Good day, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Vallourec Q4 FY year 2022 results conference. My name is George. I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Please note, this conference is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be in listen-only mode. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to ask your question. If you require any operator assistance at any point, please press star zero, and you will be connected to an operator. The conference will be chaired by Mr. Philippe Guillemot, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Sascha Bibert, Chief Financial Officer. I'll now turn the call over to Mr. Karim Safsaf, Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us this morning for Vallourec Q4 and full year 2022 result presentation. I'm Karim Safsaf, Investor Relations Officer. Joining me today to comment on these results, we have Philippe Guillemot, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vallourec, and Sascha Bibert, Chief Financial Officer. This conference will be recorded. The replay will be available. It is also on audio webcast on our investor relations website. The presentation slides are available for download. Before I hand over to Philippe Guillemot, I want to add that today conference call contains forward-looking statements. Future results may differ materially from statements or projections made on today call. This presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. Now I would like to give the floor to Philippe Guillemot.
Thank you, Karim. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us for this update on Vallourec's fourth quarter and full year 2022 results. I am Philippe Guillemot, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. I'm joined today by Sascha Bibert, Chief Financial Officer, and Karim Safsaf, Investor Relations Officer. Before proceeding, let me draw your attention to slide 2, where you can consult our safe harbor statements. Today's agenda on slide 3. I will start by giving you an overview of the highlights of the fourth quarter and the full year, followed by an update on the execution of our New Vallourec plan, the world and market environment, business development. Sacha will then take you through our Q4 numbers under our new segmentation, I will wrap up with the outlook for 2023. First, let's look at the highlights of the past year on slide 4.
Our Q4 EBITDA stood at EUR 312 million, up 129% year-on-year, and by 58% quarter-on-quarter. This contributed to EBITDA for the full year of EUR 750 million, comfortably within our objective of EUR 650 million-EUR 750 million. Free cash flow generation in the fourth quarter was strong at EUR 266 million, which enable us to reach our target of being free cash flow positive for the second half at EUR 185 million. It also contributed to net debt reduction of EUR 366 million, leaving us with net debt at year-end down to EUR 1,130 million. Net debt peaked at the end of September 2022 due to prior investment in working capital before declining substantially in the fourth quarter.
We expect this trajectory to continue into 2023. Our performance was supported by the positive worldwide tube business environment with particular strength in the U.S. Iron Ore mine production of 1.4 million tons in Q4 was slightly above our prior estimate, with positive steps achieved towards the full restart of the mine expected at the beginning of Q2 2023. On the commercial front, we are fully leveraging the positive market conditions of the global tubes sector, thanks to our unparalleled technological expertise and customer service. We have secured several important commercial wins this year, most recently with Petrobras and Air Liquide, showcasing the excellence of our innovative solutions. All this gives us confidence that we will be able to deliver another improvement in 2023 with an increase in EBITDA, positive free cash flow generation, and further net debt reduction.
Our New Vallourec plan is fully on track to generate EUR 230 million recurring EBITDA uplift with a full effect starting in Q2 2024. The plan is well advanced and is being implemented worldwide with new initiatives starting in Brazil. Let's turn to slide six. By way of reminder, the New Vallourec plan was announced in May 2022. It aims to generate EUR 230 million run rate EBITDA improvement and EUR 20 million CapEx reduction with a full impact starting Q2 2024. The plan is based on the Value over Volume strategy, incorporating portfolio rationalization to drive profitable growth. Through the plan, Vallourec targets best in class profitability levels, closing the margin gap with peers over the cycle.
The New Vallourec plan aims at making the group cycle proof, able to generate positive free cash flow before change in working capital, even at the bottom of the cycle. Switching to slide 7. 2022 was a significant year in the rollout of the New Vallourec plan, which as a reminder, includes the transfer of the OCTG German volumes to Brazil by the end of 2023. In 2022, all the European social plans agreements in connection with the transfer were finalized, substantially de-risking the New Vallourec plan and allowing our teams to focus on its execution. 2023 will be a pivotal year of the plan with the closure of our German plants and the full transfer of the oil and gas volume to Brazil, enabling the group to achieve its target industrial footprint for 2024.
The process of disposing of German land is well underway. We have signed a contract to sell our Mülheim site for EUR 40 million. The sale process for our much larger site in Düsseldorf, Rath, is ongoing. Let's turn to slide 9. The tubes business environment remains very well oriented, both in terms of volume and prices. As you can see from the chart on the left, the recount evolution in both the U.S., and the Middle East is evolving positively with a net upward trend in the Middle East. On the right-hand side, you can see that OCTG prices in both markets remain robust. Switching to slide 10. Looking at Vallourec's own performance in this business environment, our tubes EBITDA per ton has risen every quarter in 2022, reaching EUR 554 per ton in Q4.
This reflects notably the success of the new pricing policy implemented since Q2 2022, with focus on Value over Volume. We have recently secured several profitable new business wins. A 3-year long-term agreement with Petrobras for the supply of 110,000 tons of OCTG premium products, associated accessories and specialized physical and digital services, including 16-inch and 18-inch seamless pipes, which will be produced in Brazil starting in 2024. Significant orders from APA Exploration Offshore for its technically challenging Salamanca deep water development in the Gulf of Mexico for the supply of 20,000 tons of line pipe. A third major order within the 2021 10-year frame agreement with ExxonMobil Guyana for the supply of 35,000 tons of line pipe, including 2,000 tons of our state-of-the-art X80 steel grade, a technological breakthrough for deeper water development.
Turning to what we now call our Mine & Forest segment on slide 11. Iron ore production stood at 1.4 million tons in Q4 2022, slightly above the estimated volume announced at our Q3 results. The civil works related to restoration of core Caiuá waste pile has been finalized in October. The solidity of the reinforced structure is confirmed during the rainy season. We have registered the request to release the pile and are expecting a positive outcome beginning of Q2 2023. Post-approval, we assume the restoration of full production with 80% capacity utilization in the first months, ramping up to 100% thereafter. In the meantime, alternative waste pipes have been secured to ensure production continuity in Q1 with an estimated volume of 1.5 million tons. I hand over to Sascha, who will comment our Q4 2022 results.
Thank you, Philippe. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for participating. Starting with page 13. Today, we report strong numbers, and we intend to continue on that path going forward. For Q4 2022, group revenues are up 45% year-over-year, and EBITDA increased by 129%. Quarter-over-quarter, EBITDA is up 58%. Free cashflow was very strong, contributing to a net debt decrease of EUR 363 million. Page 14. Showcasing our new segmentation for the first time. From now on, we split the group into tubes and Mine & Forest, as well as the small holding and consolidation segment. Starting with tubes. Production was almost flat. Revenues are up strongly, and therefore, the average selling price increased by 47%. This is Value over Volume at work.
By far, the strongest increase came from the U.S., and from the oil and gas business. Page 15. The strong pricing environment also led to a significant increase in the EBITDA, as well as a more than doubling of the EBITDA margin to 19.4%. In Q3, this margin has been 14%. The EBITDA per ton stands at EUR 554, up from EUR 363 in Q3. Page 16. The iron ore mine produced 13% less in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago, surely below its potential of around 2.2 million tons per quarter on average. The revenues declined less pronounced, as in Q4 2021, the quality of the iron ore mined was poorer, leading to a higher discount to the market price.
In that sense, Q4 2021 was an unusual quarter, and in all other quarters of 2022, the year-over-year revenue decline is significantly higher. In spite of similar revenues, the EBITDA declined significantly, as we currently have higher costs, both driven by general cost inflation, but also by temporarily higher transport costs for the externalization of the waste during the operation with the alternative waste pile. We can furthermore take note that as of today, the iron ore price is standing around $124 a ton, improved from the lows we have seen last November. Please generally keep in mind that the segment is called Mine & Forest. The main effect from the forests in the P&L comes from the revaluation effects and their subsequent amortization. In total, those added EUR 23 million positive in fiscal year 2022.
Page 17, going back to the group level. Starting with the right-hand side, revenues increased predominantly driven by increased prices, but also supported by FX. The same is true for EBITDA, where higher tube prices offset higher costs, as well as the reduction in Mine & Forest EBITDA. Other, of EUR 65 million, includes, for example, provisions, lower accessory sales following a strong performance in 2021, and lower pellet sales. Within EBITDA, SG&A increased slightly on an absolute perspective, but continues the positive trend to decline as a percentage of revenues, now at 5.8%. While interest expense was almost flat, overall financial income declined due to higher FX losses and a provision we have taken for an equity consolidated company which is being restructured. The latter you would not expect to reoccur. Nevertheless, net income turned positive at EUR 78 million. Page 18.
The big positive was the Q4 free cash flow. We guided for a minimum EUR 80 million in order to compensate for the negative free cash flow in the third quarter, to then have a positive second half. Actually, we generated EUR 266 million in spite of restructuring/other cash outflows of EUR 62 million and higher than normal CapEx. This positive performance came from a higher cash effective EBITDA and the reduction of working capital after the significant working capital investments we had made over the course of the first three quarters of this year. For the full year 2022, free cash flow is minus EUR 216 million. Please acknowledge that this minus EUR 216 million includes EUR 144 million of restructuring cash out and EUR 355 million of working capital base.
Philippe will comment on our expectations for 2023 in a minute. Page 19. Net debt declined, driven by the aforementioned free cashflow, but also by additional items. Those additional items include non-cash items totaling EUR 45 million, such as accrued interest and FX, but also other cash elements totaling EUR 53 million, including disposals which offset financial lease payments. Liquidity stands at EUR 1.2 billion and no maturities are upcoming. Philippe?
Thank you, Sacha. Let's look at slide 21 to discuss our outlook for 2023. Based on our market assumptions as well as our progress throughout 2022, we are confident that 2023 will see a further significant enhancement in our financial results with notably an improvement in EBITDA, which will be driven by both our tube business and Mine & Forest business. After our positive free cash flow generation in H2 2022, our ambition is to be also free cash flow positive for the full year of 2023. This is despite CapEx of around EUR 220 million and the expected one time new value at risk return cash outflows of about EUR 250 million. We expect further net debt reduction in 2023. Before concluding, a couple of updates on investor outreach.
We are reinforcing our investor relations team with the appointment of a new Head of Investor Relations, Connor Lynagh, based in the U.S. Connor brings 10 years experience at Morgan Stanley as lead analyst for the oil services and refining sectors. We will hold a capital market day in London on September 12th. I invite you to mark your calendars accordingly and look forward to seeing you there. A few words to conclude on slide 23. We delivered a strong performance in 2022, with all financial objectives attained, notably a marked uplift in profitability, positive free cash flow and net debt reduction in the second half. Our new value add plan is on track to generate EUR 230 million recurring EBITDA uplift with full effect starting Q2 2024, with new initiatives added.
Profitability is increasing in the tubes business, supported by the successful implementation of our Value over Volume pricing policy in a supportive business environment. Our outlook is positive for 2023, where we expect to deliver another improvement in EBITDA to generate positive free cash flow all year and a further reduction in net debt. Thank you for your attention. Now Sacha and I are ready to take your questions.
Thank you very much, Mr. Guillemot. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you'd like to ask any questions, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please also ensure your mute function is not activated until I signal to reach your equipment. The first question today is going to come from Mr. James Winchester calling from Bank of America. Please go ahead, sir.
Morning, thank you. I have two, if that's okay. Firstly, could you provide some color on the international oil and gas market? Kind of specifically, what level of demand are you seeing? Do you see enough in the supply side to respond to this? I guess the follow-up is how is that driving pricing across your portfolio? Kind of on that note, the contracts you are signing today, if you were to assume kind of a normalized input cost, would they be margin accretive to today's kind of 19% tube margin? I'll follow up on the second one. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, James. Well, first, we are very confident in the demand for our products worldwide. There is, as you see, there is a level of rig count in the U.S., which seems to stabilize around 750. Our view is that this will remain the case for quite some time, which obviously drives demand up. As you know, there is a deficit of domestic capacity in the U.S., and this will remain the case for the year. This obviously give us the opportunity to set certain prices at higher levels than obviously they were 2 years ago. As far as the Middle East is concerned, there is an increase in demand which is confirmed month after month.
Again, there is a deficit of supply versus demand, which give us more pricing power, which translates into the contracts we are signing month after month with expected improved margin that will flow in the P&L in the next quarters.
Okay. That's very clear. My second one is you provided an EBITDA per ton figure for the tubes business. I was wondering if you could provide some color on the regional split here. Thank you.
I will hand over to Sascha.
Morning, James. Thank you. Thank you for the question. I will not break that EBITDA per ton into the regions. Let's just remind ourselves of a few obvious statements. Germany is loss-making, so if we calculate an EBITDA per ton, it doesn't start with a positive sign. Obviously, that is something that will fall away post 2023. Second obvious thing is that the margin on the EBITDA per ton in the U.S., is higher than in any other region by a good margin.
That number has a high share of U.S. As we go into 2023, and that was, I think, related to your other question, assuming that the U.S. stays strong, we also expect improvements due to pricing to a certain extent, also due to cost elements in other regions going forward.
Very clear. Thank you guys. Thank you much, sir. Today's next question is coming from Kevin Roger, calling from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, gents. Thanks for taking the questions. The first one, sorry for that. I know maybe you will not provide a bit more information, but looking at the EBITDA guidance, you are telling us that the EBITDA will improve in 2023 versus 2022. This is already embarked by the consensus with something like EUR 1 billion expected. Can you provide us a bit more color on the short term? What are the key drivers and notably for Q1 and Q2? Would you say that we'll probably stay at the same level that we had in Q4, EUR 300+, or there are some negative to expect in Q1, Q2? That would be the first question. The second question is on the disposal in Germany.
Good news to see that you have made the first disposal with Mülheim, EUR 40 million. Could you just quantify to us the size of Düsseldorf versus Mülheim? I know you will not want to give us the value, but just the size of the land, Düsseldorf versus Mülheim, please. The third one, when we discussed about the moving path for 2023, you were often underlying that the German assets will generate higher loss in 2023 versus 2022, notably because of the gas price. With the recent fall of the gas price, did you change a bit your expectation for the losses on Germany, meaning that you will see lower losses than expected? Thanks a lot.
Okay. I will answer your question on the disposal. Well, first, the numbers are in the presentation on page 7. As far as the size of the land we are selling, you can see that Düsseldorf Rath is at 895,000 square meters, when Mülheim is at 350,000 square meters. We are talking about for us a property which is almost 3 times the size of Mülheim. Okay. Obviously you have to take into account that we are in a different city, different location. Obviously, size matters, but location matters too in real estate, as you can easily understand. As far as our losses in Germany, yes, definitely they will be higher than they were in 2022. Is the gas price decreasing a good news?
Yes, definitely, but premature to quantify. As you know, we edge. Obviously our costs are not reacting, you know, day 1 to any fluctuation of gas, okay, gas price. I hand over to Sascha for your first question on what obviously we can expect for 2023 as far as EBITDA is concerned and how it will be quarter after quarter.
Thank you, Philippe. Good morning, Kevin. Just adding one sentence to Germany. As Philippe just said, the energy development is helpful as far as we have open positions left. Also, let's not forget that another key driver of the year-over-year reduction in the expected operating profit in 2023 also has to do with the development of margin versus fixed costs. i.e., in 2023, we're ramping down production. We will lose the gross margin faster than we can get rid of the fixed costs. There's a certain effect from there as well, independent of energy. When it comes to the 2023 outlook, I will not turn a qualitative statement now into a quantitative statement.
When it comes to the beginning of the year, Q1 and Q2, you can generally expect that we carry the positive momentum that we have in the business and that you have seen in Q4 also into the first half of the year. There is no reason for that to be fundamentally different. With that said, traditionally, simply in terms of booking and invoicing, Q1 is usually not the strongest quarter. On the revenue side, you may want to be somewhat cautious. Again, underlying and margin wise, I think we can keep our optimism. That is all true for the P&L. When it comes to the cash flow statement, please just remember that the restructured cash outs will not be equally distributed throughout the years and throughout the quarters.
You probably have, relatively speaking, a lower free cash flow in one Q and four Q, and a relatively stronger second and third quarter.
Okay. Very clear. Thanks a lot for that. Have a good day.
Thank you much, sir. Next question is coming from Mr. Guillaume Delaby, calling from Société Générale. Please go ahead, sir.
Yes. Good morning. Two questions if I may. A quick one for Sascha and not that quick for Philippe. Question for Sascha. Could you maybe give us a little bit of color regarding potential working capital dynamics in 2023? The question for Philippe is that you have been basically at the office for now nearly 1 year. Could you maybe qualitatively comment about what has been your key surprises or key good news and today, are there some, I would say specific issues which I would say could prevent you from sleeping? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you for your question. Yeah, you're right. I've been here almost one year into the job. A very, very busy year. No, my, I would say a very positive surprise is how fast the whole organization in Vallourec has reacted to the many changes and decisions I've made since I joined. I think it's very impressive to see how fast people in Vallourec can turn an objective into an action plan. This really translates into the number we are communicating today. As you know, it's not my first turnaround. I have already seven behind me, but this one is definitely the fastest I've been able to manage.
What keeps me at night, you know, there are many things, given the magnitude of the transformation we are doing at Vallourec. Every day there are many things that can go wrong and not happen as expected. What matters is all the management routines we are putting in place. What, obviously, I pay careful attention to is to make sure that we have proper management routines to quickly identify when there is any deviation in order to react fast. The routines today, the clock at which I'm beating, I think the Vallourec clock, is on a weekly basis. Every week I have an update with my ComEx on all the work stream we are implementing to make Vallourec what we want Vallourec to be in 2024.
Bonjour, Guillaume. I take over for working capital. It's a short question. It's not the easiest one. Next time give me a different one. In 2022 we have had a build up of working capital for the full year of EUR 355 million. That was basically in anticipation of a new and much better operational development. I find it unlikely that this will reoccur in 2023. I would not expect a significant build up of working capital, certainly not of that magnitude. That said, if consensus is right, and the operational development will stay positive, on the other side we should also not expect a major release.
I think in the end, what we will see at the end of the year is the interplay between our optimization initiatives and Philippe really put a different focus on cash flow. There are various initiatives throughout the group to improve our working capital, including terms and conditions. That should help. Against that, we will have some outages in various regions that we have to manage also with temporarily higher inventory build up. We certainly have good business initiatives, for example, in the Middle East, that will also require some working capital. I think there are positives and negatives, but I don't think on either side it will be to the magnitude as we have seen in 2022.
If I can risk myself, to ask a question, and if you can risk yourself by providing me an answer, is something between EUR 100 million-EUR 200 million additional working capital, could be something reasonable?
I think with that you may turn out to be on the quite conservative side.
Okay. Okay. I turn to there. Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you have any questions or follow-up questions, please press star one on your telephone keypad at this time. We'll now take question from Monsieur Jean-Luc Romain calling from CIC Market Solutions. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. My question relates to the transfer of production from Germany to Brazil. How much of this production do you expect to transfer already in 2023? What will be the total transfer in 2024?
Yeah. Yeah, we are, we are transferring, 140 kiloton that used to be produced in Germany to Brazil, which represent 150 SKUs. Two-third of these SKUs were already produced both in Germany and Brazil. For this there is no specific challenge. But one third, roughly 50 SKUs, were only produced so far in Germany. All the CapEx plan we have, started last year and implement this year is to make sure Brazil will be able to produce these SKUs that were only produced in Germany, starting with the large OD, carbon pipe, I mentioned earlier in my speech.
As there is a rundown in Germany, there is a ramp up in Brazil, and all the tubes that Brazil was already able to produce, obviously will now be channeled to Brazil. Any new order we are taking now is channeled to Brazil. The few SKUs that only Germany was able to do, this will start to be produced in Brazil next year.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Monsieur. We'll now move to Daniel Thomson calling from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen. Just 1 question around your expectations for the U.S., market. You know, you've laid out your expectations for the U.S., rig count, but can you comment on, you know, what you're seeing in terms of imports, which have been elevated in recent months, and on the potential for seamless production to increase further in that market? You know, is hiring becoming less of a bottleneck in the plants in the U.S? Thanks.
For the U.S. market, as you pinpointed, there was a surge of imports end of last year. We expect this to normalize and has started to normalize by the way, the difficulty of connecting capacity is remains. It's true that the labor market is tense, it's not that easy to ramp up capacity. We are going to improve production, not capacity, but production of our existing asset this year. At least we are ready to do it. Again, the visibility we have, as you can imagine, in this market is not very long. We have a sense of what Q1 and Q2 are going to be. What about H2? Nobody knows.
Our assumption, based on the discussion I have with my customers in the U.S., is that there will be a strong demand in H2, mirroring the fact that oil price will remain sustained by the fact that China economy is back at full speed. You've seen yesterday the latest numbers, which seems to indicate that it's really happening.
Thank you. In fact, one quick follow-up on that. You know, obviously we've seen U.S., OCTG pricing coming off. I wondered if you thought that that was a result of, you know, maybe the surge in imports, and sort of a temporary thing, especially given your comments on going into the second half. Do you think that's temporary in the U.S., pricing, or is that something that's you expect to continue?
Yeah. Price logic mirrors the spot market. It's clear that with the surge of imports end of last year, distributors have built inventory. As you know, their fiscal year ends end of March, they are right now entering, obviously, in a tight rope management of their inventory to learn as best as possible. The demand is still there, and at some point, as I said, all these flows will normalize. This hopefully will help us maintain prices at good levels. That's what we see through the discussion we have. As you know, we sell on program and not on spot prices. We are not exactly mirroring the spot prices in our pricing policy.
Okay. Thanks for the color.
Thank you, Monsieur. We'll now go to Kevin Roger from Kepler Cheuvreux with a follow-up question. Please go ahead. Monsieur Roger, your line is open, sir. Monsieur Roger, could you just please check that your line is not muted?
Yes.
Hey, Monsieur Roger, what I'm going to do is I'm going to remove you from the queue, but should you wish to ask a question, do press star 1 again. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any follow-up questions or if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1. We'll now go to Monsieur Baptiste Lebacq calling from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead, sir. Monsieur Lebacq, your line is open, sir. Please ask your question. Monsieur Lebacq, do you want to ask your question?
Yeah, hello?
Yes, sir. Your line is open now. Please ask your question, sir.
Thank you. Sorry. 2 question from my side. The first one is dedicated to Brazil and increased capacity. Do you see some maybe bottlenecks in some specific key competencies to hire people in Brazil? The second one is more general, but I will try. Do you think that you could be positive impacted by the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S? Thanks for your comments.
