DSM-Firmenich AG ($DSFIR)

I need to do that with the usual disclaimer, and then I need to wait for about 10 seconds. I think nobody is interested in the slide, but we need to do that. So we do that. So disclaimers are made, ticking the box, Ralf. So I think with that, let's move on with the live webcast started as we speak and also hear a warm welcome for you at the Investor Event 2026. Now let me lead you through what you can expect from us today and from me. First of all, we will start with a presentation about the context. I will do that a little bit where we are today, a path forward. Secondly, we will have then the 3 business unit presidents here to talk you through their growth path for their 3 respective businesses. And last but not least, at the end, we will have Ralf, who will dot the Is and cross the Ts, which I like in English expression, for all the details, the financing part, et cetera. We will have, after every business unit, a small Q&A opportunity focused on those businesses. And then we will have a full Q&A with the full executive committee later after Ralf has finalized the presentation, and we are here for you all day. Now, I'm not sure what all the means, but we are open for any question. There is no time limit to it other than you maybe have time restrictions. Because I think in today's world, it's important to take time to run through transparently where we are today. And I think we have a lot to talk about. Now with that, I will speak a little bit about the journey. Be very brief, because we've done the transformation we've done with the transfer man. We're now the company we aspire to be, and we want to accelerate that company in terms of growth, in terms of EBITDA margin and in terms of cash. I will look back a little bit on the past. Give you a little bit of background on Animal Nutrition & Health. You had raised a lot of questions. Ralf will also come back to that. I will give you a little bit more insight. We'll also give a little bit of an update where we are in terms of the tuning of the portfolio. Also that is almost done. And then the last bit is about synergies, cost synergies and revenue synergies. And that brings us in today. Today, 2026, and we will give you an outlook on 2026 today. And clearly, around the parameters of a consumer-focused company about organic sales growth, about the EBITDA quality in terms of percentage of margin and about the cash conversion in terms of percentage of sales. And that brings us into beyond. And I hope I can clearly clarify what the pathway is towards our midterm targets for 2028 and beyond. So that's a little bit on the agenda for me today before I hand over to the business units. Now this is the slide also internally, I used quite frequently, and this will be the last time I will use this slide. You will never ever see this slide from me again. Maybe Ralf in his presentation just lost once, but this has been our journey, and we are now going from the merge to the focus to the tune to the accelerate phase, so we have done the portfolio transformation. We've done the integration of the company. And now we're going to grow what we have. We're going to anchor what we do and we're going to deliver on our promises. That's the starting point for 2026 with a clear focus for 2026 and 2027. Now before we fast forward to today and beyond, a little bit of background on the animal nutrition and the Animal Nutrition deal. I think we failed to share with you the context in which we've done this Animal Nutrition & Health deal. It was clear in the second half of last year that the profitability of that business on the vitamin side was deteriorating. And that really stressed the fact that we had to split the Animal Nutrition in the solutions go. That's a specialty bit and the essential coal, which is the vitamin part. And if you clearly look at our reports, you do see that the profitability of A&H in total has deteriorated from Q3 to Q4 and itself. In that context, we were negotiating that deal. So therefore, it took longer than I have hoped for, but I think we want to shape the context which we did. And within that context, I'm very happy that with the necessity for splitting the company, we could make the deal with CVC, where we have clearly mitigated the downside, the volatility and yet again the second half of 2025. It showed the volatility of it. We mitigated the downside because we have 2 things. One, we have made a favorable supply contract for decent finish and we created an upside in case business would normalizing via the earnout. And the earn-out is in line with what we call market standard private equity money multiples. And Ralf will give you a little bit more insight on how that earn-out has been built up. And secondly, we have retained a 20% ownership. Why? Because we wanted to benefit from that normalization and benefit from that valuation itself. We've done that many, many times before. We have divested materials. We've divested caprolactam, we divested acrylonitrile. And many times with this construction, which has been very favorable for us if you look back. So this is the value creation, the value creation upward we do see. Ralf will give you a little bit more details around that. Then secondly, on the tuning of the portfolio. Remember that during the review of Animal Nutrition & Health, where we decided because of the volatility and the capital intensity, we had the opportunity to also look at our portfolio. And we deliberately decided to move away from a few pockets which were either commoditized or volatile. I'll give you an example on the Auroma nondifferentiated aroma ingredients that has gone with ANH. That's been attacked by the Chinese. We knew that. We knew that volatility was there. We brought that into the deal with Animal Nutrition & Health. Now also nondifferentiated vitamins, but also earlier reported use extracts and marine lipids. And the only small bit agro ingredients is on the brink to be signed. So also that will happen within a relatively short time. So the tuning of the portfolio has also been finalized. So Animal Nutrition and help me finalize, tuning of the portfolio have been finalized. And that is now a clear path forward to accelerate to grow what we have. Now in that bit, the third bit on that journey, A&H tuning was also the synergy part. Remember the EUR 350 million, which many of you said, let's see if they deliver. We delivered on that EUR 175 million cost part, when you say that's the easy part, but we delivered. The second part is the synergy revenues. Now you will have the BU presidents here on stage. You can ask them all about synergy revenues, but just as a synergy check. Let's look at TTH, Taste, Texture and Health, Mauricio Clementi is the BU President. The majority of the synergies on revenues were in TTH. We always said that about 60% of the EUR 500 million top line. And if we look at the growth rate of TTH over the last 2 years and we compare that with peers, then we have outgrown the market with about 2%. So the synergy revenues are obviously sinking in. And we are halfway that path and you see that we are very confident that, that synergy revenue continues to 6 and 7 onwards. Now having said that, we did not forget about sustainability in that journey, you could say, in the current environment, who cared about sustainability. But the interesting is our customers do. Our customers do care about sustainability. They require us to report about sustainability to be on their core lists. So we did work on sustainability quite a bit. We merged the company's created data sets, and we're very happy and proud that we have the CDP AA rating on water and climate. And also, Ecovadis, the highest ranking you could have, which is platinum. So you do see that sustainability is important. And I think also for you watching our company, you should also ask the question, what is happening with the employees? What is it with their engagement with so many changes. We checked that on an annual basis. And I'm also very proud to say that our employee engagement has been very stable around 80%. With all these changes, and 80% is really in the upper part of the rating of companies that test their employee engagement. So we also made good progress on sustainability, not because it's a requirement, but it's because our customers really care and want to see us to improve. Now let's leave the past. Let's leave the journey. This is it. So what do we have? What is it what we have built. We have built a company that is EUR 9 billion in size, EUR 9 billion in size. That creates economies of scale enough to invest in platforms, in R&D, in innovation platforms. You need to have that scale to do that. EUR 9 billion is a very good scale in our industry. Now what do we do in terms of growth. We've grown about 4.5% per year. So that is in the organic sales growth. I think appears around 5%, so in line with the industry. We beefed up our EBITDA margin. I'll come back to that in a minute from 14, close to 20. And we delivered, if you correct for FX, we'll come back to AFX in a minute, we delivered a EUR 300 million EBITDA step up from 23 to 25. So it is a strong business already, but it needs to accelerate. And that is what we're going to do. And how we're going to accelerate that is building and grounding it in our business model. And before I go to all types of numbers and financials, I want to spend a little bit of time with you on why it is so unique, what we're building. And it has to do with our business model. And let's go back to the middle of that slide first. So think about the specialty ingredients and the creation innovation. And then I'll come back to the outer columns in a minute. This is the core of our business model. And we made a deliberate choice to invest in the ingredient toolbox and more creatively, it's called duplet. And we built a fantastic creation capability. And those are perfumers, flavorist application specialists close to the customer. Now that is more together via a brief system where regulatory requirements are important, where delivery systems are important and where the ecosystem is important. And we made at DSM finish a deliberate choice to invest in these 2 anchors. So we're not a company that only innovates and invest in ingredients. So we're not an ingredients company Pusan. There are some of our in our industry who really focus only on ingredients. We feel the ingredients need to be coupled with creation with perfumers, flavorists and application specialists, understand what is needed in compounding, who does understand they need a formulation. Let me give you this example. If we go to customers and we get our briefs, and we have great perfumers, great flavors and great application specialists, but they have a mediocre toolbox of ingredients to play with because they can only buy it from the outside or they source then they will not win brief. Also, on the other hand, if you have a fantastic toolbox fantastic pallet with the best ingredients in the world and even some proprietary captive ingredients, nobody can get. But you have mediocre flavorists, mediocre perfumers and mediocre application specialists, you will not win enough brief. We feel that a business model, which is built on 2 legs is more future-proof than a business model that is built on 1 leg. And that is a fundamental strategic choice we've made, and we stick to that. We invest and innovate in the creation capability as well as ingredients. And I'll come back to that in a minute because there are lots of questions about, yes, but these ingredients are attacked by the Chinese. Well, that is not the specialty ingredients as we talk here, but we'll come back to that in a minute. So that is the key of our business model. And that is coupled with 2 elements to supplement our strategy. First of all, we made a deliberate choice where we think the world is moving towards in 3 to 5 years and what they need. And that is -- and you see that on the right-hand side. That is biotechnology, move away from synthetics into biotechnology, invest in receptor and sensor technology. So how is the flavor and fragrance impact your receptor and sensor technology capabilities? Thirdly, about health, a lot is still unknown about microbiome. It's the next step in terms of building new businesses, and that is really helped and supported by data science, NII. And this is valid for all our 3 business units. Now then secondly, where do we want to play? Obviously, we play in our current business. And obviously, in that current business, we want to be extremely competitive. And there, we talk about market share. But if you only grow while growing market share, you will not future-proof your company. So yes, we want to grow our market share, but it's coupled with what we call blue ocean. I don't know if you read that beautiful book within 15 years ago, it's about blue and red oceans. The red ocean is you defend your market share in existing markets. Blue Ocean is you develop new markets. Now new markets, blue oceans are healthy and tasty food, sugar reduction. It's replacing sugar where we're not in with enzymes, with ingredients, which create the sense of sweetness. That is new business. HMOs in the Health Nutrition & Care part. That is an additional ingredient to the playfield. The early life nutrition market stays the same, but the ingredients in the life nutrition is growing. That is blue ocean, it's not market share gain, it is additional business. Now -- and then preventative health care, Iris mentioned HMOs. With the aging population today, health care cannot be financed as such. So there will be a disruption or an evolution, but there will be a change for people taking care more and more about preventative measures for their health because you can no longer afford not to do it. And thirdly, it's about well-being, well-being and beyond, how you feel, how you look for your identity and there also fragrances play a key role, not only in generation, which is normally traditionally using, but also the younger generation itself. So we are next to having innovation platforms. We also build our company to grow in the blue oceans, new areas to grow with. And that is super important because that's the key how we can differentiate ourselves. Now having said that, with that business model, with the company we've created, that EUR 9 billion company with a good portfolio, we do operate in a crazy world. And there are a few challenges we need to share. And I think there are also a few themes you wanted us to talk about. So we did listen to you to say, hey, what are the themes you want us to dive into a little bit, not only me and Ralf but also the BU president. So let me first start with the major headwinds. So Avi, and this is the dollar for us as well as the Swiss franc. That has had a negative impact of EUR 100 million in '24 and '25 quite considerably. That will still have a negative impact in 2026 of about EUR 70 million current rates, FX impact for 2026. So now the dollar, if you take a 10 years time frame, it goes up and down. Today, we never know where it's going to end. On the Swiss franc, obviously, we do see also there quite some ups and downs, but in less frequent way as we speak. So FX headwinds are still out there, and we can't manage them, but we'll need to be very transparent on what we see today. Now second is that we have seen in the second half a more cautious consumer demand. Now in a world where uncertainty is higher and higher, consumers basically become cautious. And what they do is you become cautious, you can do 2 things. You either pile stock, what we're seeing with Gavin certainly is happening, I buy a little bit more or you destock. Now that has happened in the second half of last year with a bit more cautious behavior. And we've seen that predominantly a bit ironically in the North American market. So that is an interesting move to see. We Don't see any change from Q3, Q4 going into Q1. But looking at our brief in our pipeline, we do think that the second half, we will see an uptake of that based on the experience we have. Now there are 4 other elements I want to share with you. I will come back on the China ingredients competition because that is apparently a topic we need to address and artificial intelligence. The other 2 affordability in GLP-1, the BU presence will come back to you on that. So I also ask some questions during the Q&A, they will also address it. But let me remind you of 1 thing. On affordability, down trading, GLP-1. If there is a change in requirements, if there's a new regulatory requirement. If there is a new ingredient, if there's a new product launch, if there's a substitution brief, that means business for us, extra business. So change is our friend to a certain extent within the company we'll just focus what we have. But in the world, change will create new briefs and will create opportunities for us. Now that is valid for affordability and that is valid for the GLP-1. And the GLP-1 ratio will talk about it. That market linked to ingredients we have is growing faster than the average market. So it definitely is an opportunity. Now then let's focus a little bit on the China ingredients, which is on your mind. So let me start with the fact that we did our tuning of the portfolio. You've seen the 6 box ANH, but also the aroma ingredients and nondifferentiated ones also the nondifferentiated vitamins. They all went with the deal. So the portfolio we have is predominantly a portfolio around specialty where we can differentiate. Secondly, we are not in big molecules. We are not in mental. We're not in all types of huge molecules in itself. We're not in Sitral. We're basically in smaller molecules because that's the business model. Now we have more than 3,000 differentiated ingredients in our toolbox, in our pilot, which we use. Not 1 of them -- there's no 1 molecule, which is more than 50 million. I can tell you, logistically, that's a mass, but it's a beautiful mess because it's very difficult to copy. So we feel that the China ingredients competition has a very limited impact to us because of the business model, but also the ingredient toolbox we have. Secondly, you need to remind that even if you have the right ingredients, you need to have that creation capability, creativity, perfumers, flavorists, application specialists with a whole ecosystem. You need to have that ecosystem to be competitive to win brief with customers. So that complex ecosystem is also a barrier to do so. But I think the farm is foremost important 1 is we're not in the big molecules. We've done that. We sold it off. And remember, we also were in Terpenes with Pinova, which we didn't rebuild, the synthetic ones. So we feel that, that impact is rather limited. Now then AI, it's a busy slide, and that's because of it because nobody knows exactly what AI will do to the industry. But we see today positive effects. And what we always see is we look add opportunities from an ingredient discovery. You see that here on the left-hand side, and we use AI there. We use AI for productivity games. I'll come back to that in a minute. And we use AI to accelerate the brief 2 adoption process. Now let me give you 3 examples of all of 3. So 1 is the ingredient discovery. So within the MR part in the procuring beauty unit, we use for more than 80% the ingredient discovery we use AI. So they pretest, they prescreen and therefore, the -- the acceleration of that whole process has increased considerably. So we use AI as a sort of a filter before we get the human emotional creativity into the game. And that creates quite some efficiency in savings. Now then the middle block, more the gray brownish area, that is production development, production processes, we have applied, and this is user cases. So we're using it where we feel there is benefits. We used it to optimize an important process in our industry is distillation. We used AI for that to optimize that. And I can tell you that the stability and the yield improvement have been 10% to 30%. And that's a couple of million savings you can generate using AI going forward. We're going to accelerate those user cases as we speak. And then last but not least, the brief to adoption process. Also here, for instance, in TTH, we use AI to prescreen, to leverage and look at formula creation. What are the ingredients you could use. But also simulate what the outcome will be in terms of how successful a formulation could be. And that is reducing the testing costs and also here, an opportunity for a couple of millions. Now those are user cases. We are super happy with the positive outcome of it, and we're going to roll that further out. We're already working on it for quite some time. But we do now see that it has a huge impact on how we could operate internally. Now there are people in the world that basically say Dimitri, what if in the future, perfumers are no longer needed. Flavors are no longer needed. You have a Charlie of a sea, different share in our China and Research Officer, but Charlie Nesara, who act as a perfumer or flavorist, are you then not out of business. Now first of all, I don't think that AI or Charlie or Sierra will ever have the creativity and emotions which our customers require. Secondly, if you have a perfumer or you have a solution for a fantastic food product, which is just mechanically being made without any emotion. I don't know if there's a huge market for it. So it will help for the perfumers and the flavors and application specialists to be faster to prescreen. But to be fully tapered and to be eradicated by AI I have my doubt. There is a good place to do that. And even for smaller customers, you could do AI generated. We've done that with some of the venturing and some of the experience we had in the past. Now let's assume just hypothetically, which I don't believe, but hypothetically, that there is an AI perfumer and AI flavor, it's an AI application specialist. Just in that extreme case, you can only load the algorithms with data you own. Now -- and here, our philosophy of having 2 anchors to build our business case, our business model is important because we own the specialty ingredients. We don't buy them from the outside, we partly buy them from the outside. We partly have sourcing joint ventures, but we also have these captive ingredients, the proprietary ingredients, which fill the algorithm. So in the extreme case that there's an artificial prosumer flavors and application specialists, there is 1 company in this space who would benefit from that the most. And that's the 1 who has invested the most in the ingredient pallet, and that's us. We have the biggest, broadest more specialist ingredient pallet compared to all our others in this space. So we are not afraid if that will happen. I don't think it will happen. But if they will be fully AI driven, we are the ones who can load our algorithms, and we will even be best positioned. That on AI, an important topic, I don't have the full wisdom on what it will do, but I just share where we are today and what we feel philosophically about where it could go to. And if it goes to the extreme, from all the companies in the space, we are best positioned. Then let's move to today's financial. What's the starting point before I give you a little bit of financial trajectory. So this is the starting point for what we have built. So sales, that was about the EUR 9 million I told you about with an average organic sales growth of 4.5% versus the market on average 4%. So slightly above in line with to the peers. Then on the adjusted EBITDA. I think it's important to know that, indeed, we have grown our EBITDA 9.5% CAGR and for 2 years, and we have improved on the quality of our EBITDA margin. Now 14.4 million was the group at that time. If we then take the tuning of the portfolio, including the ANH divestment, you will see a step-up from that portfolio from 14.4% to 18.2%. So it shows the liberate choices we made from the business we basically have divested. Now as of that moment, we have improved on our EBITDA margin with a step-up of 140 basis points from 18.2% to 19.6%. And I know you should not correct for FX, I just do it for a minute. If that will be at the constant currency of 23%, that will be with another step-up of 0.4%. So we will be close to the 20% in itself. Now that is the starting point, so around 20% on EBITDA and the EUR 9 billion of sales. Then the cash conversion, remember in the almost 2 years ago, you were not very impressed about our cash conversion target of above 10%. And Well, we also said let us be a little bit prudent, maybe a little bit conservative. And you show here that we have been a little bit prudent and conservative because we have outperformed at 10%. But we're obviously not happy with that 10%, and we'll come back to that a little bit in updating our midterm targets for the cash conversion that will be more than the 10% as you've seen here. So on average, it is around 11% over the years. Now that is a starting point. That's the basis we start to grow our business on. What are the elements of growth in our sales, in our EBITDA, in our cash. Now these are the action plans in place. So first of all, we're going to grow the business we have. with focus on the high growth, high margin. What does it mean? So it means for instance, in TTH, will grow in the enzymes and cultures and probiotics for piping Beauty, it means that we want to grow, fine fragrance, for HNG is we're going to grow HMO Nutrition place. Separately, we use the reformulation. So it changes our friend, GLP-1, clean label, new colors, it helps on the brief wall. We will materialize on that and we need our innovation to help us with that. So we feel we have a pathway to accelerate that sales. Then on the EBITDA margin. Let me make it very clear. We are at around 20%, and we need to be around 22% to 23%. 1% of that will take in our own control. So we have launched an operational excellence project to reduce costs, which will generate around 1% of EBITDA margin. That's around EUR 90 million to EUR 200 million, if you look at that sales. So it's a 1%, which we do on program, on cost control, and we're going to deliver on that, like we've done always on the cost programs. Secondly, we'll use deleverage. So if we grow our top line, we use the leverage to add another 1%. So that means that we move from 20% to 21% to 22% in the accelerated bit. Now we all know that we have the ANH carve-out that we have server level agreement. We have the special service agreement over 1 to 2 years, which will fade out. And we're going to have programs aligned to that to offset these stranded costs. So the stranded costs will not have an impact. Now Philip Eykerman is here. Many of you know him well. He is fully dedicated to the whole transformation, stranded costs for ANH. We've done that many times before with the pharma divestment with the materials divestment. And we're pretty good at that. it is painful, but we're going to deliver on that program and Philippe is fully dedicated to help us to do that. So on the EBITDA margin, I think we have a clear pathway where we have that under our own control. And then cash conversion. Let me remind you that in the current CapEx as a percentage of sales, there is still 1% to 1.5% on both air. This is the last year in 26. Our plant will be ready end of this year and then start to have commercial volume somewhere in 27 in itself. So that is a 1% to 1.5% which will no longer be there. That's not the underlying part. That was a special project. And then we'll couple that with an inventory reduction program. So we need to be structurally below 27%. We are in the 28, 29 area. So I think we have a step-up to be made, which will help that cash conversion. Now what does that mean for the outlook 2026? And then I bridge that to the path to the beyond. So in the current context, let me make it very clear that our assumption is that the Middle East situation, the Warner Middle East, doesn't have a prolonged period. Nobody knows. We need to see. But that is not part of the outlook we're giving. Now the outlook is 2% to 4% organic sales growth in the current context with an adjusted EBITA of around 20% and a cash conversion of 11% to 12% somewhere in the middle in the current context. And I think we believe that in today's environment, being a little bit prudent his wisdom. Now that is 26%. If we take that 26 with the growth drivers to see what is it bringing us beyond. We clearly focus on the growth areas of the businesses and the business units will be on stage after me. Let me start with PMB. So we will accelerate growth by using the focus on the regional consumer brands because that's where the real accelerated growth is and on fine fragrance and fine fragrance, coupled with the Middle East. In this case, that was before the Middle East were started, but we all know that there is extra growth -- the accelerated growth in the Middle East for Fine Fragrance, and we're going to target that. We've opened a new lab office in Riyadh, and we have a good position in Dubai, and that will accelerate. Now remember that also the growth drivers for '26 and beyond, we had a ship due sun filter demand in 2 if that stabilizes and normalizes, that obviously will help in terms of growth. That's the wrong reason to grow, so don't get me wrong. But if you grow because last year was bad, that's not the role we want, but for sun filters, it will help us in 2026 and in 2027. Then on TTH, we're going to capitalize on GLP-1 on healthy and tasty food. We do see functional drinks, and we see the dairy category, the yours and the cheese being seen as a healthy category, and we do see above-average growth in that area, and we'll couple that with the enzyme to culture and probiotics. We have very good strong position. For instance, in enzymes, we are the #1 player in the dairy segment. We should be #1 in many other segments as well, Mauricio, but we already are in the dairy. And we're benefiting from that whole healthy setup. And we'll focus on India, on Africa and on Asia. And on AMC, we will have new product launches in a category which is growing very fast. It's women's health, in a previously male-dominated world, we were all launching male health parts, but the women health is a different story. We're going to categorize that. It's a fast-growing area, certainly also North America and iHealth will materialize on that. Obviously, HMOs, we already talked about it. That is -- we are the leader in the HMO space, we are the leader in large nutrition. So having coupled that ingredients with creation is a very strong treat. And then North America will basically stabilize over 2026. That is, if that will happen, obviously, it will help ANC because that was with a 40% exposure of agent in North America, a stabilization and maybe later on a normalization will absolutely help their growth. So those are the growth drivers are in place. So we're going to grow on all of our portfolios. So don't get me wrong, the EUR 9 billion, we're happy what we have. But we're going to make a few pinpoints where we outgrow that average growth. And we have them in place for the business units and there are only 2, 3 per business unit. If we do that, we can come to that accelerated growth. And therefore, we feel comfortable that we can make that movement from 2 to 4 as our outlook, into 4 to 6 for 2027. And it's based on what I just said, grow what we have. So the different topic areas, focused areas for the growth of the business units coupled with a little bit of market normalization. We're expecting a little bit of market normalization. And I think all companies in our space basically expect a bit of market normalization. Don't ask me when, but if it normalizes, that will help us from 26% to 27% between 1% to 2%. It depends a little bit on how 26 lands. And then bringing it to 2028, but let me make it very clear. Our focus for the next 2 years is on 26 and 27. We grow what we have. We accelerate performance for 26 and 27. But to give you a bridge to 28 because that was also 1 of the questions we got is, hey, how do you build that to your midterm targets? We feel very strongly that if you have 46% as the underlying growth with a bit of normalization and grow what we have, and by the way, we have grown 4.5% in '24 and '25. So it's absolutely doable. Then Bower will sink in, in '28. So Bover will be -- the plant will be ready end of 26, we'll start up commercial volumes in 27, and we'll see significant impact in '28 and beyond. And the 5.7 million, and we always said that there was a 1% board. So I split it into 4 to 6 as the underlying business growth, plus the 1% related to Bover. So we really see a clear path to that growth momentum, which we have depicted. Then on the EBITDA margin, I think we are around 20%. We will bring the cost program in place that will deliver the 21%. That will happen a little bit in '26, but predominantly in maybe a little bit in 28. So that all the 1%, which we have under our own control. Then with the leverage of the top line that will bring another 1% and that we are in the range of 22 to 23. But also here, a clear focus on delivering 26 and 27. Nice to dream about 28. We're going to deliver focus and accelerate on 26 and 27. Then on the cash conversion, now you see it already here, our cash conversion target and commitment for '28 and beyond is 14%, 14% or higher to be precise. How precise can you be in 2028, but it will be 14% or higher coming from around an 11%. Now 1 to 1.5 on Boer brings you at 12.5%. Now then with a 1% EBITDA margin increase, you're in at 13.5%, with a little bit of working capital, which we have put in we are feeling very comfortable that we can generate a company that generates 14% or higher. So having said that, I think the key element of making our company tick is that it starts with growth. Grow what we have. And I've indicated a little bit what are the key pockets that we can outperform with growing the high-growth, high-margin area. I clearly indicated that the transformation is done. You will not see that journey slide from me anymore, anytime. Because now it's time to focus, it's time to execute and time to accelerate. And we're going to do that by focusing on growing what we have. but also by incurring what we do. So no big new projects within these infinities the program we're going to run is the cost efficiency program. It's the cost optimization program. It's operational excellence, is optimizing what you have. That is anchor what we do. And by doing so, focusing on the growth with optimizing what we do. We're going to deliver on our promises. Within the pathway we've set with an outlook on 26 with a bridge from with a pathway clearly on 28. Having said that, 26 and 27 is a clear focus for us to deliver, not only me, not only the BU presidents, but all 21,000 people within these in [indiscernible]. Thank you. [Presentation]

