Good morning to all of you. Welcome to our call on the acquisition of Blue Star Power Systems. We are all delighted that you have accepted our invitation at such short notice. During this call, our CEO, Sebastian Schulte, will give you an overview of Blue Star Power Systems and explain the rationale behind this acquisition and how it contributes to our DualPlus strategy. Afterwards, Sebastian and our CFO, Timo Krutoff, will be happy to answer any questions you may have. We are aware of your interest in our defense strategy. News have spread, and Sebastian Schulte will therefore give you first insights in what we plan. Our main topic today is energy. Thank you for your understanding. Finally, please note that management comments during this call will include forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties.
For the discussion of risk factors, I encourage you to review the disclaimer contained in our presentation. I would now like to hand over to Sebastian Schulte. Sebastian, please.
Thank you very much, Mark, and good morning, everyone, for this call on our very recent acquisition of Blue Star, as indicated by Mark. Yeah, very happy to guide you through, and I'll ask the team to go present here. Go to the first page of the presentation, please. Yeah, as we said and as we announced in our ad hoc disclosure last afternoon, as well as the press release last afternoon, we are pleased to announce the signing of the share purchase agreement of DEUTZ, to be more precise, DEUTZ Corporation, our US-American large subsidiary, to acquire 100% of the shares of Blue Star Power Systems. What is Blue Star? Blue Star is a North American manufacturer of gensets, so devices, little plants, including an engine, but in the end, producing electricity, producing electrical energy. The company so far has been privately owned and run. It's based in North Mankato, Minnesota.
It's about 90 minutes' drive from Minneapolis, which is a bit of a cluster for a lot of successful power generation companies in the U.S. The company has been founded in 2004 and has shown since then a very, very good development, both in terms of top line and bottom line. We will talk about that later. What's the focus of our call today? First of all, we want to tell you our perspective on the market for decentralized energy supply. In other words, why is this an interesting and attractive market for us and for other players as well? We want to give a bit more introduction of Blue Star Power Systems, the target of our acquisition.
Of course, and that's certainly most important, we want to explain to you the strategic rationale why DEUTZ is pursuing this acquisition and also what are the implications in the short, mid, and long term for DEUTZ. Let me start with a perspective on the market. We now start here really with the global perspective. I think what wouldn't surprise anyone is that the global energy supply over the next decade is strongly expected to increase. In fact, it's expected to more than double from 2030 to 2050. It's also not a surprise that the share of renewable energies is expected to grow at an even faster pace, whereas the share of conventional energies is obviously due to climate change activities and is obviously expected to decline over that time.
The issue is that in many, many countries, the grids are not expanding at the same pace like the global energy supply. In particular, there is a mismatch between the demand and the grid capacity. This mismatch is not only relevant for developing countries, which you would expect, but increasingly also relevant for highly developed countries, particularly the United States of America. As a solution and also as an opportunity for us, there is a demand for more decentralized energy supply and microgrids. The microgrids and gensets play a major role to help really make renewable energy suitable for widespread use. Because one of the challenges of renewable energies, think about photovoltaic, for example, is that there is not necessarily a steady supply of the energy source like the sun or the wind.
In order to make a microgrid functioning sustainably at dark or when there is no wind, there is always the necessity for a backup power system. That is typically been provided by a power genset. We will talk about the role of different technologies later within this presentation. If we move on one further, looking at the market for gensets in North America. Now actually moving from the global energy market to the local market for gensets in North America. That is currently 2023, 2024, it is roughly a $10 billion market, having grown 7% per annum since 2019 and is expected to grow further in the next five years. Beyond that, the growth is expected to continue at that pace or even higher. The strongest part or the strongest subset of that market is derived, is coming from data centers.
If you look at one particular category, but also the already mentioned microgrids and rental equipment, play currently a major role and will continue to play a major role. There is this widespread category others, which include single-family homes, gas supply, agriculture, and also production. There are several drivers for growth in this attractive market in North America, and we expect this to continue. The drivers for this growth are manifold. First of all, we have unfortunately suffering increasingly from extreme weather events, whether it is thunderstorms or other extreme weather events. These weather events lead to longer power outages and form then a requirement for independent energy solutions, even for areas which are in principle not directly affected by those weather events. That is what we call your non-critical areas. That is one of the drivers.
As a consequence, the other already mentioned driver is the insufficient infrastructure. We have, in many countries, as I said, but even particularly in the United States, outdated power grids and the increasing demand leading to capacity overloads. On top of that, cybercrime and hybrid warfare may also be threatening the stability of supplies. Let's talk about renewable energies in a moment. There is an increasing demand for renewable energies. That's also obviously driven by the requirements of society. This demand leads in the end to the volatility in the power grid, higher demand for hybrid solutions and decentralized energy systems, where again, the microgrids as a connection of different technologies come into play.
Relocation of production to the USA, that's a U.S.-specific topic, is a trend which is happening certainly since the first Trump administration, but it's continuing also in the current administration in the U.S. That's why we expect this to continue in the U.S., regardless which party and which candidate will win the election later this year. This relocation is in the end a result of several government subsidies, particularly in the high-tech sector, as we mentioned, battery production, semiconductors. For those sectors, the requirement, the necessity for backup gensets for business-critical tasks is another growth driver for decentralized electricity supply. Connected to that, investments, including public investments in digital infrastructure. Think about data centers. Again, they lead to higher demand for backup solutions, including also the various laws in the U.S. pushing really the investment in airports, water infrastructure, and transit.
Let's move to Blue Star in particular. Blue Star in particular is one of the top 10 genset producers in the North American market. What are they producing? Producing and obviously selling diesel and gas-powered gensets with a capacity from 20 to 2,000 kilowatts. Currently, the company is employing a bit more than 100 employees, and we expect the revenue in 2024 of above $100 million. Revenue distribution last year, you see that here on that chart, predominantly in the United States, 85%, but also serving the Canadian market with 15%. The distribution is happening mainly via distributors, almost 90%, and then the remaining 10% being sold via direct customers. There is growth potential also in direct sales in principle. So far, the company has enjoyed their fantastic growth path with a very, very well-functioning and performant distribution network.
We look at what are the product categories that Blue Star Power Systems is serving. A major part comes from gensets using diesel engines, 70%, gensets using gas engines, 19%, and also components, including transfer switches and a little part of transportation. It is mainly enjoying the growth and the business perspectives here from gensets, diesel, and gas. If you look at the products, the 70% I just mentioned, diesel gensets between 20 and 20 kW and 2 megawatts. It is a bit of a, let's say, Blue Star Power Systems is a player who works very, very close to the customer's requirements. No one-size-fits-all approach, and that's what the customer loves. They use engines from several players: Perkins, Volvo Penta, John Deere, and Mitsubishi, to mention some names. These engines or these gensets follow EPA standards for housing, fuel tanks, and other accessories are available.
If you look at gas engines from 20 kilowatts to 1.2 megawatts, here ranging applications from basic power supply also to the emergency power supply. The main focus is really, that's a statement for both categories, diesel and gas, is the emergency power supply. Here gas engines from GM and Power Solutions International are used, again, EPA standards being fulfilled. Transfer switches, a bit of a niche product, but with additional potential to grow. Schneider Electric, ASCO Power Technologies using here or entering here for versatile applications, including healthcare and data centers. It is also going forward for digitization of the business model, including the possibility of monitoring and controlling the generator output. Then a minor part of the revenue share components. One statement in general I think is important. If you stop, please, on the previous page for a second. One statement is important.
You see here the engines being used currently do not include DEUTZ engines. That is a potential for the future. It is a potential to develop potentially new product lines, including DEUTZ engines. We do not go into that business to substitute the existing engines from Volvo, Perkins, and so on with DEUTZ engines in order to increase the DEUTZ engine output. This is for us a potential, but we want to continue with Blue Star to provide products according to the customer's requirements. Obviously, that may include DEUTZ engines, may also continue with the existing well-functioning and well-accepted products. Now we can move on, please. Looking at the growth trajectory, the growth path of the past years and also the expectations for the future. The company has grown well, well above market growth, the 15% above global market growth, but also above the North American market growth.
Since 2019, revenue almost doubled. Even the down margin increased significantly, also due to economies of scale. A key driver for this strong growth in recent years has been that Blue Star has entered into gensets for microgrids with one strong direct customer as a partner. That is a growth potential which we expect to boost the top line as well as the bottom line over the next three to four years in particular. There is also a shift in power classes. Blue Star has managed to increase their share in the larger power classes, larger, I mean, above 500 kilowatts, more significantly than growing in the smaller power classes, particularly with applications in airports, hospitals, production, and large industrial plants. That is the driver for the growth in the recent years. That is also expected to be the driver for the growth going forward.
Let's mention, talk about a few key parameters for our agreement. As said in the introduction, we are acquiring 100% of the shares. Signing of the transaction happened yesterday afternoon. We expect the closing of the transaction to happen in the second half of this year. What's hindering us from closing ASAP is the typical merger clearance approval. We do not expect any issues in that apart from obviously timing of the processing. We expect this to happen in the second half of this year. We have with the seller agreed not to disclose the terms and conditions of the acquisition, but we can and will say that the valuation here is within the usual market parameters in that business. We believe that's been a very fair transaction for both us as DEUTZ acquirer as well as the seller, the current owners. Why energy for DEUTZ?
Let me give a bit of a glance on that. First of all, it's an attractive market by itself. Growth potential is fantastic. It's much less cyclical than our current core markets, which, as you know, focusing on construction equipment, agricultural equipment, and so on. It's always good to be in a less cyclical business to stabilize the company, to make DEUTZ more resilient. We want to establish an energy business unit as a new field of application, as a new field with new business models. We want to base this also on existing business with gensets, which we do have, but on a very, very small scale. For example, our Moroccan entity called Magideutz, who is already active in that field, but on a much smaller scale than what we're doing now.
We are convinced that with the technology, with the service know-how we have as an engine maker, including, as I said, the very successful service business, particularly in the United States, DEUTZ has a right to win in this field. We will be able now to access the market from a position of strength to access the customers, as well as develop and implement new complementary business models through this acquisition of Blue Star Power Systems, including, and I will go on that topic in a couple of minutes, including obviously perspectively also using new technologies in the greener field. Why does it fit our current corporate strategy, our DualPlus strategy? It is actually a very, very nice fit to all of the three pillars or parts of the DualPlus strategy.
In a classic segment, it will further strengthen our brand by leveraging our existing competencies and expand our currently small but perspectively growing DEUTZ energy business in the next step, in the next years. Green, you will remember that already last year, we scored the first serial order, our genset for our 7.8-liter hydrogen engine, the pilot project in and from China. That is having now a power gen business by ourselves, so we can actually leverage the strength also with our hydrogen engine, a very successful pilot project. Let's not forget service, because the service for genset and integration, the genset business, where it makes sense into our existing service network, is a very, very strong fact as well in the U.S., but not only in the U.S. With the acquisition in Blue Star Power Systems, we gain here really in size and relevance in the energy field.
Important is when I said earlier that we are already today present in the genset business. That is true. With the exception of Magideutz, we are only present in the sort of first part of the value chain in a genset business as a manufacturer of the engine. If you look at the total value chain, it is much, much more complex from the manufacturer to the genset system builder, sales distribution via dealers or directly up to aftermarkets. We see that a few players like Mitsubishi, like Volvo, like DEUTZ are mainly active in the first part of the value chain. Others, particularly the ones who are doing a very, very successful job, Caterpillar, Cummins, MTU, are active in the first two, if not the first three parts of that value chain, not to forget about service and aftermarket as well.
We believe, and we looked at it very, very structuredly, in which part of the value chains do you have which value pools. It is very obvious when you look at that in detail that here the further you integrate forward into that value chain, the more successful you are. That is one of the reasons also why we are going further forward into that value chain from a position where we are currently operating rather opportunistically and on a small scale. The benefit of integrating that genset business is really, as I said before, the energy market is much more stable than the cyclical markets, which we are currently present in construction and agri. Due to that, just to explain higher vertical integration, we expect a strong margin uptake in that field. We see a lot of additional growth opportunities.
When I say additional growth opportunities, I'm saying that for a reason, because Blue Star Power Systems, as it stands right now, is a very successful entity, strong top line, strong growth potential, strong bottom line, and potential to grow this successful bottom line even as it is. Why is it good for DEUTZ, including those growth opportunities? It will further strengthen our already strong U.S business. DEUTZ U.S. has been fast growing over the recent years, particularly also by a very, very successful service and aftermarket push, but also by developing existing strong and successful customers. With Blue Star Power Systems here on top, we expect certain synergies, particularly in the sales and distribution field. We are also expecting synergies, access to customers we're currently serving as DEUTZ, but also customers that Blue Star Power Systems is currently serving and DEUTZ is not serving. Not to forget even, let's say, HR topics like talent.
DEUTZ is just becoming bigger in the U.S. than it is right now. We want to transfer this business and what we learn from this business and what we get from this business also to other regions, particularly in Asia and Africa, but potentially also in Europe, because what I just said earlier about the U.S. is applicable also to other parts of the world, obviously with different intensity of these different verticals. In principle, the energy market and the demand for decentralized power generation is a phenomenon which is not only relevant in the United States. We want to really use this acquisition and this new business unit energy also to leverage, to bring into the market our new technologies and business models, such as developing green gensets, using our hydrogen technology at Blue Star and beyond.
Also, system customers, with the use of bio and synthetic fuels, that's very, very attractive in the U.S., development of hybrid gensets also in combination with photovoltaic systems. It is also a field going forward, but very important, that's not the main sort of driver of the current business case. That is really on top potential, which we're excited to conquer and to implement. Additional growth, what could that be a bit more specifically than just said? Magideutz, I mentioned already today, small, rather isolated business, great product, but for the focus very much production in North Africa for the African markets and also for other, let's say, not overly developed markets. We will now be able to expand this business in the African and European fields larger. We believe also that there is possibility to scale our power gen business in Southeast Asia.
We do have several partnerships, existing partnerships in China, developing partnerships in India. There is room to improve. When we look at the technology and business model point of view, already mentioned the hydrogen genset based on the pilot projects in China and also have not mentioned that today in that call, smaller pilot projects in the U.S.A. and Canada. We can now bring that into the market with an own subsidiary here and developing new, particularly also hybrid solutions, solar battery solutions, and using also CO2-neutral fuel cells. Good. Let us move on. I mentioned earlier we want to grow this business also in the mid and long term. Today, our revenue related to energy is small. It is roughly EUR 30 million. That is the business in Morocco and our, let us say, opportunistic engine sales into power gen. That is a good starting point, but not more.
With the acquisition of Blue Star Power Systems, we're at, in the short term already, a top line number of more than $100 million and also EUR 100 million here immediately on top of that. We gave ourselves the ambition of scaling that energy business to EUR 500 million and beyond in the next decade. You know as well, we gave us ambitions in service business where we grew significantly already over the last two, three years, and we are wanting to target EUR 600 million next year. We figured out that our organization as many works very well when there are ambitious but yet realistic targets. That's where the EUR 500 million come from. We want to use, so to speak, three vectors to get that.
Obviously, first of all, organic growth, expand what we have already, expand the acquired platform, Blue Star Power Systems, and leverage synergies with our existing business. We want to also bring that green technology vector into top line, into market, expanding the existing technologies for renewable energies, again, the mentioned H2 genset. Of course, this acquisition of Blue Star Power Systems is sort of the first acquisition. We want to continue over the next years with a series of potentially mid-sized M&As where Blue Star is just only the starting point, but of course, a very, very good starting point and potentially also additional partnerships. Similar like service at DEUTZ, a buy-and-build strategy, which helps us to develop here a relevant, profitable energy business over the next years. 2030 seems far away, but it's actually not that far away. We are putting here the first important step in that.
Benefits for DEUTZ, trying to summarize the last 20 minutes or so. First of all, very important, we're becoming more resilient. The genset business is less cyclical than all our other markets. In addition, we're strengthening here further our geographical diversification, the focus of North America, and we are increasing our vertical integration software, securing a more stable business. We participate in profitable growth areas. Blue Star business, the existing Blue Star business is strongly benefiting from a sustainably stronger revenue and EBIT growth than the rest of our business. In this way, we're also increasing the value of DEUTZ as a whole. We're developing a portfolio that will continue to be relevant in the future and offers also opportunities for innovation. We can participate more directly in the growth of renewable energies, and we can scale our hydrogen business faster than we're currently able to do so.
We can also bring quickly hybrid systems and business models to success, whether we talk about the already mentioned genset in combination with solar PV systems for decentralized energy supply in developing countries, but also in Australia, where we're currently on a smaller scale, of course, following several opportunities. This is really summarizing the rationale why we are going to acquire Blue Star Power Systems. We're very happy with the process of that acquisition so far. It's been a fun process. It's been a process very professional, led by both sides of the negotiation table. The team at Blue Star Power Systems is super excited about that. They're, of course, super proud of what the company has achieved over the last 20 years.
They are also super proud that DEUTZ, which, and this is really something which I personally enjoy when speaking to managers, not only managers, like the workforce of Blue Star Power Systems, they really love the brand reputation of DEUTZ. They love the spirit we bring over there. It is a combination of they are proud of what they achieved so far, but also they are proud that a company like DEUTZ picked sort of them as their sort of platform and starting point for the energy business. It is really, really exciting, an exciting project for everyone involved. I will hold for a moment, but only for a short moment, because Mark said it in his initial comments. We also wanted to give a very, very short update on why we are also developing the area of defense as a potential further field to grow.
There was some very accurate press information earlier this week following an interview where we also mentioned defense as an attractive field to grow in the future. That is very true. Obviously, it is not as far advanced as our push into energy where we just announced a mid-sized acquisition. Let me give you a bit of the rationale why we are also wanting to push the defense business. First of all, I do not think I need to explain anyone in this round that the defense sector, given the changed geopolitical outlook globally, is now enjoying much, much different, much, much more attractive growth opportunities than it was the case before 2022. We do have a strong engine expertise. I think no one doubts that out there. We do have a strong engine brand. We also were in the defense market in the past.
I mean in the recent past, not in the past 100 years ago or 90 years ago. I mean really in the recent past, we just haven't really been tackling this market as structuredly as we should have done and as we certainly will do in the future. There are possibilities to partner up with others where required to gain scale and know how quickly. Similar, like what I just mentioned on energy, defense is relevant for growth in all our three strategic pillars, classic, service, green, but also now our growing energy business. Benefits for DEUTZ, we expect very clearly profitability, increased demand, high-quality requirements. That's something where we're extremely good at. We've got a very, very good product range, very powerful, very strong, very durable. Everything what is also very relevant in the defense business.
It would certainly strengthen our business with diesel engines and the whole question or the whole path of transformation towards e-mobility and hydrogen and sustainable fuels. Yes, that will also become relevant in the defense business. The focus, at least in the short to medium term, is certainly here also in leveraging existing strong technologies. Let's not forget the aftermarket potential. Similar, like what I just mentioned, in the context of power gen resilience, it reduces cyclicity significantly. As I said, we are already at a small scale involved in defense business. I will not go through all the engine products we currently and in the future have in the offering. What you see here on the left part of the chart, our engine business covers a range from 30 kilowatts to 530 kilowatts. We have got our, we call them classic defense engines.
These are classic engines DEUTZ producing and selling successfully over years, some of them over decades, whether it's going to be the 2013, the 2015, the V6 or V8. With these engines, we're already present in mobile defense equipment such as 4x4, 6x6, 8x8 personnel carriers, and how it is, but also gensets. We are involved in that already. We do have a very, very strong portfolio of our, let's say, next-gen or newer engines from 2.9 up to the 16.0. Also going forward, available from 2028 onwards, the Daimler engines, which we renamed now, as you said, the TTCD 5.1 up to the TCD 15.6. These are the MDEC and HDEC Daimler engines, which are also perfectly suitable for certain particular mobile applications in defense. That is one of the fields we want to explore, but also, as mentioned, stationary applications.
Let's not forget defense innovation. Green mobility in defense is becoming attractive going forward, not necessarily the focus of reducing CO2. This is more a byproduct there. You can imagine military vehicles, the further they get to the action, it's beneficial if these vehicles are then being driven by very, very silent powertrain. That's where electrification, including hybrid systems, also come into place. Again, we don't want to use today to focus too much on defense. We just thought it's useful because we received a number of questions to give you at least a bit of an outline in which way, in which path, in which vectors we are thinking.
The focus today is obviously that we are announcing the acquisition of Blue Star Power Systems and giving you more details on that exciting opportunity or exciting acquisition, which we have just yesterday signed the sales and purchase agreement. With that, Mark, I would thank you very much and hand over to you. Thank you very much, Sebastian. And thank you for your interest so far. You now have the opportunity to ask any questions. With that, I would like to hand over to Francine, our operator. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and one. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time.
We have our first question today from Annette Becker from Bösensital. Please go ahead with your question, ma'am. Good morning. Like us, I know you will not comment on the conditions of the price and everything, but can you give us a feeling about the volume? What is normal in this business regarding multiples on sales or something like that? How would you finance this acquisition? The next question, who will lead the business? Will the existing management stay in place? I will start with talking of valuation and who will lead and management. I will ask Timo to comment on the question of the funding and of the financing. If you look at current multiples in power generation, there is a range on the lower end, you're at six times EBITDA.
