Semperit Holding AG

VSE:SEM

Earnings Call Transcript

[Karl Haider, executive]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Quarter 1 '23 results presentation. We very much appreciate your interest and support of our company Semperit. With me in the call is Helmut Sorger, our CFO; and Helmut will explain the financials in a few minutes later.

First, let me take you through some of the strategic and operational highlights for the first quarter on Slide 3. With our strategic focus on the Industrial business, I'm very pleased to report positive results, both on the top line and earnings level. And this against the backdrop of a lower order intake and continuing inflation, keeping costs at a very high level.

As to the medical business, we continue with our responsible stewardship before the sale to the new owner will be completed. With this in mind, we continue to implement our industrial elastomer strategy. And in this respect, the latest highlight was the acquisition of the RICO Group on the 17th of April. This is no doubt one of the great assets of the Austrian midsized company, a global leader in specialists in the production of liquid silicon-based solutions. For all those who had not the chance to follow this acquisition 3 weeks ago, I will provide a few details in a minute.

In terms of further developing our financing structure, we were also able to sign 2 new individual arrangements totaling up to EUR 360 million. And Helmut will elaborate more on this detail later.

With regards to shareholder return, our management proposal for a base dividend of EUR 1.5 per share has been approved at our Annual General Meeting on 25th of April. At the same time, shareholders also voted in favor of an additional conditional dividend of EUR 3 per share, which will be paid out after the completion of the Sempermed sales, which we currently expect around the middle of this year or maybe 1 or 2 months later, depending on the approvals of the relevant authorities in 2023.

Over to Page 4. Let me first say that we were not able -- we are not only delighted about the positive response by the RICO team, when they learned about our decision to acquire RICO and to become a part of the Semperit family, but also the support from the shareholders.

This is important as we are not only expanding our elastomer confidence through new material know-how in liquid silicon, but at the same time, we are also acquiring a global technology leadership position in high-end toolmaking. And this through a highly automated, high volume and highly scalable production setting.

At the same time, we are making further progress in penetrating attractive markets and serving high-growth industries such as health care and life science, consumer and sanitary, electrification and mobility. Finally, we are strongly encouraged to be able to strengthen our market access and most importantly, our presence in North America, which is a key builder of our industrial strategy.

Without going into all the details of what we had discussed at our analyst call on the 17th of April, what I would like to highlight here is that RICO Group has about 500 employees in 4 production sites in Austria, Switzerland and the U.S. with an annual turnover of around EUR 90 million. What differentiates RICO Group, and hence, was most attractive for us is that it can operate in a very complex project with cutting-edge solutions based on its high-end toolmaking expertise.

The later is crucial for some of the technologies applied in the LSR solutions, including multi-compounded injection molding and clean room manufacturing. Importantly, and this is another differentiating factor, RICO Group applies not only a high level of automation, but also individual precision for customer needs.

From a strategic perspective, this latest acquisition helps us to penetrate new attractive markets while serving high-growth industries, notable in health care, life science, consumer, sanitary, electrification, and mobility.

Moving on to the performance in the industrial sector on Slide 6. I'm very encouraged about the still positive top line in EBITDA development in quarter 1 despite sales volume in all Industrial segment except Sempertrans. As you can see from the 2 charts, revenues during the quarter were up by 3.2% year-on-year and EBITDA by 16% to EUR 30.6 million, implying a very competitive 17.3% margin.

Going forward, we note the impact of customer inventory adjustments with lower sales visibility in hydraulic hoses in Semperflex segment and the problems continuing in the construction industry relevant for Semperseal, with some customers struggling to get credit for commercial and residential buildings. In order -- in order to weather the economic slowdown and higher cost sales, we already apply capacity adjustments and cost management.

Still all in all, allow to me to mention that we had good results in the industrial sector in the U.S., a market we are focusing on for our future growth. [indiscernible] is also a perfect fit.

On to the next slide. We felt to briefly share a chart with you which presents the last 12-month analysis of the industrial sector's revenue and EBITDA margins for the period quarter 1 2020 until quarter 1 2023, which nicely shows the improvement in the industrial sector since quarter 1 2021.

But given the continuing high inflation and first sign of falling customer demand, a slowdown in topline growth and potentially actually most likely peak level in EBITDA margin in quarter 1 2023.

Starting with our operating update on Slide 8. Semperflex is the segment currently experienced most of the customer inventory adjustments and low order intake, with sales down by 9% year-on-year and EBITDA by 15%. This, in combination with higher costs for raw materials, transport, energy, and personnel on a year-on-year comparison, puts margin under pressure, but still at a solid 23% level and better than the previous quarter.

Following industrial logic of our industrial businesses, meaning starting with a large-scale type products and therefore continuing with Semperseal on Slide 9. The weak demand, particularly in the construction industry led to lower orders, resulting in sales down by 13% year-on-year despite price increases. Higher costs and lower volumes impacted margins, but EBITDA recovered in quarter 1 2023 compared with the previous quarter, but still down by 1/3 year-on-year. Hence we have clear focus on costs at Semperseal.

Now moving towards the segments with a higher level of individualized solutions for our customers. Sempertrans was our star performing quarter 1 2023, with sales up by 52% year-on-year and EBITDA more than 5x, leading to an EBIT margin of 17%. It's highest for some time if we exclude the one-off effects from the previous quarters. Despite higher input costs, higher volumes and price increases resulted in very strong margins.

In the wake of the European energy crisis, the business benefited from continuing strong demand from the mining industry for steel and textile belts, resulting in an impressive project pipeline with highly competitive products and services.

Finally, among the industrial segments, Semperform our segment with the most specialized engineered solution, also achieved a positive result with sales up 10% year-on-year due to price increases and a changed product mix, while EBITDA was up by 54%, with very strong 17.2% margin.

Against the backdrop of higher input costs, the product mix and increased profitability led to a strong performance in EBITDA. But we should not -- if the pent up demand were excluded from previous quarters for comparison, the order book in quarter 1 2023 was slightly down.

On the next slide, we continue with our responsible stewardship at Sempermed, but currently face lower demand for both examination and surgical gloves due to ongoing destocking and also high price pressure to the excess capacities, especially for examination gloves.

While EBITDA continues to be heavily impacted by low prices and higher costs, it benefited in quarter 1 2023 from a release of provision referring to gas contracts and inventory. We also booked a write-up of EUR 1 million.

As mentioned before, we expect the completion of the Sempermed sales at around mid of 2023 or maybe 1 or 2 months later. So we'll still report the financials for this business at our half year results released in August.

With this, I have come to the end of the operational review and hand over to Helmut to take us through the financials.

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

Thank you, Karl, and very warm welcome to you all. Let me start with some of our highlights in the first quarter. In terms of the actual results for continued operations, we are indeed very pleased to report both top line and profits being stable or, if I may add, even slightly up year-on-year. At the same time, we are conscious that this is against growing macroeconomic headwinds going forward, most notably inflation with the obvious impact on cost.

From my perspective, as the CFO of the company, there are major focus points as we're almost halfway through the second quarter. We want to continue with strict cost control and the adjustment of overheads, so not only capacities with blue collar, but also overheads.

We further want to stress, we're on a good way with the working capital management. We generated a positive free cash flow in the first quarter of about EUR 7.1 million, and we have a strong financial position. What does that mean in operational terms now? What we're doing is we strictly pursue lean processes, using digitalization, streamlining of workflows. And just to give you an example, what we're doing is we want to get quick wins from measures like invoice digitalization or back-office robotic process automation. So all in all, we're promoting the empowerment of the organization to ensure quick decision-making, where it's needed and when it's needed.

Finally, in conjunction with our 2 M&A transactions, on the one hand, the sale of Sempermed and on the other, the acquisition of the RICO Group. We've not only made 2 new financing arrangements, but also on the back of strong operational results, our financial position is even a bit stronger than the year-end '22.

Let me first elaborate briefly on the 2 new financing arrangements totaling EUR 360 million on the next slide. I'm particularly satisfied and grateful that we were able to close these financing arrangements by the end of the first quarter as the financial turmoil lately has impacted the markets. And of course, the conditions would have changed dramatically would we negotiate right now.

One of the total of EUR 250 million relates to general corporate purpose financing and consists of a term loan for the acquisition of the RICO Group in the amount of EUR 150 million and the revolving credit facility and the working capital line of EUR 100 million. This was agreed with the consortium of 6 Austrian and international banks and was underwritten under specific ESG criteria.

