Corbion, the Amsterdam-listed sustainable ingredients company that champions preservation through the application of science, today publishes its results for the quarter ending 31 March 2024.

Key highlights first quarter of 2024

Organic growth core activities:
Sales: volume/mix +1.7%, price -4.5%
Adjusted EBITDA: +0.7%
Adjusted EBITDA margin 13.8% (+ 50bps versus last year)
Sales € 344.3 million; an organic decrease of -3.4%
Adjusted EBITDA € 47.2 million; an organic decrease of -1.2%
Positive Free Cash Flow € 7.5 million
Double digit growth in sales and Adjusted EBITDA in Health & Nutrition
TotalEnergies Corbion joint venture: sales € 31.6 million; an organic growth of 24.3%
Divestment of non-core US Emulsifier business completed on April 1st
Share buyback program of € 20.0 million and special cash dividend of € 0.10 per share
Confirmation of FY24 outlook

€ million Q1 2024 Q1 2023 Total growth Organic growth
Sales 344.3 359.6 -4.3% -3.4%
Adjusted EBITDA 47.2 48.4 -2.5% -1.2%

Core activities
Sales 300.9 312.5 -3.7% -2.8%
Adjusted EBITDA 41.4 41.6 -0.5% 0.7%

Commenting on today’s results, Olivier Rigaud, CEO, said:

“I am pleased to see positive volume/mix growth and organic Adjusted EBITDA growth in our core activities as well as a continuation of our positive free cash flow delivery. We made good progress in the implementation of our restructuring program including mothballing our plant in Peoria, US intended to increase free cash flow and margins going forward. Building on Corbion's first-quarter performance, we are on-track to deliver in line with our full year guidance.

In Functional Ingredients & Solutions, we saw continued positive momentum in our Food segment leading to volume/mix growth in the first quarter in this segment. As previously indicated, the non-food segment is facing temporarily softness in some markets, including semiconductors. In line with our earlier guidance, pricing has been lower as a result of price reductions in some areas following input cost relaxation. In Health & Nutrition, we continue to see strong double digit growth in both sales and adjusted EBITDA mainly driven by the Nutrition segment (Omega-3 DHA within aquaculture and pet nutrition).

Upon the completion of the commissioning phase of our new circular lactic acid plant in Thailand, we have entered the start-up phase and expect production to gradually ramp up.

On April 1st, we completed the divestment of the non-core US Emulsifier business. As a result, we have decided on a share buyback program of € 20 million and a special cash dividend of € 0.10 per share in line with our capital allocation priorities, leaving sufficient bandwidth for investments to support continued growth".

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Outlook 2024
Corbion is strongly positioned to deliver the Sales, Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow targets.
Following the better than anticipated performance in the first quarter, we maintain our full year guidance at this stage given the continued volatility in the macro-economic environment.
The key components of our unchanged full year guidance are as follows:
- Core activities (organic growth):
o Volume/mix growth: 2-6%
o Pricing: low single digit negative pricing
o Adjusted EBITDA growth: > 15%
- Free Cash Flow: > € 50 million (excluding divestment proceeds)
- Convenant net debt/convenant EBITDA: 1.8 – 2.3x
Following the completion of the US emulsifier divestment, we improved the 2024 EBITDA impact for the non-core activities from € -15 million to € -10 million. This includes the positive Q1 impact as well as cost previously allocated to Emulsifiers, partly offset by transitional services for the remainder part of 2024.

Registered, Amsterdam no. 33006580
PRESS RELEASE
Share buyback program and special dividend
Share buyback program
On 29 April 2024, Corbion will start a share buyback program and repurchase its own ordinary shares in the amount of up to € 20.0 million, and for a number of ordinary shares not exceeding the authority granted by the annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Corbion on 17 May 2023. All repurchased shares will be cancelled to reduce Corbion's issued share capital. The share
buyback program is expected to be completed before 31 October 2024 or sooner if the repurchase amount is reached earlier. The maximum number of ordinary shares to be repurchased is approximately 1.8% of Corbion's issued share capital, based on the closing price per share on 25 April 2024 of € 18.63.
The execution of the share buyback program will be done under the terms of an engagement letter with ABN AMRO Bank N.V., performed in compliance with the safe harbour provisions for share repurchases. Accordingly, transactions may be carried out during closed periods.
The share buyback program will be executed in compliance with applicable rules and regulations, including the Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014 and the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052. Corbion will provide weekly updates on the progress of the program, in line with applicable regulations, at www.corbion.com/media

Special cash dividend
Following the divestment of our non-core US Emulsifier business, Corbion will pay a special cash dividend of € 0.10 per share.
Timing:
Ex-date: 2 May
Record date: 3 May
Payment date: 8 May