Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We welcome all of you to our conference call this morning. The underlying presentation for the call has been published this morning at 7:30 A.M. CET on our website. Today, we release the statement for the first nine months of the financial year, 2023/24. We are going to present the highlights of this period and revisit our full year group earnings guidance for business year 2023/24. That has been confirmed today. Following the call, we are going to answer your questions. A recording of this call will be available on our homepage shortly after the call. Now let me hand over to the CFO, Thomas Kölbl.
Thank you, Nikolai. Ladies and gentlemen, also a warm welcome from my side to all of you, and a happy and healthy new year. As mentioned, I would like to give you a brief overview about the very strong business performance the first nine months of financial year 2023/24, and details about the confirmed earnings guidance for 2023/24. Furthermore, I will illustrate the main points of our delisting tender offer for all outstanding CropEnergies shareholders. Let me start with the highlights of the first nine months, which starts on page five. First of all, let me underline very clearly that Südzucker Group has achieved an outstanding performance in the first nine months of business year 2023/24. Group revenue showed an increase of about EUR 700 million, or 10% to EUR 7.8 billion.
The EBITDA was up by more than EUR 300 million- EUR 1.1 billion, or 40%, and group operating results by more than EUR 300 million- EUR 860 million, or 60%. Cash flow increased by 39% and reached EUR 970 million. Earnings per share after nine months came in at EUR 2.49, against EUR 1.30 last year. Net financial debt, end of November, came in EUR 300 million below prior year's level, and this is a great achievement and confirmation of the guided development during 2023/24, following comparative improvement since quarter one and quarter two. That positive development will continue in quarter four. Now let's have a look into the segmental performance on page six.
Group revenues increased significantly by EUR 673 million to EUR 7.8 billion, mainly driven by the sugar, special products, and fruit segments. Group operating results increased by EUR 324 million- EUR 860 million. This increase was mainly driven by the sugar and special products segments. Now I would like to reiterate the main points about the delisting tender offer for CropEnergies on page eight. On 19th December, we announced an important step for Südzucker Group, the delisting tender offer for CropEnergies shareholders, which we explained in an analyst call on 20th December. The respective conference call presentation can be found on the transaction page, cropenergiesoffer.com. We are pleased to start implementing a simpler and stronger group structure focused on promising future businesses in line with our announced strategy.
The current corporate and governance structure of the group are not ideal. Besides, Südzucker, CropEnergies as one of our core businesses and key strategic pillars, especially towards bio-based chemicals and proteins, is also listed, which ultimately leads to a complex structure of double-listed entities. CropEnergies entered the public market in 2006 to help facilitate the expansion of becoming the leading provider of ethanol in Europe. After 17 years of own capital market standing, which served the company well for many years, this setup is no longer appropriate in the current environment and stage of the business development. As volatile commodity-based business, the business model offers limited capital market compatibility, and hence, the separate listing has been under review for some time, and it has been concluded it's no longer necessary.
As we look forward, now is the right time to address this legal structure, which no longer benefits either side of shareholders, nor the company itself. The announcement reflects careful considerations of the best solution to resolve these issues created by our present structure. As we look to the future and try to prepare ourselves for the challenges and chances ahead of us, we want to simplify the capital structure and the de-risk the decision-making process in business to the group. The envisaged transaction entails a delisting offer according to Paragraph 39, German Takeover Code, to all free float shareholders of CropEnergies. The special conditions of such a delisting offer require Südzucker to compensate CropEnergies shareholders in cash, as it results in the subsequent delisting of CropEnergies stocks from the regulated market of German stock exchanges.
