Good afternoon. This is the Conference Operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the GVS Nine Months 2025 Results Conference Call. All participants are in listen-only mode, and after the presentation, there will be a Q&A session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Massimo Scagliarini, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon and good morning, and welcome to the Nine Months 2025 Results Presentation of the GVS Group. A quick snapshot on the main number: healthcare and life science, a nice growth of 4.8%, excluding FX and the US dialysis, and safety revenues plus 8.5% year-on-year. Nice speed of both divisions. Adjusted EBITDA margin at nearly 25%, plus 60% versus the Nine Months 2024. Adjusted net income, net of FX, at plus 7.2% versus the previous year, to EUR 36.3 million, increasing the margin to 11.5% from the 10.5% of the Nine Months 2024. Net financial position, EUR 271 million as of September 25, with a leverage ratio post-M&A at 2.5%. Leverage ratio 2025, excluding the astronomical effect of M&A and buyback, at 2% versus the 2.3% of the previous year. Now, a little bit of color on the number that I just mentioned.
As we can see, healthcare and life science, a nice growth of 4.8%. Of course, if we include dialysis, the growth is 0.5%. Energy mobility at minus 10.8%, but this is a troubled market, we know, and we are waiting for a stabilization of this number. Safety, nice plus 0.8%, and this confirmed the speed of this division. Adjusted EBITDA, nearly 25% at EUR 78.7 million, with a growth of plus 0.8% versus the previous year. The net financial position, you can see in the dark blue line, the net financial position with the extraordinary effect of M&A and buyback, and the light blue, the same net financial position, but without this extraordinary effect. Now I will leave the speech to Guido that will give you some more color on this number.
Thank you, Massimo, and good afternoon to. Let's move to the variance analysis of the Nine Months sales. The first effect is the FX. We have a negative impact of EUR 6.9 million related to the depreciation of the US dollar and Chinese yuan. In terms of volumes, recorded minus EUR 3.7 million, and this is the effect of several different trends. The first is the positive contribution of M&A for EUR 9.6 million in the Nine Months, and this is partially offset by almost EUR 8 million, EUR 7.9 million volume loss related to the US dialysis. This is a concept that we have introduced in the last call, and the trend in the third quarter is basically continuing with the same pace of the first part of the year. There are other volume losses related to the mobility sector.
On the positive side, we have a positive contribution in terms of pricing for EUR 1 million, and this increase includes also some reaction that we have implemented after the introduction of the tariff, second quarter and third quarter of the year. Moving to the different division, it is worth highlighting that the main effect, again, that have influenced the medtech in healthcare and life science is, again, the US dialysis business. Net of this effect, the medtech in the nine months recorded performance is overall stable compared to the nine months of 2024. Safety business is growing at the same pace of the first half of the year, so plus 8.5%, very stable growth trajectory, excluding FX. Finally, mobility is still affected by a negative sales trend of around 11%. Now I will leave the floor to Marco on the EBITDA trends.
Thanks, Guido. Good morning, good afternoon, everybody. Here EBITDA, EBITDA margin, you see, is going from 24.3% last year to 24.9%. Around 70 basis points accretion. In absolute terms, EBITDA is going from EUR 78.1 million to EUR 78.7 million. The main drivers are negative impact of FX, year over year. The US and Chinese currency are going down by around 3%. Volume effect negative, already said a lot by Guido about that. Mix, I would say something about that. The mix is negative because it's by the recent acquisitions last January. Now the production of the products, let's say, both by Haemonetics, from Haemonetics, are currently produced by Haemonetics. The marginality is currently lower than the average profitability of the group. Pricing, okay, already said by Guido, 1.4% year over year.
There is a positive EUR 1 million, which is given by the fact that now we are projecting that we are going to pay next May around EUR 7 million as for short-term incentives to the management. Last year, we paid around 8.5%. We are decreasing the projection. Why? Because we are using the expected EBITDA. By the way, we will give some comments on that, but let me say that the expected EBITDA for the full year is around 25.5%, even slightly above that. It means that we are projecting to improve year over year by around 130 basis points, EBITDA margin. Adjusted net income, as usual, we focus on the right portion of the slide. You see the box with the broken line square. The adjusted net income, excluding the effects and impact generated by the intercompany loans in US dollars.
You see that year over year we are increasing by 7.2% the adjusted net income from 36.3%. More importantly, I want to stress the fact that the adjusted net income as a percentage of revenues is equal to 11.5%. It was 10.5% last year. This means that we convert into cash 11.5% of our revenues. When I say cash, it's cash after taxes and interest paid to the banks as well. Net financial position and the leverage ratio. Leverage ratio is going from 2.1% to 2.5%. As already highlighted by Massimo at the beginning of the call, we should offset the extraordinary effects coming from the acquisition, 49.4%, the extraordinary new plants in China and the U.K., EUR 8 million, and the buyback, shares buyback 7.6%. These three factors are recapped inside the box with the blue broken line.
On the right, you see the ordinary cash generated by the company in nine months, EUR 13 million. It is EUR 13 million, notwithstanding the negative trend of the working capital, March EUR 20 million. They say that over the first nine months, negative trend of the working capital is, let's say, normal, is given by the ordinary trend of the business. It is seasonality. EUR 20 million is a lot, too much. I would have expected EUR 5-10 million. We are going to recover working capital, networking between October and December. If we see the same slide in three months' time, you will see that we are going to show networking capital trend minus 5% or close to 0% anyway. We expect a strong generation of cash in the last quarter.
That is why we expect a net financial position being equal to something between EUR 245 million-EUR 250 million at the end of the year. We expect a leverage ratio of around 2.2% at the end of the year, notwithstanding buyback and all the extraordinary effects we have already mentioned. Now I give the floor back to Massimo.
Yep. Current trading, as we mentioned, finally we have completed the transfer of all the machines from Haemonetics to Monterrey and Reynosa, our plant in Mexico. We are dismounting now the last machine, but all the other machines are already fully operative in Monterrey and Reynosa. It is very important because finally we will not have any more Haemonetics producing for us, but we will be independent and we will be able to drive the speed of production. Puerto Rico finally closed, formally closed in October 2025, so no more cost derivative by this plant. The formal opening of the new U.K. and China factory, and finally the stop of this extraordinary CapEx that we have seen in the last year. New hydrogen membrane production line, fully operative, and we are sending out products to our customers for initial validation. Guidance 2025.
Sales, low single digit growth, excluding FX versus 2024. Adjusted EBITDA, confirming 100-150 basis points versus the previous year. Leverage ratio around 2.2%, including impact of the buyback. A quick view on 2026 because we are working now on next year, and it is interesting to see what is our vision for the next 12 months. Medtech. Finally, we have a ramp-up of new products, and this, as we have anticipated already two years ago, we had product development that will be launched next year, and that will support the organic growth of this division. Transfusion medicine, as I already said, finally we are independent and we are driving the speed of our production so that will allow us to recover the big delay that we accumulated during 2025, but plus, super important, will allow us to improve the marginality of this division to the group marginality.
Life science, we are working on a new agreement with big distributors in the U.S. and in Europe, and that will definitely drive the growth of this division, plus the building of distribution hub in strategic market to be able to have a quick delivery to the customer. There are a lot of activity going on in this division, and that will pay back. We expect the payback on next year. Safety, keep growing, gaining financial penetration and market share, and of course, this based on the new product launch on 2025 and the new product that will be launched on 2026. Mobility, we see a growth on the electronic subdivision, the one related to electric vehicles, because there are different applications that are in launch phase, and of course, the first sales of the new hydrogen membrane.
This was a quick outlook on next year, and I believe that now we can go to the Q&A session.
Thank you. This is the Carusco Conference Operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. To answer the queue for questions, please click on the Q&A icon on the left side of your screen. When announced, please click Continue on the pop-up window. If you are connected in audio only, please press star one on your telephone. The first question is from Anna Frontani of Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Two questions. The first one on US dialysis, do you have visibility on when we can expect a normalization in volumes? Second question related to the new guidance. Can you please explain what changed and what prompted you to change your expectations for 2025? Maybe if you could, Marco, bridge the change for every line that you revised compared to the previous guidance. Thank you.
Dialysis is a very complex situation because we have a contract where we have defined a minimum quantity. The point is that the customer until today was not able to produce internally, so he put on us a very big number because the production was not having any output. Now the customer is gaining speed on their internal production, and so that has automatically decreased our share on the total production. This is still up and down, so not easy to predict. Anyway, I know that from the revenue point of view, it's not nice, but being non-margin, non-profit business is really not impacting on the group result and the group outlook for the future. And then the second line on.