Notably, energy efficiency, lost time incident rates is an indicator of work safety and also important water usage. The second one of these loans making up the difference to the EUR 360 million is a EUR 110 million lighthouse transaction with the Czech Export Credit Agency, EGAP and a well-known Czech Bank to support our investments for the DH5 expansion at our Odry plant in the Czech Republic. And this implies a partial green loan eligibility. Let me stress that this is a first of a kind EGAP-backed general corporate purpose loans and not the project financing, but general corporate purpose loan.

Over the page, we present an overview of the main financial KPIs of the continued operations in the first quarter and compared to the previous year. Against current economic headwinds, we're very encouraged by the single digit increases in revenues, EBITDA and EBIT while still managing positive earnings after tax, after adding the result of the discontinued operations. CapEx remained below last year's level, but we're certainly committed to invest in the future of Semperit in '23.

On the next slide, when looking at the segmental top line contributions, the industrial sector added 3% year-on-year growth in aggregate, largely driven by Sempertrans, but also Semperform. In turn, the decline in revenues of the medical sector resulted in an overall decrease by 22% to EUR 216 million.

And now you're basically familiar with this approach. We try to go from the segment view, if you wish to continue the operations to -- I'm sorry, the segment view to the continued operations. And if we make the adjustments for the discontinued operations and allow for the consolidation effects, we come to EUR 185.2 million in the first quarter for continued operations.

Turning the page and presenting the same year-on-year analysis for EBITDA, where the steep decline for Sempermed becomes even more visible. For the industrial sector, the operational leverage for Sempertrans is particularly impressive, with a EUR 14.7 million top line growth turning into additional EUR 6.1 million EBITDA in the first quarter.

All industrial segments, except Semperseal, achieved a double-digit margin, which is also very encouraging in times of higher cost pressure. After adjusting for discontinued operations, here again in the slightly shaded lines, we achieved an EBITDA for continued operations of EUR 20.8 million in the first quarter, which is in line with the previous year.

Now when looking at the major building blocks for the year-on-year EBITDA bridge, price increases were the major driving force, which still stems from last year's stepwise price increases, significantly reduced by the volume impact. In contrast to last year's comparison costs for raw materials and logistics have fallen, while energy was only marginally up at the year-on-year comparison. In turn, the other factors impacting EBITDA were personnel costs and higher maintenance and travel cost after the Corona lockdown come to an end, shown as miscellaneous here.

One more thing I would like to add is the development of the logistics cost. During '22, we've seen some price increases and challenges here, a situation that has clearly alleviated since the fourth quarter of '22. Overall, we managed a year-on-year 3% increase in EBITDA for continued operations.

In terms of CapEx on Slide #20. I had already mentioned the year-on-year decrease mainly based on a timing effect, but the full commitment to the spending in '23. Let me stress that we're going to do maintenance and smaller growth projects, but also the strategic growth project in Odry going forward.

One important thing to mention is that the industrial sector continues to receive the greater share in CapEx, notably Semperflex and Semperseal, but we are also conscious of our responsible stewardship role for Sempermed, where we continue with the necessary maintenance CapEx.

When looking at the constituent parts of the cash flow analysis for Q1, you'll remember, we don't distinguish here between the continued and discontinued operations. Operating cash flow was up EUR 5.3 million year-on-year at EUR 21.1 million, largely as a result of a reduction of our trade working capital, most notably inventories.

Internal investments for maintenance and smaller growth projects amounted to EUR 14.5 million, with the most significant investments during the quarter being made in the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, and Poland. The resulting free cash flow before investments into strategic growth projects commencing in '23 amounted to EUR 7.1 million, which brings me to the next major focus point, the working capital management at Slide 22.

For the chart starting at Q4 '21, I should note that due to the sale of our medical business, we're not comparing the numbers like-for-like with the previous quarters. Total working capital slightly increased since Q4 '22, largely due to the higher level of trade receivables following business activity being not fully offset by the reduction of inventories. After the excessively high levels of working capital during the pandemic induced supply chain disruptions, there's a clear sign of normalization, although we would still expect inventory levels to remain slightly above historic levels.

Finally, on Page 23, we continue to present a robust balance sheet and strong financial position with cash and cash equivalents of EUR 119 million as of March 31. This is for the continued operations only.

At the beginning of my presentation, I had discussed a new financing arrangement, totaling EUR 360 million already. But I want to add here, we also have a corporate Schuldschein loan of EUR 53 million accounting into our net debt. At the end of the first quarter, we remain cash positive with net debt-to-EBITDA below 0 and an equity ratio of still 61%.

Karl had mentioned before the base dividend of EUR 1.50 per share, which was paid on March 3. I should reiterate that the special dividend of EUR 3 per share will only be paid after the completion of the Sempermed sale, which is, I repeat this, what Karl already said, currently anticipated for midyear '23, maybe 1 or 2 months later, depending on the approvals of authorities.

With this, I've come to my end and hand back to Karl for his final remarks.

[Karl Haider, executive]

Thank you very much, Helmut, for this good explanation of our financial situation. And I will continue at Slide 25 with the management agenda for 2023. With the first quarter of '23 in the back, we certainly had a decent start. What we see in the industrial sector, however, are also a sign of slowing demand in customer inventory adjustment, leading to a lower order intake. At the same time, there's growing price sensitivity amongst customers.

On the cost side, higher cost pressure for personnel costs and possible for energy and raw materials, we could imagine. So in our management agenda for 2023, we will clearly focus on cost control and capacity adjustments, including the rightsizing of the overhead base as well as lean processes. At the same time, in our responsible ownership role for Sempermed, we aim for a smooth transition, interest to support the carve-out process towards the handover to the new owner hubs.

In terms of strategy, we actively work on the refinement of our industrial elastomer strategy. We had a major step with the acquisition of the RICO Group as explained in April now, which puts us now at the leading edge of liquid silicon solutions. At the same time, we are making further progress with the sale of the examination gloves business of Sempermed, which we currently expect to be completed, as said, mid of 2023.

Over the page, we confirm the outlook for the continued business in 2023, with EBITDA expected at the lower end of the EUR 70 million to EUR 90 million range and CapEx of EUR 100 million, equally divided between growth and maintenance CapEx.

With this, we have come to the end of our presentation, and Helmut and myself are now available for any questions you might have.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Markus Remis with RBI.

[Markus Remis, analyst]

Couple of questions, please. I would like to take them one by one. Firstly, looking at the outlook wording. I mean, there is a bit of more sense of caution to it. Can you maybe elaborate where the deviation is coming from now that you're expecting rather the low end of the EUR 70 million to EUR 90 million, has there been kind of -- is it broad-based or any specific segment that is deviating materially from the former expectations?

[Karl Haider, executive]

So thank you, Mr. Remis for this question. As you know, and we said it already, it is our Semperseal in the construction business, which has the, let's say, phasing the normal development in the construction market. And you are aware what's ongoing there. Projects are delayed? Is it according to high cost or is it dual finance costs. And therefore, we are going with the stream in the construction business.

We have controlled our costs so far. Therefore, we see it will not go further down the next couple of months. But it's a little bit too easy to say now, where rebounds will come. We don't see it until summer, and then we need to take it towards the second half.

The second segment is Flex. But here, this has a different dynamic because there was overordering the last year according to the supply chain issue and higher demand on the end market, our customer ordered too much. And now we face the problem of the stock adjustment that the customer want to go back to a normal stock level.

And as I'm sure you're aware, as an example, the yellow goods industry are also selling less, let's say, of their products to the market. And this is a clear link to us as well.

The other 2 segments, we explained as well, they are in a different nature of the cycles and of the economic situation on the market. We are quite proud of the other 2 segments, what they have shown in the first quarter, and we feel comfortable it goes on [indiscernible] also the rest of the year.

[Markus Remis, analyst]

Right. But kind of to pinpoint the deviation compared to the outlook we've provided I don't know, was it a month or 1.5 months ago?

I fully understand the dynamics and you've explained them well, but you kind of to get us a sense where we probably implement the weakness or where the weakness is more pronounced than previously where the growth is less pronounced.

[Karl Haider, executive]

Yes. You know the outlook was also between EUR 70 million and EUR 90 million. Now we specify it more towards the EUR 70 million. And of course, we see it clear in the order intake. And therefore, this is our, let's say, taking points.

[Markus Remis, analyst]

Can I ask on [indiscernible] on where we stand in the destocking? Is that something that will, I don't know. -- drag on for a longer time? Or is it already kind of the underlying market weakness that is still going through?

[Karl Haider, executive]

So thank you, Mr. Remis for this question. In Flex, particularly, we don't see the next 2, 3 months that the destocking is done, but we anticipate a clear towards end of the third quarter and fourth quarter that this could be washed out in the supply chain.

[Markus Remis, analyst]

So stabilization Q3 then? Okay -- on your -- on your cost adjustments and capacity adjustments. Can you provide a bit more color? I mean, is it, I don't know, single shifts that you're taking out? Is it -- yes, also regarding the phasing, has there already been an impact on the cost base in the first quarter? Or is this something that will just gradually become more tangible over the next quarter?

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

Let me say we need to differentiate by site. Of course, [ Seal ] was first into it with the downturn in the German construction industry. So these measures have already been taken and are already undergoing and already show effect in the first quarter. You will appreciate the results in Seal are already supported by overhead reductions. We anticipate them to continue in the second quarter.

With the hydraulic hose -- with the hose business in general, of course, we don't produce to stock. So basically, if there is an adjustment of the orders and the destocking of our customer, it's more than shifts that we take out. So it's significant. I guess, my point is a significant increase. The full impact you will see Q2, of course.

And on the overhead base, we've talked about it since basically Q3, more detailed, of course, with the full year results. This has a certain effect of cost remnants, but we're addressing it and we go, of course, start as everyone with third-party service providers try to cut out services that we require but cannot afford to put it bluntly and then go step by step.

And as I've said, go through the processes and take it part by part. We are really down to the euro. It's an integrity controlling exercise. -- we're determined to do it and the results will follow.

[Markus Remis, analyst]

Okay. Sorry for [indiscernible], but I have to come back to Flex. One thing I forgot to ask is about the overall pricing discipline or your perception of the overall pricing discipline or I mean, how are competitors behaving in a place where demand is down. Is there some sort of you say, fight for market share via prices?

[Karl Haider, executive]

So Mr. Remis, thank you for your question because you have seen we increased the prices quite a reasonable well last year. And the first quarter was, of course, supported from the higher price. We had to adjust case-by-case, customer-by-customer our prices, but we try to be very prudent in this price decreases. Our competition, especially from southern part of Europe, they have done it a little bit different. They announced via letters a certain percentage of price decreases. But we have seen the volume will be not more for us if we do the same. Therefore, we did it customer by customer on a reasonable level, and we will continue with this journey that we can -- because we need to clear all the inflation, we cannot go to, let's say, we cannot decrease the prices too rapid too high because the costs are coming into our P&L

[Markus Remis, analyst]

Last question, please. On the -- sorry, on the RICO acquisition. And I mean, I guess it's fair to assume that it should still be completed in the third quarter. But can you maybe share your kind of discussion with the antitrust bodies and the regulators? Do you currently see any remedies in the wake of the antitrust clearing? Or is it just like a bit of a slower process that is kind of adding this 1 or 2 months…

[Karl Haider, executive]

Particularly these 1 or 2 months is mentioned to Sempermed and not to the RICO. RICO is relatively straightforward according to the merger clearance. In 3 countries, we need to file it demerger clearances. And we expect no remedies because we are not in the same market or the market share, let's say, there are other players in this business in Europe as well. And so from that point of view, relatively straightforward and easy from our point of view.

[Markus Remis, analyst]

Sorry, I was confusing now Med and [ HARPS ], I didn't meant RICO.

[Karl Haider, executive]

You meant to have -- okay.

[Markus Remis, analyst]

Yes, it was directed at Med and I meant HARPS, not RICO, sorry for that.

[Karl Haider, executive]

Okay. But you got a nice answer on RICO already, if this would be your next question. Coming back to Sempermed, of course, you know according to the pandemic, certain, let's say, focus were on medical equipment in Europe. According to the pandemic, it was a little bit more prominent. And therefore, the European mechanism -- corporation mechanism is finished now, and now it goes very straightforward into the Austrian, let's say, process. And the rest of the countries where we had to file this is done. Now it's only on the Austrian [indiscernible]. And from that point of view, we feel very comfortable that the time line will be nicely one.

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

But just, Markus, to clarify, this is not an antitrust issue. This is an FDI, foreign direct investment pro…

[Markus Remis, analyst]

Yes. Yes. Okay. So it's just the domestic watch stock that has to give the green light?

[Karl Haider, executive]

Correct. It's -- Ministry of Economy and labor in Austria, FDI approval.

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

And there's a clear -- clear room…

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Sven Sauer with Kepler Cheuvreux.

[Sven Sauer, analyst]

I have only 2 left. We can do them one by one or all in one, whatever you prefer. I'll just start. The first one is regarding Sempertrans and the strong result. I was just wondering, this is typically, as far as I remember, a late cyclical segment. So I'm wondering where we are right now in the economic environment because if you say that the economic pressure is increasing over the couple of months, yet the order book in the Sempertrans segment is really good. I was wondering what -- could you maybe provide some feedback from what clients are saying? Are they already ahead of the curve? Or do they think that this pressure that they're seeing in other segments will also be visible in Sempertrans?

[Karl Haider, executive]

Thank you very much, Sven, for this question because this is a tricky question and easy question. I can tell you I am quite sure you know this as well. This is an overlap effect on the market. The Ukrainian war has, let's say, a change in normal cycle in the trans business because according to all this energy, let's say, changes. And even that the German they have extended brown coal and other mining industry have extended the usage as well.

Therefore, a normal cycle is not there in trans. Therefore, we expect a longer cycle now according to this impact of the energy of the global energy, let's say, changes. And therefore, it's the start of the cycle. And order book is, indeed, as you said, is quite nice. And therefore, we will enjoy, let's say, a nice business in the future.

[Sven Sauer, analyst]

Okay. Very interesting. And the second question is regarding the continued business in Sempermed. -- first, the question, the deal that you have with HARPS that they are acquiring surgical gloves. Is this already intact? Or will this only be valid after the deal is closed. The reason why I'm asking is because I'm looking at the Sempermed earnings in Q1, and they are negative. And if I remember correct, in the annual report, it was stated that HARPS will acquire the surgical gloves free from you at a price that covers expenses, so basically at breakeven. Yes, maybe you could provide some color on that.

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

Yes, absolutely. I mean, of course, this contract manufacturing agreement only is in place with the first closing, not yet. I mean we're still third parties and competitors. So this is basically the open market activity of the surgical glove business.

And of course, the effect that you see in the bridge that we provide, I think it's on Slide 17. This is, of course, the adjustments that we add from the intercompany sales or, let's say, the consolidation does no longer taking place of revenues and of material expenses in the intercompany relationship. So this is near cost.

For the ongoing performance, of course, it's -- you want to add to the ongoing performance…

[Karl Haider, executive]

Sven and to add here, when the contract manufacturing is in place, then exact to the supplies, what you said, we have a certain formula how we re-price our material, our [indiscernible] to HARPS. And this would be, let's say, a wash through -- and on the business, you mentioned a negative result. Of course, this is driven from the examination class because you heard there's price pressure, there's overcapacity, and there's still, let's say, a full supply chain in many, many cases.

[Sven Sauer, analyst]

Yes. But yes, but in particular, I was referring to the continued business, so that would be excluding the examination gloves, correct?

[Karl Haider, executive]

The surgical gloves business, yes. Yes, exactly.

[Sven Sauer, analyst]

Yes. Yes. Because that was negative. That's what I was referring to. That was negative in Q1.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Christian Obst with Baader Bank.

[Christian Obst, analyst]

Yes. Coming back to Sempermed, why are you not able to limit the losses and have to digest the 30% EBITDA margin? So despite all these price pressure and high inventories on the customer side, there should be some possibilities to reduce or adjust the cost base at least and not to take a 30% loss on the EBITDA level, right?

[Karl Haider, executive]

Thank you very much, Christian, for this question. Here, we are a little bit in a place which is a little bit difficult because the owner or the future owner HARPS acquired a certain business model. And therefore, we are not able to change the business model unilateral now because you are indeed right. If we would have this -- face this, we would have done more drastic action to control our certain things. But we cannot, let's say, undermine the business model for the new owner. And therefore, we're a little bit caved in these 2 positions.

[Christian Obst, analyst]

Okay. Thank you -- this is the explanation -- so we hope that we can close the deal as soon as possible. And next one is, of course, the average coupon for the new refinancing, I'm not sure if you have said something about that? Or can you give us a hint or remind me of that?

[Karl Haider, executive]

I can remind you that the indication was that it's very, very attractive terms, particularly for EGAP backed financing, you will appreciate that, of course, the state guarantee is always a little help with the margins. So this is very attractive. And the EUR 250 million since I think Deutsche Bank is on the call as well, is attractive, yes. So you can interpret basically, it would be 50 basis points more had we concluded in the beginning of April. Yes.

[Christian Obst, analyst]

Is there -- is this a flexible coupon going forward? Or is that fixed for a certain time?

[Karl Haider, executive]

No, the margin is linked to the gearing. And there's, I think, 10 basis point step up based on the categories in the gearing. And for the ESG component…

[Christian Obst, analyst]

ESG is always very, very minor so far. Yes, 10 basis points, not more. And then can you again remind us you -- you have to take a negative net effect when you're selling Sempermed and again highlighted that also in the report. Can you remind us what kind of amount do you expect and why this comes again a short explanation, sorry for that.

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

Can you repeat that question? I didn't catch it acoustically. The line was bad. The expectation…

[Christian Obst, analyst]

For Sempermed, you expect a negative effect after the closing on the net side. Can you remind us where that comes from? And to what amount do you expect that?

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

We will show the operating losses until the closing. And I think, I mean, you've now seen from the segment reported EUR 10 million a quarter. So we see some easing in the price level in the market. But it would be -- the visibility is not really very high on this. But I mean, certainly, we try to get volume. We tried to get operations running. We get -- to get utilization. And the price level is easing a bit. So this -- we -- we hope that we will [indiscernible].

[Christian Obst, analyst]

Will you also see some, of an additional valuation effect, special valuation or tax effect on that?

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

No, the only valuation effect that we've seen is since the purchase price is agreed in euros, and the assets are in [ ringgit ]. You have a positive valuation effect of EUR 1 million that's already booked in the first quarter, and it's going to brief like this. But the rest of the transaction is a normal purchase price mechanism with the working capital and debt and cash free adjustment.

[Christian Obst, analyst]

Okay. Fine. And then last on Semperseal concerning your expansion phase there, of course, you currently have to adjust cost because of the situation in the construction business. And nevertheless, what is the current status of your expansion plans there concerning Semperseal in the U.S.?

[Karl Haider, executive]

So, as you know, we have 2 lines running in U.S. And as we speak, they are not completely full, but we try to fill them now as we speak with orders in U.S. orders has a little bit of different nature in the development of the construction market compared to Europe. And then when these 2 lines are filled, we will think about their third line. That's our plan. We would like to get greater grip at the U.S. market, and we are working hard on this.

[Christian Obst, analyst]

Okay. This is still the plan, yes. Okay.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Roland Könen with Value-Holdings.

[Roland Könen, analyst]

Most of them have already been answered. Just a minor add-on questions. First one, maybe I didn't get it right. It's on the capacity adjustments you're talking about. Do we have to calculate there is some extra restructuring costs in the next quarters?

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

No.

[Roland Könen, analyst]

Okay. Great.

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

No, it's ongoing adjustment of the business.

[Roland Könen, analyst]

Okay. Great. Second one would be on the release of provisions in the mid business for the gas supply contracts? Is this a higher amount? Or could you quantify this amount?

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

It's EUR 1 million release from the waiver?

[Roland Könen, analyst]

Okay. And my last question, it's also an add-on question on the earnings topic in Sempermed. I didn't get it right. When we look at the EBIT line, we saw a contribution of the discontinued Med business of minus 8.0 and the segment line shows minus 13.5%. So the continued mid business with just EUR 8.8 million sales have a loss on the EBIT line of EUR 5.5 million. Maybe you could explain again what's in this figure of minus 5.5% yes?

[Helmut Sorger, executive]

The EUR 8.8 million, let me start from this one in the revenue bridge is basically the intercompany. It's basically the reversal of what used to be the elimination of intercompany sales and material expenses. So that's a cost-based view.

On the EBIT, I mean, that's effectively a clear cut. You have the difference in there that the depreciation in the segment report is, of course, still ongoing because IFRS 5 is not applied in our internal view, the segment report. But of course, for the discontinued and for the continued operations as IFRS 5 is required for the reported statements, this discontinued operations have no depreciation or ongoing depreciation. And of course, that creates a difference here.

[Karl Haider, executive]

And to add, of course, there's carveout expenses.

[Operator]

There are no further questions, and I hand back to Mr. Haider for closing comments.

[Karl Haider, executive]

Thank you very much for having interest in our company, our first quarter result. As we said, it was a decent start, and we will continue to perform as good as possible through the waves of the next couple of months. And thank you for joining, and we wish you all together, a very nice afternoon. Bye-bye.