Good morning, everybody. Laurent Favre, and for the ones being connected, very happy to welcome you, to present to you our fantastic results 2022, and also the perspective for 2023 and the coming years. 2022 was a very rich year for PO because from one side, as you may have seen already, we have been able to improve significantly in all the financial KPIs, in terms of growth, in terms of profitability as well. Also very important year because we have accelerated a lot the transformation of the company with a lot of investments, new products, new technologies, and now the company is even more ready for the challenges of the future and the transformation of the mobility.
That is the agenda of the day. We will present you the financials with Kathleen, and with Félicie, we will talk about the highlights of 2022 but also the way forward, our strategic roadmap, and how we want to continue to pursue this profitable growth path of Plastic Omnium. Starting with some numbers as an executive summary. For sure we cannot summarize the year only with some numbers, but some numbers are very important to be mentioned, and Kathleen will come back on that later on. In term of sales revenues, a very strong growth, plus 18% compared to last year. That is a record sales of the history of Plastic Omnium.
EUR 9.5 billion turnover in economic sales last year, meaning as well in line with the guidance, which was the outperformance of the market. In terms of profit as well, an operating margin, it being increased by 20% compared to 2021, 4.3%, EUR 364 million operating margin. Even more important, the net result, after all the costs, EUR 168 million in 2022, an increase and improvement of 33% compared to previous year, which means that we are able to invest, to grow, to adapt the structure as well to the new market situation and to generate a decent level of profit, and we will be able as well to propose a dividend being increased by 39% to our general assembly in April this year.
Very strong result this year, as you can see, for the new PO. That was possible as well because the traditional PO, that means the PO before the acquisition in lighting and electrification, has been able as well to deliver very strong results last year, 5.1% operating margin for the traditional PO, the old PO scope. 5.5% in the second semester. That means also very strong second semester. If we have a look only at the Industry part, for those knowing us pretty well, it was a margin of 6.3% last year, which I believe is a kind of benchmark in our industry.
It was a strong growth as well for the traditional business, showing again that we have the right products and a very strong order book and a strong level of free cash flow, higher than the guidance last year. We have been able to finance a lot of investment last year, EUR 1.3 billion in total. That is a record in the history of PO, both for the normal business, but also to diversify our portfolio and to accelerate in innovation, and we will come back to that later on together with Félicie.
At the end of the year, we are very happy as well and very pleased to see that our leverage is below to 1.9x, the net debt to EBITDA after those investments and after this new portfolio, which is now the new PO we are going to talk about later on. I was saying it's a very strong performance for the team. I want to thank the Plastic Omnium team for this very strong performance, both to manage the 2022 but also to prepare the future. PO is now much better prepared for the future than one year ago. I hand over now to Kathleen. Kathleen will talk with all the details you may want to have about the financials in 2022.
Thank you, Laurent. Good morning and thank you for being here today. I'd like to open up my part of the presentation by underlining that we have met all of the targets laid out in our initial guidance for 2022, as well as our post-M&A objectives. Moving on to the first slide that I'd like to go through with you. As you can see, S&P Global Mobility has reported automotive production for the full year 2022 at 79.7 million vehicles, which corresponds to a growth of 7.5% against 2021. As you can see from the graph on the left-hand side of the screen, the first semester of 2022 was relatively flat compared to both semesters in 2021.
The second semester in 2022 has shown signs of a recovery, with a growth of almost 16% against 2021. This was exceptionally boosted by the 3rd quarter in 2022 with 31% growth. As you know, this was linked to the extremely negative impact in Q3 2021, related to the Stop & Go and the semiconductor crisis. Whereas the fourth quarter in 2022, as you can see here, registered a more moderate growth of 4%. On the right-hand side of this screen, you can perceive the comparative growth in our key regions against the market in 2022. On a yearly basis, all regions, without exception, registered good, I'd say even great growth, on both the reported and on an organic basis.
Despite a totally flat European market, the group managed to largely outperform the market in Europe by 5.3 points, generating organic growth of 5.5%. Organic growth is defined here as being at both constant scope and exchange effects. In line with our strategy to pursue a geographic rebalancing of our portfolio, Europe made up just 48% of our economic revenue in 2022, as opposed to 53% in 2021. North America now makes up 29% of the group's economic revenue, up 3% or 3 points against 2021. The group achieved double-digit organic growth in this region in 2022, almost 14%, outperforming the market by 4.6 points. In China, the group grew organically by 4.7 points against a market that increased by 9.1%.
On the one hand, we enjoyed excellent growth, outperforming the market through our joint venture with Yanfeng, YFPO. Revenue at YFPO grew by 18.7%, more than 10% on a like-for-like basis, outperforming the market thanks to the very dynamic electric vehicle segment in China, in the domestic market, and YFPO's exposure to the growing Chinese OEMs. On the other hand, our fuel systems business receded by 16% in China, given the acceleration of electrification in the domestic market. PO Modules enjoyed an extraordinary growth in China in 2022, more than 24% growth on a like-for-like basis, driven by the great momentum of the electric vehicle segment. In Asia, excluding China, organic growth was also double digit at almost 27%, outperforming the market by 16.7 points.
This region now represents 8% of total group revenue, thanks to very dynamic markets in Thailand and Indonesia, in particular in our fuel systems business. As far as the second semester is concerned, economic revenue, excluding acquisitions, came to EUR 4.85 billion, up 19.5% like for like against S2 2021. Consolidated revenue, excluding acquisitions, followed suit, coming in at EUR 4.3 billion in the second semester, plus 19.2% on a like-for-like basis against 2021. If I move now on to the next slide, and as mentioned by Laurent, group revenue, as reported, grew by over 18% against 2021. More than 50% of this growth, and I think that's important to recognize, is organic and comes from the traditional businesses of the group.
Excluding the scope impact of the acquisitions and foreign exchange differences, the traditional businesses of Plastic Omnium grew by almost 10% against 2021, outperforming the global market by 2.2 points. Both Industries and Modules in the historical parameter of the group registered remarkable growth, as reported and on a like-for-like basis, as you can see on the right-hand side of the screen. Plus 8.1% for Industries like for like, plus 14% for Modules like for like, both outperforming the market respectively by 0.6 and 6.5 points. Of course, there is a part to this growth that is linked to the extraordinary catch-up of the market in general in the third quarter against 2021.
Nonetheless, and I'd like to underline this performance is even more remarkable when taking into account that 2022 was a year with less production launches at PO. This means that we are starting to see the fruit of the solid order books that we've been building up over the past two years. Net operating margin in 2022 met the full year guidance, both before and after acquisitions, coming in at 5.1% before acquisitions and 4.3% of consolidated revenue combined with the acquisitions. For the sake of clarity, all of the acquisitions have been positioned in the industry segment together with the new energies activities. Absolute margin grew by 37.5% to EUR 416 million before acquisitions, despite a net inflation impact of EUR 62 million.
