Fagron NV ($FAGR)

Hello. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Fagron's First Quarter 2026 Trading Update. I'm joined today by our CEO, Rafael Padilla; and our CFO, Karin de Jong. We will open the floor for questions at the end of the session. With that, I will hand over to Rafael.

Thank you, Ignacio, and good morning all. We're pleased to report a solid quarter with revenues of EUR 263 million, representing 10.3% growth. Results were driven by outstanding performance in LatAm and strong contributions from our M&A. Brands continue to perform well across the board, supported by our innovation capabilities and commercial strategy. Operational excellence initiatives also continue to deliver benefits. During the quarter, we completed the acquisition of Pharmavit in the Netherlands and strengthening our position in the nutraceutical ingredients market. Also worth mentioning that Pharmavit integration, together with all previously announced acquisitions are progressing as planned. On guidance, we are maintaining our top line outlook of mid- to high single-digit organic growth at CER. On profitability, we expect a margin of circa 20% for the year, reflecting the Pharmavit acquisition. We also expect H2 to be stronger than H1. Moving on to the regional dynamics. EMEA reported a steady performance with all segments contributing. B&E performance was driven by innovative product launches and the continued rollout of our global brands strategy. Compounding Services benefited from strong demand and new customer wins across the region. Turning to LatAm. We've seen an outstanding growth this quarter, mainly driven by brands in Brazil, together with contributions from Purifarma and Vepakum. Brands continue to deliver strong momentum, driven by our innovation power and targeted commercial strategy. In North America Pacific, organic growth was positive despite the absence of GLP-1-related revenues. B&E delivered strong growth, supported by new product launches, higher product availability and improved operational performance. In Compounding Services, the underlying business remains strong and continues to benefit from portfolio expansion and new customer wins. And as already explained, the GLP-1 comparatives will normalize throughout the year. Finally, our investments in Las Vegas and Wichita facilities are progressing as planned. Moving on to our outlook. We are maintaining our revenue guidance of mid- to high single-digit organic growth at CER. We expect profitability margin of circa 20%, reflecting the PharmavVit acquisition. PharmavVit brings EUR 62 million in annual revenues with an EBITDA margin of around 14%. And in line with our integration plan, we are confident in bringing the margins towards group's level within 18 to 24 months. Our CapEx will remain at around 3.5% of revenues, excluding the previously announced one-off projects. To conclude, the start of the year shows the resilience of our business model, consisting of predictable growth and continued progress on quality and operational excellence. We also continued with our disciplined M&A strategy and are now heavily focused on integration and value creation. This performance builds on a long-term track record. We also remain confident in the underlying drivers of our end markets and our ability to deliver the midterm targets. With that, let us open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Michael Heider from Berenberg Bank.

I have 4 questions, if I may. The first one is on the U.S. market. Can you describe the underlying market momentum at the moment? Were there any other effects influencing your organic growth besides the GLP-1 recall or impact? Second question is on -- can you please give an update on the integration activities, especially Purifarma and Pharmavit? Third question, just a quick reminder, are there any acquisitions that are not closed yet? And then last one, congratulations on the very strong results in Latin America. Can you give us an example of the innovative products and the commercial initiatives that you have taken in Latin America to support the growth there?

Yes. Thanks a lot, Michael. Thank you for your nice questions. On the U.S. market dynamics, we see that after the whole GLP-1 momentum that we had last year, I mean, the market in general, the compounding industry was strengthened by that fact. So this means that there is more resource to invest in the underlying market by the compounding industry. Remember, there are around 4,000 compounding pharmacies. It's the biggest market in the world in terms of value, volume is Brazil. As you know, this, together with the fact that in the hospital market, you see that quality and regulation is improving as we have been discussing during the conference last time some weeks ago, remember, we said that the FDA is increasing the quality and regulation standards. So this means that hospitals need to push the more outsourcing also for some small players. So you see that this is a clear tailwind for us. So when you take this one together with the fact we were saying at the beginning that there are more resources for those customers of us to increase their market exposure, visit to doctors, also investing a lot in platforms, telehealth platforms. So you see that the underlying market is increasing. So we see now a good momentum there, and we are, of course, benefiting for that -- from that. And also remember as well that we are challengers in the segments that we operate. We have clear 3 segments where we operate. The first one is the B&E, so the raw materials and our branded products. And we are here a clear challenger behind Medisca. Then we have, of course, the health and wellness, so prevention and lifestyle. And here, of course, we are #2 as well. So we also have an opportunity to gain market share in those 2 segments. And the third one, the hospital outsourcing, we also have a possibility to grow there because we are clear #2. So next to the fact that the underlying market is growing, we also have a chance to grab market share.

Yes. Michael, so on the second question on the integration status of Purifarma and Vepakum. So let's start with the Brazilian one. Purifarma is a big one. So approximately BRL 200 million of sales with 10% EBITDA margin, so well below the group average. There's a clear synergy case for that, and it has to do with the centralization of logistics, but also manufacturing, back-office activities. And we're well on track with the integration of Purifarma, and we expect to realize some synergies initially H1, but most of them will be realized in H2. We are on track with the plan. If we look at the Dutch one Pharmavit, we just recently acquired them. So at the end of Feb, early March. So we have an integration plan there, and we're working also there to realize synergies. Also, that will be mostly embedded in H2 and next year. So overall, also, if you look at the guidance and the profitability guidance, one of the elements that plays in there is the synergies effects that we expect to contribute as of H2. And therefore, we also expect H2 to be better than H1. So that's on the second question. The third question, not closed acquisitions. There are 2, there's one in Asia Pacific, Amber Pharmacy, and there's one in Brazil, Injeplast and Injeplast is a packaging company. So there are some licenses that we need to obtain. So it's a bit outside of control, outside our control, but we're working on that, and we anticipate closing them this year, Amber probably in H1. And Injeplast, we have to wait a bit on the regulatory aspect of that, but we're also positive that we can close that.

Yes. On your last question, Michael, example of one of our brands, and we really like these questions because then we can talk about our products. Remember, the molecule that you can find in wine, that's Resveratrol. They say that only one glass, of course, only one glass of red wine brings Resveratrol. So Resveratrol, as an example, we launched plenty items, but we're going to talk about this item as an example, is a molecule that is widely used in the compounding industry in the prevention and lifestyle segment for chronic inflammation. And the difficulty of this molecule, as an example, the Resveratrol is that it's not getting well absorbed in the body. So everything that you take in, it gets out of the body. So together with a partner in the Far East, we have there some strategic partnerships with some product developers. We have developed one adjustment in the molecule that is able to let this molecule stay -- the resveratrol stay in the body. We call it ResviTech. So you can imagine that then almost the whole market turns into our molecule, of course, with studies, with viability studies, with [ pharmacotechnical ] studies. So meaning that then the whole market sees us as an innovative player. They also see when the doctors prescribe and the patients take it that there is an immediate effect. There is an improvement in their life conditions. So you see how the whole market turns into our product. And this is one example. Again, we launched around 20 items on a yearly basis in Brazil. And remember, during the first week of July, there is a big fair called Consulfarma, where we launched all our innovations for the year.

The next question comes from Frank Claassen from Degroof Petercam.

Two questions, please. First of all, on the rising oil price, yes, how are you dealing with it? And what kind of impact do you see? Do you already see API prices rising and higher logistic costs? And how are you dealing with that? That's my first question. And then secondly, you're talking about improved product availability. Does that mean that you have higher inventories? Or yes, could you elaborate on your working capital situation?

Yes. Thanks a lot, Frank. A very important question nowadays. And indeed, we see an increase of all base raw materials, the market, that's what the market is showing us. Also transportation costs, both in and outbounds. What does it mean for us? Luckily, we're lucky because our replenishment moment throughout the year starts in Jan, Feb, so we plan the year. And we have quite a decent inventory position with all prices. And next is, when the conflict started, we decided to take strategic moves to take some of these items to get still good conditions. Of course, as you know very well, we take our global volumes to negotiate better conditions as well. So we are also pushing back when we see some increases in our replenishment moments. We have inventory for 4.5 to 4 months, so that's also something that we need to take into account. And last but not least, remember also during the last years with the pandemic and then other macroeconomic developments, we have been able to have a nice pricing pass-through exercise. So we have shown our ability to do that.

Yes. And maybe to add on the working capital and improved availability. So the last couple of years, there's a lot of focus on operational excellence initiatives. And that sets on procurement, for instance, but it's also related to demand planning, forecasting and to have a better sight into what is happening in the different markets. And we're seeing that we're benefiting from that. If we look at product availability. We also had some initiatives to leverage our global footprint, for instance, producing some excipients in Brazil for the American market. And you also see that we're benefiting there from an increase in product availability. You saw that in the performance on the Brands and Essential in the first quarter in North America. So those initiatives help. I also have to state that indeed, we anticipated a bit of additional inventory in the first quarter of this year, which helps in the current macroeconomic environment. But we don't expect overall the year that working capital will be higher than the guidance that we have, and that's 12.5% to 13.5% of sales. So overall, we don't expect for full year an increase in working capital.

I just have like 2 basic questions. One is more financial related. One is more in general. So could you just provide a recall per split in terms of what margin buildup do you expect for 2026? So I understand that the 20% guidance is largely because of Pharmavit. So all the dilution would be expected in EMEA region. Is that correct? And my second question is a little bit more general. So there has been a lot of changes in the Medicare payment in the health insurance space in the U.S. I do understand that you're insulated from it. But is it something that is going to affect your future plans going forward in terms of expansion into U.S.? Or do you really think that it's just -- Fagron is totally not affected or impacted by it?

Usama, so to start with the first question on the guidance for profitability. Indeed, while the acquisitions are expected to have a modest dilutive impact in 2026 as synergies are realized, we initially anticipated a slight improvement in profitability versus 2025. And 2025, as you know, is at 20.3%. But after the acquisition of Pharmavit at the end of Feb, we expect a slight decrease due to that dilutive impact in the first year. And the impact of Pharmavit is roughly 30 bps. So that results then in an EBITDA margin of circa 20%, so that's what you will see indeed in the EMEA region. LatAm, we also expect a small dilutive impact due to the acquisition of Purifarma, but this will be partly offset by Vepakum, which has an EBITDA margin that's above group average. And so for the LatAm, as I said earlier, we expect H2 onwards, we expect the synergies to start contributing to the margin improvement. And North America, we expect that they continue to benefit from the operational leverage and operational excellence initiatives, and we do expect a slight margin improvement in 2026 for that region. So overall, we guide for an EBITDA margin of circa 20%.

Yes. And Usama on your second question, you answered it perfectly while you were questioning the question. So we are not affected. And this is because when we look at each one of the 3 segments in the U.S. We have on the B&E side, raw materials on the brand, it's a 100% transactional cash-based business. The same goes for prevention and lifestyle that's Anazao, CareFirst and UCP now that we are bringing them together. And then on the outsourcing part, that's being paid out the hospital budgets. And remember, Sama, that it's an important medication, acute medication for emergency rooms. So we are not affected about these Medicare plans.

Very great, and if I may just squeeze a very small question on M&A going forward. So last year, we had more than 12, 13, 14 different acquisitions being now fully integrated or in the process being approved or integrated. What is the appetite for the remaining part of 2026 and 2027 is a little bit far. Would you still be open for smaller acquisitions? Or do you have internally said, okay, this year, we're going to just integrate them all and maybe look for options in 2027 or something? I just want to check what -- I mean how much appetite do you still have?

Yes, to answer that one. So we do have appetite for acquisitions. So there is a pipeline. And if we feel that there's a deal to be made with a disciplined approach, we will consider doing that. So there are a couple of ones in the pipelines in the different regions aligned with the acquisition strategy that we have. So we anticipate to do some deals in 2026. However, as you can imagine, the integration part that has our first priority now. So we don't expect to do the same number of deals that we did last year, but we do expect to do some deals this year.

The following question comes from Stijn Demeester from ING.

Three, if I may. The first one is on U.S. compounding, excluding the impact of GLP-1 and potentially some other one-offs in the first quarter. How should we look at growth momentum in that segment in U.S. compounding in the periods to come? And more specifically, how would you say growth in FSS compares to the more health and wellness-driven business at Anazo? Secondly, related, is it fair to say that growth at Anazao is a bit more tied to discretionary spending given the lifestyle or the health and wellness-related part of the business? And what percentage of Anazao would you say is tied to this wellness segment? And then the last one is a clarification. Karin, did you mention 7% margin at Purifarma? Or did I misunderstand? Because my impression was always that it was about 10% margin business, but maybe that has shifted. These are my questions.

Yes. Okay. Maybe to start with the last one, Stijin. So, it's 10%. So I said -- but it's absolutely 10%. Yes. So then to go back to the first one. If we look at the performance of FSS in the first quarter, as you know, the performance reflects indeed the phasing out of the GLP-1s. There was EUR 11 million in the first quarter, and there will be EUR 9 million in the second quarter. So that has a severe impact on the U.S. performance. On top of that, we saw in Jan some slowdown due to the weather conditions. As you know, it was -- at the last weeks of Jan, it was very cold, so it was difficult to ship some products. So we had some impact of that. And then we had a nationwide recall of Fresenius Kabi IV bags, which impacted the output in Q1, and we also expect to have some impact in early Q2 of that. But of course, as you know, most of it is the phasing out of the GLP-1s. The underlying market remains strong, and we have good expectations for the rest of the year. As you also know, North America is currently producing in the 503B facilities to ship to their 503A facilities. That's an opportunity that opened up for us on the back of the guidance of the FDA. And it means that if we provide a split, it does not always contribute to a fair understanding of the performances of the businesses. And therefore, we decided not to report the numbers and we report them as combined. If we take out the impact of the GLP-1 for North America, we are at low double digits, which is in line with our long-term guidance, and we are very positive about the prospects of that part of the business continuing. And maybe Rafa, on the lifestyle part for Anazao.

Yes, for sure. And as we were saying we were seeing previously, we see a clear tailwind in the preventional lifestyle market, not only in the U.S., but also in the rest of the world, even in Europe. as we have commented many times. One thing in the U.S. that is quite remarkable are the telehealth platforms that they contribute massively to the underlying growth in the market. And of course, you know that very well. The new Tampa facility is helping us a lot. So we are setting records week on week in terms of new scripts that are coming. Just to refresh, we invested in a new facility in Tampa 503A that's patient-specific with an ability to produce daily 15,000 scripts, and we can ship nationwide. So that's helping. Then we have CareFirst that we acquired last year, and now we have acquired UCP. So that means that we have presence almost in all parts of the U.S. So -- and we are now integrating those 3 facilities. We're also building, as you know, in the 503B side in Las Vegas and in Wichita with the current Wichita plant and the Boston plant. So as you see, we are now having a strategy from an operational perspective to bring all these facilities together. So we're opening up the company, if you will. So we bring those things together, and then we have one dedicated sales force going into our customers. So we are cross shipping, if you will, the items. Therefore, we bring compounding services as one segment.

That's very helpful. And I appreciate it's difficult to split the 2 businesses. But would you say that the health and wellness part grows faster than the sterile business? Does it grow in line? Or does it grow -- or do you expect it to grow at a rate below sterile? Is that possible to indicate?

Sure. 100%, Stijn. That's a very good question. And when you look from a macro strategic perspective, the underlying market in the health and wellness grows faster than the hospital market in terms of product usage. So the number of units being used daily in the U.S. grows higher in the prevention and lifestyle than in the hospital market. What happens here is what we have commented for the last 5, 7, 8 years is that quality and regulation increases. So this means that hospitals are outsourcing more. We have now a rate of almost 60% to 70% of hospital outsourcing. So meaning that, that market is now getting to a mature part. Also think that we are challenger, so we can gain market share. And one element that is also happening that you see with smaller 503Bs is that sometimes there is -- there are recalls or some product or production lines are being stopped and then we clearly benefit as we believe that we invest and we evolve on quality and regulation.

The following question comes from Eric Wilmer from Van Lanschot Kempen.

I had a couple of questions. I wanted to press a bit more on the implications from the current Middle East situation on your business. I can imagine that you have to push through product price increases and transportation cost increases. Could you give us a rough sketch of the cost inflation you now need to pass on? And are your customers willing to accept this pricing given that it might be temporary? I believe that in the Netherlands, remembering the COVID pandemic, it may take some time to pass it on given contractual agreements. So I was wondering if this is still the case? And then second question, could there -- this is moving over to the U.S. could there be a risk that customers may switch away from the Fresenius Kabi IV bags now that they perhaps have gotten used to alternatives in March and part of April. And then finally, also on the U.S., there has been quite some recent talks about RFK wanting to legalize injectable peptides in the U.S. Could you give us a flavor of how this may support your U.S. business and how perhaps -- or perhaps some wording regarding your readiness, if at all, should this indeed happen?

Yes. Thank you, Eric. So maybe to start indeed with the prices, yes, what we see is that transportation prices are indeed increasing. So what we're able to do is we have outbound transportation, so towards our customers. We are able to increase that, whether that's with a surcharge or embedded in the price. customers understand, of course. So we are well positioned to do that. Inbound, it depends a bit whether it's air freight or whether it's overseas. So air freight is way more expensive than overseas. So there, you see a mix in the regions of transportation. And we're also there increasing prices if needed. As said, you know our business very well. The B&E is more transactional business. So we are able there to increase prices a bit more quicker than the contracts that we're having, but it depends a bit on the type of contract whether we're able to increase, yes or no. So in Europe, there are some contracts where we are able to increase. And in some, there's maybe a bit of lagging but we're on top of that. So in case we are able to increase, we will increase immediately. Of course, it helps that we have, as Rafa mentioned earlier, a stock position of a couple of months. So that will also offset the impact partly. But as you know, it's a very situation that's fluid. So we'll monitor on a daily basis to see what we are going to do with prices. But we do believe that we are well positioned to offset any price increases that we face with increasing prices with customers.

Yes. Eric, on your second question relating to nationwide recall, we believe that customers won't switch because FK has been very professional. They act quite diligently to replace those batches in the marketplace. So the situation will last a few weeks. end of Q1, as Karin said, beginning of Q2. And then on peptides, when this happens, because we believe that this will happen, it will be a clear tailwind for the compounding industry when those peptides, of course, are green listed at the FDA.

And maybe on the last one, maybe just something on readiness. Is there anything you can say there? Like I understand this is competitive sensitive, but anything on just a flavor or a sense on if you would be ready.

Sorry, Eric, I think the line was a bit distorted, if you can repeat, sorry for that.

Yes, sorry. Now, of course. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me?

Yes. Now better, yes.

Yes. Just regarding readiness. -- on the latter point, the last readiness regarding peptides, anything you can say there?

Yes, for sure, for sure. Sorry about before. Yes, 100%. So we believe that we can act quite quickly, quite agile, first of all, because of our global network in the sourcing market. So remember, we have also people working in the Far East. We are mapping all producers. Of course, we know what would be the demand from -- of course, from our end customers. So that's one. And then secondly, as we saw at that time with GLP-1s, we introduced them quite quickly because what we are doing in the current clean rooms is to bring the product in, compound and then shipping the product. And that's the flexibility that this industry has, of course, with the highest quality standards. So we believe that we'll be quite agile.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Marteen Verbeek from The Idea.

It's Marteen Verbeek of The Idea. A question regarding to your REBITDA margin this year, it will have a bit of a negative impact with respect to acquisitions made. You also stated that you will continue making acquisitions. for 2027, you have stated you target a REBITDA margin of 21%. So it looks like a bit of a balancing act. How do you cope with these 2 elements?

Yes. It's a very good question. So our long-term guidance remains unchanged. So we see our M&A strategy typically has an initial dilutive impact. The consolidation and the execution of the identified synergy initiatives are expected to support a step-up in performance over a reasonable time frame. So usually 12 to 24 months, of course, subject to the acquisition and the pace of the integration. So based on the plans we currently have, we anticipate to be broadly aligned with our 2027 guidance.

Thank you. And with this, we got to the end of the Q&A. Thank you very much for your participation today. I will remain at your disposal should you have any further questions. Thank you, and goodbye.