle of the range. With in fact, our options to do better on that. On the net cash flow, we had a H1 that was, I would say, encouraging. We are giving you a floor with the 1.5x, you may remember that last year we had also a floor.
Our objective is clearly to do better than this, but we are showing you the minimum that we expect for the year, in whatever consideration of the range that we have presented you in terms of volume. We are talking about a guarantee, and the base.
I think that, in absolute figures, with the sales increase and with the margin increase, the net cash flow will follow.
Yep. On the financial expenses, from a PNL standpoint, you have the charge of the debt per se, and you have also the other factors I mentioned, including hyperinflation and a few other costs. On the PNL, you can expect EUR 550 million-EUR 600 million. On the cash flow is less than that, and is more in the EUR 500 million range in pure cash out of financial expense. On financial cost, as you see, we are in fact focused on this point. We are reducing the group debt because of the cost of interest. We will have in the H2 , process of the disposal.
We will make sure to make the right balance between the profile of the debt that you have seen and the reduction of the gross debt in order to start having a reduction progressively of the financial cost. Now, every time we replace an old debt by new debt, we have an aspect of change of interest rates. This is getting better. The term loan that we had in the H1 , we have been able to renew it at the same condition as the previous one. We start to see a better profile, but we are very focused on the aspect of financial cost.
Thank you. Sorry, just to go back on the guidance point. I mean, at the higher end of the range in H2, you would, effectively already be at the 2025 targets. Is that, is that fair?
That's a fair calculation, yes. That's a fair calculation. That will be on a fairly solid level of revenue also, because it will mean also that we will be on the high side of the range in revenues.
The rest of the synergies and, kind of, you know, the costs from Seating, phasing out, all of that is incremental to this.
The high side of the range means high side of the revenues. It means a strong, solid compensation of the inflation, and it means also, fast execution of our synergy and fixed cost improvement.
Okay, we could expect an update on this target maybe next year?
I,... Can you repeat your question? I'm not so sure.
It's a remark.
We could then expect an update on the 2025 target perhaps next year?
Well, this is the, this is something that we will look at. It's clear that the volume, the volume of 86 million of this year is encouraging, if anything, compared to the 88. That is the reference of 2025.
The current S&P Global Ratings forecast for this year is closer to 90 million than to eighty-
For 25.
For 2025, yeah. We will need to make sure that we have a confirmation of all of this. Again, as I said, we will see what finally, the volumes in 2023 will be and what we can expect in 2024.
Perfect. Thank you.
We now have a question from Mr. Jacks of Bank of America. Mr. Jacks, the line is open. You can press star six to ask your question.
Hi, good morning, Michael Jacks here from Bank of America. Thanks for taking my questions. First question is probably for Olivier, related to funding. How cost effective are your factoring programs in relation to your other sources of funding at the moment? Might this change next year in line with your planned deleveraging? Maybe more specifically, do you expect that ratings agencies could upgrade your rating, and what do you believe the specific threshold for that would be? Then my second question, for Patrick, related to operating leverage. This is still run rating at quite a low level relative to your history. How would you frame or quantify the reliability of customer call logs at the end of the Q2 as compared to the average that you experienced in the H1 of the year?
To put that into some context, as compared to 2022 and pre-COVID levels, and how much of the margin gap for your 2025 target could you possibly attribute to this? Thank you.
Thank you for your question. On the first one, on the factoring. Clearly, the factoring was and remains with better conditions that standard debt, so it's 2-3 points difference. We have stable factoring agreement, so, and the portfolio that is inside is stable as well. Could there be an I mean, I hope that interest rate at some point of time will go down, but I think for the time being, we have to take what exists.
It has improved for us, compared to a year ago and clearly, but this year, the environment is still on higher interest rates, including the evolution of the Fed, even yesterday. All our plans, and in particular, our midterm POWER25 plans, are based on interest rates as they stand today on the market. The upgrade of the rating. As you know, we are today in negative watch with the rating agencies.
We are seeing them, and I think the first question for them will be on the back of the results we are doing, and I would say the good progress on our deleveraging and good visibility on this progress with the disposal plan being executed, what it can be. Let's wait for this first. I cannot tell what is the outcome. What I can say is that we are executing what we said, and we have an environment that everything being equal is less volatile, less adverse than before, with only one exception, but this one is a very important one, which is inflation, and which we are tackling in a strong fashion.