On Brazil, let's be clear, we have no problem to recruit talented people. By the way, there are many talented people in Brazil. You know, they have a very good education system. On top we have expert from Germany, who are going to be on short missions to transfer the know-how we have today in Germany to the Brazilian team. That's how we manage this business transfer of know-how. As far as IRA in the U.S., it's positive for us. It's positive on the non-fossil energy project we're working on. Starting with CCUS carbon capture project are definitely boosted, and we see a few large oil company very very now increasing the speed with which they are launching a new CCUS project.
Definitely for us it's a positive news, as this project require high-tech seamless tubes which we can provide.
Does that answer your question, Mr. Lebacq? Yeah. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, what we're going to do at this stage is we are gonna try taking the question from Mr. Kevin Roger. Mr. Roger, I'm opening your line up now. Please go ahead.
yes. Can you hear me?
Yes, sir.
Yes. Okay. Sorry. It seems that there was a technical issue. I will try a tricky one. Sorry for that one. You have hired Connor as Head of Investor Relations in the U.S. Welcome to him. I think this is the first time that you will have someone based in the U.S. You know that there are a lot of speculation about the future of Vallourec.
Sorry, we have been cut.
No. Operator, can you hear us? Yes. Sir, your line is open. Mr. Roger, your line is open. Could you please ask your question again, sir?
I think we can anticipate the question.
Mr. Roger, could you please ask your question again? I think you've dialed in with the two lines. Can you just make sure that your phones are correctly open? Okay, gentlemen, I just don't know. The line from Mr. Roger is open my side.
Okay. Well, I think I have a sense of what was the question, and if I summarize it's whether I have any intent to move the headquarters out of France. Let's be clear, since the beginning, since I joined, I have recruited people, and as you have seen, I've recruited people from different background, different nationalities, Italian, Swedish, German, today, Connor, U.S. What matters for me is to have the most talented team surrounding me.
Well, it happened that Connor, he is a U.S. citizen, will likely continue to live in the U.S. even though he will travel all over the group to obviously, be fully literate on what is Vallourec, what is our, yeah, massive transformation plan and how it obviously translate into the numbers, we are sharing today with you today, and we will share in the future. That's how you should read it. As far as headquarter is concerned, let's be clear, I have managed multinational company myself for the last 25 years, and I can tell you it's a lot easier to manage companies who are on all geographies from east to west, from Paris, than it is from other geographies in the world.
Last and not least, as you have seen, I have implemented a much linear organization, organized around three regions, the U.S., Brazil, and what's so-called Eastern Hemisphere. I've removed three layers of management to do so. As you can see through the numbers, these organizations has proven to be very, very efficient, driven from the headquarter, which is a linear headquarter in Paris. For the time being, there is no reason to change a recipe that works.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, again, if you wish to ask a question or have follow-up question, please press star one. We'll now take follow-up questions from Monsieur Jean-Luc Romain from CIC Market Solutions. Please go ahead, sir.
You just mentioned very high-end tubes for carbon capture, which is understandable due to the CO2 streams. How would the average selling price of those products compare with your average selling price of last year? Would it be higher end than your average selling price?
No, it obviously depends on the grade and the kind of tube we are using. Yeah, they are more or less at the price we have when they are used on other applications. I think there is no reason, the mix is richer. Let's be clear, the mix is richer. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. Okay. We appear to have no further questions. I turn the call back over to Monsieur Guillemot for any additional closing remarks. Thank you.
Okay. Again, thank you very much for attending this call. As you understand, Q4 was a turning point of the turnaround of Vallourec, and more to come. We are obviously committed to our to deliver our objective, one of them being to be net debt zero by 25. As you can see, we have started on this trajectory in Q4, and we'll continue to do so in 2023. On top, obviously, we will continue to close the gap with our peers as far as the profitability of the tube business is concerned, which is, and remain, obviously, the lion's share of our revenue. Thank you very much. Obviously, pencil in your agenda, the capital market day that will take place on September twelfth. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect.