Lonza Group AG (LONN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Lonza Investor Update 2024 Conference Call and Live Webcast. I'm Sandra, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Wolfgang Wienand, Chief Executive Officer. You will now be joined into the conference room. [Presentation]

This is One Lonza. A warm welcome also from my side here in Basel, in the room and to everyone, who actually had to join us virtually, but of course, would have preferred to be with us here in Basel as well, I guess. So it's going to be One Lonza and Philippe and myself trying our best to actually share our excitement about our company and the things that we will, going forward, together with the global team of One Lonza will do with this company. So it's going to be speaking myself and Philippe, our CFO. But before we dive into the story itself and before we dive into discussing and sharing details, please, take a close look at our safe harbor statement, read carefully and feel bound to it. And with that, I go over to what I would like to achieve together with here today, which is about leaving you with 5 key messages. First one being One Lonza is a place of unique opportunity. We have a clear strategy and a clear plan for value creation. We also have a unique set of strengths and still are self-reflective and can do better. We actually don't waste time taking decisions. And we offer you financial markets, our shareholders, a new way to inform about our future, and what you can expect from us and Lonza going forward. With that, I, in a fast-forward fashion, of course, would like to share a little bit how I actually made myself familiar with the company and what I offered the company so that it can be -- can make itself familiar with me. I'm the CEO of the company. I finished my 164th day yesterday, so 5.5 months. And I early on, of course, as someone having worked in the CDMO industry for almost 2 decades. I mean I knew Lonza, I knew people from Lonza. And of course, I had a pretty strong set of working hypothesis when coming in as the new CEO. But of course, I was also mindful about, I mean, not listening -- not learning from the people in order to first of all check if my hypotheses actually are true and will work. And second of all, ideally, even learn more, which is why I decided early on to actually spend as much time as possible with the people, not only the executive leadership or the Board, but also going throughout the organization through different functions throughout the whole network, which is why I committed to the 10 in 100, which was about visiting 10 important sites within my first 100 days and actually learned a lot and many of the things that Philippe and myself will be sharing throughout the presentation, not only based on my own hypothesis, but what I've learned, what we have learned and translate it into a strategy, into actions, into initiatives in the discussions with our people throughout the global network. That's the internal view, which obviously is important. But I also was reaching out to collect external data points, which is why on day 1, I actually got in contact with senior executives of our top 40 customers and started to engage in discussions to, of course, hope -- I mean, hoping to hear great things. And I actually did hear great things about what our customers, our strategic accounts think about the Lonza team and what we do for them, but of course, also probing and asking where we could do better. And also that we took into account when deciding upon how to carry our company into the future. I've already met with a number of shareholders altogether representing almost 30% of capital to get that perspective as well. And we obviously considered it. And many of -- I mean much of that feedback actually is baked into what I will talk about here today. And of course, what Philippe will share later on when it comes to the financial model of Lonza. And with that, I'll take a quick look, not spending too much time on it because we have a lot of things to discuss here today, and we prepared a pretty rich agenda consisting of 6 chapters. First of all, my priorities as a CEO, what I focused on and will continue to focus on, then the context, and then there is the special thing, the Lonza Engine that we will introduce to you here and today and then also contemplating reflecting upon why the Lonza Engine, obviously, is a great set of strengths, there are opportunities for us to improve. Then Philippe will actually drive the Lonza Engine and explain what the financial model behind that is. And then me concluding with regard to a specific outlook, how we talk about our future, what you can expect from us going forward. So with that, let's dive into the priorities. I mean 3 imperatives became pretty clear for me early on, on which I, myself, together with the team, wanted to start to act upon as soon as possible. First of all, establishing a strong vision of One Lonza. It's about ambition level. It's about making a conscious strategic choices, which all needs a strong corporate culture. So we discussed and spent time on what actually the purpose of Lonza is and what the values going forward will be. Second imperative, assemble the Lonza Engine. So the unique set of strengths, which actually has been the source of our past success and will be the source of even more future success going forward and using it as a measure, as a reference to come up and define our unified One Lonza strategy. Then tuning the engine for initiatives, Focus, Reshape, Elevate and Expand. So what kind of sharing, I mean, some emotions, things that are important within Lonza because I think it is also relevant for you how the global onset team actually works and takes and what we are passionate about, which is that we are the partners of choice and that we are at the side of our customers. When it comes to taking their breakthrough innovation and turn them into viable products and then manufacture the medicines of tomorrow. So this is what we are about. We want to actually take the molecular stuff, the things that actually where actually new therapies are developed and turn them into industrial products and then stay at the forefront when it comes to future manufacturing technologies. And a very important word here is manufacturing because I think it's relevant, not only internally, but also for you that Lonza is not a pharmaceutical company. Of course, we manufacture pharmaceutical products. But in the end, we are not a pharmaceutical company, but an industrial manufacturing company, which defines what KPIs, what criteria of success we should and will apply in the future. So the vision, centerpiece of the talk today and also centerpiece of what we did together at Lonza over the past 5.5 months. We are the pioneer and the world leader in the CDMO industry, setting the pace with cutting-edge science, smart technology and lean manufacturing. A pretty rich statement with very important components and actually would like to break them down together with you to explain that this is a source of what we have been working on and decided in the past and what will guide our future actions. First of all, pure-play CDMO. We are not a pure-play CDMO today for the biopharma industry from small biotechs to big pharma. Conscious, strategic imperative, already included in the vision statement. And as you have read this morning, we actually already decided upon it and will act soon upon that as well. Second, a clear high ambition, aiming high, staying ahead of the curve, being the world leader across modalities, so a multi-modality company across the biopharma value chain, drug substances, drug products, integrated offerings and across the whole product life cycle. So starting early on, preclinical services Phase 1 until commercial manufacturing later on. And all that, with a high ambition, with the high expectations to ourselves in terms of also being leading in value creation. And all that continuing to pioneer in order to stay where we are to stay ahead of the wave when it comes to cutting-edge science, technology and lean manufacturing. So I mean, how to turn this ambition of outstanding value creation into reality. So you actually need 3 things. First of all, the market which provides for opportunities, right, because otherwise, I mean no opportunity to grow and create value. So important part. Second part is even a good market is not enough. We need a strong, robust, sustainable business model to be able to exploit the opportunities that are given to you by an attractive market. And lastly, while I mean being in that market, having their business model still makes you just one of many, but we want to stand out. We want to continue to stand out. So in order for that, we need differentiation. And this is about a unique set of strengths, core competencies and actually, we spend time on defining and finding out what it was in the past and what it will be in the future. And that's going to be what we, from now on, will call the Lonza Engine. So context is about the market. I mean I know that many of you are actually familiar with the pharmaceutical market, the CDMO market as well. So I won't spend too much time on it, but quickly guide us through to check this important box. First of all, we are looking at a very attractive and continuously growing underlying market. I've chosen here a somewhat different view, not talking about dollars, values and so on. I could do that as well. It's probably CHF 1.6 trillion, growing 6%, 7% year-over-year. But actually shows a view of individual molecular entities being in development, preclinical to Phase III and how this number actually in our expectation over the next 5 years will increase because that actually defines the number of shots that we, Lonza, can take on target in order to take in new products, new molecules and help our customers to turn their breakthrough innovation into viable products. So here, we see that in the areas, the key modalities in which we are active today and leading actually, how this portfolio of individual bets on which we can actually shoot we expect to evolve over the next years, 4% for Small Molecules, 6% for Biologics and 9% Cell & Gene. However, there's further good news besides those attractive long-term sustainable growth rates, which is about that we are not only able to grow with the underlying market, the pharmaceutical market, but that there is a growth increment on top of that, which comes from a continuing reallocation of manufacturing activities from pharmaceutical companies to reliable, leading CDMOs like Lonza. And here, I mean, to deliver a proof point for what I'm saying, we actually have chosen the capacity in Biologics manufacturing, starting in 2019 with a 1/3 support or manufacturing activities with CDMOs and 2/3 still with pharmaceutical company that actually changing, inverting over the next years until 2029 to actually 55% with CDMOs and a significant part of that with Lonza and only 45% with big pharma, and this trend will continue. And as you can see, there is still enough room to also benefit over many more years from this growth increment on top of what the pharmaceutical market itself offers to us. And if we add that up and look at the market segments, which are relevant for us in which we are operating, we see our CDMO market, the underlying growth dynamics at 8% to 10%. Some actually attractive characteristics, all kind of familiar, noncyclical pharmaceutical market growing over decades at 4%, 5%, now increasing to 6%, 7%, 8%. So that's a good place to be when it comes to volatility. Also important for a manufacturing company for us to be able to capture those growth opportunities, we actually need to continue to invest, which is a hard job to do, and we'll talk about that later as well. Not everyone can do that. As soon as successful and if we deliver upon our promises, then typically, customers will never leave again. They leave their products with us, they rely on us, which means a strong customer loyalty. And I will deliver proof points on that as well. Revenue visibility is also useful and also beneficial for us is that while there is, of course, a competition, we are very mindful of that because we are competitive people. The entry barrier for newcomers actually is pretty high in terms of both CapEx that you need to become a sizable player, but also in terms of capabilities, unique set of core competencies. This is hard to copy. So check the market category. Briefly on the business model, just 2 slides. First of all, I mean, this business model is not a trend. It's not something which comes for a few years and then goes again. Why? Because it provides true economic value to the pharmaceutical value chain. Why is that so? And I would just leave chemistry, biology, technology aside for the time being and talk to you about something that all of you continuously do and many of you probably have learned during your time at university, which is Markowitz theory. So risk diversification in the portfolio of stocks, right? And that is essentially, I mean, technology, manufacturing, all that aside, what we deliver to the pharmaceutical universe. I mean just 2 scenarios in order to not spend too much time on it. The pharmaceutical company sitting on an attractive asset, Phase III, believing that it's going to be a multibillion dollar franchise later on still has a risk exposure of 40% to 50% 3 years ahead of expected market launch. But that's the time actually when you, as a pharmaceutical company, need to make sure that in case of approval, you're ready to manufacture and that you on day 1 push your product in the market. For that, you need capacity. If you are alone, you actually need to invest on your own. You invest CHF 500 million, CHF 1 billion, not knowing and at a probability of just 50% if you will ever need it. So I mean, if it fails, actually write off sunk money. That's where CDMO can actually offer true value, which is going to the whole universe based on a multipurpose manufacturing asset base, which, of course, needs to be large and collect many, many, many bets from all pharmaceutical customers. And with each of this bet being risky, diversify that risk in the portfolio. And in the end, reducing the overall risk of underutilization, idle costs or write-off. So it's a hard, sustainable economic benefit, which is why we believe and are convinced that this business model is really beautiful, and it's actually here to stay. So I mean this is general and every sizable CDMO should be able to apply that business model, and they all try their best. There is, at Lonza, at least, an additional level of risk diversification because we are the one company which actually has sizable portfolios across all relevant modalities, right? So on top of the risk diversification in Small Molecules, the risk diversification in Biologics, Cell & Gene, others, we actually have a diversification on the technology level as well. I guess as financial professionals, you would -- might be reminded of the concept fund of funds, right? So that's actually what is attractive and probably unique about Lonza and what we are doing. So business model check as well. So let's move on assembling the Lonza Engine, where I can say, we can say that we believe that we have the right components available to us already now. So 5 things, which we believe, first of all, are required to really lead the market, create outstanding value and 5 components about which we are convinced that we are actually already pretty good. First of all, high-performance teams. One Lonza, we talked about what we did in this regard and how we will strengthen our corporate culture and how we will provide clarity in terms of vision and strategy and later on execution. Second of all, with Lonza, as we just heard in the intro video being the inventor of the business model 40 years ago. And I mean, always being ahead of the wave when it comes to taking on new technologies to be able to supply new modalities. Actually, Lonza has created a very strong, and I would dare to say, unique scientific and technological and also more and more digital ecosystem of experts, teams all around the world, which we can actually tap into when it comes to providing superior solutions to our customers. So second element. Third component, and that actually was truly remarkable for me as someone having worked in the industry for quite some time, also for great companies. But the kind and the depth of customer relationship that we, as Lonza, are able to enter into with strategic clients for me is actually unparalleled. And that is based on trust, that is based on capabilities, breadth of technologies, scale, global network, but of course, also on delivery performance proven over and over again. So we are standing on the shoulders of giants. You can actually exploit it when it comes to creating even deeper strategic partnerships or more strategic partnerships with clients. That is about end-to-end execution excellence. So from development, manufacturing plant, engineering, I mean, continuous growth capabilities, we do have everything that we need to actually successfully play and execute upon our strategy of integrating drug substances, drug products, also integrating offerings from preclinical phases to commercial manufacturing and also offer different technologies across different modalities. Last but not least, Actually, all those 4 elements would be sufficient to be successful today and continue to do what we are doing today. But in order to capture the significant growth opportunities being available to us, 8% to 10% year-on-year, and I will explain later why we believe that there is even more available to Lonza. In order to be able to do that, you actually need very strong plug-and-play integration and investment capabilities for people. We will add a few thousand people over the next few years in terms of new technologies, new assets in an easy to scale operating model with robust systems and processes. So when I kind of promised that and talked about that in the beginning that during my conversations with many, many people across the whole organization, there was also an important element and actually a great element of self reflection and there was more than once that sentence mentioned actually that we can do even better. So let's quickly go through the different strengths, but also opportunities to improve that we, together, as a team, have identified over the last weeks and months. First of all, high-performance teams, strong talent base. I really met great people with a good culture already. However, I was also surprised that actually between the different divisions, there was a pretty siloed organization, right? And we decided to act upon that very soon. I'll come to that later. So the ecosystem, I mean, there really, I've been impressed. This company, this team actually is the leader when it comes to taking innovations to launch, and I will actually provide proof points for that later as well. Unparalleled customer partnerships, talked about that end-to-end execution excellence. The colleagues have built a strong global network already. However, we see opportunities in terms of even getting better when it comes to plant engineering and operational efficiency process harmonization side. Plug and play. Again, organic growth powerhouse, however, also opportunities for us to improve our approach when it comes to the means of growth, where we, of course -- I mean, [indiscernible] talk about that. I think it's a very good acquisition in the past. But overall, Lonza didn't really do that much on that front. And while this is not going to change to the opposite, we will going forward, take a more balanced and impartial approach when it comes to being agnostic to either grow organically or through appropriate bolt-on M&A and also evolving, focusing our portfolio. So I mean a few proof points for what I just claimed and said before. Scientific talent 1,500 PhDs, more than 60% of the team members being technically trained. And I would actually leave it with a remarkable statement on the right-hand side, based on a third-party leading management consultancy firm, a review just recently done about what customers value when they talk about their CDMO partners, 99% actually value the expertise of the Lonza people. Scientific technological ecosystem, I promise, I mean, scientists, I'm actually getting pretty excited about those things. I won't go through it in detail, but maybe leave it with the product on the right hand of that slide. Lonza, together with the customer vertex actually is the one company, which brought the first CRISPR/Cas product to life in terms of providing the necessary manufacturing technologies. Scientific ecosystem, again, I talked about launch capabilities, a figure that actually impressed me a lot. I wasn't aware actually. I mean, Lonza, among the leading CDMOs, is the one company which brought over the last 6 years, 30 molecules together with the client, of course, to market launch. That's almost twice of what the second CDMO competitor was able to do. And it's somewhat not a precise comparison, of course, but still do it here for today. This compares to 11 market launches over the same time period of the most successful pharmaceutical company. So I thought that this is quite impressive, and we have been talking about the number of shots that we, as Lonza, have. We are currently at any moment in time working on 900 new molecules. Broad customer base. I mean, while from the outside, people might think that we are a big pharma partner, we are. Of course, we appreciate these customers, but we have also more than 600 biotechs, small biotech partners with which we actually generate 50% of our revenues, and we love that because that's also where innovation takes place, where we can actually see what will be the next hot thing when it comes to the next modality and the next manufacturing technologies that are needed to make it all work. Some other figures, I won't go through all of them. Net Promoter Score, remarkable, clearly leading at Lonza. CHF 13 billion CDMO business signed in 2023. And we actually support in 2024, in the current year, 39 blockbusters with approximately CHF 100 billion revenues at our customer level. So I mean, leading development capabilities, I would actually reduce this part to the minimum and just talk about 2 things. We, for good reasons, actually typically enter and start to create sustainable, long-lasting customer partnerships early on. It's typically not drop-ins in Phase III or later, but we start with our clients early on. There are a number of reasons why this is happening and why this is beneficial for our clients, but also for Siegfried, but one very obvious one is that we then see what's going on in the pharmaceutical sciences and then stay ahead of the wave when it comes to the next manufacturing technologies needed. Talked about the global network and how the team over the past 2 decades, actually executed and have built one of the most sizable global networks. The most recent addition, I'll talk to that in a minute, is the acquisition of significant capacity in Vacaville from Roche, a deal that closed on October 1. And overall, I think we are looking at an impressive execution track record with currently 22 growth projects going on, 22. A lot of complexity related to that, which also leads to certain observations with regard to improvement potentials available to us because not always, we manage to deliver our growth projects on budget and on time. It's important to state, though, that actually customer deliveries have never been affected, but there is room for us to further improve. And with the growth -- significant growth ahead of us, this ability to continue to in an efficient on-time, in budget way, create additional capacities and continue to grow. That's going to be a must win battle for us at Lonza going forward and will deserve my focus and the focus of the leadership team. Vacaville, just very quickly, announced in March closed, according to plan on October 1, and also when it comes to partnership with Roche, uninterrupted manufacturing, which was a great achievement of the local team and also the Lonza integration team and also good news in terms of customer interest. So we recently signed the first binding contract with a third-party customer with the tech transfer planned for 2025. However, for 2024, we expect just a minimal revenue and profit contribution. What is ahead of us in Vacaville 2025 and beyond? First of all, we need to continue to actually flawlessly execute there. And we expect, based on that, around CHF 0.5 billion revenues in 2025. And we will, at the same time, invest into the technologies there and to the capacities to modify it in order for it to become even more flexible and more suitable for multipurpose manufacturing offerings. So overall, just to provide some figures. I mean that's what the teams did over the last 6 years. Bioconjugates, I mean 2.5x the capacity as compared to 6 years ago, mammalian 2x, if you actually add Vacaville, it's 4x, right? CGT also additional capacity, highly potent APIs, very attractive niche in the market as well. So investment and integration. So continuously having to add people, to add additional capacity, new assets, new technologies. So what are proof points for our ability to also be successful on that end? I mean, Visp, our powerhouse in the canton of Valais, actually there, we actually added over just 4 years, 3,000 people to a starting point of just 2,000 people. And from a rather Swiss manufacturing site into the Swiss workforce, we actually created a truly international workforce of more than 70 nationalities within that short period of time, which is not easy, but actually worked out. And when looking at the teams and how they work together, it's actually kind of impressive and an example for what we might do with other sites going forward as well. Technologies, acquisition of Synaffix. Here, that's truly plug and play, right? Doubling revenue in the first year means we, as an organization, has been ready to take on the new technology and immediately bring it to market for the benefit of our customers and also for the benefit of Lonza, Vacaville to give you a feeling what is ahead of us in California. These are just third-party batches, so not Roche. But between 2026 and '32, we'll actually -- we plan to increase the number of batches produced per year by a factor of 6. Maybe on a side note because I think it's a great KPI somehow, we took over 800 Roche employees and offered them a new employment contract, right? 797 accepted. So they are actually happy to be part of the global Lonza team. So tuning the Lonza Engine, talking about we can do better. Specifically, we talked about siloed and complex organization, which led to the initiative Reshape. We talked about improving -- further improving when it comes to constructing new assets and operating those assets, about plant engineering, operational efficiency, Elevate. We talked about, I mean, focusing our portfolio, Focus. The decision to exit CHI at the appropriate time in the best interest of shareholders and stakeholders. And last but not least, Expand, double down on strategic priorities, which we first, of course, had to define, and that's what we did and also fully exploit available opportunities. So we will talk about each and every initiative. Now Reshape. As you have seen, we actually decided to kind of reorganize ourselves and provide for a simpler, better scalable, future-proof organization. Why is that? So for today, I think we are fine. But to measure, if we are on track, I mean, we can't do that by comparing to the needs of today. We need to do that by comparing to what we will need to make the next year's happen and to build a company at CHF 10 billion and above, which is why now was the time to actually create this more scalable and more robust and also more consistent organization as soon as possible. Also enhancing customer proximity by taking out one management level, group functions will become more important in the future to provide for standards and actually enforce standards as well. Operational efficiency is another term here, and we decided to bring leadership closer to the core of our value creation, which is manufacturing, which happens on the site. So this is a new setup that we actually shared internally yesterday and presented to the outside world this morning, I'll briefly guide you through how the company will look like, starting in the second quarter 2025. First of all, Integrated Biologics. That's where our technology platforms, Mammalian and Drug Product Services will be located starting 2025, which will then account for roughly 50% of the group revenues. 9 sites, which is too less as compared to the prior Biologics division and this Integrated Biologics business platform being responsible for 10 growth projects. Advanced Synthesis, a hybrid of chemistry and biology. So Small Molecules division, the previous division, and the Bioconjugates business unit as a technology platform, they are now becoming the business platform. Advanced Synthesis, roughly 30% of revenue, 7 sites, so one more and 5 more growth projects. Specialized Modalities, that's actually where we reach out into the future. These are the things of which we believe that actually 5, 10 years from now, they will play the roles -- they will play the roles that actual Biologics and Small Molecules play today for the company. Cell & Gene, mRNA, Microbial and Bioscience, 20% revenue, 6 sites, 1 more and 3 growth projects. So you see actually a better balanced overall organizational structure, with each of the business platforms now being more likely to be able to execute upon our growth ambitions and especially the growth projects, which are very important complex projects. They are now better distributed across different teams. So we also decided to change leadership. And I'm actually happy to report that Gordon Bates, a long-standing member of the global Lonza team since 22 years and currently Divisional President of Small Molecules, he will actually from second quarter 2025 onwards, he will lead the Integrated Biologics business platform. Christian Seufert currently President of our Capsules & Health Ingredients division, he will actually take over our Advanced Synthesis business next year, and Daniel Palmacci being responsible for Cell & Gene today, he will lead Specialized Modalities in the future. Quickly on Elevate. So excellence in constructing our assets, excellence in operating our assets, that's going to be key for our future success, and I mentioned some activities, some focus area towards which I actually myself will involve me in order to make sure that we are really setting ourselves up for optimal success going forward. And with that, I actually come to another important decision that we, at Lonza, have taken over the last weeks and days, which is about using the Lonza Engine, which is the centerpiece of our corporate strategy because that is what we need to create outstanding value. And only if we can actually apply this secret sauce to a certain market segment to a certain business model through certain technology, only then we believe we should actually play in that segment. And while we will actually use this Lonza Engine to decide upon whatever we might take on as an additional technology going forward or an additional assets through M&A going forward or whatever, we also thought that it is prudent and necessary to apply this criteria against what we are doing today. And that's what we did. That's the outcome, high level. Our core businesses, CDMO businesses on the left-hand side, because they actually benefit the most from this unique set of core competencies, from this unique Lonza Engine, while the benefit of the Lonza Engine for the CHI business is not as high. That doesn't mean that the CHI business wouldn't be a great business. CHI actually is a clear market leader in the Capsules market. Actually, it is operating the most efficient assets. It has the best technology when it comes to manufacturing capsules. It has the best quality. It's a great business and by far, also the highest profitabilities. But based on the criteria that actually we want to create superior value, and we can do that only if we apply our special set of capabilities, we came to the conclusion that CHI is not the right business for Lonza anymore, while being an exciting and great business in itself. So also here, a few, let's say, proof points for what I just said, that CHI, for good reasons, is the market leader in its space. We also introduced leadership changes here. This division, which will then become a business platform going forward in April and will then, over time, leave the Lonza Group. The leadership of this business will be taken over by J. C. Hyvert, who is currently President of the Biologics division. So this was kind of imprudent in measuring our current activities against this Lonza Engine. Now going forward, we will apply this Lonza engine criteria to any opportunity becoming available to us. And here, we kind of in a systematic way, have shown how we look at the different areas and potential activities on those different areas. First and foremost, for us, it's typically about acquiring or installing capacity, inorganic, organic or developing or acquiring technology, for example, Synaffix, or expanding our business portfolio organic or inorganic. And here are our, let's say, relative priorities for the different CDMO business platform. So we see that Integrated Biologics. Here, we would be looking for fresh capacity either by building ourselves or by acquiring it, like Vacaville, kind of an accelerated derisked CapEx project. We would be looking for additional technologies, be it outside, but we continue to develop internally as well to also technologically stay ahead of the wave. And that's how we could go throughout all those different areas. And very important, we will also be reaching out, looking for opportunities beyond of what we are doing today in order to prepare ourselves and create access to those areas, which will actually define the future success of pharmaceutical companies and also Lonza 5 to 10 years down the road. The good thing about that strategy is that it is not kind of a logic interdependence among those different areas. So we could actually act upon each one of them without having to adhere to a certain sequence because the second acquisition or investment will only make sense if we were to do another acquisition in the first step, right? So I like this modular concept and this, let's say, logic independence of the different opportunities. All of that, just to remember, it's not only about M&A, it is about taking conscious decisions in specific situations to say, this is an organic opportunity, we do it ourselves or this is an attractive M&A opportunity we acquire. So I talked about that we, of course, have an obligation and high ambitions to be successful already today. I mean, applying this Lonza Engine and driving as fast as possible. Philippe will talk to that in a bit. But we also need to prepare ourselves for the future and kind of anticipate the portfolio, how it will look like 5 and 10 years down the road, even though this might be the other people managing the company. But also then, Lonza needs to be successful because our ambition is, our obligation is to actually create long-term value. And here, we kind of shared our view on the success and the maturity of different pharmaceutical modalities in terms of their current revenue per year global market, expected -- sorry, not currently expected for 2029 and also the growth dynamics. So a directional information with regard to the different modalities. And we see I mean, on the top -- the bottom left, actually future growers, small. But those are the things of the future. Not all might make it, but that's where we need to be present to actually feed our portfolio for longer-term success. Then there are the relative growers. So kind of sizable markets already and still a high growth rate. And also there, you see that actually Lonza is very active among most of those modalities. And further down to the right, you see what actually is driving our business success today, highly potent APIs, antibodies and small molecule APIs, which are absolute growers in terms of absolute value not relative growers anymore. And in a certain way, the portfolio in terms of technologies and modalities of Lonza will continuously -- I mean, roll forward through this cycle of us adding early -- adding future growers early on and kind of be part of when the manufacturing technologies for those future modalities will be developed and defined. And that's where we will make sure that this Lonza Engine is not only special and unique today, but it will be special also going forward. And with that, I summarize quickly. We talked about the 5 key trades, the 5 components, which make Lonza special, which define and build altogether the Lonza Engine. We will actually continue to work on it and to improve it and come from a siloed organization to a One Lonza team. The reshaping of our organization will actually come from this strong ecosystem already today to a global network, to which we actually ever and over and over again, need to add fresh talent and fresh innovations. We will further become from the most trusted partner to an unrivaled integrated end-to-end supplier. We will also stay and further become best-in-class executors, and we will add to our organic growth plan also in an impartial way, inorganic growth opportunities. And with that, I actually hand over to Philippe, who will now put the financial model to the Lonza Engine, will explain how that will work.

Thank you so much, Wolfgang. Thank you, and welcome, everyone. Very pleased to address the audience as well today. Wolfgang very convincingly explained to us how the Lonza Engine is actually driving value for our customers and their patients. Now let me talk to you about how the same engine actually creates value for you, for our shareholders. And to do this, let me take you through our overall financial framework. The Lonza Engine actually drives a growth-led value creation. This is what we're all about. And it all starts with investment into growth. Our investment drives our top line. We are committed to drive and to grow above market by having the right assets and being in the right modalities. After we drive the top line, we want to drive and increase margins. We want to increase margins every year by driving our core EBITDA ahead of sales. Once we drive our margins, let's also generate cash. And with that, of course, it will be growth driven, coming from our top line and bottom line growth, but we will also activate net working capital management and work on our CapEx efficiency. Finally, our evolved capital allocation strategy will define how and where we reinvest our capital into future growth. Should there be no great opportunities for us to grow? Of course, we will return money to our shareholders as usual. And I'm looking at you because I know you care about our dividend policy. Very good. So let me maybe start with our growth ambition. Wolfgang has talked to you about the markets we are active in. He just spoke about the absolute growers, the antibodies, the relative growers, like the ADCs, for example. Now over time, by being in the right segment of the market and having the right assets to capture customer demand, we have been growing the CDMO business over CHF 2 billion over the last 5 years. And this is excluding any COVID revenue. Now we are also looking at growing going forward. Our model will help us to grow above market and deliver this growth with mostly known assets today. The assets we know today actually benefit from a very high contracting level, and therefore, we have very good visibility on where and how this revenue will come about. Now once we drive the top line, let me move over to our margin. Here, you see 4 key levers on how we will drive margin at Lonza. These levers are not new, and we spoke about them earlier, but let me go through them one by one as they underpin our ambition to grow margin year-over-year and to grow margin above 30%. First, portfolio management. This is all about commercial excellence, value pricing and contract management. And probably the best example we have is our Small Molecules division. The Small Molecules division grew the margin by 5 points over the last 4 years, mainly due to contract management by actively shifting customers and contracts from lower margin into higher margin from going into more complex products. And this will continue across all our platforms. Number two, growing the gross margin of our base assets. This is where operational excellence plays a role, increasing the utilization, increasing the yields and the capacity of our base assets. Now over the last few years, global inflation has impacted our gross margins, fair to say, and our productivity efforts and pricing have only partially been able to offset the inflation effect. We also had the COVID pandemic with the supply chain disruptions that we all got to live with. Also this was difficult on our inventory adjustment. But these extraordinary effects being out of the way, we believe our productivity and our operational excellence will drive base gross margin improvements. Number three, probably the most important lever we have to grow margin over the next 3 years, our growth project portfolio. Now as I will talk before or later on, our portfolio is quite young. 50% of our assets are only ramping up or have recently reached peak utilization. And as you all know and as we spoke before, young assets are dilutive. They only reach their full potential once they grow in utilization. And so as our product portfolio -- our project portfolio matures, the margins of these assets will go up. Last but not least, overheads operating leverage is a given at Lonza, we do grow our nonmanufacturing costs slower than we grow our top line. We invest into systems. We invest into automation. We invest into digital tools to make sure that our administrative processes remain simple and efficient. Starting in 2025, we will be investing into a further program called NEXUS to improve our processes, our global processes, simplify them and create a best-in-class CDMO ERP. Now going over to cash. Of course, as I said, cash will be driven by our top line growth and driving the bottom line, but not only. As I said, we would be activating 2 further levers. One is working on net working capital. How do we do that? Well, first of all, it's creating more transparency, working on integrated supply and demand planning and also working on standardizing our raw materials, especially in the area of single-use technology. Our new ERP system will also provide us more opportunities to optimize our global visibility and our supply chain. Second, we'll be driving better capital efficiency and thereby lowering the amount of CapEx we use. We see the need for capital to normalize towards the high teens level in percent of sales. And second, we will also be working more and more on standardizing the components of our different growth projects, thereby lowering future maintenance costs and lowering engineering costs. Now this capital is what we will use to fund the future growth. Be reassured, we will remain disciplined in how we deploy capital. I will not run through this entire page because we've spoken to you a lot about the left side, about the criteria we apply when we decide on organic growth projects. The financials and the financial thresholds are unchanged. Now Wolfgang mentioned that we are elevating the role of bolt-on M&A. Now we believe that used properly and using them at the right price, bolt-on M&A can actually derisk our growth agenda and can reduce execution complexity. So our focus will be to work and to look for bolt-on high-quality assets that can benefit from the capabilities of the Lonza Engine. Once we do that, these high-quality assets will deliver very attractive financial returns. And this is what we'll be looking for, but don't worry, we will be really looking carefully at which assets we embarked into. Now let me go back to our organic portfolio. And before I take a look at the 22 projects that Wolfgang mentioned, let me step back and quickly remind all ourselves how does the CDMO business grow. It grows by adding capacity. It's that simple. We need new capacity. If an asset is full, growth stops. And therefore, our business is a lumpy business because we need new and fresh capacity. And only when new capacity comes online, you see growth, and then it starts again. So simply put, what does Lonza need to grow profitably? We need new attractive assets, and we actually need the Lonza Engine to fill the new capacity. Now if we split our asset world into 2. Let's talk about our base assets. These are assets that are actually running at a very high utilization, and therefore, produce high margins, but they don't grow. Every year, well, actually, I should remind maybe probably some of these assets you guys have seen. When you came to Visp last year, the [ FCC ] asset, our Small Molecules asset, 40 years old and still striving and generating revenues, but not growing. Now you also saw some of the other assets. These are the young assets that will grow. Now in the base assets, we do spend every year roughly mid- to high single digits in percent of sales CapEx to maintain these assets and to invest into infrastructure and systems. Now with our ERP program, I just mentioned before, as well as a site replacement we need to do in [ Slough ], U.K., the next few years will probably be at the high end of these investments for infrastructure and base assets and systems. Now going over to the most important growth projects and gross asset investments, this is where 3/4 of our growth will come from. We are selecting and designing these assets to capture the market demand in the most attractive segments, like Bioconjugation, Drug Product, Mammalian. The need for capital for growth projects will be actually dictated by the market needs. So the more -- so the more market opportunity we see, the more CapEx we will need for this. We currently foresee for this investment to normalize around the low teens in percent of sales. So now let me go into the 22 projects. This page shows you a very high-level summary of these 22 projects that are all above CHF 50 million in terms of CapEx investment. They range across 9 modalities and technologies, and over 90% are actually invested into commercial or mixed commercial and clinical assets. On the left side, again, you see how young this portfolio is. 50% of this portfolio is under construction, meaning they are in the balance sheet, but they are not generating revenue or margin. Another 20% is currently ramp up, i.e., we just started these assets. Again, these assets being dilutive on both our margin and on our ROIC. Now let's take a look at these assets and the revenue -- investment and revenue cycles that we see. I've shown this page in the past before because I think it makes a very relevant point. You see the difference at the time we're investing, which is on the high-end chart, and the time it takes for these assets to generate revenue, which you see at the bottom, there's in general for these large assets, about 5 to 7 years difference between the time we start investing until we reach peak sales. 3 to 4 years of that time is actually building in construction, 2 to 3 years is the ramp-up to reach peak utilization. We've also added to this chart the side of Vacaville because this is, in the end, accelerated CapEx. So when you look at the upper end of the chart, you see that the wave 1 and wave 2 assets are basically done with construction. These are the assets that will actually drive our growth for the next 2 years. Together with Vacaville, they create the growth of the midterm. The assets in wave 3, these assets actually will barely contribute in this decade. They will start to generate revenue towards the end of the 2020. And I'm also very pleased while Wolfgang mentioned that we may have room for improvement and yes, we do have room for improvement in construction and operating our assets, I'm very pleased to report that all these 3 waves have internal rate of returns that are at or above our threshold. With that, let me link project returns to our company ROIC. You see in the middle, our ambition to be a mid-teens ROIC company, which is roughly 2x our cost of capital. Where does these returns come from? They come actually from our operational assets that deliver high returns. These returns are then absorbed by our infrastructure, which doesn't generate returns and by goodwill and intangible, which for a large part actually coming from the Capsugel acquisition 8 years ago. You also see that our current ROIC is not in the middle, is not where it will be in the future. Why? Because we are still in an accelerated investment phase as our assets are dilutive for margin and ROIC, as I said before. So we will be moving to the center, but this will take time once our asset portfolio is maturing. Good. This leaves us with our evolved capital allocation framework, which I want to take you through. Of course, it all starts from cash from operating activities. What is the first priority? Actually, we need to invest into maintenance, systems and infrastructure to maintain our strong base. Most of our sales today is coming from this space and it needs to be maintained. So this is priority #1. Number two, of course, being true to our dividend policy, and we are committed to maintain or increase our dividend per share every year, staying within our payout ratio of 35% to 45%. Our dividend policy is thereby unchanged. Now once we have deployed capital for these 2 things, the rest is actually more discretionary in nature. What will we use it for? Of course, we will use it for growth as long as we see attractive opportunities in the market to generate high returns for the future. Would there be a time where we do not find opportunities to create high returns and to create growth, the surplus capital will be returned to shareholders. Of course, always dependent on the macro environment at that point in time and our balance sheet strength. We remain committed to our BBB+ rating, which corresponds roughly to a net debt-to-EBITDA level of 1.5 to 2. Changing gears, talking about communication to the markets and coming slowly to an end as well of my section, we have listened to you in 2024 and have listened to what you wanted to hear from us and when you wanted to hear from us. And we have made changes. We've been attending more conferences. We've been keeping our quarterly qualitative update. We've extended our road shows to make sure that you hear enough from us and how the company is doing. Based on the positive feedback we've received, we are continuing on the same path for 2025. And you see here the key events for next year. We are also contemplating holding a Capital Markets Day in Q4 in one of our sites, and you receive more information to that at a later point in time. Important as well, we will provide you with restated 2024 segmental financials ahead of our H1 reporting, so that you guys can all adjust your models ready for the H1 reporting regarding the new business platforms. So in summary, 3 key takes away from my side. One, again, underlining the importance of the Lonza Engine. The Lonza Engine adds value to our customers and patients, and it creates sustainable value and ensures our market leadership in the future. It is, however, also the way to drive sustainable value creation for U.S. shareholders. Second, our capital allocation priorities have evolved. We are rebalancing organic and inorganic growth. We will do this, and we will continue to be very diligent and disciplined on how we do this. Last but not least, our financial strategy is in place. We have a plan to grow the top line, we have plan to grow core EBITDA ahead of sales, and we have plan to deliver attractive cash flow over time. And with that, I will hand back to Wolfgang to give you more views on the detailed outlook for the next few years. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Philippe, for taking us through the financial model, which together with the Lonza Engine actually will drive our company forward and will create outstanding value. And so what does it all mean? And let me try to synthesize everything that we have explained and presented to you so far. First of all, on the left-hand side, you see the Lonza Engine. Underlying market growth, 8% to 10%, the Lonza Engine being special, allowing for an increment on top of that, so 2% to 3% leading to an underlying accessible Lonza market growth of low teens. On the right-hand side, I hope that became clear that this growth actually can only be captured by us if we continue to invest, as just explained by Philippe, which will be going forward, mid- to high teens in terms of percentages of sales into base CapEx infrastructure and also low teens percentages when it comes to investments into growth. And this synthesis, this combination is what we will go to call going forward the CDMO organic growth model, so excluding M&A. And that actually will be the framework by which we will actually inform you and discuss with you about what you can expect from Lonza in the future, which specifically means an organic sales growth of low teens on average over time and a core EBITDA growth ahead of sales growth. So briefly on average over time. I think the shortest way to explain that is we are not a cookie factory, right? So we're actually putting a lot of money into the ground, complex, high-tech growth projects, right? And with them coming on stream only over time phasing that actually leads to a certain lumpiness in our sales profile over time, which is part of our business model. However, it's not a problem as long as the long-term trajectory in terms of growing over the longer term at low teens percentages year-over-year is intact, and it will be. So I mean, now looking at the shorter term and sharing our expectations for the current year, still for the group, here, we confirm our flat sales growth in 2024 at a core EBITDA margin in the high 20s, so 27% to 29%. This Lonza will achieve by higher than planned performance of the CDMO business, which offsets a lower-than-planned business performance of CHI. Let me briefly pause here because with the decision to exit the CHI business for the reasons discussed and explained before, from now on, starting in 2025, Lonza will guide separately for the 2 businesses, CDMO and CHI. So what do we expect for 2025? We share that by exception today. Typically, we will only guide in January or February for the current year when reporting on the financials of the previous. What do we expect for the CDMO business in 2025? Strong growth and a strong profitable growth. So sales growth approaching 20%, including the around CHF 0.5 billion revenues from the Vacaville site acquisition and the underlying business, remember, the CDMO organic growth model. For that, we expect low teens organic sales growth. All of that at a core EBITDA margin further approaching 30%. So what I said before that this CDMO organic growth model will substitute our previous midterm guidance framework and will be the framework based on which we will actually discuss with you the expectation of the future of Lonza because this is only how we internally look at our future perspective and how we actually construct and design our business plans. Let me briefly kind of compare the different views and what they tell us. There are 2 key messages related to that. First of all, while changing the way how we will talk about our future, our conviction in terms of strong expectations going forward for our CDMO business are the same as before. First message. And we actually provided also the reconciliation. So if you were to take the outlook 2025, it's just shared for the CDMO business and then apply the CDMO organic growth model and compare that with the previous midterm guidance as of March 2024, then you will see that for 2028, the outcome is consistent. The second key message with regard to this way of looking at our business is about that we think it actually is more useful, obviously, more useful for ourselves when building our own cases. But we think also for you, because of 2 things. First of all, it's not time bound anymore, right? It's reaching out, rolling forward into the future. And second of all, it provides you also the directional correlation between expected growth and what you have to expect in terms of us having to invest to capture that future growth. So same as before. For 2025, to close the loop and complete the picture for the CHI business, we expect a return of the business to sales and margin growth, specifically low to mid-single-digit percentages, sales growth at mid-20s core EBITDA margin. Beyond 2025, we expect a continuous return to previous margin levels that the business actually has been able to prove and operate at in the past. So low to mid-single-digit percentages, sales growth over the years at a core EBITDA margin, which will first approach and then again exceed the 30% threshold. And with that, I come to the last slide. And I very much hope that Philippe and I myself that we have been able to convey the excitement and why we believe that Lonza is a place of unique opportunity. There's a new vision of One Lonza, the Lonza Engine, special secret sauce. The One Lonza strategy with the Lonza Engine being the centerpiece of it. Key initiatives to actually even further improve, Focus, Reshape, Elevate, Expand. Clear strategy. We have a unique set of strengths, don't waste time in decision-making and a new way how we will talk with you about the future. I guess we are One Lonza. That's a river Lonza, right? The drone is not fast enough for us, right? But what the colleagues achieved there is really remarkable. I've been there twice and talked to quite a number of them. And you enter a room with 10 people and you actually find not 11, but 9 nationalities and then really working together to make Visp success. And this is the powerhouse of Lonza. And over time, we will actually continue to add further powerhouses around the world. And with that, I actually hand over to David so that he then manages the Q&A session, during which Philippe and myself will be happy to take questions and provide as useful as possible answers. Thank you very much for the ladies and gentlemen here in the room and also to those attending virtually and looking forward to our discussion.

I'm David Carter. I'm the Group Head of Communications. We're just sorting out the setup for the Q&A. So I'm going to invite Philippe to join us on the stage. I think by now, you've attended enough of these events to know the rules of the game. So hands up, say your name, so your institution. I would say, ask one question, but you're all going to ignore me. So maybe ask no more than 2 questions to start off with and be generous to your colleagues in the room. We're going to do about half an hour or so in the room right now, and then we'll jump over to the people that are online so that they have a chance to ask some questions, too. I'm going to start with the person closest to me as my leaders get settled, can take my microphone.

Sebastian Bray, of Berenberg Bank. I would have 2 questions, please. The first is for you, Philippe, on the maintenance CapEx and the level of spending required to keep the assets going. Can you give an idea of how much this new ERP implementation is going to cost? Is it a few hundred million Swiss Franc? And how much benefit does it bring? And what exactly is happening at the replacement U.K. side? And my second one is for you, Wolfgang. I appreciate the decision precedes you coming to Lonza, but it is one of the larger growth projects that you mentioned of the 22 is still in finish capacity. How do you feel about potentially following on in that market? Do you think it fits within the core expertise of the group? Or is it having a question mark. Thank you.

Thank you very much. But Philippe first, I guess.

Yes. No. Thank you, Sebastian. So first of all, we're very excited. Now nobody is really excited about the ERP program. But I think if you imagine our ERP system is probably 20 years old was built for a chemical company. We need to take this into the future into creating a real CDMO ERP system. So we'll be very diligent on this. I think Wolfgang mentioned, we are a manufacturing company. We are not a pharmaceutical company. So in terms of benchmarks, you should be looking rather chemical benchmarks than looking at pharmaceutical benchmarks. But this is an endeavor that will take probably 3 to 4 years. So yes, indeed, this would be probably triple digit. But let us work through that, and we will get back to you with more information. I think we wanted to mention that because this will be part of our infrastructure and systems investment. Slough is a different case. I think Slough is a very old site, where we will be moving actually a few kilometers away from that site to rebuild actually a very strong development site. Slough is the core of our development engine for the Mammalian business. And so we will be creating there a new site replacing the older Slough site.

Yes. And on fill and finish, this being a core activity for Lonza going forward with the entry just a few years ago. I am myself and also the team at Lonza, we are convinced that this is really adding value to our customers when integrating very complex modalities, like Biologics or also ADCs in the same hands within the same quality management system of Lonza to the aseptic fill and finish, which in itself is a very complex process either. And so here, we really create value through complexity reduction, also sometimes even tangible, real operational synergies and while typically, I mean, big pharma companies, and if I look at their sourcing strategies, they, in many cases, actually say, look, we actually source independently the different modalities and different working packages because we are able to. We have the expertise. We have a very sophisticated procurement organization. Also, they actually appreciate the optionality to get it all out of one hand. So we are actually seeing increasing demand in this regard. We have very clear reasons why that actually is benefit for the client. So the answer is, yes, that's going to be continued as a strategic core activity. And depending on availability and also demand, we will continue to invest in that specific capability going forward as well. Thank you.

Thanks for the question, Sebastian. We're going to come to you next, and then we're going to come to you and then we're going to come to you. So we'll do it in that order and the microphone is going over there.

Thibault, Morgan Stanley. My first question is just on the CHI business. Can you just comment a bit on the level of integration in the company and any difficulty to carve out any complexity here that you could help us with? And then second question, you mentioned elevating M&A. You had the slide with all the modalities that are accessible, some of which you are not into such as [indiscernible], oligonucleotide. So just if you could give a bit more color on why you think Lonza could go and develop interesting capabilities.

Thank you very much, Thibault. I would actually take the start and I would invite Philippe to add whatever I might have not covered yet. On the level of integration, I mean, being with the company for 165 days now, half day. I think it's a separate organization, while I mean, strong connections on the personal level, it is a separate organization with almost completely not quite, but almost complete separate global manufacturing network. Also, and we talked about implementation of SAP S/4HANA. For example, actually, there are no big overlaps in this regard as well. So while carve-outs are always somewhat tedious and complex, this exercise will be manageable for us at Lonza. Elevate in M&A. And you refer to this one slide of different modalities, blue spots, Lonza activity, empty spots, Lonza not yet active in. I mean, in principle, our Lonza engine, we believe is applicable to quite a number of different modalities, also beyond the modalities in which we are operating already today. So in principle, it's also conceivable to enter into for Lonza, new modalities. This will then, in a specific case, always boil down to the question, I mean, how attractive is that specific segment, how could an entry look like? Is it built? do it on our own and what would it cost and what time would it take? And also, if it were through M&A, what is the current price tag for a certain modality? And in the end, we will always take a cold-eyed view on value creation, right? I mean, an attractive modality in itself is not enough. The price for the entry needs to be acceptable so that we can actually create outstanding value. So that would be my take of the questions. I don't know, anything to add to the CHI carve-out, Philippe.

No. Look, just because we had the question earlier this morning. I think this is not comparable to the LSI carve-out. Just in terms of magnitude, I think the company had grown together for decades, whereas I think the Capsugel acquisition's 8 years ago, different business model, product business, service business. So I think these 2 carve-outs are not comparable.

Charles Weston from RBC. So we're allowed 2. So clearly, I'd like 3. First of all, just on definitions, please. The historical definition of low teens was 11% to 13%. You're carving out CHI, which is lower growth, presumably means low teens is now a bit higher, but then you've got Vacaville which is perhaps flat over the next few years. Are they the key levers, I suppose we should be thinking about how -- what is low teens now?

Low teens is 10% to 13% as a general global definition. Maybe, I don't know, maybe the U.K. or is different. I think low teens 10% to 13%. And I think this is what the organic, what we organically can deliver and will deliver over time, which is what I think Wolfgang explained to us. So Yes, Vacaville gives you a bump in 2025, which we, I think, very clearly has spelled out today as well. After that, it is basically an organic asset.

And then second one, you talked about the strategy and the map from a modality perspective, but you also highlighted that all of the assets that you've invested in have been in the U.S. and Europe. So is there a different picture from sort of on that strategic lens from a geographical perspective?

Right. I mean, also there, I mean, we do have a global network with assets essentially in each and every key region in the world, in the U.S., obviously, in Europe, also in Asia. And we intend to keep all of them. And when we decide upon where to actually put our feet at the next, then it is about many dimensions, can be about cost competitiveness, access to talent, can also be about, I mean, how close do we need to be to a certain asset in order to efficiently manage it. So these are really questions that we approach in a very open manner. There is no -- if that is the background of your question, there is no, let's say, geopolitical exclusion of anything. We would actually look at that in an agnostic way that currently, the growth projects are all happening in Europe or the U.S. is true. And probably the focus will continue to be there, but it is clear, China, for example, or Asia is an important region to the world, and Lonza also wants to and will play a role there in terms of both, presence for manufacturing, if we can do it there in a competitive way and also in terms of customers, if they are innovative pharmaceutical companies from that region being interested in our services.

I think maybe if I can add, Charles, we operate global networks. So we will produce where the customer wants us to produce. So a customer wants us to produce in the U.S., we try to make space in one of our U.S. assets. If the customer not specific as to where he wants, we may place him somewhere else in Europe or in Singapore. We also have different technologies in the different sites. And therefore, it's based on technology and customer preference. And so this is the, I think, the beauty of having a global network for many modalities to be able to do that.

This is Dylan van Haaften with Stifel. So just maybe the first question from my side, just on mammalian scale. It feels like the power balance has shifted a bit towards CDMOs with scale being bigger, I think, capped off by the Vacaville acquisition. There's a bit of dis-synergy globally as well with reshoring. I just wanted to understand how much pricing is part of your growth algorithm? And maybe also how you're thinking about pricing kind of going out in out years. Do you think you've got a stronger positioning now that pharma partners are relying on you more?

Would you like to start?

Yes, I can do that. Look, I think pricing, I come from the pharma industry where we did price volume mix day in and day out and every month. In the CDMO industry, it's quite difficult because no real product is comparable and no real batch is comparable. I think the pricing power is probably well distributed right now. I think it always depends on the current market situation and how demand and supply plays. As we see today for large-scale mammalian, there's actually an undersupply. And so this, of course, is -- plays in the favor of CDMOs. And so yes, we are achieving good pricing, but this is no certainty that you can say this will be the same every year. We all know that our large competitors are bringing capacity online over the next 3 to 4 years. I think, therefore, one more reason why Vacaville was strategically important because it brings capacity today, it's capacity today. It's large capacity, it's capacity in the U.S. and it's capacity that is proven to work. And so I think this really made a big difference in comparing Vacaville to any other large-scale mammalian coming online.

What I can add as someone, of course, I mean, I'm now deeply inside that team, which is great, right? But of course, I didn't forget the word before. But in terms of our customers appreciating the value that Lonza brings, I think it is really seen and accepted typically, which doesn't free us from the fact that also we want to improve our processes over time, and we'll share that with customers. But I mean, that's my perception that we are in a good position in this regard.

Excellent. And just a second question for mine. Just a clarification. I think you said something about harmonizing or standardizing single-use consumables. I asked that because also particularly pertaining to some of the bioprocessing life sciences tools players, what do you guys mean with that?

It takes roughly 300 individual items to create a batch. The more you go into single-use technology, the more consumables you actually have and need. Now you can have every single batch being produced with a single different bill of material with different bags and different tubes and different filters, et cetera. The more you harmonize actually across your many different customers when you can, the easier actually your inventory management becomes. You reduce SKUs on the raw material side, not on the output side. And this allows you to be much more efficient. And so over time, we will drive standardization in the raw materials we use. So sometimes the customers counsel the bill of material, we take what the customer needs. If we can influence it, we will influence it towards a standard.

But it's still a great thought, maybe to add to that, just 2 sentences because I mean, for pharmaceutical customers, I mean, the early phases for new pharmaceutical asset, they're actually pretty expensive at a pretty, I mean, risky profile still. And in terms of us trying to reduce their cost exposure through providing for platforms, be it in terms of analytical methods, be it in terms of processes, but also be it in terms of consumables. This is much appreciated and focus on how we want to position our offering, especially for the early phase assets because that is really about availability at lowest costs and us being experts in many fields necessary to do those first steps. This platform idea is already very well developed at Lonza, and we will continue to double down on that.

Charles Pitman King from Barclays. Two questions from me, please. Just the first one on Vacaville and its position within your kind of updated guidance today. Can you just confirm that you are maintaining an expectation for this 30% utilization between FY '25 and '28 and how you expect that to impact -- what backfill margins are likely to be by FY '28? Has anything changed there? Is there potential upside to utilization if tech transfers improve over time, given you highlighted your positive conversations so far? And then just secondly, in terms of kind of the strategy of this new organizational structure, could I just ask what the kind of rationale is for putting your ex-Head of Biologics in charge of the CHI division?

Yes, sure. Yes. No. So I'd be happy to reconfirm, I think, the assumption that the market, I think, has well understood on Vacaville. So the Vacaville plan is to have an increase in 2025. The sales out of Vacaville will remain fairly constant until 2028. Why? Because we're actually ramping down the Roche batches and at the same time, ramping up new and third-party customers. And the 2 of them basically balance until 2028, at which point there will be no more Roche contract, at least based on the initial contract, and there will be only third parties. And you will see the growth of Vacaville coming post 2028. So this is unchanged. In terms of margin, we've been consistent saying that there will be margin dilution at the beginning, and we expect Vacaville to reach roughly Lonza Group average by 2028 and therefore, being maybe slightly dilutive, maybe slightly accretive, we'll see. This has not changed.

Yes. On leadership changes, I would start with a very brief summary. Gordon actually did great with his team for small molecules, and J.C did great with his team for biologics. Going forward, Gordon will continue to do great with a new team for integrated biologics. And J.C, based on his profile and his past history with CHI, he used to be responsible for that in the past as Chief Commercial Officer, will also do great. And it will require great management skills to actually guide that organization, which is a strong team, but still guide this organization throughout the next 1 to 2 years through that process of exiting Lonza. So not only myself, also all gentlemen and also ladies involved actually think that this is a winning lineup.

[indiscernible] ZKB. So for the capsule business, I know it's, of course, early, but I mean, you talk about it since at least a year that it's not strategically...

I don't.

No, not you, but others. And so you must have attracted interest, especially from private equity because of the profile of that segment. So how big is the interest just right now?

Actually, we will start that process in early 2025. And I mean, it's true, and I very much hope that I've been able to convey that as well. First of all, this is a great business, a strong team. And secondly, we are in no rush. However, we have taken the decision, and we are people who actually typically execute on decisions once taken. So this process will start in 2025. And if you ask me if I'm convinced and optimistic that we will actually find attractive good ownership, then I would tend to agree. Yes, we will. I believe we will.

Okay. And second question is I'm a bit skeptical about your mammalian capacity forecast with the share of pharma down from 65 to 45. I mean, how do you know? I mean, of course, there are your customers, but not every customer is willing to tell you his total capacity and especially in what modality? I mean, how do you know if it's for obesity or whatever for a big pharma customer? I'm a bit -- I think it's a bit aggressive, too low.

You mean they continue to do more internally in your view. Okay. Yes. I mean it's -- I mean, true. I mean that is not precise science because those figures indeed are not publicly available. And while some customers shares, others don't. So this is Lonza internal analysis, but it's not just a quick and dirty exercise. So our colleagues actually teams tracking that over years, each individual CapEx announcement, whatever we hear from our conversations with customers goes into that data bank and has produced this data. If you have additional information, actually would be great to get it and include it. But overall, the trend itself, in our view, is solid, be it 44%, 47%, don't know. But in the end, it probably doesn't matter when we look at the demand that actually comes our way and listening to our customers for Lonza as a whole, but also specifically, and I think that's great news also for Vacaville with the first contract already signed with tech transfer to happen in 2025.

Maybe, Daniel, maybe just let me add one point. You'd be surprised how many companies disclose actually what they do in terms of biologic production. Why? Because it's politically a great thing to do. So I think most pharma companies are actually publicly saying how much they're investing and how much capacity they're building. The CDMO is doing the same because they want to basically signal that they have capacity available and coming online. So the reason why we show you mammalian is because this is where the biggest transparency is. So it would be much harder to do on microbial, would be much harder to do on some smaller modalities. Mammalian is actually surprisingly transparent. We know how much time it takes. People actually telling you, I have this many liters of capacity in 3, 4 years. So that number, I think, while not being perfect, as Wolfgang is saying, I think it's probably a good approximation of the amount of money flowing into capacity, both from pharma as well from CDMO.

Very good. Thank you all for your questions so far. And thank you also for observing the 2 question rule. I am as surprised as I am grateful. Cristiano, if I can ask you to pass the microphone over there, I will come to you. There's one more question, 2 more questions. I'm going to wander over to this side. One question on this side.

Zain Ebrahim, JPMorgan. So maybe just to build on the Vacaville conversation, just thinking beyond '28. Since you closed the deal, you've talked about contracting momentum in the rest of the business being quite strong through this year, and you've had customers visit the site and you've also visited the site yourself. So what's been the key feedback that you've been getting from customers, both in terms of the strength of Vacaville maybe what you could improve on? And you mentioned the detailed CapEx plan to come for Vacaville next year. So is that in line with the original CHF 500 million CapEx? Or could you potentially spend a little bit more there? Just how should we think about that? And putting all of that together, how are you thinking about the peak sales potential for Vacaville? And when can we get there?

Thank you. I will take the first part of the question. First of all, and this is not, let's say, direct exposure yet. I will do my first customer visit after JPMorgan in January next year together with a C-level executive of a big customer of ours and do the site tour with him together. But so far, the feedback probably is twofold. One being -- I mean, everyone in the industry knows that at the time, Genentech then Roche, Vacaville, I mean, has been the powerhouse, especially in the early phases of really bringing biologics to market. And we see this expertise and this experience in terms of both, the people there, but also in terms of the facility itself. And the site is probably roughly 25 years old, which is leading to the second feedback that we get so far. While I mean, not everyone -- not everybody of our customers has visited the site in the past, the consistent feedback is that people are extremely pleased, some of them even surprised that the site of the age of 25 years is in such a great condition. So they actually are excited and they are willing to actually put their precious products into that site, and we will continue to turn that momentum into tangible commitments. In terms of CapEx investments and also in all clarity, this is not because we would have to upgrade the facility because it would not be in a good condition. It's -- as I just said before, it's in an excellent condition. This is about modifying the capacity in order for it to be more flexible for a multipurpose operation, which we need as a CDMO and also as a multipurpose operation, somewhat more efficient because the purpose of the site is slightly changing, of course. And while the CHF 500 million, approximately plus/minus that we shared at the point in time of the announcement of the acquisition, that's still the figure and it stands. However, we didn't -- couldn't yet put additional substance to it. So really laying out defining specifically what the CapEx will be over the next years is work which is currently ongoing and will be finalized throughout the next year. Maybe sharing that as well. We were actually finding ourselves, I mean, over time, confronted with the question of, I mean, selling immediately or taking the time to actually modify and do CapEx, right, during which you can't operate the facility. And we will do that in a mindful way in terms of, of course, taking on business but also making sure that the facility gets into a condition, which is most appropriate for CDMO being a multipurpose operation going forward.

It's Falko Friedrichs from Deutsche Bank over here. My first question is on the EBITDA margin over the medium term for the CDMO business. I guess you're a little bit more vague here in terms of the way you're guiding for it. But is it fair that the previous indications you've given for the different businesses, right, at the previous CMD, is that still a fair direction of travel when we model the margin out for the next few years? And then my second question is, given that you've given a bit of an indication for '25, could you also give us an indication for CapEx in 2025? And then just longer term, thinking about CapEx, especially new CapEx in light of you emphasizing that M&A will be increasingly sort of part of your strategy going forward. Is the existing asset base and your announced -- already announced expansion projects, is that enough to drive the growth that you're targeting over the -- beyond '25? Or is there more needed over time?

Thank you very much. Let me start with the first question. When I kind of shared the reconciliation like-for-like from the old mid-term guidance framework as of March 2024 to the new way, Outlook 2025 and CDMO organic growth model going forward. And when I said that actually both views are consistent for the year 2028, that was not only for the topline, but also for the bottom line. Second question, CapEx, I will leave to Philippe. But when it comes to the divisional breakdown and what the company has shared in the past, we will actually not continue to share outlooks for the divisions. Of course, you will still see in our financial reporting the actual performance in the previous year, but we will not further guide on divisional performance, one Lonza, right? It's one CDMO. And the whole purpose of being a CDMO, it's about managing lumpiness, right? So the performance is our true conviction not only in front of you, but also internally, the true performance of a CDMO needs to be judged based on the whole engine, right, and which is why we will not provide a divisional guidance going forward anymore.

CapEx? Yes. I think our CapEx trend has been clear, and we communicated that as well before. I think we are moving towards a mid- to high teens percent of sales for total CapEx, and this is still valid. So the curve, you can take the starting endpoint. But we will give you more information in January. I think for now, assume that this will trend towards mid- to high teens.

And to the third question, actually, there is no M&A included in our current thinking for the next years. So organic growth model and whatever M&A would bring would then come on top, setting kind of -- I mean, giving you a bump and then it would be, again, the CDMO organic growth model.

It's Justin Smith from Bernstein. I've got 2. Firstly, on CHI, I just wondered if you could share any thoughts now your business is up for sale, how do you maintain staff morale within that division? Do they have their own separate LTIP? That would be interesting. And then Philippe, second question, just back to Slide 48. I wanted to check I didn't mishear you. It was with regards to what you said about Capsugel and goodwill. Were you kind of arguing that the majority of the group goodwill is the Capsugel goodwill? Or did I mishear you? And did you want to set me straight?

First part and then second part about goodwill for Philippe. First of all, we have a high loyalty also in the CHI business. But it's also clear that in such a transition phase with the -- I mean, decision being taken just now. We also need to make sure that actually the people stay motivated and actually stay on board, and we have taken measures to ensure that.

Yes. So answering the second question on goodwill, we have roughly CHF 2.8 billion of goodwill on the balance sheet. Most of that goodwill, and you did hear me right, most of that goodwill is coming from the Capsugel acquisition. Now maybe just realize that some of the parts of Capsugel moved into other parts. So when we bought Capsugel, some parts stayed in what is today CHI, other parts have moved. And so the goodwill would have moved with these parts. But there's still the largest amount is with the CHI business today.

Sorry. This is Christopher Richardson from Jefferies on behalf of James Vane-Tempest. Given the maturity of the capsules business and the investment cycle that you're in, can you maybe give us an indication of your FCF conversion, excluding CHI and when you expect this to start to inflect? You did show an increase in free cash flow in the midterm, but do you have any idea specifically when this will come and whether it will be more towards the end of the period? And then just as a second one regarding perhaps more M&A in the future, does it -- has your attitude towards leverage changed at all?

Yes. So maybe on the cash flow, of course, we all know that the CHI business was a cash-generating business unit in comparison to the others. I think we have not disclosed and are not ready yet to disclose the cash flow progression over the midterm. Without CHI, we'll do that at a later stage once we know when and if and how and in which form CHI will be exiting the Lonza Group. In terms of M&A, I think our leverage, we said we will stay true to our BBB+ rating, which is 1.5 to 2x leverage. Now in any M&A occasion, depending on your case, you could be allowed for a couple of years to be outside of that band while making sure that you have a clear plan to return there.

Shyam Kotadia from Goldman Sachs. So the first one is on M&A. So historically, Lonza didn't do significant M&A due to maybe the extra cost of bringing the plant up to multiproduct level or Lonza's high specifications. So has the general specification of plants for sale increased in recent years? Or how are you planning to evaluate the balance of speed to revenues versus the additional CapEx to bring the plants up to specification? That's the first question. And then the second question, your guidance about approaching 20% growth for next year. So high level, I can see that Vacaville will be adding around high single-digit growth, which implies the base business will be around the lower end of your previous mid-teen guidance. So I just wanted to know whether with this coming online next year, why is it not growing faster?

To start with the first question, it is really a case-by-case assessment. And for me, critical for value creation is, I mean, how much value can we bring beyond the value that we pay for an asset. And that can be through technologies, that can be through customer access, that can also be our ability to actually upgrade facilities. And as long as that balance is appropriate, and we are sufficiently sure that we will be able to -- that we will be in the position to create value, then that would be a doable acceptable case for us. In general, I mean, this logic of the Lonza engine will actually also drive these decisions. So if we believe that we can actually apply what makes us special to create value to a certain asset, if we do certain things about it at the right valuation when it comes to purchase price, then this would be a potential acquisition case for us.

Yes. So you were talking about 2 of our large assets in Visp, the six and 20,000 and our highly potent facility. As a reminder, I think both assets are fully contracted. So yes, they will contribute to growth in '25, but also well beyond '25. As I just said as well in my presentation, it takes 2 to 3 years to ramp up an asset. So this is absolutely normal and the contribution is there.

Very good. Thank you for your questions so far. We have about 10 minutes left. So if anybody has got any final questions in the room, then please raise your hand. I've got one here.

Patrick Rafaisz from UBS. Two questions. The first on Vacaville, and you mentioned first contract signed. Just wanted to clarify, is that the original letter of intent that you converted into a contract? Or is that a new one? And the second question would be on bioconjugates, right, which you now placed into the advanced synthesis segment. What's the thinking behind apart from just giving a bit of size to the segment?

Right. First question, very short, I don't know. I mean, if that is 1:1 the same thing. It's good news either way, I guess. Second question in terms of bioconjugates, that's really a hybrid. And even though -- I mean, even a nice example for a successful technology strategy in the past of Lonza is a hybrid of chemistry and biology. Because if you think what the modality looks like, it's typically a payload, which typically is a small molecule. which is then linked through the chemical linker, not just, I mean, covalent bonds, but the complex construct in itself to a monoclonal antibody to biology. And Lonza, over time, being a strong player also technology-wise in small molecules at the time and also in mammalian monoclonal antibody manufacturing, I'm pretty sure that this is the reason why Lonza has been able to early on see that trend and double down on it, which is why Lonza is today the leading CDMO in the ADC space. So these synergies also from a technological perspective, I think, are real and tangible. Thank you, Patrick.

Very good. Thank you. Any other questions in the room?

Behind you David.

Before I hand over, I'm just going to speak to the people online right now. These are the last 2 questions in the room. So if you do have a question online, then please do feel free to put up your hand. We're monitoring the chat room online at the moment. There are no questions. Absolutely fine. If there are any questions then let us know right now. Thank you.

Charlie Haywood, Bank of America. A quick question on, obviously, yourself, Wolfgang and Gordon, I guess, more of a small molecule background is what I would understand. So what would you -- in terms of managing the biologics business going forward, which is obviously a key value driver, key growth driver, what are the differences in running that over small molecule modalities and I guess the challenges in transitioning? And then on your low teens organic growth, obviously, if you've got a current asset where you're considering to build or buy, if you then opt to buy instead of build, is that M&A not necessarily be upside to your organic guidance because you're just switching between the 2? Is that fair to think of that way unless it's significant M&A?

Yes. Thank you. First question on Gordon. And Gordon actually started his career in Slough, which is and was our first mammalian manufacturing site. So he has deep expertise in different management functions and also different roles in that business going far back within Lonza. So I mean, I'm sure otherwise, I wouldn't have taken that decision that Lonza -- that Gordon actually brings what it takes to be successful also in this role as Head of Integrated Biologics. When it comes to the question of organic and M&A, the CDMO organic growth model is excluding M&A. Whatever M&A would bring on top as revenues like Vacaville will do next year is then on top of the growth that we expect on average over time for the CDMO underlying organic growth model.

If you allow, I think, Charlie, just to -- all the assets that are currently being built or that currently that I showed the 22 projects, these are the projects that will drive the growth for the foreseeable future. So it's very hard to replace one of them and say, I'm going to stop building and buying something instead. So truly, for the next few years, if we were to buy something, this would be on top of what we're constructing. So there's no asset that you could kind of flip. If it's an asset we didn't start yet, we would start construction next year, take 3 to 4 years for that to complete, you'll be in 2029. So I wouldn't worry about that problem. I think it's a conceptual problem, but not a practical problem.

A quick question clarifying on some of the numbers, please, on the guidance. So if I take the guidance you provided for the 2 segments, New Lonza and CHI, it would seem to suggest if I take the 2025 and then the beyond 2025, it would seem to suggest at the low end an 11% sales CAGR, and at the high end, a 13% sales CAGR versus previously, you were guiding to a 12% to 15%. This is from 2024 to 2028. So it looks like it's lower. Is that correct? If so, why is it lower? Is it just more conservative? Or did something change?

You want to start?

Yes, I can start. So I think Wolfgang phrased it well. I think our conviction in what the business can deliver and will deliver actually is the same. So I'm happy to take you through our little sensitivity tables if you want, I think we get to slightly different numbers. I think it could be the base that you're taking. It could be FX, it could be different things, but we don't get to these numbers. I think for us, the 2 ways to guide you are mathematically consistent. I think it's probably details, happy to take that in one-on-one.

Great. And you can just -- could you also just confirm that it adds up at the end to the same 32% to 34% number.

Yes. I think Wolfgang mentioned that before. I think as we said, the guidance is consistent with the old one, I think we also mean the margin.

Sorry, Chris Richardson from Jefferies. Just squeaking in a third one. And it's just a classic one on the BIOSECURE Act. And I suppose just wondering whether you are seeing a change in stance or any nervousness from clients and just what the general attitude within the industry is and especially after the news coming over this weekend. Any color would be great.

No, thank you. I mean, obviously, we don't know more than others. And I think it's hard to predict what really will happen. I mean, first of all, the bill didn't pass yet, and there has been even an addition in terms of adding an executive review process to the bill. Secondly, I mean, if it were to pass, there is, I mean, currently in the draft grace period, I think, until 2032 or so. And thirdly, looking at, I mean, what market participants share and think, especially customers, of course, they are aware. There is a certain concern them asking themselves what it would mean for the global supply chain going forward. We, as Lonza, I mean, first of all, we don't build our One Lonza strategy on regulatory intervention, right? And our future success doesn't depend on that. But otherwise, of course, we ask ourselves, I mean, what would it mean for our global network? And would we be ready to actually answer to certain requests as a result of such a bill eventually passing. We believe that actually, the company has created a global network, which would be well suited to also be successful going forward with our presence in all key regions, but of course, significant presence in the U.S. and also in Europe.

Yes, I'll just add one item. I think most of the customers that are currently using China are small customers doing early-stage work. And so early-stage capacity is probably the quickest one to add, if you want. I mean you can even usually just add a shift or so in the labs to do some more work. So this is also not something that has a 3- to 4-year lead time. So if we were to see a significant difference, this is something where we could react faster than some of the other modalities.

Charlie here with Bank of America. Just another quick one. Wolfgang, in terms of, I guess, future guidance is mid-term annual, would you consider yourself to be on the more cautious or conservative side in terms of how you'd like to that market expectations?

We actually share our thinking so that you properly can assess what the future performance of Lonza is likely to be, and that's where I would like to leave it.

That's also where we leave our Q&A session. So thank you all for your questions. Greatly appreciated. And I will hand back over to you, Wolfgang, for a final word.

Yes. Thank you very much for being with us here and going through these almost 2 hours, listening to our excitement about the Lonza engine and how we intend to apply it to create an attractive value-creating future at Lonza. Also a special thank you for the engaged discussion because, I mean, while, of course, we are happy to kind of provide the information so that you can take a right view at Lonza and what we will do with the company. At the same time, those questions are also beneficial because they sharpen our own view on ourselves. So thank you very much for that. We are looking forward to go with you, hopefully, as many as possible of you with as much as possible -- as high as possible shareholding, I would say, through the next years and looking forward to our discussions during the upper row to which you are welcomed essentially now. Thank you very much for coming and looking forward to our journey together.