I start again because my mic didn't work. Big welcome, everybody. Good morning. Welcome here. I'm very happy with Felicie Burelle and with Kathleen Wantz-O'Rourke to present to you today the first semester result of Plastic Omnium. I'm very happy as well because the performance is very strong. We are very satisfied, and I want to use the opportunity to thank the PO team for the strong performance of 2023 first semester. I start with some business highlights to explain again why we are so satisfied with the results. Starting with the growth, because the company was able to grow 35% compared to the first semester of last year.
Again, demonstrating that we are with the right customers, that we have the right offer, that we have the trust of our customers. The strategy that we have been putting in place the last years is paying off because we are overperforming the market. We'll come back to that later on. It's not only about growth in term of activity, but also in term of profitability, because the profitability did improve by 17% year-over-year. That is mainly driven by the historical activities of PO, performing very well in growth, but also in profitability.
Also driven by the fact that we have been able, for the newcomer, the lighting activity, to achieve the break even for the first time in the month of June, which is, I believe, a really strong performance of the lighting team. Last but not least, in terms of business highlights, the very strong order intake we had in the first semester. We are very satisfied last year to have the record order intake in the history of PO, beating the one from 2021. The first semester of 2023 did show even higher numbers because we have been able to book more business in 6 months than what we have been booking in one year in the past.
Again, showing that we have the trust of our customers, which is the most important. That we are able to manage the market complexity on short term, like inflation recovery, but also working on long term, in terms of finding ways with our customers to continue to grow together. It is also very strong, the order intake, in terms of quality, because we are not depending too much on Europe. 70% is outside of Europe, and that is in all activities, historical activities, but also electrification, lighting, and hydrogen as well, and these are the topics we will discuss in the coming minutes.
Some numbers to highlight what I was mentioning, starting with the turnover, EUR 5.8 billion of sales in economic revenue for PO, which is a record in terms of sales in the history of the company. That is in terms of growth, 20% like-for-like. That means organic growth is 20%, which is outperforming the market by 9 points. Even more important, we are outperforming the market in each region as well, and I come back to that later on. In terms of operating margin, EUR 210 million in the first semester. That is 4% of revenue. For sure, pretty diverse, depending on the activity. The historical one, performing very well.
The lighting being on track with the recovery plan we have been putting in place. The new activities like electrification and new energy, which are investment so far. In terms of free cash flow, which is probably the best number we have to present today in terms of financial performance, EUR 191 million of free cash flow, meaning an improvement of 43% compared to last year, 3.6% of revenue. That is one of the targets of the group, because we have been investing a lot in the recent years. For sure, one of the targets is to deleverage the company. To deleverage the company, the best way is to generate free cash flow. Therefore, we are very satisfied with the free cash flow generated in the first half of 2023.
Regarding the growth of the company, you can see on the slide the market growth, which was 11.3% in the first semester. These are the S&P numbers. On the right side of the slide, you see the performance of PO in each region. What is important to mention is what I said before, meaning that we are outperforming the market in each region, which is important in term of managing the growth for the future. 7.5% outperformance in Europe. 0.1 point in North America, which is not so strong, but you may remember that in the Q1 of the year, we were underperforming the market by 8 points because some SOPs were delayed with our customers.
Now it is catching up, and we are on a good track in North America as well. 10.6% in China, which is very important for us, because, as you know, the Chinese market is transforming even faster than the rest of the world. More electrification, many newcomers gaining market share, the fact that we are outperforming this market does demonstrate again that we are working with the right customers in China. Also more than 10% in the rest of Asia. Therefore, a very strong start of the year. I mean, after more than six months, it's more than a start, but a very strong first semester in 2023 for the company.
I hand over now to Kathleen, and Kathleen will give you, for sure, more information about the financial performance of the group in the first 6 months of 2023.
Thank you very much, Laurent, and good morning to everybody, and thank you for being present, both physically and online today. I'll move on to my first slide. As mentioned by Laurent, in the first half of 2023, both of the group's business lines reported strong revenue growth, as did our joint ventures, essentially in China and in Malaysia. As you can see here, both economic and consolidated revenue grew double digit across all segments and regions, with reported revenue up 35% against the first half of 2022, and organic growth up 20%. As a reminder, organic growth, as mentioned in the like-for-like column that you can see on this slide, excludes the acquisitions in the second half of 2022 and foreign exchange differences.
Both the EUR 5.8 billion economic revenue figure and the EUR 5.3 billion consolidated revenue figure represent all-time records for the group in a given semester. The group recorded three months in the semester of over EUR 1 billion in economic sales. Generally speaking, growth has been driven by four principal factors. First of all, there is a mechanical impact against the first half of 2022, that saw major uncertainties and disruptions linked to the war in Ukraine. Secondly, a marked drop in the number of supply chain-induced shutdowns, even if the situation is not yet completely absorbed, and we still have yet to find the pre-pandemic operational conditions. Thirdly, considerable growth in Germany and Eastern Europe.
