Bayer CropScience Limited (506285) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome. I'm Erica Mulligan with our Bayer Investor Relations team. It's a pleasure to have you join us today for our Bayer CropScience Investor Webinar. We look forward to sharing our latest view on the market as well as our business model, and we'll provide additional details and efforts underway on our 5-year framework. With me today, Rodrigo Santos, President of CropScience, will get us started with a view of the ag market and our competitive advantage within the industry. Oliver Rittgen, our Chief Financial Officer, will then provide further insights on our margin and cash program, followed by Mike Graham, Head of Research and Development, who will share details on our growth strategy, fueled by our industry-leading pipeline. And we'll wrap it up today with a financial outlook and end with a Q&A session. Before we begin, I would like to direct your attention to the cautionary language in our safe harbor statement. Materials being presented can also be found posted on our IR website. So with that, I will turn it over to you, Rodrigo.

Thank you very much, Erica. Welcome to everyone. Thanks for joining us today. We will focus today on our 5-year framework and how that unlocks the next phase of our leadership. To understand the full potential of the 5-year framework, it's important to have a view on our market, our business model and our strategy. Almost 2 years ago, we hosted an Innovation Summit where I made the case that Bayer CropScience was uniquely positioned to deliver the future of farming because of our industry-leading technology and the fact that we focus on a segment of agriculture market where innovation matters, seeds and traits and crop protection. Both are critical to farmers' yield. Seed is the first decision a farmer makes, no seeds, no harvest is that simple. And equally, crop protection is the most significant safeguard of yield potential throughout the growing season. These segments not only play a vital role in farmer success, but also our business opportunity with strong margins, lower cyclicality and powerful synergies that you don't see in other market segments. With our strong foundation in the 2 agriculture's most attractive segment, we are well positioned to capture the value of the market's next wave of growth. Let's take the seed and trade and CP look one step deeper. Within the broader agriculture market, there is also a segment that has a clear and compelling growth potential. That comes from 2 factors. One, the fundamental demand and supply drivers are different than commodity-driven segments in this market. And two, this is a segment where innovation matters and it's rewarded. Let me show you how that shows up in the opportunity in this segment of the market. Historically, this is a market that has grown at around 2% annually. And we expect the growth rate in the mid- to long term to stay consistent at about 2%. So this is a growth market. On the seeds and traits side, that growth is even more pronounced. We see the growth at 2.5% to 3% per year coming mainly from acreage, the introduction of new traits and the expansion of biotech traits in new geographies. On the Crop Protection side, we expect more moderate growth given fundamental shifts in the market, including the declining prices driven by generics pressure and low production costs in China. Beyond these traditional focal points, we are also excited about the new value pools, everything from biofuels and biologicals to the opportunity in hybrid wheat and the emerging carbon space. These are additive market opportunities. So we are clear about the growth potential in this segment of ag market we participate, but it's also important to put into the broader context of the overall market dynamics. As you know, agriculture is cyclical. This overall cyclicality is shaped by factors largely beyond our control, influencing both price and volume. So grain prices, currency fluctuations and regulatory or government policy changes all play a role in price movements, while volume is affected by a mix of regulatory decisions, shifting weather patterns, disease and past pressures and changes in the total planted acreage. Together, these factors create the natural ebbs and flows of our industry. Over the last few years, we are all aware of these ebbs and we've been experiencing a down cycle. This has been driven in part by area reductions of major crops and by pricing pressures in crop protection. However, going forward, we are expecting growth in seeds and traits from area and price recovery and growth in Crop Protection as well. That moves the market back into an up cycle as 2026 is standing to take shape. So despite the short-term fluctuations in our market, agriculture is one of the most critical industry globally. We all know the structural drivers. By 2050, we need to feed an additional 2.2 billion people. Combined with the climate change impact, we need to increase food and feed output by 50% for that higher demand and shifting diets. And for our customers, the farmer, they have to do this on the prospect of having as much as 20% less land available per capita than we stand today. These constant pressures call for continuous innovation, making it clear that agriculture will remain a highly attractive market for us. Future production growth must come from yield increases. Innovation that allow us to produce more on every acre are critical. At the same time, climate change and increasing past and disease pressures are adding new challenges, reinforcing the urgent need for solutions that not only enhance productivity but also restore and sustain our natural resources. All these trends are making innovation more critical than ever, and that's our core opportunity. In our innovation event a couple of years ago, we shared the idea of the farms of the future. I want to go back to that and show you how this innovation we believe so much it makes a difference for farmers and for our business. This is where regenerative agriculture comes in. We believe we are best positioned to deliver regenerative agriculture at scale, and that is a competitive opportunity for us in our business. There is a fundamental shift in the industry as we move from single products to bring multiple technologies together into multiyear, multi-crop system solutions. For us, regenerative agriculture means 2 things: producing more on every acre and restoring the soil for long-term fertility. It's all about improving outcomes for farmers, their land and the planet. And here, you see a farm of the future, specifically an example of a typical large-scale farm in the Midwest of the U.S. And here's what you see. First, you see the volume of technologies that show up in this operation. These technologies increasingly work together in a system, the seed choice directly linked to the crop protection. And all of those only work to maximum effect when you unlock them with digital tools. Second, these are next-generation technologies that come from the blockbusters in our pipeline. These are products that are rewriting the competitive standards and creating the next wave of differentiation that will further separate us as leader from the remainder of our historical peers. And third, this future farm even rewrites the traditional Midwestern corn soybean rotation. As we introduce cash intermediate crops like cover craft, we offer a new income stream for farmers in this truly multi-season system. Take this all together, and it shows how regenerative agriculture activates the full value potential of every acre of land and also the full potential for our portfolio from seeds and traits to crop protection, biologicals and digital tools. We are in a special position to lead this shift and benefit more than anyone else in the market. We have the portfolio and the pipeline. We have the global presence and the leadership. And most importantly, we have the relationship and trust if we aren't working every day with the farmers globally. So we are clear that the market opportunity is there, that we have the tools to competitively differentiate Bayer CropScience. So let me shift now how we are set up to do that and why we are built for long-term success. First, we built a platform that has made us the only true global player across the major crop platforms in all major geographies. Second, we have a marketing-leading innovation engine, and our pipeline is the most promising in the industry. Third, our go-to-market allow us the largest reach across key markets of any company in the industry. Lastly, given all those capabilities, we are uniquely positioned to lead in the new value pools, opening even more opportunity into the next decade. So let me deep dive into our core platforms. Within seeds and traits, corn is our largest platform and a true standout. We are the #1 player globally, where our seed makes up more than 1/3 of the global corn market. And in the biggest markets like the U.S. or Latin America, we have the #1 position in terms of both genetic and trade share. In soybeans, we continue to have the leading global position. We are the clear leader in Brazilian market, trade market, one of the most important markets. And in the other market, the U.S., even in a challenging period, more than 1/3 of the market is still built on our seed genetics, which is important as we start to return to growth. While we won't focus on it today, the same is true to the other seeds and traits platforms like cotton, canola, the vegetable seeds, where we are among the top players in any crop type we offer. And our crop protection portfolio remains a critical component of the broad platform we offer. We are the global #1 player in herbicides, #2 in fungicides and #3 in insecticides, putting us in a unique position to offer the fullest offering to farmers. No other company brings this level of market leadership. Our scale, innovation and depth across platform allow us to be present in every key decision a farmer makes from the seed choice to the harvest protection, positioning us as their most important partner in the field. Our second key is our innovation engine. And Mike will cover this in detail, but it's important for me just to emphasize a couple of points. First, our track record in innovation is unmatched. The technology within Bayer CropScience drove a revolution in the seed and trait technology in this industry. And we are on the verge of the next wave of breakthroughs that will rewrite the standards in this industry. Second, our technology is clearly differentiated. No one has the capabilities that we do. Our breeding engine allow us to launch more than 500 new seed products a year, making us a global leader in the industry. And our biotech innovation developed 65 of the traits currently on the market. That is roughly twice as many as any other player. And the same is true for crop protection. There are only a handful of companies in the world that have the scientific depth and infrastructure to both discover entirely new modes of action in chemical and biological crop protection and also consistent bringing out new formulations and label extensions that create new alternatives for farmers. And we do both. And this same innovation leadership extends to digital solutions, a space where we are setting the pace for the industry as we unlock digital to steer our own R&D engine and help farmers make smarter, real-time decisions in the field. Simply put, this innovation isn't just science. It's a proven engine of growth, helping farmers and fueling our success. I think the best proof point is the innovation pipeline itself. Over the next 10 years, we plan to launch 10 new blockbusters innovations. These are true blockbusters, each over EUR 500 million in peak sales potential across all our crop platforms. All of these efforts lead to a total pipeline peak sales potential of well over EUR 30 billion. Most importantly, these innovations are not just long-term aspirations. They translate into the clear midterm sales contributing to the top line growth Oliver will highlight today. Just as importantly, these blockbusters continue to contribute growth well into the next decade, reinforcing the long-term strength of our pipeline. This pipeline is a testament to the strength and depth of our innovation engine. By enabling farmers to achieve more from every acre, we are not only advancing agricultural productivity and profitability, we are also delivering sustainable value for our buyer and setting the standard for sustainable industry leadership. Our third differentiator is our go-to-market model, which delivers those innovations directly to the farmer. It's built on 2 pillars: unmatched global reach paired with leading digital solutions. In terms of pure rich, we engage with farmers and distributors in every major agriculture market. This enable us to deeply understand grower needs, deliver tailored agronomic support and accelerate the adoption of new technologies. And our impact is global. Our seeds and traits are used at over 300 million acres worldwide and our products are sold in over 120 countries. Second, we are one of the 2 companies with a full-scale digital agronomic platform. Our flagship digital farm platform, FieldView, is used to manage operations across more than 250 million acres globally. This clearly accelerates our product development and placement, but it also empowers other digital platforms like Orbia, the largest digital marketplace for agriculture in Brazil and VAlora, which is creating new standards for prescription planting. Combined, this gives us unparalleled proximity to farmers, allowing us to bring innovation to market faster at scale and secure our position as the partner of choice in modern agriculture. Lastly, our platform expertise. innovation engine and our go-to-market model also make us uniquely advantaged to succeed in the new value pools. These new value pools are still taking shape. But by 2030, we expect them to represent an increasing share of our total addressable market. And we are not just watching this new market emerge. We are investing in them. We're applying our innovation expertise, and we're already starting to generate new sources of revenue from them. Let me be clear, we are clearly operating in a highly attractive market, and our business model consistently delivers strong value to farmers across all platforms. However, the market is very dynamic and changes in the marketplace impact our financial performance, requiring us to adjust our strategy and act decisively. Over the last 4 years, our seeds and trade business has delivered positive margin with a resilient development through down cycles. We want to continue this positive trend, seeing future potential to lift efficiency and margins long term. In the other hand, margins in both core Crop Protection and glyphosate have declined over the same period, with the core Crop Protection margin sliding into the teens. Both core CP and glyphosate have negatively impacted our overall EBITDA margin. This decline was largely driven by 2 fundamental market shifts in the crop protection market. The first one, the shift in price decline in CP. As key active ingredients have recently gone off patent, the pressure from generics has increased. And while the CP patent cliff is not as severe as in pharmaceuticals, competitive pressure is nevertheless strong. This has been further amplified by the Chinese generic producers who built significant production overcapacity. With supply chain for important active ingredients strongly above market demand, prices have been come down significantly containing these AIs. This has significantly pressured CP margins, and we believe these low price levels are here to stay. And the second major shift is the rising of production costs, especially in Europe and North America, where production costs have risen comparing to China, where production costs remained low. This has widened the cost gap for us, created competitive pressure and hurt our margins. And all of that brings me to this important slide that summarize our 5-year framework. This also brings everything together. We operate in a cyclical but attractive market. We leverage our business model and innovation to deliver growth and reinforce our competitive opportunity. And at the same time, we are acting on the margin and cash opportunity as the core part of our framework. This framework is built around 3 key goals: boosting profitability, strengthening resilience during downturns and unlocking our full top and bottom line potential. As promised during our Q4 earnings call, we would like to lay out further details on our pathway to sustain long-term market leadership. But let me take you through the individual phases of the framework first. First, strengthening the foundation. We have put in place concrete measures to immediately strengthen our profitability while also increasing our financial resilience during downturns. To ensure a holistic approach, our efficiency measures cover the entire value chain and cash flow and their execution is already in progress. Second, capitalize on pipeline value in the core. Building on this strong foundation, we are directing our focus towards unlocking the potential of our platforms and innovation pipeline. We are already working on this today and expected to see accelerating growth dynamics in 2027 and beyond. And third, expand beyond the core. As we continue to solidify our competitiveness in the core, we are also looking beyond. New value pools enable us to generate additional revenue streams that are synergetic to our core. While we are already active in see value incoming from spaces like biologicals and biofuel, we expect more sustainable contributions in the 2030s and beyond. As previously communicated, we will continue to focus and steer across each of the 3 elements of our triangle, sales, margin and cash equally. Our framework along with this distant phase support this ambition. Our actions will improve our EBITDA by more than EUR 1 billion, unlock more than EUR 1.5 billion in cumulative cash and deliver additional net sales of more than EUR 3.5 billion until the end of the decade. It is our top priority to ensure a timely delivery of our 5-year framework. Therefore, we drive performance across sales, margin and cash through a cross-functional teams we put in place with the new operating model, resulting in end-to-end ownership of their targets. Incentives are closely linked to the target achievement, supported by clear accountability and full transparency. We also extend this transparency externally as you will be able to track our progress in our financial reports and upcoming investors calls. In the following chapter, we will dive deeper into each of these 3 phases of our framework and conclude with an outlook of our financials for the coming years. Oliver will start with the Phase 1, explaining how we are strengthening our foundation to our margin and cash program. Then Mike will talk you through the Phase 2 and 3, outlining how we will expand our leadership position through our growth strategy, both within our core platforms and by tapping into the new value pools. And then to finish, Oliver will provide you with a deeper insight into our financial outlook and the key drivers behind the improvements we expect across sales, margin and cash. And with this, let me hand over to Oliver.

