AGRANA Aktie

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the AGRANA Results for Full Year 2025-2026 Conference Call. My name is Joseph, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or for broadcast.

At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Hannes Haider. Please go ahead.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to AGRANA's conference call, presenting our results for the full year '25-'26. You already got some insights in our figures when we published the talk release mid of April. Today, we will provide you with further details on all segments and also on the audited financial statements. As announced in our invitation, a presentation is available in reference to this call. You can find this presentation in the IR section of our website.

As you can see on Slide #2, the presentation will be divided into three parts. Our CEO, Stephan Buttner, will start with a general introduction, focusing on the highlights of the '25-'26 financial year. He will then hand over to our COO, Franz Ennser. He will report on the topics of raw materials, investments and ESG.

And afterwards, our CEO will take over again and provide you with details on the financial performance, and he will conclude with an outlook for the ongoing financial year '26-'27. The presentation will take about 25 minutes, and afterwards, the lines will be opened and we will be glad to answer your questions.

And now I may us over to CEO, Stephan, who will start with the presentation.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, let's have a look at the financial year, '25-'26. So it was still a very challenging year in a also challenging environment, uncertainty. Intense competition, still volatile commodity markets, also inflation are the most important topics here. Now again, we are facing a heavy, let's say, crisis triggered by the world in the Middle East.

Despite all these factors, our operating results, our operating performance was quite solid with an operating profit of EUR 81.2 million. This is a moderate increase versus prior year where we had EUR 76.5 million. Of course, a very negative impact, the one-timers, especially the write-off of assets in our Sugar business. amounting to EUR 46 million.

Also, we had to book personnel expenses in combination with the closure of our 2 Sugar production sites, Leopoldsdorf and Hrusovany with about EUR [ 13 ] million. And also, we had to book a provision for potential lawsuit also with nearly EUR 10 million.

When we look at the key numbers, revenue of EUR 3.2 billion, this is a decrease versus the EUR 3.5 billion in '24, '25, mainly the reduction comes from the sugar business, where we had a decrease of EUR 250 million in revenues. Our operating profit, EUR 81.2 million, as already mentioned; exceptional items EUR 74.1 million minus. This is more than twice as we had in '24-'25, mostly coming out of our Sugar business. and this leading to an EBIT of only EUR 3.2 million for the business year '25, '26.

When we look at the free cash flow, EUR 127 million, let's say, considering the negative operating result in Sugar, a solid performance with around 4% in terms of our revenue. a further reduction in our net debt position despite the fact that we had a payout of more than EUR 50 million for the acquisition of the remaining shares of AUSTRIA JUICE.

Our gearing with 39.2%, also solid and also a strong equity ratio with 44.1%. We also see ourselves on track in the execution of our corporate strategy next level. So we terminated our sugar production in Leopoldsdorf, Austria and Hrušovany, Czech Republic, a very important step towards the restructuring of our Sugar business.

As already mentioned also, we were able to acquire the remaining shares in AUSTRIA JUICE from Raiffeisen Ware Austria AG, also important for our potential growth strategy in our Food & Beverage Solutions segment.

Also, we were able to close the transaction concerning the acquisition of the Slovenian food company, Mercator-Emba, a very important supplier for the food service business, quick service restaurants in Europe; bringing us access to additional sales channels.

Also, we were able to reach an agreement with the Austrian sugar beet growth, also a very important step to secure our production site in Austria, [ Tulln ]. This is a 3-year contract where we think that we found a very good agreement on one hand, securing the raw material base for our factory. On the other hand, let's say -- yes, bringing us also in a position where we shall be competitive with our production cost in sugar midterm, also in connection with the savings program that we are executing currently.

Yes. And also our savings program, where we had a target of over EUR 80 million, this is a number that we overachieved already. So we set a new target until the end of the business year '28, '29 where we want to reach a total year-end yearly savings amount of EUR 130 million.

Let me say something about the Management Board. So Franz Ennser, new colleague in the AGRANA Board. He joined us in November '25. He is already in a AGRANA for quite a long time. He was the CEO of the AUSTRIA JUICE business for the last 10 years, and we are very happy that he joined us in November and took over the COO position in the group.

And now please let me hand over to Franz. He will guide you through raw materials and so on.

Thank you, Stephan. So some insights about our raw materials and our investments. In the last business year, AGRANA has processed around 7.7 million tonnes of raw material. The biggest share, 4.3 million is sugar beet, for sure, a smaller volume within on raw sugar. The grain amounted for 2.4 million tonnes; potato, around 200,000 tonnes. And overall, the fruit has been processing around 700,000 tonnes of various fruits.

Of course, we were decreasing our volumes on sugar beet, especially coming from the previous year of 6.5 million. While in the other areas, we have been pretty stable. So the grains, the potatoes and also the fruits are on a pretty same level as in the previous year.

In terms of our investments, AGRANA Group has invested in the last business year, around EUR 103 million. The biggest share we invested into the Food & Beverage Solutions segment, especially enlarging our processing and packing capacities in the various countries. On Starch and Sugar, we invested around EUR 18.5 million, EUR 12.4 million, respectively, of course, also driven by the lower performance in these segments. We also have been, let's say, very cautious in terms of our investments.

The plan now for the current business year is that we will invest around EUR 130 million, which is slightly below the threshold for our depreciation, which amounts for EUR 117 million. 2/3 of our investments will be directed into the Food & Beverage Solutions segment, while around 18% will go into the Starch and roughly 11% will be dedicated for investments into the Sugar business.

In terms of ESG sustainability, of course, ESG sustainability is an integral part of all our business activities. We are committed to our targets on Scope 1, Scope 2, which means that we are aiming at reducing it down to 50% in 2030 and achieving the net zero emissions by 2040. While for the Scope 3, the target is that we achieved a 30% reduction by 2030 and the net zero emission 2050.

We have put some special, let's say, efforts and highlights in the sustainability business for '26, '27 related to the sustainable sourcing of raw materials, which means basically certifications according to the FSA numbers.

We are dealing with the responsible water use in all our activities, be it the processing, but also be the agricultural raw materials advice to our growers and suppliers. And of course, also, we have to deal with the waste recycling. We want to optimize this across all our sites.

Furthermore, we will put a focus on, let's say, the nonfinancial targets, especially on gender equality, which means that we are targeting achieving 30% of management position being held by women by 2030. We have a further focus on health and safety for all our employees by targeting in reducing the injury rates. And finally, also, we will enroll our code of conduct information campaign also for the blue collar, not just for the white. And this will be the key priorities.

One final comment on our energy costs. So we have been able to benefit from the lower energy pricing in the last business year, reducing down our [ old ] energy costs in the various segments down to around EUR 204 million, but it's still substantially higher than compared to the time period before the COVID crisis or especially the Ukrainian war impacted our expenditures on energy.

The split, you can see here on the chart, the biggest share for sure with EUR 110 million has been spent in the Starch business, followed by Sugar and also finally by the [ FBS ] segment was around EUR 37 million.

That's it in a nutshell. And now I hand back to Stephan.

Thank you, Franz. So yes, please let me put the attention to the new segment reporting. Again, we already reported about that since March '25, we have the new reporting structure. So we have two, let's say, strategic business areas and therefore, then three segments, Food & Beverage Solutions is one segment that we report. We have Agricultural Commodities & Specialties Starch segment, and we have Agricultural Commodities & Specialties Sugar segment, and we have the Holding Co. & Other.

This is a new reporting scheme. So let's jump to the next slide, revenue by segment. I already mentioned, we had a decrease of nearly 8% mainly coming out of the Sugar segment, you see a decrease by 32% in revenue from EUR [ 840 ] million down to EUR 570 million. Starch, a slight decrease of 3% and a slight increase in our Solutions segment by 1.1%.

Main driver for the reduction in sugar, of course, the prices, we had quite stable volumes on the sales side but the sharp drop in sugar sales prices, especially in the industrial markets.

The EBIT by segment here, a very good development in our Solutions segment. An EBIT of EUR 103.3 million with an EBIT margin of 6.3%, this is totally acceptable. I would say, starch quite weak, still also here a further decrease of 26.3%, still a very challenging and difficult environment, a weak economy, low ethanol prices and margins is all negatively impacting our EBIT in Starch. And then you can see really the very, very poor performance.

In Sugar, again, we had one-timers here. I already mentioned the write-offs of assets, EUR 46 million. I already mentioned social plans. So extraordinary personnel cost of nearly EUR 13 million and the provision of nearly EUR 10 million.

So all this negatively impacting our results in Sugar and therefore, a negative EBIT of EUR 106.6 million. And when you take this into consideration also with a number of '24, '25, you see the tremendous losses in this business segment. So this is why we have constantly to work on the turnaround. This is a heavy burden for our group.

Of course, everything very negatively impacted by the low sugar prices. You see the sharp decline in prices where we were in '23, '24. So now we see kind of a stabilization also caused by the conflict in Iran. Let's see what the final impact will be on the energy prices. This will potentially also then, in the coming campaign, leads to higher production costs.

On the other hand, we have high stocks in Europe. We will enter the new production campaign in September '26 with a record level of 2.6 million tonnes of sugar on stocks in the European Union. This is a very, very big number. So on the other hand, we see a decrease in planted acreage further decrease versus '24, '25, where we also saw a reduction. Now it will also depend on the weather conditions on the yields of sugar beets in the European Union. And this will guide us the way through the sugar marketing year '26-'27.

Let's come to the financials, Consolidated income statement, I already referred to the revenue, EUR 3.237 billion. yes. EBITDA, EUR 195 million, this is not a very good number. But when we take into consideration the poor situation in our commodities businesses, especially in Sugar, I would say it's a solid performance also with EUR 81.2 million operating profit.

And then we have the extraordinary exceptional items with minus EUR 74.1 million, leading to the EBIT of EUR 3.2 million and the loss for the period amounting to minus EUR 35.6 million.

Yes, exceptional items I already explained it. So let me come to the dividend proposal. So the proposal is EUR 0.35 dividend payout per share for the '25-'26 financial year. This is let's say, half of the dividend that we paid out in '24, '25 of EUR 0.70 per share. This would be -- the EUR 0.35 would be a dividend yield of 3% based on the share price of EUR 11.75 at the end of the fiscal year '25, '26. Dividend payment will be made on 13th of July '26.

[indiscernible] Already to the outlook for '26-'27. Of course, we expect a very significant improvement on EBIT level, but this is not very difficult as we have these -- all these exceptional items in '25-'26. So the expected range of EBIT is between EUR 70 million and EUR 90 million. spend on group level, we expect a slight growth in revenue. Also, we will further work on our savings program and expect to have implemented measures with the future impact of nearly EUR 110 million at the end of '26, '27.

For the segments, in Food & Beverage Solutions, we expect a moderate increase in revenue and a moderate reduction in EBIT. This is mainly due to the massive, let's say, frost that we saw in Hungary last autumn, impacting our harvest of apples, yes, leading to a very low utilization of our capacities in our AUSTRIA JUICE concentrate production in Hungary. Therefore, this has also, of course, an impact on our results expected in '26, '27 in our [ FBS ] segment. The rest should be on track and comparable, at least with the business year '25, '26 performance-wise.

In Starch, we expect a stable revenue and a significant increase in EBIT and in sugar, a slight reduction -- a further slight reduction in revenues and, of course, a very significant improvement on EBIT level.

So finally, please let me draw your attention to the war in Middle East. This is something that, of course, brings more uncertainty for all our business segments. We can already say that in the first quarter, we did not really see an impact of this war. Of course, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is impacting the energy prices already. The question is how long will this go on?

And then, of course, we will see the impact in the value chain coming in the next months. But really, it depends on how long the whole situation will last that we see. Actually, this will also potentially have an impact on inflation. So prices will rise again. This is clear, I think we are doing a proper risk assessment on AGRANA Group level.

And currently, we have the expectation that this is absolutely manageable and will not have an immediate impact on our guidance. But as I already said, there is a lot of uncertainty and nobody knows how this whole things in Iran will evolve.

Finally, outlook for the first quarter, '26-'27. Of course, the EBIT in the first quarter '25 '26 mln was extremely low, There, we had to book the restructuring costs for the closure of Leopoldsdorf and Hrusovany, especially the personnel expenses. This is what we'll not see in the actual first quarter. Therefore, the EBIT is expected to be very significantly better.

So this was my part. So thank you very much for your attention. Let me hand over to Hannes Haider, who will inform you about the financial calendar.

Thanks so far. Before we go on with the Q&A session, I just wanted to remind you that today in the morning, we also published our annual report for '25-'26. And we would like to invite you to also visit our digital report on reports.agrana.com.

And having a look at the financial calendar, I just wanted to remind you that our Annual General Meeting will take place on the 3rd of July, and it would be a presence event. We will now go on with the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Elias New from ODDO BHF.

I'll start with a quick clarification question on the Next-level savings program. So if I understand correct, that you've achieved EUR 52 million of savings for the current financial year, but you are targeting EUR 80 million for the following year and then EUR 100 million for the year after. And then the EUR 110 million, that is just measures that you will implement in the next fiscal year, but they will flow through to the P&L in the years after that.

Is that sort of the way to think about that? So we're going to get EUR 80 million of savings that will hit the P&L next year and EUR 110 million in terms of the measures you're taking and that they will sort of flow through later?

Yes. It's clear, but it's not correct. Our target for '25, '26 were EUR 52 million. What we already achieved is an amount of EUR 89 million. Now maybe you will raise the question, where is the result? The problem is that all the savings are eaten up by the lower gross profit, gross margins especially coming out of Sugar and Starch. And this is due to the actual pricing situation in Sugar, but on the other hand, also due to the overall economic situation in Starch.

Our target for the next year, '26-'27 is that we will implement -- already have implemented measures that bring up savings -- annual savings of around EUR 100 million. This is our ambition for the year '26-'27. This also will have a very positive effect once the market will recover, then we will profit on one hand from the recovery of these markets and volume-wise and on the other hand, from the much better cost structure that we will have then.

Yes, that's helpful. And so just to clarify, so that EUR 100 million for next year, that will be fully kind of reflected in the P&L., it's not sort of measures you're taking and they will flow through later?

It's not fully reflected in the P&L, but I would say it's up to 80% to 90% reflected in the P&L because this was already achieved in last year.

Right. Okay. Understood. So we can imagine essentially some incremental savings hitting the P&L in the next fiscal year. And so if I were to come to a follow-up question on that. If you were to look at your guidance for the next fiscal year.

I mean it is essentially -- if you strip out the one-offs, it would assume kind of taking the midpoint flat year-on-year development. So I'm just wondering the incremental savings that you will essentially see coming through in the P&L this year will be offset by adverse developments?

Yes, you're completely right. The problem is mainly in the Sugar business, so still, we are facing a massive pressure from the market side. So prices are further -- will further decrease in the actual business here on one hand. On the other hand, yes, let's see what happens also with the volumes. I mean, we are in the restructuring mode. But yes, I mean we need a recovery also in the market side.

That's very clear. And I guess final question from my side is just coming to the sugar business. I mean you're guiding for a slight revenue decline, but improving profitability.

Now that's kind of obvious, given the EBIT level on the one-off. But what are the assumptions embedded in the guidance here also on the revenue side? So what level of sugar prices are you assuming? And what are you seeing in the market currently? And perhaps on that, also, what is your current breakeven price? I mean it's sort of somewhere below EUR 600 million, right?

Yes, it is difficult to talk about breakeven prices in sugar, it really depends on the energy prices. that we will face during the sugar marketing campaign starting in September. This is one very important factor. On the other hand, it also depends on the raw material prices at the end of the day. Yes, it's somewhere for sure, I would say -- in the industry, it must be somewhere around 600 plus/minus. This is what we think also with the current energy price levels.

Yes, as I said, I mean, difficult to say also, revenue-wise, it really depends what's going to happen with the sugar prices onwards from September '26. As I already mentioned, we have still very high volumes on stock. So the estimation is around 2.6 million tonnes in Europe entering into the new sugar marketing year September '26, and normal level is around 1.6 million tonnes. So this means over stocks of around 1 million tonnes.

By statistics. Of course, this can be, let's say, compensated by the lower planted acreage in the European Union. But nobody knows what the weather will do, yes. So will this be a very good crop, then it will be more difficult, let's say, for prices to recover. If it will be a bad crop, it could also theoretically see an increase in prices. Currently, very difficult to say, yes.

Yes, that's helpful, but I'm just guessing sort of for your guidance, are you assuming that sugar prices deteriorate further or sort of hold this level? I'm just trying to think, what are the assumptions you've you can get it in a given...

No, for the fiscal year, so we expect, of course, a stable development now till the new sugar marketing campaign. And then we will see new prices. Our expectation in the budget -- reflected in the budget is a moderate decrease in prices, a further decrease. Yes. So -- and in total, a further decrease also in revenue. But this is what I already mentioned, yes.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Hannes Haider for closing remarks.

As there are no further questions, thanks a lot for your participation. We wish you a nice remaining day, and goodbye. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the AGRANA Results for the First 3 Quarters of 2025-2026 Conference Call. I am Sandra, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] And the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast.

At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Investor Relations Officer, Hannes Haider. Please go ahead.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to AGRANA's conference call presenting our results for this first 3 quarters of '25-'26 financial year. First of all, Happy New Year and all the best for 2026. As announced in our conference call invitation, a presentation is available in reference to this call, and you can find this presentation as always, in the IR section of our website.

Our CEO, Stephan Buttner, will hold today's presentation. And as you can see on Page 2, the presentation is divided into 3 parts. We will start with a general introduction, focusing on the main topics of the first 9 months. We will go on then with comments on the financial performance, especially on segment level. And finally, we will conclude with an outlook for the remaining financial year '25-'26.

The presentation will take about 15 minutes. And afterwards, the lines will be opened and we will be glad to answer your questions.

And now I may pass over to our CEO, Stephan, who will start the presentation with Slide #3.

Thank you, Hannes. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, first of all, Happy New Year also from my side. So yes, after 3 quarters in the actual business year, we are on track towards the implementation of our corporate strategy next level. Also, regarding our financial targets for the business year '25-'26, so we saw a significant increase as forecasted. Also for the first 9 months, we have a stable result despite the EUR 20.4 million extraordinary expenses in the sugar business for restructuring in Austria and Czech Republic, so the sites Leopoldsdorf and Hrušovany.

The operative performance in sugar is still negative, but we see a slight improvement during the business year, mainly due to our restructuring or, let's say, cost savings. Yes, starch, a market-driven decline in earnings, still the economy is under pressure. We see this also especially in the paper industry, but also in the food industry and the construction industry. Here we are working on our operative business level strategy to focus also in the future, even more on specialties. And Food & Beverage Solutions, again, delivered strong earnings, and this is very important for a stabilization of our group EBIT as also already in the previous year.

Key figures. So revenue EUR 2.494 billion in the first 3 quarters. Operating profit amounted to EUR 73.3 million. Exceptional items I already mentioned, minus EUR 22.8 million, this comes mainly from the restructuring or the social plan in combination with the closure of the site Hrušovany and Leopoldsdorf. And therefore, then this resulting in an EBIT of EUR 48.4 million.

Free cash flow positive with EUR 76 million, close to the EUR 87.8 million last year. Net debt increased up to EUR 470 million, but there is already included the cash out of around EUR 50 million of the acquisition of AUSTRIA JUICE. Gearing 42.4%, up a little bit versus prior year and equity ratio, still very solid with around 44%.

When we look at the implementation of the AGRANA NEXT LEVEL strategy. So of course, I already mentioned the termination of sugar production, the sites Leopoldsdorf and Hrušovany. We acquired the remaining 49.99% of AUSTRIA JUICE shares from RWA. The deal was closed mid-October 2025. Now we are working on the integration, especially of the specialties added value business. So beverage compounds and flavors, natural flavors and bringing this closer together with our solutions business from the fruit preparations. Also in summer '25, we announced the acquisition of the Slovenian food company, Mercator-Emba are also very important for growing our foodservice business in our Food & Beverage Solutions segment. So we expect the antitrust approval in the course of January.

And last but not least, we are also successful in negotiating a new contract with the Austrian beet farmers. It's a 3 years contract with a new pricing formula for the raw material, reflecting the actual pressure on the sugar market, but also the higher input factor costs like energy, but also personnel costs. So I think this was a very good compromise, and we are very happy that we -- and we are sure that this will secure our sugar production in Austria in the remaining site tool for the next years.

Let's move on to the financials. So I again want to inform that we will see a new segment report that we have this new segment reporting since March 1, 2025, but we for sure already know this. So now we have the new structure with Food & Beverage Solutions. This was the former Fruit segment. We have our Agricultural Commodities & Specialties segment, Starch and ACS – Sugar, and we are separately reporting the holding.

So now let's move on to the revenue by segment. Total revenue was EUR 2.5 billion. I already mentioned that is a decrease of around 8% versus prior year. So we saw a growth of 2.3% in the FBS segment, minus 1.4% in Starch and the significant define in Sugar by 34%, which is, of course, volume-driven, but also price driven. It clearly shows the reduction of our footprint in the sugar business. So the market in sugar is still and continuously under pressure also due to the, let's say, good crop in 2025. So the production volumes are, let's say, the reduced beet growing areas are compensated by this good harvest. Therefore, yes, there is enough supply of Sugar in the market, and therefore, the Sugar prices are still under pressure.

In Starch, of course, lower sales volumes of saccharification products. Saccharification products are somehow always linked to the Sugar market. The Sugar market is under pressure also the market for saccharification products from our Starch production is also somehow under pressure. Ethanol still very volatile. We saw an increase in the recent month, but then it went down again. And now it somehow stabilized during the last weeks at around EUR 630, EUR 640 per cubic meter. And the Food & Beverage Solutions, we are happy that we again saw a growth this year in the first 9 months.

When we look at the Sugar world market prices, but also in the European Union, so you see in the graph a massive decrease of sugar prices in the last month. So now we see somehow stabilization. Yes, will be very, very interesting to see what happens now in March, April when beets are seed for the production processing campaign in 2026 autumn. So one thing is very clear, we need a further reduction of areas planted, beets planted in the European Union. Otherwise, the market will not be able to stabilize also facing this hard pressure on the world market side for Sugar.

The outlook for '25-'26. So we confirmed our outlook with a significant increase in EBIT and a moderate decrease in revenue on group level and outlook for the segments. Food & Beverage Solutions, a slight increase in revenue and a slight increase in EBIT. ACS – Starch, a slight reduction in revenue and a significant reduction in EBIT and in Sugar, a significant reduction in revenue and a significant improvement versus prior year in EBIT.

So thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and let me hand back to Hannes Haider for the financial calendar.

Thanks so far. Before we go on with the Q&A session, just one remark. I wanted to remind you that our annual results for the full year will be published on the 12th of May and the Annual General Meeting will be held on the 3rd of July. We will now go on with the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Vladimira Urbankova from Erste Group.

I would have a couple of questions. First of all, looking at performance of the individual business areas, if you could a little bit elaborate on the 3Q slowdown in the FBS segment, while quite significant improvement in the Starch. I know there was in the Starch low comparative base, but still because these divisions developed a little bit not as indicated for the full year, I would like to know what were the major reasons for the 3Q developments and if these reasons continue to affect the fourth quarter as well?

And then my next question would be related to the Sugar. I hear you pointed to a new pricing model. Maybe if you can, in a nutshell share with us what is the major difference between the old pricing model, new pricing model, where do you see the key factors which will affect performance of Sugar segment? And last but not least, what are, in your opinion, preconditions for Sugar segment returned to profitability in particular, which price levels at your currently streamlined structure will allow you to get out of the red zone? This would be it for now.

Yes. Thank you very much for your question. So first question, Q3 performance, Food & Beverage Solutions segment. So we see no significant decline versus prior year. So in the year '24, '25 in Q3, we had an EBIT of EUR 22.5 million in Q3. And this year, we have EUR 21.8 million. So this is a normal, let's say, normal development. It's a seasonal effect. So third quarter is always weaker than the quarters before in the FBS segment. So there is no significant change. And in Starch, I think it's always very important to know that the wet corn season is taking place in Q3, which gives us significantly lower costs on the raw material side. And therefore, the performance is higher, but also ethanol prices were significantly higher than in the Q2 and Q1.

Your next question, Sugar business, yes, it's not a new model, but it's -- the model is more or less same that we negotiated with the beet farmers in Austria, but it's a different curve. It's a different price curve for the raw materials. This means the raw material price -- so the beet price is directly linked to the sales price of Sugar. And then I think it's very simple to explain it in that way that you say, okay, now we have a different increase in the beet price, if the sugar price goes up by EUR 50 per tonne than before, so we significantly flattened the curve. And this is very important. The old agreement was made in 2017, 2018. And this was a time when we never expected an inflation that we saw in recent years. And therefore, we were not expecting Sugar prices of, let's say, around EUR 500, EUR 600, EUR 700 per tonne. And therefore, yes, the curve was not appropriate, let's say, for these price levels from our perspective.

So we were successful at renegotiating this. And now we have a much flatter curve than before when we're talking about the price range between EUR 500 and EUR 750 per tonne of sugar. And when you ask me for the preconditions, so that -- and please let me also mention, we do not see any sugar producer currently in Europe, having no losses, clearly saying that. So we don't think that with the actual price levels of EUR 500, EUR 550, the industry is able to survive. So we think that at least EUR 600 per tonne are necessary for growing beets on one hand for the farmers and on the other hand, for the processors to enter or to leave the so-called red zone. But this is our perspective.

The next question comes from Baptiste de Leudeville from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Most of my questions have been answered previously, but maybe one question about the M&A. Can you just remind us the cash flow impact of the acquisition of the remaining shares of AUSTRIA JUICE and also of the acquisitions of Mercator-Emba. And also can you give us some explanation on the rationale of the acquisition of Mercator-Emba, maybe going a bit deeper on this and the profile of the company and what do they do? And what is the size of it? That's the first question, and then I will have a second one.

First of all, cash flow impact from the acquisition of AUSTRIA JUICE, we said that the payout for acquiring the shares is around EUR 50 million. So this is a direct cash flow impact. For Mercator-Emba, yes, the size is around EUR 35 million cash out, if the transaction will be approved by the antitrust authorities. The rationale behind this, clearly, we want to grow our Food & Beverage Solutions segment. AUSTRIA JUICE, we already mentioned several times that we want to bring together our competencies of AUSTRIA JUICE in the added value business with natural flavors but also beverage compounds with our food preparations business and the global footprint.

So we roll out our competencies there globally. So let's say, primarily, these are market-driven synergies that we are looking for. And Mercator-Emba is a very important supplier of large quick service restaurants in the Food Service segment. Food Service segment is one of our growth pillars in our Food & Beverage Solutions segment. And this is a very strong company with huge skills in the production of dessert toppings and sources, and it matches perfectly well with our competencies in our fruit preparations business.

Very clear. And the second question is regarding Sugar. You seem very clear about the fact that there would be no rebound if the surface of beets does not reduce. When will you have more visibility on this in? In March, April, you will have good visibility on this?

I mean, we already see some signs. So we expect the reduction. Of course, we have more visibility in March, April, and then it depends on the weather conditions. I mean we saw already a significant reduction in the feed planting areas in the last year, unfortunately, yes, we must say, unfortunately, the weather conditions were so good that the campaigns are now -- are really big in Europe, and the production volumes are much higher than in the previous year. Therefore, the reduction of the surface was compensated by that. And therefore, there is no outlet because the world market prices are so heavily under pressure. So everything is coming together right now. We have excellent harvesting conditions or expectations in the major countries of sugar production like Brazil, India, Thailand and so on. And we have a very good crop in Europe.

So we -- there is no space for, let's say, exporting sugar to the world market for good prices. So the sugar stays in Europe and leading to heavy price pressure in the European market because there is an oversupply. And therefore, we need a significant reduction of sugar production in 2026. Otherwise, the markets will not stabilize and the prices will not go up. So yes, I think we need to wait for March, April and see what happens in the summer. But when you look at the curve of the development of the sugar prices in the last years, I mean it's up and down. Now we are -- we had a massive downward trend. I think it was also triggered by the high import volumes coming from Ukraine during 2 years, more than -- significantly more than 1 million tonnes duty-free and sugar can easily be stored. So this is weighing, let's say, on the sugar balance in Europe. And therefore, we have all these problems now.

The next question comes from Elias New from ODDO BHF.

I just have a question on your guidance, your EBIT guidance for this year, where you're still guiding for EUR 45 million to EUR 60 million, I believe. And given you reported around EUR 48 million year-to-date for the 9 months, that would leave quite a big range for Q4, so I calculate around minus EUR 3 million to plus EUR 12 million. So just wondering if you could comment which assumptions are baked into this guidance and whether you expect to end up closer to the top end of that EBIT guidance or closer to the bottom end?

Yes. It's not so easy. I mean, to predict right now. We still have volatilities, especially in ethanol. So it depends what happens in the last 3 months or the last quarter in the ethanol prices. And then, of course, it also depends on the evaluation of our stocks in sugar. This also depends on the sales volumes in Q4 which means how big will be the demand, what will be the final stock situation in sugar, how do we need to evaluate that. So these are, let's say, plus/minus the variables here. And our expectation is an EBIT for Q4 of between EUR 5 or EUR 6 million and EUR 12 million, I would say.

So we will come closer to the upper range than to the lower range. And therefore, this means our EBITDA should amount between EUR 190 million and EUR 200 million for the business year '25, '26. But this is our actual estimation. It really depends on all these things happening in Q4. So it's not so easy to predict, especially in sugar and ethanol.

And just a second question on the tariff impact. I mean I believe your FBS business is quite exposed to the U.S. Could you just give us an update here in terms of the impact you're seeing from tariffs in the current financial year? And whether we should expect a similar impact in the next financial year as well?

No, it is not impacted. Our FBS segment is not impacted by the duties from the U.S. because we have a local business there. The impact -- the major impact comes from duties on goods that we import to produce, especially our fruit preparations in the United States for the customers, the local customers, but all the price increases are passed on to the customers. So there, we see no negative impact, but we also do currently not expect a negative impact in the next year, provided that things remain as they are. So if there are new ideas coming, potential new tariffs on products from Mexico, Canada and so on, so then we need to reassess the situation. But currently, we see no impact, no major impact.

Perfect. And just final question from my side on the savings as part of your NEXT LEVEL strategy. I was just wondering, are we still on track to achieve around EUR 50 million savings this year or where do we currently stand?

Yes, of course, we are still on track, so we can increase the number up to EUR 60 million already.

Gentlemen, so far there are no further questions, back over to you for any closing remarks.

Thanks. As there are no further questions, thank you for your interest in AGRANA and your participation in the call. We wish you a nice remaining day. Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the AGRANA Results for the First Half of 2025/'26 Conference Call. I am Valentina, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] And the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast.

At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Hannes Haider. Please go ahead.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to AGRANA's conference call presenting our results for the first half of '25/'26 financial year. You already got some insights in our figures when we published an ad hoc announcement on the 10th of September. Today, we will provide you with more financial details and also on the different segments.

As announced in our invitation, a presentation is available in reference to this call, and you can find this presentation as always, in the IR section of our website.

Our CEO, Stephan Buttner, will hold today's presentation. As you can see on Slide #2, the presentation is divided into three parts. We will start with an introduction and we will focus on the highlights of the first half. We will go on then with a segment overview and comment also on the financial performance. And finally, we will conclude with an outlook for the remaining business year.

The presentation will take about 20 to 25 minutes. And afterwards, we will be glad to answer your questions.

And now, I may pass over to our CEO, Stephan, who will start with the presentation on Slide #4.

Yes. Thank you, Hannes. So, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, first half of the business year was quite challenging still. In the second quarter, our decline in EBIT was less than expected, fortunately. And so, in September, therefore, we raised our forecast for the full year '25/'26, and we now expect our EBIT to be significantly higher than in the previous year, but we have to mention that this is still on a low level. So, AGRANA is still in a challenging transformation phase.

On one hand, our Food & Beverage Solutions business is developing in a very positive way. On the other hand, our activities in the Agricultural Commodities business, so Sugar and Starch are still in a very challenging situation.

When we look at the key figures, so revenue went down to EUR 1.691 billion in the first half of the business year. Operating profit with EUR 52.2 million, close to the result in the previous year. We also had exceptional items, but this was already expected and is due to the closure of the sites in Leopoldsdorf, Austria; and Hrušovany, Czech Republic in Sugar. And therefore, the EBIT amounted to EUR 28 million, significantly down versus prior year, but this is mainly due to the exceptional items.

Our Sugar restructuring is on track. You know the background. So, we have significant challenges throughout Europe with also in combination with the Ukrainian import volumes duty-free in the last 2 to 3 business years. So, now there is, again, yes, at least normal crop for sugar beets in the European Union expected. This is still, therefore, pressure on the market prices. So, the pressure came back recently, due to the very good outlook of the Sugar produced in the European Union and also in combination with the very low world market prices, they declined further in the last 2 to 3 weeks significantly.

Therefore, looking back, our decision to close the site in Austria, Leopoldsdorf, and Hrušovany, Czech Republic was absolutely the right thing to do. So, we here on a good track concerning our restructuring activities. We are further pushing on cost reduction, and we are also in negotiations with the beet farmers for the, let's say, models for getting the beets in the coming season.

Key figures, part 2, so EUR 83.5 million of free cash flow. This is a positive number, I would say, also in combination with the difficulties on the profitability side. Our net debt declined to EUR 407.8 million, also down versus 28th of February, 2025 by around EUR 20 million. Gearing ratio, 35.5%, stable and the equity ratio increased to 47% versus 45.4% prior year.

We also want to mention here that, again, the 100% acquisition of the Slovenian food company, Mercator-Emba. This is a company with around EUR 30 million revenues actually, but we have concrete plans to bring this significantly up in the next 3 to 5 years. EMBA employs around 100 people. So, they are producing syrups and dessert toppings. They are a big supplier of the food service industry in Central, Eastern, and South Europe. So, this goes hand-in-hand with our strategy to get more access to the sales channel food service. We think this is an excellent add-on to our capabilities in the fruit preparations business. And so therefore, we are very happy that we could realize this acquisition.

We also had an enlargement or will have quite soon from the 1st of November onwards 2025, the enlargement of the AGRANA Management Board. So Franz Ennser was appointed as new member of the Management Board. He has a long history already in AGRANA. So, his last function was the CEO of the AUSTRIA JUICE Company since 2014. I personally already did with him the integration and restructuring of the AUSTRIA JUICE company after the merger of Ybbstaler and AGRANA Juice in 2012. So, we already have a joint very good track record, and I'm very happy that we can welcome Mr. Franz Ennser from 1st November, 2025 onwards in the Board of AGRANA.

His responsibilities will be Agricultural Raw Materials, Operational Excellence, including Occupational Health & Safety and CapEx and also Purchasing, Logistics and Supply Chain.

A quick update on our strategic priorities for the external business year or financial year. So in Food & Beverage Solutions, of course, we will now work after the approval of the competition authorities and the closure of the transaction, the closing of the transaction, which we expect in the external calendar year.

We will work on the integration of AUSTRIA JUICE into AGRANA. Of course, also have an eye how to grow our core segments. We will make a good strategy to leverage our Flavors capabilities. This is also then the rollout via our footprint in the Food Preparations business. And of course, also together in the Food & Beverage Solutions segment, we are looking for overhead reduction. So, which means additional synergies.

In the Agricultural Commodities & Specialties business, of course, we are still working on the cost reduction program. Site optimization is very important in Sugar, but also in Starch, also sustainability, so which means decarbonization here plays a very important role. Cost is always a factor. Also in Sugar, we need to bring down the cost further to be competitive for the future.

And overall, securing our financial flexibility and creating more headroom also for the future growth is also a very important factor for the next month. We will further work on the reduction of our working capital, yes, and also overall cost optimization.

We also have a new segment reporting since the 1st March 2025. As we already reported, now the new structure is that we changed Fruit segment into Food & Beverage Solutions. This -- the reason is quite clear. So Fruit is not the right, let's say, has not the right meaning anymore. So, we're doing much more here than fruit. We are in fruit preparations, we are doing brown flavors. We are doing natural flavors. We are doing beverage compounds. We want to enlarge this business in the future. And also, this is our growth engine for the future. Therefore, it's Food & Beverage Solutions from now on.

And then, we have our Agricultural Commodities & Specialties segment. It's not a segment, it's a business area with two segments. One segment is Starch and the other segment is Sugar. And then separately, we will report the holding. So, we think that this is the right way to present the financial performance of the business areas in the future, and it's even more transparent and meaningful. This is our understanding. It also shows clearly our path in executing our AGRANA NEXT LEVEL strategy.

Yes, on the next page, this is an even more comprehensive, let's say, picture how this looks now for the future. So, then we move on to the revenue by segment. I already mentioned that our revenues went down by 9.1% for the Group to EUR 1.691 billion. We had a growth of 4.2% in the FBS. So, Food & Beverage Solutions: In Starch, a decline by 5%, down to EUR 506.5 million. This is, of course, mainly driven by lower prices. So, we saw ethanol prices heavily under pressure in the first half year of the business year.

Also, other main products like the sugarification products or saccharification products, also native starches, especially wheat starch going into the paper industry, also heavy under pressure due to lower utilization rates in the paper industry. So, all these factors together resulted in this decline in revenue. And in Sugar, you see the massive decline of 36.7% in revenue. This, of course, has to do with significantly lower prices and also lower volumes that we sold into the retail business, especially in Eastern Europe.

The development of the Sugar world market prices, you can see on the next slide. So a constant decrease, we must say now since the last year. Still going on in the last 2 to 3 weeks, the world market prices further declined. Yes, so we -- there is an expectation of good harvest in the main regions for raw sugar. So, especially Brazil, India, but also Thailand everywhere, a good harvest is expected. This, of course, leads to further pressure on the world market prices.

In Europe, I already also mentioned that we are expecting at least a normal crop. So therefore, the reduction in the planted areas, they do not have the effect that we were expecting, which means a stabilization of prices or increase in prices. So, now the pressure is a little bit coming back, we must say, and now we need to see what -- how this will go on in the next -- in the next Sugar marketing year. So, especially when we see what will be the acreage planted in the coming spring season in Europe.

Ethanol prices also really a challenge during the first half of the year. You see it here also in the curve. Recently, prices increased significantly up to EUR 800 per cubic meter. Everything obviously has somehow to do with the import volumes, but potentially also with volumes coming from the U.K. to the European Union due to the duty-free imports in the U.K. from the U.S. for ethanol right now.

Recently, the closure of the Associated British foods capacity in the U.K. was announced. So this could cause some relief, I would say, on the price pressure in Rotterdam,, due to the lower supply. But at the end of the day, the biggest impact or it comes from the United States and the importing volumes into the European Union. And as long as we see the low prices for corn in the U.S. it will be difficult to increase the prices further in the ethanol business in the European Union.

When we look to the EBIT development, yes, very, very good performance in our Solutions segment, EUR 68 million, so up 34.9% versus prior year. This is really a very good development. Unfortunately, in our other businesses, so in Starch and also especially in Sugar, we again saw a massive reduction of our profitability, whereas we have to mention that in Sugar, it's mainly coming from the exceptional items due to the closure of the sites in Leopoldsdorf, Austria and Hrušovany, Czech Republic, and also additional restructuring measures related to a reduction of headcount.

Outlook for '25/'26, yes. So we raised our guidance. I already mentioned this at the beginning of the presentation, significantly higher than previous year. So revenue, yes, should be moderately down. This goes hand-in-hand with what we reported already for the first half of the business year. And when we look at the different segments. And here, the guidance for our Food & Beverage Solutions is a slight increase in revenue and a slight increase in EBIT for the whole business year '25/'26.

In Starch, we expect a slight reduction in revenue and a significant reduction on EBIT. And in the Sugar segment, we expect a significant reduction in revenue and a significant improvement in EBIT, but we have to mention in the second half of the business year 2024/'25, we had the exceptional items due to the closure of the sites in Leopoldsdorf and Hrušovany.

So, let me come to the outlook for the third quarter '25/'26. So there, we expect a very significant improvement in EBIT versus the third quarter prior year. Last year, we reported a loss of EUR 5.5 million. So a significant improvement is not very difficult to reach.

Investment plan for '25/'26, finally. So we expect an investment of around EUR 100 million. As you can see, the focus is actually very much on our Food & Beverage Solutions segment. There, we have the best performance actually. Therefore, we also investing in growth projects as well. And in Starch 18% of the EUR 100 million and in Sugar, 10% of the EUR 100 million. So therefore, due to the very poor profitability right now, we also need to save. And therefore, also, we are going for a reduction in our investment plan in these both segments.

So this was my presentation. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation and attention, and I hand back to Hannes Haider.

Thanks. Before we go on with the Q&A session, I just wanted to inform you that our financial calendar for the next financial year '26/'27 was published recently, and you can find all details on Slide 23, but also on our website. Additionally, you can find there the current roadshow table.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the AGRANA results for the First Quarter of 2025-'26 Conference Call. I am Myra, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Hannes Haider. Please go ahead.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to AGRANA's conference call presenting our results for the first quarter '25, '26. As announced in our invitation, the presentation is available in reference to this call. You can find this presentation in the IR section of our website. Our CEO, Stephan Buttner will hold today's presentation, our Board member, CTO, Norbert Harringer send his apologize due to illness. As you can see on Slide #2, the presentation is divided into 3 parts. We will start with an introduction. We'll focus on the highlights of Q1 first, and we will go on then with the segment overview, and also comment on the financial statements.

And finally, our CEO will conclude with an outlook for the ongoing financial year '25, '26. The presentation will take about 25 minutes, and afterwards, the lines will be opened, and we will be glad to answer your questions. And now I may pass over to our CEO, Stephan, who will start with the presentation on Slide #3.

Yes. Thank you, Hannes. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to start with the highlights. So first quarter, so of course, it was as we already expected and predicted a quite challenging first quarter with a very significant decline on EBIT. Of course, very important to mention here is the expected weak operating performance in the sugar business. So the markets are still under pressure. Also you know that we have contracts in place from the last sugar marketing campaign with low prices and higher production costs.

So this leads to a weak result, especially in the sugar business. Also, ethanol prices are still under pressure due to high import volumes from the United States. So this is also a big challenge in the first quarter and also ongoing. And we also had extraordinary effects, so expenses of about EUR 18 million, which we had to book in the first quarter, mainly due to the closure of the sites in the sugar business in Leopoldsdorf, Austria, and in Hrušovany, Czech Republic. So for the employees that we had to release.

On the other hand, we were successful in signing the contract for the acquisition of the remaining 49.99% of the shares of AUSTRIA JUICE. This is a very important step for us, for the execution of our corporate strategy that we decided last year in November, and now during the process of the, let's say, approval of the competition authorities, we are working on the plan how to integrate the business to AGRANA Group.

When we look at the numbers, so EUR 880.2 million revenue, this is a decline from the EUR 944.3 million in the previous year first quarter. Operating profit, EUR 25.7 million. So here, we are not so far away from last year, despite a very poor results in sugar, especially also versus prior year in the first quarter, also the exceptional items I already mentioned with minus EUR 18.3 million with a very negative impact on the EBIT and EBIT with EUR 5.7 million, very significant decline versus the EUR 32.3 million in the previous year.

Yes. Sugar segment, we already reported that we closed 2 sites. So one in Austria and one in the Czech Republic. This also leads to a significant reduction in the contracted beet areas for the campaign 2025. So we will go down from -- around 96,000 hectares down to 64,000 hectares. This is, of course, due to the lower capacities that we have in place and also in line with the closure of the sites, we already also I reported that we had to book this minus around EUR 18 million restructuring costs. So mainly personnel expenses.

In the future, we will focus our business in sugar in Austria on 1 side. This is Tulln with a capacity of around 270,000 to 300,000 tonnes of white sugar production. This is sufficient to serve the Austrian market of around 300,000 tonnes. And on the other hand, we will focus on our plant in Opava in the Czech Republic and here also, we will have sufficient beets available for a good utilization rate of our factory.

The free cash flow with EUR 10.9 million is in line with the free cash flow from the previous year. So also normal course, ordinary course of the business despite the very poor results that we had, then net debt with the EUR 426.5 million, around EUR 10 million down versus prior year, gearing stable at 35.7% and the equity ratio, an increased up to around 47%.

Acquisition of AUSTRIA JUICE, I already mentioned that this is a company of around EUR 330 million. It was already fully consolidated within AGRANA Group. So we will not see an impact on the top line. On the other hand, then we have 100% of the shares, and we also are entitled to get the full dividend payout in the future of the net results of AUSTRIA JUICE. Also, we will further integrate the company into the group, we will roll out the added value business of AUSTRIA JUICE via our physical footprint in the fruit preparations business with a clear focus in the first step on markets like U.S., Mexico, China and Australia.

We will further invest in the future in our flavors business, so to increase our capacity here and also to increase the volumes that we buy internally for the needs of our recipes in the fruit preparation business. But as already mentioned during the merger control process in the coming months, we will make a detailed plan how to integrate the business for the future. Purchase price amounted to EUR 54.7 million for 49.99% of the shares.

Our strategic priorities for the coming months and for the financial year '25, '26, in general, on a group level, we will now focus on sales excellence, commercial excellence with a clear customer focus, after, let's say, the last 15 months, really focusing on restructuring activities, also operational excellence, we will put a clear focus on that to gain further savings in our operations.

People and culture is also a very important part. So we will also -- yes, we will start also now our initiatives for our leadership development. This is also very important for the future. In the strategic business areas, so Food & Beverage Solutions here. Still, we will also sharpen our operative business level strategy, we'll optimize and consolidate further our physical footprint. We will make the conceptual work how to integrate AUSTRIA JUICE, especially also what will we do with the flavors business in the future. And also here, we'll look for further synergies on the cost side, especially with the overheads.

In the Agricultural Commodities & Specialties business, of course, target costing sugar. So how can we be successful also with lower market prices in sugar. This means further optimization, lean factories, lean cost structure. And also, we need to further discuss with the suppliers, with the beet farmers about the future model of the beet prices. Beyond Starch is also an important topic.

So how will we further develop our product portfolio here besides the optimization of our core products. So also here, a very important strategic work, site optimization, decarbonization, all these things, we will make plans for the future in the coming months. And of course, also, our cost programs on the holding level, but also in our commodities area play a very important role.

And here, we need to execute that we will achieve the EUR 100 million savings from EUR 27 million onwards as we announced. Yes, we will have a new segment reporting now from the first quarter onwards. So currently, the old structure with the Fruit segment, Starch segment and Sugar segment, we will transform now than we -- in the future, we will report Food & Beverage Solutions segment, which is currently the same as the old fruit segment.

We will have Agricultural Commodities and Specialties starch and Agricultural Commodities and Specialties sugar. So we will report sugar and starch separately also in the future as 2 segments. And also separately, we will report the holding, which was up to now part of the Sugar segment. But here also, you will have more transparency in the future about the cost development in our holding.

Let's move on to the financials. Revenue, I already mentioned a decline of 6.8% on group level down to EUR 880.2 million. This is mainly price driven. So we have a further decline in sugar prices, also ethanol prices are heavily under pressure. On the other hand, our FPS segment, we have an increase of revenues of nearly 7%. So here, we are on a very good way. We have further growth and when we look at the sugar business, yes, of course, I already mentioned prices are further under pressure.

This comes from the last sugar marketing campaign.

Yes, it's really, let's say, a very challenging situation here. And as you see, 33.3% decline in revenue in the first quarter. This really shows how massive the price drop was versus prior year, and you can also see this on the next slide, where we have really this very significant drop of sugar prices.

Now we are in a phase where we see a stabilization and the slight increase. It's slowly recovering the market also from the massive import volumes duty-free from the Ukraine and the huge quantities processed from sugar beets in the campaign 2024. Now we see a decrease implanted acreage, imports from Ukraine temporarily have stopped. So these are all positive developments, which, of course, also leads to a stabilization of the sugar prices in the European market. And now it really also depends on the weather, what happens with the beets in the coming weeks. Especially will there be a drought, massive heat and so on.

This could lead to a further reduction of the expected sugar production volumes and might also lead to a further price increase. The EBIT, yes, here a significant improvement, again, on our Food & Beverage Solutions business. So we are really on a good track. We are constantly improving our performance. Starch, very challenging. This is really mainly due to the very low and the sharp decline of the ethanol prices in combination still with high raw material prices, especially for corn, but also for wheat from the last harvesting campaign for wheat, we expect lower prices for the new harvesting season in corn. This is hard to predict what happens. We also see the first damages for corn due to the massive heat in the last weeks, but we will see how these things will develop further.

And in Sugar, of course, significantly lower sales prices. So -- and we also have the negative impact of around EUR 18 million here. So the operating result was around minus EUR 10 million, which is, let's say, in the actual environment and the circumstances, which is a poor result, but it's not, not a catastrophe, let's say. So we are also here on the way of a slight recovery, I would say. Consolidated income statement, I already mentioned the key numbers here, EBIT, EUR 5.7 million in Q1. Of course, then loss for the period due to the net financial items of minus EUR 11 million also, therefore, a loss per share of EUR 0.16.

Yes, then the tax rate reported 46.3%. Of course, this is due to the positive results in various geographies. On the other hand, the losses in -- especially in the sugar business, which we could not offset with other profits. Therefore, we have this high tax rate. On a group level, consolidated cash flow, yes, you see still operating cash flow was lower than in Q1 '24, but free cash flow slightly better. So acceptable performance here. We are further working on the reduction of our payment terms on the side of the receivables. On the other hand, also, we are working on our inventory levels to gain again, more free cash flow in the coming months for, let's say, potentially also then making, yes, it possible that we have further potentially further acquisitions or investments.

Yes. Equity ratio, yes, of course, as you can see that the total equity and liabilities or total assets went down further by 6%, this automatically also leads to a higher equity ratio of around 47%. We are going in the right direction. So our target is around 50% net debt, okay, we will see a further decline here in the coming months. So our target is that we go significantly below the EUR 400 million. But then also we have to take into consideration the potential payment of the EUR 54.7 million, which will come at the end of the calendar year for the acquisition of AUSTRIA JUICE. But still, we expect a reduction versus prior year on net debt level despite this acquisition and the payout gearing ratio is very stable.

And then please let me come to the financial outlook. So for '25, '26, we report still stable EBIT compared to prior year and a slight reduction for the revenues on of group level. And when we look at the different segments, for the Food & Beverage Solutions segment, we expect a slight increase in revenue, stable EBIT, so this is an improvement versus our previous guidance. So here we see -- as you can see in our first quarter results, better performance than we expected and therefore, we also improved our outlook for the Food & Beverage Solutions business. In the last year, we had an operating result of EUR 101 million. So our -- and also EBIT, EUR 99.7 million, so we expect a steady result here.

Starch revenues steady, EBIT steady as well. So here, we decreased our expectation mainly and really due to the low ethanol prices and the challenges that we see in this business area overall and in sugar, a significant reduction in revenue and a moderate improvement on EBIT level.

Outlook for the second quarter here reported our expectation, a very significant decline in EBIT. This is, of course, mainly due to the low sugar marketing prices coming from the last year's campaign and the pressure from the ethanol business. And maybe last but not least, investment plan for '25, '26. So currently, we expect a CapEx of EUR 115 million. This is in line with our budgeted depreciation. And when you look at the investment split, so 53% will be dedicated to our Food & Beverage Solutions business, 18% to Starch and 11% to sugar, 18% on holding level are not, let's say, dedicated yet so this is a position which will be then are dedicated to the one or other activity in the different segments during the business year.

So let me hand back to Hannes Haider, which will give you more information on the financial calendar. Thank you for your attention and participation, and we are happy for you to receive your questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Stephan.