Hello everybody. Warm welcome from my side, for this update call, Q1 2023 earnings call. I'm happy to present the numbers up front. I guess, we have seen that Montana Aerospace again, strong growth in sales. Okay, in EBITDA and definitely in guidance, in line with the guidance 2023, which I will elaborate in the following minutes. If you see, in total, we have grown by over 40%. Let me first go into the details of the segments. We have seen the growth in the Aerostructures versus last year's numbers of around 208%. Quite some extensive growth, but please note that we acquired ASCO last year in end of March, therefore, the figures still don't include the ASCO sales for last year.
They do include, of course, ASCO for the sales in 2023. On the other hand, we have divested the majority of so-called AMT at the end of 2022. On a like-to-like basis, still the growth shows more than 100% growth, a plus 200%, which is fantastic. We see again that we have a lot of tailwind concerning our development into the direction of one major supplier in Aerostructures, and based this on a very solid and I would say, also ongoing developing contracted sales volume on order backlog. E-Mobility, okay, concerning growth. We had 78% growth in sales. Still it's slightly below our internal guidance, even so we come late on it.
Have a very solid EBITDA still, which is within our guidance. Sales with 78% was slightly below the expectations because we do have some recycling business where we sell also aluminum to third parties. This was very weak in the first quarter due to, I would say, not really registered imports out of, whatever countries other Turkey into Europe, and therefore the price level was quite low. Something which we expect to catch up in the second quarter then, and also improving then also the EBITDA here. The main business, the key area where we build the battery packs and the surrounding parts around it, very solid. What you can see then, even with the impact on the sales, solid development also concerning EBITDA. What is also very important, Trade Working Capital and cash development.
Energy, I'm super proud, first quarter. Why? Because we have seen that last year the world changed, concerning the perception of energy components. Here we are mission critically, as we have elaborated already a couple of times. We have seen that the order backlog, more or less showed up in very strong numbers in the fourth quarter 2022. This trend, even, with a stronger EBITDA than what you will see in the next pages, is continuing in the first quarter. Here we are already more or less, in the direction of our capacity constraints with EUR 140 million or 57% above, 2021, 2022 numbers for the first quarter. We're quite proud development, so far in Energy.
When you look at the details of the quarterly development, I start again with the Energy segment. Here, a continuous development to a, I would say, a stable high level sales volume, which has been also showing this very good price situation then later on in a solid EBITDA basis, which should be continued also for the next quarters to come. E-Mobility, as said, slightly lower in comparison to what we have seen in the last quarter 2022. Mainly due, as I said, to this I would say recycling business, which was not with fundamental sales shown in the first quarter 2023, but will come back as we see the second quarter now ongoing. Aerostructures, there is a tendency towards, I would say, a quarterly development.
We have to look at, for instance, also last year's numbers, even knowing that in the first quarter 2022, AMT was still part of it. On the other hand, ASCO not. Therefore, on the net impact around, I would say EUR 20 million-EUR 25 million difference. But still you see that first quarters are usually a bit weaker and then ongoing stronger throughout the year, with a typically very strong year or quarter in the fourth quarter. Something we also foresee for this year concerning the order backlog we have right now in hands. And therefore, with EUR 166.8 million, we are quite confident to at least achieve what we have guided. And therefore also confident concerning the development with the expectations of a similar quarterly-to-quarterly development throughout the year.
All in all, we keep our, I would say, very clear slogan as you know, or the buzzword which we have. Since the IPO game changer in the aerospace supply chain, it more works out that we are very structured can sort out which contracts are best suitable for our value chain. In this field, we are more and more establishing ourself as a larger player and a game changer within the supply chain, which is still seeing so many troubles throughout the aerospace supply chain in the industry per se. Where are we in our path to a high cash flow and high net income profitable business?
I would say somewhere around the midpoint of this chart between investment and ramp up, on the other hand, taking back the drops. We saw free cash flow positive in the fourth quarter, and we will see it also in this year, knowing that, yes, the first quarter has some impacts concerning Trade Working Capital. Generally, we reiterate and reassure also the guidance for 2023. Stepping into the details of the development with more numbers on the explanations I gave up front. Aerostructures, E-Mobility, Energy in all area growth with the small exception that more or less E-Mobility was quite, let's say, stable. Aerostructures showed EBITDA growth, which is with 27% solid, but under proportional.
The reason for not a higher growth is still that we still suffer from supply chain issues of third parties within the integration of ASCO into our supply chain. I tried to elaborate this already within different meetings, but the main reason is that we are still dependent on third party suppliers who don't supply in many cases because they can't supply the need for the integration or the certification areas of the OEMs. They have a bottleneck in this field. They have a lack of capacity, we are working on it steadily, something which will be solved this year. On the other hand, still the impact is mainly on sales, but mostly then on the EBITDA to, I would say, the lack of performance of ASCO.
This is therefore dilutive, but I guess something which we sort out within the next quarters to come. E-Mobility in within the guidance, which we had also internally for this year, right on the spot with the EBITDA of EUR 3.3 million. Yes, it is below the EUR 4.2 million of last year. There was some tailwind last year, but I guess we will take up and also here for this year, E-Mobility shows at least a minimum stable EBITDA development for the full year. As we have seen last year with a slightly higher sales. Something we keep on going, and I guess we will see also in the quarters from now on coming and showing in the numbers.
Very strong development as announced in Energy, it seems like it is not even the end of the road concerning this development, with a 400% increase in EBITDA. Therefore, also with a very favorable order backlog for the next months to come or for the next years to come. In general, 40%, more than 40% up in sales, 45%. Yes, there needs to be on a like-to-like basis to be done some adjustments. The EUR 243 still included AMT with around EUR 30 million on total sales last year. On the other hand, not ASCO, which showed up a bit more than EUR 60 million right now, around EUR 60 million right now, for the first quarter.
If you see even on an organic basis, without those, I would say transactions, still, a very solid growth on the organic level, which also gives us the, I would say, the knowledge that we will develop concerning the quarterly development, which we guide and which we think is showing already within the order backlog. Adjusted EBITDA in line, slightly above, I would say the net sales development with 49%, with, as we saw, a slight dip from E-Mobility, in comparison to last year, which we will catch up. On the other hand, still the ASCO topic, which is slightly dilutive, but topics I guess, which are in the preparation to be solved and hopefully shown in the next quarters from now.
The result for the period, we are not 100% satisfied as it is impacted strongly by a very negative financial result. The negative financial result with a total of around EUR 12 million had two impacts or showed two impacts out of it. The one is cash relevance out of increased interest rates. I come to that one in a second. It's around two third of the financial result. The other one is mostly non-cash effective FX effects. Still we think that they won't show up in a cash impact until later throughout the year. They are here shown in the financial result and therefore impacting negatively the result for the period.
Concerning the interest rates per se, we are in the preparation of really restructuring our complete financing structure. The project which will be hopefully showing its results by the second to third quarter. Then will be elaborated over the calls more extensively. This should also give us some ease concerning the financial results for the future. Production performance right in line with the net sales. Therefore, I would like to keep on going with the personnel expenses. Yes, we see a 40% increase. Please note it's based on a much higher volume of sales. If you take out, for instance, the ASCO personnel expenses in 2022, 2023, we are more or less at the same level than we have been last year.
We see that, concerning our core businesses, where everything is already integrated, we are quite stable. Even so, we know that there were some extensive salary increases worldwide. I guess we have managed quite a way with elaborating where personnel is situated and where the value streams should be organized. Other operating expenses and income. We see an increase. The increase is mainly out of energy and freight. Please note that, yes, last year, 2022, in the first quarter, first impact came into, I would say, the discussion concerning higher energy prices, but mostly still the energy prices were stable. They increased then heavily throughout the second and mostly the third quarter, as many contracts were either canceled by the utility companies or not fulfilled and therefore spot market prices had to be paid for.