This is H1 2022. The sales delta is about EUR 2 billion, and these EUR 2 billion generated EUR 280 million of operating income, which means a fall-through of close to 14%. This now has to be also understood with a few items. It's the compensation of inflation, which are always late in the semester, yeah? We will benefit in the H2 of the carry forward effect. We have the EUR 30 billion we spoke about, which we have delayed to the H2 . We have WS, and I hope that we will do better than the EUR 15 million. We should.
We have FCE with a significant one-off in the H1 versus the plan, and FCE will be positive on the full year. We have the Forex gap. We don't know what will be the Forex situation in the H2 , but all of that will or should improve the H2 , and we should have closed, you know, the H1 at 5.2% without these EUR 30 million we did not consider good enough to be integrated in our results. What I would like also you to understand is that we cumulated, we have calculated an inflation which is around 7.6%-7.8%, which is providing a dilutive mechanical effect of 1.2 points of operating margin, yeah?
You have to consider this. The target we have also internally is to achieve, at the end of this year, an variable margin, which will be at the same percentage level than the one we had in 2019. It means that the compensation of the inflation is not only achieved through price increases, but is also achieved through productivities. Productivities we have to increase the level, we have to increase year after year. I think that this gives you the context and the information to, I hope, convince you that we will further improve our situation. Again, being in the current context at around 14% of fall-through is not very far from what we announced in the past years.
If I take now, the 1 million, sorry, of additional volumes, or 1 million cars, corresponding to 320, 350 million EUR of additional sales, depending really on the mix. We are more now between 13% and 15% of fall-through versus the 15% we announced previously. Anything you want to add, Eddy? Yeah.
Yeah, thanks for that great detail. I mean, yeah, I mean, I guess so, maybe just alluding more to what Julia's question was as well. You wouldn't specifically attribute anything to call-up volatility, or cancellations from customers? I'm just trying to gauge whether there's some potential additional upside due to the factors that you just laid out, a moment ago. Thank you.
maybe just midterm, one element to add. You have a dilutive effect of 1.2%.
... and vice versa, you have a synergy effect in our case, which is at least of the same level, the EUR 300 million for EUR 30 billion. That's why 2025, we say above 7%, but our ultimate objective is more 8%, because in fact, we consider that with the size, with in fact, the synergies offsetting the dilution effect of the inflation, that's the level that we are able to reach as a global company, ultimately.
The 8%, were the target we gave us before the crisis.
Exactly.
Yeah? We are still going for these 8%, but we also have to understand that if the things are not changing drastically, these 8% are closer to 9% previous considerations. We have, I don't know if this is answering your question, but we have a very positive momentum on Lighting. We spoke about that. We have a momentum which is also interesting on Seating and on Interiors. These improvements are in our hands. They are more related to our footprint, how we are dealing with, again, specializing our plants. It's very much related to cost reductions, which I believe are perfectly feasible.
Understood. Thanks again for all of the detail.
What I also, you know, maybe it's an element we have already discussed, but, the selectivity is allowing us to improve the profitability of our dashboard. You know, we said it is already above our POWER25 target. I think that this will continue, and not only in terms of EBIT margin, but also in terms of reduced upfronts. That's very interesting. On the electronic side, I also would like to say that, the demand is above the offer, and here, again, the selectivity possibility is significant, and this will improve the profitability of our segments.
Our next question comes from Mr. Quéméner of Stifel. Mr. Quéméner, the line is open. You can press star six now. We will move on in the meantime to the next question by Mr. Bhagwanani of Citi. Mr. Bhagwanani, the line is open. You can press star six to activate your microphone.
Hello, thank you. Thank you for taking my question also. I have just a few follow-ups. Maybe first one, just coming back on the margin guidance. If I understood it correctly, it say the sales is at the upper end of the guidance. It says that you get to the upper end, given that LBP comes at 5% growth as expected. If Hella also ends up in the upper end of the margin corridor, then it is fair to say that Faurecia could also be at the upper end of the range instead of to the mid-range? Is there any other Faurecia ex Hella specific nuances we should be aware about? That's my first question. I'll just follow up to the next if that is okay.
Okay. Thank you. First of all, Hella has communicated that they are in the middle of the range of their guidance, both in revenues and in profitability for the year. If we are presenting you an upgrade of our guidance, you can expect that our reference is in the middle of the range as today. There is still possibilities to do better, volume and speed of cost reduction execution. If we are showing you a range, we are showing you with, in fact, an expectation that the base is the middle of the range.
I will not present something which, with an upgrade, with an evolution in which we are automatically on the high side of the range, just to avoid any misunderstanding.
Thank you. That's very helpful. actually, the floor is more of a middle of the range, right?
So-
I mean, the Hella also, that is the middle of the range, and auto production is five percentage points.
That and us.
Yes. it.
Thank you.
That's... Fine.
Let me repeat, the range, sales and operating margin, Hella and FORVIA, are, in fact, towards the middle of the range. On the cash flow, we are giving a guidance above 1.5 times. It means that, in fact, it's a floor, it's a, it's a base, with expectation to do at least this level.
Thank you. That's very helpful. Maybe on the SG&A and R&D, can these both go down in H2 sequentially?
On the R&D, in fact, you have an increase which is related to the gross R&D, which is related to the additional months of Hella. On a more comparable basis, we are pretty flat. On the SG&A, the one month is explaining 50% of the increase, but the other 50% are for part of it. One of what I mentioned early on, and I want to confirm and reiterate, is that those absolute value will go down in the H2 . There are actions that have been launched. We had other runs in R&D on specific project that are now more in control.
On the SG&A, the actions that we have taken will convert in result, including not only the synergies but other ones. The absolute number will be lower in both of these case, H2 versus H1, by 3%-5%, if I want to be specific.
On R&D, we have kicked off a new project to boost cost reductions, taking into account or using on a much more efficient way new AI possibilities. We have now launched pilots in the different business groups, and we expect here to have a significant reduction of our costs in the period to come, and certainly until 2025.
Thank you. And the final one from me is just on the midterm targets. I think you already alluded to that if the momentum continues, then these targets are conservative, and they may need updating. Are there any specific timelines or any specific databases, data points you would be looking at in that decision making?
If we would have to adjust this guidance, this 2025 guidance, we would consider it not before we will present our full year results, 2023, and the guidance for 2024.
Thank you. That's very helpful.
We are now coming back to Mr. Quéméner of Stifel. If you are ready to ask your question, please press star 6.
Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Pierre with Stifel. Hi, Patrick. Hi, Olivier. Three questions on my side, if I may. Going back to the price compensation, if I understand correctly, yet that you've turned down in H1 because it was not at the expected level, would you expect a significantly higher number in H2, maybe, let's say, EUR 50 million? Is that the right way to look at it? That would be the first one. The second one, if you add up all the non-expected one-off costs that you have incurred in the H1 , I'm thinking about the BART startup in interior in Eastern Europe or the Clarion logistic costs, what was the total amounts that should disappear in H2, please?
Last but not least, what would be, if any, the year-on-year tailwind you would expect from the end of the Michigan losses in H2 2023? Thank you.
About EUR 30 million. It's clear that if we have considered that we should not accept existing offers, it's because we believe that they are not sufficient. We are in the process to negotiate with our customers, these ones, and we should conclude them quickly in July and August by the latest. I will not give you what will be the end result, but clearly it should be better than what we received already. If we have rejected them, it's also because we believe that there is some room to improve these offers. Before I go to the second question, I will start with the third one, which is related to WS. Yeah? We have had
We were penalized at about EUR 30 million, a little bit less in H1. In H1, we still had frames being produced in Highland Park. We had the lounge costs in Monterrey. We had some stop and goes in Highland Park on the complete seat side. When I look at the quarter which we have in front of us, where we still will do complete seats, what Olivier said, he divided the loss we had in the H1 by two, saying it's one quarter, EUR 15 million. EUR 15 million, I see them really as a maximum, because we will not have, in this Q3 , the production of frames in Highland Park. They are now normalized, stabilized in Monterrey. Yeah.
We have to deal with the closure of the plant, with the volumes until the closure of the plants, okay? This is the remaining difficulty or issue we will have to manage until the 30th of September. For me, the EUR 15 million are the maximum. It's without a risk or an additional risk related to this. Now, if I understood you correctly, you asked us about what penalized the H1 and which we will not have in the H2 .
In this respect, I will mention two items on top of what we discussed on Michigan. One is the EUR 15 million of freight, exceptional air freight cost of Faurecia Clarion, that happened until April. The second item is an equivalent number in the launches in Interiors in Eastern Europe. On those two, you have twice EUR 15 million.
I think we have to take into account the delta of EUR 15 million.
Absolutely.
On Highland Park.
