Fagron Sa Ord

Hello, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Fagron's first quarter 2026 trading update. I'm joined today by our CEO, Rafael Padilla, and our CFO, Karin De Jong. We will open the floor for questions at the end of the session. With that, I will hand over to Rafael.

Thank you, Ignacio, and good morning, all. We're pleased to report a solid quarter with revenues of €263 million, representing 10.3% growth. Results were driven by outstanding performance in LATAM and strong contributions from our M&A. Brands continue to perform well across the board, supported by our innovation capabilities and commercial strategy. Operational excellence initiatives also continue to deliver benefits. During the quarter, we completed the acquisition of Pharmavit in the Netherlands and strengthening our position in the nutraceutical ingredients market. Also worth mentioning that PharmaVit integration together with all previously announced acquisition are progressing as planned. On guidance, we are maintaining our top line outlook of mid to high single digit organic growth at CR. On profitability, we expect a margin of circa 20% for the year reflecting the PharmaVit acquisition. We also expect H2 to be stronger than H1. Moving on to the regional dynamics, EMEA reported a steady performance with all segments contributing. B&E performance was driven by innovative product launches and the continued rollout of our global brands strategy. Compounding services benefited from strong demand and new customer wins across the region. Turning to LATAM, we've seen an outstanding growth this quarter, mainly driven by brands in Brazil, together with contributions from Prepharma and Vipacum. Brands continue to deliver strong momentum, driven by our innovation power and targeted commercial strategy. In North America Pacific, organic growth was positive despite the absence of GLP-1 related revenues. B&E delivers strong growth supported by new product launches, higher product availability, and improved operational performance. In compounding services, the underlying business remains strong and continues to benefit from portfolio expansion and new customer wins. And as already explained, the GLP-1 comparatives will normalize throughout the year. Finally, our investments in Las Vegas and Wichita facilities are progressing as planned. Moving on to our outlook, we are maintaining our revenue guidance of mid to high single digit organic growth at CR. We expect profitability margin of circa 20% reflecting the Pharmavit acquisition. Pharmavit brings 62 million euros in annual revenues with an EBITDA margin of around 14%. And in line with our integration plan, we are confident in bringing the margins towards groups level within 18 to 24 months. Our capex will remain at around 3.5% of revenues, excluding the previously announced one-off projects. To conclude, the start of the year shows the resilience of our business model, consisting of predictable growth and continued progress on quality and operational excellence. We also continued with our discipline M&A strategy and are now heavily focused on integration and value creation. This performance builds on a long-term track record. We also remain confident in the underlying drivers of our end markets and our ability to deliver the mid-term targets. With that, let us open the line for questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are now ready to take your questions. If you have a question, please press hashtag five on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from Michael Heider from Binnenberg Bank. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. Good morning, Raphael, Karin and Ignacio. I have four questions, if I may. The first one is on the US market. Can you describe the underlying market momentum at the moment? Were there any other effects influencing your organic growth besides the GFP1 recall or impact? Second question is on, can you please give an update on the integration activities, especially Puri Pharma and PharmaVid? Third question, just a quick reminder, are there any acquisitions that are not closed yet? And then last one, congratulations on the very strong results in Latin America. Can you give us an example of the innovative products and the commercial initiatives that you have taken in Latin America to support the growth there? Many thanks.

Yes, thanks a lot, Michael. Good morning as well. Thank you for your nice questions. On the US market dynamics, we see that after the whole GLP-1 momentum that we had last year, I mean, the market in general, the compounding industry was strengthened by that fact. So this means that there is more resource to invest in in the underlying market by the compounding industry remember there are around 4 000 compounding pharmacies is the biggest market in the world in terms of in terms of value volume is brazil as you know this together with the fact that in the in the hospital market you see that quality and regulation is improving as we have been discussing during the conference last time some weeks ago remember we said that the FDA is increasing the quality and regulation standards. So this means that hospitals need to push the more outsourcing also for some small players. So you see that this is a clear tailwind for us. So when you take this one together with the fact we were saying in the beginning that there are more resources for those customers of us to increase their market exposure, visit to doctors, also investing a lot in platforms, telehealth platforms. So you see that the underlying market is increasing. So we see now a good momentum there and we are, of course, benefiting. for that or from that. And also remember as well that we are challengers in the segments that we operate. We have clear three segments where we operate. The first one is the B&E, so the raw materials and our branded products. And we are here a clear challenger behind Medisca. Then we have, of course, the health and wellness, so prevention and lifestyle. And here, of course, we are number two as well. So we also have an opportunity to gain market share in those two segments. And the third one, the hospital outsourcing, we also have a possibility to grow there because we are clear number two. So next to the fact that the underlying market is growing, we also have a chance to grab market share.

Yeah, good morning, Michael. So on the second question on the integration status of Purifarma and Vapacum. So let's start with the Brazilian one. Purifarma is a big one. So approximately 200 million reais of sales with 10% EBITDA margin, so well below the group average. there's a clear synergy case for that and it has to do with the centralization of logistics but also manufacturing back office activities and we're well on track with the integration of puri pharma and we expect to realize some synergies initially h1 but most of them most of them will be realized in h2 we're on track with the plan if we look at The Dutch one, PharmaFit, we just recently acquired them. So at the end of early March. So we have an integration plan there and we're working also there to realize synergies. Also, that will be mostly embedded in H2 and next year. So overall, also, if you look at the guidance and the profitability guidance, one of the elements that plays in there is the synergies effects that we expect to contribute as of age two and therefore we also expect H2 to be better than H1. So that's on the second question. The third question, not closed acquisitions, there are two. There's one in Asian Pacific, Amber Pharmacy, and there's one in Brazil, Ingeplus, and Ingeplus is a packaging company. So there are some licenses that we need to obtain. So it's a bit outside of control, outside our control, but we're working on that and we anticipate closing them this year, Amber probably in age one and in chip plants we have to wait a bit on the regulatory aspect of that, but we're also positive that we can close that.

Yes, I want your last question, Michael, example of one of our brands and I really like these questions because then we can talk about our products. Remember the molecule that you can find in wine, that's resveratrol. They say that only one glass, of course, only one glass of red wine brings resveratrol. So resveratrol, as an example, we launched 20 items, but we're going to talk about this item as an example, is a molecule that is widely used in the compounding industry in the prevention and lifestyle segment for chronic inflammation. And the difficulty of this molecule, as an example, the resveratrol, is that it's not getting well absorbed in the body. So everything that you take in, it gets out of the body. So together with a partner in Far East, we have there some strategic partnerships with some product developers. We have developed one... adjustment in the molecule that is able to let this molecule stay, the resveratrol stay in the body. We call it ResVTEC. So you can imagine that then almost the whole market turns into our molecule, of course, with studies, with viability studies, with pharmacotechnical studies. So meaning that then the whole market sees us as an innovative player They also see when the doctors prescribe and the patients take it, that there is an immediate effect. There is an improvement in their life conditions. So you see how the whole market turns into our product. And this is one example. Again, we launch around 20 items on a yearly basis in Brazil. And remember, during the first week of July, there is a big fair called Consul Pharma, where we launch all our innovations for the year.

fantastic many thanks very clear thanks uh thanks mike bye-bye the next question comes from frank class from the growth ptcom please go ahead yes good morning uh karen rafa and ignacio

Two questions, please. First of all, on the rising oil price, how are you dealing with it and what kind of impact do you see? Do you already see API prices rising and higher logistic costs? And how are you dealing with that? That's my first question. And then secondly, you're talking about improved product availability. Does that mean that you have higher inventories? Or yeah, could you elaborate on your working capital situation? Thank you.

Yes, thanks a lot, Frank. A very important question nowadays. And indeed, we see an increase of old bales, raw materials, the market. That's what the market is showing us. Also, transportation costs, both in and out months. What does it mean for us? Luckily, we're lucky because our replenishment moment throughout the year starts in Jan, Feb. So we plan the year, and we have quite a decent inventory position with all prices. And next to this, when the conflict started, we decided to take strategic moves to take some of these items to get still good conditions. Of course, as you know very well, we take our global volumes to negotiate better conditions as well. So we are also pushing back when we see some increases in our replenishment moments. We have inventory for ten and a half to four months. So that's also something that we need to take into account. And last but not least, remember also during the last years with the pandemic and then other macroeconomic developments, we have been able to have a nice pricing pass-through exercise. So we have shown our ability to do that.

Yeah, and maybe to add on the working capital and improved availability. So the last couple of years, there's a lot of focus on operational excellence initiatives. And that sets on procurement, for instance, but it's also related to demand planning, forecasting, and to have a better sight into what is happening in the different markets. And we're seeing that we're benefiting from that. If we look at product availability, we also had some initiatives to leverage our global footprint, for instance, producing some excipients in Brazil for the American market. And you also see that we're benefiting there from an increase in product availability. You saw that in the performance on the brands and essential in the first quarter in North America. So those initiatives, I also have to state that indeed we anticipated a bit of additional inventory in the first quarter of this year, which helps in the current macroeconomic environment. But we don't expect overall the year that working capital will be higher than the guidance that we have. And that's 12.5 to 13.5 percent of sales. So overall, we don't expect for full year an increase in working capital.

Okay, that's clear. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Frank.

Thanks, Frank.

Hi. Good morning, team. Thank you for the opportunity. I just have like two basic questions. One is more financial related. One is more general. So could you just provide a recall per split in terms of what margin buildup do you expect for 2026? So I understand that the 20% guidance is largely because of pharma rates, so all the dilution would be expected in EMEA region, is that correct? And my second question is a little bit more general. So there has been a lot of changes in the Medicare payment in the health insurance space in the U.S. I do understand that you're insulated from it. But is it something that is going to affect your future plans going forward in terms of expansion into U.S.? Or do you really think that it's just FACROM is totally not affected or impacted by it? Thank you.

Good morning, Osama. So to start with the first question on the guidance for profitability. Indeed, while the acquisitions are expected to have a modest dilutive impact in 2026, as synergies are realized, we initially anticipated a slight improvement in profitability versus 2025. And 2025, as you know, is at 20.3%. But after the acquisition of PharmaFit at the end of Feb, we expect a slight decrease due to that dilutive impact in the first year. And the impact of PharmaFit is roughly 30 bps. So that results then in an EBITDA margin of circa 20%. So that's what you will see indeed in the EMEA region. LATAM, we also expect a small dilutive impact due to the acquisition of Purifarma. But this will be partly offset by FruPakum, which has an EBITDA margin that's above group average. And so for the LATAM, as I said earlier, we expect H2 onwards, we expect the synergies to start contributing to the margin improvements. And North America, we expect that they continue to benefit from the operational leverage and operational excellence initiative. And we do expect a slight margin improvement in 2026 for that region. So overall, we guide for an EBITDA margin of circa 20%.

Yes, and on your second question, you answered it perfectly while you were questioning the question. So we are not affected. And this is because when we look at each one of the three segments in the US, We have on the B&E side, it's a 100% transactional cash-based business. The same goes for prevention and lifestyle. That's Anazeo, CareFirst, and UCP now that we are bringing them together. And then on the outsourcing part, that's being paid out of the hospital budgets. And remember, Sama, that it's important medication, acute medication for emergency rooms. So we are not affected about these Medicare plans.

Very, very great. And if I may just squeeze a very small question on M&A going forward. So last year we've had more than 12, 13, 14 different acquisitions being now fully integrated or in the process being approved or integrated. What is the appetite for the remaining part of 2026? And, okay, 2027 is a little bit far. Would you still be open for smaller acquisitions or do you have internally said, okay, this year we're going to just integrate them all and maybe look for options in 2027 or something? I just want to check what, I mean, how much appetite do you still have? Thank you.

Yeah, to answer that one. So we do have appetites for acquisitions. So there's a pipeline. And if we feel that there's a deal to be made with a disciplined approach, we will consider doing that. So there are a couple of ones in the pipelines, in the different regions aligned with the acquisition strategy that we have. So we anticipate to do some deals in 2026. However, as you can imagine, the integration part that has our first priority now. So we don't expect to do the same number of deals that we did last year, but we do expect to do some deals this year.

Thank you. That will be all. Thank you very much. Thank you.

The following question comes from Stijn de Meester from ING. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Three, if I may. The first one is on U.S. compounding, excluding the impact of GLP-1 and potentially some other one in the first quarter. How should we look at growth momentum in that segment in U.S. compounding in the periods to come? And more specifically, how would you say growth in FSS compares to the more health and wellness-driven business at Anaseo? Secondly, related, is it fair to say that growth at Anaseo is a bit more tied to discretionary spending, given the lifestyle or the health and wellness-related part of the business? And what percentage of Anasea would you say is tied to this wellness segment? And then the last one is a clarification. Karen, did you mention 7% margin at Purifarma? Or did I misunderstand? Because my impression was always that it was about 10% margin business. But maybe that has shifted. These are my questions.

Yeah, no, okay. Maybe to start with the last one, Steino, it's 10%. So I said, but it's absolutely 10%. Okay, thanks. Yeah, so then to go back to the first one, if we look at the performance of FSS in the first quarter, as you know, the performance reflects indeed the phasing out of the GOP once. There was 11 million in the first quarter and there will be 9 million in the second quarter. So that has a severe impact on the US performance. On top of that, we saw in Jan some slowdown due to the weather conditions. As you know, it was at the last weeks of Jan, it was very cold, so it was difficult to ship some products. So we had some impact of that. And then we had a nationwide recall of Versengis KBIV bags, which impacted the output in Q1. And we also expect to have some impact in early Q2 of that. But of course, as you know, most of it is the phasing out of the GOP1s. The underlying market remains strong and we have good expectations for the rest of the year. As you also know, North America is currently producing in the 503 facilities to ship to their 503 facilities. That's an opportunity that opened up for us on the back of the guidance of the FDA. And this means that if we provide the split, it does not always contribute to a fair understanding of the performances of the businesses. And therefore we decided not to report the numbers and we report them as combined. If we take out the impact of the GLP-1 for North America, We are at low double digits, which is in line with our long-term guidance. And we're very positive about the prospects of that part of their business continuing. Maybe Rafa on the lifestyle part for NSAO?

Yes, for sure. So, good morning, Stijn. And as we were saying previously, We were seeing previously, we see a clear tailwind in the prevention and lifestyle market, not only in the US, but also in the rest of the world, even in Europe, as we have committed many times. One thing in the US that is quite remarkable are the telehealth platforms that they contribute massively to the underlying growth in the market. And of course, you know that very well, the new Tampa facility is helping us a lot. So we are setting records week on week in terms of new scripts that are coming. Just to refresh, we invested in a new facility in Tampa, 503A, that's patient specific. with an ability to produce daily 15,000, well, 5,000 scripts, and we can ship nationwide. So that's helping. Then we have Kerr First that we acquired last year, and now we have acquired UCP. So that means that we have presence almost in all parts of the US. And we are now integrating those three facilities. We're also building, as you know, in the 503B site in Las Vegas and in Wichita with the current Wichita plant. and the Boston plant. So as you see, we are now having a strategy from an operational perspective to bring all these facilities together. So we're opening up the company, if you will. So we bring those things together, and then we have one dedicated sales force going into our customers. So we are cross-shipping, if you will, the items. Therefore, we bring compounding services one segment.

Thanks. Thanks. It's very helpful, and I appreciate it's difficult to split the two businesses, but would you say that the health and wellness part grows faster than the sterile business? Does it grow in life or does it grow, do you expect it to grow at the rate below sterile? Is it possible to indicate?

Sure, 100%. Steiner, that's a very good question. And when you look from a macro strategic perspective, the underlying market in the health and wellness grows faster than the hospital market in terms of product usage. So the number of units being used daily in the US grows higher in the prevention lifestyle than in the hospital market. What happens here is what we have commended for the last five, seven, eight years is that quality regulation increases. So this means that hospitals are outsourcing more. We have now a rate of almost 60 to 70% of hospital outsourcing. So meaning that that market is now getting to a mature part. also think that we are challengers so we can gain market share. And one element that is also happening that you see with smaller 503Bs is that sometimes there are recalls or some product or production lines are being stopped and then we clearly benefit as we believe that we invest and we evolve on quality and regulation.

Okay, understood. Thanks. This is very helpful.

Thanks a lot, Stijn.

Thank you, Stijn.

The following question comes from Erik Wilmer from Van Lanschot-Kemper. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, everyone. I had a couple of questions. I wanted to press a bit more on the implications from the current Middle East situation on your business. I can imagine that you have to push through product price increases and transportation cost increases. Could you give us a rough sketch of the cost inflation you now need to pass on? And are your customers willing to accept this pricing given that it might be temporary? I believe that in the Netherlands, remembering the COVID pandemic, it may take some time to pass it on given contractual agreements. So I was wondering if this is still the case. And then second question, this is moving over to the US, could there be a risk that customers may switch away from the Fresenius Kabi IV bags now that they perhaps have gotten used to alternatives in March and part of April. And then finally, also in the US, there has been quite some recent talks about RFK wanting to legalize injectable peptides in the US. Could you give us a flavor of how this may support your US business and how perhaps, or perhaps some wording regarding your readiness, if at all, should this indeed happen? Thank you.

Thank you, Erik. So maybe to start indeed with the prices, what we see is that transportation prices are indeed increasing. So what we're able to do is we have outbound transportation, so towards our customers. We are able to increase that, whether that's with a surcharge or embedded in the price. Customers understand, of course, so we are well positioned to do that. Inbound, it depends a bit whether it's air freight or whether it's oversea. So air freight is way more expensive than oversea. So there you see a mix in the regions of transportation. And we're also there increasing prices if needed. As said, you know our business very well. The B&E is more transactional business. So we're able there to increase prices a bit more quicker than the contracts that we're having. But it depends a bit on the type of contract, whether we're able to increase yes or no. So in Europe, there are some contracts where we are able to increase. And in some, there's maybe a bit of lagging. But we're on top of that. So in case we are able to increase, we will increase immediately. Of course, it helps that we have, as Rafa mentioned earlier, a stock position of a couple of months. So that will also offset the impact partly. But as you know, it's a very... situation that's fluid. So we will monitor on a daily basis to see what we are going to do with prices. But we do believe that we are well positioned to offset any price increases that we face with increasing prices towards customers.

Yes. Good morning, Eric. On your second question relating FK nationwide recall, we believe that customers won't switch because FK has been very professional. They act quite diligently to replace those batches in the marketplace. So the situation will last a few weeks, end of Q1, as Karen said, beginning of Q2. and then on peptides when this happens because we believe that this will happen it will be a clear tailwind for the compounding industry when those peptides of course are green listed at the end and maybe that's on the last one maybe just something on readiness is there anything you can say there like i i understand this is competitive sensitive but anything on

Just a flavor or a sense on if you would be ready.

Sorry, Eric, I think the line was a bit distorted. If you can repeat, sorry for that.

Yeah, sorry. No, of course. Can you hear me now?

Yes. Now, now better. Yes.

Yeah, just regarding readiness. So on the latter point, the last, yeah, readiness regarding peptides, anything you can say there?

Yes, for sure, for sure. Sorry before. Yes, 100%. So we believe that we can act quite quickly, quite agile. First of all, because of our global network in the sourcing market. So remember, we have also people working in the Far East. We are mapping all producers. Of course, we know what would be the demand, of course, from our end customers. That's one. Then secondly, as we saw at that time with GLP-1s, we introduced them quite quickly. because what we are doing in the current clean rooms is to bring the product in, compound, and then shipping the product. And that's the flexibility that this industry has, of course, with the highest quality standards. So we believe that would be quite agile.

Very helpful. Thank you, Rafa and Karin. Thanks, Eric.

Ladies and gentlemen, just as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press hashtag five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Martin Verbeek from The Idea. Please go ahead.

Good morning. It's Martin Verbeek of The Idea. A question regarding to your Rebodea margin this year. It will have a bit of a negative impact with respect to acquisitions made. You also stated that you will continue making acquisitions. For 2027, you have stated you target a revenue margin of 21%. So it looks like a bit of a balancing act. How do you cope with these two elements?

Yeah, it's a very good question. Good morning, Maarten. So our long term guidance remains So we see that our M&A strategy typically has an initial dilutive impact. The consolidation and the execution of the identified synergy initiatives are expected to support a step up in performance over a reasonable timeframe, so usually 12 to 24 months. Of course, subject to the acquisition and the pace of the integration. So based on the plans we currently have, we anticipate to be broadly aligned with our 2027 guidance.

Thanks so much.

Thank you, Martin.

Thank you. And with this, we got to the end of the Q&A. Thank you very much for your participation today. I will remain at your disposal should you have any further questions. Thank you and goodbye.