Hello and welcome to the EUROAPI H1 2025 results presentation. Today's call is being recorded. For the duration of the call, 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. I will now hand you over to Sophie Palliez, Head of Investor Relations, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the EURO API H1 2025 results conference call. The call will be hosted by David Seignolle, Chief Executive Officer, and Olivier Falut, Chief Financial Officer. We will start with the usual short presentation of our results, followed by a Q&A session. I will voice over the questions received from people connected to the webcast. 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'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 generate outside the control of the group, and could cause actual results, performances, and achievements to differ materially from those described or suggested. That said, let me leave the floor to Dave.
Thank you, Sophie. Good morning, everybody. Before turning on to the key outcomes of our first half results, let me give you a quick snapshot of our results on slide four. At EUR 412 million, net sales were down 8.2% year- on- year. Sales to Sanofi decreased by 15.3% while sales to other clients were decreasing by 2%. Core EBITDA came in strongly at EUR 39.5 million, a margin of 9.6%, consistent with our full-year ambition. EBITDA was +EUR 5 million compared to EUR 1.4 million loss in H1 2024. Finally, we invested EUR 37.8 million in CapEx, of which, as per plan, 60% was dedicated to growth. If we move on to page five, beyond the number, which Olivier will detail further in about a couple of minutes, and to sum up the first half, three words stand out for us: resilience, discipline, and execution.
They capture both the challenges we face and the tangible progress we've made so far. First, resilience. The decline in sales to Sanofi reflects several headwinds. The API Solutions business includes a high comparison base in the first half of 2024, as well as weaker sales of s evelamer . This masked a strong momentum in our CDMO activity for Sanofi, which posted double-digit growth, underpinned by two major CMO contracts: Pristinamycin in Elbeuf and PLLA, a promising API used in the skincare industry and manufacturing in Vertolaye. API sales to other clients were impacted by an unfavorable phasing of vitamin B12, which offset the solid growth achieved in opioids. On the CDMO side, the ramp-up of CDMO contracts signed last year was offset by the discontinuation of several legacy projects. In line with our FOCUS- 27 strategy, we continue to proactively de-risk our overall CDMO portfolio. Second is discipline.
Despite the top-line pressure, we have made meaningful and sustainable progress across the organization in managing costs and improving efficiency. Thanks to strengthened financial discipline, we have significantly cut back on external spending and reduced personnel expenses where relevant. What is important here is that these are not just short-term fixes. Most of those measures we have implemented are structural and long-lasting. They lay the foundation for improved profitability going forward. We maintain tight control of our operating working capital and remain highly selective in our CapEx investments. Once again, it's all about focusing on what we can control without compromising our ability to grow tomorrow. Third, execution. From the outset, we knew that the success of FOCUS- 27 would depend on thorough and timely execution. Today, we are beginning to show that we can deliver.
The successful divestment of Haverhill in the U.K. marks a key milestone in reshaping our industrial footprint. Alongside the advancement of our API discontinuation program, these are concrete actions that are actively repositioning EUROAPI onto a more focused, value-generating foundation. Finally, as you may have seen, we are very pleased to have signed on Monday our IPK contract with the French government that will subsidize EUROAPI up to EUR 140 million across three work packages that we detailed previously. With that, I will now hand over to Olivier for more details on our financial performance.
Thank you, David. Let me start with a closer look at the evolution of the net sales on page seven. As David just mentioned, total sales reached EUR 412 million, down 8.2% as reported compared to the same period last year, and -7.6% at constant exchange rates. API solutions sales decreased by 9.8% to around EUR 300 million. Sales to Sanofi decreased by 24.4% on the back of a challenging comparison back to H1 2024, which includes EUR 21 million positive impacts from the stock clearance of busiridine . The decline was notably driven this year by a 29% decrease of sales of sevelamer the API produced in Haverhill. As mentioned in our press release, since the 1st of May, we have adjusted the allocation of the sales between Sanofi and the other clients following the change in Opella majority shareholder. The impact on H1 was €7 million.
Total sales of Opella were EUR 31 million in H1 this year and EUR 70 million in 2024. API solutions sales to other clients increased by 4.3% as expected. We beneficiated from a solid growth in opioids, offset by lower sales of vitamin B12, impacted by a shift of volumes from H1 to H2. The cross-selling strategy continued to bear fruit and represented approximately 8% of the total API sales to other clients in H1 2025. CDMO sales decreased by -3.4% to EUR 112 million. In CDMO, sales to Sanofi increased by 18.4%, driven by a robust demand of Pristinamycin and poly-L- lactic acid . CDMO sales to other clients decreased by 16.7%. Performance was affected by the planned downsizing and discontinuation of several contracts inherited from Sanofi. At the end of June 2025, large companies represented 48% of the 50 active projects and 60% were at the stage.
Turning to the core EBITDA evolution on slide eight, core EBITDA reached EUR 39.5 million in H1. This represents a 9.6% margin, down from 10.6% in H1 2024. In H1 2024, the stock clearance of busiridine has impacted the core EBITDA margin by a positive two points. Excluding this one-off impact, H1 2025 core EBITDA margin would have increased by 1.2 points, driven by several items. First, a + 2.2 points from price and mix, which was partially offset by a negative volume impact of - 1.9 points, notably due to Sevelamer. Secondly, a + 0.2 points from the sales of discontinued products, which beneficiated from the exceptional impact of the stockpiling on the absorption of fixed costs.
During the semester, these products represented approximately EUR 39 million in sales, of which an estimated EUR 10 million was attributed to the stockpiling. The next point was about a - 0.6 points due to the industrial performance of our core manufacturing footprint. While the underlying industrial performance of the sites continued to improve, H1 2025 was affected by a temporary disruption of production in Elbeuf, triggered by social issues. Reduced energy and raw materials brought 2.1 points of margin. The next item is around the strengthening of financial discipline. Driven by this strengthened financial discipline, the 2.4 points improvement of OpEx reflected lower personnel costs, particularly in R&D, and a substantial saving in external expenditure. A significant portion of these savings are sustainable in the long term and will support the overall improvement of the company's profitability over time. Brindisi site weighs for 1.9 points in H1 2025 on core EBITDA.
Finally, Haverhill weighted for 1.2 points. As you know, Haverhill was sold to Particle Dynamics on June 30th. The site contribute EUR 14 million in net sales and EUR 3 million in core EBITDA in H1 2025 consolidated results. Let's move to items below core EBITDA on slide nine. Non-recurring items totaled EUR 34.6 million in H1 2025, of which EUR 39 million of exceptionals. The vast majority of those were directly related to the execution of FOCUS- 27. First, we recorded EUR 20.6 million of idle cost compared to EUR 33.8 million in H1 2024. We expected idle costs to decrease materially for the full year as anticipated. As part of FOCUS- 27, this includes notably the ramp down of the two workshops in Frankfurt. Second, we incurred a EUR 4.1 million change-related charge relating to the transformation of the company and the implementation of FOCUS- 27.
Finally, employee-related expenses linked to the redundancy plans amount for EUR 12.4 million. H1 2025 EBITDA was EUR 5 million compared to -EUR 1.4 million in H1 2024, reflecting an increase in underlying efficiencies and consistent with our objectives to be EBITDA positive in 2025. Turning to items below EBITDA on slide 10 now, operating income stood at a -EUR 27.8 million in H1 2025 compared to -EUR 33.4 million in the previous year. Net financial expenses decreased to EUR 2.3 million compared to EUR 8.1 million in the previous year as a result of the refinancing of the company in the second half of 2024. Income before tax was negative by EUR 30 million. The bottom line net income for the semester was a EUR 28.5 million loss compared to a EUR 34.8 million loss in 2024.
Moving to CapEx now, on page 11, in H1 2025, we invested EUR 37.8 million in CapEx, representing 9.2% of the sales. The decrease versus last year is mainly due to phasing. 60% of this CapEx was dedicated to growth projects. Moving now to slide 12 on net cash evolution. We ended the first half of 2025 with a EUR 1.1 million net cash position compared to EUR 25 million at the end of 2024. While we continue to tightly manage the operating working capital, the increase in inventory is linked to the seasonality of the production cycle. Months enhanced to 7.8% compared to 8.5% in H1 2024. The decrease in receivables reflects the launch of a factoring program aimed to improve liquidity and securing cash inflows. EUR 40 million had been factored at the end of June 2025.
H1 2025 DSO, which includes the impact of the factoring, was stable compared to H1 2024, reflecting continued focus on cash collection. H1 2025, other current assets and liabilities were -EUR 10.8 million. This includes EUR 18 million paid by Sanofi as part of the financing of FOCUS- 27, as well as a sum of negative values operating items, such as the payment of profit sharing, late invoicing of services, and insurance compensation. As a reminder, H1 2024, other assets and liabilities include EUR 27 million variations of VAT tax reimbursement. As said, we invested EUR 37.8 million in CapEx in H1 2025. The decline versus last year is primarily due to the phasing impact. For the full year, we expect to invest between EUR 80 million and EUR 90 million, which is in line with the FOCUS- 27 target. This ends the review of H1 2025 consolidated result.
Let me hand over back to Dave.
Thank you, Olivier. Let's move now to 2025 outlook and a short conclusion before opening the floor to your questions. In light of the first half performance, we are adjusting our full-year objectives to better reflect the current trends. In 2025, net sales are expected to decline low single- digits on a comparable basis versus slightly decreasing to steady initially anticipated. The second half performance is expected to strengthen, driven by stronger HP API sales, increased CMO activities, the continued inventory buildup of discontinued API, and a catch-up in vitamin B12 volumes compared to H1. This should also be supported by further positive momentum in the pristinamycin and PLLA sales and sustained sales in opiates and opioids. Despite lower sales, we're pleased to reaffirm our core EBITDA margin target of 7 to 9%.
In addition, confident in our ability to sustain the financial discipline that we demonstrated in H1, we now aim to be in the upper part of the range. As a conclusion, over the past few months, we have proven our ability to stay on course despite headwinds, delivering with determination. We enter the second half of the year with confidence to successfully continue our transformation and execute our FOCUS- 27 plan. Thank you for your attention. We are now ready for your questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question on today's call, please signal by pressing on star one your telephone keypad. That is star one for your questions today. Our first, we have a question from Zain Ebrahim from JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. This is Zain Ibrahim from JP Morgan. My first question is just on the 2025 guidance. It's really on the revenue side, what provides you with confidence in your expectation for a return to growth in the second half, particularly on the phasing of the highly potent API shipments and vitamin B12 shipments in deferral into the second half. Do you see any risk that these could be deferred further by customers into 2026? On the core EBITDA margin side, direct expectation still is towards the upper end of the range. How much of that is driven by the Haverhill divestment versus the underlying performance? That looks reasonably strong as well from the OpEx reductions that you've highlighted. How should we think about that in the second half?
My second question is on the CDMO business, where you've continued to right-size the business in terms of the number of projects and have continued to decrease. When do you expect this right-sizing of the portfolio to be completed? When can we expect the CDMO business overall to return towards growth?
Okay. Hi, Zain. Thank you for the question. Look, let me give it a go, and then maybe Olivier can add if needed. The 2025 guidance, starting with your first one, we had anticipated such phasing in terms of H1 being slightly lower versus H2. That's what we reflect today with the EUR 412 million in H1 and the low-digit decrease of the overall year. There is no surprise for us in that specific case, and a lot of those phasings were anticipated. What gives us confidence, back to your question, is exactly how I closed the call. I think we have quite some sales that are planned and where all POs are available, and that was phased and driven by, in some cases, production that we started earlier this year after a very low decrease in inventory last year, if you recall. Therefore, those sales will be realized in H2.
That's definitely valid for the high-potent API, specifically prostaglandins, for example. We see a continued increase in CMO activities. We mentioned some specifically to Sanofi and pristinamycin and PLLA, where there is not only an increase in H1, but there is a strong overall performance in the year. As a reminder, we are investing significantly on those products as well to further fuel growth in the future beyond 2025. There are a couple of other elements. I think you called out specifically vitamin B12. For vitamin B12, we know what we sold in 2024. There was probably some inventory at the customers. That's how we feel at this stage. We are fairly comfortable with having a full-year sales of vitamin B12 in line with 2024 numbers.
Yes, there may have been some shipments delayed or some inventory that we hold at this stage, but we are fully confident in vitamin B12 to be delivered this year. We see no specific reason why we would slide those sales into 2026 at present. If I go to your second question, still on the guidance and the core EBITDA, you've mentioned Haverhill. Yes, Haverhill is a potential improvement of the core EBITDA within H2 versus H1. We feel confident. You've called out a couple of elements that will ensure we continue to have strong momentum in the core EBITDA. I think we are confident, yet we want to be cautious and conservative in our approach and guidance here. I think we are definitely aiming for that upper part of the range that we have, as we have said and written in the press release.
I would be pleased to share more, but we'll have to wait for the full-year results. We are confident to be able to achieve that, and we'll be very happy if we can have some good surprises at the end. I can just leave you with this, that I think the company is fully on with this topic of core EBITDA, and EBITDA, by the way, because this is the first time we're having EBITDA positive. Everyone is working towards this objective to restore profitability as it is the plan of FoOCUS- 2027. The last question you had was on CDMO. You have highlighted a couple of elements, including a number of projects reducing, etc. I don't think I can disagree with any of your analysis. I think at this stage, there is a lot happening.
We are facing some historical contracts that are coming to an end, and that's fair. We are having some number of projects that are decreasing. We are seeing some RFPs that are also, the number of RFPs coming is also decreasing. The market and our competitors are experiencing the same. At this stage, what we are looking at is ensuring we are focusing on those right RFPs. We are focusing on those right projects where there is significant opportunity for us to be competitive and to be successful. We are continuing our target to focusing on big pharma and focusing on large values. The average RFPs that we are receiving are increasing. We are actually talking with a couple of customers of significant size of structural for EUROAPI size projects. That's where we are.
Back to various conversations we have had, either in these calls or with you guys in various sessions, I think the key point is around rebuilding the commercial momentum. You are very well aware that we have brought a new commercial head at the beginning of June. This was definitely one of my first targets as I took office. After a couple of months of having Frédéric with us, I am very pleased with seeing the right approach, the right questioning, the right ambition. Hopefully, that will start to deliver very, very soon.
Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. As a quick reminder, that is star one for your questions today. Up next, we have Fynn Scherzler from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hello, and thanks for taking my question. The first one is on the 1H EBITDA margin. I think beforehand, you had pointed us to a stronger EBITDA generation in the second half of the year. I'm just trying to understand, has there been any meaningful phasing impact over the year so that maybe more EBITDA has fallen into the first half than you had anticipated previously? Implied in that is, why would the EBITDA margin fall again in the second half of the year? If you could speak about the moving parts there and sort of how the first half has unfolded against your expectations, this would be very helpful. Secondly, you've pointed us to the stocking impact that you have seen in the first half. What should we assume for the second half of the year?
Should this be at a similar level, or is there any reason to believe that it should be even stronger in the second half of the year? This would be very helpful. Lastly, also in terms of phasing, the total adjustment amount that you've seen in the first half, should we expect sort of a similar magnitude for the second half, or is there any meaningful changes expected in the different line items? Thank you very much.
Okay. Maybe I'll start with the first two questions, and then I'll leave the adjustments for Olivier versus H1 and H2. On EBITDA phasing, I think we didn't see or we didn't plan or we didn't get into the year with a very, let's say, phased EBITDA impact. Although we had a slightly lower H1 versus H2 as a plan, in all fairness, we came in stronger in core EBITDA than we had planned, and similar to your consensus or the overall consensus was a bit on this. The EBITDA as well was positive, as you noted. I don't know if your question is very specific to EBITDA or core EBITDA, but I'll comment both. The key point around phasing is twofold.
