Gerresheimer AG

XETRA:GXI

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q4

[Operator]

The conference is now being recorded. Welcome to the conference call regarding the Publication of Gerresheimer AG's Q4 Results 2021.[Operator Instructions] Now I hand over to Ms. Carolin Nadilo, Head of Investor Relations at Gerresheimer AG.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

Hello, everybody, and a warm welcome from my side. Thank you for joining us today to review our fourth quarter and annual results for the financial year '21.With me here in Dusseldorf today are our CEO, Dietmar Siemssen, as well as our CFO, Dr. Bernd Metzner. As we did in the last year, we will show a short video, highlighting our financial results '21. And afterwards, we will, as usual, show our set of slides to accompany the management notes, followed by our Q&A session.Please note that this call is being webcast live and will be filed on our website too.Before we start, I have to remind you that the presentation and discussion are conducted subject to the disclaimer. We will not read the disclaimer, but propose taking it as read into the records for the purpose of this conference call.And now it's my pleasure to start our video and then turn the call over to Dietmar. Thank you[Presentation]

[Dietmar Siemssen]

Yes. Welcome, everybody, and thanks for taking time for our call. It's interesting that after 2 years in the pandemic, we still have people that forget to unmute. I hope that you hear me now.It's an exciting call for us, and it's an exciting call as we report Q4 and also full year result 2021. The record results that we achieved in 2021, mark a very important milestone on our transformation journey. We are very proud on our achievements.We are well underway with the transformation of Gerresheimer into a leading provider of health care and beauty solutions and drug delivery systems for pharma, biotech and also cosmetics. And we are generating great results from this transformation.Our mission is to innovate for better life. We started this mission 3 years ago from a well-respected position as a trusted high-tech manufacturing partner for the big pharma. We launched our Formula G strategy process in order to accelerate our growth. The aim was and unchanged is, to readjust our focus and benefit from the most attractive opportunities in the health care market. Clear goal, move up the value chain by becoming an innovation leader and provider of high-value solutions to existing and, of course, also to new customers.We broke up internal silos, identified potential growth areas and invested into these opportunities, a strategy process with considerable organizational and also cultural change within the whole company.Our record results in 2021 show that we are making sustentive progress. And our investments from recent years start to pay off. We delivered high single-digit organic revenue growth and grew our adjusted EBITDA despite some challenges this year.The start of the financial year 2022 has been very successful, and we will continue to build on this momentum. We will further accelerate our growth by continuously investing into projects with high returns, and we will deliver enhanced shareholder value.Let's take a closer look into the fiscal year 2021. We delivered high single-digit organic growth in our core business with 7.6%, beating our revenue guidance for the year, and grew adjusted earnings per share by more than 11%. Important drivers of our revenue growth were our high-value solutions, by more than 30%, and again, also biologics we grew more than 40%.This is particularly pleasing, as these are 2 key focus areas for future growth. Cost pressure presented us with some headwinds, but our strong market position and pricing power enabled us to deliver a strong EBITDA performance, in line with our guidance range. More importantly, we are guiding now for high single digit growth in revenues for 2022. We are clearly aiming to outperform the 2021 results.Also for the adjusted EBITDA and the adjusted earnings per share, we expect high single digit organic growth. On top, we are even more optimistic for our margins into the future.Our achievements in this year reflect the success and the benefits of the measures implemented over the last couple of years, demonstrate how we are positioning our sustainable higher growth rates this year and also beyond.There has been widespread progress across the businesses with many initiatives underway based on our Formula G strategy process. And I will focus on just a few highlights from 2021.It also proved the resilience of our business model as we successfully managed the significant increase of energy prices and other cost inflation's.To build opposition as an innovation leader, solution provider and system integrator, clear steps forward were made on strategic partnerships and in the development of own intellectual property. This includes, for example, the new order from a U.S. biotech company for the development of a new pump based on our own IP. I will explain in a moment what the focus on own IP products and strategic partnerships mean in practice.Sustainability is one of the main pillars of our strategy. It's crucial for me personally, for Gerresheimer as a whole and of course for our customers. Our ambitious sustainability strategy as well as the approach for the development of new solutions is well recognized industry wide.Just recently, for example, we won the Astra Zeneca Gold Award for 2021. On top of that, we also won the Sustainability Hero Award 2021 from the German Society of Quality.Maybe more tangible, also our facilities in Bolesławiec, Poland, will soon be exclusively using energy from renewable sources, adding into the long list of Gerresheimer facilities that already achieved that level earlier in the execution of our strategy.Another example, our Lohr plant, we are investing in a new hybrid glass furnace, absolutely state-of-the-art latest technology in our industry, reducing CO2 emissions by 11,000 tons per year.On the product side, we are, for example, offering our clients bottles and containers made from ocean-bound plastic, which is currently an area of high demand as it helps tackle pollution and also reduces demand for raw material and energy.In short, the momentum of our transformation is building, and it is now starting to deliver significant results. Our key achievements over the last year, highlights of which are shown on the left of this page you see, provide us with strong foundations for '22 and also the years to come.We will build on our innovations in 2021 to achieve leading position in fast-growing markets. I will give you an example from the field of injectables. In 2021, we acquired the intellectual property, the IP for an auto-injector. This is a cartridge-based auto-injector, which can be self-administered by the patients. The IP belongs to Gerresheimer, enabling us to benefit long term and with higher margins from its revenues.We expect this Gerresheimer auto-injector to contribute significantly to the growth of our drug delivery system business. Thus, this is a great example of how we are aligning our business with global megatrends. In this case, the increasing trend for more self-medication, which improves convenience and help address the high cost of health care deliveries.From a regional perspective, we are planning to further expand, for example, in China, in India and in the U.S. We are following the increasing demand for health care in emerging markets, another important megatrend Formula G is based on.We have created a sales organization which serves all our business units in Asia and early results are very promising. We plan to more than double our revenues in China and India until 2024 only.Another trend we are seeing globally, we would call beauty goes health. Essentially, this means that beauty product resembles more and more health products, including, for example, syringes. The demand for these high-end beauty products is significant. With our existing pharma competence and expertise established over decades, we can provide our clients with the products they need. In other words, use competencies from other areas to build new products as demand comes in.Our aims for 2022 and the years to come are fourfold: 1, to strengthen our leading market position in attractive and high-growth markets, such as high-quality vials or syringes. 