Good afternoon, everybody. Good morning for those who are further. I am really happy to welcome you for this half year results 2026. For those who do not know me, I am Carole Monduchet. I am the global Head of Communication for Virbac, and I am here along Taron Hovhannissyan with the Investor Relations Director. And of course, on the floor today we have Paul Martingell, our CEO, and we have Habib Ramdani, with our CFO and Deputy CEO. I will leave the floor to Paul and Habib to introduce you with our half year results and the different perspectives we have. After that, you will be able to ask your question. Please do not hesitate to use the chat or the questions room to start to ask us your questions so that we are ready to shoot when they arrive. Thank you so much. Paul, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Carole. Good afternoon. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to this call and pleasure as always to connect with you, to take you through our half year 2026 results, and to connect that as well back to some of the strategic updates that we shared early this year. Maybe just to share a few high-level messages myself and then Habib will go deeper into some of the financials later on. Very solid and we are very happy with the first half performance. As you have seen, 7.4% growth, really driven by our Supercharge platforms that we shared with you in our Growing Together strategy that we announced early this year. Those platforms growing double- digits.
Also, as you see in the second point, bringing a nice favorable margin mix to the business as well, with operating profit at 18.8% for the first half and up 50 basis points versus prior year.
At the same time as we deliver the strong and disciplined financial performance, we continue to invest strongly for our future growth and sustainable development. Significant and strong continuing impact in R&D, in our CapEx investments to ensure that we have the capacity for growth, agility, and great customer service going forward. Also increasingly in A&P, advertising and promotional spend, given the ongoing shift towards an omnichannel business model and the amount of our business which starts to become more direct to consumer in nature. I mentioned earlier the industrial transformation. We will enter into a bit more detail there, but three or four key projects that you are well aware of. Happy to share that with the teams we have put in place and some of the capabilities we have been building, those projects are being very well managed and executed and all on track and as planned.
During the first half, we have also, as a team, seen the ability of Virbac to be very agile in the face, of course, of some quite significant challenges, whether that is the inflationary pressures of oil from the Middle East crisis, and of course, the changing nature of tariff discussions in the U.S. But we have managed to offset that and continue to deliver margin expansion as planned in our Growing Together strategy. Finally, in terms of another important piece of our strategy, as you know, external growth remains a top priority for Virbac. Delighted to say that the integration of Thyronorm, Felanorm brand that we acquired at the end of 2025 is absolutely seamlessly on track and performing even ahead of our initial expectations at this stage. So great mobilization from the team.
That again gives us the confidence to continue to search for those bolt-on acquisitions, small-, medium- size.
In fact, in the first half of this year, we have signed two smaller deals, but still interesting to share. Two licensing deals in areas of innovation in specialty segments that are a very nice fit with our Supercharge and core platforms. In both cases, not only do we have the initial right for distribution in the selective geographies, but we also have an option for full acquisition of those brands. All that to say that the continued responsibility that you have always had with Virbac continues. As you know, the strong performance of the first half gives us the confidence to share that we are now targeting the upper end of our sales growth range for 2026, and again, a confirmed EBIT margin of around 17%.
If we move forward on the external perspective, which in fact for us is really the number one measure of our performance, and you will have seen externally our competitors perhaps not seeing things quite so positively. We see the market continuing to be robust. Yes, we see a slowdown in companion in the U.S., but as you know, Virbac, we have a very broad portfolio across both companion and farm and internationally. Therefore, when we look at our reference market, we still see a rather healthy market. Yes, a slight slowdown, but more importantly, we continue to see that the Virbac teams, the pipeline and portfolio that we have, is able to perform consistently above that market.
Again, another three continuous quarters where we have been growing and perhaps even accelerating the gap versus the market, showing that real customer closeness that we enjoy, and I would say an increasing focus on execution in the market. As you know, earlier this year, we did make a change to our executive committee structure to be operating now these three regions, really to ensure, again, closeness to our customers and the voice of the customer as part of our leadership team. Europe, of course, still a very strong home and center of the Virbac business, still delivering very positive and strong growth. But clearly the highlights in H1 came in both the North America region, with double-digit growth in the U.S., which as you know is an absolute priority for us to really build a significantly stronger position in that market.
