Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the presentation of Dätwyler Interim Report 2021 Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Paolo, 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 or comments in writing via the related field. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Mr. Dirk Lambrecht, CEO, and Mr. Walter Scherz, CFO. Please go ahead, gentlemen.
Yeah. Thank you. Hello, everybody, and welcome to our today's call. Here with me on the call is our CFO, Walter Scherz. As usual, we will provide you an overview and an outlook on our business. After this, we will be happy to answer any questions you may have. I will start with the business review on group level. Compared to the pandemic-ridden prior year period, we achieved a dynamic revenue growth of 20.8% to CHF 519 million in the first half of 2021. For a change, the currency effect was close to zero. As you can imagine, the pandemic was still an issue, namely strict hygiene and conduct rules and a lot of employees working from home. Our markets and our plants were significantly less affected than in the prior year period.
Thanks to the strong recovery and demand in our leading positions, we were able to achieve a double-digit sales growth in almost all the markets we serve. Thanks to the high capacity utilization and cost discipline, we could increase our EBIT by more than 50% to CHF 98.9 million. The EBIT margin improved by more than 3 percentage points to 16.8%. The net result increased by more than 30% to CHF 74.5 million. This corresponds to a net result of CHF 4.38 per share. All these figures and comparisons are for continuing operation in both periods, excluding the divestment in the first half of 2020. Due to the negative effects of the pandemic in the prior year period, in comparison with the first half of 2019 provides additional information. Based on continuing operations, our revenue and net results already are above pre-pandemic levels by 8% and 7.4% respectively.
Our strategic realignment proved successful throughout the pandemic and beyond. The two business areas, Healthcare Solutions and Industrial Solutions, focus on markets and customers, while the group functions technology and innovation and finance and shared service provide valuable and competent support. In the first half of 2021, both business areas generated a combined EBIT margin of 18.3%. With this figure, the profitability of the core business is already almost on a par with that of the former Sealing Solutions division, highlighting the promising potential for the future. Next, I would like to comment on the performance of our business areas. I will start with Healthcare Solutions. This business area offers high-quality system-critical components for containers and delivery systems for injectable drugs and diagnostics for the pharmaceutical and medical markets. As part of this business, we support the leading vaccine manufacturers in the provision of COVID-19 vaccines.
Together with our employees, we are proud that we can make such an important contribution to overcome the pandemic. In the Healthcare Solutions business, we experienced a very strong demand from the core business and from the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers. We were able to increase revenue by 18.7% to CHF 238.7 million. Our new plant in Middletown supports us in absorbing the high demand. The higher-margin pharma business generated a growth rate of more than 22%. Thanks to the high capacity utilization, EBIT rose by 60% to CHF 56.9 million. The EBIT margin improved by a third of 23.8%. This was supported by a positive change in the product mix, namely a greater proportion of high-margin coated components that are manufactured according to FirstLine standards. Through our newly launched NeoFlex components and our participation in COVID-19 vaccine projects, we could attract new customers and expand our customer base.
This creates a foundation for a long-term revenue growth. To avoid future capacity bottlenecks and to maintain delivery capabilities, we are investing in production capacity expansion in the course of this year. The opening of the new second plant in India is planned in the second quarter of next year. I will now switch to the business area Industrial Solutions. This business area offers customized system-critical components for demanding application in the mobility, Food and Beverage, and general industry markets. By streamlining its organization, we have further optimized the Industrial Solutions business area structure. Among other changes, the oil and gas business unit is now part of the general industry business unit. I will continue to lead this business area directly. While doing so, I can rely on three very seasoned and committed managers who head and drive the three business units.
The Industrial Solutions business area experienced normalized market conditions and a significant demand recovery in the first half of 2021. Revenue rose to CHF 249.3 million. Adjusted for currency effects, this equates to a 23.5% growth compared to the prior year period, in which the business was hit hard by the pandemic. The mobility revenue even grew by 29%. This is encouraging, based on the continuing business, we are still 4.7% below the pre-pandemic level of 2019. The mobility business unit is still some 10% below the 2019 level. Thanks to the improved capacity utilization and the consistent cost management, we were able to increase the EBIT by some 50% to CHF 39.9 million. This is still 22% below the pre-pandemic level and leaves room for further improvement to previous levels. This EBIT margin grew from 10.5% - 12.8%.