The delisting offer does come without any conditions precedent, and therefore, offers maximum certainty for Südzucker. Furthermore, the delisting at the end of the offer is not conditional to a certain threshold of shares being tendered into the offer, and hence, includes a certain automatism and therefore addresses all our objectives. For CropEnergies shareholders, the delisting offer provides an attractive cash event and the opportunity to tender, sell their shares at a reasonable premium prior to delisting of the shares. CropEnergies shareholders would like to continue participating in the interesting development of ethanol and bio-based chemicals. We have the opportunity to reinvest the proceeds into sugar shares at an attractive valuation compared to the price offered for the CropEnergies shares. Let's continue on page nine. For delisting offer, we are required to offer cash compensation to the outstanding CropEnergies shareholders.
The minimum compensation is the eight month volume-weighted average share price prior to the announcement, which amounts to EUR 8.41 per share, and is higher than the unaffected share price as of 18th December of EUR 6.79, due to the adverse share price performance over the past 13 months. We are convinced to offer a fair price of EUR 11.50 per share, which reflects the full valuation of CropEnergies after taking private. With this offer price, we pay a premium to the current, as well as to the longer-term average share price of CropEnergies, which should therefore be attractive for shareholders accepting the offer.
EUR 11.50 represents a premium of 37% to the six-month, we would be required to pay, and even 69% to the unaffected share price as of 18 December, of EUR 6.79 per share. Compensation is a cash payment, which will be paid once the offer closes, presumably by the end of February 2024, and which represents the offer price for each CropEnergies share tendered free of charge. The transaction has a 100% deal certainty, as the offer does not contain any conditions precedent, nor are regulatory approvals required. Once the responsible authority, BaFin, has approved the offer document, which is submitted 5 January, the offer period commences. Specifically, the offer will also close independent of the numbers of shares that will be tendered during the offer.
Please note that for any delisting offer, there will be no additional acceptance period during which shares can be tendered. Therefore, the offer period during which shareholders can accept this offer and tender their shares is the last chance for CropEnergies shareholders to sell their shares at a fair price before the listing at the regulated market will be terminated, and the trading of remaining shares will be much more difficult. The offer also provides an excellent opportunity to those CropEnergies shareholders that would like to continue to participate in the group's development, to reinvest the proceeds from the delisting offer in future shares. By reducing the number of listings within the group, we expect that the attractiveness of the future shares, its liquidity and visibility, will ultimately increase with all the benefits for the group and its shareholders. Let's continue on page ten.
We are confident that the delisting offer is the right step towards a more efficient and more attractive future group, and is also supported by our main shareholder, SZVG, who has been a core shareholder of CropEnergies from the day of the IPO on. Our offer was also positively received by CropEnergies's management and supervisory board. CropEnergies's entities have signed a delisting agreement in which CropEnergies's corporate bodies commit to apply for the delisting at the regulated market and support the offer. The management board and the supervisory board will publish a recent opinion two weeks following the start of the offer period. With our announcement to launch this delisting offer, SZVG, the main shareholder of Südzucker, stake of 4.9%, has been separately sold to Südzucker at the same price as the offer price.
This stock step has become effective with the announcement of the delisting agreement, which increased our shareholding in CropEnergies from 69.2%- 74.1%. As of today, including the additional purchased shares, Südzucker holds already close to 80% of CropEnergies shares. The support signaled by these key shareholders not only underlines the appropriateness of this decision, but also reflects the demand from our investors and the market to simplify the governance structure and complexity of our group. We feel that this transaction marks a true starting point to further advance our mutual goals in a much better structure and setup, and we will use this positive momentum to continue to work on our strategy for the benefit of all our shareholders and employees.
As mentioned, for further information, please refer to the transaction webpage, also including the timeline and next milestones of the transaction. In order not to become too extensively today, we will streamline the remaining part of the presentation and concentrate only on selected main points, starting on page 12, the sugar market. First of all, let me revisit the view on the global sugar market. This latest update in December for the last sugar marketing year, 2022/23, S&P Global, as one of the leading consultancies, has changed its view from formerly expecting a balanced market to a small surplus of 1.2 million tons. The stock-to-use ratio stays low at 36%. For the current sugar marketing year, 2023/24, the forecast from December has changed from a small surplus of 1 million tons to a new expectation of a 4.4 million ton surplus.