It is another strong double-digit growth for the first six months of the year, following two or three years before that as well of double-digit growth in the U.S. In the international region, where again double-digit growth, particularly in India, very strong growth as well as in Latin America. More than offsetting some headwinds in the Pacific region, where we have made, again, some changes to our commercial organization set up and approach, and we start to see some more positive signals from that part of the world. Again, the strong diversity of our business across segments and countries, and the agility of our teams, delighted that we can have that 7.4% growth for the first half, but well split and well spread across all major geographies.
A reminder of our strategy that we shared earlier this year, and of course, it's year one on that journey, so we have lots to do. You do see the very strong positive impact of the focus on those Supercharge platforms, both on top- line and on gross margin, and on the next chart I'll come onto that just to again put a bit more flavor behind what we have in that part of our business. Also shared again today, two nice examples with the Porus One and Vetcare deals that we've shared in terms of our ability to be a partner of choice in terms of external collaboration, and with a very active and ongoing BD organization, and the omnichannel transformation that we continue to go through.
A lot of focus from the team in the first half and as we'll continue going forward on really executing with excellence, both on the commercial side and as well on the industrial side to make sure that we can offset all of those other challenges and be even more efficient and effective. Certainly a lot more to do there, but the team are already demonstrating a real passion and improvements in those areas, driven as well by our investments in data and digital that provide us with a lot more tools and data to drive those decision-making. On the next chart, you will see, again, as we shared in the previous strategy update, just a little bit more flavor around those Supercharge platforms that are performing so strongly. Ear, a really nice example, a surprisingly common and frequent challenge for pet parents and our customers, the vets.
In fact, allergy and within that ear is a strong piece of it, an extremely frequent cause of vet clinic visits by pet parents, and a space where we have an increasingly strong portfolio and position across a number of very well trusted brands such as EASOTIC and Epi-Otic and increasingly Cortotic, which is a very nice innovation growing very strongly as it is the first antibiotic-free treatment in that space at a time where antibiotic resistance, of course, is a key theme for our customers. In mobility, a very strong platform with MOVOFLEX performing very well as life expectancy and expectancy of pet parents for the quality of life for those animals only increases. MOVOFLEX performing very well and more recently, URSOLYX in the U.S., a fantastically executed launch and also performing again ahead of expectations. So we continue to build our portfolio and expertise in that space.
On farm animals, reacting to, of course, some of the important One Health challenges of zoonotic diseases that we've seen especially over the last couple of years. Of course, the continuing need for prevention and quality protein sources. The team continues to be very well mobilized, and we have a very strong position there, particularly in injectable trace minerals, an increasingly understood and important area to support livestock health prevention at key moments for the farmers and customers on those journeys. So we'll continue to provide more flavor and color on our Supercharge platforms, but again, growing around 12% in the first half of the year. So a very solid performance. Finally, I shared a little bit about that and you would have seen it in our press releases. Two very nice complementary deals that we've been able to sign in the first half of the year.
Again, showing the agility and the very strong perception of Virbac as a potential partner of choice for companies that are developing such innovations. Two distribution licensing agreements that give us, for the geographies shared here, from 2027, the distribution of these very interesting brands and innovation with a very strong fit in two areas of strength for Virbac. More importantly as well, in both cases, we have the option, under certain conditions, to close a full acquisition of those assets and bring them into the Virbac portfolio. Something that we've done with a number of our assets in the past and something which is really, again, a core part of our business. These are smaller scale transactions compared to something like Thyronorm that we shared at the end of last year.
That's not to say that our team is not extremely active and continuing to pursue other bolt-on acquisition opportunities, as again, that remains a core and critical part of our growth model, complementing the strong organic growth that we always strive for. With that, I pass over to Habib for a little bit more flavor and detail on some of the financial performance. Of course, we'll be here for the Q&A later.
Thank you, Paul. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to all of you. It is my pleasure today to present to you our financial results, half year financial results at the end of June 2026. Let me start with the usual key takeaways from our financials. As Paul shared, we have had a very solid top- line development. We are reaching EUR 768 million at the end of June, which is a 7.4% growth at constant exchange rate and scope. Particularly pleased to note that it's a qualitative performance, with a nice mix between volume and price. It's made of 5% volume increase, very dynamic, and a discipline in 2% price increase. It's also extremely qualitative from a geographical standpoint. I won't repeat what Paul has shared, but you've seen that our three region have contributed significantly to the development of our sales.
Finally, we can note as well the contribution of Thyronorm to that result at the end of June. Thyronorm has added 1.4 point of growth during the semester. It's also particularly solid in terms of EBIT adjusted. We have ended the semester with EUR 144.2 million of EBIT margin, which is 18.8% as a ratio to revenue. We have had a net result of EUR 87.1 million, which is a 6% increase versus the first semester 2025. We'd have the opportunity to go a bit more into the details in the presentation. If we look at the other financial indicators, we have had a net cash flow generation, very solid as well at around EUR 130 million during the first semester. The CapEx spending, which has continued to increase in line with our expectation at EUR 57 million.
As you can see, we ended the semester with a net debt reaching EUR 200 million, which is a slight increase versus end of December 2025, mainly due to the usual seasonality that we have every year. As you will see later on, we continue to expect cash generation during the year 2026 of around EUR 80 million. Before we move into the segment, let me take a few seconds to cover the exchange rate impact. As you can see, we have had some headwinds in terms of currency impact. We have had a negative impact on the top- line by EUR 25 million, and a negative impact on our bottom- line, EBIT adjusted at around EUR 5 million.
However, the positive thing is that for this semester, the currency's evolution have not triggered a change in our ratio of EBIT adjusted to revenue, which has remained stable at 18.8%. So no impact from the currency on our EBITDA ratio, contrary to last year, if you remember, we had a dilution of our ratio linked to the currency evolution. I can also mention that we are seeing most recently, a significantly less impact. Actually, for the month of August, we had nearly no impact of currency on our top- line. We have no crystal ball, so it is difficult to anticipate the end of the year, but at least, in August, we had a better situation. Let me move now to the evolution of our net revenue by segment. I will start with the revenue split between companion animals and farm animals.
That has remained extremely stable, and we continue to have a very balanced portfolio, with 60% of our revenue from companion animals and around 40% on farm animals. If we continue to dive within the companion animals product ranges, and we look at where the growth is coming from a segment standpoint, you can see that we have three main segments that have had a growth rate close to a double- digit or double- digit, above double- digit growth rate. The first one is specialty, with 23% increase. Obviously, a portion of that is linked to the integration of Thyronorm, but we had some other Supercharge product or products from our Supercharge platform that have contributed quite significantly to that, including our mobility ranges with MOVOFLEX and that Paul shared earlier.
Pet food has had a good semester as well, continue to have double- digit growth rate at close to 14%. Other segment with our dental Supercharge categories, that is accounted there as well. You can see we are around the 9% growth rate. The only segment that is decreasing during that semester is parasiticides, which is quite aligned with what we have experienced last year regarding our portfolio of product. But as you can see, very much compensated by very good dynamic in the other segments. Let me move now to farm animals. We have had a 10% growth overall in companion animal. We have also a very solid top- line development, top line growth in farm animals with close to 7% at constant exchange rate and scope. So very solid. Here as well, we have a few segments, three, that are contributing quite nicely to the growth.
The first being nutritionals, with a 20% increase of our revenue there. Paul mentioned as well, some of those Supercharge category with the ITMs. This has been driven as well by the very, very good performance that we have had in India during that semester, and in line with what we have experienced over the recent years with that country. Vaccine has had a very strong semester as well, 8% growth. It is a mix of bluetongue vaccine in Europe and reproduction vaccine in other parts of the world, including Latin America. Other segments as well, you can see 17% with reproduction, and anti-inflammatory as well, products that have contributed quite nicely. On the flip side, parasiticides has decreased, essentially linked to the situation in Australia, where we are suffering and we have experienced a decline of our sales during that semester. As you know, we have shared that earlier.
Aquaculture as well, with EUR 1 million less revenue, essentially linked to one product for which we lost the distribution. Overall, again, a very solid performance on our two leg, companion animal and farm animal. Let me move now to the P&L statement to comment on our EBIT adjusted and net income. You see that our gross margin on material costs has increased as a percentage to revenue. So we have moved from 67.4% to 68.4%, which is driven by a favorable mixed effect with the contribution of our Supercharge product, who tends to have a higher margin than the average of the group. We have the benefit of Thyronorm as well, and also some base effect linked to some one-off that we had last year, if you remember.
If you look at now the combination of net expenses and depreciation and provisions, so all the other expenses within our P&L, beyond the raw materials and consumables used, you will notice that the ratio to revenue of those expenses have increased by half a point. The combination of one positive point on gross margin on material cost and half a point decrease enable us on our EBIT adjusted, before amortization and acquisition, to increase by half a point as well. So a very solid performance, moving from 18.3% to 18.8%. Let me comment a bit this increase of expenses as a ratio to revenue. It is made of essentially two elements. One of them is a positive impact linked to R&D spending, and you can see bit of that in external expenses, which have increased by only 2%.
It is linked to a limited spending of R&D versus last semester, but it is essentially a phasing effect versus 2025. We expect that to normalize during 2026. On operating expenses before R&D, we have a bit of the same phasing effect as well, but the other way around. We have had incurred higher expenses in the first semester of 2026 versus the first semester of 2025. But here as well, this will normalize for the full- year 2026. Finally, I can mention as well some one-off expenses that we had during that semester that plays a role as well to explain the 1.3 point increase of our operating expense as a ratio to revenue. But this as well, obviously, as a ratio to revenue, will decrease when we will consider the full- year.
All- in- all, we are again reaching 19%, and the dynamic of this first semester with what we anticipate for the reminder of the year makes us very comfortable and very positive in our ability to reach the guidance that we have confirmed on EBIT adjusted, which is 17% as a ratio to revenue for the entire year. Let me move now down to the rest of the P&L. You see that the depreciation of intangible assets arising from acquisitions have increased when comparing first semester last year and first semester of 2026, it has nearly doubled, and this is essentially linked to the integration of the depreciation of the assets linked to the acquisition of Thyronorm. We have recorded a bit more than EUR 5 million of other non-recurring income and expenses in the first semester of 2026. We had nothing last year.
This EUR 5.6 million is essentially linked to two elements. The first one is a depreciation of stock and equipment linked to the commercialization stop of one of our product. The second is linked to damages that we have suffered within one of our wholesaler. We have recorded the damages, but we are working with our insurance to get it covered. Two final comments on the rest of the P&L. The first one on financial income and expenses. You see that we have improved there, moving from EUR 8.5 million expenses to EUR 3.2 million. This is essentially linked to the impact of exchange rates. We had last year some negative impact linked to the evolution of the CLP, which is the Chilean currency, which impacted our semester.
Whereas, this year, we have had a more stable CLP when comparing the end of December 2025 versus end of June 2026 situation.
Income tax has remained quite stable versus last year. The evolution is aligned with the activity of the group. All of that, when combined, enable us to record an increasing net income moving from EUR 82 million to EUR 87 million. Let me move now to the free cash flow. You see that it stands at EUR -7 million in H1 2026. It is an improved situation versus last year. It is also very much aligned with what we expected for that first semester. The two main elements explaining our net free cash flow is obviously the CapEx spending. You see we have spent EUR 57 million during the first semester. It is slightly above what we expensed last year. Most of it is linked to the industrial project transformation ongoing with the three to four key projects that Paul mentioned earlier.
The working capital, we have had a requirement of EUR 80 million.
Here you probably remember that we have usually a seasonality effect, with requirements during the first part of the year on working capital, especially linked to our commercial model and the end-of-year rebate that are being paid during the first part of the year. The combination of CapEx and working capital requirement more or less equal our generation of net cash flow, which has increased, by the way, by around 30% versus last year. When you put all of that together, it explains the evolution of our net debt situation. You see that we ended the year, last year, 2025, at around EUR 173 million. We have slightly increased our net debt at the end of June at EUR 196 million. Two comments there. The first one, again, it is very much aligned with what we expected and the seasonality effects that we usually see during our first semester.
Second comment, as you can see on the bottom text, we continue to have a very favorable balance sheet situation and leverage with the net debt on the EBITDA ratio, which stand at 0.6x at the end of June 2026. I will move very briefly on the consolidated balance sheet. You see the evolution of our working capital between December and June, but again, linked to the seasonality, and you see the nice ratio that we have, net debt on net cash flow and net debt on operating cash flow slightly increasing, but again, essentially linked to the seasonality. Let me say a few word on our shareholding structure. It is going to be very brief. We continue to have our majority ownership, the Dick family, having slightly more than 50% of the shares and slightly more than 66% of the voting rights.
So very much stable versus last year situation.
No changes there. Before moving to the Q&A session, I would like to wrap up, sharing with you our full- year guidance 2026, which has remained the same versus what has been shared in July. We continue to target the upper- end of the net revenue growth original target that we shared at the beginning of the year, 5.5%-7.5% at constant rates and scope. Our EBIT adjusted margin is expected still around 17% for the full- year 2026. We will spend around EUR 125 million of CapEx for the year, and all of that will enable us to generate around EUR 80 million of cash at constant rates and scope again for 2026.
Thank you very much, Paul and Habib. I suggest we move to the question, and Taron, you will lead the way through the different question.
Yes. Actually, we can directly continue with the guidance. One of the question is, could you please explain why you are expecting EBIT margin of 17% versus 18.8% in the first half year?
Yes. I am commenting very often on that, and we have every year a bit of the same seasonality. We tend to have a higher EBIT adjusted margin during the first part of the year compared to the full year. It has been the same if you look at our historical publication for the past five years. It is between 2 points to 4 points different depending on the year and the phasing of some investment. We are more on the lower side of it, so we have a more balanced situation this year versus some of the earlier year. But it is a classical seasonality that we see, and a part of it is linked to the budget cycle and the fact that we have a bit of some delays at the very beginning of the year.
Next question is on the depreciations and provisions. The person has seen that our depreciations and provisions have decreased in the first half compared to the last year. The question is also when are the CapEx that we are investing in will hit the D&A, in the coming years or after?
Yeah. It is true that we have had a slight decrease, but it is an artifact actually. We have had some product that have been provisioned in the past that we have scrapped. When you do that, we have taken back the provision, so that is why you see the decrease. But at the same time, the line just above, which is other expenses, you will see that you have the reverse effect there. The net effect of that is zero, but you have a plus in one line and a minus in the other line, which gives the impression that the depreciation is decreasing. Without that element, which account for around EUR 3.5 million, you will see that the depreciation is increasing, actually slightly increasing.
The majority of the big project transformation project that we have shared have not already kicked in because we had no go live for them.
We will see the impact of those project in the depreciation in the later years, when we will have the go live for those projects. But obviously, we also expect some positive impact that will compensate in terms of productivity, that will compensate part of those amortization.
Next question is on Porus One and Vetcare. Could you please quantify the revenues that we expect from these two products?
Yes.
Nice sort of question, and we don't disclose all the details, but just to say these are actually not the same scale as Thyronorm, where we would give more flavor. These are really typical bolt-on commercial deals. But I think we could say in the range of low- double- digit million. Just to add a little bit of flavor. More importantly, they are growth and margin accretive from year one, and in fact, if the acquisition would be triggered, would be even further margin enhancing because we would, of course, cut out the royalties at that point. But yes, from 2027 growth and margin enhancing for Virbac Group.
Staying into the M&A, the next question is about North America. This is a focus area for us, and the person wants to know if we are still looking there, are there targets there, and what kind of targets are we looking in? Products, technology, industrial capacity.
I can say, as we said, we continue to be extremely active on the M&A side. I think important to share that we don't see any slowdown in terms of opportunities being on the table. Our team is consistently mobilized and very active. We've built a very strong capability in M&A and licensing as a core part of our strategy over the last years. You can trust us that we continue to look and be, of course, both on one side, strategic and looking for the right deals, including U.S. as a focus. Yes, of course, we would like to add significantly more scale in the U.S., so that's absolutely priority number one in terms of focus for the M&A team. But of course, we also remain agile to be able to be ready for what's available.
And of course, you know that we have to adapt to both. We are both very active, we will continue to be disciplined, but plenty of ongoing conversations happening.
Great. Next question is about energy prices in the context of the international crises. Can you please elaborate on this topic?
Yeah. It is obviously a topic, the evolution, more generally of the inflation on some of the components, raw materials, and product that we are buying, including energy, obviously. We are managing that very actively. We have edge in some of our countries, including France, where we have a good portion of our energy consumption. So we are not really exposed for the next two years, either on electricity, nor on gas with a fixed price that have been set up. And we are actively managing through negotiation, and we have shared that we do not expect any material impact in 2026 from the inflation, including inflation on energy.
Another question, a more financial question, is about inventory and working CapEx. Do we expect in the next years to go back to the normal levels of inventory and working capital?
Yeah. On inventory, what we have shared is that after the COVID and the start of the Ukrainian war, we had an increase of our inventory. We wanted to make sure that we would have everything required to serve the demand and our customers. So we have increased where it was necessary and required our inventory. Since then, we have worked to optimize, and we have seen a decrease of our inventory as a ratio to revenue. We reached a very high point two years and a half ago, and since then it has decreased. We will continue to optimize wherever we can. We can have, on a specific moment, some one-off increase. For instance, in one of our projects, we are transferring the production from one site to the other.
When you are doing that, obviously, you want to make sure that you will not run into a shortage, so you can increase temporarily your inventory, so we can have slight up and down linked to that. But the trajectory shall continue to decrease. It will not be a material decrease over the coming years, but more of an optimization wherever we can.
Coming back to more M&A related questions about Thyronorm, can you give us a little bit more flavor on the market shares that we have for this product, and what would be the future catalysts or anything on sell, commercial, or marketing that we can use and supply?
Well, yeah. First of all, happy to say that integration has gone extremely smoothly, both from a brand business team point of view, and as you have seen from a few of the numbers shared today, running a little bit ahead of our earlier expectations. If you remember, something quite unique about the Thyronorm deal is that it is actually a phased deal to a certain extent. So we will have more geographies entering into the direct Virbac ownership and management over the years to come, including the majority of Europe happening now in 2027. So the rollout and the impact of Thyronorm is not a one-off, it is something that will happen over some years. And yes, in 2027, the big piece to come is Europe.
At the same time, given that asset is in our hands, we continue to invest, of course, in the science, in the post-launch studies, and the brand building necessary to continue to develop that asset as a core part of our portfolio. That is definitely an asset that we believe has further runway for growth. Also again, the complementarity with other parts of our portfolio giving also further benefits there.
Still staying with M&A, the question would be around what metrics are we looking at when we are evaluating an M&A deal, and what we are using for the valuation, EBITDA multiples, EBIT adjusted multiples for larger deals, and what else we use for smaller deals?
Yeah, so it is a combination of different elements. We are doing the classical NPV, obviously, analysis. We are looking at the return on investment, and very important for us is the impact on the rest of the group, obviously, from a qualitative standpoint, making sure that it contributes nicely to a product country, but also that it has a positive dilutive relative impact on the bottom- line and the top- line. Those are the preferred deal. Synergies creation as well on the top- line, the rest of the portfolio, when you have positive synergies on product ranges and also on cost synergies, which are included in our model.
Next question is around CapEx. Can you come back to our industrial roadmap of CapEx use?
Yeah. We've stated that we have a very intense industrial transformation ongoing with a few significant CapEx investment project to prepare the future, to create more capacity, to innovate some of the sites that we have as well, to internalize some production that are on strategic products for us, ranges such as the pet food. This is what is driving our industrial transformation. It will enable us also to increase our productivity while we are doing that, obviously. We've stated that we expect to be above EUR 100 million for a few years, and going further than that, obviously, it's quite difficult. We don't necessarily have all the visibility, but it's a very significant transformation that is ongoing.
Again, on CapEx, after the ongoing acceleration, what would be a good ratio of CapEx to revenues in the two or three years after this acceleration?
Yeah. I just mentioned that it's quite difficult to anticipate. We shall see a decrease as a ratio to revenue as the top- line is going to increase, and we'll have some of those big projects that will be behind us. But again, what we know is that we'll have a few years above EUR 100 million. For the rest, it's too early to mention. I can, though, say that cash generation is very important for us. We are very focused on generating cash. We want to continue to be able to activate external growth, and we know that it goes through a very healthy and solid cash generation.
Question on one-off cost. Could you explain what is composed of in the H1, the one-off cost that we have, and is it related to litigation settlements, product discontinuation, et cetera?
Yeah. It is essentially a product discontinuation. When you streamline your portfolio for some product, we had a few small product discontinuation, which trigger some expenses, one-off, and also some litigation settlements. When you have a few million euros like that in a given semester, it is a bit visible. It is 0.3, 0.4 point of profitability impact for this semester of those one-off expenses.
Question on the Supercharge portfolio is, do the Supercharge portfolio follow the same seasonality as other products at Virbac?
I think overall, we can say it is still a relatively broad piece of our business, right? It is eight Supercharge platforms which go across both companion and farm. Some very non-seasonal, such as mobility, dental. Some, of course, with farm animals, that can be a little bit more seasonal. But no, overall, no major seasonal impact on Supercharge platforms. It is something that should be relatively constant.
Great. Two questions that go together. What will be major product launches next year, and what can you speak about, tell about more about R&D pipeline?
Product launches, we cannot really comment. It's too early. We'll do that when we comment about 2027.
Next question is about the potential fertility campaign in Australia. Maybe we need some more.
Sorry.
Yeah. I think it was Delphine. Maybe Delphine, you can give more feedback or more details to this question. I'll go to the next question. To reach a full- year margin guidance, you need to improve H1 margins by 150 basis points versus 50 basis points in H1. Please explain the building blocks behind it.
Yeah. So essentially phasing of spending that will enable us to reach the 17% for the full- year. As I mentioned, the first semester has been impacted by some one-off. We don't expect that during the second semester. So if you compare like for like, we are above 0.5, but it's essentially a phasing of our spending between H1 and H2.
I believe that was the last question that we had. No, another one just came in. Is share buyback something you are considering right now given the valuation of the stock?
No. We really consider that the priority for us is making sure that we have the means to continue to consider external growth. We are really favoring external growth to other type of capital allocations such as share buyback.
Laurent is asking the Thyronorm impact on H1 EBIT margin.
Yeah, we have not gone into that detail. We expect half a point for the full- year. It's probably around that for the first semester, but we have not gone into that detail.
Why is the phasing of OpEx different this year?
It's different every year. It's linked to the type of projects that we are considering implementing, the time at when you implement them. On R&D, it depends on the phasing of your clinical studies and when you recruit some of the animals. It's quite natural to have that, and we are seeing that every year.
I see Frederick is typing, maybe.
Just to take advantage of the comment on the phasing of the OpEx, just to again remind as well, we are thinking mid, long-term instead of sustainable growth. We could hold things back in the second half if we wanted to keep the profit number where it is, but we want to continue to invest in the second half of the year to make sure we as well go into 2027 and beyond, of course, with strong momentum. So it's also about our approach to consistently investing for the long- term.
Maybe last question. Depending on how many deals are available and their size, where would you be comfortable having leverage?
Yes. We have stated in the past up to 2x, absolutely no problem. We will definitely go there. We can even go above that, 2.5x. Going above 3x will require the very solid We cannot exclude it, obviously. If we have a very strategic deal that makes a lot of sense and where we are confident that we can deleverage then with the right pace, we could consider. But definitely around 2x, we would be very, very comfortable.
Great. That was the last question. Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions. I think that is it.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for your time and your interest. [crosstalk] Thank you.
Thank you very much.