Afternoon.
Welcome to the virtual analyst conference of Symrise. For your information, this call will be recorded. Let me now hand you over to Tobias Erfurth.
Good afternoon or good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Many thanks for your time today and your interest in Symrise. We have a very tight schedule today, so I will keep this very short and hand over immediately to our CEO, Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Bertram.
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 us today and that we are holding in this format for the call for the first time. As usual, I will highlight the 2022 results. Olaf will provide a deep dive into the financials, and I conclude with our key strategic initiatives and an outlook for the road ahead. Before we look at the numbers, I would like to take the opportunity to introduce you to all members of our new and extended executive board. You have most probably read our communication that effective February first, 2023, Symrise appointed two new board members. Stephanie Cossmann has taken on the newly created responsibilities for Human Resources and Legal.
Jörn Andreas will head the Scent & Care segment that I led temporarily. Jean-Yves Parisot will continue in his role as executive board member for Taste, Nutrition & Health. Olaf, you all know him well, will continue as our CFO. Stefanie, if you want to start briefly to introduce yourself. Stefanie.
Yeah. Thank you very much, Heinz-Jürgen. I mean, pleasure to do so. Good morning, everyone, or good afternoon also from my end. Let me begin with a few words about myself. My name is Stephanie Cossmann, and I joined Symrise on February first as new member of the Executive Board, responsible for Human Resources, Legal Affairs and Compliance, and also as the Labor Director. In my first weeks with Symrise, I experienced Symrise really as an entrepreneurial company with a fascinating business model and very dedicated employees. I've worked in the industry in previous years, most recently also on the board of management of LANXESS, also in the areas of human resources and legal affairs.
Employees will always represent a crucial success factor also for Symrise in the coming years. We have a good reputation as a successfully sustainable company. This makes us an attractive employer. That is what I am focusing on with my work, by always keeping an eye on the business and our more than 12,000 employees. Thank you.
Thank you, Stephanie. Now Jean-Yves,
Merci. Good afternoon. I'm very happy also to present myself shortly. I'm Jean-Yves Parisot. I've been familiar with the company since the acquisition of Diana Group in 2014. I joined Symrise Executive Committee starting 2016. I am responsible for the Taste, Nutrition & Health segments, which is a segments gathering flavors, food ingredients and food business all together. We want to continue to grow strategically to diversify our portfolio and to strengthen our competitiveness with sustainable and healthy products. I'm quite sure that 2023 will also see the emergence of some very nice, good business for us. Thank you.
Merci, Jean-Yves. Jean-Yves and Stephanie both are connected from Paris. Here in Holzminden, we have Jörn and Olaf. Jörn, if you would like to continue.
Hello from me as well. My name is Jörn Andreas. I've been working with the company for more than 12 years now, most of the time abroad in various international roles, including France and the United States. Most recently, I served as the global president of our Cosmetic Ingredients division. I'm very delighted to have taken over the Scent & Care segment from Heinz-Jürgen, and I'm very grateful for this trust placed in me. The Scent & Care segment is a wonderful segment with very motivated and talented employees. Together, we have big plans, always with a clear goal in mind to develop products that are desired by the consumers, at the same time contribute to sustainability, wellbeing and care. Thank you.
Thanks, Jörn. And Olaf, now the best, at last.
Yeah. Okay, I keep it short. I think most of you know me very well. warm welcome also from my side to Stefanie and Jörn. Symrise has seen quite a dynamic development during the last few years, and we have a clear strategy for Symrise and know how to develop into the next level as a highly regarded player in the industry. Our extended board, with two very skilled new colleagues, forms now a good team to move us into the future. With that, before we get to that, we will first review our numbers. For that, I hand back to Heinz-Jürgen.
Thanks, Olaf. Okay. By expanding our executive board, we are sending an important signal for the further growth course of Symrise. Let us now look at our financial highlights on chart four of our presentation. The year 2022 was clearly marked by a strong business growth in an ongoing challenging environment. We once again managed to continue our growth course. At the same time, the economy has faced persistent bottlenecks in supply chains. Rising inflationary effects and high raw material prices intensified the pressure also on our business. On the other side, our diversified portfolio, as well as our broad regional presence and customer space, form key factors in achieving strong growth. We are again looking back on a very satisfactory year, 2022. We grew sales by around 20.7% to over EUR 4.6 billion.
Organic growth was above 11%. EBITDA increased by 13% to EUR 922 million. We achieved a margin of 20%. This was lower than our guidance and below last year's. Our profitability suffered, among others, from an incident we encountered at our site in Colonels Island. I'm sure you heard about it. Net income grew by more than 8% to EUR 406 million, which corresponds to EUR 2.91 per share. Profitability and net income figures are adjusted for the impairment in the value of the associated company, Swedencare, which we faced in Q4 2022. Our dividend proposal amounts to EUR 1.05 per share for fiscal year 2022. This proposal represents the 13th consecutive dividend increase. Let us have a look at our sales growth on chart five.
Group sales increased to over EUR 4.6 billion, including EUR 154 million sales contributing from M&A. Organically, the group achieved a strong growth of 11.4%, driven by both segments in all regions. With this, we exceeded our sales forecast, which we had raised twice last year, also outperformed the market growth. In both segments, we enjoyed great project vitality and increased demand, as slide six illustrates. The Taste, Nutrition & Health segment generates sales of EUR 2.9 billion. Organic growth amounted to excellent 15%. A strong growth driver was, again, our pet food business, which grew in the double-digit percentage range. Food and beverage applications showed similar high growth rates. The segment benefited from broadening the competencies beyond flavor and nutrition. Our Scent & Care segment also performed well.
Sales rose by 14% to around EUR 1.7 billion, and organic growth came to 5%. Fine fragrance and Cosmetic Ingredients experiencing ongoing strong growth rates. Let's move to our regions that allow us also to share good news on chart seven. We grew across all regions, with Latin America being the strongest one, and delivering organic growth of almost 25%. Asia Pacific achieved organic growth of around 10%. EAME and North America also generated very good organic growth rates of around 8% and 8% respectively. Symrise is sustainable in more than one respect. We can report a very sustainable performance, as you can see on chart eight. Since our stock listing in 2006, we delivered an annual compounded sales growth of 8.6%. Our EBITDA CAGR amounted to 8.7% on a constantly high level.
This makes us very proud. I would like to thank all our employees for their commitment and their dedication. At chart nine, we show that we outperform both MDAX and DAX, and consider this one more time as a confirmation of our attractiveness. It reflects the trust investors put in our strategy and long-term prospects. The management and supervisory board will propose at a 2022 dividend of EUR 1.05 per share. This proposal represents the 13th consecutive dividend increase and forms another indicator for our commitment to long-term value creation. Let me stop here for the moment and hand over to Olaf. He will now provide the details on our financials. Olaf.
Yeah, thank you very much. Again, a warm welcome from my side. Let me start with our sales development on group level on slide 11.
First of all, we are quite proud to report a new all-time high turnover of EUR 4.6 billion. With this, we clearly overachieved our guidance of EUR 4 billion-EUR 4.5 billion for 2022, which we gave at our capital markets date back in January 2019. Both segments in all regions contributed to an exceptional 11.4% organic growth. Unlike normal years, when we target a sales split of 1/3 pricing and 2/3 volume, 2022 was far from normal. We needed to pass through high costs to our customers, we were, to a large extent, successful. We achieved around 75% pricing and around 25% volume growth in organic.
The P&L on slide 12 shows the absolute EBITDA increase from EUR 814 million to EUR 922 million, which is also, in this case, a new all-time high when we exclude the Swedencare impairment. This corresponds to a 20% EBITDA margin after 21.3% in 2021. We continue our reporting approach in a way that we only adjust for large extraordinary items like we did for the acquisitions of Diana, Pinova, and ADF/IDF. This year, for the first time, we had to adjust for an impairment related to our 29.8% at equity participation in Swedencare. The strong decrease in their share price in the second half of 2022 triggered an impairment test, which led to an adjustment of the book value in the amount of EUR 126 million.
For comparison reasons, we generally removed this one-time effect from our reported financial figures. To be also transparent on other special items, we benefited from positive one-time effects in connection with the sale of the Velcorin business to LANXESS, as well as the partial sale of the color business in North America, each amounting to around EUR 18 million. Also on the positive side was an insurance reimbursement for the cyberattack of around EUR 3.6 million. On the other hand, M&A-related one-time cost in the amount of around EUR 9 million, as well as downtime cost in Q4 and certain organizational optimization costs of in total additional EUR 12 million impacted the EBITDA negatively. Higher energy costs, logistics costs, and personnel costs, especially in the fourth quarter, led to a certain margin dilution on group level.
On top, strong raw material price inflation, which led to an increase in the raw material quota from 43.4% to 45.5% for the year impacted the profitability shown at the end of the year. All in all, our price increases could not fully compensate the higher cost. As we expect a continuing moderate increase of raw material prices in 2023, we will rely also on further price increases, which have partly been initiated already at the end of last year. From a portfolio perspective, we continue to invest into faster-growing and more profitable businesses. Let us now turn to the segments, starting with Taste, Nutrition and Health on slide 13. The segment was driven by an ongoing excellent performance in pet food, a recovery of consumer behavior, mainly in food and beverages, and successfully passed on necessary price increases to our clients.
The organic sales growth of 15.3% for the full year came with a price volume split of around two-third price and one-third volume. Q4 was even stronger, with an organic growth of 17.9%, with 75% from pricing and 25% volume. The portfolio impact of EUR 99 million included additions from Giraffe, which we acquired in November 2021, Schaffelaarbos, and Wing Pet Food, and disposals from Velcorin to LANXESS and the color business to Oterra. The absolute EBITDA saw a strong increase and grew by 18.7% or EUR 100 million to EUR 631 million for Taste, Nutrition & Health. EBITDA margin decreased to 21.6%, which compares to 22.7% the year before, mainly due to higher raw material cost. In half year two, we saw an acceleration of raw material prices.
A weaker performance of Probi did not help in this semester. On to Scent & Care on slide 14. Scent & Care achieved organic sales growth of 5.1%, driven 100% by pricing and slightly negative volume development. While we benefited from fine fragrances and Cosmetic Ingredients with double-digit growth, we felt some destocking mainly in consumer fragrances and oral care, but also in aroma molecules and especially in the terpene businesses. Q4 sales for Scent & Care came in lower than expected, with 1% organic growth. EBITDA in Scent & Care increased by 3% or EUR 8 million to EUR 291 million. The margin totaled 17.1% compared to 19% the year before. The decline in margin was mainly due to higher raw material costs and an increase in manufacturing cost related to higher energy cost.
Margin were impacted especially in Q4 due to the unexpected low growth rate in combination with some extraordinary costs in sales and marketing. As well as downtime cost, including the incident in Colonels Island. Turning now to the financial result and bottom line on slide 15. The financial result decreased by around EUR 30 million due to higher interest rates and its related expenses. Our tax rate decreased slightly from 25.4% to 25.2% last year. Our tax rate, including Swedencare, was at 32.6%. Our EPS reached EUR 2.91 before and exactly EUR 2, including the Swedencare impairment. As stated by Hans- Jürgen, management and supervisory board will propose a dividend increase to EUR 1.05 per share at the annual shareholder meeting. Let's continue with our business free cash flow on slide 16.
The level for 2022 remains significantly below the levels of the previous years, despite the strong EBITDA growth. One reason was a higher CapEx spending. It was EUR 270 million. We spent around EUR 96 million more than the year before. This corresponds to around 5.8% of sales. Adjusted for M&A related CapEx of around EUR 50 million, the ratio was around 5.1%, and according to our guidance. The other main reason was an increase in working capital in the magnitude of EUR 303 million. To support the very strong growth and to maintain our ability to supply, we needed to significantly increase our inventories. We are confident to get back to a higher business free cash flow soon, with a target of 12% of sales in 2023 and a 14% midterm.
Net debt, as shown on slide 17, increased from EUR 1.3 billion to EUR 2.2 billion, mainly due to the financing of acquisitions and higher working capital. The leverage ratio is at 2.4x EBITDA. Net debt, including pension, increased from EUR 2 billion to EUR 2.7 billion, reflecting a leverage ratio of 2.9x EBITDA. Our long-term target for net debt, including pension, is unchanged at 2-2.5x EBITDA. Our top priority remains, you know that, to be an investment-grade profile. As shown on slide 18, primarily working capital and acquisitions have lengthened the balance sheet to total by EUR 1.1 billion to now EUR 7.8 billion. Inventories went up by EUR 338 million. Investments and acquisitions increased property, plant, and equipment by EUR 242 million.
Intangibles went up EUR 392 million. Thereof, EUR 271 million are goodwill. The increase was partially financed with a promissory note of EUR 750 million and a bilateral loan to for Giraffe of CAD 400 million. Our equity ratio stayed on a healthy level at 46.4%. After this financial deep dive into a quite unusual and intensive year, 2022, I now hand back to Hans- Jürgen for our strategic initiative and the outlook 2023. Over to you, Hans- Jürgen.
