Welcome from my side to everyone joining us today for our video results conference call. With me today are, as always, our CEO, Marcus Wolfinger, as well as Oliver Albrecht, our CFO, in i nterim. Please note that this presentation will be live and you can download this presentation either from our website or directly from the webcast. Before we start, I also want to draw your attention to our department statement. This is on page two of the presentation. Without further ado, I'm happy to hand over to Marcus.
Yeah, thanks, Jan, and warm welcome from my side as well. I'm Marcus Wolfinger, CEO of STRATEC. This presentation will consist out of four major statements. First of all, I would like to give you an overview of what happened in 2024. Oliver will take over for the financial review, which is certainly the main part of this presentation, followed by the outlook and what we believe is going to happen over the next minimum of 12 months. We would like to give you the opportunity to come up with questions, and hopefully we can answer those questions. Certainly, 2024 was a busy year for us. A lot of things happened which were entirely unexpected.
When talking to our peers and to those companies we meet in front of our customers, we certainly realized that we did very well with our business model where we developed our own technology and took common products with our partners to share their technologies and our technologies, which actually ensures that downstream manufacturing and providing instruments and tools gets to a real win-win situation. That helped us very much to actually cover the last hangover effects of COVID-19 with a still ongoing situation in certain market segments, particularly in the molecular space. On the other side, certainly helping us to manage our still elevated inventory levels. Before we dive into the details, allow me to just talk a little bit about the risk we were facing over the past minimum of two months.
I think we made it very clear in the announcements that as a standard, we had to rotate our balance sheet auditor, moved to one of the Big Four. I think we were not the only ones where the phase of this transition took way longer than expected. In parallel, we had a routine bargain audit. Bargain, obviously, some of you are not familiar with German terminology, which is like the German equivalent of the SAC or FAC, where we had a routine audit. We unfortunately had to deal with a lot of business-related obsolescences and vacancies. Last but not least, certainly we had to change the way how we handle our contracted cooperations with our partners. This was all very time-consuming. It was really a phase of a lot of strain.
We came out of that with not only a better setup, how we moved in. On the other side, it's clear that we are continuously and continue to change the processes which are related to reporting. As an outcome of the delayed previous disclosure, we had to move our Q1 disclosure as well. I'll touch base on that later on. We really made progress with the margin, which was ahead of our own expectations and super strong cash flow dynamics despite this challenging market environment. If we are looking into the details, particularly if we break down product groups, we probably saw that as a matter of fact, our customers are still a little bit hesitant to invest into new placements. They are spending a lot of money keeping their product portfolio young, which actually is leading to elevated recognized development revenues and actual development revenues.
On the other side, we see this temporary decline of the percentage of sales coming from instruments. I think long-term, this will be turned back partly. On the other side, certainly we will continue to see higher development revenues than in the past, which is very much related to a lot of procycle, a lot of product lifecycle management activities we have to deal with, which is very much driven by this effect I described so often this year. On the input side, we see that suppliers, particularly suppliers of electronics like microcontrollers or other commodities, are trying to shorten product lifecycle, whereas in our industry, product lifecycles continue to get longer and longer, which often leads to high activities in obsolescence management and redesigns and so on, which, like as a derivative of the above, is leading to elevated activities on the development side.
Not bad per se, as selling existing products for a longer period of time is certainly productive in terms of uninterrupted supplies. On the other side, this is a means to an end. Actually, looking into the past, we saw that a pattern in similar situations in the industry over the past two decades, like two or three times at the end, we always saw a material catch-up effect, and we are expecting the same thing to happen here. Pipeline, we made a lot of progress here. We concluded a development milestone for one of our major customers in the transition diagnostics, which is probably one of the most relevant things we have in the pipeline at this moment in time. New contracts, we signed a number of new development contracts or cooperation agreements, which typically include a development phase and a supply phase as well.
Here, certainly, to name one of the biggest ones in neurodiagnostics, which have been given to external suppliers over the past five years, certainly we got a good deal as well. I think at this moment in time, it's worth mentioning that we see a higher degree of fragmentation in the industry at this moment in time, which means that decision-making processes are taking longer. The duration or the time span of such a decision is lasting longer. Like in the past, we often saw that our partners committed to a long-term development and a long-term supply phase. Like we said, things are getting more segmented. Our business model is capable of handling such a situation. On the other side, it certainly means a lot of efforts on the sales side and a lot of efforts in program management to handle such more fragmented elements. Then certainly we are strengthening.