2, to focus on platforms and solutions to further drive innovation efforts with our customers. For example, here, the Respimetrix inhaler and related solutions. 3, we will use our injectables capabilities to benefit from global megatrends, like the examples of the auto-injector or the new own IP pump I gave you a couple of minutes ago. And 4, we will continuously innovate to reinforce our technology leadership by expanding our engineering capabilities so that we can deliver advanced and more advanced solutions.The clear trend towards more vaccination in the world is a good example of how Formula G actually works, and that does not primarily mean COVID-19, as we see vaccination as much broader and stronger. We identified vaccination as an important megatrend for Gerresheimer very early, and the thesis remains intact with strong underlying market growth. This undoubtedly means rising demand for injectables and thus for the needed application like vials or ready-to-fill glass syringes.We significantly increased our production capabilities in the last years and will now benefit. As a result, by end of 2022, Gerresheimer will be the leading producer of vials in the world. As a supplier of critical health care infrastructure, we are an essential and mission-critical partner for everyone needing these products, in particular, the pharma and biotech companies. Expanding our capacities and innovating goes hand in hand. We just increased production capabilities in several locations across the world, and we keep improving. I give you a couple of examples. In Wertheim, we are able to produce the vials in our Gerresheimer Elite quality. These vials lead to significant better results in the filling by our customers, for vaccines for instance. Another strategically crucial growth area will be our ready-to-fill vials, high-quality solution for our customers that simplifies the filling process and also increases the filling capacity. Ready-to-fill vials are cleaned and presterilized by Gerresheimer in new ecological process and are ready for filling, so that the customer can focus on his core business. This is a good example of how Formula G works at its best. Through our close customer relationships, we identify the right growth areas. We invest in these areas to meet customer demands and we build leadership positions in these markets. And at the same time, we keep innovating.To fully appreciate the importance of this slide, #10 here, we really have to go back to the start of our transformation journey. A few years back, Gerresheimer was the fast follower with main expertise in production. We had little or own -- or little of our own intellectual property. Today, we significantly enhanced our capabilities, added R&D resources and build a portfolio of products with Gerresheimer IP. The combination of our core skills in manufacturing processes and industrialization capabilities with the product solution and system integration capabilities are forming a new power of Gerresheimer. We further broadened this with strategic partnerships and also collaborations.As an example, you see here in the right and the center of the chart, the new Gerresheimer auto-injector. With Respimetrix, we introduced a smart solution for inhalers used by COPD patients. Its core is a patented flow sensor which tracks every single inhalation maneuver of the patient. These so far unknown insights are visualized in our app for the patient and doctors to draw conclusions from the used inhalation technique and the treatment progression over time. Our solution will clearly support patients in learning and maintaining a proper usage of the inhaler, leading to a better life of the patient and lower cost of the whole health care system. We actually expect FDA clearance within 2023.An excellent example of a long-term partnership is the agreement we signed with Midas Pharma back in November last year. This combines the complementary strengths of both companies and provides us with access to a growing number of global pharma customers already in a very early phase of the drug and formulation development. Besides that, we secured an important order from a large U.S. biotech company. We will develop a new pump for the administration of a leading rare disease drug using proof pump technology from Gerresheimer. This order is actually another proof point for our own IP innovation power.We are continuously enhancing our existing product portfolio towards more own IP solutions. With that, we are further strengthening our position as an original equipment manufacturer, an OEM.The Gerresheimer Advanced Technology division is a nucleus for innovation at our company. It is an integral part of our growth strategy and contributes to our vision of innovating for a better life. As you can see, many of our developments come from advanced technology, and we are delivering much more. We have existing projects like the Parkinson pump that we are using forever. The patch pump developed for SQ Innovation. The new pump I just spoke about developed for the new biotech customer, the new SensAir pump for large molecules, Respimetrix, I spoke about just a minute ago, and of course, also the new Gerresheimer auto-injector. These examples are important examples marking key milestones in the development of Advanced Technologies. We are evaluating further projects as we talk, alongside different disease areas.We will develop further solutions in order to improve the patient's life and to reduce global health care costs. Our solutions and platforms will play an important role in the evolution of digital health care. We are stepping into new digital business models, develop intelligent, smart devices, where data and connected cloud services will be even more important as the medication they deliver.Before I hand over to Bernd, let me briefly summarize. 2021 was an important and crucial year for Gerresheimer. We have moved forward significantly, delivering record results but also very successful, filled the order books and, with this, laying the clear foundation for sustainable profitable growth for the next years.With unchanged dynamic, we are further executing on our strategy process, Formula G. I'm excited about our progress, what we have done and will do for our customers in the future with a clear goal of creating a better life for patients. If you take away just one point from my remarks, it is this: the dynamic and the momentum of activity across our businesses give us the confidence in our actions to continue to deliver higher growth, profitability and sustainability.Bernd, with this, the floor is yours. Thank you.

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Thank you, Dietmar, and welcome, everybody, also from my side. Without further ado, let's dive into the analysis of the key financials for the fourth quarter 2021.Reported revenue increased from EUR 403 million in Q4 2020 by EUR 33 million to EUR 436 million in Q4 2021. The strong organic revenue growth amounted to 7.8%. Organic growth in the core business was even stronger at 9.3%. The high revenue growth is a strong accomplishment, even taking into account the tailwind of approximately 2.5 to 3 percentage points from inflationary effects.Now let's turn to earnings. The adjusted EBITDA at group level amounted to EUR 95 million in Q4, while in our core business, it was EUR 100 million. We, therefore, arrived at EUR 324 million for full year 2021, within the guided range of EUR 320 million to EUR 335 million.What this shows is that we have an excellent market and contractual position to manage unforeseen input cost increases. The Q4 organic adjusted EBITDA margin of 23.1% in our core business was below prior year. Why? Because of the headwinds from increasing energy costs as well as a certain delay of some weeks in the pass-through of increasing raw material prices. These effects are temporary, and this is a purely transitory effect, which hides the underlying margin performance.Disregarding the temporary headwinds mentioned before, we should have shown a margin in line with last year's level. I will zoom into the margin details later.Let's move to the bottom line. So organic adjusted EPS increased from EUR 1.31 to EUR 1.34, representing an increase of 2.3%. Looking at the financial year 2021, the organic growth rate amounted to 11.2%, in line with our full year 2021 guidance.Before we come to the divisional performance, I would like to zoom into our adjusted Q4 EBITDA margin for the core business. We are in an excellent position to counteract inflationary pressures. In Q4, we were again able to largely pass on the increase in resin prices to our customers on short notice. However, while our revenues benefit from this pass-through effect, it comes with almost no adjusted EBITDA contribution. This effect technically diluted the adjusted EBITDA margin by approximately 60 basis points in Q4. In particular, the further rises in energy costs combined with the delay of a few weeks in fully passing through higher resin prices together, impacted our adjusted EBITDA by approximately EUR 10 million. Disregarding these temporary effects, the adjusted EBITDA margin would have been approximately 2.4 percentage points higher. So on a pro forma basis, we would have achieved an adjusted EBITDA margin of 26.1%, the same level as in Q4 2021.Worth repeating, good news and very important is that these headwinds are just temporary for us. Already in Q1 2022, we will demonstrate with an adjusted EBITDA growth of more than 10% that we are able to pass on higher prices sustainable to our customers. Therefore, Q1 will be a strong proof point for showing higher pricing power based on our strong market positions. Even more important, we are adequately hedged against higher energy costs for the future quarters but also for the years to come.Now let's have a closer look into the divisions. Plastic & Devices. Revenues in Q4 increased from EUR 219 million in Q4 2022 by EUR 22 million to EUR 241 million in Q4 2021. We delivered organic revenue growth of 9.9%. Our top line growth was supported by pass-through effects from increasing raw material prices of over EUR 10 million.Let's have a look at the moving parts within the Plastics & Devices division. 4 observations: First, the demand for RTF syringes was persistently high. RTF syringes showed solid high single-digit revenue growth. We are continuously ramping up new capacity, which will fully kick in from full year 2022 onwards. Second, the contract manufacturing business reached a strong double-digit revenue growth in the fourth quarter. Third, Primary Plastic Packaging contributed to growth, thanks to strong demand in Europe and Brazil. And last but not least, fourth, Centor benefited from a seasonally strong year-end quarter, a good accomplishment.Turning to the organic adjusted EBITDA of EUR 67 million, which developed as expected. 2 comments. First, the pass-through of higher resin prices comes with a certain time lapse of some weeks, which impacted the EBITDA by a couple of million euros in Q4. Second, we had a slight planned shift in product mix against the high comparable basis. On the back of this, the adjusted EBITDA declined somewhat to EUR 67 million in Q4 2021. Good news, we will offset both effects and should see a strong rebound, supported by double-digit top and bottom line growth in Q1. This is not surprising given the excellent pricing power of our Plastics & Devices division and the strength of our order book.Now Primary Packaging Glass. The Primary Packaging Glass division showed a very strong final quarter with high single-digit organic revenue growth. Revenues increased from EUR 179 million in Q4 2020 by EUR 17 million to EUR 196 million in Q4 2021. So we grew strongly, showing an organic increase of 8.6% despite very high comps of 9.1% in Q4 2020.The Tubular Glass business once more benefited from high demand and high-value solutions. Our high-value solutions again showed a double-digit percentage increase in Q4 2021, which was mainly driven by Biological Solutions, Elite Glass and RTF5s. The adjusted EBITDA increased from EUR 38 million by EUR 5 million to EUR 43 million in Q4 2021. So organic adjusted EBITDA grew surged by a strong 12.3% year-over-year. This is the second consecutive quarter for PPG to post double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth, supported by positive product mix and price increases. As a result, the organic adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 70 basis points from 21.5% to 22.2%.Now let's turn to Advanced Technologies. Revenues amounted to EUR 3 million in Q4 2021. The adjusted EBITDA developed comparable to prior year. For full year 2021, we saw an adjusted EBITDA contribution of minus EUR 50 million, the same magnitude as in full year 2020. With an increasing focus on R&D, we expect the comparable adjusted EBITDA outcome for full year 2022.More important are the excellent prospects. In 2021, Advanced Technology had a successful year. GAT is becoming increasingly relevant and will be included within our group guidance going forward. We will continue to establish Gerresheimer as an innovative original equipment manufacturer for smart and connected devices in the health care industry.The great progress of Advanced Technology has been proven by new orders, new competencies and new projects. Advanced Technologies underlined its innovation power and will clearly contribute to our growth and margin acceleration.Let's turn to the cash flow. We delivered on our promise. During our analyst call for Q3 2021, we indicated that we expect a strong fourth quarter and the outcome was in line with our forecast. In Q4, we generated a strong free cash flow contribution of EUR 61 million and showed a strong net working capital improvement. The net working capital contribution was EUR 19 million higher compared to last year.Important comment on our CapEx program. We are focused and consequently directing our investments into unique growth opportunities. We are investing to take advantage of the global mega trends, which support our business and our profitable growth path. For example, we are investing into capacity expansion for injectables and building up the capacity to accommodate the announced attractive auto-injector contract.In numbers, for fiscal year '21, we invested net cash of EUR 194 million or 30.0% of our revenues, almost EUR 70 million or 35% to 40% went into the growth market of injectables, vials, syringes and cartridges. More than EUR 30 million went into contract manufacturing assets with a very attractive risk return profile.Now a forward-looking statement. Depending on the execution of our investment program for profitable growth, we also expect a positive free cash flow in 2022 and we'll start to significantly deleverage in the last quarter of 2023.For the purpose of completeness, this slide shows the underlying performance for the financial year 2021. We were able to beat our full year 2021 guidance of mid-single-digit organic revenue growth. We arrived at 7.6% organic growth for the core business. Even excluding inflation support of around 2 percentage points, we still showed a strong acceleration of revenue growth. This represents our highest growth rate in many, many years. This clearly proves that we are moving into the right direction to achieve our mid- and long-term ambitions profitably and sustainably.The underlying organic adjusted EBITDA for the core business amounted to EUR 324 million and is so within our guided absolute range. Worth repeating, this is a clear proof point for the resilience of our business model.Let me also briefly comment on our EBITDA adjustment of EUR 19 million. First, the bulk of this is linked to COVID-19. Second, these are onetime effects, which are not part of the ordinary course of business and will not repeat. As already indicated during our last call, we foresee significant lower exceptionals going forward. Looking isolated at Q4 2021, we almost half our exceptionals to EUR 4 million from EUR 7 million in Q4 2020. This trend will continue in 2022. For example, we should not see COVID-19 expenses as adjustment anymore.Let's have a look at our tax performance. The adjusted tax rate dropped to 27.3% and represents a decline of around 3 percentage points from 30.3% last year. This is a good step forward towards our midterm tax rate target of 25%.Finally, the organic adjusted EPS amounted to 4.27%, up 11.2% compared to prior year, as promised and guided.Let me conclude by sharing some key points on 2022 to date. In full year 2021, we achieved record revenues with a strong acceleration in sales momentum and good earnings progress. Based on that, the Management Board and Supervisory Board are proposing a dividend of EUR 1.25 per share for full year 2021, again, resulting in a payout ratio of around 30%, and so at the high end of the dividend payout policy range of 20% to 30%.Together with our Q1 reporting, we will put a particular emphasis on elaborating on our growth investment projects. We will demonstrate that we are investing in the right markets and products to support further growth acceleration and margin expansion.Looking at the current fiscal year. We have made an excellent start to the year and expect double-digit organic revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth in Q1. With this very positive trading update on Q1, I now hand back to Dietmar. Dietmar?