The gross impact of inflation has been significantly reduced thanks to agile and dynamic cost management as a result of our traditional approach to operational excellence at PO. This is a testimony, I believe, to the quality of our teams. Year on year, operational margin, excluding acquisitions, was a very robust 6.3% for Industries, up from 5.2% in 2021, and equally on the rise for Plastic Omnium Modules, which increased relative margin from 1.6% in 2021 to 2% in 2022. In the second semester, operating margin, excluding acquisitions, enjoyed a positive evolution against the first semester of 2022, coming in at 5.5% of sales against a first semester, if you recall, well, at 4.6%.
This demonstrates the strength and the dynamics of our existing business, which has enabled us to undertake the transformation of the group through targeted M&A and CapEx with serenity and with efficiency. Overall, the operating margin, as you can see on this slide, grew by more than 20%, coming to 4.3% of revenue. Moving on, if I can. There we go. Free cash flow came in at EUR 243 million for the period and is significantly above our guidance post-acquisitions of more than EUR 140 million. In order to better understand the construction of free cash flow in a context of significant perimeter change in the group, we detailed on this slide, as you can see, the components of free cash flow and their relationship to debt.
Net debt in 2021, as you can see on the left-hand side of this screen, was at EUR 854 million. The cash net debt impact of the acquisitions amounted to EUR 920 million in 2022. This includes principally the payments of shares and items of debt and debt-like nature. Combined activities generated EUR 666 million of gross cash flow, from which the group financed EUR 351 million of CapEx, and of which circa EUR 55 million was invested in new energies, battery packs, and our 4D radar project with Greenerwave. As you can see here as well, working capital resources, and I underline resources, decreased by EUR 72 million, coming from - EUR 498 million in 2021 to -EUR 428 million in 2022.
This is due to the persisting difficulties, of course, in the supply chain in 2022, but also due to a positive topic, which is just a timing issue for production starts that were in development phase in 2022 and that will be launched in 2023. The other box that you can see on this slide contains essentially dividend payments and IFRS leases. All in all, net debt comes to EUR 1,669 million, well below the sum of net debt. If you were to add the net debt of 2021 plus the acquisition impact, it's well below the sum of those two parts. As we can see that the gross cash flow of the group has already begun to amortize part of the acquisition debt.
A few quick messages on the ratios that have not been addressed as yet. Net debt over EBITDA is well below 2x, at 1.9x, despite the acquisitions. We remain perfectly in line with our long-term financial capital allocation framework that we presented at the CMD in May 2022. Liquidity is down EUR 400 million on 2021, as we have financed the acquisition on the basis of our available liquidity, preferring to wait for a more favorable window to address refinancing. Which leads me, in fact, to the debt maturity wall below on the right-hand side of the screen. We have no significant maturity before June 2024, which gives us some months to explore financing options and hopefully benefit from a stabilization of interest rates as the inflation topic starts to inflect.
I'd like to stress here that we're always extremely satisfied to report positive net earnings. Our net result group share is up 33% over 2021 at 2% of revenue. Excluding acquisitions, net result group share comes to 3% of revenue. Other operating expenses include, for a large part, non-recurring items such as restructuring, and more particularly for 2022, costs associated with the acquisitions amounting to EUR 23 million. Financial expenses come in at EUR 62 million, up EUR 11 million against 2021, essentially due to an absolute increase in the cost of debt, coming from both an increase in the amount of debt linked to the acquisitions and the rise in interest rates on variable debt. The cost of debt at the end of December 2022 has slightly increased from 2.07% in 2021 to 2.23% in December 2022.
Income tax has remained stable in absolute value and represents approximately 25% of net income before tax, and an effective tax rate of 31.5%, down on 2021, which was at 39.4%. In conclusion, the group will propose, as Laurent mentioned, for vote at the shareholders meeting on the 26th of April, a dividend of EUR 0.39 per share, representing a payout of 33.5%, up by over 39% against 2021. Before handing over to Laurent, Félicie for the 2022 highlights, I'd just like to add that you will find in the annexure of the presentation the usual financial tables that we have the habit of presenting. You'll find more details in the group's consolidated accounts that have been simultaneously published on our website this morning.
Thank you, Kathleen. As you could see, for sure, very, very, very good performance, very strong performance in financials for PO, above the expectation. Now we are attacking the new year with a lot of positive mood. Now we talk about the highlights of 2022. Many things happened in 2022. I will do that with Félicie, starting with the fact that we have deployed our purpose, our strategy last year, in order to benefit from the market transformation. The market is transforming faster than expected, which is good for us because we are ready for that. That is what we've been accelerating last year in 2022. I'll hand over now to you, Félicie.
Thank you, Laurent, and good morning, everybody. As you just said, indeed, 2022 was a very important year for PO in many aspects. The first one you just mentioned, it was the year that we published this new ambition, this purpose, that is now framing the way we wanna move forward, which is our ultimate objective. Around four words that are very key for us, very important. The first one, which is Driving. Why driving? Because PO, we are doers, we are builders, and sometimes we are first mover, even in some markets and some technologies. We believe it's very important in a market that is moving even faster every day.
New. Here, obviously here we're talking about innovation, which is really part of our DNA, how we've been evolving since more than 70 years. As Kathleen has highlighted, we have invested a lot in new innovation and new diversification. Mobility, very important word too, because in the past, we've been focusing on the passenger car market. Today we have a totally different approach as we are willing to really target the full mobility scope, also embracing heavy mobility, trains, trucks. All of new markets that will and are already today presenting new opportunities for PO. Generation, obviously, because we are a family-owned company, and the notion of generation, of transmission, is really important. We do feel responsible for our people and to do that in a sustainable manner.
We will have a full chapter in the next slide dedicated to that. Indeed, whatever decision that we take today, the strategic move that we wanna take, have to fit in this new purpose. I think 2022 achievements in that respect clearly is a good demonstration of the strategic move of the repositioning of PO on its market. Today, we are now approaching the market around two key pillars. The first one, which is the exterior of the vehicle. Obviously, you know, we are leaders in IES market, which is all of the plastic envelope of the car. We have also fully integrated now the PO Module activity by buying the last third to Forvia/ HELLA, some months ago.
We made the strategic move of entering the lighting business through two acquisitions, AMLS OSRAM that we closed in July 2022, and the VLS, Varroc activity that we closed in October 2022. Other pillar, the powertrain. We are leaders in fuel system modules, but not only that, now we are able to cover the full spectrum of the powertrain. We have ramped up the new energy activity that we've been investing for many years now, but since early 2022, it's now a totally dedicated standalone new division. We've launched the e-Power activity around the battery management module, thanks to the basis of the acquisition of ACTIA Power.
Last but not least, we've launched the OP'nSoft software activity, we'll discuss that a bit later on. That is here to serve to develop the software layer of all of our components and systems. 2022, also an important year in terms of innovation. We started the year with some awards rewarding our people but also rewarding our technology. The PACE Pilot Award, which is an important award given by Automotive News, to reward the 4D imaging radar innovation project that we have with Greenerwave. It was also very important for us to get some subsidies in able to launch these new hydrogen plants in France. That was some months ago, back in October.
We've also made new partnerships with academic world, the CEA in France and the MIT in the U.S., also with this idea of fueling innovation, but on a more collaborative and open manner. It was our first in the CES in Las Vegas at the beginning of the year, and I think we've been very impressed and positively impacted by this first show. Actually, we received two awards for the for some lighting technologies, which also shows that the move that we have made and the technology we have found in the acquisition we have made is here. Strategic move, innovation, but also a strong commercial success. 2022 was again a record year in terms of order intake, so more than last year.
The good news is that next year will be indeed the same again. That will be able for us to fuel the future growth of the group in the years to come and to sustain our performance to the market. Key orders in EV technology but also on ICE segment. Here you have some illustration as far the exterior vehicle segment is concerned. We have launched the first Smart Panel with Renault. It's a polycarbonate surface that is in front of the car. We have a very strong content in the Audi as we have the first plastic they get. That's an important milestone too, but with many other PO products in it, so strong content by car.
If we look at the powertrain pillar, some significant achievements. One of the latest is the 400-volt battery pack that we've been just awarded by HYVIA to provide this module for commercial vehicle. Also, we have some higher voltage battery packs that we supply to some American bus companies. On the more traditional technology, again, an illustration that we can still grow market share, as we have won a fuel system for the Renault Kwid, which was in steel before. Illustration that there's still room for growth. The Ford F-150, which is, as you know, a top seller in the US, very important product for us in North America.
In terms of launch, strong year with 124 launches, smooth and successful. We can also say here that more than 25% were on BEV. Really showing that we have this strong exposure to, the BEV market segment that is growing a lot. With that, I hand it over to you, Laurent, for the system build part.
Merci beaucoup. Thank you, Félicie. In the purpose, as Félicie mentioned, there is the word Generation, which is about the idea of being responsible. Being responsible, it's also what we are doing at PO, not only since some years, but since the foundation of PO. Therefore, I'm very happy to share with you what we have been able to achieve in the sustainability part in 2022, which was also very rich for us. You may remember that when we talk about carbon neutrality, we announced at the end of 2021 that we want to be carbon neutral in the Scope 1 and 2 already in 2025. You will see that we are on track with this, with this ambition, with this commitment.
That we target to reduce the Scope 3 by 30% in 2030. That is our commitment, and that is the way we are managing our carbon neutrality. I will show you in the next slides how we have been making progress last year. Our notation from CDP and EcoVadis did improve also last year, highlighting again that we are moving in the right direction and that we are also a driver of the change of the mobility in term of becoming more sustainable.
When we talk about the Scope 1 and 2, last year, we have been able, and you saw before that we grew a lot last year, but we have been able to reduce our CO2 consumption last year by 9% because of the increase of the efficiency by 13% compared to 2021. If we compare to 2019, which was the base for our commitment, we have been able to reduce our CO2 consumption by 26%. That means we are growing, but we are reducing our CO2 consumption because we increase the efficiency, but also because we buy or produce green energy. We have already now 11 or 12 sites being equipped with green energy, and we will double this number this year.
We will continue this path. First focus is for sure to reduce the energy consumption. We need to increase the efficiency as we did in the previous years, and we will continue to do in the coming years, at least 3.5% a year, efficiency increase, and then to produce more internally and to buy green energy. We will achieve with that the carbon neutrality we mentioned before in 2025 for the Scope 1 and the Scope 2, meaning what we have already in our hands. Regarding the Scope 3, which does represent 98%-99% of our CO2 emission, we have here the target to reduce the CO2 emission by 30% until 2030. The good news is that we have already achieved 29% out of the 30%.
For sure we won't stop here. We will continue. We will over-achieve our target in 2030 by involving our suppliers, by also considering more and more the carbon footprint of our suppliers in our strategic decision, meaning in the partnership we are having with our suppliers, and also by focusing on the downstream on zero energy vehicle or low carbon mobility. Félicie was mentioning hydrogen electrification before and but also in the hybrid technology. That is the actions we are having.
The result is already very promising because 29% decrease compared to 2019, and you can be sure that we won't stop here and that we will continue in this path to overachieve our commitment in 2030. When you talk about sustainability, it's not only about carbon neutrality, as you know. Here it's an extract of the KPIs we are following. There are more than that, for sure, but these are very, very important ones. That is also the way we start each management meeting at PO. We start always with the sustainability, because again, it's our core responsibility. In term of safety, we have not achieved our target last year. We have been at 0.78 in FR2, which is the number of accident by hour worked.
It is an deterioration compared to 2021. It remains a benchmark. The benchmark, if you have a look on the industry, is 1.5-2. We are much better. We are not satisfied. We are happy to see that we have more and more sites being at zero accident, 80% of the production sites in PO. Some of them are still struggling to improve as we are expecting, and we will improve in the coming years. In term of youth employment, we wanted to target 1,000 youth employment people in 2025. Good news, last year, we were already at 1,204, meaning that we are very engaged to increase the youth employment.
It is also our responsibility, that is the attractiveness of the company, and that is the future of PO for sure, to be able to attract these young people. We will continue, and also here, we won't stop to the 1,000. We will define new targets for 2025. In term of diversity, when we start with the governance of PO and the board of director, we are already at 57% of women in our board of directors, which is also benchmark in the industry, in the automotive industry. 33% in the executive committee. When we have a look on the other population of PO, we are above 30% of women in PO in the global staff. The target was 30%. Last year, 31%.
Very happy of this move. Here as well, we will reassess the targets for the coming years, but already above 31%. We are improving in managers and engineers, being at 23.2%, an improve of 5% compared to last year. It's not enough. We are pushing. We are engaging more and more people in that, but we are improving. In senior executive management as well, an improve, but we want to speed up in the coming years to achieve or overachieve the targets we are mentioning here. As you can see, in term of diversity, in the segment we are in the automotive industry, we are benchmark. We are never satisfied, as you know.
It's like for the financials, therefore, we will continue to push to improve because we believe it will bring us also more performance for the future. After these highlights of 2022, we move to our strategic roadmap. Félicie was mentioning before the purpose of PO, was explaining also what is the new PO with the new portfolios we have. For sure, our strategy is to continue to grow in a market which is not growing as fast as in the past, but to grow with more content, with more added value, and for sure, also with more profit in the future. When we talk about the market, these are the numbers of S&P. That is the base we are considering for our strategy.
You know that we are always a bit more conservative than S&P, the main trends are the same, meaning that the market will grow in the coming years around 2% in volume. That means not the growth we knew in the past, but a growth of 2%. The biggest changes will be the electrification for sure. You see here the numbers of electrification in Europe, in China, in Asia, and in North America. The trend to electrification is clear. The speed is for sure different by region. China is speeding up. It was already 25% last year, while Europe was at 12%-13%. China will be leading the path to electrification.
We believe that Europe will be close to 60%-80% in 2030 in term of electrification. It will take a bit more time in North America, in Americas and in Asia. Therefore, electrification is for sure a very important topic to be considered. As mentioned by Félicie before, we are overbooking, I would say, in BEV, and 25% of our launches last year were for BEV platforms. That means we are benefiting from that. Chinese market restart, that is for sure the expectation for the second semester, because Chinese market is the one bringing the growth, I mean, the biggest growth in the automotive. We believe that the Chinese market will continue to grow.
We continue to lead the pace, and we are very happy, as Kathleen mentioned before, to see that except on the fuel system business, which is normal because of the electrification, we are outperforming the market in exterior systems and in Module. For sure, the inflation. We believe the inflation will remain a challenge for all of us this year, but we have been able to manage it last year. Therefore, we will be able to manage it this year as well. The inflation should slow down in the coming years and come back to more normal situation. In this environment, in line with our purpose, we have deployed our strategy in three priorities.
That is what we did communicate to you in the CMD last year. First of all, to reinforce our product portfolio, because we are leaders in everything we do in the traditional portfolio. For sure, we want to reinforce the leadership position by adding content. Félicie was talking about Greenerwave and 4D imaging radar before. That is an example of that. We want to benefit from the transformation of the market, to be present in the EV segment, we are. To be present in the hydrogen segment, we are as well. In the connectivity and safety. These are also the reasons why we are investing as well in lighting, but also in the other system.
Later on, we do see some opportunities for us to benefit also from the growth of the service business, but that will be on the agenda for the coming years. We are already working on service for battery system and hydrogen. We do see a lot of opportunities for us in the coming years on that. In the coming slides, we will comment what it does mean exactly or concretely for each division of PO. That means what are the priorities, what are the actions for this year and the coming years, again, to continue to grow in this new market environment and to benefit from the market transformation. I start with the powertrain pillar, and Félicie will comment the exterior pillar powertrain. You know, we have three activities.
The core activity of PO in powertrain is our fuel system business, which is number one in the world in all the regions, and a fuel system business which is for sure strongly impacted by the electrification, because more electrification is less cars with a fuel system. That means the market we do address will reduce from 71 million cars last year to 61 around in 2027 if we believe the numbers of S&P I was commenting before. That means a decrease of 15% in volume of the market we do address. We have the target, the ambition to increase our market share by 25% in the coming years.
That means to try to compensate or to mitigate the impact coming from 22% in the past, in 2022, up to 27% or even higher in 2027. We are on a good way for that. We had a very good order book last year in the fuel system. We do see that the OEMs are consolidating the market. They want to have strong players, but less players than in the past because the addressable market is declining for sure. Therefore, as we are number one in most of the regions in the world, we are benefiting from this consolidation of the market, gaining market share. We have booked almost everything we want to book to achieve the 27% + in 2027.
That will be the case in Europe. That will be the case as well in the U.S. and in Asia. In China, for sure, the market is a bit different for us because we are not number one in China in fuel system. The message here is that we are growing our market share, and we are able to mitigate in the coming years the slowing down or the decline of the addressable market. Priority for us is to consolidate the market, is to limit or to reduce the CapEx to reduce the exposure. We don't need to invest a lot because we have the footprint.
To adapt the footprint, potentially to move also some capacities from some region to other regions which are not impacted by the electrification with the speed we have, for example, in Europe. To reuse the capacity when we can. When we talk about hydrogen, the new facility in France, later on, the new facility in France will be close to an existing facility for fuel system. We'll be able to reuse or to reemploy our employee being in this business in France, which is for sure very important for us in term of social responsibility, but also in term of having the right skills.
And at the end, what is for sure the most important for this business is to continue to generate a high level of cash, because this cash we are reinvesting in the new portfolio of PO to benefit from the electrification. Therefore, a very solid pillar of our strategy, this business, we will continue to develop market share and to adapt the cost structure, the break-even point, to the market situation, but a very strong free cash flow generation for the group. The second one is new energy. It's a new division, as Félicie mentioned before, for PO, since beginning of 2022. We are engaged in hydrogen since more than five years. We can cover the full scope of products.
That means the high-pressure vessel, as you can see here, for all kind of mobility, but also the fuel cell stack with our joint venture and with our partner, ElringKlinger, and the fuel cell stack system. Our ambition is to be number one, as we are in all the other activities. We are on track of being number one. We have been booking many orders last year. The market is picking up. We do see a lot of activities in all the regions, not only in Europe. Europe last year was a very strong success with the business for Stellantis, for Renault HYVIA, for example, but also a lot of activities in the U.S.
We booked an order. We are putting in place right now capacity for Ford. Also other players are investing a lot in hydrogen in the U.S. and also in Asia. Recently, as you know, after the announcement of the construction of a factory in Korea for Hyundai, we have announced as well a joint venture with Shenergy, a major actor in the energy system in Shanghai, to benefit from the fact that China is investing in hydrogen for heavy mobility and to grow as well in China. We have the right positioning. We are building up seven factories. We are investing a lot of money, and we are happy about that because we do see a lot of benefit.
We are very confident to achieve our targets, which are EUR 3 billion of sales in 2030, and which are to be the number one in hydrogen, which will help the mobility to become cleaner and to reduce the CO2 emissions, starting with the heavy mobility, the commercial one. We do see also more and more players in the SUV segment investing in hydrogen. The last one, which is the last baby of the company, I would say, was Félicie did mention, it's really about a battery system. We believe that battery system makes sense for us, starting with the EV mobility business. The EV mobility business is also moving to electrification with some years delay compared to the passenger cars.
It's a business which is less crowded than the passenger car business, where major actors are investing, where the OEMs are willing to capture a big part of the value chain. EV mobility it's different. They want also to speed up. They don't have the intention, our customers, to integrate and to invest in those technologies. Therefore, we decided to make the acquisition of ACTIA Power last year. It's a small business. This year it will be about EUR 50 million of sales, but we have the ambition to grow this business up to EUR 1 billion in 2030. First of all, with a focus on the EV mobility, where we do see at least EUR 500 million sales as potential until 2030.
We have already 3,000 battery packs and systems on the road for buses, for trains, and so on. We booked recently, as Félicie mentioned, a very important order with HYVIA, the joint venture of Renault with Plug Power, where we have the storage system for hydrogen, for battery pack, high-voltage battery pack. Therefore, we will be able to support Renault in the electrification of the light commercial vehicle, both on hydrogen and electrification as well. That was about the powertrain. As you can see, we can cover all the technologies in powertrain, relying on the very strong performance of our fuel system business and investing in electrification, both hydrogen and battery system. I hand over now to Félicie, who will talk about the exterior solution activities.
Thank you, Laurent. Coming back to the exterior solution, obviously lighting playing a big role for us in the exterior of the car, which is why we made this diversification. As you know, it's agnostic to whatever powertrain the car or the EV mobility is having, and also is playing a bigger role in terms of design. Two strong features that supported our investment thesis when deciding to enter this market. Since day one of the building of this new division, which was in October of 2022, we have spent a lot of time, obviously, analyzing and starting to put this business to the PO benchmark standards, which is important for us.
There is a turnaround to be done in the months to come. It was also important, as we have noticed since day one, that indeed, we have the trust and the support of the customer, which was important for us to do the deal in the first place. Today, it is materializing through the new solicitation and the new quotation that we do have with the current product portfolio of the business. Also there are some new pockets of growth that we can tackle. For instance, today, this business is very strong in Europe and also in North America, there's all of the Asian market to be addressed. We are assessing which kind of strategy we could have to tackle this market.
A strong basis that we wanna grow. We have indeed found the technology that we were expecting. We have received some awards, and we are really using that this expertise to leverage our OEMs portfolio and to come up with new quotations in the months to come. That's to leverage the lighting business standalone. Also what we wanna do as we are the only one to really provide this full scope of the envelope of the car, to leverage some synergies from a product standpoint, to come up with new offers when customers are willing to integrate some more functionalities and some more intelligence in those parts.
To leverage so the IES division, but also lighting and pure module to come up with this product for integration. We will also use all of the ADAS that we are currently developing with Greenerwave, but not only other innovation leads that we have. Obviously, again, the software that will play an important role in being able to provide full system to our customers. Talking about software, so as I mentioned earlier, we launched the OP'nSoft activity. You know that today the share of the value of the software within the car is growing a lot, and obviously, we want also to benefit, to capture some of that value that will grow in the years to come.
Also to be able to provide that as a fully integrated product to our customers. Today, we are expecting by mid of the year to have up to 70 people. A basis here in Paris, obviously, we want to leverage our best cost footprint, country footprint to be able to be competitive, to promote a competitive offer to our division and in the years to come, to our customers. It's really with this mission to be supporting the product development of all of PO activity. Short term, we know we have a challenge, mainly with new energies and lighting to provide the systems in the months to come.
So, two key pillars, powertrain, exterior solutions that indeed really represent the way we wanna grow in terms of product portfolio in the years to come.
Thank you, Félicie. Now we have been talking about 2022, and you could see, I hope, that we are even more ready for the future than before. Let's talk about 2023, 2025 with the objectives we want to share with you for 2023. First of all, regarding the market in 2023, we consider the market will be between stable and the small growth S&P is expecting of 3%, therefore between 0% and 3%. That is our assumption for this year. In this market environment, we do target a strong growth. Again, a very strong growth this year.
That means we will outperform the market again this year, which is due to the fact that we have been able, as Félicie mentioned before, to have again last year a very strong order intake. The year before it was the same, therefore we will logically benefit from that, and we have a strong order intake as well in the electrification, which is accelerating. Therefore, very confident to outperform the market and to have a strong growth this year. We want to improve in value our operating results. We are investing in the future, in hydrogen. We are investing in lighting. We are investing in electrification. We will improve our operating margin, which will be above EUR 400 million this year.
We want also to generate more free cash flow in value than last year, at least EUR 260 million. As you know, PO is a free cash flow company because was always able to generate a high level of free cash flow. That means high investment. A high investment in innovation, in new portfolio, but also high cash flow, free cash flow generation. No compromise on that because that is the key for independency of being able to move forward and to take the right strategic decision. Regarding 2025, we do review our commitment regarding revenues and sales. We want to target at least EUR 11.5 billion of sales in 2025.
We are confident about that because of, because again, about the strong order book we have, because of, the targets we have in order intake this year. Which will be again, a record year for PO, and therefore we are very confident to achieve at least EUR 11.5 billion of sales in 2025. Between 2023- 2025, we will for sure continue to improve our profitability. We will improve the operating margin at least by 15% a year, each year. We will generate at least 3%-4% of free cash flow in the coming years. Therefore, you see that, as we did in 2022, where we were able to generate a high level of free cash flow while investing into the future, we will continue.
We will continue to outperform the market in term of growth, to outperform the market which is not growing very fast in term of volumes, where we are bringing more values with the right offering, with the right portfolio, basically. To generate a high level of free cash flow in the coming years, again, while investing in new technologies. That is in effect the conclusion. We are very satisfied, and I really want to thank the PO team for the fantastic 2022 year. It was a difficult market environment, but very strong performance in financials as you could see, where all targets were achieved, as Kathleen mentioned before.
Also we have been able to reshuffle the product portfolio of PO in line with our purpose, in line with the market expectation, the transformation of the market. Therefore, we are very, very satisfied with the portfolio we have today. We have a roadmap which is clear. That means we know what to do. That is important. We are starting for sure the execution. 2023 will be for sure, again, a very dynamic year that we, as we know since some years. We like that. We are used to that because we can move better than the others in this challenging environment.
Therefore we feel very comfortable to review our guidance or to improve our guidance in 2025 in term of revenues because of the growth engine we are generating right now. That was our presentation with Félicie and Kathleen, now for sure it's about the discussion with you and to answer your questions, hoping that you will have, as usual, a lot of very interesting question. We start here in the room in Levallois-Perret, if somebody has a question.
Okay. If you'd like to ask a question over the telephone today, please press star one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand back to the speaker for questions in the room.
Normally, the people are shy in the room, and therefore we can start with the telephone and come back to the room if you wish.
Okay. Our first telephone question comes from Akshat Kacker at JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Laurent. Good morning, Kathleen. Congratulations on the strong result in 2022. I have three questions, please. The first one, can you talk about the lighting and electronics business, please, and the speed at which you can execute this turnaround? You integrated the assets at roughly break-even gross margins. Where do you expect to be in 2023, and what are the key levers behind this, please? The second question is, again, in 2023, you're guiding for strong revenue growth and outperformance to underlying light vehicle production. Could you just share more detail which business segments are driving this growth above market? If you could highlight some key product ramp-ups or launches that are helping the top line development. The last question on total CapEx, please. You had a strong control on investments in 2022 at 4% of sales.
How should we think about CapEx going into 2023 and 2024, please? Are we expected to go back to the 5% level, or should we expect a lower number going forward? Thank you.
First of all, thank you, Akshat, for your comment and for your questions, and I will try to answer, and Kathleen and Félicie will help me. Regarding the lighting turnaround or the lighting operation, as you understood, the lighting division is the merge of AMLS, coming from Automotive Lighting , and VLS, Varroc Visibility Systems, which is a pure lighting player, traditional lighting player. First of all, as Félicie mentioned, we are very happy to have this asset in the group. We have the right technology and we got two award in the CES in Las Vegas. Therefore, we have also not only sort of your perception, but also from the market.
Our customers are also very satisfied, you know that they were engaged in motivating us to go into the lighting business. We have a lot of commercial activities right now, because they want to develop lighting with us, and because they also do believe that lighting alone and with the synergies we have with the bumper business, for example, will bring them a unique value because we are the only one to be able to offer what we explained before. That means this complete integrated offer. That means we are not only a pure lighting player, but we are a lighting player who is also able to combine the technologies and to offer something unique to our customers.
Second topic is, as we thought, we have discovered, I would say that our footprint and our industrial capacities are the right ones. We have over capacity in the lighting business, which is good because we can grow without investing too much. We are in the right locations. We are in best cost countries. There is no production site being in a high cost country. It is either in Czech or in Poland or in Mexico or in Morocco, for example. Therefore, we can be very competitive in lighting because again, the right assets, equipment is brand new, and we have over capacity. Therefore, for us, a very strong base.
No, we are not satisfied with the performance in term of financials and in term of operating performance. That's the reason why we have transferred 50 expert from PO, mainly coming from the IES business, Intelligent Exterior Systems , to support the factories of the lighting business to be at benchmark. We have three focus we are working on for all the factories. That is, first of all, to reduce the structural cost of the factories, to reduce by 10% to 20% in each factory because we believe in term of productivity we can be much better.
To reduce the scrap cost as well by around 50% in some factories more, and also to reduce the inventories because the inventory level is pretty high, and as you know, if you reduce inventories, you generate cash as well, huh? These are the three main topics we are working on in term of operations. On top of that, we are for sure addressing the synergies with the group. We believe we can reduce significantly the SG&A in the lighting business to use the synergies of the group, and that is a topic. Also the purchasing is benefiting from the purchasing power of the group. Here as well, we do see a lot of opportunities.
Last but not least, we have the support of the customers. These are the reasons why we do target the break even this year. That is our target. For sure there is the inflation as well in lighting, but we will find ways to do that. Our commitment, our target is to target the break even this year and in 24-36 months to have the mid single-digit operating margin we have been mentioning as well last year when we did announce the acquisition. Already a strong asset, no bad surprise, great technology, great footprint, great industrial equipment. A lot of people working on the operational improvement, and we know how to... what it means.
50 PO people supporting the lighting production sites to be much more efficient, to be benchmark, and to achieve the break even this year and to improve in the coming years. Also to optimize the synergies with the other divisions. That was for the lighting. Regarding the strong organized growth we do expect this year, that is nothing else than the result of the fact that we did book 30% or even more business last year above our sales and the year before. That means order book is very strong in all the segment, especially in the BEV segment. That means we are benefiting a lot from the push on the BEV segment.
The Module business and the exterior business are very exposed to BEVs because the BEV players, they want to have optimized solution in term of weight, and we are optimizing and we are offering to them a unique solution, and therefore the growth will be pushed mainly by the electrification, both in Modules and in IES. We will grow as well this year in the fuel system business. We will grow in value, which is a great news even if the market is declining due to the fact that we are gaining market share as mentioned before, and we are targeting coming from 22%-27% in 2027. Your last question was regarding the CapEx.
Last year, we have been able to maintain the CapEx at around 4%. It was, I think, Kathleen, 4.1% or 4%.
Right.
For the traditional PO and with the acquisition it was a bit higher. For this year, we target around 5% of CapEx. That means to maintain the CapEx level of the traditional business as before to use, to optimize the usage of the capacity we have in place. To reduce the CapEx for projects by moving to best cost countries as well. It is a topic we are pushing a lot. For sure to invest in new energy, in hydrogen. That means the reason why we are moving for around 4 to close to 5 this year is mainly due to the hydrogen business where we are building factories.
We are very happy about that because it will generate a lot of, a lot of value for the company in the, in the coming years. The lighting itself will be around 5% this year. The big difference between 2022 and 2023 in term of CapEx is mostly the new energy, that means the hydrogen business, and the fact that we are now transforming, executing, building factories.
Great. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. We're now moving on to our next question, which comes from Thomas Besson of Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. It's Thomas Besson at Kepler Cheuvreux. I have several questions. If that's okay, I'd like to ask them one by one. Firstly, can you please give us your view on your net inflation impact for 2023, please? I think wages and energy are going to be the main headwinds and are probably a bit more difficult to transfer to customers than raw mats. Could you give us an indication of what you would expect to be the net inflation impact in 2023 for Plastic Omnium, please?
I mean, first of all, Thomas, if you can tell us what will be the inflation this year then you are very useful because nobody knows, huh? It is changing a lot. For sure we have some assumptions. Last year, Kathleen mentioned that we had a net impact of EUR 60 million around in inflation. This year, the inflation will be different than last year for us. That means the raw material inflation is not an issue anymore right now. Some raw material are decreasing or slowing down. We have some agreements with most of the customers as well now to make sure that in case of in case of big movements, we can compensate.
Logistic rate is not a big issue as well because it's coming back to partially to the levels we had before the COVID crisis. Inflation for us, these are two main topics, at least like for everybody's energy and labor. In term of energy, we did hedge our energy costs for 2023 to a level which is higher than 2022, which is normal. Now for sure the target is to try to find a way to compensate this price increase by continuing to improve our efficiency and by having the right negotiation with our customers.
For labor, for sure as well, we have a higher labor cost increase than what we had in the past due to the inflation in most of the countries. Here as well, target is to work with ourself on productivity, first of all, and then to find ways with customers. All in all, I don't want to mention a ratio of what we can pass through and we want to pass through to our customers, suppliers and so on. We do expect a similar impact in term of net than what we had last year.
Yeah. Thank you very much. Second question, please. I don't know if you want to go as far as giving us an indication of how much operating loss we should expect from acquisitions in 2023. I know some even target break even at 1 point in 2023, but I think it's reasonable probably to expect still some losses during the year. Is there any way as well you give us an indication of the evolution of losses from new activities like new energies in 2023 versus 2022? Are they gonna stay at the same level or improve? Finally, do you plan to stick in terms of disclosures with Industries versus Modules or do you plan to give us some indications on exterior, powertrain, lighting, new energies in the future?
I was expecting the last question. Regarding the acquisition, I mean, first of all, if we talk about new energies, new energy is not a loss-making business. It's a growing business, therefore it's normal that as we are investing, today we don't have a huge turnover. We'll have EUR 20 million-EUR 30 million turnover this year, we are targeting EUR 300 million in 2025 and to break even in 2025. In terms of margin this year, it will be similar to last year in new energy.
In term of free cash flow, we will have a higher consumption of free cash flow because again, we are investing in factories in France, in Korea, and in the U.S. and we are happy to do that because it demonstrates again that we are booking a lot of orders and that the customers believe in us and it will create growth and value for the company, starting, as mentioned before, in 2025 with EUR 300 million and a break even. In term of margin, it will be similar. In term of cash and investment, a bit higher than last year.
When we talk about the lighting business, which is as we knew before, a strong asset in terms of technology, attractiveness for our customer, but a business having troubles in terms of operational performance and financial performance. The target is again to be break-even this year, to be as close as possible to a zero operating margin already this year and to be neutral in terms of free cash flow at least, and that is what we are working on with the team with all the actions we have been mentioning before. I am confident that we will be able to achieve that.
Okay, great. Thank you. Third question, please. Can you give us an idea of the share of group consolidated revenues from Tesla and the combined share of consolidated revenues from your local Chinese OEMs, and in particular, if you can isolate them eventually, BYD, SAIC or Geely?
I think we are, I mean, I have the numbers here. I don't know if we want to disclose everything, but I know that we are. I mean, Tesla, I don't have it now, but that's one thing we can communicate. We have a good news on Tesla, but you cannot mention Tesla officially because they are not happy about that. Therefore, it's not. Don't mention Tesla, but we are building up a factory in Austin, Texas, because we will be their partner in Austin, Texas, in Module. And, which is showing again that we are very strongly present with Tesla.
We are building up a factory in China, an exterior system only for Tesla because they are increasing their capacity, we are following them. We are their main partner for the exterior parts. I don't have the numbers right now. In terms of the Chinese customers, Kathleen was mentioning that YFPO or joint venture in China for exterior system was growing by 18% last year, which is much higher than the market. It is mainly due to the fact that we are very strong in the BEV segment in China, mainly due to the fact that we are more and more engaged with the Chinese OEMs, with the BYD, which is still small.
It was last year about EUR 25 million of sales, BYD, because they are integrated. That means they do produce their bumpers internally, but they do outsource more and more. Therefore, we are benefiting from that. In total, we are talking about around EUR 200 million of sales with purely Chinese OEMs last year, but a share which is increasing.
Thank you. Kathleen, can you give us some indication on the net interest and tax charges for 2023? The tax rate was a bit lower than I thought, while interest were a bit higher. Can you tell us strategically if there are more deals in the pipe, or if you're done now with the kind of sum of acquisitions that have been done over the last 18 months?
Yes. Thank you, Thomas, for the question. I think we've stressed several times, and I'll underline that again today, is that our first priority moving forward in 2023 is to really focus on being able to exploit the full potential of the acquisitions that we've made and to engage and be successful in these turnaround activities that we have detailed this morning. Of course, we have in our horizon the 24-36-month single mid-digit objective. In the short term, there are no additional plans to be continuing any significant investments outside of the ones that we've already made. In terms of net debt, I did give some detail on the cost of the financial result. I think that's what you were referring to, Thomas. I did give some details.
If you look at the global cost of the financial result in 2022, it's about at 0.7% of sales. Moving forward in 2023, I think you should maintain that ballpark.
Which is, I want to highlight again, it's a kind of benchmark, being much below 1% of financial costs in this high interest rates environment is really great. As Kathleen mentioned, it could increase a bit, but it will stay in the same levels. Regarding the M&A activities, we are very happy with what we have now. We have the right portfolios. We have a lot to do, a lot of potential in each division. Therefore, now it's about using this potential. It's about delivering, for sure, not about working on further acquisition. PO has a very strong track record, as you know, in term of integration and management of the acquisition.
It's part of our DNA because 50% of our growth in the last 20 years were with acquisition. It was always successful, and it's successful when you can digest what you buy, and therefore, now the target is to digest, to benefit. We will see in some years, but there is nothing on the agenda. We believe it makes a lot of sense also to deleverage the company. We have been able to finish the year last year with a ratio of 1.9x, which is great after this level of investment and acquisition. We will continue to deleverage the company in the coming years and to, and again, to use the potential of those acquisitions.
In terms of tax, Thomas, if you look at, perhaps, an easy way of looking at this topic, as I mentioned earlier, is to look at the tax charge in percent of the net income before tax. We're at roughly 25%. I think if you take that into account for 2023, 25%-26%, you should be fine there.
Great. Thank you. I have one last question, please. Your payout ratio jumped in 2023 for 2022, which I think is great news. Can you confirm this is an indication that from Plastic Omnium's cash returns are now going to be focused on dividend versus buyback in the past, and that we should expect buyback activities to be more limited in 2023, at least?
You know that is a question we never answer by definition, but we are happy to continue to pay dividends to our shareholders. Not all the companies are able to do that, as you know, because they don't have the net results for that. We have it. We have it, we had it last year, we have it this year as well, and we will continue to find the right balance between investing in the business to create value, but also paying our dividend to our shareholders.
Thank you very much, Laurent.
Merci.
Thank you. We're now moving on to a question from Michael Foundoukidis of Oddo. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, Michael Foundoukidis, Oddo BHF. Most of my questions have been asked, but maybe some follow-ups. First one, could you give us more color on the expected profitability development between the two historical businesses, industry and Module in 2023? That's the first question.
It's an easy, Question is easy, the answer as well. Industry last year was at historical business at 6.3%, We target to further improve this year. Module was at 2% last year, We target to improve this year as well. That means the traditional business of PO, like between 2021 and 2022, will continue to improve its pro-profitability, sorry, in 2023 compared to 2022. Which is for sure great news because that means that we have a very solid foundation to finance and to support the transformation of the company. Therefore, both Industries and Modules will improve their margin this year.
Okay. Thank you. Very clear. Maybe I'll try also on the dividend and the policy, as Thomas said, I mean, the payout has been increased to 34%, which is significantly above what we had in the past year, which was closer to 25%. Not mentioning potential buybacks or whatever, should we assume that now, I mean, in our model, I mean, we would be closer to, let's say, between 30% and 35%? There's maybe some exceptional in this year.
At the end, it depends on the net result of the company. The ballpark 30%-35% can be taken as an assumption.
Okay. Thanks. very clear. Maybe a last one on production and on your assumptions. I mean, besides the level of production, so you said you were more cautious than S&P. Do you see signs of significant volatility reductions already in Q1, versus what you had at the end of last year, or it's still too early for that?
No, I think we are, I mean, the supply chains are more stable than last year. They are improving from quarter to quarter, which is a good news, because it help us to be able to adapt, to anticipate. The main, I would say, challenge for us is not the level of the volumes. It's much more the stop and goes to adapt very fast to flex. You know that we are very flexible cost structure in all of our factories. Therefore, we can adapt without any big issue because we have at least 20% of temps in most of the factories, sometimes much more. Therefore, we can adapt if we know in advance.
The good news is that the market is much more stable now than it was last year.
Okay. Thank you. Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you, Michael.
Thank you. We're now moving on to a question from Pierre-Yves Quemener of Stifel. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Bonjour à tous. I've got several question, please. First off, regarding the price recovery you got from clients in 2022. What has been the net, the gross impact on revenues? What do you expect for 2023, the contribution of the price recovery to be on the revenues as well? Second question would go on to free cash flow. Kathleen, you've been particularly cautious on that metric all through the second half, leading to a low guide post-acquisition of roughly EUR 140 million, but you've reached EUR 243 million. What have been the drivers to this much better performance? In particular, anything to be aware of regarding the working cap, which has had a neutral impact in the second half.
Anything from factoring, anything to have in mind in to 2023, regarding both free cash flow and the, and the working cap component? To limit myself to three questions, just one last. You are targeting break even for all the new acquired entities in 2023, if I'm correct. Regarding new energy systems, you are also targeting flat negative contributions in 2023 versus 2022. Are we talking about a negative EUR 30 million at operating level for the new energy system in 2023 like it was in 2022? Thank you.
Well, many questions, I recognize that you know the company pretty well, which is great. Regarding inflation 2022, the price recovery, as you mentioned with our customers, it was about EUR 170 million, EUR 180 million. As you can imagine, we've been working a lot as well to compensate internally with our suppliers the inflation impact. It's about EUR 170 million-EUR 180 million, the impact on our turnover, on our sales last year. Regarding the free cash flow 2022, I will start, and Kathleen will make some additional comments. Which is much higher after acquisition than what we did announce.
It's first of all because we have seen that we have no need for further investment for those acquisition because we have the industrial footprint what we need. We had also not the good news, but we knew that we have high inventories, and we can reduce inventories. That means we have been able as well to manage properly the inventories of those new acquisition. To renegotiate some payment terms with our suppliers, PO being more stable than the previous owner. These are the reasons why we have limited strongly the negative cash impact of the acquisition. For the working capital, I will hand over to Kathleen. For the new businesses, I mean, I mentioned that we are targeting the break-even in the lighting. The New Energy, the numbers you mentioned before, it's a ballpark number which you can assume as well for this year. Kathleen?
Yes, thank you. I'm not sure I understood the working capital question, Pierre, but as I mentioned, we always have working capital resources, so it's not a requirement in Plastic Omnium. We reduced that resource by EUR 72 million in 2022 due to the supply chain difficulties that we saw in 2022, as you know, with the war in Ukraine, et cetera. Also the fact that we have with our order book that's been building up over the last two years, we had less starts of production in 2022, which will take place now in 2023. So that led to a temporary buildup, if you like, of working capital.
We will see that ironing itself out in 2023 as we launch those new programs that we have in development currently. What were the drivers for the working capital we guided low? Well, first of all, the second semester, as I mentioned earlier, in 2022 was significantly better, was great actually. We increased in terms of consolidated sales by almost EUR 700 million compared to the first semester of 2022. Compared to the second semester of 2021, it was actually an increase of 34% of revenue. We gained great momentum actually in the second semester. As I mentioned in my first slide, on the market, we've started to see a slight recovery. The drivers were also around the acquisitions.
I think you can see that we did really well. We were above the guidance in terms of the standalone cash flow for the group from our initial guidance. We guided at EUR 260 and we came in at EUR 289. That's due to the dynamics that I just mentioned in the second half of the year. In terms of the acquisitions, we actually, we put into place all of our cash management, our cash management tools from day one. We actually came out a bit better than we anticipated at the end of the year.
We, as you know, when we put out our guidance in Q3, we hadn't yet completely acquired or had just acquired Varroc Lighting Systems, and we hadn't really opened up the box yet completely, which we're still in the process of doing. There we managed to bring things very quickly under control.
Okay. Thank you. Just to get it right, you in your free cash flow guidance in 2023, you would assume that working cap is a resource, is a tailwind on free cash flow, right?
Yes. It should be.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. We're now moving on to our next questioner, which is Giulio Pescatore of BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I just have one, and it's on hydrogen. Can you give us your thoughts on Stellantis' decision to invest in Symbio? Are you considering a similar partnership with car makers for your JV, and does it make sense to have a car maker involved in this operation? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you for your question. I mean, first of all, we are very happy to see that Stellantis is engaged in hydrogen. We booked orders with Stellantis. It's also the reason why we are investing in a new factory in France, as mentioned before. That shows again that they do believe in hydrogen. If there are more and more players, the market will develop faster than expected. Therefore, for us, it's a great news to see that they are investing in hydrogen, investing in Symbio as well. Do we envisage to have those kind of collaboration? No, because we think that in term of strategy, it could limit our growth potential to be married with a customer.
Therefore, having a partner can make sense if the partner is bringing us access to some markets. We believe that being with an OEM could limit our growth potential towards the other OEMs, and therefore it's not a, it's not a strategic move we are thinking about for hydrogen activities.
Thank you.
If I might add, we're delighted because we're happy to see how much this will all come out at. Obviously it's an indirect valuation as well of our own activities, so it's great to have someone else interested in the hydrogen activity.
Thank you. Up next, we have Christoph Laskawi of Deutsche Bank with our next question. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions as well. I'd like to come back to the top line guide, a bit. Could you just remind us again of what you assume the M&A contribution, so the scope contribution to be in 23? With regards to the outperformance of our production, you highlight it will be strong.
Does that mean closer to 500-600 basis points, or something even above that? On the 2025 guide and your statements that the operating income growth should be 15% on average over the 3 years. Obviously for 2023 you guide to above 10%. Should we expect an acceleration starting in 2024 already? Or is it more back end weighted to 2025? If you can comment on that. Last question will be just on the fading with regards to margin and free cash flow. Is there any difference between H1 and H2 that you would envisage or should it be around the same levels with regards to margin and cash? Thanks.
Regarding the top line for 2023, when we say we do expect a strong growth, that is for sure a strong growth. It's not about 5%, it's much more this year. I would say in a ballpark range what we had last year. That therefore it's what we do mention, strong growth. What is the contribution of the acquisition? We have communicated that the lighting business is between EUR 1 billion and EUR 1.2 billion of sales, which will be the case this year, about EUR 1.2 billion of sales. As you know that last year, the acquisition did contribute for about EUR 300 million in the growth of the company.
You can make the math and see what will be, what will be for this year, because the biggest contribution is for sure the lighting business. When we talk about the operating margin, we target to improve it by at least 10% this year in value compared to last year. Each year until 2025 by more than 15%. Yes, it will accelerate already in 2024. The main reason is what we mentioned before, the turnaround of the lighting business. We are targeting in 24 months. That is the reason why it will accelerate already in 2024.
Regarding semester 1 and 2 in the margin and free cash flow, we expect a stronger second semester than the first semester for two main reasons. First of all, when we talk about acquisition turnaround, it's a process we have been launching. We are working on the topics I was mentioning before. It is operational performance, headcount reduction, structural cost reduction, and it takes time, therefore, it is improving month by month. The second semester for the acquisition will be better than the first semester, therefore, also for the group.
When we talk about inflation recovery, we know by experience that also the negotiation with the customers take a bit time and that some negotiations happen at the end of a semester and that at the end of the first or the second one. We believe the second one will be stronger than the first one in term of margin and free cash flow.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. At this time, we have no further telephone questions, so I'd like to hand over to take questions from the web.
We have one question from Francesco Barbato , JP Morgan. What is the % of fixed and variable debt? What interest rate are we targeting to top the market? Are you planning to issue new bonds or refinance, extend the current maturities? What other instruments are you considering?
Thank you very much for the question. At the end of 2022, the variable portion of our debt was at 38%, up from 27% at the end of 2021. We are open to all options in terms of financing. We're exploring all possibilities at the moment. As you know, as I mentioned earlier, we have the next major rendezvous in June 2024, where we have to reimburse a bond for EUR 500 million. We're excluding no options on that. You know, the markets are very volatile at the moment. There are certain markets that are more easily accessible than others, especially when you look at the bond market for non-rated companies.
It's not an easy thing at the moment. We're evaluating all of our options, and we'll probably decide something, I'd say, in the course of the second half of this year.
We have no stress on that.
We have no stress. We're very serene on the topic.
Okay. I think it's time to finish. It's one and half hour. I really thank everybody for having participated to this event, to this call. Very happy again to celebrate the successes of PO in 2022. I thank again the PO team being also here present and for the contribution of 2022. 2023 will be again very exciting. We are happy to move forward in 2023. Thank you very much and see you soon.