Hello, and welcome to the EUROAPI 2024 half year results call. My name is Saskia, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Today's call is being recorded, and for the duration, your lines will be on listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero, and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to Sophie Palliez, Head of IR, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to EUROAPI first half 2024 results conference call. This call will be hosted by Ludwig de Mot, EUROAPI CEO , and Evelyne Nguyen, CFO . Ludwig and Evelyne will go through a rapid presentation of our H1 results, and we will open the floor to your questions. However, before we start, I would like to emphasize that some of the information we will share with you today is looking forward and not historical. This information is based on projections and assumptions concerning EUROAPI current and future strategy, future financial results, and the environment in which we operate. These forward-looking statements and information do not constitute guarantees of future performances.
They may be subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict and generally outside the control of the company, and could cause actual results, performances, or achievements to differ materially from those described or suggested. That said, let me leave the floor to Ludwig.
Thank you, Sophie. I want to start this presentation by a quick introduction on our FOCUS- 27 plan, and highlight that our execution is absolutely on track, with several initiatives launched during the first half, and also that the discussions with the revolving credit facility banking syndicate to complete the financing are in a very advanced stage. I'm fully confident that we will finalize the funding of the plan in the coming weeks. Let me reiterate that these discussions cover the financing of the plan in 25 and onward, and that the company is fully financed for 2024. The operational deployment of FOCUS- 27 is in full motion, and significant progress has been made since February 24th on each of the four strategic pillars. For example, the list of the 13 discontinued APIs was communicated to our clients, and the phase-out roadmap is almost completed.
From a commercial perspective, we are accelerating in opiates, thanks to improved competitive positions. We registered a solid and a qualitative momentum in CDMO, with 14 new projects in H1, of which three marketed small molecules for large and mid-sized pharma and food companies, in line with our strategy to de-risk our portfolio and try for large molecules in early stage, mainly from large pharma companies. From an industrial standpoint, the ramp down of the workshops was launched in Frankfurt, where nine APIs will be discontinued, and in Vertolaye, where two APIs will be discontinued. Our inventory reduction program is on track, and the Haverhill divestment process is well advanced. We aim to complete a transaction in 2025.
Finally, on the fourth pillar, we are adapting our organization, including headcount reduction plan and the continued enhancement of the management teams across the group, including the reorganization of the Executives' Leadership Team. Moving to the H1 results, a few highlights. First of all, as expected, we registered a decrease in consolidated net sales. The decrease was driven by strong decline in the demand of volumes manufactured for Sanofi, which was amplified by the suspension of shipments and production in Brindisi in March, mid-March. These headwinds overshadowed the good momentum in sales to other clients. We will come back to this later. Beyond sales, I want to, to emphasize our solid commercial activity in H1, which is paving the way for the company's long-term growth.
In API solutions, we continue to execute our strategy, gaining new customers and accelerate cross-selling, which represented more than 9% of API solution sales to other clients than Sanofi. We also signed an important CMO contract in animal health with a large player, which is a proof point that our customers continue to trust EUROAPI and are ready to partner with us for the long term. We also signed an important development and manufacturing agreement with a biotech specializing in oncology. I'm also very pleased to confirm that the restart of shipments and production in Brindisi is progressing as expected, and that our GMP license was reinstalled mid-July. Moving to profitability, our core EBITDA margin was positively impacted by increase in prices and better product mix, and the improvement of industrial performance, which were driven by the early execution of FOCUS-27.
We also benefited from the effect of the revised contractual clauses with Sanofi. These positive items partially offset unfavorable fixed cost absorption and an increase in OpEx. And finally, consistent with FOCUS-27, we significantly improved the financial discipline while investing in future growth. That said, let's start our detailed analysis with a snapshot of 2024 half-year key operational figures on Slide seven. So net sales stood at EUR 448.7 million, down 9.6% compared to H1 2023. Sales to Sanofi dropped by 14.9% and sales to other clients by 4.6%. Core EBITDA reached EUR 47.6 million, with a core EBITDA margin of 10.6% compared to 12.6% last year.
CapEx stood at EUR 61.3 million, representing 13.7% of net sales, of which 56% were dedicated to growth projects. Taking a closer look at the evolution of net sales on page 8. As I just mentioned, total sales reached EUR 448.7 million, which is down 9.6% compared to the same period last year, and minus 4.1% if we exclude Brindisi. API solution sales decreased by 8.3% to EUR 332.4 million, in that sales to Sanofi decreased by 15% due to strong volume decline, notably in sevelamer, and the suspension of production in Brindisi. This was partially offset by the revision of the contractual commercial clauses agreed with Sanofi in February 2024.
Out of the EUR 38 million expected for the full year, EUR 29 million were accounted for in H1, mostly driven by a stock clearance of buserelin, a large molecule used primarily in the treatment of prostate cancer and endometriosis. API solutions to other clients were almost stable, despite the temporary suspension of API production in Brindisi. Excluding Brindisi site, net sales would have grown 3.4%, driven by the cross-selling strategy. An increased customer base, with 22 new clients added in H1, and an accelerated momentum in opiates, consistent with our FOCUS-27 plan. CDMO sales decreased by 13.3% to EUR 116.4 million. In that, sales to Sanofi decreased by 14.2% on the back of a challenging comparison base, with H1 2023 performance boosted by stock replenishment of pristinamycin, pristinamycin following COVID-19.
Sales in H1 2024 benefited from the ramp-up of a commercial phase contract in large molecules. CDMO sales to other clients decreased by 12.7% due to the temporary suspension of production in Brindisi, which affected a commercial phase contract. H1 2024 was also penalized by the downsizing of two large historical commercial phase contracts, which weighed about EUR 10 million. Excluding the impact of Brindisi, total CDMO sales to other clients would have increased by 1.8%. As you can see on Slide nine, we had 73 CDMO projects in portfolio at the end of June, compared to 69 at the end of December 2023. Throughout the semester, 14 new contracts were signed, six of which were for large molecules. Eight projects were completed, including two late stage with Sanofi, and two projects were put on hold. Moving to CapEx on Slide nine.
In H1 2024, CapEx investments reached EUR 61.3 million, versus EUR 69.3 million in H1 2023, and this represented 13.6% of net sales, and of that, 56% were dedicated to growth projects. These growth investments were consistent with our FOCUS-27 strategic roadmap, with increased capacities for peptides and oligonucleotides in Frankfurt, prostaglandin in Budapest, and improved processes for Vitamin B12 in Elbeuf. Now, with that, let me hand over to Evelyne, who will discuss in more detail our H1 consolidated financial performance.
Thank you, Ludwig. So I'm on page 12. As mentioned earlier, our H1 net sales were down 9.6% to EUR 449 million, compared to the H1 of 2023. Our gross profit stood at EUR 98 million, almost comparable to H1 2023, and despite the sales shortfall, with a gross profit margin up by 231 BPS year- on- year to 21.8%. Our core EBITDA amounted to EUR 47.6 million, down 23.8% compared to the EUR 62.5 million in H1 last year. Our core EBITDA margin was 10.6%, compared to the 12.6% of last year. EBITDA was -EUR 1.4 million, compared to the EUR 52.1 million in H1 2023.
The 49 million non-recurring costs that you see on this slide include 47.2 million in exceptional items, of which EUR 33.8 million euros of idle cost or underactivity, resulting from the implementation of FOCUS-27, including the ramping down of two workshops in Frankfurt, started in H1 2024, and the reduced inventories, mainly in Vertolaye, our plant in Vertolaye. EUR 9.9 million of internal and external costs related to the transformation of the company were also accounted in the EUR 49 million , and also a 4.4 million of employee-related expenses, mostly redundancy plans. On Slide 13, I want to comment the changes of the core EBITDA margin between H1 2023 and H1 2024. So on the left of the slide, starting from H1 2023, core EBITDA at 12.6%.
As you can see, the impact of the volume decline, the first column was almost neutral from a margin perspective, as most of the losses were on API, which, with lower level of profitability. Positive pricing, product mix, and lower energy and raw material prices helped us to improve the core EBITDA margin, as well as the exceptional impact of the, buserelin stock clearance, which will not repeat, in the second half of this year. These tailwinds will more than offset, the unfavorable fixed cost absorption that we accounted in H1 2024, on products that were manufactured in 2022 and 2023, with a higher cost base and the negative impact of Brindisi over the period. The increase of OpEx was mostly driven by the reinforcement of, support function. Coming to Slide 14.
Operating income was negatively, negative, sorry, by EUR 33.4 million compared to a positive EUR 16 million in H1 last year. The financial result was a negative EUR 8.1 million, compared with a negative EUR 3.3 million last year, due mainly to the increase in the interest rates and the full drawdown of our RCF. Income before tax was minus EUR 41.5 million, and you may remember that H1 2023 income tax in last year included EUR 46.8 million of deferred tax income related to the revaluation of EUROAPI's Hungarian assets. Finally, we registered EUR 34.8 million of net losses for the period. Moving on to Slide 14 on working capital.
As you can see, we improved total working capital in June 2024 by EUR 66 million compared to June 2023, where working capital was deteriorating last year. The significant improvement was notably driven by a lower level of inventories and particularly of finished goods, which is not reflected in the number of months on hand, due to the sharp decrease in net sales this year. For the reduction of inventories is a key component of our FOCUS-27 plan and will accelerate during the second half of this year. Thanks to a better cash collection, we also reduced the level of trade receivables compared to December 2023, June 2023, and improved significantly our DSO compared to both June and December 2023.
On Slide 16, the slight decrease in net sales position to EUR 170.2 million compared to EUR 171.1 million at the end of December 2023 was driven by both operating cash flow and working capital. As Ludwig commented, the cash flow were used for CapEx with EUR 61.3 million euros or 13.6% of net sales. Free cash flow before financing activities was EUR 10 million, compared to -EUR 111.2 million at the end of June 2023. Finally, net debt to core EBITDA, restated for IFRS 16, was 2.38, below the RCF covenant of four. This ends the review of our first half, and let me hand it over back to Ludwig.
Thank you, Evelyne. Let's now move to our full year 2024 guidance before opening the floor to your questions. So in light of the H1 2024 performance, the full year 2024 outlook is confirmed. Net sales are expected to decrease between 8% and 11% in 2024 on a comparable basis. The second half performance that should exceed slightly that of the first half, due to a phasing impact in CDMO. This net sales guidance includes a negative impact of the downsizing of two large CMO contracts, a continued decrease in sales to Sanofi, and the impact of the temporary suspension of production in Brindisi. In terms of EBITDA, core EBITDA should be between 4% and 7%. Overall profitability will continue to be impacted by the company's transformation and restructuring costs, including industrial underactivity resulting from the execution of the FOCUS-27 project.
In addition, the positive impact of the revised contractual commercial clause with Sanofi will be much lower in the second half of 2024. That said, Evelyne and myself are now ready to answer your questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question today, please signal by pressing star one. That is star one for your questions today. And our first question comes from Zain Ebrahim from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Thank you for taking my questions. Two, if I may please. The first question, which is on the 2024 guidance. You've reiterated the guidance despite the strong set of first half numbers, at least on the margin side. So maybe could you talk through some of the factors influencing the second half, particularly on core EBITDA margin, that we should be thinking about? And maybe as we look into 2025, I think you mentioned in the FOCUS 2027 call that you expect more of the cost benefit to come through in 2026, 2027.
So how should we think about sort of margin progression in 25, just given the sort of puts and takes around the Haverhill divestment, potentially as a headwind and also the MSA adjustment benefit that you saw in the first half this year, not repeating it in 2025? And then, well, my second question is more on just the RCF financing. So it sounds like you said it's very advanced discussions. Can we sort of take that to mean that you've got agreement from sort of all the stakeholders involved? Are there any other stakeholders beyond the banks on the RCF that we are sort of involved in those discussions?
It sounds like the update is, we should get an update on that in the next few weeks. Is that right?
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Okay. Thank you for your questions. I'm gonna try to answer them in the right sequence. First, on 2025, again, I'm not gonna make comments on gross margin today. However, I can make a number of comments on 2024 and specifically on the second half of 2024. As said in the presentation, the second half will be lower in profitability because we have a number of elements there. The first element is that we expect our gross margin in the second half of the year to be lower than the first half of the year.
It's not because we are lowering our prices, but it's just because we have a different volume mix, different mix in the second half of the year, which is simply lower in gross margin. Yeah, that's the first effect. The second effect is that we have, as said, we have renegotiated a number of terms with Sanofi, and three quarters of that improvement has been taken in H1, because they came in H1. That means we will only have one quarter in of the improvement in H2. That means we have a lower p- because it increases H1, and it lowers H2, so it had a bit of a double effect? And then the third element is, of course, Brindisi, because Brindisi, we are now restaffing, and again, everything goes well.
