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Hello and welcome to IBE's FOLIO 2024 results conference call. I am Thomas Pevenage, head of investor relations of IBE. As usual, you will find this presentation on the investor relations page of our website. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Note that this call is being recorded. Moving to the next page, let me draw your attention to the company's usual disclaimer of forward-looking statements. In addition, you will have noticed that we have changed the application of IFRS 15 for revenue recognition of third-party equipment sales, leading to an increase of our reported revenues and cost of goods sold, and a decrease of our gross margin and REBITs margin in percentage. 424 numbers reflect this new method of reporting, and 423 numbers have been restating accordingly. I will now hand over to Olivier Legrand, Chief Executive Officer of IBM.

Thank you very much, Thomas. Good afternoon, everybody. It is a summary of what we will cover today. We'll start with the highlight of 2024, and then we'll take you through the business review of our activities and our financial results for 2024. As we accelerate our transformation journey to improve execution at a new level, we are adapting the reporting of our financial performance. We'll cover this element as well as other methodology changes in the fourth section of the presentation. We'll finally conclude by providing our updated outlook and guidance. Starting with the highlights, today we are proud to announce a record revenue of almost €500 million, €498 million, up 7% on 2023, with a good gross margin improvement of 4.5% year-on-year, thanks to a favorable product mix. Rebid increased significantly year-on-year to €17 million, linked to well-executed backlog conversion, with a strong contribution from other accelerators. Overall, we returned to profitability in 2024, reporting a net result of €9.3 million, an 18 million improvement versus last year. The proposed dividend of 24 cents a share reflects the strength of this year's performance and our confidence in the company prospect. Let's now have a look at our business highlights. On the left-hand side of this slide, you'll see that backlog is stable at a record high level of 1.5 billion euros. 2024 saw an excellent order intake of 321 million euros, driven by the sale of 33 other accelerator systems. Five proton therapy systems were sold. We are pleased by the accelerated momentum in the proton therapy commercial activities as from the second half of 2024. A few other elements are worth mentioning. IBA continues to invest in the future, as illustrated by our joint venture Pantera, which secured important funding for its next step towards large-scale Actinium 225 production. This is a good example of our approach to capital-light investment in selected fields of activities where IBA can be relevant in terms of technologies and market access. As previously announced, we are transforming our internal structure across three entities with dedicated and enhanced focus on execution. We will provide more details later in the presentation. This transformation is underpinned by our view that IBA is at an inflection point. The company has experienced strong growth over the past years, with other accelerators multiplying their top line and profit while proton therapy experience strong growth alongside the high backlog and predictable proton therapy service revenues from our growing install base. This provides a solid foundation for sustainable profitability onwards. In that context, we will share with you an updated midterms of CLUC and initiate a short-term guidance for 2025. Let's now take a closer look at the second half of the year. Building on a solid H1, the second half executed an acceleration of the positive momentum driven by backlog conversion across all business units. As a result, rebate on sales reached 5.8% in the second half. Overall, it was good to see a much more balanced first and second half weighing compared to last year. Here, we present a breakdown of revenue and REBIT progression across our three current segments. Record group revenue was particularly driven by other accelerators, with revenue increased by 18% to €194 million. Proton therapy remained stable, with revenue of €242 million reflecting steady growth, in services, offset by a slight decline in equipment sales. Dosimetry revenue remained flat year on year at 66 million euros, despite some market headwinds. Group rebate increased by 170%, driven by the particularly strong performance from other accelerators. You'll note a decline in dosimetry rebate linked to the late closing of the RadCal acquisition impacted expected synergies some challenges in the Chinese markets, and delays in converting the proton therapy-related backlog. Moving on to backlog, this remains at an all-time high of 1.5 billion, offering significant visibility into future revenue over the next years. I'm pleased at the progress made in accelerating the conversion of this backlog during 2024. Of this, equipment backlog stands 497 million euros for proton therapy, representing 37 projects, and 247 million euros for other accelerators. Service backlog includes the revenues of our long-term proton therapy operation and maintenance contract until their maturity, while the other business units have shorter-term services contracts not included directly. Note that this proton therapy service backlog does not yet include any revenues from the operation and maintenance of our 10 systems in Spain, as the contracts are being discussed with each individual hospital. I would also note that the apparent stability of the backlog over the last three years can be a bit misleading, given the installed base has been growing. The underlying reason is that the backlog decreases as contracts are executed year on year, while contract renewals provide for a one-off boost during the year of their signature. Five contracts are up for renewal during 2025. As a reminder, order intake represents new systems sold in the period, meaning contract signed and first payment received from the customer. We maintain solid order intake momentum in 2024, increasing 11% from €288 million to 321 million. You will remember that the performance in 2022 was related to the boost from 10 proton therapy systems signed in Spain. The strongest equipment order intake is in order accelerator, which recorded a 43% increase. Proton therapy saw a slowdown in 2024, but had strong traction in the second half, continuing in the start of 2025. We will provide more commentary on this in the proton therapy review. Dosimetry remains stable with order intake at 66 million euros. The book-to-bill ratio, which is the ratio of equipment order intake to revenues, remains close to one, as order intake did cover most of the conversion of the existing backlogs. As already announced in our first half 2024 result, IBR is certified as a B Corporation with an improved score of 114, placing the company in the top 10% over 9,500 B Corp globally. This, amongst other initiatives, highlight the company commitment to advance sustainability as a key differentiator to attract talent, secure contract, maintain a robust supply chain, and more generally, mitigate execution risk. Let's now take a deeper look at the performance of each business unit, starting with Proton Therapy. The service revenue grew by 7%, supported by our expanding install base, while equipment revenues declined by 4% due to the cycle of backlog conversions. Rebate increased by 2 million euros during the period, driven by improved growth margin. We continue, however, to see impact on profitability from delivery of older, lower-margin projects, like the 10-room order Proteus One in Spain, as well as a few large-scale Proteus Plus projects in China. The economics of more recent contracts confirm IBA's leadership position in the market. SAIT contracts will gradually positively impact the proton therapy PNL as older projects are delivered. In addition, as we will explain later in the context of the new segment approach, several costs will be reallocated from proton therapy to other activities. Therefore, the rebate for 2024 will become a loss of €12 million rather than a loss of €21 million as presented in this table. As well as executing on the sizeable backlog, we remain focused on targeted investment into the future of proton therapy to remain at the forefront of this market. In 2024, we continue to advance key strategic initiatives aimed at strengthening our proton therapy business. We saw steady progress in backlog conversion with 37 projects under construction of our installation. Our service business expanded further supported by renewed customer contracts and improved site performance. Our installed base of 44 centers generating revenues is expected to approximately double over the next four to five years. Clinical evidence supporting proton therapy continues to build, with a notable first-day study from MD Anderson Cancer Center demonstrating reduced side effect in head and versus conventional radiation therapy. I also take the opportunity here to tell you that the follow-up of this study is showing actually an increase of survival rate in favor of proton therapy, which in my opinion is a big game changer for proton therapy in the future. Innovation remains a focus With the launch of AdaptInSight 2.3 in 2024, as well as working closely with clinical partners to progress research in dynamic arc and conformal flash. We continue to expand the global footprint of our proton therapy solutions. Order intake in 2024 reached €116 million, with three Proteus-1 contracts secured in the US, including a repeat order of two Proteus-1 by our partners. partner, Penn Medicine. We also secured a new order in India, where IBM maintained its very strong position, having already installed two proton therapy systems in the country, one in Chennai and one in Mumbai. In addition, there was a new procurement contract for a Proteus Plus system in China through our partnership with CGM. We are in active discussion with a range of potential customers with particular interests from the US and several prospects in Asia. With 44 active sites now generating service revenues worldwide, we remain committed to driving further expansion and adoption of our proton therapy technology. IBA continues to lead the market in proton therapy. In 24, we have secured 56% of all new proton therapy system sales, and we maintain a more than 40% market share of all operational proton therapy homes globally. Let's turn next to dosimetry. Net sales in dosimetry reached 66 million, reflecting stable performance despite economic and market challenges, in particular in China. Backlog was maintained at €42 million. The decline in Rebit was related to a number of factors, delayed acquisition synergy from RadCal due to the closing timeline, a lower share of high margin sales in China, and reduction in proton therapy related business due to project timing. Order intake for Dosimetry remained solid at €66 million, reflecting sustained global demand. During 24, we have continued to focus on reinforcing our quality assurance leadership, as underlined by the acquisition of Radcal Corporation in March. This acquisition has significantly enhanced our product range and geographical footprint in the QA space. In the year ahead, we look forward to making the most of our broadened portfolio and expanded international presence in quality assurance. On this slide, we have laid out our global reach and breadth of our products. With the RadCal acquisition and other investment, we now have access to a supply chain across North America, Europe, India, and China, further strengthening our position globally. We launched RadCal's T3 standalone multimeter in July, and we look forward to further launches in the next future. I will now hand over to Henri de Romeray, Deputy CEO, who will take us through the performance of our radiopharmaceutical and industrial business currently under the other accelerator banner. Henri, the stage is yours.

