Corbion NV

Good morning, and welcome to the Corbian third quarter 2024 conference call. This morning, we published our Q3 and year-to-date results, and the press release and presentation can be found on our website, www.corbian.com, investor relations, financial publications. Before we begin, please note that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed. Factors beyond our control, including market conditions, economic changes, and regulatory actions, can impact outcomes. Corbian does not undertake any obligation to update statements made in this call or contained in today's press release and presentation. For more details on our assumptions and estimates, please refer to our annual reports. I'm Alex Ogilevsky, Head of IR, and with me on the call today are Olivier Rigaud, Chief Executive Officer, and Peter Kazius, Chief Financial Officer. Now, I would like to hand the call over to Olivier. Olivier?

Thank you, Alex, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Carbion's Q3 and Year-to-Date Results 24, starting now with the key highlights. I'm pleased to report that our company continues to deliver outstanding results achieving accelerated organic sales growth of 2.6%, bringing sales for the first nine months of the year to 973 million euros. We saw a solid volume mix growth of 6.1% for the first nine months, driven by an outstanding Q3 with volume mix of 11.1%. We reached an adjusted EBITDA of 135.7 million, with Q3 alone contributing 49.6 million. In functional ingredients and solution, we continue to perform with positive volume mix growth, particularly driven by a strong demand in our specialty food ingredients, both in natural preservation and in our functional systems, while the softness in some biochemical markets persists. We are pleased to see continued growth in our product market adjacencies like dairy stabilizers, natural antioxidants, and natural mold inhibitors. Lactic acid volume to the PLA John Venture have grown both in year to date and Q3. The sales of the John Venture grew with 16% organically driven by volume. Likewise, in our health and nutrition segment, we achieved strong double digit growth, both sales and adjusted EBITDA primarily driven by the nutrition segment containing our algae fermentation products, omega-3 DHA. In Q3, we've seen double-digit growth in all our segments, nutrition, biomedical polymers, and pharma. On the financial front, I'm pleased to report a free cash flow of 50.8 million euro, excluding divestment proceeds. This strong cash generation underlines our commitment to financial discipline and operational excellence. Our restructuring plan is right on track, and I'm confident that it will continue to drive efficiency and profitability in the quarters ahead. Now, looking forward, today we upgraded our full year 2024 outlook. Whereas previously we guided for full year 2024 volume mix growth of 2% to 6%, we now guide for above 5%. Our previous adjusted EBITDA organic growth guidance was for more than 18%, and we upgrade that to 22% to 25%. Also, we upgrade our free cash flow from about 50 million by around 10 million to more than 60 million at year end. Our performance this quarter reflects the dedication and execution power of our team, the strength of our strategy, and the confidence we have in delivering value to all of our stakeholders. That concludes our prepared remarks and thanks you for the attention. Peter and I will be happy to take your questions. Alex, let's start the Q&A now.

Sure. Thank you, Olivier. Call participants, if you'd like to ask a question on the call this morning, please press star one on your telephone, star one one, sorry, on your telephone and you'll be placed in the queue. Our first question this morning comes from Setu Sharda. from Barclays. Say to please go ahead.