Good afternoon, thank you for joining today's call. I hope by now you will have had time to look through our half year press release, and that you have been able to locate our presentation to investor slides on the website. You will also find here our disclaimers about forward-looking statements, which I encourage you to familiarize yourself with. Let me hand you over to Dimitri to start with some introductory comments. We will try to limit today's call to about 45 minutes, considering that this is a very busy day for you. Dimitri?
Yes. T hank you, Dave, and let me add our thanks to all of you for joining us today for the first ever interim results conference call for dsm-firmenich. Following the completion of the merger in May, we are in our eighteenth day. We thank you for your interest in our company. As you can imagine, given that we spoke with you just over a month ago at the release of our preliminary trading update, there is no big news today. What you will see is confirmation that performance, Perfumery and Beauty and Taste, Texture and Health have both performed well in a volatile macroeconomic environment, and that we are accelerating our vitamins transformation plans to address challenges in Animal Nutrition and Health, and to a lesser extent, Health, Nutrition and Care.
Rather than our usual rhythm of taking you through some slides in our investor deck, we believe time is probably best spent for you today to moving straight to our Q&A. Just before we do that, we thought it might be useful if Geraldine says a few words about the presentation of our financial statements today. As you can see, there is a lot to take in, and given that is the first time we are presenting as dsm-firmenich and also our financial results, Geraldine, over to you.
Thank you, Dimitri. Hello, everyone. Indeed, we know it's a busy day for you, we're trying to be super efficient here. Now, unfortunately, we're not making your lives easy, because this press release is a rather complicated one. In fact, we found it also, at times, a little bit tricky to follow all of the different numbers. Let me first say that, you know, the IR team is there to help you, and please don't hesitate to reach out if you're trying to navigate your way through the presentation. Now, I just wanna give a couple of comments to give you the frame within which we prepared these numbers, because it is indeed the first set of reported numbers for dsm-firmenich.
The 1st thing is that here we're bringing together 2 companies and, of course, in order to have something which you can actually analyze in terms of performance, it's easier if you have 6 months of DSM and six months of Firmenich together. That's what we have called pro forma. You will see that on the 1st page, for example, of the press release, that's the top table, and most of our comments are actually referencing the pro forma performance, so like-for-like comparison versus prior, et cetera. In fact, from an IFRS point of view, given the merger was effective May 8th, the true accounts are actually combining six months of DSM and two months of Firmenich, and that is what is the IFRS basis.
That becomes particularly relevant when you look at, for instance, cash generation, et cetera. That's the difference between IFRS and pro forma. There's one extra twist in all of this, and that is the introduction of some new matrices called core, and what we mean by that is that, in fact, the combination is treated from an IFRS point of view as an acquisition, although it is a merger of equals. That does mean that we have had to do a purchase price allocation accounting treatment with a step-up of assets and liabilities coming from Firmenich into the combined balance sheet, for instance. It does inflate the capital employed. It also, for instance, impacts quite a lot the net profit because of the amortization of these stepped-up intangibles.
In order to give you something which is understandable, we've introduced core, which, by the way, was a feedback that we got from you, that this was appreciated in the Linde-Praxair deal, for instance, and we've tried to use a similar approach to provide as much transparency as possible. Just wanted to make that as clear as possible. And with that, I think, we're actually gonna go straight to Q&A. Operator, the floor is back to you.
Yeah, remember that, because, as we always do, that the sell-side analysts can ask questions, yeah, through a separate line, for which they have registered already through the link, which you can find on the website. Yeah, all the other participants are always in the listen-only mode, so we do it as we usually do. I already get a signal from the operator that we are ready to start. Operator, I give you the floor, yeah, to basically start the Q&A session.
Thank you, Mr. Huizing. First of all, I would like to ask the Q&A participants to press star one to register for questions. The first question comes from Charles Eden with UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Two from me, please. First, in the presentation, you helpfully had the net debt of EUR 1.8 billion. If I adjust for the hybrid and then the dividend that you've announced at the end of June, that gets me to round numbers about EUR 3 billion of debt at the half year, sort of, adjusted to those factors. Is that right, is that the way that you'll think about the net debt to EBITDA target of 1.5x-2.5x when you're thinking about shareholder returns, et cetera. The second question is just on the core Adjusted Net Profit, and thanks for the explanation, Geraldine.
If I look at the difference between adjusted EBITDA pro forma of EUR 929, and then the core adjusted net profit of EUR 236, it's quite a big delta. I know we haven't really got all the moving parts between that, I guess by what you're saying by core, is that is recurring. Is that the magnitude of tax, depreciation, amortization, et cetera, that we would expect for the second half, round numbers and into 2024, given that core definition? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Charles. I think this one I will take both, Dimitri. Net debt, let me start there. Indeed, we are closing at the half year with EUR 1.8 billion in net debt, excluding the hybrid of EUR 750. You have to be a bit careful because the hybrid, of course, is treated differently than a straight debt when it comes to the rating agencies. Sometimes half is taken in, et cetera. What we are looking at in terms of the net debt reference is actually excluding the hybrid. I do want to point out here that we will have, in the second half, actually, a few outflows. In particular, the outflow of the buyouts of the minority interests, the shares that weren't tendered.
You remember we had a minority percentage that needs to be bought out, that will come in the second half. The timing of the dividend of EUR 430 is also in the second half, et cetera. Here, I think it's probably good that we provide a bit of guidance for once, and we probably will guide here to our year-end net debt of EUR 3.4 billion-EUR 3.5 billion, maybe something like that, which, you know, is kind of around 2x pro forma EBITDA. I'm saying pro forma because, of course, you need to take an annualized 12 months of EBITDA to have something comparable. That is the number against which we will be applying the policy of 1.5x-2.5x.
Hopefully that provides you a bit of, of clarity there. Now, when it comes to the core EBIT versus the core net profit, maybe core, to be clear, is that we are backing out the amortization of the intangible assets that are carved out from the purchase price allocation on Firmenich. To give you a little bit of a, a number, the step up, because of fair valuing the assets and liabilities, is actually EUR 10 billion, of which about EUR 8 billion goodwill, EUR 2 billion intangible assets. Now, that needs to be amortized, so you are looking at about EUR 250 million of amortization coming from the PPA accounting. That's the definition of core.
To give you, for the modeling, a bit of input, what you should assume from a financial income expense is, on an annual basis, probably about $170 -180 million per year. On H1, if you normalize that pro forma, you're at about $90 million, and then the delta is actually tax. It does lead to a particularly high rate just now, but that has to do with mix. For instance, the vitamin effect that we've been referencing, you know, since June 28th, et cetera, falls very much in Switzerland, and that does impact quite a lot the tax calculations.
Let me give you as an indication for modeling, again, probably on a pro forma basis, you should think at about 23% as being, a reasonable tax rate to put into your models, for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, that answered your question.
Thank you.
Yep.
Yeah , it does. Thank you, Geraldine.
All right, thanks.
We'll take our next question from Matthew Yates with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hey, afternoon, everyone. A couple of questions, please, just on, on operations. The Perfume and Taste divisions, respectively, had sort of a -2% organic sales growth in the quarter, and you do say that you had mid-single-digit pricing. I guess that implied volumes were down about 7% across those two businesses. If, if that's right, that does feel worse than we've seen from peers. I appreciate it's been a challenging consumer environment, but i- is there any insight into that? Have the Firmenich businesses been somewhat disrupted by, by deal closure, and that's impacted execution, or is, is that just quarterly randomness?
The, the second question is, just picking up on something that was in the press release this morning, quote, unquote, "You had even greater confidence in the delivery of our synergy targets." Can you just expand a little bit what you mean by that? Are you saying that you are more confident in delivering the existing synergies, or are we talking about delivering them faster, or are we talking about even potentially upsizing in due course the potential synergy price? Thank you.
Okay. Yeah, Matthew, thank you for that question. Let me take these two. Let me paint a bit of color around the Perfumery & Beauty business and Taste, Texture & Health and give you a bit more color around it. At the end of the day, these, these businesses are not only on, on the organic growth in the first half, but also, I think on the EBITDA step up has been very positive and showed the strength of these businesses. However, you need to sub-segment a little bit the business. Let me start with Perfumery & Beauty. There, we have seen a positive momentum , on the pricing with a, with a, a positive effect , of around mid-single digit, with volumes impacted by lower ingredients sales.
Remember that we have announced that we will not reopen Pinova, that obviously had an impact on the ingredient part. It would then give you some color on the sub-segments. Perfumery, fine fragrance had a very good growth in the first half, whereby consumer fragrance had solid growth. We're very happy with that growth going forward, where personal care also showed very good growth first half. The element which worked negatively for the volume was the ingredients part because of the destocking, but also because of the Pinova effect. If you take that into account, you can basically say that fragrances, perfumery, fine fragrance, consumer fragrance, and personal care were doing very well. We take Taste, Texture & Health. Here, we have two sub-segments. We have the taste part, and we have the ingredient solutions.
It's clear that on the taste part, we've seen a positive momentum on pricing, but also on the volumes. I think good volumes in beverages, soft drinks, juices, fresh bakery, as well as confectionery. I think that is also what we expect to continue. On the ingredient solutions, we've seen good business in enzymes, cultures, and textures, but a bit weak on yeast, colorants, and nutrition. I think the pricing were okay with only the volumes, which were a bit covered by partly by destocking, but certainly in the area of yeast, colorants, and nutrition. Overall, I think also with the improved performance on Taste, Texture & Health, where we also deliberately walked away for some of these lower-margin business, and you've seen them reflected in the EBITDA.
I think you could basically say that Perfumery & Beauty, as well as Taste, Texture & Health, had a very strong first half. The second one on the press release, you picked up greater confidence. That before going into faster and more, be aware that we did our synergy work in the clean teams. Remember, we were, before the 8th of May, were not allowed to share commercial sensible and sensitive information, and we were doing our pre-work based on the clean room investigation. Now, within our 80 day, obviously, you build far more evidence because now all the books are open. And I'm very happy to say that what we've seen so far is building that greater confidence.
We've also had our key supplier meeting in Barcelona in second, first or second week of June, where we also could add flesh on the bone in terms of where the savings were coming from, and that has predominantly to do with the cost savings. Remember that we, on our $350 million EBITDA, we said 50% is about cost synergies and the other 50% is revenue synergies. The cost synergies obviously will come earlier, while the revenue synergies take some time to work through the brief system. It will take a year, 1.5 year time for those revenues to come. Also there, we are more confident, but obviously on the cost synergies, we also see some signs that we could bring in cost savings in line with our expectations, but with more confidence because it's more backed up by evidence.
That to your question, I hope that gives a bit of color.
Thank you, Dimitri.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Chetan Udeshi with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, thanks. The first question, I just wanted to follow up on Geraldine's net debt sort of indication of EUR 3.4-3.5. Can I confirm that includes the hybrid?
Is that the only question, or you have others?
No, that's like the other question, the second question was, just looking at the phasing of your second half guidance, you guys stayed about EUR 408 million of pro forma EBITDA. I think the guidance implies, if I take the midpoint, the run rate of EUR 460 million per quarter in Q2, sorry, Q3 and Q4. I'm just curious, how do you think about the step up from 408 to that quarterly run rate? Do we see that in Q3, or is Q3 more like, you know, similar to Q2, and we, we, we see much of the step up in Q4? The last question I had was actually just thinking about the restructuring cost. How, how should we think about the cash restructuring cost this year, and how much actually flows into next year? Thank you.
Okay. Yeah, thanks. Let me give you the first and the third, and then I'll hand over to Dimitri for the middle question. Net debt here, the indication is actually excluding the hybrid, but realize that there are a lot of one-timers related to the deal going on here. There is an element, of course, of phasing. What we're seeing here is taking the current outlook from an operational point of view and then factoring in things like the buyout of minorities. We also have, by the way, but that's not a net debt, it's more of a cash movement, a bond maturing in December, and that will be paid out of the balance sheet. That's to clarify the net debt.
From the restructuring costs, here, what you will see is that this is a year where the, what is called under IFRS, APMs, so alternative performance measure items kind of come together. We have different categories that we've been talking about along the way. We have the integration costs. You remember EUR 250 million that we've indicated? We have all the transaction costs and deal-related items. Here, you're about in the EUR 270 million-EUR 280 million. There's these accelerated programs that we've put in place on June 28th, in order to recover a strong performance. There, we indicated EUR 200 million, and then you have sort of Pinova and others, about EUR 80-EUR 100.
When you add up all of that, you're probably in the EUR 750-800 million, and the question is very good, and that is the phasing overt wo to three years. What we will do is, period by period, we will provide you with the cash out versus expense. The timing is not the same, whether it's P&L or it's cash, and it's also not the same whether it's pro forma or IFRS. Those are the moving parts. And in here, we're probably looking at a guidance for this year of about EUR 350, I think would be the number. I have to say, I have a slide that if it's P&L or cash, hold that thought. We will, we'll provide the insights a bit later.
Indeed, to your question on Q3 and Q4, of what do we see? There are three elements will come into play. One is the destocking to fade away. Two is the input costs, which we see with stabilizing inflation going down, and three is the cost measures, which we have initiated. For Q3, we see that some of the cost measures which we've initiated will help Q3. The other two measures will help only in Q4. The destocking to fade away, we are not very optimistic. That's also what you said earlier, end of June, but there will be some normalization towards the end of the year, that will help Q4.
The input cost, we do see going down, but because of our stocks of five-plus months, it takes time to run through the stocks before it impacts positively our, our EBITDA. We'll see towards the end of the year, we will see that positive effect. Then obviously also in Q4, we will see the cost measures in effect. Q3 will be still relatively weak. Q4, because of the three elements coming together, will be better. That's how it's been built up throughout the year towards our outlook of EUR 1,800-EUR 1,900.
Thank you.
We will take our next question from Fernand de Boer with Degroof Petercam. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon. Thank, thank you for taking my question. One question on this purchase allocation. Why don't you also correct the goodwill of the intangibles from the past, which were on, on the old DSM, and make the adjustment like that, like you do for Firmenich? That's the first question, and the line was a little bit bad, so maybe to come back on this, your organic volume growth in the second quarter, and then going into Q3, when would you see some improvement over there?
Okay, let me take the, the PPA question. You know, it's a subject that we actually discussed at length, and there was no, a unanimous preference whether we should correct for all of goodwill and actually make it a before any kind of amortization of acquisition-related, intangibles or just the merger. We decided to remain very transparent and to provide some consistency across the accounting to only do it for the merger-related, big number, which of course, comes from the step up, on the Firmenich accounts. It was a choice, and, and it seemed to be the most transparent one to provide consistency. That was from the PPA, and then, Dimitri?
Yeah. Let me speak close to the mic. I hope you hear me well now. What we, what we expect is that the volumes towards the end of the year will pick up a bit because then destocking would be fading away, but more towards the end of the year than earlier. That is something for Q4. The other two elements I mentioned were the input costs, which were going down, but it needs to run through our stocks, and therefore will help in Q4, towards the end of the year. Obviously, the cost elements on the, on the initiation of the cost elements will already help us a little bit in Q3, and obviously also in Q4.
We still expect a relatively weak Q3, and these three elements coming together will help Q4 a bit going forward, nicely in line with our outlook, which we've given between EUR 1,800 and EUR 1,900.
One, follow-up. The core adjusted profit, that is the base for the dividend payment?
Yeah. Thank you for that question. I was expecting it. Yes. In fact, maybe let me take the opportunity of this question on dividends. The dividend policy, as stated in the offering circular as well, is a policy of distributing 40%-60% as a payout ratio. Now, it's a ratio of the core, so you know, backing out this amortization, otherwise, that would be a, a significant drop. Also, I think it's fair to say that in the period of both transition and integration, we are, as a company, investing a lot into setting up dsm-firmenich for a prosperous future. In the transition time, it is actually costing us these one-time costs.
Bearing that in mind, it is very likely the payout ratio will be quite a bit higher at first and then will normalize towards the 60%. In that spirit, you know, the payout ratio is the policy, but we may depart from it with a view most probably, you know, to be confirmed by the board, of course, at some stage, of ensuring a stable dividend at first.
Thank you very much.
We'll take our next question from Isha Sharma with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. I just had two, please. Since you announced the $400 million vitamins impact, we have seen further declines in vitamin E prices. Does that mean the impact could be a little bit bigger, or did you already assume that it would get worse from where we were at the time? The second question is on Perfumery & Beauty. You had guided for around $40 million of seasonal impact on EBITDA. We didn't see that materialize. It was only around $20 million decline in EBITDA from the last quarter. Despite the volume decline at the Firmenich underlying business, does that mean that that $40 million was not the usual seasonal effect, or could you give us a bit more color on that, please?
Dimitri?
Yep. Let me respond on vitamin E. It's good to know that all our analysts following our vitamin prices. Be aware this is most probably feed info with our contract prices, but it gives an indication. In our trading update last month, in June, we did say that the total exposure or to vitamins was about 15%, which is around $2.2 billion, of which vitamin E was one of the few vitamins where we're still making a little bit of money. I think the overall performance of vitamins, not only for from dsm-firmenich, but around the globe in the value chain, is relatively low. The vitamin E was one that was still a little bit of profit.
We also included in our outlook that part of that decline was included in the EUR 1,800-EUR 1,900. Part is included. We need to see how vitamin E is evolving throughout the year, but we assumed part of the decline being part of our outlook. That's also why we gave a range between EUR 1,800 and EUR 1,900. On Perfumery & Beauty, I don't have the numbers here, but I do saw a sequential quarter, I saw a decline, and I think that was what we mentioned in terms of seasonality. I don't know what the numbers you are looking at, but if you look at Q1 to Q2, you saw a, a lower Q2, although compared to prior year, it was a, it was a step up in, in, in EBITDA.
It is in line with what we said at that time. If, if, if you want to have more clarification, then I think we can take it offline, but, it's in line with what we initially said.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Artem Chubarov with Redburn. Please go ahead. Artem, your line is open. Please check your mute function on your phone. All right, we'll take our next question from Nicola Tang with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. Firstly, just a few more moving parts on the cash flow side. Geraldine, thanks for the help there. I think working capital trended up a bit in H1 year-on-year, and I know you're saying it's not necessarily reflective of pro forma, but maybe you could give us a bit of a steer of, I guess, your ambitions around working cap for sales and a kind of midterm view for the combined business, and perhaps also clarify in terms of pro forma sort of CapEx details as well.
The second question, with Pinova, and sorry if I missed it earlier because the line was a bit unclear from Dimitri, but I think in the June call, you mentioned that Pinova would be a headline, a headwind on top line, but less so on the bottom line. Wondering if you could help us quantifying the top line impact in Q2 and what it might be in H2 for Perfumery & Beauty on Pinova. Thank you.
Yeah. Hi, Nicole. Happy to do all three, actually. From a working capital point of view, I'm afraid indeed, the performance is not great and is reflected in the cash generation so far. You probably saw in the report on a pro forma basis, we closed at about 33% as a operating working capital to sales ratio versus 29 in prior year. This is really driven by inventory. I have to say, a lot to do with legacy DSM and the fact that the volumes were soft. When you look at that, I mean, to give you a bit of an idea, the DDI, so, days of inventory, are up at 162 versus 149 in prior.
That's one of the main drivers, which really matches the situation that we're seeing on vitamins. Another maybe number that is very useful, that is the cash conversion. On a pro forma basis, we closed for the 6 months at a 31% cash conversion, which as you can see, is really on the low side. Here the target will be to move that up into the 40%-50% as a first stage. It's a combination of the cash conversion and probably from a working capital, reverting to, as a first step, back to where we were a year ago, which is 29% of sales as OWC to sales ratio. A big effort.
We've talked about, you know, shutdowns, we've talked about a number of steps commercially to, to make that happen, and that will continue to be a great area of focus going forward. From a cash, from a CapEx point of view, and here again, let me give you a couple of numbers. For H1, we were at EUR 348 million of CapEx now pro forma. You can probably assume a max of EUR 850 for this year, including Bovaer. As you remember, Bovaer, we had indicated potentially comes a little bit on top, but with this EUR 850 max for this year, it would be included, and that brings you at about 6.5% of sales.
Now, if we take the blended legacy DSM, legacy Firmenich numbers, normally the company should trend a bit lower than that. But we are seeing, you know, the timing of things like Bovaer, CanolaPRO, and some investments on the legacy Firmenich side as well, coming a little bit at the same time. Maybe from a modeling point of view, given that we're in one of those calls, and it's normal, for the first time, if you look at your depreciation amortization modeling, you probably should be thinking here at about EUR 230 million-EUR 240 million per quarter of depreciation amortization. That's from a CapEx point of view. Then Pinova, you picked it up correctly, so the impact is very much top-line related.
In Q2, while the fire took place in April, there was, of course, inventory still at hand. The impact of Pinova in the quarter is, is not too significant, but it's still there. However, you will see it more in the second half. We're probably looking at a top-line impact in the second half of EUR 50 million-60 million in terms of headwind with a more limited impact on the bottom line as Pinova was clearly more dilutive than accretive from a margins point of view.
Thanks. If, if I could just squeeze in a follow-up on the Pinova point. I think you talked about kind of workarounds going forward. Should we think of this, you know, EUR 50-60 million in the second half as kind of like lost revenue, or does it come back at some point?
For now, my understanding is that it's more lost revenue because the site is closed, et cetera. I can- we will bring back some more information depending on how it evolves. Here the work is really about looking at how to supply the customers, using alternative sites. At present, and I'm checking with Dimitri here, I believe it's lost revenue.
It is, it is predominantly lost revenue for two cases. I think Geraldine was already alluding to it. It's not very helping our, our EBITDA quality, and the business going forward. There is opportunities to, to also produce at other sites, so that's also the reason why we tried to close Pinova. Obviously, that has approval procedures to it, so that will take a while before that is coming back. For this year, I think you can regard it as lost.
All right. Very helpful. Thank you.
Operator, I think we're done. Do you still have people in the waiting line or not?
There are no further questions at this time.
Okay, we can conclude. Geraldine, a question from my end. I think you said on the DNA, the figures you mentioned were per half year, huh?
You're right. I said per quarter-
Yeah
It's a mistake. The half year, indeed. That would make more... No? Well, now you make me confused. I think it's per quarter. The, the half year, H1, was EUR 470.
Yeah.
Per quarter, it's about EUR 230-EUR 240 per quarter.
Yeah. Okay.
Yeah.
No, that's good. I've got it. Yeah.
Yeah, then, then there are the. Yeah, maybe with the.
There we have it. There we have it. Yeah. Okay, Dimitri, a few words from you please?
Yes, thank you. Indeed, before we end today's call, there are 2 important things left for me to do. 1 is obviously to invite Geraldine to take the stage 1 more final time at this beautiful company, to say a few words. Secondly, I would like to introduce to you Geraldine's successor as CEO of dsm-firmenich, Ralf Schmeitz. Although you didn't see him, he's been sitting patiently on the call today. Let's move to Ralf first. First, to position him a little bit, Geraldine and I have had a great privilege of working very closely with Ralf over many, many, many years. Together, I think we have accomplished a great deal to move the company to the point where we are.
Ralph is, is really, all up and running to, to enter into his new role as per the first September, and obviously, we wish him all this- wish him all the success in the world. There's also a bit of a, a personal, wish from me as well, because if he's successful, then I think, we are all successful going forward. I know, Ralph, that, we have gained a fantastic CEO, in, in you as per the first September, and maybe you just want to, to come on screen and say a few words.
Well, hello, everyone, happy to be to be introduced this first time on screen. Like Dimitri has said, in the background, for many years, obviously, my previous role at the company as Group Controller, first for DSM and later for the combined company that that we represent today. Big thank you to the Dimitri and Geraldine, of course, for all for all those years and getting the opportunity. Obviously, I also wanna take take the moment to once more wish Geraldine well and all the best for the future going going forward. Now, to the other audience that that I can't see, but I'm keen to meet and work with going forward, our investor community, we will have the opportunity for that later in the year.
We are scheduling some teaching sessions on Perfumery & Beauty and Taste, Texture & Health business later in the year, November, in both Geneva and the US, and that will be a great moment, and we're scheduling also a roadshow around that. Really look forward to that. Also early 2024, we are planning a Capital Markets Day. I think that's provisionally penciled in for June. That will give us ample opportunity to get to know each other well as well. For now, keen to work with Dimitri going forward and the whole executive committee in the company, and to live up to the potential that this beautiful dsm-firmenich journey has ahead of us. Really look forward to that. With that, back to you, Dimitri. Thank you.
Thanks, Ralf Indeed, that's a nice bridge. Geraldine, the last time, please, the floor is yours.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, basically, I have to say, it's a really happy moment for me to have you, Ralf, take over. We've worked 10 years together, and indeed, you don't know on the call, but Ralf was always there and including today. It's not difficult for me to rotate out because I know the company is gonna be in very, very good hands with my two colleagues here on the screen. So that feels great. It also feels great that after 10 years, I can look back with a big smile at, I think, a lot of great achievements. Of course, the last one is the one that's been taking a lot of our time today, which is the merger and the exciting future of dsm-firmenich, going forward.
Now, I was lucky that when I joined DSM, I knew a lot of you already. I I wanna thank you for your trust, and for the great conversations we've had over the years and the great dialogues. It helped us, by the way, a lot. I know that this is the culture that will continue, which is full transparency and dialogue going forward, and, you know, to the extent possible, not to bring any surprises along the way. Thank you, and maybe, you know, I will see you again. We will see how the future pans out. I really will not leave without another thank you, and that is to the IR team.
I have to say, it's the best IR team I have worked with. Now I'm getting a little bit emotional. I'm sorry about that. Yeah, and, you know, when you work for 10 years so closely, and you have the pleasure of working with someone like Dave, with Mark, that you know well, with Joanna, with Anna, it makes it a very special journey. Just wanted to say thank you for that, and sorry for the emotion. Over to you, Dmitry.
Never apologize for your emotions, Geraldine, because that's who you are, and that's where you stand out. I think I echo the appreciation for all of us for what you've done for the company, but also personally for me. Your unique personality with passion, competence, and a fantastic warmth and charm and bringing it together. We will miss you during the calls, and I think I'm speaking on behalf of all the investors, that we will miss that quite a bit. Ralph and I had a high standard to live up to. With that, I think it's time to close the call. A unique call, because the first call as dsm-firmenich, but also a unique call because it's the last call with Geraldine. With that, thank you. Let's go back to the operator to close the call.
Thank you.
Thank you. This will conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.