Good morning. So I must admit, I feel quite proud and excited to be standing here in front of you. And this for various reasons. The first reason is that I actually joined the company, DSM-Firmenich end of last year. was the handover and over PO with Philip. And I took over the role as of January 1. And the first reason is looking at where DSM-Firmenich and actually Health, Nutrition & Care, which I will refer to as HMC in the presentation, sit exactly at the intersection of what I've been doing in the past 25 years. On 1 hand, spent close to 20 years in the consumer industry, B2C at a global level. And when I say global, for those who don't know me, I'm actually Swiss originally, but I've spent most of my time, most of my life since Childhood outside Switzerland. In countries like Colombia, like Nigeria, like the U.S. where I studied, then I joined Nestle and I had the chance and the privilege to live in emerging countries like Venezuela, like Mexico, then in China, where my daughters are born than in Singapore, taking care of APAC and then only back to Switzerland when I actually left Nestle 20 years after joining the other part, which is the B2B part not in the industry, not in manufacturing, in service industry, in medical diagnostics. So still very much linked to the health sector. And if I look at DSM-Firmenich and HNC, they sit exactly at the intersection of these 2 worlds. They bring those 2 worlds together. So that brings me a lot of pride and excitement. And lastly, because HNC has a very important role to play within the journey of DSM-Firmenich on health, nutrition and beauty. Now let's step back a bit. If we think about some of the long-term trends that are impacting positively and that represents an opportunity for our category is through simple questions. Who in this room doesn't want to live longer? And the second question is, who does not want to live longer and better, healthier, not only inside this room, but outside as well. And that creates the first opportunity, which is called -- you probably heard about the 10 years gap between the life span and the health plan. How many years people actually live versus how many years people actually leave better and not only longer, that's the first opportunity. The second opportunity is in order to live better, you need to create daily habits around exercise, around nutrition, and to create those daily habits in nutrition, we all have probably, and we will share an example here, aging relatives or aging parents, how hard it is to have to stick to this daily nutrition on macro and micronutrients, taste and experience matter a lot, and that's the second opportunity where DSM Feminine bring those 2 worlds together. So the next 20 minutes, we're organizing around 3 elements: first, who we are as any, give you a bit of facts, where we come from. Number two, what makes us unique in the marketplace; and number three, where will the growth come in '26 and then to reach our midterm targets. So on the first point, who we are. I will not cover all the numbers, but a few elements are interesting. First of all, it's a people business. You build trust. You will trust with your customers, you build trust with your consumers. The key number here is 3,600 health and nutritional professionals are dedicated to provide a better life to thousands, hundreds of thousands of people around the planet. Number two, if you look at our business line and segment spreads, it's quite interesting because you see different segment, different businesses. And you will see throughout the presentation that those segments and businesses are very much connected, even though they are addressing different consumer segments into a very powerful story. Number two, someone before the event was asking me, Alex, how much of your portfolio is actually discretionary versus nondiscretionary. You see some very interesting segments here. We talk about biomedical, pharma, medical nutrition, early life nutrition. These are nondiscretionary. You could argue around dietary supplement, but we're well positioned. Second element, customer mix also well balanced because if you look at early life nutrition, medical nutrition, it's actually very much concentrated into a few players that represent 2/3, close to 70% of the category that are driving the growth and the innovation. If you go to dietary supplements or even pharma, the mix is actually opposite. So we're very well diversified. On the geographies, yes, North America represents 40%, but 40% across 3 businesses: iHealth, a B2C business, biomedical B2B and the rest of the consumer ingredient business that we have. Now the interesting part or the other interesting part is the regions that are fast growing are China, APAC and EMEA, across different segments. So this is also balancing itself and giving us a lot of confidence to meet our midterm targets. So that's who we are in a nutshell. Now where do we come from? And you heard before Dimitri speaking about tuning the portfolio around divesting. These are decisions that were made that were implemented already that give us a great foundation to accelerate from nondifferentiated vitamins, Marin lips are exited. At the same time, the integration has been already implemented across the 3 divisions, we have the blend of the legacy and the power of DSM and Firmenich, bringing all together. And we're scaling up. Now algae lipids, we're #1 in that segment around the world. And we're scaling up the solution selling model, Vitamin represents less than 1/4 of our portfolio today. It represented much more only a few months ago. So we are accelerating that part. Now if you look at the numbers on the right side, what is interesting is, yes, of course, you look at 1%. We're not happy with 1%. Now there's 2 elements with 1% CAGR, you are able still to generate a quite significant step up in EBITDA. That's the first thing to notice. So the mix is really moving into the right direction. Second, if you double click on the 1%, we have a few elements here. First of all, 24% versus 23% growth was quite significant all the way to mid last year, and it is fair to say that the second half of last year was disappointing, based on 3 elements that we can cover later. And we are seeing in quarter 1, it will take a bit of time, quarter 1, quarter 2, and then we'll be back on growth. So it's important not to take the 1% just as a one-off. There is a different reality in this, but the trend is positive, and I feel very confident not only on the year, but also on the midterm target. So that's -- we cover the who we are. We cover the where we are from. Now what makes us unique. And what is very interesting is the way we look at our segments are connected. Connected through what I explained earlier, we're talking about health span, an enjoyable health span, creating opportunity of prevention, but prevention is not only happening when you start taking dietary supplement around midlife. That helps, but it starts way earlier. It starts actually even before birth. All my experience in the infant nutrition category talks about the first 1,000 days of life having such an important impact on the rest of your life. So it starts with the early life. It starts with the beginning of life. It continues, obviously, with the prime of life. Interesting data here, people do start taking dietary supplement earlier on in Asia typically around 35 years of age in the rest of the world, around 45%. Those are important. And every time people are taking them earlier. And then, of course, the advanced years are very critical, categories like medical nutrition, you see a decline around the aging parents that we spoke about. We can help to give still a very interesting health spend and enjoyable health spend for our parents and our aging parents. So that's a continuum. Prevention has to be taken care of at every single stage. And we're the only 1 that can do that. Now obviously, we're going to be extremely focused razor-sharp focused because those stages are obviously, you can say they're pretty broad. What are the choices we're making. Where are we actually playing on the beginning of life, premium ingredients. The demographics around beginning of life, you look at the birth rates in China, I spent 5 years in China, actually contributed to the birth rate. My daughters are born there. When I was there in 2011, it was around 60 million births per year. Now it's down to 8 million, 9 million. I was like, wow, the volume is really declining. Well, guess what, the value of that market has not declined, has actually increased. The markets are premiumizing, and we're shaping that. We're shaping that through premium ingredients, HMO, human milk oligosaccharides. What parents are looking for is the best nutrition and the best nutrition is in the breast milk. And we need to support those models that cannot breast feed or that still want to complement the food of their children with the best possible nutrition. We're going to double-click on that. In the growth space in the prime of life, choices on healthy longevity with what I just talked about. Dietary supplement is a wide category. We're going to make those choices. And specifically on regions where we see the penetration opportunity. And then on the advanced years, aging-related decline, GLP-1, the importance of consumption adherence that means sticking to a daily regional habits. So that gives you, of course, an opportunity and an opportunity of EUR 25 billion addressable market. Now what is interesting about that is that you see all those growth areas, actually we can scale it. And that's going to be my next slide. We can scale it because we have developed an end-to-end innovation engine, 1 single 1. that supports all our customers into this. The second element of scale is that we don't do that alone. We do that with our customers. And we do that with our customers in a way that we stop being player. We become a B4B4C player. And what changes here is a few things. First, you see the sea appearing. I spent 20 years understanding the see the consumer because you cannot support, you cannot co-create, you cannot provide solutions to your customers if you don't understand their own end customer. That's our job to support them. So let's start with that. Every example I will give you start with the understanding of the consumer because then we sit down at the table with our customers and we co-shape the pipeline with them, not just 1 launch a full pipeline. And I've experienced that with them already. I met more than 30 customers since I joined from the local one, the regional one, the global ones. Not everyone has R&D muscles. I'm going to share with you an example of end-to-end innovation that we provide to our customers with their brands, but we do everything. That's what we call market-ready solutions. It's turnkey innovation. So how does that look like? Well, it's actually -- it's simple to understand, but it's pretty unique. It's pretty unique because on the left side, you have our [ Ferro ] ingredients toolbox with our own science behind it, our own Ingredient brands behind it, Algal lipids with life's OMEGA, Glycare and HMO with multiple HMOs not only launched already as we speak, but in the pipeline to come in China and in the rest of the world. Vitamin forms, the one that are differentiated are with us. Biotics with Uumium, in particular, postbiotics, very differentiated to probiotics because you can apply them in different shape and forms like gummies. You cannot do that with probiotics. Flavors and maskers, obviously, that's what I mentioned at the beginning. You bring the 2 worlds together, the strength of DSM and Firmenich together. And then you have the creation and application, as we spoke about, receptor sensory science, performance blends for those customers that have factories, the big large players that say, look, you give us the blends with your hero ingredients, but we take care of the final manufacturing, no problem at all or the market-ready solutions well, look, we have no R&D, we have no factories. Just give us -- we give you the label, the brand and you give us the product. We can do both. Specialty biomaterials, which is more for biomedical, and then obviously, the customer centricity across the different regions, across the different segments. Here, what is critical is protecting the brand reputation of our customers. Quality and safety, and I'm not saying something that is irrelevant for what we've seen in the last weeks. How important is quality and safety? How important is innovation for our customers to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, whether they are large, medium, regional, local. This is the model. And what is even more excited, and we spoke about AI before, is that we're already more than experimenting, we are developing a model that will help us formulating through AI that increases your speed to market or actually reduces your speed to market, but also generating new customer and consumer insights through AI that allows us to understand in a very personalized way what our customers are wanting, anticipate that and propose them already solutions to where their brand is positioned, thanks to our innovation engine. So in a nutshell, this is not an invention model. It's not a simple model to innovate. It's a model to industrialize with scale, differentiated innovation for our customers. We stop being an ingredient supplier. We become a system player. and that is rare and that is quite unique. I spent a bit of time in some of the trade shows and some of the big trade shows, global trade shows, I can tell you there's not a lot of companies that offer that. Now let me give you some examples how that comes to life, not only comforting our midterm ambition, but already starting in '26. We start obviously with the start, Early Life Nutrition, the beginning of life. There are probably parents around the room. And when you're a parent, I am one, while you look at quality and safety, it's not anymore a hygiene factor. It's a decision criteria. You don't joke with that. You know exactly what I'm referring to. Number two, you want innovation. How do you drive premiumization by understanding the natural human nutrients that are in breast milk. HMO is one of the major one, but there are more. We have more in the pipeline. We're putting a lot of R&D behind understanding breast milk and using our biotech technologies and capabilities to scale it up. Number three, we don't stay there. The new application, new consumption opportunities like supplements. I was in China end of last year. I didn't go there in 10 years. I saw a category of kids supplements, so kids above 3 years that is growing very fast, gummies, different applications that are actually very convenient for children. These categories are growing. Maternal nutrition. When a mother wants to -- well, is already pregnant, she needs to have the right nutrients for her baby. We're providing those supplements. This category is also growing very fast. And obviously, you have the HMO that I put as an example, HMOs is going to be in most infant formula in the future. The good news is that it's today in less than 20% of all worldwide infant formula, less than 20%. We're shaping that category. We're driving this category growth. It will not -- might not be at 100%, but it will get close to 70%, 80%. There is growth to come in the next years. We are present not only in China. Of course, everyone talks about China, where we're present and registered in more than 100 countries worldwide. So there will growth going to come from HMOs. ARA, you know what I'm referring to, there is demand there. We're scaling up our production as we speak. So in quarter 1, we will not see much effect. We'll start seeing it as of quarter 2 moving forward. Customers are knocking at the door. I can tell you that. Another example, again, starting with consumer. We spoke about it, healthy longevity. We're making sharp choices. And here, it's very interesting because once you start making those choices, once you understand what is critical to healthy longevity as in cellular health, for example, and then you start understanding what will make the difference here. And here, what you see on the right part of the screen is actually a concrete example, and you will get some samples when you leave the room is a combination of our life's Omega with our. So 2 of the -- remember on the left part of the engine, the innovation engine, they were on the hero ingredients. You start blending that with our application and creation model because what you need to know is behind Omega, there is an after taste. That's where our Taste technology, our maskers technology comes in. That provides a very actually interesting taste or neutral taste, masking what's not right. But what's even more exciting is our science showing that if you take that product for 3 years in a row, the science shows that you're reducing your biological age by 3 months, obviously, with a bit of exercise. So this is the product. These are samples that we're showing to our customers as we speak. They use it as such, they can claim it. And this is a real-life example of what we launched in Japan a couple of weeks ago. It's a brand -- it's a leading yoga brand in Japan. They don't know how to do supplements. They don't have any R&D on that. They don't have plans. But they are positioning themselves as well-being, leading very famous brand, and they knocked at our door. And we provide them end-to-end the product. The only thing they have to bring us is the label and their brands. We take care of the rest. So these are concrete examples on how we're working and co-creating with our customers depending on the size. Another example is the one I already mentioned. I have an aging mother. She's exactly going through that. I see age decline, less mobility, muscle mass is reducing. I bought some samples or some real products of medical nutrition where I know that the science is there. And at the beginning, I came back and I saw a couple of samples used, but she basically didn't take it. And why didn't you take it? It tastes horrible. This is where the opportunity is. We're here to solve that issue. The science is solid, but if we don't solve the taste, they will not take it. And if you're a cancer patient, you have that metallic taste in your mouth. We're able to mask that as well. So we're not here to sell more. We're here to solve more of that issue. And thanks to our unique capabilities, we're able to do that. Another example, eye health position in North America mainly. In the B2C segment, we have strong brands like AzO, like Culturelle, like Estroven. And here, the opportunity is to double down on the online sales channel. And we're going to do 3 things here, what we are doing already, rejuvenate the brands. We are increasing massively our investments in media, and we start seeing some results. And innovation on 2 specific areas: women's health, which is growing fast and microbiome or gut health. So Azo specifically on women health and Culturelle on the microbiome gut health. Estroven is more on the menopause, which is also a very interesting segment. So we're making those choices, focusing on -- well, you know the online sales channel in the U.S., no need to mention them. So we're partnering with them to make sure that we drive and shape those categories. Online, obviously, we have strongholds in the brick-and-mortar channel, and we make sure that we obviously defend and protect those channels as we grow the online. So very exciting stuff happening on that end. And then last example I will give you before concluding is on biomedical, very interesting segment that even though it's not about nutrition, doesn't matter. We're talking about prevention and preventative health. We're talking about enjoyable health span. And what's very exciting here is if you look at the innovation around biomedical, it's all linked to enjoyable health span. We are moving into prevention monitoring fields, drug delivery, metabolic disease, take diabetes monitoring, use our technology. And if you're the dad, and we have some in our teams, dad and your daughter is -- has diabetes at 3 years old, you want to make sure that the technology is safe and secure, and they're using our technology for that. Super exciting field, high growth, high margin, super high barriers to entry. So most of our revenues today come from North America. We are expanding in the next 18 to 24 months in 2 additional countries called China and India. So everything I shared with you so far will help us not only in the midterm, but also starting in '26. And these are some of the products, region and new segments. I mean, we've covered them all, but I'll go through quickly. Product leading the portfolio premiumization with ACMOs and micro algal lipid platforms; number two, strengthen our market leadership with our superior quality, ARA, accelerate creation and application engine in dietary supplements and medical nutrition. I shared with you some very concrete examples. Then when it comes to region, we see a big opportunity, namely in China, EMEA and APAC. And by the way, we have our -- what is Cristina? Can you stand up, Christina, so people see you? So if you're interested in understanding more what we do in EMEA, I mean, first of all, Christina and her team are doing a great job. We are shaping the categories in dietary supplements. We're growing faster than the category, and there's great stuff happening there. So if you want to engage with her over coffee, feel free to do so. And obviously, the North America, it's still 40%. Let's be realistic. So of course, when North America consumer confidence is not super high there, we need to mitigate it with the rest. But if this starts normalizing, we will accelerate that even further. And finally, end new segment, we spoke about eye health. We spoke about medical nutrition, a little bit less about pharma. There's also very exciting stuff happening. Maskers technology is critical in pharma because you have bitterness in many of the APIs and our technology are enabling that masking. So if you want to hear more for that, you can also talk to us at the coffee break. Last slide, if we sum it up, so we spoke about who we are, where we come from, the decisions that were made that build the foundation and the base for the future. We spoke about what makes us unique. with a unique life-stage approach on prevention, the unique end-to-end innovation scalable model and then concrete example of what we're doing already now in '26 and that will help us with the midterm, I personally feel very confident with the organic sales growth of 4% to 6%. Why a range? Well, you can imagine with what's happening around the world, we also need to be realistic, and you've heard it from Dimitri earlier. And I feel very confident that we're going to cross the bar of 20% EBITDA this year already and 21% to 23% as a range for the midterm. Thank you very much.

