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va Q tec AG
XETRA:VQT

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va Q tec AG
XETRA:VQT
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Price: 25.4 EUR -2.31%
Updated: May 6, 2024

Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2022-Q3

from 0
J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

Good morning, everybody. My name is Joachim Kuhn, CEO and Founder of va-Q-tec. With me today is our CFO, Stefan Döhmen, who will guide you a bit later through the 9-month '22 financials. Our presentation today consists of 2 main parts, our highlights of the first 9 months '22 and then following -- followed by a Q&A session afterwards.

So we are, overall, very satisfied with the development we have seen in 9 months '22. Please go to Slide 2. We delivered a healthy set of numbers in a very challenging macro environment. We have summarized the most important messages on Slide 2, named va-Q-tec with significant growth in 9 months '22.

First, revenue. We delivered a continued solid performance with revenue growth of 12% to EUR 82.1 million, coming from EUR 73.4 million in the previous year. Second, with a plus of 24%, our service business showed a very strong performance and stood out of our 3 business lines. Third, we also want to point out the continued good growth in the overall TempChain chain business, leading to a revenue share of 78%. Fourth, despite the expansion of business activities, and the further international expansion of the group, va-Q-tec liquidity developed positively.

Operating cash flow came in at EUR 4.4 million in 9 months 2022. We will now dive deeper into all these highlights during the rest of the presentation. So I'm moving now to Slide #3, which shows the group revenues in 9 months '22 by our 3 business lines. In our top line, we grew by 12% in 9 months '22. This is very good after previous year where we had a total increase of 44% in total. The Products division, sales of vacuum insulation panels recorded a decrease of 7% to EUR 15.9 million in 9 months '22 versus a strong comparison basis last year.

Revenues in the refrigeration appliance area reported a material decrease followed the very dynamic revenue growth in the prior year period. On the other hand, momentum looks now very good in this field towards end of the year where we see record orders for VIPs for energy-efficient fridges. But overall, the product business performed very well in other end markets, especially in technical industry sectors, business with the innovative va-Q-shell pipe insulation solution was developed together with Finnish partner, Uponor, performed nicely. The va-Q-shell pipe significantly enhances the energy efficiency of pipelines, such as in industrial plants, building installations and local and district heating.

A similar positive development is seen for hot water storage tanks. From our point of view, this makes the product a great fit at a time when energy prices are rising sharply and effort to save energy are becoming increasingly urgent. It is the first time in our history where we clearly see customers' decision moving towards more energy efficiency.

Revenue generated by our Systems business line showed an increase of 9% (sic) [ 7% ] in 9 months '22 and came in at EUR 25.3 million. Here business with va-Q-pal SI a solution, for example, for transporting coronavirus vaccines to hard-to-reach regions of the world, performed nicely. In the last week, we also introduced a new pelletized solution in the va-Q-one family. We will focus on this innovation later in this presentation. The Services division comprising the renting out of thermal containers and thermal boxes showed a very good and outstanding picture in 9 months '22.

So in total, Services showed a growth of 24% to EUR 38.1 million in 9 months '22. Rentals of large thermal containers benefited from a broadening of its customer base, particularly in the area of air freight thermal containers. Rental of boxes start to recover from a reduced clinical trial business during COVID pandemic. Now let's have a look on our entire revenue distribution, and therefore, let's move to Slide #4.

In total, business with customers from health care and logistics sector meaning TempChain business accounts for 78% of va-Q-tec's total sales coming from 76% previous year. At the same time, the non-COVID related TempChain business grew even stronger at 20% year-on-year. The corona-related business had a share of 16% of total revenue and was below the level of 9 months '21, where it was 18%.

At this point, I would like to hand over to my colleague, Stefan Döhmen, our CFO, who will shed more light on 9 months '22 financials. Please Stefan?

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Thank you, Joachim, and welcome to all of you from my side as well. Let me now give you some more color on the P&L development that drove profitability in the first 9 months of 2022. Let's move to Slide #5. There, you can see a summary of the 9 months '22 P&L compared to the previous year's period. Revenues increased by 12% to EUR 82.1 million, as already explained by Joachim. Total income increased by 5% to EUR 93.7 million over previous year's EUR 89.4 million. Please note that we invested less in containers and boxes resulting in lower [indiscernible] capitalized and we efficiently reduced inventory after a strong ramp-up last year. As the absolute numbers of cost of materials and services reduced, our gross profit increased by 12% in the first 9 months, in line with revenue growth.

Our gross margin increased to 62% in the first 9 months, mainly due to an improved product mix and the reduction of temporary workers. Moving down the P&L on this slide to personnel expenses and other OpEx. We would like to point out that personnel expenses increased by 13% to EUR 27.8 million compared to EUR 24.5 million in the first 9 months of 2021, as costs for personnel hired last year fully come into effect this year.

Accordingly, personnel expenses increased slightly more than income growth and slightly more than revenue growth. Other OpEx or SG&A grew stronger than total income at 40% or EUR 5.4 million compared to the first 9 months of 2021. This increase, on one hand, looks very significant, but it is influenced by one-off. Part of the SG&A is a precautionary provision of EUR 2.5 million for potential future payments to tax authorities in the course of international thermo container logistics, and we are still in discussions and negotiations with the authorities.

As a result of these numbers, adjusted EBITDA remained flat at EUR 13.4 million corresponding to an EBITDA margin adjusted of 14% in relation to total income compared with 15% in the first 9 months of 2021. Considering the increase in depreciation and amortization of approximately EUR 1 million, the adjusted EBIT decreased to EUR 2.5 million year-over-year coming from EUR 3.7 million in the previous year's period.

Taking the financial results of approximately EUR 1.9 million interest and into account, the adjusted EBIT arrived at a positive EUR 0.6 million in the first 9 months of 2022. Let's now take a look at our cash flow on Slide #6. Please note that the net cash flow from all operating activities significantly increased to EUR 4.4 million in 9 months 2022 compared to EUR 0.7 million in the first 9 months of 2021.

The investing cash flow of EUR 7.9 million in this period reflects a normalized amount of investments and CapEx into our container and box fleets and less investments into expansion of our manufacturing capacities, as already flagged in previous calls this year. Investments were scaled back to normal levels following a strong expansion in 2021 as planned. Therefore, the free cash flow significantly improved by EUR 11.5 million year-on-year.

Actually, in Q3, we arrived at a slightly positive free cash flow of about EUR 0.1 million. The financing cash flow totaled to a net EUR 4.7 million as of September 30, 2022, and with that, va-Q-tec had a total cash position of EUR 11.4 million versus EUR 8.2 million as of September 30, 2021.

Considering the positive development of operating cash flow as well as unutilized credit lines, we feel very comfortable with our financial situation at this point. Let's now move on to Slide 7 to take a quick look at our balance sheet. Total assets slightly increased to EUR 151 million as of September 30, 2022 compared to EUR 145 million as of year-end 2021. The va-Q-tec does not have any goodwill in the balance sheet. And therefore, there is no impairment risk in this respect in the current situation.

Bank borrowings increased to EUR 61 million compared to EUR 51 million as of September 30, 2021. And with this, I'd like to conclude the summary of our 9 months 2022 numbers and give the floor back to Joachim for the outlook and conclusion of our presentation.

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

Yes. Thank you, Stefan. Let's now give you our full year '22 outlook. So based on what Stefan just presented and considering our low visibility but encouraging momentum, we believe that the revenue target for the full year '22 with sales between EUR 115 million and EUR 122 million remains within reach at the lower end.

In view of the general increase in expenses for energy, logistics and personnel, we consider it still possible but increasingly challenging to achieve an adjusted EBITDA margin at the previous year's level. So overall, we see a very good momentum in Q4 in all business lines. I'm now moving to Slide #9, which shows you 2 commercial highlights of the last month.

With the va-Q-one 300P, we expanded our va-Q-one portfolio of one-way thermal transportation solutions in September 22. Pharmaceuticals, infectious samples, test materials for clinical trials and many other products for temperature-controlled logistics must arrive at their destination in perfect condition, especially for shipments to remote regions.

There is a great demand for a passively temperature-controlled transport container in Euro pellet side, which as much usable volume as possible and with a very high performance. The va-Q-one 300P especially designed to fit into narrow-body planes, which is the majority of all planes available.

Another highlight. Our food solution, va-Q-tray, was awarded with Südback Trend award in the category Techniques just recently. Südback is a major trade fair for these items. The award, which is presented by a jury of experts, recognized particularly innovative solutions in the food industry. The va-Q-tray can reduce energy consumption as well as waste and thus increase product safety and improved logistics.

It is a perfect tool to keep food even at frozen temperatures for many, many hours. This award -- is this ward another step or sign towards the next va-Q-tec's big thing? Clear maybe the answer, but the projects in the last months are all moving in the right direction.

Overall, as outlined before, for me, it's the first time in our 20-year history that the first clear signals appear and the project appear where people consciously decide for more energy-efficient solutions. They take into account a bit higher price, but everybody knows that increased energy costs will give a safe and quick payback. I guess that the last month has clearly brought our society overall much closer to the tipping point towards an undisputed energy efficiency.

Thank you very much. And I would now like to hand over back to the moderator, who will open the Q&A session.

Operator

The first question comes from Hugo Paternoster from Kepler Chevreaux.

H
Hugo Paternoster
analyst

I will have 3, if I may. The first one is regarding the margin development in Q4. I would like to have a bit of more color on what you expect in terms of margin path compared to Q3. The second one would be related to the free cash flow generation. Where do you expect to land by the end of the year? Is breakeven still achievable? Or can you achieve it? And the last one would be to your business development. Q3, seems better in terms of products, while Systems were a bit tougher -- on tough comp. What can we expect going forward for both these segments?

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

So I can start with the third question. So I think we have a good momentum now. We see good momentum in the last weeks and month towards higher performance in products business line and also in System line. So the summer was a little bit quieter, but now towards -- in these months and weeks, we are taking -- we have a good order income. And -- so we take this order and are working on many lines. Now we're also on a 24/7 shift system that is especially for the product business. Stefan, maybe you go to the financial questions?

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Yes. So your question regarding free cash flow. I mean, currently, we are still slightly negative at, I believe, EUR 3.5 million approximately. However, as I said, Q3 was positive if you only look at this quarter. And I believe that we can still achieve the full year of positive free cash flow. It will depend mostly upon the working capital development. We -- I think we'll have a continuation of good operating cash flow before working capital, and we also will have much lower CapEx spending than last year, but the development in the working capital in the first 3 quarters compared to December 31, 2021 numbers was a little bit, yes, less or worse than expected, in particular, in the accounts payable section where we reduced the accounts payable much more than expected, but that's also probably a timing, or yes, date development.

So at the end of the year, I would expect this number to be closer to the year-end 2021 number. And with that, we should get very close, if not, achieve the positive free cash flow, in my opinion, at this point. And the margin development, I think will -- we should probably see in a similar range as year-to-date. So the gross margin, I think, we were able to keep very good, even slightly better than in previous year due to the product mix and everything, and I would expect that to continue in this range for the last quarter.

Operator

The next question comes from Lasse Stueben from Berenberg.

L
Lasse Stueben
analyst

2 questions for me, please. Just the first one, could you go into a bit more detail on this tax provision? And what that exactly relates to just to have a better understanding and how you're thinking about? You said you're still in negotiations, but how you're thinking about the likelihood of that becoming material? And the second question would be, how is your visibility on the vaccine business, I guess, going into Q4, given it seems we're going into the fourth short period now. So I'm just wondering how your visibility is on vaccine shipments?

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Okay. Then I'll start with the tax question. Yes, it's basically provision we made, obviously, because we think we will have to make some payments here. And so we wanted to take care of that in this year's P&L and make a provision for that. It is related to some extent to previous years, and it also covers everything that we can see at the moment, so basically the worst case. So with this is, as I said, EUR 2.5 million provision that we built or booked into the P&L for this year.

It's related to the -- yes, let's say, TempChain logistics or the shipment of containers which, as you know, is a global business, and we are shipping containers in and across many different regions and jurisdictions and tax countries. And so it is a new business model. And in some areas, we now find out that the way we've been looking at the tax treatment or basically nontax applicability might have been wrong in the past. And so we are now trying to take care of that sort it out and make sure that for the future, we are 100% tax compliant. So it's, in our view, one-off that should not see again in the future.

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

Okay. And let me talk about vaccine business. We see, of course, gaining momentum here in quarter 4, especially now and over the winter time probably. Yes, in some areas -- more in some areas, less. It will not reach the levels of last year. That is very clear. And so -- and also companies have changed the way they produce the vaccine. They are more locally produced. That may be the reason for that, whereas in previous year, they had big factories, enabling them to quickly produce the vaccines.

But this year, it is a little bit nicely distributed over the planet, let's say. And that's why we see an increasing business now, but it will not reach the heights of the business last year.

Yes. And also I have to see, if you take this away, I just want to emphasize again that our underlying business, so any business outside the corona business has developed, which is the majority of the business, by the way. The big majority has developed very nicely with a positive trend of more than 20%, yes.

Operator

The next question comes from Guido Hoymann from Metzler.

G
Guido Hoymann
analyst

Two questions from our side and the -- they are both addressing actually what you already mentioned, the major energy issues of this time and the strong need for energy savings. So the first one is, are you planning new products for realizing energy savings in industrial processes or in heating? So that's probably regarding your product development and your sales activities. And the second one, sort of related to that, in the boiling point of ammonia is minus 33 degrees. So an area where you should feel comfortable in. So is the field of hydrogen and related products in storage and transport of that, for example, in the form of ammonia, something you are addressing also in your product development? .

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Hoymann for your question, which I appreciate very much as the physicist asking about boiling points. That's very good. So I can tell you, frankly, that, yes, our products are definitely suitable for these temperature ranges where ammonium boils. And so we are ready to contribute also to these new developments and systems. So we -- but you're right, we are now targeting new systems. What we always see when we target new systems, they first have a new system. They use conventional materials for the first round and only in a second round -- sometimes, maybe even in third round, they start to increase energy efficiency coming to our solution.

So whenever a new technology works out, it's still a little way to go to -- for our solution. But we are sure that it's not -- and if it's only a when question -- when our products will be integrated. But these low temperatures are one of our sweet spots, actually, yes. For example, in TempChain, we are very well known for minus temperatures, and that has a reason. So we feel well when this -- we like these problems at minus temperatures.

New products -- regarding new products, yes, we are always improving new products. We have launched a new panel. We -- in the last 3 months, we didn't have a specific new product for energy efficiency in this area of, let's say, technical devices. Of course, also our new boxes and containers are energy efficient and energy saving. And for example, the va-Q-tray, where we got this award, was explicitly mentioned to be a very energy-saving solutions.

Yes, with this va-Q-tray, you can save a lot of unnecessary transports where trucks driving into the inner cities, for example, delivering to bakeries or to small shops, frozen goods. So this will change the way frozen or chilled goods are transported, whether it's medicine or non-medicine. And that's why we are very proud about such an award, which explicitly, yes, contributes to our energy saving.

Operator

The next question comes from Remo Rosenau from Helvetische Bank.

R
Remo Rosenau
analyst

Yes. Your full year CapEx will probably come in somewhere between EUR 10 million and EUR 11 million. Now what -- do you have already made the budget for next year? But what is the CapEx budget for '23? Do you have kind of [indiscernible] kind of a target -- or do you have an ambition in what magnitude your free cash flow should come in, in '23?

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

We are still in the process of budgeting for next year at the moment. But in general, I think that definitely, as we -- this year are, let's say, on the verge of becoming cash flow positive next year. We should already see the next step and see a pretty good positive free cash flow, as we will continue to see CapEx levels maybe slightly higher than this year but not much higher.

As we explained before, 2021 was an exceptional year for different reasons, in particular due to the fleet expansion for COVID-19 vaccine shipments, which, of course, these boxes and containers that we built for that purpose will now be used to -- for growth in our underlying business.

It's the same boxes and containers, obviously. So we don't need to spend the money there. And we also spend in 2021, the money in -- for production lines and for additional buildings in our manufacturing plants to increase capacities, which should bring us towards, let's say, the EUR 150 million revenue range in more or less, obviously, with some CapEx that we continuously have to do.

And as we continue to expect pretty good growth and good profitability developments also in general for 2023, we, in my opinion, should see a pretty good free cash flow development also.

R
Remo Rosenau
analyst

[indiscernible] something like that kind of number for you.

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Good question. But I would say somewhere in the range of EUR 5 million plus in the next step from basically turning towards positive free cash flow this year. Hopefully, I would consider pretty good development.

R
Remo Rosenau
analyst

Okay. So anything around EUR 5 million or higher is pretty good. That is the definition?

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Yes.

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

Okay. Mr. Rosenau, there's nothing more difficult to predict than the future.

R
Remo Rosenau
analyst

Yes. That is absolutely correct. But nevertheless, that's what we all are interested in.

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

Yes.

R
Remo Rosenau
analyst

About another question, I mean the container fleet, I mean, you had obviously extremely high niche for additional containers during the pandemic and vaccines. That business, of course, is now going on eventually much lower level. So in a way, you should have kind of enough containers for the time being. I mean, of course, we're growing in other areas. So you -- basically, you invested earlier than expected in much more containers. So why is the CapEx level not coming down to the number average level now?

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Well, we continue to grow. And in particular, I think, in the service business with the container rental business included, we had more than 27%, 28% growth again in the underlying business. So that means, we are doing a lot of additional trips around the world, and we need to have the right containers. We have different container types also. The right containers at the right time, at the right place, which is a challenge and which just also means and in particular, to defend our gross margin here.

As we explained also, it's -- sometimes a trade-off between adding additional containers and having more containers available around the world also for shipping by sea vessels, for example, in sea freight rather than air freight. So sometimes we're doing the trade-off here because the air freight is so expensive at the moment and since the beginning of the pandemic. And with that, I think we've been able to really defend our gross margin here very successfully.

And that was, for us, more important or it was better to spend a little bit more on CapEx and additional containers rather than flying -- having to fly containers around the world at expensive air freight rates.

R
Remo Rosenau
analyst

Okay. Got it. So that's kind of a trade-off between CapEx and bearing the higher transportation costs.

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Exactly.

R
Remo Rosenau
analyst

And about the transportation cost, I mean, -- so if that goes to your expense -- I mean, if you need to bring back the containers empty, you cannot pass that on somehow to the cost of it.

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

No, that's included -- that's the basis of our business model to include that, of course, in the pricing. That's the basic idea when you run a fleet, yes, like also the car manufacturers, so you pay maybe a higher price, of course, when you have a one-way rental compared to a back-to-origin rental. But that's somehow, of course, included in the regular calculation.

Operator

The next question comes from Benjamin Kohnke from Stifel.

B
Benjamin Kohnke
analyst

A few, please. Can you start with your 2022 guidance and essentially moving towards the low end. And just trying to square this with your statements that basically, you're off to a very good start into Q4. So what's caused the incremental uncertainty that led you to lower the guidance for the full year? Then maybe 2 questions related to your important customers. Let's start with ASML and obviously, we've all seen the news about the U.S. government potentially trying to ban, as you've not been selling to China. What's your view on that? Have you heard anything from ASML view, done some investigation? What essentially, what could this mean for va-Q-tec.

Second 1 on Uponor, just wondering if you're able to share some sort of maybe financial targets around that product. Have you agreed with Uponor some sort of revenue levels that Uponor wants to achieve with your product lines and that you need to be prepared to deliver to Uponor so that they can reach and maybe some -- just some indications around how big this project could eventually become? And then just to nitty gritty one and going back to CapEx. Stefan, could you just maybe quantify the level of maintenance CapEx that you see for the business these days and ideally going forward? And the second, just a very quick one on energy cost. Can you maybe quantify the amount of energy cost in your -- I think it's in OpEx you mentioned, right? And just to get an idea how that affected your business and I guess, will affect you in the future?

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Okay. I'll probably start with the first one, the guidance in Q4. I mean basically, obviously, it's -- we're looking at actual Q3 numbers now with the 12% growth year-over-year. But at the same time also, we see -- obviously, last year, we had a tremendous fourth quarter so with a lot of COVID business included at the time. And that is basically what makes us a little bit hesitant or cautious about the total guidance for this year because, obviously, the dynamics are slightly different.

So as Joachim said, we are still seeing a lot of activity in COVID business at the moment. But on the other hand, we have low visibility. Just like last year, forecasts are often not very accurate, very short notice. And so -- and if you look at the Q3 numbers, then -- and add, let's say, a good fourth quarter, then it's still only probably, even if it's as good as last year or a little bit better, we're still just getting close to the lower end of our guidance.

And that's why, we're slightly optimistic or still see it in reach, as Joachim said, but it is going to be also a challenge to even get there. Then the level of maintenance CapEx, I think currently is still in the 20% to 25% range. So majority of our CapEx is expansion CapEx. Also historically, I think we've been in this range for the future. It will -- probably maintenance CapEx will go up as the fleet is -- our container fleet, in particular, is now getting -- some of them are getting 8, 9, 10 years old. They are still flying around, much older than we initially anticipated.

But at some point, we will have to start replacing some more of them than we had to do in the past. And also the -- on the box rental fleet, there is a, let's say, a certain percentage of boxes that gets lost on a statistical basis and has to be replaced. And that also is considered maintenance CapEx, obviously. So overall, we believe, in the future, maintenance CapEx ratio will go up a little bit. And -- but overall, yes, CapEx shouldn't be grow too much in the next couple of years. The other question?

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

Yes, I can answer other questions. So you asked about specifically about ASML China. In China, you will certainly understand that I cannot go to -- into detail about our specific customer relations. What I can say is, we see a good business, a stable business. And they are active in all places of the world. And if in one place, they do less business or are more careful or whatever, there are other businesses where other areas in the world, where we see a clear expansion in microchip business.

That's why I think -- and overall, we are happy to have ASML as a very stable customer. Uponor, yes, it's already considerable amount of business with what we have generated with Uponor. And please imagine that new market which we created together. This type of pipe has never been there before. So we created this market. And we have, of course, revenue levels, which are agreed upon, and they are rising. They are strongly rising, and we also prepare for this rise because we see it come.

So that is definitely, what I can say, about this business. And I think the last thing was energy costs. Our energy bill, I think, overall, here in the factories and overall subsidiaries in the world was kind of EUR 1.5 million last year, and we expect it to be kind of EUR 2.5 million this year. So it's not that we have 10% of our revenues spent for energy. So it's more in the order of magnitude of 1%, 2%, 3%, that's what I can say.

Of course, it's hitting, yes. It's [indiscernible] to say, or in this order of magnitude, but it's not in dangerous our existence like for many other business, yes, if you are in steel industry or so. That is what I can say here.

Operator

The next question comes from Miguel Lago Mascato from Montega AG.

M
Miguel Lago Mascato
analyst

A couple of questions from my side left. First 1 would be if I'm correct or if I'm assuming correctly, this effect from tax provision should be elevated in the next year. Then on Q4 and your systems as well as product segment, do you believe you can hit the high base in systems to, let's say, mid-single-digit growth in products and systems. And then -- yes, that's it for the time being.

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

So tax, would you, Stefan?

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Yes, but I'm not 100% sure whether I understood the question. So as I said earlier, we looked at all possible issues that we might have around the world regarding these taxes related to our TempChain business. So we made the necessary provisions. Going forward, we do not expect any financial impact from these, yes, different aspects related to tax. As say, for the future, basically, they have been resolved and -- so not recurring again in the future. It doesn't mean that that we'll have additional taxes like income tax that we're talking about. It's more like similar to VAT or sales tax and other things that normally are pass-through but because they are partly historical and cannot be corrected in hindsight, they have an impact in -- with this provision that we made for the future. It shouldn't be an issue.

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

And if we pay them -- we pay them probably next year, possibly equity wise. Maybe that was also your question.

M
Miguel Lago Mascato
analyst

That was basically my question. Yes.

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Okay. I misunderstood.

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

Next thing was you're asking about growth in different segments. So given the momentum we see now, I would say in Products business, it can -- we have a good chance to get into, as you say, mid-single-digit positive results here at the end of the year. Regarding to System, it is already positive, and it will probably stay positive. Nevertheless, we had a very good -- that's the magic of the numbers we had last year, quarter 4 was a very good system quarter, I think.

So reporting on this will -- so let's see whether we can keep the 7 or whether it'll down a bit, let's see, but it's very positive, actually. You remember last year, we had a growth in Systems by more than 80%, yes. So it's -- overall, it's not easy to beat the numbers, let's say, yes. But we are trying, of course, and we are positive.

M
Miguel Lago Mascato
analyst

Okay. Then lastly, some number crunching. Can you elaborate on the FX effect on your top line as well as the numbers you would report in your other operating income and expenses? And also increase of personnel expenses, how much is this affected by the inflationary effects.

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Okay. Personnel expenses, inflationary effect, I think, is still relatively low. I mean we have obviously -- we have regular salary increases and also we'll have some impact of, obviously, the inflation included. But I think this year, it's still relatively small. We'll have to see how that impacts our general increase or general numbers next year. Most of the increase this year is still coming from just on average or a number of people that we hired last year in -- during the year and which this year are on our payroll from day 1, basically from January 1, obviously. And this really has impacted the increase the most. Overall, we hired very few people this year so far. And so it's -- the increase here of 13% is a mixture of regular, I would say, salaried development increase and so on and the annualization of people hired last year sometime during the year.

And the FX impact is positive overall, I would say, net somewhere in the range of EUR 2 million.

M
Miguel Lago Mascato
analyst

That's top line, right?

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

That is included in other income and obviously in other operating expenses losses.

M
Miguel Lago Mascato
analyst

And that's an effect...

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Approximately EUR 2 million plus.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I hand back to Dr. Joachim Kuhn for closing remarks. Thank you, sir.

J
Joachim Kuhn
executive

Yes. Thanks, everybody, for participating. We had a quite high number of participants today, which I appreciate very much. Thank you all, and have a nice day wherever you are, over Europe and over the rest of the world. Thank you very much, and I wish you all to have a very good year end and see you soon. Bye-bye.

S
Stefan Döhmen
executive

Goodbye.

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