Germany, with 40% growth, and Slovakia with 38% growth year-on-year, driven by the backlog and the rebuild of inventories, but also by the accelerated growth in BEVs. Last, but certainly not least, as Laurent mentioned, we are starting to see the fruit of the strong order books of the past two years that are now beginning to flow into the figures, strengthening the growth in our historical activities. In H1 2023, the group launched a higher number of starts of production, 75 in the first half of 2023, against 67 in S1 2022.
If I move on now to the revenue slide, here you can visualize the walk-in growth starting in H1 2022 and moving through to H1 2023, excluding acquisitions, followed by the contribution of the acquisitions to the top line and the reported economic revenue figure on the 30th of June. The EUR 809 million organic top-line growth in the historical activities of the group is composed of 17% organic growth in the industry segment and 29% in the modules business. Foreign exchange differences impact organic growth negatively by EUR 52 million, or in other words, canceled out approximately 6% of growth. I'd like to zoom in now on our ICE business, in particular, at this moment.
Clean Energy Systems reported organic growth in the very high single-digit range in an addressable market worldwide that grew by 6.7%. Outperforming the addressable market, meaning the non-electric market, our CES activities continues to demonstrate that it's an actor in the ICE business to be reckoned with. Following the huge order intake for the ICE business in the Q1 , the half year growth figures comfort us in the strategy of the group to remain agnostic in terms of powertrain. We will continue to be a clear leader in the consolidation process that we believe is taking place in the ICE fuel tanks business for the next 10 years at least.
Our exterior systems business pursues its remarkable growth trajectory of booking significant double-digit growth in this first half of 2023 and outperforming the worldwide market by a factor of 1.9 times. Modules has also been a substantial driver to top line in the first half, clocking up 29% organic growth and considerably outperforming the markets in all regions of the world. Our new activities, the acquisitions, as you can see here, in the bridge, contributed to EUR 688 million in top-line growth, and represent approximately 12% of economic sales. The contribution to the top line is overall in line with our expectations for the acquisitions. In conclusion, on this slide, on a strictly organic basis, the group outperformed the worldwide market by 8.9 points. Coming now on to the operating margin.
In the first half of 2023, the operating margin stood at EUR 210 million, up 16.9% compared with the first half of 2022, represents 4% of consolidated sales. Excluding the impact of acquisitions, operating margin came to EUR 230 million, up 28.2% versus the first half of 2022, representing 4.9% in operating margin, in consolidated sales. If we look at the breakdown on this slide now between OP Industries and OP Modules, the group's Industries operating margin stands at EUR 182 million, up 14.2% year-on-year, representing 4.7% of sales.
I'd just like to recall that the Industries segment includes exterior systems, clean energy systems, the acquisitions from the second half of 2022, and the new energies activities. Excluding acquisitions, the Industries segment came out at +6.2%, up comparably by 0.6 points year-on-year. This is a strong testimony to the work that the group is currently doing in terms of the quality of margin and the leverage effect of the additional volumes that we've managed to clock up. In line with our strategy, the historical scope of the Industries segment finances the OpEx growth in new energies. In H1, 2023, the stronger margin in the Industries segment, excluding acquisitions, more than compensated for the OpEx investment in new energies.
Modules improved its operating margin year-over-year, coming in from 1.9% in the previous year to 2% in this half year of revenue. In absolute figures, and to me, that's what really counts, in terms of bottom line, modules operating margin grew by 37.5%, well above the growth in consolidated sales of 30.2%. The acquisitions reported a negative contribution of minus EUR 20 million. I'd like to recall that the acquisitions contributed negatively in the second half of 2022 by minus EUR 52 million, and the Varroc lighting activity was consolidated only in the last quarter of 2022. The group managed to reduce by more than half the dilution of the acquisitions in 6 months. The lighting activity achieved a first month in operating breakeven in June.
The group is very satisfied with this result, which demonstrates our capacity to integrate companies and create value. I'd like to extend a very warm thanks to all the teams that have worked extremely hard to make this possible. Considerable effort has been invested into the action plan, and Laurent will specifically come back to that topic in a few moments. One last point on this slide: inflation remains one of the biggest challenges today. Nevertheless, a certain proportion of inflation of the cost base is here to stay, and constant mitigation has become part of our every day. This is why the group has chosen to no longer report on inflation. We just have to get on with the job.
Our inflation mitigation plans are and will continue to bear fruit as we work through our four principal levers, and I'd like to recall what they are. Firstly, relentlessly looking for additional operational efficiencies and growing our structure costs substantially below revenue growth. Secondly, constantly evaluating and monitoring fluctuations in pricing with our supplier base and adapting costs in a very agile mode. Thirdly, ensure that all new quotations include updated cost bases, so as not to penalize future growth with the cyclical inflationary impact of today. Last, pursue contract reviews, of course, with our customers on an objective and documented basis to pass on part of the impact. Efforts will continue into the second half of the year along the same lines that I've just detailed right now.
The net result, group share is stable year on year at EUR 100 million. This is also a remarkable achievement of the group, as we've managed to absorb the impact of the acquisitions, but moreover, the doubling of the interest expenses as interest rates have dramatically climbed. The average cost of debt has risen year on year from 1.78% to 3.4% for the group. Whilst objectively doubling, the group's very strict financial discipline framework is a key enabler to maintaining these costs under control. In an automotive industry that is in profound transformation and constant restructuring, as we've seen over the past three years, with inflation and higher interest rates, we believe that net income is the only real level playing field that's comparable from one company to another.
For Plastic Omnium, the net result group share is one of our major quality indicators. Coming on to just the free cash flow. Free cash flow, as Laurent mentioned, comes in at EUR 191 million or 3.6% of revenue. Compared with the first half of 2022, this represents a significant increase of 43.1%. This figure also includes the first deleveraging measures taken by the group in the form of the sale of real estate assets to an amount of EUR 54 million. Excluding this impact, free cash flow came in at EUR 137 million, stable in absolute terms year-on-year.
It was EUR 134 million in the first half of 2022, absorbing the impact of the acquisitions and our continued investment in new energies. With regard to capital expenditure, the group invested EUR 205 million, so 3.9% of revenue, compared with EUR 154 million in the first half of 2022. This includes the favorable impact of the sale of the real estate assets that I just mentioned, adjusted for this effect, CapEx represents 4.9% of revenue. Coming quickly now to the last slide of my presentation.
Net debt at the end of June 2023, stood at EUR 1.530 million, down by EUR 139 million from EUR 1.7 billion, approximately, at the end of December 2022. It's in line with the group's debt reduction policy. The net debt to EBITDA ratio stood at 1.7 times, versus 1.9 at the end of December, remaining well below the threshold that we've fixed ourselves of 2 times. We are particularly satisfied with our liquidity at the end of June. We have managed to reimburse the last tranche of our 2016 Schuldschein for EUR 159 million, and we have still managed to maintain liquidity at the same level as at the end of 2022.
We have further managed to extend the expiry, the maturities, on a number of our credit lines, in advance to their expiries in 2024. We've now increased the average maturity to 3.4 years. This puts us in a very comfortable position in respect to future debt maturities. We have now the freedom to decide on future refinancing options, depending on how market conditions evolve. That being said, I'll now pass back to Laurent.
Thank you. Merci, Kathleen, very much for the numbers, the financial numbers. I'm sure you will have a lot of question about that, but that's for the Q&A session. I hand over now to Felicie, and Felicie will start to describe a bit more in detail the highlights of the first semester 2023 beside the financials.
Thank you, Laurent. Good morning, everybody. Indeed, a very solid 6 months of 2023, with a strong activity, with many flawless launch. We said it, 75, so 8 more than H1 2022, which obviously partially explain the solid growth we've been entertaining for the 6 first months of the year. You have on this slide some key example of those launches we had in H1, really highlighting the diversity that we have in terms of models, in terms of powertrain, and in terms of region. All of that, putting us in a favorable position to really benefit from the growth in all region and on all type of powertrain.
For you to know, in terms of BEV segments, in terms of launch, it represented one third of our activity in H1. You have some good example here. GM front and rear bumper, which enabled us in the U.S. to catch up on the second part of H1. Also in China, the launch of the NIO, which is a good example of why we do manage to overperform in China, as we have a strong exposure in terms of sales to the EV segment. In H1, it was more than 30% of our sales. Not only on the BEV segment, also on the ICE, with some very important launches.
You can note the BMW facelift for our Greer facility, which has been launched without any problem. A very important launch of Mitsubishi, which will represent 1 million units in the 5 years to come. A very important also launch in Volvo, Volkswagen Touareg, with bumper and front-end module. All of that really representing the anchor business with a strong activity in the first half. In terms of order intake, we said it's been a record high order intake for H1. H1 surpassing only for half of the year, the order intake we have registered in the past year. Very solid growth to come.
We are very proud of that, and thanks to all of the commercial teams that have been highly involved in gaining those successes. All of the business will contribute positively to the growth, which is also very important. Laurent mentioned it earlier, a few indicators to better qualify what is this order intake. 60% represent NEV, so it means BEV and H2. So out of the 60%, 2/3 is for BEV, and 1/3 is H2 contracts that we have gained.
