...Welcome to the Dürr conference call. Dr. Jochen Weyrauch, CEO, and Dietmar Heinrich, CFO of Dürr AG, will present the Dürr Group's figures for the Q1 of 2024, followed by a Q&A session. I will now hand over to Andreas Schaller, Head of Investor Relations of Dürr AG.
Good afternoon and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, everybody, to our Q1 earnings conference call. As just mentioned, with me on the call today, our CEO, Jochen Weyrauch, and our CFO, Dietmar Heinrich, and they will present the Q1 results as well as the outlook, and we'll be happy to answer your questions afterwards. As always, our earnings presentation is available on our investor relations web pages, and we assume that you have it in front of you. Please be aware of our disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements on slide two. Now it's my pleasure to hand over to our CEO. Jochen, please go ahead.
Thank you, Andreas, for the short introduction, and a very, very warm welcome also from my side to all participants on this call. Let's take a look at the highlights of Q1 on slide 4. Overall, we had a very solid start into 2024. We achieved a new quarterly record order intake of EUR 1.5 billion. This was slightly higher than the previous record level that we reached in Q1 of last year. The main driver of this strong order intake was our automotive business, where we booked a large project in Germany that we had predicted already end of last year. The pipeline for Q2 and beyond is very solid, which means that the current underlying demand continues to be good. At HOMAG, order intake was supported by several larger projects with long lead times.
Underlying demand has not changed, and we continue to expect an improvement not before the end of this year, as we had already mentioned, previously. Consolidation of BBS Automation, that we had acquired end of August last year, supported the order intake as well. As a result, the order backlog grew to EUR 4.6 billion, which also is a new record level. Sales revenues were up 8.3% year-on-year to about EUR 1.1 billion. The book-to-bill ratio stands at 1.36 for the Q1. The EBIT before extraordinary effects reached EUR 53.5 million. The respective margin improved from 4.1% to 4.9%, which is in line with our full-year guidance. Our divisions, Application Technology and Clean Technology Systems, started into the year with pretty high margins.
Free cash flow was solid in Q1, supported by the continued disciplined net working capital management. Based on the results of Q1, we confirm our outlook for 2024. On slide 5, we see the key financial indicators for Q1. Order intake increased by 2% compared to last year's record level and includes a consolidation effect of about EUR 74 million. The 8.3% sales growth was also supported by the consolidation of BBS Automation and Ingecal, which contributed EUR 79 million, and thus more than compensated the sales decline at HOMAG of almost 15%. In addition, all other divisions grew organically. EBIT before extraordinary effects improved by 27% and the margin by 80 basis points. The margin weakness at HOMAG was more than compensated by margin improvements at all other divisions.
Net income, however, declined by 4% due to higher PPA effects following the BBS Automation acquisition and higher interest costs. The solid free cash flow of EUR 25 million means that we are well on track to reach the full year guidance. Last year, we had an extraordinarily high Q1 free cash flow, reflecting very high prepayments. Let's take a closer look at the order intake on slide 6. I already mentioned the large automotive order that we booked in Q1, as expected, as well as the consolidation impact from BBS Automation and the project business at HOMAG. At Clean Technology Systems, orders were higher than the last three quarters. The automation business had a slower start into the year, but the pipeline looks promising. All in all, order intakes saw a strong start into the year, putting us well on track to reach the full year guidance.
On slide 7, we see the geographical distribution of order intake. The large automotive order in Germany is clearly visible. The order intake decline in the Americas and the rest of Europe was driven by high base effects from last year. The slowdown in China reflects the current economic development in the country. Asia, also outside of China, remains stable. Let's have a look at our most recent M&A activity. After seven years of small and large acquisitions, we announced the divestment of Agramkow, a subsidiary belonging to Industrial Automation Systems that supplies systems for fitting refrigerators, air conditioning systems, and heat pumps. Last year's revenues were about EUR 45 billion, and Agramkow's EV stands at EUR 47 billion. As already mentioned several times, we continuously review our business portfolio and are willing to dispose of business activities if they offer insufficient scope for harnessing synergies.
