Hello, and welcome to EUROAPI 2023 half year results call. My name is Alicia, and I will 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. However, you will have the 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 question. 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 your host, Sophie Palliez, Head of Investor Relations, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Alicia, and thank you all for joining us for EUROAPI's H1 2023 results presentation. My name is Sophie Palliez, Head of Investor Relations, and with me today to comment on these results are Karl Rotthier, Chief Executive Officer, Antoine Delcour, Chief Financial Officer, and Cécile Maupas, Chief CDMO Officer. We will discuss the following points: highlights for the semester, financial performance, CDMO business, and our 2023 outlook and midterm perspective. The conference will be recorded and is available on EUROAPI Investor Relations website. Presentation slides are available to download. Please note that today's conference contains forward-looking statements. Future results may differ from statements or projections made on today's call. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. With that, I would like to hand it over to Karl Rotthier, our Chief Executive Officer.
Thank you very much, Sophie, good morning, good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us on this call. It's my pleasure to host our 2023 half year results today. Our first half results were solid, driven by the continued rollouts of our strategy, including a robust commercial execution, the launch of key growth initiatives in both API Solutions and CDMO to sustain future profitable growth, and the ongoing transformation into a best-in-class customer-centric company. Our net sales performance was driven by solid contribution from API Solutions and high single-digit growth in CDMO, with a very strong 18.5% increase in sales to other clients. Gross profit and core EBITDA margin were negatively impacted, as you know, by the suspension of the prostaglandin production at our Budapest site. Price increases, product mix, and the improvement of our industrial performance almost compensated for inflation headwinds.
We advanced major projects this first half, including strategic investments in France, in prostaglandin at the Budapest site, and the reinforcement of our R&D organization. We continued to change our culture to become more agile, responsive, and customer-centric with the gradual ramp-up of our ambitious EUR 50 million value creation plan, as we announced in March of this year. We have indeed launched three transversal work streams during the first half of the year. First, value creation to improve overall competitiveness and reduce costs, with a focus on procurement, energy, and the internalization of key intermediates. Secondly, end-to-end processes to adapt EUROAPI's operational process to a best-in-class CDMO company. Thirdly, people and culture to engage and empower employees to be more customer-centric. Tangible results of this are expected by 2024. The last few months have been shaped by several economic and social challenges.
The confirmation of our financial objectives demonstrates our resilience in an uncertain economic environment. Our fundamentals are strong, and we are committed to accelerating our transformation and maximizing the business we have in hand to become a leading, fast-growing company. That said, let's start our detailed analysis with the 2023 half year key operational figures on slide seven. Net sales stood at EUR 496.6 million, up 2.6% compared to the first half of 2022, driven by a strong increase of 9.8% in CDMO and a slight increase of 0.2% in API Solutions.
Net sales from Sanofi stood at EUR 244.1 million, decreasing by 1.3% compared to the first half of last year, while net sales from other clients stood at EUR 252.5 million, up 6.8% compared to the same period last year. Our core EBITDA reached EUR 62.5 million, down 11.1% versus last year, with a core EBITDA margin of 12.6%. CapEx stood at EUR 69.3 million, representing 40%, 14, one-fourth of net sales, of which 51% were dedicated to growth projects. Antoine will provide more details on these consolidated results in a few minutes. Let's now come back to net sales growth on slide eight.
API Solutions activities experienced a 0.2% growth in net sales, amounting to EUR 362.4 million. Sales to other clients were up 1.9%, impacted by the temporary suspension of prostaglandin production, as you know, over the period. Throughout the semester, we continued to deploy our commercial roadmap, with 35 new clients added in both small and large molecules. The acceleration of our cross-selling commercial strategy and pricing optimization. Sales to Sanofi were down 1.2%. The Global Manufacturing and Supply agreement, raw material pass-through, and energy compensation clauses were activated, and a EUR 6 million additional payment from Sanofi was agreed upon on top of the contractual clauses.
