Good morning, everybody. It is wonderful to see you here at Buchanan this morning in the room. And I'd also like to extend a welcome to those of you who are joining us via call. I hope everybody has seen our H1 interim results, including the presentation that was posted this morning. It is now Alison and my pleasure to host a Q&A session. And we look forward to the discussion. Doriana, you wanna start?
Yes, thank you very much. I've got two questions. Firstly, on China, just to kick off, can you give us a summary?
Hello? Can you give us a summary of what exactly is going on in the market, which is holding prices to, you know, a level which is unsustainable, obviously? It's the second year around. And what are the expected elements that might actually change the current situation in terms of the market? So maybe I start with this question, or shall I go through all the questions and then?
Okay. Yeah. Maybe I'll say a few words and then hand it over to Alison. The question is about China. I would say that, in general, the China economy is very challenged. I think we see that across many different sectors. There's obviously the youth employment. You know, there's demographic factors that play a role as well. So that's had an impact on demand, right? Think about the construction sector in China, which provides a lot of jobs and puts cash into workers' pockets. That, you know, construction sector isn't firing on all cylinders. And obviously, that's an understatement. And so that has an impact also on the consumption of pork. So I think that's on the demand side, a reason.
Then, you know, as it happens in China, restructuring of an industry and, you know, rationalization and capacity exiting the market is a slow process. And as such, we've seen these prices be, you know, below the point where producers are making money on average. Maybe the most efficient producers are generating some cash or making some money. But on average, the industry is performing very poorly. So, you know, that has an impact on demand for us. I think it's important to recognize that our business, our PIC business in China is still in the early innings, and that we're still investing in that business. And we actually made investments in our supply chain there with two farms. We're playing the long game in China. Half the world's pigs live in China.
I've traveled to China twice during my time with Genus, once in September with Alison, actually, and then later in January again to visit customers myself and put my ear to the ground and hear what's going on there. I actually came back optimistic. I believe that we can absolutely grow our business in China. We do need a bit better market circumstances because that will trigger kind of the shipments to go out. But we've won, as we noted in the presentation, several very large players in the pork industry. And so that will support our business going forward. Once we get them on the royalty model, I do believe we can build a much more stable business in China as well. So that's on the porcine side. Maybe on the bovine side.
Look, on the bovine side, I was also surprised by the, I'd say, the severity of the contraction as well as the speed. And so we saw about 20% of the dairy herd being culled in China. Naturally, that led to lower demand on the bovine side. And producers are just, you know, trying to not part with their cash. And we saw just a demand reduction across the board, so meaning sexed as well as conventional products on the dairy side. Maybe Alison, you wanna?
Yeah. I, I guess the only thing I would add is, just on porcine, for a minute, you know, we've, we've seen prices very, very muted for over a year now at about CNY 14-15 per kilo. Interestingly, literally in the last couple of weeks, the input costs for producers have improved a little bit. So when you look at the, the ratio that we show in our chart in our in our presentation, of price to, to corn, it's, it's just getting above GBP 6 now, but that is literally in the last two weeks. So we are taking a very cautious view for the rest of our financial year, and assuming that, that producers continue to have a tough time.
Okay. And my follow-on question on this one is, you, I think, alluded in the release that you're looking at ways to accelerate your cooperation with BCA. I mean, currently, you have a deal that is hinged on the approval of PRP. Can you give us a little bit more color on what exactly are the venues that you might be exploring, bringing it forward, changing the terms, anything along these lines?
Yeah. As you note, we have an agreement in place with BCA, Beijing Capital Agribusiness. Once we obtain the PRRS-resistant pig approval in China, a JV will be formed with them. That is the existing agreement. The working relationship with them is very good. They are very excited and optimistic about the prospects for PIC China. And so, you know, we are exploring whether potentially we can pull that deal forward. And so there's interest, you know, on their part to discuss that. Alison?