On the higher end, you're up to 12, 13, 14, 15 times EBITDA. As I said, we agreed not to disclose, but we can tell you that we're certainly rather on the lower end, certainly not in the double-digit level here. That is as much as we can say right now. In terms of leadership, the current management stays aboard, and that's great. We're very happy that the current owner, who's also, or the current two owners who are working as CFO and COO, so they have a very lean management team, they agreed to stay aboard. Obviously, both have a different age, and one will stay aboard longer than the other, but that gives us time to also develop a potential successor, particularly for the older gentleman.
The driver stays aboard, and we will have that business managed and led by our very successful management at DEUTZ Corporation of Americas, obviously with a very, very strong relationship here to our group management in Cologne. We are convinced that a successful business like Blue Star Power Systems will be most successful if, obviously, within a certain framework, while they get a high degree of freedom to operate. Timo, up to you.
Yes, thank you, Sebastian. First of all, of course, good morning to everyone also from me. If we look at the financing side, we can say that in general, we are financed right now very well. Our finance structure is very sound. If you are doing a position like that, of course, we look at different possibilities, how to even maybe optimize the structure after we included the steel.
Even if we would finance the whole transaction from borrowing, our equity ratio is likely to only slightly decrease by some low single-digit % amount, and we would still stay way above our target of 40%. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Jorge Gonzalez from AJIB. Please go ahead.
Hello, good morning, and congratulations, Sebastian, Timo, Mark for the transaction. My third question also regarding the price of the deal. Maybe you can give us more color, just sharing us if the transaction is going to be accredited in EPS the first year, or maybe it's too early. Or maybe it's too early. It's too early to comment on this because you are reevaluating or thinking of doing a PPA. That would be my first question, please.
Sorry, Jorge, thanks for your question. Can you just repeat? The connection was pretty bad. If you could try to repeat.
Yeah, sorry. No, I was wondering if you can give us some feedback on the impact of the transaction in EPS at this point.
I think let us not talk immediately on EPS because that also involves then the final decisions and implications of financing. I would start actually giving a bit of a focus on top-line EBITDA and potential EBIT and everything else. I suggest we would derive at a later stage together with you and other interested people, of course. We are talking about a top-line for this year on an annualized basis, which we obviously will not enjoy on an annualized basis because the closing is only happening throughout the second half of the year. We are talking about a top-line of above $100 million. We are talking about an EBITDA margin, as we said in our announcement, which is above the group level.
Let's say lower double-digit % range and then also million U.S. dollar. We do not expect a significant delta between EBITDA and EBIT, at least not as significant as in our current business because the company has been growing organically over the last 20 years and has developed very well. It is not as asset-heavy as DEUTZ Group is. That will also bring us on the EBIT level in the low double-digit range on an annualized basis. Everything else, I suggest, will derive later. Okay. In fact, that was going to be my second question. We can say that the EBITDA margin is in the low teens range, more or less? It is low double-digit, yes.
Okay. I have also a question regarding the consideration that you take for classifying as DEUTZ Energy some of your equipment from the stationary division or business line.
These EUR 30 million, if I remember well, last year, you have around EUR 200 million or EUR 180 million for stationary equipment. Why are you not including everything in this part of the business?
I mean, stationary equipment also includes pumps and other very specialized equipment, which do not necessarily relate to energy in particular. I believe, not anticipating your next question, but which could be your next question, Jorge, is, okay, how are we going to report on that? We are certainly evaluating here the reporting structure going forward. We need to see when we have a relevant size, which potentially would even justify reporting here into a new segment. That is too early. We see currently the business of Magideutz, as I said, fairly small, and then selling engines into other external power generation system integrators.
This would fall into the energy business and then, of course, now Blue Star. We are going to evaluate that throughout the second half of the year, how we clarify or how we make here even the reporting structure as transparent as possible.
Perfect. My last one, and I know that you do not want to go into much detail today, but regarding the defense slides, can you give us an idea if you are already participating in any process for a new platform or you are buying in for a new platform, or if there is any specific vehicle that you have already targeted for or that you think that you can already participate in in the following, I do not know, two to three years?
We are, in fact, actively participating in tenders.
We talk about, let's say, to be transparent, about minor tenders right now, but we are actively participating in minor tenders, both in the mobile field of 4x4 and 6x6 carrier, as well as in power generation for military applications. This is the beginning, and now we want to widen and put that in a more structured approach than we've done it before. Your question was in so far implied also the right statement. It always takes time to scale up here, as I tried to show in my short presentation on that, we're doing that with our existing products now, leveraging our existing strength, including certain distributors who are pretty good at that. We also want to look and identify further vectors to grow with a little bit more speed than via that. That's too early to tell more.
If there are more questions on that, I will be very reluctant to mention more. We just wanted to give you a glance that this is an interesting field. We identified and we set ourselves up to harvest the fruits which are available here. No, I mentioned it in great detail already. I missed the name of the platform that you mentioned. Do you mind to repeat that for me? No, I did not mention the platform. I just mentioned the type of the vehicles and the 4x4 or 6x6 vehicle. By intention, I did not mention the platform.
Okay, okay, okay. Perfect. Thank you very much. I go back to the line.
The next question is from Sebastian, no, sorry, Stefan Augustin from Warburg Research. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning.
Actually, the first question is, can you give us a little bit of insight how the whole deal actually commenced? How did you two find together? What was the reason for selling something like that? How the sale actually got together. Was it an open bid or?
I see. I see. I see. Look, we started the considerations going into the field of energy, particularly decentralized energy gensets, a bit more than a year ago. It was a result of our strategic dialogue, which is our internal strategy process where, together with our regional management, we collect ideas, we evaluate ideas, and in the end, we prioritize ideas, what are we going to pursue and what not. We came very quickly to the conclusion that power generation is a field where a lot of our guys are convinced it's good.
In that sense, we said, "All right, we're going to go for that." First of all, we decided, is there a region where we would like to focus on? We quickly said, "Okay, it's going to be the region of the Americas." Secondly, the question was, do we build or do we buy? Because obviously, in principle, building is typically cheaper than buying, but on the other hand, takes longer. We looked at how much time and efforts building would take. We came to the conclusion that in order to become relevant, building would take too much time, and we would miss too many opportunities in that field.
We said, "Okay, we did a structured market analysis and looked at what was available." In the United States and power gen, you see the three, four really, really large companies: Cummins, Caterpillar, Generac, Kohler, and with a bit of a distance, the MTU, Rolls-Royce Power Systems. Obviously, they are not available, too large. There is a very, very good group of companies in that playing field. We looked at all of them, outside in, of course, because none of them is publicly traded. We looked at all of them. We spoke to some of them. In the end, we evaluated that Blue Star Power Systems is a very, very attractive target. We entered into contact. We spoke, negotiated, and executed.
All right. Thank you.
The next question is actually on when I look at the market, and the most attractive field is obviously in North America, the growing part of the data centers. Currently, with the deal, Blue Star is already, let's say, in that market and selling into that market?
Yes, it is. That's one of the reasons why there's been also a fairly good growth in the last years because of going into these larger fields. It is still not the largest end market for Blue Star. The market is that attractive, and it's actually attractive for both in the short term, the emergency power supply, where Blue Star is very strong at, but also in the midterm, the constant power supply, and in the mid to long term, even sort of the green-driven power supply.
Currently, particular data center genset business is booked, is sold out for 18-24 months with the competitors as well. It is really an attractive market where, as you said, it is the largest market. It is the largest growing market, and that is why it is a huge potential for Blue Star as well. The others are also, the other markets are also very attractive. This is not a data center-only case. I think that is important to mention.
Yeah, but it is good that it is contained. Definitely. Another one is, if I look at the revenue split by product category, I do not see any service. I assume that with the exception of the component parts, Blue Star is not doing any service to its gensets at all in the view of man hours. Is that correct?
That is correct.
It is correct and also very well explainable by the current distribution channel. Blue Star Power Systems is using 90% of the business is being sold, of the products are being sold via a very, very well-functioning distribution network. We have no intention of changing that. Having said that, obviously, the distribution network also takes care of service. We do see in our analysis that this very good distribution network still offers white spots in the country. It offers, in some areas, actually white spots where DEUTZ has a red spot. I refer to the company color here. In that sense, it's a good possibility for us to go into that as well because, as I said, and it's also shown on the value chain, right? Service and aftermarket is always very relevant.
Here we clearly have, as we like to say, the right, not only the right to play, but the right to win. That is potential as well. We are also not saying in five years we are going to have 30% service revenue out of Blue Star Power Systems because the business is already very successful, being the OEM, even without the service. Aftermarket, but certainly we will not leave that field untapped.
Okay. Thank you. The final question is, when I now look at all the expenses you have on the green side right now, is there any conclusion that with the acquisition of Blue Star Power Systems, there would be lower expenses for green right now, or is that something that we will see rather on the C&D where there is a focus for green? How should I view that?
It is a later one.
I mean, the acquisition of Blue Star Power Systems and entering into energy is not related to any strategic change of direction of green at all. In parallel, as you know, we are, let's say, we have done a bit of a green restart, including announcing or appointing a leadership guy, a green CEO. This gentleman with his team together is currently evaluating our current green portfolio according to the same criteria we kept mentioning in this context here. Do we have a right to play? Do we have a right to win? The process is going well, and you can certainly expect first sort of directions on the capital markets day. This decision for power generation is by no means a decision against green mobility. We want to broaden our business models, our markets.
The development of a green technology field certainly is still a core part of DEUTZ. Quite frankly, with that entering into power generation, we believe we're actually making green more attractive, potentially more successful because we can place our green products, particularly the H2 combustion engine, we can place that into own end products in an attractive field. I see it actually rather as a supportive transaction towards green than sort of a fight for resources, which the green business would lose. Not at all.
Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one. We have a question from Dario Dickmann. Please go ahead with your question.
Yeah. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question.
Could you maybe elaborate a little bit more on the strong expected top-line growth of Blue Star, especially if I compare it to Generac's commercial and industrial products guidance, which is for decrease in mid to high single-digit rate? Blue Star seems to have growth rates above 25% for this year.
First of all, this year, the growth rate, I mean, it's well on track. This is not a prediction. We see that in the year-to-date financials that we're at least at the level, at the top-line level which we indicate in that picture. It's mainly driven by the fact that Blue Star has developed their further developed their product portfolio into the larger power ranges. That's a field where Generac, which you mentioned, is already very strong at. Blue Star came from entering into 20 years ago and 15 years ago, entering into the low power ranges.
A genset, I'm simplifying a lot right now, but obviously, a genset is a genset, whether it's a small genset or a large genset. It, in principle, has the same components. Obviously, manufacturing a larger genset binds more resources than manufacturing a smaller genset, but not proportionally to the power range. Blue Star Power Systems needed to establish themselves as a successful player in the market and has been very successful doing so in the last two, three years. The company is also sold out for this year and far into 2025 as well. That is where the growth comes from, entering into new fields, securing the one mentioned microgrid customer, which provides for a lot of the growth. As I said, the larger genset.
Yeah, this was one of the core questions we looked in our due diligence as well, of course.
Okay. Great. Thanks. Last question on the defense part. Did I understand it correctly that you mentioned that you're already in the defense segment with some engines on top of those pictures you just mentioned?
That's correct. We are in there with engines which are, let's say, we call them internally the legacy engines, the very well-established engines. Also our exchange business, that's our business. We operate out of our own facility where we repair or, let's say, remanufacture old engines, give them a second or even a third life. That's also a field where we provide services to the German army. Yeah, we are in there, but not as structured as we believe or as we will be in there in the future.
It's not of our so far, you see there also no reporting structure, and that's also the way our internal sales organization is structured. We focus very much on agricultural equipment, construction equipment, material handling in our mobile, in our engine business so far. We will go much, much more structured into defense because we've got good products for that. We've got good demand for that. We've got great capabilities with our engineers, our application engineers, to make our products fit to the needs of the customers. That's a field we're now actively entering.
Okay. Great. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question, and I would like to hand back to Mark for closing comments.
Regi, thank you very much, and thank you very much, all participants, for your interest in DEUTZ and our acquisition.
I think we could also give you a glimpse into what we are planning when it comes to the defense sector. Stefan already referred to the capital markets day in October. You already have the safety date. That is October the 8th. We hope to talk to you soon. If there are any further questions, please do reach out to me. We are happy to answer. There is also our new IR colleague, Rolf Becker, on board who can also answer any questions, and Svenja Deisler. We are happy to do so. With that, I would like to thank you and have a good day, all of you. Bye.