Thank you for your kind introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Dermapharm's H1 webcast, and thank you for joining us today.

With me is our Chief Financial Officer, Christoph Dreibholz, and our Chief Marketing Officer, Andreas Eberhorn. Andreas and Christoph will guide you through the today's presentation, and afterwards, we will be open with Q&A.

Andreas, the floor is yours.

Thanks a lot, Britta. Also welcome from my side.

For the first half of 2024, I want to show you a few highlights we see, which support the the very favorable trend we see on the operational side, structured in a way, as in Branded, Other Healthcare, and Parallel Import segments. If we look briefly at the Branded piece, we see nice growth in our core business, Germany, specifically the brands where we focus on, where we put our investments in, really grow nicely and show both internally, but also on the market, growth above the relevant market, be it brands like Mykoderm, Tromcardin, or Ketozolin, and develop further nicely.

As after the acquisition of Mucos business from Nestlé, we had the task also to relaunch Wobenzym after a period of supply issues in the market, which is really nicely done in Germany. End of H1, we already achieved a distribution rate in pharmacies above 60%, which means the brand is back and it's nicely growing.

This is a very favorable trend and, as said, supports also the overall growth. Also the rest of the portfolio is showing a good trend in the German market.

If we look on another piece in the market, specifically the allergology portfolio, on the one hand, this is Allergopharma, as you know. Here the trend continues.

Since last year or last years, we see we are the strongest-growing brand in the injection market in Germany. We have excellent internal numbers, both for Allergovit and Novo-Helisen, and outperforming the market, as as mentioned, above the other brands.

This is done by very strong execution of our strategy during this process of TAV. We mentioned this in some calls, where brands need to have new registrations for the German market.

Not everyone achieved this registrations. There have been patient potential outside, and we have been able to capture this potential far above, I would say, fair share.

This helps us very much in the development of this of these brands. The trend is as well, if we look a little bit outside Germany, for the other international Allergopharma markets, and specifically China is showing here a strong development.

Also, and this specific for this year, we have overall a strong allergology portfolio growth. Brands like Volon, which is also used here for for allergies as the season is quite or was quite strong in Germany.

If we look a little bit outside internationally, our Dermapharm affiliates continue to grow, fueled by both the in-market portfolio, as well as new product launches we have specifically here of existing products from the Dermapharm group portfolio. If we go to the other segment, Other Healthcare, specifically looking at Arkopharma, Arkopharma is in H1 ahead of budget, and the new strategy, which is fully implemented beginning of the year, shows continuous really good results.

Spain, Italy are nicely ahead and growing above past year and plan. France is on plan.

In specifically in France, the biggest market, we see positive market signs, and since 3 months, market growth of our French business above the normal market, which is really great. Looking at Euromed, also here we have nice numbers, specifically driven by increased demand in Europe and Asia, driven by our one of our extracts, milk thistle.

This also helps to overperform a little lower US business, which is linked to the tariffs. In sum, nice growth on the Euromed side.

Both are not 100% there to to to compensate the less favorable trend we see for two other business in the Other Healthcare market like Hübner, where we see specifically in the German market the trend in the health food stores where we have normally higher prices, that consumers tend to go more in the lower-priced channels like drugstores. For for our medical cannabis business, Candoro Ethics, specifically on dronabinol, which is the biggest brand here, there is the increasing price pressure, which on one hand leads to lower demand and on the other hand let us to adjust prices to be competitive in the market.

If we look at the last segment, Parallel Trade, this is mentioned so we are continuously optimizing our portfolio to find even further sweet spots, on the one hand limits the top line, but on the other hand, will maximize the gross and profitability. Here a brief glance what happened in H1, and gives us a good view and a very positive operational trend.

I would hand over to Christoph Dreibholz.

Thank you, Andreas, and good afternoon from me. My name is Christoph Dreibholz.

I will guide you through the the remaining slides of the presentation. Along with the operational trends that Andreas Eberhorn explained, Q2 2024 has been impacted by the following non-operational events.

There are three. The first one is that we acquired of 4.3 million in shares or slightly below 8% of our share capital for a consideration or purchase price for the shares of 181 million.

These shares have been redeemed in the meantime, and the equity number has been reduced accordingly. The equity ratio declines mathematically to approximately 24%.

Part of the share buyback has been debt-financed. The corresponding leverage ratio increases to 3 times adjusted EBITDA.

The leverage ratio is still below the covenant agreed with the financing banks. In line with the provisions of the the SPA that we contracted with Nestlé, the review of the purchase price calculation by the parties regarding the Mucos acquisition with the Wobenzym product portfolio is not finalized yet.

The current purchase price allocation has been based on our best estimate of the final purchase price and currently points at a badwill of approximately 24 million. The release of this badwill is shown as other non-cash income and is adjusted at normalized EBITDA level.

Thirdly, the German financial supervisory authority, BaFin, is currently examining the valuation of a financial receivable as of December '23 and the two prior years, as well as the appropriate disclosure of a related-party transaction. I will not comment on the status of the ongoing investigation.

We still believe that our valuation and disclosure has been appropriate and was in line with the underlying accounting provisions. As of June '24, we have reviewed the information that has been made available since the preparation of the year-end '23 accounts and the finalization of the audit for '23.

Most importantly, the competition among growers increased beginning of '24, resulting in a notable market price decline of recreational cannabis in the Netherlands. This new information led us to record an impairment of the financial receivable of 30 million.

This impairment expense is disclosed in a separate line as part of the financial result below EBITDA. Slide 5, please.

If we look at the Q2 figures of the group summarized on this slide 5, the strong branded products momentum drives revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA margin expansion. None of the non-operational effects mentioned before have had an impact on revenue and adjusted EBITDA in Q2.

The income from the Mucos purchase price allocation has been eliminated in order to arrive at adjusted EBITDA. The impairment expense regarding the financial receivable is recorded below EBITDA in financial result, and the share buyback has balance sheet implications only.

The operational trends explained by Andreas Eberhorn before resulted in an approximately 5% growth of revenues driven by the high-margin German and international businesses. This led to disproportionate increases of adjusted EBITDA, plus approximately 14%, and EBITDA margin plus 2 percentage points.

At reported earnings after tax level, the release of the badwill to income and the expense from the impairment of the financial receivable largely net out. Earnings after tax result increases by approximately 11% to 23 million.

Slide 6, please. The half-year performance summarized on this slide mirrors the Q2 trend with solid revenue and disproportionate adjusted EBITDA and earnings after tax results.

The favorable operating performance in the first half 2024 further leads to a remarkable growth of the operating cash flow by 35 million, representing a 17 percentage points increase of the cash conversion ratio to 65% of EBITDA. The operating cash flow is not impacted by the non-cash non-operational income from the purchase price allocation, the before-mentioned impairment of the financial receivable, and the balance sheet related share buyback.

Slide 7, please. As in previous webcasts, we bridge key elements of the first half in 2024 performance leading to a growth of approximately 14 million at earnings after tax level.

All segments contribute to EBITDA growth as explained before. At earnings after tax result level, the net impact from the impairment of the financial receivable and the adjustment to EBITDA is approximately 5 million.

The major amount as part of the adjustments is obviously the release to income in connection with the Mucos purchase price allocation. Interest cost mainly for the syndicated loan declined following the covenant improvement, leading to a lower margin on top of the Euribor compared to last year.

The interest rate hedging terminated end of '23, impacts from the comparison to Q2 '23 or the first half of '23 are minor. Corporate income and trade tax payments also decline in the first half 2024 as previous periods have been impacted by payments for prior years.

Depreciation charges are approximately at prior-year level. Slide 8, please.

Briefly regarding the normalization adjustments, which mainly comprise the reversal of the income from the release of the badwill, as mentioned before. Other adjustments are 2.4 million resulting from restructuring and other exceptional cost.

Slide 9. The strong operating performance lifts the interest cover to now nearly 8 times, partially also of course impacted by the declining interest cost.

As explained before, the share buyback leads to an increased debt number and a lower equity ratio following the cancellation in equity of the related shares. Slide 10.

The increase in assets, equity, and liabilities is due to a combination of operational working capital related impacts and non-operational effects. Especially assets are impacted by the initial consolidation of Mucos.

Additionally, current assets increase from generally higher trade receivables, reflecting the disproportionate growth of the branded portfolio segment. Non-current assets also increased from the first-time consolidation of Mucos.

However, the impact is offset by the impairment of the long-term financial receivable. The equity figure has been impacted by the cancellation of the shares that have been acquired as part of the share buyback, the reclassification of the dividend liability to current liabilities, and the earnings after tax result in the year-to-date June '24 period.

Non-current liabilities are higher following the contracted new financing in connection with the share buyback, and current liabilities have been impacted by several effects, including the reclassification of the dividend liability from equity, a preliminary remaining Mucos purchase price obligation, slightly higher trade liabilities, and additional financing. Slide 11.

Net working capital is approximately 9% higher than the level seen as of June '23, a reflection of the underlying growth in the business, especially in branded product segment. The increase in inventories and trade receivables is only partially offset by higher payables.

The growth of the business being the main driver of the net working capital can be seen in the trend of the working capital days, especially the unchanged cash cycle of 76 days. Slightly higher DIO and DSO are offset by a cut-off driven increase in DPO.

Please note that the the average quarterly DPO since Q1 2023 was 75 days, i.e., in between the DPO as of June '23 and June '24. Slide 12.

H1 2024 shows a remarkable increase in the cash flow from operating activities compared to prior year, and also this KPI underlines the very good operational performance of the business. As explained before, the non-operating Q2 events have had no cash impact, i.e., the operating cash flow represents the underlying operational performance of the business.

Main contributors are the underlying EBITDA improvements across segments and sustainably lower tax payments. Recurring CapEx was approximately 22 million in in H1 '24, slightly above prior-year level.

Details of the improved operating cash flow are shown on the next slide, 13. Along with the improved cash EBITDA, as mentioned before, operating cash flow is mainly impacted by the sustainably lower tax payments, as prior year was burdened by tax payments related to historical financial years '22 and '23.

Finally, the outlook. Thank you.

Based on the H1 results and the scheduled reforecast, we confirm the outlook for FY '24. Growth is expected to continue driven by portfolio expansion, seasonal demand for for anti-allergy products, international growth, and improved product availability in the branded segment.

No material impact from the German Financial Stabilization Act is anticipated for the remaining year 2024. Revenue growth in Other Healthcare products is expected to recover in H2, supported by continued momentum at Sanameda and Euromed, and a strong second half at Arkopharma.

In Parallel Import, the positive earnings trend is expected to continue further supporting profitability. Thank you very much.

I hand over to Britta.

Now we can open the Q&A, please.

Hello, everyone, and thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple.

I would like to know more, please, about the impairment from the financial asset from the recreational cannabis company. Is there any more risks of further impairments from this kind of participation?

The second one would be how do you plan to use the significant positive operating cash flow you have? Can we envision something of debt reduction in the future, and then subsequently, what can you do with the kind of reduced leverage originating from this?

The third one would be in regard to the on-going BaFin investigation. I appreciate that you said you won't comment on the ongoing investigation, but are there any further downside that you can envision at this point?

Thank you very much.

Thank you for the questions. The impairment of the receivable and the BaFin investigation are the same, I would answer that together.

This financial receivable resulted from the unwinding of a contract to acquire a participation in a Dutch cannabis grower called Fyta. The payment for approximately 20% of the participation in this business years ago was 60 million, and this represents the purchase price we paid for the participation.

The receivable now is in total 65 million resulting from this purchase price payment less a payment of 10 million received from the sellers since the unwinding of the contract, plus interest cost. Fyta itself, this grower, acceded to the contract, and Fyta is a leading grower among a number of growers who are engaged in a Dutch governmental program to legalize the sourcing of cannabis by by Dutch coffee shops.

I.e., or in as a result, economically, the financial receivable that we disclose will most likely be settled by payments from Fyta. In 2024, competition among growers increased, resulting in a notable market price decline of recreational cannabis in the Netherlands.

Based on this information and this this trend that we perceived in 2024, we have calculated the impairment of the receivable of currently 30 million. We will, of course, at every balance sheet date going forward continue reviewing the valuation of the receivable and decide, depending on all influencing factors, whether the current impairment is appropriate, or whether we need additional impairment, or whether we can release part of the historical impairment.

I'm sorry that I can't tell you give you any other answer, but this is forward-looking and we are currently lacking the information to assess Q3 or Q4 or even later dates. We generate approximately, I would say 80, 90 million of free cash flow per year, and we reduce our debt based on the contracts that we have agreed by 60 million.

We pay interest of 40 million plus per year. So 100 million, or a little bit more than 50% of the free cash flow, are covered by debt service cost, cost and and repayment of debt.

In addition, as we pay a dividend between, let's say, 40 and 50 million over the last years, and the remaining amount is or has historically been used for M&A, being one of our three growth drivers. This is something that we in general will continue to do.

Of course, if there is excess debt, we will always aim at reducing our debt number, our net debt number, and thereby improving our leverage with historically very successful results in reducing our related interest cost. Regarding the BaFin investigation, maybe to round this up, I cannot say more, as this is ongoing.

I can only repeat what I said in my explanations before that we believe that there is no the the the the valuation of the receivable as at the year-ends '23 and earlier was correct and based on the information that we had at the time of drawing up and auditing of the accounts.

Thank you very much for this very helpful answer. Pleasure.

Hi, Christoph, and Britta, can you hear me all right?

Yes.

Yes.

Great. Just maybe two residual questions from my side.

In Branded, would you be able to break a growth down into organic and M&A, plus maybe some granularity on how the organic growth rate was for the domestic, as well as for the international business? The second question would concern Arkopharma.

What gives you confidence into the second half? Is this more finally your measures coming through?

Do you have any positive indications from, let's say, first month of the third quarter, or has this something to do with the more economic situation? Maybe you can give us some some granularity here as well.

Thank you.

Andreas, do you want to start with the Arkopharma question?

Yes, I can do, happy to. Thanks for your question.

It's not the one or the other. I would say it's the sum of the parts.

As I mentioned, with the implementation of the strategy, some new launches we have in growing categories of the market where we perform quite nicely, for example, collagen or a slimming product, the trend is going on favorable on our side, which let's say the consumers we get or the customers we get, they will not stop for the for the for the H2. With being more closer to the pharmacies, this was this was one piece of the strategy, with specifically pushed to sell-out, not sell-in, and consumer activation.

This trend is shown, backed up by, as I mentioned in the beginning, for example in France, which is the biggest market, 3 months in a row growing above the comparable market, which are signs which are very helpful and and give us confidence that the trend will continue, supported also by nice development second biggest market Spain, as well as in Italy, and further launches to come in H2. I would say that's a sum of all of the parts which make us very confident on the further acceleration in the second half.

Thank you.

To Arkopharma, yeah.

Thank you, Andreas. Regarding the organic growth, that was between 4% and 5% organically at net sales level in Branded, in the branded pharma segment.

This growth was approximately half in international and half in the domestic markets.

That's great. Thank you.

If we still got a minute. When you were talking basically around price deterioration on the recreational cannabis, is this a kind of structural issue also affecting other parts of your business, or has this just been that kind of unwinding of contractual obligations?

Maybe you can give some color here.

No, this is this is only So this recreational cannabis is only an an an indirect impact that we are facing here, because we have this receivable from the unwinding of the contract and the the entity where the cash eventually will most likely come from to settle this receivable is this grower. Hence, the cash flows are, of course, impacted by the underlying business of this and this entity, but this is only related to this financial receivable and the potential settlement.

We are not active in recreational cannabis dealing with any sort of recreational cannabis, neither in Germany or any other jurisdictions.

Thanks for that clarification.

Yes, hello. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Yes, we can.

Okay. Thank you for for taking my questions.

I have a couple of them. The first one is on your guidance.

Basically that the midpoint €1.2 billion, and then also the decline that we see in the parallel import business hints still hints to a slow down of growth in the branded pharmaceuticals business. Now, I'm aware of the strong growth that you had in Q4 last year, right?

Baby the base there is a bit more difficult. In Q3, just given the strong growth that you've shown in Q1 and Q2, can you maybe give some color there?

Do you expect a slowdown for some reasons, or wasn't basically the growth now in Q2 just not strong enough to already at this point increase the guidance on the top line?

We base this guidance, of course, also on a a a bottom-up review of the businesses performed twice a year, reforecast 1 and 2. The latest reforecast 2 points exactly at what we outlined in our guidance.

The individual entities is, as always, a mix of positive a mix of positive and and partially negative impacts. We do not see that we at this point will exceed the guidance.

Okay. Thank you.

Then I have some some kind of smaller questions. One is on the the capitalized own work, aktivierte Eigenleistungen was higher this year, markedly higher compared to last year.

I ask myself, is there was there like any special effect, or is it like a new run rate which which is a little bit higher due to, I don't know, more software internal software development or or

what not? It's I If I look at the numbers, I think we're speaking of roughly 2 million here, 1.9 million.

This is rather phasing. We've seen differences, not to this extent, also in the past, but if I look at other quarters, I also see notable differences between the amounts, I would attribute this to phasing.

Okay. The last one on the on the BaFin Untersuchung, is there is there some light that you can basically give regarding the timeline?

At at do you have any indication at at what point in time this this process will be over?

I would be ha- happy if I knew the answer. I think we are here dependent on on BaFin.

We are cooperating. We are we are answering in a very timely manner questions that are asked.

I would assume that BaFin will maybe now look at the the the June report. Whether this takes whether this takes 2 weeks, 2 months, half a year, I honestly cannot say, but we will do everything from our side to expedite the process.

Though you don't even have have an indication on the year, you don't know if it's going to be this year, or next year, or 2028 or so? It's just Christoph Dreibholz (CFO):

No. These processes do not work this way, that the BaFin outlines or gives itself a timeline.

I would hope that we will settle this that we will settle this within the next weeks. This is only my hope.

BaFin is the driver, and BaFin will will end the process process once they feel comfortable with the information.

Very clear. Thanks a lot.

Pleasure.

Thank you for joining us today. If there are any questions left open, please feel free to give me a call afterwards.

Thank you very much. Bye-bye.