Our first results call following our successful listing on Frankfurt Stock Exchange in February. Our fiscal year 2023 investor and analyst call is hosted by our CEO, Susanne Wiegand, and CFO, Christian Schulz. Most of you have met those two individuals at some point during the last few weeks and months. But on Slide 1, you also see a third person. In addition to the two board members that many of you have met, Dr. Alexander Sagel will join RENK as a third member of the management board with effect from 1 April, i.e., Tuesday next week. The three segments, as well as the CTO and COO functions, will report to him. Without further ado, I will hand over to Susanne, who will give you a quick introduction on RENK before Christian will present the fiscal year performance.
Thank you, Ingo. Welcome from my side, from our side, to all of you analysts and investors. Great to speak to you again. Unfortunately, we can't see you here, but next time, I'm looking forward to that. Ingo has already introduced Alexander joining our team. We are very much looking forward to that. I have been knowing Alexander for quite some years when we were colleagues in the defense board of Rheinmetall. In light of our, let's say, extended functions and jobs and growth and focus on operations, Alexander is a very valuable addition to the board here in our company. Looking forward to introducing him then once he has started somewhere after next week. Jumping straight into the presentation, just to remind you, and most of you are well aware of what we are doing.
We are providing mission-critical drive solutions for the defense industry as well as for the energy market. In defense, we are assuming a global number one position in the market we are operating, which is all about tanks, as you know, powering the entire Western fleet, allies of NATO, and friendly countries. It's more or less powered by us with a huge market presence of 75% unmatched. This is also true for the surface combatant market, for the navies of this world. More than 40 navies enjoy RENK technology in their fleets, in their vessels, and more than 70 armies globally trust our solutions and technologies. On the energy side, with our family of high-speed gears, we are enabling any compressor application in the energy market to distribute oil and gases through pipelines from A to B.
So whenever we are in the logistics process and also in cooling processes of energy, be it the old fossil world of oil and gas or new applications for energy transition like H2, carbon capture, or heat pumps, RENK is part of the technical solution, being the global number 2 for high-speed gears in the market. If we turn the page together, you will see our 2023 figures. Probably for most of you, no big surprises here, as we have indicated already. Obviously, within the guidance of the year 2023, we have ended with a revenue of EUR 926 million, which is a growth from year 2022 to year 2023 of 9% with an EBIT margin of 16.2%. You can see that our aftermarket portion has grown from previous 31%-36%.
This is owed to the fact that most of the customers in defense, predominantly defense-driven, have ordered extensive spare part packages, have ordered new transmissions and new components to increase availability of the existing fleets. This is what you can do as an immediate reaction on the war in Ukraine, and this is what has been done. You can also see that our total order backlog is on a record high with EUR 4.6 billion, translating to five times annual revenue. It gives us a great visibility going forward for the next years to come and to optimize the company's operational excellence for the execution of our growth and the programs going forward. The revenue split with respect to the end markets hasn't changed from what you are familiar already with, 30% civilian revenue share and 70% of the revenue is defense.
With respect to the geographies of our end customers, we have quite a big portion last year realized in the European markets. This is also reflecting the ramp-up in defense in Europe on the land side. We have an increased stake in APAC, reflecting, obviously, tensions in the area and the Indo-Pacific driven by Chinese ambitions and announcements and resulting in a 23% revenue share of the Americas. We could well see that in the Asia-Pacific regions, we have, let's say, shown significant growth last year, specifically in South Korea and the European side. We could see a nice ramp-up of our German stake and also our big navy program, which we are executing for Finland, is part of these figures.
If we go to the next slide, and you are also, most of you, familiar with that, just to remind you, what have we done in the last three, four years after the very long time of RENK being part of the MAN and Volkswagen Group enjoying a high level of stability and investments, which we are benefiting from today? Triton, the financial sponsor, Swiss German Swedish German, has taken over back in 2020. With Triton together, we have built, in the last three years, a growth platform. RENK is today able to take up the growth, which is coming from the market. We have streamlined structures, sorted out clear business responsibilities and P&L responsibility. We have established quite professional central functions also in the course of preparing the IPO, which we then ultimately done on the 7th of February this year.
I think also important to note is the acquisition in the U.S., which we have done back in July 2021, which has provided us a substantial setup in the North American market for land defense. We added an add-on acquisition beginning of 2023, so last year, also for the North American market for land defense and suspensions with General Kinetics. Some inorganic growth could be realized as well, which has led us from the old level of EUR 550 million-EUR 600 million revenue line towards EUR 1 billion and an improved EBIT margin accordingly. We are rather proud that we are now a listed company prepared for further growth, backed and supported by all of you, by U.S. investors, obviously, and looking forward to further successes and joint growth stories.
I would love to hand over to Christian, to you now, to guide us through the figures of last year.
Thank you very much, Susanne, and also a very warm welcome from my side to the first annual closure numbers here as a listed company. If you would follow me P age 8, very briefly, an executive summary on the year. As Susanne has indicated, all-time high order intake in EUR 1.3 billion, which is 1.4x book-to-bill, driven by the wins across all regions and segments with the total order backlog of EUR 4.6 billion as per the end of the year. In particular, I think it's very good to see that the M&I segment has turned around, significant earnings growth in the financial year 2023.
Those of you that follow us since midyear will remember that the segment was negative in -EUR 3 million, turned around in Q3, and continued to be successful with a good growth in order intake now for the next 2, 2.5 years, as Susanne has alluded to, mainly also driven by the Asia-Pacific tensions that we currently see reflected increasingly in our order intake on the soft order backlog as well. VMS, high single-digit top-line growth with an EBIT margin above 20% despite the supply chain challenges that we discussed already for the half-year and on Q3. Especially first half of 2023 was difficult. We gained ground in the second half, see improved proceedings here, Susanne, also with Emmerich being on board. But we'll discuss maybe in Q&A a little bit more on this side.
Refinancing, falling on the IPO in February, we have taken the bond out and put a new 5-year term loan in place with a EUR 450 million multicurrency guarantee facility, which obviously is driven by the huge order book and the significant growth of the company going forward to cope with possible down payments on the way to ramp up also here the production and revenues. Dividend policy, in yesterday's board meeting, the supervisory board of RENK Group again has decided to recommend a dividend proposal for the year 2023 of EUR 0.30, which is 40% of the total adjusted net income of EUR 76.4 million and hence is complying with our dividend policy, 40%-50% of adjusted net income, which we also will take as the base for the years going forward. If you please go to Page 9, let's talk about the order backlog in there.
You can see that the overall total order backlog is EUR 4.6 billion, which is five times last 12 months' revenue. I think important to see is that the fixed order backlog increased to EUR 1.8 billion. It was EUR 1.7 billion upon the Q3. You see a very stable frame order backlog and also a very stable soft order backlog. If you see commentary number 1, you might see that we have already converted some of the orders into revenues, such as the Leopards from Norway. You may remember this was our example mid of last year for the soft order backlog. Meantime, it found its way into fixed and also its way into the revenues. Also then, the Dutch Navy with EUR 27 million and The U.S. just continued very high order momentum as we saw it already end of last year.
For the group performance on the next page at the top, left-hand side, order intake up 29.4%, average book-to-bill ratio of 1.4x, revenue up 9% on EUR 926 million, which is obviously part of the guided revenue range we've given out to the markets. Fixed order backlog increased from EUR 1.4 billion by 26.6% to EUR 1.78 billion.
For the group performance, as far as EBIT and gross profit are concerned, gross profit has increased by 9.7% to EUR 258 million with a gross profit margin of 27.9%. Adjusted EBIT, in absolute terms, slight growth of 3.9% on the level of EUR 150 million and thus being in the guidance as indicated in the profit estimate and the prospectus around the midpoint of that range by the time, a little bit lower than in 2022, mainly driven by the supply chain challenges in VMS, which hindered the growth that we could have had if we wouldn't have had the supply chain challenges.
On the right-hand side, for matters of completeness, in detail discussed many times with you the net debt figure, you see that by paying back the EUR 50 million for the shareholder loan and the other half, as we all remember, being contributed in kind into the equity of the company, the net debt ratio was up 2.6 per the Q3. We went down to 2.4, hence gained some ground. It's the right direction. We are happy about that, but obviously, work left here to be continued. Also, when we later on talk net working capital, first ground gained but still work to do ahead of us. If we go into the segments and let's start off with VMS then here, which is one of the main areas, obviously, for the group's profitability, we see order intake still soaring at 32.7% on the level of EUR 798 million.
You might see then revenues being up around 8.8% for the full- year with EUR 528 million and EBIT margin on a level of EUR 106 million, slightly lower than the year 2022, again driven by the supply chain challenges, especially in the first half of the year, which we saw improving towards end of the year, which is also, I would say, Susanne, promising how we started into Q1 of this year without giving a preview on Q1.
Absolutely.
If we go to the next page, please, M&I, obviously, also same story on the order intake, very strong order intake with +28.5%, a level of EUR 368 million, which is a remarkable figure for that segment, mainly driven by the navy side, so military ships in the navy side with good margins, which is good for the prospects of the segment. If you see revenues up 7.3% to EUR 296 million, adjusted EBIT margin above 2022 where it was 7.5% on a level of 9.6%, surely way better than we had for the half-year, segment positive, turned around, stretching on the 10% from below, so good progress in M&I. On Slide Bearings, good story, good business as we discussed in all our exchanges, order intake up around 12.8%, revenues significantly up 22%, surpassing the EUR 100 million mark, which is a good thing.
Profitability on a level of 15.6%, margin up 29.5% from EUR 13 million-EUR 17 million, very strong fourth quarter as you can see on the chart. Mr. Rusch has taken over, for those of you that might remember, 1st of November as the new CEO of the business. Obviously, we're together with Susanne and Alexander Sagel and myself, moved that segment further to next levels. A little bit deep dive on selected P&L positions. If we look at adjusted gross profit, we see that we increased from EUR 236-EUR 258, gross profit margin 27.9%, distribution expenses slightly up, relatively shrunk, so from 5.5%-5.3%, in line and underproportional to our growth in the company. When we look on the general and administrative expenses, there's a clear uptick in the cost there.
Basically, to effect, one is the area of the General Kinetics acquisition that came on top compared to 2022, but very clearly also costs involved to develop and grow the company to be a capital market-ready legal entity with all the functions that need to be in place here and costs involved, not those that have been borne by Triton for secondaries. At the moment, I think it's stable, might increase a little bit, but basically, the company has really progressed very well and complies with capital markets requirements. On the next page then, if we talk operating profit and adjustments, it's the page you are used to despite the PP&A, which is obviously going down significantly year-over-year. We do see that basically, we have minor adjustments.
The inflation compensation premium is the second batch of the legal decisions here in Germany to have an inflation compensation for employees. You remember the number from 2022 there, it was 3.3. Severance provision is a little less this year. It's basically a board member that has changed last year and me coming in, so to say. And capital market readiness costs around EUR 3.1 million. Those are costs that we couldn't get reimbursed by the secondary offering from Triton where we have really needed to profoundly build up certain functions in the company. This leads us to EUR 150 million adjusted EBIT. With this, I would like to move forward to the next page, please.
17.
Exactly. Now, net working capital. This is one of the three areas, Susan, that we have in focus for that year. We gained some ground. You might remember we were down on 23% for the half-year, then up on 29%, driven by the EUR 30 million that we've taken on books in order to knock out the supply chain challenges, especially in Augsburg, and the EUR 10 million of ready transmissions queuing up in front of the test bench. And we went now down to 27%, which is progress, but not enough progress. So that remains on the agenda for the entire year. 2024, a working capital optimization program has been launched with dedicated targets on legal entity level, and we will report quarter-over-quarter where we are going.
Cash flow, solid cash flow, obviously, if you see unlevered free cash flow around EUR 47.8 million, acquisitions, as you saw already in the Q3 report, EUR 34.3 million for the acquisition of GK in January last year. On the other hand, we've seen also the repayment of the shareholder loan, which basically explains the two main effects that have impacted the cash flow of last year. If we further go ahead to the net debt then, as mentioned in the overview, we did refinance the high-yield bond. Costs of financing are around the same level than the bond was before because, unfortunately, the Euribor has come up since 2020. So basically, costs of around 6% is the level that we should assume going forward. Nevertheless, we have a flexible term debt.
That means if our net debt adjusted EBITDA figure goes down and we further delever like we've done from Q3 to Q4 and the full- year, then there are options in better interest rates. And we also, for possible, let's say, rate increases, we've hedged a very solid portion of the entire thing. So financing is secured for the company, and we are also happy that besides S&P upgrading us last year to B+ positive outlook, we also now got Moody's following, upgrading our rating to Ba3 with a positive outlook, citing our robust credit metrics as well as also our conservative and balanced financial policy. Maybe most interesting for the participants in the call here, where are we in terms of guidance? As indicated in the profit estimate, revenue and adjusted EBIT margin for the group have been achieved.
For 2024, we remain very optimistic to go over EUR 1 billion in revenue. Hence, the revenue guidance is EUR 1 billion-EUR 1.1 billion on the back of a very strong order momentum and improving supply chain, stabilized processes. We also do see an option room of 16%-18% for the profitability and for the EBIT margin this year, which would clearly mark a path to the indicated medium-term target of 19%-20% and the growth rate of 10%+, which both also the medium-term targets remain completely unchanged and are confirmed hereby by management. As for the key highlights, public listing, obviously, successfully launched share back in February. We do see that we have 27% free float, a solid share price performance, outperforming some indices and also peers. Moody's rating upgrade, we already touched upon, refinancing, same thing.
With that, I would give back to Susanne. Maybe you can comment a little bit also on Emmerich, the new hire we've taken for production and for supply chain, and then maybe to the challenges that we would like to share with you going forward.
Thank you, Christian. Happy to take over. As you are all aware and as we have repetitively reported, program project execution is in the main focus for RENK. It was last year the main focus and is also for this year a very dominant part of our job. So we have decided to strengthen our management team with two new colleagues being on board. Dr. Emmerich Schiller joined already last month, beginning of February. Emmerich is born in the production, I would say. So he's ever since a production expert coming from the automotive industry. He has responsibility for overall production and supply chain. He is very much focusing at the moment on the Augsburg side and on the execution of our tank transmission orders in Augsburg. We see already first positive effects after only the 6-7 weeks Emmerich is on board.
He is an absolute expert in knowing how industrial series production is working. He knows exactly how to scale up small series into larger series. He has done that and proven his expertise in Mercedes to being responsible for the AMG and later for the G-Class. Emmerich is a great strengthening of the management team. I'm very, very certain that the output and our issues we had last year are well under control with Emmerich going forward. This is obviously supporting also our financial performance than this year. The second person joining then on the 1st of April, so next week, is Alexander Sagel. Alexander Sagel is joining Christian and myself on RENK Group AG board level. Alexander being an Engineer, which is a great complementary skill to us as well, will take over responsibility for quite a large scope of operational responsibilities.
All three segments will report to Alexander as well as the COO and the CTO. This is freeing some room also for me specifically to focus on new tasks and listing and obviously communication also to capital markets and to you specifically and Christian and myself to really grow the company and set the targets on a strategic level to bring RENK together to a next level, whereas Alexander is, so to say, taking care as the Minister of Interior that project execution and that growth will be executed and implemented in all our processes, IT systems, and performance of the company going forward. So I'm very much looking forward. I have been knowing Alexander since quite some years. We were colleagues on the board of Rheinmetall. Christian, I think, knew him from Mercedes times 20 years back.
This was besides all the good skills and experience and know-how for us, we decide the factor that we get a colleague in the team, which fits also by personality and bonding with us, so to say, as a great team working together. If we briefly flip to the next page, we would like to share with you our key priorities and challenges for this year, for 2024. Obviously, while we have met our guidance, we will not rest on our achievements. Our mid-term target, as Christian has communicated already, is a 19%-20% EBIT margin. To meet this ambition, a few things we have to do to do even better going forward. So in VMS, you know our phrase that we are saying, "We do not apologize for 20% EBIT margin." However, our ambition is a different one.
Certainly, we need to achieve even higher levels. We know that the company and the segment is able to do so. We have seen that in the previous year, 2022. The crucial swing factor in this regard is the Augsburg side under the control now of Emmerich Schiller in the production, in the supply chain. With those recent changes and strengthening in the management, we see ourselves in a strong position to further improve and scale the production accordingly. We have, as we have elaborated already, enough space in sheds and cranes and machines. We are well invested in the asset base to increase output even considerably in the next years. Incremental margins on our VMS new equipment business are healthy.
Higher VMS top-line growth is a key driver for us to reach to the 19%-20% mid-term target, providing a positive operational leverage. On a similar note, we see further potential in the U.S. business, similar to Augsburg. In the U.S. business, we are also affected by a combination of supply chain effects. So some parts are short. Some parts came late. The on-time delivery of suppliers needs to be improved. We have seen at the same time some price increases on the material side. And this meeting together with highest call-outs from frame contracts from our customer from the U.S. Armed Forces, which is great news for the order backlog and for the growth. But this also comes with a discount on those highest volumes.
And that's why this has caused some operational pressure on RENK America that has prevented the business from delivering its full potential. And we are working now on steps to take back the operational excellence of this unit and to bring it to the next level. So a team is on site working with full engagement and dedication to improve the run performance even higher. And last but not least, priority that we are looking forward is to the continued dialogue with you, with the public equity investors. During the next weeks, we will stage several non-deal roadshows. You are very familiar with our non-deal roadshows and conferences to make sure you have access to all the information around RENK that you require. And obviously, you can call us through Ingo every day and night, not when he's on holidays.
But we are all at your disposal to answer your questions. And finally, we are also striving to host the Capital Markets Day on September 10th. We will communicate details in due course about that event, but are planning to provide you with an update on our product portfolio, on our strategic progress, commercial successes, and obviously, first and foremost for us, our operational progress. In the meantime, we will also offer investors meetings at the Eurosatory exhibition in June. And many of you, I think, have already signed up, which is great. I'm looking forward to seeing you there again. And at the end of the day, I think this remarkable result and the development of the company in the last year in 2023 is owed. And I think all our thanks go to the great team of RENK.
This is a team achievement and not a management achievement and not an investor's achievement, I have to say. But we have a great team with great dedication, professionalism, working day and night on our business, on customer contracts. So on behalf of Christian and myself and the entire board and also of the COO supervisory board, we thank specifically all our employees who made that happen, this success. And with this, I would like to hand over to Ingo to open the floor for your questions. Thank you very much.
Yeah. Thank you, Susanne. Before we go into Q&A, I wanted to briefly refer you to slide 24 and remind you that you will find more information on RENK on our investor relations website. We've also published our financial calendar, which we are displaying on Slide 24. On the financial calendar, not only are the dates with results releases, but also that we will visit several of the locations that many of you are based in in the next weeks and also attend a few key conferences. So we very much hope to see many of you there. Also, as Susanne said, the Eurosatory Trade Fair meetings and our Capital Markets Day in September are key highlights for us in the upcoming few months. If you've got follow-up questions or want to request a meeting, you can drop me an email to investors@renk.com.
For now, let's start the Q&A. I would like to hand back to the operator for questions.
Thank you very much. Dear ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the Q&A session. So if you are dialed in the conference call and have questions for the speakers, please press 9 followed by the Star key on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. Once your name has been announced, you can ask a question. If you find your question is answered before it is your turn to speak, you may press 9 followed by the Star key a second time to cancel your question. So one moment, please, for the first question. So the first question comes from Christophe Menard of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Thank you very much for taking the question. I had a few, actually. The first one is on the order intake guidance. I understand, I mean, you're pointing to strong momentum in 2024. Can you quantify anything on the order intake? I mean, you had EUR 1.4 billion in 2023. Should we have the same order of magnitude in your approach at this point in time? The second question was on the aftermarket. I mean, it's good to see it grow as a percentage of the total business. Still, it's not reflected in the overall margin of the business for now. So just wanted to understand whether that margin, so to say, shortfall, I mean, it usually comes with better margins, is entirely due to the supply chain issues you experience at VMS. The last question is on working cap as a percentage of sales.
What typically should we model in 2024? Thank you very much.
Hi, Christophe. I might take and start with the last question. We've been on 23% on net working capital for the half-year. Last year, went up on 29, now down to 27. We do not guide a concrete number, but surely we would expect the number coming down on a level towards 25-ish in the due course of the year. The problem is, as Susanne has alluded to, we need to see how we opt out the supply chain challenges. And very frankly, the guidance will, upon the half-year results, probably then by then know if we narrow them to the upper end, which is 17%-18% or 16%-17% on the EBIT margin side, will also concur with the effects on the working capital. So the only thing I can tell you is, is it in focus?
We'll go in the direction of the 23 that we have seen for the half-year. How successful we are is really dependent on, I would say, slowly VMS and in there Augsburg and Muskegon. For the guidance on order intake, we do not guide on order intake. We guide on revenue, and we guide on EBIT. But if you look back, I can only refer to the development quarter-over-quarter. We saw soft order backlog growing since Q1 last year with a run rate of EUR 400 million, which is now, as I've indicated in the beginning, to a big extent also starting now to come down to fixed and to revenue. So the run rate currently we see is up to EUR 400 million. Of course, order intake can be a bit lumpy.
We have a couple of big projects, Susanne, that we are working on, which we cannot disclose today. But again, we don't guide, but history of the last quarters tells the direction we are going. As for the aftermarket, would you like to take this, Susanne?
Yeah. Happy to take over the aftermarket question. Yes. Great that we see this is improving. The margin on the aftermarket side has a special effect in 2023 because we have taken a very big order intake, which is new components for existing platforms. And the order is so big that you see this on the margin side. And since it's new components, over 400 pieces of our engine to a dedicated customer, this is not on the level of normal spare part margins. And that's why you cannot see that in the overall effect. But this is a special one-off effect, which we will not see going forward tomorrow. So we will stick to this high level of aftermarket margin share, delivering also the aftermarket share sorry, delivering also the high attractive margin. But there is a one-off effect inside, which is not concerning at all.
Basically, it's all positive news. I wanted to shed some light into that.
Thanks for the clarity. That's great. Thanks.
No.
Thank you, Christophe.
Thank you. Next question comes from Victor Allard of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Susanne. Christian, Ingo. Hope you are all well. So the first.
Hi, Victor.
Yeah. I got a first follow-up on aftermarket. So you already gave some helpful color. But I was wondering if you could help us understand how aftermarket in the context of VMS has evolved, directionally speaking, versus 2022. And how do you see the backlog mix in terms of OE versus aftermarket, again, for 2024 in VMS? So that's the first one. And the second is also wondering if you could elaborate on the relative importance of the different segments in M&I. Obviously, strong performance in 2023, but was curious to hear about industrial and marine specifically. Thank you. Puri, you can start here.
I'm happy to start with that under Christian's control, obviously. With respect to aftermarket in VMS, VMS grew on the aftermarket side. We have seen also to give you some color on 2024, strong spare part order intakes in the first two months this year from Germany, from Leopard users, from Israel, obviously, just to give you some good examples here. As said before, following Christophe's question, the aftermarket portion was impacted last year by this big order intake for the engines for Taiwan, which is also part of VMS. That's why I'm mentioning it again. But generally, VMS is growing on the aftermarket side strongly. We expect this the trend of the first two months we have seen now this year is continuing on the level of spare part business up to new components for the circular reserves and for replacements.
So generally, we expect also this will be seen in the term in the margin and will contribute to the 19%-20%, which we have guided. On the M&I side, I think we discussed that already. But just to remind, M&I segment is consisting of three buckets. One is the navy business, so defense. The second one is new business for industrial applications and civilian applications. And the third one is everything which is aftermarket in the segment. And navy and aftermarket are enjoying attractive margins. So if the overall revenue share in the segment is at least 70% together, navy and aftermarket, then M&I will achieve two-digit EBIT margins at the lower end, 10%-11%-ish.
So that's why our, let's say, philosophy is to manage carefully the order intake on the industrial new project side that the share is not getting too high, but with the view to keep the installed base, not to impact negatively the aftermarket part, which is highly attractive also for the industrial side with respect to spare parts, with respect to digital services around predictive maintenance solutions and the like. So we need to keep the installed base. But we do not want to materially grow on industrial new business, not to negatively impact the overall M&I segment margin.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you. And last one, if I may. It's on G&A. So partly increased due to General Kinetics M&A, you mentioned, as well as the cost that you had to incur for making RENK as a listed company. And you said also, I think, that it might increase a little bit this year. So I was wondering if you had some reference points to help us model that one. Shall we expect that line to normalize as a percentage of sales?
I would quite honestly, Victor, I would say it is probably stable, but it might have slight increases as we, let's say, adjust some processes or IT in the due course of the year or get the one or the other person. So more or less stable with the optionality of slight increases.
Okay. Thanks very much. Jump back on the queue.
You're welcome. Bye, Victor.
Thanks a lot. The next question comes from George McWhirter of Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you very much for taking the questions. 2, please, if I may. Firstly, on the VMS division, I think you mentioned that a priority this year is increasing output in your Augsburg sites. Can you just comment on the pace of that expansion, please, particularly for transmissions? And the second question, just on the aftermarket, again, it's good to see the share of aftermarket going up to 36% this year. Do you expect that to remain stable as a share of revenue in the next couple of years, or perhaps could it go up if you continue to see good demand for spare parts in a growing circular reserve? Thank you.
Hi, George. Good morning. Thank you for your two questions. First of all, aftermarket and new business will, on a higher level, remain on the same direction as they are today. Obviously, with the fleet population growing over the new orders, also aftermarket will, with some delay, follow. So the proportion will be as it is more or less today, but on a way higher level in due course as the population goes up. As far as VMS is concerned, we were on the level of 300 transmissions some two and a half years back. So the company has already doubled its capacity in the Augsburg site in the last two and a half years. And it's remarkable that we were still in the position to achieve the profitability we had. We wanted to have around 600 transmissions last year. We couldn't make it.
I think if you model from the pace, if we make it this year beyond 650, we will make good progress.
EUR 50.
EUR 50, EUR 50, EUR 650. So that should tell you a little bit about the pace. It's not that we double again and have EUR 1,200 in the next, let's say, couple of months.
No, but it's good 10% on top.
Uh-huh. Genau. Does it help?
Yeah. Thanks very much.
Welcome, George.
Thank you very much. The next question is from Sven Sauer of Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good morning. Thanks also from my side. Two questions. I was wondering if you could share some of the large-scale orders that could be awarded in 2024, if it would be possible to provide some info. The second question is on Israel. I was wondering if you see any risk whatsoever that the relationship between the U.S. and Israel and Germany could deteriorate given the UN Security Council resolution and the intensifying attacks, and what this potentially, in a theoretical case, could mean for RENK's top line. Thanks.
So happy to take that. On Israel, honestly, I do not see that risk. I see debates and tensions. I think this is all on the surface. In Germany, Israel is and will stay, as we say here, Staatsräson. Can't translate that into English. Sorry for that. So Germany and Israel and also the U.S. will continue to have its bond. I think it's more an issue about how much backing or not has Netanyahu going forward. And I think, obviously, there is a debate about the current government of Israel and the acting persons. And this is not just Germany and U.S., but also Israel internally, as we know.
I think the prediction is very clearly whenever there is a next phase of that war or whatever next development, I think Israel will see a complete new government and probably also new people at the helm of the IDF and of the intelligence services. I think we have to expect that in the entirety, they will clean up persons acting on the top levels of that. But I do not see any risk in fundamental change of the relationship of Germany or the U.S. into Israel. Besides all of this, we have, since many, many, many, many years, a strategic relationship with Israel.
Israel is the only customer RENK has amongst the many customers who is in possession and who's been granted a full license for sovereignty reasons in Israel, which we have given to the IDF or to the MOD as the receiving party for the license of all the technology. We have not done that for any other customer, and we will not do so for any other customer. This agreement goes well into the 2030s. For RENK and the relationship, I do not see any risk going forward, also not from the governmental side here. With respect to large-scale order intake, visible, it's always difficult to say how customers decide. However, we have opportunities of bigger size and magnitude in a rather mature stage in India. We have quite a big potential in Poland, just to name some countries now.
We see, obviously, this huge potential of Leopards in the user community of the Leopard User Group. Worth to mention, I think, is Italy, who is not yet part of the Leopard countries, however, has decided to join that. Since budget through parliament in Italy, I think we can expect a larger order for Italy for Leopard tanks and family vehicles based on Leopard chassis in the size of about 250 vehicles, which would be, in RENK's view, also one of the large-scale orders to be accepted with a high degree of probability. Also, Czech Republic is on that way with a little bit lower numbers for Leopards.
If you put together Poland, India, Italy, Czech Republic, and obviously the announced next call-off from the U.S. Army under our THOR III contract, more than EUR 100 million to be expected still in April this year, I think I have mentioned some good examples of large-scale orders, hopefully, to be awarded and to win this year.
Great. Thanks a lot.
You are welcome, Sven.
Thank you. Dear ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind you one more time that if you wish to state a question to our speakers, you can press 9 followed by the Star key on your telephone keypad. So please press 9 Star now to state your question. At the moment, there are no questions. But there is one question incoming, a follow-up of Victor Allard of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you for squeezing me in. I had another one on R&D. So it seems it was roughly EUR 22 million in 2023. So I was wondering if you had an update in terms of the trajectory over the medium term. I remember, probably from prior conversations, we were seeing moderate increases. So yeah, if anything has changed at all.
Yeah. I think it's the right number to assume that level of EUR 15 million-EUR 20 million is the right number, partially financed together with customers, as you know from the discussions. But I think that's the right level, EUR 15 million-EUR 20. I think that's where I would model it.
Self-funded R&D.
Not capitalized, Victor, no?
Sure. Super. Thanks very much.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks a lot. At the moment, there are no questions there. So please press 9 star now to state your questions for the final round.
Waiting to see what the U.K. is.
As there are no more questions incoming, I would give the floor back over to the hosts.
Ingo?
Yep. Great. Thanks very much, everyone, for participating in our first results call after this thing. Again, in case of any follow-up questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Kristen, and Time. Goodbye.
Looking forward to see you again. Bye-bye.
Bye.