Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the AGRANA results for full year 2025/2026 conference call. My name is Yusuf, the conference call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode, and that this conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star followed by one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and then zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or for broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Hannes Haider. Please go ahead.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to AGRANA's conference call, presenting our results for the full year 2025/2026. You already got some insights in our figures when we published an ad hoc release mid of April. Today we will provide you with further details on all segments and also on the audited financial statements. As announced in our invitation, a presentation is available in reference to this call.
You can find this presentation in the IR section of our website. As you can see on slide number two, the presentation will be divided into three parts. Our CEO, Stephan Büttner, will start with a general introduction focusing on the highlights of the 2025/2026 financial year. He will then hand over to our COO, Franz Ennser. He will report on the topics of raw materials, investments, and ESG.
Afterwards, our CEO will take over again and provide you with details on the financial performance, and he will conclude with an outlook for the ongoing financial year 2026/2027. The presentation will take about 25 minutes, and afterwards the lines will be opened, and we will be glad to answer your questions. Now I may pass over to CEO Stephan, who will start with the presentation.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Let's have a look at the financial year 2025/2026. It was still a very challenging year in a also challenging environment. Uncertainty, intense competition, still volatile commodity markets, also inflation are the most important topics here. Now, again, we are facing a heavy, let's say, crisis, triggered by the war in the Middle East. Despite all these factors, our operative result, our operative performance was quite solid, with an operating profit of EUR 81.2 million. This is a moderate increase versus prior year, where we had EUR 76.5 million. Of course, very negative impact, the one-timers, especially the write-off of assets in our Sugar business, amounting to EUR 46 million.
We had to book personal expenses in combination with the closure of our two sugar production sites, Leopoldsdorf and Hrušovany, with about EUR 13 million. Also, we had to book a provision for potential lawsuits, also with nearly EUR 10 million. When we look at the key numbers, a revenue of EUR 3.2 billion, this is a decrease versus the EUR 3.5 billion in 2024/2025. Mainly, the reduction comes from the Sugar business, where we had a decrease of EUR 250 million in revenues. Our operating profit, EUR 81.2 million, as already mentioned. Exceptional items, -EUR 74.1 million .
This is more than twice that we had in 2024/2025, mostly coming out of our Sugar business. This leading to an EBIT of only EUR 3.2 million for the business year 2025/2026. When we look at the free cash flow, EUR 127 million, let's say, considering the negative operative result in Sugar. A solid performance with around 4% in terms of our revenue. A further reduction in our net debt position, despite the fact that we had a payout of more than EUR 50 million for the acquisition of the remaining shares of AUSTRIA JUICE. Our gearing with 39.2% also solid and also a strong equity ratio with 44.1%.
We also see ourselves on track in the execution of our corporate strategy NEXT LEVEL. We terminated our sugar production in Leopoldsdorf, Austria and Hrušovany, Czech Republic. A very important step towards the restructuring of our Sugar business. As already mentioned, also, we were able to acquire the remaining shares in AUSTRIA JUICE from Raiffeisen Ware Austria AG. Also important for our potential growth strategy in our Food & Beverage Solutions segment.
We were able to close the transaction concerning the acquisition of the Slovenian food company, Mercator-Emba, a very important supplier for the food service business, quick service restaurants in Europe, bringing us access to additional sales channels. We were able to reach an agreement with the Austrian sugar beet growers, also very important step to secure our production site in Austria, Tulln.
This is a three years contract where we think that we found a very good agreement on one hand, securing the raw material base for our factory. On the other hand, let's say, bringing us also in a position where we shall be competitive with our production costs in Sugar midterm. In connection with the savings program that we are executing currently.
Our savings program, where we had a target of over EUR 80 million, this is a number that we overachieved already. We set a new target till the end of the business year 2028/ 2029, where we want to reach a total euro yearly savings amount of EUR 130 million. Let me say something about the Management Board. Franz Ennser, new colleague in the AGRANA Board.
He joined us in November 2025. He is already in AGRANA for quite a long time. He was the CEO of the AUSTRIA JUICE business for the last 10 years, and we are very happy that he joined us in November and took over the COO position in the group. Please let me hand over to Franz. He will guide you through raw materials and so on.
