Welcome to the presentation of our full year results 2024. A warm welcome also to the ones who have joined online. Thanks for joining. With me today is Marcel Imwinkelried, our CEO, and Reto Suter, our CFO. As always, we will start with a summary of the highlights of 2024. Reto will then talk about the financials in more detail. Then Marcel will talk about what is driving the growth in our key market segments, some of the trends in our industry, and how we are implementing EVOLVE+ to position ourselves in this environment. At the end, we will have a Q&A session. Those who join online can join via chat and ask the questions via video call. With that, I would like to hand over to Marcel. Over to you.
Thank you, Peter. Good afternoon. Happy to meet you in person here in Zurich, and also a warm welcome to the colleagues which have joined in the webcast. If there is one message I want to remember for today, it is due to the strong underlying business we delivered on our guidance, and we continued on our growth profitability. As you can see, we are strong in all key performance indicators, but especially, I would like to highlight two numbers. One is the Core EBITDA margin, where we were able to cross the 22% mark, and the second one, the Core Net Profit, where we made it up by 24%, close to CHF 160 million, which is great. Outlook for 2025: we are guiding for a mid-single digit in local currencies, and we are looking forward for a Core EBITDA margin above 22%.
Now, in the next few slides, I would like to share with you how we achieved this strong performance. First, we delivered this profitable growth due to strong outstanding performance in safety, in quality, and in supply reliability. All of these dimensions are Operational Excellence, and this is exactly part of the EVOLVE+ strategy, one of the most important pillars in this strategy. I will come later on. I'm really proud of the supply reliability. We were able to cross the 90% mark, which is also very important because our customers, they are relying on us. They want to have their product on time in full, with the right quality and with a safe track record as well. We delivered our profitable growth to become more and more sustainable. We are helping our customers to become more and more sustainable as well.
As you can see, we made significant progress in all of these different dimensions. Especially, I would like to highlight the carbon emission reduction over the last four years, where we were able to reduce that by 50%, which is significant. Becoming more and more greener as a company, we are also becoming more and more diverse. As I speak, there are 48% of the management positions held by women. Third, we delivered our profitable growth through a strong execution of our EVOLVE+ strategy through M&A. With the acquisition of the Grafton site in Wisconsin, we achieved two important goals. The first one, to expand our network in the USA, and the second one, to bring an additional piece for our puzzle, to provide the full end-to-end service for our customers. In conclusion, 2024 for Siegfried was a very strong year.
Due to the strong underlying business, which was growing very nicely, we were able to fulfill the expectations according to our guidance and also further to improve our profitable growth. Now, I would like to hand over to Reto, who will give you more insights about the financial numbers.
Thank you very much, Marcel. Welcome to you all here in Zurich, and obviously also a warm welcome to all of you sitting on the screen somewhere around the globe. I'm very happy now to lead you through this, again, strong set of numbers that we delivered in 2024. In 2024, we again have had an underlying business which grew above the market. We have more than offset the various headwinds. We spoke about these headwinds exactly a year ago here, and I have touched upon them also when I presented the half-year numbers in August. Now, let's see how the underlying growth of the business really was. The three effects were as follows. The vaccines business has now totally phased out of our business portfolio. This was an impact of somewhere between CHF 30 million and CHF 40 million. De-stocking, most of that effect is over too.
CHF 20 million-CHF 30 million in 2024, we expect between five, more like CHF 10 million to come still in H1 2025. Portfolio optimization, as expected, the top-line effect is now through the system. Obviously, that effort will continue over the next many periods. If you combine that now with the currency headwind that we saw, we arrive at 8%-9% growth of the underlying business for 2024, which is strong and which is significantly above the market. In Swiss francs, which is our accounting currency, the growth was 1.8%. In 2024, we have seen the dollar as well as the euro depreciating against the Swiss franc, both by 2%. This led to a significant headwind of 1.2% to the business portfolio, the currency portfolio that you see here. The effect was once again stronger in the Drug Products cluster.
This is a cluster which has almost no Swiss franc exposure. It's basically a euro business. So the headwind there was 2%, and it was smaller in Drug Substances. We again applied the natural hedging concept in 2024. This went quite perfectly. So the impact on the margin from these significant movements was very limited. Now, if we look at currency in 2025, we again expect the euro to decline slightly. On the dollar, well, who knows? But we expect a smaller currency headwind somewhere between neutral and 0.5% against us. If you look at the two clusters, both of them actually grew significantly above the market at between 8%-9%. In Drug Substances, you could clearly see that H2 was a bit stronger in de-stocking than H1, and some of the effect is mentioned still to come in 2025.
Drug products delivered well as well in the second half. Please remember here that the maintenance shutdown for Drug Products is always in the second half, August usually. There's also some piece of good news that I would like to share with you on the ERP. We had the migration to the latest version of SAP, SAP S/4HANA in the Drug Products cluster in the significant site of Hameln in the second half. Also Malta we had in the second half. These went just perfectly well in time on budget and without any interruption to supply to our customers. Very happy about that. Concluding, 68.9% of the business in Drug Substances and a bit more than 30% in Drug Products. Now, this is the slide that I always show.
It's the reconciliation between the reported numbers under Swiss GAAP FER, which is our accounting framework, and then the core numbers. We introduced these in 2019 and have applied the concept ever since in an unchanged way and a very transparent way, I would say. Now, this picture looks rather, let's say, let's call it unspectacular. And unspectacular on these slides is good. It means that reported and core numbers actually are very close to each other, and that is nice. We adjusted for the one thing which we adjust always, that's relating to foreign pension plans, where we revalued these obligations at year-end. That led to a small decline of that obligation, CHF 1.4 million in our favor, actually, from a P&L point of view. We took that out as every time.
Then we reallocated CHF 3 million of direct interest payments from operating expenses down to the financial expenses, also as every year. Now, in 2024, we have not only been able to grow, but we have only been able to protect and actually increase our profitability. We have more than offset the phasing out of this profitable chunk of the vaccines business. We have translated a growth on the top line to an even more significant growth on the various bottom line aggregates. All of the profit aggregates have grown by higher rates than the sales growth. You see, Core EBITDA has grown by 4.5% to a margin of now 22.1% and CHF 285.6 million. It is a good result. Core Net Profit has grown by even a stronger rate, by 24% to now CHF 158.9 million or a margin of 12.3%. That is really good.
This is a proof of our resilient and well-diversified business model, which made that possible. Again, some processes helped. It's the same as in the last years. Operational Excellence added to that number significantly, and we also have applied a strict cost discipline as in the periods before, and not only on the level of the individual manufacturing sites around the globe. I'm specifically also happy that we applied it at the corporate center in the global functions. Active portfolio optimization helped, as every year, also in 2024. Touching upon diversification, that's important. We spread risks across large portfolios of customers and clients, and that promotes stability and provides an optimal basis for us to continue to grow. Siegfried is not dependent on one customer, and Siegfried is not dependent on one product. My financial metrics either so.
Customer diversification, Novartis continues to be our top customer with somewhere between 10 and 20% of revenues. Customer two at 9%, customers three to 10 at an additional 33%. You will see that customer two is a bit higher than what we had seen in the previous periods. But sometimes the concentration is also an opportunity. Small to mid-sized pharma companies make out more than half of our revenues. 41% come from large pharma companies. This ratio will move towards smaller and mid-sized pharma companies once the effects of the Grafton acquisition kicked in. Relating to life science, life cycle diversification, we continue to make the vast majority of what we do in revenues from commercial manufacturing, between 90 and 95%. And the remainder 5 to 10% we do in the clinical phases. This will also not change with the Grafton acquisition.
Grafton serves the purpose to accelerate the inflow of additional valuable molecules into our high-quality manufacturing network. That's the purpose. Then product diversification, as last year, top product at 6% and the products 2 to 10 at an additional 27%. Also the split between multi-client exclusives, more or less unchanged, one quarter to three quarters. Now in 2024, we have enhanced and increased the profitability, and that's really good news. But some enhanced financial management also helped us to even contribute more to the bottom line. I will come to that. So we see Core Gross Profit increased despite the adverse change in mix from the phase-out of the vaccines business. Core SG&A, if you include other operating income, actually declined both in absolute terms as well as in relative terms.
We shifted some cost, IT cost from COGS down to the core admin and general overhead due to the introduction of a new transfer pricing, and despite that, we could actually reduce the whole block. You also see that Core Financial Result comes down. This is a function of lower interest rates, and we have been able to significantly reduce the exchange rate differences. That's translation of balance sheet positions. Despite the fact that we saw a much higher volatility in the forex rates, that is due to the introduction of an advanced, much more detailed hedging program on exactly these positions on a daily basis. Then you see that the tax rate has come in lower at 18.5% effective tax rate now, which is the direct result of the introduction of a new transfer pricing regime.
Properly adjusting the transfer prices to our steering model and allocating risks and profit across global functions and also geographies. This was the result for the 24% increase in the Core Net Profit. On cash generation, we have made significant progress due to Project FALCON in net working capital management. We have released nearly CHF 60 million of cash from inventory positions. However, this very positive effect was temporarily offset by a one-time increase in paid income taxes. That's for prior periods, went already through the P&L and was related to COVID-related profits in Germany. It was also offset by a phasing effect. We booked more revenues in November and December, meaning that these invoices that we printed have not yet converted into cash. But as we speak, they do so now in the next few weeks. That's a temporary shift.
But due to these effects, operating cash flow was lower in 2024 than in the financial year 2023. Capital expenditures were in line with plan at the lower end actually of the guidance at 14% of net sales. Capital expenditures for 2024 and then the years to come will go back to low teens as we had it before. At the end of the year, net debt to Core EBITDA is at 1.7, slowly coming down now in the quarters to come, which means that I still have ample room for non-dilutive funding power to grow the business organically as well as inorganically. I'm also happy about the fact that both hybrid convertible bonds have now been converted by the holder of these bonds. CHF 80 million of hybrid debt have left the liability structure. That's good.
And in this process, we have created significant shareholder value for all of you as well. So very happy about that specific transaction. The board will propose to the shareholders meeting on April 10 to increase the payout to shareholders by CHF 0.2 to now CHF 3.80 per share. This will be effected once more as a reduction in nominal capital, which means it's tax-free for larger parts of our shareholding structure. And the board will also propose to the shareholders a 1 to 10 share split, which facilitates the liquidity of the shares with a special focus and special view on enabling and making it easier for our employees to participate in the share purchase program that we offer. Equity ownership by our own people is an important element for all of us. Which brings me to the capital allocation slide.
You know that we'll access growth options. This will lead to strong top-line growth and expanding margin. It increases cash generation, which we then use again to deploy into further growth of our company. Now, following the Capital Markets Day, I have received many questions on M&A and a few questions on the margin expansion. Let me touch upon them for a minute or so. The question on M&A was, is this still topical? Is this still important under EVOLVE+? Let me be crystal clear on that. M&A has been important in the past. It's important now, and it's also going to be important in the future. Through M&A, we can add scale. We can add abilities. We can add technologies. As always, this has not changed. We will continue to be very selective.
We focus on immediate value creation, and we will never go for the marginal fair value deal. So that's important. On expanding margins, same margin levers as always. Economies of scale, as an example, we keep the SG&A constant, increase the business volume. This automatically leads to an expansion of all the margins below EBITDA. Interesting and actually dominant will be the bringing on stream of new assets. So converting idle cost into revenues at marginal cost for profit. Portfolio optimization will play an important role going forward as well. So far, this has been restricted or focused on Drug Substances. Now, Drug Substances continues year after year, but we will now also roll out this effort to Drug Products to selected sites in the Drug Products network. And then lastly, and we have spoken about this a lot in Barcelona, Operational Excellence, including process excellence.
Here, the question was, what can this bring? What's the effect of Operational Excellence onto my margin? Let me give you a number. Operational Excellence can bring somewhere between a high single-digit CHF million to a low double-digit CHF million amount per year recurring, which means that this could be 50 basis points margin expansion up to 80-90 basis point margin expansion. So this is also significant going forward. So you see, the Siegfried journey goes on. We just continue to compound year after year after year, and that continues. And now I'm happy to hand back to Marcel for the outlook.
Thanks, Reto. Now, let's talk about our bright future. As already shared with you during the Capital Markets Day in Barcelona, we see, and this is still valid, that we are working in a very healthy, growing CDMO business.
There are four decisive trends ongoing, and particularly, I would like to highlight one of them. And that's the innovation. Innovation is coming through small and mid-sized pharmaceutical companies. And that's exactly where EVOLVE+ is covering. We need to look and really to make sure that we can provide the full service end-to-end for this kind of customers. Strategy. We are still relying on EVOLVE, you know, the previous strategy, but what I've also shared with you in Barcelona, that we are expanding now. First, in the technology offering, and secondly, that we are looking, you know, what we are doing to become the best in that. Let me share the rapid progress, what we have done over the last months.
We are in the strong execution mode now, especially for broadened technology offering, where we were able now to implement, to make the decision very fast and already now in the implementation phase. First of all, aseptic manufacturing technology. I was highlighting in Barcelona that we are taking care of the expansion of our prefilled syringe and cartridge capacity. In the meantime, we have decided to go for a second line in Hameln, a bigger one, which will become available by the end of next year for our customers. The first line, which is already in execution, will become available for our customers by the end of this year. Bridging technologies, that was the second topic regarding the offering broadened technology spray drying. And this spray drying, we are implementing and investing in Barcelona, the site in Barcelona.
Also, these capabilities and capacity will be available by the end of next year. First revenues we are expecting beginning of 2027. Ophthalmic. Good news. The demand and the business growth is significantly much better than we thought. We are now in the expansion mode there. We are implementing a sterile ointment line to cover the demand. Good news, already the majority of this capacity is booked by our customers. Overall, we see for all three technologies a huge demand from small to mid-cap, but also from the large companies as well. Let's talk about our excellence topics to become best in all of what we are doing. Let's start with Commercial Excellence. I would like to highlight two topics which we have achieved in the meantime. First, go-to-market strategy.
We developed this plan and also implemented over the last six months for Drug Substance, for Drug Product, but also for our viral vector company DINAMIQS, which is very close by here in Zurich in Schlieren. Good news, we see already some prospects coming through. Secondly, I would like to highlight Project FALCON. This is really to reduce the net working capital. And you already outlined in his presentation the benefit regarding the cash release. But overall, we were able to reduce the inventory by 10%. At the same time, you know, and this is really unusual, but this is exactly to do with the Operational Excellence. We were able to, what I've shared in the previous presentation, to make the reliability up. Very often, it's in the contradiction way, but it shows that we are really making the right progress there.
This was also the reason that we were able to release close to CHF 60 million last year. Expect more, because more will come through, and we will let you know by the end of the year what will be the number we are talking about here. Second one is Development Excellence. Here, the ultimate goal for our customers is to extend, you know, their exclusivity for their product. There is only one way to do that. You need to reduce the development time. Now, with the new lab setup, what we are putting in place, higher speed, but also now due to the fact that we are able to provide the full service from clinical development up to commercial, we are in a position to serve our customers and to reduce at the end the development time by two to four years.
That's exactly what also the small and mid-caps are looking for, to have one service provider. And there are not so many CDMOs because you need to pass the critical mass to offer the entire development knowledge and capabilities. Operational Excellence, already used several times during the presentations here. With the new technologies which are available, with artificial intelligence, we were able to do a value stream mapping. What does this mean? To reduce really unnecessary steps. And at the end, we were able to reduce the throughput time. This means for a production in the pharmaceutical company, it starts with dispensing in the warehouse to do the full production, including finished packaging and to release. We were able to do that in Malta from 50 days down to 25 days. I'm really excited about that.
You know, it's not only that we are able through this to reduce the throughput time at the end to release the cash, but also we are able to respond on short notice of demand changes of our customers. This is top class. We are, due to the fact that we have such benefits and also our customers, we are looking for now to implement that within the entire network in Siegfried for all sites in the upcoming months. Now, Siegfried is set to outpace the market growth mid-term. With the strongest team, highly motivated people, with the winning spirit and with the EVOLVE+ strategy, we are in a position to do so. Of course, you can count on us for the positive mid-term outlook, which will remain. We will continue with our profitable growth above market, of course, excluding M&A.
We are going for stepwise expanding profitability. As already outlined, the CapEx will be at the low teens. And of course, we will still use as a catalyst our accretive M&A activities. You can count on us. And thanks a lot for your attention. And now, happy to hand over to Peter, and he will prepare, you know, to answer afterwards your questions. Thanks a lot for your attention.
Thank you, Marcel. We are happy now to take any questions from the room as well as from the online participants through video call. We have about 30 minutes, and after that, we're happy to take more questions during the opera. Let's get started. Laura, please.
Laura Pfeiffer from Octavian, thanks for taking my question. Maybe I have two. So first, on your sales guidance for this year, it's this mid-single-digit growth.
So can you help us a little bit understanding what are the components? I understand there is a small headwind, but probably less than 1% from the de-stocking. So maybe you could give us a little bit more thoughts, you know, why growth should not be as strong as it was in 2024. And also, what are your assumptions for input costs and pricing? And then the second one is maybe more on the Spanish side. If you could give us an update, you know, how your contract winning is progressing here, how you won some new contracts in the meantime, and what it could mean for the growth this year and the next year. Thanks.
Thank you. Maybe the question on the Spanish side from you, Marcel, and the different components of the guidance from Reto.
Shall I start with Spain?
Yes.
So, okay. Happy to do so.
I think, as already outlined and also what I shared during the presentation with the expansion in El Masnou, we are growing extremely fast there. The innovation is coming through, despite that over the last decade, there was not so much innovation in the ophthalmic business, and we are playing here really in a niche, and the demand is strong. That's also the reason why we're looking forward to expand our capacity, and as already outlined, you know, the line is more or less already fully booked, which is good, which is great. For Barberà, here also what we have already shared with you in the half-year results last August and also in the capital market day, we are also progressing there as well.
So we had a significant contract signed mid of last year, and also more customers and products are coming through now in the upcoming months as well. And we are progressing there as well.
Thank you, Marcel. Reto on the guidance.
So I'll take the guidance questions then. I mean, when we issue a guidance, we always do it in the very same manner, you know, and we have been successful with that in the past. We always look at the latest projections that we have, you know, how is the business developing. Much of, you know, what we will sell in 2025 is already in manufacturing currently. However, there are still some leads that need to be converted, et cetera, et cetera. And then secondly, we always ask ourselves, you know, what's the guidance or the target that with a very large degree of certainty we're able to achieve?
This is what we then guide, you know, including, so that's bottom-up created, but with a high probability of achieving that. It's now my eighth presentation of annual results, and so far we have not issued a profit warning ever since, and I don't intend to change that anytime soon. Relating to input cost and pricing, this will be a little different than 2024, where we have seen certain raw material categories actually declining. For 2025, we expect it to be stable, slightly increasing a bit. On the personal cost side of things, it's very similar to what we had been observing in 2024. That's inflation, mostly in Germany, but also in the United States of America. Obviously, we want to compensate for that. We want to grow profitably, which means that we need to, again, work on efficiency and all of that.
Pricing will be neutral to very slightly positive. So here and there, we, of course, try and will increase the prices as well as a result of changed input cost, but in some instances also just because we can.
Thank you, Reto. Maybe Laura, you can pass on the mic to Sibylle. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Sibylle Bischofberger from Vontobel has also two questions on the outlook. First, I would like to understand your EBITDA margin guidance. You expect more than 22%. You had 22.1% in the last year. What are the moving parts there? And does it mean that it could be that EBIT margin would not increase as you are increasing depreciation and amortization due to the Minden site going to be amortized? Or a little more detail about that was the first question.
Reto, do you want to take that? Yeah.
No, I understand that. Obviously, we have in the past been very successful in increasing the EBITDA margin step by step, actually every year, and we would like to continue to do exactly that. The moving parts are less significant than in 2024. However, we will also see no tailwind from input cost and energy, et cetera. So it's going to be a bit more challenging. However, we are very hopeful to be able to increase the margin again in 2025. On depreciation, you're right. I mean, obviously in 2025, we will put into operations a large manufacturing plant in Minden, which will lead to depreciation, of course. So that we will see in 2025, most probably in the second half.
And the second question is about CapEx. You mentioned that you will decrease CapEx to low teens.
Could you be more precise about how much CapEx do you want to spend there?
Yeah, 10%-13%. Thank you.
The next question from Daniel.
Thank you, Daniel Jelovcan, ZKB. On the operational cash flow, the big delta you explained already with the higher cash tax you paid, so CHF 82 million versus CHF 20 million, that was a big surprise to most, I think. So in the future, can we expect a cash tax like in the P&L, so CHF 40 million? Or you mentioned the reason why it was so high.
Yeah.
Is that a fair assumption?
Yeah, it is a fair assumption, actually. And already this year, cash taxes and, I mean, CHF 25 million cash taxes and effective tax rates, you know, come closer together. You know, it's also much easier for us now with the new transfer pricing system to plan for that.
As we paid and most taxes actually here in Switzerland, and the tax rates and the profitability of the sites on a standalone basis are quite easily plannable and projectable.
Okay, and the other one is, I mean, in the cash flow statement, there was a big swing in other current liabilities and accruals. I mean, in 2023, you had nearly CHF 100 million inflow, and in 2024, you had CHF 65 million outflow. So a huge delta, which as an outsider is impossible to predict. And I suspect it also has to do with revenue recognition maybe, but I'm not sure. So if you can explain?
Yeah, I mean, with one significant customer, we changed the way of working together, which has in the last year left its marks. However, that was accompanied by a significantly larger profitability for us in the years to come. So that was welcomed.
This change in the makeover with that customer has left its marks as well in that position that you mentioned. That will not reoccur again.
That item will be neutral or positive even?
Yes.
Okay. The last question, there was a certain inventory allowance, I believe, a reversal, which had a positive impact on the gross margin. I'm not sure if my reading is correct, but maybe you can provide a little bridge in the gross margin. That would be very helpful.
Yeah. I mean, inventory allowance or provisions on the inventory in general have come down if you compare 2024 to 2023. That is actually a good thing because inventory provisions, we actually calculate in a very mechanical way. We calculate how significant, how large is the turn of that inventory position.
And the lower inventory turn is, the higher the provision gets because there's room to believe that you will not be able to sell a specific inventory position. So if you see at Siegfried, inventory provisions actually decreasing and coming down, that is good news. It means that our inventory actually turns quicker, which is also one of the benefits of that specific Project FALCON, where we will not only focus on accounts receivables and payables, but also on what's going on in inventory. That's by far the biggest lever that we have at our hands.
Thank you.
The next question is from Tanya Hansalik . What was the contribution from Novavax in 2024? Was there a compensation payment, and what do we expect in full year 2025? Marcel, do you want to take that?
Yeah, I think in 2024, it was not a lot anymore, just to be honest.
I think for 2025, as already outlined, you know, there is nothing left. COVID vaccines is definitely gone.
Thank you. Next question. We have Ed Hall on the video call. Good afternoon, Ed.
Can you hear me?
Yes. Yes, we do.
I can't see you, Ed.
No, there's a camera. Perfect. Perfect. Hi, guys. Just a couple of questions on my side. I think the first one would just be on valuations in regards to M&A and how you look at valuations. I think, obviously, do you think these valuations have sort of been reset, and do you see further room for this to be reset just in line with, obviously, your emphasis on EVOLVE+ and M&A going forward? That would be my first question.
