Carl Zeiss Meditec AG
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Carl Zeiss Meditec AG
XETRA:AFX
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Market Cap: 5B EUR
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Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2019-Q1

from 0
Operator

Dear ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Analyst Call of Carl Zeiss Meditec for the First Quarter of Business Year 2018/'19. At our customers' request, this conference will be recorded. [Operator Instructions] May I now hand you over to Sebastian Frericks, Director, Investor Relations, who will start the meeting today. Please go ahead, sir.

S
Sebastian Frericks
Director of Investor Relations

Yes. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for joining our call today. Welcome to the 3 months' analyst conference of Carl Zeiss Meditec. My name is Sebastian Frericks, and I'm Director of Investor Relations. And I'm with here, as usual, with our President, CEO, Dr. Ludwin Monz; and our CFO, Justus Wehmer. And would like to hand over to our board of management to introduce you to our financial statements. After the prepared remarks, we're happy to take your questions.

L
Ludwin Monz
President, CEO & Chairman of Management Board

Yes. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ludwin Monz. I also would like to welcome you to our analyst conference. I apologize for the late start, but we had some technical difficulties here.So please turn to Slide #2, and let me introduce today's agenda. I will start with an overview about our results. And then, as usual, our CFO, Justus Wehmer, will give you more details on the financials in the next section of the presentation. Afterwards, I will share some highlights. And finally, we will provide an outlook.So please turn to Slide #4. As you can see, Carl Zeiss Meditec had a good start into the fiscal year and was, again, able to grow substantially compared to the same period of prior fiscal year.Revenues reached EUR 324 million, with good growth contributions from both SBUs. In terms of regions, EMEA and APAC were the growth drivers. However, it's too early to read this as a new trend.Total growth was 10%, with a slight currency tailwind. Constant currency growth rate was about 9%. Justus will discuss growth contributors somewhat more in-depth in a minute.The EBIT margin increased significantly in Q1 and reached 14.9% versus 13.2% in prior year. I would like to note that this improvement was mainly driven by a temporary reduction of R&D costs. Going forward, certain reductions of R&D costs, like the discontinuation of the femtosecond lasers projects, will be compensated by other activities. For example, the acquisition of IanTECH, as announced in October '18, will add on the costs in the future. However, you should expect R&D costs to return roughly to the previous level in the upcoming quarters.However, our net income reached EUR 29 million, which corresponds to earnings per share of EUR 0.32, same level as prior year. Okay.So overall, the performance developed nicely, and I now would like to hand over to Justus to discuss a little bit more in detail.

J
Justus Felix Wehmer
CFO & Member of the Management Board

Yes. Thank you, Ludwin, and also a warm welcome from my side. And let me now give you a more detailed overview of our financials, starting with the performance of the SBU Ophthalmic Devices. So revenue came in for OPT with roughly EUR 240 million compared to prior year. This is reported growth at roughly 10.7% and at constant currency at roughly 9.8%.While competitive pressure in our Diagnostic segment remains tough, we see continued positive effects. Top line trend has been improving also due to our new product CLARUS 500, as I think we mentioned in previous calls.The Refractive Laser business continued its strong performance from the past. Here, especially our SMILE technology continues to develop very nicely. And again, also a positive trend is observed in our Surgical Ophthalmology business.So EBIT margin for ophthalmology increased significantly compared to last year. We were supported by a more favorable product mix. For example, increased the share of recurring revenue and had somewhat high operational leverage. And of course, as discussed before, was also supported by somewhat lower R&D ratio.With that, let's talk about Microsurgery. Here, also, we could see a strong performance in revenue growth of EUR 84 million versus EUR 78 million in the prior year, which is a revenue increase of around 7.4% or 6.7% at constant currency. There is continued strong revenue growth in neuro and ENT, supported by our new robotic visualization system, the KINEVO, which we highlighted in our last quarterly call.EBIT margin still clearly above 20%, slightly below prior year due to changes in product and regional mix.So let us now look at the regional mix on the next slide. So as you can see, first of all, it's still pretty well balanced, regional split, across the 3 main global regions. Let's start with a look at the Americas, which contributed roughly EUR 92 million of revenue in the first 3 months with a decrease of 2.3% or at constant currency 4.9%. The U.S. itself could show a slight growth of 1% at constant currency minus 2%. Let's remember that prior year Q1 was extremely positive due to the product launches of CLARUS 500 and the KINEVO. Overall, the development in America has been clearly improving for the last quarters. However, Latin America was significantly decreasing given also the critical economic situation in some countries like Brazil or Mexico.In Europe, we have seen an impressive increase to EUR 104 million of revenues, which is roughly 13.5% or at constant currency even 15.1%. We have seen a continuedly heterogeneous picture in Europe where we have seen in Germany, France, U.K. solid single and double-digit growth versus a more challenging situation in the Middle East, given all the political and also economical turbulences in some of those countries.In APAC, we have seen with EUR 128 million in absolute terms, the biggest contribution to revenues in the first quarter, which is representing an increase of 17.1% over last year's first quarter or at constant currency 16.2%. Again, good revenue growth in China. We do not yet see signs of any dramatic slowdown in this region. Also, South Korea contributed strongly again. And -- however, to predict how markets will develop in that region is somewhat difficult.So let's have a look on the next slide on the P&L. So as you can see, first of all, pretty stable gross margin with roughly 55%. OpEx, in terms of absolute numbers, slightly increased, but the OpEx margin overall decreased. So pretty much still on a level of 14% of sales.R&D expenses, as Ludwin mentioned before, below our previous year values. A large part of this apparent cost reduction, however, and I'm talking about roughly EUR 4 million here, was caused by capitalization of R&D costs for projects in advanced stages. So we are acting in compliance with IFRS and IAS 38. And this effect in the first quarter culminated to a somewhat higher number than what we typically would see in a quarter.In addition to this technical effect, please keep also in mind that in the previous year we had significant investments in our femtosecond cataract project, which, however, we then stopped during the last fiscal year, as was announced and discussed in previous quarterly calls.During the further course of the year, an increase in the R&D ratio, however, is expected among others also due to the acquisition of IanTECH. EBIT came in with EUR 48 million, significantly above prior year, and with a margin of 14.9% versus the 13.2% in last year.So a quick look on the next slide, on the adjusted EBIT margin, which reached 15.1%. As you can see, only rather small effects related to purchase price allocations from previous acquisitions and the effects from the recently announced IanTECH acquisition are rather immaterial at this moment.With that, last but not least, a short look at the cash flow. Operating cash flow was EUR 24 million, significantly above prior year, especially due to lower increase in inventories. Cash flow from investing activities, here you'll basically see the impact of IanTECH acquisition, which was concluded in the last quarter. And the cash flow from financing activities is then mainly influenced by the development of short-term deposits held at our group treasury account. The treasury receivables decreased as a result of the IanTECH acquisition and the corresponding purchase price, which we paid in Q1. And the net cash, as you can see, on a comparable level to previous year. And with that, I hand it back over to Ludwin.

L
Ludwin Monz
President, CEO & Chairman of Management Board

Yes. Thank you, Justus. In the third section of our presentation, I would like to touch on 2 subjects. One, a new product, the TIVATO, which we introduced recently; and the second subject is about our sustainability report, which also might be of interest for you.So as you know, Carl Zeiss Meditec is all about innovation and that is why I would like to highlight TIVATO 700, a robotic visualization system for minimally invasive spine and ENT surgery. This product, as you know, was introduced for the first time in September 2018 and it's now being rolled out globally in spine surgery. Ultimate reach and flexibility of the microscope stent as well as mechanical stability are key. We've introduced robotic technology to control movements and actively damp vibrations in this product. This approach and technology is unique in our market, and we are the only company to offer this.The visualization itself uses integrated 4K camera technology for superb image quality for really every procedure. Therefore -- furthermore, intraoperative fluorescence options are available for both vascular and tumor procedures. The device is fully digital and connected in order to allow for improved procedural efficiency, faster turnarounds in the OR and thus higher patient throughput.You can think of the TIVATO as a mid-range product. It's positioned below the KINEVO and above the EXTARO. So we are targeting the mature OPMI Vario market, where we have an installed base of more than 10,000 units in the field. So please turn to Slide #14, which is the second subject I would like to mention, the sustainability strategy. This is relevant, as more and more customers request our sustainability report. As many of you know, the ZEISS Group has a long history of sustainable business management. A commitment to key stakeholders is very much ingrained into the DNA of our company. Therefore, Carl Zeiss Meditec can benefit from the ZEISS Group and has integrated its sustainability strategy with the sustainability effort of the ZEISS Group. The ZEISS Group has published its sustainability report a couple of weeks ago. This report is also valid for Carl Zeiss Meditec. I would like to encourage you to have a look at the sustainability processes and initiatives, which are outlined in this report.Some highlights are listed here on the slide, like environmental protection, where we have made significant progress over the last decade as well as our social engagement. For us, it has always been our highest priority to improve quality of life of all patients through our technology and to expand the reach and impact of our products. Yes, so much about the highlights. That brings me to the last agenda item of today's presentation, our outlook, so please go to Page #16. Our outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year and the midterm is unchanged. We expect further profitable growth. The growth drivers for the medical market in general and for the Microsurgery and ophthalmology markets, in particular, are fully intact. The relevant trends, which drive growth in the market, are these. First, the population in Western countries, as well as major Asian countries, is aging. Second, the affluence, particularly in economically, rapidly developing nations is also growing and at the same time access to health care in these countries is improving. And thirdly, there is better access to information and a higher health awareness. So all these factors lead to a growing demand for health care. And at the same time, it will increase cost pressure in the health care system and drives patient load, which is not only a challenge for the health care providers, but also for medtech industry. However, Carl Zeiss Meditec looks at these trends as an opportunity. We are committed to innovation and will provide solutions to address the challenges and benefit from the opportunities. Specifically, we will continue to follow our strategy, which has been successful for the past years. And our strategic priorities are unchanged. They are listed here in the middle of the slide. We want to further expand recurring revenue generation. We will drive the global rollout of our SMILE Refractive Laser procedure. We will continue to extend our technology leadership in cataract. We will leverage our new product generation in the neuro and ENT market. And we are committed to digital technologies.For fiscal year 2018/'19 and in the midterm horizon, we confirm our guidance. We want to grow at least as fast as our markets grow, and we want to keep an attractive EBIT margin between 14% and 16%.Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our prepared remarks. We now would like to invite you for your questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Scott Bardo of Berenberg.

S
Scott Bardo
Analyst

Firstly, thank you for providing some additional highlights on the TIVATO 700. I wonder if you could, please, give us an indication of the pricing for this instrument or the premium pricing as compared to its predecessor product, please? And also, following on from the Microsurgery business, I see that the margins were down slightly year-over-year. Can you perhaps give us a little bit more understanding of this? Is this still a result of the more profitable PENTERO ramping down or still some learning experience in the KINEVO 900? A little bit more information there would be helpful, please. And last question, I noticed that in the U.S. market you had somewhat of a flattish performance, about 1%. I appreciate that was on the top of a pretty strong performance in the prior year, but given that you're launching ReLEx SMILE and CLARUS and other systems, it came in a little bit lower than I was anticipating. So I wonder, can you comment a little bit more about the U.S. end market, whether there was any signs of weakness that concern you or this was just a one-off?

L
Ludwin Monz
President, CEO & Chairman of Management Board

Yes. Thank you, Scott, for your questions. I start with the first one and Justus takes the second. The first one was on TIVATO and the pricing. The -- a typical pricing of the TIVATO, let's say, 50 -- EUR 50,000. That's a typical price point. The -- it's a little bit similar like the pricing with the KINEVO. We try to be competitive in the entry level for this product, which means if you just take the bare product with no options, with no additional features, we try to be as competitive as possible. And then we are selling options, like intraoperative fluorescence or certain video options or whatever. And that adds onto these -- the base price if you like. It's a little bit like buying a car, where you can equip the car with all the options, which adds up to the base price. So that's what we do here. And this is why I think that the TIVATO has some potential to increase the total price compared to the Vario because in the Vario we did not have these options. For the time being, I cannot quantify this, but I'm just saying, given the structure of the product, I would expect that there is a tendency to increase the ASP. Yes, Justus, the second question was on...

J
Justus Felix Wehmer
CFO & Member of the Management Board

On the margins. I think, overall, what we observed is that since a year ago with the launch, we have seen, especially with the KINEVO, very much the early adopters with the high, let's say, feature kind of products that had a higher proportion of the total KINEVO business a year ago, while now we basically see that the KINEVO, as we always said, is going to be a platform, which will substitute the PENTERO, has now a wider spread between entry-, mid- and premium-level users. And therefore we see somewhat of a dilution or dilutionary effect.

L
Ludwin Monz
President, CEO & Chairman of Management Board

So -- but I don't think this is a trend. Always keep in mind, we're just looking at 3 months and it's a little bit too early to finally conclude on the trend here. The third question was on the U.S. development. And you basically made the point already, Scott. The comparison base last year first quarter is pretty high because we had introduced new products, the KINEVO and the CLARUS, at that point in time, so it was difficult to reach the same level. I would not see negative trends in the market for the time being in the U.S. market. This is, I would say, stable. It's not -- there's nothing that would have fundamentally changed. So I actually believe that with the pipeline we have of products, which are already announced, like the TIVATO, but also the KINEVO has more potential in the U.S., the CLARUS. I believe we should return to a growth path, that's at least my expectation here. More challenging to predict, however, is South America. South America is a challenge, has been a challenge economically and that's not going to change. So that impact I can very -- I cannot predict at all. No.

Operator

The next question is from Markus Gola, MainFirst.

M
Markus Gola
Vice President

So my first one is also related to the TIVATO. Do you believe you can only transform your installed base in the Vario here? Or do you also see potential for market share gains? And what this your -- what is the market share of the Vario and who is your main competitor here? And my second question is more specifically related to the SMILE technology in the U.S. Could you provide us with an update on the rollout? And is it meeting your expectation so far here? And my third question would be whether you could provide us with a guidance for the additional costs related for the IanTECH acquisition in 2019?

L
Ludwin Monz
President, CEO & Chairman of Management Board

Yes, I'll start with the first two and Justus take the third. The -- first of all, as I was saying before the presentation, we have an installed base of 10,000 units of the OPMI Vario, which is the predecessor of the TIVATO. So that's huge, right? And these products have aged, so even if we only could replace these devices in the market, that would present an enormous opportunity. But I believe that there is actually also some potential to convert customers from competitors. Main competitor here is Leica, clearly, in this segment. And I believe that our product, the TIVATO, is very strong compared to competitive offers, so there should also be a potential to a little bit gain market share. I cannot give you a specific number, because this is now a subsegment here of one product, so that's difficult to say. But it's certainly not our strongest market share historically and with that product, I believe, we have opportunity to definitely grow. Your second question was on SMILE and the roll out in the U.S. As you all know, in the meantime, we do have full approval of the product, including astigmatism, and we've started to roll out the product. We do see a good start. However, and I've said this here in this group a couple of times and need to repeat it, do not expect a steep increase of our SMILE business in the U.S. This is going to be a longer-term effort because the market shares with the previous generation technology LASIK, market shares are basically distributed. And Zeiss has mainly no position in the U.S. So this is going to be a longer-term development. We are very confident that we will be able to really gain market share, but it's not going to happen overnight. We've seen the same relatively slow start in Europe and in Asia and it's not going to be different in the U.S. But we are still very optimistic and all the feedback we get right now is as expected positive. The third one was on cost on IanTECH.

J
Justus Felix Wehmer
CFO & Member of the Management Board

Yes, of course. I think in the last call we've given the guidance that we see a single or low double-digit million impact on EBIT, mainly associated, of course, with R&D expenses. So today -- my today's assessment would be that we will probably be at the upper end of that guidance when it comes to the impacts on our P&L this year. Is that answering your question?

M
Markus Gola
Vice President

Yes, it was very clear.

Operator

The next question is from Daniel Wendorff of Commerzbank.

D
Daniel Wendorff
Analyst

Two, if I may. And the first one would be on the growth in Ophthalmic Devices, and can you potentially give a bit more detail as to regards how important, what product range, what product area was, i.e. how did the IOL lens portfolio perform, and if you would have to rank the growth drivers, how would the first 3 positions look like? And my second question would be on the strong performance in EMEA. Maybe you can give us a bit more detail how we should think about the development of core markets going forward because apparently, that was really strong in Q1. Was that due to some kind of special effect? Or how should we think about this development over the next 3 quarters?

L
Ludwin Monz
President, CEO & Chairman of Management Board

Yes. That's a difficult question. We would need to look into the numbers to really give specifics, but let's try to do this from the top of my head. The -- in OPT, the strongest growth we clearly see and have seen for quite some time in the field of refractive. And within refractive, of course, the SMILE procedure is really driving this. That actually is a good development. As you know, we are the only one to offer the SMILE procedure, so I would expect this growth to continue, also given the situation in the U.S., which I just explained. Secondly, the second part of our Ophthalmic Device business is the Surgical Ophthalmology business, and within Surgical Ophthalmology the IOL business, which you asked for, in particular. Last year, you might remember that we had some slow development of the surgical microscopes within the ophthalmology offering. That actually has changed. So we are now growing again also with ophthalmic surgical microscopes at a nice rate. That's an important product. But clearly, the IOLs play a key role in Surgical Ophthalmology as this is recurring revenue. The IOLs you can think of as 2 segments. The one segment is the standard IOL segment, and the other segment is the premium segment. For us, it's both at about the same level. So equally important the 2 segments. The growth dynamics has been different. Size has a very high share in the premium segment. We are still growing in the premium. We are defending this. As you know, our competitors are now also focusing on that segment, so it's going to be higher competition there. We have grown very strongly in the standard segment, also. And as I said, makes up the other half of the IOL business, so has become very important in the meantime as well.I -- you should remember, you, that this actually originates from the Aaren acquisition, which we made a couple of years ago. And that's now the basis for the standard product range. So these are the 2 main parts. The third part is the diagnostic device business in Ophthalmic Devices, very substantial business as well. But that's not the strong growth business and has never been simply because the competitive intensity in this field is very high. Yes, the second was on EMEA development by countries. Justus?

J
Justus Felix Wehmer
CFO & Member of the Management Board

Yes, I mean -- first of all, please understand, to give long-term predictions on Europe, given that we all I think -- nobody in the call knows what the Brexit is going to look like and what it may mean for the rest of Europe is difficult. But maybe a few highlights. I think we have definitely, after a couple of slower yields in some, especially, southern European countries, you may argue that we have done our homework in terms of the structures that we have put in place. And with the portfolio and markets where we see and perceive a bit more, let's say, economic willingness to spend. I think that has helped in markets like Italy, for example, or Spain. And in markets that traditionally are strong and important for us, like France and Germany, I think we also benefit from the combination of a good portfolio and a good structure in the market in terms of educated sales force, et cetera. I don't want to forget here U.K., which is an important market for us. But that's -- I'm deliberately mentioning because as I said in the beginning, I want to also caution a little bit. I'm not so sure to what extent these positive developments in Q1 will then carry through if we get in Europe longer and difficult to predict reaction or response to whatever the Brexit may look like. Yes, I hope that answers your question.

Operator

The next question is from Falko Friedrichs, Deutsche Bank.

F
Falko Friedrichs
Research Analyst

Can you hear me now?

L
Ludwin Monz
President, CEO & Chairman of Management Board

Yes.

F
Falko Friedrichs
Research Analyst

Three questions for me, please. Firstly, on the TIVATO launch, can you share how many placements you expect for this year? Secondly, growth in the Microsurgery segment was lower than the impressive 2018 growth rates that you presented to us in December. So was Q1 just a temporary reduction or is the 7% growth actually a good indication for this year, given that comps are pretty high? And then thirdly, could you -- as you've just mentioned it, could you update us on your preparation for potential no-deal Brexit?

L
Ludwin Monz
President, CEO & Chairman of Management Board

Yes. Let's start with the first one, TIVATO. The comparison I have is what the predecessor, the Vario actually, was the unit numbers we had for this product. It's in the range of 500 to 1,000. So in that range, you can expect also the new product to end up. There's -- potentially be higher unit numbers even, but it's in that volume range. With a new product introduction, it typically takes a while to penetrate the market, and we do not have the approvals for the rollout at once. So it's a slow ramp up. The old products will ramp down, so there will be transition between these two, but that might be a good ballpark number. On MCS, yes, you're right. It's just a 3-month number, and I'm not sure if that is a good number, also, for the year. I'm simply not sure. On the one hand, I believe that the product portfolio we have is really brand-new and has high potential. I mean, the KINEVO, the TIVATO and the EXTARO, these are all new products which were introduced the last 2 years. So with that new portfolio, I would expect actually higher potential to grow, but it's always a question how the markets also develop. And that I can hardly predict. So I believe we should wait another quarter or 2 to really see what the trend will be. There is certainly potential also for more growth than what we saw in the first 3 months. But again, it very much depends on the economic development overall. Yes, the third one, no-deal Brexit?

J
Justus Felix Wehmer
CFO & Member of the Management Board

Yes, I can make a few comments. I mean, like everybody else, we are doing our homework, meaning that filling warehouses, being it with end product on the one hand side you know or may not know, but we have a small production facility in Scotland. So we are currently making sure that we will be able to carry through if we would have a -- whatever -- a quarter of customs process inefficiencies that would not affect us. Vice versa, we are filling our spare parts warehouses in the U.K. to be then also be able to basically supply and support our big customer base in the U.K., not making them suffer from any delays in customs. So this is what we basically do. I think like probably most other continental enterprises do also. We have no just-in-time or other kind of productions that would be affected also in our supply chain. We are not dependent here in Germany or in other European locations from any just-in-time supplies out of the U.K. So compared to other industries in Germany, I would consider us somewhat -- a somewhat better position. I hope that covers your question.

F
Falko Friedrichs
Research Analyst

Yes, great.

Operator

And next question is from Aliaksandr Halitsa of H&A.

A
Aliaksandr Halitsa
Equity Analyst

I just have one left. If you could maybe go one level deeper on Refractive Lasers systems and talk about a little bit of the hardware sales as opposed to license fees. Then maybe, if possible, in the -- with a view on most important regions?

L
Ludwin Monz
President, CEO & Chairman of Management Board

Yes, please understand that we do not disclose details here because this is highly competitive information. However, what I can tell you is that we, of course, have a close look at the hardware sales and we call it the treatment tax sales. That's the recurring part of our revenue. So for each and every patient procedure, a consumable is needed and that generates the recurring revenue. So with each addition to our installed base, the treatment pack revenue grows and -- but the hardware sales, of course, is a future predictor, if you like, for business development. So we have very constant growth rates, also, on the hardware. We continuously extend our installed base and the licensees, as you call them or the treatment tax grow even at higher rate. In the meantime, of course, the treatment tax make up a substantial part of our overall business. But again, I cannot provide detailed numbers because this is highly competitive.

Operator

There are currently no further questions. [Operator Instructions] We have a follow-up question from Scott Bardo of Berenberg.

S
Scott Bardo
Analyst

Two questions, please. One financial question. I wonder whether there has been any assessment on the company's hedging policy. I know, again, a relatively negative ForEx exchange loss this quarter and this has been somewhat of a volatile line for the company over the last many years. So I would be interested to hear your opinion on whether you think the current hedging policy is effective or whether there's any room for optimization? And the second question, please, is more of a philosophical question for Dr. Monz. I guess the role of a CEO is to effectively deploy capital and to grow and progress a business' equity. And with that in mind, clearly, done a very good job up until this point. But I ask the question insofar as with the current relatively high valuations of Carl Zeiss Meditec shares and consensus forecast position where they are, and I wonder whether this has exerted any additional pressure on you to deploy capital or to optimize profitability over and above your current plan?

J
Justus Felix Wehmer
CFO & Member of the Management Board

Okay. Thanks, Scott. This is Justus. On the hedging policy. Let me make a statement. First of all, we have 3 principles when it comes to the hedging. Number one, we do not speculate. Number two, we prefer actually natural hedging. And number three, if the natural hedging is not balancing out, we basically only secure the remaining exposure. And we do this without any blind guessing. We basically take whatever is the exposure and then we fix on the rate of that date on a rolling 12-month horizon. So -- and -- so there's no further intelligence to it and that may answer why you then have -- and we actually statistically can see that, although you're right, at least, in the last quarters, we have been reporting rather losses from that hedging, but over the time you can argue 50% of the time you're right or higher or 50% lower. And actually, on the long-term period, you actually can see that pattern. But fair enough, especially after we have had bigger fluctuations between, especially dollar and euro, you basically can then see that in the back end once we -- once this rolling 12 month is then coming over the hump of that oscillation, then we see this impact. So fair statement, but I just wanted to make transparent to you what is the policy behind it. That doesn't take the impact away, but it's the policy that you have to take one policy in the company, we chose that one.

L
Ludwin Monz
President, CEO & Chairman of Management Board

Scott, your second question. Let me first say, no, our focus has always been on long-term value and long-term growth of the company. So -- and as you've been following us for very long, you know that. I mean, we've built up, for example, the recurring revenue part of our business, which today is more than a third, very systematically and that was long-term effort. When we started this more than 10 years ago, there was almost nothing in recurring revenue. And today it really adds to the profitability of the company, and we will continue with that strategy. So I envisage a -- also a future growth. Also mid- and long term along these lines. So I'm not driven by the high valuation of our company. I just follow the strategy, I hope that doesn't disappoint you because the strategy has been successful in the past. Of course, there are other elements to it. For example, the question, "How much of our money do we invest in research and development?" We're at a pretty high rate here, and I believe that's right because Carl Zeiss Meditec differentiates from its competitors through innovation, so I believe it makes sense that we spend a high percentage of our revenue in research and development. So we will certainly continue also with that. And the third element of our growth strategy here clearly is M&A. There's nothing to add to what has been said in the past about this. It is an important part of our growth strategy and we continue to look for opportunities. But here the same is true, as what I said before. I'm not driven by the valuation of the share. I -- really, my concern is the long-term value of our investments. So when it comes to M&A, the leading question is really whether a potential transaction would add strategically to our company, let's say, in terms of product line, regional coverage, market share or whatever it is. So if that's not given, we will definitely not go for M&A. So these are my thoughts. I hope that a little bit helps regarding your question.

Operator

We haven't received any further questions. I hand back to you, gentlemen.

L
Ludwin Monz
President, CEO & Chairman of Management Board

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, so thank you very much for your interest in Carl Zeiss Meditec. Looking forward to talking to you, again, after our second quarter. Thank you. Have a good time. Bye-bye.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attendance. This call has been concluded. You may disconnect.

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