Like deglobalization obviously leads to a lot of consequences, not just elevated costs, but like local businesses get more and more important. With our already existing good footprint in the United States and Europe, I think we are perfectly prepared to handle that side. Certainly Asia, where we are actually establishing a manufacturing site at this moment in time, trying to shy away from any risk. We actually do only final assembly and final testing there, which is very helpful from a geopolitical perspective, but also from a local presence perspective of made in, is certainly helpful. Last but not least, leading you through the highlights, I would like to mention that the Supervisory Board and the Board of Management will propose a EUR 0.60 dividend for fiscal year 2024.
This gets me to the end of the overview, and I would like to hand over to Oliver, who will lead you through the financial details.
Thank you, Marcus. Yeah, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very happy to present to you now the financials. Let us take you on our major KPIs, especially on page five. Sales is with EUR 257.6 million, 2.7% lower than previous year. This increase is mainly due to the fact that we have applied new accounting principles which had a very strong upward effect on sales in 2023. Without this adoption, sales development would show only a very small decline. I will explain these effects on our key figures in more detail later on the next page. Despite lower sales, our margins improved significantly. If you look on the strategic margin, this went up by 250 basis points to 19.1%. The adjusted EBIT margin is up by 180 basis points to 13%.
We could see the higher end of our guidance range of 2024, which was between 10%-12% regarding adjusted EBIT margin. This is not only due in regards to the application of new accounting principles. We also exceeded our guidance based upon previous accounting practice. Our earnings per share increased by 4.8% to EUR 1.32. On the next page, six, I would like to illustrate the effect from the application of new accounting principles. As Marcus mentioned, after 10 years of cooperation with our former auditor, we have chosen one of the Big Four. We have chosen TWC as our new auditor. After a joint analysis with TWC, we made some adjustments regarding sales recognition from development operations according to IFRS 15, capitalization of intangible assets reference to IAS 38, and a minor change in inventory valuation.
Apart from that, we made some changes in the presentation and classification of figures in the balance sheet and in the cash flow statement. If you look now on the figures here, on the left-hand side, you see the reported figures. On the right-hand side, you see the figures just before the adjustments. On the right-hand side, also our guidance for the financial year 2024. The positive result of these adjustments on the P&L was about EUR 1 million in 2024 and EUR 3.3 million in 2023 upwards in adjusted EBIT. In previous periods, we used a write-down method based on inventory turnover, which is only possible under German GAAP, but not under IFRS. The effect from this correction in 2023 was about EUR 500,000 on net income.
We do a case-by-case analysis of all the contracts, the development contracts, and circumstances to determine how to recognize sales, to recognize sales either at running time or over the time according to the standards and requirements of IFRS 15. The major impact, mainly in 2023, comes from the change from a point-to-point in time recognition of sales to over-the-time sales recognition for some development cooperation contracts. In the past, it was our understanding we have applied a more conservative approach with the added point-to-time recognition. Without these adjustments, our adjusted EBIT margin would have been at 12.6%, which also exceeds the guidance corridor of 10%-12%.
This general improvement in our profitability was driven by measures initiated in 2023 and continued into 2024 as part of our earning improvement program, but also by a strong performance in service parts and in consumables and high-margin revenue realization for development projects and services. Let's move on to the next page, seven. Here on page seven, by looking on the left-hand side, I would like to highlight the effects from the adjustments on EPA amortization and some other one-off effects in 2024 on our EBIT figure. The unadjusted EBIT amounted to EUR 27.5 million, and with adjustments, our EBIT was EUR 33.5 million. Adjustments include EPA amortization for the former acquisition of Natech. This is only a small part now, then the strategic consumables and our latest acquisition, which we acquired in 2023. Under the other adjustments, we summarized driving expenses in connection with M&E transactions.
This had an amount of about EUR 300,000 and severance payments in Thalia for the former CFO, who stepped down in August last year. This was EUR 1.7 million of the adjustments under others. Let's go to the next page now. The graph on page eight showed this development during the last five years. As Marcus mentioned here, we still suffer from pandemic-related demand disruption, which is shown in the declining sales spend since 2021, and which is particularly caused by a low demand for our tools, for our systems, and due to an ongoing elevated inventory level of our customers. We also see that the lifetime is increasing for our products and for the products of our customers, which has a positive effect. In addition, we have a flatter than expected ramp-up curve for products newly launched onto the market.
However, we can also report some positive developments regarding an increasing sales volume with service parts and consumables and an increased recognition of development and service sales, which helped us to keep in place low demand for tools. We see them right in the tunnel. I think Marcus, he will comment on this when he's speaking about our guidance for 2025. Let's go to the next page, please. On Page 9 here, these two graphs show the sales development of systems, service parts, and consumables and development services compared to the previous year and the change in their share of total sales. Looking into the graph, we see systems are down by 27.8%, and service parts and consumables are up by 14.8%, and development and services increased by 9.8% as well. Let's go on to the next page, then.
Despite increasing sales, we were able to improve our earnings and profitability due to the mentioned earning improvement program, which we have been implementing since 2023, and higher margin sales related to development projects and services. In addition, we had a positive impact from foreign exchange gains compared to last year. Our gross margin improved by 29.7% year on year. Due to the strongly increased gross profit margin, we were able to compensate cost increases in our OpEx. As mentioned, the increase in general admin expenses is partly driven by one-off effects for severance payments and consulting expenses related to M&A transactions, which was in total an amount of EUR 2.2 million last year. Now let's go to the next page where I would like to speak about our cash flow situation. Page 11 now.
Looking on the left-hand side, you can see our cash flow from operating activities increased by 152% to EUR 48.7 million. This improvement is due to higher profitability and reduced trade resilience. As Marcus mentioned, inventory level is still too high, and we still suffer from long-term supply agreements into which we entered during the tight supply situation during the COVID hype. Also, we have already started to improve our procurement processes, and we have been quite successful in renegotiating some of these long-term supply agreements. You will see a positive impact only throughout the current year and the year after. Cash flow from investing activities also improved significantly. In 2023, we acquired Natech. This is the reason for these strong changes, these strong positive changes, also in cash from financing activities. Altogether, our free cash flow turned positive with a strong number of EUR 42.7 million.
With this strong cash flow improvement, our cash at year-end improved to EUR 47.1 million. We could also improve our equity ratio, which is on a very positive level with 54.5%, and our net debt to adjusted EBITDA improved from 2.5x- 1.8x per year-end. We also started to negotiate a new syndicated loan in the amount of EUR 125 million with a five-year term. We will start the invitation of our house bank in due course, and I expect the closing of this transaction by end of July. Now I would like to hand over back to Marcus, who is talking about our guidance and business development in the first quarter. Please.
Yeah, thank you, Oliver. Like before, I'll get you into the guidance, which has already been.
I'd just like to give you a little bit of an indication of what we expect cash flow-wise. Certainly, with higher inventory levels and as a derivative of the product mix expected for 2025, we are certainly expecting a cash release from the event from the higher elevated inventory levels of about EUR 10 million. In an ideal world, up to EUR 15 million. The message should be that we are expecting very good cash flow development in 2025 as well. Subline, we have guided for low to medium single-digit percentage range growth. I think Oliver made that very clear that we certainly had to, in a phase of such a big transition in the industry, from the industry has changed like 3x over since COVID-19.
Certainly, one should expect that after the first quarter, where in certain markets we saw elevated growth rates in the industry of our customers, which was due for 2024, that at the tail end of such a transition, one could expect that we will see an elevated number of instrument placements as well. At the tail end of that, certainly positive development for us as well. I mentioned that at the very beginning that certainly, if we break down revenues in 2024 and are looking into the details, we saw an unexpected high level of service parts, consumables, and maintenance parts, which, like I said, is a result of the approach of our customers to keep the product in the field young instead of placing new instruments, which is a typical pattern of such a phase in the market. We had to do some estimates.
We were cautious, certainly, with all the cherries ongoing and the decision-making processes in our customers. We certainly were trying to cover both the positive and the negative ends of things, and that is why we are coming up with this guidance. Subline on the EBIT margin side, we cannot expect a similar elevated level of contribution of revenues coming from consumables, sales, licenses, and other elements in the same level how we saw it in 2023. That is why we acted on the cautious side on the EBIT level with 10%-12%. We hope that we can talk about that in the coming quarters as well in the positive sense. Then certainly talking about investments in tangible and intangible assets, where we were very low in 2023, and that is why we continue like in the past to try for 8%-10% of sales here.
Certainly, there is a catch-up where we were very cautious with new investments. A little bit on the development program side, but certainly on the IT side, we have a bigger budget in 2025 as we had in 2023 and 2024. Focus for 2025, definitely, we are maintaining cost visibility, and that's why we are cautious on the OpEx side. Like I said, we are expecting, if the product mix fits, we are expecting good effects from the inventory level side. We have made structural amendments to the way how we handle things on the procurement side, which helps us. However, we are still kind of stuck in the middle of that triangle of a certain lack of scalability in manufacturing with our instruments.
On the other side, still pressure on the COGS side in the bill of material of our products, which we are working through and continuously improve the situation. On the other side, certainly a little bit touched in terms of costing of price increases. On the other side, if we only relieve one of those three elements, certainly we'll see an acceleration bottom line as well. Second thing is execution on the field pipeline. I mentioned it in the intro that we are talking about a number of programs which are in a final decision-making stage where we have already performed certain feasibility and so on, which gave us a good indication in the past. A nice lineup here. Like I said, things are getting more fragmented, smaller bits and pieces. We are looking for the next big thing obviously.
We want to continue our growth footprint in certain selected markets where we can use our technology, where we only have to transfer existing technologies into new markets, into new applications, not only from the perspective of diversifying our market, but certainly on the other side of working in other high-growth segments as well. We named a couple of things here where we already have a super strong footprint in high-sensitivity immunoassays. One of the areas where we grew nicely in the past and expect to continue to grow, but certainly things where our libraries like in imaging, like in imaging digitation, like in AI, where we can actually use our existing libraries in new applications like advanced imaging or things where we can use derivatives of our existing technology where we are looking for a partner in applications like cell and gene therapy.
Certainly, there is a nice opportunity. We typically talk in terms of consumables and complex consumables and going into the third dimension, like cartridge-based applications, and particularly with the know-how we have on the instrumentation and software side in our legacy business in instrumentation. Certainly, with consumables, smart consumables, and Natech, we have a perfect offering for this fast acceleration in smart consumables where the outsourcing ratio is still under 10%, and we are expecting a lot of activity here in the next 5 years-10 years. Like I said, outsourcing is only at the very beginning.
At this moment in time, the companies with the high volumes are handling the development and manufacturing of smart consumables themselves, but everybody in the industry, particularly for next-generation products, is expecting that this nicely swaps into an outsourcing model like we saw in other applications and other areas in our industries as well. Certainly, although we were super active in 2024, we could not announce anything. On the other side, we are working on our M&A pipeline. Matter of fact, this is a very binary approach, either you manage M&A or you do not. Certainly, there are nice opportunities to use the time, particularly if we are thinking about ethically good patterns. This is a time where particularly looking into the review mirror and trying to look into the next 12 months yet.
This is the moment in time where more nice assets for reasonable prices are in the market, as it has been the case over the past 10 years. This is the time to act. We are actively looking into opportunities and then certainly taking the nice tailwinds we had and continue on that right in 2025 as we had in 2024 to improve our cash flow dynamics with a strong focus on particularly inventory efficiency. Let me briefly walk you through our financial calendar. We will have the publication of our quarterly statement for Q1, which has been postponed as well as a result of the postponed annual disclosure. We will shorten the Q1 publication according to absolute minimum requirements. That is why we will not do a conference call due to the proximity to the publication. The publication of Q1 is in less than two weeks.
We will have our HEM Q2 2027. We will have our half-year publication at the end of August, and the Q3 publication in November. We are assuming that we will be back on track in our announcements in the second half of the year. As mentioned, we had a lot to handle. We had a lot of work on our table with the routine path in order with the balance sheet auditor rotation on the basis of standards and a lot of things we had to handle. This certainly caused delays. We are very positive that we have established the processes and continue to establish the processes and to landscape over the next three months in order to make sure that this was a one-time occurrence. This takes me to the end of the presentation.
I would like to hand back to Sergen, who will explain us how to commence with Q&A.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and the one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to move yourself from the question queue, you may press star and then two. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode and eventually turn off the volume from the webcast while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. We have the first question coming from Michael Heider from Warburg Research. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hi. Good afternoon. Good to hear you again. Could you please elaborate a little bit on the latest market developments?
When we last discussed, I think the business was very well on track with the exception of molecular instruments, where the demands are still low during the pandemic. Yeah. Can you confirm that the rest of the business is doing really well? What is the situation you're seeing at molecular at the moment? That would be my first question.
Yeah. Michael, thank you very much for the question. If you give me an opportunity, I'll try to put that into the 3-minute answer, not into the 30-minute answer.
Definitely looking into the details, you know that first of all, although looking into the key size of our customers and looking into our setup, obviously the molecular side of things, which is a big franchise in our business, the biggest of our five franchises in our business, certainly suffered a lot with a lot of saturation during COVID-19. In total, we believe that three times more instruments are coming to the market as in a typical phase or a typical duration of such a phase. This obviously led to saturation. On the other side, it's an outcome, and you probably saw that in the sentiment of the overall market, that this is not the time where everybody believes in the diagnostic market and so on.
There was a sudden paralysis with, after a phase of almost 15 years of continuous growth in our industry, the decision-makers kind of switched into a paralysis mode, pushed decisions out to the extent possible. I mentioned it in the presentation already that at this moment in time, people are more looking into product lifecycle measures rather than placing new instruments in order to cover future costs. However, when we attended JP Morgan early this year, we definitely saw that the mood switched back, particularly in the United States, but in certain other areas as well, that it was the first quarter, the fourth quarter of 2024 was the first quarter where growth came back, where testing volume and pricing actually saw a certain renaissance, not in all markets.
It was actually, we could definitely see that the mood came back in the communication we have with our customers. At this moment in time, particularly with European customers, which is a bit of a surprise, we see that the mood of investment really returns, which gives us a very positive indication. On the other side, and I mentioned that as well, we definitely see that this is not the moment in time where the marketing people are saying, "This is too efficient. This is actually the time age of controllers and of the procurement people," which does not make life easy. On the other side, we could expect a certain, not only a recovery. If it affects, that certainly might include even a catch-up effect.
On the other side, we have to admit that the world changed in our industry: high degree of cost sensitivity, lower appetite of long-lasting decisions. I would not speak from a full recovery, but I would speak that in all other franchises where we are working, particularly in areas of complex sample prep or in immunoassays and immune hematology, we see that the appetite of our customers comes back. We still see the tail end of saturation in the molecular space. I think it is worth mentioning, and we forget that too often, that when we were at the tail end of COVID-19, it became quite obvious and transparent that those instruments which had nice tailwinds during COVID-19 led to a certain saturation of the market. At the time, we had one market launch of a new product during COVID-19 and two further product launches right thereafter.
Under normal circumstances, we could have expected that the expected slight dip, which at the end turned out to be a slight dip coming from the molecular end, could easily be offset by those three products. Oliver mentioned that in his presentation that the RAMP-up is way slower than initially expected. This is actually a product in Digital CPR where the market at this moment in time continues to grow nicely in immunoassay, where we definitely see nice growth rates. The third one, which is actually complex sample prep, the same thing happening there. One could expect that if those products continue to switch back into a normal phase pattern, we come out of that situation earlier than expected. On the other side, we have to act cautiously. We cannot expect that the market will come back at this very moment in time.
We see, like I said, that the mood and appetite of our customer returns. If we see this in our KPIs mid this year or only mid next year or even later, that's impossible to say, particularly as this is a derivative of product mix. And product mix is definitely a derivative of the pattern we see in terms of behavior from our customers. I know that was probably a longer than the 3-minute answer, but I hope it shows that we see recovery. We see, as Oliver mentioned, the light at the end of the tunnel, but not if we're seeing that.
Thanks. Thanks, sir. That's very helpful to get your view here. The next question might require a similarly long answer. Let's see. It's on the U.S., and there's two subjects basically. I mean, one is tariffs, and we will see how that plays out.
Could you comment on your competitive situation? I mean, are there any other players that could maybe benefit from you being behind the tariff wars, so to say? Will the competitive landscape change with the tariffs, or will everybody be affected, and then it does not really matter? The prices go just up. Maybe also one word on the research budget in the U.S., which are under pressure, if that has any impact on your business.
Again, trying to keep myself brief. First of all, tariffs. Talking to our customers and looking into our KPIs, demand planning system, and so on, at this moment in time, particularly short and mid-term, we do not see a material hit there. This is very much a derivative of the way how this industry works and very much as where our customers are sitting.
First of all, I think it is important to understand that the majority of our customers have local presences where they are manufacturing their products, like the kits and the kits locally. European companies manufacturing in Asia or the United States, but this is not an issue. If we are looking into the value streams and value proposition, it's that if a customer of ours provides value, let's say, 100 to their end customer, like a lab train in the United States, 90% of the value contribution comes from the customers themselves, which means this 90% continues to be untariffed. Our product has a value proposition of, say, 10%, which is an average figure. If this value proposition of 10% gets tariffed by another 10%, it moves from 10% to 11%, and the overall value proposition towards the end customer moves from 100% to 101%.
That's not something which actually changes a decision-making process in terms of who do I buy from. The long-term, and that's actually the same answer in terms of competitive landscape and in terms of research budget, both may actually have long-term effects, which means if our U.S. customers are worried that uncertainties will continue, that they might probably in their decision-making process consider geographies as well. That's, by the way, one of the reasons why we continue to keep our U.S. business growing, like with the acquisition of Natech. It was a big move, like continuously looking into acquisition. Certainly the United States play a dominant role. We actually believe that the way of our product offering, the way how we are handling relationships with our customers, keeps us at this moment in time a little bit kind of immune.
On the other side, I think we should not neglect the effects which uncertainties may have in the future. Talking about research, this is not really our market. Our lifetime budget is mainly at the tail end of research, like for translational research and clinicals and LDCs and things like that. This is not where the product cuts are actually happening, but it may lead to that this industry is emptying the pipeline in 5 years and 10 years, which may have an impact on the entire diagnostic industry. Long-term, we should expect that we have to handle things accordingly and have to look into the effects of deglobalization. On the other side, certainly, we should, particularly as a derivative of our decision-maker, we shouldn't expect the tariffs. Actually, we are talking to our customers if moving manufacturing may make sense of instruments.
Even moving manufacturing in Europe in the past is a two-year endeavor, which is very much driven by regulatory effects and validation of manufacturing sites, and then recertification by each and every regulator in the relevant market. Last time, we did that. Like I said, only Europe to Europe, it took us two years. This is not something you do in terms of high volatility. I think if the glass settles and the new world that kind of is reestablished, and when we see that the situation of tariffs in and tariffs out comes a little bit down, I think this is the moment in time of reviewing things. Like I said, at this time, talking to our customers and looking into the processes, we do not get nervous.
The long-term effects, in long-term, I really mean like 5 years- 10 years, cannot be tackled at this moment in time.
Okay. Thanks. I have two very short ones. One is, what is your tax rate going forward? Secondly, on your Q1 publication, because you said you're going to minimize this, do you mean that you just don't have a conference call, or will you just publish space, for example? Or will you have to functional?
No, thanks, Michael, for bringing that up. Again, we won't have a conference call, affirmative. We will certainly announce top line and bottom line, but not much details. Like I said, actually, we pushed our accounting department to the level and beyond because we need to calm down the situation. That's why we are doing the absolute minimum, like I said, top line, bottom line, a short report.
We won't have a conference call. Cashflow, probably Oliver. Tax rate, sorry.
What's tax rate?
Tax rate, sorry.
Tax rate. We had some changes here regarding we had some preference due to the fact that we changed our accounting principles. Normally, the major part of our earnings is generated within Switzerland, Germany, and Hungary. Our tax rate is a mix between these three countries. You know that in Switzerland, we have a lower taxation compared to Germany. This positive effect will a little bit decrease in the future. In general, I expect on average a tax rate of about 28%. This is slightly below the German tax burden, what German companies have. We have also to consider the first taxes, and here we have some changes.
We had, due to the adjustments, IAS 38, we had some higher deferred tax payables that was being set here on the 2024 figures and 2023 figures.
Okay. Thanks. That was very clear. Thanks a lot.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for questions, please press star and one on your telephone. There are no more questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Jan Keppeler for any closing remarks.
Thank you, Sergen. Ladies and gentlemen, just to conclude our conference call, thank you for joining.