Thank you, and, 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 released a statement for the first three months of the financial year, 2024/2025. We're going to present the highlights of this period and revisit our full year group earnings guidance for business year 2024/2025, that has been confirmed. Following the call, we're 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 Südzucker's CFO, Dr. Stephan Meeder .
Thank you, Nikolai. Ladies and gentlemen, also warm welcome from my side to all of you, and thank you very much for your interest in Südzucker. What is on the agenda today? In the following, I would like to give you a brief overview about the business performance in the first three months of financial year 2024/2025, our Q1 results, and secondly, details about the confirmed earnings guidance for fiscal year 2024/2025. Before we go into the details, what is the key message in this conference call is, one, is that Q1 came in clearly below Q1 prior year, but fully in line with our expectations.
The second key message is that we confirm our full year guidance for financial year 2024/2025, but in line with the knowledge of this Q1, and we will discuss that later on, the lower end of the range, we deem to be the more likely scenario. So let's move on in the presentation, and come to slide number 5, where we can see the highlights for the first three months of this financial year. As already indicated, 15th of April 2024, Q1 performance was not able to match the very strong previous year's numbers, as I just explained. But as also, as I just explained, this is fully in line with our expectations. Group revenues showed an increase of 1% to EUR 2.6 billion.
Group EBITDA was significantly down by 35% to EUR 230 million, and group operating results came out lower by 45% to EUR 155 million. Cash flow also decreased and came out at EUR 178 million, and net financial debt, that's a positive development, end of May, came in EUR 330 million below prior year's level, and EUR 156 million against the end of fiscal year 2023/2024, and stands, you can see it on the right-hand side of the graph, at EUR 1.6 billion. So now let's have a look on the segment performance. This you will find on page 6.
Here you can see that group revenues for the first three months stand at EUR 2.55 billion, and the slight increase was driven by the increase in the sugar and food segments, while the special products, crop energies, and starch segments showed a decrease. The group operating result came in after three months at EUR 155 million. You can see, also on the top of the graph. The result decrease was driven by the sugar, crop energies, and starch segments, while the special products and food segments showed an increase. So after this overview, let's move on to the segment Sugar on page 8.
Here, we would like to start with discussing the sugar world balance, because effects from the world market are important for the volumes and the pricing developments also on the EU level. So let me first of all revisit the view on the global sugar market, and here we rely on the data of Standard & Poor's. In its latest update in July 2024 for the sugar marketing year 2022/2023, S&P Global reports a surplus, and the stock-to-use ratio stays low at 36%. That's what you can find in the middle of the graph. More important, the actual current situation, so let's have a look into the current sugar marketing year 2023/2024.
Here you can see that S&P Global expects an additional surplus of about 5 million tons, and the stock-to-use ratio is expected to increase to 38%, which is still a low level in historic terms. Besides this, S&P has offered the first outlook in the expectations for sugar marketing year 2024/2025, showing a balanced market or a slight surplus. That you can see on the right-hand side, production is expected worldwide to be 192.2 million, and consumption, 191.0. So what we can see over the years is that there's, on a, on a worldwide level, still a, a slow but constant increase in, in consumption, which is positive.
So the sugar consumption is, on a worldwide basis, still continuing to grow, and production can be volatile due to the weather conditions, and this difference between production and consumption always has a certain impact on the pricing. So in this context of weather markets and production and consumption assumptions, the global market is still for the price; is there still volatility to be maintained? And since our first guidance in April, market price have decreased, but also showed a strong recovery in the last couple of weeks. So we have to prepare to volatility on the sugar market price levels. This is heavily dependent on the weather markets and the weather news in the southern hemisphere, also for the side. So let's have a more detailed look on the European market.
You will find it on page number 9. Let me first start with an overview or with a discussion of the sowing, growing conditions. Sowing and growing conditions, they have been favorable so far, so we expect a positive, or we see so far, a positive, favorable, conditions for beet growing in the EU, but it's still at an early stage for the overall season. As usual, at this point of time of the season, visibility about the final outcome remains low. This depends on the one side, that we have seen last year, diseases coming up during the summer terms, and we cannot also foresee or exclude, droughts or other severe weather conditions in the European markets to come in, in the months of August, September.
