Good morning, and welcome to the conference call of Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment AG, SBO, on the results of the half year 2023. For your information, this call will be recorded. Throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. If any participants have difficulty hearing the conference, please press zero at the hash key for operator assistance. Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment AG also wants to remind the participants of the conference call jet some information in this call may include forward-looking statements. A detailed disclaimer is included on page two of the presentation. I will now hand you over to Gerald Grohmann, CEO of Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment.
Thank you very much for this introduction, and ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our half year 2023 call, which as usual, I do together with Klaus Mader. Yeah, let's jump directly into the news. On the SBO group level, if you look at the org chart, nothing material has changed. I will refer a little bit later to our most recent acquisition, Praxis Completion Technology in Dubai, which is not yet re-reflected on this chart as we have not had the closing event yet. But the signing, as you all know, has happened in June this year already.
So if you go to the highlights, we look back on a very successful H1 of 2023, and we are happy to report that SBO achieved double-digit growth in all financial figures. Despite some exchange losses we had to suffer. It's also in the H1 year exchange losses of EUR 5.5 million. But nevertheless, we are showing not only a very high double-digit growth, but also high profitability. Also an important event in the Q2 of this year was, of course, the dividend payment. I'm sure it made all our investors and shareholders happy. All-time high dividend payout of EUR 2 per share for the already successful year 2022.
As I said, in the H1 year, we outpaced the numbers. If you look at the profitability, we adjusted a bit, but only adjusted by foreign exchange changes. Klaus is going to refer to that in more detail, of course, here. We saw a nice and significant increase to almost EUR 61 million, which means that we had a very strong operational performance, and the operating EBIT margin climbed to 20.7% in the H1 year 2023. Yeah, the acquisition of the Dubai-based company, Praxis Completion Technology, I mentioned already briefly. We signed and announced the signing in June 2023. This is a typical add-on acquisition, and it will strengthen our market position in particular in the Middle East and in the international markets.
But we are happy to say that Praxis also enjoys first successes in delivering its packers for CCS application, carbon capture and storage, thus helping to reduce the CO2 emissions. Beyond that, we are proactively pursuing our strategy 2030 and work with great effort on potential strategic investments and acquisitions, especially in the area of components for the hydrogen process. Yeah, if we take a closer look to the key figures and to the summary of the key figures, bookings almost EUR 300 million in the H1 year, about 10% up in comparison to the last year periods. Sales almost one-third up to H1 year 2022, arriving at EUR 295 million.
EBITDA also strong, almost EUR 70 million versus a little bit more than EUR 60 million in the year before. Reported EBIT, EUR 55 million. But as you see on the chart on the zoom chart, so to say, on the right-hand side, and as I mentioned already, the adjusted EBIT margin, adjusted by exchanges only, is 20.7% and an EBIT of 61%. And this figures down, of course, to the profit after tax H1 year, 43 million, excuse me, almost EUR 10 million more than the year before. And net liquidity numbers still positive, EUR 24 million. Also, there, Klaus will provide more color to that.
Energy consumption climbed up, ratcheted up a little bit, because of higher activity. But pro rata of the output, of course, it is less than that. Headcount is the same, also ratcheted up a little from 1,484 to 1,559. So also there, a lower growth in these key numbers than the growth in activity, which means revenue, basically. Yeah, please look to Strategy 2030. Of course, you're all familiar with this chart and what I may report, that yes, we maintain and pursue, continue to pursue our Strategy 2030. As I mentioned already, this acquisition of Praxis is of course, the majority of the business is relating and referring to our core business.
They do packers for the oil and gas industry. They have a very strong footprint and very strong customer relations, in particular in the Middle East. Praxis will be a subsidiary of our WellBoss company. You know, WellBoss are doing these composite plugs. WellBoss market is the North American market. They are, they are a leading force in this market in North America, and this Praxis acquisition will help them, first of all, to broaden their product offers with these additional packers. But second, also very important, to open the doors for the existing WellBoss products, the composite plugs, into the Middle East, into Saudi Arabia, into the Emirates and many other countries where Praxis has excellent customer relation connections.
