Ion Beam Applications Aktie

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of IBA's 2025 Full Year Results. I'm Thomas Pevenage from Investor Relations. As usual, you will find this presentation on the Investor Relations page of our website. A Q&A session will follow the formal presentation.

Moving to next page. Let me draw your attention to the company's disclaimer for forward-looking statements, which, as you know, are based on our current assumptions and beliefs and subject to risks and uncertainties. Today's speakers are Olivier Legrain, our Chief Executive Officer and IBA Clinical Lead; Henri de Romree, our Deputy Chief Executive Officer and IBA Technologies Lead; and Catherine Vandenborre, our Chief Financial Officer and IBA Corporate Lead.

Here is the agenda for today's presentation. We will start with our highlights for the period, followed by a business review, where we will discuss the strategic progress and the financials of each business unit. Finally, we will cover our financial performance in more detail and give you an update on our guidance and outlook before opening the Q&A session.

Thank you, Thomas. I'm Olivier. Good afternoon, everybody. Let me start by sharing our key messages for today. Full year '25 was a strong year for IBA. We delivered on our commitments. Our guidance has been met and we progressed as planned on the execution of our strategy while the group continues its transformation. This dynamic is reflected in our full year '25 performance, record revenue exceeding EUR 620 million; adjusted EBIT, formerly known as REBIT of EUR 27.4 million and a return to profitability in Proton Therapy.

Our growth engine has also strengthened with a record backlog of EUR 1.6 billion, supported in particular by the scaling of service in Nuclear Medicine and a strong Proton Therapy order intake. Beyond this annual performance, 2025 marks the inflection point from a historically cyclical project-driven model towards a more consistently profitable platform. The '24-'28 financial outlook is confirmed, and we are providing a full year '26 guidance being an adjusted EBIT of at least EUR 32 million.

Let me now have a closer look at our commercial momentum. In full year '25, IBA recorded a very strong growth in order intake, bringing our backlog at an all-time high of EUR 1.6 billion and providing increased visibility for the future. Service backlog grew particularly strong, up 16% year-on-year, reflecting the continued expansion of our Proton Therapy installed base, but also a strong contribution of Technologies. On the equipment side, we posted an historic equipment order intake of EUR 452 million, representing an increase of around 40%.

Looking at our business unit, in Proton Therapy, we sold 12 rooms during the year, our second best year ever, reflecting strong commercial traction, particularly in the U.S. and in Asia. In IBA Technologies, 37 systems were sold compared with 33 driven by strong demand in RadioPharma, while Industrial Solutions normalized following record high years. As a result, the 2-year rolling book-to-bill ratio reached 1.0 as Equipment order intake grew broadly in line with revenue recognized over the period at group level.

I will now move to our key financial metrics. In full year '25, group revenue reached a record level of EUR 620 million, an increase of EUR 122 million compared with full year '24, thanks to well-executed backlog conversion and the growth in service activities. Adjusted EBIT amounted to EUR 27.4 million, exceeding our guidance, a profitability improvement of EUR 10 million year-on-year. The adjusted EBIT margin increased to 4.4% compared with 3.5% in '24 despite a decrease in gross margin driven by a temporarily less favorable equipment profitability mix.

Net debt stood at EUR 58 million as of December 31 as working capital continued to be impacted by the delivery of large Proton Therapy projects. On a like-for-like basis, excluding the ORA acquisition, net debt would have been EUR 41 million. Our net leverage ratio at 0.83x adjusted EBITDA remains healthy. Building on strong execution delivered in '25 and the momentum across our businesses, we are setting full year '26 guidance at a group adjusted EBIT of at least EUR 32 million.

Let's now move on to the review of our business performance. I will start with the progress of IBA Clinical. In '25, our clinical entity benefited from a strong commercial momentum, continued technological innovation and a very significant improvement in Proton Therapy profitability. The year marks a clear turnaround for the business supported by disciplined execution and a more favorable project mix. The year was marked by several important milestones in Proton Therapy.

MD Anderson published the first ever Level 1 clinical evidence from a Phase III randomized trial confirming proton therapy as a standard of care. We also launched a minimum viable product of DynamicARC and obtained the Medical Device Regulation certificate for Proteus 235 reinforcing the robustness and the regulatory maturity of our Proteus platform. In Dosimetry, we continue to innovate with the launch of the QUASAR Phantom for MR Simulation in the radiotherapy market and the release of myQA Blue Phantom. We further strengthened our product portfolio positioning through the acquisition of PhantomX, enabling AI-based quality assurance.

Turning now to our global footprint in proton therapy. At the end of the year, IBA had 45 operational sites, well distributed across regions with strong visibility on future expansion as 43 systems are in production and installation. At year-end, we had 8 sites under installation and reached a peak of 10 installations running simultaneously in '25, a new high that demonstrates our execution capability. This include the ongoing installation of the first Proteus ONE in Spain as part of the 10 system order. The installation of 3 additional projects is expected to start in '26, subject to building construction time lines. In China, we made strong progress on major Proteus PLUS installations with the first live treatment rooms in Chengdu and Shenzhen and final acceptance expected by year-end '26.

'25 also allowed us to further consolidate our market leadership in proton therapy. Thanks to the 12 rooms sold, we accounted for 63% of the total sold globally during the year. IBA continues to have the largest installed base in the market, which provides significant operational leverage and represents a robust platform to further promote proton therapy in close collaboration with our clinical partners.

Increasing clinical evidence continues to be a key driver of Proton Therapy sustained momentum. In December '25, the Lancet published the first ever Level 1 clinical evidence, the most robust level of clinical data for a Phase III randomized trial led by MD Anderson. This study establishes Proton therapy as a new standard of care in head and neck cancer, demonstrating superior overall survival rates and significantly reduced side effect compared with conventional radiation therapy.

In addition, early results from the RadCom Phase III Breast Cancer Trial presented at ASCO showed significantly improved patient reported quality of life with proton therapy in breast cancer, one of the most prevalent cancer types. Lastly, new studies have been recently added to pipeline of upcoming clinical evidence. We will continue to report on results.

Despite an accelerated conversion into revenue, IBA Clinical continued to build backlog solidly in '25. Equipment backlog reached EUR 564 million, while the 2-year equipment book-to-bill ratio stood at 1.1, providing a sound platform for the future. Service backlog grew even faster now exceeding EUR 800 million.

Zooming in on Proton Therapy Services, the increase in service backlog was supported by new orders and 7 renewed contracts while with existing customers. These contracts more than offset the amount of service revenue converted into P&L during '25. As a result, Proton Therapy Services continue to strengthen visibility, recurrence and long-term value creation within IBA Clinical.

Let me now focus on Proton Therapy's performance and profitability turnaround. In '25, Proton Therapy returned to profitability, delivering a positive adjusted EBIT contribution of EUR 10.2 million compared with a negative contribution of EUR 12 million in '24. This improvement was driven by, firstly, top line growth as equipment sales more than doubled and service expanded. Secondly, profitability improvement with the scaling of our installed base. At adjusted EBIT level, this improvement was partially offset by continued investment in critical product innovations, including DynamicARC and FLASH and by the prudent application of our internal credit risk management policy with a recognition of EUR 8.7 million in bad debt within G&A. These are isolated problematic situations that we were willing to reflect while the overall quality of our credit exposure remains sound.

Turning to Dosimetry in '25. Dosimetry delivered a stable top line in a challenging environment as already communicated throughout our trading updates. However, profitability continued to be negatively impacted by this competitive and regional dynamics in the U.S. and China. This effect was further amplified by the absence of last year's one-off subsidy grant of EUR 800,000, which overall contributed to a decrease in adjusted EBIT. These market dynamics also impacted commercial activity with order intake decreasing by 9%. As a result, cost optimization measures have been defined and will be rolled out in '26, ensuring a sharper focus on core activities and a realignment of the cost base with current market condition. I will now hand over to Henri to comment on the performance of IBA Technologies.

Thank you, Olivier, and hello, everyone. Let me walk you through the strategic progress achieved in IBA Technologies, starting with Industrial and then going to RadioPharma solutions. Industrial Solutions continued to progress along its road map, advancing accelerator-based sterilization and advanced irradiation solution. Ongoing market dynamics continue to support the long-term shift towards, X-Ray and E-Beam technologies as regulatory and environmental pressure on ethylene oxide increases.

At the same time, the sterilization market is somewhat digesting temporary overcapacity after a peak in order intake in early 2020, partly linked to the COVID-driven investments. We remain very confident in the underlying market that is growing steadily and expect industrial order intake to normalize as utilization catches up with the installed capacity.

In China, despite slower pipeline conversion with some project shifting in the coming years, we made substantial headway last year signing 2 additional high-power [ x-ray ] contracts, tripling the current local capacity.

In terms of new application, we advanced our PFAS project progressing through technical trials and studies. And in polymers, another area with promising long-term potential, research continues to show potential with pilot progress remaining on track.

Turning to RadioPharma solutions. We saw solid commercial traction with the highest order intake to date, supported by deeper penetration in our core markets and an expansion into high potential geographies. This was illustrated by the sale of a high-energy Cyclone IKON contract to PET Pharm Bio to install a PET and SPECT isotope production center in Taiwan. More recently, post period close, we also signed 2 strategic multisite contracts in the U.S., one with SpectronRX and another one with RLS/Telix.

Finally, we continued significant efforts to expand our position in the radiopharmaceutical value chain, which I will detail on the next slide. As you know, IBA strategy in nuclear medicine is leveraging on our accelerator technology leadership to expand along the value chain and build a next-generation oncology platform. A key building block of this platform is ORA, a recognized trailblazer in radiochemistry, which we acquired in December. Another element in Theranostics, where we are making good progress. I will now cover these strategic initiatives in more detail.

Let me first come back to the ORA acquisition, which represents an important strategic step for IBA in nuclear medicine. Completed at the end of 2025, the acquisition of ORA brings into IBA, a Belgium-based radiochemistry company with a highly skilled team of around 15 employees, including senior radiochemists, a strong record in automated PET radiopharmaceutical synthetizers and established relationship with leading pharmaceutical partners.

By combining IBA's leadership in cytotron technologies with our cutting-edge expertise in radiopharmaceutical synthetizers, we are creating one of the most competitive integrated solution available for hospital and global radiopharmacy networks. This new integrated offering addresses the full radiopharmacy workflow from isotope production to purification, labeling and delivery and is designed to support customers seeking higher productivity and access to advanced radio isotopes. Importantly, the ORA acquisition is immediately accepted to IBA Technologies revenues and profits.

And now moving to Theranostics, which is, as you know, a strategic pillar for RadioPharma solutions. It is indeed a fast-growing segment with a nuclear medicine [ serving ] with a projected market size of USD 20 billion by 2030 based on a 35% growth rate on a yearly basis as presented in our last Capital Markets Day.

As you can read on the slide, several isotopes are emerging in this field out of which we are highlighting the most mature ones. Within this landscape, IBA decided to focus on actinium-225 and astatine-211 as strategic place based on clinical development as well as our technological and industrial edge. You already know our subsidiary, PanTera, paving the way to making actinium-225 treatment widely accessible. Catherine will update you on their progress in the corporate section of this presentation.

Besides, we are increasing momentum for astatine-211. We are positioning ourselves on this emerging market. Firstly, on the technology front, we are developing a dedicated high-throughput cyclotron. Secondly, on the clinical side, we are one of the co-leader of the accelerate.eu program funded by the European Union. This ambitious platform combines industrial clinical and pharma players around a bench-to-bedside ecosystem to accelerate astatine-211 translation into a clinical setting.

Lastly, with respect to production infrastructure, we continue to make good progress with a partner, Framatome, on our joint ambition to enable the astatine-211 market through the deployment of a full-fledged production network across Europe and the U.S.

Turning now to the technologies backlog, you will notice a decrease over the period, reflecting stronger conversion into revenues. Industrial Solutions order intake has not yet picked up as market absorbs the temporary overcapacity as this was not fully compensated by the strong market momentum in RadioPharma. It led to a 2-year equipment book-to-bill ratio of 0.8 below reconstitution level.

As far as service are concerned, backlog now includes upgrades. Nevertheless, IBA Technologies' contribution remains limited as our scope mostly relates to short-term 1-year maintenance contract with no permanent presence of an IBA [indiscernible].

Finally, looking at the financial results, net sales remained stable at EUR 225 million, representing more than 35% of total group sales. This is a solid achievement following 2024 strong growth. Adjusted EBIT contribution eased compared to prior record year. This is driven by 2 elements: first, a less favorable project mix, most notably a higher share of RadioPharma integrated projects where we collect lower margin on our third-party equipment; and two, intensified R&D investment in the radiochemistry and radioligand therapies within RadioPharma as well as in PFAS and polymers within Industrial. Nevertheless, EBIT margin landed at 8.9%.

Let's move onto IBA gross profit. I will now give the floor to Catherine who will walk us through the corporate activities besides our group CFO.

Thank you, Henri. And let's start with an update of our new ventures beginning with PanTera, our joint venture launched with the Belgium Nuclear Research Center. In June, PanTera started the production and the supply of actinium-225 for clinical trials and compassionate use reaching full-scale weekly production in October.

The year 2025 also saw the start of the construction of a large production plant located in Northern Belgium. Of course, all required permits were obtained ahead of the start of the construction. Operations are expected to start in '28 with first commercial scale supply targeted for '29. Finally, it is worth noting that PanTera continues to build strong commercial traction with more than 20 active customers across the value chain, including pharma and biotech players as well as key reference hospitals and research institutes. Multiple clinical trials are ongoing spread across different phases with first results expected from 2028. We will keep you posted on further developments.

From a financial standpoint, PanTera generated EUR 13 million of revenues in '25 and became EBIT positive in Q4. In terms of funding, PanTera called the third tranche of its Series A for IBA. This resulted in a EUR 7.2 million revaluation gain and dilution to around 35%. A fourth and final capital increase tranche is expected in the first semester 2026, which will further dilute IBA shareholding to 31% while generating an expected revaluation gain of EUR 5.5 million. We remind you that PanTera was valued at about EUR 290 million post money in September '24.

Let's now have a look at our other new ventures. First mi2-factory in the field of semiconductors achieved a very important milestone with the finalization of the demo system specifications for its first machine based on updated market requirements. Post period, an equipment development and purchase contract was executed with IBA for a value of EUR 15 million covering the accelerator component of mi-2's end-to-end solution.

Second, NHa, our HadronTherapy project launched in collaboration with Normandy region, reached an important derisking milestone with the installation of the [ superconducting coil ] on site. Cooling activities are in progress and generation of the first magnetic field is expected over the summer. In parallel, efforts are ongoing to secure short-term and long-term financing. Post closing, NHa secured the first tranches of the anticipated bridge funding from its funders and other reference shareholders.

Turning to our sustainability agenda, '25 delivered concrete progress that reinforces our ability to deliver sustainable growth and long-term value creation. We maintained strong momentum on decarbonization, remaining on track towards our Scope 1 and 2 reduction targets. More than 90% of our electricity now comes from renewable sources, supported by the continued rollout of our low-impact mobility policy. We also advanced the sustainability of our installed base. In the U.S., the full system restoration at MGH is underway, upgrading the proton therapy system to modern standards while avoiding a carbon-intensive decommissioning and rebuild.

Beyond environmental actions, we expanded our contribution to patient support. Through the Oncia community, patients across Belgium, Spain and France benefited from human-centered supportive care. Governance and value chain initiatives also progress. We are proud to see our B Corp score increasing to 118 from 114 in 2024 and we published our first CSRD report. Let's now close the business review section and move to the financials in more detail, and let's start with the commercial traction behind our performance in '25.

As mentioned earlier, we saw strong growth in equipment order intake, mainly driven by Proton Therapy with order intake up 137%, achieving the second best year ever in terms of rooms sold. From a regional perspective, overall commercial traction in '25 was mainly driven by the APAC region, including 7 out of the 12 PT rooms sold over the year. This contrasts with '22, where growth was mainly driven by EMEA, boosted by the Spanish PT project. The Americas have remained a solid core market for IBA across the years.

Turning now to profitability. '25 is driven by a record high top line, up 44% year-on-year, partially offset by a reduction in gross margin down to 32.2%, mainly due product and project mix. This resulted in a combined effect of additional EUR 31.5 million in gross margin. Operating expenses increased in nominal terms, but progressed less than proportionately to revenue at 28% of sales compared with 30% in '24.

Within OpEx, the increase in G&A reflects selected investments to support business growth, including digital and organizational initiatives, but also the one-off impact of higher bad debt in IBA Clinical at around EUR 9 million, following a prudent application of our risk policy. Finally, R&D increased as we progress on key projects, strengthening IBA's growth platform, including Proton Therapy imaging, DynamicARC, radiochemistry and [indiscernible] PFAS destruction.

Let me now comment on the main items below adjusted EBIT. They were mainly impacted by a project to migrate to [ S/4HANA ], which is expected to be completed in the first semester of '26 and by a foreign exchange loss due to unfavorable currency fluctuations, in particular, the U.S. dollar, which is largely noncash. In addition, hyperinflation in Argentina continued to negatively impact our Proton Therapy project in Buenos Aires for EUR 1.9 million in '25. Impact was, however, reduced versus '24 and will wane in '26 as the project nears completion.

Turning to PanTera. You will note a negative contribution under the equity method linked to negative result and a EUR 7.2 million revaluation gain, as already mentioned. If we turn to cash evolution, you can see that operating cash flows were negative over '25 due to cyclical working capital movements. While inventories decreased compared to '24, contract in progress increased substantially, reflecting the high volume of project activity in '25 with cost and revenue recognition progressing ahead of invoicing and cash collection. This trend is expected to start improving over the second semester of '26, partly thanks to the delivery of proton therapy projects in Spain and China as outlines by Olivier before accelerating in '27. Investing cash flows include the ORA acquisition.

As already announced in our Q3 '25 trading update, we closed EUR 135 million refinancing package in November to strengthen our balance sheet structure and capture strategic opportunities. We have indeed, in December, partially financed the [indiscernible] ORA acquisition by drawing entirely of EUR 50 million acquisition term loan. Building on the strong execution in '25, we provide 1-year guidance for '26 of at least EUR 32 million of group adjusted EBIT. With backlog at an all-time high and services contributing to growing recurring income, we reiterate our confidence in IBS profitability trajectory while being mindful of the current macro and geopolitical environment. As a result, we reiterate the '24-'28 outlook announced at last year's Capital Market Day.

I will now hand over to Olivier for his concluding remarks.

Thank you very much, Catherine. To conclude, I would say that '25 represents a key milestone for IBA. We delivered record high revenue and strong order intake, clearly reflecting the robustness of our commercial momentum across our businesses. Profitability improved meaningfully, supported in particular by the scale-up of Proton Therapy, driving the turnaround of our largest business unit back to profitability.

At the same time, we continue to make disciplined and targeted strategic investments to support IBA's long-term growth. Throughout the year, we also actively managed our financial position and funding, strengthening the group resilience in a volatile environment. Finally, full year '25 guidance has been delivered, confirming the execution capabilities of our teams and the solid foundation of our transformation. With a strong backlog, clear growth drivers and improved visibility, we enter '26 with confidence and a clear trajectory ahead.

Thank you very much to the audience for listening to our results presentation. For information, you will find on this presentation the key dates from our financial calendar. We will now move on to the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]. We will start with Frank Claassen. So you should be able to speak, Frank. Frank, we cannot hear you, or maybe we can start with David. He was the second in line.

Hello, this is Frank Claassen speaking. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay. I had a bit of trouble here. This is Frank Claassen of Degroof Petercam. I have 2 questions. First of all, on your gross margin, it declined in '25 because of the low-margin legacy contracts. What can we expect in '26? Is that -- the legacy contracts, will that roll off? And hence, can we expect some gross margin improvement in '26? That's my first question. And then secondly, on the symmetry, you're taking cost measures here. Can you elaborate what kind of cost measures? And will we already see the benefits in '26? Hence, can we see margin improvement in '26 already?

So I will take your first question and leave for Olivier, the second question that you raised. So maybe to give a little bit more of color on the '25 gross margin. I would start by saying that indeed, it was impacted, like we said in the past by project in Proton Therapy where margins were lower than the typically targeted margin. But it was also impacted by an unfavorable project mix in RadioPharma.

And so compared to, let's say, other years, we had those 2 effects. Dosimetry declined a little bit as well, but Industrial Solution improved. And Proton Therapy, and that's quite interesting, even if it's still impacted by those contracts that we signed with low margin, Proton Therapy improved compared to 2024. And that's also a way to signal the trends over 2026. We expect indeed an improvement of gross margin in '26 compared to 2025.

And this is led by 3 major trends. The first one is a kind of more healthy competitive dynamics in the proton therapy market. And of course, it will take time before those contracts signed, especially in '22 will be fully realized, but the more we progress, the less important is the relative share of those contracts. Second element that we already mentioned is the scaling effect in Proton Therapy services where we really improve general margin, thanks to different efficiency measures that we implement. And the last one is a more favorable mix in RadioPharma with high-end applications.

When it comes to Dosimetry, we took -- we have implemented actually a number of cost reduction measures, productivity measure to adjust to the vision we had on the market development while preserving the sustainability through continued R&D investment. And the short answer to your question is yes, we can expect to see profitability improvement in Dosimetry already in 2026.

We can move to David.

First, a little bit on the question of Frank. So -- but on the 2026 guidance, so I heard you comment on the gross margin. Can you also comment on the top line and the OpEx growth or additional OpEx investments that you're planning for 2026? And then also related to 2026, could you explain us what could be the impact of FX moves on the top line and also the gross margin, if that plays a role? Then my third question on the bad debt. So you've mentioned in the press release that risk management played a role. So could you explain how you've changed your credit risk analysis?

Okay. So I will take your question on the evolution of the top line, OpEx and I think guidance overall in 2026. So first, in terms of top line, you might remember that we realized a growth of the top line of 7% in '24. We have now 24% in '25. And we mentioned in the Capital Market Day last year that we expected front-loaded growth.

In total on '24-'28 trajectory that was announced with the range, 5% to 7% growth per annum overall. And what we can say is that we confirm the range, but we expect also to land at the high end of this range. We need to have in mind that '25 was particularly strong in terms of revenue. So each year over the period may not be as solid top line-wise. But of course, what we will focus on is to improve the profitability overall versus a very aggressive top line growth.

And so it brings me to your question more generally on the guidance, gross margin and OpEx. So like already stated, we can expect an improvement of the gross margin in '26 versus '25. OpEx are expected to grow a little bit as well, but quite reasonably. You might remember that in terms of OpEx, we took the commitment to maintain them at maximum 30% of the sales. And that's the reason why if you have in mind the 28% of this year, it will remain relatively moderate as a growth.

In terms of overall guidance, I think that we can say that we have been at this stage relatively cautious for 2026. The guidance that we gave is like in 2025, when to beat and not necessarily to meet. I think we need to have in mind that the macroeconomic environment is uncertain. And in this context, we remain cautious at this stage and give a guidance that underwrites those uncertainties. But as we continue to progress in execution over the year, we might update the guidance. And all in all, '26 guidance is on track to achieve an EBIT margin of around 10% in 2028.

Regarding the bad debt, which was your other question. So in terms of management of the bad debt, the first element I would like to stress is that we -- of course, we have a policy based on which we try to secure payment through a number of elements like letters of credit, credit risk insurance, bank payments, guarantees and other instruments. But in 2025, we booked close to EUR 9 million, EUR 8.7 million, a little bit in an exceptional way. It's primarily linked to 2 PT customers in China or in the U.S. We are still in discussion with those customers. So we don't exclude to recover part of the amount later. But we believe at this stage, it was more cautious to book those bad debts.

And a follow-up on my question on FX or it could be [indiscernible] in gross margin?

Yes. FX is, of course, quite difficult to predict the evolution. So we have -- you know that we have a hedging policy, which tends to hedge the cash exposure and not the P&L exposure. So we might remain exposed to fluctuation, especially versus the dollar, which are, of course, quite difficult to predict.

Is it more of a negative with your cost in euro and your revenues in dollar? Or is it?

So it depends on the type of activities we have. If you look at the services taking into account that the vast majority of the activities are local, there we have a kind of natural hedge between the cost and the revenues. For equipment there, we still have a base of supplier, which is in Europe and in Belgium. So we tend to do our acquisition or purchase in euro. And then we sell in different currencies. In our negotiation with the customers, we always try to sell in euros, but you can imagine that sometimes it's not accepted by the customer and there, we hedge the position from a cash perspective.

There are currently no more questions. No one else raising his hands.

Otherwise, I have another question. On the net debt evolution, so if you could comment and also -- okay, on 2026, but also maybe give us some perspective on 2028?

Yes. So on the net debt evolution, so first, you saw the figures on '25. I will repeat them for the sake of clarity. So we ended at financial net debt position of EUR 58 million, but like-for-like, it would have been EUR 41 million if we don't take into account the acquisition of ORA, which was, of course, executed at the end of '25 and fully funded with debt.

Now going forward, that was your question. '26 will still be impacted by the low-margin contract that we have signed mainly in '22. What we expect is that as from the second semester of '26, mainly the second semester with more devices shipped and expected payments linked to the shipment of those device, the cash situation is expected to improve over the second semester compared to the situation at the end of 2025, but still remaining negative in the sense of net financial debt position at the end of 2026.

We will need to wait '27 to see an improvement with, let's say, reversal in our working capital cycle and end the year on a positive situation rather than a net financial debt. And the trend -- this positive trend is expected to continue in 2028. Of course, all this is based on the assumption that we have payment from the customers like we had in the past, so based on historical type of payments.

Time to raise your hands if you want to ask the last questions. So [indiscernible], you should have the floor open. I think you have to click on unmute to make sure we can hear you. Okay, I think he was having a technical issue. [indiscernible].

Just on Dosimetry, I thought -- I don't know if I heard from someone that you would be thinking about exiting this business again? Or was that the false rumor profitability there is really, really disappointing. What's the future of this division?

So for Dosimetry, we confirm that we continue to see it as a valuable activities, well anchored into IBA's portfolio of activities and notably with a very strong connection to the proton therapy market. So yes, it was a fake news that you've heard.

Maybe an additional question from my side. I saw that there were 3 PT contracts for which the services contract were discontinued. So 3 PT rooms for which the contracts were discontinued on the services side, do you see more of your portfolio of existing PT system at risk of where the maintenance could not be -- could be discontinued?

So I think one of them is one in Russia. So we don't have any additional site in Russia. So we had to indeed discontinue service in Russia, even though the site is still operating. The other one was one of the first sites that we have installed. It was in China, and we proposed the customer to either upgrade the site like MGH did or we could not ensure regulatory compliance anymore, and we had to discontinue. So back to your question, no, I don't expect more of this kind of situation.

And the third one to be very precise, is MGH. So we temporarily stopped because we are doing the refurbishment of the site there. But of course, we expect to renew the contract once the refurbishment is done.

Exactly.

[indiscernible], I think you have another question?

Yes. On proton therapy, since you have around 65% of new market share, can you comment on your pricing power? Do you use your strength to have, yes, better pricing and margins, et cetera, because there's still a long way to go, I guess.

Well, I think on new contracts, we are where we want to be in terms of pricing. All of them remain competitive. So there is not one single deal where we are alone or so we need to remain within the industry benchmark. But in all new contracts, we are on industry benchmark. So we are back to where we want to be in terms of gross margin.

Yes. Well, for us, it's a bit hard to understand if you have such a high market share, why you say that you have to remain within industry benchmark. That seems -- or that's hard to understand for me as an outsider, one would think that you would have stronger pricing power than -- if you have -- if the market is so competitive, then it means that you're not so unique or maybe I understand wrongly?

I think it says it all. We have a dominant market share, but market is competitive. So I think we have a genuine competitive advantage that makes us win and not win on price, but there's a limit to that. And once again, it's not that we don't have competitors. We have competitors and they are credible enough, let's say, but we are more credible to win more deals with some kind of -- not on price, but on genuine value of our portfolio.

Okay. Now I understand. Just one other -- another rumor I heard was that the PFAS project wasn't going that well, but Catherine explained it. It seems to be progressing. Perhaps could you say a little bit more on the prospects of the PFAS project?

Maybe you should tell us where all these rumors are coming from.

Well, it comes from a discussion I had. So in terms of PFAS, there are different applications or solutions that we were looking for in water, but also in, let's say, solid elements on solid elements. On solid elements, I think from a scientific point, we didn't see a solution that would lead to a satisfactory business case. On water, the tests are positive from a scientific point of view, and we are now working on the positive business case together with partner.

That's why rumors are good. Now I understand this is precisely the right context.

Anyone else or follow-on questions? Okay. It seems we have answered all questions that were raised. So many thanks again for attending the call and supporting IBA throughout our journey. We wish you a good end of day or start of day depending on where you are, and happy to maintain the dialogue going forward. Many thanks.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Hello, and good afternoon, good morning. Welcome to our conference call for the Third Quarter Trading Update. We are pleased to welcome you and take this opportunity to have a dialogue with you. So we have prepared a short presentation considering it's just a third quarter update and the full update that we provide in the full year and half year results.

So basically, we'll cover the presentation together with Catherine and Olivier. [Operator Instructions] So you'll see our usual disclaimer on this slide, today's speakers, so Catherine Vandenborre, Chief Financial Officer of IBA. Olivier Legrain, our Co-CEO in charge of IBA Technologies, he is also joining us and happy to take questions and myself, Tom Pevenage, taking care of Investor Relations.

So we'll start with the highlights -- key highlights on the business side. And then that's a specific topic for this trading update, we'll cover the corporate refinancing that you could discover as part of our press release earlier today. So I will now leave the floor to Catherine for the first section.

Yes. Good afternoon or good morning, everyone, and thank you very much for attending this trading update call. Like Thomas mentioned, we hold this call today basically to provide you with qualitative trading update. We will again confirm the trends in our operational activities, ensure that they remain fully aligned with our guidance.

We will briefly discuss the trends we see in the markets, and we will present our new financial structure before, of course, answering any questions you may have. So first element that I would like to stress is that IBA remains fully confident and highly confident to meet this year guidance, being EBIT at least EUR 25 million, and that's supported by well under control OpEx, which remain below our long-term target of maximum 30% of sales and an already positive EBIT contribution from Proton Therapy. This is for us a very important milestone resulting from the scale-up of Proton Therapy activities and favorable project mix.

Of course, it underpins our commitments in the profitability improvement trajectory that we set ourselves at the beginning of the year. In terms of equipment order intake, this one amounts to EUR 195 million. It's an increase of EUR 11 million versus Q3 2024, thanks to a strong contribution from IBA Technologies, which increased by 22% and more specifically RadioPharma solutions.

To give a little bit more flavor and details, FPS has an excellent commercial momentum in high energy Cyclone IKON and Cyclone KIUBE systems in both emerging and more mature markets and applications. And in this we have a quite active pipeline in China. In PT, we have sold 4 Proteus ONE at the end of Q2 -- Q3, sorry, 2025. If you remember last year, same period, we had sold 3 Proteus One. And the sales includes 2 Proteus One orders from our existing customer, Apollo in India, which is expanding beyond its already operational multi-room facility in Chennai.

In dosi, we see decreasing level of activity versus last year. We faced some headwinds in the U.S. and the Chinese markets. So in conclusion on the order intake, I would say that it's a very encouraging one, confirming the added value of all solutions to all customers and the positioning of the IBA Group portfolio of activities.

Of course, '25 is not ended yet, and we will keep you informed on the order intake progresses that we will realize in the next weeks. In terms of backlog of equipments and services, it is maintained at EUR 1.3 billion, a slight decrease of -- decrease of EUR 0.1 billion versus Q3 2024. Let's say, it's more or less stable after the strong accelerated backlog conversion that we have observed in the first half of 2025, and that is due to the higher order intake in Q3.

Finally, our net financial position amounts to EUR 60 million as working capital has continued to be impacted by the customer delays in delivery of large Proton Therapy projects in Spain and China. That being said, we see this amount as a peak and our net financial position is expected to gradually improve as from December '25, while we have secured a solid refinancing package on which we will come back in a few minutes. To give you some view on the progress that we have made across the different business segments.

First, on the clinical side, PT more specifically, we signed a memorandum of understanding with Varian at ASTRO and this memorandum aims to strengthen interoperability, enhance clinical workflow and we went also to co-develop some technologies together, including technologies in connection to our road map on DynamicARC and FLASH therapy.

We see also a very good momentum for Proton Therapy supported by the growing clinical evidences. In particular, we have seen an exciting first ever Level 1 clinical evidence provided by MD Anderson that demonstrates Proton Therapy's benefit in head and neck cancer versus conventional radiation therapy, offering same tumor control with reduced side effects and most importantly, improved survival rates.

We see also strong commercial traction in APAC, which is reflected in our order intake and the pipeline in the U.S. remains quite active as well. Regarding NHa, our partnership in carbon therapy, the installation works of the first system are progressing and the financing efforts are ongoing in parallel to cover related costs.

Going to dosimetry, like I said, we face some regional-specific challenges in the U.S. due to local competition. We have also some headwinds in China. We have closed the acquisition of the Berlin-based PhantomX company at the end of October '25. As you may have seen in our press release, PhantomX is a commercial stage company recognized for its advanced anthropomorphic phantoms, which are used in quality assurance for AI solutions in medical imaging.

Now going to IBA Technology side. In the industrial segment, we see a continuing regulatory pressure on ETO sterilization, supporting the long-term shift towards e-beams and X-ray technology. We see also sustained progress on new applications like polymers, like PFAS with IBAs increased presence at specialized conferences and workbooks.

On Radiopharma solutions, there are strong commercials and good commercial traction, which is reflected in sales, both in emerging and mature markets. We see very exciting times in Theranostics with increasing industry interest in nuclear medicine and especially from major pharma companies with particular focus on alpha emitters such as Actinium-225 and Astatine-211.

Now I propose to discuss the financing package that we concluded in its rationale. Maybe first, as a reminder, we had undertaken a review of our financial structure considering 3 elements: first, the past and expected evolution of the business. Second, the expected evolution of working capital; and 3, possible investment opportunities.

This review resulted in the closing of a refinancing package, including a EUR 125 million bank club deal with different tranches and a EUR 10 million subordinated loan from Wallonie had performed.

The refinancing addresses 3 objectives. First one is the consolidation of IBA's balance sheet, acknowledging that past investment in long-term assets like PanTera, like NHa, like mi2, that those investments had been funded by operating cash flows and not long-term financing. Second, we want to increase our resilience in a volatile context.

And third, we want to build firepower to capture possible inorganic growth opportunities, of course, opportunities meeting our investment criteria and especially being related to IBA markets and being accretive. Out of the EUR 135 million financing package, EUR 60 million has been drawn so far. Thomas will now further detail the current and intended use of funds as well as the key terms and conditions of the facilities.

Thank you, Catherine. So you will see on this slide our intended allocation of the use of these credit facilities. So on the right-hand side, you find the different tranches of funding. On the left-hand side, potential uses for this.

First of all, starting at the top, you will see the EUR 10 million subordinated loan and basically EUR 30 million drawn under the EUR 50 million 5-year term loan immediately reinforcing the long-term funding components of the balance sheet, which is the first item highlighted by Catherine in our financing strategy.

Then we have an unused portion under this 5-year term loan amounting to EUR 20 million, which is available to cover more structural working capital over the medium term, let's think, for instance, of our Spanish Proton Therapy projects as well as to fund investment opportunities, while the latter will also benefit from specifically dedicated M&A term loan, that's the EUR 15 million tranche you see on the right-hand side.

But then at the bottom, we have EUR 60 million of revolving credit facilities aiming to address short-term working capital fluctuations. Note that they can also play a usual role considering that some geographies in which we operate do not allow straightforward cash management solutions, namely India and China, for instance.

And this from time to time can create imbalances between group entities having excess cash, while IBA SA in Belgium, where manufacturing, R&D and SQ activities take place may have some needs. And so those revolving credit facilities can accommodate for those intragroup cash management opportunities or challenges as well.

So you see on this slide, basically, again, an overview of the different tranches of funding and the amounts already drawn versus what remains available. So EUR 61 million drawn so far, leaving EUR 74 million available. Time-wise, we have 6 months to consider drawing additional tranches under the EUR 50 million term loan and still 24 months under the acquisition term loan facility. We will regularly review the use of these credit lines going forward in function of the evolution of working capital, temporary and structural and as well as business opportunities.

Now a few words on the terms and conditions. Bank facilities are based on a floating rate, so typically EURIBOR plus the margin and that margin is in line with our previous credit lines. Financial covenants also follow our previous standards and consist in a maximum net leverage ratio and a minimum level of corrected equity, corrected because equity then in this case includes subordinated loans.

The net leverage is calculated on the net debt, excluding subordinated debts and the last 12 months of EBITDA. The net leverage covenant provides for a maximum of 3x. Besides, as customary within the club deal documentation framework, IVS to comply with certain undertakings related amongst others to M&A disposal assets or others.

Now moving to the conclusion. We have in place a financing structure that is secured with a 5 years commitment from the financing partners, optimized. As Catherine said, the idea was definitely to have a package addressing an adequate mix of long term versus short term on the liability side and funding versus the asset side.

Flexible to be able to address working capital volatility and as well to be able to flexibly in an agile way to capture investment opportunities and as well robust given the support of strong financing partners that you see listed on the right-hand side of the slide, so a pool of 4 banks and as well Wallonie Entreprendre, our long-standing financing partner.

So we see the opportunity really to thank all of them for their trust and long-term commitment to IBA success. We are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] So first question is from David.

Maybe first, on the refinancing, I didn't hear it. So can you come back on the covenants and maybe give us details about the cost of the financing? And can you confirm that you're actually not planning to use -- so in your budget to use to draw the [ FCM ] as in Slide 7. That's my first question, and then I have 2 more. But maybe we can start with this one.

Okay. Thank you, David. So first part of the question is related to the covenants. So basically, and it is currently the case today, we have 2 covenants, 2 financial covenants. First one is the net leverage ratio. So comparing the net debt excluding subordinated debt and the last 12 months EBITDA, so it's calculated on a rolling basis.

And we have to comply with a level of maximum 3x. The second covenant is a minimum level of corrected equity. And why is it corrected? It's because it's including the subordinated debt as banks consider its equity from -- for that purpose. So I assume it's clear. So on the cost, then of course, as you can imagine, it's the exact level of margin is a confidential element from a bank perspective as well.

And so we can only comment that we stay with a similar level of interest rate and margin basically as the current credit lines. So if you look at the average use of those credit facilities over the last period of time versus the interest charges on our P&L, you will have an idea of what you can expect for the future.

The last question relates to the use of the revolving credit facilities specifically. So currently, we have drawn EUR 20 million out of the available EUR 60 million. We've commented on the expected treasury trajectory with improvements indeed versus the current position starting from the end of this year and improving over the next year, most of is tied to the delivery of our large Proton Therapy projects, namely in China and Spain.

So definitely, use should reduce over time. I also commented on intragroup cash allocation that may require from time to time use of this credit lines. So this should not come as a surprise, if you maintain some use. But the idea that these are used a shorter-term type of buffer.

And my second question, you anticipated a bit. It's on the Ortega contract deliveries for the year and for next year. Maybe you can also comment on the Chinese contract. What is reasonable to expect maybe to give us a range, not necessarily precise, but a rough indication of how many project you expect basically for which you expect payment actually this year and then next year?

Yes. I think on this one, we remain quite aligned with what we already mentioned at the moment of the publication of Q2 results. So -- to summarize, we have guarantee manufacturers 3 machines out of the 10 that have been ordered, 1 has been shipped. That's something that we already mentioned in Q2 results that we intended to ship in October. It has been done by the end of October, beginning of November.

And so we expect to receive the payment on this machine in December conform to the terms we have in the contract. The second and the third machines will be shipped next year in the course normally of Q2 for 1, end of Q2, beginning of Q3 for the third one. And in terms of payments related to all these 10 machines, you may remember that we mentioned that's the working capital impact linked to the delay was close to EUR 30 million. It is a [ 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 ] by machine, let's say.

Do you mean that above the 7, the remain -- your talking about the remaining 7 or...

So that was on the first 3 that we already manufactured. On the remaining 7, we will change a little bit the way we manufacture them. And so instead of starting to manufacture as soon as we can to be ready to ship from the moment that the customer is ready with the building of the hospitals.

We will wait before doing the manufacturing, we will wait to have strong signals that the building will be at the moment that we can ship the machine, so there must still be some kind of delay at certain point of the time, and we want to remain a little bit flexible in the interest, of course, of the patient, but the general principle is that we will not start building the machine as long as we don't have very strong signals that the hospital can accommodate the equipment to avoid this strong working capital impact that we had on the first 3 machines.

And is it fair to say then that the remaining 7 will be for beyond 2026?

It's -- so it will be spread over the entire term of the contract. But indeed, it's fair to say that the shipment of the remaining 7 will be after 2026, yes.

And last question from my side is on the PT, the Proton Therapy services. With a question of how you've been monitoring, I would say, more the credit risk aspect of your customer. My question is also a bit related to the recent controversy in the Netherlands that some centers would be underutilized and 1 was facing more acute financial difficulties. If you can comment on this, it's a bit too different topic, but I think they're related?

So maybe on the credit risk linked to the customers. That's, of course, something that we monitor at the moment that the contracts closed. Where we do a number of analytics on this sort of ability of the customers, the ability to pay for the equipment on the 1 hand and then later for the services that the hospital intends to consolidate.

Of course, during the course of the year and depending on the evolution of the revenues of the hospital we might see some volatility compared to what the first rate assessment that we did then we managed together with the customer, relatively proactive way and we try always to find solutions that could benefit all the parties. So in the best interest of all the stakeholders.

So that's on the credit, let's say, question. On the fact that some hospital not necessarily let's say, fully booked the availability of the rooms in which big equipments are installed. So it's true that sometimes it can take a little bit more time. So it's a little bit longer for a hospital to build a room, but of course, it's in the best interest of everyone to try to maximize the use of the room.

And so that's something in which we can possibly advise hospitals, what they can do, how long it takes to take 1 patients or it can, let's say, or the installation can use a bit maximum capacity. But at the end, of course, it's something that the hospitals have to implement.

I think in some cases, we're seeing these hospitals are having full use of the capacity. In other case, we see a hospital having a very high use. I think that the maximum, which has been reached until now is 64 patients being treated over 1 day. So you see it's very much depending on 1 hospital to another.

Any comment on the lines on your performance?

And what is -- you mean on the study, which was published on the Proton Therapy.

Not the study, but that one center was I'm just quoting the article. And so I don't know, if it's correct, but that one center was particularly in the difficult financial situation?

I must admit that I didn't see the article honestly. So I can't comment, because it's a specific question, but I would be happy if you can send to the team the link of the article, and I will come back to you maybe with any specific comments to be provided.

So David, thank you for your questions. We have further questions from Laura.

I have 3. So first of all, could you comment on backlog conversion for H2. Because it was very strong in H1. So I was wondering how did it look like then in Q3? And what can we expect for the remainder of the year? Then you mentioned in dosimetry that you were facing some headwinds? I was wondering to what extent this would impact the full year performance of that division?

And then the last one on CGN. Do you have any update from them? Do you expect any until the end of the year? That's it.

Okay. Laura. So I will address the first question, and then Catherine and Olivier will answer the other 2. So the first question relates to backlog conversion over H2 and it was a very active H1, and we are increasing the pace in H2. Definitely, so far, it should be visible in the numbers. And this being said, it will be less imbalanced as last year in terms of H1 versus H2 weighting.

So yes, we're definitely on the right trajectory to reach ultimately the targets that we have reconfirmed as part of our press release, today.

Okay. If you don't have any further question on the backlog, I will continue on dosi. So like I was indeed mentioning, we saw some kind of headwinds in this mainly due to, let's say, competition that we see coming with some product that we don't have yet.

So in order to come back to the level that we internally anticipated, we might have to do limited acquisitions. That's the reason why we started with 1 PhantomX, but we might have to do a few and very limited others. On your question whether we expect an impact, I understood on the guidance that we have provided. The answer is clearly no.

So it's, let's say, headwinds compared to internal targets that we had. But all in all, and having in mind all the segments in which we operate and all the activities we have we don't expect any impact on the guidance that we communicated to the market.

Could you specify your question on CGM? I'm not sure I see an immediate answer. So it would be great if you could spell it out again.

Yes. I was just wondering, if you has any update from them, any contracts, if you see any activity from their side?

Nothing outstanding, Laura. I think there are a few public tenders for the moment in the Chinese market, where we are active, but there is nothing meaningful to mention at this stage.

So nothing really different compared to what we have said so far.

I think, lastly, we confirm that they are as part of the partnership agreement. So they have basically executed the technology transfer part, and they have the facility, the factory for local manufacturing that is ready to go. Now the main area of focus is on the market developments and getting the sales convergence.

At this stage we don't see any product open questions. So we have, I would say, last chance slots, if anyone willing to show the question. In the meantime, we can already tell you so the presentation will be available on our website in the same link shortly after this call.

So I think, if there are no more questions, I would like to thank you again for your attendance to this call. It was a pleasure for us to have the opportunity to answer your questions. And we wish you a good evening/good afternoon/end of morning.

Have a good day. That might be -- thank you very much.

Thank you.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of IBA's results for the first half of 2025. I am Thomas Pevenage, Head of Investor Relations. As usual, you will find this presentation on the Investor Relations page of our website. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation.

Moving to the next page, let me draw your attention to the company's disclaimer for forward-looking statements, which, as you know, are based on our current assumptions and beliefs and subject to risks and uncertainties. Today's speakers are Olivier Legrain, our Chief Executive Officer and IBA Clinical Lead; Henri de Romree, our Deputy Chief Executive Officer and IBA Technologies Lead, and we are pleased to welcome Catherine Vandenborre, our newly appointed Chief Financial Officer and IBA Corporate Leads.

As you know, Catherine joined us on the 1st of July. Please note the agenda for today's presentation. We'll start with our highlights for the period, followed by a business review where we will discuss the strategic progress and the financials of each business unit. And finally, we'll cover our financial performance in more detail and give you an update on our guidance and outlook.

Thank you very much, Thomas. Good afternoon, everybody. We are happy to share our achievement with all of you today. We are proud to announce a strong first half of the year, underpinned by accelerated conversion of the project backlog, improved profitability and sustained strategic momentum across our 4 business units. Our revenue reached EUR 304.9 million, reflecting a steep increase of 40% compared to H1 2024. This growth was driven by the accelerated backlog conversion in both IBA Clinical and IBA Technologies.

Our gross profit reached EUR 90 million, corresponding to a gross margin of 29.5% versus 32.6% in H1 last year. This was due to a less favorable equipment profitability mix driven by legacy low-margin projects in Proton Therapy and some customer delays. Despite this, we achieved a significant increase at the REBIT level at EUR 10.6 million, benefited from both strong sales and disciplined OpEx, which was 26% of net sales, well below our long-term target of 30%.

More specifically, we are pleased that IBA Clinical achieved a breakeven REBIT driven by the scale-up of Proton Therapy activities and the financial turnaround of Dosimetry. Bottom line, we recorded a net loss of EUR 2.6 million for the first half of the year, given some negative impacts below REBIT, which Catherine will further detail during the financial review. Our strong backlog conversion led to temporary additional working capital requirements driven by contract assets, resulting in a net debt position of EUR 30 million.

Despite this peak in the working capital cycle, which is expected to normalize with the deliveries of our large Spanish and Chinese orders in Proton Therapy, our net leverage ratio remained healthy at 0.62. In view of this consideration, we reaffirm our guidance for the year 2025, meaning a minimum of EUR 25 million REBIT, underpinned by positive REBIT for Proton Therapy. Let's now have a look at our business highlights.

Our backlog decreased to EUR 1.3 billion, down from an all-time high of EUR 1.5 billion in view of the accelerated backlog conversion, exceeding our order intake for the period. Our EUR 107 million order intake is an encouraging start of the year with IBA Technologies maintaining the same number of systems sold as H1 last year, but larger configurations, Proton Therapy recorded one sale in Taiwan in H1.

That said, we also announced post period, the signature of a contract for ProteusONE with the prestigious University of Heidelberg in Germany. This investment represents a significant expansion of their particle therapy program active since 2010 and will ensure continued access to cutting-edge highly targeted cancer treatment for patients. And finally, today, we announced the signature of two additional ProteusONE.

This contract reinforced IBA position as a trusted partner for leading institution and confirm the growing global demand for Proton Therapy. With this post-period contract in Proton Therapy, Dosimetry and Technologies, our order intake is now close to EUR 190 million. Overall, our market continued to display dynamic conditions despite a more challenging geopolitical environment. We will further comment on this development.

Let's move now to the review of our business performance, starting with IBA Clinical. During our Capital Market Day, we outlined our strategic focus around three [indiscernible], as you remember, related to: one, strengthening of our technological leadership; number two, to grow in our key markets, including Asia and the U.S.; and finally, the expansion of our activities along the value chain.

Let me share a few highlights of our progress in this area. In Proton Therapy, we have made several notable achievements. We launched the -- sorry, we launched the Proton Therapy Academy, a unique platform for knowledge sharing and training that brings together the world's leading expert and practitioner in the field. This platform is intended to support the awareness and the clinical adoption of Proton Therapy, thanks to our community of domain experts.

Besides, we reached a significant milestone in the development of our DynamicARC technology, completing full treatment on phantom with our prototype at the Corewell Health site. We are, therefore, on track for FDA submission before product release in 2027. And also, we continue to progress on our service profitability initiatives, which, as you know, are key driver of IBA Proton Therapy, current and future profitability.

In a different domain, our partner for carbon therapy, Normandy Hadrontherapy is moving in the development of its first system. Catherine will revert on this in the corporate business review. We also achieved a notable milestone in Dosimetry with the launch of QUASAR Phantom solution for magnetic resonance simulations in radiotherapy as well as the diversification of our imaging portfolio through the acquisition of Radcal in the U.S. and a partnership with a start-up company, PhantomX in Germany.

As expected, backlog conversion accelerated in the first half. The total backlog stood at EUR 1.1 billion at the end of June, down 10% versus full year '24, reflecting strong execution alongside an H2 weighted order intake profile. The service backlog is EUR 634 million, slightly lower than prior years, mainly because of contract structure shift and timing of renewals. However, it remains supported by 57 active operation and maintenance contracts and a growing installed base that will continue to underpin long-term revenue visibility.

Post closing, the addition of Heidelberg and two other ProteusONE orders brought EUR 68 million of order intake, further strengthening IBA's market position. As you know, the expansion of our installed base is a key driver of our strategic and financial plan. Our global footprint now consists of 46 operational sites, fairly evenly distributed across America, EMEA and APAC regions. As compared to the end of last year, two systems started treating patients in Asia, in China, in particular, one in Shenzhen and one in Chengdu.

In addition, we currently have an all-time high number of 9 systems under installation and a further 29 projects in production across all 3 regions. This project represents the next wave of growth for IBA, supporting both near-term revenue visibility and the continued expansion of our global reach in providing Proton Therapy access to all patients that could benefit from it. We maintained our market leadership in Proton Therapy with 1 system sold over the first half and 3 additional post-closing of the period.

As a result, IBA has by far the largest installed base in the market with close to half the rooms in operation. This provides us not only with operational leverage, but also with the most robust platform to promote Proton Therapy together with our clinical partners. Proton Therapy equipment sales more than doubled, significantly driving our top line. This remarkable growth resulted from the strong acceleration of our backlog conversion with large-scale procurement activities in Spain, China and the U.S. and 9 installations ongoing.

This year, our supply chain is delivering a record number of 12 systems for Proton Therapy, a unique performance in the industry. Our service revenue grew by 4%, supported by our expanding installed base and strong performance in system uptime. Services contributed to 40% of the Proton Therapy top line. As a result, REBIT improved by EUR 3.6 million during the period. This brings us closer to our target of achieving breakeven REBIT level in Proton Therapy by the end of 2025.

That said, profitability continues to be impacted by the delivery of legacy lower-margin projects in Spain and China as well as by a few significant customer-related delays that have resulted in notable cost overruns. The weight of this project on our overall project portfolio is nonetheless fading over time. Dosimetry delivered a solid performance in the period. Top line grew by 9%, driven by strong backlog conversion, particularly in Proton Therapy, quality assurance and conventional radiation therapy.

Profitability has also improved with the gross margin increasing by [ 2.3 points to 46 of 8.8% ], reflecting higher contribution margin from revenue growth and structural efficiency gains. This has been driven by increased volume at the Shanghai factory as well as the successful relocation of production in Germany. REBIT more than doubled to EUR 2.3 million, putting the business back on track.

Competitive intensity is increasing, especially in the U.S. and tariffs are expected to weigh more heavily on the U.S. and Chinese activities. Importantly, Dosimetry remains unaffected by the recent procurement restrictions for medical device between Europe and China.

I hand over now to my co-CEO, Henri, to comment on the performance of IBA Technologies.

Thank you, Olivier. Let's first have a look at the strategic progress of the Industrial and RadioPharma business units. On the Industrial Solutions side, I would like to highlight a few key achievements for the first period. Firstly, in terms of expanding in our technology, I would mention the good market dynamics in X-ray sterilization as illustrated by our contract with a major U.S. sterilization player, Steri-Tek.

Another important development in line with our ambition to expand along the value chain is that we have reached important derisking milestones for the development of an industrial scale solution for PFAS decontamination. More concretely, we have run multiple tests with different samples of PFAS loaded water and carbon filters in order to optimize irradiation conditions and maximize throughput. Leveraging on these additional results, our next step is to develop an industrial scale pilot unit, partnering with industrial and potentially public stakeholders following our capital-light approach to new ventures.

Turning now to RadioPharma solutions. I would like to highlight our commercial momentum in both emerging and mature markets and applications. For instance, we have sold a high-energy Cyclone IKON to a customer in Taiwan and 4 CycloneKIUBE systems in the U.S. as part of a single order to a CDMO company. The IBA Cyclone IKON indeed provides unique value to our customer with approximately a doubling of production output versus our nearest competitor.

Additionally, we launched CASSY, a new compact synthetizer platform to produce radiometals, which reinforces our offering in the fast-growing radiochemistry segment in line with our strategic focus. In the field of theranostics, we are making solid progress with the development of a dedicated alpha cyclotron for the production of Astatine-211, the next generation of highly anticipated theranostics after Lutetium-177 and Actinium-225.

IBA Technologies equipment backlog decreased over the half of the year given the strong conversion and the H2 weighting of order intake in the Industrial Solutions. As you know, we do not report any service backlog data for technologies as these are mostly related to short-term, 1-year maintenance contracts with no permanent presence of an IBA team on site.

Looking now at the financial results, I'm pleased to share the excellent performance of IBA Technologies in the first half of 2025. Net sales grew by 30% year-on-year to EUR 115 million, driven by both a faster conversion of our equipment backlog and increasing services sales from our growing installed base.

As a result, REBIT almost doubled versus last year, reaching EUR 13.1 million, supported by a favorable product mix as well as disciplined cost management. As pointed out by Olivier in his introduction, Technologies posted a sound level of order intake with the sale of 14 accelerator systems at a higher average price than last year.

Let us now address barriers to entry affecting certain markets, namely the U.S. and China. As far as U.S. tariffs are concerned, uncertainty has reduced with duties set at 15% for imports out of European Union without exemption for medical devices. We confirm the overall assessment share during our Capital Market Day in April and have more precisely estimated the impact over the full year 2025. There will be a marginal impact on our equipment backlog profitability and a negligible one on our service activities.

As far as order intake is concerned, we have seen a limited to no impact at this stage for Proton Therapy, possibly considering that these projects are developed and operated over the long term with an economic lifetime exceeding 20 years and that the Proton Therapy equipment value usually represent less than half of the total investment. For RadioPharma and Industrial Solutions, there is a limited to no local competition with local manufacturing, meaning that we remain competitive.

In Dosimetry, the overall impact of tariffs has been negligible in H1, yet it is expected to become more significant in H2 where local competition may amplify effects. That said, we have been proactively expanding our global supply chain for some time, which should partially mitigate top line and profitability pressures.

Though not related to tariff, we would also like to comment on the One Big Beautiful Bill, which may limit reimbursement for Proton Therapy treatment delivered to medical -- to Medicaid patients. As per our assessment, the impact should be limited as Medicaid patients typically represent a low proportion of the center's patient mix.

Let's now take a look at China, which typically represents approximately 15% of our revenues. In July, China announced restrictions on government purchase of medical device from European origin valued at over RMB 45 million or about EUR 5.4 million. As restrictions are related to large medical devices only, our Proton Therapy equipment activities are impacted, while the other business units are out of scope. As far as our multi-room ProteusPLUS solution is concerned, we are exempt from restrictions, thanks to our strategic partnership with the local company, CGN.

However, the future development of our single-room segment branded as ProteusONE will be impacted. As a result, mitigation strategies for the ProteusONE market are currently under review. We are considering different paths, including seeking exemptions, securing a local partnership as we did with CGN and/or developing local sourcing. Let's move on to IBA Corporate.

I will now give the floor to Catherine, who orchestrates the Corporate activities.

Thank you very much, Olivier, and good afternoon, everyone. Let's start with an update on our new ventures. We are pleased to report good progress from PanTera, our joint venture launched with the Belgian Nuclear Research Center, SCK CEN. PanTera began the production in small batches of actinium in late June to support clinical trials.

This is a significant positive step for the company and for the development of actinium-based treatments. Besides PanTera has secured its construction and nuclear safety permits, which is also an important milestone to break ground on its large-scale facility in early Q4 this year. Finally, all PanTera shareholders agreed to release the third tranche of the Series A capital increase, which triggered the revaluation of IBA's participation in August. This resulted in a EUR 7.2 million increase in the value of this participation, while all shareholding was diluted to 34.8%.

Moving now to Normandy Hadrontherapy. The company is at a turning point for the development of its carbon therapy solutions. The call of the cyclotron was installed on site and is cooling down before the start of tuning activities, which is an important derisking milestone. Besides, the project is gaining commercial traction with prospects in the U.S. and Asia, thanks to its unique compact multiparticle technology.

However, procurement delays and high inflation during the development phase have created a refinancing need. IBA as a 39% shareholder, together with the other main shareholder has contributed to a bridge financing, while the long-term fundraising effort is ongoing. Closing is targeted by Q2 2026. In another area, mi2-factory, our investment in the field of semiconductors is currently finalizing the specifications of the first machine to be developed by IBA following an in-depth review of market requirements.

Let's now close the business review section and move to the financials in more detail. As outlined in the highlights, profitability has improved, thanks to top line growth despite some margin effect and OpEx increase in nominal amount. Profit before tax turned positive as a result. Those margin effects are due to the respective contributions of the group entities with a higher share of Proton Therapy activities and also to the project mix across the business units with a lot of backlog conversion on projects with a lower margin.

Let's now focus on the evolution of OpEx, explain different efficiency measures that we are implementing and take you through the below REBIT items. OpEx increased by EUR 8.6 million, but remained well under control and 26% of net sales, below our long-term guidance of maximum 30% of sales. This evolution is driven by general and administrative expenditures to support the future growth of the business, such as digital initiatives and organizational transformation.

OpEx also includes selected investment in R&D, mainly related to advancements in imaging, DynamicARC and CASSY in RadioPharma Solutions. Selling and marketing expenses remained stable at EUR 15 million to EUR 16 million. Increasing profitability is one of our top priorities. As you know, there was a key element, and this is a key element, of our strategic and financial plan and very concrete measures have been identified that will enable us to secure and grow our margin in the future.

I would like to highlight a few of those measures as an illustration of our priorities and their concrete impact. In H1, we have focused on services, where we are strengthening on product reliability and scaling our service model to improve customers and IBA's economics targeting more than EUR 1 million savings in '25 and expecting more than EUR 2 million of performance-related revenue improvement.

We have also launched a broad-based initiative tackling our indirect OpEx. In R&D, for instance, we are maturing our operating model to accelerate innovation and bring products to market faster, expecting to deliver more than EUR 1 million in productivity gains in '25. We also focus on capturing indirect OpEx savings with tighter cost control, generating more than EUR 1 million savings in '25 of recurring nature. All the savings are included in the guidance we gave and their implementation is progressing well.

Let me now comment on the impacts below REBIT. PanTera had a negative contribution over this semester, but two factors will drive a reversal over H2. The first one is the start of early supply that will generate profitability at PanTera level. And the second one is the revaluation of our investments following the release of the third tranche of the Series A capital increase, which will have a position impact of EUR 7.2 million.

Another element relates to our migration towards a new ERP platform, SAP S/4HANA. Execution is mostly taking place over '25 with testing ongoing as we speak. The main phase of the project is expected to be completed by early '26. Besides, our P&L was not immune to macroeconomic impacts with hyperinflation in Argentina. So slowing down still impacting our Proton Therapy project in Buenos Aires. We were also impacted by unfavorable evolution of the U.S. and Chinese currencies.

As you know, our equipment project in foreign currencies are hedged, but these impacts mostly relate to the revaluation of balance sheet position and are henceforth generally noncash. Regarding hyperinflation in Argentina, the effect is expected to fade over time with significantly lower impact in '26 as the installation works come to an end. Operating cash flows were negative over H1 due to working capital movements. While inventories remained stable, contracts in progress in advanced billing had a combined impact close to EUR 90 million.

This was a result of the accelerated backlog conversion across all business units, particularly in Proton. This trend will gradually reverse in '26, partly thanks to the delivery of the Spanish and Chinese projects, which trigger a large milestone payment. However, since this impact was only partially compensated by an increase in payables, IBA used its revolving credit facilities up to EUR 30 million as of June and decided to tactically increase these credit lines from EUR 60 million to EUR 80 million in July.

This decision was made as a matter of financial discipline given the current peak in the working capital cycle and the general business environment. On the investment side, CapEx remained in line with previous periods, including the acquisition of a building in Louvain-la-Neuve for approximately EUR 2 million. Financial investment totaled EUR 7.4 million, including a EUR 3.9 million investment in mi2 and EUR 3 million in loans to the benefit of Normandy Hadrontherapy.

In view of our business development and our financial performance over the first half of the year, we are very confident in our guidance for the full year, meaning a minimum REBIT of EUR 25 million at group level, supported by a return to profitability for Proton Therapy. We also reiterate our medium-term outlook while being mindful of geopolitical developments, specifically the U.S. tariff and Chinese restriction on impact of medical devices.

We will remain agile in relation to potential opportunities and challenges on our business fundamentals. While we expect better performance in the second half of the year as it was the case over the last years, we anticipate a more balanced first and second half weighting than in '24. More specifically, we expect IBA Technologies to contribute less compared to H2 '24 due to the pace of backlog conversion and product mix.

I'm now leaving the floor to Olivier for his closing remarks.

Thank you very much, Catherine. And when I look back at the first half of this year, I'm proud of the performance of our teams and grateful towards our partners, our customers, suppliers, shareholders and financing partners.

My key takeaways are the following: order intake is more than encouraging in a volatile environment, confirming the added value of our solutions to our customers. We posted a strong financial performance across all our business units with Proton Therapy achieving an impressive scale. We will continue to actively manage our cash position. And finally, these elements confirm that we are back on track for our 2025 full year guidance. More generally, these results reinforce our confidence in our capabilities to execute and our ability to adapt in an evolving market conditions.

Thank you very much to the audience for listening to our results presentation. You will also find our financial calendar on this page. We will now move on to the Q&A session. Please raise your virtual hands if you have a question. [Operator Instructions] Okay. So starting with Laura.

Laura Roba from Degroof Petercam. Congratulations on the results. I have 3 questions. First one on gross margin. How should we look at the evolution in H2 and more in general for the full year? Because if I understood correctly, it went down primarily due to the execution of lower-margin projects, but you also mentioned some productivity improvements. So to what extent can we expect these improvements to compensate in the end for the lower-margin projects in H2? So that was the first one.

Second one, in Proton Therapy, could you provide an update on China and more specifically on CGN because we didn't see a lot coming from their side so far. So I was wondering if everything is still on track there? And also, if you see Mevion stepping up in China? And does that have an impact? And then finally, you mentioned in the press release a few significant customer-related delays that have resulted in notable cost overruns. So could you perhaps elaborate on these cost overruns and give us an idea of the other order of magnitude of those, please?

So I will start with your first question, Laura, relating to the gross margin in H2. And maybe I will extend to, let's say, what we can expect in H2 in general gross margin being, of course, part of it. Like you rightly mentioned, you need to read the expectation relating to H2 in the context of the full guidance that we have issued and more specifically the EUR 25 million REBIT. That's one element.

Second element, you can expect H2 to be stronger than H1 in 2025. If you would use 2024 as a reference to try to estimate how H2 2025 would look like, that would go a step too far, let's say. So stronger H2 than H1, but less strong -- that's what we had in 2024. So let's say, a little bit more balanced than what we had in 2024. The progress that you can expect in H2 compared to H1, they will be mainly related to gross margin.

And there, I'm coming more concretely to your question. So we expect, especially on gross margin, a stronger H2 than H1 in '25, and it will come from different elements and maybe some of them may play in different direction. The first element is that we expect a higher contribution of Proton Therapy, so Clinical business than Technologies. But in Proton Therapy, we expect also projects with higher margin in H2 than we had in H1. So that's one element.

Second element, indeed, we communicated on the efficiencies and some of the efficiencies related to OpEx [indiscernible] to the gross margin indeed to make more concrete, our guidance and to give you confidence in the fact that we will indeed grow the margin in H2 '25 compared to H1 '25. OpEx, last element. Next to gross margin, we have OpEx. We expect OpEx to be broadly balanced between H1 and H2.

So on China, I think it's fair to say that the market has been slow over the last 3, 4 years, mainly because of -- it's true for all medical device across the board. It's true for radiation therapy and it's true for Proton Therapy, mainly due to anticorruption law, that is a stall decision. So CGN has been impacted by that, by the slow demand. Now it's true that the licenses are out there. So we expect to see the market to resume in the next few years.

CGN has signed 2 deals, one of them is active and currently going into installation. The other one is still waiting for confirmation and a down payment. But you rightfully picked that the market share of CGN in China is somehow around 30% due to the aggressiveness of one of the competitor and a faster shift of the Chinese market to single room.

So this is something actually we currently assess with CGN and one of the reasons why we believe it's important for us to launch the ProteusONE in China, which we will do before the end of the year, together with CGN when it comes to the go-to-market and with question mark on local production, as we have disclosed in the presentation.

So the market is due to resume. We believe we are very well positioned with CGN, especially in the context of regulation -- current regulation between EU and China. And -- but we also believe it's time for us to be more present with the single room, together with CGN in the market to basically occupy together with them the single room niche that is opening in China as well.

So now delays. I would mention 2 to 3 elements. The first one is the Spanish file that you know quite well where we face some delay in the shipments of the equipment that we have built during H1 '25 and earlier. And so there are some costs that we have to support linked to that related to our storage facilities related to the fact that we need to maintain the installation on our side and so at our cost to, let's say, opportunity cost in funding and so on and so forth.

So that's one element on which I can't comment on the cost because it's part of discussions that we are currently having with the Ministry of Health in Spain. Next to that, we have also some, let's say, cost overrun linked to emerging geographies like, for example, Argentina and there you see the cost, especially hyperinflation below REBIT in the press release.

Can we move to Michiel.

We don't hear you if you tried to talk.

Is it better now?

It's better, yes.

Michiel from KBC Securities. I had 2 questions, please. First one is quite straightforward. Just on the free cash flow and the working capital drag in the first half. This was already well flagged, of course, previously, and you mentioned a bit of a normalization and improvement in 2026. But looking at the second half, what should we expect there? Should we expect continued investment in the working capital or already some improvement? That's the first question.

And the second question would be on the PT activity. So you mentioned that despite the tariffs and the Big Beautiful Bill that the activity in the U.S. remains high. In the press release, you also mentioned that in the short term, you don't expect any big impact from that Big Bill because of the lower share of Medicaid.

But looking a bit further down the line, this will, of course, weigh on the budgets of the hospitals in the longer term. Do you see any hesitation here from the hospitals? Or how are they looking at this? Because, of course, Proton Therapy is quite a big investment. So interested to hear your views on that point in the longer term.

Okay. So I will take the first question on the free cash flow. And I will start by saying, unfortunately, there is no simple answer to your question. I heard you saying it's a straightforward question. Why am I saying there is no simple answer? Because it all depends on, let's say, evolution of different elements. The first one is the general order intake and down payments that we have, so a lot of files.

But the second one is linked to the Spanish file, which is, let's say, creating the bulk of this working capital movements that we see. And there, there are different scenarios. The first scenario is that based on the dialogue that we have initiated with the Minister of Health, we can find some kind of agreement on reading of the public tender that was organized and gets paid while, let's say, equipment is not necessarily shipped exactly on to the hospital.

If we are able to reach such an agreement, of course, the situation will improve. However, it's not the most likely scenario. Why isn't it the most likely scenario? Because like I said, the material has been ordered based on a public tender. And like you know, rules in public tenders are -- used to be strictly interpreted and that's where we are today -- that's what we are facing today a rather strict interpretation of the public tender rules and conditions that we sense.

Alternatively, we will start shipping the material in 2025 and 2026. So based on the information we have from the Spanish Minister of Health, the hospital should be ready for one of them in 2025 and for the order of them in 2026. So in total, it's about 3 hospitals that we are talking. In that case, the reversal will take place gradually. And I would then not expect in this situation, I would not expect an improvement by year-end of this year. So I would take a rather conservative approach in this one, with still a net debt position at year-end.

Thank you, Catherine. When it comes to Proton Therapy adoption in the U.S. I have to say it's quite the opposite. The excitement for Proton Therapy modality in the U.S. is increasing on the back of what we have presented during the Capital Market Day, which is the first ever Level 1 clinical evidence published by MD Anderson on head and neck. And the PI has actually made a number of presentations when in -- the 5-year follow-up is showing a better survival rate for the Proton Therapy arm, which is kind of super exciting for the field.

So -- the point that we've made and that we are making together with our clinical partner in the U.S. and everywhere in the world is that, yes, maybe CapEx is high when it comes to Proton Therapy, but it's a super cost-effective way to treat a number of indications, starting with head and neck. And this Level 1 clinical evidence is really rebuilding a fantastic momentum, in particular, in the U.S. for the demand in Proton Therapy.

So we have seen the big guys basically doubling up or reconfirming their Proton program. We have disclosed in the past the expansion of UPenn, MGH refurbishment, but we see all the big guys moving again or issuing tenders for increasing their capacity. As you know, MD Anderson has published a tender to add capacity in Houston and potentially furthermore for the region. So I think it's quite the opposite. And so first of all, the clinical evidence is coming.

Number two, the cost effectiveness of Proton Therapy becomes more clear. And new innovation makes it even more cost effective, namely DynamicARC. DynamicARC will increase the capacity of a number of our customers. So they will be able to treat more patients more effectively without decreasing the quality of the treatment, which will further improve the business case or the clinical case, if I may say so, of the Proton Therapy everywhere in the world, but we know that the U.S. is usually the market where things are happening faster. So -- my expectation is to see an uptake in the demand for Proton Therapy in the U.S. over the next 24 months.

Okay. Now we can move to David.

So David Vagman from ING. So the first one is on China and on basically the interdiction or, let's say, the impossibility of exporting to China, the ProteusONE as it is now. Could you give us -- so you elaborated a bit on possible alternative, I heard it. But could you give us a rough idea of the potential cost of opportunity if you were not addressing at all the potential P1 market there. So compared to your 2028 sales target of 5%, 7%. So what is at stake? What is the risk there?

Second question on your growth investment on the OpEx side. They're actually quite under control for a year of 30% sales growth this year. So should we still expect the OpEx to grow to like roughly, I think, 30% of sales by 2028. So how fast could this growth investment happen on the OpEx side?

And then last question, a bit on a mysterious comment, I would say, in the press release about your financial structure. So you're saying that management is reviewing the financial structure to ensure it remains aligned with the evolving working capital cycle and then planned strategic investments. So -- yes, and this is monitoring the IBA growth strategy. So what does it exactly mean?

Thank you for your question, David. I will start with the first one on China and cost of opportunities. And I will be very clear and go quickly on this one because in the guidance that was communicated to you at the Capital Market Day, there were no assumption regarding new sales in China for Proton Therapy. And so everything that would come on top, I'm speaking about P1, it was also your question P1 -- everything that would come on top would be, let's say, something nice compared to the guidance. It would be an upside. So you were asking how much at risk there for P1, answer is 0.

If I may add on that -- I'm just back from China, by the way. So I think we have genuinely a superior technology than whatever is available in the Chinese market with ProteusONE. And here, I speak specifically on the single room market. So there is indeed an exemption role that we are very actively investigating actually with the support of the Belgian diplomacy and the European diplomacy. And if they are on the call, I would like to thank them for the support. So that's one way to go.

The other way to go, as you know, David, IBA, is for a long time in China and we have many, many, many friends there, and we have one big friend called CGN, which is fully geared up for local production with ProteusPLUS. But it's certainly a way that we could activate pretty fast should we need to do so.

So I agree with Catherine. It's indeed an upside. But it's an upside we are determined to go get. So that's something we are actively pursuing, let's say so -- and on top of that, as Catherine said, we're super well positioned when it comes to ProteusPLUS. So that's something not to be underestimated.

Then on OpEx, so like I already mentioned, OpEx in H2 should be broadly in line with H1 behind broadly. So you might have a slight increase in H2 compared to H1. But all in all, I would indeed expect that OpEx in '25 would be lower than the 30%.

And then on the mysterious sentence that you were referring to, I would comment saying that I think it's just part of normal initiative of a new starting CFO to review the funding of the company, to review the long-term balances, long-term assets, long-term liabilities and to go deep in the understanding of the needs of the company, evolving working capital cycle, possible future investments. So there is nothing special behind this sentence, except, of course, that it's an exercise that is only normal for the management of a company like IBA.

Okay. Maybe a very quick follow-up on the OpEx. I was also referring -- because I heard your comment on H2. I was also referring to 2026, '27 and '28. So if you're still ambitioning to get to 30% of sales by 2028, how fast you wanted to do this growth investment because then we don't have that much of a step-up this year. But then I would expect like another 20 -- if you grow 10%, let's say, this year, that we have then another 20% of growth a bit roughly in OpEx in the coming years?

No. So that's not what we are expecting. And so coming back to the guidance like it was said, it was around 30%. But that's something that you need to read also with the gross margin altogether. But no, we don't expect to go up to 30% next year.

I think it has to do with strategic opportunities as well. And one of them, if I speak for IBA Clinical is market access for proton therapy. So we are closely monitoring when and how much is appropriate to invest to accelerate the penetration of proton therapy. Same thing on the innovation, keeping in mind, as Catherine said, the development of the gross margin, the growth of the market as well as our commitment not to grow OpEx settling down to above 30%. So that's something we monitor.

There could be no further hands raised. So [ Simon ] go ahead, please.

Just elaborating on the question, before on the costs -- in the first half, were there any additional costs for that market access increase for Proton Therapy and the innovation in astatine? And can you quantify them?

So for market access is very easy, very -- so it's something that we are still assessing. And when it comes to astatine, I leave the floor to Henri.

So [ Simon ], we did great progress in terms of developing that dedicated machine. So yes, there were some costs incurred. And I'm not giving you the exact details. But there was an amount indeed allocated to that in the first semester, as we said we would do in this year, so...

Okay. And on astatine, we are still waiting for a final agreement with your partner, right? Is there a term on that? Would that happen before year-end? Or because you are spending money without having a clear cost division, I have the feeling.

[ Simon ], I think it's a good push. So you refer to the discussions we had with Framatome.

yes.

And in any case, we would be the party developing the machine. And so what is it that we engage to develop that machine is for sure, not lost. It's really part of our willingness to be playing a leading role in Astatine-211. The partnership with Framatome is one way to further develop in that market. You may have noticed that the CEO of Astatine has been appointed CEO of EDF in France and with that change of CEO, we incurred a bit of a resetting in those conversations that stays very positive. And at the moment where there will be something concrete out of that, we'll keep you appraised.

I can agree with what Henri just said, Framatome or not, Astatine-211 is a fantastic opportunity for IBA to sell dedicated cyclotron, and it's our duty to actually invest into the development of a new platform, to be able to play a role when this market will take...

Okay. And then maybe an additional one on China. Today, how many Proteus -- similar single rooms are in the market? And secondly, I mean, it sounds almost evident that you go together with CGN on this one. And would that involve -- I mean, for the ProteusPLUS, that was quite a nice investment we saw of over EUR 100 million. Would that be also something that we can still expect on the single room if you would go route with -- that is similar as a ProteusPLUS?

So today, reality in China, there is one single room treating patients. It's always difficult to comment on the deals that have been signed because, as you know, IBA has a very strict policy when it comes to announced deals, which is not always followed by unlisted competitors. So I think there's a number of deals that have been announced.

For sure, I would say 3 of them are real. One is treating patients. So it's a preliminary sign that the single room segment is opening indeed. And you refer to the licensing agreement. Licensing is one way to go, but it's not the only way. So it's a possibility, but it's not a certainty. And I cannot comment further. I think -- yes, there is nothing to say about that at this stage.

Yes. Just maybe CGN producing ProteusPLUS or producing ProteusONE, it's very similar or not -- would it involve a big change for them in the setup? No?

Well, you have the infrastructure and you came in and visited our factory here before. So you know that to produce a ProteusONE cyclotron is actually required a bit less of infrastructure than the ProteusPLUS. But having said that, the technology is very different. So it requires a different set of skills, different set of technologies, different set of suppliers. So it's a bit of work. It's not something you do overnight.

There seems to be no further questions. That one was the last minute one. In that case, please let me thank you all very much for your support and attention. We're all looking forward to continuing the dialogue with you. So we wish you a very nice day or end of day. David, sorry, you raise your hand, but...

No, that's fine, that's fine. We can leave it at that.

Okay. Super.

Thank you very much.

Good day to you all. Thank you. Bye.