Thank you, Olaf. Ladies and gentlemen, let us now look at certain strategic initiatives within our segments. We started most of them in 2022, and they will bear a fruit going forward. Chart 20 illustrates our segment Taste, Nutrition & Health and our ambition to extend our capabilities in pet applications. We want to become the solution provider for pet care, a downstream move in the value chain. Swedencare represents a unique opportunity for Symrise to complement its health expertise and bring new downstream capabilities to get closer to the pet owner. With the market-related impairment loss we faced last year, we are fully convinced of the value and great potential of the Swedish company.
On the pet food side, we are strengthening our backward integration in egg proteins with the recently announced joint venture with Sunner, one of the main poultry processors in China. In the Scent & Care segment too, we have taken different actions to strengthen our position to accelerate growth, as you can see on chart 21. In 2022, we have further expanded our fragrance activities by acquiring the two French fragrance houses, Neroli and Romani, located near Grasse. The integration is on track, and the business is fully meeting our expectations. In the next step, we will build a new site in Grasse under the heritage of Maison Lautier 1795. The brand combines Grasse savoir faire with cutting-edge innovations to create a contemporary house with a sustainable vision for natural ingredients. A few weeks ago, we announced a strategic investment in Synergio.
The biotech company specializes in the development of natural and sustainable solutions using advanced plant-based technology for consumer goods products. Symrise will participate in the Series A funding round of Ignite Venture Studio. The U.S.-based company creates and invests in global innovative startups ventures associated with beauty, health and wellness. By investing in Ignite Venture Studio, Symrise will broaden its expertise and its market environment and the growth alongside the creativity and the speed, the personal care industry. Chart 22 highlights some selected projects to expand capabilities as well as to build new sites. We started, for example, to increase capabilities in Germany, Canada and Spain, to name a few. In 2022, we are also starting to build new production sites to leverage our growth opportunities in certain countries such as Mexico, Brazil, France and in the U.S.
As you all know, sustainability is and always has been an integral part of our strategy. As you can see on chart 23, our approach is fully aligned with the UN sustainability goals and embedded in our entire operations. From sourcing thousands of new raw materials from all over the world, the basis for innovative product solutions to green production methods. Our roadmap and priorities are aligned with all our stakeholders through a materiality matrix we just updated. Our commitment is clearly recognized, by example, for the Carbon Disclosure Project, who assessed 15,000 companies in 2022. Symrise was awarded Triple A status for the third consecutive year in a row in all three categories: water, climate and forest. We are one of 13 companies worldwide who achieved that status. I want to conclude today's presentation with the outlook for this year on page 24.
Following strong growth, we estimate that the global economy will grow more moderately this year. One year after the start of the Ukraine-Russia crisis, one can hardly foresee the impact for all of us today. We expect an increase in energy prices and selective raw materials which will impact our profitability, especially in the first half of 2023. At the same time, we are confident that we are very well pro-positioned to continue our profitable growth course. Our robust business model with its diversified portfolio, our far-reaching international presence from the basis of our successful business model. For 2023, we are targeting organic growth of 5%-7% in line with our midterm guidance. With headwinds from the raw material and energy prices, we aim at an EBITDA margin of around 20%.
Our midterm targets until 2025 remain fully in place. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. I would now like to open the conference for your questions.
Many thanks, Heinz-Jürgen Bertram. Turning to Q&A, we are now happy to take your questions after the operator's instructions. Many thanks.
Thank you very much. We will now start the question and answer part. Please note that only participants of a Webex conference can attend. Participants of a telephone conference will not be able to ask questions during the analyst conference, but are welcome to send them via email afterwards. If you would like to ask a question, please select the Raise Your Hand icon in the bottom bar of the Webex. When it is your turn, I will announce your name, and you will receive a message in the Webex to activate. If you wish to withdraw your question, click on the hand icon again. For any questions, please press on the hand icon. Thank you. Mr. Matthew Yates, may we have your question, please?
Hi, everyone. I hope you can hear me okay. I'd like to ask a brief question around the impairments that you took. Just to clarify on Swedencare, at what share price has that now been marked down to, just relative to the current share price of, I think it's 26 SEK as it stands? Can we do a similar exercise on Probi? What share price is that being carried on your books? Again, I think the current price is closer to 180. I appreciate share prices can certainly be very volatile and often wrong, but given the respective results reported by these two companies, is it fair to say that the businesses are perhaps not developing as you might have hoped?
If so, do you think those issues are temporary, or is there a change in your investment case? Any thoughts about whether your shares would be better protected if you had more control and bought out the remaining minorities? Thank you.
Matthew, thanks for your question. I start, and I think Olaf will continue with some financial details. First, as I said, for Swedencare and as well as Probi both fulfill our strategic initiatives, and we are still convinced that this is the right move. Swedencare, mainly an impact was, yes, the share price was plummeting significantly, as did on Probi, but again, our strategic alignment has not changed with this. On Probi, I do not see any risk, because the value of the shares is probably a lot higher currently than in our books. Olaf, you may have some more details on that one, right?
On the impairment side, we of course took the requirements and we did the impairment test. There are two values. One is the actual share price, and the value we applied is the value in use. The concept here is our business case behind Swedencare, where we have the respective expectations. The remaining share price average is 93 SEK. That is the environment for Swedencare. For Probi, actually, I don't know, because since 2016, we are already consolidating Probi to the full extent. Therefore, there's no relevance anymore from a share price perspective. Business development-wise, Hans Joachim commented on that.
Yes.
Does more control help? In a certain way, of course. We see the opportunities already today. We are working actively with Probi for years now. Joan is on the board. Jean-Yves is on the board of Probi. On the board of Swedencare, we have now Jean-Yves. There will be further interaction on the, on the management level.
Mm-hmm.
I see, Jean-Yves now in the picture, so if he wants to comment on that, please feel free.
Jean-Yves is on mute. I may hop in again, Matthew. On Probi, as that started before even Olaf arrived, but me as a dinosaur, we started buying Probi shares when the share price was at 35 Swedish krona, we started buying from there on. There is a lot of room. No question. On Probi, we had some questions about the performance that led to a change in CEO on Probi. On Swedencare, we believe it is a temporary item. We have only limited visibility, but we are in regular contact with the with the CEO and Håkan Lagerberg, the CEO of Swedencare, has confirmed his long-term goals and objectives, and there's no reason for us to not believe in this. Okay?
Got it. Thanks.
Thank you. Maybe if I can have a second question. I apologize if I missed the first few minutes of the call. Are you able to comment at all around the EU investigation that has come to light around the fragrance pricing?
Yeah.
Matthew? No, sorry, this was Charles. We did not get the beginning of your question.
Charles, could you repeat your question? We just got the last two, three words of your question.
Your line is still open.
Matthew, could you repeat your question? Obviously, your line is still open.
Oh, sorry. Sorry, gentlemen. I hope you can hear me okay. I apologize. I missed the very start of the call. I wasn't sure if you made any comment on the EU investigation on the fragrance pricing, that has come out in the last 24 hours or so. If you had any comments, that would be helpful. Thank you.
Matthew, we have not made any comments yet, we are clearly expecting that question. We got a visit yesterday unexpected caught us by surprise as well. Obviously there's an investigation on price fixing or going on in the fragrance industry. We are fully supporting the officials in their investigation. We are providing all the documents they require. Status is we are being looked at this thing as a witness so far. We wait what is happening. We do not know more about what's going on than what was released in the press. As I said, status is we are being considered witness in this thing at present. Okay?
Okay. Thank you.
Other questions?
Our next question is from Mombasa Choudhary. Your line is open. Hello, Mombasa Choudhary, we cannot hear you. So maybe in the meanwhile, we take the next questioner. Mr. Oliver Schwarz, may we have your question please? Oh. We take the next questioner. Mr. Charles Eden, may we have your question please?
Guys, can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
It's Charles Eden from UBS. I think there's some technical issues on the webcast. But thanks for allowing me the questions. I'll limit myself to two please. Firstly, on the top line guidance for this year, so 5%-7% organic sales growth as is consistent with your medium term. Could you discuss your expectation on volume versus price within that this year? Also any comments you can give us around the trading in Q1 so far, given obviously the stocking commentary around Q4. Then the second question's on the margin outlook for this year. Obviously, broadly flat is the expectation, per the guidance. Can I ask, is that the typical Symrise prudence at the start of the year around the margin?
Maybe you could comment on division because obviously the Scent & Care margin came in below expectations partly due to the fire in the U.S. I would assume that's one-off in nature and would rebound. Are you assuming a deterioration in your Taste, Nutrition & Health margin in order for margins to be broadly flat for the year? Those are my two questions. Thank you.
Okay, Charles. I start and Olaf feel free to hop in when you so. Top line for the whole year, we gave the guidance as we typically do, 5%-7%. What we can say at present, the business dynamics which we have faced in the first two months and what we see on March going on, is healthy and top line makes us confident that we will be achieving the guidance for the full year. That is top line. At present, top line will not be the challenge as we have a very broad portfolio with strong dynamic businesses going on. The margin, however, it is not the typical Symrise sandbagging as you highlighted, Charles.
We have a lot of unknown things currently ongoing and Olaf pointed out we have passed on price increases. It is obvious that we have to do more price increases to meet our expectation. It is becoming more difficult going further because we have already increased prices, but energy prices keep going up. Raw material prices will go up this year again, not as steep as in the last year, but we expect on a low single digit range raw material prices to go up. That is the scenario we see. Very volatile for the first half year, very bumpy. We are more optimistic for the second half of the year because then we should have accomplished price increases and should have adjusted to the new environment.
Last question you had is volume and price increases. In the last year, the majority, the far majority was coming from price increases. However, different than the one or the other in our industry, we also faced some volume increase, but the majority came from price increase. This year we see a return to a more normal situation, say half and half price, half volume. That is what we foresee for this year. Olaf, you wanna allude to this?
I think it's fair 50/50 on price volume and of course there's a good carry over from last year also, moving into this year. I think this is the assumption you should take for the moment.
Okay.
The next question is from Céline Pannuti.
Celine Pannuti from J.P. Morgan. Can you hear me?
partially, Celine. partially, but go ahead.
I have a follow-up questions on the previous answer. You said that growth would be half volume, half price. Because we've seen a disappointment in volume in the fourth quarter, am I to hear that the beginning of the year has been better from a volume standpoint?
Mm-hmm.
Are we talking low single digit? I think that you need to put true for this year.
Mm-hmm.
The second question is on Pet, which has been a strong performer. You are looking for the CapEx. I just wanted to obviously the group we're looking in this division. A lot of you to become bullish, but at the same time, the question is whether there could be a bit of a softening of the growth.
Hey, you were very hard to understand, Céline, but I tried to sort out at least what I got. First one was Q4 versus Q1. Q4 undoubtedly was miserably and due to some exceptionals, as you would call it, perfect storm. We had an explosion, we had downtime. The explosion in Colonels Island led to downtime, not only in Colonels Island, but also in Jacksonville, also Bushy Park, because that is linked. Production has not occurred, which means also a reduction in turnover. All in all, this is something which we do not expect this year and which we didn't see the first two months. Do not expect such a bad performance in Q1 than compared to Q4.
January was pretty good, February was okay, but still a high volatility in the bottom line. Not a bad situation, but a volatile situation because the situation is, at the moment, very challenging. Top line, as I said, is good compared to your question. Q1 is a lot better compared to Q4 last year, but the situation will probably improve to the second half of the year. You asked also for the CapEx, if I got it right, 6%. Take that relatively high CapEx ratio, like in the past, for our good sign of conviction in the stability and the development of our business. Most of the investments, CapEx investments are geared for growth and building the business.
Just to name a few, Jörn is building a cosmetic ingredient plant, and expansion of the cosmetic ingredient plant. Similar blueprint like what we did in the U.S. We wouldn't do it if we were not convinced of the future of the business. The largest investment this company has at the moment is a big investment in a pet food factory in the U.S. We wouldn't do it if we were not convinced. We are building a liquid flavor plant, a big one, expansion here in Germany, and also a spray dry, spray dryer in Germany. We're expanding our capacities in France, and we're looking to expand our footprint in Asia. You see, there's a lot of investments going on, and we would not do it if we were not convinced, and that's what we did in the past as well.
We had typically a higher CapEx ratio as spending compared to our competitors. The typical gearing rate in CapEx is 5, 4%-5%, and we had higher ratios and we are not going high, that high in the percentage of CapEx spending as we did in the past, up to 7% or more, until Heidi even asked, "Does management even care about cash?" At least take this, even in these volatile times, as a sign of confidence in our business model. Okay?
Our next question comes from Isha Sharma. Mr. Isha Sharma, your line is open.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yeah, perfect. Loud and perfect, Isha.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation. I have two questions, please. Could you help us understand the sub-segment trends within Scent & Care that led to the volume and margin decline? I know you mentioned some one-offs, but if you could please help us on the business level to understand the volume and the margin decline. The second question is again on margin. You mentioned you're more upbeat in the second half, but you also said that you saw a good start to Q1. How should we think of the margin development between the first and the second half, please?
Okay. Isha, sharp questions as usual from your end. I'll do the segment. I wanna take a margin. The sub-segments in Scent & Care you asked for. Fine fragrance was very healthy, very good dynamics, double-digit growth, nothing to complain. Of course, also the margin could be as a tendency higher, because also there was an impact to some extent on raw material costs. Fine fragrance was clearly a driver for strong growth. The other one was Cosmetic Ingredients. Clear driver for growth, clear driver for healthy margin. Nothing to complain, doing well. That is one of the reasons, the high confidence we have in that business, that we really built big capacities in Cosmetic Ingredients. There we clearly saw the turnaround, thanks to Jörn, we will allude to that.
We saw some weakness and that is in line with what we have seen from the competition in consumer fragrance that was very low growth. We had to compare, comparison the year before when the COVID pandemic was and everyone was looking for disinfectants and on all this. We're back to normal last year. There was a lower dynamic, growth dynamic. Last but not least, aroma molecules as well. We see these two areas being impacted by energy costs. 70% of the energy costs we carry in the chemical, which is aroma molecules to a large extent, division. There we see some big impact. Also we see increasing competition from China. That is what you heard from the rest of the chemical industry as well.
That gives you the four areas in fragrance, Scent & Care, and oral care was okay. That gives you a highlight on the segments, I guess, top line and growth dynamics as well as bottom line. Margin development this year, again, we have a mixed picture so far, and that is not unexpected. We said already last year when we said, well, we will face some challenging times because a steep increase in raw materials, a steep increase in energy costs, and with the different challenges in supply chain and all this, it will take a certain time to get back in a balanced situation.
We will be able to to pass through increasing price increases, but it will take a while, as we have said, and we will need quite a few month until we have passed all of that. Having said that, going back to the question from Celine, the first two month we saw this year were not as bad as the Q4, where we missed growth, where we missed bottom line, where we missed pretty much everything. We haven't seen in the first two month of this year any special incidents. The only incidents which we have is the need for further price increases and the volatility which we see coming back from the volatile situation.
That leads to the situation that we say first half of the year we will see some pressure on the margin, as we said. Second half of the year will be better and overall, we're confident that we will be able to meet our guidance for this year. I hope, Isha, that clarifies and answers your question.
Very clear. Thank you so much.
Oh, you're welcome.
Mr. Oliver Schwarz, may we have your question, please?
Thank you for taking my question. Second try. I hope you can hear me now.
Loud and clear.
Wonderful. The good operational questions have already been asked, what remains for me is to tease you about Swedencare. Sorry for that. My two questions on Swedencare are, firstly, obviously you recognize the participation in Swedencare as right to use. Basically that is not, let's say, in connection with the actual market cap, but with your expectations on future cash flow. Could you elaborate on what changed in your view of cash flow generation from Swedencare that led to the EUR 126 million impairment on your participation? That would be my first question. The second question would be, if, let's say, the market cap of Swedencare continues to go down, it's like it's down more than 10% since your last assessment on December 31, 2022.
Are we likely to see more of those impairments? Lastly, third question, you could buy the remainder of Swedencare for less than the EUR 500 million you shelled out for the first 30% as of now, given the current share price. Why not go for it? That would be my three questions. Thank you.
Yeah, Olaf, thanks for your questions. Olaf will probably add a bit more on the detailed financial stuff, this cash flow, whatever contribution that is an Olaf case. The strategic part I'm more than happy to highlight. One of the largest assets we have in our company is the unique positioning we have in pet food. The unique positioning going forward, looking forward, what could be a big further driver for even more value in our company would be expanding the broadness and application range in pet. The current status we have in pet is we are very well-entrenched in nurturing cats and dogs, being the partner for good pet food and pet feed. As I keep saying, the pet has made a formidable career.
The dog in the '50s, '60s, behind the house, 10, 20 years later in front of the house, then, turn of the century in the house and then now in the bed. The pets start to develop the same, similar, non-communicable diseases like the pet owner, which is obesity, diabetes, oral care problems and all this. In other words, the pet has become a fully blown member of the family, and just feeding the pet is not enough. We have to treat it as a fully blown member of the family. This area is not consolidated, is a unique opportunity for us to broaden our capabilities in a unique spot. That is, in short words, the strategic, asset, which we wanna pursue, and we are uniquely positioned to grab this opportunity.
We would be looking back 10 years from now and say, "Why did we miss this opportunity?" You see me very convinced of where we have to go. Cashflow, Olaf will say a few words on this, like impairment. We did what we had to do at the moment. It's hard to say what has to be done in the future, Ola, Oliver. We are committed, and we have said that always that we are not excluding to increase our shareholding. What you outlined is something which we see as well. We're not confirming it now but we are also not excluding it. Having said that is from my end, the part. Olaf, if you want to add some financial numbers, feel free.
Yeah. Oliver, of course, as you rightly mentioned, we applied a discounted cash flow model for this case and came with the assessment and to the impairment. We took all the internal and external information into consider which we have. Of course, we have a lot of knowledge around the pet food market, its development, that went into the case. We even used some external support to come up with this business case. That is built on all the information which is available. Of course, it comes down to also that Swedencare delivers on their own promises, which is fast growth and good margin development. We need to see in the course of the coming 12 months where this business case brings us. This is the situation from an accounting perspective.
As far as I can say, if Swedencare delivers on these assumptions, then we have definitely no further impairment in front of us. If not, then we need to review the situation on a half-year basis. This is pretty much what we need to do now.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Mr. Andrew Benson, may we have your question, please?
Yeah. Hear me now. Thank you for taking the questions. You announced your a profit warning at the end of January. No fault of Tobias, as he perhaps was unable to explain clearly the rationale behind that. I was wondering if you are, you know, what changes to your systems that you're planning to enable you to react faster to events or to be able to see them and communicate them earlier? That's the first question. The second, You mentioned a number of exceptionals, obviously including the big Swedencare write down, but the others seem to come to about a +28 .
I don't know whether that's right or wrong, but on a sort of clean underlying base, can you just give us an update on what EBITDA is? Third thing, some of your peers, you know, IFF, Chopard have announced productivity cost-cutting plans, to, you know, in the face of significant cost pressure. Just wondering what you're doing there as well. Thanks.
Okay. Yeah, let me take the beginning. Olaf, you hop in if you want. Profit warning, we can talk about that for as long as we want. We might be late on this and taking the criticism myself. We could have issued it a few days earlier, but again, a few drivers I mentioned and said, this explosion, this incident in Colonels Island with implications on Jacksonville and Bushy Park and on the top line was something which hit us surprisingly. Also, not mentioned here yet, but also valid, there was this freeze storm where the pet food plant was down. All in all, we missed top line and we also missed bottom line. Not only because of it, but these were big contributors to that.
Having said that, Olaf can happily bring up some additional things. Last one, you mentioned second question. Yes, competitors of us have already initiated or announced big cost-cutting plans. We will have cost optimization programs ongoing as well. We have already started. In our guidance, this is included, but yes, in this concurrent environment, it's needless to say that we have to initiate measures to improve our profitability beyond price increases. Having said that, I would like to hand over Olaf.
To your question on the exceptionals and what we have communicated, I think we have mirrored pretty much what you also find in our compensation report, so you can debate at length what is an exceptional and what not. The ones we have mentioned to you would lead to an EBITDA margin of 19.3, 19.4, in that range, if you include it. That is pretty much coming from the two positive exceptionals, which we mentioned, Velcorin and also the partly sale of the color business. Then we had all the one-offs on the negative side, especially in the fourth quarter, which impacted us.
When it came to the profit warning, the timing, of course, we needed to be safe on the numbers, which we mentioned to you. It took us a few days also in alignment with the auditors to make sure that we communicate properly, and that drove pretty much the timing of this profit warning. I think this is what we needed to do from a legal perspective, making sure that you are informed and also compared it to the consensus expectation, and we came out with this information as soon as we were on the safe side to communicate it. That is what I can add to the picture.
Yeah. I think I don't know if you're still here, but it was really the cause of the profit warning. I think at the time it was announced, you released a or the press release gave the numbers, but the causes, you know, this is the first time I've heard the details of the causes of the breakdown. I don't. That's sort of a communication exercise to just, you know, put that out there that it would be helpful if the underlying reasons for the disappointment were expressed as well at the time of the announcement.
Yeah. Remember, I mean, the first triggering point was the impairment on Swedencare, which we realized, and of course it was creating a deviation to the consensus expectation, especially on the margin side, which led at the end to this profit release earlier than we would normally have done it, actually today. Then of course, we saw the first view on the margin situation for the year without having all the explanations. This was an exercise we had to go through, and therefore maybe Tobias could not give you all the information details at the time of the announcement. We felt from a obligation perspective that we had to communicate to the market properly what it will be, without being able to give you all the details.
That's why we sit together today actually, you know?
Yeah. Thank you very much. Thanks.
You're welcome.
Thanks a lot. We are coming to the end of this conference call. Thank you very much for your time, for your interest in Symrise today. We are looking forward to seeing you in person in the upcoming meetings, be it in person or virtually. Thank you very much. That's it for today. Thanks and goodbye.