Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the conference call of Medios AG. At our customer's request, this conference will be recorded. As a reminder, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If any participant has difficulties hearing the conference, please press zero followed by the pound key for operator assistance. May I now hand you over to Claudia Nickolaus, Head of Investor and Public Relations at Medios.
Good afternoon. Welcome, everybody, to our conference call on our results for the first quarter, 2022. As always, all relevant documents can also be downloaded from our investor relations website. Additionally, this presentation can be followed in parallel via the internet link provided to you in the invitation. Today, with me is our CEO, Matthias Gärtner, and our CFO, Falk Neukirch. Matthias will start with an executive summary, followed by Falk, who will then provide details on the financials as well as on the outlook for the current fiscal year. Finally, Matthias will comment on Medios' growth strategy. Both gentlemen will be then available to answer your questions. I would now like to hand over to Matthias.
Okay. Thank you, thank you, Claudia. Also, a warm welcome from my side. Thank you for attending this call and for your interest in Medios. Once again, I'm proud to present Medios' first quarter results to you today. 2022 started off very well for us. With the fifth record quarter in a row, not only are we making progress in integrating our recent acquisition, we also have achieved double-digit sales growth and a disproportionate increase in earnings. Both operating segments contributed to record sales and earnings growth, with improved absolute operating margins. I will start with a short summary of the achievements and highlights for the first three months, 2022. As in the previous calls, I will be referring to the slides of the presentation. Let's go to slide three directly. Medios' growth strategy is progressing.
We successfully completed the acquisition of the NewCo Pharma Group, which significantly strengthens our market position in the manufacturing area. The merger with NewCo Pharma enables us to expand our competence in the field of patient-specific therapies, and thus also significantly and sustainably increase the profit margin of the entire Medios Group. We have already started to leverage synergy potential and cross-selling opportunities through the now expanded network of compounding facilities, as well as through the network of specialized partner pharmacies, which has increased to around 600 through the merger with NewCo Pharma. In our profit and loss, the acquisition is already paying off, as demonstrated by the positive development of our financial results. Furthermore, the setup of our new labs in the new building in Berlin, where our Berlin wholesale business is already located, is well advanced.
With this, we will be able to up to triple our production capacity in Berlin mid-term, and realize further synergies by concentrating logistics and warehousing at one site. Regarding the digitalization strategy, we have further rolled out our digital platform, mediosconnect. We are happy to announce that it is now available in five German federal states, with more to come. Finally, we are focused on ESG. At the end of 2021, we have approved our sustainability strategy and started right away with the realization in the first quarter of this year. In this regard, we have, among other things, started the implementation of an ESG data software. Let me quickly come back to NewCo Pharma. What are the main benefits of this acquisition? Please see slide four. Let me summarize the main points. We complement each other, especially regarding the regional coverage.
Together, we ensure an almost nationwide supply to our partner network of specialized pharmacies within the shortest possible time. Consequently, we will be able to also serve any time-critical preparation, so-called ad hoc preparations, to most of the specialized pharmacies in Germany, a significant competitive advantage. With the five additional GMP compounding facilities of NewCo, we have already almost tripled our compounding business for individualized therapies to around 320,000 preparations per annum. Also, I would like to point out that together with the additional labs of our new building in Berlin, we will reach compounding capacities of 500,000-600,000 preparations per annum, and we have clear plans on how to use these capacities.
The combination of Medios and NewCo offers significant growth potential through combining our partner networks of around 600 specialized pharmacies, expanding our product and service portfolio, as well as synergies and cross-selling. In a nutshell, this is a remarkable strengthening of our attractive higher margin segment, patient-specific therapies. I'm very blessed that this is already reflected in our Q1 results, leading to a significant increase of our group EBITDA pre-margin to 3.6%. We have already realized synergy effects that result from the recent mergers with Garner and NewCo, mainly in purchasing and logistics, and cross-selling opportunities within our extended partner network. Now, a short summary on the financial for 2021, illustrated on slide five. Impressive continuous growth of revenue and EBITDA pre clearly proving the positive effects of the most recent acquisition, especially the remarkable increase of EBITDA pre and their respective margin.
Following the Corona-burdened second quarter 2020, we have seen seven quarters in a row of key continuous growth of revenue as well as EBITDA pre. Even more impressive, each of the last five quarters representing new record levels. The same feature on slide six. Again, a record quarter with substantial growth year-on-year, record sales, and a disproportionate increase of EBITDA pre. Falk will give you more details about this later on. Let's switch to slide seven, providing a revenue and EBITDA pre-breakdown per segment for the first quarter of this year, reflecting the impact of the consolidation of NewCo Pharma. Namely, a remarkable increase of the share of PST business regarding EBITDA pre from 25% for the full year 2021 to now 48%. Already above the 40% share that we aimed for in full- year 2022.
This development is fully in line with our strategy and goal to increase the share of the higher margin PST business. The main points of our ESG strategy 25 are outlined on slide eight. We published our new ESG strategy in December. It can be downloaded from our website. This strategy comprises well-defined and ambitious targets that are being realized through concrete measures using more than 50 different internal and external key performance indicators to track and measure target achievements. That is, we cover five main fields of action, including governance, product, and environment. Worth mentioning that I'm the chair of our sustainability committee that is monitoring the progress of the ESG program, and the chair of our supervisory board is the ESG expert within the supervisory board, and in this function is also a member of the Medios Sustainability Committee.
The implementation of the software tool mentioned before will support us to improve ESG data collection and transparency. I cannot repeat this often enough, sustainability has and will be an important part of our corporate strategy. This is all from my side for the moment. I now hand over to Falk Neukirch to provide more details on the financials and on the guidance for 2022.
Thank you, Matthias. Also, welcome from my side. Now I would like to walk you through the numbers. Let's start with slide 10, covering the figures for the first quarter of this year. A full set of financials can be found in the quarterly statement for the first quarter of 2022 on our website. If not explicitly mentioned, I will refer to the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period of last year. The full consolidation of NewCo Pharma since 1st January 2022 is reflected in the financials. Consequently, we see a disproportionate improvement of the earnings position of Medios Group compared to the pre-prior year period. Revenue increased by 24.4%, thereof 8.5% organic growth and almost 16% inorganic. EBITDA pre rose by 60.7%, therewith both key indicators reached new levels.
The gross margin increased from 5.0% to 6.7% due to a higher share of PST business, also a result of the NewCo Pharma integration. EBITDA pre outperformed revenue growth, driven by the consolidation of NewCo Pharma Group. The acquisition is already paying off. The rise of the EBITDA pre-margin to 3.6% is particularly pleasing. The conversion rate of gross profit into EBITDA amounts to almost 54% for the first quarter, reflecting a slight decrease of around 1.7 percentage points, mainly a result of a higher portion of PST business, which is more personnel cost-intensive . EBITDA pre was adjusted by extraordinary expenses in the amount of EUR 4.84 million for stock options and M&A transaction costs.
Depreciation and amortization climbed from EUR 3.8 million to EUR 5.4 million, mainly due to the amortization of customer-related intangible assets attributable to NewCo Pharma. Operating cash flow amounted to EUR -2.5 million, caused by two extraordinary effects, the payment of retained taxes and social contributions for stock option plans exercised in 2021, and B, the temporary increase in inventories. The inventory buildup is expected to be offset in the course of the financial year 2022. Adjusted for both effects, cash flow from operating activities amounted to approximately EUR +12 million in the reporting period. Cash flow from investing activities were especially impacted by effects in connection with the acquisition of NewCo Pharma.
The payment of the cash component of the purchase price of EUR 85 million and a cash inflow of EUR 6.0 million as part of the initial consolidation of NewCo Pharma. Financing cash flow of EUR -11.2 million resulted primarily from the scheduled repayment of former shareholder loans of Cranach Pharma and NewCo Pharma Group in the amount of EUR 9.8 million. Thus, cash and cash equivalents amounted to EUR 73.5 million at the end of the reporting period. The equity ratio decreased from 75.2% by end of 2021 to a still very attractive 70.4%. On slide 11 and 12, we provide a breakdown of the organic and inorganic growth by segment. The revenue grew organically by EUR 26.9 million or +8.5%.
The inorganic growth amounted to EUR 50.2 million or +15.9%, driven by the acquisition of NewCo. Around 75% of the inorganic revenue growth was allocated to our PST segment and the remainder to PS, representing the trade business needed to source NewCo's compounding activities. Organic growth of EUR 26.9 million occurred almost entirely in the PS segment, mainly a result of the synergy effects from acquisitions. The slight organic sales increase of the compounding business for the first quarter is strategically driven by focusing on higher margin, but usually lower revenue indications. Slide 12 shows the EBITDA breakdown by segment. EBITDA pre grew organically by EUR 5.6 million as a result of the NewCo integration. Sales of EUR 4.7 million were allocated to our PST segment and the remainder to PS segment.
The increased demand for headquarters functions like IT security as well as monitoring capabilities, plus the development of board remunerations are reflected in higher costs in the Services segment. Let's now switch to slide 13. As just explained, organic sales development was almost flat in the Patient-Specific Therapies segment, and overall segment revenue climbed as a result of NewCo acquisition. EBITDA, the EBITDA pre rose fully in line with our strategy to focus on higher margin products and to increase the share of the compounding business. As already highlighted by Matthias, the share of the PST segment in the revenue of the Group meanwhile 48% and as such above our target of 40%. Pharmaceutical Supply generated 86% of revenue and 52% of EBITDA pre. Remember, at the end of 2021, this contribution amounted to 88%. EBITDA pre-margins slightly improved year-over-year.
We confirm our guidance for 2022, provided on March 29 and shown on slide 15. We still expect consolidated revenue of EUR 1.445 billion-EUR 1.6 billion and an EBITDA pre of EUR 52 million-EUR 58 million with a respective EBITDA pre-margin increase to 3.6%, what we already achieved for the first quarter. We stated that as a result of the NewCo Pharma acquisition, the share of Medios' overall EBITDA pre for PST will rise from around 21% at the end of 2021 to around 40% in 2022. The same year, this is already overachieved with a share of 48% for the first quarter of this year. I want to explain again why the lower end of the revenue is not higher and seems to be too conservative.
The answer is still the same. We consider the outright potential risk in our forecast. Furthermore, we expect additional costs due to the integration of NewCo Pharma and due to the implementation of our new labs in Berlin, for example, double rents and higher number of employees. However, we expect a significant increase of our EBITDA pre-margin as a result of the consolidation of NewCo Pharma and the ongoing focus on higher margin indications and products. This goes along with a higher margin, but usually lower revenue of the manufacturing business. The explanation why the revenue guidance is not too low. We are already seeing this development in the first quarter. We are highly confident that all our investments will pay off in 2022 and the years beyond.
Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, the overall growth model of Medios is intact and showing excellent results. We are very well prepared to continue our successful and sustainable growth story. For this, we have a clear strategy. A summary of our growth initiatives, both organic and via M&A, is outlined on slide 16, and will now be presented by Matthias.
Thank you, Falk. Our growth strategy remains unchanged, and its implementation will further advance. We are on track and well-positioned to drive future growth, not only in 2022. During our previous earnings calls, I highlighted the various activities to achieve growth, so I only want to stress our efforts relating to M&A, in particular in the fields of the compounding business, which will help leverage our additional compounding capacity. Also, geographically, we would be interested in expanding our partner network, especially in Bavaria and/or Eastern Germany. As we want to further increase our EBITDA pre-margin, we want to test the potential opportunities which will enable us to achieve our objective. International expansion of our activities. We still benefit from the high market potential in Germany with the consolidating market.
However, we want to internationalize our business in the future and are considering launching new segments, respectively, new services and/or products within the field of specialty pharma. Ladies and gentlemen, this completes our presentation. Thank you for your attention.