One, we are planning obviously a much stronger or a stronger H2 in terms of sales versus H1, which, as we don't expect a very, very different product mix in there, despite a bit more inventory stockpiling due to customer inventory stockpiling due to the product discontinuation, the product mix may be a bit adjusted in H2 versus H1. Yet we believe that the EBITDA generation or core EBITDA generation from H2 sales should be, I mean, should be also coming in strong. The second element of answer to that would be that we have seen quite some improvements in our SG&A and expenses overall in H1 as part of our plan of FOCUS- 27 and additional measures we have taken over the last six months. Those, as mentioned in the press release and earlier in our presentation, are actually recurrent and will be sustained elements.
We don't expect any H2 moves in terms of EBITDA or core EBITDA similar to last year, where it came in strongly in H1 and quite disappointing in H2. That's why we are very confident to be able to be in the upper part of our guidance on core EBITDA. We haven't given any guidance specific to EBITDA. If you remember our call four or five months ago, I just said we will be EBITDA positive at the end of the year. I'm confident in our ability to deliver that. Now we have generated EUR 5 million EBITDA in H1. On the stocking impact, there is a bit of phasing of our industrial operations in H1 after depleting or improving significantly our overall inventory in 2024. A lot of the operations just resumed in January, and you know that our processes are quite long.
Our industrial processes can be long, and therefore, there is a lot of activity that has been done in H1 that will be actually sold in H2. As a result, the working capital should improve from an operational standpoint. Our operating working capital from inventory will improve in H2. Even though we are not giving any guidance on the cash flows, we should be providing a better answer in H2 than we have in H1. In terms of the adjustments, Olivier alluded to it a little bit during the presentation, but maybe you can give a bit more flavor, Olivier.
Yeah, clearly, we do not expect additional items in terms of non-recurring items. We expect the years to be with a decrease of the idle cost and, globally speaking, exceptional items in the non-recurring. What occurred in H1 is the impact of the divestment of Haverhill, and we obviously do not expect such an amount in the second half. For the rest, no significant change.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Fynn.
Thank you. That is star one for any questions over the conference call. We will pause for a brief moment. There seems to be no further questions over the call at the moment. I'd like to hand back over to you, Sophie, for any questions via the webcast.
Yes, please. I have two questions from the webcast. One is about the definition of opioids. Can you please specify what APIs specifically fall under our definition of opioids? Do you want to answer?
Yeah. Indeed, we are doing opioids and we are doing opiates. Those are two different treatments, and one is pain and the other one is more for addiction. Back to your question, we are selling in those specific cases, naltrexone, naloxone, basically the family of the NALS product.
Okay. I have another question from the website with three questions inside the questions. I'm going to phrase one and then after the other. While CDMO sales to Sanofi increased, sales to other clients declined sharply. Could you elaborate on your strategy to diversify the CDMO client base and accelerate onboarding of large pharma and biotech clients?
Yeah. True. The decrease of CDMO sales to non-Sanofi clients is, as we mentioned, like the inherited contract that we got from Sanofi at the time of the spin-off, which eventually came to an end. What is interesting is some of those, some additional contracts actually participating to offsetting those decreases, but not as much. That's why you see the decrease overall in the business. Back to your question, what's our strategy? The first part of the strategy was restoring the right organization to be able to deliver and to grow in the CDMO organization as much as in overall sales. That's why, as I said, we have brought in a new Head of Commercial, which has spent, I think, 10 or 12 of his 15 last years in commercial, driving CDMO businesses in pharma and beyond.
I'm confident that now we are equipped with a head of the organization that has the right experience, that is seasoned, and that will be asking the right questions and putting us in the right track to actually go and deliver. What we are doing for specifically big pharmas, where we are starting to re-engage in the right direction for the first place, is just making sure we have the right materials and all our commercial force that is available out there understands first what is it that we can do to be able to explain that to our customers in the first place. That's also the reason why we joined forces with bringing those two organizations together, that everyone has all the information, that is fully capable of depicting our strengths and our opportunities with customers.
Just to give you an example, when we get customers on site, as I have one in mind in Q2, the customer was on site on a Friday in Frankfurt in that case. Back on Monday, they were saying that they will send us a couple of RSPs specific to those technologies. The expertise is there. It's about ensuring those customers know what we can do and then ensuring we will do the right things to deliver afterwards. It's rebuilding this commercial organization and focusing on CDMO as one of the right topics or the priorities for us.
The second sub-question is about vitamin B12, given the phasing issues with vitamin B12 and recent fermentation-related momentum. What is your visibility on sustained recovery in this category? What are the opportunities to expand your fermentation platform commercially?
Vitamin B12, we still feel confident about the full year, as I alluded to earlier. Maybe the question came in before I mentioned that. The reality of this market, there is definitely a lot of capacity, definitely in China. Despite this, we are able to, and a price war, actually, that those competitors are performing against themselves, we are still able to maintain some sales in B12 at the same similar level or same level that we had in 2024. We know that we have a new process ongoing that should be finalized in the next quarters, and that should provide additional competitiveness in the future to ensure we can maintain and sustain this business. The next question, which I like very much, is around what are we doing on the fermentation platform overall.
The fermentation platform for us is definitely a growth, definitely on CDMO, and maybe in two different ways. One is, are there specific products that we can sell just leveraging our fermentation capacities? The second is more about leveraging our fermentation expertise to develop cutting-edge processes on enzymatic or biocatalysis that will, in turn, enable us to significantly improve the competitiveness of many of our other products that are in our portfolio. If you think about processes such as the prostaglandins, such as corticoids, such as oligonucleotides or peptides, all of these are very cumbersome and lengthy processes with anywhere between 20 and 40 process steps.
That is where our expertise could be coming in handy to improve the overall process times and costs, obviously, and drive competitive edge on the price that we will be able to provide the market. That is going to be some important R&D and industrial investment we will do in the next couple of years. I can make a link here quickly with the IPK contract, where some of those are actually included into the IPK contract.
The third sub-question is about CapEx. CapEx reached 10% of net sales in H1, nearly, with 60% linked to growth. Could you provide more detail on the nature of these investments and how they align with expected returns and the FOCUS- 27 objectives?
I think what we announced one something year ago was that we will spend anywhere between EUR 350 million-EUR 400 million worth of CapEx in the next four years, which means like 2024- 2027. We have spent EUR 104 million last year, I think, on CapEx, and we are planning basically anywhere between EUR 80 million and EUR 90 million over the next 2025 and 2026 and 2027, which is where we are planning now at this stage. We are very much delivering against our ambition. The key focus for us is twofold. One, making sure we spend the money where it matters, and two, making sure we spend the money right. On the latter part, we are investing into some procurement efforts or capabilities around CapEx. We are challenging the sites and how they want to do or to approachlactic CapEx, etc., etc.
That's also why we are seeing some reduction year- over- year, not only because of the number of projects we are delivering, but because we are actually coming in better in every single project. For which kind of projects we are doing? I mentioned earlier that we have some strong momentum, for example, on pristinamycin or on PLLA or poly-L-lactic acids. These are typically projects that we are investing. We are, I think, putting EUR 10 million on the pristinamycin capacity enhancement in Elbeuf, of which some of it is covered by the capacity reservation, EUR 54 million that Sanofi agreed to do with us last year. Olivier mentioned we got EUR 18 million of that in H1. This full capacity will be installed in 2026, which will further boost the sales of pristinamycin in 2026. PLLA, we will also be adding capacity in our site in Vertolaye.
The other projects are some of which you already know, for example, the upgrade program in prostaglandin in Budapest or other programs in the other sites.
Thank you. We don't have further questions from the website. Any questions from the conference call?
We have no further questions over the conference call.
Okay. Thank you. It's time to end this presentation. As usual, we remain at your disposal for any further questions you may have. It's time also to wish you a nice summer. May I hand over to David for a quick goodbye or something?
No, thank you. I think we are excited about where we are and the trajectory. We'll be happy to come back in March next year with some interesting closure or financial 2025 numbers. Wishing you beautiful holidays, everyone. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for joining today's call. Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect.