Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Südzucker AG Q3 results of financial year 2025-2026 conference call and live webcast. I'm Moritz, your host call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's our pleasure to hand over to Andreas Rothe. Please go ahead.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to all of you to our conference call this morning, and of course, we wish you a Happy New Year 2026 and all the best for you and your families. The underlying presentation for the call has been published already this morning on our website. Today, we released the statement for the first three quarters of the financial year 2025-2026. We are going to present the highlights of this period and confirm our full-year group earnings guidance for the full-year figures. As you may know, since October 2025, we have welcomed a new member to our executive board, our new Chief Commercial Officer, Dr. Theresa von Fugler, and we would like to use today's call to give Theresa the opportunity to introduce herself to you.
With that, I would like to hand over to Theresa, after which we will continue with the presentation by our CFO, Dr. Stephan Meeder.
Thank you, Andreas. My name is Theresa von Fugler. I'm German, 47 years old, married, and I have two kids. I completed my entire education in the U.K. with a Bachelor in Biology at the Diploma in Biomedical Sciences and a PhD in Biochemistry from Imperial College. Before starting my professional career at the International Strategic Business Unit of Henkel Cosmetics in Düsseldorf, exciting positions at Henkel Asia Pacific as country manager, Vietnam, and in general management of L'Oréal, Petit Bateau, and lately as a managing director for Sanofi Consumer Healthcare in Germany with brands like Mucosolvan, Dulcolax, Buscopan, and Allegra followed. All of these missions were marked with transformation, cultural change, turnaround, and driving profitable growth with dedicated teams and, of course, innovation. I am driven by purpose, motivated by challenge, and I love winning teams.
Now, I'm delighted to have joined Südzucker Group because despite all the volatility in the markets, the company has a great deal of untapped potential. It is well established in the sugar segment, of course, but it also is particularly well positioned in the specialty and BENEO segments. After all, we are already active and established in several of the macro trend segments and have developed real expertise in these areas over time. Now, we just need to focus, double down with excellence and execution, and fill the innovation pipeline long term. So let's look at three of the macro trends that I'm referring to. First, and very important to me personally, is health and wellness, and of course, related to that, healthy aging.
Health and wellness are overarching macro trends that also include functional foods, gut health, microbiome, immunity, cognitive enhancement, appetite control, constant energy supply, and high protein, as well as reduced sugar, salt, and blood sugar content. In order to age healthily, consumers today are very conscious about what they eat and drink. They take proactive approaches to their well-being and focus on prevention rather than cure. Different generations have different concerns, motivations, and behavior. That is a great opportunity. At BENEO, we are already active in these markets, but we have not launched too many of these innovations in recent years. Now, we need to change this and double down on our strength. The second trend that is very obvious to all of us is, I guess, the fast-paced convenience trend.
Our busy lifestyles are driving demand for easy-to-prepare and ready-to-eat foods, including meal kits, snacks, sport nutrition, and new technical solutions such as meal planning apps, AI, and increasingly being integrated in our lives. Increasing convergence with other trends such as functional foods, healthy snacks, and plant-based products appear too. Noticeably, the GLP-1 and health trends are promoting the consumption of snacks with new, smaller packaging, convenience, and here high protein and high fiber contents, not just en vogue, but also meaningful complements for patients. So, with Freiberger, PortionPack and BENEO, we are already playing in this fast-paced convenience growth segment. And the third trend I'd like to highlight is clean and green and purpose orientation.
Despite the growing ambivalence of international players on the topic of sustainability, as we all know, climate change is still becoming increasingly noticeable to all of us and is having an impact on health, food security, sustainable mobility, and of course, the entire economy. Consumer concerns are driving this trend towards less waste and circular economy. Demand for environmentally friendly packaging, sustainable procurement practices, plant-based foods and beverages, regional sourcing, and a return to nature continues to rise, even if the willingness to pay for this at this moment is still an issue. Here we can continue to play, of course, an important role as a local partner with regional products, bioethanol, bio-based chemicals from CropEnergies, sustainable packaging with PortionPack, and innovations such as Speedcraft are just some examples. In short, we are already active in many trend segments and growing markets.
We have genuine expertise in these areas and have a good track record of innovation in the past. Now, we need to ensure that we will fill the pipeline for the future sustainably and at a higher speed and frequency and move forward with excellence and execution and a market and product-oriented spirit. I look forward to actively tackling and mastering this exciting task with my dear colleagues in the board and the teams at Südzucker Group. And so I have the pleasure to hand over to Stephan Meeder.
Thank you, Theresa. Thank you also to Moritz and Andreas for your introduction, and thank you to you, Theresa, for your personal intro. I really appreciate it, and we are very happy to have you on board. Ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome also from my side, and happy holidays to you and your families, and thank you very much for your interest shown in Südzucker. As already mentioned, I would like to give you now an overview of the business performance in the first nine months of this fiscal 2025-2026 and give you some more details about the confirmed earnings guidance for fiscal 2025-2026. Let's start on page five, where you find the key figures of the first nine months of fiscal 2025-2026. Before going into the details, I would like to highlight the overall picture, the big picture.
So the picture is mixed. It's a mixed picture. On the positive side, we see that Q3 isolated in fiscal 2025-2026 has improved significantly both versus the prior year, but also compared to Q1 and Q2 this year. So this is positive, and this development is also fully in line with our expectations, and we remain, as Andreas also already said, we remain on track to meet our full-year guidance. On the other side, the nine-month figures also clearly show that it remains a challenging situation. You can see that on the nine-month figures as a whole, we are significantly below prior year, and this is mainly due to lower prices in the sugar segment, where we have to face still a significant loss situation, which is challenging and is a key topic for us in Südzucker management. So after nine months, we have reached the following numbers.
You can see that group revenues came in at EUR 6.4 billion, which is significantly below prior years. Same is true for EBITDA. So EBITDA came in after nine months at EUR 367 million versus EUR 502 million in prior year's period. Same is true for operating result, where we reached EUR 95 million after nine months. This figure stood at EUR 236 million in last year's period. And same is true for cash flow, which decreased to EUR 179 million. You will see later on some more details. And net financial debt came in EUR 122 million above prior year's level and EUR 181 million above the end of financial year 2024-2025. So also net financial debt is on a significant number. So this is also besides the restructuring in Südzucker, key topic for management.
On the next page, on page six, you see the historic development, and given the last three years, the downward trend.
I would like to highlight that on December 16th, we had to announce an inside information, MAR, and there we did two things. One, we confirmed the full-year guidance for fiscal 2025-2026. We still assume revenues to come in between EUR 8.3 billion and EUR 8.7 billion and an operating profit between EUR 100 million and EUR 200 million. I refer to the Q&A, which we had last time on the Q2 figures. There I indicated that we are slightly below midpoint for the operating profit guidance, and this is still the case. The main topic in the MAR of December 16 was the first guidance for fiscal 2026-2027. Here we communicated that we see for group revenues 2026-2027 a slight decrease compared to this current fiscal.
When it comes to group EBITDA, we see a moderate increase, and the range should be between EUR 480 million and EUR 680 million.
That means a midpoint of 580 for the next fiscal. Let's move on to the development of the segments. I start on page nine. On the right-hand side, you can find the numbers for the first nine months, and in the middle, you find the numbers for Q3 isolated. I start with the nine-month figures. So on the revenue side, you can see that group revenues came in significantly below prior year's level, and revenues declined in the sugar segment, in the special product segment, also in CropEnergies and in the starch segment, but they rose slightly in the fruit segment. When it comes to EBITDA, the decrease of group EBITDA and group operating result was largely driven by the sugar segment, but was also significantly below prior year's level in special products, CropEnergies and starch, and only the fruit segment has showed a significant increase.
Looking at Q3 isolated, you can see that, as I mentioned, Q3 this year is significantly above last year's Q3, but here we have to keep in mind that for last year's operating profit, this was, I will come later on to the details, that was due to the fact that in Q3 last year, we sold sugar from the old campaign with a new contract, and that's the revaluation of these sugar stocks and sales. So compared to Q3 last year, operating profit improved significantly, not only the sugar segment, but also in special products as well as CropEnergies and the starch segment, and the fruit segment did remain rather stable.
I come now to the analysis of the different segments, then I will give a focus on sugar because in the last situation, that's the top topic for us, and I will be shorter on the other segments. Let's start with sugar. You can find on page 10 the development on the global sugar market because this has an important impact on the pricing, not only worldwide, but also on the European market. When we look at the graph, maybe at first sight, you can see that the global trends are still intact. When it comes to consumption, we still on a worldwide level see an increase in consumption. On the left-hand side, you see the sugar marketing year 2022-2023, and I reminded you that sugar marketing year always means starting 1st of October until end of September.
From sugar marketing year 2022-2023 to 2026-2027, we see an increase of worldwide consumption of sugar from 191 million tons to 195 million tons. That means roughly it's one million plus per year. This global trend in increased sugar consumption is still intact. When it comes to productions, we have the unwavering guidance, that means the variability or the cyclicality of nature. Production is going up or down. You can see on the right-hand side, we have some graphs. That means if it's red, it means we are in a surplus situation, and we mark it red because this surplus situation typically has a negative impact on pricing. We can see in the last five years, three years of surplus, and especially the last two years, and the prospects also for next year. This is weighing on the prices.
So going into the details, we base our assumptions on global market, GlobalData forecasts, and in its December 2025 estimate for the global sugar balance, the 2024-2025, the market research firm GlobalData forecasts a deficit of 1.5 million tons driven by declining production, in particular in India and Brazil, and rising consumption. But this small deficit is not enough to bring prices up. For the current sugar marketing year 2025-2026, that means that's the sugar marketing year, which has just started 1st of October 2025. Here, GlobalData projects a surplus of 3.3 million tons based on increased production, mainly in India and Thailand. And this means we see that the white bars, we still see a high ending stocks. In those high ending stocks, they weigh on the prices, which we will see later on.
World market prices are still going downward, and this is against our expectations. Coming to the prices, the world market price for white sugar was around EUR 500 a ton at the beginning of the 2025-2026 fiscal, and it rose initially approximately to EUR 520 per ton. This was in line with our expectations, but then during summer, we had to face a drop in world market prices, and the prices declined in the meantime to roughly EUR 350 a ton. At the end of November 2025, the price stood at EUR 377 per ton. What was the reason for these declining prices? On the one side, I already said it's the increasing of stocks, and the second point is also the weakness of the U.S. dollar. Let's continue on moving from the world market perspective to the European perspective.
