Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Comet H1 2022 Results Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Sandra, the Chorus Call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. Webcast viewers may submit their questions in writing via the relative field. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Ulrich Steiner, VP, Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Sandra. Good morning or good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Also welcome from our side to our first half-year audio webcast. Thank you for taking the time to listen to the call today. Joining me on the phone is our CEO, Stephan Haferl, and our CFO, Lisa Pataki. They will take you through the presentation shortly. The presentation, as well as the Half-Year Report and the media release, have been available on our website since 6:30 A.M. today. Before I hand over to our CEO, I would like to draw your attention to the disclaimer in the presentation, and thus to the forward-looking statements we will be making during this webcast. With that, I hand over to Stephan. Stephan, please.
Thank you, Uli. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to welcome you to the half-year 2022 webcast of the Comet Group. Lisa will discuss the financials in detail before I conclude the presentation with an outlook for the second half of the year. Our presentation, as Uli mentioned, will be followed by a Q&A session. With that, let me start the presentation. Comet half-year results, unsurprisingly, reflect the steep correction in the semiconductor growth trajectory. Global semiconductor sales featured a strong decline in Q1 and have by now stabilized during the Q2. While there's been a very strong year-on-year decline, volumes and ASPs have, over the past quarter, remained stable, which suggests that the bottom has been reached. Two important takeaway points. Firstly, the correction, especially in the memory market and less so, logic.
Secondly, the correction was stronger than expected at the beginning of the year. The correction is reflected in our numbers. Incoming orders and backlogs have been half compared to last year, and book-to-bill is below par. Given the strong exposure to the semiconductor industry, our PCT business was hit hardest. As a consequence, PCT has been the main driver for the 22.6% year-on-year decline in sales. The X-ray businesses performed much better than PCT, but could not compensate the significant decline in the wafer fab equipment market in the process. Lisa will discuss this in more detail later. In this challenging market environment, we took early and proactively actions to mitigate the impact of the correction. The targeted dimensioning of the company, one-off costs in connection with these measures, most of all, the strong decline in volumes affected our profitability.
Important, the re-dimensioning of our activities were done in a targeted manner, not to compromise the next upturn in the market, which we anticipate to see by Q4 this or Q1 next year. Also important, while we have cut our overall spending, we have not cut our investments in areas that are critical to Comet's future growth. All in all, we see ourselves well-positioned to weather and manage the current downturn, despite the weak performance in the H1 , and thanks to investments in infrastructure, capacity, and R&D, we see ourselves very well-positioned for the next market upturn. Let's briefly talk about our markets. Our main markets show a strong imbalance. We have a pronounced weakness in the semi market, contrasted with a good resilience in our other served markets of automotive, aerospace, and security. In the semiconductor market, especially the memory business is affected.
This impacted our performance, as Comet has around 60% exposure to the memory market. The consumer end market, smartphones and PCs, were in particular weak. Other end markets showing strength, resilience, where, as mentioned before, automotive and, for instance, data centers. On the other side, the automotive industry has held up well despite inflationary pressures. Pent-up demand after pandemic years with chip shortages and the transition to electric vehicles and thus batteries have offered and let us realize opportunities, most of all in the X-ray businesses. On the latter, also, advanced chip packaging is increasingly developing into a very interesting X-ray market segment, at the intersection of semiconductors and automotive. Aerospace is also in good shape, with the post-pandemic recovery continuing and air travel approaching pre-pandemic levels. The security industry also did well.
Travel is increasing and global trade remains at healthy levels. For us, sales in the security market is strongly correlated to the upturn in global air travel. Now moving from our main market to the divisions. For PCT, the semi correction, as mentioned, hit PCT hard, given its strong market focus and exposure. Capacity utilization is therefore down significantly, and as a measure, headcount has been reduced by 40%, mainly temporary staff, but also some permanent staff. On the latter, mainly related to downsizing of San Jose following the relocation of volume production to Penang. In parallel to downsizing in operations, additional resources for Synertia were deployed to accelerate the go-to-market. Test and verification has expanded to two of the tier one companies in the wafer fab equipment market, and orders according to plan have been received and delivered, mainly from tier two and further companies.
Given our strong belief in PCT's business case and the strong future of the semiconductor industry, we have confirmed our mid to long-term plans for our manufacturing site in Penang. As a result of this, we are in the process of securing a plot of land in Penang to build a significant manufacturing hub for Comet alongside Flamatt in the next few years. Moving to IXS. IXS is continuing with its transition and strategy execution, focusing on the back and mid-end of the semiconductor market, despite the current correction. The transformation is gaining traction with significant partnerships and orders from and with leading foundry IDM, OSAT, and also from leading electronic, or electric vehicle battery manufacturers. Next to the transformed product portfolio, the strengthened presence in Asia has been key and is showing results.
