Good morning! It is my pleasure today to present, together with Sreedhar, our Group CFO, our 2023 results. The key takeaway, of course, for today, that we continue to deliver consistently a strong performance, record operating margin, record cash flow, despite a challenging environment. All this demonstrating the strengths of our operating model, the resilience of Saint-Gobain, and also all the structural transformation that we have delivered in the last years. So I will start with a few highlights of 2023. Here are a few realizations of light and sustainable construction of Saint-Gobain around the world on iconic buildings, be it in Poland, India, Vietnam, or USA. You know that renovation is our main market in Europe, 60% of our sales, and we truly lead on energy-efficient renovation.
One example, more than 80% of renovation job sites in France have used those job sites, dealing with MaPrimeRénov', have used our digital configurator, CapRénov'. Also, in 2023, we continued to expand our presence in high-growth markets in terms of geographic presence, with the acquisition of Building Products of Canada, and we are now generating close to two-thirds of our operating income in high-growth markets of North America, Asia, and emerging markets. In 2023, we have also continued to strengthen our global leadership in construction chemicals with the very successful integration of Chryso and GCP, plus 11 new bolt-on acquisitions in 10 countries on top of it. We have also achieved, in 2023, new milestones in terms of decarbonization. We keep investing. For that, EUR 223 million of CapEx and R&D.
This is 4 times what we had some years ago, and we have achieved an impressive 34% decrease in our CO₂ emissions, Scope 1 and 2, since 2017, even though we grew the top line of the group. These great results have been achieved thanks to our teams, our fantastic commitment of our teams, and I would like to congratulate and thank all of them. They are always aiming higher, and they will continue to do so in 2024. Now, on our results, the financial results. We have delivered strong results despite a challenging environment. Resilient sales, close to EUR 48 billion. A record operating margin at 11%. Also, a record operating income at constant exchange rate. A record free cash flow of EUR 3.9 billion, and a very strong recurring earnings per share. Also, very strong value creation at 15.9% ROC.
So in a nutshell, our Grow & Impact strategic plan continues to drive success for Saint-Gobain, with a third consecutive year of double-digit margin, proving our resilience. A superior pricing power, thanks to our solutions approach, and also the very strong ownership, country by country, of our organization. An attractive profile in high-growth geographies and markets, and a clear leadership on our low-carbon offer and on our roadmap towards decarbonization. So Saint-Gobain is a well-established, value-creative leader in light and sustainable construction. Now, Sreedhar, the floor is yours to give all the details on the financials.
Thank you, Benoît, and good morning to all of you. Let me give you some more details about 2023 results. So starting with sales growth, we saw a very resilient like-for-like sales, even in a difficult economic environment, thanks to the outperformance on our main markets. Pricing was up 4.6%, and volumes were down by 5.5% in 2023, in line with our expectations for the year that we articulated last year in February. This reflected the contrasting situation between the marked decline in the new construction and an overall good resilience in renovation market. For 2024, working days will be neutral, but with the sharp differences quarter by quarter, particularly Q1 at minus 1.5%, but positive for Q2 and Q3.
Now, moving to the profitability, as Benoît said, we delivered a record operating margin and a record operating income at constant exchange rate, despite the lower volumes. This is the third consecutive year that we have achieved the double-digit margin, which is very much in line with the ambition that we set in the last Capital Market Day, demonstrating, again, the resilience of the Saint-Gobain Group. The decentralized and empowered organizations allows us to adjust proactively to different end market situations, country by country. We have adapted costs where we needed to, and at the same time, we continue to invest in the markets where we saw growth opportunities. We once again delivered the price-cost spread in 2023, not only for the full year, but every single quarter.
We have achieved a 64% increase in the profit and 330 basis point improvement in the margin when you compare from the date when we started the transformation, particularly 2018. This shows again that Saint-Gobain is delivering in a consistent manner and demonstrating its resilience. Now, let us look at the lines below the operating income. Starting with, I would say, we achieved a record EBITDA margin, and EBITDA, in absolute terms, is once again above EUR 7 billion for the second consecutive year. We have three main impacts below the operating profit. Firstly, non-operating costs remain around EUR 200 million-EUR 250 million, in line with what we had guided the market. Secondly, we have the impact of currency conversion on the UK distribution divestment, which was closed in March 2023.
And thirdly, the purchase price allocation for all the recent acquisitions. Now, turning to the recurring net income, we have achieved a recurring net income close to its record high of 2022 at EUR 3.2 billion. And similarly, recurring earnings per share of EUR 6.39 was also close to its record high of 2022. Now, moving on to my favorite topic, cash. We achieved a new record of free cash flow of EUR 3.9 billion, which is actually three times higher than what we used to achieve before the transformation. Free cash flow generation is now structurally higher due to the strong cash culture throughout the organization. In 2023, we have further reduced the working capital by two days, which means we are now close to 17 days below than what we were in 2018.
The cash conversion ratio was at 62%, now consistently above 50% for the last three years. The total CapEx was just over EUR 2 billion, with around 70% of the growth CapEx in North America, emerging countries, and clearly focusing on the discipline of allocating on growing economy. You can see we are delivering, again, investments linked to the profitable growth in the market. Coming to the balance sheet, you see here the strong free cash flow generation and the discipline in the capital allocation enables us to maintain a strong balance sheet, while at the same time investing for growth and also delivering attractive shareholder returns. The net debt to EBITDA ratio decreased to 1.1 this year. The credit agencies have started recognizing us. We have seen the upgrades last year and again in 2023.
We even see that after making the acquisitions of CSR, our debt-to-equity ratio and debt-to-EBITDA ratio should still remain below 1.5, which we had given a low range off of the target in the Capital Markets Day. Now looking at the value creation indicators, you can see here the strong value that we are creating for our shareholders, with earnings per share and the return on capital employed close to the last year's records. The return on capital employed is above the target that we gave at our Capital Markets Day, and all our reporting segments are also in line or above the target range that we fixed in the Capital Markets Day. As you have seen, we are delivering on acquisitions and creating value by year three, and sometimes even year two.
Like we said in the past, Continental Building Products, we created value in the year two. Now, you will see that Chryso has created value in the year two. And this shows again the discipline, capability of Saint-Gobain to integrate, deliver the synergies, and ensure that we create value as we commit. And now let us see the results. I think it's always important to look back what we said in the Capital Markets Day and what we have delivered in the last three years. Clearly, we have delivered on all the key financial metrics... and we see a clear acceleration in our results and the value creation, and also delivering record cash flow. Our balance sheet remains very strong while we continue to invest on growth and also ensuring that we have an attractive shareholder returns. Now, let's look at some numbers by segments.
Starting with Northern Europe, which was down by 5.9% like-for-like, due to the sharp drop in the new construction, while renovation was more resilient. Nordic countries saw the sharp fall in the new construction, especially in Sweden and Norway, partly offset by our exposure to the renovation market. The UK outperformed, and Germany continued to have challenging time. However, Eastern Europe saw a positive volumes in Q4. The region achieved a record operating margin of 8.2%, benefiting from the optimization of our portfolio, very well-managed price-cost spread, and also a good control on cost and a good industrial performance. Turning now to Southern Europe, our sales held up well in the region despite the difficult new construction market, with like-for-like sales down by only 1%, thanks to the resilience in renovation market.
In France, we continued to outperform, thanks to our strong presence in the renovation market, which continued to be more resilient with stricter regulations and increasing the government subsidies. In Spain and Italy, sales were up in resilient construction markets. In the Middle East and Africa, we saw a strong growth supported by various acquisition that we did in Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. We achieved an increase in operating margin in Southern Europe up to 8.1%. Moving to Americas, you see we have achieved 2% organic growth, driven by outperformance in North America. This has helped us to achieve a new record operating profit of EUR 1.6 billion in the region, with a record margin of 16.8%.
In North America, we achieved organic growth of 5.3%, and the integration of all our recent acquisitions helped us to deliver 9% total growth. Volumes were up 3.6% in the second half, and we achieved further market share gains, thanks to our complete solutions, particularly focused on light construction. Latin America suffered from the difficult macroeconomic environment, particularly in Brazil, but some of the indicators, what you see now in the recent past, are improving, and we expect the recovery during the year 2024. We achieved market share gains in Mexico, and other countries in the region continue to be benefiting by pricing and enhanced product mix, and also very good targeted acquisitions. And now moving to Asia Pacific, we saw 5.3% organic growth in this region and achieved a record operating margin of 12.6%.
India outperformed and continued to do well in all the segments. China saw good volume despite the difficult construction market. We gained market share, thanks to our focused approach on light construction and value-added solutions. Southeast Asia benefited from the acquisitions of Bestcrete and Hume, and our leadership position in many of these countries in Southeast Asia. Now, moving on to the Global Customers market. High-performance solutions saw sales growth, benefiting from the recovery in European automotive market, and also the effort on pushing the prices up is reflected. The margins was stable at 12%, with a good cost management offsetting the negative mix impact from mobility, even though its profitability is improving sequentially. Our construction industry business showed strong growth, mainly linked to the integration of GCP.
Chryso showed 9% organic growth and driven by its innovative solutions and also a very favorable infrastructure market. However, Adfors continued to suffer as it is largely exposed to the new construction market in Europe. In mobility, we continue to outperform the automotive market, thanks to our strong positioning in electric vehicle. Now, let me conclude before I hand over the floor to Benoît. I want to reiterate that Saint-Gobain, you have seen, we are delivering consistently. You have seen the structural improvement that we have done, which is enabling us to show the resilience of the group, even in a very difficult market environment. So I remain very confident that you will see, even in 2024, Saint-Gobain will have a successful year. I pass on the floor to Benoît.
... Thank you, Shraddha. So now let me give you some highlights of our growth and impact strategy and what we aim at going forward. The backbone of our success in the last years is the very strong alignment that we have created between our purpose, our vision, and our strategic plan. All this delivering on our three main markets: energy efficiency renovation, lightweight construction, and industry decarbonization. Let's take renovation first, where, you know, we have 60% of our sales in Europe. We see continued resilience of the European renovation market with enhanced state support on energy efficiency. I take two examples: In France, the allocated budget for 2024 is up 50% versus 2023 on MaPrimeRénov', notably.
In Poland, the EU Commission has just announced, end of last week, the unblocking, which was well expected on EU funds, with a potential envelope of up to EUR 3.5 billion just for energy renovation. One thing also on the right side of the chart that I would like to highlight is that energy performance is now a reality on buildings outside of any public support. In France, for instance, and its statistics on the market, there is a ±25% gap on real estate prices based on energy performance. So this is another incentive for households, besides of course, the energy savings that a renovation would deliver, but another incentive to drive renovation in order to get or increase the real, the real estate value.
On new build, which is 23% of our sales, you have at the bottom of the chart, the split in the different regions. There are structural needs for new construction. In North America, residential construction remains healthy and sustained by the large housing shortage. In Asia Pacific and emerging countries, the need for new build keeps growing, fueled by the population growth, also fast urbanization and the rising also sustainability agenda. And finally, in Western Europe, beyond the short term negative effect linked to higher interest rates and affordability, there is also a structural need for more housing. On sustainable construction altogether, we are moving forward the agenda, and we are playing our role as thought leaders with advocacy around the world. We did it last year in Paris, in New York, during the Climate Week, the COP 28 in Dubai.
We are also commercializing our range of low-carbon solutions in response to the demand from our customers. So this is a reality: low-carbon glass, low-carbon plasterboard, et cetera, et cetera. Even all the job that we are doing with our building merchant business in France. Now, in terms of capital allocation, we have decisively allocated our capital towards high-growth markets consistently over the last few years, and we did it again in 2023, with around 70% of our gross CapEx invested in the high-growth markets of North America, Asia and emerging countries. As a result, we now have a balanced geographic footprint, with close to two-thirds of our operating profit coming from North America, Asia, and emerging markets altogether. This is, of course, even before the move we announced at the beginning of the week in Australia.
For that, we are leveraging our two recent acquisitions in Canada to build over there the best range. We doubled our size, as you know, in Canada over the last two years. I'm pleased to say that Kaycan is delivering solid financial results with CAD 101 million Canadian dollar of EBITDA and synergies ahead of plan. Building Products of Canada was integrated last September and is also well on track in terms of all the plans and what we are going to do moving forward. We are strengthening our presence in the high-growth markets of Asia Pacific with the acquisition of CSR, announced just a few days ago on the very attractive Australian market, a very logical step that we have prepared for multi years to strengthen our presence in this part of the world. I'm not going to come back to it.
We had the call on Tuesday. Second axis of our strategy, besides the geographic development, has been, of course, our strong global leadership, what we created in Construction Chemicals. You know what we have achieved with the acquisition of Chryso and GCP. We continue to strengthen our Construction Chemicals business with new bolt-on acquisitions in 2023. Also, new sites and new product lines for both businesses. Sreedhar mentioned it, I'm very happy to say that Chryso created value on year two after the acquisition, so one year ahead of plan. You heard the 9% organic growth Chryso delivered last year. GCP is bang in line with the $170 million that we gave as a target for the first full year, and when you combine the two, we have improved the EBITDA margin by more than 400 basis points.
Thanks to a very good delivery on synergies and very committed and successful teams on Construction Chemicals. The success of Grow & Impact and the success of the group in the last years is due a lot to the organizations that we have put in place, and the fact that country by country, we take decisive strategic decisions in terms of cost, in terms of pricing, in terms of the effective approach to deploy our solutions. So this is a very powerful operating model that brings effectiveness, that bring agility, that brings proximity to our customers, and that has been behind outperformance that we have seen in many, many markets. And also it gives us a lot of comfort in terms of ability to successfully integrate our acquisitions.
So all our country managers are empowered to take decisively and proactively the right actions on pricing, productivity, cost actions, et cetera, in order to deliver the best possible PNL and margin. Our country CEOs, they also drive what I call the share-of-wallet performance. It's all about outperformance, and what is the share of wallet of Saint-Gobain for any given customer, leveraging the full range of our solution? You can see on the left side of the chart what we have been able to increase very significantly in terms of sales towards our key distributor customers, be it in the U.S., in Brazil, or in Vietnam. On the other side, on specified project sales, a bit more technical, you can see that our common Saint-Gobain solutions specification teams also have delivered much increased volumes, if I take France and in Poland, on those specific applications.
