El En SpA

MIL:ELN

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q1

[Nicola Fiore]

So good afternoon to everyone, and welcome to El.En.'s conference call on first quarter 2022 financial results. Today's call will be recorded, and so there will be an opportunity for questions at the end of the conference call. With me on the call are Andrea Cangioli, El.En.'s CEO; and Enrico Romagnoli El.En.'s CFO and Investor Relator.

Before we begin, please note that the recent remarks management makes on the conference call about future expectations, plans and prospects and forward-looking statements. Certain statements in this call, including those addressing the company's beliefs, plans, objectives, estimates or expectations of possible future results or events are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known or unknown risks, including general economic and business conditions and condition in the industry we operate, and may be affected should our assumptions turn out to be inaccurate.

Consequently, no forward-looking statements can be guaranteed and actual future results, performance or achievements may vary materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation about the content nor to update the forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after date hereof. [Operator Instructions]

So at this time, I'll turn now the call to Andrea Cangioli. Please go ahead, Andrea.

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

Thank you, Nicola, and thanks to everybody for joining this call El.En. is holding after the release of the financial report for the first quarter of 2022. On the call, together with me, there will be Enrico Romagnoli, and in a few minutes, he will drive you through the details of our financial results -- in a few seconds actually.

As you may have learned from our press release, the first quarter was once again a very strong quarter with continuing sustained demand, allowing us to mark excellent results in revenues, EBIT and EBIT margin. Each of them at record levels for this specific quarter that is seasonally the weakest in our capital goods market. Just to summarize before getting into the details, revenues were up 24% to EUR 144 million, and EBIT was at EUR 17 million, 11.8% on revenue, making this last EBIT margin, the most remarkable -- among the remarkable achievements of this quarter, beating Q1 2021 and also the average 2021 margin as well.

Enrico, please go ahead with the financial reporting section.

[Enrico Romagnoli, executive]

Thank you, Andrea.

As already said by Andrea, the Q1 of 2022 registered a record result with a consolidated revenue for EUR 144 million of up 24% and a double-digit growth in both the main sector of activities, medical and industrial. The EBIT margin was 11.8%, a brilliant result for the first quarter, seasonally the weakest of the year, thanks to the great growth in sales volume.

In 2022, we saw an improvement in terms of gross margin mainly due to the -- an impact of medical sales higher than industrial on the total turnover and the profitability in terms of gross margin of medical sector is higher than industrial. The strengthening of the U.S. dollar, together with the increase in turnover in dollar to North America, improved the margin in industrial sector. Thanks to the improvement of gross margin and the stability of the impact of fixed cost on sales, EBITDA was positive for EUR 20.1 million, an increase of approximately 29% compared to the EUR 15.6 million as Q1 2021. And EBITDA margin in the first quarter 2022 was equal to 13.9%, exceeding the EBITDA margin of the first quarter 2021 that was equal to 13.4%. At the same time, EBIT for the quarter showed a positive balance of EUR 17.1 million, up by 32% compared to the EUR 12.9 million in the Q1 2021. And the operating result, its impact on sales is 11.8%, increasing from the 11.1% for the first quarter of 2021.

At the end, the EBIT marked a positive balance of approximately EUR 17.5 million and recorded a significant increase of 24.4% to the EUR 14.1 million of Q1 2021. The net financial position was positive for EUR 85.8 million compared to the EUR 150.7 million as of December of last year, with a decrease of EUR 40 million. In this chart, we can see that the group generated cash from operating activities, while the expansion of the net working capital to support the stability of production processes observed approximately EUR 36 million, out of which over EUR 22 million due to the increase in inventories and about EUR 30 million for the decrease in trade payables. Furthermore, it should be noted that investments in fixed assets exceeded EUR 4 million in the quarter.

In terms of breakdown by business, the medical sector recorded a growth of about 30% compared to the same period of 2021. And despite having marked the lowest growth rate in the sector, the aesthetic segment, the trend was very satisfactory by virtue of the mix of products sold. In fact, during the quarter, sales of small home use system distributed by Japan decreased significantly, while we achieved a massive increase in sales volume of high-power laser for hair removal with the high profitability for the group.

Interesting in terms of percentage growth was the strong recovery of surgical system, which struggled to exit from this slowdown in sales of the pandemic. As for the service revenue, the jump in turnover was mostly driven by optical fibers for surgical use in neurology, whose production has suffered, a sharp slowdown at the beginning of 2021 due to some technical production progress which were then overcome in the following months.

Industrial sector, we recorded 16.4% turnover increase compared to the first quarter of 2021. The growth in revenues confirming the positive trend of the last few years, recording increases between 8% to 21% in almost all the segments with the exception of the marking. Growth in the cutting sector was higher, increasing by 21% with a turnover of EUR 47.4 million, with result in China that were barely satisfactory influenced by the recent wave of lockdowns. In the same time, the growth achieved by Cutlite Penta on Italy and the European market was very strong.

Marking underwent a 13.3% decline compared to the first quarter of 2021, recording sales for EUR 4.4 million, a decline that we hope to recover in the rest of the year. And increase was also in the 2 other sectors of the laser sources and service.

In terms of geographical area, the growth are brilliant in every area and every segment we are operating. Sales in the medical sector stand out in Europe, plus 49%, thanks to the good trend in sales of aesthetic system. And in the rest of the world, plus 26%, mainly determined by sales to the United States of America and despite the negative phase of Japan, both due to the protracted pandemic limitation and the weakening of the said cycle of small home-use devices that characterized the last 2 years. The main growth rate in industrial sector was in Italy, where with a 28% increase, the main growth was realized that was achieved by Cutlite Penta in the metal cutting sector.

Andrea, you can go ahead for the presentation.

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

Okay. Let me continue giving you some more color about what is going on and what has been going on. We are obviously very pleased by these results. There are a few relevant drivers for this excellent results. Demand was strong, and we continue to benefit of a wide backlog in our order books. We were expecting strong demand in our market segments based on our perception of the market development that were confirmed by market studies, when available, and based -- and our expectations were widely met. Based on such expectations, we dedicated financial and managerial resources to the strengthening of our infrastructure in order to be able to seize the opportunities that the markets were offering and are going to offer.

I am talking of the new capacity expansions that involved our Chinese activities, Quanta, Samarate, in [indiscernible], Cutlite Penta in Prato as well. And last but not least here in Calenzano. By the way, we're happy to be able again to host an Investor Day here in Calenzano, in our premises to show directly to those of you that will have a chance to join us on the 31st, how the organization of our floor changed here in Florence and how significant the new Prato plant is for the business of sheet metal cutting.

So well, back to the strengthening of our structure, it wasn't only bricks and devices and tools, but also in foremost, people. More people in R&D, technical experts, wizard in several circumstances in order to innovate. And compliance experts in order to expand the areas in which our products can actually be sold. And people and marketing efforts to support our distribution networks, both where we're going direct, like we do in Italy, Germany, France and Japan. And where, in all the other countries, we partnered with top-level local distributors. Therefore, our markets are positive. They are growing and so are in a very positive phase, but there has been a great deal of preventive work put in place in order to be able to follow and beat the market in these last quarters.

If the markets and our backlogs look and are extremely helpful, the same does not apply to several other general circumstances that we need to face in this 2022. The list is short but bends.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and its consequences, first of all, the worsening of the already strong inflation. The continued struggling of several of our suppliers that are not able to timely react to our demand increase, needs and call -- excuse me, to our demand increased needs and very often are not even able to comply to our current commitments. The lockdowns in China, which in the last months hindered our and any business in the territory by enforcing reduced mobility. Not only as we were used to from and to China, which continues to be a huge limitation to relations with China, but now also within the provinces which has been putting at risk also the expected growth of the internal consumption markets.

Starting from this last point, China, which is quite relevant for us, especially in the metal cutting business, where we have a fairly large organization with our factories in Wuhan, Wenzhou, Linyi, as opposed to the early 2020 lockdowns, our production sites were not affected by any restrictive injunction and were allowed to work normally. This does not mean the situation was normal because the lockdowns were hitting other significant areas here and there, like Ningbo and then Shenzhen, and then up to Shanghai and Beijing. Sales activity could not be performed as ordinary and also the river installation and orders clearing, which comes with successful final testing of the customer, could not be performed as usual.

