Corbion NV

Good morning and welcome to Corbian's first quarter 2025 interim management statement conference call. This morning, we published our Q1 2025 results. The press release and presentation can be found on our website at 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. This is Alex Sokolsky, head of IR, and with me on the call are Olivier Rigaud, chief executive officer, and Peter Kazius, chief financial officer. Now, I'd like to hand over the call to Olivier.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Corbeon's Q1 2025 earning calls. Let's start with some key highlights from our latest results. I'm very pleased to report that this quarter, we've seen accelerated organic sales growth 7.9%, driven by strong performance across our two business units. Our adjusted EBITDA reached €54.4 million with a margin of 16.5% for the group. Our free cash flow for the quarter was €8.6 million. This is a great set of results, and I would like to acknowledge the great effort of the Corbium team in delivering it. Going a bit into the divisions, Starting with functional ingredients and solution, we achieved organic sales growth of 5.8%, driven predominantly by a strong volume growth of 7.3%. This growth was seen across all three businesses within the segment, food ingredients, biochemicals, and lactic acid . The adjusted EBITDA margin in functional ingredients and solution increased substantially to 12.1%, up from 7.5% in Q1 2024, and up sequentially as well. This improvement illustrates the benefits of our efficiencies and cost-saving measures. In our health and nutrition division, we delivered an impressive organic sales growth of 16.2%, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 32.2%. This growth was driven by strong volume mix performance, particularly in the nutrition business, as well as positive pricing impact. Our health and nutrition division has shown remarkable growth in both sales and adjusted EBITDA, thanks to volume mix growth in all three businesses. This growth is a testament to our commitment to innovation and the unmatched value of our product offer. Our total energies, Corbion John Venture, also saw robust organic sales growth of 21.9%, despite the adjusted EBITDA margin contracting to 7.8%, although it increased sequentially from 2.1%. Overall, Corbion's group level adjusted EBITDA increased by 53.9% versus Q1 2024, reaching 54.4 million euros. Our positive free cash flow for the quarter was 8.6 million. I'm very pleased to affirm our outlook for the remainder of the year. We maintain our full year 2025 guidance of our organic adjusted EBITDA growth of over 25%, driven by continued sales growth and margin improvement in both business units. We anticipate organic volume misgrowth in the range of 2% to 6%, supported by ongoing positive momentum in health and nutrition and in the functional ingredient and solution business units. Investments in our business will remain disciplined, with capital expenditure estimated between 80 and 90 million euros for the year. We are committed to delivering a positive free cash flow in excess of 85 million euros for 2025. As we navigate the macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, We remain focused on executing our strategy and delivering value to our stakeholder. Corbion continues to provide essential, natural solutions that meet our customers' preservation and attrition needs. The Q1 2025 results highlight the resilience of our businesses and our ability to adapt and thrive in changing market conditions. We are confident in our ability to achieve our fiscal year 2025 guidance with strong growth in volume mix, adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow. We appreciate your continued support and are looking forward to updating many of you in the next weeks at conferences and roadshows. And now, Peter and I are happy to take your questions.

Okay, thank you, Olivier. Call participants. If you'd like to ask a question on the call this morning, please press star 11 on your telephone and you'll be placed in the queue. If you'd like to remove yourself from the queue, press star one one again. Also, kindly mute your line while your question is being answered. Our first question this morning comes from Setu Sharda from Barclays. Setu, whenever you're ready, please go ahead.