Hello everyone. Welcome to today's presentation of the first quarter in 2023. With me today, here in the studio, I have Carl Mellander, our Chief Financial Officer, and with me on a link from North America, I have Börje Ekholm, our President and CEO. As usual, we will start this session with a presentation. Then we will end the hour with a Q&A session. In order to ask question, you have to join this conference by phone. Details on that can be found in today's press release, as well as on our website, ericsson.com/investors. Please also be advised that today's conference call is recorded. Before handing over to Börje and Carl, I would like to say the following. During today's presentation, we will be making forward-looking statements.
These statements are based on our current expectations and certain planning assumptions, which are subject to risk and uncertainties that risk uncertainties, that actual results may difference material due to factor mentioned in today's press release and discussed in this conference call. We encourage you all to read about this risk and uncertainties in the earnings report published today, as well as in our annual report. With that, I would like to hand over to you, Börje. Please, Börje.
Okay. Thank you, Peter. Good morning, everyone. A big thank you for joining us today. We're excited to present a quarter in which we're executing on our strategy and we're making progress on our strategic goals, while at the same time delivering on what we set out as expectations for this first quarter. Before I go into the quarterly results, let me take this opportunity to just comment a bit on the news that we sent out last night. After having been almost seven years on Ericsson's executive team, and 25 years with Ericsson, Carl will actually be leaving our company. It's no exaggeration to say that Carl has been critical in the turnaround of Ericsson and in laying the foundation for the next chapter of our strategy.
He's also been a great colleague and of course, a great friend. Now we have come to a mutual agreement that it's a good time or as good as any for a change at Ericsson as we continue, I'll call it the next chapter in our strategic journey. I'm of course, very happy that he will stay on in his role until the end of Q1 next year. Of course, that will ensure that we can execute on our cost savings, but also a smooth transition. Really a big thank you to Carl for all his achievements and contributions here at Ericsson. You will be truly missed, not only by me, but all my colleagues at Ericsson. Big thank you. Anything, Carl, at this point you would like to comment on?
Yeah, thanks a lot, Börje. Thanks, very kind words also. As you said, I mean, there's not really a good time to leave a fantastic company like Ericsson or a position like the one I've had the privilege of having now for almost seven years. We find it's the right time now. Let's see what the future brings. It's been an incredible journey and a fantastic privilege to work with all the great people in Ericsson and, of course, outside our company with partners, customers, and the investors and analysts as well on this call. Thanks all. Luckily, I will be here for almost another year, we shall see each other again. Thank you, Börje.
Yeah. Thank you, Carl. Back to Q1. The quarter developed in line with what we communicated during our Q4 report. As we expected, Q1 has been a challenging quarter due to slower deployment pace in some early 5G markets. These have, of course, been compounded with the fact that customers in those markets are lowering their inventories. That's the reason the impact on our sales is bigger than the slowdown in the underlying deployment pace. We will continue to see inventory adjustments during Q2, but we expect less impact after that, but there could be some smaller effect during Q3. As the inventory adjustments will be completed, we also expect a recovery during the second half , but second half will also be supported by our cost savings initiatives, clearly. This development impacts growth in networks negatively.
As we saw the early 5G market slow down, we now see a build-up of the next wave of markets. Here, margins are a bit lower due to large service content. We could see that growth in other segments offset the slower or the lower sales in networks, all in all, in line with our expectations and what we communicated during the Q4 report. Let me start now by giving some highlights from the quarter. We're making progress on our strategy to strengthen our leadership in mobile networks, grow our enterprise business, and drive a continued cultural transformation.
As you saw and as you all know, in the quarter, we reached a resolution with the DOJ regarding contractual non-criminal breaches of our 2019 deferred prosecution agreement. This was, of course, a critical step for us, allowing us to move forward, and we can now continue to make great progress on our compliance program. Overall financial performance was in line with what we expected and what we've communicated. While overall sales were flat, we saw an organic growth of 5% in Cloud Software and Services and 19% in Enterprise. Notably now, the enterprise segment now represents almost 10% of sales. We completed also the divestiture of our IoT platform business. This will reduce quarterly losses by about SEK 250 million going forward.
As expected in networks, we saw strong growth in India, where we continue to roll out 5G at pace. This growth, however, did not fully offset the slower deployment pace compounded by the inventory adjustments in the early 5G markets. We see that some customers are reducing the rollout pace somewhat, the big effect really comes from the ongoing inventory adjustments. That comes because they built up large inventories when supply chain was tight, and those inventory levels are now normalizing. We expect these adjustments to be completed during Q2, some could slip into Q3, clearly. In Cloud Software and Services, we continue to execute on our revised strategy and reduced our losses a bit ahead of our plan. While results will vary between quarters, we are on track to reach our target or break even in 2023.
We're also making good progress on our cost efficiency initiatives. We have identified additional savings opportunities of about SEK 2 billion. Now we plan to reduce cost run rate by SEK 11 billion by year-end. The best indicator of cost savings is that we get external and internal headcount down. During the first quarter, overall workforce fell by about 800, but if we adjust for investments in enterprise as well as India, the reduction was about 1,700 internal and external headcount. Of course, this is something that we will continue to work on, and we expect to accelerate during the coming quarters. In a situation with a choppy outlook, we need, of course, to focus on what we can impact. Cost efficiency is crucial to manage the uncertainties during 2023.
I will also say cost efficiency is critical for our long-term competitiveness. We will continue to track our development on the cost savings, and we'll report on our progress as we move along. Carl will cover more of the financial performance shortly, but let me touch upon some of the critical steps we took in our strategic ambitions in enterprise. We are in the midst of a journey where we're leveraging our capabilities in mobile networks to shape the future industry landscape by creating network API platform, which will redefine our addressable market and actually redefine our industry. In Q1, it was exciting to see a couple of tangible steps in this ambition.
Last year, you all know we tested Ericsson Dynamic End-user Boost with SmarTone in Hong Kong, which gave indications of it can be done, and it showed that it can be done and gave indications of users' willingness to pay for network API. At this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we showcased the world's first multi-operator quality-of-service network API together with Telefónica, Orange, and Vodafone on their commercial networks. This allowed us to demonstrate how advanced mobile network functionality can be exposed to and easily consumed by the global developer community. This was truly a critical step showcasing our ability to drive the evolution of this market, and we actually see a great interest from enterprises as well as operators.
Network APIs were really a big topic at the Mobile World Congress, and we are at the forefront of this new market, which we are defining together with our customers and especially front-runner customers. The winners in this evolution will be those that are able to first scale their platform. We anticipate the first revenues late this year, which will position us for a revenue ramp and growth during 2024 and 2025 as our transformation into a platform company accelerates. Like all new markets, it will take some time to build this new market as well. We believe it can actually develop faster and grow bigger than the market for traditional communication APIs, and it will position Ericsson for a long-term growth and profitability. Let me now comment a bit on the Enterprise Wireless Solutions as well, which is the other pillar in our enterprise strategy.
Today, all of our losses in enterprise segment really comes from Enterprise Wireless Solutions. That's expected for a couple of reasons. First of all, Cradlepoint has a subscription business model with upfront payments for an average three-year contract. Revenues and gross profits are deferred and recognized monthly over the contract period. This leads to an initial negative impact on EBITDA as a large part of the gross profit is deferred while the absolute majority of OpEx investments are taken directly in the P&L. OpEx being both the offerings cost for or R&D as well as the go-to-market organization. As we grow, this will basically mean that we will generate a loss for accounting reasons, but long-term business area, this business area has a very attractive profitability profile. We're also incurring some investments. We're scaling our go-to-market organization globally.
We believe it's critical to establish a dedicated go-to-market towards enterprises to be successful in this area, but also to leverage the technology we developed in the mobile networks business. We're also investing in new product solutions. As an example, you saw in this quarter, we acquired Ericom, which we will use to accelerate our security offerings. We now have the capabilities to build a full stack security solution optimized for 5G. We continue to see good traction with Cradlepoint, showing good organic growth as we work to fully scale this business. We are starting to see some very interesting use cases for our dedicated networks in manufacturing. I would still say that's a rather early market and not particularly big yet. With that, let me hand over to you, Carl, for drilling down into the numbers.
Thank you, Börje. Again, very good morning to everyone. Thanks for joining the call. I thought just to reiterate a couple of the key points regarding the business and the result. We can stay perhaps on this title slide for a second while I do that. First of all, this sales mix shift in networks that we have so clearly guided for continued then in the first quarter. Customer CapEx as well as inventory adjustments happened as we forecasted there in some of these early adopter, early 5G markets. At the same time, we had strong growth in markets where the massive 5G rollouts have begun more recently. Of course we have a big share of services also in these large rollout projects.
When it comes to this inventory adjustment, we saw a big impact in the first quarter. That's clear. We expect continued inventory adjustments in the second quarter. Now with the visibility we have with customers, not least North America, we expect this then to flatten out and normalize go from Q3 and onwards. Of course, the negative impact of this on networks gross margin was as we expected and as we guided for as well. I think it's worth noticing the incredible speed of rollout in India. For us, India now is the second largest market for Ericsson in terms of sales numbers. It has grown by 5x year-over-year, so now almost SEK 7 billion in revenue in India in the first quarter.
At the same time, North America decreased by SEK 4 billion, so there you can clearly see the shift in the business mix. Cloud Software and Services done better than expectation. That's good. It's really a stepping stone towards the break-even target for the full year. Within Enterprise, Global Communication Platform, that's where Vonage belongs, that delivered sales of SEK 3.9 billion in the quarter and a break-even result, so zero EBITDA from that part. The other section of Enterprise Wireless Solutions, where Cradlepoint is a part, grew by 60% in the quarter. That's going well, with a loss, as Börje explained then. It's SEK 0.8 billion in the quarter, for the reasons that Börje said, and thoughtful investment both in product and go-to-market.
If we go to the next slide and look a little bit at the geographies then, you can very clearly here see what we're talking about in the shift. You see 132% growth in our market area, Southeast Asia, Oceania and India. Primarily, of course, driven by the market gains in India, but also other project milestone completions in other Southeast Asian markets there. The decline, on the other hand, than in North America, you see, we see 26% as a consequence of what we just described, and of course, coming from elevated investment levels, both in 2021, but notably in 2022. Europe declined by 16% organically. Also high, following high investments in 2022.
Encouraging to see the growth in Latin America, where we grew by 6%, driven by five-year deployments across the continent. Northeast Asia declined organically then by 19%, also compared with elevated 5G investment levels happening this time last year. Lastly, Middle East and Africa, a decrease of 8%, partly driven by timing of 5G investments, but also by some economic challenges in some parts of the African countries. If we look at how this then came out in the group P&L, you see the sales number here, SEK 62.6 billion, that's a flat growth organically. With organic now, I mean excluding investments, acquisitions, and divestments, but also adjusted for currency fluctuations.
Underneath, a growth of Enterprise of 90%, a growth in Cloud Software and Services by 5%. Again, 2% down in the networks for the reasons discussed earlier. The impact of this shift is visible also on the gross margin. You see down 250 basis points to 39.8%, excluding restructuring charges, for the same reason. Gross margin, however, was positively impacted, I should also say, in the quarter, by higher IPR revenues, where we have good expectations for the future as well. We can come back to that. Also higher software share in the sales mix. In Cloud Software and Services here, we had a gross margin, excluding restrucuring again of 36.1%.
That's up from 35% a year ago, and this was supported by a higher share of software, which is obviously exactly in line with our strategy there. On enterprise, gross margin was 47.6%, down from 55, but that's really due to the consolidation of Vonage into the Ericsson books. Sequentially, and I think that's important, gross margin improved in this segment, not least by improving margins in the Global Communication Platform, which again includes Vonage. Both R&D and SG&A increased year-over-year, but again, key to understand here is the consolidation of Vonage into the numbers. Obviously, Vonage was not here last Q1, so that needs to be understood. About 70% of the increase you see here on these two OpEx lines comes from the Vonage consolidation.
There is also an FX component, and the remainder is really, as discussed before, than the Enterprise Wireless Solutions investment we do in future growth of that business. In the first quarter, we recorded restructuring charges of material size for the first time in a long time, about SEK 1 billion, obviously related to the cost actions that we are taking. All in all, this resulted in an EBITDA, excluding restructuring at SEK 4.8 billion, which is in line with the guidance and our expectations then. On the next slide, we can have a look at how these earnings then convert into cash flow. You all remember in Q4, we had an exceptionally strong free cash flow before M&A. As expected, Q1 was weaker at SEK -8 billion of free cash flow before M&A.
A couple of things there that explains this. First of all, as a seasonal effect, during the first quarter every year, we do payout incentives to staff from accrued employee expenses the quarter before. More importantly and more related to business, the business mix shift that we talk about also comes through in working capital, hence in cash flow as well. There are a couple of effects there. Of course, with large rollout projects, project inventory goes up. We also have some extended payment terms, and that shows up on customer financing line in the balance sheet. And we also have larger payments to suppliers related to these contracts than in other places of the world. The mix shift also impacted working capital and therefore cash flow.
I can mention also just for planning purposes, the DOJ payment of $207 million was made in Q2. It was on April 6th. That's not included in Q1, but in Q2 numbers. On a rolling basis, though, free cash flow before M&A was SEK 15.8 billion, still at 5.7% of net sales versus our target of 9%-12% for the long term is, of course, not where we want to be, both from a profitability point of view leading into cash flow, but also the working capital situation. We are working very hard to restore this back to improved levels in line with our target.
Of course, our focus on managing working capital continues with full force going forward as well. Again, with large rollout projects and these shifts that we talk about, we do build working capital temporarily. We will, of course, keep the machinery as efficient as we ever can in Ericsson, and I think we have proven that before that we can do that. If we move now to the outlook for the future, not least, second quarter here, as we have said, Börje expressed this also, 2023 has some uncertainty. In the second quarter, we expect operators to remain cautious with CapEx, similar to Q1, and continue with the inventory adjustment that we have described.
On top line, we expect this to be offset to a large extent by these large new rollout projects in 5G, with a dilutive impact on gross margins short-term. Enterprise segment is, of course, a high growth area, with a very strong long-term trajectory, but also that sector is impacted by macroeconomic factors, and we see that continuing in Q2 like it did in the first quarter. To mitigate all of this, of course, we are working on what we can control, as Börje said, and we have increased then the cost out effort and ambition from SEK 9 billion to SEK 11 billion as a run rate as we exit 2023.
Given our this restructuring program or cost out program, we have restructuring charges, SEK 1 billion in the quarter, as I said. Going forward for the full year, early estimates are that it could amount to about SEK 7 billion , of which half or even more than half might be booked in the second quarter in the books, but we will come back to that, of course. Next year, though, restructuring charges will normalize around 0.5% of net sales according to the plans now. The P&L effect of cost out will take time to see. We know that from experience, and that's how it works.
Of course, we will report on the progress of this every quarter, but expect limited impact in the P&L in the beginning and then a gradual impact over time. Continuing on this slide, and I'll wrap up soon, average net sales seasonality from Q1 to Q2 is a growth of 12% if you look at the last three years' average. This is applicable both for Networks and Cloud Software and Services. However, this time, for Networks, we expect Q2 sales to be in line with Q1, and for Cloud Software and Services, we expect the seasonality to be somewhat lower this year than the normal 12%.
Next, on gross margin, we are specific in the guidance here for Networks. We say we expect gross margin in Networks to be between 37%-39% in Q2, mainly as a result of the business mix that we have talked about. We expect gradual recovery going forward in the second half regarding that gross margin. OpEx, the typical increase, Q1 to Q2 is SEK 1.5 billion up. Large variations between quarters, but that's a reference. The result of all of this, EBITDA excluding restructuring or EBITDA margin, I should say, for Q2, we expect now and we guide for mid-single digit, as a result of these declining margins in Networks due to the changing business mix.
To close off, I want to end with this slide. This is taken from our Capital Markets Day we had in December, updated with actuals, though. This shows the components in the path towards the 2024 target and EBITDA margin of 15%-18%. You're well familiar with that already. Uncertainty on 2023, we've said that, but we do believe that the underlying traffic growth in networks will stimulate and drive continued investments. That's one strong factor here. Therefore we expect this gradual recovery 2023, second half and into 2024. This path, as you see here and know already, is also supported by higher IPR revenues. Finally, in the other bucket that we have combined a lot of effects, both pluses and minuses there.
We have, of course, changing market mix from footprint gains, but also countered by improved profitability across all segments with operational leverage from growth, et cetera. In total, we remain steadfast in this target to reach the lower end by 2024 of the target EBITDA margin 15%-18%. With that, thank you so much, and I hand back to you, Börje.
Thank you, Carl. Our strategy, we continue to implement, and we're starting to see the positive signs that it's working. We're well-positioned now to capture the full value of 5G and to create a stronger and more profitable Ericsson with a larger addressable market. It's critical for our long-term success that we build out a profitable enterprise business. Executing on our strategy to build technology leadership in mobile networks, establish an enterprise business for Ericsson and driving a cultural change are our three main priorities going forward. We are confident in our strategic position, but we also see that 2023 will be a choppy year, as we have earlier said.
We expect a gradual recovery in the second half as we expect the inventory adjustments at our customers to be completed and that we start to see the benefit of our, call it cost savings initiatives gradually flow through the P&L.
Longer term, based on historic experiences, we also expect to see investments on network investments recover as the underlying traffic growth continues at a very high rate and more capacity will be needed. If we look beyond 2023, we see that the expected normalization or recovery of the mobile networks market, we see the turnaround of Cloud Software and Services that we can continue to grow our IPR revenues as well as reap the full benefit of the cost initiatives and the other actions we're driving, puts us on track to reach the lower end of our long-term targets by 2024. With that, I just want to end by thanking all the fantastic people at Ericsson who made this position possible. Big thank you from me. With that, over to you, Peter.
Thanks, Börje, and thank you Carl for the presentation. It's now time for the question and answer session. Again, as a reminder, to ask question, you need to press the star, one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you're streaming the webcast, please mute the webcast audio while asking questions to minimize any audio feedback. I'm now ready for the first question. With that, I would like to welcome Alexander Peterc. Alexander, good morning. Good morning, Alexander.
Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes, perfectly.
Good morning.
Good morning. You're on the line. Please.
Great. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. I'd just like to first touch upon the gross margin trend in Networks. To what extent is that due to any import duties you probably have to pay in India at the moment? How advanced are you in the progress with the local assembly or parts of manufacturing to minimize these import duty costs? Is that part of the reason why things are going south in the second quarter? That's my first question. Second one, just if you're more specific on restructuring, which areas you're targeting with the new restructuring charges, in which businesses and which geography. Thanks a lot.
If you wanna start, Carl.
Börje, should I take this one?
I think you take it, Carl.
Yeah. Maybe I start with the second one then. When it comes to restructuring, it touches on many, if not all, parts of our company and many geographies. It's wide, and we have savings targets on virtually all managers. It's about 50/50 between cost of sales, if you like, with service delivery, and supply, et cetera, and OpEx. The increase now that we presented today, the SEK 2 billion, that's more tilted towards the OpEx side, and there's also some R&D components in there. Of course, technology leadership remains our strategy, but we still see that there are productivity improvements and things we can do on the R&D side as well.
On your first question, yes, we are advancing when it comes to local production or assembly in India, and we're building out that together with a partner. That's going well. The speed of rollout is incredible. We are ramping up very fast as well in the local production there. The import duty side, I would not say it's material when we look at the Networks' gross margin, but of course, it's sizable enough for us to work really actively on trying to reduce that and localize production. Börje, if you want to add.
Thank you very much.
Yeah. Oh, okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Carl, and thank you, Alexander. We will now take the next question, and I think we have the next question from Andrew Gardiner from Citi. Good morning, Andrew.
Good morning, Peter. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. I had one on your visibility into business for the rest of the year. you know, on one hand, Börje, you continue to use the word choppy as pertaining to 2023, and you're saying uncertainty remains. At one point there, Carl, you also said that sort of conversations with customers are giving you some confidence that the inventory correction will be behind us in 2Q or at least early 3Q. Just on that latter point, you know, sort of how broad are these conversations across the key operators? You know, how convinced are you that you've got the right level of visibility into what those customers will need in the second half? You know, where are inventory levels today?
What are the indications in terms of deployment plans? Can you give us any further detail around what you're hearing from the customers that gives you that confidence in an improving second half? Thank you.
Börje.
Yeah. It's a good question. You know, what gives us the comfort is, of course, it starts with the ongoing deployment pace, and that's the key driver, and that gives us comfort that we will have seen the inventory adjustments during Q2, a bit of slip into Q3, but most of it down during Q2. Again, the reason for keeping the roll-up pace up, it's not, it's down somewhat compared to last year. You have seen the lower indicating numbers that are varying here. I think it's -7 in North America, for example. That effect is truly compounded by this inventory adjustment.
As long as we see the traffic growth we see today, you know, that is ultimately going to require investments in the network to keep the capacity up and keep the user experience up. Based on the discussions we're having, I will preface it, there is a lot of macroeconomic uncertainty facing our customers. Energy cost, it's inflation, it's a lot of different issues. It gives us comfort to say that the rollout pace continues and ought to deplete then the excess inventory by mid-year or early Q3. We feel good about it, but it's of course something that impacts us quite dramatically.
Thank you, Börje.
Thanks, Andrew.
You mentioned [audio distortion] there. Do you feel like those estimates still hold given how, you know, you've started the year and in particular sort of the much weaker than seasonal trends into the second half?
Yeah. I think the reason why we're, you know, it's hard to say. They need to make their summary. I think we will know in a few weeks' time. Let's see what they come out at. We should remember the big adjustment on our side is actually the inventory adjustment. That's the big impact on our sales, on one side, and the other side of that is the rapid growth in some of the new 5G markets. We're in the middle of that business mix shift, which of course makes it always a bit difficult to have 100% visibility. At least we feel quite good about our position.
Thank you, Börje.
Thanks, Börje. Thank you, Andrew, for that question. We are now moving into the third question of this session. I have that question coming from Sébastien Sztabowicz from Kepler Cheuvreux. Good morning, Sébastien.
Hello everyone. One question on IPR. You are still forecasting substantially higher IPR revenue going forward. Have you made any kind of progress on your patent monetization strategy? Also a second one on Vonage. It seems they have reported quite good growth, talking about 14% in dollar term, despite challenging macro condition. Could you help understand how the demand is building up at Vonage? More generally speaking, the enterprise business has been quite strong in Q1, 19% growth, and you are talking about a weaker macro condition. Can you help us understand what are the dynamics there? Thank you.
Thank you, Sébastien. Maybe Carl, you can start the IPR.
Yeah. On IPR, we have a strong position there, of course, with the patent portfolio we have, not least in 5G. There is a funnel of a number of device players that will need to come on stream as well and sign up for licenses with us. We're working on those deals, and that's a big part of what is behind our optimism when it comes to IPR revenue. Of course, we will report back once those agreements are eventually signed. As usual, the same as with the agreement with Samsung and then with Apple, we're not rushing into agreements. It's better to get it right, of course, with the right price level, and that keeps being our strategy.
The next frontier, if that's your question also maybe on the strategy for monetization, we see a big opportunity also in consumer electronics and IoT, et cetera, automotive. That's going to be the next frontier for us to capture also license revenue from those sectors with the billions of connected devices that also use our patented technology. We will report back on that once we have concrete progress.
Maybe Börje, you wanna comment on the Vonage growth development?
Yeah, you can say just touch upon it shortly. Yes, we had 14% growth, about twice that growth rate or almost twice that growth rate in our current communication APIs for Vonage. It's been a solid quarter. There is a bit of headwind from the general macroeconomic developments. We should remember, you know, when we had the COVID days in 2022 and before that, we had a bit higher growth in the use of communication APIs. That, you know, put them on a bit of, maybe you can call it, extra high level that we're now, you know, on the back end of that. We're still seeing a very good growth and it's developing very strongly.
Of course, that's something we continue to invest in and drive innovation as well, so we can launch a number of new, competitive offerings in the current communication APIs. You see the same thing in Cradlepoint. We've seen good growth during the quarter. I would also say we are facing a macroeconomic headwind at a bit tougher investment levels in enterprise networking. It still gives a very good growth rate. I would not, you know, in that sense be alarmed. What it does give is a confidence that the offering we have is very competitive and solving a real customer need.
Thank you, Börje, and thank you, Sébastien, for those questions. We'll move into the next question, which will come from Peter Kurt Nielsen at ABG. Peter Kurt, can you hear me?
I can, Peter. Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity. If I could just return a bit to the outlook for, I guess, Networks margins, et cetera. We're talking about a gradual recovery in the second half, which you also told us at Q4, but it does appear now to be from a somewhat lower, weaker level in Q2. You've discussed a bit the various components that will enter into this equation, but can you talk a bit about how far into the India ramp-up we need to go before we will see a what you perhaps could call a normalization of margins?
I'm asking also because you are maintaining the longer term target 15%-18% lower end of the range for 2024, which I guess does imply a significant improvement in also in the gross margin in networks, as we approach, you know, going into next year. Could you talk a bit about where the recovery is coming from? How far into India deployment we need to be in order to see these margins, in networks, restoring themselves? Thank you very much.
You wanna start with that, Carl?
I can start, Börje you can fill in as well if you like. What we are so focused on, as you know, is the 2024 financial target, of course. There are some key components that will start to play in in the second half of 2023 onwards into 2024. Your question is on networks specifically. We do see that certain rebalancing would start to happen. The inventory adjustments we talked about will flatten out, as Börje described well earlier. The rollout in India will peak around the end of this year, of course continue at a high level later on also. We still see this rebalancing between within the mix.
Of course, we have the cost out program that we talked about, which will generate also an improved profitability also in the networks business side. As you know also, Networks has a big part of the IPR revenues also in the segment results. As soon as we can land some of those deals, that will also carry Networks forward in the terms of gross margin.
Börje, anything to add?
I think you captured it, Carl. I think we see during Q1, Q2, the inventory adjustments at a maximum. That we predict will be, therefore we expect that to be much less during second half. That, of course, will carry into a better business mix in 2024, which will overall help us on margins. Then you have the cost, as Carl said. You have the IPR, and we have the turnaround of Cloud Software and Services. Then we're also starting to see payoff. It's still gonna have a loss-making next year in our enterprise segment, but we should start to see improvements there. That allows us to be within the lower end of our long-term targets next year.
Thanks, Börje, and thank you, Peter Kurt, for that question. We will move further in this Q&A session. The next question will come from Andreas Joelsson at Danske. Andreas?
Yes.
Good morning.
Morning. One question, if I may, and that's on Networks again, but on the top line. Usually, you have a sequential growth between Q1 and Q2, and this year you say flat. Does that mean that the inventory burden will be more or even higher in Q2, or is it something else that we should be aware of that is happening between the quarters? Thanks.
