Good afternoon from Helsinki, and welcome to Nokian Tyres Capital Markets Update 2023. My name is Päivi Antola. I am heading Nokian Tyres Investor Relations. I will be hosting this event today. Today, on the agenda, we will have three speakers. We will start with Jukka Moisio, the President and CEO of Nokian Tyres, who will talk about how we are building the new Nokian Tyres. Jukka will be followed by Adrian Kaczmarczyk, Senior Vice President Supply Operations, who will be talking about capacity, supply chain, and sustainability. The third speaker will be Teemu Kangas-Kärki, CFO. He will talk about our financial ambitions and delivering sustainable shareholder value. During all the presentations, you can send your questions through the form in the webcast window. You can find that question field under the video.
We are finishing the event around 5:00 P.M. After the presentation, we will take the questions, a Q&A session. Before going to the prepared presentation, let's quickly cover the Q1 results. Jukka, please go ahead.
Thank you, Päivi. Welcome on my behalf as well to Nokian Tyres', Capital Markets Update. Indeed, let's start with the Q1 results. Our segment's net sales were EUR 236 million, and that's 35.1% down in comparable currencies. Segment's operating profit at minus EUR 14 million versus EUR 35 million in 2022. The main topic, of course, was the sale of Russian operations. That was completed in March. At the end of the quarter, when we look at our balance sheet, it continues to be strong. That's in a summary our Q1.
We could go through the Q1 a little bit more in detail, taking some questions that we have received during the quarter, after full-year results, kind of the most frequently asked questions. Here, I would like Teemu to join the Q&A, first about the guidance, what we have. Teemu, can you explain the logic why the second half is expected to be stronger than the first half?
Happy to do so. As we have been discussing the lack of supply in our earlier call, that is the main reason that we don't have, as an example, in the first half, summer tires available that we could sell to our customers. In the second half, we are in addition to our own capacity getting from our contract manufacturing partners supply for Q3 and Q4 that will help to increase our top line and improve our profit as well.
If we continue with the outlook, and maybe this is for you, Jukka, heavy tires. How would you describe heavy tires outlook for 2023?
Heavy tires started the year strongly, so the top line net sales increased, profitability at 14%. However, the volumes were down, so the net sales progress came predominantly from higher net selling prices. We see that the outlook is getting more uncertain, and this is driven by the fact that macroeconomic outlook is more uncertain, and at the same time, the interest rates are going up, so therefore the investment in capital equipment where heavy tires is supplying is more uncertain.
Still on the outlook, raw material prices, Teemu, how do you expect raw material prices to develop this year?
On a full-year basis, the raw material unit cost for Nokian Tyres, that is expected to increase from year 2022. If we then look it on a quarterly level as reported in our release, we have already gone through the peak quarter. In the first quarter, the material unit cost started to decrease, but we are still clearly on a much higher level than in the first quarter 2022. Looking to the balance of the year, the cost level will be plateauing on this level. Remembering that in the first half, we still have the raw material in our inventories that were purchased in the year 2022.
Still staying in the guidance, Teemu, what's your guidance for CapEx this year?
The CapEx guidance is clearly above EUR 300 million level as we are starting to invest to the Romanian factory in the latter part of the year.
One more question before we go to the actual capital markets update, presentations. Jukka, now after the sale of Russian operations has been completed, how about.
Sure
... the second dividend installment, payment? Is that now more likely?
As I said at the end of quarter one, our balance sheet is strong. We did a very successful exit in terms of getting money to our balance sheet from Russia. Therefore, when we start the year after quarter one, we are in a solid position that dividends are being proposed and secured. Also, as we indicated in our long-term ambitions, we want to remain as a good dividend payer. This is very much what we want to do, and this is our ambition.
Thank you, Jukka. Thank you, Teemu. As said in the beginning, you can send questions through the question field under the video, and we will take the questions after the three presentations. Let's now move on to the actual capital markets update.
Starting the presentation, indeed we promised that we will have a capital markets update when we've completed the exit from Russia. Now this has been achieved in the month of March. The money is on our balance sheet, and we can conclude that at the end of the quarter, our balance sheet is strong. Therefore it's a good moment to reflect at what our ambitions going forward and how will Nokian Tyres build the new Nokian Tyres in coming months and quarters and years. The main line is that we want to go back to EUR 2 billion growth track. We were about to achieve that in 2022 before the war in Ukraine broke out. However, this is a very important target for us, and we go for that growth in coming years.
We have a clear strategy. We focus on our core markets and core products and to restore the growth. We believe and experience has told that the best way to have a profitable growth and profitable strategy is to focus on the core products, and this is very much what we want to do. Therefore, serving the markets in Western Europe, Nordics, and North America based on our new investments and opportunities will be dedicated to these markets. The new capacity which we have initiated will include comprehensive measures to build new capacity. It's consisting of a new plant as well as increases in Nokian Tyres, as well as the completion of Dayton factory.
We have a strong team, and that team has been through very demanding times, not only in 2022, when we had the war, when we had the war in Ukraine, which continues even today, but also in 2020 when we had COVID and strong recovery after the COVID and a strong demand for tires in late 2020 as well as in throughout the year 2021. Our team is capable, experienced, and have been through multiple situations and changes and has been responding in a very good way to these challenges. That team is very much intact and so therefore ready to go to next battles and next opportunities to grow the company.
We have, when we look at 2022, the reported net sales were almost EUR 1.8 billion. If you look at the restated numbers, we were at about EUR 1.35 billion. In terms of segment operating profit, the reported was 12.5%, but the restated number was EUR 18 million, 1.3% of net sales. We had some of extraordinary costs included in our segment operating profit, and Teemu will come back to those ones in his presentation. When we look at the personnel at the year in 2022, including now the Russian team, we had 4,500 employees.
When we restate and exclude the Russian operations, we start, the starting foundation, the starting team is 3,300 employees at the end of 2022. The important thing about our financial situation balance sheet is that our gearing is at the end of March 2023, 3.3%. Equity ratio is almost 68%. Our interest-bearing net debt at EUR 47 million, which includes about EUR 130 million of leasing IFRS leasing liabilities. Practically, we are debt-free when we start our voyage to build the new Nokian Tyres. In terms of net sales, again restated, segments net sales, passenger car tires in 2022 were about EUR 800 million. Heavy tires at about EUR 271 million and Vianor EUR 362 million.
In addition, we had about EUR 93 million of in-internal sales between the units. All in all, EUR 1.35 billion in external net sales. If you look at then the countries which we serve, Nordics is 54% of our net sales, other Europe, 22% and Americas 23%. Canada being a very significant market for us going forward. Other countries account for 1%. Our journey towards EUR 2 billion net sales and strong profits will consist of important steps in heavy tires as well as in Vianor, and most importantly in passenger car tires. Heavy tires, our sales estimated, we want to continue that above market level growth.
We've been able to achieve that in the past years. We have an ambition to grow the heavy tires net sales to approximately EUR 400 million by 2027. Vianor at EUR 360 million in 2022. We expect that number will be EUR 400 million or more in 2027. Then in passenger car tires where we start in 2022 at the level of EUR 800 million, we expect that number will be approximately EUR 1.3 billion in 2027. We have divided the passenger car tire voyage into two different phases. One is the investment phase and the second one is the growth phase. The investment phase has started already in the beginning of this year.
In fact, some of the decisions were announced already in 2022, and some of them are ongoing since before the time of last year. The important steps in investment phase are the capacity increase in Finland, which is very much ongoing in Nokia. In fact, the equipment have been installed and we are now achieving improvement and increase in volumes in Finland. U.S. factory completion, and Adrian will talk about that. Indeed, we are installing the equipment and hiring people in the U.S. right now in order to complete that growth phase during this year and then achieving increasing number of tires and higher volumes in 2024.
New factory in Romania, this we announced late last year and we are in the phases to initiate and start the investment activities in Romania in terms of installing or ordering the equipment and starting the construction. Adrian will come back to this one a little bit later. Fourth element of our investment phase in passenger car tires is growing contract manufacturing. Late last year we announced the first contract and we are working on developing other opportunities and alternatives to increase the contract manufacturing in 2023 and in 2024, so that we get significant volume out of that in coming months and quarters.
In growth phase, from 2026 to 2027, we will increase our market penetration build on new products. This increased capacity, which I mentioned, and enhanced operational capabilities, which means that we will improve our operational efficiency, our cost efficiency, and that they ensure that when we get to higher volume and bigger net sales, we also have a corresponding cost efficiency in our company. We have updated our financial targets for the next 5 years. If I start with the net sales in 5 years' time, our net sales, our ambition is EUR 2 billion. Between now and that time, we will grow sales in line with the capacity increase. Step by step, when the capacity becomes available and we are able to make more tires, we will then increase the sales.
As I mentioned, the contract manufacturing will help us to drive the top line. Profitability. Our ambition is segments operating profit at 15%. We will also target segments EBITDA in the range of 23%-25% in 5 years' time. That shows that when we hit our 25% target, indeed, our depreciation load is quite significant because we have invested in 2 new factories. Dayton ongoing and Oradea, Romania, ongoing. We have a significant depreciation amount between the segments EBITDA and segments operating profit.
When we hit the 25% segments EBITDA, it means that our absolute EBITDA will be EUR 500 million, and that means that it's the highest number that we as a company have ever achieved. In between, when we start in 2023 and we have our journey towards 2027, we aim to have segments EBITDA more than 15% starting this year. That also means that our segment's operating profit will be high single digit, again reflecting that the depreciation load in our company is quite significant between EBITDA and segment's operating profit. We have also a new target, which is capital structure. Our net debt-segments EBITDA, our ambition is to be between 1-2 starting this year. When we achieve our growth phase, 2027, we expect to be at the same level.
Looking at the numbers and if and when our EBITDA is 25%, so EUR 500 million, net debt will be somewhere between EUR 500 million and EUR 1 billion. That will secure that we are in a position to pay dividends. Our dividend policy is unchanged. Our target is to pay at least 50% of net earnings. We are creating a balanced and scalable manufacturing network for passenger car tires, and this is a reflection, of course, that the Russian operation has been divested and we need to recreate the capacity and capability in passenger car tires. We will have a USA Dayton factory, which is about 25% of total own production. In Finland, Nokia, about 35% of own production. In Romania, Oradea, about 40% of our own production.
Own capacity is targeted to be about 15 million or higher tires in 2027. We invest in capital equipment, and then we work on the continuous improvement, productivity gains, waste reductions, scrap reduction, throughput improvements, and all those important elements of manufacturing excellence that will help us to create more capacity and supply more tires. We will also have a virtual factory, which is contract manufacturing, and we will complement and expect to complement our own manufacturing in with the virtual factory. We target about between 1 million and 3 million tires in coming years, and that will be a remaining element of our manufacturing network in the future. This way, we create a more balanced and scalable network. It is also more diversified, and it's learning from the Russian situation where all our eggs were in one basket.
Now we will work with the manufacturing network that is more diversified, more capable, and can supply continuously in years to come. Our company is very much proud of its product portfolio. Right now, as we speak, we have one of the best product portfolios ever. We have leading winter tire products in Hakkapeliitta 10, in R5 in friction tire. Also very successful summer tire lineup in Finland, and very good products in our heavy tires. We want to ensure that that continues. Therefore, here I have a short video talking about the products and product excellence.
Innovation comes from new products, new materials, but as we rely on our growth and on our future on organic investments, hand in hand with that will go excellent products, continued product development, and being at the forefront in product performance. Look at the passenger car tires. Nordics and North America are on track. I compare to 2021 Capital Markets Day, which we held in August, if I remember right, August 2021, where we said that the Nordics will strengthen Our number one position. This is very much on track. It is based on high quality products, best possible product availability, strong distribution via our Vianor, and customer loyalty.
The same way, the North American ambitions are on track. We said at that time that we will grow the sales by 100%. We are on track on that. It will be driven by safeguarding the snow belt business, growing in all season, and expanding data and capability to produce the North American products. In Central Europe, ambitions have changed from 2021. In the beginning, we want to safeguard our market presence, our own products, our manufacturing, subcontracted products, our partner network supplying them. Grow later on when we have our own capacity and capability available. There is a revised target. We will prioritize customers and channels. We clarify distribution and product portfolio. We have streamlined the operations. In heavy tires, we want to continue on a strong growth track.
We had in the previous capital market state, 2021, we had a target to increase our capacity to 32 million kilos by the end of 2023, 50% up from 2018. We have a new revised target for heavy tires. We want to grow the sales to EUR 400 million by 2027. Means that we strengthen our distribution in Central Europe and North America. We will widen our product portfolio, focus on forestry, agri, and on-road, and develop our digital capabilities. On the back of that, we also seek to invest on capacity expansion in Nokia to supply that volume that is needed to EUR 400 million net sales target to be achieved in 2027. Vianor is an important contributor to our strong Nordic positioning.
We aim to have EUR 400 million net sales in Vianor by 2027. We will maximize Nokian Tyres sales. We also deliver positive result on a standalone basis. We aim that Vianor remains the largest distributor for Nokian Tyres in the Nordics. Right now, we have 173 owned service centers, and we expand our tire hotel business, which is important part of Vianor. The ambitions and targets for Vianor are on track. Industry benchmark, we want to set industry benchmark on sustainability. We have important targets, main targets in sustainability. One is safe and eco-friendly tires. Our ambition is to ensure that the share of recycled and renewable material, raw materials in our tires will be 50% by 2030.
New recycled material has taken into production use in 2022, and that's carbon black. Climate, we reduce our CO2 emissions from tire production by 50% by 2030, and we achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 43% decrease from base year of 2015 has been achieved in 2022. In safety, we want to decrease the accident frequency. LTIF from 8.3 in 2018 to 1.5 in 2025. In 2022, we had 3.2, which is a record low level. That means 3.2 accidents per million hours worked.
3.2 accidents that led to hours away from work per million hours worked. In human rights, sustainability audit of 100% of significant high-risk suppliers by 2025, and 83% of those were audited in 2022. Final important target, personnel well-being, we want to develop that topic, that item. Equality score in the personnel survey was 66 versus 65 in 2021. Building new Nokian Tyres, in summary, we have a solid foundation. At the end of quarter 1, we had a solid balance sheet, and we have strong, clear plans to get back the EUR 2 billion growth track. We have ambitious new targets in financials. We have ambitious targets in sustainability and want to maintain our leadership in sustainability.
Most importantly, no plans will be executed without a strong team, we have a strong Nokian Tyres team. We've been through demanding times in 2020, also in 2022, we are ready to have new plans and new opportunities in 2023, and we aim to have EUR 2 billion of net sales in 2027, in 5 years' time, strong profitability, and also remain as a good dividend payer throughout these years. Here I pause and let Adrian to continue with his presentation.
Good afternoon, also welcome on my behalf. What I would like to tell you and show you is what we are doing in supply operations to support our growth ambition. Basically, we are having three distinct priorities. What is important here is that we are expanding our capacity in our existing factories and are building a new factory in Romania. Furthermore, we will renew our supply chain processes and upgrade a more than 20-year-old ERP system to create end-to-end visibility. We are committed to sustainability and want to remain the leader in the industry. We are particularly proud of building the first zero CO2 emission factory in the tire industry. The Romanian factory will have a capacity of 6 million pieces, and we have options to further expand our capacity in the future.
The tires produced will be winter, all season and summer, and will meet customer demand and requirements for CE market. For example, larger rim sizes for EV and SUV cars. Furthermore, the Romania factory is designed for high productivity and automation and has the flexibility to respond to market requirements. We will employ around 500 individuals at the end of the first phase expansion. When looking at the timeline, I would like to share with you the high-level milestones. We will have our groundbreaking ceremony on March 11, and the target is to build the first tire in the second half of 2024 and start commercial production in 2025. Why are we confident to achieve this? First, the machine ordering took place in the end of 2022 to ensure that long lead time machine deliveries are secured.
Second, we are already partnering with recruiting agency to prepare for the hiring process. Third, our permit application is filed, and we expect our first construction permit to be approved still in April, although means this month. Last but not least, we have a very proactive risk management process in place, and the staffing plans are ready. Support from Nokian and Dayton will be organized to ensure we will be able to meet this challenging and tight timeline. As we heard from Jukka already, we just finished our capacity phase 1 expansion in Finland in passenger car tire production. Nokian will remain key supply factory for Nordics market and North America winter tires. Nokian is also our main hub for R&D activities.
Recent land and property acquisitions enable further expansion options, both in heavy tires and PCT. As you can see, we are currently expanding our capacity in Dayton. We will finalize our first investment phase in the U.S., by end of this year and ramp up our U.S., factory to full capacity starting in 2024. The expansion will improve our production capabilities to support growth in the U.S., market. Our U.S., factory will continue to reduce CO2 emissions and is a sustainability benchmark in our manufacturing footprint. As we continue with contract manufacturing, and as we heard already, contract manufacturing is, or our contract manufacturing strategy is supporting the CE market with dedicated winter, all season and summer products. Two contracts have been already signed.
We announced the cooperation with Sentury last year in December, and we have signed already a contract on the all season products. Summer product testing and negotiations are ongoing. As we are known and recognized for our tire quality and performance, our contract manufacturing partner are following and adhering to our quality standards and requirements. Our partner are audited on a regular basis and rigorous tire quality checks are in place to ensure the quality we expect. When on our supply chain side, we are moving away from manual activities which are not connected and digitalized with no end-to-end visibility. We are replacing a 20-year-old ERP system, applying state-of-the-art technology to improve efficiencies and cost. This ultimately will also improve our ability to better service our customer.
Operational activities will complement process work, for example, aligning logistics networks to improve service to customer. Customer and supplier collaboration will create early visibility on demand changes and therefore enable supply chain teams to become more agile. What this means is that we are and will improve cost efficiency and lower working capital requirements, means improve our inventory situation and inventory returns. We have been doing a lot in sustainability over the last years, sustainability has been one of our key priorities for a long time already, as you can see some of the achievements over the last years. Now we will build the first zero CO2 emission factory in the world, and this is what makes us very proud to achieve and to deliver. When talking about safety, we heard our improvement from Jukka on what we have done.
People and safety is our main priority, and we have done an excellent job to reduce the number of incidents and will continue to do so. Why has this improved? We have made safety a clear priority and engaged with our workforce in a collaborative way to positively impact safety behavior. Obviously, the journey continues. Let's talk about products. You've seen the concept tire, and we have proven to build this concept tire out of 93% recycled and renewed material. The target, obviously, is to increase the amount of renewable and recycled materials by 2030 up to 50%, and we are very confident that we will achieve this. When talking about climate and reducing CO2 emissions, we are proud to be a front runner in sustainability in the industry.
Reducing CO2 emission has been really a priority for us. This is a great motivation to raise our ambition and continue to reduce our carbon footprint. Our new factory in Romania will be a lighthouse for the industry and will help Nokian Tyres to further reduce CO2 emissions and carbon footprint in the future. Let me now briefly recap and summarize. We are first, we are aggressively expanding our capacity in Dayton and Nokia, and we'll build a new factory in Romania. Second, contract manufacturing agreements will complement our growth strategy. Third, our supply chain processes will be upgraded and will make us more agile and cost-effective. Last but not least, sustainability is an integral part to our business, and we are committed to remain the leader in sustainability in the industry.
With that, I will hand over now to Teemu.
Teemu, you are on mute.
Thank you, Adrian and Jukka. Let's move to my section. With those activities that were shared with Jukka and Adrian, we are committed to deliver growth and sustainable shareholder value in the coming years as well. We have a solid financial foundation on which we can build the future of new Nokian Tyres. We have long track record of profitable growth, showing solid growth both in passenger car tires and heavy tires. To call out some of the data points, in heavy tires, net combined average growth rate for the net sales was on the level of 10% between 2016 and 2022. In passenger car tires, in North America, the compound average growth rate between 2016 and 2021 was on a level of 9%.
If we take into account the year 2022, it was clearly above 10%. Our passenger car tire supply was impacted already last year in 2022 negatively, and therefore influencing our passenger car tire net sales accordingly. In passenger car tire business, as we all know, winter segment has been our core and will be the core in the coming years. In our strategy, we have chosen attractive niche segments where we can sustainably generate attractive margins. Due to this, our cash conversion is strong and has led to a situation where we can invest and pay solid dividends and still being in a net cash position with strong balance sheet. This is one of the strengths when starting to build Nokian Tyres. If we briefly look the impact of exiting Russia for Nokian Tyres.
You all know that we had a significant factory in Russia producing some 80% of passenger car tire products. With those activities discussed with Adrian Kaczmarczyk and Jukka Moisio, we are ramping up and finalizing the capacity expansions in Finland, U.S., and Romania. The volumes will bottom in 2023 and start gradually increase after that. Our average sales price will be significantly higher without Russia and therefore partly offset the volume decline in our total net sales. If we zoom in to the transaction itself that we were able to close in the first quarter, the sales price for our Russian business was this EUR 285 million, and the result for the discontinued operation was a loss of EUR 333 million.
If we break down this number, the profit from the sales itself was on a level of EUR 209 million, and the result in Russia for the beginning of the year was minus EUR 2 million. In connection with this transaction, we also then release the translation difference from that has been recorded in the Other Comprehensive Income to the Profit and Loss Statement worth of EUR 366 million. This negative EUR 366 million has been recorded in our equity in the previous years, so it didn't have any impact on our equity. These were the numbers on our group level.
If we looked at the transaction on a company level, it means that with this transaction, the distributable funds in the parent company are expected to increase approximately EUR 125 million when we have been able to move the result from our holding company to the parent company in the coming quarters. This will increase our distributable funds which were at the parent company at the end of Q1, EUR 710 million. Looking our restated financials excluding Russia. Here you can see what is the starting point for year 2023. Our net sales was on a level of EUR 1.3 billion. Our segment's operating profit was EUR 18 million.
Good to remember, as discussed in the Q4 call, that last year, this segment operating profit was negatively impacted of the extra activities, by which we were able to secure better service level for our customers. Those extra costs were on a level of some EUR 60 million extra freights, warehousing, et cetera, logistic costs. The personnel without Russia at the year-end last year was on a level of 3,300 employees. Looking at the Q1 numbers from the balance sheet point of view. Our equity ratio is very solid, almost 68%, and our gearing was on a level of 3%. Good to remember that our interest-bearing debt, which was on a level of EUR 47 million, includes the leasing liabilities of EUR 130 million.
If we exclude those, we were in a net cash position at the end of Q1. We will return to the growth path with our four strategic programs, completing the capacity increase in Finland and in U.S. and progressing in our new greenfield factory investment in Romania, which is complemented with the growing contract manufacturing as discussed. At the same time, we continue to provide world-class products and services to our customers, and we have at the moment most likely the strongest portfolio ever that we are able to sell to our customers. Together with these activities, we want to improve our end-to-end processes and systems to meet our customer needs that are changing as we all know and at the same time improve our cost efficiency in every area where we operate.
The foundation of our success relies on our product quality, our safety of the products, and sustainability. Here you can see the updated financial targets that we released today. As said, our dividend policy is unchanged and which is that we will pay dividends of at least 50% of our net earnings. If we look our track record, we have clearly exceed our dividend policy in the past years and we want to do that in the coming years as well. If we look our new targets, it's good to understand these two phases, the investment phase that starts from year 2023 going to the 25, and then the growth phase. In the investment phase, we are growing our top line in line with our capacity expansions.
At the same time, it means that we will start gradually improving our profitability. This year our guidance for segments operating profit as a percentage from net sales is between 6%-8%. During this phase, we are anticipating to be on a high single-digit level, meaning that from the segment's EBITDA point of view, we should be above 15% level taking into account our depreciation, which is some 9 percentage points. In the capital structure target, we will naturally be in our net debt segments EBITDA target from 1-2 due to the investments then going to the growth phase where we will target to get these net sales of EUR 2 billion and segments operating profit at the end of the period around 15%.
It means that our segments EBITDA would be then during this phase in the range of 23%-25%. When our segments EBITDA starts to grow, we still want to maintain our net debt to segments EBITDA target between 1 to 2, meaning that either dividends are clearly increasing or share buybacks are introduced or other activities in order to be within this range. Yeah, you can see it, illustrative picture of our journey, how we will go to the EUR 2 billion net sales. This picture starts from year 2021, which was the normal year before 2022. As we all know, we will have a significant headwind from the volume drop, which we will then complement with the growing contract manufacturing and increasing capacity in Nokia and in Dayton, and the improving price mix.
We have been implementing in the previous quarters significant price increases, plus our geographical mix impact positively our net ASP. In the growth phase, the share of contract manufacturing will be the flex item. In the past, we have been saying that our Finnish factory has been the flex factory. In the coming years, this role is given to the contract manufacturing, and that will balance possible fluctuations in the demand. In terms of ASP, we expect that to be neutral and clearly higher than in previous years. If you look our factory mix on the left-hand side, there you can see the development from year 2021 to our target level at the end of 2027. We are finalizing the expansions in Finland and U.S.
As we heard from Adrian Kaczmarczyk, our U.S., factory is expected to run at full capacity next year, 2024. The contract manufacturing will have the role as a virtual factory, and we are expecting to get some 1-3 million tires annually. This year we are expecting to be on a level of approximately 1.5 million. At the end of the period in 2027, Romania will overtake Finland as the biggest factory in output volumes. If we then look our product offering development, winter tires will remain the core category, as I said in the beginning of my presentation. The share of all season will grow according to our plan. Now short-term, the summer is decreasing due to the lack of supply.
We all know how the product demands is developing. The share of EVs are growing and premium tires and higher rim sizes their demand is increasing, which we clearly want to meet with our new factory setup and our product offering for the coming quarters and years. Here you can see the slides that we have been showing you since 2018 and 2021 in our CMD Capital Markets Days. You can see the development from through the lenses of region net ASP, region gross margin, and category margin. I said our net ASP for the group will grow with the activities that we are performing and the changing geographical mix. The factory mix and loss of our Russian factory naturally then decreases our region gross margin and category margin.
Meeting the new targets that we have set for ourselves in terms of profitability being 15% at the end of the growth phase for segment operating profit. A few words about our material cost development that I already commented in the beginning of the call. Year on year, we see that the material cost will increase. Despite the fact that in Q1, material cost started to decline from year from Q4. As I said, the Q1 in 2022 was on such a low level it will keep the full year material cost level higher than 2022 with the fact that we have, in the first half, still raw materials that were purchased last year with a higher cost.
The positive thing is that in the replacement tire market, we are less price-sensitive compared to the market in the OE segment. Moving to the heavy tires, that is that we expect to continue on a strong growth track during the coming five years. The new target is to reach the net sales of EUR 400 million. The segment operating profit is expected to increase both in relative as naturally in absolute terms. The core growth drivers are the strengthening distribution in Central Europe and North America, and focus on the aftermarket, and having the right sales teams in place. We will finalize the capacity from 20 million to 32 million kilos, and we are in a process to explore possibilities to further increase capacity in Nokia.
On top of that, we will widen our product portfolio and develop further digital services and our capabilities for services and product development. If you talk about our capital deployment, naturally, the new capacity is number 1 priority for Nokian Tyres. Having said that, with a strong balance sheet, it enables the dividend payments also during the investment phase. We are improving the profitability with the increase in sales, and our segment's EBITDA is growing more linearly than our segment's operating profit as a % of sales due to the fact that our segment operating profit is impacted by the increase in depreciation. Therefore, the segment operating profit margin is not developing linearly as our segment's EBITDA should be. Naturally, we continue working with our working capital.
We are focusing on the balance sheet efficiency, and we are expecting that our asset velocity should be at the level of 1 at the end of the growth phase. Looking our taxes that are influencing our free cash flow, approximately 21% is the right level of profit before taxes. In the investment phase, our cumulative CapEx equals roughly the cumulative segment's EBITDA. As said, the factory investment in Romania, the gross is on a EUR 650 million, and our average maintenance CapEx is around EUR 125 million. With these cash flow components, we will generate the robust cash flow and continue to have a solid financial position to provide options to create shareholder value for our shareholders. Today, we have introduced a target for our capital structure, which is a new KPI.
The new target is to have net debt to segments EBITDA between 1-2. Historically, we wanted to be in a net cash position due to the Russia exposure. Now when that risk exposure is gone, we have the opportunity to leverage our balance sheet without increasing the risk exposure of the company. With the proceeds from Russia, we will partly fund our Romanian factory investments and the remaining part is fund by our own cash flow and leveraging our strong balance sheet. Here below, you can see our net debt to segments EBITDA levels. In the previous year, we were clearly below 1, and now the target is to be between 1-2.
Now we are in a new position to build a diversified debt portfolio, which we didn't have in the previous years due to the fact that we were in a net cash position. We want to build in a controlled way, a portfolio which is diversified from the financing channel and maturity point of view. Last week, we committed bank financing worth of EUR 300 million with our house banks. On top of that, we have a EUR 3 million revolving credit facility and EUR 500 million domestic commercial paper program in place. Additional debt funding can be sourced from banks and or debt capital markets in order to have a balanced debt portfolio. We are confident that we continue to deliver sustainable shareholder value in line with our financial targets.
We will invest to support our organic growth with the help of capacity expansions in Finland and U.S., complementing with contract manufacturing. Romania starting to support the top line from 2025 onwards. In our journey, our absolute net profit will grow. We continue to optimize our revenue with the market relevant product mix. Actually, we continue to keep our cost in strict control. That has been our track record to protect the cash flow in the coming years. The improving segments EBITDA will enable increasing dividends and or share buybacks during this 5 years period. We will have increased flexibility because our geopolitical risk exposure is clearly smaller than in the previous years. That will support Nokian Tyres to be a good dividend payer in the coming years.
Summing up why to invest in the new Nokian Tyres. As I started my segment or presentation, we have chosen to be in the attractive niche segments where we can generate good margins like winter tires with our safe and eco-friendly products. We have clear runway to restore the growth and profitability in the passenger car tire. Heavy tires is expected to continue on a strong growth track with improving profitability during the period. We have the financial means to execute our growth plan and deliver shareholder value. With our world-class products and factories with high productivity, efficiency, and quality and sustainability, Nokian Tyres is a attractive case for investors. With that, I will hand over back to you, Päivi.
Thank you, Teemu, Jukka, and Adrian. Let's then move on to Q&A. We have received plenty of questions. Let's try to cover those as well as possible during the time what we have. The first question what I have here is about the new financial targets. Teemu, maybe you can take this. What are your biggest challenges to achieve the new growth and profitability targets? Teemu, please.
As I said, in terms of top line, we need to execute our capacity expansions according to the plan. While we are increasing our capacity expansions, we are able to reduce our cost base per product sold together with continuing product development, which is always fundamental to have competitive product for portfolio in the market.
The following question maybe to Jukka. Jukka, does the dividend, this year's dividend, set the baseline for future years?
This year's dividend is clearly dependent on the starting point and the performance on our balance sheet this year. Obviously when our EBITDA and performance improves, then this is a good starting point, and then we expect that we can grow the dividend as years come. Yes, it's a baseline at this moment, but our ambition is higher of course.
There are several questions about the offtake. Adrian, firstly, can you specify how the offtake volume of 1 million-3 million will be split between the years and the years to come?
Yeah, there's multiple reasons to this. First of all, we want to obviously protect IP and new developments and keep them within Nokian Tyres and not basically giving them and outsource those products. Second, there's limited capacity available, or there's no unlimited capacity you can tap in for contract manufacturing. Third, obviously, we would like to select the right partners which have the capabilities also to produce high quality safe tires according to our standards.
There is a question about North America and the North American target. You want to grow by 100%. By when does the lack of supply impact also your North American business? Jukka, if you can answer this one.
Yes. We had that target in 2021 when we had the capital markets day, and indeed we set the target at that time to grow by 100%, and that target is very valid. North America, initially when the Russia situation started, so the war in Ukraine started, and we had certain issues to deliver from Russia to American markets. Now, we have a new production planning and capability to deliver exactly what is expected and needed in North America, including the Dayton full capacity, full installed capacity run next year, as well as increased capacity in Nokia. Yes, we have the target valid, and we will achieve the target.
We have a question about the long-term financial targets. Jukka, the first one is for you. I think we already answered this question during the presentations later on, but the question goes, "Should we consider long-term in your targets as 5 years, i.e., 2028 or further out like 2030?
Long-term, we said that long-term starts this year, so long-term 5 years means that 2027 is our target year. Therefore a little bit shorter than what the question suggested. We of course do and try to achieve as quickly as possible, but these ambitions are set to year 2027.
Teemu, you target segment operating profit at the level of 15. Could you please hint how much adjustments should we anticipate still in 28, 30? Well, let's now use 27, which Jukka mentioned.
On that year there should be only limited amount of adjustments.
About the dividend, Jukka. You aim at paying 50% of your net income as dividend as a policy. Would you want to maintain dividend at last year's level as minimum, or would you be prepared to pay no dividend for 2023 to reflect the lack of earnings?
Hmm. I think that we would be paying the dividend last year level. This year's proposed dividend would be the baseline. From this year, in coming years we would seek to increase the dividend. Also, what Teemu was saying, that even if we go with the share buybacks, we would then continue to remain as a good dividend payer.
Teemu, could you please elaborate the margin development from 2023 to the midterm 15% goal when taking account of the third party source volumes and the ramp earlier post-launch margins in Romania?
All right, I try to understand the question correctly. If I start with the beginning, as I said, in the investment phase, the segment operating profit margin doesn't grow linearly, because depending on the time when we start depreciation, it has a significant impact to the segment operating profitability. Therefore, we have been indicating that during this investment phase we are in a single high digit level. Then when the Romania factory starts to be fully in use, then we go to the targeted 15% level in terms of segment operating profit. Hopefully I answered the question properly.
Mm.
Maybe to Teemu again. presented in the previous Capital Markets Day, you were aiming to grow passenger car tires capacity to 26 million tires in order to reach the EUR 2 billion net sales target. You decided to keep your net sales target unchanged, although supply will be much smaller. Prices have obviously increased a lot, could you please talk about the most important assumptions behind this target?
I would say that the main difference to the previous 2 billion target is the net ASP development. Without Russia, our net ASP is clearly higher, and therefore we are able to reach the same monetary target with the lower volume. It means that we maintain our strong presence in the Nordics. We continue to grow into North America to double it as set in our targets. We are able to grow the Central European sales in line with our capacity increase, peaking at the end of the period in 2027.
Maybe, Päivi, if I can comment here in between, just jump in here. We were about to achieve that EUR 2 billion target already in 2022, the way the year started and the capacity utilization and so on. Obviously, 26 million tires that was discussed, that gave lots of opportunity to overachieve the EUR 2 billion target.
The next question is for you, Jukka. How do you secure your market position in times of transition and lower volumes? How can you keep your price position once aiming to rebuild market share?
Yeah. The important thing is that we have a good product portfolio. By far that's the most important thing that we keep on developing. What we have today is an excellent portfolio. We must keep on developing that. That is a key and the backbone for us to maintain the pricing and achieve a good market penetration. In between, it's clear that we want to introduce contract manufacturing, our partners to help us to ensure that distribution customers, consumers have Nokian Tyres available. That way we keep our relevance in the key markets. The important thing is that focus on the core products and core business, because that way we ensure that the success of execution implementation will be there.
Another thing is that we can activate lots of the brand building and marketing activities in years to come. Right now, obviously when we are in a situation that we don't have enough supply, our marketing activities at this moment are relatively modest and also keeping in mind that the costs are under control that way. In coming quarters and years, we will clearly activate that. Most important thing is that we have a strong product portfolio now between now and the growth phase, and especially during the growth phase.
Jukka, the next one is for you as well. At what point in time would you be willing to give up the margin diluted contract manufacturing volumes?
I believe that contract manufacturing is something that is opportunity to introduce more product, whether it goes to Vianor outlets in the Nordic markets or complementing product portfolio to our distribution in Central Europe or in North America. It's maybe interesting to point out that in contract manufacturing, margins may be not as high as in our own manufacturing, but at the same time, the contract manufacturing doesn't tie any assets in terms of manufacturing. Therefore, return on capital employed in contract manufacturing can be quite attractive. We of course want to do it selectively, and we want to make sure that we are not losing money or diluting our margins significantly in contract manufacturing.
Having the market presence and having ability to supply a good wide portfolio of products of various price points, contract manufacturing is a good way. We believe that developing that and practicing that in a constructive way is a good way forward. Historically, we haven't done that. Clearly the Russian factory has been opportunity to supply low-cost small tires, high-value large tires, and everything in between. Therefore, we didn't practice it in the past. Going forward, that's a new way to make sure that we are well-represented in the minds of our distribution as well as the consumers.
Teemu, pricing is a key portion of the initial investment phase. Do you see any signs in the market that pricing in premium tires is challenged? Which measures are you taking to safeguard that bridge assumption?
Naturally, the pricing is always a key topic for any business. If we look our pricing environment in different market, naturally it varies. In some markets, it's more aggressive, like in North America as default, which is a highly competitive market compared to the European market. The key measure to be competitive is always the product offering and the product development. Long term, that is the only way to be successful, to have the most relevant product offering and performance in order to safeguard the pricing power of our business.
A little bit longer-term question. Jukka, your growth targets look well-funded. Where would you seek to add capacity once Romania is fully up and running? Brownfield only.
When we see Romania fully up and running, obviously now we have the luxury that we have developed capability brownfield. Not greenfield, but brownfield. Brownfield opportunities are across all our factories now because Nokia we've acquired real estate. Therefore it's not landlocked anymore, so we can expand in Nokia. Obviously, Romania has stages that we can introduce when we go forward. The U.S. has the same, so that there's real estate and space. If you ask about the greenfield, that how do we think about the greenfield, there are opportunities that we can develop, whether we do it on our own or together with a chosen partner. That remains to be seen. That may be too early to talk about those opportunities.
The luxury about our factories is that we have opportunities in all of them. Clearly, if you start from the cost point of view, as Teemu was saying, that Romania is by far the most competitive of our factories at this point of time. Nokian Tyres is very much focused on heavy tires.
Jukka, how can you convince investors on your capabilities and know-how in all season tires versus winter tire expertise, and hence your ability to win market share in Central Europe and North America?
That is of course an area that first of all, as we talked about the winter tires, that's our bread and butter. Therefore, it's an important category. Now, all season is a growing category. We've been working in that and introducing tires that have been more and more successful. We have to work on the innovation. What it takes is that we have a dedicated innovation team that works on a particular offering to Central European markets and not building on what we have done in the Nordics or not, using that capability, but really starting from the white sheet of paper and say that, "How do we develop a competitive, all-season tire for European markets.
While we do this, obviously we source with our manufacturing partners, and we will be present in the all season markets. In North America, I believe that we've made already a good progress in introducing new tires for particularly North American markets, and we've been quite successful in introducing Nokian Hakkapeliitta, for example, and similar tires in North America. We've demonstrated that we can do that when we focus and do the right work. It is something that we have to dedicate time, resources, and very much be committed to do it in the right way. I believe that when we start the Romania factory, we will want to make sure that the product offer from Romania factory is dedicated and well-designed for Central European markets.
It's not necessarily something that is based on summer tires in Nordics or winter tires in Nordics, but is specifically designed for Central European needs. That's what we did in the U.S., and that's what made us successful in terms of penetrating the U.S., markets.
Let's stay in Central Europe for a while, Jukka. Based on your revised targets in Central Europe in the near term, can you talk about your distribution strategy in the region? How will you make sure you are able to win back the lost market share in the next couple of years?
The secret, of course, is that we have to work and focus on the core. Which markets have we been successful all along, dedicate all the volumes and prioritize all the volumes, and also the distribution in those markets where we have been historically successful. Starting with Eastern Europe, starting with the winter tires. That is the prioritized area. Therefore, when we think about the partner manufacturing, also their products and products made by them will be dedicated to these particular markets. Then of course the country and the geographic distribution will come accordingly. We will go with the selected, selective distribution so that again, trying to do our utmost for the selected partners and distributors and make sure that they have a good product portfolio coming from Nokian Tyres.
Some of them, many of them made by us in the beginning, many of them coming from, our contract manufacturing partners, and increasingly more when the Romania starts coming from our Romanian factory.
The next one goes to Teemu. Do you plan to release detailed Q1 accounts and detailed restated 2022 accounts that would help us modeling 2023 forecasts?
I think, the detailed level that we have been providing so far, I think it's the most useful, information. If we would, give more information, it would make most likely your life more confusing.
The next question is for Adrian. In the presentation, you state that in 2027, Romania will overtake Finland as the biggest factory in input volumes. This suggests that you will not aim to achieve 6 million passenger car tires in Nokia, Finland. What will you do with the land and real estate purchased in 2022?
The expansion options with the land purchase are currently being reviewed. As yet we have a clear plan as we have seen also to grow the heavy tires business. It's a natural conclusion that we are currently working on plans to expand the Nokian factory with OTR or heavy tires capabilities. We have further options to obviously to expand the passenger car tire production, which we have done in the first phase already from 4 million up to close to 5 million, which has been finalized right now. There's more let's say expansion possibilities up to 6 million, which also requires some upstream investments in mixing capability, which are now at capacity.
We are currently looking at what is the best feasible option, what is the option which creates best return on capital employed for us. Obviously, Dayton and Romania factory are a greenfield where the planning and also the factory allows us more flexibility in the future.
Let's stay in Nokian Tyres and continue talking about the capacity a little bit. Teemu, how significant growth investments and growth in capacity beyond 2023 are needed in heavy tires in order to reach EUR 400 million sales target by 2027?
We are in the process of detailing our plans. Whenever we have more concrete in plans, we will come out with that kind of information. At this point of time, the plans are still in the works.
As Teemu was saying, in terms of the asset velocity target, we expect that the asset velocity is 1. At least 1 in net sales, 1 in the investment. That's our ambition.
Jukka, if you continue, there is a question about heavy tires profitability. Can you please talk about the long-term margin target for heavy tires?
We are aiming the heavy tires. Heavy tires has been performing in the range of 14%-16% segment operating profit, and we are aiming to achieve that level. Gradually, when we increase the capacity and capability, we aim to have an incremental benefit so that we don't replicate the full P&L by expanding the operation in Nokian Tyres. We expect that that margin gradually goes higher. They will be at or above our segment operating profit target for the whole company.
Teemu, cash flow from discontinued operations was EUR 199 million positive in Q1. Will there be any further positive cash flow impact from Russian divestment?
The Russia is done for us. We don't expect any negative or positive impact for Nokian Tyres anymore.
The next question, you partially covered them already, but let's take it again. What are the non-IFRS exclusions in the coming years? Can you provide some guidance regarding the magnitude, and can we expect these to disappear after the growth phase?
The non-IFRS exclusions, they have been on a level of EUR 25 million relating to Dayton factory, and they will gradually disappear when we reach the 3 million capacity in Dayton. Having said that, the Romanian factory comes into play, at the end of the growth phase, we are expecting those to be minimal.
Teemu, for you again, within the passenger car tire business, what kind of margin levels can Dayton and Nokia reach at full capacity?
If I answer this from a different angle through different lenses, if we talk about the product cost per item. At the end of the growth phase when Romanian factory is up and running, the cash cost for Romanian factory is the lowest. In our U.S. and in our Finnish factory, they are roughly on a same level without depreciation. Depending what is the market net ASP, et cetera, then that creates a different angle to this one.
Again, for Teemu, please. Could you please give a guidance for average CapEx over the two phases, 2023, 2025 and 2026, 2027?
If we take the investment phase first, as we have indicated that the Romanian factory is some EUR 650 million over the investment phase, and then the maintenance CapEx is some EUR 100 million. There you get a ballpark number that EUR 300 million is the average level over the 3 years' time if it's just split it by 3. In the growth phase, it will be significantly lower, and then depending what is the future for Nokian site that we don't know yet, that will have a positive impact in terms of top line and then investments related to that. In the investment phase, clearly EUR 300 plus, and then growth phase clearly below that.
Teemu, the next question is again for you. I don't know how much you can comment on this, but, when do you plan to be at the peak of debt-to-EBITDA ratio?
As I said, during the investment phase, we will naturally be on that range and 2024, 2025 most likely is the peak.
Adrian, please. Can you confirm that you are likely to receive a EUR 100 million investment subsidy to the new factory from the state of Romania?
Obviously we have filed the application now. It's in the hand of the European Commission and those competition councils which are in place in Europe or in Brussels and from Romania, delegates who are reviewing the case. We are quite confident that we have put a very strong case together, but I cannot comment on when and how much we will receive as a final approved application we filed. We are aiming for the EUR 99.5 million and as we are currently in the process of providing more information as we receive still some questions here and there.
We are, the first indications and the first feedback has been very positive and the councils and the body who is reviewing our application has been quite pleased with the documents and the application we have filed so far. We expect the final answer within the next 6-9 months latest.
Teemu, can you please elaborate on differences in your costs per tire in different factories, Romania, Finland, U.S. compared to Russia?
I said, when all the factories are running with full capacity, Romania is the lowest per tires produced in terms of cost and, U.S., and Nokian almost on the same level. If we compare Romania to Vsevolozhsk, as we have been discussing, there is a significant difference still due to the size of the production volume in Russia, 17 million with 6 million. This is the volume gain. The more you can produce, the lower is the cost per product. Maybe the good indication that we gave last fall already between Russia and rest of the group was this EUR 10 per tire cost advantage when we were moving the production from Finland to Russia.
Now when we are losing the Russia production, we will lose the EUR 10 per tire cost advantage in a ballpark.
Teemu, if you continue. Yeah, sorry, Jukka, please go ahead.
Romania is between Vsevolozhsk 1 and 10 in Western Europe and in Nokian Tyres and in the U.S., and so Romania is somewhere halfway between and fully utilized.
Teemu, if you continue, can you please elaborate on the positive mix differences arising from increasing rim size and SUV and EV penetration? How big are the ASP premiums for bigger rim sizes and SUV, EV tires, and how fast can we expect replacement market mix to develop?
Well, I would say that, in terms of production cost, there aren't that big cost differences. I think it comes from the product performance, and the product performance drives the profitability. There is a significant benefit when sales is moving to EVs and bigger rim sizes.
About the targets or PCT targets, can you share more details on the passenger car tire margin target in the long term? Teemu.
We have now given the overall group target and as you can see the heavy tires, then you can calculate the PCT as a residual if you do the math.
Teemu, if you continue, what can we expect related to working capital requirements in both phases in relation to revenues?
If we compare the situation with Russia and without Russia, there should naturally be a benefit that we don't have this business model that we used to have in Russia. Going forward, as said in my presentation, the asset velocity and the working capital efficiency is critical tool for us in the coming years, not only to fund the investments, but to be sure that we create shareholder value with all the levers that we can maneuver.
Jukka, did you lose any strategic assets in conjunction with the Russia exit? Are there any concerns regarding this?
In the Russia exit, basically Russia was a cost center. In that sense, lots of the Russian operation is related to investment, hardware, et cetera. All of that we lost, of course. If you ask that, did we lose any of the capability to operate, tire factories or innovation capability or similar, no, we did not. Of course, we lost the hardware which was in Russia. It's important to keep in mind that Russia was a cost center. It wasn't a business unit as such, but it was a cost center.
Teemu, what is your target return on capital employed by the end of 2027?
There I can only refer to asset velocity and our segment operating profit. There you can calculate the return on capital employed. Clearly 15 with the asset velocity of 1.
Teemu, if you continue, what assumptions with regards to the development of raw material costs did you use in your 2027 targets?
Our assumption was that the net ASP and the cost development, there shouldn't be any major changes, which is a planning assumption. The development should be stable or improving.
Adrian, how do you protect IP while dealing with contract manufacturing? Is there any transfer of compound knowhow to the contract manufacturer and risks related to product quality or damages arising are responsibility of the contract manufacturer or will remain with Nokian Tyres?
The contract manufacturing as such is, I would say it's a common practice in the tire industry. We are not the only one who are using contract manufacturing to complement existing product portfolios. The partners we have selected, very serious partners doing business not just for Nokian Tyres, also for well-known other tire manufacturing manufacturers in the world. Obviously, we are using all available legal and contractual means to protect our intellectual property and are auditing the factories on a regular basis to ensure quality, safety and performance of the tires.
Teemu, please, what is your working capital inflow assumption for 2023, please?
There we don't expect any major changes in 2023. That's the planning assumption.
Teemu, if you continue, how do you see marketing and distribution costs to develop over the next upcoming years? Is there any major upfront investment that dilute your profitability?
I would say that the biggest change is coming from from from accounting treatment because now as we all know, the IT investments are no longer capitalized. They are expensed as we speak. When we are developing our systems for the future, there will be increase in our IT expenses that were previously capitalized. From the cash flow point of view, no changes, but that will have a headwind impact on our profitability that we need to overcome.
A question about the non-IFRS adjustments. What will be the annual non-IFRS adjustment in the investment phase from Romania?
If I give you the data point from Dayton and that has been on a level of EUR 25 million-30 million for Dayton. That is some kind of proxy for Romania.
Jukka, maybe you can take the next one. Why don't you buy some of the contract manufacturers?
I believe that this point of time, it's important that we dedicate our capital to rebuild our own capability. Later on, of course, when we come to growth phase and our generation of cash is stronger, and then we have the capability to look at the M&A opportunities, then, let's see. That is of course something that is long-term. Short-term, our funds are dedicated to build what we need to do to rebuild our Nokian Tyres' own capability to deliver.
I think it is time for our last question before Jukka's closing remarks. Teemu, can you please talk about the financing costs today?
The margin level for Nokian Tyres, they are somewhere on a level of 125, 150 basis points, and then normal six years, six months Euro on top of that.
Thank you. Two hours speaking about building the new Nokian Tyres. Jukka, any closing remarks?
Thank you, Päivi. Thank you to you all for participating and being part of this discussion today, thank you for excellent questions. I would want to first of all to pay attention to sustainability, that when we start building the new Nokian Tyres, started already last year, we will build net zero ambition for 2050, we start with building a zero carbon CO2 emission factory in Romania. We do lots of work on the sustainability area. We reduce CO2 emissions. We improve health and safety. We will introduce recycled and renewable materials to our tires, we do all that work in order to remain at the forefront of sustainability. In 2022 we were included in Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Index. Our ambition is to remain part of that.
if we look at the financial targets, yes, we want to go back to EUR 2 billion top line. We want to have a strong profitability, 23%-25% EBITDA, meaning EUR 500 million of EBITDA in 2027. We also aim to have a 15% segment operating profit, and we will keep our balance sheet at net debt EBITDA at the level of between 1 and 2. That allows us to remain a strong payer of dividends this year and in years to come, and also potentially introduce share buybacks while maintaining a strong dividend. all the reasons to stay on board with Nokian Tyres and to become an active investor in Nokian Tyres, welcome to join our journey to EUR 2 billion in 2027.
These targets, of course, there is the capacity which we will need for reaching the targets. We have the excellent products, and we have the Nokian Tyres team.
Indeed, all that.
Thank you, Jukka. Thank you, Teemu. Thank you, Adrian, and thank you all for joining our event today.
Thank you, Päivi. Thank you, everybody.