Materialise NV

NASDAQ:MTLS

Earnings Call Analysis

Company's Diverse Growth Offsets Challenges

Despite a tough economic climate affecting software sales to medical device companies, the firm's medical segment achieved a significant milestone surpassing €100 million in revenue, reflecting a nearly 20% growth. Consolidated revenue increased by 10.4% to €256.1 million, with the largest growth from the medical segment at 20%. The medical segment's adjusted EBITDA margin for the full year was a robust 26.2%. EBITDA for the manufacturing segment declined due to unfavorable market conditions, though full-year revenue grew by 7%. Across all segments, the company doubled its quarterly adjusted EBITDA from €4.3 million to €8.5 million, culminating in a 65% increase for the year. The software segment experienced a transformation, transitioning towards cloud and subscription models, leading to a 5% increase in its recurring revenue. The company ended the year with a net profit of €6.7 million, significantly improved from the previous year's net loss.

Embracing Change and Fortification in Medical Segment

Despite facing headwinds from a tough economic climate that led medical device companies to scale back on R&D, slashing investments in software licenses, the company managed to notch up almost 20% revenue growth for the year. This feat was bolstered by a northward push in the number of cases delivered globally and was further reinforced by strategic strides, such as the opening of a metal manufacturing plant in the U.S., destined to cut down lead times significantly. The introduction of 'Mimics Flow' was a tactical play to solidify the company's stance in the burgeoning space of 3D printing within hospital settings, offering a limited launch in anticipation of a broader expansion come 2025.

Overall Revenue Growth Amid Manufacturing and Software Sectors' Decline

While the manufacturing and software sectors saw drops in revenue by 2% and 4% respectively, due to less than favorable market conditions, overall revenue climbed by 4.1% in the fourth quarter to EUR 65.3 million. A yearly comparative shows a 10.4% revenue leap to EUR 256.1 million, steered by the surging medical segment, which posted a remarkable 20% surge. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter doubled from the prior year to EUR 8.5 million, hitting a 13% margin, and the full-year saw a significant 65% EBITDA uptick to EUR 31.4 million, raising the margin to 12.3% from the preceding year's 8.2%.

Software Segment: A Mixed Picture with Cloud Transition Underway

The fourth quarter was bittersweet for the software division, as revenue dipped nearly 4% to EUR 11.3 million, shadowed by a systemic shift from conventional perpetual licenses to cloud and subscription models, compounded by a downtick in OEM machine sales. Yet, on a brighter note, adjusted EBITDA for the year edged up robustly to EUR 7.5 million, bolstering its adjusted EBITDA margin to an impressive 16.8%.

Medical Segment Booming with EBITDA Surging and Margins Expanding

The medical segment was nothing short of stellar, with a revenue swell of 15% quarter-on-quarter and a year-end closing north of EUR 100 million, marking a revenue upsurge by the same proportion. Adjusted EBITDA mounted to EUR 9.4 million, magnifying the EBITDA margin to an extraordinary 33.6%, thanks mainly to scaling efficiencies. The segment's annual adjusted EBITDA resonated at EUR 26.5 million, capturing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 26.2%.

Manufacturing Under Pressure Yet Displaying Resilience

The manufacturing front faced stiff market challenges, punctuated by dampened prototyping demand that clipped revenue by 2% to EUR 26.2 million in the quarter. Despite these adversities, the segment still managed to register a 7% surge in full-year revenue to EUR 110 million, albeit with a slightly subdued full-year EBITDA margin of 6.8%, down from the previous 8%.

Gross Profit Margin Inches Higher

The company's gross profit margin exhibited a modest improvement, ascending to 57.5% in Q4 2023 from 56.9% the year prior, hinting at improved operational efficiency.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow: Signs of Stability

Ending the fourth quarter on a financial high note, the company's balance sheet remained robust with cash reserves approximating EUR 128 million after prioritizing loan repayments, which brought gross debt down to EUR 64 million. The company's net cash position improved slightly by EUR 3 million year-on-year, though cash flow from operations receded marginally to EUR 20.2 million from EUR 22.3 million in the prior year.

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q4

[Operator]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Q4 2023 Materialise Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like now to turn the conference over first speaker today. Let me please introduce Harriet Fried of LHA. Please go ahead.

[Harriet Fried]

Thank you everyone for joining us today for Materialise's quarterly conference call. With us on the call are Brigitte de Vet, chief Executive Officer; and Koen Berges, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call and webcast are being accompanied by a slide presentation that reviews Materialise's strategic financial and operational performance for the fourth quarter of 2023 as well as the year 2023 as a whole. To access the slides, if you have not done so already, please go to the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.materialise.com. The earnings press release that was issued earlier today can also be found on that page. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that management may make forward-looking statements regarding the company's plans, expectations and growth prospects among other things. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed including competitive dynamics and industry change. Any forward-looking statements, including those related to the company's future results and activities represent management's estimates as of today and should not be relied upon as representing their estimates as of any subsequent day.Management disclaims, any duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or changes in expectations. A more detailed description of the risks and uncertainties and other factors that may impact the company's future business or financial results can be found in the company's most recent annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Finally, management will discuss certain non-IFRS measures on today's call. A reconciliation table is contained in the earnings release and also at the end of the slide presentation.And now I'd like to turn the call over to Brigitte de Vet. Brigitte?

[Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, executive]

Good morning and good afternoon and thank you everyone for joining us today. I'm very pleased to present our quarter 4 and full year 2023 results today. You can find the agenda for our call on Slide 3. Now as you know, I took over the role of the CEO of Materialise on January 1. So before we go into the official agenda, I actually will start sharing my first observations 6 weeks into this role, I will then summarize the highlights of our financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year, 2023, and I will dive deeper into some key achievements we realized in the past year. Then I will pass the floor to Koen who will go in more detail through our fourth quarter numbers. Finally, I will come back and explain what we expect 2024 to bring. When we've completed our prepared remarks, we'd be happy to respond to questions.So to start with, over the last couple of weeks, I've spent a lot of time listening and learning from customers, partners, industry stakeholders and our employees at Materialise. First, let me reflect on what I heard about the market for additive manufacturing. As you know, 2023 and in particular Q4 has been a challenging year for many players in this market. Rising geopolitical instability in combination with increased economic uncertainties and high interest rates made companies more hesitant to invest in new technologies while R&D efforts were often also reduced, resulting in less prototyping demand.That being said, the fundamentals of the market are sound driven by the demand for flexible, sustainable and cost-effective production methods. AM is the go-to technology for prototyping and this market is very mature. At the same time, the shift from prototyping to end use product is well underway and additive manufacturing is being adopted in more and more sectors in applications. So this shift is especially clear in end use parts that are customized such as the personalized products for medical applications. And as the adoption of personalization increases, this market will continue to grow.Next to this, we are also seeing an increased adoption of additive manufacturing for serial end use parts. We can clearly see this, for example, in the aerospace sector. Aerospace is a good example where leading companies have adopted 3D printing as a critical competence to maintain their competitive edge in the industry, enabling the production of parts that could not be traditionally manufactured.AM allows for the creation of more robust, reliable structures that are both cost and weight efficient, and it speeds up the design and manufacturing process. Moreover, AM aligns with the commitment of leading players in this segment to sustainability by using less energy and resources, creating fewer emissions and allowing for easier recycling and reuse of waste materials. And as the technology matures, we will see more and more meaningful applications of AM and we believe this market is bound to continue to grow.Now talking to many customers, partners and industry stakeholders, it is clear that Materialise is a leading player in this AM industry. We are strategically well-positioned with our deep know-how, the thorough understanding of the customer needs and the unique combination of software, hardware and mindware. We are well-placed to drive and benefit from the market trends that are just described.First, as additive manufacturing is increasingly used for serial end use parts, I believe we are well-placed to benefit with our software suite enabling efficient high quality AM operations at scale, and with our differentiating printing services, enabling companies making the shift to end use parts. And second, as the adoption of personalized end use products increases, we will see growth in our medical and wearable business.Now looking specifically at our results for 2023 summarized on Page 4, we can see this potential reflected in our 2023 numbers. Despite the difficult market conditions that I referred to, we grew our revenue over the year by 10% with growth across all segments, our total revenue increased 10.4% to EUR 256.1 million. Our adjusted EBITDA increased 65% to EUR 31.4 million from EUR 19 million in 2022. Net results turned into a net profit of EUR 6.7 million from a net loss of EUR 2.2 million in 2022, and our cash position as of year-end was EUR 127.6 million.Now for the fourth quarter, specifically, our revenue increased 4.1% to EUR 65.3 million. Deferred revenue for maintenance and licenses fees grew to EUR 44.9 million and adjusted EBITDA almost doubled to EUR 8.5 million or 13% of revenue. Net loss was minus EUR 0.5 million or minus EUR 0.01 per share, including the impact from impairments on goodwill, tangible and intangible assets of minus EUR 4.2 million. Koen will elaborate further on these results in his remarks later in this call.Moving to Slide 5, I would now like to share some specific highlights per segment starting with our software segment. Our software suite is an essential toolkit in the AM industry and with the additions and improvements made in 2023, we are helping to accelerate the shift to end use products that I described. Our CO-AM platform plays a particularly critical role in this shift as it enables companies to run AM production at scale. Throughout 2023, we have continued to onboard partners and add functionality to CO-AM. In the fourth quarter alone, we announced important partnerships with HP and Ansys and we added functionality that helps monitoring production and ensures the quality of parts.Also for Magics, we have released new functionalities, specifically targeted at metal production, which obviously plays a critical role in the production for end use parts. And last but not least, we released the next generation of our build processors massively increasing machine performance and ultimately reducing cost of parts critical in the adoption of AM in the production of end use parts. This continued investment in the software segments strengthens our future position in the market for end use parts even further. And while the top line growth in 2023 was soft due to the general economic uncertainty, we feel well-positioned for the moment when the market recovers.Continuing now with our manufacturing segment, our AM services are well-established provider of prototyping services and we continue to perform well in this market despite a very challenging environment due to the macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. At the same time, AM services can help customers make first steps into AM for end use parts. And this market is growing in selected segments such as aerospace, medical equipment and wearables. Realizing that as a growth opportunity for us in this market, we have established our certified manufacturing services offering customers documented and validated parts production, which clearly differentiates us in the market.As one of the largest and most complete AM facilities in Europe, we are well-versed in scaling production to the next level for our customers with a comprehensive range of production grade materials and technologies, a team that knows how to use them, polymer and metal competence centers and more. We can fully support customers that want to embrace AM for end use products. And while the second half of 2003 was challenging given the market circumstances, we are proud to have made progress in some of the key market segments such as the aerospace segment, where we announced a number of important partnerships.For example, with GKN Aerospace, a leading multi-technology Tier 1 aerospace supplier, and later in the year, a 3-year partnership, a 3-party partnership with Proponent, a large independent aerospace distributor and Stirling Dynamics, a certified aerospace design organization. In those partnerships, we will leverage the combined expertise to enhance the adoption of 3D printing for final parts in aerospace industry. We also continue to make investments in our Motion and Eyewear business positioning us for the revenue growth in the future in the wearable segment.Last but not least, I want to talk about some highlights of our medical segments. As Koen will show in the numbers, we continue to see very healthy growth in our medical segment. We have now surpassed the threshold of a EUR 100 million revenue, and while we felt the impact of the difficult economic climate in the software sales towards medical device companies, as they reduced their R&D programs and postponed the investments in additional software licenses, we continued to grow the number of cases delivered to patients around the world and managed to increase revenue by almost 20% for the full year.In addition, we made progress in some of our strategic programs positioning us very well for the future growth. In particular, I'd like to highlight the opening of our metal manufacturing plan in the U.S. This is a significant milestone as it'll enable us to further reduce our lead times to deliver cases, opening up new markets such as the use of personalized products for trauma patients. These patients cannot afford to wait for weeks to have the product delivered. I would also like to highlight the limited launch of Mimics Flow, a case management solution now offered to hospitals to streamline and organize their point of care 3D printing labs.As the adoption of 3D printing in hospitals at the point of care increases, customers need a tool to handle this increased amount of cases in an efficient way to collaborate in an easier way between clinicians, 3D lab leaders and engineers, and to enforce quality management within their 3D workflows. This is what Mimics Flow does, thereby enabling and accelerating the increased adoption of personalization, it is an extension of our offering and will provide growth opportunities in the future. It is a limited launch as we will take the year 2024 to learn more about the potential of Mimics Flow and expand the launch to other segments in 2025.In summary, our medical segment illustrates the potential of a smart combination of hardware and software with the thorough understanding of the customer's needs.Now over to Koen for more details on our financial results.

[Koen Berges, executive]

Thank you, Brigitte. I'll begin with a brief review of our consolidated revenue on Slide 6. As a reminder, please note that unless otherwise stated, I will discuss fourth quarter and full year 2023 results to comparable periods of 2022. In the last quarter of the year, we increased our revenue by 4.1% to EUR 65.3 million less favorable market conditions continued and mainly impacted our manufacturing segments and to a lesser extent also, our software segment resulting in a revenue decrease of 2% and 4% respectively. Materialise Medical, on the other hand, continue to grow by double digits and increased its revenue by 15%; Materialise Software accounted for 17% of our total revenue; Materialise Manufacturing for 40% and Materialise Medical for 43%. Deferred revenues from software maintenance and license fees grew again in the last quarter of 2023 by EUR 4.8 million, bringing the total amount carried on our balance sheet to EUR 44.9 million at the end of the year. For a full year, our revenue grew to EUR 256.1 million representing an increase of 10.4% compared to 2022. We saw growth in all three of our business segments during the year with largest growth coming from medical, which posted a 20% year-on-year growth rate. Our manufacturing segment through its revenue by almost 7% and software by 2%.Moving now on to Slide 7, you will see our consolidated adjusted EBITDA numbers for the fourth quarter as well as for the full year. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter amounted to EUR 8.5 million doubling from the EUR 4.3 million in 2022. Our adjusted EBITDA margin reached 13% compared to 6.8% the prior year. Full year adjusted EBITDA ended at EUR 31.4 million compared to EUR 19 million in 2022, representing an increase of 65%. Our adjusted EBITDA margin for the full year reached 12.3% compared to 8.2% last year.Slide 8 summarizes the results of our Materialise Software segments. In the fourth quarter, software revenue decreased as mentioned by almost 4% to EUR 11.3 million, but included more revenue deferral. Our recurring revenue from software maintenance and license sales, including CO-AM increased again by 5%. On the other hand, non-recurrent revenue further decreased by 16%, driven by the transition from perpetual license sales to cloud and subscription-based agreements, but also by lower demand from OEM machine sales.Adjusted EBITDA increased to EUR 1.3 million representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 11.2%. On a full year basis, our software segment increased its revenue by 2% to EUR 44.4 million, which translated into a significantly higher adjusted EBITDA of EUR 7.5 million representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.8%.Moving now on to Slide 9, you will notice that the quarter's total revenue in our Materialise Medical segment increased 15%. The solid growth rate was realized both by medical software and by revenue from medical device sales, which grew respectively by 13% and 16%. Adjusted EBITDA grew to EUR 9.4 million compared to EUR 6.4 million last year. The EBITDA margin increased to 33.6% as a result of scaling effects.On a full year basis, our medical segments surpassed to EUR 100 million thresholds, realizing now EUR 101.4 million of revenue, which is being translated into an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 26.5 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 26.2%. The share from medical software revenue remains stable around 31% of the total segments revenues. But due to the software sales as explained by Brigitte earlier, less software revenue was deferred to future periods compared to the prior year.Now let's turn to Slide 10 for an overview of the performance of our Materialise manufacturing segments. In fourth quarter, manufacturing continue to operate in a difficult market environment with lower prototyping demands. As a result thereof revenue decreased by 2% to EUR 26.2 million. Accordingly, also adjusted EBITDA dropped to EUR 0.6 million at an adjusted EBITDA margin of 2.1% compared to 5.6% margin last year. On a full year basis, manufacturing still grew its revenue by 7% to EUR 110 million realizing EUR 7.5 million of adjusted EBITDA, which represents an EBITDA margin of 6.8%, slightly down from 8% in the prior year.Slide 11 provides the highlights of our income statement for the fourth quarter and the full year. For the fourth quarter of 2023, our gross profit margin was 57.5%, up from 56.9% last year. For the full year, the margin was 56.7% of, again up from 55.5% over 2022. Continued cost focus helped us to reduce our operating expenses also in the fourth quarter by EUR 2.5 million or 6.5% compared to last year's quarter. For the full year, operating expenses are in the aggregate 1.4% lower than prior year. Our net operating income was negative in the quarter by EUR 3.3 million compared to a positive EUR 0.6 million last year. This quarter included nevertheless, a non-recurring impact of EUR 4.2 million for impairments related to goodwill, tangible and intangible assets of engine planning in Brazil and of Materialise Motion. As a result of these elements, the group's operating result was negative in the quarter by EUR 1.1 million compared to a loss of EUR 1.5 million in the last year's periods. For the full year, the operating result was positive though by EUR 5.6 million compared to a loss of EUR 2.9 million last year.In Q4, net financial expenses amounted to EUR 0.2 million, including a currency exchange loss of EUR 1 million, mainly reflecting the changed U.S. dollar euro position. Interest income of EUR 1.3 million from our cash reserves and interest expense on our financial debt of around EUR 0.4 million.Income tax in the quarter amounted to a positive effect of EUR 0.8 million compared to EUR 0.4 million last year. Net loss for the fourth quarter was EUR 0.5 million representing a minus EUR 0.01 per share compared to a net loss of EUR 4.6 million or EUR 0.08 per share for the 2022 periods. For the full year, we realized the net profit of EUR 6.7 million resented resulting in an EUR 0.11 per share compared to a net loss of EUR 2.2 million or minus EUR 0.04 per share last year.Now please turn to Slide 12 for a recap of balance sheet and cash flow highlights. Also, in the fourth quarter of 2023, our balance sheet remains strong. A cash reserve amounted to around EUR 128 million at the end of the year compared to EUR 141 million at the end of 2022. Loan repayments of EUR 17 million reduced our gross debt to EUR 64 million. A resulting net cash position at the end of the year hence was EUR 63 million up by EUR 3 million compared to a year earlier. Cashflow from operating activities for the full year amounted to EUR 20.2 million compared to EUR 22.3 million last year. A higher contribution from P&L components was offset by growing working capital requirements. Capital expenditure for the quarter amounted to EUR 2.5 million into EUR 11.8 million for the full year. None of these were externally financed.And with that, I'd like to hand over the call to Brigitte again.

[Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, executive]

Thank you, Koen. Now let's turn to Page 13 to take a look at the outlook for 2024. In 2024, We expect the uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment to continue at least for a large part of the year. In this environment, it remains important that we stay focused on our key priorities. First of all, it is critical that we maintain the momentum in our medical segment through continued product innovation and leveraging our manufacturing facility in the U.S. to deliver cases with shorter lead times and address those new market segments that I talked about earlier. Second, in our software segment, we need to remain focused on capturing the growth opportunities in particular in the market for end use parts. And last but not least, in our manufacturing business, need to capture the growth in selected market segments in order to drive revenue in 2024. And as part of this plan, we will open the new manufacturing plan for ACTech towards the end of this year to capture the opportunities we see in casting.I'll conclude my remarks on Slide 14 with a discussion of our full year 2024 guidance. We expect revenues in 2024 to be in the range of EUR 265 million to EUR 275 million representing a healthy growth despite the continued uncertainty of the macroeconomic and geopolitical environment. With our guidance reflects this uncertainty, we believe Materialise is ideally positioned in the market for additive manufacturing software and services in the market for personalized products. Thanks to our strong product portfolio, our continued investments in innovation and our strong financial foundation. We expect growth in all 3 of our segments. The growth of our Materialise software revenue will be further temporarily impacted by the transition towards a Cloud-based subscription business model that we are continuing to implement.As you will have noticed going forward, we will be providing guidance on adjusted EBIT. We believe our consolidated adjusted EBIT is a more useful guidance measure as it includes the periodic cost of capitalized, tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenue in our business. And as such will allow for a better assessment of our expected performance and profitability. However, we will continue to report the segment adjusted EBITDA of our three business segments. The expected revenue growth will result in an adjusted EBIT, which we currently anticipate to total between EUR 11 million and EUR 14 million for 2024. This guidance reflects our strive towards profitable growth in what we believe will remain an uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment.This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we are now ready to open the call to questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The first questions come from Jacob Stephan with Lake Street Capital Markets.

[Jacob Stephan, analyst]

Congrats on the solid revenue growth year-over-year. You talked a little bit about your Michigan facility here. I'm just curious to hear how is that facility ramped over the last few months here and how do you think about your capacity utilization there currently?

[Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, executive]

Yes. So I can take that question. Jacob, it's good to talk to you again. Yes, so we are very pleased actually with the ramp up of the Michigan facility, opening up a new metal facility is never easy. But we're very proud that, first of all, in the preparation of the opening we did stick to our timelines all the way through opening the facility in August. And we also managed to ship first cases in August according to our plan. The ramp up is going very well. And we are therefore in 2024 already considering additional investments in that facility. So we are very pleased with the results there. And as I mentioned earlier, the big advantage is that with the shorter lead times, we are able to opening up new patient segments so new segments of the market and that is driving our growth and we will continue to do so in 2020.

[Jacob Stephan, analyst]

Okay, awesome. That's great to hear. Maybe just a touch deeper on the 2024 guidance. I'm curious how you're thinking about kind of growth in the manufacturing segment. You have referenced kind of prototyping weakness over the last couple quarters here, but are you expecting that weakness to continue? It sounds like you're signing some nice partnerships in the aerospace market which we've heard has been strong, but just curious how you're thinking about kind of the prototyping market and where that stands entering 2024?

[Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, executive]

Yes, so I always like to differentiate between the prototyping and the end use parts market because the dynamics are indeed different. Now if I look at our manufacturing segment as a whole and the market that we are serving there, the prototyping market has been under pressure and it's mainly related to the macroeconomic difficulties and some other market dynamics, I would expect those to stay difficult throughout the year 2024, at least for a good part of the year 2024. The dynamics in the end use parts are slightly different in the geopolitical environment and the macroeconomic uncertainties impact as well. But we need to take a more granular look in that segment at where we can find pockets of investments that do exist in that market. And I mentioned the aerospace segment, which has been a successful one for us and many other players over the last couple of years and there are others that we will be focusing on. So it's really for us in our manufacturing segment despite the more troubled market environments that many of us will still be in I believe in the growth by focusing on those selected segments that we can benefit from. Prototyping is such I mean, your question specifically goes to that the market will stay difficult. Now admittedly, I still am very convinced that with our differentiating position that in 2024, we can continue to grow on that side as well.

[Jacob Stephan, analyst]

And just one last one for me here on software. You could talk a little bit about your strategy, maybe how has your distribution strategy changed? Are you kind of sticking with a direct sort of sales force? Are you using a reseller model here? Just curious how you've kind of adapted over the last 6 to 12 months here.

[Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, executive]

And that is on the software segment specifically?

[Jacob Stephan, analyst]

Yes.

[Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, executive]

Yes. So the software segment specifically, we've always used a multitude of channels. So we have a direct sales model combined with a channel model and obviously a close partnership with our OEM partners as well who help us put the products in the market, and we have continuously been doing that over the last couple of years and I expect us to follow that same mix of strategies going forward.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Alexander Craeymeersch with Kepler Cheuvreux.

[Alexander Craeymeersch, analyst]

Congratulations Koen and Brigitte and the whole team on the profit this year. I was just interested in, I have had 2 questions. So one was on the capacity expansion in the U.S. and ACTech. On the ACTech facility, don't you think that the capacity that is coming on live in H2 this year, at least it was planted that way originally, will then not put extra pressure on the margins. And then next to that, I would also ask how much capacity we need to foresee for these plans, both in the U.S. and ACTech in 2024? And then maybe in the extension of that question, maybe how we need to look at the free cash flow generation this year, including the working cap developments.

[Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, executive]

Okay. So that's a lot of questions. I'll take the first one talking about the ACTech investments specifically. So Alexander, you're obviously right on the short-term that any additional investment always adds on the short-term, some pressure on the margins. At the same time, I think you all know us as a player that invest in the long-term. So we believe in the potential of that business. We actually see that we have missed opportunities because of lack of capacity in the past. And that's what we want to rectify with that additional investment. So beyond the startup phase, the pressure on the margins should be equalized or neutralized. So that was for the first question.

[Koen Berges, executive]

Maybe I can pick up on your second part of the question, Alexander, and I'm going to split it into 2 parts, the free cash flow impacts of the facility expansions, and then coming back to the working capital evolution. As to answer the question with regards to free cash flow evolution, indeed in the year 2024, we will see a heavy investment phase, especially with the ACTech plans that we will bring into production. There is already a part of the investments that we have taken in 2023 and even before. But indeed, a fair chunk of the of the amount will come in the first half of 2024. And that will indeed impact our overall free cashflow generation this year, which based on the current numbers will be negative temporarily just because we do this huge investment. And then we will see out of the second half of the year, we will see the cashflow coming in gradually from the startup of the of the facility. Now as to the Metals U.S. plant that investment was already taken in the past. There is as Brigitte indicated, we're contemplating to do further investments in the plant, but that will be to a minor amount compared to the initial investment and certainly compared to ACTech.Second question with regards to working capital evolution that is certainly something that we will be monitoring more closely going forward. As we are growing, we see an increased need for working capital requirements. But we do want to focus further on this in order to keep a healthy operating cash flow and support further our free cash flow generation in the coming months and years ahead of us. I hope that answers your question.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Troy Jensen with Cantor Fitzgerald.

[Troy Jensen, analyst]

Maybe start with Brigitte here. So I know you've been on board now for 3 months had some time to look at different aspects of the business here. I'm just curious, what would you change now or potentially do better versus what Fried was doing Fried and Peter's leadership? And I know they're listening, so be careful. I'll let you say here.

[Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, executive]

So, well, first of all, I want to want to stress that it's been 6 weeks in the new role, so it's still very early days. Now I knew you were going to ask the question, which is why I also added some remarks on how I look at things. And also clearly highlighted the priorities for us in 2024 after my first look at how things are going. I mean it's clear that the 3 priorities clearly are medical growth that we want to keep the momentum in medical. So the growth potential is there and we want to make sure that we realize that. On the software and the manufacturing side, I mentioned that we want to focus on capturing the opportunities. And maybe to answer your question a bit more specifically as to what is the biggest change, it's maybe a bit more of a focused approach, focusing on there where we do see growth opportunities despite the environment that we see. And with that focus, generating or driving the growth in revenue. And that will be critical that we stay focused on that because our growth ambition is there and is real and I think it's based on the potential that we have in the market. So I hope that answers your question.

[Troy Jensen, analyst]

Yes, no, very good. So just the medical business too. So if look at total guidance, you have 4% kind of at the midpoint, but you said all three segments are going to grow. I mean, medical's just been killing it, right? So you just had record revenues, you had record EBITDA margins, you'd be curious to know the applications that are driving it currently. And then if you've been growing 15%, 18%, 20% the last 3 years in this medical business, it seems like you're forecasting it to slow down. So is that just conservative guidance or some thoughts please.

[Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, executive]

Yes, so it is really two questions, if I understand you correctly. One is the mix of markets in which we grow and the second is more specifically towards our guidance going forward. Now let me answer the second part of your question first because that'll help us on the first part of your question. So I highlighted in our current results or in the 2023 results that we saw software sales to medical device companies, which is an important segment for us. And that will weigh on our revenues in 2024. So that plays into our guidance for 2024, specifically for the medical segment. The same obviously accounts for our software segment, but that has an impact on the medical segment. Now when it comes to a couple of the segments in which we see the growth, the nice thing for us is that it's really a healthy mix of different segments which makes it balanced and therefore takes a bit of risk hopefully out of the equation as well. And we really see a combination of our mature segments playing a very important role there. The orthopedic segment is still a very important segment for us. The CMS segment is playing an important role there. And despite the fact that we saw softness in our medical sales, as Koen highlighted in his remarks, we're still seeing growth there as well less than previous years. But we're still seeing growth there towards the research and engineering markets in a broader way. So it's a healthy mix.

[Operator]

I show no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Brigitte for closing remarks.

[Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, executive]

Thank you. And thank you all for joining us today. As you heard Materialise's many initiatives underway to leverage and accelerate the growing adoption of additive manufacturing. And we all look forward to continuing our dialogue with you throughout the upcoming investor conferences or our one-on-ones virtual meetings or calls. Now if you do have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to us. Thank you all and goodbye for now.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.