Let's take now a look at the U.K., where for our solutions we have pushed, and you will hear from our CEO, Mike Chaldecott of the U.K., we have put also measurable performance to make the difference. It's one thing to predefine, but it's another thing, even better, to measure the performance. So let's hear directly from Mike Chaldecott out of the U.K. I think I need to push, if I'm correct. No, I should not push. So let's launch the video.
Saint-Gobain is a key solutions provider in the UK and Ireland to offer complete, high value-added solutions for light and sustainable construction and renovation. We are reinforcing our position by developing and promoting a wide range of solutions for facades, roofs, internal and external walls, for both new build and for renovation. Take our new made-to-order service. It cuts installation down for all our clients and reduces site waste, saving natural resources. We're also leveraging a common specification team to create cross-brand offers for our customers. Despite a challenging market, our specification sales were very strong in 2023, and our operations achieved strong profitability performance. Now, let me show you how putting our solutions together can bring real-life, quantifiable benefits to our customers. Energy House 2.0 is the largest climatic test chamber in the whole of Europe.
Inside, with our partners, Barratt Homes, one of the largest house builders in the country, we have built the energy-efficient home, eHome 2, that's designed to meet the 2025 U.K. Future Homes Standard regulations, using innovative and comprehensive Saint-Gobain systems, such as an insulated, lightweight, and airtight system for the building envelope, using our high-performance timber solutions produced off-site. Also, mineral walls and glass with enhanced thermal insulation. For the exterior, lightweight Weber wall brick to replicate the look of traditional bricks, but with a quicker installation and a lower carbon footprint. Tens of thousands of data points were collected over the first nine-month testing phase, covering indoor air temperature, air tightness, heat loss, and energy consumption. Thermal performance was tested with our innovative QUB solution, set up in several rooms, that helps us learn in just one night how the as-built envelope performs.
These measurements demonstrated the high levels of thermal performance achieved in eHome 2, thanks to Saint-Gobain's solutions, resulting in better comfort for the occupants, with the average energy bill halved. This new construction method is being adopted by national house builders like Barratt Homes, regional house builders, and in social housing.
Thank you, Mike, and you may have seen on our press release that we invite all of you on July 2nd, if you could, put that on your calendar, for a visit on this project with Mike Chaldecott. You, you're all invited. There is... It's a big scale, one house, so we should be able to fit everyone. I think it's a good transition in terms of innovation and digital to what we are doing in terms of Grow & Impact strategy towards our high-growth global markets. With Verifi, and some of you have seen it in the U.S. last September, we enable the concrete monitoring and CO₂ savings, thanks to connected devices and artificial intelligence.
So it's a very vivid, the first in the world, one of its kind, in terms of how we can drive digital innovation for our customers and gain market share thanks to that. We also innovate on materials for electrical vehicles, from our canopy roof glazings with liquid crystal polymers, and also our multi-material compression pads for EV batteries, which is a fast-growing segment. We are also delivering and developing digital solutions. You may have seen our press release early this year. Digital solutions to help on energy savings and efficiency for our industrial customers. Altogether, you know, our strategy is bearing tangible fruits. It's also bringing attractive returns for our shareholders. The shareholder return has increased by 13% per year since 2021 from dividends and share buybacks.
So in 2024, we plan a dividend of 2.1 EUR per share, and we will finish one year ahead of plan, our EUR 2 billion share buyback program that we had announced in 2021. As a flashback, you know, you see on this chart the journey and the strong trajectory of performance that we have delivered in the last years, with a 330 basis point increase of operating income margin, a doubling of the recurring net income of Saint-Gobain, and tripling our free cash flow generation. Let me now turn to the outlook for 2024, where we expect in Europe, resilience in renovation, new construction remaining difficult before gradually reaching its low point country by country. In the Americas, construction to hold firm in North America, both new build and renovation, and a recovery expected during the year in Latin America.
Overall, a good growth in most countries of Asia-Pacific and within our global markets of high-performance solutions, a mixed picture between Construction Chemicals staying on the dynamic growth, Mobility holding firm, and a contrasting situation on some industrial markets. So despite a context which remains difficult in certain markets, in 2024, Saint-Gobain expects a double-digit operating margin for the fourth consecutive year. As a conclusion, you have seen the strengths of Saint-Gobain as the sustainable construction leader, delivering consistently year after year on strong results. So I'm confident, like Sreedhar, like all the teams of Saint-Gobain, that 2024 will be another year of strong success for Saint-Gobain, and we'll now turn to our Q&A session. Let's stay there. Just we'll start with the questions in the room. Elodie?
Good morning, thanks for taking my questions. Congratulations for, for the results. So I start maybe on your volume expectations. You gave us some commentary by regions, but last year at this time, I think you were able to tell us that you were expecting a mid-single-digit decline in volume, which you did. So would you be able to also give us a bit more guidance on the actual volume for 2024?
Yes. So we expect a low single-digit volume drop as of today. We expect, as Sreedhar said, that Q1 will be more challenging, more or less aligned with what we saw in Q4, both because the comparison basis was high and we have one less working day, and the situation to improve with H2 being better than H1. So that's the overall macro assumption on our volume that we take for 2024.
That's very clear. Thank you. Pricing now, we've seen pricing decelerating sequentially. Should we expect pricing to be down a little bit as well in 2024?
So we split the role. I take volume and Sreedhar will take the pricing. You go ahead.
Okay, I think let me address not just pricing. I think there's other question quite often all of you have is on price-cost spread and inflation, deflation. I think it's, it's all coming together. So let me start by saying that please be rest assured that Saint-Gobain will deliver neutral to positive price-cost spread. So we remain very confident because this is the price-cost spread is an extremely an important indicator, followed by every single country CEO. And I, you know, there's not a single business review we miss out this. So this is one thing which will happen. Second, you have to keep in mind that pricing is a dynamic situation where we have an organization, which is an empowered organization, where the country CEOs are empowered to take a lot of local decisions.
So everybody is monitoring it very closely to make sure that we get wherever incremental pricing we can get. So we will keep looking for opportunities to improve the pricing, and at the same time, we will also be very pragmatic in making the adjustments wherever it is essential. Because it's important to keep in mind that when you look at the inflation, there are a few categories of material. We have some inflation, very clearly like gypsum, both gypsum, synthetic and natural gypsum. We have cement, we have sand, we have asphalt, we have transportation, which is going up. But at the same time, we also see there is a deflation happening in many of the categories of materials, particularly all the petrochemical things.
Energy is coming down. So we expect that we should see the decreases, what you see in different categories, should certainly be more than offsetting the inflation you see in some categories. So you would have a lower, you know, more of a deflation in 2024. What it means is, again, you will be making those intelligent trade-off by product. When you look at in our business, the deflation which is happening is primarily in glass, very clearly, which is like energy, soda ash, which is coming down in a significant way. This is an area where we are also taking a very pragmatic approach to make sure that we continue to have the volumes and the market share that what we need to have. Keeping, again, this discipline of price-cost spread.