The result was a decent quarter for Chinese sheet metal cutting business, with revenues in renminbi just below the very good Q1 2020 last quarter. But due to the increased dimension and cost of the structure, the income was lower. The bad news there is that we were expecting a better performance and that the locals are still impacting on our performance in a quarter, the second one, where we were expecting very strong results. The good news there is that we're doing very well in our own market segments. We have, let's say, an environmental issue with the COVID still incumbent on international relations and travel from into China and now again incumbent in the day-to-day life in Mainland China that is slowing down the whole economy.

On the other side, the sales mix was very favorable, with increasing weight in high-power laser systems, a segment in which our superior ability to effectively manage 20 and 30 kilowatt laser beams is allowing a better margin on sales and a very interesting market perspective on application segments that only such laser power can effectively adopt, laser-cutting system.

The second issue of these times and maybe the most concerning is the war. The certain effect of the war on our business today are the loss of the Russian and Ukrainian markets and the increase of energy cost, which is in turn, causing a strong inflation impact. Furthermore, the war so close to us leads, Europe and the world in a status of great uncertainty. Like with other wars taking place further away, to date, we have seen no direct impact on our markets and demand has been widely unaffected, with our customers maintaining their confidence and investing in our products. But as the developments of the war are uncertain, also the actual and psychological effect of any evolution of the world are unpredictable.

Inflation is a tangible effect on our business, forcing us to face a new situation or at least something we have not seen for years. Energy costs are directly impacting our operational expense, but it's in the cost of goods sold that we are seeing the strongest impact. With current purchasing of components undergoing average increases in line with the official inflation rates, thus well above 5%. In the past, price increases for a given product have not been a marketing tool for the group. Within the life cycle of a given product, prices have been likely to decrease while price adjustments were applied to customers only upon the release of new products. Laser systems with new and improved features can very well stand price increases also in a world without inflation. Now we'll be forced to apply price increases on all our products in order not to see margin erosions.

The supply chain struggles have been our most significant struggle in the last month. The number and variety of components that are showing up in our projections of shortages isn't seizing to increase. We were hoping and counting that 2022 would have brought to an end these shortages. But in fact, the situation is not improving. The evident effect on our financials is the huge increase in no material inventories. What is not showing in our financials and what's not evident is a continuous effort we have to put in arranging production schedules available according to the materials we're actually receiving, which is often widely inconsistent to the material suite -- to the orders that we placed and to the delivery plans we received from our own vendors.

The most significant shortage-driven production slowdown we experienced has been in our Soliton plant in the month of March and April. And the production for MeDioStar devices had a material reduction which also affected Esthelogue, which is the Italian distributor for the MeDioStar. Notwithstanding this very, very big issue, we had on the production facility of Asclepion. Asclepion managed to increase its revenue by 19% in the quarter.

Under this profile, we are trying to prevent shortages placing volume orders for the expected and sometimes desired production volumes which, based on a solid backlog, are quite large. Typically, we receive most of the materials required by manufacturing on time, but we missed a short percentage in terms of value or a very small number of components that are nevertheless necessary for manufacturing, which slows down production phase and increases our raw material reserves, covering most of the needs of our production volumes that we are not able to achieve. And in this phase, it is also impossible or at least not recommended to slow down purchase increase with our vendors that could decide or could be forced to reduce their volumes or divert the production volume. So we have to stick to what we have already.

This is the mechanism that is driving the inventory increase, which is quite interesting because in a 24% growth quarter, I am actually blaming most of the inventory increase to production volumes that were below expectations.

In spending so much time on the problems that are bothering us at most in this moment, I also would like to emphasize how effectively our functions are committed in overcoming operational problems that are showing up every day in an unprecedented fashion and how effective they have been as our quarterly results demonstrate.

We continue to be very optimistic on the business outlook for the rest of the year. And I would like now to point out the several points -- some of the several positive lines of our quarterly financials. And I'm I just reinforcing what Enrico said in certain of his statements before.

Even if we faced a very difficult situation in China, the laser-cutting division was up 19% in revenues and was profitable in the quarter. Profitability was lower than expected in Q1 2022, especially due to contingent aggressive sales policies in Italy that are expected to have a lower weight in the next months. Revenue increase in surgery was material again, setting this business back on the growth path we had outlined for it prior to the pandemic. And together with the material, almost 40% growth in the system revenue, we enjoy the collateral sales for the consumables involved in the usage of urological device, which are the optical fibers that Enrico mentioned before.

The same strong comeback was registered in the therapy business where ASA is back to its excellent growth and profitability rates. Our market position in the hair removal business is becoming progressively stronger. Our product range, including a wide selection of system for different pockets and workloads, is impressive. High power alexandrite lasers, include Deka's AGAIN that just won a prize at the Monaco's international anti-agents conference, Quanta System stronger and also Elite iQ, which is the system El.En. manufactures for Cynosure brand, which is accretive to Cynosure brand's worldwide sales, but also to our sale and production mode.

Medium power devices include the [indiscernible] and Duetto, both alexandrite laser system. But the bestseller system is still the MeDioStar, the German technology semiconductor device manufactured in [indiscernible]. The success of this outstanding product range is well evident in the solid revenue growth of the aesthetics segment.

And on the one and only segment in which the minus sign showed up in the revenue comparison charge, I mean laser marking, the business outlook is more than positive, and it's overcoming the production obstacles that leaves due to COVID caused in our manufacturing in the first months of the year. We also plan to benefit from the good work of our new sales subsidiary for laser market systems set up in Poland at the end of last year and now starting to consolidate.

Now wrapping up and before leaving this meeting to your questions, I'd like to summarize the overall outlook. I mean, the first quarter results were in line with annual guidance. I mean they were well above the 10% minimum revenue growth we were hinting and EBIT was increasing with respect from 2021. We, as I said, continue to be very optimistic for the rest of the year based, at first place, on the very solid order backlog and order bookings that took place in the quarter.

Our aspirations target -- our aspirations target another record year for revenues and profitability. But in trying to quantify the targets given the current level of uncertainty and the threatens to the normal conduction of business brought by the war and the Chinese lockdown, we confirm the current guidance. Revenue growth over 10% and EBIT growth on 2022. We have a history of improving the guidance during the year. And there are solid elements in our own business and markets that are calling for an adjustment this year too. But the incumbent uncertainties are hinting us to postpone any upgrade if there will be one closer to the end of the year.

I'm done with my presentation. Thank you for listening to my presentation. And now please go ahead with questions.

[Bianca Fersini Mastelloni]

Andrea, we have the first question from Andrea Bonfa from Banca Akros.

[Andrea Bonfa, analyst]

Andrea, and first of all, congratulations for the results, really outstanding. The first question is, again, on the guidance. I know it's a pretty, let's say, tight distinction, but -- or difference. But looking at your press release and your wording, at the end of the year, you mentioned at least 10%, but in the first quarter, you mentioned well and above 10%. So at least volume-wise, there is an upgrade, at least if you can comment on that.

And the second one is on the prospect of your net cash position, I mean, you mentioned in your PR that the decline in net cash was due to an increase in net working capital of some EUR 30-and-odd million. And I'm wondering if you can elaborate on the component related to stocks that you mentioned was EUR 24 million, EUR 25 million or EUR 26 million. And if that is related to finished products or to, let's say, higher purchases of components in order to face the scarcity, which is going on. So again, if you can elaborate on that.

On the same point, if the level of advances from your client is more or less the same level of year-end office now lower? Just to understand the structure of the net cash. And if it's possible, on urology, I see -- I mean looking at the very strong results on consumables, if it's possible to have an idea of the size of the business on a yearly basis? I mean, considering both the machines and the consumable which is useful for our sum of the parts?

And the final one, if I may, is China. You mentioned that despite an absolute increase in your number, you were not satisfied with your performance. Is that entirely related to COVID issues? Or if there is anything else you want to mention to us or to share with us? And is that correct to assume an improvement going on from Q2 in China?

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

Now the guidance. Yes. Somewhere, we rolled well above. Obviously, when you hit 24% revenue increase in the quarter, and you have a guidance that says more than 10%, you are above, we are also well above. I mean I can say that if somewhere is written well above is what we actually believe.

Concerning the guidance, we are, as I said, extremely optimistic, and we are performing well above 10%. We are targeting a well above 10%. The reason why we decided not to change the guidance is first of all, that the second half of the year 2021 has been very, very brilliant and therefore, the benchmark will be a tougher one. But this is not really the reason why we maintain improvement or the main reason why we have improvement. The main reason why we maintain improvement is what I spent a lot of detail during my presentation. There are some situations in which we were able to continue to work normally. I'm talking about the effect of the war, effect of the lockdowns and the effect of the shortages, these 3 problems which quite unpredictably and quite unexpectedly could turn into much harsher. And so even though we are intimately optimistic, the incumbents of events that we can't control pushes us to keep a guidance which is open. I mean, it's open to better results, but we don't want to change it today. We are -- in case we see that we continue in navigating this quarter's successfully for more months, we will plan then update it. This doesn't mean we are intimately optimistic on our business conduct but we need also to consider the kind of environment we are working in.

The second question was on the net financial position or -- and the inventory, Enrico can give the exact details here. Roughly, I believe there's a EUR 26 million increase in inventory and about EUR 10 million decrease in accounts payable and about EUR 2 million increase in receivable. Enrico, am I wrong?

Enrico?

[Enrico Romagnoli, executive]

[Foreign Language] Excuse me. The inventory, the increase was EUR 23 million and the most part of the increase was in raw material for EUR 15 million. In the meantime, for what concerns the down payment we received from the customer, it's more or less on the same level at the end of the year. There is a little increase of a couple of million.

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

And the -- also the answer of what we're doing, what's happening is in what I was saying before. We are purchasing -- we plan to manufacture a certain volume. We purchased for that volume. And what happens is that we are not able to purchase -- to manufacture that kind of volume because we receive only partially the goods we received. And therefore, this is happening for several months in a row. We do not dare to stop purchases because in this situation in which our suppliers are struggling, if we stop purchasing from them, they could decide in stopping to provide materials for us. And therefore, even we decide to continue to invest, we don't see a material risk in investment in materials in order to have all the materials lined up to be able -- to be effectively producing in the coming months.

Other question was urology. We never disclosed -- we never disclosed the actual numbers of urology. But I mean since there are -- there's a quite large number of people, I mean, urology -- sales of boxes for urology in Q1 2022 exceeded EUR 10 million. And sales for consumables in urology, I mean, for fibers in this month, which was a record -- in this quarter, which was a record quarter, and probably will remain a record quarter for a long time because there have been some exceptional volumes growth, again, wasn't far from EUR 10 million. So I mean, the overall business in this quarter, including consumables and -- consumables and boxes was just shy of EUR 20 million.

Of course, you see in this chart, the EUR 14.5 million in surgical, which is systems but which includes also systems for other applications like ear, nose and throat, like gynecology and a small piece of veterinary surgery that we book within surgery.

China, a question on China. You mentioned I wasn't happy with China. How could you be happy with the sales performance that is so strongly affected by lockdowns again? We knew that we were going to have a challenging benchmark with 2021, in the first half of 2022 because the first half of 2021 has been a very, very strong recovery post-COVID period in China. So not only we had a demand in benchmark, but we had also an unfavorable environment. And under this point of view, the results in China were, of course, disappointing, but I'm saying were disappointing because of the situation. As I mentioned, in the disappointment because the circumstances led us to this result.

There are very positive news which once again confirm how in this market, we have something to say due to our specific positioning. And our specific positioning is what allowed us in a quarter in which there were evident headwinds on the Chinese market to increase the average prices of our sales and to increase the margin on sales due to the fact that we are expanding to these market segments that are more rewarding.

We have, in this moment, a competitive advantage in these market segments which are more lower. Then if we weren't able to deliver physically or weren't able to actually install systems in several provinces of China, this obviously affected our performance, which in its numerical outcome was not very satisfactory, but it was a good performance, and it was a very good performance if we compare it to the circumstances.

[Bianca Fersini Mastelloni]

Andrea, we have one more question from François Robillard from Intermonte.

[François Robillard, analyst]

First one is on the margin guidance. If I understood correctly during your prepared remarks, you stated that you were expecting a record year in terms of profitability. Is there something to read there in terms of percentage of margin? Or do you stick to just a quantitative indication that you gave of a growth in EBIT in absolute value? .

Second question is on the FX impact in the first quarter, basically with the U.S. dollar appreciation compared to euro. What kind of impact did it have on your performance in the first quarter, both in terms of topline and the EBITDA margin contribution?

Third question, which is kind of connected, is on your expectation going forward in the U.S. market. Some of your peers have given some pretty bullish expectations. What do you expect for this market? And how do you intend to address the strong local demand?

And finally, on fixed costs, if my calculations are correct, you had about EUR 35 million between staff costs and other operating costs in the first quarter. Can we expect something more in the coming quarters, especially in the past, you mentioned going back to trade fairs and other events and the effort you made on staff? What kind of floor quarterly spend can we expect looking at those cost lines?

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

Okay. Thank you, François. First, the question, I am saying that we expect not record profitability. Record profits is just compliant to the guidance. If we grow 10% from a record year, we will have record revenue. If we had a better EBIT from a record year, we will have a record EBIT.

On guidance, I believe I discussed our position lengthy also in answering to Andrea Bonfa, I don't have anything else to add.

About foreign exchange, we calculated that the overall effect of foreign exchange on revenues was net of increases and decreases, 3.6% in this quarter. 3.6% in this quarter, was higher, of course, in the U.S. dollar segment because there was a negative effect on the Japanese yen, which is quite relevant -- which is quite relevant for us. This means that -- I mean, on sales in dollars in this moment, we are having quite a relevant advantage, which is probably close to 10% in terms of value of the sale. Then of course, we have to consider that there are relevant purchases, which take place in U.S. dollars. Therefore, this 10% advantage is not fully converted into margin because we have an increase also of cost of goods sold.

Overall, the gross margin that we had in the medical segment, which is the one in which we charge in dollars, did not increase with respect to the gross margin of the last quarter of 2021. This was due to the effect of an increase in margin due to foreign exchange in sales, but also an increase in cost due to 2 elements. One, that there was an increase on OEM sales, which bear a lower gross margin, but also bring with them larger volumes and therefore, they lead to an advantage at EBIT level, even though we lose a little bit on gross margin and also an increase in cost. We are not disclosing any detail -- any further detail in this case about the foreign exchange effects.

What I can tell you is that with the strengthening of the U.S. dollar, we expect margin in U.S. dollar sales to continue to increase obviously and we count in this effect to counterbalance both the cost increase in the U.S. dollar component and also the cost increase, which comes from general inflation. So we do not model a great impact -- overall impact on margin as an overall effect of all the positive and negative components.

I would like to remind you that the mix is very impacted on our overall margins because the more you sell in certain segments, which have low-level margins like industrial, or the more you sell certain products within certain segments, which have lower margins like OEM, hair removal laser systems, just to make an example, the more the margins are driven down. Why? The more you sell in other segments like surgery, where we had good margins, the more the margins will increase. And it's very difficult to have any model about pricing and about actual margins being, I mean, the whole environment extremely, extremely turbulent.

Did I answer to all your questions, François?

[François Robillard, analyst]

No, just on fixed costs. Can you just come back on the increase in the first quarter and what to expect next?

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

We are not disclosing any information, any detailed information about this. What I can tell you is if you notice, there was an increase in the impact of operational expenses on revenue. And this increase is due to several different accounts, but mainly to one which is the return of traveling and the return of trade fairs. And so the answer, if we expect a higher cost for these 2 accounts, the answer is, yes, we expect a slow increase in the operational expense for international traveling and international sales and congresses, which obviously were not taking place at all.

We also expect, as operational expense an increase due to energy costs, even though energy costs are not impacting our cost of goods sold directly. They are impacting our expense. And within the single accounts that were adding up to the increase of our operational expenses, the lines related to heating, we were in the winter, were the most effective. Of course, we expect therefore a growth in operational expense. It's difficult to quantify. We expect to be able to grow even more rapidly our sales volume and to offset the extra cost leading to an increase in EBIT.

[Bianca Fersini Mastelloni]

Andrea, we have one more question from Hugo Mas of Sycomore Asset Management.

[Unknown Analyst]

Yes, Andrea. My questions are mainly related to China. Could you help us to assess what kind of performance did you achieve in the months April and beginning of May in terms of sales growth or decline? Just to have an idea of what could be the impact of lockdowns in China currently? And the second question is related to the IPO, of the entity of China due to the [indiscernible]. Did you make progress on this area?

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

On the first question, we would never disclose the sales performances in detail on the current period. What I can tell you is that the situation is still, is still harming our business in the month of April. There are good news. It seems like Shanghai is being released, but still the situation is not the one we wanted for the period. This kind of situation with results which are lower than expectations have also an impact on the potential development of an IPO on a Mainland China market.

But of course, because those kind of financial solutions need in China, the company to be performing very well or at least in order to be able to aspire to this kind of solution and to aspire to have good result in an IPO, we need to perform well. And since we were underperforming in the quarter, of course, it becomes more difficult to pursue that kind of potential solution. But as much as we were not sure, and we were just highlighting the possibility of a potential IPO, today, I confirm that there is a possibility of a potential IPO. Of course, the better we perform, the most consistent -- the more consistent are the chance to be able to, let's say, undergo a path towards an IPO.

[Bianca Fersini Mastelloni]

One question from Paolo Cipriani of CP Capital.

[Paolo Cipriani, analyst]

Perhaps 2, if I may. Just the first one is regarding the order backlog and the bookings. Do you -- could you just like provide some more information regarding that, how it's developing at the moment?

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

Yes. It's another number that we commented in a qualitative way. We never provided numbers because the order backlog is always subjected to a certain degree of uncertainty. And so we prefer not to provide numbers. We -- what I can tell you is that we entered in 2022 with a record levels of bookings in all of our segments: medical, industrial, and this was also testified. There was an accounting evidence given by the huge volume of down payments that we had booked in our financial reports. Customers that had paid a certain percentage of their order to make sure that their orders would be delivered on time.

During these months, we, for instance, had to clean up the order book from all the Russian and Ukrainian orders, which I mean, it's significant for certain market segments, but we were able to continue to book a significant number of orders. And just to give you an indicator, even though not all the orders are there in down payments, and so the indicator of the down payment is not necessarily an indicator which is 100% reflecting the actual order backlog, but the total amount of down payments at the end of the first quarter was not materially different from the same -- from the amount booked at the end of the year. This means that, let's say, you could imply a book-to-bill 1 ratio.

[Paolo Cipriani, analyst]

Okay. Okay. Got it. And just another follow-up on the marginality. I mean, you described the current environment. But I just wanted to -- if I look at the quarter, basically, EBITDA margin is a bit increase, went to up to EUR 20.1 million from EUR 13.4 million of the previous year. But given the situation of the inflation on energy and raw materials, I mean, if you could just maybe tell me again how you have been able to handle this situation and actually improve the marginality in this situation whereas actually costs are increasing quite a lot?

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

I'm not sure that -- I mean, in terms of gross margin, there is a mix always -- you always have to consider the mix. When you look at the total mix, if we sold more in medical and industrial, this changes the mix and changes the market -- the margin. What I can tell you about our cost is that the cost increase is a long way which started forming in the second half of 2021. But for the whole 2021, we continue to purchase at very good prices due to the increased volumes. And therefore, our cost of goods sold declined actually during 2021, even though the price increases were starting to spread out.

Now in 2022, we are starting to add material cost increases. But I mean, they are averaging out with our cost of 2021 and they're still not impacted that much. We will, let's say, we will be seeing the cost of good increase more and more during the year. We have also other weapons or other circumstances that we're able to offset because of goods sold increase like the good performance of the U.S. dollar against the euro, which allowed us to increase the actual gross margins with respect to the previous year. And then finally, if we look at overall margins, we are manufacturing higher volumes of production. We are having on operating leverage, and this is the reason why our EBITDA, EBIT margin are improving.

[Bianca Fersini Mastelloni]

Andrea by my side, I do not have more questions. Then I will ask.

[Enrico Romagnoli, executive]

Excuse me, but I see 2 hands up.

[Bianca Fersini Mastelloni]

I'm sorry?

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

Yes, there are still hands up. I see Gloria Ribeiro with the hands up.

[Unknown Analyst]

It's Emmanuel.

[Bianca Fersini Mastelloni]

Sorry. Sorry, Emmanuel.

[Unknown Analyst]

I just have 3 questions.

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

It's Emmanuel, sorry.

[Unknown Analyst]

Sorry, I'm wearing glasses. The first question is, can you give us an idea, just an idea of quality of what percentage of products you're selling this year which are considered new models or new products? If you have to give a percentage or a range, how much of what you're selling this year is less than 12 months old? That would be like if you can give some comment on that. That would be one question.

The second one is, can you give us an update on the U.S. with Monna Lisa, where the studies are? When should we expect news flow on scientific studies?

And then my last question is over Asclepion and the supply shortages you had in Q1. Are they continuing in Q2? Are they getting any worse? So if you can just give some color? And what is it? Is it chips? What is -- what are you having problems sourcing?

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

New products over the last 12 months, actually fully new products, 12 months is a short period even if we are a strong innovator -- strong innovators. In the medical business, for instance, hair removal probably about 40% for -- in hair removal are products that are less than 1 year, in hair removal. Overall in medical, probably around 15% are -- at least 20% of products in the last year, in the last year.

Monna Lisa Touch. Monna Lisa Touch, we are still discussing. We are getting closer and closer and reviewing contracts. The studies to be performed in the United States are not -- have not been given green light yet because we have to finalize the agreement with Cynosure. It's a very expensive study, and it is tied to distribution networks -- excuse me, the distribution contracts. It's now taking really a very, very long time, but we are not yet. We hope and we can't on being closed, at least with Cynosure, we were able to sign very significant contracts, which are now having a significant impact. But on the MLT, we are still not yet there.

Asclepion, things went better in terms of production in the month of April. Excuse me, things worsened in the month of April but have now improved again. And we are talking in this case of electrical components which are part of their power supply, which was the main problem and hydraulic components, which are part of the chilling unit. The amazing thing, Emmanuel, about these shortages is how shortages hit on the most different components. We have had shortages with microchips but also with ordinary semiconductors, diodes. We had shortages with fans. We have shortages with cooling fluids. We have shortages with, I mean, components for cooling devices. It's -- I mean we are hit from every side, and we need to put up with any kind of efforts.

[Bianca Fersini Mastelloni]

Andrea, we have one more question for [indiscernible]

[Unknown Analyst]

I just have one, please. It's on price increases that you mentioned a bit during your prepared comments. Can we have an idea of the split in Q1 between volume and price mix? And maybe the price increases you may think that you're going to apply for the rest of the year?

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

I'm sorry, we do not even have this number of our product range. The products we sold are about -- we sell about 140 products which have several versions themselves. We apply price increases. We do not have a punctual tracking of prices -- of price changes. Unfortunately, I'm not able to give you this kind of details. What I can tell you though is that we are progressively adding to our prices in order to put up to a cost increase, which we deem being, as I mentioned, around 7% at the end of the second quarter and probably further increasing going on in the year.

[Bianca Fersini Mastelloni]

No more question? Okay. If there are no more questions, we finish this conference. Thank you for -- to Andrea Cangioli, to Enrico Romagnoli, and thank you to all investors that attending this conference, and we hope to have you all at the next event. Good afternoon to everybody.

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

Bye-bye, everybody.

[Bianca Fersini Mastelloni]

Bye, bye.

[Andrea Cangioli, executive]

And I hope to see most of you or the largest number possible of you on the 31st of May here in Florence. I hope that at least some of you will be able to make it. Thank you for being with us today. And hopefully -- hope to see you in Florence.

[Bianca Fersini Mastelloni]

Bye, bye. Thank you to all of them.