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Burning Rock Biotech Limited Stock Price: Quote, Forecast, Splits & News (BNR)

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Company Profile

New

Burning Rock Biotech Limited Price & Performance (BNR)

Stock Performance

Updated Mar 17, 8:00 PM UTC

BNR:NASDAQ

$5.80USD

5.11% · $0.28

After Hours

-2.2% · $0.13

Open

$5.52

High

$5.82

Low

$5.52

Market Cap

$59.52M

P/E Ratio

-1.0

Volume

2.47K

Year High

$8.99

Year Low

$2.62

News & Market Insights

BNR Faces Key Resistance Levels
Mar 16, 2025
Burning Rock Biotech Limited (BNR) is testing critical resistance at $7.22, presenting both buying and shorting opportunities depending on price movement. A break above signals potential gains, while a fallback suggests a target of $5.21. Traders are advised to monitor closely with stop-loss levels set for risk control.1
Investors Monitor BNR's Trading Signals
Mar 16, 2025
BNR's technical analysis highlights $7.22 as a pivotal point for trading strategies. A breach above invites long positions, while resistance tests could trigger short trades targeting $5.53. These patterns underscore the importance of real-time updates for traders navigating the biotech sector's volatility.1
Trading Insights for BNR Revealed
Mar 16, 2025
Prudent strategies for BNR involve buying near support at $5.21 or shorting near resistance at $7.22. The stock's behavior at these levels offers clear entry and exit points for day, swing, and long-term trades. Market participants should adhere to defined stop-losses for effective risk management.1

What's Happening

Peers

Earnings

Report Date

—

Rev Estimate

—

Avg 1d Change

1.97%

Report Period

Q4 2024

EPS Estimate

—

Implied Move 1d

—

Transcript

3m 57s

Thank you, Seagan. Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the earnings call for the full year 2024. On the call with me today are CEO, Doctor. Christian Korkpai, and our CFO, Doctor. Christine Neumann. Will walk you through today's presentation, which is followed by a Q and A session. We are also joined today by Thomas Reiszen, who will assume the CFO role as of April 1 and who will shortly introduce himself. Our relevant documents have been published this morning on our website and can be found at brentark.com in the Investor Relations section. [indiscernible] In that same area, you will also find a replay of today's call. Before we begin, allow me to point you to the Safe Harbor statement, which you will find at the end of slide deck. [indiscernible] With that, I will hand over to our CEO. Christian, over to you. Yes, thank you, Thomas, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Before we start talking about kind of fares and the details, of our business performance last year, I also warmly welcome Thomas Reis, who is joining us in this call today. Thomas is a well respected interculturally executive and with his experience in corporate transformation, is an excellent addition to our management team.

5m 11s

Thomas, thanks a lot for being here. Thank you, Christian, for this kind introduction. I truly appreciate the opportunity to join this call today. Even ahead of officially stepping into my new role next month. Dear ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited to briefly introduce myself to you. My name is Thomas Heitzman. I will take over the position as CFO of Enzark SAE as of April. Currently, we are in the transition phase, and I have already started to make myself familiar with topics I'm going to be responsible for soon. I've raised extensive experience in financial leadership, most recently as Chief Financial Officer and member of the management board of Anders Towers. There I was deeply involved in the company's carve out its successful IPO and later its transition to private equity ownership and delisting. Prior to that, I spent many years with the Vodafone Holding senior financial leadership position as a including The UK, Germany, Ireland, Romania, India and Japan. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Supervisory Board of Brandtag SE in order to Kristin Goldpiner as CEO of Brandtak for the trust they have placed into Brentag is a company with very strong fundamentals and significant growth opportunities.

6m 43s

I look forward to working with the talented teams across the organization drive the ongoing transformation of the company and create long term value. My experience in high performing finance, supply chain, corporate development, M and A and strategy organizations will be key in supporting Brenntag continued success. I'm eager to officially take over the role as CFO, Brenntag and engage with many of you in more detail. Thank you again for the warm welcome.

7m 15s

Christian, back to you. Thank you, Thomas, and I will now start with the highlights of 2024. Followed by a strategy update, and Christine will then walk you through the details our financial performance.

7m 30s

Multiple geopolitical challenges general uncertainties, and the lack of consumer confidence impacted the economic development and cavity markets we are serving experienced and extended bottoming out of the industry cycle. As a consequence, industrial chemical selling prices remained strongly under pressure.

7m 53s

Sales for the full year amounted to €16,200,000,000 on group level which is 3% below the prior year.

8m 3s

Despite these challenges, we kept our operating gross profit stable at €4,030,000,000 On group level, volumes continued to show sequential improvements since the beginning of the year as predicted.

8m 19s

However, gross profit per unit declined substantially compared to 2023 on group level with distinct developments in both divisions. At the same time, our gross profit as a percentage of sales increased slightly compared to last year which indicates that we managed gross profit to our advantage despite the strong pressure from industrial chemical selling. This again proves the resilience of our business model. As indicated by our stable absolute operating gross profit on a year over year comparison, higher volumes compensated lower gross profit per unit margins.

9m 5s

Due to higher volume driven costs, and inflationary impacts, we achieved an overall lower bottom line result. Our operating EBITA amounted to €1,100,000,000 meeting the guidance provided in August at the lower end. This is a decline of around 13% year over year.

9m 29s

We generated a strong free cash flow of €893,000,000 Nevertheless, this compares to the billion euros 2023 which was characterized by substantial release of working capital due to during the destocking cycle. Earnings per share stood at €3.71 compared to €4.73 last year. Our earnings per share were also impacted by the sale of Raj PetroSpecialties in India to improve our business portfolio and the other special items which Christine will elaborate on in detail in the financial section. As we always strive to create shareholder value, and to let our shareholders participate in the successful performance of Brenntag we have decided to propose a stable dividend of €2.1 to the Annual General Meeting in May Subject to approval of the AGM, Brenntag has maintained or increased the dividend payout for the fourteenth time in a row. We are doing this based on our resilient cash generation, our strong balance sheet and our confidence in the future performance of our company. Let me say a few words on the outlook for 2025. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] Last year was characterized by sequential volume improvements predominantly driven by Brenntag Essentials. However, the highly competitive business environment in which industrial chemical selling prices remained under pressure impacted our gross profit per unit and eventually our bottom line results.

11m 21s

For 2025, we expect continued moderate improvements in volumes throughout the year and a slightly better sequential pricing environment in 2025, which should result in an improved gross profit per unit compared to 2024. At the same time, the economic and political uncertainty remains very high. And global economic growth is expected to remain subdued.

11m 50s

Therefore, we expect that operating EBITA for the full year 2025 in the range of €1,100,000,000 to €1,300,000,000 Before we have a more detailed look at our full year results, I would like to talk about our strategic achievements in 2024. Have been working intensively on the execution of our divisional strategies which we presented to you at our Capital Markets Day in 2023. And we made good progress. We continue to execute the targeted disentanglement of our two divisions in areas with the highest value creation and differentiation potential. At the same time, we are prudently managing our cost base and are executing our cost containment measures while focusing on running our business. We have reiterated frequently that Brenntag likes Specialties is focusing on improving its performance through a combination of short term and long term levers. We initiated several short term margin management initiatives which already led to optimized pricing and purchasing structures. We saw meaningful improvements in gross profit per unit in the second half of twenty twenty four compared to the first half And you also see this momentum continuing into 2025 this is encouraging. At the same time, we also continued our longer term measures like optimizing our business portfolio and specialties in multiple dimensions.

13m 32s

This includes business mix refinements the review of our geographical setup as well as further leveraging our global industry segment and upgrading our strategic supplier management. Here, we were able to score important additions to our supplier portfolio. In total, we have gained more than 25 new authorizations in the last year some of which are top of the pyramid additions. We are confident that we are moving in the right direction here and this is also confirmed by very positive feedback from our supply partners. In Bernstein Essentials, we are executing our triple strategy. Focusing especially on our last mile service operations. We created around 100 LMSOs globally and are currently implementing the new steering structure through the standardized KPI We also continued to optimize our global site network and closed 33 locations in 2024, Further shutdown measures are in progress or in the preparation phase. In our Essentials business, we also focus on We sold Raj Petro Specialties in India, a non core asset of Brenntag. We decided to sell the business since we do not intend to run a highly volatile business with fluctuating margins and substantial manufacturing assets which require a different focus compared to our distribution business.

15m 11s

The sale leads to an overall loss of around €63,000,000 which has already been procured in 2024 for the vast majority. And which is recognized as special items below operating EBITDA and amortization. We also made good progress in terms of M and A, On the one hand, strengthening our industry segments in specialties, and on the other hand, driving our triple strategy in essentials. In total, we have closed eight acquisitions, an enterprise value of around €550,000,000 in 2024.

15m 49s

Two of those acquisitions were already signed in 2023. Brandtech Specialties closed three acquisitions. We acquired CEMGRIT in South Africa and Laurence Industry in The UK improving our footprint and technology portfolio in Materials Science. We also acquired PLC and Pharma Special in Brazil expanding Brantac's life science business in one of the largest global markets for personal care and pharma products. Within Brandtech Essentials, we closed five These include the two major transactions of Serentis in Belgium and Kimika Delta in Mexico. Which both added to our striplet shed strategy by providing access to toll gates through marine terminals. M and A remains a key strategic pillar for us and an enabler of future growth. Let me also briefly talk about our sustainability We We are proud that our innovative CO2 explorer won the ISS Best Digital Innovation Award 2024. The tool allows companies to assess and manage their carbon footprint more effectively. And to calculate CO2 emissions across the entire supply chain. Our CO2 Explorer is well accepted by the user community already supporting several thousand business partners engagements. Furthermore, in 2024, Brenntag fully reviewed and adapted its climate change mitigation targets. Which now covers scope one scope two and scope three emissions.

17m 33s

This change was necessary to meet the requirements of the Science Based Target Initiative, SPTI. All targets were successfully validated by the SPTI the beginning of twenty twenty five. This target confirmation cements our commitment and market leadership in sustainability. Last but not least, we also increased our score in the comprehensive Ecovadis sustainability assessment and has been again awarded with the highest possible platinum rating. These are just some of our many sustainability achievements, which clearly demonstrate Brantac's leading role in our industry. Let me now hand over to Christine who will elaborate on our cost containment program and our Dialix initiatives before talking about our financial results in more detail. [indiscernible] Thank you, Christian.

18m 29s

Let us take a closer look at our cost containment program, which introduced in the context of our Capital Markets Day twenty twenty three, and which includes the expected benefits from our Didex initiatives. With our cost containment program, we aim to achieve cost reduction of €300,000,000 per year by 2027, compared to the base year 2023. To achieve these benefits, we also outlined the amount of one off costs we expect to incur over the planning period Initially, this was a range of EUR450 million to EUR650 million to achieve the disentangement of our two divisions and our cost takeout program. In the course of 2024, we reduced this number to €300,000,000 of one off costs related to the targeted disentangement and to achieve our cost savings program. Around two thirds of the €300,000,000 to around €200,000,000 will be related to our cost containment measures. Overall, these costs will be shown as special items below operating EBITA. In addition, we announced €250,000,000 of one off costs to implement our Didex initiative and for our ERP harmonization. The majority of these costs are included in our general OpEx line and therefore included in operating EBITA. A smaller amount is associated to CapEx.

20m

The cost out program is in full reducing our cost base by slightly more than NOK 50,000,000 in 2024. The executed measures include among others the organic reduction of around two thirty headcounts in 2024, which was largely carried out towards the end of the year and helped to mitigate inflation related increases in personnel expenses. Also, as part of our site network optimization measures, we successfully closed 33 locations last year. Looking at 2025, the targeted cost out impact is roughly double the amount of 2024 and we have a clear plan to achieve the communicated €300,000,000 annual out effect by 2027? The actual one off cost in Kirt to achieve our cost containment measures and the targeted disentanglement amount to around €50,000,000 in 2024. And for 2025, we intend to spend around €100,000,000 where of the vast majority is linked to our cost out program. Our Dynex initiatives are well on track and will contribute to achieve the intended cost takeout and efficiency measures as part of our €300,000,000 savings program. In the quarter of last year, we incurred one off [indiscernible] of around €60,000,000 and for 2025, we aim to spend around €40,000,000 to €50,000,000 Alongside these onetime we have been incurring some running costs like licensing costs which will of course continue in the future.

21m 52s

Which have not been part of our EUR $250,000,000 one time cost projection.

21m 58s

For 2025, we expect these running costs to be more or less on the same level as for 2024.

22m 7s

The one time cost to achieve our cost IOT and DIALEX measures are generally more front end loaded and gradually reduced over time. The benefits of our initiatives are gradually increasing over time with a stronger impact towards the end of the project phase as soon as all measures are implemented. Naturally, in the starting years, the costs outweigh benefits. This, I would like to switch to our financial performance in the full year 2024. I will start with the development of our operating EBITA on group level. As a reminder, when talking about growth rates, we generally talk about FX adjusted rates. In 2023, we reported an operating EBITA of €1,265,000,000 The translation and foreign exchange effect in 2024 a negative impact of €5,000,000 Exclusions contributed €31,000,000 to the operating EBITA development. 2024, we reported an operating EBIT A of €1,100,000,000 for the whole group, which is 13% below the prior year figure.

23m 25s

Organically, operating EBITA declined by €189,000,000 compared to 2023. The EBITA conversion ratio for the group came in at % compared to a conversion ratio of 31% in the prior year. Our results were overall characterized by a continuously challenging market environment and intense competition which put pressure on industrial chemical selling prices. As expected, volumes were higher compared 2023. These higher volumes were in fact able to compensate for a lower gross profit per unit which emphasizes the resilience of our business model. However, in combination with higher volume and inflation driven costs, this led to a lower overall bottom line result year over year. Let me briefly talk about our Q4 development. Looking at our operating gross profit, the trends we observed in Q3 broadly continued into the fourth quarter. We saw a positive volume development compared to the prior year period. At the same time, our gross profit per unit declined year over year. However, we were able to stabilize gross profit per unit on group level compared to Q3 on a sequential basis. From a cost perspective, we saw a meaningful cost increase compared to Q4 twenty twenty three. This is mainly driven by higher volumes, additional costs from acquisitions, as well as general inflation which were partly counterbalanced by our cost out measures and lower variable personnel expenses.

25m 11s

Additionally, the fourth quarter of twenty twenty three benefited from one time income effects resulting in a more challenging year over year comparison. This resulted in operating EBITA of €264,000,000 in the fourth quarter twenty twenty four which is 9% below the prior year quarter. For further details on the Q4 financials, please refer to the appendix of this presentation.

25m 42s

Let us now have a look at our two divisions starting with Standard Specialties. Wintag Specialties reported an operating loss profit of €1,200,000,000 which is around 1% lower compared to 2023. The gross profit margin in relation to sales stood at 22.4% which is slightly higher compared to the prior year. The results were affected by stable volumes in combination with the slightly lower Bosporus per unit compared to the prior year. Operating expenses for Plantar Specialties increased year over year. Around one third of the increase is related to acquisitions. On an organic basis, the increase was mainly driven by inflation related increases in certain and other operating expenses, as well as the internal allocation of further costs in connection with our Dialect initiative. These are costs from prior years, which had previously remained in group and regional services or formerly known as all other segments and were charged on this year when various digital products went into operation. As a result, operating EBITA declined by 12% and reached €447,000,000 The segment Life Science reported year on year operating EBITDA decline of 9% whereas the operating EBITA in Materials Science declined by 8%. Our Life Science segment showed a positive trajectory within 2024, and operating EBITDA increased by 3% in the fourth quarter compared to Q4 twenty twenty three, which is encouraging.

27m 30s

Material science remained challenging throughout the year. The M and A conversion ratio for Brantheim Specialties was 38% and below the prior year level of 43%. Let us have a look at the gross profit performance of our business units within the segment. In our Life Science segment, the business unit Nutrition, almost reached the prior year result, where pharma failed headwinds in 2024. [indiscernible] Beauty and Care showed growth throughout the year. Nutrition, we experienced ongoing price pressure of non branded ingredients leading to operating gross profit slightly below the prior year level.

28m 15s

Mainly driven by our North American business. However, you also saw strong gross profit per unit momentum towards the end of the year with double digit gross profit per unit growth in Q4 compared to the prior year period.

28m 30s

Beauty and Care was the strongest business unit throughout the year with operating gross profit growth mainly coming from EMEA and APAC and driven by both. Organic and M and A contribution. Similar to our BU Nutrition, we saw double digit gross profit per unit growth in Q4 compared to the prior year period, which is encouraging going into 2025. In Pharma, our operating gross profit will be made under pressure in 2020 The operating gross profit in Materials Science was slightly lower compared to '23 Although we saw a slight improvement in case in the course of 2024, Our overall results are still impacted by the high interest rate environment which keeps housing construction and public investment at lower levels. When looking at the performance of Brent Hark specialties in the fourth quarter, we saw meaningful improvements in our gross profit per unit compared to the prior year period and also compared to the first half of the year, reflecting our various margin initiatives which Christan highlighted in the 33 section and which we focus on last year. Coming to the performance of the data centers. Brandtag Essentials supported an operating gross profit of €2,900,000,000 which is stable compared to 2023. [indiscernible] The gross profit margin in relation to sales stood at 25.9%, which is slightly higher compared to the prior year, reflecting our ability to manage margins in a challenging business environment.

30m 16s

In 2024, we saw the strongest market normalization in chemical selling prices in a long time but we were able to partly mitigate the impact on the per unit level which also shows the resilience of our business model and our strong market position. All our segments in Landmark Essentials achieved a positive volume development. Apex even achieved double digit volume growth compared to last year. This volume development was able to offset leading to a stable absolute gross profit for the division. Operating expenses for Plantac Accentures increased year over year more than half is related to our acquisitions. On an organic basis, the increase was mainly driven by inflationary effects volume related increases in transportation costs and the internal allocation of further costs in connection with our direct initiatives.

31m 17s

These are costs from prior years which had previously remained in group and regional services or formerly known as All Other Segments and were charged on this year when various digital products went into operation. Operating EBIT A of Ventac Essentials stood at €781,000,000 This is 14% below last year. The EBITA conversion ratio for the division came in at around 7% compared to 32% in 2023. Let me briefly comment on the performance of Zendesk Adventures in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four compared to the prior year period. On the one hand, we saw a continuation of volume improvement in all our segments, On the other hand, the sustained pressure on industrial chemical selling prices led to a lower deposit business. Moving to Slide 11, where we look at the income statement in more detail. We generated sales of €16,200,000,000 a decline of 3%. Our operating gross profit stood at €4,030,000,000 and was more or less stable compared to last year. We were able to expand our gross profit over sales margin which indicates that we are managing our gross profit per unit to our advantage despite the heavy pressure from selling prices in the market. Operating expenses excluding special items increased moderately and stood at €2,600,000,000 in 2024, up 4.7% compared to the prior year.

33m

I will talk about our cost development in more detail in a minute, but let us first continue with the income statement. Reported an operating EBITA of €1,100,000,000 Special items below operating EBITA had a negative impact of €111,000,000 This includes a negative effect of €42,000,000 from the initiated sale of ArchPetro Specialties in India which is related to valuation allowances on property plant and equipment and net working capital. [indiscernible] It also includes costs for our strategic projects in the amount of €50,000,000 which are mainly related to severance and advisory expenses and which will help to achieve the desired cost reduction Furthermore, we incurred expenses for legal risks mainly arising from the sale of TAC and similar products in North America in the amount of RBC million euros Positive one time income in the amount of €11,000,000 was resulted from lower than expected tax liabilities [indiscernible] We also booked an income of €15,000,000 for insurance payments in connection with fires at warehouses in Canada and Turkey which occurred in 2023. Depreciation and amortization amounted to €430,000,000 and were significantly higher compared to last year.

34m 32s

The increase in depreciation is partly related to our acquisitions. The increase in amortization is mainly driven by our Rutsch divestment. Net finance costs stood at €173,000,000 compared to €120,000,000 last year. The increase is to a larger degree driven by higher net financial liabilities and changes in purchase price obligation relating to acquisitions. Our performance translated into a profit after tax of €544,000,000 and earnings per share of €3.71 This compares to the prior year profit after tax of €721,000,000 and earnings per share of €4 at €0.73 last year.

35m 23s

To provide more clarity on the development of our operating expenses, we show an OpEx bridge on Slide 12. In 2023, we reported operating expenses of €2,460,000,000 The translational foreign exchange effect in 2024 added positive impact of around €5,000,000 Operating expenses related to additional costs from acquired companies and our strategic investments in Dadex and IT increased by around €90,000,000 with the majority of the increase coming from acquisitions. Our underlying costs only increased by around €50,000,000 The increase is mainly related to higher personnel expenses which are driven by wage inflation, partly counterbalanced by a reduction of variable personnel expenses. Furthermore, both personnel expenses and other operating expenses increased due to higher volumes compared to the prior year. In addition, the 2023 cost base of the Mark others positively impacted by one off effect did not occur in 2024. Overall, these effects led to a cost increase of around EUR 50,000,000 compared to last year.

36m 43s

Our cost out measures, which had a positive impact of slightly more than EUR 50,000,000 could partly offset this development. As a result, operating expenses for the group stood at €2,570,000,000 in 2024. We will continue to focus on our cost development with strict discipline. Switching to Page 13. In 2024, we generated a free cash flow of €893,000,000 This is below the exceptionally high number of €1,700,000,000 last year. The decline in free cash flow generation is next to the decline in operating EBITDA driven by movements in all working capital. But we generated a cash inflow from working capital in 2023 driven by significant price effects Rentec recorded a slight outflow of revenue capital in 2024. Our working capital turnover was higher compared to last [indiscernible] and stood at 7.6x. The increase reflects our initiatives to manage our capital more effectively compared to the prior year. Let me briefly touch upon our value creation metric, Rosie. For 2024, ROCE stood at 14% which compares to ROCE of 17.7% in 2023. Our ROE before special items came in at 15.6% and was below the prior year figure of 18.9%. Looking at our balance sheet, our net financial liabilities amounted to €2,800,000,000 in 2024.

38m 28s

The increase compared to the end of 2023 is primarily driven by lower cash from operations as well as the cash outflow for acquisitions, in particular, for the Entertain Chemica del In addition, lease liabilities were higher compared to the end of last year also partly driven by these two acquisitions. Our leverage ratio net debt to operating EBITDA stood at 1.9x. Before Christian will talk about the outlook, I'd like to take a moment You know that I decided not to prolong my contract with Brenntag And at the end of the month, I will be leaving Brent Hark and handing over to Thomas Weitzman. I want to thank you for the valuable exchanges over the past three years and for your continued interest in the development of our company.

39m 27s

It has been a pleasure engaging with you. And I truly appreciate your support. Thank you, and all the best for you. And with this, I would like to head back to Christian to talk about the outlook for 2025.

39m 43s

Yes. Thank you, Christine. Ladies and gentlemen, last year was characterized by sequential volume improvements across the business.

39m 53s

However, the highly competitive business environment in which industrial chemical selling prices remained under pressure. Impacted our gross profit per unit and lastly, our bottom line results. For 2025, we expect continued moderate improvements in volumes throughout the year and a slightly better sequential pricing environment in 2025 which should result in an improved gross profit per unit compared to 2024. At the same time, the economic and political uncertainty remains very high. And global economic growth is expected to remain subdued. Therefore, we expect an operating EBITA for the full year 2025 in the range of €1,100,000,000 to €1,300,000,000 Our forecast takes into account the contributions to earnings from acquisitions already closed and assumes that the exchange rates will remain stable on the level at the time of the results publication. We fully focus to execute our strategic plan. Our priorities are to further improve the company's operational performance, and to execute our growth strategy along the clearly laid out strategy to win and to leverage our existing setup as one Brenntag with two differentiated divisions serving the distinct needs of our customers and suppliers. Supported by a lean joint services backbone. With this, I would like to close the presentation now I thank all of you for participating in today's call.

41m 33s

We are now looking forward to your questions.

41m 39s

Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question from the webinar may click on the Q and A button on the left side of the screen and then click raise your hand button. If you are connected via phone, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Or press star and 2 in your telephone. Anyone who has a question make you up now. The first question comes from the line of Karl Reinsford from Berenberg. Please go ahead.

42m 14s

Well, good afternoon everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got three, if I may. The first is just following on from your comments on outlook Christine. It seems volumes are strong through 2024 and pricelix have stabilized to an extent in Q4. So how should we think about the price and volume mix through 2025? And it also be useful to understand your thoughts on the phasing of that throughout the year. I know you said in the past that there may be a possibility of pricing as a lever for growth in the second half more than the first. The second question, would you be able to call out sort of I know you've done this to an extent, Kristen, but would you be able to call out the positive or negative dynamics you've seen at the start of this year specifically in your specific end markets. Especially in the context of the political uncertainty both in The U. S. And globally? And then further, are there sort of end markets or geographies that you see as particularly depressed right now, which you think could or perhaps are recovering well throughout 2025? And then just lastly, on the cost out how should we think about that this year versus the just over €50,000,000 in 2024 And again, it's possible that the phasing by quarter, if that would be useful?

43m 21s

Thank you.

43m 23s

Hey, Karl. Thanks a lot for the questions. The third questions I refer to Christine coming to your first question on on the volumes and pricing development. I mean, as we have said, and predicted, by the way, for 2024, we saw sequential improvement in the volume [indiscernible] This is our prediction as we go into 2025 as well. Slides sequential improvement in volumes, not to the extent we saw in 2024, but still a positive trend. The same issue also for the for the pricing environment. Also sequentially, we have made good progress over the year 2024, particularly in the second half versus first half. And that momentum sequentially appears to hold up. And so that is what brings us to the guidance we have shown and the framework around it. And it's not that this is no end loaded in twenty twenty five second half.

44m 25s

I think it is a sequential improvement quarter by quarter as we go into the year.

44m 31s

On the positive and negative dynamics, we may have when we're looking into the start of the year, Of course, we saw already encouraging signs in our Life Science business in Q4. We see continuing this also into the first quarter of twenty twenty five in Specialties. So Life Sciences is indeed I would say, the positive. We see at this moment.

44m 57s

On the negative side, we need to be clearly watch out what kind of impact do we see by the tariff situation and the impact it will have. Not only our direct business, but of course, the secondary and tertiary effect we can foresee Our regional split and our presence in the regions. However, is protecting our business to some extent against this because the vast majority we sell in a region like in The United States, we also source locally and regionally in that same region. But it could open up also some arbitrage opportunities, which we with our setup can now play and can have a look at it.

45m 39s

Too early to tell how that plays out every day is a new thing.

45m 42s

Every day there's a new announcement. So let's wait and see how that plays out.

45m 46s

This is how we see currently the situation. When you ask for where is the most potential for recovery, this is only a potential predict. Could be, of course, a truce or a peace treaty with Ukraine and Russia and at least temporarily moderated wars between Ukraine and Russia plus and you know all the discussions around the German stimulus pact that they are working out. That is materializing, that can also have some positive [indiscernible] recovering geography, but let's wait and see how that plays out politically. And with the negotiations. And I will hand over to Christine to give you more flavor on your question here. Thank you, Christian, and good afternoon, Karl. In 2024, we achieved slightly more than EUR50 million of benefits for our cost out program. We plan and we target to double this amount in 2025. And if you ask about the phasing, so there will be a sequential increase across the year. Of the additional savings, which should give you a good guidance.

47m 8s

Perfect. Thank you very, very much. Just a follow-up quickly, Christian, if I may, maybe this is a better way to ask it. But the the dynamics you're seeing regarding the relationship between order free [indiscernible] at the start of this year versus Q4? Sort of I'm trying to get a gauge if customer confidence is got any better in the past of two point five months versus what you saw at the end of last year?

47m 35s

I think there's no pattern recognizable for us. I think customers are cautious. This is very clear. That given how the market is currently developing and as said, the political uncertainty and also geopolitical uncertainty is adding to that. But it's not that there's a material either pre buying or pre loading or whatever observable. We didn't see that in Q4, contrary maybe to some industry comments you have. If at work, not from distribution, but from manufacturing, That's what we could not observe. But of course, everybody is now cautious around how does it play out, what impact does it have on tariffs, And so I would consider this is neither very negative nor positive, think it is just a normal course of business in times of uncertainty.

48m 24s

Perfect. Thank you very much.

48m 27s

You're welcome.

48m 28s

The next question comes from Daimler Suhail Zimi Varanasi from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

48m 35s

Hi, good morning. Good afternoon, Radha. Thank you for taking my questions.

48m 39s

Can you maybe discuss what are your underlying assumptions on SA specialties growth within your EBITDA guidance for the full year? And what would get you to the lower end versus the upper end of your range? The second question is on the 1Q commentary. I think you mentioned that Life Science has continued to do well in 1Q. Can you comment on Essentials as well? And what how should we think about GP and EBITDA in 1Q versus fourth quarter? Should it be sequentially up?

49m 14s

Thank you.

49m 17s

Yes. So, Hiny, thank you so much for your questions. And now coming back to our assumptions, particularly what we are seeing. So we do expect the progression in those divisions going forward into 2025. As you rightly mentioned, there is currently least what we observed in Q4, but also continuing into Q1, a positive development in our Life Science part of of the specialties business. And that is continuing, I would say, for the moment. And Christine has commented on the performance of nutrition of of Beauty and Care. So I think these are pretty good good segments, which are performing quite well. When we look at what we see at the lower end and what could happen at the lower end of the guidance, it is, of course, continued pressure on pricing and margin.

50m 21s

In essentials and a weaker than anticipated volume growth. And this is at this moment very opaque to us and very difficult to assess. And talking to our supply partners, we also hear cautionary notes on the business development and on the demand side. So this could lead to answering your question on the lower end, an impact on the essential side. On the upper end, should be the as I described before, clarity around the UkraineRussian war should be clarity around stimulus packages in Europe should be the clarity around increased spending in defense in Europe. There could be indeed stronger volume growth, including also pricing power plus arbitrage opportunities here and there out of the tariffs, which we can see. So that would be the upper end of the guidance to give you a little bit of flavor what needs come together define a little bit this range. So overall, I would say at this moment, we are positive on the special [indiscernible] And for essentials, we see currently a lot of undefined variables depending on now how the political environment and geopolitical situation will evolve.

51m 44s

Understand.

51m 45s

Thank you very much.

51m 47s

Okay.

51m 49s

The next question comes from the line of Alex Stewart from Barclays. Please go ahead.

51m 59s

Couple of questions. In your Q4 statement of the documents, you called out higher transport costs as being one of the reasons why EBITDA was lower. I think you called it higher volume related transport costs. Could you just explain that? Because I was under the impression that transport costs were effectively passed through to the end customer. So I'm not quite sure why higher costs would have impacted your earnings. Secondly, you talked about having a lower bonus provision in 2024. Assuming you hit the midpoint of your guidance in 2025, what should we assume for a normal bonus provision in 2025? In other words, it's what's the impact year on year?

52m 49s

And then finally, going back to your statement, the other thing I found curious is that you you talk about GP per unit pressure.

52m 57s

In specialties for more competition but you don't put that sentence in the essentials [indiscernible] The competitive pressure increasing is only included in specialties. Why is it that you're seeing more competition on GP per unit in specialties than you are in essentials?

53m 16s

Thank you so much.

53m 19s

Alex, I will take the last question and the first two I wrote would refer to refer to Christine. I think it would be a misunderstanding the gross profit, but on pressure on special I think what we tried to describe or explain is that we saw a decline in gross profit per tonne in specialties in the full year 2024 versus 2023. Sequentially, we saw now a step by step improvement, in particular, in the Life side sector. So to clarify that topic, gross profit per ton pressure on essentials was less pronounced in the second half compared to the first half. As well, and this is why we didn't mention it specifically. So I hope that clarifies that. On the other two questions, I would refer now to Christine to give you. A response.

54m 8s

Hi, Alek. So for the full year, we said that we had higher transport costs in our OpEx line. There are volume driven and come on top with higher volumes as a major of the business. However, if you look at the combination with our GP, as Kristin just described and GP Photon, we had tremendous pressure on our GP per ton or GP per unit numbers. And therefore, that was more or less than the problem creating that together with higher OpEx was that the overall result went went down. You look at the bonuses for 2025, it's fair to say that you have to add low to mid size two digit million amount in terms of bonuses.

54m 58s

I hope that's helpful. Sorry, a low two digit million amount? Was that can you clarify?

55m 3s

Low to mid sized two digit million amount.

55m 12s

The next question comes from the line of Dominik Edwidge from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

55m 18s

Hi there, everyone. Christine, thanks so much for being over the last few years and good luck.

55m 23s

For whatever you're up to in the future. Just some questions for myself. Firstly, just after the weekly one we had last year, I'm just wondering if you could say, are you expecting a much more normal year in terms of the phasing of profitability? Or should we be expecting some of the things, for instance, cost savings to come through towards the end of the year versus the start of the year? Secondly, I didn't notice in the annual report it suggested that Germany, your revenue was down 18%. Which I know revenue is a very bad indicator for your business. It seems a lot worse than other countries. Can you maybe discuss that a little bit? Is there any particular issues in Germany? Or does it just imply there's much more a cyclical business in Germany?

56m 8s

Then lastly, Christian, maybe a question for you. What are the key goals this year for you before obviously you're retiring at the end of the year? Are your sort of key things that you would like to get done this year?

56m 22s

Yes. I will probably answer the first and the second the first and the third question. On the phasing. I would expect in 2025, not an unusual phasing of results. So typically, we have a Q1 and then two strong quarters, Q2, Q3 and then Q4. So I would not expect that seasonality to change as again, say, in the absence of any major geopolitical impact. We might have. If again, some of those positive or some materialize like peace, Ukraine, Russia and the stimulus package in Europe, Then of course, business development could be slightly different than usual. But I would not expect that this is changing in 2025 compared to previous patterns. We have seen in those years. Overall, I would say from the savings standpoint of view, we have a running program, which is lowering the run rate month by month as we go into the year. So I also would not see a massive back end loaded saving. So as this is in full swing, we add month by month the savings into our run rate. So this is what I think expect that this is also end loaded. So I'm refraining from saying everything will be great in second half.

57m 44s

I'm just saying sequential improvement is what we expect with a normalized pattern for the year quarter by quarter. What do I want to accomplish is pretty clear. First of all, I want to make sure that we have a smooth transition from Christine to Thomas. On the CFO. Domain is very, very important that we show continuity and that we also now have Thomas on board with new management team.

58m 10s

Then we need to make sure also and I know that supervisor for this very carefully looking into a succession plan, This is also as smooth as possible The handover for a new incoming CEO will be done very properly. And then of course, making sure that the cost program is designed and set up in a way that the costs actually are really taken out according to our plan. So Rhythm and Rigor and Drumbeat to get cost position in line. What we need to have going forward. And that at the end of the day is what I want to continue and I want to deliver It's nothing exciting. It's just continuations stability, clarity for our organization and for the external world and our business partner. Is at this moment the most important thing.