The stock-to-use ratio is expected to increase to 38%, which is still a moderate level in historic terms. Besides the S&P view, it is important to note that many other consultancies do still expect no merchant surplus for 2023-2024. Further important to note is that all consultancies predict a further increase in the global demand, also in the sugar market year 2023-2024. The S&P December forecast for 2023-2024 is still at an early stage. There are major uncertainties, particularly with regards to the further development of El Niño weather phenomenon, the duration of which cannot be precisely forecasted and could well develop additional adverse effects in 2023-2024. A certain nervousness in the market is therefore not surprising. Further developments must therefore be monitored closely.
Due to the fact that we have already concluded more than 90% of the contract volume for the 2023/24 sugar marketing year at a good price level, there's currently no immediate need for action. Let's have a look at the European market on page 13. Despite the difficult sowing and growing conditions in the EU, harvest prospects along the way have improved, but actual harvest conditions are very wet and therefore rather challenging. Overall, also with the expected recovered production level, EU will remain net imported in 2023/24. Sugar is expected to increase campaign days significantly from 107 to about 120 days in the 2023 sugar campaign, resulting in an expected sugar production from beet of 3.8 million tons, against 3.2 million tons in the previous year.
Besides this, let me revisit and update the situation around the Ukraine. EU has decided to suspend customs duties and quantity restrictions on sugar imports from Ukraine since June 2022 until June 2024. As a result, more than 400,000 tons were imported in the EU sugar marketing year 2022/23. In the current sugar marketing year 2023/24, Ukraine expects a significant increase in sugar production from the previous average of 1.2 million tons to more than 1.6 million tons from the 2023 campaign. This more than covers the country's own requirements and increases the export potential accordingly. According to preliminary figures, in the first three months of the corresponding period, imports into the EU are about 10% up against previous year's level. The further development has to be monitored closely. To what extent this will influence EU market has been seen.
For example, the further development of already executed export volumes of EU sugar producers. Nevertheless, it is all the more important to underline again, especially in this market environment, that we succeeded in achieving our original objective of keeping sales prices stable at a high level in the contract negotiation for the sales period from October 2023 to September 2024. Let's continue with the development in segment sugar on page 14. Revenues in the sugar segments increased significantly. The increase was achieved despite declining sales volumes due to the poor 2022 harvest, thanks to significantly higher prices. As already communicated, the price level in the 2023-2024 sugar marketing year confirms the high level reached in the 2022-2023 sugar marketing year. Operating result shows a very strong performance.
The drastic rise in costs, particularly for raw materials and energy, was offset by higher prices since the end of the last financial year. The further significant increase in production costs in the new 2023 campaign has so far only had a minor impact in the third quarter. Now, as said, we will keep the further detailed segmental development for this presentation and ask you to have a look into the respective quarterly statement. Let's continue with selected points, starting with the P&L on page 20. The result from structuring and special items amounted to -EUR 18 million, primarily due to an impairment of fixed asset at the fruit segment''s Asian production facilities. The activity result was almost exclusively driven by the sugar and starch segments. The financial result came in at -EUR 95 million.
It includes net interest expense of -EUR 63 million and other financial expense of -EUR 32 million. The higher interest expense is a result of the year-on-year increase in average debt of around EUR 390 million to around EUR 2 billion. At the same time, average interest rate rose from 1% to around 2.9%. The downturn in the other financial result was mainly due to exchange rate losses from foreign currency loans of non-euro companies, and the complete disposal of a minority interest in the Special Products segment in the second quarter of 2023, 2024. Let's continue on page 21. Taxes on income came in at EUR 152 million, after EUR 107 million in the same period last year, with a reduction of the underlying tax rate down to 20%.
Earnings per share came in at €2.49, against €1.30 in the prior year. Let me now turn to the cash flow, working capital, and investment development on page 23. Cash flow increased in the first nine months by EUR 258 million- EUR 917 million. The cash flow against revenues ratio improved after nine months to 11.8% against 9.3% in 2022/23.
Cash outflows from the increase in working capital during the first nine months of 2023/24 of EUR 133 million, following a cash outflow of EUR 368 million in the same period of the previous year, was primarily due to the revenue-related growth in trade receivables as the increase in and increase in sugar inventories as a result of higher raw material and energy costs, which could only be partially offset by the increase in liabilities to beet growers. Investment in fixed assets reached EUR 328 million, against EUR 268 million in the last year. Investments in financial assets and acquisitions were marginal. Let me now move forward, looking at the balance sheet on page 25. Net financial debt end of November was EUR 1.6 billion.
As expected, the year-on-year increase in net financial debt decreased significantly from EUR 594 million at the end of the first quarter to EUR 334 million at the end of the second quarter, now even EUR 33 million ahead of last year's level. The temporary year-on-year increase is mainly due to the higher working capital financing requirements in segment sugar, as mentioned before. Overall, working capital increased temporarily by 16% or EUR 142 million from about EUR 2.7 billion- EUR 3.1 billion in comparison to last year. Gearing is at 36% against 39% last year. Equity ratio is at 46% against 44% one year ago. Let me now turn to the outlook on pages 27-31. Ladies and gentlemen, also, we are all tired of following the numerous ongoing crises.
It's also our duty as management to point out to stakeholders again and again, that this crisis still exists and can have a significant impact on our business. The direct impact of the situation in Ukraine on the sugar EU market mentioned before is just one example. Last time we have adjusted our group forecast was on 12th of October. At that time, we have raised the group operating result guidance by EUR 50 million to our new range of EUR 900 million-EUR 1 billion. Since then, CropEnergies or ethanol prices has lowered its forecast in two steps, down from a range of EUR 95 million-EUR 145 million to EUR 40 million-EUR 60 million now. This has been a total reduction of EUR 70 million.
According to our best knowledge, we are able to keep our group guidance of a range of EUR 900 million-EUR 1 billion. Also, it's more challenging to reach the midpoint of this guidance. On page 27, we are going to revisit our current guidance. For fiscal year 2023/24, we expect group revenues to come in between EUR 10 billion and EUR 10.5 billion. For group operating profit, we expect a range of EUR 900 million-EUR 1 billion. In segment Sugar, we expect an earnings range between EUR 550 million and EUR 650 million. Segment Special Products operating result is expected to come in significantly above the prior year level. Segment CropEnergies operating result expected to range between EUR 40 million and EUR 60 million. Segment Starch should see a significantly lower operating result.
Segment Fruit earnings are expected to increase significantly. Let me continue with page 28. The group EBITDA range is confirmed to come in between EUR 1.3 billion and EUR 1.4 billion. CapEx is now expected to increase to about EUR 500 million, mainly driven by measures to achieve sustainability targets, especially in the sugar, special products, and CropEnergies segments, for example, as within the SBTi framework. Let me continue with page 29. Really good news is that. That is partly higher working capital needs, net financial debt is now expected to come in EUR 200 million-EUR 300 million below last year's level, representing EUR 1-EUR 1.50 per share. This significantly improved our expectations against our former view of no change against previous year's level.
The development is compared on a like-for-like basis and does not take into account the payment made to CropEnergies shareholders as part of the delisting tender offer. The absolute amount of this payment will only be fully determined at the end of February, after the end of the offer period. Let us now come to the end of the presentation, page 31. Ladies and gentlemen, the percentage figures are strong and clearly underpinning that Südzucker Group is back on track, delivering strong and well-diversified structural cash flows. Last year, we explained that we want to increase the headroom by improving earnings and thus freeing up funds to proactively shape into the future. Sooner than expected, we have reached this milestone with an expected EBITDA of EUR 1.3 billion-EUR 1.4 billion in fiscal 2023/24.
Well considered and continuing to keep a clear eye on reducing net debt, we intend to use the opportunities to systematically pursue our strategic goals. This will enable us to safeguard what we have achieved, prepare the company even better for the fluctuations of the future, and thus contribute to a sustainable profitability level and create long-term value. The delisting tender offer for the outstanding governance shareholders fits perfectly with this objective. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for your attention. We are looking forward to your questions.
Thank you, Thomas. Let me hand back to the operator and open up for your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone 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 followed by two. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from Alex Sloane from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, morning, gentlemen. Thanks for taking the questions. Got a couple on segment sugar. You talked about, you know, the further increases in production costs only being a minor impact so far in Q3. So I was wondering if you could give any color on what we should be expecting Q4 relative to Q3 on this front, and, and indeed, you know, fiscal year 2024/2025 relative to fiscal year 2023/2024, maybe as a percentage increase based on what you expect today. And the second one, just on sugar, I think I heard that you said the Ukrainian exports into the EU were running 10% higher year-over-year so far. That doesn't seem massive, given the scale of the production increase that you talked about, 1.2-1.6.
So do you think that that level picks up the pace, or where else is that extra sugar production going? And then just finally, can I just check, I heard Thomas, did you say you thought it would be more challenging to reach the midpoint of the guidance, given the CropEnergies announcement? Thanks.
Yeah, let me start with the Ukrainian one. Yes, it is right. The statistics, the information so far which are available, shown only an increase of 10% so far in the first two months. Clearly is the average production volume in the past was 1.2, and that was also the number in the campaign 2022, if I'm right. And so, the forecast for the current 2023, the campaign in the Ukraine is 1.6. So there is room in max for additional volume of 300,000 tons, more than in the last year. And as said in the speech, we have to follow that further development very closely.
How big will the increase against the 400,000 tons we have in the sugar marketing 2022/23? Really, Alex, there are a lot of points which come in play, for example, also to build up the logistics flow, logistic channels, et cetera. So we have to carefully monitor that development. The good point I mentioned in the speech is that we have closed more than 95% of our sugar product for the forecasted sugar production for the campaign 2023 so far.
To say what to the first one that is, you asked, is that the what I said in speech, that we have so far in quarter three, only a minor impact of the higher product production cost of the campaign 2023, that that is right. And this effect will be then fully in the quarter four, when we then sell only going forward sugar from the new campaign with the higher costs, yeah. We forecast the costs, it's very early campaigns running, et cetera. It's a difficult campaign, wet weather, et cetera, higher logistic costs, but with the best knowledge today is that we calculate with 100 EUR/ton higher production costs.
We have good sales levels, but no further increase, but we could keep the higher sales level. That is clearly pressure on the gross margin going forward from the fourth quarter onwards, and you said it. You can look on the fourth quarter also on the sugar guidance, that profitability will go down, but still is there. This is a situation that we also foresee for the coming quarters, decreasing sugar profits, but still a good profitability to be here, also very clear.
The last one, Alex, was yes, it is really very early also for the, let me say, final production cost, as I said, so there are some uncertainties also in the sugar for the final figures. We have too a total loss of CropEnergies in total EUR 17 million less profitability due to the extreme decrease of ethanol sales. And that clearly brings pressure on the group guidance, and we stick to that guidance. And this is, as I said, more challenging than it was in at about volume H1 , clearly.
Okay, thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Oliver Schwarz, from Warburg Research. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen, and thank you for taking my questions. Congratulations on the good Q3 results. Couple of questions from my side, please. Adding to Alex's questions that he just posed, in regards to the bioethanol price, obviously, that has been depressed for quite a bit now. Can you explain the underlying mechanics that keep the bioethanol price under pressure? Is that expected to continue in the short and midterm? Do you see any tendencies to in regard to the overall situation that could spell changes? That would be my first question.
Yeah, Oliver, really, the ethanol sales price decreased significantly. We had that clearly not on the radar. It also, in October, November, where we had a rebound from that low levels, up to EUR 800, close to EUR 900. And over the last seven to eight weeks, we have seen a dramatic decrease. And, yeah, this is, let me say, there are a lot of points in play. From our view, the fundamentals are still intact. The demand is good. This should also increase next year due to further blending obligations in, for example, also in Poland.
But when we are looking on the global markets, on North America as well as Brazil, the prices are also on a low level that has brought some room for imports in the last months. And we believe that these things will calm down and should bring the possibility that over the next months, ethanol prices should recover.
Thank you. My next question is, obviously, on the performance in the sugar segment. Firstly, you alluded to indirectly to the improvement of the overall situation by stating that CropEnergies has cut its guidance a few times. Sugar saw no need to do so. That's most probably due to a better than expected performance in the sugar and probably also in the special products segment. Can you flesh out what was better than originally anticipated that helped you to retain your annual guidance? That would be my second question.
In, when we focus then, I think the main, main point that we could keep the guidance was a better profitability in the special products segment, as well as, to some extent, also in the fruit segment.
Yeah, I got that just by looking on the numbers, and I fully agree with your assessment. But in comparison to your original anticipations, what drove those improvements that were obviously higher or better than you originally anticipated?
Yeah, in special products was clearly the better margins we reached over the quarters in the year, that we fully could cover the higher inflation costs in that business areas. Volumes are very good in comparison to what we assumed in the other quarters. So those are the main drivers, and then also a better than expected performance of the fruit preparation business here, especially in Europe as well as in North America and Middle America, Mexico, we have seen good developments.
Okay. So yeah, right. And thirdly, I'd like to ask, you talked about the fine details of the CropEnergies transaction and gave the reasoning for Südzucker acquiring the remaining outstanding shares of CropEnergies, which I fully understand and applaud you as well. However, that is basically addressing one of the two elephants in the room. I haven't heard the name of the other elephant yet and I didn't see it in the presentation as well. AGRANA obviously also contributes to the complexity of your group. Obviously, the situation with AGRANA is significantly different from CropEnergies, especially in regards to what stakes you currently hold in that subsidiary.
Are there any plans to rectify the situation in AGRANA, that are similar or perhaps even different from the CropEnergies situation in the short or mid-term?
Really, no, not at that point, really. Really, in contrast to CropEnergies, we have a different starting position. We have, we have a other constellation, and we hold the majority here together with our Austrian partner, so currently, no.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for answering my three questions. I'll go back into the line. Thank you.
Thank you, Oliver.
As a reminder, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one at this time. We have a follow-up question from Oliver Schwarz, from Warburg Research. Please go ahead.
Welcome back.
What you get from trying to be polite. Yeah, so thank you for taking my follow-up question. In regards to the sugar price, it seems like when looking on your chart on page 13—thank you for providing that, it seems like the spot price is now on par or even below the EU reporting price, which is mostly driven by contract prices of the European sugar producers. Also, the international sugar price has also taken a hit and is significantly below its peak level that it has in the second half of 2023.
The contract price being on the same level of the spot price normally tends to spell that the contract price are likely to go down once the round of price negotiation is around. And so that basically spells out, at least to me, that if the situation is sustainable as we have it today, that we might see a significant reduction in the contract price come October 2024. On the other hand, you stated that your production costs have gone up by approximately EUR 100 per ton.
Given the uncertainty of the Ukraine situation and also the increasing surplus on the world market that you alluded to in your presentation, what level of pricing would Südzucker need in the current setup and cost environment to achieve breakeven?
Oliver, thank you for this very complex one-
I'm sorry.