In the mobility business unit, we are currently establishing a global production base for complex multi-component parts by transferring the liquid silicone production technology to our global production network. Multi-component parts are particularly used in electric vehicles. In the Food and Beverage business unit, the new 10-year contract with Nespresso and the supply of additional customers resulted in a revenue growth of some 20%. As announced, the changed product mix has a negative impact on the margin, but will improve the absolute EBIT over the coming years. To cope with the high order backlog in the Food and Beverage business unit, we plan to invest in new production facilities and automation at the Swiss site in the course of 2021. Besides our core business, the online distributor, Reichelt, completes the Dätwyler group.
Based on a competent technical support, high availability, and short delivery times, Reichelt supplies more than 100,000 electronic products to more than 1 million business, government, and private customers. Thanks to its attractive price-performance proposition, Reichelt could continue to increase its market share and accelerated organic revenue growth to 14% in the first half of 2021. For the first time ever in its 50-year company history, Reichelt generated more than CHF 100 million in revenue within a six-month period. In the first half of 2021, the growth in the business-to-business segment gained momentum, while the growth in the business-to-consumer segment slowed down a bit, as we have expected. Thanks to the very high capacity utilization and operating leverage effects, the EBIT rose by more than a third to CHF 10.1 million, and the EBIT margin improved to 9.6%, despite the already strong base from the prior year period.
To cope with the high growth and demand, we will invest CHF 10 million as announced in a new distribution center. This will double Reichelt's logistical capacities. With this, I conclude my review and hand over to our CFO, Walter Scherz. Walter, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much, Dirk. Hello to everybody. Great to have you all on the call, and thanks a lot for your interest in Dätwyler. My name is Walter, and I'm happy to provide you more financial details on Dätwyler's half-year results 2021. Let us start, as usual, with the sales bridge. To have a proper prior year period base to compare with, we have to deduct the remaining revenue of Distrelec, Nedis, and Civil Engineering from the reported revenue 2020. Today's business generated CHF 488.6 million in revenue in the first half of 2020. This is the third bar from the left here. Further to the right, you can see that all three businesses supported our substantial organic revenue growth with double-digit organic growth rates. Healthcare Solutions grew by 18.6% to a revenue of CHF 238.7 million, which is the figure in the bracket, as you can see.
Industrial Solutions by 23.2% to CHF 249.3 million. Reichelt by 14% to above CHF 100 million, CHF 105 million. This adds up to a 20.3% organic revenue growth for Dätwyler as a whole. For a change, the Swiss franc was slightly weaker in the first half year 2021 compared to almost all currencies relevant to Dätwyler. It is 0.5% this year. Actually, it is positive for a change. Overall, the reported growth in the continuing business totaled 20.8%. Revenue reached CHF 590 million. I will now move on to the EBIT bridge. As you remember, the EBIT of the prior year period was impacted by our divestments. The EBIT of the continuing operations was CHF 64.5 million in the first half of 2020, the third pillar from the left again.
Further to the right, you can see the contribution to the EBIT increase of the three businesses in the first half of 2021. Healthcare Solutions and Industrial Solutions both increased its EBIT or their EBIT by more than 50%, to a level of CHF 56.9 million or CHF 31.9 million respectively. Again, the figures in the bracket. Reichelt improved EBIT by another third, in addition to an already very strong prior year period. In absolute terms, the Healthcare business was the largest contributor to our overall CHF 34.4 million EBIT growth. It contributed almost 60% of the total Group's EBIT, which was CHF 98.9 million. As the same with revenue, the currency impact on EBIT was negligible in the first half of 2021, and it is positive for a change. The reported EBIT increase amounted to 53.3%, thanks to a strong revenue, good capacity utilization, but also good cost discipline.
How does this compare to the past? This slide shows you our robust track record in operating profitability, thanks to our leading market positions and our close customer relationships. You see that the Dätwyler reorganization in 2021 actually pays off and is appreciated by the markets we serve. For the Group, our continuing operations are actually back at the pre-pandemic EBIT margin levels of 2019. Healthcare Solutions delivered a strong EBIT margin rebound in 2021. It is considerably above the reported pre-pandemic EBIT margin level of 2019. The reported EBIT margin in the first half of 2020 was affected by one-off costs to overcome the pandemic impact and actually start-up costs or ramp-up costs of the new U.S. plant in Middletown. The EBIT margin for Industrial Solutions also recovered compared to the previous year.