Marcel?
Sure. I think, as already also outlined during the presentation, we are looking at the M&A activities at the assets, for sure. And also, we have always, when we are talking about EVOLVE+, we have always two options. Now we have the financial power to invest by ourselves internally, or sometimes it's even better to go for an external one because then you have already capabilities, assets, or whatever available, and it's already running in full speed. So we are looking at both options, but of course, sometimes then we have also to make the decision, do we go for acquisition or shall we do that in-house?
So as already outlined, you know, for spray drying, prefilled syringes, and so on, we decided last autumn to go for in-house investment, which makes sense, absolutely, also to build it up because it's expansion and we have already the capabilities there, but also we are still open and looking at different options for our core business, but also for new modalities as well.
Okay, perfect.
If I may add
and then [Marcel]
Sorry, Reto has something, a comment, this question.
I mean, generally speaking, you also see it in the public data available. Deal activity increases. Also, if you speak to private equity, deal-making increases. In some instances, IPO windows go up again. So the environment for M&A has clearly improved if you compare it to a year ago.
Perfect. Thank you. And then my second question would just be similar to Daniel on the sort of our current liabilities and accruals on the balance sheet, more related to this deferred income. Obviously, it's quite a large change. Not being an auditor myself, I mean, how does this flow through in the balance sheet? Does it go through the P&L at all? And if so, what is the dropdown to EBIT?
No, it does not. And it's actually really related to that restructuring. I mean, in a very positive sense with that one specific large growing client, which, you know, is, how did I mention it, a concentrated opportunity rather than a risk.
Perfect. Thank you. And then just one final quick question, just on Grafton contribution to growth. What was the quantum in 2025? And is there a quick outlook for 2024 as well?
Yeah, I mean, Grafton, you see the details on the acquisition on Note 21 in my financial report. The contribution to sales and profitability is just insignificant in 2024. In 2025, we'll be a bit larger, I mean, two times insignificant, which is maybe a little significant. I don't know.
Good news, we see some prospects which are coming through, which is great, but also to manage the expectations still, these products will come becoming commercial. It will take some time, three to five years, but that's already what we have shared with you.
Thank you. Next question, Laura, one more question. Yes, please.
Sorry, I just have a follow-up. I think it was mentioned in the appendix that you expect a stronger H2, like in terms of weighting relative to H1. What is the reason for that?
Yeah, I mean, the main reason is the bit of de-stocking, which we will continue to see now in H1 in the Drug Substances cluster. In addition to that, you know, when we look at the current manufacturing plan, also there we see a stronger revenue recognition in the second half. This is just based on, you know, how we manufacture most efficiently and based on the demand of our clients. Obviously, we always try to optimize these manufacturing plans, but what we currently see, and I think it's fair to also share that with you, is a weaker H1 and a stronger H2.
And is that true for Drug Substances, but also for Drug Products? I thought that this is more evenly spread.
In Drug Products, it's much more evenly spread. It's more like 49 to 51 in usual years.
And it's specifically in Drug Substances where we see the imbalance to a lesser degree also in DP.
Thank you.
Thank you, Laura. Next question is from Fynn Scherzler from Deutsche Bank Online. Good afternoon, Fynn. Can you hear us?
Hey, good afternoon.
Yes
I can. Thanks for taking my questions. If you can maybe come back to your 2025 guidance. You commented already, but I just want to clarify. So aside from the de-stocking, which is about 1%, are there any other factors that we should consider that would slow underlying growth from the 8%-9% you had in the past year?
Reto?
No, no other factors. I would have mentioned them today. No, the de-stocking is the only one left. So, you know, let's look forward to 2025.
You're on mute.
Thank you. If you can maybe update us on the Minden side, how is the progress here and what timing should we expect on the first revenues? You said they come in 2025, so is this really only just a little bit of revenue towards the end of 2028? And maybe has the commercial manufacturing already started now, or are you still in qualification phase? And then maybe if I can add, I would have expected that maybe the first Minden revenues could actually roughly offset the de-stocking impact in terms of revenue for the full year. Is that about right, or would that still be too much?
I think the question is related to Minden. So we have currently discussions. We don't know if we are able to make it in the first half of the year or beginning of the second half of the year.
In other words, we are really close. Good news is that we will deliver on time in full, that the facility will go into operation, which is great. But it's just a matter of weeks, first half of the year where we see the first revenues or in the second half.
Now, on the magnitude of the first revenues, I think, Fynn, your assumption is not so wrong.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. And then maybe if I can squeeze in one last one, can you maybe comment on the CDMO activity you've seen through 2024 in general? So my impression is that maybe Drug Substances turned out to be a bit stronger than you had thought at the beginning of the year. And also, if I look at peer commentary, is it fair to say that activity at pharma customers is maybe turning a bit stronger into 2025?
