Corbion N.V. (CSU.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Okay. So good morning, everyone, and welcome. So I'm really pleased to host you today here in the heart of Corbion in our Horton facility. So this is one of our most important manufacturing facility, but also one of the most important innovation center we have across the company. So let me begin now with a brief recap of Advance 2025 and the major achievement we've delivered. Then I turn into the future and why we have every reason to be confident as we embark on our Bright 2030 strategic plan. The Advance 2025 plan has been largely achieved. Over the past strategic cycle, we executed a significant transformation. We streamlined operations. We delivered margin expansion from 13% to 16%, and we strengthened our balance sheet by now 10 consecutive quarters of positive free cash flow delivery. In our Specialty Food in Green business, volume/mix grew by 4%. We also turned a heavily loss-making algae omega-3 business into a highly profitable nutrition platform. In addition, we divested our low-growth emulsifier business and investing in capacity that will drive future value, most notably through our new lactic acid plant in Thailand. Overall, Advance 2025 delivered a top line CAGR of 9% and an EBITDA growth of 8%. Looking ahead, Bright 2030 sharpens our focus and accelerate our growth ambition. We aim to become a high-growth specialty food ingredient company centered around natural preservation and nutrition. This strategy also reinforces our commitment to capital discipline. As announced today, we've also initiated a strategic ownership review of the PLA portfolio. For the '26-'28 period, we are targeting top line sales growth of 3% to 6% per annum, an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18% and a cumulative free cash flow of EUR 270 million. Now let me discuss our purpose and the Bright 2030 path forward. Guided by a purpose of preserving what matters, we will accelerate building a sustainable specialty funding green business company focus on natural preservation and on nutrition. And we will achieve this by leveraging our fermentation backbone technologies, our deep expertise in food solutions and our portfolio of differentiated natural and clean label ingredients. And why do we believe we are so well positioned to benefit from the megatrends shaping today's market? The shift in consumer needs, the market dynamics are really redefining the entire food industry nowadays. First, the clean label and the natural preservation, consumers increasing demand natural recognizable ingredients and the growing concern of over ultra processed foods is really accelerating to push for more and more transparent labeling. Second, the rise in GLP-1 adoption is really reshaping diets and consumer habits. People are seeking for less process, minimally processed foods and more and more nutrient-dense foods product enriched with proteins, vitamins, dietary fibers and minerals. Third, the regulatory pressure and the demand for transparency continues to intensify. And these policy trends do favor sustainable, safe and innovative food solutions, think of the ongoing push to reduce sugar, eliminate nitrates, lower sodium content or removing hydrogenated fats and more broadly to clean up the ingredient list. Fourth, with an aging population and a greater consumer health awareness, the focus on functional food is just accelerating. And the line between food and nutraceutical is becoming increasingly blurred as consumers are looking to nutrition for proactive health benefit. And finally, food safety remains absolutely critical because ensuring safe food is essential not only for consumer trust, but to prevent real and serious health consequences. We also see concrete examples that illustrate how quickly the shift towards natural ingredient is accelerating across everything from colors to preservatives. A few months ago, Walmart, the largest retailer in the U.S. announced that it will remove more than 30 synthetic and artificial ingredients from its private label brands by January '27. Many of these ingredients are commonly linked to ultra processed foods. This move is really remarkable. It's likely one of the biggest private brand reformulation in the history of retail. Another strong example comes from Tyson Foods, which recently committed to eliminating [indiscernible] as well as synthetic preservatives like BHD and BHA from all its products. So taken together, this action shows the shift towards natural preservation is clearly accelerating. And yet the opportunity had remained significant. Conversion rates in natural preservatives are still far below, for example, what we've seen in natural colors. And when you look at new product launches today, those formulated with natural preservatives are growing much, much faster than overall food launches. So the markets where we do operate are large, attractive and growing, and this is exactly where the momentum is today. In food preservation, we participate in an addressable market of nearly EUR 3.5 billion. And shelf-life extension is a closely related space. These 2 are going together. So combined, this represents roughly a EUR 7 billion opportunity. In Nutrition, when we look at omega-3s, together with sustainable lipids, we see another market here of nearly EUR 7 billion, growing in the range of 2% to 6% per annum. So these are really substantial market with strong underlying demand trends. So just as important, our portfolio is very well positioned to capture in all of these segments allowing us to play directly in the areas where customer needs and market expansions are the strongest. What also truly makes us unique is our ability to start with something as simple as sugar, and transforming to differentiated high-value food ingredients through our advanced fermentation technology. So we work with a broad range of microorganisms from lactic bacteria to micro algae, yeast and various food cultures. And this diversity allows us to produce a wide portfolio of functional ingredient tailored to really specific market needs. But what is especially distinctive is not just the functionality of these ingredients is also our ability to scale up. We can move from a vast library of strains containing thousands of microorganisms from a 5-liter bench [indiscernible] our innovation center, then up to pilot scale and ultimately, to large-scale production with fermenters of more than 250 cubic meters. And this seamless scale capability bench to pilot to industrial scale, while maintaining the right yield and competitive cost structure is extraordinarily rare, and Corbion is one of the very few companies globally that can execute this reliably, and it is a core part of our competitive advantage. As a concrete example of scale up, let me introduce a short video showcasing our breakthrough innovation in lactic acid processing with is -- our new site of lactic acid plant in Thailand. This represents a truly revolutionary state-of-the-art plant that allows us to operate with far greater sustainability, but also for greater cost efficiency. And this process came from here from this [indiscernible] innovation center lab that you're going to visit later this afternoon and was scaled a pilot level, both here in the plant and in our Spanish facility. And with this new process, we can significantly reduce CO2 emissions, while at the same time, securing high cost competitive position. And this matters enormously given that Corbion owns a 50% market share globally in lactic acid. So strengthening both our sustainability profile and our cost leadership is therefore critical to maintaining and expanding our leadership in this market. So let's have a look at the video now. [Presentation]