It is still behind the level of 2019. The ambition is clearly to reach previous levels again. Reichelt succeeded in continuously improving its EBIT margin over the last years, thanks to strong demand and high capacity utilization. On this slide, you see the consolidated income statement. Don't worry, I will not go into all the details. I want to make a comment below EBIT regarding the net finance result and the income tax expenses. Dätwyler's financial result in the prior year period was characterized by a large corona-related foreign exchange fluctuation and therefore a strong negative currency impact. In 2021, the currencies relevant to Dätwyler, almost all of them recovered against the Swiss francs, or more or less in normal fluctuation mode. The income tax expenses increased to CHF 23.2 million.
The low value from the previous year's period is due to one-off effects from the divestments, but also the corona impacts. That means significantly declined operations in low tax countries, mainly in Industrial Solutions. The current tax rate is closer to the medium-term reality of 22%-25%. When we have a look at the balance sheet, you see that it expanded due to a strong growth, good business performance, and related net result of CHF 74.5 million. As a result of our customer-driven investment activity, and here I make a reference to the recent media releases about investments, and I'll talk about them in a second, the cash balance actually decreased. As a result of the strong growth in turnover, as you can see here, net working capital also slightly increased. While our current liabilities actually expanded nicely, mainly the accounts payables, accounts receivables also increased.
Our equity ratio increased compared to half year 2020, but slightly decreased against year-end 2020. The 65.2% equity ratio and strong financial flexibility support our pursuit of future opportunities and investments even beyond pandemic times, especially in Healthcare Solutions and Food and Beverage. Here, I give you or we give you an overview of the average capital employed and on the return on capital employed over the past five years. The strong EBIT increase of more than 50% is the main driver of the improvement on the return on capital employed. To appreciate the decrease of capital employed, you need to understand the calculation model. The capital employed is an average of three values, end of June 2020, end of December 2020, and end of June 2021. You certainly remember that the value at the end of June 2020 was significantly impacted by COVID, and therefore lower than usual.
This was due to lower receivables and inventories, and as I said, in the midst of the COVID crisis. As announced earlier this year, we are investing in production capacity expansion of the Healthcare Solutions and Food and Beverage businesses. This is driven by encouraging order intake and customer demand. In total, we have invested in the first half of 2021, CHF 54.8 million. Compared to net revenue, our CapEx reached 9.3%. This is actually higher than in the two previous years, clearly driven by customers and market needs, which gives us a lot of confidence for the future development. Driven by strong demand, we allocate our capital into growing markets, where we see attractive growth and profit potential for the future. Let me quickly provide you some information on the consolidated cash flow statement without going into the details.
Our strong cash generation from operations of CHF 78.6 million allows investments and further repayment of debt. Free cash flow stood at plus CHF 25.3 million in the first half 2021. This is below the figure for the same period last year. As you can see here on the third line, the amount for net cash used in investing activities is also some CHF 35 million higher than in the previous year because of investments, but we also had the cash inflow from the divestments in 2020. On this slide, you see the multi-year overview of the important projects in which Dätwyler invests. As announced, we want to take advantage of the attractive market opportunities. We expect to invest some CHF 120 million-CHF 130 million for the full year 2021.
In the coming year, from today's perspective, we expect our investment activity to reduce to CHF 90 million-CHF 100 million or 7% of net sales. This 7% obviously depends and differs between the various businesses. As you can see, the majority of the current main investment projects support our two high-growth and high-margin businesses, Healthcare Solutions and Food and Beverage. We will invest CHF 10 million in the expansion of the logistics capacities of our online distributor, Reichelt, and CHF 6 million in a new competence center for surface technology at the Swiss plant. Talking about investment figures is one thing. Visiting our highly automated production facilities and see what value those investments create is another thing. We are very happy to invite you to our Capital Markets Day on September 30, 2021.
We will be honored to welcome you as our guests in the beautiful canton of Uri. In addition to presentations on current topics, we would like to show you, in particular, our plant in Schattdorf here in Switzerland. You will have the opportunity to see our investments in the production facilities of the Food and Beverage business. It will allow you to get an idea of the production processes' complexity as well. A detailed invitation with a registration link will follow by tomorrow. With that, I would like to hand over to Dirk.
Yeah, Walter, thank you very much. A lot of interesting figures, and it's going upward in the right direction. I will now continue with the outlook, but allow me first of all to remind you of our strategic priorities. As we have drive profitable growth, accelerated digitalization, and to increase agility and advance sustainability. By focusing on these priorities, we will drive our organization and provide the framework for our current, our future success. The way we have managed the impact of the pandemic so far shows that we are working on the right topics. Our people and our organization were and are agile and digital enough to operate and to do business successfully in a very fast-changing environment. Looking at the future, we want to further enhance the sustainability of our organization and employees.
