Here we go. Good afternoon or good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the presentation of the Symrise 2021 full year results. With me in this conference call are our CEO, Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Bertram, and our CFO, Olaf Klinger. The ongoing corona pandemic has unfortunately kept us again from hosting this event in person in Frankfurt, but we are happy to have you in this virtual format instead. We will go through our results and provide an outlook on the current year from our headquarters here in Holzminden. You will, of course, also have the opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A session following the presentation. All documents have been published on our webpage this morning in the section Investors at Financial Results. You can also find the recording of this session later today. I will now hand over to our CEO, Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Bertram. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Tobias. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome also from my side. I am delighted that so many of you have taken the time to join our call today. I will begin with the highlights of 2021. Olaf will then provide a deep dive into the financials before I conclude with our key strategic initiatives and an outlook for the road ahead. Let us have a look at chart four. The year 2021 was clearly marked by a strong economic recovery from the effects of the global coronavirus pandemic. The improved situation led to fewer restrictions. The social life gained good momentum again. However, particularly since the second half of the year, the economy has been facing persistent bottlenecks in supply chains. Rising inflationary effects and higher raw material prices intensified the pressure on economies worldwide.
As other players, Symrise was also influenced by these factors, but we successfully capitalized on returning demand and continued our profitable growth course despite some headwinds. Our diversified portfolio and our backward integration have been decisive factors for success. We are therefore looking at an all-around very satisfactory year 2021. We grew sales by around 9% to over EUR 3.8 billion. Organic growth was even stronger at almost 10%. EBITDA increased by 9.6% to EUR 814 million, and our profitability remained at a high level of 21.3%. The business free cash flow amounted to EUR 486 million and equals about 13% of sales. Net income grew by more than 20% to EUR 375 million, which corresponds to EUR 2.74 per share.
Our dividend proposal amounts to EUR 1.02 per share for fiscal year 2021. This proposal represents, ladies and gentlemen, the 12th consecutive dividend increase. Let me conclude this snapshot with one more highlight, our DAX membership. After 14 years in the German MDAX, we have become member of the leading German index last September. Our share gains even more visibility and interest among shareholders now. Taking a look at our sales growth on chart five. Group sales increased to over EUR 3.8 billion, including EUR 40 million of Sensient Fragrances, which we had acquired last year. Organically, the group achieved even stronger growth of 9.6%, driven by both segments and all regions. We not only exceeded our sales forecast, which we had raised twice last year, but also outperformed market growth.
In both segments, we observed a normalization in consumer behavior and increased demand, which page six illustrates. Taste, Nutrition & Health, our renamed segment, which resulted from the combination of our two former flavor and nutrition segments, generated sales of EUR 2.3 billion. Organic growth amounted to an excellent 10.6%. The renewed out-of-home consumption boosted demand, particularly for beverage applications. A strong growth driver was once again our pet food business, which grew in the double-digit percentage range. Our Scent & Care segment also performed extremely well. Sales rose by 8.9% to around EUR 1.5 billion, and organic growth came to 7.9%, driven by all application areas.
Fine fragrances and cosmetic ingredients particularly benefited from the resumption of travel. Coming to our regions where we also have a very good news to share on chart seven. We grew across all regions, with Latin America being the strongest one and delivering organic growth of 13.5%. Asia-Pacific achieved organic growth of 10.3%. EMEA and North America generated very good organic growth rates of 8.8% and 8.5% respectively. Symrise is sustainable in more than one respect. We stand for sustainable operations and sourcing. We also stand for a very sustainable financial performance, as you can see on chart eight. Since our IPO in 2006, we delivered an annual compounded growth of around 8%.