Our ecosystem is built on our -- not only build on our strong fermentation expertise and our unique scale capabilities, but also on deep formulation know-how and replacing synthetic and artificial ingredients with natural alternatives require more than just great fermentation technology. It demands the ability to design complete functional solutions. And this is where Corbion brings additional strength beyond fermentation industrial scalability, we offer expertise in enzyme formulation, microbiology, predictive modeling and a fully integrated sustainability approach. All of these capabilities work together to help our customers achieve better performance, cleaner label and more sustainable products. All of this is supported by strong global innovation capabilities. Today, we operate 8 innovation centers worldwide. We are working across 28 core technologies and are managing more than 700 customers projects every year. In total, this is over 250 specialists, primarily scientists and PhDs that are dedicated to innovation within Corbion. The scale and depth of expertise enable us to continually bring forward new solutions and stay ahead of evolving customer and market needs. Now let's have a look at how sustainability is embedded in our portfolio. Sustainability is not an add-on for Corbion. It is built directly into our technologies and the value they create for customers. From CO2 reducing RG production to natural preservatives that do extend shelf life and reduce food waste, our portfolio helps customers meet their own ESG ambition while improving product performance. A few illustrative examples of this impact. Food waste prevention, our natural preservation solutions helped safeguard more than 10 million tons of food globally each year by preventing spoilage and extending shelf life. Our algae-derived omega-3 will enable up to a 30% reduction in wild cord fish used in aquaculture feed. This couple of examples really demonstrate our ability to really sustainably drive innovation and translate it into real measurable benefits supporting both our customers' sustainability, but also the broader global transition towards more efficient and responsible food systems. And how does it translate into our climate commitment. We remain firmly committed to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. This is a central pillar of our sustainability strategy. Climate change is already driving severe consequences from extreme weather and biodiversity loss to growing risk to human health. Every action does matter there. And by reducing our emissions across operations and the entire value chain, we contribute to global efforts to limit warming and protect future generations. So our ambition is clear: achieved net zero emissions across our entire value chain by 2050, with these targets being validated by the science-based target initiatives. Our responsible sourcing program is designed to ensure resilient and sustainable supply chain for our raw material. Over the past decade, we've made really significant progress. Now 99% of our raw material are verified deforestation free. In the next 5 years, we will remain really focused on maintaining the strong performance while responsibly onboarding new suppliers to support business growth. And of course, safety. Safety there is also part of this and is a nonnegotiable. Our ambition is zero incident because nothing is more important than protecting our people and our partners. While we've made strong progress over the last years, there is still a lot more to do. So our 2030 goal keeps us focused on continuous improvement and on building a culture where safety is inspective and embedded in daily operation. So now let's have a look to Corbion today. We operate 13 manufacturing facilities and 8 innovation centers supported by our global network of sales offices. We are, by far, the largest producer of lactic acid in the world and the only 1 with a true global manufacturing footprint with around 50% market share, we clearly lead this category. We've also recently built a leading position in omega-3 and in Sustainable Food Solutions. So overall, Corbion is a EUR 1.3 billion business, delivering EUR 196 million in adjusted EBITDA, reflecting our strong operational performance and leadership in our core domains. Now let's take a look -- a closer look at the current portfolio, and it's already quite compelling. 98% of our raw material are renewable. 82% from our sales are coming from our backbone fermentation technology. And Food & Nutrition account for 72%, already today of total sales, while natural preservation represents nearly 50%. So these numbers clearly demonstrate a strong focus on Food & Nutrition, which is a critical foundation as we look forward and prioritize future growth opportunities. Looking ahead, our investment priorities will focus where they matter most. This is the essence of our Bright 2030 strategy. First, we will build on our core specialty food ingredient business, strengthening the foundation while accelerating growth in our profitable, high potential segments. So our strategic focus will be on 3 key areas: natural preservation, nutrition and biomedical polymers. And at the same time, we are committed to developing a robust pipeline across our nutrition portfolio and our food ferments for natural preservation. Conversely, we will defocus non-food lactic acid applications and have already initiated a strategic ownership review of the PLA portfolio. Let me now come back once again on the essence of Bright 2030. By 2030 positions Corbion as a sustainable specialty footing grading company centered on natural preservation and nutrition, leveraging our fermentation backbone and food solution expertise, and delivering differentiated natural and clean label ingredients. So we are confident that this strategy is a winning combination. It aligns with consumer needs, taps into powerful mega trends and positions Corbion to create significant values in the year end. Now let's dive into the 3 selected focus area for Bright 2030, and we'll start with natural preservation. Our business has grown strongly over the past few years, with an average volume mix growth of 4%. We have successfully expanded our key label solutions into new market segments including mid snacks, culinary and baked goods. Geographically, we have extended our footprint into Latin America and Asia Pacific through strategic bolt-on acquisitions in Brazil, in Mexico and in India. We've also made significant improvement in cost efficiencies and implement a new ferment technology such as the new circular type lactic acid plant as well as our new vinegar manufacturing facility in Montgomery, Alabama. And finally, our preservation platform allows us to enhance the nutritional profile of products by replacing artificial products by natural alternatives demonstrating that sustainability, enabling and functionality can go and enhance. Looking specifically at food preservation, the total addressable market is EUR 3.5 billion, with natural preservation representing EUR 1.6 billion. Importantly, natural preservation is growing faster, 4% to 5% per year compared to 2% to 3% for the broader food preservation market. This demonstrates a clear trend of natural alternatives gradually cannibalizing the water food preservation segment. And this growth is driven by very strong market forces, including first, the shift towards minimally processed foods versus UPS. And this requires much stronger preservation system. The impact of the GL1 trend, which is really reshaping dietary habits. Again, people looking for more grow food, minimally processed, but also clean label and healthier products. So there is a really strong growing consumer demand there for cleaner label and natural. And last but not least, the increasing regulatory pressure worldwide promoting safety, transparency and the better nutrition. So [ Maha ] is one of the examples, but we can see much stricter regulation around the globe about sodium reduction, nitrate reduction as well. So Corbion is very well positioned to capture this opportunity. We combine preservation and shelf life extension while also using our preservation platform to enhance the nutritional profile of products or without compromising on food safety. So today, we hold a solid 25% market share in the natural food preservation market, and we will be reinforcing our leadership in this high-growth space. So how are we winning in this market? First, by leveraging the breadth of our portfolio and second by building on our strong market positions. Our natural preservation portfolio today is centered on 3 major product actives. The first one is around natural antimicrobials. These are clean label fermentation solutions such as vinegars, cultured dextrose cultured sugar or wheat and various food ferments. Together, they provide efficient microbe control with minimal impact on favor. The second family is around natural antioxidants. These solutions, including botanical, natural antioxidants, help prevent oxidation of food and [indiscernible] stability. And last, natural acidification. Here, we provide high-quality lactic acid and lactide derivatives for pH control and flavor management. So by combining these natural preservative solutions, we can serve a wide range of categories, including meat and meat snacks, but also culinary products, baked goods, confectionery and dairy. In short, we offer a focused, fully natural ingredient portfolio that addresses both consumer, but also regulatory demands while delivering functional performance across multiple applications. Let me now share a practical example that allows our formulation capabilities across both preservation and nutrition. In this specific project, we replaced a synthetic mold inhibitor, calcium propionate with a cultured wheat ferment. At the same time, we use dough conditioners and our freshness solution derived from our enzyme systems technologies, and we fortify the bread with high protein content. And by combining these approaches, we were able to deliver to that customer a product that is natural and clean label, that is nutritionally enhanced with reduced sugar and, enriching protein and free from emulsifiers. These examples demonstrate the strength of the Corbion ecosystem, integrating preservation capabilities, shaft extension and fermentation in enzyme technologies to create clean label, functional and attritionally improved products. Looking ahead, there are really several reasons to be excited about the short- and medium-term opportunities in natural preservation. On the very short-term action, obviously, we are busy closing Q4 now, and we are also busy in finalizing the contracting round for 2026, and this is progressing very well. We are also accelerating penetration in the natural mold inhibitor space to replace synthetic alternative. And this is a large opportunity today. We are also preparing to leverage the upcoming EU listeria legislation that's going to be enforced in July '26. So this is coming very soon, and this is offering us a very large opportunity in this market. Number two, it's about restoring our margins there. This is a key priority. First, through an improved and disciplined pricing strategy, but also we are benefiting from much favorable sugar price input there, procurement savings and a major program to optimize our end-to-end supply chain. Lastly, we will maximize further the throughput of our new lactic acid plant that will further enhance our cost efficiency. On midterm, we will be launching new food ferments and high potency vinegars with initial launches planned for early '26. Then we are expanding into different categories, including primarily culinary and seafood preservation. Third, we will also grow in pet food preservation, there, leveraging the strong market position we've built from our nutrition omega-3 business already. So they are very nice synergies we see there. And last, by introducing clean label system that supports reduced sodium, minimally processed foods and the diet trends related to the higher adoption of the GLP-1 diet in the U.S. And finally, growing beyond, we embarked recently in an open innovation collaboration with a company called BRAIN. This is targeting sorbate replacement. Most of the sorbate today being scientific, this is a very nice large opportunity. We are also exploring small selective bolt-on M&A to just complement and expand further our portfolio there. All these initiatives under Bright 2030 makes us committed to take our business up to the EUR 1 billion mark there by unlocking also significant growth at improved margin. So now let's move to the second area, our Nutrition business. But before we dive into strategy, let me review where we stand today. Over the past several years, we've built a leading market position in algae-derived omega-3 oils, transforming the business from a modest EUR 13 million operations into a nearly EUR 160 million business by '24. What began as a heavily loss-making venture is now a highly profitable start growing contributor to Corbion's overall performance. Our first focus area was aquaculture. We have resecured multiple longer-term multiyear supply agreements. These contracts provide stability for the base business and enable growing an ongoing investment in growth primarily into administration and human nutrition. In parallel, we've successfully built a strong presence as I said, in Pet Nutrition, where demand for sustainable and high-quality ingredients continue really to accelerate and in human nutrition, where our nutrition portfolio is supported by a strong opportunity pipeline. Operational excellence has been very critical through that journey. The manufacturing plant in Brazil has been steadily ramping up supported by a great breakthrough from our San Francisco innovation center, improving massively the yield of our fermentation there. Our Corbion omega-3 business is another strong proof of the company's end-to-end scalability and fermentation expertise. The journey here begins at large scale, where optimal micro algae strains are selected and tested in 5-liter fermenters at San Francisco pilot lab. Then when successful concepts are being developed, this is transferred to 1,000 liters, 1 ton fermenters in Belmont, California. This is in the pilot plant, which is validating performance, consistency and process robustness. From there, the process is carried seamlessly to large industrial fermenters in Orindiúva, Brazil, where the full-scale production takes place. And across the scale of trajectory, bench to pilot to plants, Corbion has successfully replicated manufacturing conditions, optimize yields, increase downstream processing efficiency. And these integrated scaling capabilities has really enabled us in the rapid growth on the Omega-3 platform from a small loss-making ventures to highly profitable business. With this, we've not only built the world's largest omega-3 plant, but also the most competitive and sustainable one. What you can see there is quite unique. It's a sustainable, low-cost and fully backward integrated production model we do have in Brazil. At our Corbion site in [indiscernible], we benefit from access to abundant ultracompetitive sugar, the lowest cost feedstock globally, and from a direct integration with [indiscernible] sugar mill that supply very affordable utilities and renewable energy. This integration significantly enhanced both our cost position and our sustainability footprint. And this site is now really fully invested to support our growth trajectory until at least 2028. It is important to highlight that within a few years, on an omega-3 production basis, this plant is already the largest plant in the world. Compared to peers, it gives Corbion a truly distinctive advantage. A single large-scale, fully integrated operation that delivers significant operational efficiencies, cost advantage and consistent quality. And this concentration of capabilities in 1 major site is a unique competitive strength that firmly position Corbion ahead in the omega-3s market. Now let's take a closer look at the market dynamics, particularly those shaping the omega-3 demand and the [indiscernible] sector. Globally, omega-3 represent roughly a 1 million tonne market, translating into a total addressable value of about EUR 5 billion. Aquaculture dominates the consumption there accounting for nearly 70% of demand, and this is followed by nutrition and pharma at around 20% with smaller segments such as pet food and terrestrial applications making up the remainder. When we look at the supply picture over the last decade, one thing is really clear, fish availability is highly volatile and structurally constrained. And despite steady growth in end market between 1.5% and 2.5% annually in aquaculture and 3% to 6% in human nutrition, especially in [indiscernible] and pharma, there is simply not enough facial to meet rising demand. The supply sealing is defined by catch limits by ecosystem protection requirements. And of course, biological variability and climate events is also a limiting factor. As a result, the market faces an ongoing structural supply gap that will only get bigger in time. In fact, in recent days, the market has reacted sharply to speculation around significantly reduced fishing quota from Peru, one of the world's most important source of marine ingredients. And this is already triggering upward pressure on fish oil price, reaffirming the fragility of supply and the urgency of scalable alternatives. To illustrate the supply gap in fish oil, let's have a look at key dynamics currently reshaping the aquaculture market. These insights are based on a very recent Rabobank report. Aquaculture continues to rise. By '23, the sector will require an additional 14 million to 15 million tons of aqua feed simply to keep pace with the expected growth. Translating into fish oil, aquaculture alone will need 20,000 to 30,000 additional tons official every year, a requirement that the current supply base cannot make. This growing imbalance is amplified by several factors. First, in elastic demand in end markets. Even small variations in fish oil demand trigger disproportionate price variations because application such as aquaculture and human nutrition cannot substitute omega-3. There is also an impact from more intensive farming and farming of new species, more than aquaculture techniques and this expansion into new species with higher nutritional requirements are both increasing the demand for fish meal and fish oil. And last but not least, the climate variability. There is today and over the last decade, much greater volatility from El Nino and El Nina. We see these cycles really coming sooner and sooner and closer, and this is making fish oil supply more unpredictable, very often reducing fishing quotas. And the data clearly shows the impact there. So I only put for illustrative purposes, if you look to the bottom left slide, just looking at the trend of fish meal, I mean this is steadily also growing over the years. On the right side, simply look at the trend, the light blue part of this slide is just official structural deficit. This deficit is already present this year in 2025 and is projected to widen sharply next year in '26 and really accelerate in subsequent years this widening gap underscores why we are so confident in the medium-term and long-term outlook for algae-based omega-3 business. As fish oil price rises and supply volatility increases, large-scale, sustainable and reliable alternatives like our algae omega-3 oil become not just attractive, but they are essential. And this is exactly why we are so excited about the opportunity ahead of us there. So we are planning to leverage our technology platform to unlock value there and address, I mean, evolving market needs through a dual growth approach. First, we are expanding from our strong base in omega-3 DHA for animal nutrition and primary aquaculture, into pet nutrition and human nutrition. At the same time, we are diversifying beyond the omega-3 DHA into other sustainable lipids. Our recent launch of omega-9 is being positioned in food application to support better nutrition. Looking further ahead, we are exploring additional product platforms, including algae-derived ingredients as antioxidant and proteins. This strategy not only broadens our market reach, but also enhances margins and reduce our reliance on aquaculture. So what's next for our Nutrition business and why is it again so exciting? In the short term, we are well underway on closing a strong Q4, as we discussed during our latest Q3 results, while we are continuing to secure long-term contracts in aquaculture, and further also expanding our customer base in aquaculture. From 2026 onwards, our Nutrition business will benefit also from favorable sugar input costs, further securing margin and also potentially higher fish oil prices. We're also optimizing and diversifying our omega business by expanding beyond salmon into other species, but also different life stage as [ archery ], while accelerating growth in high-margin segment as better human nutrition. There, we aim to convert the healthy opportunity pipeline we've developed this year into [indiscernible] growth in 2026. And last but not least, we are also advancing an EPA omega-3 strain development to complement our existing DHA portfolio. Beyond the omega-3, the growth is driven in the short term by the commercialization of our omega-9 and by a strong focus [indiscernible] innovation. Key initiatives you might have supported in recent press releases including developing astaxantin through fermentation in partnership with Kuehlne AgroSystems and investing in algae-based protein development with Phycom here in the Netherlands, building a robust pipeline for the future. Now looking ahead to our Bright 2030 ambition for our Nutrition business, we are committed to driving revenue from EUR 157 million up to EUR 275 million, an ambitious almost EUR 120 million increase in just 5 years. This is not just growth. It's a strategic evolution for Corbion, built on innovation, build on efficiency and the relentless focus on value creation. And the beauty of it is that we will not need massive capital investment to make this happen. As I said, we are pretty well invested to sustain sales until at least 2028. In this journey, building a human nutrition business is a cornerstone of our future. We are doubling down on human nutrition, aiming for it to represent up to 10% of our total revenue there by 2030. And this is not just of our numbers, it's about leading the charge rapidly in an evolving market as we believe human nutrition will also convert from official to algae oil. And we see also a strong consumer demand there for algae oil, reshaping the industry going forward. So we are positioning ourselves at the forefront of the shift delivering really product that matters there. On this now, let's move to the last and third really exciting platform, our Biomedical Polymers business. This business is not just growing. It's really striving. Over the past years, we have nearly doubled our revenue, achieving a remarkable 14% CAGR there. Now as part of our Bright 2030 vision, we are setting our sites even higher. We have the ambition to reach EUR 125 million in sales over the next 5 years. So we will continue the powerful momentum we've built so far. This is a business like no other. We boast a truly global footprint with 2 GMP-certified manufacturing plants, 1 in the EU here next door and 1 in the U.S. serving customers globally. Our reach extends across wound management, orthopedics, slow release drug deliveries, regenerative medicines and aesthetics, making us a pivotal player in the biomedical polymer space. At our core there, we are material scientists and innovators starting from monomers like lactide and glycolive in that case, we engineer highly specialized polymers with tailored properties as material strength, degradation rate, different viscosity, water absorption and more. And our advanced technology allowing others to really fine-tune every aspect from polymer length, polymer architecture to meet the exact needs of the end application of our customers. The total addressable market is large, speak about EUR 1 billion there. With our current market share, the potential for growth is immense. To capture this opportunity, we are pursuing a dual growth strategy there. First, by building on a solid foundation we do have for our resorbable searches and wound management. Second, by further expanding in the high-growth area, as orthopedics and drug delivery, where our pipeline is really robust and really promising. And last, by exploring new areas as we are building expertise and capabilities in aesthetics and in regenerative medicines, positioning ourselves for future leadership in these emerging fields. Let's have a closer look how we're delivering value today. And our joint venture with MedinCell in slow release drug delivery is a prime example there. The first product launch using MedinCell technology with our pointer, really at scale is usually a groundbreaking product from Teva Pharmaceuticals for schizophrenia, which is really experiencing rapid growth. But moreover, there is a second major product now in clinical Phase III that is really planning to launch in the second half of next year. And that's also exciting. And this is just the beginning. The pipeline, as you can see, is reach and deep when innovation sets to roll over the next 5 years. And this is not just about optimism, it's really confidence backed by science. Our partnership with MedinCell and we have a very clear road map for success. So with this foundation, we feel really confident to scale this business and shape the future of the biomedical polymer space. Our unique capabilities, strategic investments and relentless focus on innovation is just position us to lead and grow within this dynamic industry. On this, now I will hand over to Peter, who will walk you through the financial details of our Bright 2030 plans and we'll return later for wrap up in the Q&A session. Thank you. Peter?

Thank you, Olivier, and welcome to all investors and analysts. Our strategy, Advance 2025, has delivered strong results on both sales as well as EBITDA. We've amended our portfolio towards natural food preservation and nutrition and the significant capital investments fueling future value creation. Our strategy, Bright 2030 is focusing on delivering profitable growth, delivering productivity and reinvesting in value-creating opportunities. Our balanced capital allocation policy is focused on supporting the profitable growth as well as returning profits to shareholders to both dividends as well as share repurchases. Our medium-term financial targets are on the period 2026, 2028, on organic sales growth, adjusted EBITDA margin as well as free cash flow. Over the period, we targeted a organic sales growth between 3% to 6% per annum, an improvement in adjusted EBITDA to around 18% by 2028, and a cumulative free cash flow over the next 2 years of around EUR 270 million. As a result, we see return on capital employed and earnings per share grew significantly as well. Over the last 5 years, we can show a strong track record of sales and EBITDA growth. Sales growth in our core activities have grown 9% per annum, translating into an adjusted EBITDA growth of 5% -- 8% per annum. Our noncore activities included the frozen dough business, which we divested in 2021 as well as the emulsifier business divested in 2024. Both divestments were a result of portfolio choices we made earlier in our strategy to focus and preserve what matters. These results were generated in a volatile business environment, which really show the resilience of our business model. Sales growth over the last 5 years has been driven by both volume mix as well as price with currencies being constant. Price on average has been 5% per annum, which was by passing on input cost inflation, especially in the early part of our advanced period. Volume/mix growth has been 4% per annum, which has been driven by the significant increase of omega-3 sales, our biomedical polymer business as well as volume mix in food of around 4% per annum. As you know, volume mix in 2023 was driven by industry-wide destocking. Following the margin erosion in the early parts of advance, driven by price inflation and some investments, we've seen significant increase of margins over the last 3 years. This margin increase of 430 basis points has been driven by a combination of pricing, yield optimization, efficiency measures, fixed cost reduction as well as input cost deflation. On top of that, we fully compensated the stranded costs of our emulsifier divestment. The reported EBITDA year-to-date Q3 was 16.3%, and we see further upside in the coming years on which I will come back later. Over the last 5 years, we deployed significant capital behind organic growth plans, fueling future value creation. Some of the key projects were the new [indiscernible] acid facility, but also installing [indiscernible] capacity in-sourcing vinegar as a building block for our natural preservation solution strategy. Expanding omega 3 fermentation capacity in Orindiúva, Brazil as well as expanding lactic acid powder capacity to support our food business. Going forward, we see a more normalized CapEx level of around 6% of sales. Our capital investments are delivering sound returns with paybacks generally lower than 5 years and internal rate of returns above 20%. The exception are the longer term investment prior lactic acid plants, where we see internal rates of return in excess of 15%. The 3 expansions, which I just mentioned, lactic acid powders, omega-3 as well as vinegar are all showing adequate returns. All these projects have become operational over the last years. Most of the milestones announced in our latest Capital Markets update in January 2024 have been delivered. In the Capital Markets Day of January, we presented the financial targets for the year 2024 and 2025. These targets were a volume mix growth of 2% to 6%, organic adjusted EBITDA growth of 15% to 20% and a cumulative free cash flow over 2 years in excess of EUR 125 million. With 1 quarter being left, we can announce that all these metrics were achieved. We are also proud that we continue to deliver behind some of our key business growth areas like food preservation, nutrition and the biomedical business. In food preservation, we've seen further growth in product and market adjacencies. In omega 3, we reached our sales and EBITDA objective from 2025 already in 2024. And in Biomedical, we are on track to deliver double-digit growth. We also delivered on most of our restructuring program delivering free cash flow. The emulsifier business has been divested and the stranded cost has been fully compensated during the course of 2024-2025. The fixed cost savings program has delivered with some key components being an FTE reduction of around 200 FTE as well as mothballing our [indiscernible] site in the U.S. We also reduced variable costs by in-sourcing some production following the successful growth earlier in advance. Although we made nice progress in the ramp-up of our [indiscernible] acid plants, we've not yet generated the full potential in 2025. In 2025, we've had some start-up inefficiencies which are being addressed. The supply chain savings, which we anticipate are, therefore, to come to fruition in 2026. Related to working capital, we've seen some reduction, although not to the original ambition level. This is partly driven by the volatile geopolitical environment where the Red Sea is still blocked and tariffs need to be managed carefully. Although under control, I don't see a significant improvement going forward. Let me come back on our strategy Bright 2030. Our strategy is growth led with a focus of delivering sustainable value creation. Our strategy is, on one hand, focused on delivering profitable growth, delivering productivity and reinvesting in value-creating opportunities. This should lead to organic sales growth as well as an enhanced EBITDA margin. Our strategy is also focusing on capital returns, [indiscernible] by a balanced capital allocation policy. We continue to focus on free cash flow and as a result and vision to grow both in return on capital employed as well as on earnings per share. As indicated, our strategy is focusing on 3 targets. Our medium-term targets are on organic sales growth of 3% to 6% per annum, and increased EBITDA margin to around 18% by 2028 as well as a cumulative free cash flow of around EUR 270 million over the next 3 years. As a result, we do see ROCE improving to around 13% by 2020 as well as a double-digit increase per annum of earnings per share over the next 3 years. Now let's dive a bit deeper in some of the businesses. Overall, our organic sales growth is 3% to 6% per annum. This is driven by functional ingredients and solutions between 2% to 4% and Health & Nutrition of 8% to 10%. We will not amend our reporting structure going forward and continue to report on the different market segments. This also amplifies the consistency. Functional Ingredients and Solutions continue to consist of foods, biochemicals and lactic acids to [indiscernible], and health and nutrition continue to consist on nutrition biomedical [indiscernible] pharma. The different businesses have different growth ambition levels. As mentioned by Olivier earlier in the presentation, we target double-digit growth in our Nutrition and Biomedical Polymer businesses, and we target mid-single digit growth in our Food business driven by natural preservation. We plan to increase our EBITDA margin with 170 basis points to around 18% in 2028. And this is driven by a combination of different levers. The first lever is product mix, which is driven by higher growth in more profitable business. As indicated, the growth rates of our H&N segment is at a higher pace than a Functional Ingredients & Solutions segments. Our thiolactic acid plant is ramping up, but full savings are anticipated to be delivered in 2026 and therefore, in step up in margin versus the current margin flow. Our value creation program consists of pricing strategy, further cost optimization as well as lower anticipated sugar cost. And over time, we plan to invest in H&N and also in our innovation capability. Our balanced capital allocation policy is focusing on driving profitable growth and shareholder returns. We will continue to invest behind organic sales growth and selectively invest in bolt-on M&A, strengthening the core portfolio, all in a disciplined manner. We anticipate CapEx program will be around 6% of sales in the coming years. We also remain committed to returning capital to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases. Our dividend policy remains unchanged, which is paying a stable to gradually increasing absolute dividend. Our anticipated midterm leverage ratio is between 1.5x and 2.5x. Driving organic sales growth is supported by a disciplined CapEx program. Our expansion investments are behind food preservation, nutrition and biomedical polymers. The cumulative CapEx is estimated around EUR 255 million, which translates to around 6% of [indiscernible]. The CapEx program is split into maintenance, which is there to maintain our current asset base as well as expansions. The plant expansion programs all have attractive returns. The key expansion programs will be in foods behind powder capacity as well as vinegar. And in H&M, it's driven by further capacity optimization in our Orindiúva, Brazil plant as well as capacity increase behind biomedical polymers in both the U.S. and the Netherlands. We plan to generate a free cash flow of around EUR 270 million over the next 3 years, which is, on average, EUR 90 million per annum. This is a result of organic sales growth, improved EBITDA margins while having disciplined programs on CapEx and working capital in place. It's a continuation of our free cash flow delivery over the last 2 years. And as a result of our profit improvements, we see ROCE increasing from currently 10.7% to around 30% by 2028. We've actively managed down our leverage ratio following the investment cycle. The reduction is driven by free cash flow delivery as well as the disposal of our emulsifier business. At the same time, we increased dividends and did a share buyback. Going forward, our net term EBITDA is planned to be between 1.5% and 2.5%, including the subordinated loan, which we have around EUR 100 million. This subordinated loan is having an impact of 0.5x. We have a very balanced maturity profile, which is well spread over the coming years. In total, we have around EUR 370 million of U.S. price placement after the planned reduction of EUR 25 million by December. The average interest rate on our portfolio is around 3%. On working capital, working capital as a percentage of sales has increased in 2021, driven by input cost inflation as well as global supply chain disruptions. After 2021, working capital looks relatively stable around 25%. The underlying improvements, which have been made were being offset by the disposal of our emulsifier business, which did operate at relatively low inventory levels. Going forward, we only plan a mild reduction of inventories in the continuous volatile geopolitical environment where the Red Sea is still blocked and tariffs need to be managed carefully. Earnings per share has been stable during the period 2020, 2023 and has been impacted by the disposal of our emulsifier business. As from 2023, earnings per share has grown driven by organic sales growth, EBITDA margin improvement and reduction of our debt levels. Going forward, we anticipate double-digit growth of EPS every year. Concluding, our strategy, Bright 2030 is focusing on driving profitable growth, delivering productivity and reinvesting in value-creating opportunities. We continue to deploy capital towards organic growth opportunities as well as selectively in bolt-on M&A. We also remain committed to returning capital to shareholders. Our medium-term targets are focused on organic sales growth, margin improvement and free cash flow. And as indicated, organic sales growth between 3% to 6% per annum, adjusted EBITDA margins of around 18% and a cumulative free cash flow of EUR 270 million. As a consequence, we see return on capital employed increasing to around 30% and an EPS growth per annum in the double-digit trends. With that, I would like to hand it over back to Olivier.

Thank you, Peter. And so let's conclude with a key Bright 2030 takeaways now. So as you have understood, we are not just evolving. We're also transforming Bright 2030 will be -- really make Corbion stand as a global leader in sustainable specialty food ingredients, primarily natural preservation, nutrition and biomedical polymer. How we will get there? We will accelerate clean label preservation and formulation, enabling the massive shift from artificial incentive ingredients to natural and cleaner label alternatives. We will expand algae fermentation, unlocking new opportunities beyond our current DHA omega-3 business. And we will fuel growth in biomedical polymer, capitalizing our unique capabilities and unlocking the vast potential in this dynamic market. As we discussed, we announced that we have initiated a strategic ownership review of our PLA portfolio, and we will defocus our lactic acid nonfood biochemical business. So the ambition is clear and is backed by clear financial targets, 3% to 6% growth annually, reaching 18% adjusted EBITDA margin by '28 and delivering a cumulative EUR 270 million free cash flow, also by '28. So this will drive a ROCE of around 13%, and we are committed to grow EPS double digits every year. So on this, I really thank you for your attention and your engagement today, and we will open the floor to Q&A.

If you'd like to ask a question this morning, please raise your hand, and we have some mic runners that will come your way.

Wim Hoste, KBC Securities. I would like to ask 2 questions, let me ask one by one. The first one is the short onthe various update. There's been some volatility on measures from the government trying to reduce food inflation. Is there any impact on the recent measures on [indiscernible]?

Let me answer that question. The answer is no, not a significant impact. You are right that every day you get some new announcements, whether it's on exemption list or every country is changing. And therefore, I would say it puts a lot of time and efforts of people within the company in order to manage it. But so far, the kind of direct impact is relatively minimal [indiscernible].

Okay. And then my second question would be on omega-3. With the recent price increase in fish oil, can you maybe elaborate on revenue stand on the 2026 contracts? How much have been contracted at much as well pricing levels? Can you offer some clarity on that.

So let me answer this one. As you remember, we've had this multiyear supply agreement. So one was, I mean, ending this year, others are rolling over. So on the -- so we've renewed the 1 that was ending now already a few months ago. So -- but we have also negotiated new long-term supply agreements with additional customers. So on, let's say, a large part of the Aquaculture business, this is already contracted for '26. On the 30% that are open contracts, this is not being contracted. Basically, these are markets moving with the volatility official and we are not yet done, and we are looking closely to what official price are doing before we close any contracts there. So -- but we try really to secure the base, and we've been able to secure the base at much higher price than the depressed low level you've seen last year, but that's the aim is that we maintain a level of pricing between the floor, you see in fish oil price and the high peaks we've seen also in the past. The aim for us is really to have a predictability of the margin by on one side, hedging our sugar cost in time and then by securing a large base of our business for the years to come. So now on contracted business, we are already well contracted for '26. We have the vast majority of the open-end market, so which is around 30% still to be negotiated.

[indiscernible]. I have 2 questions. The first one is on the natural for men and the ambition to grow there. If you look to some of your major end markets meet [indiscernible] and often in the U.S. These are not like super growing markets. To what degree can you expand into adjacencies or new parts that are offering faster growth? And how quickly can you make that shift? And the other one is one with regards to [indiscernible] the scope of the operations in global retail, very interesting innovations, leadership positions. But at the same time, we have a company with EUR 1.3 billion, EUR 1.4 billion revenues. To what degree is that sufficient to scale and reach opportunities everywhere?

Two very relevant questions. So on the first one, you're right. If you look, for instance, to the major categories as meat or baked goods, these are not really the growing ones. However, within this category, if I take, for instance, meat today in the U.S., you see a reduction in base what we call harvest in duration, meat preservation on fresh meat. At the same time, you see very nice hike on meat snacks that do offer high proteins. And that's quite interesting because obviously, we play into that segment as well of meat snacks because these are the kind of type of protein shop people do take today, primarily people on GLP-1. So just to say you have segments that are really impacted by higher inflation in GLP-1 or UPF trends and others that are supported. Overall, we see really also that there is -- and this is why we are expanding into culinary. We see in terms of ready-to-eat food and ready meals, very nice trend ongoing trends. Where, so far, we are not that present. So this is largely new for us. But this is also where people are also cleaning label. I was mentioning sodium reduction a few times. We see very nice moves now into high sodium-containing products. Think about soy sauce as an example, but you have, I mean, a lot of the sauces and dressings that are [indiscernible] through basically a foodservice that are really converting to healthy alternatives. So within this segment, we see very nice growth opportunity. So the aim is really going there. But obviously, the key categories on bulk commodities, primarily in the U.S. is suffering. The second part of your question there is also to grow beyond the U.S. This is the largest market for us, but we are making very good strides in Asia Pacific now and also in Latin America. So there is a both approach there on this. So can you repeat your second question?

Yes, the scale of the business. There's lots of opportunities, but then we see a revenue number that?

No, this is indeed also a good point now, we are indeed smaller, but we are truly global. So this is why this model, if you look to how do you go to market with our sales force. We said, yes, we need to be the better expert in town, for instance, in natural preservation or in the sustainable lipid. This is what we do. So -- and it's about presenting and offering ourselves really a deep expertise in very selected area and not pretend we are the supermarket to the world for ingredients because we're not. And we want to make sure that when people do have a preservation issue, the first name on the list is Corbion, that they call Corbion. And we are one of the few having this very specific capability. So yes, we do not have a portfolio that is the kind of supermarket to the world in terms of natural ingredients, but we aim to be very specialized and be first on the lease when we get [indiscernible]. Now it is essential, we have all these application labs and innovation center globally because this is customer proximity that, as you know, food is local and taste is local. And by having these 8 innovation centers locally, it's how do you basically also turn [indiscernible] more quickly than the largest company. The aim for us also is important as a midsized company is to be extremely fast to the ball because that's the way we win briefs is by being able to turn it around. And this is why we have discussed many times our blending business. We are now trying to convert this business that was historically, the bakery business into a system solution fast business where we plug not only bakery products, but our antimicrobial systems going forward and probably tomorrow, some nutritional solution as well. And that's the trend we are trying to accelerate.

Robert Jan Vos, ABN AMRO. I have a few questions. What would be the operational or even strategic implications of your defocusing on nonfood lactic acids? That's my first question. And related maybe also on the portfolio. Can you be a bit more precise what you mean with what you said on PLA. Should we anticipate that you are looking for a seller for your stake in the joint venture. A bit of clarification would help there. Another question is on the free cash flow target. Peter, you said it's EUR 90 million on average per year. For this year, you're aiming for at least EUR 85 million. If I take everything into consideration your sales targets, your EBITDA growth target, it doesn't seem to be very ambitious. What am I missing there? Is that the working capital, although you said it's limited improvement. There's still some investments. Obviously, if your revenue growth. So can you elaborate on this? And final question, why not a more committed comments on share buybacks. You keep it open as an option. You have a firm free cash flow target. Dividend is clear. So why not a bit more firm commitment to share buybacks?

Yes. So Ben, let me take the first 2. So on this biochemical business, what we intend to do, there are 2 pieces around it. One is that we see there is part of this business that is commoditizing, and we're going to run it really for cash as a commodity business, meaning very lean organization that we are actually busy restructuring, really working on our cost base to make sure that we remain and we maintain our traffic margins, but we will not further invest going forward, and that's important. When you think about in the past, we have been discussing and exposed to volatility into the semiconductor business, for instance, so the agrochemicals, obviously, if you look to the market outlook, the regulatory outlook also for these segments. We do not expect massive growth going forward for this. When you look to capital allocation, we see much higher potential for growth into the food and nutrition space. So we're going to put really the money the investment where the [indiscernible] is there. And this way, we want to move to really, you've seen today, we are almost already of 80% full in nutrition. We're going to increase that by growing much faster. We're going to really continue to run the Biochem for cash. That's what we're going to do to fuel the growth in Food & Nutrition. So that's the approach we have. And so we are streamlining the way we operate there already as from now to make sure we maintain high margin. On PLA, I think you had a strategic review saves a lot. I think if you understand, of course, we are looking to exit there, and that's a process we've already kicked off. So that's in the play now. Peter, maybe you want to...

Let me answer your 2 questions on the free cash flow delivery. So if you look at free cash flow, then actually translates quite well into the numbers which we presented. If you then look to indeed this year and also last year, last year, we had a benefit in terms of reduction of inventory as well as we monetize some VAT receivables in Brazil. And there is a bit of phasing in terms of the longer-term contracts, which we do have. So as indicated, we have long-term contracts around the delivery of our Nutrition business. And of course, the way how these contracts are designed is that you have a payout at the end of the contract. So I would say the volatility in operating working capital is a bit year-on-year. If you [indiscernible] kind of organic EBITDA growth and you then take into account an operating working capital of around 24%, the kind of tax, which, by the way, effective tax rate is roughly 24%, and the interest rates of 3% on our interest, then you roughly come to EUR 90 million per year. So there's always a bit of fluctuation from that. Your other question, Robert Jan, is also a fair question in terms of share buyback. If you look at the moment, our kind of medium-term net debt to EBITDA is between 1.5 to 2.5 per annum. We always communicated this leverage ratio, including the subordinated debt of roughly EUR 100 million because that [ branch moves to ] EUR 2.3 billion. And that's the reason we carefully basically assess moving forward. But as indicated, are committed to both have the existing dividend policy in place, which is stable to gradually improving as well as doing share buyback.

Sebastian Bray of Berenberg Bank. My first one is on polylactic acid. I'm thinking about mechanically and financially how I'm capping this business from Corbion works. So imagine Corbion gets [indiscernible], let's say, for today, does it actually see any of that cash? Or is there something that prevents Corbion getting that because the JV is quite heavily indebted. It's something like 8 to 10x gross debt in EBITDA. Is Corbion actually expecting any cash out from that transaction? And does to target refuse to any potential bidder for the 50%? That's my first question. I'll ask the second one after.