As mentioned on previous occasions, an interdisciplinary project team has been working on developing our sustainability and climate strategy. I'm pleased to briefly introduce our brand new ESG landscape. It includes 12 focus topics that prove our commitment to reduce our environmental footprint and deliver more value for our stakeholders in the future. The focus topics are structured according to environmental, social, and governance priorities, and are intended to close gaps and build on existing strengths. One of our main environmental initiatives is for our own activities worldwide to be climate neutral by 2030 by following the Science Based Target approach. Through our social activities, we want to proactively improve the relationship with our customers, employees, and the communities in which we are active. In the area of governance, we focus on continuous development of transparency, compliance, and ethics. Each topic bundles activities relating to current and future projects.
There are clear responsibilities with measurable objectives for effective monitoring. All the activities are coordinated by the new head of sustainability function who reports directly to me. The official launch of our renewed sustainability strategy will happen together with the next edition of our sustainability report at the end of this month. We are looking forward to providing more details during our Capital Markets Day on the 30th of December. For the specific outlook for the full year 2021, we are optimistic despite the remaining uncertainties due to the pandemic. For the healthcare business, we expect the significant double-digit revenue growth close to 20% to continue in the second half of the year. The same counts for the positive product mix development to high-value products, which will lead in the mid and long- term to further margin improvements.
Due to the high order backlogs, we also expect the growth rate in the Food and Beverage business unit to remain high in double-digit range. In contrast, the short-term trend in the mobility business unit depends substantially on how the general shortage of electronic components will affect the number of vehicles produced worldwide. We expect that this bottleneck will be solved in the coming quarters. Also, Reichelt's further development is subject to how the shortage of electronic components will influence the availability of electronic products. More uncertainty is the result of increasingly difficult procurement situation of certain raw materials and logistics. Despite these challenges and the seasonally weaker second half, we are raising our full-year guidance to above CHF 1.15 billion for sales and slightly above 16% for the EBIT margin. To conclude my presentation, let me summarize the five elements of our investment proposition.
We focus on system-critical elastomer components. We offer superior customer value based on our recognized core competencies. We have leading positions in markets driven by mega trends. We are dedicated to talent development and sustainable growth, and we have a track record of strong performance and financial stability. In the first half of 2021, thanks to a high demand and dynamic profitable growth, our core business showed our promising potential for the future. I'm convinced that our strategic realignment with the focus on system-critical elastomer components for attractive global markets will pay off in the long- term as well. Now, I would like to thank you for your attention, and Walter and myself are now happy to answer your questions.
We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone wishing to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to use only handsets and eventually turn off the volume of the webcast. Webcast viewers may submit their questions or comments in writing via the relative field. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The next question comes from Charlie Fehrenbach from AWP. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Hi, good morning.
Could you give us some more light about the future of Reichelt? Are there any discussions with possible buyers ongoing? Maybe two, three words to that. Second question is concerning the margin. You had this 18.3% in the core business and you see further potential for improvement. Where's the room for the core margin, EBIT margin? Is over 20% possible? Thank you.
Yeah, Charlie, thank you very much for your great questions. First of all, to Reichelt, as we already said several times, Reichelt is performing very well, as you have seen in our reports here for the first half-year and in the previous years. There is not a high pressure. As I said several times before, if a company is coming and is looking for Reichelt, we are always prepared to act accordingly. From that perspective, there is no pressure from us. There is no formal process from our side currently to sell Reichelt. We will review that every year, as mentioned before.
Okay.
For the second point, as I said within my outlook, if we are looking on the 18.3% margin, which is for the core business, yes, there is further potential for the future. That always depends a little bit about, let me say, the product mix. Overall, I'm quite confident that we will be able, in the coming years, to have a sustainable approach in this direction to optimize it year by year.
Okay, thank you. Maybe for Reichelt, it's not belonging to the core business anymore. This is unchanged.
Correct. That is unchanged. That is the reason why we call it about the core business with Healthcare Solutions and Industrial Solutions.
Okay, thank you.
Yeah. You're welcome.
The next question comes from the line of Richard Frei from ZKB. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Good morning.