Thank you, Rodrigo, and a warm welcome from my side as well. With this 5-year framework, we look distinctively at our business portfolio and optimize accordingly. As Rodrigo outlined, especially our Crop Protection business has been challenged by market shifts in the recent years with pressure on price and cost structures. The majority of our measures is, therefore, focused on that part of our business to significantly improve the margin and cash contribution. Our seeds and trades business has been developing strongly. Still, we aim also to further improve our operational efficiency here and invest in strong profitable growth. Our value triangle around sales, margin and cash is the frame of our ambition and the measure of success for our program and our organization. The foundation of this framework is a holistic margin and cash program that we are executing along the entire value chain, which means our product portfolio, R&D, product supply, go-to-market as well as global functions. In addition, we will also materially lift our cash productivity. In total, the efforts of our margin and cash program will improve our clean EBITDA by more than EUR 1 billion and free up more than EUR 1.5 billion in cumulative cash from working capital until 2029. So let me share now more detail on our ambition. We have structured our efforts along 3 margin and cash flow initiative. In our portfolio effort, we streamlined our overall portfolio via divestments. In R&D, we focus on our strategic priorities and optimize our footprint, mainly in Crop Protection. This will contribute more than EUR 150 million to our savings ambition. In product supply, we improved our COGS position by optimizing our sourcing and production and again, especially in Crop Protection. This will be the largest contribution to our ambition with more than EUR 600 million. And then in go-to-market and global functions, we optimize our go-to-market approach in the changing market conditions as well as our global functional setup with the second largest contribution of more than EUR 400 million. And to drive our cash flow performance, we have also set up a comprehensive program that will further improve our cash productivity across working capital, customer and supplier cash as well as inventory with the already mentioned impact of more than EUR 1.5 billion. While our initiatives contribute positively, divestments and pruning of low-margin products naturally reduce our absolute clean EBITDA. And as a result, the impact of our initiatives add up to a net improvement of more than EUR 1 billion in clean EBITDA. So now let's dive deeper into each of these initiatives. As you will see, most impact comes from measures that are fully under our control, and this is to make sure we will deliver on our ambition. In portfolio and R&D, we have 2 focus areas: optimizing our portfolio as well as adjusting our R&D processes and the footprint. To keep our portfolio continuously focused on products with the highest ROI and strategic value, we have established a stringent review process. Nonstrategic portfolio items, for instance, certain AIs will be divested and sustainably margin-dilutive portfolio items will be pruned. We have already made first divestments in the last quarter of 2024, including 1 herbicide and 2 fungicides. And we are right now in the market with further divestments and progress with our pruning activities. For example, the closure of our seed treatment equipment manufacturing facility that we just communicated. In total, our divestments and portfolio pruning will amount to a sales impact of up to EUR 500 million by 2029. And to ensure that our R&D activities maximize value across our triangle, we are adjusting our approach to selecting the right strategic segment priorities and projects. We're going to do this by sharpening our prioritization criteria and further strengthening our focus on highest profit segments over market coverage and portfolio breadth as we did historically. In Crop Protection, we expect more moderate market growth given the fundamental market shifts that Rodrigo was alluding to. Therefore, we focus our efforts on fewer market segments, specifically those where we expect the highest differentiation and hence, return on innovation. In seeds and traits, we see positive growth prospects of the global markets, and we want to leverage this trajectory and will, therefore, largely maintain our current level of R&D spend. This will allow us to continuously drive leading innovation in the market. So how will this look like in practice? We will refocus our global R&D towards the highest profit segments, including our footprint, especially in crop protection discovery and development. Therefore, we will consolidate our hubs like we announced yesterday in Germany and also expand partnerships with external contract research organizations. This leaner setup also enables us to directly reduce cost along the R&D process, while external partnerships give us more flexibility in our project portfolio. And we are already in implementation mode. We define clear innovation focus areas and ROI expectations for AI, formulation and life cycle management projects. A holistic pipeline review that is happening as we speak, will enable us to better prioritize the resources in line with our focus areas. And we aim for full implementation of all R&D measures by 2028. Looking at the R&D measures only, they will amount to an EBITDA impact of more than EUR 150 million by 2029. So moving further in our value chain to product supply. Our overall focus is on improving both the level and the flexibility of our cost position. We do this by optimizing our sourcing and our production. And again, main contributions will come from our CP operations. In response to the rising sourcing cost, we have intensified our efforts to lower our raw material cost. And therefore, we are reviewing and also selectively shifting supply sources from Europe to Asia as well as aggressively negotiating prices and contracts. We are also increasing the outsourcing of production of generic off-patent AIs and intermediates to external producers and toll manufacturers with better cost positions. With this optimization and diversification of our supplier network, we will increase our supply chain resilience and flexibility, both on the cost and on the supply security. Implementation of these measures are also already underway, including qualifying new sources with the majority of our efforts to be finalized by 2027. When detailing and executing these measures as well as other measures in product supply, we are obviously also accounting for the current tariff developments. Let's move to our production in Crop Protection and Seeds and Traits, where we are optimizing the network utilization and processes. In Crop Protection, we will optimize our production utilization across sites and transition our CP portfolio within our AI manufacturing and formulation filling and packaging network. This will happen considering utilization and cost base for the respective also. Now our implementation time line ranges here from '25 to '28, reflecting also German codetermination requirements and the time lines for product transfers and registration adjustments. In seeds and traits, we are reducing seed production costs, refining our logistics setup and reducing buffer volumes. While this will initially impact our top line due to reduced sales of seed grade soy to elevators, we will drive profitability through better production planning and risk management, optimized third-party contracts and greater processing efficiency. And we have already started implementation by initiating efficiency and optimization efforts across our seeds operation, and we'll finish these by the end of 2026. By reducing in-house production and optimizing utilization, we are lowering our structural fixed production cost. And this greater flexibility is a critical lever for improving our financial resilience, especially in the down cycles. Our COGS measures will lead to an EBITDA impact of more than EUR 600 million by 2029. Our measures in crop protection will make up roughly 80% of this impact, while the remaining roughly 20% will come from the optimization in seed production. Our last margin initiative covers go-to-market as well as global functions. Within this initiative, it's our goal to optimize our route to farmers while also ensuring that our global functional setup is aligned with the organizational changes. To ensure our go-to-market approach aligns with changing market conditions, we are refining our commercial setup per country, further emphasizing a value-based model. This will allow us to better allocate resources towards key markets and customer segments. And in parallel, we are investing in our innovation launches, for example, using digital tools to enhance our products as with Preciion and FieldView, ensuring we fully harvest our pipeline value and our innovation optimally support farmers to increase their yields. Our measure take a holistic approach. We will optimize cost structures in markets where less support is needed, while investing in others where increased agronomic support of our farmers is required. This way, we will leverage the full potential of our innovation pipeline. And ultimately, the combination of focused resource deployment and streamlined structures leads to a more effective channel engagement and reduce cost to serve. The stronger customer activation will also enable us to increase the productivity of our gross to net investments. Implementation of these measures is already underway with a rollout to be finalized in 2028 and partially beyond. And in global functions, DSO has already helped us to reduce cost. Now we aim to further optimize our setup by aligning it to the new leaner organization in commercial, R&D and product supply that I just described. We will leverage the increased use of shared services by shifting selected activities from the CropScience division to the Global Bi shared service unit. And at the same time, we will optimize our external spending on outside services, including also internalizing selectively. This targeted approach translates into a leaner, more flexible setup that better adopts to demand volatility and significantly enhances operational efficiency in our enabling functions. The implementation of these measures will begin during this year alongside other organizational changes and conclude by the end of 2028. Our SG&A measures will have an EBITDA impact of more than EUR 400 million by 2029. And our go-to-market measures will contribute half of that EBITDA impact, while the changes in global functions will make up the other half. The last initiative is cash flow, where we improve our cash productivity across the 3 working capital levers. For customer cash, we further standardize our receivable terms and of course, diligent cash collection while also optimizing our commercial practices, for example, rebates. For supplier cash, we strictly focus on extending our supplier payment terms to at least 90 days where legislation allows. And at the same time, we are increasing our use of innovative funding options for suppliers, including supply chain finance. And for inventory, we are driving end-to-end accountability, which includes the integration of inventory in the KPIs of all commercial teams. And at the same time, we are optimizing our approach to demand and inventory forecasting by projecting demand levels earlier and maintaining a rolling updated view of total inventory needs. Our renewed cash focus is driven by targeted incentivization along the value triangle and the establishment of cash teams at global, regional and local level. The overall outcome is improved cash productivity, enhanced liquidity and a lower working capital needs and more stable cash flow. The cash free up can continuously be invested throughout the cycle, ultimately supporting our sustained growth and more stable earnings. Implementation of our measures has already begun last year with considerable progress. For example, we have already increased our supplier payment terms by an average of 4 days. And by the way, these visible improvements are also highly motivating for our teams. And our expectation is that we will be able to continue this improvement trajectory. We plan to have all measures fully implemented by '29 with the cash release being significantly front-loaded. And the excellence in working capital will remain our continuous priority. All these actions embed a strong, sustained focus on cash productivity in our daily operational discipline and cash culture. And overall, our cash flow measures will result in more than EUR 1.5 billion cumulated cash being freed up until 2029. Customer and supplier cash measures will contribute 50% and inventory will make up the remaining roughly 50%. Now let me hand over to Mike, who will walk you through the second phase of our 5-year framework, how we will capitalize on the pipeline value in our core and beyond. Mike? Thank you.

Thank you, Oliver, and a very warm welcome also from my side. We've talked in detail about our ongoing margin and cash program. Now let's have a second look at our second phase of our framework, capitalizing on pipeline value in the core. Building on the strong foundation of our innovation engine, in the midterm, we are directing our focus towards unlocking the potential of our platforms and innovation pipeline. In this section, we will walk you through our growth strategies in our core platforms that will contribute more than EUR 3.5 billion of incremental sales until 2029 and significantly more thereafter. In corn, we build upon a strong #1 position, both in seed genetics and traits. Our current innovation launches like PRECEON and VT4PRO traits are seeing strong demand by growers. And our upcoming launches like Corn Rootworm 4 and LEP 4 traits are also addressing pressing farmer needs. With this, we will generate mid-single-digit sales growth. In soy, we recently lost market share in North America due to the loss of the dicamba label. We aim to regain U.S. market share via superior genetics and new trait launches, particularly our next-generation herbicide tolerant trait Vyconic, which will turn the tide and bring back trait superiority to our franchise. In South America, we will defend our trait leadership position with our next-generation Intacta launches while further expanding our genetic market share, leveraging superior yield performance. Since growth, especially in the U.S. will mainly unfold towards the end of the 5-year planning horizon, we expect slightly lower sales until 2029. We will not discuss our seed and trait platforms in more -- our other seed and trait platforms in more detail today. However, we continue to leverage our strong market position in canola, cotton and fruit and vegetables and expect mid-single-digit annual growth rates until 2029. In Crop Protection, we aim to achieve profitable growth, slightly above market, but focusing our R&D and go-to-market setup on the most attractive market segments. All our platforms are strengthened by our data and AI-driven R&D technologies that accelerate innovation-driven growth and set us apart from the competition. Now let's have a closer look at how these capabilities show up. When we look at innovation in agriculture, it's clear that progress doesn't happen incrementally. It moves in transformational ways. Over the last 3 decades, we've seen 2 major waves that have fundamentally reshaped how innovation is created and scaled in this industry. In the first wave, really beginning in the mid-1990s, we set the standards for what innovation could deliver. In seeds, we leveraged global germplasm pool and introduced marker-assisted breeding, giving rise to very strong yield gains since then. In traits, we launched the industry's first biotech trait technologies, laying the foundation for like trait-driven product platform as a new norm in many crops. And in crop protection, we delivered breakthrough chemical innovations, establishing a strong and lasting global presence. These innovations translated into sustainable competitive advantages and market leadership across all of our platforms. Today, we are driving the next wave of disruption, one where biology intersects with data science and artificial intelligence. We have built an industry-leading technology stack that capitalizes on one of the largest data repositories of genomic, field and environmental information in the industry. This data enables us to simulate genetic performance across millions of environments, informs fully automated decisions across our pipeline and increases the search space of next-generation seed, trait and crop protection innovations, further accelerating our R&D efforts. In seeds, it powers our precision breeding platform, accelerating the time of our breeding generation 15x from 60 months to 4 months, thereby significantly increasing the rate of genetic gain. In traits, it supports our transformative trait technology, including CRISPR edits, RNAi and novel protein designs. These will all have a large impact on our trait pipeline and our breeding pipelines going forward. In Crop Protection, it fuels our best-in-class CropKey platform, delivering a more than 2x increase in active ingredient candidates with superior toxicology and resistance profiles. To summarize, we've disrupted the industry before, and we're doing it again now with even greater speed and more precision. This is how we build sustainable value and clear competitive edge. Now let's take a deeper look at our core seed and traits and crop protection platforms. In corn, we are the undisputed global #1 and the recognized innovation leader. We own the strongest portfolio of brands, including our DEKALB and Channel brands as well as SmartStax PRO and VT4Pro trait technologies. Our corn market leadership today is built on a rich history of industry-first milestones like GMO traits, seed shipping and now short stature corn. These groundbreaking innovations have cemented our position and have driven consistent annual growth of around 7% over the past 4 years, outpacing the industry. While others may highlight leadership based on a brand or a regional snapshot, our leadership in corn is comprehensive across brands, markets and segments. We hold the #1 position in corn seed and traits, combining elite germplasm with integrated biotech and native traits. We command about 35% of the global corn market and around 45% of global market share in traits. To unlock further future growth, we will execute our dedicated corn growth strategy that we will discuss in more details now. Our core growth strategy focused on 4 key pillars: optimizing our go-to-market, scaling launched innovation, driving our innovation pipeline and expanding into attractive geographies. We will dive into the 2 innovations pillars shortly. So let's discuss go-to-market and geographic expansion in a bit more detail. To enhance customer engagement and further deepen our relationships, we will increase our direct-to-grower interaction. These interactions enable us to best support growers in taking well-informed decisions and making the best use of our products to grow more on every acre. In our core markets, we will concentrate on 3 measures. First, we will strengthen our demand creation muscle by increasing the number of agronomic advisers. Second, we also make strong use of our leading digital tools like FieldView and VAlora for delivering real-time agronomic insights that help growers with crucial decisions. Lastly, we increased direct-to-grower sales for large agro holdings and further train and enable our channel partners to make sure they can best support our product sales and usage. Besides growing in our core markets, we will expand into other attractive geographies, strongly leveraging our already proven products for less mature markets in Europe, Africa and Asia. In Europe, we will commercialize PRECEON to unlock growth opportunities in the sizable European silage market. Precion is well suited for silage as its higher plant density increases biomass production and the caloric value on every hectare. Further, we will expand biotech coverage in Sub-Sahara Africa and Asia, expanding already existing traits such as VT Double PRO and Trecepta, providing growers with access to the best suitable technologies in line with ongoing GMO approvals. A case point is our recently opened seed facility in Zambia, supplying over 6.5 million small holders with high-yielding corn seeds. This will increase to up to 10 million small holders by 2030 and support food security for about 30 million people. Our global #1 position in corn genetics is built on our extensive corn germplasm and unmatched breeding capabilities. We offer more than 1,500 corn hybrids globally with greater than 200 net 90 hybrids launched in 2024 alone. We operate over 3,500 unique field testing locations to develop and evaluate thousands of new hybrids for annual refresh across each market globally. With these new hybrids, we will not only enable farmers to grow more on every acre but also address their needs for corn crops, which are more adapted to specific environments and changing climatic conditions. Our breadth of corn hybrids, cutting-edge breeding and advanced genetic leads to above yield advantage of our corn seeds. Compared to our competitors, our seeds on average deliver yield advantage of more than 7 bushels per acre across all U.S. states. Building on our significant leadership in corn genetics today, our position will further be strengthened by advancements in our proprietary precision breeding program. We introduced precision breeding in 2020 as the largest transformation in the history of breeding, moving from selecting the best to a designing the best approach. In North America, where we are most advanced, we have just completed our seventh generation of precision breeding, achieving in only 4 years what would have taken more than 40 years with traditional breeding approaches. Leveraging our breakthrough technology, we will scale our market share in key corn markets globally. Developed on our leading seed genetic platform, our proprietary PRECEON Smart Corn system is the most significant innovation in corn since the first GM trap. It is the first-to-market short-stature corn and provides a revolutionary system for farmers. We hold a clear first-mover advantage. While others are still in early development or field testing phases, we have already launched, scaled and are expanding, putting us several years ahead. The PRECEON system integrates 4 key components to maximize yield potential, resilience and input use efficiency. First, the compact crop with a target plant height of 5 to 7 feet can be planted in higher density which increases yield potential. Also, the shorter stature makes it much more resilient against lodging and Greensnap, helping to maximize that yield potential. Second, the short stature allows for extended fuel access with machinery, which enables late-season fungicide application or fertilizer treatment, optimizing input use efficiency. Third, the integration of FieldView technology provides real-time data-driven recommendations for planting strips to harvest tracking. Most importantly, we provide farmers with the right insights to optimize seed placement and seeding densities to unlock the true yield potential. Lastly, dedicated Bayer agronomists, channel seed pros and agronomic advisers of our distribution partners provide hands-on guidance, helping farmers on the ground take full advantage of our PRECEO system. The results of our groundbreaking commercialization program in 2024 season are astonishing and confirm the significant yield performance of our system and our high grower satisfaction. Numerous above 300 bushels per acre experience and an exceptional yield record of more than 350 bushels per acre have been achieved in those 2024 yield competition, truly breathtaking results. We further see a yield advantage of an average of 8 bushels per acre over a conventional Thorn across U.S. Corn Belt states, underlying the exceptional performance of our system already in the early stage based only on a handful of hybrid versus hundreds of Thorn hybrids. But perhaps most remarkable, 85% of growers indicate they would plan to PRECEON again, a satisfaction rate, which is unseen in the industry. In the next 3 years, we will further extend the offering with biotech innovations and an increasing number of hybrids. Full-scale commercialization across regions is taking place by 2028, unlocking a 220 million acre opportunity, which translates into a peak sales potential of EUR 1.5 billion. Our genetics combined with our exceptional trait packages like SmartStax and VT4Pro have made us the industry leader in plant biotech with approximately 80% corn trait market share in the U.S. Our corn market -- corn innovation pipeline is set to drive more than EUR 3.5 billion in peak sales potential by the early next decade. This is fueled by PRECEON Biotech traits with a peak sales potential of EUR 1.5 billion, best-in-class insect protection traits, including corn rootworm 4 as well as fourth and fifth-generation Lepidoptera traits, which combine a peak sales of over EUR 1 billion. HT5 will set the new gold standard for weed control in corn, we are projected to surpass more than EUR 1 billion peak sales potential. With our current and future traits, we hold a significant competitive advantage. While we are advancing in superior fourth and fifth-generation traits, most competitors remain in second- or third-generation solutions. We have twice the number of proprietary trait events compared to our closest competitor, demonstrating our technology leadership and resulting in superior pest resistance, herbicide tolerance and yield resilience for our growers. With this pipeline, we are securing our future leadership in corn traits, delivering continuous innovation and superior value for farmers. Soybean is an important platform, and we are proud of being the global #1 in soybean seed and traits. In North America, we are the clear market leader in terms of genetic footprint with around 35% market share. In South America, we are significant leaders in terms of trait market share with about 80% and the #2 player in terms of genetic footprint as of 2024. Regarding our soy strategy, it is important to differentiate between our short-term and mid- to long-term strategy as well as between our key markets, North and South America. Short term, we are currently facing some challenges, affecting both our top line in both regions. We are actively addressing these setbacks by taking decisive action. In the mid- to long term, however, we will transition into an innovation-driven growth again, starting in 2027 with the launch of ICONIC and further accelerating towards the 2030s. Through these innovations, we will reinforce our leading #1 trait position in Latin America and rebuild our market share in the U.S., driven by excellent yield performance of our germplasm. As mentioned, in North America, we are facing some short-term challenges. We are actively addressing those challenges in the next 2 years with decisive actions and mitigation strategies to defend our #1 position. First, we are working on the dicamba reregistration. EPA is actively engaged on our proposed low-volatility dicamba registration for the use with dicamba-tolerant soy and cotton. In April of 2024, the EPA published the statutory time line for this pending action, 17 months. Bayer is confident EPA will conclude its review accordingly, which would support farmers' purchasing decisions ahead of the 2026 growing season. Despite these regulatory challenges, we aggressively defend acres based on our superior genetics, use of commercial tactics and the use of channel brands that offer multiple trait packages as to secure our acre share for technology adoption with the launch of ICONIC expected in 2027. In addition, we are adapting our cost structure to temporary growth dynamics. To achieve that, we are changing our production setup and sales operations planning to adjust our seed volume safety buffers. Therefore, we will see lower seed multiplication and warehousing costs. In the meantime, we put all of our efforts into the launch of ICONIC expected in 2027 to guarantee quick ramp-up and market share regain. The launch will mark a significant turning point, bringing us back to strong top line growth towards the end of the decade and into the 2030s. ICONIC is the industry's first trade package with tolerance to 5 herbicides to help control approximately 100 more weeds than our industry alternatives. Given the superior performance ICONIC will also drive royalty income from trait-out-licensing to independent breeders. On the genetics side, we will further enhance our #1 position and yield leadership on the back of our precision breeding program. Our new varieties -- our varieties already show a significant yield advantage of 1.6 bushels per acre over the next best competitor, translating in around 2 to 3 generations of breeding advantages. Combining this trade security with our top yielding seed varieties, we will rebuild our system market. In South America, we aim to defend our significant trade market share of more than 80% in Brazil, and we'll capture genetic market share through further breeding advancements, again, using our precision breeding program. In the short term, we focus on technology adoption of our leading Intacta 2 Xtend, our second-generation solution to replace Intacta Pro, prior to patent expiration at the end of 2028. Our Intacta 2 Xtend system offers a broad spectrum of insect protection, addressing grower needs to protect their crops and enabling higher yields. We see positive momentum with new variety registration, where 80% of Bayer's trade mix is made up of Intacta 2 Xtend varieties already. At the same time, we are using the next 3 years to prepare for the successful launch of our third-generation soy insect protection system by 2028. IP3 is offering additional modes of action against insects, pest plus HT4, further equipping growers to defend their harvest. The launch of IP3 will be the first trade introduction, which is completely supported by precision breeding, which will ensure the launch of high-yielding IP3 varieties to our customers in the region. Now let's move to Crop Protection, where we are the global #2 covering of crops and geographies. Our comprehensive product footprint spans across all indications, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, C growth and biologics. With more than 65 active ingredients and over 1,000 formulations that are sold in more than 130 countries. As Rodrigo explained earlier, there are external dynamics that tighten market conditions and are putting pressure on our crop protection business. Nevertheless, we are confident that there is a continuing need for innovation and crop protection going -- going forward, we will be driving profitable growth by sharpening our focus. Instead of being a full solution provider across all crop protection markets, crops and indications, we will concentrate on differentiated products within the most attractive crop protection segment. Oliver already spoke about our ongoing divestment and there is more to come. We will walk away from a broad and undifferentiated go-to-market footprint. And instead of aiming at a broad range of R&D targets across markets and crop, we will now streamline and tailor our efforts, as you heard in the previous section. To summarize, we will change our primary objectives from maximizing market and portfolio coverage to a much stronger emphasis on profitability targets. Our sharper, more focused crop protection strategy will drive towards a profitable low single-digit top line annual growth, slightly above market but marginally lower than in the past. Let's talk about what a sharper focus means in practice for our go-to-market approach and our R&D efforts. Going forward, we will steer our business based on defined market architects, determined by their strategic relevance, size and profit potential. We include 15 countries in the focused market category, including our 2 biggest markets, Brazil and the U.S. Those 15 countries account for about 70% of our core crop protection sales and make up the most significant value pool. In the leverage market category, there are another roughly 50 countries, contributing about 25%. These countries are often characterized by high structure profit potentials. All other countries are characterized as harvest markets. Altogether, only accounting for about 5% of our crop protection sales. Based on these archetypes, we will redefine where we really focus our resource both in marketing and sales and also in innovation. In the focus markets, we will strengthen our teams and efforts, intensifying demand creation through technical support and our pharma-centric sales team. We will also prioritize R&D investments for new innovations and formulation development to ensure we will have the best products available in these markets. In Brazil, for example, we are strengthening our collaboration with cooperators and retail partners, complementing our channel partner portfolio and are also investing further in online channels and digital tools to address evolving farmer needs. In leveraged markets, on the other hand, we are freeing up resources and reducing our efforts by using alternative approaches, like licensing and general agents. South Korea is a good example. We recently handed our portfolio to a distributor and significantly reduced our market and sales team, while our partner leverages his strong pharma relationship to sell our product portfolio. Ultimately, this has led to market share growth at much lower cost to serve, causing a real win-win for us and our partners. In harvest markets, we will manage the business efficiency -- efficiently by minimizing go-to-market resources and reducing R&D efforts to a minimum or even exit. Now let's move on to the innovation and how we are sharpening the focus of our R&D activities. We are leveraging our unique and best-in-class crop key approach where we use system biology, artificial intelligence and data science to set a new benchmark in the industry. The AI power discovery platform accelerates identification and development of new crop protection solutions across indications by precisely targeting pests, diseases and weed vulnerabilities at the molecular level. Instead of screening millions of molecules, we reverse-engineer the process, identifying target proteins and then deploying very targeted and profile-driven data analytics tools to design the molecule structure, which will bind to that protein and inhibit it. We see huge potential to not only bring new active ingredients to life faster, but also to unlock entirely new modes of action. This not only improves the efficiency of our R&D, data enabled and more precise discovery also ensures adherence to our predefined criteria, such as global market potential, optimizing cost of goods sold as well as regulatory and safety requirements. Crop key leads to an unprecedented quality and differentiation gain for our Crop Protection R&D by significantly increasing the probability of success at all stage grades. This way, we use our resources in the most effective way and drive the highest return on every R&D euro invested. First examples of success are already underway. Our new herbicide, Icafolin, the first new mode of action in post-emergent weed control in 30 years, with a peak sales potential of about EUR 750 million was designed with a profile-driven discovery. As an ultimate result of our sharpened focus and stringent use of property, we will have a different pipeline structure in the 2030s compared to where we are today. We will have fewer new AI candidates, but all of them have larger peak sales potential. Our short- to midterm pipeline will remain unaffected by the changes I just outlined. Our blockbusters, Plenexos insecticide, our new fungicide and Icafolin herbicide, which I just told you about will be launched in the next years. All 3 of them with a combined peak sales potential of more than EUR 2 billion. Our pipeline also includes other active ingredients and promising biological solutions, especially in biological insecticides, fungicide and seed treatment products that are enriching our overall crop protection portfolio. Altogether, these are contributing a peak sales potential of more than EUR 1.5 billion. As we will focus our in-house development capacities on large active ingredients we will increasingly use external partnerships for in-licensing AIs to strategically enrich our crop protection portfolio in the future. This way, we guarantee a comprehensive crop protection portfolio while optimizing return on investment. A recent very successful partnership example is the licensing of Indiflin for the continuous enhancement of our FOX family fungicide for Latin America soybeans. Similarly, we build upon strategic partnerships with leading biological companies like Ginkgo Bioworks, AlphaBio Control and others for the biocontrol and biostimulants product pipeline. Our life cycle management activities are contributing significant value to our business with a peak sales potential of more than EUR 7.5 billion. Going forward, we will increase our value focus within our life cycle management efforts through stricter prioritization of our growth markets and crops. Again, we will leverage formulations from focus to other country clusters and use strategic partnerships to increase R&D efficiency and value focus. We feel very confident about the adjusted R&D budget allocations within Crop Protection which will ensure a higher return on investment on our R&D spend, while further enhancing our strong pipeline. Beyond 2030, we will continue to grow our core business, but also tap into additional value pools adjacent spaces. Today, I want to focus on 2 adjacencies: Biological solutions and biofuel crops. Biological solutions are a significant future opportunity and key to advancing benefits of regenerative agriculture. Overall, market demand for biocontrol and biostimulants products is expected to more than double, growing about 7% annually and reaching about EUR 30 billion market potential in the mid-2030s. This market, however, is very fragmented, includes many different technologies. We know some of our competitors pursue a broader approach in the biological space. But we have deliberately have chosen to focus on 3 priority areas: biocontrol, biostimulants for crop efficiency and nitrogen fixation. We follow 3 guardrails: First, we aim to invest in technologies with proven performance that can be augmented by our strong R&D expertise in crop protection and ultimately showing clear value proposition for our growers; second, we make sure there is a strategic portfolio fit within our core portfolio of seeds and traits and crop protection; and third, our investments need to fulfill profitability and return on investment targets. We build upon an open innovation model to flexibly partner across the entire ecosystem. And we are proud to be the partner of choice for leading biological innovators like Ginkgo Bioworks, Kimitec and M2i. Novel biofuels are another large opportunity for us. Global biofuel demand is expected to triple until mid-next decade. In particular, the aviation sector and heavy-duty diesel powered machinery often lack electrification options, hence requiring renewable fuels to decarbonize. Intermediate crops will play a key role in the biofuel supply chain over the next decade by enabling low carbon feedstock production on existing farmland without displacing food or feed crops. They further support soil carbon sequestration and build up a soil organic matter, benefiting soil health in the long term, unlocking a win-to-win potential for the farmers in the biofuel industry. Leveraging our leadership in seed and traits, we are already positioned as the #1 provider in novel energy intermediate crops today. We have a leading portfolio across 3 of the 4 existing biofuel immediate crops for renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel and a strategic partnership for the scale-up. CoverCress is a winter oilseed crop developed by CoverCress and owned by Bayer, Bunge and Chevron. Combining the shareholders' expertise with the potential held by CoverCress, we will further develop and commercialize its namesake winter oilseed into a rotational intermediate crop. The crop has potential sustainability and carbon sequestration benefits and brings a new lower carbon fuel feedstock to the renewable diesel industry. For winter canola, we have strategic partnership with Neste, the European leader in the sustainable aviation fuel market. We see further expansion opportunities by bringing our winter oilseed germplasm in North America. We have the best hybrids in our portfolio to do that. To further strengthen our biofuel intermediate portfolio, we recently acquired Camelina Assets. This will broaden the portfolio and allow us to have the best suited intermediate crops for different crop rotation schemes and environmental conditions. With our efforts in biofuels, we will help the energy sector build up new supply chains for biofuels and simultaneously help growers generate a second income stream while we're generating their soil and improving the value of their line as their #1 balance sheet. Let's quickly recap. We will pursue our growth strategies across platforms. In corn, we will further strengthen our global #1 position. In soy, we will take decisive actions to address short-term challenges and unlock long-term growth. In Crop Protection, we sharpened our focus, especially in R&D and go-to-market to drive profitability growth. Overall, we are confident to achieve more than EUR 3.5 billion in incremental sales until 2029. Additionally, we are preparing to expand beyond our core, where opportunities like biological solutions and biofuels will provide additional upside. With that, I will hand it back over to Oliver, who will guide you through the financial outlook in detail.