Our EBITDA CAGR amounts to an excellent 8.4%, and our profitability is on a constantly high level. We're creating value every single year. This makes us very proud, and I would like to thank all our employees worldwide for their tireless work, commitment, and dedication. As chart nine shows, our share price has also performed very well, gaining more than 20% in 2021. We outperformed both MDAX and DAX and consider this a confirmation of our attractiveness. It also reflects the trust investors have in our strategy and long-term prospects. It is part of our investor relations philosophy to have our shareholders participate in Symrise's success. The management and supervisory board will therefore propose a 2021 dividend of EUR 1.02 per share. This proposal represents the twelfth consecutive dividend increase and is another indicator for our commitment to long-term value creation. Let me pause here and turn to Olaf. He will now provide the details on our financials. Olaf?
Yeah. Thank you very much, Hans-Jürgen, and also a warm welcome from my side. Let me start straight away with our sales development on group level on slide 11. We achieved strong organic growth of 9.6%, which is far above market growth. Not only that, we also outperformed our guidance of average annual organic sales growth between 5% and 7%. It is particularly important to note that sales growth was driven by volume, not price. This will change in the current year towards substantially more contribution from price. Going through major events this year, Q1 was still characterized by the cyber attack that hit us at the end of 2020. We recovered within weeks and caught up the vast majority of the missed turnover quickly.
Special thanks go to our clients and partners for their support and our Symrise colleagues for their extra effort to recover our IT system environment in an accelerated mode. Throughout the year, global consumer demand caught up immensely. Travel activity and the leisure sector particularly benefited, which drove the need for cosmetic applications and beverage solutions. Also, our pet food activities performed extraordinarily well, supported also by ADF/IDF, which we acquired back in 2019, and which continues to perform well ahead of our initial expectations. The performance of the Sensient Fragrances acquisition was fully in line with our initial expectations. The business contributed sales of EUR 41 million, and in addition to acting as internal raw material supplier. In terms of FX, we had negative effects of EUR 73 million for the full year, but a positive sales impact of EUR 23 million in Q4.
For 2022, we expect FX tailwind that will support our reported top line, as well as our group sales target of EUR 4 billion-EUR 4.5 billion, which we gave in 2019 for the year 2022. We are fully on track to deliver on our midterm ambitions. On to our profitability on slide 12. Gross margin amounted to 38.7% compared to 39.5% in 2020. The development is linked to higher manufacturing costs and increased raw material expenses, with an inflation of about 1.2% last year. Our P&L has been impacted by a few extraordinary items. We experienced M&A-related transaction cost of EUR 8.7 million.
Positive one-off items came from the sale of the color business with +EUR 12.5 million, and from the favorable book value of the Sensient Fragrances acquisition with +EUR 20.8 million. Please keep in mind that this substantial benefit from the book value is connected to an initially low profitability of the acquired Sensient Fragrances business. EBITDA grew by 9.6%, also supported by lower travel and R&D costs. Our EBITDA margin increased to 21.3% after an already strong level of 21.1% the year before. While depreciation increased moderately, amortization decreased by around EUR 4 million, mainly due to the end of the amortization period of IT software solutions.
As a consequence, our EBIT rose over proportionally by 14.7% and our EBIT margin reached a solid level of 14.6% compared to 13.8% in 2020. Let us now look into the segments, starting with Taste, Nutrition and Health on slide 13. The segment successfully leveraged returning consumer preferences and achieved an organic sales growth of 10.6%. We saw an exceptional upturn in beverage solutions, followed by double-digit growth in pet food activities. EBITDA grew by 12.9% or EUR 60 million to EUR 531 million. The segment increased its EBITDA margin to 22.7% and operated highly profitable despite higher costs. Our strategy to invest into faster-growing and more profitable businesses starts to pay off. In addition, initial steps to increase prices were successfully taken.
On to Scent & Care on slide 14. Scent & Care achieved organic sales growth of 7.9%. Main growth drivers were fine fragrances and cosmetic ingredients, which both benefited from the normalization of consumer behavior and experienced an excellent upswing after the sharp decline in 2020. Aroma Molecules was supported by strong demand and further capacities for menthol built during the recent years. Consumer fragrances and oral care achieved single-digit sales growth following exceptional high levels in the prior year. EBITDA in Scent & Care increased by 4.1% or EUR 11 million to EUR 283 million. The margin totaled 19% compared to 19.8% the year before. The decline was mainly due to a below-average operational margin at Sensient Fragrances, increased raw material costs, and higher manufacturing costs.
During the second half of the year, Scents & Care experienced higher costs related to increased logistics, energy, as well as packaging costs. While price increase initiatives were taken early on in the second half of last year, the effect will mostly come in starting this year due to the nature of customer contracts, especially in Aroma Molecules and cosmetic ingredients. Turning now to the financial result and bottom line on slide 15. The financial result improved by around EUR 21 million and reflects generally lower financing costs in 2021. In addition, we had a one-off effect payment to tax authorities during the year before. At the Capital Markets Day in January 2019, I gave a tax guidance of 26%-28%.
Since our tax rate developed well and further decreased from 25.6% to 25.4% last year, I would like to update our tax guidance to now 25%-27% for the coming years. Our bottom line grew by more than 20% to EUR 375 million. EPS reached a new all-time high at EUR 2.74. It is also to be kept in mind that the number of shares increased because of the conversion of the convertible bond into new shares in September last year. Please take note that the EPS is calculated based on a weighted average number of shares last year. As stated by Heinz-Jürgen, management and supervisory board will propose a dividend increase to EUR 1.02 per share. Let's continue with our business free cash flow on slide 16.
The level for 2021 remained below the high levels of the previous two years, despite strong EBITDA growth for three reasons. First, 2021 was a year of important investments. We spent EUR 174 million, including some strategic growth initiatives. Second, we increased working capital as a result of the cyberattack in late 2020, as well as strategic inventories to maneuver risk in the global supply chain. Third, we had a higher level of trade receivables due to the strong growth in sales. Despite the strong earnings growth, business free cash flow settled at 12.7% of sales. For 2022, we are optimistic to reach a level of around 14% of sales again. Moving on to net debt development on slide 17.
With the increase in capital and further reduction of debt, net debt including pensions and leasing obligations totaled 2.4x EBITDA as of December 31st. For 2022, we expect a slightly higher leverage ratio of 2.5x-2.7x, driven by recent and further expected M&A activities. Our top priority still remains to be an investment-grade profile. Taking a closer look at the balance sheet on slide 18, investments and acquisitions increased property, plant, and equipment as well as intangibles. The increase in other assets results from the participation in Swedencare. In August, we decided to redeem our EUR 400 million convertible bond early by conversion into new shares. Our equity increased by EUR 890 million to EUR 3.252 billion.
Next to the conversion of the convertible, we benefited from positive FX translation differences of around EUR 170 million, as well as an increase in accumulated profit and other reserves of around EUR 276 million. Our equity ratio therefore closed the year at a very healthy level of 49%. All in all, we enjoyed another successful year with profitable growth at Symrise, once again confirming the resistance of our business model in challenging times. After this financial deep dive, I now hand back to Heinz-Jürgen.
Thank you, Olaf. Ladies and gentlemen, let us look at the strategic initiatives. They have supported our performance in 2021 and will, which will bear further fruit going forward. Chart 20 illustrates our new corporate structure and gives background to establish the Taste, Nutrition & Health segment. We have decided to bundle the flavor and nutrition competencies and build a global powerhouse around Taste, Nutrition & Health, three assets which are closely tied together. With an expanded portfolio, we are in an even better position. First, to serve the needs of our customers with sustainable and innovative products and solutions. Second, to tackle promising new markets. Third, to further increase our competitiveness through unique capabilities. M&A have traditionally been important elements for differentiation and growth. Please have therefore a look at page 21. For example, Canadian Giraffe Foods.