I think this is something which is an extremely important indicator every time when you take the decision. So we see that the glass, probably we should see a slightly more than 10% drop-
On glass?
on glass, which is again 8% sales of the group. I think it's important to keep all this in the big picture. Otherwise, all the other product lines, I think we believe that more or less, we should be able to hold the price. And that's a discipline which we will maintain across the board. So to just summarize, once again, Saint-Gobain will deliver neutral to positive price-cost spread. We will see inflation is going to be lower than the deflation, which we will see, and the price, we will see a slight drop in the price, but that has not -- has any impact on the price-cost spread.
Can I just ask as well as a follow-up? So it's quite clear on the price-cost spread, but it's also clear we are looking at probably a deflationary environment on top line. So what about your ability to offset other costs, like wage inflation, through operational efficiencies?
You know, the
We will continue to drive all those actions, keeping in mind that we did a lot of that proactively already in 2023. So part of the performance was a lot of management, as I said, on productivity, price cost. So we'll continue to drive that. So all in all, again, the margin focus is very high, as you know, within Saint-Gobain. We expect a slight drop in volume and a very slight drop in pricing, but all in all, continue to push the margin and make sure that everywhere we manage the margin very well. So we will have, and we have reached a point where after three years of guidance, which was 9-11, we guided you because we have structurally transformed the group towards 10-11.
That means we have reached a level of confidence to be able to tell you at the beginning of the year that it's going to be 10-11, not 10-12, 10-11. We narrow the range.
And don't forget that we have a very structured program driven across all the industrial sites with the World-Class Manufacturing, which actually enables us to bring the deficiency consistently.
Okay, I know Arnaud wants to ask questions, but maybe I can get the mic after.
Thank you, Olivia. First of all, congratulations, because I think we have today the evidence that the transformation of Saint-Gobain is more than effective with the margins you have published. Follow up on what you just say on this guidance of 9%-10%-11%. If I remember well, you communicate this type of guidance both externally and internally, your targets are aligned. So now that you have achieved 11%, how are you going to motivate your troops to deliver more than that? And I, I'm hearing you on the 10%-11%, but you are extremely confident. According to what I heard this morning, you are expecting Europe to trough in 2024.
Why is it not time to, you know, revise upward your, your guidance to 10-12 instead of to 10-11?
First, Arnaud, thank you for the nice words. It's always appreciated, and we'll share it with the teams. Two points. Well, internally, you know, the group target matters, and it's all about double digit. And it starts at 10, not 99, starts at 10. So it's all about double digit, and it has been a very consistent message everywhere. After that, if I'm a country CEO, my point for my country is to improve my margin, hold it if it's very high, and hold it. So I participate, and I contribute in the whole picture, but my target is to do well on my margin. So I could be above, I could be slightly below, so it doesn't relate, okay, the group is at 10, should I be at, something higher or something below and to improve?
So I don't see any contradiction in the fact that we are super consistent, which helps. You know, having straightforward, clear messages on double digit is the right way to do it. Now, everyone knows that this guidance, and I will have a live chat with all the managers at noon, like I always do every quarter, to say, "Hey, look at that. Instead of 9-11 at the beginning of the year, we have 10-11." That means we are all full speed on, again, no surprise, the right margin. So I don't see any contradiction to keep the teams of Saint-Gobain super motivated, and even the motto of this year, because we have this sponsorship of the Olympic Games, is aiming higher. Aiming higher on innovation, on outperformance, on many, many fronts.
So teams are super clear on the margin drive, and it's part, as you know, of their KPI, along with cash flow and return on capital employed. I think what is very important, and I think the financial markets expected that, you know, over the last three years, when I look at the questions we were asked several years, is that despite the market environment, which will not be easy in 2024, which has not been easy in 2023, we have reached a level of confidence to tell you it's going to be double-digit at the beginning of the year. So it used to be a slightly wider range, which was the exact swimming lane of 9-11 we gave you on average... for the five years.
After that, we took it every year, and now we take it 10-11 at the beginning of the year. So I think we are moving in the right direction with the right progress, and I can tell you, all the teams of Saint-Gobain are super motivated behind it. And they see also, you know, the alignment between the efforts, the results, and also the appreciation from their customers or their stakeholder. So I'm confident that the drive internally is high and the engagement is high.
You know, when you say double-digit margin, we are saying more than 15% Return on Capital Employed. I think it's an important indicator to keep.
Sure. And I have a second question, which is more specific to France. I was looking your slides, like-for-like growth in France was -1.9%, if I remember well, what I read. In France, you have a huge distribution business. We have seen from one of your main competitor in France, listed, they reported a 10% like-for-like decline for 2023. So just wanted to understand the difference between these two figures. Does it mean that you are gaining market share in the current environment? And can you perhaps share with us what was the like-for-like growth of the distribution business in France?
Clearly, I think we outperform in France, and this is related to many parameters. The fact that I think the most important one is two things: the fact that we are totally present on all the touchpoints on the value chain, you know, from the R&D on innovation. When you invent a new partition system, it's faster to install, you gain market share. All the manufacturing footprint across many product lines, the solution approach. I highlighted some of the gain that we have done with the Thierry Fournier's team on high-spec buildings and the bigger merchant, including recycling of material. So for me, the... truly, the solution approach, the country approach, is the reason of the outperformance. Plus, of course, our strong market share.
You have seen during the day we dedicated to France, end of November, the fact that if I take our biggest merchant, they are six times bigger than any other of their competitor in this business line in France. So it is the size and therefore, the drive on the leadership. It is also the fact that we have all the touchpoints. After that, we don't specify the performance from one business versus the other, but the ballpark is France. It's a French team, so the team is more or less in each product line in the same ballpark. So that's... And you have to keep in mind that the largest business we have in France, it's our biggest merchant, so it cannot be way above or way below the average. So the average is the average. Another way to answer it.
Hello, and thank you for taking my question. I will not ask for the price of flat glass as Jean-Christophe, but I have two question. The first one is about the volume. Which region will be the most challenging in terms of volumes in 2024? And the second may be about the impact of the cut on MaPrimeRénov' in France. Thank you.
Okay, I will take the MaPrimeRénov' and the... Again, MaPrimeRénov', I look at the glass 80%-90% full, 'cause we moved from EUR 0 billion four years ago. It was EUR 1.2 billion three years ago, EUR 2.5 billion in 2023, it will be EUR 4 billion next year. So okay, it was EUR 5 billion a few weeks ago, but I don't think we would have been able to deliver 5 based on the lack of workforce, the time it takes to deliver on the product. So moving from 2.5 to 4 is already a big jump. Even two days ago, you know, one of the ministries said the global renovation, which we push, because that's the best way to achieve a big change in terms of energy performance, you know, from F to C, et cetera.
The target was initially 200,000, coming from 60,000 global renovation in 2023. They revised it up to 140 or 150, which is almost three times, 2.5, three times, which again, is an ambitious target. So I think being a bit more realistic, because it takes time in terms of financing, in terms of jobs, in terms of permits, et cetera, it's still a very strong support. And again, beside the public support, and you have it also on public buildings, you know, there is a program for schools renovation in France. It's already a reality in the real estate market.
You know, looking at the notaire, I don't know how we say that in English, you know, the statistics we showed on the price gap between a badly insulated house and a good performance is huge, and it's already there, regardless of the amount of MaPrimeRénov'. So I'm confident that we'll continue to drive. We have the success of our performance in France, and that's a good resilient perspective. In the most challenging markets, you know, no surprise, Northern Europe, if I take Germany, continues to be challenging. Some of the northern countries, Norway and Sweden. If I take Europe, because it's mostly in Europe, the challenging markets. Vietnam was a bit soft end of last year, but it's not a big point in the picture. South Europe has been resilient. If I take Spain, Italy, I think we outperformed there also.
France, we outperformed, so it's mostly Northern Europe. And again, the positive is that country by country, we will see quarter by quarter, a trough being achieved. If I take one country like Poland, we had positive volumes in Poland, in Czech Republic, in Q4. So without even the benefits of the EU funds being unlocked, towards Poland. So we expect, and that's part of the volume assumption, answering the question for Elodie, we expect, again, low single-digit volumes, second half to be better altogether, and, the trough country by country to be reached on the main statistics. After that, depending on the country, there is always a lag, sometimes, six months, sometimes 12 months, between the statistics on permits and the others for, for Saint-Gobain, but, but we are touching there.
You know, for the last 18 months, we have been more positive about North America, holding firm and maybe us, I think, outperforming in North America. Here again, we were proven to be right on North America, being a bit more optimistic than sometimes the view from outside. So we are on this ballpark.
You know, if you just look at it, it's a new construction. It's primarily a new construction, which is the exposure is 12% in the Western European countries. So that's, that's what you need to keep in mind, the new construction, and the other one is Brazil, which is little suffering and hopefully to improve.
Price glass.
Yeah. Well, you wanted the price glass? I thought that I don't need to prepare this question, Jean-Christophe . You know, it's okay anyway. It's 4.3%, euro.
So it's still nicely above-
Nicely above what you had in 2021. Significantly above.
If there is another-
Yeah.
Coming back to Elodie, and then I, I'll have some question. Tobias, sorry. Yeah, let's switch to Tobias. Sorry.
Yeah. Thanks for taking my questions. Tobias Werner from UBS. Three questions, if I may, but let me also congratulate you, having followed you for almost three decades. This is a fantastic transformation. The first question relates to what you think the percentage of your light side and construction chemicals businesses are of your operating profit today and post CSR. The second question, customer service, product focus, where do you think you stand there now relative to your competition and relative to the past? And then just lastly, sort of a numbers-focused question for Sreedhar. The capital losses and changes to group structure, EUR 365 million. Could you give us a little bit more color on this? How much of that is or relates to the changes of group structure?
You take the last one-
Yeah
... so that I compute my numbers in my head in the meantime.
Okay, you know, when you look at that particular line, it's primarily driven by the UK distribution. It's, you know, largely, that's what it is, that UK distribution was divested. The closure was done in March 2023. You know, it's basically, it's a technical effect when you have an exchange rate difference in the balance sheet, the conversion rate difference in the balance sheet, that you can account it only when the closure happens. So that's the only thing which is largely there in that line.
Tobias, you know, I relate to the slide we showed last year in terms of the pie chart of the different business lines. We have not updated it, but, you know, basically, we have moved on construction chemicals with additional acquisitions. We'll move on CSR. So if my math, sorry, is correct, we'll be around 2/3 and close to 70% of overall light construction light building materials. The rest is our builders merchant business and some of the industrial markets that we service within high-performance solutions. So that's the ballpark, but maybe we'll take it offline to have more precise figures.
Basically, you move 1 or 2 points in the interior solution category, plus 1 or 2 points in the construction chemical category that we have shown last year, with the additional growth, organic and external, on those two businesses. And your second question was on customer service. You know, it's a very important point, and every country, every business, is driving and measuring customer satisfaction in its own way, depending on the market situation. But clearly, and we try to illustrate some of those points on big distributors on one side or key account customers on the other side, the solution approach of Saint-Gobain, the leadership positions we have, the ability to advocate for the solutions, to measure it, like we have seen in the U.K., we outperform, and we have a good feedback from our customers.
We have a very good feedback from our customer because in the last years, for the first time in several decades, they see one Saint-Gobain team in front of them. They see one touch point, one contact point to solve all the issues in order to deliver the best service. And then we gain. I give you some example of France. Thierry Fournier's team gained some job size because we have been able to propose also the recycling of materials. So we recycle plasterboard, we recycle glass. It helps the carbon footprint of those customers, and we do it upfront when they design their new buildings, and of course, we win back the new materials for the rehabilitation of their existing buildings.
So we have, again, a lot of momentum in many directions, both on the coverage in terms of cross-selling of distributors on the ground and the solutions to earn high specified sales. And the, you know, the CSR, why it is so much aligned with Saint-Gobain, is that for the last four years, they drove one CSR solution approach toward their customers. So we are totally aligned in terms of spirit and philosophy of management by country. Maybe Elodie, and then I will, we'll take a question from, internet or the call after.
Okay, Jean Prophete. The sustainability of the free cash flow would be my first question. It was exceptionally strong indeed, 62% cash conversion. So is this sustainable, and does that mean as well that we should expect a new buyback as soon as this one is finished, or do we need to wait until the next CMD? Second question would be on the construction chemicals. You gave us the EUR 5.7 billion revenue number. What would be the broad margin at the moment? That would be helpful. And lastly, just a technical on the scope impact and the FX impact you expect for 2024, Sreedhar. Okay, I'll give the mic.
Take the free cash flow and the scope.
Yeah.
Take the-
So, you know, whatever improvements you have seen in free cash flow, it's structural. So we remain very confident to deliver the cash flow, the free cash flow conversion rate of 50%. That's our commitment, and you will see consistently we will deliver 50% and above. That's what, you know, it's a structural change, so be rest assured about that. You know, this year we have better than that, primarily because we further reduced the working capital, you know, particularly on the inventory. You know, when you have the volumes, lower volumes in 2023, it has an impact, so we managed to be more efficient on inventory. But I think we need to keep some kind of flexibility. But what's more important is cash conversion ratio, 50% will happen. Yeah, for the share buyback, we have talked about 2023.
We have given you a precise number, which is actually one year ahead of the program what we have said, and we will talk about it in the next Capital Markets Day, for sure.
On buyback, one point I would like to highlight is that we have been driven very clearly by value creation, you know, in the last years. Value creation, happy to say that we are one year ahead on the buyback that we announced three years ago. We have also fantastic ways to create value with acquisitions. Continental is one, Chryso is another one. CSR will be another one. So for me, what is important is to be pragmatic, dedicated to value creation, and to do the best possible way on that towards our shareholders. So we take it one step at a time on acquisition. We have good ideas and good pipeline of further acquisitions along the axis that we mentioned, North America and Construction Chemical, and I think it's also a very important way to create value for our shareholders.
I'm pragmatic, but I can tell you we have all been driven by value creation in the last years and will remain committed towards that.