Thank you, Mike. So during our full year '24 results that we published in March, we also introduced our midterm ambition and where we aim to take bio crop science by the end of this decade. Today, we provided a detailed view on how we will get there by walking you through all the elements of our 5-year framework. Before we talk about how this translates into our financials, let's briefly recap our midterm ambitions. First, net sales. We are targeting above-market growth in our core business. Second, EBITDA. We're targeting an EBITDA margin in the mid-20s. This will be achieved by driving on average 100 to 150 basis points of annual EBITDA margin expansion until '29. The front end will be driven by productivity improvements and the back end by top line expansion through our innovation pipeline. And third, steering. We will steer our business and drive performance along the full value triangle, sales, margin and cash. So let me summarize what we have highlighted now over the last hour. Our 5-year framework will get us to our midterm ambition through 3 elements: number one, strengthening our foundation via our margin and cash initiatives; number two, capitalizing the pipeline value in our core via our platform strategies; and number three, unlocking further growth past 2030 by expanding beyond the core. Together, those elements enable us to reach our ambition along our triangle. So on sales, building on our strong innovation pipeline and executing our platform specific strategies, we will deliver above-market growth and achieve more than EUR 3.5 billion in incremental innovation-driven sales. On margin, to reach more than EUR 1 billion, margin improvement on top of the DSO and growth effects, we optimize along our whole value chain with 3 key initiatives in portfolio and R&D, product supply and go-to-market and global functions. On cash, our working capital optimization across customers, suppliers and inventory is already delivering first results. It will release more than EUR 1.5 billion cumulative cash until '29. Before we move on to detailed financial bridges for each of the 3 elements of the triangle, I want to briefly give you transparency on our key underlying assumptions. Let me specifically call out what we assume for our markets. We assume a positive market outlook with around 2% CAGR from 2024 to 2029, which implies a return to an up cycle over the next years. We specifically see seeds and trades growing faster at 2%, 2.5% to 3%, and CPs slightly slower at 1.5% to 2%. Further details on inflation, FX rates, commodity prices, glyphosate, technical spot prices will be all available in the uploaded appendix afterwards. And regarding tariffs, we will continue to evaluate the developments and to further evaluate both risk and potential opportunities of their direct and indirect impact as well as working to neutralize with mitigating efforts, including also pass-through of additional costs via price increases. So let me start now with sales and 3 key messages. Number one, we continue to grow above market despite significant regulatory headwinds; number two, our innovation engine is intact; and number three, together with our commercial engine, it delivers high-margin blockbusters driven by higher prices across our platforms. We will have EUR 3.5 billion innovation-driven incremental sales until 2029. Think about half of that coming from regular innovation cycles in Seeds and Traits and Crop Protection, and the other half of it coming from our blockbuster innovation. So let's walk through this in more detail. Our aggregate top line will continue to grow above market with about 3% versus roughly 2% for the market. And that is despite the EUR 700 million to EUR 900 million impact from regulatory effects, mostly in '25 and '26, in the European Union for our CP portfolio as well as some portfolio pruning. Two important things to note on the regulatory effects. Number one, the breadth of our portfolio enables us to mitigate a significant share of that regulatory pressure on our business. And number two, we do not expect regulatory effects of that size to be recurring going forward. Our growth is a result of our strong innovation engine, especially our blockbusters such as PRECEON, Vyconic, Plenexos and Icafolin. The 5-year time horizon does not fully represent the true potential of our blockbusters. In our markets, innovation have long lead times. And that differs for example, from pharma products where the full sales impact is visible much sooner after an innovation is launched. For us, this means all blockbusters in our current pipeline will reach their peak sales potential beyond 2030. And that's actually great news as it will ensure significant growth momentum even far beyond that decade. So now on EBITDA and margin uplift is a twofold story: Number one, innovative blockbusters bring additional value to farmers and thus, unlock high-margin growth and lift our margin; and number two, further significant margin uplift is coming from measures that are fully in our control, namely our margin program. And as I already said, we will deliver on average 100 to 150 basis points of annual EBITDA margin expansion. While some effects are already materializing in '26, expect an acceleration from 2027 onwards. And overall, this will get us from the 19.4% in '24 to the mid-20s by 2029. Given the 5-year time horizon, there is substantial impact from inflation on our cost base. And with the rising price levels, both our cost, but also our prices to customers will increase. And that obviously will create EBITDA effects in different directions. An important driver behind the EBITDA growth and the inflation compensation you see here is the continued growth above market, fueled by our innovation engine and they're especially our blockbusters. And it's particularly the higher value that we create for farmers that enables us to, a, sell more with higher penetration; and b, realize higher prices for the innovation value we bring to the field. And the majority of the margin uplift, though, is coming from controllables, mainly our margin initiative. These are, on the one hand, existing initiatives with significant bottom line impact like DSO. Two things to know about DSO here. Of course, '24 to '29 does not show the full DSO impact. Substantial savings have already been realized earlier. And the organizational changes through DSO have enabled us to identify the additional savings potential in our margin program and now to execute our whole 5-year framework. On the other hand, it is our 5-year framework, building on our experience of successful margin programs at Bayer, we are confident that we will deliver significant margin uplift of more than EUR 1 billion by 2029. So let me again emphasize those actions are under our control, and they are key drivers of our overall margin lift. And hence, we are fully convinced of our ability to deliver this mid-20s margin ambition. For me personally, Bayer CropScience clearly is a business that can sustainably deliver more than EUR 3 billion in free operating cash flow, and we will reach that goal by 2029. So let me briefly explain how -- the improvement towards more than EUR 3 billion of free operating cash flow is on the one hand, driven by our EBITDA uplift that we have just walked through, and that means both our margin program and our platform growth strategies. And on the other hand, we have a dedicated cash program that will release more than EUR 1.5 billion in cash from working capital under 2029. And here, we are once more focusing the majority of our levers are things that are in our control. As you can see in the darker blue elements, this is the cumulative impact over the whole period. Initial effects have already been visible in '24, but the majority is coming over the next 2 to 3 years. And as I said previously, this will not be a onetime initiative. Instead, going forward, we will be an integral part of our culture and our daily operations. This transformation entails up to EUR 1 billion in onetime costs for the program execution. And you will see those costs affect our cash flow in the near term as we make the required changes to unlock the long-term potential of our business. And these investments will allow us to sustainably drive our cash performance to our ambition level of more than EUR 3 billion of free operating cash flow. The strategies, measures and organizational adjustments we have discussed so far are designed to generate lasting impact and ensure we will deliver on our financial plans. In addition, they will also contribute to a more flexible and resilient business that will deal with the inherent cyclicality of our industry in a more efficient way. So let me, therefore, finally address the resilience aspect of our business, which is top of mind for all of us at Bayer CropScience, especially in the recent weeks and months. On my last slide, I want to shed light on the volatility drivers and explain how we further increase our resilience. As you can see illustrated with the green and the blue lines on the chart, our core businesses in Seeds and Trait and Crop Protection are performing quite stable on both the top and the bottom line, despite a volatile end market. And that speaks for the quality and relevance of our products in the market and the favorable balance of our geographical and the product portfolio footprint. Glyphosate on the opposite side shows a very high volatility during the same period. And as we mentioned earlier, there's also more than 200 basis points dilutive to our overall margin. We announced already that we will, in the future, separate the steering of our glyphosate business, which provides for more flexibility to better navigate this commoditized market and thereby also strengthening our resilience. In seeds and traits, our stable growth in margins are a reflection of our innovation productivity, including our strong licensing income, which allows us to operate on a higher margin profile than our peers. Our 5-year framework will ensure that we stay ahead and continue our investments in innovation and with that an increased value for our farmers. And lastly, on Core CP, also here, we have seen a resilient top line performance, but its margin performance has been impacted, as we outlined today. Now our 5-year framework specifically addresses that bottom line performance and will bring us for margins in the teens back to competitive margin levels. And it will also improve our earnings resilience as we further flex our structures, as I outlined already in the product supply section. Overall, this chart summarizes how to think about the growth and the margin progression of our portfolio and the resilience of this business. With this, I hand it over to Rodrigo for his final messages.

Thank you very much, Oliver. And just to conclude here, just to finish, the strong setup that we have established gives me confidence that Bayer CropScience can achieve our ambitious target. Our setup is focused on rigorously executing our plan and delivering our ambition based on the 5 key elements: First, we have now fully rolled out our balance stream across the triangle of sales margin and cash. In practice, this means that we shift our focus beyond top line growth and with all the 3 elements in our decisions. Second, accountability and ownership of the targets along the triangle now clearly lie with the cross-functional teams that have end-to-end responsibility for delivering their results. This simplified previous matrix-like structures where, for example, responsibility was less clear and the decision process took too much longer. Third, we have also aligned our incentive structures with this new setup. The balanced triangle steering and the end to end ownership now aligned clearly with the financial incentives for the entire organization. And fourth, all the above are only possible with our significantly increased transparency and performance. This visibility is enabled by dedicated transformation team in place to track the performance with much higher frequency than business as usual that we did before. Lastly, we also want to extend this internal transparency to you externally. Hence, we are committed to update you on a regular basis on the progress achieved on our 5-year framework. So let me wrap up. Let's look at where Bayer CropScience will be in 2029. We will have a streamlined organization flexibly adapting to market change with an increased earnings resilience. We will have strengthening execution engines across R&D product supply and go-to-market. And our continuously attractive blockbusters pipeline will remain the backbone of our business and fuel our high-margin growth until 2029 and beyond that. That clearly positioned us to deliver by 2029, we will reach more than EUR 25 billion in net sales, but significant growth headroom remains for 23rds and plus even just from our current blockbusters. We will have the mid-20s margin as we execute our margin program and the combination of sales growth and our margin improvement was our increased focus on cash productivity also brings us sustainably above EUR 3 billion free cash operating cash flow. Based on everything we have shared with you today, we are excited and confident about the next 5 years and our continued momentum into 23rd and beyond. So thank you very much for joining us today, and we are looking forward to taking your questions right now, and I'll invite Erica to help us here. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] So our first question will be from Richard Vosser with JPMorgan, followed by the next question with Christian Faitz from Kepler. So Richard, go ahead, if you could unmute your mic.

Thank you very much, Richard. Let me start here, and then I'll ask Mike to help me with the PRECEON as well. So let me start with the licensing business. We have built on our pipeline and our portfolio. We built a very strong licensing business over EUR 2.5 billion today, 95% of that our regional and small companies that we operate. It's less on the large multinational, much more broad of medium to small regional companies that we have in the different key markets. And that's a little bit of what that Mike referred to the Vyconic as well. There is a lot of interest, as you can imagine, on the Vyconic platform for the future of those companies as well to bring that to the market. We are seeing from the farmers. Of course, when you have a platform like that controls 100 more weeds and has much more flexibility, you have the demand from the farmers and these regional companies. We have conversations with them on licensing and continue our licensing engine for the future. That applies for Vyconic, but I'll dare to say that also that applies to PRECEON as well on the biotech version that we are bringing to the market in '27. And that's a good segue -- to transition to Mike to talk a little bit about the PRECEON acreage expansion, pricing opportunity or something like that.

Yes. It's -- and Richard, thank you for the question. Hopefully, you can tell how excited we are by PRECEON and the belief in what it can do both in North America, but also when we think about the 220 million acres that are out there that we see as a potential fit for this product. And we've spent a lot of time looking at its performance, how do we understand it, how do we help the grower figure out, how to maximize its performance. And 1 of the really unique things that we've done in every geography where we've commercialized a product like PRECEON is we've partnered with our growers, and this has been very deliberate to help us and help them really design how you maximize that system. And what are the tools and systems that you can enable through it that helps them generate more revenue on every acre they plan to this. So if you think about North America, we obviously -- we don't see a ton of market expansion in terms of corn. What we simply see is growers are going to find more value, whether it's more yield and an improved ability to actually manage their inputs in a very different way, in a much more efficient way. That's going to give them a much more reliant and resilient capability to deliver on what that product can build. What we're seeing in other geographies, which is if you think about PRECEON in Europe, where we've had an incredible experience with growers that are focused on silage, this truly changes the way a grower thinks about what a new product, new solution can bring with a product that elevates the quality of the silage and simply runs and enables them to have a much better operation than what they had in the past. So we see a lot more value that we're creating on every acre through this technology and super excited where we are today and the progress that we see in the years to come.

Great. So our next question will come from Christian with Kepler, followed by Jo Walton with UBS. So Christian?

[Audio Gap] Pricing structure? How many acres feature is currently being used on? Do you believe it can ever be a stand-alone commercial tool as opposed to being a very useful marketing tool? And then second, wheat hybridization. You've been talking about this for quite some time. Where are we on this in terms of time line?

Thank you very much, Christian. Let me start here. And again, I'll ask Mike to help on that one. On the FieldView today, current on 250 million acres that we have and you're right. On the short term, our view is that FieldView is an enabler of the value on our core business. Let me give you a very concrete example of that one, right? Farmer in the Mato Grosso region in Cerrado region in Brazil for the safrinha season, this farmer was not using the higher density because of not confident that this could generate additional value. While the digital platform allow us to do a very precise recommendation of this area with a higher density and returning on higher yields. So yes, this led to the farmer to use a higher density, higher yields. And we, in exchange, we've got higher share within and a higher value of the market as well as -- as a concept. This Christian, was enabled by the digital platform. And that's the same example that we are foreseeing today for the PRECEON launch and also for Vyconic and the new platforms that are coming into the market. So short term, a lot of enabler of the value on the core business. In the future, you could see more opportunities in the platform itself. And we are exploring different opportunities in the platform itself. But the core element of the value is enabled on the short term. Let me go now to the second part of the question.

Yes, Christian, great question, and you kind of hit on one of my second most favorite interesting topics as we think about what we're doing in 2030. we believe hybrid wheat has a lot of potential. We -- it is not easy. And the way you need to think about hybrid wheat is you've got to think about, do you have the germplasm to develop the platform on. Clearly, when you think about our varietal germplasm in, for example, North America, where we have 25% of the seed that is purchased every year comes through a Bayer brand. So we have the germplasm, you then need to start thinking about, do we have the data and the breathing methodology to enable you to make the shifts and the changes to accelerate the way that you develop that next generation of product. And we clearly do and already a lot of the capabilities that I highlighted today on PRECEON breeding are now being putting in place as we think about how do we build out that next generation of hybrid wheat. The third leg of this is really then thinking about how do you produce? And we have industry-leading capabilities in our product supply organization that are helping us redefine how you effectively produce a crop like hybrid wheat. So a super challenging crop to start working on it, but 1 that we're really confident with the capabilities that we have there, we can actually be very successful in this place.

Our next question will be from Jo at UBS, followed by Vincent Andrews at Morgan Stanley. Jo, you can unmute and ask your question, please.

Two quick questions, please. Could you just tell us about the importance of glyphosate to your business going forward? So you have a chart there showing that it's going to be steered separately and I think we understand it doesn't make you any money, and you really, really want to focus on where you do make money. So how important is it to remain a supplier given your market share today around the world in glyphosate. And secondly, could you update us on where we are in GM acceptability outside of the U.S. It's been a barrier to some markets. Is anything falling there? Do you see any signs of progress, particularly in Europe.

Jo, thank you very much. Thanks for joining us today here as well and the question. So let me start with the glyphosate and then again, I'll transition to Mike here, and you can help me with the glyphosate as well on that one. So you nailed. Just before I talk about the importance of us, glyphosate will remain very important for the farmers and for the farmers operation. When you think about no tillage and sustainable agriculture for the future, and the expansion of that technology that is required by the use of glyphosate. And also the GMO crops that we have also demands a lot of that supplier of glyphosate. So this will remain very important for the farmers in the future. What we are doing is exactly what you said is how we steer that business in a different way. It's a commodity business. It's dilutive to our margin, as Oliver said. So we are operating that one in a very different way, more leaner than possible, extremely effective and flexible here on how we operate that the entire operation of glycophate to continue to supply that to the farmers. And we're going to continue to evaluate the business as we do for all the different business. But today, the key action that we are having is end-to-end accountability of that business, leaner as possible, even more than we are today and be more agile. Anything on that, Oliver?

The third point is probably around the optionality that we create by running it now in a separate way. I think these are the 3 key elements to know about how we run the glyphosate business.

And Jo, thanks for the question on GM. Specifically to Europe, we don't see a lot of change. But we do start to see some changes in Africa. So you see a number of countries that have recently commercialized various traits, and you see others that are very close, which really gives us a belief that when this continues to open up, combining the genetic capabilities of our seed trait much like what we've done in other parts of the world, Africa becomes a big opportunity for us.

If you allow me, Jo, just to not lose your question on that one. Another place is, of course, recently, China planting biotech and GMOs also has a significant impact in Asia, right? We are seeing that development as well, and of course, China is a little bit of the opportunity that we have as well that we are working on that plan. But clearly, Africa has a huge potential. Asia with a new element in China. It's impacting the entire continent there that we're going to see more opportunities of biotech in the future for sure.

Great. Vincent Andrews, you are next, and the following question will come from Laurent Favre in BNP. Vincent?

Okay. Great. So I wanted to ask on PRECEON. You noted an 8-bushel per acre yield advantage, which is obviously quite impressive for traditionally bread products. So I guess 2 questions. One, could you give a little bit more color on what's causing that yield advantage? It seems like a surprisingly large number versus the prior conversations we've had about it. But I guess you finally have the groundbreakers data and then secondly, with impression, why if the conventionally bread product is so strong, why even go ahead with the biotech product? Because with that, I Think you have to share economics of BASF?

Maybe I'll take both, and thanks, Vincent, for the question. The data for sure is great. So when we look at the data we had with our customer, it's the 8-bushel per acre. It gets a little bit to this journey that we're on with our customers, trying to figure out how do we optimize the way PRECEON hybrid can be managed, planted and grown versus what they've typically and historically done with [indiscernible] hybrid. So for example, one of the things that we've always talked about with PRECEON is this ability to drive density. In top corn, that gets really hard because at some point, a top corn hybrid and high density is going to launch. It's going to either be -- have green snapping depending on where you do it or it's going to lodge late in the season. So your density ability is not as easy to continue to elevate. With PRECEON, you can clearly do this. And so what we're finding with our growers is they're pushing density honestly at amazing levels and generating some of the yield results that I shared with you here that are really driving that delta in performance that we highlighted. The difference between the kind of the breathing version of PRECEON versus a biotech version, the breathing version is a recessive trait which simply means that we've got to put the trait on both sides of the hybrid pedigree. It makes it a lot harder for us to both manage in terms of our breeding portfolio and we've got stack all those traits of all of our other traits, but also from a commercial and a production perspective, it makes it more difficult. So the beauty of the biotech trait is it's a dominant trait. We can simply put it on the female side, we can then cross it to any type of male germplasm we want to create a short hybrid, and we can easily and quickly get that out in the market. So our customers can experience the latest germplams and genetics as quick as we can deploy it.

And Vincent, if you allow me just to complement 1 thing from Mike that I thought was very interesting. I was driving around U.S. and I met a lot of the farmers that we are calling the groundbreakers and the 300 bushels club of the farmers that they are reaching that one, that combination of higher density, so how we see and how we feed as well as that acre has become very interesting in the last analysis that we did. So a lot of the partnerships that we have with our partners in U.S. on how we help the farmers the right seed and the right seed of at acre to allow us to get those yields and the performance that we are seeing. So a lot of focus on this very high touch work with the farmers in the U.S. will be very important for us in the future.

Our next question will be Laurent, followed by Kevin McCarthy with Vertical Research Partners. Laurent, you can unmute.

Two questions, please. The first one, I heard you say that you had higher margins than your most direct competitor in seeds. But of course, they've got a very different position in royalties, right? So last year, they did 23% margin with a negative royalty position. I was wondering how would you say you compare when you exclude your royalty income on profitability? That's the first question. And mostly just focusing on seeds. And then the second question, I mean, don't take it the wrong way. But this is not the first webinar or CMD, where we hear Bayer presents leadership positions in crop and confidence to deliver margin upside. And there's been different issues in the past, generally pressure, regulatory pressure, all sorts of issues. So I was wondering in the targets that you presented today are there areas where you would say you've been conservative to be some cushion so that if something doesn't go according to plan, you can still deliver?

I appreciate the question. Thank you, Laurent. Yes, let me start on seeds and traits margin, excluding the royalties. Actually, I think that's not the way that we look at it because in a way, when you look at integrated margins then down to the EBITDA level, which we do now for all the businesses that we have, there's, of course, a lot of R&D investments happening in [indiscernible] shop to drive that royalty income that we are achieving in the seeds and trait business. And that is also the reason why we see that in a combined manner because all the R&D investments that we have there drive that combined sales, the royalties plus our own business. And indeed, the level of profitability that we are able to achieve there is above the competition. On your second question regarding the margin expansion program, I mean I outlined the different components that we have built in there. And as you probably recognize, one of the areas that we really hit on heart is that these are controllable for us that are driving the margin expansion. We have now deeply rooted that into the KPIs that we have on the different teams level that we have on a global, regional and local level. So these are hard-coated targets in the organization that we are able to manage also across the entire organization. And therefore, that gives us a high confidence that we will deliver on that margin progression.

And if you allow me just to complement on that one, very laser focus. Every business with a different setup, with a different margin in every region as well, if you go deeper on the plans that we have, you would see major difference between the regions as well. But on the business, as we said, controllable every business in a different setup and that laser-focused controllable element is the key element for our plans for the next 5 years. And also, you're going to follow on that on the transparency that we are sharing today here.

Our next question will be Kevin McCarthy and that will be followed by James Quigley with Goldman Sachs.

Yes. I appreciate the presentation today. Two questions for me, one on China and one on the U.S. On China, would you comment on how much of the crop protection price pressure that you alluded to is cyclical versus structural or more durable in nature. And then on the seed side, would you expect China to embrace the import of gene-edited seeds, for example, I appreciate any thoughts on international trade or the regulatory regime there. And then secondly, curious as to whether you might venture any thoughts on how your U.S. corn and soybean seed market share might trend in 2025?

Thank you, James. Let me start here, and I welcome both of you to join on this one. So let me start with China CP. There are some cyclical elements of that one. But also, I think when you see the -- when our analysis that we did over the last many months and the work that we did, when you see the capacity build there, we are considering that this price element will remain in the market in the coming years. And that's why our plans were focused on the controllable that we were talking. So our assumption is that we're going to have -- continues to have pricing pressure on CP, and we need to work on the other elements to have the margin expansion that we talk. On the China, then I'll open for you guys to jump here as well. Yes, we are working in China with our JV there to bring some biotech traits to that market as well. Initially, the approach was for the local development of GMO traits that we have there, but we do expect to have that opportunity in the future as well. That is part of the plans that we have for China. Anything on that, Mike, that you want to add?

Kevin, I'm not sure if your question was biotech traits or gene-edits. So if it's gene-edits, obviously, we share a little today that we've been very active in this space. We believe it's got huge potential for our pipeline. We do believe -- and again, this is always a hard question to answer, given a lot of this is getting -- is developed, but also obviously, China is very active in the gene editing space. So we'll continue to monitor what they're doing. We'll continue to obviously advance what we need to do from a capability perspective and then figure out, obviously, what is going to be the ability to move gene-edits around. Last one on seeds and traits position in the U.S. I mean on the corn acreage, there's different estimates right now out we see it somewhere in the range of 93 million to 95 million acres, which would be obviously an increase from the 90 million that we saw last year and we would see ourselves also growing in the same direction. And with that, of course, also maintaining market share. On the soy side, I mean, we mentioned that also during the presentation. Right now, it's, of course, for us a situation where we defend market share with potential to get the dicamba label back for the '26 season. That is where we then see, of course, also some positive impact once again on our soy business in the U.S. and then driving a further into the next season. And then we talked about Vyconic then coming also in '27 that will accelerate, then obviously also how we look at market shares in the U.S.

Our next question will come from James Quigley.

James Quigley from Goldman Sachs. One high-level question and 1 sort of clarification. So on the high-level question is in terms of pain for innovation. So obviously, a few years back, the market growth was down greatly partly to farmers not paying for innovation. So how are things different now? What are you hearing from farmers to give you the confidence about the willingness to pay for innovation, and what do you assume in your guidance with respect to a corridor around commodity prices to support the 2% market growth assumption? Is there a level at which that becomes at risk? And are there any other levers we should be watching closely in terms of monitoring the impact on the market growth and the clarification on your EBITDA margin expansion of 100 to 150 basis points per year. Just to confirm, should we expect at least 100 basis points margin expansion each year? And how should we think about the trajectory for the margin expansion?

Thanks, James. That will allow me to make some comments, and I will invite Oliver to jump here on that one as well. Payment for innovation, I've been working on this industry of innovation as we talk today for over 25 years right now, of course, the impact of the commodity cycle that we have impacts our business. You saw on the last slide of the presentation presented by Oliver, the development of seeds and traits and the development of Crop Protection that is very different from the cyclical commodity impact like fertilizers or our glyphosate business to be transparent here. So we have more stable development on the Seeds and Traits and Crop Protection because of the innovation, because of the 500 new hybrids that you bring every year to the market or the 1,000 formulations that we have on chemistry over the last 15 years help us to be able to price for value and to help us develop that market. So it's more stable than the typical commodity market, but of course, it is impacted. If you have a high commodity price, you're going to have a higher opportunity in terms of pricing. When you have a lower commodity price, you deal a little bit of that one. And that's why we wanted today to be very transparent with you to say we are expecting this market growth. We'll continue to see some cyclical developments in this market. And that's a little bit of what we take as a CAGR for the next years and we're going to be adjusting all the time for that cyclicality and advancing in terms of the information, but that's a little bit of the overall market here. So let you jump a little bit more on that as well.

I think you covered it well on the commodity prices, and that's also how we reflected that, of course, in the plans that you saw today. I mean it's more or less the levels that we saw in '24 and the expectation for '25 and then sort of an inflationary adjustment of prices going forward. Of course, we were not like modeling now different fluctuations in the commodity prices into that model. But of course, we have sensitivities internally to deal with this. On the margin expansion, indeed, we talked about 100 to 150 basis points on average. The 100 is not necessarily to be seen as a floor that we will not be below that in a given year. It's really meant to be a guidance for you guys to have an average of 100 to 150 over the period. But needless to say, of course, we have an ambition to be in that range in the given years.

Well, that concludes our final question for this time. We appreciate you joining us today. All the materials, the presentation and the financial assumptions can be found on our IR website. So thanks again.