Thank you for standing by. My name is Jeannie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Syensqo Third Quarter 2024 Results Analyst Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star two again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sherief Bakr. You may begin.
Thank you, Jeannie. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Syensqo's Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. I'm Sherief Bakr, Head of Investor Relations, and I'm joined today in Brussels by our CEO, Ilham Kadri, and our CFO, Christopher Davis. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded and will be accessible for replay on the Investor Relations section of our website later today at syensqo.com/investors. I would also like to remind you that during this call, we will be making forward-looking statements regarding our future business and financial performance that are subject to risks and uncertainties. The slides related to this presentation, along with today's press release, are also available to download from our website.
Okay, turning to today's agenda, Ilham will begin with an overview of our Third Quarter 2024, and Chris will then go into more details on our financial performance before turning the call back to Ilham, who will discuss our outlook. We'll then be happy to take your questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ilham.
Thank you, Sherief, and good afternoon, good morning to everyone. Syensqo's Third Quarter saw us return to year-on-year growth, benefiting from the improved momentum we have seen over the last four quarters and the execution of our innovation-led strategy in what remains an uncertain demand environment. If I take a step back and reflect on the journey we have been on since our separation at the end of last year from Solvay, we are operating with far greater focus and agility to navigate through this uncertainty as an even stronger leader in our industry. This is also reflected in how we can and are allocating capital to create value for our customers and our shareholders.
During the quarter, we successfully managed the disruptive impact of the storms in the southeastern United States on our plants and operations, as well as a number of logistic challenges in pockets of the world, not to mention the ongoing strike actions at Boeing. I would like to thank our teams for their tremendous work and resilience in supporting our performance. Chris, in a few minutes, will take you through some of the details of our quarter three performance a bit later, but at a high level, sales growth was led by Composite Materials and healthcare, which both delivered double-digit year-on-year increases. We continued to generate robust and resilient gross margins across most of our business units, particularly in Specialty Polymers, Composite Materials, Technology Solutions, and healthcare.
Within our gross margin performance, we continue to demonstrate net pricing stickiness, reflecting our strong value proposition and commercial discipline, and Chris will cover this in a bit more detail in his section. Underlying EBITDA of EUR 374 million was flat sequentially, with EBITDA margin up by 80 basis points to 22.9%, and our cash conversion remained healthy at 81%. Finally, at the end of the quarter, we announced a EUR 300 million share buyback program, which we believe is a way to return capital to shareholders from our strong cash flow, which commenced today. Now, as you can see on slide six, it has been another busy few months for Syensqo since last quarter's call as we continue to execute our strategy. This has included bringing new and differentiated innovation to support our customers, bringing more sustainable and high-performance solutions across the portfolio.
We also continue to advance our One Planet strategy, announcing our first targets for nature, focusing on water stewardship, where we are committed to achieve a 20% average water reductions at sites exposed to water scarcity or water availability issues by 2030, equivalent to a reduction of more than 7 million cubic meters of freshwater intake. Turning to our financial milestones, during the quarter, we reduced our pension obligations in North America by around EUR 500 million through our agreement with third-party insurers, which will also reduce potential balance sheet volatility risk in the future. We also announced and completed our delisting from Euronext Paris in September as part of our strategy to simplify our listing structure, and we look at all options that may increase our accessibility to new investors and create shareholder value in the future.
At the end of October, we completed our share purchase program related to our long-term incentive plan ahead of the larger buyback program we are starting today. Over the course of quarter three, and in light of the rephasing of our North American battery Materials investments, we also conducted a review of our growth projects, their associated costs, and the returns we expect to generate. What is clear is that we have tremendous growth opportunities ahead of us in both Materials and consumer resources, with even more focus on leveraging our existing capacities, innovations, and customer relationships to meet our mid-term plan. For example, an expansion of Composite Materials, as well as the debottlenecking capacity in mining chemicals and semiconductors, which are currently capacity constrained. In fact, we plan to come back to you and to this in more detail when we report our full-year results in March.
As I mentioned on last quarter's call, the extent to which we can achieve our growth targets with less than previously planned CapEx investments is what we are aiming to achieve. Before turning the call over to Chris, I wanted to make some high-level comments on our segment's performance in the quarter. As a reminder, Syensqo's mix of revenue and earnings reflects our position as one of the leading pure-play specialty Materials companies. Indeed, in quarter three, more than 70% of our EBITDA was generated by our high-margin Materials segment. This was led by another strong quarter of year-on-year growth in Composite Materials, driven by demand in both defense and civil aviation. Specialty polymers saw improved momentum, delivering flat year-on-year volumes with growth in electronics and building offset by lower volume in healthcare and batteries.
At the segment level, Materials had positive net pricing in both Composite Materials and Specialty Polymers, which supported a robust gross margin performance in both business units. This was also reflected in the 32.7% underlying EBITDA margin, which increased by 200 basis points sequentially. For Consumer & Resources, we delivered the second consecutive quarter of double-digit volume growth, up 12% year-on-year, led by healthcare, with all other business units also contributing positively, and despite a 4% sequential decline in revenues, underlying EBITDA margin of 18.1% increased by 70 basis points compared to quarter two, led by margin improvements in Technology Solutions and to a lesser extent in healthcare. I now turn the call over to Chris before we discuss our outlook for the fourth quarter and full year. Chris, the floor is yours.
Thanks very much, Ilham. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone on the call. The third quarter of the year was certainly not without its challenges, with softness in the market continuing to impact the business. But as Ilham has outlined, we have delivered a solid set of results and a return to volume growth. With that in mind, let us turn to slide nine, which looks at the summary of our financial results. Looking at the third quarter results for 2024, net sales of EUR 1.6 billion improved marginally against the third quarter of 2023. While foreign exchange and gross pricing had an adverse impact on sales, this was more than offset by the improvement in volumes and mix. Composite Materials continued its strong performance, delivering 14% revenue growth, driven by higher pricing and improved volumes across defense and civil aviation applications.
In space and defense, sales improved 20% due to higher demand across the U.S. defense fixed-wing programs, the Korean KF-21 Boramae program, rotorcraft initiatives, and space and launch projects. Civil aviation sales increased 14%, with improved demand from Boeing and COMAC, with a limited impact from the Boeing strike in the third quarter. Turning to Consumer & Resources, Novecare sales increased by 10% against the prior comparable period. Within this, agro sales increased 10%, driven by stronger volumes in green solvents and herbicides due to an improvement in global demand following a period of destocking and the commencement of the planting season in Latin America. Home and personal care sales increased 7%, outpacing the overall home and personal care ingredients market. This was achieved through strong commercial focus, the localization of production of some specialty products, and improved responsiveness to local customers.
High interest rates and inflation have impacted global building activity, which continues to remain weak. That said, an increase in customer wins in the North American market has driven an 11% increase in sales in the coating segment. Technology Solutions sales increased 6% and benefited from customer wins and stronger demand from copper customers, with mining sales increasing on the prior comparable period. Within our Specialty Polymers business, sales have reduced by 7%, driven by gross pricing reductions in automotive, electronics, and food packaging markets. Volumes in Specialty Polymers were flat compared to the third quarter of 2023. Underlying EBITDA was EUR 374 million, which I will outline in more detail on the following slide. Importantly, our gross margin and EBITDA margin at 35% and 22.9% respectively remain steady and have sequentially improved compared to the second quarter of 2024 by approximately 100 basis points and 80 basis points respectively.
Taking into account the profit attributable to Syensqo shareholders for the first nine months of the year to 30 September 2024 of EUR 477 million, this results in underlying earnings per share of EUR 4.54 per share. Turning to the EBITDA bridges on slide 10, starting with the third quarter on the left-hand side of the slide. Volumes and mix had a positive impact of EUR 27 million compared to the prior period. Despite the softness in the market, we saw improved volume momentum in Consumer & Resources and Composite Materials, with Specialty Polymers volumes stabilizing against the third quarter of 2023. Looking at Consumer & Resources, the third quarter of the year saw a strong improvement in sales volumes and mix compared to the prior comparable period.
Within Novecare, this was driven by volume improvements in agro, home and personal care, and coatings, which more than offset the reduction in net pricing as the business continues to maximize profitability. Increased production capacity and stronger demand from mining chemical customers drove increased volumes in Technology Solutions in the quarter. Importantly, Composite Materials continued to experience volume growth in defense and civil aviation applications. As I mentioned, volumes in Specialty Polymers stabilized in the third quarter, with growth experienced across electronics, construction, food packaging, and Oil & Gas markets. Within the healthcare, automotive, and industrial markets, we experienced reduced volumes year-on-year, whilst automotive markets remain under pressure amid a slowdown in vehicle demand. Net pricing had an adverse impact of only EUR 12 million in the third quarter of 2024.
Negative net pricing was only experienced in Consumer & Resources on voluntary price concessions to preserve volumes, notably in agro and home and personal care segments of Novecare, as well as within the Aroma business. This was partially offset by price increases in our Composite Materials business. Additionally, our Specialty Polymers business managed to marginally improve net pricing as we continue to price for value and hold on to the benefits of variable cost decreases. This brings the year-to-date adverse impact of net pricing to EUR 71 million, which is in line with our expectations and continues to fall within our full year guidance of EUR 50 million-EUR 100 million.
Fixed costs and other had an adverse variance of EUR 47 million compared to the prior comparable period and includes the impact of phasing with a greater portion of the spend in the third quarter, in particular on spend on IT infrastructure and digital. The net result is EBITDA of EUR 374 million for the quarter. It is also worth considering the year-to-date EBITDA bridge on the right-hand side of the slide. While the impact of net pricing and fixed costs was expected, the impact of the softness in the macro environment has reduced volumes, impacting Syensqo and the entire sector. The largest volume impact has been in Specialty Polymers, most notably in healthcare medical equipment and devices, and industrial applications, including the impact of the discontinued products reported in the first half of the year.
The impact of net pricing is in line with expectations, which I will talk to on the next slide. And then finally, as I've already mentioned, fixed cost increases are aligned with investment in IT systems and the increased spend in Composite Materials to increase output. That said, we will not just accept the fixed cost increases. In the short term, we have been and will continue to address the immediate requirements related to the separation from Solvay systems at the end of 2025. And at the same time, we are accelerating the launch of our target operating model as an independent company. Looking now at Slide 11, as we have previously communicated to the market, Syensqo has implemented almost EUR 900 million of net pricing benefits since 2021.
While we believe these gains are sticky, as we commenced 2024, we indicated that we expected to give back between EUR 50 million-EUR 100 million in net pricing gains to either defend or gain share. In the first nine months of 2024, the adverse impact of net pricing was EUR 71 million. Importantly, the impact of net pricing on our high-margin Materials segment is flat year-on-year, as is evident in this chart. We continue to believe that as a specialty company, we will price for value and defend our margins. On that note, let me give you some more granularity. Within Consumer & Resources, approximately EUR 20 million of the net pricing decline is attributable to the Aroma and Oil & Gas businesses, where significant price pressures have been experienced.
Excluding Aroma and Oil & Gas, the remaining net pricing decline was approximately EUR 50 million, all within Novecare, which managed to maximize value through operating capacity leverage. Importantly, the increase in volumes has more than offset the decrease in net pricing. As reflected in our results over the last four years, we remain committed to defending and increasing our current gross margins, which continue to be some of the best in the industry at 35%. Turning to capital expenditure, we have continued to maintain a disciplined approach to capital management and capital expenditure in particular. With this in mind, sustaining capital expenditure of EUR 94 million increased compared to the first and second quarters of the year, in line with planned maintenance capital expenditure at a number of our sites to ensure they remain safe and reliable.
Growth capital expenditure of EUR 117 million included spend on capacity expansions and operating efficiency, including the Tavaux plant in France, as we expand capacity to supply polymers for automotive, Oil & Gas, pharma, and food packaging applications. Increased sulfone capacity in India for water treatment membranes, infant care applications. And then also increased capacity in green solvents for agro and personal care. As we have previously mentioned, we will remain responsible custodians of cash, and as a result, we continue to review all capital expenditure plans to ensure returns are attractive on a risk-adjusted basis. As Ilham has mentioned, we will also consider the pipeline of growth opportunities available to us to drive future revenue growth at attractive returns. Our outlook for capital expenditure, therefore, has not changed, with EUR 600 million-EUR 650 million expected to be spent in 2024. Moving to our operating cash flows on slide 13.
In the third quarter of 2024, operating cash flows were EUR 210 million. On a sequential basis, this is aligned with the first and second quarters of the year. Based on the last twelve months, this results in a cash conversion of 81%, excluding the impact of the one-off payment of EUR 167 million to the NJDEP in the second quarter of 2024. Free cash flow to shareholders for the quarter was EUR 27 million, impacted by the spend on capital expenditure, an increase in trade working capital, and the timing of taxation payments. The increase in trade working capital is driven by higher levels of inventory and lower payables to accommodate the planned plant maintenance in the third quarter and to meet expected customer demand in agro and semiconductor markets going forward. A release of cash from trade working capital is expected in the fourth quarter of this year.
Turning to our financial position, I'm pleased to report that we continue to have a strong balance sheet with our net debt at EUR 1.9 billion, a gearing ratio of 22%, and a net debt leverage ratio of 1.3 times. We continue to have one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry, with low levels of gearing and a balanced debt maturity profile. We also have strong levels of liquidity available, as demonstrated by the EUR 1.7 billion of undrawn committed bank facilities and a further EUR 700 million of cash and cash equivalents and other financial instruments on hand at the 30th of September 2024. Finally, I'm pleased to report that the share purchase program launched at the end of June to acquire almost one million shares to meet employee long-term incentive programs was completed at a weighted average price of EUR 75.64 per share.
At the end of the third quarter, Syensqo announced a EUR 300 million share buyback program to acquire its own shares in the market. This program is supported by our robust financial position and our commitment to prudently return capital to shareholders, given our strong financial position, while also maintaining a strong investment-grade credit rating. The program will maintain our capital structure efficiency, and all shares purchased in terms of the program will be canceled, thereby reducing the issued share capital of the company. It is our intention to balance our future cash needs for growth alongside returning cash to shareholders to ensure the right amount of financial leverage. This program will commence today with an initial intention to acquire EUR 50 million of shares over the remaining two months of the year. With that, I'll now hand you back to Ilham. Thank you.
Thank you, Chris.
Before we take your questions, I want to take you through our outlook for the fourth quarter and how that flows to the full year EBITDA and free cash flow ranges we have provided. As I mentioned at the start of the call, we continue to operate in an uncertain demand environment, for example, in automotive. At the same time, we have seen improving volume momentum for each of the last four quarters, with growth returning in quarter three, something we expect to continue in the fourth quarter. And while we remain fully focused on continuing to execute on the elements that are within our control, the strike at Boeing and its related impact on the broader supply chain is clearly something that we cannot. While we expect our fourth quarter to be impacted by the disruptions, we view them more as non-recurring headwinds.
Moreover, our range of products within Composite Materials and our exposure to a mix of customers and programs within both civil aviation and defense means that we continue to expect strong growth in the medium term. As Chris mentioned, the impact of the strike in quarter three was relatively contained. However, our fourth quarter outlook now assumes a full three months of shutdowns in the affected plants, which represents approximately 60% of our sales at Boeing, primarily 737 and 777 programs, as well as the related engines, with the ramp-up of the 787 program unaffected by the strike. Excluding this impact and its disruption to the supply chain, the midpoint of our previous EBITDA range outlook would have been essentially unchanged. Double-clicking on quarter four, the midpoint of our updated EBITDA range implies around a 20% sequential decline compared to quarter three, or around 15%, excluding the Boeing impact.
Turning to free cash flow, our outlook now contemplates both the impact of the lower EBITDA, as well as the related disruption to our normal working capital cycle as finished goods for Boeing that we have produced during the third quarter and no longer expected to convert into cash until after the end of the year. 2024 has been a challenging year, particularly in the context of industry growth and increasing uncertainty in its trajectory going forward. To that effect, the separation has given us increased visibility and agility as to how we must adapt and respond to such environments, ensuring we prioritize our investments towards the most attractive and highest return projects.
Going forward, and as part of our drive to accelerate towards our target operating model, we will continue to hire in geographies offering the strongest growth potential, delaying in others, and ensuring our human capital aligns with customer needs. Over our first three quarters, as an independent company, have served to reinforce our purpose. We are executing at pace, taking steps to accelerate measures that are within our control, driving greater efficiency and speed of innovation, gaining share and deepening our customer relations, sharing the value creation with them, and ensuring we are further enhancing our operating leverage as volume recovers to drive our financial performance, and with that, we are now ready for your questions. Thank you. Back to you, Sherief.
Thank you, Ilham. We'll now move to the Q&A session. Jeannie, can we please have our first question?
Thank you. The floor is now open for questions.
If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. If you are called upon to ask your question and are listening via loudspeaker on your device, please pick up your handset and ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. Your first question comes from the line of Tristan Lamotte with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks. Two questions, please. The first is, I guess, impressive that you did positive net pricing in Specialty Polymers this quarter, and thanks for sharing the chart on that. What's the risk that after this period of stability, Specialty Polymers pricing is down by a few percentage points next year?
Has the business benefited from reductions in raw material prices, or should we really see this as a positive inflection point in your view in that business? And then second question, could you maybe run through what you're seeing in your order books at the moment and the trends that you're seeing month to month in different markets, particularly EVs, semis, consumer electronics, medical devices, consumer, and ag? Thanks a lot.
Chris, you want to start with the pricing?
Yeah, so just from a net pricing, generally we don't comment on 2025 net pricing, and we are currently negotiating contracts and next year's volumes with a number of customers as we speak, so it would be inappropriate to talk about those.
I think you've seen on the slide we have demonstrated our stickiness in terms of pricing with Materials delivering flat pricing net year to date, and in Consumer & Resources, we're really balancing the volume and maximizing value equation, and we'll continue to do that going forward as a specialty business. I think going forward, what you should expect from us is we'll talk more about gross margin. So this is really how we protect our net pricing, and that'll become our focus going forward. Ilham, on the...
Yeah, on the order book.
Listen, high level, as I told you in my prepared remarks, we expect year-on-year volume growth to be led by Novecare and Specialty Polymers, partially offset now by composite material due to the strike of Boeing, and as you know, we will see impact in quarter four, although this morning we've got the good news for Boeing, for our customers, for ourselves, that the work will resume, but it's going to take basically more than a quarter as there is a retraining as required and demanded by the regulator of 45 days, so it will take time. On Specialty Polymers, the growth is driven by growth in electronics and semi. We'll continue seeing that. Industrial application, building, like plumbing and others, and partially offset by lower auto, which we will still see in quarter four.
Novecare growth is driven by agro, so we've seen a good commencement of the agro season in Latin America, and home and personal care, by the way, which you've seen in quarter three, we've been outpacing the market, so this is going to continue. And sequentially, we are also seeing improvement in healthcare, agro, and mining, which remains very strong. So while we expect year-on-year volume growth to continue in the fourth quarter, a number of our end markets continue to be impacted by uncertainties, notably automotive, aerospace, we talked about that, and there are a number of drivers that's hard to be overly precise at this point, and all of this is reflected in our outlook range. For example, the de-stocking, for example, by our customers, but we feel very confident with the range we have given you. Back to you.
Thanks a lot.
Your next question comes from the line of Chetan Udeshi with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my questions. The first question I had was just looking at your cash flow statement. It seems there has been some unwind or provisions in Q3. I'm just curious, can you quantify how much of that, if any, benefited your Adjusted EBITDA and what these relate to? And are you penciling in any further benefit in Q4 in your guidance from any of these provision releases? The second question I had was, it seems in the CNR business, Technology Solutions is the only business which is sort of holding the fort in terms of margin. What is driving that better performance in Technology Solutions?
And separately, any structural progress that you are making in CNR to improve the business mix quality, or is it largely going to depend on macro recovery and trends there? And last question, maybe just going back to your comments, do you expect volumes and earnings to be up in Materials and Specialty Polymers in Q4 2024? Thank you.
Can you start?
Yeah, Chetan, I'll take the question on the provisions and the Technology Solutions quickly. I think what you're referring to is the EUR 50 million-odd in the cash flow. In reality, there are typically impacts like this in all quarters, both positive and negative that happen periodically, and we don't necessarily call them out. This is not unusual and can be attributed to phasing. Now, of the EUR 30 million-odd, approximately two-thirds of that is primarily the reversal of prior environmental provisions.
This is not included in the Underlying EBITDA. Let me be very clear. Two-thirds of it is not included in the Underlying EBITDA. The balance of one-third is included in the Underlying EBITDA. It was taken into account in our forecasts, and what it really includes is lower employee costs and duties or costs associated with our business. What I think you need to remember is, in this instance, the amounts are not material. And remember that any provision that we have made in the past represents a cost. As we release the provision, it means we've managed to reduce that risk and cost going forward. But as I said already, it's not material.
Maybe on the next question was about Technology Solutions, Chetan. Indeed, it's a high-quality specialty business. We like it. It's innovation-led. There are only few competitors.
High barrier to entry, strong know-how, including, by the way, digitalization inside the mines. Remember, in COVID times, we couldn't travel to our customers, so we've been innovating through actually connecting the mines with our people. And it's sticky. It's a really sticky long-term relationship exposed to future-facing commodities, and that's translating high-margin business. So yeah, indeed, we like it. The rest, you talked about Novecare, and indeed, Novecare, when I joined the company back in 2019, had a philosophy of filling the pot, and we improved the portfolio drastically. You may remember it was one of the lowest return on capital employed business at that time at Solvay. And through pruning the portfolio, pruning the low-margin businesses, leaving some customers and divesting commodities, remember, such as Aroma.
Now, actually, we've been building a string of pearls of new differentiated technologies and bolt-on acquisitions in the past few years and two earlier in the year, aligned with customer needs. We've been improving this business, and that's translated in the EBITDA margin. You can see it represented in the segment EBITDA margin. Now, Oil & Gas and Aroma are adversely impacting the margins. You all know that, but we are fixing them, as you know, and importantly, there are not cash drains on the business. The last question was about volumes. So the volumes on Materials, right, guys? Q4. At high level, we expect year-on-year volume growth to be led, indeed, as I said, by Specialty Polymers and Novecare, and partially, as we speak, offset by declines in composite material due to the strike.
Specialty polymers growth is driven, as I said, by electronic semi, industrial application, building, and partially offset by lower auto and the softer automotive businesses. We'll continue in quarter four, and this is baked in our guidance. Novecare will continue to be supported by growth in agro, and we experienced double-digit growth, and the season is really good in Latin America, both in herbicides and green solvents, and home and personal care, which I'm very pleased with what the team did in outpacing the market. Sequentially, we see improvements in healthcare, agro, and m ining. Back to you.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Yates with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hey, afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking the question.
Maybe just go back on the net pricing for a moment and specifically to echo someone's comment earlier, the helpful chart that called out the impact from oil and aroma. I guess you're admitting there that there are competitive pressures, and that's not necessarily in keeping with a specialty portfolio. Ilham, you've said in the past there aren't any sacred cows in the business, and I fully appreciate the spin was a big undertaking of management's time and attention, but are we now at the stage where you can be a bit more proactive in terms of accelerating any portfolio reviews and associated divestments that are at risk of maybe overshadowing the continued strong pricing dynamic you're seeing in the rest of the business? And then maybe the second one, perhaps for Chris, you talked in your introductory remarks about some additions to the fixed cost base.
I think you said specifically in composites from a BU perspective. As you look at the next couple of quarters and you manage this sort of turbulence in the supply chain, do you just stick with those costs and you have to accept some degree of negative operating leverage, or is there anything you can do to manage that cost base more tactically short term? Thank you.
Yeah, Matthew, let me start, Chris, with the CNR and indeed the sacred cow. Well, Matthew, you remember well. We've always said that we ask ourselves if we are the right owners of any business we own. You know that in Oil & Gas, we continue to see interest from potential buyers, but obviously, we are not in rush to sell unless we get the value we expect. Aroma, we've been taking actions to improve profitability by variabilizing the fixed cost.
You may know that there are anti-dumping filings happening in Europe and in the U.S., which is going through, by the way, and customers are starting to demand more of our products and volumes. So it's under intensive care. It's not a drag for cash, and we'll continue fixing it. And as a reminder, Aroma today represents less than 4% of the group quarter three net sales. Chris, you want to take the other one?
I'm Matthew, and it's specifically, I think you're referring to Composite Materials, and then I'll talk more broadly. I think there has been a lot of uncertainty around the timing of a restarted buying, but we're not resting on our laurels with the costs that we have in this business, and we are taking the appropriate action.
That said, we will continue to hire in Composite Materials for production as we are not yet at the production levels that we had in 2019. We're also investing in CapEx to improve the efficiencies of our plant, which will have a long-term benefit. But I remind you that the order book in Composite Materials is for more than 15,000 aircraft, which at the current production rates would take them more than a decade to build. So we do see this as more temporary headwind in nature, and we'll be ready to support the growth when production restarts. When I look at fixed costs more broadly, I think you know that we are looking across the board at our fixed costs to see where we can get delayering and efficiencies within the organization, and that generally tends to be towards the higher levels of our organization. I'll stop there.
Thank you both.
Your next question comes from the line of Jeremy Kincaid with Van Lanschot Kempen. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. Firstly, could you just provide some commentary on the efficiency measures that you've outlined, and particularly if you could outline sort of what the one-off severance costs might be and also some of the ongoing savings that might arise? And then secondly, obviously, you provide the comment around doing more with your existing capacity, and obviously, this may assume doing more with your existing physical assets. But does this also include doing more with your existing suite of products? And I suppose adjacent to that, could you just provide some comments on if you're expecting to increase or decrease the number of new products to market over the next 12 months against the backdrop of this cost reduction program?
Thank you.
Take the first one. Yeah. On the efficiency measure, indeed, I mean, as you've seen this morning on the second press release, decisions affecting people are never taken lightly, obviously, and we act as we speak. We opened consultation with our social partners with the potential impact and proposed reduction of approximately 300-350 positions, primarily in France, Belgium, Italy, and this is around 2% of our total headcount. Obviously, we are realigning the human capital to the regions of not only highest returns, but highest growth opportunities and flexibility in labor and talent access. So obviously, this efficiency program impacts on cost is relatively small, but shows how we will and we shall variabilize our fixed costs to remain agile and adapt, frankly, to our customer needs swiftly.
Our customers are changing their view of the world, their regional presence, their innovation research, and also service needs. And this is what we owe it to them is to be very, very close to them. I mean, our manufacturing strategy, our service strategy is one of proximity. And we will share with you more on the impacts on 2025 and early next year. Next question?
Yes. So on the next question, as I understand it, you're looking at about phased-out products and innovation for new products. I think you know that we've previously communicated to the market that we intend to get out of the fluorosurfactants and base products. And in the beginning of this year, particularly in the first half, we had about a EUR 35 million-ish impact due to the impact of previously phased-out products.
In terms of innovation and as we go forward, we continue to innovate. We continue to work with our customers to solve their needs, and we leverage that R&D machine that we have internally. But besides that, we don't really have anything specific I would like to share at this point in time. You'll see it. I think what you should do is judge us on the future as the earnings growth comes through.
Sure. Thank you very much.
Your next question comes from the line of Aaron Guy with Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. My first one is on corporate cost. There was a sequential increase of EUR 9 million in the quarter.
Maybe can you elaborate a little bit when you mention high-growth investments or investments in high-growth platforms, sorry, what these are and what are the criteria for these costs to be allocated at the segment level? The second question is about pricing again in Specialty Polymers. On page seven of your report, you mentioned lower pricing year-over-year, but you also mentioned positive net pricing. I would like to understand if you can provide more granularity because I would expect that your raw material basket is not down at this stage year-over-year. So just wondering how you could report positive net pricing. Thank you.
So let me deal with the cost issue first. On an annual basis, I think you know at the capital markets day we indicated that corporate costs should be around about EUR 200 million. That position has not changed for us.
There can be some quarterly fluctuations, but nothing new or exceptional to flag. We don't expect going in quarter four to be higher than that or at those levels, but you should work on about EUR 200 million for the full year. What we had in the quarter was increased spend on digital and IT in our business, increased spend on R&I, and increased spend in our Composite Materials from a fixed cost perspective. Oh, sorry, that's in Composite Materials. You should look at R&I and IT investment.
Yeah. On Specialty Polymers we are, frankly, very happy with sticking to our pricing in Specialty Polymers and with the positive net pricing in quarter three.
And we elected to open up and share with you our curves now on net pricing because it has been a consistent question, and it has been in Materials probably five quarters, consecutive quarters where we've seen sticking with us on net pricing. So obviously, the gross pricing has been impacted, as you can imagine, in any business by mix of end markets, by products, and by the variable cost, right, which declined. And the most important for our commercial team, marketing team, and business unit was to hold on enough on pricing and capture some of the variable costs. That's what we do for customers is we solve their most pressing problems. We create value more than just selling a product. We are not invoicing a product, and we sell a value proposition in lightweight and a lower total cost of ownership.
And I think we've been telling you since 2021 that we try to share the value creation. It's not a science. It's a bit of an art. We've been training our sales organization, and more and more in the specialty side, we'll move smoothly in 2025 to gross margin, right, as a KPI, which will define the specialty nature of our sector and businesses in Specialty Polymers. And this is reflected in our strong margins. Back to you.
Your next question comes from the line of Martin Roediger with Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you. All of my questions have been already answered, but maybe two left. One is on the, let's say, difference between that you expect the adverse impact for volumes from the Boeing strike. On the other hand, that your order book in aerospace is 44 months. So how binding are your orders?
In relating to that, we know that Boeing is your number one customer in aerospace. Ilham, when I make the math based on your statements you mentioned in your speech, then I conclude that Boeing accounts for 49% of your aerospace business. Is that calculation correct? Thank you.
Thanks, Martin. I think you said 44 months. I wish it's 44 weeks. So months, I mean, I would love it. Indeed, there is a backlog. To be honest with you, Martin, we say there's 15,000 aircraft in the backlog. It's going to take 15 years, right, just to build them at the build rate of 2023. But indeed, we had more than 40 weeks of backlog. And the Boeing strike in quarter three, as we told you, was relatively contained. Our quarter four outlook now assumes a full three months of shutdown in the affected plants.
Let me give you, I mean, clarity, and we have given it to you. I believe it's primarily 737 and 777 programs, right, as well as the related engine. This is probably 60% of the Boeing business there. The ramp-up of 787 program is untouched. This remains unaffected by the strike. Going forward, we got the good news. Frankly, we've written our prepared remark yesterday. We finished that without knowing what will be the vote over the night. Obviously, waking up this morning, driving to the office, we realized that we had the good news, right, and that the Boeing strike is ending as during the night, workers backed the last pay deal, and the work will resume in the next week or so. This is the good news. It's too early to discuss now the impacts on quarter one. Quarter four is done.
There will be nothing because, as I said, even if they start next week, there will be 40 days. I think it's 45 days of training, which the regulator is pushing Boeing to have with the mechanician, right, with the workers. So it's too early now to tell you more about the impact in quarter one next year, and there will be some impact due to the inventory stock hold at Boeing and its suppliers. But having said that, I keep my 40 weeks plus. I keep extremely excited about the long-term fundamentals of civil aviation and defense, which is very strong. I mean, since 2019, I joined this company. Defense has been a growing business, and its source of innovation, high margin stickiness, and indeed the backlog, as I mentioned. Back to you.
Our final question comes from the line of Laurent Favre with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Ilham, I just have one question. In your prepared remarks, you said that you are looking at all options that may increase accessibility to new investors and create shareholder value. And I was just wondering, what is on your mind when you say this? I'm assuming here you might be hinting at a U.S. listing, but I was wondering if I was right or if indeed there are other options.
Yeah, you heard well. I mean, first of all, we are undervalued, and our share price deserves to be triple-digit share price and our multiple double digits. So as I said, openly, we will never be totally satisfied till we get where we should be. The market is the market, right? And actually, it's a tough year.
But as I say to our team, it's not bad to start with a tough year in your first year of existence, right? Yeah. Laurent, we look at all options that create value for Syensqo, for our employees and shareholders. Listing somewhere else could be part of it, potentially providing us with increased accessibility to investors in a region, by the way, where it's the largest region of sales, of revenues, of human capital. And but let me remind you that we've done a lot since 10 or 11 months of existence. We had an inaugural bond offering in the U.S. two tranches of EUR 600 million. We could have done it elsewhere. We delisted from Euronext Paris to simplify because it didn't bring any value. We restructured our pension program in North America. This is $485 million to reduce the company gross pension obligation and associated liability.
So one step at a time. And this company is really step by step continuing to build a strong infrastructure with one of the best balance s heets out there in the market. Back to you.
Thank you.
That concludes our Q&A session. I will now turn the conference back over to the management team for closing remarks.
Well, thank you all for your participation and questions. And as usual, the investor relations team is here to answer any remaining questions for those we didn't manage to get to today. Wishing you all a great day. Thank you.