Coming to your technical questions on Forex, when I look at January, February, it's never easy to look at how the Forex will move, but we started the year with a negative impact of the Forex, so we should, I hope, we should expect slightly less negative if this continues, the trend continues, and the scope should be around -1%.
On Construction Chemicals, again, I'm not going to give you the precise margin on that. You know, where we started with the margin of Chryso, which is the best-in-class and remains the best-in-class. We have seen the margin improvement, which is above what we thought in terms of improvement for both Chryso and GCP. And I can tell you, we are on par with the best-in-class in terms of margin, what is published on the market on EBITDA margin for construction chemicals, on admixtures and additives. So we are not going to publish it, but you know where we started, and Chryso is delivering very well on their margin, plus the improvement we have brought to GCP.
So, I think in terms of growth, you know, we are moving forward very nicely, and on margin, we are also in the best-in-class type of range. Maybe I will switch to some questions on the call. So I start with the list. Yves Bonnet from Société Générale. You have one question, Yves?
Question. I'll have two, if I could. The first one is just going back to France and MaPrimeRénov'. I was wondering whether you're able also to see in the data that you track internally, what is the group exposure between sort of small-sized dwellings versus larger-sized dwellings in terms of renovation? And the reason why I'm asking is I believe that the French government is also looking to change the EPC rules. And in fact, it seems that they could actually change the methodology for small-sized dwellings to increase their EPC scores, which would imply lower renovation work going forward. My second question is on the personal expenses line. They were down quite significantly in terms of headcounts.
I think they went down by 7% at the end of December, and I think you talked about the fact that you will continue to focus on fixed cost optimization. So I just wanted to know whether there's a similar magnitude that is possible in 2024 in terms of efficiencies, or have you already done a lot of the work in 2023? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Yves. So on the second one, yes, as I said, we have been proactive, fast, country by country. So, we have done a lot. We'll continue to optimize here and there, country by country, based on the volume market situation, but we have done a lot proactively in 2023, so I don't expect a similar magnitude in 2024. On France, MaPrimeRénov', please tell me what is small, what is large, so that I can answer to you. But if I understand your question correctly, there has been a slight adjustment on some of the energy performance diagnosis for very, very small, small apartments, notably in urban areas. That's, I think, 120,000 dwellings out of 5 million, out of 5 million, which have a low grade, F or G. So it's not going to change the picture.
So for me, there is no negative impact to expect from that because, again, it's a very, very tiny portion of small apartments. So anyway, a small apartment of 10 or 20 square meters in Paris doesn't make a lot, unfortunately, of plasterboard or insulation and out of the big picture of 5 million. So I think if you take the big picture, there is no negative to read out of that.
I think it was below 40 sq m, but
Below 20 square meter.
I understand the-
I can tell you, unfortunately, we cannot sell a lot of plasterboard and insulation in 20 square meters. And, again, it's 100,000 out of 5 million dwellings that have to be renovated. So we are busy with the mid-size global renovation moving forward across all France, not only Paris... on small apartments on the 10th floor in a building in Paris. So that's not going to drive the picture for Saint-Gobain negatively, and we are busy with the mids and large-sized jobs. Next question is from-
Okay, thank you very much.
Gregor from UBS.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, go ahead.
Great. So could I just get some extra information on what your energy bill actually ended up being, and maybe give us a sense for the whole raw mat bill? I think last year you said EUR 13 billion with EUR 2.3 billion in energy. Could you just give us that number for 2023, and what you're currently looking for for 2024? I appreciate you're thinking about the spread, but I wanna get a sense of the deflation within the mix. And then just coming back to an earlier question, are you saying price cost, purely variable costs, at least neutral, so let's say 0+? And then on fixed costs, I wasn't entirely sure. Are you saying you think you can offset wage inflation roughly with efficiencies? Is that what you're saying?
And then, on Construction Chemicals, how much of HPS is actually Construction Chemicals? I appreciate the 5.7 at the group level, but I think that's sort of split between the regions. But within HPS, how much is actually Construction Chemicals? And maybe a small request, I mean, you always give these numbers in the back with mobility and so on. It would be helpful to start seeing the Construction Chemicals line within that, so it's more transparent on how you're performing on, on that particular line. Maybe that's wishful thinking. Thank you.
Yeah. So coming to the energy, it will be around EUR 2 billion in 2023. It should be lower in 2024, with whatever trend we are seeing. The overall, the raw material cost, including energy, is around EUR 12 billion, slightly above EUR 12 billion for 2023. Yes, Greg, Gregor, we would be able to compensate the wage inflation. That's what historically we have done, except with one or two exception, where we had wage inflation was higher. But from 2024, I think we should be able to compensate with all the operational industrial efficiency the inflation which will come through the wages. And Benoit d'Iribarne is sitting in front of me and is confirming it to me.
Thank you.
On Construction Chemical, within HPS, it's roughly 15%, close to 15% of, of sales. That's,
Thank you.
Welcome.
Thank you.
Next question is from Ravi, from Citigroup.
Thanks. So a quick questions. Sorry, to go back to, Construction Chemicals. Your, one of the best-in-class competitors, also mentioned, on the guidance that, you know, net of the acquisition effects, the organic growth is effectively going to be very, minimal, in 2024. Is that what you're seeing in the market as well? And, you said your margins are in, in line with best-in-class, so they've got a margin of about 19%. Is that kind of the right order of magnitude in terms of your Construction Chemicals margins? And secondly, a question for Sreedhar. I mean, obviously, your working capital, improvement has been very dramatic, and, you know, congratulations on that.
The days on my calculation is down almost 60% over the last five years. How much of that is just a mix effect with sort of distribution businesses going out, and more kind of products businesses coming in? And how much of it is actual, kind of, like-for-like working capital reduction at existing businesses?
Thank you. So I take the first, and Sreedhar will take the second. I think we put in our press release the fact that our total EUR 5.7 billion Construction Chemical business grew by a bit more than 3% organically. So I think it's outperformance. It seems versus what I've seen from, from outside. Within the admixtures and additives, I think we did very, very well in North America, gaining market share and also in some parts of, of Europe. So clearly we are outperforming, because if, if I take just, you know, the admixtures, additives of Chryso GCP, we are north of 5% organic growth, so that's a very strong performance. In terms of the margin, what I mentioned is within the Construction Chemicals of HPS, if I take the total, it's a bit below.
But again, we are moving in the right direction, and we are very happy. But the margin evolution altogether, be it the renders, the tile fixing, the businesses that go through distribution country by country, or be it the improvement from the basis point we have seen on the specific additives and specialty building materials and admixtures of HPS. So all in all, a very good performance, and that's a business we are going to continue to invest in. 11 acquisitions last year. We have ideas again for 2024. We just closed last night the acquisition in Ecuador, which is the national main player of construction chemicals in Ecuador, so that's moving in the right direction.
On the working capital, the large part of the reduction of 17 days is structural. It does not have a big impact of distribution or non-distribution. You know, we have gone back to the basics of managing the working capital, getting into the details country by country. So this is quite structural, and that's why I'm very confident about this 50%, you know, cash conversion ratio will happen. I mean, there is... Don't have any question on that, you know, question mark.
