Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today. Let us begin the Conference call for Q4 2022 Earnings reports of CJ CheilJedang. We'll first have CJ team's presentation, followed by Q&A with the investors dialed in for today's call. For any of the questions, please press star and the number one. We will now begin CJ's presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, I am Wu Wansong, Head of IR Team at Finance Strategy. We'll now begin the Q4 2022 business results report for CJ CheilJedang. Let me remind you that Korean to English simultaneous interpretation will be provided for foreign investors. Let me first introduce the CJ team. We have Mr. Kang Kyoung Suk, CFO and Head of Finance Strategy, Mr. Kim Jong-woong, Head of Food Korea Business Management, Mr. Cho Jae-beom, Head of Food Global Business Management, Mr. Kim Jong-hyun, Head of Bio Business Management, Mr.
Kim Seung-pil, Head of F&B Business Management, and Mr. Hwang Hyun-joo, Head of Feed & Care Business Management. Mr. Kang will first walk you through the business results, followed by progress on key strategy execution and outlook by respective presenters. We will move on to Q&A.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am Kang Kyoung Suk , CFO of CJ CheilJedang. Today's agenda includes Q4 highlights, earnings analysis by business unit, key indicator analysis, and progress on key strategy execution, followed by 2023 outlook. Let's now flip to page five. In 2022, CJ CheilJedang achieved record high results with sales growth of 19% and OP growth of 8%. While sales in Q4 grew 15%, however, OP declined by 8%. In food, thanks to expansion of channels and product lineup in key regions, sales of GSPs overseas have seen robust growth.
With No. 1 market share in mandu at U.S. grocery and No. 2 market share in pizza, we are continuing our growth trajectory and market presence. In bio, we are seeing continued growth and increase in mix of high-margin specialty products, thanks to marketing of nutritional balance and functionality claims. With continued management of financial soundness, net debt declined by KRW 600 million quarter-over-quarter. Next page, please. Let's now look at Q4 results, excluding CJ Logistics. Thanks to consistent growth across all business units, with Food at 15%, Bio at 16%, and F&C at 19%, CJ achieved sales of KRW 4.7267 trillion of 15.5% versus Q4 of 2021. Despite rising cost pressure on Food Korea and F&C, increasing OP of Food Global has offset the impact.
As a result, OP stands at KRW 123.2 billion, down 8.3% from Q4 of 2021. For net profit, despite improvement in non-operating balance, net profit declined by 91% to KRW 7 billion due to base impact of tax returns in Q4 of last year. When including CJ Logistics, sales grew 9% year-over-year to KRW 7.5711 trillion, and OP stands at KRW 240.6 billion. Next to page nine. Let's look at the performance of each business unit. First up, Food. The sales grew 15% year-over-year. In Korea, due to decline in demand and rising fixed costs, we tried to offset declining sales from weak demand by introducing core and new products that meet diverse needs, such as restaurant quality and value products.
As a result, sales in Korea grew 13% year-over-year to 1.4269 trillion KRW. For sales overseas, we expanded global strategic products or GSPs in terms of channels and lineup in key markets such as the U.S. and China. We also came up with stronger portfolio products in line with local culinary culture and changing consumer trend of each market. With continued two-digit growth, overseas sales grew 17% year-over-year to 1.4057 trillion KRW. Operating profit grew 24% year-over-year to 77.1 billion KRW. In Korea, despite efforts to streamline cost across value chain and refine management system to defend margin, rising input costs due to grain purchases at peak and impact from unfavorable foreign exchange rate undermined profits.
Overseas, along with continued improvement in profitability of the U.S. business, expanded sales of core products and cost-streaming mining efforts contributed to enhancing profitability despite inflationary pressures. If you look at the bar graph on the next page, OP margin in Q4 was 3% excluding Schwan's PPA and 2.7% when including the PPA. Next is more details on food sales in Korea. Please look at page 11. Product-wise, we expanded core and new products that meet consumer trends. Channel-wise, we saw continued growth in core channels such as digital, B2B, and convenience stores. As a result, Q4 sales in Korea stood at KRW 1.4269 trillion. Next, we have more details on overseas sales. In the U.S., we focused on continued sales growth of GSPs through Livigo platform and enhanced market share of pizza and mandu or dumplings.
As a result, we grew 18% compared to Q4 of 2021 to KRW 1.1248 trillion. In Asia Pacific and Europe, we continued growth through K-food category and channel expansion, resulting in sales of KRW 280.9 billion, up 12% from Q4 of 2021. Next is bio on page 13.
For bio, against the backdrop of an unfavorable amino acid market, we focused on expanding sales of high-margin products. Despite an unfavorable market, sales grew 15% year-over-year, thanks to impact of foreign exchange rate and expanded sales of specialty products. Due to declining amino acid market and continued cost pressures, OP remained similar to that of last year at KRW 78.3 billion, up 4% year-over-year. Product-wise, in animal nutrition and health, or ANH, grain prices fell below their re-peak and export conditions improved for Chinese competitors, resulting in downward pressure on amino acid price. However, with interchangeable production of lysine lines and increasingly lower use of crude protein, we developed new demand, resulting in continued growth of specialty products.
For human nutrition and health, re-spread of COVID-19 in China and contraction in consumer sentiment amid global inflation challenged demand for food additives. Nevertheless, we have been able to drive a high-priced market and nucleotides enabled by CJ's market leadership. For Selecta, sales expanded with products that respond to changing SBC markets. Efforts to diversify customers to maintain high soybean oil price resulted in year-over-year growth in sales. If you look at the next slide, Q4 OP margin stands at 6.9%, and share of specialty products in sales is 15%, showing a continuous increase. Let us now move on to Feed and Care, or F&C. F&C saw top line growth with feed price increase and Vietnam hog price exceeding that of last year. Sales grew 19% year-over-year to KRW 752 billion.
However, rising input cost pressure for hog farming in Vietnam and decline in poultry prices in Indonesia resulted in OP deficit of KRW 32.2 billion. For feed, despite input cost pressure amid rising grain prices, OP margin improved by a wider spread from pricing actions. For livestock business, raw material costs, such as feed, has soared in Vietnam, but recovery in hog prices has been delayed due to slowdown in consumption from an economic downturn. In Indonesia, higher price, feed prices led to increase in cost of livestock, whereas poultry prices fell due to decline in poultry consumption. Let's now turn to performance of CJ Logistics on page 17. Thanks to a price increase and stable profit structure, CJ Logistics saw growth in profits.
Sales in Q4 declined 1% year-over-year to KRW 3.0234 trillion. OP increased 13% year-over-year to KRW 112.3 billion. Jumping to page 20, you can see SG&A and non-operating income expenses, excluding CJ Logistics. For SG&A, transportation costs increased by KRW 46.7 billion due to rising global freight rate amid inflation. Advertising increased by KRW 42.5 billion to boost brand equity of EBGo. With efficient resource operation, SG&A to sales remains similar to that of 2021. Non-operating income expenses improved by KRW 22.2 billion, coming in at negative KRW 37.7 billion. On page 21, when including CJ Logistics, SG&A and non-operating income expenses are largely affected by CJ Logistics. Next is update on key strategies and outlooks.
First up is Food business unit margin outlook.
Hello, I am Cho Jae-beom, Head of Food Global Business Management. Ingredient price hike in 2022 outweighed the effects of pricing action, resulting in 9% decrease in profit. The fall in domestic business profit was offset by strong overseas profit. Margin is expected to recover after Q2 in 2023 through aggressive cost reduction, profit model innovation, continued increase of overseas sales and profit, and stabilizing grain price and exchange rate. Considering ingredient input lag and exchange rate, the ingredient price are peaking from Q4 last year to Q1 this year. Price cost spread will improve after Q2. CJ has proven track record of overcoming profit slumps with profit model innovations. We will innovate profit model with data-driven value chain efficiency improvement, zero-based expense execution, and SKU optimization.
Overseas sales and profit has been growing continuously since acquiring Schwan's in 2019, with growing pizza and Global Strategic Product sales, like mandu and chicken, and thanks to cost efficiency. Global sales has grown from 13% of business to 47% in 2022. Overseas sales will continue to contribute to overall food BU margin with operating leverage from GSP and key product sales growth. Next is bio trend and outlook.
Hello, I am Kim Jong-hyun, Head of Bio Business Management. Both positive and negative factors exist. Grain and soybean meal prices bearish and stabilizing. Soybean meal and corn spread will remain solid. low CP trend in China will bring down soybean meal proportion for Chinese feed.
Chinese hog price is expected to reach low point as price fell below hog profitability by that policy baseline, is expected to rebound as demand climb as China reopens. Logistics costs are expected to come down with downward stabilization of freight charge. It would also increase export of Chinese feed additive manufacturers. Slightly weak demands are expected for key amino acids like lysine due to bearish soybean meal price. CJ will expand high margin for-formulation in U.S. and EU, and boost manufacturing efficiency via specialty amino acid interchangeable production. Tryptophan demand in China is expected to rebound in first half of 2023, will boost margin with strategic pricing and sales expansion. Demands for valine, arginine, isoleucine, histidine and other specialty amino acids are expected to grow with CP reduction trend.
In summary, we will strategically respond to weak demands for key amino acids and offset any margin decrease with tryptophan and specialty amino acids. We will go on to our midterm growth driver performances and trends. Overseas food first. The overseas food is growing rapidly, GSV recording KRW 1.6 trillion in 2022, 56% increase year-over-year due to channel and products expansion in key regions such as U.S., China, Japan and Europe. Last year, mandu sales exceeded KRW 1 trillion and KRW 800 billion was from overseas. Overseas sales growth for GSV products are 59% for mandu, 66% for pea rice, 32% for roll, and 163% for chicken. Mandu market share in U.S. mainstream grocery channel is 41%, maintaining number one position.
Pizzas market share stands at 18%, three percentage point behind the market leader, narrowing the gap. Let's go on to Bio. In Bio, total sales proportion of specialty products grew to 13% in 2022, recording high year-over-year growth of 49% in sales and 97% in OP. Specialty amino acids like valine, arginine, and isoleucine grew 47%. TasteNrich C, a premium food ingredient, grew 136%. White Bio is expanding customer partnership base and application with PHA CPP. We are expanding value chain to include biodegradable compounding. CJ HDC biosol, our JV, completed plant construction in January, where our biodegradable materials using aPHA, PLA, and PBAT will be compounded.
For red bio, CJ Bioscience gained U.S. FDA approval to conduct phase I and II clinical trials for CJRB-101, a new drug candidate, marking the beginning of new drug development journey. Next is update on ESG initiatives. CJ CJ has been actively pursuing sustainability out of our four future growth engines, CPWS. We've been communicating ESG activities transparently, achieving great milestones. CJ CJ has been included in various global ESG indices, leading ESG management. We received grade A in MSCI ESG rating for three consecutive years, joining the ranks of global players. In 2022, CJ CJ became the first player in food industry to receive grade AA. We've been listed on DJSI Asia Pacific Index for eight consecutive years and FTSE4Good Index under LSEG for four consecutive years. A representative organization in Korea, the KCGS, has given A grade for six consecutive years.
Also, we won the President's Award for Sustainable Management by MOTIE in 2022, and was nominated as 2023 Lead Group by UNGC's Korea Association, and the Agent Company of the Year by Korea Fair Trade Commission. We are also accelerating the development of biodegradable material, PHA. By blending PHA, a marine biodegradable material, and PLA, an industrial biodegradable plastic, we developed a cosmetic product container for CJ Olive Young's WakeMake Water Velvet Cushion. The container used our aPHA, the only mass-produced aPHA in the world, which was also the first application of its kind. By making cosmetic containers, which is usually non-recyclable, with biodegradable materials, we seek to meet the consumers' demand for value consumption. We plan to expand application and market with global companies going forward. Next is 2023 key strategies.
We plan to execute detailed strategies by each business to overcome tough environment, secure outstanding competency based on CPWS, and advance business model. Domestic food business will develop new wellness portfolio with care food, PlantTable, and convenience categories to secure outstanding competency and achieve future growth through innovation. Moreover, we will focus on growing channels such as online, B2B, and CVS with differentiated product and service competitiveness. Strengthen profit structure through total cost management that includes data-driven sales efficiency, purchase optimization, productivity increase, and operating price improvement. We will boost resource efficiency by rationalizing SKUs, redesigning zero-based labor costs, and advancing management structure-based investment efficiency. Overseas food will build bibigo brand for GSP. We will focus on meeting local needs based on globalization and create cross-category synergy.
In U.S., based on the synergy created by the integration of CJ Foods and Schwan's, we will leverage bibigo brand to drive GSP growth, achieve qualitative growth of pizza, and expand to new territories, including Canada, to secure future growth engine. China will expand regional coverage of mandu, expand frozen portfolio, accelerate growth of K-sauce, and aim for qualitative growth of online channel with platform and product-level operation optimization. With Micho's brand power in Japan, we will expand RTD market and enter functional beverage market and expand K-food with healthy mandu and K-food ready meal. Efforts to expand territory will continue by tapping into new markets such as Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Bio will differentiate formulation based on diversified regional presence and maximize profit with interchangeable production.
We will aim to strengthen brand image based on formulation excellence for feed amino acid, and increase demand for specialty products by riding on CP reduction trend and functional claim marketing. Selecta will maximize profit with optimal products in response to market changes. FNT will secure long-term nucleotide contracts in China to respond to uncertainties, expand new demands in Asia Pacific region, expand new customers and product diversification by developing TasteNrich solutions. We will diversify existing nutrition markets and gain mid to long-term momentum with new products and solutions. FNC or Feed and Care will demarket low profit accounts, reduce fixed costs through workforce restructuring and optimized business model to secure stable profit model. In order to become an ag tech company, FNC will strive to advance aqua disease control technology and build a digital farm based on IoT. 2023 outlook.
For domestic food, high ingredient cost pressure is expected to continue in first quarter, but as input costs stabilize after second quarter, spread will gradually improve. Margin is expected to recover, thanks to profit structure improvements and SKU rationalization. Overseas food will continue strong growth momentum led by B2B and B2C sales of GSP like mandu chicken and pea rice and shelf-stable grocery and club channel synergy from integration of U.S. subsidiaries. China will expand to second and third-tier cities, thanks to the recovering from pandemic. Sauce and seasoning and mandu is expected to grow as consumption recover. Japan is expected to grow by expanding Micho's small bottle and RTD products and monetizing Bibigo sales. Bio will offset deteriorating key amino acid momentum by focusing on high GP region and formulation.
Profit decline will be minimized with improving tryptophan market, capacity increase, and growing sales of specialty amino acids. As China reopens, restaurants and B2B will bounce back, helping nucleotide sales grow for FNT. TasteNrich will surge by expanding customer base and nutrition products such as FlavorNrich, citrulline and histidine are expected to grow. Feed & Care's margin will recover as grain price stabilize and feed spread improve, market price normalize, and as FNC optimize structure to be profit-oriented. In summary, CJ CheilJedang performance is expected to face headwinds in first half due to high ingredient cost, economic recession, and base effect of bio's performance same period last year. However, margin will gradually recover as ingredient costs stabilize, profit structure improve, overseas sales and profit increase, high GP products and specialty products of bio and FNT strategically expand, and as market improve for FNC.
2023 corporate sales is forecasted to increase at mid-single digit and OP around similar level as prior year. That is all we have prepared for today. We will now begin our Q&A session. One announcement before we go on, simultaneous interpretation will be provided for Korean questions, but questions in English will be consecutively translated. Also, please speak slowly for the interpreters.
We'll now begin Q&A. For those with a question, please press star and one. If you want to cancel, press star and two. We have the first question from queue. We have Mr. Park Sang-jun. Please give us your question.
Thank you for the opportunity. I have three questions. The first, last year, there had been one-off incentive last year, so there has been some base effect from that. We would like to know whether there's similar one-off in effect from the fourth quarter of this year as well. The second question is in Food Korea, compared to cost increases, there has been pricing increases. For key products, do you also have plans for further price increases? Can you share us your plans? For food, regarding the intensity of margin improvement, if you look at year round, how much margin improvement are you expecting? Finally, for Food Global, you know, we may have new lines or new plants.
I mean, I want to know what kind of new lines or plants would be activated this year, as well as what kind of new CapEx investment would be planned for this year. If you can share us the details of that, I would very much appreciate it.
All right. For the first question regarding the impact of one-off incentive for 2022. There has been one-off expenses, but the impact is not as big. There has been the foreign exchange impact. The input cost has increased in Korean won, so that has created higher expenses and costs than expected.
In addition to that, there has been the cumulative pricing actions that affected the demand. Of course, there has been some strategic expenses being executed, such as brand communication. There has been increase in advertising compared to Q4 of last 2021. For FNC, overall, there has been increasing feed prices and there has been cost pressures in livestock. In local markets, there has been contracting demand. There's also the decline in hog prices in Vietnam as well as in Indonesia for poultry prices. They had not been up to our expectation. That also impacted our performances compared to the previous year. We had not been able to see much improvement there.
As for the second question regarding Food Korea, I mean, we have to think about foreign exchange rate as well as global grain prices. They have been pretty much stabilized this year. There would be limited impact from that. When we think about LNG or utilities costs or labor costs, there would be some cost pressures there. If they rise, of course, you know, we may consider pricing actions, that would be subject to the conditions that we are facing. For food business unit, it's not, you know, actually seasonal, we have, you know, inventories on a continuous basis. In terms of margin improvement, it's not going to happen dramatically at one time. It's going to happen gradually.
That's what the kind of pace we are expecting from second quarter of this year. As for CapEx or investment plans for food, regarding the scale of that, for overseas infrastructure, for the past three years, we have made some proactive moves in the U.S., Vietnam, and China. Overall, we have made some proactive investment already over the past three years. For this year specifically, we do not have, you know, massive CapEx plans for this year for the time being. Of course, we have to prepare for the future. In terms of expanding our global territories, we would be able to see some small investment in Australia, Thailand or Japan in terms of plant expansion. We may do that as a pilot. Other than that, we do not have major investment plans for this year.
Regarding the CapEx for our company as a whole, just to give you some pointers. In 2023, our CapEx is going to be about KRW 1.4 trillion for CJ CheilJedang as a whole. Compared to the same period last year, it was about KRW 1.5 trillion. Compared to that, it's a slight decline from that figure, and it's going to be about KRW 800 billion for new investment. For new investment, it is KRW 200 billion less than the guidance. If you look at by business units, for food, it's about KRW 360 billion, and bio is pretty much similar. For FNT and FNC, it's going to be about KRW 20 billion respectively. In terms of investments, the key details I would have to say has already been covered by JB previously.
For food, you know, we would be investing as an extension to what we have done in the past, like chicken, pea rice, and mandu, we'll be having some additional capacity increase there. As for bio, we have capacity upgrade for tryptophan or some facility upgrades for interchangeable production facilities. This is the guidance for the time being. You know, if we think about past year, we gave, you know, the guidance of KRW 1.5 trillion. If we look at the actual execution, it was about KRW 1.2 trillion, so we spent less than the guidance we have given you earlier last year. This was due to changes in macroeconomic environment. We are making flexible changes according to how the macroeconomic environment is changing.
It's going to be the same for this year as well. We would be monitoring macroeconomic conditions to make sure that we can maintain financial stability and be flexible in our investment plans. I will now move on to the next question. We have the next question from Meritz, Mr. Kim Jong Wook. The floor is yours, Mr. Kim Jong Wook.
Thank you for the opportunity. I have three questions. The first has to do with food. If we think about recent years, there has been some issue with a certain online platform. We would like to know what is happening there, and if there are any changes. I think in Q4, there has been some issues with growth in terms of quantity or volume. Would there be any, you know, What it would be the forecast for volume this year?
Second question is on bio overseas, where it was about KRW 630 billion. There would be some, you know, one-off plus or minus factors. What would be the normalized margin level in 2023? Selecta's portion has risen, so I would also thank you for your outlook on Selecta. Final question is on feed. For annual, it's about KRW 7.7 billion, if my calculation is right. Last year was about KRW 150 billion, so this is a substantial decline. If there's, you know, huge volatility, that's quite uncertain. I have never seen such big volatility in the past. FNC seems like, you know, the performance in Q4 has not been very good.
I would like to know about your forecast for this year. Would there be factors that would be better this year or that would be worse this year?
Yes. Regarding our situation with this online platform, you know, our reliance on a single platform is not very high. Right now, you know, we have been looking into other platform. We have been making up for, you know, any issues there with other platforms. Right now, the economic condition is deteriorating. In Korea, there is some pressure for volume growth in Korea, to be sure. We are looking into B2B or convenience stores or online, and we are trying to find, you know, new growth there with new products and services to make sure that we can see volume growth in Korea.
Especially in overseas Food, now its portion is more than 50%. You know, growth in overseas sales is going to drive the overall growth of Food business. As for the question on Bio, the second question. You know, for one-off factors, as we can't really disclose the specifics at this point in time, but just as the market sees it, last year, you know, especially in the first half of the year, whether it be lysine or mega amino acid products, they had been pretty good. For this year it's going to be less than what we had seen last year. We would be doing our best to make sure we can defend our growth. We would be focusing on high-margin formats.
Other than China, we would be looking into high-margin regions so that we can lock in customers as much as possible for lysine and other mega amino acid products. For tryptophan or other specialty amino acids, we are expecting continuous improvement in their performance. Tryptophan market is pretty good. For specialty amino acids, of course, we're seeing robust spread. With that, based on the low CP trend, we are seeing expansion in demand. Against that, we wanna take the best advantage of the situation so that for those we are losing in mega amino acids, we would be able to make up for that in the specialty amino acids.
For 2023, for OP margin forecast in bio, of course, you know, when, you know, the market conditions are normal, we would feel that OP margin would be around 10%. For 2023, for this year, we are expecting somewhere along the similar lines. Now on to the question on Selecta. For Selecta, we have two major products, SPC and soybean oil. For SPC, for the market as a whole, after the boom in the first half of 2023, we are seeing expansion in demand. With, we would be maximizing profitability with product operation, but conditions are going to be challenging. We would have the base effect of boom from last year for soybean oil.
With eco-friendly policy of Brazil, we are going to see increasing demand for soybean oil, so it's going to be much better than what we are going to see for SPC. for FNC.
If you look at the fourth quarter for feed business, from the first quarter we would be able to maintain profitability. For livestock in the fourth quarter, in terms of COGM, actually it's the highest due to commodity prices increases. For the fourth quarter, there's going to be, you know, decline in demand from Southeast Asia. Compared to feed, you know, profitability for livestock is going to go down, and that is why we have weak numbers for the fourth quarter. All in all, for feed, we would be focusing on improving fundamentals or improving on fixed costs. For livestock, from the first quarter of 2023, in terms of input costs, it's going to be stabilized, so COGM will be improved.
As for pricing for the products, compared to the fourth quarter of last year, we are expecting some improvement. If you look at demand side, compared to the fourth quarter, in the first two quarters, it's going to get better. You know, Vietnam is the largest market for livestock. In the fourth quarter of last year, there has been a very high culling rate. Of course, that impact is likely to be materialized in March or the second quarter. That's going to affect the second quarter. Of course, you know, compared to the fourth quarter, you know, it's going to get better in the first two quarters for F&C. Next question is from Hanwha Securities, Han Yoo-jung. Before the opportunity and PPA of Schwan's, how much was it in?
What is the expected PPA in 2023 and 2024, and your outlook and strategy as well? If you look at page nine, KRW 3 billion, KRW 4 billion for PPA. In 2023, our PPA is KRW 23 billion, KRW 22 billion. CJ Schwan's for this year, the biggest change would be that as of January 1st, 2023, we have integrated CJ Food and CJ Schwan's. Through the integration, our biggest goal would be to achieve synergy. In addition, the shelf-stable grocery channel and the club channels, we hope to see synergy from those two strengths. Moreover, the back-office and other cross-value chains, such as marketing, purchasing, and logistics, we hope to see some cost effectiveness effects from the integration.
In 2024 Q4, we have also integrated the frozen channel, we were able to boost the velocity and the distribution in that channel. We hope to see expansion in shelf-stable grocery by leveraging the frozen grocery channel strength of Schwan's. The legacy product of Schwan's is pizza. Likewise, in 2022, as you have seen from the performance, we hope that this year, despite the shrinking market, we believe that we'll be able to continue our single-digit growth and to narrow the gap of the market leader. Overall direction of the growth trajectory or outlook is as I've explained. Let's go on to the next question. Next question is Yin Eunice from Morgan Stanley.
Good afternoon. I have two questions. Number one, in Q4, we have decreased on our debt, net debt, but we've seen an increase in the interest rates.
In 2023, after you've reflected all your CapEx, what kind of financial structure do you see, and how do you forecast the movement or the trend for the interest rates? You mentioned that the dividends will be KRW 2,500 through your report, and you mentioned previously about 20% the payout, so I would like to listen more on the dividend.
On the net debt, at the end of Q4 2021, it was KRW 6.1 trillion, which is KRW 600 billion lower year-over-year. This year, CapEx, we've also given you an update. In order to drive midterm growth engine, we will also make some investments, but considering interest rate conditions and the macroeconomic situation, we'll be keeping an eye out on it, and we'll be flexible.
We will play within our free cash flow level and EBITDA level to maintain our current level of fiscal soundness. In terms of dividend payout, early last year, we have announced our dividend policy. It will be a separate net income, over 20% of net income of non-current, in line with the guideline. Year-over-year, on an annual basis, the OP and our sales has improved. We are we would like to share our performance. That's why we have the higher ratio of payouts. We have increased up dividends for two consecutive years. It is to pay back to our shareholders. We have no questions awaiting. If you have a question, please press star and the number one. All right. Without further questions, we will wrap up today's session.
Thank you everyone for your time.