Lonza Group AG

Thanks to all our guests for joining the call today. Good afternoon to those of you based in Europe and good morning to those of you joining from the US. This time last year, I joined the half-year results call to briefly introduce myself to you, but I was still very much the new joiner, having commenced my tenure as CEO just a couple of days before. This call today marks a milestone as I have now completed my first year in the role. And it has been a pleasure to meet many of you at our investor update and on our roadshows since then. And I'm looking forward to continuing our dialogue during our scheduled trips in the coming months. Today also marks a milestone for OneLonsa as we report on the performance of our newly formed business platforms for the first time. You will recall that we used to report on four divisions, even up until the Q1 qualitative update. However, we have now formally transitioned to our three new CDMO business platforms, integrated biologics, advanced synthesis, and specialized modalities. Alongside these three core CDMO platforms, we will also be reporting on capsules and health ingredients, CHI, of course, which continues to operate in its existing structure. We will also share an update on our exit plans for that part of our business. But before we jump into the details of our half-year results, let's have a quick look at our disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements that Philip and myself will be making during this call. This is also available in the online version of our presentation for you to download and read in your precious spare time. Looking at our agenda today, we will start with our group business and some of the highlights and key events over the course of H1. I will then hand over to Philip, who will do a deep dive into key areas of our financial performance. After that, I will share more detail on our business platforms before finishing with our outlook both for our CMO business and for CHI. After we have concluded the presentation, there will be a short pause so that we can switch from webcast to video for our Q&A. With all that now clear, let's start with an overview of our group business at the half year. Here you see my key messages on our business in the first half. We have delivered a robust performance in H1, which means we now expect to deliver the full year ahead of plan. We have reported 3.6 billion Swiss francs in sales across the group, which translates into 19% CR sales growth as compared to 2024. This resulted in a core EBITDA of 1.1 billion Swiss francs, which represents margin growth of 0.4 percentage points to now 29.6%. During the first half, we retained our dual focus on discipline and delivery and top line growth, with our overall capex reaching 19% of sales. Focusing down from the group business actually onto our core CDMO business, excluding CHI, we saw 23.1% CR sales growth, leading to a core EBITDA margin slightly above 30%. In light of the strong H1 performance, actually together with our positive view on the second half year, we have decided to raise our guidance to an upgraded CDMO outlook for full year 2025, of 20% to 21% CR sales growth and a core EBITDA margin of 30% to 31%. Our performance, and I guess the adjusted outlook, is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our people across one Lonsaar global network. I would like to thank all of them for their significant contributions to our business. As they have maintained performance levels, but at the same time embracing the structural transformation of our company to a new target operating model. And I'll briefly speak to that later in the presentation. Finally, as we reflect on our H1 and consider our planned performance for H2, we remain actually confident that we can continue to deliver in an uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical context. We will continue to monitor the global landscape in order for us to navigate, but remain resilient to the challenges that may impact our businesses or industry over the course of H2. Let me now say a few words about some of our business highlights in H1. Looking at the technologies that sit within our CDMO business, we see Manalian technology. has strongly supported sales growth in our integrated biologics platform. Within our advanced synthesis platform, our bioconjugates and small molecules offerings have strongly driven sales. And finally, turning to specialized modalities, we see sales are supported by our bioscience business, returning to healthy growth levels after a softer year in 2024. Across our technologies, we are seeing sustained commercial contracting interest in our capacities across the US, Europe, and Asia is strong. In H1, a particular highlight was the signing of a long-term strategic antibody drug conjugate supply contract for the integrated delivery of both drug substance and drug product, which actually underpins our leading market position also on that playing field. Looking at the large acquisition last year, we are continuing to see high interest in our mammalian capacity in our new site in Wackerville, with new customer contracts currently in negotiation and actually further signings expected soon. Our resilient CDMO business model and our geographically well-diversified global footprint, including the substantial presence in the U.S., largely shield us from potential U.S. tariffs, and at the same time enables us to support our customers in navigating and minimizing the potential impact of such tariffs. This is an area that we will continue to monitor closely in the coming months to ensure that we and our customers remain resilient. As previously shared, we can confirm that we, as Lonza, expect no material financial impact from current US trade policies. That aside, our resilience is also fundamentally incorporated into our CDMO business model itself, as we maintain a disciplined focus on the balance of customers and molecules within our portfolio. You will see here on the left side that our CDMO customers are weighted only slightly towards big pharma, and this is balanced by a minority of small and mid-sized pharma and biotech customers. Lonsa has created attractive offerings for customers of any size and any level of maturity with the right combination of technologies and expertise to support the individual journeys from innovation to commercialization. Establishing long-term customer relationships based on trust and collaboration carries strong strategic value for both parties, as we see a high proportion of repeat business from customers of all sizes. And one launcher is especially able to do this. Looking at the CDMO sales split by molecule development phase, you can see that around 10% of business is positioned in the earlier stages of the lifecycle, around preclinical and phase one. We see the value of capturing molecules at this early stage as it allows us to build long-term relationships with customers of all sizes from the outset of the molecule's journey and ensure we can collaborate to optimize the commercial potential of their discoveries. However, The focus of our portfolio remains on phases two, three, and of course commercial, which are areas of managed risk and higher level of certainty and visibility on sales. As in H1 2025, we continue to see strong demand for our global mid and large scale capacities. We are also seeing good levels of interest in commercial manufacturing of niche drugs, as well as development work for new drugs in our small scale assets, All this leading to high levels of utilization in such assets. Looking beyond 2025, we are closely monitoring the biotech funding environment and also regulatory developments in the US. In the context of our well-balanced business and us continuing to see many growth opportunities available to us, we are progressing with our ambitious CAPEX program in line with plan. Our capex spend in H1 was 672 million Swiss francs equivalent to 90% of sales with 64% dedicated to diversified portfolio of growth projects across our three CDMO business platforms. These numbers reflect the period of comparatively high capex intensity And we anticipate that this will gradually decrease in line with our CDMO organic growth model. Specifically, we are continuing to drive projects across technologies with high commercial value in areas of sustained customer demand. In integrated biologics, we have targeted growth in our mammalian and drug product assets. In advance into this, we are especially focusing on growth in our bioconjugates offering, and in specialized modalities, we are driving growth in cell and gene technologies. Now turning from principle in theory to practice, let's take a moment to review progress on a snapshot of selected key projects. We have seen good progress actually in FIST where GMP operations commenced in our new mammalian large-scale facility in late H1. Also in FIST, Our new highly potent API facility is ramping up in line with plan and I can confirm that we have started full commercial operations in July. Vacaville remains a focus for investment and we are currently in the first wave of our disciplined CapEx plan, which is focused on upgrading our level of automation as well as the multi-purpose capabilities at the site. Finally, in Stein, our new commercial-scale aseptic drug product facility is on track within its revised timeline, as communicated to you in our Q1 qualitative update, and we anticipate that operations will commence in 2027. Now, coming, as announced before, to our new operating model, H1 was a time of Intensive growth and delivery, of course, for our business, but we have also remained focused on delivering our planned transformation program in line with our new One Launcher strategy, which we shared with you at our investor update here in Basel last December. As a quick reminder, the Launcher Engine is now the centerpiece. for how we think about our OneLonsa strategy and sets out the five key components of our business as you see them on the left side of this slide. It is the Lonsa engine which drives long-term differentiation, competitive advantage, superior customer value, and through all of that, long-term superior value creation for you. Our transformation plan was designed to ensure that we optimize all five components of this Lonza engine and create the most suitable operating model to support the execution of our one Lonza strategy. While we have already discussed with you the new structure, its underlying rational and expected benefits for our customers, for ourselves, and for our ability to achieve our ambitious growth targets, I'm happy to report that the new operating model successfully went live on April 1st, actually perfectly in line with our original and very ambitious timeline and without any complications. Our teams, actually in a great manner, embraced the change and quickly adapted to our new way of working while maintaining momentum in operational execution. This new operating model also forms the basis for our new reporting structure as already applied to the whole first half year of 2025, as you have seen. Before I close my overview, I would like to share a brief update on progress in our preparations to exit capsules and health ingredients . As we have said before, we plan to make our exit at the right point in time and in the best interests of all our stakeholders to maximize the value of the business. To support the process, we mandated external advisors earlier this year, and we have now made good progress in preparing the carve-out of CHI from our core CDMO business. We are continuing to prepare a standalone setup and progress the separation of the CHI functions and IT infrastructure from the main launcher group. We will continue to provide updates on the exit process when we have further news. And with that, I'm happy to hand over to Philipp for him to share the update on our financials for the half year.

Thank you very much, Wolfgang. Good afternoon and good morning to those of you joining from the U.S. Before we go into the details of our financial performance in H125, let me remind you that from now on, our financial reporting framework will reflect our new business platform structure, which we implemented on April 1st. I would also like to remind you that growth is reported actual exchange rates, except for sales growth, which is reported at constant exchange rates. In the first half of 2025, Lonca showed strong performance at both the group and CDMO business levels. With 23.1% growth in our CDMO business, we delivered above our expectations. The growth was mainly driven by first-class operation execution in our new Vacaville site, and a very solid commercial CDMO business. We are also pleased to report good growth in our small-scale CDMO offering, where we manufacture both molecules in early stage of development, as well as lower-volume commercial products. We are also pleased to report a core EBITDA margin in H1 of above 30% for our CDMO business, supported by good operation execution, disciplined cost management, and improved margins of maturing growth projects. This has helped us absorb the margin decline in the SPM platform. Group sales in H1 were affected by a negative 2% of currency headwinds, as the Swiss franc appreciated materially over the course of H1 versus the US dollar. But more on currency in a moment. Looking at the details of our sales development versus H1-24, you can see that integrated biologics and advanced synthesis were the driver of our sales growth. benefiting from sustained commercial demand, a good growth project execution, and the Vacaville acquisition where the sales are H1-weighted for this year. This positive momentum was partially offset by a sales decline in specialized modalities, both from a high prior year base in cell and gene and microbial, and from a temporary weaker operational execution in cell and gene. Moving on to the details of our core EBITDA and margin evolution, We are pleased to report a flat margin of more than 30% for the first half in our CDMO business, supported by disciplined cost management and highly utilized assets across our platforms. Integrated biologics was able to show solid underlying margin progression and a higher back avail profitability than in our initial more prudent expectation. Advanced synthesis, now combining small molecules and bioconjugation, continues on its path of margin accretion already seen in prior years with strong margin evolution across both technologies. Integrated biologics and advanced synthesis both benefited from a good operation execution and improved margins in their respective growth projects. The lower margins in specialized modalities are explained by the lower sales and lower cost absorption. Finally, we faced higher corporate costs than in H124 due to various smaller items such as FX hedging higher social security and insurance contributions. We expect that the higher corporate costs will normalize over the course of the year with the full year top and bottom line being comparable with 2024. Moving on to cash generation, we delivered 0.2 billion free cash flow in the first half against the high prior year level. The strong top line growth in this first half led to an increased need for networking capital, which impacted cash generation. However, relative to sales, networking capital reduced and will continue to make good progress in reducing inventories. The decrease in free cash flow is also explained to a lesser extent by lower customer funding for certain growth projects. As mentioned before, let me briefly turn to currency movements. This slide provides an overview on the past and expected FX impact on our sales, core data, and core EBITDA margin for 2025. As you are probably aware, the US dollar lost 13% in value to our reporting currency, the Swiss franc, between January 1st and early July. As a group, we generate around two-thirds of our sales in foreign currencies, with the dollar being the largest share, even more so now after the VacuVale acquisition. The next largest foreign currency is the euro, which was more stable, however, with only 1% decline. For the first half, the translational ethics headwind impacted sales by a negative 2 points and query beta by a negative 1.3 points. Thanks to our global manufacturing network, we have a strong natural hedge, meaning that our revenue and costs in the different currencies are very well aligned. This natural hedge, which we complement by a financial hedging program, provides a good margin protection against currency fluctuations. For the full year, Assuming ethics rates as of early July prevail for the remainder of 2025, we would expect an impact of negative 2.5 to negative 3.5 percentages on sales and core EBITDA. Before closing the finance section, let me say a few words on our capital allocation framework in addition to what Wolfgang said earlier during his comments on the planned exit for CHI. As we shared in December at our investor update, we have clear priorities for our use of capital from operations. First, investing in maintenance, infrastructure and systems is a priority to maintain our base business in good shape for the future. Second, we also gave you our commitment to maintain or increase our dividend year on year. Under normal circumstances, this leads us to the discretionary cash that we then use for growth investments, organic or inorganic. While hypothetical for now, In the case of a straight sale, the CHI business exit would bring additional proceeds, which would increase our discretionary cash available for gross investments. In such a case, we would follow the same highly disciplined approach to decide upon organic capex or bolt-on M&A. We would do this based on clear criteria, ensuring strategic business fit with the Lonza engine and attractive return generation. While our decision criteria for organic CapEx have clear financial thresholds, meaning 15% IRR and 30% ROIC at peak, the variety of bolt-on acquisition targets do not allow for such fixed thresholds. But our commitment for attractive return generation is the same for organic and inorganic investments. And while attractive M&A targets often arise opportunistically and cannot be planned, we have clear line of sight for the type of bolt-on acquisitions we are looking for which we shared with you back in December during our investor update. First, high-quality manufacturing capacities, which accelerate and de-risk our growth agenda, like in the case of Buckerville and its large-scale mailing capacity. Second, innovative technologies and IT that make sure we stay ahead of competition in the areas where we are active or broaden the scope of our business operations, like in the case of Cinefix and its ADC-linked technology. Third, Portfolio expansion in business area where Lonza has a smaller footprint, like in the case of this still emerging cell and gene technology business. With that, it's my pleasure to hand back to Wolfgang for an update on the performance of our business platforms. Over to you, Wolfgang.

Yeah, great. Thank you, Philipp. And now let's indeed look more closely at the performance in H1 for each of our business platforms, actually starting with integrated biologic. An integrated biologically reported strong CR sales growth of almost 40% compared to H1 2024 supported by the Vacaville acquisition and sustained high demand for both large and small scale assets. We also saw healthy margin development in integrated biologics in H1. Good operational execution and maturing growth projects together with the better than expected margin of the new Vacaville site resulted in a core UVTDA margin of 36%, an increase of 0.5 percentage points versus H1 2024. In Vacaville, with H1 weighted sales, we saw better profitability than initially expected. In our mammalian technology platform, we have seen strong momentum driven by commercial demand alongside a high level of utilization also in small scale Assets with good visibility for the remainder of 2025. We see sustained momentum in new contracting for our global mammalian capacity. Additionally, our large-scale mammalian asset in FISP is in ramp-up, and we expect the sales contribution to increase gradually over the coming years. Across the business platform, good operational execution alongside maturing growth projects by driving both underlying growth and margin. In advanced synthesis, we reported strong CR sales growth of above 18% compared to H1 2024, with both small molecules and bioconjugates making positive contributions. We have seen particularly strong demand for complex small molecules in the first half, highly potent APIs, and bioconjugates. Sales growth has been driven by the ramp-up of growth projects, and we have a strong pipeline of confirmed orders and progressing opportunities. Supported by growth project ramp-up, operating leverage, and robust operation execution, the business platform's core EBITDA margin reached 40.3%, an increase of 6.9 percentage points versus H1, 2024. The business successfully maintained its positive momentum, continuing the margin improvement trajectory established over the past years. In specialized modalities, we reported CR sales at minus 9.2%, and the core UTDA margin of 17.3%, a decrease of 6.1 percentage points versus H1, 2024. In CGT, pipeline variability led to lower asset utilization alongside also a softer operational performance compared to prior year. By pipeline variability, we mean that the lower maturity and the smaller size of the cell and gene industry as a whole with a much smaller number of projects cause higher degree of volatility due to clinical failures and less diversification of such development risks in the smaller portfolio. The software operational performance refers to the greater variability of production execution due to the often complex and manual manufacturing process required for cell and gene therapies. We aim to increase resilience in our CGT business over time by expanding our portfolio, especially with more commercial molecules. Currently, we have five commercial products within CGT. the most of any CDMO in the space. In microbial, growth was impacted by the high sales and core UTDA comparison of H1-2024. Additionally, the technology platform was impacted by a necessary plant adaption to accommodate a new customer in one of the microbial assets. Bioscience had a good H1-2025 underpinned by market recovery and we are pleased to see that it has returned to healthy growth after a more difficult 2024. Looking ahead, we anticipate stronger performance for both CGT and microbial in H2 with delivery weighted into Q4. Finally, capsules and health ingredients progress on its recovery path with flat CR sales growth versus H1 2024, which is in line with the projected trajectory for the full year. The core EBITDA margin reached 26.2%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points versus prior year, supported by increased production volumes and the positive impact of productivity initiatives. The capsules business has shown quarter-over-quarter CER sales growth since Q3 2024. The nutraceutical capsules business saw good order momentum in H1, while the pharma capsules business is on track to return to pre-COVID volumes in the second half of 2025. Looking at the external environment of CHI, the business is seeing limited impact only from current U.S. tariffs as we supply U.S. market primarily from our U.S. side in Greenwood, South Carolina. Furthermore, our strong footprint in the U.S. is expected to support CHI and its customers in navigating the landscape as it continues to evolve. Also in the U.S., we saw positive preliminary determinations in recent countervailing and anti-dumping filings, which are expected to restore competitive balance for nutraceutical as well as pharmaceutical capsules in the US market. As I mentioned before, we also made good progress in H1 with our internal preparations to carve out and prepare for the exit of the CHI business. CHI is an attractive business, world leading in its markets. And as we can see from its half year performance, It is on a successful and sustained transformation journey. In line with our guidance, we expect the business to return to see our growth in 2025 with an improved margin at around the mid-20s level. But let's turn our heads to our outlook for the full year 2025. As you have seen, we upgraded the CDMO outlook for full year 2025. Our CER sales growth was previously expected to approach 20%, and this has now been raised to 20% to 21%. Also, our core EBITDA margin was previously expected to approach 30%, and this has now been raised to 30% to 31%. Excluding Vacaville, which is expected to contribute around half a billion for strengths and sales, we expect low teens percentage organic CER sales growth at improving margins for our CDMO business and full year 2025. In line with this outlook, we expect sales in H2 to be higher than in H1, with a core ETA margin at similar levels for both half years. Supported by the good performance in H1 and continuing market recovery, we can confirm the outlook for full year 2025 for our CHI business. As a reminder, our outlook is a return to low to mid single-digit percentage CER sales growth with an improved core EBITDA margin in the mid-20s. In the mid-term, the CHI business is on track to return to its historic sales growth in the low to mid signal digit and a core EBITDA margin of more than 30%. Before we turn to the Q&A, I would like to summarize the presentation with a few closing messages of mine. First and foremost, we have good reason to feel confident that one lancer is well on track as we reach the end of the first half. In Edge 1, we delivered strong CER sales growth of 23.1% at a core UTA margin of 30.2% in the CMO business. This was supported by sustained contracting across technologies and good progress on key projects. In the context of these robust results, we have upgraded our CMO outlook for 2025 to CER sales growth of 20 to 21%. and a core EVTA margin of 30% to 31%, as just discussed. And finally, CHI saw a tangible recovery in H1 and is on track to return to its historic CR sales growth and a core EVTA margin above 30% in the midterm. This positions CHI well as we continue with internal preparations to exit this business. With that, I thank you for your attention, and we will now take a two-minute break while we set up the video recording for the Q&A session. We look forward to joining you again in just a moment.