[Dietmar Siemssen]

Yes. Thank you, Bernd. A lot of figures you disclosed here. Yes, in the final part of our presentation, I would like to give you a better understanding of the short-term growth drivers that give us actually the confidence into our strong forward-looking guidance.The underlying global mega trends for our business are clearly driving the demand for Gerresheimer Solutions. The way we are transforming Gerresheimer enabled us to catch these waves. We demonstrated an exceptional business performance in 2021, a strong start in 2022, as well as a strong momentum for the months, and I hope also the years to come.From what we see in our current business, the core growth drivers for 2022 are the following: The bulk of revenue growth will come from higher value solutions. The invest of the last years pays off. All business segments actually contribute. We touched on a number of examples in this presentation, like, for example, our high-quality Elite or also ready-to-fill vials. 2 other important drivers will be beauty goes health and our regional expansion.As discussed in the beauty goes health trend, we make use of our pharma expertise to serve our customers with higher value beauty solutions. We are already seeing an increasing demand from our customers as we talk.Regionally, I spoke about the expansions in many geographies. We discussed China and India, but also we see Mexico and North Europe -- Eastern Europe, excuse me.Last not least, our contract manufacturing business is in high demand. We clearly see the effect of pharma companies and others pushing an increasing portion of the value chain to solution and systems providers like us.Increasing demand has given us a strong start into 2022 with regards to both organic revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA. This reinforces our confidence in our growth prospects, and we are raising our midterm guidance.We have positioned Gerresheimer for another record year and expect high single-digit growth in 2022 for the group in revenues, the adjusted EBITDA as well as earnings per share. Important to note is that this is not a one-off. We expect to see continued strong revenue growth also in the midterm. The progress of the recent months also gives us more confidence for the margin development. Now we are expecting in the medium term an adjusted EBITDA margin of 23%, up to 25%.Yes, 2021 showed the fruits of our transformation. We delivered according to plan, and it was not an easy year every day. We established a strong order pipeline and accelerated on high-value solutions. We kept the momentum relentlessly going. Accelerate, with the implemented measures, we will further accelerate the growth in 2022; execute, consequently execute on our strategy, Formula G, as well as on our investment plans; and innovate, we will increase R&D capabilities to further speed up innovation.For 2022, we expect another record year. We are clearly aiming to exceed and outperform the achievements in 2021. Thank you so much.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

[Operator Instructions] So the first question comes from Falko Friedrichs, Deutsche Bank.

[Falko Friedrichs, Research Analyst]

I would have 3, please. The first one is on your guidance for 2022 and specifically on the adjusted EBITDA margin. So your guidance obviously doesn't imply very much margin expansion in 2022. And I was just wondering what the reasons are for that given that it sounded like you can already pass on a good portion of these price increases to your customers? Then my second question is on your medium-term guidance, and it would be interesting to hear why you decided to include your Advanced Technologies business, again, at this point in time before any of the more meaningful products have made into the market? That would be interesting. And then thirdly, on CapEx, can you provide us an indication for what we should assume for 2022 and also over the medium term?

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Thank you. I'll take the first one. Thanks Falko, regarding the CapEx expansion. As you can imagine, we've elaborated a long time about how to frame our guidance in this respect. First of all, we thought it's not in this environment where we don't know how the resin price has developed. We said, okay, it's better to go for an absolute target or growth targets as far as the EBITDA is concerned. And then we said we grow high single digit. And it's relatively conservative in our guidance. But as you know, we want to basically beat our guidance. That's our perspective on it. But we should also consider you have -- we also want to -- yes, as you know, we're building up capacities and you have something like launch costs, which we treat as ordinary expenses, especially we are building up the capacities for the vials, for the syringes. And here and there, you have additional expenses here. And therefore, we said, okay, let's be on the safe side and just make a statement that they're growing high single digits organically, have a growth in this respect for the EBITDA, just to be on the safe side. This was actually our perspective on it, finally when we start into a year.

[Dietmar Siemssen]

Yes, I can take the other 2 questions. Yes, midterm guidance, including Advanced Technology, I think it's a very logical step. I think we have to raise this point in a different way. Why did we actually start to exclude it a couple of years, yes? After acquisition of Sensile, the truth is that the beginning phase was very rough. We lost a couple of contracts, and we didn't know how we would really be able to proceed with this business.This meanwhile has changed significantly. The old Sensile, if you might say so, is now grown up to what we really call Advanced Technology with a broad variety of different own IP products and with a nucleus of development of future digital and smart devices.What you clearly see now is that the confidence into the business has significantly grown. It's more evident now. It's clear. We have in '22, we will have key products in major development phases, some of them with our customers in the FDA approval process and they might even receive FDA approval in '22. '23, the same, we will have -- the new customer project fully ongoing, we will have expansion of the project of EVER Pharma. We will have this SQ Innovation project coming now to finalization in start of -- in terms of the FDA. And also Respimetrix, we should not forget that we are planning to file this into the FDA within 2022.So the business is now, let me call it, complete. And normal portion of the Gerresheimer business, driving not only the innovation part, but also the growth and revenue contribution over the next years. That's why it's a very logic step to bring it into the loop now. And the CapEx indication for '22 is relatively easy because I always guide this 4%-plus growth. So in the end, as we are aiming for high single-digit growth. And we are clearly aiming for outperforming the performance reached in 2021, that's in principle what you can expect. It will be in a similar ballpark compared to in '21.It's only in the outer years where we clearly will have the positive impact of CapEx 75, as we call the project, where the -- what we call CapEx to growth ratio will reach better figures because that's clearly the plan. I hope this answers your question.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

Next question comes from Veronika Dubajova from Goldman Sachs.

[Veronika Dubajova, Equity Analyst]

Excellent. One, I want to just kind of push a little bit on the '22 guidance and maybe just start with a question on energy prices. I think it'd be great if you guys could remind us what was roughly the headwind that you observed in 2021 that you could not compensate for? And now that you have better visibility on pricing as you move into 2022, what proportion of that EBITDA loss do you expect to offset this year? That would be very helpful.And then my second question, Bernd is on the free cash flow comment that I think you made. Obviously, great to hear the free cash flow will be positive. I think many of us are hoping for some growth in free cash flow. Can you be any more precise on where you would expect the free cash flow to end for 2022? And I know there is this old target of about EUR 100 million of free cash flow that you guys have talked about in the past. I think we've all forgotten about it, but just curious if you have a view on where you might be -- when you might be able to get to the EUR 100 million of free cash flow if you're willing to put time frame on it?

[Dietmar Siemssen]

I can start with the first, and then I hand over to Bernd in the detail. I think it's important we had in principle last year, a couple of cost inflations, resin prices, packaging, whatever sad stories and, of course, also the energy. There are 2 areas that we learned in 2021. Most of these areas you can push through to the customers, and we very successfully did this.For the energy prices, which primarily hit the glass industry, there's quite some delay in the time when you have the effect and you can push these prices through, because that's a very conservative industry that is usually not used to it. We still very successfully were finally able to push through the prices in over the loop of -- in '22. And a lot of the effects or some of the effects you actually see in the books now is price increases in glass that are only valid in -- from principle, this January.So for the future, you can say the following things: clear learning from '21, if there is price inflation in plastic cost, resin material, packaging material and so on, we are successfully able to push this through to the customer. For the energy prices -- and I think this is also a very positive story -- we have, on the one side, adjusted the prices and not only for '22, but also for the next years, we have now hedged the energy price risk out. So I don't expect any major cost inflation actually that we will not be able to push through to the customer in '22.That's it. I'll hand over to Bernd with all the details of the other topics.

