GN Store Nord A/S

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Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Rune Sandager, executive]

Hello, everyone, and welcome to GN's conference call in relation to our Q1 results. Participating in today's call is Group CEO, Peter Karlstromer; Group CFO, Soren Jelert; and myself, Rune Sandager, Head of Investor Relations. The presentation is expected to last about 15 minutes, after which we will turn to the Q&A session.And with that, I'm happy to hand over to Peter, starting with group highlights.

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

Thank you, Rune, and thank you all for joining us today. I'm pleased to say that we had a solid start to the year thanks to focused execution across our 3 divisions and our functions of scale.On a group level, we delivered 5% organic growth, leading to a reported EBITA margin of 12.5%, which is up 6.5 percentage points compared to last year. The strong improvement in earnings led to positive free cash flow in the quarter despite the normal seasonality headwinds, including tax and bonus payments.The encouraging performance in the first quarter is supported by One-GN integration, which led to around DKK 90 million of realized synergies, slightly ahead of plan. As a result, we are happy to confirm our financial guidance for the year across revenue, EBITDA and cash flow.With this high-level summary of the quarter, let's now take a look at the performance in each of the divisions. I'm starting with Hearing. In Q1, our Hearing division continued to drive market share gains, supported by the successful rollout of ReSound Nexia. As a result of a robust market environment and our strong execution, we grew organically by 14%, which comes on top of the 15% we grew in Q1 '23.The gross margin increased slightly more than 1 percentage point despite the disposal of Belaudicao. This was driven by the group operational synergies as well as the success of ReSound Nexia. The development in sales and marketing cost was supported by the disposal of Belaudicao as well as the reversal of an earlier recognized pension provision.All in all, the year started slightly better than anticipated, leading to healthy growth and a divisional profit margin of 34.5%. ReSound Nexia's success in the market supports Hearing strong performance, which lead me to Slide 7 and a little bit more detail.The positive reception of ReSound Nexia family has continued in the quarter. As you know, we have launched first Nexia in the U.S., which also by now has the best set of reliable data to analyze. This slide gives you an overview of the ReSound Nexia rollout seen throughout U.S. commercial business lens.When we evaluate the success across our product launches, there are 3 main financial KPIs we're tracking carefully. The first one is the reach of the product. A good customer-centric hearing aid will allow us to open new doors. As you likely remember, ReSound OMNIA was a very successful launch, which regained our credibility in the market and therefore, effectively opened many new accounts.With the early success of Nexia, we can now see that we are continuing to serve even more customers. We have managed to increase the point of sales by more than 5% compared to prelaunch. Secondly, the depth of our commercial partnership is also important. We strive to in parallel with opening new accounts also increase our share of wallet in existing accounts.Compared to prelaunch, we have seen our units per point of sales increase by more than 5%, which is pleasing and a testimony to appreciation of Nexia.Finally, on top of the volume growth, we have been able to follow normal launch pattern leading to higher ASPs in the commercial markets in the U.S. despite the continued negative channel mix from the increase in share of managed care.Overall, we are confident in the ability of ReSound Nexia family to continue to deliver strong value to our customers and users, which if nothing unforeseen happens, will support our ambition to further grow market shares.With this brief overview of the Hearing division, let's now move on to the Enterprise division. The Enterprise division delivered revenues in line with last year in an enterprise market that is continuing to gradually stabilize, while still slightly down in the quarter. Gross margin improved by 5 percentage points year-over-year driven by group operations synergies, a positive product mix as well as the normalization of freight rates.Our sales and marketing costs reduced slightly primarily due to some phasing of marketing activities. As a result, our divisional profit margin increased by almost 6 percentage points in the quarter.If we move to Slide 10, we can see our current assessment of the Enterprise market. Our key messages and assumptions are fully in line with how we previously have communicated. The market is continuing to stabilize as early expected. The overall enterprise market was slightly down in the quarter, driven by call-centric headsets and speakerphones, while the market growth for knowledge worker headset was flat.We did well and gained some market shares during the quarter, which led to the flat result. If you look to adjacent enterprise categories, we continue to see positive leading indicators. As an example, Gartner estimates PCs to have grown by 1% in the quarter. And the forecast of all IT device spends to increase by 4% for '24 as a whole. The spend across device categories are uncertain, but it is encouraging to see the current supportive outlook to spend levels in aggregate.These data points as well as our own channel checks continue to lean support towards our overall assumption that our market will return to positive year-over-year growth sometime this year, most likely in the second half. While the specific timing is still difficult to estimate, we continue to be cautiously optimistic about our ability to show growth later in the year.Finally, let's take a look in the Gaming and Consumer division. In our Gaming and Consumer division, we delivered revenues in line with the first quarter of '23 due to demand in comparison base as the division grew 70% last year. The broader market is supported by less promotional activities in general, which then support overall ASP levels.Our gross margin increased by almost 6 percentage points compared to the first quarter of last year. In combination with less promotional activities, the gross margin is also supported by the group-wide operation synergies. We did some deliberate investment into sales and marketing in the quarter as we are preparing for the market to further recover throughout the year.In total, the divisional profit increased almost 4 percentage points compared to the first quarter of last year. We are still not satisfied with the current profit levels in the division. And we remain very focused on driving margin expansion during the rest of the year, supported by a healthier market, product innovation and group operation synergies.I'm moving to Slide 13 to share some additional color on the business. Our investment in the software continues to show strong progress. SteelSeries GG, which is a platform that helps gamers enhance the gaming experience continued to expand strong momentum. SteelSeries Moment, which is designed for gamers to caption share the most exciting gameplay moments exceeded 1 billion clips since the launch.SteelSeries Sonar, which is our software tool to optimize the gaming sound experience crossed 2 million active users in the quarter. We know that software is an important link between us and the gamers. So it's encouraging to see this continued strong software growth, which is [ hands ] with the gaming experience and the appeal for SteelSeries among gamers around the world.In the quarter, we have also expanded our retail footprint with new distribution and across many countries. As for Jabra Consumer, we continue to experience strong review of our recent launch premium to wireless Earbuds, Elite 8 active and Elite 10.As for consumer in summary, we are making progress to improve the business. And what is encouraging is that the consumer business and the gaming business together the core categories grew in mid-single-digit in the quarter.And with that, I'm happy to hand over to Soren.

[Soren Jelert, executive]

Thanks, Peter. To conclude on group level, GN delivered a healthy 5% organic revenue growth as a result of our strong execution across our 3 divisions. Gross margin ended the quarter at 52.9%, reflecting a 4.1 percentage points increase compared to first quarter of '23, supported by business mix, group synergies and easing freight costs while partly being offset by the Belaudicao disposal.The divisional profit margin increased by 6.4 percentage points following the gross margin increase as well as operating leverage on sales and marketing costs. R&D investments were slightly down year-over-year, which was primarily a reflection of timing effects of product road maps and group synergies.Management administered costs increased slightly reflecting continued investments into IT and upfront costs associated with the new financial sales service center currently being established in Poland.To conclude, on the EBITA level, the EBITA margin increased by 6.5 percentage points compared to quarter 1 of '23. Our solid earnings levels, combined with strong focus on working capital led to a positive cash flow and a further reduction of adjusted leverage, which ended at 4.0 compared to 4.5 a quarter ago.Let's move to Slide 16 for more details on the free cash flow generation. As Peter mentioned in the beginning, we were able to offset the traditional cash flow seasonality with a strong absolute earnings levels, leading to a positive free cash flow in the quarter. A year ago, we experienced a cash burn of almost DKK 600 million. But as a result of the strong execution across the company, we turned this deficit into a positive cash flow figure for the quarter.The strong focus on cash flow generation in general has now resulted in 4 consecutive quarters of positive cash flow. Going forward, our focus on cash flow generation will continue as we remain fully committed to delevering even further.Moving on to Slide 17 and the brief status on the One-GN integration. We remain on track to deliver around DKK 600 million in cost synergies by '26, of which around DKK 400 million is expected in '24. We are tracking slightly ahead of the original plan and during the quarter, we managed to realize synergies of around DKK 90 million. This is encouraging to see our run rate leaving the quarter. And we remain confident about the ambition for '24 as well as '26, which should further derisk the company's profile over the coming years.Moving to our financial guidance for '24. Q1 ended broadly speaking slightly better than we had anticipated across growth and margins. We are confirming our financial guidance for the year. And you should see the strong execution in the first quarter, including the before-mentioned synergies as a further derisk of the performance.We know that there's still a lot of work to be done during the rest of the year, but we are definitely on the right track. For '24, we still expect organic revenue growth of 2% to 8% driven by robust performance across all 3 divisions. We also continue to expect a reported EBITA margin of 12% to 14% for the year. Finally, we continue to expect free cash flow, excluding M&A of more than DKK 700 million for the year.And with that, I'm happy to hand you back to Rune.

[Rune Sandager, executive]

Thank you, Peter and Soren for the updates. Just to remind you all that we have our Capital Markets Day coming up 5 days from now. For those of you that are unable to be here in person, the entire event will, of course, be streamed live on gn.com.And with that practical information, I'll hand over to the operator for the Q&A. Please limit your questions to 2 at a time.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Hassan Al-Wakeel from Barclays.

[Hassan Al-Wakeel, analyst]

I have 2, please. Firstly, can you talk about the strength in the hearing business and which channels do you feel you're taking the most share? Is this continuing into Q2? And are you seeing any impact from competitor launches?And then secondly on Enterprise, can you talk about the dynamics you're seeing in this market and the visibility you have? And whether at all the upper end of the guidance range or at least positive growth for the full year looks more likely to you now?

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

Thank you for your questions here. Starting with Hearing, I think the success we see is fairly broad-based in the market thanks to the strong reception of the Nexia platform. Obviously, if we take the U.S. market, as you know, we have recently launched into VA. So we've seen it less there until today, of course, but in the rest of the market, fairly broad-based.We believe that Nexia will continue to lend good support to our hearing growth. But we're also well aware that we will meet some tougher comparisons throughout the year, in particular, in the key accounts, which grew quite a bit during last year, as you probably remember.As well as you say, we do expect some competitive launches also throughout the year. So we maintain very confident in Nexia and the value proposition, but do see that the growth might be a little bit more difficult for us to obtain on the same levels for the full year. And I sense also, we believe the guidance we have in place is appropriate.And if I talk about the Enterprise dynamics, I think that what we've seen is encouraging. We've seen the market to continue to stabilize. And we talked about this for the last few quarters. Q1 was another quarter where this continued to happen. So I would say that the market performed slightly stronger in Q1, but [indiscernible] in last year, which is part of that kind of stabilization pattern.And as I said here in the opening remarks, our core assumption is that the market will return to growth sometime this year, most likely in the second half. The guidance range is in place, of course, to cater for different scenarios and uncertainty and it is a lot market-related. And while this is our base case, if the market recovers a little bit better and quicker, that will help us to grow a bit more in the upper end. And if something becomes more difficult, that's probably what will lead us a bit more towards the lower end.Our market shares have been very stable over the last few quarters. And in the last quarter, also stable to slightly gaining. So hopefully, that helps with a little bit of further color on it.

[Hassan Al-Wakeel, analyst]

That was very helpful. If I can just follow up on Hearing, I mean, I appreciate comps remained tough. But do you expect Q2 to already be meaningfully slower from a growth perspective? I'm just trying to understand whether it's anything that you see currently as to why you've retained the guidance in Hearing rather than raising it?

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

I would refrain a little bit to guide on Q2 specifically. I think that the forces I described are in play. And we have assured taking good look on the guidance range for the year. And we believe it's appropriate what we have in place.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Martin Parkhoi from SEB.

[Martin Parkhoi, analyst]

Martin Parkhoi, SEB. Just first to stick on the only hearing aid side, because you talked about some potential tougher comps in the second half. But could you go a little bit more in detail to your position in managed care in U.S.? We have seen recently that one of your Danish competitors have gone into in-fight with United Health. And also maybe pull a little bit out on that, so do you see a big opportunity in managed care now in U.S. than you saw in the beginning of the year?And then secondly just on the Enterprise side. I appreciate that you now have a different divisional structure. But prior to all the COVID thing, you had a 10% expectation for growth in [indiscernible], which, of course, included a bit more than just Enterprise. Do you think that after we have -- we are behind this stabilization period, do you think that your business is still at to a potential level of double-digit growth?

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

Okay. Thank you so much. If we start with the first question on managed care, we see ourselves as a provider into managed care. And for us, it is an important market segment. We recognize, of course, the dynamics of market care and some of those dynamics are indeed a bit challenging, of course.And we see some price pressure coming from that channel for the reason and it works. But we also see that we can serve the channel with a controlled cost and as such still do a healthy business there. So for us, it's a market where we like to participate. And we are participating and doing that in a good way today.I think it's too early for us to say what the moves of other competitors means over time. In the short term, it has not really impacted our business. But [indiscernible] confirmed that it is a market we are very willing to serve and we are serving today.If I then go to the Enterprise, I mean, I talked a lot about the dynamics we see and the visibility we have and that's probably where I stop today. And the longer-term view on the market and so we have our Capital Market Day is coming up here in the next few days, we have a chance to spend more time on the dynamics and elaborate there. But thanks for the question here.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Veronika Dubajova from Citi.

[Veronika Dubajova, analyst]

I'll also keep it to 2. My first one is just, Peter, on your comments about expanding your point of sales by over 5%. Can you give us a little bit of color on what type of customers you're winning with when it comes to Nexia? And obviously it looks like the U.S. in particular off to a strong start. I noticed you also called out France and Australia.I just thought on how well this product might perform in Europe as we kind of get a bit of momentum on the product as well, that would be great. Sorry, I know that's a very long question one.My question two is for Soren, on the cost phasing through the year, obviously, a fair amount of commentary from you on benefits from phasing. If you could maybe clarify how substantial those are? And as we look through the rest of the year, in particular, I'm curious that selling and marketing, which was down quite substantially year-on-year, whether you see the need to step that up sequentially as we move through Q2, Q3 and into Q4?

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

Okay. Thank you so much. Let me start. And the expansion of point of sales, I mean that is, of course, for us very encouraging. And some of this is probably to regain a little bit of historical lost ground and some is likely some true expansion into new point of sales. The comments made and what I showed here on the slide in the opening, the example is largely driven by independents in the U.S. where we see that increase.We don't have the same level of robust data in other markets. But the feeling we have from our leaders in the different markets is that a similar kind of dynamics is playing out in the other markets also. And as you know, we launched in the U.S. first and then later in core markets in Europe and around the world.So the observations are somewhat newer and not as extensive in the U.S. But I would say Nexia support good growth in the rest of the world as well outside of U.S. And we can confirm that I mean, we had a very healthy growth in the quarter and that was strong in the U.S. U.S. was seeing the strongest growth. But we also saw above-market growth in rest of the world also in a very solid way.

[Soren Jelert, executive]

Then, Veronika, on your other question on the cost phasing, I think we are coming out of a quarter where we evidently have had a very good margin supporting also the guidance for the year. It will be so that the phasing, of course, of our sales and marketing spend also follows the seasonality if you look at it from a group level, so in absolute terms, you should normally see a higher sales and marketing in absolute spend, especially when moving into fourth quarter where, of course, dominated by the Gaming and Consumer also being leading that element.So I think you would see a gradual increase in the sales and marketing cost in absolute terms. But you still see us focusing on what's the share compared to our revenue growth, the total revenue remain sort of stable as we go along for the year.And then, of course -- so that would be my point. And then, eventually, also, I think it's a proof point here and also in the first quarter that our focus on the synergies is also working here. Again, we are committed to overall deliver DKK 400 million in synergies across the group, albeit that is a mix between the COGS and of course, the OpEx. But in the OpEx, we also see it now rubbing off here in the quarter. So overall, it's still in support to our margin expansion when you're comparing year-over-year.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Christian Ryom from Danske Bank.

[Christian Ryom, analyst]

Two questions from my side as well. The first one is on margins and a split one, if I may. So I can say relative to my numbers and I can see also to consensus, your Enterprise gross margin came in significantly stronger.Can you elaborate on whether there was anything exceptional in that here in this quarter? And the other margin-related question is on these pension provisions that you talk about in the Hearing business. Any sense you might be able to give us a little bit of a feel for the size of this, whether we are talking 1 to 3 percentage points on the margin here for the quarter?And then the second question is to the Gaming and Consumer business and specifically, if you can help me understand the comment that you have on Slide 13 in today's presentation, where you talk about the gaming gear categories into wireless categories growing mid-single-digit. How should I square that with the fact that your business was flat year-on-year? Is that a market comment? Or what's the missing component here product categories that you've exited, for instance?

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

Okay. Thank you so much. Let me start and then hand it over to Soren for the pension-related question here. If I first comment on the Enterprise gross margin, no, there is not any particular one-off nature in this. I think it's a combination of a good kind of performance on products where we have a healthy margin in Enterprise. And maybe that's a sign of health also that the market is trying and starting to buy more on quality and the upper end of the range themselves. So we had a healthy product mix evolution that lend support the margin in the quarter.Then also there is still some kind of normalization of some costs in the supply chain that is lending support to the gross margin. And lastly, we have the One-GN synergies also, where we see both -- I mean, some of them on OpEx. But some of them are also on the cost of goods sales affecting the gross margin.So in total, we believe that this level we are now, we feel good about this level. And we think it's also a level we will strive to maintain into the future. So hopefully, that is helpful as a little bit more detail.If I then take the Gaming and Consumer, also before handing it to Soren, yes, I mean, if we look on the core categories, it is essentially all of SteelSeries and the true wireless. That's where we see our future strategic focus. And that's what we can confirm. It actually grew in the quarter on top of a significant quarter a year ago.The products that are a bit working another direction when we look on the totality are products we either have kind of exited or not renewed, can be headbands and older type of products. And it also is a BlueParrott range, the trucker brand in the U.S. that had a difficult quarter -- start here on the year.

[Soren Jelert, executive]

And then the last one would, of course, be the pension within the Hearing side and isolating, looking at it through the lens of Hearing, it's approximately a 2% of the top line that is then converted into the reversal. And if you look at it on the group's level, it would be equivalent to approximately 1% on margin. So that's the way we look at it.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Maja Stephanie Pataki from Kepler.

[Maja Pataki, analyst]

Two questions from my side as well and focusing on Hearing, please. I was wondering if you could give us a bit more detail why you're seeing that the success of Nexia is coming through in this extent? Is it really product-related? Or is it due to the fact that the service is better -- fitting software is better? Just to have a bit of a granularity what is behind the success of the product would be very helpful.And then, second of all, if we look at the dynamics in Q1, the market growth was really strong. We've seen sustained good growth coming out of North America or the U.S. Could you maybe talk a bit what you're seeing as market dynamics in April?

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

Thank you so much. If you look at Nexia, I mean, we see it as a broad-based success, the hearing aid and variants of the hearing aid in the family. I mean, they are very good hearing aids. They are really helping people with hearing losses to hear better, so I mean, the core functionality really delivers well.Then we, of course, have the connectivity, Bluetooth low energy and OraCast so that further augmenting the product. But we have also, over the last few periods, also worked on the broader kind of software suites, including fitting software and other things, helping us to make it easier to work with the product.And then, we should also say that quality and the fault rates of the product is something we've really been focusing on and also driving improvements in. So all in all, it's probably a combination of things that make this very appreciated hearing aid as well as helping to support our growth. And we think that this is something we started an evolution on with OMNIA and that we now further extending into Nexia. So we think we're in a good trajectory here for our product families and our innovation.Then the question on April, I would actually a little bit avoid that question. We're here to speak about the quarter. And we don't have a perfect visibility either at this point in time, so sorry to not be helpful on that one specifically.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Hugo Solvet from BNP P Exane.

[Hugo Solvet, analyst]

First on core unit margin, which is coming close to 3% at 99.9 in the quarter. We're seeing continuous traction from Nexia. Any reasons or moving parts we should have in mind that could go back for the margin progression throughout the year?And second, a follow-up to the really calculation on the data points you gave on point of sale, unit by point of sale, did it gradually increase Q3 to Q4 and then to Q1 or the bulk of the increase was seen in Q1? And maybe you can help us understand if you saw the difference in terms of trend independent versus large accounts. You mentioned independent, but just keen to hear a larger commentary.

[Soren Jelert, executive]

Yes. Basically, when it comes to the core margin, which we have promised all of you to sort of report out on in next year, you're right that we stated the 19.9%. And then bear in mind that there are these approximately 2% that's driven or linked to the pension provision. So that's at least what's the underlying fundamental in there.Essentially, what we believe is a success also for this quarter and will be a success for the full year is especially linked around the next year that Peter also spoke to. We are very satisfied with the penetration so far. And it seems to have a good also full year market uptake. In addition to that, we are working on the synergies as we also confirmed here in my speak early on to deliver on this DKK 400 million of which some of them will be accretive to the Hearing side as well.So overall, that's the way we look at it. And the guidance we have had out there on 18% to 20% that is lending support to that journey. So there's nothing special now besides the pension that is behind it.

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

And if I can continue more on the point of sales expansion, I would say it's something that we gradually build up. It's almost like we're winning each point of sales at a time. It is usually, of course, is a dialogue on some level with them to make them comfortable and supportive of starting to more actively working with us. So I think it's been a gradual kind of a build-up. And it's something we, of course, continue to focus a lot on.The dynamics, as you would appreciate, is quite different from the independents and key accounts. The key accounts are, of course, fewer, very large conversations. We are doing well there also. They were probably not tracking in the same way of point of sale. So that way of thinking is that we think it's more helpful for us in the independents. But we can, of course, confirm that Nexia has been having a very good progress with the key accounts as well.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from David Adlington from JPMorgan.

[David Adlington, analyst]

Most have been asked. But maybe I just push a little bit more on the managed care contribution. But just wondered how much your expansion of managed care contributed about 14% growth or maybe how much faster than the 15% growth managed care grew? And then secondly, just [indiscernible] question, your net financial charges in the quarter were quite a bit lower than we were going forward. I just wondered if you had any guidance for the rest of the year there, please?

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

Okay. Now managed care, I think support the growth, I mean, in an equal way, so to say, I mean, not usually over-indexed or under-indexed. So I think we grew that fairly much in line with overall growth.And if I hand over to you, Soren, for the next one.

[Soren Jelert, executive]

Yes. It's clear that we -- in this quarter, we're a little short of the financial items. Part of it is actually linked to that the bond will be repaid during quarter 2. So we will still have this quarter a lower interest burden and then that will pick up.And then we are still for the full year around the DKK 600 million in financial items. So I understand where you're coming from, but I think the explanation is also linked to that the loan will change, loan structure will change as we progress through the year.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Oliver Metzger from ODDO BHF.

[Oliver Metzger, analyst]

Two on Enterprise, please. So first one on Enterprise, one pattern which will come is the reordering of headsets after the [indiscernible] markets, basically 2 years or even more time ago. So when do you expect the repurchase cycle to come? And how far you have incorporated this into your expectations for the rest of the year?Second question is on the recovery pattern. So you provided some positive comments on the PC market, also the IT infrastructure. So given your experience, what the time lag between improving underlying fundamentals and also the recovery of the demand for headsets?

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

Thank you so much. If we look on the reordering and replacement cycles, our assumption is that the average replacement cycle is around 3 years for the headsets, varies a little bit between headset-type and customer type. And as such, I mean, we should gradually enter that period you talk about the COVID growth years. Exactly how this will play out there is, of course, some uncertainty.I mean, COVID was for most of us the first time we experienced something like that. And it's a bit difficult to know exactly how this will play out. But it's certainly part of the guidance range we have given and that kind of also replacement cycle, we think overall is also what's supporting the market to recover and turn back into growth. So it is centrally in the dynamics, which we talk about when the marketing refined is balanced and then starting to grow again. So it is factored in the ranges we have and the guidance we've given for the year.And then to the question on the recovery pattern a little bit vis-a-vis the other observations we have. I mean, PC sales is very well-researched and a big market, of course. So that's something we always kept the next [indiscernible] on. Our experience is that our categories are lagging that with approximately 1 to 2 quarters.So that's what we've seen historically and probably would be quite consistent with what we see also now the pieces a little bit earlier turning into growth. And we believe in what we pick up the signals that it likely happen at, I mean, 1 to 2 quarter later for us here also.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Shubhangi Gupta from HSBC.

[Shubhangi Gupta, analyst]

Congrats on the strong quarter. So I have 2 questions, please. First on the Hearing business, so as you progress into the year, some of your peers are also launching new products. So should we think about the growth for the year more weighted towards the Enterprise and gaming business rather than Hearing business? And for the Enterprise business, how is the recovery pattern? Is it like more sequential recovery? And second, you have disposed belt-on corporate retail. So any other businesses you're planning to dispose this year?

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

Okay. Thank you so much. If I start and then hand over to Soren for the disposals. I mean on the Hearing, we are very pleased with a strong start in the year. And it is slightly ahead of our own expectation, which feels great, of course.I think that there are 2 things making us believe that the -- throughout the year we will have a bit more difficult to drive the same level of high growth. One is that we ourselves are meeting higher comparisons, in particular, in the key accounts, which grew significantly throughout last year.And the other one is, as you referred to, we do assume some competitive launches and ramp outs throughout the year. We don't know exactly how that will influence us. But it's making us a little bit more balanced also in our assumptions. So in total, we believe that the guidance we have for Hearing for the year and the range we have is appropriate and should hopefully guide you well here.If I then talk a bit around how we should see the growth of the group as a total. I think you're right in the way that both Enterprise and Gaming and Consumer, there we have a little bit, I mean, inverse pattern where we believe we will increase the growth momentum throughout the year, Enterprise largely due to the market recovery. Gaming and Consumer here also, we are off to a start as we planned, but it is a bit of lower growth than what we have guided.But in our plan, we believe we will be able to drive a strong growth throughout the year. So if I move to Soren for the next one.

[Soren Jelert, executive]

Yes. And when it comes to divestments, as you would surely appreciate, we launched the capital plan last year, of which we had 4 pillars. And one of the pillars were actually the divestments where we said we would divest DKK 1 billion to DKK 2 billion. As we've reported out quite consistently during the last couple of quarters, we sort of have done the first billion.One of them were the Belaudicao, the other one was the headquarter sublease. And then, essentially, we said that the next DKK 1 billion would be driven out of disposals if we found that we were not right strategic owners of those or that we could use a better return outside. And we remain committed to that and that is actually not an extraordinary thing for us.We, management should, of course, always take a careful look at our assets and see whether we are the right one in bringing value to the table. So that idea still stands. We are fortunate enough to be well on track with the capital plan. So we don't have to sell anything. And that is also the -- what we called out last time. So that's the answer to that question on disposals.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Robert Davies from Morgan Stanley.

[Robert Davies, analyst]

My first one was just on your comments you made on the Hearing business about the continued market share gains. I just wondered if you could break that down a little bit across some of the key regions where you think you're making the strongest progress.My other one was on the Gaming and Consumer growth, the outlook for the full year, given where you sort of started off and the fact that comps get tougher. And just your kind of conviction level because this is still quite a broad range, I think, in terms of the guidance for gaming, consumer for the full year.And then the final one which is sort of -- few people had touched on it already. But I guess just kind of drilling into the kind of key feedback from the audiologists and the customers on what they like around the product and what's different, what is do you think some of the sort of top 2 or 3 things you're hearing from customers on what they like around the product? Is it the kind of sort of signal processing, the sort of fitting, what are the key kinds of features of the product that people are really kind of telling you they like?

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

Thank you so much. If I start with 2 Hearing-related questions, I mean, first, the growth we have seen until today has been strongest in the U.S. We have done really well in the U.S. And we should also remember that is what we launched Nexia first. So also U.S. has benefited most from the Nexia launch until today.And in the U.S., the growth has been fairly broad-based across, I mean, customer types and channels, which is encouraging to see. We are also now starting to see good growth in markets outside of the U.S. where we're launching Nexia, not yet on the same levels as we have seen in the U.S., but it has been building up nicely in the quarter.So it's good to see that several markets around the world are now growing. I mean, we are growing faster than the market there also, so that's a little bit more color on the growth composition.Then on the feedback on Nexia, I mean, what we picked up, it is fairly broad-based. It's more coming together as a good holistic proposition. I mean, if I look first on the end users, end users like it because it's helping them to hear better in a great way and it's a very small device with good characteristics.And for some also, the connectivity with Bluetooth low energy and OraCast is something they appreciate, in particular, the future-proofness of that. But also the audiologists, I mean, they, of course, see the same benefits, but also give positive feedback on the improved fitting software and also feel confident around the product and its quality and that they help them to help their users, so to say, in a good way.So I think it's been a positive recognition building up here based on good characteristics of the wider proposition. Then on Gaming and Consumer, we actually have planned the business this year. And there have been essentially 2 different factors driving this. I mean, last year, we had a very strong growth start on gaming consumer.So a year ago, as an example, when gaming grew, I mean, very strong. And then throughout the year, actually still grew nicely, but moderated somewhat. So that's one effect. The other one is that we do expect to make some launches in Gaming and Consumer throughout the year. We have not launched anything in Q1, but we have some launches planned throughout the rest of the year that we believe also will have a good support to the growth in the gaming in particular.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Mattias Haggblom from Handelsbanken.

[Mattias Häggblom, analyst]

Two questions, please. So in light of savings, some went ahead of plan in the quarter. Any thoughts at this stage if we speak of a total DKK 600 million in savings could prove conservative? And then, secondly, in light of an improvement of more than DKK 600 million in cash flow generation in Q1 compared to Q1 last year, why not for an increase in full year outlook for the free cash flow? I guess another way of asking would be how you feel about the consensus expectation of roughly DKK 1 billion for the year?

[Soren Jelert, executive]

Thank you for the questions. In this case, of course, we are pleased to see that the plan is working on the synergies with the DKK 90 million. We have anticipated sort of this -- the way it's panned out in the first quarter. And again, we're pleased to see that we both see the improvements on the gross margin, which is, of course, very evident for you all to see in there.And then you all know that we did the reorganizations last year. And that's, as I spoke to, also panning out now here in the first quarter. So we feel committed and can see the path to the DKK 600 million, of which the first DKK 400 million was in year 1. I think once we've crossed that bridge, then of course, we will take stock on what the future will bring.But so far, we are committed to the DKK 600 million and can see the path and quarter 1 was a testimony to that. When it comes to the cash flow, here, we have guided plus DKK 700 million. And then I will leave it to you guys to sort of assess where we are above the DKK 700 million.I think it's reasonable to assume that it was a good first quarter. That was also lending support to the full year outlook above DKK 700 million. But on the specific number where we're targeting now, I think the guidance we have now still stands. Of course, we have a good quarter behind us now. So that's a positive on that one.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Niels Granholm-Leth from Carnegie.

[Niels Granholm-Leth, analyst]

First question on R&D capitalization, which contributed DKK 69 million in the quarter. Could you talk about if you also experienced a contribution from IT cost capitalizations in this quarter? And my second question would be, since the business is now well back in good shape, would you consider to raise more capital?

[Soren Jelert, executive]

Thank you for the questions. I think as I stated also, coming out of the year-end call last quarter, the capitalization we have, we are not changing the principles behind the capitalization. It is true that it's benefiting us DKK 69 million. It's also true, though, that it was even higher the year before. So essentially, we are taking the needed measures to ensure that whatever we set to show in terms of new products -- projects, sorry, that the spend is kept at the right level.We will always see some fluctuations as the projects progress during the year, whether it's R&D or IT projects. So again, we will remain on the same principles. We would see some fluctuations. We have seen it come down a little bit here in the first quarter. But overall, we still remain focused on the projects we do start that we spend the money right.And then the other question was linked to the capital raise. I think all of you here now can sense and feel that we are on definitely the right track with the capital plan. And as such, we do not see that as an option we are going to exercise.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Julien Ouaddour from Bank of America.

[Julien Ouaddour, analyst]

So I have 2 in Hearing and one in audio. So first, in Hearing, just regarding the market, I think in your press release, you said that trends have benefited quite a lot. Can you just comment a bit of the market dynamics in France? And how do you see the sort of recovery in this market and as well as in the U.S., a good traction with the independents. You're putting the like Nexia on the VA this month. So what's your expectation in terms of market share gain just based on strong momentum?The second question on -- excuse me, it's probably a follow-up to Veronika's question. So you mentioned sort of timing of certain cost items in Q1. Just how should we think about the phasing of the margin going forward? So could we, I mean, should we expect sort of like a margin decline in the coming quarters?And the last question in audio. So I understand that you said that headset like PC by 1 to 2 quarters. We've seen plus 1% in like in PC growth. I mean, how do we understand like plus 1% should translate in headset growth in 2 quarters? So I mean, is it like one-to-one? And what kind of PC volume growth you need to get back to, let's say, high-single or double-digit headset at some points?

[Peter Karlstromer, executive]

Okay. Thank you so much. Let me start and then hand it over to Soren for some support there also. Starting with Hearing, I think it's true that we saw a good momentum in France. The market itself recovered in a very nice way and picked up again in terms of growth and dynamics. But there thanks to Nexia on initiatives, we managed to grow on top of the health and market, so to say, probably with a similar set of reasons and dynamics.And as I talked to before, in the U.S., it is driven by depreciation of Nexia as a wider proposition in the market. So that is a good example of also on Nexia starting to lend support in growth outside of U.S. in a meaningful way.Then, Nexia in VA, yes, now it is correct, of course, that we launched into VA here this month, just a few days ago. And what's good for us is that we're now launching with a few -- with a full range of products in Nexia, which we feel very good about.And we have invested significantly to prepare for this launch and really support the growth in VA. We have not externally communicated any specific targets here. But as you know, we have a bit of lower market share in VA. So we see a good opportunity for us to grow there and something we're very focused on.And then, if I move to the Enterprise and now everything that's said on the lagging of some indeed the observations, I think it's difficult to make it to, I mean, a too quantified logic, so to say. There are many forces at play. I would rather see that the Enterprise market grew significantly during the COVID year as we know, then experienced a significant reduction.We should remember though after reduction still on a higher level than when the pre-COVID growth started. And now there is a normalization where the market trying to find what you say some kind of flat outlook and then hopefully resume the growth.This year, we don't think we will come back to a full trend growth of the market, probably will take a bit longer. But as we said, we believe the market will turn into growth, but probably a more modest growth sometime this year and most likely in the second half.

[Soren Jelert, executive]

And then, of course, moving a little bit back to Veronika's point on the margin. Yes, here on the EBITA margin on Hearing, that's the 19.9%, right? Then we have here said we have a one-off of approximately 2%. So that would underlying mean an 18%. And it's, of course, as you know, the guidance -- full year guidance is between 18% and 20%.And we are the opinion with the good next year launch and also the synergies of One-GN, of course, we strive to get within that mix. And I think, of course, that Q1 here was a proof point that we are now within that range. And the underlying and fundamental also driver of it, the improvement is linked to the gross margin that actually is quite significantly up already in the first quarter.So overall, that should give you some idea of why we are claiming the 18% to 20% and of course, not overinflating the one-off we had in the first quarter.

[Julien Ouaddour, analyst]

Just if I can come back on your comments of margin. So I mean, I think like in the press release, you can see timing of certain cost items. So I'm not talking about the pension, but really like the other costs. Any kind of phasing for this cost that, I mean, should we have in mind for the coming quarters?

[Soren Jelert, executive]

No, not a specific phasing for that that we are aware of, no. We will follow the top line and the launches as we progress through the year.

[Operator]

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back to the speakers for any closing remarks.

[Rune Sandager, executive]

Thank you very much, operator, and thank you for everybody joining on the call today. We appreciate your time. And we hope to see many of you in a few days at our Capital Markets Day.