I have two questions regarding healthcare. The first one is about FirstLine. You have mentioned that you have achieved a positive development regarding mix, meaning that you have a higher share of FirstLine components in it. May you give us a rough indication so that we can imagine a bit better how big that change is or how big the share of FirstLine in the mix looks like? Secondly, also regarding healthcare, may you give us an indication how organic growth without the COVID boost would have looked like? Just to have also an idea without COVID, how business would have been developed. Thank you.
Yeah. Richard, thank you very much for your questions, and I think that is interesting for other ones as well. Yes, with regarding to the FirstLine approach, as you know that we are currently ramping up new facilities, in the U.S., as well in India with FirstLine. Our FirstLine is designed for high-value products, which is still, let me say, on a level of around 15%. From that perspective, there's good room for improvement over the coming years, that our mix will be more in favor of us, so that we are moving into the high-value product range over the next coming years when we have other facilities fully ramped up. With regard to the topic of the margin, I think there is, of course, here as well some room for improvement, but it's mainly linked to the product mix here.
When we are looking to the portion of the COVID, I think it's around 50% currently, what we experienced so far, and we have quite a good visibility for the next two years that we see a similar mix of at minimum for the next one to two years.
Okay. Just a clarification. This 15% you've mentioned regarding FirstLine, this is in accordance to sales in healthcare?
Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Of course. Yeah.
Okay. Thanks.
The next question comes from the line of Serge Rotzer from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. I have plenty of questions, but I'll try to ask only a few of them. The first one is, you have been guiding CapEx of between CHF 19 million and CHF 100 million for next year, and Walter mentioned that it will be 7% of sales. This tells me that sales for next year, for 2022, will be between CHF 1.285 billion and CHF 1.428 billion, midpoint is CHF 1.35 billion. Do you feel comfortable with these numbers, that we will have sales next year already between CHF 1.3 billion and CHF 1.4 billion plus?
Yeah, I think, Walter, you would like to answer that?
Yes, of course. Well, Serge, as in the past, that's an indication, right? That's the goal. You have seen that in the slides, after we have had some recent investments, the mid-term goal is actually to go back to a kind of normal level of 7% of net sales. Having said that, and I repeat it again, if there is customer demand, if there is actually demand in the market, we are further support that growth, that demand, and might invest as well. It really depends on our customers, and we are certainly there to support them.
Okay. To become more precise, when we are on slide 20, where you have all these investments and these new capacities or plants, we have all the phase out or going into 2022. Can you go plant by plant and tell me what is the incremental revenue? When is the revenue recognition of these several initiatives?
Honestly, we are not going plant by plant here. I don't think that you have expected that here.
No, I tried it. Okay.
No, I think as we said, we are investing based on the market demand, and the market demand, especially in some areas, is quite very high, and especially in the healthcare sector, as you know. If we are starting to invest in healthcare, which we'll know as well in next year, especially in India, that will lead to further sales in the next year. I said several times that will give us an opportunity to grow in this sector on the double-digit range, independent of what happens with COVID. COVID will be always additional tailwind to go beyond this figure. I think that is what we can say. In Food and Beverage, I think we have this long-term agreement. We have, let me say, great customers on board, which are placing more and orders for us that we have to increase the capacity.
That installation of the new capacities, that will take some time here. Overall, we will see then in the coming years that we should benefit from these investments, what we will do in 2021 and 2022. That is what we can say today. Uncertainties we still have in the mobility sector. If we are looking here for the short- term, the chip shortage crisis, as you know, is not really over. That is lingering disruption is now likely to reduce the scale of the global light vehicle production in the second half of 2021. We expect that a lot of activities will be then moved into the year 2022, that we will see some further increase of sales in 2022. Then with a stable low single- digit growth in the next years. I think we should be as well here above the market.
Okay, this is very detailed. Many thanks. Richard, can I come back to the guidance on Healthcare Solutions and Food and Beverage? I believe you said a double-digit sales growth for Healthcare Solutions or close to 20%. With the sales mix, then the margin will further improve already in the second half, or is it more midterm, long-term?
That will be more in the mid- and long-term. Let me, as I said, the installation of the new FirstLine facilities, which are ramping up currently, that will take some time. We are getting more customers on board with our clear target to drive more in the direction of high-value products, as we said, for example, with our NeoFlex product line. That will need some time, that will come over the coming years.
You can keep the margin you achieved in the first six months of this year?
No, the margin for the second half of this year due to this seasonal effects.
Okay
what we have, as you know, in July, August, and December will be slightly coming down, and that is the reason why we have, let me say, in the outlook for the second half of the year, a slightly lower margin.
Okay. Got it. Probably the last one. The growth in Food and Beverage, you mentioned double-digit or high, but you have been growing 20% in the first half. Of course, the base is lower compared to the second half. Is this more now the CHF 70 million plus a sustainable level, or can you grow much further on this CHF 70 million plus?
Based on the orders what we have in hand, it seems to be a very stable outlook. That means it should be on the same level.
No further growth sequentially?
Yeah.
Okay. Got it. Thank you so much.
Yeah.
The next question comes from the line of Michael Foeth from Vontobel. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you. Good morning, gentlemen. two questions from my side. Just a follow-up on the previously asked question relating to the COVID-19 vaccine-related business. I didn't get the answer really to 50%. Did I understand correctly that 50% of the growth in healthcare sales came from the vaccine-related business? Can you just clarify that, please?
Yeah. Please do not mix up. I think what I said is that the FirstLine® today is around 15% of our total turnover in the Healthcare Solutions. On the other hand, we have approximately the total growth, what we have in the first half year is around 50% of that is related to COVID.
Okay, perfect. I got that right. Thank you.
You're welcome.
The second question would be regarding the mobility business. You saw strong growth there, also some sequential growth, and you mentioned all the uncertainties in the second half of the year. Can you maybe give us a little bit more detail what you are currently seeing in terms of the behavior from customers in the mobility business? Is it fair to assume that you expect revenues to be slightly below the first half level in the second half?
Yes, for sure. Thank you much for this question because that is very clear that obviously we had this big impact in the first half year of last year and mainly in the second quarter. If you're looking to the global vehicle production. A short snapshot there. For example, this year-over-year growth in the second quarter was around 55% or 54%. Of course, that is related to the lot of shutdowns what we have seen last year. We have as well seen last year, there was a recovery already starting in the third quarter and the fourth quarter. Of course, if we are compare them, the second half of this year with the last year, that the growth will not on the same level as you can imagine.
Overall, we expect, according what LMC is saying as well, that the growth for the global light vehicle assembly will be around, let me say, 13%-14%. We believe if that will happen, that we could, let me say, in line with that, maybe slightly above that.
Okay.
Yes. I think that is what we can say today.
Thank you. Thanks. Very helpful.
Yeah. You're welcome.
The next question comes from the line of Sebastian Vogel from UBS. Please go ahead.
Sebastian, can you hear us?
Mr. Vogel, we cannot hear you. Are you perhaps on mute?
Maybe we should proceed, and then Sebastian maybe will come back later.
The next question comes from the line of Daniel König from Mirabaud Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. I have two very easy questions. First, I was wondering what one can expect from raw materials. I saw the gross margin is slightly up in 2021 H1. What can one expect for H2? My standard question is, what's the latest on Middletown? Is it still break even in the Q4 2021? What is the latest on Middletown?
Thanks a lot, Daniel. Let me take the first question about the raw material situation. Well, in the figures you have in front of you, we don't have any negative effects so far. Actually, the team is putting a lot of effort to keep the supply chain running. However, as just Dirk mentioned before, the procurement situation, the logistics capacities, the components, there's a lot of uncertainty at the moment. That can even become tighter in the third quarter right now, so in the second half. We believe a recovery is possible from Q4 onwards. When you talk about the raw material prices, until now we did not see substantial increases in raw material prices, at least in our books. However, in the second half, there will be increases, and we will actually have the opportunity to hand them over to the market with a certain gap.
With that, Dirk, maybe you want to ask or answer about Middletown.
Yeah, of course. I think I'm happy to say that we are doing good progress in Middletown. According to our strategy, and that is not only in Middletown, we have as with the progress in our other sites with regard to productivity, and to leverage, let me say, our installed capacity here. We will not disclose. I do not like to disclose any detailed figures with regard to Middletown, what I can tell you is according to that, what we have planned on the strategic approach for the future. I'm so far happy with that, and we will see some further opportunities with that for the future, especially for the U.S. market.
Okay, thanks a lot.
Yeah. You're welcome, Daniel.
The next question comes from the line of Rolf Renders from Helvea. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. Congrats for these results. That's all very encouraging. Two questions if I may. All other companies are reporting about inflation. You also mentioned that mostly you can pass it on. Would you be able to elaborate a bit on the magnitude and the differences maybe per segment, what you experience from clients?
Can you maybe clarify a little bit, with that, what you mean? You mean from the raw material price per segment, or?
Yeah, indeed. Sorry for that. Just raw material price increases is a big topic with all the companies that report now. Of course, not everyone is able to pass that on. I would be curious to learn what the magnitude is for you of these raw material price increases and how the different responses are per segment.
Well, thanks a lot, Rolf, for your question. Let me shed some light into that. For the Healthcare Solutions, we have aluminum parts. We also have the elastomer components, and there we have the increase. However, due to kind of measures that we have taken, we'll be in a position to actually, at least for 2021, not have any major topics there. We actually secured prices at a very good level. When you talk about Industrial Solutions, let me distinguish between the Food and Beverage and other businesses. In the Food and Beverage part, the major element is aluminum, and there we also have the chance to pass that on to customers. On the mobility side and general industry side, actually the relevant changes that might happen in the second half or later, we normally have kind of a time lag of between three to six, seven months.
Okay. Thank you. You have a strong balance sheet, of course. I think it's about net debt-free now. I didn't see that immediately. Maybe you can comment on that and maybe on your capital allocation priorities going forward, maybe in combination, update on possible acquisitions that could come closer.
Thank you very much, Rolf, for your question here. Of course, as you know that, we're always looking in the M&A sector. As I said, we will be very disciplined, when we are looking in this field that, whatever we acquire should be fully linked to our core competencies, to our cultural fit, and of course, to our market approach. We are in discussion with, of course, as always, with companies. It's too early to say that we can announce something in the next months. However, we are working on that. From time to time, I need some time. On the other hand, with regard to our strong organic growth, I think not only for 2021, but as well for the next years, I think the pressure is not so high for us to go into an adventure here, let me say.
We are focusing on organic growth and looking forward that we are fulfilling the market demands for the next years, especially in the already defined business areas which we have in our portfolio.
Okay. Thank you. That's encouraging to hear and understood. Could that very strict focus what you have on M&A then result in a different payout ratio given the strong balance sheet, Reichelt still one day to be divested, et cetera.
I think that is what we will discuss and always together in end of the year or the beginning of the next year. It's too early to say what will happen next year. Of course, we will try to optimize our dividends to give a stable dividend to our investors here. As you know, we have a payout ratio in the range of 40%-45%. That is what we currently approaching here. Yep.
Okay. Yeah. Great. Maybe final question. Other companies also report next to what you report on return on capital employed on return on invested capital. Do you plan to communicate on that parameter in the future, too?
Hey, Rolf. Hi. It's me. Well, it's actually the same answer as in the past, right? Due to Swiss GAAP FER, to the right that we have, we actually in all the acquisitions, we offset the goodwill. I think when we look back at our goodwill, what kind of elements are in there, that's not an exercise that would be very beneficial. Yes, internally, we measure that. Externally, I think it would not help a lot.
Okay. Thank you very much. We have still some questions from the webcast. One question is: Will be there an increase in the sales of elastomer components post-COVID as well? As I said before, yes, there will be an increase. We see especially, and that I think that is related to pharma here, the question, especially in the pharma sector, we have a good outlook for the next coming years. That is, of course, a need because we are investing quite a high amount in the sector. There is a strong pressure to us to perform here the right way. Another question is coming with regard to the seasonality second half of this year versus the first half, that the lower margins in the second half year in the Healthcare Solutions and Industrial Solutions sector.
As I said, that is mainly linked by the seasonality, and that is the main reason that we are below in the second half year. The last one, why we invest CHF 10 million in a new warehouse for Reichelt when Reichelt is for sale? As long as Reichelt will be in our portfolio, we will handle them as a business which is going forward, to optimize, let me say as well, the motivation of our people there. Whenever the time is coming, of course, that investment will be considered in a potential, let me say, sale price. Yeah. That's all. I would like to thank all of you for your attention, for your great questions in the name of Walter as well. We are looking forward to see maybe a lot of you with our Capital Markets Day, which we will have on the September 30th.
I'm sure that we can give you then a further insight about for the rest of the year and for the future. I think we have a lot of interesting things about new product lines, innovative products, and that is what we would like to show you. I'm looking forward to see you there. Now I wish you a great rest of the Friday and, sorry, of the Wednesday. I'm looking forward to see you all soon. Thank you very much, and goodbye.
Bye. Thank you very much. Have a good day.
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