Welcome to the conference call of Krones. Under the headline, Krones continued profitable growth under difficult conditions. We want to present you today the figures of the first nine months, 2022. At first, some technical informations for all who want to participate via video, if you do not see fully both presenter, then you have to change system settings in Teams. Please make a right click with your mouse key at the picture and select Fit to Frame, and then you can see the entire picture. Once again, please make a right click at the picture and select Fit to Frame. After the presentation held by Christoph Klenk and Norbert Broger, you have the possibility to ask questions. In order to ask these questions, please inform me just by sending a short email to olaf.scholz@krones.com, and I will hand over to you and you can unmute your individual line. If you have not the possibility to send me a short email, I will ask at the end, all of you for further questions again. Let's start with the presentation. I think we are all interested in the details about the first nine months, 2020. I will hand over to Mr. Klenk. Christoph, the floor is yours. Yeah. Now, Olaf, thank you. A warm welcome to everybody of you, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to have you here this afternoon. We would call the today's call between the extremes, because I think everybody is aware of when we look into the newspapers or in the news, we can be all depressed by what we can read every day. On the other side, we see Krones, how we're developing even in those challenging times in the right direction. Before we start with the numbers, one short reflection to the recent drinktec, that's the biggest exhibition we have in our industry. We took a lot of momentum because the innovations were the right things we had on the show. Second, I would say the items we discussed, in particular, beyond tomorrow, was important for our customers and for the whole Krones team that gave a very, very good momentum in terms of being confirmed on the things we have developed and the things we have executed over the last two, three years. I would say we are very proud of our team because the success we have up to now is based on an absolute good team spirit, and everybody has brought his part to that success. In particular, when you look to all the challenges we have, because we have more teams being, let me say, in regard of the material shortages, the COVID issues, the energy issues we have, that the task force we have have a number which we have not seen yet. Despite all of that, things are going okay. Before we come to the presentation, of course, you have read already. The numbers are good, the order intake is huge. We are very happy that we are at this particular point on that high number. We are growing despite all the problems in terms of revenues we have, as I said, material shortages and so on, and that even profitability is increasing based on the performance programs we have and on the first effects we have out of the pricing strategy we were driving for the last 18-24 months. If you go to the first slide, Olaf, please. Yeah. Sorry, it's me. You see here a summary of the, let me say, the biggest and important numbers we have, but I don't want to jump into those because you see all of them in detail. Here you have an overview how the order intake grows. We come back in a moment. The revenue growth we have at the moment, EBITDA on the level of the guidance we have and the free cash flow, which is for the time of the year very good. I jump immediately in the presentation because we think the Q&A later on will be more interesting. A first word about order intake, meaning you see that the Q3 has EUR 1.5 billion, roughly just EUR 7 million below. That has dropped. That's very remarkable. We have to be honest, we didn't expect by the beginning of the year that the order intake was so constant, even with the increase of the delivery times we have. I would say the pickup demand we see is huge. We see certainly because the delivery times are longer, that customers are planning a bit more into the future. We believe the biggest point is for us and the tailwind we have is, I said it in the beginning, that we have not overpromised up to today, and we hope this will keep the same way, and we manage that we have not overpromised and that our projects, even during COVID times and then during the material shortages we had, that we kept the delivery times and the, let me say, start-up times of the lines we are shipping. That's the important factor why we believe that order intake is. I mean, I'm aware of that all order intakes in industry are high, but ours is, I would say, in particular high, that this is on this very high level. To all details, I think we come later on. I have to say all regions are performing quite good, despite maybe middle Europe, which is Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which is maybe not so good, but all the rest has been performing pretty well. With that, I hand over to Norbert, that he's going to continue. Okay. Thank you, Christoph, and also warm welcome from my side. On the revenue side, you see an increase of 15.2% versus same period last year. Also the Q3 by itself is 14.7% above Q3 last year. Quite remarkable, it's the highest Q3 revenue of Krones history ever. The second time that Q3 was above EUR 1 billion. First time was 2019 with exactly EUR 1 billion in revenue. What Christoph mentioned, our early communication with the customers, beginning middle of last year, where we saw the supply chain shortages coming, and the extension of the lead time. That's a big advantage for us now because almost all projects are on time. We have hardly any delays, and if we have them, very often it's the customer on his side who has delays. That is one of the major reason why the order intake is so strong and positive, because the customer realized we keep our promises. Also the nine months this year is already 5.3% above the first nine months before the pandemic started, nine months, 2019. Here you see the regional spread of our revenues and the development, and we said it's a regained strength in the industrial countries. When you look at North and Central America, 21.8% of our year-to-date sales is in that region, coming from 18.6% in 2020, already 21% last year and still increasing. Also Europe, very strong, 32.2% of the total revenue share in Europe. Also a little bit surprising for most people, probably China, also from our business, a slight increase of share of 8.6% of total revenue. On the weak side, and that's what we expected from day one when the pandemic started, South America as well as Middle East and Africa. Because here, the long-term impact of the pandemic and the economic downturn is stronger and the recovery time will be longer than in the industrial countries. More or less neutral, Asia-Pacific. When we look at the EBITDA development, EUR 270 million after nine months, 27% above last year. That clearly shows that all the actions we did to improve efficiency in our company shows impact. The margin 8.9% accumulated versus 8% last year and 6% the year before. Also remarkable Q3 by itself, 9.0%. Those of you who know Krones for a longer period of time, you know that usually Q2 and Q3 especially were not so strong on profitability. That had something to do with seasonality of our after-sales business. Now this year, the seasonality is not as strong as in the past, so very good after-sales business in Q3 this year. Also remarkable, the profit increase or profitability increase goes together with a over proportional increase of new machine business, new machine sales. You know that with new machines, new projects, in general, our margins are lower than with the life cycle business. Of course, we stay with our statement that we will reach the upper range of our guidance of 8%-9%. Even a little better on the EBT