Welcome to Schouw & Co.'s Annual Report 2023. I will, as usual, do the presentation and then afterwards we will open up for questions and answer session. Schouw & Co. came in with a year with very solid progress. Q4 came out much stronger than expected and we continue to deliver growth. In fact, we could say that we delivered all-time high both on top line and on EBITDA. Our top line was growing 14% to DKK 37.2 billion, hereof came from the acquired companies DKK 4.9 billion in 2023. Our EBITDA was up 25% to DKK 2.85 billion, which we of course see as very satisfactory in a quite turbulent year. Our cash flow also was up 450% to DKK 1.8 billion. However, Q4 came out a little bit lower than expected, but here we saw a significant reduction in our supplier debts. We expect cash flow to continue on a strong level also into 2024. Our ESG agenda, which is very important, continued to deliver on our very ambitious targets. We are also getting ready for a new reporting regime in 2024. Our net working capital continues to be a very important focus area in Schouw & Co. We saw good and solid development in the inventory days. However, as I mentioned, also biomass supplier days was down in Q4. We still see good opportunities to reduce and balance our net working capital also into 2024, and it is, as usual, a very strong focus area for Schouw & Co. Looking also into our debts, our net interest-bearing debt increased as expected, but our leverage came down to 2.1 times. We financed over the year two acquisitions. One was the acquisition of Ymer to HydraSpecma and then SBS final payment to them of DKK 270 million. And then we had also a revaluation of our leasing up DKK 425 million. So all in all, quite positive development in our net interest-bearing debt throughout the year. Looking into each of our companies, I will start with BioMar. BioMar continued a very satisfactory development. Top line was flat around DKK 18 billion, but we had a very strong Q4. Volume overall was flat, where our EMEA and LATAM divisions was offsetting a lower volume in the Salmon division. We had a strategy throughout 2023 to leave non-attractive tenders and contracts, and I think it really played well into our margin management thinking. Our EBITDA came out very strong and was up 23% to DKK 1.25 billion. We are working with a strategy called commercial excellence, very strong execution on that, and also throughout the year we saw quite favorable raw material positions. We had a good impairment of our activities in Vietnam of DKK 35 million. We have seen a difficult market, but we have implied a new strategy and we strongly believe in the Asian strategy going forward. We expect also a solid 2024 turnover around DKK 7.5 billion-DKK 18.5 billion EBITDA in the area of DKK 1.21 billion-DKK 1.2 billion, also expecting to be able to increase EBITDA in 2024. We will keep our strong focus on commercial excellence, also favoring contracts and be able to offset volume if we don't find it attractive. From BioMar into GPV, here I'm saying that in fact the new leader is materializing. We crossed the DKK 10 billion turnover mark in 2023. In fact, we had a DKK 10.4 billion turnover. Order intake over the year was very strong. However, we saw order intake as expected softening a little bit in Q4. Our EBITDA was very satisfactory at DKK 743 million. We had a lot of integration activities going on and also, of course, thereby some one-off costs around DKK 40 million one-off costs throughout the year. We have had full focus on inventories and net working capital in GPV over the last years. Inventory has been building up because of difficulties from the component market, but inventories are easing off now and we see also most of the component market normalizing. Integration, as I already mentioned, has been very successful. New leader number two in Europe. We have built scale and one company culture. We expect more synergies to come. I think we in our business plan announced that we will see synergies materialize over the next two to three years. We still have a 10% EBITDA target for GPV. However, we see the market slowing down a little bit. Expect the first half to be a little bit difficult. Order intake still good. Expect the turnover around DKK 9.1 billion-DKK 9.7 billion and EBITDA at the level of DKK 710 million-DKK 760 million, also meaning that despite of lower top line, we will be able to have a strong margin in GPV. From GPV into HydraSpecma, where we saw very satisfactory growth. 17% in 2023, turnover DKK 3 billion. From here, our newly acquired wind from Ymer Technology in Sweden was DKK 450 million. EBITDA increased 6% to DKK 320 million. 3 million, that was as expected and also very satisfactory in a year where we had a lot of integration going on, integration costs, but now we also really see scale and also the effect of focus on a strong margin management and commercial excellence. We have had a very solid and well executed integration of the Ymer wind and now we have created what we call our new renewable division and it's delivering as expected. We see, however, volatile markets and soft demand from global OEMs, especially in H1. Turnover expected DKK 2.9 billion-DKK 3.2 billion and EBITDA in the level of DKK 300 million-DKK 340 million. Looking at Borg, our legacy reman activities saw very strong development in 2023, especially in Q4, where our reman volume was up 29%. We delivered a turnover of DKK 1.9 billion. EBITDA was DKK 153 million and here we had a lot of activities from our new acquired company, SBS, and we also saw one-off costs from integration of around DKK 20 million. Inventory and price adjustments has been the reason behind that and we also see inventory and price adjustments due to more normalized supply chains. The purchase of SBS was settled. We paid the price as expected and at expected level, DKK 277 million was paid and we expect now really to grow Borg and come back on track. Turnover expected DKK 1.9 billion-DKK 2.1 billion, especially also driven by very strong demand from our reman activities. EBITDA expected to go up in the level of DKK 170 million-DKK 210 million and again, our very strong market position as number one in reman in Europe has been reconfirmed throughout 2023. Looking at Fibertex Personal Care, we expected a very difficult 2023, but came out stronger than expected. Turnover, however, was down 23% to DKK 1.9 billion. A lot of effects from lower raw materials, but also our Asian markets continue to be soft. All in all, our volume was down 8%. EBITDA was DKK 262 million and as I already mentioned, better than expected. Our European market improved their margins. We saw higher efficiency and also lower energy prices helping Fibertex through 2023. The Asian market is still challenged and we expect it to be challenged for a longer period. It's still a growing market, but at a slower pace. I think I have elaborated on earlier also that a lot of new capacity has been implemented into the markets. We work hard on rejecting low margin contracts and instead of trying to build value with our customers in Asia. 2024 will be a year with focus on optimizing at all levels. Turnover expected in the area of DKK 1.6 billion-DKK 1.8 billion. Volume expected to flatten out now, so we don't see decline in Asia more. And we expect the EBITDA in the area of DKK 160 million-DKK 200 million because of strong price pressure, but Fibertex Personal Care still expect to continue to deliver strong cash flows. From Fibertex Personal Care to Fibertex Nonwovens, where we saw progress at many levels. However, our U.S. wipes business still challenged due to startup of new production lines, etc. Turnover was DKK 2.2 billion and Q4 really saw a very positive uplift in volume. Our EBITDA was up 50% up to DKK 169 million and under the circumstances, very satisfactory that we could increase it like that. We saw very good development in some important segments. Our Brazilian entity delivered very strong and, as I already mentioned, our US wipes segment still with a negative impact in 2023. We have a strong pipeline to accommodate our new capacity. We are working very hard in high margin product segments and also in attractive geographies. We need still to turn our US wipes business around to fuel our expectations, but again in 2024, we expect to grow our profitability. Turnover DKK 2.3 billion-DKK 2.5 billion and EBITDA up to DKK 200 million-DKK 240 million. So looking a little bit into overall guidance for 2024, let me also elaborate a little bit on our investment level. We have a huge CapEx program easing off. We have future-proofed our capacity and have a capacity to grow. We see high activity across all of our portfolio companies and most of the companies are fully invested for the moment. Of course, running +80 factories around the globe requires a lot of maintenance costs to keep high efficiency, but all in all, investment level of DKK 760 million or 2.1% of revenue. So we now see that we are entering into a period with lower capacity and CapEx investments. Looking at the 2024 guidance overall, as I have elaborated on, positive momentum to continue. Expect good activity in most companies. Top line expected in the area of DKK 35.3 billion-37.8 billion. However, as we always say when we are discussing Schouw & Co. top line, we have to note that raw material fluctuation, component prices, and so on, they are all impacting our top line. However, EBITDA expected in the area of DKK 2.68 billion-2.98 billion for 2024. So wrapping up, we still think that Schouw & Co. company is a strong investment case. We increased our dividend for 2023 from DKK 15 to DKK 16. We are continuing share buyback, which we just announced, of DKK 200 million. We expect to improve our cash flow generation throughout 2024, continue to deliver our net interest-bearing debt, and I think looking at each of our companies, our platform is as strong and relevant as ever. So I think with these concluding remarks, I would open up for questions. Kasper, you were taking the questions in. Emil Harborg. Y es, thank you for taking my questions. My first questions, then you go to your 2024 guidance. Could you provide us with some context on the upper and lower end of your guidance range in terms of which main drivers we should expect influencing whether you end up at the upper or the lower end of the guidance? Yeah, a very relevant question. You know, we always when we guide like this because we give a spread on each company and then you add it together and so on and then you get the level we are looking at. I think in general we see two areas where we have seen soft demand a little bit also in GPV and HydraSpecma, expecting not a difficult but a more challenged first half and then of course FPC with volume in Asia. I think overall for the other companies we are quite confident in the guidance and I think speaking now and just seeing the first two months materialise, I feel looking a little bit up in the not in the very high end but passing the midpoint absolutely. Perfect, thank you. Also a few questions related to GPV. Can you provide first of all an update on how the integration of Enics is progressing and if possible quantify how much of the expected DKK 100 million in synergies have materialized so far? Yeah, I think I also said already in the presentation that integration has been very strong, especially on the cultural side because that's always the first thing you look into. What about the culture? How will the organizations get together? We have a very strong management team now. We have a very strong operational structure. Took in also from both sides, both GPV and Enics, some production sites we had to work hard on to optimize. We are closing down in Malaysia. We are building a new factory in Slovakia, moving two factories into one new site, doing a lot of things. So integration going very, very well. We still see a lot of synergies to come. I think also you'll see the effect of synergies expected now because we expect the turnover to drop because of softer demand and then still expecting EBITDA at the same level as 2023. So over the coming years, we still expect to see significant synergies materializing, especially when we have the new factory platform or footprint well in place. Thank you. And the second question to GPV is concerning your EBITDA margin. You reported an EBITDA margin of 7.1% for 2023, so there's still a bit of ground to cover before reaching the 10% target. Could you provide some clarity on when you expect GPV to achieve this target and what you expect the main drivers behind the margin expansions will be? Yeah, so if you look a little bit into, we also had some one-off costs in 2023. So a normalized margin a bit higher than 7.1%. Then, of course, margins should be driven and will be driven from full integration, from our footprint activities that's going on, from also sourcing procurement. So a lot of activities across the board is going on, and we expect, of course, to deliver this 10% target within two to three years' time. And I think we set a target of 2026, but we are pushing hard on delivering as soon as possible. But there's a lot of activities that need to materialize. Very clear, thank you. Just one last question from my side, and then I'll jump back in the line. So the last question is related to BioMar. So given the decline in Norwegian feed consumption in Q4 2023, which appears to have continued into 2024 as we saw a quite significant drop in January, could you provide some insight into how you experienced the market and as you guide for full reactivity levels for BioMar to be on par with 2023, do you expect the year to be even more tilted towards the second half of the year than the normal seasonality? I would say we also saw that the BioMar in Norway is lower than expected. I think we have had a quite good start from a BioMar point of view of 2024, but we expect lower volume. But that's also because we have stepped out of contracts that we didn't like the profitability on. So I think we will see BioMar's and volumes in general not continue to fall, but flattening out. Then as you also said, Q3, a lot of things can happen. We saw especially BioMar was very strong in Q4 2023, but that was mainly margin driven. Perfect, thank you very much. I'll jump back in the line. Thank you. Ulrik Bak Yes, hi Jens, also a couple of questions from my side. Also on BioMar, you reported a very strong Q4 result for BioMar. Can you provide some color on what geographical regions did particularly well? Yeah, especially, I'm very satisfied with the development in Norway and you know we have been pushing hard on Norway over the years. Margins have been squeezed, etc., etc., but now we have really worked hard with, I mentioned, our commercial excellence program, looking at contracts, looking at our added value, high performance feeds, etc. So Norway has been a very, very strong driver in this margin. But then in general, just Commercial excellence across the board, but especially Norway has been strong. And any comments on Chile? When I look at some of the fish farmers, they don't have a very rosy view or outlook for Chilean volumes. So yeah. We still went ahead, lost a little volume, but that was because we said no to some contracts. So we have lost a little volume and focused much more on long-term cooperation with farmers and then also trying to add value on functional feed and things like that. But you're right, price levels for the time being on salmon are not as rosy as it used to be. You can also, if you look at our own Salmones Austral, where we have seen a lot of fair value adjustments on prices and so on. But we feel that we are standing in a good position in Chile. We have a strong customer base there. Okay, and then just in terms of your guidance, you are at the midpoint, you are guiding for flat earnings growth in 2024 versus 2023 for BioMar. Given that their trajectory in Norway seems to be improving, obviously there's some challenges in Chile, but this supply-demand balance that you've talked about in Norway improving to your favour, any reason why that should come to a halt in 2024? Yeah, I think we need to be realistic, but I also said that I feel quite comfortable on the guidance from BioMar. But we have seen these BioMar's adjustments and so on, reductions in Norway and so on. But it's really BioMar is looking good, strong Q4, developing well into Q1. So I feel very confident on guidance with BioMar. That's clear. Then a question on GPV and the order book development. I know you don't disclose it, but perhaps you can talk about how it has developed over the past few quarters, how it's developing into Q1 2024, whether it's accelerating or it's just a straight line decline. Yeah. Yeah, there have been two things with the GPV order intake. One is a lot of customers just a year back, they gave orders for very, very long out as two years orders and so. So we have a backlog that is reaching in well into 2025. That has changed. Customers are now much more reluctant to give orders with the longer view and they've also reduced the orders into 2024. So we have seen a softening in order intake and it has continued also into Q4, not dramatically. But I think we have said many times we will see demand softening. We still have a very attractive backlog, but not with as long a horizon as we used to have. But again, Q1, Q2 expected to be slow from GPV. But to be honest, also a little bit better start than expected on top line, but let's see. Yeah. Okay, so the phasing of the GPV guidance, we should expect a weaker H1 and then perhaps a pickup in H2 or how should we think about that? That's as we see it now. Yeah. Understood, thank you. I'll jump back to the queue. Yeah, thank you. Claus Almer. Yes, I hope you can hear me. I can. Perfect. I'm here, Klaus. Good. So I also have some questions regarding BioMar. First of all, it sounds like there is a broader mix of contracts, meaning there's some that is attractive and some comes with an unattractive margin. That sounds a bit different from what we have heard in the past. Is that correctly understood? I think it's understood the way that we have taken a new strategy on what kind of contracts we are working with, how long we want to be with the contracts. Because what has changed is that a lot of customers, they want longer contracts. You've been here so many years, Klaus, you also know that normally Q1, Q2 we were negotiating the volume for the actual year, which was very stressing. Now we see customers wanting much longer term contracts to secure supply and so on. And there, of course, we are evaluating on what should we go into there. So when we say low margins and so on, it's an evaluation of the entire contract over a longer period. Also, what are we able to supply of functional feed and things like that? So a lot of things is going into it. Yeah, but we are more hesitant to take volume and contracts than we maybe were before. And so the one thing I'm trying to understand is, is that because farmers are more cost cautious under pressure? So some of these potential clients just don't have the ability to pay the price you want or why this change? And I understand about this multi-year contract structure, etc., etc., but it's also a fundamental change of the market where some clients are just not attractive anymore. Yeah, and of course, also there's a capacity issue. And so we need to utilize our capacity as wisely as possible and also as attractive as possible. So we are looking at a capacity balance, long-term views with customers, so on. So, also, we are in a position where we have learned that we can also work and balance our volumes, and we do not need the last ton to be profitable. We more need to work smart with the capacity we have. Fair enough. And then I noted, Jens, you saying something like very confident about the BioMar guidance. And that sounds in Schouw & Jens' wording that the likelihood of a guidance upgrade seems pretty high. And I know you didn't, you know. Yeah, absolutely. There's uncertainty, etc., etc., etc., but that would be my translation. Okay, but I didn't say that, Klaus, and I think maybe Ulrik fair enough squeezed a little bit and said that the guidance for BioMar I feel confident on. And that's meaning that that's the guidance we are giving. Yeah. But my question is the same. Let's just skip very confident. B ut confident normally means that, let's just say it, you are aiming to the upper end of the guidance range, if not better. Would that be a fair...? Yeah, that's fair. We are always doing that. Honestly, we have to aim, of course. But that's what we see now, Klaus, and I think you know how we think and what we do. So yeah. sureOkayay, then a question regarding input costs and cost deflation, inflation. So what do you see from input costs? Do you start to see some relief on that front? Yeah, and I think also I said when I was presenting a GPV that we have seen a cost on a lot of materials more normalizing and we see lower cost. Of course, we have inventories and we need to handle that in a very good way to secure that we keep price levels up and so on. But we can see a component and raw material lower prices coming in, but still a way to go. But that's what we see and that's what we expect. And what about BioMar? Yeah, BioMar is a bit different animal because there's the mix of proteins and so on. And for the time being, there's El Niño and really impacting raw material as a fish meal, fish oil, particularly oil. So you need to balance the protein and oil a lot. So it's more difficult on BioMar, but we have good positions. And I think also that's why we are saying that we feel that we have good confidence in our present guidance. Okay, and then I will not disappoint you, Jens. There's one obvious question. We have had this many, many times. Net working capital Q4 did not develop as you had hoped for, far from actually. So did BioMar grow on the behalf of net working capital development or what went wrong? Yeah, that's a very fair question. I think if something went wrong, you could say the balance between our accounts payables; we paid out more suppliers than expected and so on. So there was a huge deviation there. We already see now cash flow coming back. So you also know that it doesn't go into a black hole. It goes to somebody and then we will see cash flow coming back. I expected higher cash flow, to be honest, in Q4 than we saw. It's still good to see. I've seen the first months now that we are more or less back on track. Okay, that was I didn't want to disappoint you, Jens, with the question, so. Thank you, Klaus. No, fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. Yes. Andre? Yes, thanks for taking my question. Yeah, welcome. And just starting where Klaus left off on cash flow, just if you can remind us how much working capital tailwind do you have left in GPV for 2024? And what should we kind of look out for here? Because I understand that that's one of the key drivers for cash flow in 2024. Yeah, very, very solid question. Because, of course, we have a huge inventory built in GPV and we are looking at, of course, reducing inventories and so on and expect also cash flow to improve in GPV. I'm not giving you an exact number on it, but we are positive on the development. Okay, that's clear. And the second thing is also regarding GPV. You touched a bit upon it, but how many synergies should we look out for for 2024 in GPV? Yeah, it's also a fair question, but it's also very difficult to set an exact number on because things are melting together. You could say the water is running together now, but we expect as the reason why we can maintain our EBITDA level in spite of a lower top line and so on is, of course, because we see full effect and not full effect, but a lot of effect from closing down Malaysia from one factory in Slovakia and a lot of things going on. So we will drive harder on it, but I can't give you an exact figure. Of course, we try to follow synergies from every quarter. But we will see synergies in 2024 and we are very firm on reaching this DKK 100 million synergy as we set when we did the merger or acquisition. That's great. Thank you. And in terms of HydraSpecma, and I heard you said that it was a bit more, as I understood, muted in the first half. But what is your expectations for the second half, especially in terms of the wind market? Should it come back then or what do you see? That's what we expect. And we are very positive on the wind market in general. We saw a little slowdown, but in fact, the new renewables, especially the cooling or the Ymer that came in, have done very well in 2023. And we expect that also. We have a lot of projects in the pipeline and you know it takes time. We develop together with the last wind turbine companies and we have a lot of new developments going on. So we are positive. Maybe Q3, Q4, see it starting again. So yeah. That's great. And then just one last from my side, and that I know it's a small part of your business, but Fibertex Nonwovens, just to be sure, in terms of your revenue guidance, how much revenue here comes from the new capacity in the US? Can you quantify that? Around DKK 100 million is coming in from that. that. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Sindre Sørbye, welcome. Yes, you're here. I think you need to speak up, sindre. Okay, yeah, there is some noise here, but do you hear me now? Yes. Okay, good. Thanks. Good numbers. Just a couple of questions on BioMar and then GPV. First on BioMar. I mean, it was weak volumes, especially in salmon farming and very strong margins. And I think you elaborated on that. My question is first, given that you have entered into more long-term contracts, what kind of increased visibility does that give you? One thing is volumes, but also in terms of margins for 2024. Yeah, of course, it gives better visibility. But even we have a good margin uplift and we have long-term contracts, of course, then the competition is hard and we will be in the squeeze still. But it gives better visibility to plan, also to plan both capacity and raw material contracts and things like that. So yeah, we like that we are not sitting there negotiating Q2 and then what we should deliver in Q3, Q4. Yeah. But it also means, I mean, given your relatively low production now, it means that you probably have a lot of ample production capacity. So if things develop as expected, namely that especially in Norway, you will see sharply increased supply in the second half, would it be so that you have, let's say, excess materials to sell? And depending on the, I mean, if you see more salmon supply than expected, you might be able to fetch a very good price. Whereas if biology disappoints among the salmon farmers, then it would be harder for you. I think that's your conclusions. Point number one, Sindre, is that we do not have a lot of excess capacity and we are not that much down in volume. So capacity in Norway is limited. We don't have a lot of excess capacity. Even if we go, let's just say we went into Q3 and there were pressure on volumes and so on, there's still a market and there are customers. We cannot just take whatever price we want because we also need to be with our customers the year after. So, of course, we want and need to work as profitable and as good with our volume as possible. We don't have a lot of excess capacity. Not at all. Okay, Okay, Okay, great. Thanks. Just two questions on GPV. First, that may be kind of a not very important point, but you say in your slide presentation that you maintain the DKK 10 billion target in 2026. I mean, I would say that if any of the pure-play listed EMS players have said that they maintain that target of having revenues below 2023, in 2026, I think the share price reaction would be quite harsh. So, I mean, DKK 10 billion, is that really your ambition or is the ambition much higher? I think that's a very, very fair question and point. We have, of course, growth ambitions for GPV. And I think I can say already now that we expect to exceed the DKK 10 billion turnover at that point. Absolutely. So it's a fair conclusion you are coming with. Okay, Okay, thanks. And also on GPV, earlier you have pointed to primarily smaller customers. Is it fair to say that that weakness is no more broad-based than also among your larger customers? I didn't really, you said that... I think following Q3, I think you indicated that the weakness within GPV's market is mostly related to the smaller customers. Yeah, OK, now I understand. And is it no more broad-based? It's more broad-based, but it's not that we are seeing a big dip from large customers, but more balanced. And we see that generally, because we are supplying a lot of companies, material handling industries, things like that, that we see things softening a little bit across the board. Yeah. Okay, and it's not the case that you either have lost contracts or, let's say, discontinued, not so profitable contracts? Nope, we haven't lost one single contract and not discontinued any either. Okay, Okay, my final question is also on GPV. Can you point to, let's say, in what categories is the If there are some distinctions between the categories within GPV's market with regards to the market sentiment? I would say we are supplying a lot of large industrial companies, meaning machine builders, things like that. So we have a broad variety of very, very large global Tier 1 customers, but especially within industry. We are not very big in medical or defense or things like that, but industry at large. yeah. Okay, and also industrial, that means everything from, let's say, ABB to more, let's say, the ones oriented towards electrical products and also heavy machinery also, but it's kind of more or less the same. Exactly, yes. Yeah, you're right. Okay, Okay, Okay, thanks, Jens. That's all from my side. Thank you, Sindre. Yeah, thank you. Okay, I think as I hear it from Kasper, no further questions. So thanks a lot for listening. Thanks a lot for the questions. And then good weekend to all of you. Thank you.