Welcome to the EuroAPI full year 2024 results presentation. My name is Caroline, and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this call is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only mode. However, you'll have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your questions. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero, and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand over the call to your host, Sophie Palliez, the Head of Investor Relations, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this webcast. Our hosts today are David Seignolle, Chief Executive Officer, and Olivier Falut, Chief Financial Officer. We will start, as usual, by a short presentation followed by the Q&A session. Please note that those of you that are connected via the internet will be able to ask questions through the platform, and I will ask them on their behalf. Before we start, we 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 or assumptions concerning EuroAPI's 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 group. They could cause actual results, performances, and achievements to differ materially from those described or suggested. That said, let me give the floor to David Seignolle.
Thank you, Sophie. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this session. Let us start first with a look back at 2024. The first thing I want to talk about today is resilience. Our top line has been fairly resilient despite the heavy challenges, many of which have been inherited from the past. We found ways to partly offset these headwinds with solid commercial momentum in both API solutions and CDMO. Last year, we brought in 37 new clients, won 16 new CDMO projects, and as communicated in Q2, we secured a five-year CMO contract worth between EUR 130 million and EUR 150 million with a major animal health company. This proved that EuroAPI has both the ability and the opportunity to succeed. The second point I would like to mention is about agility. Our teams acted fast to manage the situation and limit the impact of the temporary production suspension in Brindisi.
Thanks to their efforts, the site has resumed manufacturing since the end of August last year. We also took a more disciplined approach across the company. One key achievement was the significant and voluntary reduction in inventories, which is obviously helping us to operate more efficiently. Another big focus was on execution. We made solid progress on all four pillars of the Focus 27 roadmap. In particular, we improved some commercial terms with Sanofi and fully secured the financing of our plan with the support of our main shareholder. Finally, sustainability. Despite our challenges, we kept rolling out our ESG program. Earlier this year, we took a big step forward by committing to the SBTi initiative. Let us now take a look at the 2024 from a financial perspective. Olivier will obviously go into further details a bit later.
Net sales came in at EUR 911.9 million, down 10% compared to 2023. Sales to Sanofi dropped 10.7%, while revenue from other clients decreased 9.4%. Both were impacted by the temporary suspension of Brindisi, and without this, the decline would have been 7.3%. Core EBITDA came in at EUR 50.4 million, a 45.8% decrease from 2023, with a core EBITDA margin of 5.5%. Finally, CapEx stood up at EUR 108 million, with 53% of that invested in growth and performance projects and contributed to putting the company back on track for long-term growth. If we move now to page seven, we show the progress made on the financing of our plan in 2024. We recognize that the support of our main shareholder in securing funding has been a key driver behind last year's progress. In particular, we refinanced the EUR 451 million revolving credit facility, extended its maturity to February 2029.
At the same time, Sanofi invested EUR 200 million in a hybrid deeply subordinated bond and committed to reserving capacity for selected APIs. As part of this, we received EUR 18 million in 2024, and we expect another EUR 36 million in 2025. Beyond successful funding, we are particularly pleased with the increased agility and discipline of our team, which have delivered an ambitious EUR 100 million improvement in working capital. As you may remember, optimizing inventory was already a key goal when the company was listed. Turning to slide eight, despite the challenges we faced in 2024, we did not compromise on our sustainability commitments. We made solid progress on the environmental roadmap. We reduced greenhouse gas emissions and intensity and improved our solvent recycling. As of January, 100% of the electricity we purchased for the six industrial sites comes from renewable sources.
On top of that, we confirmed our decarbonization roadmap, including our pledge to align total emission reduction with the Paris Agreement and committing to the science-based target initiatives, SBTi. When it comes to diversity, the share of women in extended leadership positions of EuroAPI remains above average and already exceeds the 30% target set by the French loi Rixin for 2026. However, one area where we need to improve is total recordable injury rates, which increased in 2024. We had few minor incidents, like slips, trips, and falls, that impacted our severity rates. To address this, we have already put mitigation measures in place and are fully focused on reaching our 2025 safety goals. In fact, safety will be a key factor in the annual variable compensation for the EuroAPI management team in 2025, including for myself. I will now leave Olivier to talk through our financials in more details.
Thank you, David. Let's take a look at consolidated net sales on slide 10. We closed the year at EUR 911.9 million, down 10% from 2023. The bridge breaks down the key drivers behind this decline, but let me highlight some of the main positive and negative drivers, starting with the headwinds. First, the production suspension in Brindisi impacts both the API and CDMO businesses, including Brindisi. Sales decline would have been contained to 7.3%. Second, the downsizing of two CDMO contracts in the commercial phase impacted the top line by around EUR 40 million. Third, several other volumes sold to Sanofi were down in the period, and sales of vitamin B12 to other clients were in part impacted by competitive pressure from Asian producers. Looking now at positive revenue contributions, first, we continued to diversify the client portfolio with 37 new API clients during the year.
Our focus on cross-selling APIs is also starting to pay off, with cross-selling-related sales now accounting for 9.5% of API sales to non-Sanofi clients. Second, CDMO sales benefited from the ramp-up of large molecule commercial phase contracts with Sanofi. Now, let's take a look at our CDMO commercial activity in 2024 on slide 11. We started the year with 69 projects and closed at 58. The net change reflects both new wins and natural project evolution. We added 16 new projects, including five in late stage and six in large molecules. Eight projects were successfully completed and are now pending on the next preclinical or clinical outcomes. If these outcomes are successful, we are well positioned to sign for another round with our customers. Twelve projects were completed, but either had negative clinical results or were discontinued by customers. Seven projects from the pre-covered portfolio were discontinued by the client.
Beyond the numbers, we are pleased with the momentum we are seeing across the CDMO business. The number of RFPs we received is slightly up, and the average value of RFP we received was up by double digits in 2024. On top of this, 13% of RFPs came from prospects as opposed to existing clients. Turning now to the Core EBITDA evolution on slide 12. Core EBITDA reached EUR 50.4 million in 2024. This represents a 5.5% margin, down by 9.2% from 2023. The main factors that have contributed in this decrease are as follows. Positive impacts came from volume compared to last year, 0.8 percentage points on the total. The one-off impact of Buserelin stock clearance, the total impact was EUR 21 million, or one percentage point, recorded in the first half. Reduced energy and raw materials for 0.8 percentage points. Industrial efficiencies contribute also for 0.8 percentage points to the margin.
This is consistent with Focus 27. The tailwinds were more than offset by negative price and mix, mostly in H2. Unfavorable fixed cost absorption triggered by the release of products produced during the peak inflation cycle of the past 24 months. We sold in 2024 products manufactured in 2022 and 2023 with a higher cost base. A negative 0.3 points from OpEx, mostly driven by the reinforcement of some support functions. Brindisi and Heatherhill sites, which are planned to be divested, weighed for 1.4 points on 2024 Core EBITDA. These were affected by the suspension of production in Brindisi and the huge decrease of several other volumes in Heatherhill. Turning to items below the Core EBITDA on slide 13. Non-recurring items totaled EUR 94 million in 2024, bringing the reported EBITDA to negative EUR 43.6 million. The vast majority of non-recurring items directly related to the execution of Focus 27.
First, we recorded EUR 62.5 million on idle cost. As part of Focus 27, this included the ramp-down of two workshops in Frankfurt and reduced inventories in Vertolaye. Second, we incurred an EUR 11.3 million charge relating to the transformation of the company and the initial implementation of Focus 27, including consulting fees. Finally, employee-related expenses, in part linked to the residency plan in Germany and the U.K., amounted to EUR 12.3 million last year. Turning to items below EBITDA on slide 14. Operating income stood at a negative EUR 120.4 million in 2024 compared to a negative EUR 234.3 million in the previous year. Net financial expenses increased to EUR 19.2 million in 2024 compared to EUR 8.5 million in the previous year. This is mostly due to the increase in interest rates, as well as the renewal of our RCF in the second half of the year.
The income tax increase was reduced to EUR 9 million in 2024, down from EUR 53 million in 2023, which was largely impacted by a EUR 42 million deferred tax asset relating to the revaluation of the group's assets in Hungary. The bottom line line to net income for the year was EUR 130.6 million loss compared to EUR 189.7 million loss in 2023. Turning to cash now and working capital dynamics, in particular on slide 15. As part of Focus 27 and our commitment to improve working capital, we are pleased to report a meaningful progress across both month in hand and DSO. Month in hand stood at 6.9, driven by the voluntary inventory reduction program that was implemented mostly in Q4. Thanks to a better cash collection, we improved DSO by 17 days to 39. On page 16 now, we invested EUR 108 million on CapEx of 11.8% of sales.
53% of this CapEx were dedicated to growth or performance, with progress made on our key strategic projects, including vitamin B12, oligonucleotides, prostaglandins, and hormones. Compliance CapEx accounted for 24% of the total. These CapEx are linked to the safety, quality, and environmental topics. Many of them are mandatory. Others are related to the quality processes step-up we implemented following the Budapest and Brindisi issues. Moving now on slide 17 and net debt evolution. We ended 2024, sorry, with a EUR 25.2 million net cash position compared to EUR 171 million net debt at the end of 2023. Working capital improved by EUR 159 million, driven by the strong reduction on inventories and DSO, just as I just mentioned.
The EUR 60 million of other current assets and liabilities include EUR 23 million variation of VAT tax reimbursement, EUR 18 million paid by Sanofi to reserve a minimum available capacity as part of the financing of Focus 27. As David mentioned, an additional EUR 36 million will be paid in 2025. Free cash flow before financing activities was EUR 15 million, a major improvement compared to the minus EUR 132 million at the end of 2023. Cash flow from financing activities includes EUR 197 million of deeply subordinated hybrid bonds subscribed by Sanofi in October 2024 and EUR 10.9 million cost of debt, including EUR 4.8 million linked to the renewal of the EUR 451 million revolving credit facility. This ends the review of our 2024 consolidated results. Let me hand it over back to David.
Thank you, Olivier. As I said in my introduction, as we move to page 19, we've made significant progress in the implementation of our Focus 27 plan since it was launched. This is true across all four pillars and comforts us in our ability to successfully achieve the EUR 75 million-EUR 80 million incremental core EBITDA target by the end of 2027. Let's take a closer look at these different pillars and how we have progressed so far. Turning on to page 20, Focus 27 aims to generate 70% of our 2027 revenues from differentiated APIs. These niche market APIs require both production scale and certainly highly efficient manufacturing processes. They are complex products to formulate and face limited competition from low-cost players.
To achieve the 70% goal, we will discontinue 13 APIs with lower negative margin and concentrate our commercial strategy on more profitable products and segments, such as large molecule, highly potent molecule, and opiates. At the end of 2024, these differentiated APIs represented 61% of total revenue, up from 57% in 2023. This growth was driven by large molecules and enhanced sales momentum in opiates. The 13 APIs to be discontinued accounted for EUR 68 million in sales in 2024 and resulted in a negative gross profit of EUR 9 million in 2024. The terms and timelines for the discontinuation of these 13 APIs are now finalized. Most of them will be seen at the end of 2025. Consequently, 2025 net sales will benefit from strategic stockpiling requests by our customers. Moving on to the second pillar, the shift towards a more focused, customized, and high-value CDMO offer.
Throughout the year, our teams worked very diligently to de-risk our business. At the end of 2024, late-stage projects represented 60% of our portfolio, a slight decrease compared to the previous year due to the discontinuation of historical CMO contracts, as Olivier mentioned a little bit earlier. This decrease was partially offset by the addition of five late-stage projects. At the end of 2024, large pharmaceutical companies accounted for 55% of our 58 projects, up from 46% in 2023. This increasing exposure to large and well-established players opens avenues for further RFPs and the potential for significant contracts. Demonstrating the growing interest from both existing clients and prospects, we received 215 RFPs in 2024, an increase from 211 in 2021, with a double-digit increase in the median value per RFP. Notably, 13% of those RFPs came from new prospects.
Among the 16 projects initiated in 2024, six involved large molecules, including a peptide PMO conjugate project with a major pharmaceutical company. To enhance our large molecule offering and provide our customers with a comprehensive one-stop-shop experience, I'm pleased to announce that we have signed an innovative partnership with Trendchem, a small French CRO recognized for its liquid phase peptide synthesis technology, which was previously absent from our technology platform. If we move now on to CapEx on page 22, which is the third pillar of Focus 27, to optimize our manufacturing footprint and achieving high-return capital expenditures. This includes the planned divestment of two sites, Heatherhill in the U.K. and Brindisi in Italy, as well as the mothballing of two complex chemical workshops in Frankfurt. The divestment process for Heatherhill is progressing.
The process related to Brindisi has been put on hold during the suspension of the production in 2024. The mothballing of the workshops has begun and will accelerate with the discontinuation of 13 APIs, as over 70% of these are produced in Frankfurt. Throughout the year, we made solid progress on the key strategic CapEx initiative plan under Focus 27. We aim to invest between EUR 300 million and EUR 400 million between 2024 and 2027, with around 60% of those allocated to growth and performance. The EUR 17 million investment in expanding peptides and oligonucleotide capacity in Frankfurt, initiated at the time of our listing, will be completed by the end of 2025. This will enhance our offerings in oligonucleotides, including complex conjugate large molecules. Additionally, our newly signed partnership with Trendchem will significantly improve peptide production through liquid phase synthesis.
In response to increasing market demand, we have decided to invest an additional EUR 15 million in oligonucleotide capacity in Frankfurt. This additional capacity will be fully operational in 2028. It is notably dedicated to one of our clients' promising products currently in phase II, which will reach the commercial phase in the coming years. Various projects aimed at increasing capacity and productivity in vitamin B12, prostaglandins, corticosteroids, hormones, opiates, are all progressing well. These initiatives will contribute to fuel your API's growth during and beyond the plan. EUR 5 million, for instance, have been invested in prostaglandins in 2024. Six are planned for 2025, allowing us to increase capacity of three of our key products, with impact on sales to be expected as from 2026. Finally, a new project has been initiated in Elbeuf that focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing water usage.
Overall, we will invest EUR 19 million between 2025 and 2029, with approximately EUR 8 million allocated before 2027. This initiative will support our decarbonization roadmap and replaces the original plant steam generation biomass boiler at a lower cost. Turning into page 23, finally, we have begun our journey towards organizational transformation. Several initiatives have been launched, including the streamlining, for example, of our procurement organization, which is expected to generate savings in both direct and indirect costs. Our overall goal is to simplify the processes partly inherited from Sanofi and to adapt them to the size of the company. As part of this process, our headcount has been reduced by approximately 180 employees in 2024, aligning with our objective of reducing 550 positions under the Focus 27 initiative. This reduction does not include the Heatherhill and Brindisi sites, which are scheduled for divestment.
If we move now on to our 2025 outlook. Before moving to the financial year 2025 guidance, let me go through the main operational and business driver that underpin sale, profitability, and cash deployment for the year. Starting with sales, top line will benefit from mainly two things. First, a solid growth in API sales to clients other than Sanofi, particularly in high-potent APIs and opiates. Second, a double-digit growth in sales from early-phase CDMO. This will be offset by, first, continued reduced API demand from Sanofi, particularly for Sevelamer, and, second, a slight decrease in vitamin B12 sales. Third, the discontinuation of several pre-calve material CMO projects. 2025 sales will also include a positive impact from the build-up of inventories in customers affected by the discontinuation of the 13 APIs.
Turning into profitability, we expect further industrial efficiencies, improved procurement, cost efficiencies across all functions, and all will support an improvement in profitability in 2025. We expect further exceptional items, including idle costs and restructuring charges, but to a lesser extent than in 2024. Finally, on cash generation, we anticipate free cash flow before financing to be supported by the EBITDA increase, ongoing improvement in working capital, although to a lesser degree than in 2024, and the positive impact of Sanofi's investment in securing further future product capacity that we mentioned earlier. 2025 CapEx should be slightly lower than the 2024 level as a result of maintenance CapEx optimization. Turning into slide 26, and how this translates into sales and margin guidance for 2025. First, we anticipate net sales to be slightly decreasing to steady on a comparable basis when compared to the full year 2024.
Despite muted sales momentum, we anticipate core EBITDA margin will improve to reach between 7-9% of net sales. In the meantime, our ambition is to safeguard cash flow generation this year, and there is no doubt that 2025 will be another year where our priority as a management team will be to execute the Focus 27 plan to make sure we fix the legacy issues and make the right strategic choices to set the company on the right long-term trajectory. Now moving on to slide 27 to conclude the presentation, and before we open up the floor to your questions, I would like to share some thoughts on where we see Europe's potential. I strongly believe that Europe has what it takes to reclaim its position as a leading player in the API solution and CDMO in Europe.
With Focus 27, we are shaping Europe into a more agile and leaner organization, an organization that can best leverage its strengths, accelerate innovation thanks to its unique technological platforms, optimize its industrial footprint, and keep sustainability at the heart of what we do. We know the journey is not an easy one, but I'm confident that with the support of the board, the engagement of our European employees, we will collectively meet our medium-term objective and long-term growth ambition. Thank you for your attention, and we are now ready for your questions.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. We will take the first question from line Zain Ebrahim from JP Morgan. The line is open now. Please go ahead.
Hello, thank you for taking my questions. This is Zain Ebrahim from JP Morgan.
Just a few questions from me, please. My first question is on the 13 API that you've said that you're discontinuing. That was EUR 68 million of sales in 2024, and you mentioned maybe some stockpiling benefit from customers in 2025 before the discontinuation in 2026. How much of a tailwind do you see from that on sales in 2025 in your guidance? Maybe in terms of any impact on core EBITDA margin that we should be thinking about as well, that would be helpful. That's my first question. Maybe I'll pause there.
Good answer.
Indeed, you caught it correctly. From last year, we would expect potentially low single-digit decrease in sales due to that specific effect.
In terms of EBITDA, clearly, it's a negative EBITDA, and this is the reason why we discontinue the product.
That's very helpful.
Just on the CDMO business, the number of contracts that you won seems to have been down in the second half versus the first half. I think it sounds like you won two contracts in the second half versus 14 in the first half. Any reasons for the slowdown in contract wins that you'd point to and how you're thinking about contracting momentum in 2025 based on the request for proposal that you have? Thinking about CDMO revenues, do you expect that to overall be stable in 2025 based on the early-stage strength offset by the loss of some of the legacy contracts?
I think you're perfectly right on that second part of the question. If I go back to your first part about the phasing, it's pure seasonality of when we receive RFPs and where our customers are making their own decision.
We would not read anything into that.
Very helpful. My final question is just on Brindisi. What are you assuming in 2025 for the rebound potentially in sales for Brindisi given the suspension of production in 2024? Maybe sort of broader picture, you mentioned the divestment process for Brindisi has been on pause because of the suspension. When are you planning on resuming the divestment process for it? When can we potentially expect to see that divestment in the plan?
A few questions here. The first one on the rebound in sales, we do not give any guidance specific to any sales per site. We shared that we lost or we had a reduction of EUR 30 million due to Brindisi last year. You probably remember the sales number from 2023. We are basically in those territories, if you will, for 2025.
From a divestment standpoint, as we said, I think we are not in a hurry. For one reason is because, one, the site produces complex APIs, some of which being life-saving and on the critical medicine list of products, and we have many more customers. We want to do things right overall for our API, but also for the community and the customers. Our plan is still to divest the site within the length of the duration of the plan.
Very helpful. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. We will take the next question from line Finn Selter from Deutsche Bank. The line is open now. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Thanks for taking my questions.
Maybe first, can you help us with the magnitude of adjustments we should expect for the next year? You indicated that it should be lower. Maybe you can walk us through the different components. If I understand correctly, the idle cost should likely be lower. Inventory reduction is probably also almost done, but I think especially in terms of the employee reduction, there's probably more to come. If you could give us a rough magnitude that we should think about from the EUR 87 million we had in 2024.
On this area, clearly, we expect less adjustment in 2025 than in 2024. Clearly speaking, the key effort in terms of inventory has been the reduction in Vertolaye that's been done in 2024.
The remaining portion in terms of under activity is clearly in Frankfurt, but the magnitude of the effort to be done in 2025 is less than in 2024. Basically, we do not provide any guidance on the total, but it has to be expected less than in 2024.
If I may add to that, we are guiding in core EBITDA this year. That is the 7%-9%. We will also be expecting a positive EBITDA in 2025. It comes out a much lower reduced adjustments. It is all mechanical.
Okay. That is super helpful. Thank you very much. Maybe you touched on it a little bit already in the first question, but could you maybe help us with some general comments on the phasing that we should keep in mind? There are so many moving parts and one-offs.
I understood that there is also the stocking effect for 2025. Is this evenly split between the halves? Also, maybe with the reramp of Brindisi, how should we think about the two halves of the year against each other?
Yeah. We do not expect any significant seasonality this year, not necessarily from, I mean, certainly not from the two elements you mentioned, one being the discontinuation of the products. I mean, we will carry this production throughout 2025, and any stockpiling may come throughout the year. Brindisi has also, as you alluded to it, let's say, spread or very, let's say, lean plans throughout the year. There is no seasonality expected here in 2025. I think the team did a fantastic effort in Q3 and Q4 to restart across all major products. I think there was one other element. Yeah.
If you allude to any seasonality from last year, basically, let's remind that last year's seasonality was also due to some one-off effects, for example, Buserelin. These are effects that we don't expect to see in 2025.
Okay. That's helpful. Is there any sort of caveat to the EBITDA development between the halves, or should it be similar to the revenue?
Yeah. Clearly, in terms of EBITDA, we expect some type of seasonality. Clearly, the comparison from last year with the Buserelin will not happen again. That's the first point. The second point is related mainly to the Sanofi sales, where we expect more profitability in the second half. We should have a second half stronger in terms of EBITDA than the first, but with not at all the same type of magnitude as in 2024.
Slightly better than the H2, slightly better than the H1.
Okay. That's super helpful. If I can maybe squeeze in one last one. Your comment on the competitive pressure in vitamin B12, I think I heard that the first time. Could you maybe expand on that a little bit, what you're seeing there and how much overhead print that is?
For vitamin B12, Europe is the only Western supplier with vitamin B12. Everyone else is in Asia and I think in China, if I remember well. Whilst we expect the market to grow, there is significant capacity in China, probably not as strong in terms of quality of the product than we do have. However, there is a price market as well there. What we see here is we mentioned a slight decrease in 2024 is due to two factors.
The first one is this demand that has decreased due to that strong competition. The second one is we had some postponement from 2024- 2025 of some shipments at the request of our customers. These products were already shipped into this year. Looking ahead to 2025, what do we expect? We expect, I think, a low single-digit decrease in sales, again, because of the Asian competition. To tackle this challenge, the company initiated a few years ago a strong, let's say, product and process improvements. That is what you could see in the line vitamin B12 for CapEx. This product and this process is expected to be finalized in 2025, which should help us to regain competitiveness and enhance even further the product quality, but that will be beyond 2025.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. It appears no further question over the phone. I'll hand it back over to your host. Thank you.
Thank you. We have a couple of questions here from the website. One was on vitamin B12, and we just covered it. Another one is about BTK inhibitor, which was again in the second half on our CDMO business. The question is about the agreement with Sanofi and what, in fact, we could expect in terms of revenues in the short and the midterms, keeping in mind that the product is entering into a new phase III. A follow-up question on that also, the CDMO business is about the downsizing of the two commercial phase contracts that were mentioned in the press release. When have these contracts been stopped?
Is it right to consider that we do not have these revenues for 2025 and 2024?
All right. Thank you for the questions. The first one on BTK i. Look, I think I am not going to comment on anything that relates to Sanofi. What I can comment on is we have delivered all what was required in 2024 in time, in quality, at the demand of Sanofi into their basically development phase work. We are ready for any further demand that may come or that is planned to come in 2025 and beyond. I think we are looking forward to this, but we will not comment on future guidance or revenues generated by this potential product.
On the second part about the CDMO contracts, I think it's no surprise to all of you that when the company was created, we inherited a bit more than 20 different CMO projects from Sanofi. Most of them were mature commercial contracts that were expected to fade out gradually as per the natural commercial cycle of products or CMO contracts. This was embedded into the initial business plan, although at a slower pace. As we look into Focus 27, the goal is to accelerate the late-stage projects to offset the decline of these historical contracts. Those specific two were in 2024 and have reduced, and we are not seeing them in 2025.
Okay. We have another question about our ESG commitments. Another way I would phrase it would be, is it a competitive advantage? You presented this roadmap.
How can you consider that it will be a competitive advantage and how we carried out this drawing out of our commitment?
The ESG points.
That's the ESG commitment.
Yeah. I think many people are wondering what's happening in the world. I think I'm not here to comment on any of this. What I know is many of our customers have commitments for 2030 and beyond, and we value this as an advantage to also have the right commitments for the company. It's part of our vision, of our ambition, certainly our values to deliver against. Most often than not, we have customers that are asking us about what we are doing and how we are projecting ourselves, what we are doing from CO2 emissions, what are we doing from biosolvents, what are we doing from electricity perspective, simplification of processes, etc., etc.
We definitely value this, and we certainly believe that it will be a, it is today, and it will be in the future, and that is why we are developing that, a competitive advantage for our API.
Okay. We do not have further questions on the website, and apparently no more questions from the telephone line. Maybe time to end this presentation. Thank you, everyone. Of course, as usual, we remain at your disposal for any follow-up questions, anything you would like us to comment further. A short reminder on our agenda. The AGM for this year is scheduled on May 21st, and it will take place in Paris. Have a nice day.
Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you.
Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect.