Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to DSM's conference Call on the First Half Year Results of 2019. Throughout today's presentation, all participants will be in a listen only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Now I would like to turn the call over to Mr.
Housing. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, and welcome to this conference call on DSM's first half twenty nineteen results, which we published earlier this morning. We know it's a very, very busy day for all of you of all these companies we're reporting today, so we will give it our best try to limit the call to 45 minutes. I'm sitting here with today. I'm Fayka Siebesma, CEO and Chairman of DSM's Managing Board and Mrs.
Geraldine Natchez, Chief Financial Officer and member of the Board. Geraldine will give a short introduction, after which, Feike and Geraldine will answer any questions you may have. As always, I need to caution you that conference call. Today's conference call may contain forward looking statements. In that regard, I would like to direct you to the disclaimers about forward looking statements as published in the press release.
And with that, the floor is yours, Geraldine.
Thank you, Dave. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to welcome you on this call on DSM's first half results for 2019. I will provide a few comments on the key slides of our investor presentation that we published this morning together with the press release, and then we'll open the Q and A session. However, before starting, I have to point out conference call.
Our H1 2019 results are reported against a set of prior year figures that include a significant additional benefit from the exceptional supply disruption and some key vitamins that we clearly communicated all along last year as the temporary vitamin effect. In order to provide as much transparency as possible, we continue to show this separately, calculating growth against 2018 total results including this special event as well as the comparison excluding this event. Of course, from perspective of monitoring the progress of our business, the comparison to last year's underlying business as the meaningful one. For this reason, in the remainder of my introduction, I will compare H1 2019 versus the underlying business as estimated and reported in 2018. One more comment on comparisons.
Please note that we adopted the new IFRS 16 standard on lease accounting as per its effective date on the 1st January 2019, whilst the 2018 figures are not restated. You can find the full information on this on Page 24 of our press release. This said, Let's start with the financial highlights for the first half on Page 2. We are pleased to report a good performance in the first half of the year. In terms of top line development, Nutrition delivered a good 4% organic sales growth in both quarters, while sales in materials remained 5% to 6% below prior year in Q1 and Q2 on the back of ongoing weak market conditions in some end markets.
Overall, however, adjusted EBITDA increased 12% in the first half. And when excluding the positive effects from IFRS 16, This remains a good growth of 9%, which is well in line with our strategic targets. More specifically on Q2, We saw continued good momentum with 10% EBITDA growth including IFRS 16. This growth is driven by continued good performance in Nutrition and a step up in the performance of our innovation center. Over the two quarters, we stepped up our cash generation with an adjusted net operating free cash flow up 14% to €257,000,000 Finally, we are pleased to reiterate our full year outlook as communicated in Q1.
Now moving to Page 8 for Nutrition. Nutrition delivered a 4% organic growth in H1, call, driven by good performance in Animal Nutrition, a solid performance in Human Nutrition and strong growth in Personal Care and Food Specialties. This is a strong result, particularly considering the tough comparable period we saw with 10% organic growth in H1 2018. Adjusted EBITDA in Nutrition increased by 13% in H1 or 11%, including IFRS 16. The EBITDA margin increased 120 basis points to 21.1%, including 50 basis points from IFRS 16.
This increase in margin was supported by the solid organic growth, Lower costs and positive foreign exchange. Now looking at Q2, results were overall in line with the first quarter with 4% organic growth, this time driven by Animal Nutrition mainly and supported by ongoing good performance in Personal Care and Food Specialties. After a strong start in Q1, Human Nutrition had a softer quarter, call. But this was partially related to order patterns at large food and beverage customers and does not reflect a change in business sentiment. In Q2, Nutrition delivered 13% EBITDA growth, including a 3% from IFRS 16, almost the same as in Q1.
The adjusted EBITDA margin was again strong at 21.4%, call, including 50 basis points from IFRS 16 versus 20.4% in Q2 last year. Now let's look more specifically for a moment at Animal Nutrition on Page 9. For the first half, Animal Nutrition reported 4% organic growth with volumes up 3%. This is very strong performance compared to the 8% volume growth last year. Q2 demonstrated continued with good business performance with a 10% organic growth.
The 6% volume growth in the 2nd quarter was achieved despite the intensified African swine fever in China that we were able to mostly compensate given the higher poultry production in the region as well as increased pork production in other regions. These offsetting effects demonstrate the value of our global footprint and our broad species coverage. Prices were slightly up in the first half With a small positive momentum in Q2 following some price initiatives to compensate higher input costs and the continued benefit from the environmental policies implemented in China. Let's move to Page 10 to look at Human Nutrition. Overall, business conditions in Human Nutrition are good.
Early Life Nutrition, Pharma and dietary supplements performed well with especially our B2C business, iHealth, showing a continued double digit growth. In Food and Beverage, we continue to see soft demand from large global customers, while our small and regional customers, which we typically served with our Premax continued their strong growth. After a good start to the year with a 5% organic growth in Q1 call. Against 8% in the same period last year, Q2 was a softer quarter, mainly driven by lower sales to large F and B customers, which was partly related to order patterns and does not reflect the change in business sentiment. Overall, we realized 2% organic growth in the first half against a tough comparison of 8% last year.
In our other nutrition activities, We realized a strong 8% organic growth in the first half. Personal Care showed a very strong growth in sun and skin care, conference. While in Food Specialties, we enjoyed good growth in Envys and Cultures. Moving to our Materials business, Let's go to Page 12. Market conditions in Q2 remained challenging in Automotive, Building and Construction and E and E, especially in China.
Other segments were robust with strong market and conditions in our Dyneema and Functional Materials businesses. Volumes were down 5% in the first half with a similar performance in Q2 as we have seen in the Q1, while price developments reflect the fluctuations in input costs. The adjusted EBITDA for the first half remains flat versus prior year, in line with Q1, resulting from a strong performance in the high margin businesses of Dyneema and Functional Materials and supported by good margin management, strict cost control and a small benefit from currencies. These earning drivers are reflected in the EBITDA margin for H1, which expanded 90 basis points to 18.4%, including 30 basis points from IFRS 16 and in Q2, showed the similar margin development as in the Q1 with an EBITDA margin up of 110 basis points to 19%, including 30 basis points from IFRS 16. Now moving to our Innovation Center.
Let's go to Page 14. The Innovation Center had a good first half of the year with a solid top line and bottom line growth. Bio based products and services contributed strongly to the results, call, in part thanks to new and recurring license income from these technologies used for producing bio based fuels. In the quarter, however, solar experienced continued softness due to the subdued Chinese market. The adjusted EBITDA increased from breakeven in H1 2018 to €11,000,000 in H1 2019.
Now let's turn to Page 15 for a couple of quick comments on cash flow and working capital. So Page 15. As mentioned earlier, our overall cash generation in H1 increased 14% to €257,000,000 in adjusted net operating free cash flow. However, our working capital to sales ratio at the end of Q2 of 20% remains behind last year's H1 performance of 19.2%, in part reflecting increases in capital employed from foreign exchange movements, IFRS 16 and the consolidation of Andropeptan. The working capital performance in Q2 did improve after the difficult start to the year in Q1, but more needs to be done.
Reducing inventories has been challenging, call, especially in materials where the visibility remains low in some of our end markets. Given where we stand at the first half, Our aim is to ensure that the working capital ratio is back in line with 2018 by the end of the year. And now let's move to Slide 17 for some brief comments on sustainability and innovation. So that is 17. As you know, sustainability is at the very core of DSM and its purpose.
Call. As such, we focus on delivering science based, sustainable and scalable solutions that seek to meet the future challenges of the world today. This slide highlights some of the great progress we are making in staying true to our purpose, but please read Page 15 in today's press release for all the details on these initiatives. Courses of sustainability are, of course, our big ticket innovation projects, which we continue to make good progress on, achieving some important milestones in the first half of this year. Veramaris began commercial production of its algae based omega-three fatty acids for aquaculture in its new plant in Blair, Nebraska.
Clean Cow, the feed ingredient that significantly reduces methane emissions from Cow's submitted its regulatory filing in Europe in order to get the product authorized for commercial use. And Avancien, the fermented stevia sweetener, So very positive customer response and production on a semi commercial scale has started in H1. The construction of the commercial site plant in Blair, Nebraska is on track with targeted completion by the end of this year. And Yaga is seeing an increasingly good customer response and appetite for its revolutionary technology to produce fully recyclable conference call. And now to finish, let's go to Page 18 on the outlook.
On our outlook, we can be short. We continue to see good business conditions in Nutrition and continue and we aim to continue for some to deliver some earnings growth in Materials. As such, we are therefore pleased to reiterate our full year outlook as shown on this slide. And with this, I'll open the floor for questions. Operator?
Thank you, Ms. The first question is from Mr. Neil Tyler, Redburn.
A couple from me, please. Firstly, Geraldine, on the working capital ratio, are you able to split out the impact on the ratio of Andre Paxton and foreign currencies to give us an idea of how the sort of underlying ratio excluding these factors developed. And second question in Animal Nutrition, the price initiatives, and we've read about some market disruption on the supply side again taking place. Are you confident that The pricing gains made in the quarter weren't, to some extent, inflated by temporary factors. So I wonder if you could share a little bit on that.
And then thirdly, the comments you made about customer order patterns, Can you help us understand what you are sort of seeing that allows you to make that comment, if you like, to
Maybe let me start with the working capital. And for me, the best way to address that is probably actually through the ROCE KPI. So if you actually look at our ROCE, we are at 13.1% versus 13.8% last year, same time. Now the first thing is we need to correct for IFRS 16, and that brings you up to 13.4%. And then There is acquisition impact, which is 0.3% and FX is 0.1%.
So that makes up the delta between the 13.1% and the 13.8%. So as you can see, there is an impact of acquisitions on our balance sheet That we will struggle to offset, but what we want to make sure is that the working capital part It's back on track. And actually, when you look at the total working capital, it hasn't increased. If we look at DSO, It's pretty stable and actually so are the other KPIs. So DSO is at 70 days.
Our DPO is 93, in line with last year. And inventories, which is the one we want to reduce, is the one that's remaining stubbornly stable. And I have to say that the lack of Visibility to some extent and predictability of the markets is not helping us in that space. But this remains our An area where there's a lot of action and focus, and we'll continue to work on it towards the year end. So that's on working capital.
Now maybe I'll go to your third question briefly on H and H, so the customer order patterns. So here, what we're seeing is actually overall for H and H good business conditions. So early life nutrition, dietary supplements, pharma The area where we're seeing the sluggish growth is on food and beverage at our larger customers. Now there is an element of cutoff. There are a couple more Fewer days this quarter versus quarter last year, but what we're also seeing is a bit of hesitation in terms of the orders.
But we're not seeing something structural in the sense of we're not seeing a big shift in products or in relationships, etcetera, conference, which is why we're quite confident in saying that this is related to order patterns as opposed to any Big change in business sentiment.
The menu from the big ones in food and beverage.
Yes, exactly. So I said it's related to the larger customers. And Feike, do you want to take the Animal Nutrition?
Yes. And the Animal Nutrition can be short. We don't have in this quarter, clear windfall of price increases in the bigger vitamins, And I don't anticipate that in the coming quarters either. You're right that Some prices will be increased or announced to be increased. But as you know, we don't operate on the spot market.
So I will not expect an immediate impact on our quarterly results as In large part, we'll go for your premixes, etcetera. So it's always a dampening and effect, up and down, to be honest, on how that works in our results. So you will see that more on the longer term. If it sticks because I need to see also How much of that will be really realized to all customers? But of course, I like higher prices more than oil prices.
You're right.
Okay. Thanks, Feike. Thanks, Jorde.
Next question is from Mr. Mutlu Gundogan, Aviannonvo. Go ahead please.
Yes, good morning, everyone. A few questions. The first one is on Animal. Quite a step up from the previous quarter in terms price mix. Can you give us an idea of how much that was driven by mix versus higher selling prices and indicate or perhaps talk about what the main products or product groups were that was driving both of these elements.
Secondly, is on other nutrition. If I recall correctly, your organic growth was 12% in Q1. You now talk about 8% in the first half. That seems to indicate somewhat around 4% in Q2. Is there a slowdown?
Is it difficult comps? Perhaps talk a little bit about that. And then finally, on Materials. Your EBITDA margin was very strong, up 80 bps, excluding IFRS 16. And you do talk about different product mix, higher unit margins, so perhaps split that one out for us, please.
And how sustainable are each of those elements? Thank you.
Hello, Mathieu. Let me maybe start in reverse order. So looking at the margin in Materials, So what we're seeing there is indeed we have a step up in margin, which is a combination of mix because what we're seeing is that The growth that we're getting is in these higher margin businesses such as Dyneema and even within Dyneema, the life protection part of that business, But also our performance materials are very strong. But we have to say that there's also in there a fair amount of very proactive margin management, cost containment actions to make sure that we are also defending our earnings line when we're seeing the top line being very similar to Q1 at minus 5%, minus 6%. Now I think the main sort of color that we can give around materials is that We are seeing a Q2, which is very similar to Q1.
So when we spoke last, we were thinking that We were sort of open to maybe Q2 having a different business dynamic. That was not the case. But we're happy that we are able to deliver stable earnings. And this is a combination of those Different moving parts that get us there. So that's really the additional color we can add to the Materials margin.
Now let's go back to which one? Well,
maybe the prices You said on Animal Health, in the 4th quarter sorry, 4% price increase, correct. I would be a little bit careful taking really quarter by quarter. If I look already for the first half year, Muddu, You see in the first half year a price increase of 1%. So I think it's not an enormous price increase if I look especially for the half year. And indeed, it has a lot to do with mix FX.
Also some more sales of some of the sourced products. And of course, the past on us, but we do, of the prices which we source in. So that has a higher pricing effect and a more limited effect, of course, on the margin. And there is some effect indeed in the prices Also in China, blue sky safety and all of that stuff. So indeed, there's not a negative pricing momentum there, But I would not overestimate the positive effect.
On the comps, well, if you look to weakening, if you look to basically Nutrition and Materials, Basically, the EBITDA was about 12%, 13% Q1 and Q2 for Nutrition and about flat for Materials in both quarters. So the total company has also and the corporate costs and the other elements. But if we look to 2 basis, you say more or less the same effect in the second and third quarter. Of course, and the second quarter, let's be honest, has a higher EBITDA than the first quarter. So I don't think that the second quarter showed a slowdown even in terms of EBITDA.
It does a step up compared to the Q1. But you need always to be careful indeed in those comps thing. Also last year, of course, there was a lot of movements in the 1st three quarters, to be honest. On the ordering, coming back to Geraldine's previous point on ordering patterns, you remember last year, of course, this vitamin effect, This caused some nerve loss in the Q1 and then the Q2 people were hoping that things would resolve itself because of the match views of BSF. So that was a little bit different.
And then in the Q3, they felt they need to order again. So Last year, there were quite some movements over the different quarters, which will have some effects on the comps. I think the Q3 also Of last year, was again a strong quarter on some of those elements. So would like to be careful on the comps. If I just turn to the EBITDA also, I think we delivered on both, to be honest, Nutrition and Materials, good EBITDA, More than 10% of Nutrition, flat of materials, well, in this economic climate, I should not judge about myself, but I think that's That's a solid performance.
That's good. Thank you.
Next question is from Mr. Adam Lubbers, Jefferies. Go ahead please.
Hello, Laurence Alexander speaking. Two questions. 1 on the Verimeris. Can you characterize strategy and are you targeting the premium prices currently seen for algal oils? Or will it be priced of JV, so the Verimeris, Stevia, the Clean Cow effort as well.
How should we think about the return on capital hurdle for the next tranche of investments in these areas.
All right. Well, on Veermeier, We just opened the factory. I was there in Nebraska, I visit 2 weeks ago for the opening of the factory. So we built it all on time, on budget and all that stuff. So it looks good.
The interest of the market It's clearly there. So yes, customers, I don't want to say, are knocking on our door, and maybe I want to say that. So I think we will supply the market. We are now building up the pipeline, customer trials, 1st supplies, the whole supply chain in the second half year and then next year we can go. We have seen that some retailers clearly make the interest in the announcement like Kauflamt in Germany or Match in France, Lindblax, the Norwegian salmon producer made this announcement of its interest in us.
So you see also that some players, both in the retail area and the salmon producers made, let's say, public announcements So here you see the interest. It goes a little bit too fast and too far for me to say where our pricing will end up Because that's exactly the discussion we have at this moment. Of course, there is a reference point to fish oil Because it's replacing that, but more sustainable, we have a constant cost price where fish oil prices Always been fluctuating due to quota, ethane of the ocean and etcetera. So there you will see always some movements where we, of course, have a stable cost price, hopefully, declining. And indeed, if I can get a premium there because I think it is a product which provides really the sustainability.
It's great. There's another element over the years. The Fish oil went down a little bit in its content of EPA and DHA. That means that over the recent 5 years, The DHA and EPA content in our settlements, which we eat from fish farms, has a lesser almost have content than, let's say, 5 or 10 years ago. And we can restore that with our products.
So that is a quality effect. Sorry, I gave a couple of arguments, which I'm using also to our customers on why our product has also some uniqueness. On Stevia and Cream Kao, I think we are on track. Geraldine can say something about thresholds and investments. But we'll stay here.
We are building the factory and doing the testings now and Klinkao. We have registered, like Geraldine said in the introduction, awaiting on the registration. Geraldine can add something here.
Yes. In terms of the return on capital employed from the JV, we don't provide the granular split of that. But What we've done in every single case is we compared how do we go forward with this under our own skin versus how does it compare If we go into the journey as a joint venture, so to give you an idea for Viramaris, we knew that the plant will cost broadly at €200,000,000 although by the way teaming up with Evonik was helpful because I had a very appropriate site in glare for this. And it also enables to therefore share of the capital investment between parties. Similarly, for Avancia, first of all, with cargo, They brought a fair number of pots and pans to get this going.
We used to have quite discussions about that. So I mean these all of these big tickets are very positive in terms of our overall financials, but we don't split out by JV.
Thank you.
And next question is from Ms. Laura Lopez Pineda, Baader Bank. Go ahead please.
Good morning. First, On pricing on the materials business, so I will be interested to see how so the pricing for your specialty products for sure has kept robust. We also see that in the margin. But how do you see that Going forward, so we are hearing from other players in the chemical space also that now, let's say, they are feeling some pricing pressure also in the specialty supply chain. So how do you see that evolving in the second half?
And in general, what is your view for the materials session. Also in the second half of you continue to expect this weak environment to continue. And then I have a question On the innovation division, you mentioned weakness in the solar projects. And yes, indeed, in China, this has been very low since last year already. However, demand has been strong this year again.
So prices in general have been call. Hello, but then it will be interesting to understand what is your exposure there and are you feeling more like a negative pricing or it's also volumes from your side? Thanks.
All right. Yes, on the pricing of materials, I basically said it all. Materials is only look to the whole company. Nutrition is 70%, partly an impact of The economic climate, materials at 30%, and of course, there we feel it, but not so much in the specialty part of materials, Dyneema, Functional Materials and those specialties, we don't see it. Of course, we see it in automotive business.
So therefore, Due to the specialty part of the materials and the changed transformation of our materials business over the years, We don't have a big impact, and we have a flat EBITDA. If you compare that with many other players, that is a different picture. Dyneema and traditional materials and those kinds of things. And I don't see a change in the second half here. I think we will continue to have Good pricing with those products.
You see it like you said also now margins, which are pretty good In Materials, of course, the higher volume products in automotive have a lower volume and that you see in our volume and sales. The smaller volume products having a good margin and a good price, and we kept that, And I expect we keep that. Of course, we don't see in the second half here An improvement of our bigger products in materials in automotive. I don't anticipate now on the resolution between China and the U. S.
So on that end, the second half In the volumes, I don't see an improvement there in our Materials business. On innovation, indeed, the Innovation Center did very well, both on biomedical and biobased, very well. Call. On solar, a little bit heard why. We sell a lot of our products of the solar business, coatings and others, to China, Also for the U.
S. Market, so panels being manufactured from our coatings in China to the U. S. Well, that trade clearly went down. You're right.
It's not the total global consumption of This business went down and that means that maybe we switch over time some of our sales to the U. S, But that will not go automatically, so that's always a lead time. Or the U. S, China resolves it and then our imports from China to divestiture, our materials could be restored. All of this, of course, is a very Small parts of our innovation center, and our innovation center is small part of our total company.
So We talk about small movements here, but yes, we noticed something in our solar business.
Thank you.
Our next question is from Ms. Ali Trumb, Morgan Stanley. Go ahead please.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Could you just please talk through, I know you've given us some color already on the Human Nutrition business around volume and pricing. So could you maybe give us a bit more color around geographically where we're seeing the pressure in Pricing and the slowdown in volume. And then my second question was you've already given us some color on Dora Maersk as well.
All good, Now that our plant is up and running, could you give us a bit more of an idea of the P and L impact and the phasing of when we can start these sales?
Sorry, the last one again? Veramaris,
now that the plant is up and running, could you give us an idea of What you expect or what your expectations are around the P and L impact?
Yes, yes, yes.
Well, Yes. I mean, maybe let me start with Veramaris. So what we said there is the current facility, which is now up and running, When it reaches its full capacity, we'll be generating sales of around €150,000,000 to €200,000,000 for the JV. Now we're in the process, of course, of getting it started and deliveries, etcetera. So really, I think the best way to think about it is that we will start seeing that contribution from next year and not really a contribution from next year.
And not really a huge something material to the group in the second half. Although I have to say it's going very well, so maybe we'll see a little acceleration there. But this would be fully in line with our assumptions for the whole JV. And then On the
human yes, on the human side, You can make a double split of our human business. You can look at by geographical distribution. You can look to the different segments. If I take the segments first in Human Nutrition, the Early Life is doing well. Dietary Supplements is doing well.
Pharma application is doing well. Of the food and beverage market, it's a little bit a mixed bag. It is only, I guess, about 30% of our total H and age business because early life infant formula, pharma, dietary supplements is a big part of our Human Nutrition Business. And there we see that the bigger customers, Like Geraldine said earlier, have some hesitation, and we switch more and more to the smaller customers. That has quite some impact, smaller customers for Small orders, bigger customers and bigger order flows.
So it's a little bit a shift. If I look to our total food and beverage business, I would say roughly globally Half of that food and beverage part, which is a part of Human Nutrition, is the big customers and the other half is the small customers. If I split out all of this geographically, I think This is the 12 in North America, but not so much on the food and beverage market, but more on the I Health and The director of Supermarkets. Also Asia was good. Europe, a little bit lesser and strong in LATAM.
So yes, you can split this whole H and H into segments, as I said, and they had the weakest part was the larger businesses of the food and beverages segments. You can split the geographically, then I would say Europe was maybe the weakest and Asia and North America, strong. I hope that gives some feeling of the total H and H business. And then to add another part, which is also Human Nutrition, first half year in Food Specialties, Personal Care, Roam and Ingredients, which is also partly going to the same market,
Okay. And
just maybe just one last question. So who's going to take the last round?
Next question is from Mr. David Simon, JPMorgan. Go ahead please.
Yes. Hi. This is Chetan here from JPMorgan. I had one question around, we've seen some issues with BSM again in terms of vitamin Supply, maybe a specific rate. But I think structurally, the question was in the last few years, we've seen more disruptions And then the other way around, and I'm just thinking whether you've seen any change in terms of conversations that you might be having in terms of your customers either in terms of contract structure that they want to have in place maybe longer term than right now or any other So if you know, share shifts that you might be seeing structurally any change within in your conversation with the customers.
I would like to answer this very carefully, if I'm honest, because disruptions and issues with our competitors is not a topic I should talk about nor how customers have trust or less trust or whatever in our competitors here. So I would like to be very, very careful here. Of course, what we do is running our own operations with high quality and high reliability and try to gain as much as possible the hearts and minds and wallets also of our customers And getting their preference and ordering, and I think we do well on that area, if I'm honest. I don't know whether that answers, but I want to be careful here. No, that's helpful.
I wish all customers our competitors, of course, the best. Wish us, by the way, the very best. And maybe
if I can squeeze in a one on materials that call. You still are guiding to some increase, which means second half has to improve. Is that just a base effect that
The price increase you mean?
No, I think it was referring to our outlook for materials. For
the years, yes, that's correct.
So we aim to deliver some earnings growth. Now at the end of quarter 1, we were aiming to deliver some earnings growth as well. Now given that the markets, as we all know, is not really Moving much. This remains our ambition, but maybe there's a little bit less space to deliver that. Now maybe it's a good opportunity for me to just remind you that if you look at the second half of last year, Q3 was a strong quarter, Q4 was a much smaller quarter.
So it will be important to look at it from a total H2 point of view to see whether on the full year we're able to deliver and earnings development. Understood. Thank you.
Okay. That leaves us basically to close.
Yes, very briefly. As you know, everybody is busy today, but thank you, Dave. In summary, call. H1, we delivered a good performance. It's important to remember that the business conditions in Nutrition remain very supportive to our plans for the full year and that in materials, as we just explained, we aim to deliver some earnings growth.
This leads us to maintain our outlook for the full year, and we're very well positioned to deliver on our 2021 strategic target. And with that, I thank you all for joining the call.
Thank you, Geraldine. Thank you, Feike. This concludes our conference call for today. Thank you very much for your attention and your questions. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to reach out to our team today, and then we wish you luck with this busy day.
And with that, I now hand over the call back to the operator.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the DSM half year results call. You may now disconnect your line. Thank you, and have a nice day.