Two questions about analysis for each line you said of the variance. Okay. I would make comments on revenues and EBITDA, if it's okay for you. As for the revenues, okay, as for the revenues, we said mid-high single digit. If you take a midpoint of the original guidance, you would translate that into EUR 465 million revenues. Now we are seeing low single digit between 2% and 3% means EUR 430 million, more or less. So there is a EUR 35 million gap. More or less, there are three main reasons behind the deviation. One third is coming from FX because our budget was assuming US dollar FX 1.10. Now, the first nine months, we were at 1.12, and we are at 1.17. So, more or less, EUR 12 million are FX.
Another one third, so more or less, again, EUR 12 million are coming from the volumes driven by the acquisition because we lost more or less two months' production. One month because we closed the acquisition in January instead of December last year. We had a very troubled Q2. More or less, we lost one month's production also in Q2. One month means EUR 5 million. Two months are more or less EUR 10 million. The third reason is we said dialysis. You have to do dialysis year over year. Across 12 months, we are losing more or less EUR 12 million. These are the three``` reasons behind the deviation of the sales. Now, EBITDA. EBITDA, we have effect.
Let me add one thing. This is the reason why for us it was important to outline that the core of the business is growing, and so it is more related to the dialysis business and the delay generated by the production of the transfusion medicine of Haemonetics that generated this slowdown in revenue. It was important to outline these two points.
Okay. Thanks. As for EBITDA, I will try to be as accurate as possible. The original guidance was EBITDA margin increasing by 200-250 year over year, which means or 150-250, sorry. The original budget was showing EBITDA of around EUR 122 million, which is the midpoint of the guidance. It means that now we are going from EUR 122 million to EUR 110 million, so the deviation is EUR 12 million more. FX to around EUR 2 million. Then we said the volumes from the acquisition. Okay, they have a slightly lower gross margin compared to the average of the group, but anyway, losing EUR 10 million, EUR 12 million means around EUR 3 million on EBITDA. Dialysis, more or less the same metrics. Apart from the volumes, we said as for the acquisition, we moved all the machinery from the Tijuana plant of Haemonetics into ours. Now, we have just completed the movement.
The assumption of budget was to complete the movement by July, more or less. Puerto Rico, we have now completely closed the plant. It was to complete the closure in June, July. The late movement of these extraordinary activities has been completed a few months later, and the impact was more or less EUR 2 million, EUR 3 million. This is a brief recap, but I hope also accurate of the bridge between the new guidance and the old one.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
The next question is from Emanuele Gallazzi of Equita . Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everybody. I hope you can hear me.
Yes.
Yes. Okay, perfect. Thank you for the presentation. From my side, three questions. Let's start with the, let's say, early outlook for 2026, and specifically on the medtech. You basically mentioned the new product to drive growth in 2026. I was just wondering if you are seeing, let's say, a more normal approach from your client, specifically in the medtech. Still looking at your outlook for 2026, just a clarification on the safety and mobility. If I understand correctly, are you expecting, let's say, a nice single-digit growth for the safety, so more or less in line with the trend seen in 2025, and a slight improvement in the mobility? Final clarification is still on the guidance. Thank you, Marco, for the details on the, let's say, the moving parts.
Just looking at the guidance, basically, in the first nine months, you were up 70 basis points in terms of profitability, and you are now guiding for 120 basis points for 2025, meaning that the fourth quarter should be really strong in terms of margin expansion. Can you just give us a little bit more details about this improvement, strong improvement expected in the fourth quarter, I guess related to the Puerto Rico, but anything to add would be useful.
Okay. So, the first one was the medtech growth. What is the client feedback from customer? What kind of trend were we experiencing?
Okay. Again, isolating a bit, the dialysis is an exceptional situation, and we have to deal with it. No, I would say that on the medtech market, it's now stable, and there is a slight positive improvement in this market. Again, there are two different speeds. If I look at the US market, there are a lot of new projects, launch of new products, so there is a very nice movement in this market. Europe is still penalized a little bit by the MDR certification that has slowed down all this market. If I put all together, I would say that I see a positive trend on this division.
Of course, supported by new product launch that could make the difference on the growth for next year.
The second one was the safety. They were asking if the high single-digit growth of the safety can be controlled.
Yeah, safety, absolutely. It's keeping the high single digit. They have a new product to launch on next year too, and there are products that have been launched in 2025 that will be fully in effect for next year. Plus, it's like a snowball. More visibility we have in the market, more penetration we have, more visibility we have, and it's more easy for the customer to jump on our products and to switch from the competitors to our products. We are not expecting a change on the speed of safety. Mobility, I am expecting personally a stabilization of this market. I know it's still early to say something like this, but I am kind of optimistic, let's put it in this way. I am expecting a more clear view on next year, also because otherwise, it will be a disaster for everybody with this market.
Apart from this, apart from my personal comment, anyway, we have this subdivision that is related to electronics and electric vehicles that have very interesting opportunities that are popping up, and so that will compensate any other possible decline from the rest of the division. Plus, we have, of course, the new hydrogen membrane. If we put together these two effects, for sure, I'm expecting a stabilization, if not a positive result. Again, we will be more detailed and more precise when we have finished our work of budgeting for next year, and we have discussed with all the customers. We will have closed all the negotiations for next year, and then we will have definitely a more clear vision.
Question from Emanuele. It was about Q4 margin guidance. Okay. After nine months, EBITDA was around EUR 79 million. We said that our target on the full year is EUR 110 million. So, it means that we need to generate EUR 31 million in Q4. The difference is driven by volumes. Let me explain you. If you take, for example, Q1 or Q2, you can see that we posted EUR 107 million, EUR 108 million revenues, and with that level of volumes, we generated on average EUR 27 million EBITDA. So, EUR 107 million revenues, we generated EUR 27 million EBITDA. Now, Q4, to generate EUR 113 million sales. So, it means versus Q1, Q2, around EUR 6 million higher revenues. The volume impact on EBITDA of EUR 6 million revenue is around EUR 3.5 million.
If you take the EBITDA in Q1 or Q2, and you add around EUR 3 million-4 million, you end up with around EUR 31 million in Q4. EUR 31 in Q4, EUR 79 after nine months, the total is EUR 110. Of course, we depend and we rely on the volumes.
Very clear. I really appreciate all the details. Thank you.
Thank you. You're welcome.
The next question is from Matteo Bonizzoni of Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Thank you and good evening. Two questions. One is a follow-up and clarification on what you just said on the Q4 performance. Basically, you're saying that starting from around EUR 100 million revenues, exactly as said, EUR 100 million revenues in Q3, you have to do EUR 110 million, EUR 115 million in Q4, no? This is what you're guiding. What are the drivers of this sequential improvement? In particular, how much is related to the startup production for the Haemonetics for the blood business, which you have written in the press release in November? You have started finally to produce in your plants. How much of this EUR 110 million, EUR 115 million range is due to other drivers, so improvement in other for other reasons? On the free cash generation, which has been quite low in the nine months, you have guided to improve materially in the Q4.
I think it's due, you have already said, to mostly working capital, which has absorbed EUR 20 million in the nine months but should reverse in Q4. Can you a little bit elaborate on that front of working capital improvement, expected working capital improvement in the last part of the year? Thanks.
The first question is about Q4 sales. Before you submit, I say something.
Please go ahead.
Because we are projecting in the second half same volumes as in the first half. We are projecting in the fourth quarter same volumes we posted in 2023. Just to say it's.
Yeah, yeah. My anticipation was I understand that we have to present quarter, but on the B2B business, evaluating the quarter is always very complex because one container or two containers might change completely the picture of the quarter. Normally, the last quarter of the year is the strongest quarter, and this is the job that we do every month. What is in delay versus the third quarter, and what can be increased in the fourth quarter? This is what is driving our vision on the fourth and the guidance of fourth quarter number that we have elaborated with all the plants that we have physically visited in this period.
The second question was about net financial position Q4. Okay, let's say that net financial position at the end of September is around EUR 272 million. We said that our target in terms of leverage ratio is 2.2. So, it means that the net financial position we expect at the end of December is something around EUR 247 million. So, it means that we need to generate more or less EUR 25 million cash in the fourth. Normally, if the working capital is stable, we generate EUR 10-12 million each quarter, which is 12% of our revenues. Okay? That's normal. Every month, we generate EUR 3 million, EUR 4 million of cash. You start from around EUR 10 million, EUR 12 million in Q4. Don't forget that Q4, we expect a higher EBITDA than on average. We said around EUR 3 million more than the previous quarter.
You should have EUR 2 million, EUR3 million coming from volumes. We expect to decrease the working capital by around EUR 10 million. If you sum the EUR 10 million, EUR 12 million we make each quarter, Q4 is going to be stronger than usual, around EUR 2 million, EUR 3 million, EUR 4 million. Working capital reduction EUR 10 million, you end up with around EUR 25 million. I hope I was clear.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
The next question is from Alessandro Tortora of Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi. Good evening. Good afternoon to everybody. I have, let's say, four questions, okay? Brief question. The first one is you commented before about the EMO dialysis negative impact on your sales, considering the volatile trend on the contract manufacturing. Can you give us an idea which size has this business, the contract manufacturing by year-end? Just to have an idea of what is the reduced level of this business by year-end. That's the first question. I go one by one, as you prefer.
Yeah. If you want, I can answer it directly. We mentioned already in the previous conference that it's around 20.
20 million.
Yeah, yeah. Twenty. Around EUR 20 million. The fluctuation, if we look at this year, being nearly EUR 10 million-EUR 12 million. There is high volatility on this. Difficult to believe that we'll go under EUR 12 million-EUR 15 million, I would say, for the contract phase that we have.
Okay. Okay. The second question is on the transfusion, sorry, on the, let's say, whole blood business. Clearly, you are now in full control of the production, as you said before. Considering that also this year, you also lost, let's say, two months of production, can you give us an idea of what's your reasonable view, considering the full production next year, which kind of size can get next year? I'm not talking about, let's say, medium term because you already mentioned in the previous call some commercial opportunities you see. Can you give us an idea, let's say, with a normal production rate, which kind of size this business can get next year?
Let's just repeat the number that we had during the presentation for 2025, correct? This will be a very prudent number to expect for next year.
It was EUR 50 million.
It was EUR 50 million. If you base your, let's say, analysis based on this, that would be extremely prudent.
Okay. You said EUR 50 million, but I recall that there were also some intercompany. Basically, net revenues incremental for you would have been like, I do not know, EUR 35 million or something like this, if I recall it, no?
It's 50 versus 22. So, the increment is 28.
Okay. Va bene. The third question was on Puerto Rico. As you said before, basically, the plant was closed with some months' delay. Can you help me, let's say, or at least, can you remind me, let's say, the full benefit that you expect? In theory, we should have, I don't know, EUR 2 million-EUR 3 million more, let's say, cost benefits next year from this.
It's around EUR 1 million per quarter.
EUR 1 million per quarter. Okay. Let's say, roughly EUR 2 million, no? Let's say, considering.
Yeah. Between 2 and 3.
Okay. Okay. The last question, sorry, do you plan, let's say, next year, clearly, first of all, thanks, okay, for this qualitative indication on 2026, considering, let's say, these are volatilities, but do you plan at a certain point also to share with us, let's say, some kind of updated medium-term view, therefore also considering any strategic option on, let's say, some, let's say, non-core business for you?
We are working on different options, and of course, we are discussing all the strategy next, and we are working on an industrial plan. When we will be ready, we will share this vision with you, absolutely. I do not believe that this will be before March or April next year.
Okay. Thanks for this. The last question is, let's say, clearly, you shared with us some qualitative indication on sales growth expectation by division next year. If we put, let's say, all these dots together on MedTech, cost synergies, cost benefits, Puerto Rico, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, in the end, should we think about, let's say, next year, EBITDA margin at least achieving, let's say, a margin expansion, let's say, similar to the one you had this year with, let's say, all the complexities and challenges we saw?
I would say yes. Again, it's very early because we are working on the budget right now, but because transfusion medicine will absolutely bring positive to the EBITDA, and MedTech with the organic growth will definitely bring positive to the EBITDA. Again, variability remains the mobility. That's very complex to see, but I'm not expecting something worse than this year. I believe that it's impossible. Yes, I am still expecting a growth expansion on the EBITDA for next year.
Okay. Thank you. Yes.
The next question is from Gabriele Venturi of Banco Akros. Please go ahead.
Gabriele, we can't hear you.
Maybe it's in mute.
Can you hear me?
Yes. Now we can hear you.
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I was wondering if you would clarify how much are you planning to make in the first year for the new membrane, and also how the margin of the new product, how it compares to the overall mobility division. Thank you.
The number, I am not able to give you now because we are waiting for the validation of the customers. Depending on how many customers and how long they will take to validate the product, then I will be able to give you a number. The marginality expected is definitely double compared to the actual marginality of the NS mobility division.
Thank you.
The next question is from Christian Hinderaker of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon all, and thanks for the thorough breakdown in terms of the guidance bridge. That's most helpful. I guess we've got a lot of ground here. I guess, just curious, you've recently inaugurated your new facilities in China. I know your ambition there is to serve the market locally. Can you just talk a little bit about the competitive landscape in China and how we think about that versus other countries?
China is a super interesting market because it's growing, maybe not at the speed of the past years, but it's still a growing market. Most important, it is a market that is evolving. They want a premium quality product. They are moving from the low quality to the premium quality product. Our positioning in China is important because we want to collect this transformation on the local market and be able to be a player, important player in this market. This is what is happening. Again, it's not moving at the speed of the previous year. Now even the rotation of people inside the company is lower because for the first time, people are wondering if they lose their job, if they can find another one. They are more into a normal reality.
It is still a very important and a very positive market. Competition is super aggressive, as always. Chinese are smart engineers, smart. We do not expect less than this. The nice thing is that we are in China. We can fight our competitor on the Chinese territory. This allows us to contain their growth in their territory. If we were not in China, our competitor could have grown with the local market and then attack us on the international market. Now, we are competing with them on the local market. We contain their growth locally, and we avoid as much as possible a big expansion of the competitors. More important, we know everything is happening in China in our market, and that helps us a lot in building up our strategy at the international level.
Very clear, Master. Thank you very much.
The next question is from Peter Testa of One Investments. Please go ahead.
We cannot hear.
Can you hear me fine now?
Yes.
Okay. Great. Super. Thank you. Just on the product launches in MedTech and safety, I was wondering if you could give some sort of sense of the cadence. Would you expect that to be coming straight out of the blocks in H1 being very strong or something which you would expect to build across the year next year?
Across the year next year.
Fine. On the transfusion medicine business, as you're now opening Monterrey, can you talk a bit about how the extent to which you have customer approval for new and existing customers which have been conducted and where you stand on being able to sort of fully flow out of Monterrey?
All the regulatory issues at 90% have been passed. We still have some regulatory projects open and, more specifically, some with Haemonetics and some with the Brazilian market. There is still some that is open, but we can produce under the concession of Haemonetics. We do not have the full approval. I would say we have 90%. For the last 10%, we are producing under the concession of Haemonetics. We hope to complete this by the, let's say, beginning of next year.
Okay. Does that include internalizing membrane production and other things?
Internal production of the membrane is launched now in Italy. We have dismounted all the machine in Puerto Rico, rebuilding the machine here in Italy. That will happen not before the third quarter of next year.
Okay. And then you talk about the margins of this business approaching the group average, which is good news. When you think about how you position yourself commercially, price-wise versus the market leader, are you going to be more or less similar or you'd be a traditional premium Haemonetics end?
No, we have a completely—if I correctly understand the question—we have a completely different approach from Haemonetics. Haemonetics was more a buy type of manufacturer. We are a totally verticalized manufacturer. So, every piece that we are going to produce inside will help our saturation of our existing plant. And so, automatically, we'll improve the EBITDA of the single plant.
Commercially in the market, are you going to be running at a similar price to the market leader, or do you think you would run at previous pricing?
Yes.
You'll also be more commercially aggressive?
This is a premium product, and we want to keep this as a premium product. If we have to fight in a low-cost country, for example, we are bidding in Pakistan or Morocco or a country like this, we use STT, the Chinese entity.
Okay. In the US market, you're at market parity. Yeah.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Okay. And then just the last question is on if you look at the commercial opportunity, you talked about being able to start with the new partners. I mean, you have BCA as an association with many members. You have American Red Cross, which is an opportunity. And then, of course, with your traditional AS3 partners. Could you just talk a bit about where you stand commercially on expanding your footprint and access?
Let's say there's still confidential, but we are moving positively in this direction. The market is in need of a second supplier. It's definitely in need of a second supplier. They cannot rely just on one. This is putting us in a positive light versus this customer.
Okay. At this stage, your conversation's in validation, but you would hope to sign next year other business.
Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely.
That's great. Thank you very much. Thanks for the answers.
You're welcome.
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Excellent. Thank you very much for your presence, and see you at the next conference. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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