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Veronika, I would take the second question regarding the free cash flow. And start with your first part was, what precisely you think for 2022. In the end, we think it will be positive. It depends somehow of the execution of the investments, whether we really get our CapEx program executed, and which kind of speed we get this done and how much subsidies we actually get. It's also a piece. It's a small piece. But therefore, we are always answering it should be definitely above free cash flow of -- it should be basically a positive territory for 2022, considering as well more worst cases on the first topic just mentioned. So we are really on the safe side.Second, you asked when we expect to get for the first time our free cash flow above EUR 100 million. And starting mid of next year 2023, end of 2023, we should really start seeing significant deleveraging effects coming out of our business. And our plan is that in 2024, we have more than EUR 100 million, by far more than EUR 100 million free cash flow. That's our plan going forward.

[Veronika Dubajova, Equity Analyst]

Excellent. And remind me of the energy prices, I think -- and Dietmar, thank you for all the color. Bernd, I think there is -- was it EUR 18 million that you could not compensate this year? Would you expect all of that to be offset through pricing increases? Or is some of this offset in '22 and some in '23?

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

It's difficult to say, but we really think that the major chunk is compensated in 2022. That's our idea, during the course of the fiscal year 2022, and we really make excellent progress there, and it works pretty well.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

Next question comes from Oliver Reinberg, Kepler Cheuvreux.

[Oliver Reinberg, Head of Med Tech Equipment & Services Research]

Also 3 questions for me. Firstly, if I still may push you a bit on inflation again, because it's such an important topic. Can you just talk about what kind of pressure do you see for personnel cost inflation, also freight costs? And I think in your annual report, you talked about that, obviously, both silicon tube supplies are based on fixed-term contracts. So far, you have not seen any kind of pressure there. Is that an area where your suppliers also could come back to you and actually push you on the input from energy costs? That would be question #1.Second, in terms of Gerresheimer Advanced Technologies, the pipeline obviously seems to be filling up, which is great to see. So when you now include GAT in your midterm guidance, can you just give us any kind of sense, the inclusion of it based on your budget forecast, what kind of margin support have you seen from including it in this kind of midterm guidance? And also, can you give us any kind of color there, was obviously kind of mixed development on different projects in the past. On which of the project you talked about do you have the highest visibility that this is coming through?And the third and last question, just in terms of housekeeping, can you just provide us any kind of color on clean depreciation, which came down in 2021, what growth we should assume? And any kind of color on the tax rate for 2022, please?

[Dietmar Siemssen]

Bernd, the fourth question is definitely for you. I'll take the first one. One more time to the inflation. I don't expect impacts in the inflation in '22 that will have a major impact in -- that we either are not able to push through or we have not hedged for. And packaging, transport and so on, inflation will be handled accordingly. If they come, we will push them through to the customer, which will be the, again, like you saw in '21, a tailwind in sales. If even we can also expect that certain price areas go down that we will also see and that will drive EBITDA up.For the energy, as I said before, we are clearly hedged and that gives us a very stable and safe situation. Advanced Technology, now I have to read what you wrote down. You were asking about the project, one of the things.

[Oliver Reinberg, Head of Med Tech Equipment & Services Research]

Maybe twofold question. First, what kind of margin benefit have you seen in the midterm guidance from including it? And then on which of these kind of projects do you have the highest confidence?

[Dietmar Siemssen]

You saw that we increased the midterm guidance by roughly 2%, from 23% in the ballpark of 25%. I would say half of this additional increase come from margins of the products midterm. If you look in the longer run, the margins become stronger because the margin contribution from the Advanced Technology will be stronger as sales goes up.We will see the sales from '23 on and even stronger in '24 and following. That is probably also fits to your other questions, what are the most promising projects or what is the most promising project? I think this is not the right question anymore, because the likelihood that several of these projects actually are coming. I'm talking the SQ Innovation, very high, it will come, and also the new customer or American biotech. And the importance of this project, I think I tried to mention it in the last quarterly results when we indicated this contract. If you win a contract for a new pump development today, it usually takes 4, 5 years before you successfully see the sales. That is different in this case. We are now talking a project where we see the sales significantly earlier and the contribution of this project significantly early because this customer had quite some pressure on the time line. That's why we are using a proven pump technology and are doing an application development for the need of this customer. That's what we work on.

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Oliver, now I may go to your tax question. We expect 27% as 2022. We plan with 27% tax rate, and that's basically our own internal plan. And regarding our depreciation, we had a clean depreciation of EUR 104 million, and we're expecting that this is increasing by around 10 percentage points.Just to translate this your question regarding GAT and midterm profitability target into your model, what is very important, we are convinced about the positive outcome of GAT and positive contribution mentioned by Dietmar. But even without any contributions of GAT, we would achieve this our core business, our 23% to 25% EBITDA margin. So it's also important to realize.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

Next question comes from [ Sven Kuerten from DZ Bank. ]

[Unknown Analyst]

The first one is on the plant capacity expansions. I think, Bernd, you mentioned already that you will give some comments on that in April. But maybe can you already tell us of how much do you plan to spend in the different areas? And also to what extent those expansions will be beneficial to your market share? Do you think you can significantly grow your market share by the expenses? Or do you think it will stay the same and you're just expanding in line with market growth? So some comment on that would be helpful.And the second question is on the high-value solutions. And obviously, there's a lot of demand, especially from biologics coming in. And so the product is absolutely mission critical for the biopharma companies. And could you confirm there's a lot more pricing power for Gerresheimer in the high-value solutions compared to the rest of your product portfolio?

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

The capacity expansion, you spoke about the syringes or vials?

[Unknown Analyst]

No. I think you gave already a split for syringe and vials for 2021. But maybe going forward, what do you expect in those areas and also with contract manufacturing? So just a little overview over your CapEx plans, a bit more detail overview, please?

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

The vials, we are -- because you asked about the market share -- in the vials, we are clearly increasing our market share. But in a very fast-growing market, as you indicated in the right way, the global demand for also classic borosilicate vials, but also high-value vials is significantly growing, but we are still seeing that we are winning market share at the moment, especially with -- and that comes to the other questions, also with high-value solution, which means also Elite Glass vials, for example, where we are growing very successfully.The syringes is also the world demand significantly growing. And even if you consider the fact that we more than double our capacities over the loop of the next years, we will, in principle, only maintain our worldwide market share because the world demand is increasing so strongly.Coming to the Pricing pressure in the high-value solution product, I would not necessarily only call this pricing power that we have. This price -- these products are significantly higher priced. And I think this is important because you have a much bigger portion of the value chain in the product. And there's of course, there's a different ballpark of price and as such, leading to higher sales. And they are growing strongly. We also grew strongly with high-value solutions by 30% last year, and I don't see a reason why we would not proceed to grow strongly like this with these high-value solutions also in the years to come.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

Next question comes from Chris Gretler from Credit Suisse.

[Christoph Gretler, Managing Director in Equity Research]

Still kind of few questions left. First, I noticed in your annual report that our sales in Germany dropped by 9%. Could you give us some insight into that? It's disclosed on Page 11 and also maybe it's just kind of where customers are booked, but it's still very noteworthy, I think.

[Dietmar Siemssen]

Probably it's -- I have to come back on this again, but probably it's because we had -- as you might remember, in Lohr, a replacement. It was basically probably the replacement of our furnace there. Could have an impact also on the sales in Germany. And most likely -- we don't look at the countries alone, but it might also be somewhere of the relocation that we are doing with some of the businesses, regional relocation.

[Christoph Gretler, Managing Director in Equity Research]

Okay. Maybe come back to that.

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Yes, you can come back separately to this.

[Christoph Gretler, Managing Director in Equity Research]

I mean it's your home market, I guess.

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

But there's no way -- we see the business as globally, on the business unit side, and not on a legal -- view this on a legal basis in which countries we have it. So therefore -- and before we are saying something wrong, it's better to look again you know the details. Thanks for the question.

[Christoph Gretler, Managing Director in Equity Research]

The other question I had was on the price pass-through effect. There will certainly be an annualization effect in '22. Could you discuss how much that is likely to be at current rates? And maybe if that's included in the guidance at all on the top and bottom line?

[Dietmar Siemssen]

I can take the first part of it. The price pass-through effect is -- we take the key drivers again, the resin materials, where you have -- meanwhile in most of the contracts, clauses, where they are adjusted. So if they go -- the resin material goes up, the prices go up automatically. This, of course, gives you a nice tailwind in the top line, but it also has a certain margin effect on the bottom line because, of course, for the price adjustments, you don't get any margins. So this is included. I actually do not expect corrections. The reason is because we don't see the resin prices at the moment is going down much. If it would come, it's also fine.For the glass, it's different. I spoke about the fact that there is a certain delay in pushing the prices through to the customers. But on the other side, these price adjustments are actually sustainable. And we don't see these prices to be adjusted in an inflation topic as we talk.

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

So want to come back to the question, is anything included in the budget? It's planned as it is, and that's what we will deliver. If there would be a price inflation effect, which I don't see, it would come on top probably then.

[Christoph Gretler, Managing Director in Equity Research]

Okay. And then just I think you mentioned that you were quite optimistic about Q1. And I think that there was probably kind of some push-through from Q4 into Q1. And I think you mentioned double-digit growth potentially for Q1. So what would then kind of slow down in the second half of the year to make your full year guidance high single digit?

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Yes. We started very strong into the year. That's true. That's maybe not the disclosure too early, but that you can expect double digit, because we are stable double-digit in the first quarter. Actually, not all of this is price effects. Yes, for the glass, as I indicated before, some of the price increases are only valid from the beginning of the year. But as a matter of fact, a lot of the growth is actually coming from high-value products. And in principle, you see this in the fourth quarter already, and we just kept the momentum over into the first quarter, and I don't expect that this will soften over the loop of the year. We should not forget, usually, the first quarter is not the strongest in Gerresheimer.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

Now I see Craig Mcdowell from JPMorgan.

[Craig Mcdowell, Analyst]

Just 2, please. On the fiscal '22 revenue guidance, I was hoping you could clarify what the implication is for the core business. You previously said that the core business would grow high single digit in '22, excluding pass-through pricing, which is perhaps a point to this year. You're now adding Sensile or GAT, which might add another point potentially to group for this year. Is the implication that the core is only going to grow mid-single digit this year?And then secondly, the second one, just on the cash flow and cash flow in the quarter. It seems like there was quite a significant move in trade payables in Q4. What was the cause of that? Can you explain? And how should we think about that unwinding in fiscal '22?

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Thank you for your questions. Indeed, for the guidance now, as well as the core business, with or without GAT, it's basically growing high single digit regarding EBITDA. That's basically our plan going forward. And especially also, you will see this nicely when we start into the year with even a double-digit growth, especially for Plastic & Devices and higher than double digit -- more than 10% for Plastic & Devices and PPG respectively.Regarding the cash flow, the reason is it's quite interesting, if you look at the inventory increased because of the higher prices. What you have there? You have raw materials and so on, you're building this up. And at the same time, you're also actually increasing your payments, because you actually pay in the end of the day more for the raw materials, but you pay this in the regular time of 60 days or 50 days or something like this. So actually, that's the reason. It's basically just a consequence out of the inflation, if you want, so that you have also higher payables.What does it mean for Q1? I mean, obviously, as you know, our cash pattern set in Q1, you will have maybe a little bit release in terms for the payables. So they will probably go down. But we expect also that we have a little bit release for inventory, that also here the values might go down in the next couple of weeks and months.

[Dietmar Siemssen]

I have actually one remark for the question of the Credit Suisse why the sales in Germany is actually… Because we are rebuilding the Wertheim facility and prepare them for -- from ampoule into the direction of vials, and we are rebuilding the facility because we are now having several lines for Elite Glass. We are kind of refurnishing Wertheim. Actually, we, of course, stopped the deliveries of the ampoules. So I'm glad that we finally have the information. Thank you so much. Hope that also helps you. But this was the answer to your 2 questions. I hope it's answered.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

All right. Next one is Daniel Wendorff, ODDO BHF.

[Daniel Wendorff, Analyst]

The first one is on the margin trajectory towards your midterm margin guidance looking beyond 2022. How should we think about this? So would it be more a step approach? Or would it be more a linear one, also taking a closer look at GAT in that regard?And second question would be when you just look at your Plastics & Devices and Primary Packaging Glass divisions, how should margin development look there going or growing into your midterm margin guidance? Any more color there would be helpful. And my last question is high-value solutions, how much of revenues do they meanwhile contribute?

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Maybe just to start with your first question, Daniel, regarding the margin step up. Basically, we see that each year, we will improve the EBITDA margin from today. So maybe we make the biggest jump in from 2022 to 2023. But overall, it will basically obviously increase with 100 bps, something like this, may be higher even in -- from 2022 to 2023. And then you have a step-by-step approach. And this is reflected in the core business. So this is something what we see coming out of the core business?And then the contribution from GAT will come on top, if you want so, because as I mentioned already before, the margin as such, I mean we are successful with our projects, then the margin is definitely very accretive to our existing margin then of 24, 25 percentage points. This would be basically accretive there. That's basically our answer for the question regarding the margin development.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

Are you finished, Bernd?

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Yes.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

Veronika, I can see you in the line. Do you want to ask a further question?

[Veronika Dubajova, Equity Analyst]

Yes. 2, if I can. 1, I want to follow-up, Bernd, I think you said that 23% to 25% margin, you'd expect also to see that in the core. I guess my understanding this morning was that the midterm margin change was because of the inclusion of GAAP, not necessarily because your assumptions have changed for the base business. So just curious if indeed your assumptions for the core or base or whatever you guys call it, have changed and you've become more constructive on margins? And I guess, why is that, especially given that we've seen margins compress since you've given the midterm guidance not increase? So that's my first question.And then my second question is for GAT. I don't know, Dietmar, if you can talk to kind of how we should think about this undisclosed biotech contract in terms of what you think the revenue potential is once that product becomes commercial? And I guess what's the risk that this is not successful, I guess, how would you assess the visibility that you have on this progressing coming to market and you being able to get those revenues?

[Bernd Metzner, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Maybe just to take your first question, Veronika, regarding why we raised now our guidance midterm. The thing is that we have a much better visibility now in our core business. This is one of the drivers because we see that we have the new orders for our contract manufacturing and therefore, you have already security for the next couple of years. And we see also that our high-value solution products are also working or, let's say, we sell more. And then we have more demand than what we originally planned. And the margin is also here quite accretive. And therefore, we said, okay, we can be a little bit more bold and go from the comfort zone of 23% to 25%. And again, this would be due in our core business. If you include GAT, it could be even better than this kind of margin midterm.

[Dietmar Siemssen]

And then I take the second one. The new American biotech company that, as I indicated before, there is quite some time pressure on this project, which is, in principle, very good. We are not developing a complete new pump, but we're using a proven pump technology and are just primarily adjusting applicating the development for this customer application. That's the point. That's why the sales is actually not coming in '26 and following. We actually will see sales already in '24. And yes, it's a sustainable project where you can expect sales in the ballpark, maybe not from the very first year on, but ramping up very steep in the ballpark of $50 million plus $50 million to EUR 90 million over time. I'm not talking a small, tiny project. It's a project.

[Veronika Dubajova, Equity Analyst]

Of course. And what would be the margin that you'd be earning on that, I guess, north of 30%? Is that fair?

[Dietmar Siemssen]

It's -- yes. It's a very profitable interesting project as all of the projects that we are working on with own IP products are in a different ballpark of profitability as we are not only having the classic margin, but also regaining our -- with license fees, et cetera, gaining our intellectual prop and development cost.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

Oliver Reinberg, do you have a further question? I can see you in the line.

[Oliver Reinberg, Head of Med Tech Equipment & Services Research]

No, my questions are answered.

[Carolin Nadilo, Corporate Director of Investor Relations]

All right. As there are no further questions, thank you very much, everybody, for participating. We wish you all the best, stay healthy, and I will talk to you soon. Bye-bye.

[Operator]

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