Last but not least, the integration of Object Research Systems in Montreal has been completed, merging the strategically important AI-based Dragonfly software with our hardware system development in Hamburg, increasing competitiveness while improving also cost efficiency. Moving to IXM, the investments in new products over the past 2 to 3 years are paying off. IXM is certainly the brightest light of Comet right now, featuring strong growth to a record half-year in sales. Growth was thereby also supported by the reduction of the backlog, which was unusually high due to supply chain problems that are clearly easing with lower numbers of constraints around, at least compared to last year. IXM is and will continue to invest over proportionally to the ground technologically, especially for leading-edge X-ray modules for semi. For instance, for advanced packaging inspection.
This will continue to give the division a leading position in existing as well as new markets with strong growth, such as batteries or as anticipated advanced packaging. To summarize, the semiconductor market correction has been stronger than expected a few months ago, especially pronounced in the memory sector. Although the X-ray divisions are also exposed to the semi industry, they have been decoupled from PCT, not experiencing a correction of this magnitude. At IXM, as Lisa will show later, a significant growth can be reported both in sales as well as profitability. Targeted re-dimensioning and cutbacks, mostly at PCT, have impacted EBITDA for the H1 of the year, alongside the strong profitability dependent on volume. The market introduction of Synertia has been further intensified with more resources and increasing traction and very positive results.
Because we are presumably at the tail end of the bottom of the market correction, we are diligently preparing for the upturn in a market which features very high and fascinating multi-generational opportunities fueled by a world going digital and electrical. With that, Lisa, let's move on with the outlook on the H2 of the year and our key markets. Sorry, yeah.
All right. Thank you, Stefan. Good morning, everyone, thank you for joining us on our webcast today. I will take you through our financial performance for the H1 of 2023. Stefan will provide further insight into the outlook for the second half. Comet's financial performance in the first half of 2023 was in line with the lower end of our expectations and correlated with a much weaker demand environment in the semiconductor industry. Wafer fab equipment estimated decline on a full year, 2022 to 2023 basis, is approximately 20%, with an even steeper than expected decline of close to 50% in equipment spend by memory fabs, according to the latest Semi World Fab forecast. Accordingly, Comet's order intake in the first half of 2023 dropped 48% compared with the first half of 2022.
We converted backlog into sales in the H1 , resulting in an ending backlog 20% lower than at the fiscal year-end, 2022. Our book-to-bill ratio at the end of the H1 of 2023 was 0.8, reflecting the slowdown in spending on capital equipment in the semiconductor industry. We executed initiatives that will result in cost savings in future periods as part of our business transformation efforts to become more flexible and scalable to better absorb the cyclicality of future semiconductor corrections. Our profitability in today's structure is heavily dependent on volume fluctuations in our semi-oriented business. Despite the impacts from substantial semi headwinds on Comet's financial results in the H1 , we are pleased to report several highlights. Both X-ray businesses improved profitability, and the X-ray modules division reached an all-time high in sales over a 6-month period.
Comet delivered positive operating cash flow, and the strength of our balance sheet over three consecutive years of record performance has enabled us to invest in areas that support our customer roadmap and readiness for future growth. Let's now take a look at the results in more detail. Our sales for the first half of 2023 reached $207 million, a 22.6% decline compared to the same period last year. Semi-related drops, most pronounced in our PCT division, drove a 23% decrease in sales on a currency-neutral basis. The X-ray businesses achieved 4.4% growth in our traditional end markets of aerospace, automotive, and security, compared to the first half of the prior year.
The weaker U.S. dollar and euro contributed to a negative impact on sales of CHF 10.8 million, or 4% decrease from the same period last year. Sales from our North American and Malaysia operations declined by approximately 50% as a result of demand weakness in key customer accounts, most impacted by the oversupply of NAND and DRAM chip devices. On a positive note, sales from our Chinese operations increased 30% compared to the same period last year. We expect that trade restrictions between the U.S. and China remain fluid. However, in today's environment, Comet has the ability to deliver products to its customers in China. Now, let's turn to the gross margin. Gross margin declined by 220 basis points to 39.2%, compared to 41.4% achieved in the first half of 2022.
The gross margin performance in the H1 had both positive and negative movements. On a positive note, gross margin from the X-ray division contributed 110 basis points of margin expansion compared to the same period last year, driven by the flow-through of more favorable pricing and as headwinds related to higher input costs and part availability in the supply chain moderated. Gross margin performance is heavily influenced by the variability in volume and mix of our semi-related business. Lower volumes, idle capacity from the San Jose, California, transition to Penang, Malaysia, and charges from workforce actions in the PCT business reduced gross margin by 330 basis points compared to the same period last year. Operating expenses were almost $6.5 million lower on a reported basis compared to the same period last year.
On an adjusted basis, excluding the H1 of 2022, one-time effect of $9 million for the trade secret trial, operating expenses are $2.5 million higher. Comet increased investments in its radio frequency platform and X-ray module technologies targeting the Asian markets, leading to an increase in R&D by $1.5 million in the H1 of 2023 compared to the same period last year. Comet's net operating expenses as a percent of sales were 37% in the first halH1 of 2023. This ratio is higher than the targeted expenditure profile for the group in the medium and longer term. At this stage, Comet is transitioning to a more structured and scalable organization after a period of high growth, and as a result, is investing in corporate governance and digital programs that will build the foundation for a scalable infrastructure going forward.
These programs have been partially offset by cost reductions and reprioritization of spending activities in other areas. Let's move now to discuss Comet's operating performance in terms of EBITDA. In the first half of 2023, Comet generated CHF 14.3 million of EBITDA at 6.9% margin, compared to CHF 37.7 million in EBITDA at 14.1% margin in the first half of 2022. Comet's EBITDA margin declined 10.5% points when compared to the H1 of 2022's adjusted EBITDA.... includes the one-time effect of the trial expense. Foreign exchange rates impacted margin by 130 basis points, driven by the weakening US dollar versus the Swiss franc compared to the H1 of 2022. Significantly lower volumes and factory underutilization in our semi-related business offset improvements in operating performance in our X-ray businesses.
Volume and mix drove the EBITDA margin to decline by 730 basis points in the first half of 2023, compared to the first half of 2022. Two additional timing impacts deteriorated margins by 190 basis points in the first half of 2023 versus the first half of 2022. First, the semi correction cycle occurred at the final transition phase of our planned ramp down of the San Jose, California, production line. Secondly, the planned employee-related actions and accrued severance packages from the ramp down in San Jose, and to a lesser extent at other production sites, occurred in the H1 of 2023. As of June 2023, employee-related actions resulted in an approximately 9% decrease in headcount. At the consolidated level, this reduction impacted 150 employees, of which 40% are temporary staff.
The results of those actions should improve profitability in the latter part of the H2 and into 2024. Comet has and continues to focus on measures that structurally improve flexibility to absorb the cyclicality of the semiconductor industry, while maintaining investments that contribute to customer needs and future readiness. Further measures, including the introduction of short-time work in Flamatt, Switzerland, and additional cost-saving actions, are under evaluation. In terms of returns, Comet generated CHF 1.9 million of net income, net of taxes at an effective tax rate of 4.6% in the H1 of 2023. The H1 of 2023 ROCE of 2.8% is improved from the previous correction, but nevertheless driven by lower profits tied to the decline in semiconductor volumes over a stable capital employee base, which I will discuss further in a few minutes.
As we go into the second half, we will continue to scrutinize spending, reprioritize where necessary, and identify efficiencies while maintaining readiness for the semi-cycle upturn expected in 2024. Now, turning to the division results for the first half. Let's start with the PCT division results, which are entirely driven by the decline in customer demand for RF power systems. In the first half of 2023, PCT sales decreased 38.4% from $173.5 million in the first half of 2022 to $106.8 million. The decline is entirely driven by the significantly lower WFE spend. In what is a challenging and transitional year, PCT has taken structural and temporary actions to reduce its cost base and improve efficiency.
Many of the actions that have been taken in the H1 do not have a positive impact on the EBITDA performance during the period. PCT's EBITDA margin reduced significantly from 19.8% and 25% on an adjusted basis, excluding trial expense in the first half of 2022, to 5.3% in the H1 of 2023. This represents a percentage point decrease of 19.7, of which the significant decrease in volumes overwhelmingly drove the decline in profitability, dropping margin by 16.6 percentage points compared to the same period last year. As noted previously, the timing of the final San Jose ramp down of production coincided with the steep semi correction cycle, causing a higher than normalized capacity for PCT.
San Jose capacity drove close to 2 % points EBITDA margin decline compared to the H1 of last year. Workforce actions, including severance payments accounted for in the first half, had close to a 1% impact on PCT margins. These actions should result in more favorable margin performance for PCT in the H2 of 2023 and into 2024. PCT has continued investments in its RF frequency technology roadmap, increasing spend to meet demand schedules and readiness for the expected ramp in 2024. PCT will continue to assess its business demand profile and adjust its cost base as necessary in the H 2 of 2023. Further temporary measures, such as short-time work in Switzerland, will most likely be introduced in August to both retain critical skill sets and absorb idle capacity.
PCT expects a gradual improvement in the demand environment in the H2 and will continue to both scrutinize expenditures and ensure ramp readiness for the upturn. Moving on to the X-ray division. Much improved operating performance, providing a bright spot amidst the somber semi environment. IXS achieved sales of $56.8 million, compared to $60 million, a slight decrease of $3.2 million compared to the first half of 2022. IXS made good progress reorienting its sales and market positioning in semi electronics and battery inspection. In the first half of 2023, IXS received several orders from automotive customers requiring X-ray inspection of batteries. Sales are expected, as is the typical seasonality for IXS, to pick up for the division in the H2 of 2023. EBITDA performance was positive for IXS despite the lower sales base.
IXS margins improved from -2.6% in the H1 of 2022 to just above breakeven at 0.3% in the H1 of 2023. Price increases and continued focus on profitable growth have contributed to the improvement in operating profit for IXS. Finally, the X-ray Modules division, IXM, achieved historically high sales for a 6-month period in the H1 of 2023. Investments and successful commercialization of new products have produced solid results for the division. IXM's record growth in sales amounted to CHF 50.8 million in the H1 of 2023, an increase of 24% compared to the same period last year. IXM grew in all key non-destructive testing and safety inspection markets, and in addition, exploited opportunities in promising new markets such as semiconductor and battery inspection.
New product sales now account for close to 16% of total sales. IXM earned $10.4 million in EBITDA in the first half of 2023, compared to $6.1 million in the same period last year. IXM expanded EBITDA margin by 540 basis points, as supply chain bottlenecks began to unwind and price increases took effect. In summary, all three divisions continue to execute focused strategies and drive efficiencies in complex environments. The first half results have notably reflected the weakness in the semiconductor industry, which is expected to show a more gradual improvement in the H2 . Finally, I would like to provide a few comments on the balance sheet and cash flow metrics.
The strength of our balance sheet from the past few years of strong operating performance has enabled us to maintain investments that support the flexibility and capacity requirements needed for future growth. Comet had a free cash outflow in the H1 of $15.3 million, compared to an inflow of $3.3 million in the first half of 2022. Net working capital is higher at $131 million than expected, as lower sales volumes led to an increase in days inventory outstanding. We expect that as semi orders gradually return, our inventory balances will reduce and our net working capital will improve. We will more closely scrutinize and manage inventory balances during the remainder of the year. Capital expenditures in the H1 summed to $19.4 million, compared to $6.9 million in the H1 of 2022.
The increase of $12.5 million was planned and is largely related to the on-time completion in June 2023 of our site consolidation project in San Jose, California. Our footprint in San Jose was reduced from four sites to one and offers an innovative workspace for our employees and an efficient and secure collaboration facility for our customers. Second half CapEx is expected to be limited to the deposits for the purchase of leasehold land in Penang, Malaysia, and minor maintenance activities at our production sites. Comet ended the H2 with a cash balance of $78.8 million, a utilization of $47.1 million, compared to the ending cash balance of $125.9 million as of 2022 year end.
In addition to an outflow of $19.4 million in investments, as previously discussed, Comet returned cash to shareholders in the amount of $28.8 million in the H1 of 2023, as the company exited a record year of operating performance in fiscal year 2022. Comet ended the first half with a net debt position of $18.2 million. The balance sheet remains strong and provides for the investments and resources needed for the company to build the structure and readiness for the semi upturn. In summary, Comet continues to execute despite the headwinds in what has been a steeper than anticipated correction in the semiconductor cycle. The slower demand environment has provided the opportunity to make adjustments, focus on structural improvements in operations, and to double down on investments in technology that are driving the company's roadmap in the future.
Our businesses are well positioned to execute their focused strategies, and we'll capitalize on demand when the semi market returns. I would like to thank our Comet employees, customers, and suppliers for your exceptional efforts in a dynamic environment. As this will be my final webcast, I would also like to thank all of you on the call and in the investor community for the positive and constructive exchanges over the past 3 years. Thank you for your time today. Now back to Stefan to provide more color on our visibility into the second half of 2023.
Thanks, Lisa. Let me now shed light on the outlook for the second half of the year, starting with an assessment of our markets. I guess the important message is that we anticipate a gradual recovery of the semiconductor industry in the second half of 2023. This recovery is expected to be slower than in previous cycles. From today's perspective, a strong acceleration in wafer fab equipment spending will not occur before the first half of 2024. For 2023, market observers project that spending on wafer fabrication equipment will decline by 14%-20% versus 2022. Two data points. SEMI, the global industry association, expects revenue to decline about 19% year-over-year in 2023, and for 2024, estimates vary widely. While SEMI expects WFE spending to grow 14.8%, others are more cautious.
This reflects the current uncertainty in the face of numerous macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges. While the semiconductor industry is difficult to assess, it appears that the automotive market will continue its solid growth path in the second half of the year. Supply bottlenecks that burdened the industry in 2022 have largely been overcome. The shift to electric vehicles is on the way, and many Chinese suppliers are entering the market. This creates opportunities for Comet due to our strong presence in China. Growth in aviation also continues, although ticket prices are significantly higher than a few quarters ago. This positive trend will continue, with air traffic reaching levels close or even above pre-pandemic levels. The security market will also develop positively. Increasing mobility and infrastructure investments will continue to drive this market.
Overall, a robust business environment for X-ray divisions, while PCT should recover slightly in H2 after a very strenuous H1. Despite the current unfavorable market environment, and because of the enormous opportunities for commerce in these markets, we will diligently focus on our objectives and manage through the trough. As such, we put all our focus on implementing our focus strategy. At PCT, we ensure organizational readiness for the upturn in 2024. We continue to accelerate Synertia's market penetration. We focus on expanding our market share with mask boxes and vacuum capacitors, as well as expanding our production in Penang, in sync with the recovery of PCT's market and anticipate this multi-year bull run to an anticipated semi-device market of $1 trillion in 2030-ish, double of what we have today.
At IXM, we continue to improve our profitability by pushing our new and higher margin product portfolio, streamlining our sales processes, investing in productivity, and by being very focused on our cost base. We continue to focus on growing sales in higher quality business, at the risk also of walking away from revenue, revenue that comes at depressed margins. We continue to invest in creating offerings for our new focus markets and application of semi electronics, batteries, and especially advanced packaging, while we protect the high value share in aerospace and automotive. At IXM, we will continue to grow our market share in traditional markets, while we increasingly harvest on product launches for new markets and operational efficiency investments.
At the same time as we are already harvesting revenues from semi, electronics, and batteries, we will continue to invest in the development of further cutting-edge products with its main markets in Asia, where we continue to strengthen the division's presence. This brings me to the outlook. With the cyclical correction in the semi industry bottom out, in the second quarter, we anticipate a gradual recovery in H2, despite many uncertainties, leading to a ramp up of demand in H1 2024. We have already realigned and the company in H1 2023. Nevertheless, as Lisa mentioned previously, we are planning as a next step, to implement short time work at our manufacturing site in Flamatt for PCT. Of course, we are also working on increasing efficiency in all processes and not only limited to PCT.
Despite the correction and various cost mitigating measures, we also need to prepare for the next upturn. This means we invest in R&D, which is the basis for future growth, keep an eye on developments to be able to ramp up production quickly in case of a turnaround, and work on expanding our hub in Malaysia. Of course, we are working on all the other dimensions we have already defined in 2019 in our focus strategy, our Boost program for growth, efficiency, and culture. Assessment of the current market environment and the bottom-up analysis our divisions have done, we are adjusting our forecast following the weaker than expected first half of the year and anticipate only a gradual recovery in the second half of the year. We therefore expect sales and EBITDA margin at the lower end of the range we indicated in our guidance in April.
To summarize the summary, we are focusing on the right industry and have very good multi-year prospects and a good runway ahead. We confirm our guidance, but see us rather at the lower end due to the steep correction in Q1 and Q2. We strongly believe in having reached the bottom of the correction, and we anticipate a gradual recovery in the second half, leading into an environment of renewed growth in H1 2024. Before I close, let me make a personal note on my own behalf. This was, as she mentioned herself, the last appearance of our Chief Financial Officer, Lisa Pataki, in front of the financial community. I would like to thank Lisa for the valuable work she has done for Comet in the last three years and the extremely collegial and constructive manner in which we have worked together.
I wish her, from my heart, all the best in her new role and hope to see her back in Europe very, very soon. With that, I close the presentation and open the floor for questions. Thank you.
We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered a queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questions on the phone are requested to use only handsets. Webcast viewers may submit their questions in writing via the relative field. Anyone with a question may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from Michael Foeth from Vontobel. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Good morning, everyone. I have two questions, actually. The first one is on the margin rebound in the second half. I guess, Lisa, you gave a lot of details. I'm not sure I could follow everything, but the GNA, so the yeah, GNA costs in the second half were pretty high compared to the first half and last year. Not sure if the cost measures on the workforce explain all of it. If you can come back on that number. Then the margin guidance for the second half sort of implies really a reduction or significant reduction in operating expenses in the second half, and I'm not sure if I can reconciliate all of that.
If you can comment more on the, on the margin expansion in the second half, that would be the first question. The second one, probably to Stefan, is on IXS. I'm not sure I understand why why revenues declined in, in the second, in the first half compared to last year, considering all the job opportunities out there, and what will it take for profitability to increase in IXS? You mentioned pricing, but I'm not sure that this margin really reflects value-based pricing yet. Thanks for, for a few comments on that. Thank you.
Okay, sure. I'll start with the question on the margin kind of going into the second half. Let's start first with the workforce actions. Not all workforce actions were taken on production staff. We actually also took actions on GNA-related personnel, people who are working in some of the functions. I would say that the actions did spread across all different levels of the organization. Of course, the majority of the headcount was associated with the ramp down in San Jose, but there were severance packages taken as well on the GNA side. That's something that would not then recur in going into the second half. The second thing, and maybe just a reminder, is, you know, we don't, we don't capitalize R&D expenditures.
We did have more material coming into the first half in some of the X-ray businesses in R&D that you won't see that happen in, in the second half. Overall, I'd say the second half is, is really shaping up to still be a story around how does the semiconductor cycle really pick back up. We have structured the business at this point in time that we should, we should be in a, in a good position to be able to achieve higher margins in the second half. We've done that before. We typically have a very good second half, especially in our X-ray businesses. I'm pretty confident with what we have, what actions we've taken this half to, to be prepared for the next.
Maybe to, to add on the slight revenue decline at IXS. This is entirely due to the fact that we have started to walk away from certain projects that previously, even last year, we would still pick up despite the not so good margins. That will continue while we are seeing more and more traction from the focus markets that we want to address, which is semi electronics and batteries.
Okay. Thank you. Yeah, thank, thank you, Lisa, for the, for the exchanges, and good luck for the future.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Marie-Therese Gruebner from BAM. Please go ahead.
Morning, all. Thank you for taking my question. I actually have 2, if I may. The first one would be, you mentioned the beta testing that expanded for the Synertia with leading 2 customers. I was wondering if the orders are placed, what could be the timing and the magnitude of revenue for these 2 customers? How do you plan to include them in your FY 2023 guide of a single-digit million revenue from Synertia? My second question relates to the one-time expense that impacted your H1 EBITDA performance. I was just wanting to reconfirm if the one-time expense was related only to the San Jose ramp down and the severance packages and improve related actions that you mentioned earlier in the call. Thank you.
Okay. Maybe first, the, the, the testing that is going on, as a matter of fact, now with series products, and no longer prototypes at our 2 Tier 1 customers in WFE, they are progressing very well. We have not taken revenue from them into account for the anticipated revenue for 2023. In terms of the potential and volume, yes, with the different applications that we are collaborating with them now, there is substantial volume possible, and we are rather upbeat that this will materialize probably in the first half of next year. We're working diligently on making this happen.
Maybe I'll just follow up then with the margin question. The one-time impact that I mentioned in the prepared remarks amount to about 190 basis points on a group level. That's split into really two parts. It's the workforce actions that we took at the group level that, you know, result in severance accruals that we needed to take. Second was the idle capacity related to the transition of ramping down San Jose and having the capacity pretty much already up and running in Penang, Malaysia. The workforce, if you wanna think about it, in terms of basis points, the workforce adaptation was really around 70, 70 basis points.
Okay, very clear. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Michael Heider from Stifel. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. Good morning, everyone. A couple of questions also from my side. Just one that I probably didn't catch right on Malaysia. You mentioned that you bought a plot of land to build up capacity there. Is that something else than what you announced a couple of months ago, that you are actually increasing the capacity in the existing building? Is that something additional? If yes, what gives you the confidence to really have much more capacity in Malaysia? That would be my first question. Just didn't get it right. Maybe then on the packaging you mentioned, or yeah, I assume it's in the packaging when you say Semiconductor IXS projects that you won. Can you give us a little view on the dynamics actually there?
I think you're making good progress, but I'd like to understand a little more what's really happening there. The third question, particularly, Stefan, you've been at the Semicon West, and we hear a lot about artificial intelligence, and now we also hear from your number one client, potential business, good business going forward in HBM DRAM, in artificial intelligence, so actually memory chips. I was just wondering how you look at this whole AI discussion at the moment, particularly when you look at your major clients. Maybe these three things that I would like to get a bit more clarity.
Okay. Fine. Good morning, Michael. First on, on Penang. What we announced a couple of months back was a capacity expansion for the current operations that we have in Malaysia, where we are currently leasing basically 2 floors now. When we made the announcement, the announcement pertained to adding 1 more floor in the building where we are currently located. What we announced this morning is that we are in the process of securing a plot of land where we can build a common site comparable to what we have in Flamatt, where initially, PCT will start moving all the matchbox manufacturing that we have in the lease building today.
Also look with a much broader view on creating an actual business continuity, that means looking into vacant capacitor manufacturing there. As you know, we're sort of exposed with vacant capacitor manufacturing only in Flamatt. The second question was concerning-
IXS packaging dynamics.
The, the IXS packaging dynamics and the collaboration we have with our partner. The dynamics there is, is actually very good and challenging at the same time. When we started out with our partner, it was really aimed at R&D labs and failure analysis, and we are now heavily involved with them to bring those systems into the fab to the lines, not in line, but at line. What we are now co-developing with them and getting a lot of support from them is basically the, the entire automation that is required, as well as the integration into their fab system. Then thirdly, on, on AI, and definitely also the, the, the many comments that you, you see currently on its effect on DRAM and HBM.
Obviously, that helps overall, but still the output of these AI chips are very, very, very low. This is not in that sense a game changer right now. However, looking forward, we have a very strong conviction that these types of chips will make up a sizable portion of the Semi-device output. This is something that will happen over the course of the next probably 24 months only.
Yeah, great. Understood. Thanks very much for that, and also from myself, Lisa, all the best to you, but I'm sure we'll speak again, of course.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Sebastian Vogel from UBS. Please go ahead. Mr. Fogel, your line is open.
Perfect. Sorry for that. Yeah, now I'm hopefully live. Three questions I would ask, one by one. The first one is the, on the arc generator. Great to hear that there is a second larger, larger customer potentially looking at it. Question first one on that one, would, what was taking him so long to start looking at it? You still continue to be committed to the plan of having around like $100 million sales in 2025 on this product?
Back, oh, okay, you wanna go-
Oh, yes, I will ask them one by one. Yeah.
3 questions. Well, that, that serves me very well because it's always very hard to remember all 3 questions. You know, what did the second customer... What took him so long? I, I wouldn't say it took him so long. We, we tested with them in-house at Comet for a very long time prior to them bringing it, bringing the arc generators into their lab. That has also something to do with what they have on their plate. We have been engaged with them in a, in a very positive manner for quite a long time, and now we are working with them for quite some time already, actually, on testing on their tools.
When it comes to the $100 million aspiration for 2025, it all depends obviously on how the ramp-up is going to be and on which tools that we are going to be. We will definitely at the Capital Market Day, give a consolidated and more accurate view on what we assess is going to be possible until the end of 2025.
Got it. The second question is a, is a bit of a housekeeping one with regard to the margin guidance. Is there anything discounted for the potential proceeds from the litigation case?
No, there's, there's, there's no proceeds from the litigation case assumed in any of our guidance, for 2023.
Got it. The last one would be on, on CapEx. Can you remind me of sort of the CapEx plan, which, which you entered the year, how that has evolved and how that is penciling out in absolute terms for the second half?
Yeah, sure. The first half was $19.4 million. That was planned spend. In this particular year, we had always planned to have a really heavy first half because the site consolidation for San Jose was planned to finish in June 2023, which we're happy to report did, did actually finish. In the second half, we, we do have the deposit for the leasehold land in Malaysia, and I think it's actually in the footnotes of the Half-Year Report. It's the, the total, the total deposit, so that would be $3.4 million spread over 2023 and into 2024. We're not really looking at a heavy CapEx spend in the second half.
You will have a higher CapEx as a % of sales in 2023 than we have had historically, but has always really been planned to be that way. Hopefully that gives you a little bit of color on second half CapEx. It should be lighter.
I mean, like really materially lighter, right? I mean, it's like.
Materially lighter. Again, to be more explicit, $3.4 million for Malaysia and then minimal, minimal maintenance CapEx.
Got it. Many thanks.
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Good. While you're probably asking more question, waiting for more questions, we have one coming in from Doron Landeu from Jefferies. He wants to know something about Synertia and the-
... product that was recently launched. The question is, Synertia is still waiting on major design wins. Meanwhile, your competitor just presented its own new generator with similar technical specs. Are you concerned in any way about market penetration and success of Synertia?
Well, thank you for that question. No, we're, we're not concerned. We feel more confirmed by the approach that our competitor has taken in, in trying to launch or create something that is very similar to Synertia. Now, we, we are very convinced in the, you know, capabilities of our Synertia platform, and, and therefore, we are not concerned. Competition is a good thing. We are very much looking forward to announcing first spec wins and design wins of notable size. It is way too early to, to say anything in terms of technical comparison. On paper, they look similar, all that we have seen so far doesn't give us the possibility to, to, to really say where we stand.
Again, we are very convinced and have positive feedback, extremely positive feedback from, all our tier customers.
Great. Thank you. Stay strong. Sandra, do we have, meanwhile, other questions?
Yes, sir, we have a question from Serge Rotzer, from Credit Suisse. Please, go ahead.
Good morning, everybody, and goodbye, Lisa. In the future or soon. Two questions. First one, again, capacity and Synertia, this combination. Can you remind me again that you produce Synertia in Aachen? Is this correct? How much capacity you have, or you have to invest, or do you move also some of this then to Malaysia? How ample capacity you have to fulfill this $100 million, or what do you have to do to make this possible? This will be question number one. Question number two is: in the old days, in IXM, you have reached margin of 25%-30%. Now, today, we are at the level of 20%. Why it's different to the years 2017, 2018, 2019?
As you mentioned, you had record sales in this business unit. On or can you achieve again, up to 30% margin in the future in this business?
Well, thank you for the question, Serge. Yes, you're right. The manufacturing for Synertia happens in Aachen, where we have sufficient capacity and flexibility to expand, when, when required to certainly reach the $100 million mark with the current capacity can be reached. We're, we're not going to, you know, offshore, outsource any of the manufacturing to, to Asia or the US for the time being. We don't have any CapEx foreseen for 2024 and 2025.
When it comes to IXM, they, as we have explained previously, took a dip in profitability in 2021 and 2022, due to, among other things, the effects on the supply chain during the pandemic, but also due to rather high investments in R&D, as well as building a presence in Asia, where increasingly the market for IXM is going, especially when it comes to battery inspection and electronics inspection. When it comes to the margin, yes, it's true. I think in 2018, 2019, IXM reached its highest EBITDA margin, slightly north of 25% EBITDA, and IXM is very clearly headed in that, this direction. You already see the strong improvement of the EBITDA margin, half year one last year to half year one this year.
This trend is going to continue.
Okay, many thanks. Bon voyage.
Thank you. We have another question from Harald Eggling, from Zürcher Kantonalbank. Please, go ahead.
Yes, 2 questions, please. First one, could you give some kind of regional color on your orders, probably regarding China exposure? Second question, probably some more words on the current understanding of a potential recovery shape. What role would you see, China could play in a recovery? Some words probably also on inventory levels in this regard, please. Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks for the question, Harold. I'll start with the order intake. Yeah, the First Half order intake from North American customers was certainly much, much lower, as you can expect. I mean, that really came on the back of lower wafer fab equipment spending, especially in memory. Much lower orders seen from North American customers. On the positive side, though, in semi, we also saw more orders actually coming in from customers in China or, you know, with significant presence in China. We feel pretty confident that we've been able so far to navigate quite well the U.S. and China trade restrictions. Of course, we have to keep an eye on that, and we need handling that quite proactively, which we, which we are doing. All in all, North America is down.
China is slightly up from an order intake side when it comes to semi. Then in terms of how the market is going to recover, I'll hand that one back over to Stefan.
we, we anticipate that this is going to be rather a U-shaped recovery, gradually starting now in Q3 and Q4, but then in, half year 2024, picking up, quite some momentum.
Okay, thank you. Any words on inventories in this regard in China? Are there any preconditions or assumptions you have?
Can you be a little bit more specific, inventory for or in China? What, what do you mean?
Yeah, I mean, probably general supply chain inventories. Now, is there a need or assumption to work those further down? What role could China play in a recovery? Now, Lisa just mentioned orders were up sequentially in H1 from China.
Right. Clearly, we, we have inventory that we are working down. Our inventories are high. The business with China is on a low level, actually very good, but if this is going to strongly impact our inventory measures, I doubt that it has an impact, but it is not the largest.
Okay, thank you.
Gentlemen, so far, there are no more questions.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Sandra. In that case, if there are no further questions, then we can close today's webcast. If you have any further questions after this webcast, you know where you can find us, please do not hesitate to contact us. Meanwhile, thank you for your interest in Comet. See you again soon. Goodbye, and have a good day.
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