I think we see continuity in a lot of activities. So also in the new molecules which are coming through, we see a continuous progress there. So not a big difference compared to 2024. Of course, what we see, especially for the small caps, that money is much more available now. Also, by the way, also the potential M&A activities, which have quite significantly changed upwards over the last several months. That's what we see, more activities coming through.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Fynn. Next question, again from Daniel.
Thanks for the follow-up to the cell and gene business for you, Marcel. Have you ever said something about the size of this business in terms of turnover? I mean, you know, end of the decade, because we hear so many contradictory statements.
I mean, Rentschler shutting down the UK cell and gene CDMO facility, Novartis building capacity in Slovenia, does everything in-house. Lonza is doing very well. So an idea why you should be so well in that segment.
Very good question, Daniel. I think we have to separate cell and gene therapies. We are in the gene therapy, and it's a little bit more, except that some of the companies are going out. I think quite a good position to be. And why? I think, first of all, it was quite smart to start with the capabilities. And always, if you are going in new technologies, everything starts with capabilities, development activities. And what we are doing, and we are signing, and we have nicely made up the prospects in our DINAMIQS site in Schlieren. Good news.
But we are talking here about early phase products and not GMP, because, as you know, also this technology is in an early phase in general as a technology. But I think it's good to come from this way, then to just invest in assets. And some of our competitors, they were heavily investing in assets, but you can have assets, but if you don't have the capabilities and not the relationship, and here you need really to talk from scientist to scientist, then it's really difficult to fill at the end also these assets. And we are moving, we are progressing. If we are talking about sales, it's not significant yet. You know, if we are talking about an early phase project, then we are talking about CHF 100,000-CHF 200,000, but it depends on the numbers of new products, new prospects which we are gaining.
We are gaining in both directions. We are working for large pharmaceutical companies, but also for small and mid-caps. Looking now forward that some of these products which we have developed at the early stage, that they are coming through, that we can bring these products then to commercial then with the first GMP batch which should produce or we will produce then in 2026.
I mean, Daniel was asking for, you know, end of decade revenue projection. We confirmed at the CMD that this could be somewhere, you know, mid double digits with Swiss franc million for that asset base that we are now creating.
Sales, by the end of decade. Yeah. Okay.
This is still valid, yes. Nothing has changed.
Sorry, I must have forgotten.
Sorry, I misunderstood. All good.
The other question is the portfolio optimization in Drug Products, which you start now.
I guess that's not done overnight and will have an impact this year. Is that correct on the top line?
We don't expect a significant impact on the top line of Drug Products from these activities. You know, as in Drug Substances, we started the effort in 2021. And the first year where we had an impact on the top line was 2024. This is also due to the fact that we obviously pull the easier levers first, which is efficiency, pricing, commercial e xcellence in some cases, and only as a last resort to then end on exiting a certain product. You always also want to give your client enough time to adjust its supply chain because we can't be the ones responsible for a product not becoming available anymore. So it's a very good question. We don't expect any impact on sales for 2025.
But the approach is always the same. You need to have really high utilization of the site, you know. And exactly also we have now, we are now in a position like El Masnou, what I have shared with you, to be in such position to go for this portfolio management activities. Thank you.
Next question is from Charles Weston, RBC. Florian, can you put him through? Good afternoon, Charles.
Hello. Thanks for taking the question. So the first is around the capacity data, or if you can provide any capacity data around the aseptic fill finish sites in terms of volume coming online for the two different new sites and how that adds to the total capacity that's already in existence there, please.
Marcel.
For fill and finish, if I...
Yeah. The two lines.
The two lines, yes. Here also we are in touch with, for these two lines, prefilled syringes and cartridges with customers to fill them and also to book, you know, the capacity there accordingly, and we are making progress as well there.
I think Charles wants to know how large the lines are.
How the capacity of the line. So it's one is a small line with 10 million units. So this is really a dedicated line for biologics, large molecules. And the second one is a line for 30 million units per year. And here also for large molecules, but can also manage, of course, small molecules and biosimilars as well.
Thank you. And just one other one, please. Just to follow up on the earlier question on phasing, I think you indicated that the Drug Product was, relatively speaking, quite even, but Drug Substance would be even more second half weighted.
Did I miss any further color on quite how second half weighted it might be this year versus last year?
Yeah, we're still working on that, but you know, as an effect of additional de-stocking is somewhere shaded under CHF 10 million maybe for H1 for Drug Substances, gives you a bit of an idea. And then in addition, we also have the programming as it currently lies with the revenue crystallization points also in Drug Substances, which is currently, in addition to the de-stocking skew towards H2. We are working on that. Obviously, we have no interest in imbalances between the two semesters, but it was fair to announce that to you today.
