Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to the Implenia 2022 Capital Markets Day. My name is Franziska Stein. I'm Head of Investor Relations, and I'm your host for today's event. Before we proceed, please allow me to start with some housekeeping items. This morning, we published a press release and just recently also the Capital Markets Day presentation. Please note that this event will be recorded and a replay will be available on our website later. Today's presentation will be held in English and German. All German parts of the presentation will be simultaneously translated into English. Headsets are still available if anyone requires. To conclude my opening remarks, I would like to draw your attention to our disclaimer. Now I would like to walk you through the agenda of today.
We will start the presentations with a strategy update by the CEO, André Wyss. He will talk about the current position of the company, achievements from the transformation, and an outlook into the next phases for Implenia, Fit for Growth and New Horizon. Thereafter, the four division heads will give you an in-depth view on their respective divisions. They will talk about their capabilities, their competencies, the opportunities in their business, and how they aim to achieve their increased profitability. After a short break, Stefan Baumgärtner, the CFO, will give an update on the financial development of the company, including divisional expectations on both revenue and EBIT and, of course, the financial targets of the group. André Wyss will close the presentation, and we will open the Q&A session. We will be available. All the presenters will be available for your questions.
After the Q&A, we would like to invite you to visit our dedicated topic corners outside in the open space area. Our Implenia expert at the topic corners will be available to answer all questions you never dared to ask on innovation, operational excellence, value assurance, and sustainability. Please have a look after the presentations. We prepared some very interesting topics for you. I'm honored to introduce the Implenia executive committee members that will present today, and it's my pleasure to also welcome Hans-Ulrich Meister, the chairman of Implenia, who's joining us for today's event. I will now hand over to André Wyss, the CEO, for the strategy update.
Thank you, Franziska. Good morning, everybody. Also, a very warm welcome from my side here in our, let's call it new offices, although we're already here since September last year, called Connect. I believe we have prepared very interesting topics for you today, and a variety of people will look forward to present you their insights. We believe after the completion of this transformation, it's now the right time to hold a Capital Markets Day, during which we'll present how we achieve our ambitious targets going forward in the two phases Franziska already mentioned, Fit for Growth and New Horizon. Let me start with a strategy update, an overview of our current position, accomplishments, and also the outlook. In the financial year 2021, we generated revenue of CHF 3.7 billion and an EBIT of almost CHF 115 million.
By H1 2022, the order book stood now at the record level of over CHF 7 billion. All our four divisions contributed to this positive result. Our divisions profit and contribute from the integrated business model and thereby creating significant value for the entire group. Our customers benefit from our almost 8,000 talented employees across our countries who develop and build mainly large and complex projects based on our culture on five values. Let's have a look where we stand today. In the past years, the group has successfully completed a really comprehensive transformation. Now we are ready to build on our expertise to manage large and complex projects and further strengthen our competitive position during the short- to mid-term phase, which we call Fit for Growth, but also mid- to long-term with New Horizon.
The group envisions to be an integrated leading multinational construction and real estate provider. The achievements of our comprehensive transformation from the past years are significant. The implementation of a new strategy and operating model started in March 2019. We set the basis for a new culture and new leadership. An increased order book with significantly improved risk and margin profiles. Refined risk management and profitable growth through our Value Assurance process, and adjusted the business portfolio. Sale or ramp down loss-making and non-strategic businesses, sharpened geographical market presence, and also the adoption of new technologies as well as scalable businesses. The strategy has proven to be effective and result in positive operating performance of all our divisions. We improved our financial KPIs and strengthened our balance sheet.
We can now say the transformation was successful on all dimensions. The company has experienced no major surprises for more than two years, and the performance is improving steadily. Our mission and core strengths is enabled by our strategy. We have still, I must say, since first of March 2019, the same four strategic priorities: portfolio, profitable growth, innovation, talent, and organization. For every of those strategic priorities, we have defined clear measures to reach our ambitious financial targets in the coming years. It's a bit of a more complicated chart, but I will walk you through. In full year 2022, we expect a significant performance improvement and confirm our EBIT guidance of over CHF 130 million.
The result is based on operational improvements by all divisions and also an above-average earnings from the sale of large real estate projects in the first half of this year. Through this extraordinary result, we will already reach our former midterm EBIT margin target of over 3.5% by the end of this year. To achieve our targets, we have defined four focus areas which we are continuously driving existing and new businesses to achieve profitable growth. Short to midterm profitability will be sustained at an EBIT margin of approximately 3.5% per year, mainly through improving, growing, and specializing existing business, as well as starting to develop new business and small acquisitions.
Mid- to long-term EBIT margin target of over 4.5% will be achieved through focusing mainly on scaling new businesses and target small- to mid-sized acquisitions, while certainly still continuing to improve our existing business. During this half day, we will guide you through our strategic priorities and explain how they are driving Implenia to be a sustainably successful company. I will now elaborate the measures on a group level and walk you through the details on how we drive profitability towards our mid- to long-term EBIT target of over 4.5%. Afterwards, the division heads will explain how they shape their divisional strategies to contribute to our group success. I will start with the strategic priority portfolio.
The following measures allow us to drive our existing and develop new business, aiming to benefit from differentiations, higher margins, and increased resilience. There is a clear market demand, based on megatrends, industry shifts, and also positive forecasts, still positive forecasts for the European construction industry. Even though there are known macroeconomic challenges, we all are very familiar with them, the external environment remains still promising. Construction output in all our relevant markets remain positive. Implenia is a leading construction and real estate service provider offering its integrated portfolio in Switzerland and Germany, while clearly being the market leader in Switzerland. This offering of the integrated model is about three quarters of the group revenues.
Furthermore, the group has a strong position in tunneling and related infrastructure services in selected European markets, such as the Nordics, Austria or France, representing approximately 1/4 of the total revenue. Customer demand leads the way for business development. I will elaborate our integrated model with our four divisions a bit later in another slide. We will develop new competencies through sector-specific specialization, with which we differentiate our offering. The division heads will explain them in more details. Additionally, we develop new competencies along the value chain through backward and forward integration.
I will now go into more details on these measures. It's clear megatrends offer attractive opportunities for us. Population growth leads to an increased demand for living space and sustainable use of resources across Europe. Our response is offering real estate and construction services to meet evolving additional living, working, and also mobility needs.
Urbanization leads to densification in urban areas, interconnected smart cities, and sharing economies. We profit directly with our extensive know-how for large complex projects in dense, demanding urban environment and also high customer requirements. Additionally, our own real estate portfolio is attractive and strategically very well-positioned in urban areas where demand is still rising. Today's required investments in infrastructure and renewable energies are huge. Our response is the expertise for large and complex infrastructure and the flexibility to incorporate new customer demands, such as energy. We believe that Implenia is excellent positioned to benefit from those three megatrends. We are successfully set up with four differentiated and entrepreneurial divisions, who have market-leading competences for our clients in their respective markets.
I would like to highlight that Implenia is one of the few construction companies with both an integrated offering, including Real Estate, Buildings, Civil Engineering, and Specialties. As well as a comprehensive coverage of the entire value chain from project initiation to execution to use. This allows us to benefit from synergies between the businesses, and for our customers, it means a more seamless experience through our end-to-end planning and construction competencies. These models offers high flexibility to integrate strategic internal as well as external capabilities, and thereby minimize our asset needs. We source what we need and don't wanna offer ourselves. In the past years, where the construction industry, alongside many other industries, has been impacted by COVID, but also the Ukraine conflict, our integrated model has proven to be very resilient.
With our central procurement, together with our operating units and back-to-back contract clauses, we were able to react quickly and mitigate the situation as best as possible. We developed new competencies along the value chain and will expand our integrated model even further in areas where we can benefit from attractive and certainly increased margins. With the sector-oriented specialization, there are opportunities to create USPs in existing business models with specialized service offering. Hence, we will strengthen our competitive market position. As mentioned before, the division heads go in more details on this. Through backward and forward integration, we will use opportunities to enter higher-margin businesses and benefit from early-stage client interaction, and use data, and exploit reuse and recycle potential to realize recurring fees through operations. Also, the recurring fees model will be more explained by our division heads and the CFO.
We are convinced that with this setup, we are the best partner for large and complex projects for our customers in our markets. While we mainly drive profitability growth organically through Fit for Growth in the medium term, we also consider inorganic growth options with selective successful small acquisitions up to CHF 50 million. Acquisitions will become even more relevant with the larger size at the later stage during New Horizon. Any acquisition we plan has to meet specific criteria.
To ensure we actually realize and maximize the value creation of acquisitions, especially through leveraging synergies, we implement systematic post-deal integration concepts. Moving to our second strategic priority, profitable growth. To strengthen our strategic priority, profitable growth, we defined four main areas. Ongoing risk and performance monitoring through the group's Value Assurance process, which leads to more stable and reliable forecasts. More on this on the next slide.
Additionally, this topic will be addressed at Topic Corner after the Q&A session. We continue to improve existing business through operational excellence, mainly in the areas of digitalization, industrialization, Lean Construction, procurement, and also contract management. The Topic Corner about Lean Construction BIM will further elaborate on how we implement our digital construction skills on our construction sites. Our experts from Buildings and Civil Engineering will there give you further details, again, during lunch.
The next measure is continuous performance improvements of all units to strengthen the sustainable underlying performance of the entire group. Stefan Baumgärtner, our CFO, will focus on performance improvement and also networking, capital management, so I will not elaborate on this. All efforts we take in these areas is improve, develop existing business, making it more efficient, more effective, and also, at the same time, decrease the risk of the company.
Improved risk profile and increased margin are the result of our efforts. Projects have been developed in a much more stable manner. The organization, culture, and strict application of Value Assurance in all projects led to an improved risk and margin profile. With the pre-calculated gross margin improving by 1.5% since the introduction of the Value Assurance process. With this, we not only have evidence, but it's now proven this process works. The Value Assurance process is an integrated process from project selection all the way to completion. In the future, we aim here for continuous optimization. After the Q&A session, again, you have the opportunity to discuss this process in more detail with our head of Value Assurance and also our general counsel in the respective Topic Corner. Moving to our third strategic priority, innovation.
Fundamental changes in the construction and real estate industry, as well as the needs of our customers, help us driving innovation forward in a targeted manner. Our threefold innovation strategy is based on intrapreneurship, innovation M&A, and also open innovation. The Innovation Hub is an incubation platform with a standardized innovation process fostering intrapreneurship, where new business models and technology are developed and scaled. Based on the industry shifts, we defined main innovation opportunities where we prioritize partnerships and investments to scale new offerings. In industrialization, we develop scalable solutions through modular capabilities and also products. Additionally, the construction industry clearly has an increasing need for optimized systems, digital solutions, and also BIM. We integrate cutting-edge technologies and digitalize ahead of the crowd. The group applies BIM throughout the entire project life cycle with an integrative collaborative approach and planning and managing projects.
Our extensive network allows us to research and innovation partnerships, which are essential to the company. In the topic of innovation, our head of Innovation Hub, together with the division head Specialties, will go into much more details all of our innovation efforts and also give you there further insights. A first promising product out of the Innovation Hub is our high-strength EPS tunnel element. It was developed bottom up by one of our employees, Manuel Entfellner. A patent is pending, and a market introduction already has been successful. Let's play the video, which briefly explains this idea. Sustainability is one of our five values. It's meanwhile part of our DNA. For many years, we have built up relevant know-how and can clearly say sustainability is one of Implenia's USPs. Construction industry has a huge impact on sustainability, especially on the use of resources.
There is also an increasing market demand for environmentally and socially sustainable solutions driven by government and also ESG regulations, as well as a changing mindset of the population. Implenia differentiates from competition with sustainable development and construction services, including a defined decarbonization strategy, and is the preferred partner for the implementation of customer-driven sustainable developments. The group's leading position for sustainable development and construction has been confirmed by various ESG ratings, such as the MSCI AAA or EcoVadis Gold, but also the industry top rating by Sustainalytics. In the respective topic corner, our head of sustainability, our experts in the fields of circular economy, and our head of development Switzerland will show you our response to today's opportunities in the ESG. A good example of sustainable site development is our Green Village in Geneva, which we will now see a second video.
Implenia remains committed to shift towards a more sustainable industry with a holistic view on the topic, and our 12 sustainable goals we have till 2025. Last but not least, our strategic priority, talent, and organization. We define three key areas to attract, manage, and retain talents. Collaboration and employee engagement is based on the five corporate values. To foster our culture and values, we improve the employee experience.
With, for example, the rollout of new workplace concept to all countries and locations like you see here in our new Connect, and certainly the management of change. Concerning talent management, we focus on continuous learning, career opportunities, leadership development, sound succession planning, and the culture of open and transparent communication and feedback. Certainly, in times of shortage of skilled employees, recruitment excellence is crucial to position Implenia as an attractive employer in the labor market. Our efforts in the past years were recognized by employer ratings such as Universum, who ranked us among the top professionals in engineering. There is more to come. The divisions will now open the deep dive for the four strategic priorities on a divisional level and explain how they will contribute to a sustainable EBIT in the coming years.
With this, I hand over to Christian Späth, our Division Head of Civil Engineering. Christian.
We are the unit working underneath the surface. Let's start with an overview of our markets. You can see them in dark orange, and they have one common point, and they have a big need of infrastructure projects. The authorities are giving this mandate. Public investments are letting develop this segment. All these is supported by public financing, and we expect in Germany higher investment in projects. Scandinavia was one of the biggest markets, which has stabilized, but which will keep a high level. Growth in France with the conjuncture packages of the government is positive.
In total, we expect in all countries a stable or high development in tunnels, in Civil Engineering, and the Special Foundations segment. The Corona crisis had hardly an impact on our market. The crises and inflation are managed well by us. We can agree with our agreement that higher prices will be covered. Our markets are good, our clients are good, and of course we had a challenging transformation, but this was our fault, we managed it well. You can see metrics Civil and Special Foundations. All this is in all countries. The countries where we have our roots, and we have lowered our investments and made the transformations.
We have new mega trends like population growth, urbanization, higher mobility, but also tendency towards renewable energies. All this is giving us a new potentials. We participate to the growth and to the development of our population, ensuring a good infrastructure, and they assure mobility and basic need of the population. The planification and construction of this infrastructure with good functionality on high safety levels, taking into consideration economical aspects and our sustainability objectives are a challenge, but we are well positioned for this. Our tunneling segment offers all kind of constructions. We can build tunnels in the Alps and underneath the houses. All sorts of tunnels. We are leading in Europe.
Civil focuses on technical constructions like streets, and we are proud that with this business unit we can participate in Germany and Switzerland. Finally, we have a special foundations, and we work there on the world structure. We are
In Berlin, we would like to have a tube station. Here we have a representation in our slides where you can see that we've got the two-unit tunnel and some underground construction. Two years ago, we were the ones who were responsible in the North Portal in the underground tunnel on 12th of March 2021. We had additional payments for the customers as well in the North Portal. Here we can see the machines, the tunnel machines before it entered the tunnel. On the 16th of August this year, we could see the main place north in our company with the guidance of Implenia. I think that we now can actually say that we are back. Gotthard gives us light in Switzerland.
As you can see, our new project that we have now for the Alpine Base Tunnels. We are the only construction company that in Europe is responsible working on the four Alpine Base Tunnels. This is not a coincidence because we have a high measure of network within our division, so we are capable of having the entire knowledge of the tunnel construction with our projects so as to convince our customers. The strongest, however, are that our project works together. The customer gets our from first hand access. For example, in Hamburg, we work with all three business units together on a project. We are responsible for the planning, the construction and the technical services. We are responsible to this.
We can plan our technical office, which we have in Germany, and we can now put it into place also. This is specialized in the tunneling and the bridges, and with our 100 collaborators, it is an important support for our projects. We are going to have a look at the Hamburg port, where we have a tunnel kind of machine, and you can see here the performance of the special underground construction. From the Civil Engineering. You can see a 3D BIM model where we have a digital twin, where we can access the digital representation so that we can start planning. We have big walls, specific diaphragm walls, which are a part of our project.
We've got the company AG, which is going to replace the old wall with a new wall. We cannot remove the old wall, but it is then going to be maintained. It's a really spectacular project. Let's have a look at it yourselves. Do believe me, absolutely. It's an absolutely spectacular project. I get goosebumps when I see this when I'm at the dam. If you see the possibilities, this is absolutely amazing. Here, four further highlight projects from our division. Here we've got the boat lifting system. In Brandenburg we've got a really tremendous system. With 36 m going upwards with the lift. On the fourth of October, we started this project. We passed it on to a client, and we initiated it.
On the right-hand side, we can see the four stations in Stockholm. The lowest tube station that we actually have. We have eight people going back and forth. We have to bring it down to the depth, and that's in the heart of Stockholm project. That is made for us. In front of these doors of Zurich, we've got special tunnels. What is absolutely amazing here is that we don't have much space for the logistics, for lean management, which we can see here it's there for optimization of the construction. On the right-hand side, we can have a look at Scandinavia. We've got the biggest railway bridge of Norway, and the planning and the realization of the project is completely digitalized with the BIM model.
Contracts as such, we don't get just via our price, but via a combination between quality and technically intelligent solutions and also the price, obviously.
Operational excellence.
Operational excellence is a main part of our success in our division. Due to the introduction of a continuous and gap-free Value Assurance process, we have the entire transparency in the selection and putting into place of our projects. Therefore, we were able to get the project portfolio within our portfolio and reduce all risks.
Lean management.
Lean management helps us not only on our big complex projects to be able to keep up an overview, but all the project aims should be all on a common aim. It's also a cultural change in a continuous change and improvement of our processes. As we've already seen, you can see this later from Anita, my colleague. BIM for us is now absolutely important and essential, which builds up a common database communication level for all projects people, and this makes it easier. Of course, all of these measures are strengthening and bring up the profitability of our projects. Here we still see different cases, practical cases with a tunnel project that we have in Oslo, like the digitalization, which we have put into place in our daily work.