We got our GMP certificate back mid-July, but again, we are starting up the plant and we are a bit cautious in our predictions there. Then my last comment is that, of course, as a company, we have, we don't have a super good reputation in respecting guidance, eh? So that's why, as we say in French, as a bon père de famille, as a good father, we want to be cautious, eh, and we want to make sure that we deliver on what we commit to. So that is on your first question. I believe your second question was on the financing. So on the financing, again, the discussions are really going very well. But again, it takes time.
It takes time, because don't forget, we are working with a pool of seven banks, yeah. Of course, it's not easy to synchronize and to coordinate these discussions with seven banks. I can tell you, we made significant progress over the last weeks and months. The mandates has done a fantastic job, so I'm really confident that we will conclude on the RCF in the next weeks, and then automatically, then the support of Sanofi will kick in. So that means we have the full support of all of our shareholders to your question to fund entirely all the needs for the execution and implementation of FOCUS-27. I hope this answers more or less your questions.
Yeah, that's very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. As a quick reminder, that is star one for your questions today. Up next, we have Falko Friedrichs from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, and thanks for taking my question. So maybe can we go back to the margin bridge that you provided, also touching on the prior, prior question. Can you maybe help us understand which of these, are not meant to repeat in sort of the same order of magnitude in the second half, or is there any, effects that should actually reverse in the second half? So, I understood that Sanofi's, the Sanofi fee will, will probably be softer. Can you maybe talk about the impact of price and mix? So if I understand correctly, you likely had, small tailwind from the prostaglandin, suspension in the prior year comp. That would be helpful. And then maybe for the full year, can you help us, with what sort of magnitude in restructuring costs we should expect there?
And also, how much of that should be cash affected? I'm actually a bit surprised by the phasing of the one-offs. I thought, this would be a bit further out. That would be helpful. And then maybe lastly, on your inventory position, you said you are confident to reduce that in the second half of the year. I think the absolute number in inventory has barely fallen yet. So what gives you the confidence there that you're able to reduce that? I think you were aiming for about a EUR 100 million reduction this year. Yeah, so that would be super helpful.
Okay. So I will take question number one and question number three, and then I will hand over to Evelyne after that for question number two on restructuring. So first of all, on the EBITDA bridge from first half to the end of this year. So as said, the buserelin stock clearance, it's 2.1 points that will not come back in H2, because I remind you, we sold all the stock of this product to Sanofi, because this is a product we are stopping, and we shipped all the products in H1 that will not come back in H2. The second element is the 3 points on price and mix, yeah.
On price and mix, of course, as I told you, we don't have price decreases in H2, but we have a bit of a not so good product mix in the second half of the year, where in the first half of the year, we had a really a very good product mix. So that's where the big change come from. And I think all the other elements will be more or less in line. But I want to repeat myself, I agree we are a bit cautious now. We are a bit more cautious because looking at our reputation in the past, we want to deliver on what we commit to. So that on the first question, then on the third question, on the inventory, am I confident? I'm absolutely confident.
The reason I'm confident is that we have a steering committee on this topic of supply chain. I'm personally heading the steering committee, so we meet every second week to go in detail through all the planning and all the stock levels. I can assure you, we have a really, really professional approach in doing that. Why is it phased to the second half of the year? It's related to the nature of our business, because if you take, for example, the plant in Vertolaye, where we have the biggest, the biggest stock, the plant in Vertolaye, typically has production lead times between 12 and 18 months. So that means before you see the drop in inventory, it takes you at least 6 to 12 months.
And that's the reason why there is a sharper drop in the second half of this year. But again, I said before, I'm very confident that we will achieve these levels. And what is even more important is that we will also improve the quality of our inventory, because in the inventory, we split it up in what we call the normal inventory, then we have the slow-moving inventory, and then we have a third group, which is what I would call the difficult inventory. And I can tell you that on the difficult and the slow-moving inventory, we are really making substantial progress. So I'm pretty confident that I'm absolutely confident that we will reach the inventory reduction by the end of the year, because that's what I'm told every second week in the steering committee.
So I hope that answers your question three. Then on the second question, on the restructuring, I pass it over to Evelyne.
Yes, so, so for restructuring costs, so you, as you know, those don't reflect the normal course of our business. The vast majority of those costs are related to the execution of FOCUS-27, and a majority of that, again, is linked to the, what we call idle costs, which is under activity. And of course, I mean, because we're executing and accelerating FOCUS-27, we'll find them again in H2, at least for idle costs. As for transformation costs, it's the same, because those costs are dedicated to the implementation of our new financing structure and the improvement of our, I would say, internal operational processes. So we'll continue to do that in the second half.
And also the last part of the restructuring cost is the expenses that we incurred for redundancy plan, and for the streamlining of our organization. On that we'll also continue for H2. So those costs will continue for H2.
Okay, that's very helpful. If I can maybe follow up on the, especially the idle cost. So is that something that we should expect for all the coming years, so essentially for the entirety of the plan? And then, in the second half, so I imagine the, the ramp down of the APIs is ongoing, so should the effect actually become stronger in the second half? And then I would expect that the, costs related to the staff reduction would now really only start to pick up, so could, should we also expect them to accelerate in the second half?
Yeah, yeah. So for idle cost, to be very, very precise, so those reflect the under absorption of our, fixed industrial cost, right? Linked to, linked to the lower levels of activities versus our, what we call our normal activity. And with the execution of FOCUS-27, as, as, Ludwig mentioned, we are ramping down, some of our workshops, mostly in Frankfurt, and we are also decreasing, our inventories, mostly in Vertolaye. And so the effect of this is a lower level of activities, which results in under activity costs. So this will continue, at a certain point in time, they will decrease because we'll be adjusting, the, our structure, and this is the, the 3 years plan until 2027, related to FOCUS-27.
For the same for the severance cost, our headcount reduction is planned over the period, so that will also continue over the period. And accelerating, I think, would be more in 2025, 2026.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We're now moving on to a question from Charles Weston from RBC. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thanks for taking the question. Two, please. First of all, could you share some KPIs around capacity utilization, perhaps split by molecule type and perhaps by large mo- by late stage or early stage, however you think about this? And I specifically sort of refer obviously to the half of the CapEx that you invested in growth projects. So clearly there's some, you're coming up to sort of capacity, full capacity utilization on some programs. And then my second question is on BIOSECURE, and whether you've noticed any change in the flow of RFPs from pharma companies perhaps looking to diversify their supply chain away from China. Thank you.
So Charles, maybe I can take the question on which, if I understand correctly, your question's on the new project by small molecules and large molecules in the CDMO. You have the detail in our press release, which explains the new contract that we gained, and you can see that we had 14 new CDMO contracts signed during the second half. And you can see that we have 19 of them in phase one of clinical phases, and 34 of them in the commercial phases. So a rather good balance between early stage and late stage.
And if we look at it by molecules and types of molecule, we have 17 new contracts, new projects, sorry, in large molecules and 14 in complex chemical molecules. So once again, which we think is a pretty well-balanced portfolio, momentum to try to focus on what we say during on the plan, which is a de-risked portfolio, CDMO, CDMO pipeline and, and CDMO portfolio.
Yeah. So for the... I think there was a question on capacity utilization. Most, most of the underactivity are accounted for, workshops that are dedicated to small molecules, and of course, the growth CapEx are made to, I would say to add incremental capacity. So, once they are in operations, they will be fully operating. We're not expecting any under capacity normally for those, provided that demand still continue. But, we, we are doing the growth CapEx to, to extend or to expand our current capacity. So we have new products with new CapEx. They should be fully used at term, and then current capacities with molecules that are decreasing, which are, you know, subject to our under absorption of fixed industrial cost.
And I said in a previous presentation, by doing this, we will ramp up the utilization from about 60% now to about 80% in 2027, which is then again the industry standard, yeah, with a combination of all these things.
Thank you. And on BIOSECURE?
Sorry, can you repeat? I mean, the line is-
Sorry, the BIOSECURE Act in the U.S. I was wondering whether you had noted any customer activity increase from people perhaps looking to diversify their supply chain from China.
Yeah. So I guess there's... We can see some move, but it is too early for us to comment on potential concrete consequences of this at this stage.
But there is a positive momentum, and let's be clear on that.
That's it, yeah.
There is an increased interest for all the good reasons we know.
More an interest.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's more an interest now. It's not concrete, I would say, in context.
In the numbers.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you. As a final reminder, that is star one for your questions today. We will pause for a brief moment. It appears there's no further telephone questions at this time, so I'd like to hand the call back over to you, Sophie, for any additional or closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you
... for connecting today. Again, and as usual, the Investor Relations team is looking for us to answer any follow-up questions. And I guess we wish you a nice summer. Goodbye, everybody.
Goodbye.
Thank you. Goodbye.
Thank you for joining today's call, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect.