Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Corbion Full Year 2023 results. With us today are Olivier Rigaud, CEO, and Eddy van Rhede van der Kloot, CFO. My name is Peter Kazius, Head of Investor Relations. This morning we published our Full Year 2023 results. You can find the press release and presentation on our website if you go to www.corbion.com, Investor Relations, Financial Publications. Olivier and Eddy will guide you through the presentation, after which we'll move into Q&A. I would like to hand over to Olivier.
Thank you, Peter, and good morning, everyone. So, on today's results, I'm pleased to report that 2023 full year outcome was in line with what we indicated earlier. We've reported organic sales growth and double-digit organic growth in Adjusted EBITDA and operating profit, while facing a challenging geopolitical and macroeconomic environment. We delivered higher than anticipated positive free cash flow for the year due to our focus on operational efficiencies, optimizing working capital, and CapEx discipline. As a result, we propose to increase the regular cash dividend to our shareholders with 9% up to EUR 0.61 per share. Now, looking to the macroeconomic environment, first of all, around customer destocking, we can state that we've seen that now concluded.
Although we faced this significant destocking across 2023, we've seen some improvement across Q4, and what we also see in the early part of 2024 is that this is now behind us. However, we continue to see a soft macroeconomic climate, and this is primarily impacting some of the biochemical markets, like semiconductor, agrochemicals, and to some extent, the PLA joint venture, although there we have some better signs in terms of market development, and I will come back to that at a later stage. In terms of input price, we've seen normalization, and we expect some relaxation across 2024, in, of course, products like chemicals, freight, energy. We've also seen sugar market prices reducing from the highs in Q4, that we expect to materialize also in the course of 2024. So overall, our input costs are anticipated to decline in 2024.
In terms of sustainability and our value proposition, we still see that as a forefront of our customers, you know, priorities, starting with the food, with the clean label trend and the shift to natural preservatives that is continuing and still growing faster than the overall food market. For our algae-based omega-3 solutions, this offers really structural growth driven by higher adoption in the aqua sectors, seeing also the long-term fish oil outlook. We continue to see strong growth in our biomedical polymer business due to aging population and health focus, and have many new launches in the pipe that are gonna fuel further growth across 2024 and beyond. And last but not least, for the JV PLA business, the global transition away from fossil-based plastics is still something that is high on the agenda for the end customers.
So now, diving into the Sustainable Food Solutions, and we're gonna still report on the former business unit structure this time and move on to the new business structure, you know, as from Q1 results, but diving into the Sustainable Food Solutions. As we stated, we see the supply chain destocking now really concluded in Q4, and we've seen some very nice sequential improvement in volume mix versus previous quarter, and the first couple of months of 2024 only confirms the trend we've seen across Q4. We still have some soft consumer demand in some end markets in line with macro conditions there. However, in the growth initiatives we embarked on a couple of years ago, we see strong growth in adjacencies like the dairy stabilizers business, the natural mold inhibitors, and the natural antioxidant businesses.
When we look to the portfolio, we have also been able to start on time our new vinegar fermentation plant, and this is starting really to drive cost efficiency as we speak as from early 2024, and we are ramping up these operations much further also as we speak. And last but not least, we've announced the divestment of our emulsifiers business, and we are feeling really confident to close as we anticipated in the course of the second quarter this year. Moving on now to the Lactic Acid and Specialties division. So we've had a strong Q4 with an improvement in volume mix versus previous quarters.
So there, I mean, although I think, you know, we've seen that improvement, in terms of, cyclical, you know, downturn in the semiconductor industry, which is a, a key category for us, we do not see yet any recovery, and we do not expect any recovery prior to H2, this year. And of course, we've been impacted, as you all know, by a lower volume lactic acid supply to the joint venture, although the business has nicely stabilized over the last three quarters. In terms of growth, again, very strong growth in the biomedical polymer business. So there we simply continue the double-digit growth trajectory, and we see that continuing across, the, 2024 year.
Portfolio-wise, we announced late last year the mechanical completion of our new plant in Thailand for lactic acid, and as we speak, we've started basically, you know, the full commissioning with fermentation and sugar in the system. So this is progressing as we speak, you know, in line with our plans, so we are expecting basically, the first volume to get out of this plant by the end of this quarter and early Q2, as well. So, so good progress on that front. In terms of network optimization, we announced four weeks ago in the CMD update the mothballing of the Peoria operation, and this is also happening as we speak. We are basically, by the end of March, the plant will be mothballed, so and we are moving on, you know, later on as from Q2 of our restructuring.
Now, the last business unit, Algae Ingredients , we still continue to experience a very strong momentum, a very strong growth in the segment we serve. So the sales growth across, I mean, 2023 was over 50%, so we are really happy, I mean, to show now that we really passed the EUR 100 million sales landmark. And basically, this is coming actually from continued very high growth in the aquaculture segment, but also very strong growth, and inroads into the pet nutrition, where it now does represent a percentage of our overall Algae Ingredients business with very nice margin. We are stepping into the human nutrition segment there, building a pipeline, getting gaining customer approvals, so this is also progressing very nicely as we speak, and also in mind to improve our margin profile further for, for algae business.
The other important aspect of that is that we've been able to secure critical partnership on long term with key customers, and that's also given us some very good visibility for the at least two years to come on, you know, our business going forward and our margin, also going forward in that business. In terms of investment, we further debottleneck Orindiúva, and we are going on with this bottleneck debottlenecking plant in, in Brazil. At the same time, we are upgrading the product mix to produce extracted oil to serve the pet nutrition market and the human nutrition market. We also benefited greatly in 2023 from an improved algae strain yield, and that really helped us to really increase efficiency and capacity without having to invest massive CapEx in there.
It's also important to note that the EBITDA margin was accretive on the second half already at 15.7%, and if you look at Q4, EBITDA margin on algae, we were really close to 18%. So this is really also ramping up very, very nicely. So also just want to make a point on our progress on sustainability. We made also great progress across 2023, just to say that we are in line with our targets and our vision across all fronts. So we are still pushing very much, you know, to deliver our commitment to the 1.5 degree in line with our science-based target commitment there. So on this, let me hand over to Eddy to go into detail about the financials. Eddy, floor is yours.
Thank you, Olivier. Yeah, I think you're screening through the page then. So this is the sales and the EBITDA developments over the year 2023. On the left side, the sales line has decreased by about 1% to a level of EUR 1.44 billion revenues. And within that, you see an uptick in the core business of EUR 37 million, and that equates to 3% of organic sales growth for our core activities. On the right-hand side, an increase of 4% on our adjusted EBITDA to a level of EUR 192 million, and again, the core activities have been contributing EUR 24 million increase, and that equates to 16.2% organic growth rate in adjusted EBITDA. Next page, we move to the P&L. So if you take the ratio, of course, between sales and EBITDA, the margin, you see that we've increased our margins from 12.6% in 2022 to 13.3% in 2023.
A bit lower in the P&L, on the adjustment line, there's quite a positive amount of EUR 10 million in 2023. There has been recognized the reversal of the algae-based impairment that we did back in 2019. It's really on the back of the nice progression we're making in this business, so we've made the reversal of that impairment. That's, by the way, not an EBITDA component, so that is about EUR 22 million positive. And on the negative side, we had the first cost related to the emulsifier divestment process and also the earn-out of the algae joint venture because as we have better results of algae, we still have to make some payments to the previous owner of the 50% of the joint venture that we had in the past. So in all, net 10%, EUR 10 million in the net contribution there.
Then on the financial income expense line, quite an uptick versus 2022, with -EUR 28 million. The majority of that is, of course, higher interest rates and also with higher debt levels, so that is the biggest component in that uptick. Results joint venture associates -EUR 3.5 million. There you have to take into account that that has been adversely impacted by the impairments that the joint venture has been making in the middle of the year in relation to the second PLA plant that we have stopped as an initiative. So those costs had to be impaired. If you would take that out, then underlying we would have had a EUR 3 million positive rather than a -EUR 3.5 million negative in our P&L. And then the tax line, a lower tax level than in 2022.
That's also to be seen as a lower result before tax, and then the impairment reversal is not a taxable item. So all in all, that brings us to a result after tax of 19% lower than in 2022, and that is expressed in earnings per share also of about 90% lower than in 2022. Then we move into the individual businesses, Sustainable Food Solutions. So sales €769 million, organic growth of 0.7% for the year. The composition of that is positive pricing impact of 5.4% being offset by volume mix development of -4.7%. But I'd like to highlight here that the trend, the underlying trend on a quarterly basis of volume is negative, and you see that the last quarter, quarter four, volume mix, for example, was -1.4%. Well, for the full year, it was -4.7%.
Margin profile, 11% for the year, and also the last quarter slightly above that, more or less a flat development, I would say, over these, full year 2022 versus full year 2023. Lactic acid specialties, sales at EUR 384 million and organic decline of, of 2%. Again, positive pricing impact, 5.4% being offset, more than offset in this case, right, negative volume mix of -7.4%. And again, an improvement towards the end of the year in the underlying trend of volume mix development because in Q4 we had a minus point, 0.9% of volume declines. Margin profile, a nice step up, for the full year from 16.7% for 2022 towards close to 20% for the year 2023. Algae Ingredients, indeed, we have surpassed the landmark of the EUR 100 million revenue level. We, ended up with EUR 111 million for the year.
Within that, indeed, 10% is contributed from the pet food, 90% from aquaculture. So very nice organic growth, very much volume mix driven, with total organic growth close to 54%, 54%. As a consequence, the Adjusted EBITDA, we've really clearly surpassed now the negatives that we still had in the first half of 2022. We turned it to positive by the middle of 2022, for the full year. We still were at EUR -3.3 million for 2022, but 2023 now a clear nice step up, by about EUR 50 million to a level of EUR 11.5 million positive EBITDA. That's also expressed in the margin profile, 10% for the full year, but indeed the second half of the year was close to 60% and even a slightly higher level in the last quarter, close to 18%.
So a very nice progression development over there. Incubator, we continue to cruise within the indicated bandwidth between 0.5% and , and 1.5% of our core sales, so there's not much to add there. We're going to move to the, the joint venture, the PLA joint venture. So this is on a 100% basis, EUR 118 million revenue base. That is an organic decline of close to 27% for the year. That also expresses in a lower EBITDA level of EUR 19 million, and we are looking at a 16.4% EBITDA margin profile for the full year and a slightly higher level for the last quarter being close to 22%.
I also like to highlight on this on this sheet that we do get as a 50% owner of this joint venture quite some nice cash proceeds, close to $10 million, and that's composed of two components. One is the dividend that we received of about $5 million, which equates to EUR 4.5 million, and also the interest that we get, another $5 million related to the loan that we have provided to the joint venture. Non-core activities, EUR 180 million sales level. That's an organic decline of close to 9%.
Again, pricing positive of 8%, volume mix lower of 17%, and that brings us to an EBITDA level of EUR 28 million, which is a very nice outcome, I would say, because really the year 2022 was a very strong year, and 28 is still a very good performance for this business with a margin profile pretty flat in the range of 15%-17%. And as you know, we have indicated that we have come to an arrangement for the divestment of this non-core business on the 26th of January, and we anticipate the closing of this transaction in the course of Q2, so in the upcoming quarter. Free cash flow delivery. On the left side in the blue line, you can clearly see that we have come out of the negative free cash flow pattern in the last years.
We are very happy that we have been able to close out the full year with a positive EUR 19 million. On the right-hand side, you see a bit the rhythm that we had on a quarterly basis in 2023, where Q1 was still a negative free cash flow delivery in that quarter, but since then, from Q2 onwards, positive cruising and free cash flow delivery and with a very strong finish of EUR 15 million free cash flow delivery in the last quarter. And that has really been a consequence of controlled CapEx levels, controlled cost and EBITDA delivery, but also very much working capital improvement where we had a very strong development. So with that, we go to the outlook, Olivier, back to you.
Yeah, thank you, Eddy. So.
Also, sorry, just one more dividend.
Sorry.
Be fine.
The dividend proposal. So, you know, with us, we have a progressive regular dividend policy. We have, we will come with a proposal to the AGM, for approval to increase the dividend after many years of being flat at 56%, increase it by 9% to a level of, EUR 0.61, and that you really have to see as a reflection of our positive free cash flow delivery already starting last year, but certainly also, strongly anticipated to continue into this year and, and next year. So that is, what we will bring as in the proposal to the AGM to be approved, by, mid-May. With that, sorry, now we're going to the outlook.
Yeah, thank you, Eddy. So, then, to conclude and looking at the outlook for 2024, basically, we confirmed the guidance we gave only four weeks ago in terms of indeed volume mix development and also adjusted EBITDA organic growth for the core activity. They are above 15% for the year. Basically, also, I think as a summary there, I'm really pleased on how the business is currently positioned. In the short time since our CMD at the end of January, we've made good progress in implementing our restructuring program and several of our strategic initiatives. Moreover, there are some positive developments in our addressable markets. I mentioned the improved positive volume development in our food business, as an example, but also the PLA momentum that we see slightly improving further now, and also the basically acceleration in the profitability increase of our Algae Ingredients business.
So, these next to the free cash flow delivery reinforce our confidence in the strategy we've laid out. So, let's move now to Q&A, and we are very happy to take your questions.
Thank you, Sir. If any participant would like to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone. Once again, it's star one and one for any question. There will be a short pause while participants register for questions. Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our first question. The questions come from the line of , Setu Sharda from Barclays. Please ask your question. Your line is open.
Hi. I have three questions. The first one is, like, on the competition. Like, with merger of Novozymes and Chr. Hansen, there might be more competition emerging in preservation technologies for bakery and markets. How do you assess this, and how is the competitive environment more broadly in preservation evolving? And my second question is on the guidance. Like, your Q1 sales guide is flat, and you're seeing input cost relaxation, but your, organic EBITDA guide is for a decline. Like, can you guide here for the moving parts? And the third question is on the PLA margin guidance. Like, you had guided once for, like, 10%-15% EBITDA margin for FY24, like, but after a strong Q4 margin of 20%, like, do you still stick to that, or, do you change that? Thanks.
Okay. So, thank you. So I will answer on the Novozymes, Chr. Hansen, and preservation questions, and Eddy will take over the other two questions. So, on the first one, actually, what you look at, again, in the portfolio of the new company, the new merged company, Novonesis. So what we do at Corbion is actually we step into different part of the supply chain to customers. One of our strengths, as you might know, is we are very strong in solutions where we combined actually enzymes together, and we do what we call enzyme cocktails next to antimicrobials. And basically, we source enzymes from multiple suppliers, well renowned, and there are a few in the market.
We basically play into, let's say, the added value segment of these enzyme cocktails, sourcing the building blocks from companies as Novozymes, as an example. So the value we bring there is a step forward down the chain when we combine and we sell solutions, whether it is for preservation or shelf-life extension solutions. So, basically, we do not necessarily, are head-to-head, you know, in terms of our portfolio. We are using some of their products, actually, to provide and manufacture our solutions. Eddy, do you want to take the guidance on Q1 in the PLA?
Yeah. So indeed, on the sales side of volume mix, we do expect a more flatish first half for the full year. We have guided between 2% and 6%. So that's clearly more back-end loaded, if you will. Also take into consideration there that we are still comparing to a relatively strong Q1 last year. I think about semiconductor industry, for example, was still very strong in Q1 2023 and after that going into a downturn. So that is on the top line. We do see that then expressed on the EBITDA line, EBITDA level for the core in the decline for Q1 in terms of growth. And after that, from Q2 onwards, we do anticipate a growth pattern for every single quarter Q2 onwards on the EBITDA level growth.
The last question was on PLA margin, guidance.
PLA margin, yeah. We indeed ended up on a strong note in Q4. We will not change the guidance for this year because, you know that on other occasions, the lactic acid price that we will supply to the joint venture is very much related to the sugar price development. So the joint venture will be faced with a higher input cost while PLA prices will not move with it. So there will be some margin contraction on that basis, to be expected in the year 2024.
Thanks. That's helpful.
Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Robert Jan Vos from ABN AMRO ODDO BHF. Please ask your question. Your line is open.
Yes. Hi. Good morning, all. I have a couple of questions. I think the first one is for Eddy. You talked about the financial charges. They were EUR 35 million gross charges. That implies EUR 22 million in the second half versus EUR 13 million in the first half. You mentioned higher interest rate and higher debt levels, but your net debt was actually lower in H2 than in H1. So my question is, are there other reasons for this steep increase we see in the second half, and what would be an indication for 2024? Then my second question, maybe a bit more clarification on PLA margin. So you're just said that the 2023 Q4 margin of 20% 22% should not be extrapolated, and from that level, you expect a bit of margin pressure, for the reasons you mentioned. Is that correct?
Then my third question, you said earlier and reconfirmed that, on the 31st of January and today that you expect a tailwind from input costs in 2024. But since your last communication with the markets, the sugar price went down further quite materially, would you agree that the outlook for the input costs is even better than what you thought it was for, back in the end of at the end of January? You said a fair conclusion. Those were my questions for now. Thank you.
Okay. So on your interest question, so the EUR 28 million that you see is the P&L, so interest being paid and received, from the joint venture, the net of that is EUR 22 million. Then we have some lease interest components adding up in this line. That's EUR 2.5 million. And we have also the earn-out related to that, algae purchase that we did on the joint venture two years ago. Also there, there's an interest charge component ending up on this, on this financial income and expense level. And that's another about EUR 3 million. And especially that last one, we accrue for that by the end of the year because then we have the, the best, readout on what we still have to pay as an earn-out, towards the former owner of 50% of the joint venture. By the way, there's one more year to go.
2025 will be the last payment of that. So then that will drop out of this, interest income and expense, line. PLA margins, again, so lactic acid price to the joint venture will be at a higher pace than last year because in the supply agreement, there is a clear raw material clause, if you will, related to the sugar price. And as sugar price is on average and we hedge that, you know that. And so as we hedge those costs, the net impact of that will flow into the joint venture as an increased cost basis. So that will take off, again, quite some margin from what you have seen in last year.
By the way, the Q4 margin is really to be seen as a bit of a higher level versus the earlier quarters because there were also some true-ups, I would say. So the better look is take at the total margin level of a good 16% for the full year. And again, we do anticipate slight margin contraction from that level into 2024. Input cost, yes, yeah. You were asking what's the difference between now and end of January. It's what is it, four weeks ago? You know we have a hedging policy on a couple of the key components of the input cost bill that we have. We have some open positions for the year, so we are not fully hedged in that sense. So we will indeed benefit from further relaxation, as we call it, of the input cost.
Sugar is one of them, but there might be others as well. So yes, it would be slightly more favorable in that sense compared to, maybe Jan. On the other hand, there are also other components. Think about the Red Sea dynamics. That is, of course, also giving some offset in the other way because, this charges for freighters, is increasing again versus, maybe one or two months ago. So but all in all, we do reduced fees still and, an aggregate tailwind impact, I would say, from the input cost, currently.
Okay. That is very clear. If I may come back on the financial charges, is it fair to assume that for 2024, based on what you know today, it will be materially lower than the EUR 35 million reported in 2023? Is that a fair conclusion?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Especially if you take into consideration that we will have a strong free, free cash flow delivery this year, and then on top of that, the anticipated closing of the, you know, supplier divestment, that will that will come in as, as proceeds in, in Q2, this year. So those effects by itself already give quite a, a relief on the interest expense line. Correct.
Okay. I cannot persuade you to give some kind of indication for that number for 2024.
I think we've guided pretty explicitly that we have net cash proceeds of $275 million. So that should give you a component, and besides that, at least $15 million free cash flow delivery for this year. So with those components, I think you can do some math on your loan reduction and this interest reduction.
All right. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Fernand de Boer. Degroof Petercam, please ask your question. Your line is opened.
Yes. Good morning. Fernand de Boer here of Degroof Petercam. Couple of questions from my side. To come back on this -1.4% volume mix in Sustainable Food Solutions, you say it's, it's improving, but I also realize that last, last year in Q4, actually volumes are falling, falling from the cliff because of the destocking effect, etc. So how much is now really improvement versus if, if you look at the trend versus the previous quarters because there's also some seasonality? That's the first question. And then on the guidance, previously, you had a guidance of 15%-20% EBITDA growth, and now it's in excess of 15%. Does that mean that there is, yeah, upside to this 20%? That's the question.
Then, on the previous comments of this earn-out payments, how much in total is now accrued, and when is that going to be paid? Is that then in total going to be paid in 2025, the cash out, or already a part of it in 2024?
Yeah. Thank you, Fernand. So maybe I dragged the volume mix in SFS, and Eddy will take the two other questions. So because in SFS, what also, I think, we see happening is the feedback we get on this volume mix from the customers and from the market. And you are fully right on Q4, but we've seen already now having already two months in this year behind us, yeah, where we see that improved even further compared to what we've seen in Q4. And again, what we see, although some markets are still very soft, is that the pipeline is also being re-energized, and that gives us quite some good confidence in terms of indeed I mean, you know, this development going forward. Now, of course, we want to remain cautious about it.
We are only two months in the new year, but this is building up on, you know what, the trend we've seen as well and the customer sentiment we get as well when we discuss with them, you know, their own forecast and when we also discuss from, new product launches and the pipeline in terms of new launches as well. So this is a kind of combined, you know, elements that, makes us more confident, about the, first of all, end of destocking and the kind of dynamic we've seen across 2023. Eddy, do you want to enter on the guidance?
The guidance. So, Fernand, we did not change the guidance. First of all, we stated a month ago, because we stated that for the year 2024, which is this year, we stated above 15%. So that is also what we reconfirm as per today.
I think we need to leave it at that and then, let's see how we open up with Q1 on the payments of the earn-out, so again, this is an arrangement that we had when we took out 50% of the joint venture, which is the Orindiúva plant, by the way, yeah, in Brazil. two more payments to go, one this year in Q3, the last payment to be done next year. Both have been provided for in the balance sheet. As you can see on the payment for this year, you can find it in the current liabilities. So it is about $10 million of that amount. Again, we paid in Q3 this year.
Then for next year, based on the projections that we have because there it's an earn-out, so that means the better the business develops, the higher the amount we go. But with the current liability, we have another about EUR 11 million to be, to be paid into next year, and that's to be found on the other non-current liabilities line in the balance sheet. So that are the two remaining payments, and after that, nothing there in terms of credit floating.
Maybe one last question, if I may. The R&D cost for Algae Ingredients, is that now included in those results of Algae Ingredients, or is that in the solutions business or in the, let's say, startup cost, how do you call it? Yeah.
Yeah. In the segmentation that we have here today, so the majority of the R&D capabilities that we have is being recognized, like we did already since the last years, in the Incubator.
Yes.
A part of that is already captured in the Algae Ingredients segment. Going forward, so with new segmentation that we will start reporting about from Q1 onwards this year, then 100% of that R&D capabilities related to algae is in the Health and Nutrition unit.
Very good. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Sebastian Bray from Berenberg. Please ask your question.
Hello. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking my questions. My, my first one would be on the way in which guidance is set and presented for 2024. I, I just want to make sure about the numerical value applied by the guidance. Corbion did EUR 164 million of EBITDA on a core basis continuing in 2023. Is a reasonable estimate, leaving aside FX and other impacts of the adjusted EBITDA, to multiply this number at the lower end by 1.15 and then deduct out EUR 24 million of estimated dissynergies falling into 2024? I have a related question on the cash flow guidance, but I'll pause there.
Sebastian, I can take your, your question there. So indeed, with FX effects set apart, so we came out of EUR 164 million-ish last year on core. So indeed, with the guidance of at least 15% organic growth, you have to multiply 1.15 to 164. And I can do the math there for you, so then you end up at EUR 188 million. To be very specific. And then you have to deduct not EUR 24 million but EUR 15 million. So we have stated clearly in the Capital Markets Day presentation that for the non-core segment, and this is a transition year, you will have there a minus EUR 15 million. So if you deduct these two, then you should end up somewhere in the EUR 173 million range for the total company on the Adjusted EBITDA amount.
That, that's helpful. Thank you. And my second question related to this is on what the one-off headwinds to free cash flow are in the year 2024 because if I take the guidance, it would seem to me that it's a underlying basis after one-offs, including the restructuring charges for the headcount reductions that Corbion is making and the cash effect of the EUR 15 million of dissynergies that the company is guiding for, for 2024. Just to confirm, if I wanted to come up with an underlying cash flow figure on a but-for basis, if no restructuring and no dissynergies were occurring, I take the EUR 30 million, which I believe the company is guiding to, and add EUR 15 million of dissynergy, and then another EUR 5 million-EUR 10 million of restructuring charge on top of that. Is that the right way of thinking about it?
The line was not 100% clear, but the components on the free cash flow delivery for this year, it indeed is Adjusted EBITDA. It is indeed restructuring cost that you referred to, so that's correct. The CapEx level, when you look at that from a cash impact, will be higher than the 100-110 that we guided because 100-110 is the accounting impact of CapEx, but the cash flow is slightly higher because we're coming in from a higher CapEx program last year and going into a lower CapEx dynamics going forward. So you always have then some extra cash out in terms of phasing. And then you have, of course, the working capital reduction component where we stated in the Capital Markets Day, you anticipate about a 2% reduction expressed as sales. So it gives you the other component in your calculations.
Yeah. That's helpful. Thank you. And again, to come up to this feature of the impact of that investment, what happens to the accounting and the continuing operations? Can I confirm that as at the full year 2023, so on a going forward basis, there will not be an EBITDA contribution from emulsifiers in Q1? It will just move to the discontinued operations of the company?
Yeah. What we expressed in that non-core -EUR 15, there's a segmentation that is composed of the EBITDA contribution of the emulsifiers as long as the closing is not being done. And like we stated, we anticipated in Q2, so at least Q1 will still be a component of that -EUR 15. And the moment the closing takes place, then that EBITDA drops out, and we will have then still the former stranded cost being slightly offset by payments of the buyer of emulsifiers because we will still render some transitional services this year. And the net outcome of that whole dynamic will be this -EUR 15 that we disclosed.
Just go on.
Into 2025, by the way, I also want to make that clear. In 2025, there will be no non-core anymore, so there will be no leftovers, if you will, of that, of that segment.
Okay. Good to understand here. The guidance for the Q1 EBITDA that Corbion has provided, this is all referring to core, or it's for the group including the EBITDA contribution that is left in there from emulsifiers?
That's Sebastian. We have always when we have been guiding EBITDA's growth, it's always about the core. That's the consistent pattern we follow for all the few years behind us. So, we never have been guiding on the non-core. So it is indeed the 50% growth, at least this year, is about core, and it is measured on an organic basis, so excluding FX effects, and non-core is outside.
That's understood. And last one, on a cosmetic basis, it would mean that the food margin is worse in Q2 than it is in Q1 or Q3 because it has to absorb these costs, or there'll still be another segment that says emulsifiers that will have -EUR 5 million of EBITDA a quarter?
Sorry. I don't get your question. Is that about this year or next year? It's 2023?
It's for the year 2024. So if emulsifiers go, does all of the segment cost just effectively get reallocated to what was the old food segment but is now being changed, or is there just a -5 line that stays there for three quarters and then goes away?
No. No. It is for this year 2024. So all the dynamics related to the non-core investment, we have separately, and we will separately disclose in this non-core segment. So it will not impact the rhythm or the pattern or whatever you'll on the core business, also not on the food business core.
That's helpful. Thank you for taking my questions.
Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Karel Zoete from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please ask your question. Your line is open.
Yes. Good morning, all. Thanks for taking the questions. I've one follow-up question and one other. The follow-up question is on sugar prices as, yeah, those have come down, and the outlook is relatively favorable, it seems, at least for buyers of sugar. Can you please remind us how you've, what's the hedging strategy here and how you've entered 2024? Obviously, yeah, looking for at some point, when it becomes a tailwind and what when it's still a headwind. The other question is on the solutions business, on the foods business. You commented on it from a markets perspective, but what are you seeing from a geographical perspective? The reason I was asking is that we've heard, yeah, different commentary from some of your clients and also other ingredients houses. Thank you.
Thanks, Karel. So, maybe I, I jump on your second question, and Eddy will, will answer on hedging. From a geographical perspective, as you know, of course, I mean, our largest market is, is in the US.
Yeah.
So what we've seen, across the board, in the course of 2023, the most severe impact has been, primarily, into regions, being Europe, and, to some extent, Latin America, as well, which is where we've seen, you know, the most difficult market conditions on the low end also of our business. What we see today in terms of, indeed, better momentum and, how also our business does perform is better outlook in the U.S. and North America, which is, again, our largest market. Europe is slightly improving. Where we see still, I mean, quite tough market environment is Latin America today. So but that's the current dynamic. If you look to the subcategories, obviously, you know, you have the big categories being meat, bakery, dairy. This is where we mostly play and to some extent, confectionery, where we have good presence.
You see that still, I think, again, much more difficult market in the meat, and the low-end preservation area. This is what also we see right now. We see first positive signals from distribution, and that's always important in the way you look at markets because they are the first to be hurt when the market is turning down, but also they are the first to rebound. And we see positive signals in terms of the subdistributors. So, you know, everything that is, let's say, dealing with the SMEs type of customers. So that's a bit, you know, the current context we see for our own business, our own portfolio. Maybe to give also a different angle and color, if you look at the two major block legs of our food business, you know, it's roughly 50/50 between functional systems and preservation.
We see basically much stronger momentum in functional systems there, where basically it's also a good signal that customers are back to new development, and we see that in the number of briefs in functional system. In the preservation, it's let's say still quite you know in terms of basically environment muted. And in the low end of the preservation business where you sell base lactic acid there yeah we've been facing and still facing some competition there. And the volume is still not picking up in the low end part of the portfolio in preservation. So much better outlook, stronger in functional systems in shelf-life extension solutions, texturizing solutions, less in preservation, and still really demand muted in the low end of the preservation portfolio. So all it helps to give a bit more color to the food business momentum.
Yes. Much appreciated. It does.
Okay. On your question on sugar hedging, a couple of comments there. So yes, we do follow a hedging policy for sugar and also some of the other key commodities that we're buying. That hedge policy says typically, we'd like to be covered on the cost side for about half a year. So normally, we're always at least covered for half a year. And if you really max it, then we would go to levels of two years in certain situations. Like we stated on earlier occasions, given the dynamics of the markets, we are relatively short. So indeed, see that we're well covered for the next two quarters, so this remaining quarter, and then we still have open positions in the second half of this year.
A second thing is maybe also good to say to highlight is we are never buying to the spot price. So people follow very, very often the spot prices so that went indeed from $0.17-$0.18, maybe $0.11 to up to $0.27 earlier this year, and now it sits at $0.21-$0.22. But we have never been buying at levels of close anything close to $0.27 because we never buy spot rates. We always buy to futures to forward-traded futures always, because we need to match it to apply hedging to what is also in the physical sugar contract deliveries. And that is never spot but always futures. And those typically are lower than the spot prices because nearly always the sugar market is in backwardation, meaning future prices are lower than the spot.
So that's not really relevant for us.
Okay. Thanks. Helpful.
Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Reg Watson from ING. Please ask your question. Your line is opened.
Good morning, all. Eddy, it's a follow-up question for you on hedging, particularly sugar. How much basis risk is there in your hedging? Because I think once, gypsum-free lactic acid comes online in Rayong and you've rejigged your lactic acid production, I'm estimating that almost two-thirds of your, sugar demand will occur in Thailand, and there's a significant shortage there at the moment due to drought. So I'd be interested to understand, how the local sourcing, costs differ from your hedge positions. That's question number one. And then questions for, for both of you, Olivier and Eddy. The dividend, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this already this morning, but it's a bold move after seven years of maintaining a flat dividend. And I can understand it's a sign of your optimism, but it's not even covered by the cash from 2023.
But then it does it then leads to the question of, okay, how much more if you're willing to raise the dividend when you don't even have the cash to pay for it, how much more are you going to go for? Because I noticed that there's now speculation that we will see buybacks or special dividends as a result of the sale of the emulsifiers. So if you could comment on that, I'd be very grateful. Thank you.
So on your question of the Thailand sugar price, I'm not sure if I understand your question, but what we are sourcing in Thailand is, again, New York 11 price, and that's a small premium in the Thai market because New York 11 is really determined by Brazil being the largest exporter of sugar in the world market, as you know.
Okay. That's what I'm kind of asking, Eddy, because the basis risk is basically when your hedge is not perfect because your hedge is a globally traded set. There's a globally set price, but you're experiencing local prices rather than the globally traded prices, if that makes sense.
Yeah. So our hedges in that sense is like I said, the hedges we take always have to mirror 100% what we have in our physical contracts with suppliers. So in that sense.
Okay.
We don't have a mismatch.
Okay.
So anything we do in our physical contracts, we never hedge beyond that, so that.
Yeah.
That there's a match there on your dividends, yes, you're right. The free cash flow was EUR 19 million. With this increased dividend, that's EUR 3 million higher than what we have paid before, so then you end up at EUR 36 million. So if you take that perspective, it is indeed higher than the free cash flow delivery. But don't forget, we're really in a ramp-up phase of free cash flow delivery as per Q2 almost last year. And again, we have let alone the investment proceeds, but just outside that, we have over EUR 50 million in free cash flow delivery this year. So we see it indeed as a strong confirmation from our side and a vote of confidence on the free cash flow delivery.
Okay. But would we expect then once the proceeds of emulsifiers are in that you would then pay out further as a special or a buyback?
Let's first come to a closing of the deal, which we anticipate in Q2. So that will be, in that sense, the next quarter coming up. And I think we need to have the conversation done. And also yes, we will have a look and look at other distributions. We will take that in consideration. That's too early to make an outcome of that at this moment.
Okay. Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Wim Hoste from KBC Securities. Please ask your question.
Yes. Good morning. I wanted to have your feel on the momentum of a few of the business lines, and specifically on both human and pet foods in the algae business. That's the first one. The second one would be on the food adjacencies in the food business. And then, thirdly, on the agro and semiconductor business in lactic acid and specialties, if you could just outline how you see top-line momentum and market demand in those markets. That would be great. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Wim. So, starting on the algae business line, so basically, two differences because in so obviously, I put aside the aqua market, yeah? So, if you think about pet nutrition there, it's about opening new markets because these markets historically did not exist to a large extent. So it's about implementing omega-3s for pets, you know, and basically bringing a lot of health benefit to pet as well, there. So it is something that we start to work quite some time ago, and that now is yielding as we are converting these basically R&D development programs with the customers into real business. And now we are harvesting really the last 2-3 years intense development work into pet nutrition. And there, it's about creating a market. In human, it's different because today, there is a huge established market of omega-3 into primarily dietary supplements.
This is what we speak about here. The vast majority of this dietary supplement market is being supplied with a fish oil-based omega-3. What we've seen over the last couple of years is an increasing trend of, you know, moving also or interest for algae-based, obviously, sustainability. Everybody's aware of overfishing, of the constraints, obviously, the high prices. We are also supported by the vegan trend because, yeah, there is also this trend playing to some extent where people do prefer, you know, a plant-based type of, you know, omega-3, which I think is provided by, by algae, than fish oil. And we also, this is maybe more marketing push, but it's a real attribute we do have with algae, contrary to fish oil.
You know, we provide a very clean product without indeed any, you know, residual heavy metals, and other pesticide-like that do accumulate in the chain when, you, process, some of the fish oil. Now, although, of course, using fish oil do clean their products, yeah? So, and have refined products, but we offer straightaway, you know, very clean solutions. So we, we see a strong appetite for people to convert in this dietary supplement market from, fish oil-based to algae-based, omega-3, yeah? So and this is, what we are, you know, basically really building now as a pipeline, going forward. So in the, other biochemical markets, yeah, you mentioned both agrochemical and semiconductor. Semiconductor is one where, as we explained before, we see every 4-5 years, a down cycle. And, we are in the middle of it now.
The last time we saw a similar down cycle was back in 2018, 2019. Yeah, and usually, this down cycle lasts a good year. Now, it's also important to understand how we play in the chain because in that segment, we supply green solvents, yeah? And the primary reason why they are using our type of solvent is not necessarily because they are green or bio-based; it's because we are able to provide very high purity products. That is really what matters in that category, you know? And when you speak about very high purity, you speak about, yeah, parts per trillion of impurities. So you are really above the 99.99999, you know, type of purity. So this is the functionality we bring.
It's also important to understand in the value chain, we are 3-4 steps down from the final user being the Samsung, the LG, the Apple, yeah, type of customers because we sell to people that, that do compound different type of solvents, that do also provide full solution services. So usually, what's happening is that when there is a downturn because we are further in the chain, we are the last one to suffer from a downturn. But when there is enough turn, we are also the last one to see the recovery. Now, again, we get mixed signal from the market that some of the big players do say, "Yeah, we expect, we have recovery now." Other says, "Yeah, you can expect recovery as from H2." So we have a mixed feedback from this, from these markets.
Longer term, we see a very strong underlying trend, because of artificial intelligence, more servers, more flat screens, whether it is in electric cars or, you know, the tools we have every day. So we know that longer term, there is, I mean, a strong momentum to come. So we are not really worried. The question is more, how fast are we going to see the recovery, and are we going to see the recovery as we expect from H2 or not? Yeah. And that's the big question we have, there. On agro, this is a much smaller business, for us. And basically, it's limited number of global customers. It's also very much sometimes related to whether, you know, you see heavy rains and the need to treat in some plantations in the various regions. And this is quite difficult to predict.
This is a more, I have to say, opportunistic business for us. This is not one where we are spending a lot of energy or R&D or science. So, and that's probably, again, something that, in terms of indeed, priority, we consider as more opportunistic than anything else. So I hope it answers your question, Wim. And yeah, sorry. On food adjacencies, we decided, I mean, also to make sure that we have new fields of growth and area of growth for our food business beyond, you know, the traditional market we were serving. And when we looked to the, the, let's say, market approach, we said, "Yeah, on one side, we need to expand the category reach with the functionalities we provide." And our key functionality is in food to help our customers move from synthetic artificial ingredients to natural alternatives.
Basically, it's about microbiological spoilage control or to reduce food waste and make sure people do not get poisoned or extend shelf life. So when we look at it, we've said, "Okay. What are the other products we need in our portfolio to provide this functionality?" And then we are looking to natural antioxidants. We mentioned, you know, natural products like rosemary extract or acerola, which is natural vitamin C, actually, extract. Rosemary is natural carnosic acid. So these are all ranges of organic acids that are really very close to our core business, although you don't produce by fermentation. And then, the rest is about shelf-life extension going into dairy stabilization.
Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Rigaud. There are no more questions. Please continue with any points you wish to raise. Thank you.
I just want to thank everyone, I mean, for the call today, for attending our full-year results. We are looking forward to reconvene for the Q1 results in April. Thank you all, and have a nice day.