Now we have the possibility to have 3D BIM models that we can realize in the augmented reality on a daily basis, where we can take complex situations. For example, if we have a collision proof or collision trials, we can see here on the left-hand side of the picture, we can recognize here intuitively how we can actually solve the situation or on the lower picture. We can also see an overview and the status of the work from wherever. We can just see how the work's going on from wherever in the world. Due to the acquisition start, we can see profitability growth. We can see the combining extensive track records and expertise with operational excellence innovation, thanks to the specializations we've seen before.
We have very big and complex infrastructure projects, but we also have new contract models. Also we have an enlargement of our project portfolio. For example, the new buildings or in the rail construction with our EBIT margins, which are constantly growing. We also keep observing the market, and due to buying additional markets, we try and improve. I hope I managed to convince you that we have the right expertise, the right knowledge, and the right way to go about it to be successful in our work. I think that we are there for the upcoming challenges, and I think we can grow profitability, and I think we can really have a big success in the year. Thank you very much for your attention.
As we like to say it from the tunnel construction, thumbs up. I'm going to pass on the word to Anita. The floor is yours. Thank you.
Thank you, Christian. I will shift back to English here and try to explain to you a little bit about the Division Specialties. Over the past three years, we have worked to develop the portfolio of businesses in the Division Specialties into a portfolio with competences and solutions for some of the major challenges in the construction industry. With value engineering, sustainable materials, prefabrication, and lean working methods, we do our utmost to contribute to more sustainable, a more efficient, and a more collaborative industry.
Businesses that did not have a good fit with this strategy, we divested. Businesses with potential but not the desired performance, we improve. Businesses with the right competences and solutions, we work to scale. Most of the businesses in the division are active in Germany and/or in Switzerland. We founded Construction Logistics in Germany 12 years ago due to an untapped market potential.
Since then, the market demand matured and kept growing year on year. Three years ago, we entered Switzerland. While Switzerland as a market is attractive but less mature, nearly all large urban projects in Germany have specialized construction logistics competencies on site. With building technology planning, we are currently only active in Switzerland. The demand, especially for energy-efficient solutions and energy renovation is growing fast, as is also the demand for integrated digital solutions and end-to-end BIM competencies using BIM to optimize the construction process, we call that BIM to Field, as is also the operation of the building once built, we call that BIM to Facility Management. To become more sustainable may be the biggest challenge of the construction industry today. More sustainable construction material is one solution and a main reason why the request for construction with timber is booming.
Another important topic for construction is to become more efficient, which we can do with prefabrication construction or construction in a controlled environment, and which is exactly what we do with timber constructions. The demand for post-tensioning and geotechnical solutions is not limited by borders, and with the right certifications of the products and solutions, we can sell them in many markets. The market demand is growing. If you look at Germany alone, there are 13,000 highway bridges in bad shape. Currently, only 100 bridges are renovated or renewed per year. Recession or not, the German Bundesländer governments must invest in their infrastructure if they want to avoid having to close highways. For Germany, we have the most accurate information. However, the situation is not much different in the other European markets.
The market demand for engineered and functionalized façade modules using the façade for more than just wrapping the building is also on a rise. All Specialties businesses work together with our colleagues in real estate development, in Buildings, and in Civil Engineering. All businesses work for external customers as well. I'll try to explain you very briefly what it is that they actually do. BCL is a construction logistics service provider.
They plan and execute everything that is not construction itself on a construction site. Most importantly, BCL increases productivity, managing supply and waste logistics, construction site equipment, and site security, just to mention some of the core services. Our customers also have access to live data on our digital platform. For example, on the achieved recycling rate of construction waste, where we achieve up to 98% recycling. Planovita is a classical building technology planning company.
However, fully digitized and pushing BIM to the next level, ensuring accurate material volume and time planning directly from the BIM model. Controlling possible collisions in the virtual reality, as we have also seen with Christian's projects, and creating the as-built model with the help of augmented reality. Timber construction is specialized in large scale timber construction projects. Has built the largest timber apartment buildings in Switzerland, and is soon to build probably the highest timber building in the world. With prefabrication and full-fledged elements enabling better planning and faster construction. The core solutions of BBV are post-tensioning for bridges, for slabs in buildings, and also vertical post-tensioning, for example, for large concrete wind towers. Geotechnical solutions as well as engineering inspection and strengthening solutions for concrete structures. Facade Technology develops, plans, and realizes demanding large-scale facades and renovates landmark facades and complete building shells.
For example, the Alsterschwimmhalle in Hamburg, maybe some of you know that building, and the Charité Hospital in Berlin. I would like to show you a couple of current project examples. Having profound experience with managing logistics for hospital construction, it is very cool for BCL that our colleagues from the Division Buildings won this impressive project, the Cantonal Hospital in Aarau. That BCL can join to optimize logistics management. BCL is active in this project with a full range of services, including a recycling center, optimizing sustainability during construction. We use the data from the BIM model flowing directly into building logistics planning and helping us optimize the planning for deliveries of material, as well as of space on the construction site.
The new hospital is being constructed in direct vicinity of the existing hospital, and the existing hospital is in operation during the construction work, which is typical for hospital projects. This is where we have to be more careful with noise emission, access roads, et cetera. Real Estate development developed this world-record-breaking 100-meter-tall timber building for Ina Invest. Our own developed timber concrete slab and tube-in-tube load-bearing structure was specified as a construction kit for the project. We are right now in the pre-project phase, and as a team consisting of colleagues from the Division Buildings, Real Estate, and Specialties, we prepare the construction phase. We work hard to reach the SNBS Gold standard, important to Ina Invest, who wants to build the most sustainable real estate portfolio in Switzerland. A last project example which I brought today is this IT campus in Bad Friedrichshall in Germany.
The building shell is often quite complex to realize, and it takes between 10% and sometimes up to 25% of the total construction volume. Having the right competencies is key to build quality facades in the agreed time. We experience that building owners are a little less sensitive to price and a lot more to quality concerning the building shell. For this specific project, the building owner, Schwarz Immobilien, knows Implenia Facade Technology, as do also the architect and the engineer involved in the project.
Innovation means the intelligent use of digital tools. For example, reality capturing for more precise planning and more efficient implementation. Innovation means being user-centered, for example, by using a configuration tool for the early integration of wishes and needs in the development of residential space. Innovation means industrial prefabrication, for example, by using wood composite ceilings for less CO2 emissions, less weight, and less material use, while creating more living quality and more space.
Crucial to improving our profitability are three factors. Continue to improve the strategic businesses where the performance is not yet according to our expectations, continue to develop and scale the strategic businesses that are successful, and develop or acquire new businesses, adding value to the industry. We have specialized and deep competencies in the division, with which we can contribute to a more efficient, a more collaborative, and a more sustainable industry. With BIM, value engineering, prefabrication, and efficient construction sites, we make construction more efficient. With data and platform solutions, we create more transparency, and with lean construction, we improve collaboration.
With renewable construction material, by minimizing waste and optimizing processes, we make construction more sustainable. I hope I could convince you that after reshaping the portfolio, we are well-positioned to achieve sustainable good results. Thank you very much for listening. Now I would like to hand over to Jens Vollmar, Head of Division Buildings. Jens, the stage is yours.
Thank you so much, Anita. I would like to present to you the Division Buildings. We are in building construction. We work on top of the earth and not underneath the earth. The market, Division Buildings works in Germany and in Switzerland, and we are the leaders in Switzerland, and in Germany, we are among the top ten. Our clients want, first of all, a consulting. Clients ask how they can exploit better their services, how they can improve their footprint, how they can match the legal aspects, and all this contribute to the development of this market. We have a small shift in construction of houses up to complex building construction in cities.
New buildings, Corona has changed our perception. The energy problems have an impact. We also have here a stable business. What is our position? How did we position ourselves with regard to the needs? On the left side, you see consulting and planning. It's a new branch, working together with new buildings, modernization, working also with production. They serve themselves from the know-how Lean Construction for the consulting of clients. Number of clients is small, but it's improving, and next year we expect good results.
New buildings represents more than 50% of the turnover, and we have a different contract models from simple construction management, general constructor, but also multiple party contracts, partnering models, alliancing models, especially for Germany. Here it is very important to participate early in the project, in the pre-construction phases in order to manage better the finishing. Modernization is growing, and we also have similar contract models but with special expertises because the expectations toward logistics are special. I'll come back to it and show you some projects. We have now the master builder. In the past, that was a business for all units. Here we have specialized and we differentiate today with our technical expertise.
All four units are working profitable. I would like to show you some examples. Here you see a project for Swiss Life in the center of Zurich. It's a complex building, and this is why we decided for a construction management model. We also did the consulting here, so together with specialists from logistics, we were able to tackle questions with regard to security and with regard to the preservation of historical monuments. Another example showing well how large our business is. This is a University Hospital Basel, and this is a logistics center. We were already counseling during the operational phases.
They were asking how they can exploit better the sources in the center, and if they can outsource certain units. Here you need to have a big understanding of sanitary problems, for example. Here we were able to give a consulting in the operational phases, and then we planned together with Adrian Wyss. We were looking for investors, and starting from next year, we will start with the construction. University Hospital Basel was very enthusiastic, and authorized the construction. New building here also trend towards specialization. This is a laboratory complex, a project for the University of Basel. Here we were also able to differentiate us with the laboratory expertise we gained last year. The price was not really important.
This was a public tender. We were able to offer this price, and we were the ideal partner thanks to our expertise. Here we work together with specialists from construction logistics, from Anita and or with the civil engineering unit. Another project, Anita already mentioned it. It's the Cantonal Hospital in Aarau. This is the biggest project Implenia has ever had. Very high demanding project, and this project was planned with us. The client needed high competence with regard to operational procedures, so we were able to convince the client, and we are very well with regard to the timetable in the realization of this project. Another project here showing the importance of the sustainability team. This is the EUREF-Campus in Düsseldorf.
Implenia was participating in the pre-construction phases. This is the biggest project in Germany, and this building will match the legal prescriptions for 2025 with regard to the ecological footprint. Implenia wants to participate early in order to understand better the construction view, in order to optimize the construction and understand the risks. Here, another example from Geneva showing how close we work with real estate. Ina invest. This building was planned together, and is in execution. Let's go to modernization. This building you might know. It is UBS in Paradeplatz in Zurich, and together with Herzog & de Meuron, we planned the modernization of this building.
Here as well, with the central logistics of the city, we were able to convince UBS that we are the right partner, and we are happy to execute the project next year. We are still planning the execution now. Master builder. This master builder business was very large in the past, and we have now tried to specialize in this unit. Expertise is very important for the client. Here we have an example. It's the Cantonal Hospital in Baden, which is now finished. We work already on the next hospital. It's the hospital in Lucerne, and we also constructed other hospitals. Here we are well-positioned. Another example of specialization is data center.
Due to regulatory changes, new data centers will be built in the next years. Implenia was participating in all projects in Zurich, Brugg, Rastatt, Dielsdorf. We also participated, and we plan the new data centers. Here we are well-positioned, as execution must be quick. Now, I would like to show you something. Christian and Anita talked about BIM and visualization of 3-5D models. How do you bring this to the construction site? Here is an example how we do it in the clip. You see an example for the application of our planning house, which has been developed with the Innovation Hub. This house is mobile or portable. What are the advantages of this movable house?
You can connect with all the other participants. You know immediately what kind of quantities you have to order. You can also connect with drones to control the site and to always have the up-to-date plans in your hands. Any information with regard to replanning, new planning, you always have it at your disposal at any moment. This avoids problems and additional costs. The staff is accepting extremely well these mobile data houses. In Aarau, we construct without any piece of paper. Another example for these 3D models is Alto Pont-Rouge. This is a project we execute for Swisscom.
Here you see the construction, and with virtual reality, you can walk through the site through the shell of the building, and you can make measurements. This is always such a problem. It's only when the installation starts that you realize that you have a problem. This is how you can avoid them. This brings many advantages, avoids problems and additional costs can also be avoided. Under the title of operative excellence, we use these possibilities, among others. These are just two examples showing you what this, what the advantages are. Also for the owners, it's much easier. They can manage easier their buildings, knowing what kind of materials they have to face, out of what materials the house or the building is built. Good. Profitable growth.
On the left side, you can see what Anita has mentioned. We will make incremental improvements in the existing business. We will continue with the Value Assurance to ensure future profitability. We will use the advantages from Lean Construction, digitalization, and very important, specialization of our business. The examples I have shown to you, among many others, are really key. We must differentiate us with expertise and not with the price. We manage this with the steps that we have brought to life. We have a big growth in Germany. We push organically with lots of expertise and this is really big fun. We will have a moderate growth with regard to the turnover, but we expect growth in the EBIT and also the EBITDA margin.
In a nutshell, we are leaders in Switzerland, growth in Germany, specialization in complex projects, with the competencies from all the other units, of Implenia. Improvement of risk-return profiles and increasing margins, early value creation, consulting, innovation, and partnerships. I hope that with this, I was able to give you a good overview over the Division Buildings. I hand over to Adrian Wyss for Real Estate.
Thank you so much, Jens. I'm happy to present to you the Real Estate. Before, of course, the Real Estate stands for future-oriented real estate solutions and with service offer, we will ensure our position. The actual situation in real estate market in Switzerland, Germany is very challenging. Here, we have many factors, especially in Switzerland. We have a good development.
There's a high demand for houses, big immigration, and the economy is well. We have a scarce offer, we have high interest, and inflation. We will have a stable demand for real estate. With our buildings and our development, we are well positioned. In Germany, we have similar tendencies with higher volatility, though. The demand for real estate is high, so creating new houses is important. We would like to match this demand and at the same time manage the scarcity of resources and bring our partnerships into the business and our competencies and avoid risks. I think it is really important that we extend our stable business and that we have an equilibrium risk profile.
A difficult market offers always opportunities, we can execute with partners. Our profile comprises real estate development, real estate investment, real estate management, real estate products. In the field of development, we have the classic development like trade development, then investment development, service development. In total have a volume of a market value of more than CHF 5.2 billion. In the field of investment, we have the transaction management, purchase and selling of projects, and we work for Ina Invest and pension fund. And furthermore, we developed here new investment solutions or cooperation partnerships. The volume is here CHF 1.6 billion.
In the field of real estate management, since the foundation of Ina Invest, we offer portfolio management, asset management, together with the portfolio of the
Assets under management.
Provision with Implenia, we have a volume of CHF 1.1 billion. In the field of real estate products, we have real estate products for the future. We have Green Hospitality, subsidized housing or assisted living for German markets, but scalable actually. With the extension of the services, we want to create a synergy creating more business. This should bring also higher volumes for the other divisions like the Division Buildings. The portfolio of Implenia has a good project pipeline in Switzerland, especially in the region of Geneva, Zurich, and Basel, and two projects in the region of Rhein-Main. Therefore, here is concentrated especially on housing. The projects were worth CHF 10 million. The
If the projects are realized, they are worth CHF 2.3 billion. The selling of condominium houses was a part of our work, an important part. Here we expect a positive growth due to the high demand. We will also continue to invest in our own Landbank in new areas and new projects in order to improve trade development or find new investment solutions. Ina Invest, founded two and a half years ago, has the objective to have in the future the most innovative real estate portfolio. Ina Invest is a growth story. The growth and the portfolio has grown to CHF 820 million.
Services, transaction, portfolio, asset management development are realized with Implenia. The growth of Ina Invest is important. The good work on the projects will bring a performance fee. Thanks to the 42.5% equity participation, it will contribute to the good result of Implenia. This partnership is already bringing added value for Implenia and Ina Invest. Our position as one of the leading building developers is shown by Rocket, this new building. Because we were able to bring our expertise in all phases of the realization. The planning process is digitalized, and we also work here with a configurator. The whole area has been realized matching the newest demands.
The hybrid roof consisting in a wood construction was only realized. We were only able to realize this with our great partners. Since the branches of the building industry is challenging us. With fabrication, industrialization, we would like to use it more. Well, the field of real estate investment, here we talk about high professional transaction management, investment, and finance structuring. Risk profile, geographical position, all these points are important. Here we also work together with all the other units in Implenia. We have greenfields, but also brownfields with transformation potential. Our objective is to develop this unit and to find a new investment solution and cooperation models, especially in Germany.
We think that at the moment, on a corrected price level is possible. We do not want to finance this ourselves. This is why we have a cooperation with the German market leader. With this partner, we would like to use the opportunities of the market. With the purchase of Bredella to invest the asset value. No, the asset management has grown, and in this area, we have 100 tenant contracts, which must be managed of course transformation. The transformation in this area is the most interesting point. A good mix of different tenants just closer to the station of Pratteln.
The classic development work is done in the team development, and then the asset management represents also the owner for Ina Invest, and they agree together with the owner on the development of the area. Real estate product. With a scalable real estate product, we would like to realize different objectives. The risks and the various situations, we would like to just put them down and make sure that these situations can be put up more than once, even without having to renew everything. On the second hand, we want a complete configuration which is digitalized for automated programs. Also an interface for the fabrications is what we'd like to develop and build. Thirdly, the real estate products do not fit into the physical room. They are put into place virtually.
This makes everything very intelligent, especially for the control of energy, delivery of building data or additional services. The constructive services and the material need to be circular and have an advantage on the CO2 balance. We are building our own portfolio. The development of the hotel product Green Hospitality for the European market is really advanced. Furthermore, we would like to develop more products, for example, for payments and for living for an older generation of people. SENIO-LIVING is what we call it. We see a big demand for a scalable real estate product, and we would like to put them into life with other projects. The way we would like to have this development and thinking of sustainability makes us the real estate leader.
What is really important is that the life cycle of real estate should be really put into the center and to be able to have net zero in 2041 or so with our own portfolio. This reduces the gray emissions to the raw material, for example, wood. We would like also to reduce the emissions for the energy. We would like also to measure the use phase. The second is the making use of circular products and the development here. We have closed cycles, which are our priority. What we would like in sustainability is to have the right mindset for the various systems so that we can differentiate ourselves on the competitive market.
Our business model is more diversified, and from these various areas, we want to generate more operative facts and figures that will give us an EBIT of CHF 40 million. Now, the recurring incomes of the various services and performance fees, as also the collaboration should also be part of the payments. Then we also have various variations. The growth of invest in various businesses, with this we should have the EBIT structures and be able to augment them. Everything we do has to have a positive influence. Also, the project volumes of the Buildings, especially the Specialties and Civil Engineering, and that should also be augmented.
I think that we are highly motivated, and we have ambition. Ambitions, ideas, goals. I'm going to pass the word on to Franziska.
Thank you, Adrian. Thank you all for your attention. We will now take a short break. There's coffee, there is refreshments outside. We will continue at 10:50 A.M. with the financial development. Please be back at 10:50 A.M. Welcome back. We are well on time. We're ready for the financial development of the group, the presentation by Stefan Baumgärtner. The stage is yours, Stefan.
Thank you, Franziska. Now I would like to give you some more precise input about our financial development. Looking ahead, there's a clear roadmap to sustainably improve our financial position during our Fit for Growth phase. In the first half year of 2022, a record order book of CHF 7.1 billion was reported, with a significantly improved risk and margin profile. The order book is also well selected and diversified, with structural improvements become visible. This will lead into increased transparency and predictability, and future revenues of increased profitability. A slight revenue decline in full year 2022 is expected due to strategic decisions. The short- to mid-term focus lies on stabilizing to increasing revenue, mainly through organic growth. Following the successful transformation, the EBIT margin significantly improved.
The EBIT guidance of more than CHF 130 million for the full year 2022 is confirmed. Future group EBIT will be driven by the stronger performance of all four divisions, with the short to mid-term EBIT margin target of approximately 3.5%. As shown by André, we plan to achieve the 3.5% EBIT margin plateau from this year onwards during our Fit for Growth phase. By realizing the opportunities, as shown by the divisions, we expect to achieve a mid to long-term EBIT margin of more than 4.5%. Equity ratio improved to 16%, as we have shown you by the half year result, and will be further strengthened to improve net profit for this year. The mid-term target to achieve an equity ratio of above 20% is expected by 2023.
Therefore, the new target for equity ratio in the mid to long term is 25%. We are well-financed to support our operational targets and continue to improve the cash flow generation. Also, we strive to generate sustainable positive cash flows through profitable operations, active working capital management, and supported by the well-balanced maturity profile of the financing instruments. In the past years, the construction industry, alongside many other industries, has been impacted by COVID and the Ukraine crisis. This challenging macro environment, including its uncertainties and inflation, needs close attention and mitigation. Implenia's strategic positioning in urban areas and public infrastructure proves robust in the volatile economic environment we are in. With our central procurement, together with the operating units and back-to-back contract clauses, we are able to react quickly and mitigate the situation.
Therefore, we currently have a manageable impact of increased material prices, and we are committed to continue to mitigate the impact going forward. Next, I'd like to provide more transparency on our order book. The order book shows a balanced composition. The divisional split is around 50/50 between Buildings and Civil Engineering. The Specialties division is stable and accounts for around 2% of the order book. Two-thirds of the group's order book comes from public customers with strong financials, especially complex and long-lasting projects for public customers with high financial reliability. The balanced composition of the order book shows our resilience to economic fluctuations and low exposure to payment defaults. The maturity profile of our order book is balanced and reflects our strategy of larger and more complex projects.
As of June 30th this year, 75% of our order book is scheduled for revenue recognition in 2023 and beyond. This secures future production output, and proves our strategic focus on larger and more complex projects. The constant execution of the Value Assurance, as you've seen before, which our division heads previously showed in detail, has driven the increase of the pre-calculated margin by approximately 1.5 percentage points during the past years. Today, more than half of the order book consists of projects in Value Assurance class I and II, which are projects with the highest size and complexity. We expect future enhancements to our Value Assurance process, especially from data-driven continuous improvement process across all divisions and countries. As a part of Value Assurance, we carry out a quarterly in-depth review of all major projects.
This is so-called result delivery assessment or RDA. It is a structured process to closely monitor the performance of all projects. It includes monitoring of early warning KPIs and a sensitivity analysis of the gross margin development. An important part is also the latest estimate and claims and litigations. Applying this process has enabled us to achieve a significant reduction of open claims by key projects. In the second half of 2021, we have reduced open claims by 73% and achieved a further reduction by 53% in the first half of 2022. This reduces risks in our current projects significantly. The entire Value Assurance process has been a proven and effective risk management tool. Since its full implementation two years ago, there have been no major surprises. Transparency is increased, and claims have to be assessed jointly by operations, legal, and finance.
For the full year 2022, we still expect a slight decline in revenue due to strategic focus, selective project tendering, and exchange rate, mainly euro Swiss francs translation effect. The integrated model of the group with its four divisions proves effective as you can see an increase in intercompany revenues also. The short to midterm focus on profitable growth aims to stabilizing to increasing revenue, mainly by organic growth, as well as specialization in the divisions and backward-forward integration. In the mid to long term, we are aiming to further increase revenue by organic and inorganic growth. I'm going to continue with the profitability or EBIT. The future group EBIT is primarily driven by the improved performance of the large divisions. The EBIT margin target of approximately 3.5% reflects a sustainable short to midterm level.
We expect a sustainable improved performance, particularly from specialization, backward and forward integration, and operational excellence in the divisions. As a result, our mid- to long-term EBIT target is more than 4.5%. We expect to achieve the saving targets of CHF 50 million annually, recurring savings ahead of the initial target by end of 2022. Recognized operational excellence and lean methodologies, tools have been implemented in financial and administrative processes to ensure potential of further savings. The consistently implemented Value Assurance process also contributes significantly to the profitability of the projects and secures the group EBIT improvements. As shown before, we have achieved a significant improvement in equity ratio from 12.3% to 16% by half year. This was driven by a considerable improvement in equity and progress made in reducing total assets.
Further upside potential from the difference between the current market value to the book value of the real estate portfolio, or so-called Landbank, would actually even lead to an equity ratio of over 20%. The mid-term target to achieve an equity ratio of over 20% is expected by 2023. Based on the strong underlying performance, the expected earnings of Ina Invest, and a reduction of total assets. The new mid-term target is to enhance the equity ratio to 25%. We are actively pursuing a sustainable reduction of the net working capital. This is supported by five pillars. That's for example, contract negotiations, documentation and processes, and transparency and visibility. Today, we can already report a number of achievements. Visibility of net working capital has already been significantly improved.
There is a high level of transparency at global, divisional, and project level. Collecting receivables, the invoicing of work in progress, also called WIP, and the optimization of payment terms is done with increased consistency. A major milestone was the reduction of net working capital by CHF 200 million in the first half year of 2022, compared with the first half year of 2021. A significant increase in operating cash flow was reported since the first half year, 2022. This is in line with the stronger profitability, the improved cash conversion cycle, and optimized net working capital management. Moving forward, we expect sustained positive cash flows in the future. Commenting on investments, we will continue to invest in our own attractive real estate portfolio, our Landbank. CapEx is estimated between CHF 35 million-CHF 45 million annually in the coming years.
Our clear target is to achieve positive operating and free cash flows in the future. We are well-financed to support the business and profitable growth. The existing financing instruments are a balanced or off-balance-sheet maturity profile. In addition, sufficient guarantee credit lines are available to support operating business in the future. The committed syndicate facility agreement amounts to CHF 650 million. During the transformation, a debt position was reported. Going forward, the clear target is returning to a net cash position driven by a profitable operating business, positive cash flow generation, and reduced financing. At this stage, it is important to me to summarize the divisional short- to mid-term targets, which were presented by my colleagues earlier. Civil Engineering, with the longest lead times in their projects, expect a moderate organic revenue growth. Also, substantial EBIT and EBIT margin improvements are expected.
The Division Specialties expects promising revenue growth potential and elevated EBIT and EBIT margins in the future. As earlier presented, Buildings expects moderate organic revenue growth and substantial EBIT and as well EBIT margins improved. The Division Real Estate expects growing revenue from the service business, and as a consequence, a gradual reduction of volatility in the business, as shown before. The contribution from real estate development depends on the realization of the projects. The EBIT contribution of the Division Real Estate is expected to be above CHF 40 million per year, and in the midterm, we expect the share of recurring income of the annual EBIT contribution to be more than 50%. Concluding, I would like to summarize the group financial targets presented today.
We anticipate stabilizing to increasing revenue, mainly through organic growth, in the short to midterm, and further increasing revenue through organic and potential inorganic growth in the mid to long term. Short to midterm, an EBIT margin of approximately 3.5% is target. We expect to achieve this target already this year, and we'll keep this level in the short to midterm. In the mid to long term, the EBIT margin target is more than 4.5%. An equity ratio of above 20% is expected by 2023. The midterm target is an equity ratio of 25%. Implenia intends to propose to the AGM to cautiously resume dividend distributions as of spring 2023. Furthermore, our focus lies on generating positive operating and free cash flows and to return to a net cash position again. Many thanks for your attention.
With that, I hand back to André Wyss for his closing remarks. Thank you very much.
Thank you to the CFO, Stefan Baumgärtner. Thank you to the division heads for their insights into their business. Before we start the Q&A, let me wrap up this round of presentation. Fit for Growth phase will further strengthen the competitive position of Implenia. Based on our four strategic priorities, we have shown you how we are aiming to reach our financial short- to mid-term, but also the mid- to long-term targets. All divisions contribute and will grow existing business, develop new business, and execute selected acquisitions in a smaller piece at the beginning. After I will complete the transformation, successful transformation I must say, and comprehensive, and with our expertise as a substantially improved risk profile, we're in a much stronger position.
At this point in time, I also wanna thank all those people who contributed to this success story and this very comprehensive transformation, mainly the executive committee, all employees, and certainly the board of directors, Hans-Ulrich Meister is here, which guaranteed for such a, I would say, exceptional collaboration. Thank you all those who contributed to this. Megatrends such as urbanization and investments in mobility infrastructure support our growing markets. The strategy is right, megatrends support it. Implenia is the market leader in Switzerland, has a strong position in Germany, and in an excellent position in tunneling in selected European markets. We are market leading with focused competencies in all divisions, underpin this even further. An increased earnings potential through further specialization as well as backward and forward integration, as explained before, is planned, and we are fully convinced to reach our ambitious targets.
The strong foundation of our culture and leadership, which is also illustrated here in our new offices, is attracting the right people in the right roles to accomplish our vision, mission, and strategy. Implenia is excellently positioned for a sustainable and profitable growth. Thank you very much for your attention. I now hand over back to Franziska, and we are happy to answer your questions. Can I also ask the presenters to come up? Franziska?
Thank you very much. Yes, we would like to ask all presenters on stage as we now open the Q&A session. Please note that you can ask your questions in German or English. To everyone in the room, please use the microphones as distributed. To everyone in the live stream, please use the chat function to type your questions. I will then read them out. We will start with questions in the room.
Hello.
Andreas, in the back. In the back.
Thanks. I have a couple of questions on the financials update. You cautiously resume dividend payments from spring 2023 on. How should we think about it? Is it to reinstate a DPS and provide a positive sign to the market, or will you introduce, like, a payout ratio from now on?
I think, I can start cautiously means cautiously. Yes, it's more seen as a signal. Stefan, you wanna say something more?
Yeah, from the process, it's clear that the board of directors had to propose to the AGM the according payment for the dividends. Of course, we have or they have to consider where we are into, how we are financed, how strong will it be our operating profit, and so forth. This will be a very, very balanced decision in the future.
Okay. Another one on growth. Implenia had, like, I call it bad luck with kind of low quality growth in the past. Now you talk about growing by acquisitions again. How should we think about that?
Yes, growth can be profitable, it can also be unprofitable, and it certainly depends on the strengths and the organization and how you're growing. There are a couple of things I wanna illustrate, and I hope you also saw that from the presentations of the division heads and also from the CFO. The idea certainly is with the Value Assurance process to make sure that everything we acquire organically is done in a professional and in a profitable way. The specialization and the recurring fees certainly help to that. If you are afraid of or if you consider acquisitions, we said we start very small. We already have proven that we can acquire companies. We acquired BAM Swiss.
Maybe Jens, you can say a few words afterwards to that acquisition, which was in hindsight now proven to be very successful. Was a very comprehensive and in-depth process we went through, very disciplined. We have done one or two smaller ones as well, also successful. We will go step by step, and we will not rock the market, if you like. Jens?
I won't mention anything. Yes, can confirm that the BAM Swiss part is fully integrated and is operating very efficiently within Buildings, so nothing to add, yeah.
I think we can say that you in the division had a tremendous workload with this.
Definitely, yes. It's hard to acquire projects because you need to go in-depth in the projects. Building projects are complex, especially if they are in the turnkey business. You need to do a very smart and in-depth due diligence. That's why I think it was very complex and time intensive.
What acquisition really means is you need a good organization, a capable organization. In absorbing that organization, that new organization, you need processes which work. We have also a strategy and deal-making organization under the leadership of Thomas Zweifel, who set up this capability within the organization. Finally, you need a finance and legal organization who support the process accordingly. I think we are already well trained. We know how to do it. As I said, we will not rock the boat. We will go step by step. The main focus is very clear, organic growth in the field of specialization, backward, forward, and operational excellence.
Okay, thanks. One more. Maybe if you could switch to slide 81. You showed different Value Assurance risk classes on that slide. What does it mean if almost half of the portfolio is in the lower classes of that Value Assurance process?
So-
The blue colored.
Yeah, we need to be careful. We have class I, right? That's the big one. Class II and class III and IV, they follow the same procedures. This is also a Value Assurance process which is established within the divisions. Maybe Christian, you can say a few words how that works in your organization.
Going to do this in German. What I would like to say that we have to rethink. Due to this Value Assurance risk process, we can move people to rethink. I mean, so that people stop chasing projects and start thinking about having a qualitatively high project where we don't just have to decide upon the price, but this culture has to be thought about. Then we can also go very well down to the project Value Assurance one. We have a committee. For II and III, we've got within the divisions also independent Value Assurance organizations.
Really cover every single project in the Value Assurance program. As well as in, you know, in those, as before mentioned, deep dives of the projects does not depend on the class. That all our running projects are covered in there and all the selection process for new projects also. That has no impact on if it's covered in that or not.
Yeah. I think the most important one is even in the class III and IV projects, the decision to tender and the conditions of a tender are decided not only by the business, but it's an interdisciplinary committee who decides. It's also included by finance and legal. Every level we have these committees and the conditions for a tender are approved by a committee, no longer by a single businessman or woman.
Thanks. Maybe a last one for, from Mr. Baumgärtner. You elaborated that you expect to generate 3.5% EBIT margin from this year onwards. Does this mean that you expect this margin, like, consistently every single year without any slips from now on?
No, we expect that approximately 3.5%, as mentioned before, to generate every year from next year on. Yes. Even this year, but this is our guidance, but as well from next year on. Yes.
Yes. We confirm we wanna have around 3.5% from now on.
Every year.
Martin, please.
Okay, I switch to German. The claim management page was interesting. 50%. Could you give us a bit more information? How much money or project volume are we talking about? With regard to the procedure, what do we have to how do we have to imagine this? The claim situation, is it at the end of project or are you always delayed with regard to the milestones?
General Counsel. I wanna introduce you to German Grüniger, our general counsel, who maybe in combination with Stefan can answer that perfectly.
We have to check the supplements or addenda we have ongoing. For this, we have installed a process. Legal, finance, and risk are together and they evaluate these differences and the addenda and the evaluation internally, how to evaluate these requests. We can really say that in the last two years since we have really observed this process, we have no more surprises. Of course, you will always have small problems and differences. How we manage these discrepancies, we really do have an improvement there. In this project and these projects are realized every three months.
A review of the claims and litigations is very structured in order to avoid surprises after three years in a project. We do this for every project every three months, and or even every month. For each project. We have a lawyer, a financier, and a business person around the table, and if they do not agree, it's escalated to the next level. Maybe you would like to.
It's me? Yes, sir. If we have a big project, sir, we also do have our own staff concentrating on these areas. Together, in collaboration with legal, we try to train our people with regard to the contract, interpretation of the contract, and recognizing certain points in the contract. This is very important. We would like really to work with our trained staff here.
Yes, sir. We have introduced the same process. We do not want to start with the claim management in the building construction at the end of the project. We want to involve in the early stage our contract managers in analyzing problems, possible problems. I think we are much more prudent and together with other disciplines, we evaluate possible claims in order to avoid surprises.
Anita, in your smaller projects, how do you proceed?
Well, in the same way, more or less, at different level. With legal, finance, and business, we meet, and we evaluate smaller projects in the same way. Of course, we also need to know the content of the contract.
We also have our contract managers, who understand the content of the contract. It's only then that claim management can really have success. Value Assurance, claim, litigation. This is really something Implenia lives every day. This is not something which is just written down on a piece of paper. No, this is really lived every day, and this has really impressed me, and it works very well. Well, afterwards, we have a topic corner, and I will be there with the team Value Assurance. You can ask us.
Yes, I just recommend you to go to this topic corner. You can eat and talk to the experts. It's really important what has been said. The process alone is not enough. You need a good organization, and it's this divisional organization with functional excellence, and you also need a culture. If we say one knows something he's not saying, then this is a punishment, and not if someone turns up this bad news. No, we want to have the news on the table, regardless if they are positive or negative.
Another question. Where do you have bottlenecks, or shortages of capacity? Your order books are full, but you certainly have a limit. Where can you grow?
Well, I start, and then I hand over to the divisions. In the Value Assurance process, this resource discussion has already started. We have three processes.
First is selection, where we discuss whether we start with an offer, then where resources are already discussed. If we find out that is not working, we do not continue. We stop. We are not writing an offer without having secured the resources, the necessary resources. Although yes, it's clear our order books are full. I would say that all our divisions can still have resources. In the building construction, we have long-term projects. The volume per year, it's not small steps that bring the volume. The volume is created over many years. It's a key element to have the right experts. This is difficult. It's difficult to find these experts.
Thanks to the strategic management talent organization, for example, we feel that it's much easier for us to find these people. And with connections with the offices, we attract good new talents and this helps a lot. It's a success. The easier it is to find good people. Of course, this is key, and we grow only with the right experts. It is difficult for us to realize projects if we do not have the necessary talent.
Yes, I totally agree. In Switzerland and Germany, we have a scarcity of experts. This is why your words, Jens, are so important. In Switzerland, we have a big potential with regard to female experts.
This is a potential we can still exploit, and we work together with HR to exploit it. Wood construction will be produced. We go over our production capacities. As there we work with our partners, and as long as we can manage well the project, we can also work with external partners. Okay, Claudia, we pass to the other divisions. Maybe we can also talk about the scarcity of the experts. Christian, no. Another point, with regard to what has been said, we must make a difference. We have two processes. One is the acquisition process, the other is the execution process. We talked mainly here about execution, but we must also think about acquisition.
We must make sure that we have enough experts there. It's really difficult to find the experts externally, because acquisition also needs a better know-how and a better trust. Such a contract covers several years. We also try to train the people with regard to these challenges, and we want to have performing teams in order to find new talents. Okay, scarcity of experts. In Germany, we have another situation, and in Switzerland the demand is higher. Our key factor is to have growth, and industrial pre-fabrication is one answer, just one answer, not the answer, in order to tackle the scarcity of experts.
Hi, nice to meet you all.
Claudia.
I think we have two areas that we focus on. One is obviously the existing employees, right? And as André also said earlier, training, development, et cetera. We've also gone through a big culture change, as he also said, which is about, you know, if there's a problem, bring it up, don't hide it, right? We can address it. That's a big piece of it. You know, you can now see the people who've joined us, also the environment, et cetera. You can tell that people, you know, it's been a hard couple of years, but people are really kind of, you know, understanding the way we're going, the strategy, the new culture, the behaviors, the leadership, the values that we want. Those are the existing employees.
Of course, as we all said, the Fachkräftemangel is significant in every industry nowadays. We're looking at also and Anita mentioned it, you know, there are the females in the workforce, which again, the construction industry hasn't necessarily always had a lot of. We're looking at that. It's an untapped pool we can use. We're also looking at bringing in a lot more younger people. You know, we're looking at universities, colleges, et cetera, and doing that much more. Also the other end of the spectrum, you know, the more experienced people. People who may be, you know, are near retirement, but actually wanna continue working in some way. They have huge amounts of knowledge.
For example, in Germany, we have a program where we keep them on if they want to be kept on in a part-time capacity or something like that. We're kinda looking at all the different ways of looking at it across all the different countries. We also have quite a lot of people now moving between projects, particularly I think in your area, between tunneling, going, you know, from Germany to Norway or Sweden or to France or back because the expertise is, you know, for big complex projects is a particular niche. We're having people move across, which is wonderful to see too.
Thank you. Claudia, the ingredients to find new talent and also to keep them is a question of organization. People want to understand what their tasks are, and people saw our projects. A good engineer, a good architect, project manager wants to participate if the projects are good. You need simple processes, lean processes, quick processes. You must be innovative. Today's talents want to have innovative procedures and innovative culture. This is why we are here. I think our culture is a modern culture, not a classic culture. At the end of the day, compensation must also be correct. I think we are leaders with regard to this. Long answer. Yes.
This is a very important topic. If you are too long, you can interrupt us.
Sure.
Christian Arnold, Stifel. Three topics from my side. On one hand, with regard to the dividend, I was surprised when I heard that you want to pay a dividend next year. I would say you should do this cautiously. What's that payout ratio strategy going forward? I mean, your capital objective of 20%-25%. What's included in this? What's behind it? Probably. You had two questions. Okay. No, that was the first. Second question was, concerning the divisions and the EBIT objectives, CHF 40 million plus in real estate, 3.5%-4%. That's the objective. Give us a range with regard to the expectation of the other divisions. The last topic, What the Division Specialties, what, volume must one of these specialties achieve, in order to become a known division? Is this possible, in which area?
Okay, let's start with the dividend. Yes, it's clear our profitability has improved. We will have own capital of more than 20 and we will achieve this next year, as I said. Hence, the administrative board will propose, because it was a successful year, to pay a small dividend. It will be requested. We will discuss it. If the performance maintains, the dividend will grow. With regard to EBIT objectives, we said what the ranges are. We talked about the details. We will not give any other ranges. We said where we will start and where we want to go.
We will not give more details with regards to this point. You can be sure that each division within their strategy and their environment, they want to be the leaders. Like, in building construction, Jens wants to bring the highest quality. The same for civil engineering. And real estate, where we have given you all the details.
Specialties, I start. We are trying to acquire certain situations. I mean, acquisition is always quite complex. What can divisions actually do? What's their core competence? If it's not their core competency, then these divisions are always often put into place, and they disappear, and they're taken up from the entire organization.
I mean, in specialty it's quite simple because they are a unit, and they can go directly into the company. Can a unit become so big that it can have their own division? Yes. Can it be possible that one unit is so big and stable that we pass it on to another division? Yes, that is also feasible. Can it also be that it stays where it is? That is also a possibility, and the fourth option is that it has developed quite well. We don't see it as core and sell it. These are the four options that we have, and they are all possible. Great. Now I have got no more to say. I mean, you said it so beautifully.
What I can do and add is that the portfolio is going to be evaluated and where the businesses fit. At the moment, the portfolio is okay. The weighted position, the business developed well. The portfolio is probably going to develop over the years, and it would be surprising if it weren't the case. All possibilities that you have mentioned. Yes, we have them. Yes, maybe I could formulate it in a different way. I mean, we are amongst ourselves. With this unity, we have had units that have created problems. The task of our team leader was to transform this. Some were in not such good positioning and not such a good situation, and our idea is to take all the units and make them fit perfectly.
Once at one place doesn't mean always at the same place. The division, you know, last year, operationally a bit negative, and that comes from the same situation because there are certain turnaround situations. Now we've got a good development, and we are expecting quite a lot in the years to come.
Holger.
Holger? I am from the Zürcher Kantonalbank, and I've got a question concerning the balance. You'd said that balance is also a topic here. In the last restructuring program, the balances were at CHF 2.3 billion and to go down to CHF 2.3 billion. My question is, where are we now? Where are we situated now? Where can we position ourselves? Yes, that's quite important question. Thank you very much for that one. Medium term, short term and long term, what can we imagine, medium term? Is it three years, five years term? Could you maybe say something to that, please? Then I also have a question, M&A. With what sizes can we expect? I mean, you know, more than CHF 50 million? That's a smaller M&A story.
Now, what is maximum feasible size, two and three? Then you can answer question number one. Thank you very much. Medium term, long term is a definition of 3 to 5 years, whereas we are quite impatient. Often we're not happy with the long term. We always try to make the company grow fast in a short time. M&A, yes, that is a limit, so up to CHF 50 million. That's what we said. Furthermore, we're not a lot further than that. If we look at along over CHF 50 million. Yeah. Balance. As to the balance, I mean, it's central to say that we continue the same strategy. The strategy has not changed. What is important, it has to be in say, in relation to the business, to the projects that we have.
Since it was CHF 3.2 billion at the point, the business does continue to develop, and what's important is to be able to say that the strategy is always the same, asset light. The 2.3, if we want to grow again organically and maybe also a bit inorganically, then 2.3 billion isn't probably the correct size. It really depends upon the whole business and how it develops. We're going to intensively continue working on the net working capital optimization, and then we're going to continue assets. But 2.3 billion, it does not end here. I mean, it does end the whole business.
My name is Pamela, and I have a question for real estate. We talked about recurring income. I don't know if I didn't pay attention, but how do you define the term recurring income within real estate? Could you explain that? Who'd like to start and explain this terminology? Second question that I have, generally to the German market. You sounded quite positive upon that. Mr. Holzleitner said that in the last quarter, the third quarter, that we're going backwards. In the residential area, we see that projects are being closed down due to financial costs, due to material costs. German families and turnover, et cetera, is lowering down due to Corona and Ukraine help, and inflation, high inflation in Germany.
What do you think that in Germany, we're going to have to invest more money in the civil engineering, or what do you think in the building construction? Yeah, we're going to ask the first question number one. Andreas, Stefan, please.
Recurring incomes. Well, I explain it in such a way that I put fees, the recurring fees. We also have performance fees, transaction fees, which go under this terminology. These companies have a certain volume they've got to cover, and these are quite stable from the size point of view. They grow, we invest. Additionally, we have the equity with, you know, Wyss, which is part of the result. I don't think there's any more to say to that or to add to that.
Now coming to Germany and also to Switzerland, I would like to broaden the answer here. If you read the statistics, then you know median or other hurdles with merely average, and we have certain segments. Of course, we do have segments that are not growing, which are actually falling apart. This is why our focus on our niche area, higher, more complex projects that are financed differently. Up to now, we have not had any of these situations.
On the contrary. We can keep this like this, and from there, we've not got this massive situation as you described it, and we keep reading and hearing it. In our segments, we have not seen that. On the contrary, I mean, we are growing, and I think that shows that our strategy is probably the right strategy. It's important that you too, have something to add here .
Yes, I can only agree with that. I mean, the fundamental to have a cost-efficient system is also a political scheme. Of course, you've got the different partners, the different models, and also the classical competence model. I mean, we're going to act everywhere. I mean, we cannot be selective with the contracts and we can see this in our market. Yeah. In Germany, it's not really shown. I think the competency that we have in Germany and the services are on demand, and we've got many steady customers, so we're quite optimistic about that. Medium and long term, we are quite good.
Now I can add, if I look at the Internet, so here we've got, we don't have that many measures that in the end, we've got so much potential that we've got to catch up on. You probably know this, the A45 in the Sauerland in Germany is the main connection in Germany, and that's been disconnected because the bridges are falling apart in Germany. In Cologne, we only have one bridge that we can actually drive over, and we've gotten used to that, and that cannot be normal. There is so much to do still. I mean, this is a potential for us also in the future, especially maybe if we feel the recession. The infrastructure is also a good stimulus and maybe the market can then be activated again.
This is my comment. Thank you. What about the perspective of real estate and the market to real estate? We as Implenia, we're not that strongly placed in Germany, and if we look at the balance sheet, it's a solid capitalization. We mainly self-finance ourselves. It's not the classical model, German model, where we have 90% foreign financing. The real estate business is going to change. We see opportunities, we see objects, and we see development of real estate where there are new opportunities that might open up and see what the group can do. Here we also see partnerships that we don't have to do everything ourselves, don't take on the risks ourselves. This market situation also gives us opportunities for real estate.
I think the big trends they are absolutely optimal, and I think also with the population growth, at least populations grow, so in towns where we have a sustainable real estate business and better projects, so that we're positioned in an optimal way. Maybe other companies are not the same.
I have a question on the infrastructure projects which are often financed by public financing. The public financing, of course, when we talk about money, how do you see the development with the payment limits? I mean, are they. You know, due to the working capital, what is the deadline, the payment deadline? I mean, for example, you get a contract, but you've still got to make sure that we have the financing. What's the tendency here?
I mean, the investors say, "Okay, I'm going to give you this contract, but you've got to make sure that the finance, financing is there." That's the first question. The second question is: Do you also have customers or steps where we have the return capital employed?
I'm gonna start by answering the question in a macro environment. Then I'll pass on the question to Stefan and the other colleague. The whole financial situation is discussed in the flow. There, we have a pre-financing, and that's decided on how it's going to be continued or not continued, so the terminology is clear. In the contract situation, it's very, very clear, and we wouldn't accept projects where this is not an advantage for us, where it's not fair upon us.
Here we really have to say, and I think, Mr. Grüniger and Stefan Baumgärtner have said this with the claim situation, that here we can go into a different story. We also discuss how these claims can be explained and where we can get the cash flow from. Here it's gone backwards and that we need to be proactive. Maybe you'd like to say something to financing, and then from your side. Yes. To talk about the project in Velashur, we're still looking at the cash flow of the project. We still would like a positive cash flow. We still have a positive cash flow, and we'd like to put it into place. The problem is that, as we've already said, that it's not the payment conditions.
They're good, they're kind of fair, and they've been well negotiated. It's not the beginning of the negotiation. The problem comes when we have a dispute, a technical or a legal dispute, and then we do need public institutions. In the end of the year, we have the, I mean, that they actually have the will to pay, and this is a profit topic at the end. Otherwise we would like to keep our good conditions and optimization of the net working capital. Christian? Public place, it's not very clear, and the problem is that we go beyond the budget. Once we can continue. Then our public customers, do they really stick to the public payments or not?
Even especially with the prepayment, we have different models with different, situations. We've got certain prepayments that we have at our disposition, and with some it's different, and we can also structure our, offers. It's important that we have, that we're well-positioned in a wider way. Please come on stage. I just wanted to add, I thought maybe this question has the aim to, go into a different business model, which is the public-private partnership business model. Maybe there, I mean, there are certain structures, projects that we have had a look at. Christian, we, you know, we've thought about going into this business, and it's quite a different business model with different financial means and different, setup. In Europe, it's coming more and more.
I mean, it's public business which is not being financed publicly, but the companies are financing it. It's an object. They keep it 20-25 years, but it's different models. I wanted to say that. Questions to French construction companies, we don't have an active project. Good. Sorry, what? What was the question? The question was- what about the cash flow project? Very central. Every single project has to have a positive cash flow and a net working capital per division, capital employed, especially passed by net working capital division and improvements. They're also underneath the business unit. The divisions are incentivized, and then we have net working capital.
Both is included.
I've got three more questions on the divisions, if I may. First, on the real estate, when do you actually plan to reach the 50% recurring income? And second, an add-on, on the question on the EBIT ambitions. On slide 60T in the buildings division, you showed the EBIT bridge. It gave me the impression that the EBIT margin will not grow that much anymore from 1.9% to the 3.5%. Is it a wrong impression or does it mean that it is not possible to grow buildings that much? And then, thirdly, we saw in the presentation that there is very high demand in timber, in building, construction, logistics. But like most recently, specialties delivered kind of under average margin contributions.
Which percentage of the whole business is still in turnaround? By when will kind of everything get through that turnaround process?
Okay. Maybe to the first, I think you said midterm, right? With the 50%. Anything to add? Would then mean 3-5 years. Depends how aggressive you are. In our plans, three years, yeah. But I can reassure you that these fees are really growing and already on a significant level. Then the EBIT of Buildings, maybe I start and then certainly, Jens, you should give the answer. Buildings, and I need to say that because you probably don't wanna say that yourself, is in a turnaround for a longer time, out of the turnaround for a longer time. So they have already consistently delivered a good, reasonable EBIT in the past couple of semesters. So we are probably a little bit ahead in the transformation compared to what we had in the Civil business. Yeah.
Where the problem were even deeper and more severe. We exited those markets where we had big problems relatively quickly in Europe. That's why their starting point is already at 1.9%, as you could have seen on the chart by the end of 2021. The.
Yeah. I mean, as I mentioned, the 3.5% or as it was mentioned by André and Stefan, the 3.5% margin target is on group level, not on buildings. Of course, we will try to improve the margin, and we are seeing that on several projects which are we are specialized service provider, we see even higher margins than the 3.5%. It's possible to do and to generate higher margins than the 3.5% on single projects. If we can and this is the target increase the percentage of specialized and large complex projects, we will see significant higher margins than the 1.9%.
I think we have a target to deliver already this year a higher EBIT margin than the 1.9%, so. The 3.5% is a group level target, not a Buildings target.
The last one, this minus percentage you saw was 2021. She already contributed, in the first half is a positive, EBITDA, she said. I would say if she would have significant turnarounds in her business, we would not have called the group transformation as completed. Also these businesses are now out of the turnaround. They just start on, some of them, on a lower level, and they start to grow. It's very impressive. Some of those businesses grow 25%, on top line, but they're just, to a certain extent, tinier than some of those who are in the turnaround. There's a bit of a mix effect, what you can see, on the chart.
Yes.
Anything to add?
Yeah. No. Yeah, because then I would go into detail, but maybe a little bit to the history. The portfolio was a bit larger three years ago. We sold four companies. Or four businesses and we closed one business. Now we have a portfolio of businesses where exactly as you say, André, we are out of the turnaround businesses now. Some can still become and shall still become more profitable, but we are profitable.
Maybe from the right side.
That's not politically meant, hopefully. From
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Okay. There seem not to be any further questions. We are prepared to finish earlier and have lunch earlier, and certainly the topic corners before you close. I wanna really emphasize that the topic corners are relevant. These people are looking forward to hear questions from you and go into debates with you. Once again, I wanna thank everybody who presented today, who prepared this whole show. Thank you very much. With this, I hand back to Franziska.
Yes. Thank you. We're closing officially the Q&A session. Please note that Implenia will report full year 2022 results on the 1st of March. Next year, our annual general meeting of shareholders will take place on the 23rd, on the 28th of March. Apologies. For any questions, inquiries, please reach out via the usual channels. Thank you again for joining us today. To all the participants in the live stream, we wish you a pleasant day, and goodbye.