The company will strengthen our food business via customized taste concepts and make us a leading provider of integrated food solutions in North America. Pet food is a key driver for our portfolio and our growth, and we even want to expand our position as the leading international supplier for pet food solutions. We acquired a minority stake in Swedencare and aim to strengthen our knowledge of veterinary products supporting the well-being of pets. The Dutch company Schaffelaarbos is an excellent example for expanding our position in egg-based proteins. As you all know, APAC has traditionally been a highly promising region for us, and with the acquisition of Chinese Wing Pet Food we just announced a few days ago, we intend to further increase our footprint in pet food in the region. At the same time, we stopped activities.
The core business no longer includes the food color applications which we sold to Oterra, as well as the DrinkStar Velcorin activities. In the Scent & Care segment, too, the wheels have not stood still, as you can see on chart 22. We have reorganized our regional presence and expanded our portfolio through targeted acquisitions and strategic partnerships. I want to highlight three here. With Sensient, we have strengthened our fragrance and Aroma Molecules business. As part of this acquisition, we also acquired the Sensient site in Granada. It will become an important European hub for our Scent & Care business. Two more important steps have been realized with a minority interest in U.S.-based Kobo Products Inc. and a cooperation agreement with U.S. startup Infinite Looks. Both demonstrate our efforts to further expand our portfolio in attractive business and product areas, namely UV protection, decorative cosmetics and hair care.
These acquisitions and divestments show our clear commitment to continuously improve our portfolio and make Symrise a unique player. Sustainability is, and always has been, an integral part of our strategy. For this, please see chart 23. Our approach is fully aligned with the UN sustainability goals and embedded in all our operations. From sourcing thousands of raw materials from all over the world, to the production process, to delivery to the customer. We let ourselves be measured by a number of KPIs, and it is our clear goal to become climate positive by 2030. Our commitment to climate protection is already recognized today, for example, by the Carbon Disclosure Project.
Symrise was awarded triple-A status for the second consecutive year in a row in all three categories: water, climate, as well as forest. We are the only company in Germany and one of only 14 worldwide with that status. Investments pave the way to growth in the future. Chart 24 highlights some selected projects which comprise investments into new capacities as well as R&D. We have, for example, built a new site for our pet food division in China and set up a new innovation center in Dubai. On the R&D side, we have put a particular focus on innovations. For instance, the launch of SymProBiome, which is a new model for microbiome-based research. In the area of advanced technologies, we have invested in a very exciting digital tool to improve traceability of global farming. It allows us to collect, structure, and coordinate agronomic data from around the world.
I want to conclude today's presentation with the outlook for this year on page 25. Following the strong recovery in 2021, experts estimate that the global economy will grow more moderately this year. In addition, I am sure this is not a surprise to you, we expect an increase in selective raw material and energy prices. Also, the crisis in the Ukraine and the impact for all of us cannot be foreseen today. However, we are confident that we are very good positioned to continue our profitable growth course. Our robust business model with its diversified portfolio, our far-reaching international presence, and broad customer base give us tailwind. For 2022, we are targeting organic growth of 5%-7% in line with our midterm guidance. Despite headwinds from raw material and energy prices, we aim at an EBITDA margin of around 21%. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. I would now like to open the call for your questions. Tobias?
Many thanks, Hans-Jürgen. Many thanks, Olaf. Turning to Q&A, we are now happy to take the questions from the audience. The first question comes from Lisa De Neve from Morgan Stanley. Lisa, please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. I have two. The first one is on the EBITDA margin. You're guiding to about 21% margin at this point in time of the year, for 2022. Can you please share the sort of building blocks that underpin that guidance, especially as it relates to raw material inflation, degree of pricing, synergies you may expect, and maybe also on the adjusted versus reported line, any sort of integration or startup costs we should calculate or take into account? That would be super helpful.
Okay. Lisa, I start, and I would say, Olaf, you take the mix of price increases and volume and all this stuff. One point which I just stressed is we have consequently improved and managed our portfolio. Assets which were not core business anymore or which were dilutive on our margin, we sold, and we have consequently looked for business areas with a better business perspective and, if possible, even an accretive business bottom line contribution. Olaf?
Yeah. From our perspective, the EBIT margin is supported by price increases, which we started last year, quite a little bit. We are seeing them coming in. The 5%-7% growth guidance for this year will incorporate a substantial amount of pricing. That's one driver. The second driver I would highlight is again the strong development of our portfolio into fast-growing, high-margin businesses. I think we have seen a few acquisitions in the last few months, and all of them will be accretive, and therefore the mix in this regard will further improve our profile. The diversification of the group continues in this regard and supports well the margin expectation.
Can I just follow up a little bit on the raw materials and the pricing? Specifically, can you just share what you're seeing on the raw material landscape in terms of the degree of raw material inflation you're expecting for this year and to which extent you've been able to renegotiate that via pricing on the top line? How should we think about pricing versus raw materials this year and sort of the timeline of lapping that if that's what's going to happen? Thank you.
I will start. Olaf, and you hop in if you feel there's something more to be added. What we said beginning of last year, we expected for last year, 1%-2% price increases. For last year, we saw a bit more, say, than 2%, but around the guidance we gave at the beginning of last year was correct, with the caveat that most of the price increases of last year happened in the last quarter. So it happened this year we saw a steep price increase in the beginning of this year. We expect about 6% on top of it, so that brings us to, say, in total 8%. We discussed it last year already. We had started in time to pass on price increases for the products.
As per now, we feel well-equipped that we have managed to pass on most of our, if not all of the price increases to the customers. As Olaf has said, not all of these price increases which we passed through have been materializing yet because some of the contracts, in particular in the Aroma Molecules area, but also in flavors and fragrance, are still valid. In the next weeks or month, these price increases will come through. Of course, the situation is not always clear and visible to us how it continues to develop. As per now, we feel confident that we have been able to pass on the price increases or that these price increases will go through within the next weeks. Olaf, you want to add a bit more?
No, I think, yeah, you said it. Keep in mind, I mean, we have a raw material base of 10,000 raw materials. Across this portfolio you see, of course, different elements coming through. Some price increases have been extremely substantial, like in Aroma Molecules. Very substantial double-digit numbers for you, we needed to take. Similar in pet food, we had substantial price increases initiated last year. Across the portfolio, it will come through in different magnitudes. We said in the past three to six months, it takes us normally to pass through. Maybe this year it might be a little bit longer because the increases continue, and we need to see how we play this out. No worry at the moment on our end that we will not be successful in protecting our margin environment.
One key message which I would like to highlight in addition to what Olaf said, we benefit from the best vertical backward integration in our industry. In times when we have crises, then we typically benefit from this. In this time, it again shows the value of our business model, and that's why we are confident for this year as well.
Thank you very much, guys.
You're welcome.
Well, thank you very much, Lisa. Next question comes from Matthew Yates from Bank of America, please.
Hey, good morning, gentlemen. Couple of questions. First one may be for Olaf, just around the CapEx. 4.5% of sales, is that actually enough to keep up with demand? Considering you've just had a year of almost 10% volume growth. Are you running up against any sort of capacity constraints that need to be alleviated? And maybe a second question, a bit broader for Hans-Jürgen, around pet food business. Am I right in thinking you're outgrowing the end market? And if so, can you help me better understand who you're taking share from? Is that the big pet multinationals increasingly outsourcing some of the things that they've previously done in-house o r is your technology really extending your lead over some of the tier two players? I guess over the midterm, you've done some interesting M&A recently to move deeper into certain geographies and adjacent products like health. Just how big do you think this pet business could be for you in three to five years' time? Thank you.
Okay. Yeah, Matthew, thanks for the question. First, the CapEx at the moment it was 4.5%, which is industry average. You may bear in mind we had already times where we exceeded 7%. You see from there, we invest whatever is necessary, whatever permits our growth. Going forward, I believe, Olaf, you gave the guidance for this year, 5% , maybe a bit more. Matthew, we benefit also from the massive investments we've done over the last few years and to improve capacity. It shows that obviously this was exactly the right thing to do, and there is no reason to be concerned that 4.5% cuts back on capacity or leads us to capacity increase constraints. We are very confident that first we have a portfolio which is future-oriented, where there is a bright future ahead, and we will continue to invest whatever is necessary. In that respect, we're very positive. 4.5%, which we did last year, that is industry standard. Benchmark is typically that we tend to have a slightly higher capacity, a CapEx level.
For this year we expect, as I said, a bit more than 5%, but no reason to be concerned at all in that respect. Pet food market growth. We see a strong organic growth momentum. We may take market share from smaller players, which frankly, we don't know exactly. However, it shows we have a unique position in that segment. The recent report from Barclays pet food, the best category in food industry. On page six, under point nine, it says, "Symrise is the only company who made meaningful entry in this." So that is a unique thing which differentiates us from all the other competitors, and we will continue to drive this unique thing. Our clear goal is by 2025, we will have this a EUR 1.5 billion business unit. I think that shows our ambition. Matthew, in that respect, the best is yet to come. Okay?
Thanks very much, guys.
Thank you for the question. Next question comes from Heidi Vesterinen from BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.
Morning. I first have a question on the new segment that, with your decision to rename Taste, Nutrition & Health, what actually changes on the ground and for your customers? Are you now a believer in integrated solutions?
Heidi, good to hear from you again. Well, as we discussed quite a few times, in the long run it made sense to reshuffle the food ingredient and the flavor business to put it together. The synergies from these two businesses are so striking that there are top and bottom line synergies. After we did the Diana acquisition, and we knew we did the damn best acquisition in our industry, we took our time to develop trust and to preserve all the assets. One of them we just discussed with Matthew. But after six years, it's time to look for some additional synergies. Putting it together just makes sense, and I think does not come as a surprise for many of you. Integrated solutions. We discussed that as well.
If that means one-stop shopping, I'm not a believer in it. If that allows additional product benefits plus some synergies as we need just one team for the same accounts, as we said, and that we have a lot of overlap in R&D. For example, in food ingredient, it was called culinary. In flavors, it was called savory. Two names for the same thing. Why not combining these resources and addressing, in particular, even better, the challenges of the future, Heidi, which is protein alternatives and sugar replacement. All this is something which is not traditional flavors, but close to flavors. To the other extent in food ingredients to some extent. So for that extent, it makes sense to combine. If you want to name that integrated solution, I'm absolutely with you. If it says one-stop shopping, you lost me. Okay?
Thank you. Another question. I'm curious about your ambitions in nutrition. Do you think you will stay in pet food, or do you see merit in moving outside of pet food in a big way? Say, if you found a acquisition or merger opportunity with somebody with leadership in other types of nutrition solutions, would that make sense?
At this point in time, we focus on expanding our pet food capabilities. I just gave the numbers, and I think they're significant growth. Short and mid-term, we want to leverage on these opportunities. Heidi, again, this is something which makes us unique, a strong differentiator, and we would be foolish on not leveraging on that potential. In that area, all guns are loaded. We are broadening our protein bases. That's why we did the acquisition of ADF, IDF. That's why we did the next acquisition, Michael Foods. That's why we did the acquisition of Schaffelaarbos. All expanding the protein bases into new areas, and with Wing Biotech broadening our business presence in pet food. So you see, we are doing everything to stress that one. If there is a nutrition opportunity coming which also has a bright potential and makes us a unique in that respect, we are open to it. You heard from Olaf, the financial headroom is there. At the moment, our focus is short and mid-term on pet food. Okay?
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thanks, Heidi, very much. Next question comes from Thomas Swoboda from Société Générale, please. Thomas, please go ahead.
Hello, everybody, and thank you for taking my questions. I have three quick ones, please. On volumes in 2022, my question is, do you expect any meaningful volume growth in 2022, or is 2022 just about price? My second question is about the phasing. Some of your competitors are pointing towards a profitability recovery in the second half of the year. It doesn't sound like you're seeing the same. Just to confirm, is it what you expect, a rather equal normal distribution of the profit generation in 2022? The third question is a small follow-up item. I'm not sure if I heard you correctly. Do you see inflation already flattening, or do you fear that inflation is still on the upper trend and that you might need to go back to your clients and increase prices again? Thank you.
Thank you, Thomas. I'll start, and then I'll hand it over to Olaf to give you more. The second question is clear, yes, and the third question is a no. We have not seen the end of inflation yet, so there's still obviously something going on. Not that steep, but it's still going on. With the latest crisis, we don't know where it ends. We feel well equipped to handle it, as we said, thanks to the raw material, so our backward integration that helps to navigate. We don't see a dip in first half, so we expect it to be on a good level, stable. That's why we did our guidance. Olaf, do you want to do on volume and price and all this.
Yeah, Thomas, thanks for your question. Keep in mind, I mean, we will have very high comps in the course of this year compared to last year as everything was volume driven. What we said is that volume will play a role, but there will be substantially more price to deliver the 5%-7% growth ambition. I think that's where we should leave it at the moment, given all the uncertainty we have in our environment. You see us very comfortable and a good part, especially in pet food, will also be volume driven.
Perfect. Thanks.
You're welcome.
Thanks a lot. Very good. Next question comes from Isha Sharma from Stifel. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I just have two left, please. On the EBITDA, I know, you've already answered, quite a bit on this, but just to clarify, you had around EUR 25 million of adjustments as well, in EBITDA, and they were more on the positive side. The reversal of this, going into next year, along with price increases, which usually have a mathematical solution, I'm unable to understand, how I can make a bridge of, let's say, a flattish EBITDA development, close to the 21.2% where you, have reported for 2021. The second question is on sustainability. You strive to be, climate positive by 2030. What exactly do you mean by this? Because if I look at your progress so far in CO2 reduction and also your commitment to science-based targets, you are lagging behind your peers in the same industry. Shed some light on that, a little bit more quantifiable would be great. Thank you so much.
First, EBITDA performance, 21%. Olaf, you hop in if I'm not giving Isha the full picture. It's we had some special effects this the last year. We give our guidance out for this year, 21%, because we believe we have, as we said, the backward integration will help us even through the turbulent times. We have acquired the Sensient business, which was highly dilutive, and we have indicated that to the market. Strategically, it makes a lot of sense because it's the continuation of our Pinova business. We have shown at the Pinova business that we were able to improve the profitability, and we will be able to do the same thing this year.
That is one contributor which will help us very well to improve the EBITDA margin on the Scent & Care end. The other side on the Flavor Nutrition end, as we said, we have divested dilutive businesses. The natural color business was dilutive on our end, and we have acquired businesses which are accretive. All in all, that gives us good confidence that even without special effects and adjustments, we will be able to get to around 21%, and we are confident that we will be able to deliver that. On the other side, Isha, you confuse me. We are well on track on our business progress to bring us climate positive. In that respect, we believe we are leading compared to competition.
I'm not aware that any one of our competitors has committed to be climate positive by 2030. In our annual report, which we will publish, we monitor our progress, and so far, we are well on track. In 2025, I think we will have reduced our CO2 emission by 63%. Again, by 2030, we will be climate positive. We have done initiatives which are different to anyone else in our industry. We have built our own power plant, among others. We are changing all our processes. Also, again, bear in mind where you have been with us in Pinova, green chemistry, sustainable sourcing, where we source the material from certified forests.
That was actually a hint from one of our key customers who said, "You can be the first and only ones doing this." All these initiatives show we're doing unique stuff, and we are on the forefront of sustainability. Wherever you got the information from that we lag behind, we believe we have different information and we are well on track on it. Okay?
Maybe we can take this offline. Thank you.
Yeah. Anytime, Isha.
Thank you.
Olaf, you want to add? So was complete? Okay. Thanks, Olaf.
Nothing to add.
I jump in here. Isha, thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot, Isha.
We take offline. The next question comes from Charles Bentley from Jefferies. Charlie, please go ahead.
Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Sorry to keep on coming back, but just on price into next year. You're talking around 6% raw material cost inflation, plus the kind of 2% from FY 2021 with no pricing. Prior to assuming any further increases, that would imply probably 3% pricing to offset. Is that a fair assumption? Do you think you can kinda get there? If I just look at the kind of margin cadence into 2022, I mean, I think that the margins in Scent & Care should obviously be higher than in the second half of 2021. If you can kind of help with the first half versus the second half, and then also in Flavor and Nutrition, that'd be very helpful. Thank you.
Scent & Care, as I'm responsible for it, yes, it should be certainly higher second half of last year. As I said, second half, we had the Sensient acquisition and with all dilutive effect, and you will see we are making progress, and we have shown it with Pinova that we know what to do and how to do. We're very confident that we will see some progress there. Nothing to be concerned at all. Olaf, you want to add to the other points?
No, I mean, Heinz, you mentioned the Scent & Care situation last year. I mentioned in my speech that we had, of course, in the second half, higher packaging, higher energy, higher logistics costs, and we took price increases in the second half of last year, which will kick in only this year to the majority. Let us work on this, as described, and I think that's where we should leave it at the moment, to protect our margin environment.
Okay, great. Can I just follow up with one question? Just on H1 margins, would you expect them for the group to be higher than in the second half?
The margins, as the previous question, I think from Lisa, was, we expect not a dip in margin for the first half, and we do not expect a slight dip in margin in the second half. As of now, we believe we will show a stable and healthy margin throughout the year. Okay.
Great. Thanks, Heinz. Thanks, Olaf.
You're welcome.
Charlie, many thanks. We're getting closer to the end of our today's conference call. Last question comes from Charles Eden from UBS. Charles, please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for sneaking me in. Just two quick ones from me. Firstly, can you remind us, with respect to the cyberattack, have you received your insurance payment for that? If so, you know, is it booked in FY 2021, or is that something to come in 2022? My second question, just in Flavors, can you just talk a bit about the growth expectation by the categories, so beverages, savory, sweet dairy? Is there any significant variance in growth you're expecting in 2022 across that division? Thank you.
Okay. Olaf, you may want to handle the cyber thing, and I handle this growth expectation by Flavors. You start.
On cyber, the reimbursement is expected this year, and there's nothing in the books yet.
Okay. That was precise, crisp, and short. I'm talking flavors. From what we see now, we expect a continuous healthy momentum in beverages, and we think with the acquisitions we have done recently, we will also continue to benefit in culinary/savory. Having said that is by categories and categories to highlight. Areas of growth, we see a strong momentum in Asia going in the past, and this we expect to go on. By regions, I would stress Asia, we expect most dynamics and in particular in the categories beverages and culinary. Okay?
That's great. Thank you. Olaf, are you able to give any sort of size guidance on that, insurance, payout? Will it go into your core numbers or adjusted for your GAAP numbers? Thank you.
Again, it's not in the guidance and therefore, I think let's wait for the outcome, and I will inform you of course once we have clarity on this.
Yeah. Great. Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you. Dear participants, this brings us to the end of our today's conference call. I know that you are all very busy today with so many companies presenting results, so we are thankful for your time today and your ongoing interest in Symrise. We are looking forward to seeing you in the upcoming virtual conferences and virtual roadshows, and above all, we hope to see you in person soon. We will publish our trading update for the first quarter on April 27. That's it for today. Thank you very much. Goodbye, and have a nice day.