CDMO sales increased by 9.8% to EUR 134.2 million, mainly driven by, first of all, sales to other clients, with a strong growth of 18.5%, driven by phase III and commercial projects, while including approximately EUR 3 million negative impact from the discontinuation of a late-stage COVID-19 related project. Secondly, sales to Sanofi were down 1.8% due to the discontinuation of two of Sanofi's late-stage projects, which impacted half year one net sales performance by around EUR 6 million. The impact for the full-year should be around EUR 15 million. Cécile will come back on the deployment of our CDMO strategy.
However, let me tell you how proud I am of what has been achieved by our API Solutions and CDMO team and operations team over the last two years, particularly in the more challenging business environment. We received 106 requests for proposal in the first half of this year, with an 18.1% increase in average value per proposal, fueled by an increased proportion of proposals for late-stage projects. 27% of the total RFPs were related to the strategic and fast-growing large molecule segment, and 58% to complex chemistry, our core business. More importantly, the RFPs received from large pharmaceutical companies increased by 10.5% year-on-year. Let's now analyze our net sales performance per type of molecule on slide nine.
Large molecules were down 26.9% to EUR 35 million, impacted by the discontinuation of the CDMO phase III project with Sanofi and a phasing impact of a large customer. Highly potent molecules were down 7.3% to EUR 43.7 million, impacted by the temporary suspension of prostaglandin production in Q4 of last year at our Budapest site. The production, as you know, has been fully resumed by mid-April 2023, excluding this impact, net sales would have grown double digits. Biochemistry molecules derived from fermentation delivered a strong 30.7% to EUR 85.5 million, benefiting notably from price increases, the stock replenishment of certain anti-infective products, products by Sanofi in Elbeuf.
Finally, complex chemical synthesis molecules were up 2.8%, sales growth to EUR 332.4 million, reflecting the positive impact of price adjustments, partially offset by the discontinuation of a phase III CDMO project with Sanofi and a COVID-19 project, which... Let's now move to slide 10 on CapEx investments. To support our growth and performance, we are pursuing major investments. In the first half of this year, CapEx investments reached EUR 69.3 million, versus EUR 51.4 million in the first half of last year, and represented 14% of net sales, of which 51% were dedicated to growth projects. This includes, notably, investments in increased capacities for peptides and oligos in Frankfurt. We expect for the full-year, CapEx between EUR 120 million and EUR 130 million.
Slide 11 shows the key initiatives launched during the first half of the year to sustain our future profitable growth. As just mentioned, we announced a EUR 50 million CapEx investment at our Budapest site. Furthermore, we announced the reinforcement of the R&D organization to support CDMO operations in a more agile and flexible way. Mobilizing to contribute to French and European health sovereignty.... We announced R&D investments at our Vertolaye site to develop innovative and sustainable processes and technologies that will increase the productivity of the production of morphine and its derivatives by 2027. As part of the important projects of common European interest, also called IPCEI, currently under review by the European Commission, we also submitted innovative projects to help cover the need for currently imported critical medicines such as macrolide, antibiotics, and corticosteroids by 2030.
Finally, in order to leverage EUROAPI's innovative production processes and asset diversity, we enhanced our offer in regulatory starting materials, called RSMs, and intermediates with a positive impact on revenues expected in a couple of years. With that, let me hand it over to Antoine, who will discuss the half-year financial performance. Antoine?
Thank you, Karl. Moving now to slide 13. As mentioned by Karl earlier, net sales were up 2.6% to EUR 497 million in H1 2023. Good gross profit stood at EUR 97 million, a slight decrease compared to H1 2022, due to the impact of the suspension of prostaglandin productions and of inflation headwinds, partially offset by price increases, product mix, and operational efficiencies. Core EBITDA amounted to EUR 62.5 million, down 11% compared to EUR 70 million in H1 2022. Core EBITDA margin was at 12.6%, versus 14.5% in H1 2022, negatively impacted by the suspension of prostaglandin production at the Budapest site until mid-January, with full production resumed in mid-April.