On top of that, the really also good KPI is that 70% of this order intake will represent projects to come outside Europe, so in Americas and in Asia, which really fits into our strategy of better balancing the growth to come, as we really want to redevelop more Asia and North America. You've also said it, the Not only in terms of quantity are we happy of this order intake, but also the quality of this order intake is important in the sense that the average profitability of this order intake will contribute positively to the financial profile, of the group in the years to come.
Few example, again, of this very solid H1 order intake. Part of it is coming from our historical business, so really demonstrating, again, the resilience and still the growth potential of our traditional businesses, AES, CES, and HBPO. But also, obviously, some important new successes in the new activities, namely, ACTIA Power and the lighting activity. Really showing that now we have somehow passed this probing period of the beginning of the acquisition, and really, we do have gained the trust of the OEMs, and we have been able to gain new businesses in the lighting activity for a major European player that will be in Europe and in Mexico. And also a very important 48-volt battery pack that will be to serve Europe.
Many commercial successes from our new activities, but as we have said it's really important that all of this future growth is thanks to our historical business, that each of them have their own very specific strategy, but that are fully contributing to finance and generate the cash that we can reinvest to develop those new activities. At AES, we still have pockets of growth to take in some region and with some new customers, and we have this integrated solution that we are developing so that we can capture the synergies of having the envelope of the car, but also integrating it with some modules and some of the lighting activities.
CES, which is as an exceptional activity in the H1 to win some of those exceptional others. We made a special communiqué on that in during Q1. As Kathleen has said, we are still capable of growing our market share in this market that obviously, over the years, is reducing. We are very happy to take this strategy and to be in a position to consolidate this market, which we believe has still some growth to come in the years to come. The module activity, today, mainly still focused on front-end module activity, but that we develop strongly, and we believe there are some new modules that we will be able to propose to our customers in the months, years to come.
We had an issue with the screen. It was for you to take a short break. Now, beside the historical activities, Phoebe C. was mentioning before, and I like to insist on that, because we cannot transform the company without having a strong basis. The three historical activities of Pure are improving quarter by quarter, and that's the key for us to be comfortable in the transformation of the company. For sure, another topic, another challenge was the integration of the new lighting division, which is, as you know, the acquisition of AMLS Osram in July last year, but also from Varroc Lighting Systems in October.
It was an acquisition which was supported strongly by our customers because they wanted us to enter into the lighting business, because lighting is growing, because they believe, as we believe as well, that we are a very strong asset with the right technologies, but also with the right footprint, huh? I like to say that we are everywhere where it makes a lot of sense as of today, meaning in best cost countries, we can be very competitive on that. Therefore, one of the main target for the first half of the year was to protect our customers, meaning to have a normal supply chain performance, which was not the case in the past, and that is the case today, meaning that our customers are very satisfied with the way we are serving them on a daily basis.
We don't have any escalation anymore. That is a fantastic job done by the team. The effect is that we are booking orders and that it is accelerating now because they trust us that we are able to deliver. We do see a lot of momentum activities in the order book for the second half of the year. The rest was about hard work to improve the operating performance. The margin, for sure.
You see some KPIs we are following, I would say at least on a, on a monthly base, meaning how we have been able to reduce the quality cost, the scrap rate, how we have been able to work as well intensively on the, on the inventories compared to end of last year, but also what the team has been able to achieve in term of, in term of plan cost, meaning the cost we need to produce, to produce our products, which have been improved by 2 points of margin, during the last, during the last months. Therefore, that is the job done by the team, which did allow us, as Kathleen mentioned before, to achieve the break even for the first time in the month of June.
I like again to thank the lighting team, because it's a fantastic performance, confirming that we have been taking the right decision by investing into this business field. That means we do confirm as well our mid-single-digit operating margin within 24 to 36 months after the acquisition. That is what we did commit on when we finalized the acquisition, and that is what we are confirming today to you, and we are very comfortable to achieve that. That was about lighting. When we talk about new activities as well, for sure, even if it's not new, but that is an activity which is very important for PO, that is hydrogen.
You see on the right side of the slide, you see the order book of hydrogen in the first half of the year, also cumulated. That means cumulated is close to EUR 4 billion now, which is accelerating, if you can see that compared to what we had in the past. EUR 2.5 billion only in the first semester, mainly with a major American OEM, which is not mentioned here, because they don't want us to disclose the name. It's not too difficult because Stellantis and Ford are on the slide. That is the other one, which is not mentioned here. Important as well, when you talk about the order intake, is in which segment, which kind of customer, which segment? 99% is light commercial vehicle or heavy-duty mobility.
That is important for us because we want to use hydrogen as well to diversify our portfolio of customers, to be less dependent on passenger cars. We like passenger cars, we believe the growth of passenger cars could be limited, and then to enter into new fields where the cycles are different, where the volumes are stable, and where the margin should be also better. 99% of the order book is in this light commercial and heavy mobility, and 94% is with established, well-known company. You see some names like Alstom, Ford, Stellantis, and so on. Companies investing as well in the infrastructure and not being risky for sure, which is very key when we invest in new fields.
We are very happy about the momentum in hydrogen. We are building a lot of new factories, capacities everywhere in the world. We will be also very well-balanced in term of geographies in Asia, in Europe, and in North America, and more to come in the coming months.
Carbon neutrality roadmap, which we announced a while ago, around three levers: reduce, replace, and compensate. When it comes to reduce, we've continued to really very rigorously deploy this roadmap, which means that we manage to be more efficient in terms of energy consumption by 4%, and that's despite the fact that the activity has strongly increased over H1 2023. That has enabled us since January 2023 to integrate the Euronext CAC SBTI 1.5°, which 1/3 of the SBF 120 companies are part of when they do have a decarbonization trajectory that is aligned with the Paris Agreement.
That was for the reduce part. On the replace, going to renewable energies, we are on the path of doubling the installation on our site. There were 10 end of last year. We are targeting 20 minimum by the end of this year. To have access to either photovoltaic or wind turbine on our site. That is obviously very important for us. Energy autonomy is good, not only for decarbonization, but also as a lever of competitiveness to really control better our cost. On top of that, we are also spending a lot of time integrating and educating our suppliers and integrating into our journey towards carbon neutrality. We do believe, obviously, it's a virtuous cycle to really include them in our...
Using our best practices, but also obviously contributing a lot to having a more sustainable ecosystem of green suppliers over the long term.
Thank you, Felicie. Now it's time to talk about what's next and to conclude also the meeting of today, before handing over to you. What's next is first of all about the market. You see here the S&P numbers for the first semester and the second semester. These are the latest S&P numbers, they see the market being more or less stable in the second semester. Traditionally, Q3 is pretty weak because of summer vacation. Q4 should be a bit higher, we do confirm our view on the market for this year, as mentioned at the beginning of the year. We are pretty confident as well to continue to outperform the market. Again, we have a very strong order book.
As we said before, we have still many launches to come in the second semester. We are still working on mitigating the inflation with our customers and internally as well. For sure, the lighting breakeven in June is very encouraging, and we will continue in lighting as well, to improve month by month, the performance of this new division. That means we are pretty confident to confirm our objectives for 2023 and 2025. You can see them on the slide. That means a strong growth and the outperformance of the market, which we have without any doubt in the first semester.
EUR 400 million at least operating margin, which would be an increase of 10% compared to last year. We are well on track with that, with the EUR 210 million in the first semester and the EUR 260 million of free cash flow. Knowing that we had the first semester above EUR 190 million, it is making us very confident as well to achieve that and to continue to deleverage the company until the end of the year. For 2025, it will be about continuing to grow the order intake we have. We are still booking.
Also extremely confident to achieve the revenue growth you can see on the slide, but the revenue growth will be also associated for sure with more operating margin, more free cash flow as well, and we will continue the transformation, the effective transformation of the company, Plastic Omnium. Conclusion, without repeating what we said before, which is always a challenge, but basically, we are very satisfied today about this result. It's again, in a very challenging market environment, with a lot of inflation still, with a lot of new technologies, a lot of newcomers as well in term of customers. We are able to work with all of these newcomers. That's the reason why we are continuing, for example, to outperform the Chinese market.
The historical business of PO is extremely solid, and that give us a lot of confidence to continue to outperform the market, and to be able to transform the company in the coming years, while generating a high level of free cash flow, meaning deleveraging as well, the company. Last but not least, the order intake we had in the first semester is just fantastic, and it's very encouraging that we are on the right path. That was for our presentation. We try to keep it as short as possible in order to have an open discussion with you. Now I hand over to you, starting here in the room, if possible, for the Q&A session. We have a first question here from Thomas.
Thank you. Thomas Besson. Two things, please. First, I'd like to come back on the improvement you show for the acquisition. EUR 20 million for 6 months versus EUR 50+ million for 3 months, so it's substantially better. Can you help us understand the shape of the improvement we should expect in the coming semesters? You're targeting mid-single digit margins by 2025, broadly speaking. Is it going to be something like very back-end loaded, or is it gonna be something more linear as a pace of improvement? Can we expect to have, for instance, a neutral plus figure for the full year, or is it too optimistic? Can you remind us the European BEV exposure of the lighting business?
I think you've commented on with media, saying that it's a bit concerning to see European automakers having difficulties to sell their BEVs at the current prices. I guess it probably relates to the exposure of our, to these businesses. The second thing I would like to discuss with you, please, is, can you remind the audience, the Plastic Omnium consolidated exposure to China in terms of revenues and consolidated exposure to Chinese automakers? Finally, and linked to that, can you remind us your consolidated revenue exposure to the current winners among the automakers, so BYD, SAIC, MG, or, and Tesla, all together, if you want, or separately, if you can, say the numbers. Thank you.
Many question are related to the acquisition. I will start, and Kathleen and Felicie will complete. First of all, the acquisition, the scope of acquisition is not only the lighting, it's also the electrification. We have to have two different approach. Electrification is an investment for the future, new technology for us. We are investing in R&D. We are booking orders. You saw Felicie mention that we have been booking a very important 48-volt battery pack for a major global OEMs, and for sure, we will continue to invest in this electrification. It's not about turning around this business, it's about creating value for the future.
Therefore, I want to say that it will remain a loss-making business, but we don't target a turnaround in the next 18 months for this electrification, because again, it's about, it's about paving new way and creating value for the future by booking orders and by and by investing in technology. For the lighting part, lighting part is for sure, much more about turning around a business which was suffering a lot. As mentioned before, the month of June was good because it was a break even in operating margin for the first time of this business. Q3 will be probably bit weak in volume, like it is usually, because of summer break and so on.
Q4 should be positive in terms of operating margin. We are talking about 24 to 36 months because the margin will depend as well on the volumes, for sure. We will have a certain drop in sales in lighting next year due to the fact that not many orders were booked by the company before we came. It was a kind of missing trust from the customers, which we can understand. Therefore, next year, the sales will decrease.
It's good in a way, because we will be able to do many things we couldn't do otherwise, to continue to downsize the structural cost, to continue to invest in some key technologies, mainly in electronic, in order to be more competitive. We will have a drop in sales next year, and we are pretty confident that it will start to increase again in 2025, because we do see a lot of customers willing to move to us, and therefore it won't be a linear curve in the lighting.
It will be linear in term of performance improvement, but we will have also to compensate the drop in sales next year. That is the reason why we talk to 24-36 months when we talk about the mid-single digit target for the lighting business. BEV. I do cannot answer the number in term of how we do depend on BEV in percentage in Europe. Today, we don't see it, any negative impact from the potentially issues some customers could face on BEV. We are also working with Tesla on BEV for lighting, as you know that.
Therefore, it's a customer having a lot of success, as you know that, but we don't intend or we don't see major risk on BEV in Europe for the lighting business. We are also very conservative when we assess the order intake and where we assess the potential revenues of the company. That means for some customers, for some segments, for some cars, we do discount a lot compared to the volumes they are giving us to be on the, I would say, on the safe side. Regarding the revenues for the newcomers, you're mentioning BYD and Tesla and more open to China.
In China, we have close, in our exterior business, we have close to 50% of the revenues, which are not with the traditional ones. It can be, the pure Chinese, or it can be Tesla, because we consider in a way, Tesla as being, a kind of Chinese because they are exporting a lot, and they are gaining market share. I cannot, I cannot disclose, or Kathleen maybe, I don't have the numbers exactly for those customers, but they are very small today. What is important is if you take a company like Tesla will be the biggest customer of, HBPO in the coming years, replacing Volkswagen. We have nothing against Volkswagen, but we are happy to contribute to the growth of, Tesla.
Tesla will be one of the top 10 customer of PO in pretty soon, in the year to comes. For BYD, and Kathleen will give you some numbers. For BYD, when we talk about bumpers and modules, as of today, a big part of their production, they do internally. When they do outsource some bumper business, they do outsource to us in China, basically. We have a good foot in the place, but for BYD, potentially, yeah, potential to do more, basically.
Just quickly coming back to China. Globally, the group does just over EUR 1 billion per year in China. Represents in H1, just over half a billion, logically speaking. About 2.9% of group revenue in China. With the pure players, the pure excluding Tesla, it's about 22%, roughly, of the Chinese revenue. With the pure Chinese players, with the exception to Geely, most of them are still under 1% of the Chinese revenue today, but growing once again, with a lot of potential.
Next one?
Yeah, hello, Michael from HSBC. Maybe a quick question on the order intake and on the lighting. Do you already have discussions with some customers regarding some bundle orders between lighting and exterior parts? When could we see some announcements on that? That's the first question. Second one, on the ICE business, notably on CES, you were saying that H1 performance was really strong, both on the margin and order intake. Would you expect CES margins to further improve in the coming years from today's level, as long as you continue to consolidate the business? Maybe a last one on group profitability improvement. I mean, it's not a topic anymore, but would you say that it's still significantly below where it should be, or let's say, below your average in the North American region?
Thank you.
I start with the lighting and the bundle offer. Today, the order book we have is 99% for pure lighting normal business, which is normal because the rest is a kind of new offer. We are very happy to see that it is speeding up. We didn't have a lot of orders in the first 4-5 months, because, first of all, we needed to fix the operation and to restore the customer trust, which is the case. July was very good in term of order intake, more to come for traditional business. When I say more to come, much above what we have in term of revenues. That means we will have growth anyway in the lighting business without talking about the bundle offer.
That is happening right now, and that is good to see. The bundle offer, we have activities today, with some customers in the U.S., in Europe, and in China as well. We have some small orders, but for illuminated grille, as you can see here, but not really relevant in term of size, and we are expecting to do much more. When can we have a, I would say, an important order? I think it won't be before beginning of next year that we can talk about that, because again, it's a new process for our customers. They have to organize themselves a bit differently. It's also new for us. We have a dedicated team to work on that.
This year, the order intake of lighting will be mainly done by traditional approach, lighting for lighting. Next year, I'm pretty confident that we could have the first important orders or significant order, where we integrate the function in the lighting business. CES ICE, I'm happy that you asked the question because I always like to talk about CES ICE. Why? Because you may remember that we said we want to stay in this business. We are very happy about the electrification because of everything we mentioned before, but we believe that even in 20 years, there will be ICE business in the world because not all the countries are going to the same pace, and probably some of them will never go to the electrification.
Therefore, for us, the strategy is to remain, to adapt, to downsize in some regions and to shift capacity in other regions where we do see market growth in ICE. The first semester in term of order intake for CES ICE was extremely solid. We believe for the full year, the order intake will be, could be much higher than the revenues in the CES ICE. Not because the market is increasing, but because the consolidation is speeding up, is accelerating. You have seen some examples on the slides of Felicie before.
We have more and more customers, major customers, willing to work with us, because we are the number one in terms of size in this business, on a long-term strategy, to make sure that we will continue to stay with them, and that they will consolidate the market around us. That means they will reduce probably the number of players, number of suppliers they have, in order to be sure that they have always access to some technologies like the fuel tank. We are confident that we will be able to grow our market share from 22%, some years ago, up to 30%, at least in the coming four to five years.
Showing that we are able to mitigate, at least partially, the electrification and reduce, I mean, the fact that this market is reducing. What does it mean in terms of profitability, sorry, and cash? It should remain a very good cash machine for us, which is fantastic in terms of developing new technologies like electrification or new energy. If we have only a look on this powertrain business, in terms of profitability, we are happy with the profitability of today, but we believe it could be even more in the future because normally, if you are less players, you have higher pricing power on the market. That we will see in the coming years. Regarding Greer.
Greer had also a very solid first semester. That means the profitability is improving in Greer as well. The volumes are very high, because our customer is very successful with this kinds of vehicle. It's really a very nice factory now, Greer, in term of operation. You're invited to come, if you want. Frankly speaking, it's a very nice one. Are we already on the level we would like to be in term of quality, in term of productivity, and so on? No, we are not. Is it dilutive compared to the rest of the group?
It is very satisfactory, where we know where we are coming from, to see that it is improving, year-over-year, and I'm sure it will be even better next year in Greer as well. Another question in the room?
We have 2 question by the phone.
Thank you. We'll take our first question from the phone from Akshat at J.P. Morgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Akshat Kacker from J.P. Morgan. Congratulations on the strong first half result. I just have 3 questions remaining, please. The first one on free cash flow. After a very strong performance in the first half of the year, I would just like to understand the main reasons behind you not upgrading your full year free cash flow guidance, given that you've already achieved probably 2/3 of your target in the first half. That's the first question. The second one is on the historical PO Industries business division. We've seen in the first half that your margin profile is very similar to what you achieved in 2022. Would be great if you could talk about your expectations going into the second half. Should we expect second half margins to improve and be sequentially better versus the first half?
If you could also outline the main reasons behind that sequential improvement. The last one, just on current trading, please. If you could just comment on the trends you're seeing around OEM production planning in Q3, probably specifically around Europe. How are your current estimates comparing with what you're seeing in S&P assumptions for the Q3 , please? Thank you.
Good. Starting with the easiest one, the free cash flow. It's good to see that after six months, we have two-third already achieved. The guidance is above 260. Above can be a bit above, much above, and therefore, we decided to maintain the guidance for the year. We will see in the coming months how the things are happening, but we are very confident to be, I would say, above the guidance or much better than the guidance in term of free cash flow. We didn't want to change the guidance so far and to see how the market will develop in the coming months.
Regarding the historical business, if you consider industry business, you have to consider as well that in this business, we have the new energy, that means hydrogen, which is for sure a loss-making business as of today. The other 2 historical businesses in industry, IES and CES, are increasing their performance compared to last year in %. I'm pretty sure that they will at least deliver similar numbers in the second semester. We are still working on inflation recovery, on many topics, in order to continue to improve, but we are confident to continue on this path in the second semester of the year.
Regarding the OEMs production planning, as of today, we don't have bad news, I would say, for Q3, but Q3 is a very weak quarter, normally, because of July and August in terms of volumes. We remain pretty cautious, I would say, because it's the way we like to manage the business in Q4 and beginning of next year. Because we all know that the demand for certain OEMs, for certain segment is slowing down, probably because of the cost of the cars and because of the inflation. No announcement from the customers, but we remain pretty cautious. You know that some of the customers in Germany did announce that they're reducing their capacity for the coming months.
That is something which we did anticipate anyway. It was not really surprising for us. From the other side, we do see other customers having a lot of a lot of success. Therefore, the main topic for us is to remain again, cautious, to remain agile. For Q3, we don't see any any bad news so far, compared to what S&P is saying. I think the most important quarter anyway, will be Q4. Let's wait how the situation is going to develop, and if our customers are going to act on the pricing, for example, in the coming months.
Great. Thank you.
We'll move on to our next question from Giulio at BNP Paribas. Your line is open. Please tell hi.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Going back on the guidance and on the trajectory for margins in the second half, is there any reason why margins wouldn't grow significantly sequentially in the second half, given the recoveries on inflation, given the lower losses from lighting, and given just in general, the lower volatility that you highlighted? Isn't an opportunity to significantly expand margins in H2, and why is that not reflected in the guidance? The second point, thanks for sharing the details on the Chinese car makers. So 22% is what they represent today. What percentage of your order intake in China do they represent? Do you have a rough indication of that? Thank you.
I mean, regarding the margin, first of all, when we are again, very, very satisfied with the margin of the first semester. Should the margin increase in the second semester, we will see at the end of the year, huh? Normally, there is no reason why the margin should not be better in the second semester than the first semester, except the market topics, the volumes, and that is something we cannot influence. Therefore, in our capacity to continue to improve month by month in all the businesses, to continue to work on inflation and excellence in everything we do, we are confident to be better in the second semester. Again, it depends as well...
It depends as well on the market, on the volumes, and that is something we cannot impact, and therefore we prefer to remain pretty cautious on that. Regarding China, Kathleen did disclose some numbers for our exposure to the Chinese OEMs. It's more for the order intake. I don't have the number right now. I don't believe we have it. It's clearly a strategy we have in China, to remain strong with our traditional OEMs, huh? We know that we are very strong with the Volkswagen, GM, and so on, but to focus more and more on the pure Chinese players. Tesla is not a Chinese player, but is exporting out of China.
Therefore, we do consider Tesla as being also a key customer for us in China. The share of those customers is increasing in order intake compared to what we have today in our revenue. I don't have the number right now.
Yeah, I think-
Thank you, and sorry.
Yeah, sorry, Giulio.
Yeah, sorry.
Just to add to that, as you saw, that, you know, we've got a considerable order book and a book-to-bill ratio, which is quite feisty. If you take that hypothesis also for China, you won't be too wrong.
Okay, perfect. Just on the margin, your guidance is based on fairly conservative volume assumption. You are assuming 4% decline in production sequentially in the second half versus the first half. What you said about the margin improving in the second half and your confidence around that's based on this 4% decline, right? That's based on what I think are conservative assumptions for volume. Am I understanding this correctly?
No, I think if there is something we learned in the last three years, is that we don't forecast anything more on the market because we don't know, huh? The market is too complicated. We have some assumption at the beginning of the year. We don't believe it makes sense to review the assumption as of today. If it's more, it's better. If it's like we did assume, then we are in line. Again, we are very confident about our performance, and the rest is about market volatility. There is no reason today to be not confident, basically, but we prefer to remain cautious and to see, but we don't make any forecast for the full year in term of in term of market size.
Thank you very much.
We have now a question on the chat. After a break-even June for the lighting business, do you expect VLS to remain above break-even in H2 2023? Is it enough for the business to be profitable over the full year 2023?
I think we already answered this question. The answer is, no, the business won't be profitable for the full year. Is the business going to be profitable in the second half? We will see. Q3 will be weak in term of volumes. Q4 will be, for sure, profitable.
Another question: Could you please confirm that the EUR 260 million free cash flow target for the full year excludes the real estate disposal proceeds?
I don't confirm that. When we dispose, we try to dispose such an real estate topic. It's not a decision we take on March, do it in April. It takes time. That means we need to find the right, the right approach, the right, the right partner willing to invest in that. It was partially in the guidance as a target, but for sure, not fully.
No more question.
If no more question on the phone, room, and chat, I want to thank you again for being here. First of all, today, I want to thank again the PO team about the strong performance of the first semester in a still very remaining, I mean, very challenging market. We are fully on track compared to our expectation, compared to our commitment, and very happy to share that with you today. Thank you very much. Have a nice day.