Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking the time to join our earnings call here, reporting first half year numbers and Q2 numbers. Together with Daniel, we will give you an overview of the business and financial performance. Naturally, we will be happy to answer your questions and react to your comments afterwards in the Q&A session. For housekeeping purposes, we had a slight difficulty here on the IT side, ramping up to or getting access with our standard system here. We have to warn you, we are operating here on our mobile device. If there is any issue, please feed this back here to Andre, our operator, so we can react. I hope you can hear us loud and clearly, and with this, yeah, we start our presentation.
Looking back at the very positive first 6 months of the business, showing significant growth and at the same time, a significant improvement of profitability. Looking at the best 6 months in the company's history so far, which also leaves us with quite some optimism here for the remaining part of this year. If you look into the overall highlights, growing sales revenue by almost 50%, 49.5, is the right step forward, but at the same time, double or more than double the Adjusted EBITDA, and increase the Adjusted EBIT here by a factor of 6 and slightly more.
I think it's a significant accomplishment here for us as a team, and I think it's at the end of the day, also delivering on what we promised to all of you who followed us and were confident together with us a year ago when we laid out the plan here in conjunction with our capital increase. What you look at is we are looking at an operational performance with the significant key parameters from a financial point of view, reflecting the delivery here on target and above of the target. At the same time, strategically, I think we have taken the next steps. When we went out to do the capital increase end of July last year, we had three elements where we wanted to allocate the funds as use of proceeds.
Regional expansion, I think seeing the step in India, also seeing the step in the UK, there is, we have the first check mark here in, and we can tick, let's say, initial boxes. Second element, further development here of products, higher power products, integration of further capabilities. To all of you who have already registered for our first Capital Markets Day here, end of September, and to those who are in the call right now, and who want to register and, and follow our invitation, yeah, we will be able to show you the first pilot of our, our higher power system. We will show you the next generation on the hydrogen product side, and naturally, also the full palette here of our methanol products here with all their capabilities, including the cloud capabilities. Also on the development side, we are investing consistently.
The third one, we also, wanted to allocate some of the funds, some of the, investment, capital that we gathered into complementary M&A on the technology side, which I think the first step completed here, end of Q1, beginning of Q2, with acquiring the membrane technology here from our long-term partner, Johnson Matthey, and being on the way to integrate it. Operational and strategic development, I think we are showing that we are following the path which we agreed with all of you, and we are delivering on what we feel is naturally a promise, but also an obligation we went into last year.
Looking at the regional part, I will reference to the UK and the membrane production and technology a little later, but maybe the operational highlights here, taking our Indian operation into, I'd say, full functionality a couple of weeks ago here in the presence of our Vice Chancellor Mr. Habeck , after only five months of full work, after signing the contract with our long-term partner, FC TecNrgy, in the presence here of Chancellor Scholz and Premier Modi in February. Naturally, we are happy about, let's say, the political support and also the attention. I think this gives us also a lot of awareness on the customer front and helps us on marketing and sales of our products in India, which is a big element. Besides the political support, naturally, it's the support of the customers.
Within those couple of months here, within the first 6 months of this year, we were able to acquire projects and programs. of a value of about EUR 33 million, largest fuel cell order from the Indian Army, border protection forces , taking our fuel cells out to have, let's say, autonomous and off-grid energy. Those orders are now being in execution. We are about to ship to our customers in the second half of the year, a big portion of those orders, and this again, naturally, is the natural financing of our investment. Fast forward, right now, expanding our customer base, we are working on projects here, especially in the civilian application, from, let's say, Indian railroad, projects to smart city projects, where at the end, conventional generators are replaced or are to be replaced in a broad sense.
This whole step into India, for us, is one of the major elements also of our, not only worldwide, but Asian strategy. We are building up an operational hub that fulfills Make in India requirements, so local content is up, is about 50%, which gives us access to a lot of government programs we could not fulfill here, delivering products from Germany only. The second element, naturally, there's a massive investment in this National Green Hydrogen Mission by the Modi administration, intending to spend about INR 44 billion here on green energy projects. Again, replacing conventional generators, but also including green hydrogen production. We are working on RFQs, where we integrate, again, our fuel cell capabilities with electrolyzer capabilities there for civilian and non-civilian applications.
Over time, we expect to have about 100 people working there, and our midterm plan, at the end, is to generate about EUR 100 million revenue here out of the Indian market. Looking into the UK, taking the opportunity here, call it a strategic alignment with our long-term partner, Johnson Matthey, taking over the technology, but also then the production know-how for our MEAs, for the membrane electrode assemblies, the most expensive, the most valuable component of a fuel cell here for our methanol product line.
I think helps us over time to solidify and, and, and strengthen our supply chain, at the same time, I think helps us to build out our competitive position on the technology side here in the methanol space, our leadership position here in terms of technology competitiveness. Then naturally, over time, also, we expect to reduce costs here by being able to drive this development in-house. Where do we stand? The, the, the lot for the factory is selected, construction work is on its way, the plan is to shift the assets end of Q4 and to get operational beginning of Q1 with our UK team producing then the membranes for the for the methanol products here directly. Capacity expansion in Germany, we are through. In Romania, we already do assemble fuel cell modules. We do assemble energy systems.
We are not where we wanted to be in total. There is still, let's say, the one or the other government permit outstanding, which prevents us from, let's say, a full-fledged production. We expect to have this all solved by end of this year and also complete there with this, the capacity expansion here in Europe. Overall, I think, looking at also an order backlog of about EUR 85 million here, end of Q2, we also see that the demand here and the dynamics in the market remain fully intact. If we now look at, let's say, where we are in terms of the development of the sales in our two segments, we see that Clean Power Management was catching up significantly in the first six months.
In the Q2, we see a growth here of about 60% year-on-year, for the first six months. The one is solid order backlog with our large industrial customers there. We saw an easing on the supply chain, which really hampered the results last year and impacted the business negatively. A good catch up compared to 2022, I would not say a full normalization on the supply chain, but a real, a real improvement. On Clean Energy, well, if you look at the growth here, about 45% growth, demand dynamics fully intact and still here. Also, the industrial applications are the drivers. Overall, this is about 2/3 of the overall segment's revenue.
If we look into what are the main drivers, this is still replacing conventional generators, mostly diesel generators, or complementing battery solar combinations in the, I'd say, in our civil surveillance technology in data transmission. On a regional level, yeah, I think it is naturally a highlight to look at, let's say, to look at the growth rate here in North America being 72%, and in Asia, 94%, or almost 95%. If we look now into, let's say, North America from a country level, still, naturally, the US is growing at the pace of about 120%.
We have a key customer that is driving this here, LiveView Technologies, but we are diversifying this, so orders from other segments and other customers are incoming. Still our home market in North America, Canada, is also delivering a growth of about 60%. The same, we should not neglect our home market here in Europe. We have growth rates between 31%-37% in the core countries, so this is also according to plan. Naturally, we are starting at, let's say, a higher base number in Europe as well as in Canada, compared to Asia and the U.S. In Asia, about 95% growth, a big impact from India, but also a growth in the other countries we are operating in.
If we also look into, let's say, end markets besides, let's say, the, the industrial markets, especially with our successes in India, we saw the public security end market almost doubling. If we look, let's say, at the order side, I already mentioned this, we are looking at an EUR 85 million order backlog, again, an increase compared to last quarter, compared to, to, let's say, half a year ago. All of this, yeah, l- helps us to look in an optimistic way into, let's say, the remaining four, four and a half months of this year. With this, I would like to hand over to Daniel to lead you through the development of earnings and, and looking into, let's say, the financial performance.
Thank you, Peter, and good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining the call. As Peter already mentioned, you know, we've been able to, to expand our margins, while growing. Let me dig into, you know, the reasons and the drivers of our margin expansion and how the costs developed. Basically, also, as Peter mentioned, it's pretty much executing on what we have laid out during our roadshow, last year during the capital increase, and keep on telling you, when we see you, you know, I'm taking advantage of operational leverage, but also, implementing, what we consider, good strategies, for our products, and our pricings.
If we start with the group gross profit, you've seen in our release that the gross profit for the first half year amounted to EUR 22 million. That's a 62% increase significantly for the previous half year or EUR 8.4 million. If we compare it then to the sales of EUR 57 million, this translates into a gross margin for the group of 38.3%. That is noticeably above the level of last year's or half year's gross margin, which was at 35.3%, and it's also slightly above the full year margin of last year, which was 36.8%. What is the reason for this increase or the expansion? It's pretty much the same as we had in the Q1.
We do see the full effect of our price adjustments that we implemented last year in both segments. Also we see the higher level of revenue, which then also translates in relatively lower production overhead per unit, giving us a higher gross profit. We also see, and I mentioned that already during the Q1, that, you know, the higher cost of the little bit more expensive components which we purchased last year are not entirely flowing into production. Still, I repeat what I said during the last call: we will see some of this cost coming into Q3 and part of it also in Q4. Overall, the gross margin in both segments have improved.
Looking at the Clean Energy segment, which tends to have or strongly has the higher gross margin, we are looking at a gross profit of EUR 70.2 million, which is 61% above what we see last year, and translating in a 44.6% gross margin, very strong. Last year, we had a 40.1% gross margin, giving, and you may remember that the rapidly increasing prices of components and logistics in the first half of last year. Also, in the first half year, the product mix is a little bit more favorable. Still the segment grows, and the segment profitability is driven by fuel cells for industrial application.
Peter already mentioned that also, and these products tends to be higher power and also higher margin, but also in the first half year, we had a significant contribution of products in the, for the public security sector, which are also tend to be very high margin product. Still, fuel cells for industrial applications, that's the right order of the words, account for approximately 63% of the segment's revenue. Clean Power Management also, good to see, we've been able to expand the gross margin from 24.1% - 25.3%. It's not a super high step, but it's a step in expanding the margin.
Mostly this is really giving the way, been able to implement the price increases. Looking at our EBITDA, very nice, very good. The EBITDA for the first half year was EUR 6.8 million compared to EUR 3.1 million. Let's look at the Adjusted EBITDA, which, as you know, is our key KPI. I repeat this every call. One of the adjustments that we're making, it's basically 2, is we adjust our EBITDA for the provision and the income from the LTI, Long-Term Incentive Programs, stock option programs, and we adjust our EBITDA for the transaction expenses that we may have during a certain period. The impact on the important EBITDA in the first half year were relatively low.
It was EUR 500,000, compared to even lower number of EUR 52,000 in the last half year. In the half year of the last year. Sorry about that. Transaction related expenses, much lower than last year. Obviously, we had a lot of costs that incurred with the capital increase. That compares EUR 254,000 in the current year, compared to EUR 1.1 million in the last year.
If we look at the expenses for the LTI program, net of the income of the LTI program, we looked at an impact of a cost of EUR 297,000 in the first half year, whereas we had income of EUR 967 in last year's first half year. When we look at the group Adjusted EBITDA, very nice, we're looking at EUR 7.3 million, which translates into a Adjusted EBITDA margin of 12.8%. That is well above the level of the financial year 2022, as well as the first half year of 2022. What are the key reasons? I mean, there's, there's simple math behind it, but behind the math, there's also some, some, some rationale.
Of course, it's the gross margin expansion. You know, gross margin expansion is 3.1 percentage point, which had a big impact on the Adjusted EBITDA, then, it's also the sales and marketing expenses. I will comment on that later. Sales and marketing expenses, I keep also repeating this, is the largest position in our functional expenses. They account for approximately 40% of our functional expenses or operational expenses below the gross profit. And these expenses is increased distinctly slower than the sales. They account for 13.3% of sales in the first half year, whereas it was 16.4% in the last half year. That's really a big impact.
G&A expense and R&D expenses, which increased lower, had a contribution to the higher margin. Depreciation, amortization, we're getting to the EBIT. Total depreciation was EUR 3 million versus EUR 2.4 million in the first half year last year. That is higher than than we had in the last year. One-third, approximately of that, D&A, are sixteen related. So that's approximately EUR 960,000. The second biggest position in our depreciation is the depreciation of the capitalized R&D, which in the first half year was EUR 1.4 million. You see, it's a little bit higher of what we normally have.
That has to do, and I'll touch on that later, that we made a EUR 600,000 depreciation on an R&D project. I will elaborate on this in a minute. There's, if we take the depreciation from our wonderful EBITDA, we're getting to the Adjusted EBIT, which was EUR 4.4 million, representing a margin of 7.6%. Quickly going into the operating expenses, already mentioned sales and marketing expenses. Absolutely, the adjusted sales and marketing expenses have increased by 21%. They are EUR 7.6 million compared to EUR 6.3 million. Still, in relation to our revenue, I mentioned that before, it's 30.3%, and compared to a 60.4% in the last year.
Our long-term goal of sales and marketing expenses in relation to revenue is anything between 12% and 30%. We are on a good way there. The increase of the expense is really mostly personal expenses. You know, headcount increased to 87 from 83. Also, wages have increased, and obviously sales provision with the increasing revenues. R&D expenses, same logic as in every quarter, we're looking at total adjusted R&D spend. What did we really spend for R&D, irrespective of what is being expensed on the P&L? The total spend for EUR 4.5 million compared to EUR 3.4 million. Those EUR 4.5 million are the EUR 2.8 million, which we, which you see on the P&L.
We capitalized, EUR 1.5 million of R&D, then we received approximately EUR 200,000 in subsidies. Increase of R&D spend of 31%, it's due, on the one hand, to the higher personal expenses. Also, if you look at the headcount in R&D, we have built up significantly since last year, not only in Germany, also with our subsidies in Canada as well as in Romania and the Netherlands. Headcount is 86, compared to 64. That is a significant increase, but also I mentioned we have a depreciation of EUR 600,000 of a capitalized R&D project. Basically, in context, was refocusing our scarce, still scarce R&D resources on the key project.
It was a fuel cell accessory, and we will decide to go forward and really focus on the key projects, higher power, Peter already mentioned it, and a couple of other things that we're working on. R&D spend in relation to revenues is 7.9% compared to 9% in the previous year. Long term, same thing, we're looking at 6%-7% of revenue, probably more at the 7% and in the future. G&A expenses, adjusted G&A expenses have increased really significantly, 43%, so EUR 7 million compared to EUR 4.9 million. Key reason is really, again, mostly personal. We increased the numbers at the functions, headcount, also wages have gone up.
Also we had a significant higher legal and advisory expenses, among others, also for the AGM, and regulatory items that really made those cost increase. That corresponds to 12.3% of our revenues, compared to 12.9% in the last year. Basically, on the level of last half year, our target is 12%-13% of revenues. Quickly, also a look at our balance sheet, especially at Capex. Total Capex in the first half year were EUR 3.9 million. You see that it doesn't exactly match with the EUR 3.6 in the cash flow statement.
That has to do with the fact that there are some prepay labor payments and deferred payments. The 3.9% really the key driver was the investment in the MEA production that we made, intangible asset of EUR 1.3 million in the first half. The split between intangible investments, intangible assets, and PP&E, unchanged. About two-third is really investment in intangible assets. One-third is in PP&E. The PP&E is mostly machinery and equipment, also to some extent, IT. Nothing really has changed with our Capex spending. Cash and cash equivalents, I'm still looking at a solid cash position of EUR 59.4 million, compared to the EUR 64 million we had at year-end.
Financial debt has increased a little bit. We are looking at EUR 5 million. Nothing has changed in terms of the quality. It's still working capital line, sitting with SFC Netherlands and SFC Canada. That leads to a net cash position of EUR 54.4 million. Equity has increased with the net profit, positive net profit that we have. The equity ratio is at the level of last year, last year's end, 70% is really driven by the net profit. Last look at the cash flow. This is, this is really the number we are looking at and, and making sure that this is solid.
The operating cash flow before changes in net working capital was EUR 7.3 million, much higher than what we see in the first half year last year, where we looked at EUR 2.1 million. The net working capital did increase, relatively to our sales development, it increased lower. Total net working capital increased by EUR 8 million comparing to EUR 10.9 million in the last half year in 2022. What are the key components? It is still the inventory that has increased by absolutely EUR 2.3 million. It is an absolute increase. It's a relative decrease. We just take one of the, you know, quick quick KPIs, we're looking at their days of inventories, 12 months trailing.
We're looking at 279 days, in, as of end of June, comparing to 368 days, at the end of last year. You see, that relatively, inventory is decreasing. Accounts receivable, cash impacting, we had a big change, EUR 7.9 million. At by the end of June, it really has to do with the revenue distribution in the, in, in the Q2, which was quarter back-ended. We made approximately 50% of, of the quarter's revenue in June, so that automatically leads to a higher position of accounts receivable as, at the end, of the quarter. Accounts payable also increased by EUR 3.8 million in that case.
That's also a decent increase in absolute terms, but also in relative terms, it's slightly lower than what we have seen. Other short-term receivables, mostly prepayments, taxes that we pay, the change was EUR 791 thousand. That then it goes into a cash flow after change in net working capital of minus EUR 1.5 million, roughly, compared to minus EUR 8.9 million in the last year. Cash flow from investment activities, I already laid out on that one, EUR 3.6 million compared to EUR 1.7 million. Financing activities, not a lot happening there. We're looking at EUR 300 thousand versus EUR 900 thousand in the last year.
The impact, the total change in cash in the first half year was EUR 4.5 million, which leaves us a net cash position of EUR 59.7 million. I think these were the key points with regards to cost and balance sheet. With that one, I'll return it to Peter.
Thanks very much, Daniel. Now, looking at what is ahead of us. I said before, I think based on, on the demand and the dynamics we are seeing in the market, and we are standing on the, 22nd of August, so we have 4-plus X, 4 months plus X here to go. We are looking, again, optimistically into the remaining part of the year. Looking into some of the activities here on the hydrogen product side, we have now, a broad pilot fleet out there. We are getting first operational permits here from, or our customers getting first operational permits, which in some of those projects, really is the delaying factors. This is going to telecom, this is going to utility.
We have the first fully decarbonized industrial site operating for more than 6 months, together with Austrian partners here, Fronius, Wolftank , where a solar PV electrolyzer fuel cell combination with a H2, with a hydrogen gas station, is operated by an industrial customer since 6 months on a daily basis. Let's say, green hydrogen production and usage, decentralized. This is, I think, a pilot we are naturally pursuing and trying to replicate here. We have our H2Genset out there over the summer in all the different festivals.
Name it, maybe the most prominent one here, Wacken, together with our partner, GP Joule, but also another one in Northern Germany, where at the end, just for a data point, there were 100 diesel gensets operated over a period of 3, 4 days, and on a daily basis, those 100 diesel gensets consume 20,000 liters of diesel with the respective natural CO2 footprint. The idea of bringing the first hydrogen genset in there is recepted exceptionally well, and we expect this, besides, let's say, construction sites being the main field of application for our H2 genset once the rollout starts. I've mentioned the higher power systems development and some other.
On Friday, we are going to the opening of the Caravan Salon here, the largest RV, the largest caravaning show worldwide, to celebrate 20 years of E-Fuels, 20 years of, of fuel cells in camper vans. There, we expect to get some impetus on the business. Regionally, the U.S. is on the agenda. We are looking at different sites. We intend to take a decision still this year to be there near to our customers. It's not we are going there because there is an incentive scheme with the IRA. We are going there to be closer in more proximity to our customer, and if we then can recuperate some of the costs through subsidies, this is even better.
M&A on the, on the regional side in the US, do not expect anything, let's say, before 2024. We are also looking at some complementary technology, as, as, as mentioned before, which might lead into, into, let's say, an M&A, but that's still opportunistic. Based on all of this, we have decided to narrow our range here for the guidance on the revenue side to the upper half, from the EUR 103 million-EUR 111 million range to a EUR 107 million-EUR 111 million range.
We have also done in a subsequent way, based on our expectations on margins and profitability, the same here on the Adjusted EBITDA and EBIT, Adjusted EBIT, narrowing the range to the upper half for the EBITDA to a range from EUR 10.5 million-EUR 14.1 million, and for the Adjusted EBIT to a range from EUR 5 million-EUR 8.6 million. With this, we are, I think, reflecting our optimism here, and we are committed to further deliver. Before closing our presentation, for those amongst you who have not yet registered for our capital markets day, do not hesitate to do this. This will be a first timer for us. We make this a user experience day with a lot of, let's say, practical examples here of the applications and really showing our product in operation.
The event is intended to be virtually, but naturally, also physically, for those of you who are, by chance, in the Munich area here, end of September, we are happy to welcome you. With this, we hand back to Andre and open the floor for the Q&A. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question and answer section. 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 leave the handset before making your selections. Anyone who has a question may press Star followed by one at this time. The first question comes from the line of Karsten von Blumenthal with First Berlin Equity Research. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Peter. Good morning, Daniel. Congratulations to the strong growth. Seems like everything works fine. You just mentioned that in your smaller segment, there are still some supply chain hiccups. Perhaps you could comment on where the problems are there?
Good morning, Carsten. Thanks for joining us. I think we are seeing a massive easing here. As, let's say, most other industries, we suffered from, let's say, some post-COVID supply chain challenges here over a period of 18 months with, let's say, countermeasures, like increased increased stock levels. I think the stock levels still help us to naturally cope with some of the fluctuations we are seeing there. We are seeing prices coming down significantly, almost to pre-COVID levels on the electronic parts.
Still, I think until we get to a, a fully, normalized pre-COVID, situation, we expect, let's say, the running quarter, maybe the next quarter to go by, and, and so far, no disruption, but some of it, some of it, yeah, still, leading to simply higher efforts on logistics, on, on, on short notice, purchases, but not a concern compared to last year and the year before.
All right. That, that sounds sounds good. You have quite a spectacular growth in Asia. Could you give us a bit further detail where the growth comes from? What, what about Japan, for example? That would be interesting.
The, the, the major impacting factor, definitely India, as mentioned, and I think it will remain to be the main driver also in the remaining part of the year. Together with our partners, Toyota, I think Japan is back to pre-COVID levels. We had our quarterly management meetings, also physically, again, with the, with the, with the senior management here of Toyota Tsusho. I think this is back on track. Still, the delay in Southeast Asia is there, although with our partner in Singapore, we, we, we had, let's say, first project wins already, and there are significant projects in the pipeline. We expect Singapore to catch up in the remaining part of the year, respectively, first, Q1, Q2 of next year.
All right, great. Daniel mentioned this R&D project, with the EUR 600 K depreciation. What exactly, which project did you stop, to refocus, on key projects?
Hi, Carsten. It was, it was a project. It was an accessory for a fuel cell and energy storage accessory, which we started to develop a few years ago. There's good reason to do it at the end of the day, as I mentioned... It, it, it's fuel cell related, there were good reasons to do that. At the end of the day, we were really looking at the resources that we have, having some things have changed in the recent 24 months, especially as Peter mentioned, moving into higher power and moving much stronger into hydrogen. We decided not to pursue, further pursue, this project. Yes, unfortunately, we have to also write it down.
At the end, you, you might recall this, we did develop some battery management system for, let's say, a complementary EFOY battery here for our methanol products. What we see is that there is good product out there in the market, at the end, it's a make or buy decision, focusing our R&D as Daniel said, really onto the methanol and hydrogen fuel cell and part, not on, let's say, a BMS part.
All right, that makes sense to me. Last question. When we look into the global economy, and China now has obviously some problems, Europe, especially Germany, is quite weak. The Panama Canal, the shipments do not come through. Is there anything in H two, where you say that you could be hampered to grow?
I think when we look at our range right now, we, we really tried to factor in on the lower end of the narrowed guidance, all the risk factors we are seeing right now, based also on the existing order backlog. We feel confident we, we can deliver, despite, let's say, an environment that naturally shows different elements of risk.
All right, great. Thank you very much for taking my questions.
Well, thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Thomas Junghans with Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen. I have two questions, maybe we can go one by one. My first question is with respect to the hydrogen fuel cell business. Does the business gain traction? How is this business developing? Can you give us a little bit more color on this? Maybe you can announce or disclose some numbers, for example, of the split in terms of revenues, between methanol fuel cells and hydrogen fuel cells, or maybe in terms of the numbers of fuel cells being sold.
Well, good morning, Thomas. Thanks very much. As mentioned, I think we are seeing the overall pipeline here growing, the overall also pilot fleet growing. If you want to see one of the limiting factors, I mentioned this before, this is where we see the biggest challenge, and also, I'd say, not only for us, but also for our customers, to get those products operational in terms of permits. Which means getting local authorities being acquainted with the hydrogen technology, making sure that all safety regulations are not only followed, but are already accepted. This is where we say, see delays.
If you look at some of the pilot projects, take the telecom site, or the telecom market, yeah, in, in specific projects, our customers were waiting three to six months to get the permits for operation. This is, let's say, on the local authority level. Well, I was, I was asked to also give my, let's say, observations here, to the highest political levels when traveling with them to India. I mentioned this is one of the things, speeding up the bureaucracy here. Then going back to the, to the... This is not a German topic. This is, let's say, we're seeing this in projects here, throughout the, the entire geographies. If we now look into, let's say, where are we in, in fielding?
Yeah, still, let's say the vast majority here and, and also the, the unit numbers comes out of the methanol product range, which still is according to our plan, so about 90-plus % is definitely still methanol. Then if we look into the pipeline, if we look into project, just by the mere change in ASPs, the hydrogen part of the business gets a continuously growing share here of our overall pipeline. I think we will see this over the next couple of quarters, still being, let's say, one of the major topics to make sure our customers are able to immediately take the product and operate it. It's not that we are not able to deliver, it's really then the operational startup.
Okay, super. Understood. Thanks. My second question is, with respect to your U.S. business. I read in the H1 report that you are planning to establish a subsidiary in H2 in the U.S. Can you specify a little bit about your plans in the U.S.? Is this, the planned implementation of setting up of an own sales force, or do you plan first to set up here an O&M service business?
Well, here, I think it's a step-by-step process. We are seeing, I'd say, a demand really growing at a fast pace. We need to have our faces near to the customer. It's not sufficient to support them out of Canada, to support them out of Germany. We have installed already first service guys in the field, the plan here is to set up sales and service first, which must not, let's say, entirely be a sales force that is, that is supporting the customers directly. This can also, let's say, support then integration and channel partners. It is a decision within the upcoming weeks here, in terms of location for own presence with sales and service. Still we are looking at potential M&A targets.
The, the, the role model here is like we did it in Canada, looking at, at proper product integration capabilities that then would help us also to ramp up the local content, and with this also then, then participate naturally then on some of the incentive schemes. Not before 2024. That, to make this clear, so and manage expectations here. First, own presence, sales, service, customer proximity, and then really assess potential M&A.
Perfect. Thanks a lot. Super helpful. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you, Thomas.
The next question comes from the line of Malte Schaumann with Warburg Research. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, guys. The first, first question is, also on the hydrogen part. How much visibility do you have, or when, when do you expect kind of to reach an inflection point, when potentially authorities, when it normalize, when the grants of permissions, et cetera, normalize, et cetera, so that customers can install the systems more quickly? Is that something? I mean, visibility is probably not that high. Would your base expectations be that this is something that should evolve maybe next year, or will it be a longer process?
Well, that's definitely a tricky or a challenging question. Part of it is naturally a crystal ball, but the other part is, yeah, we are seeing our project pipeline. We are seeing a similar demand coming up here on a worldwide level. This is not a German, not a North American or, let's say, an Indian demand curve. There is this replacement need, felt, seen, and translated into RFQs, translated into tenders, which we are answering to here in Europe, in India. So it is, I think, still a project business.
It is not at the maturity stage, like, let's say, our methanol business already, where we simply have a, a number of repeat customers who are installing our products here on a weekly, on a weekly and, and, and, and daily basis, and replacing them in a, in a routine. What we also see is that the size of those projects is increasing, and the question, when do we get to a point where we have, let's say, a TÜV here, or, or other certification bodies in a position to, let's say, take our product as, a standard replacement of generators? Yeah, I think that's still something that will continue to be with us, at least in the next year.
Yeah. Is the kind of already maybe early experience, what's the average permission period is like? I mean, you mentioned something like 3-6, 6 months, so is that maybe a period we should expect currently for new upcoming projects?
Well, unfortunately, this is really depending on, call it, local differences. It's not something where you have, let's say, a country, like you have, let's say, in, in, in a Canadian and/or North American context, you have the fire marshal to talk to. You here in Germany, you have, let's say, the local authority, the Landkreise, responsible here to talk to, and this is what makes it really also still an effort for our customers. Three to six months is really what we observe at this point in time, but I would not dare to say that this is the kind of standard.
Yeah. Okay, understood. On the, also on hydrogen, when we discussed about or spoke about many interesting projects you have in your pipeline in the past, are you able to call out maybe one or two or three, which you would see as the most important or the most attractive, but maybe not most tangible ones, looking into maybe the next 12 months or so?
Yep.
Which are at the top of your list?
There are, we answered or we tended in some RFQs here on the telecom side in Europe here from countries like Luxembourg, but also, let's say, Switzerland and Scandinavia. We are actually working on a couple of tenders, where in India, together with FC TecNrgy, where at the end, this is a rural electrification effort supported by the government, run by utility companies.
You, you have to think of it like, somebody wants a 1-megawatt electrolyzer, somebody wants a 200-300 kilowatt fuel cell, the solar PV site to it, and then, making sure that in a certain landscape, there is not, let's say, a disruption in the, in the grid here of 30%, 30%, 40% on a daily basis. This is actual projects we are working on and, and, seeing the implementation speed... In India, well, we have no reason to, to, to question that there will be an implementation coming in 2024, from today's point of view.
Yeah. Okay, good. A question on the gross margin. I think with, still with the Q1 call, I think you, you shared your expectation that maybe gross margins would put temporarily subdued a bit due to higher sourcing costs for components last year. This turned not to be out the case, was just product mix. Have there been other things that supported the strong gross margin, despite volume, just volume and potentially mix?
I am also Daniel. No, I think, I think the answer you said is the answer. Of course, some higher cost components are already reflected in the bill of material and going into production right now. We did have a rather favorable product mix in the first half year. As I mentioned, especially, the defense portion is still small in terms of total, in total revenue, but that is a very, very high, high margin product, significantly higher. And then we have in the industrial area that has really contributed on the one hand side.
On the other hand side, yes, we always said that the industrial products are in terms of gross margin a little bit healthier than, for example, the consumer, because they also got higher power and a little bit more functionality here and there. That's why a higher price is justified. That is really the key, key, key point. Yes, of course, you know, comparing to last year, we took a hit because of the pricing. You know, the adjustments that we made at the pricing is also now helping us to get back to a healthy gross margin. To make a long story short, long answer to a short question, sorry about that.
It is, it is really a healthy product mix and of course, a much higher level of revenue.
Yeah. Okay, thanks. What's the expectation for the second half of the year? I mean, seeing your pipeline, what do you expect, a decline in gross margin to, to keep it at that level?
Well, if you look, if you look at, if you look at, how we, how we move along with our guidance, you know, there, there is a certain rationale behind it. It is, frankly speaking, what do we expect? We expect it, most likely, to contract a little bit. It really depends on product mix and how and what we will be delivering, but there, there's a contraction. I would not expect anything dramatic, frankly speaking, but there is movement in it. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay, good. Question on the order intake. I mean, that had been pretty strong in the first half with a book-to-bill of significantly above 1. In the Q1, we had this multi-year project at BEL, included probably in the Q2, some longer-range projects in India. What is in your pipeline? I mean, are there similar projects expected to be to, to, in the pipeline for the second half? Should we kind of expect kind of an easing of the situation, a bit slower order intake, as you had, might have less, less multi-year projects?
There's, there's definitely some of those multi-year projects still in there. Whether, I would not dare to, let's say, promise here, we are doing this in Q3, but we are, I think, on a good way to get something really also than signed here of similar sizes here until the end of the year, calendar year. At the same time, I think what we see is that we expect some decision making on tenders we have outstanding, as mentioned on the hydrogen side, as well as really the replacement and the recurring replacement business here on the methanol side.
Yeah. Okay, that sounds good. From the current order backlog, how much of that is expected to turn into revenues in the second half out of the EUR 86 million?
Well, if you take the EUR 86 million, a good EUR 30 million of it is already, let's say, intended to, to, to be delivered in the next year. Still, with the level of consumption or with the level of usage we are seeing with some of the large customers, they're eating into the backlog faster than originally anticipated on the power management side, as well as on the fuel cell side. In terms of, let's say, repeat business, I think Singapore is a good example here. Looking at, let's say, the usage of the products, we expect, let's say, the, the, the, the border security project being, let's say, in, in, in a, in a replacement mode as of Q4, well, latest Q1 next year.
Yeah. Okay, good. Then last, a quick one for Daniel. G&A costs, you addressed that topic had been a bit higher in the Q2 of the year. What's the expectation, especially on the G&A side, then for Q3 and Q4 in terms of the run rate?
in term- G&A, I would expect to have the same run rate as, as we had in the first half year. also the second half year, there's, there's no big change. largest part is really personal expenses. you know, we don't see any change in headcount. in the opposite, we would expect the headcount to increase a little bit, giving, you know, that, that also IT is reflected in that headcount. Also, we all know that the regulatory environment is, is, is not getting lighter. not that we're really you know, e-employing and, and going after those things in, in the regulations.
There are things that we have to do and that we need to do, and that really also increases a little bit the expenses, for advisory, legal, and regulatory advisory. You know, they will stay at the level that we saw them in the first half year and might increase a little bit.
Yeah. Okay, thanks.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star followed by one. The next question comes from the line of Dick Berkelder with ABN AMRO. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, gentlemen. Dick Berkelder, ABN AMRO, ODDO BHF . First question on India. You signed more than EUR 33 million of contracts. What part of these contracts will be still delivered in, let's say, the second half of this year? Can you maybe also give a bit of flavor on the extra costs we should assume for the startup of India in the second half versus the first half? A similar question related to, let's say, the development in the UK. What kind of extra costs should we assume in the second half versus the first half for getting production started? Maybe for now, the third question is on the outlook. What should happen from a negative perspective to, to make you reach the low end of your guidance range?
Well , good morning. This is Peter. Starting with, with India, I think, yeah, at some of the initial shipments, we did some initial shipments now at the end of Q2 already for the first project in India, where, where still the final assembly is done now by our partner, and the, and the core product here coming from Germany. If you then take, let's say, for Q3 and Q4, about altogether, a good half of it, and slightly more than half of the entire revenue really running into this year. There might be another, let's say, 25%, which we might ship or we will ship, we intend to ship, not might.
We intend to ship, we hopefully will ship before Christmas to our subsidiary in India for the final assembly, then to be shipped to the customer within Q1. Then, let's say, a remainder might run into Q2, but that's the biggest part of it, really fully executed until end of Q1, 2024, which is the schedule the customer has given us and we have signed up to. If there is a delay on the customer end, yeah, we will, we will accommodate for this. Before I hand over to Daniel on the cost side, maybe on the outlook side, yeah, for the lower end, on the revenue side, this is really the simple answer here is simply some delays, amongst of it, India and some larger shipments to the US that might slip out into Q1.
With this, I hand over to Daniel.
Hey . When it comes to India and startup costs in the second half year, you know, we could be looking at anything up to EUR 200,000. You know, the key part really is rent expenses that will start or have started running as of 1st of July. This is really it where we'll get employees on board or got employees on board. The question is how fast we will ramp this up. Also, it depends a little bit on the regulatory environment in India, getting all the certificates, et cetera. This is sort of the range that we are, that we're looking at. When it comes to UK, it's, it's, it's very similar.
We're looking at a little bit of a lower cost here, but it could be anything up to EUR 150,000. Once again, it depends on how fast people will get on board, on how fast we'll be able to equip the fab. There's a little, little bit of movement in there, which not so much depends on what we doing. It is really also in those countries, getting permits and getting registrations to start operations and ramp it up fully. This, this is really the impact. Then, you know, what could happen on a cost side in the second half year? Of course, currency is always an issue.
You know, there is certain movement, in the US dollar, in the Canadian dollar, that could incur additional costs. Also, obviously, one position is with the higher, higher-priced, components, that we also have in there. Some of those components Peter mentioned it, are going, back, in price and market price. You know, we have to write them down, to the lower cost. This is something that could also, you know, happen on some electronic first, difficult, to assess. You know, then there may also be, depending, on how quickly, we get, people on board, a little bit of higher personal expenses here and there.
We also may decide to speed up, if possible, in, in running operations, some IT projects. You know, it's a number of factors. It's not just one factor, but it's a number of factors on, on the cost side, that, that. It just gives us a range. Part of it is driven really by growth and how far we fast we can or will implement it. Part is obviously market when it comes to end component costs, cost and, and currency.
Okay. Then as a follow-on, working capital, is it logical there to assume that we will see a release in working capital, more likely in 2024 than in second half 2023, because of, let's say, India delivery, around year-end?
We will definitely.
We'll definitely see-
Yeah
... in, in, in working capital, once we also start shipping things to India. As we mentioned before, you know, there's gonna be a certain extent of double inventory initially to just secure the supply chain in India. The same accounts when we start production in UK of the membrane. There will be a higher level of, on inventory, simply because also our value chain is getting extended. That's the key thing. I think the absolute level will increase relatively, as we almost seen in the in the past half year. We are going down and to the more normal levels if we look at the, you know, key ratios.
Yeah. On the, on the regions, there was one sale in a rest of world in Clean Power Management. Was that Latin America, Middle East or Africa? Do you know?
This was the sale to New Zealand, so Oceania.
New Zealand. Okay.
We might have to think about to introduce, let's say, Asia and Oceania. If this project really scales up, there are some topics in the pipeline here.
The country, like Israel, is booked in Europe or in Asia?
This is where we have changed a couple of years ago, because this was in rest of the world, and we have now included this in our standard, standard reporting. This, as you might recall, we had this in rest of the world before, but this time it's not Israel.
Okay. Thanks.
Well, thank you.
Once again, if you wish to register for a question, please press star followed by one. There are no further questions at this time.
Well, thank you very much, Andre. Well, thanks everybody here on our call for your interest and continued support. Well, as always, please do not hesitate to reach out to Susan, Daniel, or myself for bilateral discussions and addressing questions. Again, as I said, Ceterum censeo , don't neglect our invitation for our capital markets day. We will be happy to have as many of you participating as possible.