Here I can say I also start with consumption. On the consumption level, we do see a slight decrease in consumption in Europe. On the left-hand side in the sugar market in year 2021-2022, we stood at a consumption that is the light blue bars at 17.4 million tons, and this consumption decreased to 15.8 predicted for this and next year. There is a slight decrease in consumption when it comes to production. We have seen over the last three years of surpluses, and that means the dark blue is bigger than the light blue. That means production exceeds consumption, and this leads at the end, that's the white bars, you see significant stocks, and these high stocks weigh on the pricing.
As you can see in the explanation of the right-hand side, this also led to cultivation expansions in the sugar marketing years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, but we do now see the trend towards a cultivation reduction. This can be seen in press releases, also market intelligence sources. We do foresee a reduction of the cultivation for 2025-2026 at roughly 9%-10% on the European level, and for 2026-2027, around 5%-10%, which is expected. This together leads to the explanation of the sugar market pricing development, which you can find on page 12. Unfortunately, we do see since the middle of sugar marketing year 2022-2023 until the start of sugar marketing year 2024-2025, we see that prices have declined significantly. In the following months until summer 2025, we observed a minor price recovery.
So that's on the right-hand side of the graph, and it was in line with our expectations. Our initial expectation for the period 2025 was this is the base of the prices, and we did foresee an increase in prices, but given the very good weather conditions in summer and less diseases, sugar prices have gone down or onwards. That's what you see with the world market price and also the blue line. European spot prices have declined significantly since summer, which was not in line with our expectations. After this summer, this development triggered a decline in spot prices over the summer and in the fall of 2025. This downward trend continues to be challenging overall, including the remaining of our current fiscal 2025-2026.
In December 25, which is the latest EU sugar price report that has been published, so for October period, the EU average sugar prices stood at 532 EUR per ton. That's the red line. From this price development, one additional remark on the geopolitical level. There are two issues which are important to us, both rather negative. One is the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement that was finally finalized in October 27, which leads that the sugar tariff quota is increased from 20,000 tons to 100,000 tons. And the other item is Mercosur.
So Mercosur was finally signed now on 9th of January, and we are still in the process of evaluating all the details of this agreement, but upfront, we consider this as negative for us. We deem this to be unfair competition because the requirements for sustainability outside the EU are much weaker or positive thing. The EU has very strong sustainability criteria, which per se is positive, but we have to keep in mind that there's a cost that goes with this sustainable agriculture, and we do not see this as a plain fair playing field. And this also leads Mercosur that sugar tariffs will be reduced. And our upfront analysis comes to the conclusion that without tariffs, we are facing a situation of structural oversupply, and this could be also then going forward weighing on prices. So let's continue with the financial figures in the sugar segment.
This is on page 13, and I also start with the nine-month figures, which you can find on the right-hand side of the graph. So after nine months, revenues in sugar segment came in significantly below previous year's level, and this reduction is due to the downturn in sugar prices as well as decrease in volumes as just explained. And so as a consequence, operating result shows also a strong decline. During the first nine months of this fiscal 2025-2026, the sugar segment reported an operating loss of - EUR 136 million compared to - EUR 23 million, and this significant decline in result was mainly caused, as just explained, by the sharp downturn in prices and volumes. This effect could not be absorbed by lower manufacturing costs in the 24 campaign. Q3 isolated, that was the effect that I already mentioned.
So in Q3, you can see that in the third quarter of previous year, inventories with high manufacturing costs out of the 2023 campaign had to be reevaluated after sugar prices had fallen significantly at the start of the 2024 campaign, which weighed disproportionately on the third quarter of the fiscal 2024-2025. Let's move on shortly with the other segments. I start with the special product segment, and here you can find this on page 14. Here you can see that after nine months, revenues in the special product segment decreased slightly, which is due to the disposal of the dressings and sauces business in the U.S., which was sold by Freiberger in Q2 of 2024-2025 fiscal, as well as lower sales prices and volumes. When it comes to the operating result, the operating result decreased significantly to EUR 190 million versus EUR 152 million in prior years' period.
This development is due to the aforementioned reduction in sales prices and volumes on one side and also rising production costs. On the other side, these effects could not be fully passed on to customers. Looking at the third segment, CropEnergies, you find it on page 15. Also on the right-hand side, the Q3 numbers for the nine months of the current fiscal. After nine months, revenues in the CropEnergies segment were down significantly compared to the first three quarters of 2024-2025. Here this decrease is primarily due to significantly lower sales volumes, mainly resulting both from scheduled and unscheduled maintenance work carried out due to technical issues. That's so important to notice. This decrease in volumes is not linked to market development. The ethanol market in the EU is still going up with higher consumption.
This was internal reasons due to maintenance scheduled and unscheduled, and on the other side, the development was further weighed down by lower sales prices for ethanol and food and feed products, so at the end, operating profit in line with this trend, the operating result was at EUR 3 million compared to EUR 8 million in prior years' period, so we move on to the fourth segment, which is the starch segment. You can find that on page 16. Here, after nine months, revenues in the starch segment declined slightly to EUR 704 million due to an overall decline in prices and volumes. Looking at operating result, here also operating result is down, so we see it significantly below prior years' level, and this decline was mainly attributable to, on the one side, lower sales prices and lower sales volumes, but also as linked to higher raw material costs.
On the positive side, this reporting period in fiscal 2025-2026 benefited from an insurance compensation, which was related to the flood damage in the plant in Pischelsdorf, Austria, which occurred in autumn 2024. Finally, let's move to the fruit segment, which shows a positive development. So for the fruit segment, for the first nine months here, revenues rose to EUR 1.245 billion in the current year. So this is positive, and also the operating result shows a positive development, came in significantly above prior years' level, and the margin here was increased by overall sales volumes remained roughly stable, thereby improving the earnings contributions. So after this look on the segmental development, let's turn to the other details of the P&L.
I continue on page 19 with the result from restructuring and special items, and here you can see that after nine months, the result from restructuring special items amounted to -EUR 55 million versus -EUR 72 million. This was largely attributable to the sugar segment. For example, this is linked to the follow-up costs for the closures of the plants at Pischelsdorf and Hrušovany, but there are also other items. When it comes to the result of the companies consolidated at equity, we also see a loss here. The loss situation stands at - EUR 6 million, and this is largely attributable to the starch segment alongside the sugar segment. Looking at the financial result, you can see my financial result after nine months turned out at - EUR 97 million.
It includes the net interest result of -EUR 77 million and the other financial result of -EUR 20 million, starting with the -EUR 77 million for the financial result for the net interest result. Here we see that we have to face higher interest rates because the average interest rates increased to 3.6% compared to 3.4% in prior years' period, and average net debt of around EUR 1.8 billion rather stable. For the other financial income, here we come out at -EUR 20 million, and this is particularly linked to exchange rate losses from foreign currency loans of non-euro companies. This is in particular the weak U.S. dollar. I continue with taxes on income and earnings per share on page 20. Taxes on income came in at +EUR 12 million, and finally, earnings per share came in at -EUR 0.40 against EUR 0.01 per year, and this is clearly unpleasant.
We move on with cash flow and the balance sheet. So for cash flow, same is true as the explanations for operating result. So due to the decline in operating result, cash flow also decreased in the reporting period to EUR 179 million compared to EUR 368 million in previous years' period. Working capital in this period decreased by EUR 83 million after EUR 345 million in prior years' period, and this development was mainly due to the sale of sugar inventories and offsetting beet payments as well as the initial introduction of the factoring program in Q3 2024-25. Investment in fixed assets reached EUR 322 million, which is almost EUR 100 million below the first nine months of 2024-2025.
There we stood with CapEx at 417, and here you can also see that it is a clear focus for management to be very vigilant on CapEx given the high net financial debt situation. So this is also a clear key topic for management to be prudent on CapEx and to have the net financial debt situation in view. Finally, I come to the other components of the cash flow, and here you can see that in the current fiscal Südzucker paid in July last year a dividend of EUR 0.20 corresponding to EUR 41 million outflow. And finally, we move on to the balance sheet on page 24, but I will be short on the balance sheet. You can see at 43%, the equity ratio remains on a very solid level, but we have to be very vigilant on the net financial debt situation.
So compared to February 28, the net financial debt at the end of November had increased by EUR 181 million and now stands at EUR 1.835 million. So I come to the end of the financial presentation before we go into the Q&A. So I come to the outlook of this current fiscal. And so today we are confirming our group guidance for the financial year 2025-2026. We expect group revenues to come in between EUR 8.3 billion and EUR 8.7 billion and operating result between EUR 100 million and EUR 200 million. That means midpoint EUR 150 million. And as I stated already, and to make the link to the Q&A last time, we are slightly below midpoint. That was the case at Q2 reporting, and this is still the case as of today.
For the sugar segment, we still expect the operating loss to be in the range of -EUR 150 million and - EUR 250 million. Due to further deteriorated world market prices in autumn 2025, the sugar marketing year 2025-2026 remains very challenging, and we expect another operating loss in Q4 2025-2026. For the other segments, so in the special products segment, we expect the operating result to decline significantly due to anticipated rise in costs. For CropEnergies, so in the CropEnergies segment, we expect significantly weaker revenues too. This is due to lower average ethanol prices compared to the previous years' period, as well as technical issues followed the scheduled maintenance shutdown, as already explained. At the same time, natural raw material costs have gone down compared to the previous year, and ethanol prices in the European market did improve during Q3 2025-2026.
Our expectation remains for the operating result to be on the same level as last year. For the starch segment, here we foresee a significant decline in operating result due to lower prices and rising raw material costs. And finally, in the fruit segment, we expect slightly improved operating result compared to the previous year as moderately increased prices with stable sales volumes are helping to offset the impact of rising costs. So the other financial KPIs for fiscal 2025-2026 for our outlook. So for the group EBITDA, the range is expected to come in between 470 and 570. Depreciation at previous years' level, CapEx is expected to remain below prior year. As I said, this is a clear management topic to be vigilant on CapEx. And for net financial debt, it is now projected to remain rather stable compared to the end of fiscal 2024-2025.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a summary, as expected and as forecasted, the isolated Q3 showed a significant improvement in earnings compared to the first quarters of the fiscal and as well as compared to Q3 of last year. We expect this trend will continue. We'll meet our full year guidance 2025-2026. In our first guidance for the new fiscal to start on 1st of March 2026, that means for the fiscal 2026-2027, we published on December 16 our first indication, and we expect improvements in the crop energy segment as well as in the special product segment. This development illustrates that the non-sugar segments continue to play a very important role in stabilizing the Südzucker Group and in enhancing its overall resilience. However, this also needs to be stated transparently, we are still in a challenging environment for sugar.
The ongoing price pressure in the sugar market. We assume that the market conditions for sugar will continue to remain highly challenging, and we do not foresee any significant earnings recovery in the sugar marketing year for the sugar segment in fiscal 2026-2027 at this point of time. As a result, our group EBITDA is expected to come in between EUR 480 million and EUR 680 million for the new fiscal. That means if I take midpoint EUR 580 million compared to the midpoint this year, this remains an increase of roughly 12%. Finally, the year 2026 also marks the 100th anniversary of Südzucker Group, so we are preparing this anniversary year. As a company with such a long-standing tradition, we have successfully navigated multiple market cycles over the decades.
We know while some of our business are inherently cyclical, we have built a high degree of resilience by consistently investing in the diversification of our portfolio. So we look also positive into the future, and this is a challenging environment, so we have both in mind. It's a challenging environment, but we know our tradition, and we look at this while also positive into the future. Thank you very much for your attention so far, and now together with Theresa and the team, we are happy to take your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two.
Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. And, the first question comes from Florent Egonoir from Citi. Please go ahead. Mr. Egonoir, your line is open. I'm afraid we cannot hear you. So do we.
We can't hear anything. Maybe later.
Yes. Please register for a question again. We will pick you up later. Then, the next question comes from Michael Kuhn from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. It's mostly about Mercosur that you already mentioned.
I know it's early days, and it still needs to be ratified, but still, let's say, looking like two years into the future or into your 2027-2028 financial year, how does the scenario analysis look like as of now, and what, let's say, potential reactions are on the tab le if you indeed would face a significant increase of sugar volumes from South America? So could we see further cuts in local production or any other restructuring steps just to understand a little better your thinking around that topic and potential shifts in the balances of sugar flows in and out of the EU?
Yeah. As I said, there has been 20 years of negotiation, and it seems now that they signed it, and we assume that it will really finally pass.
What we see as of today, we are still analyzing, but our upfront analysis is negative because this Mercosur agreement has impact both for sugar and ethanol. For sugar, it's foreseen that Brazil will have a quota of so far from EUR 98 per ton for this called CXL quota of 180,000 tons, and this will mean that these 180,000 tons will come in duty-free, and to put this in context, 180,000 tons, that's the volume of roughly, say, a medium-sized sugar factory, so this endangers one sugar factory in the European market, and it also has a pricing effect because if those EUR 98 of tariffs will no longer be put on the imports, it has a negative impact on pricing.
So we do foresee that there will continue to be price pressure given those imports, especially in a situation where these imports come in. Also, Paraguay will get a quota of 10,000 tons. It is not meaningful in size, but it clearly shows that it's the overall trend in this Mercosur agreement. And there is, we as Europeans, we strive for duty-free access for, let's say, automotive, pharma, machinery, industrial goods. And the contrary, we give duty-free access to the European market for agriculture. And as I said, we do see this as unfair competition because sustainability standards in the EU are much higher, which per se is positive. Also, we at Südzucker Group, we clearly commit ourselves to sustainability, and this is important. But there's a, as I said, there's a cost going with, and so we deem this to be an unfair playing field.
And Mercosur also foresees 650,000 tons of ethanol coming into the market. This is 450,000 tons for chemical purposes and 200,000 tons for all users. So this will be stepwise. It's not so easy to already clearly see what the impacts will be because already the European ethanol market is still growing on the one side, and on the other side, there is, at least to my knowledge, no increase significant in capacity. That means the growing demand in the EU for ethanol needs to be covered by imports as long as the European capacity is not increased. So it's difficult to see or to assume whether these additional imports will have a positive or negative price effect. This is rather, I would say, ongoing. We have seen this over the last years that the imports of ethanol to the European market have increased.
So for ethanol, it's difficult to assume, but for sugar, our first indication is clearly negative given the fact that there's 180,000 tons additionally coming in without duty.
Very clear. Thank you.
Then the next question comes from Hartmut Moers from MATELAN Research. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, and thank you very much for the detailed presentation. I would like to focus on two things. First one is crop. In your report, you talk about the standstill at Wilton and that you have booked special items from the Wilton plant now below the operating line. So first of all, where are we standing and what are the plans going forward with that plant? Secondly, you report 14 million in special items for CropEnergies.
So, I would assume the predominant part comes from Wilton, but to me, that seems pretty much for a quarter given the overall personnel cost at Wilton. And also what we had some 10 years ago when you already had Wilton mothballed. So, probably you could shed some light on the amount that you booked this quarter and if you can take this as a runway going forward as long as Wilton is in the condition that it is now.
Yeah. For Ensus, as the entire plant, I indicated last time that we are in very good discussions with U.K. government to find a solution and support package for this plant. This is still ongoing, but we think positively.