We have a lot of questions, so we will try to take all of them. Let's go now, Arnaud. I think if you could put the slide a bit below, because I see Arnaud from BNP Paribas, but I'm not sure I missed anyone. Oh, Arnaud, so please go ahead with your question. Yeah, it's good. We took Ravi, so now it's Arnaud and then Pierre from Goldman Sachs... Arnaud, you can go ahead. Arnaud Lehmann.
Hello, good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes, go ahead. Yeah.
Very good. Just two questions, please. Firstly, can you comment on your 2024 distribution margins? We know margins have been probably very strong in the last two, three years, although you don't disclose them anymore. But with a bit of volume decline and maybe a bit of price erosion in some pricing category, do you think we could see a bit of normalization in your French and Nordic distribution margin? And secondly, big picture question on pricing. We've seen some of your peers announcing some price increases in the US. Do you think we could see a divergence between US prices still increasing and European prices eroding? Thank you.
Yeah. No, I, I take those two questions. Well, first, indeed, we don't publish because we don't run the business like that. We run it by country. But I can tell you, we did well last year on our distribution margin, and we'll continue to do well, notably in France in 2024. As we speak, short term, the Nordic markets, as I said, Norway, Sweden, are pretty tough, so we expect that to normalize. But in the short term, we are reducing headcount in the Nordics country on distribution. It's a short-term issue. They have been proactive also in 2023. So slightly below expectation short term, but I'm confident that it's a very good business and will continue to drive our performance going forward.
I think it's well above what I have seen from public competitors in this part of the world. On pricing, you know, don't take us wrong, we are pushing prices in a lot of regards, notably in the US, we have announced in roofing, we have announced in gypsum. So all this is moving nicely, even in insulation for North America. So there is good dynamic there. In Europe with notable exception of glass, that Sreedhar illustrated, but glass, we are still above where we used to be three years ago. We are here and there, also defending or pushing some price increase. Mike Chaldecott announced some price increase in the UK.
So here and there, we are opportunistic to maintain a positive price-cost spread, defend our, you know, our margin, also our market share position. So there are a lot of tactical moves on the ground, and we are disciplined on pricing. But yes, the supportive environment in the U.S. helps a bit more, on the short term.
Thank you.
Question from Pierre de Fraguier, Goldman Sachs.
Hi, good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Thank you for taking the question. So distribution margin, you've often said in the past, best in class, 7%-8%. We can see European margins around 8%. So what does that leave your manufacturing margins in Europe? And how much upside do you see from current levels, should it be from self-help or potential volume recovery? That's first question. And second question, we spoke about the transformation, which has been very fruitful. You've done a number of disposals, and the question is: How do you think about disposal going forward, and would that actually accelerate some of the rotation going forward, and in which categories we see more development? Thank you.
So what we guided at the time of the Capital Markets Day is 6-7, not 7-8, 6%-7% for distribution and 13-14, 13%-14% for manufacturing. We are there, and we'll continue to drive our businesses there. So that's important to note because we have strong businesses in different countries of Europe. Distribution, it's Nordics and France, and of course, manufacturing everywhere. We continue to have a lot of initiatives on our solutions approach across the board and, you know, manufacturing and distribution together, country by country. So yes, I'm confident that if I take mid- to long-term, there is potential for margin improvement in Europe. Short-term, in 2024, this is the place where certain markets are more difficult. So this is the place where the margin will be a bit more under pressure.
But we have seen that last year, even though we had negative volumes in Europe, we have been able to improve the margins. But I'm confident that we'll continue to make progress going forward. On the overall perimeter changes, yes, we are active. You know that, becomes a routine of our country CEOs to optimize their portfolio, to ask their customers, to make sure they have the best offer, both in terms of acquisitions and sometimes divestitures. So we did quite a bit of that already, again, last year on Glass Solutions, for instance. We'll continue to... And we have some projects as we speak, in terms of further divestitures. We are going also to be active on acquisitions. Again, Australia is one. We will have, other projects, but you know, we always need to be true to stance on acquisition.
But yes, we will continue to drive M&A on those two axes of geographic development, construction, chemical, always with the mind to create value for our shareholders and improve the top line performance and the margin performance. So yes, we are active, and we have several projects in and out as we speak.
Great. Fantastic. Thank you.
So now it's questions on internet. A question from Pierre Rousseau, if I take them in the right order. Could you comment on distribution margins? Are you within the 7%-9%? So some have 6%-7%, or there are 7%-9%, or 7%-8%. So there is a bit of inflation there, target range. So the answer I answered already, there have been further progress. Again, those businesses are holding well. And also, you know, back to the point made by Arnaud Pinatel, it's within tough times that when you are a leader, you create a difference versus smaller players. In France, a small player has been for sale because they have a break-even margin.
So it's during this time that you create a gap versus your weaker competitors, and this is a good opportunity for us in distribution, Nordics and France, as we speak. Another question from Pierre as well, if I'm right: "You are exceeding your own 2025 targets in terms of margin and ROC. Isn't it time for an upside—an update, sorry, an update. Is it 11%-12% in the next objective or even higher?" Again, we gave you five years of very strong commitment and clarity on the strategy, light and sustainable construction, geography and construction chemicals.
Also, a swimming lane on the margin, and also, very important, because there are not so many questions there, on sustainability and all the drives we have and initiatives on ESG, which I think is very important for our customers, because that's also the reason why we outperform. We are the only one with a commercial offer of low-carbon glass. We are the only one with a low-carbon plasterboard now in a plant in Norway. The second will be in Canada. So those are the three very clear swimming lanes: strategy, financials, and sustainability that we gave. So we are happy to push. We are happy to say that we delivered well for three years in a row and will continue in 2024. And realize, you know, the fact that Saint-Gobain has structurally changed.
The fact that we have delivered consistently a double-digit margin, that at the beginning of a difficult year, like last year, we are able to say with confidence that we'll deliver double-digit margin is a very significant change for Saint-Gobain. So that's what we are going to continue to push. And, after that, of course, if I take the next five years, 2025 to 2030, we'll update you in due time, but it will be sometime in 2025, not in 2024. Another question from Pierre, if I'm correct. "Outperformance versus underlying markets is now common for Saint-Gobain. Can you provide, can you provide some quantification of the normal level of extra growth versus underlying end markets you would expect from the group going forward?" We are not saying that we outperform everywhere.
There are pockets of areas or countries where we are sometimes the number 2 in, in the market, so we are clearly outperforming. You know, if I take North America, if I take France, if I take U.K., if I take, Latin America, if I take India, Vietnam, etcetera, there are pockets where we should do better and learn from our, competitor. But, you know, when we outperform, it could be 1, 2 points versus the, the market. So that's the, the ballpark of outperformance on top line organic growth that we deliver country by country, where we outperform. A question, from Sycamore Asset Management: "To date, and excluding CSR or future M&A, what should be the parameter effect in 2024?
I said that without taking into account CSR, because we don't know exactly when it will be closed. We said it's second half of this year. We said it should be around -1%.
Are there any questions in the room? No. What will you do with the CSR assets besides construction, the real estate, and also the 25% stake in aluminum? Could you explain a bit about this and also the outcome with the asbestos claims against CSR? I think we had 1 hour and a half call on Tuesday, so we have been crystal clear on that we are not a long-term asset of aluminum. Rio Tinto is working on repowering with renewable energy, this smelter. They are 51% of the asset. We are going to explore our options on aluminum. Property, we said, you know, it's a big buffer of value of at least AUD 1.3 billion, so without leaving money on the table, but we'll clearly monetize this asset. And on asbestos, we had 1 question also on Tuesday.
You have to think that it's an Australian topic, and second, that it's under control, and it dropped year after year for many years in a row. It was not even a question if I take the last five years of their transcript in the investor call, and the Australian legal system is totally different from what we have experienced in the U.S. On two fronts, class actions are very, very less common. Speculative claims don't exist. Why? Because you have to provide, as a plaintiff, a financial guarantee when you file a claim, so speculative claims are almost non-existent. So it's a very different setup, legally speaking. And second, also, the amount per claim is much more modest and very much more predictable because it's all professional judges that deal with that. And the...
Again, there is no speculation, professional judges, and they are linked, the compensation that is paid with the compensation for the plaintiff. So if you are a retiree, you don't expect the same than if you are a bit younger. So it's no or very little class action, no speculative claim, and second, all professional judges with amounts that are very modest and that are easy to predict because they are linked to the compensation parameters that you can define. So all this, again, has moved down and is, of course, under control, and on top of that, they have even a 25% cautiousness on their asbestos provision in Australia. You can think that we triple-check that, of course, during our due diligence. There was one question on the breakout between gross CapEx and maintenance CapEx. Sreedhar, maybe you can see.
Yeah. So the growth CapEx was something like EUR 837 million from the total of EUR 2,029 million, so EUR 2 billion. So the balance is maintenance. You know, we don't really segregate like that. Anything which is a new capacity is shown as a growth CapEx, and rest all is shown as others.
Another question of synergies expecting from CSR. We mentioned it, AUD 60 million, and mentioning that we are comfortable with that with further upside, notably on growth. I can tell you the excitement because I had several interaction with the Australian teams since Tuesday. I will be there together with Fred when we are finished with our roadshow in the US and the UK for four days in mid-March. So the excitement on both teams is exceptionally high. There was a question from Paul Roger: How concerned are you that countries, including France, seem to be rolling back on the green agenda, and the EU may do likewise post-June parliamentary election? Could it hurt renovation? I think we gave you some reassurance on that on the fact that, again, it's still moving up in terms of support. Public buildings have to get there.
There is also a decree in France. Sometimes we don't talk about it enough, but for any commercial building above 1,000 square meter, they have to drop their energy spend by 40% between now and 2030. So that's part of all the drive also on renovation for commercial buildings, on top of public buildings and on top of residential buildings, where the real estate value and impact is already there. We mentioned some statistics. So no, I'm confident that the energy efficiency of homes and buildings is on top of the agenda, even at the COP. You know, you could look at the glass half empty. I look at it half full. For the first time at the COP, there had been a commitment or a clear target to double the energy efficiency, and we know we can bring a lot within buildings.
Maybe back in the room, Jean-Christophe, yeah?
Yes, sorry, it's working out. I have two question, if I may. Could we have more flavor on first, Pont-à-Mousson and secondly, at force in term of activity and results? Many thanks.
So Pont-à-Mousson is making money, single digit type of EBIT. Okay, it's not double digit. That's one slight exception. They have good orders in Italy, notably because there is a lot of hydro stimulus and investment in Italy. We see that coming in Spain. It's a bit more flattish or a bit more sluggish in France, but I think the topic of water management is extremely big. You have seen Barcelona in January being already in growth, so that's a mid to long-term important. We are always looking at strategic options piece by piece for Pont-à-Mousson, so that's still on the agenda, but overall, again, it's cash positive, EBIT positive, and moving forward also with the different actions.
Adfors, it's a business that suffered more last year because Adfors is driven a bit more by new build, also in external insulation, be it in Germany, Eastern Europe, et cetera. So Adfors suffered in terms of volumes last year, but again, it's a good business within Saint-Gobain, and we are confident that it's going to recover both on the top line and the margin going forward. But it's a business that clearly was dilutive of the margin of HPS, not as a margin percentage, but in terms of year-over-year, it clearly went in the negative direction versus the positive direction for other businesses like mobility or construction chemical. So that's Adfors last year. This year, we expect that to stabilize and progressively to recover.
When I see good news in Poland and Eastern Europe, that will progressively help Adfors to recover. Plus, we develop Adfors on many new innovative applications. You know, we have a fantastic external plasterboard. We call it Glasroc. It was up 30% last year versus 2022. It's 100% made with Adfors grid reinforcement, and it's a fantastic application for external facades. So there are many innovative parts also, where Adfors plays a very important role, plus geographic development. We are accelerating with Adfors in India, for instance, and and also in North America. A question from Cedar from Morgan Stanley. Go ahead, Cedar. Are you there, Cedar, on the line? No.
There was a question from Lansdowne Partners: Could you give us some color on the trends in gross margin by division, as well as what's your best guess for 2024? You know, the, the gross margin, they follow more or less, the operating profit margin. Of course, they benefit when there is, you know, drop in terms of raw materials, in terms of energy. We have also a lot of actions with our purchasing people, so overall, gross margin follow. I can tell you part of the nice improvement on the construction chemicals, the 100 basis point improvement was all the synergies on integrated supply chain, on global scale purchasing. So very often, part of our synergies, they are related to purchasing, and therefore they help the gross margin. That's what we did for Kaycan in, North America with PVC.
A huge saving on PVC purchasing, leveraging all the size of Saint-Gobain. We'll do the same on roofing Canada versus U.S. It's part also of our AUD 10 million synergy in CSR. So gross margin, it's a, there is a lot of purchasing actions on top of the pricing discipline. There was a question from Deutsche Bank, Schreder: Expressed in net debt to EBITDA terms... What are the tipping points on your credit rating? How much more leverage could you take on without any impact?
We have a strong balance sheet. We will continue to stick to this 1.5-2 times the EBITDA, that leverage that we have indicated. Again, we will remain extremely disciplined on using the cash.
There was a question of Keycan integration from HSBC: Could you, what has been the EBITDA margin of 2023? I think I gave it, CAD 101 million. So I think you have it. So it's, nicely ahead of, of the plan. And again, a lot of purchasing synergies behind it on, on PVC. I think I've exhausted most of the questions. Maybe, Sreedhar, if you are back on the line? Or if you want to shoot the question on email, I can take it. If there is no more question in the room, I think we'll conclude there. Again, I'm very happy about, and very proud of what the teams of Saint-Gobain have executed, strongly in 2023.
That, another proof of how structurally Saint-Gobain has been transformed, consistent execution, delivering on the double-digit margin, and the fact that, again, we have this confidence at the beginning of the year in a not so easy year to give you, a good guidance on the margin. I think the real reflection on how Saint-Gobain has changed and more to come because we have plenty of ideas to grow Saint-Gobain, to accelerate the value creation for our shareholders. But clearly, a good year, a very good year in 2023, and I'm confident with all the teams of Saint-Gobain that we'll drive another year of success in 2024. Thank you very much. Have a good day and, see you next time.