The impact on H1 core EBITDA was approximately 200 basis points, and the extra-profit tax in Hungary, which amounted to EUR 1.4 million in H1, or 30 basis points. On the other end, it was positively impacted by the EUR 2.5 million provision reversal for the pharma tax in Hungary, accrued in 2022. To clarify, following a change in the tax decree published in late December 2022, EUROAPI Hungary filed a request to the Hungarian authorities to confirm that EUROAPI did not fall within the scope in 2022. The tax authorities confirmed in June 2023, that our analysis was correct and that EUROAPI was not concerned by this tax in 2022.
The provision accrued in 2022 was reversed at the end of June 2023. The company remains eligible for the tax in 2023, with a 30 basis point estimate impact in H1. The tax has also been prolonged for the fiscal year 2024, with rates halved. Moving now to slide 14 to provide more details on core EBITDA margin. As mentioned in the previous slide, core EBITDA margin was 12.6% compared to 14.5% in H1 2022. The decrease reflects a 1.8 points negative impact from volumes due to the suspension of a prostaglandin production and the discontinuation of two CMO contracts from Sanofi in 2022, which impacted fixed cost absorption.
The 4.8 points positive impact from price increases and mix, a 1.6 points improvement from industrial efficiencies, minus 8.6 points negative impact from energy and raw material cost increases, and 0.9 points negative impact in OpEx. Excluding the positive impact of the reversal of the provision accounted for, the pharma tax in Hungary, in H1, 2023, core EBITDA margin would have been 12.1%. On slide 15, operating income was EUR 16 million, compared to EUR 26.1 million in H1, 2022, impacted by the decrease in EBITDA. Financial income was EUR 3.3 million, compared to EUR 2.3 million in H1, 2022. Income tax was positive EUR 50 million, of which EUR 46.8 million was related to deferred tax from the revaluation of EUROAPI Hungary assets.
The revaluation of the assets was triggered by the tax treatment applied by Sanofi in 2023 to the transfer of the Hungarian business to EUROAPI as part of a carve-out in 2021, and the subsequent exit of EUROAPI from Sanofi. Net income was EUR 63 million in H1 2023. Excluding the impact of the EUR 46.8 million deferred tax assets from the revaluation of the EUROAPI Hungary assets, H1 net income would have been EUR 16 million. Moving now to slide 16 on working capital. We recorded EUR 741 million in working capital in H1 2023, versus EUR 660 million in H1 2022.
Inventory months on hold increased to 8.1 versus 7.6 last year, impacted by input cost inflation and the impact of a suspension of prostaglandin production on net sales. DSO improved to 70 days, compared to 79 in H1, 2022. Moving now to slide 17, which explains the evolution of our net cash position in the last six months. Core free cash flows was minus EUR 90.6 million in H1, 2023, versus minus EUR 40 million in H1, 2022. Net cash from operation was negatively impacted by 95 negative working capital, driven by EUR 30 million change in trade receivable, minus EUR 66 million change in inventory due to the business seasonality and input cost inflation, minus EUR 49 million change in payable.
CapEx reached EUR 69 million, or 14% of net sales, in line with our growth strategy. Net debt at the end of June was EUR 140 million, compared to EUR 25.6 million at the end of December 2022. The increase was driven by the financing of working capital. With that, let me hand it over to Cécile, who will focus on CDMO results.
Thank you, Antoine, and good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Moving now to the H1 2023 CDMO performance. Let's start with commercial activity on slide 19. As Karl mentioned, H1 2023, we received 106 CDMO requests for proposal. Among these, we recorded 42 RFP from Big Pharma, up 10.5% versus last year. The number of RFP received from biotech companies decreased by 7% as a consequence of the current challenges faced by this company to secure financing. More importantly, the average value per RFP grew 18.1% on average, fueled by an increased proportion of proposal for late-stage projects. In the beginning of the year, 40% of the RFP we received were for commercial phase projects. Let's now comment on the dynamic of our CDMO portfolio during the last six months, on slide 20.
At the end of June 2023, we had 79 active projects, with 18 projects in preclinical or phase I, 14 in phase II, 10 in phase III, in addition to the 37 in the commercial phase. During the semester, 18 new projects were signed, of which nine were in commercial phase. This was fueled by the increased demand for Regulatory Starting Material or active pharmaceutical ingredients reshoring, as well as the trend for drug sourcing with European players. Five project won were in large molecule, which is consistent with our strategy to increase our exposure to this growing market.
Since the beginning of the year, we have signed two promising contracts in the commercial phase, including a four-year agreement with Novéal, part of L'Oréal Group, to industrialize the manufacturing process of innovative cosmetic ingredients, and a Master Services Agreement with a U.S.-based biotech to repatriate one of their Regulatory Starting Materials currently produced in Asia. 12 projects were put on hold by customers, including the two late stage with Sanofi, announced already in March, one project related to COVID-19, and eight projects in early stage, of which three were stopped due to financial constraints. Let's now move to the CDMO pipeline on slide 21. Among the 19, 79 projects currently in the portfolio, 18 were in large molecule versus 14 in H1 2022. 47 in complex chemistry, a strong increase compared to the 37 last year. Both are priority areas of development for EUROAPI.
We continue to gradually de-risk our portfolio towards commercial phase projects, which represent 47% of the total number of projects in H1 2023, compared to the 34% in H1 2022, while building the pipe in the early stage phases, particularly in large molecules. Thank you for your attention, and let me hand it over to Karl, who will present the 2023 outlook and perspective.
Thanks, Cécile. Let's indeed move now to our full-year 2023 guidance on slide 23. In light of the first half of 2023 results, we expect the 2023 sales, net sales to increase between 7%-8%, with both API Solutions and CDMO growing double digits in the second half of the year. Secondly, a core EBITDA margin between 12.5%-13.5%, compared to 12%-14% initially communicated. Thirdly, CapEx between EUR 120 million-EUR 130 million. Our midterm perspectives are also confirmed with the following: 7%-8% net sales increase on average between 2023 and 2026, driven by double-digit growth of sales to other clients, including API Solutions and CDMO. Secondly, a core EBITDA margin above 20% in 2026 and above 18% in 2025.
Thirdly, EUR 510 million CapEx investments for the period 2022-2025. 50%-53% core free cash flow conversion by 2025. This concludes our presentation, and Antoine, Cécile, and I are now very happy to take whatever question you might have.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question or make a contribution on today's call, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star two. We'll take now our first question from Gary Steventon from BNP Paribas Exane. You can go ahead now. Your line is open. Thank you.
Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Good morning, everyone. Firstly, just on the CDMO RFPs, you've seen kind of a slight slowdown. You called out the decline in biotech customers, but then also that increase in the average value that was linked to the stage. It'd be interesting to get your thoughts here on how you expect those numbers to trend over the rest of the year, and really, what you're seeing in terms of biotech demand and any signs of recovery there? Then, I guess, given the weakness in biotech funding, how do you think about the conversion of those RFPs into revenue-generating products? Just wondering here, perhaps if that's taking a bit longer, and how we should think about the conversion rates?
Okay.
The second question- Oh, go on, go on. I can come back.
No, no, Gary, please go on and list your questions, and I will take it from there.
Thanks, Karl. The second one was just on, on the margin outlook and the narrowed range. You've got a small benefit in there from the provision reversal, but then also the additional EUR 6 million payment from Sanofi, which I assume likely has quite a high drop through. The question's really on what gives you confidence in the narrow range as we look into the second half, kind of do you see the pressures of energy, raw material prices easing? Then also, you know, given some of the molecules you manufacture do have long cycle times, just wondering to what extent you have good visibility on the costs and sales over the second half, as we stand today.
Very good. Thank you very much, Gary, for these questions. Before I give also the floor to Cécile on the CDMO part and Antoine on the margin narrowing, one small comment also from me. We, of course, focus on the quality of our pipeline, and definitely, the 106 compared to the 118 is not a slowdown, but on the contrary, is actually an increase in the quality of the RFPs that come our way and where we respond to. You also see that in the solid growth of the entire CDMO portfolio to other clients with 18.5%. Cécile, can you perhaps focus a little bit more on that particular area of interest of a lot of people on the biotech funding, how we respond to that? Please, Cécile, go ahead.
Yes. Several point to answer. First, there is a slowdown, we, we cannot control this slow. What we can is react on it and to adapt our strategy. It's what has been done. We have seen this slowdown in the biotech funding, and we have the chance to be very well now connected with bigger pharmaceutical companies that can really have turn the, the number of RFP into this bigger company. That, for sure, lead to bigger projects with a higher value and that we, you see in the average value per project that is really well on track and growing. Secondly, I, I cannot predict what will be H2 2023 in term of financing on biotech, but we are ready to address this point.
We are doing the right selection in the term of a project we answer to, to select the biggest biotech. Some of them are already on the market. They have products on the market, so they are almost secure in term of financing, so it help us to work with them. We have the credibility to work with bigger project, we have the capacity, so it's the agility that we have in commercial phase to do it. In term of margin, you have a question as well.
No, no.
Commercial.
I think the margin is for the CFO.
Okay, okay, okay.
No, I think in, in, indeed, on the CDMO part, we have focused a lot on developing the pipeline in large molecules, as we mentioned, for the early phases, but we also indeed focused a lot on getting Phase III and commercialized products in late stage projects from Big Pharma and from biotech companies. Just also, Gary, to avoid the issues which eventually might arise on financing of biotech companies for very early phases. The narrowing of the margin of 12.5%-30.5%, Antoine, can you elaborate, please, on, on this one?
Thank you, Karl. Just to clarify, the EUR 6 million additional payment we received from Sanofi was already embedded in our initial COVID guidance. It's not a new event, it's something which happened during the first semester, but which was already embedded in the guidance. We decided to narrow it down, first thing to take into consideration the reversal of the 2022 open tax on the low range. Today, we are quite confident to deliver this margin by the end of the year, and there are a few reasons for that. First thing, we have good visibility on purchase order clients.
Being today in, in July, most of our sales are covered by purchase orders. In terms of cost baseline, as we mentioned a few times already, we are fully hedged at this stage on energy prices, so there is no further impact we could have on this one, as we have also very good visibility on our purchasing price on raw material.
Thanks so much. Thanks a lot, Antoine. Gary, are your questions answered ?
Yes, perfect. Thanks a lot.
All right, cheers. Thanks, Gary.
We'll take now our next question from James Quigley, from Morgan Stanley. You can go ahead now. Your line is open. Thank you.
Great, thanks for taking my question. Firstly, on the prostaglandin production investment, you highlight the market is growing at 5%-7%, but to what extent do you already have contracts or commitments or indications of commitments in place from your current customers? To what extent are competitors also adding capacity in this area? How do you expect market share to develop in the period of you bringing capacity online, and then when you, when you reach full capacity? Secondly, in terms of the biochemistry, molecules and fermentation, can you give us an idea of the growth impact from the price increases you saw across the portfolio, as well as the, the positive impact from Sanofi restocking on, in its anti-infective products?
If I can squeeze in a quick 3rd one: Of your projects, of the 79 projects that you currently have, how many of those early-stage projects could be at risk from biotech funding? I know you said you've made steps towards selecting the better biotechs or the more financially stable biotechs, but are there any in there that could be, could be at risk? Thank you.
Okay. Thanks a lot, James. On the first question on the prostaglandin. Yeah, we indeed there announced a EUR 50 million investment, and of course, we do this just to be and remain the number one in this market as well. We see indeed, coming from different customer contacts and also contracts, the increased demand by a certain point in time in 2026-2027, coming to a maximum capacity. That's where we, of course, now want to be already proactive in increasing that capacity that we have in Budapest, because this is, of course, a very lengthy process to produce, and that's why we already now need to really be prepared for this.
Yes, we have indeed, and that is also our strategy behind every investment, already quite a very, very good view on the future demand coming from our customers, which also will be placed in contracts as well. We are not here, and that's something that we always mentioned in the past, we just do not create capacity and then go out in the market to sell. We want to be a little bit more secure on that. The biochemistry part in Aalborg is for one particular project, product that was or is produced for Sanofi, where during the COVID crisis, there was actually little or no demand because nobody got sick. The restocking of this product took place actually right now in the first half of this year.
I think for the third part of the question on the 79 projects that we currently have on hand for the CDMO business, Cécile, how many projects in the early phase would eventually be at risk for biotech funding?
In our current pipeline, I think we, we already said that, eight projects in early stage were stopped, beginning of the year, and we don't expect any, any soon, stopped any more for, for this year. Three of them were really, have difficulty in financial-
Yeah.
Financially.
These are already tailored in, in all, the figures that we have.
Yes, sure.
Antoine, you still want to add something?
Yeah, something I would like to add in terms of credit management. Today, we also secured the way we are contracting with biotechs to make sure that when we start a contract with them, that they will have enough financing also to pay the service we provide to them. We are also secured on that aspect.
Yeah. Very good point. Thank you, James.
Thank you.
We'll take now our next question from Richard Vosser, from JP Morgan. You can go ahead now. Your line is open. Thank you.
Sorry. Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Just on the prostaglandins, you, you called out a EUR 50 million year-on-year headwind in the first half. Is that the sort of step-up we should expect in the second half, or is there a bigger step-up? Secondly, or linked, beyond those prostaglandins, could you give us a little bit more color on what's driving the acceleration in both CDMOs and API in the second half to get to double-digit growth that's embedded in your guidance? Maybe just one, one more thing, just in terms of those contracts that are stopped, do you get cancellation fees with those, and are they embedded in your 2023 guidance? How should we think about that? Thanks very much.
Okay. Thank you, very much, Richard. No, I think what we have announced in January and also recently after the annual general meeting and also with the investment of prostaglandins, full production has been resumed by mid-April. There was still this negative impact of just the production that we did not have since the beginning of this year till mid-April. Now, everything has been turned back to normal. Also on half two, there is, of course, no negative impact. On the contrary, it will be business as usual for this one. That's why, of course, one of the major reasons that we also are quite confident for the second half of this year.
The prostaglandin will be completely included again, but also you will remember from, from the earlier calls, we do not really have a seasonality in this business, but the first six months, of course, have a higher performance or activity level on our sites. Given the fact that the stronger half year two that we are now expecting with the prostaglandin sales is really giving us a lot of confidence for the guidance that we have given of 7%-8% for the full-year as well. The cancellation fees for eventually projects on hold, Cécile, can you comment on that one?
Yes, sure. cancellation fees are mechanism that are included in our contract on a regular basis. For this type of, very early stage development phase, where they stop the project very well in advance, we are not, allowed to, to get any cancellation fees.
Okay, thank you very much. Antoine, you still want to add something?
Nothing.
Nothing. There you go. Richard, thank you very much for your questions. I hope to see you soon.
Thanks.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question or make a contribution on today's call, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star two. We'll take now our next question from Falko Friedrichs from Deutsche Bank. You can go ahead now. Your line is open. Thank you.
Thank you. Hello, everyone. My first question is going back to the CDMO point on, sort of, focusing it a bit more on large pharma versus early-stage biotech. What's the implication for your margin of that shift? We always had the understanding that the early-stage biotech work can be quite profitable, so a little bit more color here would be, would be helpful. My second question is on your 2025 margin guidance of more than 18%. Can you just remind us of, sort of, why you're so confident to, to get there from current levels? My third question is on your EUR 50 million value creation program. Can you remind us of the phasing of the benefits here, and also is there any one-time cost involved? Thank you.
Very good questions, Falko. Thank you very much. The margin questions, Antoine, I would like to revert to you. How is that visible if we indeed see that some of the CDMO projects that we have now coming in are going more into the late stage projects? Is that an influence on the margin, yes or no? The confidence on the margin to get to 2026, and then, of course, Falko, you mentioned already a very important contributor to that, which is, of course, our value creation plan, which we indeed said it would contribute EUR 50 million by 2026 as well. Antoine, can you comment a bit on the margins, please?
Yeah. As we explained, what is important, in the early stage, the level of margin is higher than when you're in commercial, but the level of sales is lower. For me, in absolute value, it is, it is, it is, I would say, relative on the current margin of the company. However, when you move to commercial, the level of margin is slightly decreasing, but the level of sale is way higher because you produce commercial quantities. That being said, what is very important to understand is that CDMO, CDMO activity is, has a positive impact on our core EBITDA margin, a positive mixed impact on our core EBITDA margin. It's important for us anyway, to de-risk also, our CDMO activity, moving to commercial products and projects.
Cécile, you want to add?
Yes, I just want to add that, when we are talking about a late-stage project, marketed project, this is still a new complex chemical entities. We are not talking about generics.
Yeah.
Margin is still very interesting.
Indeed. Falko, if you are referring to the projects in the early phases, you indeed, in absolute numbers, talk about lower amounts, yet, the percentage is higher. If you go to the late stage projects, certainly for the new chemical entities, the margin is still pretty respectable. Plus, of course, it has a higher turnover and of course, also a higher activity level on the sides as well. Absorption of, of cost is also a very important one. Antoine, can you also comment on the phasing of our value creation plan? That was also a question that Falko raised.
The phasing of this performance plan will be gradual. We won't say that it's not, it won't be linear, as it was for the current media trajectory itself. It's, it's underlined by a lot of, we say, projects at site level, which are tracked on a monthly basis to make sure that we deliver them on time to secure, I would say, our midterm guidance.
It's of course, focused on a lot of items that we have mentioned already on procurement, on energy, on efficiencies.
Yeah.
-yield improvements, on cost improvements as well, but also on a lot of improvements in the ways that we are going to work. Tailor-made to a company that is indeed in need of simplified processes as well. Okay, Falko?
On the midterm guidance.
Yeah, the confidence on the-
Midterm guidance.
Yeah, I thought that was already also when you had that, but you can comment on how confident are we for the midterm guidance, Antoine?
For me, we are confident on delivering it based on the strategy-
Yeah.
which was developed and that we are deploying on a daily basis. With the drivers we explained already, which is to increase the volumes and the capacity utilizations of site. The mix, having developing also our CDMO offer and share in net sales, but also on the API Solutions, are increasing our market share on the highly differentiated API, plus the performance plan and the EUR 50 million value creation we will deliver by 2026.
Indeed, Falko, all the investments that we have planned and that we also have announced to the market are fully on track, and we, of course, have them, or need them also in order to translate what we have written in our strategy also into the market. The investments in the prostaglandins, the investments in the B12 processes, in the peptides, and the oligopeptides, will make sure that indeed, the margin improvement is also there with the increased business that's coming our way. That's mixed together with the value creation plan, is giving us full confidence on reaching the midterm guidance. Okay?
Perfect. Thank you.
As a final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, you can press star one now. We've got no further questions coming through, I will hand you back to your host now to conclude today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you, Alicia. Thank you, all. We as usual, we stay at your disposal for any follow-up question. May I wish you a nice summer. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Karl. Thank you, Antoine. Thank you, Cécile.
Thank you very much.
Bye-bye.
Thank you. Bye.
Bye-bye.
Thank you for joining today's call, and you may disconnect now.
Thank you!
Thank you.
Thank you.