Given the confidentiality of those discussions with U.K. government, I cannot disclose details, but we are still confident that we will get this to a positive agreement and a support package for Ensus given the very high importance for Ensus for the U.K. market. When it comes to the special items in CropEnergies, we have seen that for the entire group, EUR 55 million was the charge in the first nine months for restructuring and special items. Amongst these EUR 55 million, EUR 35 million is in sugar and EUR 13 million is in CropEnergies. That's what you're referring to. To give you some more details on these 13 millions, it's a mixed picture. There are several items. One is the operating or the startup or ramp-up costs or costs for the bio-based chemicals.
We have charges for Ensus, but we also have an impairment for the plant in Wilton. In the prior year, this was entirely due to Ensus, but in the first nine months the impairments are for three items, roughly the same: bio-based chemicals, Ensus and Wilton.
Okay. Roughly the same means one-third each, right? This is what you're saying?
Yeah. I do not go into every detail, but it's roughly single-digit million amount per item that I just mentioned.
Okay. No, that makes sense in terms of size for Wilton. And the charge you took for the bio-based chemicals, I mean, it's the first time that you take the ramp-up costs as a special item. Is this also some kind of runway? So are we now entering a phase where you book part of these costs below the line?
I have to check. I don't have this fully in my notes. I will have to check whether this is ongoing or only a one-time charge. I will have to look.
Okay. Thank you. The consequence of booking these charges below the line means that you've made in the third quarter then about 16 million in CropEnergies. Is that a spread of roughly something beyond 100 million? Is this now a way that we should look at CropEnergies? So making 16 million a quarter, which means something above 60 million a year at a spread in excess of 100 EUR per cubic meter. Is this a realistic view, or is there anything else that is burning? So we're talking then about the three European plants, and this is what they can bring, or is this what they can bring in the current market environment?
As I said, for fiscal 2026, 2027, we are rather optimistic for CropEnergies. We do foresee a stable production, stable supply and demand situation on the European side, and we also do foresee a stable development, positive demand of ethanol prices. As we know, looking to the past, there can be high volatility, but our base case assumption is the stabilization in CropEnergies and also a better positive operating earnings contribution compared to this year. So for next year, we look to a better situation on operating profit level for CropEnergies.
Okay. And final thing I noticed, I mean, in terms of capital employed at CropEnergies, you had a decline, obviously, at the end of last year when you wrote down your participation in Wilton. But now you're basically back to the level that you had earlier, so something around 530. What's the reason behind that? Is it just a temporary working capital issue, or is there anything? I mean, part should be related to the ramp-up of the bio-based chemicals, but how is this working out?
Yeah. Yeah. There are two things. One is in Q3 last year, we completely or fully depreciated down Ensus. Yeah. This is bringing capital employed down, and now we have the as foreseen ramp-up of the bio-based chemicals plant and then a linear development. So there are no other special items in view.
Okay. And last one is on sugar, and I just want to follow up on the question that my colleague just asked earlier. I mean, you've painted a rather prudent picture with regard to price development in sugar, and you also indicated that there should be some improvements in terms of result or reduction of losses resulting next year in sugar, but not to a major extent. So what is the consequence of this? So what are you doing to bring sugar back into profitability under the assumption that we do not have a significant price increase, which, again, you indicated that you do not expect?
Yeah. As I said, overall, we do foresee a rather linear development for the loss situation in sugar. So as I said, no, I can say there's no improvement. So we see this still challenging for the sugar segment as a whole. What we do, how do we face the situation?
On the one hand, we started this Optimum Program where we look into all the cost elements of each and every plant and their administration. We do review all CapExX plans and say what is really needed, what can be postponed, what can be canceled, so we are prudent on CapEx, very vigilant on cost development and also, as I said, but I only can refer to market information, be it in press or in market research analysis and here we do, it is foreseen for Europe as a whole, this reduction in acreage, so it will be less sugar available and this should have a positive pricing effect. This is our strategy going forward, very being prudently internally when it comes to CapEx and costs and on the other side, seeing an overall trend in Europe towards a reduction of acreage.
Okay. Thank you very much. That was very helpful.
Welcome.
Then the next question comes from Oliver Schwarz from Warburg Research. Please go ahead.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, finally. Thank you for taking my questions. First one, Mr. Meeder, I'd like to basically continue on from the questions we just heard on your strategy on sugar. When looking back over the cycle, let's say for the last 10 years, the sugar segment contributed an operating loss to the results of Südzucker Group. And you just stated a variety of measures that you are currently implementing or plan to implement, but overall, this seems more like a structural problem because if the key to the strategy is reducing acreage to bring down sugar supply to the European market while there is an increased influx of imports into the market, for example, for Mercosur, that is basically running to a standstill situation.
And again, if the European sugar plants have to deal with lower sugar beet volumes, that will shorten the campaign length and hence increase the unit costs of sugar, which might not be really helping you in regard to bring profitability up. So this seems to be, let's say, a more deeper problem than can be tackled just with a couple of, let's say, reductions in CapEx and also in costs. This seems to be more like a dire structural problem that might need the closure of not only one, but several sugar plants around Europe to be rectified. Would that be a fair assumption, or are you more optimistic? And if so, why are you?
No, I can confirm your analysis. There's not much to add. Yeah. It is a tough situation, not only for Südzucker. It's for all players in the sugar market. If you look into the published figures of all the sugar companies that are publishing figures, you can see that each and everybody is in a loss situation. As to my knowledge, there's nobody gaining money at those prices. So you're fully right with your analysis. There's not much to add from my side.
Okay. Thank you very much. When we're talking about CropEnergies, can you please remind me on your schedule or your timetable on the starting up of the bio-based chemicals that you plan to produce and how the impact of a lower crude oil price and hence lower oil derivatives and the chemicals that are synthesized from them might impact the profitability of the bio-based chemicals you are likely to bring to the market? That would be my second question.
So schedule is we are on track.
Schedule for start of operation, I think it's end of next fiscal. Yeah. And when it comes, you said decrease in crude oil prices. Our ambition is not to sell our ethyl acetate as a product, fossil ethyl acetate plus premium. We do assume that our ethyl acetate is green as fossil-free, has their own value proposition. And we will deliver this ethyl acetate, and for those who are not fully familiar with it, so it's a solvent which goes into paints, into glue, into nail polish remover, and nail polish. Nail polish. And so there are also we are in contact with really very, very customers that are very, very interested in this product because it has a unique selling proposition being fossil-free. And so we do not like and we do not wish to position our product, our green ethyl acetate, as a fossil ethyl acetate plus premium.
No, it is a unique selling proposition. And the customer talks that we do still confirm that there's a very high interest for this product. So we do not want to have the link to fossil. It has a unique selling proposition.
Then the next question comes from Sahil Dey from Gravitation and Fund Management. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hello. Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yeah, we do. Good morning.
Yeah. Good morning. So two questions. Number one is you're saying the cultivation area is going to decline in 2027 by 5% or 10%. Do you see that more in the summer before your marketing period? That's my first question. And my second question is really around the fact that you burned cash in Q3 because you were working capital swing. Are you expecting a working capital release in Q4 or further investment in working capital, which would lead to more cash burn, and it would be helpful to know the trajectory of your working capital for 2027 as well.
Yeah, you're fully right. We indicated a reduction, or we do foresee a reduction in cultivation. What was it on the slide? 5%-10%? Yeah, and this is the current sowings. So that means the sugar beets in Europe, they are sown in March. So this is the cultivation reduction we do for this sugar marketing year or the harvest to come next year. That means that we do foresee this for the plantings, which will now go into the ground, and for cash working capital release, I look over to Andreas.
Yes. Andreas speaking. Hi. When it comes to the development, let's speak in more general when it comes to the net debt development, which the working capital has a high impact on. With the campaign running or starting in Q3, and it's winding down in these days, we are paying out the beet payments or down payments to our beet farmers. Therefore, our debt position increases during that time because we are making those down payments. These down payments basically stop with the end of the campaign. Then there are two further payments later in the year towards March and in June. Therefore, when it comes to Q3, our net debt position usually increases. That's our seasonal cycle that we have. Then towards Q4, we usually have it decreases again because at some point in January, those beet payments are stopping.
When we are looking at next year, we are still very early in the process, but we are still in the process when it comes to finalizing the budget that includes our net debt position as well. We see maybe a slight increase as of now, but of course, we are about to take certain measures when it comes to working capital management as well. So these are not yet final, but there will be no major improvements when it comes to the net debt position. Rather stable or maybe a slight increase when it comes to the next fiscal year would be expected.
Do you expect for next year your EBITDA from sugar to be positive or flat, or how are you seeing the direction of travel there?
I mean, with the announcement that we published on December 16th, we said that there are no major improvements to be expected. So this will still be strongly negative, yes. EBITDA, excuse me, I was talking about the operating profit. EBITDA should be rather around zero this year. Rather like this year, yes. Maybe a slightly red number.
Good. Then the next question comes from Florent Egonoir from Citi. Please go ahead. Mr. Egonoir, your line is open now. We cannot hear you.
Yeah. Is there a possibility to ask the question by chat?
I'm afraid not.
Florent, we can't hear you. Or later on to Andreas. Sorry. We can't hear you.
Then we shall go on with the next question, which comes from Jack Chapman from Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I think our first question was kind of answered in the previous one, but we're just thinking on slide 12 of the presentation. We're seeing that the price was diving below the EU price reporting. Which of the prices impacts Südzucker? The EU price or this Northwest price on sugar?
Sorry, I didn't fully get your question. Page 12, let me have a look. So on the world market price. Could you repeat your question? A little bit slower. I didn't fully get your question on prices.
Yeah. So the question was basically on slide 12. It seemed like the Northwest price was diving below the EU price. And for reporting, which one impacts you most? This was the question from Florent.
Okay, okay, okay. So for us, our main markets are Western Europe, yeah. So the EU average price has three regions. It's western, eastern, and northern. We are typically in where our main markets are where our production is. So this is the Northwest Europe or Western Europe pricing is more significant than the overall average.
That's perfect. Thank you.
Good. Then we have one follow-up question from Oliver Schwarz. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Sorry for what just happened, gentlemen. I got disconnected midway through your answer on the biochemicals. Hence, sorry for that. Let's try with another question then. Last year, Mr. Meeder, you rightfully highlighted that there was a year-on-year improvement in Q3 in the results and that you have built up positive earnings momentum, however, from a low basis.
However, that momentum is likely to break in Q4 due to the fact that last year, Q4 results were boosted by an investment gain of EUR 64 million, if my numbers are correct, in the connection of selling CO2 certificates that you no longer needed after you closed down production facilities. Is something similar to be expected this year from other sources, or will that, let's say, that one-off income, which was reported in the operating line and not reoccur? And that also leads me to another question, if I may. Can I ask you how much are we likely to see in below-the-line one-off costs and gains in the upcoming fiscal year of 2026-2027, given that?
Meaning in extraordinary and items? Say again? Yeah. Okay. You mean in extraordinary items?
Yes.
Resources? Yeah. Okay. Got your question.
Yeah. Because.
Tough question. Tough question.
I mean, Q4 is ongoing, so it's too early to say, yeah. But for sure, there's nothing to be excluded. So when we look into our CO2 strategy, we'll have to take into consideration whether or not what we will have is an acreage reduction. So if there's less production foreseen, so if, yeah, so I speak theoretically. And we can also evaluate the CO2 situation as we did last year. And when it comes to one-offs, this is also too early to say, but we are in the process of making up the final budgets. And what we typically do in Q4 is all the evaluating of the assets, impairment testing, and so on. This is a process ongoing. There's nothing I can say at this point of time, but also nothing that I can exclude.
So this is a duty that we have to do with all due diligence, and this will be done during Q4. So below operating profit, we confirm operating profit, but below operating profit, this is to be seen in Q4 ongoing.
Understood. Thank you very much for that. Another question is on food. Thankfully, fruit went against the grain, so to speak, in the current fiscal year with improving their operating results. Is that basically a structural thing, or is that just tailwind from market pricing and costs that benefited fruit, like pricing, costs, and so on, to the sugar segment, for example, on the flip side of the coin, where we saw lots of headwinds in the sugar segment? Is that just, let's say, operational tailwind in sugar, or is there also a structural component that will help the fruit operations to keep to remain on that earnings level for the years to come?
So for food, I mean, there is fruit preparations and fruit concentrates. So those businesses are slightly similar, but you can also have some other developments in both of the divisions. But generally speaking, the food development is positive. It has been in the past, and it is also in the foreseeable future that we see a positive trend in the fruit segment. This is also linked to global, but Theresa, you can add on that. This is also linked to global trends in food. That means we do see a high demand and higher consumption of proteins. Yeah. This can be plant-based proteins. This can be milk-based proteins.
And we see this trend in dairy very positively with high dairy proteins. And those high protein beet shakes or yogurts and so ever to have a good taste, they are combined with fruit. And so this is an overall trend. And Theresa, you can add on this is also linked to this GLP-1 discussion. So we do foresee for proteins and fruit a positive trend.
Yeah. No, I think you said it all very well done. So with the growth of high-protein products, especially in dairy, they go hand in hand with developments in fruits because of the flavors. And this plant-based approach that you see to enhance the market instead of just going in chemical additives is definitely one of the trends. And then the other one is that the convenience I talked about at the beginning is a big trend. Here we see a move away from the real fast food approach and going again into the more healthy direction. Therefore, this is also driving the development in fruits. Perhaps the recent debate in the U.S. as well on nutrition might give that, again, a little bit of tailwind.
Thank you for that. I seem to remember that originally the growth expectations, especially for the fruit preparations, were more optimistic than the underlying development was, which led to some overcapacities at AGRANA's fruit division. Also what you were saying regarding the substitution of, let's say, chemical aromas by natural fruits, that seems to fly a bit in the face of the current cost of living crisis where people are trying to trade down buying, let's say, non-brand white label food yogurts and so on that have those ingredients in it. From your point of view, is there, let's say, an increase in momentum in demand here, or is it stable, or is it perhaps even declining given the tailwind we see from the markets and the higher cost of living?
I think it's a very fair point. Of course, it's very difficult to foresee the, let's say, the fourth direction that we have to face, which is the economic development and the consumer behavior going forward. So from that point of view, I would say it's fair to assume in a conservative approach to say that we are perhaps assuming more of a stable development in that area. Having said that, our customer base is, of course, at the moment quite favorable in, let's say, the value, less of the value as opposed to the value-driving segment.
And therefore, let's say, at the moment, we are more on the stable approach, but the overall trend that we're looking at, as you can see, is the development in the plant-based is going quite strongly forward, both in the proteins as well as in the fruit.
And what you stated on overcapacities in fruit segment, this is not true. I can check with my or we can check with our AGRANA colleagues, but to my knowledge, there are no overcapacities. So this is I can check, but .
Just to clear that up, that was not referring to the current situation, but to the overall, let's say, initial planning of AGRANA, how that business has progressed and what they wanted to try to build in capacities. And that didn't, let's say, turn out to be correct, and hence they adjusted, but now it seems to be fine. That's basically my, let's say, helicopter view of the situation.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
So there are no further questions at this time, so I would like to turn the conference back over to Andreas Rothe for any closing remarks.
Yes. Thank you very much from my side for participating in this call and for all of your questions. Again, if there are any additional questions, please contact us in the relations department through the usual channels with our email or via telephone. Our next call will be on May 21st when we present our full year figures. Hope that you will join us for that call again. And until then, all the best from our side. Take care. Be safe. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye. Thank you.
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