59m 3s

And then Dominik, the last one outstanding the decrease in revenues in Germany. By 18%. So it's a mixture of different things. First of all, as in all other countries also the decrease in chemical prices, which was quite substantial as you also already described. Then we had a lack of demand in Germany. And on top also in Germany, our trans regional business is located That is not included in the overall regional business could see here in EMEA. But that is closed in a separate bucket and that is also located in The U. S. And Germany and that is also a major driver of that. I hope that helps.

59m 52s

Okay, great. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

59m 57s

The next question comes from the line of Chetan Udeshi from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

1h 3s

Yes. Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. The first question was maybe can you help us with any color on what you're expecting for Q1? Typically, your I look at the last five to six years, Q1 tends to be slightly higher than Q4 in terms of EBITDA, maybe 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%. Is that something you you expect in Q1? Is it stronger? Is it lower than that? I think that would be the first question. The second question was I'm a bit confused about what is the expectation around OpEx this year because on one hand you are talking about savings, but then you also have bonus accruals plus I guess you have wage inflation. So any color on how you see the organic and total OpEx development this year? And third question was can you remind us how much M and A contribution do you expect this year from the acquisitions you've already done last year? And fourth, sorry, I heard Krish you talk about double digit GP per unit increase in your beauty and I think it was in nutrition as well? Of course, it's good to see that the improvement I'm just again going back to those discussions you've had in the past, I mean, this set of moves in GP per unit in in this product segment?

1h 1m 36s

What would usually associate these moves with commodity businesses. I'm just curious what is driving these double digit increases? In the GP per unit for these segments? Thank you.

1h 1m 50s

Chetan, thank you so much for your questions. I will take the first one and most likely the fourth one, the last one. On as I've said, previously to Dominic, I don't expect any major difference on the phasing and the quarterly developments in the absence of any geopolitical shock or any not shock, but maybe a positive upset, which could materialize. So I would expect you can rely on a similar quarterly pattern as we had it over the last five, six years. On the Life Science topic, we talked talked about good improvement on the gross profit Petonic Q4. And that is, I think, encouraging element we see. I would say there are a couple of reasons for it. One of it is the price and margin management we have put into place in 2024, so improving our pricing structures and also how we are supporting the pricing and margin by our supply and supply contracts. And also, we have gained 25 new authorizations which are quite attractive. From the portfolio, which we are marketing and selling. Fully in line of what I described as long term measured specialties needs to realize the means upgrading the portfolio quality, which will also lead to an improvement in gross profit per unit margins going forward.

1h 3m 15s

So those are the moving parts on that side. And with the expectations on cost and the M and A contribution, I will hand over Christine.

1h 3m 26s

Hi, Jethane. So first of all, M and A cost contribution, you can expect to have a little bit 2 digit million amount of additional contribution from our M and A activities already closed last year. In terms of OpEx, you're absolutely right. There are a lot of moving parts. However, if I summarize it, all in all, we will see a low single digit percentage increase in our overall OpEx. Whilst the other OpEx go slightly down. Or will be slightly down, our OpEx will increase. If you look at it organically, then our cost position should be flat across the full year. I hope that clarifies.

1h 4m 20s

Thank you very much and good luck, Christine, and thanks for all the help.

1h 4m 25s

Thank you.

1h 4m 30s

Please click the Q and A button in the left side the screen and then click the raise your hand button. The next question comes from the line of Nikolay Menon from UBS. Please go ahead.

1h 4m 40s

Hi, good afternoon, everybody. Just one follow-up question please on the cost base and the moving parts there. Into 2025. Just looking at the numbers, it seems other operating expenses has obviously been a big driver of the margin pressure you've seen in the last couple of years. Looking especially at the development in advisory and audit.

1h 5m 1s

I know does include some other IT costs too. But in absolute terms, that's tracking in the mid-200s compared to €50,000,000 €60,000,000 a few years back. I just wanted to add specifically what is in there that you expect to be sticky for Didex and other initiatives? And then what costs, if any, are in that line that I guess, we should expect to be swapping, I. E. Is there anything that's sort of cost off as well as sort of cost out Thank you.

1h 5m 30s

Nicole, thank you so much for your questions. I think I'll hand it over to Christine to at least give us some flavor. Maybe because you were a little bit hard to understand.

1h 5m 38s

Could you again if you can repeat some of the question would be good because I don't know maybe hope it's not on our end, but it was a little bit difficult to understand here in this room.

1h 5m 50s

Sorry. I can try and ask again. Let me know you can hear me a little bit better. Yes. But yes, okay, great. Sorry about that. It was specifically about Specifically about the other operating line and within that development and advisory and audit, which I know includes some other IT costs too. But I was just asking sort of what's kind of sticky in that line maybe for Didex and other initiatives? And then what costs are in there, if any, that we should be expect to be sort of stopping, I. E. Is there anything that's cost off as well as just the cost out Thanks.

1h 6m 25s

Okay, Niko. Thank you. That was much clearer. I think Christine will answer those questions on the first side. Yes. So thank you. First of all, of course, in the advisory costs included in the year end reporting, there are the part of the direct costs included for sure that is not advisory in the in the sense that really helps from external partners to implement everything what we want to achieve with our direct program. So for instance, if we want to implement Salesforce, then you need the help of an integrator who just helps us to implement the program. Also in the advisory expenses, and therefore, we also see an increase. We have advisory expenses for our projects for the disentanglement. This is reported on below the line. And that is something which we do not foresee to that large extent to continue next next year. So if you look at the direct cost as already disclosed, we would see a slightly lower amount of [indiscernible] for next year, whilst the running costs stay at the same level. And if you refer also to the cost which are associated with our cost of program and disentanglement, which is reported below the line, then you can expect to see an amount of €100,000,000 for next year.

1h 7m 56s

I hope that this can change.

1h 8m 1s

Yes, that's very clear. I'm sorry about the slight issue with the line. Thank you. All good.

1h 8m 6s

All good. I think it's on our end.

1h 8m 11s

The next question comes from the line of Christian Okszberg from from Badabank. Please go ahead.

1h 8m 17s

Thank you and good afternoon. Just one question concerning the possible divestments. You have an asset held for sale here. Can you give us some kind of an indication what that is? And going forward, so we have discussed over the last two years that you might divest a little bit more going forward. And so how is the portfolio evolving there?

1h 8m 41s

And what can we expect maybe in the next twelve to twenty four months when it comes to divestments And what is the framework for underlying earnings or profit expectations to lift a company or a part of the company into kind of assets held for sale? Thank you.

1h 9m

Christian, thank you very much. Think what you can expect is not a wave of now huge divestments. I mean, this would be misleading. What we are doing is similar to what we acquired. We have smaller businesses, which we are now looking at and say, okay, do they really fit to what we want to do as a distribution business model? Are the expectations going forward? So the organization is currently looking into that. It's a healthy field pipeline with a lot of smaller smaller divestitures to be very explicit. Which we are contemplating on and also here and there geographically corrections where we're saying, okay, could be smaller countries where we are exiting. So don't expect now a massive wave of divestitures. This is not the intent, but it's in cleaning up the portfolio and step by step improving it and having it very focused on what the purpose of our distribution company is. So that's what it is.

1h 10m

Okay. Thank you for that. Maybe another question. It's concerning possible impact of AI going forward. So you had for your colleagues have put a lot of effort effort in improving the underlying IT for your entire business framework and network.

1h 10m 20s

Have you find out so far considered something which might might increase the scalability of your business maybe in a time frame also from twelve to twenty four months with these new features maybe.

1h 10m 35s

Yes.

1h 10m 36s

I think, Christian, it's a bit talked about Dialix and the artificial intelligence arc algorithms. We probably have not put so prominently in front front of it as maybe others have been doing, but that's an essential part of Dyedex.

1h 10m 50s

And I just named one example, which is the customer growth engine, an important module that we are reducing our churn rate. I think we have a little bit talked in the past, but also optimization capabilities now in the customer service and how we are executing our order fulfillment and order delivery.

1h 11m 10s

So I think there are multiple dimensions where this is working and playing into that. So here we will benefit We're making our data accessible and usable for the various applications. So this is part of our growth expectations going forward with these initiatives will, of course, deliver according to our plans.

1h 11m 33s

Yes.

1h 11m 34s

I heard that we talked about that before. So going back maybe in another part of the question. So going back a little bit, are you a little bit surprised of what can be done going forward? Or are you a little bit disappointed that not so much can be done with these features. So is it either one?

1h 11m 58s

I think I believe there's much more potential, which we currently can harvest. And the reason is, we from an IT infrastructure position to really do that. I think we're making good progress in doing that. Still, I believe the impact can be much bigger going forward. It's too early to tell what additional we can expect. [indiscernible] as I've said, we need to make sure that we are in a position and capable of really harvesting those artificial intelligence impacts on our business I think we are on a very good track to read. This is part of the large investments we have been taking over the years to prepare us for that. So in that sense, I feel as ourselves quite well prepared And despite the high cost, we, of course, have created by that. But I think we are quite well positioned now.

1h 12m 49s

Of course, because it could be interesting because over the last one, two years, we have seen this over proportional increase in personnel costs.

1h 12m 57s

And if a rising sky availability, it should go all the other way around. So we still have to wait for that. More or less. So we have the high investment, but not the outcome from this.

1h 13m 11s

Yes. But when you refer to really head count in the company, I mean, the head count increase you see is exclusively driven by M and A. So these are the companies we have acquired. Organically, we have reduced over two consecutive years our headcount quite substantially. So there you see already efficiency improvements we continue to deploy and harvest on going forward.

1h 13m 37s

Okay. Thank you very much and all the best. Thank you, Christian.

1h 13m 43s

There are no more questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Thomas Altman for any closing remarks.

1h 13m 50s

Thank you, Segen. Before we finish our conference call today, I would like to hand back to Christian for some final remarks. Yes. Thank you, Thomas, and it's become now to the end of our full year call result call again also I want to take the opportunity to thank Christine full heartedly what she has been contributing over three years playing a key role in really optimizing and shaping our transformation especially in the finance area. So thank you very much for that. And I think everybody could observe her dedication and the contributions of Christine, which have made a significant impact of our company So, Christine, on behalf of the entire team, thank you for the commitment and your leadership. We wish you now all the best for your future. And ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much now for joining us today. In case of further questions, please do not hesitate. To reach to our AR team. Have a great day and goodbye to you.

1h 14m 58s

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference you for choosing Chorus Call and thank you for participating in the conference. May now disconnect the lines. Goodbye.

Key Insights

2024 Financial Performance: Brenntag reported sales of €16.2 billion, a 3% decline year-over-year, with operating EBITDA of €1.1 billion, meeting the lower end of guidance and reflecting a 13% decline. Free cash flow was €893 million, down from €1.7 billion in 2023, driven by working capital movements.
2025 Outlook: Operating EBITDA is expected to range between €1.1 billion and €1.3 billion, with moderate volume improvements and a slightly better pricing environment anticipated. Economic and geopolitical uncertainties remain high, impacting growth expectations.
Cost Containment Program: Brenntag aims to achieve annual cost savings of €300 million by 2027, with €100 million in one-off costs planned for 2025. The program delivered over €50 million in savings in 2024, with a target to double this amount in 2025.
Strategic Initiatives: The company executed eight acquisitions in 2024, totaling an enterprise value of €550 million, and divested non-core assets like Raj Petro Specialties. Sustainability efforts included achieving Science Based Targets Initiative validation and winning the ISS Best Digital Innovation Award for its CO2 Explorer tool.
Divisional Performance: Brenntag Specialties saw a 12% decline in operating EBITDA to €447 million, while Brenntag Essentials reported a 14% decline to €781 million. Life Sciences showed positive momentum, particularly in Beauty and Care, while Materials Science faced challenges due to high interest rates and subdued construction activity.

Income Statement

Revenue

	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Revenue	CN¥382M	CN¥430M	CN¥508M	CN¥563M	CN¥537M
Cost of Revenue	CN¥108M	CN¥116M	CN¥144M	CN¥183M	CN¥174M
Gross Profit	CN¥273M	CN¥314M	CN¥364M	CN¥380M	CN¥363M
Gross Profit %	72%	73%	72%	67%	68%
R&D Expenses	CN¥157M	CN¥264M	CN¥368M	CN¥422M	CN¥347M

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

Revenue

CN¥382M

CN¥430M

CN¥508M

CN¥563M

CN¥537M

Cost of Revenue

CN¥108M

CN¥116M

CN¥144M

CN¥183M

CN¥174M

Gross Profit

CN¥273M

CN¥314M

CN¥364M

CN¥380M

CN¥363M

Gross Profit %

72%

73%

72%

67%

68%

R&D Expenses

CN¥157M

CN¥264M

CN¥368M

CN¥422M

CN¥347M

Cash Flow

Net Income

	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Net Income	-CN¥169M	-CN¥407M	-CN¥797M	-CN¥971M	-CN¥654M
Dep. & Amort.	CN¥31M	CN¥33M	CN¥48M	CN¥124M	CN¥133M
Def. Tax	CN¥16M	CN¥0	CN¥15M	CN¥0	CN¥0
Stock Comp.	CN¥23M	CN¥173M	CN¥282M	CN¥327M	CN¥261M
Chg. in WC	-CN¥130M	CN¥112M	-CN¥62M	CN¥6.3M	-CN¥52M

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

Net Income

-CN¥169M

-CN¥407M

-CN¥797M

-CN¥971M

-CN¥654M

Dep. & Amort.

CN¥31M

CN¥33M

CN¥48M

CN¥124M

CN¥133M

Def. Tax

CN¥16M

CN¥0

CN¥15M

CN¥0

Stock Comp.

CN¥23M

CN¥173M

CN¥282M

CN¥327M

CN¥261M

Chg. in WC

-CN¥130M

CN¥112M

-CN¥62M

CN¥6.3M

-CN¥52M

Balance Sheet

Cash

	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Cash	CN¥94M	CN¥1.9B	CN¥1.4B	CN¥905M	CN¥615M
ST Investments	CN¥314M	CN¥362M	CN¥64M	CN¥2.1M	CN¥0
Cash & ST Inv.	CN¥408M	CN¥2.3B	CN¥1.5B	CN¥905M	CN¥615M
Receivables	CN¥90M	CN¥111M	CN¥161M	CN¥170M	CN¥168M
Inventory	CN¥58M	CN¥68M	CN¥123M	CN¥130M	CN¥69M

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

Cash

CN¥94M

CN¥1.9B

CN¥1.4B

CN¥905M

CN¥615M

ST Investments

CN¥314M

CN¥362M

CN¥64M

CN¥2.1M

CN¥0

Cash & ST Inv.

CN¥408M

CN¥2.3B

CN¥1.5B

CN¥905M

CN¥615M

Receivables

CN¥90M

CN¥111M

CN¥161M

CN¥170M

CN¥168M

Inventory

CN¥58M

CN¥68M

CN¥123M

CN¥130M

CN¥69M

Go Deeper

Financial information provided by Financial Modeling Prep. Options data provided by Unusual Whales. Live transcripts provided by Quartr. All data is provided for informational purposes only, and is not intended for trading purposes or financial, investment, tax, legal, accounting or other advice. · See all tickers.

Earnings

Report Date

—

Rev Estimate

—

Avg 1d Change

1.97%

Report Period

Q4 2024

EPS Estimate

—

Implied Move 1d

—

Transcript

3m 57s

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Sales for the full year amounted to €16,200,000,000 on group level which is 3% below the prior year.

8m 3s

Despite these challenges, we kept our operating gross profit stable at €4,030,000,000 On group level, volumes continued to show sequential improvements since the beginning of the year as predicted.

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20m

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Which have not been part of our EUR $250,000,000 one time cost projection.

21m 58s

For 2025, we expect these running costs to be more or less on the same level as for 2024.

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Yes. Thank you, Christine. Ladies and gentlemen, last year was characterized by sequential volume improvements across the business.

39m 53s

41m 33s

We are now looking forward to your questions.

41m 39s

42m 14s

43m 21s

Thank you.

43m 23s

44m 25s

I think it is a sequential improvement quarter by quarter as we go into the year.

44m 31s

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45m 39s

Too early to tell how that plays out every day is a new thing.

45m 42s

Every day there's a new announcement. So let's wait and see how that plays out.

45m 46s

47m 8s

47m 35s

48m 24s

Perfect. Thank you very much.

48m 27s

You're welcome.

48m 28s

The next question comes from Daimler Suhail Zimi Varanasi from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

48m 35s

Hi, good morning. Good afternoon, Radha. Thank you for taking my questions.

48m 39s

49m 14s

Thank you.

49m 17s

50m 21s

51m 44s

Understand.

51m 45s

Thank you very much.

51m 47s

Okay.

51m 49s

The next question comes from the line of Alex Stewart from Barclays. Please go ahead.

51m 59s

52m 49s

And then finally, going back to your statement, the other thing I found curious is that you you talk about GP per unit pressure.

52m 57s

53m 16s

Thank you so much.

53m 19s

54m 8s

54m 58s

I hope that's helpful. Sorry, a low two digit million amount? Was that can you clarify?

55m 3s

Low to mid sized two digit million amount.

55m 12s

The next question comes from the line of Dominik Edwidge from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

55m 18s

Hi there, everyone. Christine, thanks so much for being over the last few years and good luck.

55m 23s

56m 8s

56m 22s

57m 44s

58m 10s

59m 3s

59m 52s

Okay, great. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

59m 57s

The next question comes from the line of Chetan Udeshi from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

1h 3s

1h 1m 36s

What would usually associate these moves with commodity businesses. I'm just curious what is driving these double digit increases? In the GP per unit for these segments? Thank you.

1h 1m 50s

1h 3m 15s

So those are the moving parts on that side. And with the expectations on cost and the M and A contribution, I will hand over Christine.

1h 3m 26s

1h 4m 20s

Thank you very much and good luck, Christine, and thanks for all the help.

1h 4m 25s

Thank you.

1h 4m 30s

Please click the Q and A button in the left side the screen and then click the raise your hand button. The next question comes from the line of Nikolay Menon from UBS. Please go ahead.

1h 4m 40s

1h 5m 1s

1h 5m 30s

Nicole, thank you so much for your questions. I think I'll hand it over to Christine to at least give us some flavor. Maybe because you were a little bit hard to understand.

1h 5m 38s

Could you again if you can repeat some of the question would be good because I don't know maybe hope it's not on our end, but it was a little bit difficult to understand here in this room.

1h 5m 50s

1h 6m 25s

1h 7m 56s

I hope that this can change.

1h 8m 1s

Yes, that's very clear. I'm sorry about the slight issue with the line. Thank you. All good.

1h 8m 6s

All good. I think it's on our end.

1h 8m 11s

The next question comes from the line of Christian Okszberg from from Badabank. Please go ahead.

1h 8m 17s

1h 8m 41s

1h 9m

1h 10m

1h 10m 20s

Have you find out so far considered something which might might increase the scalability of your business maybe in a time frame also from twelve to twenty four months with these new features maybe.

1h 10m 35s

Yes.

1h 10m 36s

1h 10m 50s

1h 11m 10s

1h 11m 33s

Yes.

1h 11m 34s

1h 11m 58s

1h 12m 49s

Of course, because it could be interesting because over the last one, two years, we have seen this over proportional increase in personnel costs.

1h 12m 57s

And if a rising sky availability, it should go all the other way around. So we still have to wait for that. More or less. So we have the high investment, but not the outcome from this.

1h 13m 11s

1h 13m 37s

Okay. Thank you very much and all the best. Thank you, Christian.

1h 13m 43s

There are no more questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Thomas Altman for any closing remarks.

1h 13m 50s

1h 14m 58s

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference you for choosing Chorus Call and thank you for participating in the conference. May now disconnect the lines. Goodbye.

Key Insights

2024 Financial Performance: Brenntag reported sales of €16.2 billion, a 3% decline year-over-year, with operating EBITDA of €1.1 billion, meeting the lower end of guidance and reflecting a 13% decline. Free cash flow was €893 million, down from €1.7 billion in 2023, driven by working capital movements.
2025 Outlook: Operating EBITDA is expected to range between €1.1 billion and €1.3 billion, with moderate volume improvements and a slightly better pricing environment anticipated. Economic and geopolitical uncertainties remain high, impacting growth expectations.
Cost Containment Program: Brenntag aims to achieve annual cost savings of €300 million by 2027, with €100 million in one-off costs planned for 2025. The program delivered over €50 million in savings in 2024, with a target to double this amount in 2025.
Strategic Initiatives: The company executed eight acquisitions in 2024, totaling an enterprise value of €550 million, and divested non-core assets like Raj Petro Specialties. Sustainability efforts included achieving Science Based Targets Initiative validation and winning the ISS Best Digital Innovation Award for its CO2 Explorer tool.
Divisional Performance: Brenntag Specialties saw a 12% decline in operating EBITDA to €447 million, while Brenntag Essentials reported a 14% decline to €781 million. Life Sciences showed positive momentum, particularly in Beauty and Care, while Materials Science faced challenges due to high interest rates and subdued construction activity.

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