Thank you, Stephan. Some insights about our raw materials and also our investments. In the last business year, AGRANA has processed around 7.7 million tons of raw materials. The biggest share, 4.3 million, is sugar beet, for sure, a smaller volume with it on raw sugar. The grain amounted for 2.4 million tons. Potato around 200,000 tons. Overall, the fruit has been processing around 700,000 tons of various fruits. Of course, we were decreasing our volumes on sugar beet, especially coming from the previous year of 6.5 million. While in the other areas we have been pretty stable, so the grains, the potatoes, and also the fruits are on a pretty same level as in the previous year.
In terms of our investments, AGRANA Group has invested in the last business year around EUR 103 million. The biggest share we invested into the Food & Beverage Solutions segment, especially enlarging our processing and packing capacities in the various countries. On Starch and Sugar, we invested around EUR 18.5 million and EUR 12.4 million , respectively. Of course, also driven by the lower performance in these segments. We also have been, let's say, very cautious in terms of our investments. The plan now for the current business year is that we will invest around EUR 130 million, which is slightly below the threshold for our depreciation, which amounts for EUR 117 million.
Two-thirds of our investments will be directed into the Food & Beverage Solutions segment, while around 18% will go into the Starch and roughly 11% will be dedicated for investments into the Sugar business. In terms of ESG sustainability, of course, you know, ESG sustainability is an integral part of all our business activities. We are committed to our targets of Scope One, Scope Two, which means that we're aiming at reducing it down to over 50% in 2030, achieving the net zero emissions by 2040. While for the Scope Three, the target is that we achieve a 30% reduction by 2030 and a net zero emission by 2050.
We have put some special, let's say, efforts and highlights in the sustainability business for 2026/ 2027 related to the sustainable sourcing of raw materials, which means basically certifications according to the FSSC numbers. We are dealing with the responsible water use in all our activities, be it the processing, but also be it the agricultural raw material advice to our growers and suppliers. Of course, also we have to deal with the waste recycling.
We wanna optimize this across all our sites. Furthermore, we will put a focus on, let's say, the non-financial targets, especially on gender equality, which means that we are targeting achieving 30% of management positions being held by women by 2030. We have a further focus on health and safety for all our employees by targeting and reducing the injury rates.
Finally, also, we will enroll our code of conduct information campaigns, also for the blue collar, not just for the white. This will be the key priorities. One final comment on our energy costs. We have been able to benefit from the lower energy pricing in the last business year, reducing down our all energy costs in the various segments down to around EUR 204 million.
You know, it's still substantially higher than compared to the time period before the COVID crisis or especially the Ukrainian war impacted our expenditures on energy. The split you can see here on the chart. The biggest share for sure, with EUR 110 million, has been spent in the Starch business. Followed by Sugar and also finally by the FBS segment with around EUR 37 million. That's it in a nutshell. Now I hand back to Stephan.
Thank you, Franz. Please let me put the attention to the new segment reporting again. We already reported about that since March 25, we have the new reporting structure. We have two, let's say, strategic business areas, and therefore three segments. Food & Beverage Solutions is one segment that we report. We have agricultural commodities and specialties Starch segment, and we have agricultural commodities and specialties Sugar segment, and we have the Holding and Other. This is the new reporting theme. Let's jump to the next slide. Revenue by segment. I already mentioned we had a decrease of nearly 8%, mainly coming out of the Sugar segment.
You see a decrease by 32% in revenue from EUR 814 million down to EUR 570 million. Starch, a slight decrease of 3% and a slight increase in our Solutions segment by 1.1%. Main driver for the reduction in Sugar, of course, prices. We had quite stable volumes on sales side, but the sharp drop is the sharp drop in Sugar sales prices, especially in the industrial markets. The EBIT by segment here, a very good development in our Solutions segment. And an EBIT of EUR 103.3 million. It's an EBIT margin of 6.3%. This is totally acceptable. I would say, Starch quite weak still. Also here, a further decrease of 26.3%.
Still a very challenging and difficult environment. A weak economy, low ethanol prices and margins is all negatively impacting our EBIT in Starch. Then you can see the really poor performance in Sugar. We had one-timers here. I already mentioned the write-off of assets, EUR 46 million. I already mentioned the social plans, so extraordinary personal costs of nearly EUR 13 million and the provision of nearly EUR 10 million. All these negatively impacting our results in Sugar and therefore a negative EBIT of EUR 106.6 million. When you take this into consideration also with a number of 2024/ 2025, you see the tremendous losses in this business segment. This is why we have constantly to work on the turnaround.
This is a heavy burden for our group. Of course, everything very negatively impacted by the low Sugar prices. You see the sharp decline in prices where we were in 2023/ 2024. Now we see kind of stabilization also caused by the conflict in Iran. Let's see what the final impact will be on the energy prices. This will potentially also then in the coming campaign lead to higher production costs. On the other hand, yeah, we have high stocks in Europe. We will enter the new production campaign in September 2026 with a record level of 2.6 million tons of sugar on stocks in the European Union. This is a very big number.
On the other hand, we see a decrease in planted acreage, a further decrease versus 2024/ 2025, where we also saw a reduction. It will also depend on the weather conditions on the yields of sugar beets in the European Union, and this will guide us the way through the Sugar marketing year 2026/ 2027. Let's come to the financials. Consolidated income statement. I already referred to the revenue, EUR 3.237 billion. EBITDA EUR 195 million. This is not a very good number. When we take into consideration the poor situation in our commodities businesses, especially in Sugar, I would say it's a solid performance also with EUR 81.2 million operating profit.
We have the extraordinary exceptional items with - EUR 74.1 million, leading to the EBIT of EUR 3.2 million and the loss for the period amounting to - EUR 35.6 million. Exceptional items, I already explained it. Let me come to the dividend proposal. The proposal is EUR 0.35 dividend payout per share for the 2025/2026 financial year. This is, let's say half of the dividend that we paid out for 2024/2025 of EUR 0.70 per share.
The EUR 0.35 would be a dividend yield of 3%, based on the share price of EUR 11.75 at the end of the fiscal year 2025/ 2026. Dividend payment will be made on July 13th, 2026. Now, already to the outlook for 2026/ 2027. Of course, we expect a very significant improvement on EBIT level, but this is all very difficult as we had this, all these exceptional items in 2025/ 2026. The expected range of EBIT is between EUR 70 million-EUR 90 million. On group level, we expect a slight growth in revenue.
We will further work on our savings program and expect to have implemented measures with a future impact of yearly EUR 110 million at the end of 2026/ 2027. For the segments in Food & Beverage Solutions, we expect a moderate increase in revenue and a moderate reduction in EBIT. This is mainly due to the massive, let's say, frost that we saw in Hungary last autumn, impacting our harvest of apples. leading to a very low utilization of our capacities in our fruit juice concentrate production in Hungary. Therefore, this has also, of course, an impact on our results expected in 2026/ 2027 in our FBS segment.
The rest should be on track and comparable, at least with the business year 2025/ 2026, performance-wise. In Starch, we expect a stable revenue and a significant increase in EBIT and in Sugar, a slight reduction, a further slight reduction in revenues, and of course, a very significant improvement on EBIT levels. Finally, please, let me draw your attention to the war in Middle East. This is something that, of course, brings more uncertainty for all our business segments. We can already say that in the first quarter, we did not really see an impact of this war. Of course, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is impacting the energy prices already. The question is how long will this go on?
Of course, we will see the impact in the value chain coming in the next months. Really, it depends on how long the whole situation will last that we see actually, this will also potentially have an impact on inflation. Prices will rise again. This is clear. I think, we are doing proper risk assessment on AGRANA Group level. Currently, we have the expectation that this is absolutely manageable and will not have an immediate impact on our guidance. As I already said, there is a lot of uncertainty and nobody knows how this whole thing in Iran will evolve. Finally, outlook for the first quarter, 2026/ 2027. Of course, the EBIT in the first quarter, 2025/ 2026 was extremely low.
There we had to book the restructuring costs for the closure of Leopoldsdorf and Hrušovany, especially the personal expenses. This is what we'll not see in the actual first quarter. The EBIT is expected to be very significantly better. This was my part. Thank you very much for your attention. Let me hand over to Hannes Haider, who will inform you about the financial calendar.
Thanks so far. Before we go on with the Q&A session, I just wanted to remind you that today in the morning, we also published our annual report for 2025/2 026, and we would like to invite you to also visit our digital report on reports.agrana.com. Having a look at the financial calendar, I just wanted to remind you that our Annual General Meeting will take place on the July 3rd, and it will be a presence event. We will now go on with the Q&A session.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now start the question and answer session. Our first question comes from Elias New from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll start with a quick clarification question on the NEXT LEVEL of savings program. If I understand correctly, you've achieved EUR 52 million of savings for the current financial year, but you are targeting EUR 80 million for the following year, then EUR 100 million for the year after. The EUR 110 million, that is just measures that you will implement in the next fiscal year, but they will flow through to the P&L in the years after that. Is that sort of the way to think about that? We're gonna get EUR 80 million of savings, that will hit the P&L next year, EUR 110 million in terms of the measures you're taking, and that they will sort of flow through later. Hope that's clear.
Yeah, it's clear, but it's not correct. Our target for 2025/ 2026 were EUR 52 million. What we already achieved is an amount of EUR 89 million. Maybe you will raise the question, where is the result? The problem is that all the savings are eaten up by the lower gross profit, gross margins, especially coming out of Sugar and Starch. This is due to the actual pricing situation in Sugar, but on the other hand, also due to the overall economic situation in Starch. Our target for the next year, 2026/ 2027, is that we will Already have implemented measures that bring our savings, annual savings of around EUR 100 million. This is our ambition for the year 2026/ 2027.
This also will have a very positive effect, once the markets will recover, then we will profit on one hand from the recovery of these markets, price and volume-wise, and on the other hand, from the much better cost structure that we will have then.
Yeah, that's helpful. Just to clarify, so that EUR 100 million saved for next year, that will be fully kind of reflected in the P&L. It's not sort of measures you're taking, and they will only flow through later.
It's not fully reflected in the P&L, but I would say it's up to 80%-90% reflected in the P&L.
Okay.
This was already achieved in last year. Yeah.
Right. Okay, understood. We can imagine essentially some incremental savings hitting the P&L in the next fiscal year. If I were to counter a follow-up question on that, if you were to look at your guidance for the next fiscal year, it is essentially, if you strip out the one-offs, it would assume kind of taking the midpoints, flat year and year development. I'm just wondering the incremental savings that you will essentially see coming through in the P&L.
Yes.
next year will be offset by.
Yes
you know, adverse market developments.
Yes. Yes, you are completely right. The problem is mainly in the Sugar business. Still we are facing a massive pressure from the market side. Prices are further, will further decrease in the actual business year on one hand. On the, on the, on the other hand, yeah, let's see what happens also with the volumes. I mean, we are in the restructuring mode. Yeah. But yes, I mean, we need a recovery also in the market side. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. That's very fair. I guess final question from my side is just coming to the Sugar business. I mean, you're guiding a slight revenue decline, but improving profitability. Now that's kind of obvious given the EBIT level and the one-offs.
Yes
What are the assumptions embedded in the guidance here also on the revenue side? What level of Sugar prices are you assuming and what are you seeing in the market currently? Perhaps on that also, what is your current break-even price? I mean, if it's sort of somewhere below EUR 600 million, right?
It is, you know, difficult to talk about break-even prices in Sugar. It really depends on the energy prices that we will face during the Sugar marketing campaign starting in September. This is one very important factor. It also depends on the raw material prices at the end of the day. It's somewhere for sure, I would say in the industry, it must be somewhere around EUR 600 ± . This is what we think also with the current energy price levels. I mean, difficult to say also revenue-wise. It really depends what's going to happen with the Sugar prices so onwards from September 2026, you know. As I already mentioned, we have still very high volumes on stock.
The estimation is around 2.6 million tons in Europe entering into the new Sugar marketing year, September 2026, and normal level is around 1.6 million tons. This means overstocks of around 1 million tons by statistics. Of course, this can be, let's say, compensated by the lower planted acreage in the European Union, but nobody knows what the weather will do. Will this be a very good crop? It will be more difficult, let's say, for prices to recover. If it will be a bad crop, it could also theoretically see an increase in prices. Currently, very difficult to say.
I think I Yeah, that's helpful. I'm just guessing sort of for your guidance, are you assuming that Sugar prices deteriorate further or sort of hold this level? I'm just trying to think, you know, what are the? You know, what are the assumptions you've embedded in that given the guidance?
For the fiscal year. No, for the fiscal year. We expect, of course, a stable development now till the new Sugar marketing campaign, then we will see new prices. Our expectation in the budget, reflected in the budget, is a moderate decrease in prices, a further decrease.
Okay. Understood. Very helpful. Thank you.
Yeah. In, in total, a further decrease also in revenue. This is what I already mentioned. Yeah.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask your question, please press star followed by one. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Hannes Haider for closing remarks.
As there are no further questions, thanks a lot for your participation. We wish you a nice remaining day and goodbye. Thank you.
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