development, +49% versus same period last year. Pretty much, the same amount of EBT after nine months versus, 12 months last year, and 5.8% accumulated EBT level. The individual Q3 was at 6.0% EBT. The two major drivers, when we look at costs, cost structures, are personnel and material expenses. You see that the share of personnel expenses in ratio to our sales decreased further to 29.9%. This year we have the full impact of the actions we did, restructuring, process improvements, from the previous years in our P&L. You also see that it's still a slight improvement because after nine months, the ratio was 30.6%. After nine months, 29.9%. A very good development here. Also on the material cost side, even though on first sight it doesn't look as there would be a change. It's the same material ratio compared to last year, but with significant higher material costs and also with a significant higher share of new machine business in the revenues, that by its nature has higher material expenses versus aftersales and service business. Development of our employees worldwide, 16,795 end of September. That's almost 500 more than end of December. On the other hand, it's 3% increase of FTE versus 15% increase in revenues. That's also part of the lower ratio and the improvement in profitability. Where did the build up take place? Out of the almost 500, 190 was in Germany and the majority, 300, outside Germany. Most of that in service areas, service technicians, but also software people that we cannot find in Germany. We build them up outside Germany, the majority. Service technicians we need because we know from the order backlog that next year, and especially 2024, we have a huge order workload to install the projects and the equipment that we have received as orders this year. Working capital, a significant decline compared to last year. Working capital ratio to sales is 20.5% versus 26% last year and 28% the year before. Also here, significant improvement. Of course, the higher sales, the higher business activities helps. On the other hand, we made progress in the accounts payable compared to the past. Of course, compared to last year, there is only a small deterioration in the accounts payable because the supplier's position in negotiation right now is extremely strong, as you can imagine. Inventory, this is a planned build-up that we started last year in order to make sure that whatever we can to stabilize the supply chain is done. It's not good on the working capital, but for the overall business and to fulfill our commitments to the customers, it's needed and helpful. The received prepayments, of course, that portion is growing with the order intake. Return on capital employed 12.4%. Of course, this is a result of better profit, better results, but also a decrease in working capital. At the same time, our other assets are more or less stable, so no increase in there. This is also in the upper range of our guidance on this KPI. Now when we look at the three segments what we have at Krones, I think the good news is that all three segments are growing and all three segments are increasing their profitability, every one of them. When we look at the first one, Filling and Packaging Technology, which is the majority of our business, roughly 80%. Here the increase in revenue, 15%, is pretty much the same as the overall increase of the group. EBITDA margin, 9.6%. Here also an improvement compared to last year and the year before, despite the fact that the share of new machine business and sales has increased significantly, and that has traditionally a lower margin than the after-sales business. Despite the fact that the material prices were significantly higher than in the last two years. Our guidance for revenue growth here was also raised from 8%-10%. It was 5%-7%. Process Technology, you know that segment has a difficult history with not being successful so slowly but steadily. This is improving profit-wise as well as revenue-wise. Year-to-date revenue plus 13.5%. Here we expect a strong Q4, and that's why here we see a year-to-year increase between 20%-25% this year compared to last year. Originally, we expected 10%-15%. The EBITDA margin, currently at 5.5%, is in line with our target, and we expect slight improvements here until year-end. Intralogistics, also significant revenue increase, 17%. Currently EBITDA margin 4.6%, which is currently in the lower range of the 4%-6%, but here we are also very confident that in this segment, Q4 will contribute to further profit improvements. Financially, this is not really new. We are a very solid, resilient company with a very good cash position and also liquidity reserves and equity of almost 41%. Something that makes me sleep, as CFO, very well, also in turbulent times. Plus, of course, we have, let's say, a little war chest for future acquisitions in case we can complete one that makes really sense for our company. Cash flow statement, also positive development, starting with better earnings before tax than last year, of course, but that also materializes then in higher cash flow from operations, EUR 210 million versus EUR 182 million. CapEx, a little bit increased, 16%, similar like the business increase compared to last year. Free cash flow, EUR 132 million versus EUR 108 million last year. Also, very positive development. You see it also here in the summary, just free cash flow. The charts in the middle, development from 2019 to 2021 and 2022. Similar cash conversion rate next to it. Here, of course, I mean, still 100% or above is extremely high. The reason why it's not that high compared to last year is just that we have such a strong growth in net income, 40%. That brings me to the outlook already, and that is no surprise for you. We increase our guidance for revenue growth in October from 5%-8% to 10%-12%. EBITDA margin, same, 8%-9% and ROCE 10%-12%. Very confident all the KPIs in the guidance we will achieve in the upper part of the corridor or the range. Having said that, I hand over to the last words to Christoph. Christoph? Yeah. Here are the key takeaways. You have heard that we have a record order intake and order backlog, and just one sentence today on drinktec during the Capital Market Day, where we have been, of course, on PowerPoint, and I would say on the fair, we had a lot of these solutions based on digitalization in our machines, and we could prove to the customers that with what we have developed over the last years, that this will bring really efficiency gains for them. Once we are going to do that into our machines, that's something which will give us certainly tailwind for the future and a good fundament that we can continue on a good order intake. It might not be as high as this year could be, but we assume a steady growth on that because we believe we have the technological foundation for it, and that's, I think, confirmation from the fair we had. Revenues are recovering, and I would say we say that further down, we don't see 2022 a third improvement of our supply chains. Even with that, we see now that we have arranged things in a way that we can at least slightly get more capacity utilization out of our capacities with the way we organized ourselves. Not a too big impact, but it's good for the end of the year. Of course, we have the strong improvement of profitability. We spoke about that and the measures are still going on, so the potentials are there. Don't forget, we usually think about if we do on improvement measures, we think about the internal processes, but we should not forget the services Krones has around the world. We can further our footprint around the world in terms of services, and that there's much more to take for us in the future. This is still a potential. Norbert said that an excellent free cash flow generation. The next point, the supply chains are stable in a manner that we manage the unstable supply chains quite good. Let's see how things develop in 2023. Last but not least, we confirmed our guidance for 2022 in pretty strong words. We are at the end of our presentation. We do not jump immediately to Q&A. Why? Because I have to say goodbye to Norbert. Norbert is leaving us after three years, and for some of you, it might have come as a surprise. Right from the beginning, clear that Norbert might have different plans than Krones. You can certainly be aware of that. First, I want to say those three with Norbert, they have been really excellent. They have been excellent, of course, in terms of business, because we have reflected a lot with Norbert, the team, we on the board. There was a lot of reflection, and Norbert brought a lot of business input into this discussion. Not only business, even I say this was a really good time, and we worked very close together, had a very good relationship in terms there was everything shared what was on the table, controversial times, but all the time was the target to get something good out of the whole time for Krones. And I would say that's a definition. I would say it was very good and also the private side very good because it was free of any major, let me say, hidden agenda or what everybody was getting is better. And thanks a lot for that, Norbert. That was outstanding. I can say I'm happy because for you was not. I'm happy because he's leaving, but I say again, I'm happy again because Uta is coming on board. I have to say, you all, thanks to Uta during the Capital Market. This was even long-term planning from both of us that Uta came early on board, and she was aware of the prospects she has. This was during the year confirmed that she's joining the board from the first of January onward. We are very happy about that. I would say we can deliver with that change since Uta knows now the organization for two years in and out, that we can guarantee a flawless change from Norbert to Uta and can continue the path on which we are. That's, Norbert, once again, thanks a lot, and I would say the last word remains to you. Thank you very much, Christoph. Just very short. I'm convinced that capital communication to the capital markets will go on in a consistent way now in another team, you with Uta. As you said, Uta is here for two years now. That is a very good and well-planned transition. There should be no surprises. Performance of the company is improving year-over-year, and we are confident for this future with the order backlog. We know the margins in the order backlog. I think together, both of us, we were able to, let's say, improve the maybe a little bit damaged reputation of 2019 with capital market information. I think also for you that hopefully we achieve that we are reliable management for you in this company and embedded in a very good performing company. Thank you for the last three years. Thanks, Norbert. Now, Olaf. Okay. Thanks to Christoph Klenk and especially also to Norbert Broger, which is his last conference call today for the Capital Markets Day. I have received several emails as well as I've seen we have some raising hands in Teams. Let's make it person by person. We start with Sven Weyers from UBS. Sven, you have the possibility to ask your first questions, please. Yeah. Thank you, Olaf, and good afternoon, gentlemen. Afternoon. The first question is actually on the increased revenue guidance, right? I mean, probably we all have done the math on this, and we can see that it implies at the low end, revenue's down 4% in Q4, at the high end, +4%. Given the backlog you have, given the good delivery you had in Q3, I mean, is it more that we should place ourselves at the higher end of this? That's the first one. Okay, I can answer that. I mean, the math is easy. 10%-12% for the last quarter means minimum EUR 965 million up to EUR 1.026 billion in Q4. I hope you won't kill us if at the end it's 13%. That could happen, yes. You will be away, so we'll be then Christoph Klenk, I guess. It's his problem to explain it if it's a little bit higher than 12%. Okay. If we are running out of guidance on the other level, I don't run away, you can be sure. I have not been running away during the times when we have been below the level we have promised. I stay here. What's happening? I have to be a bit careful because this December has one week less, and we have to be careful because of energy savings, so we are really reducing operations by the twenty-first of December significantly. I would say, let's see how this turns out. I would say with Norbert it's around the twelfth. Okay, good. Secondly your comments on supply chain, right? You said it also at the Capital Market Day that you don't expect a major improvement also next year. I mean, at the same time, we see it happening, right? We see big improvements in the automotive sector, which is maybe always first in, first out on these things. Any more positive signs. I mean, I know this is a daily observation, right? I mean, what we see from the macro side is really strong improvement, right? Yeah. Isn't that view on 2023 maybe a bit cautious still? Yeah. On the Capital Market Day, I have to correct you a little bit, Mr. Weyers. We said we do make in the H1. We hope for improvement in the H2. Mm-hmm. the meantime, I will see significant improvement definitely in the Q2 and most likely earlier. The last three-four weeks, the discussions we had with suppliers is quite promising. Now we have to see whether they can and will fulfill it. We are more optimistic than on Capital Market Day that we see a recovery earlier. On the other hand how volatile things are. If China locks down their harbors or anything for two-three weeks in the wintertime because of zero tolerance policy regarding COVID, then we will see the next hiccup, which will have an impact on supply chain. If that stays stable and quiet, then we have a much better indication right now that this situation will improve faster. Yes. Maybe one addition to that you understand that better. I mean, we have organized, let me say, a special procedure that we could cover the shortage of the, in particular, the electrical components. Today, most of the machines are commissioned here in the plant. Then we take the components out, the machine being shipped without those, and then they are actually implemented again once the machine out in the field. This particular, let me say, step. If we get better supply, we are first two-three months until we get back to the old standard process, how we build, commission, and ship our machines. That's one other delay which might hit us once things are getting really better. Because so far, as I said it earlier, we are still a task force on this specific case. Do we get the electrical components into the machines? Until that smoothens out, it's certainly two-three months. Okay, thank you. My next question is on the order intake. I think you said also in the press release that you took order intake in Q4. Yeah. Maybe you can narrow that down a little bit more for us. What good means. Of course, you also said you're fully loaded until mid-2024 almost. Is that kind of the breaking point where clients stop ordering in advance, that they say it's not worthwhile ordering now something for after the summer, at least in the northern hemisphere? Or is that not really a break point? First to the Q4. I mean, the Q4, we usually when we get a project on board or a line and we get an order, there are between, let me say, eight and 16 to 24 weeks preparation and negotiation. We know all the hot projects for the last quarter. With the projects being there and knowing the customers how they behave, we are under strong belief that Q4 will be good again. I mean, we have already October passed. We are aware of where we are with that. I think things are going in the right direction. Interesting at the moment is that we get. You saw in the early beginning of the presentation how the split of the revenue is around the world. We get a pick-up a bit from Asia because they are the latecomers in recovering from COVID. We see a bit of that coming back in Africa, despite some countries, because there might be some political issues there. I would say there is a recovery in different parts of the world which are actually helping to that. The Q4 from our point of view looks good. To your second point. I mean, this is the biggest question we have. When is the time coming that the customers are, I would say, getting into trouble because they have to plan for two years in advance that they are going to order a line. We thought already that might be earlier, but we see that right now we are between 16 and 18 months for some of the projects, so that's really long. Still, that didn't hinder them to order. If we look to the strategic projects they have out there, we have not a concern that this is then up in a sudden decreasing significantly. I would say certainly there could be a, yeah, a reduction, which we can all feel. It's still then on a, I would say, on a constant level as far as we can see over the years, if you would calculate that. And this is based on all the discussion we had on drinktec, so it's around six weeks old. We know that things can change fast, but I wouldn't say that the majority of the projects is only based on a positive outlook. It's based on business cases, whether they need faster lines to get costs down, whether they have new products to be implemented or for, let me say, energy and sustainability reasons they have to invest. Those are the three categories we can see at the moment. I would say with that, I mean, those types, you can't be never sure. The fundamental on which we sit and we can judge at the moment, I think that looks not bad. Maybe in addition, I think what we can say is that at this point of time, I mean, we have a huge order backlog and it's still growing, but we don't expect a reduction of order backlog next year. Yeah. End of next year. EUR 1 billion order intake run rate per quarter has to wait until another day. Hopefully. Yeah. Let's see. Okay. Thank you, Christoph Klenk, and especially thank you, Mr. Broger. I think we all appreciated the last three years and your performance and you personally. Wishing you all the best, and thank you. Thanks for everything. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks to you, Sven. I have now a mix of questions over the email line and also of raising hands. I think, let's start then with Sebastian Growe from Exane BNP. Sebastian, your question, please. Yeah. Hi, good afternoon. Hope you can hear me. I would start. Great. Hasn't been the case always in the past, so just double-check. On orders to start with, I would be interested in some comments on the price quality of the order intake, if you could start there, and tell me what you see in the discussions with customers. Obviously, I think, and one of the answers to Sven's questions, it appears there's no sort of scrutiny from customers when it comes to pricing, so that there's still a very high level of dynamics simply in the discussion. But nonetheless, if you could just talk about the quality and sort of the hesitance aspect, that would be interesting. If I may then also pick your brain on the Q3 dynamics or what sort of the sequence if one looks at the month-by-month development. We do see obviously deterioration in PMI still. Is there any sort of deviation in terms of the monthly contribution or is this rather steady? Maybe start there, then I have two others. Okay. First on the pricing. I mean, we said that many times that pricing is based on, let me say, the fact how we see the cost development in the future, because I think that's the biggest part we have to look at, that once material costs are increasing and we're all going to face most probably a huge personnel cost increase with what we see in the negotiations with the labor unions. This is for us important actually to reflect and to transfer to the customers. I would say the sensitivity of our customers in that regard, because they understand on their own side, because they feel that every day that their costs are increasing. There is a certain rationality once you discuss that with the customers that, let me say the overall pricing is rising. It's not only us, of course, it's the market which is demanding more from our customers. Are the discussions easy? No, they aren't. We just had one case yesterday where we were 100% sure to get the order, and we were tough on the price and we didn't move, and we didn't get it. You have actually to stand for your pricing policy at the moment. We are definitely crystal clear to our customers that we do not go beyond certain levels, even in case they are sitting in front like a hunting dog of this order, and you would like to have it because it's a big one, and you can't do it because you can't run the price levels. Again, this is a lot of thought what will happen in terms of cost development in the future. It's how to say? We are losing, that's no doubt. Without that, I wouldn't say we would be able to carry that pricing strategy forward which we have at the moment. That's where we are with the pricing. It's sensitive, and we had even this morning the discussion, how do we deal with that? Because we know at the moment the volume is there, and how can we stay on that even in case the volume gets lower? Because that's, from our point of view, I have to say, Uta and Norbert and my view, the most important thing for the future being stable on pricing, whatever it takes. That's a tough statement, I know. Again, DNA of Krones needs to be pricing as well. That's one thing. The second question about the monthly run rate, I would really say this is for Krones difficult to say because you usually should think in quarters. Even we do that. In one quarter, you have one big deal in, and that might look totally different than the months before. I would say when we look repeatedly every three months back and see how things have developed and you don't see a change in the characteristics of the order intake, that remains the same in terms of, let me say, size of the projects we have at the moment. Let me say, the products we have on the lines like PET, glass can, the mix is the same. There's very little change in it at the moment. Even the regions are quite stable. It's a bit shifting to Asia. As I said earlier, Asia is recovering, but all the rest is relatively stable. Even in case we look forward into the future, when we look on what we have out in the pipeline, I wouldn't see there is a significant change in, let me say, the quality, the mix, what we see out there. I would say it's pretty much the same. I hope, Sebastian Growe, that answers your questions. It does, yeah. No, thank you very much for that. Yeah. On the execution part, well, it's also related to pricing still, obviously. I would be interested because you also reflected in your introductory remarks in the report that there was obviously tailwinds from the price increases. Can you break it out how much of the growth really was related to pricing? And especially I'm interested a bit in the disconnect, so to speak. What is the spillover element that goes into 2023 execution? What's really the price element in the order growth compared to what have you seen on execution? Norbert, you want to say something? Yeah. I mean, currently, what we see in the revenue, I mean, there is from the first price increase. Or first of all, I have to say on non-new machine business, we had several price increases starting 2021, like every three months, a little bit. That is factored in. On the new machine business, we had the first price increase for August first, 2020. Most of that is not in yet. I mean, some of it we have POC. Twenty-one. 2021 price increase, August first. We have a POC revenue recognition, so it's slowly but month- by- month building up impact. The most part of that is still to be seen, to come. On the other hand, material price increases also are not finished yet. I mean, spot market, many things are going down, but we have long-term contracts, so there's also an increase. Most of that first price increase for new machines we will see in Q4 this year, and then it continues also into next year. The other price increase we made April because of the lead times, most of that will be materialized in the revenues and P&L, the peak middle of next year. Q2, Q3. Okay, sounds even better. On the question that we previously discussed, on the supply chain availability, given that obviously some suppliers might struggle with other end markets going forward, that is probably opening then the door for you to sort of benefit from that situation, that one or the other supplier might be more desperate than it used to be the case. I'm not really wanna talk up things, and I'm just really wanna discuss it in the sense of if there is sort of an opportunity, and I'm not saying that we need to bake it in. It's just, I think worthwhile talking about it. Yeah. I mean, less certainly when you talk to or when I talk to our purchasing guys, I mean, they were kind of frustrated because in the past, they were used to work on price reductions. The last two years, they were trying to defend price increases, more or less successful, most of the time less successful. We can compensate with a price increase on our side. Plus, on top of that, not getting what we ordered, so the shortages. This, let's say, will turn sometime next year. We have first signs, first indication also that suppliers who were not interested or who had no capacity are cautiously indicating that they probably will get capacity. I mean, recession for most part of Europe, North America, and in most industries, of course, helps that situation will improve, clearly. Okay. That sounds good. Yeah, I won't steal your time any longer. Thanks again also from my end, and actually, I really appreciated the cooperation with you. All the best for especially then the private life that is now starting and probably greater to a greater extent. All the best for this, and hope to see you soon someday. Yeah. Thank you, Sebastian, for all. All the best. Thanks, Sebastian. The next one, who can ask a question is, Daniel Gleim from Stifel. Daniel? Yes. Good afternoon, Christoph Klenk and Norbert Broger. Okay. I have a few follow-up questions on the order momentum. You said you expect a good order intake again in the Q4. I'm just wondering whether you're thinking in the area of around EUR 1.4 billion. Is this the spirit of the message, or how should we take that one? It's always difficult to say a number, but we don't expect that things are really going south and not being on a good level. I mean, I have to say, at the end of the year, you have sometimes timing problems because you might get a handshake by the end of December, then you have not the official documents to bring that into the books, so that might move to the next year. There's a bit of uncertainty in terms of getting things really done until it's really in the books, and we can show it as order intake. But apart from that, I would say the opportunities we have in the pipeline are on the same level as in the recent quarters. The hot projects where we have planned final negotiations are on the same level. That would bring me really to the point that if timing is okay, and that might be a bit the weak issue at the moment, that some of the timings takes longer because customers get a bit more careful, but the orders do not disappear. That might be one of the reasons why we might be then a bit lower than we have been in the previous quarters because the timing's not okay. The order activity is not going down at the moment. This we can't see. I'm cautious. Could we say that order intake Q4 plus Q1 combined is most likely on a similar rate as previous quarters? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe that helps a little bit. Very clear. Thank you for that. Maybe we can dive a little bit deeper into the drivers behind the order intake momentum. Maybe you could comment a little bit on what you witnessed with regards to customers, large versus small, and also what you realize in terms of pent-up demand versus expansion CapEx. If you can speak a little bit about how you witness the drivers behind this demand at the moment. Yeah. I mean, first of all, despite whether the customers are big or small, I would say it's three drivers. Cost reduction, and I would say we might see with the recession coming up that some of the brands might suffer because consumers spend less money, and this discussion we have already. But since most of the brand owners running deep brands and having different products to fill up, let me say, the supermarket channels to make it easy, this is certainly going on, and that we have seen even during the pandemic. If you look to that, this puts them stronger under pressure in terms of costs. Wherever they have equipment which is not state-of-the-art, they have an issue in terms of their cost levels. A recession in the established markets is even putting pressure on our customers to change their cost structure. Now, you can say it was 24 months before those lines are in operations. This might be a different subject, but they think different. They think about in the long term, and they think about getting momentum on better cost structure. That's the biggest driving factor they have. Second, these are new products. I mean, we said it on the Capital Market Day. We have at the moment a big, let me say, boom in North America with aseptic because they changed from hot fill to aseptic. Again, sustainability background and cost background, because in case you change that, you have less PET in the bottle and it's less cost. Of course, it gives a contribution to sustainability. The other big driving factor is new products and differentiation at the point of sales. Number three, it's still sustainability. I mean, I can really say whatever customer we talk to, the H1 an hour of a discussion is long-term sustainability targets and how can we achieve that. Again, this has all the time two perspectives, the commitment to the targets they have set, and second, it's a lot of cost saving once they are doing so. I mean, those of you who have joined us on drinktec have seen that many of these initiatives even bringing leaner cost structures, and that's the reason why those are driving factors. Now to the question, is that bigger or smaller customers? I would say at the moment, we see key accounts and customers being financially stronger, of course, more active. That's a bit of a concern that the smaller ones might get a bit more in trouble once the interest rates are rising, and markets getting more unsure. The bigger ones, they are putting all cards on, "Once we have invest now, we will gain market share." That's I would say a bit the thing we see in the market as momentum supporting our order intake. I hope that gives you a bit of a taste where we are with that. Very clear. Maybe one last question on your own CapEx plans. I get that your utilization rates are being optimized, and you're trying to get more out of the gate. If we think about capacity going forward and with these elevated order levels, is this a discussion you are having that you maybe expand your capacity in the coming quarters, or do you anticipate that the order momentum eventually will come down back to EUR 1 billion, let's say, in the H2 of 2023? How do you think about this opposing ends of the question? First of all, mid-term, we think about growth. I mean our growth targets we have. We think about, of course, growing. However, in terms of capacity, I mean, our point is not that we are adding much more capacity to grow the infrastructure of Krones. Our point is, we need to do it as clever as possible. Yes, we might need to push through a bit more because otherwise we would stay. If the orders are still on a good level, we would stay with this huge backlog, and we can't live with 18 months delivery time. But we are looking for getting more outsourced in terms of receiving, for example, complete modules rather than parts and having more partners out there. We have still good, let me say, capabilities to increase in the Hungarian plant. We have extended in China, where we have capabilities to do a bit more without growing too much here in Germany. Because our point is flexibility needs to be kept, and once we are doing capacity planning, we do it over three years in a rolling forecast. Why? Because we are very careful how the economy might develop in 2024 and 2025. Again, 2023 is not an issue for us. You know the order backlog we have, but we have to anticipate what might be in 2024 and 2025. Before this is not clear, and we cannot see how things are going, we would not certainly extend too much the infrastructure we have. Very clear. Thank you both. Mr. Broger, good luck with your future endeavors. I step back in the queue. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks to Daniel Gleim from Stifel. The next one is Jorge Gonzalez from Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe. Jorge, your questions, please. Hello and good morning. Well, first of all, congratulations on the results. I have a couple of follow-ups as you already answered a lot of my questions. First of all, regarding the sales dynamics, could you give us a little bit of detail of how compares the Q3 with the Q2, especially in terms of volumes? If I have understood, well in the past you were already at high levels of utilization, maybe close to 90%. How this compares with the Q2? Have you improved your production in that regard? How this or how we should understand these high levels for next year? I mean, this is a good reference of your capabilities for next year, or do you think you can even increase this good development? Regarding the order intake, I think you commented before that the split between the different type of products is similar than in the past. I was wondering, how it looks like in terms of the regions in the order intake, if there is any change, if there is more of Latin America or Africa in the order intake than what we are currently seeing in the sales split, especially after this explanation that you have just did regarding the growing demand because of the sustainability. I mean, how that is going to work in markets that maybe are not that much on the, on sustainability? What those markets are looking for at this point? Maybe finally, just to help us a little bit with the model. So for next year, how it's going to work in terms of prepayments, the reduction of the order intake to one time less, should we expect some decrease of prepayments or is there any, I don't know, especially after this year, how you see that for next year? Thank you very much. Yeah. I mean, the last part of it. The first one, no? Yeah. Revenues and prepayments, I take, and you take regions or I take sustainability. Okay, revenues, Q3 and Q2, there was a slight increase from EUR 989-EUR 1,059. We are not maxed out with our capacities. I mean, it's a matter of, let's say, hands, people, not machines or buildings on that. As you can see, we are steadily increasing the revenues, and we think this is a healthy way to do this step by step and not try with whatever it takes over time and doing all kind of things to make more revenue or try to decrease order backlog or stop growing order backlog. Regarding next year, there will certainly be also growth in revenues next year compared to this year. That is clear. Prepayments, I mean, it's driven by volume. If the volume of order intake might go down a little bit in the H2 of next year, then also the prepayments volume-wise will go down. We are aware of that, and that's why we are putting additional efforts in receivables and also liabilities so that even though the prepayments will go down, that we can compensate or overcompensate on the receivable and payment side to further improve working capital ratio. On the question of the split of order intake in terms of regions, I said it earlier. Asia is one of the areas which is picking up. I would say what we call Central Europe, which is Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, is decreasing a little bit because I would say Germany is the most sensitive one in terms of if a recession is ahead, and I don't have to tell you what you can read and feel every day here in Germany. They’re getting really careful. That's where we see the biggest impact in the negative way. All the rest is relatively stable and balanced. We see even in China good activities, so we are happy what is happening there. It's quite constant. We see what we call Central Asia. This is from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, all those countries. They have a quite stable level. South America is picking a bit up, but no wonder because they have not invested heavily over the last three years. North America is still very stable. Again, this is even not surprising for us because we were talking here for years that the North American equipment is completely outdated and there must be one day where they are going to invest, otherwise everything is falling apart. This is what we are seeing at the moment. I would say U.S. is stable, China is stable, Europe to a certain extent, if I exclude Germany, is stable, and South America and Asia is picking up. Africa is a bit of a mix. There are some countries picking up. For example, in Nigeria, we have elections coming up, and this is creating a lot of struggle in the country, so we won't see Nigeria, which is actually a good contributor to our order intake in Africa. This is not going too well at the moment, but we expect once elections are done and there is some peace settling in, we would believe that things are going okay in Nigeria. But this is one country out of Africa, of many. That's a quite stable mix we have around the world. Now to the question, sustainability and other countries where this is pushed more than the other regions. I would say, of course, Europe and North America are the leader by that. Since the big key accounts, they have targets all over the place, so the whole thing is going around the world. I said it earlier, this is, I think, really important. Sustainability does not necessarily mean when they invest that they need significant more money to invest, because we have solutions developed where even equipment is going out of a line and where investments might be on the same level as before, but you save a lot of energy because the equipment is smaller or the processes are different, the range. They see benefit in investing in sustainability. I would say it's beyond having the right motor or the right drive of a, of a machine. It's really the process as such. That's the reason why we see it all over the place. I would expect at the moment central areas. This I would accept. A bit in China, but even in China, we sold the most complex and best equipped lines in the last six months. Even China is looking to that significantly. Sustainability, I would say is really getting momentum, and it's in every line and order we have. Maybe a very quick follow-up on that, Christoph. So this strong view that you have for next year order intake is maybe also staying because you are expecting the same customers to put orders. Are you going to have a good share of repeating customers next year? Yeah, sure. I mean, we have a huge set of customers repeating orders. Absolutely, yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you very much, and farewell, Norbert. It was a pleasure. Yeah. Thank you. Pleasure. Thank you. Thanks to Jorge. I have also someone on my mailing list. It's Benjamin Thielmann from Berenberg. Benjamin, your questions please. Yeah. Hey, can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, perfect. Hey, everybody. Congratulations to the good Q3 results from my side. I would have three questions. Maybe question number one would be, could you tell me how high are your lead times right now? I think Mr. Klenk, you mentioned that it's about 18 months right now. Did that change over the last weeks? Yeah. Well, it was still increasing a bit since the order backlog has not decreased, and we have not added capacity with the huge order intake we had. It was increasing. It's 18 months at the moment, and historically we come from five - six months, and that has been developed over the last 12, now 18, 24 months to the 18 months we have at the moment, yeah. Oh, okay. The feedback and let's say drinktec rather gave a boost that did not help to reduce lead times. Yeah. Rather put it in the other direction. Yeah. Oh, okay. Maybe one question regarding your Q3 order intake. Could you give us some color how many of your orders, maybe as a percentage, is coming from beer producers, so from beer breweries, roughly? I can't say that I mind to be honest, and most probably Norbert, you as well. I would say the split was comparable to the months before. If we talk to the big key accounts and we see that as a reference, they have been ordering consistently over the last 18 months. In some quarters, they have been stronger, in some they have been weaker, but in particular the last quarter was not bad in terms of order intake from breweries. I would say all in all, there is no change over the last 12-15 months in comparison breweries versus soft drink versus water versus other industries. That's very constant at the moment. Again, the breweries, their order intake is not driven by growth of markets. Their order Let me say, they're placing orders because of sustainability issues, replacing old lines. If we look to those bigger ones, they have a lot of old lines where they need to replace. That's the driver in. Sorry, because I have a question regarding potential order postponements, maybe. Because I speak with a couple of German breweries and what they are facing right now is a shortage in CO2, which is a by-product of ammonia production, which is in Europe down 75% now. Your order intake is very strong, and I expect it to be also strong in Q4, and this year is also going to be a very good year for you. Do you already see a change in ordering behavior of some of your customers that a lot of companies are ordering in advance now, but do you already see that some companies are postponing their orders because they see, "Okay, we might have to cut average production volumes in 2023 due to rising raw materials, rising energy costs?" Or didn't that come to you yet? Of course, we have seen orders being postponed, but more for the reason that the projects have been not accomplished. Like I said, when the customer has to build something that he couldn't finish in time, that he was postponing. Yes, we have seen some postponements because they have been not so sure anymore of their business cases. In relation to the order intake we have, and the numbers we see that there's postponement of orders is very, very low. Again, I need to say Germany, and you referred to German brewers, in terms of brewery order intake, it's very, very slow. I mean, I couldn't think about. Just hopefully I do not say something wrong. There is a handful of lines being ordered in Germany. There is no processing equipment being ordered in large scale in Germany, and it's not even because Germany was very low on investment on breweries anyway. I would say the CO2 problem is a European one, and it's not related to all of the breweries because some are using actual CO2 out of the production process where it looks totally different. You hear from most of them, and the breweries, they do it, they buy from the outside. There's even a split into that. It's not for all breweries or let me say all soft drinks producers the same thing. Yeah, these supply chain issues with our customers because it's glass, it's labels, it's CO2, name them, they have issues with all of that. This is in a particular, again, a point why they invest just to get better those problems handled in new bottling lines because we have a lot of solutions that they running more gentle with the bottles, for example, they have, or they use less CO2 or whatever. This brings them advantages. Okay. That was it from my side. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. Also thank you, Norbert. Thank you. Sorry. Thanks to you, Benjamin. I have a follow-up question from Jorge Gonzalez about POC accounting. Jorge? I'm here. Thank you. Can you see me? Oh, yes. Yes. Yes, I see. I was wondering, you commented that you are using POC accounting, but is this for all the businesses? Is first question. Yes, for new machine business, it's all POC accounting. We do that for many, many years. No issue. It's not like another German company you might have in mind. Yeah, no, I was curious because if you are using a POC accounting, why we see the price increases so late? Is it because you are more prudent? I mean, you are not making a linear kind of accounting or how come? Well, we start much later to begin working on the projects than in the past. I mean, in the past, if the lead time from getting the order to delivering from our plans was five months, and now it's 18 months, a year ago it was 12 months. We start much later to work on the projects and to accumulate costs and revenues than in the past. Does this mean that for instance, if in a quarter, you have better deliveries, I mean, you grow suddenly double-digit in deliveries, are you going to also catch up in price more than we should expect? It's maybe some kind of adjustment at the end if you, I don't know, deliver before your initial expectation. It's like you need to. No. No. The planning is different. Again, we plan on the capacities we believe we can produce. When a customer places an order right now. Mm-hmm. He's put into this particular order to be started. Let me say it was 18 months delivery. It starts to be engineered and manufactured in, let me say, 12 months, and not before. There's nothing happening. That's the reason why we have absolutely no revenue recognition in the first 12 months after this order has been placed. Then it's coming later on. Again, for the orders being produced in, let me say, 12 months, we have tried to anticipate material costs and personnel costs, and that's why we do not expect any big jump or whatever in terms of profitability. We try to plan as reasonable as possible in accordance to what we want to achieve in terms of profit improvement, of course, and in accordance to the profit improvement progress we have. But there is hopefully no. I mean, positive surprises we take all the time, but we hate in channel surprises. I would say it has been really, really thought through deep how we plan those orders once we put them into the schedule, and once we have to expect costs and revenue we spend. Okay. We should not expect any special effects next year or we should go back to seasonality, normal seasonality next year? Maybe it's the question from my side. No, not to a seasonality because it's pretty constant booked because we have this, let me say, 12 months in advance to see. We will have no seasonality out of the new machine business. There might be a small one out of the life cycle business. This might be the case, but this might be on the level we have seen it in previous years, even maybe smaller. Okay. New machine is pretty stable. Okay, understood. Only for the aftermarket business. For the aftermarket business, yes, there could be some seasonality. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah, welcome. Thanks to you, Jorge. I have also a question from Stefan Augustin from M.M. Warburg & CO. Stefan, your questions, please. Yes, hello, and thank you very much. Actually, I've just two. One is we discuss that China is moving out of its zero COVID policy. I mean, obviously this will impact positively the supply chains. But can you elaborate a little bit on, let's say, your personal impact or your views on that? Because, I mean, Krones supply chain is very much concentrated to Europe. What kind of effect could be seen there? If you would have an, let's say, unforeseen improvement in your supply chain and there would be or can we have the idea that there would be extra production slots available for 2023 that you could fill for, let's say, an extra premium in the pricing? To the first one, don't underestimate in China during the lockdown that we are producing in China for life cycle, for processing, and we are producing some of the new machines in China. All of those three, they will have an impact with the COVID policy in China. We are not so sure how things are really going into China. What we read officially here and what we hear from a Chinese colleague. This morning, I spoke with one of our leaders there. He said, at the moment, they have 200 million under lockdown, which we don't see at all. That's quite a bit, a number I thought, and unexpected when you look at it from a European angle. There is an issue. We have some parts which are sourced in China, which are really critical for us. Even sometimes, let's say when a rubber sealing is missing, some of our machines are not shipped because they're simply not working, and you have a piece of equipment which might be EUR 5, and it holds you up for getting the revenue. That's one thing. Norbert, you wanted to add something? Yeah. I think what we cannot oversee is especially electrical parts that come out of Asia via China that our suppliers need like the Siemens and other companies. If there is something missing in their electrical components because it's not coming from Asia because the harbors are closed for six weeks, then we will feel it with a time delay in our supply chain later on. You are right, we are producing a lot in Europe. Our supply chain for our production, we buy most in Europe, but our suppliers especially with electrical components, they buy a lot in Asia and China. To the second point, Mr. Augustin, the unforeseen surprises we might have because we can use capacities because we get good pricing. It might not be the case because with 18 months delivery time and we have not built in, let me say, remaining slots for fast deliveries. Because then we would treat our customers different. We have discussed that many times, whether we should keep for what very special customers, we should keep slots. But since everybody is talking to everybody in the industry, and this would be a very bad reputation of Krones in case we would have huge specialties with somebody. We are dealing on a price level, and we are fighting for that price level, regardless which customer it is. Even with the premium that they, we can't take them on board because we have filled up capacities. We have a bit of flexibility, but not too much because otherwise we would have to hire too many people to do that, and we don't want to do that. We want to keep that on a certain level. For 2023, because of the 18 months, most of it is done. There might be some capacities available because somebody's moving something, which is another thing. This is on very small scale and certainly not to the level that will give that impact to profitability of Krones. Okay, understood. Last one is actually quite a follow-up on what happened at drinktec. Now six weeks after what has been the, let's say, concrete ordering of new products, and is that, let's say, Are those really making a difference in what the people order? There's no difference in orders from drinktec. Happy to say, I would say we would have to have the same order intake without drinktec as we have right now. Why is that? Because the innovations we showed, some of them have been sold already. You saw, for example, the fastest PET line was 100,000 PET bottles an hour. Of this line, we have sold already eight before, and there has been, let me say, consistent selling on those lines, before and after the drinktec. Very limited impact. The big innovations where there's really a next step, they come in a year, maybe 18-24 months from today because of the long lead times. drinktec and the innovations we showed, this will have impact in, let me say, profitability and revenues by the earliest 12 months from today, maturity 18-24 months from today. Not earlier. Even order intake is, I would something between next six and 12 months, where customers will decide on what they have seen on drinktec on those innovations, whether they buy lines or not. Interest in those products manifested? Absolutely, yes. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah, welcome. All the best to you, Norbert Broger. Thank you, Stefan Augustin. Thanks to you, Stefan. The next one I have on my list is Peter Rothenaicher from Baader Bank. Peter, your questions, please. Yes. Hello, Christoph, Norbert. One question regarding the Q4. Typically in the past, the Q4 was always your one of the margin strongest quarters. Typically, service business is particularly strong. Do you think this is also the case? One aspect might also be Intralogistics, where the Q4 is always very strong and you indicated that margins will improve there. Does this mean that we can expect the margin in the Q4 to be also stronger than so far in the previous quarters? Oh, you want to say something to me? Yeah, I could say something, but I don't want to put unnecessary pressure on my successor or on you then because you are here forever. I don't want to say anything. I mean, certainly we will see improvement in volume in PT and also Intralogistics, which will help on the profit side. Those two segments will not change the overall picture of Krones. It depends on the segment Filling and Packaging overall. Yeah. We don't expect deterioration in Q4. Let's put it this way. Yeah. We never said. I mean, we said EBITDA margin 8%-9%. We never said 8.0%-9.0%. Let me put one thing on seasonality. I mean, seasonality was a lot based on our life cycle service because we have seen in the last quarter a lot of overhauls and all those things customers do usually during winter time. This looks a bit different over the last 18 months since this has been more balanced out over the years. I mean, you saw us pretty consistent over nine months now without having the typical summer dip we had in the past. This was going quite consistent and we do not expect any, let me say, hockey stick by the end of the year in life cycle. It's going more continuously through the year, and that's the reason why I would say with the statement Norbert said, it will be not out of the frame Q4. With regard to free cash flow, here the usual seasonality is still valid that the Q4 is typically the strongest one in terms of free cash flow generation. Yes. Yep, absolutely. Okay. Thank you very much. Also all the best, Norbert, for your future, and good luck. Thank you very much, Peter. Thanks to Peter, to Munich. I have a look on my emails. I didn't see any further emails regarding questions. Also no further raising hands. Anybody with just a possibility to have a phone in his hand if he has questions, please unmute. I don't think so. Christoph, Norbert? Yeah. I think we are at the end of our Q&A session. Yeah. Thanks a lot for joining us today, and let's keep thumbs pressed for all of us that things around the world go in the right direction and not go south at all. If this is the case, I would say for all of us, it's good and it's the most important thing I'm wishing all of us. On the other side, if things are going not fast, I would say Krones is fine. Thanks a lot and all the best. Thank you. Bye bye. Have a good weekend. Thank you. Bye.