Therefore, if you compare last quarter, or last year's first quarter to this year's first quarter, the impact comes out of higher energy prices and also freights. It's definitely within the line of our, I would say, so-called internal budgets and with also our guidance within this field. Therefore, something which we think that we will see also concerning the percentage in comparison to last year, to mitigate throughout the year to, I would say, no gap or at least less gap in comparison to last year. Net debt. Yes, there is an increase in the net debt of more than EUR 100 million. The main impact out of it is through an increased Trade Working Capital.
We didn't hide this element, of course, we optimized it to our Trade Working Capital by the end of the year, mostly by paying late. Had some factoring on a low level, on a lower double-digit amount. This is something which is not within the first quarter 2023, and therefore there is some impact. Usually, we pay earlier within the year than in the later quarters. Concerning inventory and other topics, also concerning the cash flow out for financing or, excuse me, for investing activities, and therefore, the net debt should also by the next quarters to come, be reduced in comparison to the impact in comparison to last year, to see by the end of the year a positive Free Cash Flow.
Total equity more or less stable. Therefore also the number of employees from more or less stable. Even so, we integrated here the company in comparison to what we have seen last year. Coming to the Trade Working Capital. Here in detail, the development I just tried to explain. Even so, higher sales, therefore more or less, I would say plus-minus stable inventory, with a slight increase from EUR 324 to EUR 337, but definitely highly under proportional. The impact out of the Trade Working Capital mainly came out of the trade payables, which were definitely on a different scale in comparison to last year, end of the year. Therefore we have this impact in the first quarter of a negative free cash flow.
Balance sheet structure, stable and solid and more or less, not too much changed in comparison to what we saw in the previous quarters. Finally, the cash flow, which I guess already elaborated. Yes, operating cash flow due to the Trade Working Capital impact of EUR 90 million, also slight negative, and also with the free cash flow due to the CapEx, which you see on the right part of this slide, which is already quite some over proportional throughout the quarters of 2023 spendings, which is lower already than what we saw 2021. 2022, sorry. Is therefore impacting also the cash flow.
However, it's in development of our internal guidance and therefore, with the last slide of this today's deck, we once again want to reiterate our guidance for 2023 with an increase on to over EUR 1.5 billion, slightly above EUR 1.5 billion on total sales. Structured within the three segments to around EUR 750 billion to EUR 800 billion for Aerostructures. In E-Mobility, EUR 200. Energy over EUR 550 million. Definitely very well in development in Energy. It's a very strong margin to be expected.
Recovery of the margin level of the, also sales in E-Mobility and once the dilutive impact of ASCO away, and the increase also in sales in Aerostructures, we expect a very strong also development within EBITDA, and therefore, also cash flow within Aerostructures throughout the quarters 2023. That's it. Therefore, for the adjusted EBITDA, also here confirmation from EUR 100 million last year without one-off impacts. We have seen adjusted EBITDA of EUR 134 million. To be fair, there were acquisition items within the first within 2022. If I take this off of around EUR 30 million, it was around EUR 100 million on EBITDA basis.
To be compared with the development of 2023, where we guide for EUR 130-EUR 150 million is unchanged, with the cash out for CapEx for the full year of around EUR 50-EUR 60 million is also unchanged. Therefore, also in the development of this free cash flow positive, net income positive business. Thank you very much. Right now, we would open up for questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selections. Anyone with a question may press star followed by one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from Phil Buller from Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. My first one is on the aerospace business. Obviously the key growth driver for the group. We've heard from several suppliers to Airbus and Boeing in recent weeks that they have had their build rate assumptions for 2023 rebased. I know that Airbus and Boeing haven't changed their midterm production assumptions at all, but there appears to be some moderation to near-term planning assumptions for some of the suppliers. I was hoping you could comment on what has happened from a Montana standpoint inter-quarter, and what it means to near-term numbers, and what, if anything, it might offer in terms of opportunities for additional market share gains over the next 24 to 36 months. Thanks.
Thank you very much. This is, I guess, in the meantime, I have a very simple statement. I don't care. Why? Because you're absolutely correct concerning the build rate. To be correct on that point. The reason is because, yes, we see still major issues concerning the supply chain. There we're dependent on third parties, which with a very small part, it's ASCO. We see it on our own, how tough it is if other suppliers don't deliver and how to perform then ourself. Everywhere else where we are more or less independent from any third party to supplier, we're performing extraordinarily well. Why? Because yes, we are asked on a permanent level to jump in. Therefore, we can give you following topic as an answer.
We don't think that the build rate as announced will occur. We still stick to the simple statement that around 15% depends about from platform to platform will be less build rates throughout the years, mostly than 2024 onwards, to be seen. However, we see that right now the orders are coming in still strongly on the single aisle. I would say within our expectation, also on the wide-body planes, it's coming in a bit slightly stronger than what we expected to be fair. On the midpoint, we still stick to our statement.
We think that the build rates announced are a bit too high because supply chain and also the OEMs are struggling to really ramp up in this scale. We don't have an impact out of it because either they are coming higher than our expectations, then we have even a tailwind from higher sales out of that point. It stays like right now, then we have an ongoing need to jump in wherever possible because other suppliers are not able to deliver. In platforms where we are 100% certified, which is everything from Airbus and everything from Boeing, inside with some exception, it's the A220 platform that there still needs to be some certifications.
Everything, everywhere else, we are able to jump in, and it's something we did already in the first quarter 2022, which we did already in the first quarter 2023, and I guess which will also continue. Therefore, this way or that way, we don't see a negative impact for us, only potential slight tailwind if the ramp-up is even higher than what we expected. Does this answer your question?
It does, yes.
Yeah.
Thank you for that. That's very helpful. Then as a follow-up, if I may.
Sorry, just maybe to add, it's only that the wide-body seems to come stronger, faster. Yeah. This is the only point which is also for us, a bit positively surprising. You know, the numbers are still low in comparison to A320/737.
Got it. Thank you. As a follow-up on the topic of inflation, you mentioned in slide nine, I think that there are ongoing efforts to pass on these costs even more. Is there anything in practice that you can share that's new in regard this quarter or perhaps in the coming quarters that you could talk to? I'm thinking about things like, potential timings of contract negotiations that are due for renewal or anything of that nature that would provide the opportunity for those, price renegotiations. Were these kind of discussions that are taking place outside of typical timelines that are in current contracts, please? Thanks.
Yeah. It's a very good question that I should have mentioned myself, so thank you for putting your finger on this point. We have more or less changed many, many contracts last year and added so-called inflationary cost increases or escalation clauses inside those contracts. Now comes the but, most of it, they have been calculated on a 1 year basis. Here to expect again on a half year basis and then later on the fourth quarter, this high impact on extra invoices for these inflationary costs, which have been more or less calculated once for the total year or at least minimum for half the year. The impact is a bit pushed to the end of the year.
Most of it, something which we will see, but what we also saw already in 2022. Yeah.
Yeah. That's very helpful. Thank you.
Yeah. For instance, Energy, also some labor, of course the material where it was not based anyway on some material formula, everything is passed through.
That's helpful. Thanks very much. I'll pass it on.
The next question comes from Richard Frei from ZKB. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Good afternoon. My first question is on trade working capital. May you give us some idea what the normalized level could be of a trade working capital? I don't expect absolute clear numbers, but just my belief is that free cash flow is heavy, depending on what trade working capital is doing after this -EUR 100 in the first quarter.
Richard, thank you very much. Yes, there is a clear path of reducing Trade Working Capital since September 2022, where we more or less saw the turning point between two cautious concerning also inventory and other topics. Well, coming back to, I would say, new normal, the new normal will be reached on a permanent level by 2024, I would say, by the last quarter. On this level, more or less going on a quarterly basis down to this direction. What will it be? It will be 35% of sales, Trade Working Capital of sales in Aerostructures, around 60% at E-Mobility and between 8%-9% in Energy.