Really looking in the future, first of all, I think I would like to have, to give some points to the price curves you mentioned. Yeah, the contract price curve, the world market price curve, and the spot price curve. As every year, in the campaign period, the spot price curve is coming under pressure because then sugar is available. That's really the first point. Clearly, this year we have now seen the dramatic decrease in world market prices. That brought also a pressure on the spot prices. And maybe coming back to that, what Alex asked, this is also a reason, this low spot price level that it is not attractive for quota imports currently, to go into the EU, maybe to go in other destinations. Yeah.
And everything to, let me say, to predict this really too early a thing on. That's what I mentioned in the speech. There are a lot of consultancies outside. Everybody has another view on the development on the world market. Important is, global demand is increasing. It is very early, what will happen, and still, also, if things will come, what, in that, in that scenario, which is on the table for Standard and Poor's, we will still stay on a low stock-to-use ratio in historic terms. That has to be clear, and also a world market price level of $600-$650 is a very high one, to be also very clear.
And the last one, it's too early to talk about the future, but, but this is the momentum when we talk about then the increase in production costs for the campaign 2023, and that will be a new game, beginning from October 2024 onwards, not only price-wise, also cost-wise. So clearly, it's too early. We have now a good future, a good view for the development up to September. As I said, lower in sugar, the sugar operating profits, but still on a good level, still high EBITDA, and that is the starting point up to September.
Thank you for that. I appreciate it. Two basically housekeeping ones. Can you remind me the restructuring costs in Q3, the—I think it was EUR 15 million, if I'm not mistaken. Can you tell me what was what created that position, basically? Or what was-
It was an asset impairment in the segment fruit, in the division fruit preparation on Asian factory assets. It was in China and in Korea, due to the bad economic development over the last quarters.
Okay, thank you for that. And lastly, when we are looking at investments in regards to expanding value chains, both at CropEnergies and at Südzucker, can you give us an update? I know from CropEnergies that they have started to, and you also put that on your presentation on the ethanol part of the business. Can you highlight what's going on in the plans for producing ethylene from bioethanol? And also, basically, can you give something that is a bit more concrete on what Südzucker is going to invest in regards to the move into food, let's say, proteins from sugar, basically, value chains in the next two years?
As also CropEnergies mentioned in the call yesterday, we speak also on Südzucker side to the plant of CropEnergies. But clearly, as in every business field, we will monitor, we will chart that year by year. Also, for the business line CropEnergies has identified, but for the next 15 or change in the sugar part, et cetera, in this object, this parameter reach out.
Okay. And from the Südzucker's part, any update in regards to that?
No, I think we will fulfill our long-term plans, CO2 reduction, et cetera, investment also in sugar facilities to lower energy costs, et cetera. No merger and major projects we have to flag here on the call.
Okay.
Maybe a setup, maybe a new clearer setup then in the analyst call in May.
Okay. Okay, thank you for that. That's it for my follow-up questions.
We do have another follow-up question from Alex Sloane from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, gentlemen, thanks for holding the call, follow-up. It was actually on the segment, starch. I know obviously not a focus of the presentation today, but the guidance is for significantly lower EBIT year-over-year within the, you know, within the group context. Can you remind us, I mean, obviously ethanol prices are a part of that, but is there any impact there from greater competition of starch imports into the EU from low cost competition? We have heard that from some peers in other elements of, you know, food starch, in particular. Are you seeing that as well, or is the guidance more related to the ethanol price?
We have two or three points. First of all, we have GDP-driven lower starch volumes. Yeah, we are a specialty starch producer, and we also are a big outlet in the construction as well as in the paper industry, and they are facing challenging times. This hurts also our volumes. Yeah. Second, you mentioned, like in CropEnergies, we predict substantially lower ethanol prices of water form, and that are then the main reasons.
Okay. Thank you. That was it from my side.
There are no further questions at this time. I hand back to Nikolai Baltruschat for closing comments.
Yeah. Thank you all for participating today in our call, and, as always, for additional questions, don't hesitate calling us. Thank you and goodbye.