Absolutely. You cannot have all the plants running perfectly, but those ones are quite specific. Also, we know that they are not in the same situation today. That's why we can mention that for an improvement in H2.
That's very clear. Just one last on the Highland Park. Maximum risk is minus EUR 15 million, correct, Patrick?
Yes.
Year-on-year, if I compare H2 '23 versus H2 '22, we still have to expect a tailwind because the losses are lower, right?
Exactly.
Yes.
Exactly. Because the last year-
Okay
... it was EUR 50 million in H1, EUR 35 million in H2. Indeed, you have an improvement in the H2 , a little bit equivalent to the improvement we had in the H1 , year-on-year.
Super clear. Thank you, guys.
We now have a question from Mr. Koenig of Goldman Sachs. Mr. Koenig, the line is open. You can press star 6 and ask your question.
Good morning, guys, and thanks for taking my question.
Yeah, good morning.
You're welcome.
Mr. Koenig, you can press star 6 to activate your microphone.
My question is just on the compensation. You mentioned that you didn't book EUR 30 million because you were not satisfied with the conditions of the potential agreement. Can you just elaborate what are the items that are yet to negotiate, or where you didn't find an agreement with your customers? What makes you confident that that compensation is going to step up in the H2 , that you can reach at least the 87%? My second question is just on CapEx and R&D. If we think about CapEx and R&D within Faurecia on an absolute level, do you expect CapEx and R&D to step up? You actually think it will remain fairly flat in absolute levels or could even come down as part of the synergies?
Thank you.
If I start with CapEx and R&D, yeah? We should remember that we were at above EUR 90 million before crisis, yeah? It's not the volumes which are triggering the investment in CapEx. It's more the modernizing needs for our plants. It's the standardization, it's, you know, the digitalization of our plants. This said, CapEx and R&D in percentage of sales should go down, and probably R&D more than CapEx. You want to add something, Olivier?
Yeah. If we talk, if we talk short term, you can expect those numbers to be flat year-on-year, if you include the additional months of Ela, which is part of it. Flat to slightly down. You have seen that in terms of R&D, we are flat with the months of Ela, in the H1 , and we expect to have a decrease in the H2 . Related to CapEx, we had some positive element, even if excluding the 1 month of Ela . I would say on the totality of the two, you should have something flattish. Going forward, I think it's not only the absolute value, but where we are doing it.
We have clearly, on the ultra-low emission activity of Clean Mobility, we are reducing sharply the R&D and the CapEx. Why we are able to do this is because the number of engines that are really the trigger of diversity is going down sharply. In fact, it has already gone down from the car makers faster than the volume, so it will simplify their activity, but it also simplify ours. You will see a faster decrease of R&D and CapEx in ULU than, in fact, the revenues, which is related to the electrification. This is also the context. It means that this money, between quote, "available," we can reinvest it in Electronics and to some extent, in hydrogen.
All the new investments we make, so all the new production lines are not dedicated to one project. They are capacity production lines, yeah, which allow us to be much more flexible than we were in the past years. About compensation, I will not give you obviously, the detail of what we are negotiating. What I can tell you is that these offers arrived late, trying to leverage the half year end, and, you know, the consolidation we have to do at that time. I can tell you, as an example, one condition could have been, so we offer you this, but this should cover the full year. This is typically something we cannot accept, yeah?
This is one example of, you know, triggering and further loop of negotiations.
Great. Thank you very much.
There is one last question from Ms. Vincent. Ms. Vincent of Bank of America, the line is open. You can press star six and ask your question.
Thank you. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Stephanie Vincent from Bank of America. Just a couple from me. You know, you've spoken a bit about rating agency targets, but just on factoring, because I know this was a big sort of hurdle to get to the IG type rating category, what are your plans for bringing those type programs down as part as your deleveraging target? Following on from that, what sort of cash balance ultimately are you comfortable holding? We've seen in periods of stress, for example, working capital being quite volatile, partially due to this factoring commitment.
On the factoring, what we committed is not to exceed EUR 1.3 billion, and this is, we add this, EUR 30 million-EUR 35 million on the specific, which is more timing, but we will come back to EUR 1.3 billion. Factoring, with stable customers, stable agreements, better financial conditions. For the time being, I don't see a reason to decrease this one. If the financial parameters are changing, we can look at this.
It showed robustness during the last crisis, the 2 last crisis, yeah.
I prefer to reduce, in fact, structural debts, and rather than the factoring under the current conditions. On the cash, I hope I understand your question correctly, but clearly, we are considering the evolution of interest rates, keeping a lot of cash is having more cost than before, and that's why we have reduced, in fact, the gross debt in the H1 . You have seen the gross cash. We were at EUR 4.2 at the end of last year, and EUR 3.5 at the end of June. We want to maintain and show liquidity. This is also a sign for all parties.
We have also, I need to mention that we are not having a cash pooling with Hella, we have this taken into account. This is not a problem to operate because Hella is growing more than the legacy Faurecia, there is a certain level of investment. We are also reducing the gross debt and the gross cash in Hella, it means that we have a little bit of the overlap on the gross, on the gross cash. Rating, rating agencies, clearly, we are transparent on our cash, we are transparent on our factoring activity and programs.
We know that some of them are restating them in their model, and this is understood and known. We want to make sure also that they understand the balance has not increased in the period of to a marginal and temporary aspect, and I think, this has been understood in the calls we have with them.
That's very helpful. Thank you.
Another question just came in from Mr. Asumendi of JP Morgan. Mr. Asumendi, you can press star 6 and ask your question.
Thank you for taking my question. Hi, Olivier. A couple of questions, please. Can you talk a little bit around your outperformance to global car production in China? What was the, you know, the outperformance to the, to the Chinese business? Then also, what is your share of revenues in China exposed to local Chinese OEMs, as obviously, traditional OEMs in China are seeing quite substantial share market moves. Then the final one, which I find extremely interesting, slide 25 of your deck, and it's a huge contrast to the share price today, by the way. Page 25, can you just take us through again, through the, through the buckets there? I mean, it's a very clear, very, very clear, you know, EBIT path.
Can you just take us a little bit through, again, through the, through the buckets, from the EUR 695 to the, to the higher level in the H2 ? Thank you.
Thank you, José. After outperformance of China. I think the reasons for the outperformance in China, you have the strengths of BYD, and you have the strengths of the other Chinese OEMs on top of the market as a whole. We are present with 19 of the top 20 car makers, international or Chinese, in China, which means that we have the capacity, in fact, to benefit from the variety of performance there.
We Faurecia, yeah, because it's not exactly the same for Hella. They are a little bit less.
I was coming indeed to this with the Chinese OEM exposure. We have an overall level of activity, a bit above 40% with Chinese OEM. Actually, on the Ayla part is half of it. Clearly, this is one of the benefits of the combination that have been identified at the time of the combination, with, in fact, the success of the Chinese OEM even more, and this is clearly something that we are developing. We are making an evolution of the organization to enable that even better, and you can expect Lighting and Electronics to have more activity with Chinese OEMs going forward. That will be, in fact, a positive, a positive aspect.
When I spoke, about the 73% increase, with an American BEV player and with BYD obviously is in China, and the first one significantly in China also. Yeah. We are not only well-aligned with the Chinese OEM market share in China, we are also dealing with the right ones and which are showing a significant growth potential.
José, you were referring to one page. Could you tell me the name of the page? Page eight ?
No, no.
25.
25.
25.
Yes.
25.
Is that okay? Looking at the same deck, hopefully.
Oh, well, let's go to page twenty-.
Maybe you have a different deck, but the one that shows the bridge between H2 and H1 .
Sorry. Yes. Okay. Thank you. This one is showing, in fact, the expected evolution between H1 and H2 in absolute term. You can consider that in fact, net-net, there are really three buckets. One is related to the mix. We are talking about similar volume of revenues between H1 and H2. The mix, in fact, should be favorable, mix and improvements on operation back to some of the one-offs we mentioned before.
The second is the inflation. Maybe on the inflation, coming back to those deals and other factors, some of the deals that will happen in H2 will be retroactive, so they have a double effect on the H2 per se, and this is part of the reason that the contribution level is higher on top of completing some of the deals in better conditions. Then the third bucket is synergy, fixed cost, as well as the end of the JIT activities in this Seating program in Michigan on the with Stellantis. The scope effect, in fact, is the last, the 3 months of commercial vehicle Q4, because, in fact, the.
The transfer of activity will happen end of September on this, on this deal of commercial vehicle activity sold to Cummins. The contribution in H2 is half what it was in H1. That's why you have this scope, this scope effect. One-third, one-third, one-third on the 3, on the 3 buckets. What can happen, each of the buckets can evolve a little bit. The mix, there can be volume effect if we are on the high side of the range, i.e., if the China evolution is more favorable than what we are taking into account.
Inflation pass-through is the rate and pace of the recovery, and synergies and cost reductions, this is what is internal, and this is what we are focused on to ensure that we have decrease of the cost in the H2 .
That's great. Thank you so much.
Any questions from the group?
We received one question on the by email. I don't know if there are still question on the.
Why are you not increasing your operational margin in the same proportion than your revised sales guidance?
we are increasing the guidance by EUR 1.3 billion of revenues, and we are increasing the profitability by 20 basis points. Inside the EUR 1.3 billion, in fact, you have EUR 1 billion, which is related to the increase of volume and our related penetration, and there are EUR 300 million, which is related to timing of the transfer of the activity of CVI and also the timing on Highland Park, compared to what we expected initially. This part, net-net, between the plus and minuses of the commercial vehicle activity and the net negative of Highland Park is, in fact, is not contributing.
It's EUR 1 billion more in revenues, here you will see that this is representing a 12%-13% leverage, taking into account the inflation dilution. We hope that it can be better than this, but that's the rationale of the evolution and of course, the forecast and the analysis we are doing internally. Another one: Can we expect any further liability management exercise on Hybrid in the H2 of 2023 for bonds in particular? This is something we will look at. We have the proceeds of the disposals for around EUR 700 million. We will look at the.
We look at the balance and also, look at continuing to make evolution on the base of our of our financing, but you can expect indeed, a decrease of the gross debt and, part of it in the structured debt in the H2 .
Another question, in view of a potential UAW strike later this year, were you impacted by the 2019 strike? If so, what was the quantity of the impact? This year, if I'm not mistaken, it's Stellantis which will handle or which will start the negotiation. If we would have less production in Highland Park, we will do better than what we have proposed to you. Which, you know, this would not be a big issue for us. Well, the impact will be marginal.
Another question. Could you confirm whether the EUR 60 million charge that you mentioned regarding the management of the group debt in H1 is a one-off? If so, should we expect a material decline in the financing charge in H2 and in 2023? Thank you. From a PNL standpoint, yes, inside the EUR 60 million, you have this mark to market on the virtual PPA. I'm not expecting this in the H2 , unless there is really material differences on the electricity price, but I think we are getting more to a more normalized one. Also, the calculation has been done in a fairly conservative manner. Also on the hyperinflation, probably lower.
Part of the, of the EUR 60 million, one-third at least, and maybe 50% should be down, and a bit of decrease on the financial cost per se of the debt, given what we are doing. It's progressive, of course, but yes.
The next one is related to R&D capitalization. R&D capitalization for the H1 stood at 52%. To what extent was this a function of Hella consolidation, which applies lower capitalization rates? Is there a target to further lower consolidated R&D capitalization ratios towards peers, peer levels? Thank you. The answer is yes, but I'll let you elaborate on it.
Clearly, the R&D capitalization is something that we look at closely. Simply said, R&D capitalization is not cash, and therefore, this is, in fact, something that we have to ensure not only accounting-wise is correct, but also that it is under control. Hella traditionally is at lower levels, so this is embedded in the number. You can expect, in fact, a decrease of this, in particular, on the Clean Mobility activity, because with the decrease of the cost and progressively, the decrease of volume, we will be more in an amortization and in a capitalization in Clean Mobility. Does not change the cash conversion, but it's something that will be part of the evolution.
You can expect progressively these rates to evolve a little bit down.
The target for us is not the capitalization. The target is to reduce the cross costs of R&D, very clearly. The fact that we will have less and less new projects on FCM will certainly contribute to this reduction. I'm and I, you know, I don't know how many times I've repeated it this morning. I'm counting a lot on AI. I do believe that this is completely changing the game, and that we will have to work on this urgently and deeply to maintain and even improve, because I think it's an opportunity, our competitiveness. I also would like to share with you one thing. In 2015, in average, tier ones spent 4.4% of their revenues on R&D.
Last year, this average was 7.4%. You know, we were clearly in this interdependence relationship with the OEMs, taking over a significant part of R&D, and especially of innovations. This is why this is becoming an topic on which we have to work, and we have to improve. It's possible. The tools are there, our costs. I think that this is closing the Q&A. We do not have additional written questions, and we don't have other questions. With this, I would like again to thank you very much for your attention and the time you spend with us. Thank you very much, and I hope that you will have a nice holiday and summer break. Goodbye.
Goodbye.