Thank you, sir. That was very true. Thanks.
Thanks, Charles.
Yes, please.
Thank you, [inaudible ] I have a question regarding the market.
Is it fair to assume that the market also in 2025, like you mentioned, and CMD and also before, will in general, let's say 6%-7%? Is this a correct assumption for also 2025, or do you think different in this year?
No, we see the same number, the same growth, you know, in Drug Substance and also in Drug Product. We are continuing to do that. And we have now also much more insights with the go-to-market strategy because we are approaching much more customers now. And we see what's coming up. So we don't see a change there.
The difference between your mid-single digit growth you assume for the guys in 2025 and the market for 6%, is it because you have too less capacity at the moment or what's the difference there?
I can repeat what I already told you.
When we, guys, use the latest information available, you know, what we currently see, not some kind of market-based derivation of anything, but the bottom-up demand and the programming in the individual pieces of equipment that we see, and then obviously we adjust that and review that, and then we say, what's the number that with a very high degree of certainty we'll be able to achieve in order not for me in my ninth year as the CFO needing to issue a profit warning. That's the way how we approach it. Market numbers are interesting and, you know, obviously in the mid- to long-term, we also assess these. In the short term and the year for us is short term. We assess the programming that we really see in the machines in order not to disappoint,
And don't underestimate the phasing effect, you know.
If we are acquiring very successfully, winning new prospects now, it comes through to the phasing, you know, with the tech transfer, all of these activities one, two years later. So that's a reason also.
Thank you. We have one more last question from the chat from [uncertain] . He's asking about R&D expenses in percentage of sales. It has declined over the last three years. What is the reason for that and is this trend going to continue?
Yeah, I mean, R&D is not an easy one and I'm sorry for, you know, needing to resort to a bit of technicalities here. So when R&D assists in a certain commercial manufacturing process, you know, for example, we manufacture commercially in R&D equipment and that happens, then of course the cost of that R&D product support goes into the COGS.
We recognize the sales, we have the COGS, and then basically what you see in the SG&A line, it's what's left from the R&D cost. So that's unallocated cost. And that's of course also cost that we use in order to make processes more efficient for ourselves. So the percentage of R&D as a percentage of sales changes over time. What it tells you is that in 2024, we have used R&D more in order for commercial manufacturing. So this is then included in the COGS rather than in SG&A. If I look at the number of people working in R&D, this is unchanged and actually increasing.
Thank you. We have one more question on the video chat from Ruben Scherzer. Hi, Ruben.
Yeah, hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking the call on my question.
On the subject of M&A, I'm curious. You're seeing Reto, you mentioned the environment out there. Are you seeing more competition for assets than you have, let's say, six months ago or 12 months ago? And the second part of that question is, if Siegfried does engage in M&A in 2025, would you expect the acquisition to be margin dilutive on the group level?
Well, I can preempt the second one. I can't tell you whether we do an acquisition in 2025 or not. Can't tell you. But M&A is always on. But I can't provide an answer here. On the first one, the level of competition really depends on the way or the structure of the sale process.
So we in the past and also this year and also next year, we'll see, let's say, assets which are being owned by private equity currently, leaving private equity because in harvesting period and they need to divest out of that asset. These assets usually change hands in terms of competitive processes, structure processes where, you know, a lot of bidders are invited, you know, to basically maximize the purchase price for the private equity fund. So that will continue. I think there are still assets around which are below that level, you know, where you can basically create exclusive relationships with the seller because you are able to offer something which other people can't. This is more the Siegfried style. This is what we are good at. This is what we have been successfully doing in the past.
I think this is also what we are about to be delivering in the next periods to come.
Good. I'm also curious, just one more question if I may. There's been discussion in the past in terms of the margin journey that the company is on. When you look at Siegfried compared to fellow Swiss CDMOs, do you see Siegfried maintaining the ambition to match that level of profitability? I would, I guess, more specifically describe it as high 20% EBITDA margin. Is that a realistic ambition? And if it is, what kind of timeline is Siegfried thinking about that?
I think it's clear. Of course, we want to become best here as well and to play also in this group. Of course, we are ambitious, believe me. Personally, I'm very ambitious. And we see the opportunity growth growing year-over-year also from the profitability point of view.
We see opportunities that's also in line, you know, with the EVOLVE+ strategy, with all of these excellent topics which I have outlined, and you can expect more year-over-year. And of course, we are looking and striving forward to go above or to the higher 20s as well. From the timing point of view, it will take some time. So it's not done overnight.
Understood. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Ruben.
Thank you.
With that, we are at the end of this Q&A session. For those who are here and still would like to chat with us, come join us for a tour outside to the left. Those who are online, sorry, you cannot join, but we look forward to welcome you again when we announce our half-year results on August 21st. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.