As I mentioned already, although it is a bolt-on acquisition, revenue is approximately $20 million, considered for the core business. We are happy that this also opens the door into the CO2 emission reduction initiative that we have started in our strategy and in our ESG program. Because these packers are already used in the CCS application, and we want to expand this product line further, of course. Other than that, if we look to the new business segment that we are building and going to build, I'm happy to report that also our geothermal activities gain momentum. If you remember, in our last call, I mentioned projects in Netherlands and in Africa, where we are using several of our products.
It's the downhole motors, it is the PBL circulation tool, and also the rotary steerable tool, which are all used in most of the geothermal products. We have in the meanwhile also stretched out and are part of a geothermal drilling activity in Utah, in the USA, a state in the USA. We are also here active in a project in Turkey. So this initiative is going on, and we are going to hire also in the end for geothermal only, so that we have a higher and better focus on this activity. On our strategic investment for components in the hydrogen sector, we are very active.
We are, we have many, many interesting targets on the radar screen, and we are, of course, in the process of screening these targets and evaluating these targets. This is really an exciting business. So we hope that sooner or later, we come to fruit on this process. Now, let's go to the industry background, and this, of course, is again, the oil and gas industry. Here, you all are familiar with this chart. What we see is global demand is really going up and rising by about 2 million barrels a day. This year, 202 million barrels a day. It is even expected to rise more, at about 1 million barrel a day more in the next year.
So we look very confident into the future, and we are reaching record highs in global oil demand, boosted by ongoing and continuing air travels on a much higher level in certain areas than even pre-COVID. And also increased oil use in power generation and in that, yeah? This of course feeds in particular the international rig count, which is growing. And the good thing is that the international rig count, which is at the forefront, is also driven by long-term offshore, deep offshore projects in Latin America, in Africa. Middle East is booming, and we see a lot of demand for our products and for the products of our customers, Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, stemming also from the Middle East.
The U.S. market has moderated in the H1 of 2023, for obvious reasons. On the one hand, spending discipline is still on the cards. And I think this is a good thing, because it reduces a little bit the volatility and the overheating in the U.S. market that we have been seeing 10 years ago, and longer ago. But in addition to that, what we also, of course, have to see and recognize is that the gas market in the U.S. is experiencing a certain slowdown, therefore, a reduction in particular of gas rigs. And the reason is that all the LNG terminals which are in operation are operating at full load already.
And the new LNG terminals are in the process of being built or commissioned. So we believe that, as soon as these new LNG terminals come on stream, so to say, also the gas market in the U.S. will recover. And, in addition to the very good oil market in the U.S., Permian in particular, we shall in the future also see a rebound of the gas market. Canadian rig count is also increasing after the spring breakup, and we also enjoy nice business there, although the market of course is much smaller than the other two, which I just have explained. If we look at E&P spending, nothing really has changed in comparison to our last announcement.
Expectations is about $500 billion spendings for the year 2023, which would be a growth and a plus of 11%. Expectation is that also for 2024, E&P spendings should grow, but for the moment, we do not have firm data on that. And our view to the oil supply of 2030 remains the same. You're familiar with this chart, which basically is from Rystad Energy. They say that 63 million barrels of new supply is needed by 2030 in order to cover the depletion of the existing fields and the expected oil demand increase. After this summary of the industry outlook, I would like to hand over to Klaus, discussing the financials with you.
Gerald, thank you very much. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, also from my side. As you have already seen, in the highlights and communication by Gerald, the H1 of 2023 has been an excellent one. As usual, we start with the bookings and the sales. Bookings, compared to the H1 of the previous year, increased by another more than 10% to EUR 299.2 million. You may have noticed that the Q2 bookings have been slightly below the Q1, but after a period of unprecedented high bookings, especially also in the Q4 of 2022, we see a continuation of bookings on a high level, because the EUR 142 million is a very similar figure to the Q2 of the previous year.
The book-to-bill ratio continues to be slightly above 1, as the sales have been EUR 295 million, and the backlog remains with EUR 262 million on a high and healthy level. Continuing with sales, we see for the H1 of 2023, sales increased more than 32% compared to the previous H1 year, from EUR 223 million rounded to EUR 294.7 million. Q2 sales with EUR 147.4 million, and I'm very precise now, are EUR 0.1 million above the Q1 sales, and therefore, we are proud to communicate the 11th quarter of consecutive growth. The ones who are following us very, very detailed know now that with EUR 295 million in sales-...
Our figures in the H1 of 2023 are higher than the full year sales of the year 2021, with EUR 293 million. So you see a significant uptick in our activity within one and a half years. On segment level, the split among divisions, is 55% for AMS contributing to the group sales, and 45% for oilfield equipment division. AMS achieved almost EUR 163 million in the H1 of this year, compared to EUR 109 million in the same period of the previous year, which is an increase of 49%. Q2 was on similar high levels in terms of sales, and on same levels in terms of output, compared to the Q1.
For oilfield equipment, we see a 16% increase from EUR 114- EUR 132 million in the H1 of the previous year to the H1 of this year. You may notice that although the rig count was decreasing in the Q2, sales of oilfield equipment with its higher exposure to the North American market even increased from EUR 65.4 -EUR 66.5 million. The next slide needs some further explanations, because it's for the first time that we report and show on the slide a reported EBITDA and an adjusted EBITDA, adjusted by the foreign exchange impact. The reason for that is because we see a very significant impact, especially when we compare the two periods.
The H1 of last year compared to the H1 of this year. You may recall that, especially last year, we saw a tremendous strengthening of the US dollar till the Q3, and then a weakening in the Q4, and this weakening of the US dollar continuing also into this year. I very well remember our last year half year earnings call, when we were talking about EUR 12 million exchange gains in the Q2, and in total for the H1 of the year, EUR 12 million. And this year, and Gerald mentioned it already, we have an exchange loss of EUR 5.5 million in the H1 of the year. So the gap between those two years is EUR 17 million.
Therefore, we decided to come up not only with the reported figures, but also with foreign exchange gains, losses, adjusted figures. Because here you will see that the performance, the operational performance of SBO was excellent in the H1 of this year. Coming to the figures, reported EBITDA increased from EUR 60.9- EUR 69 million, with a margin decrease of 23%- 23.4%, from 27% in the previous year. But more important, the adjusted EBITDA, with deducting almost EUR 12 million exchange gains in the previous year and adding EUR 5.5 million losses this year, shows an increase from EUR 49 - EUR 74.5 million. And a margin increase from 22% to more than 25.3%. And what are the reasons?
The reasons are higher sales, higher outputs. Higher output is resulting in economies of scale and a better capacity utilization. We are in the driver's seat in terms of pricing power, and this is also reflected in our gross profit margin, as this margin continues to be above 35%, in the Q2, in the Q1, and therefore, also in the half year results. When we move to EBIT, the same exercise, we do have a reported EBIT that shows in absolute figures, an increase from EUR 44.8- EUR 55.4, with a reduction in the margin from 20% - 18.8%.
But coming back to the operational strength, adjusted by those foreign exchange impact, gains last year, losses this year, we see almost a doubling of the EBIT from EUR 33- EUR 60.9 million. Reflected in an increase of the margin from 14.8% to almost 21%. And those divisions generated and achieved a strong performance. AMS EBIT increased from EUR 22 million reported to EUR 35 million, and also the OE EBIT increased from EUR 20- EUR 24 million. So both divisions with EBIT margins around 20%, and similar development in the first and Q2. The same development we see on profit before tax and profit after tax. We see all the figures that you anyhow see on the slide.
Worth to be mentioned is that profit before tax continues to be higher than the EBIT, due to a positive financial result, and we discussed it during our last call. We are a dollar-rich company, and our US dollar deposits generate higher interest income than our euro, predominantly euro, bank liabilities at fixed interest rates. And therefore, we see a positive financial result, and therefore, the profit before tax is EUR 56 million higher than the EBIT, the EUR 55.4 million. Increase in the earnings per share compared to the previous year, and similar developments with the other operating results. Coming to CapEx and cash flow. CapEx are slightly higher than in the same period of the previous year.
We are investing above the depreciation, and this is necessary and normal in a growing environment. We continue to invest. We continue to invest in machinery equipment in both divisions, AMS and OE, and as well, we are continuing to invest in our rental fleet that we need for the downhole drilling tools to rent to our customers. Cash flow from operating activity almost quadrupled compared to the previous year, from EUR 11- EUR 43 million. This is the reasoning for that is coming from two components. First of all, the cash flow from profits is increasing. The working capital increase this year is lower than in the same period of the previous year. Working capital is increasing due to our increased business activities.
You will notice that also in the inventory, as we have to purchase raw material, as we need to produce, the equipment for our customers. Trade receivables, due to strong collection efforts, have even been reduced in the H1 of the year, although the sales increased. This is then reflected in a very positive cash flow generation, not only on the level of operating cash flows, but also on the level of free cash flow. So the free cash flow in the H1 of the last year was minus EUR 2 million, and is now solid and high, EUR 27 million in the H1 of this year. All that high profitability, strong profitability, positive cash flow generation is reflected in a strong balance sheet.
Equity is increasing almost 48%, stands at EUR 431 million. An increase to the beginning of the year, although we made a dividend payment of almost EUR 32 million, although the US dollar was weakening, but the high profit after tax was increasing the equity. Liquid funds stay on high and healthy levels, although we paid some loans, although we made a dividend payment, and we still at high EUR 267 million. And when we then come to the net liquidity, it also continues to be positive. A net cash position EUR 94.5 million, although we paid EUR 31.5 million in May for the dividends.
So cash and liquidity situation continues to be high and strong, and this is also resulting in the fact that the gearing only slightly decreased due to the dividend payment, and we continue to be in a positive cash flow generation. With that positive information, I hand over to Gerald again.
Thank you very much, Klaus. Yeah, let me share our view on the outlook with you, and let's start with a kind of helicopter view with the markets before we become specific. The good thing is, and the good news is, the oil field service industries markets remain intact amidst the current uncertainties in some areas of the global economy. The reason for this are several. First of all, an increasing awareness of the importance of energy security. Second, the growing demand for oil and gas, coupled with some production constraints. All this is leading to the decoupling, as we see and as we say, of the activities of our industry from the global economy. So we continue to enjoy nice weather, so to say, on the markets.
While the North American markets are currently on a more moderate level, the international and offshore markets will be overcompensating this weaker level in the North America markets, and will support the activities in the oilfield service sector. Based on these industry fundamentals, we continue to believe that this spending cycle is more durable and robust than previous cycles. What is, of course, also very important is, this is not only our view, this is also the view of our customers, of our key customers, in particular, the big three, Schlumberger, Halliburton, and Hughes. If you read, for instance, Olivier Le Peuch saying: "Our multi-year contract awards confirm our outlook for long-term growth and the resilience and durability of this upcycle." I think this is a very strong comment from the industry leader.
But also, Jeff Miller from Halliburton said: "We expect upstream spending to grow 2023 and beyond." So you see, the mood in the industry is positive, not only for this year, but also, for the next years coming. So what does this mean, for us, Schoeller-Bleckmann? Well, we are happy to say that the market conditions, remain favorable for us, and we are in an excellent position, to take advantage of this environment. As you know, we are, very skilled, in riding the high cycles, and, to ramp up. And as Klaus has, been referring to, the period before, you see, we actually did this very, successfully. As a result, we are on track to deliver a very strong performance, for 2023.
And at the same time, of course, we keep track on our Strategy 2030, and the objectives of our Strategy 2030 continue to be on track. Thank you very much. This was our presentation and input to the H1 year, 2023. And now, ladies and gentlemen, we are happy to receive your questions.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press nine and star on your touchtone telephone. The operator will announce your name when it's your turn to ask the question. In case you wish to cancel your question, please press nine and star again. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from Tim Wunderlich . Over to you.
Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I have a couple of questions. I'm gonna start off with the order backlog. Could you give us an indication how much of the order backlog in % is currently earmarked for the fiscal year 2024?
Yeah, if you want an immediate answer of your several questions, you can do so.
Yeah, so let's take it one by one.
Yeah, it makes our life easier, so we don't have to remember all of them at the end of screen. Yeah. Just, to give you a clear answer to that, so the order backlog for the next year is already in the very high double-digit million EUR number in our books. And as you know, maybe I have to add something. As you know, it is only the AMS division which generates future backlog here, because the OE division predominantly is in the rental business, and the rental business, by definition, does not generate any backlog.
Yeah, okay. Makes sense. Yeah. Thank you. Now looking at the order intake in Q2, I mean, it was down slightly from Q1, and Q1 was down slightly from Q4. Now, we've seen very recently the oil price strengthening again, and there are expectations that the global oil market is going to be in deficit again in the H2 of the year. So would you expect U.S. shale to start ramping up again and become more aggressive when it comes to drilling and fracking? And related to that, would you think Q2 was the trough in order intake, or what are your expectations, you know, incrementally, for order intake looking into Q3 and Q4 of this year?
Yeah. Let me provide some color on this, and I think it's a very good and fair question. So yes, clearly, an increase in oil price could, of course, also both reinforce for the oil-related activity in the U.S. Nevertheless, it was the gas price to put some rigs out of service, and I think I referred to that, what the reason is. But so this could, of course, give some momentum upwards, fully agree with you. But really, and I hope it came across in Klaus' and mine explanations and presentation. I mean, this kind of, I call it, reasoning of bookings in Q2 is of no concern to us. It's definitely of no concern to us.
I mean, as Klaus explained already, since Q4 2022 and also in Q1 2023, our key customers have slammed out bookings in an unprecedented volume. We never have seen that before, and there is a reason for that. The reason is that they look already beyond 2023, and they want to secure our capacity because our capacity is the biggest in this globe, yeah. All our competitors can either not do what we do, or they have a smaller capacity. So there was a race for capacity for the next year, yeah? And of course, when they slammed out these big volumes, yeah, just to secure capacity, we didn't even know for which projects they need these products, which they order. They just wanted to be sure, they said, "We believe in this upswing.
I want to be sure we have the material in our storage places when we need it." And what happens now, of course, is that they say: Okay, which projects are we gonna get, yeah, in the Middle East, in offshore Africa, in Far East, and Uncertain, yeah? And depending on that, they are going to decide what they need when, yeah. So this is a completely normal process. Absolutely no concern. And our customers confirm us every day, this is not a drop in activity. This is just, we have loaded all our capacity with you that we believe at the moment we need. And then we are sure that things will proceed, and we—they believe in growing markets.
I have been citing Olivier Le Peuch and Jeff Miller. So it is really from the top. So our key customers, and not only they, believe in the strength of the market, in particular in this market, and do not expect a slowdown. I think this is important to understand.
Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah, thank you. Maybe one question, then a bit more detail on the order intake development in during the Q2, so I'm talking month by month. Did you see a stronger beginning in the Q2 regarding order intake? And then possibly a further decline in the month of May and June, or what was the trajectory of order intake in the Q2 of the year?
I think, frankly speaking, a month-by-month analysis of the order intake cannot lead to any conclusion. It doesn't make any sense. Why? We know from some customers, and I don't cite any names, yeah, that they are sitting on their purchase orders already, and just waiting that the boss of the boss is releasing and approving the purchase orders, yeah, what they actually need. So these are big companies with a lot of administrative hurdles. And if then, this bunch of purchase orders comes in May or June, or in April or May, it really doesn't matter, and it has no significance. Therefore, I think it would be misleading to look at this monthly order intakes. Even a quarter is sometimes misleading.
We saw in July already very nice bookings from one of our biggest customers. So you see, for me, everything is in dry house.
Yeah, understood. Yeah. I have two more questions, and then I'm done, done. So regarding the acquisition of Praxis, I mean, this is going to be closed in the H2 of the year. Any idea how much revenue contribution and EPS contribution we can expect from Praxis in still this fiscal year? And then the other, the other thing is about pricing power. I mean, you mentioned that you still have pricing power. Is that—how is that? Maybe if you can give us a bit more detail on this, because I get the, you know, the input costs are coming down for you or have come down. So I would be, you know, I would be inclined to think that also your selling prices stabilize or come down.
But what are you seeing in terms of pricing with your customers? Thank you.
This is Klaus. I'm going to take the Praxis acquisition. Gerald even floated it that we are forecasting sales in the range of about $20 million for the year 2023, which this-
Significantly, about EUR 50 million that we announced with the press release for the year 2022. So you see the nice development. In terms of closing, it is an acquisition in the Middle East, that needs authority approvals, from competition authority. There's no concerns about that we do not get those approvals, but it takes time, and we do not have a concrete influence on it. So, our estimation is that the closing will be a Q4 event, and the sales and profit, profit contribution, for the year 2023 will not be a very material one. But we are very happy with the acquisition going forward for the reasons that, Charles already mentioned.
Yeah, let me pick on the price. Let me take on the pricing power question. Yeah, as Klaus said already, of course, increasing demand for our products triggers or means that we get into the driver's seat, yeah? And this is, of course, in particular true for the international market. It is clear that in the modest development of the U.S. market, the pricing power is not as big, but in the international business where we see the growth, we have, we enjoy this opportunity to increase the prices. You mustn't forget that we give some price concessions in the last downturn, the COVID-related downturn, yeah. So we are, we're happy to catch up.
As I said before, at the moment, there is a race ongoing between our customers for our capacity, so that put us in a good position. Having said that, we are not going to overcook or overstretch the situation, because we always refer and relate to long-lasting customer relations. And, we are not doing some short-sighted reactions, which could of course, of course, fire back on you, fire back on us in the next downturn. But, at the moment, the situation is favorable for us, and we take advantage of that.
Okay. Well, thanks, thanks so much, yeah.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Oleg Galbur, from Raiffeisen Bank International. Over to you.
Yes, good morning. I hope you can hear me well. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two. The first one, first of all, thanks for taking the effort to provide the adjusted EBITDA figures. That helps to understand the evolution of the business. But to have a complete picture, please give us the adjusted EBITDA margin for the second and Q1 of this year, as well as tell us what will be the impact on tax expenses at the segment level in the Q2. That's my first question.
Oleg, I'm going to take these questions. I do not have them now exactly, precisely, to be honest with you, but I give you, I give you some indications. I mentioned those EUR 5.5 million foreign exchange losses in the H1 of this year. And on a group level, it was EUR 3.8 for the Q1 and EUR 1.7 for the Q2. We related to the EUR 5.5 million, it was across both divisions as well as on the holding level, because we have many currencies. It's the US dollar, it's the British pound, there are many more.
Out of the top of my head, I would, of the 5.5 rounded, allocate EUR 2 million to AMS, EUR 1 million to OE, and EUR 2 million to the holding level, roughly rounded for the H1 of the year. I hope that answers your question, and therefore, the adjusted ones for the segment should be higher in the Q2 than in the Q1.
Thank you very much. That helps. And my second question is more general, and I know that you, Klaus, already commented about that. But I'd like to come back to this because I think it's important for us to understand. You remain quite positive on the outlook on the market evolution, and at the same time, it's hard not to see the deceleration in sales in the Q2 specifically. So my question is: How should we think of the top line evolution going forward, going forward, I mean, in the next two quarters, for example? Would you still expect the sales to remain at comparable levels to the Q2, or you would still see some growth potential there?
It was also surprising to see slightly lower sales in the Q2 versus the first one in the AMS segment, which should take advantage of high E&P spending in non-EU or in international markets. So how do you explain this evolution in the AMS segment? Thank you.
Oleg, this is a fair question, but you know our policy that we do not provide any guidance on revenue or profit.
But I think what I did, and you can read between the lines, I'm sure, is to describe the market and the situation in the, in the industry, yeah? So one specific quarter could maybe a little bit be a little bit different. I don't see it at the moment, yeah, but it cannot be excluded. But clearly, we have a strong order book already, so that means all these orders are going to be shipped on time and will boost our revenues going forward. We see strong ongoing international activity. Also that is helpful. And the US market is a little bit modest at the moment.
But the reasons are not some recessions or something like this, so I think we have seen the trough already. When it comes to the rig count, there is a certain uptick potential. As Tim mentioned also before, about potentially increasing oil prices, which could also fuel the U.S. shale activity. And all in all, we are confident that we are going to deliver a very strong performance in 2023. I do not want to refer to a specific quarter and break it down. This is a guidance, and I hope you understand that we typically do not provide.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
The next question comes from Radim Kramule from Erste Group . Over to you.
Hey, good morning, just a moment. Maybe just, remind me, if, if I may, the price that we agreed to pay for this acquisition?
Yes, I'm going to take this with Klaus. Purchase price was $22 million, which was agreed at 6x and negotiated. But what we also agreed is that the timing between the signing and the closing, and we do not have the full control over the company, we will have a price adjustment for the results till closing. Because the results till closing belongs to the seller, we didn't have access to it. And there will also be a working capital adjustment to, which will be a positive amount due to the of the business. And this is not decided yet because this will then really calculate the tax closing. But the original purchase price is $22 million.
We will pay 80% at completion, and 20% after 2 years after various requirements are going to be met. It's not a earn-out. It, compared with downhole technology acquisition, it is a deferred compensation after 2 years.
I see. And Gerald, what profit over here? I guess the company is profitable, right?
The company is definitely and clearly profitable. As Gerald mentioned to all of you, we are not giving guidance on page. We also not reporting about single legal entities. But yes, of course, it is a clearly profitable company.
Okay. Thank you. I know it's another question about this new segment in terms of hydrogen. I mean, you described you would like to have 50% of business in 2030 coming from sustainable energy. So should we assume that the invest plan should be in the, let's say, the company that you were looking at, or in the similar safe levels like you have at the moment? Or is it more like a company that is that would be to grow in the future and attain this kind of level of business as you have requested from the thank you?
Yeah.
Of course, energy part.
Yeah. Thank you very much. Very good question, and this is the opportunity, of course, to provide clarity. But first of all, yes, the name of the strategy, Strategy 2030, our objective, what we always communicated is that this new business, let's call it green business, yeah, should in the long term have the same size and the same profitability as our existing business. Is it 2030? Is it 2032? We don't know that exactly, but it is the objective, of course, yeah. And second, and I think here I can be very clear, we definitely are not going to acquire a business that has this size and profitability from day one.
So the idea is, that, we acquire a business which probably is smaller than that, and then grow this business, as also the market for hydrogen and hydrogen components is expected, to grow in the next 5-10 years considerably. So we want, to put, so to say, the foot into this market, yeah, with a smart acquisition, a company, that, provides, equipment or components, which have a USP, which are superior, by technology or whatever. This is our strategy that we also pursue in oil and gas for many decades already, yeah. So, we want to copy paste that, into our new activities. And, the plan is, it always depends, of course, what at the end of the day we decide, to do and, to acquire.
The plan is to acquire one, maybe two companies at a reasonable scale and then grow these companies with our know-how and with our support.
Mm-hmm. And, do you have a timeline for that or still too early, any kind of a timeline for this potential money?
If we find we have many companies on the radar, on some interesting one, we do already some deep dives. If we find the right one tomorrow, it is tomorrow. If it's next year, it's next year. The timeline is not so important. To find the right company, that really is, so to say, the horse to success, on which we ride to success, in this area, is even more important. I try to refrain from announcing a sexy acquisition now, and then suffering down the road. We want to do the right thing from the very beginning, and we take our time to find this company.
Mm-hmm. I just last question to the hydrogen, because I read many reports on the types of hydrogen. You have got like green, gray, you have got... And even I read about the white hydrogen that is basically be reached by drilling and sourcing it. So, do you have any specific kind of which part of this potential hydrogen business you'll be looking into?
Sure. I mean, gray hydrogen is something that is around forever, made from natural gas. This is not really what we are aiming for. It is rather the green side, of course. And because we want to contribute with this acquisition to reduce CO2 emissions, greenhouse emissions, and this is our predominant focus.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
At the moment, there are no further questions. So if you have any additional questions, please press nine and star now. Please press nine and star on your touch-tone telephone if you have any additional questions. Gentlemen, there are no further questions.
Yeah. Thank you very much. Let me close the call. Thank you all for participating and for the interesting discussion we had, and wish you a nice remaining summer. Thank you. Bye-bye.