Corbion NV

Welcome to the Corbian Half Year Resorts 2026 conference call. Following the opening remarks, there'll be an opportunity for questions. Please note this call will be recorded. I would now like to hand over to Mr. Alex Sokolowski, Head of Investor Relations.

Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Corbian's second quarter and first half 2026 earnings conference call. 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 these 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 Sokolowski, head of IR, and with me on the call this morning are Olivier Rigaud, chief executive officer, and Peter Kazius, chief financial officer. We published our press release and presentation this morning, and both are available on our website. Olivier will start with the business highlights, Peter will then take you through the financial performance, and Olivier will conclude with the outlook before we open the call for questions. Now, I would like to hand the call over to Olivier to begin with business performance.

Thank you, Alex, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to our hearing calls. So here are the headlines. Organic sales grew 2.1% in the first half, and the important point is the acceleration in Q2, up 8.5% to 337.4 million. Volume and mix were positive at 4%, while pricing was minus 1.9%, mainly reflecting contract dynamics and prior year comparables. Adjusted EBITDA was 88.8 million with Q2 at 51 million. In health and nutrition, both nutrition and biomaterials delivered double-digit volume mix growth, and in functional ingredients and solutions, we saw positive volume mix and sequential margin recovery. Free cash flow was negative in H1, but in line with seasonal patterns. And we are maintaining our free cash flow guidance while refining the EBITDA margin outlook. So Q2 was a step change in momentum, and H2 has multiple levers already starting to be visible in Q3. Moving to the next slide, starting with functional ingredient and solution. This segment showed exactly the kind of acceleration we wanted to see. H1 sales grew 3.6% and Q2 sales grew 8.4% supported by better volumes and resilient demand. The market stays steady and our natural preservation platform continues to win, especially as customers look for cleaner label, regulation ready solutions. We also saw volume growth across all three businesses there and margin improved 250 basis points sequentially versus Q1. There is still input cost pressure, including effects from the situation in the Middle East, but the team is moving decisively on pricing and on cost efficiencies action. So here, food wins are real, momentum is positive, and margin recovery has begun. Moving now to health and nutrition. Health and nutrition is where the second half opportunity becomes very clear. Nutrition and biomaterials both delivered double-digit volume mix growth, and Q2 improved strongly as customer phasing did normalize. In nutrition, tight omega-3 supply and resilient aquaculture demand are creating a better pricing environment, already starting and visible as from Q3. We are also strengthening the platform through deep botanical and yield gains at our factory in Brazil, as well as progressing on arrest exempting development milestones and a new DHA rich LG patent. The pharma segment was affected by phasing, but overall the broader contract and pipeline support a stronger second half there. The message here is straightforward. Supply tightness is not just a challenge for our LG omega-3 platform, it is a catalyst. And in the first half, Health and Nutrition delivered a small organic cell decline, but the second quarter showed a strong recovery. The volume mix was positive in the first half, but very strong in Q2, and we expect this to continue in Q3. Now, moving to the official dynamics, let me take a step back now and explain, you know, what and why we are excited about the longer-term outlook for our algae omega-3 business. Peru, which supplies roughly 20% of the world fish meal and fish oil, has significantly reduced fishing quotas. At the same time, the risk of another El Nino event continues really to track a bunch of these stocks and disrupt supply. And the result is they're exactly what economics tells us should happen. Supply tightens, the price are really moving up. Fish meal and fish oil prices have been moving more than 60% year on year. But this is really bigger than a cyclical price spike. The demand for omega-3 continue to grow across aquaculture, but also penetration and human health. Wild catch fish oil supply simply cannot keep pace there. So the industry is running into a structural constraint, and this is where algae omega-3s change the equation. Algae omega-3 is not dependent on fishing quota, is not depending on anchovies population, and it is not dependent on ocean temperatures. It provides our customers with a reliable, scalable, and sustainable source of omega-3 exactly when security of supply is becoming more valuable than ever. In short, every quota reduction, every climate disruption, every tightening in fish oil supply reinforces the strategic value of Carbion's algae omega-3s. We believe the market has moved from asking whether algae omega-3 is a viable alternative to now recognizing that it is an increasingly necessary solution. So the future of omega-3 there cannot be built solely on what comes out of the oceans. It will increasingly be built on what we can sustainably grow and that position SCORBION exceptionally well. And with that, I would like to hand over to Peter to take you through the financial performance.

Thank you, Olivier, and good morning, everyone. I will now take you to the financial performance for the first half and the second quarter of 2026. I will start with the sales and adjusted EVDA development at group level, then move to the profit and loss statement, the performance of the business units, and finally to working capital and free cash flow before handing back to Orison. In the first half of 2026, Corbium sales were 631.1 million, compared with 645.6 million in H1 2025. On a reported basis, this represents a decline of minus 2.2%. On an organic sales basis, sales increased with 2.1%. The organic sales growth was driven by a volume mix of plus 4%, partly offset by pricing of minus 1.9%. The pricing effect reflects lower prices towards the joint venture in functional ingredients and solutions, as well as lower sales prices at omega-3, where pricing dynamics are expected to significantly improve as from Q3. Currency had a negative impact of minus 4.3% of sales, largely driven by the depreciation of the US dollar against the euro. The average US dollar rate in H126 was 1.17, versus a rate of 1.09 in H1 2025. In Q2, sales were 337.4 million compared with 315.9 million last year. Organic sales growth was plus 8.5%, driven by volume mix growth of plus 10.7% and pricing of minus 2%. Turning to adjusted EBDA, we delivered 88.8 million in the first half, compared with 106.6 million last year. This represents a reported decline of minus 16.7% and an organic decline of minus 80%. The year-on-year organic EBDA decline was driven by reduced pricing in health and nutrition and product mix effects in terms of ingredients and solutions. In Q2, adjusted EBDA was 51.0 million compared with 52.5 million last year. Important to note, on an organic basis, Q2 adjusted EBDA grew by 4.2%. Also sequentially, we've seen an adjusted EBDA margin increase of 220 basis points, Q2 versus Q1. Looking further down the profit and loss statements, operating profit was 42.1 million in the first half of 2026, compared with 63.5 million in H1 2025. Depreciation, amortization of our fixed assets amounted to 42.9 million compared to 42.5 million last year. This was broadly stable on a year-on-year basis. The currency benefits offset the higher depreciation related to the time electric asset plan. Adjustment in the first half amounted to 3.8 million in operating profit. This includes advice costs linked to a Spanish tax claim, which I already mentioned in Q1, advisor costs related to the joint venture divestments, as well as some severance payments. The benefits of the tax claim are also recognized as adjustments in the interest and tax line. The tax charge in H1 2026 was 7.3 million. This resulted in an effective tax rate of 19.7% for the first half. The relatively low tax rate was caused by the tax received related to the Spanish claim. For the full year, I anticipate an effective tax rate between 23 and 25%. If we now look into functional ingredients and solutions. Sales in functional ingredients and solutions went 492.7 million in the first half. In Q2, sales were 256.7 million. compared to 240.5 million in Q2 2025. Our organic sales growth was 3.6% in H1 and 8.4% in the second quarter. This was driven by volume mix growth of 4.2 in the first half and 8.7 in the second quarter. The positive volume development was supported by natural preservation in fruits, biochemicals, as well as lactic acid to PLA. In biochemicals, we've seen strong sales, both in H1 as well as Q2. And the same is applicable for lactic acid to our joint venture. Growth in foods came particularly from bakery, pet food and seafood end markets. Pricing was minus 0.6% in H1 and minus 0.3% in Q2. This was driven by the pass-through mechanism in lactic acid to PLA, where pricing was positive in the food area. The adjusted EBDA in FIS was 50.7 million in the first half. In Q2, adjusted EBDA was 29.4 million compared to 28.1 million last year. The margin in H1 was 10.3% compared with 11.9% last year. But we've seen a nice improvement in Q2 versus Q1 where we have seen in FIS a margin step up of 250 basis points are driven by disciplined cost reduction as well as higher sales leading to better leverage on fixed costs. Moving to health and nutrition. Sales in health and nutrition were 138.4 million in the first half. In Q2, sales were 80.7 million compared with 75.4 million in Q2 2025. Our organic sales declined in the first half but increased in Q2 by 8.7%. The H1 decline was due to some phasing effect in Q1 not being fully compensated in Q2, but we see a clear momentum and anticipate to further grow significantly in Q3 and beyond. Volume mix was positive. 2.8% in H1 and a very strong 16.9% in Q2. Nutrition and biomaterials both delivered double-digit volume mixed growth in the first half. The nutrition business continued to show strong fundamentals supported by robust aquaculture demands, diversification into new aquaculture customers, as well as traction in human nutrition. Biomaterials deliver double-digit volume mixed growth across all end markets, particularly in drug delivery. Pharma was impacted negatively by some phasing at key customers in North and Latin America. If we look to EBDA in health and nutrition, this was 38.1 million in the first half. In Q2, we've seen an EBDA of 21.6 million compared with 24.1 million last year. The H1 adjusted EBDA margin was 27.5% compared with 32.1% last year. The year-on-year margin decline was due to product mix within the segments as well as pricing, which is anticipated to reverse as of Q3. Margins are expected to be around 30% for the full year, supported by price increases in H1 or in H2 compared to H1. Turning now to Total Energy Scorpion joint venture and these figures are shown on a 100% basis. Sales were 79.1 million in the first half. In Q2 sales were 42.3 million compared with 30 million last year. Organic sales growth was 21.6% in H1 and plus 44% in Q2 supported by a strong demand of PLA plastics particularly in Asia. The adjusted EBDA margin was 7.5% in H1.

The process to sell Corbion's interest in the joint venture continues as planned.

We continue to work closely with prospective buyers, total NRGs and advisors. Moving to investments, working capital and free cash flow. Our CapEx program remained disciplined and focused on supporting growth. The CAPEX investment in H1 were approximately 27 million, consisting out of 17 million in maintenance and 10 million in expansion CAPEX. Expansion CAPEX are focused behind projects in food, biomaterials and nutrition. This CAPEX level is broadly in line with prior year H1 level and remains consistent with our disciplined capital allocation framework. Operating working capital increased by 37 million in first half. This was mainly driven by accounts receivable reflecting sales phasing. We've seen a strong improvement in our accounts receivable position in July. Important to note is that overuse remains stable. Our overall free cash flow was negative with 4 million. This reflects normal seasonality, but this year was strongly impacted by the movements in accounts receivable following the timing of sales. We continue to expect significant stronger cash flow in the second half of the year and we maintain our full year guidance of 85 to 90 million. With that, I would like to hand over back to Olivier.

Thank you, Peter. Let me now turn to the outlook for the remainder of 2026. For the full year 2026, we maintain our organic sales growth outlook of 3 to 6%. We also maintain our free cash flow guidance of 85 to 90 million, and this reflects our confidence in stronger cash generation in the second half, supported by EBITDA improvement, discipline capex, and working capital normalization. For adjusted EBITDA, we are refining our outlook to above 16% compared with the previous indication of around 17%. So while we are taking a prudent view on full year margin, the underlying momentum in the business is clearly building. We entered Q3 and H2 already with a stronger sales momentum, improving margins, positive free cash flow, and multiple levers already taking effect, giving us real confidence that the second half will show a clear step up in performance starting in Q3. Without, now let us move to Q&A.

Yes, thank you, Olivier. So, call participants. If you'd like to ask a question on the call this morning, please press star one one 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 lines while your question is being answered so there's no feedback. Our first question this morning comes from Setu Sharda of Barclays. Setu, please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. So I have got three questions. My first question is on the FIS volume. How much of the FIS volume acceleration was driven by lactic acid sales to PLA versus the core food and biochemical business? And also, has the PLA demand benefited from any temporary competitive advantage versus petrochemical plastics? And if so, should we view this as sustainable? My second question is on omega-3 pricing. On nutrition, what pricing do you expect for H2 and FY26 given the sharp move in fish oil market and does the 30% health and nutrition margin outlook fully capture your current omega-3 pricing or is there upside if spot price persists? And my third question is regarding the margin guidance. Can you help bridge the move from 17% to 16% margin guidance, specifically like how much of the downgrade reflects Middle East-related energy freight and raw material cost, and how much flexibility do you have to offset these costs through pricing and productivity? Thanks.

Thank you, Setu. And I will answer the FIS volume and the PLA question and, Peter, the health and nutrition pricing and the margin guidance. So let me start with PLA. You've seen indeed the volume of the John Venture as well growing over 20% in H1 and 44% in Q2. What the John Venture has experienced there is really a benefit what's going on primarily in China. And this is really across the board. And of course, this is translating, as you know, the conversion ratio between of course lactic acid in PLA is 1.3 to 1.4 times so you need a 30 to 40 percent you know more lactic acid to produce PLA so this is driving volume of lactic to the GV substantially up what we see happening in the market is really a big shift in terms of 3D printing but what we mean by 3D printing is really the industrial You know, move to 3D printing, not just the home printers there. So that's a very strong underlying trend that we've seen in China for a while that is accelerating. And basically, we see this is not only, you know, happening for Corbion, but for the overall industrial players. Everybody is seeing the same momentum. So we believe there is a strong underlying sustainable growth now back on PLA. I just want to add a caveat to that. Although you might have seen we had official communication from the Jump Venture that is going for price increase on the second half, price remained depressed, you know, on the first half of PLA at low level. So now we are really working on, and the GV is working on restoring some pricing across the second half of the year. But we don't see that as a one-off from the GV. We see that the growth pattern is remaining really strong also on the second half on our basically lactic acid order book through the John Venture till the end of December. Now, Peter, on the second question.

So, Satu, thanks for the question. So, the first one is on omega-3 pricing. If you look to it, we anticipate a significant price increase if you compare it age two this year versus age one this year. That is reflected in the guidance, which I just gave of around 30%, because currently, if you look to our age one number, it's 27.5%. and that reflects also the contractual situation and where we currently see basically official prices being. And this is mainly in the kind of shorter term contracts. So from a pricing perspective, I would say Q2 the lowest one if you look sequentially and then moving up. If there are upsides in your question, look, this is really reflecting all the contracts and terms which we have. And the order book or the vast majority of the order book is fixed for the second half of the year. If you look to the refinement of our EBDA margins from around 17% to more than 16%, then it's predominantly driven by the Middle East. I think you do recall the call which we had in Q1, where of course Middle East was already starting and at that moment we indicated an impact of up to 10 million. But since that time, mainly sulfuric acid has even further increased. And now we face a kind of gross bill of 15 to 20 million, which is partly mitigated by cross-disciplined actions and pricing. but not fully. So that's the kind of primaries in CETU.

Thanks. Just one follow-up on the algae oil. How much of these contracts are already done and how many will come forward in H2?

I think so. As we said in Q1, CETU, two-thirds of our business on major contracts that were longer term were already contracted and we'll not see a massive positive price impact on this fiscal year and as we've said basically most of these contracts are ending by December 26 and will be renewed in the month to come so we are I mean basically entering now in the phase of renegotiation for the next years on this longer term agreement for aquaculture then on the rest of our business where we usually negotiate either on a six month or a full year base, which is our pet nutrition sales, our human nutrition. And a non-contracted aqua business where we have really open terms where we are going and we have already increased prices substantially in H2. But you have to distinguish the longer term Aquaculture contract that are still running till the end of December and will be renewed 4-27 at higher prices from the current open business in pet, in human and in non-aqua long-term contracted. So this is how you have to see it. But already, you know, the pricing impact on the non-contracted business, including pet nutrition and human, is really substantial on H2.

Thanks. I'll be back in the queue. Okay.

Thanks. Our next question this morning comes from Wim Hoste from KBC. Wim, please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. I would like to come back on the Omega-3 contract negotiations. Can you maybe talk a little bit about expected pricing levels? I think in the past you hinted at confidence of $4,000 to $5,000. Is that still a valid assumption? And also, what kind of duration are you going for and are your customers willing to discuss? Is this, again, two, three-year contracts or is it even longer term if you can offer a little bit of granularity on those terms? and then a question also on the PLA divestment process can you also update here on expected timing and maybe indicate the interest that there is in this business given that momentum of the business seems to accelerate somewhat in the 3D printing parts so a bit of update on that would also be interesting thank you

Okay, so I will take the Omega 3 and Peter the PLA divestment. So on Omega 3, so as we also disclosed in the past, the current running longer-term agreement that are running until the end of December 26, where between $4,000 and $5,000 as we disclosed earlier. Obviously the spot market now is much higher than that. And on our spot customers, we have much higher prices than that. Now, I do not speculate on the price coming from 27, but obviously the aim now with this longer-term agreement is that we are planning to renew that in the course of the second half as negotiations are starting now to be implemented as from January 27. And we will look again at a longer-term agreement in the range of two to three years at higher pricing. Now, I don't want to speculate ahead of any negotiation because the plan was always to start right now actually with this large account to prepare a negotiation that will probably be concluded in early Q4 this year for most of this contract. So still the outcome is ahead of us and we cannot comment more in detail on price level but obviously we are looking to of course improve pricing on these longer term agreements. Now what you see on fish oil price is that indeed this is a 60% price increase and of course will also depend on the volume and the ability also to have security of supply on longer term because we see that in terms of supply gap widening. We already know that the second fishing season in October has quite a reduced Outlook because of El Niño. So the next big fishing season will be back in March, April next year, 27. When El Niño is expected to soften. But let's not speculate about what might happen in 27. What we know is that now we have favorable conditions to renegotiate our limited agreement now in the course of H2 for the next years. It's on PLA.

Now, thanks Wim for the question. I will do it at a relatively high level, unfortunately, because we continue with the process. We work really closely with prospective buyers, Total Energies and our advisors. So there is progress in the process. We will share more news, I think, when it's applicable to share more news, because I don't want to interfere in the process.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thanks, Sim. Our next question this morning comes from Fernand de Boer from the Growth Petercam. Fernand?

Yes, good morning. Fernand de Boer from the Growth Petercam. On your guidance for the second half, you actually say full year for a health and in this fall of 30%. Thank you very much.

No, thanks, Fermat. You always calculate indeed rightly. So let's start with that. So if I say health and nutrition around 30%, actually it will be mildly higher than 30% is the expecting there. If you look in terms of FIS, you will see a strong recovery in Q3 versus the Q2. And if you look on a bit on average for the full year in FIS, I anticipate to be, let's say, around last year's level.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Our next call this morning comes from Sebastian Brey from Berenberg. Sebastian?

Hello, good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. I'd prefer two, please. The first is on outlook for 27 and raw material costs. You've been quite clear in saying long-term contracts in fish oil, they might be beneficial in 27. We'll wait and see. I'm curious about what sugar costs would do in 27 if they're still modestly deflationary or flat given current hedges and spot prices.

And my second question is on the food business. The volume growth seems to have gotten better in Q2. Is this an underlying development, or is there any phasing or other type of effect to be aware of there?

Thank you. Yeah, thanks, Sebastian. As we communicated, we are really, if you think about sugar input costs, we are really really very well covered for 27 at attractive pricing on sugar and obviously we are also monitoring constantly of course the current spot price versus the longer term outlook but when we know basically what are the flaws for sugar producers in the regions where we do operate we took decision to almost fully edge our sugar for 27 in the for early even 28 at attractive price compared to the average we would pay in 26. So now you know that there is still a lot of things that can come in the way if you think about all the sugar equilibrium with bioethanol in Brazil and in India now and obviously what would be the impact of El Niño on some crops around the globe as there are some concerns that The other input costs we discussed of course relate to the Middle East situation is the sulfuric where we do not necessarily expect the situation to get better in 27 as you know this sulfuric acid is a producer from sulfur out of oil refineries in the Middle East. And we, of course, do not have any visibility on whenever this conflict might end. So we are still planning to have an inflated sulfuric acid cost across 27. That is affecting only our lactic business, excluding also our new plant in Thailand that is fortunately using a technology that doesn't need Sulfuric Acid, giving us competitive edge against our competitors. But we expect sulfurics to be still at a related cost in 2027. On food volume, as Peter explained, we see two different momentum. One is our food preservatives. where we see I mean again on some of these antimicrobials natural still the demand is really strong and then the reformulation to clean the label is still really strong and we have basically also some major wins in our North American market in our functional system business driving also very nice volume upside primarily with a high protein following GLP-1 reformulation this is driving very nice upside you know across H1 but also H2 this year for these reformulated products with high protein content and this is driven not only you know a functional system but also preservation as we are moving also our mold inhibitors into these categories So, and that's primarily US-driven, you know, volume growth in food.

Thank you. Okay, very good. We have two more questions on the line. Our next comes from Eric Wilmer at Van Lanscot Campen. Eric?

Hi, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to press a bit on the margin, actually following up on Fernand's question. Assuming the usual seasonality in Q4 and hence lower profitability, I think this would signal that the Q3 margin for FIS would be in the 14% area, which I think is a pretty large sequential step up also in historical context. So my question, what you're expecting or what you're foreseeing as the quarter is already one month in, is this really a cost savings and volume story? Following that question on free cash flow, there appears to be quite some pressure basically on H2 to deliver. So would you argue that this is mostly a profitability story or normalization of receivables or perhaps both? Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Erik. And let me take basically both of the questions. So the first is in terms of margin. We anticipate indeed a significant step up in Q3. It's not to the level of 14%, because as I indicated, I anticipate in FIS for the second half to be around basically last year's level, which is 11.1%, and a significant improvement in margins in terms of health and nutrition. If you look to free cash flow, it's driven indeed if you really zoom out by two components. One is indeed a higher EBDA in the second half of the year compared to H1. The other one, we always see seasonality in operating working capital, and this year it's really sizable, driven by accounts receivable. and Accounts Receivable is, look, this is even the monthly phasing from that perspective. And we've seen basically cash coming in in the course of July as well. So free cash flow delivery is, if you look a bit to all the components, it's a higher EBDA, H2 versus H1, and then normalization of working capital, which we see in a yearly trend, amplified, I would say, with Accounts Receivable position.

Understood. Thank you.

Okay, very good. Our next and last question comes from Robert Jan Vos from AVN Auto. Robert Jan? Yes.

Hi. Good morning all.

I have a few questions left. First, I want to ask you about CAPEX. You spent 27.6% in the first half. We talked about the 6% of sales trend, but it is quite a bit lower than that. So what is your view for investments in the second half of the year and maybe related to this and also looking at the strong volume growth in H&M? Do you foresee capacity investments for the algae business shortly or can you handle that still by de-bottlenecking? That's my first question.

So I think on HNN capacity and volume, so if you might recall what we presented at CMD was a three years investment plan at that time. That already kicked off in 24, 25 and 26. It was across that period. And actually recently we are busy with installing a new fermenter in our plant, so gradually bottleneck. that will bring additional capacity in the course of 27. So we are well on track on that. And this is the final step of these three years CAPEX program related to H&M that we discussed at the time of the CMD. So that's well on track and we are on time as a gradual bottleneck. The other thing obviously that we see and that I mentioned in my narratives is that the plant is further improving yield and efficiency. in a quite impressive way and this is also helping us in terms of cost and profitability. The only thing I would add, you might remember that we've also said at a time by the end of 26 we would have to make a decision on what's next because we would come to the end of this debacle making program and would have to make a big decision on what are the next steps for our algae business. So, but there is more to come probably when we discuss before year end on what decision might be, which will be either around further the bottleneck or eventually a brownfield. But we are not yet at the point of decision there. So far, with the investment that is running now, we will have enough capacity till end of 28, early 29 for algae. On CAPEX buildup, Peter, if you want to take that one.

No, the outlook, Robert-John, is still the same. There's always a bit of phasing, frankly speaking, between H1 and H2. So you are right that the CARPEX basically is around 30 million, but for the moment I would still guide around this 6% of cells.

Okay, that implies that it could go up a little bit in the second half, right?

Versus the first half, you are right. Yes.

Okay, then I have another question. Sorry to come back on pricing in H&M, but I thought you said that the low point is probably reached in Q2 and that you expect a sequential improvement in the second half. But does that also imply that it will improve to positive numbers in the second half, or is that... Also, what you said about the contract and the negotiations taking place end of the year, is that a bridge too far or should we really anticipate positive pricing in the second half in H&M?

If you look at the combination of the second half IEQ 3Q4, there is only a mildly positive element if you do year-on-year comparisons.

Yes, okay, correct. Understood. All right. And my last question, yeah, also on the PLA disposal, you already said something on that. But I remember that a while ago, you also mentioned that you expect to update or to come with an announcement during summer. Is that still possible, time-wise, timing-wise?

The good news is that the summer is quite long in the Netherlands, Robert-Jan. Now, I would like to stick with the comments which I just made, that we are working with prospective buyers, the joint venture partner and advisors. And we do share news basically the moment I think it's applicable to share.

Okay, that's very clear. Thank you. Also, we have a return questioner on the line. Fernand, please go ahead.

Actually, I had the question on the yield. How significant is that yield improvement in algae? And I thought already that the previous time you were already up to the max. So going forward, is it then still more possible or could you elaborate a little bit on that one?

no uh obviously um you know we always think because it's it's relatively new technology you know when you speak about these uh algae documentation as we call it you know these are things we've been learning over the last five years if you if you remember when we started the you know this journey and um the first step was the major one where we had massive improvement and now it's really incremental uh with a few percent but but think about of course very few percent uh Thank you very much. for the algae business is always coming with great development. So it's really now, of course, more modest than the first big steps we've made when we broke even the business back in 22. But it's still substantial. But obviously, the more you go, the more we are reaching the limit. So do not expect, you know, tens of percent anymore. But it's nicely incremental. And basically... As for instance, now we are implementing a new big fermenter in the plant. We are applying directly the best technology we've developed compared to how we had to retrofit the first plant that was not exactly built for nutrition. It was a biodiesel plant initially. So now we are really benefiting from all the knowledge we've built over the last years. But yeah, you don't speak about tens of percent for now.

Okay, and then to come back on the capacity question, because I understood always that at this moment you have six tanks operated in Brazil for algae. Is this six tanks necessary for the entire process or is it if you extend capacity that you can say, okay, if I put a seven tank in this field, then I also extend capacity?

No, indeed, that's a way you could have a reasoning, but there is also, if you remember, on our algae strategy, there are different drivers. Obviously, volume into the current categories is a big one, but in terms of also of de-risking our business and growing our business, we have a different approach. One is, obviously, to grow beyond aquaculture into pet nutrition and human, and then it's about different type of capacity and tanks because it's more refining so it's not necessarily adding more tons but it's making more profit out of the same initial tons and the second which is not yet you know something we are able to disclose is but we mentioned is are we going to also grow beyond DH omega-3 which is basically our program as astaxanthin that you might have seen the recent collaboration with CAS on that, where we really look at a second step to grow beyond Omega-3. Then back to the capacity, it's also making sure we have a versatile plan that we can basically trade up margin by doing higher grade products that we can valorize at a higher price and higher margin.

OK.

Thank you.

Okay, so this concludes our conference call this morning. We'd like to thank everybody who joined the conference call and the webcast. Before we go, I'd like to quickly announce that we have a planned R&D webcast in November this year, led by our CTO Yves Boland, with further details on how to attend available as the date approaches. Information on this event today and others are available on the investor relations page at www.corbin.com. And we look forward to engaging with all of you then. Thank you, operator. You may close the call.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating.

You may now disconnect.