Agramkow's business has few synergies with other parts of the group, and as such, is no longer part of the strategically relevant core business. We expect the closing of the transaction by the end of the Q2 after completion of the carve-out. Based on the expected proceeds from the sale, we adjusted our guidance for net debt by EUR 40 million to between EUR -500 million and EUR -550 million. Now let's have a look at the divisional development. We start with Paint and Final Assembly Systems on Slide 10. Order intake was close to the record level of last year, driven by the already mentioned large order. The project pipeline remains solid and is also mainly driven by modernization investments in connection with sustainability measures.
Thus, the current slowdown in the transformation towards EVs, which we regard as temporary, does not play such an important role. Sales grew strongly from a low prior year's level, and service grew stronger than equipment. The EBIT margin before extraordinary effects improved slightly compared to last year, and we expect a further acceleration of sales and EBIT margin, with projects reaching more advanced execution phases in the course of the year. All in all, Paint and Final Assembly Systems is on a good track to reach the margin target in 2024, which is in line with our mid-cycle margin target of more than 6%. Let's turn to Application Technology on slide 11. Order intake was driven by the same large project as at Paint and Final Assembly Systems, and reached a new record level of EUR 262 million.
Sales revenue grew by roughly 2%, but service sales outgrew equipment and had a positive impact on EBIT. Driven by the strong service business and the execution of high-margin projects, the EBIT margin before extraordinary effects reached the mid-cycle target level of 10%+. Next is Clean Technology Systems on Slide 12. Order intake did not reach the extraordinary high level of last year, but exceeded the levels of the last three quarters. The new calendering machine from Ingecal, the French company acquired in November 2023, sees good demand, and we are focusing on getting the first large order for our electrode coating equipment for batteries. Sales revenues grew double-digit, driven by projects in Europe and the USA. The service business remains stable on a high level.
At 7.7%, the EBIT margin before extraordinary effects was at high, was at a high level in Q1, exceeding the mid-cycle target. Also here, the good service and the execution of high-margin projects were the key contributors. We continue to see a lot of potential in the battery business and are working very diligently to gain market share in this market. On Slide 13, we can see the development of our youngest division, Industrial Automation Systems. Financial KPIs of Q1 were supported by the consolidation of BBS Automation. Order intake in Q1 included larger orders in China, but has not reached the targeted run rate based on our full year guidance. We expect an acceleration in Q2 on the basis of a solid project pipeline. Sales revenues were also driven by organic growth as project execution was supported by improved availability of parts.
The EBIT margin before extraordinary effects improved significantly compared with last year, but was still impacted by some low-margin legacy projects. We expect these to wash out over the next quarters and the margin to improve accordingly. Here, focus at Industrial Automation Systems is on realizing the synergies on top and bottom line level, and to win projects based on the critical mass that we have gained through the acquisition of BBS Automation. Last but not least, let's take a look at HOMAG on Slide 14. Order intake reached EUR 377 million, which is an improvement over last year. However, the growth was driven by a couple of larger projects, while the underlying demand dynamics have not changed yet. As such, it is still too early to become more optimistic, and we continue to expect an improvement in demand not before the end of this year.
The impact of the declining order backlog became visible in Q1 sales revenues, which dropped by 14% and thus in line with expectations. On the positive side, service revenues continue to hold up well. Due to the lower capacity utilization, the EBIT margin before extraordinary effects declined to 3.1%, meeting the full year guidance of between 2% and 4%. We are using flexible measures like short-term work and the reduction of time accounts to compensate on the cost side. In addition, we are on track with our sustainable cost-saving measures on a global level. We already reached our target abroad, and in Germany, the voluntary leave program is currently running.
We are on track with our cost saving target of EUR 25 million in 2024, and to realize additional 25 million EUR in 2025, in order to lower the cost point by 50 million EUR in total. Now, let's move on to the service business on slide 15. In Q1, service sales reached a level of more than 29% of overall sales. Service development was strong in automotive, but also at HOMAG. The service share held up very well. The service mix shifted a bit from spare parts to modifications, and the margins further improved. We continue to focus on growing our service business as an impact, an important factor to improve our margin. Now, with my hand over to you for the financials.
Thank you, Jochen, and welcome to everybody, also from my side. I start with slide 17 and an update of our ROCE definition. ROCE is one of our key KPIs. When reviewing the previous definition, we came to the conclusion that we should closer link the ROCE calculation to our operational performance and our internal steering model. As a preparation, we interviewed several analysts and performed a peer group analysis among capital goods companies. This is what we have changed. First, we moved from reported EBIT to EBIT before extraordinary effects in order to better reflect the operational performance. At the same time, we increased the scope of assets and liabilities included in the capital employed calculation. This links our net working capital steering better to the ROCE calculation and increases the amount of capital employed.
Finally, we moved to a rolling 12-month view for both EBIT before extraordinary effect and capital employed. Previously, we used the year-to-date view for EBIT and the period end view for capital employed. When you compare the old with the new calculation, you only see a small effect for 2022, where extraordinary effects were relatively low. The effect is larger in 2023, as we eliminated the extraordinary effects of the HOMAG restructuring and took into account the pro rata temporis effect of the acquisition of BBS Automation on capital employed. The target for ROCE for 2024 was also recalculated, and the guidance range is now at between 12% and 17%. This is basically in line with the target of 9%-14%, according to the previous definition.
In the long term, the switch to EBIT before extraordinary effects and the increased scope of capital employed are roughly balanced, which is why we leave the mid-cycle target of at least 25% unchanged. Now, let's look at the financial overview on slide 18. I think the start in 2024 was very solid, and we are well on track regarding our targets. The ROCE, according to the new calculations, stood at 16.9%, which is a bit lower than last year due to the increased capital employed following the acquisition of BBS Automation. On slide 19, we can see the revenue development over the last 5 quarters. The typical seasonal pattern is very well visible when you look at 2023, with a weaker Q1 and a strong finish in Q4, when many projects typically come to an end.
Looking at the geographical distribution, we see that China continued to lose share. That was partially made up by Europe and the rest of Asia. Let's move to EBIT on slide 20. Again, you can see the seasonal development in 2023. This year, we started on a higher margin level of 4.9% before extraordinary effects, which is already in line with the guidance. The expected margin decline at HOMAG could be compensated by the other businesses and a strong service performance. We continue to focus on the consistent implementation of our cost saving measures at HOMAG, as Jochen also already highlighted. On slide 21, we can see the free cash flow development. Last year, we had a very strong contribution from several prepayments to free cash flow in Q1.
This year, we managed to further reduce net working capital, but on the other side, had a higher cash outflow for CapEx and interest payments. Still, with EUR 25 million, we had a solid start into the year and a good contribution to our target of EUR 0 million-EUR 50 million for the full year. The latest development of net working capital can be seen on slide 22. Net working capital declined slightly and to reach EUR 531 million at the end of Q1 in 2024. The liabilities remained basically unchanged, with higher prepayments, with prepayments being offset by lower trade payables. On the asset side, we saw a reduction in trade receivables and contract assets. Days working capital remained in the lower half of our target range of between 40 and 50 days.
On the next slide, slide 23, we can see the positive impact of the free cash flow on our net financial status. Net financial debt declined to EUR 493 million at the end of Q1 2024. This includes EUR 180 million of leasing liabilities. Leverage was reduced slightly and now stood at 1.5 times, which is in line with our target of less than 2 times. We regard our balance sheet as solid, also after the acquisition of BBS Automation.... Nevertheless, we are prudent with our financing approach, and we'll focus on deleveraging when looking at capital utilization. Prudent financing approach is also reflected in some actions we took after the end of the Q1. First of all, we issued a Green Schuldschein loan with a volume of EUR 350 million.
The details can be seen on slide 24. The proceeds are earmarked for investments into green projects and for operating expenses in connection with taxonomy-aligned customer projects, such as production lines that are far more efficient than the industry standard. The Schuldschein has tranches of 3, 5, and 7 years, and the average interest rate is at 5.04%, with a maturity of 5.1 years. As we still have older Schuldschein loans with lower interest rates, the average interest rate of our debt is currently at 3.57%. Based on the strength and liquidity situation, we fully repaid at the end of April the bridge loan of EUR 300 million that we had used for the acquisition of BBS Automation.
On slide 25, we can see the pro forma maturity profile and liquidity situation, considering the Green Schuldschein and repayment of the bridge loan. The liquidity headroom remains very high, and the maturity profile now looks well balanced over the coming years. With available funds of EUR 1.8 billion, we are confidently positioned to repay the upcoming maturities. With this view from the financial side, I hand back to Jochen for the outlook.
Thank you very much, Dietmar. On slide 27, we can see the fundamental demand drivers for our business. Particularly, the first one has strongly supported order intake in Q1. There are still a lot of old paint shops around, therefore, we see a solid pipeline for refurbishment projects. The second demand driver seems to have slowed down a bit last year when looking at EV production numbers and housing starts. However, we are not so much dependent on current production levels and believe that the fundamental transformation towards a carbon neutral society goes on, and so with investments in this area. In the automation area, we have now reached a critical mass and have interesting discussions with customers regarding potential projects in all areas: automotive, MedTech, and consumer. Therefore, we are well positioned with our leading resource-efficient technologies to supply attractive solutions to industry and craftsmanship.
Let's look on our guidance for 2024 on slide 28. We confirm our targets for 2024, except for net financial debt, where we adjusted the guidance range by EUR 40 million, due to the positive effects from the divestment of Agramkow. The ROCE target values have been recalculated according to our new definition, but are in line with the targets of the previous definition. We had a strong start in order intake, but as we could see from last year, it makes sense to leave some flexibility in order to react to different market environments and to be able to remain selective. We focus on winning projects in automation and stabilizing utilization at HOMAG, while at the same time implementing our capacity adjustments. On slide 29, we can see the breakdown of the guidance by divisions. There is no change to these targets.
Our unchanged midterm strategy for profitable growth is shown on slide 30. We believe we can grow with a compound average growth rate of 5%-6% and reach more than EUR 6 billion of revenues by 2030. This cycle, we target the EBIT margin before extraordinary effects of at least 8% and the ROCE of at least 25%. Now, let's summarize on slide 32. We achieved a new quarterly record for order intake in Q1, mainly driven by a large order as expected. Revenue growth is on track. The weakness at HOMAG was more than compensated by organic growth in the other divisions and the consolidation of BBS Automation. The EBIT margin before extraordinary effects had a good start, especially at Application Technology and Clean Technology Systems. Free cash flow was solid.
We strengthened our financial structure with the green Schuldschein and repaid our bridge finance. Finally, we confirm our guidance for 2024 with a lower net debt target following the Agramkow divestment. Thank you very much for your attention. Now, we're very happy to answer any questions you might have.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and star on your phone. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press nine and star a second time. The first question comes from Sven Weier, UBS. Mr. Weier, the stage is yours.
Yeah, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my questions. The first one is a question on the order intake, because I think in the press release, you stated that you also expect a high order intake for Q2, and I think that was a bit different last year when Q2 was really substantially lower than Q1. So in that sense, I just wonder if you could share kind of a guidance range for us, what we should pencil in for Q2. And then this would probably then imply a significant decline for the H2. But then you say the pipeline is good, so yeah, maybe some more color on the order guide. That's the first one. Thank you.
Thanks, Sven, for the question. You might excuse that I'm answering a bit, how should I say, generic. So we have a number of projects that are around the verbal order stage, let's say, and those we have a very good feeling that Q2 will be good. It will be definitely better, especially on the automotive side, than last year. How things then further distribute over the year, we will have to see. Nevertheless, we are with what we see right now, but we're close to orders that Q2 will, on the automotive side, especially be, at least an okay quarter. Difficult to give a number, at this point.
Okay, there are currently no-
Uh.
Yeah, okay. Mr. Weyrauch?
Sorry, I was on mute.
Okay.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Sorry, I didn't want to be rude and not thank you. No, but I had another question, and that was just-
Go ahead
... on the, that was on the HOMAG margin, because there, the sequential margin decline, I mean, I know you had lower revenues, but the operating leverage seemed quite, quite high, to be honest. So I was wondering, did you have a, you know, very good mix in Q4 and a very bad mix in Q1 that was adding to this sequential decline or something to keep in mind?
Yeah, we had a good development in the third and Q4 of last year. Service business is still going well. You could see that it's also on the respective chart. In regard to the business, there are basically two levels that are pushing down the profitability. This is on one side, the sales decline, with the lack of gross profit contribution, and then the related uncovered fixed cost, so the idling cost that we are having. So that's why we are getting down to the level of 3%. On the other side, it's well in the middle of what we announced as the guidance for the full year, between 2% and 4%. So from our point of view, it's developing in line with the expectation.
Jochen also outlined regarding the progress on the capacity or the resource adjustment program. We've got more momentum now in the coming weeks, and you could also see on the free cash flow that there might not yet be much free cash outflow coming from the headcount reduction. This will come actually in the coming months, and accordingly, I hope that we will get then a better fixed cost coverage with lower in the fixed costs.
Understood. Thank you both.
Thank you, Sven.
Thank you. The next question comes from Nicolai Kempf, from Deutsche Bank. Mr. Kempf, go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon, Nicolai Kempf, Deutsche Bank. Two questions from my side. First one on the kind of shift in powertrain we are seeing right now, and especially one big premium manufacturer in Stuttgart, is a bit more vocal now that their all electric vehicles will probably sell at lower pace than initially expected, and this could just mean longer investment in their plug-in hybrids and also in their gas, diesel powertrain. How could this impact you, or does it impact you at any instance?
Nicolai, you want to give us a second question, too, and then we try to answer together?
Yeah, sure, fine. Second one would be on raw mat. Has been a pretty big headwind over last years, now coming down. I do remember that you have started to have index contract. Does this mean that you would have to soon maybe grant discounts or just lower your input costs for this new contract?
Thanks, Nicolai. Not sure me whether I perfectly got the questions all well, acoustically. If I'm not answering what you were asking, please interrupt. So on the large order that we have received, I mean, I cannot, and I would never comment on any customers or clients' activities or changes, et cetera. The one thing that I can say is that the strategic partnership that is in place is for projects that are not purely production lines. So, that's where I'm saying, well, as long as cars are produced, then you know, I'm positive. That's what I can say. At this point, no indication at the moment, at least nothing that we see of.
of changing trends, but again, I cannot set a common for customers. Your second question, that's the one where I probably did not perfectly catch. You were referring to price indexed project in automotive, is that right?
Yeah, it's referring just to input prices, because input prices are coming down, and whether you have to already pass them on to your end customers because of indexed contracts.
Ah, okay. Yes, to some extent we do, but that's fine, because this is how we calculated those contracts, and I rather have an even more happy customer by reduce the CapEx in some instances, without an impact on our margins. So yes, we see this on some contracts that we signed, probably closer to the peak of the commodity prices, which in some cases have now come down. But this is exactly what we wanted to achieve to be resilient against cost changes. Obviously, that resilience works both ways.
Great, thank you.
Thank you, Nicolai.
Thank you. The next question comes from Philippe Lorrain from Bernstein. Mr. Lorrain, the line is open.
Yes, thanks, very much. Philippe Lorrain from Bernstein. I've got a couple of questions. Let's start maybe with order intake, and that would be by division. So, HOMAG order intake looked quite sound at EUR 377 million in Q1. You mentioned that in the presentation, that it was supported by good development in systems. How much of the order intake was actually coming from systems in Q1, and how does it compare to the typical share of system orders? That would be, like, the first one on HOMAG. And then also, are there any significant orders inflating the Q1 numbers, especially if we compare that to the past quarters that we had there?
Maybe, to stick with order intake as well, on PFS and APT, by how much did the large order support the Q1 PFS and APT order intakes respectively, please?
Thanks, Philippe. For HOMAG, the 377, I would say we've had, like, close to EUR 100 million of systems or larger orders in there, which is a higher share than we would, if you will, typically have. This is why we've been somewhat cautious in using this relatively okay order intake numbers, and extrapolate them for the year in terms of showing a situation that would look better than we had anticipated. So that's why I made the comments in my speech, that we don't see a change of the trends at HOMAG at this point. PFS and APT, the large order that we booked, is pretty much, how should I say? Mid triple-digit, whatever number for both.
If you take a normal share of a distribution between APT and PFS of somewhere between one third to one quarter for APT, that would fit this project, maybe a bit closer to one third.
Okay, perfect. That's great, thanks. Let me stick perhaps with, with HOMAG just a little bit. So you comment that, the share of systems is, higher than typically. Could you, could you, put some color behind that? Is it, like, twice as much, or is it, less than that? So it's just to put that in context, and maybe as well, like, give us a little bit of color on how to think about quarterly order intake run rate for the remainder of the year.
Oh, the latter one is very difficult to say, obviously. What we do is we stick with our guidance. Your assumption for how much is systems compared to a normal run rate, yeah, your assumption of it being maybe double of what we typically have, would be about accurate.
Okay, that's lucky from my side. Okay, perfect. And, last question, would be more like a housekeeping one. You mentioned in your preparatory comments that there was a EUR 74 million, I think, so seven four, consolidation effect on order intake from both, BBS Automation and I guess Ingecal. You mentioned a little bit as well, I think, on sales and adjusted EBIT, could you, could you repeat that? Because, the line was, yeah, I'd say, like, quite difficult. Thanks.
Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah, the number is, as you outlined, Philippe, then, for both together, it's around, in regard to order intake, of around, EUR 65-70 million. Ingecal is around EUR 4-5 million out of this. So and this is in line with the development that we had in last year, than on a pro forma basis in the Q1.
Sales are about the same?
Sales is about the same. Sales is a bit higher due to the good order book than for all together. Sales amount would be in a range of around close to 80, EUR 75 million-EUR 80 million.
... Okay, thanks.
Thank you very much. We have one more question there. A little reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and star on your phone. The next questioner is Peter Rotheneicher from Baader Bank AG. Mr. Rotheneicher, the stage is yours.
Yes. Hello, gentlemen. I have a question on industrial automation. So you mentioned order intake in the Q1 was relatively low. Can you give us an indication, what can we expect here, a significant upturn in the Q2? And might there be the risk, perhaps later this year, of some underutilization of capacities at BBS?
Yeah, thanks, so Peter, for the question. Yeah, we have obviously, we're aware of a few larger orders that would really be double digit projects, where we're confident that in the second and partially Q3, with the visibility that we have, that we are very likely to book a few of those, which makes us confident. Underutilization, now we're not seeing this in a large way. Typically, industrial automation, where we have not a lot of machinery, we are relatively flexible. Can I say there is none? There always is some underutilization coming from the project nature of the business, but I'm not expecting anything extraordinary, so.
Might this have some effect on earn-out regulations for BBS?
No, because earn-out would have been relevant looking back at last year.
Okay. And one question on your battery business. You mentioned you are here in negotiations and discussions about a bigger order. So, what is your current view, and what size might such a bigger order have?
It's actually on the battery. On the battery business, that might be, well, double digit order.
How clear is it? Is this something you're already expecting now for the Q2, or might it take longer?
Oh, I'm quite positive, but I cannot assure that this is going to happen in the Q2. But we will have to see.
Mm-hmm. Lastly, regarding Hallmark and these systems orders, do we have to be aware that profitability of this system orders is typically lower than a machinery business and therefore have some, some impact also on profitability?
No, no. This applies now, I cannot say. At least there is one order, a larger order in there, where I know that the margin is quite healthy. So now, I understand where you're coming from and that it's a fair assumption, but I cannot confirm that for the larger orders in total that we have received.
Now, Peter, to add, there is no specific risk in regards to what we provided as a guidance. The influence from the system project is that this will not lead to a sale within or sales revenues within short period of time, but the project execution is then spreading up to two years. So that's also why we highlighted that, on one side, we expect, first of all, no significant change in the expected order dynamics for this year towards the end of the year. Then, so while we stay with the guidance, and secondly, the adjustments need to be done. We do not expect now with the system orders or these mentioned system orders coming in, to see a pick up of sales within a short period of time, because it's spreading over up to three years.
Okay. One final question on paint and final assembly systems. I think with Q4, you mentioned that the one or other project has been lost to a competitor. I think it was Geico. How is the situation there? Is there still some risk that this competitor might be price aggressive also then in upcoming quarters?
So Peter, it's difficult to comment on competition, and I don't, you know, I don't know, honestly. I think what you see now with Q1 and with our statements regarding Q2, we are continuing our strategy, which I think more and more now materializes in the numbers. We will see what competition does. Obviously, we appreciate competition because it's also a way to show our customers where we are. We will have to see, honestly.
Okay, thank you.
... Thank you, Peter.
The next question comes from Christian Cohrs, Warburg Research. Mr. Cohrs, you have the floor.
Yes. Hello, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. 3 left for me. First, after the sale of Agramkow, do you have more divestments on the agenda? And then two questions regarding clarification on the corporate center. The number of employees has risen by more than 140 Q1 versus Q4 last year. So maybe you can shed some light on that. And lastly, R&D expenses have come down more than EUR 4 million. Are you more restrictive with regards to R&D, also to safeguard your results? Or is this simply, yeah, a quarterly fluctuation, which should not be overstated? Thank you.
Thank you, Christian, for the questions. You know, on the divestments, I can only repeat what I said earlier in this call. We continue to reflect on the portfolio, and whenever we come to any idea that we're going to execute, of course, you will know. But I cannot comment any more on this. On R&D, this is more I would say a normal fluctuation. We, of course, we always watch where we spend the money on for the future, but we have nothing restrictive in place where we harm activities going forward. On overhead, maybe-
Yeah, I can mention or I can explain in that regard. We had employees that are actually have been allocated to HOMAG in a shared service area, but they did not only work for HOMAG, they also worked for other group activities, divisional activities. We changed this allocation so that they now are shown actually as corporate center or corporate services.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you, Christian.
The next question comes from Holger Schmidt, DZ Bank AG. Mr. Schmidt, your line is open.
Yeah. Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. The first question is on the industrial automation business. Here, you mentioned that the margin development was impacted by the execution of legacy projects. For how much longer will we see an impact from legacy projects? So that's the first question. And the second one is also on margin evolution. How should we think about the margin developments throughout the quarters in the current year at HOMAG?
Thank you, Holger. On industrial automation systems, the legacy projects we're referring to, if you will, older projects, with Teamtechnik, and I would expect those to completely wash out during the course of this year. On HOMAG, on the margins, I mean, as we reported, we were pretty much in the middle of our guidance for Q1. EBIT numbers might, or return on sales, might fluctuate a little bit quarter by quarter. But also, as mentioned, we assume and we will maintain our guidance for the total year of between 2% and 4%. And, you know, there is a mix, as Dietmar was explaining before. On the one hand, we've been implementing flexible measures, like short-term work now, while we're executing our restructuring program.
So capacities will go down, while we then don't benefit from short-term work so much anymore. And this will, you know, one play against the other, but with our assumption, as we said before, that the total year will be between 2% and 4%. That's unchanged.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
There are currently no further questions. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and star on your phone. This would be the chance. Let's wait a couple of seconds if there are any pending questions. That seems not to be the case. Let me hand back to Andreas Schaller for some closing words.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for your attention and for your questions. If you come across further questions, after we release the results, please do not hesitate, to contact, my colleagues or myself from Investor Relations. We are looking forward to staying in contact with you, and, with that, I would like to say goodbye to you all, and have a nice rest of the week. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Thank you for participating in the conference call. This call is now closed.