Many thanks, Olivier. We are obviously very pleased with the strength of the other accelerator order intake in the period with 33 accelerator sold. Net sales reached a record high of 194.2 million euro, an 18% increase year-on-year supported by strong backlog conversion and demand across industrial and radiopharma applications. Service revenues remained stable at 34.8 million euro, despite the 7 million impact from the discontinuation of the Dynamitron product line following a strategic review of the industrial portfolio of activities. Adjusting for this underlying growth was 25 percentage points. Rebid improved 63% year-on-year to 34.7 million. Under strategic initiatives, starting with radiopharma first, we continue to strengthen our leadership in the targeted alpha therapies. In October, the European Commission approved the Accelerate.eu project, co-led by IBA, which is looking at the development of a value chain for astatine-211. Post-period end, we signed a memorandum of understanding with Framatome for the development of an Astatine 211 production network in Europe and in the U.S. We considered this investment under the new segment, new venture. In our core business, Radio Pharma has seen excellent levels of activities, most notably the strategic agreement with Jubilant Radio Pharma in the U.S. for five-cycle cube to support the expansion of their network. Our industrial solution business unit delivered a strong revenue increase driven by the execution of backlog conversion. Strong appetite from our customer and prospect has confirmed the relevance of our value proposition for safer and efficient sterilization solution driving our intrinsic momentum in this activity. Alongside this, interest is increasing in some newer application with landmark sales related to polymer enhancement as well as the treatment of Phytosanitary products with Benebion in Mexico. Finally, the team continues to explore other applications for the Rodotron, including the launch of the PFAS Blaster project, targeting the treatment of forever chemicals in wastewater and carbon filters. For those familiar with IBA earning calls, you note that we have a new section. We thought it would be helpful to lay out our work and collaborations in cutting edge technologies under new ventures, which would become even more visible under our new segment report. To start with, we are incredibly proud of the success of Pantera, our joint venture with SCKCN, dedicated to the production of alpha emitter actinium 225. In Q3, Pantera successfully closed a 93 series A, 93 million series A round led by EQT, valuing the company at approximately 200 million euro post money, resulting ultimately in a 31% stake for IBE. Small batch production, thanks to the partnership with TerraPower Isotope, is expected to start by mid-2025, while capacity reservation agreements were signed with Bayer and other undisclosed partners. Construction of Pantera's large-scale production facility is expected to begin later in the year, ensuring long-term production capacity. We remain very excited about the Actinium-225 Opportunity and Pantera, given the isotopes importance in next generation cancer treatment. In addition, IBA invested in MI2 Factory, a German startup specializing in advanced semiconductor processing using an ion beam technology. IBA will support MI2 in advancing towards an industrial grade solution and will provide updates as key milestones are being reached Then, and as already outlined in the radiopharma solution sections, we have signed an MOU with Framatome for the development of an Astatine 211 production network, which will lead eventually to the incorporation of a new venture. Finally, an update on our private-public partnership Normandy Arbonne Therapy. You may recall its purpose is to develop a first carbon ion therapy system aiming at further advancing radiation therapy, including for radiation-resistant tumors. Assembly and installation are underway, with the first beam being expected by late 2026, early 2027. I'll now take you through our financial results in more details. As said before, there was a significant improvement in our gross margin as compared to 2023, which was driven by the higher proportion of revenues from other accelerators alongside a margin improvement in proton therapy. The 16% increase in OPEX reflects the continued investment in the future growth of the business. You can see in the chart on the right how the year-on-year evolution of OPEX is broken down. Research and development makes up the majority of the increase in OPEX as we accelerate projects including imaging, dynamic arc, conformal flash and development of cyclone icon. We are also making selected strategic investments to support the future growth of the business, mainly in sales and marketing, digitalization and infrastructure. The next slide shows the other item impacting our bottom line. As mentioned, Pantera raised 93 million euros as part of a Series A round during the year. As a result of this, IBA has recognized an 11.6 million revaluation gain through the PML. Separately, the contribution from Pantera, as consolidated under the equity method, is a loss of 2.1 million since the company continued its R&D investment and business development efforts. Also impacting the bottom line were some one-off projects. The main two large ones are our 4.2 million investment in the upgrade of our ERP system continuing over 2025 with the same order of magnitude as 2024, as well as the transformation of the organization to support profitable growth for 1.8 million. Alongside this, Argentina has had more than 100% inflation throughout 2024. Applying hyperinflation accounting under IFRS, the margin of the Buenos Aires PT installation contract is somewhat preserved, yet against this impact in financial results. Negative impact can still be expected until the completion of the local installation works by 2026, though with a reduced magnitude as per current expectations. I will now hand over to Thomas, who will comment on our cash and financial position.

Thank you, Henri. You will see on this slide the evolution of our cash position, which continues to be temporarily impacted by the working capital cycle. Actually, in standard conditions, we have a cash-light, a working capital-light operating model, as milestone payments collected from customers should at any time cover all expenses during the execution of any single contract. However, as you know, we had to deviate from that policy in the framework of the Spanish Ministry of Health's contracts, as usually back-ended payment terms were predetermined in the tender. The impact on the working capital position will gradually reverse thanks to the delivery of the first systems in Spain starting at the end of this year and then strongly accelerating over 2026 as deliveries trigger large milestone payments. Alongside this, there was Capex in line with previous year. thanks to the acquisition of RadCal and investment into Pantera. We also paid off close to 5 million of debts to financial institutions and real estate leasing in line with their amortization schedule. All the financing cash flows released mostly to movements in IFRS 16 lease liabilities. With 72.2 million gross cash at the end of the period, our balance sheet remains strong. Moving then to the net financial position, you will see it remains positive at 33 million and actually improved from end of June 2024, which was around 22 million. This reflecting a well-executed cash control and collections in the second half. Additionally, we have fantastic access to 60 million of credit lines. Now moving to new segment reporting related to company transformation, which would be effective from financial year 2025 So you will see then that this part of our forthcoming reporting period of time will be following the same format. As we previously communicated, IB has transformed its organizational structure to enable enhanced focus and accountability, allowing us to more effectively meet market demands. As of financial year 2025, IB will be organized into three entities. IBA Clinical, comprising proton therapy and dosimetric business units. IBA Technologies, comprising the radiopharma solution and industrial solutions business units, as well as engineering and supply chain. And then IBA Corporates, which will deal with IBA new ventures and investments and acts as the corporate center. These entities will then be three distinct reporting segments. This slide highlights the stream and changes that impact financials. First, the creation of IBA corporates will isolate OPEX costs such as IT infrastructure, legal, tax and others that are linked to the group rather than to individual business units. Looking at how this would impact 2024 if we were reporting this way, we would see the 5 million OPEX left for IBA corporates previously allocated across the business units. Also, All cooperated initiatives such as Pantera, MI2 and normal deandron therapy will be allocated to the corporate P&L. Second, let's focus on shared overhead allocation. These costs are indirect production costs. For example, inventory management, sourcing activities or planning that used to be allocated to the business units in function of productive hours. This approach impacted proton therapy. We started to bear a disproportionate share of costs due to the weight of proton therapy services while the other activities were growing. Improved allocation methodology will better reflect actual consumption of resources, resulting in 7 million shift of costs from proton therapy as part of the clinical to IBA technologies. Finally, as IBA technologies will be in charge of all engineering and supply chain activities for accelerator-based businesses, there will be a revenue and also margin transfer from proton therapy to IBA technologies. More concretely, this results in 29 million revenue transfer and associated arm's length profitability. This slide shows how the 2024 numbers would look, we stated, into these new formats, with ABA Clinical representing approximately 60% of total revenues and ABA Technologies the remaining 40%. You will see, more specifically, that the proton therapy rebates improves to a loss of 12.1 million, from 21.5 million under the new formats, better reflecting the intrinsic improving profitability of the business after a more adequate allocation of costs. I now pass back to Olivier to run through our updated guidance and shed light on our upcoming capital markets.

Thank you very much, Thomas. As we have highlighted in this presentation, the idea is at an inflection point. Overarching our guidance is our focus on delivering more sustainable profitability after very high growth periods over the past years. The time is now to invest in research and development to ensure that IBA will accelerate our leadership and expanding the use of its technology in its market. And this is true for all of our business units. proton therapy, nuclear medicine, industrial application, while also prudently factoring the uncertainty in the world in general and in our market in particular. We are therefore updating our mid-term outlook and today initiating a short-term guidance. Given our high backlog and our confidence in our execution capabilities, We expect Revit to reach at least €25 million in 2025. This will be driven by a positive Revit contribution from Proton Therapy after a €12 million negative contribution in 2024 under the new segment reporting. We have also updated our mid-term 2024-2028 outlook. We are expecting normalised front-loaded revenue growth of €5 to €7 following a high growth period driven by the Spanish proton therapy project order and post-COVID industrial solutions order intake. We are progressing towards reaching around 10% rebate margin, yet recognize the movements in our underlying market and the need to be prudent in our guidance. Such a outlook is well supported by the high backlog and notably proton therapy services contributing to growing and recurring income. We are also committing that our operational expenses shall represent a maximum of 30% of annual sales. Leveraging on our success with Pantera, IBA will continue to selectively invest into capital light venture. to support additional growth, Pantera once again being the first example. As outlined on the previous slide, the four main drivers supporting our mid-term outlook are the following. Operating leverage from the scale-up of our cotton therapy install base, expecting to more or less double over the next four to five years, reinforced by the growth of our underlying markets. An improvement of our proton therapy service gross margin, thanks to investment in cost efficiency initiatives. A normalization of our margins in proton therapy, thanks to improved market dynamics. And finally, a focus on OPEX control, limited to 30% of sales, while continuing investment in sales and marketing, and in particular in research and development. These elements will be further detailed and explained during our Capital Market Day. As we recently announced, we are super excited to be hosting a Capital Market Day on April 7th. At this event, we will be sharing a deeper insight into, amongst others, our strategy, profitability drivers, business segments, dynamics, and other growth opportunities. This will enable an open dialogue with our senior leadership team on the strategic priorities for each businesses. We will also be giving more detail on our clear roadmap to profitable roles with a disciplined execution plan. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the event. Please do get in contact if you need more information. You will see on the left here some further key dates for the financial calendar for the remainder of the year. Thank you for listening to the presentation. We will now move to Q&A.

Thank you, Olivier. If you would like to ask a question, please use the raise hand function on the Teams platform, unmute yourself and state your name and company. Thank you.

Yes, hello, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. David Wegman from ING. First question on proton therapy and the proton therapy losses, which were still quite significant in 2024. Was it mostly a question of executing, let's say, loss making or low profitability equipment orders, and also a question of operating leverage? And then, yeah, already anticipating maybe a bit on the CMD is what you expect from PT in terms of margin by 2028, trying there. Then on other accelerator, so you achieved still a very high margin of 18% a bit. So, yeah, what is basically sustainable here? Should we expect a kind of normalization also maybe because of, lower top line growth, or even maybe a bit of a decline, then maybe I'll limit myself at three questions for now. Why are you dropping the 2026 guidance? So was there going to be a bit of an accident there? So what kind of miss should we have been expecting? What went wrong, basically? Or is it more of a phasing timing thing? Thank you.

So I will take the proton therapy part. No surprise on the loss they were expecting as we are basically executing on a strategic plan. And it's indeed linked to a conversion of backlog of orderly day that was taken in a more competitive environment. i i i would like to stress here that we have never taken an order with negative goals margin so all orders that we have in the backlog are with positive cross margin but the one that was taken in a more competitive market landscape were at a lower cost margin and it's indeed the execution of this order intake with lower cost margin as well as the investment to basically ramp up uh the it's it's the investment to ramp up is the investment into service productivity is the investment in the competitive positioning of the product that we are executing at the same time that we deliver this backlog with lower margins this is why we feel now it's time to give specific guidance on phototherapy and basically disclose that 2024 was the last loss-making we are for proton therapy as we are going to both enjoy an operating leverage both on the service side and equipment side with a more favorable backlog conversion mix when it comes to gross margin of the previous order intake. as we are unfolding this uh you can expect basically proton therapy in terms of gross margin to slowly go back to uh let's say a similar gross margin than in the rest of the of the business so you know yeah normalizing towards uh what we see in other accelerators at the 2028 horizon i will maybe leave the floor to ori to speak about other accelerator and take back the mic to speak about the new guidance.

So, David, if I got your question correctly, you asked a bit how you should think about the IBA technologies margins going forward. So 2024, with regards to gross margin, for me, are within range of what you should be able to expect in the longer run. And if I look at rebate margin evolution, As said before, we are going to invest selectively in a few things from an R&D point of view, development of next generation of machines, some investments in chemistry, but on a normalized basis. I think the rebate margin you have observed for IPA technologies in 2024 are within range of normal margin for that activity.

Coming back to your question on the guidance, David, basically our trajectory broadly remains unchanged. We are including in our guidance the need to invest in research and development to actually consolidate our future growth trajectory and build upon the dynamic in the market. This is true for proton therapy, and I want to come back to this clinical study of MD Anderson showing a significant positive survival rate for proton therapy. We believe this is major news, and therefore, as we were looking at our proton therapy strategic plan, while preserving a return to a positive rebate in proton therapy, we have decided to invest slightly more in research and development, not so much on the product side, but more on the market access side, as we believe the time has come for proton therapy to claim a more fair share of the treatment of cancer, where we now can demonstrate with a level one clinical evidence that we can make a difference. So we believe this is smart money invested into the potential of proton therapy. slightly more investment in research and development for proton therapy in our new guidance, and the same for nuclear medicine. As you have seen, we have fantastic opportunities in the terranotic space with Pantera and Astatine 211, while our new guidance is taking into account a slight increase in research and development to make sure that we can capitalize on this fantastic opportunity. So there is no accident. There is no miss. In the updated guidance, there is a very conscious decision to capitalize on what we see as potential game changer for IBA, both in nuclear medicine and in proton therapy. When it comes to growth, we also wanted to be mindful of the... First of all, we are coming out of a very strong growth period at a moment where the world has changed with more uncertainty. So we wanted to be more prudent with our guidance when it comes to top-line growth, hence the update in our mid-term.

outlook thanks very much and a very quick follow-up exactly on on that so on the five to seven seven percent sales carrier it's clear that you will have normally a big bump in sales from the ortega contract i would say 2025 2026 or should we understand best the growth potential of iba after the ortega delivery and being i mean i'm i'm aware that you will always probably have this bump etc but If we look beyond, so past Ortega deliveries, how should we be thinking about top line, top line growth? Is it low single digit? Is it a decline? Thank you.

It's really the five to seven guidance that we have given.

Okay. Okay. Now, I was referring to the trajectory, let's say, in the meantime, but okay, fine. Understood.

Good afternoon, Laura Robat from the Grove Petercam. Thank you for taking my question. First of all, is there any impact of the new reporting system on the postponement of your 10% rebate margin guidance? Second, would you say that your 20 million rebates guidance for 2025 is conservative? And I might have a follow-up. Thank you.

I can take the first question indeed. The first question was whether there was an impact from the new reporting methodology on the updated guidance. I would say the impact is only minor. Olivier has explained indeed which were the main drivers for revisiting the guidance. Of course, as you have noted, the new IFRS 15 revenue recognition approach leads us to a slight impact in terms of margins, including rebate margin, but I would say it's minor as compared to drivers mentioned by Olivier. 0.24% impact on Rebid as such.

And on the 25 million Rebid for 2025, we said at least in the sense of we focus on exceeding that 25 million in 2025, we just felt it was useful for you to have an anchor point or a starting point for 2025.

Okay, thank you. And then just to follow up, how confident are you that you will reach this 10% rebate margin in 2028? Because as I understand, the impact is mainly coming from these additional R&D investments, but does it mean that if you wouldn't do these investments, you would reach this margin sooner?

That's correct. So, and this is maybe one of the reasons also we give a guidance on the OPEX, because there's a different way to reach 10%. It's either coming from the top line and the quality of the deal we are going to have if our investments are, you know, correctly, let's say, done. And if not, we can always correct the trajectory with a reduction of costs should the investment not be relevant anymore. So we are confident enough, let's say, to give it as a guidance.

Okay, thank you.

hi this is richard on for tech capital in in germany and thank you for taking my question i would like to follow up on the guidance you put out for 2025 of 25 million euros when i look at your rebate level this year in proton therapy this was at minus 12 million euro under the new reporting methodology. So if you achieve profitability there, as you expect, this alone should lift you up by at least 12 million in 2025. And this alone should lift you above the 25 million euros you guide it to. So should we expect the other areas like other accelerators and so on to decrease in Revit?

this year um or how should we expect this rather conservative 25 million euro guidance in light of this so thank you richard for the question as a as a as we have sped out indeed 25 million seems to be a minimum that's the reason why we have phrased it as an at least we we wanted to give you an anchor point I think your reading is correct. Proton therapy will return to a positive rebate in the course of the year. For IBA technologies, as we have discussed it, we consider 2024 to be a particularly difficult comparable year on year. And as we have highlighted, in IBA technologies, there will be a few investments in research and development, combined with a slightly lower overall activity in terms of backlog conversion. So we expect a slight pinch in IBA technologies as compared to 2024. That is a very high comparable and a very modest increase in overall corporate cost. So that's a bit how we see it. But I like the way you read the 25 million as being an at least number that we work hard to beat.

I hope that clarifies. Yeah, that was helpful. Thank you very much.

Of course.

Next questions. Hi, Carlos Morano from Premier Martin. I just want to ask you a bit on the top line, the five to seven. You know, on one hand, you're very kind of bullish, new data, going to invest. Proton therapy should gain share, you said. And, you know, there's more old people, more cancer. On one hand, you talk a bullish story on proton therapy. Plus, there are a number of growth drivers for the other accelerator business, which has been growing much quicker. five to seven percent is is that a very conservative kind of medium-term growth rate for the business um it's not like the base numbers are you know you're selling a lot of uh protein therapy machines today you're selling a kind of modest amount i appreciate this this kind of big spanish contract going through but is five to seven percent a kind of conservative number i think a five to seven person is uh

you know what we believe a reasonable estimation in a long cycle business is in an uncertain world let's put it that way so it's a number we are comfortable with is it conservative is it not difficult to say but as we take this guidance very seriously we want to come with something that we believe we can achieve or beat

So worldwide GDP growth is expected at 3.5%. We guide on something that is probably twice as much on the high end. We say it's front-end loaded, back to the question of David, because with backlog conversion, we sort of have a pointed idea of how much we are going to convert. We know we are going in the first years of the guidance, we are going to come out at a high point. With the business cycles that we have, it's it's hard to be audacious beyond a time horizon of two or three years. So I'll let you judge and make your own assessment of what would be the right underlying growth dynamic, but we thought again that saying that five to seven percent front-end loaded was probably the most accurate and fast way to describe what we would see as solid ground.

Yeah, I can see what you're trying to do. You're really trying to kind of be, I think you are trying to be conservative, both on the margin outlook and on the top line outlook. But would I be right to say over that medium term, you'd still expect the non-proton therapy business to grow quicker. So if it's five to seven, it's less for proton therapy, more for the other business. And that isn't that much growth for proton therapy if you start to take more share of that treatment space.

yeah olivia let you comment on proton therapy i can comment on the other activities maybe talking about md anderson yeah i think i think on proton therapy i i know you know and i'm always uh hesitating to say for sure but uh as we have alluded in our uh uh presentation uh we know we have sold uh you know 76 plus uh system and 40 of them are today generating service revenue and we will convert them uh over the period the review here so i know the service business will grow significantly the question is indeed in a long cycle business such as proton therapy with a very good news like the one we have highlighted and by the way more clinical data will come We are reasonably confident that we will see more deals in proton therapy than less deal in proton therapy over the next five years compared to the last five years. We see a very dynamic environment with a number of tenders that will conclude in 2025. And some of them, we have no sign, let's say that our market shares would be very different than the one we have experienced in 2024. So I believe the deal flow in 2025 will be quite good. And it started quite well in 25 with the announcement of two of these one in India. So I expect the I expect I expect to see more deals, let's say, over the next five years and over the last five years. So to see some growth in phototherapy as well. So phototherapy will continue to grow, fueled by service, which is almost certain because it's sole contract that are currently under installation and will convert into service business in the period under review. And we are reasonably confident that we'll see more deals over the next five years. Once again, in an uncertain world, more uncertain world than when we give our guidance in 2022. So, yeah, so photography will grow for sure and contribute, therefore, to the five to seven percent growth of the group.

Thank you. And maybe just to complement, because last element, and I will be super short. First, we are well aware that in terms of value creation, margin will prevail over growth. And therefore, we would want to be in a position of strength as to be able to protect our margins as we negotiate deals. That's one for me, key element that I want you to be aware of. Another element of our guidance that we have not been asked question about yet, but that matters in terms of growth momentum are our new ventures. That's taken separately and with a lot of ifs and with a lot of required prudence could be acting as a massive growth accelerator or multiplier otherwise. So I hope you appreciate some kind of a dual logic here, which is to say mature activity focus on prudent development, focus on protecting the economics of IBA, continue to investment into the future next to a capitalized growth engines that can be Pantera, Astatine 211 partnership, or MI2 to list a few.

That's great. I still, I suppose everything's growing. I understand you're going to be prudent, but if we, you know, it just seems that that guidance doesn't really presume much for proton therapy equipment. And I would have, yeah, but you're hopeful there. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I get the gist.

Stay tuned on the news flow.

other questions yes this is richard bushback again uh from tech capital in germany and i have one question on your competitive environment so you you showed this slide showing that you sold five systems last year and and maybe on which i suppose is the only serious competitor to to think about right now sold four systems which kind of is a i think a new record for them So do you see these guys taking share? Do you compete against them in tenders? What can you tell us about the pressure you feel from your competitors right now?

So I think as a competitive landscape, we have indeed Mevion and Hitachi. So that's the two, let's say, credible competitors we have out there. We are not losing market share to Mevion. I think we have a product, a more mature product, a more versatile product, superior product by any means. I think Mevion's focus is really on China, where they have been able to sell. You mentioned four units. In my view, Mevion sold two units last year. One in the US and one in China. That's it. So that's basically a competitive landscape. I think we are able to win in front of Mevion and we are able to win with a significant premium.

Okay, because the slide shows 56% share for IBA and 44% for Mevion. And I interpreted this as five to four systems. Because you sold five last year, right?

Yes. Yeah. To complement, what he means is that it's difficult to have confirmation what really is an order from Mevion.

I mean, the difference between Mevion and us is we are a listed company. So, as I said, we recognize an order. It's difficult, let's say, to read the noise and the signal. When you're not a listed company, every term sheet, every letter of intent, everything is a deal. Whereas for us, you know, I have many signed term sheets. without dog payment and I don't consider them as a deal.

Okay, thank you very much. Other questions? I see many digital hands raised. Who's next?

Is it my turn actually? Because I'm second, I think.

You are second, but the number one is not speaking.

Okay, okay, okay. Sorry, so David Wegman again from RNG. Just sorry, coming back and I was a little bit confused on the, I understand there will be R&D investment or a step up in 2025, maybe 2026. I first understood that it was a step up in PT to invest in R&D, but more focused on the access, the market access. I'm not sure to have fully understood that. And then I kind of understood that the, uh, in another answer that the investment was actually in, uh, technology.

Um, so, yeah, if you can, it goes, uh, historically ideas always made a lot of investment into the product, but now as clinical data becomes available. uh you know we need to uh we need you know in partnership with our uh customer to basically compile all this data and uh make it available to the payers so the payers can understand that the clinical value of proton therapy is actually superior for a number of indication hence improve the environment the reimbursement landscape for proton therapy which will propel the demand for proton therapy so historically we have not invested a lot into that space and strategically and because of the tailwind that we see in the clinical evidence generation in phototherapy we believe it's the time for us to get involved somehow into this which is reflected in the investment we've put in our guidance

is i was mentioning nuclear medicine and maybe i will let the i will let the flow to angry no and and again we we are all aware that we talk about you know one percent of rebate margin is between five and six million so it's these are small amounts for iba technologies it's it's uh two to three so so these are relatively uh still modest amount but it's true david that you know especially for radio pharma solution There is huge development in the diagnostic field where IB has the chance again to capture a fair share of the value it generates on its equipment. So in the next 18 months or so, we are going to invest wisely and carefully to be able to be to make sure we have the place we deserve in that market that shows immense potential for the company. Next to that there are some smaller investments to keep our equipment ahead of the game and minor investment as I've explained in the field of wastewater treatment that again shows massive potential otherwise. So these are the few elements that indeed will keep us busy with regards to research and development in the coming 18 months or so.

Okay, now very clear, super interesting. And when you say that the margin of 18% was sustainable, so it's to be understood with 2025 being a bit of an exception with a pinch, you said, on the margin.

Correct. So if you ask me to comment specifically on 2024 margins again, so what I've said is that it's a normal high or it's a normal plus year. with very strong development in that year and an impact of certain investments in R&D to be expected in the course of 2025, which is what I've called the pitch. Obviously, you should expect from us that those investments are going to yield results and that we are going to come back up quickly to what you would say is a normal margin for that activity.

Okay, very clear. Thanks for the clarification.

That's why we're here. Mathias? Yes, hi, can you hear me? Yeah, perfectly. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for taking my questions. I just want to come back on the guidance. If I look at the new midterm guidance and I compare it to the old one and also what you said just yet, Olivier, It seems that you downgrade your revenue growth for 2025 from, I would say, 15% to 7% plus. So I just try to understand why are you going to grow slower in 2025? What are the main drivers of that?

As we are giving in the guidance, I think we... We say it will be front loaded, so we didn't say 25 will go 5 to 7%.

Yeah. OK, but if you grow 26, 28, 5, 7%, it seems that the 5, 7% is really very conservative. OK. Maybe then on the clinical evidence building in proton therapy, can you maybe just re-explain what's the dynamic here? How will this increase your addressable market? And will this also have an impact on reimbursement? And have there been any relevant changes in that recently?

I'm not sure I get the question. Can you repeat, please? Is the clinical evidence going to influence the overall addressable market, I think?

Yes, I think indeed. We can circulate the MD Anderson study. What is the MD Anderson study telling me? It's one of the first randomized clinical trials that was conducted on head and neck. What it has shown is a non-inferiority of autotherapy, but a dramatic impact on the side effect. which, by the way, has always been the claim of proton therapy. But what is even more exciting is that when they follow a patient, we see an increase of survival rate with a proton therapy arm, which we believe will lead to indeed, you know, insurance companies cannot ignore it. So we we see the overall landscape and the overall reception of proton therapy, if they are backed up by clinical data, such as the one of Andy Anderson, starting to be, how can I say that, difficult for insurance company to ignore. And by the way, it's a number that is always, you know, stick on my mind, is that the overall radiation therapy spending in oncology represents 5% of the total spending in the US and in Europe to treat 50% of the patients. So I believe not only proton therapy but also the overall radiation therapy space needs to go and claim for the fair share of the value we bring to the patients. And with clinical studies like the one of MD Anderson, I think we have very strong scientific and clinical demonstrations to do that. It will take time. It will take more than one study, but more will come. We see another five to ten clinical studies that will be published within the next five years. With this flow of clinical evidence, we believe we can influence the reimbursement certainly in major addiction like in Europe and to justify a better reimbursement for proton therapy for a number of indications and improving the penetration of proton therapy and the adoption of proton therapy and creating business opportunity for us.

All right, thank you. Maybe one last question. On free cash flow for next year, what can we expect in terms of CAPEX and working capital? Do you need further working capital investments or is your presently peak working capital?

Okay. Hi Matthias, Thomas speaking. So your question is on 2025 prospects in terms of free cash flow, more specifically impact of CAPEX Working capitals on the Capex France, what you can expect is something that is in line with the past years. We have no specific investments to report. We've already commented on some other elements investment-wise impacting the P&L, most notably the ERP system. Then, regarding working capital, actually, as you know, we have, in principle, a working capital light type of model where we have advance payments from customers covering our expenses on our contracts. You know as well that the key driver in the current working capital cycle is the Spanish contracts from the tender we won end of 2022. And indeed, it's a large order, 10 systems, meaning we progressed throughout manufacturing and procurement for those systems over 23, 24, and with the first deliveries at the end of this year, 25. It's being understood that deliveries are the key drivers for next milestone payment collections. It means that indeed you can expect some impacts over 2025 until the time you start deliveries. But then 2026, you'll see a very marked acceleration in deliveries, hence in payment collections, hence as well a prompt reversal of the working capital situations. only know when you look at 2025 we'll continue having some impacts uh from the these contracts uh what is important to mention as well is that these are very well anticipated those were known when you want the tender and there's also the reason why we adequately uh sized uh our credit lines which remain unused at the end of uh last year uh so intended still to use these lines from time to time as needs be, as we have shorter term working capital movements that need to be addressed.

And we have otherwise, as you should expect, strong cash discipline, which was demonstrated in the course of last year, and we will continue those efforts onwards. Thank you. Any other questions? I see your hand is still raised, but I guess you're covered.

I'm covered, yes.

Thank you. I might ask one more question if that's okay. I presume the Capital Markets Day will be webcast or is it just physical?

It's webcasted and physical. We would, of course, love to welcome you here in our premises But if you can't join us in person, it will be webcasted, of course. Thank you. All right.

Well, in this case, thank you very much. And on behalf of everyone at IDEA, I would like to thank you for your continued interest and support of the company. We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming Capital Market Days in person or webcast. and looking forward to update you on our progress over the year. Thank you very much and speak to you soon. Bye-bye. Thank you. Thank you.