Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for joining us for the first time this year and also for the first time as an SDAX-listed company. Together with Daniel, we are presenting the preliminary numbers, unaudited numbers for the previous year. Naturally also give you an outlook for the year we are already in there. Naturally, we will be happy to answer your questions. Yes, naturally, a good fact, and we are happy to look back at a record year in terms of growth and also increasing earnings. In some areas, I think we also feel proud about some of the things that finally we were able to achieve with our teams here on a worldwide level.
At the same time, I think we have to be very realistic and I think we all know nothing is as old as last year's numbers. We are in the 7th week of the year, and as of January 2nd, we have been out on the road here in North America, in India, in Asia, driving again our projects, seeing our customers and driving the business here for continued growth in 2023. That's why today's presentation also is covering actually the outlook for this year, which again, I think is of prime interest on your side.
Getting back to the first part, yeah, preliminary group sales, we are, I'd say, exceeding the upper end of the last forecast, as well as also the consensus here from, the analyst side with 32.5% growth compared to last year's numbers, reaching EUR 85.2 million of revenue. This also results in an improved, absolute EBITDA, where we see the EBITDA margin naturally also showing traces of all the investment and spending we have to do for our growth and for the R&D. Daniel will go into this in more details, but also we show an improved, EBIT performance. Looking ahead, I think the order book is one of the key elements that is, let's say, the base of a very justified optimism also for this year.
EUR 74 million order book at the end of the year compared to EUR 30.5. That's almost a ratio of 2.5x simply showing the demand. Going into, I'd say, the markets into the overall mechanics and macro and micro development here on our customers front. I think we have to see two elements: growth in the Clean Energy part of the business as well as the Clean Power part of the business, more specifically, continued demand and strong traction on fuel cells.
The methanol part in a full scaling, the hydrogen part still in the business development era, but also a recovery on the power electronic side in some of our, let's say, end customers businesses after COVID impacted delays of business and severe supply chain challenges, still being a factor to be recognized in this part of the business. Sorry. The overall environment, especially for the fuel cell part of the business, the Clean Energy part of the business, even saw a further acceleration by the undoubtedly sad geopolitical developments. We experienced an immediate demand here from end customers, from industrial customers, but also from government bodies for replacement of fossil-based conventional power generation.
At the same time, the underlying long-term macro trends here, using our products to improve customer CO2 footprint by the good hand print our products bring reducing emissions is ongoing. Therefore, we have a good combination of factors here short term and long term. Looking into the regional development, yeah, we have laid a lot of emphasis in regional expansion in recent years, and especially here, North America, with the U.S. being the leading economy in the world, and then Asia as the part of the world where most of the people on Earth are living, and India being now the country with the largest population in the world, have been areas of key focus for business development.
I think we are seeing in 2022 some of the fruits of the business development and market introductory work here over the last five, six, seven years. North America, sharp increase of business here by 56.9%, so almost 57%. Naturally, the commodity price here also in our oil and gas market helps, but also diversification is fully on its way, seeing, let's say, especially the fuel cell business growing Outside this vertical in a significant way. In Asia, well, the relative increase even higher, 66%. We also have to see naturally, we are coming from a lower absolute level here. Still, the right trends, the right development.
Just coming back from, again, a trip in Canada and the U.S., I think our collaboration with the largest U.S. customer right now, LiveView Technologies , fast-ramping customer in the civilian security business, is an example for this. We have, let's say, within a year, we have installed 1,000 systems in the field on their surveillance trailers. Their customer base is mostly retail from names like Walmart, Safeway, Lowe's, are prime customers there. We entered into another contract end of last year for more than 2,300 units, and we are in a consistent scaling phase. Why are they buying the product? At the end, yeah, we are ensuring a dependable and reliable energy source here, 24/7 throughout the year off-grid.
At the same time, we are Extending runtimes by product improvements and technological development. We are getting uptime up for their end customers, and so profitability on their end is going up. The last point is their customers expect ESG conformity. They expect products that are replacing generators. As a last thought here, if you look at their business rollout, at the moment, we have about a 30%, 33% installation rate on their products for EFOY. Looking at the demand, I think getting up to 50% is a pretty realistic number here. Although fast-growing, still potential to grow. Naturally, there are also competitors out there in this field, and we have started naturally to serve the market in a broader way.
Looking into the segments before I hand over to Daniel. I mentioned this at the beginning. Yes, prime driver of the growth with a 35.8% increase in revenues is the Clean Energy is the fuel cell-based part of the business. There, again, it's the industrial applications that are driving the scaling here from technology like this crate here with LiveU in the surveillance, in the civilian security business, data transfer, data transmission, telecom, as well as via digitization. Again, a consistent replacement of conventional generation here is a significant element, means replacement of generators, but at the same time also just hybridization with battery and solar combinations to make them a reliable power source.
On the end consumer market side here in this segment, we saw a horizontal development with a slight decrease in revenues, especially in the second half of the year. We could also see some consumer hesitation with - 2% in revenues. We're slightly behind. Not particularly happy with it, but I think explainable here, seeing the economic environment changing our end consumer spending. We also saw a deviation here, a negative deviation in our Government Public Security Business with, let's say, the project character of the business leading to a decrease here year on year of about 35% in this segment. Still, here we are naturally serving multiple markets here.
We see still a delayed execution on projects in the home market, but we expect a significant pickup throughout Europe and also, especially in India this year. Overall, the growth impact is driven here by, let's say, the more than 80% of the business being in the industrial applications, according to also the strategy. Looking into Clean Power Management to sum this up, there are 26% growth up to EUR 27.6 million of revenue. A pickup in demand with existing, but also some nice, I'd say, new project wins we had in the semiconductor-related part of the business. Naturally also the development in oil and gas contributed in a positive way. Still there.
We could have achieved more, but still delays in the supply chain left us with a push out in projects of about 10% overall revenue. Looking into the upcoming or into the current year and looking ahead, we expect consistent and significant growth also in the power electronics part of the business, simply by having an order backlog that is, I'd say, higher than ever before and almost, I'd say, approximately half of what we have in the total backlog here as the group. Supply chain, still a challenge here. We are consistently and almost on a daily basis still working on improvements here with our suppliers. We are still having elevated stock levels and expect an improvement of the overall situation in the second half of the year.
It's not a matter of orders, it's a matter of shipments here in terms of performance in this second. With this, I would like to hand over to Daniel to talk about the sales and earnings side of the business.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining our call. As Peter already mentioned, the last year was overall, you know, a successful year where we executed the strategy that we laid in the previous years and really were able to achieve high volume growth. In terms of the revenues without being wanting to be too repetitive, of EUR 85.3 million, which is the 33% increase year-on-year following the 21% we had in the previous years. We see the growth trends continuing. We also saw, and that's not much of a surprise, that the Q4 was a little bit weaker than the previous quarters. Simply a function, the Q4 tends to be a little bit shorter with December coming.
Peter already mentioned it, and we also, you know, indicated that in our Q3 call, supply chain issue, even though they have decreased, they still exist. One or two components missing, you know, means that eventually you'll be not able to ship a certain or a specific large order. Overall, a very good year with very good growth. If you look at our profit margins, and once again, EBITDA adjusted, no more repeat the adjustments, but, you know, the adjustment that we're making is mostly transaction-based expenses as well as the provision for our stock option programs.
If you're looking at the adjusted EBITDA, we have EUR 8.2 million versus EUR 6.2 million in the previous year, which shows that EBITDA adjusted increased analog with the sales. That, as a matter of fact, was part of a challenging environment. We implemented swiftly countermeasure as you know already in the Q1 and then subsequently in the Q2 . That seems to really have worked well for us. Also we profited from a favorable product mix. Peter already mentioned also that the revenues in the higher margin segment Clean Energy increased.
All these different effects combined really led to margin stability on the level of EBITDA adjusted, looking at 9.6% versus 9.7% in the previous years. Same accounts for the EBITDA adjustments. EBITDA adjusted amounted to EUR 3.2 million versus EUR 1.9 million in the previous years. That also shows a margin improvement, looking at 3.7% versus 3%. During the math, you'll see that depreciation amortization increased a little bit in the last year, but that's the effect from the investment in growth that we made, mostly tangible asset, but also to some extent the depreciation of R&D.
You will see those details once we publish the full numbers. Order backlog, very favorable order situation. The order backlog from the beginning of the year increased by 2.55 x. Very solid. You saw the announcement that we made with various customers. Peter mentioned some of them earlier. We're really getting the order seen. We see the trend of growth being still fully intact, which eventually makes us also decently optimistic for the future. With this very brief summary of the numbers, I will hand back to Peter.
Well, thanks very much. Yeah, what do we expect now for 2023? What is our outlook, our forecast? I think as said at the beginning, we look at 2023 with, I think, a justified and fact-based optimism. We have a solid order book. We have a dynamic demand out there. I think in execution, there are two challenges that we really have to work on and this on a daily basis is, yeah, finding additional people. We have hired more than 100 people during the last fiscal year. Still in, let's say, continuous hiring mode here for another 60 - 70 headcount minimum for this year.
The other part is naturally handling the supply chain situation, but also expecting a slight improvement here and the de-tensioning of the situation. With this, we expect 2023 again to show strong growth. The range we are seeing, again, organically between 20%-30%. A revenue span between EUR 103 million-EUR 111 million seems, I think, a realistic range still with, let's say, the size of some projects, we feel that the bandwidth needs to be that broad. Looking onto the earnings side, that should be naturally, more than Daniel's part of giving you the more cautious part of the outlook. I think we are looking at the year with the needed cautiousness.
We know that we have to further invest into the growth here. Expansion of production capacity in Germany is still ongoing. We finalized the first part, doubling the capacity here. We are finalizing our first production line in Cluj, Romania by end of Q1. Within the next couple of weeks, we should be able to get going and go live also with our own presence in India in the partnership with our local Indian partners. In the second half of the year latest, we need to be present also in the US, most probably in a greenfield set up especially for sales and service.
With this, I think looking at the adjusted EBITDA, we are looking at the range of between EUR 8.9 million and EUR 14.1 million. Admittedly, still a broad range, but due to the revenue spend that are logical and almost mechanical outcome here of the numbers. The same for the EBIT, with EUR 3.4 million-EUR 8.6 million. This is a good view of where we are. We should not forget that we are also consistently investing here into, let's say, core technology competence here. We are looking at a broadening of our technology base on the fuel cell part in terms of components, and we continue to invest in the new generations of hydrogen products.
Higher power, independent of the license product platform that we are currently using, but also integration of electrolyzer capabilities in our own offering. All in all, very upbeat here looking into the year, and it's, yeah, a motivating and exciting environment, being able to grow the business in the format we have been doing it last year and continuing to do so this year. With this, we would like to hand back to Mina, and we'll be happy to answer your questions. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selections. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from the line of Thijs Berkelder with ABN AMRO – ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning. Congratulations, guys. First question is on the order backlog, reported. Can you explain what part of the order backlog is for 2023 and what part is for 2024 and later?
Absolutely. I think you can. In a very simple split, you can take roughly EUR 20 million out going into 2024 and the remainder for 2023.
Okay, very good. The order backlog is roughly 2.5 x as high as year earlier. Why is then the revenue guidance just 20%-30%?
As said at the beginning, I think that's what we see as a justified base here. We still naturally cannot neglect some of the uncertainty in some of the government business in terms of timing. We have also naturally an impacting factor here, the commodity price in oil and gas. Therefore, well, bear with us a couple of weeks and months into the year, and then we can assess this further on.
Clear, logically also the question, you stipulate yourself already that, the guidance range on EBITDA for 2023, it is quite wide. What would make you land at the bottom end of that, guidance range? What make you force lower margins than, let's say than in 2022?
Basically, we have three effect sizes. The first one is, you know, supply chain issue, even though they have decreased significantly and the environment has become better, but they still existent. As mentioned also in previous call, it doesn't matter if you're missing one, two, three or four or five or six parts, if one is missing, and that mainly also, you know, still increased prices to get on board, there's a certain risk in the material expenses. That's the first one. Right, I said, you know, they have decreased, but, you know, they have not been eliminated over last year and also, that's the way we see it for the coming year.
Second thing, as I mentioned, you know, we are investing in our growth. We are investing, and Peter mentioned it, also in expanding our assembly and manufacture capabilities, but also business development and capabilities, the regional expansion, which we mentioned in the last year, notably, India and USA. Depending on how quickly and how fast we will ramp it up, and you know, we are ambitious, based on the market development, there's also additional costs coming to that. This cost may, depending on the ramp up, starting up costs, be higher or lower. That really has to do not only with operational costs, but really the cost of setting up those, you know, entities and operations.
Last but not the least, w e also are speeding up development for our product platforms and then also, you know, a certain, you know, variable in there, once again, depending on how much resources we can apply, how much resources we'll get on board, and going forward, we could, you know, speed up certain things and then again, you know, we'll have an impact on the R&D expenses. All of these three factors, you know, in summary, result in a certain, you know, variance of the earnings.
Yeah. Coming back there on the, let's say, the additional cost, the growth cost this year. Should that this year be a more normal year in the sense that Q4 then should be again the strongest quarter of the year and the year starting relatively slow? Has the pattern more or less changed?
I think overall, as we also have seen it last year, with a I would say non-regular pattern here in Q3 and also in part of it also in Q2, we have a also a momentum here in scaling, especially on the fuel cell side, where we have a this year we are looking at a very good start of the year, and we expect Q2 being at the same level. We are not particularly depending then on simply a year-end business, which I think makes it also more healthy and gives us a better visibility already by mid-year.
Okay. No, that's clear. Final question maybe on EBITDA reported over 2022. Can you give a split between Clean Power Management and Clean Energy Solutions?
We will have those numbers, yes, again, we'll have them towards the end of the year, sorry, when we publish our final numbers. The tendency, of course, is that the EBITDA adjusted in the segment Clean Energy is higher than in Clean Power Management. Please understand that we'll, you know, publish those numbers with the audited final numbers.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Karsten von Blumenthal with First Berlin Equity Research. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Peter. Good morning, Daniel. Congratulations to the good results. My first question would be, could you give us a rough split between your direct methanol and hydrogen fuel cell sales?
Still methanol, I said, is the scaling part where we are beyond 90% and hydrogen is still, let's say, in the business development stage in terms of a product line. Although the project log increased consistently over the year, we also see, I'd say that implementation sometimes is not even depending on customers or ourselves. The approvals and the rates to operate from, let's say, government side, the regulatory environment for some of these projects is simply a relevant factor in terms of implementation. Looking at the current activities, we are now in the process of getting also the North American certification finalized here, CSA.
Also, UL. The teams are there again end of the month, so we expect that they have further, let's say, up tick here and acceleration here. Still, we have to simply see the different maturity here in terms of market penetration and acceptance.
All right. Yeah, fully understood. If I look into your Q4 figures, my first impression is, growth is different from the quarters before. This time the smaller segment showed much stronger growth than the fuel cell segment. Could you comment on that?
Yeah. Absolutely. I think what we see is a slight easing here on the supply chain here for the power side, for the power electronics side. What we also see is, I'd say some shipments here out of the fuel cell part, moved into this year into the Q1 . We do not see this as an irregularity, but at the end, it is more a timing factor. Part of it even, let's say, linked to, let's say our capacity constraints here at the year end.
Remember, Karsten, last year was a bit of a year, you know, where revenue shifted between quarters depending on availability of components, depending on when the revenue shift. It's a bit in terms of the distribution on the quarters revenues and also within the segment, really a function on when was stock available, when could we ship it. Some things earlier, some things later. That's a bit of a irregularity.
All right. Understood. Could you roughly tell me how much was postponed to, into Q1 of the fuel cell business of Clean Energy in EUR millions?
If you look at it, I'd say specifically we have, let's say, monthly shipments to a particular customer in North America. There we had a postponement in there, talking about let's say overall here, 100 to 150 units here, which, yeah, is not that significant, but that's about it.
All right. Okay. Understood. If I look into your Q4 EBITDA, so your adjusted EBITDA, that looks relatively weak compared to the quarters before. Did you have any extra cost in Q4 because you had relatively good sales in Q4, but EBITDA was relatively low. What is the reason for this?
Well, there's basically two reasons for it. Obviously, or one two reason as well we mentioned, you know, the under expenses were a little bit higher and you please understand I will not dig too deeply into the gross margin discussion. When you ask about the cost, of, you know, higher cost base in the Q4 , as you can easily imagine, Peter mentioned we're gonna start operations in India very soon. Also, you know, looking at the U.S.
The expenses with establishing and, you know, whether it's legal, whether it's tax, whether it's whatever cost to set up the structures do not all appear in the Q1 of 2023, because we've been really working on that in early the third and then also in the Q4. That's most certainly one of the impacts that we have. And then also an impact that we had in the Q4 is, you don't see it, you know, that we did hire a number of people who came on board, you know, within the Q3 but also in the Q4 . You also have a bit of a higher personal expenses in that.
It's more a mix of various cost positions that really increased the cost base in the Q4 in combination also, you know, with the developments, but we'll discuss that at certain times in gross margin. Yeah.
All right.
Maybe to complement here, Karsten, just well, we did increase our pricing naturally over the year. Yeah. There is an improvement in there, but still, let's say on the cost side, we also saw a soaring cost base in some areas. I think if we wanna talk about, let's say, what is the impact in Q4, I think it's EUR 0.5 million to EUR 1 million overall, those factors together and leveling this out to let's say then especially the setup cost, the preparation cost here for the entities in the regions. We will also see this in Q1 that this is again leveled out.
All right. Basically it's growth investments and overall growth, especially more staff. You reported that it's very difficult to find new staff, that means you might have to pay higher wages. What is the wage cost inflation you calculate for 2020?
Well, I think there we have two elements. First of all, I think hiring, I would not say it is, let's say, particularly difficult for us. I think we are seeing the opposite on the labor market. We are in an interesting area of the economy, so I think we are an employer of interest here for young people wanting to make an impact. We are really seeing this also in all our recruitment efforts. Just again, we hired more than 100 people. I'd say every 3rd, every 4th person on the payroll is new compared to a 12-month period before. It is an area of key focus. It is a challenge, but it is not particularly difficult or more difficult for us than others.
I would rather see it the opposite. cost, yeah, competitiveness on payment structure. Naturally also expectations here on the inflationary side. Yeah, we have a overall increase of labor costs, I'd say, in there. In, for example, in Holland, there is a collective labor contract signed here also for people who are employed with us. We don't have this in Germany, we don't have it in Canada, nor do we have it in Romania. I think overall you're looking at a range of, yeah, 5%-7% combining competitiveness as well as inflation compensation.
All right. That would make sense. Yeah, thank you very much for taking my questions.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Anne Margaret Crow with Edison Group. Please go ahead. Mrs. Crow, you have the floor. We will now move on to the next question. The next question is from the line of Malte Schaumann with Warburg Research. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. First question is on the current demand trend given the environment. Do you see a change in demand patterns? Do you see an unexpected weakness somewhere? How would you assess the overall situation?
I'm sorry, I had difficulties acoustically here. The line was not particularly clear. Can you help me again, Malte, with the question?
This, with respect to the current demand trend, if you see unexpected, some unexpected development somewhere changing projects from the expected timeframe. Is there anything you want to highlight?
Well, I think that's exactly why the range is as widespread as we have it right or as wide as we have it right now. We really expect this to cover, let's say some unexpected development. Where I think we have an inherent a topic naturally is that government projects can be delayed, but as we all know, this is now below 10% threshold of the overall business, and not even. I think we are protected simply by size here. The current single biggest impacting factor I would say still on the power electronics side is again a tensioning of the supply chain.
Although we have brought a lot of the assembly back and near shored it in Europe, in Romania, in Germany for the electronics part. Still components are coming out of China. If you have like recently a fire again in a semi fab in Wuxi, as just happened, I'd say last 10 days, you have an impact. That's what I would say as the largest impacting factor. On the upside, definitely I think we are on a faster track than anticipated here, talking about India and also the traction in the US is really inspiring.
Okay, good. Could you provide more detailed update on the status regarding the markets regarding the establishment in India? What's the current time plan, time frame? What are the expectations for top line contributions in 2023 out of the Indian markets?
In terms of, in terms of time frame, as I mentioned, we've been busy with that. We're very busy with that. In the last quarter, the facility is in place. We are building things out. Basically we're looking at the end of the Q1 , beginning of the Q2 to really move down there and start operations a little bit depending here and there on the shipment on certain equipment as well as making sure that everything is in place. This is the time that we're looking at.
In terms of market dynamic in India, we mentioned that also in the previous year, that the dynamic in India demand for fuel cell in various sectors, may be public, but may also be industrial, is unchanged, very high. You know, you may read the newspaper headlines on fuel cell, on hydrogen, in any Indian newspaper, and Mr. Modi's strategy. The bottom line is, or the sense is, India is marching forward with adopting and implementing fuel cell technology. Of course, I think this is the reason why we're doing it. We'll, you know, and we have certain visibility, it's a strong market and we will profit from it.
Okay. About potential sales contributions, are you able to share a number?
I think, overall, what we have planned is, let's say, about a 5% contribution out of India, which I think is still conservative, but there is significant, let's say, upside potential. Also depending, as Daniel said, we are in the finalization here, so to speak, on a dual track. Although not every single contract is yet in place, still our partner is setting up the building. That's, that also reflects that we are working here in a long-term partnership. Although the cross in, let's say the cross-investment here, us investing into him and he investing into SFC, still needs to finally ink. We will do this in the next two weeks.
We are setting up and operation going up in the 2Q with the first steps there. What we see right now is decision-making on significant government programs also here for 2023 and 2024. That would lead us into, let's say, a significant increase to the planned number.
Yeah. Okay, good. On Toyota Tsusho, there haven't been that much news around that cooperation. They can provide an update, how you think, how you see things developing and when-
Yeah.
that might pick up in speed.
I think if we summarize it, India and the U.S. is faster than originally planned. The collaboration with our Japanese partner here was impacted directly by COVID travel limitations. There we definitely lost some time in implementation. We had a management meeting already beginning of the year. Our teams were traveling with the Japanese teams now over the last couple of weeks. Also in Q4, we are planning to meet again in March. There's no change in overall program, neither from our Japanese partner as per their last confirmation in January, nor by us. At the same time, we have simply lost 12 months- 18 months here into the market.
That is a fact which we overcompensate with faster traction in the other regions. The strategy and implementation are unchanged.
Okay. This should yield some results then throughout the course of this year.
I'm sorry, again, we have today, for whatever reason, a weak line here, so sometimes you're breaking up. Could you repeat the last one?
Yeah, sorry for the line. I think, you would expect some positive results out of Toyota during the course of this year.
No, absolutely. If we look into last year, even though we had the delay within the overall framework and from a lower absolute level, we see increase in Asia, not only in India, as we reported it. The demand is also not a question. We are working on the first project in Thailand. We are doing wind projects now in Vietnam. We are as we speak also in business development here in the Philippines for telecom applications. Naturally, Japan is again a core market where implementation goes on. Yes, a delay, but overall, I think also commitment from both parties fully there. They have dispatched
Their expatriates into the region. We were out there training them. They were here for training. This remains a key pillar, again, for the Asian expansion besides India.
Okay, good. One last question. This is for the gross margin development in 2023. There are a lot of moving parts, costs, higher costs, on the other hand, higher pricing, potentially other product mix. Can you provide an indication what your expectation is regarding the gross margin development in this year? Should it be broadly stable? Should it be slightly up? How do you see that developing?
Well, as you already said, Malte, there's a lot of movement in there, but still we have a, you know, a decent view on it and have implemented those measures to make sure that we, that we can estimate probably gross margin. At the end of the day, if you look at the EBITDA margin that we planned for 2023 and know what's happening in between and assume that there's certain also, operational leverage that we're having, we do expect no negative impact on the gross margin. To the effects, of course, the price increases that we introduced last year, are now full in force and effect that will have a positive contribution.
On the same side, with expanding operations, and ramp-up operations, once again, in India, as well as in the U.S., and including the Romania, but to a lesser extent, Romania, it really means, you know, that there will be startup costs, there will be certain, you know, double costs in manufacturing, in quality, insurance, at the beginning, that, you know, will have not a significant, but you know, it will have a negative, but it will have an impact on the gross margin. At the end of the day, what we'll see is, you know, we are positive with regards to the gross margins. We do see that component prices have stabilized.
We do expect the component prices, especially towards the end of the year, will relax and return to a more, let's call it, normal level. There's a lot of moving parts that we will manage, and overall, long answer to your short questions, don't expect any negative surprises with regards to the gross margins, but don't expect any, you know, extremely positive, neither. I think we are just, you know, looking at doing what we do and step by step increase it.
Yeah, understood. Many thanks. I apologize for the quality of the line again.
It might be our line. I don't know. We had Anne Margaret before. Maybe, you're online right now. Mina, can we ask Anne Margaret again if she has questions?
Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. We actually have a follow-up question from Mr. Berkelder with ABN AMRO ODDO BHF. Please go ahead. After him, Mrs. Crow has actually posted for a question.
Okay, me again. Can you maybe again explain your slides, what is it, 20, with your medium-term strategic base plan, targeting EUR 350 million-EUR 400 million? Can you maybe repeat what midterm means? Is that three to five years ? Is that fiive to 10 years?
That's our three to five year scenario here. What we are doing right now also with the, with the impact here, especially out of India and then other regional activities, and also working again on concretizing this and intend to get it out again also with the, with the final numbers here by end of March. It is, I'd say the ten-year perspective, again, looks definitely different. It's a three to five years.
On the revenue guidance 2023, like you said, you're expecting 20%-30% revenue growth, looking at your price increases probably, let's say on average 10%, this is a volume expectation up of only 10%-20%?
We have to see whether we have a full 10%, let's say, net impact here on the price increase. You're right, we naturally have to also go along and assess this again when having this visibility into the year, and we will not hesitate to do this. With, let's say, the range we have out there, I think we have a fair and good picture of the organic part of the business. As mentioned before, we are expecting some decisions, for example, in India pretty shortly. Talking here about, let's say, within this quarter.
In addition, I'd say all the expansion we are planning here for North America or more precisely, the US in the second half of the year, I think there. We don't want to prejudice too much. Looking at the pace we are growing rate now organically, we still feel that the corridor is an attractive corridor and still, like, if you look at the scaling, we have to build up this capacity throughout the entire value chain, including our own production. We have completed the part now in Germany. We are about to complete it in Romania by end of the quarter, and then we are going online also in India with the assembly part.
There is naturally still, timing wise, always a room and a risk in there whether everything is on time and therefore, irrespective of supply chain challenges, yeah, we have to be simply able to ramp up capacity. Does this help for let's say more detailed understanding?
Yeah. Yeah. final question, maybe, not in your press release, but can you give us any grip on CapEx going forward in 2023?
I actually will give you a number. Let me publish our full numbers, if you don't mind.
I do mind. Give me the number.
Yeah, I'll put it this way. Do you not expect? Okay, let me make out of that one. Do you not expect a significant increase in CapEx with regards to tangible assets compared to the last year? In spite of the fact that we're expanding our business in India, in spite of the fact that we're expanding our business in North America, the real tangible assets in terms of the machinery, right? Is not really huge. We're looking here, anything, you know, precise, between EUR 250K-EUR 300K.
The largest investment that we're having, but we also had it in the, in the last year, is really, into, IT infrastructure, and software. That investment will, compared to last year, probably increase, by something, at 15%-20%.
Okay. Very good. Thank you.
R&D, and last but not least, if you look in capitalized R&D, which also is part of our CapEx, we expect also a little increase from what we had this year. All this assuming that obviously on an organic basis.
Okay. Yeah. Inorganic, you are not communicating, of course. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Anne Margaret Crow with Edison Group. Please go ahead. Ms. Crow, we cannot hear you. If you have placed yourself on mute, please unmute your line. You're not heard in the conference. Ms. Crow, we cannot hear you.
Yeah. I suggest we take this offline. Anne Margaret, if you can hear us, if you could send us an email, and then we set up a separate conversation here.
Thank you, management. There are no further questions at this time. I will hand back to Mr. Peter Podesser for any closing comments. Thank you.
Well, thanks again to all of you for the time and the interest. As always, if you have further questions, as also mentioned before, don't hesitate to reach out to us, here individually or to us as the management team. We will be happy to get in direct contact. Overall, yeah, looking into an exciting year, a good start, a dynamic start. Yeah, bear with us through the year. Thank you very much.