Andreas, it's exactly the same reasons that we talk about, actually on top line. It is the inventory adjustment and the cautiousness on CapEx that we see. It's the same factors as in Q1. When we look into Q4 sorry, Q2 now, we see that sales in network will most likely remain on a rather flat level sequentially. It's exactly the same factors as we have described here.
Perfect. Thanks.
Thanks, Andreas, for that question. Thank you, Carl. We'll move to the next question. We have that one coming from Sandeep Deshpande at JP Morgan. Hi, good morning, Sandeep.
Yeah, hi. Good morning. Thanks for letting me on. My question is regarding Börje, regarding 2024. I mean, you're saying that there will be a recovery in the market from 2023 to 2024. In the past cycles, we've seen that once the reduction in one, in 4G happened, it didn't really recover till 5G came. Why do you think that 2024 will see a recovery in the same 5G market that is softer this year?
The first reason is back to the inventory adjustments. You know, the underlying rollout pace continues. Inventory adjustments that's happening, that's going to be true, as we have said, during Q2 and possibly slightly into Q3. That gives us confidence about the underlying demand for network equipment. That's the most important part. The second one, this is more of a longer term, but you have to recognize the growing demand for data. That's continuing at a very high rate. In order to ensure that you can deliver that with a cost-efficient way as an operator, as well as deliver it or the user experience you need, there will be a need to keep on investing in capacity in the network.
That's no doubt in my mind that that will have to happen. You can't really compare here with the previous generations because it's not data-driven. Today, the generations are data-driven. That's why this is highly likely to look a bit different. You know, just do the experiment to think, how would we cope with the current traffic level if we wouldn't have 5G? We basically need 5G in order to manage the current demand for data and give the end user the experience they want. Of course, it varies a bit by geography, but just look at the build-out pace in India. It will make India a leading 5G nation and a leading nation for digitalization. What we see is that the subscribers on 5G are using even more data than on 4G.
That's why we are, you know, we're quite comfortable to say that the inventory adjustments will be through, and therefore, we will see a much more of a normal business mix in 2024 and beyond. Still, even though data growth is, you know, 20%+ Network CapEx, that will be what supports kind of a flattish market. That's why it's important to keep in mind that we've guided for an overall flattish development within mobile networks for several years. That's not anything new. What it means is basically the inventory adjustment will normalize next year, and then you're on that flattish curve.
Thanks, Börje.
I think it's important to be clear. It's not that we assume you will enter high growth rate in the Networks business or in mobile networks at all next year. It's just that the inventory cycle will have normalized.
Thank you.
Thank you for that question, Sandeep. We will now move to the next question in this call, and that one is coming from Fredrik Lithell at Handelsbanken. Fredrik, you're online.
Yes. Thank you. Can you hear me?
We can hear you.
Thank you. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two, if I may, maybe one for Börje and one for Carl. If we start with the first one for Börje, Cloud Software saw an improvement in Q1, a clear one, so that's good. I'm thinking about the fact that you're tuning down the sort of, seasonal effects into Q2. Was it so that you had a more positive ending to Q1, and thereby you had also higher software share in that quarter? Or is it so that you feel you see structural effects from the ongoing changes with the new management are doing in CSS, and that's behind the improved earnings in Q1? What is what there in CSS? That's the question, really.
Carl, on, you talked about the rolling 12 months free cash flow at SEK 5.7. You have a target of SEK 9-SEK 12. You say you're gonna do everything you can to improve. What are your levers to accomplish change that will improve? Is it so that much will come from change business mix or change your graphical mix and what have you that will improve this free cash flow yields? Thank you for that.
Should we start with Börje?
If we start with the Cloud Software and Services, yes, they had. You know, we're putting in place a strategy to kind of limiting our subscale development. We're focusing on, you know, having the right product portfolio to make sure that we can win in the market. Those efforts continue, and of course, putting profitability ahead of growth, and we've said that. In Q1, we saw a bit of effect from higher software sales, and we saw a bit more IPR revenues than last year. Part of the improvement comes from that.
I would also say there is a lot of changes that's underlying in the way we conduct the business in Cloud Software and Services that should allow us to reach the or be beyond the break even for the year that we are comfortable with. We know from experience, it kind of fluctuates a bit by quarter, depending on when we have software deliveries and not. You know, that's why we say it's going to be less seasonality this coming quarter than we've seen previous years. You know, we're very committed to working hard at improving the underlying business in line with what we did in Q1 and continue into Q2.
Thanks. Carl, on the cash flow development.
Thanks, Fredrik. You know, working capital cash flow management very close to my heart, and I think we've done a lot during these years also to reduce the working capital to a completely different, much lower level. I think we have the levers to do that. What we're looking at now is really, you could say two buckets to start with. This is partly the cash flow generation as such. It's about terms and conditions also, both with customers and suppliers and manage discipline in presales and in supplier management to make sure that we balance, not least in these new rollout projects that we balance in and outflows in a good way. That will take some hard work and some cases renegotiations as well.
Of course, also on the more business side, and you mentioned it yourself, Fredrik, that the same logic applies here as with the business mix. When we have a rebalancing back to more of the front runner markets, that is good for our cash flow as well. The final point to mention also related to business is, of course, that when we sign IPR deals, that's typically a good contribution to our cash flow as well. You know, that's normally a retractive effect also on the cash flow side. Those are some of the levers. We have full focus on this. The entire company is very geared at improving working capital and generate good cash flow going forward.
Thank you.
Your answers. Thank you.
Thank you, Fredrik, for those two questions. We're actually now open for the last question of this session. That question will come from Janardan Menon from Jefferies. Good morning, Janardan.
Hi. Good morning, Peter. Good morning, everyone. My question is really just to narrow down a little bit more on the new communication APIs, and as well as just the outlook for the enterprise division into 2024 and beyond. You've said that, you know, you both on the Hong Kong, as well as at Mobile World Congress, you made those announcements, which are quite exciting. You will start seeing revenue coming through into 2024, 2025. Can you give us some idea of what kind of revenue growth, we can expect on the new communication APIs, into next year and the year after?
You know, if you can't give us an idea of revenue, can you say, like, how many apps developers have you signed so far? I presume it's quite a small number, but how many would that grow to by 2024 and 2025? What is your sort of internal targets on that sort of thing? Similarly on the Cradlepoint side, you alluded to the, you know, the depressing effect on margins because you have upfront OpEx, which you take upfront, and the revenue is sort of staggered. When does that effect start reversing? You know, at what point on your current modeling, is there a point where the Cradlepoint starts becoming accretive because, you know, the upfront costs or, you know, the revenue is more than the cost, upfront cost?
Is this sort of a, because it's a growing business, you know, that will take quite a long time to happen because you're going on signing new customers and therefore the upfront cost will continue to be quite high. I mean, how should we think about that over the longer term? Thank you very much.
Börje, will you take those questions?
I would suggest Carl takes those.
Okay. I can make an attempt. On Cradlepoint, yeah, the business model is clear. And actually, it's of course a very favorable business model because cash upfront and a subscription model which creates sustainable and recurring revenue also. We have this phenomenon with of course, the investments related to capturing those contracts in OpEx coming up front. Exactly when that will turn around, we have not gone into and disclosed and talked about. Of course, this is a balancing game. How much do we invest short-term for the long-term gain? And how or how prudent are we short-term as well to manage the P&L?
This is, of course, a big topic for us in the leadership team and with George, who manages this business as well. I'm not able to give you an exact date there, but of course, at a certain point, we will see that being accretive to Ericsson, and we have a very strong release. You saw the 60% growth delivered in the first quarter in this. Of course, that comes out of the investments we are making and we see that that will continue. On the Vonage side, I think we will come back. What I can say now is that we see really great traction among the early adopters and the front runners. You saw the Mobile World Congress with all the Spanish operators. That's one example.
Of course, much more is cooking here. The operator community, I would say, is really eager to work together and collaborate with us on this and developing this as a new business for them. Of course, everyone now in the industry can see the potential of exposing these 5G capabilities for enterprises and the developers. It's happening as we speak, but of course, very early stages, and we are not ready to give specific revenue numbers for the future yet. We'd rather prove that to you when those numbers actually come in. It's going to be limited in the beginning, but with a great potential for the longer term.
Anything to add, Börje?
I would only add on the, you know, the network APIs. What we see is a very good reception from the operators, but also from enterprises and front runner enterprises, who can leverage these type of APIs in applications. We're starting to see it also from application developers. It's not the formal market yet. I will be clear to say that the platform we could show at Mobile World Congress is not fully industrialized yet. At least it allows us to get this first feedback from developers, from enterprises, that this is a workable market and actually can make sense. That's why we're confident that we will start to see revenues during this year. As Carl said, it's too early to put a number on that for this year and into next and the year after.
We see a very exciting development.
Thank you, Janardan, for that question. I would also like to thank Carl and Börje for good answers throughout these sessions. With that question, we are closing the Q1 2023 conference call. Thank you, and have a great day.
Thank you all.
Thank you.