Okay. So we're a Swiss-based company, so we will stick to the clock. That means that we have one key question for Alex, and then he will obviously be on the stage at the end of all presentations. So who want to take care of that? One key question for HNC, which is burning. Yes. Maybe just introduce yourself shortly and then...

Agne from Impax Asset Management. Quite clearly, a lot of thought has gone into your capabilities, making sure that you have a right to win in those capabilities. How much thought has gone into aligning yourselves with the right customers? You mentioned the yoga brand that's doing supplements now. Why does the yoga brand have a right to win in supplements? And I guess that's just one example, but maybe you can talk about more.

So thanks for that. So the first element of answer is that depending on the segment where we are. You take early life, you take medical, you might want to start innovating first with the big players to get the scale. So that's where we have pipeline building with the big players that you know of, the 4 or 5 global ones. On top of that, you go to China, there are strong players that are not only big in China, but that want to internationalize. So you make sure that in terms of range of customers you target in those segments, you go for those ones. To your question on dietary supplement, we start -- I mean, not we start, we see clearly regional and local players having actually bigger growth than some of the global ones. So it's a different dynamic than Early Life and Medical Nutrition. So we want to make sure we capitalize on those growth. So the mix in dietary supplement is actually close to 80% local versus 20% global. And these brands, they belong there. Some will fail, but it's part of experimenting and give them a chance to succeed with our technology and with our R&D capabilities.

Great. And then, maybe for the overall Health and Nutrition Care, a lot of people think this is all about global play. If you look about local versus global on the portfolio, it's about 60% still localized customers and 40% of the global play. And even some of the global play locally. So that is also HMC. And I think -- thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you to see you back on stage. So we now go from one beautiful business to another beautiful business, but this beautiful business has beauty in its name. So it's a bit of an unfair competition with Alessandre. So this is obviously the world of Perfumery & Beauty, and let me introduce Emmanuel for you. [Presentation]

Happy to see you. I love this video, by the way. I think it really well represents who we are. Great to see you today. Last time some of you, we met in Villa Botanica. It was a bit of a different setup because we were on the top of the hill. We have the view of the grass city and also there was a sea view. It's a bit different today, but no, big welcome to all of you. Very happy to be here. And basically, I think those moments are very important for all of us because it's really a great time to see what has been already executed, what we do, but more important, how P&B is evolving in this moving world. So a big welcome to all of you. Maybe let me start. I forgot the -- it's over there. So yes, it's better with it. So let me start maybe with who we are. who we are, who is behind P&B and the team of 5,500 people supporting it. A team which is in the business of Fragrance and Ingredients, a leader in the world with EUR 3.8 billion at 22% rounded EBITDA, an incredible machine, an industrial network of more than 30 sites in the world, which are really spread around the different geographies covering Perfumery and Ingredients, which is broad, big with a scale and allows us to get really competitiveness. A broad portfolio, a very broad portfolio in multiple categories. We serve so many categories in the world, which -- and also many regions in the world, which helps us to, I would say, manage volatility of the business whenever it comes. And last, which is, I think, for me, the most important is really the machine of science, innovation and creation, which is composed of 33 centers in the world to at the end, create the best fragrance. At the end, really put really creation at the heart of what we do and the best fragrance which consumer loves and also the best fragrance that we will be able to serve in any corners of the world. So this is really who we are and very happy to be the leader of this beautiful P&B business unit. One of the most popular slide I show to the customer is this one. I think I did maybe hundreds of times over the last 3 years and did it again with Sarah. And in January, we visit -- I think in a week, we visit around 30 to 40 different customers. And each of the time we present that one, our unique ecosystem, an ecosystem which is composed of Perfumery and Ingredients. Perfumery with 3 different channels, very important, where we split consumer fragrance into 2 pieces, means local and regional consumer brands, global consumer brands, but also on the top of that, FFE. This is Perfumery. Second, the backbone, the heart, the backbone of what is Perfumery and what makes at the end of the day, our Perfumery business successful, it is our Ingredient business unit. And the Ingredient is an undisputed leader in the world and represent 1,700 ingredients that we produce every day in all the different plants around the globe in 10 of active families with a significant high share in that space. And this is what is the anchor of the success in the Perfumery business. And on the top of that, since the merger in the Ingredients, we had the cosmetic, the Beauty & Care actives on the top to really put, I would say, really a picture, which is a unique ecosystem in the world. Now on the top of the unique ecosystem, what is fundamental is innovation. Innovation is everywhere, EUR 700 million spend every year. But innovation connected with creation and creation is really the key of what made the success of P&B. And creation -- when you speak about creation, it's about 120 perfumers. And the perfumers have really a center role in what we do. This is really something where we take care of. And by the way, since the merger, very happy to see that we reinforce even our creation capabilities. And when I see the dynamic, the passion of what our perfumers is doing is great, and they are the key points of the wins. And we will come a bit later in the winning space. Now having a fundamental creation, a powerful creation is great. What is also fundamental is this intimacy with the customers. We are not a suppliers of fragrance. We are the one to help to co-build the brands. We are connected with them much more than with Ingredient when with perfumers, but we provide consumer insight. We share the vision, what's the trend of the different market, and we contribute to the success of the brand. So that's why this customer intimacy, our inspiration is really the customers and the consumers. And we are really much having a team which smell the customers who understand the consumer every day and which makes at the end of the day a great success. So this is what the ecosystem is about. Now having an ecosystem with creation of the heart and with our inspiration is not enough. I think what do we do with that? What do we move from an ecosystem to, I would say, deliver our financial targets. So for that, we create a vision beyond well-being, uniting, delight and care. Please remember that very well, which, I would say, combine the essentials, those 11 moment of care like in hygiene, the desirable where we bring product superiority, new effective territories which all the consumer will enjoy, but also the sustainable very much recognized because over the last 3 months, I think we received 2 very important awards, which is AA CDP and EcoVadis Platinum, which really position sustainability also as a big part of the vision of P&B. Now if you look backwards since 2021, we all recognize that after COVID, fragrance took a very different position in our life. It's incredible, by the way, what happened because somehow maybe people during the COVID lost the smell, the smell, the nose and maybe they realize that losing the smell, the fragrance has a very different role in their life. And in fact, the way I could see it today is, in fact, maybe in the past, we had fragrance for. You wanted to show how good smell was your fragrance and show it to your neighbor to a fragrance for yourself to feel good. And at the end of the day, being somehow an expression of yourself. Also, beyond all fashion, Fragrance is also the symbol of wellness, well-being, simply feel good, reduce your stress. And just simply at the end of the day, as it was said in the movie, feel great. So that's why we are very, very happy to be in this Fragrance business because we know that it's underlined by very, very big fundamental. And by the way, Fragrance is everywhere. And you saw that over the last years. We're very happy to see the Gen Z completely crazy about having not only 1, not only 2, maybe 5, 6, 7 different fragrance for themselves. By the way, it's followed very much by Gen Alpha. I think it's very encouraging that the Gen Alpha also will continue to do it. We are social media where TikTok has a big, big role in the selection of the fragrance moving forward. The online shopping, incredible what happened on online shopping. So the Fragrance was usually on retail. And in fact, we can see that how much the online shopping has grown the potential of the Fragrance and the reach to everyone in the world. So it's incredible what happened with the Fragrance over the last year, and I'm very happy to do that. It's some kind of a bit of a revolution that in which we are, and let's see how this will continue moving forward. Now having a vision is great, having an ecosystem is great. So what do we do with it? So we define a strategy with very clear priorities: accelerate, accelerate on regional consumer brands, accelerate on fun fragrance, accelerate on skin care. Then second, strengthening our position in global consumer brands. We have historical very big position with the global consumer brands. I'm very happy to share with you that in 2026, starting 2026, we are back to be the leader, the #1 in the world in the global consumer brands. Last, which is also fundamental with regard to the backbone, upgrade, upgrade continuously our Ingredient portfolio to make sure that at the end, we will have the biggest and the most possible specialty portfolio of Ingredients in our space. All of that clear priority under a road map, an execution run map. Emmanuel Thomas is in the room here. He is the one leading that. There is 150 people today, taking the priorities, having a plan for the next 3 years to come, 21 program that we are deploying to be able to implement our strategy and make sure that we have the best possible execution. Since our last meeting where some of you were with us, a lot of happened. A lot have happened and let me shout out on the team, the team of the 5,500 people, which, in fact, made a tremendous work over the last months to build the ecosystem, start deploying the road map and make a fantastic job and so much committed to it, a big support to all of them. I wanted to recognize that. Now many, many milestones have been reached. First, on the portfolio. We divested EUR 250 million of commodity ingredients. And in fact, we did it immediately after the merger and very happy to do so in order to make sure that, in fact, our Ingredient business will focus on specialty. Second, we executed a massive organizational change. within P&B. What you should know is that for 10 years, in fact, we put together Fragrance, Ingredients, supply chain and Beauty & Care under the same roof, which, by the way, was never done before. More than 10 years ago, it was a model from the past. And in fact, we put it together to make sure that we are very much focused to bring clarity, better execution, accountability, but more important, create this organization to, in fact, deliver those channels and make sure that we are the most efficient possible in fine fragrance in the global consumer brand, but also with the regional consumer brand. And this is what has been done. It's a really strong foundation for growth. Now we took also advantage of this change to make sure that we also put all past acquisitions like Agilex, like DRT, et cetera, et cetera, under the same model, under the same ERP. It was representing around 15% of our total revenue. Now it's done. That's why I was saying we turn a corner somehow because, in fact, we will start 2026 with this one being executed. And last, we invested, and we invested a lot. So we invested in innovation, and you will see later what it means, but we invested in capabilities, in offices, in creation centers just to make sure that, in fact, we align the strategy with the investment that we are doing. And I don't also forget for Amyris, we invested also in capacity. With all of this -- with all of this transformation, we also perform. We delivered a solid performance, 5% organic sales growth over the last 2 years, high mid-single digit in Perfumery and low mid-single digit in Ingredients with a step-up of profitability from 20%, which was in H1 -- in H2 2023 when we start being together to 2022 over the last 2 years. I think what I would like to say is, in fact, I'm very, very happy with what we have done because, in fact, despite the 2025 where we have tariffs, where we have headwinds in the sunfilter business. In fact, the team became -- continue to be resilient, agile in order to be able to transform and perform at the same time. Now I would say what matters today is 2026. And basically, we really turned a corner in 2025 with one is the most satisfying thing that I saw in 2025 was really our wins. We are a stellar year in terms of wins. So first of all, we had an incredible momentum on the wins with regards to the new adoption. So we won a lot. And by the way, 2025, we won with an index of 115. That's the growth index or the win index that we have, which is 115, means that we won 15% more than prior. It's also -- this 2025 was also the consequence of win more before. So in fact, since the merger, we significantly increased our wins in that space. Second, we increased partnership with our customers, in particular, focused on regional customers, regional and locals with what we call core list. So for those ones who know the industry, the core list is very important. And in fact, as we speak, as of today, very happy to see that, in fact, we delivered 90% of what we were targeting at the end of '26. 2025 was a stellar year in winning in Fine Fragrance. In Fine Fragrance, you have several segments. You have the prestige segment. And in fact, John in the room and don't hesitate to communicate with him just after. We doubled the wins for the large project in 2025 from 15 to 27. So it was an incredible stellar year. And in fact, behind those 27, you have incredible big brands, the most iconic brand in the world. So very, very happy to have seen that. And this, as you know, this win in 2025 are launched from 12 to 18 months later. So it will feed 2026 and beyond. And in fact, what I wanted to do today is to really see what is a win, what is the launch because once you have a win, then you have a launch. And we wanted to move, I would say, to, in fact, many success launch of those products, which were win in '24 that has been launched in 2025. So let me start first with this fantastic [indiscernible], this [indiscernible] note, which had been created by Marie Salamagne. Marie, thank you very much and Bruno, but also Nicola Bonneville, who really create a gem, who create for me a blockbuster and had been considered by the company we launched it as the best ever launch in the history. So this is really -- you saw that everywhere in the world, but I'm telling you it's a fantastic note and don't hesitate to test it just after when we will move the room. Then Dolce & Gabbana, Dolce & Gabbana, my devotion. I think Dolce & Gabbana wanted to grow faster, bigger in the U.S. This is a dedicated masculine fragrance for the U.S. It's a fantastic signature. And for those ones who are specialists of Perfumery, Olivier Cresp, our master perfumer, created this incredible clear flower vanilla notes and in fact, made a fantastic fragrance, which was a fantastic success, which will allow, by the way, Dolce & Gabbana to be this quarter in the top 5 of the perfumery house in North America. The third example, and I wanted to bring 3 different examples is to represent the niche segment in that -- of the Fine Fragrance market. So the, the 2 sisters creating this brand, arriving around 2020 in Dubai, creating a very specific regional brand with a lot of Middle East type of input, but much more than that because it becomes really an incredible brand. This one, the Vanilla candy rock sugar with a bubble gum signature, okay? So you will see again in the room, you can try it. It's very, very specific and is also making it a great success because basically, it's the #1 on Sephora as we speak in the U.S. And Gabriel, Gabriela and Fabrice made a fantastic perfume. So this is all to show, I would say, the power of creation, the power of our perfumer, the passion behind that, the uniqueness of the creativity, now not only recognized by the customers and the consumers, but also among the peers. And what you should know is that in 2025, again, I would say, we received 47 awards by 30 different perfumers in the world. So 47 awards in the what we call the 5 awards, whether it is in New York, in Paris, in Berlin, in London, just to show that, in fact, we represent a very, very strong power in the creation of the industry and very happy to do so. Now I also want to thank all the customers behind that because there's a lot of this intimacy with the customers also thanking them is important to giving us the chance to build the brand together and being successful together. Now let me go back to one point. It's good to have the great ingredients, the backbone of perfumery. It's great to have the perfumer. But whatever we do, we cannot do anything without also innovation, which is a very important part of the triangle. And in fact, we have very big, I would say, capabilities, science capabilities. 7 different capabilities, which allows us to bring the best innovation in that space. So you may have seen this list already from some of the competitors. But what I can tell you is that these capabilities are really differentiated like the formulation and material science, like the receptor-based science, like the biotech, et cetera, and makes very be proud about these capabilities led by Sarah in the room. And all of that to enable, I would say, our innovation pipeline. And in Fragrance, we have 3 different categories of innovation. The first is what we call technologies. And the technologies, the game of -- at the moment of the market of the consumer is a long-lastingness. Long-lastingness, it's about the capsule, so the Popscent Eco, and we launched in 2025, a new generation of Popscent Eco, very successful. So important in China because, in fact, there is regulation in which will impose this. So very key, but also our AlloSense fusion, so which allows from a chemical standpoint to really prolong and amplify the power of our fragrance. That's about technology. Second, it's about fragrance design, fragrance design where we have our malodor control toolbox with ClearSense, which really makes a real difference, especially in the laundry space. But also we were speaking moving out of action. It's about, I would say, enhancing your emotion. So that's why we have emotion social connection, which I would say, enhance the well-being at the level of the people. Last, very important, our anchor, our backbone, which is the Ingredient space. So first of all, in the Beauty & Care space, the fantastic Alpaflor Neurosooth, which make a very, very incredible sensation on your skin. So Alpaflor is coming from a flower, which is called -- what's the name of it, Laurent., okay? So produced in the hubs, where we have extraction technology in Switzerland. and which is enabling us basically to really create a fantastic product, which indeed give a very good sensation of your skin. And last, I wanted to finish because is in the room, and it's important for him. I think the her, the backbone, our ingredient machine. There were 1,700 ingredients, which are there with incredible innovation, and we have this one. This one,, I think, is our last captive launched, I would say, 2 years ago, is the best ever ingredient we ever launched in the history of the family, which has a 100 year of history. The best ever 10x more, 10x bigger than the second one. And for sure, in some of the wins that we had in fine fragrance, I think has really helped us to be able to be -- to do that, but beyond others also because we have many other very good captive in that space. So let me now finish, I would say, this presentation on 2026. We saw that we won a lot. So it should feed the growth in 2026. We start the year for sure, with, I would say, a market with limited visibility with somehow unpredictability. Let's see what we saw over the last days out of Middle East. So for that standpoint, this is the context in which the market is starting. Now on Consumer Fragrance, I think let's split the Fragrance business into the Consumer Fragrance and the Fine Fragrance, which are different dynamic. On Consumer Fragrance, we see a very cautious consumer sentiment. with the FMCG, in fact, in Home and Beauty really show a slowdown from mid-single digit to low single digit. So -- and we also saw in 2025, by the way, a normalization of the market from a very big double-digit growth in 2024 to a mid-single digit in 2025. The good news is all the customers in Consumer Fragrance want to invest in superiority. So they still consider -- they do consider that Fragrance is a key element of success of their brand in the market. And by the way, there is competition who is superior to which of the others. So despite, I would say, the context, which is not the easiest one, Fragrance is still keeping a central role in that space. Now we expect the -- I would say, the market to grow at 3% to 4% in 2026, a bit more in H2 than in H1. So that's a bit what we are expecting in that space. Now from the Fine fragrance perspective, there is really 2 different markets, the market of prestige, the market of lifestyle and the niche market, which is one market by itself, which, in fact, delivered a mid-single digit already last year. And basically, we believe that this will continue. Now the rest of the market, which we'll call, in fact, which really grow very, very fast with double-digit growth. The key question is how, at the end, the Middle East crisis will impact the evolution of that. So from that standpoint, we are a bit more prudent. We still believe that this is a very solid market, a very solid foundation. All what I said about the role of fragrance in the daily life very well, but also in the Gen Z and the Gen Alpha. So we still see solid, but in fact, let's see what the Middle East could impact that segment. Last, it's about also Ingredients, okay? We speak about competition on Ingredients. Please have in mind that we are in this business for 100 years. So competition in Ingredients is something we know for many, many years with many, many cycles. So it's not something new. Remember that we divested EUR 250 million of commodities. So this is not anymore in the portfolio. So we have a very much a specialty portfolio. And also, please have in mind that every year, we also adjust the portfolio. We move from make to buy in order to make sure that we have -- we produce the most possible specialty ingredients in that space. And from that standpoint, you saw that our performance in Ingredients was pretty good compared to peers over the last month. Now we will see a moderate slowdown moving forward in the next months to come, but we're still very, very positive. We want to keep our market share and get ready when the market will move up. Now we have very clear priority just to finish with you for 2026. First, keep winning. Second, continue the great momentum in Consumer Fragrance, especially with the regional based on the investment that we have made. Third, on Fine Fragrance, we need to accelerate. So we will accelerate, thanks to the Prestige, all the wins that we had in 2025. But also, we need to expand into new geographies and in particular, in Middle East, in India, in China and Indonesia, where we believe the Masstige market will grow. Last, on Ingredients, we will have different dynamics. So we will have, I would say, a very good recovery. We will see a good recovery on the Beauty & Care, while, I would say, a moderate slowdown in the context of Ingredients. All of that to deliver 2026. Now this is P&B, a unique ecosystem. A very solid transformation, I believe, that we've made for the last 24 months, a team, a very -- an incredible team. I was speaking about the perfumers, but a team of people with a lot of passion, a lot of dedication, a team which is there to deliver, believing in the in which we are and focus on execution thanks to the road map that we were speaking about. A great trajectory, by the way, I see to deliver 2026 and also to deliver our midterm targets moving forward. And I would like to close this presentation by saying don't forget beyond well-being, uniting, delight and care. Thank you very much, everyone.

I think, Emmanuel, we need to rehearse that a few times to get that landed. But -- so also here, looking at the Swiss clock in London, maybe one key question. I mean we will be back on stage for all Q&A. So one is the key question you want to ask, Emmanuel, about P&B. What was he so clear? My goodness.

Charles Eden from UBS. Just on the Fine Fragrance, obviously, you've seen strong growth, but it hasn't matched some of the market leaders. Do you think it is a geographic issue? And therefore, you mentioned Middle East, China, India through time. Or is it something else? Just trying to pinpoint because I'm sure obviously, you're happy with the growth, but you also have aspirations to be market leading. So just trying to -- when you've dissected that, what have you attributed the underperformance relative to best-in-class?

I love that question.

Yes. I'm not happy with the Fine Fragrance growth that we have over the last 2 years, okay? Now I really think that 2025 turns the corner in that space because I think we start to win much more, especially in the Prestige segment. We were very strong in the niche and lifestyle also we are growing. So in that space, I think we did a lot in 2025, and you will see this growth coming in 2026. Now on the masstige side, no doubt that, in fact, we -- we have not been the first one to jump into that market. And there is a reason behind us is because DSM-Firmenich was extremely careful about what we call proximity, the proximity rules of the fragrance. And we wanted to make sure that before we jump and we invest massively in the Masstige segment, we are clear with our historical customers on the proximity rules, which we did. So 2024, 2025, we clarified the proximity rules with our historical customers. We defined the frame in how we're going to develop in the Masstige segment. So we invested in Dubai. We invested in Riyadh. We have now offices there in Riyadh. We had offices in Dubai for a long time. So we invest new people, but also beyond Middle East, we need to look at what is happening in China. We invest in China for many years. We have a leading position in China, by the way, in Fine Fragrance. And we will see how we will continue to develop in China, in India and Indonesia. So that will be the 4 key regions where the massive growth will come from. And I really believe that we will grow that space moving forward, thanks to our ingredients and the incredible power of creation.

I like that a lot, and thanks for that question because I think let's make it very clear. We track how we're doing. And you said lacking behind other leaders behind one because if you compare it to the rest, we're clearly on #2. Then your question on local and global. So Emmanuel really on that transformation trajectory is really changing and accelerating the local presence, and we need to do that. So remember, we were 30% local, 70% global. We're now 40% local in Perfumery & Beauty, 60% global. That will continue in terms of the growth and the wins. And like we said, depending a little bit on how Middle East evolves, we are invited to do more. But within the proximity rules in the company we are today. So I think very well set with, I think, a very strong win pipeline, which creates us confidence for '26, but also thereafter. Now let's close here. I got clear instruction from Dave, you all know as our Head of Investor Relations that you are entitled to a 20-minute break. I don't know, he never does that if we have internal meetings, but fine. I think you are entitled to that. So let's restart at 11:45 also for the members live on the webcast, 11:45 London time, back on stage with taste texture and health. Enjoy the break. [Break]

Hello, everybody. I hope you feel good. If you don't feel good, you will feel good after this presentation. This is what we talk about, feeling good. That's life, that's food. So I'm the new President of TTH. I'm very happy to be with you today to see the passion you have with food and with our industry. And I recognize some of the faces during the break. I got a lot of questions. So I will try during my presentation to answer some of those questions already. So to streamline, I'm Italia by origin, but quite Swiss in terms of timing, differently from my colleagues, which are different origin, but not very smart on timing. So I will be very, very precise. I will move very, very fast. First of all, I will take my control. And maybe who doesn't know me, I mentioned I'm Italian, but I've been living 30 years around the world like Alex, and I'm very passionate about food. But what I learn across a different world is that food is about passion. It's about local understanding of who we are, and we bring this kind of feeling, this kind of understanding in what we do every day. Just keep this in mind. Our consumer insight is our strength to understand consumers. Going into the world, you understand how are we different in each part of the world. What is more interesting for you is who TTH is and how we grow up in the last 3 years. There was a lot of anxiety 3 years ago when we did the merger, how these guys will do, putting together 2 different portfolio, 2 different mentality, 2 different focus. Actually, this has been the pleasure of this merger. We are the core of the merger. We really enjoy the journey. It was not an easy one, but we really love it. And I will explain why and how we made it, okay? Worldwide, I won't go into all the numbers, but what is important for us, what is important is the proximity to our customers. So we are well distributed regionally, a strong presence in U.S., Europe but growing fast in emerging markets. Other important point is the portfolio. Our portfolio is very balanced. We work across all segments, but we have very relevant presence in the key segments. So beverage, dairy, confectionery, bakery, savory, and others I will explain to you. You will ask me one of the questions already got is, Maurizio, why do you feel so different? I feel different because we are different. What we have done as a business model, we create a kind of a unique value proposition. When you combine ingredient and taste, you do successfully, you basically control the food ecosystem. You can deliver a product understanding how the matrix, the food matrix works from tasting profile, tonality, aroma into the ingredient part of it. And in the slides, I summarize the 4 core capabilities that we brought together. First is science. From ingredient size, you have the bioscience. You have the biotechnology understanding, the fermentation understanding. From tasting, you have receptor-based technologies. How do you profile the perfect aroma for your customers? What inspires us and our customers, our capability in creation, application and consumer insight? Without a strong consumer insight, you want to understand consumers. You won't fulfill the need. At the same time, we have a specific team that work on foresight. So we anticipate trends 5, 7 years before they come into the market. That's the specific capabilities we have built in our team. And we use also a lot of AI in doing this. Third element is our people, passionate people. That's also one key element to why we have been successful in doing this merger. It's about to be passionate in what we do, not owning what we do or fighting to show who is the best among us. Number four is a balanced presence in all markets, proximity to customers, customers intimacy and at the same time, balance the customer type, global versus regional. And we have 28. We have really deployed a lot of regionalized team to get the proximity to those customers. When it comes to performance, you say, okay, Maurizio, you tell us what you did well. So can you show what you did well? Okay. That's what I'm going to show what we do well. First, performance. I think Dimitri explained this. I'm quite particularly proud to show what we have done in the last 3 years during an intense merger. We grew 7% organic growth, our portfolio, combined portfolio. We grew EBITDA by 13%, 183 basis points. And most importantly, we outperformed our competition with a lot of activities running for integration. You can imagine understanding each other, aligning strategies, innovation, et cetera, et cetera. But then you will say, Maurizio, when you merge, you announced you would deliver synergies? Yes, it's true. We perform and we deliver synergies. We are delivering synergies. I want to give you the sense of how we are delivering synergies. We built over the last 3 years, EUR 450 million, EUR 460 million of pipeline, of which up today, EUR 200 million has been converted in wins. So this is also why -- and Dimitri explained that. This is why we're also growing faster than the other 1 or 2 points because we really transforming this integration is a real advantage to our customers. Then you say, okay, is this enough? No, it's not enough. Why we have a winning model. We are a winning model because we could in only 3 years, 2.5 years, combine and deliver innovative solution to the market. We have many. I just show here 4 of them. The first one is very close to my heart. Being an Italian, you associate to pizza pasta Mandolino. But what is important, pizza is not just an Italian. If you think about and I've been living in U.S. for 15 years, you have a New York Pizza style, you have Chicago Pizza style, you have Mumbai pizza style now. So pizza has become a global event. And what is the challenge in making pizza? And I do pizza myself, so I know what is the challenge. You need to have an original pizza flavor. You need to have a stretch mozzarella. You need to replicate this every day in the restaurants and at home. And we have all the technologies to bring this in real life every day. This is what we do. I can continue for hours, but because I'm more efficient than my colleagues, I need to stay on the 20 minutes time line, but you can ask all the questions you want. I want to go more into how we're going to grow the future because we have been successful in the past, doesn't mean automatically we will be successful in the future. But building on what we've been successfully delivered, we are very focused on where customers are going. So our strategy is basically to shift from an integration mode into building the future mode. And how we're going to do this? First, we are going to focus on a growing strategy. We are building a strong growing strategy. We're not just resting on integration mode. And I will explain what does it mean growing the core and develop new battles. At the same time, we want to simplify what we're doing today. A lot of activities were dedicated to integration, building new system, coordinating new processes and et cetera, et cetera. What we're going to do? We are going to move all these resources. They have been dedicated for 3 years that we don't need any more in that kind of activities into building the new process, building the new strategies. Last but not least, we work a lot to combine the 2 teams. And what is the most important thing in a successful team is to think as one single team, and we have been progressing a lot. We want to unleash this with our customers at the moment. Before I jump on the winning activities or the winning strategy we want to implement, I want to go back to one thing, big challenge of the industry at the moment. I won't talk too much about the megatrends. You all know the megatrends. You all know everybody wants to eat healthy. They want to go into affordable food. They want to go in the light of full food. You all know this. What is really a challenge today is all of us as consumers, they want a personalized menu. They want a personalized agenda. They want really to enjoy what we do every day. And this brings a lot of differentiation, personalization. What is extremely important in this phase of our industry, understanding all those consumer trends, understand where really people want to go and find the right solution to those consumer needs. That's what we do very well. And if you think in the morning, you go and have breakfast with your family, with your friends, you open the fridge, is what we call the fridge dilemma. You open the fridge and you find 4 bottles of milk, 1 full fat, 1 skim 1 chocolate, which you recognize immediately because it's brown. But the other 3, you will be struggling to recognize which one is yours. Same when you go din at night, you have the vegan one, your high protein meal is very complex. Now this complexity is we enjoy -- why we enjoy our work. That's what we do the difference in the industry. Let me spend the next 4, 5 minutes in explaining to you what we are going to do differently or how we're going to increase our offering in the future. In our strategy, what we call our core, so taste, ingredients, palette is what has been successfully delivered to the market, recognized by all customers. And you have seen the financial results. You don't get those financial results if you are not winning in the market, if you are not the preferred customers with preferred supply to your customers. That's not enough. There are a lot of learnings we have made in the last 3 years in where and how we can boost our core. One area, and Dimitri mentioned it, is around enzymes and cultures. This is a winning palette. Why? Because when you buy your bread in the morning or you eat your yogurt or you buy your cheese, all those ingredients are extremely important to develop the best performance of those products, the best quality and the best tasting profile. If you -- on top are the capabilities we have in taste and our technologies, you got the best products. So this is the area where we have a high innovative capabilities. We have the scaling capabilities because we have been investing in those technologies. And we also have the customer intimacy and the co-creation ability to deliver those solutions with our customers. Second is savory. Savory, you would say, Maurizio, this is not new. It is new because savory is evolving every day. What you eat outside, it's most of the time, innovative. And where do we innovate in savory? First, we have been growing and investing a lot in the last 7 years. We have 2 new plants in India, just for you to know. You know how India is fast growing. The Indonesia was another big investment we have done where we brought savory capabilities. Even in Europe, we are growing capabilities because the demand of consumption in savory has increased a lot. And food service is one of the simple but not only at home, you consume more soups, fats and oil and noodles, et cetera, around the world is the biggest consumption area. Now what we bring there? We bring a lot of technologies. So we bring asset, we bring capabilities, but we bring what we call receptor-based technology. We understand the tasting profile, the aroma profile. We know how to replicate umami, kokumi, and we know how to reduce salt. Those are the critical capabilities, only few, if not only in this industry. And we are mastering those capabilities in all our recipes. Beyond the core, we want to expand other segments. And I'll give you the sense of what we want to do. First of all, pet food. We built a solid customer intimacy in pet food through the health portfolio, we have. We are expanding the gut health portfolio with pet, which is very successfully done last year, this year is really fast growing. So we want to expand that one. But also, thanks to our capability in taste, we can expand the palatability offering. So imagine when we go to customers today, we offer a portion of the full product. In a year, 1.5 years from now, we will basically do the full offering in that space across the 3 areas. Dairy. Dairy, we are probably the biggest player in the world of flavoring ingredient industry. because we sell 1.1 billion in dairy. When you take our portfolio end-to-end from tonality excellence to maskers to enzymes to cultures, et cetera, et cetera, we sell 1.1 billion. We have the full offering in dairy. And guess what? Dairy is the fast-growing segment in the market. Why? Because GLP-1, because everybody want to eat healthy, because it goes from breakfast to dinner, et cetera, et cetera. So it is the segment you want to be in, is the segment where we are the kings, and we have all the solutions. And we bring more in that space. Sugar reduction, we were the first 15 years ago to enter in this space with innovative solution. And for 15 years, we have been the leading company in this space. Clearly, we want to stay there. We are not going to leave this space. And we have a very relevant pipeline in that space that will come to the market in the next 2 years, maintaining a differentiating value proposition. Last but not least, probably the most important from now moving forward for consumers. Microbiome, Alex spoke about that. Sarah, if you asked the question, will answer a lot of your questions. Microbiome for food and beverage is a critical inflection point. People want to eat healthy. They want to through the body, assimilate good elements through the body. And microbiome is the key of this dynamic, okay? We already sell probiotics, postbiotics, but we haven't decoded the entire ecosystem around microbiome through food. And that's what we are going to invest. We invest already a lot. We're going to invest more in the space to bring more and more solution into food that act on the microbiome on the connectivity between microbiome, brain and inflammatory system. So bring energy, bring count and bring digestive immune system opportunities. Now the question will come as it came from my colleagues, they say, okay, Maurizio, nice story. What's going to happen? How are you going to drive your business in 2026? We have been quite resilient over the past years. We saw '25 and '25 softening. The market was softening. Yes, we're still resilient because we have this balanced portfolio where even if premium products and consumers are affected by this economic -- macroeconomic deviation or inflation, people tend to be cautious. And we see this. We see especially in 2026 Q1, a lowering market kind of trend. Now we have a very resilient product in our portfolio. And we are very present in markets that are still growing. So you will see, and I mentioned about dairy, energy drinks, nutrition bars, we are in all those products that even if the slowdown will be always consumed by consumers. At the same time, we are really showing relevant growth in markets like India, double digit, Africa double digit. And we see Asia recovering from last third and fourth quarter. So we are confident that we can play in the range of the 2%, 4% across 2026. Now as promised, I've been exactly on time, and I will close the presentation with my last minute, giving you 3 takeaways. We have been successful doing the integration. We have been performing the integration. Now we need to shift into building the future, into performing in the future. We still have a little bit of advantage because the synergies, but really, we need to shift because consumers are shifting. We have a unique value proposition in the market. No one has DSM-Firmenich as TTH has this compelling 2 portfolio that bring a unique solution to the market. Third, we continue to invest in the future, asset, innovation, people capabilities and technologies. That's what we do, and we demonstrated we have done quite well. So you can trust us. Thanks for listening to me, and I'm opening to Q&A.

So also here, one key question. I think it's clear that Maurizio is respecting time on delivery. And by the way, the same on the promises he made on growth and EBITDA. So I think I hope you get a bit of confidence from his Swiss side. Although I also like the Italian part from that, but that's one key question before we go, and we come back to Q&A a little bit more. So I will make an exception because he was on time we'll do two. I don't think it's working, right? Also for the webcast is live, I think we can hear you, but the people online.

It's Alex from Barclays. There's a question on Bovaer. Obviously, in the medium-term targets, it's doing quite a lot of the heavy lifting point to group growth and 2 points to the divisional growth. I mean this is a new business for you in Taste, Texture & Health. Could you maybe talk a little bit about how integrated or otherwise Bovaer will be, how it helps with the EUR 1.1 billion dairy portfolio you have and how you can help it with that portfolio? And what visibility you have on that 1% and the build-out to it that's coming in from '28?

Let's do two things. I will respond a little bit on Bovaer and you basically say, why is it adding to your route-to-market part because we made a deliberate choice. Bovaer will be separate. So it will not be fully integrated. But we feel -- I'm going in your way, is that we feel that it's sustainable dairy, which is key, and therefore, it's well fit with TTH. But maybe some customer interaction you can share.

No, you mentioned it. I mean we are very big in dairy. The customers that are going to valorize us, the one valorizing Bovaer, we are all in a sustainable world. We are all pushing for sustainability. This is a valuable product to enhance sustainable solutions. So the connectivity with our customers is straight. Now the adoption and now this is, of course, cascading into farmers, et cetera, as a collateral effect, but the drive-through customers is quite straight.

So if I talk to CEOs of one of our key dairy customers, they always ask myself, ask Bovaer because it's an entry ticket. And then we add the whole TTH business, in many cases, also the HMC business to it. So it's a key lever. Let me just wait for responding on Bovaer because I already a little bit of a comment from our CFO, who wanted to talk about a little bit of Bovaer, not only from a CapEx perspective, but also business because otherwise, we're short in his presentation. I want to respect that as well, Ross. So a second question and then we move on. I think the second question was here.

Actually, it's [indiscernible]. I want to follow up on Bovaer because if you look at your targets, you're quite confident for the 2% to 4% this year, '26. But then '28, it's 4% to 6% with 2% contribution of Bovaer. So actually, that does mean in my view that the rest is not going to accelerate. So how do you feel about that?

I think explained that today, we have around EUR 40 million in Bovaer in sales. So it's not 0, it's EUR 40 million. Clearly, there is a shift in the '26, '27 years where we finalized the plant construction. So the value proposition to the market will be driven by producing it directly. And then '27, '28 is where we're going to have the escalation into the market.

What we clearly wanted to indicate is that the underlying business in TTH should grow 46%. I think we'll all be happy if that will be 46%. We need to move that from 2 to 4. We have the wins here. We have some geographic approaches. As Maurizio explained, the two percentage on top of, by the way, the 2% in TTH is the 1 percent I refer to in the 5 to 7. Remember, so, because on the group, it's about 9 million to 100 million, but let's if it need to be more on Bovaer. We have a slide on both air. We can continue that discussion. I appreciate the question. So let me thank you for the presentation as an Italian on Swiss time.

Thank you, guys.

Appreciate it So. I showed a little bit the context with the 3 business unit presidents, really catering in for the growth. I hope that you feel that the EBITDA evolution and the cash evolution, it's not in the pocket. I think that's unfair to say, but there's a clear path forward and that the question is, how does that growth element related to? That's why the 3 BU presidents are here. But let's also look at the financial side of it. I said it before. Let's have Ralf dotting the eye and crossing the Ts with all elements going forward. And with that, Ralf, may I ask you on stage.

Well, good afternoon, and thanks for staying today with us and listening to it. Whenever I get to the BU presentations, this is where I get the excitement because in the end, as a financial we can only grow our business if we really grow our top line. And that is an absolute key focus area. We wanted to make sure that each BU was on stage, not only showing where we grow in '26, but also what kind of innovations we have, what markets we're growing in to really underpin our long-term story. Now Dimitri already said it at the start, it's probably the last time you're going to see that slide, but this was his first and his last slide. And I think it's absolutely important that our transformation is completed. We've done that. We've carved out A&H. We've delivered upon the tuning exercise. All of those transactions are also completed. So the business is no longer involved in that. And whilst we have also delivered a financial performance in that period. We also recognize that there's a moment to accelerate. And that moment is now. And that's the last slide. So whilst we've created the company that we wanted to create, we will grow that company, and we will step up in performance. Now before I show you how we're going to do that, and we'll first look a bit back before looking forward, I do want to come back on the A&H transactions. And there were a few points that we need to address because I don't think that is fully understood. And whilst we've had a call around the transaction, at that point, we didn't release our numbers, so it was a bit difficult also to show you Q4 and Q1 trajectory. But at the left side on the slide, you actually see the interim volatility that our A&H business had. It basically started at the time of the merger. The vitamins market were extremely volatile and that basically reduced our performance, and we've seen that come up, but very much also driven by a supply disruption in the industry. So we clearly articulated the tailwind from that. But after that, you also saw the results come down. And whilst we were very committed to delivering in line with the time line that we communicated early, we wanted to transact over summer 2025. You also see from the slides that results were coming down. That obviously complicates a divestment process. We lost some buyers in the process, but obviously, it put pressure on the overall discussion. And at that point, Dimitri already explained it, we needed to split the company in 2 because that was the only way to sell it, where we initially started out is that we wanted to do it as a package deal, we had to split the company in a solutions company. growing mid-single digit and at an attractive margin profile and the essential products company, which requires a turnaround. We've done that, but you have to do that. That's why it's also good that this volatility is removed from the quality portfolio that we've built. So that was a clear driver. We couldn't show you those results for Q4 and the outlook for Q1 at the time when we announced the deal itself, but we wanted to come back on that. The same amount of proceeds of closing, we will collect EUR 1.2 billion, and there were some questions around that. We will collect EUR 600 million in cash that will come our way as EUR 500 million of debt transfers I want to call out there's EUR 300 million related to pension and employee liabilities. So when I show you later on, some of you already probably flipped through in the deck, in the net debt bridge, you don't see the EUR 300 million back in, it's good to take that into account, but it's hard cash that is transferred because that will not translate into a cash out of DSM-Firmenich going forward. Then last, the EUR 100 million vendor loan is a loan to the solutions company. The company is growing, the companies are generating good profit. And why is that? It's a company that is operating in over 40 countries. Now obviously, it doesn't come with the sophistication of a treasury setup and the like that we've built in the infinite as any other corporate where you leverage cash pools and the like. So we will be bridging that, and we'll collect that money in '27, but that's a loan to the strong part and there's a commitment that, that will be returned. A second point that you raised that came back and saying, we're not sure around the earn-out. Now let me also come back on that. First of all, the earn-out contains very customary money market multiples. Moreover, it's split in 2 pieces. So there's an element of EUR 300 million that is linked to the overall transaction. However, it's constructed in such a way that with a continuation of the growth that we've seen in the solution company so far, the margin profile in the company so far and in that market exit multiple, we will realize that EUR 300 million on the exit of the solutions company only. So if CVC delivers upon the business case, we will be generating the EUR 300 million earn-out that will come into our direction. The second part, EUR 200 million is linked to the vitamin company. That requires a bit of normalization in vitamins. It's actually happening today. But with the restoration and we have CVC on board to actually take that part of the business through a transformation. We've done many deals with them. They're excellent in doing that, and they're geared to do that. And that's why we also provide the financing forward. We don't want any distraction discussing with banks, discussing about where we are in terms of the metric, whether or not the next EBITDA turn, et cetera, is achieved, we will provide the funding if necessary because the businesses will be well funded from the start. CVC is putting in about EUR 400 million of equity. And every business will start well funded at the start of their journey. However, we also wanted to make sure that they can execute the transformation of the vitamins, and that's why we provided the loan facility as we communicated in the press release. Now it comes with a good return. There's an 8% interest on that, but it also ranks senior to any equity proceeds pay out to the shareholders, meaning that the loan will always be returned before there's any money flow towards CVC. So we wanted to make sure that, that is addressed as well. Then there was a question around the tax outflow and the transaction cost. That's about EUR 200 million. That includes tax. It's split about half-half and that will come as well, and you'll see that later in the bridge. So I think those are the things addressed. So we have a good confidence in collecting the EUR 500 million. You clearly understand where the 1.2 is coming from, but we also benefit from the opportunity with the 20% equity stake that we've got. But it is important that the volatility is out of the group and the downside is protected. whilst at the same time, we secured the profitability for our agency business with a long-term supply agreement. Now then let's look a bit at the performance of the company that we created. Dimitri already sold a couple of the slides, but we also appreciate that there was a lot to take in. So on the back of the deal on Monday. I think we released the restatement only in the afternoon. And then on Wednesday, Thursday, we presented the complete reset and our hands were tied. And I mean, the minute you actually sign a transaction our friendly auditor also clearly said that you need to report in continuing operations and discontinued and there was limited time. But we also played with the idea of saying, can we issue a restatement before whilst you're in the middle of a transaction and you do have done a few, that's not an option. So we are bound by time. We had limited flexibility, but we also appreciate that we didn't help you necessarily when we presented our numbers that they landed in a place without a consensus and the like. So we want to provide a bit of insight on that. For that purpose, the deck will have a couple of numbers around 2023. So we restated them for convenience purposes because we only restated '24 and '25 fully as disclosed in the press release, but you'll find a handy in understanding the performance over the last 2 years. So this is the growth, overall, 4.5% growth, 6% in '24, 3% in '25. Obviously, '25 impacted by a more difficult macro in the second half. If you see very strong growth trajectory for the 6 quarters starting Jan '24, obviously impacted a bit by the macro environment. But how does that overall look from a business perspective? You've seen the 3 BUs presenting each of themselves, their journey across the board, a 5% organic growth in PNB, a very strong growth in TTH on the back of synergies. On HNC, I want to call that out it's a journey of recovery. We also shared that when we met you guys in '24 at Capital Markets Day, we're saying it's going to take a little longer. We're building a solid foundation. And starting mid-24, the growth was back up mid-single digits. We delivered that in Q3, Q4 '24. We started the year in '25 well. But obviously, with an exposure of 40% to the U.S., if then there is a weakness occurring in the second half, that overall translates into the 1% that we've seen. but the profitability step-up is absolutely there. Now if we look at the profitability, this is important because it also shows why we've done the exit of Animal Nutrition & Health, why we've tuned our portfolio because the reported figure in 2023 was 14.4% EBITDA margin. If you look at the portfolio that we're now looking at, it's almost a step-up of 4%. It also shows that we took the right measures by taking the businesses out that were a drag on the overall performance and we're hiding the quality of the company that we created. So that's an important step number one. At the same time, we made a promise that we were going to step up the profitability of all of our businesses. And there, we made first progress. So overall, we stepped up profitability by about 1.4% to 19.6%. Now in the second half, I always like to call it, we were at 20%, highlighting that it's a journey. We're not happy with where we are today. We're happy with progress, but this is not where it's going to stop. We will grow from here. And that 19.6% includes a headwind of around EUR 0.4 billion from FX. So had we been at the same Dimitri said that 20% margin. And why do I call out the FX, it's even more profound in agency, as you'll see on the next page. So looking at the 3 businesses, overall, a very encouraging step up, 7% step-up in PNB. So you see the leverage also of growth. That's why growth is so important for us. And that's why the BU presentations were really focused on the growth that we see going forward. You also see that accelerator effect that 7% growth that Maurizio talked about earlier in the businesses, translates into a very nice step-up. On a like-for-like basis, 13% up in the 2 years in the [indiscernible] health. And that is also an accelerator for an improvement in margin. So if you look at the margin of PNB and taste action health, very much at the low end of the guidance that we gave, 22% to 24% for PNB, 21% to 23% for TTH. we're at the verge of getting in there, but we are confident that we will get into that range in the period ahead. very strong pickup in agency as well. You see a strong recovery. There, we also focus very much around laying a solid foundation, improving our cost base, and that drove an increase in margin to 19.4%. And I made the comment on FX earlier. With the exposure to the U.S., while having a very strong sales presence in the U.S., but at the same time, a cost base in Swissy, the impact in our business was even more profound. It impacted the margin by 1.4%. So I'd imagine that the FX has not moved, we would be having a margin of well above 20% in Agency as well because every time when we were roadshowing are asking us about the confidence to get the margin of agency back up and back into the trajectory of 21% to 23%, we are confident that we will also get there. With the growth back in the areas where we're growing in high-margin markets, we will be back up in the margin also on HNC. Cash then, average 11%, not really happy about that. Take into account the 1% to 1.5% of Bovaer. It's a costly enterprise. It's a very interesting model. I'll show you in a second. But overall, we're now happy with where we are. In the earnings call of the full year 2025 results, I indicated that we were sitting about EUR 100 million of inventory navigating through the environment of tariffs and also dealing with a softer environment, but also with the carve-out because we kept a higher level of inventory because we will never have a disappointed customer. I think that has to be priority #1. Despite the fact that we're focusing on cash, we need to be disciplined on have a disappointed customer. In the soft environment in the second half, we were not able to fully navigate that out of the system. We'll do that in a year ahead, but that's why we also delivered a 10.5% in 2025. We have a solid base to grow from there, and I'll show you a little later on. Now this slide you've seen before, but it's the foundation on which we will be accelerating our financial performance. So EUR 9 billion, 20%, but also very important at the right side a ROCE that has increased to 11% and a cash conversion of 11% that we're going to build on going forward as we have released our new midterm target to above 14% with an intermediate step in 2027. Now how are we going to do that? Not well too much on this page because this was the heart of the BU presentation. Great growth trajectory ahead in all of the BUs we're investing in the regional growth in P&B, Middle East, China, India, you've heard that. We're building capacity, but we're also investing in killer ingredients. And you can see the excitement in Emmanuel and the twinkle in his eyes with the launch that we've got because when he speaks about captive, it's about ingredients that we develop and obviously blend into the solutions and the offerings of our customers, but that we don't sell on the market. And that is important because that's the differentiating element. So we're investing in that. Taste, Texture & Health, enzymes cultures, high-growth margins, high-growth businesses and high margins. I'm always combining it, so that's easier, so they know where to achieve for. But at the same time, we're building capacity in Savory, very interesting growth category. We're building a large plan in that space because it's -- again, it's an area where we see the growth and we will be driving the synergies also going forward. HNC, you heard us talk about HMO, the algalipids, eHealth, those are interesting segments. So summarizing, we're going to grow in high-growth areas. high-margin areas. We're going to build on the wins. We spend a lot of time rebuilding the pipeline, making sure that our win rate is up because that lays the foundation for the years to come. And at the same time, SA is working closely with the BUs to have the right innovation that we've got the right application capability, but also that we've got the right investments that will deliver the growth beyond 27%. Now I wouldn't be a CFO if I would also not be talking about cash and cost. Also on costs, we realize that we need to step up. To support our margin ambition, we have launched a program that will help increase our EBITDA margin by 1%, and it's targeted at 2 areas. On the one hand, we want to drive operating excellence it's under the heading of Emmanuel as Chief Operating Officer, he will be driving the operational performance in all of our BUs. We'll improve our plant efficiencies will seek out where we can improve. AI will help there as well in order to become more effective because that's also the longer term play. It's not about getting the margin up in the short term but improving the margin on a long-term basis. At the same time, we need to be disciplined around our cost. And we see areas where we can grow. We can leverage the global enterprise system more shared services. That is something that we need to leverage. We need to leverage more tooling, but also on the back of the company that we've created whilst we're addressing stranded costs, and I'll come to that in a second, it's also an opportunity to once more look at the model that we have in play and seek those opportunities to optimize. Same time, there's a supplier rationalization. We've delivered quite some synergies on the back of that. We've seen the potential, but there are areas where we can still step up. Take the area of digital and tech, very developing rapidly, and we'll take the opportunity to actually improve our cost base also on that front. So work in progress, clearly driven its own at ExCo level, and we're committed to improving the margin and helping ourselves that on the one hand, you have the leverage element from growth. At the same time, we will apply a good level of self-help to actually get us to where we want to be. At the right side, it's dealing with stranded costs. If you carve out 25% of your business, you're bound to have stranded costs. Now we have experienced were dealing with that and carving that out. So the estimated stranded cost is about EUR 75 million. That's only the upside of the delay in the transaction and gave us even 12 months more time to prepare for that. We already launched an initiative in '24 around this. We have clearly articulated targets with every what we call business partners, function owners, whether you own finance, HR, et cetera, you need to be adjusting your operating model for a company of EUR 9 billion instead of 12. The actions are set, the targets are clear, and we have identified how we will be moving that out of it. And Philip will be driving that in the period ahead. Now every carve-out of the size of that we've done comes with what we call TSA or SLA, a transitional service agreement or a sales level agreement. There's no party that can sustain that because also ANH was leveraging group services. And whilst they become stand-alone, you typically have a period of 12 to 18 months, where you continue to service them which also gives us time to move those costs out of the system. That's why we have the confidence because we've done that in the past. We know how to do that. But that gives you also time to move that cost out of the system. so that your profitability of the company that we created is not impacted. Now cash because it's a nice growth will drive EBITDA. That's the first element of cash. But at the same time, we need to also be disciplined on working capital. And whilst we've made good progress, the slide starts at the left side with a 31% in '23 I think at the merger, one of the questions out of the room was saying, are you guys now focused on working capital because you're even closer to 33%. I said, well, that needs to come down. And we made good progress. We ramped it all the way down. We delivered 27% in 2024, but we need to do more. Now you see the uptick in '25. It's largely inventory driven. So we're today at around 4.8 months of inventory that needs to come down. It needs to be well below 4.5, and we'll continue to drive that. There is a program in place that we're looking at our supply chain operations. But we're confident that we can get it back structurally below 27%. We've done that in '24. We'll get back there. It will take a bit of time to get that out of the system because we also want to make sure that we have the right products and the like. But we will do that. It's mainly inventory and it's receivables. We need to be disciplined around the payment terms, but also around in our overdue in the environment we are. We've seen that creep up a bit to around 6% that needs to come back to 4% where we were in 27%. So we need to apply good discipline on that front end will be structurally below 27%. On the CapEx side, when we started our journey we said we'll be at an elevated level of around 6%, 6.5%. Now that was for the total group. For the core companies, that was around 6.5%. And you've seen that. That's what we've delivered over the last 2 years. that elevated level includes Bovaer for about 1%, 1.5%. Now that will come down. And that also gives us the confidence that we will be investing around 5% of our top line in line with the industry post the completion of Bovaer. So post '27, also that will normalize. And obviously, that will help us realize our cash ambition going forward. Now we wanted to come back on Bovaer as well. It's an interesting investment opportunity. Today, it was mentioned by Maurizio, we have EUR 40 million of sales. We'll continue to grow that in 2026, but we're bound today by the capacity limitation that we've got. As long as the plant is not up and running, we cannot scale. Now today, we're feeding more than 500,000 cars on a regular basis with Bovaer. So it's getting on stream. All the pilots with the dairy companies are successful. And whilst there is from time to time some noise in the market, that happens with every new technology introduction. And some countries are taking a more aggressive stance and making it mandatory. And when you make things mandatory to farmers, then you get a bit more feedback than you may wish, but everybody recognizes the potential and the need. And whilst sustainability as a topic maybe has parked a bit the pledges and the commitments haven't changed. And that's also the engagement when we talk to the dairy companies, that is there. So the question is how fast will it come? Our main priority needs to be finishing the plan so we can operationally grow our business because today, we can't we don't have the capacity to do so. We're limited to what we can produce through the production arrangement that we have put in place. whilst we're building that plant. So it will come. We'll gradually ramp it up to above EUR 200 million, either through state sales or through license models. So that is something that we're constantly working as well, but priority #1 in '26 is completing the plant. Now if you look at the investments on the other side, and I already alluded to that, and they came back also in the other presentation. So we're investing in future-proofing the growth. We're investing in capacity. We're investing in technology. We're investing in ingredients, whether it's in P&B, opening labs, Taste, Texture & Health also into new areas. We built a complete pet food plant in the U.S., also on request of customers, so also ready to grow on that front. And in agency, we continue to expand as well. Then our outlook for '26. So we're going to grow 2% to 4% with a margin of 20% and a cash performance of 11% to 12%. It's a step-up versus '25. Maybe not to step up that you were saying, Hey, Ralf, you showed us 4, 5 great slides, but why don't we see that back. We also want to be a bit careful starting the year we know that we started the year in the first quarter where we kind of left it off in Q4. In Q4, we realized a growth of around 2%, and that's also our guidance for Q1. We will deliver low single-digit growth in Q1 because that's the environment we're in. And that also makes us a bit careful for the year. Whilst the underlying metrics are all driving in the same direction, we will be improving and accelerating our financial performance. we will be cautious with our guidance for 2026. We live in a volatile environment. We don't know how the Middle East is going to pan out, whether it's just a matter of weeks or a prolonged event, we'll see about that. but that's baked into the guidance that we set now. If you then look at how does that translate and Dimitri showed you that slide on how we're bridging it, we also want to provide a perspective on how a normalized growth for the company will look like. And there, you see the step-up in '27 to 46%. With 1% to 2% from normalization, but you also see with the growth actions that we're taking, that gives us the confidence that we will step up our performance. And we also wanted to bridge it towards the midterm target. So by providing that intermediate step in '27, it also shows you the confidence that we are building ourselves on how to get from where we are today into 2028. And I think this is the actions. There is a clear outlay of what are the drivers to actually get us there. But in a normalized business, our normalized growth rate will be around 4% to 6%. And I think that was the question on how does that mean for TTH. So it's a normalized growth of 4% to 6% supplemented by 1% for Bovaer because we will be ramping up after '27. '27 will be a bridging year and then we'll ramp that up. The same for TTH. I think it came into Q&A, 4% to 6% growth but given the impact on the magnitude on the TTH business, that actually contributes 2%. Margin as well continue to step up, by our own efforts by our program we want to have the operational excellence program completed by the end of '27. That's baked into that. And also there, we won't be careful in terms of the guidance, but we've got the levers in place, coupled with the growth to actually get us there. The same for the cash conversion. You've seen that it's working capital and CapEx driven. Now where does that translate into in terms of leverage, we were at 1.9x leverage at the end of the year, looking at the continuing operations. So we landed at EUR 3.3 billion. And here, you see a bit of the moving pieces. On the one hand, you see the operating performance, 11% to 12% operating cash flow, netted off with the tax and APMs and the like. On APMs, I'm specifically calling that out. We had quite some leakage in the past years as well. On the back of the merger, whether it was merger costs, integration cost to realize actually part of the cost synergies, all of that blurred into our cash pictures as well, that will reduce to around EUR 100 million in '26 as well, and that's netted off. And then you see a big blue box, that's the capital return. So we continue to do a dividend of EUR 2.5 a share. So that's a little over EUR 600 million, club that with the share buyback that started today. We're in the market with EUR 540 million. So that's the big block in the middle. And then you see the deal elements. So the debt transfer, remember that we had EUR 500 million of proceeds expected at closing, of which EUR 300 million don't show back in the net leverage because those are pensions and employee liabilities. It's important the rating agencies take it into account. So it's relevant from a rating perspective, a headroom perspective, but not from an IFRS net debt perspective. So I also want to guide specifically, so we don't have a misunderstanding on that one. The EUR 600 million cash coming in and the EUR 200 million cash out for tax and costs. Then leverage, liquidity is important, but the reason why we put in the slide is that we live in a volatile environment, and the last 2 to 3 weeks have shown that. And we had a EUR 1.5 billion maturity because if you merge 2 companies, you live with the legacy of bonds and the like. Now the treasury team has done an excellent job in already refinancing that fully. So we've been in the market a few weeks back. We've also dealt with the refinancing of '26, and that's why we issued the 2 bonds that will now mature in 2031 and 2038. completing a maturity profile which will never have a result in a financing risk because the maximum that you've got in any given year is around 750. Now the rating agencies have looked at our plans as well. They took into account the share buyback and the divestment and they reconfirmed our ratings. We're firmly committed to a strong investment-grade profile because it will help us navigate through any scenario, and it's proven very helpful over time, and that's something that we're committed to as well, and that's baked in. And I think the strongest in the space that we operate in. Now this one I do want to spend a minute on because I talked about leakage earlier on cash. There was also a leakage on earnings per share. And I don't think that, that was clearly articulated when we released our full year results. So if you look at in our core earnings per share, there was a 10% impact from nonrecurring items. With the tuning of the portfolio, we put a couple of companies outside of the group, but obviously, that led also to some value adjustments done by either new ownership. So whether KD Pharma made some value adjustments under the ownership of private equity, but also a few of the others, and that led to a leakage and a value adjustment, which is noncash but it's still flow through our P&L in '25. These are not recurring going forward. So also, the fall-through from the step-up in profit that we will see all the way from EBITDA to EBIT we'll have a much stronger flow through all the way down to earnings per share. So I wanted to make sure that, that was understood and not taking into account that there's a continued leakage because to some investors, especially U.S. earnings per share is absolutely important. So I wanted to make sure that we address that as well. Then last, there was a question around why did you change the definition? It was on the quest of many of you because we were already adjusting for the merger accounting impact, where we had the step-up of intangibles of EUR 10 billion in our capital employed that we need to amortize over time. But why are you not adjusting for the other M&A? We've done that. The impact is not super big, but it's around EUR 130 million, EUR 140 million as well. what we baked that in, and I want to make sure that, that is clearly understood. In the corporate housekeeping slide earlier with the outlook, you'll have all the details. So for modeling purposes, we want to be fully transparent on that. At the right side, a very strong improvement on ROCE as well. We started from the get-go. The reported ROE was around 5% in '23. Now obviously, with the portfolio changes and the definition changes, that was 6%, but what is important is that we realized a 5% step up on that. Part of it because of the portfolio change. It's about half of it. But also in the underlying business results, the ROCE improved by around 2.5%, which is in line with our commitment that we want to continue to step up our ROCE by 1% per year, and we will do that also going forward. Now capital allocation policy. No big news. It's largely in line. We invest in future growth. We gave ourselves a 6.5% up until the completion of over so after that, you'll see that come back to 5%, but that's baked in into our cash target. So the cash target of above 14% has baked this in and will secure the future growth of the company. Then dividend is important. That's why we changed our policy. We want to stick to the EUR 2.5 per share. It's a bit outside the earlier range that we set, but we are confident when we will go back into it, but we also flipped it around from a mindset we want to continue to grow dividend as well. For the first years, it will be stable, but our policy is stable, preferably rising, and we've changed that earlier. M&A we're happy with the portfolio that we created, and that's the portfolio that we will grow. So don't expect any major transformation in '26%, '27. So M&A is not a priority for us in the periods to come. We want to accelerate the financial performance of the company that we created. And that leaves space for capital return. So you've seen the leverage earlier. I'm well placed in the guidance of 1.5 to 2.5x with a 1.9x leverage today. That's why we also launched a EUR 500 million share buyback ahead of collecting the proceeds from the ANH transaction as that is something that is important to us as well. This slide actually shows what we've returned over the past period ever since the merger. So looking at '23, '24, '25 and the proposal for '26, overall, we've distributed around EUR 2.5 billion in dividend and a share buyback of EUR 1.5 billion, returning overall EUR 4 billion to shareholders. And I think that's important as well, and that should translate into a decent yield on the investment. What's also important is in the blue box at the bottom, not to be forgotten. We also took some feedback on that. Overall, we've changed the metric in our long-term incentive program. So we upped the percentage related to total shareholder return. So the relative performance in our share and dividend against peers, so that is now 40%. And we also upped the percentage of ROCE to 30%. So now in the long-term incentive program, so the share program, holds 70% financial metric to make sure that we're absolutely fully aligned in terms of objectives going forward. Now let me wrap up because I'm over time, I'm not so precise as my Italian friend. So -- but the message is important, and this is something that I want to leave you with. The transformation is done. We've created a company on which we will accelerate its financial performance. We'll grow the company, we'll grow our business. We'll apply discipline around cost. We'll apply discipline around cash. And with that, we will increase our financial performance on all 3 key metrics: growth, EBITDA and cash. And I think you've seen an exciting team that is behind that and will deliver on its promises. Thank you. Now good the moment you're here. I'm sure you're anxious with a lot of questions. So Dimitri back on stage and then also the BU Presidents, then we'll do a bit of logistics. We've got ample time, so don't shy away and hesitate for any questions. It's the opportunity to also have the BU presidents. Otherwise, we're uncomfortable with everybody geared up. Dimitri, why don't you...

Yes, let's go.

Sebastian Bray of Berenberg Banca. I have 2, please. One on Taste, Texture and Health. A lot of companies talk about the benefits of GLP-1, but which categories in your experience are actually shrinking and which aside from there you are doing a lot better than would have been the case 3 or 4 years ago? My second question is on the Bovaer project. How has this gone relative to initial expectations, both in terms of cost, facility size and revenue opportunity? And what do you make of some of the more recent headlines coming out of Denmark? I think you alluded to some of the noise around the story. Has anything changed in this?

Maurizio, you first.

Is the mic working?

Yes.

Okay. So interesting question. Actually, it's the question I'm receiving almost every day at the moment. So GLP-1. GLP-1 is a strong trend, attracting a lot of attention. But when you look at the real impact on the market in the short term is not so huge. But clearly, it's an evidence how consumers are shifting dramatically, okay? Now the impact today is very limited. However, what everybody is looking at is the impact of tomorrow. We are well positioned in that space. Why? Who is consuming GLP-1, what it is doing basically? It's kind of reducing dramatically or drastically for a certain period of time, consumption of regular food. And then when it stops, it starts moving into a kind of more dietary supplements or nutrition food. What is the nutritional food they usually use post GLP-1 or during GLP-1? It's high protein, high fiber. And for example, dairy is highly consumed. Now you lose also a lot of muscles. That's why you need to reintegrate the muscle mass through protein and movement. So most of the category, let's say, 1/3 goes after 2 months, 3 months of regular consumption. That's what we have seen. And then the other 2/3, actually, they have a different habit other than normalize, but keep consuming those fibers and protein, those nutrition bars, those dairy products where we are heavily present. Energy drinks sometimes if they feel a little bit the necessity of getting a little bit of energy, and alcoholic drink is not highly consumed, by the way. But this is where the category are shifting. Today, honestly, we don't see a massive impact. In our portfolio, actually, it's the opposite. We get the benefit of high consumption of the product I just mentioned.

The interesting is that you were relating to some of the segments where maybe we'll lose, snacks, right, some of that. We don't see that yet, but any change, any new ingredient will help us in the formulation. Now it's also interesting is, I think there was a note out yesterday from Lindt chocolate, which I really could advise you. I think it's one of the best chocolates of the world. And Lindt indicated that the consumer in the U.S. were taking even more. So they didn't see that breakthrough. I mean that was surprising for me to read because the thought will go down. But it's still too early to say. But what we do see is building on what Maurizio was saying, is GLP-1 is impacting how people think about health. And there's a more aspect, more of fiber, proteins, gut health because it's impacting your gut with probiotics, where we're strong at, and it's less sugar, less fat, less salt, and that's also where we are clearly positioned. So we definitely see it as an opportunity. Now then on Bovaer, let me highlight a few things and then hand over the science question to Sarah. Sarah is also here, a member of our Executive Committee being Chief Science and Research Officer. By the way, Philip is also here at the back. He always likes to sit at the back. He is our M&A Transformation and Strategy Officer. So he can also jump in if he wished. Now Bovaer, so let's start with the sales. It was ramping up quicker than we thought. So there was more appetite than we initially thought in our business case. And we were quickly into a EUR 20 million, EUR 30 million sales with the intermediate capacity we had. And therefore, we also decided with that quick adoption from the branded dairy consumers who all came out with methane reduction pledges, wow, this is great, right? So we decided to scale up the investment in Delry based on that initial acceleration. That created also a slightly more CapEx than we originally had in the case, but also with higher capacity with a little bit of delay because of the extended capacity. Now let's say for sales first. Now that EUR 30 million, EUR 40 million is now our maximum because of the intermediate capacity. And Ralf was already alluding to it, it's a strange world. If some people say that mandatory, you need to take stuff, you get more pushback. And if you say, "oh, this is a great product, let's use it". I think that's a learning from Denmark. But let me make it very clear. This is the most researched ingredient we've ever brought to market at DSM-Firmenich. It's more than 100 studies. It is safe to use. It took a long time before we got EFSA and FDA approval. We've got all of that. In Denmark, very interesting to see is that I think just beginning of this week, there was this Danish National Dairy data out who will check the health of the cows, which was one of the "discussions" in Denmark that health became ill -- cows became ill because of using Bovaer because they needed to use it mandatory. That data came out and there's a health rate for cows. I didn't know there were health rates for cows, but they're managing it. And guess what? The health rate went up. Secondly, the yield, so the production of milk from the cows also went up while still using Bovaer. So we feel very confident that this is a scientific proven safe to use ingredient. But hearing that from me as a CEO, you could say, yes, okay, what do you know about all the science, so I want to ask Sarah just to give the real science behind it.

Thank you, Dimitri. And I think that for part of your answer, it's the first time ever that you undersold. And in fact, that we've done 153 clinicals with Bovaer and the evidence is super, super clear of the significant reduction of methane production as well as that the health of the animals is not impacted. So I think you undersold that by saying just above 100 because it was 153. The other really important thing that you're talking about is with 153 studies, we have a lot of data. And what we started seeing in some of these clinicals is some anecdotal evidence of increased health of the animals or increased fat in your milk content, which is something that's important to dairy producers. And so this is where we're really digging into those data to try to identify some other key elements. That's an ongoing research project that we're doing, but we're excited about that aspect.

But coming back to your question. So I think after an initial faster ramp-up, we have had a delay, partly incurred by ourselves, but also partly because of all the turmoil around it. And obviously, with the U.S. backing and parking a little bit sustainability. However, like I said, and I think Maurizio was also alluding to it, I think, on an earlier question on Bovaer, our dairy customers want to talk to us, obviously, because of a great engine we built on TTH, but also about Bovaer because they have publicly made methane pledges for reduction. So it's still very high on the agenda, but I think we will -- we are about 1 year late in our plan going forward.

It's Matthew Yates from Bank of America. There's a lot of information to digest today. I appreciate the work that's gone into it. And Ralf, in particular, trying to sort of bring it all together and summarize it at the end. I wanted to ask you about the margin guide for this year, around 20% because as you said, your exit rate last year was getting up to that level. What's going to hold you back this year? Is it incremental currency? Is it the mechanics of the TSA? Do we need to be more patient for mix? Like what's -- maybe I am being greedy, but why not more margin expansion this year? And second question, if I can, is for Emmanuel on P&B business. You talked about shedding the nondifferentiated ingredients. It's still a EUR 900 million portfolio. How much of that is truly differentiated versus something that could see competitive pressures over time?

Could you give the mic to your neighbor, who will go next.

All right. Let me start with the margin. Great question. Of course, that's where we landed in the second half. If you look at it on average, we are around 20%. But at the same time, we wanted to be a bit careful when we're starting the year. You pointed out one clear lever, which is currency. We have about a EUR 70 million headwind ahead of us, taking into account that we hedge about half of the exposure that we've got. And it's in the slide with the housekeeping rules that we've reduced that exposure also following the revision of the portfolio. So our dollar exposure came down about 15%, 20%. But moreover, our Swiss exposure decreased by about 40%. So that is a good reduction, but it's still there. That obviously has a bit of pressure, certainly at the start of the year. So -- because that's where the majority of that impact is. And with the environment that we're in, we just also want to be a bit careful around our margin, whilst at the same time, take the actions that we highlighted in the presentation. So we will be working on improving. But as we're guiding at the start of the year, we want to be a bit careful on that.

With regard to Ingredients, we -- at this stage, you're right, it's around EUR 900 million total revenue for Fragrance Ingredients. And we -- today, we consider 85% is differentiated. And as I was trying to explain, so first of all, it's composed of synthetic, naturals and biotech. So it's not only synthetic one exposed sometimes to Chinese competition. So it's much broader than what it is. And as I'm trying to explain, every year, there is a continuous cleaning and at the same time, innovation flow. So we produce new innovation every year. We clean the portfolio from, let's say, less of a specialty outside of the portfolio from make to buy. And also, we have also a very interesting ecosystem where we have alliance with some producers, but also joint ventures, and we play with joint ventures and alliance in making this really ingredient machine being the best differentiated machine of the industry.

By the way, in addition to the EUR 900 million you're referring to, we also have our captive ingredients. So it's end-to-end.

Now maybe I wanted to add something also. Please have in mind that with our ingredient, we want to serve our perfumery product, okay? So when -- in fact, and we have sometimes limitation of capacity sometimes. So we always put -- I would say, we make sure that perfumery is -- and our perfumer will be happy by feeling that. At the same time, we also like to have a very solid business outside of the internal use in order to bring competitiveness, in order to bring size, scale. So that's why it's a combination of internal use and external sales.

[indiscernible] from Impax Asset Management. My question is on the pipeline. You mentioned it's very active at the moment. Can you perhaps break it down by business unit, by type of customer, category, just to help us understand where this activity is happening? And there seems to also be a delay in converting some of that pipeline into sales. So what's causing that delay? Why are the customers sitting on the sidelines? What are they waiting for essentially?

So we do business unit by business unit because I think it's per business unit is slightly different. I think it's important to understand, and I think Emmanuel said it very well, but it's valid for all BUs. If you win a brief, it doesn't mean that tomorrow, you have sales. You win a brief and then together with the customer, there's a launch of the product and then it comes, there's always a bit of a delay. But the winning ratio are obviously important to get a bit of a forecast on what the sales is. But let's do a quick round on what's in your pipeline. Let's not dissect it in all types of dimension you wanted to. We have a fact book where you can find a little bit on how that's been done. But just to give your key areas of what you're most excited about in the pipeline, if I may rephrase your question a little bit. Let's go with the Swiss.

Some of the -- when you look at our pipeline is growing. So it means that we have a project with customers that show interest in what we are generating. Now I was showing the synergies pipeline, the EUR 450 million, which is very proportion of the overall pipeline. In our portfolio, however, it's not just the pipeline that generates growth. We have existing product on the market that are still growing, but they fluctuate depending on consumers and the economic situation is evolving. But if you focus just on the pipeline, in our business, you transform your pipeline in 10 to 15 months, okay? Because you work on the project. The more you bring innovation technology, the more require work with the customer. So the project in the pipeline, you see it. One is adopted. That's where we shift the positioning of the project, it is adopted by the customer, then it is converted into sales. That's the way it works. In our industry it takes -- really this process takes between 12 to 15 months. Then depending on the economic situation, can boost, can soften, but that's the dynamic. Now we are very well positioned on pipeline. Actually, you have seen we have a very, very strong pipeline. Now we are very cautious in our numbers. We are very cautious on the economic situation, as I was saying. Without the current economic situation, we will keep flying in TTH, we're flying 4 to 6, 5 to 7. But we are very cautious on the current moment. So we are not over selling what we are doing.

Alex?

So in the case of HNC, the dynamics are similar. The only caveat or the difference would be that, as I explained earlier, the solution selling is more recent for HNC. So we're scaling up the pipeline. We've done that over the last few months, and we're looking at a pretty solid win rate. So we're confident and to deliver on the synergies and on the growth side. So we're scaling up the size of the pipeline as we speak.

The pipeline on Consumer & Beauty has always been extremely big, I would say. And remember, there were 3 different categories, the ingredients, the fragrance design and the technology. Now I think I wanted to answer to your question as following. We decided to split the organization from the global consumer brands to the local consumer brands because the speed from research, innovating and deploying is faster, much more faster than what it is with the global consumer brands and then sometimes also in Fine Fragrance. So that's why overall, we will accelerate the deployment, thanks to, I would say, the increase of our focus on the regional consumer brands.

I think that's an important point. Remember that I said that Emmanuel is working on building up that regional local percentage, so it's 40-60. In TTH, it's about 80% local, 20% global. And with Alex, we discussed it's 60-40. So the real growth is in the regional ones. Let's not forget the global ones, but we need -- and so that pipeline -- so this is the pipeline, which you most alluded to '26, '27 but we also have a pipeline on science and research, which has maybe a slightly longer time, but we're also here to build a company for the future. So what is in your pipeline, Sarah?

Yes. Well, there's a lot in our pipeline. I think one thing that you would understand is the great power that we have at DSM Firmenich and our innovation is we have platforms that can serve all of the businesses. So for instance, you heard Alex talking a lot about healthy aging. And we have a platform of studying cell senescence. So that's basically when cells as you age stop dividing, but they stay around and they actually make the other cells around you start aging faster. And this, we first launched in our beauty business and -- but we have now leveraged it and start screening it for healthy aging products for Alex's business in HNC. These same types of platforms are being used also in TTH for pet care. And so this is one example of leveraging that power of the group to develop products for all 3. The same is true in the microbiome. Everyone thinks about health from the gut, which is super important, not just for your gut health, but your mental health and everything. But you also have a microbiome on your skin, in your oral cavity. So it's super important for our oral care business in Perfumery & Beauty. And so leveraging the expertise we have in microbiome across all of our businesses to have a big impact in the next -- both mid and long term.

And I think it's important for you to understand why we have these 3 business units as the core of DSM-Firmenich. It has to do with the scale of science and research you do. Let's go back on the innovation platform. Microbiome is as a platform working for HNC, TTH and also P&B in the skin care area. Then biotechnology, building the biotech ingredient for the toolbox is valid for all 3. They all have fermentative products in their ingredient toolbox. Three, it's all about sensor and receptor technology. Now you could say, well, is that all 3. yes, all 3. Perfumery & Beauty, obviously, then also in TTH. But Alex was speaking about medical nutrition, about the taste. So also the sensory and receptor technology competence we're building is really having scale for all 3. And then last but not least, AI, and we're all working on that. And that is helping all BUs. So we have that scale. Therefore, I was saying the 9 billion, you really need the 9 billion, 10 billion companies to see to have that scale for innovation and science research to really make that difference.

I think that what's also really important, what you highlighted, Dimitri, is it's not just -- in modern science, it's not just about single science capabilities. And in fact, as we talked about, the bedrock of DSM Firmenich is our unique ingredients, be it hero ingredients in Alex's HNC business or our captives for perfumery. And we combine our data science technology with that of receptor technology, biotechnology, all of that combined to be able to discover new ingredients that can perform in the different business units. And so it's that combination that can help you go faster and deliver unique differentiated products that also makes us special.

Chetan from JPMorgan. I had a few questions. I'm just taking the liberty of Ralf saying now is the time to ask questions. So I'll be short. First, I just wanted to understand this concept of market normalization of 1% to 2% growth. I know you're not the only one, some of your competitors also talk about it, but what will normalize? Because I can also argue, you benefited in the last 3 years from the super cycle in fragrances, which probably nobody saw. So why would that not normalize on the other side, which is on the downside? So I'm just curious what is this market normalization that we should have in mind, which will drive that 1% to 2% incremental growth over the next 12 to 18 months? The second question I had was -- just curious on this cost optimization program that you are talking about, which is 1%, again, margin improvement next year. How should we put that into context of company trying to grow more at the same time cutting costs? Usually, you want to reinvest more to grow more. It just seems a bit uncorrelated in a way. And last question, any impact you've seen from the Middle East conflict in any of your businesses, whether on fragrances, on raw materials? And is there any seasonality on margins that we should have in mind? Is 20% a good number for all of 2026?

Let's start Middle East first with the impact on Q1, and I will do normalization.

Yes, happy to do that. So Middle East, I think it's a little early to call that out. Maybe framing it first, what is our business in the Middle East. So overall, we have about EUR 250 million sales in the region. Now the big question is, of course, is this an event of a couple of weeks? Or will it drag on much longer? We're currently anticipating that it's a matter of weeks and that things will then stabilize. If you look at it, we're, of course, doing our homework, what's on the back of that. Now if you look at, for example, energy and the like, we're 80% hedged for the quarter in Q1. We've got a good hedge rate going into the second quarter and the rest of the year. But obviously, there's always some sensitivity around it. So we don't expect big on the top line, could always be a couple of million around that, but on the impact on the quarter, but let's see how that overall develops into the year. I think at this point, it's a little early, but obviously, we're looking at it, and we're preparing ourselves to deal with that.

And our Middle East sales is about?

Sorry?

Our Middle East sales.

Middle East total is around EUR 250 million across all of the 3 BUs with obviously a bigger presence in P&B than for TTH and HNC.

So then maybe on the cost part, you need to see this as hygiene. So we're not walking away from investment in science and research, neither on the normalized CapEx of 5. So we're not jeopardizing growth. It's just hygiene. If you merge the company, you've done your portfolio tuning. You need to do some hygiene work that will deliver the 1%. It sounds easier while I'm saying it. It is executed in steps, but has nothing to do in touching on the growth. It's hygiene after the whole transformation. Then coming back on the normalization. Yes, it's a sort of a favorite term everybody uses, and we don't know exactly what the definition of it. But I think it's clearly indicating that the second half of last year, we saw some slowdown with cautious consumer behavior. We labeled that as something that will normalize. And it's clearly indicated that we need some normalization to get the step up from 2% to 4% to 4% to 6%. Now you've seen that if that is a half year, it's about a 1% growth. If that continues for the full year, it could be 2%, but it's not as scientifically proven as the answers Sarah normally gives, but it gives you a bit of a feel on how we think. We think that -- and I said it before, if there is a lot of uncertainty, consumers become a bit cautious and then they either pile stock or they destock. Well, in this case, it was destocking. And if you look at our customer behavior, we do see that stocks are relatively low in the chain because you get all types of urgent orders and the like. Now that is now in the Middle East situation, even more exaggerated in that space. But we feel that, that will normalize to normal levels and then that's the 1% to 2%, which we've indicated on -- based on what we see in the second half of last year. That's all. No rocket science. I think there was a question on the -- is behind you, was it? Then I come back.

Yes, a couple of questions. Alex from Barclays. On HNC, I think -- thanks for the presentation. You mentioned upfront, you didn't think the end markets were particularly discretionary. But at the same time, you did call out the slowdown there being in part by weaker consumer confidence in North America. So could you kind of like square that disconnect for us? Is it -- are you actually seeing slower growth in the end market from the end consumer? Or is this about destocking? And maybe which areas have you seen most pressure? And then maybe if I could ask a second one, just coming back to the normalization point. If you could get a bit more granular, what would the maybe 3 end markets that you would sort of most expect normalization to occur? Could you sort of call those out?

So great catch, Alex, on the discretionary and nondiscretionary. So I mentioned part of the portfolio is nondiscretionary, another part is. And if you look at the segments of HNC that I shared, probably dietary supplement is the one where you could say, nah, do I really need to continue when I need to fill my kids and my family. And actually, if you look at North America, and that's where it's crossing, we have eye health that is mainly dietary supplement and is purely in North America or mostly. And then our consumer ingredients is also quite big in dietary supplement in North America. So that's where it's crossing.

And then to your normalization bit, I think Perfumery & Beauty have shown in Q3 and Q4 that they're pretty solid in their growth area. So it's predominantly in TTH and HNC. Building on what Alex just said, the normalization in North America, very important for us also in HNC and then maybe the global accounts, which I was also referring to it. If you come to a brief and you win a brief and you need to create a global product launch, that's a big investment. In uncertainties, then people wait a little bit for that normalization and the launch then will come. We also saw that during COVID, post-COVID a bit. We see that cautious launch idea from global customers. So 2 areas, global customers with the timing of product launches and secondly, the North America continent. Yes, can we go on the right side?

Sebastian from Citi. Two questions, please. First one on your '28 margin target. The majority of the uplift is supposed to come from operating leverage. I think the industry doesn't have the greatest track record of delivering operating leverage. So just wanted to understand what gives you the confidence, bearing in mind that cost synergies are behind us already. Second question on Bovaer again. When it was still called Clean Cow, I think you gave us a number of EUR 1 billion to EUR 2 billion, and now we see EUR 200 million plus on the slide. If you could just contrast those 2 figures, please?

I'll do Bovaer.

I'll do the margin. Thanks for the question. So if you look at it, it consists of a couple of things. So on the one hand, we'll apply a good level of self-help to actually drive up the margin. At the same time, it's leveraging the growth. You also see that, and I think the biggest example is if you look back on the development in TTH, 7% organic growth, 2 years straight, a 13% step-up in EBITDA, 2 years straight. I think that is the driver also for the margin. So with our confidence in moving towards 4% to 6% growth across the businesses, moving in the right areas on where we're growing because we want to accelerate the growth in the higher-margin businesses, that will drive that uplift. So if you look at the margin breakdown, leverage is one, self-help is one, but then also Bovaer, it has an above-average margin. So it will not only help acceleration of the growth from a group perspective, but also from a margin perspective.

And I think we've shown a little bit of leverage throughout the period. Then on Bovaer, indeed, the total market we're seeing is EUR 1.5 billion and EUR 2 billion. it's billion. It's still there. What we're talking about is the Delry site, where we make one site on Bovaer, which is predominantly servicing Europe and also doing the premarketing for the U.S. and building that market. So we think the market will need 7, 8 of these plants. Let me also make that very clear. We will not build those plants. We will create that concept, proof of concept in Delry. We'll build that business. And then we go for, and I think Ralf also alluded to it in his presentation for a license and technology model. So we basically sell the technology and the license and then we get royalties back based on every kilogram of Bovaer sold. That's the idea. And therefore, the top line will be limited to above the EUR 200 million because that's a Delry site, but we will help our EBITDA and our net profit evolution from that when we do that licensing. Now we have had discussions in Asia. China is a possible opportunity. Brazil is a possible opportunity. But they're all saying, great idea, we're interested, but we want to see the site up and running. I could basically not blame them because I think if you pay for a license and a technology, you want to see how that works. So therefore, it's very important to have that Delry site up and running commercially in 2027, so we can also take that next step. So the EUR 1.5 billion to EUR 2 billion is absolutely still there. This was the turnover linked to one site. I think there was another question, maybe to your neighbor.

Wim Hoste, KBC Securities. I have 3 questions, please. First one on HMO. Can you elaborate a bit on the regulatory framework, also the kind of contract book you have, how fast you're going to expect the ramp up towards the high penetration rates that you cited in the presentation? So that's about HMO first question. Second one is on the eye health business. What's the ambition to broaden that geographically but also product-wise? Is that a possibility? And then the third question on TTH. Do you see, yes, any impact from consumer being constrained going towards private label and things like that? Any thoughts on that?

So on the HMO question, we have registered our HMOs in over 100 countries. And as we speak -- so on the first 3 HMOs and as we speak, we're registering the rest. So the pipeline is there. We already have good engagement with the local authorities. The first part is always the most cumbersome part. So once you have developed that first route, the first HMOs, the next ones are a bit easier. And I include China in this, even though China has very strict and relatively long processes, longer than what we expected. Once the route is open, it's much easier and faster. So that's on the HMOs. Does that answer your question? Or what is...

You can put a bit more numbers to this.

So I hope we'll be around EUR 100 million in the period, of course. I will not disclose the exact number where we are today, but the traction is good. And building on what Alex said, I mean, we've got 3 HMOs approved and we've got 7 in the pipeline and that there's a lot of development there, but we all the time guided for EUR 100 million over the midterm period. And you can look at him whether he's confident in that or not.

And it's not that we don't want to be transparent. I hope you understand that this is live. And I know there are a few competitors out there who carefully listen to what Alex and ourselves are saying, right. You had that second question.

Yes, we're shifting the category. Now on eye health, right, that was your other question. So look, North America is the biggest dietary supplement market in the world. We want to make sure that we have that market opportunity under control before we start spreading the brands left and right. Having said that, we have signed an agreement of a licensing model of our brands in China. We have signed that a couple of months ago. We get royalties for that. And in Brazil, we're partnering with a similar model with a big pharma company that has the exclusivity of distributing our cultural brand, and we're starting later this year. But we're doing that very selectively in large markets, but our focus remains North America.

And it's a good point. I'll come back. So it's a good point. Let's also make sure that we tried that earlier in China. And we also learned from failures we made. So you really need to do that locally and not with a global mindset. It's not going to work. So that's why we do the licensing model with someone locally in the area because there it is too ideal to think that we can do it from the U.S. or Europe. Then I think you had a third question.

Good question. In this kind of a current situation, you will see a shift of a consumer moving from some brands to private label. Ours is a normal transition. So we are present in those segments or sales channels as we call them. And we constantly see this kind of shifts when the geopolitical or the economic situation shifts. We saw a lot during COVID. Usually, it's a transition, but going back to discussion normalization, you see this flow moving back and forth. But our technologies, our products fulfill the needs on all segments. So for us, it's very easy to shift. Actually, on private label, you have a fastest implementation of certain projects, especially during this time, they want to shift to launch new projects. So it's quite an opportunity for us.

So we love our customers. But at the end of the day, we don't care whether it's a private label or a branded label or whatever label as long as our ingredients are in. Let's stay on the left-hand side.

Charlie from UBS. Two quick ones for me. First one is when we talk about the normalization, part of the issue has been the amount of value focus that a lot of your particularly global customers have put through. Is there ever a discussion from your side where you say, look, if you're going to keep taking pricing, we need to grow too. We need to start taking pricing over and above raw materials. I know that's not an industry norm, but is that something that you've considered given their approach? And I guess linked to that, we talk about organic sales growth targets. Why not organic volume growth targets if that isn't going to change? And then my second one is a very quick one for Ralf. On ROCE, 11% last year, is it 13% to 14% by '28 based on the targets? Is that rough math the right way to think about the ROCE?

Let's start with that, and then I come back on OHT. We would love that we grow with 5% and a minus 5% on price. So look, let's park that.

I think you would like it in the end. Now on the ROCE, yes. So we'll continue to grow by 1% per year. So that is also what we're targeting in the medium term going forward. We need to do a step up with the focus and the acceleration of underlying performance, you should see that flow-through of EBITDA and EBIT and with that the step-up in ROCE.

And then I think a very fair question. So we manage the business on gross margin. So let's make it a little bit black and white. So at the end of the day, we don't really care what the price is because it depends on what's in the brief. So all these business unit presidents and all our organizations get a brief. And on the upper right corner of that brief is a sort of a range of which the solution we offer, the formulation we bring should fit in. If we're outside that range, if we are outside the upper side of that range and it's too costly, they're not interested. So the request is already in that range. That's one. Secondly, we sometimes make higher margin on lower-priced products than with higher-priced products, because of the margin step-up and the brief how we do that. Because at the end of the day, if it's a high range, you can play with more ingredients in your solution. If they want to do a bit of a mass positioning, then you need to -- you are a bit limited in terms of which ingredients you can use. However, the margin setup is important for us. So we track the margin as one of the key areas. Now on our guidance on 2% to 4%, but also the 4% to 6% plus 1% on Bovaer, the key element is volume growth. So it's not like volume growth 0 and the rest should come from prices. Because of that, we assume that it is -- a big part is volume growth. However, if we move up on our higher quality portfolio, obviously on average, your price should go up as well, save [indiscernible]. Now in this today's world, there is no [indiscernible], which is to give a bit of feedback on how we look at that. But this is really market-driven growth, which will be predominantly come from volume. Yes, and we switch to the right. Martin was so courageous to be on the first.

This is Martin Roediger from Kepler Cheuvreux. I have 2 clarification questions. First is on your midterm target timeline 2028 plus. Do I understand that correctly that you want to achieve targets in the year 2028 and also beyond? And secondly, related to that, the 4% to 6% organic top line growth, plus 1% contribution from Bovaer, that is just for 2028 and beyond, but not the average over the period 2024 to 2028? And then secondly, on Bovaer, in particular, you target more than EUR 200 million sales. My understanding was that the plant in Delry will already generate EUR 200 million sales. So the plus figure is coming from the license income you may get from sales and other regions. Is it the right understanding? And in connection to that, what will happen with the EUR 30 million to EUR 40 million sales you generate today with partners? Will that stay and come on top to the EUR 200 million sales you generate in Delry? Or will that vanish?

Yes, happy to take the question around the target. So with the guidance, and that's why we also showed it that we have '26, '27 and a step up to '28. We want to deliver those targets in '28. But we also said a plus beyond -- we guided for a midterm target. The midterm target would not be only for '28. Now that is the target that we will realize in '28 and then after. Now why we also set a normalized growth of 4% to 6% plus 1% on Bovaer, whilst we're ramping up and we're expecting that ramp up, over time, there will also be a moment when that will start normalizing and that will not be an internal growth. So that's why we said, look, let's first get that. Let's also bridge it on how to get there. But I also want to stress and come back to the point where Dimitri finished. We are focused on '26 and '27 to deliver and lay the foundation to get there. But we also wanted to say, look, that's the company that we created. And with that Bovaer coming into play, that's where we need to be at in '28, but it will not grow forever because the acceleration moment of Bovaer at some point will level off as will synergies. But the focus is on getting to that range in line with the earlier commitment.

Okay. Then on Bovaer. So indeed, the EUR 30 million, EUR 40 million will then move to the Delry production. So that's not on top of. It will be produced by Delry at a slightly better cost of goods sold than we now pay for the intermediates. So that helps a little bit the profitability. Obviously, we will take a little bit as a sort of a second backup supply, but the EUR 30 million, EUR 40 million, that was also a little bit the idea behind it that we do the premarketing so that we already have the capacity partly filled the moment that we start up the Delry facility. Maybe -- and then you had your question on EUR 200 million, why is the plus. So the EUR 200 million -- above EUR 200 million is linked to the Delry site. So any other deals we do will then be additional ones, right? So -- and the additional deals will not be that we build a plant and sell. So then you will see a limited number of sales growth, but that goes one-on-one into your bottom line, right? So the EUR 200 million plus over will be the turnover, and then we go into the different models of capitalizing on the value. We go back. Now we go -- we stay left. All right for the room. Ladies first. We have only one mic. Sorry, I didn't see. Okay. I'm okay.

Lisa from Morgan Stanley. I just wanted to bring it back to your EBITDA margin and the question from Sebastian. You talked about that your margin would be driven by higher value opportunities. But you feel that your margin has already benefited from very strong growth in cultures and enzymes as well as in Fine Fragrance. So it would be helpful to understand where these high-margin subsegments are hiding. And I can sort of think of sun filters potentially, but it would be good to sort of hear that from you. And then secondly is a small question on HNC. You structuring the Q&A on solution selling. How much of HNC today is solution selling? And how should we think about the opportunity there? And also, where do you see cross-selling opportunities with your colleagues in P&B and TTH?

Let's start with Alex and then maybe also jump on how you improve your EBITDA by growing faster in the high margin, and then we do the same for TTH and P&B.

So broadly, roughly, 1/4, as I mentioned, of our portfolio in HNC is vitamin, differentiated vitamins. The 100 that Ralf mentioned on HMOs down the line. The rest is linked to solution selling and I include eye health in this, even though it's a B2C or a B4C, it is a solution to consume. So that's more or less what you would have. And your second question was on the cross-selling opportunities. So we do have customers in common with TTH in particular. And we do see opportunities that we have captured already of opening doors if it's a customer of TTH interested in broadening the portfolio into supplements or adjacencies that is working and vice versa, whether global or also regional players. So this is a reality already.

TTH, high growth, higher margin.

High growth, high margin. We grow the margin because we selected the portfolio in line with the high profitable business. The opportunity at the strategy I presented are all focusing on fast-growing, high-margin businesses. If you look at those, I presented the 6, they are all high margin. We have quite good margin average at the moment, I would say. But through those investments, we will clearly get where we want to go. I'm quite confident about it.

But it's gradual because if you grow the upper end, it takes a while before that really has an end. But if you do that a couple of years, then you...

Yes, it's true. We made investment for Simple Enzymes with -- we have the best expert in the room, Dirk, managing ingredients. We invested in our major site and in China, EUR 70 million, where we are expanding the capacity or scaling up a certain enzymes. This will bring just a very, very high margin into the portfolio. Cultures is another area where we're going to grow substantially the margins and Taste is an average high-margin business. So the more we combine the solution, the more we grow the margin in the mix of our portfolio.

Close with P&B?

You remember the slide where we show Accelerate as a clear priority. It was about Fine Fragrance. It was about skin care, where I put skin care is a part of Beauty & Care. So today, some filters is under recovery mode. You saw that quarter after quarter from a very big drop in Q1 2025, but gradually, we improve this moving forward. So I think the accelerate of Fine Fragrance and Skin Care will also help to increase our margin. Now I think also a big bunch of the margin growth will come from the volume growth and operational excellence. I did not insist too much before in my presentation. And you're right, in the field of perfumery operational excellence, sometimes a bit difficult to be developed, but it is really what we are doing as we speak, coming together between ingredients and fragrance to really make operational excellence being a reality.

[indiscernible] from Impax. So a question on TT&H, please. Some of your global customers have spoken publicly about various levers that they could pull to drive volume growth. It could be promotions, innovation, perhaps taking prices down. I appreciate that it's early days. But from your perspective, which of those have been most and least effective?

TTH.

You talk about customers?

Exactly, your global customers.

But I would say the most effective at the moment are the internal growth are the local customers are more agile, they address, they are closer to customers. Now I never will count only on one set of customers because the consumers really are first very, very close to A brands and they love A brands. So maybe there are shifts in, let's say, a quarter or two, but then they always come back to A brands. So you don't let A brands go. In terms of driving growth, one element is bringing innovation, innovative solution, more healthy products. We mentioned GLP-1. GLP-1 require a lot of work on when you work with the fibers or protein to work on the off notes and balance the taste. Like Alex was saying, you won't use medicine if they don't taste good, but the food is even more important. The food doesn't taste good, you won't buy even if it's the most healthy beneficial food you can eat. So those are where with Sarah, we're working constantly receptor-based technology, clean label through enzymes and cultures. That's where you generate the growth and the margins.

You're pretty lonely on the first row.

I thought I would be part of the company. I'll give you my CV later. Giles Money from Allianz. Just trying to -- maybe one for Ralf, but the buyback philosophy post the EUR 500 million, there's a few moving parts. Obviously, I've got to think about the RCF. I've got to think about other things. But is there any chance you could just share some philosophy beyond that EUR 500 million?

Why the EUR 500 million?

Well, why that? And then afterwards, what kind of -- what are you thinking about as an expectation?

Is there more to come?

Yes. I know, it was -- that's why I was asking. So no, the EUR 500 million, obviously, it's always a bit of a balancing act where you look at, look, where am I in my leverage? What's the target range that I want to do? And we communicated a leverage ratio of 1.5 to 2.5. I think earlier in the year, I said, look, I'm comfortable being a bit more at the conservative side navigating through. At that point, we didn't have the visibility on closing the transaction, whilst we were confident as long as you don't have a signature, there's nothing you can do. And that's why we also looked at why EUR 500 million. We're always balancing around our ratios as well and looking at where are we from a rating perspective, whilst at the same time, keeping sufficient flexibility to navigate any circumstance that you come through. And we are at 1.9x leverage at the end of the year. I think that's a comfortable level somewhere in the middle. And that's why we're balancing. And that's why we also said looking at our capital allocation, next is that we want to invest in the growth and its dividend. You do want to give yourself space for M&A and then capital returns. But whilst we also said, look, our task now is to focus on executing and upping the financial performance of what we've got, that opens the door for capital returns while keeping the metric in play. We want to have an efficient balance sheet, not a lazy one. That's why we also said, look, the EUR 500 million will keep us there. And if you look at where I am today, I started with a EUR 1.9 billion. I'm going to spend the share buyback. We're in the market as of today. So that's gone, before I actually have to proceed. So it's also navigating that landscape with the rating agencies because I'm getting ahead of myself. Normally, my CEO would say saying, well, you should first get the money before you spend it. But this is also showing us the confidence that we will be able to navigate through that, and that's also what we discussed with the rating agencies. But it's that balancing act was at the same time saying, look, we will have an efficient balance sheet going forward. And through that lens, we're going to look at that.

But basically, in short, I think we showed the evidence that we're not sitting on our money just to go. We clearly indicated M&A is not a priority if you take the policy. My answer will be we cross that bridge when we're there. Okay, also looking at lunch to be prepared, but I mean we are here for all of you. We can continue the conversation. Is there a final last question and then we move into lunch. I think it's worthwhile to spend the time. I appreciate all the questions and your interest. But is there any last question you want to raise in the plenary session before we go for lunch? No, the magic word has been lunch. So yet again, thanks a lot. We've gone through a lot. Really appreciate that we took the time to go through. I hope you get the feel that we will grow what we have with all what we have, anchor what we do and deliver on the promises, just not for 1 quarter, but consistently over the quarters, over the years with a clear pathway to the type of company we want to become. Thanks for your interest and speak to you at lunch. Thank you.