Welcome to the Corbion Half Year Results 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. Welcome to Corbion'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. Corbion 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. 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 earnings calls. Here are the headlines. Organic sales grew 2.1% in the first half. The important point is the acceleration in Q2, up 8.5% to EUR 337.4 million. Volume and mix were positive at 4%, while pricing was -1.9%, mainly reflecting contract dynamics and prior year comparables. Adjusted EBITDA was EUR 88.8 million with Q2 at EUR 51 million. In Health & Nutrition, both nutrition and biomaterials delivered double-digit volume mix growth, and in Functional Ingredients & Solutions, we saw positive volume mix and sequential margin recovery. Free cash flow was negative in H1, but in line with seasonal patterns. We are maintaining our free cash flow guidance while refining the EBITDA margin outlook. 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 Ingredients & Solutions. 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 stayed steady, and our natural preservation platform continues to win, especially as customers look for cleaner label, regulation-ready solutions. We also saw volume mix 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. Here, food wins are real, momentum is positive, and margin recovery has begun. Moving now to Health & Nutrition. Health & 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 debottlenecking and yield gains at our factory in Brazil, as well as progressing on our astaxanthin development milestones and a new DHA-rich algae patent. The pharma segment was affected by phasing, but overall, the broader contracts and pipelines support a stronger second half there. The message here is straightforward. Supply tightness is not just a challenge for our algae omega-3 platform, it is a catalyst. In the first half, Health & Nutrition delivered a small organic sales 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 what and why we are excited about the longer-term outlook for our algae omega-3 business. First, Peru, which supplies roughly 20% of the world's fish meal and fish oil, has significantly reduced fishing quotas. At the same time, the risk of another El Niño event continues really to track anchovy stocks and disrupt supply, and the result is there, 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. This is really bigger than a cyclical price spike.
The demand for omega-3 continue to grow across aquaculture, but also penetration in human health, while catch fish oil supply simply cannot keep pace there. The industry is running into a structural constraint. This is where algae omega-3s change the equation. Algae omega-3 is not dependent on fishing quota, it's not dependent 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 Corbion's algae omega-3s. We believe the market has moved from asking whether algae omega-3s is a viable alternative, to now recognizing that it is an increasingly necessary solution.
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 positions Corbion exceptionally well. 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 EBITDA 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 Olivier. In the first half of 2026, Corbion sales were EUR 631.1 million, compared with EUR 645.6 million in H1 2025. On a reported basis, this represents a decline of -2.2%. Organic sales basis, sales increased with 2.1%. The organic sales growth was driven by volume mix of +4%, partly offset by pricing of -1.9%.
The pricing effect reflects lower prices towards the joint venture in Functional Ingredients & 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 -4.3% of sales, largely driven by the depreciation of the U.S. dollar against the euro. The average U.S. dollar rate in H1 2026 was 1.17 versus a rate of 1.09 in H1 2025. In Q2, sales were EUR 337.4 million, compared with EUR 315.9 million last year. Organic sales growth was +8.5%, driven by volume mix growth of +10.7% and pricing of -2%. Turning to adjusted EBITDA, we delivered EUR 88.8 million in the first half, compared with EUR 106.6 million last year. This represents a reported decline of -16.7% and an organic decline of -8%.
The year-on-year organic EBITDA decline was driven by reduced pricing in Health & Nutrition and product mix effects in Functional Ingredients & Solutions. In Q2, adjusted EBITDA was EUR 51.0 million, compared with EUR 52.5 million last year. Important to note, on an organic basis, Q2 adjusted EBITDA grew by 4.2%. Also sequentially, we've seen a adjusted EBITDA margin increase of 220 basis points Q2 versus Q1. Looking further down the profit and loss statement, operating profit was EUR 42.1 million in the first half of 2026, compared with EUR 63.5 million in H1 2025. Depreciation, amortization of our fixed assets amounted to EUR 42.9 million, compared to EUR 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 dedicated lactic acid plant. Adjustment in the first half amounted to EUR 3.8 million in operating profits.
This includes advice costs linked to a Spanish tax claim, which I already mentioned in Q1, advisory 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 EUR 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 receipt related to the Spanish claim. For the full year, I anticipate an effective tax rate between 23%-25%. If we now look into Functional Ingredients & Solutions. Sales in Functional Ingredients & Solutions were EUR 492.7 million in the first half. In Q2, sales were EUR 256.7 million, compared to EUR 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 foods, 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 -0.6% in H1 and -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 EBITDA in FIS was EUR 50.7 million in the first half. In Q2, adjusted EBITDA was EUR 29.4 million compared to EUR 28.1 million last year. The margin in H1 was 10.3% compared with 11.9% last year.
We have seen a nice improvement in Q2 versus Q1, where we have seen in FIS a margin step-up of 250 basis points, driven by disciplined cost reduction as well as higher sales, leading to better leverage on fixed costs. Moving to Health & Nutrition. Sales in Health & Nutrition were EUR 138.4 million in the first half. In Q2, sales were EUR 80.7 million compared with EUR 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 mix 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 delivered double-digit volume mix 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 EBITDA in Health & Nutrition, this was EUR 38.1 million in the first half. In Q2, we've seen an EBITDA of EUR 21.6 million compared with EUR 24.1 million last year. The H1 adjusted EBITDA 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 TotalEnergies Corbion joint venture, these figures are shown on a 100% basis. Sales were EUR 79.1 million in the first half. In Q2, sales were EUR 42.3 million compared with EUR 30 million last year. Organic sales growth was 21.6% in H1 and +44% in Q2, supported by a strong demand of PLA plastics, particularly in Asia. The adjusted EBITDA 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, TotalEnergies and advisers. Moving to investments, working capital, and free cash flow. Our CapEx program remains disciplined and focused on supporting growth. The CapEx investment in H1 were approximately EUR 27 million, consisting out of EUR 17 million in maintenance and EUR 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 EUR 37 million in the 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 overdues remains stable. Our overall free cash flow was negative with EUR 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 EUR 85 million-EUR 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%-6%. We also maintain our free cash flow guidance of EUR 85 million-EUR 90 million, and this reflects our confidence in stronger cash generation in the second half, supported by EBITDA improvement, disciplined CapEx, and working capital normalization. For adjusted EBITDA, we are refining our outlook to above 16% compared with the previous indication of around 17%. 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, 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.
With that, now let us move to Q&A.
Yes. Thank you, Olivier. 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. I've 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? Has the PLA demand benefited from any temporary competitive advantage versus petrochemical plastics? 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 FY 2026, given the sharp move in fish oil market? Does the 30% Health & Nutrition margin outlook fully capture your current omega-3 pricing, or is there upside if spot price persists? My third question is regarding the margin guidance. Can you help bridge the move from 17% to 16% margin guidance?
Specifically, how much of the downgrade reflects Middle East related energy price and raw material cost, how much flexibility do you have to offset these costs through pricing and productivity? Thanks.
Thank you, Setu, I will answer the FIS volume and the PLA question, Peter, the Health & Nutrition pricing and the margin guidance. Let me start with PLA. You've seen indeed the volume of the JV as well, growing over 20% in H1 and 44% in Q2. What the JV has experienced there is really a benefit, what's going on primarily in China, this is really across the board. Of course, this is translating, as you know, the conversion ratio between, of course, lactic acid and PLA is 1.3- 1.4x . You need 30% to 40% more lactic acid to produce PLA. This is driving volume of lactic to the JV substantially up. What we see happening in the market is really a big shift in terms of 3D printing.
What we mean by 3D printing is really the industrial move to 3D printing, not just the home printers there. That's a very strong underlying trend that we've seen in China for a while, that is accelerating. Basically, we see this is not only happening for Corbion, but for the overall industrial players. Everybody is seeing the same momentum. We believe this 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 joint venture that is going for price increase on the second half. Price remained depressed on the first half of PLA at low level. Now we are really working on, and the JV is working on restoring some pricing across the second half of the year.
Don't see that as a one-off from the JV. We see that the growth pattern is remaining really strong also on the second half on our basically lactic acid order book through the joint venture till the end of December. Now, Peter, on the second question.
Setu, thanks for the question. The first one is on omega-3 pricing. If you look to it, we anticipate a significant price increase if you compare H2 this year versus H1 this year. That is reflected in the guidance, which I just gave of around 30%, because currently, if you look to our H1 number, it's 27.5%. 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 contract part. From a pricing perspective, I would say Q2 the lowest one, if you look sequentially, then moving up. If there are upsides is 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 EBITDA margin 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 EUR 10 million. Since that time, and mainly sulfuric acid, has even further increased. Now we face a kind of gross bill of EUR 15 million-EUR 20 million, which is partly mitigated by cost discipline actions and pricing, but not fully. That's the kind of prime reason, Setu.
Thanks. Just one follow-up on the algae oil, how much of these contracts are already done, and how many will come for roll forward in H2?
I think so, as we said in Q1, as it also two-thirds of our business on major contracts that were longer term were already contracted, and will not see a massive positive price impact on this fiscal year. As we've said, basically, most of these contracts are ending by December 2026, and will be renewed in the month to come. We are basically entering now in the phase of a renegotiation for the next years, on this longer-term agreement for aquaculture. On the rest of our business, where we usually negotiate either on a six-month or a full-year basis, which is our pet nutrition sales, our human nutrition and the non-contracted aqua business, where we have really open terms where we are going, and we have already increased prices substantially in H2.
You have to distinguish the longer-term aquaculture contracts that are still running until the end of December and will be renewed for 2027 at higher prices from the current open business in pet, in human, and in non-aqua, long-term contracted. This is how you have to see it. Already, 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. Sorry. Can you maybe talk a little bit about expected pricing levels? I think in the past you hinted at confidence of EUR 4,000-EUR 5,000. Is that still a valid assumption? Also, what kind of duration are you going for, and are your customers willing to discuss this again, two, three-year contracts or is it even longer term? If you can offer a little bit of granularity on those negotiations. 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. A bit of update on that would also be interesting. Thank you.
Okay, Wim. I will take the omega-3 and Peter, the PLA divestment. On omega-3, as we also disclosed in the past, the current running longer term agreement that are running until the end of December 2026, were between EUR 4,000 and EUR 5,000, we disclosed earlier. Obviously, the spot market now is much higher than that. And on our spot customers, we have much higher pricing than that. I do not speculate on the price coming from 2027, 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 negotiation are starting now, to be implemented as from January 2027. We will look, again, at a longer-term agreement in the range of two to three years, at higher pricing.
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 these contracts. Still the outcome is ahead of us and we cannot comment more in detail on price level. Obviously, we are looking to, of course, improve pricing on this longer term agreement. What you see on fish oil prices that indeed, this 60% price increase and, of course, will also depend on volume and the ability also to have security of supply on longer term, because we see that indeed, 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.
The next big fishing season will be back in March, April next year, 2027, yeah? When El Niño is expected to soften. Let's not speculate about what might happen in 2027. What we know is that now we have favorable conditions to renegotiate our longer term agreement now in the course of H2 for the next years. Peter, on PLA?
Yeah. No, thanks, Wim, for the question. I will do it relatively high level unfortunately, because we continue with the process. We work really closely with prospective buyers, TotalEnergies and our advisors. 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 divestment process itself.
Okay, understood. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Wim. Our next question this morning comes from Fernand de Boer from Degroof Petercam. Fernand?
Yes, good morning. Fernand de Boer from Degroof Petercam. On your guidance for the second half, you actually say full year for its Health & Nutrition of 30%. Quick and dirty, that means that in FIS, you have to go to around 13% in the second half. Could you give a little bit the idea what is driving that? Maybe it's better volumes, but certainly if you look in the second quarter, despite the cost increase, you should also expect a little bit more leverage with the strong volume growth. Could you give a little bit idea on that?
Yeah. Thanks, Fernand. You always calculate indeed rightly, let's start with that. If I say Health & Nutrition around 30%, actually it will be mildly higher than 30% is the expecting there. If you look in terms of FIS, you indeed see a strong recovery in Q3 versus the Q2. If you look 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 Bray from Berenberg. Sebastian?
Hello, good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. I can throw two, please. The first is on outlook for 2027 and raw material costs. You've been quite clear in saying long-term contracts in fish oil, they might be beneficial in 2027, we wait and see. I'm curious about what sugar costs would do in 2027 if they're still modestly deflationary or flat, given current hedges and spot prices. 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. On outlook, as we communicated, if you think about sugar input cost, we are really very well covered for 2027 at attractive pricing on sugar. Obviously, we are also monitoring constantly, of course, the current spot price versus the longer-term outlook. When we know basically what are the flows for sugar producers in the regions where we do operate, we took decision to almost fully hedge our sugar for 2027 and for early even 2028 at attractive price compared to the average we would pay in 2026.
You know 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, what would be the impact of El Niño on some crops around the globe, as there are some concerns that other crop might be also impacted by El Niño. We are very well covered. On that we feel confident and good. The other input cost we discussed, of course, related to the Middle East situation is the sulfuric acid, where we do not necessarily expect the situation to get better in 2027. As you know, this sulfuric acid is produced from sulfur out of oil refineries in the Middle East, we, of course, do not have any visibility on whenever this conflict might end.
We are still planning to have an inflated sulfuric acid cost across 2027. 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. 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, indeed food preservatives, where we see, again, on some of these antimicrobials, natural, still the demand is really strong, and the reformulation to clean the label is still really strong. 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 high protein following GLP-1 reformulation.
This is driving very nice upside across H1, but also H2 this year, for these reformulated products with high protein content. This is driven not only Functional Ingredients & Solutions, but also preservation as we are moving also our mold inhibitors into these categories. That's primarily U.S.-driven 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 Lanschot Kempen. 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. 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? Then following that question on free cash flow, there appears to be quite some pressure basically on H2 to deliver. Would you argue that it's mostly a profitability story or normalization of receivables or perhaps both? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Eric, and let me take basically both of the questions. 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 & 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 EBITDA 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. Accounts receivable is, look, this is even the monthly phasing from that perspective.
We've seen basically cash coming in in the course of July as well. Free cash flow delivery is, if you look a bit to all the components, it's a higher EBITDA H2 versus H1, normalization of working capital, which we see in a yearly trend amplified, I would say, with this accounts receivable position.
Understood. Thank you.
Okay, very good. Our next and last question comes from Robert Jan Vos from ABN AMRO. Robert Jan?
Yes. Hi, good morning, all. I have a few questions left. First, I want to ask you about CapEx. You spent EUR 27.6 in the first half. It is quite a bit lower than that. What is your view for investments in the second half of the year? Maybe related to this and also looking at the strong volume growth in H&N, do you foresee capacity investments for the algae business shortly, or can you handle that still by debottlenecking? That's my first question.
I think on the H&N capacity and volume, if you might recall what we presented at CMD was a three years investment plan at that time. That already kicked off in 2024, 2025 and 2026. It was across that period. Actually recently, we are busy with installing a new fermenter in our plant, gradual debottleneck. That will bring additional capacity in the course of 2027. We are well on track on that, and this is the final step of this three years CapEx program related to H&N that we discussed at the time of the CMD. That's well on track and we are on time as a gradual debottleneck.
The other thing, obviously, that we see and that I mentioned in my narrative is that the plant is further improving yield and efficiency in a quite impressive way. 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 that time, by the end of 2026, we would have to make a decision on what's next, because we would come to the end of this debottlenecking program and would have to make a big decision on what are the next steps for our algae business. There is more to come probably when we discuss before year-end on what the decision might be, which will be either around further debottleneck or eventually a brownfield. We're not yet at the point of decision there.
Far, with the investment that is running now, we will have enough capacity till end of 2028, early 2029 for algae. On CapEx buildup, Peter, if you want to take that one?
No. The outlook, Robert Jan, is still the same. There's always a bit of phasing, frankly speaking, between H1 and H2. You are right that the CapEx basically is around EUR 30 million, but for the moment, I would still guide around this 6% of sales.
Okay. That implies that it could go up a little bit in the second half, right?
Versus the first half, you are right.
Yeah. Okay. I have another question. Sorry to come back on pricing in H&N, I thought you said that the low point is probably reached in Q2 and that you expect sequential improvement in the second half.
Does that also imply that it will improve to positive numbers in the second half? Is that also, on what you said about the contract and the negotiations taking place end of the year, a bridge too far, or should we really anticipate positive pricing in the second half in H&N?
No, if you look in the combination of the second half, i.e., Q3, Q4, there is only a mildly positive element if you do year-on-year comparison.
Yes. Okay. Correct. Understood. All right. My last question, also on the PLA disposal, you already said something on that. 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 timing wise?
The good news is that the summer is quite long in the Netherlands, Robert Jan. No, 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.
We have a return questioner on the line. Fernand. Fernand, please go ahead.
Actually, I had the question on the yield. How significant is that yield improvement in algae? I thought already that previous time you were already up to the max. Going forward, is it then still more possible, or could you elaborate a little bit on that one?
No, obviously, we always think because it's relatively new technology, when you speak about these algae dark fermentation, as we call it. These are things we've been learning over the last five years, if you remember when we started this journey. The first step was the major one where we had massive improvement, now it's really incremental, with a few percent. Think about, of course, a very few percent incremental every time with the same amount of sugar, with the same, of course, still on the ground is directly flowing to the bottom line. We moved at that time, and we discussed that with what we call our DHA 2.0 strain. We moved to 2.5-3, now we are the 3.5 strain.
We always believe we reached the limit. The R&D in San Francisco, our R&D for the algae business is always coming with great development. It's really now, of course, more modest than the first big steps we've made when we broke even the business back in 2022, but it's still substantial. Obviously, the more we are reaching the limit. Do not expect tens of percent anymore. It's nicely incremental. 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. Now we are really benefiting from all the knowledge we've built over the last years. Yeah, you don't speak about tens of percent, Fernand.
Okay. To come back on the capacity question.
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 seventh tank in this field, I also extend capacity"?
No, indeed, that's a way you could have a reasoning. There is also, if you remember, on our algae strategy, there are different drivers. Obviously, volume into the current categories is a big one. 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. 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.
The second, which is not yet something we are able to disclose is, but we mentioned is, are we going to also grow beyond DHA omega-3, which is basically our program as astaxanthin, that you might have seen the recent collaboration with KAS on that, where we really look at a second step to grow beyond omega-3. Back to the capacity, it is also making sure we have a versatile plan that we can basically trade up margin by doing a higher grade product that we can valorize at a higher price and higher margin.
Okay. Thank you.
Yes.
This concludes our conference call this morning. We would like to thank everybody who joined the conference call and the webcast. Before we go, I would 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.corbion.com. 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.