So volatility remains low, but as of today, the growing conditions for beet in Europe are positive. There's one effect that we have to discuss, which is Ukraine, because this has been a very important factor for the situation, be it on the volume and price side for the EU in the prior months. And just as a recap, what is the situation with Ukraine? The EU had decided to suspend customs duties and quantities restrictions on sugar imports from Ukraine since June 2022, and thus, as a result, about 500,000 tons were imported into the EU in calendar year 2023. So what is the current situation?
The current situation is as follows, that on the sixth of June 2024, the EU has introduced new safeguard mechanism to limit duty-free sugar imports from Ukraine, and thus, this will lead to lower imports from Ukraine. For the EU balance, this is positive news, and thus, this means that the imports from Ukraine, they have been limited to around 263,000 tons for the 2024 calendar year. And the second restriction is for the next year to 2025. There are only 109,000 tons for the first months are allowed on a duty-free level. And for 2024 situation, EU and Ukraine have stated that the upper limit for the imports have already been reached.
This was by the end of June, so the limit has been reached, so we do not expect further imports from the Ukraine to come to the European market. But the further development has to be monitored very closely. To what extent this will influence the EU market and the respective pricing has to be seen. So let's continue this on page ten, there you can find the development in the sugar segment. So let's have a look on revenues and operating results. So for the revenues, the revenues in the sugar segment increased significantly. That is positive, and this increase was driven by significant rise in sales volumes, while prices have decreased. Significantly higher exports from the EU to global market played also a role in this. When it comes to operating results, you can see that operating results shows a strong decline.
The main reason for the expected decline was the further significant increase in production costs in the 2023 campaign. The significantly higher sales volumes are offset by moderately declining prices. After having had this look on the sugar segment, let's continue with the special product segment. You will find this on page 11. Just for remembrance, in the special product segments, we have our divisions, Freiberger, Beneo, and Portion Pack. Also here, for the special product segment, let's have a look on revenues and operating results. You can see, revenues in the special product segment decreased moderately, mainly due to lower prices, yeah. Came in at EUR 579 million. The operating results increased moderately, but this positive development was mainly due to higher margins, which more than compensated for the increase, for example, in personnel costs.
Raw material costs showed a mixed picture across the different divisions, so some prices went up, some went down. After having this look on the special product segment with Freiberger, Beneo and PortionPack, let's turn to the segment CropEnergies. You will find this on page 12. Also, let's have a look on revenues and operating results. When it comes to revenues, you can see that revenues came in after three months at EUR 231 million. And you compare to prior year, the revenues were significantly down. The decline is due to significantly lower prices for ethanol, as well as for food and animal feed products. The sale volumes increased significantly compared to the low sales levels in the previous year, due to scheduled maintenance shutdowns that we had in the plants....
Let's have a look on operating result. You can see also there's a decline in operating result. After three months, CropEnergies segment came in with an operating result of EUR 6 million, with an operating margin of 2.6%. And this decline of operating profit was in line with the revenue trend, and that means the main reason for the decline in earnings as well as in operating profit are the prices for renewable ethanol that were lower than in the previous year's period. By no means be compensated for by the lower net raw materials. Having a more detailed look on the pricing for ethanol, that was just stated, that was the main reason for the decline in revenues and operating profit.
The average ethanol price in the first month stood at EUR 685 per cubic meter, and in prior-year period, this number was EUR 843 per cubic meter. So this drop in prices explains the decrease in CropEnergies' revenues and operating profit. Positively to say that, since then, the ethanol prices have stabilized, and here now in June, the average ethanol price increased to EUR 746, against 767-776 euros per cubic meter in June 2023. So there's a positive trend, and we see a stabilization in ethanol prices. So let's move on to the starch segment. You will find that on page 13.
You can see that in the starch segment, in the first three months, revenues came in at EUR 250 million, and operating profit also at EUR 6 million. When it comes to revenues, you can see that this corresponds to a significant decline, and this deterioration resulted from the significant fall in prices for ethanol. Because as you know, in the starch segment, there is the ethanol activities of Agrana, so this is also dependent on the ethanol pricing. But we also have seen falling prices in some of the starch products. By contrast, sales volumes showed a clearly positive trend.
When it comes to operating results, you can see that EUR 6 million is also clearly below prior year's period, and the significant decline in raw material costs and the increase in sales volumes were not sufficient to compensate for the significantly lower prices for ethanol, as just explained, and some starch products. So let's move on to the fruit segment, which you can find on page 14. Just for remembering, within the fruit segment, we have two divisions. This is fruit preparations and fruit juice concentrates. Here for the fruit segment, also, let's have a look on revenues and operating results. You can see from the revenue side, that in the first three months, we came in at EUR 450 million, and an operating result of EUR 27 million.
Revenues in the food segment showed a slight increase. That is positive, and that was due to the increase in sales volumes for both fruit preparations and fruit juice concentrates. Operating result also shows a positive trend, so this came in significantly above prior year's level. And the contribution to earnings from fruit preparation increased due to the rise in sales volumes, with stable margins, explaining the increase in operating results. The earnings contributions from fruit juice concentrates fell despite higher sales volumes, due to lower margins. Let me now turn to the main points in the profit and loss statements. You can find that on page 16 and 17. After having a detailed look in the segments, let's move on to the group level back again.
So for the group level income statement, you will find on page 16. After the revenues just explained for the group of EUR 2.55 billion, an operating result of EUR 155 million. Below that, we have the results from restructuring and consolidated companies at equity. But as you can see, this is minor numbers, and they are balancing. Also results from operation came in in the same amount of operating profit. Let's have a look on the financial result. You see here, EUR 23 million negative financial result, compared to EUR 27 million in prior year's period. The financial result for the first three months includes the net interest income of -EUR 27 million, and other financial result of +EUR 4 million. Let's first have a look to the interest expense.
So the increase in the interest expense resulted from higher average interest rates, around 4%, 4.0%, against 2.9% in previous years' period. That is one reason for increasing net interest expense, and on the other hand, average net financial debt was around EUR 230 million lower than the same period before, amounting to roughly EUR 2.0 billion on average during the first three months. That means the improvement in the other financial result was due in particular to exchange rate gains from foreign currency loans from non-euro companies. Let's continue with the group figures on page 17. So this will have a focus on the taxes situations. So after EBIT, taxes came in, that we had to pay is EUR 38 million.
So taxes on income came in at EUR 38 million, after EUR 56 million in the same period of last year's period. So this is an increase, a decrease, and the underlying tax rate is 29%. Prior year tax rate was supported by higher profits in the sugar segment that were partially tax-free, due to non-capitalized losses carried forward from the past. At the end of the balance of the profit and loss statement, let's have a look on earnings per share and cash flow per share. Earnings per share came in at EUR 0.36, and cash flow per share at EUR 0.87. Let's now turn to cash flow working capital investment development. You can find that on page 19. So in line with the decline in EBITDA, also cash flow declined.
You can see that cash flow in the first three months, the inflow was EUR 178 million, and, the cash flow against revenue ratio was 7% against 11.7% in 2023, 2024. Positively to see that working capital is decreased, so this gave a cash inflow of more than EUR 100 million, and we foresee this trend to be continued over the next months, release in working capital. Investment in fixed assets reached EUR 130 million, as you can see in the middle of the table, against the EUR 79 billion in last year. So let's move on to the balance sheet. The balance sheet you can find on page 21. There's not too much movement, so I will be short on that.
Interesting to see that, when it comes to net financial debt, end of May, this was EUR 1.6 billion. So we continue to see here a positive trend for decreasing, which is our ambition also for this year, to decrease the net financial debt level in total. The reduction in net financial debt benefited from the cash inflow from operating activities of EUR 289 million, and here is comprised the cash flow of EUR 178 million, and reduction working capital of more than EUR 100 million, just explained. When it comes to the financing of investment, property, plant, and equipment, and financial assets, that total EUR 220 million; we had profit distributions, and so at the end, we came out at EUR 1.6 billion net financial debt as of May 31st .
You can see gearing is still solid at 37%, and also our equity ratio is solid and stands at 46%. So let me now turn to the outlook on pages 23 to 27. As I stated at the beginning of this conference call, our financial year 2024/2025 full year guidance is, is unchanged. But as I also just said, and this is linked to the price development, in particular in the sugar segment, we now see the lower end of the range as the more likely scenario. There are volatility still to be expected, as I said, when it comes to the prices due to the weather markets, as just explained.
And for sure, when it comes to the full year guidance, there are uncertainties, and one uncertainty is the ongoing situation in Ukraine and also in the Middle East. On page 23, you can see an overview on our guidance, which is unchanged for the full financial year. And you can see we await revenues to range between EUR 10-10.5 billion, so slightly in line or in line with prior year's figure, which stood at EUR 10.3 billion. That's what you can see on the bottom of the graph on page 23. In operating profit and still to come out at between EUR 500 million and EUR 600 million, but as stated, we now foresee rather the lower end of the range. Let me continue with page 24.
You can see besides the segmental situation, see for EBITDA unchanged, we foresee an EBITDA to come in for full financial year 2024/25, in the range of EUR 900 million-EUR 1 billion. CapEx is to be expected on previous year's level. Let me finish on page 25. Here you can see capital employed unchanged. Due to the decrease in operating profit, we also assume that ROCE, return on capital employed, is significantly or should be significantly below prior's figure. When it comes to net financial debt, as just explained, our ambition is to decrease the EUR 1.8 billion net financial debt we reached at the end of February 2024. Decrease that significantly also in the current financial year, and this would lead then to net financial debt over cash flow, also to be below prior year's figure.
Cash flow to revenue is 5% and equity ratio approximately on last year's level. So ladies and gentlemen, let's come to the summary. Before we come to the Q&A session, let me reiterate what we have shared with you at the analyst conference in May 2024. So there is volatility on the market and despite the expected decline in earnings, the structural cash flow remains on a very good level. So this is positive to see. This gives us room to maneuver. We continue to see ourselves in a position to proactively shape Südzucker's future with these resources.... And we want to utilize the opportunities to consistently pursue our strategic goals. In this context, we are, besides that on a global picture, we await financial year 2024-2025 to be below the excellent year 2023-2024. We remain very positive.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for your attention. Now, together with Nikolai Baltruschat, we are very 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. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. Our first question today comes from Oliver Schwarz, from Warburg Research. Please go ahead with your question.
Thank you for taking my question. Good morning, gentlemen.
Morning.
A couple of questions from my side. I will put them to you one by one, if you don't mind. Firstly, this is just a very technical question. On page 17 of your presentation, you state that the earnings of the shareholders of Südzucker AG is EUR 83 million. But earnings per share is only 0.36 cents per share. And I think what's missing in between those lines is the what you have to pay for the hybrid bond. So technically, as the shareholders of Südzucker AG has to pay for the holders of the hybrid bond, is that a correct understanding? Because I don't see any, let's say, hints that the earnings per share and the earnings of the shareholders of Südzucker AG don't match mathematically.
Yeah, we have, Oliver, we have changed that since the annual report 2023/24. You can find actually the same, the same numbers there, and your assessment is right.
Yeah. How does that work? How do the shareholders of Südzucker AG share some of what is due to them with the hybrid bondholders?
You can... When you look into our analyst presentation for the annual report, you can see the bridge there. We can give you all the, the bridge during the call, no problem.
Okay, thank you for that. As I said, a very technical one. More of the business, please.
The only thing that you also always have to keep in mind that, when it comes to also to the minorities, that now the difference for the, after the delisting of CropEnergies, that the minorities in CropEnergies have significantly decreased.
Yeah, that's fine with me. I was aware of that. Thank you very much for-
Okay
... for, for that. A second question: It seems like, the, let's say, operational performance of Hungrana and of, CropEnergies is quite diverse nowadays. It seems like, at, at least according to Agrana, that Hungrana made a turnaround in Q1, came back into, let's say, profitable numbers, while CropEnergies, continued its decline on the back of, lower, ethanol prices. Why is that? Why is, why isn't the development of those two, let's say, units, both producing bioethanol, why isn't that more, not more synced with, each other?
I mean, this is not one by one comparable. I mean, they, they both produce in different regions. They have different markets. When it comes to the raw material intake, I believe Hungrana is more on corn, whereas, CropEnergies is on wheat and only to a very slow degree on corn. That is one thing, and then you always have differences in hedging positions. You have different markets and, but the... Both were affected by lower ethanol prices, but you cannot compare one by one. It's, it's not the same business setup.
Okay, thank you for that. When we are talking about hedging, especially in CropEnergies, can you just give us some highlights, what your hedging position currently is? Whether you are hedged for the remainder of the year or just partly for that, and when it comes to raw materials?
Yeah. I mean, the situation when it comes to risk management strategy, the situation is unchanged. I cannot disclose each and every number because this is competitive-sensitive information, but CropEnergies continues the same way as they did in over also the last quarters. That means month by month, there's a fully detailed analysis of raw material markets, be it on the world level, also on the European level, harvest expectations, and based on that, CropEnergies takes the positions on the raw material side.
That means the hedging position, and there's, we have on markets, we have liquid markets, so this is continued, that they have a rather strong position when it comes to grain coverages, because this has started, let's say, 18 months ahead, and then quarter by quarter or month by month, the positions are increased. So the hedging for grain is clearly above 50%. And when it comes to ethanol, the situation is slightly different because it's, as we stated also in the other conference calls, the situation for hedging ethanol is not the same. It's not as liquid markets as we see on market level, but again, there also CropEnergies continues to monitor the market, the clear backwardation.
To avoid this strong backwardation, typically you don't have the same hedging number for the ethanol side, which is typically lower than the grain position taken.
Excellent. Thank you for the information. And perhaps lastly, do you expect, let's say, on the back of the more favorable campaign, 2023-2024, and taking into account lower tax-free imports from Ukraine into Central Europe, do you expect that Südzucker will have to export sugar in the current fiscal year to destinations outside the EU?
Yeah. I mean, you're fully right. When it, as I explained, when it comes to Ukraine, the Ukraine volumes that were allowed tax, duties on a duty-free level, they have been reached at the level by end of June. So we do not foresee any additional volumes from Ukraine to come to the EU market, on a duty-free basis until the end of December. Then, as I stated, first of January, a new quarter will be open, but which also will be lower than this year. So I think the situation from Ukraine is under control. When it comes to exporting volumes, for us, this is always an option.
So I mean, there are interesting markets for exports, which we monitor, and then this will be dependent on the harvest situation or harvest expectations, whether or not we would do more or less exports. But exports is always an option. And if you look into the EU balance, typically for this year, the expectation is both on the import level and export level is around, if my memory is right, 1.3 million tons to be imported into the EU and to be exported. So this is balanced and but also for us, export is always an option.
Okay, thank you very much for that. That's it for my questions for the time being. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Oliver.
The next question comes from Setu Sharda from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. My question is around, like, sugar pricing. Like, what pricing are you assuming in your sugar guidance? And how is the contracting going so far for this campaign year? And the second question will be around the outlook on ethanol price and, like, is there any recovery you are expecting there? Yes.
The line is not very good, so I got the first question that you asked us for our sugar price scenario, but the second question I didn't get.
Sure. You can reply the first one, then I'll ask the second.
I think it was about the ethanol pricing expectation. Is that right, Setu?
Yes.
Uh, okay.
Yeah.
Okay. For the sugar price, as I said, we have seen. Let's start with the global sugar market. If you look through to analyst reports, and that's also what we do, about their expectations, we can see that, since the beginning of our financial year, the sugar price level in the global market continued to weaken. Yeah, that's what we have to see. And the world prices fell below $0.22 per pound, yeah, corresponding to $485. But since then, prices have recovered, but are still volatile. What the analysts currently expect, and we follow this up, because, I mean, typically this is well-done analysis.
So when it comes to world market prices, analysts, as we do, we see ranges for the world sugar between $0.18-$0.21, and this would be converted to Europe in the range of EUR 500-EUR 550 for white sugar, well, world market. But as I said, this is volatile markets, and this is heavily dependent on this period of time on the seasonal development and the weather conditions, be it on the southern hemisphere and the northern hemisphere. I mean, the. It would be sufficient to have one negative news on the rainfalls or weather conditions or droughts in India, Thailand, or Brazil, which would have immediately effect on the prices. And the same is true for the European situation.
So far, as I stated, the sowing and beet growing conditions are very well, so being a signal for a positive development of the beets in good harvest situation. But I'm just repeating myself, sorry for that. It's too early to say, because within August and September, you cannot exclude the diseases that we have seen last year. So there was the Stolbur and Syndrome des Basses Richesses and other diseases, which could come up, and the same is true with droughts. We have seen particular situations with very good beet situations until July, and then droughts coming in. I think that was in 2018 or 2019, and then being heavily to the detriment of the harvest situation. So at this point of time, it's too early to say. That's our sugar price scenario.
What I could add is when it comes to the sugar price scenario, all the European prices, they are influenced, sometimes with a timely divergence, but is affected by the world prices. And this means we always have to look into import and export parity, and then based on the harvest situation in Europe, we will see whether there should have to be more exports or imports, then the import and export parity also shows on the European market. When it comes to ethanol, for ethanol, I have to state I'm rather positive, but as I've been working seven years for CropEnergies, so I'm always optimistic for ethanol prices, so you can deduct some notches. But why am I optimistic for ethanol?
For ethanol, when I look into the European situation, we continue to increase the blending mandate as more and more countries move to E10, so there's a very strong and healthy demand for ethanol. If my memory is right, the consumption volumes for ethanol are expected to be in the range of 11 million cubes, yeah. Where we as production, big figure is in the area of 8 million cubes, so there is typically, European has become, over time, to a very important deficit market. And in a deficit market, typically you have good support for the prices. For sure there will be imports, and sometimes the imports also have a negative effect on prices if they come at the same time in high volumes.
But on if you average this out, this timing effect, the ethanol prices should be well supported by the good, good demand. And we see because the ethanol goes into fuel, and the fuel combustion engines, they compete with e-mobility. And what we have seen lately is really not a very strong development when it comes to new e-mobility cars to be on the market. And the ramp up that so many people have foreseen is not coming in that way. So I assume rather a positive development both for combustion engines and for mobility and thus for biofuels.
Thanks for the insight. Just one quick question, like, how is the sugar contracting going so far?
Sugar, I mean, sugar marketing here is until the end of September. So the new contracts come into place as of first of October, and we are here in an early stage. And on commercial strategy, I cannot disclose, but it's nothing, nothing special. So we foresee to market our volumes as expected.
Okay, thanks. Thanks for your answers.
Ladies and gentlemen, for any further questions, please press star and one. Our next question is from Hartmut Moers. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. The first one relates to CropEnergies. If I compare the result of the first quarter to that of the fourth quarter last year, so quarter-on-quarter comparison, I find that ethanol prices have increased, that wheat prices have decreased quite materially. So I would have guessed, under the assumption of a rather normal production, which you indicated in the report, that results would have been better. I mean, you've made EUR 6 million, so probably you could have made twice that result. Still small numbers, but is there any something particular, any extraordinary costs that have burned the result? Or is it probably a lower production?
I mean, last year you had a very low production, around 220,000 cubic meters, if I remember correctly. Now I would have guessed, without any major maintenance, you're back to, let's say, to 60,000, something like that.
In general, there's nothing special when it comes to the CropEnergies figures, so no extraordinary item. What we can see on some of the co-products, there is price decreases that were stronger, for example, for gluten. But besides that, there's nothing special.
Okay. Production has been normally around the range that I suspect, or is production significantly lower than that? So more in the range of what we had last year.
No, nothing special. I mean, from quarter to quarter, it's difficult to compare because there can be, as I said, there could be some, have been some maintenance, for example. So we rather focus on the full year numbers, 12 months, because that balance and that gives a more a fair comparison between the prior years periods. And for full year, we also expect ethanol production to be above 1 million cubic meters, so like in prior years, normal situation of CropEnergies.
Okay. My second question would be with regard to your outlook on the sugar level. If I understood you correctly, you were saying that the fact that you rather expect the lower end of your group guidance on the operating result side comes from an expected volatility, in particular on the sugar side. So what I would be looking at is the other four segments. And if I look at your full year guidance and what has come out in the first quarter, I see that fruit and special products are a bit, let's say, above the average quarterly. And CropEnergies and starch are a bit below. Is that part of your planning?
So are you saying for special products and fruit, you rather expect a decrease in the course of the year, while for crop and starch, you rather expect an increase? Or is this in the first quarter, special products and fruit are better than you have expected and the other two are a bit weaker than you have anticipated?
Yeah, there are some, there are some minor changes, but they are not too significant, so some of them balancing out, so that's why we also say on a group level, we, we confirm our guidance. When I have stated that we see ourselves rather on the lower end of the range as the more realistic scenario, this has to do with sugar, and that we foresee rather the volatility is key. I just, I don't have to and the weather conditions are also clear. But we see a certain price pressure, and we also foresee rather a better harvesting than originally.
So we see, because as of today, as I said, the growing and seeding conditions were very positive to EU beet sugar, and that's why we are a little bit more prudent on this side. So but other effects are balancing. The main issue foreseeing that we are on the lower range is due to sugar.
Okay. Thank you very much. That was very helpful.
Okay.
Ladies, we have a follow-up question from Mr. Schwarz. Mr. Schwarz, please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. I was wondering whether you could share some more detail about the performance of the three underlying business units in specialties when it comes to the performance in Q1 2024 2025. That would be helpful. So perhaps some words on the performance of Beneo, Freiberger, and Portion Pack that might be highly appreciated.
Yeah. And for the special products, I mean, in our external communication, our focus is on the segment itself. So we do not go very much into details of the divisions. But if we look on overall special product segments, we can see that revenues have been down in Q1, but the overall situation for the three divisions is positive. Beneo is doing well. PortionPack is stable, and also the Freiberger pizza business is doing positively.
The reason why I'm asking is that I found the explanation about the increase in profitability a bit cryptic-
Yeah.
because it basically referred, we had a higher profitability because the margin increased.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, that, that is, true, absolutely.
Yeah.
But, as an explanation, it doesn't work very well to me.
Yes. Got it. But this is based on, yeah, it is, it also, we have balancing effects, so it ... But you, you are right, if, if, if, on a segment level, this is not 100% detailed. I'm, I'm okay with this critic, but this is, that's how we communicate on, on, on, on a global segment level.
Okay. That's fine with me. Thank you very much for that. Perhaps your thoughts on how you will progress in starch. It seems like, let's say, the construction markets are still ailing and are likely to continue on that level until something really, let's say, major happens in regards to-
Mm.
- the yields -
Mm.
in regard to regulation, in regard to other topics that are currently holding back construction. It seems like-
Yeah
... you were not able to benefit very much, or at least not in the final figures from the decline in raw material prices. That's probably due to preemptive hedging, so you weren't able to, let's say, catch the full effect of raw material prices sliding down. I'm not sure about that, how you managed that in the starch segment. Or that's maybe due to the fact that the capacity utilization of your starch facilities are still,
Mm-hmm
... not where they used to be. So my question basically is, if this current situation, especially in the construction sector, is, let's say, dragging on for not only for one or two quarters, but maybe for a year or even for several years, is there something you can do to, let's say, structurally improve the performance of the starch business?
Yeah.
Or are you just hoping for, let's say, things to clear up by the end of the day?
Yeah. Fully right, your analysis is correct. I mean, for the Starch segment, some things to be noted. One is the raw material intake, so it is on corn and potatoes, so this has an impact. When it comes to the ethanol prices, when it comes to the profitability or the volume development, for me, that's my view on starch, is a pretty nice early indicator for GDP development. And they have had tough times, because some of the specialty starches go into construction, they go into paper industries, and then they were in fact affected by the recession. But we see that volumes intake and order intake is increasing.
So I think that the tipping point is reached, so this is a good indicator for the recession being behind us, and the starch segment will be then also benefiting from that. And the other thing is the ethanol prices, which as the Agrana bioethanol activities are in the segment. But it is, I think from the full year guidance, also you can see in the Agrana analysis, that there is a reduction in revenue and EBIT to be expected. Current trading is quite positive. We see an uptake in volumes.
So would you say on a sequential basis, we might see already an improvement in profitability already in Q2, or is that too early to?
That's too early to say. That's too early to say. That's too early to say.
Okay. Very, very well. Thank you very much. That's it for my questions for today. Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today, and I would like to hand back to Nikolai for closing comments.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and also thank you for all your questions and your participation in today's call. As always, for further questions, we are around to answer those going forward after the call. Thank you and goodbye.
Thank you very much.