No, I think, just to remind everyone of the agreement we have in place, upon commercialization, we would sell 51% of PIC China to the BCA, forming a joint venture with them. The broad terms of that transaction as currently articulated is a price of $120 million-$160 million for that share in PIC China.
Can you remind us what the final price was going to depend on?
There's a formula in the agreement which relates to the performance of the business and that the price falls within that range, basically. It can't fall outside that range.
And my final question is on the actions that you have been taking for ABS to improve performance. Just to clarify, it sounds like you've already achieved the annualized level of GBP 10 million savings, I mean, with the action already taken. I just wanted to clarify whether there's a belief that there could be more on top of it. I think in the presentation, there was a mention on some actions taken in the U.K. that might be applied also to other markets. Can you tell us a little bit more about that, please?
Yes. You're absolutely right. I mean, the ABS Value Acceleration Program is a comprehensive program. It does include cost action. And you rightly refer to the GBP 10 million annualized savings that, you know, basically have been achieved already. Those cost actions have been taken. But at the heart, the Value Acceleration Program is not only about cost action. Yes, there could be more cost action. But ultimately, it's about driving higher margins and better return from ABS. And so as such, this program is not necessarily driven by the current kind of market headwinds. It is something that we started working on, you know, either or in September, October time. And, you know, we're deploying a data-driven approach to look at our customers and to look at our markets and to look at the returns that our go-to-market organizations are generating.
You may know that, if you look at the cost stack in ABS, there is a pretty high cost in our go-to-market organization, so the salespeople, technical service people. So deploying these people on the right customers, the right markets is absolutely critical to ensure that we get an appropriate return on differentiated products, but also on the services that we deliver to our clients. So, that part of Value Acceleration actually kicked off in January, right? So that's underway at the moment. As I mentioned, the data-driven approach and you referred to the U.K., we've seen some very positive results in the U.K. around our service delivery. Okay. That is the U.K. So we're now building on that and making it a much bigger program. Yeah.
Okay. If I could just remind our online audience, if you'd like to ask a question, please raise your hand on the Zoom webinar. Online audience, please raise your hand if you'd like to ask a question. Back to the room.
Thank you. Sandra Ford from Peel Hunt. Just a couple from me. So, in PIC, you're still sort of clearly winning some customers both sort of around the globe but also in China. Can you give us sort of an idea of how that weak sort of end consumer environment sort of impacts your strategic progress? You know, does it help? Does it hinder? I'll start with that one, if that's okay.
Yeah, you know, look, I would say that in the current climate, it is more difficult to win customers, because they're all about preserving cash at this point, right? I mean, they are extremely cost-focused, and actually, they're near-term cost-focused. Now, we can help them with that. I mean, we have a proven track record of genetics helping our clients to drive economic benefits. So there is a value proposition there. But they also need to, you know, take some deliveries, you know, to kind of get the genetics into their system. So they're extremely focused on cash preservation. So I'd say the fact that we have continued to gain market share with PIC across the globe, I think, is a testament to the strength of the PIC business.
It is obviously the genetics, but it is also the supply chain, and it is also the quality of our go-to-market teams and our service teams. So I think in China, the fact that we have gained customers that are among the largest producers, right, you see some of the names in the deck, Shuanghui, which is owned by the WH Group, who also owns Smithfield, for example, Techlex. They're very large and important players. It shows that there is potential in China. I don't need to remind the group here that, look, we went through COVID, which was you know, had a major impact in China, of course. We couldn't travel there. So I'd say that our business was kind of, you know, handcuffed for a while. Those handcuffs are off now.
And so we have people that are traveling into China. We're training our sales teams. There's a very active engagement. And you're seeing now kind of that having an impact on our ability to gain customers in China.
I'd add to that.
Yeah.
In the other markets, regardless of the market circumstances for producers, PIC is regularly gaining share. That's not just because they win new business with new customers, but they are aligned to the most successful producers. Those producers, in tough circumstances, are continuing to gain share themselves. So, there's that, but also just gaining share of the addressable market they have with the customers they have. We see that time and again, North America, Latin America, and Europe.
Thank you. Just another one on the sort of VAP program. So some of it is gonna be coming out of R&D. And obviously, R&D is incredibly important for the business. Sort of how are you looking at reallocating that expenditure? Is it sort of more ABS, or is it sort of PIC? What, how's the pipeline changing? And, yeah, just what's the current thinking on that?
Yeah. So first of all, maybe just a couple of words then on the review that we did on our R&D. Look, I think Genus has phenomenal R&D capabilities. I'm incredibly excited about the quality of our scientists, the quality of the work that we're doing. I think it is truly world-class. You know, and just I think PRP is definitely a testament to the innovation capability of Genus, as is the sexed semen intelligence technology, which I think is incredibly sophisticated. Now, that being said, I mean, you know, of course, our R&D expenditures have grown ahead of our profits and ahead of our top-line growth. So as a new CEO coming in, I think it's natural that you wanna kind of look under the hood, right?
And so, of what's going on in that R&D machine. And so we decided to do a, a review of our R&D activities. And we basically reviewed all of the projects that we have going on in the company. And we looked at them through the lens of four criteria. So it is it aligned with our strategy? Well, how attractive is the market? So the size of the market, the growth of the market, but also IP opportunities, right? Then we looked at, can we deliver a solution? So can we technically deliver a solution, but also commercially, can we bring it to market, right? And then it's looking at the overall balance of the portfolio between long-term, short-term, across species, risk levels, and so forth. And I think that's a healthy exercise to do. We use score sheets, data-driven approach.
We engaged the entire leadership team, but also the next level. There was face-to-face workshops. They all came together with facilitators and worked through all of that. Coming out of that, I feel even more encouraged and excited about our R&D activities, because we now have an even sharper focus on those projects that we believe will really drive value in the future. You know, you mentioned PRP. So absolutely, if you think about gene editing and that capability, we'll continue to focus on that. And we'll point that into, you know, disease-resistant animals, meaning we'll go for other diseases other than PRP as we go forward.
I think it's important also just to differentiate what people are already abbreviating as VAP. The Value Acceleration Program is specific to ABS. The R&D strategic review is a separate exercise, and it's a one-time exercise. The Value Acceleration Program is ongoing.
Thank you. That's very clear. Just lastly, on the final settlement with, with STgenetics, obviously, there's some financial benefits, you know, obviously, to come from that. But sort of maybe commercially, what you know, what else do you see that being more beneficial now? Are you being able to go after some of the customers it was maybe a bit harder harder to before?
Yeah. I mean, it's a settlement outside of the courts, right, regarding the IP litigation. You know, yeah, I don't think I can comment on it much further. I don't know, Alison. I mean. Y ou know, there's no limitations for us in terms of, you know, what we produce and where we sell in that regard, so.
It just got to a point where both parties.
Yeah.
Decided they just wanted to stop spending money with lawyers. And it just made sense to reach a settlement, and we did.
Thank you.
Make the lawyers.
Bridge. Yeah.
It's Max Herrmann from Stifel. Just going back to, firstly, China and the large potential customers. I know historically you haven't had huge penetration of those, the big producers, but you have been in active discussions with them about potential projects. I wonder how that's progressing. So just to get some color on the ongoing discussions. And obviously, Jorgen, you've just been out there, so talking to customers.
Well, you know, as I mentioned, we have a real focus on porcine in China, given half the world's pigs live there. One should also consider the PRRS-resistant pig, of course, ultimately. You know, is a tremendous potential in China. As I just mentioned earlier, there was the COVID kind of period where, you know, there wasn't any travel in and out. You can imagine with a young organization in China where you have people that aren't as tenured as our teams are elsewhere in the world, it does require quite a bit of training, coaching, and guidance. We're able to provide that now. And you see that come through, right? I mean, we've won a number of customers that are quite significant in terms of size, right? I mentioned Shuanghui, which is part of the WH Group.
Techlex is mentioned there and Wan nong or Tong. So that's progressing well. But please understand that it will take time until these businesses ramp up. So think about 18-24 months until we're gonna see the benefit of that. And the market environment plays into that, as well.
And then. In terms of the PRP and obviously the sort of delay in the U.S. approval, I know that sort of didn't really matter in terms of it was other approvals, Mexico, I think, Canada, and Japan that you really needed approvals there in order to because of the export opportunity, you needed to get the U.S. launch going anyway. So I just wonder, you know, where you are with those regulators and whether there's any learnings from this kind of review of obviously the post-approval commitments that you'll have to make in the U.S., what that means for those markets?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I, I, I would say right off the bat that it's not an exact science dealing with the regulators. Obviously, it's an iterative process. You know, at any point in time, they can raise questions. They can stop the clock. You know, they can even come back, having reviewed dossiers. They can come back, which was the case, you know, with the FDA. We submitted our dossiers this summer last summer. And you know, we have very, you know, very good discussions with them and excellent engagement. But we were surprised by the fact that suddenly in December, they came back, and they went back to our earlier submissions and asked new questions that were not expected and that they had not raised earlier. So that's what, what, what, what drove the delay there.
You know, and so those questions are around, you know, what we call the post-approval compliance. So it's around the protocols and the procedures around how you take tissue samples, how you ship those samples to our genomic lab in Wisconsin, the validation of the tests that we perform there. Then how do we collect the data? How do we retain the data? In what systems do we retain the data? You know, what are the procedures around that? So, I would say that, you know, we are very encouraged, actually, about the significant involvement and engagement from the FDA around post-approval compliance. It gives us even greater conviction that the approval will be forthcoming.
You know, we also received some more positive news, actually, since we issued our trading update last week where they now accepted, you know, our genotypic and phenotypic submissions of, yeah, durability study submissions. So, clearly, there's progress. What is outstanding now is the environmental assessment, and then it's the post-approval compliance, which is around what I just mentioned, data collection. It's also about the inspection of our facilities. So FDA, you know, representatives will go out to our farms and to our labs, and they will basically take stock there. So all of that is happening, as we speak. Now, your question was around the other countries. Yes, you're absolutely right. For us to commercialize the PRRS-resistant pig in the United States, our assessment is that we need approval in Canada, in Japan, and in Mexico.
So, the submission in Canada is ongoing, and we have submitted dossiers. Submission is not complete, but it's underway. Japan, we are preparing for it and doing the translations. Mexico is still, and I think we spoke about that in November. It is not a very clear procedure or process. It's just nonexistent, that process. So we have significant support from the Mexican pork producers who are keen to get this technology approved in Mexico. And we are working on the basis that once we have the US and Canada approvals, along with Colombia, that we're in a better place to accelerate the approval in Mexico.
Alison, any?
Huh?
Sorry. It's Jorge with Liberum. Two questions, if I may. One, just wanna come back to the VAP as we're now gonna call it. I kind of just thinking back to some of the comments you made in the past about the achievable margins in ABS. And you've talked before in old margin currency about 20%. And I think today in old margin currency, you're at about 12% maybe. And you've called out about 300 basis points so far. Do we still think that 20% is achievable from what you've seen?
I think we need to do a bit more work. Yeah. So, you know, the work that's—it's true. Just with the action we've taken, we've improved margin. But with the work that's underway now, I think we're really going to discover really the extent of the margin improvement or profitability that we can develop in the business. So what I can say is I'm absolutely sure there's more margin improvement there. We wouldn't be doing this work now if we didn't think it was there. But I'd like to reserve my answer until we've finished, you know, the current work that's underway.
Yeah. If I can just build on Alison's point, right? I mean, if you think about it, we've taken cost action. We've decided to integrate three units. IntelliGen was under the R&D organization, but it's now reached a scale and size where I believe it's better served as part of ABS, a commercial P&L organization. We're bringing in new leadership. We'll start on April the 15th, leadership that I have confidence in, somebody that has driven transformative change in large-scale organizations around the globe. But we also have this data-driven approach underway, which we kicked off in January, which is around making sure that we generate go-to-market productivity, if you will. So that's still, you know, quite early. I think we'll have greater visibility, you know, on what the targets should be, probably by the end of this fiscal year.
You know, we look forward to sharing more information, of course, with you as and when we have it available. But I think probably September is a good time for that.
Great. Thanks. And then sorry to hop on about China. But if I start digging around all of the big kind of producers in China, you get quite an interesting picture. A lot of companies with very high levels of net debt to EBITDA, loss-making, restructuring. I mean, it's, it's quite messy, right? And, and clearly not something that's sustainable. I'm wondering, how do you and, and some of your customers think this is gonna pan out? Is it gonna pan out with some of these businesses going under? And does that have an impact for you guys? Are some of the businesses you are already serving businesses that are in those financial disasters?
Yeah. Yeah. Look, I think it's a very important point. And we need to be very thoughtful around who are our partners in China and who are the players that ultimately are going to win in China because it is clear that restructuring needs to happen. I think we all know that in China, sometimes restructuring can take a very long time due to the involvement of the government, right? You know, there may be banks that have certain connections to the government. And you know, there's pressure from local municipalities and provinces that wanna retain certain producers. And of course, they are important to the farming communities. They consume grains and nutrition and feed. And so all of that plays a role in China.
I think it plays a role in other parts of the world, but more so in China. So yeah, I think that's for us very important to partner with the ultimate winners. And that's, you know, what we're reflecting on, and we're doing our own due diligence and making our calls on that.
Charles.
Yes. In my experience, this is probably the toughest ag market that, well, I've certainly seen Genus go through. What your team feel about the current situation? Do they see this as an unusual situation or a new norm? What needs to change for recovery to come through?
Yeah. I mean, Alison, I don't know if you wanna take that.
Yeah. I think you're right, Charles. It is tough, both in the porcine markets and in the bovine markets. And I was talking actually to a colleague last night in our bovine business who's been around forever. And you know, I was asking about 2016 because that's the last time that ABS's volumes declined. And funnily enough, China had a massive downturn. Brazil was down, and North America was down. So we are seeing that at the moment. And similarly with porcine, yes, there's no question, as Jorgen, you know, highlighted in the presentation, that North American producers are really having a very tough time. Europe, not so much now that production's reduced, prices are better.
What I would say is I think what's interesting, particularly about the North American producer chart, there's lots of evidence of a cycle and some pretty ugly red bars at the moment, illustrating losses. But, you know, it's particularly in the North American market, it's a textbook commodity market. And one thing's for sure, it will turn. And in any case, in the meantime, PIC is such a strong business that it can still grow even in this environment. You know, with 97% of volumes under royalty, the North American team know what their business is going to be in the next 12 months.
Specifically on North America, there was a slower rate of growth than you've seen for really quite some time. Was there any? Obviously, some of the producers have been cutting back, and that impacts on number of piglets being weaned. And so that has a direct impact. But do you see any sort of green shoots coming through for the second half or going into next year?
Yeah. I mean, really, what happened was that there was no expansion. Yeah. But yes, PIC North America has more business going forward. It has won other business despite the, you know, despite the climate. So, their growth will actually be a bit higher in the second half than what we saw in the first.
Yeah. I would just add, I mean, look, I think China played a large role not only in China, right, because everybody was exporting to China. If that demand is down, that has a ripple effect elsewhere. And we're not seeing that improve. But of course, you all know very well that commodity costs have come down a lot if you think about corn, for example, right? So that will help producers in the United States. So I think they're gonna be in a little bit better condition going forward.
PIC Europe actually had a pretty good result in the first half despite the sharp market downturn. Now that the market is starting to stabilize and producers are making money again, are you starting to see them expand? And can you see an improvement in that growth rate in Europe? Presumably, you're taking a lot of share.
I don't think it's right to say they're expanding, but PIC is, so PIC Europe's a, you know, very good business, and they continue to take share. Yeah.
Jens Lindqvist at Investec. Coming back to Max's question on the PRP regulatory process, I mean, Colombia is a it's a very pig-competent geography. Could you tell us what post-approval compliance requirements were put in place in Colombia? And, if there's any specific aspect of that that the FDA might take a different view on. I mean, you know, if this is multi-generational data on pigs post-approval, will there be a cost of maintaining a study population of pigs for that purpose?
Yeah. Look, I'm not aware of the post-compliance requirements in Colombia. I mean, it's a determination in Colombia, right? So they have determined that the PRP is equivalent to a conventional pig. And so as such, there's basically no further requirements in terms of data collection or so, it's quite a different regulatory framework from the one that we're seeing in the United States.
Yeah. So thank you.
Yeah.
I think it's just worth highlighting too just in terms of the compliance requirement for the U.S. It's not all farms, just to be clear. It's just the two farms where we have our PRP PRP pigs, and the lab that we use.
Moving on to ABS, then perhaps the price initiatives, is it safe to assume that this is mainly on the beef side of the business given the rising proprietary content?
This program is focused on ABS across the board, so dairy, beef, you know, as well as IntelliGen.
Okay.
Yeah.
Could you remind us of the volume split just between the conventional dairy sectors?
Oh, the dairy is probably about 80%, 20% beef.
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah.
Final question then, if I may. On the, I must admit, I lost count slightly on the exceptional charges 'cause they, there are some related to the cost cuts already identified, some associated with the VAP, some with the R&D rationalization, and then some with the ST litigation. Could you just break that down for me again, please? Thank you.
Sure. So yeah. So our exceptional costs in the first half are a bit over GBP 7 million. And included in that spend was GBP 2.9 million in relation to restructuring costs for ABS, which have been incurred so far. In this half, we will have an exceptional charge in relation to the ST settlement. And that will be around GBP 5 million. The reason being that we've been carrying a provision on our balance sheet, and we'll offset that against the settlement amount that will incur. There will be GBP 1 million in relation to restructuring costs having concluded the R&D review. And there may be other restructuring costs coming from the value acceleration program in ABS. You know, more work to be done, as we've said, in this half. And there'll be other legal costs. There always are some legal costs too.
And for next year, sorry?
Yes. As we go into next year, we'll have what will be done with ST, you know, I think you should assume, you know, a similar level of restructure, sorry, exceptional costs. We don't know yet exactly what it will be, but I think for the purposes of your assumptions, consider, you know, it's similar to this year.
Okay. Thank you.
Damian.
Hi. Thank you, Damian McNeela at Numis. If we could start with a couple of questions on China. Just, I know you started to win royalty business with some of the bigger customers. But can you sort of give us an indication of does the level of quantum? I'm assuming you're not going 100% of their volumes on day one. And, and, and how are they thinking about the progression of the relationship? Is this a sort of a more of a trial period initially, that could extend all the multi-year agreements? Just, just a bit of a level of a sort of what to expect over the next couple of years.
Yeah. I mean, you're right in saying that we don't have 100% of their business. But they are large players, and they are multi-year agreements. So it's not a one-off relationship. It's a relationship that should build over time. Yeah, it could add significantly to our Chinese business.
Okay.
Yeah. I don't know, Alison, if you.
Then on the BCA, the initial agreement was dependent on commercialization of PRRS and hence the price tag of $120 million-$160 million. If you go early, do you have to renegotiate that price tag, or is there a floor at $120 million on the JV?
Well, that agreement obviously would have to change because those terms would be different, because we wouldn't be at the point of commercialization if we brought it forward.
Yeah. Okay. That's what I thought. Thank you. On, I mean, you probably won't give us this answer, but, on, on ABS and in the U.K. and in the extent that you've seen good progress, what margin is the U.K. delivering?
I'm not good at answering that.
Fair enough. I tried, and then on the last one, just CapEx, sorry, pure R&D, I think it was just over GBP 11 million in the first half.
Yeah.
Down 8%. Should we expect that to annualize at 22.5-ish, or should we expect sort of what's the kind of, like, run rate for the U.S.?
Yeah. I think for this financial year, yes, the spend in this half will be similar to the first half of the year. We will have a bit more spend from a regulatory perspective in relation to PRP, but we're talking, you know, GBP 1 million or so. So yes, you're about right in terms of FY 2024. But then, of course, in FY 2025, we'll be spending less because of that GBP 5 million change.
I know there's no specific guidance at the minute, but when we look at FY 2025 for group profitability.
Yeah.
There's clearly cost savings coming through from R&D, GBP 5 million, and then talking about GBP 10 million in ABS. How much more profit growth should we expect from the base, given the fact that we probably shouldn't expect some material change in ag markets?
Yeah. I think I think the way to sort of think about all of this is, first of all, the if you like, the hard savings, which have already been actioned or confirmed. On a year-on-year basis, you've got the GBP 5 million from R&D, and then there's GBP 3.7 million from ABS because we're cycling savings that are already recognized in this year. There was a one-time expense as well, in ABS in the last half in relation to inventory provisioning. And I think with PIC excluding China, what you have to believe is how strong that business is. And regardless of the market circumstances, they will continue to gain market share and grow. And what they've demonstrated over a long period of time is that growth rate is about 7%.
And if you think about the costs that have been incurred or how profit has been impacted, in this half, we've seen an increase in the product development costs, and an increase in the commercialization costs for PRP, and they're flatlining. So, you know, some decent profit growth should come from PIC ex-China. PIC China itself is a bit more difficult to forecast. We are assuming a you know, a really tough half, this half of PIC China, which means at the end of this financial year, it will be making, you know, very small profit. So the question is, do you believe it could make a little bit more in FY 2025 from a very, very low base? And what I would say is that PIC China has been impacted this year by higher supply chain costs because we've taken on two farms.
The Hong Kong farm, which was a farm we always planned. It's a nucleus farm. And the Luodian farm, which is a farm that we actually took on from the BCA last half. And that was a very strategic decision. They didn't want to continue managing that farm. They've recognized PIC are brilliant at it, and they'd rather they did it. So we've taken that farm, and it's geographically, it fits very well with our network. But that's it. We're not intending to extend our supply chain further in PIC China for some time because we've now got capacity that's, you know, almost 100% of the capacity we had a few years ago. So we're very well set up for the growth when it comes. And then, you know, when we think about ABS, the question is, can it grow more?
Let's leave China out of it. Let's assume China just continues to be tough for some time to come. But the rest of the business, do we believe that there is a bit of volume growth there? Yes, we do. And also, we do believe that there are going to be further benefits from the work that we're undertaking in this half. And IntelliGen, as you saw, grew in the first half; we have every reason to believe that that will be able to grow as well. So if you add all that up, which I think you are, you can, you know, get to quite a handsome growth in profit in FY 2025.
So just as a reminder for the people who are online, if you'd like to ask a question, please raise your hand. We've no questions at the moment. So if there's any further questions in the room? Okay. We'll just wait for just two seconds just to see if there are any questions online. So no further questions online. Jorgen, pass back to you for any closing remarks.
Well, with that, we're concluding this session. I wanna thank everybody for your interest in Genus and for the very good discussion and the questions that you have.