Energy is already reached, Trade Working Capital at Mobility is even lower, right now. They have already overachieved towards, say, the permanent basis. It's Aerostructures, which is definitely, I would say, the development in 2024 to have this 35%.
That helps. Thank you. Probably another one on ASCO. You have mentioned that it's still diluting. That's also my expectation. Is it loss making on, in terms of EBITDA? I don't know. I didn't get if it should be up and running as the other part of aerostructures by end of this year, or will it take a bit longer?
No, we calculated with a double-digit % EBITDA this year with ASCO, which would be also still dilutive for the total sales segment, but definitely double-digit. This is in the first quarter was not reached at all. Yeah. It is positive. It is a low single-digit amount. Still it is, I would say disappointing, not because of the performance of ASCO or the capabilities or the demand or the sales. It's mostly the so-called A220 platform where we still need certifications to then for our other entities then to integrate the work from third party suppliers to us directly. There's a bottleneck also concerning certification agents from third parties.
It's a waiting process, to be fair. This is a bit annoying, but therefore we will still trigger to get this, I would say, a high single-digit to double-digit % margin by the end of the year for the total year, 2022, 2023. For the first quarter, we are way beyond. Noah.
Okay, thank you. I'll go back to the queue.
There are no further questions at this time. I hand back to Michael Pistauer for closing comments.
Thank you everybody for this, I would say short earnings call 2023. Still one question. Aymeric, please from Kepler Cheuvreux.
Yes. Sorry. One question came up from Aymeric Poulain from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead, sir.
Yes. Thank you for taking my question. I had some follow-up and one different perhaps. Given the volatility of the free cash flow, I mean, are you incentivized to perhaps advance the timetable of the IPO of the Energy division? What would be the timetable as you see right now? That's the first question. Second question is on the aerospace growth. Could you give us a bit more color in terms of the contribution of ASCO, contribution of pricing, volume? That will be also quite helpful to understand the underlying dynamic. Finally on the free cash flow.
You say you want positive free cash flow for the year. Are you still targeting something more like EUR 40 million-50 million, or the volatility of a working capital makes you a bit more uncertain on that front? That would be useful to know. Thank you.
If you allow, I would answer backwards. Start with the latest one. Free cash flow. No, there's no change in it. Yeah. It's, as you, the main impact came out of the payables and also the receivables. Strong sales on the one hand late in the quarter, therefore, no cash in as we saw in the first quarter. This is impacting negatively the free cash flow. On the other hand, as I said, early payments, late payments in last year and early payments in the first quarter, which is then mitigating over the year. Therefore we still calculate with the same amount which, you addressed right now in your question on the free cash flow. Accountability concerning ASCO.
To get a bit more understanding here, we have around EUR 60 million on total sales in the first quarter at ASCO. As I said, a low margin, still positive, but definitely slightly lower than expectations due to the impact of the supply chain, which we had to, somehow, obviously, somehow, yes, digest, to be fair. This is more or less something which, you can also expect, plus minus multiplied with four concerning sales and maximum of double-digit amount EBITDA %. This year, 2024, we calculate with a midpoint, double-digit, between 10 and 20, so around 15% already.
As said, the main issue which is hindering us to develop 100% of this development is the certification concerning certain platforms of our own capacities to jump in instead of certain suppliers with our own supply chain. This is ASCO. Finally, the Energy segment and the timetable for everybody. Once again, we elaborating, I would say the idea of a potential IPO, cut out IPO of Energy, or other financing possibilities. We have a extremely strong tailwind as it takes on from the market. We have even the need also from the market to be part in the energy change transition worldwide to build up some capacities. We started already with that. Let's see how the, I would say, the general industry is developing.
We would like to see the, of course, in any case this year. Let's see something around plus minus. Some are plus minus. Let's take a look at the industries, yeah, and the markets.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, you may press star followed by one at this time. It seems there are no further questions.
Thank you very much for attending today's call and happy to see you all within roadshows, meetings, conferences, air shows and whatever brings us together. Thank you very much.